Published by Meenu April 7th, 2008
in Death and Latest news.
The recent discovery of mass graves in Kashmir went largely unreported in the British media. One wonders why as mass graves are surely newsworthy and its difficult to imagine such a silence if these graves had been discovered in some other parts of the world. Anyway APDP (Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons) have pointed out the presence of almost 1000 unmarked graves in border villages. The Indian army rejects all claims that these graves contain bodies of anybody except foreign militants. Its the word of the Army I guess because these are unidentified bodies and unnamed graves. Read the story here.
In the meantime in another place India’s human rights record has been brought into question.
The United Nations Human Rights Council should ensure that Indian government takes strong steps to hold members of its security forces responsible for torture, arbitrary detentions, killings, and disappearances, accountable, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
The UNHRC should also demand that New Delhi fulfils its responsibility to protect and support vulnerable communities, including Dalits, tribal groups, religious minorities, and women.
India’s human rights record will come under the first-ever Universal Periodic Review when the UNHRC meets in Geneva on April 10, 2008.
Published by Angad Chowdhry March 15th, 2008
in Death, Sri Lanka and cricket.
…for four years.
Since this is your first time, why don’t you just go donate some money to charity?
South Asian cricketers. They get it easy.
Published by matti.pohjonen February 11th, 2008
in Capitalism, Death, History and Panic time.
Found this commentary in the Guardian today. Thought it was rather interesting and befitting the current intellectual malaise and stagnancy. Even we at SMC are not entirely sheltered from it: too often too busy to provide original commentary but rather re-mixing what other people write. The almost-ORIGINAL question that this article, however, made me think about was that if India and China are now inheriting the mantle of Western civilization as the author claims, who then are the new thinkers and artists that are emerging? We know that both China and India will economically surpass Europe and US shortly - this is simple economic arithmetics. However, where are the new Foucault, Deleuze, Truffaut, Godard, Debord etc? Are there any? Any suggestions? Or is the age of thought over and I need to run after my hedge-fund before the orgy ends. Having no answers, here I go once again quoting and cutting-and-pasting. See the original article HERE.
As Sarkozy gropes for grand concepts the might of Asia looms over the west: France’s shrinking power drives the president to talk of a new civilisation, but risks exposing a habit of intellectual deception
Pankaj Mishra
Published by Meenu January 15th, 2008
in Death, benazir bhutto and guest writer.
Very pleased to offer this very insightful ‘obituary’ (if I may call it that) on Benazir Bhutto. Particularly interesting is the perspective on the corruption which formed the Ifs and Buts of most of the commentary on her after her death. From our guest writer Mohammed Hanif.
In the spring of 1995, for about eight months I became Benazir Bhutto’s neighbour. I rented a top floor flat in an apartment building that overlooked Bilawal House, Benazir’s Bhutto’s Karachi residence. It was named after her first-born son. I was newly married, it was my first proper apartment in Karachi, it had a huge terrace and if I really strained my neck I could get a glimpse of plastic shopping bags fluttering over Clifton beach. I was happy. When people asked me where I was moving to, I told them with the flourish of an upstart: “Corniche Apartments, top floor, bang opposite Bilawal House, I can look into Benazir’s living room.†That was a bit of an exaggeration but I could see the bougainvillea that covered its boundary walls and a patch of grass in its lawns.
Published by Meenu December 29th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan, Uncategorized and benazir bhutto.
An analysis by Prof Naim forwarded by a friend. This is from chapatimystery.com
Almost every report or commentary on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination that I have seen or heard today included in its first or second sentence: ‘it was not unexpected.’
The commentators who began by saying that the assassination was not unexpected offer various suspected assassins: Extremist Muslims, if they are from the West; Extremist Muslims, if they are English language journalists in Pakistan; Pervez Musharraf and his coterie, if the writer is a member of the PPP. I didn’t read any Urdu journal today but I can guess fairly assuredly that their list of suspects would go like this: Pakistani Army and the CIA, if the journalist is writing in Urdu, but has a moderate bent of mind; Israel and the CIA, if the Urdu journalist is not concerned with moderation; and Israel, India, and the CIA, if the journalist really knows his niche audience. I didn’t bother to find out what the White House said, for I know their response too: the Terrorists did it. I couldn’t avoid hearing the Democrat candidates in one report, they kept saying: it was the Alkeda. No matter who the suspect party, the motive in every case was understood to be the same: ‘They’ wished to cause instability in Pakistan. The American pundits were, naturally, more concerned with its effect on the GWOT.
Published by Meenu December 29th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
As the government changes its official version of the assassination for the third or fourth time, many questions remain unanswered.Yesterday things took a turn to the absurd with the Press briefing of Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema revealing the elaborate plot- There were no bullets that hit Bhutto, she died of a skull fracture as a result of hitting her head on the sunroof of the car. The assassin had fired bullets but missed and then went on to blow himself up. Not that one was desperate for evidence that proved the contrary but today’s report in the CNN has a close associate of Benazir who washed her body before burial saying that there were clear bullet wounds in the head region. Hadn’t the same Interior Ministry said on friday that she died of bullet wounds to the neck but by the evening it was a shrapnel and then finally hitting her head on the roof of the car. By the weekend we might even hear that she just suffered bad health and died of natural causes! In a very swift intelligence operation, a phone call is intercepted in which the mastermind according to the Ministry, Baitullah Mehsud is heard owning up to the assassination. Here is the transcript of the the “alleged” phone call as Dawn rightly puts it.
Published by Meenu December 28th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
There are just speculations out there right now. But a small paragraph in NYT caught my attention. It sounded more plausible than one man walking up to Benazir, pumping bullets into her and then carrying out a suicide attack by detonating himself.
But witnesses described a sniper firing from a nearby building, raising questions about how well the government had protected her in a usually well-guarded garrison town and fueling speculation that government sympathizers had played a part. … There were differing accounts of the attack. Zamrud Khan, a member of her party, said Ms. Bhutto was shot in the head from gunfire that originated from behind her car in a building nearby. Seconds later a suicide bomber detonated his bomb, damaging one of the cars in her motorcade and killing some 15 people on the ground, Mr. Khan said. … Apparently no autopsy was done, because the police did not request one, Dawn TV reported. Lawyers calling for an international neutral investigation are raising questions about the speed with which Ms. Bhutto’s body was moved. The body arrived in her southern home province, Sindh, before dawn, party officials told Agence-France Presse.
Its quite a long article and you can read the entire thing here.
Published by Meenu December 28th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
Tariq Ali in the Guardian today.
A tragedy born of military despotism and anarchy
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto heaps despair upon Pakistan. Now her party must be democratically rebuilt
Tariq Ali
Friday December 28, 2007
The Guardian
Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto’s behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.
An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country’s supreme court for attempting to hold the government’s intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law? Their replacements lack the backbone to do anything, let alone conduct a proper inquest into the misdeeds of the agencies to uncover the truth behind the carefully organised killing of a major political leader.
Published by Meenu December 27th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
Was reading the news about the suicide attack on a rally held by Benazir Bhutto. It said that she had escaped unhurt when the news came in that Benazir Bhutto is dead. From CNN just minutes ago.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, ex-government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan and Pakistan’s primary television networks said. Bhutto suffered bullet wounds in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks report.
Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle the video report on NDTV.com
*UPDATE* Video obituary on CNN
Aftermath of the attack on CNN
*UPDATE*
OBITUARIES
BBC
Time
Guardian
NYT
Published by Somnath Batabyal October 7th, 2007
in Death and News.
Poor boy falls in love with rich man’s daughter. They elope and get married. The State (police) intervenes on behalf of the rich man but the irritant love persists. The boy, a minority from the Muslim community is found dead.
The story is not new, we have heard this many times before. What is, however, striking about this incident is the collusion between the Kolkata police and the businessman Ashok Todi. The police had intervened in the marriage by threatning the boy, when his body was found on the railway tracks with no visible wound marks except strangulation on his neck, they called it suicide and when the Kolkata police was questioned, the Commissioner stated that it “was” the business of the police to intervene in domicile matters of marriage in such situations. A CBI report states that it was suicide but no forensic evidence is being made public. I understand that there is a media outcry over this issue. Please do let us know more about this.
Read the outline of the incident here.
Published by Angad Chowdhry October 7th, 2007
in Death and History.
Stone Man 1.0
Stone Man 2.0
What’s the difference? A move in locale - from King’s circle to the tourist resorts of Lonavala. The post-liberalization era has changed the phantasmic scenarios which sustain and frame our hatred of the poor.
Published by Angad Chowdhry October 1st, 2007
in Burma and Death.
Friends,
Here are a series of images that were first shown on ABC news. This website has archived them.
Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
An email has been doing the rounds that says that the “Dead bodies are carry by Dyna car number Sa/7270″
Published by Angad Chowdhry September 28th, 2007
in Death and video.
Worth a look. Thanks to Kazu for the link!
Published by Angad Chowdhry September 26th, 2007
in Death and Panic time.
My god. I got really spooked by wikimapia today. Check this out
For more perspective on the situation, check here
Published by Guest Writer September 17th, 2007
in Death, India diary and Religion.
From our guest writer, Mayank Shekhar.
Dance of death
I’ve heard of civil unions, not a non-denominational funeral yet
India is a ‘juloos’. There isn’t an English word to capture that inexplicable spirit (a carnival sounds too joyous; a communal rally comes close, but probably for its political undertone).
Many don’t visit profitable temples for how they murder a private moment called faith there. So then, religions compete on the main roads; each one a more dangerously-sensitive holy-cow than the other. There is little space for the quiet individual in the 66 th car of the jam. He sits still. He has no one to complain to. In a few days, a group he calls his religion will take over his streets. The latest process, as I watch trucks pass by, stuck in the 66th car, has already begun. Must you survive a cardiac arrest on the road, another group that someone else calls his religion, will appear soon. This civic emergency is a celebration of life. Dance of death is no better.
Published by matti.pohjonen August 24th, 2007
in Animation, Death, Theory and technology.
While preparing for my new job at SOAS and all the brain-intensive activities of the upcoming year, I have been naturally watching quite a lot of children’s animations. Saw Ratatouille yesterday. It is funny when the most of the blockbuster films published today are quite horrendous, especially out of Hollywood, the animation studios such as Pixar are today busting out films such as Ratatouille that (even if commercially bleached) are visually stunning.
So today I came across an interview by David Lynch today, where he said (via BoingBoing) that:
Digital is so friendly for me and so important for the scenes, a way of working without so much downtime. It’s impossible to go back. Film is a beautiful medium, but the world has moved on. The amount of manipulation we can do, anybody can do, is so much the future. Film is so big and heavy and slow, you just die. It’s just ridiculous.
I’ve also been doing reseach on what is called “software studies.” Because of this, I started re-reading some of the stuff Lev Manovich has written on the relationship between computer software and visual expression. In one of his articles titled After Effects, or Velvet Revolution - Part I, Manovich quotes a film professional who describes the changes in the last 20 years the following way that mirrors the quote by Lynch.
Published by Meenu August 21st, 2007
in Death and Latest news.
Bewildered by the media silence on Quratulain Haider’s death which has gone more or less unreported. Heard that hardly anybody attended the funeral at Jamia today. Anyway started to look for her photos and again found two images on the web. And we are speaking of one of the greatest Urdu novelists of all time. Anyway here’s a link to some recordings and an interview from the BBC Urdu archives from some years ago. Click on the image to listen.
Courtesy BBC Urdu Online
Published by Meenu August 21st, 2007
in Death and Latest news.
Its 7:30 a.m and I am usually not up at this hour. The news that Qurratulain Hyder has passed away is just coming in. Waking up early is bad news.
Published by Angad Chowdhry July 31st, 2007
in Death, Theory and Uncategorized.
A few months ago NDTV begun a public conversation on euthanasia. Those against it valued life to be very precious and special and argued that no one should have the right to take it away. Those for it argued that the body at a particular state has lost its humanity (read: dignity) and it would be cruel to let them suffer and be humiliated in silence. After all, if death is imminent, should we not make it painless and quick(er).
What both positions love to hold on to is the notion that life needs to be preserved for some reason or the other and that death is pure negativity. Fine, fair enough. You don’t need a reason to argue for it, and any debate between pro and against usually pans out to two poles: those who love, affirm, care, celebrate life and those who are fascist monsters with genocidal mentalities. Not much can be done from there. The former are more theological the latter are more atheist. Fair enough. It’s only a debate.
On a not entirely unrelated note, these are the sorts of words that make a young man fall in love with Foucault…(from)
As I have a secret propensity for violence but am too wimpy to carry out my libidinal desires for mass-murder, the paper I proposed for Paris wants to kill you - the audience - in bulk.  Oh, but, wait a minute! Audiences didn’t exist anymore. They were imagined all along. Ah, thank god, I finally have an alibi! Anyway, more seriously, as promised, here is the first abstract that we sumbitted to the Paris conference. It is called **DRUMROLL** “Death of an audience?” Haven’t really made up my mind if the pun here is on the Death of a Salesman or Death of the Author, for those who get the joke … but you can comment on it and give suggestions and I promise will not kill you…
The death of the audience?
Matti Pohjonen
Blogs are often quoted as examples of a more participatory mode of media production made possible by new digital technologies. One key argument has been that blogs allow for a more decentralized form of production where the hierarchical division between the writer and audience becomes less clearcut as it is with older media forms such as print newspapers and TV. Yet despite the abundance of commentary new media forms such as blogs have received in the recent years, many of the claims, however, have not been backed up by detailed empirical research.
Published by Angad Chowdhry May 12th, 2007
in Death, Panic time and video.
Thanks to Remains of the Desi for the link.
Our own DJ Fadereu has been talking about the remix republic. This week the significance of all this hit home more clearly to me when I was reading online news mixed with the diatribes at SMC in my typically haphazard non-focused kind of way. First we had the Virginia Tech shootings. The Guardian called the video confession of Cho the first “confession” made for the YouTube generation. Quote form the article (read full HERE).
… “It could end up being a significant moment,” says Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University who specialises in the relationship between the public and the press. “The simple fact of people getting pictures and videos and giving it news organisations to run - that has now been institutionalised.”
NBC’s exclusive was striking because, until Cho’s footage came to light, much of the media response to the Blacksburg shootings had been to view it as a watershed for eyewitness reporting.
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