Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Book Review: My Forbidden Face - Latifa

"My Forbidden Face" takes you back to the days of the taliban and the atrocities perpetrated as viewed by the author. The taliban became infamous for imposing sharia and saudi influenced wahhabism under pakistani support and tacit American approval. Amidst introducing public executions and destroying afghani heritage including the historic buddhist statues at bamiyan, they introduced measures to put down women.

The book lets the readers in to the troubled past that afghanis and people in kabul lived through, especially the troubles faces by women. Its a poignant story on life under the Taliban and an inspiring story of a fight against all odds.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

India doing a China

India's rivalry with China is pretty intense and is now extending to the cyber world. Similar to the some of the moves made by its communist neighbour, the present Indian government has asked ISP's around the country to block access to around 20 websites and blogs.

Access to all blogs and websites hosted on
blogspot.com, typepad.com, blogs.com, geocities.com
have been blocked from India to prevent "anti-national and anti-inflammatory" content.

This government is famous for its nonsensical decisions. The communist left party (a coalition of the present government) and the sycophantic congress party seems to have taken a dim view of the (justified) criticizms of the current government and have resorted to fascist policies to stay in power a bit longer.

Democracy is held hostage with the current government. The government will probably not get this message, but maybe it's time for you to go.

Monday, July 17, 2006

A Tale of Two Worlds

7/11 7 Bombs ripped through trains in bombay, with one being defused. 200 dead quite a few more injured.
7/12 With public anger rising at the lack of a breakthrough the government appeals for calm and more time for investigations.
7/13 Israel attacks Lebanon as hezbollah kidnaps a couple of Israeli soldiers.

This event thousands of miles away draws widespread admiration amongst Indians against a backdrop of the Indian state appearing soft. The government under domestic pressure moves away from its stance of not directly naming Pakistan behind the attacks and hints at forces
across the border being responsible. The peace talks which were going on since 2002 are now indefinitely postponed.

With a breakthrough still not found, there is rising support amongst Indians to prove that Indian is not a soft state and adopt Israeli and American retaliation tactics.
Any and all moderate voices are being shouted down.

Israel has been retaliating against every attack on the state and yet the attacks have not stopped. 120 lebanese and 12 israeli civilians have died in the latest escalation of conflict. This number is just going to rise.

Cancelling the peace talks may or may not scupper the fledgling peace talks, but a lot of people with feelings of retribution may fail to realize the efficacy of retaliation.

How many deaths is enough for any side to have its retribution?

Satyam eva Jayate (Truth only prevails)