The Right to Ridicule

The New York Review of Books: The Right to Ridicule

'June Fourth' Seventeen Years Later

The New York Review of Books: 'June Fourth' Seventeen Years Later: How I Kept a Promise

Affirmative Action in USA

OpinionJournal - Cross Country :: By Any Means Necessary - A federal judge plays politics in Michigan. BY TERRENCE PELL : "Just a few weeks before the deadline for Proposal 2 to get onto the state ballot, the "Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary" (BAMN, loosely) argued that the signature gathering process used to qualify the referendum was tainted by racially targeted fraud. From the beginning, BAMN has claimed the initiative disguised an anti-black and racist agenda. But because many black individuals had signed the petition, BAMN had to show they'd been duped.

So the group launched an "investigation." They systematically called and personally visited blacks who'd signed the petition. In some cities, they had friendly talk show hosts read the names of black signers over the radio. In all cases BAMN's message was the same: How could you, a black person, sign a petition to roll back affirmative action?"

Mr. Pell is the president of the Center for Individual Rights, which represents the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

How to be an 'ordinary, decent' muslim

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | How to be an 'ordinary, decent' muslim: "You're a Muslim living in a Britain that has become hyper-sensitive to all hints of Islamist terrorism. So how do you convince people that their prejudiced assumptions about you are wrong? Urmee Khan offers an irreverent insider's guide

1: Don't wear a big coat
2: Don't go on holiday to Pakistan
3: Don't have a beard
4: Don't join groups or clubs
5: Don't wear the veil
6: Don't live in High Wycombe/ Luton/Beeston/Walthamstow
7: Don't be apathetic
8 Don't be a 'community leader'
9: Don't be a successful sportsman/woman
10: Don't draw cartoons

Wat happens when a blogger takes a Vacation

WSJ.com - No Day at the Beach

Indian state targets Windows - Business - International Herald Tribune

Indian state targets Windows - Business - International Herald Tribune: "The Communist government in India's southern state of Kerala is campaigning to eliminate Microsoft from use in public institutions in a new attack on multinational corporations just weeks after it imposed a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

As part of a drive against "monopolistic" organizations, schools and public offices across the state are being encouraged to install free software instead of purchasing Microsoft's Windows."

Hyderabad Nawabs stresses on local lingo

NDTV

In 1996, Hyderabad Blues catapulted a little-known Nagesh Kukunoor into the big league.

A decade later, comes Hyderabad Nawabs that hopes to replicate the success.

The film is typically Hyderabadi in every sense. The characters are ones you would think you could meet in any lane or bylane of the old city area, and the lingo, a mix of Deccani Urdu and Hindi that generates its own brand of humour.

"We say nako for No and the way we say different sentences is quite different to the Hindi spoken in UP.

Language is the same but the accent, because of mixture of Hindi and Urdu, makes it different. People will like it," said D C Srivastava, Actor.

The moviemakers are however disappointed with the response of the distributors in Mumbai, who say the language used in the film is not mainstream Hindi.

"Most of the language used in Hindi films is Mumbaiya slang Hindi. Because no one had bothered to make a movie using Deccani Hindi, it is all-new to people,'' said V Ramakrishna, Writer-Producer, Hyderabad Nawabs.

Hyderabad Nawabs, which will release this Friday, is in fact, following in the footsteps of The Angrez that hit the screen last year and has been a superhit, doing more than 250 days.

INTERVIEW WITH MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE

INDIA TODAY - "India Should Play A Much Bigger Role": "With his brawny good looks, MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE could easily pass for a hero of South Indian films. He did, in fact, act in a Sinhalese film but first chose law and then politics as his main vocation. "If I had continued in films, I would have been another Karunanidhi (the Tamil Nadu chief minister)," he joked, settling down for an exclusive interview last week with Managing Editor RAJ CHENGAPPA in Colombo.


More comfortable in a lungi and shirt rather than formal wear, Rajapkse comes across as earthy and pragmatic. He takes pride in his rural upbringing in Humbanthota, a province in the Sinhala dominated south of Sri Lanka. His emergence as the top leader of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party and then as President of the nation in November last signaled a major political shift – till then the party was dominated by the Bandaranaikes the last being Chandrika Kumaratunga. At 62 Rajpakse is fit enough to lead the party for the maximum of two terms that a President can enjoy.

Rajpakse rode to power on the back of Sinhala chauvinism and the support of the two hardline parties, the Janatha Vimuthi Peramuna, JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya, JHU. What also helped is that the LTTE ordered the Tamils that constitute 18 per cent of the population to boycott the polls. The Tamils were expected to vote for the United National Party alliance headed by the suave Ranil Wickremesinghe. The boycott saw Rajapakse emerge as the winner with the slimmest of majorities.

Annual Ranking of CMs by India Today

SEPTEMBER 04, 2006

INDIA TODAY - Who is the Best Chief Minister?:

India Today's Mood of the Nation poll chose West Bengal's Buddhadeb Bhattacharya over his closest rival Narendra Modi who had topped in the last three polls.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya 1 (4)

Narendra Modi 2 (1)

3 Y.S.R. Reddy (5)

4 Vilasrao Deshmukh (3)

5 Mulayam Singh Yadav (6)

6 M. Karunanidhi *

7 Nitish Kumar (3)

8 Sheila Dikshit *

9 H.D. Kumaraswamy *

10 Vasundhara Raje (7)

Brackets indicate Jan 2006 rankings. *New Entrants

INDIA TODAY - The most widely read newsweekly in South Asia.

INDIA TODAY: " COVER STORY: THE STATE OF THE STATES - Small Is Beautiful :: A heady mix of changing work culture, transformed lifestyles and altering pattern of industry has made the choice of locating one's life wider than before. India Today presents India's first ever ranking of the best and the worst states to live-and work-in. "

1. Goa
2. Delhi
3. Punjab
4. Kerala
5. Himachal Pradesh
6. Tamil Nadu
7. Haryana
8. Gujarat
9. Maharashtra
10. Karnataka
11. Jammu & Kashmir
12. Andhra Pradesh
13. Rajasthan
14. West Bengal
15. Madhya Pradesh
16. Assam
17. Uttar Pradesh
18. Orissa
19. Bihar

How much we divulge to Google & co

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Andrew Brown: on how much we divulge to Google & co: "Every time you use an internet search engine, your inquiry is stored in a huge database. Would you like such personal information to become public knowledge? Yet for thousands of AOL customers, that nightmare has just become a reality. Andrew Brown reports on an incident that has exposed how much we divulge to Google & co "

Malaysia outlaws unsuitable names

Malaysian authorities have published a list of undesirable titles to prevent parents giving their children names such as Hitler, smelly dog or 007. Such choices are not allowed, but there is a right of appeal.

The list came as a response to the growing number of Malaysians who are applying to change their birth names. Malaysia's National Registration Department made the decision after consulting with various religious bodies in the country.

They represented the country's Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist communities. Traditionally, some groups have given newborns inauspicious names to ward off demons and evil spirits.

Further restrictions

Now names like the Hokkien Chinese Ah Chwar, meaning snake, and Khiow Khoo, meaning hunchback, are being ruled out. So too are Cantonese monikers Chow Tow, meaning smelly head, and Sor Chai, meaning insane.

Members of Malaysia's Tamil community will be discouraged from using the likes of Karrupusamy (black god), and Malays from trying names like Woti, meaning sexual intercourse. But the ban extends further.

Parents will not be able to call their babies after animals, insects, fruit, vegetables or colours. Numbers are also not allowed, so little James Bonds cannot flaunt their 007 status on their ID cards.

Other restrictions stop parents giving children royal or honorary titles as names or calling their little ones after Japanese cars.

Two Penis - Diphallus

Necessary Surgery? - Offbeat

On Saturday, news from India surfaced that a local businessman, born with two fully functioning penises, checked into a New Delhi hospital to have one surgically removed. The 24-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, who had never told anyone about his predicament, requested the highly risky procedure so that he could marry and have a "normal" sex life. The condition, known as Diphallus, is so rare that there have only been 100 or so cases reported since 1609, and according to one surgeon "two fully functional penises is unheard of even in medical literature." Since both organs are developed, a blood supply to the retained penis must be maintained during the already delicate operation, or it too could be lost.

Sources: Man With Two Sex Organs & Sanjay never visited doc till 2 months ago

Is Congress cosying up to the common man?

IndianExpress.com :: Is Congress cosying up to the common man?: "The polls are nowhere in sight, but the heat is on. The Congress is on the defensive and the Left seems out to upset the applecart. Or is it all just a ploy to bring Rahul to the centrestage for 2009? "

12 Detainees are from Mumbai

Dutch Justice Ministry rules out terrorism - NDTV.com: "All the twelve suspects detained on a Northwest airlines flight to Mumbai were born in Mumbai. And though the allegations against the detainees are unclear, the Dutch justice minister has said that the detentions are not related to terrorism.

Dutch authorities say that they have been detained because they displayed suspicious behaviour on board a Northwest airline flight. The Ministry of External Affairs is in touch with the Dutch officials for consular access to the detainees.

A list containing the names of suspects has been sent to MEA. As of now, no criminal charges have been framed against them. According to MEA sources, the detained men are said to be largely in their 20s and 30s.

The flight with 149 people on board was turned back on Wednesday and escorted by F16s over German skies to Schiphol airport. Some eyewitnesses reported that the suspicious passengers were using mobile phones and passing them around despite orders by US marshals on board not to.

Some say they even refused to listen to crewmembers who asked them to fasten their seat belts. The flight to Mumbai took off at 9 am on Thursday morning and the return flight to the United States was scheduled for Friday.

Northwest flight 42 was just minutes into its journey to Mumbai when it turned back to Amsterdam accompanied by two Dutch fighter jets. Wednesday's security alert was the first at Amsterdam's international airport since last September, when a British Airways flight returned in similar circumstances. It later turned out to be a false alarm.

Security has been raised at airports worldwide in the last two weeks since UK police foiled a plot by British Muslims to blow up planes in the mid-Atlantic using liquid explosives."

Does Japan have a right to exist as a Japanese state

OpinionJournal - Federation - Unasked Questions ::BY DAVID E. BERNSTEIN: "many, many countries have an official religion, including not only "backward" countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia that enforce religious law, but "progressive" liberal bastions such as Norway, Denmark, and Iceland (all Lutheran). By contrast, Judaism is not the official religion of Israel. Jewish holidays are government holidays, but that's like Christmas in the U.S. (Family law is controlled by religious bodies, but that's true for Muslims, Christians, et al., as well as Jews, and is an artifact of Ottoman and British rule. "

Top Writers/Editors Debate Newspapers' Future in NYC

Top Writers/Editors Debate Newspapers' Future in NYC: ""Does print have a future?" asked Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley Thursday evening to kick off a panel celebrating the 10th anniversary of the online magazine.

Entitled "Online Media and the Future of Journalism" and held at the main branch of the New York Public Library, the panel addressed a wide range of issues in the movement of content online and the future of print media. On stage with Kinsley were former Time Inc. editor in chief Norman Pearlstine; current Slate editor Jacob Weisberg; Arianna Huffington, who co-founded HuffingtonPost.com; and Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer for The New Yorker and bestselling author."

While you surf the Web, who's surfing you

While you surf the Web, who's surfing you? - Technology - International Herald Tribune: "the most recent computer crime and security survey, conducted annually by the Computer Security Institute with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, found that the average loss from computer security incidents in 2005 was $167,713 per respondent (based on 313 companies and organizations that answered the question).

Sunni-Shia war engulf the new Middle East

OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts :: A Faith Divided by MASOOD FARIVAR : "In the succession crisis that followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the majority of Muslims elected as caliph one of the Prophet's closest companions. A minority dissented, arguing that the Prophet had passed the leadership of his community to Ali, his cousin and son-in-law. The dissenters became known as "Shiat-Ali," or Partisans of Ali. The followers of Muhammad's "Sunna," or tradition, became known as Sunnis. In time, each side developed what Mr. Nasr calls a distinct "ethos of faith and piety."

The Shia got their wish when Ali became the fourth caliph, but the pivotal moment in Shia history came in 680 when Ali's son Hussein and 72 of his followers were massacred in the desert of southern Iraq after challenging the authority of Islam's sixth caliph. For the Shia, Hussein came to symbolize resistance to tyranny; his martyrdom is commemorated to this day as a central act of Shia piety.

With the exception of a few short-lived Shia dynasties (Iraq is not the first Shia Arab state), the Shia never really wielded political power, living mostly as a marginalized minority under Sunni rule. This historical experience, Mr. Nasr observes, has long imbued the Sunnis with a sense of "worldly success," and a presumption of mastery, while furnishing the Shia underdogs with a narrative of "martyrdom, persecution, and suffering."

Vali Nasr, author of "The Shia Revival,

Petition filed against Omkara

NDTV: "Bollywood actor Naeem Khan has moved court seeking a ban on Hindi film Omkara. Khan's objection is against the vulgar dialogue used in the film. The petitioner has asked that the movie should be pulled out from theatres in an interim measure.

The petition also took objection to the word "Om" in the title of the film and demanded that the filmmakers be asked to change the title."