Limitations by law for morality, order, & welfare

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 29

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

(other language versions Human Rights Day 10 December 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

Social and international order

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

(other language versions Human Rights Day 10 December 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

Participate, enjoy, protect

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 27

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

(Other language versions Human Rights Day 10 December 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948. Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union: Chapter I - Dignity Chapter II - Freedoms Chapter III - Equality Chapter IV - Solidarity Chapter V - Citizen's Rights Chapter VI - Justice General Provisions Full text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (PDF files)

Dwindling number of men teachers

Home » Opinion » Edit Page Top Article: Where's The Teacher? Dev Lahiri Times of India 24 July 2009

This pitiful state of affairs has much to do with the way we, as a nation, view the teaching profession. Teachers are not considered frontline 'professionals' in the same manner as, say, doctors, lawyers or engineers. It is believed that anyone irrespective of qualifications or training can teach. And that is exactly what happens. [...]

Another area of concern is the dwindling number of men in the profession. It seems all the men (or at least those who could make it) have hopped off to greener pastures. Apart from the exodus to the Mideast, the IT sector more recently has claimed a large number. While women do make great teachers, they also have the role of homemaker to fulfil. Being a teacher for a woman is not quite as professional as, say, being a corporate executive. And the men who remain have largely embedded themselves in the tuition market, as opposed to being genuine mentors as schoolteachers. [...]

The profession itself suffers from a sense of low self-esteem. Teachers do not see themselves in the same category as lawyers, doctors, civil servants or engineers. They are almost apologetic about being teachers. Gone are the days of the 'guru-chela' relationship. Parents today are quite aggressive in their criticism of schools and teachers. Children take the cue from their parents. In the face of such aggression, teachers who already see themselves at the bottom of the food chain are put under further pressure. The irony is that they are still supposed to be the epitome of all that is noble and good!

A redefinition of our attitude to the profession and a fresh look at issues like teacher growth and training are required. I can never forget an incident when I was headmaster of one of the country's oldest public schools. A parent had come (in a rather fancy car) to pick up his son at the beginning of the holidays. As father and son got into the car, his final words of advice while pointing at the boy's housemaster were: ''Son, you'd better study hard or else, you will end up like him!'' Thereby hangs a tale. The writer is principal, Welham Boys School, Dehradun.

An ode to this most marginalised section of the society

True to life
Women from Sangli enact their lives on stage
From “My Mother The Gharwali Her Maalak His Wife” The Hindu Monday, Dec 08, 2008

Everyone has their point of view on sex workers. But we seldom know what they feel. To clear this ignorance Point of View and Sangram in association with Naz Foundation (India) Trust are presenting “My Mother The Gharwali Her Maalak His Wife". Directed by Sushama Deshpande, it is performed by VAMP (Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad) — a collective of women in sex work based in Sangli, Maharashtra. This is the first time that the play comes to Delhi in its complete form, having been performed previously at the Prithvi Festival and Ranga Shankara.

The play is the culmination of a process that began almost three years, when Sangram (which works with collectives of women sex workers) and Point of View (an organisation that promotes views of women through different mediums) started taking theatre workshops with the sex workers. They were first shown popular Hindi movies, which portrayed sex workers. The women were interested but felt that they’d been misrepresented in all.

Deshpande says that the women agreed Laaga Chunari Mein Daag was the closest to reality! The script of the play has evolved through these workshops and is basically a chronicle of 24 hours in a gully. The story revolves around Leena, a sex worker in love with her rickshaw-driver prince, “who is suddenly talking about riding off into the sunset — alone”. Bishakha Datta of Point of View elaborates on the relevance of the play, “They need to be put in a space where they are accepted as humans and as actors. Theatre has always been a form of empowerment against oppression. This play makes them the subject and not the object. It shows what their lives are actually like. This kind of effort will help change policy in a way that is beneficial to them.”

But for Meena Seshu from Sangram, the play’s greatest significance is that it has helped bridge the divide between the sex workers and their children, who also act in it. She explains, “Society’s views also get ingrained on their children. They feel, ‘I love my mom. But I can’t acknowledge her as my mother.’” The play has brought children and mothers closer. The organisers are also clear that they do not wish this to be seen as an “NGO play”. Deshpande emphasises, “We wanted to do something professional. We had to work on the acting, music and sets.” Datta, whose work involves mixing art and activism, says, “We don’t want to promote good activism through bad art. ”

The success of the show and the victory of the audience will be if we see the women on stage only as actors. The organisers hope that the audience will leave with empathy and not pity. www.hindu.com/mp/2008/12/08/ email: pointofviewmumbai@gmail.com NANDINI NAIR

***

Expressindia » Telling it like it is
Barun Pegu Posted: Jun 18, 2008
My Mother, The Gharwali, Her Maalak, His Wife staged in the city over the last two days provoked the audiences to pause, ponder and alter certain prejudices

Highlighting the plight of prostitutes, the play My Mother, The Gharwali, Her Maalak, His Wife that was staged at Bal Gandharva Natya Mandir on Monday, was a stark representation of the day to day struggles faced by women in this profession. Two highlights marked the event, the play was performed by a troupe of prostitutes and secondly, the play was no less than a professional theatre troupe performance. An ode to this most marginalised section of the society, the play took the viewers to a world full of trials and tribulations where the protagonists battle every prejudice in the book while trying to eke a living for themselves and their children.

But if you thought that this would be a deep, dark and brooding play, you were in for a surprise. The play adopted a lighter vein as it took a look at 24 hours in the lives of the people who live in or pass through the galli (street) in which Leena (the main protagonist) lives. Stringing together a series of episodes the play portrayed the daily harassments from the police and customers and false hopes given by politicians to the inhabitatnts of the sullied address.

The play was performed by VAMP, a collective of women in prostitution that developed as an offshoot of Sangram, but today independently runs a condom-based peer intervention programme in six districts of Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, in collaboration with the Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune.

Sangram, based in Sangli, Maharshtra, fighting for the fundamental rights of prostitutes in their communities and aiding them to live with dignity in a society that views them as less than human, has been instrumental in bringing about the play. Point Of View, a Mumbai-based non-profit organisation that promotes the points of view of women through media, art and culture were one of the organizers too. The play was directed by eminent theatre personality, Sushama Deshpande and conceived by Bishaka Dutta, Meenu Seshu and Divya Bhatia.

Explaining the motive of the play, Durga, one of the members of the cast said, "All we are asking for is recognition as human beings." The idea came about when the actors realised that mass media like movies were portraying them in a wrong and stereotyped colour. "Movies always portray these women as the evil of society who are responsible for spreading HIV AIDS, and hence we are using the help of media like the theatre to stand up against this misrepresentation," said Sashikant Deshpande of Sangram. "It was necessary that the people of the community get to know about the abuse and harassment by the police and customers that they face and what better medium than the theatre," added Raju, son of one of the actors.

The play ended with a standing ovation from the audience who commended the effort made by the artistes and the organizers, and their initiative.

For Indian women, globalisation has generally done good

TOP ARTICLE Clouded By Confusion - Editorial - Opinion - The Times of India
Ravinder Kaur 14 February 2009

A straight line can be drawn backwards from the Mangalore type of incidents to the Delhi murders of Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal. The canvas can be broadened to include the recent resurgence of honour crimes in northern India, instances of acid being thrown at women, and the backlash against women who dare to voice an opinion or choose a lifestyle of their choice. Young people are being punished for what is being perceived as immoral and detrimental to so-called Indian culture and tradition. Yet, physical assaults and assaults unto death cannot simply be comprehended as protests against what is objectionable to the sensibilities of some. And it is the young who are victimising other young people, particularly women, drawing supportive responses from those responsible for law and order, whether it is a Ashok Gehlot supporting 'Indian culture' or a confused Sheila Dikshit asking women to stay indoors. The particularly virulent form the actions are taking and their vigilante nature propel us towards a more nuanced reading.

Emile Durkheim, the French sociologist, had a term and a theory to explain such (anti) social behaviour. Although his theory applied primarily to understanding suicide, it can, and has, been extended to other areas of human behaviour. Durkheim classified all periods of rapid change as leading to a state of 'anomie' or 'normlessness' in society. In such circumstances, individuals and groups are often in a 'state of confusion', uncertain of the appropriate norms to follow and uncertain of their place in society. Their response may be either in the form of extreme steps such as suicide, or violence against those perceived to be causing grievous harm to the moral foundations of society. That India is undergoing a period of rapid transition is not in doubt; the anomie induced may be held responsible for many of the responses and incidents listed above. Indian society has had few social revolutions, such as students' revolts or strong feminist protests, or movements for greater individual freedoms, which could explain the changes we are experiencing.

The transformation in Indian society has primarily been brought about by changes in the economy and technology. Yet, the social implications of far-reaching economic and technological change have been little studied or commented upon, apart from the railing we hear against globalisation and its presumed role in the destruction of 'traditional' culture and values. For Indian women, globalisation has generally done good. It has brought them into the workforce, and done so in large numbers. Earlier, working women in India were either the elite or the poor. This picture has now changed with women of many classes choosing to work both before and after marriage. But there is a downside to this. Despite obvious class differences between women working in factories or call centres and in managerial jobs, tensions are perceptible and palpable in most families and in society at large. Men (and in-laws) are happy that daughters, sisters and wives are bringing home incomes but are not fully reconciled to them venturing out of the house. Work and independent incomes enable women to try out new freedoms. On offer are choices and an escape from the stifling confines of parental or marital homes.

Society is uncertain about how to respond to these new demands, and the new mores espoused by the young. Which are the constituencies most affected by change? If the old are protecting so-called tradition and their own hegemony, what are the young involved in incidents such as those in Mangalore or the Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal murders protecting or fighting against? Here class combines with a more general gendered targeting young men desirous of economic and social upward mobility, who are looking from the outside at others who have already got where they secretly wish to be. In such cases a genuine confusion over 'morals' combines with a destructive class envy, resulting in targeting of youth, especially women, who themselves are exploring the boundaries of their new freedoms. The targets are individuals who appear to have a glamorous lifestyle or putatively stand for a 'modernity' that has not yet embraced all. In all such cases, the freedoms sought to be curtailed are those of women, especially those seen as espousing a 'western modernity'. Additionally, the rise of the Hindutva parties gives a platform to these uncertain young men as defenders of 'traditional, Hindu culture,' providing them with respect from certain quarters.

That there is genuine confusion among our youth, especially among those associated with the socially conservative right, is often obvious in our classrooms. In an IIT classroom, peopled mostly with young men from small towns or cities, discussions of gender or homosexuality generally evoke embarrassed titters and reiterations of the importance of not losing 'Indian culture' to the juggernaut of globalisation. Yet, at least some of those with politically conservative affiliations are assailed by self-doubt are they right in hating Muslims, in agreeing with excessive parental control or in looking at women wearing jeans and T-shirts as 'loose'? Conservative ideologies often become a protective shield against the flux of rapid change, especially if one nurses the feeling of being left out. It is here that a liberal arts education has a lot of work to do in our universities and educational institutes. The writer is a professor of social anthropology, IIT Delhi.

Ubiquitous simulation of the Other

The Melodrama of Difference (Or, The Revenge of the Colonized) by Jean Baudrillard
So what became of otherness? We are engaged in an orgy of discovery, exploration and “invention” of the Other. An orgy of differences. We are procurers of encounter, pimps of interfacing and interactivity. Once we get beyond the mirror of alienation (beyond the mirror stage that was the joy of our childhood), structural differences multiply ad infinitum – in fashion, in mores, in culture. Crude otherness, hard otherness – the otherness of race, of madness, of poverty – are done with. Otherness, like everything else, has fallen under the law of the market, the law of supply and demand. It has become a rare item – hence its immensely high value on the psychological stock exchange, on the structural stock exchange. Hence too the intensity of the ubiquitous simulation of the Other. This is particularly striking in science fiction, where the chief question is always “What is the Other? Where is the Other?” Of course science fiction is merely a reflection of our everyday universe, which is in thrall to a wild speculation on – almost a black market in – otherness and difference. A veritable obsession with ecology extends from Indian reservations to house­hold pets (otherness degree zero!) – not to mention the other of “the other scene”, or the other of the unconscious (our last symbolic capital, and one we had better look after, because reserves are not limitless).

A Critical History of Architecture in a Post-Colonial World: A View from Indian History By Swati Chattopadhyay
One of the things that Edward Said's book Orientalism (1978), based on a Foucaultian critique of the discourses of colonialism achieved, was to demonstrate the essentialized portrayals of colonized cultures, whether through the lens of western positivism (modernity) or through Orientalism. Nationalism as an indigenous colonial discourse, had to create an independent place for itself within the interpellation of the west by identifying its own essentlalized and ahistorical features for the nation. Postcolonial sociality in erstwhile colonized nations is still largely driven by the unfortunate identity politics of these discourses. Nationalism, as created by its founders, was largely thought of in its own time as a strategic essentialism, an invention of the soul-expression of a nation, to enable its identification and survival. But if such ahistorical descriptions become identity markers fossilized by institutional fiat, the resultant identity politics in an age of pluralism can only lead to violence and misfortune. Ongoing creative hybrid engagements are the way out of the postcolonial predicament. In this article, Swati Chattopadhyay, professor of Architectural History at UC Santa Barbara, shows how colonized nations create their own blind-spots based on the inability to classify the hybrid. At the same time, a situated social history of culture (here architecture) shows us that hybridity is the norm of human culture and its recognition leads us to the necessary evolution out of a phase of strategic essentialism into one of dialog and human co-existence.

Born Again Ideology (religion, technology and terrorism) by Arthur Kroker
Kroker's book Born Again Ideology examines Fundamentalism and its relationship to Empire. Although written as a response to the techno-militarist expansionism of George Bush and his neo-conservative American ideology, that fuses the protestant ethic with streamed capitalism, that expresses manifest destiny under the sign of a its simulacra deity; the digital commodity form, and re-territorializes the planet through a Nietzschean will to technology, there are global parallels drawn in making explicit how many global fundamentalist movements appropriate techno-science for their often millennial aims. In chapter 5 for example he uncovers ideological similarities in the exploitation of techno-science in the India Shining Movement with their their mastery of infomatics with the expertise in developing technologies of cyber-warfare of the Zionist occupation forces. Kroker makes medieval and millennialist Fundamentalism fully relevant to the new millennium

Why is the United States the spearhead of the technological future? Beyond its massive power as the leading empire of 21st century political economy, what explains the remarkable historical situation that since its Puritan origins America has actually innovated the future thanks to a seemingly singular cultural genius for innovation, creativity and (patent-driven) consumer practicality? Here, seizing upon the language of technological innovation as its primary means of expression, what might be described as the discourse of technology and the American mind has become both the essence of American drive towards the fully realized technological future and increasingly, due to its hegemony as a dominant political power, the dominant cultural code of global society.

Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India through European Eyes, 1250–1625 Reviewed by Daud Ali
If Edward Said's Orientalism stands as a watershed in modern studies by disclosing the essentalized nature of colonial discourses which form some of the major sources of our contemporary discontent, this work has also been criticized for its own essentlialistic nature. By ignoring the reality of cultural histories and generalities of culture, it has played into the hands of post-Enlightenment modernity for which postcolonial peoples have been rendered historyless. It has also failed to disclose the internally conflicted nature of the discourses of colonialism or the strategies and possibilities of understanding at work within them. Post-Orientalistic scholarship has addressed some of these errors and lacunae in Said's work. At the forefront of new discursive approaches to medieval histories of India is the work of Daud Ali, professor of Early Indian History at the School of Asian and African Studies at the University of London. In this article Ali reviews a book on Renaissance travel literature on India and shows how useful such documents are as expressions of "truth games" (Foucault), the creative ways by which identity and difference are negotiated in furthering the establishment of what is true in any given time and space.

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All major religions have united against the granting of gay rights

Gay Rights and Wrongs from Around and About by shantanu dutta

In fact religious leaders of different faiths in the country talking united on one voice on any issue is something that does not often happen. But the subject of gay rights and whether homosexuality ought to be decriminalized brought together all of them. Initially, it was the Christian clergy who seemed to be more vocal and was the religious face on television channels but later others joined in too. But is the matter of gay rights, a religious issue? Partly yes, partly no, perhaps. [...]

A larger question to be confronted is whether morality ought be enforced through law or preached persuasively as a lifestyle. History proves that criminalizing anything merely drives people underground. A century or more of the provision of law penalizing “act of carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal an offence” has obviously not prevented the development of a robust gay movement in the country. Neither has for instance, more than 60 years of keeping Gujarat a dry state done much to keep people from consuming illicit hooch and dying.

So clearly the matter is far more complex. Clearly the government will not find it easy to break this impasse. Obviously, social laws cannot be passed by ignoring religious sentiments when all the major religions have united to raise a chorus of support against the granting of gay rights, because it is against bharatiya sanskriti or Indian culture.

But we must remember that in 1829, when the practice of Sati was being banned through the efforts of Raja Ram MohanRoy, William Carey and others, obscurantist elements had sought shelter under the same veneer of culture and tradition. So, in the mean while rather than trying to be God and pass judgment on those individuals, a better option may be to offer prayers to those struggling with their homosexuality and society’s largely hostile responses to them.

Social sectors were covered by women

Main Editorial Bloody Mary Sagarika Ghose HT Email Author June 09, 2009
The job has just begun Sagarika Ghose

In the early 1990s, when the economy was new but our mindsets were old, your humble columnist, then newly returned from Oxford was astounded at the old-fashioned world of Indian journalism. In those days, it was believed that the fate of the nation rested on the home ministry, defence ministry, ministry of external affairs and the finance ministry. These ministries were covered by senior male journalists, snarling patriarchs who guarded their domains with the fierce territoriality of lions. Rural development, education and health — which all over the world were seen as vital to a nation’s progress — were relegated firmly to second place. These ‘social sectors’ were covered by women, conscientious ladies who were repeatedly reminded that infant mortality, epidemics, primary education and affordable housing didn’t really matter as much as high diplomacy or heavy-duty weaponry. Sagarika Ghose is senior editor CNN-IBN.

Alok Sheel: Of economists and historians Business Standard - ‎Jun 12, 2009‎ 7:51 PM

As an erstwhile keen graduate student of history who stumbled into finance and economics as a professional hazard... I have learnt as much from economics as I have from history not only to understand the real world but also for formulating policy as a civil servant. Rather, this is a plea for rescuing the discipline of economics from the jaws of rocket scientists and mathematicians and handing it back to macro-economists, economic historians and political-economists. Social scientists need to reclaim the dismal science and spruce it up. There are after all other social sciences, such as psychology, that economics can turn to, to make it both more colourful and this-worldly, as George Akerlof, Robert Shiller and Richard Thaler have shown recently. The writer is a civil servant. Views are personal. Alok Sheel: Of economists and historians Business Standard - ‎Jun 12, 2009‎ 7:51 PM

Bronze hammer

Plato’s Myth of the Metals and Parallels with Racism in the Ante-Bellum South (and Beyond)
from Per Caritatem by Cynthia R. Nielsen
As Socrates unfolds his city-in-thought, the so-called perfectly just city of the Republic, he speaks of the need for the rulers to promulgate the notorious “noble lie” (414c).[1] The noble lie consists in two parts.

First, the citizens are told that their true parent is the earth, that is, the city or polis (414d). This part of the noble lie is designed to promote a kind of sold-out commitment to the polis-a loyalty willing to forsake even the closest (traditional) familial ties. When this aspect of the noble lie is embraced, the citizens view each other as brothers and sisters who are all connected to a common parent, the polis (”Father/Motherland” themes come to mind).

Second, the citizens are presented with the “myth of metals.” According to this myth, each citizen is born with one of three kinds of soul: gold, silver or bronze. As you might expect, the citizen’s worth and function in the city is determined by what kind of soul s/he possesses. The myth of metals is created promote strict class separation and is an attempt to eliminate factionalism. The gold-souled people are best-suited to rule, the silver-souled people (the warrior class) assist the rulers in their plans for the city, and the bronze-souled people are simply to obey. In addition, the classes must never intermarry, as those who “by nature” are superior cannot be tainted by a lower class. For the good of the polis, the bronze-souled people must come to recognize their natural inferiority to the silver and gold-souled classes and be willing to obey and carry out their orders-after all, they are intellectually inferior to gold-souled rulers and cannot properly direct their own lives without the guidance of their natural superiors.

Of course Plato is not giving us a blueprint for an actual city (contra Popper); however, Socrates’ “building plans” strike a similar chord with modern racist projects. (There are, no doubt, significant differences between the two projects; I’m not claiming that a one-to-one correspondence exists. Nonetheless, the commonalities are worth pondering). [...] Notes [1] On my interpretation, the city-in-thought is not a kind of blueprint for an actual city. Rather, by showing the impossibility of such a (totalitarian, calculation-oriented) city, Plato highlights the theme of eros (broadly construed as “love”, “desire”, “longing,” etc.) as that which constitutes human existence and which cannot be controlled or managed by mathematics, calculated reason, eugenics etc. In other words, all humans are lovers of something and these various loves, desires and longings are what drive us and direct our lives, actions and decisions.

(title unknown)from enowning by enowning
In-der-Blog-sein Matt Langer updates "hammering with a hammer" for today's workers.

Plato mysteriously included a cobbler in the originary population of the ideal city he outlines in the Republic—likely to symbolize a working class—while Heidegger derived a phenomenology from a hammer. Could Plato ever have imagined a software engineer instead of his cobbler, Heidegger a compiler in lieu of a hand tool?

Planomenology weighs in
June 11, 2009 Object-Oriented Philosophy

“Let’s be clear: object-oriented philosophy may champion the ontological equality of objects with human beings, but this equality comes at the price of the dehumanization of man, of his destitution and defacing, his reduction to (almost) nothing. And it seems that, rather than bear the horrors of confronting oneself – as a man, as a philosopher – in such a hideous state, object-oriented philosophy, as quickly as it grants liberty to objects, must imprison man: he must be punished before he can commit his crime of becoming a thing. Far from leveling the playing field, of granting the same rights to objects that we enjoy, object-oriented philosophy is rather more interested in an exchange of prisoners. This is evidenced in the reluctance, even refusal, to talk about human beings as embodied abysses, and the rapid condemnation of any philosopher who foolishly invokes man if not to ridicule and denounce him.” [Planomenology]

“Graham is at his best when, suspending the systematic sufficiency of a philosophy like Heidegger or Husserl, he pilfers and reassemble their concepts into new, monstrous configurations. But putting these monsters in the service of expressing the ‘True form of the real’ is horribly vain, and of course, makes him guilty of the same thing he used against his forbears. I don’t mean to single Graham out, because all philosophers are ‘guilty’ in this respect. Yet they need not feel guilty, they need not submit to the ‘higher law’ of non-philosophy. They need only suspend the sufficiency of the philosophical law to leave their guilt amongst the ruins of its kingdom. Realism that ceases to pretend that thought can adequately or sufficiently give us the real itself is a non-philosophical realism, a Real which we already are, in the flesh. This is the true problem: not how do we bypass being human, or bypass thinking, and get to the Real, but rather, how do we deal with the fact that we are the Real, everything is, and yet that the Real is not itself ever given? How do we deal with our non-reciprocal or unilateral identity with the Real?” Posted by doctorzamalek

Now Slumdog country also gets awards

['Jai ho' set to be millionth English word Times of India - NEW DELHI: 'Jai ho', 'cuddies' and 'slumdog' are among the 73 other finalists from across the globe to become the millionth English word. ..."Slumdog Millionaire" terms compete to be millionth English word Xinhua Jai Ho!, Slumdog, Chaddies*: The 1000000th Word In English? Outlook Chaddie wants to be English Daily News & Analysis Indian Express - Calcutta Telegraph all 27 news articles » Slumdog `insult' upsets award-winning film-maker Bharati Dubey tnn Times of India - ‎Jun 4, 2009‎

Slumdog `insult' upsets award-winning film-maker
5 Jun 2009, 0218 hrs IST, Bharati Dubey, TNN MUMBAI: Does the West think of India as Slumdog rather than Millionaire? Indian director Sanjay Chauhan, whose film Lahore won the jury award for best feature film at the 42nd WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston, had a bitter experience at the awards function.

"When my name was announced, a producer of the film Bitter Sweet, who was sitting at the same table, remarked `Now Slumdog country also gets awards'. I was stunned but had to go on stage to collect my award,'' said Chauhan. Now back in India, Chauhan has still to come to terms with the insult.

"Slumdog Millionaire is only damaging our image in the West. People who have not seen the country only believe what's depicted in the movie-poverty and slums. I think the remark was not ignorance but an insult. They think we're a country full of garbage,'' he fumed. Chauhan said the British producer was not the only one who had that impression about India. "Some members from my crew who happened to be Americans felt the same way before they came to India,'' he said.

Jun 07, 2009 04:52 PM
A news report says that the word 'slumdog' is being ceremonially included in the English language. This is an insult to those millions of men, women, and children whose homes are situated within urban slums. In a creative medium like a film, the word can be pardoned, but to label a section of human beings as dogs is not the sign of a civilized society. Interestingly, the insult is not directed to the residents of the slums alone, the stigma also applies to ‘snobdogs’ who come there with begging bowls for their votes.

A civil society for which “inclusiveness” is the watch word, honouring the epithet ‘slumdog’ is in utter bad taste. The sooner it is given a ceremonial burial the better.

“Slumdog Millionaire” the Oscar winning movie has indeed paid great attribute to Indian society. But portraying a mass public as ‘Dogs of Slum’ is an attack on the pious idea of humanity. The controversial word Slumdog which equates human being with animals is violative of fundamental rights as enumerated in constitution of India and Charter of United Nation which can’t be welcomed in countries like India where about one fourth of population lives in Slums.

Kartavyabodha an NGO, chaired by Mr.Shant Prakash emphatically treat the word as against the humanity, dignity of individual and the principle of natural justice. Thus, recognizing the word Slumdog by putting it in English dictionary as millionth word would be an attempt to kill humanity and must be omitted at earliest.
Shant Prakash
Ghaziabad, India

Shant Prakash: Protest against the movie " slumdog Millionaire - Shant Prakash. Member National Executive, Bhartiya Janta Party, Scheduled Caste ... Posted by Shant Prakash at 8:26 PM. Labels: protest against ' slumdog ...

Discrimination against women in the workplace, as well as the shorter life expectancy of men, should be tackled head-on

Tear up these exams or we're going to leave our boys behind
Bahram Bekhradnia: A new report shows that the academic gap between the sexes is growing and risks creating a generation of lost young men
Sunday, 07 June 2009
Boys don't perform as well as girls at school. That is well known. What is less well known is that this continues through university. There are some who think this doesn't matter. At a recent conference on the impact of feminism on higher education, one academic said that the poor performance of boys "is seen as a threat to masculinity. It is a moral panic". I don't agree. Article Continues

Research just published by the Higher Education Policy Institute confirms that on all measures of achievement the difference that begins in school continues into and through university. It's not good enough to dismiss concern as moral panic. We badly need to come to terms with the new realities. If we do not, then the consequences for those involved will be serious, but so too will the consequences for society.
Women have almost reached the government's 50% target for participating in higher education, while men have a long way to go (49.2% against 37.8%).
Some dismiss this as illusory because, they say, females tend to attend less prestigious institutions, or that they attend part time rather than full time and get less good degrees. This isn't true. The rates of participation at Oxford and Cambridge are the same. Also, more women than men enter the Russell Group (the self-selected group of research universities, most with medical schools) and other old universities, as well as attending new universities. There are more full-time women, as well as part-time, and both young and older women have higher participation rates than men.
There are differences in subject patterns, but again, in most subjects women outnumber men. There are some subjects where men are more numerous - for example in computer science, engineering and the physical sciences - but women outnumber men in popular, high-status subjects such as law and medicine. And the relatively poor performance of men occurs throughout society; it's true of middle-class as well as of working-class males and it occurs in all ethnic groups.

Once at university, women are more likely to obtain good degrees and men are more likely to drop out. If they do graduate, men are more likely to be unemployed and in non-graduate jobs, but if they are employed they are, on average, better paid. This last will no doubt be seized on by some to play down the general education disadvantage of males. That would be wrong; the reasons for the lower average salaries of women are complex. No doubt discrimination plays some part, but the subjects studied, the type of employment that women enter, for example the public rather than the private sector, and choices that reflect different values, account for most of the differences.
While the poorer performance of males is a phenomenon common around the world, and nobody has yet discovered the reason why, it appears to be exacerbated in England by the GCSE exam and the teaching that is associated with it. Boys' school performance began to lag behind girls' at around the same time as GCSEs were introduced. Though we need to be careful not to assume automatically, because of that, that there is a causal relationship, it is very difficult to avoid that conclusion.
There is a wealth of evidence that sheds light on this. Among this evidence is the fact that the Programme for International Pupil Assessment exam, administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to children in all of its member states, found that boys in England on average did better than girls in science by a wider margin than in any other country and did at least as well as girls in mathematics; yet a few months later, when the same children took the GCSE exams, girls outperformed boys in the same subjects. Why should that be? That is something that needs to be researched.
It could be because of the importance in GCSE of coursework or the discursive nature of the exam. Or it could be because the new skills that boys acquire through playing computer games are of no value in the GCSE exam. There appears to be something in the GCSE and the preparation for that exam that causes boys to do less well than girls. And that in turn blights their careers and the rest of their lives.

So, boys perform less well than girls at school and then at university. Does that matter? Of course it does. It matters in the same way that 30 years ago it mattered that fewer girls went to university than boys. Graduates, after all, tend to form the elites of society and, as women have come to dominate in higher education, we should expect these elites to change gender over time, too. That itself is no bad thing. What is intolerable is that significant numbers of young (and not so young) people are excluding themselves - or perhaps being excluded because of aspects of our school system - from joining these elites.
The term "moral panic", as used by the professor of education quoted above, is, in fact, regularly used by people wishing to dismiss concern about the poor performance of males in education. Others are dismissive in other ways - the underperformance of boys has, for example, been described as simply "an evolving realisation of the nuances of gender's effects", whatever that might mean. Others are worried that the concern that some express at the position of males is being used to whip up a "backlash against the women's movement".
Perhaps that is true of some, but those of us who celebrate the achievements of the women's movement, despair at the prospect of the emergence of a whole generation of dispossessed and disadvantaged men. We are deeply concerned at the implications for society of an army of under-educated and possibly alienated males. Society gains from a well-educated population, not only in terms of economic development, but in terms also of their better health, better integration into society and better child-rearing, to name but a few of the benefits identified by the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning.
Graduates both inflict and suffer less domestic violence, they vote more and participate more in civil society. And society will suffer as a result of the under-education of increasing numbers of males. Just as we were concerned at the lower achievement of girls a generation ago, we should be concerned at the lower achievement of boys today.

That need not be at the expense of concern for other inequalities faced by both men and women. Discrimination against women in the workplace, as well as the shorter life expectancy of men, should be tackled head-on. They are not helped by the increasing disadvantage of another group in society. One disadvantage should not be taken to justify another. This is not a zero sum game. The suggestion, recorded in a report by the then Department for Education and Skills (but not stated as government policy) that "it could be argued that the widening gender gap does not matter ... if it helps ensure greater equality for women in the labour market" is intolerable, as intolerable as those of the academics who dismiss, even rejoice in, the poor performance of men in higher education. This is a problem that should concern us all. Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

Cyclone tourism

Urban groups make pleasure trips on relief work pretext
Times of India - After the cyclone, the deluge. A sea of humanity some well-meaning and nearly all clueless has descended on the Sunderbans post-Aila, turning emergency relief work into a farcical show of generosity and spawning a disturbing culture of cyclone tourism.

Women's quota bill: Sharad Yadav threatens suicide
IBNLive.com - KILL BILL: Sharad Yadav threatens suicide in Parliament, but Speaker Meira Kumar choses to ignore. ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos be a Citizen Journalist.

Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment a staple of her speeches
CNN - WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor has spoken for years about how her experiences as a Latina woman have influenced her public and private life.

Men 'out-performed at university'
BBC News - Telegraph.co.uk Female students are ahead of men in almost every measure of UK university achievement, according to a report from higher education researchers... The report looks more closely at this divide and addresses the suggestion that even though women are ahead in numbers, that men might still dominate in the most prestigious subjects and institutions... Mr Bekhradnia says that this could reflect differences in how boys now learn through play - with an increase in time spent on computer games and watching television, rather than physical play. GCSEs blamed for boys not going to university guardian.co.uk Tear up these exams or we're going to leave our boys behind U.TV

Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice Through Reparations and Sovereignty - By Jennifer Harvey pp. 49-50(2) Author: Hill, Jack A.

Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence - By Terrance J. Rynne pp. 50-50(1)

Christian Origins - By Jonathan Knight pp. 52-52(1) Author: Bernas, Casimir

Jesus is Dead - By Robert M. Price pp. 54-55(2) Author: Bernas, Casimir

Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism - Edited by Geoffrey Cantor and Marc Swetlitz pp. 63-64(2) Author: Plevan, William

The Quest for Jewish Assimilation in Modern Social Science - By Amos Morris-Reich pp. 64-64(1) Author: Ury, Scott

Theology Without Words: Theology in the Deaf Community - By Wayne Morris pp. 42-42(1) Author: Klink, Aaron

Thou Who Art: The Concept of the Personality of God - By John A.T. Robinson pp. 45-45(1) Author: Nausner, Michael

Tayloring Reformed Epistemology: Charles Taylor, Alvin Plantinga, and the De Jure Challenge to Christian Belief - By Deane-Peter Baker pp. 32-32(1) Author: Boring, Wendy Petersen

What are They Saying about Fundamentalisms? - By Peter A. Huff pp. 69-69(1) Author: Bauder, Kevin T.

The Lives of SRI Aurobindo - By Paul Heehs pp. 71-71(1) Author: Gleig, Ann

The Bhagavadgita: Doctrines and Contexts - By Angelika Malinar pp. 72-73(2) Author: Fort, Andrew O.

Understanding Karma: In Light of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophical Anthropology and Hermeneutics - By Shrinivas Tilak pp. 73-73(1) Author: Sil, Narasingha P. Religious Studies Review Personalia 2009

A forum that abjures street sloganeering for solemn sophistry

Rephrase that
The Indian Express: Wednesday, Jun 03, 2009 at 0208 hrs IST

There are places where being boring is a virtue. The court room is just such a place, where well-considered utterances, even if they make the bystander fall asleep, are preferable to the rousing rhetoric of the street. Which is why a Supreme Court judge’s recent comments that those convicted of burning brides are “animals” who should be “hanged for the crime” are so troubling. The sentiment behind those words will resonate with anyone committed to the basic principles of non-violence and gender equity. But proclaimed from a forum that abjures street sloganeering for solemn sophistry, the choice of words is unfortunate.

Linked as it is to the systemic discrimination against women that plagues our society, it can be nobody’s case that bride burning is anything but abhorrent. But that abhorrence cannot be vented through words that convey vigilante justice. Which is why this newspaper has argued against “encounter killings”: even when the target is known to have perpetrated gross crimes, the targetting must be through legal processes alone. The very purpose of the law — and the judges who intrepret it — is to provide that mediating prism to spare even the vilest from being treated as “animals”.

Bride burning apart, the court’s comments touch another raw nerve: the death penalty. “Death by hanging” is legal in India, but reserved for the “the rarest of rare cases”. Had the issue before the court been whether bride burning was a “rarest of rare” case that justified capital punishment, then arguments of this nature could have been inevitable. But the sole issue before the Supreme Court was whether to grant bail to someone convicted of bride burning. In this context, the court’s indelicate utterances were unfortunate.

These words come close on the heels of other judicial pronouncements, on the need for husbands to “obey” their wives and the link between beards and Talibanisation, pronouncements that make good copy but only detract from the solemn business of adjudication. Perhaps it’s time to bring back the boredom. After all, its not as if judges would dream of acting upon these rousing words — so often irrelevant, moreover, to the case at hand. So, why utter them?

She understood and laid bare a woman’s unconscious mind and desires without any claim to feminist posturing

State funeral for writer Kamala Suraiya THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noted writer Kamala Suraiya who died in Pune on Sunday will be interred at the Palayam Juma Masjid here with State honours at 8 a.m. on June 2. The prayers will be led by Palayam Imam Moulavi Jamaluddeen Mankada. She ... An iconoclast who courted controversies She was one of the first poets from Kerala writing in English to be recognised internationally 'She dared to express what she felt strongly' Times of India - PUNE: Stalwarts of English and Malyalam literature on Sunday said that Kamla Surayya's (Kamla Das) contribution to literature was immense and duly ... 'She came to my annaprashan' Calcutta Telegraph - Kamala Das was a wonderful woman, very warm and sweet. Her mother Balamani Amma and my mother Radharani Debi were very good friends. ... Her words spoke Express Buzz - KOCHI: Kamala Das could write with depth the story of a poor old servant in Punnayurkulam or the sexual disposition of upper middle class women living near ... A loss to literature Express Buzz - Kamala Das was one of the leading bi-lingual writers who made strides in both English and her mother tongue Malayalam. The daughter of VM Nair, ... Remembering Kamala's humility Express Buzz - ... immense pains to answer queries and clear doubts during the translation which was published as 'Kamala Das Ki Shreshth Kahaniyan' by Jawahar Pustakalay. ... The dove departs Express Buzz - ... the rains and the blades of lightning that branched into extempore dimensions across wet skies much like Kamala Das lived her life. ... Insights into sexual bliss: Author tried to break free from shackles Times of India - THIRUVANANANTHAPURAM: It may be the end of the journey for Madhavikutty aka Kamala Das and, finally, Kamala Surayya, but the questions that her vast body of ... Woman who wrote of passion and created a stir Calcutta Telegraph - Kamala Suraiya, also known as Kamala Das and whose poems of love and longing opened a bold new chapter in women's writing in India, was a path-breaker.

Meira Kumar set to become Speaker Resigns from Council of Ministers; BJP supports her candidature Meira to become first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha Calcutta Telegraph Congress's Dalit women to tip scales against Mayawati 1 Jun 2009, 0250 hrs IST, BHASKAR ROY, TNN: A meticulous pattern emerges in the process of government making as Congress promotes Kumari Selja, Krishna Tirath and Meira Kumar as its new Dalit faces. Blog: Democracy? No, it's actually family rule

News Analysis ‘Identity politics’ back to forefront By Peter Baker Following the selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Washington has once again polarised along familiar lines.

Outdoor media's local flavour is difficult to ignore

The strange case of outdoor media
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, Business Standard, New Delhi May 19, 2009, 0:27 IST

It is one of the most reviled of media formats. Across the world outdoor or out-of-home (OOH) media faces the wrath of environmentalists, regulators and traffic authorities so much so that in most developed markets OOH companies and associations spend a lot of money on studies to prove that outdoor media does not cause accidents, is not harmful to the environment and reduces the civic authorities dependence on taxes among other things...

If it is such an unorganised market why have investors been pouring money into outdoor media? Some of the reasons are obvious. Consumers are spending a lot of time outside their home — studying, walking, travelling, working, hanging out. So OOH media tries to attract them at these times, either in the ambience of their consumption or while they travel. Advertisers like OOH media for its local flavour and because it is difficult to ignore.

At a broader level however two key indicators show that the Indian market is hitting critical mass. First, one of the biggest areas for investment in India is infrastructure. The modernisation of existing airports and the development of new ones, along with the growth of organised retail and the increase in theatre chains and multiplexes are creating organised supply of OOH media. Most infrastructure project usually factor in advertising as a revenue stream. For instance, Times OOH has won the ad rights in Delhi and Mumbai Airports which account for 42.7 million footfalls in 2007. That is a lot of people with many hours to stare at billboards.

Similarly organised retail is not just one of the largest spenders on outdoor globally; it is also one of the biggest suppliers of it. In a fragmented and disorganised market such as India, dealing with just a few companies makes life easier for the advertiser. Future Media, for instance, offers television, print, activation and a host of other services like any other media company. It is an offshoot of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group and exploits the media possibilities in owning hundreds of retail stores across millions of square feet. The writer is a media consultant vanitakohli@hotmail.com Tags : MEDIA SCOPE OOH media environment

That front can no longer exclude women

Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy By Carmen Luke, Jennifer Gore
Preview this book Buy this book Routledge Amazon.com - $46.95

Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy centres around the theoretical effort to construct a feminist pedagogy which will democratize gender relations in the classroom, and practical ways to implement a truly feminist pedagogy. Published by Routledge, 1992 ISBN 0415905346, 9780415905343 220 pages Contents Introduction 1 critical pedagogy , feminist pedagogy , poststructuralist
Progressive Pedagogy and Political Struggle 15 progressivism , William Labov , pedagogy
Feminist Politics in Radical Pedagogy 25 critical pedagogy , Feminism , feminist pedagogy
What We Can Do For You What Can We Do For You? 54 Michel Foucault , empowerment , McLaren
Why Doesnt this Feel Empowering? Working Through 90 post-structuralism , affinity group , ableism
A Feminist Reading 120 critical theory , deconstruction , Marxism more »

Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy - Google Books Result
by Carmen Luke, Jennifer Gore - 1992 - Education - 220 pages... The early 1990s, then, is not the time for those educationists committed to critical social theory and the remaking of practice to fragment over theoretical minutae.

Popular passages
Each society has its regime of truth, its 'general politics' of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as...‎ Page 63 Appears in 71 books from 1985-2007

Power must be analysed as something which circulates, or rather as something which only functions in the form of a chain. It is never localised here or there, never in anybody's hands, never appropriated as a commodity or piece of wealth.‎ Page 58 Appears in 128 books from 1965-2008

... of co-optation, not because we do not theorize, but because what we can even imagine, far less who we can reach, is constantly limited by societal structures. For me, literary criticism is promotion as well as understanding, a response to the writer to whom there is often no response, to folk who need the writing as much as they need anything.‎ Page 97 Appears in 17 books from 1990-2007more »

I can only speak for myself. But what I write and how I write is done in order to save my own life. And I mean that literally. For me literature is a way of knowing that I am not hallucinating, that whatever I feel/know is.‎ Page 94 Appears in 32 books from 1990-2007

When the agent of empowerment assumes to be already empowered, and so apart from those who are to be empowered, arrogance can underlie claims of "what we can do for you." This danger is apparent both in the work of the teacher who is to empower students, and in the work of the academic whose discourse is purportedly empowering for the teachers (and others).‎ Page 61 Appears in 12 books from 1992-2007

Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it.‎ Page 63 Appears in 150 books from 1974-2008

Thought is freedom in relation to what one does, the motion by which one detaches oneself from it, establishes it as an object, and reflects on it as a problem.‎ Page 54 Appears in 64 books from 1928-2007

... the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense of herself and her ways of understanding her relation to the world‎ Page 79 Appears in 57 books from 1979-2007

discipline' problems it was because she had failed to love them enough: 'women teachers became caught, trapped, inside a concept of nurturance which held them responsible for the freeing of each little individual, and therefore for the management of an idealist dream, an impossible fiction' (Walkerdine, 1992: 16). It sounds somewhat ludicrous when caricatured in this way, but this was the essence of a particular 1970s style of teaching, and a lot of feminists, reacting against the general of the...‎ Page 16 Appears in 10 books from 1990-2008

References from books
Making sense of management: a critical introduction ‎by Mats Alvesson, Hugh Willmott - Business & Economics - 1996 - 246 pages
'A critical-academic-analysis of received wisdom, for serious students of the subject' - LongRange Planning Provocative and thoughtful, this book provides a fresh... Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library

Women, policy and politics: the construction of policy problems‎by Carol Lee Bacchi - Political Science - 1999 - 242 pages
This book offers a powerful new approach to policy studies. Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library

Lost subjects, contested objects: toward a psychoanalytic inquiry of learning‎by Deborah P. Britzman - Education - 1998 - 199 pages
This book argues for education's reconsideration of what psychoanalytic theories of love and hatemight mean to the design of learning and pedagogy. Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library

Related books
The struggle for pedagogies: critical and feminist discourses as regimes of ... ‎by Jennifer Gore - Education - 1993 - 188 pages
Jennifer M. Gore examines, analyses and offers directions for the debate between critical pedagogy andfeminist pedagogy, one of the fiercest within education theory. Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library

Getting smart: feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern‎by Patricia Ann Lather - Education - 1991 - 212 pages
In Getting Smart, Patti Lather makes use of her unique integration of feminism and postmodernism intocritical education theory to address some of the most vital questions facing... Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library

Feeling power: emotions and education‎by Megan Boler - Education - 1999 - 239 pages
The book traces the development of progressive pedagogies from civil rights and women's liberationmovements, to the author's recent studies of "emotional... Limited preview - About this book - Add to my shared library