Do not move on

Obama, you can't have it both ways - you released the documents detailing the brutal interrogation methods used by the Bush administration, for which, I applaud you. But, your moveon.org doesn't impress me. It is an injustice to the victims, injustice to the numerous men and women who were asked to do the dirty work and serious blow to the moral standing of the United States in the world. 

The Painter of Battles

Arturo Perez-Reverte's 'The Painter of Battles' was an accidental find in the crowded airport of Puerto Vallarta on our way back from a vacation. I was looking to find a work from a spanish writer to top off the wonderful time we had in Mexico and this book instantly grabbed my attention.

Arturo is a prolific writer and his work is a reflection on his own years spent reporting wars in various parts of the world. A war photographer is often a witness to the history before it is told and retold, bent and distorted, massaged and manipulated for popular consumption. The story starts at the solitary home of the war photographer in some spanish coastal town; he spends his time painting a mural and swimming in the ocean until the day a man comes looking for him. The visitor had known the painter intimately, studied his works and had a reason to visit him - he wanted to kill the painter for what one of his war photos had done to his life. A deep and enthralling voyage begins down the memory lane sprinkled with his interpretations of the works of the Spanish master painters and his own experiences of photographing the vicious acts of humankind. May be the middle of the book got a bit of long winding and the end may not have been the exact climax you were looking for, but the book captures the loneliness of the souls who share the longing for a peaceful world. It gazes the chaotic world and find the resolutions to the conflicts as the ultimate failure of human imagination. At times it even finds wars to be the natural state of human beings.

This book will remain in my mind as a fine rendition of the front lines of war, much like Sebastiapol. It reiterates my own impressions on the wars we fight every day - what we often miss out when we only see the war between good and evil is that on the battlefields there is only evil.

Assorted paintings

House in the woods,

Oil, 2008

Based on a photograph

Santa Fe Trail, 

Oil, 2008.

Inspired by a painting from an art book, but turned out to be quite different. 

Open Door to what?

I got Tom Frieman's article from New York Times forwarded to me from multiple sources yesterday. It is definitely pleasing for desis to see a prominent american columnist advocating for wider immigration when in fact that immigrants are probably the first ones to bear the brunt of lost jobs and an economy in peril - no wonder the brown blog, Sepia Mutiny had all praises for it. But is there any substance to his assertions? 

“If you do this, it will be one of the best things for India and one of the worst for Americans, [because] Indians will be forced to innovate at home,” said Subhash B. Dhar, a member of the executive council that runs Infosys, the well-known Indian technology company that sends Indian workers to the U.S. to support a wide range of firms. 

Really? I wonder why Indians are so hell-bent on pushing for this, if indeed this is good for India. Tom Friedman definitely got his head spinning seeing the Infosys campus in Bangalore, but the reality is that in this economic climate, there aren't enough jobs to give to the new immigrants. So the 2 million plus immigrants should stay on welfare? 

 “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

Yes, fresh off the boat, they will buy the properties here. Frieman should really find out about the H1B life cycle. Buying a home is neither a priority nor affordable for a temporary worker. 

I would have loved to have seen the stimulus package include a government-funded venture capital bank to help finance all the start-ups that are clearly not starting up today

Here, again, he is exposing his ignorance on how startups in silicon valley work. Money isn't the major ingredient for the startup to succeed. Often startups are started in tens of millions of dollars and sometimes even less. The passion for innovation coupled with a very tight and prudent management is what makes some of these startups successful - the success ratio even then is really small. If the government manages it, the success ratio will be even far less - I am no fan of Milton Friedman's economic theories, as a matter of fact, in light of the recent events, his ideas would be deemed unfit, but one thing he got right was that if people knew the government was behind certain initiatives, they would shift their behavior. A startup in its very essence gives value to innovation, speed, operational efficiency, and lack of red tape - every single of these is an issue with government managed programs.

The height of stupidity was when he quoted someone saying this.

He also cited a recent study by William R. Kerr of Harvard Business School and William F. Lincoln of the University of Michigan that “found that in periods when H-1B visa numbers went down, so did patent applications filed by immigrants [in the U.S.]. And when H-1B visa numbers went up, patent applications followed suit.”

Yes, when there are more immigrants, the patents filed by immigrants are more. That is genius!

Spending during Recession

What is one supposed to do in an economic downturn like the one we are experiencing now? With the people I speak to, I often seen the wide range of ideas from hiding the real money under the mattress to spend to boost the economy. The truth must be somewhere in the middle.

Today was a gloomy day around where I live. For the last few weeks, the weather was exceptionally warm and it was beginning to look like the winter was behind us, but that changed all of a sudden in typical california style. To get over the gloominess and to get my 4 year old S off my back, we set off to the near-by mall. I am not much of a shopper - my shopping normally revolves around thinking about buying something, rushing to the store, picking it up and never returning it even if it doesn't fit my needs well. So this time around, I had nothing to buy - S and I were just walking around.

With all the recession talk 24/7, I imagined a deserted parking lot, empty cashier lines and a far thinner crowd. But, was I wrong or what? The Macy's still had enough customers, Starbucks had a line that was spilling into the street, the counter bar in the restaurant was still milling with people. This may completely be a coincidence after all, but really the people are not reducing their spending yet? So, I looked around to see what the official statistics on consumer spending was - the consumer spending rose only 3.6% in all of 2008, the worst since 1961. Clearly, the spending habits have changed and I hope what I saw wasn't people spending away their severance payments! Sometimes when the disaster strikes, people's tendency is to pretend like nothing ever happened. Given nobody knows how long this one is going to last, that may not be a sound strategy at all.

Where does $800 billion go?

NYTimes has described the republicans as the milling crowd in front of a building on fire who won't let fire fighters in to fight the fire - this is exactly how I feel about the republicans - the bickering and the nit-picking of these supposedly 'patriotic' folks put the politicians in India look much more sophisticated. But, really, the calm and cool Obama himself has lashed out against these folks on a series of interviews last week.

This stimulus is much needed and most economists are wondering whether this is big enough - would a bunch of construction projects alone save this economy from collapsing? Japan who has been in recession since the 90s spent trillions of dollars in construction projects, every road, and every bridge that was ever dreamed of was built - but it still did not yield the results they expected. Why? Looking back, the economists are saying that the spending focussed too much on construction. There is a lesson to be learnt there. If you take a careful look at the 800 Billion dollar bill, while the republican nut jobs continue the theatrical protests, I am afraid that the part of the spending that republicans are bitching about is exactly what I think is too small. Frankly I don't care about the tax cuts - it hasn't worked in the past, it will not work in the future either - an example of a republican ideal that has been carried over for years with no single example to show for its validity.

Here is the 'wasteful' spending. Judge for yourself - where do you not want to spend?

• 
  
• Educational Investments ($141.6 billion):
• Tax cuts (275 billion)
• Health care investments ($112.1 billion):
• Welfare/unemployment ($102 billion):
• Infrastructure investments ($90 billion):
• Energy investments ($58 billion):
• Telecommunications investments
• • $650 million for Digital TV-to-analog converter box coupons and Digital TV education.
  • $350 million for a broadband data collection effort to allow states to track--and specifically, map--the availability of broadband access
  • $2.85 billion to implement a wireless and broadband deployment grants program, with $1 billion of that set going to wireless.

Voice of new America

President Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya is diplomacy at its finest. His first interview after becoming the president is mostly a rehash of what he has been saying all along, but well thought out and delivered.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/27/65096.html

As John Stewart pointed out, this part is not something he has mentioned ever in American interviews though.

I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

One state with equal rights

Al-Jazeera may be Arab world's fox news. But, this article in the aftermath of the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza strip speaks about a rather interesting solution to the Israel-Palestinian issue.

Also for those who wonder where is Hamas's place among the people of Palestine, this might give a clue.

Hamas's lack of creativity should not have decisively shaped the broader context of Palestinian politics, as polls rarely showed its popularity exceeding 20 per cent.

However, by 2002, with negotiations nowhere in sight, whole regions of cities such as Nablus and Jenin destroyed, and Israel sewing chaos across the West Bank and in so doing destroying the basic foundations of PA rule, Hamas's power was rising quickly.

Looking back at 60 years of failed policies, broken promises and violence from both sides, Mark LeVine's road to peace is an interesting proposition.

The futility of violence as a strategy to achieve either society's core objectives has never been so clearly on display, as has the bankruptcy of a two-state solution that was likely miscarried at the very inception of the peace process a decade and a half ago.

It is not likely that Israel will emerge from this tragedy ready to offer Palestinians a territorially viable Palestinian state. 

...

However, it seems more likely that the two-state solution will remain as illusive in the near future as it has in the past.

In such a situation Palestinians face a choice: continue to play by Israel's rules and see their dreams of independence disappear for at least another generation, or change the rules by demanding the same rights enjoyed by Israelis over the entirety of historic Palestine. 

By taking heed of Olmert's warning, Palestinians can begin the journey towards a future in which Jews and Palestinians can share the land of historical Palestine/Eretz Yisrael for the benefit of both peoples, rather than at the expense of the other.

On the outset, this is a solution that makes most sense from a rational standpoint and have parallels to the South Africa anti-apartheid movement. But I don't think either party, Israel or Hamas would like to see this happen. For Israel, this changes the demographics significantly - add 2-3 million to the existing <1million>

My best bet is still a two state solution which guarantees a sovereign state for Palestinians, not the kind with locked down borders and airspace, but a real country with control over its borders and natural resources.

War Machines of 21st century

Wired War isn't a page from a science fiction. It is a fascinating but chilling story on the evolution of warfare. NPR has an interview with the author of this book, P.W. Singer.

With the ease of playing a computer game, the designated 'soldiers' work out of their offices in California and Arizona to fly the unmanned drones over the desired targets half way across the world and they kill. The precision of their attacks and the legality of these operations are unknown. Detached from the battlegrounds, these 'soldiers', after their regular killings, go back to their homes and have dinner with their family. Some might argue that this is the natural evolution of war, but to me this is morally reprehensible. And if you think this is something of a prototype that has limited use, there are 5000+ of these in use. This is one way to reduce the American casualties, especially if you are not counting the deaths on the other side.

Listen to this transcript.

The end of the massacre, for now.

The war in Gaza has ended apparently, hundreds dead, thousands homeless and Israelis retreat in time for the celebration of Obama's presidential ball. The heart breaking stories such as this continue to flow from Gaza, while an apathetic world watches on. Reports from various sources including U.N indicate that there have been wide use of weapons with Depleted Uranium and White Phosphorus. These are war crimes, but then again, this is not the first time Israel has been involved in killing civilians - Shabra and Shatila, Qana, Jenin to name a few. In the U.S too, there is mounting evidence that Bush's administration committed war crimes, but no one will prosecute them either. War crimes are only crimes if they are committed by the losers of the war.

In the larger context, people will forget this invasion too, especially in the U.S. The euphoria around the new president will invariably mask the unspeakable horrors of this illegal invasion. While the Gazans patch up what is left of their lives and loved ones, the rest of the world can look away -

Gaza burning

There is no surprise here.

The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

The ground invasion has begun and the blood continues to flow in Gaza. A million plus people are held hostage. If past such incursions are any indication, the carnage would be catastrophic. The blogs from Palestine are a good window to what is going on there, of course only until they are cut off.

This is a feed aggregation on several palestinian blogs.

http://palestineblogs.net/

Here is a more heart breaking report from Gaza.

http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

Destruction and Creation

Bombs continue to pour down on Gaza. Fine, Hamas isn't a saint, but Israel's actions have always been wildly disproportionate. Locking down a region of 1.5 million people, ruthless bombing knowing very well that innocents will be killed, erasing mosques and homes and depriving a population of their lives and livelihood, wouldn't that count as terrorism?

As Robert Fisk put it

And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" – as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.

But of course, this is not any different from any of the earlier incursions by Israel. This time too they may be able to kill a few Hamas operatives; but they have already created another generation of suicide bombers in the process.

'Hope and other dangerous pursuits'

I like Leila Lelami's blogs. Her book reviews, political commentary and information on the North African literary scene are entrancing. So it is with high expectations that I picked up 'Hope and other dangerous pursuits' by Leila Lelami.

This novel details a group of Moroccans who follow a perilous journey to cross the 14km that separate Europe and Africa to reach Spain. Ability to get intimate with the characters and thus to channel the way for the reader to understand the complex and intricate morass of their personalities, which is what, essentially, the opportunity a writer has. Leila Lelami's novel, I think, while heart wrenching at times failed to evolve the characters to reveal their complexities. For example, what was Faten's character - An Islamic devout and a fundamentalist who turned to prostitution in Spain? While this is completely plausible, I would have liked to understand better how she reached from one abyss to the other. What would have been more powerful might have been if Leila had chosen to describe the moments of transition, the contradictions and confusions that might have besieged her in that moment. The character that struck me most was Aziz - may be since I have known people who have been in that state before. Being from Kerala, the exodus of newly married men to the gulf countries is a constant phenomena. In many cases, there is no expectation that their wives are taken along, unless the men are educated and they have high paying jobs. The wives retreat to their homes to take care of their children, do the necessary family duties, often only stepping out to go to the bank to cash the checks that arrive on time. Some 'demanding' wives are given the promises of being joined with their husbands, often knowing very well that it would only end as a pipe dream.

The story of migration is as old as the humans itself. In the ancient times, it was a handful of people who risked their lives to leave their familiar surroundings of the Rift Valley and set out north - the first of the migrations of the human kind. In a world without motor vehicles and planes, their descendants over several generations spread around the world. We stand where we are today because somewhere along the lane, someone traveled a different road, someone risked their lives so that their next generation would survive. It is with this perspective I see the migrations across the world - Bangladesh to India, Morocco to Spain, Mexico to United States, people do extra ordinary things to leave the only place they have known for all their lives to seek a better future. I am no fool to think that we need open borders, but I do think that the best bet to prevent illegal migration is to help alleviate the terrible living conditions prevailing in those countries.

All in all, this book is an interesting read, especially if you are unfamiliar about the issue of illegal migration.

Not so silent majority

In the wake of any terrorist attack by the Muslim named criminals, the usual question always is - what are Muslims doing about it? If it is only a tiny fraction of Muslims who condone the extreme violence committed by organizations like Al-Qaeda, what is the rest of the people doing? When Islam's symbols are offended, we have seen the mayhem that had engulfed the Islamic world. Why isn't there a same outrage against terrorism? These are the questions raised by media pundits all the time - in particular, Gene Burns from KGO was discussing this in great detail last week. Any number of callers with Muslim names who called in didn't help him understand the diverse world of Islam. People in the west tend to see Islam as a monolithic block whose members believe and act in the exact same way all across the world. The belief also extends to the idea that most Muslims are sympathetic to the cause carried by the terrorists, if not the acts themselves. There is also a concept that Muslims as individuals are responsible for the acts of people who have Muslim names and they somehow should be able to stay alert and repudiate every act committed by the elements in Muslim societies.

That is a lot of stuff. At one level, I wouldn't burden any responsibility on the individual Muslims who believe in Islam or have Muslim names to repudiate anything that is going on the world. They have no more responsibility than a member of another community in condemning a particular act of violence. That said, we know the workings of the world, the society (thanks to the innate nature of brain), whether you like it or not, work based on experience. The patterns are formed from experience and patterns and stereotypes are powerful things. While we have to continue to work against false stereotyping, it is also important to change the experience itself to change the pattern. Repudiation of violence by the Muslim population is part of changing the experience.

One could also take the view - what if I don't care about the perception that Muslims are terrorist sympathizers? It isn't me who committed those acts and there is nothing I need to be sorry about. While this is logically accurate, your inaction could lead to violence against you or other people of your faith. This backlash, while there is no justification for it, is still something that can be avoided by voicing the contempt you are holding in your mind. But as a matter of fact, we have seen an incredible amount of repudiation from the Islamic world on the violence in Mumbai. Muslims across the world From Cairo to Malaysia, Pakistan and India, expressed the utter condemnation on the violence in Mumbai.

Looks like, Gene Burns does not read anything beyond what the American media regurgitates. It is in that light, I am heartened by the report on Washington Post. Here it is Gene, it gives you an idea of how Muslims reacted in India and here is it from NYTimes too. It is nothing new, but the very fact that it is reported in a major U.S newspapers would be an eye-opener for people like Gene Burns.

The Way forward

As the heroic and not so heroic stories die down after the Mumbai attack, what exactly is India's plan? Are the resignations of the home minister and the chief minister the only thing we are going to see in the aftermath? The murkiness seems to be the defining character of India's investigation into each of these terrorists tragedies. This attack needs to bring about the changes that are needed in overhauling the security infrastructure. 9 hours for the commandos to reach the location is just outrageous. A city like Mumbai should have its own command center and highly trained officers in handling terrorist situations. Having been a witness to a police operation in the U.S, it is just saddening to see the elite commandos are not even as prepared logistically or training wise as the local county police officers in the U.S. I read an article saying that the 100000+ police officers in Mumbai has just 500+ guns, I don't know whether it is true, but it can't be very far from the truth. At the end of the day, a swift action where the militants cannot continue a rampage like they did in Mumbai is what should be the first line of defense - because there is very little a democratic and crowded country like India do to prevent attacks like this, but an attack should be dealt with by an efficient and well-trained police force.

Does any other option truly exist for India? All indications point to the elements within Pakistan, but how complicit is the Pakistani government in this attack? Are we dealing with the same elements that eliminated Benazir days after she returned to Pakistan? Or did Pakistani government do this in an effort to curb the civil war and unite the country against a common enemey? We will probably never know - but a few people are suggesting a joint operation with U.S in the territories of Pakistan? That has disaster written all over it. Whether you like it or not, we are left with no options. We can't afford the luxury of American forces where they are not territorially close to the lands they are fighting. I wouldn't support anything other than precise (this is the key word, if it can't be precise, don't do it) operations within Pakistan by Pakistani forces with the logistical support from India. America is wrong example for dealing with terrorism, India can do better. Work the magics of diplomacy to convince Pakistan to handover the murderers - violence is nothing new to India; the infancy of Indian independence was mired in violence, the violence had reached epic proportions during the separatist movements of Assam, Panjab and Kashmir. At the end of the day, a new chapter has to be created in dealing with terror, that is not the American way, it must be something that takes our shared history with Pakistan and our territorial constraints into consideration.

Terror strikes again!!!

A long time ago, I stayed in Mumbai for a couple of months; almost every day, I'd take the train and go to a different part of the city. From the riches of Colaba and Malabar Hills to the slums of Dharawi, the city I witnessed was a microcosm of humanity itself. In the labyrinthine streets of Mumbai, what came amazingly clear to me is the resilience of this city of 25 million people, their struggle and the unending spirit of survival.

Tonight my heart goes out to Mumbai, the callousness of these killers have brought this great city to its knees. What grievance would justify this horror? What ideology would condone taking innocent lives like this? Would this also add to the endless saga of terror in India, or would we ever see who is responsible, will they ever be brought to justice? Glued to the bits and pieces of information that is streaming out of the media, what can one do other than to hope that this crisis doesn't last for long and no more lives are lost.

One more fact about Al-Qaeda

Doesn't it shock you to know that Al-Qaeda isn't an equal opportunity employer?

Because, you know, al Qaeda itself has problems with racism and bigotry within the ranks. And it was only about a decade and a half ago that al Qaeda was paying different salaries to its Arab members and its black African members. And the person administering that financial scheme, that payment scheme, is now the number three in charge of al Qaeda. He wasn't demoted, he wasn't punished for this, he was promoted.

Sometimes, the media pundits are just too whacky!

Horror in the office building

Today, around 4PM, the swat team officers with guns drawn surrounded our office building, police helicopters hovered over, later we heard on the radio that a laid off employee in the next office came back and killed three fellow employees. We don't know what drove this deranged mind to committing this over a job, but what we know for sure is that three people didn't make it home after work, and their loved ones will remember this day with horror. Among the dead is the CEO of the company and the V.P of business operations. This news hit the nerves especially since the downturn in the economy has just started to make an impact in the valley. This, coupled with the announcement from Sun Microsystems that they are going to lay off 6000 people, is ominous of the bad times awaiting the valley.

What a moment...

400 years after the first black slave was brought to the shores of America, 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after black people could vote, here we are, at the doorsteps of a new era in the history of America, where an African American man has become the president of the United States of America. Seeing the hundreds of thousands that have poured into the streets of Chicago, white and black, people of all colors, this is an American moment and the spirit of this nation that continues to transform itself unfolds right here. This moment, we are living the dreams of a generation of Americans who paid dearly for a cause that took America from an apartheid society into a bastion of human rights. There are still wars to be fought, discriminations to be abolished, prejudices to be wiped out, but tonight, we enter a new era in America, a step in the right direction and a tribute to numerous Americans who gave their lives so that we could live this moment.