SAJAforum

MEDIA WATCH: Gay Rights and the Indian Press

On June 29, hundreds of people in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta joined an ebullient rainbow of slogan-chanting marchers demanding more rights for gay people in India. (Jyoti Gupta, my colleague on SAJAforum, covered the coverage; flag graphic from here)

For several years, I have been trying to gauge attitudes in the Indian media towards gay issues and to draw some general conclusions. Although one often hears that Indian society as a whole is not welcoming towards gay people — whether it is conservatives or gay rights activists making the claim — the Indian media, and indeed the Western media reporting on India, are full of gay-themed stories. The question is not whether there is coverage of gay people and the issues that concern them, but rather how they are portrayed.

[Note that whenever I say “gay” in this piece, I mean Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), and whatever other sexual and gender identities people choose for themselves. I am not a fan of acronyms that try to be all-inclusive because they end up excluding people. The term "queer," a convenient catch-all, is often eschewed by journalists because although it is a word that has been reclaimed by the gay community as a positive label, in some contexts it retains its original derogatory sense.]

All the Indian newspapers whose coverage I regularly follow reported on the marches: The Times of India, the Hindustan Times, and Express India (before and after, actually) as well as NDTV, where it is a “most read” story. It received wide coverage in the West, and I read articles about it in The Guardian, AFP, the BBC, The Washington Post, and even in Gulf News (Dubai) and The Scotsman. Newsweek and Time also had pieces. Notably absent was The New York Times, but their correspondent seems to have been tied up with writing a hard-hitting piece on the stalled nuclear deal.

I found Western and Indian coverage of the event largely indistinguishable, which was surprising because there often is quite a difference. The articles said what happened--several hundred people gathered in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta and marched--why it was important for the marchers (because homosexuality, or as the Indian Penal Code colorfully states it “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” is illegal in India and they want this changed) and who opposes it (among others, the BJP, which is the main party of the Hindu Right).

PAKISTAN: Five questions for Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the lawyers' movement

This morning, Aitzaz Ahsan, the President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association and the leader of Pakistan’s “lawyers’ movement,” spoke to a large audience at the New York City Bar Association about the lawyers’ movement, the importance of an independent judiciary, and the role of U.S. policy in Pakistan’s judicial crisis. During the past year, the New York City Bar has played an active role in support of Pakistan’s lawyers and judges — organizing a solidarity rally with other area bar associations after Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed “emergency” rule in November, issuing a statement strongly urging Musharraf to restore the rule of law, and awarding an honorary membership, one of the organization's highest honors, to Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

In his remarks, Ahsan thanked U.S. lawyers and bar associations for their “unstinting support for constitutionalism, rule of law, and reinstatement of an independent judiciary in Pakistan.” He said that last November’s rally — which drew hundreds of New York lawyers to the steps of the courthouse in lower Manhattan — “was an unprecedented collective action, and it was noticed throughout Pakistan.” Ahsan expressed his view that “what has endeared the people of America to the people of Pakistan, despite the adversarial policies of the American administration, has been the support of the bar associations.”

Following his address at the New York City Bar, Ahsan briefly talked to SAJAforum about the lawyers’ movement, the prospects for reinstatement of the judges ousted by Musharraf, and the role of Pakistan’s media:

Q: There’s been much speculation about what caused General Musharraf to try to dismiss the Chief Justice of Pakistan back in March 2007. What do you think caused him to take that step?

A: I think that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz poisoned Musharraf’s ears after the Steel Mills Case, which was a judgment that was an indictment of the Prime Minister. After the Supreme Court decided that case, people started saying — including myself in speeches in the National Assembly — that the Prime Minister could be indicted, and ought to be indicted. So there is some evidence of the fact that Shaukat Aziz began to advise Musharraf to fire the Chief Justice, and played on his fear that the Chief Justice was going to decide against him in his bid to be the President for another term. So I think it was mainly this, a paranoia that was created in Musharraf’s mind by Shaukat Aziz.

Q: In the past, most Supreme Court justices in Pakistan have cooperated with military coup leaders and even have sought to legitimize military takeovers in their judicial decisions. What do you think has made this moment different and caused so many judges to react differently this time?

GAY RIGHTS: Gay pride marches held in three Indian cities

India’s first nationally-coordinated gay parade marches carried out in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore concluded peacefully yesterday, turning the page to a fresh chapter on queer rights in India. According to the AFP:

In Kolkata in the east, some 400 people took part in the city's annual Gay Pride parade, drawing curious stares from thousands of onlookers lining the roads to watch the procession.<snip>
In New Delhi, where gays, lesbians and transgendered individuals have never attempted a public march, some 300 people gathered for a two-kilometre walk in the heart of the capital.<snip>
The southern technology hub of Bangalore also saw its first-ever gay pride parade.

As in Kolkata and New Delhi, some of the 600 participants wore masks to conceal their faces while others wore fancy clothes to draw public attention in the cosmopolitan city, home to many Indian and international IT companies.

Activists are trying to change the law which, in addition to the social pressure, is making any kind of change impossible. Maseeh Rahman from the Guardian:

India does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality but under an 1861 penal code enacted by the British colonial government, "carnal intercourse against the order of nature between any man, woman or animal" is punishable by imprisonment up to life. The law is mainly used against paedophiles, but the high-profile arrest of four gay men in 2006 in Lucknow highlighted the fact that across India corrupt police sometimes utilise the law to blackmail and even rape homosexuals.

CONTROVERSY: Beauty Salon chain 'exploiting' workers

By now, most of us know that the wealthy Long Island-based couple accused of keeping two women from Indonesia as slaves has been found guilty. The woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. (Read about the court's decision here.)

And while this new story is not as extreme as slavery, it is interesting because it involves reported exploitation of South Asian workers by an South Asian-owned store.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that a 11-store Ziba Beauty salon chain in California has been accused of exploiting their female workers by failing to give them the minimum wage, overtime compensation and meal and rest breaks.

From the article:

For two decades, Ziba Beauty salons have brought the Indian techniques of eyebrow threading and henna tattoos to a clientele that has included Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Salma Hayak and Naomi Campbell.

Ziba Chief Executive Sumita Batra, 39, and her staff have styled models for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines and TV shows "America's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Makeover."

But now Batra and her family partners are accused of building their business by exploiting workers, many of them female immigrants.

Two former workers, Payal Modi of India and Bishnu Shahani from Nepal, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the the owners claiming that they were paid as little as $4 an hour, denied breaks and required to deliver hours of free henna tattooing services at parties.

Ziba was founded by Kundan Sabarwal and her family, Iranian-born Indians and over the last two decades have boasted celebrity clientele.

Thoughts, folks? Please post them below.

Earlier posts on SAJAForum:

• Over 100 Indian Shipyard Workers Stage Walkout in Mississippi
• Long island 'Slavery' Couple Found Guilty
  

HUMAN RIGHTS: Prof. Manu Bhagavan's new ideas

Prof. Manu Bhagavan, who teaches history at Hunter College in New York, sent us this:

My article, "A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," has just been published by Modern Asian Studies (copyright Cambridge University Press) and is now online at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?iid=643648; the article will also be released in the print version of the journal in 2009.

This piece makes several important new claims, including:

1. calling for a major new interpretation of India's famous foreign policy of "non-alignment."
2. reinterpreting Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual vision for India and the world.
3. providing new frameworks for understanding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4. 4. rethinking the hopes and dreams for the UN invested by India and other postcolonial states.

Here is the official abstract:
Abstract: This article explores India's role in the development and design
of the United Nations, refracted through the Commission that drafted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Through an analysis of sovereignty,
citizenship, nationality, and human rights from the 1940s to 1956, the paper
discusses what India hoped the UN to be, and more generally what they
intended for the new world order and for themselves.  The paper challenges
existing interpretations of international affairs in this period.  It seeks
to reform our understanding of Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual vision, and
in the process attempts to recast the very concept of postcoloniality.

See his full note below, with contact info. Post your comments below.

FOLLOW UP: Shipyard workers end hunger strike, claim advances

The two dozen-odd Indian shipyard workers who had been protesting exploitation by Signal International ended their 29-day hunger strike after the Department of Justice agreed to meet with their representatives.  From IANS:

The New Orleans Workers' Centre for Racial Justice, which is supporting the strikers, said they suspended their hunger strike after an unprecedented outpouring of support from US Congressmen and leaders from labour, civil rights, and religious communities.

"Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because we recognised that modern day slavery exists and that workers trafficked into the US should be able to place their faith in the US justice system," Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich was quoted as saying at the rally.

"Today, we must make sure we don't betray their faith in us."

Indian Member of Parliament SK Kharventhan (Congress) also pledged his support to the workers after flying from India to meet them and attend the rally.

The protesters were part of an original group of about 500 workers who came from India, and who say they'd paid large sums to work in the US, and been promised the chance to bring their families over as well. They also accuse Signal of providing poor housing and working conditions. Signal denies those charges but says they were also misled about the terms of the work visas and has sued the operators who recruited the workers.

Other coverage:

• The New York Times: "Workers to end hunger strike"

• Press Trust of India: "Indians to end hunger strike, officials to meet them"

• The Washington Post: "Indian Workers Decry Recruitment Tactics"

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• Shipyard workers' hunger strike in the New York Times
• Coverage of exploited Indian shipyard workers in Mississippi
• Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walkout in Mississippi

FOLLOW UP: Shipyard workers' hunger strike in the New York Times

It's been three months since we wrote about a group of shipyard workers from India who claimed they'd been severely exploited since arriving in Mississippi in order to help with the post-Katrina recovery. Although that initial post prompted a good deal of coverage - by ABC, the Hindustan Times and others - the coverage slowed down, and some of their advocates were growing concerned that the media just wasn't interested. But this Saturday, The New York Times devoted considerable space to the issue: reporter Julia Preston's 1,085 word article
finds some of the workers in Washington DC, on the fourth week of a hunger strike. From "Workers on Hunger Strike say they were misled on Visas":

The workers, who walked off jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards in early March, say they were victims of human trafficking when they were brought to the United States under a temporary guest worker program. The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program, known as H-2B for the type of temporary visa the workers receive.

The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts.

“Everyone has a dream,” said one of the protesters, Paul Konar, a 54-year-old worker from the Indian state of Kerala, speaking in Hindi through a translator. “If we could come here legally to live with our families, that was my dream.”

The protests appear to be having an effect on some very powerful people:

In a letter this week, three top Democrats in the House of Representatives — George Miller and Zoe Lofgren of California, and John Conyers Jr. of Michigan — asked the Justice Department and immigration officials to investigate the workers’ fraud accusations and offer them protection as victims. The Justice Department this week confirmed it had opened an investigation.

Since May 14, 5 of the 16 workers who participated in the hunger strike have been hospitalized. Mr. Konar fasted the longest, taking no food for 23 days until Thursday, when he was hospitalized with abdominal pain. He was released in the evening.

DESI SPOTTING: Three South Asian leaders push their agendas in Manhattan

India's minister commerce and industry, mayor of Karachi and Sri Lanka’s foreign minister were in New York City for separate events last Thursday, all co-sponsored by SAJA. While the mayor and the foreign minister were trying to rally American support for pressing issues back home, Kamal Nath, the commerce minister, a relentlessly upbeat India business booster, was reading from his book, "India's Century."

Thursday, May 8, 70th St & Park Avenue, circa 2 pm: Vishakha Desai, president of Asia Society; Kamal Nath, India's commerce minister; and Tunku Varadarajan, NYU business professor and moderator of the discussion. PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assignment

Syed Mustafa Kamal, Karachi’s 37-year-old mayor, touted Karachi as a modern city with a friendly population.  “We have to market Pakistan as a moderate Pakistan as a moderate Pakistan, and I have been doing that,” he said at the International Visitor Leadership Forum.

Calling Karachi the “backbone” of Pakistan, he said that investment in the city’s infrastructure and economy was vital. With a population of 18 million, Karachi is Pakistan's largest city and commercial center. “Pakistan’s development would be questioned without Karachi,” said Kamal.

He also stressed the moderate political views of citizens could be seen in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on December 27 of last year.  While citizens have been captured and killed, “People to people, there is no clash,” he said. 

NEPAL: New Report Released on Nepali Dalits' Rights

The new Nepali constitution must recognize and protect the fundamental human rights of Dalits, according to a new report released by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University's School of Law.

Click here to read the full report.

Dalits are considered "untouchables" according to traditional Hindu belief. Although the constitution strongly forbids any kind of discrimination against Dalits in Nepal - where Hinduism is the major religion, and the caste system lives in every corner of the country - Dalits are still facing a tough time socially, politically and economically.

From the CHRGJ press release:

The 89-page report, Recasting Justice: Securing Dalit Rights in Nepal’s New Constitution, analyzes Nepal’s interim constitution to inform how the new constitution may be drafted in accordance with the country’s international human rights obligations to secure the rights of Dalits - a group which has faced more than 2000 years of systematic discrimination on the basis of caste. As Nepal prepares its new constitution after years of prolonged civil war, Recasting Justice provides Nepalese lawmakers with tangible means to demonstrate the country’s commitment to the inherent dignity and human rights of all individuals.

Click here to read the briefing in Nepali.

Click here to read the 2004 Human Rights Watch report on discrimination against Dalits in Nepal.

What are your thoughts on discrimination against Dalits? Please post your comments below.

PRESS FREEDOM: Barry Bearak safe at home in Johannesburg

Here's a message sent today by Barry Bearak of the New York Times after his safe arrival in South Africa:

I'm happily back in Jo'berg, having evaded a likely re-arrest by going overland through Zambia rather than risking the Harare airport. I received a lot of support from many places and chief among the supporters were my colleagues at The Times and my former students and friends at Columbia. I'm extremely grateful.

Zimbabwe is a very sad place right now. It appears that Mugabe is going to get away with stealing yet another election. That means continued suffering for the Zimbabwean people. My own understanding of their terrible problems increased a lot in the Harare cells, where I met many good people. I'm hoping for the day when I can safely return to that country and continue reporting.

Regards,
Barry

Earlier coverage of Bearak's ordeal:

• April 5, 2008: NYT's Barry Bearak arrested in Zimbabwe; Dileepan Sivapathasundaram released (includes CPJ alert)
• April 8, 2008: Bearak released; awaits hearing

PRESS FREEDOM: NYT's Barry Bearak held in Zimbabwe; Sivapathasundaram released

[June 27, 2008 UPDATE: Listen to a webcast with Dileepan Sivapathasundaram]

[April 7, 2008 UPDATE: AFP reports Bearak has been released]

Barry Bearak, one of the most respected American journalists working today, has been caught up in the ugly situation in Zimbabwe. He has just spent his second night in a cell in Harare. He was there covering the elections that appear to have thrown out the corrupt government of Robert Mugabe, but the regime is doing all they can to delay the official results. From NYT, Saturday morning NY time:

A journalist for The New York Times  detained by the police in Zimbabwe spent a second night in a jail cell on Friday, after government authorities overruled the attorney general’s decision to set him free.

The journalist, Barry Bearak, and a British citizen who was also arrested, were swept up at a small hotel in the suburbs of the capital, Harare, on Thursday afternoon. The action appeared to be part of a crackdown by government forces after an election that seemed to be turning against President Robert Mugabe and his 28-year grip on the country.

Offices of the main opposition party were also raided, while an American democracy advocate helping local groups monitor the elections was arrested at the airport.

That American democracy advocate has been released. Dileepan Sivapathasundaram is a Sri Lankan-American senior program officer at the National Democratic Institute ("a non-partisan, non-profit, non-governmental organization that aims to support democratic values and practices in more than 60 countries"). He is now in with American officials and we will provide updates as we get them (more on him from a 2004 press release below).

The Times is doing all it can to help secure Bearak's release and several journalism organizations are monitoring the situation (see resources below).

Bearak and his wife, Celia Dugger, are co-bureau chiefs in Johannesburg, South Africa. They also have strong connections to South Asia as they were co-bureau chiefs in New Delhi from 1998 to 2002, just as America's interest in the subcontinent was increasing. The two-person team helped take the NYT's coverage of India and the region to a whole new level. Bearak won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his series of reports on daily life in war-torn Afghanistan (see that series and other work by him on his Times Topics page). He won a 2001 SAJA Journalism Award for "Back to Life in India, Without Reincarnation," an account of how the Association of Dead People fights for the rights of Indian citizens falsely declared dead.

If we learn of anything others can do to help him get released, we will let you know here.

[On a personal note, I want to add that I have had the privilege of working directly with Barry when he joined the Columbia Journalism School faculty for a couple of years after his Delhi posting. I had first met him in 1998 as he was preparing to head to India and was doing his prep work - spending weeks and months learning about the region, the people and the issues  before he headed out. He threw himself into teaching the same way: preparing in a way I had never seen a new prof do before. He sat in on other classes, watched his colleagues and never stopped taking notes. By the end of his first semester he'd emerged as one of our best and most popular teachers, so it was tough to learn that he and Celia were heading back into the field, for this Johannesburg job. We look forward to his safe release from jail, and after his posting, his eventual return to the classroom.]

Resources and more info:

• NYT executive editor Bill Keller's memo on Bearak's arrest
• Keller on Bearak, day two.
• CPJ on the history of press repression in Zimbabwe

Please post your comments below.

PHOTO FORUM: Tibetans in New York, by Albertina d'Urso

The SAJA Photo Forum presents the work of photographers covering South Asia and its global diasporas in order to highlight important but often overlooked stories.

Tibetans in New York

Text and photographs © Albertina d'Urso

At the end of last year I moved to New York city for few months.  One of my goals was to pursue a story on the Tibetan community because I am involved in a long-term project about the Tibetan diaspora.  I had already shot extensively in India and Nepal, and I knew that about 2,000 refugees live in New York, so I was curious to see how the Tibetans could settle in a place so different from their homeland.

The story began the day after I arrived.  I was walking around Soho when my roommate called and said, "Run to Union Square. It's packed with people who may be Tibetans.  I am not sure, but you should come and check."  I recognized them as soon as I arrived.  They were all dressed in traditional customs and were celebrating the Gold Medal awarded to the Dalai Lama by the United States Congress.  If it were not for the skyscrapers in the background, I could forget being in New York. That same evening, I joined them at a fundraising party, where they were all dressed in Western styles, especially the teenagers.  But I was still amazed at how, even if they were not wealthy, they are always thinking of ways to help their needy compatriots back home.

Tibetans in Union Square celebrate the Dalai Lama's Congressional Medal of Honor

Young Tibetans at a fundraising party

BANGLADESH: Calls for war trials against Pak collaborators

Veterans of Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan are calling for war trials for other Bangladeshis. From the BBC:

Hundreds of the veterans who took part in the victorious war against Pakistan travelled to Dhaka to issue the call at the request of their former commanders. They say Bangladeshis who collaborated with Pakistani forces caused the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Many of those they want tried are politically influential figures. They include the leaders of Bangladesh's largest party , Jamaat-e-Islami - which at the time opposed the break-up of Pakistan.

To this day, the leaders of the party deny a war of liberation took place, rather calling it a civil war between Pakistanis.

Until 1971, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, as it had been since the partition of India in 1947. India sent in troops and helped Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time) achieve independence. More from The Daily Star:

Key points of the declaration include demand for setting up of a special war crimes tribunal by the state, involve international community and the United Nations in the process, boycott the war criminals and anti-Liberation War elements socially and politically and bar political parties of anti-liberation war forces from elections.

NEPAL: Crackdown on Tibetans in Kathmandu

Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit emailed me a link to a photo feature on the crackdown on Tibetans in Kathmandu, who were protesting peacefully in front of the UN building.

Photo by Sam Kang Li.
Click here to watch more photos.

Read this BBC article which reports that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao "appreciated" the steps taken by Indian authorities in handling protests by Tibetan refugees.

What do you think of the Indian and Nepali government's response towards Tibetan protesters? Please post your comments below.

I asked four questions to Kalaya’an Mendoza at Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based network of youth activists working for the Tibetan freedom and independence.

1.    What do you make of the mass crackdown on Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal?

India and Nepal should abort the heavy-handed tactics they have been using against Tibetan protesters. It is disheartening to see this is how the Indian government reacts to an act akin to Gandhiji’s own peaceful protests. The Nepali government should also practice maximum restraint in using excessive and unnecessary force against Tibetans. (Read more below).

FOLLOW UP: Coverage of exploited Indian shipyard workers in Mississippi

We posted an item last Thursday about a walkout by a hundred Indian shipyard workers in Mississippi - they claimed they were being heavy exploited by their employer, Signal. The day we posted it, only one local TV station had covered the story, but it's since become widely reported in both the mainstream and Indian press:

• The New York Times: "Workers Sue Gulf Coast Company That Imported Them"
• Associated Press: "Firm Accused of Violating Worker Rights"
• ABC News: "Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'"
• NDTV: "US Congressman seeks report on Indian workers"
• WDSU TV: "Outraged Indian Workers Take to the Streets"
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation discussion of the issue (audio clip)

In the last couple days, a lot has happened. The workers - there are actually about 500 in all - have sued Signal in federal court, for human trafficking and other violations:

The 82-page complaint claims the defendants violated their rights besides violating nine federal laws. It claims they violated Trafficking Victims Protection Act by having both forced labour and trafficking. They also claim violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Klu Klux Klan Act of 1871, fraud, breach of contract, violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and false imprisonment, assault and batter and infliction of emotional harm.

And according to IANS, the Indian government has suspended the licenses of two Mumbai-based recruiters. As the NDTV link above suggests, US Congressman George Miller is getting involved:

In his letter written on March 11, Miller urged the Labor Secretary to provide him all the H2-B guest worker applications and certifications for the past five years - including all supporting documents and correspondences submitted to either the Labor Department or any other US agency for the companies in question.

The companies are Signal International, Dewan Consultants, Five Star Contractors, Knight Marine and Industrial Services, Eagle Staffing, Massey Contracting, S Mansour & Company and North America Labor Service.

Congressman Miller also urged Labor Secretary Chao to confirm the news reports that the Labor Department had inspected Signal International last year. ''If so, provide my Education and Labor Committee staff with a copy of all reports and documentation that stemmed from those inspections,'' he said.

SRI LANKA: NYT on Chinese influence on Sri Lanka

Often ignored, Sri Lanka finally seems to have convinced The New York Times that it does deserve a front page (at least on their website), thanks to Somini Sengupta's two recent articles.

Sengupta rightly said it when she began yesterday's article on the escalating Sri Lankan conflict - "There are no eyes on this war." Clearly, there aren't as many eyes there should be on this war-torn island nation. The second article this morning (caught it at 3 a.m.) describes how Sri Lanka is stacking up Chinese aid while openly ignoring serious human rights and press freedom issues.

In this article, "Take Aid from China and Take a Pass on Human Rights," Sengupta writes:

FOR 25 years, the dirty little war on this island in the Indian Ocean has stretched its octopus arms across the world. The ethnic Tamil diaspora has provided vital funding for separatist rebels; remittances from Sri Lankan workers abroad have propped up the economy; the government has relied on foreign assistance to battle the insurgency.

Today, a shifting world order is bearing new fruits for Sri Lanka. Most notably, China’s quiet assertion in India’s backyard has put Sri Lanka’s government in a position not only to play China off against India, but also to ignore complaints from outside Asia about human rights violations in the war.

Despite losing major aids from many western countries over its human rights abuses, Sri Lanka seems to be doing just fine. According to the article, China's assistance has grown fivefold in the last year to almost $1 billion.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, put it plainly when he said that Sri Lanka’s “traditional donors,” namely, the United States, Canada and the European Union, had “receded into a very distant corner,” to be replaced by countries in the East. He gave three reasons: The new donors are neighbors; they are rich; and they conduct themselves differently. “Asians don’t go around teaching each other how to behave,” he said. “There are ways we deal with each other — perhaps a quiet chat, but not wagging the finger.”

SRI LANKA: HRW Report on disappearances by security forces

Since the escalation of conflict between the Tamil Tiger fighters and the government in 2006, the Sri Lankan security forces and other pro-government armed groups have abducted and "disappeared" thousands of individuals, according to a new report released by the Human Rights Watch.

HRW has called these abductions by the Sri Lankan government "a national crisis" and has asked the government to reveal the whereabouts of these "disappeared" individuals.

The 241-page report - Recurring Nightmares: State Responsibility for 'Disappearances' and Abductions in Sri Lanka - documents 99 individual cases as well as government response.

From the official report:
"His father opened the door, and the men pushed him aside and then forced us and the children into one of the rooms. Junith Rex came out of his room, covering himself with a bed sheet, and the men grabbed him by the bed sheet and seized him. They wore black pants, green T-shirts, and their heads were wrapped with some black cloth. Later I found out that they arrived in a van, but they parked it on the main road. They smashed the lights bulbs in the room and dragged him away. They told him “Come,” in Tamil. He cried, “Mother!” but we couldn’t help him.

— Family member describing the abduction of Junith Rex Simsan on the night of January 22, 2007, following an army search of the house earlier that same day. At this writing, despite repeated inquiries by his family, his whereabouts remain unknown, his fate uncertain."

The BBC writes that HRW has called Sri Lanka one of the worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances. A Sri Lankan father spoke to the BBC about his who has been missing for a year.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said that the number of civilians killed in Sri Lanka has reached "appalling levels."

The organization says that in the first six weeks of 2008, more than 180 civilians have been reported killed and over 270 injured in several attacks in six different cities.

What do you think about the Sri Lankan conflict? Post your thoughts below.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walk out in Mississippi

For several months I've been seeing mention of a job opening for a Malayalam-and-Hindi speaking paralegal at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Alabama. I couldn't imagine what the exact need was, but much as I tried, I couldn't get a full answer from the people at SPLC. Clearly, there was some sort of litigation in the works and they didn't want to tip their hand. All they could say was that there an "increasing number of Indian guestworkers seeking assistance from our office with labor trafficking and exploitation as part of a larger trend that involves recruiting workers from farther away and charging increased recruitment fees."

Today, we appear to have our answer. Over a hundred Indian H2B workers at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi staged a walkout this morning. The shipyard is run by Signal International, and the workers contend they've been lured into a human trafficking ring created by the company in the aftermath of Katrina, which resulted in a severe worker shortage. They plan to "report themselves to the Department of Justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of Signal."

The walkout was covered by WLOX-TV (click to see a small image of the walkout), and describes workers symbolically throwing their hardhats over a fence (picture from flickr) and then singing "We Shall Overcome" in their "native language." It quotes Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, who served as an interpreter for the workers:

They talk of living "like pigs in a cage" in a company-run "work camp." 

"I've been a guest worker all my life. I've never seen these kinds of conditions," said the interpreter, "We lived 24 people to a room. And for this, the company deducted $1,050 a month from our paychecks."

The workers say they paid $20,000 each in order to come to America. One of the workers, Sabulal Vijayan (a Malayali, presumably), tried to organize his fellow workers last year and was fired. He then attempted suicide.

Here's more from a press release sent to me by Stephen Boykewich, who works with Soni at the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice:

RELIGION: Caste oppression... in Yemen?

Usually on SAJAforum, I complain that articles in the Western media present a decontextualized, oversimplified picture of India, but today I was surprised to find an article that uses an example from India — correctly in my view — to explain a practice in another part of the world.

In Wednesday's New York Times, there is an article entitled "Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen's Ladder" by Robert F. Worth, which discusses the plight of Al Akhdam, an oppressed social class in Yemen. Although Yemeni society has in general lost its traditional stratification in the years after the country’s 1962 revolution, Al Akhdam — whose name means “the servants” — remain at the bottom of society, with virtually no chance of social mobility. The Akhdam have African features and so look different from most Yemenis.

In the second graf, the article refers to the Akhdam as “a kind of hereditary caste.” The article uses caste to help the reader understand professions based on heredity, which is a bit difficult for Western readers to grasp otherwise. That comparison is nothing new, but then the article explicitly contrasts the plight of Dalits in India with that of Al Akhdam:

FOLLOW UP: Community groups come to Arun Gandhi's defense

A couple weeks after Arun Gandhi was forced to resign from the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence for his comments on The Washington Post's On Faith website - see our earlier coverage, with loads of comments - he's finding support from a number of progressive/leftist academics, activists, filmmakers and others. A statement in his defense has been endorsed by over a hundred individuals and groups based in the U.S., India, Canada, the UK and other countries. It criticizes the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League for labeling "any and all criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-Semitic."

The statement, titled "Why Did Gandhi Have to Resign?" was drafted by Sunaina Maira of the University of California-Davis, who authored "Desis in the House" and co-founded the desi activist event known as Youth Solidarity Summer. She singles out the Hindu American Foundation for "attempting to model themselves on the lines of the Israel lobby, while criticism of Israel's policies or support for justice in Palestine are increasingly less tolerated within the Indian community." (Read HAF's initial take on Arun Gandhi's remarks here)

From "Why Did Gandhi Have to Resign?":

"It was not enough for University of Rochester that he had been pressured to apologize. Gandhi’s resignation makes it clear that he was the latest casualty of the powerful and highly organized pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. that immediately deems any and all criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-Semitic. The irony is that in his post, Gandhi was actually noting the very phenomenon of a community overplaying its historic experience that was enacted in the vitriolic response of powerful and well-funded organizations created to silence and intimidate critics of Israel."

HUMAN RIGHTS: Bangladesh asked to tackle its torture problem

Releasing a 39-page report - "The Torture of Tasneem Khalil: How the Bangladesh Military Abuses Its Power Under the State of Emergency" - US-based Human Rights Watch has called upon what it called the 'reform-minded' Bangladeshi government and its donor countries to urgently tackle the endemic problem of torture.

From HRW:
The arbitrary arrest and torture of journalist Tasneem Khalil by Bangladesh’s notorious military intelligence agency highlights abuses under the country’s state of emergency and the interim government’s failure to restrain the security forces, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today.<snip>

At a detention center operated by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the military intelligence agency, officers brutally beat and threatened Khalil, a journalist for the English-language Daily Star, part-time consultant for Human Rights Watch, and a news representative for CNN. Demonstrating just how confident they are that they will not be held accountable, DGFI officials even brought Khalil to meet the editor of his paper before returning him to the detention center for further beatings.

I recommend reading the complete report here.

According to the report, some common forms of torture in Bangladesh include brutal practices such as burning with acid, hammering of nails into toes, drilling of holes in legs with electric drills, electric shocks, beatings on legs with iron rods, beating with batons on backs after sprinkling sand on them, ice torture, finger piercing, and mock executions.

DIASPORA: "60 Minutes" looks critically at Dubai, Inc.

"Dubai is a tiny sheikdom nestled along the Persian Gulf on the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula and part of a tiny, oil-rich country called the United Arab Emirates. Over the course of just a few decades, it's transformed itself from a spit of sand about the size of Rhode Island into the Singapore of the Middle East. As we told you when we first broadcast this story last October, it's a political, economic and financial success story in a region torn by conflict, and it's all the vision of one man, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. He rarely gives interviews, but you're about to meet him and get his tour of one of the fastest growing places on earth."

So began a two-part story with correspondent Steve Kroft that ran last week on "60 Minutes," the influential newsmagazine from CBS News. I had missed it when it first ran on Oct. 17, 2007, and again when it ran parallel to the Super Bowl. As I caught up with it on my DVR, I expected it to be yet another love letter to Dubai and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the visionary behind "Dubai, Inc" (the title of the story, by the way). The love letters have been all over the media of late. And, indeed, the piece starts that way, talking at length about the wonders of Dubai.

But with the second segment, the piece casts a critical eye at Dubai. And one part, in particular is noting here:

(Footage of workers; workers boarding bus; bus trip; workers' bunks)

KROFT: (Voiceover) Amidst the smell of opportunity and prosperity, there is also a whiff of exploitation. Sheikh Mohammed's dream is being built by armies of contract workers from South Asia who work 12-hour shifts, six days a week for an average of 4 or $5 a day. It's more than they can make at home, but human rights groups say they are little more than indentured servants forced to live in substandard conditions. At the end of their shifts, they board buses for the trip to remote desert compounds where they live far from the gleaming towers that they're building. These pictures from a French documentary aired two years ago show the squalor.

GUEST POST: Deporting the Better Angels

Here's a guest post by iFaqeer, a Silicon Valley-based SAJA member and writer about Abdul Sattar Edhi (more on Edhi in his Wikipedia profile). Post your comments below.
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Deporting the Better Angels
by iFaqeer

It's not been a good for South Asian social icons in the US. First Arun Gandhi resigns his post at the institute he founded, and now Edhi comes close to be being deported unceremonously. Here's what happened.

The word going around in Pakistani circles for the last couple of days was, as Dawn, Pakistan's "paper of record", put it, "US authorities have threatened Pakistan’s most respected citizen Abdul Sattar Edhi with deportation". I am still hoping some US/New York-based journalist can do some real finding out of facts, etc., on what transpired. But here is some background and some thoughts about why this is significant.

First, who is Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi? Well, he is Pakistan's Mother Teresa--but without strict the adherence to a conservative religious code and the loyalty to a conservative religious establishment that Christopher Hitchens so skewered her for. The foundation he has been running for 60 or so years now (from Pakistan's early days) runs, at this point, the largest volunteer ambulance service in the world. Yes, the world. You can look that up in the Guiness Book. The man hasreceived every major P