[GreenYouth] nation@ deficit.cultural _capital
Read sadanand's take on cultural deficit. http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=364735 All of a sudden, in the space of some weeks, the nation seems to be running up a deficit on its cultural capital. In rapid succession we have lost theatre personalities like Habib Tanvir and Kalindi Deshpande, writers like Kamala Das, painters and sculptors like A P Santhanaraj, T R P Mookiah and Tyeb Mehta and musicians like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, D K Pattammal and now, Gangubai Hanagal . --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] Aha! see how the Empire returns (it) back
*Union fury as civil service outsources jobs to India* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6731114.ece --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] ‘Pact with ASEAN will hit fisheries, farm sector
[image: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/images/express_buzz.gif] *By Express News Service 27 Jul 2009 12:15:05 PM IST* *‘Pact with ASEAN will hit fisheries, farm sector * THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Swathanthra Malsyathozhilali Federation (KSMTF) and Focus on the Global South, a regional research and campaign group, said that the Central Government’s decision to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN would have an adverse impact on the livelihoods of thousands of people engaged the fisheries and agriculture sectors, especially in the state. Afsar Jafri of the Global South and T Peter of the KSMTF in a joint statement issued on Sunday said that the FTA would hit the state more severely because of the large number of people engaged in fishing, fish vending and processing. In recent years, the fish stocks have depleted, due to over-fishing by trawlers and foreign vessels and fish prices have crashed due to imports of cheaper varieties forcing many to give up fishing. Further liberalisation in fisheries sector to increase trade will precipitate the problems of the fishing community, the statement said. The biggest threat will come from imports from Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of farmed shrimps and Vietnam, the world’s eight largest seafood exporter. The FTA is likely to permit zero tariff imports of sardines, mackerels, anchovies and crabs. Cheaper imports of local popular varieties such as cuttlefish, squid, shrimp, sole and pomfret will spell doom to fishing communities, the statement said. If the FTA allows Thai fishing vessels access the Indian territorial waters, it would only intensify over-fishing and the damage to fish stocks, especially given the lack of prudent national fish regulations and policies in the country. Malaysia’s palm oil industry has been a strong lobby for the FTA. Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil and duty-free import of palm oil into the Indian market would depress the prices of local products. Other sections which will be affected in India include small-scale tea, coffee, coconut, rubber and pepper farmers, the statement said. © Copyright 2008 ExpressBuzz Bottom of Form http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=Ui9XEoNFwVYhttp://202.146.198.11/cgi-bin/sqwebmail?timestamp=1248876549md5=YkY9t5DYXIj0mYt0fJSa%2Fw%3D%3Dredirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressbuzz.com%2Fedition%2Fprint.aspx%3Fartid%3DUi9XEoNFwVY= [image: http://www.hinduonnet.com/icons/hindu_w150.gif] *Date:27/07/2009* *URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/27/stories/2009072759900500.htm* -- Keralahttp://202.146.198.11/cgi-bin/sqwebmail?timestamp=1248876549md5=YkY9t5DYXIj0mYt0fJSa%2Fw%3D%3Dredirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2F2009%2F07%2F27%2F25hdline.htm *‘Proposed trade pact will affect State’ * Special Correspondent Thiruvanathapuram: The Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF) has expressed concern over the impact of the proposed trade pact with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Kerala. A release, quoting State president of the federation T. Peter, said the proposed pact would lead to loss of livelihood in the fisheries and agriculture sectors. “The Cabinet approval, overlooking the objections raised by senior Ministers like Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, is against the spirit of the assurances given by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to protect the livelihood of millions of people engaged in the agriculture and fisheries sectors,” it said. “In 2006, Congress president Sonia Gandhi in her then capacity as National Advisory Council chairperson had written a cautionary letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking for a careful scrutiny of the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement, given the agrarian crisis and its potential impact on sectors such as edible oil, coffee, tea and pepper,” the release said. “At a time of deep financial and agrarian crisis, many countries are today shunning free trade policies. Mr. Manmohan Singh’s contention that India will be isolated in the world economy if it does not sign the agreement is not based on an assessment of ground realities,” the release said. It said the federation would mobilise farmers, workers and other sections of society against the proposed trade pact that would affect the lives of millions of people across the country. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] What’s in a caption? (a new post)
What’s in a caption? http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=473 By *Ashokan Nambiar* *Carrying forward the debate on the politics of photo-captions initiated by Anoop, I am posting my piece that I wrote in January 2007. * By writing a caption which only the progeny of Golwalkar could have written/write, The New Indian Express has showed where its ideological sympathies lie. But they are not alone, many so called progressive and secular media publications also suffer from the same vice. The print media is careful nowadays about its visual presentation to attract readers who are sometimes described as `scanners’. So the news papers and magazines give much importance to photographs and their organisation. The caption, being an inevitable part of photograph has also undergone certain changes in its presentation style which will be dealt briefly in the later part of this essay. However, this article is not about the changing pattern of the style of presentation of caption or photograph but seeks to unravel certain ideological underpinnings of some of the captions that appeared recently in some of the news papers and a news magazine published in India. [image: muslim_girls_vandematarm_pe_20070115] Photo published by Outlook weekly with the caption 'We're Indian Too' Captions are used in news papers and magazines primarily to provide the reader with necessary information such as naming/identifying persons and objects and the context of the photo etc. But there has also been an increasing tendency to follow the title-sub-title style with a colon while writing caption. News papers like The Hindu and The Times of India follow this style as a norm but The New Indian Express and Deccan Herald use this style while writing caption for lead photos and other `important’ photos. For the purpose of this article I will be analysing some of the `title captions’ (which appear before the caption or on the top of the photo) which appeared in the January 9th edition (Bangalore) of newspapers such as The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Deccan Herald and also the Outlook year-end bumper issue. Read more… » http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=473 http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=473#more-473 -- Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run, Obama ran so your children can fly -- Ranjit --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] Fwd: Those chain emails
yet another forward... -- Forwarded message -- I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and continuing it in 2009 also... Because of your kindness: * I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains. * I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS. * Forwarded hundreds of mails but still waiting for FREE DESKTOP, LAPTOP, CAMERA, CELLPHONE etc…. * I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer... * I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me. * I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill with calls to Uganda, Pakistan, Singapore and Tokyo. * I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat faeces and urine. * When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice. * I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times.. (Poor girl! she's been 16 since 1993...) * Still open to help somebody from Nigeria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle's property of $ 100 million. So much trustworthy. * I have forwarded 35 emails to 400 people hoping that Ericsson or Nokia will send me latest mobile phones but those models are also obsolete now. * Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Ganesh , Tirupathi Balaji pics etc. Now most of those 'Wishes' are already married either to a woman or settled with to someone else --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] Fwd: [humanrights-movement:1879] Fwd: Untouchability alive in rural areas: Study
-- Forwarded message -- From: Rights Support Centre humanrights.movem...@gmail.com Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:52 AM Subject: [humanrights-movement:1879] Fwd: Untouchability alive in rural areas: Study To: humanrights-movem...@googlegroups.com -- Forwarded message -- From: Madhu Chandra fin...@gmail.com Untouchability alive in rural areas: Study Subodh Ghildiyal, TNN 27 July 2009, 05:05am IST Source NEW DELHI: Untouchability is alive in the countryside though fear of law and rising Dalit assertion seem to have curbed its crude manifestations. These are findings of a survey by National Law School, Bangalore, to study the impact of Protection of Civil Rights Act on untouchability commissioned by Union social justice ministry. Villages, the den of this decadent practice, are far from being zero-untouchability zones as found in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, MP, UP, Rajasthan and West Bengal. As many as 516 of the total 648 Dalits questioned said they were not allowed to enter temples while 151 said they were not allowed to take out processions of their deities. The survey said 581 were allowed drumbeats during marriage processions. Around 16% of non-Dalits questioned conceded that SCs were barred from temple activities. Importantly, 13% refused to comment, showing the bias continued to be strong. The non-SCs confirmed what 516 of a sample of 648 Dalits said ^they were denied entry to temples. Dalit participation in social activities has improved, with 591 invited for wedding feasts. But the improvement stops there. Around 29% said they wait for others to finish eating before they can eat while 20% non-SCs said they expected SCs to wash their plates after eating. The primitive manifestations of untouchability still exist, even if they are on the wane. In the survey, 7% respondents said they were barred from entering main streets of villages while 7% said they could not wear sandals and walk in front of a dominant caste member. In fact, 9% revealed they had to talk with folded hands and 29% said they had to stand up in respect. A sore point of old caste segregation was bar on entry of SCs in non-Dalit houses. While 82% revealed they were allowed in, around 18% were still not. A big section of non-SCs said they would not allow SCs into their houses while an equal number refused to comment, showing the sensitivity was not easy to overcome. SC women work as maids in other caste homes but a majority said they were not allowed inside. Many in Karnataka, MP and Rajasthan named Brahmins and Konkani castes as barring their entry while in Bengal, 34 different OBCs were identified. As many as 20% said they were not served food and water in non-Dalit homes while 24% claimed being served in separate vessels. At least 25% non-SCs concurred with the claim. Dalit children are still growing with the stigma of being from inferior class. While seating arrangements are common in schools, SC kids in many cases are asked to take the back benches. Also, many are served midday meals separately from other children. The bias showed when over 40% non-SC respondents agreed there were no SC teachers in their village schools. Vestiges of mediaeval society became apparent when upper castes and OBCs, if only a handful, revealed they served SCs in towels or their upper garments; while some poured water directly into the cupped Dalit hands for drinking instead of giving a tumbler. A few cases showed that barbers used separate instruments for haircut of Dalits. The survey was carried out in six states and 24 villages, a mix of those with highest and lowest crimes under PCR Act. S Japhet, director, Centre of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, said, No study can claim to be totally representative because of social and regional diversity. But this is as comprehensive as it can be as an empirical study. The methodology is scientific. For all the empowerment, Dalits in the countryside are still forced into services seen as menial - 154 of 553 Dalits performed drumbeating, 42 grave digging while 97 were into making chappals. As many as 78 said they were asked to carry out animal sacrifice and 57 said they were sweepers. Not surprisingly, the biggest improvement in Dalit rights is in politics - SCs are active in politics, are invited to functions and get elected too. The negative is that their elections are limited to seats reserved for them. It shows that political empowerment of Dalits through affirmative action is confined to the reserved seats, says the report. -- http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For
[GreenYouth] Fwd: Cartoon Album by Radhika Menon on 100 Days Plan on Edu Reforms Under Globalization
Please watch here the cartoon comments by Radhika Menon on the action plan recently announced by the Minister for HRD Mr.Kabil Sibbal : http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/sredir?uname=radhikamenon1target=ALBUMid=5363906676983046689authkey=Gv1sRgCJOJybudqeS2dgfeat=email --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] Excerpts from article : A post-racial America? by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at what the arrest of African American scholar Henry Louis Gates--and the resulting uproar when he dared to protest that he was a victim of racial profiling--says about racism in the era of Barack Obama. July 27, 2009 http://socialistworker.org/2009/07/27/post-racial-america ‘…Obama and a section of his generation of African Americans, who reaped the benefits of civil rights legislation and affirmative action, believe that they are living proof that American capitalism can work for all people, including Blacks. But the current 15 percent of African Americans who are unemployed (according to understated official statistics), the millions of Blacks who lost their homes because they were targeted by predatory mortgage lenders for subprime loans, the millions of African Americans who are without health insurance, the 1 million Black men and women whose lives are wasted in prison, the millions of young Black men and women who are disproportionately contracting the AIDS virus tell a different story. They highlight the degree to which capitalism is still a system in which the racially oppressed suffer more, and live in worse conditions… …We need less rhetoric and exhortation about what the poor and the working poor in African American communities should be doing despite their poverty--and more in the way of real programs and funding that would actually do something about the conditions that create the social catastrophe engulfing Black communities. We need less fingerpointing at the victims of American capitalism--and more accountability from the institutions and political figures that helped cause the crisis in the first place. But what we need most won't be found inside the Washington, D.C., beltway. We need more than ever a new anti-racist movement that understands the history of Black oppression in the United States--from slavery, to legal segregation, to the emergence of the prison-industrial complex, and more. That movement needs to fight today for more programs to stem the impact of the crisis in our communities. But also needs to link the persistence of racism and discrimination against non-white people in America to the system of capitalism itself--and that system's need for the oppression of many to ensure the profits of the few.” -- http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] (fwd)Article by Ratna Kapur; India: Wom en’s groups and feminists should be particularly encourage d by the Delhi court decision on section 377
Coutesy to South Asian Citizens Wire scaw.net ...Historically, women have been treated as weak, passive and vulnerable and hence in need of protection, not equality. This attitude continues to overwhelmingly inform laws that are ostensibly adopted in women’s interests today, such as anti-trafficking laws and policies or sexual harassment laws.. Ratna Kapur article The Times of India, 8 July 2009 A Vision Correction The Delhi high court judgement on Section 377 is nothing short of historic, bold and revolutionary in ways that extend beyond the rights of gays and lesbians. Section 377 penalises sodomy, an act for which persons could be punished with death and burnt alive in late 13th century Britain. In the contemporary period the specific provision has been used primarily to target gay men as well as stretched at times to include lesbian women. The court recognised the complaint by the petitioner the Naaz Foundation, an NGO doing HIV work among sexually stigmatised groups that the harassment, abuse and torture experienced by gay men was seriously impeding work on HIV and AIDS. But the decision was not driven merely by a concern about containing a virus. It was driven by a commitment to the values enshrined in the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution that no person shall be denied the rights to equality, freedom of expression, and life, on grounds of sex. The high court decision moves boldly in the direction that regards sex as including sexual orientation and sexual preference. In other words, fundamental rights should not be contingent on an individual’s sexual status or sexual conduct. This in turn has important implications for women and other persons who choose to live life in a manner that does not conform with dominant sexual, cultural and familial norms. For too long, sodomy has defined the homosexual, in the same way as paid sex has defined the sex worker. And it is the sexual act that has been incorporated and invariably criminalised in law. The fact that gay men and women are workers, employers, mothers and fathers, patients and clients, students and teachers, priests, pundits and mullahs, has been marginalised. The striking down of the application of the law opens the way for gays, lesbians, and many other sexual subalterns to challenge discrimination in many areas of their lives on grounds of sexual orientation and sexual identity. The decision lays to rest the claim by the god squad and sexual morality brigade that these practices are antagonistic to Indian cultural values. Indeed, what is so apparent from the decision is that Section 377 is a culturally specific law that emerged in Victorian England and was transported to the colonies through the mechanism of Empire. It was a provision that was designed to reinforce the view that Indians and colonial subjects were sexually perverse and uncivilised and hence undeserving of freedom. The colonial encounter has left an egregious legacy of stigmatising sex and that legacy persists in the present day. The decision affirms that gays, lesbians, and other sexually stigmatised groups are Indian citizens, and belong to an array of religious denominations and cultural communities. Their sexual identity and cultural identity are integral and provisions that force them to choose between one or the other are nothing short of coercive state action that must be and has been in this instance impugned. A further area in which the court broke new ground is in recognising the right to privacy as integral to the right to life. While the court was able to build on previous case law in this area, this is the first time that consensual sexual activity between two adults has been considered to be a private matter. This has enormous implications again for those individuals, gay and straight, who are engaged in consensual sexual relationships outside of procreative, marital sex, to ensure that the line is drawn in their favour. The state should not be allowed to interfere in the private intimate space of individuals in order to uphold its more absolute positions on what constitutes ’’good sex’’ and ’’bad sex’’. Finally, the court’s remarks on equality also marked a significant shift in the recognition of substantive equality, that is, that equality should not be limited to sameness in treatment, but must guarantee equality in result. Once again women will be direct beneficiaries of such a shift. Equality has invariably been interpreted as treating likes alike. The decision opens up space for people to be treated differently in order to have equality in result, to redress historical wrongs, and counter structural and systemic discrimination on grounds of difference, in this instance, sexual orientation or sexual preference. In other words, disadvantage rather than distinction has quite appropriately been recognised as the core attribute of the right to equality. Women’s groups and feminists should be particularly encouraged by the decision and indeed
