So much noise over Mumbai attacks?

I for one think there has been too little noise made over this both by the US Government and its stooge Pakistan. Of course America’s favourites can be forgiven for anything.
America is usually friendly only with fanatics (earlier support of racist Afrikaner-dominate National Party in South Africa), dictators (rulers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other such “princely” states) and their own-hand created puppet regimes (Remember Iraq, Afghanistan)?
So its not keen on harassing Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks. Uncle Sam made the usual noises of sympathy and then went back to “I love Pak” mode.
So our Pak PM Yousaf Raza Gilani suddenly saw no need in the world for “so much noise” about the Mumbai attacks.

This must not be construed as me being anti-Pakistan or a rabidly, fanatic Indian. I am well aware of the failings of the Indian Army in their IPKF mission to Lanka, their sordid deeds in the coffin scam, etc. So I can’t say I’m blindly patriotic and can overlook J&K. Or that I don’t get sentimental about the cute, little Pak girl who came here to get her heart fixed. But, in politics, there should be a sense of fairness.

Here in India, our politicians maybe corrupt, but atleast they don’t wear military jackets and stay in power by the simple process of not holding elections.

But America loves such a country. I think secretly George W Bush must be wishing America was run along the same lines as Pakistan. Remember the first time fiasco of his, when he came (un-elected) to power?

Gilani & Delhi

Gilani: We are doing everything we can

Delhi: We have heard no word from Pakistan.

Gilani: We have given India ISI feedback

Delhi: We have not received any feedback from the ISI

Gilani: We have sent a dossier to the CIA and India

Delhi: We have not received any such dossier.

(Honestly, in which century do Pak leaders live in? Do they think if they pretend a problem doesn’t exist, will it just go away?)
Gilani’s diversionary tactics:

He must  have learnt this from George Bush Jr. Remember how easily he could switch the topic to the “Axis of Evil,” when questioned about failings in his administration like why health care has gone up?

So Gilani, when questioned by the Pakistani press, immediately said people should be more concerned about the killings in Palestine than the Mumbai attacks. Why is the world silent on that? He questions.

The world has not been silent Mr Gilani. Its you and your predecessors who have been unusually silent on this with every meeting with every US President. Pak leaders have always chosen to turn a blind eye to America’s atrocities in the Middle-East and its close nexus with Israel.
So he should actually be the turning the mirror on himself and asking, “Why is Pakistan silent? Why did Pakistan never protest the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan? Why did Pakistan never condemn the US for economic sanctions placed on Syria? Why did Pakistan never question America about all the Pakistani civilians detained in Guantanamo Bay? Why is Pakistan still tacitly supporting the US-Israel aggression on Palestine, by not condemning it?

Its a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Best form of defense? Attack

Since his own grounds are shaky, what must he next do? Hit out at India for atrocities in J&K.

Who is responsible for 26/11? Ans: “India. 26/11 was an intelligence failure on India’s part and that it India’s “internal matter”.”

Setting Pak correct

Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, whatever his failings on the Indo-US  nuke deal maybe, knows how to give it back as good as he gets it.
Mr Mukherjee, said Pak PM can’t go about comparing 26/11 to Gaza, because, “`I have not gone and occupied any (of) Pakistan’s land which Israel has done (in Palestine).

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Sarah Palin and why I can’t stand her!

Am I glad Palin’s out. Sarah Palin is so George W Bush! Both of them are all about Christian values and parading their faith on a platter.

George Bush can be accused of “convenience Christianity.” Bush Junior had a long track record of academic mediocrity, binge drinking and getting drunk at parties. This wouldn’t fit in with the image of the next Governor….so what does he do? He has a sudden change of heart. George Bush next starts telling people he stopped drinking and turned Christian supposedly because an angel visited him in the night.

Both Palin and Bush are arrogant and pretty ignorant on both domestic and foreign policy; they love the idea of waging a “holy war” in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other oil-producing country, they always hold national security as a Damocles sword over personal freedom and they are dogmatic in the extreme.

Infact, Rumsfield and Cheney pale in comparison to the McCain kind of hawkishness.

The “Palin” facts

Sarah Palin, the animal hater: She’s a life time member of the National Rifle Association and goes on regular hunts to bring non-endangered species to endangered status. She also doesn’t believe Alaska has got any wildlife worth protecting so she goes ahead and sanctions drilling. To crown her iniquities, she removed the Polar bear’s protected status.

Sarah Palin, the contradiction: She’s an anti-abortionist, but pro-death penalty. She’s a feminist, but supports homeschooling Christian mommies in their struggle to keep kids out of secular schools. She’s apparently a Pentecostal, yet non- denominational and Lutheran.

I’m dead against the Iraq war and the actions of our top war mongrel – US in that country. But then I’m glad she doesn’t belong to that elitist club which believes in sending all able-bodied men to Vietnam, Afghanistan & Iraq, but not their own sons (pt ref to George Bush Sr & George Bush Jr).

What do you think is there on her resume? Former Beauty Queen, Miss Congeniality, four years on city council, six years as mayor and two years as Governor of Alaska.

Her kids also have names like Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper. Poor kids!

I don’t think it was right of her to insist that her daughter have the baby and marry the father, when both are teens. Is this what is called a shotgun wedding?

Anyway this post was written some three months ago….In my New Year mission to clear up all the junk on my e-desk, I decided to post this anyway though its shelf-life is almost expired after Obama’s victory..

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Intolerance, a by-play

Coming from an ultra-Christian family, I found my views would often come into direct conflict with everyone I interacted.

Even now as an atheist, I still have to rethink my attitude, prejudices and discontent that 21 years of religion taught me (I’m now 23). A religion, that I once believed….A religion I tried hard to follow, as I was brought up in the faith that one day I would have to become a Christian missionary.

When I was a kid, I remember reading the Bible and asking “How Cain got his wife? How did Noah keep his ark clean, if he didn’t open doors when there were animals that shit? How did Balaam’s ass speak? Can Achu (my dog) speak?”

You can be sure, I didn’t get answers which satisfied me.

Being a dog-lover, my bitterest moment came when my grandmother told me, “Animals don’t go to heaven.” Since my church pastors also felt that way, I was inconsolable.

My first reading of the sexual act did not come from the TV or magazines, but from the Bible. The short accounts of rape, incest and violence was in a way an eye-opener.

And also as a kid, I was taught in school that there were no caste; Everyone is equal. Even my mother taught me Mahakavi Bharathiar’s songs and instilled in me the belief that all human beings are equal. The same person and a host of other relatives, however, opposed my decision to love a Hindu 10 years later. If discriminating against a Dalit Christian is bad, How come discriminating against a person (my hubby’s also an atheist) just because he was born a Hindu is ok?

As a kid, the Bible was the gospel truth to me. So I was shocked when I read in the Bible that the punishment for a slave was death, while the punishment for a free man was an “eye for an eye; and a tooth for a tooth.” First and foremost I was shocked because the slavery system was being upheld in the Bible and secondly because there was discrimination even when it came to punishments.

I used to wonder at the preaching that non-Christians go to hell. I couldn’t believe that my best friends and the larger population of India was going to hell. And secondly many Christian pastors preach that Hindu gods are demons. Now some Hindu mythological stories are not exemplary, but there were other really nice ones I read in Tamil literature. I used to like Karnan a lot, from the accounts I read of him in Bharathiar’s Panchali Sapatham.

I used to ask, “If you say the stone idols have no life as they are created by human hands, when did devils and demons take possession of them?”

When I asked questions in school and college, I was encouraged to do so. Science was in many ways a comfort as facts were facts. They were not going to change because a different pastor took over in church. I used to score high marks in Maths and badly in religious studies only because of this…Questions were discouraged in Sunday school, Vacation Bible school and in church.

Many Christians support Israel in the Israel-Palestine war. They feel they have to support the atrocities of Israel, because the Jews are God’s chosen people and because Jerusalem should belong to Jews or Christians not Muslims (I’m not anti-semitism, but anti-war and anti-religious hegemony). I felt as most secular Indians do

• that Palestine should belong to the Palestinians and not to Israel, backed by the imperialist US
• that the US’s motives were purely mercenary in getting the Jews to occupy their native land after more than 2000 years through military aggression
• that India’s condemnation of the US and Israel militant tactics in this issue was correct
• that Palestinians were the underdogs not the Israelites

I also found myself in strong opposition to the church’s stand when it came to the Iraq war. I felt betrayed that no one in the Church was condemning the US. Instead many wholeheartedly supported George.W.Bush, because he claimed he was a Christian, because he was anti-abortion, anti-homosexuals, anti-gay rights and pro-war.

After the Gujarat pogroms, I expected Christians to come out in support of Muslims and condemn the state sponsored genocide in Gujarat. But No! The Christians in Tamil Nadu were more interested in protesting against the anti-conversion law. I felt they should not demand for justice, when they didn’t want justice for all minorities in India.

I have heard many Christians say horrible things like “All Muslims are terrorists.” How are they different from the RSS, Sangh Parivar and Bajrang Dal, whom they oppose?

With regard to women also, the Bible fares poorly. I found the verses “wives should submit to their husbands, women are the weaker vessel, they must be protected, women should obey their husbands, women must not speak in church,” in direct contradiction to what my secular school taught me; “that women were equal to men, women can work in all profession, women are not weak; there are trained women commandos, women army cadets, women doctors, women astronauts and women writers.”

It was the Iraq war, which came as the lat straw. I was around 16 at that time and I got fed up of the church and its hypocrisies. But it took me five more years to completely get out of the lies that religion taught me.

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