"Five things I can't live without? Family, my partnership, friends, my iPod, and sports" is what he says. BTW, in case you've heard about a model called Jeremy Tang : that's his cybertwin.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
My Model of the Moment
"Five things I can't live without? Family, my partnership, friends, my iPod, and sports" is what he says. BTW, in case you've heard about a model called Jeremy Tang : that's his cybertwin.
Posted by scorpio at 6:20 AM 2 comments
Labels: BOYS, GOOD stuff
Pretty Exhausting, I might add
Posted by scorpio at 5:54 AM 1 comments
Labels: BIHAR, education, FRANK KRISHNER, INCREDIBLE INDIA, MEDIA, Movies, Patna
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wonderful Housewives
"Desperate Housewives" is one of my favourite television shows. It's not as over-the-top and totally pointless like 'Ugly Betty' [which, by the way, is majorly Camp]. In fact, the five Desperate Housewives get into all sorts of bizarre situations [not entirely unbelievable], and inspite of all their fumblings and stumblings, learn a lot about life along the way [and so do we viewers].
Posted by scorpio at 11:28 PM 0 comments
Labels: BOYS, Country, INCREDIBLE INDIA, MEDIA, queer subculture
Lights! Camera! Action!
Posted by scorpio at 6:14 AM 3 comments
Labels: BIHAR, culture vultures, education, FRANK KRISHNER, MEDIA, Movies, Patna
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Anything but Gay
A protest that took place March 22 in London condemned the months that the men have spent in prison since their arrest late last December. Gay Malawi refugee Edi Phiri spoke at the protest, saying, "I urge my President and government to intervene to release Steven and Tiwonge. These two men don’t deserve the way they are suffering in jail. It is unfair to treat Steven and Tiwonge like this." Noted Phiri, "Malawi’s anti-gay laws are not African. They were imposed by the British colonizers nearly two centuries ago."
From their prison cell in Malawi, Steven and Tiwonge sent a message to me in London, urging international pressure to secure their release.
Tiwonge and Steven have been arrested, prosecuted and held in jail solely because of their sexual orientation.. All civilised people want them released and all charges dropped. It's time to repeal Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws. These laws violate the equality and non-discrimination provisions of Article 20 of the Malawian Constitution and Articles 2, 3 and 4 and the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, which Malawi has signed and pledged to uphold.
Tiwonge and Steven love each other and have harmed no one. But they could be jailed for up to 14 years" under Malawi’s decency laws.
International pressure has been mounting on the men’s behalf. Amnesty International has "adopted" the two as "prisoners of conscience". The director of AI’s British branch, Kate Allen states that Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga have committed no criminal offense and that it is vital that as many people as possible join in writing to the Malawi authorities calling on them to release the two men."
Members of the British Parliament’s House of Commons have signed a motion that calls for the men’s release. International monetary supporters have also warned that rights abuses in Malawi--including abuses aimed at gays--could impact aid revenue.
Malawi’s GLBT advocates have been energized by the case, but public sentiment in Malawi also seems to be hardening against gays, according to a Feb. 3 article posted at Voice of America’s Web site VOANews.com. Malawi journalist Watipaso Mzungu was quoted in the article as saying, "Malawi has its own values and structures, which should be respected. So we don’t necessarily expect MPs from Britain or anywhere else to dictate to Malawi on what they should do."
The article noted that human rights advocates who had spoken out on behalf of Monjeza and Chimbalanga had also been allegedly taken into custody by police, in one case for the possession of "pornographic" material related to sexual health. The article also noted that the Centre for the Development of People had come under pressure from the Malawi government, as well as various religious factions, including Muslims, Christians, and Hindus.
It is suggested that the repudiation of Malawi’s anti-gay laws may lead to the possibility that laws against homosexuals will be made even more stringent.
The trial’s delays may be over soon. Following two attempts by the defense to have the case dismissed, and two occasions on which the men have been denied bail, Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa has ruled that the trial will commence on April 3. "In the balance of probability the State has established a prima-facie case against the two as charged," Usiwa Usiwa ruled, according to a March 22 Reuters story.
Outdated and discrminatory Colonial laws, fashioned by the Victorian values of the time still operate in many colonial countries, and the situation in India is not very different. there exist enough and more 'law given' opportunities to harass and demean sexuality minorities: Gay, lesbian, transgendered, Bisexual. and Queer people in South Asia as well.
Posted by scorpio at 11:11 PM 2 comments
Labels: INCREDIBLE INDIA, QUEER CASEBOOK, queer subculture, SHOUT BOX
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
India: too conservative to change!
Posted by scorpio at 11:34 PM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, INCREDIBLE INDIA, SHOUT BOX
Monday, March 22, 2010
Bihar Day
Bihar celebrates a 72 hour long State Day for the first time. I don't recall a Bihar day being observed in the past 15 years, or may I say in living memory!
Posted by scorpio at 10:46 PM 3 comments
Labels: BIHAR, INCREDIBLE INDIA, MEMORIES, Patna
Nobody gives a sh*t?
India reflections from Sean Paul Kelly: part 2
The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid.
The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. With out regular electricity, productivity, again, falls.
The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like.
Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older.
Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It's awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses. At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that waitlists of 500 or more people are common now. The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the overutilized rails and quality suffers.
No one seems to give a shit.
Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.
Posted by scorpio at 10:16 AM 2 comments
Labels: BIHAR, INCREDIBLE INDIA, SHOUT BOX
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Now Queer Nazaria!
International LGBTI Film Festival, Mumbai in collaboration with Majlis
02 - 04 April 2010
Posted by scorpio at 12:36 AM 1 comments
Labels: culture vultures, education, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Movies, Queer, SHOUT BOX
Friday, March 19, 2010
Frankly, India's a mess
Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded The Agonist, in 2002, which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, on satellite radio and Air America.
I'm posting excerpts from his 'Reflectons on India' here, because I wish I had written this piece:
If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who's being honest with you and wants nothing from you. These criticisms apply to all of India except Kerala and the places I didn't visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn't really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don't seem to care and the lower classes just don't know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.
India is a mess. It's that simple, but it's also quite complicated. I'll start with what I think are India's four major problems-the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation-and then move to some of the ancillary ones.
First, pollution.
In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don't know how cultural the filth is, but it's really beyond anything I have ever encountered. At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump. Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all to common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets.
In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight. Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one's health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads.
The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were Trivandrum-the capital of Kerala-and Calicut. I don't know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India's productivity, if it already hasn't. The pollution will hobble India's growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small 'c' sense.)
More after the jump..
Posted by scorpio at 8:17 AM 3 comments
Labels: BIHAR, GOOD stuff, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Radio, SHOUT BOX
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Calcutta's original LGBT film festival
Posted by scorpio at 8:26 AM 1 comments
Labels: Calcutta;, culture vultures, HIV TALES, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Movies, NORTH EAST, Queer, SHOUT BOX
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
What's a Dalit?
The Dalits are called by different names in different parts of the country. These names were given as expressions of contempt. They include: Dasa, Dasysa, Raksasa, Asura, Avarna, Nisada, Panchama, Chandala, Harijan, Untouchable. Each of these names has a history and background.
Posted by scorpio at 8:47 AM 1 comments
Labels: BIHAR, DALITS, Gandhi, INCREDIBLE INDIA, MUSAHAR
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Going through Changes
The elite and the upper middle class preferred to send their kids to boys' boarding schools and girls' boarding schools. There were valid reasons for this: boys will be boys and girls will be girls.
There was a time when the best boys' schools in India were the ones that had a strong currriculum and lots of space for the boys to learn boxing, gymnastics, swimming, rugby and contact sports.
It's interesting to see how the concept of 'education' has changed over the years, and what it brings to society at large.
In the old days, anybody who crossed the line expected to get a couple of whacks on the backside, accepted the punishment with equanimity, and got on with life.
Let's see how robust lads of fifteen [who are actually eighteen] intent of destruction of school property are going to be 'handled' in schools since neither the rod nor removal, nor 'punishment that denigrates the child or gives mental agony' are allowed in schools from April 2010. Can students who break the rules be asked to clean toilets and do other menial but essential tasks - or will this to be seen as 'torture by teachers'?
Posted by scorpio at 7:49 AM 2 comments
Labels: BIHAR, BOYS, GOOD stuff, INCREDIBLE INDIA, KIDS, SHOUT BOX
Monday, March 15, 2010
Modi, Say Sorry!
Posted by scorpio at 6:31 AM 3 comments
Labels: crime, culture vultures, Gandhi, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Islam, SHOUT BOX
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Even More Festivals
I'd like to spread the good word about festivals of interest happening around us. I think it's utterly wonderful to know how many interesting issues are being recorded on tape, film, or digital media.
The 3-day festival, to be held at the NCERT headquarters in New Delhi, is aimed at exhibiting the best educational audio and video programmes produced for children and teachers. In addition to showcasing and appreciating films made by children for children, the event will also encourage exchange of creative ideas between audio and video producers, researchers, writers, camerapersons, editors, other technical persons and educationists.
Posted by scorpio at 11:27 PM 0 comments
Labels: FRANK KRISHNER, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Movies
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
A Reservation for Women?
Uncle SAM called me the other day. 'What's this I hear about Indians sending off fifty percent of their women to a reservation?', he sniggered. Uncle Sam seemed a tiny bit perplexed. He had no reservations about sending Indians to reservations a few hundred years ago, but Indians sending off their women to reservations was a new one, he said. "I'm not gonna beat about The Bush, you Indians need a shrink, a good one," he said.
There are a lot of economists and family welfare people who also insist that the Indian population needs a good shrink or two, but that's beside the point.
On International Women's Day, Sonia Gandhi wanted to send off half the women to the reservation and asked the House to pay the Bill. Now, Lalu Prasad and a few others had deep seated reservations about the reservations and so they performed an embarassment in the Highest House of the land, in full public view, and had everyone on the Angrezi-speaking channels wringing their hands and shaking their heads in red faced mock horror.
Posted by scorpio at 7:57 AM 4 comments
Labels: BIHAR, FRANK KRISHNER, INCREDIBLE INDIA
Monday, March 08, 2010
Celebrating Diversity - Again!
The All Bihar Low Cost Video Festival, Abhivyakti 2010, happens on April 30 and May 1,2.
For these three days, documentaries and short films from Bihar, Jharkhand, and elsewhere in India will be watched, discussed, and appreciated.
The videos shown at this festival in the past have delighted and disturbed scores of discerning people who make it a point not to miss out on the festival.
Entries are being accepted at the moment.
This is a grass roots festival - and that means we have a special place for videos made by students and non-professional people as well.
Abhivyakti is about everyday people, as well as people on the margins. It also means that the festival goes beyond the screening room. You are invited to be a part of this festival. Students from Media institutions and those interested in the Mass Media as a career are especially welcome.
If you're a student or a film maker who wants to come over to Patna, we can arrange for basic accomodation if you contact us before April 15. Send an email, with 'Abhivyakti' in the subject line to fk.bihar@gmail.com for more information.
Posted by scorpio at 5:50 AM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, education, FRANK KRISHNER, Movies, Patna, SHOUT BOX
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Holi Lent
The Bacchalian festival of Holi has just rolled over us.
And then we'll wait for the Bunny forty days later... Not the Playboy Bunny, silly... the Easter one!
Posted by scorpio at 9:39 PM 2 comments
Labels: BIHAR, GOOD stuff, Holi, INCREDIBLE INDIA
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Kashish: Subaltern Image Fest
More power to cultural diversity, is what I've always said.
Manoj Khiyani who designed the logo has some interesting thoughts to share about the logo's symbolism -
The dates April 22 to 25.
Here's a link for more information
Posted by scorpio at 10:32 AM 2 comments
Labels: culture vultures, education, FRANK KRISHNER, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Movies, Queer, SHOUT BOX