Archive for June, 2009
No One Wants to Look at an Ugly Child
Turns out that your mother’s feelings for you may not be the unconditional things you always assumed. It’s possible, researchers say, that the prettier you were when you were born, the more she loved you.
It’s never been a secret that beautiful people get more breaks than everyone else, nor that the bias may start in the nursery. An oft cited — and deeply disturbing — Israeli study once showed that 70% of abused or abandoned children had at least one apparent flaw in their appearance, which otherwise had no impact on their health or educability.
The men are less likely than women to click off photos of unattractive babies — but clicked quite a bit to hold on to the images of the pretty ones. Their reactions are the same whether they had children of their own or not. Women, conversely also prefer looking at pretty babies but hurry away from the less attractive ones — with the results again not seeming to be influenced by whether or not they were mothers themselves.
Of all the things driving that response, the most primal one may be evolution. Parents devote a lot of resources to raising a child — food, time, money, love — and those assets are usually in finite supply. All animals, humans included, are hardwired to spend wisely, devoting the most energy to the offspring most likely to yield the highest genetic payoff; healthy, beautiful offspring are the best bet of all. Perhaps women, who still must do the lion’s share of childcare, are naturally more attuned to this trade-off than men are. “In general, men tend to be aesthetically oriented, so they’ll press a lot to hold the beautiful babies on the screen. Women are more consequence-oriented.”
It’s possible women avoid the unattractive faces not because they’re less sensitive to them but because they’re more sensitive, simply finding the hardships endured by unhealthy babies too difficult to contemplate. Such highly tuned empathy can ultimately make them better caregivers, even if a four-second exposure to the idea is painful. “Everyone will try to get away from a stimulus that feels like a punishment and hold on to one that feels like a reward.”
More important, the way people of either gender react to a picture of an anonymous child with physical abnormalities is likely to be radically different from the way they would react if that child were their own — something that is readily evident from all the disabled children on whom parents lavish love. Still, the fact that both parents and nonparents react the same way to the pictures suggests that their responses are deeply ingrained and that they may be hard to mitigate simply by having children of their own.
The gender differences, by the way, don’t let fathers off the hook. Men may not have hurried to get the unattractive faces off the screen, but neither did they linger over them the way they did the attractive faces. In both cases, this suggests bias, and when the rubber hits the road of real childcare, parents of either sex may end up having similar instincts.
The Present Rulers Will Leave After Finishing the Last Penny
At least 11 big and small, known and unknown, lobbying companies have been hired by Pakistan and state-owned Pakistani organisations in the US, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, some of them having mysterious names and almost dubious credentials.
Although lobbying is a legal profession in Washington, the way it is conducted has earned it the nickname of “officially certified corruption” and what the Pakistan government, Pakistan Embassy and Pakistani organisations are doing may come close to this unofficial definition, analysts say.
The information about these lobbying firms is public record and is available on official websites of US government agencies and organisations. But somehow Pakistani clients of these lobbying firms have tried to camouflage their widely spread activities under different names and different categories so that at one time not more than two or three companies could be officially acknowledged as government lobbyists.
All lobbyists are registered in the US as “foreign agents” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and have to disclose their activities and operations under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. All this data is then made available to the public through information posted on their official websites.
Under FARA data seven Pakistani entities are listed as clients of at least 11 lobbying companies. One such firm was de-listed in March and its client was the PPP.
Likewise lobbyists’ info, an official organisation that keeps all the data on lobbyists for the last 40 years and is the best recognised source of latest information on lobbying and lobbyists, lists seven Pakistani entities, which have hired the 11 lobbying firms in the US. These in their order of listing include:
- Council on Pakistan Relations (CPR): This is said to be based in Michigan but no other information is available except an expensive Washington DC address, 1455 Pennsylvania Avenue, one block away from the White House and next to the famous Willard Hotel. There is a website for this organisation, www.pakistanrelations.org, but it does not name any one or any organisation, which can be identified. The details of the website are also hidden. CPR has hired one of the most expensive firms in Washington, Cassidy and Associates which has former Assistant Secretary Robin Raphel as one of the senior vice presidents. General Musharraf had also hired this company in October 2007 at $1.2 million per year to lobby for him just before the imposition of the emergency in Nov 07.
- Pakistan American Business Association: This is described as a non-profit organisation and has hired a big firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, ranked by The National Law Journal in 2006 as one of the 100 largest law firms in the country. Who are these Pak-American businessmen and where are they getting the huge dollars to pay this firm and for what results is not yet known.
- Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has hired Benazir Bhutto’s personal lobbyist, Mark Siegel’s firm Locke Lord Strategies on a one-time payment of $150,000 to lobby for PIA’s landing rights in the US.
- Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) until recently had three lobbyists, BKSH, a subsidiary of Burson Marsteller, Mark Siegel’s firm LLS and a firm owned by one T Dean Reed. Lakhs of dollars were paid by PPP before the elections 2008 when Benazir Bhutto was trying to win over the US leaders to replace General Musharraf. On March 9, 2009 PPP terminated the contract of BKSH.
- Embassy of Pakistan in Washington: The latest information on lobbyists.info shows that the Pakistan Embassy has currently retained three main lobbying firms: Moses Boyd, Mark Siegel’s LLS and Ogilvy Public Relations (one of the names in this firm’s list of associates is Irfan Kamal. Who is he and what role he plays, whether any, is not known).
- Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Government of Pakistan: Under this name, a mysterious firm named ‘Team Eagle’ has been hired as one of the two lobbying companies, the other bang White & Case LLP in which one Pakistani name, Imran R Mir, is mentioned as an associate.
- Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: Under this name only one name of a Pakistan-based company Asiatic Advertising is registered. No details of transactions are available for this firm.
These seven Pakistani organisations have thus hired 11 firms, separately and mysteriously in some cases, but what output and results are these companies providing is unknown and not clear. It would be a suitable case for parliamentary oversight bodies like the Public Accounts Committee to look into the details of these firms and how much they were paid for what results.
The data provided by US government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) until June 2008 is as follows. This lists some of the firms hired and paid by the Musharraf regime and some by the PPP government. It is amusing to note that the purpose of payment in some cases is just ridiculous like training Pakistani officials in the Embassy on how to deal with US media. The following is the data as listed on FARA web site:
- BKSH & Associates #5402, 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005
Pakistan People’s Party (t) Nature of Services: Public Relations.
The registrant contacted congressional staffers, members of the Congress, and the US government officials to check on status of Resolution 445 and to assist the foreign principal in its effort to promote democracy in Pakistan and in providing its views on the current political, economic and humanitarian situation on the ground in Pakistan. The registrant also contacted congressional staffers to discuss upcoming visit of representatives of the foreign principal to the United States. $31,299.65 for the six-month period ending June 30, 2008.
- Burson-Marsteller #2469 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20005-3544
Pakistan People’s Party (t) 60 Nature of Services: Media Relations.
The registrant developed media monitoring reports, spoke with media representatives, secured and attended meetings for party representatives, and secured and staffed interviews for party representatives on behalf of the foreign principal. $49,837.13 for the six-month period ending April 30, 2008.
- Cassidy & Associates, Inc #5643 700 13th Street, N.W. Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (t) 60 Nature of Services: Lobbying.
The registrant contacted congressional staffers and the US government officials to promote a better understanding of the foreign principal’s political, social and economic developments. $100,000.00 for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. Printed as of: February 11, 2009 Page 160 of 229 Pakistan.
- Dewey & LeBoeuf, LLP #5835 1101 New York Avenue, NW Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005-4213
Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan, Embassy 60 Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying.
The registrant provided services to the foreign principal including developing action plans that advance Pakistan’s commercial and trade objectives vis-‡-vis the US government and the private sector. $294,042.83 for the six-month period ending April 30, 2008.
- JWT Asiatic, a division of WPP Marketing Communications (Pvt.) Ltd #5722 ABN Amro Bank Building 16 Abdullah Haroon Road Karachi
Government of Pakistan 60 Nature of Services: Advertising. Activities: None Reported Finances: None Reported.
- Locke Lord Strategies, LP #5856 401 9th Street, NW Suite 400 South Washington, DC 20004
PPP; Asif Ali Zardari, Co-Chairperson of the PPP 60.
Nature of Services: Lobbying.
The registrant agreed to promote the democratic transition of Pakistan and to encourage the international investigation of the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Finances: None Reported
- Locke Lord Strategies, LP #5856 401 9th Street, NW Suite 400 South Washington, DC 20004
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 60. Nature of Services: Lobbying.
The registrant will conduct strategic and governmental affairs communications on behalf of the foreign principal. Finances: None Reported
Printed as of: February 11, 2009 Page 161 of 229 Pakistan.
- Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide #5807 1111 19th Street, NW 10th Floor Washington, DC 20036
Embassy of Pakistan (t) 60 Nature of Services: Media Relations.
On behalf of the foreign principal, the registrant provided media training to embassy staff, drafted informational materials for distribution to journalists and other media outlets, facilitated the embassy’s interactions with journalists and other media outlets, and provided strategic guidance with respect to the United States media. $256,809.00 for the six-month period ending May 31, 2008.
- Reed, T Dean #5044 37277 Branchriver Road Purcellville, VA 20132-1922
PPP (t) 60 Nature of Services: Public Relations.
The registrant provided public relations advice and consultation to the foreign principal and the editing of a newsletter. $10,500.00 for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008.
- Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc. #5401 101 Constitution Avenue, NW Suite 600 West Washington, DC 20001
Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Embassy (t) 60
Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying.
The registrant monitored, advised and evaluated legislative issues, as well as arranged meetings and accompanied Pakistani government officials to meetings with members of the Congress, and congressional staffers to discuss general US-Pakistan issues. Representatives of the registrant also traveled to Pakistan to meet with Pakistani government officials. $330,000.00 for the six-month period ending June 30, 2008.
Did Pakistani Spies Kill 11 French Naval Engineers?
When, in May 2002, suicide bombers attacked a bus in Karachi in southern Pakistan and killed 11 French naval engineers, most officials believed it was the work of radicals tied to al-Qaeda. Although no such group ever took credit for the attack, the jihadist theory has long remained the one favored by authorities in both Pakistan and France. But now French authorities are turning to far less conventional — and more controversial — suspicions: that the strike may have been organized by members of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services, as revenge for France cutting off millions of dollars in kickback payments promised in a 1994 submarine deal.
“This theory is being considered as the most likely, especially now that all the other plausible explanations have been seriously undermined,” says a French counter-terrorism official who has knowledge of France’s inquiry into the Karachi bombing. “Investigations in France have produced written evidence and testimony that kickbacks to Pakistani authorities had been agreed upon, paid, then unilaterally terminated from Paris. That theoretically provides the Pakistani authorities involved with a motive for an attack — meaning we now have to see if that can be fully substantiated.”
French counter-terrorism officials have for months been privately airing their growing skepticism about jihadist responsibility for the 2002 attack. It wasn’t until last week, however, that word leaked to the press that the specialized investigating magistrates handling the case in France appeared to have all but abandoned the al-Qaeda theory. On June 19, lawyers representing families of the bombing’s French victims told reporters they’d received a briefing earlier that day by judges Yves Jannier and Marc Trévidic describing the scenario of Pakistani officials having organized the strike as credible, and citing supporting evidence obtained over the course of France’s inquiry into the attack.
This new theory hinges on a change in French government as the possible trigger. In 1994, Paris signed a $1 billion deal to sell and assemble Agosta submarines to Pakistan; a year later, the cabinet of newly elected President Jacques Chirac decided to start holding back payment of some $33 million in kickbacks that had been promised to Pakistani officials who had helped secure the contract. French security officials say that last year French investigators obtained documents and testimonies by people involved with the transaction showing that after those funds were retained, Pakistani officials who were designated in the contract to receive “commissions” for their help repeatedly insisted they be paid. By 2000, when France applied an international anti-corruption convention banning kickbacks, Paris could truthfully claim it was unable to pay such “commissions” without breaking the law.
That, some French authorities now believe, is when some Pakistani officials got mad. The authorities suspect that members of Pakistan’s overlapping military, intelligence and political circles decided to settle their score by symbolically targeting the French submarine engineers tied to the contract. Then they allegedly manipulated extremists whom Pakistan has long been accused of supporting to carry out the attack in order to maintain plausible deniability.
“Investigators have now established that these contracted commissions had become a major point of dispute, and are now trying to see if they were the motive for whomever ordered the bus carrying the French engineers to be bombed,” the French counter-terrorism official says. “Right now, retaliation for the undelivered payments to Pakistani officials is seen as the strongest theory there is.”
Skeptics ask what Pakistani officials would gain by killing the French workers. They still wouldn’t get their money, since France presumably wouldn’t be bullied into paying up in response to such an outrageous attack. French officials say the logic of the attack would have been similar to Mafia hits on outstanding debtors: to make an example of someone deemed unlikely to pay up, and thereby send a message that others will understand while officially being able to point the finger at another culprit.
After news of the French investigators’ suspicions broke last week, Pakistan’s media carried a cascade of official denials from leaders, while Farah Ispahani, spokeswoman for President Zardari, qualified the allegation as “farcical at best.” In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy — who was economy minister at the time the submarine contract was signed — responded with outrage. “This is ridiculous. Grotesque,” Sarkozy told reporters. “We have to respect the grief of the families. Who would ever believe such a tale?”
Pakistan continues to note that its own investigation into the bombing — which killed the highest number of Westerners yet in a single attack on Pakistani soil — traced it directly to jihadists. Following several months of inquiries, Pakistani police arrested seven suspected members of Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alaami, a group described as an offshoot of the Harkatul Mujahideen currently waging jihad in Kashmir. Three men were convicted and tried for organizing the Karachi attack, which Pakistani officials said was retaliation for the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
But French officials ridicule Pakistan’s inquiry, saying it contained countless errors and ignored all leads that didn’t conveniently point to the usual suspects in a post-9/11 world. Because of that, one French security official say, the entire Pakistani case “seemed to be out to justify the obvious suspicion of jihadist responsibility, rather than studying the evidence to find out who else might have been behind the bombing”.
And the Pakistani courts seem to agree. Last month, two of the principle suspects in the attack saw their earlier convictions and death sentences overturned on appeal. A third man who had also been convicted in the case is awaiting appeal.
The implosion of Pakistan’s case has further stoked French allegations that the actual goal of the investigation was to hand France plausible culprits while diverting attention from the real plotters. But an article in Thursday’s daily Libération indicates Pakistan had some help in that, claiming key French officials themselves long discounted indicators that the attack had directly targeted people linked to the submarine contract as they focused on al-Qaeda connections.
If true, that makes Sarkozy’s rush to discredit the latest theory even more puzzling. Some French security officials have a possible explanation for the president’s reaction: his concern that it could complicate his efforts to do away with France’s independent investigative magistrates and entrust all inquiries to public prosecutors appointed by politicians — which, critics say, would make them more likely to intervene in sensitive cases out of political concern rather than in the pursuit of justice. But for now, the country’s independent investigators are pushing politics aside in their search for justice for the Karachi attacks — even if it means rocking Franco-Pakistani relations to their core.
Facilitating Extramarital Affairs,
AshleyMadison.com, a personals site designed to facilitate extramarital affairs, now boasts slick iPhone and Blackberry versions that help married horndogs find like-minded cheaters within minutes. The new tools are aimed at tech-savvy adulterers wary of leaving tracks on work or home computers. Because the apps are loaded up from phones’ browsers, they leave no electronic trail that suspicious spouses can trace.
Even as public outrage boils up over the infidelity of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Senator John Ensign, millions of Americans are sneaking online to do some surreptitious cheating of their own.
Unlike Craigslist’s plain-Jane listings, AshleyMadison lets cheaters customize profiles, chat anonymously and trade messages about adulterous preferences — all in an effort to make cheating as simple as using Match.com.
The formula is working. AshleyMadison’s membership has doubled over the past year to 4 million. The Toronto-based site, which takes its name from the two most popular female names in 2001, the year it launched, enjoyed another big boost this week, following Father’s Day, when CEO Noel Biderman says men often feel underappreciated. Traffic to the site tripled on Monday. (Biderman says there’s a similar boost in interest from neglected wives and girlfriends after Valentine’s Day.)
Over the past month alone, 679,000 men and women have used the service to contact a cheating partner. According to their profiles, 92% of males on the site are married or otherwise attached, as are 60% of female members. No word on how many politicians have signed on.
Critics call AshleyMadison a cruel sex site that profits from marital pain. “This is a business built on the back of broken hearts, ruined marriages and damaged families,” says Trish McDermott, a dating-industry consultant who helped found Match.com and Engage.com. “It’s in the business of rebranding infidelity,” she says, “making it not only monetizable, but adding a modicum of normalcy to it. AshleyMadison is making bad choices, broken promises and faithlessness look like something that’s trendy and hip and fun to talk about at a cocktail party.”
“We’re just a platform,” responds Biderman. “No website or 30-second ad is going to convince anyone to cheat,” he says. “People cheat because their lives aren’t working for them.” Not everyone buys that line of defense. The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently refused to run an AshleyMadison ad referencing the Ensign scandal. But other racy TV, billboard and radio ads have succeeded in raising the site’s profile over the past year to the point where by some measures it’s in the top tier of dating sites, with tens of millions of dollars in annual profits. AshleyMadison charges members $49 for a package of credits they can use to contact up to 20 members. Members don’t pay to receive messages, just to initiate contact, so many women end up using the site for free.
Maybe that’s why many of the site’s new members are female. Biderman says the proportion of women on the site has grown from 15% — when the service quietly launched in 2001 — to nearly 30% today.
Dorothy, a 45-year-old Floridian whose screen name begins with SexyMom, says she’s been married for 20 years but started using the site four months ago because her husband constantly turned down sex and refused marriage counseling. “It’s like the seven-year itch, but 20 years later,” she says. “My husband never throws me a compliment. Now I meet guys who say, ‘You’re so hot,’ or ‘You have great eyes.’”
On a recent weekday, 38 men sent messages to Dorothy, who checks these e-mails on her phone during breaks at work. “If I wanted to schedule something for morning, noon and night, I could,” she says. She ignores most inquiries, especially those from immature 20-somethings or older men seeking a one-night stand. “I’m looking for a friend, possibly with benefits,” she says, “but I’m not out there to shake someone’s hand and open my legs.”
So far Dorothy has met seven men through the site, she says, including a wealthy, 49-year-old divorced doctor with whom she hit it off. Dorothy says her husband would be livid if he found out, but he doesn’t know how to use a computer. “Now I don’t have to bug him for intimacy,” she says.
AshleyMadison isn’t the only site aimed at under-the-radar relationships. Sites like EstablishedMen.com and SeekingArrangement.com all offer variations on the theme. But AshleyMadison is the most successful site openly capitalizing on extramarital affairs.
And for that, Biderman offers no apologies. “Humans aren’t meant to be monogamous,” he says. So would this free-thinking CEO mind if his own wife used his site? “I would be devastated,” he says.
How to Help the Urban Poor?
The Indian Planning Commission estimates the urban poor at some 80 million
Figure for the rural poor is 120 million
Over 98 million people migrate from rural to urban centres
Work is on in India to give shape to an urban poverty alleviation scheme. Officials in the ministry of urban development and poverty alleviation are waiting for President Pratibha Patil to make the formal announcement in her address to Parliament before they draw up a road map for the new scheme. “Unlike NREGS, the scheme for the urban poor will not address the problem by offering an employment guarantee. Instead, it will focus on developing skills through self-help groups and communities,” an official said.
As the majority of the poor are employed in the informal sector, special schemes are being planned for them. These include health insurance, education subsidy, and imparting specific skills, such as in the use of computers and in the marketing of traditional craft products, skills surrounding which floating populations often bring when they migrate to cites. The thrust will be to increase the accessibility to services offered by the government.
The setting up of self-help groups will also be in focus. This will help groups of people better themselves through enterprise and the acquisition of skills, and with several individuals pitching in, new small-scale enterprises, trading platforms or services can be created. The government plans to help set up such groups. So it will be a “we will help you help yourself” kind of package.
There’s nothing new about plans to alleviate urban poverty. In its previous term, the UPA government had thought of a Rs 10,000-crore urban employment scheme covering 10 million families below the poverty line. A plan was also worked out by the National Commission for the Unorganised Sector. About Rs 6,000 crore was earmarked for wages and Rs 4,000 crore for skill development. Broadly, the government had aimed at making a one-time expenditure of Rs 10,000 per person. But the current thinking is that merely providing employment guarantees will not do. Says a ministry official: “We don’t think providing employment alone will work, for poverty in urban areas has more to do with having access to services like housing, water supply, medical care, education and so forth. It is with this in mind that the government is proposing to launch a slew of schemes addressing these issues.”
But who are the urban poor and what are their numbers? The Planning Commission estimates the urban poor at 80 million, in comparison to the rural poor, who are some 120 million. Two studies—by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank—had fixed the required minimum daily earning at $1.25 and $1.35 respectively per person.
A new framework to assess urban poverty was arrived at by the Office of the Commissioners to the Supreme Court, the Planning Commission, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) and NGOs last year. The consensus was that income alone cannot serve as a yardstick of poverty. For, by that token, Delhi has one of India’s highest per capita incomes (Rs 66,728 per annum, against the national average of Rs 29,642), but it also has 15 lakh poor. It was also noted that place of residence alone does not automatically qualify someone as poor. Occupation, nature of employment, whether casual or self-employed, wages, health—all had to be factored in. So when will Manmohan Singh play his urban trumpcard? It may not happen immediately, given the huge fiscal deficit. But the programme will certainly take off, say officials in the urban development ministry.
Priest Asks Sister: `Ve you Seen a Man’
Excerpts from Sister Jesme’s Book Amen: Autobiography of a Nun
The Rule of Touch, along with the Rule of Silence and the Rule of Sight, is very strict in the convent. No sister may touch another. But there are sisters, who sitting beside each other, play ‘footsie’, as one sister entwines her foot with the other’s and rubs against it; or sometimes a sister’s hand lingers and caresses another’s shoulder, on the pretext of smoothing her dress. These are only a few-and hopefully, stray-instances.
Groupism is another ill that I did not expect to find here. One cannot live in peace without joining one of the groups.
The place is abuzz with mysterious whisperings. I am the last person to know what has happened. People come and tell me, ‘Memy, many of us are upset over a serious happening, especially Kusumam and Maria.’
When I ask why, they continue, ‘Don’t you know, the priest has been kissing each of them when they have gone to him for an interview?’ I remember him asking me permission to do the same, to, which I refused. ‘Why didn’t these girls respond thus?’ I ask myself. Is it fear or that Vow of Obedience ingrained in them?
His [the priest's] argument is surprising. ‘Molé, I have asked permission from each one of them. And only those who agreed, did I kiss. It is in the spirit of the Bible and Jesus.’ He seeks to prove this to me with quotations from the Bible’s Epistles, a little later. St Paul writes: ‘Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ (1Cor: 16:20); ‘Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.’ (1Thessa: 5:26); St Peter says: ‘Greet one another with the kiss of love.’ (1Peter: 5:14)
Gradually, I find that Sr Vimy is ‘after’ me. She writes pages of ‘love letters’ and leaves them in my canonical prayer books. I shiver seeing these letters and always hand them over to my Mistress in the convent. She tears them off and throws them into the wastepaper basket. As I don’t respond, Sr Vimy turns against me.
But the sisters in the convent suggest I go to one Father’s place to rest. I am given the address of a priest who is well known and noted for his celibacy and holiness. He [the priest] has a hidden agenda in taking me there, I soon realize. Pointing to each couple beneath the trees, he holds forth on the need for physical love. Then he tells me about cases of priests and Bishops who have illicit relationships with women. There is one Bishop who sleeps with a woman, has a child from her and makes arrangements for its maintenance. I feel terribly awkward at the priest’s strange behaviour and manner of talking. Later, I am taken to his room for coffee prepared by him. While I am having the coffee sitting on the cot, the only place in the room to sit, he comes and embraces me hard, almost suffocating me. When I struggle to escape from his clutches, he squeezes my breasts and asks me to show them to him. Refusing him angrily, I get up to leave but he forces me to sit down, asking, ‘Have you seen a “man”?’
Indian Muslims Getting Arabised
By Dnyanesh Jathar
At Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibte Razi’s Iftar party last Ramzan, former chief minister Shibu Soren came dressed as an Arab sheikh. He wanted to showcase his secular credentials at the photo-op. And he succeeded, too, as pictures of ‘sheikh Soren’ appeared in the media. But he did not realise that Indian Muslims didn’t wear such dress.
Was he taken in by the Arabisation of the Indian Muslim? Political scientist Ashis Nandy had said in an interview that India was witnessing the Arabisation of Islam. “At one time, Indian Muslims were proud that their Islam represented the best of the world’s traditions. But they are increasingly losing that confidence as a direct product of 19th century European scholars who claimed that West Asian Islam was the real Islam while other strands were influenced by local religions. These scholars endorsed fundamentalist Islam as the real Islam,” Nandy had said. He cited the example of Indonesia where western-educated women felt that the Islam of their parents was not good enough and introduced the hijab. “The same thing is happening in India. Muslims are virtually in uniform with skullcaps and kurta-pyjama,” Nandy said.
The metamorphosis has been gradual, but insidious. It has homogenised a religion that once found expression in many local forms across the country, having imbibed regional customs and accommodated religious syncreticism. Over the past three decades, fundamentalists have tried to homogenise Islam. The homogenising towards Arabisation emphasises rituals and codes of conduct over substance and Islam’s universalism.
In Delhi’s Nizamuddin area, many Muslim youth favour the the long, white, shirt-like dress. “It is the dress of our Prophet. It shows your love towards the Prophet,” Abdullah said. The crowd of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs at the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya bears testimony to India’s heritage of religious syncretism. But an elderly Muslim at the entrance of the shrine is distressed by the growing influence of the Jamaat. “They are good Muslims. But they make young kids radical by spreading wrong words about the shrine and insist on particular rituals and dress,” he said. But Abdullah said, “These visitors to the shrine are on the wrong path. Don’t pray to a dead man. Go to the mosque instead.”
Islamic practices have changed. There was a time when Muslim neighbours spoke the same language and dressed like the Hindus. There was a healthy interaction between Hindus and Muslims. Boys used to play together and religion was limited within the household. Now language has become the first barrier, with the Muslim youth preferring to speak in Urdu-enriched Hindi. Many don’t even know the local language any more. Why is there a sudden need to assert a homogenous Islamic identity, giving up customs they have lived with for generations?.
The two aspects of Islamic culture in the Middle East are loyalty to the family and clan and a greater loyalty to the religion and the larger community of believers, the Ummah. But this loyalty to the Ummah should not be misinterpreted. As per Islamic tenets, loyalty to one’s nation is very important. Identifying with Islamic identities is not supposed to be at the cost of national loyalty. The concept of universal Muslim brotherhood is actually a positive one and should be approached as such.
There is a resurgence of fundamentalism in Muslim society. In the past, no Muslim woman from south Kerala wore purdah. It is common now, a direct influence of Wahabi fundamentalism. Eevout Muslims had always wanted to read the Koran in the original language, Arabic.
Mansoor Khan, a Mumbai businessman, cited an Ayat (verse) from the Koran to prove that loyalty to the nation took precedence over loyalty to the Ummah in Islam. “There is a concept which says Hubbul-Watni-Minal-Iman, meaning loyalty, is a basic core of a Muslim. According to it, if you are not loyal to your country you are not loyal to Islam,” he said.
Perhaps, Indian Muslims have been feeling an increasing sense of loyalty to their religion and community because of the forces of globalisation and modernisation and a sense of perceived persecution that intensified as right-wing Hindu nationalism gathered strength. Events like the Babri Masjid demolition heightened their sense of alienation. This feeling also stems from the loss of Islamic power over the country. Muslim kings had ruled the Indian subcontinent for more than half a millennia, till the British colonised it. Dr Sheshrao More, a scholar from Maharashtra and author of Muslim Manacha Shodh (Islam: Maker of the Muslim Mind), argues in another book that the 1857 War of Independence was in fact a jihad waged by Indian Muslims to oust the British and regain lost power.
Globalisation and modernisation have been key factors in the evolution of the Indian Muslim. Indian Muslims have preferred Middle Eastern nations like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to seek employment, as they were bound by ties of the Ummah. Gulf earnings helped many of Indian Muslims go for the Haj. The number of those who went to Haj was 31,000 in 1995. In 2000, Air India alone carried 71,924 pilgrims to Jeddah, and last year, the Indian government approved an increase in the number of Haj pilgrims who can get subsidy from 1,10,000 to 1,23,211.
“Indian Muslims exposed to the Middle East returned influenced by the material progress and lifestyle of the Arab world,” said commentator Muzaffar Hussain. But they were also influenced by the form of Islam practised in the Middle East. As preachers trained there came to India, the first imprints of Arabisation became evident. Shaista Amber, head of the Women Muslim Personal Law Board, however, said the Arabian influences were cosmetic—like using the sacred Aab e zamzam (holy water) for rites, developing a taste for palm dates, or bringing back the janamazi (prayer mat) or taibil (prayer beads).
More said Muslims in urban areas might be becoming more rigid in their observance of Koranic teachings but that did not mean they were getting Arabised. “On the other hand, most Indian Muslims in rural India are like other Indians,” he said.
The migration of Muslims to Saudi Arabia for jobs over the past three decades might have influenced them. There are obvious changes in the style of burqas women wear and the garb men prefer. Even children are being given more Arabic names. But this is restricted to a few people and is not a huge demographic phenomenon.
The representation of Muslims in the media was hurting Islam’s image. The accused in the Batla House shootout were shown with their heads covered with the Arabic scarf, as if to show that Arabisation of Islam was taking place. Islam came to this world through the most pious chosen Arab, Prophet Mohammad. This religion was revealed in Arabia at a time when Arabs were entangled in a state of anarchy. They were divided into qabilas and had evil practices like burying girl children. Islam rose out of such social and inhuman practices and became a religion practised worldwide.
According to journalist-commentator Muzaffar Hussain, the lower middle and middle class Muslims in India are less Muslim and more Indian. “But there is now a clash between Indianness and fundamentalism in the mindset of the Indian Muslim. With the growing influence of forces like the Taliban, the core religious corner of their mind says this is how Islam gained supremacy. But another part of them will always identify with their Indian culture and upbringing,” he said.
Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan felt there was an Indianisation of Muslims. “They have finally shed the legacy of the Muslim League and Partition. They don’t believe the Pakistani propaganda that there are no opportunities for Muslims in India,” he said. “Our only bond with Saudi Arabia is that Mecca is there. And that the Koran was first penned in Arabic.”
Mansoor Khan said the Arabs were no longer following true Islam and Arabisation would never take place among Indian Muslims. Said he: “If Arabs were to follow true Islamic law, there would have been democracy in the Arab nations. Our first caliph, after the Prophet, was democratically chosen.”
The Death of Sari
“People in Delhi have abandoned their own traditional clothing,” says a weaver who works for his family business in Jammu and Kashmir. “We have started making more suits and shirts than saris,” he says. “People don’t buy saris anymore. Now they buy jeans.”
Ahmed has been working in the sari business for the past 13 years, during which the popularity of the famous garb has declined drastically in India’s cities. Handloom-weaving is a small-scale business, so there are no comprehensive statistics to track it, but weavers say they’ve noticed a marked decline in the past decade.
Some blame the slowdown on women’s changing tastes. It is particularly bad for handloom saris — the simple cotton saris that many Indian women used to wear every day. Their plain designs and muted colors have no appeal for women. Many never wear it casually, only for formal occasions.
Sales do pick up in the winter, Delhi’s high season for lavish parties and weddings, but fashionable young women are more interested in designer saris in sheer fabrics made on power looms, not the traditional handwoven silks like the ones in their mothers’ cabinets. “I’m a sari freak,” says Nangia. “I love wearing saris for parties and functions, but that’s only designer saris, actually. Who wears traditional saris anymore?” She adds that she is the only one in her circle of friends who has any interest in wearing saris at all. “Youngsters feel like it’s more ‘oldy’ stuff,” she says. “I think it’s just gradually dying out with time.”
The most prized Indian sari styles — Banarasi and Kanjeevaram silks — are also facing new competition. Depending on the intricacy of design, it takes 15 to 30 days to weave one of these saris, which sell for $50 to $60. A Banarasi silk weaver, Ansari, 37, has been working for the past 20 years weaving these garments, which come from the holy city of Varanasi. “The industry is facing lots of difficulties,” he says. “This is primarily because the sale of fake Banarasi saris made in power looms has been picking up and also because of the sale of cheap imports from China. The government is not stopping this, and our trade is suffering.”
Even in South India, where saris are much more popular than in the north, weavers are having trouble finding a market. Kanjeevaram saris, made in the town of Kanjeevaram, near Chennai, are made by cooperative weaver societies. In 2004, there were 22 weaver societies in Kanjeevaram, but only 13 are left today. Of these 13, only five say they are doing well. Last year, the 13 weavers sold about $12 million worth of saris, down from $40 million in 2004. The best-known sari shops, like Nalli, which has gleaming showrooms in several big Indian cities, have contracts with some Kanjeevaram weaver co-ops, which is helping them hang on. But it isn’t enough to stop people from fleeing the profession. In and around Kanchipuram, famous for the Kanjeevaram silk saris that hail from this region, the manpower in the weaving industry has gone down drastically, from 60,000 10 years ago to about 20,000 today.
While those dwindling numbers may spell the death of India’s traditional weaving skills, women in Delhi embrace the change as a sign of progress. There is a general perception that you would consider a woman in Western formal wear more empowered than her more traditional counterparts. And to be fair, the sari industry is not exactly putting up a fight. It’s exiting the stage slowly and almost imperceptibly, with the exception perhaps of Indian soap operas, in which every woman is dressed in an impeccably ironed and draped sari while she cooks and schemes against her mother-in-law. Of course, everyone knows that’s not real life.
How Much Paid to Lawyers to Defend Musharraf?
By Ansar Abbasi
PM Gilani’s government appears hell-bent upon keeping under wraps the hefty fees paid from the taxpayers’ money to the Pirzadas, Bukharis, Qayyums of this world during the tenure of the ousted dictator, Gen Musharraf.
The government is steadfastly resisting a formal request to unveil the identity of all those lawyers who made fortunes during Musharraf’s tenure.
Of late even an order from the Federal Ombudsman directing the Law Ministry to provide the said information to an applicant is not being honoured as the ministry preferred to approach the incumbent president to get a decision in its favour to keep the tracks of his predecessor covered. The applicant had sought a certified copy of the list containing the names and addresses of lawyers, along with the total amount paid to them, hired by the federal government/ federation of Pakistan in the Supreme Court of Pakistan from Oct 1, 2002 to March 20, 2008. But the Law Ministry in its representation to the president insists that if the required information is provided to the application then it would open a Pandora’s box, besides creating unnecessary problems and embarrassing situations.
The applicant after failing to get information from the Law Ministry by invoking the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 had approached the Federal Ombudsman last year. Early this month, the Federal Ombudsman decided in the applicant’s favour after rejecting the Law Ministry’s request, but now the ministry has filed a representation against the Ombudsman’s findings with the president, who is requested to set aside Ombudsman’s decision “in the interest of justice”.
In its argument, the Law Ministry wrote to the president that for the purpose of hiring advocates from outside the existing central law officers or the panel of advocates, the ministry had a Legal Advisers Committee comprising the law minister as its chairman and the attorney-general and the law secretary as its members.
It explained the cases of hiring of advocates were decided by the then-Legal Advisors Committee through a meeting which was held for the purpose and the decisions were reflected in the minutes of the meeting. The disclosure of such information, the ministry said, is not covered under the Freedom of Information Ordinance, though the Federal Ombudsman did not agree with the ministry on this point.
“Even otherwise, this record is confidential and classified in nature and was excluded from the purview of the ordinance under the provisions of Section 8 (f) & (i) of the ordinance.
Moreover, if the required information was provided to the requester then it would create unnecessary problems, embarrassing situation, and open a Pandora’s box, further it would be a direct interference in the internal working of this division,” the Law Ministry said, lamenting, “The Wafaqi Mohtasib vide his recommendation dated 4-5-2009 has decided the said complaint in the favour of complainant and directed this division to provide the requisite documents to the complainant within 30 days.”
Now it is for the president to decide whether he would side with the Law Ministry to keep it a secret as who amongst the lawyers made their fortunes while serving the dictator of the past or would he direct the government to make this information public; thus, allowing the taxpayers to judge how their money was squandered by the ousted dictator to perpetuate his unconstitutional rule. The Mohtasib has already given his mind and the ball is now in President Zardari’s court
