Tag: Western civilisation

Fun fact of the day

March 11, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors

I knew that Prince William had some Indian ancestry through Princess Diana but I had no idea that it was his direct maternal ancestor who was Indian (mother’s mother etc). Eliza Kewark was alleged to have been Armenian but it seems at the very least she was half Indian so it’s interesting to note that the 2nd in line to the throne is not only a descendant of George the 1st (not since Queen Anne in the early 18th century, Act of Union time), the descendant of George the 2nd (which is a first ever) and now is a direct descendant of an Indian on his mother’s side while his direct paternal lineage goes back to the House of Oldenberg (even though he is de jure a member of the House of Windsor). It’s interesting to see how Monarchy in Europe seems to be particularly Germanic (most of the Dynasties seemed to have stemmed from Germanic ancestors maybe because of Charlemagne) but it’s nice to know the future King is in some way Gujarati, albeit a very long way off (but in a very substantial way as his Mitochondrial DNA is basically Indian).

‘As the third son of a Scottish landowner, Forbes needed to make his fortune elsewhere and like many ambitious young men, he went to India to do just that. 
‘When Forbes arrived in the Bombay Presidency he employed a housekeeper, Eliza Kewark. They had three children, one of whom, Catherine or Kitty, was the ancestress of Princess Diana.’
With the full article it shows just how serendipitous it that Eliza’s daughters go on that in this rising Asian age the British King will have a substantial Asian link.

Revealed: William’s Indian ancestry. DNA tests show future monarch has clear genetic line to the former ‘Jewel in the Crown’ from Diana’s side

Ironically the current Jacobite heir at the moment (who genealogically have a better claim to the British throne than the current British Royal family) is the Second in Line to the Throne of Lichtenstein. It seems Europe’s Royal Families and Aristocracies are mind-numbingly inter-linked.

Globo-cops: omni-(p, s, p)

March 10, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
Some amount of sensationalism but all-in-all quite believable- the leanest, meanest, global (secret) fighting machine ever.

Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American hostages in Iran (in
which eight U.S. service members died), U.S. Special Operations Command
was established in 1987.  Made up of units from all the service
branches, SOCOM is tasked with carrying out Washington’s most
specialized and secret missions, including assassinations,
counter-terrorist raids, special reconnaissance, unconventional warfare,
psychological operations, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass
destruction counter-proliferation operations.

In the post-9/11 era, the command has grown steadily.  With about 33,000 personnel in 2001, it is reportedly on
track to reach 72,000 in 2014.  (About half this number are called, in
the jargon of the trade, “badged operators” — SEALs, Rangers, Special
Operations Aviators, Green Berets — while the rest are support
personnel.)  Funding for the command has also jumped exponentially as
SOCOM’s baseline budget tripled from $2.3 billion to $6.9 billion
between 2001 and 2013.  If you add in supplemental funding, it had
actually more than quadrupled to $10.4 billion.

Not surprisingly, personnel deployments abroad skyrocketed from 4,900
“man-years” — as the command puts it — in 2001 to 11,500 in 2013. 
About 11,000 special operators are now working abroad at any one time and on any given day they are in 70 to 80 countries, though the New York Timesreported that, according to statistics provided to them by SOCOM, during one week in March 2013 that number reached 92.

Last year, Admiral McRaven, who previously headed the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC –
a clandestine sub-command that specializes in tracking and killing
suspected terrorists — touted his vision for special ops globalization. 
In a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, he said: “USSOCOM
is enhancing its global network of SOF to support our interagency and
international partners in order to gain expanded situational awareness
of emerging threats and opportunities. The network enables small,
persistent presence in critical locations, and facilitates engagement
where necessary or appropriate…”

 In translation this means that SOCOM is weaving a complex web of
alliances with government agencies at home and militaries abroad to
ensure that it’s at the center of every conceivable global hotspot and
power center.  In fact, Special Operations Command has turned the planet
into a giant battlefield, divided into many discrete fronts: the
self-explanatory SOCAFRICA; the sub-unified command of U.S. Central
Command in the Middle East SOCCENT; the European contingent SOCEUR;
SOCKOR, which is devoted strictly to Korea; SOCPAC, which covers the
rest of the Asia-Pacific region; and SOCSOUTH, which conducts special
ops missions in Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as
the globe-trotting JSOC.

Since 2002, SOCOM has also been
authorized to create its own Joint Task Forces, a prerogative normally
limited to larger combatant commands like CENTCOM.  These include Joint
Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, 500-600 personnel dedicated
to supporting counter-terrorist operations by Filipino allies against insurgent groups like Abu Sayyaf.

SOCOM’s reach and global ambitions go further still.  TomDispatch’s
analysis of McRaven’s first two full years in command reveals a
tremendous number of overseas operations.  In places like Somalia and Libya, elite troops have carried out clandestine commando raids.  In others, they have used airpower to hunt, target, and kill suspected militants.  Elsewhere, they have waged an information war using online propaganda. 
And almost everywhere they have been at work building up and forging
ever-tighter ties with foreign militaries through training missions and
exercises.

“A lot of what we will do as we go forward in this force is build partner capacity,” McRaven said at
the Ronald Reagan Library in November, noting that NATO partners as
well as allies in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America  “are
absolutely essential to how we’re doing business.”

In March 2013, for example, Navy SEALs conducted joint training exercises with
Indonesian frogmen.  In April and May, U.S. Special Operations
personnel joined members of the Malawi Defense Forces for Exercise Epic
Guardian.  Over three weeks, 1,000 troops engaged in marksmanship, small
unit tactics, close quarters combat training, and other activities
across three countries — Djibouti, Malawi, and the Seychelles.

In May, American special operators took part in
Spring Storm, the Estonian military’s largest annual training
exercise.  That same month, members of the Peruvian and U.S. special
operations forces engaged in joint training missions aimed at trading
tactics and improving their ability to conduct joint operations.  In
July, Green Berets from the Army’s 20th Special Forces Group spent
several weeks in Trinidad and Tobago working with members of that tiny
nation’s Special Naval Unit and Special Forces Operation Detachment. 
That Joint Combined Exchange Training exercise, conducted as part of
SOCSOUTH’s Theater Security Cooperation program, saw the Americans and
their local counterparts take part in pistol and rifle instruction and
small unit tactical exercises.

In September, according to
media reports, U.S. Special Operations forces joined elite troops from
the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries —
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei,
Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia — as well as their
counterparts from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China,
India, and Russia for a US-Indonesian joint-funded coun­terterrorism
exercise held at a training center in Sentul, West Java.

Tactical training was, however, just part of the story.  In March
2013, for example, experts from the Army’s John F. Kennedy Special
Warfare Center and School hosted a week-long working group with top
planners from the Centro de Adiestramiento de las Fuerzas Especiales —
Mexico’s Special Warfare Center — to aid them in developing their own
special forces doctrine.

In October, members of the Norwegian
Special Operations Forces traveled to SOCOM’s state-of-the-art Wargame
Center at its headquarters on MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to
refine crisis response procedures for hostage rescue operations. 
“NORSOF and Norwegian civilian leadership regularly participate in
national field training exercises focused on a scenario like this,” said
Norwegian Lieutenant Colonel Petter Hellesen. “What was unique about
this exercise was that we were able to gather so many of the Norwegian
senior leadership and action officers, civilian and military, in one
room with their U.S counterparts.”

MacDill is, in fact, fast becoming a worldwide special ops hub, according to a report by the Tampa Tribune. 
This past fall, SOCOM quietly started up an International Special
Operations Forces Coordination Center that provides long-term
residencies for senior-level black ops liaisons from around the world. 
Already, representatives from 10 nations had joined the command with
around 24 more slated to come on board in the next 12-18 months, per
McRaven’s global vision.

 regards

A few quick easy tips to a better and healthier life

March 10, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
I have noticed that in the West (or the Western way of living), we’ve acquired some fairly dangerous habits that when built up aren’t necessarily good for us. I do most of these however unfortunately I don’t have an Asian toilet.

  • Sit or Squat in the Toilet. I can’t emphasise how much better it is to squat in the toilet than it is to sit. In fact in the gym, the Squat is called the “King of the Exercises” and therefore to squat regularly is not only good for the bowels but also good as a general work out. Also while toilet hygiene is a separate matter on a like for like basis squatting is far cleaner because there is no contact (as opposed to sitting in a public toilet).

“You have a muscle that’s connected to your pelvis that in a sitting position cinches closed your colon and stops you from going completely and quickly, as you should do. In the squatting position this muscle is relaxed and you can go and your colon is straightened, which enables you to go quickly and much more completely,” Codling told Reuters. Sit or Squat? New Toilet Design Encompasses Best of Both Worlds [VIDEO]


  • Toilet paper vs. Lota. Continuing the East and West clash of civilisations in the toilet; it’s fairly self-evident that water washing is more hygienic than tissues. If you spill sticky liquid on a table you have to use wet tissues, which seems to me the best solution of them all. Of course technology again is helping as with the below.

“Paper just distributes the problem,” said Lenora Campos, a spokeswoman for Georgia-based Toto USA. Toto, the Japanese company that pioneered the modern electronic toilet seat, has sold 34 million of them globally. “We wash most things with water and wouldn’t dream of wiping a dish or anything else with a piece of paper and calling it clean. So why should personal hygiene be any different?” Home trends: High tech toilets may wash away need for toilet paper

I know this this is not common practice, but it is actually quite important! Fluoride, one of the active ingredients in toothpaste, doesn’t spend much time in contact when your teeth when you are brushing. Thus, it is crucial to let it work after you have already brushed your teeth. According to dentist Dr. Phil Stemmer, from The Fresh Breath Centre in London, “Rinsing washes away the protective flouride coating left by the toothpaste, which would otherwise add hours of protection.” If you are thirsty drink a glass of water before brushing your teeth!
Anytime you take a shower — especially a hot one — with soap and a scrubbing device like a washcloth or a loofah, you’re undermining the integrity of your skin’s horny layer. The soap and the hot water dissolve the lipids in the skin and scrubbing only hastens the process. The more showers you take, the more frequently this damage takes place and the less time your skin has to repair itself through natural oil production. What’s more, the horny layer of your skin can be sloughed off by scrubbing, exposing the delicate skin cells beneath. The result of showering too frequently is generally dry, irritated and cracked skin.
Another problem related to showering too often is the use of a towel to dry off. While rubbing yourself dry with a towel is common practice, it’s also a damaging one for your skin. Air drying is the optimal way to dry off following a shower, but if you don’t have time to wait for evaporation or don’t like tracking bathwater throughout your house, you can still use a towel. Just make sure it’s a soft one and use a gentle patting motion to absorb water.
  • Shower with Freezing Water. I’ve started to do this and it’s an amazing way to take on a life-changing habit that is beneficial to your hygiene, immunity, skin, metabolism and testosterone. You can google it but here are 7 reasons for showering with cold water.
  • If you want to stay fit just go on chewing your food. We’ve forgotten how to enjoy flavours in the rise of the Fast food culture but now I chew at least 10 times a bit and on Saturday night after a 12hour fast (we are in the Baha’i fasts at the moment up to Naw Ruz) I only had 2 pizza slices & a meat samosa. That’s roughly 400-800 calories after 12 hours of not eating. Here is (another) 7 Reasons why Chewing food is important for you.
  • This particular point is less empirical but I tend to take Aloe Vera (benefits are here), am looking at acupuncture, eating with chopsticks for East Asian foods and try hands for South Asian food (obviously I make sure my hands are thoroughly clean). Also because I chew thoroughly I tend to be more relaxed about what I eat because my portions are so much less. I don’t drink or smoke or do drugs (I don’t use a razor) but I’ll finish off here.

Racism is more foolish than bad

March 10, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
Yes, this is indeed a time of crisis, it is still astounding how a responsible politician (home minister no less) can not comprehend the foolishness of his words.  

Will the immigration officers (who may now lose their jobs over this) have the guts to tell him that it is possible to hold a white-man’s visa, yet appear asian? Perhaps Malaysia has a no-naturalization policy for differently-skinned (whites, browns and blacks) people? That may help explain (but not excuse) things a bit.

Malaysia’s
interior minister said two passengers who used stolen passports to
board a Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing with 239 people aboard
had “Asian facial features”, according to a report.

Fears of a terror attack have surfaced after
it was revealed that at least two passengers boarded the plane with
stolen passports — one from Italy and one from Austria. The passport
owners have been found to be safe.

“I am still puzzled how come (immigration officers) cannot think: an
Italian and Austrian but with Asian facial features,” Home Minister
Zahid Hamidi was quoted as saying late Sunday by Malaysia’s national
news agency Bernama.

“We will conduct an internal probe, particularly on the officers who
were on duty at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport)
immigration counter during flight MH370,” Zahid said.
regards

Pit Bulls of the world unite (with middle class backing)

March 9, 2014 1 Comment filed under Archived Authors
To the liberals world-wide, Vladimir Putin is a real pain in the backside (p-i-t-b or pit-bull).  

Here is how the present, past and future presidents of the USA describe Putin: President Obama has called Vladimir Putin “the bored kid in the back of the classroom,” putting on an unsmiling, tough-guy “shtick.” Hillary Clinton just compared the Russian president to Hitler. The State Department says Putin’s reasoning on Ukraine amounts to “two plus two equals five.” Republican House Speaker Boehner branded him a “thug.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly said he is “in another world.” And George W. Bush complained that debating policy with him was “like arguing with an eighth grader with his facts wrong” and called him “cold-blooded” to his face  

(the last accusation is remarkable as this would be a word for word description of GWB by the same liberals).


It is unlikely but another pit-bull may get hold of the atomic button and there is the same sound of hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing form the liberals (Neha Desai Biswal just about managed to confirm that he will get a visa).Great power is (a bit) about managing great expectations and it is clear that the UPA regime has not managed to do it well (in a way this is the inverse India Shining syndrome- UPA has done a lot for rural India – employment guarantee schemes etc., but the corruption, inflation and other vices has caused the urban voter to defect).

It is certainly the case that the Indian middle class finds a champion in an autocrat like Modi, just like Russians back Putin. But while Putin has vast gas resources at his disposal by which he can blackmail Europe, Modi will be running on empty for now (if he is smart he will push for an under-sea gas pipeline from Iran to India bypassing Pakistan). He can certainly be more assertive towards Muslims (just like Putin towards Crimean Tatars and Chechnyans). He can clamp down on Christian missionary led conversions though I doubt it. If he manages to annoy US/Europe they will stop the visas (not just for him). It is not clear at this point how Modi can resuscitate the India Shining campaign. But then again, Putin also faced a long and lonely journey to the top.

The scariest scenario (for the west and the liberals) will be for Modi, Putin and Xi Jinping (also Iran) to join hands together (even symbolically) and for India to align with an axis of autocrats. This will require a super-diplomatic effort but certainly big money can/will enable this and the middle-class will be vociferous in its support. China (unlike USA/West) is not hung up about minority rights and may even persuade the Maoists to switch to jaw-jaw mode (in exchange for locking up rights to all the mines). China and India may also find common ground in working against Islamists from Taliban-held Af-Pak. If Modi can manage some movement in this direction he may be (like Putin) unstoppable.

Here is the million-dollar question- which model will appeal to the voters- the white-commonwealth model or the dark-autocracy model? The opinion makers (middle-class) will tell us to relax and enjoy the ride, greater prosperity will cancel out all the negatives (just as muslims from Bengal are coming over to Gujarat to earn their daily bread). A billion votes (814 million to be exact) will decide the future this May. Yes folks, this is the most momentous general elections ever (after 1977).


At the risk of over-statement, there seems to
be a bizarre similarity between the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing in
the western strategic community over the events in Ukraine and the
agonized lamentations of India’s minuscule liberal community over the
possible outcome of the forthcoming general election. In both cases, the
target of derision is a leader that many see as forthright, decisive
and nationalist and others view as illiberal, authoritarian and even
fascist.

There are obvious similarities that can possibly be
drawn between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the man who may end
up as India’s Prime Minister in May. Apart from the fact that both evoke
polarized responses — adored by supporters and loathed by opponents,
the rise of both Putin and Narendra Modi can be explained by broadly
similar circumstances.

Putin took over a Russia that was
unreconciled to its steep economic decline and loss of self-esteem. In
just 14 years, whether ruling directly or through a proxy, Putin
affected a dramatic U-turn in the country’s fortunes. The post-Soviet
Union stereotypical images of starving pensioners queuing in the snow
for food hand-outs and gangster-infested cities were replaced by those
of cocky oligarchs buying up Chelsea FC and prime real estate in London,
and crime lords running global operations stretching from Moscow to
Goa.

All stereotypes have a basis in reality but only partially.
Yes, Russian society has traditionally been prone to excesses and
high-handedness. However, the reason why Putin commands the respect of
most of Russia (and Russian speakers in the other regions that once
constituted the Soviet Union) seems obvious when seen from an Indian,
rather than European or American perspective. He restored the glory of
Russia and put it back in global reckoning.

….But Putin’s bid
to reclaim Russia’s status as a Great Power was only possible because
the economic and political foundations for an enhanced role have been
firmed up over the past decade. In India, on the other hand, the fierce
desire of the past 25 years to transcend mediocrity, shoddiness and look
the world powers in the eye has floundered. It is not that the UPA
government has no achievements to its credit. India has progressed but
it has seriously under-performed in terms of its potential. More to the
point, there is a growing mismatch between the philosophy of governance
of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council and the impatience of a
young India that wants a more fulfilling life with lesser impediments in
the path of personal success.

regards

White Commonwealth will save the world

March 9, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
One needs to tread carefully because the upper management (and much of the brown elite world) happens to be sympathetic to this argument (the rest are gung-ho for a Mao like great man- out of the boiling pots of human flesh the next Spartas will emerge). But to be fair, having whites as stewards of browns is not a bad way for brown leaders (and brown populations) to avoid responsibility. Also, it must be said, the (proposed) new rest of UK flag (minus Scotland) looks really nice.

No 3 … a bit ravey?

A few quibbles before we jump into the white-waters. First off, much as we despise Mugabe and Museveni, Marxism and Christianity, which are singled out for their ill effects, took specially strong root in brown land via the earnest efforts of white men who were eager to lift brown people out of darkness. We can hardly fault brown-folks now if they have learned their lessons too well and decide to stay faithful to their borrowed tenets.

Also it seems (to a neutral observer) that you have to take the good with the bad (just like the colonial project itself). While one set of white bible-peddlers helped cover breasts in Kerala, another set of WBPs are helping to expose necks in Uganda (in a non-erotic manner). And marxism is good (if for nothing else) for scaring the shit out of crony capitalism, all the trees in central India would have probably disappeared in the absence of the Red Army.

The author engages in a bit of white-washing as well. Australia (also NZ) was not really empty space settled by British emigrants, there did exist a native population which was wiped out with or without deliberate malice. That such a fate escaped India was not for a lack of trying (large fractions of population under white rule perished with regular frequency, for some reason this phenomena stopped post-1947).

To end on a positive note, the author does admit that (baby) George cant do it all by himself, he will need an (adult) Mandela by his side. Just like Gandhi was considered a recruiting agent for the British-Indian army to fight WWI on behalf of their colonial masters. Amidst all the confusion that is state-craft these days, it is always a good practice to underline the obvious.

I must admit to being something of a Commonwealth sceptic. The way
Britain largely abandoned the organisation of its former colonies and
dominions when it joined Europe in 1973 was, to many of us, utterly
shameful. Blood is thicker than water, however, and when one experiences
the importance of democratic values — as one does when talking to a
Commonwealth people who live under threat of invasion and within earshot
of sabre-rattling — it is rather humbling.


 
The British government these days certainly does take the
Commonwealth seriously. This may be partly an effect of the mounting
disillusion with Europe, but it is also because of a new recognition
that the ties of shared history binding the Commonwealth count for
something significant in an increasingly unstable world.  

This is also
true in Australia, a country infinitely larger and more populous than
the Falklands, but built on the same values and a common pioneer spirit.
A recent poll showed that support for the idea of a republic in
Australia has fallen by 15 per cent since the referendum of 1999,
suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon notion of a constitutional monarch and a
non-political head of state continues to hold great attraction even in
the 21st century.


 
But before one gets carried away on a tide of nostalgic affection for
the idea of the Commonwealth, one should pause to consider the
fragility of the institution itself. Word is that behind the scenes at
the last Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka in the autumn of 2013
there were some fraught discussions based not on cultural
misunderstandings but on sheer cultural differences between some of the
players.  

One is loath to talk about a ‘white Commonwealth’, but there
does seem, with certain important exceptions, to be a measure of
polarisation between those countries that were settled by British
emigrants and those that were conquered and colonised by them.


 
Zimbabwe was suspended from the club for serial human rights
violations under the Mugabe regime in 2002; and it chose to leave the
organisation altogether in 2003, determined not to accept the view that
other nations had of it. Since then certain other black African
countries have lobbied relentlessly to allow its readmission, despite
the evidence that nothing much has changed in Zimbabwe, and will not do
so until Mugabe (who has just celebrated his 90th birthday) has gone to
the final reckoning. 

One of those interceding on Mugabe’s behalf is Jacob Zuma, whose own
conduct of office in South Africa increasingly leaves much to be
desired: Nelson Mandela he is not. South Africa is seen as increasingly
corrupt, cronyist, dangerous and authoritarian, and it sits increasingly
uncomfortably within a Commonwealth template of advancing democracy,
civilisation and political integrity.

It would be fatal for the Commonwealth to become polarised between
‘white’ and ‘black’ countries, not least because some nations whose
rulers are not of Anglo-Saxon descent behave perfectly reasonably and
honourably. Yet there is a growing challenge as some nations within the
family behave in a fashion unacceptable in polities such as Australia,
Britain, Canada or New Zealand.  

At the end of February Yoweri Museveni,
the president of Uganda, signed into law a Bill making homosexuality
(which was already illegal) and same-sex marriages crimes punishable by
life sentences, and the promotion of homosexuality a crime carrying a
still heavy sentence of seven years. Hitherto such sanctions as existed
applied only to men: now lesbians will feel the force of the law too.
After the furore surrounding President Putin’s homophobic policies in
the context of the Sochi Winter Olympics, it will be hard for the
Commonwealth to turn a blind eye to Uganda locking up people for life
because they are homosexual; we must wait and see.


 
In an ideal world, an institution such as the Commonwealth would lead
all its members along the path to enlightenment. The most significant
country in this respect is India, which has become progressively more
westernised as it has put its considerable economic and human capital to
work on becoming one of the great business success stories of the 21st
centuries. Without considerable leadership from the non-white
Commonwealth, extending the values of Australians, Britons and
Falklanders into parts where they hitherto have not reached may be
problematic at best, and impossible at worst. 

Had South Africa produced
another Mandela, he — or she — would have had this leadership role,
because (other than Pakistan, which has nightmares all of its own) the
part of the Commonwealth where those values are most under threat is the
collection of Britain’s former colonies and possessions in Africa. It
used to be called the white man’s burden; but in the interests of good
government, liberty, prosperity and decent human rights it can no longer
be his alone.

regards

MH370- an update

March 8, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
There will be no definitive understanding till the black boxes are recovered but here is a clue: stolen passports (2). Not a single survivor. Makes me feel utterly sick and depressed.

Search crews from China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia were joined
by the American Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer destroyer
in a search for any evidence of the airliner in the South China Sea. The
passengers included 154 citizens from China or Taiwan, 38 Malaysians,
seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three
Americans, among others.

It emerged Saturday that two of the names on the flight manifest matched stolen European passports.
Italian and Austrian officials confirmed the names of two passengers
were from passports reported stolen in Thailand. U.S. officials told NBC
News that they have not ruled out a terrorist attack as a possible cause for the plane’s disappearance.

The flight’s pilots were veterans
who together had logged more than 20,000 flying hours, reports CNN. The
plane was meant to touch down in Beijing at 6:30a.m. after a 2,300-mile
trip. But the flight suddenly lost contact mid-flight, and search teams
and experts have begun to lose hope passengers will be rescued.

“The aircraft had not been at altitude long and that strikes me
as very, very odd,” aviation expert Captain J.F. Joseph, who has 44
years flying of experience, told TIME on Saturday.
“It’s too early to say if there was a bomb or terrorist activity, but
it lost contact just as it began to level off at 35,000 ft. It would
give some indication that what occurred was catastrophic or somewhat
instantaneous.” 

regards

Big brother is good for little sisters

March 8, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
In advanced societies individuals are allowed to go about their own business and privacy is extremely prized which explains the anger felt by many americans when they came to know that their emails (and love lives) were being monitored by the Govt.

Now we know why big brother was so worried, it is all for our own good. So relax, be happy, and enjoy the ride, knowing that when (in the hopefully far-off future) you die someone will know about it (and still not care).

Also, please cancel your auto-payments. Right now.

For years, the payments went out of the woman’s bank account. Nobody batted an eyelid. Bills were paid. And life went on as normal in the quiet neighborhood of Pontiac, Michigan. Neighbors didn’t notice
anything unusual. The woman traveled a lot, they said, and kept to
herself. 

One of them mowed her grass to keep things looking tidy.



At some point, her bank account ran dry. The bills stopped being paid. After its warnings went
unanswered, the bank holding the mortgage foreclosed on the house, a
common occurrence in a region hit hard by economic woes. Still, nobody noticed what had happened inside the house. Nobody wondered out loud what had become of the owner.

Not until this week, when a worker sent by the bank to repair a hole in the roof made a grisly discovery. The woman’s mummified body was sitting in the back seat of her car, parked in the garage. The key was halfway in the ignition. Authorities say they believe the woman died at least six years ago. They’re still trying to figure out what happened.

“I’ve been doing this 37
years. Never seen anything like this before,” said Undersheriff Mike
McCabe of Oakland County, just outside Detroit…Bouchard, the county
sheriff, said Friday that there were few outward signs of anything awry.
Her mail didn’t pile up, since the post office was collecting it. And
nothing inside in her home or car pointed to a cause of death. “Nothing remarkable (was) found in the home,” the sheriff said.
regards

“Mardon wala kaam kaise karogi?”

March 8, 2014 2 Comments filed under Archived Authors
The answer is blowing in the wind (of freedom). That said I am not sure that a burqa is the safest attire for a school bus driver, especially under Mumbai road conditions.


As
soon as the class gets over at Antonio D’Souza High School on the
premises of Byculla’s Gloria Church, a dozen kids happily hop onto a
yellow-coloured mini bus parked outside the school gate. “Aunty chalo”
goes the collective cry from the chirpy bunch. Next, she starts the bus
and drops the kids to their doorsteps at neighbouring Nagpada, Clare
Road and Madanpura.

The kids “aunty” Khairunnissa Shaikh,
ferries everyday on her bus are too young to realize the importance of
the work this almost frail, bespectacled, burqa-clad woman performs. It
may not be uncommon to see women driving cars, even rickshaws and cabs
these days. But when was the last time you saw a burqa-clad Muslim woman
driving a bus, even if it is a school bus?

Nagpada resident
Shaikh (39) epitomizes a silent, liberating change blowing through
Mumbai’s Muslim streets. When she first decided to take up driving
school bus five years ago, Shaikh faced opposition, the biggest from her
mother-in-law. “Mardon wala kaam kaise karogi (How will you do a man’s
job?),” the annoyed mother-in-law asked. “I wanted to prove her and other
critics in the neighbourhood wrong,” says the woman even as her husband
Zahir looks on.

A decade ago, Zahir and Khairunnisa would walk
some students to school and make an earning. Then Zahir bought a mini
bus, but was soon diagnosed with serious heart ailment and declared
unfit to drive. “Starvation faced our family as Zahir stopped working.
There were two options to me. Either do something myself or live off
charity. I chose the former,” says the mother of two.  In her fights
against odds, she says, two persons helped her immensely. While
Nagpada-based advocate Rahman Kazi helped her financially to ensure that
her two sons continued their education (now the elder is studying
engineering while the younger is in an ITI course), Sunita Bhogle,
another bus driver at the same school, encouraged Shaikh to learn
driving.

When told that the Wahabism-influenced Saudi Arabia
has still not allowed women to drive, Shaikh says: “If women can fly
planes, why can’t she drive cars?”

She admits that many
strangers do get surprised when they see a burqa-clad woman driving a
bus. “Every adult woman in my family wears burqa. It is not a barrier if
you really want to do something meaningful,” explains the school
dropout.    regards

Unconditional Surrender Association (USA)

March 8, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
The global empire is erupting with head-aches on a daily basis. The old villain has resurrected itself and is bent on kidnapping children right and left (or letting bullies roam freely in the school-yard).  The ancient empire has risen from the ashes and threatening the well-fed, lazy, mansabdars. And now even the sustainably trained colonies are getting bent out of shape. In the past a big stick was a gate-pass (on official letterhead) to the Court, behave or else. Alas from today this proud tradition is no more. Now the only thing that will help save India is  the collective will of Indians (and that is how it should be).

Washington will drop a travel ban on Narendra Modi if he becomes the Prime Minister. US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai Biswal
finally buried the controversy over Modi’s visa as she told a TV
channel that the US would welcome the Gujarat CM if he ascends to the
top job.

“I would just say that the United States has welcomed
every leader of this vibrant democracy, and that a democratically
elected leader of India will be a welcome partner,” Biswal said adding
Washington is ready to do business with him. For nine years, the US has
kept its visa ban on Modi who has won three successive terms in Gujarat.

regards

Brown Pundits