Heart and Soul of United States of Asia(USA)

Football and Music is equivalent to the Heart and Soul of the people in the United States of Asia(USA). Music and Sports have been part of this culturally rich people. It is the land where Polo originated(Manipur). People "eat and play" football. Outside of it's territory, there are many footballers who play for clubs like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, JCT, etc. in India. Some of them represent the Indian National Football Team. For example-Baichung Bhutia is presently the Indian Captain.

Football is the most famous game in this region. When it comes to mainland India, its Cricket. Therefore, if India needs a strong national team, football needs to be encouraged in this region. As the people are crazy about this game, it has lots of potential for development. But instead of developing the game,the Indian Government is trying to promote Cricket in this region. On the other hand it is trying its level best to develop football in mainland India, pouring out all that is allocated by FIFA(the World governing body of Football) and so on.

Here lies the step-motherly treatment towards the people of "United States of Asia". It shows that the infrastructure for the development of football in this region will only be there,when mainland India knows "How to play?"

India should learn from its recent contest against Bhutan(a component of USA) in SAAF 2008 Edition where Gurmangi (a guy from Manipur in USA)saved it by a last minute goal in the extra-time. It ultimately lost to a small Island nation, Maldives in the final.

United States of Asia(USA)-http://unitedstatesofeast.blogspot.com/

Sarma, Alpana (2005) “Indian state fights to preserve animist religion”, Dawn, 16 May 2005.

ITANAGAR (India): Tamo Mindo, a slight man with creased eyes, stares intently at the liver of a chicken he has just killed. Mindo, a 58-year-old shaman belonging to the animist Donyi Polo religion, is looking for clues to help him tell which spirit has possessed a woman he has been asked to cure. Mindo is among the few people trying to preserve his religion from the increasing influence of Hinduism and Christianity in the remote northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.Donyi Polo, one of a few surviving centuries-old animist religions in the hilly state home to about 20 major tribes, means sun and moon. The tribes believe the sun and moon are the eyes of god and nothing can ever be hidden from god. While Arunachal Pradesh, or land of the rising sun, is still largely animist unlike India’s other northeastern states which have become heavily Christianised, the number of Christian converts has increased over the years.The number of Christians had increased to about 18 per cent of the sparsely populated state of a little over 1 million in 2001 from 10.3 per cent in 1991. Christians account for barely 2 per cent of India’s total population of more than a billion.“What is alarming is not how many Christians there are, but the pace at which conversions have taken place from the 1990s,” said filmmaker Moji Riba, who has been documenting changes among tribes in Arunachal Pradesh.In the mid-1980s, Arunachal, long isolated from the rest of India to protect the faith of tribes from Christian missionaries, saw a movement to convert Donyi Polo into an organized religion and make it more palatable to the masses.In an effort to combat the threat from Christianity, temples were built, Saturday was set aside as a day for worship and ritual sacrifice was curbed.
ANTI-CONVERSION BILLS: Still, Christianity has become a sensitive issue in this hilly state today.Tony Koyu, a 43-year-old radio artist who has been developing a script to preserve the oral traditions of tribes in Arunachal Pradesh, said “alien religions and alien cultures have very badly affected our traditional faith”.Some Hindu groups in India accuse Christian missionaries of using inducements such as schooling to lure poor people to the faith, and have also launched a movement to reconvert many tribal Christians back to Hinduism.Several states have passed anti-conversion bills aimed primarily at preventing people from converting to Christianity. Arunachal passed such a bill in 1978. The western state of Gujarat, which was torn by India’s worst religious riots in India in a decade in 2002, passed an anti-conversion bill in 2003.The desert state of Rajasthan, which is ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, also plans to introduce a similar bill. The move has met with considerable opposition with the state where Christians form just about 0.1 per cent of the population.“We would bring an anti-conversion bill aimed at containing ‘forceful religious conversion’ by any organisation in the state,” said Rajasthan’s social welfare minister, Madan Dilwar.Last month, a hardline Hindu group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, converted some 3,200 Muslims to Hinduism in a huge ceremony in Rajasthan.“When we have religious freedom in the constitution, I don’t think there is any necessity to bring this bill,” Emmanuel Mission International Chairman M.N. Thomas told Reuters.
STRADDLING: But Arunachal’s animistic traditions are under threat not only from Christianity, but also Hinduism. Although the number of Hindus in the state dropped to 34.6 per cent in 2001 from 37.0 per cent a decade ago, Hinduism does pose a threat to the traditional practices and beliefs of the tribes.“Hindu missionaries are going ahead with the reinvention of the traditional faith with temples being built, the tying of holy thread and even the ringing of bells,” said filmmaker Riba.As the two identities clash in this isolated state flanked by China, Bhutan and Myanmar, Mindo finds himself straddling the diverse worlds of animism and Hinduism. Not only does he head an association of shamans, or nyibos, in the state capital, Itanagar, he is also a member of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad.But for Mindo, there is no conflict between the two offices he holds. He believes that Hinduism and Donyi Polo are closely aligned in their basic faith and practices. And Mindo’s house reflects the duality of his religious beliefs. He worships not only Yapom, the Donyi Polo god of the mountains, but also Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. Both jostle for space in his home and both are worshipped with equal devotion.“People tell me to not join the Hindus. Even though they don’t know what it’s about, they say the VHP is bad,” Mindo said.—Reuters


VOICE OF TANILAND-http://tanibrotherhood.blogspot.com/

Know the Adi tribe of Taniland

Who are the Adi's?
Abor-http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Abor.html
Abor country travels and expeditions:
http://www.aborcountrytravels.com/pemako.htm
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_people#Tribes_and_organisation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_(TV_series)
Pilot Destination Gude:
http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/asia/india/adi_tribe_of_arunachal_pradesh.php
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/adi/index.shtml

Language: The Adi's belong to the Tanee speaking people which is a part of the Tibeoto-Burman group of languages, descending down from the Sino-Tibetian language.
Ethnologue.com:http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=adi
Resource centre for Indian Language solutions:
http://www.iitg.ernet.in/rcilts/heirarchy.htm
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/StaffPages/post.htm

The Anglo-Adi War's
Anglo-Adi War of 1894 by Dr.N.Lego
http://arunachalipr.gov.in/Latest_publication/rev_Mar_angloadiwar.pdf


Readings-
In Abor Jungles by A. Hamilton.
A Dictionary of Abor-Miri Language by J.Herbert Lorrain.
The North-East Frontier of India by Alexender Mackenzie.
Wild Races of the Eastern Frontier of India by T.H.Lewin.
The Mishmee Hills: An account of the Journey made in an attempt to penetrate Tibet from Assam to open new routes for commerce by T.T.Copper.
The Frontier Peoples of India by Alexander McLeish.
The Eastern Frontier of India by R.B.Pemberton

Peter Ronald deSouza, "Fly away Peter, fly away Paul," The Economic Times, 7 June 2oo8.

Remember the old nursery rhyme which made little sense to us as kids but which we loved to sing because it had so much punch and we could act it out.

Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall,
One named Peter, one named Paul,
Fly Away Peter, Fly away Paul,
Come Back Peter, Come Back Paul.

The innocuous news item that the Union cabinet had given its clearance to the aviation ministry’s proposal to allow private parties to have their own airports and helipads, for their own exclusive use, and thus, as a consequence, not have to use public airports, completes the story that India’s Super Elite have finally seceded from the country. As practical as the proposal may appear, as convincing as its back-of-envelope calculations may suggest, the policy is deeply flawed, both morally and politically.

It is yet another illustration that our policy community, at the highest levels, has succumbed to a flawed positivist mindset that only valorises the comfort of the wealthy. What is good for them is good for the country.
This is in error.

One needs only to look at Amartya Sen’s book Ethics and Economics, and the global debates in the area on normative concerns of economics, to know how flawed such thinking is. And yet it drives our policy-making as if the larger concerns of justice, and community solidarity and fraternity are of little relevance. This is a mindset that needs to be challenged and the innocuous news item, and the nursery rhyme, will help me do so. Let me elaborate.

Three basic arguments have been forwarded for private airports. The first concerns simple pragmatics. It will reduce congestion at a time when our airports are getting overcrowded and since private planes take longer to land, by moving them out we will save landing time of the other aircraft. The second relates to safety. The aviation authorities will ensure that these airports will maintain the highest safety standards and so, for the flying public, there is no cause for anxiety. The third is a version of ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. As long as they pay for it they can have it.

When seen from the perspective of the super elite these are sound reasons. Since they will have saved time and discomfort, they can get back to the business of generating wealth. This, as the argument goes, is good for the country. But is it? Are things so straightforward?

When seen from a host of other perspectives the policy seems perverse. Take the secessionist argument which holds that the policy encourages the super-elite to live life in a bubble. From the helipad at the top of the corporate headquarters, to another helipad in the factory complex, to perhaps a private airport for a journey to Delhi, the captains of industry can journey across the country without having to meet, or rub shoulders with, or even see the ordinary Indian, let alone experience the minimal existential reflections on the lives of those who live in the slums they have to drive through on their way to the airport.

Those people, in many cases, might be their own workers. They will thus never know the possible causes that have reduced to a life of indignity those who beg at red-light crossings, or the conditions of the villagers who have to walk for miles for water, or the anxieties of our rural youth as they search for a space between the rural and urban. The helipad has airbrushed the poor Indian from the lives of our super-elite. They can now sit in oak-panelled boardrooms as they plan India’s growth story without the smells and sounds and colours of India. The Mahatma’s train journey has no lesson for them nor does the more recent yatras of Rahul Gandhi. Why subject them to a little existential angst? How can they script India’s rise if they have to face a little discomfort at a public airport?

So not only are India’s poor being airbrushed from the lives of our super rich, but also the aspiring middle class in ill-fitting jeans and cheap French perfumes as they wait for their flights in pursuit of the next sales target or the next LTC. The middle classes, the foot soldiers of Indian industry, are also a nuisance. So, who do the super-elite meet? People like themselves only. The faceless lackeys, who make it possible, fade into the wall paper. This is bad not just for Indian democracy, because we will have a class of very powerful people who have lived very insulated lives, but also for them since they will have lost access to the diversity of India and life itself.

And once this is permitted it will produce a cascading ‘me too’ trend. From the ‘biggies’ of industry the policy will produce similar aspirations among the ‘wannabes’ of the corporate world. Just look at the 176% growth of in the luxury car segment in January and February 2008, as compared to the same period last year, and the number of Indians queuing up to purchase a residence in Palazzo Versace in Dubai, to get a sense of the magnitude of this ‘me too’ phenomenon.

And if corporate India can have private airports then why not the political class? And the senior bureaucracy? Surely their comfort and time is also important? So what began with private housing enclaves, then moving on to private schools, then private hospitals, has now extended to private airports. A life in a bubble. And for leisure, it’s the yachts in Goa! If this is not secession, what is?

There is another important concern. Private airports will require a lot of land. The country has just witnessed political movements on the SEZ policy requiring the government to take corrective measures and in some cases reverse its decisions. Again the poor farmer will have to give up prime land with the Land Acquisition Act being used to get (let me get it right) private land for a public purpose for a private airport.

This is perverse. Taking land from the poor and giving it to the rich for the benefit of the poor! Why not just improve our public airports so that all air travellers can benefit? A little discomfort will not hurt the super-elite too much. And it will also make flying, for us poor sods, a bit more exciting to see our icons in the same security queue as us. Oh the nursery rhyme, I forgot. The new policy wants to stop at the third line of the rhyme: ‘fly away Peter, fly away Paul’. I want to stop at the fourth ‘come back Peter, come back Paul’.

(The author is director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.)

Chandu Tum Zinda Ho...

Pamplet brought out by AISA, "Chandu Tum Zinda HO..." on the XIth Anniversary of Com.Chandrashekar's martyrdom,31 March 2008.

"...Future generations will ask us-where where you when new social forces of struggle where being unleashed, when the marginal voices of our society were asserting?...It's our duty to be a part of the struggle to make a truly secular, democratic, self-reliant, egalitarian India." -Comrade Chandrashekhar in JNUSU Presidential Debate 1994.

With his life, his struggles and his martyrdom, Chandrashekar reminded us that our campus can't simply be an academic enclave; it is bound by a thousand links to the heartbeat of India's struggling people. As JNUSU VP in 1993, as JNUSU President in 1994 and 1995, he led the successful struggle for restoration of Deprivation Points for students from deprived sections in JNU admissions, the historic movement against fee hike and privatization proposals and initiated the move for creation of an autonomous body in JNU to look into cases of sexual harassment. He resolutely resisted communal fascism and linked JNU with the people's movements all over India.

Many make the journey from the village to the city-Chandu chose to make the journey back: deciding to return to his hometown Siwan for a life of activism. This campus heared Chandu's voice resound often, raising bold slogans challenging the powers that be. On March 31 1997, exactly ten years back, while he was addressing a street-corner meeting at JP Chowk, Siwan, for Bihar Bandh against massacre of dalits, bullets sponsored by the local mafia-MP Shahabuddin sought to silence him. Following his martyrdom an unprecedented student movement led by the students of JNU rocked the national capital for over a month.

Throught the last decade, both the communal-casteist gang up as well as the corporate-dictated neo-liberal policies have intensified their offensive against people of this country. The Apex court of the land while endrosing the Brahminical meritocracy of corporate-backed anti-reservationists is turning a blind eye to the massive reservation of land and subsidies for the mega-corporates in the name of SEZs. But it is also the phase when people's resistance movements are scaling new heights: from the powerful assertion of North-East people against the draconian AFSPA following Manorama Devi's brutal rape and murder to the heroic resistance by the people of Kalinganagar and now Nandigram braving bullets against SEZs and corporate land grab.

Chandu's spirit was one of bold interventation in all the key political questions of his time: the communal campaign against Babri Masjid; the casteist frenzy against Mandal Commission reservation; the policies of privatization; a range of people's movements on the issues of caste, gender, class.

In our times, whenever students of JNU have boldly kicked out Nestle and defended the campus from corporatisation; joined the cry to scrap AFSPA, both on the streets od Delhi and Manipur; held hunger strike for over a month to defend OBC quotas from the elitist anti-reservationsist; waged and won battles to democratise JNU through increased MCM fellowships and recognition for Madarsa certificates; looked the Prime Minister in the eye to show him black flags;rallied with the protesting peasants of Singur and Nandigram, Kalinganagar and Khammam, and corporate land grab; risked rustication to protest when workers are denied minimum wages on campus; spoken out in solidarity with those being witch-hunted in the name of being Muslim or Naxalite; and resolutely resisted the communal lumpens on campus and beyond...their political impulses and struggles have kept alive Chandrashekhar's spirit and his politics!

Today on the XIth anniversary of Com.Chandrashekhar's martyrdom, AISA salutes the martyr of peoples' struggle and rededicates itself to carry forward their unfinished agenda both in the campus and beyond.

The Centre-State Relations in India

By Shiv Visvanathan,"Delhi cannot hold", The Indian Express, 28 March 28, 2008, OP-ED

I think the message of the information technology revolution and the rise of the regional parties has been lost on us. We read IT as the dominance of private over public. We read the new success stories in cricket and Bollywood as the rise of small town, as a diffusion of the myth of mobility. But our politicians and bureaucrats still behave like satraps from the capital visiting remote domains when they drop in on Gujarat or Kerala. The message coming from all over India is that Delhi is irrelevant. It might still legislate but its laws make little sense outside.
The danger of Delhi is that it feels an idea is good only if it exists in Delhi. So every tribal academy, research institution, major university has to be in Delhi. Ask yourself a simple question: why is national equal to Delhi when it is in reality an isolated city without even the vision of a cosmopolitan city state? Delhi legislates but it rarely invents, it controls but can hardly create. Every inmate sits with a committee gene in his soul. What Delhi does not realise is that India is seceding and the state does not even know it.
A nation state like India cannot remain intact without a collection of secessions. Secession is a hypothesis we must encourage. It need not be an act of treason, it could be a ritual of renewal. It should be as seasonal as migration.
Any imaginative democracy allows for secession, especially as temporary segmentation. Our notion of the Centre should not demand the fixity of Fevicol. The Centre should be a hypothesis reinvented constantly by the regions. Why should the idea of national be certified by Delhi? I am not denying the need for order, quality and standards. But why should order, control, hierarchy stem from a single source called the capital? Consider a set of simple anecdotes.
Imagine I want to start an institute for ecology. I begin the idea as institute for understanding pastoral and nomadic change or an attempt to look at the future of tribes. The standard notions of development, homogeneity, hierarchy would feel (a) that tribals should not have an idea of a tribal institute, and (b) to call it a national tribal or nomadic institute is an oxymoron.
If I am tribal, I am marginal; if I am nomadic, I am already decentred. Why do I need the capital’s certification to be national? The vision of national, regional, state level institutes is a hierarchised one. It makes no sense to a tribal in Jharkhand to create a national centre in Delhi. It is a form of detribalisation. Anyway, most of the new national institutes are mere fiefdoms for IAS officers out on a limb or planning a leisurely retirement.
Push the issue deeper. Our notions of security are Delhi-centric. We respond to any model of tribal rights as secession. If marginal tribals and peasants protest they are all dubbed as Naxal. What if I as a tribal were to say that forests belong to me? What if tribal areas were handed to local tribal councils? What if we were to say no forest land can be appropriated without a local referendum? Why can’t national interests be decided locally? Why should the idea of locality be so parochial? In fact, nationalism today requires the cosmopolitanism of localities thinking in terms of size and scale.
A nation state is a poor notion of the complexities of a nation. Just ask yourself a simple question. Why should the diaspora which has virtually seceded be given dual citizenship while a nomad or a pastoral group be arrested for crossing a boundary line? What is so sacrosanct about a boundary that we have to censor any picture that distorts it? A lot of what we call border violation is merely an expression of old ways of life, old memories questioning the illiteracy of boundary, a memory-less empty line that destroys ways of life that are struggling to survive. What is it about identity that needs fixity?
Modify the problem a bit. Why should we have an ICSSR in Delhi? In fact, why an Indian Council? Why not let different regions invent their own social science? Why bureaucratise it? ICSSRs don’t create social science any more than Knowledge Commission creates knowledge. Knowledge commissions only talk about science as certified statist knowledge.
What if we had a series of ‘local’ reports on tribal, craft knowledge, women’s knowledge, marginal ideas of coping, reports on how slums and neighbourhood create science and use it? We might arrive at more enlightened notions of waste or sensitive models of medical knowledge. A nation is a collection of absences. Secession is a reminder of the presences the nation treats as noise or silence. An aggregation of such reports would have at least given us a better idea of innovation that we currently have.
It is paradoxical that we talk of decentralising the organisation and not the nation. A few minor flexibilities, a few acts of delegation become canonised as decentralisation. We need to invent alternative possibilities, temporary acts of secession which tell the Centre it actually does not hold.
Secession does not have to be seen as threatening. Secession is first a playful attempt to rethink the frame of Centre/state. The Congress was once a collection of secessions, that is why it held India together. Today the Congress is a centrist frame, a little club in Delhi pretending it understands the country. English viceroys had a better sense of India than our prince in waiting in the party.
The diversity of India to which democracy is tied demands we break away from the current idea of Delhi. We have to invent alternative worlds before Delhi destroys us. The challenge is simple. Find ways to secede such that Delhi does not know it. The old slogan ‘Delhi door nahi’ should now be ‘Delhi door rahe’. Think of six ways to secede without the state knowing it.

Kosovo's Independence: Victory for People's Struggle

The historic declaration of independence by Kosovo on 17 February 2008 reminds us of the May 2006 referendum in Montenegro that led to its emergence as an independent republic.It had an interesting resonances among the leaders and supporters of the separatist and secessionist insurgencies in "North-East India". The idea of a referendum under international supervision on these sovereignity struggles has held an appeal to these.During the wake of the Montenegro referendum, civil society organisations in Manipur revived the plebiscite call in a public meeting held in Imphal. The meeting was addressed among others by the king of Manipur, a former Lok Sabha member from the state, a former human rights commissioner, the president of the Journalists' Union, leders of political parties and women( always a potent force in Manipur) though no programmatic action followed.

The recent declaration of independence by Kosovo and the prompt announcement of its recognition by the US President George W Bush also has had a similar resonance. With equal promptitude, Isak Swu, Chairman of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim(NSCN I-M),which is holding talks with the Government fo India since June 1997, wrote to Fatmir Sejdiu congratulating the people of Kosovo on the "historic independence declaration on 17 February 2008".

The statement as reported in the NSCN website, reads thus: "The bold decesion of Kosovo and its victory is a clear message sent to all over the world that the rights of the nation, big or small, weak o strong must be acknowledge. As among the co-constituent members of the Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination(PNSD) and as a struggling nation, Nagalim fully supports the newly achieved status of Kosovo and feels overwhelmed at the triumph of the people's will."

Further, the PNSD statement signed by its Chair and Vice-Chair, Lord Ahmed and Elfyn Llwyd reads as "We have been asked to convey to the Kosovo people the congratulations and best wishes of all of PNSD's Advisoryy Panels-Kurdish, Naga, Kashmir and Sikh. The destiny of those and many other peoples and nations who also aspire to self-determination(in whatever form they freely decide) will rest upon the will of the international community to live up to its moral and legal obligations."

The military atrocities carried out by the Belgrade Government against the Kosovos had opened the road to the independence of Kosovo. In this part of the "North-East India", the Indian Governments atrocities can be found in its military operations supported by its draconian laws such as the Assam Disturbed Areas Act,1955, the Armed Forces (Special Powers Act),1958, the Armed Forces(Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1972, with further minor verbal amendments to enable the extension of the Act to the full-fledged states of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in 1986.Thus, with the Westphalian nation state gaining legitimacy, such "colonial constructs as the Indian state are bound to crack up and collapse even without external aggression, defeat in War and foreign aggression" due to its "state terrorism".

References
Prabhakara, M.S(2008), "Agenda for re-colonisation?", The Hindu, 12 March 2008, p.11.
NSCN Website: http://www.nscnonline.org/
http://naganation.com/archives/62

Bomb blast in Taniland

The Tanibrotherhood strongly condems the blast that had occured during the cultural evening on the occasion of Ali Aye Ligang-a seed sowing festival of the Mishing (Tanii tribe) at Murkongselek(Jonai) in Taniland. Four persons, including two women were killed and 150 injuried when suspected anti-Tanii militants triggered the powerful blast. One person died on the spot, two succumed to injuries at the Dhemaji civil hospital while another died at the Assam Medical College and Hospital.

India must relate growth rate with social development, says U.N expert

Report by Aarti Dhar

The Hindu, 3 February 2008

NEW DELHI: For years now, India has proved there need not be a trade-off between democracy and high economic growth rate. But what it has to do now is to relate economic growth rate with social development, according to Thandika Mkandawire, Director of the Geneva-based U.N. Research Institute for Social Development.
Talking to The Hindu during his brief visit to the Capital, Mr. Mkandawire said the world was looking at India as a fast growing economy in the developing world but this growth needed to have a trickle-down effect on the poor people. “You can have this effect but for it to have a major impact, you would need a rapid growth,” he said.
However, the process of deliberate re-distributive growth had not happened so far and the government needed to devise some kind of a mechanism to combine economic and social policies because this would not happen automatically. “It has to be made to happen. And that where social policy matters,” he said, adding that historically India had produced some very interesting ideas on development.
Pointing out that for years India had remained a low-growth, low-equality country, Mr. Mkandawire said now it had entered the high growth bracket but inequality was also increasing, though the government claims that the number of poor has been reduced. “But then, Indian data is always controversial.”

Simultaneous process
Arguing that not many countries in the developing world had found a way of reconciling social policy to development process, Mr. Mkandawire said they thought social policy was costly and focused on growth rate with a hope that some day they would have enough money for social policy. “But our institute has done research that suggests that social policy is not something you do after development. It has to be a simultaneous process.”
Suggesting social policy was an important instrument for development, Mr. Mkandawire said there were some interesting initiatives taken by India for social development such as the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme that was being keenly followed at the United Nations. “This seems to be a serious attempt to share the growth rate but how effective it would be one cannot say though it is an interesting idea.”
The U.N. has commissioned studies to look at what is happening and review this interesting experiment if it worked, he said.

Great achievement
Democracy is another ‘sector’ in India that interests Mr. Mkandawire. Sustained democracy is a great achievement of India in the context of high poverty figures that also proves that democracy did not automatically reduce poverty, he explained. “For years there was this debate on how democracy had not provided poor the space to use their numbers to change this for them. I suggest there has to be social and political mobilisation to use this democratic space for pursuing policies that benefit them. The poor have to organise themselves to change things in their favour.”

Low enrolment
While India is being perceived as an important actor on the world scene, Mr. Mkandawire is at a loss to explain the low school enrolment ratio. “The gap seems so obvious and I am curious to know how some low-income growth and less democratic countries have more number of kids going to school than in India.”

IT's raining ultrasmall personal computers

Report by Anand Parthasarathy

The Hindu, 3 February 2008, p.11.

Bangalore: Great minds think alike, we used to say. They also think small, very small — it would seem. Almost simultaneous launches throughout January saw leading manufacturers add to the growing roster of ultra small personal computers or UMPCs being offered in India.
Last week we reviewed two models from HCL’s MiLeap series. Since then the Taiwan-based Asus has brought out the EeePC, a Linux-based, camera-backed UMPC with a 7-inch screen, an all-solid state 4GB storage and just adequate 512 MB of memory. Weighing just 920 gm, the machine like the competitors in this emerging category, leaves out an optical, that is CD/DVD, drive, which might challenge buyers if install new applications. One will have to invest in an external DVD drive if one wants to load new CD or DVD-based software. Targeting children
Priced at Rs. 18,000, the EeePC (the Es stand for Easy to learn, Excellent Internet and Excellent Mobile experience) comes with WiFi capability and has built-in stereo speakers and a microphone. It is clearly aimed at families and children — which is why Darsheel Safary, child star of the Aamir Khan film, Taare Zameen Par, was around at the launch to receive the first piece.
A low-key launch has also seen another compellingly priced offering in the ultra mobile category. The Mumbai- based Allied Computers International (a respected brand in the U.K. for budget PCs) has launched the ACi Ethos in India. This 7-inch screen machine is fuelled by a 1 GHz processor from Via, sports 512 MB of memory. Like the EeePC it dispenses with an optical drive — but unlike the EeePC, it goes for a miniature hard drive which means 40 GB of standard storage.
The default operating system is a Linux version but the machine is sufficiently powered to run Windows XP. The keyboard is fully functional and the PC is WiFi and ethernet-enabled.
Weighing just 950 gm and priced at Rs. 14,999, the Ethos is just Rs. 1,000 costlier than the HCL MiLeap X we tested last week — but that machine did not come with a hard drive and its ruggedisation features added nearly half kg to the weight.Higher specification
ACi will also offer a higher specification model with a 120 GB hard disk, a better Intel processor, and touch screen-tablet features, running Windows Vista, that is expected to retail at Rs. 24,999.
HCL’s MyLeap Y is similarly featured but costs some Rs. 5,000 more — while the Asus EeePC is priced somewhere between the cost of the entry level machines and the tablet UMPCs.
Adding to the surfeit of computing goodies being unleashed in India, Fujitsu has launched half a dozen models including the “smallest PC in the world,” the Lifebook U1010 which uses a 5.6-inch touch screen and weighs just 6,300 gm. Such miniaturisation comes at a price — Rs. 75,00

La Lina responsible for snow disaster in China

According to the Chinese meteorologist "the rare prolonged snowstorms and low temperatures that have caused havoc in many parts of China are mainly related to the La Nina phenomenon and abnormal atmospheric circulation" said Du Guodong.
The severe weather strongly resembled the aftermath of La Nina events, which indicated that the latest development of La Nina was a primary cause of the abnormal snow, meteorologists at the Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau said, reports Guodong.
La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, which is a warming of the Pacific.
"Experts said that the latest La Nina conditions developed last August throughout the tropical Pacific and strengthened at the sharpest pace in 56 years. The sea-surface temperature during the past six months was 0.5 degree Celsius lower than normal years". "The La Nina weather pattern is expected to prevail at least till the end of spring," said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Center.
Chinese meteorologists also pointed out that the abnormal atmospheric circulation in some regions of Europe and Asia, which has persisted for nearly 20 days since mid-January, was responsible for the rampant chilly weather, rain and snowstorms.
Snow storms that hit 19 provinces in southern and central China, the worst in 50 years, have killed more than 60 people and forced nearly 1.8 million people to relocate over the past three weeks, inflicting economic losses of about 53.9 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday.

Lin Li reporting from Bejing said that"the Chinese President Hu Jintao called on the public on monday to hold the firm belief on victory over the weather crisis that is still plaguing the southern part of the country". "Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here on monday that china is confident and capable in achieving the final victory in combatting disasters incurred by low temperature, ice and heavy snow".

References

Guodong,Du(2008), "Experts blame snow disaster on La Nina, atmospheric circulaion", Xinhua, 2 February 2008

Li, Lin (2008), "President Hu: Hold firm belief in victory over weather crisis", Xinhua, 4 February 2008.

Li, Lin (2008), "Premier Wen: China confident, capable in winning battle against disaster", Xinhua, 4 February 2008.

Beatles "Across the Universe" to be beamed by NASA

The Beatles were an English pop and rock group from Liverpool whose members were John Lenon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.

The songs of The Beatles have always enjoyed a global appeal, of which I'm one. It's a good news that "now one of their best-loved recordings is to be beamed into the galaxy in an attempt to introduce the Fab Four's music to alien ears.NASA will broadcast the song, Across the Universe, through the transmitters of its deep-space communications network on Monday -the 40th anniversary of its recording at London's Abbey Road studios.The music will be converted into digital data and sent on a 431-light-year journey towards Polaris, the North Star, in a stunt that also commemorates the space agency's 50th anniversary" reports Richard Luscombe.
Richard says that the "Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who co-wrote the song with John Lennon and played an extraterrestrial concert from Earth to the crew of the international space station in 2005, said he was excited by the project". "Well done, NASA," he said. "Send my love to the aliens."

Whether there is anything out there to hear the broadcast is another matter. But according to Briton Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based former producer of Beatles DVDs who came up with the idea, "it would be fun trying to collect the royalties". "We don't know if there's life out there, but I'd like to think the United States government wouldn't be spending taxpayers' money on this if there was no hope," he said as observed by Richard.

Lewis said "he chose the 1968 song, which the group never released as a single, because its title and lyrics represent a spirit of friendship and harmony"."It never had the highest profile and is a bit of a forgotten classic." "But it has universal appeal. It transcends ages, borders, language and other barriers."

Other Beatles favourites, such as Here Comes the Sun, Ticket to Ride and A Hard Day's Night, have been played in space as wake-up music to astronauts aboard the space station and on shuttle missions.

But this is the first time any music has been transmitted deep into the cosmos. Nasa will encrypt the song and beam it into space from its Madrid transmitter on Monday at the start of a 2,5-quadrillion-mile trip (that's 23 zeros for anyone without a large-capacity calculator) to Polaris, where it will finally arrive in the year 2439.

February 4 has also been declared "Across the Universe Day" by Beatles fans across the world, who are urged to play their own recording of the song at the same time as Nasa begins its own broadcast, 7pm in the US, midnight in the United Kingdom and 1am on Tuesday in Spain.

"I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe," said Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, who has given her backing to the project.

For me on this occasion, I had been listening to the songs that I've of Beatles the whole day.

Cheers!!! for the Beatles...

Reference

Luscombe, Richard(2008), "Beatles to be beamed across the universe", Guardian Newspapers Limited, United Kingdom, 2 February 2008.

The Indian PM Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh: A Review

Samudra Gupta Kasyap writes the visit in The Indian Express as "Arunachal Pradesh probably is one state that does not always find space in the national media. Politicians, including Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, say the state does not get enough coverage because it is 'neither here nor there'. Neither is Arunachal Pradesh politically important — it has only two members in the Lok Sabha — nor does it have insurgent groups (like Assam, Nagaland or Manipur) which would generate news of violence and killings and grab some media headlines.But it has been in the news for the past few days, especially after China renewed its claim over the state . This was followed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s historic trip to Beijing. And as MPs from the state raked up the issue of Chinese claims over its territory, the Prime Minister also came on a two-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which incidentally was also a visit by a Prime Minister to the state after a gap of nine years. H D Deve Gowda was the last Prime Minister to have come to Itanagar".

He further observes that "The Prime Minister’s two-day visit, however, has come as a big boost to the morale of the state, especially after a huge sense of insecurity, triggered off by repeated claims by China, had spread across Arunachal".

A Review: The author's view regarding the cirumstances (the chinese claim of Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of it's territory) that had led to the Indian PM's visit is acceptable to me. Further, his views regarding Northeast's experiences with Central packages sounds good enough. He observes, "Singh announced a massive developmental package for the state, running into over Rs 8,000 crore. But it is also equally important that Delhi ensures proper implementation of this package. Northeast’s experience with Central packages announced in the past has not been very pleasant". Corruption has played as a great deterrent in it's implementation but most of these packages also remains only as "an announced package".

The problem lies regarding his views to the "sense of insecurity, triggered off by repeated claims by China, had spread across Arunachal". There's a big question regarding it. Personally for me, I don't feel threatened by the Chinese claim. The 1962 Sino-India War bears proff for it. It was the Indian's who brought about this threat perception propaganda where the indigeneous people were evacuated to the plains of Assam such as Dibrugarh and Guwahati. People who remained back were well-off. Lego in his book,The Modern History of Arunachal Pradesh observes that "When the indigeneous people took up the rifles left by the Indian Army to fight against the chinese, they didn't fire even a single shot. Rather the indigeneous people were proclaimed as brother's". Therefore, the sense of threat perception for the indigeneous people needs to be questioned.

What threatens the indigeneous people of Arunachal Pradesh? The threat comes from the refugees like the Chakma and Hajong who are from Bangladesh. How is it a threat for us? It becomes a threat for us because the Indian Government is trying to settle them in our land. These refugees will bring down all the indigeneous tribe's to minority. The Chinese threat perception is secondary because the Chinese won't drive us out from our land. The 1962 Sino-India war bears the testimony. The Chinese claim of the state is an issue for the politicians not the public. Therefore, if the Indian Government is really concern about the indigeneous people, the refugee issue needs to be solved. As rational human beings, we have sheltered them for around four decades when they were thrown out from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar instead of sheltering them.We cannot allow foreigners to get settlement rights in our land. It's protection is my birth right. We have shed blood for it and we will fight till death...

Reference
Kashyap, Samudra Gupta(2008), "A PM's visit after 9 yrs boost morale of a 'neglected' state," The Indian Express, 4 Febuary 2008,[Online:Web] Accessed 4 Febuary 2008, URL: http://www.indiaexpress.com/story/268627.html
Lego, N(2007), Modern History of Arunachal Pradesh

Missing World War II Plane B-24J found near Damroh in Taniland

On 25 January 1944, Plane B-24J which was nicknamed "Hot As Hell" took off from Kunming, China with eight crew members for a routine flight to Chabua, India. The plane never reached its destination. The crews were declared dead on 20 November 1944. On 7 December 2006, a private American investigator Mr. Clayton discovered the crash site near Damroh, East Siang district, Taniland (Arunachal Pradesh) with the assistance of Adi (Abor) villagers.

Clayton Kuhles has taken on the project of searching for as many of these Missing in Action (MIA) aircrafts as he can find. Aiding in his service is Oken Tayeng who runs Abor Country Travels and Expeditions. Oken says that "the region is littered with these planes. The locals have seen these planes crash but we do not have the expertise for identification of the planes. Clayton has taken up the initiative of identifying these planes."

Reference

Clayton Kuhles maintained website: http://www.miarecoveries.org/
Prasad, S (2007), Hot as Hell, Found in Paradise, 15 December 2007, http://frontierindia.net/hot-as-hell-found-in-paradise

Adam Gilchrist: Revolution in wicket-keeping

Steve Waugh, the former Australian skipper observes that the retirement of Adam Gilchrist from Test Cricket "was as much of a surprise for me as it was for his many admirers across the world. However the timing was perfect for a keeper-batsman who contineously raised standards not only for others around the world but also for him." As a fan of the Australian team, especially Adam in the world of Cricket (Argentina in Football), I can feel the vacuum that lies after his retirement.

Revolution in wicket-keeping

"I remember the one-dayer when I first made Adam open. We were not having much joy in the C&U Series of 1998 and I was looking for a spark of inspiration in the finals against South Africa.On a hunch, I sent him to open. Success was almost immediate because he scored a century in the second final itself.That was the moment when the asking rate went up for wicketkeepers around the world. No longer was it enough for them to just pass muster when it came to batting-they now had to be counted as batsmen" recalls Steve Waugh.

Kumar Sangakkara, Mark Boucher, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Brendon McCullum are all the result of the revolution that Adam Gilchrist brought about to wicket-keeping. According to Steve Waugh, "While most have impressed in patchness, none has replicated Adam's consistency in scoring and more impotantly in relentless attack." Adam was part of the Australian cricket team through both the 16-Test winning streaks.

The departure of Warne, Glen McGrath and now Adam Gilchrist will make it harder for Australia to win consistency. But they still have great control of the game with Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Bret Lee and Andrew Symonds. However, the aura that this team possessed seems to have diminished slightly and oppositions will begin to fancy their chances. The Australian team is still far from beatable but the wins will be harder to come by. Historically, as each team has a cycle, the Australian generation next has to prove inorder to maintain status quo.

As a left-handed batsman in Cricket, I'm a fan of this Aussie who is also a lefty. I will surely miss his strokes. But with God's grace, I hope I'll see him in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Waiting for the blast!!!

References

Steve Waugh(2008), "Great timing, Gilly", Hindustan times, New Delhi,29 January 2008,p.21.

"The timing was perfect for Gilchrist", The Hindu, Delhi, 29 January 2008,p.18.

The life of the former Indonesian President Suharto: A mixed record

The former Indonesian President Suharto, controversial for most of his time during his long years in power from march 1966 to mid-1998 and thereafter, pased away at a hospital in Jakarta on 27 January 2008. The 86 year old Suharto, widely known by this singular name in line with a Javanese practice, died of multiple organ failure after battling for life for over three weeks.
Suharto ruled over Indonesia from March 1966 when he as an army commander threatened to use force and acquired executive authority from then President Sukarno, the near-iconic architect of Indonesia's "guided democracy." After ruling Indonesia for around three-decades, he resigned as a President in mid-1998 in the face of a popular uprising for reforms.
A mixed record
Suharto's path to power and long reign were characterised by authoritarian politics and human rights abuses. His one time success at creating political stability and an economic miracle was in the end smeared by allegations of massive corruption as also nepotism and also social inequities.
P.S.Suryanarayana observes that "Suharto's mixed record covered not only the economic boom that later burst as a bubble but also his 'New Order' that was built on a brutal suppression of the Communist Party of Indonesia; the invasion and annexation of East Timor which broke free not long after his fall from power; his pivotal role in the formation of the Associaton of South East Asian Nations(ASEAN) 40 years ago; and his political swings from a pro-West position to a non-aligned stance."
As Hobbes says that" Man by nature is brutish, nasty, selfish and egoistic", all human being tends to commit mistakes. But as Aristole says that "Man is a Political animal",he is also characterized by living within a society with laws and customs. Therefore, our life certainly will have a mixed record which Suharto,the former President of Indonesia had undergone. It can be better understood by the way the current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his deep sorrow and asked people to pray for Suharto labelling him "a great leader" though he was popularly known as a "Dictator".

The Mongolian Continent-http://themongoliancontinent.blogspot.com/
Reference
Suryanarayana, P.S (2008), "Indonesia declares week-long mourning:Daughter apologises for Suharto's 'mistakes'," The Hindu, 28 January 2008, Delhi, p.14.

The Indian Anti-tank Nag missile

The advanced third generation, hit-to-kill anti-tank Nag missile is expected to be inducted into the Indian army by the end of the year after the completion of the user trial. S.S.Mishra, project director (Nag), told The Hindu that "We are ready to induct in large numbers by November-December as the user trials are planned to be completed by June."

Suprior range

He said "the land version of the indeginiously developed tactical weapon system was superior in terms of range (four km) to the Javelin of the US and the Spike of Israel.With the Indian army seeking an air-borne version,DRDO scientist have begun work on developing such a variant by extending the range to seven km. The air-borne version named Helina, to be mounted on an ALH helicopter would be ready in two and a half years as the system had to be reworked."

Top attack capability

"Equipped with imagining infrared seeker (IIR), it has lock-on-before launch (LOBL) capability with the seeker tracking the target even before firing.The missile which could be operated during day and night has top attack capability. Since all modern tanks are fitted with explosive reactive armour (ERA) to negate the effect of a missile's war head, the lethal capability of Nag had been increased by enabling it to carry one of the most powerful tandem war heads to defeat futuristic battle tanks. When a missile is fired, a pre-cursor charge would initially tackle ERA, followed by the main charge within 250 microseconds. That way the effect of the ERA is nullified," he said.

Further according to him, "each Namica, a dedicated missile carrier, would have 12 Nag missiles, eight of them in ready to fire mode. The missile has 10 year, maintenance free shelf life."

So, let's wait and watch...

Reference

"Anti-tank Nag missile to be ready by year-end," The Hindu, 28 January 2008, p.7.

PSLV puts Israeli satellite into orbit

On 21 January 2008, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C10, successfully put the Israeli staellite Tecsar into orbit. It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Tecsar, weighing 300 kg, is a remote-sensing satellite that can take pictures of the earth 365 days of the year, 24 hours of the day, through rain, clouds, day and night. It has a one-metre resolution. It was earlier known as Polaris.

Contrary to custom, reporters and photographers were barred from entering the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota to cover the event. Israel reportedly wanted the launch kept under wraps. The launch was executed under a commercial contract between the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), to which Tecsar belongs, and the Antrix Corporation, marketing agency of the Department of Space/ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation).

A report posted on the website of the Israeli daily Haaretz said that "Israel launched early on Monday a sophisticated new spy satellite, designited Tecsar, which could boost intelligence gathering capabilities regarding Iran." In a separate analysis the daily said "The launch of an Israeli satellite atop an Indian missile from a launch site in India bears a number of aditional advantages. First, it enables a new point of view in space, allowing it photographic angles and reception of Iranian communications, which were unable in prior satellite launches." The Jerusalem Post said the new satellite was capable of imagining with a resolution of upto 10 centimetres.

On the other hand, G Madhavan said that "21 January 2008 signified a landmark event in the history of Antrix Corporation Limited because on that day India's PSLV put in orbit an Israeli satellite called Tecsar in a fullfleged commercial launch transaction." Antrix Corporation is the marketing agency of the ISRO/Department of Space. Antrix has receieved a handsome amount from the IAI for launching the satellite.

Reference

Subramanian,T.S (2008), "PSLV puts Israeli satellite into orbit", The Hindu, 22 January 2008,Delhi, p.1.

Aneja, Atul (2008), "Satellite will spy on Iran:Israeli media", The Hindu,22 January 2008,Delhi, p.12.

Subramanian, T.S (2008), "A landmark event, says Madhavan Nair", The Hindu, 22 January 2008, Delhi, p.13.

Prospects of International Border Trade in Arunachal Pradesh

From time immemorial we had never been so much dependent on others. But today, we are left at the mercy of the Indian Government.Why is it so? Didn't we traded with the people from the plains or beyond the so called International border(present day India with Bhuthan, China/Tibet and Myanmar). Absolutely, we did. The closing down of this border trade has made us totally dependent on the Indian Government, which is a policy outcome of the "Indian think-tanks".

Sometimes, its quite embrassing when ever an Indian questions, 'What is your contribution to the Indian State?' They don't realise that we are the protector of the longest International boundary of the Indian State having 160 Km with Bhutan, 1080 Km with China/Tibet and a stretch of 540 Kms with Myanmar. Above all, our economy have been totally uprooted by the Indian Government by closing down the International trade, so that we be dependent on them. This is nothing, but something comes behind it.

We are contributing to the Indian Economy in the other way round. In what way? On behalf of us, the Indian coastal states are contributing as they are the one who are benefitting a lot out of the closure of our Border Trade which we had been practising since ancient times. The "Look East Policy" of the Indian Government is one such important example through which the coastal states have benefitted a lot, which in real sense should had been ours. Therefore, the Inernational Border Trade should be opened so that we no longer remain under the clutches of Indian Hegemony.

As such, the proposal brought out by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in regard to the International Border Trade is a wel come gesture.Following are the proposed border trade points/centres as put up by the Arunachal Pradesh Government(North East Sun, November 16-30, 2007, Vol XIII, No. 08, p.10.)-

-Pangsu Pass (Nampong) in Changlang District(Indo-Myanmar border)
-Kibithoo in Anjaw District (Indo-China border)
-Kepangla Pass(Gelling) in Upper Siang District(Indo-China border)
-Lolla Pass(Mechuka) in West Siang District (Indo-China)
-Dumla Pass( Monigong) in West Siang District(Indo-China).
-Taksing in Upper Subansiri District(Indo-China).
-Bumla and Kenzamane (Zeminthang) in Tawang District(Indo-China border).
-Bleeting (Namstering)/Dongshengmang in Tawang District(Indo-Bhutan).

But a big question that lies to be answered is "Who is going to control all the trade?" It's "we" or someone else. When present day trade in our state is controlled by the outsiders, "What do we expect?"

Reference

North East Sun, "Khandu on Look East Policy", November 16-30, 2007, Vol XIII, No.08, p.10.

NIE Report on the Iranian Nuclear Programme

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,while on his visit to the Ilam province in western Iran on wednesday said that "Today, the Iranian nation is victorious but you[the U.S] are empty handed." He was quoting the new U.S intelligence report which stated that Iran halted its atomic nuclear programme in 2003. This assessment contained in the latest National Intelligence Estimate(NIE) is produced collectively by washington's numerious intelligence agencies.

The NIE is the consensus view of the 16 U S intelligence agencies. Most of the 16 agencies are components of Cabinet Departments with other roles, with the exception of CIA. The rest include three major intelligence agencies in the Department of Defence-the Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. There is also the Defence Intelligence Agency, the State Departments Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the FBI, the intelligence organisation of the four military services-Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines-the Department of the Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the Energy Department, the Department of the Treasury and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Despite this findings, "hawks" in the Bush administration led by Dick Cheney sought to build a case for punitive action against Iran, including the use of force. Anything can happen because the NIE though supposed to be independent but it is the White House who retains control of whether the estimate will be publish. The U.S President Gorge W Bush even said on Tuesday that Iran remained a danger because it was mastering technology with a military use. He again refused to rule out military action if diplomatic efforts failed to resolve the dispute.

But from the latest report, it is a lesson for all those countries including India, France and Germany for it's uncritically accepted allegations peddled by American officials of Iran and sanction at the IAEA and the United Nations. For the IAEA and its Director-General Mohammed el-Baredi, they stand vindicated once again for their professional apporach as it was in the case of Iraq and its non-existent of WMD. Over the past two years, the IAEA has consistently maintained that there was no evidence of Iran running a clandistine nuclear programme.
Where do we need to place ourselves in such situation?