Updates from September, 2006 Hide threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Brain-dead media 

    BD 6:20 am on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    The ‘dork media’ category has been gathering dust. Time to pay a visit to this baby.

    We often crib about our Desi Dork Media, affectionately called as DDM. However, the American media is not far behind. A good example of which is the recent interview of Bill Clinton by Chris Wallace of the Fox network, that has created waves in the political blogosphere of US.

    ddm2.jpg

    Thinkprogress.org was the first to break the news in the blogosphere by leaking the transcript (video) of the taped interview before it was actually aired. To summarize the controversy:

    Today, President Bill Clinton taped an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, which is scheduled to be aired Sunday. He was told the interview would focus on his nonpartisan efforts to raise over $7 billion to combat the world’s biggest problems.

    Early in the interview, Wallace attempted to smear Clinton with the same kind of misinformation contained in ABC’s Path to 9/11. Clinton was having none of it. –thinkprogress.org

    But wait, that’s not what I’m referring to when I say ‘dork media’. The real meat is in how this episode was followed up by news channels.

    As Jon Stewart of the Daily Show points out, the news channels decided to focus on Clinton’s tenor and gestures rather than the facts that he presented in that interview.

    ddm.jpg

    One channel, MSNBC, even went ahead with their dorkiness by focusing on Clinton’s socks. Note, they brought in two ‘analysts’ for their views on his socks. Now this even the DDM can’t beat. Bravo!

    [tags]Bill Clinton, Chris Wallace, Fox[/tags]

     

    • ankan 7:32 am on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      the world is flat, the playing field is level and the american msm has decided to stoop down to the level of DDM to milk the phenomenon of globalization. awesome!

      btw, how i wish india had a jon stewart of its own!

    • BD 4:33 pm on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      btw, how i wish india had a jon stewart of its own!

      ditto!

    • ayesha 11:08 pm on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Terrorism or no terrorism, this will eat the world inside out.

    • Jenna 6:45 pm on October 4, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Very entertaining blog. I like the sarcastic sense of humor used in it. Nice job with the research that went into it too.

      P.S. Thanks for the comment on my blog. I’m glad you agree. It’s nice not to feel like such a rambling idiot : )

  • Top 5 reasons to buy Musharraf’s memoirs 

    BD 12:46 am on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    0743283449.01

    So, I was thinking about buying Musharraf’s memoirs. But, as I went through the excerpts that have been showing up in different sections of the media for a week now(one of those is in my previous post), I realized it’s not going to be an easy decision.

    To make things easier, I decided to list out top 5 reasons to buy the book (Ayeda style).

     

    Top 5 reasons to buy “In the Line of Fire”

    5. You want to use it as a piñata.

    4. If you like his hair style,take it along to the barber’s.

    3. You might wanna keep the book in handy when Musharraf’s representatives “rush into your cave” for negotiations.

    2. When you don’t find P.G. Woodhouse amusing enough.

    1. Because Bush said so.

    What’s your top 5 list?

    [tags]Musharraf[/tags]

     

    • phoenix 3:23 am on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I have just one…if I run out of toilet paper AND feel like being a bit luxurious to myself.

    • BD 6:30 am on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      ROFL!

      Moreover, you don’t get Times of India at your place, do you? :P

    • mohan 1:49 pm on September 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      finally, did you buy the book?

    • Eidee Man 10:11 pm on September 29, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      You have no idea how much it amuses me when I see Indians attacking Pakistan and Musharraf for getting attention in the media. IIT may still have metallurgy class but I think it needs to add International Affairs or a primer on Political Science to their coursework. After all, all programming and no worldliness makes Sanjay a dull boy.

    • BD 10:19 pm on September 29, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Eidee Man,

      I don’t think you need an International Affairs primer to understand the fact that Musharraf and Pakistan are two different entities. Criticizing Musharraf and/or his book doesn’t imply criticism of Pakistan. This should be clear.

      Did you find the book interesting? Do you find it honest?

      And regarding your last sentence, I completely agree with you :D

    • ayesha 1:05 am on September 30, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Did you find the book interesting? Do you find it honest?

      oyi, you are yet to buy the book yourself! incidentally, najam sethi has a funny take on it in this week’s TFT.

    • BD 1:38 am on September 30, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      LOL @ Najam’s article.

      Also check this.

    • ayesha 4:26 pm on September 30, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      pkblogs.com is apparently down too!

      so hail censorsip, in its truest sense. :|

    • BD 11:28 pm on September 30, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I heard that the problem was with the pkblogs.net server, and is going to be resolved soon.

    • Hindustani 8:19 pm on October 23, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Hi, here’s a great video on India’s IT/financial muscle

  • Funny quote of the day 

    BD 11:33 pm on September 25, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    I can say with confidence that neither the Pakistan Army nor any of the past governments of Pakistan was ever involved or had any knowledge of A Q’s proliferation activities.’

    Pervez Musharraf, in his book In the Line of Fire.

     

  • Rajnikanth makes it to digg! 

    BD 9:27 am on September 23, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    And this indeed is one of the funniest videos on youtube!

    [tags]Rajnikanth[/tags]
    digg story

     

  • Police reforms 

    BD 6:09 am on September 23, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    indian policeThe Supreme Court has ordered sweeping police reforms acting on a public interest litigation(PIL) filed by retd. Director General of Police(DGP) Prashant Singh. Broadly speaking, the reforms aim to achieve the following:

    • Insulate police from politicians.
    • Separate law&order machinery from investigative apparatus.
    • Fix the tenure of police officers.

    Moreover as this order comes from the highest seat of judiciary, it’s going to be difficult for the administration to dodge this one.

    More media reports here, here and here.

    It took as long as a decade for the retd. DGP to get his litigation answered (the next set of reforms should be for the judiciary!). But then, as they say, better late than never.

    Related articles on police reforms:

    [tags]Police,Security,Law,Prashant Singh[/tags]

     

    • IMeMy 9:15 am on September 23, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      This is a great development. I’m surprised that this wasn’t in place already like it is in the USA.
      When does this come into effect? I’m told the turn around time in India can be ridiculously long.

    • BD 11:07 pm on September 23, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      It’ll take time. The Supreme Court has just issued the order. I guess, the state and the central governments would have to then report to the court with the implementation details etc.

  • Appreciate what you can do 

    BD 9:47 pm on September 22, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Rakant reflects on the other face of Mumbai — slums, poverty and misery.(via Ankan).

    My thoughts:

    A wealthy man shouldn’t feel guilty about his wealth. For wealth doesn’t simply mean the amount of money he has. It means the amount of change he can bring about in his vicinity — knowledge or money, both imply wealth. He should appreciate what he has, that empowers him to make a difference; to break the glass ceiling between haves and have-nots. If there is something to be felt guilty about, it’s when the man doesn’t bring about this change.

    Appreciate what you CAN do, and do it!

    [tags]poverty, socialism[/tags]

     

  • Mohabbat Zindabad 

    BD 12:28 am on September 22, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    The media was full of speculations about outcome of the proposed dialogue between India and Pakistan in the recently finished NAM summit. Four days before the summit there was a column by Najam Sethi on Daily Times that suggested the following:

    However, precisely for these reasons, it is important for Pakistan and India to continue to move forward rather than slide backwards. General Musharraf could address Indian concerns by offering a cooperative security mechanism, even intelligence sharing on a case-to-case basis. It is important for Pakistan to help Dr Singh do what the latter wants to do: improve relations with Pakistan. Daily Times

    Seemed like a BS proposition. I rejected it at that. But then this was indeed what happened in the summit (glory to Najam’s sources!):

    After two months of strained relations following the Mumbai train bombings, the prime minister of India and the president of Pakistan issued a joint statement over the weekend, announcing an agreement to work together to combat terrorism. csmonitor

    It still seems BS. For starters, check this.

    Stockholm syndrome? I’m not sure. Idiotic? probably yes.

    The only application to this sharing of intelligence seems to be in narcotics trading. I don’t see how a single iota of intelligence related to terrorism would be shared. Because the definition of terrorism differs as we go from India to Pakistan. Pakistan sees an opportunity in it; an opportunity to push India to talk about the Kashmir issue. Besides I don’t see how India would share intelligence regarding RAW’s operations in Balochistan.

    Hogwash or not, it’s good that the talks have started again.

    “Mohabbat Zindabad!”

    mmpeanut

    [tags]India, Pakistan,MAS[/tags]

     

  • Puducherry 

    BD 11:26 pm on September 21, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Pondicherry is going to be known has Puducherry. I’m not sure if an old post of mine was the cause.

     

  • Google Creative writing competition 

    BD 11:46 pm on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Google is not just about code jams. For a change, Google(India) is organizing a creative writing competition. Amit Agarwal has more info.

    via desipundit.

     

  • Brief visit to heaven 

    BD 2:14 pm on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Syed Firdaus Ashraf writes about his experience in Brazil where he had gone as a part of PM’s delegation. A must read ROTFL material.

    [tags]Brazil[/tags]

     

    • IMeMy 12:10 pm on September 21, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      THAT, was very informative! Thanks for the link.

  • Gandhigiri Zindabad 

    BD 1:57 pm on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Gandhigiri in Lucknow!

    [tags]Munnabhai, Gandhigiri[/tags]

     

    • Suraj jain 1:22 pm on October 3, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Recently a website http://www.gandhigiri.org was launched . Now this site is a runway HIT . People here are discussion ways to implement Gandhigiri , their experience and are also seeking suggestion on Gandhigiri.

  • BD 12:56 am on September 17, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    The US president, George Bush, today dismissed the Geneva conventions on the laws of war as “vague” and called on Congress to back controversial new rules on the handling of terror suspects. – The Guardian

    Sure, whatever works for them is righteous, and whatever doesn’t can be just chucked out like that. Deja Vu.

    [tags]ICJ, Geneva Conventions, George Bush[/tags]

     

    • Sharique 10:51 am on September 19, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Typical of US. They also withdrew from the Kyoto protocol saying that they can’t comply to the many terms because that would adversely affect their economy. I hope they change the name of UN to US.

      I was really excited to see just one in your blogroll and assumed that you were able to install RSS reader but my excitement vanished when i saw that it was bloglines :( i have been struggling to install one on my wordpress blog for few days now

    • BD 12:14 pm on September 19, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Sharique,

      Having a public RSS reader that shows full content of the blogs would not be a nice thing for the blog owners who’s feeds you are linking to.

      If that’s not the case, what kind of RSS reader are you looking for?

    • sharique 12:16 am on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      BD,
      Why? Your blogline subscription does just that. I was referring to this http://wordpress.org/support/topic/34288

    • BD 12:38 am on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I meant directly having an aggregator page on your site.

      Anyways, check the way I now handle my blogroll using Grazr. Is that what you were looking for?

    • sharique 1:35 am on September 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Ah yes! thanks :)

    • IMeMy 12:14 pm on September 21, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Wouldn’t you be curious to know what DOES ‘constitute torture’ in his opinion!

  • BD 12:56 am on September 17, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    The US president, George Bush, today dismissed the Geneva conventions on the laws of war as “vague” and called on Congress to back controversial new rules on the handling of terror suspects. – The Guardian

    Sure, whatever works for them is righteous, and whatever doesn’t can be just chucked out like that. Deja Vu.

    [tags]ICJ, Geneva Conventions, George Bush[/tags]

     

  • Mystery of Zahedan - II 

    BD 10:26 am on September 16, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Continued from here.

    Iran has a significant number of baloch people residing in the Sista-Balochistan province. The Baloch nationalist movement should hurt Iran as it hurts Pakistan. In this light, Iran’s complicity in Baloch insurgency is quite perplexing.

    Balochistan is by no means a “Kashmir” for Pakistan. It’s much more than that, simply because there are so many forces pulling the ropes. It’s not an internal issue, nor a bilateral issue; it’s a mess, a hotch potch.

    It’s believed that the Balochistan insurgency started with KGB operations viz. Afghanistan. The Russians wanted to give tit-for-tat treatment to Pakistanis for the latter’s involvement in Afghanistan. The operations however ended with USSR’s downfall (although the infrastructure was in place).

    What followed later is interesting. Check this and this; spicy stuff!

    Without further digression, what’s in it for Iran?

    Economic theory:

    Iran has incurred great expenses to develop Chah Bahar, the port that is supposed to be the Iranian answer to Pakistani ports of Gawadar and Pasni. Iran has also done lot of work to create excellent road link between Herat and Chah Bahar. All this would go to waste if Pakistani route comes on line because it is shorter and offers quick commuting possibilities between Central Asia and Indian Ocean. Source

    Military theory:

    But what does Shia Iran gain by destabilizing Baluchistan. After all the Balouch are overwhelmingly Sunni. The reason is Iran’s fear of Pakistani complicity in the impending American action against their country. Iran fears that Pakistan is about to reenact its role vis-a- vis the Taliban immediately after 9/11 and before the US action against the Taliban began

    For any movement of American group troops into eastern Iran, Pakistan’s support would be essential (this is similar to the US request to Turkey for allowing US marines to move into Iraq from its northern border with Turkey.) Source

    All of this is quite ironic given the fact that Pakistan had crushed the first Baloch insurgency in 1973 using helicopter gunships flown by Iranian pilots. But then in this complex geopolitical setup, anything’s possible!

    [tags]Balochistan, Iran, Zahedan, Pakistan, India[/tags]

     

  • Mystery of Zahedan 

    BD 9:15 am on September 16, 2006 Permalink | Reply

    Pakistan has asked Iran to monitor the Indian consulate in the Iranian border city of Zahidan, alleging it was aiding nationalist rebels in the southwest Balochistan province. — Rediff

    Islamabad has conveyed its concern to Tehran that the Indian consulate in Zahidan is involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan — Dawn

    India has 3 consulates in Iran(compare this to the number of consulates in United States — just four). Of course this seems minuscule to the whopping 9 consulates in Afghanistan, but still.

    The other two consulates in Iran are located in Tehran and Bander-e-abbas. Tehran is the capital of Iran(duh!). Bander-e-abbas is a historic port city.

    Zahedan is interesting. It’s called the city of Poetry and Roses. It has a Sikh temple (should be quite a rarity in Iran) and a famous Sunni mosque that depicts Indian architecture. But of all the reasons, the one that stands out is that Zahedan borders Pakistan. It’s well connected to the Pakistani city of Quetta by bus and train routes. The city is used as an entry point for Shia pilgrims from Pakistan who travel to other parts of Iran. Having an Indian consulate there shouldn’t come as a surprise.

    Balochistan

    India’s intentions are anyone’s guess. But what about Iran?

    The fact that it has turned a blind eye to the Indian consulate’s alleged activities (despite assurances to Pakistan) implies Iran’s complicity in the whole issue. But why?

    Would try and explore that in my next post .

    [tags]Balochistan, Iran, Zahedan, Pakistan, India[/tags]

     

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