By Geeta Padmanabhan

Telecom Minister Raja

If you are a retiree in India and spend your hours watching day&night TV news channels, chances are you have stopped watching feature films. In the last year alone, the skeletons that the channels have discovered in government and private cupboards and have instantly sensationalised on air are meat enough for a dozen thrillers in Anywood.

It is not that we haven’t had scams – public and private – in the past 60 years. You may be unaware of the Mundra affair that cost Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari his position in the cabinet in the early years after Independence, but you couldn’t have forgotten the Tehelka expose of bribing in a national party. Then there was the Bhopal gas tragedy soon after which Union Carbide’s Warren Anderson was carefully put on a plane under government escort and sent home. Union Minister Sukhram was caught surrounded by sacks of home-stashed cash. The Bofors scam followed. Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress pleaded innocence, but were voted out of power. After Telgi’s stamp scam, Kargil coffin scam, and Lalu Prasad’s fodder scam, we were getting immune to scam news.

That is because we had underestimated the political classes’ capacity to plunder. In the last year and a half we saw an unprecedented burst of scams – each larger than the previous one in scale, scope and brazen-ness. The “mother of all scams” the 2G Spectrum allocation fiasco, no doubt, was unearthed by a journalist using the old investigate-chase-talk-corroborate method, but it could not have reached such a wide audience in India and abroad without the “breaking-news” journalism of the TV and the Internet.

In what looked like a domino effect, we saw the CWG tamasha, the Adarsh housing tragedy and the Antrix-sponsored S-Spectrum deal that got stopped at the last moment. It was a one-a-week expose by the print and e-media – quick, graphic, and relentless. A few weeks ago, The Hindu published excerpts from the Wikileaks cables dealing with the cash-for-votes scam connected to the Nuclear Liability Bill. Within hours the news was splashed on at least a five major English TV news channels. Scenes of chaos in the parliament during the vote got glorious re-runs all day, participants in the sting operation were called for a panel discussion, anchors waved papers pertaining to them at our noses, and every channel called it “Breaking News”. Hasan Ali and his $9 bn wealth in foreign banks is the latest in the series.

Ironically, the Tamil Nadu CM’s free colour-TV sets scheme brought a lot of these stories into the viewers’ living room without their asking for it.

Twenty-four-hour news channels foraging for news-bites in every government file is only a part of the story. A lot of the credit for our saturation scam-news must be placed at the door of personal technology. Inboxes once filled with sob stories, you-have-won-a-prize con stories and chain mails with god stories – promising a place in hell if you didn’t pass them on to five people – have been upgraded. The sagas that spring from your mail-box are about politicians of all hues, bureaucrats of all shades of loyalty and corporates neck-deep in crony capitalism. The stories are real and can be verified. With each of us belonging to several interest groups, how long before they are forwarded to a million e-addresses? That each one of us is an armchair pol-analyst only helps in the punch-key dissemination of news.

And ah, the power of social net-working. Internet news is participative. Within an hour of the latest political shenanigan breaking out, you could write a blog, leave comments on a news website, write on a Facebook wall and join tweeple airing views on the subject. It is impossible not to know the “latest” one way or the other. It is your response time that is in question.

All these trends came to a head making a huge success of Anna Hazare’s fast for a Joint Committee to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill. A little known senior came out of an even lesser known hamlet called Ralegaon Siddhi in Maharashtra, landed at Jantar Mantar, spread his gaddi and declared a fast unto death. He was flanked by a Magsaysay Award winner credited with the RTI Bill and an extremely popular ex-supercop. The timing was strategically perfect – between World Cup cricket and the IPL, when eyeball score was low. TV channels had a newsbite and they made a major event of it. The story ran 24×7 for the four days the fast lasted. Anna and his mission got written about, SMS-ed on, Facebooked and tweeted around endlessly. The usually apathetic middle class, hit by corruption, and the young population hit by idealism (both users of technology) saw a messiah in the elderly man who wore a Gandhi cap. They called friends and congregated in many towns to show solidarity to the cause.

Finding the pertinent rules and making copies of laws, court cases and judgements is done in a jiffy, and sent off in even less time. We are better informed, better prepared to take sides.

Another trend in the success of such campaigns is the slow shedding of inhibition of the tweeting class. People generally of a “withdrawing” temperament, now face the TV and other handicams readily, publicly, repeatedly. “Public Opinion” is now voiced by well-dressed, well-informed, articulate men and women. Movie and sports stars lend their faces and voices to the programs getting publicity for themselves and their current productions.

“Technology to fight crime” can no longer be taken in the narrow sense of cops fighting with computer-aided armoury. Technology today informs people like you and me of criminal acts, supplementing it with laws, arguments and plans of action. You need not jump into street-action to fight it. Forwarding it with a few clicks on your Blackberry makes you an indispensable participant, a finger-and-thumb activist!

Just got mail that sand is being mined at the Adyar river estuary in my city. Off to the police station to join other campaigners to register a complaint. Wish us luck!

Picture by spectrumscandal courtesy Creative Commons.

More than 185 people from 7 countries and 16 cities fasted for a day in Chennai’s Besant Nagar beach to protest against the elevated expressways proposed in Chennai, including the Beach Expressway that is to run through all four of the city’s four famed beaches. The pre-dominantly middle-class gathering, with many first-time activists and a large number of youngsters, said that the hunger strike was organised to show that the fisherfolk were not alone in their fight against the elevated expressway. Last July, more than 3000 fisherfolk voiced their protest against the elevated beach expressway by organising a massive human chain on the beach. The highway will displace more than 10,000 fisherfolk, pave over the nesting grounds of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle, and ruin Chennai’s most treasured public space.

The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 1991, prohibited the construction of roads on beaches. All three Elevated Highways – the Beach Expressway, the Port-Maduravoyal Expressway and the High Speed Corridor over the Adyar River – would not have been permissible under that notification. So the law was changed by the Ministry of Environment & Forests. CRZ 2011 permits the construction of roads-on-stilts anywhere along India’s coastline.

Roads-on-stilts were included as a permissible activity despite strident opposition to the blanket exemption by fisherfolk and environmentalists. In meetings with representatives of the National Fishworkers Forum, Environment Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh had agreed to delete the reference to roads-on-stilts. Justifying his failure to honour his word, Mr. Ramesh in a letter to the National Fishworkers Forum explained that: “Road on stilts [were] retained keeping in view the congestion of the urban sectors in the populated areas of the coast. The road on stilts is primarily to be laid on the mangrove areas which will not affect the tidal inflow and cause minimum destruction to the mangrove area. The road on stilts cannot be equated with projects like express highway etc.”

At another point within the letter, Ramesh comments that “Such roads will be exceptional where clear demonstrable public interest is there such as for defence, security considerations, emergency evacuation, relieving congestion where there are no alternatives etc.”

However, with these details securely locked away inside Mr. Ramesh’s head, the exemption is likely to be used by the Government to bulldoze coastal areas for road-laying.

Reclaim Our Beaches and Save Chennai Beaches Campaign said they wholeheartedly supported the struggle of Chennai’s fisherfolk, and committed their continued solidarity to the campaign to defeat the elevated expressway.

For more information, contact:

Siddharth Hande (Reclaim Our Beaches):9840295081

Nityanand Jayaraman (Save Chennai Beaches Campaign): 9444082401

H31/39, Ashtalakshmi Gardens, Besant Nagar, Chennai 600090

To view list of online registrants, visit: http://letsrob.org/SaveChennaiBeaches/signup.html

Picture courtesy Moo Buddy via Creative Commons

The news that a Whole Foods store might replace the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Fremont Hub fills me with a sense of melancholy. Don’t get me wrong; having a child with allergies, I have been making the trek across to the Palo Alto store regularly, and my family is a fan of the large variety of organic foods the store stocks. And Whole Foods is certainly a desperately needed sign of upward mobility for this sleepy town, especially if you’re Indian American and have to deal with the patronizing sneers of your peers across the bay.

But replacing food for thought with, well, just food is also a sign of the times. When I arrived in Fremont over a decade ago, the Newpark Mall in neighboring Newark was a favorite destination for me and my young son. The toy store was an attraction, sure, but if I recall correctly, there were also two bookstores spread across the sprawling space. For a new immigrant coming to an unknown town, it was a reassuring indication that my future home was filled with fellow bibliophiles. I don’t think I ever made a trip to the mall without returning with a handful of picture books and novels.

Alas, those stores have vanished much too quickly, falling under the dual onslaught of cheap online retailers and the decline of print. Dollar stores have cropped up in their place, plastic-y symbols of the economic recession.
But the B&N bookstore in the Hub has held on, despite competition from another bookstore right across the street. I remember several last-minute dashes to pick up birthday and Christmas gifts. Meetings with friends would be set for the coffee shop next door, but invariably one’s feet would wander into the aisles of bargain books, and minutes would be spent browsing through the shelves of cookbooks and romance novels.

In my 40s, I think I belong to last generation that truly loves the feel of a book; the rustle of the pages, the smell of printer’s ink, the heft and weight of a book on my quilt-covered stomach on a rainy winter’s day. To this day, if I find myself at a loose end, there’s no other place I’d rather be than a bookstore, hoping to discover a new series of thrillers, or stumbling upon the latest No.1 Ladies  Detective Agency novel.

I hope I’ve communicated that love of reading to my children. Many a lazy Saturday morning has been spent sprawled in the children’s section of local bookstores, introducing them to the wonderful imaginations of Maurice Sendak and James Stevenson. But these sanctuaries of the printed word are fast disappearing, along with newspapers and magazines.

My children’s children will probably never know anything but digital media, preferring backlit text in unyielding electronic slabs to pliable paper. But that’s not my real concern. What I worry about is the message the loss of these bookstores is sending the next generation; that, as a community, we value upscale produce over intellectual stimulation. In an era of corporate media and reality TV, erudition is already deemed to be elite; politicians tout their shallow understanding as representative of their constituencies; gut instincts and strong convictions seem to trump bookish learning and Ivy-league educations. We may not be burning our books like in Fahrenheit 411, but the slow extinction is even more insidious, because it is gradual and cloaked in a sense of inevitability.

This is not to put down progress, but, without a book, how I am I going to occupy myself while sipping my cup of organic tea in the Whole Foods café?

why I’m voting Democrat this year

Partial transcript as follows:

I REMEMBER

I remember the party that blocked health care for our nation’s 9-11 first responders
I remember which party was in power during every single banking crisis since 1900.
I remember which party was in power during 17 of the 23 recessions since 1900, and 9 of the last 10 since 1950
I remember which party slashed veterans’ benefits and combat pay
I remember which party brought us the Wall Street bailout
I remember which party defended tax breaks for corporations that moved their operations and your jobs overseas.
I remember which party started a needless trillion dollar war in Iraq
I remember the party that took a record budget surplus, and turned it into a record budget deficit
I remember the party which dismantled the government agencies that protect our food supply.
I remember the party that has worked tirelessly to destroy Social Security, Medicare, public education, civil rights, and equal pay for women.

I remember which party cannot hear the screams of the people, but can hear the whispers of big business.

BE SURE TO VOTE TOMORROW

About this time last year I had written a somewhat critical account of the first ever Sevathon Walk/Run. What a change a year brings!

The Sevathon is an annual walk/run organized by the India Community Center to foster a spirit of service among the members of the Bay Area community. Last year participants pledged to their favorite charities while signing up for the run. This year the team behind the Sevathon brought the non-profits in as partners. Over 40 non-profits partnered with ICC this time, not only underscoring the spirit of service that was Sevathon’s mission, but also providing the marketing muscle by aggressively publicizing the event among their own friends and donors.

As a result about 2,000 people gathered on Sunday July 18, 2010, to participate in what truly felt like a call to service. The 5K/10K walk/run started promptly at 8:30 as planned, with the route neatly marked out and plenty of volunteers with water and bananas along the route. A giant timer at the finish allowed runners to check their times, making the event much more professionally run than last year.

Many more booths dotted the Baylands Park this year, and the health fair returned from last year. I did not linger aftr the event, but a real effort was put in for a mela feel, with food booths and a few game booths for the kids courtesy of the non-profit partners. A stage was set up for musical performances by local musicians and an area for kids offered face-painting and games to entertain the kids.

The idea to coopt local charities was just a terrific one, as I got several emails ahead of the event informing me about the Sevathon. There was quite a buzz in the Bay Area breeze about what is, after all, yet another walk/run event. To separate an event from the herd of other similar ones is not an easy task; ICC accomplished it very well. The improvement was dramatic and I think a new tradition just got established.

The Save Fremont Students (SFS) campaign is still going strong and we’d like to let you know about some major special events happening THIS WEEK!

To date, the campaign has raised over $333,000 and saved 3 teachers!

There are several key events coming up that we would like you to be aware of and to spread the word about to all of your friends, school groups, sports groups, and other community groups.  Community participation in these events and activities will  DIRECTLY help to save more teachers.   Support our students by participating in the events below.

This Thursday, July 8th

Shop for Our Students Day

60 businesses will contribute anywhere from 5% to 50% of sales made on July 8th to Save Fremont Students.   Businesses both big and small are participating! Some businesses have extended their offers for multiple days including July 8th and beyond!

Click on this link  to see all the businesses participating: http://www.savefremontstudents.org/wp-content/files/Support_Business_Sponsors_6-24-10.pdf. Businesses that require a flyer to present at checkout are shown with an asterisk on the list.

If a business requires a flyer you can print one out on our webpage by looking at:  http://www.savefremontstudents.org/shopforstudentsday.   From restaurants, books, spas, sports items, and fun at Chuck E Cheese…the options are limitless and there is something for all ages!  Go out and shop and have fun with your family while also helping our students!

This Saturday, July 10th at 4:30 pm

California State Open – Drum and Bugle Corps Competition

at Tak Fudenna Stadium (38442 Fremont Blvd)

Some of the most talented musicians and performance ensembles from California, Washington and Oregon compete in this drum and bugle corps competition.

See detailed information at:   http://www.savefremontstudents.org/wp-content/files/TAK-event-10Jul10.pdf.   If you purchase a ticket by this Thursday, July 8th, a sizable portion of the $15 advance ticket purchase will go to Save Fremont Students.  If you’d like to purchase a ticket please contact Subra Nathan at subravnathan@gmail.com.  Volunteers will also be at this event to sell food and other items that will benefit SFS, so come on out to enjoy great musical performances as well as support SFS!

Our Campaign has gone mobile!

Yes!  You can now send a text message to be added  to our “alert and information” text messaging database!   What a great way to stay “in-the-know”.  Receive reminders about events or info about shopping partners.

Plus….if you haven’t already made a donation you can also complete your donation with your mobile phone.  To either join the database or to make a donation of any amount with your cell phone simply send the text message:  “SAVEKIDS” to the phone number “67777”.     Try it out now…tell your friends and family….it’s easy and painless!

New DropN-Go Effort Needs Volunteers

In an attempt to get the word out about our campaign to all parts of Fremont we have started a new effort called “DropN-Go” where volunteers are canvassing neighborhoods with flyers and pre-addressed envelopes and leaving them on doorsteps.   We need many volunteers to make this successful.   We supply the materials and assign you a few streets at a time.   You pick a time that is convenient for you to do the drop offs.  If you (or your kids) are interested in helping with this effort over the next 1-2 weeks please contact Christina Broadwin asap at cubwired@comcast.net

Finally….It’s Not Too Late to Make A Donation!

If you haven’t yet donated, we would appreciate your donation by July 15th.  There are several ways to make your tax deductible donation:

Complete the District letter/form http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/gomes/lib/gomes/SFS_District_Letter.pdf and make a check payable to FEF-SFS  and mail to:

FEF-SFS Campaign
P.O. Box 3526
Fremont, CA  94539

*Please include Elementary or Secondary on the memo line of your check and on the donation form.  If none is listed, your donation will be split equally between the two.

or donate with your cell phone using the texting info shown above or online  (small 2.1% processing fee is deducted from your donation)  by clicking the “DONATE NOW” link:  http://www.SaveFremontStudents.org

Your donation may be eligible for Company Matching.  Please go to this link for more information:  http://www.savefremontstudents.org/donate

Together we can make a REAL difference!

There’s something strange going on with the portrayal of Indians in American media.

First there was the crazy Metro PCS ad, featuring “Ranjit” and “Chad,” two buffoonish characters who evoke the most ridiculous desi stereotypes you can think of.

I laughed that one off.

Then there was the AP article that wondered of politicians like Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal were disowning their heritage by anglicizing their names and changing their religions.

I didn’t think it was a big deal.

Now comes an offensive article by Joel Stein in Time magazine about the changing face of Edison NJ. An excerpt –

..my townsfolk started calling the new Edisonians “dot heads.” One kid I knew in high school drove down an Indian-dense street yelling for its residents to “go home to India.” In retrospect, I question just how good our schools were if “dot heads” was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose.

I’d like to vent my spleen on the author, but I’m just going to link to Sandip Roy’s excellent piece in the new America Media’s Ethnoblog entitled “Joel Stein and the Curry Problem.”

..this American anxiety about its browning will not change. A recent study said white birthrates in California were declining faster than expected. Expect the backlash to rise. There’ll be no chai served at this Tea Party.

I’m not laughing anymore.

Now, that is not funny.

The House passes HCR 3590, the health care reform bill. As I write this, the vote for the reconciliation fixes is due. Then the reconciliation fixes go to the Senate, and finally the whole bill goes to the President for signature. Even without the reconciliation fixes being approved, the President can simply sign into law the Senate bill.

Why is this important to you? See this post for how the bill affects you.

Why is this important for the nation? At long last, a developed country has agreed that access to affordable health care is a right of its citizens, not a privilege. The bill is not perfect, in fact, it is closer to the Republican vision of 1993 than feels comfortable. But it is a start.

The end feels anticlimactic, given the overwrought rhetoric and media-induced drama. But there is no doubt that this is a momentous event. And given how the media played it to be the defining moment of Barack Obama’s presidency, it has validated the President’s last minute push and given him the victory he needs to push through many other legislations in the pipeline, like education and immigration reform.

To all of you who bothered to pick up the phone and speak with your representative or Senator, thanks! Just like the historic election of Barack Obama, this was the success of the collective efforts of tens of thousands of humble individuals, who pressured and cajoled and threatened their congressmen and their senators to do the right thing. I was one of those, I am proud to say, and this underscores the importance of each and every voice and vote.

Let’s celebrate tonight. And get back to work on making this bill better tomorrow.

“I HAVE INSURANCE THROUGH MY WORK.”
Keep your doctor and plan if you like it, but your plan willbe strengthened and you’ll be protected from insurance company abuses.

• According to the independent and non-partisan Congressional Budget Office,
people who get coverage through their employer today will likely see lower premiums.
• If you like the health plan you have, you will be able to keep it.
• The President’s proposal will strengthen the coverage you get at work by reining in the worst insurance company abuses.
• Nothing about the President’s proposal will interfere with the choice of doctors you have today, or cause you to change the coverage you have at work today.

“I OWN A SMALL BUSINESS.”
You won’t be required to provide health insurance to your employees, but if you choose to, new tax credits will make covering your employees more affordable.
You will also have access to a new insurance exchange to find the best deal, and the entire process will be simpler.

• The President’s proposal provides tens of billions of dollars in new tax credits to small businesses to make it easier for them to provide coverage if they choose to do so.
• You will be protected from sudden, arbitrary rate hikes because a worker gets sick; under the President’s proposal, insurance companies will no longer be permitted to base the cost of coverage on health status.
• The President’s proposal gives small business owners the leverage that big
businesses enjoy by allowing them to buy coverage through the exchange.

“I HAVE MEDICARE.”
Health reform protects Medicare. The President’s proposal makes Medicare
more financially secure and seniors who hit the prescription drug “donut
hole” will be protected from high costs for their medicines.

• Your guaranteed Medicare benefits will not be cut, and the Medicare Trust Fund will be extended for more than 9 years.
• In addition, you will have benefits you don’t have today: Preventive services like cancer screenings at no cost, and a substantial reduction in prescription drug prices if you fall into that gap in coverage known as the “donut hole.” Over time the proposal closes this coverage gap completely.
• Health insurance reform will not affect the choice of doctors you have today and it won’t affect your relationship with your doctor. The President’s plan aims to increase the number of primary care providers, giving you greater access to doctors than you have today.

“I DO NOT HAVE INSURANCE.”
You will have access to new insurance choices in the same insurance marketplace where all members of Congress will buy their insurance, receive tax credits to help you afford coverage if needed, and enjoy protections from insurance company abuses.

• For the first time in history, there will be limits on how much anyone will have to pay to receive health care coverage.
• If you need it, you will receive a tax credit to help pay for your coverage – part of the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.
• Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to simply tell you “no.” They will be required to offer coverage regardless of your health status or because of pre-existing conditions, and they cannot jack up rates or drop you from your coverage when you get sick.

“I BUY MY OWN INSURANCE.”
There will be new protections from insurance company abuses, and tax credits will make coverage more affordable. You will have access to new insurance
choices in the same insurance marketplace where all members of Congress will buy their insurance.

• You will likely pay less—perhaps much less—than you do currently.
• In addition, many Americans buying coverage in the individual market will qualify for tax credits that reduce their premiums by an average of nearly 60 percent – and they will get better coverage than what they have today.
• Health insurance reform will limit what you have to pay out of pocket, a protection that does not exist today.
And for the first time, no one will be required to pay more than a set percentage of their income on health care coverage.

If you like what you see in the President’s plan above, spread the word and support reform.