Thirteen years in exile

Our history-myths (TM) tell us that once upon a time, the darling of the people, Yuv-raj (prince-in-waiting) Rama was ordered by his father Raja Dasharath (actually step-mother Kaikeyi) to leave Ayodhya and spend fourteen years in the forest (van-vaas).

Irom Sharmila Chanu is a commoner but she is equally a darling of her people. She was imprisoned on the grounds that she may commit suicide. Now after thirteen years of time spent in the concrete forest, a court has finally ordered her to be set free. She has promised to continue her fight for justice. Perhaps one day, an epic will be composed in honor of this ordinary woman.

It is people like Sharmila (also Binayak Sen, Baba Amte, Medha Patkar and others) who give us hope that India will, one-day, be ready to give the gift of dignity to people who have no belongings, no land, no water, no rights whatsoever. We have been fortunate enough to meet Sen and Amte and what inspires us so much is how gentle they are, and how firm is their spirit and their stead-fast commitment to (non-violent) action.

To give credit where it is due, the Press has helped to highlight the plight of Sharmila and her fellow travelers. In these times when majority coalitions are firming up all across the country, it is important that the Press continues to play its role as the guardian of minorities (can be Hindu…the wrong type…see the inquisition going on in Telengana, against “thieves and looters” from Andhra), to be able to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Also, now that the Indian left is on its death-bed and the Press is being corrupted by corporate money, we the people will need to stay extra vigilant.
……..

A
Manipur court ruling directing the release of Prisoner of Conscience
Irom Sharmila because there were no grounds for charging her with
attempted suicide is a legal and moral victory for the activist and her
13 year-long hunger strike, Amnesty International India said on Tuesday.

…………

The Manipur East Sessions Court ruled that authorities had
failed to establish that Sharmila had intended to commit suicide and
stated that her protest was a ‘political demand through a lawful means’.

“This welcome but long overdue judgement recognizes that
Sharmila’s hunger strike is a powerful protest for human rights and a
peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression,” said Shailesh
Rai, programmes director, Amnesty International India.

“Sharmila should never have been arrested in the first place. All other
charges against her of attempted suicide must be dropped and she must be
immediately released. Authorities must instead pay attention to the
issues this remarkable activist is raising,” added Rai.

Sharmila has been on a prolonged hunger strike for over 13 years,
demanding the repeal of theArmed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).
She was arrested by the Manipur police shortly after she began her
hunger strike on November 2, 2000 and charged with attempting to commit
suicide – a criminal offence under Indian law. In March 2013, a Delhi
court also charged Sharmila with attempting to commit suicide in October
2006, when she staged a protest in Delhi for two days.

Sharmila is being detained in the security ward of a hospital in Imphal,
Manipur, where she is force-fed a diet of liquids through her nose. She
has never been convicted for attempting to commit suicide. However, as
the offence is punishable with imprisonment for up to one year, she has
been regularly released after completing a year in judicial custody,
only to be re-arrested shortly after as she continues her fast.

Last year, over 18,000 people from across India supported an Amnesty
International India campaign calling for the unconditional release of
Sharmila. India’s National Human Rights Commission also acknowledged
that she was a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ who was being detained solely
for the peaceful expression of her beliefs and called for the removal of
restrictions imposed on access to her.

Speaking to Amnesty
International India in September 2013, Sharmila, inspired by Mahatma
Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, said: “My struggle is my message. I
love my life very much and want to have the freedom to meet people and
struggle for issues close to my heart.”

In February 2012, the
Supreme Court of India observed in its ruling in the Ram Lila Maidan
Incident versus Home Secretary, Union of India and Others case that a
hunger strike is “a form of protest which has been accepted, both
historically and legally in our constitutional jurisprudence.” 

The
British Medical Association, in a briefing to the World Medical
Association, has clarified that, “[a] hunger strike is not equivalent to
suicide. Individuals who embark on hunger strikes aim to achieve goals
important to them but generally hope and intend to survive.” This
position is embodied by the World Medical Association in its Malta
Declaration on Hunger Strikers.

The AFSPA, which has been in
force in parts of North-eastern India since 1958, and a virtually
identical law in force in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990, provides
sweeping powers to soldiers, including the power to shoot to kill in
certain situations and to arrest people without warrants. The Act also
provides virtual immunity from prosecution for security personnel, by
mandating prior permission from the central government, which is almost
never granted.

The AFSPA falls short of international human
rights standards, including provisions of treaties to which India is a
state party; and is inconsistent with India’s international legal
obligations to respect and protect the right to life, liberty and
security of person, to freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, and
to an effective remedy.

…..

Link: Release-of-prisoner-of-conscience-Irom-Sharmila-a-moral-victory

…..

regards

OSO for BKS

That would be Om Shanti Om (TM) – our brand new modi-fied version of Rest In Peace – for Bellur Krishnam-acharya Sundara-raja Iyengar (December 14, 1918 – August 20, 2014).
…….

…
He is the Guru-ji, who single-handedly created the world-wide Yoga brand (though some naughty people attribute the popularity to Christy Turlington). We are not passionate about Yoga, however it is impolite to say so in academic, left-liberal circles- both in the USA and in India.

We do believe that Yoga provides health benefits…but only for the true believers. Of course, the good thing about Yoga is that believers come in all shapes, sizes and ages. We have been amazed to see seventy year olds doing asanas with ease, the ones we had to work hard over in our teens. Today, Yoga is a multi billion dollar enterprise and Indians are not doing too poorly as new-age entrepreneurs (example: Baba Ramdev). Soft power and all that.
……

…
All in all, BKS was an inspiration to countless folks, a good man who said “Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for….Nor
can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills – it has to be
earned through sweat. It is something that we must build up.” Right on, dear sir, and may you enjoy your brief moments of peace up in the stars before you recycle back to this nasty old earth.
……………
BKS Iyengar, the Indian yoga guru credited with helping to fuel a global explosion in the popularity of the ancient spiritual practice, has died aged 95. Iyengar
started his yoga school in 1973 in the western city of Pune, developing
a unique form of the practice that he said anyone could follow.
…….
He
trained hundreds of teachers to disseminate his approach, which uses
props such as belts and ropes to help novice practitioners achieve the
poses. He wrote many books on yoga, which has been practised in
Asia for more than 2,000 years, and has in recent decades become hugely
popular around the world.

His insistence on perfecting the poses – or asanas – won him a huge following, among them celebrity fans ranging from the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the writer Aldous Huxley.

It
was an encounter with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who came across
Iyengar during a trip to Mumbai in the 1950s, that prompted him to take
his practice global. “Perhaps no one has done more than Mr Iyengar to bring yoga to the west,” said the New York Times in a 2002 profile of the guru.

“Long
before Christy Turlington was gracing magazine covers, decades before
power yoga was a multimillion-dollar business, Mr Iyengar was teaching
Americans, among others, the virtues of asanas and breath control.” US
model Turlington graced the front cover of Time magazine in a
cross-legged pose for a 2001 report on the explosion in yoga’s
popularity.

Critics say the global expansion of yoga into western
gyms and fitness centres has taken the practice too far from its
spiritual origins. But Iyengar said it was unfair to blame yogis.
“It all depends on what state of mind the practitioner is in when he is
doing yoga,” he said last year in an interview with Indian newspaper
Mint. “For the aberration, don’t blame yoga or the whole community of yogis.”

His website carried a picture of Iyengar’s smiling face beside a
message that read: “I always tell people, ‘Live happily and die
majestically.’ 14 Dec 1918 – 20 Aug 2014.”

Despite suffering a heart attack at 80, he had continued to practise yoga into his 90s.
He
suffered from ill health as a child but found that he could improve his
strength by practising yoga, which he took up as a teenager.

When
he was 18, his guru sent him to teach in Pune because he spoke some
English. There, he developed his own form of yoga, eventually opening
his own institute.

There are now over 100 Iyengar yoga institutes around the world.

Iyengar is survived by a son and a daughter. He will be cremated on Wednesday afternoon.

…….

Link: www.theguardian.com/bks-iyengar-guru-global-yoga-dies

…..

regards

“A message to America” (from a Briton)

…..Foley, 40, was
kidnapped in northern Syria, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based
online publication….He had
reported in the Middle East for five years….kidnapped and
released in Libya…..Steven Sotloff, who appeared at the end of
the video, went missing in northern Syria while reporting in July 2013……
….

….
It is grim news for those who hope to halt the march of the Islamist menace by controlling immigration or through surveillance of citizens.  What would work (in a fantasy world) is a program in reverse brain-washing, but we are not there yet (and we dont want to fantasize about such evil things).

What you have is a greatly disaffected community of Islamists (nihilists??) who are born and raised in the West. They feel utter humiliation and helplessness because the Christian West (as they see it) dominates the world aided by Jewish money.
…..

A linguistics expert has told British radio station LBC that the masked IS militant who beheaded James Foley is probably from London.   

Claire Hardaker, a lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, said: We seem to have definitely southern vowels in there, we’ve got some
interesting pronunciations – he says the word ‘Muslims’, he says it in
quite an interesting way. You kind of use a ‘Muz’ sound and he’s doing
a ‘Mus’ …as in he does an unvoiced ‘s’ when he says it. 

We’re definitely looking at a British accent, from the south and probably from London. 
…
These young turks also see (often justifiably) oppression of muslim populations everywhere: in South Asia, China, Russia, Indo-China, and Israel, but also (for Sunnis) in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon and ex-Russian-stans. Driven by the
quest for purity they may even consider fence-sitters such as Pakistan
as being insufficiently Islamic.

These folks dream of a Caliphate cockpit, the flight-deck from which to rule the world. They want to create a new global order. They are the new Siegfrieds and all they lack is a…dirty nuclear bomb. Be very afraid.
………..
This will be a brutal fight to the finish and unfortunately the West is falling short of both inclination and ability. You
cant hope to eliminate them, they are too numerous. You cant hope to
contain them, the powerful social-media tools developed by the West will
now be weaponized against the West.

You can only
hope that over a long period of time this fever will slowly pass and 
the hate-fires will calm down. In the meantime many non-muslims (and the
wrong  type of muslims) will suffer painful, violent deaths. Genocides
and ethnic cleansings will be the new normal in the Middle East and
North Africa (and has been for quite some time now). What a pity.
………………..

Lest we forget, this tactic of be-heading journalists as a propaganda tool started with the murder of Jewish-American Daniel Pearl in 2002 (yes we do believe that his Jewishness was as irresistible to his murderers as his American citizenship).
……

[ref. Wiki] Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was a journalist with American and Israeli citizenship. He was kidnapped by Pakistani militants and later murdered by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan. Pearl was kidnapped while working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India. He
had gone to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links
between Richard Reid (the “shoe bomber”) and Al-Qaeda. 

……………………
 Islamic
State insurgents posted a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the
beheading of US journalist James Foley and images of another US
journalist whose life they said depended on how the United States acts
in Iraq.

The video, titled “A Message To America,” presented
President Barack Obama with bleak options that could define America’s
next phase of involvement in Iraq and the public reaction to it,
potentially deepening his hand in a conflict he built much of his
presidency on ending.

While the video had yet to be verified,
its grisly message was unambiguous, warning of greater retaliation to
come against Americans following nearly two weeks of US air strikes that
have pounded militant positions and halted the advance of Islamic
State, which until this month had captured a third of Iraq with little
resistance.

The video, posted on social media, brought a
chilling and highly personal tone to a conflict that for many Americans
had started to become all too familiar.

Foley, 40, was
kidnapped by armed men on November 22, 2012, in northern Syria while on
his way to the Turkish border, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based
online publication where Foley had worked as a freelancer. He had
reported in the Middle East for five years and had been kidnapped and
released in Libya.

Steven Sotloff, who appeared at the end of
the video, went missing in northern Syria while reporting in July 2013.
He has written for TIME among other news organizations.

The
video injected an unpredictable element into Obama’s deliberations on
how far to proceed with US air strikes against Islamic State targets in
Iraq, though aides said his vow not to put US combat forces on the
ground in Iraq still held.

…
“We
have seen a video that purports to be the murder of US citizen James
Foley by ISIL,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman
Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. “The intelligence community is
working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity.”

“If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent
American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family
and friends,” she said.

A Twitter account set up by Foley’s
family in Rochester, New Hampshire, to help find him said, “We know that
many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient
until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts
and prayers.”

Islamic State had not previously executed
American citizens publicly. The video was posted after the United States
resumed air strikes in Iraq this month for the first time since the end
of the US occupation in 2011.

The Sunni militant group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of
Iraq and Syria in areas it controls, opened the video with a clip of
Obama saying he had authorized strikes in Iraq.

The words
“Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State
effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war
front against Muslims” appeared in English and Arabic on the screen. It showed black and white aerial footage of air strikes with text saying “American aggression against the Islamic State”.

A man identified as James Foley, his head shaven and dressed in an
orange outfit similar to uniforms worn by prisoners at the US military
detention camp in Guantanamo, Cuba, is seen kneeling in the desert next
to a man standing, holding a knife and clad head to toe in black.

“I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real
killers, the US government, for what will happen to me is only a result
of their complacency and criminality,” the kneeling man says.

The man next to him, in a black mask, speaks in a British accent and
says, “This is James Wright Foley, an American citizen, of your country.
As a government, you have been at the forefront of the aggression
towards the Islamic State.”

“Today your military air force is
attacking us daily in Iraq. Your strikes have caused casualties amongst
Muslims. You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic
army, and a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims
worldwide.”

Following his statement he beheads the kneeling
man. At the end of the video, words on the side of the screen say,
“Steven Joel Sotloff”, as another prisoner in an orange jumpsuit is
shown on screen. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on
your next decision,” the masked man says.

Islamic State also released a video on Tuesday that gave the strongest
indication yet it might try to strike American targets. The video with
the theme “breaking of the American cross” boasts Islamic State will
emerge victorious over “crusader” America.

It follows a video
posted on Monday, warning of attacks on American targets if Washington
strikes against its fighters in Iraq and Syria.

The latest
footage speaks of a holy war between the al-Qaeda offshoot and the
United States, which occupied Iraq for nearly a decade and faced stiff
resistance from al-Qaida.

Islamic State’s sweep through
northern Iraq, bringing it close to Baghdad and in control of the second
city, Mosul, drew US air strikes that helped Kurdish peshmerga fighters
regain some territory captured by the Sunni militants.

Earlier
on Tuesday, Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive on Tuesday to
recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, due to
fierce resistance from Islamic State fighters.

Buoyed by an
operation to recapture a strategic dam from the militants after two
months of setbacks, Iraqi army units backed by Shia militias launched
their offensive shortly after dawn on Tikrit, a city 130 km (80 miles)
north of Baghdad which is a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim minority.

But officers in the Iraqi forces’ operations room said by mid-afternoon that the advance had stopped.

South of Tikrit, the government side came under heavy machinegun and
mortar fire from the militants, a group of Arab and foreign fighters
hardened by battle both in Iraq and over the border in Syria’s civil
war, the officers told Reuters.

To the west, landmines and
snipers frustrated efforts to get closer to the city centre in the
latest in a series of attempts to drive out the militants. Residents of
central Tikrit said by telephone that Islamic State fighters were firmly
in control of their positions and patrolling the main streets.

Islamic State has concentrated on taking territory for its
self-proclaimed caliphate both in Syria, where it is also fighting the
forces of President Bashar al-Assad, and in Iraq. Unlike al-Qaida, the
movement from which it split, it has so far steered clear of attacking
Western targets in or outside the region.

Coinciding with the
Kurdish advances, Damascus government forces have stepped up air strikes
on Islamic State positions in and around the city of Raqqa — its
stronghold in eastern Syria.

Analysts believe Assad — who is
firmly in control in the capital more than three years into the civil
war — is seizing the moment to show his potential value to Western
states that backed the uprising against him but are now increasingly
concerned by the Islamic State threat.

Islamic State added new
fighters in Syria at a record rate in July, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict. About 6,300
men — 80 percent of them Syrian and the rest foreigners — joined last
month, Rami Abdelrahman, founder of the Observatory, told Reuters.

……

Link (1): reuters.com/us-syria-crisis-beheading

Link (2): iraq-crisis-outrage-over-isis-beheading-of-us-journalist-james-foley-live-updates
…..

regards

Storming the Red Zone…with human shields?

…..Imran
Khan’s terrible hunger for power is a frightening thing to see…his refusal to accept that system
can only be improved, not torn down……More than
convincing people of Nawaz Sharif being unfit to be Prime Minister, Imran has
made a more solid case for why he should never, ever be awarded that mantle….
….
We are outsiders…and this comment will probably give offense: Captain Sahib has gone completely bonkers. We agree with The Nation (Pakistan) editorial that Imran Khan should declare victory and go home.

It is bad enough that IK wears the mask of civil disobedience by urging his supporters to not pay taxes. Presently, just about 0.9% of Pakistan pays tax (he should know of this). How is such a step somehow enlightened?

But to encourage women and children to march to the Red Zone against the full might of the military…is insane. Add to this the crazy ultimatums. Nawaz Sharif has been asked to resign by Wednesday (Aug 20). What happens if he does not?
….

12:55am DawnNews reported sources as having said that the Pakistan Army has taken charge of the Interior Ministry’s control room. Former
Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah however has rejected the reports,
saying that the Interior Ministry is still in charge of the control
room.



12:53am Amir Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Sirajul Haq, while speaking to
DawNews said that both sides need to take a step back and resolve the
issues between them. He said that if the confrontation continues then it will be “Game over” for both sides.



12:33am ISPR spokesperson Asim Bajwa tweets: “Bldgs in red Zone r
symbol of State & being protected by Army, therefore sanctity of
these national symbols must be respected. Situation requires
patience, wisdom & sagacity from all stakeholders to resolve
prevailing impasse through meaningful dialogue in larger national and
public interest.”



12:24am PTI chief Imran Khan said that he has given Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif till Wednesday evening to resign. “If Nawaz Sharif does not resign then we will enter into the PM House,” said the PTI chief.



12:14am “United States is keeping a close eye on political developments in Pakistan,” says State Department. “We
appeal to the PTI and PAT to pursue a non-violent approach to resolve
the issue…Pakistani political parties should work out their
differences through dialogue,” the US State Department said.

……………………………………….
The Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI) has devised a dangerous strategy to march into the Red Zone and Constitutional Avenue.

PTI sources have said that women and children will be included in the march towards areas guarded by riot police, paramilitary forces, containers and barbed wire.

K-P
Minister Shaukat Yousafzai confirmed that women and children would
march in the second row, right behind key PTI legislators and Imran
Khan. The PTI Youth Wing would follow behind the women. When questioned
about the inclusion of women and children, Yousafzai said the march
would be peaceful, and the women and children were being placed in the
centre for their safety.

Abdul Qadir Baloch has termed the PTI’s
plan “inhuman”. He alleged that the PTI leadership was using the
children and women as a human shield. Speaking to media in front
of Parliament House, Baloch said including women and children in a
march – where violent clashes are expected – was unacceptable.

A PTI legislator on condition of anonymity said party members were clueless as to the logic behind Imran’s decisions. “He [Imran] is on his own. He doesn’t listen to anyone and party leaders are really annoyed, but they don’t know what to do”.
……

The numbers are dwindling, Imran’s buzz is wearing off, and really the
party at Serena Chowk has just been going on tediously long now. While
Tahir Ul Qadri restricts himself to speeches which magically change
meaning in translation, Imran can’t seem to make up his mind about what
he wants, or how to get it. Swinging from demanding an immediate
resignation, to one in seven days, then three days, until he finally
settled on two days, Imran Khan is trying even his followers’ patience.
Enough.
….
His latest call to civil disobedience is desperate, bordering
on manic. Having vastly overestimated his hand, perhaps Imran is hoping
to claw back some dignity in presenting the status quo as his great
victory. Incitement to sedition doesn’t really work in a country where
the state is already struggling to display it’s authority. 
….
A tiny sliver
of the population are taxpayers, and there’s nothing anyone seems to be
able to do about it. Will Imran be claiming this as his great miracle
in two days? Does he even know what date utility bills arrive? Does he
really think two days of people who don’t pay taxes, continuing to not
pay taxes is going to bring about any change at all? Enough.
……
Imran
Khan’s terrible hunger for power is a frightening thing to see. It is
troubling to see his refusal to accept that no matter how bad a system
is, that system can only be improved, not torn down like a pair of old
curtains. 
….
More than convincing people of Nawaz Sharif being unfit to be
Prime Minister, Imran has made a more solid case for why he should
never, ever be awarded that mantle. Planting misleading expectations,
leading people to violence, suffering from delusions of grandeur, Imran Khan’s behaviour is now simply embarrassing. 
………
He is doing the
government’s job for them: convincing the millions watching on TV that
they were wise to stay home. The PMLN are having a chuckle at the PTI’s
expense. And the opposition is shaking their head at the corpse of a
long march that Imran Khan is trying to whip life back into. 
….
A man
should know when he is beaten. Imran has not achieved what he came for,
nor will he. Any further adventures in Serena Chowk will further
undermine his already pitiful credibility, and are best avoided. The
sincerest advice anyone can give the PTI chief is: go home. Enough.
…….

Link (1): dangerous-game-pti-to-march-into-red-zone-with-women-children

Link (2): islamabad-march-imran-threatens-to-storm-pm-house-unless-nawaz-steps-down

Link (3): http://www.nation.com.pk/editorials/18-Aug-2014/go-home-imran
……

regards

Sunil Dutta: super-cop

..I’m a cop….If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me….don’t argue with me…..don’t say I’m a racist pig…..don’t threaten that you’ll sue me
and take away my badge…..don’t scream at me that you pay my salary……
…..

… 
Sunil Dutta, a Professor of Homeland Security at Colorado Tech
University, has been an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department
for 17 years. The views presented here are his own and do not represent
the LAPD.

Education
  • M.A. Homeland Security, Naval Postgraduate School, United States Center for Homeland Defense and Security, Monterey, CA, (2012)



  • Ph.D. Plant Biology, University of California, Davis (1995)


  • M.S. Plant Physiology, University of Florida, Gainesville (1989)


  • B.S. Botany, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India (1986)
Background 
…..Dr.
Sunil Dutta is a full time law enforcement professional working in Los
Angeles.  He has been with the LAPD for sixteen years.  His assignments
have included Watch Commander, Internal Affairs Investigator, patrol officer,
and Collision Investigator…..Prior
to joining the LAPD, Dutta was a scientist with a specialization in
biochemistry (host-pathogen interactions, plant hormones, carbohydrate
metabolism, and regulation of dormancy).  He is an amateur musician….

To
be honest, once we recovered from the shock (that was an Indian speaking??), we
were ready to admit that Dr Dutta has penned an impressive op-ed. Based
on his bio, we guess that he hails from a Punjabi or Haryanvi background. He is
the “first” Indian-American law and order conservative that we
have ever heard from (or heard about). Also he is quite a sharp-spoken biologist (we
know a few of them).

As for the rest, yes…excellent advice…for (black, brown) young males in the USA. When we first learned to drive it was drummed into our rebellious heads (incidentally, by a black tutor) that in case the police ordered you to pull over, you must come to a stop….slow and easy (with hazard lights ON), keep your windows lowered, and your hands visibly placed on the wheel at all times. 
……….
If they ask you to step out, immediately comply, while keeping the hands held high. Under no circumstance, do you keep the hands in your pockets. Do not make any sudden movement. Never crack jokes, be courteous, always address the “racist pig” as “Officer.”  

The response to our indignant whys was an angry whisper: Brother….do you want to die?

No Officer Dutta, we do not want to die. And we respect you for doing a tough job. And yes – as you have admirably pointed out – if the police can afford military grade weapons they can stretch the budget to include a video camera. The absence of video is baffling, but then if you think twice….it all makes sense.
………..

A teenager is fatally shot by a police officer; the police are
accused of being bloodthirsty, trigger-happy murderers; riots erupt.
This, we are led to believe, is the way of things in America.…..It is also a terrible calumny; cops are not
murderers. 
……
No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone,
armed or unarmed. And while they’re unlikely to defend it quite as
loudly during a time of national angst like this one, people who work in
law enforcement know they are legally vested with the authority to
detain suspects — an authority that must sometimes be enforced.
Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown, in the overwhelming
majority of cases it is not the cops, but the people they stop, who can
prevent detentions from turning into tragedies.

….
Working the
street, I can’t even count how many times I withstood curses, screaming
tantrums, aggressive and menacing encroachments on my safety zone, and
outright challenges to my authority. In the vast majority of such
encounters, I was able to peacefully resolve the situation without using
force. Cops deploy their training and their intuition creatively, and I
wielded every trick in my arsenal, including verbal judo, humor,
warnings and ostentatious displays of the lethal (and nonlethal)
hardware resting in my duty belt. 

One time, for instance, my partner and
I faced a belligerent man who had doused his car with gallons of gas
and was about to create a firebomb at a busy mall filled with holiday
shoppers. The potential for serious harm to the bystanders would have
justified deadly force. Instead, I distracted him with a hook about his
family and loved ones, and he disengaged without hurting anyone. Every
day cops show similar restraint and resolve incidents that could easily
end up in serious injuries or worse.

…..
Sometimes, though, no amount
of persuasion or warnings work on a belligerent person; that’s when
cops have to use force, and the results can be tragic. We are still
learning what transpired between Officer Darren Wilson and Brown, but in
most cases it’s less ambiguous — and officers are rarely at fault. When
they use force, they are defending their, or the public’s, safety.

…..
Even
though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if
you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton
or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me,
don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a
racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge.
Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?

I know it is scary for people to be stopped by cops. I also
understand the anger and frustration if people believe they have been
stopped unjustly or without a reason. I am aware that corrupt and bully
cops exist. 

When it comes to police misconduct, I side with the ACLU:
Having worked as an internal affairs investigator, I know that some
officers engage in unprofessional and arrogant behavior; sometimes they
behave like criminals themselves. I also believe every cop should use a
body camera to record interactions with the community at all times. 

Every police car should have a video recorder. (This will prevent a
situation like Mike Brown’s shooting, about which conflicting and
self-serving statements allow people to believe what they want.) And you
don’t have to submit to an illegal stop or search. You can refuse
consent to search your car or home if there’s no warrant (though a
pat-down is still allowed if there is cause for suspicion). Always ask
the officer whether you are under detention or are free to leave. Unless
the officer has a legal basis to stop and search you, he or she must
let you go. Finally, cops are legally prohibited from using excessive
force: The moment a suspect submits and stops resisting, the officers
must cease use of force.


…
But
if you believe (or know) that the cop stopping you is violating your
rights or is acting like a bully, I guarantee that the situation will
not become easier if you show your anger and resentment. Worse,
initiating a physical confrontation is a sure recipe for getting hurt.
Police are legally permitted to use deadly force when they assess a
serious threat to their or someone else’s life. 

Save your anger for
later, and channel it appropriately. Do what the officer tells you to
and it will end safely for both of you. We have a justice system in
which you are presumed innocent; if a cop can do his or her job
unmolested, that system can run its course. Later, you can ask for a
supervisor, lodge a complaint or contact civil rights organizations if
you believe your rights were violated. Feel free to sue the police! Just
don’t challenge a cop during a stop.

….’
An average person cannot
comprehend the risks and has no true understanding of a cop’s job.
Hollywood and television stereotypes of the police are cartoons in which
fearless super cops single-handedly defeat dozens of thugs, shooting
guns out of their hands. Real life is different. An average cop is
always concerned with his or her safety and tries to control every
encounter. That is how we are trained. 

While most citizens are courteous
and law abiding, the subset of people we generally interact with
everyday are not the genteel types. You don’t know what is in my mind
when I stop you. Did I just get a radio call of a shooting moments ago?
Am I looking for a murderer or an armed fugitive? For you, this might be
a “simple” traffic stop, for me each traffic stop is a potentially
dangerous encounter. Show some empathy for an officer’s safety concerns.
Don’t make our job more difficult than it already is.

….
Community
members deserve courtesy, respect and professionalism from their
officers. Every person stopped by a cop should feel safe instead of
feeling that their wellbeing is in jeopardy. Shouldn’t the community
members extend the same courtesy to their officers and project that the
officer’s safety is not threatened by their actions?
……..

Link: im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me

…..

regards

First among equals (men)

…..During Ramzaan, we’d
call the Hindus and Christians over for aapam and curry…We shared our lives…..I sat up all night for Shivaratri…..Vilakkupara has a temple with Shiva  as
the pratishtham (presiding deity)…..all the festivities during Makara
Sankaranti, I was part of all that.…. 
…….
We would guess that the purpose of a “First Men in India” list (see below) is for scoring in a “general knowledge” or GK exam. A mind numbing exercise, if there was one.


The madness of GK exams is highlighted in a famous 1970s Bong novel – Jana Aranya by Shankar (Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay), later a memorable movie by Satyajit Ray. The goal is to short-list nine out of 27,000 graduates. One question relates to a name that is possibly an Indian river OR a (eponymous) ship with the India navy. The examinees are confused, this is a public sector organization (owned by the government) held exam, hence the examiners will prefer the ship as the correct answer!!!

Now all lists are limited to a fashion and so is “First Men in India.” It can be expanded (and cut short) in so many different ways. For example, we consider this of the utmost importance, that Abhinav Singh Bindra won the first individual gold medal in the Olympics (Beijing, 2008). If you have scored a once in a hundred year achievement, it deserves to be celebrated.
…….
A thing about the Nobel Prizes (post 1947). Amartya Sen chose not to relinquish his Indian citizenship but Har Gobind Khorana became an American citizen in 1966 (Nobel in 1968). He was mistreated by his colleagues and bureaucrats in India, but that is hardly news. India should introduce a dual citizenship to honor the memory of HGK!!!

Another thing: Khorana was born in Raipur near Lahore (1922, now called Kabirwala). We are genuinely curious to know if Pakistan has found the time and space to celebrate a Pakistan-born, Punjabi-Hindu Nobel (we know what happened to Abdus Salam).

The most curious (and pathetic) thing? Indians recognizes talent only after the folks have broken international barriers…on many occasions…after they have departed (or about to depart) from this world!!!

Thus the “son of Gandhi” Acharya Vinoba Bhave was the first Indian to win the Magsaysay award. was. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1982. Sen got the Ratna after he won the Nobel. Ray was given the Ratna on his death-bed….following his life-time Oscar. Ravi Shankar (Robindra Shankar Chowdhury) was nominated for an Oscar (Gandhi, original music score) in 1982 and won the Ratna in 1999.

So…..how about the first “non-Hindus” then? India has the “first” Muslim president (and Sikh Prime Minister). Abdul Rehman (AR) Antulay was the “first” Muslim Chief Minister of Maharashtra (politically more significant than the President perhaps), but no Muslim PM yet (also none on the horizon).

Slumdog Millionaire (2009) helped score a number of Indian “firsts” – AR Rahman for original music score and song, Gulzar- song, and Resul Pookutty- sound mixing (along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke).   

The Saudi Gazette has this to say about the winners: Many commentators have noted that the three Indian Oscar winners (Pookutty, Rahman and Gulzar) are all Muslim. 


Well the commentators are right in one way…and also wrong. 
……….
(1) Sampooran Singh Kalra (Gulzar) was born a Sikh in Dina, Jhelum district, which is presently in Pakistan. Sad to say…hard-line Sikhs will dislike the fact that he is not a Kesh-Dhari (no turban, trims hair).

We are sure that Gulzar Sahib would not mind being called a muslim, but he is famous and there are many clans who would like to claim kinship…including (Hindu) Bongs. In support of such a claim we note the following: he speaks fluent Bong,  rose to fame under the baton of Bong directors (Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee), a soul mate of music director Rahul Dev Burman, married (separated) to actor-superstar Raakhee (Majumdar), with a daughter named Meghna (after the famous river in Bengal, now in Bangladesh).
…………
 
(2) AR Rahman was born RS Dileep Kumar, a Hindu (father: RK Shekhar and mother Kashturi, converted name Kareema). Rahman was introduced to Qadiri Islam
(Qadiri is a Sufi sect) when his younger sister was seriously ill in 1984. He converted to
Islam (his mother’s religion) with other members of his family in 1989
at age 23, changing his name from R. S. Dileep Kumar to Allah Rakha
Rahman (A. R. Rahman) [ref. Wiki].

We are assured that the Saudi Gazaette would not view religious conversion with concern when it goes in one particular direction (then again Saudis may view Sufi practices as un-islamic). But just as a thought question, what if the conversion was in the opposite direction (and in a muslim country)?
………………

(3) The most interesting life-story is that of Resul “our home is the land of Om” Pookutty. 

The Pookutty-s are a Communist family from Villakku-para (Kollam district in south Kerala), but Resul was deeply influenced by his mother’s imagination of Islam which binds in so many ways to Hinduism and even Christianity. The Saudis would probably consider such behavior as borderline apostasy. This is similar to the polluted Islam of (then) East Pakistan that made Muslim Bengalis not quite pure enough in the eyes of their Western brothers.

……

That fabulous Oscar acceptance speech about Home being the Land of Om…How? (vulgar sub-text: You’re Muslim but you said that?).

That was not the occasion to thank my cat and dog. It was a chance to make a point to the watching world and I didn’t waste it.

I’m
an Indian first, before Muslim and Malayali. I grew up with Hindus and
Christians, went to school with them, I work with them. Religion never
came in the way and it doesn’t now.

You waded right into hardcore religion with that? When
it’s the thing in some urban circles to say, “Oh, I’m spiritual, not
religious,” and hide out in a feel-good fuzzy bandwidth of pretty
thoughts?

(Grins). My mother, Nabeeza Beevi, who died in early 2000, taught me that outlook. She was a devout Muslim who did namaaz
five times a day. Her Islam made her a woman with a great sense of
humanism and spirituality. She learnt her spirituality from religion.
During Ramzaan, we’d call the Hindus and Christians over for aapam and curry (and guess who did the grinding for the batter: me!). And for Easter, we’d be called for more aapam
and curry. We shared our lives. I sat up all night for Shivaratri, our
village, Vilakkupara, up in the timberlands of Kerala, has a temple with
Shiva  as the pratishtham (presiding deity). And all the
festivities during Makara Sankaranti (mid-January), I was part of all
that. Personally, I think it’s important to have a religious identity.
You can’t be afraid of religion. You have to deal with it, otherwise
look what happens.

How do you deal with it?

I did my first katha-prasangam (performance of
story-recitation) at our Shiva temple. My mother taught us the Quran (my
father was a Communist and his brother, PT Pookutty, was the first
Communist municipal councilor of Kayamkulam nearby). But my mother never
forced religion on us. I learnt that all South Indian Muslims were
Sunni in a very amusing way. Some years ago, a gentleman from Hyderabad
called my elder brother, Shamsuddin, with a marriage proposal for me. I
answered the phone and pretended to be my brother. When he asked if we
were Sunni or Shia, I didn’t know. I only knew the Quran. So I said,
“Shia!” in a wild guess. The man hung up at once. Only then did I
discover this.
– See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/columnsothers/resul-on-religion/article1-408887.aspx#sthash.MYAmDUgO.dpuf

That fabulous Oscar acceptance speech about Home being the Land of Om…How? (vulgar sub-text: You’re Muslim but you said that?).

That was not the occasion to thank my cat and dog. It was a chance to make a point to the watching world and I didn’t waste it.

I’m
an Indian first, before Muslim and Malayali. I grew up with Hindus and
Christians, went to school with them, I work with them. Religion never
came in the way and it doesn’t now.

You waded right into hardcore religion with that? When
it’s the thing in some urban circles to say, “Oh, I’m spiritual, not
religious,” and hide out in a feel-good fuzzy bandwidth of pretty
thoughts?

(Grins). My mother, Nabeeza Beevi, who died in early 2000, taught me that outlook. She was a devout Muslim who did namaaz
five times a day. Her Islam made her a woman with a great sense of
humanism and spirituality. She learnt her spirituality from religion.
During Ramzaan, we’d call the Hindus and Christians over for aapam and curry (and guess who did the grinding for the batter: me!). And for Easter, we’d be called for more aapam
and curry. We shared our lives. I sat up all night for Shivaratri, our
village, Vilakkupara, up in the timberlands of Kerala, has a temple with
Shiva  as the pratishtham (presiding deity). And all the
festivities during Makara Sankaranti (mid-January), I was part of all
that. Personally, I think it’s important to have a religious identity.
You can’t be afraid of religion. You have to deal with it, otherwise
look what happens.

How do you deal with it?

I did my first katha-prasangam (performance of
story-recitation) at our Shiva temple. My mother taught us the Quran (my
father was a Communist and his brother, PT Pookutty, was the first
Communist municipal councilor of Kayamkulam nearby). But my mother never
forced religion on us. I learnt that all South Indian Muslims were
Sunni in a very amusing way. Some years ago, a gentleman from Hyderabad
called my elder brother, Shamsuddin, with a marriage proposal for me. I
answered the phone and pretended to be my brother. When he asked if we
were Sunni or Shia, I didn’t know. I only knew the Quran. So I said,
“Shia!” in a wild guess. The man hung up at once. Only then did I
discover this.
– See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/columnsothers/resul-on-religion/article1-408887.aspx#sthash.MYAmDUgO.dpuf

That fabulous Oscar acceptance
speech about Home being the Land of Om…How? (vulgar sub-text: You’re Muslim but
you said that?).

That was not the occasion to thank
my cat and dog. It was a chance to make a point to the watching world and I
didn’t waste it.

I’m an Indian first, before Muslim and Malayali. I grew up with Hindus and
Christians, went to school with them, I work with them. Religion never came in
the way and it doesn’t now.

You waded right into hardcore
religion with that? When it’s the thing in some urban circles to say, “Oh, I’m
spiritual, not religious,” and hide out in a feel-good fuzzy bandwidth of
pretty thoughts?

My mother, Nabeeza Beevi, who died in early 2000, taught
me that outlook. She was a devout Muslim who did namaaz five times a
day. Her Islam made her a woman with a great sense of humanism and
spirituality. She learnt her spirituality from religion. 
During Ramzaan, we’d
call the Hindus and Christians over for aapam and curry (and guess who
did the grinding for the batter: me!). And for Easter, we’d be called for more aapam
and curry. We shared our lives. 
I sat up all night for Shivaratri, our village,
Vilakkupara, up in the timber lands of Kerala, has a temple with Shiva  as
the pratishtham (presiding deity). And all the festivities during Makara
Sankaranti (mid-January), I was part of all that.  
Personally, I think it’s
important to have a religious identity. You can’t be afraid of religion. You
have to deal with it, otherwise look what happens.

How do you deal with it?

I did my first katha-prasangam
(performance of story-recitation) at our Shiva temple.  
My mother taught us the
Quran (my father was a Communist and his brother, PT Pookutty, was the first
Communist municipal councilor of Kayamkulam nearby). But my mother never forced
religion on us. 
I learnt that all South Indian Muslims were Sunni in a very
amusing way. Some years ago, a gentleman from Hyderabad called my elder
brother, Shamsuddin, with a marriage proposal for me. I answered the phone and
pretended to be my brother. When he asked if we were Sunni or Shia, I didn’t
know. I only knew the Quran. So I said, “Shia!” in a wild guess. The man hung
up at once. Only then did I discover this. 
……

First Men in India

# Achievement Man
1 The first President of Indian Republic Dr. Rajendra Prasad
2 The first Prime Minister of free India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru
3 The first Indian to win Nobel Prize Rabindranath Tagore
4 The first President of Indian National Congress W. C. Banerjee
5 The first Muslim President of Indian National Congress Badruddin Tayyabji
6 The first Muslim President  Dr. Zakir Hussain
7 The first British Governor General  Lord William Bentinck
8 The first British Viceroy  Lord Canning
9 The first Governor General of free India Lord Mountbatten
10 The first and the last Indian to be Governor General of free India C. Rajgopalachari
11 The first man who introduced printing press in India James Hicky
12 The first Indian to join the I.C.S. Satyendra Nath Tagore
13 India’s first man in space Rakesh Sharma
14 The first Prime Minister who resigned without completing the full term Morarji Desai
15 The first Indian Commander – in – Chief  General Cariappa
16 The first Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Maharaj Rajendra Singhji
17 The first Indian member of the Viceroy’s executive council S. P. Sinha
18 The first President of India who died while in office Dr. Zakir Hussain
19 The first Prime Minister who did not face the Parliament Charan Singh
20 The first Field Marshal  S.H.F. Manekshaw
21 The first Indian to get Nobel prize in Physics C.V. Raman
22 The first Indian to receive Bharat Ratna award Dr. Radhakrishnan
23 The first Indian to cross English channel Mihir Sen
24 The first person to receive Jnanpith award Sri Shankar Kurup
25 The first Speaker of the Lok Sabha Ganesh Vasudeva Mavalankar
26 The first Vice – President of India Dr. Radhakrishnan
27 The first Education Minister Abul Kalam Azad
28 The first Home Minister  Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel
29 The first Indian Air Chief Marshal S. Mukherjee
30 The first Indian Naval Chief Vice Admiral R. D. Katari
31 The first judge of International Court of Justice Dr. Nagendra Singh
32 The first person to receive Paramveer Chakra Major Somnath Sharma
33 The first person to reach Mt. Everest without oxygen Sherpa Anga Dorjee
34 The first Chief Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen
35 The first person to receive Magsaysay Award Acharya Vinoba Bhave
36 The first person of Indian origin to receive Nobel Prize in Medicine Hargovind Khurana
37 The first Chinese traveller to visit India Fa-Hein
38 The first person to receive Stalin Prize Saifuddin Kitchlu
39 The first person to resign from the central cabinet Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
40 The first foreigner to receive Bharat Ratna Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
41 The first person to receive Nobel Prize in Economics Amartya Sen
42 The first Chief Justice of Supreme Court Justice Hiralal J. Kania
 ………………………………..
Link (1): placementyogi.com/general-knowledge/first-men-in-india
Link (2): saudigazette.com.sa

Link (3): hindustantimes.com/resul-on-religion

…..

regards

Building Toilets not Really Useful?

Left, right, and toilets:

Most people in India defecate in the open. Most people worldwide who defecate in the open live in India. The diseases spread by open defecation kill hundreds of thousands of Indian children each year and stunt the physical and cognitive development of those who survive….The importance of removing faecal germs from children’s environments follows clearly from economists’ growing understanding of early-life human capital accumulation. Study after study is showing that exposure to disease and other health insults in the critical first months of life translate into quantitatively important lost productivity as adults (for a recent review, see Currie and Vogl, 2013). If children exposed to more open defecation grow up to be adults who earn less and pay less tax, open defecation is not only a health disaster but an economic one too.

Remember that 35% of Indian population is under 18. For this cohort time has nearly run out to make any meaningful intervention. So the “economic disaster” has largely already happened. The issue is reducing its severity and preventing its future occurrence.

Open defecation has been declining by only about one percentage point per year for a very long time. Intensifying business as usual is not enough…. 

First, even without our survey, it is clear that there are many developing countries that are much poorer than India where open defecation rates are low and falling fast. Only 4% of people in Bangladesh and a small fraction of people in sub-Saharan African countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) defecate in the open. People in these countries do not buy the expensive latrines with enormous pits that people in India insist on. Instead, these other countries are eliminating open defecation by switching first to using simple pit latrines that most people in India could already afford to make—affordable latrines which would save infant lives and prevent the spread of disease. 

Second, we found that many people defecate in the open even though they live in a household with a working latrine—and we know the latrine is working because somebody is using it. Over 40% of households with a working latrine have at least one person who defecates in the open. This figure includes both privately constructed and government latrines, which are much less likely to be used. Most people living in households with a fully government constructed latrine defecate in the open—indeed, even most young women in their 20s do. In these cases, the problem is clearly not latrine access….

We find that two-thirds of new latrine recipients would defecate in the open, and that even if the government were to build a latrine for every rural household in these states, without changing anybody’s preferences, a majority of people would still be defecating in the open. 

In fact, this result reflects two optimistic assumptions—that existing latrine owners are not more likely to be latrine users for unobservable reasons, and that the government’s attempt to build a latrine for every household indeed translates into a latrine on the ground for every household. So, it is clear that mere latrine construction is simply not enough. Instead, the Swachh Bharat Mission must be built on promoting latrine use: building demand for latrines.

Caste, Religion and Open Defecation

India’s race to build toilets failing as villages don’t use them:

When nature calls, the 26-year-old single mother and her four children head toward the jungle next to their farm of red and pink roses, to a field of tall grass, flecked with petals, where the 7,000 people of her village go to defecate and exchange gossip. 

“Only dalits, the lowest Hindu caste, should be exposed to excrement in a closed space, or city-dwellers who don’t have space to go in the open,” said Sunita, who uses one name, as she washed clothes next to the concrete latrine. “Faeces don’t belong under the same roof as where we eat and sleep.”

Muslim mortality paradox and the importance of sanitation for children:

In India, Muslim children are substantially more likely than Hindu children to survive until their fifth birthday, despite Muslim parents being poorer and less educated on average than Hindu parents. The phenomenon has been documented by numerous researchers over the past 20 years, including most recently by Bhalotra et al. (2010)….Though it is by now well-known that a substantial fraction of India’s population defecates in the open, without the use of toilets or latrines, what is less well-known—at least to those residing outside of rural India—is that Hindus are substantially (40%) more likely than Muslims to do so…. 
Analysing the three most recent rounds of the government of India’s nationally representative survey data, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of India, we find Hindus are dramatically more likely than Muslims to openly defecate, meaning they self-report using a bush, field, or no facility rather than a latrine or toilet. In the three most recent waves of the NFHS, 67% of Hindu households report openly defecating, while only 42% of the relatively poorer Muslim households do so. This simple but dramatic fact is easily replicable using any Indian survey dataset that asks respondents about religion and waste disposal. 
To understand these high-level statistics in more depth, R.I.C.E. (Research Institute for Compassionate Economics) researchers in a separate study collected detailed information about behaviour and preferences towards defecation in rural northern India. This new dataset, online at squatreport.in, reveals that a substantial minority of Hindus who reside in household with a latrine still choose to defecate in the open: 25% of Hindus who own working latrines choose not to use them, compared with 10% of Muslims. Further, Hindus are more likely than Muslims to respond that open defecation away from the home is pure, while using a latrine near the home is not pure.

London- World City #1

……Beyond these traditional strengths, London
has become Europe’s top technology startup center……upward of 3,000 tech startups…..Google’s largest office outside Silicon Valley……
….
East or West….London is the best. Singapore (4), Hong Kong (6), and Dubai (7) are ranked ahead of Beijing (8, tie with Sydney) and Shanghai (19).  
Dubai ahead of Shanghai, really?

Frankfurt is the top rated city in Germany at a lowly #14. Mumbai (31) and Delhi (34) are the top-ranked cities in South Asia (in the future we may see Chennai and Bangalore on this list). Surprising to see Berlin (37) tied with Seattle and Tel Aviv.
……
In order to quantify cities’ global influence, we looked at eight
factors: the amount of foreign direct investment they have attracted;
the concentration of corporate headquarters; how many particular
business niches they dominate; air connectivity (ease of travel to other
global cities); strength of producer services; financial services;
technology and media power; and racial diversity. (Click here for
a more detailed description of our methodology.) 
……….
We found those factors
particularly important in identifying rising stars that, someday, might
challenge the current hegemony of our two top-ranked global cities,
London and New York.


Inertia and smart use of it is a key theme that emerged in our
evaluation of the top global cities. No city better exemplifies this
than London, which after more than a century of imperial decline still
ranks No. 1 in our survey.  
….
The United Kingdom may now be a second-rate
power, but the City’s unparalleled legacy as a global financial capital
still underpins its pre-eminence.


Ranked first in the world on the Z/Yen Group’s 2013 Global Financial
Centres Index, which we used for our list, London not only has a long
history as a dominant global financial hub, but its location outside the
United States and the eurozone keeps it away from unfriendly
regulators. Compared to New York, it is also time-zone advantaged for
doing business in Asia, and has the second best global air connections
of any city after Dubai, with nonstop flights at least three times a
week to 89% of global cities outside of its home region of Europe.


A preferred domicile for the global rich, London is not only the
historic capital of the English language, which contributes to its
status as a powerful media hub and major advertising center, but it’s
also the birthplace of the cultural, legal and business practices that
define global capitalism.

London hosts the headquarters of 68 companies
on the 2012 Forbes Global 2000 list and is a popular location for the
regional HQs of many multinationals. (Our HQ ranking component, in which
London ranks third, is based on GaWC’s 2012 Command and Control Index, which factors in company size and financial performance, as well as total number of Forbes Global 2k HQs).


Beyond these traditional strengths, London has become Europe’s top technology startup center, according to the Startup Genome project. The city has upward of 3,000 tech startup sas well as Google’s largest office outside Silicon Valley.

New York, which comes in a close second in our study (40 points to
London’s 42), is home to most of the world’s top investment banks and
hedge funds, and the stock trading volume on the city’s exchanges is more than 10 times that of London.


Like London, New York is a global leader in media and advertising,
the music industry (home to two of the big three labels), and also one
of the most important capitals of the fashion and luxury business. With
iconic landmarks galore, international visitors spend more money in New York each year than in any other city in the world.

Those Slowly Fading

London and New York are clearly the leaders but they are not the
hegemonic powers that they were throughout much of the 20thcentury, and
their main competitors are now largely from outside Europe. Paris may
rank third in our survey, but it is way below New York and London by
virtually every critical measure, and the city’s future is not promising
given that France, and much of the EU, are mired in relative economic
stagnation.

China’s Global Cities



Hong Kong still enjoys greater freedom than the rest of China and
remains the largest financial center in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking
third in the world after London and New York. The vast majority of the
world’s major investment banks, asset managers, and insurance companies
maintain their Asia-Pacific headquarters in the former British colony.


But its preeminence is being threatened by Shanghai, traditionally
Hong Kong’s chief rival, and Beijing. We ranked China’s capital eighth,
ahead of Shanghai (19th). With the advantage of being the country’s
all-powerful political center, Beijing is the headquarters of most large
state-owned companies and is home to the country’s elite educational
institutions and its most innovative companies.


But right now the leading global city in East Asia is Singapore,
which ranks fourth on our list. With a relatively small population of
just over 5 million, Singapore’s basic infrastructure is among the best on the planet.
Like Hong Kong, it also benefits from a tradition of British governance
and law, one reason the World Bank ranked its business climate the
world’s best; China ranked 96th. Singapore’s justice system is ranked
10th in the world in The Rule of Law Index.

Global Capital of the Middle East

Much of what we see in the media about Middle Eastern cities are
scenes of destruction and chaos. Yet in a relatively quiet corner of the
Arabian Peninsula, Dubai is ascending, ranked seventh on our list. 

Its
globalization strategy hinges largely on its expanding airport, which
includes the world’s largest terminal and an even larger airport under
construction. It ranks first in the world in our air connectivity
ranking, with nonstop flights at least three times a week to 93% of
global cities outside of its home region.Its hub location and
business-friendly climate have made it a favorite for companies looking
to establish a Middle East headquarters or point of presence. As a
crossroads of humanity, Dubai is unparalleled among global cities for
its diversity: 86% of its residents are foreign born.


North America

Our rankings rewarded cities that are both ethnically diverse and, in
some cases, dominate a critical industry. This is what we refer to as a
“necessary city,” a place one must go to conduct business in a
particular field, or to service a particular region of the world.


This focus on the “necessary” city led to what will no doubt be a
controversial result: a 10th place ranking for the San Francisco Bay
Area, on the strength of its central role in the tech industry, tied on
our list with Los Angeles and Toronto. The Bay Area did not even make
the top 20 in the 2014 A.T. Kearney rankings, which placed both Chicago and Los Angeles in the top 10.

Other North American cities with a growing global footprint include
10th ranked Toronto, tied with Los Angeles and Bay Area. Toronto, as the
economic capital of Canada, has becomes a focus for international
investment into that stable and resource rich country. It is also among
the most diverse cities on the planet — 46 % of its population is
foreign born.


Rising Stars

In North America up and comers include No. 14 Houston, with its
domination of the U.S. energy industry, a huge export sector and an
increasingly diverse population. The Washington, D.C., metro area ranks
16th, a testament to the capital’s growth as an aerospace and technology
center.


Overseas, other urban centers that could move up in the future
include No. 16 Seoul, Shanghai and No. 20 (tie) Abu Dhabi. But outside
of Dubai no other cities in our top 20 come from the developing world.
The Indian megacities Delhi and Mumbai rank in the low 30s along with
Johannesburg in South Africa. In Latin America, the place to watch is
No. 23 Sao Paulo.

………

No. 1: London


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 328
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 68<
Air Connectivity:  89%*
Global Financial Centres Index Rank: 1

* The air connectivity score is the percentage of other global cities
outside the city’s region (e.g., for London, cities outside of Europe)
that can be reached nonstop a minimum of three times per week.


No. 2: New York


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 143
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 82
Air Connectivity:  70%
GFCI Rank: 2


No. 3: Paris


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 129
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 60
Air Connectivity:  81%
GFCI Rank: 29


No. 4: Singapore


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 359
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: N/A
Air Connectivity:  46%
GFCI Rank: 4


No. 5: Tokyo


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 83
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 154
Air Connectivity:  59%
GFCI Rank: 5


No. 6: Hong Kong


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 234
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 48
Air Connectivity:  57%
GFCI Rank: 3


No. 7: Dubai


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 245
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: N/A
Air Connectivity:  93%
GFCI Rank: 25


No. 8 (TIE): Beijing


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 142
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 45
Air Connectivity:  65%
GFCI Rank: 59


No. 8 (TIE): Sydney


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 111
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 21
Air Connectivity:  43%
GFCI Rank: 15


No. 10 (TIE): Los Angeles


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 35
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: N/A
Air Connectivity:  46%
GFCI Rank: N/A


No. 10 (TIE): San Francisco Bay Area


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 49
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 17
Air Connectivity:  38%
GFCI Rank: 12


No. 10 (TIE): Toronto


FDI Transactions (5-Year Avg.): 60
Forbes Global 2000 HQs: 23
Air Connectivity:  49%
GFCI Rank: 11


Remaining Cities

City Region Rank
Zurich Europe
13
Frankfurt Europe
14
Houston North America
14
Amsterdam/Randstad Europe
16
Seoul Asia-Pacific
16
Washington Metropolitan Area North America
16
Shanghai Asia-Pacific
19
Abu Dhabi Middle East
20
Chicago North America
20
Moscow Europe
20
Boston North America
23
Brussels Europe
23
Dallas-Fort Worth North America
23
Madrid Europe
23
Melbourne Asia-Pacific
23
São Paulo South America
23
Istanbul Middle East
29
Miami North America
29
Johannesburg Africa
31
Kuala Lumpur Asia-Pacific
31
Mumbai Asia-Pacific
31
Bangkok Asia-Pacific
34
Delhi Asia-Pacific
34
Geneva Europe
34
Atlanta North America
37
Berlin Europe
37
Seattle North America
37
Tel Aviv Middle East
37
Mexico City North America
41
Milan Europe
41
Montreal North America
41
Buenos Aires South America
44
Jakarta Asia-Pacific
44
Philadelphia North America
44
Cairo Middle East
47
Guangzhou Asia-Pacific
47
Ho Chi Minh City Asia-Pacific
47
Lagos Africa
47
Osaka Asia-Pacific
47

…..

Link: the-worlds-most-influential-cities

……

regards

Toilet Donation Services

A few questions and comments:
  
(a) Why did it take so long? Tata Consultancy Services has been a huge success story for some-time now and Jairam Ramesh has been talking about toilets before temples since a long time back.

The correct response to the above question is international humiliation after the rape and murder/honor killing of two young girls. In one sense this is not a bad thing, India (and Indians) are sensitive to world opinion (aka colonial mentality). That said, we (personally speaking) are still ashamed to look ourselves in the mirror.

(b) We do not wish to sound ungrateful, but it will not be enough for TCS to provide funding for toilets, what is imperative is paying for long-term maintenance contracts. India is known for building great stuff, but when it comes to maintenance there is a serious deficit.

(c) The 100 crore, 10,000 schools quantum must be scaled up rapidly to a million school-toilets initiative. Attach a primary health-care center. Work with NGOs to ensure that teachers are teaching and the children are meeting the minimum reading, riting and rithmetic standards. A mid-day meal must be guaranteed. In our opinion these steps are necessary (but not sufficient) for a slow climbing out from the bottom of the barrel.

(d) There is no reason why the states (especially the prosperous ones) are unable to come up with independent initiatives. Every little will help. The time for excuses is over.

(e) We recommend chanting (and acting on) of this mantra a thousand times daily, it will set your conscience free : donations for toilets before temples!!!
….
Country’s
largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on
Monday said it has pledged Rs 100 crore toward financing hygienic
sanitation facilities for girl students across 10,000 schools.  ………………………



TCS will earmark a budget of Rs 100 crore to be spent on this
initiative, which will help children, especially girl students, to
participate in school education for a longer period of time and play a
larger economic role in their communities, TCS said in a statement.  

“We
firmly believe that achieving the mission of providing hygienic
sanitation for girl students will have a tangible impact on the level of
education achievement and development of India’s next generation,” TCS
CEO and managing director N Chandrasekaran said.

 Emphasizing
on the ‘dignity of women’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked
parliamentarians and corporate sector to help build separate toilets for
girls in schools across the country by next year.

“I
want to start one work from today. There should be a toilet in all the
schools of our country. A separate toilet for girls…it is only then
our girls will not have to quit schools,” he had said during his
Independence Day address to the nation.

He added that the
corporate sector should give priority to building toilets in schools as
part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. 
…..

……….

………..

regards

Brown Pundits