The Great Game for Central Asian Oil

T.Rehman, great article, but to further polish your genius you must read this book:

TROUBLED WATER: TGE GEOPOLITICS OF THE CASPIAN REGION
BY R. HRAIR DEKMEJIAN & HOVANN H. SIMONIAN

However, the oild and gas reserves we are talking about are only 5% of total world
deposits, unlike the Iranian, Saudi Iraqi and Kuwaiti reserves, which are much much more than that.

``The Dutch have fortified Manaar, and make use of it for a Prison for Indian Princes, whom they can overpower or circumvene, when they are suspected of making Treaties contrary to their Interest, or to such as would willingly reassume their lost Freedom, by breaking the unjust Yoke of the Company`s Tyranny, perhaps, drawn on themselves by too much Faith or Incredulity; for that honest Company has always had a Maxim, first to foment Quarrels between Indian Kings and Princes, and then piously pretend to be Mediators, or Arbitrators of their Differences, and always cast in something into the Scale of Justice to those whose Countries produve the best Commodities for the Company`s Use, and lend the Assistance of their Arms to him who is so qualified by the Product above mentioned, and, at the Conclusion of the War, make the poor conquered Prince pay their Charges for assisting the Conqueror; and, when all is made up, and Treaties of Peace ready to be signed, then the Conqueror, their dear Ally and Friend, must suffer them to possess the best Sea-ports, and fortify the most proper and convenient Places of his Country, and must forbid all Nations Traffick but their dear Dutch Friends, under Pain of having the Company`s Arms turned against them, in Conjunction with some other potent Enemy to the deluded Conqueror.

The King of Charta Souri, on the Island of Java, is a fresh Instance of the Truth of what I relate. In Anno 1704, I saw him at Samarang, a Sea-port on the said Island, in great Splendor, and in high Esteem with the Dutch Commodore; but in Anno 1707 he fell under the Displeasure of the General and Council of Batavia, and in 1708 falling into their Hands, he was brought their Prisoner to Manaar, and cooped up on that small Island, there to spend the Remainder of his Days in Contemplation or Comments on the Deceit of worldly Grandeur, and of the Power and Pleasure of Sovereignty, or in humble Thoughts on Confinement, Exile and Poverty.``

From ``A New Account of the East-Indies, Being the Observations and Remarks of Capt. Alexander Hamilton from the Year 1688-1723``.

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For all the Indians
I guess this explains your WORLD CUP performance.

22 Indian athletes caught in doping net



NEW DELHI: Twenty two athletes at India`s National Games in December, including 13 medal winners, have failed dope tests, the country`s Olympic committee announced yesterday.

``Twenty two have tested positive from 464 tests held,`` Randhir Singh, secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association, told a news conference.

``Doping has become a major menace in this country.``

Nine tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. Bronze medal-winning rower Lakshman Singh has been banned after his urine samples confirmed the presence of nandrolone, a rowing official said.

Singh said other names would be announced only after the individual federations gave their responses to the IOA. These will be considered at its April 23 meeting.

The announcement is the latest in a series of doping incidents. Distance runner Sunita Rani had medals she won at last year`s Pusan Asian Games restored to her after being cleared of doping charges, following an earlier positive test for nandrolone.

Male weightlifters Krishnan Madasamy and Satheesha Rai were stripped of their medals at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester for doping.

``We can only advise the federations. It is up to them to take action,`` he added.

Nandrolone, which builds muscles and strengthens bones, has contributed to hundreds of positive doping cases across the sporting spectrum since the late 1990s.

Among the high-profile athletes who`ve tested positive for the steroid are former 100 metres Olympic champion Linford Christie, American shot-putter C J Hunter and Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey.

In most cases, athletes have protested their innocence and pleaded that the nandrolone must have been contained in diet supplements.

#32 by arjun_m on April 8, 2003 7:43am PT
Hey Arjun, I know Pakis are having problems here in US but
aren`t you guys getting hasseled all around the world right now.
In Malaysia when the 270 Indians were held along with a few Pakistanis
I believe the PAkistanis were offered food and water while the Indians were treated like the dogs, this is according to your own Hindu papers.

The Ugly Indian

April 05, 2003


Disregarding the invasion of Iraq, an Indian Singaporean friend with interests in Malaysia is hopping mad about the fracas over Indian information technology professionals in Indonesia and Malaysia, to say nothing about the contretemps in The Netherlands.

Three incidents in a row. You might think that Indians are being got at. Not so, says my friend. His complaint is that Ugly Indians, stalking the world as if they own it, give India a bad name.

By trying to introduce trade union blackmailing tactics into a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist society, they are also making it difficult for honest-to-goodness ethnic Indians like him to make a living.

Paying handsome tribute to India`s high commissioner in Kuala Lumpur, Veena Sikri, for standing up to police highhandedness, and to Malaysia`s acting prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, for the magnanimity of his apology, my friend warns that it would be unfair and counter-productive for India to think of reprisals.

``The story behind the Kuala Lumpur fracas is that the IT hands came on contracts negotiated in good times,`` he e-mails. ``When the Asian financial crisis erupted, many Malaysian IT firms went under or just could not pay salaries.``

``Many offered lower salaries, a very common and legal practice in Malaysia and Singapore. The Ramus and Shamus (my friend`s term for Indian nationals) ganged up and retaliated by forming an expatriate cartel. They withheld labour, not realising that this automatically cancelled their work permits.``

``ASEAN is not India. No ASEAN employer will tolerate lip from an employee, local or foreign. There are no real trade unions here. Even the Port of Singapore Authority workers, the torchbearers of the bold 1946 labour movement, caved in with a whimper.``

``So when the IT boys got bolshie, their employer or employers retaliated by tipping off the Immigration Department. Things unfortunately got out of hand.(If the Malaysian police can get away with beating up their own deputy prime minister -- Anwar Ibrahim, languishing in jail --the Ramus and Shamus are lucky none of them got even a black eye).``

My friend says that complaints by local residents of the Palm Court Condominium, where the Indians lived, were just the pretext for what was essentially a labour dispute. But he does warn that social behaviour such as theirs is not tolerated anywhere, not even in free and easy America.

``Why didn`t the Indian government threaten economic sanctions against the US when IT hands were rounded up by the Los Angeles police?`` he asks.

``Perhaps some lessons can be drawn from this incident for India`s footloose high-tech manpower, now travelling all over the world, with their laptops and smart briefcases (it used to be lotas, Icmic cookers and bedding rolls not so long ago).``

``These wild-eyed young men bring with them conspicuous social habits that the culturally diverse peoples of ASEAN find offensive.``

``They litter, drink, and are very argumentative in societies that brook no argument from even their own nationals, let alone foreigners. Above all they are undisciplined and reflect the recent growing malaise of student indiscipline in all Indian universities. India`s laissez faire democracy will tolerate such social aberrations. Other countries and societies will not.``

He rightly accuses Indian expatriates of being abysmally ignorant of the region`s complex history, cultures and value systems, in spite of its historical links with ancient India.

I once met an IFS officer seconded to the Singapore foreign ministry who thought Lee Kuan Yew was the deputy prime minister!

``It is their total inability to communicate with other societies that sets Indians apart from the thousands of foreign nationals working in ASEAN. Is it that difficult for Indian universities and colleges to offer short courses in Indonesian, Malay and Thai languages? Do former colonial European languages still have a stranglehold on the Indian mind?``

The conduct of some NRIs put off others too. An Indian Malaysian journalist wrote in a Malaysian paper that Andhra Pradesh IT professionals look down on local Telugus. An ethnic Indian editor in Singapore once spoke of Indian nationals here `with their baggage of caste and class.`

A university lecturer in Singapore says that Indian students who are here on Singapore scholarships soon become `cocky.` Another word that the locals apply to visiting Indian nationals is `arrogant.`

Of course, many locally-born Indians, whether in Singapore or Malaysia, have chips on their shoulder the size and weight of the Qutab Minar but that is another matter.

What is of concern is that the combined effect of these reports is to queer the pitch for analysts like Michael Backman, author of Big in Asia, who believe that in the long run our NRIs will outstrip, outrun and outsmart the Overseas Chinese.

Mrs Sikri, says my friend, handled the affair with finesse. Given Malay cultural norms, Mr Badawi`s apology was a tremendous gesture. That should be the end of the matter.

``Malaysia was the only non-aligned country to stand solidly behind India in the 1962 debacle with China, at a time when the Soviet Union, India`s closest ally, decided to back its Communist ally.`` He does not mention that Pakistan snapped diplomatic relations with Malaysia in 1965 for supporting India at the United Nations, as Noordin Sopiee, the Malaysian writer and analyst reminded me once.

``Malaysia does not deserve economic sanctions for what was clearly an isolated act of police high-handedness,`` he says.

Then, the kicker: ``Indians may want to reflect on their own police standards as well.``

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ali87 #25

The Turkish military has been a beneficary of US military and economic assistance. But is has not prevented them for defending Turkish national interests. They have intervened in Cyprus in 1974 over the objections of most of the world. Of course it will be interesting to see the kind of force they would unleash if Iraqi Kurds declared independence.

#19 by arjun_m
My Dear Hindu Boy, I was born here.

dost-mittar:
It is no secret that PDPA governments were better than anybody who came before or all the beardos who came after them. Noor Mohammad Tarakai was the best within PDPA. He had started many wide ranging reforms that would have threatened the tribal chiefs and mullahs power in the society.

Had they allowed to stay in power, Afghanistan would have improved society based on many of the social indicators. In my order of system of gvernments, capitalist liberal deomcracy comes on the top and Islamic model at the bottom with communist model somewhere in betwen. However, communist models vary, and Afghanistan - not yet tasted industrial rvolution - was more suitable for socialist type post-Mao chinese model.

It is wrong to assume among Muslim majority countries that loss of communism is gain for capitalism or democracy. The reality is far from it. It gives teeth to Islamic fundamentalists and authoritarian rulers among Muslims much more than liberal democracy. The obscurantists and authoritarian thugs can not be removed easily by popular uprisisng in Muslim countries due to many factors - one being Muslims are extreme in feelings, very soft towards obscurantists and other retrogressive Muslim fundamentalist power and hard against foreign non-Muslim powers. Therefore, USA might act as catalyst even if the actions of USA are illegitimate in the eyes of Europeans and antiwar crowd.

Take for example changing the name of Saddam Airport to Baghdad Airport by USA. It would have been impossible without foreign invasion. Same can be said about changing Faisalabad back to Lyallpur. Not that I am supporting an invasion but merely pointing out the complacency towards useless Islamic identity of Arab origin. Had Saddam chosen, Khalid Bin Walid, Ali, Mohammad or even Gilgamesh or Hammurabi names for airport, even USA would not have dared changing the name.

On second thought, Faisal is more acceptable to Pakistanis than Khalid Bin Walid or Mr. Lyall because Faisal was at least circumcized. Hahaha........

lets see those pakis whose eyes swell up every time they hear their kids recite the pledge of allegiance (probably at breakfast table every morning) defend this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-mideast-usa-pipes.html

``Bush Annoys U.S. Muslim Group with Pipes Nomination

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has named controversial Middle East commentator Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace to the dismay of a major American Muslim organization, which described Pipes on Monday as a ``Muslim-basher`` with bigoted views.

Institute spokesman John Brinkley said on Monday that Bush had nominated Pipes to replace Zalmay Khalilzad, who left the institute in 2001 to work in the White House.``

some of mr. pipe`s more interesting observations:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week509/cover.html

``I worry very much from the Jewish point of view that the presence,
and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American
Muslims...will present true dangers to American Jews.``
(Daniel Pipes speaking before the convention of the American Jewish``
Congress, 10/21/2001)

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/198

``All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most. Also, they appear most resistant to assimilation. Elements among the Pakistanis in Britain, Algerians in France, and Turks in Germany seek to turn the host country into a Islamic society by compelling it to adapt to their way of life.

_ _ _ West European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and not exactly maintaining Germanic standards of hygiene.``

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/july01/0107057.html

“The Palestinians are a miserable people,” he added, “and they deserve to be.

At the conclusion of his talk, Pipes received a standing ovation from a large group in the audience``.

Taimur:
Some interesting info. on the PDPA reforms - presuming the information is accurate. Other than that, it is a typical sophomoric Marxist interpretation of the events in Afghanistan and the rest of the world.
BTW it looks like that this article was written sometime ago, otherwise the Iraq war would have found a mention in this conspiracy.

ali78 #25
Yes, agreed. But when 90%+ of the Turkish population was against the Turkish involvement, members of Parliament(and the generals) could ignore this while voting, at the cost of losing their seats or major civil unrest.

Thus the government had to follow public will or risk losing office. Without a Parliament, this reflection of Turkish public opinion wouldnot have such a significant effect on Turkish government policy, and could have easily been dismissed by the US and Turkish generals as illegitimate and emotional.

Jay in case you missede these posts

#26 by pardaisi on April 7, 2003 1:25pm PT
Jay-Gay,

You will love this.. Jagjit talks like you man! maybe you two can hookup for a drink or something wink! wink! (are you gooing to be a tight-end or wide receiver in this relationship...just curious) He`s got the money and fame. Go Gay Go! I mean Go Jay GO!

hmmm...I like it GOJAYGO! I may start calling you that.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/919_229213,001800010001.htm




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#25 by pardaisi on April 7, 2003 12:04pm PT
#19 This will SOUND FAMILIAR to you JAY-gay?

Like the Iraqis, a day will come for the ``Indians`` to be liberated by their hate filled leaders.

It is sad, the way things are, it has to get a lot worse before it can get any better.

It is like aviation, a lot of people have to be killed, before regulations are changed to increase safety. A lot more ``Indians Muslims`` will have to be killed by Hindu fundamentalists, a lot more ``Achoots`` (untouchables - literally...) will have to be killed, Babri masjid demolished before the world realizes that India in nothing but a sham democracy.

Pakistan will need a front from Afghanistan, other from Iran, then you will know ``JAY - GAY`` ,

By the way, is it possible to build a mosque in India? lets say ...never mind it will hurt you from below and will go all the way up.