Is this the worst Pakistan team ever? there should be separation of captaincy in 1-dayers and tests. Malik is quite uninspiring in tests, doesnt have the confidence to bowl himself and cant seem to be able to communicate with the star players (shoaib, yousuf and younus). Individually the team is quite decent but the captain and wicketkeeper are substandard. Make Younus the captain and replace the wk. I thought that pakistan played well in parts but didnt have the cohesion and planning to play to win.

Is America Ready for a Black President? Please fix the interacts format (to what it used to be).. rest of the changes seem well intentioned and may (eventually) work well. Give us a choice to go back to the old look and feel (as much as feasible). thanks.

The Hypocrisy of the Indian Leftists
Some groups by virtue of genetic or cultural factors or a mix, make a disproportionate contribution to expansion of knowledge and economic growth.. south indian brahmins (who unlike the north indian brahmins are a small percentage of society) along with similar groups (there was a chowk article about one such group in punjab, the khatris.. parsees are also one such group as are the ismailis I think) in various parts of india (and pakistan, bangladesh) are one such group. The most prominent such worldwide group are ashkenazi jews (for more info do a search on google for charles murray`s recent article on this topic)..

A huge percentage of the most talented brahmins have emigrated outside tamil nadu (and outside india) because of systematic discrimination against them.. ultimately TN (and India) in the long run is the loser.. sure because of general macro factors, there will be growth etc. with quotas etc.. but its far from the optimal use of such scarce human resources.

Contrary to perceptions, the average quality of human resources in India (and south asia) is actually BELOW world averages and much lower than China/Korea/Japan. The only plus point is that the demographics is much younger but that advantage can be eroded. So simply taking this factor into account, it seems the gap between south asia and east asia will increase not decrease.. The only way to bridge the gap is by leveraging institutions (democracy, IITs etc) and promoting meritocracy.. Simply put, elitist education HAS TO BE purely meritocratic.. else the medium term consequences for Indian society will be negative (innovations and growth will be less than it would otherwise have been).. There seems to be a casual assumption that Indians as a group are ``talented`` and smart. Not true. It is biased by the Indians we meet abroad and in professional settings.

It is really sad that the premier (undergrad) school for mathematics in India (chennai math institute) had to affiliate with some unknown univ to get around the reservation quotas. Reservations wont effect the lower tier places that much (in terms of quality) but the highest tier places will be seriously affected. The main attraction to teach at places like IIT is the opportunity to interact with bright kids. In any case it wont matter much in the end as these kids who couldnt go to the college somehow still make it (the companies who hire have their own tests.. end of story)

Indian Scholarships for Outstanding Pakistani Students This is a great idea. There is a serious talent crunch in India.. A huge chunk of elite muslims went to pakistan. So it makes sense to attract talent to India .. to study.. and then to settle down. This is what competitive economies are doing. Contrary to notions India is not a bottomless pool of talent.. its very much limited to a small (10%) segment of the population, if not less.

Violence Against Women Since someone mentioned Indra Nooyi, here is an article from dnaindia.com that talks about her. She comes from the tamil brahmin community who have had their fair share of high achieving women (and men).

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Indra K Nooyi spurned GE`s Jack Welch, went for fizz, won
Nandini Lakshman
Monday, August 14, 2006 23:22 IST

MUMBAI: At 50, Chennai born Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi has shattered the ultimate glass ceiling, by moving into the corner room at PepsiCo Inc headquarters in the US.

But everyone knew that the freshly anointed chief executive officer of Pepsi was always different.

Who else would thwart an offer from the legendary corporate chieftain, General Electric’s Jack Welch in 1994, to change the fizz at Pepsi?

Pepsi’s then CEO, Wayne Calloway, wooed Nooyi, according to BusinessWeek, by saying, ``Jack Welch the best CEO I know, and GE is probably the finest company. But I have a need for someone like you, and I would make PepsiCo a special place for you.’’

V J Philip, former principal of the Madras Christian College, where Nooyi studied chemistry and physics 30 years ago, remembers Indra as “always a go-getter who had the capacity to rally around people and get them excited”.

He remembers how when a tough test paper was set up, Nooyi, who was then in the first year, got her class to solve it.

She then barged into the lecturer’s room to show him why everybody had performed badly.

Audacious?

“Far from it, we had a re-test,” says Philip, who was one of her chemistry lecturers.

In fact, standing up for what she believed in is a quality that Nooyi inherited from her mother. Along with sister Chandrika, who went on to work at the Citibank, the World Bank, the New York University’s Stern School of Business and then set up Tandon Associates, the Krishnamurthy girls were honed in on the art of leadership at a very young age.

People in Chennai say that as part of a daily post-prandial drill at home, the girls were asked by their mother to deliver a speech on what they wanted to be when they grew up. The most innovative was rewarded with a chocolate. “It didn’t matter what they said, but it instilled in them a sense of pride and the urge to dream big and chase that dream. It made them achievers,” says a family friend.

A people person, Nooyi’s negotiating skills were obvious from day one. Along with sister Chandrika — who was a singer — the Krishnamurthy girls were regulars in the cultural and social activities during their college days in the early ‘70s. Running around for ads for the college magazine, she would convince tight-fisted company managing directors to part with ads.

“She used her logical power to advantage,” says her college friend.

“Behind my cool logic lies a very emotional person,” Nooyi told an American business magazine six years ago. Today, as the highest-ranking India-born woman in corporate America, Nooyi has a track record of delivering time and again in PepsiCo’s global sweepstakes.

Working closely with CEO Roger Enrico, she was at the forefront of many of Pepsi’s business decisions, be it hiving its food chains, acquiring Tropicana, the merger with Quaker Foods, and taking the Pepsi Cola bottling group public. “The energy and time she puts in are incredible,” Enrico once said.

That’s why, like most workaholics, the office, remarked Nooyi once, is like her extended family. Her younger daughter often drops by, even when she isn’t in. Nooyi has said that she comes in to play Nintendo or do her homework or just chat up the big bosses. “There is always somebody or the other to help out,” she said.

While such help is welcome where her family is concerned, Nooyi has had a solo march up the corporate ladder. After a post graduation at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, she worked at Mettur Beardsell and then Johnson & Johnson in Chennai, as product manager for Stayfree sanitary napkins.

“That was a fascinating experience and I learned a lot,” she said, hawking personal protection products in a country where awareness levels were zilch.

And when she applied “on a whim and got” a management seat at Yale, the penniless Nooyi said, “she came as an intelligent person and left an educated person”.

Being a “poor Indian student”, most of the summer jobs were done in a sari. Once, she even went for an interview in a cheap $50 business suit and orange snowboots like “the ultimate country bumpkin”.

When a career counsellor advised Nooyi to wear what she was comfortable in, the sari became her trademark.

The attire, however, was no impediment to her first major job in corporate strategy at Boston Consulting Group.

Then over the next decade until the mid ‘90s, other senior management positions followed, first at Motorola and then Asea Brown Boveri.

Even today, Nooyi wears a sari to most of Pepsi’s functions. “Never hide what makes you,” she once said.

And last year, when she addressed students at Columbia University, her speech elicited brickbats for its supposedly “anti-US stance”.

Both Nooyi and the university were forced to make damage control statements about how it was misinterpreted, and how “she loves America dearly”.

But there are many who point out to the timing of the announcement.

“Pepsi is one of the largest funders of the US government. When something like this happens, it could be either co-incidence or an outcome of lobbying,” Miguel Loureiro, lecturer in developmental studies in a Pakistan university, told DNA Money.

He points out how only two days ago, the US government had reacted to the Coke-Pepsi controversy over the use of pesticides, by saying that a ban on the two players would affect trade.

“And now an Indian heads Pepsi,” he adds.

To be fair to Nooyi, her appointment to the Pepsi pinnacle has not come as a surprise. The Pepsi bosses had always singled her out for accolades. That’s not coincidence.

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Chore! Chore! enjoyed this very much .... keep writing..

a couple of typos.. heroine should be heroin and marshal law should be martial law.

if this didnt make the FP, I dunno what else deserves it ?

Prisoner of Conscience or Conscious Prisoner? some questions for pakistani interactors who may have info:

1. Is the concept of ``caste`` known amongst pakistani muslims? That is, do pak muslims tend to marry within their clan/caste ?

2. Would people recognize someone as belonging to a ``lower`` caste, given the surname or other cues ?

3. During partition, my understanding is that many well-to-do (higher caste??) muslims were able to migrate to pakistan... Does this imply that the percentage of muslims in pakistan from upper class/caste background is much higher than among Indian muslims?

4. Is there any notion of reservations or quotas in education/employment in pakistan to offset disadvantages in background ?

Has Higher Education Failed India?
India is populated by over 3000 endogamous groups. These are people who have intermarried among themselves over centuries and have clearly definable cultures and traditions. Many of these groups are migrants, from either outside India or migrated within India.

Now it is exceedingly improbable (probability approaching zero) that all these groups have exactly the same talents on parameters that are valued in present day technological, knowledge driven. Some of these subgroups have done exceedingly well (parsis, iyers, bhargavas, for example.. its likely that some of the so-called OBC groups figure here) in the knowledge driven economy. It is highly likely that they do have an advantage in both genetics and memetics, accrued over centuries of intermarriage and cultural formation (there are academic papers that suggest that genetic advantages can happen just in the span of centuries). Consequently they will be over-represented in highly selective institutions (just like the Ashkenazi Jews in science and tech) because the normal distribution favors groups who have some overall advantage on the extremes.

By the same token the intellectual capital (probably more than 90%) is probably concentrated in 10% of the population. And guess what: these 10% are not representative of the general population. Quotas or reservations will only make the talented folks seek opportunities elsewhere. Also the private sector will come to play an increasing role in education (as they are doing) and quotas really wont matter in the end. As others have said, primary and secondary education are much more dire straits and this is the place that can benefit many more people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Maybe Pakistan can open institutes without reservations and hire top class Indian faculty and attract Indian students? I am half serious but it could happen, who knows ?

Those readers here who are capable of following a somewhat technical argument about the distribution of scientific talent can see this paper

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It is a widely held belief, even among senior people in the government, that India is a country with vast human resources and that even if about 10% goes abroad after higher qualifications, it would not make a dent in the country`s total productive potential. Implied
in this argument is the assumption that if 10% of the human resources goes abroad, it would take away only 10% of the intellectual energy in the population. Is there any scientific basis for this? If a scientific, or a mathematical model were to be sought for this, how should this be done? In this article, based on some well-known power-law models used in complex systems like ecology, economics, scientometrics and seismology, one can argue through a soft mathematical model that a small per cent of the cream at the top can
take away a disproportionately large amount of intellectual resources.

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A soft mathematical model for brain drain for the complete article.

Taking the Lid off Sexual Fantasies Dr. S,

Since the late 90s there has been an explosion of internet porn and most of the consumers are men. Have your patients talked about the effects of porn at all on their fantasies and realities?

The Bubble Bursts And this is the latest on Indonesia, which has traditionally been a home for a peaceful type of islam (if you ignore the anti-chinese pogroms). Basically about 10% of the muslim population support terror and a much bigger percentage want a throwback to the medieval ages.

Survey shows 10% Indonesians justify suicide bombing, 40% want sharia laws.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta Post.
Mar 18, 2006


Islamic conservatism is a growing force to be reckoned with across the country, with research indicating about 40 percent of citizens would support the replacement of state laws with sharia and one in 10 consider suicide bombings justified in some circumstances.

A survey conducted in late January by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) found 40 percent of respondents approved of adulterers being stoned to death, 34 percent did not want to see another female president and 40 percent accepted polygamy.

On a thief`s hands being chopped off, 38 percent of respondents said the punishment fitted the crime.

The survey involved 2,000 respondents from different backgrounds nationwide.

In presenting the survey results on Thursday, a senior researcher at the LSI, Anis Baswedan, said it was clear that certain Muslim groups had already embraced sharia as a value system as evidenced by their support for conservative organisations, such as the Islam Defenders Front and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council.

On the whole, respondents were less acquainted with right- and left-wing extremist groups, such as the Eden sect, the Liberal Islam Network, Syiah, Hisbut Tahrir and Ahmadiyah.

Anis said, however, that despite the obvious support for conservative organisations, the majority of Muslims did not want to see the existing election system replaced, as was indicated by the results of the 2004 general election.

Muslim-based parties advocating the adoption of sharia did not fare well in the legislative election.

Likewise, the presidential candidates nominated by them did not get the support they were counting on from mainstream Muslim groups.

Yet, the majority of respondents saw eye to eye with the country`s largest Muslim organisations -- Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah.

On the other hand, the survey also revealed that one in 10 people tolerate suicide bombing and other attacks on civilian targets in the name of Islam.

Anis said the strong support for conservatism and ``radicalism`` had much to do with what respondents called the negative influence of Western culture and the global injustice blamed on the US as a superpower representing the West.

The Bubble Bursts zeemax #454...

I am talking about the core islam qua islam. An axiom is that the Koran is to be interpreted literally and taken very seriously. And Sharia is also a core concept. And apostasy/blasphemy is taken really seriously. These are facts on the ground. And it is truly ridiculous. How long it will take a significant chunk of muslims to wake up is anyone`s guess.

Make these optional and what is left is not Islam but one`s one interpretation a la carte.. a la the many sects of hinduism. I`d like to know how many dancing sufis and such populate Saudi Arabia and what effect they have on their society.. Not too much it appears. I`ll actually bet there are many more free wheeling make your own religion as you go along muslims in INDIA than PAKISTAN simply because there is (DUH!) real freedom of religion in India.

The Bubble Bursts
Folks

the conversation has veered to singapore about which I have first hand knowledge/experience.

Lee is NOT a socialist.. He was one in his youth. He is one hell of a smart cookie who understands real-politik. He made Singapore a capitalist society albeit democratically controlled by 1 party. The movers and shakers are highly educated technocrats, lawyers. etc. But the political culture is quite unique and trying to oppose the party can mean big time trouble.

Singapore is a fun place so long as you steer clear of (i) drugs and (ii) politics. Sex is A-ok! If you play along (and some desis have), one can make it big. I dont know what the current level of free speech is in the country but I think the media is all govt controlled, directly or indirectly. Even criticism is an art form of sorts.

Cops there are very low key and they dont particularly give a damn about speeding or jaywalking.. All those fines are just for effect.

One sad thing is that they hang so many poor drug peddlers (not the king pins).. I guess the confucian ethics is pretty cool about capital punishment.

But it is a nice place for a holiday and has fantastic, inexpensive food.

Singapore is one place where mosques DO NOT broadcast over loud speakers (unlike India and pak).. And the sermons etc. are monitored. No radical mullahs can survive here unless they are in super stealth mode. These guys mean business.

The Bubble Bursts #dost: The reason why Malaysia is successful is because it is a vast country with a small population and huge natural resources (incl OIL). And add to that the entrepreneurial chinese. If the Chinese were in control of Malaysia (Singapore, which is chinese dominated split because the malays did not want to share political power), Malaysia would be much more advanced than it is now. Talented malaysians (chinese, indians) tend to migrate and the malays (muslims) by and large feast on sinecures. The malays are a friendly and easy-going people and were probably hindu in the past (I think mahathir had a hindu mother). in the present one can see the effect of islamic ideology on a people.

Unlike your views, I dont think conversion laws in non-muslim countries will make much difference. Islam, at its core relies on the immutability of its scriptures and total inflexibility of interpretation. Any movement that tries to diverge is labelled (correctly) as non-islamic. The problem is not muslims or the suicide bombers or even people like OBL. It is the ideology that accounts for their behaviors. Saying that islam is a peaceful religion etc. is bakwaas. A total misunderstanding of this ideology. Sharia plays an important role in the lives of muslims in all islamic countries (incl India perhaps). The various govts /societies need to dump Sharia asap.. However it doesnt seem likely to happen.

The Bubble Bursts
One only has to see how Islam and Sharia is perverting progressive societies like Malaysia. Malaysia is 60% muslim but laws are slanted heavily in favor of islam. There is a trend towards Arabization of names and hijab. Almost all of the economic growth is due to the efforts of the minority chinese (so the malay muslims know what makes their country function).

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The irascible de facto Law Minister in the Malaysian government, Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz, has made an ominous announcement, reported in the Malaysian Daily Star and Australia`s News.com.

Aziz, of the UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) party made headlines in June last year, when he shouted ``Racist!`` 28 times in Parliament, and later refused requests from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) to apologise.

The Law Minister said that anyone who criticised Islam would be tried under the Sedition Act, a legacy of British colonial rule, which existed in Malaysia before its independence in 1957.

Recently, there has been international condemnation of the bizarre constitution in Malaysia. According to Article 3(1) of the constitution, ``other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.`` Article 11 of the constitution states that a citizen can follow any religion of their choosing.

However, this is directly contradicted by Article 121 (1A), which was introduced in 1988. This states that civil courts have no jurisdiction over ``any matter`` which falls under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Courts (Sharia courts). As only the Sharia courts can rule on cases of apostasy, no Muslim is allowed to leave Islam, and can be consequently jailed for ``belittling Islam``.

On December 8 this contradiction created a scandal when a disabled former mountaineer, who had ascended Everest and been a national hero and a Hindu, died. The sharia courts decided as he lay in a coma that M. Moorthy was a Muslim. His wife Kaliammal petitioned the High Court to allow his body to be released for a Hindu cremation. The High Court judge ruled that he could do nothing, and Moorthy`s body was taken away and given a Muslim funeral.

The tyranny of the Islamic courts, which have commissions in all 13 states of Malaysia, mean that no person has ever been allowed to leave Islam while alive. The only person allowed to apostasise was an 89-year old Buddhist woman, Nyonya Tahir, who was only allowed this privilege after her death.

Many states have adopted a controversial Control and Restriction Bill, which allows fines of 10,000 ringit or $2,653 and terms of imprisonment for up to one year for anyone guilty of ``persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion.``

Only 60% of the country are Muslim, and these are mainly ethnic Malays. The remaining 40% have felt threatened by the encroachment of Islam into their lives, particularly following the Moorthy case. 30 Hindu groups have formed the Hindu Rights Action Force (HRAF) to counter the effects of sharia law. The Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, promised on January 14 that the courts will work to ensure that non-Muslims and Muslims will ``have redress`` under the law.

But the tide of Islamic extremism is hard to beat. The leader of the opposition, Lim Kit Sang, has stated that the constitution should revert to its pre-1988 position before the contentious Article 121 (A) was introduced. On 12 January, a delegation of eight Islamic groups petitioned for the controversial article not to be revoked.

This month, Marina Mahathir, feminist and rights activist, and also the daughter of the former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad, wrote an article in the Malaysia Star criticising the way that Islam in Malaysia was oppressing women. She cited the controversial Islamic Family Law Bill which makes it easier for husbands to divorce their wives, encourages polygamy, and allows a husband to seize assets of former wives and their offspring.

So the current proclamations of the Law Minister appear to be in direct contradiction to the bland platitudes of the Deputy Prime Minister. Far from ensuring redress, Datuk Seri Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz seems to prefer threatening critics of Islam into silence. By saying the government will not hesitate to use the Sedition Act to stifle criticism, he is in effect bringing the threat of jail.

``We will not think twice about using this law against anybody who incites,`` he said, addressing reporters in the Parliament lobby. ``But you must remember the word amok comes from this country and there is a limit to everything.`` He warned that no-one should make comments or publish articles which could be seen as ``belittling Islam``.

``I want to remind non-Muslims to refrain from making statements on something they do not understand,`` he added. ``We do not want to take away your rights but religion is an important matter, especially to the Muslims.``

He had previously been petitioned by a group of 43 Muslim non-governmental organisations. This petition supported the Islamic Family Law Bill, and said it did not contradict sharia law, nor did it discriminate against women.

The minister brought up the issue of articles which had been written which criticised the current situation in Islam, probably alluding to the article by Marina Mahathir. On what non-Muslims were to able to write about, Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz stated ominously: ``However, there are some things which should not be touched on.``

The penalty for transgressing against the Sedition Act can be three years in prison, with an additional fine of up to 5,000 ringit or $1,350.

A highly critical article on Malaysia`s purported religious ``freedoms`` was published by the US State Department on November 18, 2005, entitled Malaysia: International Religious Freedom Report 2005. Written up before the forcible introduction of the Islamic Family Law Bill, and before the current totalitarian statements of the nation`s Law Minister, already this document is out of date, and in need of re-writing.
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The Bubble Bursts
This is what happened recently in ``liberal`` Malaysia where muslims are a majority but dominate politics due to majority vote (democracy). One has to call a spade a spade and see for what this poisonous ideology is all about.

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M Moorthy, 36, was a national hero in Malaysia due to his mountaineering exploits, especially his being a member of his country`s first expedition to the top of Mount Everest in May 1997. He was also a Hindu, the child of Hindu parents, married to a Hindu wife, who as recently as two months ago was interviewed on television about his preparations for the Hindu festival of Diwali. But he was paralyzed from the waist down due to a 1998 injury and a fall from his wheelchair on Nov. 11 led to his death on Nov. 20. His family, naturally, wanted to give him a Hindu funeral.

At that point, however, an Islamic court sided with Moorthy`s former colleagues in the Malaysian Armed Forces who claimed that he had converted to Islam; the court would not even permit the family, non-Muslims, to appear before it to dispute the matter. A dreadful scene then occurred at the mortuary as family members jostled with state Islamic officials and former soldiers for the body. The family lost and applied to the country`s Appellate and Special Powers High Court, which ruled that it could not override the Islamic courts in such a matter. Moorthy in the end was buried as a Muslim.

The president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism, Rev. Sri K. Dhammananda said the council was ``very disturbed`` by what happened and called this development ``a crisis for non-Muslims because they can seek no legal remedy.`` He called for the repeal of a subsection of the Federal Constitution ``to make it clear that the Syariah [Shari‘a] Court has no jurisdiction to hear matters involving non-Muslims.`` (December 29, 2005)
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The Bubble Bursts #397: Very enlightening summary esp. the point regarding the peaceful verses.

It appears that Islam as a male-supremacist ideology had the function of institutionalizing violence towards ``others`` and expanded in a very effective way. To motivate soldiers to undertake risky ventures, carrots were required. Perhaps in no other belief system is the distinction between ``us`` and ``them`` so clearly delineated, along with prescriptions and proscriptions for behaviors with respect to ``us`` and ``them``.

The 20th century with technology and the knowledge based economy has made the playing field level for women. Possibly the biggest story of the 20th century (along with tech, wars, and decolonisation) is the change in the status of women. Understandably, islam has the greatest difficulty in absorbing this change.. and when it does, it could morph into something quite different. For example its quite possible that women are treated as equals and given similar opportunities in islamic soceities (say in Saudi Arabia, women are allowed to drive cars or women in Pakistan can wear skimpy swim-wear in beaches etc.) However the core of islam could still remain xenophobic (others as kafirs), sort of like the evangelical xtianity. Thats what I suspect could happen. Probably it is the case in countries like Indonesia (which however also have an identity rooted in non-islamic sources).