plain speak for saudis
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Saturday, December 01,2007: First, Taslima Nasrin is more than a =Bharata Ratna=,she is a human jewel,=Manava Ratna=. Instead of putting pressure on her like Pranab Mukherjee is doing we should rally behind her.As the British rallied behind Sir Salman Rushdie.That will give a message to the TERRORIST criminals they are on the run and we are advancing. If in the wake of 11/09/2001 the world led by Uncle Sam had given that message of vulnerability of the curtained stone in Mekka,the global civilizational heritages Bamian Budhdhas could have been saved.There is no possibility of appeasing schizophrenics or fascists like Hitler.
Let me let you in on a recent episode relating my primary school teacher´s son living in a
village near Mangalore.My teacher had boasted his son, Harsha was the most intelligent! Harsha grew up to father two sons.One of them is dangerously schizophrenic.The younger was soft.The schizo managed to get a butcher´s big knife recently to attack his brother.The most intelligent Harsha pleaded with his schizo son unsuccessfully.The younger softer son was thus slaughtered in front of his own eyes.Harsha then went to a doctor relation of his to get a certificate that the death was caused by accidental fall of a wooden plank and the body was burnt in funeral fire leading to further complications and corruption.If Harsha was indeed intelligent, he would have thrown a towel on the schizo son and grabbed the knife to save the mentally stable younger one.
As for the aggressive fascists,like the Wahabi wolves, we have the Greek Yeasop´s tales to teach us.The story goes a lamb drinking water down stream was accused of muddying the water by the wolf upstream as a pretext for pouncing on the lamb.
The lesson is clear.We have to resist TERRORISM effectively by enforcing our global values.No vertical gossip/puranic/hadith-sunna-munna jurisprudence and absolute gods law interpreted by camel hair bearded mumbo jumbo mullah mobs are valid.Raped Qatif girl can not be whipped or stoned.We have to make it clear,not Wahabi Saudi Arabia alone, all other lands in this world are =HOLY=.If democracy and pluralism is good for the rest of the world, it is also good for Saudi Arabia. Note down, it is the same holy Saudi Arabia which harboured the monster African criminal Idi Amin till his last breath.After enforcing democracy in Pakistan, the land of the pure humbug,the march should be on the Zam Zam oasis of the Arabian deserts which breed TERRORISM without let up.There should be democracy there.Equal rights for women,even the mothers of chauvinist male camel haired prophets,should be a reality.No female child should be subjected to =female genital mutilation= whether in Saudi Arabia, Sudan or Somalia or Ethiopia or anywhere else.No raped girl should fear death by whiplashings or stoning.
There should be reciprocity.The members of the Organization of Islamic Countries should be made
to accept proper international laws not mumbo jumbo sharia laws conflictingly interpreted by different schools of Islamist mullah mobs.Or the organization should be dissolved.International money flows should be under transparent accountable international banking procedures.Jihadists should not be allowed to be smuggled across borders wearing female veils and masks.Female faces should be seen everywhere to prove they are indeed females.
I must point out from the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency`s (CIA) published world fact book on Saudi Arabia.The brief is clear in that imported workers numbering almost seven million in a population of about 30 million are =subjected to conditions that constitute involuntary servitude including being subjected to physical and sexual abuse, non payment of wages,confinement, and withholding passports as a restriction on their movement=,which means in a single word known to man =SLAVERY= pure and simple.Is that intelligence to put bare facts in such round about way? It is necessary today´s fast space age to call a spade by that name.It was under this slavery that
recently an Indonesian Muslim maid was whipped to death by sex mad employer´s teenage son,
who could not contain his erection!
Last point, the Zam Zam oasis water has gone in a tanker to Malaysia and beyond,where the rulers find river waters non potable.Where Muslim girls are denied the right to choose their mates. Minorities are denied their basic human rights.We need democracy and freedom of expression in Mynamar, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as much as everywhere else.The United States, as the single global power has a special responsibility.It should take lead to tell the Saudis =ABOLISH SLAVERY= or face =DE-RECOGNITION=.If the Pearl Harbour can bring down the two thousand year old Emporer to his knees should we reward the multiple attacks of 11/9/2001? no way. (end)
Friday 30 November 2007
qatif´s golgotha
it is hitler´s hate that caused the monument for cruelty
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Friday, November 30,2007:As Saudi Wahabi fascist judges are set to condemn for stoning a nineteen year old girl victim of rape to cause their monument in the land of hoy places in this twenty first century,here in Vienna any one can see a memorial for the millions innocent forced to carry their cross by the jihadist war he unleashed,see a massive Golgotha raised with 152 huge concrete blocks of different sizes.It has been financed and built by the defiant young Viennese woman,who sat naked in a Soviet prison accused of being a =spy=,Margarethe Ottilinger.It was designed by International Sculptor of Bohemian Hungarian origin,Fritz Wotruba,(April 23 1907 -August 1975).It is a monument for over 1.4 million Hitler´s conscripted soldiers held prisoner and missed in the Soviet Siberia.Margarethe, was just the Secretary of the Ministry of Economics in Vienna when the Soviet troops liberated with Allied forces the country.Bent on getting war reparations from Austria, the Soviets seized her on Enns Bridge near Linz city close to Salzburg
in 1948 to extract information on Austria´s, then considered German territory,property details.The
young woman held for almost three years in suburban town of Baden as under trial subject for interrogation until early hours.One night she had it enough and decided to take her life by hanging herself of a rope made by own stockings!She failed.The result was she was made a naked prisoner compelled to spend sitting on a stool without sleep.She endured it with fortitude.Then in 1951 she was tansferred to Lubjanka headquarters of KGB in Moscow until she was awarded 25 years in prison term. In 1956 she was finally released before time along with 22,000 such prisoners by Nikita Khruschev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party, after the Soviets withdrew from Austria paving the way for Austrian freedom and independence in 1955 at the intervention of Jawahar Lal Nehru.It was at the same Belvedere Palace that in April this year the centenary exhibition of the sculptor Fritz Wotruba,was held.
The Holy Trinity Church Wotruba built with the collaboration of architect Fritz G.Mayr was opened only 15 months after the passing away of the Sculptor in 1975 August. Standing on a Hitler´s army barracks =no man land= in a 30meter 22 meter floor space the 15.5 meter tall church,on the edge of Vienna Woods in the twenty third district of Mauer´s, Georgenberg, on the corner of Rysergasse and georgengasse.Fritz Wotruba was inspired to select the location overlooking Vienna and across Danube River Marchfeld landscape by the Gothic Notre Dame Church at the trijunction of Eure(Autura) and Sangama in French Chartes,facing Beauce farmland plains.Margarethe Ottilinger liked the idea since the place of was Hitler´s barracks a =no man´s land=.
Some 152 giant concrete block crosses of sizes, varying from 0.84 meter to 13.10meter high weighing between 1.8 ton to 141 were harnessed to build the 15.5 meter high sacred monument
for the sacrifices of the innocent lives.The sombre structure,popularly know as Wotruba Church declared open on 24th October 1976,dwarfs Picasso´s Guernica as an immobile mass of concrete composition almost comparable to the tenth century 15 plus meter high granite monolith standing naked Bahubali statue in India´s Shravana Belagolha hill of southern Karnataka State.I had the
privilege of witnessing the finishing stages of the construction in 1976.I celebrated my first New
Year Eve/Silvester in Vienna with Mrs.Christine Pai, the widow of the late Nath Pai, the Indian socialist parliamentarian, who lives close by on Heimogasse,and Mrs.Erna Nagler at Mrs.Pai´s cousin, Elisabeth who lives only some fifty meters away.
Now more about Vienna´s Qatif girl Margarethe Ottilinger.She was born on June 6,1919 at Steinbach, Lower Austria.As a manager,she had confessed, she had a passion for steel.But after she was set free by the Soviets, she worked as consultant to the Austrian petroleum firm, OMV.Besides building the monument, she was also involved in erecting the Afro-Asiatic Institute, close to the Vienna University, which has been housing generously a mosque and a temple,even though the land of holy places would not show similar reciprocity to other faiths,for students from overseas under the guidance of the late Cardinal Franz Koenig.She died in 1992.(end)
By Kulamarva BalakrishnaVienna,Friday, November 30,2007:As Saudi Wahabi fascist judges are set to condemn for stoning a nineteen year old girl victim of rape to cause their monument in the land of hoy places in this twenty first century,here in Vienna any one can see a memorial for the millions innocent forced to carry their cross by the jihadist war he unleashed,see a massive Golgotha raised with 152 huge concrete blocks of different sizes.It has been financed and built by the defiant young Viennese woman,who sat naked in a Soviet prison accused of being a =spy=,Margarethe Ottilinger.It was designed by International Sculptor of Bohemian Hungarian origin,Fritz Wotruba,(April 23 1907 -August 1975).It is a monument for over 1.4 million Hitler´s conscripted soldiers held prisoner and missed in the Soviet Siberia.Margarethe, was just the Secretary of the Ministry of Economics in Vienna when the Soviet troops liberated with Allied forces the country.Bent on getting war reparations from Austria, the Soviets seized her on Enns Bridge near Linz city close to Salzburg
in 1948 to extract information on Austria´s, then considered German territory,property details.The
young woman held for almost three years in suburban town of Baden as under trial subject for interrogation until early hours.One night she had it enough and decided to take her life by hanging herself of a rope made by own stockings!She failed.The result was she was made a naked prisoner compelled to spend sitting on a stool without sleep.She endured it with fortitude.Then in 1951 she was tansferred to Lubjanka headquarters of KGB in Moscow until she was awarded 25 years in prison term. In 1956 she was finally released before time along with 22,000 such prisoners by Nikita Khruschev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party, after the Soviets withdrew from Austria paving the way for Austrian freedom and independence in 1955 at the intervention of Jawahar Lal Nehru.It was at the same Belvedere Palace that in April this year the centenary exhibition of the sculptor Fritz Wotruba,was held.
The Holy Trinity Church Wotruba built with the collaboration of architect Fritz G.Mayr was opened only 15 months after the passing away of the Sculptor in 1975 August. Standing on a Hitler´s army barracks =no man land= in a 30meter 22 meter floor space the 15.5 meter tall church,on the edge of Vienna Woods in the twenty third district of Mauer´s, Georgenberg, on the corner of Rysergasse and georgengasse.Fritz Wotruba was inspired to select the location overlooking Vienna and across Danube River Marchfeld landscape by the Gothic Notre Dame Church at the trijunction of Eure(Autura) and Sangama in French Chartes,facing Beauce farmland plains.Margarethe Ottilinger liked the idea since the place of was Hitler´s barracks a =no man´s land=.
Some 152 giant concrete block crosses of sizes, varying from 0.84 meter to 13.10meter high weighing between 1.8 ton to 141 were harnessed to build the 15.5 meter high sacred monument
for the sacrifices of the innocent lives.The sombre structure,popularly know as Wotruba Church declared open on 24th October 1976,dwarfs Picasso´s Guernica as an immobile mass of concrete composition almost comparable to the tenth century 15 plus meter high granite monolith standing naked Bahubali statue in India´s Shravana Belagolha hill of southern Karnataka State.I had the
privilege of witnessing the finishing stages of the construction in 1976.I celebrated my first New
Year Eve/Silvester in Vienna with Mrs.Christine Pai, the widow of the late Nath Pai, the Indian socialist parliamentarian, who lives close by on Heimogasse,and Mrs.Erna Nagler at Mrs.Pai´s cousin, Elisabeth who lives only some fifty meters away.
Now more about Vienna´s Qatif girl Margarethe Ottilinger.She was born on June 6,1919 at Steinbach, Lower Austria.As a manager,she had confessed, she had a passion for steel.But after she was set free by the Soviets, she worked as consultant to the Austrian petroleum firm, OMV.Besides building the monument, she was also involved in erecting the Afro-Asiatic Institute, close to the Vienna University, which has been housing generously a mosque and a temple,even though the land of holy places would not show similar reciprocity to other faiths,for students from overseas under the guidance of the late Cardinal Franz Koenig.She died in 1992.(end)
Wednesday 28 November 2007
investigative fund
a challenge for reporters
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Wednesday,November 28,2007: Here is a challenging opportunity for clear thinking and energetic reporters. New York based The Nation Institute offers funds upwards of a thousand dollars for impacting scientific reporting or what is popularly known as investigative reporting,
of the highest standard.Depending upon the nature of the reports,the institute considers proposals for providing roller funding.I am publishing the open challenge offered by Ms.Esther Kaplan,Investigative Editor of The Nation Institute Magazine,New York open to world wide reporters, with my own response to her to put things in perspective as far as the stakes are concerned in reporting.A reporter´s stake is very high indeed.He should aim to win for the sake of our global home and family.I have just heard from Ms.Esther Kaplan, the reports are meant for publication in the American,meaning the U.S.media first.The reprinting rights are open for negotiation with The Nation Institute.(kb.)
Dear Ms.Esther Kaplan,
I am grateful to Prof.Sree Sreenivasan for guiding you to me,who sent news about your offering funds for investigative reporting.
Just for introduction,I am a journalist since 1953, specializing in the sixties on reporting organized crime and then enlarged the field later the area of investigative reporting to cover contemporary history,giving the challenge a new dimension as scientific reporting that is based on research as think input for policies and public opinion awareness.Now I am living in Vienna, Austria for the last 32 years (1975 on wards, after the brief introduction of censorship in India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi´s emergency rule).I am without pancreas after an abdominal operation undergone on December 14,1999.I manage to live as I promised to my
great surgical doctor,Prof.Max Wunderlich,being helpful to our society.It was because of this,I am running a kind of blog website humans austria. Under the banner,I am now attacking the problem of removing the menace of =TERRORISM= from our midst.
This is an area investigating reporting by a team should help.Between six to a dozen serious investigative reporters led by a coordinator,helped by a deputy,who should provide clear think input reports how every dollar spent in importing energy by way of crude petroleum, funds 15 cents for the financing of =TERRORISM= globally.This is an accounting process,in the same way
Atoms for Peace safeguards accounting is managed institutionally and globally.The investigative reporting without being sheltered under a huge house can use monitoring,social development accounting,social groups behavioral monitoring for pin pointing social engineering or the opposite subversive implications.
For example,the reporters should open core issues hidden from openly reported facts like in Saudi Arabia,when Ambassador Curtin Winsor reports that =Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia´s Supreme Judiciary, Saleh bin Muhammad al-Luhaidan advising young Saudis at a government mosque on how to infiltrate Iraq and fight U.S.troops as well as assuring them that Saudi security forces would not punish them after their return (in case they do)=.First the word =supreme judiciary= is misleading to us.This Saudi supreme judiciary consists of four conflicting schools of 1,500 year old Islamic vertical gossip/hadith,purana/ based sharia law not Roman Law is to be made clear to the readers.These conflicting schools are Jihadi schools of
1.hambali, 2.shafii,3.hanafi and 4.maliki.Under this law in Saudi minority Shia district, an 18 year old girl, gang raped by seven ruffians fourteen times in 2005, under trail and in virtue police custody.Now she has been is punished to get 200 whip lashes in the public.The case is being pushed under carpet.It need to be exposed for full public gaze and accountability.The so called convicting judges are none other than camel hair bearded mumbo jumbo mullahs,who have converted female life in Wahabi Arab Society,to virtual hell life.
The Wahabi Arab Economy invested,according to Ambassador Winsor´s calculation some 87 billion dollars,being a mere ten percent of the actual 870 billion diverted from the Saudi economy to over 3,000 mosques,islamic centers,madrasas and other theological marketing outfits in contrast to what the Soviet Union,during its 70 years of life, spent a mere 9 billion dollars on marketing proletariat Communist ideology!Then we come to the real nature of TERROR FINANCING during the post Shah in Shah Period of 25 years covered by Ambassador Winsor´s study for Mideast Mirror!
So do be clear, as Investigative Reporting editor you need to fund a team´s work and the
coordinator need to use every cent fully focussed on the danger of TERRORISM, and its
breeding ground realities.I have already addressed a letter to the Nobel Foundation Board
suggesting them accept women´s equality on same footing as they considered climatic stability campaign of Al Gore as ground for awarding Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2007.The next prize, taking nomination process begins in September 2008,the target is for 2009 peace prize, for any individual,institution,or movement working for women´s equality, particularly for Arab women especially Saudi should be merited for nomination for the award.If the Arab women are freed and allowed to hold their head HIGH and show their faces, just like Aristophanes Lysistrata liberated Greek men from the addiction of war the Muslim men can be liberated from their Jihadi addiction.The cause of women´s liberation by accepting dedication of man,woman, institution or movement for the cause of women´s liberation a ground for awarding the nobel peace prize,is of utmost importance for the entire humanity.
It may interest you in India just now is raging a controversy.It is about Bangladesh´s best humane medical doctor and author of highest integrity, Dr.Taslima Nasrin,whom I have adopted as my second daughter.If she should be allowed to live in India or anywhere else in the world is the issue.Indian communists ruling West Bengal with Calcutta, now called Kolkata as State Headquarters, want to tell her =get lost=simply because they want to appease some Indian minority jihadist voters.Not that appeasement helps.It did not help with HITLER. By throwing Dr.Taslima into history´s dust bin is not going to stop Jahadists to make other demands and go on their more aggressive attacks.So we can not do that.We can not leave a brave woman,a medical doctor and thinker at that, who saved female children from rapes, healed them after raped by relatives,showed the guts to defend minority faith humans at the mercy of jihadist wolves.We have to protect her as we protect our standard bearer flags.She is our asset.She should be our rallying point of symbol.By giving away ground no campaign is won.We have to work with whole hearted resolution if we have to make our earth safe for next generations of humans.All the issues are inter-connected. To gather inputs by bits and pieces and compose a whole picture as think input to policy is all about investigating reporting or scientific reporting of the highest order.Do give a serious thought to my points when you consider proposals.
I am publishing your challenging offer of funding for investigative journalism in any case on my website.If any input, you need from me, a 73 year old sick man but with a single determination to the last breath, do not hesitate to send me a line.You have my input all for the asking for free, since the stake is our children´s lives.All the best to you Ms.Esther Kaplan.-kb.
grab opportunity
An opportunity from The Nation Institute - open to U.S. and international projects. Please send your questions to Esther Kaplan below and read more at
http://nationinstitute.org/ifunds/
From: Esther Kaplan, Investigative Editor, The Nation Institute
I've recently started a new job running an investigative journalism project at the Nation Institute, which is the nonprofit arm of the Nation magazine. The investigative fund is a pretty amazing resource for independent investigative journalists -- we can provide support above and
beyond whatever (inadequate) article fee you might get,to allow you to spend some real time and expense reporting a story.
Before year's end, I'm particularly interested in investigations related to the Bush administration, especially around such phenoms as privatization and outsourcing that will be major tasks for any new administration to clean up. And of course, campaign '08 stories, whether
about candidates, money in politics, voter suppression plans, etc.
But in general, proposals are welcome on any juicy investigative topic --domestic or international -- especially if you think the story could have a real impact. Stories that have been commissioned in the fund's short three years of existence have sparked Congressional hearings, caused a Bush advisor to step down, and forced members of Congress to change their
stance on legislation. You can check out some past stories here:
http://www.nationinstitute.org/ifunds/
Most grants vary from $1,000 to cover travel costs for a reporting trip to $10,000 for a time-consuming investigation. If a proposal has the potential to have a major impact, we do, on rare occasions, make larger grants. We review proposals on a rolling basis, usually every two to
three weeks.
The basic info is below.Please send any questions or proposals to my email below.
Yours, Esther
ABOUT THE FUND
The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund provides support for the research costs associated with investigative journalism. The Fund emphasizes reporting on subjects often ignored by the mainstream media, and seeks to improve the scope and overall quality of investigative
reporting in the independent press. Above all, we want to support reporting with the potential to have a social impact.The Fund encourages its grant recipients to publish their findings in a variety of print, broadcast, and electronic outlets.
HOW TO APPLY
The first step in applying is to email us a story query and a budget request. It's useful to include information about what's new and enterprising about the research, your reporting approach, the story's potential impact, and what publication or broadcast outlet is interested in the piece. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
E-mail: esther@nationinstitute.org
Good luck (end)
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Wednesday,November 28,2007: Here is a challenging opportunity for clear thinking and energetic reporters. New York based The Nation Institute offers funds upwards of a thousand dollars for impacting scientific reporting or what is popularly known as investigative reporting,
of the highest standard.Depending upon the nature of the reports,the institute considers proposals for providing roller funding.I am publishing the open challenge offered by Ms.Esther Kaplan,Investigative Editor of The Nation Institute Magazine,New York open to world wide reporters, with my own response to her to put things in perspective as far as the stakes are concerned in reporting.A reporter´s stake is very high indeed.He should aim to win for the sake of our global home and family.I have just heard from Ms.Esther Kaplan, the reports are meant for publication in the American,meaning the U.S.media first.The reprinting rights are open for negotiation with The Nation Institute.(kb.)
Dear Ms.Esther Kaplan,
I am grateful to Prof.Sree Sreenivasan for guiding you to me,who sent news about your offering funds for investigative reporting.
Just for introduction,I am a journalist since 1953, specializing in the sixties on reporting organized crime and then enlarged the field later the area of investigative reporting to cover contemporary history,giving the challenge a new dimension as scientific reporting that is based on research as think input for policies and public opinion awareness.Now I am living in Vienna, Austria for the last 32 years (1975 on wards, after the brief introduction of censorship in India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi´s emergency rule).I am without pancreas after an abdominal operation undergone on December 14,1999.I manage to live as I promised to my
great surgical doctor,Prof.Max Wunderlich,being helpful to our society.It was because of this,I am running a kind of blog website humans austria. Under the banner,I am now attacking the problem of removing the menace of =TERRORISM= from our midst.
This is an area investigating reporting by a team should help.Between six to a dozen serious investigative reporters led by a coordinator,helped by a deputy,who should provide clear think input reports how every dollar spent in importing energy by way of crude petroleum, funds 15 cents for the financing of =TERRORISM= globally.This is an accounting process,in the same way
Atoms for Peace safeguards accounting is managed institutionally and globally.The investigative reporting without being sheltered under a huge house can use monitoring,social development accounting,social groups behavioral monitoring for pin pointing social engineering or the opposite subversive implications.
For example,the reporters should open core issues hidden from openly reported facts like in Saudi Arabia,when Ambassador Curtin Winsor reports that =Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia´s Supreme Judiciary, Saleh bin Muhammad al-Luhaidan advising young Saudis at a government mosque on how to infiltrate Iraq and fight U.S.troops as well as assuring them that Saudi security forces would not punish them after their return (in case they do)=.First the word =supreme judiciary= is misleading to us.This Saudi supreme judiciary consists of four conflicting schools of 1,500 year old Islamic vertical gossip/hadith,purana/ based sharia law not Roman Law is to be made clear to the readers.These conflicting schools are Jihadi schools of
1.hambali, 2.shafii,3.hanafi and 4.maliki.Under this law in Saudi minority Shia district, an 18 year old girl, gang raped by seven ruffians fourteen times in 2005, under trail and in virtue police custody.Now she has been is punished to get 200 whip lashes in the public.The case is being pushed under carpet.It need to be exposed for full public gaze and accountability.The so called convicting judges are none other than camel hair bearded mumbo jumbo mullahs,who have converted female life in Wahabi Arab Society,to virtual hell life.
The Wahabi Arab Economy invested,according to Ambassador Winsor´s calculation some 87 billion dollars,being a mere ten percent of the actual 870 billion diverted from the Saudi economy to over 3,000 mosques,islamic centers,madrasas and other theological marketing outfits in contrast to what the Soviet Union,during its 70 years of life, spent a mere 9 billion dollars on marketing proletariat Communist ideology!Then we come to the real nature of TERROR FINANCING during the post Shah in Shah Period of 25 years covered by Ambassador Winsor´s study for Mideast Mirror!
So do be clear, as Investigative Reporting editor you need to fund a team´s work and the
coordinator need to use every cent fully focussed on the danger of TERRORISM, and its
breeding ground realities.I have already addressed a letter to the Nobel Foundation Board
suggesting them accept women´s equality on same footing as they considered climatic stability campaign of Al Gore as ground for awarding Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2007.The next prize, taking nomination process begins in September 2008,the target is for 2009 peace prize, for any individual,institution,or movement working for women´s equality, particularly for Arab women especially Saudi should be merited for nomination for the award.If the Arab women are freed and allowed to hold their head HIGH and show their faces, just like Aristophanes Lysistrata liberated Greek men from the addiction of war the Muslim men can be liberated from their Jihadi addiction.The cause of women´s liberation by accepting dedication of man,woman, institution or movement for the cause of women´s liberation a ground for awarding the nobel peace prize,is of utmost importance for the entire humanity.
It may interest you in India just now is raging a controversy.It is about Bangladesh´s best humane medical doctor and author of highest integrity, Dr.Taslima Nasrin,whom I have adopted as my second daughter.If she should be allowed to live in India or anywhere else in the world is the issue.Indian communists ruling West Bengal with Calcutta, now called Kolkata as State Headquarters, want to tell her =get lost=simply because they want to appease some Indian minority jihadist voters.Not that appeasement helps.It did not help with HITLER. By throwing Dr.Taslima into history´s dust bin is not going to stop Jahadists to make other demands and go on their more aggressive attacks.So we can not do that.We can not leave a brave woman,a medical doctor and thinker at that, who saved female children from rapes, healed them after raped by relatives,showed the guts to defend minority faith humans at the mercy of jihadist wolves.We have to protect her as we protect our standard bearer flags.She is our asset.She should be our rallying point of symbol.By giving away ground no campaign is won.We have to work with whole hearted resolution if we have to make our earth safe for next generations of humans.All the issues are inter-connected. To gather inputs by bits and pieces and compose a whole picture as think input to policy is all about investigating reporting or scientific reporting of the highest order.Do give a serious thought to my points when you consider proposals.
I am publishing your challenging offer of funding for investigative journalism in any case on my website.If any input, you need from me, a 73 year old sick man but with a single determination to the last breath, do not hesitate to send me a line.You have my input all for the asking for free, since the stake is our children´s lives.All the best to you Ms.Esther Kaplan.-kb.
grab opportunity
An opportunity from The Nation Institute - open to U.S. and international projects. Please send your questions to Esther Kaplan below and read more at
http://nationinstitute.org
From: Esther Kaplan, Investigative Editor, The Nation Institute
I've recently started a new job running an investigative journalism project at the Nation Institute, which is the nonprofit arm of the Nation magazine. The investigative fund is a pretty amazing resource for independent investigative journalists -- we can provide support above and
beyond whatever (inadequate) article fee you might get,to allow you to spend some real time and expense reporting a story.
Before year's end, I'm particularly interested in investigations related to the Bush administration, especially around such phenoms as privatization and outsourcing that will be major tasks for any new administration to clean up. And of course, campaign '08 stories, whether
about candidates, money in politics, voter suppression plans, etc.
But in general, proposals are welcome on any juicy investigative topic --domestic or international -- especially if you think the story could have a real impact. Stories that have been commissioned in the fund's short three years of existence have sparked Congressional hearings, caused a Bush advisor to step down, and forced members of Congress to change their
stance on legislation. You can check out some past stories here:
http://www.nationinstitute.org
Most grants vary from $1,000 to cover travel costs for a reporting trip to $10,000 for a time-consuming investigation. If a proposal has the potential to have a major impact, we do, on rare occasions, make larger grants. We review proposals on a rolling basis, usually every two to
three weeks.
The basic info is below.Please send any questions or proposals to my email below.
Yours, Esther
ABOUT THE FUND
The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund provides support for the research costs associated with investigative journalism. The Fund emphasizes reporting on subjects often ignored by the mainstream media, and seeks to improve the scope and overall quality of investigative
reporting in the independent press. Above all, we want to support reporting with the potential to have a social impact.The Fund encourages its grant recipients to publish their findings in a variety of print, broadcast, and electronic outlets.
HOW TO APPLY
The first step in applying is to email us a story query and a budget request. It's useful to include information about what's new and enterprising about the research, your reporting approach, the story's potential impact, and what publication or broadcast outlet is interested in the piece. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
E-mail: esther@nationinstitute.org
Good luck (end)
Tuesday 27 November 2007
lawyers strike
is it self rule?
By Kulamarva alakrishna
Vienna,Tuesday,Nov 27,2007:It is rather painful to read in Indian newspapers in the heart of India´s
Uttar Pradesh State several terrorist bombs were set off killing innocents and causing injuries.The bombs exploded in courts.In response the main national opposition,the conservative Hindu fundamentalist party,Bharatiya Janata Party called for a State wide strike.I saw newspaper photos of the party´s subsidiary mob party known as Bajrang Dal or Diamond Guards showing off their brass clubs,normally used by actors on stage when played mythological episodes, roaming about the streets causing commotion.Then came the news,lawyers and judicial also joined the strikes! I can not imagine a situation like this in a self ruling democracy.In my imagination,democracy has a meaning if the citizen shows some discipline during times of emergencies like fire,flood disaster etc.let alone caused by anti-national forces and enemy´s advance elements unleashing terrorist attacks.Under such conditions, citizens of all hues join together irrespective of political differences to defend the society under attack.This we have seen in the U.S. in the wake of suicide attack on
11-09-2001 and later attacks in Britains by terrorists.I mention this to show the contrast we make in
india boasting as the =world´s largest democracy=.But the behavior behove well on the world´s
=largest doom crazy=.
A few years ago,I read a book by Mr.Kevin Rushby on India.It was called Children of Kali.The British author traveled from the southern tip of India, when brigand Verappan living underground in forests and caves as an outlaw doing business with politicians killed hundreds of police men to run his career in crime more than two decades.Mr.Rushby was reporting free India 50 years after the British left the country rule itself.He was tracing the routes of thugs, gangs of criminals who mixed
with pilgrims to kill them with the help of a coin hidden in kerchief before robbing the victims.The criminal gangs are nick named by him as Children of Kali.This was before the British era´s law and order situation in truncated India under about a thousand =maharajas=.After the British defeated Tippu Sultan of Mysore in Srirangapattanam,the British deployed a major General William Sleeman to eradicate the thugs.It took him a couple of decades to establish the rule of in the country.
As he traveled the country in the year 1999/2000, author Rushby saw clearly re emergence of organized crime all over India.He was hinting it was indeed not possible to segregate and identify
criminals,politicians and public servants.They all played multiple roles simultaneously to victimize
the citizen as could openly seen by a foreign tourist.His message then was Indian are unfit to rule themselves what we produly call =svarajya=!Even in 1981 just a year before his death a senior friend, Dr.Rudolf von Leyden, who had lived in India almost forty years beginning with war years,
was settled in retirement in his home country, Vienna. After a revisit to Bombay, where he had led Volkort Brothers company as its General Manager, he confided in me =Bala, law and order in
India has become a real problem=, as if forewarning author Rushby´s findings.
The political party, judicial/lawyer response to the Lucknow, Banarasi and other multiple blasts are not isolated incidents.When in Hyderabad a few months two simultaneous terrorist bombs exploded there I saw the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had called for a strike.In 2003 when
In Gujarat´s Ahmedabad temple Aksharadham was attacked by terrorists, then the Union was ruled by a coalition led by the same Bharatiya Janata Party.At that time, the coalition partner from Maharashtra,Shiv Sena called a strike.
A strike may be a protest in normal society under specific circumstances.But when the society is
under attack from the enemy, I can not understand how citizens or groups of citizens are justified in diverting the energy of security agencies to help foreign forces! That apart then the same very
disruptive forces carry the banners of patriots!Is that not conclusive evidence India does not deserve =svarajya= self rule? (end)
Saturday 24 November 2007
nobel peace prize
for women´s cause
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Sunday,November 25,2007:Today is being observed as the United Nations Day for
Elimination of Violence Against Women.World wide, even today one woman out of three suffers
cruelty from an ungrateful man.Area wise the cruelty ratio differ.For example, in Australia 57 per cent of women suffer violence at the hands of men, supposed to be partners and lovers!I must record here the tragic fate of the late Princess Diana.If a girl who should have become the Queen of U.K. suffered cruelty, in this case mental cruelty, what to speak of normal ordinary females?In Africa, Asia,Europe,Americas Australia and New Zealand ill treatment of women,
including the use of violence and trade in women using unheard of inhuman violence is as old as the human race itself.I can not even imagine of animals like cows or she buffaloes being subjected to cruelty by the mates of the opposite sex as indulged in by men.The latest instance is that of Taslima Nasrin.This cruelty is rooted in men´s pervert feeling for power.This should be eradicated first if we are to succeed in our campaign,I deliberately do not use the word =war=, against =Terrorism=.
I have no pretensions of power.I am but an ordinary man.But I think I owe it to my mother to work for the cause of women.If we have to make the earth safe by protecting climatic conditions, we have to protect our women´s freedom to make our lives peaceful and happier.I am nobody to nominate/suggest individuals or organizations for a Nobel Peace Prize, even the down graded one, after the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachin Begin was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize!For
funny reasons,Mahatma Gandhi was denied the prize even after seven or eight nominations. However, I think the prize still holds the imagination of ordinary people world wide. It is in this context I appeal to the Nobel Foundation to award the year 2008/9 Nobel Peace Prize to an institution or Individual who works for the cause of women.This will help Arab women, especially in the context of a girl, living in the land of the Holy Places being convicted for 200 lashes of whips after being a victim of a gang rape by seven men for fourteen times, to dare hold their heads high as equal to men.When they get this freedom, we can easily eradicate terror. Greek author of comedies, Aristophanes heroine Lysistrata eradicated the addiction of Greek men for wars.It is safe then to think Arab Lysitratas can help in eliminating terrorism from our midst.
It is the idea behind my motivation to address a letter to the Nobel Foundation reproduced
below.Those of my readers, who are convinced of my idea are welcome to send a letter to the
foundation by e mail: comments@nobelprize.org or by post that they consider the suggestion
seriously.I have retained the foundation´s address for the purpose.
nobel foundation
Prof.Dr.Storch Marcus,
Chairman,
The Board of Nobel Foundation,
P.O.Box 5232,SE 10245
Stockholm, Sweden
e mail: comments@nobelprize.org
Nobel Peace Prize for Women´s cause
Dear Sir,
My website is concerned also with the cause of peace but without
constraints imposed by the circumstances like that of the Nobel Foundation,
who could not accord the honor to Mahatma Gandhi even though he
was nominated several times from 1937 to 1948,since the foundation
had to please to say the least,the imperial mothers as revealed by
your archives.
Now my suggestion is, although I am not qualified to nominate any one
for the nobel peace prize for the year 2008/9, as I welcome the = protect the
Climate= leader Al Gore sharing the Peace prize with IPCC,I hope the next year´s
peace award should go to a man,woman or movement that would work to
liberate women in all parts of the world, making them hold their head high in
Arabia, ending of the cruel female genital mutilation practices etc., and any other
place on this earth.I am aware Arab News, the pan Arab daily Jeddah staff led by
Dr.Khaleed Almaeena is doing a great service in this regard.Just to bring to
your kind notice a 19 year old Saudi girl was awarded punishment,a victim
herself she was, for being raped by seven criminals 14 times, for 200 whippings
in the public by a non-jurist =religious= mullah (terrorist) court of virtue!
Arab News staff contributors, Ms.Abeer Mishkas,Ms.Lubna Hussain,Ms.Waala
Hawari and others are working in the field should be able to lead the foundation
in identifying the suitable individual or organization.There is also a group of former
muslims called Faith Freedom International, who could help.This would
also help in promoting groups resisting terrorist tendencies.
You may therefore consider inviting the intellectuals, individuals and
institutions to nominate a woman,a man or an institution working for the
cause of equal status for women.Here is a historic chance for you
to make amends for the earlier lapses.
With all the best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Kulamarva Balakrishna
Kleistgasse 31/33, A.1030,Vienna,Austria
Phones:00431-7997699 or 0043676-4953370
e mail balakrishna.humansite@gmail.com
www.balakrishna-humansite.blogspot.com
Taranadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring (TTTMM) &
International Centre for Social Environmental Engineering,
Taravadu, Bengre,Padubidri 574111, Karnataka,India
Phone:0091820-2577058(end)
Comment:Dr.Traude Pillai says:
I think it is a good initiative.I got terribly upset when I heard about that girl being raped and then punished by whipping because she had been sitting in a car with a man she was not married.it seems we are back in the middle ages,nay,then people were more free! admire yiour guts to write such letters.
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Sunday,November 25,2007:Today is being observed as the United Nations Day for
Elimination of Violence Against Women.World wide, even today one woman out of three suffers
cruelty from an ungrateful man.Area wise the cruelty ratio differ.For example, in Australia 57 per cent of women suffer violence at the hands of men, supposed to be partners and lovers!I must record here the tragic fate of the late Princess Diana.If a girl who should have become the Queen of U.K. suffered cruelty, in this case mental cruelty, what to speak of normal ordinary females?In Africa, Asia,Europe,Americas Australia and New Zealand ill treatment of women,
including the use of violence and trade in women using unheard of inhuman violence is as old as the human race itself.I can not even imagine of animals like cows or she buffaloes being subjected to cruelty by the mates of the opposite sex as indulged in by men.The latest instance is that of Taslima Nasrin.This cruelty is rooted in men´s pervert feeling for power.This should be eradicated first if we are to succeed in our campaign,I deliberately do not use the word =war=, against =Terrorism=.
I have no pretensions of power.I am but an ordinary man.But I think I owe it to my mother to work for the cause of women.If we have to make the earth safe by protecting climatic conditions, we have to protect our women´s freedom to make our lives peaceful and happier.I am nobody to nominate/suggest individuals or organizations for a Nobel Peace Prize, even the down graded one, after the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachin Begin was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize!For
funny reasons,Mahatma Gandhi was denied the prize even after seven or eight nominations. However, I think the prize still holds the imagination of ordinary people world wide. It is in this context I appeal to the Nobel Foundation to award the year 2008/9 Nobel Peace Prize to an institution or Individual who works for the cause of women.This will help Arab women, especially in the context of a girl, living in the land of the Holy Places being convicted for 200 lashes of whips after being a victim of a gang rape by seven men for fourteen times, to dare hold their heads high as equal to men.When they get this freedom, we can easily eradicate terror. Greek author of comedies, Aristophanes heroine Lysistrata eradicated the addiction of Greek men for wars.It is safe then to think Arab Lysitratas can help in eliminating terrorism from our midst.
It is the idea behind my motivation to address a letter to the Nobel Foundation reproduced
below.Those of my readers, who are convinced of my idea are welcome to send a letter to the
foundation by e mail: comments@nobelprize.org or by post that they consider the suggestion
seriously.I have retained the foundation´s address for the purpose.
nobel foundation
Prof.Dr.Storch Marcus,
Chairman,
The Board of Nobel Foundation,
P.O.Box 5232,SE 10245
Stockholm, Sweden
e mail: comments@nobelprize.org
Nobel Peace Prize for Women´s cause
Dear Sir,
My website is concerned also with the cause of peace but without
constraints imposed by the circumstances like that of the Nobel Foundation,
who could not accord the honor to Mahatma Gandhi even though he
was nominated several times from 1937 to 1948,since the foundation
had to please to say the least,the imperial mothers as revealed by
your archives.
Now my suggestion is, although I am not qualified to nominate any one
for the nobel peace prize for the year 2008/9, as I welcome the = protect the
Climate= leader Al Gore sharing the Peace prize with IPCC,I hope the next year´s
peace award should go to a man,woman or movement that would work to
liberate women in all parts of the world, making them hold their head high in
Arabia, ending of the cruel female genital mutilation practices etc., and any other
place on this earth.I am aware Arab News, the pan Arab daily Jeddah staff led by
Dr.Khaleed Almaeena is doing a great service in this regard.Just to bring to
your kind notice a 19 year old Saudi girl was awarded punishment,a victim
herself she was, for being raped by seven criminals 14 times, for 200 whippings
in the public by a non-jurist =religious= mullah (terrorist) court of virtue!
Arab News staff contributors, Ms.Abeer Mishkas,Ms.Lubna Hussain,Ms.Waala
Hawari and others are working in the field should be able to lead the foundation
in identifying the suitable individual or organization.There is also a group of former
muslims called Faith Freedom International, who could help.This would
also help in promoting groups resisting terrorist tendencies.
You may therefore consider inviting the intellectuals, individuals and
institutions to nominate a woman,a man or an institution working for the
cause of equal status for women.Here is a historic chance for you
to make amends for the earlier lapses.
With all the best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Kulamarva Balakrishna
Kleistgasse 31/33, A.1030,Vienna,Austria
Phones:00431-7997699 or 0043676-4953370
e mail balakrishna.humansite@gmail
www.balakrishna-humansite
Taranadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring (TTTMM) &
International Centre for Social Environmental Engineering,
Taravadu, Bengre,Padubidri 574111, Karnataka,India
Phone:0091820-2577058(end)
Comment:Dr.Traude Pillai says:
I think it is a good initiative.I got terribly upset when I heard about that girl being raped and then punished by whipping because she had been sitting in a car with a man she was not married.it seems we are back in the middle ages,nay,then people were more free! admire yiour guts to write such letters.
Friday 23 November 2007
taslima & khadija
it is a single world
love for every one
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Friday,November 23,2007:Here I am advising Jyoti Basu,Budhadeb and Sitaram Yechury
and other living Marxist,Leninist and nakedly left communists in India that =go take a holy dip together in Kolkotta´s sewer canals through their man holes=.That is what would make you compensate your shameless behavior by abdicating responsibility of giving protection to Taslima Nasrin,a healing Mother Theresa hailing from Bangla Desh.She has shown integrity as a medical doctor and guts as a sari clad woman facing extreme danger.Taslima is no less than Khadija tul
Kubra alias Khadija bint Khuwaylid,the Arab woman,who gave job,then married the younger man making him Prophet later.She gave him warmth,shelter,children and every thing.When she died he
had several marriages of conveniences,one of which being to a mere child.So when I say MPBUH
that is May Peace Be Upon Her,she deserves it,the prayer as the true mother of Islam.
If Islam has become a second word for terrorism in the vocabulary, its responsibility rests entirely on the shoulders of those mullahs who made the collage of pluralistic and democratic religion of Islam into a hell for all mothers,sisters,daughters and daughters in law under the faith giving all the power to the lawless uneducated mullah mobs who show even cheek to punish a rape victim teenager 200 whip lashes in the so called Kingdom of Holy Places in this twenty first century.These urchin mullahs calling themselves judges, administer injustice through out the border less Islamic world today causing misery and threat to world peace and human existence.
We should send them all together to a single lunatic asylum to share shelter with India´s living Marxist Leninist left politicians led by Jyoti Basu and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhdeb Bhattacharjee,who are proud to ride themselves on the carts pulled by poor men from villages in
Kolkatta streets.They are the inheritors of the riches of Hindu god of wealth,Kubera named so because,he was the very image of Ugliness.His specialty it was to ride on the shoulder of a poor man!Here the Hindu Right and Marxist Leninist Left are seen together! A thousand shames to be shared by humanity.
The time has come to thrash these Marxist Leninists and Obscurantist Hindus hadith/verticall gossip/Muslim Mullahs giving them a dose of their own perverted justice.We can not afford to let them go unpunished.The Human civilization owes to itself to deal them a final and decisive blow.
In the Kingdom of Holy places young women are held as prisoners.That pluaralistic love for all idealism based Suffism found a safe haven in India from the Garib Das Khaja Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer´s time is well known.The tradition lives in India.The great Moghal, Akbar walked from Agra to
Ajmer to pay respects to the prophet of love at his grave.Religion of love is truly todays religion. Jihadism,mullahism or mob terrorism of the Hindus or Musims have no place in our midst today. We owe it to ourselves and the coming generations to banish hate religions for once and all.
Let us face the facts.Today´s world has no borders.It belongs to the single family of man.We give and take according to our own individual capabilities.We are not a burden to our huge family.The family loves every one of its member, normal or handicapped.It shoulders the responsibility to take care of every one. Let us work to make the ideal a reality.
One special post script
love for every one
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Friday,November 23,2007:Here I am advising Jyoti Basu,Budhadeb and Sitaram Yechury
and other living Marxist,Leninist and nakedly left communists in India that =go take a holy dip together in Kolkotta´s sewer canals through their man holes=.That is what would make you compensate your shameless behavior by abdicating responsibility of giving protection to Taslima Nasrin,a healing Mother Theresa hailing from Bangla Desh.She has shown integrity as a medical doctor and guts as a sari clad woman facing extreme danger.Taslima is no less than Khadija tul
Kubra alias Khadija bint Khuwaylid,the Arab woman,who gave job,then married the younger man making him Prophet later.She gave him warmth,shelter,children and every thing.When she died he
had several marriages of conveniences,one of which being to a mere child.So when I say MPBUH
that is May Peace Be Upon Her,she deserves it,the prayer as the true mother of Islam.
If Islam has become a second word for terrorism in the vocabulary, its responsibility rests entirely on the shoulders of those mullahs who made the collage of pluralistic and democratic religion of Islam into a hell for all mothers,sisters,daughters and daughters in law under the faith giving all the power to the lawless uneducated mullah mobs who show even cheek to punish a rape victim teenager 200 whip lashes in the so called Kingdom of Holy Places in this twenty first century.These urchin mullahs calling themselves judges, administer injustice through out the border less Islamic world today causing misery and threat to world peace and human existence.
We should send them all together to a single lunatic asylum to share shelter with India´s living Marxist Leninist left politicians led by Jyoti Basu and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhdeb Bhattacharjee,who are proud to ride themselves on the carts pulled by poor men from villages in
Kolkatta streets.They are the inheritors of the riches of Hindu god of wealth,Kubera named so because,he was the very image of Ugliness.His specialty it was to ride on the shoulder of a poor man!Here the Hindu Right and Marxist Leninist Left are seen together! A thousand shames to be shared by humanity.
The time has come to thrash these Marxist Leninists and Obscurantist Hindus hadith/verticall gossip/Muslim Mullahs giving them a dose of their own perverted justice.We can not afford to let them go unpunished.The Human civilization owes to itself to deal them a final and decisive blow.
In the Kingdom of Holy places young women are held as prisoners.That pluaralistic love for all idealism based Suffism found a safe haven in India from the Garib Das Khaja Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer´s time is well known.The tradition lives in India.The great Moghal, Akbar walked from Agra to
Ajmer to pay respects to the prophet of love at his grave.Religion of love is truly todays religion. Jihadism,mullahism or mob terrorism of the Hindus or Musims have no place in our midst today. We owe it to ourselves and the coming generations to banish hate religions for once and all.
Let us face the facts.Today´s world has no borders.It belongs to the single family of man.We give and take according to our own individual capabilities.We are not a burden to our huge family.The family loves every one of its member, normal or handicapped.It shoulders the responsibility to take care of every one. Let us work to make the ideal a reality.
One special post script
Dear Balakrishna,
Manipal,India;Friday, November 23, 2007
Manipal,India;Friday, November 23, 2007
Just heard that Taslima is being chased from Jaipur (of Chaddi Monkeys, this a local description of the obscurantist political forces in India represented by Bharatiya Janata Party =BJP=) to the safe heaven of Delhi. Even the anti- muslims can not support and provide protection to Taslima!
Sonia (Gandhi) in Delhi can not have an agreement with IAEA (on nuclear co-operation with the United States ) because the marxists (the same who were unable to protect a Bengali woman doctor,Taslima Nasrin, who saved several Bengalies in Bangla Desh in 1990s), don't like it and her (Sonia´s) allies of DMK (the ones who got Rajiv Gandhi killed by their friends at Ravana's Sri Lanka just across the Adam's bridge) do not support it! What a pity that she loses a nobel prize for peace! ( Don´t worry, Mahatma Gandhi also lost Nobel Prize on account of Hindu Maha Sabha according to the revealed information by the Nobel Foundation.Kulamarva balakrishna.)
Bharath Desh Mahan!( Great Indian nation!)Regards,
KPRao
(end)
(end)
Monday 19 November 2007
golpitha
mini guide on how to avoid molestation
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Monday, November 19,2007: Golpitha is the name of a Marathi,(a daughter language of the Indo-European origin classic Sanskrit),poetry book written by a sweeper´s son,poet and founder of India´s Black Panther, dalith/ down trodden s´ political movement in the late 60s, Mr.Namdev Dhasal.In one of the poems there Namdev suggests to India´s left politicians, who are mostly upper crust brahmins as was the late Mr.S.A.Dange, = go you brahmins and marxists, take a dip in the sewage canal here through a man hole.That is what the hight of your =Sanatana Dharma=, meant the highly proclaimed Hinduism.He knew what he was writing because it was inherited duty of his down trodden class to keep the city clean and see the sewage disposal routes are operational. Golpitha is also the land mark in Bombay being the center of the city´s red light district where temple girls known as devdasis from the Godavari and Krishna river systems are traded,on hour
basis or contract basis.There are huge bungalows and small cubicles where these girls are deployed as sex workers.There are also imported girls now mostly from Nepal, formerly from China and Europe as well, the Eropean quarters being labelled =safed= Hindi for white color,the Chinese quarters as China Town.The European girls worked in the bungalows in the same conditions described in Alexander Kuprin´s novel =yama, the pit=.In this area most men walking about are buyers or sellers.The girls are but marketed =service providers=.The sweeper females, during day time clean the streets.At nights they are under contract by the service domain owners to store water for the girls and to do some minimum cleaning of the marketing area.They also serve as eyes of the policing system to earn additional bread as advised by Kautilya´s Arthashastra of pre- Christian era.
This =service providing= is every where in the world.(Today,in Europe and Americas,there are also gigolo Vedvyasas advertising their readiness to deputize any missing male companion).But the specialty of this place is that it was first organized for entertaining male labor mostly drawn for the textile mills from rural districts.In other parts of the world sex workers are employed mostly for mobile middle class singles. In Indian cities such demands are met by call girls or not so public places.With forced suppression of female sex ratio Indian men,I am rudely awakened now,have become sex robbers,described as eve teasers and molesters.Some one forwarded me today =23 ways to prevent molestation in public=,that is a mini red book on how to escape male robbers or thieves of the female sex by Ms.Nita J.Kulkarni, who has her own blogspot. That is: http//nitawriter.wordpress.com When I read the dos and don´ts I realize there is no safe haven for a female in India.From the mother´s womb, =she= is abortively expelled as undesirable.Once having come to the world, she should be under guard even from holy men.In the olden times under Manu´s law, established about four hundred years before Christ era, she is guarded by father during childhood, when she became adult by, why humiliate a man with the word =husband= I call him respectfully =hisbend=,when she is old, the son takes care of the mother! Then comes the finality: =na stree svatantryam arhati=.That means Hindu females are permanently destined to live in the private cages of Golpitha.Ms.Kulkarni guides please avoid crowds even in holy places or the assembly of holy devotional men.In theater and cinemas make male companion sit next to you. What about the other side? Tactfully arrange with another couple or hire a watch from the theatre management.Avoid going through the deserted areas. I was reminded when I walked at midnight on the Worli side of the Bhavani Shankar Road in early sixties, a police constable told me the place was dangerous as the location was lonely.I could be robbed,although my pocket was paisaless. Buses are dangerous,eateries are not safe, at unavoidable work places be careful.Here is a quotation from her experience of Pune where she was born and went to school.In her early teens as she was climbing a bus route 35, was an (un)holy man not naked.=a sadhu in orange robes,he was climbing into the bus behind me took out his unholy =thing= (that is erect penis, udbhava linga in Saibaba language) and he tried to touch me with it. It was one of the sickest experiences I have had!= =Bap re bap toba toba = (father oh father) what a life!
It is not much different in the =land of holy places= where there is a special =virtue police= to
watch and demand the proof that the male companion is indeed a close relation.Of course with some cash the proof can be arranged,after all the female is not allowed to show face.Her identity card is not acceptable unless validated by a male presence!She can not drive a car. Recently a well educated young woman wrote in her exasperation:= when women in Saudi Arabia are considered adults?=.Besides, we can read in newspapers citing Q´uran and =hadith=, meaning Islamic =purana= or vertical gossip, how the =hisbend= can enjoy his =conjugal rights= during the wife´s the monthly period.Often a verse in Q´uran is quoted to justify wife beating as corrective measure.Just a couple of days ago there was a news report that a 22 year old mother and the child, spent two years as under trials in prison and still are awaiting hearing of the case as the mother married a man on her own free will to get the child without approval of a male.
I hope a young woman in India works on a Dale Carnegie type guide book on how to prevent the mindless =hisbends= from exercising their conjugal rights when a child is sick, the female partner herself is unwell etc.Research should be made and care should be taken Hindu vertical gossip known as =puranas= are obeyed and not violated by the females.Besides, for the foreign tourists who bring hard earned hard currency to India another best seller on how to travel in the country of ancient modernity, where even monkey gods cover their shame, private parts to walk on stage as fashion models! The exception of course is =mother cow=. She is allowed to go about without Banarasi, Ilkal,Kanjeevaram or Dharmavaram saries wrapped around. Even then they can not complain being molested as in Deve Gowda´s Karnataka =tayi ganda= or =mother´s hisbend= is a much loved honorific. In mature developed world, we appreciate women´s voluntariness.We are supportive, we like them share any happiness with family and friends of either sex.The same voluntariness that makes the foundation for any democracy in socio-political context.(end)
Sunday 18 November 2007
pak reality
needs delicate
diplomacy
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Sunday,November 18,2007: President Bush and his Deputy Secretary of State,John Negreponte should accept the Pakistani reality and truth that =freedom and democracy= even one
hundredth of what President Bush believes what they are can not be operative in that country for a long long time to come.The mountainous regions of North West Frontier Agency even before the country´s birth had been under a tribal rule from the time unknown to man.It is just Punjab and Sind parts of the country which are now under a fifty/fifty rule of law.It is not a reason to celebrate for the law enforcing justice system. General Parvez Musharraf has been burdened with that historic task of enforcing law and order after the aggressive suicidal attacks of 11-09-2001,worse than the Pearl Harbor attack.It is no minor responsibility in the context,President Bush knows his partners in the land of =holy places= also do not let man´s law to be operative there.There is one god hidden there behind the curtains after a total of 399 others were destroyed by that god´s sole messenger, when he established the faith of Islam and the republic known as Umma.Then the messenger died leaving more than ten million god´s mullah messengers to rule the in the entire world where the Islamic Umma spread itself.When they say a court of law, a mullah court is meant not the court of law known in the United States,Europe or anywhere in the world.
Let me quote from the words of Ambassador Curtin Winsor, Jr. for the sake of clarity: = A Saudi
dissident group released in (2004/5) a video tape showing the Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia´s Supreme Judicial Council, ( meaning =sharia= judiciary unknown to modern world) Saleh bin Muhammad al-Luhaidan advising young Saudis at a government mosque on how to infiltrate Iraq and fight U.S.troops,as well as assuring them that Saudi security forces would not punish them after their return=.Today´s Arab News report of the Kingdom of Holy Places, should make it further clear that the justice system now operative is indeed an =injustice system= that continued there for the last fifteen centuries.
rape victim sentenced whipping
Here is the gist of the Arab News report:A 19 year old rape victim girl´s earlier conviction was doubled yesterday to entail her get a total of 200 lashes and six months in prison.The girl identified as "Qatif Girl" is appealing the verdict even as the judge warned her if she lost, the sentence could be increased.Her guilt was=being in the company of an unrelated man=.It was then she and her companion were gang-raped by seven men.They have been awarded lesser sentences in lashes but between two and nine years in prison for their crime.The court has revoked her lawyer´s license to practice law by the Qatif General Court. Qatif girl is determined to fight the conviction.=even I was surprised at her determination= her husband was quoted as saying. His name is being withheld to protect the Qatif´s identity.
Now the post Zia Pakistan judiciary is influenced or corrupted by this =injustice system=.It is worth recalling during Zia´s rule public whipping as a punishment was advertised world wide.An Islamic banking system was introduced for the participation of the members of the Umma (Islamic Republic). So what were the democratic opposition and human right activists like Asma Jehangir was engaged in then? The whole of Pakistan and Afghanistan then went under a more cruel Taliban law.It was American involvement in Afghanistan that saved at least some part of Pakistan under a =constitutional cum military= rule,where mobs, mullahs and mosques had been armed and operating against the government.It is not now, more than a few months that a red mosque overlooking the Presidential Secretariat had to be cleared of the killing mullah mobs.
It is using this opportunity, the imperial mothers of Pakistan led by the U.S, who had given shelter to the twice dismissed Benazir Bhutto on corruption charges, encouraged her to return home offering Lindt chocolates. Once the general is out of the way, where is the guarantee that she will not unleash a thousand year´s mob war against the rest of the world? The U.S. and U.K. should have noted the welcome she got as she arrived in homeland to re-establish =democracy= there. Soon after The Telegraph, the known mouth piece of imperialism, called the general doing a thankless job,a=sob!=. Now why make an outcry to transfer absolute power to a =dod=? That is why I said in my earlier opinion piece =joint venture it is= that Ambassador Negreponte´s mission is that of making the =sob=and=dod= mate.
I am reminded of a narrative book on Indian Maharajas written by an imperial story teller influenced by the great Rudyard Kipling.My late journalistic guru, Mr.R.P.Iyer borrowed me
the book where a Rajputana maharaja to which society Bhutto family is traced loved his pet =royal= =sob= so much that he decided to get him a royal =dod= as bride. With great pomposity the event was organized.The festivities went on awaiting a ceremonial nuptial event, which the great Nayar daughter in law Hurley brusquely declined to undergo, for her own reasons. Even in the narrative, the royal =dod= did not oblige.Then an ambassador of the Maharaja was ordered like today´s Deputy Secretary of State, to bring the =sob= and the =dod= together so they can make their first festive love.How the story ended up can be easily found out by tracing the book by the London daily, The Telegraph,which was able to base three correspondents in Islamabad to insult Gen. Parvez Musharraf for the emporor´s faults.
The funny stories apart, under the grim realities the great General should be backed to the hilt in his task of establishing law and order and a realistically operational government that would not pose a threat to the rest of the world.Do not weaken his position.(end)
Saturday 17 November 2007
aging concern
kinder gartens for
omas & opas
are coming
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,Saturday, November 17, 2007:We are now discussing on how to care our aging people.As
it is in the developed West,I think excluding the United States there are established standards to take care of the aging by setting up facilities for their residence,boarding,entertainment and
attendance by trained young men and women other than in medical services.The current discussion in Austria,where the aging population makes almost one quarter of the whole of some eight million,the consideration is on how to provide 24 hours a day attention.There are homes for the elderly established in old style, where attending nurses some time ago,felt exhausted and helpless.This led some of them even cruelly but more or less secretly murder some 300 or more inmates.They were caught and meted out with justice all the same.
But a system overhaul is overdue.One school of thought believes the aging should live close to the loving ones.The other school,which accepts the view, points out at the realities of life where the loving ones are forced to live in distance places because of their employment requirements or studies.The mobility on these two counts are being a reality they suggest as social democrats, a public system should engage itself as a social issue to be tackled.This is the background of the discussion now being held to suit the new century we live in.It may be necessary the system should be monitored continuously.
The aging population itself is very self conscious.It likes to be near the loving ones but at the same time remain helpful without infringing on the freedom of younger generations. Such thinking elders like Austrian poetess oma Lotte (short form of Charlotte) Ingrisch,77, demand the inclusion of =death= as an item among the human rights.Others talk of =death help=,meaning terminally suffering with extreme pains may be permitted to depart the world voluntarily with legal medical help.This practice is some what accepted norm in Switzerland,The Netherlands and I think in a single State of the United States.Since in the West there are enough elderly without companions or children.They have to be cared by the public institutions.
It is almost a routine here in Europe to take the elderly groups on walks in the gardens or hills.Into the well kept swimming pools,saunas and steam showers.In the pools themselves there are trained attendants who would guide the elderly easy under water movements of the limbs,helping them regain body balance and stability for living a day today life more pleasantly.These exercises help the aging. But these attendances are now not properly interlinked.That is what being considered for opinion building.
It is very important for us to realize that aging is a phenomena that accompanied us with time as old as life.The Buddha first identified and addressed this problem as he launched his search for enlightenment some two thousand six hundred years ago.The three solutions he found out remain valid even today.a)To recount to recognize the reality, b)to accept the nature and 3)surrender to the society.So we are now compelled make our society to address to the realities.
All aging as a rule taken care of by their younger generation in India.Those who had no younger ones are left unattended even though they have served the young through the society.Many aging have served the society outstandingly well.I like to give an example of my elder friend, who is now in his late eighties.He is an outstanding Indian, a retired journalist.Mr.Shalil Ghosh, who hailed from Rabindra Nath Tagore´s Shanti Niketan now lives in Bombay.He married in Bombay a Christian, Charlotte.She lives no more. After undergoing two abdominal surgeries in her late sixties this great female personality passed away some ten years ago.When she was alive, she looked after blind children under the National Association for the Blind.Left alone suffering from rheumatic arthritis, Shalil, who had mobilized finances for the welfare of East Pakistan refugees and later liberation of Bangla Desh with Maharashtra´s then Governor Ali Yavar Jung, later attended the poor like a dis housed sweeper family of the Reserve Bank of India accommodating the family in his own rented apartment for a long time. Now he is alone. Indian government has found no use for such public spirited retired volunteers of help.Such gentlemen are also proud to seek communal support.It is not the finances. What is lacking is human touch.There may be almost a million people of this kind living unattended in India alone.
I remember reading the late Prof.Sarvepalle Gapal narrating his late father Philosopher and former President of India´s difficult last days. Even with all the attention given to him by his loved ones,he suffered.But people like Shalil Ghosh.Many elderly who had chosen to remain in India when their younger ones chose to go abroad,study and stay put.They are taken care just by domestic servants without any qualifications.India would need to address such problems at least now.
As far as the world is concerned the United Nations has considered the issue of the aging and held a global conference on the agenda some 25 years ago.It commemorates a day for the aging annually.It is bound to review the global concern but national governments, particularly the ones like India aspiring to become permanent members of the governing Security Council of the United Nations should set an example as model nations in social conduct.The developed west is as I said in the headline is toying with the idea of a comprehensive plan for the aging.Let us see who comes out first with what agenda for the elderly in general. (end)
Thursday 15 November 2007
take notice
kulamarva balakrishna
v/ tarun vijay 11/2007
Vienna,15-11-2007
Mr.Tarun Vijay,
Editor in Chief,
Panchajanya & Columnist
The Times of India (Right)
Dear Mr.Tarun Vijay,
You have defamed my friend and artist Maqbool Fida Hussain by
publishing on your blogspot, a fake forward forward,originating
apparently from a brahmin =Raj Kumar= that Hussain has painted
Hindu gods and goddesses obscenely naked etc.
2.I say he has done no wrong since god is =antaryami= remains invisible.
If you know your =sharia= vertical gossip =mahabharata purana=histories
you would know that. I challenge you to see the =hadith= recorded in them
once again,convince yourself to amend and apologize to artist Hussain.
3.In the event you ignore my message,please take notice, I reserve my
rights to go against you including by legal means taking your own accepted
as valid legal tenets presided over by Kala Yamadharmaraja, the deputed
father of Mahabharata Hero, Pandava Dharmaraja Yudhisthira.Kala Yama-
dharmaraja is the lord of the direction of the South presiding over in his
Supreme Court of Hindus located in about ten thousand square kilometers
known as =yamapuri=, and assisted by his Central Bureau of Investigations
(CBI) headed by Chitragupta, the Accountant General of Hindu Human
Behaviors.
4.Please take notice, you should be ready to defend yourself on 28
counts of violating Yamadharmaraja´s Hindu Penal Code´s as many
articles and if found guilty would be punished to undergo terms concurrently
or separately in one or more of the 28 punitive centres managed by this
Hindu Chief Justice of Supreme Court.
5.You are to respond to this notice with all seriousness that it deserves.
I personally or through my legal representative team briefed by me, will
conduct the case against you in the appropriate court of justice including
open and transparent public opinion court.
6.You have two weeks time to respond.The last day to receive your response
is 30-11-2007.
With all the warm regards,
Yours sincerely
Kulamarva Balakrishna
v/ tarun vijay 11/2007
Vienna,15-11-2007
Mr.Tarun Vijay,
Editor in Chief,
Panchajanya & Columnist
The Times of India (Right)
Dear Mr.Tarun Vijay,
You have defamed my friend and artist Maqbool Fida Hussain by
publishing on your blogspot, a fake forward forward,originating
apparently from a brahmin =Raj Kumar= that Hussain has painted
Hindu gods and goddesses obscenely naked etc.
2.I say he has done no wrong since god is =antaryami= remains invisible.
If you know your =sharia= vertical gossip =mahabharata purana=histories
you would know that. I challenge you to see the =hadith= recorded in them
once again,convince yourself to amend and apologize to artist Hussain.
3.In the event you ignore my message,please take notice, I reserve my
rights to go against you including by legal means taking your own accepted
as valid legal tenets presided over by Kala Yamadharmaraja, the deputed
father of Mahabharata Hero, Pandava Dharmaraja Yudhisthira.Kala Yama-
dharmaraja is the lord of the direction of the South presiding over in his
Supreme Court of Hindus located in about ten thousand square kilometers
known as =yamapuri=, and assisted by his Central Bureau of Investigations
(CBI) headed by Chitragupta, the Accountant General of Hindu Human
Behaviors.
4.Please take notice, you should be ready to defend yourself on 28
counts of violating Yamadharmaraja´s Hindu Penal Code´s as many
articles and if found guilty would be punished to undergo terms concurrently
or separately in one or more of the 28 punitive centres managed by this
Hindu Chief Justice of Supreme Court.
5.You are to respond to this notice with all seriousness that it deserves.
I personally or through my legal representative team briefed by me, will
conduct the case against you in the appropriate court of justice including
open and transparent public opinion court.
6.You have two weeks time to respond.The last day to receive your response
is 30-11-2007.
With all the warm regards,
Yours sincerely
Kulamarva Balakrishna
Tuesday 13 November 2007
clean up
a joint venture
it is
By kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,13-11-2007:The internal situation in Pakistan is the result of a continued mess up by imperial mothers and their partners during the last century. Intelligence operatives of organizations like the CIA founded by Allen Dulles, work on more or less on gathering and in return feeding information to the opponents routinely considering the desired results in a time range of about six months to a year. Behind them are strategic planners, who need to be of highest intelligence and integrity.They need to keep track of intelligence inputs evaluating them in short term, mid term and long term calculations. Then inter-linking them to avoid contra productive results.That is called =humint= in real terms. There had been the worst mess up there,with =humint= almost missing, which caused the current threat to world peace.Make no mistake.The fall of Shah of Iran was not digested.Instead the immediate short term consideration was to find use for the weapons ordered by the Shah in Shah.How to save the military production infrastructure and work places etc.The imperial mothers found ad hoc solutions for the problems then.Even today after almost 28 years, they are now without a realistic Iran policy.It was on post war Iran policy foundation they rested their entire middle east policy projections in the first place.
Pakistan was then drawn in as and when required,again on ad hoc basis.Thus when they needed out source a division of 20,000 soldiers,to secure the holy places in Saudi Peninsula Pakistan came in handy.The choice introduced one more vested interest within the Pakistani forces that had until then showed ambition only to wrest power from self seeking politicians.This led the land of the pure military in investmentin in Canada creating a military bridge head across the ocean.The mess up continued until the culmination of events of 11-09-2001. I was watching the developments since mid fifties.In early 80s I even warned the consequences for Pakistan. Earlier, Miles Copeland wrote in his Game of Nations pointing out the result of downgrading the importance of =humint= then itself. He pointed out at the 187 meter high Cairo Tower built by Nasser by CIA money! But the message of the monument for =humint= disaster did not sink in.Then there were Billy Carters and Associates from the Republican and Democrats sides as corruption incarnations.
As for the Pakistani internal developments, Iskandar Mirza-Ayub Khan legacy inheritors saw the country as personal property to be enjoyed in the Shah in Shah fashion.Today, it is easy to make now Pervez Musharraf a scape goat. We should see and learn from the rise and Fall of Zul fiqr Ali Bhutto. After him Zia was blasted off mid air with an entourage which included the imperial Ambassador of the U.S. Coming next, Ms. Benazir Bhutto threw away two chances. She was dismissed twice by two different constitutional Presidents.It can not be ignored. Hindustan Times wrote just about a week ago now she has luck.I would disagree.Now she got one more chance to make amends and share power with a neutral professional soldier, who grew up nursing deep humiliation meted out to his class by her father.If she does not share power with the general now to restore the self respect of Pakistani soldier´s uniform it will not work.Outside pressure had not prevented Zia from hanging Z.A.Bhutto. He hanged Benazir´s father as the whole world advised him to the contrary.Now the young lady appeals to international community to put pressure on the General,knowing full well the players have changed and public memories are short.
If Benazir fails today to work on a joint venture with the General that would lead to a greater and far reaching disaster.To throw away the chance to clean up and start a new would have worst implications for the Custodian of Holy Places and the whole world itself. It was from Saudi pocket an estimated 870 billion dollars were doled out to worldwide terror industry since 1979. Of this more than a half had gone at various levels to Pakistan only.That includes stinger missiles,opiates, synthetic drugs from Western Europe that sustain fighter motivation and distribution of weapons to one and all in the tribal region.Besides,Pakistanis dashed abroad as economic refugees to remit funds to homeland to feed their kin. I pumped in 1990s a pizza cook Marouf at Frankfurt, who was working for a Chinese owned eatery. He was very gracious,when I told him,=Marouf, you are more influential and resourceful than Benazir.You also earn more than her. Can you find a table for us five persons please?= I had asked.He was pleased and forthcoming. He had at once intervened on our behalf with his madam boss as he invited us for a bottle of Rhein Riesling wine. People like Marouf bring almost 40 percent of Pakistan´s foreign exchange earnings even now.They all have a stake that their homeland is peaceful and stable.They do not love Benazir.They laugh at her.
The news that Bush is sending a special emissary to Pakistan to persuade Parvez Musharraf to
withdraw emergency is,to say the least, a double edged communication.The emissary should work as the moderator if the situation has to be saved even in a short term for the West. The stakes are so high.There are =strategic assets,hidden=, which according to the Arab Media are taken care will by the military as a prestige issue.The U.S.media report that Americans have contingency plans to secure them make the whole Crescent Moon region nervous.Thus the stakes here are Higher than the Cairo Tower indeed. The imperative is Pakistan should be saved.As for the country´s sovereignty, minute by minute the general and the opponents await signals from Washington as if the guardian Sam uncle´s nod is imperative.If Benazir does not co-operate she can not rule even Larkana, her father´s estate in Sind as mini- Pakistan for herself.(end)
Comments left behind at Faith Freedom International:
Re: A Joint Venture It Is(Score: 1)by Marie on Nov 15, 2007 - 03:32 PM (User information | Send a message |
| What the Pakistani government needs to do is crackdown on Muslim fanatics who are encouraging chaos terror in that country. What the Pakistani government needs is a person in charge that is willing to come down hard on the fanatics. Musharraf can berely handle them and Bhutto will not do any better, because Muslims will not accept a woman as the head of their state. What Pakistan needs is change. Islam needs to be changed also. |
Re: A Joint Venture It Is
(Score: 1)
by Wehtiko on Nov 15, 2007 - 05:34 PM
(User information | Send a messageIslam needs to be destroyed! It needs (and the world needs) for it to be sent packing back into the dark, evil abyss from whence it came!
Islam is incapable of reform or change because you never know when it is lying in order to save or promote itself. Islam is no more capable of reform or change than is fascism/Nazism. Some things just need to die.
Re: A Joint Venture It Is(Score: 1)by Passionate Conscience on Nov 15, 2007 - 08:59 PM (User information | Send a message |
Muslims want to possess nuclear weapons because they figure that one day they are going to use it against non-Muslims. How I wish that those nukes explode in their own backyard. Then they will know the danger of playing with fire. I firmly believe that if their own nukes explode in their own country, the survivors will all convert to Hinduism or Christianity. Nobody can stand worshipping Allah that kills their own families. |
Re: A Joint Venture It Is(Score: 1)by Marie on Nov 16, 2007 - 10:25 AM (User information | Send a message |
| If nukes exploded in their own backyards, the imams will claim that it is Allah's will. |
[from Faith Freedom International ]
Sunday 11 November 2007
hussain defamed
ramayana made
into ramlila farce
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,12-11-2007:A depraved Brahmana, that is ten headed monster King of Sri Lanka, the villain of Valmiki Ramayana, a creative work, over written several thousand times by as many prose and poetry writers in different parts of South and South East Asia, Ravana is known for his piety and craze for beautiful women.In fact most of the fantastic versions of the =adi kavya= (the first creative literature),with the exception of a few show him to be a bad character of the worst type.He made austerities to accumulate power and use that power to satiate his sensual lust. (In contrast, Lunar King Yayati married asura guru Shukra´s daughter Devayani, with two thousand servant maids including Sharmistha.He wanted to borrow a son´s youth.All the sons, excepting the youngest born of the servant maid Sharmistha, Puru would not oblige.Puru lent his father his
youth for a thousand long years so that his father could enjoy sensual life for much longer.In return, Yayati nominated this youngest son to be the inheritor to the throne as recorded by Mahabharata, considered itihasa,history.)
allah is not visual
My Artist friend Maqbool Fida Hussain got India in Berlinale International Film Festival for India the Goden Palm award for his =Through the Eyes of a Painter= silent film.That recognition made him respectable and enabled him,then the father of eight, the last being Owais, to make Haj.Then he got interest to paint gods and goddesses.( Since in Islam god is invisible nobody can paint god.
Even though it is not permitted to represent the Prophet, artists who do not care have adorned the Holy Q´uran in Persia and India under Mughals have made his illustrations in manuscripts. Today these are objects of art cost in millions of dollars. If Hinduism abstains from gods representation then there is sense in objecting god´s paintings. Not other wise).Hussain began painting Ramayana commenced since many of his friends wanted the gods painted by him in their collections.It was, we should remember, a Hindu business man, who contracted Hussain to turn out almost a hundred million dollars worth paintings a year for their joint venture.That was how he was persuaded to paint Hindu themes.Ramayana was the first theme in the early seventies as for his religious painting soon after he returned from Haj.At the time, I published his sketches of Ramayana in my Hi young people´s newspaper, then new to India, as leading =underground= newspaper,with the heading = Ramayana by Haji=.Long before that,in his early career Hussasin made posters for cinemas made on mythological themes.That was the time he was studying art.At that time,he lived in a garrage on the Grant Road,bordering of Bombays red light district, as he could not afford expensive apartment.His posters included Ravi Varma type realistic paintings of the heroines meant for then unborn Bollywood marketing.
basics of painting
Any student of art is aware a painting is not substitute to photography.He learns it is a creative work taking the bare minimum of the suggestive lines presenting colours visually for an aesthetic appeal.The grammar of painting involves composition of balancing figures, or points of contrast or matching colours,shades,texure, mass order and disorder as if a visual orchestra.Just as only those who have an idea of music can appreciate musical compositions,creative works of art are inspired and appealing only to those,who know the rudiments and understand the fundamentals of visuals created on paper or canvass with different media.
I am confronted by a several round forward forwards published in the blog of The Times of India´s fundamentalist columnist Tarun Vijay.There is a painting of the ten headed monster brahman Ravana,standing erect naked.A naked beauty shows her back to him her buttocks almost touching his torso.A bit safe distance a monkey,obviously Hanuman in search of Sita in Ravana´s harem.The monkey is naturally naked,can not be otherwise, just because some people like to believe that the particular monkey is god.He was elevated to god hood because of his perforamnce in Ramayana later. I would like to point out that so many Indians believe the cow is mother.But how many Indians dressed their mother cows with saris? Does Tarun Vijay´s cow mother wears a Banarasi or Kanjeevaram sari I am curious to know this to estimate the level of the columnist´s i.q. In the first place it is stupid to think a monkey as a dressed up tail wagging human.His complaint that monkey is shown as monkey to defame Hinduism can be described nothing less than mental derangement.
Abdul Karim Khan
Does Tarun Vjay know that the founder of Kirana Gharana of Khayal Singers, Abdul Karim Khan
died in 1948 singing on a railway platform between Madras and Calcutta the praise of Hindu
gods? Has he cared to listen to Dagar Brothers dhrupad singing =udho kare= for Hindu gods?
Taradevi, Sitara Devi, Gopikrishna who made Kathak popular how do you consider them? Hindus or Muslims? Prejudices are not qualities in an intellectual even of the Hindu variety.
Just about the Hussain painting scene.In Ramayana Sundara Kanda section is were Valmiki describes Hanuman monkey´s search for hijacked Sita.He goes all over the beautiful Sri Lanka
city, created by Mayas.Every house he enters first by taking a minute form,since he had the knowledge of =ashta siddhis= (eight achievements including being minutes and the largest) then when excited jumping like a monkey kissing his own tail.The monster brahmana King Ravana´s inner harem was designed like a plane.There was a mini theatre for the king to enjoy with his harem mates.There he saw female instrumentalists, singers,dancers,maids and of course play girls side by side the most beautiful woman known in her time, Mandodari, the daughter of Maya,the queen of the monster brahmana king. He was excited. It is said Mandodari was the biological mother of Sita and she looked like the daughter.In some versions of Ramayana Sita is openly depicted as the daughter of Mandodari,born of the monster brahmin.Because astrologers making baby´s birth charts,who turned the shells moving their palm around them predicted this girl would cause the father´s death, she was abandoned in a field superficially covering the baby child by plough soil,from where she derives the name Sita.Yogi King Janaka, who was preparing the field for =havan=,fire sacrifice, found in the field the abandoned female baby. He took her home as his own daughter of luck.Monkey Hanuman saw the beautiful Mandodari to mistake her to be Sita. (Ramayana/sundara kanda).At first it was the cause of unbounded happiness having located the missing Sita.As we will mark the excitement of Tarun Vijay later.He jumps, forgetting himself screaches, pulls his tail by the hand to kiss it again and again.Then climbs the wooden pillars around the mini-theater where many women are asleep with their musical instruments.Unbelievable but for a moment the monkey lost his composure. Just for a while.Then Hanuman realized Sita was no ordinary girl.He could not contenance her to be there.He decided to continue the search out side the enclosed houses in Sri Lanka which led him to the =ashoka vanika= garden.
When he finally found her in the garden, he was careful immediately not to expose himself before Sita. He considered the pros and cons of presenting himself before Sita and speaking to her like a human in Sanskrit language of the humans.It is recorded by the poet Valmiki.So who told Tarun Vijay or other defamers of Maqbool Fida Hussain by the painting he meant Sita not Mandodari or other play girls in the harem I would like to ask for clarity.There are no recorded pictures of Sita. Her form is left to our imagination.After all if these sensitive Hindus go to a court of law they have to produce evidence. On how Sita looked in the first place. Then more questions from cross examining lawyers like the late A.S.R.Chari questioning the late sheths Shreyans Prasad Jain or Ramnath Goenka or Jain employee P.K.Roy.
contemporary figures
As for the paintings of the contemporary men or women according to style some key likeness matters.The rest are free expression by a creatice artist not a camera.So comparing daughters or mothers to imaginary gods´ representations is nothing but insane.It is like claiming Lord Ganapathi drank cow´s milk offered to him. It is the believer´s belief. Not reality, Tarun Vijay, you Panchajanya boy.You should know in Bhubhaneshvar there is the great Lingaraja Temple.There is a giant stone =linga= mounted on =yoni=.That is to say the unseparable =Ardhanareeshvara= Shiva and Parvathi together are represented by their genitals not by illustrations.On that =linga= worshiped even today, remain one thousand carved mini =linga=s without mini =yonis=.Old sculptors expressed their artistic freedom in chiselling them. Hussain used similar freedom nothing more.
Other pictures in the blog refers to =Shri= Parvathi.Since when these Hindu fundies like Tarun Vijay began addressing goddesses by male prefixes? Draupadi is another painting.Draupadi is famous because of the failed attempt by Dusshasana to disrobe her.That was indeed depcited in
the painting.She was wearing a single sari as described in Mahabharata because as the
custom of the time women in period did not wear a second piece of cloth.It is clearly described
=eka vastram, rajasvalam= ( one piece wearing Draupadi in her period).Another picture
is said to be that of Lakshmi guarded by Ganapathi.I know Ganapathi is the creation of Parvati
goddess,soon after creation she assigned him to guard her bathroom door as she went for shower. She had gone under shower.Ganapathi remained guarding outside.Even Shiva did not know Ganapathi had been created by Parvathi, when he came there the boy Ganapathi stood in his way. The picture composition showed the under shower goddess and the guarding son. What is strange about it?Can Tarun Vijay explain? What is objectionable here is the mean mindedness of the Hindu fundies, who do not know Hinduism but label themselves as Hindus.It is the same Tarun Vijay, who offered his comfortable lap as pillow for the Americal girl friend of a Pakistani Jihadist to bury her face when weather turned turbulent on a flight from Shanghai to California or wherever they happen to fly together by accident.He used The Times of India space for narrating the episode.
By condemning Hussain Tarun Vijay has indeed shown he has mistaken for a while like his monkey god or he is a mental case.(end)
Friday 9 November 2007
open letter
extinguish the fire
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
dawn newspapers,
Karachi, Pakistan
(urdu editions included)
Vienna,10-11-2007:
Dear sisters and brothers,
I make bold to address you this open letter, as one teenager who witnessed our two countries sending away the foreign imperial masters.
In 1970 October, when I was passing through road on a rickety decades old bus a small Afghan village called Delaram,the bus made a halt to take petrol by canister pumping.The petrol drum owner who also served us Afghani nan curry for food, asked me if I was a Pakistani.I said to him I was a Hindustani.He asked me further if I was a Musalman.I replied I was but a =qafr=.I got a welcome hug from the Pathan, who spoke Hindustani as he had spent his time in India as a =Kabuliwala=. Then, we talked about the freedom we got in South Asia.He spoke of the Muslim view since the British took power from the Mughals, they should have transferred power back to the inheritors of the Mughals, in this context Muslims. I pointed out the Mughal mess up after Akbar.
It is in the same spirit of this hearty Kabuliwala, I, a =qafr= neighbor,living thousands of kilometers away across the ocean, address you this letter. A letter wishing you light,health and happiness during Diwali. I wish all limbs in tact in your unbruised bodies let alone blasted ones by exploding suicidal belts or back packs strewn all over causing extreme stink and epidemic.
I wish first, you extinguish the fire, keeping your 60 years of self destructive freedom behind.For this, you need to strengthen the backbone of Pervez Musharraf.Instead of asking her Pakistani People´s Party mob getting on the streets, Benazir Bhutto should advise them remain indoors, creating conditions for conducting elections.No election can be held with explosive belts or back packs running amok.Besides,as was proved even Benazir needs security from explosive belt and back packs. She needs to show now great statesmanship in these hours of peril.Unrealistically however, she expects her safety ensured through the agency of her declared opponent!
What is good for Benazir Bhutto, who aspires to rule Pakistan for the third time, is also good to the learned lawyers and the esteemed administrators of justice,the judges of the Supreme Court included.They all need safety and security of life and limbs if they are to function in the service of the society.In other words, what common sense you have please do make use of it and extinguish the fire.
As for Pakistani people in general, if you need help and co-operation from outside, you get it from us neighbors for the asking.After all it is not pleasant to watch neighbor´s house burning. Earlier the fire is set out it is better for us. Besides, your benefactors and long term allies, U.K, U.S and the Arabian peninsula of the Holy Places and of course, the Gulf, should help you with resources without applying a squeeze. It is in their interest the carved out caves in your mountains do not send out human terrorist guided missiles from those safe haven.
Once you are safe, we should help Sri Lanka, Mynamar and Nepal.They all need and deserve happiness and harmony.Overseas citizens of South Asian origin everywhere are eager to help.Save yourselves to take care of the great future you have in store on this earth.
Let your pointless anger calm down a bit. Let your communication reach all Pakistani citizens.Let your politicians learn to share and accommodate in the great Umma breaking bread with those in uniform or without. We hope you live together with the rest of us in South Asia and rest of the world.You are very hard working nice people.You should not throw away life,so short lived, even for fancies. You need to nurse life.Let every Pakistani enjoy the life (end)
bhutto´s new chance
to save her undefined
=homeland=
By Kulamarva Balakrishna
Vienna,09-11-2007: History gives Benazir Bhutto one more chance.If she wants to throw away this chance it is up to her to sink with her own land of the pure humbug.Pakistan today needs internal peace and security. If Benazir Bhutto creates further unrest hoping to wrest power from a disciplined soldier whom she needs for support and help she has to blame herself. She should realize as a soldier, Pervez Musharraf in particular is non-aligned as far as she is concerned. Besides death is not an issue with him.He has chosen uniform to die performing his duty. It is not the case with her declared opponent Nawaz Sharrif, who is in forced exile in the desert land of holy places! Because of his letting down his own country.The custodian of this holy land himself is now under duress.He is seeking understanding and accommodation from the Western client states, who had been the destination of his Carawan Sarai since time unknown.They are all concerned with now terrorism born and bred in the land of pure along the remote mountain region where traditionally opium and tribalism are harvested. Both are threat to the civilized world. As if from nowhere they appear in the midst of organized societies causing great sufferings by dealing death and destruction. Thus the issue remains TERRORISM .
Benazir Bhutto can not afford to ignore this. If I were in her position, I would appeal to all Pakistanis
including the sworn in Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the deposed one take it easy.To think clearly of the future of their land at least.They should not collaborate with free for all violent forces,who should be isolated,contained and disarmed.Mobs to disperse into their homes clearing the streets.Mullahs to pray.Mosques as places of worship,-prayers are forms of worship, used exclusively for the purpose they are erected.Under such calm atmosphere hold elections on
managing the country´s affairs.Musharraf,if he becomes a party to govern, he would give up uniform but uniforms both of soldiers and police would be needed by the nation.They can not be substituted or replaced PPP hordes.Even Umma means sharing.Now as it is Pakistan is sharing its suffering rich or poor blasted of limbs are part of stinking epidemic causing garbage.It makes no sense for Bhutto to appeal for U.S. or U.K. help and support in disarming Pervez Musharraf.He should be
allowed destroy to terrorism if Pakistan has to survive in the committee of nations that is the United
Nations.The U.N.Secretary General is a position as head of the United Nations built under a charter
signed by all nations of the world.He is the world spokesman in that way.
no mob rule no one man/woman rule
We as Indians are party to the creation of Pakistan.Pakistani people should live in peace and prosperity.Their welfare is our concern because those people are our own people chosen to live their own way in their own undefined =homeland=.May Peace Be Upon Them.The wider world is also with us since they are integrated into a single world accommodating many people of Pakistani origin.They have economic and cultural relations with that country.If Afghanistan, Iran,Turkey etc. share with them religion and life like us the rest of the world share geographical home.Human welfare is what global concern.We can not forget this and leave Pakistan´s welfare neither in one man´s or one woman´s hands,or in the hands of mobs or explosive belted suicide mongers like swarming flies into the open lamps! (end)
Tuesday 6 November 2007
news analysis
land of the pure
events
By Steve Cohen
(Vienna,06-11-2007: humans austria has, by the kind courtesy of Brookings Institue Alert, through Steve Cohen, the distant American intellectual view of the latest events in the region focussed by the imperial poet Rudyard Kipling in 19th century. It is not confined to North West Frontier Agency of South Asia. Let us consider the update. It is an increasingly messed up problem for the last two centuries and more that threatens world peace now. We need cool head and political vision to guide the globe out of this crisis.Will the key players, the U.S. administration, the U.K. and the Keeper of Holy Places in Arabian peninsula jointly directing the performance on stage as well as the internal player couple General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto raise up to the occasion? We have to wait and watch may be even suffer.The American view is reprinted below.-Kulamarva Balakrishna)
Cohen´s Text:
Saturday night's declaration of a State of Emergency" in Pakistan—a euphemism for another spell of martial law--comes as a further shock to America's South Asia and anti-terrorist policies. First, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, informed President Bush that the vaunted nuclear agreement with India was in trouble. This may be a "deal too far," in that the domestic politics of the US and India combined to make it politically unpalatable both for an important swath of the political elite in India and a Congress controlled by Democrats. This failure can be chalked up to the difficulty that two open democracies have when they try to push through an innovative policy: anti-Americanism in India is still strong among the Indian political elite, and despite the American non-proliferation community's respect for a rising India, it is still skeptical of India's nuclear ambitions. And, of course, both the Indian left and American Democrats take some pleasure in humiliating President Bush.
However, this failure pales into insignificance compared with the catastrophic course taken by American policy in Pakistan. Musharraf's recent coup against his own government—and that was what it was—was in good part a result of American pressure on him to hold free and fair elections as well as the actions of a Supreme Court that suddenly began to challenge the military's dominant position and a dramatic increase in terrorist violence directed against the Pakistani military itself. Musharraf's low opinion of Washington was symbolized by the failure to wait until the CENTCOM chief had left the country before announcing that the constitution would be suspended and elections deferred.
Pakistan was once America's "most allied of allies." But the Bush administration, whose major foreign policy initiative in South Asia was towards India (a recent gaffe by a Bush administration official even ranked India above Pakistan), has weakened the relationship. Administration officials have gloated that they coerced Pakistan into signing on to the ill-named war on terrorism. In return, Islamabad played a double game regarding its participation in this struggle. Its intelligence services supported the Taliban, while only reluctantly going after the al Qaeda forces embedded in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The failure to round up the Taliban leadership was a matter of state policy: the Pakistan army still regards India as its major threat, and the Taliban are used to counterbalance Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan would like a stable Afghanistan, but it does not believe that Hamid Karzai is the man to lead that country, and Pakistani generals are certain that the US will sooner or later pull out of Afghanistan, leaving the Indians as Karzai's major prop. As for al Qaeda, the Pakistan army is unprepared to engage in counterinsurgency warfare within its own borders; no wonder several US senators have stated that the US ought to go in to the FATA if Pakistan cannot, and round up the known al Qaeda (and Taliban) leadership.
Why has the US stayed with Musharraf long after it became evident that Pakistan was not an effective partner? There was apparently a belief that he was a truly outstanding leader, and if not another Ataturk or Ayub Khan, that at least he was doing the best that he could. Thus, there was no thought of making our multi-billion dollar aid program conditional upon performance. So in effect we've, wasted several billions of dollars, becoming Musharraf's ATM machine, allowing him to build up a military establishment that was irrelevant to his (and our) real security threat, yet presiding over an intensification of anti-American feelings in Pakistan itself, and failing to provide adequate aid to Pakistan's failing social and educational sectors.
Musharraf's coup does nothing to improve the Pakistan army's performance in matters of vital concern to the United States. It is unlikely that the army can learn how to do counterinsurgency quickly; and the US is hardly the country to instruct it in the nuances of such operations.
While counterinsurgency requires more political than military input, Musharraf believes that politics is a branch of public administration. He is unlikely to develop an alliance with those Pushtun nationalists who are threatened by the Talibanized Pushtun religious fanatics because doing so runs the risk of encouraging Pushtun separatism and weakening Punjabi domination in Pakistan.
The best scenario one can conjure up is that Musharraf will move towards carefully controlled elections—perhaps in the middle of next year—when the situation on the ground is stabilized. He has muzzled the pesky Supreme Court and the more vocal elements of the press; the protests by Journalists without Borders and the Lahore Bar Association will not make much of a difference. Benazir Bhutto, now the darling of the Administration (which foolishly ignored her for seven years), has been muted in her comments on Musharraf's second coup; so far her arrangement with Musharraf still stands, and she hopes that between her new-found friends in Washington and Musharraf's need to get a civilian figurehead for his government, that she will come to power again.
Her years in exile have made Benazir a realist: she believes that Pakistan cannot move overnight from dictatorship to democracy, and hopes that the next election will enable her to come to at least a share of power. Her supporters also understand that the threat to Pakistan from the Islamists is mortal; as Pakistan's most secular party, the Pakistan People's party regards itself as better-equipped than the Islamist-leaning Nawaz Sharif to join with the army in an assault on the violent extremists.
Thus, if things go as well as they can, carefully controlled elections will be held, Benazir will come to office, Musharraf will be able to retire from the army, leaving it in the hands of close and trusted advisors, and the army and Benazir, together, will tackle the extremist problem.
There are at least two major problems with this reasonably rosy scenario. First, the terrorists and insurgents of Pakistan may not cooperate, and surrender meekly to Pakistani forces. Recent battles over the Lal Masjid, in FATA, and now in Swat show that there is a large and dedicated cadre of true militants who are more than a match for the Pakistan army in a tactical environment. The PPP is weakest where the militants are strongest, and cannot be counted on to provide the political guidance to tackle them. The militants are not interested in ministerial bungalows in Islamabad, they want to turn Pakistan into a base from which they can attack other soft Muslim and Western states (and India), and even lay their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Musharraf may have sidelined the journalists, lawyers, and judges, but he has yet to demonstrate that Pakistan has the will, or the capacity, to develop a comprehensive counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategy. The recent operations in Swat, once a tranquil backwater but now under the control of Islamist fanatics, was done, according to press reports, without any regard for the refugees and innocent civilians; if past experience is any guide, the Pakistan army's operations will merely serve to increase recruitment to the ranks of the militants.
Second, bringing Benazir in to the "system" will be bitterly opposed by Musharraf's civilian supporters. They detest her populist approach, they have no rejoinder to the developmental and educational agenda that she has set out, and only talk of how many roads and bridges Pakistan has built under this and previous military regimes. It is hard to imagine that they will work with a Bhutto government, and she may find it hard to work with them. As one Pakistan general remarked to me several years ago, the first preference of Pakistani politicians is that they govern the state, their second preference is that the military rules.
Thus, the best scenario—a brief emergency, a short election campaign, carefully controlled elections, and power-sharing with a willing Benazir Bhutto, is what Musharraf is probably going after. However, other, more desperate scenarios have to be examined. I looked at several of these in my 2004 book, The Idea of Pakistan, but two in particular must be noted.
One is that the army itself might lose its coherence. It is a multi-ethnic army, derived from the old British Indian army, and from time to time it, like its predecessor, has had ethnic-based mutinies (the most notable being the revolt of the Bengali elements of all three services in 1970). At present about eighteen percent of the Pakistan army are Pushtuns or of Pushtun origin (from Punjab). There are reports of officers refusing to attack targets, and the astonishing case, still unexplained, of nearly 300 officers and jawans surrendering to the militants in Waziristan—where they are still being held hostage.
Second, Pakistan could begin to crack apart along ethnic lines. The non-Punjabi provinces (including the Frontier) resent Punjabi domination, the latter is existential, given the fact that Punjab contains nearly half of the population and provides most of the army. But American-sponsored attempts to bring the Frontier into Pakistan's "mainstream" will have the effect of accelerating separatism. The same is true of Balochistan, and the Sind is historically resentful of Punjabi domination.
Thus, in the absence of a time machine, which would allow the Bush administration to roll back history and reconsider its Pakistan policy, it looks as if the US is going to be in for a rough ride. Musharraf, and his military and civilian advisors, have zero trust in Washington, cruelly evident by their rejection of American pleas to hold off this declaration of emergency. They knew that the situation was getting out of hand, and when America publicly and repeatedly asked Pakistan to hold free and fair elections it asked for too much too late. The US should have pressed for a broadening of Pakistani politics much earlier, and failing to do so means that Washington has no alternative but to ride the Musharraf tiger to the end—whatever that may be.
Meanwhile, the U.S. may yet decide that a cross-border attack upon a known al Qaeda or Taliban target is well worth the risk of angering Musharraf; after all, there's not much he can do about it, and the recent crackdown will at least temporarily silence critics. But that is far from a coherent policy.
What can be done? Comparisons with the Shah are premature, but Washington needs to talk to the experts (they have been ignored in favor a personalized diplomacy), it needs to consult with other concerned countries (including India, Iran, and China, not just the British), it still needs to work with Musharraf and help him achieve a broader political base (which may not be possible if he remains persuaded that he is Pakistan's sole responsible leader), and above all it needs to ask how its short term goals (the destruction of al Qaeda element residing in the FATA) can be reconciled with the long term goal—now perhaps out of reach—of a stable, if not wholly democratic Pakistan.(end)
Pakistan was once America's "most allied of allies." But the Bush administration, whose major foreign policy initiative in South Asia was towards India (a recent gaffe by a Bush administration official even ranked India above Pakistan), has weakened the relationship. Administration officials have gloated that they coerced Pakistan into signing on to the ill-named war on terrorism. In return, Islamabad played a double game regarding its participation in this struggle. Its intelligence services supported the Taliban, while only reluctantly going after the al Qaeda forces embedded in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The failure to round up the Taliban leadership was a matter of state policy: the Pakistan army still regards India as its major threat, and the Taliban are used to counterbalance Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan would like a stable Afghanistan, but it does not believe that Hamid Karzai is the man to lead that country, and Pakistani generals are certain that the US will sooner or later pull out of Afghanistan, leaving the Indians as Karzai's major prop. As for al Qaeda, the Pakistan army is unprepared to engage in counterinsurgency warfare within its own borders; no wonder several US senators have stated that the US ought to go in to the FATA if Pakistan cannot, and round up the known al Qaeda (and Taliban) leadership.
Why has the US stayed with Musharraf long after it became evident that Pakistan was not an effective partner? There was apparently a belief that he was a truly outstanding leader, and if not another Ataturk or Ayub Khan, that at least he was doing the best that he could. Thus, there was no thought of making our multi-billion dollar aid program conditional upon performance. So in effect we've, wasted several billions of dollars, becoming Musharraf's ATM machine, allowing him to build up a military establishment that was irrelevant to his (and our) real security threat, yet presiding over an intensification of anti-American feelings in Pakistan itself, and failing to provide adequate aid to Pakistan's failing social and educational sectors.
Musharraf's coup does nothing to improve the Pakistan army's performance in matters of vital concern to the United States. It is unlikely that the army can learn how to do counterinsurgency quickly; and the US is hardly the country to instruct it in the nuances of such operations.
While counterinsurgency requires more political than military input, Musharraf believes that politics is a branch of public administration. He is unlikely to develop an alliance with those Pushtun nationalists who are threatened by the Talibanized Pushtun religious fanatics because doing so runs the risk of encouraging Pushtun separatism and weakening Punjabi domination in Pakistan.
The best scenario one can conjure up is that Musharraf will move towards carefully controlled elections—perhaps in the middle of next year—when the situation on the ground is stabilized. He has muzzled the pesky Supreme Court and the more vocal elements of the press; the protests by Journalists without Borders and the Lahore Bar Association will not make much of a difference. Benazir Bhutto, now the darling of the Administration (which foolishly ignored her for seven years), has been muted in her comments on Musharraf's second coup; so far her arrangement with Musharraf still stands, and she hopes that between her new-found friends in Washington and Musharraf's need to get a civilian figurehead for his government, that she will come to power again.
Her years in exile have made Benazir a realist: she believes that Pakistan cannot move overnight from dictatorship to democracy, and hopes that the next election will enable her to come to at least a share of power. Her supporters also understand that the threat to Pakistan from the Islamists is mortal; as Pakistan's most secular party, the Pakistan People's party regards itself as better-equipped than the Islamist-leaning Nawaz Sharif to join with the army in an assault on the violent extremists.
Thus, if things go as well as they can, carefully controlled elections will be held, Benazir will come to office, Musharraf will be able to retire from the army, leaving it in the hands of close and trusted advisors, and the army and Benazir, together, will tackle the extremist problem.
There are at least two major problems with this reasonably rosy scenario. First, the terrorists and insurgents of Pakistan may not cooperate, and surrender meekly to Pakistani forces. Recent battles over the Lal Masjid, in FATA, and now in Swat show that there is a large and dedicated cadre of true militants who are more than a match for the Pakistan army in a tactical environment. The PPP is weakest where the militants are strongest, and cannot be counted on to provide the political guidance to tackle them. The militants are not interested in ministerial bungalows in Islamabad, they want to turn Pakistan into a base from which they can attack other soft Muslim and Western states (and India), and even lay their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Musharraf may have sidelined the journalists, lawyers, and judges, but he has yet to demonstrate that Pakistan has the will, or the capacity, to develop a comprehensive counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategy. The recent operations in Swat, once a tranquil backwater but now under the control of Islamist fanatics, was done, according to press reports, without any regard for the refugees and innocent civilians; if past experience is any guide, the Pakistan army's operations will merely serve to increase recruitment to the ranks of the militants.
Second, bringing Benazir in to the "system" will be bitterly opposed by Musharraf's civilian supporters. They detest her populist approach, they have no rejoinder to the developmental and educational agenda that she has set out, and only talk of how many roads and bridges Pakistan has built under this and previous military regimes. It is hard to imagine that they will work with a Bhutto government, and she may find it hard to work with them. As one Pakistan general remarked to me several years ago, the first preference of Pakistani politicians is that they govern the state, their second preference is that the military rules.
Thus, the best scenario—a brief emergency, a short election campaign, carefully controlled elections, and power-sharing with a willing Benazir Bhutto, is what Musharraf is probably going after. However, other, more desperate scenarios have to be examined. I looked at several of these in my 2004 book, The Idea of Pakistan, but two in particular must be noted.
One is that the army itself might lose its coherence. It is a multi-ethnic army, derived from the old British Indian army, and from time to time it, like its predecessor, has had ethnic-based mutinies (the most notable being the revolt of the Bengali elements of all three services in 1970). At present about eighteen percent of the Pakistan army are Pushtuns or of Pushtun origin (from Punjab). There are reports of officers refusing to attack targets, and the astonishing case, still unexplained, of nearly 300 officers and jawans surrendering to the militants in Waziristan—where they are still being held hostage.
Second, Pakistan could begin to crack apart along ethnic lines. The non-Punjabi provinces (including the Frontier) resent Punjabi domination, the latter is existential, given the fact that Punjab contains nearly half of the population and provides most of the army. But American-sponsored attempts to bring the Frontier into Pakistan's "mainstream" will have the effect of accelerating separatism. The same is true of Balochistan, and the Sind is historically resentful of Punjabi domination.
Thus, in the absence of a time machine, which would allow the Bush administration to roll back history and reconsider its Pakistan policy, it looks as if the US is going to be in for a rough ride. Musharraf, and his military and civilian advisors, have zero trust in Washington, cruelly evident by their rejection of American pleas to hold off this declaration of emergency. They knew that the situation was getting out of hand, and when America publicly and repeatedly asked Pakistan to hold free and fair elections it asked for too much too late. The US should have pressed for a broadening of Pakistani politics much earlier, and failing to do so means that Washington has no alternative but to ride the Musharraf tiger to the end—whatever that may be.
Meanwhile, the U.S. may yet decide that a cross-border attack upon a known al Qaeda or Taliban target is well worth the risk of angering Musharraf; after all, there's not much he can do about it, and the recent crackdown will at least temporarily silence critics. But that is far from a coherent policy.
What can be done? Comparisons with the Shah are premature, but Washington needs to talk to the experts (they have been ignored in favor a personalized diplomacy), it needs to consult with other concerned countries (including India, Iran, and China, not just the British), it still needs to work with Musharraf and help him achieve a broader political base (which may not be possible if he remains persuaded that he is Pakistan's sole responsible leader), and above all it needs to ask how its short term goals (the destruction of al Qaeda element residing in the FATA) can be reconciled with the long term goal—now perhaps out of reach—of a stable, if not wholly democratic Pakistan.(end)
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