The Trojan Horse rolls into Birmingham

April 20, 2014 Brown Pundits Archive No Comments filed under Archived Authors

It all started with an anonymous letter. These days it is actually safer to put pen to paper since no electronic trail can be established and all the fancy govt spyware is for nowt.

The letter claims– boys and girls were
segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned, and
non-Muslim staff were bullied. In one case it was alleged that the
teachings of a firebrand al Qaida-linked Muslim preacher were praised to
pupils.

This could be a massive hoax or it could be a careful plan by the Wahabbists to replace moderate leadership with militants in schools in Birmingham, Bradford and other locations. The Education Secretary Michael Gove is so worried that he has deputed a special Tzar to investigate the allegations. This has the appearance of an internal power struggle. The Salafists are late-comers to the party but they want all of the cake.
……..
Twenty-five schools in Birmingham
are now under investigation following 200 complaints received by the
council in relation to allegations of Islamist “takeovers”, according to
the leader of the city council

Sir Albert Bore detailed the
investigations as he announced the appointment of a new chief adviser to
deal exclusively with the fallout from Operation Trojan Horse
– a dossier claiming to reveal a plot to “overthrow” teachers and
governors in secular state schools in the city and run them on strict
Islamic principles.

Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood said 20 headteachers in his Perry Barr constituency alone – “virtually all Muslim heads” – had raised concerns about potential plots.

Despite fears the Trojan Horse document was a hoax,
Mahmood said he’d been made aware of similar allegations over the past
12 years and that he was confident there had been concerted attempts to
take over Birmingham schools by Islamic fundamentalists from the Wahabi
or Salafi sect.

Allegations have also emerged involving schools
outside Birmingham, including the Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise
College in Bradford. It emerged on Monday that Laisterdyke’s entire
governing body has been sacked by Bradford council amid concerns over
poor performance and a “dysfunctional” relationship between governors,
including two city councillors, and management.

Kershaw will co-ordinate with the
existing Trojan Horse operational group, which is made up of officers
from Birmingham city council, West Midlands police, the National
Association of Headteachers (NAHT) and the school inspection authority
Ofsted.

At the weekend, it emerged that
the education secretary, Michael Gove, had personally sent Ofsted in to
inspect 15 Birmingham schools in recent weeks, after the allegations
first broke.

Concerns over how some of the city’s 430 schools were
being run first emerged when an anonymous letter known as Operation
Trojan Horse was leaked to councils and teaching unions, claiming that a
small but radical group of Muslims were pursuing their own agenda in
the classrooms, with non-compliant headteachers and governors forced
out.

The document, which is unsigned and undated, claimed to have
caused “a great amount of organised disruption” in the city, crediting
the plan with forcing a change of leadership at four schools.

Since
the letter came to light, anonymous whistle-blowers, including former
staff, have come forward, making claims that boys and girls were
segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned, and
non-Muslim staff were bullied. In one case it was alleged that the
teachings of a firebrand al Qaida-linked Muslim preacher were praised to
pupils.

Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of the Ramadhan
Foundation urged calm while allowing authorities to continue their
investigations. “The allegations of alleged extremist takeover of
schools in Birmingham are very serious however there is a wider concern
that this is a witch-hunt against the Muslim community.” he said.

….
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/19/birmingham-schools-pupils-multicultural-britain
…..
regards

Killed by ice, saved by ice

April 20, 2014 Brown Pundits Archive No Comments filed under Archived Authors

Filed under the truth is stranger than fiction category: the only men who escaped the (ice) cannon balls of the avalanche were under protection of a big wall of ice.

This is symptomatic of larger problems which need resolution through long-term planning and action. While Himalayas earn a lot of foreign exchange for Nepal, the high volume of thrill seekers – even so far as to creating a traffic jam at 29000 feet – does not do any good to either man or mountain. The relentless pressure to ease access – there is actually a mad plan to attach ladders on mountains to make climbing easier (see below) – may lead to larger disasters. And now 13 Sherpas are dead due to avalanche (and they will not be the last to be killed).

Photos: Exploring Mount Everest

Another Sherpa guide has died in Friday’s Mount Everest avalanche,
bringing the death toll to 13, a Nepalese government official said
Saturday.

It is the single
deadliest accident on Mount Everest, officials said. Three others are
missing, said Madhu Sudan Burlakoti of Nepal’s Tourism Ministry, and at
least half a dozen are injured.

A group of about 50
people, mostly Nepali Sherpas, were hit by the avalanche at more than
20,000 feet, said Tilak Ram Pandey of the ministry’s mountaineering
department.

The avalanche took place just above base camp in the Khumbu Ice Fall.

Climbers and guides had
been setting the ropes for the route, acclimating and preparing the
camps along the route when the avalanche hit Friday, said Gordon Janow
with Alpine Ascents International in Seattle.

“A big piece of ice
suddenly came off the mountain. I did not think I would survive. I am
very happy to have survived,” said Wangdi, who has reached the
mountain’s summit three times before.

He and an assistant, who were attached to a safety rope, hid behind a piece of ice as the avalanche came tumbling down, he said.

“We could do that
because we were in the front,” he said. “Up to 12 of those behind us
survived, but the ones after them died. Those who had already crossed
ahead when the ice came off also survived.

……..
It was the final obstacle, the 40 feet of technical climbing up a
near vertical rock face that pushed Sir Edmund Hillary to the limit.
Once climbed, the way to the summit of Mount Everest lay open.
Now,
almost exactly 60 years after the New Zealander and his rope-mate,
Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, stood on the highest point in the planet, a new
plan has been mooted to install a ladder on the famous Hillary Step, as
the crucial pitch at nearly 29,000ft has been known since it was first
ascended. The aim is to ease congestion.
“We are now discussing
putting a ladder on the Hillary Step but it is obviously controversial,”
said Dawa Steven Sherpa, who runs commercial expeditions on Everest and
is a senior member of the Expedition Operators Association in Nepal.
This
year, 520 climbers have reached the summit of Everest. On 19 May,
around 150 climbed the last 3,000ft of the peak from Camp IV within
hours of each other, causing lengthy delays as mountaineers queued to
descend or ascend harder sections.
“Most of the traffic jams are
at the Hillary Step because only one person can go up or down. If you
have people waiting two, three or even four hours that means lots of
exposure [to risk]. To make the climbing easier, that would be wrong.
But this is a safety feature,” said Sherpa, who co-ordinates the work to
prepare the traditional route up the mountain for clients who pay
between $45,000 and $75,000.
The plan has received some support from the world’s mountaineering authorities.
Frits
Vrijlandt, the president of the International Mountaineering and
Climbing Federation (UIAA), said the ladder could be a solution to the
increasing numbers of climbers on the mountain.
…….
Link (1): http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/19/world/asia/nepal-everest-avalanche/
Link (2): http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/27/mount-everest-ladder-hillary-step
…….
regards

Boko Haram “not unreasonable”

April 20, 2014 Brown Pundits Archive No Comments filed under Archived Authors

Nigeria may be winning on the economic front (rated #1 in Africa ahead of SAfrica) but it is surely losing the hearts and minds of its own citizens. (Step 1) The Boko Haram terrorists recently kidnapped 129 girls from a boarding school (presumably imparting western education which BH hates). (Step 2) The govt is unable to do anything about it except make a piss poor announcement that most girls have escaped. (Step 3) Some 14 lucky girls do manage to escape, 115 more are still trapped in the forest. (Step 4) The terrified, poor (in all sense of the term) parents are now scouring the forests and have contracted the services of a vigilante group.

If all this does not suggest end of times, what does? Where is the outrage?? Apparently according to the (white) liberals (of the Guardian) the outrage should be directed at the Nigerian state for not having spread the (oil) wealth around (which is fine in our opinion), however, equally they suggest that Boko Harams’ approach “makes sense” and the goal of enforcing Sharia is “not an unreasonable position.”

It is beyond us to work out a therapy for this specific condition (liberalitis) but we humbly suggest that Simon Allison talks to the dad who is on record saying that he is willing to die so that his daughter may live. It may help focus the mind.

The attack on the school was also particularly symbolic. The name
Boko Haram loosely translates as ‘Western education is forbidden’, and
the group encourages parents to send their children to Islamic schools
instead. The attack on the school in Borno is a punishment and a warning
to those who disobey.

This approach makes sense, in a strange, twisted
way: it is at schools that children are inculcated with the theoretical
values of the state – in Nigeria’s case, a commitment to secular,
liberal democracy – and it is these values against which Boko Haram
fights, wanting to replace them with a strict commitment to Islamic
Sharia law.

This is not an unreasonable position. The Nigerian state has, by and
large, failed its population. It may be awash in oil wealth, but none of
that trickles down into the population which has yet to see much in the
way of material benefits from an independent Nigeria. Who wouldn’t be
looking for an alternative?

…..
The parents of some of
the girls abducted from a school in north-east Nigeria have headed into
the forest in a desperate search for their daughters.

More than 100 schoolgirls were taken by suspected Islamist
militants on Monday night. The military said on Wednesday that most of
the girls had escaped.

However, local officials and parents said more than 100 were still missing.

It is thought Islamist militant group Boko Haram took the girls to forested areas near the Cameroonian border.

The attack on the school in Chibok, a remote part of Borno
state, happened late on Monday. Gunmen reportedly stormed the school and
ordered the students onto lorries.

On Thursday, Asabe Kwambura, principal of the school where the girls
were abducted, told journalists that the report from the military was
“not true” and that only 14 of the 129 kidnapped girls had escaped.

Parents of the girls have told the BBC that more than 100
girls are still missing. The girls are believed to be being held in the
Sambisa forest in north-east Nigeria.

A group of parents have raised
money to buy fuel and water, and have headed into the forest with a
local vigilante group to search for the girls. It is an extremely dangerous mission, the BBC’s Will Ross in
Lagos reports. The well-armed Boko Haram fighters have killed hundreds
of civilians this year, slitting the throats of many of their victims,
he says.

One father told the BBC he was willing to die in the forest in the attempt to free his daughter.
…..
Link (1): http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/17/boko-haram-will-keep-killing-and-nigerias-leaders-are-powerless
Link (2): http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27069675
……
regards

World of riches awaits (perfect SAT score)

April 20, 2014 Brown Pundits Archive No Comments filed under Archived Authors

He is a just a kid filled with dreams, but for now it is closer to reality with admissions to Stanford and Harvard. Another Indian who will do very well for himself in the USA (hopefully morning shows what the day will be).

However it will be great if he can come back and give something back to his impoverished nation. That “something” need not be idle money, but ideas about how to create jobs (he wants to be an entrepreneur), and develop algorithms that would help cut down waste and remove the stain of corruption from our daily lives (his preferred majors are maths and computer science).

Congratulations to Arunavha (and his family for support).
……
A
19-year-old boy from the city has received admission offers from seven
top US varsities, most of them Ivy League, after achieving a perfect
score in SAT, the standardized examination for admission to American
colleges….Arunavha Chanda had applied to eight US
universities and got through seven — Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Duke,
Cornelle, Georgia Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College. He has
got prestigious scholarships from Columbia and Duke and financial aid
from the rest as they do not offer scholarships at under-graduate level.

Arunavha and his mother Bani, a doctor and hospital
administrator who gave up her job to take care of him when he was in
class V, are now researching on the universities to check which has the
best to offer. His father Amitabha is a consultant neurosurgeon.

At Columbia,
Arunavha has been offered the prestigious C. Prescott Davis scholarship,
awarded to the best engineering/applied sciences students across the
world. As a CP Davis scholar, he has the opportunity to enter the
university as an elite student and work on projects alongside 102 Nobel
Laureate alumni and faculty. Duke has offered him the Karsh
International Scholarship, the first to an Indian.

Arunavha sailed through with a perfect 2400/2400 in
SAT, scoring full 800 in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics Level II.
Having topped every year from class II to XII, scoring over 90% in all
subjects, his academic record was exceptional. In addition, he has won
gold medals at Olympiads and achieved international ranks of 4 and 7 in
Cyber Olympiads and has figured among the top 10 in Science and Math
Olympiads. Arunavha is also a three-time national champion in quizzing
(he won the Limca Book of Records Quiz 2011 at the national level), was
the school head boy, president of the Interact Club and a stage actor.
Arunavha wants to study Computer Science and
Engineering, do a second major in Mathematics and a degree course in
Theatre.

……
Link: http://article.wn.com/view/2014/04/20/Kolkata_boy_achieves_perfect_score_in_SAT_gets_calls_from_7_/
…..
regards