Monday, November 24, 2008

Besieged GEOPOLITICS! Old Brothel is ...




Besieged GEOPOLITICS! Old Brothel is Making Way as Global Ruling Economy Plays the Mind Control and Brain Washing Game along with ZERO TOLERANCE!Nothing,  Nothing is any CAUSE for the CONCERN of our Policy Makers as well as so called People`s representatives involved into the Brothel Of Parliamentary Politics! The Old Prostitution is only concerned with FREEsenSEX!

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday said India was failing in its efforts to crush a Maoist rebellion plaguing vast swathes of the country.Addressing a conference of senior police and security officials in New Delhi, Singh once again described the ultra-leftist insurgency as "the most serious internal security threat" India was facing.



Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 110


Palash Biswas

 







YouTube - The Real Politics in India 2



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On Top Magazine

India Considers Decriminalizing Being Gay
On Top Magazine, OH - 19 Nov 2008
But a case before the New Delhi High Court seeks to reverse a holdover law instituted by the British in 1860. Many Indian leaders reject being gay on moral ...







AFP

Delhi high court all set to rule on same-sex activity petition
Livemint, India - 7 Nov 2008
Voices Against 377, another non-profit group fighting for gay rights, was also made a respondent after it sought the court’s permission to intervene in this ...
UN urges India to decriminalise homosexuality AFP
all 4 news articles »

 




The future of brothel-born kids
Merinews, India - 12 hours ago
Our Constitution says that every citizen of India is equal. But the fact is that society discriminates between human beings. A brothel is a separate world ...





Prostitution in india
NDTV.com, India - 5 Nov 2008
Due to the muddled nature of law prostitution in India is neither legal nor illegal. Though, prostitutes are sex workers, but unlike other workers they are ...






Times Now.tv

Opposer of gay sex to HC: Legalising it may hit family system
Expressindia.com, India - 17 Nov 2008
New Delhi, November 17: An anti-gay rights activist pleaded before the Delhi High Court that legalising homosexual acts would lead to spread of HIV and ...
Outdated law ‘major obstacle’ in tackling AIDS: UNAIDS official Fresh News
all 28 news articles »


CPM goes into secret mode in Maoist
Times of India, India - 22 Nov 2008
MIDNAPORE/KOLKATA: It is hard to make out in this part of Jangalkhand that the CPM is in power. Pushed to the wall in Binpur, Belpahari and Lalgarh, ...
Lalgarh tribals hold rally, demand talks with administration Expressindia.com
Maoists woo teenagers into their fold The Statesman
Govt negligence bears fruit! The Statesman
all 5 news articles »

 







BBC News

Ban on Maoists: Police propose, CPM disposes
Indian Express, India - 17 Nov 2008
CPM state secretary Biman Bose said: “I am not in favour of banning the Maoists. A ban will provide extra authority to the police, which will be misused, ...
Mamata plays tribal card, joins Lalgarh agitation Expressindia.com
Lalgarh stir spreads, cops helpless Times of India
Tribals to continue agitation in West Bengal Hindu
Thaindian.com - Indian Express
all 14 news articles »

 
Manmohan, Patil differ on Naxal threat
Times of India, India - 21 hours ago
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Shivraj Patil seem to have vastly different perceptions of the threat posed by Left-wing ...
Government divided over tackling Naxalism? NDTV.com
all 6 news articles »

Time for nuclear industry, vendors to get together: Kakodkar
Economic Times, India - 1 hour ago
In backdrop of the Indo-US nuclear deal, import of uranium for the existing plants and their full use could make India increase its power capacity by at ...


Three CPM leaders injured in tribal attack
Times of India, India - 19 Nov 2008
20 Nov 2008, 1142 hrs IST, PTI BANKURA (WB): Three CPM leaders were injured when tribal attacked them with bows and arrows in West Bengal's Bankura district ...
Shibu Soren blames WB govt for tribal agitation Zee News
all 6 news articles »

 







Times Now.tv

Arms haul in Nandigram days before
Times of India, India - 16 hours ago
NANDIGRAM: With the Assembly bypoll in Nandigram round the corner, a huge cache of arms was seized from a daily wage-earner's house on Sunday afternoon, ...
Nandigram too on the boil, arms recovered Expressindia.com
Arms and ammunition seized in Nandigram Daily News & Analysis
all 7 news articles »





Police seize arms, ammunition from Nandigram
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 23 hours ago
Nandigram, Nov 23 (IANS) Police seized a large cache of arms and ammunition from poll-bound Nandigram that flared up last year over the West Bengal ...







Calcutta Telegraph

CPM, Maoists the same, Mamata tells Nandigram
Expressindia.com, India - 10 Nov 2008
Kicking off her campaign for the Nandigram by-elections at a rally there on Monday, she said her party’s candidate belong to one of the 14 families who lost ...
‘Any one from the martyrs’ families would get ticket’ The Statesman
Nandi ticket for ‘martyr’ family Calcutta Telegraph
all 3 news articles »

 





Fresh News

All’s ‘gay’ in Bollywood?
Times of India, India - 2 hours ago
The entire country sat up and took notice of two Bollywood hotties teaming up for the gay act. While the moral police was ready to forgive it as a one-off ...
Gay talk goes mainstream in Bollywood with ‘Dostana’ Thaindian.com
I don’t need a wife: Karan Times of India
all 11 news articles »

Mamata for all-party meeting on tribal agitation
Zee News, India - 23 hours ago
Kolkata, Nov 23: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the West Bengal government should convene an all-party meeting to find a solution ...
Trinamool Congress demands all-party meet in Lalgarh Thaindian.com
Left Front claims Trinamool helping Maoists Zee News
all 8 news articles »

 


Bandh call in Maoist-infested areas
The Statesman, India - 20 hours ago
BANKURA, Nov 23: The chief of Jharkhand Party (Aditya) today declared a 48-hour bandh in three Maoist-infested districts of south Bengal on 28 and 29 ...
Jharkhand Party faction calls 48-hour bandh SamayLive
all 2 news articles »

 

Be Aware!

What Mahmoud Darwish described the State of Nation and Nationality in reference to Palestine, has come TRUE in our Besieged Geopolitics, the latest War Zone consisting of syatematic Killingfields everywhere!


Just we never feel!


Mahmoud Darwish, often referred to as the Palestinian national poet, once told his readers: “Do not trust the poem —/ The daughter of absence/ It is neither intuition nor is it/ Thought/ But rather, the sense of the abyss...” These lines of verse wave a flag to warn the reader of besieged territory ahead — the sort of territory where poetry, politics — life itself — has to be conducted in a state of dispossession. The poem is called, appropriately, ‘In a State of Siege’.


Old Brothel is Making Way as Global Ruling Economy Plays the Mind Control and Brain Washing Game along with ZERO TOLERANCE!


Ruling Hegemony behaves like the OLD BROTHEL with Age Old Rituals! The Horse Sex had been used as Horse Power to extend Empires. Ashwamedh Yagna was the episode. God Indra was a SEX LORD. Now, the ruling hegemony is engaged in intense debate on GAY and LESBIAN. Starvation, Insecurity, Inequality, Injustice, Food Insecurity, Price Rise, Melt Down, Nationality Questions,National Integrity and Unity, Freedom Fraternity, Social Justice, Nutrition, Human Rights and Civil Rights, Women and Children, Bonded labour, Untouchability, Natural and man Made Calamities, Dissidence, Subsidense, Education and Health, Displacement and Migration, Demography, Environment and Global Warming, Proction system and Real Economy, Agrarian crisis, subhuman life and livelihod in Metro, Personality Disorder of the Generation Next, Job  Crunch.. Nothing,  Nothing is any CAUSE for the CONCERN of our Policy Makers as well as so called People`s representatives involved into the Brothel Of Parliamentary Politics! The Old Prostitution is only concerned with FREEsenSEX  so that the Policy Makers, ICONS, Media, Muscle Power, MNCs, Promotres, Builders, Regimented party Gestapo, CREAMY LAYER Subaltern, Officers and the Govt. Employees, Police, Security Personnels, PSU officers, IAS PCS may be involved to FEED The MONEY MACHINE sustaining Galaxy Order od Phoenix enabling Post Modern Manusmriti and Apartheid.
 


 
Clearly, the old brothel is making way for sex facilitated by the Internet. The red light district is losing its boundaries.


Deadlock in WB's Maoist-dominated Lalgarh continues!Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee already said his government wouldn’t compromise in any way with the Maoists and dubbed them “cowards’’ who hide in forests and plot murders.The marxist Poet did not hesitate to dismiss the grievances of the Indigenous Aboriginal Tribal Population as Maoist Insurgency and on the other hand, the Government of India, which never recognised nationality Identies, never addressed nationality problems, always defended ethnic cleansing adopting Military solution of Nationality Problems and continues AFPSA in entire North east and Kashmir, is all set to help the Marxist GESTAPO to crush Lalgarh Insurrection. Prime Minister has already hinted. Prim Minister waiting is though dissatisfied and prescribes POTA to deal TERRORISM diluting whatsoever Resistance against ruling Brahaminical hegemony in India. RSS has always branded all Muslims as Terrorists and all Tribals as Extremists. Now it is all out to defend Hindutva Bomb and hates to be branded as HINDU TERRORISTS!


Meanwhile, Miss Mamata Banerjee  said that the state government should immediately convene an all party meeting to resolve the ongoing turmoil in Lalgarh and surrounding areas. Miss Banerjee said that the leaders of the agitating tribal population should be invited for discussions.
She also said that extremist outfits should be excluded from such talks. Miss Banerjee said that there should not be any rigidity on the venue of the talks. Talks can be held in Kolkata or in Lalgarh.
On the other hand, CPI-M state secretary, Mr Biman Bose, said it is for the state government to decide where and when an all-party meeting can be convened.
Miss Banerjee questioned the sincerity of the state administration in solving the problem. She said that CPI-M wants to keep the problem alive so that it can make electoral gain. She also criticised the chief minister for making comments like the Trinamul zilla parishads in South 24 -Parganas and East Midnapore are not disbursing the fund properly for benefit of the poor


PTI reports:
Tribals in Bengal's restive Jhargram belt today postponed their proposed boycott of police at Lalgarh, saying they would wait for a few more days for the state government to start talks with them.
However, they further dug up roads and felled trees at seven places along a vital road, linking the area to the district headquarters.


Fresh barricades were put up on the arterial Jhargram-Dherua road near Lalgrah, where the backlash started on November seven to protest against alleged police excesses.


The aggrieved tribals also dug up 'kutcha' roads in many areas at Jamboni, Katapahari, Belpahari and other police station areas in the tribal belt in West Midnapore district.


Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Party (Aditya) has called a 48-hour bandh starting from November 28 in Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia districts. The party's leader, Aditya Kisku, told reporters at Khatra in Bankura that the state government had been playing "game with innocent adivasis".


Leaders of the 'Janaganer Police Nirjatan Pratirodh Committee', spearheading the agitation, today held a "secret" meeting at Gidhni in the Jamboni police station area to chalk out future course of action in case the talks failed to take place, sources said.


Although both the the administration and the tribal leaders expressed willingness to sit across the table, the talks actually did not take place as the government representatives were unwilling to go to the tribals-suggested venues at Dalilpur and now Katapahari, both being the hotbeds of Maoist activity.
PTI


HINDU TERROERISM Hype gets a new Dimention as RSS makes it a well planned SUBVERSION from all other issues!In a setback to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in the Malegaon blast probe, a MCOCA court here on Monday refused to grant it the custody of accused Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and Ajay Rahirkar.



Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragnya Thakur on Monday charged the Anti-Terrorism Squad with making her hear an obscene CD, while repeating her earlier allegation of physical and mental torture against the investigating agency.
 
The Sadhvi along with seven other accused - Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, Shivnarain Singh Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Sameer Kulkarni, Maj. (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar and Rakesh Dhawde were produced before the designated MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act) court in Mumbai on Monday.
 
The ATS had last week booked the blast accused under the stringent MCOCA that would enable them to get their remand any number of times in a period of 180 days from the date the Sep 29 offence was registered.
 
The allegations made by the Sadhvi in the affidavit her lawyer Avinash Bhide filed in the Nashik court last week have already raised a political storm across the country.
 
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh telephoned senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani after the latter hit out at the ATS for meting out barbaric treatment to the sadhvi, his emissary, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan assured Advani of a probe into the Sadhvi's allegations. 
 
Other key accused Purohit also repeated his earlier allegation of torture against the ATS.


62 per cent polling in J&K
Hindu - 20 hours ago
GANDERBAL/KANGAN: Defying the boycott call given by separatists, a large number of people turned up for the second phase of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
JK election: Nearly 67 per cent turnout in round two Press Trust of India
65% turnout in J&K polls The Statesman
Times of India - Deccan Herald - Kashmir Live - GreaterKashmir.com (press release)


More roads dug-up, steep rise in prices of essential commodities
The protesting tribals are mulling a total boycott of the administration and stepping up their agitation in Lalgarh and adjoining areas.


The district administration met the tribals on Sunday evening in Lalgarh, but failed to break the ice. More roads were also dug up as various areas in Jhargram, Salboni and Lalgarh remained cut off from the rest of Bengal.


“We are planning a total boycott of the administration in the tribal-dominated areas. We will let the panchayat offices remain open, but none of the government officials will be allowed to visit them or conduct any business,” Sidhu Soren, secretary of the newly-formed Committee Against Police Atrocities told The Indian Express on phone.


The administration, he said, does not seem serious about solving the crisis. “They are adamant and do not want to talk to us under the open sky,” Soren said. The protestors will not talk with the administration in air-conditioned rooms. “On Sunday, we met them at Lalgarh block development officer’s office and submitted our demands — one of these is that they have to meet us on our home ground,” Soren added.


The talks broke down after the leaders submitted their demand list.


“We have accepted some of their demands already. But they now want us to go there and talk with them, which is not possible right now. Our doors, however, are open for the talks,” said Additional District Magistrate RA Israel, who met the protesting leaders.


Tribal leaders dug up Jhargram-Dherua Road on Sunday. Apart from that, fresh road blockades were set up at four spots, including Baita. The protestors held rallies at Chakadoba, Bhulaveda and Amdanga in Belpahari area and Katapahari in Lalgarh area. They even blocked and dug up roads inside jungles.


Prices of essential commodities and food have also skyrocketed. The situation has turned grave because ration shops have exhausted their stocks long time ago. An acute shortage of kerosene is plaguing the areas.


Potatoes are being sold at Rs 12 to Rs 14 per kg as opposed to Rs 5 to Rs 6 before the agitation. Similarly, onions are selling at Rs 40 to Rs 45 per kg, compared to Rs 15 before the agitation.


In Lalgarh most of the 21 ration shops remained shut since stocks have diminished long ago. “What can we do? There are no stocks. The roads are blocked or dug up, so nothing is coming here. People are at the receiving end, but we cannot help it,” said Basudeb Kundu, a ration dealer in Katapahari.



Althoough, there seemed a flicker of hope at the end of the tunnel 18 days after the police assault on tribals following the blast near the chief minister's convoy. Blockade was lifted at several places, a formal complaint was lodged by the villagers against police and both the administration and the tribals softened stand on the venue of the peace talks.


Lalmohon Tudu, president of the Committee Against Police Atrocities, submitted a complaint against police to the ADM (general) Raja Aaron Israel during a meeting at Lalgarh's Ramkrishna Vidyalaya.


Though roads were blocked at Pingboni and another place between Dherua and Midnapore town, in the rest of the area, uprooted trees were removed, making way for vehicles. There is no blockade on the road from Jhargram to Dalilpur.


Earlier in the day, around 3,000 villagers gheraoed the Binpur-II BDO's office, demanding their 11-point charter of demand be accepted. District administration indicated that this could be more of a pressure tactic to make the government hold talks.


There was palpable tension even after Israel, along with additional SP Shubhankar Sinha Roy, arrived at the Lalgarh school for a meeting with the leaders of the committee. Key leaders Lalmohan Tudu, Chhatradhar Mahato and Tanmay Rai arrived at the meeting in the late afternoon. Apparently both sides have climbed down regarding the venue of the peace talks.


"The administration is willing to hold talks at Lalgarh. We are also no longer insisting on holding it at Dalilpur Chowk. On Monday, our committee members will decide on a possible venue. But we will continue with the movement till our demands are met," said Mahato said.


The tribals are sticking to two key demands police raids on clubs run by Santhals must be stopped and raids can be carried out only in the presence of Majhi Maroas. ADM R A Israel said, "There was a communication gap with the tribals. We have been able to solve that problem."


 “Do not trust the poem —/ The daughter of absence/ It is neither intuition nor is it/ Thought/ But rather, the sense of the abyss...”


Well! Friends! Just FEEL your Heart and Mind! Just identify your True self. Your Identity.


Be Awake!



Charging the UPA government with being "callous" towards the common man, Left parties, TDP and JD(S) on Monday decided to hold nationwide protest action on December 2 to demand immediate reduction in petrol and diesel prices.


"The Manmohan Singh government is adopting a callous stand by refusing to cut the prices of petrol and diesel and providing relief to the people who are suffering from all-round price rise of essential commodities," the six parties said in a joint statement here.


Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama is constructing a gigantic economic stimulus package far in excess of the $175 billion he promised during the campaign, hoping the new Congress will be ready when he takes office in the midst of the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades.


On the other hand, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Monday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's proposal for a task force to counter terrorism within a deadline of 100 days as "distressing" and demanded that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) be revived instead.Manmohan Singh put forth the proposal while addressing the director generals of police (DGPs) and inspector generals of police (IGPs) at their annual conference in New Delhi.


"Manmohan Singh took over as prime minister in May 2004 and after so many days, he is talking about a 100-day roadmap," Advani said while addressing a press conference here.


"This announcement of the Prime Minister is nothing but an acceptance of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government's failure to tackle terrorism," the BJP's prime ministerial candidate said.


The Prime Minister had on Sunday recommended a task force under National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan to address "Leftwing extremism, terrorism and insurgency".


But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday said India was failing in its efforts to crush a Maoist rebellion plaguing vast swathes of the country.Addressing a conference of senior police and security officials in New Delhi, Singh once again described the ultra-leftist insurgency as "the most serious internal security threat" India was facing.


"It is evident that despite the efforts that have and are being made, the measures taken so far have not yielded desired results," the premier was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.


"The inability of intelligence agencies and the police to obtain pinpointed and actionable intelligence and in time has enabled these outfits to carry out some high-profile attacks."


Singh was referring to audacious attacks by the revolutionaries this year including the slaughter in July of 21 elite police commandos in eastern Orissa state.


“These Maoists are a bunch of cowards. They stay in the jungles of Jharkhand during the day and come out in the night to kill people. They are not even sparing ambulances. A doctor and a nurse were recently killed in a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists in West Midnapore. But we wouldn’t compromise with them. I have asked the administration not to have any dialogue with the Maoists. I want to see how far they can go,” he told a rally in South 24-Parganas’ Baruipur, 35km from Calcutta.


On November 2, a landmine had missed the chief minister by minutes and hit Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s convoy in West Midnapore.


Protesting the arrests and detentions that followed, tribals egged on by Maoists have laid siege to Lalgarh in West Midnapore. Bhattacharjee said: “It is unfortunate that these killers call themselves Maoists. Had Mao (Ze Dong) been alive, he would have hung his head in shame at his name being used in this manner.”


“A party,” he added, “wants the three districts (West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura) to be in Jharkhand.”


Bhattacharjee did not name anyone but Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren had urged the Centre before the July 22 trust vote in Parliament that the three Bengal districts be merged with Jharkhand. Soren is now the Jharkhand chief minister.


Bhattacharjee said Maoists would not be able to drag the tribals of Bengal into their fold because “we had supported them on the issue of land rights and minimum wages”.


However, after a Left Front meeting  same day, the allies blamed the CPM-led government, and not Maoists, for the Lalgarh trouble. Forward Bloc secretary Ashok Ghosh said: “The tribal agitation has nothing to do with Maoists. It is the expression of their anger resulting from prolonged neglect and deprivation.”


The CPI’s Nandagopal Bhattacharya said the “government’s apathy” towards the tribals had led to the agitation.


At the meeting, the allies resolved to tackle the Maoists “politically”. Front chairman Biman Bose said the government had been asked to expedite development work in the tribal areas.


The chief minister told the meeting the government was mulling a development package for the tribals.


On the othre hand,India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee begins his three-day official trip to Nepal Monday, eclipsing visits by a British minister and a senior UN official who also arrive in Kathmandu the same day.Mukherjee’s visit — the first by a high-level Indian official since the formation of a Maoist-led government — will be watched closely by the former guerrillas, the opposition as well as royalists who blame the ouster of Nepal’s 239-year monarchy on India’s support.


The private media in Nepal focused on the Indian minister’s arrival, eclipsing the visits by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people Prof. S. James Anaya and British Minister for International Development Mike Foster.


Mukherjee will meet Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav, Deputy Vice President Parmanand Jha, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav.He will also fly out to Sunsari district in south Nepal to meet the victims of the flooding after the Kosi breached its banks and inundated large swathes of Bihar and Nepal as well and the Indian consulate in Birgunj town on the India-Nepal border.


Govt still looking for a solution, Lalgarh still on the boil...



Shyam Sundar Roy
MIDNAPORE, Nov. 23: Even after sustained agitation by the locals with the Santhals in the forefront, under the banner of the Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC) ~ in Lalgarh, Jhargram, Binpur, Belpahari and other adjoining blocks of Midnapore West ~ the state government seems to have failed to assess (or deliberately ignored) the real causes which have led to the ongoing public outcry among the Adivasis.
This evasive attitude of the government is likely to send the agitators towards a point of no return.
For, in their day-long meeting in Kolkata on Saturday, Left Front heavyweights, including the chief minister, were in consensus to harp on ‘neglect and lukewarm attitude on the part of the government towards socio-economic uplift of the community people’ which are supposed to have caused the tribal rage. The intention is perhaps to divert public opinion in the state from police excesses in Lalgarh in the aftermath of 2 November landmine blast, the real focus.
In this regard, a handsome development package of about Rs 20 crore will be announced soon by the government which will again be monitored by the chief minister himself to assuage Adivasi agonies.
But, the PSBPC leaders made it amply clear in their 11-point charter of demands stating that the current agitation was solely to protest agianst “police excesses” on Adivasi womenfolk of Chhoto Pelia besides framing innocent people, in the blast case.
Nevertheless, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee yesterday told a party rally in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas that steps will be taken against the guilty if there are any specific complaints of torture against the police. “Why is the Adivasi woman being treated by the government if she was not injured by the police?” asked district APDR secretary, Mr Arup Dasgupta. In a memorandum to the DM, the APDR secretary alleged that a total of 32 Adivasi women, including a pregnant one, were tortured in the crackdown carried out by the police which had no women personnel in clear violation of Section 50(2) of the CrPC. He demanded adequate compensation to the injured Adivasi women.
Meanwhile, the agitating tribals have threatened to call Sajjan Giro (war call) against the state government if it fails to hold a bipartite meeting on their grievances within seven days.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=232447

 


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Maoist wake-up call for cops


Biswabrata Goswami
BELPAHARI (Jhargram), Nov. 23: State Intelligence officers are worried over the efforts Maoist rebels are making to set up strong bases in the tribal hinterlands of West Bengal.
Security experts are analysing the possible ramifications of the move. An official said agencies are worried because the presence of Maoist rebels would further complicate the situation in the region. A report on internal security states: “The security situation in the Maoist-infested blocks of the district would further deteriorate if ultra-Left extremists succeed in getting their foothold in the tribal belts.”
According to the reports, the land-mine blast on the chief minister’s convoy is believed to have been led by a three-member Maoist action squad consisting of Dwijen Hembram and Jaba Hembram of Jharkhand and Chandra Sekhar from Andhra Pradesh. Chandra Sekhar is considered to be an explosives expert and was seen in the West Midnapore district few days before the explosion. Reports indicate that the Maoist duo from Jharkhand had entered the state a month back and were living near Salboni. They had adopted pseudo names for themselves. As, the state Intelligence had no adequate information about the Maoists, the security beef-up by the district police completely failed to assess the possibility of a such blast and so consequent raids in the tribal villages to arrest culprits ultimately boomeranged into a form of a tribal mass-movement against the police repression on them and the whole movement is currently under the grip of the Maoists.
A visit to the remote tribal villages in Lalgarh, Belpahari and Binpur bordering Jharkhand reveals that Maoists have already established strong bases among the tribals and they have many squads inside 700 square km forests of the district.
Mr Pashupati Mahato (name changed on request) of Belpahari said, “The Maoists meet almost every day in Laljol forest and a trained squad leader from Jharkhand was also seen recently. The Belpahari squad has recently recruited a few youths after giving them a short training in Dumka, Jharkhand. the Maoists are also eager to fulfill their long-cherished dream of establishing a Red Corridor from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal. The forest blocks of this district are gradually becoming a safe haven for the Maoists since six of eight districts of Jharkhand that border West Bengal ~ Dumka, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ranchi, West Singhbhum and East Singhbhum are strongholds of the Maoists. A few months ago, some members of Belpahari squad were killed in a Orissa police operation and then this squad became weak but with the passage of time, they have freshly recruited some youths”.
Though, Chhtradhar Mahato, leader of the Police Santrash Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC) denied accepting the presence of Maoists in their mass-movement, he conceded that if Maoists agree to support their movement under PSBPC banner, they will invite them.
Mr Babu Bose, general secretary of Jharkhand Jana Mukti Morcha said: “This movement is now not under control of the tribal organisations. Currently, Maoist leaders are dominating the movement and they may intensify the stir if the state government does not come forward to settle the impasse”.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=232448


PM moots task force on terror


Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Nov 23: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has recommended the setting up of a high-level task force to address the emerging challenges of terrorism and Left-wing extremism in the country.
Addressing the top brass of state and central police organisations in a two-day seminar here, the Prime Minister also said it was imperative to improve the intelligence machinery and undertake police reforms to be able to deal with such threats.
Dr Singh in addition urged the police to avoid stereotypes that might enlarge "fault lines in our society".
The task force, chaired by the National Security Advisor, with suitable representation from central and state agencies, should draw a roadmap within 100 days to develop an integrated capability to address the challenges of Left-wing extremism, terrorism and insurgency, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also mooted the setting up of a standing committee of DGPs, comprising five states on rotation basis, to advise government on police and related legal matters.
“Side by side with this, it would be advantageous if the MHA could devise a scheme by which a certain number of executive level police personnel could be inducted into the Ministry,” the Prime Minister said.
They would help MHA officials with policy formulation and induce a degree of field experience into various formulations involving police matters, the Prime Minister said.
“Risks are often unforeseen in today’s work. Threats are often hidden. This has made the work of law and order professionals far more challenging than ever before. We need therefore to be able to anticipate better,” he said, stressing on the need to set up a networked security architecture.
"In a period of 100 days, the task force should come out with a road map regarding the detailed steps to be taken immediately, as also the subsequent steps to be taken over the next several months so as to translate this vision of an integrated neo-centric capability into reality," Dr Singh said.
He also noted that the impartiality, capabilities and fairness of the police are frequently being questioned, and told the heads of the country's police forces that a major challenge before them will be to restore the faith of the people ~ especially those belonging to religious and ethnic minorities and weaker sections ~ in their impartiality and effectiveness. In this context, he exhorted police officers to avoid stereotypes that might enlarge "fault lines in our society".
Dr Singh further stressed the need to check effectively and in time the virus of communal violence that threatens the secular fabric of society.
Redrawn ‘map’ sparks fears in Pak


NEW YORK, Nov. 23: A redrawn map of South Asia showing a truncated Pakistan, reduced to an elongated sliver of land, has sparked fear among military planners in Islamabad who think India and Afghanistan are “colluding” to destroy the only nuclear powered-Muslim nation with US help, a media report said today.
The map, first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some American neoconservative circles, has fueled a belief among Pakistanis that what the United States really wants is the breakup of their country, the New York Times reported.
That notion, it says, may strike Americans as strange coming from an ally of 50 years but as the incoming Barack Obama administration tries to coax greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against militancy, it can hardly be ignored.
Pakistan, says the Times, is upset over the Indo-American civilian nuclear deal as also big investments made by New Delhi in Afghanistan.
In this context, the paper makes special reference to the Iranian border road which, it says, would ultimately provide access to India to Iranian port of Chabahar, circumventing Pakistan. Besides, India has offered training for Afghanistan's military, given assistance for a new Parliament building in Kabul and has re-opened consulates along the border with Pakistan.
US military commanders, including Gen David H Petraeus, have started to argue forcefully that the solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, where the American war effort looks increasingly uncertain, must involve a wide array of neighbors.
Mr Obama has said much the same. Several times in his campaign, he laid out the crux of his thinking. Reducing tensions between Pakistan and India would allow Islamabad to focus on the real threat ~ the Qaeda and Taliban militants who are tearing at the very fabric of the country, he has argued.But the Times says such an approach faces sizable obstacles, the biggest being the “conflict” over Kashmir.
Pakistan's army and intelligence agencies have long fought a proxy war with India by sponsoring militant groups to terrorize the people in Jammu and Kashmir, it noted.
After the 9/11 attacks, the paper says that Pakistan reined in those militants for a time, but this year the militants have renewed their incursions. Talks between the sides made some progress in recent years but have “petered out.”
If the Obama administration is indeed to convince Pakistanis that militancy, not the Indian Army, presents the gravest threat, it will not be easy, stresses the paper. n PTI



WB: Tribals Vs the Left


The West Bengal government faces a Herculean task in containing the current agitation launched by tribals in the districts of West Midnapore and Bankura. The Maoists have rubbed salt into the Left’s wounds by openly backing the tribals.
CJ: Rupam Banerjee ,  11 hours ago   Views:78   Comments:0
OPENLY FANNED by some Jharkhand parties, including Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren and the Maoists, the tribal villagers of West Midnapore and Bankura have virtually decided to go ahead with their current agitation to isolate certain tribal areas, including Lalgarh and Sarenga. This is to register their protest against ‘police excesses’ after the landmine blast on the convoy of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.


Many of these tribal villagers, who are mostly daily-wagers, have been rendered jobless because of the agitation and are finding it difficult to earn their livelihood. They admitted that the Maoists and a section of the leaders from Jharkhand had been encouraging the youth to go ahead with the agitation and create problems for the state. Maoist leaders from Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh held several rounds of talks with a section of the tribal youth, who had been spearheading the agitation. The Maoists had even issued a couple of statements supporting the agitation, they said.
While the Left Front chairman and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state unit secretary Biman Bose blamed the Centre and forces from within the state and without for the current agitation, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee slammed opposition leader and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for supporting the agitation.


The Maoists, however, reportedly criticised Banerjee for seeking Central intervention in containing the agitation since they felt that the deployment of Central forces would only aggravate the agony of the tribals. They however supported her movement in Nandigram and urged the tribal youth to implement it in the western districts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore.


Intelligence reports, however, indicated that the agitators’ demand seeking the presence of senior district police officers at the venue of the talks was nothing but a ploy to help the Maoists either kidnap or ambush the police officers. Reports said that digging up important roads had become a convenient and effective tool for the opposition parties to create chaos in the state ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Digging up important roads, originally a Maoist idea, became popular during the Nandigram movement.


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Political observers, however, feel that the state government should act firmly to prevent agitators from digging up important roads to register their protest. The administration should take a firm stand against such vandalism, which ultimately proves detrimental to the welfare of the poor.

Bhattacharjee had reportedly advised the administration and his party men to wait and watch and not to go for any drastic action. He also advised them to carry on the discussions with the leaders of the agitation to achieve a peaceful and lasting solution to the problem. Observers felt that the Left Front, which had been working for the cause of tribals over the years, was reluctant to take any drastic action lest it should aggravate the situation, particularly when elections are round the corner.

In the backdrop of such an impasse, the Left Front leaders are to meet to review the situation and chalk out a programme to counter such agitations, which have been hampering the growth and future of the state and its people, especially those living in remote rural areas.
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=150381

In March 2007, the rebels assassinated a federal MP and a few days later killed 55 policemen in twin attacks in eastern India.

The Maoist insurgency grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967 and rebels often target the overstretched and poorly trained security forces operating in the east of the country.

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and landless farmers and that their ultimate goal is to capture India's cities and overthrow parliament.

The left-wing guerrillas are active in more than half of India's 29 states and the rebels use a heavily forested region in eastern Chhattisgarh state as their headquarters.

Singh's government promised in July to create new, specialised commando units in the worst-hit states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

It has also pledged to create six jungle warfare and counter-insurgency schools.

At least 834 people were killed in Maoist-related violence nationwide last year.

New Delhi has refused to hold peace talks with the shadowy rebels unless they renounce violence.

 

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center
www.imemc.org for Monday November 24 2008

As the Israeli military continues closure of Gaza's crossings for the third week consecutively, reports said Israel would reopen one of such crossings partially today. These news and more are coming up stay tuned.

Israeli media sources reported Monday that the Israeli military would reopen one of Gaza's crossings partially today to allow in some food assistance into the besieged Gaza Strip.

The sources reveled that the Kerem Shalom crossing would be reopened today as the Palestinian resistance factions agreed yesterday night to stopping homemade shells fire from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns.

The Gaza Strip lives a tight closure of commercial crossings for three weeks now, as humanitarian aid organizations have warned of an imminent crisis due to lack of essential goods, commodities and fuel.

In the meantime, the Israeli parliament is expected to convene today over the situation in Gaza, as the Israeli government considers extending the closure, while Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, warns of a large military offensive on the coastal territory.

At the political level, U.S Secretary of States, Condoleezza Rice , defended yesterday her outgoing administration's failure to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis , based on a two-state solution by the end of this year.

Palestinian-Israeli negotiations witness a stalemate, since Washington has launched its Annapolis peace conference in November2007.

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Rami Al-Meghari, and Husam Qassi
http://www.imemc.org/article/57791


Under the rubric of the need to choose one's battles, Israel is not putting a lot of energy into battling the annual anti-Israel ritual at the UN known as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, scheduled for Monday.

Every year on this day, the UN passes a number of pro-Palestinian resolutions that blast Israel, and one diplomatic official said that Jerusalem had concluded it was useless to invest much in fighting those resolutions because of the built-in Arab and third-world majority in the General Assembly.

"We pick our battles, and this is one that, because of the numbers, we simply can't win," one senior diplomatic official said.

Nevertheless, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev is expected to address the General Assembly.

Meanwhile,Eager to calm economic anxieties, President-elect Barack Obama is rolling out an economic vision that will require congressional cooperation even before he settles into his new desk in the White House's Oval Office.The plan is likely to far exceed the $175 billion Obama proposed during the campaign. It would include an infusion of money for infrastructure projects, new environmental technologies and tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers. It will not call for tax hikes for the wealthy.While Obama and his team are focused on the work of the new Congress, they also weighed in work pending before the current one.

The emphasis on the economy began Saturday when Obama outlined the framework to save or create 2.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. The scope of the recovery package is far more ambitious than Obama had spelled out during his presidential campaign, when he proposed $175 billion of spending and tax-cutting stimulus. The new plan will be significantly larger and incorporate his campaign ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies - the "green economy." It also would include his proposals for tax relief for middle- and lower-income workers.

 

Obama aides on Sunday called on the new Congress to pass by the Jan. 20 inauguration legislation that meets Obama's two-year goal of saving or creating 2.5 million jobs. Democratic congressional leaders said they would get to work when Congress convenes Jan. 6 with bigger Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

With the wounded economy worsening, the Obama team's new assertiveness was a recognition he needed to soothe financial markets with signs of leadership. It also foreshadowed a more hands-on role by Obama to influence congressional action during the final weeks of the transition.

Heading his economic team will be Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council. Obama also has settled on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his commerce secretary.


SUCI activists block roads in West Bengal
Kolkata : Hundreds of supporters of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) on Mondayblocked roads in the metropolis and elsewhere in West Bengal against alleged police atrocities on tribals at Lalgarh and on other issues.

Road blockades were reported from Balurghat, Purulia, Krishnagar, Berhampore and other areas in the districts set up by the SUCI who were also demanding return of land to unwilling farmers at Singur after the exit of the Tatas, solution to the primary teachers problems and filling up "three lakh" vacancies in State government offices.

In the metropolis, the blockades led to traffic snarls, police said. In many areas, police chased the agitators with batons.

At least 70 SUCI workers, including women, were arrested from the Hazra crossing and Esplanade areas, the sources said.
(PTI)

PCC elects Abbas as president of Palestine state

RAMALLAH, Nov. 23  -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was overwhelmingly elected by the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) on Sunday as the president of the future state of Palestine.

    The PCC, which has around 126 members representing all Palestinian factions and groups in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), convened in West Bank city of Ramallah for two days which was chaired by Abbas.

    The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the parliament in exile, had elected in Nov. 15, 1988 late leader Yasser Arafat as the president of state of Palestine.

    Arafat was president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)and chairman of the PLO. After he died in November 2004, Abbas was elected as the PLO Executive Committee Chairman and in January 2005 he was elected as the president of the PNA.

    Meanwhile, Hamas movement slammed the PCC decision of choosing Abbas as president of the state of Palestine, saying that both the PCC and the PLO are not representing the Palestinian people.

    Mushir el-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker, said in a statement that the PCC decision aims at extending the presidential term for Abbas which "according to the Palestinian basic law, ends by January 9, 2009."

    "Such actions would complicate the current internal situation and would increase obstacles to hold the national dialogue and to reach a national Palestinian reconciliation," said al-Masri.

    An independent Palestinian state has not been established yet, as Gaza Strip has been ruled by Islamic Hamas movement since mid June last year, while the PNA and Fatah movement controls parts of the West Bank.
(Xinhua)

UN Chief Ban Expresses Concern over Humanitarian Situation in Gaza
 
 
 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced regret that Israel has not yet heeded his call to urgently permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza.

A statement issued by his spokesperson said Mr. Ban, who phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Nov.18 to urge him to facilitate the freer movement of urgently needed humanitarian supplies and of United Nations personnel into Gaza, continued to express his concern at the situation following Israel¡¯s closure of crossing points.

¡°The Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of rocket and other attacks by Palestinian militants against Israeli civilian targets,¡± the statement added. ¡°He calls for an end to such attacks and urges full respect by all parties for the calm that has been in effect since 19 June 2008,¡± it added, referring to the truce on Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli assaults.

Mr. Ban has been briefed on the humanitarian situation in Gaza by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, it said, and supports the statement just released by his office calling on all parties to refrain from violence and allow the immediate and sustained reopening of border crossings.

¡°Measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a whole are unacceptable and must cease immediately,¡± Mr. Holmes said.

Mr. Holmes – who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs – noted that the Secretary-General had repeatedly condemned rocket attacks aimed at Israeli civilian targets, but he also expressed particular concern that the human dignity and well-being of the civilians in Gaza, over half of whom are children, do not appear to be a major issue for the parties to the conflict.

Israel reinstituted its blockade of the Gaza Strip Nov.19 after a brief respite to let humanitarian aid pass through on Tuesday, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said today, describing the situation as ¡°desperate¡± and ¡°unacceptable.¡±

No fuel, humanitarian supplies or commercial commodities were allowed into Gaza today, according to the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO).

Mr. Holmes – who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs – told journalists in Geneva that the closure was seen as collective punishment. Half the population of Gaza was under 15 and were being held hostage by the situation.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to urge him to facilitate the freer movement of urgently needed humanitarian supplies and of UN personnel into Gaza. Mr. Olmert denounced the continuing rocket fire into Israel from Gaza, although he agreed to look seriously into the urgent matter.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had to suspend cash assistance to some 98,000 of the poorest people in Gaza due to the lack of Israeli shekel bank notes in banks there.

The agency also warned that it is facing ¡°a grave and imminent crisis¡± and must receive additional pledges in the first quarter of 2009 if it is to continue assisting the 4.6 million people in its five field operations.

UNRWA Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd told donors, host governments and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners that according to present projections its core services will suffer a deficit of more than $87 million by then, leading to an overall shortfall of $160 million when combined with unfunded projects on hold from previous years.

¡°This will bring UNRWA closer to financial crisis than it has ever been,¡± she said today at the agency¡¯s annual meeting in Amman, Jordan, which heard updates from the directors for the five field operations – Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=7629



India must 'banish' thought of recession: Chidambaram
Times of India - 27 minutes ago
NEW DELHI: Indians must "banish thought of recession", the finance minister said on Monday, as he forecast the economy would still be the second-fastest growing in the world despite the global financial crisis.
See FY09 growth moderating at 7-8% range: FM Moneycontrol.com
India bond yields end higher on lack of policy cues Reuters India
Hindustan Times - Bloomberg - IBNLive.com - Press Trust of India
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Times Now.tv
Sadhvi claims was made to hear obscene CD
Hindustan Times - 1 hour ago
Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragnya Thakur on Monday charged the Anti-Terrorism Squad with making her hear an obscene CD, while repeating her earlier allegation of physical and mental torture against the investigating agency.
Malegaon blast: Judicial custody for 7 accused till Dec 3 Times of India
I was tortured, made to see obscene CD: Sadhvi IBNLive.com
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APEC leaders commit to quick economic action
Reuters - 2 hours ago
By Chisa Fujioka and Oleg Shchedrov LIMA (Reuters) - The United States, China, Japan and 18 other economies in Asia and the Americas promised fast and decisive action on Sunday to prevent a severe global economic downturn.
Bush wears poncho on last foreign trip BBC News
Beleaguered Bush farewells Asia leaders AFP
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Mahmoud Darwish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a respected Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet.[1] In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.[2][3]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Darwish


Palestine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article is about the geographical area. For other uses, see Palestine (disambiguation).
 
A 2003 satellite image of the region, with national borders shown in light gray.Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.[1] Other terms that have been used to refer to all or part of this area include Israel, "Greater Israel" (Hebrew Eretz Yisrael), Retenu (Ancient Egyptian) Southern Syria, Greater Syria, Arabistan, Canaan, and the Holy Land.


In the broad geographical sense, Palestine refers to an area that includes contemporary Israel and the Palestinian territories, parts of Jordan, and parts of Lebanon and Syria.[1][2] In the narrow sense, it refers to the area within the boundaries of the former British Mandate of Palestine (1920-1948) west of the Jordan River.


Today, Palestine may also refer to the State of Palestine proposed by the Palestinian National Authority.[3]


Within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the term Palestine has weighty political connotations and arouses fierce controversy.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine


Palestinian territories
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Palestinian territories are composed of two discontiguous regions, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, whose final status has yet to be determined. The territories, which were originally contained within the British Mandate of Palestine, were captured and occupied by Jordan and by Egypt in the late 1940s, and captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. "Palestinian territories" is one of a number of designations for these areas.


Following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, portions of the territories have been governed in varying degrees by the Palestinian Authority. They do not include the Golan Heights captured from Syria during the Six Day War, or the Sinai Peninsula, captured from Egypt at that time but later returned by Israel to Egypt after a peace accord was signed between the two countries in 1979. Israel does not consider East Jerusalem nor the former Israeli - Jordanian no man's land (the former annexed in 1980 and the latter in 1967) to be parts of the West Bank. Israel claims that both fall under full Israeli law and jurisdiction as opposed to the 58% of the Israeli-defined West Bank which is ruled by the Israeli 'Judea and Samaria Civil Administration', although this has not been recognized by any other country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_territories


Brothel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A brothel, also known as a bordello or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sex with the clients. In some places, brothels are legal, and in many countries, places such as massage parlors are allowed to function as brothels, with varying degrees of regulation and repression. Depending on zoning, brothels may be confined to special red-light districts or 'tolerance zones'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothel


Lame-duck US, Israeli leaders to meet a final time


WASHINGTON : Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert heads to his final meeting with President George W. Bush aiming to wrap up three years of close cooperation.


Monday evening's White House session is expected to focus on the Iranian nuclear threat and assess progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, as both lame-duck leaders look to leave a Mideast peace legacy to their successors.


Olmert meets Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley on Monday ahead of a private dinner with Bush.


Just a year ago, Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, proudly announced the resumption of peace talks after a seven-year hiatus at a summit hosted by Bush in Annapolis, Maryland. The three set an ambitious target of concluding a final peace deal by the end of 2008.


Despite frequent negotiating sessions, two trips to the region by Bush and eight more by Rice, the sides have little to show for their efforts and have acknowledged the year-end target will not be met.
Speaking Sunday to reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush headed back from a summit in Peru, Rice said the peace process is ``in pretty good shape.''


``Even though there was not an agreement by the end of the year, it is really largely because of the political situation in Israel,'' she said.


Bush, who spent the weekend in Peru at a meeting of Pacific Rim nations, invited Olmert to Washington as part of his final round of talks with world leaders before he leaves office Jan. 20. Olmert, who announced plans to resign in September amid corruption charges, will step down after a successor is chosen Feb. 10.


As for Tehran's nuclear program, Israel has identified it as its biggest threat in light of Iran's development of long-range weapons and its president's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Both the U.S. and Israel say they hope diplomatic pressure resolves the standoff, but have not ruled out military action.


The two leaders also probably will discuss the global financial crisis, Israel's indirect peace talks with Syria and the future of arms and aircraft deals to Israel.
(AP)


 



West Bengal to ask SAIL to join hands with private sector
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Calcutta Telegraph WB govt considers Dunlop application
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By-elections in three states next month
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Pranab for Bengali-speaking BSF men in WB villages
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West Bengal court defers hearing in Rizwanur case
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The victim, identified as Quamruddin (20), a native of West Bengal was buried in the debris resulting in his death, they said. Some policemen were also ...



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Lahore Arts Festival to go ahead despite blasts, threats!
Lahore : Organisers of the World Performing Arts Festival, being attended by a large Indian delegation, went ahead with performances in this eastern Pakistani city despite three bomb blasts that were apparently aimed at disrupting the event.


Four persons were injured when three bombs went off on Sunday night outside a crowded stadium and a cultural complex hosting the arts festival. The organisers of the festival said they had earlier received an anonymous threat asking them to halt the event. The Indian delegation at the festival is the largest one.


Former Bhutan King to get 'Deshikottama' award
Santiniketan (WB) : Former Bhutan King Jigme Singye Wangchuk will be among eight eminent personalities to be conferred with 'Deshikottama', the highest award of the Visva-Bharati, by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the university's annual convocation here on December 6.


Wangchuk will be conferred with the award for his efforts to herald an era of democracy in Bhutan, Visva-Bharati officials said.


Other recipients of the award include -- former Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Amlan Dutta, economist J Endrez, historian Irfan Habib and noted theatre personality Habib Tanvir.


A security drill is being chalked out for the short visit of Manmohan Singh who will be attending the Visva-Bharati convocation for the first time as its Chancellor.


Seven years ago, former premier A B Vajpayee attended the annual convocation here as its chancellor.


In the wake of blast triggered by the Maoists near Salboni in West Midnapore district recently, efforts are on to tighten security in the capital during Singh's visit.


Meanwhile, sources said that a team of Special Protection Group would be arriving here shortly to get a briefing on the security arrangements and finalise the programmes.


PTI


Indian company bags $250 mn for Sri Lanka's tallest building
Colombo: A Hyderabad-based company has bagged the contract to construct a 250 million dollar 70 storeyed building in Colombo, the tallest in Sri Lanka.


The foundation stone for the proposed highest building in Sri Lanka was laid by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake on Sunday.


The public-private partnership building project will come up in the premises of Sethsiripaya in Battaramulla in Colombo suburbs at an estimated cost of USD 250 million and will be constructed by Sutchi NEB Construction Company of India.


The project initiated by the Board of Investment (BOI) of Government of Sri Lanka will have administration, commercial and housing units, a BOI official told PTI, adding the project is expected to be completed in three years.


While 40 floors will be dedicated for commercial operations, 20 floors will be for residential purposes, the official said.


Speaking on the occasion, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister said peoples' only desire was to see an end to the scourge of terrorism that was obstructing all new projects, investments and the country's development programmes.


Wickramanayake said the government will meet the peoples aspirations of rooting out terrorism and bring peace soon.


Speaking at the function, Urban Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena pointed out that India's contribution to such a mega development programme is another milestone in Indo-Sri Lanka ties.
 (PTI)


India would make Pakistan barren by 2014: official
Lahore : India would make Pakistan a barren land in the next six years by blocking its water through construction of dams in violation of the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah said on Monday.


Shah said India had constructed dams at various rivers and continued doing so in violation of the Indus Water Treaty.


The Treaty, he said, allowed New Delhi to generate electricity on the flow of the river but said water to Pakistan cannot be stopped, the Daily Times reported today. Dismissing India's claim that it had stopped Pakistan's water only from August 19 to 28, he said,"we do not accept the Indian point of view because India has stopped water till September 5 according to our estimate". The commissioner said that an Indian delegation was supposed to visit Pakistan on November 29 for discussions. Pakistan has formally complained to India about the alleged diversion of river waters to fill the Baglihar dam, claiming this was a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty.


Pakistan Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had earlier said that they would seek compensation from India in the form of additional discharge of water for the reduction of the flow of the Chenab from 55,000 cusecs to 22,000 cusecs.
(PTI)


 


Maintaining that the government was "prompt" in slashing jet fuel prices from Rs 71,000 to Rs 43,000 per kilolitre and abolishing customs duty on it, they said "neither the Prime Minister nor the Finance Minister considered the losses suffered by the oil marketing companies when providing such largesse to private airline companies".


Observing that the UPA government was "refusing" to reduce petrol and diesel prices despite the drastic fall in world crude prices, the parties said there was "no justification for refusing to make a substantial cut (in fuel prices) when the government itself has admitted that the administered prices of petrol and diesel are based upon an Indian basket calculated at USD 67 a barrel."


The parties announced a joint call for observing a protest day on December two and holding of demonstrations and dharnas across the country to demand cut in petrol and diesel prices.


The statement was signed by Prakash Karat (CPI-M), H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), A B Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T J Chandrachoodan (RSP).


 


Top aides said Sunday that Obama also wants Congress to use its large Democratic majority when it convenes Jan. 6 to prepare tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners as part of a massive government intervention designed to pull the country out of its frightening economic nosedive.


The aides said, however, the plan would not offer an immediate tax increase on wealthy taxpayers. During the campaign, Obama said he would pay for increased tax relief by raising taxes on people making more than $250,000.


``There won't be any tax increases in the January package,'' said one Obama aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the Obama package have not been fleshed out. Instead, Obama could let taxes on upper-income families increase when the current Bush administration tax cuts expire in 2011.


Obama senior adviser David Axelrod unambiguously voiced Obama's expectations.


``Our hope is that the new Congress begins work on this as soon as they take office in early January, because we don't have time to waste here, `` he told Fox News. ``We want to hit the ground running on January 20th'' when Obama takes office.


Congress will have two weeks to hold hearings and write legislation between its return to Washington in early January and Obama's inauguration.


Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, acknowledged a readiness for quick action.


``We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president's consideration when he takes office.''


Axelrod also warned executives of the U.S. auto industry to draw up plans to retool and restructure their industry if they want the billions of dollars they are seeking from Congress. Otherwise, Axelrod said, ``there is very little taxpayers can do to help them.''


Obama advisers would not discuss a specific size of the new economic stimulus, though economists have called for spending as much as $600 billion to shock the economy back onto a positive trajectory.


``I don't know what the number is going to be, but it's going to be a big number,'' Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on CBS television. ``It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.''


Obama also delved into one of the most pressing foreign policy issues facing his presidency, calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone and telling him that fighting terrorism there and in the region would be a top priority, Karzai's office said on Sunday.



The Saturday conversation between Obama and Karzai was the first reported contact between the two leaders since the Nov. 4 U.S. election. The United States has some 32,000 American troops in Afghanistan, a number that will be increased by thousands next year.



Fighting terrorism and the insurgency ``in Afghanistan, the region and the world is a top priority,'' Karzai's office quoted Obama as saying during the conversation.



On the domestic front, Axelrod confirmed that the president-elect would name Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve president, as his treasury secretary on Monday. Axelrod spoke Sunday on Fox News and ABC television.



``The response has been great, and it should be _ Tim Geithner is uniquely qualified to do this job,'' Axelrod said in response to the 6.5 percent jump in the stock market on Friday when word of Geithner's appointment began to leak. The market had just endured several days of steep losses.



The Geithner news followed in one-two fashion Obama's declaration on Saturday that his administration planned to create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.



Geithner will team with Lawrence Summers, a treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, who will take over the National Economic Council.



The men will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.



Both Geithner and Summers will appear with Obama at a Monday news conference in Chicago.



Also Sunday, a Democratic official said Obama would name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic presidential rival to his Cabinet.



Obama planned to announce the nomination after Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday, according to a Democratic official familiar with the discussions. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations and did so on condition of anonymity.



Richardson served as U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.



He is a seasoned international negotiator who mediated with North Korea over the downing of two U.S. Army helicopter pilots; hammered out a deal with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for the release of two U.S. oil workers; and was later sought out by the North Koreans to discuss nuclear issues.



Achuthanandan's land package a poll gimmick: Sreekumar

Kochi (PTI): Kerala Chief Miniser V S Achuthanandan had announced the Rs 5,000-crore package for the landless scheduled caste and scheduled tribes with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections, a prominent leader of the SC and ST has alleged.

Speaking to reporters in Kochi on Monday, Punnala Sreekumar, General Convener of Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribes Joint Committee and C K Janu, President Adivasi Gothramahasabha, said the package announced by the government for the SCs and STs was only to betray them with an eye on the next Parliament elections.

The current initiative by the government do not honour the sentiments of the SCs and STs who wanted a comprehensive development policy by implementing the second land reforms in the State, he said.

By giving false hope of 3 or 5 cents of land to the adivasis and SCs and STs, the government's ambition to win the Parliament election will not succeed, Sreekumar said.

The government package will not get support from the SCs and STs, he said.

The government will not be able to form a Scheduled Caste policy by holding discussion with the feeder organisations of Left parties alone, he said.

Sreekumar said on December 10 on 'Human Rights Day', a meeting of SCs and STs will be organised at Thrissur and their future plans would be announced.

CPI(M) highlights lack of basic amenities in J&K
Srinagar (PTI): With an eye on Gujjar and Bakarwal votes in J&K, the state unit of the CPI(M)on Monday said economic development of these communities will be its priority and highlighted the lack of basic facilities in Kulgam and Shopian districts of south Kashmir.

"The poor condition of roads and bridges, absence of proper healthcare facilities, unemployment and lack of safe drinking water show the neglect of Shopian district by successive governments," state secretary of CPI(M) M Y Tarigami said addressing a road show today.

Tarigami, who is seeking election from Kulgam seat for the third time which goes to polls in the sixth phase on December 17, said that the ongoing polls in the state was purely meant to address the day to day problems of the people and had nothing to do with long pending Kashmir issue.

Tarigami alleged that there was food crisis in the district as essential commodities like wheat, rice and kerosene oil were not available at government-run ration depots.

Expressing grief over the plight of Gujjars and Bakarwals who reside in large numbers in Shopian district, Tarigami said, "economic development of Gujjars and Bakarwals will be our priority".

Tarigami invited attention of the government to problems faced by the people of the district and assured them that his party will work for the overall development of the area.

The Communist leader said his party would work to develop the famous streams and water falls like Nandan Sar, Dabijan besides Aharbal as tourist destinations in Shopian district.

Mohammad Khalil Naik and Mohammad Abdullah Wani, the party candidates for Wachi and Shopian constituencies respectively, demanded granting of industry status to fruit industry.

Life comes to standstill, when Mayawati 'goes'
Lucknow (IANS): When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati moves on the streets of the state capital Lucknow, she has in attendance an army of at least 350 policemen and an assortment of 34 vehicles.

A security cover by the country's elite Special Protection Group (SPG) having been denied to her last year, Mayawati has ensured she has a heavier cover for herself. The SPG security is available only to the prime minister and former prime ministers. But Behenji, as she is called back home in Uttar Pradesh, had demanded it.

She had claimed there was a conspiracy to eliminate her and when she was denied the special security, even alleged that the Congress was part of it. In her quest for security, she even asked her officials to study the stringent Israeli security apparatus.

With a huge force moving with her, a curfew-like situation prevails wherever she goes. Shopkeepers are told to down shutters till the chief minister whizzes past, the traffic is halted, and onlookers are told to look the other way.

Her official residence as well as the entire Kalidas Marg on which the house is located were turned into a heavily barricaded fortress long ago, while her office has witnessed drastic alterations with the enhanced security in recent days.

These include an exclusive entry and exit gates and a dedicated elevator that lands directly into the chief minister's chamber. Her room has been renovated with expensive vitrified tiles and granite, like top business tycoons, and the wash room could beat one in any seven-star hotel.

To add to the opulence is some of the best imported furniture personally approved by her.

The chief minister's occasional visits to her office at Lucknow's Shastri Bhavan, her frequent trips to the airport from where she is currently busy shuttling on her election campaign in various states, and the passage of her convoy present an ordeal for all and sundry.

The situation was no different even before she raised the demand for an SPG cover. But the passion of the state police bigwigs to keep enhancing her security appears to be growing.

The citizens have to face the brunt of the traffic snarls each time she steps out of her impregnable mansion, whose surroundings resemble those of 7, Race Course Road, the official residence of the prime minister in New Delhi.

Mayawati now proposes to have a helipad built right across the CM's house on a piece of land for which negotiations are on with the 164-year-old La Martiniere College, owners of the property.

Whether it is a passer-by, a shopkeeper or a resident living along the 14-km route from her official residence to the Lucknow airport, none is spared the trauma.

"We are told to suspend all activity, push away customers and sometimes even shut our shops each time Mayawati passes by," complained a petty shopkeeper, who is too scared to give out his name.

"We must keep far away from the road but also look the other way while her convoy is passing," said a worker at a petrol pump along the way to the airport, who too declined to give his name for fear of retribution.

A retired railway official residing along the route recalled to IANS: "I was sitting on my terrace when a cop shouted at me to get inside my house and not even peep out until the chief minister's motorcade was gone."

To top it all, state director-general of police Vikram Singh and Lucknow zonal inspector-general of police Arvind Jain invariably accompany the chief minister on her election tours to other states where they are expected to coordinate her security with local officials.

The exercise began after a handful of Samajwadi Party workers staged a protest demonstration in front of her car as she was driving down somewhere in Madhya Pradesh last year.

Former state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Kesri Nath Tripathi wondered: "Does Mayawati realise that she is living in a democracy?"

"No one, howsoever high and mighty, was entitled to make the lives of the common citizens miserable; even former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee never allowed such inconvenience to anyone whenever he came calling to Lucknow, his constituency," he said.

State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi felt that "every chief minister is entitled to certain security, but Mayawati seems to be obsessed with it. She thinks it is her right to trample upon civil liberties of common people".

Claiming that his elder brother and former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav never allowed common citizens to be harassed because of his movements, Samajwadi Party state president Shivpal Yadav said: "Mayawati thinks she is a feudal Maharani who does not allow lesser mortals to get anywhere close to her".

Defending her security, a top police officer of the state maintained to IANS: "We cannot take any chances with the chief minister's security. We have clear inputs about all kinds of threat to her life."

NCM to submit report on Batla House encounter to govt.
New Delhi (PTI): Amid controversies surrounding the September 19 police encounter at Batla House in Delhi, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is contemplating to place the "pulse of the people" on the issue before the government.

The Commission discussed the issue in its November 6 meeting in detail after a team of NCM prepared a report on the basis of the team members' interactions with social workers, NGOs, teachers and intellectuals and family members of the persons arrested by Delhi police, sources said.

The Commission prepared a ten page report carrying verbatim statements of the persons concerned with the issue, who interacted with the NCM team led by its Chairman Mohammed Shafi Qureshi on October 10 at the Jamia Millia University, they added.

"The Commission can either send the same report carrying the pulse of the people over the episode to the government or may send a report based on its findings," an NCM official said.

The Commission may also be recommending measures to instill confidence among the people of the locality. During the visit, the Commission Chairman had said that he would definitely draw the attention of the government towards the situation.

Prior to it, the Commission Chairman had addressed a seminar on a related issue in the university the same month.

Two youths, suspected as Indian Mujahideen terrorists, were shot dead in the police encounter. Inspector of Delhi Police Mohan Chand Sharma was also killed in the encounter.

However, the locals doubted the encounter theory of the police and raised doubts regarding the police claim about the arrested and deceased having any terrorist links.

Congress MP urges PM to contest from Malda
Kolkata (PTI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha, has been urged to contest from Congress-stronghold of West Bengal's Malda in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Congress MP from Malda Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury today said that he had requested Singh to contest from Malda (North) during his recent meeting with the prime minister.

"The prime minister did not say no to my proposal. He said he will speak to me when he arrives in Malda," Chowdhury told PTI from Malda.

Malda is considered to be a Congress-stronghold as veteran Congress leader and former Union minister late Ghani Khan Chowdhury, who is Hashem's brother, had won the seat seven times in a row.

After delimitation, the Malda seat has been bifurcated into Malda (South) and Malda (North).

"We will be happy if the prime minister agrees to contest from Malda in the coming Lok Sabha elections," working president of WBPCC Pradip Bhattacherjee said.

He said that the party wanted Singh to address a public meeting at Malda on December seven for which confirmation was awaited from the PMO.

The Prime Minister will visit Chowdhury's house at Kotwali and also pay tributes at his brother's samadhi.

CULTIVATING HOPE
- Mahmoud Darwish’s idea of Arab was an inclusive identity 
Postscript
Githa Hariharan
 
 
Mahmoud Darwish (March 13, 1941-August 9, 2008) 
Mahmoud Darwish, often referred to as the Palestinian national poet, once told his readers: “Do not trust the poem —/ The daughter of absence/ It is neither intuition nor is it/ Thought/ But rather, the sense of the abyss...” These lines of verse wave a flag to warn the reader of besieged territory ahead — the sort of territory where poetry, politics — life itself — has to be conducted in a state of dispossession. The poem is called, appropriately, ‘In a State of Siege’.

What does living such a life entail? A few details of Darwish’s life provide us with fairly clear-cut indications.

Darwish was born in 1941 in al Birweh, a village in Galilee, under the British mandate in Palestine. When he was six, his world was turned upside down, and it never set itself right again. And it wasn’t just young Mahmoud’s life, but the lives of his family, his village, other villages, and their homeland. All their lives were turned upside down, and so was their sense of who they were, and who they now had to be. As the Israeli army occupied Birweh, Darwish and his family were forced to join the great exodus of refugees. They spent a year in Lebanon living on United Nations handouts. By the time they returned to their village in 1949, Israel had been created; but their village was one of the hundreds of Palestinian villages that had been razed to the ground.

They were refugees again, infiltrators in their own land. Their return was “illegal”; they were given the status of “present-absent aliens”. Present-absent alien — an invention worthy of a bizarre fictional dystopia — would be the identity that would shadow Darwish from that point onwards.

Years later, Darwish recalled how his grandfather chose to live on a hill that overlooked his land. “Until he died he would watch [Jewish] immigrants from Yemen living in his place, which he was unable even to visit.” The message of such an experience was: “You were not here. This was not Palestine.”

This is what Golda Meir said when she announced, “There are no Palestinians.”

Displacement, landlessness, exile, fragmentation, discontinuity — such experiences are bound to confuse and erode identity. Edward Said took statements like Meir’s and transformed them into questions that explore the shifting, elusive nature of contemporary Palestinian identity: “Do we exist? What proof do we have? The further we get from the Palestine of our past, the more precarious our status, the more disrupted our being, the more intermittent our presence...”

Darwish described this identity in terms of a continuous “struggle between two memories”. If his memories were real, his poetry had to challenge the Zionist tenet of “a land without a people for a people without a land.” The result was, often, a strange contest within the poet. For instance, Darwish admired the work of the Hebrew poet, Yehuda Amichai; but he also recognized that Amichai’s poems were a challenge to him. Darwish said of Amichai, “He wants to use the landscape and history for his own benefit, based on my destroyed identity. So we have a competition: who is the owner of the language of this land? Who loves it more? Who writes it better?”

Darwish never found his homeland again in a literal sense, but he found it in his language. The language of his poetry managed to describe everyday events. And according to the literary critics who consider Darwish “the saviour of the Arabic language”, he did this with such understanding of the people living in his poetry, that they are finally able to express “what they fear most but are unable to utter”.

Darwish has written of a state of siege in which anger simmers; but he has also written, “Here on the slopes of hills, facing the dusk and the cannon of time/ Close to the gardens of broken shadows,/ We do what prisoners do,/ And what the jobless do:/ We cultivate hope.”

Perhaps this is the most important legacy Darwish has left all of us, not just his fellow Palestinians. The “sense of abyss” he describes so movingly in his work does not exist on its own. It has been transformed through political acts, and acts of imagination, into something more life affirming. In other words, there’s siege, but there’s also hope. There’s loss, but there’s also belonging.

The homeland that was not within reach had to grow into something bigger. The history of Palestine had turned the insider — the Palestinian Arab — into the outsider. As a result, the Palestine in Darwish’s work turned into a universal metaphor for the loss of Eden, for birth and resurrection, for the anguish of dispossession and exile. In fact, Said described Darwish’s poetry as “an epic effort to transform the lyrics of loss into the indefinitely postponed drama of return.”

Darwish was often called “the poet of the resistance”; but in the course of his life’s work, he somehow managed to resist any neat or simplistic label. He wrote the Palestinian declaration of independence in 1988, and many poems of resistance that are an integral part of every Arab’s consciousness. But he also allowed himself to grow into a poet who did not close his mind to other ways of seeing.

He said: “Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down... I always humanize the other. I even humanised the Israeli soldier…” Humanizing a “side” in a polarized situation is not easy for anyone, least of all a poet. Just after the 1967 war, Darwish wrote a subtle and tender poem about an Israeli friend who decided to leave the country on his return from the front. The poem, “A Soldier Who Dreams of White Lilies” drew criticism from the secretary general of the Israeli Communist Party, who wanted to know whether Darwish wanted them to leave the country; while many Arab readers were offended because Darwish had humanized the Israeli soldier. But Darwish wrote that he had “multiple images of the Israeli other” — the Israelis in his poetry were not only jailors, but also friends and lovers — and that he would “continue to humanize even the enemy...”

It’s not surprising then that his conception of “Arab” was an open and inclusive identity. His work conducted a dialogue with a range of peoples and cultures — including Canaanite, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Arab, French, English, Ottoman and Native American. Not only did these dialogues create multiple levels of meaning in the poems, but they also made the theme of defining and asserting identity a richer, more complex exercise that made allowances for all kinds of overlapping. Darwish also wrote many poems about love and death; some could be easily understood; others yielded their meanings more reluctantly. And in all this body of work, Darwish tried to maintain an open and honest relationship with his readers. In an interview to The New York Times, he said, “When I move closer to pure poetry, Palestinians say go back to what you were. But I have learned from experience that I can take my reader with me if he trusts me...”

Mahmoud Darwish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mahmoud Darwish
????? ?????
Born March 13, 1941
al-Birwa, Palestine
Died August 9, 2008 (aged 67)
Houston, Texas, United States
Occupation Poet and writer
Nationality Palestinian
Writing period 1964-2008
Genres Poetry
 
Influences[show]
Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian exodus, Nakba 
Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a respected Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet.[1] In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.[2][3]

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Literary career
2.1 Literary influences
3 Attitude toward Israel
4 Political activism
5 Music and film
6 Quotations
7 Awards
8 Death
9 Published work
9.1 Poetry
9.2 Prose
10 References
11 External links
 


[edit] Biography
Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa in the Western Galilee.[4] He was the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His father was a Muslim landowner. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read.[5] After the establishment of the State of Israel, the family fled to Lebanon first in Jezzin and then in Damour.[6] A year later, they returned to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad.[7] Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. He eventually moved to Haifa. He published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, at the age of nineteen. Darwish left Israel in 1970 [8]to study in the USSR. He attended the University of Moscow for one year, [3]before moving to Egypt and Lebanon.[9] When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel.[5] In 1995, he returned to attend the funeral of his colleague, Emile Habibi and received a permit to remain in Haifa for 4 days.[10] Darwish was allowed to settle in Ramallah in 1995,[10] although he said he felt was living in exile there, and did not consider the West Bank his "private homeland."[11]

Darwish was twice married and divorced. His first wife was the writer Rana Kabbani. In the mid-1980s, he married an Egyptian translator, Hayat Heeni. He had no children.[5] Darwish had a history of heart disease, suffering a heart attack in 1984, followed by two heart operations, in 1984 and 1998.[5]

His last visit to Israel was on July 15, 2007 to attend a poetry recital at Mt. Carmel Auditorium in Haifa,[12] in which he criticized the factional violence between Fatah and Hamas as a "suicide attempt in the streets".[13]


[edit] Literary career
Darwish published over thirty volumes of poetry and eight books of prose. He was editor of Al-Jadid, Al-Fajr, Shu'un Filistiniyya and Al-Karmel (1981). His first poetry collection to be published "Leaves of Olives" included the poem "Identity Card", written in 1964:[14]

Record! I am an Arab/ And my identity card is number fifty thousand/ I have eight children/ And the ninth is coming after a summer/ Will you be angry?/ Record!/ I am an Arab/ I have a name without a title/ Patient in a country/ Where people are enraged . . . I do not hate people/ Nor do I encroach/ But if I become hungry/ The usurper's flesh will be my food/ Beware../ Beware../ Of my hunger/ And my anger!

Darwish's work won numerous awards, and has been published in 20 languages. [15] A central theme in Darwish's poetry is the concept of watan or homeland. The poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote that Darwish "is the essential breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging...."[16]

[edit] Literary influences
Darwish was impressed by the Arab poets Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab.[6] He cited Rimbaud and Ginsberg as literary influences.[5] Darwish admired the Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai, but described his poetry as a "challenge to me, because we write about the same place. He wants to use the landscape and history for his own benefit, based on my destroyed identity. So we have a competition: who is the owner of the language of this land? Who loves it more? Who writes it better?"[5]


[edit] Attitude toward Israel
While Darwish is widely perceived as a Palestinian symbol [17]and a spokesman for Arab opposition to Israel, he rejected the accusation of antisemitism: "The accusation is that I hate Jews. It's not comfortable that they show me as a devil and an enemy of Israel. I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews."[18]Darwish wrote in Arabic, but spoke English, French and Hebrew. According to Israeli author Haim Gouri, who knew him personally, Darwish's Hebrew was excellent.[19] Four volumes of his poetry were translated into Hebrew by Muhammad Hamza Ghaneim: Bed of a Stranger (2000), Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? (2000), State of Siege (2003) and Mural (2006). [20] Salman Masalha, a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew writer, translated his book Memory for Forgetfulness into Hebrew.[21] In March 2000, Yossi Sarid, the Israeli education minister, proposed that two of Darwish's poems be included in the Israeli high school curriculum. Prime Minister Ehud Barak rejected the proposal on the grounds that Israel was "not ready."[22] It has been suggested that the incident had more to do with internal Israeli politics in trying to damage Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government than poetry.[23] With the death of Darwish the debate about including his poetry in the Israeli school curriculum has been re-opened.[24]


[edit] Political activism
Darwish was a member of Rakah, the Israeli communist party, before joining the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut.[25] In 1970 he left for Moscow. Later, he moved to Cairo in 1971 where he worked for al-Ahram daily newspaper. In Beirut, in 1973, he edited the monthly Shu'un Filistiniyya (Palestinian Affairs) and worked as a director in the Palestinian Research Center of the PLO and joined the organisation. In the wake of the Lebanon War, Darwish wrote the political poems Qasidat Bayrut (1982) and Madih al-zill al'ali(1983). Darwish was elected to the PLO Executive Committee in 1987. In 1988 he wrote a manifesto intended as the Palestinian people's declaration of independence. In 1993, after the Oslo accords, Darwish resigned from the PLO Executive Committee.[26] Darwish has consistently demanded a "tough and fair" stand in negotiations with Israel.[27]

In 1988, one of his poems, Passers Between the Passing Words, was cited in the Knesset by Yitzhak Shamir.[5] He was accused of demanding that the Jews leave Israel, although he claimed he meant the West Bank and Gaza[28]: "So leave our land/Our shore, our sea/Our wheat, our salt, our wound." A specialist on Darwish's poetry Adel Usta, said the poem was misunderstood and mistranslated,[29] while poet and translator Ammiel Alcalay wrote that "the hysterical overreaction to the poem simply serves as a remarkably accurate litmus test of the Israeli psyche ... (the poem) is an adamant refusal to accept the language of the occupation and the terms under which the land is defined".[30]

Despite his criticism of both Israel and the Palestinian leadership, Darwish believed that peace was attainable. "I do not despair," he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "I am patient and am waiting for a profound revolution in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms - all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace."[9]

In July 2007, Darwish returned to Ramallah and visited Haifa for a festive event held in his honor sponsored by Masharaf magazine and the Israeli Hadash party. [31]To a crowd of some 2,000 people who turned out for the event, he voiced his criticism of the Hamas takeover:

"We woke up from a coma to see a monocolored flag (of Hamas) do away with the four-color flag (of Palestine)."[32]


[edit] Music and film
Many of Darwish's poems were set to music most notably Rita, Birds of Galilee and I Yearn for my Mother's Bread and have become anthems for at least two generations of Arabs, by Arab composers, among them Marcel Khalife[33][34], Majida El Roumi and Ahmad Qa'abour.[35] In the 1980s, Sabreen, a Palestinian group in Israel, recorded an album including versions of Darwish's poems "On Man" and "On Wishes".[36] Khalife was accused of blasphemy and insulting religious values because a song entitled I am Yusuf, oh my father based on Darwish's lyrics, cited a verse from the Qur'an.[37] In this poem, Darwish shared the pain of Yusuf (Joseph) who was rejected by his brothers, who fear him because he is too handsome and kind. "Oh my father, I am Yusuf / Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst". The story of Joseph is an allegory for the rejection of the Palestinians.

Tamar Muskal, an Israeli-American composer incorporated Dawish's "I Am From There" into her composition "The Yellow Wind," which combines a full orchestra, Arabic flute, Arab and Israeli poetry, and themes from David Grossman's book The Yellow Wind.[38]

In 1997, a documentary entitled Mahmoud Darwish was produced by French TV directed by French-Israeli director Simone Bitton.[39]


[edit] Quotations
Why are we always told that we cannot solve our problem without solving the existential anxiety of the Israelis and their supporters who have ignored our very existence for decades in our own homeland?[40]

We have triumphed over the plan to expel us from history.[41]

"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."[42][43]

"We should not justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It is not ideological, it is despair."

"We have to understand - not justify - what gives rise to this tragedy. It's not because they're looking for beautiful virgins in heaven, as Orientalists portray it. Palestinian people are in love with life. If we give them hope - a political solution - they'll stop killing themselves."[3]

“Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile. The sarcasm is not only related to today’s reality but also to history. History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.”[4]

"I will continue to humanise even the enemy... The first teacher who taught me Hebrew was a Jew. The first love affair in my life was with a Jewish girl. The first judge who sent me to prison was a Jewish woman. So from the beginning, I didn't see Jews as devils or angels but as human beings." Several poems are to Jewish lovers. "These poems take the side of love not war,"[3]


[edit] Awards
The Lotus Prize (1969; from the Union of Afro-Asian Writers)
Lenin Peace Prize (1983; from the USSR)
The Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (1993; from France)
The Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom (2001)[44]
Prince Claus Awards (2004)
"Bosnian stecak" (2007)
Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings (2007)
[edit] Death
Mahmoud Darwish died on August 9, 2008 at the age of 67, three days after heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. Before surgery, Darwish had signed a document asking not to be resuscitated in the event of brain death.[45]

Early reports of his death in the Arabic press indicated that Darwish had asked in his will to be buried in Palestine. Three locations were originally suggested; his home village of al-Birwa, the neighboring village Jadeida, where some of Darwish's family still resides or in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Ramallah Mayor Janet Mikhail announced later that Darwish would be buried next to Ramallah's Palace of Culture, at the summit of a hill overlooking Jerusalem on the southwestern outskirts of Ramallah, and a shrine would be erected in his honor.[25] Ahmed Darwish said "Mahmoud doesn't just belong to a family or a town, but to all the Palestinians, and he should be buried in a place where all Palestinians can come and visit him."[46]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning to honor Darwish and he was accorded the equivalent of a State funeral.[25][47]

Arrangements for flying the body in from Texas delayed the funeral for a day.[48] Darwish's body was then flown from Amman, Jordan for the burial in Ramallah. The first eulogy was delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to an orderly gathering of thousands. Several left-wing Knessets members attended the official ceremony; Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) stood with the family, and Dov Khenin (Hadash) and Jamal Zahalka (Balad) were in the hall at the Mukataa. Also present was the former French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin.[49] After the ceremony, Darwish's coffin was taken in a cortege at walking pace from the Mukataa to the Palace of Culture, gathering thousands of followers along the way.


[edit] Published work

[edit] Poetry
Asafir bila ajniha (Wingless birds), 1960
Awraq Al-Zaytun (Leaves of olives), 1964
Ashiq min filastin (A lover from Palestine), 1966
Akhir al-layl (The end of the night), 1967
Yawmiyyat jurh filastini (Diary of a Palestinian wound), 1969
Habibati tanhad min nawmiha (My beloved awakens), 1969
al-Kitabah 'ala dhaw'e al-bonduqiyah (Writing in the light of the gun), 1970
al-'Asafir tamut fi al-jalil (Birds are Dying in Galilee), 1970
Mahmoud Darwish works, 1971. Two volumes
Mattar na'em fi kharif ba'eed (Light rain in a distant autumn) 1971
Uhibbuki aw la uhibbuki (I love you, I love you not), 1972
Jondiyyun yahlum bi-al-zanabiq al-baidaa' (A soldier dreaming of white lilies), 1973
Complete Works, 1973. Now al-A'amal al-jadida (2004) and al-A'amal al-oula (2005).
Muhawalah raqm 7 (Attempt number 7), 1974
Tilka suratuha wa-hadha intihar al-ashiq (That's her image, and that's the suicide of her lover), 1975
Ahmad al-za'tar, 1976
A'ras (Weddings), 1977
al-Nasheed al-jasadi (The music of human flesh), 1980. Joint work
Qasidat Bayrut (Ode to Beirut), 1982
Madih al-zill al-'ali (A eulogy for the tall shadow), 1983
Hissar li-mada'eh al-bahr, 1984
Victims of a Map, 1984. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim and Adonis in English.
Sand and Other Poems, 1986
Hiya ughniyah, hiya ughniyah (It's a song, it's a song), 1985
Ward aqal (Fewer roses), 1985
Ma'asat al-narjis, malhat al-fidda (Tragedy of daffodils, comedy of silver), 1989
Ara ma oreed (I see what I want), 1990
Ahad 'asher kaukaban (Eleven planets), 1992
Limaza tarakt al-hissan wahidan (Why did you leave the horse alone?), 1995. English translation 2006 by Jeffrey Sacks (ISBN 0976395010)
Psalms, 1995. A selection from Uhibbuki aw la uhibbuki, translation by Ben Bennani
Sareer El-Ghariba (Bed of a stranger), 1998
Then Palestine, 1999 (with Larry Towell, photographer, and Rene Backmann)
Jidariyya (Mural), 2000
The Adam of Two Edens: Selected Poems, 2001
Halat Hissar (State of siege), 2002
La ta'tazer 'amma fa'alt (Don't apologize for what you did), 2003
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, 2003. Translations by Munir Akash, Caroyln Forché and others
al-A'amal al-jadida (The new works), 2004. A selection of Darwish's recent works
al-A'amal al-oula (The early works), 2005. Three volumes, a selection of Darwish's early works
Ka-zahr el-lawz aw ab'ad (Same as almond flowers or farther), 2005

[edit] Prose
Shai'on 'an al-wattan (Something about the homeland), 1971
Wada'an ayatuha al-harb, wada'an ayuha al-salaam (Farwell, war, farwell, peace), 1974
Yawmiyyat al-hozn al-'aadi (Diary of the usual sadness), 1973
Dhakirah li-al-nisyan (Memory for Forgetfulness), 1987. English translation 1995 by Ibrahim Muhawi
Fi wasf halatina (Describing our condition), 1987
al-Rasa'il (The Letters), 1990. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim
Aabiroon fi kalamen 'aaber (Bypassers in bypassing words), 1991
Fi hadrat al-ghiyab (In the presence of absence), 2006

[edit] References
^ BBC News 9 August 2008 Palestinian 'national poet' dies
^ New York Times 22 December 2001 A Poet's Palestine as a Metaphor by Adam Shatz
^ a b c d Guardian Saturday June 8, 2002 Poet of the Arab world by Maya Jaggi
^ a b Saudi Gazette 10 August 2008 Death defeats Darwish
^ a b c d e f g PHRC Saturday June 8, 2002 Poet of the Arab world by Maya Jaggi, Originally printed in the Guardian
^ a b Guardian 11 August 2008 Mahmoud Darwish by Peter Clark
^ Geocities Mahmoud Darwish Biography by Sameh Al-Natour.
^
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019886.html
^ a b Seattle Times Saturday, August 9, 2008 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67 By Diaa Hadid
^ a b New York Times 10 May 1996 Ramallah Journal;Suitcase No Longer His Homeland, a Poet Returns By Joel Greenberg
^
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019886.html
^ Ha'aretzPalestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to attend event in Haifa By Yoav Stern,
^ BBC News 16 July 2007 Palestinian poet derides factions
^ see the site
^ Fencemag.com
^ Poets.org from the Academy of American Poets
^
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019886.html
^ New York Times 7 March 2000 Ramallah Journal; Poetry of Arab Pain: Are Israeli Students Ready? by Susan Sachs
^
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011812.html
^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019886.html
^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019886.html
^ BBC News 7 March 2000 Poetry sends Israel into political storm
^ New York Times 14 March 2000 Barak Survives 2 No-Confidence Motions by Susan Sontag
^ Jpost10 August 2008 Should Darwish's poetry be taught in schools? By Ehud Zion Waldoks
^ a b c Ha'aretz 10 August 2008 Palestinians: Mahmoud Darwish to be laid to rest in Israel By Zvi Bar'el
^ New York Times 25 August 1993 Palestinian Critics Accuse Arafat Of Secret Concessions to Israelis by Youseff M. Ibrahim page 2
^ kirjasto.sci.fi/darwish
^ New York Times 5 April, 1988 Palestinian's Poem Unnerves Israelis
^ CBC 9 August 2008 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dies
^ Alcalay, Ammiel (7 August 1988), "Who's Afraid of Mahmoud Darwish?", News From Within IV (8): 14-16 
^
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011812.html
^ AFP 9 August 2008 Famed Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish dies: hospital
^ I am Yusuf, oh my father
^ My Mother's Bread
^ International Herald Tribune 10 August 2008 Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet, is dead Reuters, The Associated Press
^ [1]
^ Marcel Khalife's website In Defence of Freedom and Creativity By Mahmoud Darwish
^ New York Times 14 May 2005 Letting Music Speak of Mideast Pain by Felicia R Lee
^ Official Mahmoud Darwish website
^ New York Times 19 September 1988 Waiting, Forever, for Mr. Arafat
^ New York Times 15 May 1998 Mideast Turmoil: In Jerusalem; Israeli Police In a Clash With Arabs by Joel Greenberg
^ The Progressive May 2002 Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile By Nathalie Handal
^ Tikun Olam Aug 10th, 2008 Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine’s Greatest Poet, Dies by Richard Silverstein
^
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/israelandthepalestinians.poetry?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews
^ al Jazeera.net 10 August 2008 Palestinian poet Darwish dies
^ Jpost 10 August 2008 PA may request Galilee burial for poet By Associated Press
^ Washington Post 10 August 2008 Palestinians plan big funeral for poet Darwish By Mohammed Assadi
^ Gulfnews.com 11 August 2008 Mahmoud Darwish funeral postponed till Wednesday
^ Ha'aretz 14 August 2008 Mahmoud Darwish - The death of a Palestinian cultural symbol By Avi Issacharoff and Jack Khoury

[edit] External links
Mahmoud Darwish: Official website
FAQ on Mahmoud Darwish at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
Listen to Mahmoud Darwish (videos in Arabic and French)
Homage to Mahmoud Darwish Hour-long radio program from Voices of the Middle East
Mahmoud Darwish Commented Bibliography
Roundtable discussion on Mahmoud Darwish at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
Darwish poems
Darwish biography
2002 Article on Darwish from The Progressive
Short biography, two poems and one exerpt at Fence
Five Darwish poems at Poemhunter.com
Seven Darwish poems at a Geocities fansite
Poem of Darwish in a light projection of artist Jenny Holzer in London
Poem by Darwish at the Virginia Quarterly Review
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre
Poets.org In Jerusalem
Poets.org I Belong There
YouTube Mahmoud Darwish -Abiroun
Marcel Khalife.com Oh My Father, I am Yusif

 
Call girl to e-mail girl
Sex rackets are flourishing online, with a raft of escort services — including those from small-town Bengal — strutting their stuff on the web. Prasun Chaudhuri reports 
 
The trade was never this easy. All that you have to do is e-mail an “escort” service. You get a prompt reply with a cell phone number. You call the number and a “hostess” answers, asking for your preferences. “We have top beauties — executives, housewives, models — who offer personal elite escort service to discerning gentlemen,” she says.

A week later, Rina, the escort, calls up. In her mid-20s — or so she claims — Rina stresses that she’s been an escort for years but has just got listed on the Web. “Now I’ll have my own site,” she exults. “On the Net you get to screen clients.”

Rina — or her escort service — won’t say it upfront, but she is the new face of the Calcutta sex worker. Unlike her older mates, she doesn’t hang around shady corners at dusk or sit provocatively in hotel lounges. She advertises herself on the Net — but as an escort. Scores of online services promise escorts to suit every occasion.

Rina came to know about the online agencies from Neha, a college student who has just joined the sex trade. Neha says she has her own site, linked to top escort agencies.

The money, clearly, is good. To meet a premium escort, you need to deposit Rs 15,000 in a specified account. One night with an escort can cost upwards of Rs 25,000. Rina says agents grab 80 per cent of an escort’s fees.

The agents are, not surprisingly, tightlipped about the racket. “We do use the Net, but you can’t prove we’re selling sex,” says Rina’s agent, Rocky. One of Calcutta’s top agents for escorts, Rajesh, is, however, convinced about the benefits of hooking clients through the Net. “You get premium customers who can pay loads,” he says.

Indeed, the phenomenon is far from being confined to Calcutta. Web-based escort services are also reaching out to places outside Calcutta such as Alipurduar, Berhampore, Naihati and Purulia. “Escorts can always become available at home, office or hotel as fast as (in) 20 minutes,” one web site proudly announces.

A project conducted in Naihati, a town 40 km from Calcutta, finds that most sex workers are housewives or students. Sujoy Singh of Naihati ProLife, who has been associated with the national project, says that women join sex rackets to make money to be able to buy smart phones or luxury cars. “Many of them not only use the Net to develop contacts but have joined porn rackets for some extra money,” says Singh.

Debashree Chattopadhyay, officer in charge of the immoral traffic section of the Calcutta Police, says she has received preliminary reports about a flourishing pornography industry in rural Bengal. The Suprova Panchashila Mahila Udyog Samity, an organisation working on an HIV intervention programme in Behrampore in rural Bengal, has found cases of students of technology colleges participating in sex rings.

“Until recently, most sex workers were either trafficked or compelled by poverty to join the profession,” says Subodh Das, the author of a four-volume book Chaloman Jounokormi (Stories of Mobile Sex Workers). “But now these streetwalkers are facing stiff competition from affluent call girls who can access the Net to hook new age clients.”

The law enforcement agencies are not unduly bothered by the Net-based prostitution rings masquerading as escort agencies. Chattopadhyay of the Calcutta Police is aware of online escorts in the city — she even knows which hotels they operate from — but states that the law (the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act) doesn’t recognise them as criminals. “Call girl service advertising on the Net isn’t illegal as long as it doesn’t involve children or exploitation,” she says.

There is little that the West Bengal Women’s Commission can do either. “Our law has yet to catch up with pimping or soliciting over the Net,” says commission chairperson Malini Bhattacharya. “But we need to investigate because after all the Net is a public domain and online networks can easily target Net-savvy adolescents,” she adds.

Some organisations, however, have started dealing with Net-based prostitution. “Although it is not our priority, we plan to explore its role in girl trafficking,” says Anindit Roy-Chowdhury of Sanlaap, an organisation battling commercial sexual exploitation. He recalls the case of an 18-year-old woman who was rescued after she was trafficked by a Delhi-based prostitution ring operating through an online matrimonial agency. “If you’re a troubled teenager, it’s an easy way to make quick money. There are chatrooms which often lure unsuspecting adolescents into prostitution,” says Roy-Chowdhury.

That Calcutta and its suburbs are being drawn into the online prostitution was first documented in 2004 by the Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust (BPWT), a body working on an HIV/AIDS intervention programmes for Calcutta’s sex workers. “We’d bumped into websites that solicited sex,” says Ishita Majumder, senior project manager, BPWT. “Deals are discreetly done through e-mails till the agent is convinced of the client’s intentions.”

Majumder points out that it was difficult getting into the networks that operate clandestinely, unlike traditional sex workers who are out in the open. “Since most women (who use Net services) belong to educated middle-class families, they dread any kind of exposure,” she says.

It took them more than six years to reach out to 1,189 women, 201 agents and 506 clients. Among the women were housewives, office workers and even school students. “Although most of them do it for the money, some get into it for the self esteem of being employed and in control of their sexuality,” she says. As these women have access to the Net and can afford several mobile phones, they naturally join online agencies. Many clients too prefer the Net to develop contacts.

Another organisation, the Society of Human Genetics and Population Health (Sohgaph), has been dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention among sex workers in Salt Lake. “We spoke to 1,800 call girls and 15 agents,” says Samadrita Sardar Mukherjee, secretary, Sohgaph. “Some are tech savvy, make extensive use of Net-based services and are independent.”

Two surveys commissioned by the ministry of women and child development demonstrate the modernisation of the sex trade in India. The countrywide 2004 and 2008 surveys of 20,000 sex workers reveal the use of the Internet and the mobile phone “to develop and maintain contacts.” According to K.K. Mukherjee, who led the surveys, brothel-based prostitution is fast disappearing from India.

“Consumerism has changed our values. Now young women from upper class families are getting hooked on to the sex trade and the clients too have a similar background,” says Mukherjee. “Young men are exposed to pornography or sex chat forums from an early age; escort agencies reach these clients through links to these sleazy sites.”

Brothel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

"Lupanar" redirects here. For the Pompeii brothel, see Lupanar (Pompeii).
For the 2008 film of this name, see The Brothel. For the television series of this name, see Cathouse: The Series.
A brothel, also known as a bordello or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sex with the clients. In some places, brothels are legal, and in many countries, places such as massage parlors are allowed to function as brothels, with varying degrees of regulation and repression. Depending on zoning, brothels may be confined to special red-light districts or 'tolerance zones'.

 
18th century illustration of Sally Salisbury stabbing a client in a brothel.


Contents [hide]
1 Business models
2 Military brothels
3 Nevada brothels
4 Regulation
5 In popular culture
6 See also
7 Bibliography
8 External links
9 References
 


[edit] Business models
Brothels use a variety of business models:

In some, prostitutes are held in involuntary servitude without the option to leave,[1] receiving only a small portion (or none) of the money paid by the patron. This is typical where human trafficking procures a large percentage of prostitutes, and is common in (though not limited to) countries where prostitution is forbidden or repressed. In some cases, prostitutes are bought and sold by their keepers, reducing them to a state of chattel slavery. All of these are illegal in most jurisdictions.
In others the prostitutes are employees, receiving a small fixed salary and a portion of the money spent by the customer. (Maison close French for "closed house")
In still others, the prostitutes pay a fee for use of the facilities, with the brothel owner not being involved in the financial transaction between prostitute and client. (Maison de passe, French for "trick house")
In the regulated brothels in Nevada the prostitutes are contract workers who split their earnings with the house, and are often expected to "tip" support staff (cleaners, limo drivers, etc.); they receive no benefits, such as health insurance, and no withholding for Social Security taxes.
In those countries which restrict or forbid prostitution, the latter provides some level of plausible denial to the facility owner, who often (thinly) disguises the brothel as a massage parlor, bar or similar facility. Allowing such brothels may also be a form of face-saving by politicians who are unwilling or unable to fully enforce laws against prostitution.


[edit] Military brothels
Further information: Comfort women, Bordels Mobiles de Campagne, and Forced prostitution in German armed forces
Until recently, in several armies around the world, a mobile brothel service was attached to the army as an auxiliary unit, especially attached to combat units on long-term deployments abroad. For example, during French and Japanese colonial campaigns of the 20th century, such employees were mainly recruited among the local populace of Southeast Asia and Africa; often, some of the women were underage. Because it is a touchy subject, military brothels were often designated with creative euphemisms. Notable examples of such jargon are la boîte à bonbons (English: "the candy box"), replacing the term "Bordel militaire de campagne". Women forced into prostitution by the Japanese occupation armies throughout East Asia were known as "Comfort battalions". The prostitutes were individually referred to as "Military comfort women" or jugun-ianfu.


[edit] Nevada brothels
In the United States, the only state where brothels are legal is Nevada (see List of brothels in Nevada and Prostitution in Nevada). Brothels are allowed in counties with populations of less than 400,000 inhabitants, and not all qualifying counties have allowed them. County governments license and regulate brothels within their boundaries. The brothels and their employees have to register with the county sheriff and receive regular medical checkups. Brothels have existed in Nevada since the old mining days of the 1800s and were first licensed in 1971. As of 2007, thirty brothels existed in Nevada. The legendary Mustang Ranch operated from 1971 through 1999, when it was forfeited to the federal government following a series of convictions for tax fraud, racketeering, and other crimes.

Due to the county population rule, all forms of prostitution are illegal in Reno and Las Vegas, and prostitution not occurring in a licensed brothel is illegal anywhere in Nevada.


[edit] Regulation
Various countries have fully legalized prostitution (as opposed to only tolerating it) in the last decades, including countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand among others. Most of these countries seem to favor brothels, at least in theory, as they are considered to be less problematic than street prostitution. Laws regarding prostitution often include strict regulations for brothels, for example specifying that they may not be situated in certain zones (such as in residential areas or near schools) and usually prescribing various forms of health inspections. Actual regulations vary widely.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothel

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