The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on the plight of India’s Brahmin caste in its Saturday edition. Once a privileged caste closely aligned with the rulers of India for several centuries, the Brahmins have fallen on tough times over the last few decades owing to the reservation policies (affirmative action programs) of the […]
Former Pakistan Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi today at 6:16 PM local time adding to the instability of this nuclear nation in South Asia. Early reports say that a suicide bomber shot Benazir in the neck and chest as she was leaving a campaign rally in […]
The party of Ram Bhaktas – BJP – notched up a decent victory in the Legislative Assembly elections in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Lord Ram flanked by brother Lakshman & wife Sita with Hanuman kneeling before him Here’s the latest Gujarat Election tally: Party Seats Won BJP 117 Congress 59 Others 6 […]
After being traumatized recently by the hideously awful Tamil film Billa, we were desperately in need of some relief. Fortunately, we stumbled upon a fine Argentine film Cautiva (2003) from our long neglected Netflix trove. Set in Argentina of the early 1990s after the dirty deeds of the last military dictatorship were exposed, this Spanish film is the […]
Time magazine has named Russian President Vladimir Putin its Person of the Year for 2007. Good choice, indeed. Like Professor Samuel Huntington, we believe without order there can be no civil society. After the chaos of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras, Putin has ushered in order, stability and prosperity (helped by high oil prices) for […]
A phrase used more in the U.S. than elsewhere, skid row refers to a run down part of a large city. We were horrified the first time we saw the skid row in downtown Los Angeles one early morning in the late 1990s – the whole area was in a dilapidated condition and filled with […]