The Washington Post has an article on how the Jews and Indians are coming together in the US to fight for common causes. This includes
* an amendment pressuring Pakistan to stop Islamic militants from crossing into India.
* getting Bush administration’s approval for Israel to sell four Phalcon early warning radar planes to India for about $1 billion, a deal that has alarmed the Pakistani government.
There are 5.8 million jews in US and 1.8 million Indians, and according to the article, “highly educated, affluent and attached to democratic homelands facing what they increasingly view as a common enemy”
The common enemy is not very happy about it. Now “Ariel Sharon”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=313552 is visiting India on Sept 11th and he is not visiting Pakistan to balance the equation like some American Presidents.
This is an alliance which was long due between two democracies attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. A return visit by the Indian Prime Minister to Tel Aviv would be another bold step by the NDA Administration.
[ref: “Washington Post”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13526-2003Jul18.html?nav=hptoc_p , “Indian Express”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=313552]

Even after providing “face saving measures”:https://varnam.org/archives/000151.html, India has decided not to send troops to Iraq. As this blog said before, this is a very risky proposition since elections are right around the corner for the Indian Govt. Another point of resentment might have been the fact that US is still pally with a dictator in Pakistan, who is their “ally” in the war on terror. He becomes the first South Asian leader to get invited to Camp David (only to be told that he will not get his F-16s), and a democracy like India is shunned. But with the death toll increasing there is a move to get the UN cover, so that India can send its troops
bq. It has started looking to the United Nations Security Council for a much broader mandate that would facilitate India and some other nations sending troops to Iraq. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, admitted on Wednesday that moves were on with other governments and UN officials, but only at the preliminary stage.
[ref: “Asia Times”:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG19Df01.html]

Kerala is a state where there are no industries. Most malayalis work in the gulf countries and the economy is sustained based on the NRI remittances. But the tourism industry is doing wonders there and Paul McCartney can vouch for it. The story of how the bureaucrats achieved this is an “amazing story”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718003310900.htm (This article has a picture of Thrissur pooram, from the place where I am from)
This is good. As more people earn income from tourism which cannot tolerate disruption, it might affect the political parties who call hartals (since bandh is banned) every other day.
Frontline has two more articles on Kerala
* “Tasks on the economic front”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718004311600.htm
* “Taking IT into the big league”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718005312100.htm
These article all show positive developments happening in a state which gave the impression that it was opposed to development of any kind.
[Thanks to “Niraj”:http://www.nirajweb.com/mt/niraj/ for sending the links]

“Liar”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002358.php Praful Bidwai has written “another article”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectNh.asp?cid=313026. Since we have been reading his article for a while, we have come up with this pseudo code which will help people implement the first Praful Bidwai article generator.
1. The agenda is that it has to be pointed out that hierarchies of class, caste and gender exist. This issue has to be bought it some how. This time he does this in the most wierd way.
bq. This ‘knowledge-based’ description sounds odd, to put it mildly, in a society in which almost half the population is illiterate, the general level of skills very low, and transmission of knowledge severely restricted by the hierarchies of class, caste and gender.
So, Take up an issue you dont like, say India has strong foreign reserves, India is now the fav destination for outsourcing, there maybe life in other planets and end that sentence with “hierarchies of class, caste and gender”.
2. Create a random issue. Then go and explain why it will not happen. For example:
bq. IT certainly contributes in growing measure to the Indian economy, but it remains an ‘island’ phenomenon. It cannot drive the entire country into another epoch or ‘stage’ of development. There are three reasons for saying this.
See no one told that it will drive the entire country into another epoch. He just made that up. Then he writes to debunk his own theory. So we could say “Many people think that finding water on Mars is a good thing or Indian Prime Minister walks on two legs and many people think that is great”. Then write some 1000 words to say why it is not.
3. Produce a number bigger than what you want to demolish.
bq. Even in external sector accounts, software exports ($7.2 billion) still contribute less than remittances, mainly from poor workers in the Gulf ($8.1 billion).
If “poor workers” are able to remit 8.1 billion, then how are they poor ?
4. Remind people that since people who invest money become rich, they are bad.
bq. Thus, a good proportion of the sub-programmes in Windows 95 and 98 were developed by Indian engineers. But it’s Bill Gates who skimmed off the profits!
What about the many employees for Microsoft who became rich through stock options ? What about the many stock holders who became rich. Bill Gates has more investment in the company, so he makes more. This fact should never be told.
5. Throw in some unverifiable facts like ” The average Indian employee’s productivity is high”. These kind of statements dont need any proof.
I am bored already and sorry for writing code, remember I am a code coolie.
Update: Ravikiran already had a well “thought of response”:http://www.ravikiran.com/?RequestId=306 as usual.