FASHION, THE LATEST TOOL OF DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA

After globalization, many western brands opened their outlets in India. It was followed by the large scale advertising of these products. Advancements in technology and new satellite links enabled the transmission of Western Television Channels, in India. People were exposed to a whole new world. This was followed by the BPO Boom. The unemployment rate of the educated people, living in the metros, came down drastically. The disposable income of people went up and the new range of lifestyle products and brands were hard to resist. The fashion obsession in the West was transferred to India. Every individual is expected to look his/her best today. Packaging is as important as the product, but in case of women, it seems more important. India is a multi-cultural and multi-racial society and people of different regions and across the social classes, have different beliefs. So those who haven’t been able to adapt to the changing lifestyles, are looked down upon.

Advertisements play a very important role in creating new ‘needs’ in the society. Women, who have a tanned skin tone, don’t get lucrative jobs and can’t attract the attention of men. A variety of beauty products are advertised in such a way that a person who does not use these products, feels like a loser. Dandruff-problem seems to be a life-taking disease! These ad-films have catchy punch lines, which are used to tease people. As a result, people, especially women, become victims of fashion. They are willing to even risk their health to look beautiful.

The ‘Plain Jane’, despite her intelligence and talents, is discriminated against in every field. She is not liked by her teachers, who cuddle and pamper the cute, fair and well dressed girl. She is teased and bullied by all her classmates, when she is a teenager. Impressionable teenagers are easily influenced by advertisements and television programs, which make the ‘Plain Jane’, look like a sinner. Despite her academic qualifications, she finds it hard to get a job. And of course an Indian man needs a wife who could be put on display, so she doesn’t find love.

There are many women who like being simple. However, in order to be accepted by the society, they try everything they could, to look fashionable. They don’t have the ability to understand contemporary fashion. As a result, a new class of women has emerged who are popularly known as ‘Behenji Turned Modern’ (BTM). Why do we need to use such a term? Why can’t a woman choose her own style? If she wants to maintain her former ethnic style and deportment and combine it with the western, where is the harm? We live in a free country, don’t we?

As has been already stated, people from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds cannot share many similarities. Not many women can afford to spend their hard earned money on cosmetics and sessions in the beauty parlour. They might also be bound by some restrictions imposed by their traditional families. Yet, they have the courage and the talent to dream big. They should be encouraged and not insulted.

The Power of Poetry

A while back, I posted a poem written by Drew Dillinger. It begins:

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

Words have power. And these are powerful words.

I am not the only one who think so. Recently a congresswoman quoted the poem during Congressional hearings on climate change legislation.


DellingerPoem_Congress from drew dellinger on Vimeo.

April 26, 2009 - Libation

Responding to my April 20th entry, a reader named Christine writes:

“My cancer has progressed to the point where I am on my last leg of this journey. I was wondering if you could direct me to what the Bible says about facing death. In essence, what are your thoughts on dealing with grief and sorrow? My journey has been four years and as I approach the end, surprisingly I find that my emotional and spiritual struggle have not diminished but intensified.”

Wow. I had to think about that one for several days, before attempting an answer. It’s not that I’ve never had to supply this sort of counsel before; it’s just that Christine poses her question so bluntly. Most people whom I visit in their final days raise the question obliquely, if at all. Whether they ask the question directly or not, I typically respond by sharing some of the great scripture passages that witness to God’s reliable presence.

For example, there’s Psalm 139, in which the psalmist imagines himself journeying to the very edges of the known world, only to find God still there beside him:

“If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.” (Psalm 139:9-10)

For those who struggle with fatigue, cancer-related or otherwise, there’s always Isaiah 40:28-31, that promises:

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Those of a philosophical bent may find some comfort in the timeless contemplations of “the Teacher” who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. In these verses – immortalized for my generation by Pete Seeger’s folk anthem, “Turn, Turn, Turn” – he recalls how, in life, there is a time for everything, even a time to die:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance...” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4)

THE BYRDS - Turn ! Turn ! Turn !
by danadi33

Certain psalms, like Psalm 69, pull no punches when it comes to voicing the honest cry of human anguish. Perhaps, Christine, you’ve felt like this in recent days:

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” (Psalm 69:1-3)

So, what does it mean to speak of God saving us, in a time of serious illness – perhaps even illness unto death? Some may be tempted to blithely drop a pollyanna catch-phrase, like “Expect a miracle!” Yet, this is unrealistic, maybe even deceptive. We all know miraculous reversals like this – the sort that cause doctors to scratch their heads and say, “I don’t know what happened, there’s no medical explanation for the way that tumor just disappeared” – are rare indeed. Besides, even in those fortunate cases where a terminal illness reverses itself, the patient is still going to die of something, eventually. No, that sort of miracle merely buys a little time, that’s all.

No, the only ultimate consolation comes from promises such as Jesus’ words in John 11:25-26:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Seeking to describe the life to come, Paul resorts to a variety of metaphors. In 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1, he likens this present life of ours to a tent – a temporary dwelling, slated to be replaced by something more permanent:

“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses a different, organic metaphor, that of a seed planted in the ground – one I’ve cited just upstream, in my April 14th entry.

At the end of the day, though, all these are just metaphors. Such poetry, lofty as it may be, captures the emotion, but inevitably falls short on details – for, who can chart with certainty lands no human has visited, save on a one-way journey? (Jesus, of course, being the notable exception, and he wasn’t talking – not on that subject, anyway.)

In the course of my pastoral ministry, I’ve spoken with more than a few people who’ve had near-death experiences. There are more of these people around than you may think. Most are pretty quiet about it. They’re hesitant to speak of such experiences, for fear of being misunderstood – but, if you give them a chance, they’ll speak in hushed tones, eyes brimming with tears, of bright visions no words can capture. I feel incredibly privileged to have heard a few of these firsthand testimonies.

We can’t make too much of these subjective experiences, though. They’re elusive, dreamlike – merely the shadow of a suggestion of what the next life may be like. Still, I take some comfort, personally, in observing that, whatever these soul-travelers experienced, there was no terror in it: only a sense of comfort and welcome and peace.

Reflecting on his own impending death, the pseudonymous author of 2 Timothy speaks of his hopes and fears using the common coin of his own culture. He portrays his life as a “libation” – a sacred offering of wine, to be poured out onto the ground, as the Greeks and Roman were wont to do:

“As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Back in my chemo days – when I was feeling sick as a dog and far from certain Dr. Lerner’s promises of a likely remission would ever come to pass – I wondered if my own life was turning out to be just such a libation.

It’s a powerful image, even though we have to work a bit to translate it into 21st Century terms. Then, as now, it defies reason to upend a perfectly good cup of wine and pour its contents out upon the ground: but sometimes that primitive calculus is the only response that makes sense in face of the absurdity we call “death.”

Surely, we protest, there’s got to be a better way. Surely, God – if the Bible’s descriptions of divine power are true – has the ability to arrange things in some other way for us.

The hard fact is, God chooses not to exercise that ability. Sooner or later, our life-force is bound to run out in rivulets, like that libation-offering, poured upon some unimaginably ancient block of stone.

A libation. That’s what we’ll be, one day.

Poured out. An offering to a God who (we can only hope) is, as the scriptures teach, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 145:8).

If that is so, we will one day be able to affirm, with Paul, that:

“...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

That’s the sort of thing I’d be inclined to say to you, Christine, by way of summarizing the Christian witness about life and death.

On a more personal note, I’d also like to encourage you to try to step back and get some perspective on the faith-struggles you’re going through right now. A certain amount of angst is to be expected. Strong emotion is understandably part of the experience. Cancer stinks. So does an early death. There’s no way to sugar-coat such hard realities.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’re feeling angry, as well. Just read through some of those biblical psalms of lament, and you’ll quickly realize you’re not alone in this.

Doubt can be part of the psychic landscape, as well. (Remember, even Jesus went through his own crisis of faith in the Garden of Gethsemane.) You may worry, at times, that you’re losing touch with all the beliefs you once held dear, but that’s simply what dying is like. It’s profoundly disturbing and disorienting (Hollywood cliches about falling gently back on the pillow notwithstanding).

There’s nothing more disturbing nor disorienting in all of life. If - as the Christian faith teaches - death is actually rebirth into a new way of living, then wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect a bit of birth trauma? Just try to keep your eyes upon Jesus, the one whom the letter to the Hebrews calls “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

May God be with you.

Crime Against Women in India

Gender equality is a very popular topic of debate in this country. Urbanized men often crib that women have all the rights and some laws should now be framed to protect men from women! This article is going to show how different the real situation is. There are several laws in our constitution, to protect women. The sad part is these laws are rarely ever imposed.

Over 32000 murders, 19,000 rapes, 7500 dowry deaths and 36500 molestation cases were reported in India in 2006. However there are many instances where crime against women, goes unreported. These are figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau. While Madhya Pradesh is worst off among the states, the national capital New Delhi continues to hold on to its reputation of being the most unsafe city in India. Delhi takes the top slot for crimes ranging from murders and rapes to dowry deaths and abductions. Instead of leading the way in tackling crime, the country’s capital is a cauldron of crime. While the national crime rate declined negligibly by .02 % in 2006; Delhi's rate grew to 357.2, more than double the national average of 167.7. These details reflect the efficacy of our law and order system.

Giving and taking dowry is a crime, yet the practice goes on. In fact people unabashedly display the objects they get as dowry and no action is taken against them. Female foeticide and infanticide is also a crime. Then why is the female population of North India, less than the male population? If a rapist agrees to marry his victim, his crime is forgiven! Wife-bashing is the favourite sport of Indian men! A woman can’t step out of her house at night. If she does, she fears that she will be the next Saumya Vishwanathan. If a beautiful woman does not want to love a man, he publicly throws acid on her face. Women are exploited by their bosses in their workplaces and owing to dire financial constraints, they have to suffer their nonsense. After all India is an overpopulated country and there aren’t enough jobs.

As many as 18 women are assaulted in some form or the other, every hour, across India. Even foreigners aren’t spared. We have a reputation, alright! Cases of rape have become so commonplace that people don’t even bother to express their shock or despair, when they hear about a rape. Filing a police complaint in this case, is a nightmare and the investigations which follow are humiliating. Policemen are expected to protect women. However, if you are an Indian woman, you should know that they are more dangerous than most criminals. They’ll give you the nastiest of glares.Ladies who go to police stations at night often complain of misbehaviour and the charges of rape and molestation against police officers are a proof of this. Alas! Our society forgets the rapist but it never forgives the victim. It seems women have accepted the reality. They don’t complain any more, they choose to be careful, instead.

Meetings and seminars are organized from time to time to analyze the cases of crime against women. Most come to the conclusion that laws should be enforced. These days people are talking about making molestation a non-bailable offence. However, like the other laws, this would also be forgotten. Punishments set an example. People who are guilty of crime against women, should be humiliated and insulted in every possible way, in public. Their life should be made a living hell and every aspect of their trial should be covered by the media. So that, people think twice before molesting women.

References:

1) http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/08/stories/2009010852440300.htm

2) http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/crime-against-women-in-india.html

Indian Women

According to Indian Mythology, the woman represents ‘Shakti’. Our goddesses destroy all evil and ensure that justice is done. Saraswati is the goddess of education and wisdom. Laxmi, is the goddess of wealth and prosperity and Kali, is the destroyer of evil. Ironically, Indian women are not allowed to educate themselves and be financially independent. They also become victims of crime. Our religious texts accord equal rights to women. However, the perpetrators of patriarchy misinterpret these very texts to subjugate women.

India got its independence in 1947. Indian women played a very important role in the freedom struggle. Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar, Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi Sarla Devi, Muthulaxmi Reddy, Susheela Nair, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sucheta Kripalani Aruna Asaf Ali, Vijayalakshmi Pandit and Sarojini Naidu, are some of the women who helped us in winning our independence. Yet can Indian women be called truly independent?

India is a multi-cultural and multi-racial, country. Each state has a unique identity with a varied set of customs, traditions, values and superstitions. People follow different religions and the level of development in different states and cities, is also not the same. So, it is very hard to generalize the situation of women in India. However, they can be classified into two broad categories: The Women in Urban India and The Women in Rural India.

In most Indian states, especially in the rural areas, when a girl child is born, there is mourning on a large scale. Female feticide and infanticide are major social problems in India. Even when the girl child is allowed to live, she is made to tolerate every form of torture – mental, physical and emotional. She is not allowed to educate herself and enrich her mind. Instead she is trained to manage the house and encouraged to take up menial jobs. She is married off even before she begins to understand her womanhood and is forced to multiply. She has no individuality, no identity and no life of her own. She is ever too busy serving others. Finally she meets her end and no one even notices her absence. This is the story of women in rural India.

The plight of the urbanized Indian woman is of a different kind. She is expected to have academic and professional qualifications. She is trained to be reasonable and rational, yet her life is an anti-thesis of rationality. Despite the fact that she is trained to be independent, she is forced to conform to the gender codes for purposes of social acceptance. She is expected to be the jack-of-all-trades, with recognized qualifications, a good job and excellent communication skills. Apart from this, an urbanized Indian woman should also have a good family background, a nymph like frame, clear complexion, wrinkle and pimple free face and silky-dandruff free hair. She becomes a victim of fashion. Besides, she knows that she has to be perfect by the age of twenty-four, because, without the aforementioned qualities, she cannot expect to get an Indian man. The poor thing knows that she is going to be an obsolete product in the Indian marriage market by the age of thirty, which is ordinarily, her expiry date.

Woman is treated like an inanimate object in our society. She is displayed in the marriage market and is purchased by the groom’s family. Ironically, she is the one who pays the price, in the form of dowry. Despite her education she is forced to accept the unreasonable demands of her prospect bridegroom’s family. She has to love her mother-law, more than her man. And mum-in-law always forgets that she herself is a woman and inevitably assumes the role of a slave-driver. She rants and curses all the time. If she fails to balance her personal and professional life, she is expected to forget her professional life, altogether. Her desire to succeed and attain self-fulfillment is of no consequence to anyone. So, she has to manage her house, be a good mother, wife and daughter-in-law, look beautiful and also earn a living.

There are a large number of women in our society who are single. A spinster is tortured all her life for not finding the right man. It is believed that a widowed woman brings bad luck to the people she associates with and the social stigma attached to the term ‘divorcee’ is far from gone. Single women are seen as threats to the society by the so-called happily married women.

An Indian woman spends her whole life, looking after other people. She rarely gets the time to think about her own health. A woman’s body needs special care during teenage, pregnancy and after child birth. If she is callous about her health during these stages, she suffers from many diseases and ailments, later on in life.

The crime against women is also on the high. Over 32000 murders, 19,000 rapes, 7500 dowry deaths and 36500 molestation cases are the violent crimes reported in India in 2006 against women. There are many instances of crime against women which go unreported in India. These are figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau recently. While Madhya Pradesh is worst off among the states, the national capital New Delhi continues to hold on to its reputation of being the most unsafe city in India. Delhi takes the top slot for crimes ranging from murders and rapes to dowry deaths and abductions.

Indian women can rightfully be called Superwomen. They are expected to be experts at multi-tasking. They are trained to be ideal daughters, sisters, wives, daughters-in-law and later, useful and adaptable mothers, mothers-in-law and grandmothers. They hardly get the time to thing about their own well being and health and when they fall ill and fail to be ‘useful’, they are abandoned. It seems that their existence on earth has only one purpose and that is, to satisfy the needs of others. The critics of my articles would contend that Indian women are now free. They have the right to lead their lives the way they want to, with the full support of their families. These are unfortunately, the ‘fortunate few’. It is very convenient to be idealistic. The truth is, women in India, rural or urban, are expected to conform. There is hardly any improvement in the lives of rural women and urban women are paying the price of their so called freedom, every day of their existence.

References:

1) http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/crime-against-women-in-india.html

2) http://www.indianetzone.com/2/women_freedom_struggle.htm

April 25, 2009 - Take a Little Wine

“No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” So says 1 Timothy 5:23 – a little practical advice, in the midst of some miscellaneous exhortations at the end of this New Testament letter.

Who woulda thunk it? Who could imagine this homey, first-century medical advice would surface at a 21st Century cancer research conference?

It has, though – at least, according to a recently-released research study. From a news article describing it:

“Pre-diagnostic wine consumption may reduce the risk of death and relapse among non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients, according to an epidemiology study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009.... [The researchers] analyzed data about 546 women with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. They found that those who drank wine had a 76 percent five-year survival compared with 68 percent for non-wine drinkers. Further research found five-year, disease-free survival was 70 percent among those who drank wine compared with 65 percent among non-wine drinkers.” (“Drinking Wine May Increase Survival Among Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Patients,” ScienceDaily, April 24, 2009.)

Admittedly, those numbers aren’t all that startling. The wine-bibbers get a mild statistical bump, that’s all. Draining Bacchus’ cup is clearly no panacea, but it does seem that “a little wine,” as the author of 1 Timothy advises, can be good for what ails ya.

Not every tippler will be happy with the study’s results, though: “Beer and/or liquor consumption did not show a benefit,” the report soberly concludes.

It’s just the vino, folks.

According to the article, wine has certain anti-oxidants that tend to retard tumor growth. This is consistent with some earlier studies that show wine (especially red wine) has a mild positive effect on heart health. An occasional glass of Chianti or Lambrusco is part of the highly-touted “Mediterranean diet.” Now, it appears the fruit of the vine does a little something for lymphoma prevention as well.

The oncologists aren’t exactly advocating pub crawls. Far from it: “This conclusion is controversial, because excessive drinking has a negative social and health impact, and it is difficult to define what is moderate and what is excessive,” says one of the lead researchers, by way of a disclaimer.

(Nota bene: 1 Timothy does specify “a little wine.” All things in moderation.)

I’ve always thought an occasional glass of red wine to be one of life’s little pleasures. It’s nice when something that tastes so good turns out to be good for you, as well.

Wine has even found its way into religious poetry on occasion. I close with these lines from the medieval Persian poet, Rumi:

“The grapes of my body can only become wine
After the winemaker tramples me.
I surrender my spirit like grapes to his trampling
So my inmost heart can blaze and dance with joy.
Although the grapes go on weeping blood and sobbing
‘I cannot bear any more anguish, any more cruelty’
The trampler stuffs cotton in his ears: ‘I am not working in ignorance
You can deny me if you want, you have every excuse,
But it is I who am the Master of this Work.
And when through my Passion you reach Perfection,
You will never be done praising my name.’”

– Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273)

Salut!

Cort Gitar

Sato Aiko

Kuta Beach

The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong

One of the fundamental human requirements is shelter. How do homeless people survive? Where do they sleep? On friends and family's couches and floors (if they are lucky), at shelters, in churches, in parks, on sidewalk grates, in abandoned buildings, in doorways, under bridges, in cars, or wherever else they can.

And of course, they sleep in tents. The burgeoning tent cities in the U.S. have finally made the national awareness. Interestingly, it seems as though the media is only interested in the newly homeless, those middle class folks who lost their homes because of the economic collapse. In other words, those who they believe are homeless because of circumstances, not because of some kind of individual moral failing. Unlike, you know, the other kind of poor.

Over the past few months, reporters from around the world have flocked to the now-famous tent city in Sacramento, Calif. When they find out that 55-year-old John Kraintz has been living in a tent for almost seven years, they turn around and walk away.

"They don't want to talk to me," he says. "They're searching for people who just lost their homes. It's kinda tough to lose a home when you've never owned one. Sorry, but most of the people here have been homeless for a long time."

Homelessness is seen as an anomaly, a sign of the economic crisis, not as a structural problem with capitalism. But there are homeless during the boom times, too, lots of them.

"The other day, I heard a German reporter ask if this is happening because of the recent economic collapse," says Kraintz. "This has been happening for 30 years, but the powers that be have been able to pretend it doesn't exist. Why aren't reporters asking about flat wages, jobs being shipped overseas and the lack of affordable housing?"

Burke agrees, saying one of the many issues ignored in most articles about tent city and homelessness is the fact that poor people cannot afford housing, especially in an expensive state like California.

"People who are poor end up homeless through no fault of their own, but because people higher up on the food chain have made affordable housing a very scarce commodity," she says. "If we had sound housing policies and programs that helped people when they have a run of bad luck, we would not have a tent city."

Kraintz says he knew the system would finally blow up. It was just a matter of time. The question, according to him, is this: Do the powers that be have the political will to create a fairer, more just economic system? <Alternet>

Photo Credit: A tent city in Fresno, from a 2004 article by Mike Rhodes on Indybay

April 20, 2009 - Known By Our Wounds

Sunday’s sermon afforded me an opportunity to mention cancer survivors’ issues. I was preaching on the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in which his disciple, Thomas, needs to see and touch Jesus’ wounds in order to be convinced of the truth of the resurrection.

As I pondered anew the meaning of this familiar scripture text, it struck me how noteworthy it is that the disciples know Jesus by his wounds. It’s very true-to-life, psychologically speaking. Often, we do know one another by our wounds, by the adversaries we’ve bested (or are still struggling against).

From the sermon:

“Sometimes the scars are visible, peeking out from the surface of our skin. More commonly, our wounds are hidden: either beneath our clothing or concealed deep in the recesses of our soul - rarely talked about, seldom acknowledged. Those friends and family who know us well, know of their existence. They, too, know us by our wounds.

When neighbors of ours go through some grueling medical ordeal and survive it, we come to know them, too, by their wounds. See the neighbor across the street climbing into his car? You can't help but recall the triple coronary bypass he had a couple years ago. Greet your co-worker in the office one morning, the one whose speech is just a little fuzzy - the last reminder of the stroke that first took all her speech away, then slowly gave it back, word by word, through hard work with the therapists. Every time she opens her mouth, you marvel at how far she's come.

I suspect that, as many of you look at me, you can't help but recall the word, "lymphoma." Once you become a survivor of something like that, it becomes a part of who you are, for better or for worse. Our wounds, in life, have a way of molding and shaping us.”

As part of the sermon, I shared with the congregation a quote from surgeon and author Richard Selzer. I’ve long been an admirer of his writing. This is from an essay called, simply, “Skin.” It’s a doctor’s appreciation of this largest organ in our bodies, that covers and protects us, even as it serves as our interface with the outside world:

"I sing of skin, layered fine as baklava, whose colors shame the dawn, at once the scabbard upon which is writ our only signature, and the instrument by which we are thrilled, protected and kept constant in our natural place.... Gaze upon the skin as I have, through a microscope brightly, and tremble at the wisdom of God, for here is a magic tissue to suit all seasons. Two layers compose the skin - the superficial epidermis and, deeper, the dermis. Between is a plane of pure energy where the life-force is in full gallop. Identical cells spring full-grown here.... No sooner are these cells formed than they move toward the surface, whether drawn to the open air by some protoplasmic hunger or pushed outward by the birth of newer cells behind.... Here they lie, having lost all semblance of a living cellularity, until they are shed from the body in a continual dismal rain. Thus into the valley of death this number marches in well-stepped soldiery, gallant, summoned to a sacrifice beyond its ken. But let the skin be cut or burned, and the brigade breaks into a charge, fanning out laterally across the wound, racing to seal off the defect. The margins are shored up; healing earthworks are raised, and guerrilla squads of invading bacteria are isolated and mopped up." [Richard Selzer, Mortal Lessons (Simon & Schuster, 1976 ), pp. 105-106.]

We can look at scars, it seems to me, in two ways: as a reminder of something bad that’s happened to us, or as a reminder of a powerful process of healing that continues to be active in our bodies.

The nature of my cancer treatment has been such that I’ve never needed surgery. Consequently, the only cancer-related scar I carry on my body is the small one, near my collarbone, that marks the place where my chemo port was implanted (and where it remains to this day, in case it’s ever needed).

The scars, the wounds, I bear as a result of my treatment are of a less-visible nature. I’m more vulnerable now, and also more aware of my mortality. I operate less out of a sense of spiritual entitlement: no longer assuming the unconscious, childlike belief that if I just do the right thing, God will reward me. The universe doesn’t seem to be as safe a place as I once assumed it was: I’m all too aware that God has inserted a frightening degree of randomness into the creation.

Still and all, it’s not a bad place to be. Cancer may have beaten me up a little, but it hasn’t kept me down. I’m learning to move on from here, scars and all.

The Bush Torture Memos

Clarence Darrow

Clarance Darrow, the famous defense lawyer, got it right back in 1920 talking about that era's parade of hysteria-driven abuses known as the First Red Scare: "People are getting more cruel all the time, more insistent that they shall have their way," he told friends back then. "The fact is that I am getting afraid of everyone who has conviction."

Eighty years later, in 2001, President George W. Bush showed plenty of conviction when he declared his Global War on Terror after the attacks on our country of September 11 that year. Every American, as a basic civic duty, should spend the few minutes it takes to read the "Torture Memos" released yesterday by the Department of Justice, written in 2002 and 2005 to justify dispensing with two centuries of American decency -- just to see when happens when hysteria is allowed to control the minds of normally rational people.

These memos -- well-wrtten, highly-researched, and technically cogent -- specify in sobering detail just how cruel our government was prepared to be in waging this War, with no weighing of any consequences outside these narrowest legal grounds. They explain how ten forms of aggressive interrogation did not amount to torture and thus were protected by law: "(1) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivations, (9) insects placed in a confinement box, and (10) the waterboard."

Imagine if any other country ever dared to use these techniques against American citizens, and then justified them on the basis of the attached legal mumbo-jumbo.

Here are the links:

-- The August 1, 2002 memo, initially justifying the ten technogues, written by Jay Bybee, who sits today as a Federal Appeals Court Judge. (On whether Judge Bybee should be impeached, click here to see Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman's take on the issue from last January);

-- The May 10, 2005 memo providing a more detailed legal justification (much more graphic);

-- The May 10, 2005 memo, justifying use of the techniques in combination; and

-- The May 30, 2005 memo, justifying how the techniques do not violate United Nations Conventions.

Early Farmers in the Americas - Farming because they wanted to, not because they had to

This is an interesting article, especially for me, with my interest in indigenous precolumbian agriculture in the Americas.

Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy "pioneer" crops, according to new evidence of the first farming in eastern North America.

Because the area appears to have been well stocked with wild food sources, the discovery may rewrite some beliefs about what led people to start farming on the continent, scientists say.

Rather than turning to farming as a matter of survival, the so-called Riverton people may have been exercising "free will" and engaging in a bit of gastronomic innovation, archaeologists say.

This does not surprise me in the least. We always assume 'prehistoric' peoples started farming because they had to, as a survival technique, but we don't ever stop to think that they might be just like us, inventing new things simply because they want to. Did we need the iPod or the car? Was our survival significantly enhanced because of either of them? We grow later to think we can't live without electricity, flush toilets, and the internet, because they make our lives easier or more enjoyable.

Around the world and throughout ancient history, people switched from mainly hunting and gathering to farming as a way to cope with environmental stresses, such as drought—or so the conventional wisdom says.

But the new research "really challenges the whole idea of humans domesticating plants and animals in response to an external stress [and] makes a strong case for almost the polar opposite," said lead study author Bruce Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Before they began farming, the Riverton people lived among bountiful river valleys and lakes, apparently eating a healthy and diverse diet of nuts, white-tailed deer, fish, and shellfish, the study says.
[...]
But that doesn't mean farming didn't give the Riverton culture a practical advantage: In addition to their normal fare, the people may have relied on the crops as a stable source of food—insurance against shortages of wild food sources..

Swiss Bank Accounts (as black money)

Revelation on Swiss Bank Accounts - India has $1,456 billion (as black money)

This is so shocking... wish black money deposits was an Olympics event... India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. US is not even there in the counting in top five!!

India has more money in Swiss banks than all the other countries combined!!!!

Latest update about Swiss bank account - black money.

Recently, due to international pressure, Swiss govt. agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it. Indian government is not asking for the details... no marks for guessing. Why???? We need to start a movement to pressurize the government to do so!!! This is perhaps the only way, and a golden opportunity, to expose the high and mighty and weed out corruption!!

Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?

DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt. With this amount 45 Crores poor people can get Rs.1,00,000 each.This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.

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Some interesting links (from this website):
How to improve positive attitude - tips and information

Mathematical love letter :)

Be careful about ATM thieves!

Cooking Eggs with Mobile phones - a true one

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Once this huge amount of black money & property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of which 25,000 travel very frequently. 'Obviously, these people won't be tourists. They must be traveling there for some other reason,' believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn't referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who've been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!

Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country's wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?Black money in Swiss banks -- Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

Top Five:
1. India - $1,456 billion ($1.4 trillion)
2. Russia - $ 470 billion
3. UK - $390 billion
4. Ukraine - $100 billion
5. China - $ 96 billion

Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined.

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Some interesting links (from this website):
3D pictures - How to draw and how drawn?

Iman Maleki - Excellent pictures - You won't believe whether the picture is original or drawn.

Have you seen Barack Obama in Kenya?

Do you know how Tsunami occurs? (picture - image)

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Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind -- the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his Brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear. What is even more depressing in that this illgotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world's best known tax havens? And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth.

Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accountsoperate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of 'Swiss bank accounts,' the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.

In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe. The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens.

Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker -- in his widelycelebrated book titled ‘Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System' -- estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970.

It is further estimated by experts that 1% of the world's population holds more than 57% of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody's guess. What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means.

Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term 'tax havens' suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts?

IS THERE ANY ONE WHO CAN SAVE INDIA?

Some interesting links:
How to improve positive attitude - tips and information

Mathematical love letter :)

Be careful about ATM thieves!

Cooking Eggs with Mobile phones - a true one

3D pictures - How to draw and how drawn?

Iman Maleki - Excellent pictures - You won't believe whether the picture is original or drawn.

Have you seen Barack Obama in Kenya?

Do you know how Tsunami occurs? (picture - image)

April 14, 2008 - Encounter with the Gardener

It was a glorious Easter this year. From the spectacular sunrise over the Atlantic at the 6 a.m. Community Sunrise Service, to the festive atmosphere at two well-attended services in our Sanctuary, it was a day to remember.

I decided to preach on a line from John’s Easter story to which I’ve never paid much attention before: “Supposing him to be the gardener, [Mary] said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away’” (John 20:15b).

It’s always struck me as odd that Mary Magdalene, who knew Jesus well, would mistake him for a gardener. Some commentators have speculated that maybe it was still dark enough to make it hard to pick out the details of another’s face. Others have wondered whether Jesus’ resurrection body was sufficiently different from the body he’d walked around in previously that maybe it was hard to make the connection.

And why a gardener, anyway? Sure, it was a garden tomb in which his body had been laid, but that doesn’t explain why John includes this otherwise insignificant detail.

In the sermon, I present the idea that maybe John is subtly trying to make a theological connection between Jesus the gardener and the story of another gardener: God, who set Adam and Eve up in the Garden of Eden, then later barred them from it on account of their disobedience.

From the sermon:

“We’ll never know what was in John’s mind, of course, but it’s certainly worth pondering. Maybe the man Mary looks up and sees, through tear-filled eyes, is the gardener, after all. As our Christian faith teaches, Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity, being – as the Nicene Creed puts it – ‘of one substance with the Father.’ That means it would not be inaccurate to say that the man who calls Mary by name, and whom she embraces, is the very same one who – most reluctantly – expelled Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. He is also the very same one who, by his death on the cross, has opened the way back to paradise, one day, for those who believe in him, through the forgiveness of sins.

The image of Jesus Christ as the gardener is one that occurs elsewhere in the scriptures. In a famous passage from 1 Corinthians we often read at funerals, the Apostle Paul poses the question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

The answer he gives comes right out of the garden. It’s like a seed planted in the ground, he explains. The seed must crack open and die to its seed-nature, before it takes on the form the gardener truly intends for it:


“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” [1 Corinthians 15:42-44]

Paul even goes on, in that passage, to speak of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

“The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” [15:47-50]

The ‘man of heaven’ – the counterpart to our ‘man of dust’ – is, of course, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. When she first glimpsed him, Mary supposed him to be the gardener. She couldn’t have known, in that moment of confusion, how right she was.

If this is true – that Jesus Christ has taken over where God, the planter of the Garden of Eden, left off – then it has something to say to you and me about the sort of impatience we often fall into, as we look around at the mess and incompleteness of the world in which we live. There are weeds among us. There is blight. There are infestations of wriggling insects. From time to time there arises, on the horizon, a dark and seething plague of locusts, that threatens to devour the seedbeds we’ve so carefully tended.

Have faith, says the gardener. Have patience. The seeds are planted. The sun will shine. The soft, spring rains will fall. The growth will come, in the fullness of time.


It’s a sure thing. As sure as the stone rolled away from the doorway of the tomb.”

The Lord is risen. Alleluia!

Thailand in conflict: a not so happy Thai New Year

Today marks the start of the Songkran, AKA the Thai New Year. Although Thailand has recognised January 1st as the official start of the year since 1940, this time of the year (13th – 15th April annually to be precise) is still honoured traditionally as a nationwide public holiday.

Normally falling in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, I understand under good authority that what normally now ensues is a large-scale water fight, with the water symbolic for the washing away all of the past years’ evil and the renewal of each person for the year ahead. Songkran therefore is a time for personal development and national cleansing.

However, this year, the water fights have been cancelled.

What normally is a time for peace and respect for elders, has descended into a war-zone set upon a background of increasing political tensions, violence and Molotov cocktails.

Thailand is a divided country; you have the ‘yellow shirts’ on one side and the ‘red shirts’ on the other. Politically speaking, Thailand has been remarkably instable for the last few years and as a result we have seen one crisis after another ever since the military coup that disposed of Thaksin Shinawatra from power back in September 2006 whilst he was attending meetings at the UN in New York.

Since then the ‘yellow shirts’ and the ‘red shirts’ (pro-Thaksin) have engaged in a bitter tug-of-war over which side should govern. Naturally both sides reject the other's view of who should run the country, and each has staged long-running protests to push their cause.

Cast your mind back earlier this year to November, when the ‘yellow shirts’ staged a sit-in at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which subsequently blocked the arrival and departure of hundreds of flights and hit the Thai economy hard.

It was described at the time as “the most dramatic move so far in the protesters' campaign to oust the government”, but it succeeded. A few weeks later, their man – Abhisit Vejjajiva, who represents the Peoples' Alliance for Democracy (PAD) – was democratically chosen by the members of the government as the new Prime Minister. At the time, many Thais must have thought that their troubles were over. That however was not to be the case.

Their opponents, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), believes that Prime Minister Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately and is a “puppet of the military” and so are demanding his immediate resignation and calling for a fresh set of elections from which it strongly believes it would emerge victorious.

To demand this change, the protesters have engaged in similar acts of protest to those of the ‘yellow shirts’. Since March, the protesters have held sit-in protests outside government offices, and have occasionally prevented the cabinet from meeting.

Their major achievement (if you can call it that) is that they successfully managed to force the cancellation of a summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) last weekend, which was an important event for the Thai government.

They did this by storming the intended venue for the summit in the seaside resort of Pattaya, making it nigh-on impossible to guarantee the safety of the foreign dignitaries due to attend. Prime Minister Vejjajiva therefore had no choice but to declare a state of national emergency.

The following day, the protesters succeeded in breaking into the interior ministry and have established roadblocks on main of the busy roads in central Bangkok. Tens of thousands of ‘red shirts’ remain camped around Government House, where the Prime Minister's office is based, and are continually spurred on everyday by the words of Shinawatra, broadcasting daily via a video-link.

Shinawatra, who now lives in self-imposed exile here in the UK, faces two years in jail after being found guilty in a conflict of interest case should he return to Thailand. Following this conviction he fled to the UK, where he purchased Manchester City Football Club, only to later sell it on.

Back on the ground in Bangkok, the protesters have now been surrounded by the Thai military. As expected faced with such circumstances, the ‘red shirts’ have started to hit out and the army has not restrained itself from joining in the retaliation.

The BBC News website currently displays videos showing soldiers firing hundreds of live rounds, some into the crowds of anti-government protesters, in a bid to clear a big road junction, while the protesters reacted by hurling petrol bombs and driving buses they had commandeered at the lines of troops.

The armed forces chief has since vowed to restore order using "all possible means". These three words can only mean one thing for me: further violence.

Prime Minister Vejjajiva, through his rhetoric and actions this past week, has indicated very clearly that he has no intentions of stepping down and relinquishing his power. The ‘red shirts’ too have shown no signs of stepping down their protests.

In an interesting interview conducted by the BBC today, Thaksin Shinawatra said that while he never ‘instigated’ the attacks, he wants his supporters to fight for democracy and that he offers them ‘moral support’. To watch that interview click here.

Prime Minister Vejjajiva has since come out and explained that the protestors are allowed to exercise their constitutional rights and demonstrate peacefully but they are not allowed to resort to violence. Under the current state of emergency, gatherings of more than five people can be banned, media reports can be censored and the army can be deployed to help police maintain order. "We will try to find the best solution we can over the next couple of days," he added. Uh-oh.

In the current climate it appears impossible that a solution to end this conflict can be found quickly, peacefully, and more importantly that will be acceptable to both sides. But it is essential that a solution be found, and soon.

Tonight the British Foreign Office issued a statement advising British nationals against travelling to Thailand, a move that will surely be echoed by other embassies as this conflict continues. With Thailand’s economy so terribly dependant on tourists, this could not come at a worst time, especially as the tourist season approaches. Even if a resolution can be found soon, will the country regain the trust of travellers quick enough?

So far only two people have lost their lives, and the injured tally stands at 70 people, 23 of whom are soldiers. The longer this conflict continues, the greater these figures will rise.

Songkran is supposed to be a time of peace, a time of clensing and time of respect. You can hardly say that this is the case this year. Water has been replaced by blood, and water pistols have been replaced by guns and rifles.

So far, it’s not such a Happy Thai New Year. Sawasdee wan Songkran.

Razali ... The Bodybuilder

April 8, 2009 - Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was the guest on Monday’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I watched it a day later on our DVR.

Fox, of course, is a Parkinson’s Disease survivor. I found him inspiring. Take a look and see for yourself:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Michael J. Fox
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

I was struck by the fact that Michael kept his 1991 diagnosis secret for seven years. Undoubtedly, that was a tough time for him. He was one of the hottest talents in Hollywood, but he was leading a secret life as a chronic-disease patient. The knowledge of his slowly-worsening situation was hanging over his head.

Fox tells how he went a little crazy during those years – drinking too much, that sort of thing. But then, he came to a point where he grew comfortable with his diagnosis. He stopped fighting it. He learned to go with the flow. I wonder if that coincided with his going public with his medical situation?

It’s always tough to live a lie. Little by little, it tears you up inside. I’ve never regretted going public with my cancer diagnosis, as soon as I was sure that’s what it was.

I could relate to these words of his: “Once you accept it and fix it in space and say, ‘This is this and it’s not anything else and it’s not going to go away any time soon, and you're going to have to deal with it’ then you open up to all the stuff that’s around it and say, ‘Wow, this gives me an opportunity to help people out, this gives me an opportunity to look at things in a way that I might not have looked at them before...’”

Fox even gave voice to the cancer survivor’s mantra, at one point: “It is what it is.” How many times have I heard people with cancer say that?

Note it, and move on.

There’s a kind of strength that comes from facing our life-situation honestly, and trying to live as resolutely as we can in the present. It does little good to pine for our pre-diagnosis days, nor does it help us to obsess about the future. The art of living with a chronic disease lies in living in the now.

Accept it. Fix it in space, as Fox says. Admit, “This is this and it’s not anything else and it’s not going to go away.” Then, go searching for the blessings that are still around: and there are many.

Thanks, Michael. You’re a great example for all of us.