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SOUTH ASIA DAILY NEWS
CLIPS
Breaking News
US, Britain in race to export manufacturing standards to India
(IANS/Yahoo) * Britain and the US are locked in a race to secure acceptance
of their industries' standards in India, China and Brazil - widely seen in
the West as manufacturing hotspots and emerging markets. The British
Standards Institute (BSI) believes that if British product platforms and
management techniques can be exported, British businesses will have an
advantage when competing for contracts, selling goods or incorporating new
overseas suppliers. but according to standards experts, the US has "woken
up" to the risk, reacting in part to the success of European bloc voting
within the International Standards Organisation that led to the rejection of
US standards in favour of a European alternative.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/031205/43/2a60d.html
India, others dumped steel wire strand: US (IANS/Yahoo) * The US Commerce
Department has ruled that steel wire strand from India and some other
countries were dumped on the American market. It said the dumping margins
for pre-stressed concrete steel wire strand imports from Brazil, India,
Mexico, South Korea and Thailand ranged from close to 13 percent to almost
119 percent. The Commerce Department ruling came even as President George W.
Bush terminated tariffs on steel imports imposed in March 2002 saying the
temporary measures scheduled to expire in 16 months had served their
purpose.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/031205/43/2a605.html
India, Pak must continue to reduce tensions: White House (ANI/Yahoo) *
India and Pakistan should continue to work towards reducing their tensions
to ensure a more peaceful South Asia, the White House said on Thursday.
Welcoming the confidence-building steps taken by both India and Pakistan,
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters that it was
important for both countries to continue in this vein. "We're very well
aware of what's going on in the region between India and Pakistan, and we
welcome the steps that are taken to reduce tension in the region," Online
News quoted McClellan as saying. "It's important for the parties to continue
working together to reduce those tensions. So we welcome efforts (to reduce
tensions)," he added.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/031205/139/2a70r.html
Top Stories
Hindu nationalists make gains in Indian elections - Ruling party deals
major setback to Congress Party (San Francisco Chronicle) (Atlanta Journal
Constitution)
Hindu party captures key vote in India (Boston Globe) (Washington Post)
(Seattle Times)
Hindu Nationalist Party Makes Unexpected Gains in India Vote (NY Times -
Registration required)
Court orders release of man who financed militants - Support for terrorist
group does not automatically make him a danger, court says (Tri-Valley
Herald)
GU Law Center Professor To Challenge USA Patriot Act for Tamil
Organizations (The Georgetown Hoya, Washington, DC)
U.S. intelligence takes shot at predicting future - Officials forecast
global scenarios for 2020 (Charleston Courier - Registration required)
(Oakland Tribune) (Salt Lake Tribune) (NJ Star Ledger) (Springfield News
Leader) (Billings Gazette) (Arizona Daily Star) (Atlanta Journal
Constitution) (Washington Times) (Philadelphia Inq.)
Immigration officer, 3 others charged in alien smuggling (NY NewsDay) (NJ
StarLedger)
Appeals panel limits terror law - Court rules those who innocently aid
can't be prosecuted (SF Chronicle) (Washington Post) (LA Times -
Registration required)
Business
India's Satyam in Merrill order win (Forbes)
Jobs being Exported (Westport Minuteman, CT)
Indian Cities on Verge of Restricting Access to Cyber Cafes (Online
Journalism Review)
Britain's Asian weddings market expands (Washington Times)
Offshoring And Beyond (The McKinsey Quarterly/Forbes)
Commentaries/Editorials/Letters to the Editors
Commentary: Grudge Match: India vs. Indiana (Always On)
Commentary: A Winter Thaw - Can India and Pakistan compromise on Kashmir?
(Slate.com)
Opinion: There's more than one way to suppress peace (Tallahassee
Democrat)
Defense
No Final Price Agreement on Russian Carrier, India Says (Defense News -
Subscription required)
Politics
Assessor-Elect Harvey Levinson Announces Transition Team and Listening
Tour (Farmingdale Observer)
District F foes swap barbs about racism, bad checks (Houston Chronicle)
India trip reinforces Daley's belief in America (Chicago Sun Times)
Daley's pal Reyes quits CTA board (Chicago Tribune - Registration
required)
Entertainment /Culture
Gurdwarahouse honors Sikh founder (The Argus, CA)
Challenging Simplistic Hegemonic Perspectives on Colonialism and Culture
(Contra Cost Times)
News of the Weird (Winstom Salem Journal)
A Hindu Temple of Discord (New York Times - Registration required)
Other
Season gets started with Santa (The Oneota Daily Star, NY)
A Harvard Medical School student, Pooja Koomar is the second student with
a Princeton connection to receive the honor. (Princeton Packet)
Two Tragic Accidents Kill 3 Teens From Forest Hills High School (Queens
Chronicle)
Top Stories
Hindu nationalists make gains in Indian elections - Ruling party deals
major setback to Congress Party (San Francisco Chronicle) (Atlanta Journal
Constitution)
In a major upset, the Hindu nationalist party that leads India's coalition
government won three out of four key state elections held Monday, according
to vote totals released Thursday. The results, seen as a prelude to general
elections to be held next year, were an unexpected boon for the Bharatiya
Janata Party. They also dealt another blow to the once-proud Indian National
Congress, whose incumbent governments lost in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Chattisgarh. The Congress Party, the base of the Nehru-Gandhi family
dynasty, retained control only of Delhi. Indian voters are strongly
anti-incumbent, so in one sense the turning out of the Congress Party was no
surprise. But few expected it to lose by such substantial margins.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/05/MNGT93GV3P1.DTL
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V6307.AP-India
-Elections.html
Hindu party captures key vote in India (Boston Globe) (Washington Post)
(Seattle Times)
India's ruling Hindu nationalist party soundly defeated the secular
Congress Party in key state elections that were widely seen as a dry run for
national polls slated for next year, according to election results released
yesterday.The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which heads India's ruling
coalition, unseated Congress-led governments in three of four states --
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chattisgargh -- in the country's
Hindi-speaking heartland, losing only in the capital state of Delhi, the
results from Monday's election showed.The outcome of the voting, which
defied opinion polls, was a significant blow to the Congress Party, which
dominated Indian politics for almost half a century after independence in
1947 and has been trying to position itself for a comeback in next year's
parliamentary elections.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/12/05/hindu_party_captures_k
ey_vote_in_india/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ADec4.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/_india05.html
Hindu Nationalist Party Makes Unexpected Gains in India Vote (NY Times -
Registration required)
The Hindu nationalist party that leads India's coalition government
decisively won three of four key state elections held on Monday, according
to votes that were counted Thursday. The results, seen as a prelude to the
general elections to be held next year, were an unexpected boon for the
Bharatiya Janata Party. They also provided another in a series of blows to
the once-proud Indian National Congress, whose incumbent governments lost in
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The Congress Party, the base of
the Nehru-Gandhi family dynasty, retained control only of Delhi. Indian
voters are strongly anti-incumbent, so in one sense the turning out of the
Congress Party was no surprise. But few expected it to lose by such
substantial margins. In Rajasthan, home to about 57 million people, the
Bharatiya Janata Party won 120 seats to the Congress Party's 56. In Madhya
Pradesh, home to 60 million people, Bharatiya Janata won 174 seats to
Congress's 37.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/international/asia/05INDI.html?ex=10712052
00&en=5de63d39232bab54&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Court orders release of man who financed militants - Support for terrorist
group does not automatically make him a danger, court says (Tri-Valley
Herald)
A federal appeals court has ordered immigration officials to release a
Union City Sikh activist who has been held in jails for six years without
being charged with a crime after he allegedly aided terrorists overseas.
Harpal Singh Cheema, a lawyer who was repeatedly arrested and tortured in
his native India, has been in custody since November 1997 for his financial
support of Sikh militants, according to court records. The court also barred
deportation of Cheema's wife, Rajwinder Kaur, who also was accused of aiding
terrorists but has not been jailed. Cheema's lawyer, Robert Jobe, said
Wednesday that the couple's celebrations are being put on hold because the
government still has 45 days to ask the appeals court to reconsider its
opinion and 90 days to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~1810946,00.html
GU Law Center Professor To Challenge USA Patriot Act for Tamil
Organizations (The Georgetown Hoya, Washington, DC)
Georgetown Law Center professor David Cole and the Humanitarian Law
Project will challenge a provision of the USA Patriot Act that bans
providing “expert advice and assistance” to organizations that the
government has deemed to have connections with terrorism. Cole and Nancy
Chang, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York,
will represent four Tamil organizations and a Tamil-American doctor who said
he hopes to improve the medical infrastructure of Sri Lanka’s war-torn
countryside. Tamils are an ethnic group that live in southern India and Sri
Lanka and comprise about 18 percent of Sri Lanka’s population. Dr.
Nagalingam Jeyalingam said that the Patriot Act bars him and his colleagues
from providing professional expertise to the humanitarian portion of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the Tamil Tigers.
http://www.thehoya.com/news/120503/news13.cfm
U.S. intelligence takes shot at predicting future - Officials forecast
global scenarios for 2020 (Charleston Courier - Registration required)
(Oakland Tribune) (Salt Lake Tribune) (NJ Star Ledger) (Springfield News
Leader) (Billings Gazette) (Arizona Daily Star) (Atlanta Journal
Constitution) (Washington Times) (Philadelphia Inq.)
It's 2020 and America, Europe and Japan struggle to maintain a decent
quality of life for masses of elderly people. China faces a choice between
belligerence and joining Western nations as an economic superpower. India,
Brazil and Indonesia are emerging powers. That's one future being
contemplated by U.S. intelligence officials as part of a long-range
forecasting endeavor just getting under way. The effort, called the National
Intelligence Council 2020 Project, aims to come up with a range of scenarios
the world could face.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/120503/wor_05future.shtml
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1811124,00.html
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Dec/12052003/nation_w/117284.asp
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/.xml
http://www.news-leader.com/today/1205-Developing-234073.html
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/12/05/bui
ld/nation/75-ciaprediction.inc
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/31205nguessingthefuture.html
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1203/05ciaguess.html
http://washingtontimes.com/national/r.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/7417240.htm
Immigration officer, 3 others charged in alien smuggling (NY NewsDay) (NJ
StarLedger)
An immigration officer at Newark Liberty International Airport and three
other people are charged with conspiring to smuggle nearly 200 illegal
aliens from India into the United States. Otis L. Rackley, 40, a former
Perth Amboy resident now living in Blakeslee, Pa., is charged with
conspiracy and bribery for taking cash payments to issue bogus immigration
credentials and shepherding illegal aliens through customs at the airport.
He could get 20 years in prison if convicted. The three others also are
charged with conspiracy for helping him recruit aliens for the scheme and
distribute the bogus documents in return for cash. .... Also charged in the
scheme were illegal aliens Sudhir Passi, 38, of Edison; Shripad Shrotri, 45,
of Metuchen; and Chetna Pandya, 59, of Woodbridge. They were ordered held
without bail.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--immigrationoffice1204dec04,
0,4329076.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-5/.
xml
Appeals panel limits terror law - Court rules those who innocently aid
can't be prosecuted (SF Chronicle) (Washington Post) (LA Times -
Registration required)
A federal appeals court narrowed a key anti-terrorism law Wednesday,
ruling that it could not be used to prosecute people who innocently aid
terrorist groups or counsel them on human rights issues. In a 2-1 ruling,
the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down
portions of the 1996 law that made it a crime -- punishable by 15 years to
life in prison -- to provide "personnel'' or "training'' to organizations
designated as terrorist by the secretary of state. The court said both terms
are unconstitutionally vague: for example, "personnel'' could include
lobbying Congress and the public to support human rights or the release of
foreign political prisoners, if a terrorist group also backed those causes.
"Training'' could include advising such groups on how to seek peaceful
resolutions to their conflicts. The law, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act, also prohibits giving financial aid and other types of
material support to terrorist groups. The court left those provisions
intact, but it said the government could prosecute only those who knew the
group they were aiding was on the terrorist list or had committed violent
acts. The ruling is binding in California and eight other Western states in
the Ninth Circuit. The suit was filed in Los Angeles in 1998 by people and
groups who wanted to provide political and financial support to the
nonviolent arms of two dissident organizations designated as terrorists by
the United States: the Kurdish Workers Party in Turkey and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. The ruling, which broadens an injunction
upheld by the court in 2000, lets the plaintiffs provide nonfinancial
support to those groups.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/04/MN
G0Q3FRD41.DTL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ADec3.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-terrorlawdec04,1,7963355.story
Business
India's Satyam in Merrill order win (Forbes)
Indian software firm Satyam Computer Services Ltd said on Friday that a
consortium in which it is a member has won a multi-million development and
maintenance project from financial service giant Merrill Lynch and Co.
"Satyam is a part of a consortium involving key technology vendors such as
Microsoft and Dell , which bagged this order," the Hyderabad-based firm,
India's fourth-largest software service exporter, said in a statement.No
financial details were given on the project led by computer maker Dell,
which involves enabling Merrill Lynch to use the latest Microsoft software
platform to help in research analysis.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2003/12/05/rtr1170647.html
Jobs being Exported (Westport Minuteman, CT)
Some in the audience brought up the issue of jobs going offshore,
particularly jobs in information technology [IT] and telephone support and
telemarketing. IBM and GE were mentioned as big exporters of such jobs.
One participant said that he had talked with a major company about being its
vice president in charge of outsourcing jobs to India. Still another
mentioned that he had heard that many jobs were going offshore because costs
were lower, because the education level of the Asian sub-continent was
higher than in the United States for those in service jobs, and because
customer satisfaction levels were higher. He wondered if there were any
statistics that might say whether the trend of sending jobs overseas was
accelerating. In a recent telephone interview with the Minuteman, Gioia said
that he had no statistics on jobs going offshore. However, Gioia offered
anecdotal evidence at the meeting. He said that sending jobs overseas has
been going on for 50 years. He noted that in the 1980s, insurance companies'
back-office operations went to Ireland.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1654&dept_id=57100&newsid=10612189&PA
G=461&rfi=9
Indian Cities on Verge of Restricting Access to Cyber Cafes (Online
Journalism Review)
The rapid proliferation of cyber cafes in India recently is the result of
two strong drives: Many Indians want to make money byng cyber cafes,
and many Indians want to surf the Net, which offers easy access to foreign
news reports, chat rooms, pornography and gambling.Now the city government
of Mumbai (Bombay) is looking to squelch those dual impulses by regulating
cyber cafes. They want to force cafes to get licenses from the government,
install software filters for pornography, and force patrons to show valid
photo IDs. Many cyber cafe owners are angry at the proposed regulations and
are organizing to prevent India from becoming like its neighbor, China,
which forced licensing of cafes after a deadly fire.While easy entry into
the cyber cafe business has caused an enormous boom in Internet cafes in
India -- some estimate there are about 300,000 cafes nationwide -- it has
also brought problems for a very conservative culture. Some cafes have
become known for showing "dirty movies." Worse, terrorists have used cyber
cafes in India as communications outposts. These threats have caused police
in many cities to set up cyber crime units.
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/.php
Britain's Asian weddings market expands (Washington Times)
More than 20,000 brides and grooms from Britain's Asian community are
expected to gather next month at the largest Asian fashion event outside
India.In its 10th year, the two-day Asian Wedding Exhibition 2004 hosts
wedding specialists from jewelers and beauticians to caterers, florists,
photographers and venue representatives. It has grown so large it will be
staged for the first time at London's huge Wembley Exhibition Hall,
beginning Jan. 31. In March it moves to the equally extensive Birmingham
National Exhibition Centre. Over two million Asians live in Britain, in
communities in southwest and east London, as well as in the Midlands area
around the city of Birmingham.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm
Offshoring And Beyond (The McKinsey Quarterly/Forbes)
Business-process offshoring is still a nascent industry. By McKinsey
estimates, in 2002 it was worth $32 billion to $35 billion--just 1% of the
$3 trillion worth of business functions that could be performed remotely.
Because of the significant benefits already being realized through
offshoring, the market is projected to grow by 30% to 40% percent annually
over the next five years. This prospect may cause consternation over job
losses in the United States but it will make offshoring an industry with
well over $100 billion in annual revenue by 2008. New research by the
McKinsey Global Institute finds that companies are leaving billions of
dollars in savings behind when they offshore back-office functions and
service jobs. Such companies are merely replicating what they do at
home--where labor is expensive and capital is relatively cheap--in countries
in which the reverse is true.
http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/04/1204mckinsey.html
Commentaries/Editorials/Letters to the
Editors
Commentary: Grudge Match: India vs. Indiana (Always On)
One of the many ways I fight living to a pain-free old age is by playing
ice hockey, one of the most ethnically diverse sports in the world. So I was
not that shocked when my sponsor sent me some new Canadian sticks that were
made in Mexico by an American company.This partnering is a byproduct of
NAFTA, a policy that, when passed in 1993, had many Americans thinking back
to steel mill and auto factory closings in the 80s.Over the past two years,
concern over a new economic paradigm has become more prevalent: overseas
outsourcing. A hot topic of late, you would be hard pressed to find someone
without an opinion on the subject. Many feel that U.S. citizens are being
denied employment in favor of cheaper labor overseas. Others say these cost
reductions enable companies to increase profit margins and strengthen the
economy.
You would think that Silicon Valley would be the locus of all debates on
this subject, but the Hoosiers would beg to differ.
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=1894_0_4_0_C
A Winter Thaw - Can India and Pakistan compromise on Kashmir? (Slate.com)
India and Pakistan began a new round of horse-trading this week to resolve
one of the world's longest unresolved international conflicts: control over
the disputed territory of Kashmir. Combined with last week's announcement of
the first cease-fire since 1989 along the volatile "Line of Control" that
separates the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir, this newest round of
negotiations pivots around the re-establishment of transportation links
between the neighboring states. Following Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf's announcement that Pakistan would permit the restoration of
flights to India and permit Indian airliners to fly over its landmass,
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reciprocated the gesture Monday.
The Hindu suggested hese maneuverings are a prelude to more significant
reforms: "The accord on air travel has set the tone for purposeful
discussions on restarting the Samjhauta Express [train link] and generated
some momentum behind proposals for a ferry service between Mumbai and
Karachi and a rail or road link between Sindh and Rajasthan." Momentum
toward additional agreements may be growing, as the Press Times of India
wire service reported that the Indian and Pakistani governments have agreed
to hammer out the details surrounding the restoration of railroad traffic
between the countries in a series of technical meetings slated for Dec. 18
and 19. According to the BBC, the Indian foreign ministry officially
confirmed Thursday that Vajpayee will travel to Pakistan for a regional
summit in January.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2091978/
Opinion: There's more than one way to suppress peace (Tallahassee
Democrat)
Chances are you've never heard of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. I never
would have either had he not made the dangerous mistake of giving peace a
chance. Choudhury is a journalist widely known in Bangladesh who was
accused by authorities in his country of spying for Israel. His apparent
crime: encouraging cultural exchange. He was detained before boarding a
flight to Israel, where he was scheduled to attend a writers' symposium
called "Bridges Through Culture," according to Al-Bawaba, a Middle Eastern
Internet news out let.Being accused of espionage could cost you your life
in many countries, but it has to be particularly frightening to be charged
with spying for Israel in a predominantly Muslim nation whose government
lends an ear, if not outright support, to Islamist extremists.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/7414954.htm
Defense
No Final Price Agreement on Russian Carrier, India Says (Defense News -
Subscription required)
Indian Defence Ministry officials said Dec. 4 that the long-pending deal
for the acquisition of a decommissioned Russian aircraft carrier has not
been finalized, though New Delhi and Moscow have agreed on the cost of
refitting the ship at a Russian yard. Defence Ministry officials said
serious differences on whether to outfit the Admiral Gorshkov with the
Russian Kashtan-M missile defense system or with the Israeli Barak system
persist. “It will take months to finalize the price of the MiG-29K aircraft
for the carrier and the purchase of missile and anti-missile systems aboard
the carrier,” one Defence Ministry official said.
http://www.defensenews.com
Politics
Assessor-Elect Harvey Levinson Announces Transition Team and Listening
Tour (Farmingdale Observer)
Nassau County Assessor-Elect Harvey B. Levinson has formally announced his
transition team after a weeklong recount of the Nov. 4 election results. Mr.
Levinson also announced that he would be conducting a countywide listening
tour to begin creating a dialogue with residents.... Assessor-Elect
Levinson's Transition team will be led by newly appointed Chairperson Lewis
Meltzer, Managing Partner of the Mineola law firm of Meltzer, Lippe and
Goldstein. Also on the Levinson Transition Team are Desmond Ryan, executive
director of the Association for a Better Long Island; William Corbett Sr.,
an attorney practicing in Floral Park; Jeff Greenfield of the Nassau County
Planning Commission and managing partner of NGL Insurance Group in Lynbrook;
Marc Schneider of Garden City, an attorney representing condominiums and
co-ops throughout Long Island; Mitchell Gans, a professor of law at Hofstra
University's School of Law; Varinder Bhalla, CEO and project director of
HighSCORE Inc., a member of the Indian American Voters Forum and founder of
AWB Foodbank; and Jacqueline O'Garrow, Senior Deputy Director of the Fannie
Mae NY Partnership Office and a recipient of both the YWCA Academy of Women
Achievers and the WMCA Black Achievers in Industry.
http://www.antonnews.com/farmingdaleobserver/2003/12/05/news/levinson.html
District F foes swap barbs about racism, bad checks (Houston Chronicle)
Last-minute charges of racism in advertising and questions about past bad
checks are keeping things negative in the District F runoff for city
council. Pakistani-American businessman M.J. Khan is taking issue with a
flier mailed by opponent Terry McConn, son of the late Mayor Jim McConn. The
flier is titled "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" with pictures of
blackbirds on the cover.
Inside are the pictures of five people -- all
ethnic minorities -- who have endorsed Khan or have received contributions
from Khan for their own political races. Four of the people are black --
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, former U.S. Rep. Craig T. Washington, former
Councilman Ernest McGowen and state Rep. Sylvester Turner. The fifth person,
Councilman Gordon Quan, is Asian-American. All are Democrats. "M.J. Khan
thought you'd like to meet his friends," the flier reads. "He knew you'd be
impressed with these endorsements -- because he sought and earned each one."
Khan questioned the flier's message, saying he is proud of all his
supporters.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2272153
India trip reinforces Daley's belief in America (Chicago Sun Times)
Mayor Daley said Thursday he returned from a 10-day trip to India more
appreciative than ever about the freedom, prosperity and generosity that
America has to offer. He's also more determined than ever to conserve
Chicago's most precious resource: Lake Michigan water. The poverty that the
mayor saw firsthand while beating the drum for Chicago business -- and
visiting his college-student daughter, ''Lally,'' who is studying abroad --
appears to have had a profound, almost spiritual effect. If Daley was
patriotic before the trip, he is even more of a flag-waver now. ''What
really stands out about America -- which is so different than the rest of
the world -- is people have an opportunity to change their lives. ... That's
why everyone wants to come to America. ... No other country has ... changed
people's lives in a very short time for such a young country,'' the mayor
said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-daley05.html
Daley's pal Reyes quits CTA board (Chicago Tribune - Registration
required)
.... Freshly returned from a trip to India where he addressed an economic
summit and obviously had a chance to ponder business competitiveness and the
loss of American jobs overseas, Daley asserted that it is time to revamp
U.S. higher education."We have to realign our universities," he declared.
"The idea of getting a month off for Christmas and a week off for spring
break, getting out in May and trying to find a job in May, June, July and
August, is ridiculous ... ." Instead, study and work for college students
should be intertwined in a new 12-month approach, the mayor said. And rather
than putting some of their operations in foreign countries, American
corporations should cooperate and "provide jobs for [students] to compete
with China and India." Daley, who routinely returns from trips with new
ideas, was accompanied on the journey to India with his wife, Maggie. They
visited their daughter, Elizabeth, who was in India as part of a
study-abroad program.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-dec05,1,5398948.story
?coll=chi-news-hed
Entertainment /Culture
Gurdwarahouse honors Sikh founder (The Argus, CA)
The founder of Sikhism promoted the ideals of love, humility and truthful
living, with hope that his faith would embrace "all nations, all races and
all times," according to Sikh literature. He taught these principles across
the globe from India more than 500 years ago, but local Sikhs are hoping
this same philosophy will help them today in building bridges to their Bay
Area neighbors. The Fremont gurdwara, or temple, will hold a special
interfaithhouse Saturday evening and is inviting the community to
commemorate the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder, and learn about the
religion. The two-hour service will be presented in English, with plenty of
Sikhs on hand to help outsiders understand.
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~1810836,00.html
Challenging Simplistic Hegemonic Perspectives on Colonialism and Culture
(Contra Cost Times)
The Modern Language Association of America has awarded its prize for first
book to Cal associate professor Priya Joshi, for "In Another Country:
Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India." Also lauded were
Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith of the university's Mark Twain
Project, who won the Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of
Letters for their editing of "Mark Twain's Letters: Volume 6: 1874-1875."The
awards of the MLA, which serves to advance literary and linguistic studies,
will be presented Dec. 28 in San Diego.Joshi, Frank and Smith each will
receive $500 and a certificate.The MLA committee said Joshi's work is an
"innovative and ambitious book (that) challenges simplistic hegemonic
perspectives on colonialism and culture."In addition, "In Another Country"
was also recently awarded the Sonya Rudikoff Prize for best first book in
Victorian studies by the Northeast Victorian Studies Association, a Choice
Magazine Outstanding Academic Title award, and honorable mention for the
SHARP Book History Prize.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/counties/ala
meda_county/cities_neighborhoods/berkeley/7420523.htm
News of the Weird (Winstom Salem Journal)
News of the Weird reported in 2001 that some priests in Kali temples in
Tamil Nadu, India, still practiced an ancient ritual in which a child was
buried alive (for 60 seconds, anyway) as a method of activating the Goddess
Kaliamman to bless the child. Indian human-rights organizations complained,
and this year, in November, a temple priest in Madurai district demonstrated
an altered ritual. The Goddess Kaliamman's blessings would be just as
effectively conveyed, he said, by having each child (about 60 children, ages
1 to 12) lie down on special leaf mats and having the priest leap over each
one.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_R
elishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=&path=!entertainment!general&s=103
A Hindu Temple of Discord (New York Times - Registration required)
For three decades, the Hindu Temple Society of North America has been a
peaceful refuge. Every weekend, thousands of devotees stream to its
gray-towered sanctuary on Bowne Street in Flushing, Queens, where
white-robed priests intone prayers in Sanskrit and bathe black granite
statues of the gods in milk, honey and sandalwood paste.But a bitter dispute
has shattered the temple's calm.The battle has nothing to do with Hindu
theology or ritual. Instead, it is about who should run the temple, and
whether the messy business of democracy has any place in a house of
worship.On one side are six members who say the temple is run too
autocratically. They are demanding the right to vote for the board of
trustees. In August, a state appeals court sided with the six members,
ordering elections to be held for the first time.On the other side are the
temple's trustees, who call the court's ruling an outrageous invasion. They
say the lawsuit is just a power play by disaffected members who would like
to run the temple themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/nyregion/05HIND.html
Other
Season gets started with Santa (The Oneota Daily Star, NY)
... A.V. George, principal of India's first Indo-International School in
Dunlod, joined the festivities. Having never seen snow, George scooped up a
sample and tasted it. "It is my privilege to come here to participate in
this Christmas season," George said. His two-week stay, during which he
plans to visit each of Oneonta's four elementary schools, is being sponsored
by the Ninash Foundation.
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2003/12/05/brite.html
A Harvard Medical School student, Pooja Koomar is the second student with
a Princeton connection to receive the honor. (Princeton Packet)The word
"impressive" doesn't do justice to Pooja Kumar's resume.The same can be said
of her life.A second-year Harvard Medical School student, Ms. Kumar, 23,was
the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar in 1997, won a Hart Fellowship for
international humanitarian work in 2001 and was on USA Today's All-USA First
Academic Team the same year.She was named to Glamour Magazine's list of top
15 college women in 2000. And a few days ago, the Princeton Township
resident was named a Rhodes Scholar. She became the second student with a
Princeton connection to receive a Rhodes Scholarship this year.
Princeton
University senior David Robinson also won a Rhodes. Ms. Kumar, whose family
moved to Princeton three months ago from Doylestown, Pa., spent the summer
along the Congo-Rwanda border, where she worked with some of the 50,000
refugees with AIDS. "At a time when media and indeed the world is so full of
strife, violence, corruption and unilateralism, Pooja demonstrates what
engaged youth can and must do," said her father, Suresh Kumar.Ms. Kumar grew
up in India, Singapore, Indonesia and Canada before moving to the United
States in 1993. She graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in 2001.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10616858&BRD=1091&PAG=461&dept_id=
425695&rfi=6
Two Tragic Accidents Kill 3 Teens From Forest Hills High School (Queens
Chronicle)
Two Forest Hills High School students died in an automobile accident last
Wednesday, just two days after one of their fellow students was mysteriously
hit by a car and killed while walking home from school. All three teenagers
were members of the Indian community. Farid Badruddin, 18, a sophomore, and
Ankit Kamur, 18, a senior, were killed instantly when Ankit lost control of
his father’s 1994 BMW and crashed into a tree on Clinton Road in Garden
City, Long Island.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10614241&BRD=1863&PAG=461&dept_id=
152656&rfi=6
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