“Unfortunately, we have not followed Gandhi’s teachings fully in India’’
Yeah, NO KIDDING!!!!
Whether it is cooperating with the Israeli Mossad to raise hell in Afghanistan and Pakistan or girding up to be a front line for WWIII (against China and Pakistan), they have failed the great Mahatma.
"Visitors to India get 'Gandhi' experience" by Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post | June 21, 2009
NEW DELHI - For millions of foreign tourists who come to India every year, the blockbuster attractions are still the grand palaces of the medieval maharajahs and that delicate marble monument to timeless love, the Taj Mahal.
A few years ago, though, a new trend of theme-based tours sprang up. The Buddhist trail lured visitors looking for nirvana. Rural tourism took travelers to spruced-up villages. Slum tours led them down sewer-lined alleys for a brush with poverty.
Now comes the latest variant: Gandhi tourism.
He'd be APPALLED!!!!!!!
The past three years have seen a mushrooming of tours tracing the footsteps of independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, the bony, bare-chested ascetic whose philosophy of nonviolence helped Indians overthrow 200 years of British colonial rule.
Try 400, will ya? I guess the history degree WAS good for something.
Tour operators have enlisted historians, Gandhi disciples, and even direct descendants of the Gandhi family to lead visitors to the great man’s birthplace in the western state of Gujarat, the site of his assassination in New Delhi and a number of museums and memorials.
In February, Martin Luther King III came to retrace the journey his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., took to India 50 years ago to study Gandhi’s campaign of nonviolence.
“It is very heartening to see a resurgence of interest in Gandhi across the world,’’ said Varsha Das, director of the National Gandhi Museum near Rajghat, the peaceful riverside memorial where the sage’s bullet-riddled body was cremated. “Foreign tourists who follow his trail are filled with tremendous reverence.’’
But they are MISSING the MESSAGE!!!
Tour participants might drop in for tea with a member of the Gandhi family, attend a musical prayer session, or participate in a hands-on workshop where they squat on the ground and learn how to operate a wooden spinning wheel like the one Gandhi used to make handspun cloth in a protest against imported textiles.
One company offers a four-hour tour called “The Assassination of Gandhi,’’ in which tourists are taken to the site of Gandhi’s 1948 killing. A historian tells the story of that wintry January day when Gandhi made his way to his daily prayer meeting, flanked by his two devoted nieces. The tourists hear readings from the police report that was filed after a man pulled out a black Beretta automatic pistol and fired three shots into Gandhi’s chest.
Why hide the Hindu nationalist connection?
“Young tourists want more action and are interested in the scene of the assassination. The older people want to understand his philosophy,’’ said Varun Mathur, cofounder of Tallis & Co., a tour operator.
This winter, during the tourist season, Gandhi’s great-grandson, 49-year-old Tushar Gandhi, will join with a New York-based company called Go Philanthropic in a venture targeting affluent people interested in donating to Indian projects that follow Gandhi’s principles.
“It is tourism with a cause,’’ Tushar Gandhi said in a telephone interview. “We have identified two programs for them to visit. One works among child laborers rescued from hazardous and exploitative industries. We hope that after spending a few days here, they would help in setting up schools and shelters for these children. The second program is one working toward women’s empowerment.’’
Yeah, they burn up brides but you rarely ever read about that here in the states or in the Globe.
It's ALWAYS BAD, ICKY, MUSLIMS who WIFE-WHIP and DRINK BLOOD!
Go Philanthropic representatives say they have just begun to market the Gandhi trip and have received several early queries.
One question tourists ask Varsha Das on the Gandhi trail is: “How much of Gandhi is still alive in India?’’
“My answer is, ‘Unfortunately, we have not followed Gandhi’s teachings fully in India,’ ’’ Das said.--more--"
As usual, the ENDING was my LEAD! I should just POST THESE ARTICLES BACKWARDS!
"For child actors, life after ‘Slumdog’ full of promise, poverty" by Emily Wax, Washington Post | August 23, 2009
MUMBAI - At a time when call centers and software outsourcing have become the symbols of a booming India, “Slumdog Millionaire’’ brought to light an equally true reality: the hardscrabble lives of many slum children of an India brimming with optimism and eagerness to be the world’s next superpower....
SUPERPOWER?
I'll bet the ALARM BELLS are going off in PAKISTAN RIGHT NOW!!!!
Next SUPERPOWER!?
I guess that's why CLINTON DOLED OUT the WEAPONRY!
Over two decades, India has awakened from a drowsy agricultural nation and into an industrial one that has lifted millions out of poverty. Rapid urbanization and the opening of markets has broken down feudal village roles and inspired young Indians to grab hold of new destinies in cities far from their birthplaces. Mumbai has become a magnet for a new generation of Indians, a New York of India, where professions are no longer inherited, where hundreds sleep on the street for a chance at a better life.
Hence the FALSE-FLAG ATTACK, 'eh?
See: Clinton Chooses Sides For WWIII
After their visit to Hollywood, in May their lives seemed to return to normal. Normal for slumdogs, that is, since the government bulldozed their illegal tin-roofed shanties in a scene that seemed straight out of the gritty film.
“They took all our furniture and broke my cellphone,’’ Rubina recounted on a recent day, inside the rebuilt one-room shelter that her family painted bright pink to cheer her up. “They beat my father. We thought of calling Uncle Danny, but what could he do? He was in America.’’
Then her father was accused in the sting. Around the same time, Azhar’s father was hospitalized, drunk again and suffering from tuberculosis. Homeless and living under blankets and tarp, Azhar was bitten by rats and had to get medical care.
“We were hit by police with bamboo sticks,’’ she said. “It was a bad time, when they destroyed all the shelters. I cried. A lot.’’
“Nearly every child from the slums has had their home bulldozed and has a parent who has a drinking or gambling problem or has walked out,’’ said Ziyan Contractor, 28, their teacher at the well-respected Aseema School, chosen by Boyle because it’s a public school where slum children receive an excellent education. “Every single scene of that movie was true. The only scene that wasn’t true was when they dance on the train platform at the end. There is no space to dance on the platforms of Mumbai: only a crush of people.’’
--more--"
It just gets WORSE!
"It is now the focal point for seemingly bottomless Kashmiri rage at the continuing presence of the roughly 500,000-strong Indian security force here.... a full-scale occupation..... They remain even though violence.... has fallen to its lowest point in two decades....
rapes by soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and a lack of redress are endemic, not least because security forces are largely shielded from prosecution by laws put in place when Indian troops were battling a once-potent insurgency here."
"2 brutalized bodies, 1 coverup, limitless rage; Murders stoke Kashmiri anger at Indian forces" by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times | August 16, 2009
A sister of murder victim Nilofa Jan tended to Jan’s 2-year-old son, Suzain, in Kashmir, India. (Candace Feit/ The New York Times)
SHOPIAN, India - On a sunny late spring afternoon, Asiya and Nilofa Jan left home to tend to their family’s apple orchard. They passed police camps wreathed in razor wire as they crossed the bridge over the ankle-deep Rambi River.
Little more than 12 hours later their battered bodies were found in the stream. Asiya, a 17-year-old high school student, had been badly beaten. Blood streamed from her nose and from a sharp gash in her forehead. She and her 22-year-old sister-in-law, Nilofa, had been gang raped before their deaths. The crimes and allegations of a bungled attempt by the local police to cover them up set off months of sporadic street protests.
Gee, this is TRULY the FIRST I'M HEARING OF IT in the Boston Globe -- and the LAST!!!
It is now the focal point for seemingly bottomless Kashmiri rage at the continuing presence of the roughly 500,000-strong Indian security force here. They remain even though violence by their target - separatist militants allegedly supported by Pakistan - has fallen to its lowest point in two decades.
“India says Kashmir is a free part of a free country,’’ said Majid Khan, a 20-year-old unemployed man who has joined the stone-throwing mobs. “If that is so, why are we being brutalized? Why are women gang raped?’’
I think the answer is to be found in that blue highlight above.
Or below....
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, and the Himalayan border region remains at the heart of the 62-year rivalry between the nuclear-armed neighbors. With a very different approach to each.
Some might think it is hypocrisy and a double standard, but that's not the gist of this post.
Settling the Kashmir dispute is the key to unlocking the region’s tensions, something the United States hopes will eliminate Pakistan’s shadowy support for militant groups and allow its army to shift attention toward fighting Taliban militants.
You of course SEE WHO is in the FRAME JOB, right, world?
USRAELI and INDIAN COVERT ACTIONS must be HIDDEN to the AMURKN NEWSPAPER READER!
Despite Kashmiri rage and the damage to India’s image, the Indian government has bridled at any outside pressure to negotiate a solution, let alone reduce its forces here. Caught in the middle are Kashmir’s 10 million people.
And THAT is who I CARE ABOUT!!! SELF-DETERMINATION! AUTONOMY!
Whatever THEY WANT!
They want INDIAN TROOPS to LEAVE?
Then BYE-BYE!!!!!!!
The case of Asiya and Nilofa Jan is only the latest abuse to strike a chord with Kashmiris, who say it is emblematic of the problems of what amounts to a full-scale occupation. Kashmir has its own police force, but it works closely with the Indian forces and is seen by many as virtually indistinguishable from them. Four Kashmiri officers are suspected of covering up the crime.
Kashmiri activists and human rights groups say that rapes by soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and a lack of redress are endemic, not least because security forces are largely shielded from prosecution by laws put in place when Indian troops were battling a once-potent insurgency here.
Last summer, a dispute over land for Hindu pilgrims between Kashmiris, who are mostly Muslims, and the region’s Hindu administrators set off weeks of massive demonstrations.
Oh, it is CLEAR! GET OUT of KASHMIR, India!!!!!!!
The question for India today, Kashmiris say, is whether the huge security presence is doing more harm than good.
“Maybe at some point in time, when the militants were in the thousands, it made sense to have so many soldiers here,’’ said Mehbooba Mufti, leader of a major opposition party here. “But at this point they are not helping in any way. Their mere presence has become a source of friction.’’
Then ABOUT FACE and HARCH!!!!!!!!
Indian government officials disagree and point to statistics showing a decline in infiltration from Pakistan as proof that their tough methods have worked.
According to the government, 557 civilians died in 2005 in what the government calls terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir. By 2008 that number had fallen to 91. The number of militants killed has fallen by nearly two thirds, while the deaths of security personnel in the region have been more than halved.
Where tens of thousands of armed men once roamed, government officials now estimate there are as few as 500. Analysts say that other events have also played a role in reducing militancy and infiltration.
Like CALLING OFF the FALSE-FLAG DOGS for now, 'eh?
After two decades of militant separatism, in December voters ignored separatist calls for a boycott and cast ballots in huge numbers in state Assembly elections. It was a sign that Kashmiris believed they could influence their destiny by peaceful means.
Despite the JUSTIFIED RAGE, 'eh, j**smedia?
The election brought Omar Abdullah, the scion of Kashmir’s most famous political family, to power as chief minister of the state. He promised to roll back the laws that shielded Indian security forces in Kashmir from oversight and to put Kashmir’s police force, rather than federal police and troops, at the forefront of securing the region.
But that has not happened, and the details of the Shopian killings and the initial coverup have fed the darkest and most personal fears of Kashmiris.
“Who does not see their wife in Nilofa, their daughter in Asiya?’’ said Abdul Rashid Dalal, who lives in Shopian. Other residents say the troops themselves are the only threat.
“The only thing I can do now is hope justice will be done,’’ said Shakeel Ahmad Ahanger, who is struggling to care for his 2-year-old son, Suzain after the slaying of his wife, Nilofa.
“Nobody is safe in Kashmir, even a child, an elderly man, a young girl,’’ Ahanger said. “Nobody is safe.’’
--more--"
Yup, a ONE-DAY WONDER!!!
And this was a back-pager here:
"The reported detention made top news on TV stations in India."
AMLOHA VILLAGE, India - Superstition enjoys a long and rich history in India. While some of these practices may seem poetic to outsiders, said Sanal Edamaruku, president of the New Delhi-based Indian Rationalist Association, their prevalence can have deadly consequences. Diseases go untreated, handicapped children are buried up to their necks during eclipses, infants are tossed from balconies and caught to ward off evil, he said.
Related: Indian Stampede Darkens Solar Eclipse
And remember all the flacko Jacko caught for dangling a kid? NOT throwing him, just dangling? SELECTIVE COVERAGE again, right?
“Critical thinking is lacking,’’ said Edamaruku, who has tried for the past quarter-century to bust myths, slay ghosts, and quell mass hysteria, but concedes that it’s a daunting task. “That’s the irony of India. We’re a rising power held back by 15th-century beliefs.’’
Yeah, it's ENDEMIC across the globe!
Believing FIRE can FELL STEEL SKYSCRAPERS ate FREE-FALL SPEED into their OWN FOOTPRINT!!!!
The factors, experts said, include insufficient education, a prevalence of ancient texts laced with fantastical stories sometimes taken literally, and a desire to understand the seemingly inexplicable.
Been READING AmeriKan history texts again I see.
“When something goes wrong, it’s easy to fall back on belief in the mysterious, which absolves you of responsibility,’’ said Harish Shetty, a social psychiatrist at Nityanand Clinics in the western city of Mumbai. “India has great engineers, but when it comes time for them to marry, they fall into a bundle of superstitions. It’s in our psyche.’’
Weeeeellllll, HEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOO, 9/11, AmeriKa!!!!!!!!!!
The community concluded that the village god, Khera, must be angry.
I gotta admit to you, world, it is in mine: God Speaks to Obama
After all the TERRIBLE and HORRIBLE THINGS America has done the last decade at least!
“I always wanted to believe in science, but now I’ve concluded this was the work of alternate forces,’’ said Lal as he chatted with other village luminaries outside the headman’s house. “Our god was angry before, but never like this.’’
World Trade Center 7 and PULL IT!
Give it a Bing, readers.
I didn't really like what came up, did you?
Silverstein, FDNY Decided to 'Pull WTC 7': An In-Depth Analysis
WTC 7 - Silverstein's 'Pull It' Explanation Examined
Amloha’s ghostly goings-on were front-page news across India on Thursday. From early morning, the village’s single lane dirt road was clogged with television news crews.
Good thing AmeriKan MSM never does that.
--more--"
Oh, and just for good measure, let's give you a neo-con Hindu nationalist an op from the Globe.
NEW DELHI
AT THE HEIGHT of the Iraq war, when America’s popularity had hit the nadir in most parts of the world, it scaled unprecedented heights in the most unlikely of places: India. A survey conducted in 2005 by the Pew Research Center found India to be the most pro-American country in the world. President Bush decided to make up for the four decades that India and the United States lost to mutual suspicion in the four years of his second term in office. It was also a personal mission for him, because as the world’s largest democracy, its second fastest-growing economy, and home to its third-largest population of Muslims, India seemed to exemplify everything that he was being excoriated for promoting: democracy, religious freedom, and capitalism.
Bush began by tearing down the Clinton-era sanctions against India, and left office after signing an exceptional civilian nuclear deal passed by Congress last year, which effectively ended India’s status as a nuclear pariah. But for many Indians, his most lasting contribution to the deepening relationship was the “de-hyphenation’’ of India from Pakistan.
Which CLINTON AFFIRMED when she VISITED!
Some change, 'eh, America!
Bush viewed India as a long-term strategic ally, a democratic counterweight to China in the 21st century. New Delhi responded by voting against Iran at the United Nations.
You see that I SEE, right, readers?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India this week came at a time when much of the goodwill generated by Bush’s efforts has soured. There is growing concern in New Delhi that the Obama administration, in its quest to win Pakistan’s wholehearted support for the war in Afghanistan, is pushing India to make extraordinary concessions to Islamabad. Last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a joint declaration with his Pakistani counterpart to carry forward the “composite dialogue’’ with Islamabad regardless of Pakistan’s evident failure to prosecute the perpetrators of last November’s brutal attacks in Mumbai.
The government denies it, but the view that the declaration was a consequence of intense American pressure is unanimous in New Delhi. On Monday, the Indian government, as if compensating for this controversial concession, bluntly refused to sign any binding agreements on climate change with the United States. India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh went about personally distributing copies of his exchange with Clinton to members of the press as she stood by silently.
Clinton made a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Mumbai attacks by staying at the Taj Mahal hotel, the principal site of last year’s terrorist slaughter. But the United States should move beyond symbolism and push Pakistan to close down anti-India terrorist fronts that still operate on its soil. And there are numerous such groups. In Pakistan in May, I interviewed the deputy leader of the Jamat-ud-Dawah, the organization accused of sponsoring the Mumbai attacks. He traveled in a chauffeured car, had three offices in and around Lahore, Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city, and told me that his group would continue its “fight’’ to “liberate Kashmir from Hindu rule.’’
Three weeks later, Hafiz Saeed, the Jamat-ud-Dawah’s leader, who had been detained after India produced several dossiers linking him to last November’s Mumbai attacks, was freed. Among the reasons cited by the Lahore high court in ordering Saeed’s release was this: “The security laws and anti-terrorism laws of Pakistan are silent on Al Qaeda being a terrorist organization.’’ In the country that is supposedly at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, association with Al Qaeda invites no legal sanction because it is not a banned organization.
Blah-blah-blah!
In its bid to appease Islamabad’s ruling elite, Washington risks alienating the Indian people.
HA-HA-HA!!!!!
But New Delhi’s discomfort with President Obama goes beyond Pakistan. If his appointment of Representative Ellen Tauscher, a trenchant critic of the US-India civilian nuclear accord, to undersecretary of state for arms control and international affairs raised serious doubts in India about its full implementation, his choice of Tim Roemer, an Indiana congressman not particularly known for his knowledge of India, as ambassador to New Delhi looked like a snub - when contrasted with his pick for China, the high-profile Governor Jon Huntsman.
Roemer, the 9/11 cover-upper, 'er, commissioner?
Obama has often said that he views India as a crucial 21st-century partner for the United States. But judged against his actions, his assurances sound like platitudes.
Gee, the sheen is off everywhere, isn't it, 'bamer?
Oh, well, when you are George W. Bush's third term....
Clinton’s five-day visit to India was meant to assuage New Delhi’s growing anxieties; it may have served only to aggravate them.
At least you got a visit.
Kapil Komireddi is an Indian writer who specializes in South Asian affairs.
I'm still waiting for the Pakistani response fulfilling the equal time aspect of AmeriKa's free press.
Then again, maybe I missed it. I don't often read Globe editorials or opinions these days. Usually just a big blue X through the whole page.
