Commentaries/Editorials/ Letters to the Editors

 

Column: Trip to India Shows Writer Inequalities of Two Cultures  (Marshfield News Herald)

I  often feel very conflicted here in India, especially in Auroville where I now am staying. Auroville was founded in the 1960s as an attempt at realizing "an actual Human Unity." Today's reality, however, is that the town is a European island of fabricated tranquility in the sea of India's craziness, and everywhere there is a thinly veiled lack of trust and cooperation between Aurovillians and people in the surrounding Tamil villages. Villagers resent the inequalities in wealth so obvious between Tamil locals and Western ex-patriots. Conversely, occasional theft and violence by villagers have caused Aurovillians to turn inward, heightening the air of exclusivity as they strive to protect themselves. They are not only trying to protect themselves from crime, I think, but also from the surrounding Indian culture that can be so jarringly different from their own. Given this environment, I keep discovering contradictions inside myself and outside in the world around me, and it is very hard to reconcile them all. I try to be flexible and but I feel bombarded by cultural insensitivity on all sides, which rubs off on me as well.  For example, last night I went into the city of Pondicherry with the other farm volunteers for a special going-away dinner for one of our friends. At the rickshaw stand, Olivier bargained the driver down from 150 rupees to 60, but he argued that still was a rip-off. Indeed, the usual rate is 40 or 50, at least for foreigners, who are assumed (often correctly) to have more money than the average Indian. Rod and I didn't really care whether we paid 50 or 60 rupees, but Olivier pointed out that the same people always work here, so if we caved in at the higher price, they would raise the price again next time.  http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/.shtml

 

Opinion: Stakelbeck: Fence Hypocricy  (Washington Times)

The resounding success of Israel's security fence in preventing suicide bombings apparently has spawned a legion of imitators. Although their actions have received little attention, several countries have built or are in the process of building barriers similar to the ones erected by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza. Oddly enough, the European Union, which has been perhaps the most vociferous critic of the Israeli fence, is at the forefront of this movement. ... In India, construction began several months ago on two security fences — one along its border with the disputed territory of Kashmir and the other along its boundary with Bangladesh. India's fences — much like Israel's —are designed to prevent attacks by Islamist militants. Nevertheless, India voted in favor of last month's U.N. resolution condemning Israel's West Bank barrier (which is almost completely comprised of chain link fencing, a far cry from the "apartheid wall" some of its opponents have dubbed it). http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/r.htm

 

Defense

 

India Plans to Build Long-Range Missile with Israel (Defense News - subscription required) 

India, which tested an indigenously-built ballistic missile Aug. 29, is holding talks with Israel about joint production of a long-range missile, the country’s chief military scientist announced Aug. 31.  “Wherever they have strengths, we want to jointly develop the missiles so that both countries can benefit and share designs, costs and risks,” V.K. Atre told reporters in Hyderabad, the hub of India’s missile-building facilities.  Atre did not elaborate on the system, which India hopes to build jointly with Israel. He said talks are being held between India’s Defence Research and Development organization and its state-owned Israeli counterpart.  www.defensenews.com

 

 

Politics 

 

Indian Americans are Part of the Bush-Cheney Campaign (IANS/Yahoo) 

Several leading Indian Americans are part of a special committee announced by the Bush-Cheney campaign to re-elect President George Bush in the forthcoming Nov 2 presidential polls. The newly formed 75-member Asian Pacific American National Steering Committee (APANSC) is headed by Labour Secretary Elaine Chao. The Indian Americans include the Republican Party's Zach Zachariah, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a cardiologist and a leading fundraiser; Raghavendra Vijayanagar, also a heart surgeon in Tampa, Florida, and founder and chairman of the Indian American Republican Council; Joseph Melookaran, a chartered accountant and businessman from Overland Park, Kansas; and Pakistani American Ahmed Kabani, a Miami-based hotel and tourism industry businessman.  http://in.news.yahoo.com/040831/43/2fs5l.html

 

Analysts: Musharraf is Hoping for Second Bush Term (National Public Radio - registration required)

Though his assistance in the U.S. war on terrorism has stirred violent opposition at home, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would prefer to see a second term for President Bush, analysts say. Some suggest as president, Sen. John Kerry would demand more democratic reforms from Pakistan. 

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3880419 

 

GOP Party Blasted for Backing Jindal (Times Picayune) 

Ever since state Republican Party leaders endorsed Billy Tauzin III on Aug. 17 in the 3rd Congressional District race, supporters of fellow Republican candidate Craig Romero have cried foul, threatened lawsuits and accused state party officials of giving in to pressure from national GOP leaders. But a similar endorsement for Bobby Jindal in the 1st District has stirred little controversy.  http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-2/.xml
 

Other

 

Dental Care Offered in India (The Pantagraph, IL) 

There were no comfy waiting rooms with magazines to pass the time; no dental chairs to recline in; and no background music to soothe the nerves. Even so, approximately 350 patients from Navapur, India, were thankful for the help they got from a group of Central Illinois residents on a dental missions trip. For many of the Indians, it was their first-ever trip for dental care. They stood in line to get treatment and sat in plastic lawn chairs to have their teeth cleaned. Many were taught how to use a toothbrush for the first time. http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/083104/new_.shtml

 

Immigrant's Children Ace Sciences (Christian Science Monitor) 

....."It seems like a lot of the parents who are immigrants, they've just had to work a lot harder to get where they are right now," says Divya Nettimi, a finalist in Intel whose research on the molecular compound myosin furthered the understanding of muscle contractions. "In India, such a huge focus is placed on education, because jobs are so scarce that it's a question of survival." Her parents, both software engineers, came to the US from India when Divya was 9 months old, in large part because they wanted more opportunities for their children. Anderson says immigrant parents view the science and math fields as good for their children because they're objective. "You don't have to worry about the subjectivity that can creep into fields like politics, or law, that are based on family connections or what you look like," he says. There's also the fact that many of the parents themselves are working in those fields. In fact, the numbers that arrived on the professional H-1B visas is strikingly high. Of the 40 Intel finalists, for instance, 18 had parents who came on an H-1B visa - more than the 16 finalists who had American-born parents. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0831/p12s01-legn.html

 

Mira Nair Fulfills Dream with Vanity Fair (MSNBC/AP)

Mira Nair found success as a marriage planner with her last film, “Monsoon Wedding.” Now she’s out to play matchmaker for one of 19th century England’s most notorious husband hunters.  Nair’s latest film, “Vanity Fair,” stars Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp, social climber, gold digger and always plucky heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray’s epic novel that skewers class snobbery and pretensions of the nouveau riche in Napoleonic-era Britain. Born in India and raised on a diet of colonial British literature, Nair discovered “Vanity Fair” when she was 16 and fell in love with Becky’s indefatigable aspirations to rise above her lowly origins. “Mostly because she was like us. She was somebody who didn’t care for the cards that society had dealt her and she made her own deck,” Nair, 46, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She basically carved her way in a time when it was much harder to carve your way as a young woman from the other side of the tracks. Motherless, orphaned and born on the outside into a completely class-straitjacketed society.” http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5868865/

 

Indian Born Director Felt at Home in 1800's London (Philadelphia Inq.) 

Mira Nair, the 21st-century cosmopolite and director of Monsoon Wedding, found a kindred spirit in William Makepeace Thackeray, the 19th-century London literary lion and author of Vanity Fair - and not just because both were Indian-born. "Who better understands the colonial mentality than the colonized?" asks Nair in a nightingale voice made for storytelling. In her droll and vibrant adaptation of Vanity Fair - starring Reese Witherspoon as governess Becky Sharp, the wench who waltzes her way into English society - Nair frames the adventuress as an opportunist who did to London what England was doing to India. To that end, Nair ornaments her lush film and its luscious characters with plunder of the raj. http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/entertainment/movies/9536074.htm

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