The Prayaga Confluence

Something extraordinary happened this past weekend on the roof of the world, but you would not know it from much of the North American press.

Voters in Nepal confounded all expectations and gave Maoist ex-guerrillas a majority in constituency assembly elections set up to draft a new constitution for a new Nepal. Traditional centre and centre-left parties were routed and left far behind in the seat count. Rightist royalist factions were completely annihilated.

This stunning electoral event guarantees the end of a civil war that claimed up to 13,000 lives over the past ten years and the end of a controversial monarchy that had always loomed larger than life in the impoverished country of 29 million. Nepal also becomes the first country with an elected Maoist government, a new reality that the BBC likened to a “Thunderbolt.”

Despite the dramatic results, reporting has been poor or absent at best in the West except in the UK whose old ties with Nepal include recruitment for its famed Royal Gurkha Regiment who themselves have protested discriminatory treatment in the past few weeks. Even jarring pictures of cheering youth, waving the hammer and sickle were not enough to rouse even the slightest notice. Indeed, US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley’s gaffe confusing Nepal and Tibet on ABC received greater coverage in the US blogosphere than the revolution taking place under the shadow of Mount Everest.

In an interesting illustration of this blind spot, Jimmy Carter’s presence as a poll observer was widely covered in the Nepali press yet also garnered little notice in the West. In comparison, his subsequent effort to restart the Israel-Palestine peace process was widely covered and debated. While any press observer would have found this predictable, given that region’s near monopoly of the West’s foreign news coverage, it does reveal the extent to which the Western press is so poor at covering much if not most of the rest of the world.

Even more glaringly, progressive news outlets have largely remained silent, perhaps unable or unwilling to analyse the ascent of a far-left party that they know very little about beyond negative mainstream protrayals. Only Monthly Review, the standard bearer for non-partisan Marxist perspectives, has covered the events largely with the dispatches from their Norwegian man on the spot, Johan Andresen. Most every other magazine, web forum, blog, or news feed either failed to cover or simply reposted mainstream articles in the first four days after trends had become readily apparent. Today, University History professor Gary Leupp made this same point on Counterpunch.

This lack of coverage stands in sharp contrast to the situation in neighbouring Tibet, which because of its celebrated status in the West and the upcoming Olympics, has garnered enormous ongoing attention from all quarters. That Nepal’s politics are in some ways heading in the opposite direction should have at least shunted some of this reporting towards Nepal if only to compare and contrast the divergent political trajectories. Moreover, while geographically smaller, Nepal’s population is ten times that of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, with an even larger diaspora labouring throughout the world. The country does deserve some coverage, no?

Something I wrote for the heck of it, although I don’t watch American Idol but could appreciate an underdog like Sanjaya getting as far as he did with a goofy grin and glint in his eye.

By Rajiv Rawat
Garhwal Post, 29 April 2007

It was fun while it lasted, but Sanjaya Malakar, this year’s American Idol phenomenon finally reached the end of the line by failing to make the contest’s final six last week. Though castigated ruthlessly in the media for his persistent survival despite a perceived lack of singing talent, his shy demeanor and good natured persona so charmed the voting audience that they return him repeatedly to the American Idol stage. However, so strongly did Sanjaya’s singing polarize supporters and detractors, that one of the show’s judges even promised to quit if Sanjaya became Idol winner.

Most interestingly, Sanjaya elicited widespread support in perhaps America’s most mainstream of competitions, breaking out of the usual ghetto of well wishers from fellow Indians that have overwhelmed such contests in the past. In fact there is little evidence that Indian voters figured at all given their puzzled attitude towards his sudden fame, unlike say in online contests such as the BBC’s “people of the millennium” that were handily won by Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Amitabh Bachchan largely on the back of superpowered support from Indian listeners.
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Despite the 300 considerable artistic merit, Frank Miller’s graphic novel/film of the Spartan sacrifice at the battle of Thermopylae reflects his dangerous post 9/11 proto-fascist views.

I was never quite a fan of Frank Miller. I was always creeped out by his reimagined Dark Knight Batman series, and am much more moved by stories of light and lawful goodness, than dark comic book themes of revenge and violence. However, the 300, with its modern day echoes of warmongering over Iran, may also prove to much more than a work of fiction, but a call to arms for a generation of fan-boys to march off to global war. Leaping from the screens and into the mindsets of future soldiers, it represents an enthusiastic endorsement of the fascist principles of submerging one’s individuality to the war machine (Army of One, indeed!).

Frank Miller’s own views echo these themes, whereas the 300 may pave the way for a fascistic response to imperial collapse, citing the “betrayal” of the soft-on-terror liberal Athenians/Democrats who would rather parley with the enemy then prepare for war. And this enemy - “medieval barbarians” - are wholly undeserving of respect, and can only be vanquished by their wholesale extermination.

By portraying the Spartans as the aggrieved party, defending their homeland till death, the odiousness of their societal philosophy is disguised, if not elevated to heroic proportions (thus the only the hard, only the strong motif). The portrayal of the Persians is also telling, emphasizing the worst forms of Orientalism to whip up hatred and contempt for the Other. As for the homophobic homoeroticism, well, that’s a pretty well-worn theme in fascist movements, right down to the brown shirts of the SA.

That the 300 film comes out at a crucial time for the War Party in Washington, is quite interesting. However, those who take heart from this depiction of the battle of Thermopylae — which indeed was a heroic battle in that a few stood against many — should realize their efforts may actually parallel those of the battle of Carrhae. In the latter, case the Parthians routed a much larger Roman invasion force, and poured molten gold into the throat of Crassus, the richest man in Rome.

After a long hiatus, I am restarting this blog to make way for a pile up of commentaries and news items unrelated to my research and the Uttarakhand Solidarity Network that has occupied much of my web time. Since I have made extensive comments elsewhere, I’ll try to import them here.

A lot of things have happened since September when I went to India for preliminary field work, including a growing knowledge on how to get the most out of wordpress as well my run as a guest columnist with the Garhwal Post, the only English-language daily from Dehradun, and perhaps only successful one in all of Uttarakhand. The editors have made way for my commentaries which has allowed me to muse out loud about the state of politics in Uttarakhand, for which I am grateful.

Anyways, look for upcoming comments, including some on films and television serials I have finally gotten to watch!

Published in the Garhwal Post, March 11, 2007

When Air India Flight 182 was blown from the sky in Canada’s worst ever terrorist attack, no one would have believed that the case would go unsolved AND continue to generate political controversy for over twenty years. Only in 2005 was it even acknowledged as a truly “Canadian” tragedy with the enshrining of June 23 as a “national day of mourning” in perpetuity. Over the past two weeks, the tragedy has again made front page news, as a potential cover up of the bungled Canadian intelligence operation and the political machinations of the current Canadian government has evoked a mixture of rage, disappointment, and sorrow amongst the victims’ families and Canadian public at large.
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Published in the Garhwal Post, March 3, 2007

This past February 28 marked a sad anniversary for both the international scientific community and Indians living abroad.

Dr Pushpinder Singh, a Dehradun-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate with a bright future in artificial intelligence research, passed away suddenly a year ago at his residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the young age of 33, Push (as he was known since youth) was invited to join the faculty of MIT’s prestigious Media Laboratories, succeeding his long-term advisor Marvin Minsky, the esteemed pioneer of Artificial Intelligence research. At around the same time, he was also identified as an up and coming leader in his field with the first ever IEEE Intelligent Systems “AI’s 10 to Watch” award.

The tragedy of his passing, following a period of ill health and excruciating back pains, has devastated his family and all his many colleagues and comrades. For me, Push was my oldest friend, my brother, and my mentor as a child, and I deeply mourn his death. In addition, the passage of time has yet to heal this wound, and his memory lingers on.
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Some of the latest data from ice cores in the Antarctic present some alarming statistics even than those beyond what we have grown accustom to seeing over the past few years. Both CO2 and Methane levels are rising far in excess and at a speed not seen in at least the last 800,000 years. Scientists fear this is too much for natural systems to bear over such a rapid transition.

There unfortunately seems to be little relief in sight barring a major economic collapse where industrial productivity would drop by a factor of ten. Thus the current civilizational trajectory can only be described as suicidal. This brings to mind an old professor of mine who once noted that the complexity of global problems may be rising exponentially, but our political capacity to cope has grown very little, or even as seen from events such as Katrina, collapsed.

Strangely the propensity of voters to choose short term thinking among their leaders seems to be most pronounced in Western countries where democracy has atrophied under the influence of belief systems based solely on consumerism and self-gratification. This Affluenza, even more than prompting an epidemic of obesity, is making us victims of our own success as a species in monopolizing and exploiting the resources of the planet. As such, the solution lies in rearranging our global priorities and acting in ways that respect the future. It may be a cliche, but seven generations thinking applies now more than ever. Too bad like so many revolutionary ideas, it has been coopted and vacated of its meaning.

We’ll see what happens. I’m not too optimistic, but things can change very quickly, even when you least suspect them.

On the sixth day of indiscriminate bombing, the death toll in Lebanon has surpassed that of the Mumbai bombings. Over two hundred dead, mostly civilians, for what? So many charred and mangled children with their limbs blown apart. The scale of the brutality is overwhelming.

You can find some good analysis here. What is almost as sickening is the almost total lack of concern for Lebanese civilians, which is only surpassed by the complete disregard for Palestinian lives. The Western media and Western governments are complicit in this heinous war crime, even as Canadians are also paying the price. The Harper government has been especially craven, but then again that is to be expected.

The truth that is hidden in plain sight, is that even before Gilan Shalit (we only know his name, not that of the thousands civilians that have been held indefinitely by Israel) was captured, whole families were being wiped out by Israel’s shelling of Gaza. Few if any Western newspapers ever even mention this atrocity that came weeks before the capture. After he was captured, Israel managed to kill over 50 civilians before Hezbollah intervened with an incursion of their own. No one else was even lifting a finger as Palestinians were dying. The West, in its infinite justice, only expressed muted concern, and even now only expresses outrage over Hezbollah (!). And ever since for the last week, there has been a shock and awe style campaign against all of Lebanon, killing civilians and causing catastrophic damage to the country.

The only way what is going on with the G8 and the Western news media making any sense is with the old racist equation that one Israeli’s life is worth over a hundred Arabs. We see this imbalance over and over again. This becomes clearer every day. I’ve never felt so outraged about the chronic bias in reporting that treats some people as human beings, while reducing others to mere collateral damage.

With the middle east locked in an escalation of violence as Israel continues raining bombs on both Gaza and Lebanon, and the horrific bombings in Mumbai heightening tensions between India and Pakistan, events look to be quickly spiralling out of control into a much feared civilization conflict.

It is thus important to note what the Western media never does too well, that Israel is using such disproportionate force in its attempts to free THREE soldiers that it has killed over a hundred people and caused untold millions of dollars of damage. Ironically, this strategy of collective punishment and “Lebanon Blitz” echoes the methods of German counterinsurgency operations against partisans during WWII. It carries the same racist disregard for human life and only contributes to brutalizing the conflict to the point where no solution is possible except the annihilation of the foe — in this case, the civilian populations. This in fact could be the long term goal of dealing once and for all with the Palestinian problem. Israel has to step back from the brink, although it will be exceedingly difficult with its continued slaughter of so many innocents.

In the case of Mumbai bombings, both Pakistan and even the most extreme Kashmiri separatist elements have categorically denounced the attacks in the strongest of terms, as well as denied any involvement. Still, the Indian government’s tendency to ascribe such big disasters to the “foreign hand” is squarely landing on Pakistan thus potentially souring relations for good. It is important to note, that this would be the biggest such terrorist attack ever laid at the doorstep of Pakistan and could have potentially explosive consequences for peace efforts in the region. However, it seems that there is a glimmer of hope in the way Mumbai-ites came together to help the injured and that a more nuanced position has been advanced as opposed to the shrill denunciations of yesteryear (however, these remain). There is also an understanding that all are suffering in common, including the Kashmiris whose economy is trying to get off the ground, but suffering attacks determined to derail it.

While the turmoil in Afghanistan and Iraq grinds on unrelentingly and threatens to grow, with its full horror exhibited recently by allegations of rape and murder, it is worth watching what is happening elsewhere. Increasing penetration of Venezuela’s frontier by right-wing Colombian paramilitary death squads may present a harbinger of the chaos to come as the US engages in a multilayered strategy of destabilizing Latin America. Its bullying of Paraguay into accepting military bases in the country, also presents a challenge to Bolivia, while Cuba is facing years of targeted economic and political warfare.

Thus is a civilization conflict looming? Rather the question should be whether international community will be able to move beyond their current paralysis and deal fairly and justly with these problems. This means not being cowed by the bullies that have forced most to look the other way, ignore their commitments to international law, and any notion of justice, as whole nations continue to be occupied, brutalized, sabotaged, and isolated.

Not to take anything away from Italy’s victory at the World Cup, but Zidane’s loss of temper on Sunday evening was truly a tragic end to an incredible career for this generation’s all around greatest soccer player. Zidane remains a hero though for France and especially its immigrant population, and he even won the MVP award for the entire tournament. The BBC reveals a little bit about his enduring appeal.

In a lunch meeting with Zidane, Chirac showed why, despite his political failings at home, the President of France remains a true gentleman:

Offering his support, Chirac said: “Dear Zinedine, in such a hard and intense moment for you, I would like to express the whole nation’s affection and admiration for you.

“You are a virtuoso, a genius of football and an exceptional human being. That is why France admires you.”

Chirac’s recognition flies in the face of the extreme French right wing who see the incredibly diverse and successful French team as a threat to notions of pure French nationhood. As Zirin & Cox write:

Le Pen and others of his ilk do not recognize themselves in a team whose leader is of Algerian descent–Zinedine Zidane–and whose most feared striker is black–Thierry Henry. Le Pen used to torture Algerians for the French military in the 1950s and it turns his stomach that his team reflects France’s (and Europe’s) colonial past, with players from Cameroon, Guadalupe, Senegal, Congo, Algeria, and Benin among other countries.

Just as France’s win in 1998 brought the nation together, hopefully, at least some part of France will retain its revolutionary spirit of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, made manifest by a great team.

There are worrying signs though that France is willing to replace the UK as the US’s attack dog in the Middle East. In Haiti, they have already conspired brazenly to keep Aristide out of power, but whether in Lebanon or over Iran, France is increasingly teaming up with the US.

I guess Western countries as a whole cannot be trusted when their basic interests are at stake. Germany is also reflexively gearing for a showdown with Iran. The same vicious supremacist colonial mentality at work again… Sad.