I don't know why nobody shows boxing matches in India--especially since ESPN apparently spends half its time whining that it lost the rights to Indian cricket and the other half trying to figure out something that will get better rating than so-called professional wrestling--but here's an introduction to a guy who could pump up those viewer numbers, for a few years, anyway, while he's being groomed for a title shot. ESPN, meet Amir Khan. I know, I know, the promoters actually want MONEY to show boxing overseas. Tell 'em that it's a choice of some money--admittedly, not too much--or no money. Nobody else is going to give them a dime to broadcast their fight in India, so why the hell not? And since the match will take place in the middle of the night, India time, what will you be putting it up against but repeats of England-Bangladesh cricket matches of the 1980s? (Which brings me to another bone of contention, you bastards: Why do you put the Live logo on everything? Do you mean the players are still Alive? Do you mean the guys who turned on the tape in the studio are Live? And why, oh why, do you opt to play tapes when there are actually real Live sports going on simultaneously to which you own the rights?)
Interview: Amir Khan
Donald McRae
Monday August 29, 2005
The Guardian
A year ago today, on the last day of the Olympic Games in Athens, a sweet-faced 17-year-old boy from Bolton stepped into the ring to face a hardened 33-year-old Cuban fighter hailed as the world's greatest amateur boxer for more than a decade. Amir Khan had arrived in Greece two weeks earlier as a virtual unknown - a shy student from Bolton Community College who liked go-karting and playing football. He lived at home, still accepted a soft cuff round the head from his mum for not tidying his room and made it up to her by smiling like Bambi whenever he offered to walk down to the local shops to buy a pint of milk.
Mario Kindelan, meanwhile, came to Athens as the reigning world and two-time Olympic lightweight champion, his formidable amateur record after 340 fights burnished by the fact that many of his previously outclassed victims, like Felix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto, had gone on to become celebrated professionals. His victory over Khan in a third successful Olympic final was meant to be a brutal formality.
Khan, instead, pushed Kindelan close, stalking the Cuban with fluid intent. He then accepted his 30-22 defeat with a grace and dignity which seemed all the more striking at the end of a week in which another British teenage prodigy, Wayne Rooney, had been smeared all over the tabloids after visiting a brothel in Liverpool. Most of the eight million British television viewers who watched Khan receive his silver medal that afternoon were captivated.
"It happened so quick and it's gone totally mad since then," Khan says now, shaking his head at the thought that, after the recent attacks on London, normally sober writers have described him as "a standard-bearer among the Muslim community in combating terrorism" and "the single most important role model for a multinational British society". Khan laughs softly as, in a small office above a mini-cab firm in downtown Bolton, he tries to explain how much his life has changed in a year.
While he is reassuringly blasé when revealing that he has met the "down-to-earth" Queen three times and a "fairly normal" Tony Blair twice, Khan is more touching in describing the personal way in which fame has changed his life. "I keep telling myself that I'm still only 18 - even if most of the time I tend to act like I'm 25 or someone old like that. I haven't been able to go down to the shops for my mum for a long time. I tried it after Athens and people went mad. At first they would say 'you look just like Amir Khan' and I'd say 'you're the second person to tell me that today'. But then I started getting mobbed and it would take a couple of hours to get to and from the shops.
"But I'll tell you the weirdest thing. I keep getting everything for free. I'd rather be normal and pay my own way. If I go out for a meal with a few friends it can get embarrassing. When it's time for the bill the owner will come over and say it's on the house. I try to get them to take my money but it's their way of showing respect or admiration. I understand but I'm telling you it's not as good as it sounds.
"A lot of things have changed around me and that's why it can be quite hard. It makes me feel I've lost a lot of my youth. I came back from the Olympic Games and straightaway I'm this role model. So that means I can't mess around with my mates like I used to because, if I do, people are going to use it to knock me down. It used to piss me off but now I'm used to it."
His professional debut last month - a first-round demolition of a journeyman called David Bailey - was dominated by the decision to play Land of Hope and Glory during Khan's walk to the ring and his subsequent raising of a union flag in which the word "London" had been stitched in black. For an 18-year-old weighed down by his new social significance it seemed an unnecessary burden - and led to accusations that Khan might have been pressured into making a portentous statement.
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Khan insists that "it was down to me. Like everyone I was upset about the London bombings . . . but, you know, I'm only 18 and I don't really want to be a spokesman for anyone. It might sound selfish but I'm learning now to say no to people. I have to put myself first and think of the boxing rather than the rest of it."
His eyes widen and glitter as he remembers the 109-second fight more vividly than the surrounding political metaphors. "I was excited and nervous but as soon as the bell rang it went quiet in my head. It was just me and him. I knew it was going to be easy as soon as I saw him charging at me. That made me totally relaxed and he just fell on to my shots. I blew him away."
A far more telling measure of Khan's undoubted potential had emerged in his previous bout in May, his last as an amateur, when he gained imperious revenge over Kindelan. In dominating the Cuban, who claimed to be determined to win the final fight of his majestic career, Khan proved that his exceptional talent is allied to a steely nerve and sharp intelligence.
"In Athens I faced so many completely different boxers that I couldn't get my head focused on Kindelan and his style until just before the final. But this time it was just like a professional fight. I studied Kindelan so closely that by the time we got into the ring I reckon I knew before him what he was going to do next. And then I'd hit him - bam! Bam-bam!"
He leans across the small table separating us and gently hammers his fist against the wooden surface. "I was actually surprised by how easy it was and that gave me a lot of confidence because Kindelan is a lot better than most pros. After the fight I spent some time with him in Cuba and that was special. I met the other Cuban legends like [Teofilo] Stevenson and [Felix] Savon, and they told me how much it hurt Kindelan to lose his last fight. But he was so respectful to me that I was inspired by him and the whole Cuban boxing history."
Khan's unbridled passion for the ring is more intriguing than liberal attempts to sanctify him in modern Britain. It also helps explain why such a charming and engaging 18-year-old is able to bring such dark spite to his work between the ropes.
"You need that kind of pleasure as a fighter. You have to like what you actually do in the ring. That's why in the pro game I look up to the Mexicans. Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales are the guys I want to base myself on. They fight with their whole heart and with such work-rate. They just don't stop punching. I want to be like that - never boring."
When asked to pick his favourite between two fighters who have shared three thrilling but excruciating battles - with two wins for Barrera, "The Baby-Faced Assassin", shading the lone victory of Morales or "El Terrible", as the hollow-eyed super-featherweight from Tijuana tags himself - Khan leans forward. His voice sounds husky. "Morales is my guy. I've always loved him as a fighter. I hope to meet him one day - just to shake his hand."
It is, crucially, not lost on Khan that Naseem Hamed was finally ruined by Barrera - even if his demise had begun years earlier. "It's definitely a lesson for me. Naseem was my hero for a long time and at his peak he was brilliant. If he had fought Barrera four years before I think Naseem would have beaten him. But the money got to him, and the hype, and I think he stopped putting the work in. The Mexicans are different; they never stop working."
Khan remembers how, in the early hours of a Sunday morning in April 2001, "at my mate's house in Bolton we sat up all night waiting for Naseem to fight Barrera. I felt I should support Naz but he had no chance against Barrera that night. Barrera left Naseem hurt and confused. It explained again why the Mexican way - fighting hard, staying hungry - is such a big thing."
Like Hamed, Khan imagines becoming a "legend" and retiring undefeated from boxing at the age of 25. He is too young to accept, when it is pointed out to him, that every fighter professes the same noble aim but that none, beyond Rocky Marciano, has managed to walk away unblemished. The ring is too dangerously addictive. Yet as long as Khan remains in thrall to Morales and Barrera, rather than the bloated shell of Hamed, he could forge a remarkable career.
He may eventually shatter prejudice or even spread more unity in a splintered society but for now it seems enough that Khan lights up when talking about Bolton Wanderers or Freddie Flintoff. He and Flintoff often train alongside each other in the same Salford gym: "Freddie's real strong and I reckon he'd have made some boxer. But I'm happy he chose cricket because I can't get enough of the Ashes. I've been racing home after training every day to see us against the Aussies. It's been brilliant."
Flintoff has been invited to be Khan's special guest a week on Saturday when the young lightweight fights on a Joe Calzaghe undercard in Cardiff. In the midst of the deciding Test at The Oval Flintoff will presumably be able to watch another fast win for his Lancashire ally only on ITV - as Khan should easily dismantle the 34-year-old Baz Carey from Coventry.
Far greater tests await Khan, if not Flintoff, and it as almost as significant as his Mexican fervour that he has picked out his own future rival. "I always said as an amateur that I'd want to one day fight and beat Kindelan because he was the best out there. Same thing in the pros. I look out there and I see that Floyd Mayweather stands head and shoulders above everyone else. He's another fighter I would like to base myself on because he's got incredible fast hands and feet. He's flashy but, man, is he good."
The idea of Khan one day fighting Mayweather - a vicious and brash unbeaten 28-year-old American light-welterweight who calls himself "Pretty Boy" - may be a Hamed-like invitation to hubris. Yet, staring across the table at a young fighter flaming with wild hope and grand dreams of his own, I hear myself asking Khan how long he realistically believes he needs before he might be ready to face a consummate boxer like Mayweather.
The reply is fast and certain. "Three and a half years . . ."
I raise a brow at the speed and seeming exactitude of his ambition. "Well, maybe four years," Khan finally says, with a grin. "As long as I don't allow myself to get distracted I think that's possible. If I keep focused like Morales or Barrera then I can do it. Why not?"
In the meantime Khan will continue living at home with his parents, two sisters and young brother Haroon - a 14-year-old bantamweight. "Haroon is already a Four Nation and British champion and he thinks he's going to be better than me. We spar a lot and sometimes, even though he weighs only 6½ stone, he can hurt me. I give him one back then - just to let him know who's boss."
The older brother smiles knowingly, sounding suitably mature, just as he does when recognising his own youthfulness in his very next breath.
"Y'know, I don't want to move out of home for a few more years. I don't want to be opening envelopes, reading bills, posting cheques. That's too much pressure for an 18-year-old. I've got enough on my plate at the moment. All that other boring stuff will come soon enough. Until then I just want to chill out - and fight."
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
the diviners by rick moody
Let us pause for a moment to give thanks for Rick Moody, literary heir to Thomas Pynchon and—yes—Walt Whitman in this age of winnowed down writing program prose, as compulsively labored as a set of washboard abs.
The Diviners, Moody’s latest offering, is the story of a bunch of strivers, movie people, television execs, yogis, washed-up action film stars and, of course, an ambitious desi cab driver attempting to make an epic television miniseries that begins with the Mongol hordes sweeping into Europe and ends with the founding of Las Vegas. The novel will have you laughing so hard—whether it is the page-long paean to the satori that is the Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut, the hilarious riff on the California “botox party” or another of a dozen mad set pieces—you won’t care that it all fizzles out, leaving you wondering, in the end. Along the way, Moody never stoops to the language of the lowest common denominator. He never bores. And he skewers America’s obsession with the next new thing, the culture-of-the-moment culture, with pinpoint accuracy. So accurate, in fact, that I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of Moody’s loony television ideas—in particular a Desperate Housewives cum Buffy the Vampire Slayer serial billed as The Werewolves of Fairfield County--appearing on real networks next season. Exiles beware: Whitman would have called this one Song of New York.
The Diviners, Moody’s latest offering, is the story of a bunch of strivers, movie people, television execs, yogis, washed-up action film stars and, of course, an ambitious desi cab driver attempting to make an epic television miniseries that begins with the Mongol hordes sweeping into Europe and ends with the founding of Las Vegas. The novel will have you laughing so hard—whether it is the page-long paean to the satori that is the Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut, the hilarious riff on the California “botox party” or another of a dozen mad set pieces—you won’t care that it all fizzles out, leaving you wondering, in the end. Along the way, Moody never stoops to the language of the lowest common denominator. He never bores. And he skewers America’s obsession with the next new thing, the culture-of-the-moment culture, with pinpoint accuracy. So accurate, in fact, that I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of Moody’s loony television ideas—in particular a Desperate Housewives cum Buffy the Vampire Slayer serial billed as The Werewolves of Fairfield County--appearing on real networks next season. Exiles beware: Whitman would have called this one Song of New York.
grand theft identity
Be careful, we've been told, or you may become a fraud victim. But now it seems that corporations are failing to protect our secrets. How bad is the problem, and how can we fix it?
Newsweek's Steven Levy and Brad Stone weigh in again -- this time with inputs from India on the Karan Bahree scandal -- on the problem of identity theft.
Grand Theft Identity
By Stephen Levy and Brad Stone
Sept. 5, 2005 issue - Millions of people now have a new reason to dread the mailbox. In addition to the tried-and-true collection of Letters You Never Want to See—the tax audit, the high cholesterol reading, the college-rejection letter—there is now the missive that reveals you are on the fast track to becoming a victim of identity theft. Someone may have taken possession of your credit-card info, bank account or other personal data that would enable him or her to go on a permanent shopping spree—leaving you to deal with the financial, legal and psychic bills. Deborah Platt Majoras got the pain letter recently, from DSW Shoe Warehouse. Hers was among more than a million credit-card numbers that the merchant stored in an ill-protected database. So when hackers busted in, they got the information to buy stuff in her name—and 1.4 million other people's names. "It's scary," she says. "Part of it is the uncertainty that comes with it, not knowing whether sometime in the next year my credit-card number will be abused." Now she must take steps to protect herself, including re-examining charges closely, requesting a credit report and contacting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to put her complaint into its ID-theft database. The latter step should be easy for her, since Majoras is the FTC chairman.
Somewhere, Willie Sutton is smiling. Sutton was the sly swindler who, when asked why he robbed banks, was said to reply, "Because that's where the money is." Today the easy money is still in banks—databanks: vast electronic caches in computers, hard disks and backup tapes that store our names, ID numbers, credit-card records, financial files and other records. That information can be turned into cash; thieves can quickly sell it to "fraudsters" who will use it to impersonate others. They visit porn sites, buy stereo systems, purchase cars, take out mortgages and generally destroy the credit ratings of innocent victims, who may be unable to get new jobs, buy houses or even get passports until the matter is painstakingly resolved. And since the crime is all done remotely, modern ID thieves suffer little of the risk that Sutton shouldered a half century ago when he robbed banks with a machine gun.
We've become accustomed to the digital grease that smooths transactions, loans and eBay bids, even as worries about identity theft quietly shadow us, often leading us to restrict our activities and be extra careful with our credit cards and personal information. In recent months, though, there's been something different, a cascade of reports about big break-ins and bungles where the booty is our secrets. Suddenly things seem out of control: instead of losing our identities one by one, we're seeing criminals grabbing them in massive chunks—literally millions at a time. Just last week security firm Sunbelt Software discovered a U.S.-based server storing passwords for online accounts from 50 banks, eBay and PayPal log-ins, and credit-card numbers stolen by a Trojan virus. In June lax security at an Atlanta-based company called CardSystems exposed a possible 40 million Discover, Visa, MasterCard and American Express numbers to hackers, who have already begun turning the digits into cash and prizes. "It only makes sense that criminals would go where information is collected," says Martha Stansell-Gamm, head of the computer-crime division in the U.S. Justice Department.
"Over the last nine years, criminals have gotten a better understanding of the power of information," says Rob Douglas of PrivacyToday, a security consulting firm. "Instead of selling drugs, so much can be made so quickly with identity theft, and the likelihood of getting caught is almost nil." Avivah Litan of research firm Gartner Group speculates that fewer than 1 in 700 identity crimes leads to a conviction. This goes a long way toward explaining why it's the fastest-growing crime of this century. Crooks rack up $53 billion a year in ID theft in the United States alone. Consumers get stuck with $5 billion directly; and the rest is paid by retailers and businesses—which pass it on in higher prices.
Losing your credit card can be a huge hassle, but laws usually limit losses. In more distressing forms of ID theft, someone —swipes not just your card but also your entire financial persona. Judy McDonough, a 56-year-old occupational psychologist from the north of England, has been living a nightmare since last year, when she found that someone—she suspects a relative—racked up 33,000 pounds sterling of debt over three years, which included two credit cards, three bank loans and 2,300 pounds sterling of catalog orders. She reported the crime six times before taking it to her member of Parliament. Most banks, says McDonough, "just hope you'll go away."
For years, the primary cause of ID theft has been good old-fashioned analog crime. Thieves rifle mailboxes, snatch purses and dive into the garbage for discarded bank statements or credit-card receipts. More recently, we've seen a plague of "phishing"—sending bogus e-mails that look as if they come from legitimate companies, asking us to supply personal information. After the CardSystems heist, phishers, trying to capitalize on the news, sent out e-mails sup-posedly from MasterCard, asking people to update their information. "They played on the fear that consumers had when the announcement was made," says Susan Larson of SurfControl, an Internet-security firm.
Savvy computer users know the requisite defense against a phishing attack: never respond to a request for personal information. This wisdom is part of the standard tool kit of protections against ID theft. Check your credit-card bills with an eagle eye. Request your credit report. Shred your information. This regime makes perfect sense for individuals. But when it comes to companies charged with safeguarding millions, sometimes even billions, of records, what do they do?
They leave it unencrypted on computers, where malicious hackers get hold of it. The DSW Shoe Warehouse is far from the only hacked database owner. According to a U.S. government consent order, BJ's Wholesale Club, a Massachusetts-based firm operating big-box stores and gas stations, not only failed to encrypt, but stored records in violation of bank-security rules, didn't use a firewall to prevent wireless intrusions and protected the information with the easy-to-guess default passwords that came with the system. Result: credit cards ripped off in early 2004 were used to charge millions in goods.
They inadvertently allow employees to sell it. This June, a 24-year-old Indian man named Karan Bahree, who at the time worked for Gurgaon-based online marketing firm Infinity eSearch, allegedly sold information on 1,000 bank accounts to an undercover journalist working for The Sun, a British tabloid, for 2,750 pounds sterling, according to a Sun article. Bahree has since claimed that he was only a middleman and that he did not sell data his employer had collected (he's since been fired, according to a statement by Infinity eSearch). Infinity eSearch has said the company doesn't handle any data for the banks named in the Sun report, and that Bahree didn't have access to confidential data of any kind through his employment with the company, according to press reports. But the case has raised fears of an anti-outsourcing backlash if Indian firms are seen to be careless with the data they handle.
They pack it in boxes and put it in a mail truck. That's what CitiFinancial, a unit of Citigroup, did with the financial secrets of 3.9 million customers last May. The box never arrived at its destination, and now CitiFinancial is telling customers that their identities are at risk.
They leave it on laptops that get stolen. Last March at UC Berkeley someone made away with a computer holding personal information of almost 100,000 grad students and applicants.
They don't monitor what insiders may do with it. In April, more than a dozen people, including employees of an MphasiS call center in Pune, India, were charged with cheating Citibank customers out of $350,000. Citibank had outsourced some of its customer-service operations to MphasiS.
They just plain lose it. Bank of America is still looking for backup tapes with information on 1.2 million government workers, discovered lost in December.
They don't do what they say. CardSystems, a privately held company, processes an es-timated $15 billion in credit-card trans-actions a year (between the merchant and the bank). In direct violation of its agreement with MasterCard and Visa, CardSystems retained 40 million credit-card numbers "for research purposes," as its CEO John Perry initially told the press. These were sucked out of the system by digital invaders. CardSystems' clients admit that protection was lax: "Obviously there were deficiencies and other issues," says Josh Peirez, head of government affairs for MasterCard. Since the break-in, CardSystems has reportedly installed a new "intrusion-prevention product" (hey, thanks).
An elaborate infrastructure of crime has emerged to collect and distribute stolen records. When it comes to attacking databases, malicious hackers either use automated software "bots" to methodically probe the Internet for vulnerable databases or target companies that are likely to harbor honey pots. Most often, they enter systems through preventable security flaws, like guessable passwords (example: "Dave" or the default password that came with the program) or known vulnerabilities in software.
Once records are stolen, they are passed on or sold in fleeting digital dark alleys—chat rooms or instant-messaging sessions where transactions are quickly, stealthily enacted. Sometimes the crooks are sufficiently brazen to post their offerings on Web sites that are sort of fraudster eBays. At one site posted by a member of the Shadowcrew organization (which was shut down by the U.S. government last year), $200 gets 300 credit cards without the security codes printed on the back of the card. If you want card numbers with the code, it will cost you $200 for 50 of them.
After fraudsters buy the purloined numbers, they commonly use them to grab goodies as fast as possible. It's kind of a high-tech form of supermarket sweepstakes, where the crook keeps stealing until the fraud-management software of the credit-card companies kicks in. "The method is smash-and-grab," says Bryan Sartin, VP for in-formation-security firm Cybertrust. "The turnaround time is amazing."
As bad as the recent exposures have been, they may well wind up helping spur some very long-needed reform. Though identity theft is a devilishly difficult crime to combat, the key to fighting these huge cyber-raids is making the databases that hold private records more secure. Indian outsourcing firms have been quick to beef up internal security, and local police departments—like the one in Pune, which solved the Citibank case—have been starting cybercrime units. The best solution would make the companies that collect the data liable for their failings. The U.S. Congress may slap fines on companies that lose records. Anything that increases the cost of losing information to the company, as opposed to the consumer, would give firms an incentive to protect consumer secrets.
Each time we hear of another huge data breach, the pressure increases to tighten up security and fight the ID crooks. But change, if it comes, will come too late for Daniel Bulley, who's spent months trying to distance himself from a home he never owned, a job he never held and a portfolio of credit cards and accounts he never opened. Bulley is angry—at the crooks, at the cops (no one would investigate his case) and at the corporations that let his information fall into evil hands. He's especially steamed at the billion-dollar industry that has emerged to sell people protection against data theft—run by parts of the same industry that fails to protect the information in the first place. Corporations, says Bulley, need to be tighter with the data they hold: "Why should we pay them to do their job right?"
Reported by William Lee Adams, Holly Bailey, Jennifer Barrett, Juliet Chung, Temma Ehrenfeld, Charles Gasparino, Andrew Horesh, Nicole Joseph, Susannah Meadows, Ben Whitford, Kathryn Williams, Jason Overdorf and Mary Acoymo
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9108639/site/newsweek/
Newsweek's Steven Levy and Brad Stone weigh in again -- this time with inputs from India on the Karan Bahree scandal -- on the problem of identity theft.
Grand Theft Identity
By Stephen Levy and Brad Stone
Sept. 5, 2005 issue - Millions of people now have a new reason to dread the mailbox. In addition to the tried-and-true collection of Letters You Never Want to See—the tax audit, the high cholesterol reading, the college-rejection letter—there is now the missive that reveals you are on the fast track to becoming a victim of identity theft. Someone may have taken possession of your credit-card info, bank account or other personal data that would enable him or her to go on a permanent shopping spree—leaving you to deal with the financial, legal and psychic bills. Deborah Platt Majoras got the pain letter recently, from DSW Shoe Warehouse. Hers was among more than a million credit-card numbers that the merchant stored in an ill-protected database. So when hackers busted in, they got the information to buy stuff in her name—and 1.4 million other people's names. "It's scary," she says. "Part of it is the uncertainty that comes with it, not knowing whether sometime in the next year my credit-card number will be abused." Now she must take steps to protect herself, including re-examining charges closely, requesting a credit report and contacting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to put her complaint into its ID-theft database. The latter step should be easy for her, since Majoras is the FTC chairman.
Somewhere, Willie Sutton is smiling. Sutton was the sly swindler who, when asked why he robbed banks, was said to reply, "Because that's where the money is." Today the easy money is still in banks—databanks: vast electronic caches in computers, hard disks and backup tapes that store our names, ID numbers, credit-card records, financial files and other records. That information can be turned into cash; thieves can quickly sell it to "fraudsters" who will use it to impersonate others. They visit porn sites, buy stereo systems, purchase cars, take out mortgages and generally destroy the credit ratings of innocent victims, who may be unable to get new jobs, buy houses or even get passports until the matter is painstakingly resolved. And since the crime is all done remotely, modern ID thieves suffer little of the risk that Sutton shouldered a half century ago when he robbed banks with a machine gun.
We've become accustomed to the digital grease that smooths transactions, loans and eBay bids, even as worries about identity theft quietly shadow us, often leading us to restrict our activities and be extra careful with our credit cards and personal information. In recent months, though, there's been something different, a cascade of reports about big break-ins and bungles where the booty is our secrets. Suddenly things seem out of control: instead of losing our identities one by one, we're seeing criminals grabbing them in massive chunks—literally millions at a time. Just last week security firm Sunbelt Software discovered a U.S.-based server storing passwords for online accounts from 50 banks, eBay and PayPal log-ins, and credit-card numbers stolen by a Trojan virus. In June lax security at an Atlanta-based company called CardSystems exposed a possible 40 million Discover, Visa, MasterCard and American Express numbers to hackers, who have already begun turning the digits into cash and prizes. "It only makes sense that criminals would go where information is collected," says Martha Stansell-Gamm, head of the computer-crime division in the U.S. Justice Department.
"Over the last nine years, criminals have gotten a better understanding of the power of information," says Rob Douglas of PrivacyToday, a security consulting firm. "Instead of selling drugs, so much can be made so quickly with identity theft, and the likelihood of getting caught is almost nil." Avivah Litan of research firm Gartner Group speculates that fewer than 1 in 700 identity crimes leads to a conviction. This goes a long way toward explaining why it's the fastest-growing crime of this century. Crooks rack up $53 billion a year in ID theft in the United States alone. Consumers get stuck with $5 billion directly; and the rest is paid by retailers and businesses—which pass it on in higher prices.
Losing your credit card can be a huge hassle, but laws usually limit losses. In more distressing forms of ID theft, someone —swipes not just your card but also your entire financial persona. Judy McDonough, a 56-year-old occupational psychologist from the north of England, has been living a nightmare since last year, when she found that someone—she suspects a relative—racked up 33,000 pounds sterling of debt over three years, which included two credit cards, three bank loans and 2,300 pounds sterling of catalog orders. She reported the crime six times before taking it to her member of Parliament. Most banks, says McDonough, "just hope you'll go away."
For years, the primary cause of ID theft has been good old-fashioned analog crime. Thieves rifle mailboxes, snatch purses and dive into the garbage for discarded bank statements or credit-card receipts. More recently, we've seen a plague of "phishing"—sending bogus e-mails that look as if they come from legitimate companies, asking us to supply personal information. After the CardSystems heist, phishers, trying to capitalize on the news, sent out e-mails sup-posedly from MasterCard, asking people to update their information. "They played on the fear that consumers had when the announcement was made," says Susan Larson of SurfControl, an Internet-security firm.
Savvy computer users know the requisite defense against a phishing attack: never respond to a request for personal information. This wisdom is part of the standard tool kit of protections against ID theft. Check your credit-card bills with an eagle eye. Request your credit report. Shred your information. This regime makes perfect sense for individuals. But when it comes to companies charged with safeguarding millions, sometimes even billions, of records, what do they do?
They leave it unencrypted on computers, where malicious hackers get hold of it. The DSW Shoe Warehouse is far from the only hacked database owner. According to a U.S. government consent order, BJ's Wholesale Club, a Massachusetts-based firm operating big-box stores and gas stations, not only failed to encrypt, but stored records in violation of bank-security rules, didn't use a firewall to prevent wireless intrusions and protected the information with the easy-to-guess default passwords that came with the system. Result: credit cards ripped off in early 2004 were used to charge millions in goods.
They inadvertently allow employees to sell it. This June, a 24-year-old Indian man named Karan Bahree, who at the time worked for Gurgaon-based online marketing firm Infinity eSearch, allegedly sold information on 1,000 bank accounts to an undercover journalist working for The Sun, a British tabloid, for 2,750 pounds sterling, according to a Sun article. Bahree has since claimed that he was only a middleman and that he did not sell data his employer had collected (he's since been fired, according to a statement by Infinity eSearch). Infinity eSearch has said the company doesn't handle any data for the banks named in the Sun report, and that Bahree didn't have access to confidential data of any kind through his employment with the company, according to press reports. But the case has raised fears of an anti-outsourcing backlash if Indian firms are seen to be careless with the data they handle.
They pack it in boxes and put it in a mail truck. That's what CitiFinancial, a unit of Citigroup, did with the financial secrets of 3.9 million customers last May. The box never arrived at its destination, and now CitiFinancial is telling customers that their identities are at risk.
They leave it on laptops that get stolen. Last March at UC Berkeley someone made away with a computer holding personal information of almost 100,000 grad students and applicants.
They don't monitor what insiders may do with it. In April, more than a dozen people, including employees of an MphasiS call center in Pune, India, were charged with cheating Citibank customers out of $350,000. Citibank had outsourced some of its customer-service operations to MphasiS.
They just plain lose it. Bank of America is still looking for backup tapes with information on 1.2 million government workers, discovered lost in December.
They don't do what they say. CardSystems, a privately held company, processes an es-timated $15 billion in credit-card trans-actions a year (between the merchant and the bank). In direct violation of its agreement with MasterCard and Visa, CardSystems retained 40 million credit-card numbers "for research purposes," as its CEO John Perry initially told the press. These were sucked out of the system by digital invaders. CardSystems' clients admit that protection was lax: "Obviously there were deficiencies and other issues," says Josh Peirez, head of government affairs for MasterCard. Since the break-in, CardSystems has reportedly installed a new "intrusion-prevention product" (hey, thanks).
An elaborate infrastructure of crime has emerged to collect and distribute stolen records. When it comes to attacking databases, malicious hackers either use automated software "bots" to methodically probe the Internet for vulnerable databases or target companies that are likely to harbor honey pots. Most often, they enter systems through preventable security flaws, like guessable passwords (example: "Dave" or the default password that came with the program) or known vulnerabilities in software.
Once records are stolen, they are passed on or sold in fleeting digital dark alleys—chat rooms or instant-messaging sessions where transactions are quickly, stealthily enacted. Sometimes the crooks are sufficiently brazen to post their offerings on Web sites that are sort of fraudster eBays. At one site posted by a member of the Shadowcrew organization (which was shut down by the U.S. government last year), $200 gets 300 credit cards without the security codes printed on the back of the card. If you want card numbers with the code, it will cost you $200 for 50 of them.
After fraudsters buy the purloined numbers, they commonly use them to grab goodies as fast as possible. It's kind of a high-tech form of supermarket sweepstakes, where the crook keeps stealing until the fraud-management software of the credit-card companies kicks in. "The method is smash-and-grab," says Bryan Sartin, VP for in-formation-security firm Cybertrust. "The turnaround time is amazing."
As bad as the recent exposures have been, they may well wind up helping spur some very long-needed reform. Though identity theft is a devilishly difficult crime to combat, the key to fighting these huge cyber-raids is making the databases that hold private records more secure. Indian outsourcing firms have been quick to beef up internal security, and local police departments—like the one in Pune, which solved the Citibank case—have been starting cybercrime units. The best solution would make the companies that collect the data liable for their failings. The U.S. Congress may slap fines on companies that lose records. Anything that increases the cost of losing information to the company, as opposed to the consumer, would give firms an incentive to protect consumer secrets.
Each time we hear of another huge data breach, the pressure increases to tighten up security and fight the ID crooks. But change, if it comes, will come too late for Daniel Bulley, who's spent months trying to distance himself from a home he never owned, a job he never held and a portfolio of credit cards and accounts he never opened. Bulley is angry—at the crooks, at the cops (no one would investigate his case) and at the corporations that let his information fall into evil hands. He's especially steamed at the billion-dollar industry that has emerged to sell people protection against data theft—run by parts of the same industry that fails to protect the information in the first place. Corporations, says Bulley, need to be tighter with the data they hold: "Why should we pay them to do their job right?"
Reported by William Lee Adams, Holly Bailey, Jennifer Barrett, Juliet Chung, Temma Ehrenfeld, Charles Gasparino, Andrew Horesh, Nicole Joseph, Susannah Meadows, Ben Whitford, Kathryn Williams, Jason Overdorf and Mary Acoymo
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9108639/site/newsweek/
'the death of reform'
In India these days, don't believe everything you read.
By Jason Overdorf
Newsweek International
Sept. 5, 2005 issue - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's yearlong reign has been a balancing act, as he endeavors to live up to his reputation as the father of India's economic reforms without alienating the left-wing parties that his coalition government needs to survive. But lately, as his Congress party wrangles with the communists, the balance has been tipping. One by one, bold reforms are getting killed or shelved. These days Singh talks of the need for politicians to compromise in order to survive in office.
The question is whether Singh has fallen from compromise to capitulation on reform, as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claims. Labor, pension and banking reforms are going nowhere. A new law creating special economic zones for foreign investors was so watered down by the left, it won't have much impact. The commission set up to do away with monopolies and restrictive trade practices is moribund. Last week Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram, widely seen as Singh's right-hand man in the reform cause, announced that the government was scrapping plans to sell its stakes in 13 state companies, including an oil refiner, an aluminum maker and a shipping firm. This latest move "is another nail in the coffin of reform," says Arun Shourie, BJP Disinvestment minister in the previous coalition government.
Certainly the story dominating headlines in India is the Death of Reform. But despite all the evidence, the declaration may be premature. The prognosis of most investors is much more optimistic: the Bombay Stock Exchange showed no reaction to Chidambaram's announcement on privatization. The following day the benchmark Sensex index closed at a record high on buying by foreign funds. Investors had expected the shelving of privatization, which was foreshadowed in a common platform released by the ruling coalition partners last year. Meanwhile, the government has achieved progress on other fronts, lifting a rule that limited the ability of foreign joint-venture partners to expand inside India, as well as a cap on foreign direct investment in telecommunications. "Arun Shourie is just being a politician," says Saumitra Chaudhuri, an economic adviser at Indian credit-rating agency ICRA Ltd. "Privatization is not all there is to reforms."
This is about the politics, not economics. Chidambaram's announcement came shortly after every major Indian news outlet carried graphic photographs of striking Honda workers being beaten by police in Gurgaon, Haryanaone of the hotbeds of outsourcing and foreign investment. It also comes a few months before state elections in Bihar, as well as Kerala and West Bengal, where communists have dominated the polls. When the elections are done, many analysts say, the reform effort will resume. "This is only a minor hiccup," says S. A. Chari, executive director of the credit-rating agency Onicra Ltd. "Everybody is seeing the results of the reforms. Even in places like Calcutta [in West Bengal] you can see things changing very dramatically."
The danger, however, is that by positioning itself for these state elections, Congress could be creating expectations that will be hard to live down. In southern states like West Bengal, the communists are so well entrenched that they can throw open the door to foreign investors even as they spout Marxist slogans on the national stage, in order to solidify their one base in the north: trade unions at state-owned companies. Meanwhile, Congress must make good on populist election promises to gain ground in the south if it is to restore itself as a dominant national party.
That explains why, rather than pushing free-market reform, Congress party legislators recently passed a bill that guarantees every rural household in India at least 100 days of paid employment each year. Though they are still bullish now, the markets eagerly expect Congress to lift the many barriers to foreign direct investment: India attracts less than 1 percent of global FDI, while China attracts 10 percent. "It's a generous interpretation to say that reforms are on hold for elections," says Chaudhuri. "If you wait for elections to be over, thinking you will have a little more freedom, then those political positions become written in stone." And that stone could mark the real death of reform.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
By Jason Overdorf
Newsweek International
Sept. 5, 2005 issue - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's yearlong reign has been a balancing act, as he endeavors to live up to his reputation as the father of India's economic reforms without alienating the left-wing parties that his coalition government needs to survive. But lately, as his Congress party wrangles with the communists, the balance has been tipping. One by one, bold reforms are getting killed or shelved. These days Singh talks of the need for politicians to compromise in order to survive in office.
The question is whether Singh has fallen from compromise to capitulation on reform, as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claims. Labor, pension and banking reforms are going nowhere. A new law creating special economic zones for foreign investors was so watered down by the left, it won't have much impact. The commission set up to do away with monopolies and restrictive trade practices is moribund. Last week Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram, widely seen as Singh's right-hand man in the reform cause, announced that the government was scrapping plans to sell its stakes in 13 state companies, including an oil refiner, an aluminum maker and a shipping firm. This latest move "is another nail in the coffin of reform," says Arun Shourie, BJP Disinvestment minister in the previous coalition government.
Certainly the story dominating headlines in India is the Death of Reform. But despite all the evidence, the declaration may be premature. The prognosis of most investors is much more optimistic: the Bombay Stock Exchange showed no reaction to Chidambaram's announcement on privatization. The following day the benchmark Sensex index closed at a record high on buying by foreign funds. Investors had expected the shelving of privatization, which was foreshadowed in a common platform released by the ruling coalition partners last year. Meanwhile, the government has achieved progress on other fronts, lifting a rule that limited the ability of foreign joint-venture partners to expand inside India, as well as a cap on foreign direct investment in telecommunications. "Arun Shourie is just being a politician," says Saumitra Chaudhuri, an economic adviser at Indian credit-rating agency ICRA Ltd. "Privatization is not all there is to reforms."
This is about the politics, not economics. Chidambaram's announcement came shortly after every major Indian news outlet carried graphic photographs of striking Honda workers being beaten by police in Gurgaon, Haryanaone of the hotbeds of outsourcing and foreign investment. It also comes a few months before state elections in Bihar, as well as Kerala and West Bengal, where communists have dominated the polls. When the elections are done, many analysts say, the reform effort will resume. "This is only a minor hiccup," says S. A. Chari, executive director of the credit-rating agency Onicra Ltd. "Everybody is seeing the results of the reforms. Even in places like Calcutta [in West Bengal] you can see things changing very dramatically."
The danger, however, is that by positioning itself for these state elections, Congress could be creating expectations that will be hard to live down. In southern states like West Bengal, the communists are so well entrenched that they can throw open the door to foreign investors even as they spout Marxist slogans on the national stage, in order to solidify their one base in the north: trade unions at state-owned companies. Meanwhile, Congress must make good on populist election promises to gain ground in the south if it is to restore itself as a dominant national party.
That explains why, rather than pushing free-market reform, Congress party legislators recently passed a bill that guarantees every rural household in India at least 100 days of paid employment each year. Though they are still bullish now, the markets eagerly expect Congress to lift the many barriers to foreign direct investment: India attracts less than 1 percent of global FDI, while China attracts 10 percent. "It's a generous interpretation to say that reforms are on hold for elections," says Chaudhuri. "If you wait for elections to be over, thinking you will have a little more freedom, then those political positions become written in stone." And that stone could mark the real death of reform.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Monday, August 29, 2005
snap judgment: books
(From Newsweek International August 29, 2005 issue)
The Whale Caller by Zakes Mda
Mda's fifth novel tells the story of the growing love between the whale caller, an old man whose kelp horn calls the migrating whales that bring tourists to South Africa's Western Cape, and Saluni, an aging woman who cadges drinks at the town taverns. An elusive allegory, it begins like an optimistic counterpoint to J. M. Coetzee's "Life & Times of Michael K." Mda's unemployed and uneducated heroes carve out a life of startling, almost magical beauty. But this land cannot break free of tragedy, whether the cause be Coetzee's torturers or Mda's tourists, politicians and hacks. It's a place where mercy comes to a beached whale (which may represent the nation) as 500 kilograms of dynamite.
—Jason Overdorf
Kiss & Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires by Marina Palmer
In this smoldering new memoir, Palmer describes the tango as "the magic trick that transforms two bodies into one." She thoroughly explores the tango and sex connection, giving readers a brutally honest and often hilarious account of the three years she danced tango in the smoky milonga halls of Buenos Aires, and the long line of Latin lotharios she met along the way. Hollywood, take note: this love story could steam up the big screen.
—Brian Byrnes
Unfeeling by Ian Holding
This intense book is disturbing and gripping precisely because it is based largely on the current plight of white farmers in Zimbabwe. Davey Baker and his parents live on a large farm that has been passed down through the generations and that becomes a scene of violence and death. The book moves back and forth with agile precision from the events leading up to the parents' brutal murder to the aftermath of the tragedy that Davey must learn to accept. "Unfeeling" is one of the season's best books.
—Ginanne Brownell
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
The Whale Caller by Zakes Mda
Mda's fifth novel tells the story of the growing love between the whale caller, an old man whose kelp horn calls the migrating whales that bring tourists to South Africa's Western Cape, and Saluni, an aging woman who cadges drinks at the town taverns. An elusive allegory, it begins like an optimistic counterpoint to J. M. Coetzee's "Life & Times of Michael K." Mda's unemployed and uneducated heroes carve out a life of startling, almost magical beauty. But this land cannot break free of tragedy, whether the cause be Coetzee's torturers or Mda's tourists, politicians and hacks. It's a place where mercy comes to a beached whale (which may represent the nation) as 500 kilograms of dynamite.
—Jason Overdorf
Kiss & Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires by Marina Palmer
In this smoldering new memoir, Palmer describes the tango as "the magic trick that transforms two bodies into one." She thoroughly explores the tango and sex connection, giving readers a brutally honest and often hilarious account of the three years she danced tango in the smoky milonga halls of Buenos Aires, and the long line of Latin lotharios she met along the way. Hollywood, take note: this love story could steam up the big screen.
—Brian Byrnes
Unfeeling by Ian Holding
This intense book is disturbing and gripping precisely because it is based largely on the current plight of white farmers in Zimbabwe. Davey Baker and his parents live on a large farm that has been passed down through the generations and that becomes a scene of violence and death. The book moves back and forth with agile precision from the events leading up to the parents' brutal murder to the aftermath of the tragedy that Davey must learn to accept. "Unfeeling" is one of the season's best books.
—Ginanne Brownell
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
maybe we shouldn't discount rushdie's latest after all...
Writing in The Atlantic, Christopher Hitchens -- whom I've rarely known to be flat out wrong about a book -- vindicates Salman's latest after all the naysaying. Because many readers will not be able to access the review on the Atlantic web site, I've reproduced some of the more relevant paragraphs below.
"After various grueling excursions [Rushdie] here wheels back to the sacred and profane territory that made him celebrated before he became notorious: the still contested territory of Midnight's Children and Shame," writes Hitchens.
...
"Tragedy, both in the Attic sense of the fatal flaw and in the Hegelian sense of a conflict of rights, is to be the master theme. At one point Rushdie gives what is in effect a short modern history of the Kashmiri conflict. He does so by telling the story 'straight,' as it were, but interleaving Max Ophuls, as the American ambassador to New Delhi, into the factual record. It is breathtakingly well done, like a pentimento beneath the figures of John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and it helps to illustrate the degeneration of Kashmiri life and Kashmiri ethics.
...
"This is a highly serious novel, on an extremely serious subject, by a deeply serious man. It is not necessary to assimilate all the details of the conflict in Kashmir in order to read it. Nor is it necessary to favor one or another solution, though we get a hint from the epigraph page—Mercutio's 'plague on both their houses,' from Romeo and Juliet—of Rushdie's opinion of Indian and Pakistani policy. Rather than seek for anything as trite as a 'message,' I should guess that Rushdie is telling us, No more Macondos. No more Shangri-las, if it comes to that. Gone is the time when anywhere was exotic or magical or mythical, or even remote. Shalimar's clown mask has been dropped, and his acrobatics have become a form of escape artistry by which he transports himself into 'our' world. As he himself says in closing his ominous message of Himalayan telepathy, 'I'll be there soon enough.'"
"After various grueling excursions [Rushdie] here wheels back to the sacred and profane territory that made him celebrated before he became notorious: the still contested territory of Midnight's Children and Shame," writes Hitchens.
...
"Tragedy, both in the Attic sense of the fatal flaw and in the Hegelian sense of a conflict of rights, is to be the master theme. At one point Rushdie gives what is in effect a short modern history of the Kashmiri conflict. He does so by telling the story 'straight,' as it were, but interleaving Max Ophuls, as the American ambassador to New Delhi, into the factual record. It is breathtakingly well done, like a pentimento beneath the figures of John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and it helps to illustrate the degeneration of Kashmiri life and Kashmiri ethics.
...
"This is a highly serious novel, on an extremely serious subject, by a deeply serious man. It is not necessary to assimilate all the details of the conflict in Kashmir in order to read it. Nor is it necessary to favor one or another solution, though we get a hint from the epigraph page—Mercutio's 'plague on both their houses,' from Romeo and Juliet—of Rushdie's opinion of Indian and Pakistani policy. Rather than seek for anything as trite as a 'message,' I should guess that Rushdie is telling us, No more Macondos. No more Shangri-las, if it comes to that. Gone is the time when anywhere was exotic or magical or mythical, or even remote. Shalimar's clown mask has been dropped, and his acrobatics have become a form of escape artistry by which he transports himself into 'our' world. As he himself says in closing his ominous message of Himalayan telepathy, 'I'll be there soon enough.'"
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
India's Supreme Court Rejects Quotas for Lower-Caste Students at Private Colleges
By Shailaja Neelakantan/NEW DELHI
(From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Issue cover-dated August 16, 2005)
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last week that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
The ruling also held that unaided private colleges have complete autonomy to admit students of their choice in medicine, engineering, and other professional fields.
Admission quotas are popular in India, where the Constitution guarantees that nearly a quarter of all government jobs and student places in higher education are reserved for members of indigenous tribal groups or lower castes. Many other people qualify for quotas based on their religion or ethnicity, a disability, or some other characteristic (The Chronicle, February 13, 2003).
Last week's decision has been severely criticized by several lower-caste groups. Government-supported medical and engineering colleges will be able to maintain quotas for lower castes, but those institutions do not have the capacity to meet the demand for professional courses. Private colleges, which charge much higher fees, fill that gap, but they are unaffordable for the disadvantaged, including the lower castes.
The court's ruling will be effective beginning in the 2006-7 academic year.
Admissions made for 2005-6 under court orders and directions of state committees will not be affected.
The ruling stressed that although every institution is free to devise its own fee structure, fees could be regulated to prevent profiteering.
And while unaided institutions can set their own admissions standards, the criteria they use must be fair, transparent, nonexploitative, and based on merit, the judgment said. It also recommended a common entrance examination to cut costs and to make it easier for students who would otherwise have to take several tests.
The court also allowed private colleges to set aside 15 percent of their seats for expatriate Indian students, but those students must pay higher fees than those paid by students who live in India. The court said the expatriate students' fees should be used as aid for needier students.
(From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Issue cover-dated August 16, 2005)
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last week that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
The ruling also held that unaided private colleges have complete autonomy to admit students of their choice in medicine, engineering, and other professional fields.
Admission quotas are popular in India, where the Constitution guarantees that nearly a quarter of all government jobs and student places in higher education are reserved for members of indigenous tribal groups or lower castes. Many other people qualify for quotas based on their religion or ethnicity, a disability, or some other characteristic (The Chronicle, February 13, 2003).
Last week's decision has been severely criticized by several lower-caste groups. Government-supported medical and engineering colleges will be able to maintain quotas for lower castes, but those institutions do not have the capacity to meet the demand for professional courses. Private colleges, which charge much higher fees, fill that gap, but they are unaffordable for the disadvantaged, including the lower castes.
The court's ruling will be effective beginning in the 2006-7 academic year.
Admissions made for 2005-6 under court orders and directions of state committees will not be affected.
The ruling stressed that although every institution is free to devise its own fee structure, fees could be regulated to prevent profiteering.
And while unaided institutions can set their own admissions standards, the criteria they use must be fair, transparent, nonexploitative, and based on merit, the judgment said. It also recommended a common entrance examination to cut costs and to make it easier for students who would otherwise have to take several tests.
The court also allowed private colleges to set aside 15 percent of their seats for expatriate Indian students, but those students must pay higher fees than those paid by students who live in India. The court said the expatriate students' fees should be used as aid for needier students.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
gk ii renaissance?
A few posts back, I called for a renaissance of the GK2 M block market, which used to be Delhi's bar center and has not improved to match the city's ever-better bar scene over the past three years. Well, here's some (dubious) good news: the Odd Bin, with its hideous decor and torture-rack furniture, has finally been redone as a place called Soul Punjab (or Punjab Soul or something). It's a straight restaurant format and not the hippest hangout, but I predict this place is going to be a smash hit, vying with Flames, across the market. Soul Punjab/Punjab Soul offers a six or seven page menu of all the Punjabi favorites at very low prices for South Delhi liquor vends, and the planners saw fit to add a dozen varieties of tawa/tandoori paranthas to compete with the kitschy Not Just Paranthas across the way--they're damn good and you don't have to put up with all the little kids running around and screaming. The best news: beers are just Rs. 75 or 80! (Don't get me started on the ultimate combination of paranthas and beer--or why Delhi sweet shops should at least serve Kingfisher--I'm trying to keep these posts under 500 words).
Drawbacks: on its first Friday night, the place looked primed to attract Delhi's usual mustachioed marauders--ladies, be sure to come with glowering escorts.
Drawbacks: on its first Friday night, the place looked primed to attract Delhi's usual mustachioed marauders--ladies, be sure to come with glowering escorts.
south indian answer in delhi
Nandini, in Saket opposite the mall coming up on Press Enclave Road, has staked its claim to be the best South Indian restaurant in Delhi. It offers the usual thali and tiffin combo, but what sets it apart from the crowd is that the restaurant also offers a half-dozen or so special Southie curries. We tried two okra-based curries, one in tomato, the other in curd, as well as an eggplant and tomato curry. All three were amazing. The appams--unusual for Delhi's Southie joints--were another boon. Apart from Andhra Bhavan, this place gets my vote for Delhi's go-to South Indian restaurant. (Forget Sagar's unfermented dosas, people!)
Thursday, August 04, 2005
unintentional comedy
The RSS--which has seesawed over whether Indian women are asking for it with their low-rise jeans and spaghetti straps or this whole rape thing is the fault of a bunch of twisted, sexually insecure and power-hungry bastards--came out with some strong statements on how society should deal with rape in a recent issue of the Organiser. Saying that dress codes and increased policing won't help, it calls for stiff punishments for offenders, adding that "the punishment should be eye for eye, tooth for tooth." The editorial did not venture any suggestions as to who would take on the onerous task of buggering the convicted rapists, but no doubt there are few patriotic acts beyond the valor of knickerwalla "volunteers."
dumb plan
Operation Meth Merchant, an ongoing effort to catch store clerks who "knowingly" sell the ordinary household materials needed to make methamphetamine, may be the stupidest drug interdiction program yet. This week law enforcement officials ran a sting on 49 convenience stores, according to the New York Times , catching 44 Indian immigrants in the act of selling stuff like charcoal and cold medicine. The undercover agents apparently hinted that they were buying the stuff to make meth with phrases like, "I need this stuff to finish up a cook," slang that the Times reports many of the arrested immigrants weren't able to understand.
Even if we ignore the institutional racism that is implicit in this scheme, it still has to rank among the most moronic policing efforts of recent years. Essentially, the plan is based around an "undercover" operation in which cops go into stores and say "I'm buying this Sudafed so that I can make methampetamine." Topping it off, they use coded language that Indian immigrants (and squares like me) will never understand, virtually guaranteeing that those who are hip to the meth scene will get curious about drugrunners that blab their business to strangers, while innocent folks will blithely ring up their purchase. That's dumb. But here's a news flash that proves it's even dumber: meth makers might well go to a grocery store and buy charcoal, then head to Seven-Eleven and buy Sudafed, then to the pet store for kitty litter. How's a clerk supposed to be tipped off that this is a drug maker--unless the guy's an undercover cop and tells him flat out that he's buying the stuff to make drugs?
Even if we ignore the institutional racism that is implicit in this scheme, it still has to rank among the most moronic policing efforts of recent years. Essentially, the plan is based around an "undercover" operation in which cops go into stores and say "I'm buying this Sudafed so that I can make methampetamine." Topping it off, they use coded language that Indian immigrants (and squares like me) will never understand, virtually guaranteeing that those who are hip to the meth scene will get curious about drugrunners that blab their business to strangers, while innocent folks will blithely ring up their purchase. That's dumb. But here's a news flash that proves it's even dumber: meth makers might well go to a grocery store and buy charcoal, then head to Seven-Eleven and buy Sudafed, then to the pet store for kitty litter. How's a clerk supposed to be tipped off that this is a drug maker--unless the guy's an undercover cop and tells him flat out that he's buying the stuff to make drugs?
India's Prime Minister Sharply Criticizes Universities as Lagging Behind
By Shailaja Neelakantan/NEW DELHI
India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said on Tuesday that the country's universities were falling behind their peers elsewhere in the world in terms of both personnel and infrastructure.
"There is a need to make India's institutions of high education and research world-class," said Mr. Singh, who was speaking at the first meeting of a Knowledge Commission that was created to advise him on promoting excellence in the education system.
Mr. Singh's surprisingly critical comments were a harsh wake-up call for India's higher-education system. Even though India has 5.3 million unemployed university graduates, growing sectors of the economy -- such as the news media, entertainment, fashion, advertising, investment banking, and tourism -- face personnel shortages (The Chronicle, June 3).
Academics and economists blame the problem on the country's antiquated higher-education system, which they say has failed to keep up with the needs of the economy. The country's public universities serve 9.3 million students, or about 7 percent of India's population of 18- to 24-year-olds.
The central government has said it wants to increase the college-going rate to 10 percent by 2007, which would mean four million more students in the university system and even more graduates looking for work.
Exacerbating the problem of declining quality, Mr. Singh said, are tight government budgets whose effects are being neutralized only in part by the private sector. "Together," said Mr. Singh, "the public and private sectors are not able to cope with the demand for higher and professional education."
The prime minister said he would like the commission to propose ways to attain excellence in research and teaching, especially in mathematics, science, and technology.
The seven-member commission, which includes academics, economists, industrialists, and technologists, is scheduled to present a plan by October and to finish its work by October 2008.
Copyright © 2005 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said on Tuesday that the country's universities were falling behind their peers elsewhere in the world in terms of both personnel and infrastructure.
"There is a need to make India's institutions of high education and research world-class," said Mr. Singh, who was speaking at the first meeting of a Knowledge Commission that was created to advise him on promoting excellence in the education system.
Mr. Singh's surprisingly critical comments were a harsh wake-up call for India's higher-education system. Even though India has 5.3 million unemployed university graduates, growing sectors of the economy -- such as the news media, entertainment, fashion, advertising, investment banking, and tourism -- face personnel shortages (The Chronicle, June 3).
Academics and economists blame the problem on the country's antiquated higher-education system, which they say has failed to keep up with the needs of the economy. The country's public universities serve 9.3 million students, or about 7 percent of India's population of 18- to 24-year-olds.
The central government has said it wants to increase the college-going rate to 10 percent by 2007, which would mean four million more students in the university system and even more graduates looking for work.
Exacerbating the problem of declining quality, Mr. Singh said, are tight government budgets whose effects are being neutralized only in part by the private sector. "Together," said Mr. Singh, "the public and private sectors are not able to cope with the demand for higher and professional education."
The prime minister said he would like the commission to propose ways to attain excellence in research and teaching, especially in mathematics, science, and technology.
The seven-member commission, which includes academics, economists, industrialists, and technologists, is scheduled to present a plan by October and to finish its work by October 2008.
Copyright © 2005 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sunday, July 31, 2005
jim jarmusch is back
Known for her incredible, tell-all profiles--this woman can get anybody to say anything--Lynn Hirschberg turns her hand to director Jim Jarmusch in this week's NYT Magazine. The maker of gems including Mystery Train and Down by Law is getting ready for the release of what Hirschberg bills as his most commercial film to date, a movie with a clear emotional trajectory that stars mainstream-turned-indie star Bill Murray. The winner of the grand prize (second place after the golden palm) at Cannes, "Broken Flowers" sounds like a flick that's worth watching. And Hirschberg's profile delivers the goods--even though she doesn't catch Jarmusch in any of her trademark revealing/self-humiliating moments. Bill Murray wins for best line: "Unlike Jim, I always prefer that people actually see the movie."
Monday, July 25, 2005
rustic luxury
Who ever said getting back to nature meant roughing it? Now travelers can have their truffles and eat them under the stars, too.
By Carla Power (with reporting by Jason Overdorf)Newsweek International
July 25-Aug. 1 issue - Travel used to be divided into two basic categories: luxury and no-frills. the former consisted of flying first class, dining at three-star restaurants and staying in decadent comfort; the latter involved backpacking and camping out in some of the world's most beautifully remote spots. Rich holidaymakers never had to go a day without a glass of fine Bordeaux, but they also rarely ventured beyond the confines of their posh resorts. Rugged travelers regularly communed with nature—but ate hot dogs cooked over an open fire. Now tourists can have their wine and see the wildlife, too: communing with nature and living the good life are no longer mutually exclusive.
Go to the Newsweek web site to read on, or pick up the July 25-August 1 issue to see pictues, including a shot of a treetop guesthouse in Kerala.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
another great khan?
In a rare convergence of my various passions, 18-year-old Pakistani-British boxer Amir Khan made his pro debut in his hometown of Bolton last week, stopping tomato can David Bailey inside of a minute. Like (I assume) everybody in India, I rooted for this cat in the Olympics, where he was handled cleverly in the finals by Cuban master Mario Kindelan, and I was waiting for him to turn pro to see if it might FINALLY bring some boxing to Indian television. No such luck so far, but Khan fights again on the undercard of the Joe Calzaghe-TBA fight September 10. Will ESPN India step up and fork out some cash for the South Asia rights? This kid had 4.4 million people tuning in to watch his pro debut--not to shabby for British boxing. Check out Maxboxing for a nice profile of Khan that highlights some of the reasons he might be the next "Prince" Naseem Hamed. Let's just hope he takes a ring monicker that's not too Orientalist--and, please, not "Lion of the Punjab."
Friday, July 22, 2005
mtnl broadband...
We signed up for a new broadband package with MTNL. In addition to ending the neverending saga of wire-cuttings, server errors and phone calls to the local guys who provided us with Sify and then Hathway (they changed us over without asking or informing us that Hathway has a different pay schedule, incidentally, the new scheme promises to offer a faster rate (actual 256 Mps) and unlimited downloads at night for free. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out.
The first trouble was the guy who came to install it didn't know the first thing about configuring the system. In the end, he left (after about 3 minutes of trying) and I used our old connection to get the user manual from the MTNL web site and installed it myself. This does not bode well for future service. Is it possible that the whole thing will be "plug and play" for the duration of our connection? Or will I have to get a PhD in telecommunications and computer networking in order to stay online? Stay tuned.
The first trouble was the guy who came to install it didn't know the first thing about configuring the system. In the end, he left (after about 3 minutes of trying) and I used our old connection to get the user manual from the MTNL web site and installed it myself. This does not bode well for future service. Is it possible that the whole thing will be "plug and play" for the duration of our connection? Or will I have to get a PhD in telecommunications and computer networking in order to stay online? Stay tuned.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
reform from within
Michael Ignatieff, a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine who teaches about human rights at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, writes an engaging piece about Iran's reform movement in the wake of elections that installed another seemingly repressive Islamist government. As an academic, and not just a journo, Ignatieff actually has something to say, and doesn't hide behind an illusion of objectivity. Thoughts?
Saturday, July 16, 2005
developments re my obsessions
Regular readers will have some idea of my obsessions... Well, some interesting developments this week. First and foremost, young Jermain Taylor edged out longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins (40 years old, ex-convict and the most quotable athlete around) in what promises to be an entertaining bout. Bigger development: I discovered BitTorrent, a scheme like Napster that allows one to download audio and video files. Once I get a package with unlimited downloads, this thing is going to revolutionize my life.
Haven't written much about my geeky scifi, comic books, fantasy obsessions. But here's two discoveries (OK, you all may know about this already). (1) You can get some pretty good graphic novels in India, including Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and Frank Miller's Sin City series, especially if you ask Sanjay at Bhari Sons to find them and stock them for you. (2) An interesting remake of 1970s cult hit Battlestar Galactica has been running for the better part of a year on the Scifi Channel in the US--a sometime programming feeder for AXN and even (gulp) Hallmark. All fellow Scifi freaks, read this week's New York Times Magazine article about the creation of the show, which some have called the best original series made by the channel (meaning it outstrips Dune and Farscape, successes at either end of the serious-camp continuum). Then, begin your letter campaign to AXN. Or just download Bittorrent and do a web search. You can find almost anything you want--US TV shows, cable or broadcast, current and old movies, anime, what have you--via this aggregator of BT links.
Of course, all that said, I would neither illegally download copyrighted material myself, nor advise anyone else to do so.
Haven't written much about my geeky scifi, comic books, fantasy obsessions. But here's two discoveries (OK, you all may know about this already). (1) You can get some pretty good graphic novels in India, including Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and Frank Miller's Sin City series, especially if you ask Sanjay at Bhari Sons to find them and stock them for you. (2) An interesting remake of 1970s cult hit Battlestar Galactica has been running for the better part of a year on the Scifi Channel in the US--a sometime programming feeder for AXN and even (gulp) Hallmark. All fellow Scifi freaks, read this week's New York Times Magazine article about the creation of the show, which some have called the best original series made by the channel (meaning it outstrips Dune and Farscape, successes at either end of the serious-camp continuum). Then, begin your letter campaign to AXN. Or just download Bittorrent and do a web search. You can find almost anything you want--US TV shows, cable or broadcast, current and old movies, anime, what have you--via this aggregator of BT links.
Of course, all that said, I would neither illegally download copyrighted material myself, nor advise anyone else to do so.
full marks to b'ray...
for introducing us to the Japanese grocery in Safdarjung Enclave. We made veg sushi last night with reasonable success (the rice was a bit hard, due to user error). The restaurant "It's Greek To Me" was also a decent discovery, though we didn't explore the menu too deeply. (See comment to my Soba Noodles post for addresses).
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
test of party smart deemed inconclusive
July 10--DELHI--A test of an herbal supplement that promises to prevent hangovers was deemed inconclusive this week, as independent observers ruled that it could not be determined for certain whether or not the supplement, PartySmart, saved the test subjects from hangovers.
"They didn't get hangovers, but these characters are such infamous lushes, it very well could have been their high tolerance to alcohol that saved them," said Dr. Rajinder K. Mishra, one of the medical personnel who supervised the test.
Another concern was the well-known placebo effect. The study included a control group of drinkers who did not take PartySmart, as well as a "blind" group who received pills filled with chalk, soap and other innocuous but unpleasant tasting substances. Some members of each group reported hangover-like symptoms, but when asked whether the hangover was "not as bad as usual," "worse than usual" or "I feel like someone is stabbing me in the temples with icepicks frozen to absolute zero (Kelvin)," several respondents were not able to answer coherently. Many responspents ticked the blank marked "other" and failed to elaborate.
Subsequent interviews determined that many of those who marked "other" did not ingest the pills as instructed. "Those capsules freaked me out," a typical respondent said. "They look like horse tranquilizers."
"I am a sick man, I am an angry man, I am an unattractive man," said another. "I think there is something wrong with my liver."
Further tests are scheduled for Friday, July 15.
"They didn't get hangovers, but these characters are such infamous lushes, it very well could have been their high tolerance to alcohol that saved them," said Dr. Rajinder K. Mishra, one of the medical personnel who supervised the test.
Another concern was the well-known placebo effect. The study included a control group of drinkers who did not take PartySmart, as well as a "blind" group who received pills filled with chalk, soap and other innocuous but unpleasant tasting substances. Some members of each group reported hangover-like symptoms, but when asked whether the hangover was "not as bad as usual," "worse than usual" or "I feel like someone is stabbing me in the temples with icepicks frozen to absolute zero (Kelvin)," several respondents were not able to answer coherently. Many responspents ticked the blank marked "other" and failed to elaborate.
Subsequent interviews determined that many of those who marked "other" did not ingest the pills as instructed. "Those capsules freaked me out," a typical respondent said. "They look like horse tranquilizers."
"I am a sick man, I am an angry man, I am an unattractive man," said another. "I think there is something wrong with my liver."
Further tests are scheduled for Friday, July 15.
Monday, July 11, 2005
unclogging india's courts
The Indian justice system is legendary for its delays and diversions. But changes are finally on the way. See the full article in Newsweek International.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
tales out of school
Salman Rushdie compares India and Pakistan, and finds India more backward than its neighbor in regard to violence against women. I always say that India should stop using Pakistan as its measuring stick--the two countries are hardly comparable, and the comparison only gives India reason to pat itself on the back, instead of confronting its slow progress on matters like electricity generation--but in this case Rushdie may have a point. After all, saying India is even worse than Pakistan is about the only way to get people moving over here.
Friday, July 08, 2005
speaking of fat city
I ran across this item when I Googled Leonard Gardner. It turns out not only boxing-fans-who-are-also-masters-of-arts dig his book. Denis Johnson, a wonderful writer in his own right, the author of a terrific story collections "Angels" and "Jesus' Son" (a rather disappointing movie starring Billy Crudup), tells Salon that Gardner was his original hero. One thing's for sure, Johnson is dead-on when he says Gardner can flat out write. This short, poignant, brutal book is far too good to have gone out of print. Luckily it's back, but you'll probably have to get somebody Stateside to send out a used copy for you. I sure as hell ain't selling mine.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
the real million dollar baby
When F.X. Toole (a pen-name for the late LA cutman Jerry Boyd) burst on the scene with Rope Burns, he was perhaps the first quality write to capture the contemporary boxing world in the way writers like Bud Schulberg (The Harder They Fall/On the Waterfront), Leonard Gardner (Fat City) and WC Heinz (The Professional) had done for past eras. What few critics noted, however, was how closely his fiction was rooted in life. Any "member of the fancy" as Toole calls us, will know a good deal of the dirt he dishes in Rope Burns already. That doesn't make the book any less enjoyable. These are great stories, which is why Clint Eastwood was interested in a script drawn from Toole's story "Million Dollar Baby" and several bits from other pieces in the book.
So here's a weird quirk of fate. Hillary Swank's character in MDB was a transparent analogue of real-life women's boxing star Christy Martin, a tough young kayo specialist from West Virginia, predictably nicknamed "the Coal Miner's Daughter." Martin rose to the top of women's boxing as a kind of female Mike Tyson, knocking out all her dubious opponents. (n.b. I almost wrote "through the ranks," but women's boxing is even more unstructured than the men's game, so you can hardly say that anybody battles their way to the top. It's more like they're promoted their way to the top, while many superior boxers, who've won national Golden Gloves competitions and world amateur titles, can't earn a living.) But--get this--she was always ducking Lucia Rijker. Yep, Lucia is the woman who played Swank's evil nemesis in MDB. The true story, if you care to consider it, is that Lucia had much better boxing credentials than Martin and never got her shot.
That may be about to change, thanks to the movie, believe it or not. As David Avila writes in Maxboxing , promoter Bob Arum (best known for building Oscar de la Hoya's career) has realized that MDB created something new in the boxing game: A million dollar payday for women boxers. After Laila Ali wiped out Martin in a mismatch (Ali is a much larger woman, so this was a little like her dad Muhammad facing a tough little brawler like Jake LaMotta), the money fight for Martin is now Rijker, who despite a dull back story has become as close to a "name" as you get in women's boxing by appearing in MDB. Weird serendipity.
So here's a weird quirk of fate. Hillary Swank's character in MDB was a transparent analogue of real-life women's boxing star Christy Martin, a tough young kayo specialist from West Virginia, predictably nicknamed "the Coal Miner's Daughter." Martin rose to the top of women's boxing as a kind of female Mike Tyson, knocking out all her dubious opponents. (n.b. I almost wrote "through the ranks," but women's boxing is even more unstructured than the men's game, so you can hardly say that anybody battles their way to the top. It's more like they're promoted their way to the top, while many superior boxers, who've won national Golden Gloves competitions and world amateur titles, can't earn a living.) But--get this--she was always ducking Lucia Rijker. Yep, Lucia is the woman who played Swank's evil nemesis in MDB. The true story, if you care to consider it, is that Lucia had much better boxing credentials than Martin and never got her shot.
That may be about to change, thanks to the movie, believe it or not. As David Avila writes in Maxboxing , promoter Bob Arum (best known for building Oscar de la Hoya's career) has realized that MDB created something new in the boxing game: A million dollar payday for women boxers. After Laila Ali wiped out Martin in a mismatch (Ali is a much larger woman, so this was a little like her dad Muhammad facing a tough little brawler like Jake LaMotta), the money fight for Martin is now Rijker, who despite a dull back story has become as close to a "name" as you get in women's boxing by appearing in MDB. Weird serendipity.
study in contrasts
Two days back, I made an interesting discovery at the MTNL office. No, it wasn't the obstructive efforts or the incompetence of the staff--I timed the counter person in charge of setting up new Dolphin mobile accounts, and she was blistering at a rate of 32 new customers per day, if she was indeed working 8 hours. Nope, it was another delicious tidbit of absurdity. You see, ever since the first time our phone was disconnected when we failed to pay our bill while traveling, I've been a bit apprehensive about going to the MTNL office. That's because the first time I went there, a staring-eyed lunatic purposefully bumped me, chest-to-chest, on my way out of the place and began to curse me incomprehensibly. Great, I thought, an hour in fucking line and now it's a dustup with some terribly unwashed drunken xenophobe. But then the parking attendant interceded: Never mind him, he said, he's a madman. He does this stuff all the time. On our way out, his ropy hair flying, the loon manically chucked rocks at our trusty white 800. So here's the punchline: When we sent to set up a Dolphin Mobile account, keen on getting coverage in rural India, regardless of the pain and suffering we had to go through, we were on the lookout for this character. Shailaja even asked the parking attendant: "Is the moon-bayer around" (Anyway, she said something funny in Hindi, I gathered from the attendant's reaction). He one-upped her, though. "He works here," he said, with a certain tone of admiration. "He's a government employee!" I desperately wanted to ask if the fellow was in charge, but my Hindi isn't up to that.
This has somehow become errand week. I don't know how this shit builds up, but I also had to get a new axle boot put on the 800, the result of a stunningly deep pothole near PVR Saket. I can't say enough good things about the treatment I got at Maruti Service Masters in Okhla. It was the first time (ok, apart from the Music Shop in Defence Colony) where people actually acted with alacrity and sense to deal with customers. Best of all, nobody tried to begin dealing with all the customers at the same time, while finishing nobody's work, instead of proceeding through the workload one vehicle/customer at a time. Three cheers, guys. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to buy three or four more cars, or at least tear mine up once in awhile so it needs repairs, just for the moment of sanity it provides.
This has somehow become errand week. I don't know how this shit builds up, but I also had to get a new axle boot put on the 800, the result of a stunningly deep pothole near PVR Saket. I can't say enough good things about the treatment I got at Maruti Service Masters in Okhla. It was the first time (ok, apart from the Music Shop in Defence Colony) where people actually acted with alacrity and sense to deal with customers. Best of all, nobody tried to begin dealing with all the customers at the same time, while finishing nobody's work, instead of proceeding through the workload one vehicle/customer at a time. Three cheers, guys. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to buy three or four more cars, or at least tear mine up once in awhile so it needs repairs, just for the moment of sanity it provides.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
the king of the obvious
I think it was Hercule Poirot who noted that some people have an unerring gift for pointing out the obvious. I have to wonder what he'd think about Thomas Friedman, who combines this gift with a similarly remarkable talent for overstatement, ludicrous sloganeering, and shameless self-promotion. This guy is the PT Barnum of political commentary. I use that phrase with full understanding of its pathetic antecedents. (Um, I'm referring to political commentary, not PT Barnum, by the way).
DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MAN YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
Shekhar Gupta's shameful adulation of Friedman on Walk the Talk was the pinnacle of this clown's absurd rise to become India's favorite foreign hack (how seriously can you take someone who says things like "Those who get left behind will put the walls back and that’s why you cannot be a globaliser without being a social democrat"?) and that's coming from a guy who can sycophant with the best of them. ATTENTION WORLD: Thomas Friedman writes absolute drivel. Read any of his columns or books to confirm this for yourself. Then promptly begin ignoring him. That is the only defence against pundits of absolute worthlessness and unmerited fame, dieticians with improbably successful and intolerably unpleasant eating regimes, and scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, television evangelists and propagandists of all sorts.
Friedman's success reminds me, as the success of many bad writers does, of the Emperor's New Clothes. (In that fairy tale, a clever tailor tells the emperor that only people who are qualified for their station in life can perceive his beautiful new togs; all goes well until the emperor is strolling naked through the crowd and a child--who of course has no social position--laughs at his nakedness). Please, people, do not be fooled by ridiculous theories with even more ludicrous titles ringing of pseudo scholarship ("The Dell Theory of International Conflict"), do not be fooled by this buoyant, Tom-Cruise-and-I-don't-need-the-same-meds optimistic mania. If any emperor was ever butt-ass naked, this is the guy.
The funniest proof of this point -- self-evident as it is from the Gupta interview, not to mention the books & columns -- comes from Matt Taibbi writing in the New York Press. Folks, Friedman likes India. That means he's friendly. Taking it to mean he's a genius is not only stupid, but also pathetically needy. Do you really need affirmation from this goof?
Worse still, as Jack Schafer writes in Slate, the dude just can't stop talking about himself.
DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MAN YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
Shekhar Gupta's shameful adulation of Friedman on Walk the Talk was the pinnacle of this clown's absurd rise to become India's favorite foreign hack (how seriously can you take someone who says things like "Those who get left behind will put the walls back and that’s why you cannot be a globaliser without being a social democrat"?) and that's coming from a guy who can sycophant with the best of them. ATTENTION WORLD: Thomas Friedman writes absolute drivel. Read any of his columns or books to confirm this for yourself. Then promptly begin ignoring him. That is the only defence against pundits of absolute worthlessness and unmerited fame, dieticians with improbably successful and intolerably unpleasant eating regimes, and scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, television evangelists and propagandists of all sorts.
Friedman's success reminds me, as the success of many bad writers does, of the Emperor's New Clothes. (In that fairy tale, a clever tailor tells the emperor that only people who are qualified for their station in life can perceive his beautiful new togs; all goes well until the emperor is strolling naked through the crowd and a child--who of course has no social position--laughs at his nakedness). Please, people, do not be fooled by ridiculous theories with even more ludicrous titles ringing of pseudo scholarship ("The Dell Theory of International Conflict"), do not be fooled by this buoyant, Tom-Cruise-and-I-don't-need-the-same-meds optimistic mania. If any emperor was ever butt-ass naked, this is the guy.
The funniest proof of this point -- self-evident as it is from the Gupta interview, not to mention the books & columns -- comes from Matt Taibbi writing in the New York Press. Folks, Friedman likes India. That means he's friendly. Taking it to mean he's a genius is not only stupid, but also pathetically needy. Do you really need affirmation from this goof?
Worse still, as Jack Schafer writes in Slate, the dude just can't stop talking about himself.
batman begins
I finally saw Batman Begins yesterday morning, and I have to say I was perplexed that the movie received such ambivalent reviews. Contrary to what many said, this one was clearly the closest to the comic book series's dark ethos, and it was the only one of the movies that achieved any kind of dramatic arch to sustain viewers' interest. Even Burton's Batman, though watchable, faltered in its attempt to reconcile the dark, brooding Batman of the comic book series with the campy, moral majority, sliderule nerd of the live action TV series and the old Superfriends cartoon. The others of course, were not possible to watch to completion even while trapped on a Delhi-Detroit marathon flight.
Monday, July 04, 2005
furore fading
The furore over the Shah Bano--er, Imrana case continued this week, but the volume has already been tuned down and the issue looks likely to fade away without causing much political fallout. The most interesting facet of this and similar cases, to my mind, is that they illustrate the difference between the Indian and American ideals of secularism. In India, the secularism promoted by Nehru in the fifties and alive and kicking today is essentially what US ideologues christened multiculturalism in the 1990s, spawning the unpleasant, Orwellian-sounding, much maligned ideology of "political correctness." Across US campuses (I was a student then), debates went long into the night over an apparent conflict between this multiculturalism, which said that each group ought to have the right to make its own rules, and feminism, which advocated a set of inalienable rights for women. The most intelligent solution that I heard came from a Muslim woman and staunch feminist activist from the Middle East. Multiculturalism as it was naively conceived, she proposed, implied that the cultures it sought to protect had uniform, monolithic belief systems, when in fact every culture supports a wide range of different ideals, whether closeted or visible.
This is where Indian politicians--for the selfish reason that their main goal, like all politicians, is winning re-election--have gone wrong. The continued support of the Muslim, Hindu and Christian civil codes, all of which have provisions that deny essential equal rights to women, is predicated on the belief that each of India's three major cultures is static, unyielding, and uniformly committed to its core ideals. There's a very real reason that Muslims may fear the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code. That code is all too likely to read a lot like the Hindu personal law, erasing a valuable symbol of India's tolerance of differing belief systems. However, that doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. There must be limits to "tolerance." Taken to extremes, multiculturalism would accept the racism of the Ku Klux Klan as an intrinsic part of southern American culture, or even allow the Nazi theory of Aryan supremacy to go uncriticized as part of German culture. In both those cases, the force of law and of arms was needed to ensure that a poisonous subset of a culture's core beliefs did not dominate the others. Few reasonable people would deny that action, though extreme, was right.
In contrast, India's politicians and religious leaders need do little that is radical to turn society (at least as governed by the law) away from fundamentalism. First, the Hindu and Christian civil codes must be amended so that they are devoid of those elements of their foundation religions that violate the rights of women or other groups. (The critical point is that Hindus must show that they are willing to accept a legal code based on common assumptions about human rights, rather than ancient religious codes, but because Christians seem to perceive less threat in a uniform civil code than Muslim groups, I'm lumping Hindus and Christians together). Then, greater effort needs to be made to identify leaders who recognize the limitations of a rigid interpretation of rules codified for a society that existed a thousand years ago on a distant continent. Obviously, in democracy, the people must choose their own advocates, but I fear that too little introspection has gone into the ways in which India's current set of rules--along with resentment of the Congress Party's long dominance--actually contrives to make India more fundamentalist. Why do the clerics of the Muslim Law Board have so much say in the fate of India's Muslim women, and someone like Seema Mustafa so little? At the same time, the knickerwallas pay lip service to the idea of a uniform civil code with the intention that India's population should accept a Hindu cultural identity, whatever their religion. That's not what I'm advocating here. Hindu inheritance laws are as aberrant as Muslim divorce laws, as any visit to Varanasi will testify. And even judges in India's "secular" courts have been known to consider marriage a reasonable penance for rape.
Perhaps the problem is that we treat fundamentalists with too much gravity--for their hatred is terrifying--and thus too much respect. Groups like the RSS and VHP, if they cannot be banned (OK, I have to accept they cannot be banned), should be mocked, exposed to the ridicule they have so clearly earned with their ridiculous boy scout uniforms and foam-mouthed insanity. Where are India's great satirists? NDTV's puppet show, neither vicious enough nor funny enough, ain't cutting it.
In America, women burned bras to put an end to this kind of thing, and achieved a bit of success. Perhaps here we all--men included--need to jump into navel-exposing tube tops, dangerously low-rise jeans and dangerously short skirts and band together on Pragati Maidan to shout the slogan most-certain to terrify the country's most avowed opponents of secularism: I want my MTV!
This is where Indian politicians--for the selfish reason that their main goal, like all politicians, is winning re-election--have gone wrong. The continued support of the Muslim, Hindu and Christian civil codes, all of which have provisions that deny essential equal rights to women, is predicated on the belief that each of India's three major cultures is static, unyielding, and uniformly committed to its core ideals. There's a very real reason that Muslims may fear the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code. That code is all too likely to read a lot like the Hindu personal law, erasing a valuable symbol of India's tolerance of differing belief systems. However, that doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. There must be limits to "tolerance." Taken to extremes, multiculturalism would accept the racism of the Ku Klux Klan as an intrinsic part of southern American culture, or even allow the Nazi theory of Aryan supremacy to go uncriticized as part of German culture. In both those cases, the force of law and of arms was needed to ensure that a poisonous subset of a culture's core beliefs did not dominate the others. Few reasonable people would deny that action, though extreme, was right.
In contrast, India's politicians and religious leaders need do little that is radical to turn society (at least as governed by the law) away from fundamentalism. First, the Hindu and Christian civil codes must be amended so that they are devoid of those elements of their foundation religions that violate the rights of women or other groups. (The critical point is that Hindus must show that they are willing to accept a legal code based on common assumptions about human rights, rather than ancient religious codes, but because Christians seem to perceive less threat in a uniform civil code than Muslim groups, I'm lumping Hindus and Christians together). Then, greater effort needs to be made to identify leaders who recognize the limitations of a rigid interpretation of rules codified for a society that existed a thousand years ago on a distant continent. Obviously, in democracy, the people must choose their own advocates, but I fear that too little introspection has gone into the ways in which India's current set of rules--along with resentment of the Congress Party's long dominance--actually contrives to make India more fundamentalist. Why do the clerics of the Muslim Law Board have so much say in the fate of India's Muslim women, and someone like Seema Mustafa so little? At the same time, the knickerwallas pay lip service to the idea of a uniform civil code with the intention that India's population should accept a Hindu cultural identity, whatever their religion. That's not what I'm advocating here. Hindu inheritance laws are as aberrant as Muslim divorce laws, as any visit to Varanasi will testify. And even judges in India's "secular" courts have been known to consider marriage a reasonable penance for rape.
Perhaps the problem is that we treat fundamentalists with too much gravity--for their hatred is terrifying--and thus too much respect. Groups like the RSS and VHP, if they cannot be banned (OK, I have to accept they cannot be banned), should be mocked, exposed to the ridicule they have so clearly earned with their ridiculous boy scout uniforms and foam-mouthed insanity. Where are India's great satirists? NDTV's puppet show, neither vicious enough nor funny enough, ain't cutting it.
In America, women burned bras to put an end to this kind of thing, and achieved a bit of success. Perhaps here we all--men included--need to jump into navel-exposing tube tops, dangerously low-rise jeans and dangerously short skirts and band together on Pragati Maidan to shout the slogan most-certain to terrify the country's most avowed opponents of secularism: I want my MTV!
Thursday, June 30, 2005
fueling the gravy train
My colleague Ron Moreau has written a damn interesting article about the Tata Group in this week's Newsweek International. He looks at Tata as a "different kind of multinational," that respects its workers, strives to develop business in places like Africa and Bangladesh, and actuall spends money on do-gooder programs, instead of just paying lip-service to "corporate citizenship." Some of the history here may be old stuff for India's business scribes, but it makes for a good read.
(A thought: Is Moreau trying to oust Thomas Friedman as India's most beloved foreign journo?--Nah, for that he'd have to come up with some cornball slogans and theories... the Tata Theory of Olive-bearing Flora or the Laughingly Obvious Matrix of Overstatement).
Another shameless plug for the guys who (mostly) pay my bills: Stefan Theil's piece on Europe's shrinking population is a must read for all Mallus and Biharis looking for soft landings abroad. How's this for a factoid: "Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest-birthrate countries, Europe will lose 41 million people by 2030 even with continued immigration, according to the latest U.N. Population Division report. The biggest decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely half the children needed to maintain the status quo—and rural flight continues to suck people into Europe's suburbs and cities—the countryside will lose close to a third of its population, say both the United Nations and the EU."
There has to be some cheap farmland available. And, as always, I'm available for the post of commune leader.
(A thought: Is Moreau trying to oust Thomas Friedman as India's most beloved foreign journo?--Nah, for that he'd have to come up with some cornball slogans and theories... the Tata Theory of Olive-bearing Flora or the Laughingly Obvious Matrix of Overstatement).
Another shameless plug for the guys who (mostly) pay my bills: Stefan Theil's piece on Europe's shrinking population is a must read for all Mallus and Biharis looking for soft landings abroad. How's this for a factoid: "Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest-birthrate countries, Europe will lose 41 million people by 2030 even with continued immigration, according to the latest U.N. Population Division report. The biggest decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely half the children needed to maintain the status quo—and rural flight continues to suck people into Europe's suburbs and cities—the countryside will lose close to a third of its population, say both the United Nations and the EU."
There has to be some cheap farmland available. And, as always, I'm available for the post of commune leader.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
crime writers for sale...
Shailaja and I go through a few books a week, sad testimony to our social lives and the state of Delhi nightlife. Now we're running out of room, and we've got a lot of stuff that's too good to flog to the ignoramuses at Saket. So here's the first installment of our giant sales list. You can get any book for Rs. 150, five for Rs. 600 or ten for Rs. 1100. (Note: We don't ONLY read crime novels, but tend to keep our literary novels and obsessively thumbed boxing books)
This is genre fiction but all these come with our personal guarantee that the crap stuff has already been sold to unknowing suckers who don't read this blog.
A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin - Gold Dagger Winner, mystery featuring English poet Robert Browning. Much better than Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series.
The Poet by Michael Connelly - Well within that great territory of pleasurable, silly books about serial killers that don't embarrass you vicariously with their stupidity (a good example of an author that provide that kind of pleasurable schadenfreude--Patricia Cornwell). Connelly didn't convince me with the first one I tried, but this one was better. Adding to the pleasure, the hero is a journo who covers the cops beat, and the former LA Times reporter does a good job of getting inside "the life," digging at editors, etc.
One Step Behind by Henning Mankell - We picked up Mankell's first book about a year ago and we were immediate addicts. Inspector Kurt Wallander reminds one a little of Ruth Rendell's beloved Inspector Wexford in his sensitivity and irascible manner, but Mankell's descriptions of life in provincial Sweden are what really sells this series. A notch or two above Connelly, who's a notch or two above Cornwell, on the trash-literature continuum.
Firewall by Henning Mankell - The worst of the Wallander series -- hey, I promised full disclosure -- but you gotta read 'em all once you start. Mankell gets bogged down in a Y2K bug type scenario, which doesn't suit his skills.
A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine - For those in the know, Barbara Vine is the pen name of much-feted mystery writer Ruth Rendell. (OK, if you haven't read Ruth Rendell, we've got some more books to sell you, but first you have to push off the rock you've been living under and read some testimonials. This is the kind of author who gets knighted or whatever it is they do with women, though I don't know how writing crime novels is service to the empire). In the Vine books, Rendell is really writing gothic novels a la the Bronte sisters, in my estimate. Childbirth, often post partum depression, and creepy old houses tend to get big play. It's a deft touch, though, as one would expect from such a master, without any dopey old magic or ghosts. In this one, a group of hippie types drop out in the old mansion one of them inherited from a relative. Murder is inevitable.
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall - McCall won many fans with the first of many in the Ladies Detective Agency series. Set in Africa, these are engaging, if sometimes a bit patronizing, tales about Precious Ramotswe, a matriarchal type who solves crimes. A TLS international book of the year and booker judge special recommendation.
A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell - See above for fulsome praise of Ruth Rendell. This is one of Rendell's psychological thrillers (she does police procedurals in the Inspector Wexford series and gothics writing as Barbara Vine) and takes as its subject a strangler who succeeds in suppressing his compulsion by nightly strangling a store mannequin--until his downstairs neighbor takes it out for burning on Guy Fawkes day.
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell - Here Mankell, who later moved to Africa from Sweden, kind of bridges the gap between his two lives with a thriller cum crime novel about a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela. I know that sounds dumb, but it ain't.
The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine - See above for Vine intro. This one has some qualities reminiscent of AS Byatt, as it follows a biographer investigating his great grandfather, physician to Queen Victoria. And one creepy dude.
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine - Two sisters have a creepy conflict that involves a baby, unwed pregancy, and murder.
The Rottweiler by Ruth Rendell - One of Rendell's more engaging desi character in this one, not to mention the classic blackmailer's line, "You're the Rottweiler, innit?" Psychological thriller - you'll never stoop to Thomas Harris again after dipping into Rendell.
Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith - The appealing thing about Highsmith is you get to root for the sociopath. Ripley only murders the rude, uncouth, or foul-smelling, and I say good riddance to all of 'em.
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell - the first of the Wallander series. he gets better as he goes along, but this one lays the foundation for greatness. Swedish police procedural about bank robbers that soon turn murderers.
Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte - Not his best work, in my opinion, but good enough. This is the story of a Mexican girl, the moll of a "narco," who gets caught up in a burn gone wrong and has to split for Europe. In Spain, she rises to become the Queen of the South, the head of a drug-smuggling ring that unites all the big players. Sort of a Scarface meets Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - Full disclosure: I'm a recovering sci-fi/fantasy geek who read every book by Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Tarzan, my childhood idol/secret identy), so I was pretty much bound to like this Harry Potter for adults. The surprise was that Shailaja, a confirmed fantasy hater, dug it, too. I think the secret is that it's a sly joke on literary novels somehow, and seemingly pretty clever about English history, a subject about which I'm near ignorant.
-- More to come: Contact by emailing me or commenting on this post --
This is genre fiction but all these come with our personal guarantee that the crap stuff has already been sold to unknowing suckers who don't read this blog.
A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin - Gold Dagger Winner, mystery featuring English poet Robert Browning. Much better than Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series.
The Poet by Michael Connelly - Well within that great territory of pleasurable, silly books about serial killers that don't embarrass you vicariously with their stupidity (a good example of an author that provide that kind of pleasurable schadenfreude--Patricia Cornwell). Connelly didn't convince me with the first one I tried, but this one was better. Adding to the pleasure, the hero is a journo who covers the cops beat, and the former LA Times reporter does a good job of getting inside "the life," digging at editors, etc.
One Step Behind by Henning Mankell - We picked up Mankell's first book about a year ago and we were immediate addicts. Inspector Kurt Wallander reminds one a little of Ruth Rendell's beloved Inspector Wexford in his sensitivity and irascible manner, but Mankell's descriptions of life in provincial Sweden are what really sells this series. A notch or two above Connelly, who's a notch or two above Cornwell, on the trash-literature continuum.
Firewall by Henning Mankell - The worst of the Wallander series -- hey, I promised full disclosure -- but you gotta read 'em all once you start. Mankell gets bogged down in a Y2K bug type scenario, which doesn't suit his skills.
A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine - For those in the know, Barbara Vine is the pen name of much-feted mystery writer Ruth Rendell. (OK, if you haven't read Ruth Rendell, we've got some more books to sell you, but first you have to push off the rock you've been living under and read some testimonials. This is the kind of author who gets knighted or whatever it is they do with women, though I don't know how writing crime novels is service to the empire). In the Vine books, Rendell is really writing gothic novels a la the Bronte sisters, in my estimate. Childbirth, often post partum depression, and creepy old houses tend to get big play. It's a deft touch, though, as one would expect from such a master, without any dopey old magic or ghosts. In this one, a group of hippie types drop out in the old mansion one of them inherited from a relative. Murder is inevitable.
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall - McCall won many fans with the first of many in the Ladies Detective Agency series. Set in Africa, these are engaging, if sometimes a bit patronizing, tales about Precious Ramotswe, a matriarchal type who solves crimes. A TLS international book of the year and booker judge special recommendation.
A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell - See above for fulsome praise of Ruth Rendell. This is one of Rendell's psychological thrillers (she does police procedurals in the Inspector Wexford series and gothics writing as Barbara Vine) and takes as its subject a strangler who succeeds in suppressing his compulsion by nightly strangling a store mannequin--until his downstairs neighbor takes it out for burning on Guy Fawkes day.
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell - Here Mankell, who later moved to Africa from Sweden, kind of bridges the gap between his two lives with a thriller cum crime novel about a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela. I know that sounds dumb, but it ain't.
The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine - See above for Vine intro. This one has some qualities reminiscent of AS Byatt, as it follows a biographer investigating his great grandfather, physician to Queen Victoria. And one creepy dude.
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine - Two sisters have a creepy conflict that involves a baby, unwed pregancy, and murder.
The Rottweiler by Ruth Rendell - One of Rendell's more engaging desi character in this one, not to mention the classic blackmailer's line, "You're the Rottweiler, innit?" Psychological thriller - you'll never stoop to Thomas Harris again after dipping into Rendell.
Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith - The appealing thing about Highsmith is you get to root for the sociopath. Ripley only murders the rude, uncouth, or foul-smelling, and I say good riddance to all of 'em.
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell - the first of the Wallander series. he gets better as he goes along, but this one lays the foundation for greatness. Swedish police procedural about bank robbers that soon turn murderers.
Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte - Not his best work, in my opinion, but good enough. This is the story of a Mexican girl, the moll of a "narco," who gets caught up in a burn gone wrong and has to split for Europe. In Spain, she rises to become the Queen of the South, the head of a drug-smuggling ring that unites all the big players. Sort of a Scarface meets Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - Full disclosure: I'm a recovering sci-fi/fantasy geek who read every book by Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Tarzan, my childhood idol/secret identy), so I was pretty much bound to like this Harry Potter for adults. The surprise was that Shailaja, a confirmed fantasy hater, dug it, too. I think the secret is that it's a sly joke on literary novels somehow, and seemingly pretty clever about English history, a subject about which I'm near ignorant.
-- More to come: Contact by emailing me or commenting on this post --
identity theft
I'm working on the identity theft issue this week, an assignment that has compelled me to devote more attention to the furor arising from the UK-based Sun's sting operation, which allegedly exposed a scam to sell stolen bank password information, than I might have. The Indian press has been diving into this story with its usual rabid enthusiasm, but it seems to me most papers are taking the Sun's lead and developing an apparently faulty premise. How many articles have been scare items about how data is unsafe at BPOs? Most have been even more critical than the international pieces by the Washington Post and others, which have at least pointed out that the 1,000 passwords the Sun bought pale in comparison to the 40 million swiped in one go from a database in the US. Cooler heads have been relegated to the edit page, even though this is only the second "major" incident of identity theft India has encountered. And who called it major?
I ask you: Why follow the lead of the international press on a story colored (at least in part) by protectionism, racism and irrational fear of a brown planet?
I ask you: Why follow the lead of the international press on a story colored (at least in part) by protectionism, racism and irrational fear of a brown planet?
Saturday, June 25, 2005
delhi bar ettiquette
Can anybody explain to me why bars in Delhi insist on playing music at deafening volume? Waiters have objected to my complaints variously, but Shaila got the best answer so far: "Madam, nine o'clock: Pub has started." Another guy told us that they wanted the music loud so people would hear it on the street (two floors below) and think the place was "happening." When I asked him how he would convince them it was "happening" after they came in and discovered that nobody was in the place except two drunk journalists (one bald), he had no response. When I went outside with him to confirm that the building's sound-proofing had thwarted his plan, he resorted to obfuscation.
I AM getting old, and I don't have any daily office grind to escape from at the end of the day, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. When everybody is sitting down in restaurant format, it's not a dance club. Right? Are there really people out there who will leave if the music isn't loud?
The only place I've found that will actually entertain requests to turn down the music is Flame's (their grocer's apostrophe, not mine) in GKII M-block market. That, and their shockingly cheap booze, has made the place the hangout of choice for a good cross-section of young professionals, student types and the usual red-eyed whiskey drinkers.
On another note: Isn't it time for GKII M-block market to go through some kind of renaissance? How many bath and toilet fixture shops does one need on top-end real estate? This area used to be the bar capital of Delhi (OK, that's pushing it) back in 2002 or something, but is anyone still interested in drinking in watering holes like M-52? Club Zeros finally died, but was replaced by something equally awful and twice as expensive called ffad or something. Fffuck that.
For the greater good of the city, I therefore humbly offer my services:
Jason Overdorf
Drinking companion, drunk-eye-for-the-sober-guy and barstool consultant par excellence, more than fifteen years experience in New York, Taipei, Beijing, Hong Kong and Delhi
Services:
-drink evaluation
-noise-level metering
-talent scout
-withering interior decoration tips
-general bonhomie
Don't let this opportunity pass you by.
I AM getting old, and I don't have any daily office grind to escape from at the end of the day, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. When everybody is sitting down in restaurant format, it's not a dance club. Right? Are there really people out there who will leave if the music isn't loud?
The only place I've found that will actually entertain requests to turn down the music is Flame's (their grocer's apostrophe, not mine) in GKII M-block market. That, and their shockingly cheap booze, has made the place the hangout of choice for a good cross-section of young professionals, student types and the usual red-eyed whiskey drinkers.
On another note: Isn't it time for GKII M-block market to go through some kind of renaissance? How many bath and toilet fixture shops does one need on top-end real estate? This area used to be the bar capital of Delhi (OK, that's pushing it) back in 2002 or something, but is anyone still interested in drinking in watering holes like M-52? Club Zeros finally died, but was replaced by something equally awful and twice as expensive called ffad or something. Fffuck that.
For the greater good of the city, I therefore humbly offer my services:
Jason Overdorf
Drinking companion, drunk-eye-for-the-sober-guy and barstool consultant par excellence, more than fifteen years experience in New York, Taipei, Beijing, Hong Kong and Delhi
Services:
-drink evaluation
-noise-level metering
-talent scout
-withering interior decoration tips
-general bonhomie
Don't let this opportunity pass you by.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
what have you done for me lately
When Manmohan Singh came into office, nobody had very high expectations. The fact was, businessmen gave a sigh of relief that there was going to be a government and not a long struggle for coalition or chaos of protests against a foreign-born PM. They sighed in relief, too, to see Dr. Singh, a business-friendly face, instead of someone who might have been more interested in the backward-looking socialist programs the party had once touted. Over his first year in office, however, expectations for Dr. Singh have grown with each of his successes in warding off threats, until we are asking "what have we done for me lately" instead of marveling that the government is still standing and hasn't been derailed by its Leftist partners as it has knocked down barriers to foreign investment one after the other. But how well has Dr. Singh really done? What should our expectations be? Scott Baldauf takes up the argument in a recent piece in the Christian Science Monitor. Unfortunately, the piece lacks an educative comparison between Dr. Singh's reform accomplishments and those of his predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Monday, May 16, 2005
tokyo cancelled by rana dasgupta
By Shailaja Neelakantan
(This snap judgment appeared in Newsweek International in May 2005).
A flight heading for Tokyo is canceled. Thirteen passengers are stranded in the airport, and to pass the time each tells a story in this book. These modern-day Canterbury tales are fantastical and, when they work, grippingly depict the outcomes of human frailties. But sometimes Dasgupta's efforts are too forced. Like the passengers, the stories are set all over the world, predictably showcasing today's global citizens. Still, there's enough sparkle in this debut to make readers eager to read Dasgupta's next work.
A flight heading for Tokyo is canceled. Thirteen passengers are stranded in the airport, and to pass the time each tells a story in this book. These modern-day Canterbury tales are fantastical and, when they work, grippingly depict the outcomes of human frailties. But sometimes Dasgupta's efforts are too forced. Like the passengers, the stories are set all over the world, predictably showcasing today's global citizens. Still, there's enough sparkle in this debut to make readers eager to read Dasgupta's next work.
a peaceful adolescence
Check out the latest article from Newsweek to benefit from Jason's dogged legwork.
A Peaceful Adolescence
The teen years don't have to be a time of family storm and stress. Most kids do just fine, and now psychologists are finding out why that is.
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Karen Springen
Newsweek International
May 16 issue - At 16, Purva Chawla holds good rankings in schooland loves competing in drama and elocution contests. The New Delhi student is "head girl" of her school and plays for the table-tennis team. Recently she won a public-speaking contest organized by The Times of India, and the British Council selected her to travel to Britain with a group of young leaders to organize a sporting event for kids in Scotland. Even with all her extracurricular activities, she still makes it home for dinner with her parents and goes out to the movies with them twice a week. "I talk with them very freely about what's happening with my friends, boyfriends, whatever," she says.
Is the Chawla family for real? Didn't they get the memo that says teens and their parents are supposed to be at odds until... well, until forever? Actually, they're very much for real, and according to scientists who study the transition to adulthood, they represent the average family's experience more accurately than all those scary TV movies about out-of-control teens. "Research shows that most young people go through adolescence having good relationships with their parents, adopting attitudes and values consistent with their parents' and end up getting out of the adolescent period and becoming good citizens," says Richard Lerner, Bergstrom Chair of Applied Developmental Science at Tufts University. This shouldn't be news—but it is, largely because of widespread misunderstanding of what happens during the teen years. It's a time of transition, just like the first year of parenthood or menopause. Catastrophe is certainly not preordained. A lot depends on youngsters' innate natures, combined with the emotional and social support they get from the adults around them. In other words, parents do matter.
Scientists in the past 15 years have begun to re-examine the assumption that adolescence is all storm and stress. Leading the pack are Lerner and his colleagues, who are in the midst of a major study of exactly what it takes to turn out OK and what adults can do to nurture those behaviors. "Parents and sometimes kids themselves often talk about positive development as the absence of bad," says Lerner. "What we're trying to do is present a different vision and a different vocabulary for young people and parents."
The first conclusions from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, published in the February issue of The Journal of Early Adolescence, show that there are quantifiable personality traits possessed by all adolescents who manage to get to adulthood without major problems. Psychologists have labeled these traits "the five C's": competence, confidence, connection, character and caring. These characteristics theoretically lead to a sixth C, contribution (similar to civic engagement).
The five C's are interconnected, not isolated traits, Lerner says. For example, competence refers not just to academic ability but also to social and vocational skills. Confidence includes self-esteem as well as the belief that you can make a difference in the world. The value of the study, Lerner says, is that when it is completed next year, researchers will have a way to quantify these characteristics and eventually to determine what specific social and educational programs foster them.
In the meantime, parents can learn a lot from this rethinking of the teen years. Don't automatically assume that your kids become alien beings when they leave middle school. They still care what their parents think, and they still need love and guidance—although in a different form. Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg, author of "The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting," compares raising kids to building a boat. Parents have to construct a strong underpinning so their kids are equipped to face whatever's ahead. In the teen years, that means staying involved as you slowly let go. "One of the things that's natural in adolescence is that kids are going to pull away from their parents as they become increasingly interested in peers," says Steinberg. "It's important for parents to hang in there, for them not to pull back in response to that."
Communication is critical. "Stay in touch with your kids and make sure they feel valued and appreciated," advises Suniya Luthar, professor of clinical and developmental psychology at Columbia University. Even if they roll their eyes when you try to hug them, they still need direct displays of affection, she says. They also need help figuring out goals and limits. Parents should monitor their kids' activities and get to know their friends. Luthar says parents should still be disciplinarians and set standards such as curfews.
Adolescents are often critical of their parents, but they're also watching them closely for clues on how to function in the outside world. Daniel Perkins, associate professor of family and youth resiliency at Penn State, says he and his wife take their twins to the local Ronald McDonald House and serve dinner to say thank you for time the family spent there when the children had health problems after birth. "What we've done already is set up the notion that we were blessed and need to give back, even if it's in a small way."
Parents should provide opportunities for kids to explore the world and even find a calling. Teens who have a passion for something are more likely to thrive. "They have a sense of purpose beyond day-to-day teenage life," says David Marcus, author of "What It Takes to Pull Me Through." Often, he says, kids who were enthusiastic about something in middle school lose enthusiasm in high school because the competition gets tougher and they're not as confident.
At some point during these years, teenagers should also be learning to build their own support networks—a skill that will be even more important when they're on their own. Kids who don't make those kinds of connections are more likely to get in trouble because there's no one their own age or older to stop them from going too far. Like any other stage of life, adolescence can be tough. But teens and families can get through it—as long as they stick together.
With Julie Scelfo and Jason Overdorf
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Monday, May 09, 2005
nepal cracks down on pro-democracy student groups
Check out Shai's latest contribution to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Activists press on despite campus arrests, strikes, and 2 deaths
By Shailaja Neelakantan/KATHMANDU
(This article appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education in May 2005).
Gagan Kumar Thapa, a graduate student at Nepal's Tribhuvan University, chats and laughs with a friend as he waits to discuss the government crackdown that has him on the run.
Clad in sweat pants and a T-shirt, the chubby, soft-spoken sociology student does not seem like a rabble-rouser or a revolutionary in the style of Nepal's Maoist rebels, whose violent, nine-year insurgency is aimed at replacing the monarchy with a communist regime. Mr. Thapa, an outspoken leader of the Nepal Students Union, is a different brand of rebel. He is a pro-democracy activist who strongly opposes the Maoists. But like a growing number of university students, he also strongly opposes the monarchy, and his strident calls to make the Himalayan kingdom a republic have made him a prime target for King Gyanendra and the army he controls.
Mr. Thapa was forced into hiding on February 1, when the king, a constitutional monarch, sacked Nepal's democratic government, assumed power, and declared a state of emergency, which was withdrawn late last month. The king said the elected parliament and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba were incompetent and that without absolute control over the country, he would not be able to defeat the Maoists. Several political activists were then put under house arrest.
Mr. Thapa blames royalty for earlier failures to challenge the Maoist rebels, who say they are fighting on behalf of Nepal's poor. Since 1996 more than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency waged by the rebels' Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its now-banned student wing. The Maoists' tactics have included killings, torture, abductions, strikes, roadblocks, and the conscription of child soldiers, according to human-rights groups.
"Nepal's youth have to fight the war on two different fronts, the monarch and the Maoists," Mr. Thapa says.
Students United
Most student associations in Nepal, except the banned Maoist group, have come to share that view. In March seven student unions affiliated with different political parties formed an alliance that has staged protests, distributed pamphlets, and burned effigies of the king. They have also demanded the withdrawal of security personnel from campuses.
The king has taken notice. Since the dismissal of the democratic government, the Royal Nepal Army has arrested thousands of human-rights and pro-democracy activists, many of them students and faculty members. It has also deployed soldiers, some in uniform and some in plainclothes, in most public places and on all university campuses. On February 1, the army, without warning, fired from helicopters on student protesters at Prithvi Narayan College, in Pokhara, about 125 miles northwest of the capital. Two students were killed and some 20 were injured.
Here in the capital, signs of the coup are not immediately evident except for an increased presence of armed police and army personnel. But in the bustling market streets filled with tourists and local people, there is a genuine fear of the security forces. People hush up when police officers pass by.
The king's actions have resulted in disruptions and tensions at Nepal's universities, which had already been crippled by frequent strikes staged by the Maoists and other student groups. Last year alone, Tribhuvan lost almost half of its 150-day academic calendar due to strikes and shutdowns.
At the Institute of Agricultural and Animal Sciences, in Chitwan, in east Nepal, "we lost close to two months of study in 2004," says Bikash Pandel, 24, now a graduate student at Tribhuvan. "They didn't finish teaching us the courses, and we were unprepared when the exams were finally held," he said. "The strikes called by the Maoists scared away the teachers and the students, and now we have all these students being arrested."
Guns on the Campus
Every couple of days since February 1, soldiers have entered university dormitories in the dead of night and arrested dozens of students, according to student groups.
Mr. Thapa managed to avoid being arrested immediately after February 1 because he was not at his home when the army came looking for him. A recent meeting with Mr. Thapa had to be arranged through a local journalist, who changed the location twice in an hour before the meeting. "He cannot be too careful," the journalist says.
The journalist's fears are valid. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have warned that Nepal has had an alarmingly high number of extrajudicial "disappearances" in recent years. Government security forces fighting the Maoists are alleged to be behind many of those, and local and international human-rights groups say abuses by security forces have intensified since February 1.
Government officials, appointed by the king after he sacked those appointed by the prime minister, refused to comment for this article, but have publicly defended the king's actions. In March Nepal's minister of foreign affairs told the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that King Gyanendra's coup was a drastic attempt to save democracy and human rights in Nepal, and he urged the international community to support the king's actions. The king, under increasing pressure from foreign nations and human-rights groups, has since agreed to allow the U.N. high commissioner for human rights to monitor the situation in Nepal . Many students remain gravely concerned.
"They came one night about a month ago and arrested several people, including me," says Chhabi Barat, a graduate student in geography at Tribhuvan. He was released in early April after being detained for 25 days, and only after he agreed to sign a document stating that he supported the king, he says.
Rupesh Khatiwada, secretary of the student union at Tribhuvan's campus in Kirtipur, outside the capital, believes he, too, will be arrested soon. A master's-degree candidate in politics, he points to the gun-wielding soldiers posted on the campus one recent afternoon. They did not stop him and 20 other college students from burning an effigy of the king later that day, as students chanted: "Shame on the royal proclamation, shame on the king, long live democracy."
Like Mr. Thapa, those students also feel stuck in the middle. "We don't want the Maoists with their guns, and we don't want the king with his guns," says Mr. Khatiwada.
"The minute the Maoists stop their violence, we will support them," Mr. Barat says "We understand their concern for the poor."
Faculty Arrests
Another student, 24-year-old Narayan Kharel, a vocal member of the Nepal Students Union, adds that the alliance of the seven students' unions is the best thing to happen in Nepal. He says he supports Mr. Barat and Mr. Khatiwada, even though they belong to another party.
"We are stronger together, and we will fight this together," he says.
Unlike their senior party leaders, who during the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s continued to back a constitutional monarchy, the student activists see royalty as a stumbling block to Nepal's progress. (King Birendra, brother of the current king, acceded to the demands of the pro-democracy movement in 1990. Gyanendra was crowned king in 2001, after Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his father, eight other members of the royal family, and himself.)
"There is a generational divide," Mr. Thapa says. "In 1990 the leaders campaigning for democracy felt it was OK to have a constitutional monarchy. For them, the king is still a symbol. But we young people don't believe in such things."
Since the royal takeover, even faculty members who vocally denounced the Maoists in the past for calling strikes and disrupting education are participating in protest marches and demonstrations, as their colleagues are also being arrested.
One day in early April, police and army officials posted outside Padma Kanya College here refuse to allow members of the Nepal University Teachers Association -- who have called a meeting to discuss the arrest of several academics -- to enter the campus. "They are refusing to let us in to hold a meeting, which is our basic right," Bhupati Dhakal, president of the association, told journalists who gathered outside the gates of the college. "How long will this go on? For how long can we be stopped like this at gunpoint? One day they will have to give up." Mr. Dhakal would be arrested two days later.
Undaunted, the association has released a statement condemning his arrest and those of several other faculty members. The statement accuses the king of complicating the political situation instead of trying to resolve it. "Such a condemnable act of the state, amid commitment to respect academic freedoms, has agitated the entire academic field," it states.
In and Out of Hiding
Although King Gyanendra withdrew the state of emergency on April 30, he has held on to major powers; has not released hundreds of detained political activists, including students and faculty members; and has continued to maintain press censorship and bans on political parties and public demonstrations.
The king has also extended the term of the Royal Commission for Corruption Control, a body he set up after removing the government. The commission has sweeping powers to arrest politicians and bureaucrats.
A day before the state of emergency was lifted, security forces fired on student protesters gathered in a college compound in western Nepal, seriously injuring four of them.
Mr. Thapa, the student leader on the run, appeared sporadically in the weeks after his meeting with this reporter, delivering fiery speeches against the king in different parts of the city before going back into hiding.
But his luck ran out on April 26. Police officers surrounded the house where he was staying, and Mr. Thapa, along with two colleagues, was arrested and taken into custody.Thursday, May 05, 2005
whisky ka peg, chicken ka leg, aur?
Finally. Herbal Science, a Bangalore-based company, has released an anti-hangover pill, reports the Economic Times. Some 100 people were involved in clinical trials to prove it works. Two questions: (1) How come they never find ME when they're testing this stuff and doling out the free drinks? These guys must use the same market research firm as the up-market whisky companies, because I am clearly not on either list. (2) How painful must it have been to be in the control group? Drinking your face off with nothing but a placebo to protect you from the crashing hangover? I don't think so.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
india making strides against rape?
Absurdity of absurdities: A man accused of raping and gouging out one of the eyes of a hospital co-worker today asked the court to consider a lighter sentence because he was prepared to marry the victim. The woman was not moved. "He should be hanged as an example," was her response. But the fact that the judge allowed the motion has caused some soul-searching in the legal community, according to this article in the Indian Express.
My question is: Is India making strides against violence against women? Do the climbing statistics on reported rapes indicate that women are more prepared to register complaints--presumably because they entertain some hope of successful prosecution--or that the police have become more sensitive and efficient in undertaking these kinds of cases?
India is in the throes of a sexual revolution, no doubt. But certainly women have a long fight ahead of them if judges have little more understanding of rape than the Shiv Sena, which recently reiterated its ever-popular "she was asking for it" line in response to a daylight rape in Mumbai.
My question is: Is India making strides against violence against women? Do the climbing statistics on reported rapes indicate that women are more prepared to register complaints--presumably because they entertain some hope of successful prosecution--or that the police have become more sensitive and efficient in undertaking these kinds of cases?
India is in the throes of a sexual revolution, no doubt. But certainly women have a long fight ahead of them if judges have little more understanding of rape than the Shiv Sena, which recently reiterated its ever-popular "she was asking for it" line in response to a daylight rape in Mumbai.
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