Poverty and the Haj Subsidy

Look around in India and it is not difficult to see the shades of economic prosperity. The picture you see is only a few blocks away from my house in Bandra (considered one of the more uptown locations in Mumbai). In a country where it is estimated that only 1 of every 100 rupees that is spent on development actually percolates down to the needy there is much merit in being prudent with developmental expenditure.

Yet ours has been a country famous for its vote bank politics (and hence expenditure). Be it the freebees that have become the hallmark of Tamil Nadu politics or the Haj Subsidy that has been the center of debate in this country for years.

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court regarding the legality of the subsidy being afforded by the government to Haj Pilgrims. The petitioner is questioning the constitutional validity of the Haj Committee Act, 1959.

To quote article 27 of the Indian constitution, which this act seems to contradict

“Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.- No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.”

In a country that still has poverty of starvation deaths is it necessary to be paying out over 250 crores to one community.


Liz Mathew had written an interesting article on this

While Muslim intellectuals fiercely oppose Haj pilgrimage, the government argues that it is only assisting poor Muslims to fulfill their dream of a Haj pilgrimage and upholding the country's secular credentials.

"For those who are going for Haj, it's a life time dream. The government is giving only travel subsidy to those who cannot meet the expenses - its not cash in hand," Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, who is in charge of Haj affairs, told IANS.

"The presence of Indian Muslims is felt in big way in an international congregation. Now the world realises that India is home to the second largest Muslim population. It upholds our secular credentials," Ahamed added.

But academicians like Firoz Bakht Ahamed rubbished the argument.

"This is an argument that supports the compartmentalisation of people into religious groups. India is not going to enhance its status by sending more Haj pilgrims," said Feroz Ahamed, a grand nephew of freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
"Going for Haj is a desire and it should be done keeping in view the economical status also. The government is not helping Muslims by providing subsidy when the community lags behind in all social indicators. It is just vote bank-politics.
"Instead, there should be a concrete plan to uplift the community, especially in girls' education," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government last week decided to pay the round trip fare to 10,000 more Haj pilgrims every year, taking the total number entitled to the subsidy to 110,000.

The government has spent nearly Rs.1.80 billion on the last Haj and the increase in the number could push this expenditure by at least 10 percent.

Muslim intellectuals point out that even Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca, believes that any subsidy for the Haj goes against the spirit of the Shariat, the Islamic law.
They say Haj is a religious duty only for those who can afford it and that the pilgrimage may not be 'accepted by god' if money spent on transport to reach the holy sites and on food is not the pilgrim's own.

Pakistan discontinued Haj subsidies to pilgrims as well as goodwill delegations after a 1997 court ruling that any expenditure defrayed by the government was contrary to the Shariat.

Syed Shahabuddin, former diplomat and a community leader, also opposed the idea. "I am against subsidy," Shahabuddin told IANS.

"I have told successive prime ministers that this Haj subsidy is there because of their political need, it has never been our demand," he said.


Hopefully the courts will once again step in to favor good reason!

Wagging the Dog

Wag the Dog (1997) , a movie by Barry Levinson, tells the story of a press campaign being run by operatives of the President of the US to distract public opinion from an evolving scandal in the run up to the presidential elections.

While many of us at the time brushed it off as just a movie, years later one cant help but see it happening in real life. Be it the blatant bias seen on news channels like Fox (watch the movie Outfoxed for more on this) or the current war on "natural justice" that the US government ran right through the occupation of Iraq and the murder of its president.

And through all of this people have remained silent. Many in the US even believed that Bush was right to occupy Iraq and few know the real story about the trail of its president.

Some facts from an Article by Praful Bidwai

The US rejected the legitimate and reasonable demand for an international tribunal, similar to that established for trying Slobodan Milosevic. Washington knows the Iraqi legal system can't deliver justice. Recently, Iraqi judges have summarily pronounced harsh verdicts after 15-minute trials. As The New York Times reported: 'Almost every aspect of the judicial system is lacking, poorly serving not just detainees but also Iraqi citizens and troops...'

SICT was set up by the occupying powers, which rigged its rules of procedure to favour the prosecution. Most of its judges were imparted special legal 'training' in Britain, an occupying power. SICT wasn't even remotely sovereign, independent, impartial or legitimate. This is the opinion of the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, WGAD, established by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1991. WGAD received its mandate from the General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.


WGAD's final opinion, delivered in September, determined that 'the deprivation of liberty of Saddam Hussein is arbitrary, being in contravention of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, to which Iraq and the US are parties.'

The accused were denied the elementary right to defend themselves. Hussein didn't have unimpeded access to his lawyers, nor adequate time or facilities to prepare his defence. WGAD says that 'the presence of US officials' at his meetings with lawyers 'violated his right to communicate with counsel,' mandated by ICCPR's Article 14(3).


Two of Hussein's lawyers were assassinated, in October 2005 and June 2006. This 'seriously undermined his right to defend himself through counsel of his own choosing.'

SICT's first chief judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, resigned because of political pressure to prevent a fair trial. Judge Abdel-Rahman, who delivered the final verdict, was totally biased. He abruptly, arbitrarily ended the trial in June 2006. He made 'statements incompatible with impartiality and the presumption of innocence enshrined in Article 14(2) of the ICCPR.'

According to WGAD, Hussein couldn't 'obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same condition as witnesses against him.' His right to do so, guaranteed by the ICCPR, was 'undermined by the failure to adequately disclose prosecution evidence to the defendants, the reading into the record of affidavits without an adequate possibility for the defence to challenge them', and the trial's sudden termination.


WGAD says it's impossible 'to verify whether (the concerned) judges meet the requirements for judicial office, whether they are affiliated with political office, whether their impartiality... is otherwise undermined.' Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both say the trial was a mockery of justice.

One of Hussein's defence lawyers, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from court for saying that the trial failed to meet international legal standards.

Even before the trial ended, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki demanded that Mr Hussein be hanged. More recently, he declared the hanging would take place before the end of the year, thus usurping the judiciary's prerogative to set the date. The final procedural clearances were obtained in unseemly haste and secrecy.


More to come on this....

BlackBerry Thumb!

What next stylus hand ? :)



Reuters

Updated: 7:08 p.m. ET Jan 12, 2007

NEW YORK - When massage therapist Grace Macnow first heard the term "BlackBerry thumb," she didn't know what it meant. Now, treating it is a new and booming part of her spa business.

Therapies to treat workplace woes such as a sore thumb from tapping on a hand-held computer, the aches of "tech neck" from typing on a laptop or even skin irritation from chatting on a cell phone are the latest rage to hit high-end spas, where the weary can seek relief at the end of an arduous
workday.

"It's huge," said Cindy Barshop, the founder of Completely Bare salons in New York, who has introduced Purity Plus facials to help clean clogged pores and breakouts tied to cell phone use.

"I'm pretty shocked," she said about the popularity of the new service. "Everybody's calling me about it. I think a lot of people have that problem."

The Purity Plus facial at Completely Bare, complete with herbal mask, steam treatment and massage, costs $185 and takes roughly an hour.

Joe Silverman, 31, was one of the first clients to sign up for the new tech neck massage at the Dorit Baxter New York Day Spa in midtown Manhattan.

"I've been feeling such pain with keyboards and BlackBerry typing and always being on the go," said Silverman, who owns technology company New York Computer Help. "We don't take care of ourselves, whether it's our posture or just pressure.

"You go home and you go to sleep, and you start to turn over or you are trying to move, you definitely feel it," he added. "It definitely takes a toll."

Macnow, at her spa Graceful Services, started offering specialized massages for BlackBerry thumb and tech neck last month after getting requests from clients.

They've proved to be among her most sought-after services.

"When they first called me, I didn't know what BlackBerry thumb was," she
said. "Now I know."

Her massages feature deep muscle pressure intended to relax the shoulders,
neck and arms.

Named after Ontario-based Research In Motion Ltd's popular personal digital assistant, the stress-related injury BlackBerry thumb was recently recognized by the American Physical Therapy Association as an official workplace malady.

Aida Bicaj, who offers cell phone facials at $225 a session in a townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side, says she has found a wealth of clients among stressed-out professionals and office employees who are overworked in competitive jobs.

"With that, you have a lack of sleep and you have stress," she said. "It's identified in your face right away."

Demise of the Organized Music Industry

Interesting Piece of News:

"From this week (7th Jan, 2006), all downloaded music sales are counted in the official UK chart, not just tracks which have had a physical media release. Now, an unsigned band called Koopa is poised to enter the top 40 without any old-world recording, distribution, or production deals"

Read the sky news story here

Seems like the demise of the organized music Industry...and thus once more the Net changes the way we do business! The World is Flat!

Mumbai: Yaha to footpath bhi house full hai!

Meet a Mumbaikar on the street and there are only 2 topics of conversation you are sure to agree upon. The most obvious is the traffic snarls and the more interesting being the cost of real estate in the city.

Ironic isn't it. Its a city where you cant stay and you cant go...!

Yet, for those of us who have lived here all our lives there is no place that has the charm of Mumbai.

The city of Mumbai lives and thrives because of its people. For in no other place would you find a more resilient and professional set of people congregated. This is a city that truly rewards an entrepreneur and challenges its corporate citizens.

Yet if the city administration continues to do nothing this city will die its natural death. Only time will tell ...

Cocaine is God's way of saying that you're making too much money.

- Robin Williams