Open Mike 17: The Conflict of Kashmir

Update: This topic has been postponed. Discussion on gender stereotypes continued in this session.

Thursday Open Mike 17 (now on Tuesday)
Topic: The Conflict of Kashmir
June 3, 2008 [Tuesday]
@ 8PM in Gaurav's House.
1781 Spyglass Drive, #244
Austin TX 78746

More gender links...

[1] An Associated Press article on anonymous rape tests. This is now prevalent in some parts of India too (with some NGOs). The idea is that women (mostly, but not necessarily) who are victims of assault, rape, battery, etc. who may not be open to talking about it and giving a deposition in court, now have the facility of anonymous deposition. They provide their witness statement right after the crime, and the statement is sealed and hidden away, until such time as when the victim might want to open up the case, and actually pursue it.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3sHL9tK9gLLO7Z4r6P4csSPjirAD90KU7180


[2] The way things were (are?)! "The Good Wife's Guide" from The Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May 1955.
(Click on the image for a larger version)

Racism in the world and fighting it

Related to our discussion a few weeks back on racism and affirmative action, here's an excellent article called 'Fighting Racism Globally' by Girish Mishra:

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17739

The article offers a high-level view of racism, the various kinds of racism ("individual, structural and ideological"), history of racism etc in various countries in the world, including casteism in India, and provides many examples of racism institutionalized in society even today. For instance,

a study prepared in 2003 that there was widespread discrimination against candidates for jobs on the basis of their names, which were perceived as "sounding black"

Also interestingly, some of the policies meant for affirmative action may infact achieve the opposite result if not correctly implemented. Policies adopted for prompt payment of loans and subsidies for black farmers ended up in extensive racial discrimination:

"In 1999, African-American farmers won a major civil rights settlement against the United States Department of Agriculture. They argued that the loans and subsidies they received were substantially lower than those for comparable white farmers. What made matters worse was the fact that Reagan-era budget cuts closed the U. S. D. A.'s civil rights office for 13 years, so most of the complaints filed during that time were never heard. To its credit, the department conducted an internal investigation and discovered that racial discrimination had not only occurred but had also been structurally and historically embedded in its operations.

Mishra then talks about the various efforts undertaken globally to fight racism, including UN conventions and declarations adopted, and the effects they have had. He also takes on some of the views of Samuel Huntington, currently leading barely-concealed racist theories against Hispanics, and shows how in general, the most successful societies have always been multi-racist and multi-cultural...

And argues that "there is a close connection between the struggle against racism and the fight against poverty.and for social, economic and cultural uplift of the people at large", which implies that current neo-liberalization and globalization trends further aggravate racial disparities.

Worth a read.

Open Mike 16: Working for society? or just social networking?

Thursday Open Mike 16 (now on Tuesday)
Topic: Public organizations like Asha, AID, Vibha: Charities, or Socio-economic empowering, or merely Social?
May 27, 2008 [Tuesday]
@ 8PM in Gaurav's House.
1781 Spyglass Drive, #244
Austin TX 78746