The Covered Trucks Pentecost...``I am just an ignorant ABCD from south India and this is just for our church missionary activity. We have been targeting the tribals in south India for our church but have lately started doing one-on-one with members of more forward type(is that the right term) castes here in US? I must confess that we are well short of our mission goals in India of 100 K per year saved souls for the Lord. Also I have been using the following books for our good work- ``

Haha...MISSIONARY ALERT !!! So tell me sir , how many times per week do you surrender your holy ar$e to the local pastor ? All in the service of the good lord , of course...

Am I Insane? Hey Emma , you will do well to listen to Uncle HP aka Hacked Penis....he is rather harmless really....and got plenty of experience , being divorced once or twice for his inability to perform certain vital functions that...you know..women ideally expect from their husbands....

These days , poor old Uncle HP spends much of his time acting as a harmless agony uncle to young women such as yourself besides venting his vast-reservoir of impotent fury on those bloody hindians...

The Covered Trucks ``But then this is an opinion of someone who does not believe in objectivity!``

At last !! Some honest introspection from FV-ji....

The Covered Trucks With ref to Mumbaikar`s story of temple priest adopting dalit kids....

I bet it was more out of necessity than anything else. For there is a tremendous shortage of brahmin kids willing to join the priest profession. Most brahmin kids do engineering and medicine and have no interest in the temple life. The ones who stay behind in villages and accept the temple life are either very poor and cannot afford professional education or retarded.

This is a serious problem that dogs every hindu temple today. Non-availability of brahmin boys to take up positions of priesthood.The obvious solution is to train lower caste hindus boys to become priests. Even temples that did not even allow entry to dalits worshippers just a few decades back are today managed by dalit priests.

Intimacies Remapped ``Now India only has 2 to 3 % Brahmin! That’s a Good one. In that case, rest of the 97 to 98% Indians are shudras``

Actually that is true. Brahmins only make up 2-3% of India`s population. And most of them have no interest in India . I am one of those 2-3%. I have more relatives outside India than in India. Thats why I find it funny when accusations about India being dominated by brahmins fly around. Truth is , the only place in India dominated by brahmins is the US Visa counters. In rural India - brahmins are almost extinct. There are more brahmins in Detroit than in Lucknow or Jaipur, for instance.

Basically - India is ruled by shudras. Modi/Advani/Thackray/Uma Bharthi....all these hindutwa guys and gals...are shudras....just a matter of different shades of shudra-hood...one more so than the other....

Vajpayee will go down in history as India`s last brahmin prime minister.

Intimacies Remapped ``Obviously, there is no need to remind here that only a bunch of criminals, thugs, and killers would love a leader like Modi.``

Well...5 crore Gujarathis did vote for him...so I`m assuming they are criminals , thugs and killers....all 5 crore of them..

Hell’s Angel Actually Akhtar is the only pakistani player with a high recall value...rest of the team is rather mediocre . None of them are even worth a mention. I dont sense too much excitement in India over this series. Most people have found other interests - Formula-1 racing and English Premier League for instance.

So cricket basically has to fight for attention now. Only the lower classes (the johnny-come-latelys) are still crazy about cricket.

Take me - when I was a kid I used to know the average , highest score , number of 100s , wickets ..every meaningless stat cricket can conjure ..of every cricketer on the planet. But then they began to show European football matches live on TV and brought to our homes a far more exciting sport....and today I barely know the names of 5 or 6 members of India`s own cricket team. Never mind Pakistan`s team. Haven`t seen a full cricket match for last 3-4 years although its on TV all the time. And trust me - most upper class people in urban India have lost interest in cricket.

Why We Need Islamization of Science *yawn*

Intimacies Remapped If one does a survey of the RSS members - there are millions of them , one would find out that over 95% of them are actually lower caste hindus. Those who destroyed the babri masjid - the kar sevaks - were mostly lower caste hindus - who were encouraged and motivated by non-brahmin RSS leaders like Advani , Uma Bharthi, Sadhvi Rithambari , and hordes of lower caste sadhus or sages.....those who killed muslims in Gujarat and raped muslim women were dalits........Which is only natural because brahmins are timid by nature and the closest they come to fighting muslims is on yahoo chat.....brahmin parents would rather see their wards in convent schools than attend RSS shakhas......

If hinduism was dependant on upper caste hindus for survival , it wouldn`t exist today. Hinduism is flourishing because the lower caste hindus have taken charge.

For all its faults , the hindutwa movement has one virtue which must be appreciated. Hindutwa yearns for a casteless hindu society. It is true that hindutwa-vaadis hate muslims and want India to be a hindu nation , but they also want the elimination of the caste system.

Intimacies Remapped ``that is why the hindu middle classes ``that have nothing in common with the muslim elite and are the nightmare of muslims`` do not vote for the BJP.``

Brahmins cosntitute just 2-3% of the voting population. BJP led NDA received 40% of the votes in last election , although they lost. So if lower caste hindus hate BJP , if middle class hindus hate bjp , if dalits hate BJP - how come as many as 37% (probably 250-300 million) of the population that is non-brahmin ended up voting for BJP ?

Simply doesn`t make sense.

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People who are trying to drive a wedge between upper caste hindus and lower caste hindus should remember this...

1. Modi is a lower caste hindu
2. Advani is a casteless sindhi
3. Bal Thackray is a maratha - meaning , a middle caste hindu.
4.Upper caste hindus never do the fighting in a riot. The lower caste guys do that.
5.Most of the killings of muslims in Gujarat were done by dalits.
6.Upper caste hindus or brahmins are numerically insignificant. Constiture just 2-3% of the population.

Hidutwa basically is an idealogy that seeks to unite hindus regardless of caste. So hindutwa seeks a casteless society. That is why most of the leaders of the hindutwa movement - Advani , Modi ,Bal Thackray , Uma Bharti - are non-brahmins.

Intimacies Remapped Netizen ,

India`s forex reserves are worth $135 billion.

As far as FDI is concerned , this might interest you ,

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1020718.cms


``The most popular fable of the day is the race between the elephant and the dragon. The lumbering pachyderm is believed to stand no chance against the Middle Kingdom. Not so any more — such are the respective strengths and failings that in broad welfare terms they nullify each other. India is set to attract record foreign direct investment, narrowly defined, of $15 billion this fiscal, at least thrice the annual flows in post-reform years. Our FII flows are close to $10 billion, and with remittances set to cross $20 billion, our total foreign investment flows in 2004-05, defined in Chinese terms, will end up at about $50 billion. This is pretty close to China`s $60 billion inflows, whereas till only the other day our FDI flows seemed a fraction of China`s...``

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Intimacies Remapped I liked the article - it was an honest effort from the writer and can only be applauded. But I don`t think this statement of his stands true to facts >>

``fallout of that horrific incident was that an entire state erupted into a revenge- killing spree that would shame India, and severely damage the country’s new found pace of economic development``

That is untrue. The hindu-muslim riots of Gujarat happened in the year 2002. Since then Indian economy has registered its best growth rates - including a high of 8.4% for the year 2003.

It is a self-serving myth propagated by the self-appointed conscience keepers of the society or the self-proclaimed `secularists` that the Gujarat riots affected the Gujarat economy and scared the foreign investor from India. But the opposite is true.Gujarat is booming. Forex reserves to India reached $135 billion recently. So things look good.

Investment is dictated by economic policies , infrastructure and quality/cost/quatity of labor. Muslims may no longer be safe in Gujarat , but investors get a huge return for their money. And thats good enough for them.

Intimacies Remapped Look - No doubt everybody here is gonna bad-mouth Modi and Gujarat....that is understandable given the Gujarat riots where 2000-3000 muslims were massacred and scores of muslim women raped. But then thats one part of the picture.

What people have failed to notice or feigned ignorance is how Modi has completely and singlehandedly transformed Gujarat`s economy and made Gujarat a truely modern state.

Gujarat is more like China than India in terms of economic growth. Gujarat economy grows at an extraordinary pace of 10% plus , while Indian economy grows at 7% plus.Some of the biggest industries in India are situated in Gujarat. Gujarat accounts for 5% of India`s population , but over 20% of the exports. Gujarat ranks among highest as far as Indian states are concerned in terms of literacy , per capita and hdi. Poverty in Gujarat is minimal...barely 5-8% of the population.

Modi has shown himself to be the most reformist politician in Indian history. He has introduced and executed wide range of administrative and economic reforms. His working is like that of a CEO of a Fortune 500 rather than that of a politician. He has de-bureaucratised and de-politicised Gujarat and done away with corruption and the red-tape. While most big states in India like Maharashtra , Andhra , Punjab etc. are revenue deficit states - Gujarat is by far revenue surplus.There is nobody in the world who is as pro-globalisation and pro-liberalisation as Modi is.Thanks to Modi`s tireless efforts , investments are flowing into Gujarat in billions of $ virtually every day - mostly from foreign investors.

The significance of Gujarat is it is more like a part of China than India given the sort of industries , investment friendly administration and excellent infrastructure that Gujarat has. If South India is all about IT , Gujarat is all about China-style gung-ho manufacturing.

So the choice is for Indians to make. How would they like to view Modi ? As India`s most visionary reformer , as somebody has transformed sleepy Gujarat into India`s industrially and financially most dynamic state with little or no corruption , or as one who doesn`t like the paki-lovers too much..

The people of Gujarat sure have announced their verdict.

Shrinking Violets in the Global Village ``How long are we going to be top dog keeping in mind the surplus is a little over 1 billion and the biggest items of export from India are iron and steel, cotton yarn, precious stones, etc and the biggest imports from China are textile fabrics, electrical machinery, plastic products, etc? ``.

You forget IT products and services. India earned $15 billion from IT exports last year. Telecom too is a niche area. Manufacturing in India has of late woken up as well. India exports tractors to USA and cars to eastern europe. The yardstick to judge India , is not by its past - when it was stifled by socialists and leftists alike - but by its present and its potential future. And for this extraordinary potential to be achieved India desperately needs to liberalise its economy further , integrate with the global economy completely , introduce labor flexibility (`hire and fire`) , get rid of all the obscurantist labor/environment regulations , de-bureacratise , de-politicise and hopefully build huge concentration or organised labor camps like the gulag where the leftists and socialists can live in peace brooding over the `Das Kapital` in between their shifts.


``Btw don’t get hoodwinked into believing that India and China have an immense gap in terms of FDI because the reported figures for both countries are based on their definitions of FDI – China abides by the IMF definition; were India to follow the same then the gap is 10 billion or so rather than the 50 reported right now. Plus, I heard that China’s accounting practices are a little shady when it comes to foreign investment so a significant amount of its FDI is actually domestic cash``

Perhaps.BUT - Whether China`s FDI figures are fudged or not , fact remains China has twice the GDP of India today. And this is inspite of the fact that only as far back as 1978 , India had a slightly higher GDP than China. Then in 1978 China opened its economy for foreign investment , received over $500 billion in FDI , and zoomed ahead.



``And India did all this in a very diff socio-political scenario. Thank God for the lefties we’ve got rather than the lefties they’ve got. ``

Chinese leftists , the post-Mao generation , are more `rightists` really. They are great nationalists - great patriots. They are ambitious about their country and want it to be the greatest in the world. They are `leftists` by name only. By deed , they are the greatest capitalists in the world today - for they are the greatest advocates of globalisation and economic liberalisation. Why ? Because they know that globalisation is good for the people of China and is the only way to catch up with the first world.


Indian leftists are anti-national , and have tried to stifle progress at every step. Mindlessly parroting the ideas of Marx , Mao and Lenin , they have closed their eyes and ears to the realities of the modern world.If the leftists of India were given power or freedom to implement their plans , India wouldn`t exist by today. India would be like Africa - a continent with several warring clans where 90% of the population is starving to death - often depending on the kindness of Oprah and Bono for daily sustenance.

But still , sadly for India , although not in power , leftists do have a say . And that is the reason the pace of economic reforms in India has been so excruciatingly slow. That is the reason India has been so slow to get off the marks and is struggling to catch up with China.

The basic difference between India and China is - China is what it is , BECAUSE of its government. India is what it is INSPITE of its government.


``As for labor and environmental laws… hold on for a sec ``

Yes. Silly labor laws , activist trade unionism , lack of a simple `hire and fire` policy....are holding India back. It is the biggest reason for the manufacturing sector in India not being able to reach its full potential.

If industry in India is to expand , and if more jobs are to be created , most of the labor regulations have to be scrapped.

Shrinking Violets in the Global Village ``And I remembered the little shop where my friends and I used to buy our music when we were 14/15 and which went out of business when the first music superstore opened in the wake of the market opening up.``

>>

How is that bad ? Zindagi hain khel koi pass koi fail....Bet the new superstore employs many more people than the little shop did...



`` The middle classes in China and India (to mention two giants in the making although China is far ahead in the game) are no doubt happy – in the short term they have gained a lot. But even as I write, analysts are already looking forward to the time when their biggest advantage – labor – will no longer be as cheap as it is today thanks to the quality of life that is being built right now thanks to that very cost effective labor. Then what? The problems of our neighbors to the West today will most definitely be our problems in a little while. ``

>>

First of all , lets correct the assumption made by the ignorant writer about Indian being swamped by Chinese goods. That ain`t the case. As Stuka pointed out , India enjoys trade surplus with China. The ony place India is losing out to China is at areas which have been reserved for SSIs (small scale industries) - an enduring remnant of nehruvian socialism ....There China- with its big industries , enjoys an advantage.





``The middle classes in China and India (to mention two giants in the making although China is far ahead in the game) are no doubt happy – in the short term they have gained a lot. But even as I write, analysts are already looking forward to the time when their biggest advantage – labor – will no longer be as cheap as it is today thanks to the quality of life that is being built right now thanks to that very cost effective labor. Then what? The problems of our neighbors to the West today will most definitely be our problems in a little while.``



>>

First of all , much of the `middle class` in India was not even middle class just a dacade or two back. So they have gained a lot , obviously. Short term or not , is not for the silly writer to judge.

There are different layers of labor in India. As one layer moves higher , the one below fills up the gap. There will never be a shortage of labor of varied skills in India and this will be available for all ranges of price.

As Stuka said , the layers at the top , will move on to value added jobs and outsource the cheaper work requiring less skill to the layers below. For instance , a lot of low-skill-coding-call center-system support jobs are outsourced from Bangalore to the surrounding satellite towns like Mysore , Tumkur , Mangalore and so on.

The key is flexibility and adaptibility. And none are more adept at that than the new age Indians.

Why We Need Islamization of Science ``Islam is word of ALLAH and Science is work of ALLAH. HE created man and gave him a charter to live which is called Islam. And HE is also the ONE who created Universe and its laws which humans discovered and called it Science.``

Yes , yes , catchy , I believe you ;)