My story Troubled Galaxy Destroyed dreams: Re: [communistpartyofpakistan] Digest Number 1359[1 Attachment]

palashcbiswas,

 gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551

From: "communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com" <communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com>
To: communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 28 April, 2009 19:54:53
Subject: [communistpartyofpakistan] Digest Number 1359[1 Attachment]

There are 16 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. Muslim woman's appointment as Obama advisor draws cautious optimism
From: S Turkman

2. Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region of Iraq commits to human rights
From: S Turkman

3. Baloch rally in London
From: S Turkman

4. Dazed & Confused Deobandi Mullahs support to Sufi Muhammad's Fascism
From: Mansoor Hallaj

5. Re: [SindhPost] Fw: ALTAF HUSSAIN KI HALAT-E-JIHAD
From: Mansoor Hallaj

6. The READER in the Shadow of HOLOCAUST, Kate Winslet and Bengal Inte
From: palashc biswas

7. Deobandi Mullahs, International Banking and Militancy.
From: Mansoor Hallaj

8. corrected message puj
From: DGPR Handouts

9a. Re: Soonni Arab bombings of Shiya Arabs in Iraq
From: Jimmy Jumshade
9b. Soonni Arab bombings of Shiya Arabs in Iraq
From: S Turkman

10. Dr Mehdi Hasan on Pakistan.
From: Mansoor Hallaj

11. Railway Mail Service Trageted for Disinvestment in Indian Post as Se
From: palashc biswas

12a. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
From: Jimmy Jumshade
12b. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
From: Jimmy Jumshade
12c. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
From: R.Rahi

13. Calamity [Fitnah] of Fatwa Mongering in Pakistani Mullahs
From: Mansoor Hallaj

Messages
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1. Muslim woman's appointment as Obama advisor draws cautious optimism
Posted by: "S Turkman" turkman@sbcglobal.net torkmaan
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Posted by: "Hasan Essa" hasniessa@yahoo. com hasniessa
Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:31 pm (PDT)

Email Picture

Los Angeles Times
.
Analyst and author Dalia Mogahed will advise Obama on problems Muslims face in the U.S. Dalia Mogahed, a veiled Egyptian American, will advise President Obama on prejudices and problems faced by Muslims. Many Arabs hope it's a step toward reversing stereotyping.
.
By Noha El-Hennawy
April 22, 2009

Reporting from Cairo -- Egyptians are cautiously rejoicing over the recent appointment of a veiled Egyptian American Muslim woman as an advisor to President Obama.

Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, was appointed this month to Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Â

Judge to review records of FBI inquiries into Muslim groups

Groups encourage Obama administration to hire more Muslim Americans

Arabs are closely watching for signs that the new leadership in Washington is making efforts to improve relations with Islam, which many Muslims believe were severely damaged during the eight years of the Bush administration. The selection of Mogahed is viewed by many in the Middle East as a step by Obama to move beyond the stereotypes and prejudices that Muslims believe they have encountered since the attacks Sept. 11, 2001.

"Dalia Mogahed is the best example of a successful Muslim woman. She proves that the Muslim should be successful in all fields, at least in [her] area of specialization, " a commentator wrote on the website of the independent daily Al Masry al Youm.

The Egyptian-born Mogahed moved with her family to the United States almost 30 years ago. Recently, she co-wrote the book "Who Speaks for Islam?" with John Esposito, an American political science professor who has been criticized by some as an Islamic apologist. Mogahed and Esposito published an opinion piece this month in The Times on American ignorance of Islam and the Muslim world.

"My work focuses on studying Muslims, the way they think and their views," Mogahed was quoted as saying on the website of the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news channel. "Then I should tell the president about their problems and needs, especially that lately Muslims have been perceived as a source of problems and as incapable of taking part in solving international problems and that they should work on themselves. Now we want to say that Muslims are capable of providing solutions."

Yet, Mogahed's declaration that her loyalty goes first to the United States, published Monday in an interview with Al Masry al Youm, disappointed some people.

"I wish your loyalty was to your Islam first, Egypt second and your Arabism third and then to anything else," wrote a reader identifying himself as the Tiger of Arabs. "I am afraid that they might make a fool out of you and use you as a cover for policies that don't serve Egypt and the Arab and Muslim world."

El-Hennawy is in The Times' Cairo Bureau.

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2. Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region of Iraq commits to human rights
Posted by: "S Turkman" turkman@sbcglobal.net torkmaan
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Posted by: "HREA noreply@hrea.org" HREA noreply@hrea.org
Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:04 am (PDT)

Amnesty International Press release
23 April 2009

The Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, expressed
a strong commitment to human rights in a meeting with Amnesty International
in the city of Erbil on Thursday.

Amnesty International' s visit to the Kurdistan region follows the
publication last week of its report, Hope and Fear: Human rights in the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The report said that security forces in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region
operate outside the rule of law and regularly abuse their authority. It
detailed many cases of people who were arbitrarily detained by Asayish
(security) officials, tortured and forcibly disappeared.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Barzani said that a new law was being
prepared to make the Asayish accountable to the Council of Ministers, though
the timetable for this was still unclear.

The Prime Minister told Amnesty International that he had personally read
the report and that he had instructed that its recommendations be circulated
to the detention authorities and to government ministries. He assured the
organization of his determination to ensure that the Asayish and other
security agencies are made fully accountable under the law.

Amnesty International' s report also described recent improvements including
the release of hundreds of long-term political detainees in 2008 and legal
reforms affecting the status of women and media freedom.

The Prime Minister assured Amnesty International that he and his government
are committed to stamping out so-called honour crimes and to ensuring that
women are afforded effective protection against violence, including within
the family.

"The Kurdistan Regional Government has taken positive human rights steps in
recent years," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International' s
Middle East and North Africa Programme and head of the organization' s
delegation in the Kurdistan Region.

"In particular, it has put in place concrete measures to combat violence
against women, and we are heartened by this. At the same time, we emphasized the need to ensure that women's human rights defenders are fully involved in all stages of developing and implementing policies to end violence,
discrimination and to increase life opportunities for women and girls."

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3. Baloch rally in London
Posted by: "S Turkman" turkman@sbcglobal.net torkmaan
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Saghir A Shaikh <saghir.shaikh@gmail.com> wrote:

April 24, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
(Attached Copy of Memo)

LONDON--A protest demonstration was held in front of Bush House ( BBC World service office in London ) on 19 April 2009 . The protest demonstration was organized by Baloch Human Rights Council in collaboration with the World Sindhi Congress and Sindhi Baloch Forum. A large number of Baloch, Sindhi and other human rights activists took part in the protest. The gathering was to protest against the cold blooded murder of Baloch leaders Mir Ghulam Mohd Baloch. Baloch, Sher Mohd Baloch and Lala Muneer Baloch by Pakistani military agencies. It was also to express solidarity with the slain leader´s families. The main purpose of the rally was to inform the international community of the atrocities of Pakistan against the Baloch.

Ms.Suriya Makhdom of World Sindhi Congress said that Pakistan army is responsible for extra judicial murder of Nawab Bugti, Balach Marri and the Martyrs of Turbat. She said Ghulam Mohammed Balohch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammed Baloch were the true sons of soil who paid the ultimate price and had proven their loyalty toward Balochistan and Baloch Nation. She said that World Sindhi Congress and the Sindhi Nation are with their Baloch brothers at the grieved time.

Jamshed Amiri of Balochistan United Front (Iranian occupied) said that he strongly condemns the brutal murder of Baloch leaders by Pakistani agencies. He said that Pakistan was committing war crimes in Balochistan and Pakistan army generals should be tried in the International criminal court. He said Baloch in Iran are also suffering same fate by the hands of Iranian fundamentalist regime.

Waja Akbar Barakzai executive president of Baloch Human Rights Council also addressed the gathering. He said that Baloch have suffered a lot. He said the Baloch struggle is against the occupation of their country. He stated that Baloch are pushed against the wall, now they have no option but to fight. Sighting the example of Yaqoob Mehrnahad Mr Barakzai said that Baloch youth are being killed by the Iranian regime as well. He informed the press and participants of the rally that hundreds of Baloch have been executed by the Iranian fundamentalist regime and many are still missing.

Baloch leader Sardarzada Hyrbair Marri condemned the killing of Baloch patriotic leaders in strongest possible words. He further said that these leaders sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their motherland. He said that the Baloch are struggling for freedom of their land in accordance with Geneva Convention.

Miss Negar Baloch expressed her sympathies with the families of slain leaders. She said that it is high time that Baloch got united and started a joint struggle against the oppressors of the Baloch Nation. A united Baloch struggle could lead the Baloch nation toward their independence sooner, she said.

Samad Baloch general secretary of Baloch Human Rights Council gave a graphic detail of how the three Baloch leaders were arrested from the office of their lawyers in broad day light by Pakistani agencies. He said that the Baloch leaders had been subjected to torture before being mercilessly shot and murdered. He said that Baloch have no faith in Pakistan ´s inquiry committees and demanded an international investigation into the murder of Baloch leaders. He said UN should establish a fact finding mission to investigate the extra-judicial killing of Ghulam Mohd Baloch, Sher Mohd Baloch and Laala Muneer Baloch and that the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity in Balochistan should be brought to justice by initiating cases against them in the international court of justice in The Hague. He appealed to the British prime minister to use the influence of the British government for the stationing of an international peace keeping force in Balochistan to
save a whole nation being systematically wiped out by the Pakistani State .

Issued By: Samad Baloch
                   Secretary General
                   Baloch Human Rights Council
                   Info_bhrc@yahoo. co.uk

London 20-04-09

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4. Dazed & Confused Deobandi Mullahs support to Sufi Muhammad's Fascism
Posted by: "Mansoor Hallaj" tarot66@yahoo.com tarot66
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

As per latest news on Dunya TV Channel a noted Deobandi Mullah Rafi Usmani says that Maulana Sufi Muhammad is demanding Shariah for the people of Swat. I wonder what happened to the Fatwa of Kufr issued by Sufi Muhammad against fellow Pakistani Muslims.

As per latest update of GEO TV

Updated at: 1238 PST, Monday, April 27, 2009

Ulema delegation leaves for Swat

Updated at: 1238 PST, Monday, April 27, 2009

http://www.geo.tv/4-27-2009/40800.htm

PESHAWAR: A 20-member Ulema delegation has left for Swat from Peshawar to hold talks with Maulana Suif Mohammad and members of shura of Tahreek-e-Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi(TNSM).

The delegation would discuss Nizam-e-Adl regulation and other issues during these meetings.

The JUI´s member NWFP assembly Mufti Kifayatullah, who is also a part of delegation told Geo News that Maulana Salimullah Khan is heading the delegation that comprised of Mufti-e-Azam Pakistan Maulana Rafi Usmani, Maulana Asaf Thanvi, Maulana Asfandyar, Maulana Dr. Adil Khan and other Ulema.

Earlier, the delegation met with provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Afrasiyab Khatak and Governor NWFP Owais Ahmad Ghani.

And almost 2 years back the same Mullahs:

No Wafaqul Madaris support for Jamia Hafsa Sunday, April 15, 2007

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C04%5C15%5Cstory_15-4-2007_pg7_8

No Wafaqul Madaris support for Jamia Hafsa
Staff Report

KARACHI: The most important Deoband madrassa board, Wafaqul Madaris Al Arbia Pakistan, that controls 10,000 seminaries across the country with 1.6 million students, announced Saturday that it was not in favour of the methods adopted by the Jamia Hafsa, especially the siege of the children´s library, as taking the law into their own hands was not acceptable in any circumstances.

"We are against a policy of taking on the government in a head-on fight," he said, "as such a policy can only lead to damage." The Wafaqul Madaris members hoped that the Jamia Hafsa issues were settled through negotiations and talks. Jhalandari appealed to the Jamia Hafsa to continue with talks with the government. But Jhalandar said he supported all the demands made by Islamabad´s Jamia Hafsa principal and Lal Masjid khateeb, Maulana Abdul Aziz, "one-hundred-and-one percent".

This was the first such press conference following Aziz´s demand for the enforcement of Islamic law or Shariat in the country. Wafaqul Madaris Al Arbia Pakistan´s Secretary-General Qari Mohammad Hanif Jhalandari said that Islamabad´s Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia were members of their madrassa board.

"We are in complete support of their four demands - to enforce the Shariat in Pakistan, have the government rebuild all the mosques it destroyed, close down all dens of vice across the country and change the Women´s Protection Act in line with the Quran and Sunnah," Jhalandari said at the press conference held at Jamia Al Uloom Islamia, Allama Binori Town.

He was accompanied by Majlis-e-Aamla Mufti Rafi Usmani, Jamia Usmania principal Qari Mohammad Usman, Jamia Dawoodkhair principal Mufti Usmanyar Khan, Jamia Binoria Mufti Mohammad Naeem, Jamia Farooquia Dr Adil Khan, Jamia Darul Uloom´s Talha Rehman and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Karachi secretary information Allama Shafqatur Rehman On another note, they addressed the reaction to the Jamia Hafsa developments. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has organized a rally in Karachi for Sunday. Without naming the party, Jhalandari commented on this decision: "A political party in Karachi is organizing a rally against `Kalashnikov´ Shariat," he said. "We would say to them that whatever they are setting out to do is not advisable. By doing this the current situation could move towards a head-on fight. Secular and non-religious groups can take advantage of this and bring things against Islam."

For his part, Wafaqul Madaris´ Majlis-e-Aamla Mufti Rafi Usmani used the word `bar haq´ to express support for the demands of the Jamia Hafsa. "We should continue the struggle that they have started," he said. "But the path that the Jamia Hafsa people have adopted does not belong in Islam as it is one that leads to violence and fighting, which we do not at all condone or permit." While answering questions from the press, the Wafaq members present said that it was illegal to build a mosque on encroached land but prominent members of the government, including Gen Ziaul Haq, had themselves prayed in Islamabad´s Hamza Masjid; this should be considered an NOC from the government. When asked about the measures to enforce the Shariat, such as making beards mandatory, the Wafaq members said that they were against force. However, they mentioned that the government should be cognizant of the fact that as a result of its policies, the 1,400 km
border with Afghanistan now has 80,000 soldiers while previously the tribal areas provided `free´ soldiers to guard the border.

Police warn 34 clerics of attacks Staff Report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C07%5C16%5Cstory_16-7-2007_pg12_2

KARACHI: Thirty-four prominent clerics from different religious factions were warned by the police in a series of meetings Sunday that they could be targeted in the wake of the Lal Masjid incident, especially by ex-prison inmates. The police and rangers are also at risk.

"The police department informed us about the circumstances, via its town police officers," said Dawat-e-Islami and Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat spokesman. "They told us to take added security measures. They did not provide us with any extra security through."

Only three people out of those that were arrested for suicide attacks between 1999 and 2000 are still serving time. Most of them belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

"Vigilance is more important than deployment," said Capital Chief Police Officer Azhar Ali Farooqui. "Attacks may especially happen in police headquarters and police lines." He added that they were in constant contact with the intelligence agencies.

Police (Operations) Deputy Inspector General Javaid Bukhari confirmed that he and his force were in contact with different religious factions from time to time.

The names of the thirty-four people are: Six from the Sunni Tehreek - Sarwat Ejaz Qadari, Shahid Ghouri, Mubeen Qadri, Shakeel Qadri, Engineer Abdul Rahman and Maulana Khalil-ur-Rahman; five Barelvi - Maulana Jamil Ahmed Naeemi, Allama Rehan Amjadi, Allama Khalil-ur-Rahman Chishti, Mufti Jan Muhammad Naeemi and Allama Muzzaffar Hussain Shah; Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat Pakistan´s Allama Shah Turab-ul-Haq Qadri and Maulana Abrar Rahmani; Pakistan Sunni Movement´s Shah Siraj Qadri; Markazi Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan´s Tariq Mehboob; Jamiat-e-Ulma-e-Pakistan´s Allama Anus Noorani, Haji Hanif Tayyab from the Nizam-e-Mustafa Party, Siddique Rathor from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Abdul Qadir Bapu from the Sunni Rehbar Council, Allama Abbas Kumaili from the Jafria Alliance and Mirza Yousuf Hussain from the All Shia Action Committee. Three Shia clerics, Maulana Aun Muhammad Naqvi, Allama Furqan Haider Abdi and Maulana Hassan Zafar Naqvi, three from the
Dawat-e-Islami Maulana Ilyas Qadri, Haji Emran Ataari and Ahmed Raza Ataari, who is a son of Maulana Ilyas Qadri have also been warned. Seven other Deobandi clerics Mufti Muhammad Naeem, Maulana Abdul Razzak, Justice (retd) Taqi Usmani, Mufti Rafi Usmani, Maulana Saleemullah Khan, Mufti Usman Yaar Khan and Mufti Noor-ul-Huda were also warned by the police.

Fatwa by Mufti Rafi Usmani and Mufti Muneeb-ul-Rehman in support of Aamir Liaquat Hussain and drity propaganda by the supporters of Taliban

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2008/10/fatwa-by-mufti-mufti-rafi-usmani.html

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5. Re: [SindhPost] Fw: ALTAF HUSSAIN KI HALAT-E-JIHAD
Posted by: "Mansoor Hallaj" tarot66@yahoo.com tarot66
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Late. Maulana Muhammada Manzoor Naimani was one of the founders of Jamat-e-Islami and one of the reason of his leaving Jamat-e-Islami [many giant Islamic Scholars left Jamat-e-Islami e.g. Maulana Waheeduddin Khan, Maulana Abul Hassan Nadvi, Ameen Ahsan Islahi, Maulana Masood Alam Nadvi, Naeem Siddiqui, Dr Israr Ahmed (he is mystrey like his name) and countless others] was the comrpomise of Late Maulana Mawdudi on Religion and Manhaj [Islam and Manhaj] for the sake of Electoral Politics.

Late. Maulana Muhammad Manzoor Naumani in his book Meri Rafaqat Ki Sargazasht - Maulana Madudoodi Kay Kay Sath Meray Shab O Roz [My Life with Maulana Mawdoodi] preface by Maulana Abul Hassan Ali Nadvi published in 1997 by Majlis-e-Nashariyat-e-Islam, Nazimabad, Karachi - Sindh Pakistan, while narrating as to why he quit Jamat-e-Islami, wrote, that in the name of Modus Operandi and Strategy [Tareeqa-e-Kaar and Hikmat-e-Amali] Maulana Mawdudi had compromised on many salient features of Islam like any other Secular Political Party. On this Maulana Naimani said Islam´s Basic Priniciples cannot be compromised for worldly benefit what to talk of Political Strategy and Maulana Mawududi´s wrong step would open the doors of Anarchy [Fitnah] in Pakistan.

Late. Maulana Naimani was quite right in his opinion on Maudoodi and Jamat-e-Islami. This has now been proved in 2008 when Jamat-e-Islami [whose name is based upon Islam] is now sitting with Qadir Magsi [Sindhi Nationalist], Mehmood Khan Achakzi [Pashtun Nationalist], Afaq Ahmed and Aamir Khan [Muhajir Nationalist], Hamid Gul [Reincarnation of Devil],

Whereas Jamat-e-Islami criticize PPP for being Secular, PML-N for being Opportunist, MQM for being Fascist and Ethnic Nationalist, Awami National Party for being Ethnic Nationalist and what not. Deviant [Gumrah - Kharji] Mawdudi and Deviant [Gumrah
Aur Khawarij] Jamat-e-Islami and its equally Deviant

Student Wing IJT main theme is taken from the following verses of Quran:

1- And there may spring from you a nation who invite to goodness, and enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency. Such are they who are successful. [The Family of Imran - III (Soorah Aal-e-Imran) Verse 104]

2- Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allah. And if the People of Scripture had believed it had been better for them. Some of them are believers; but most of them are evil livers {The Family of `Imran- III (Soora Al-Imran) Verse 110}.

3- They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do! {The Table Spread - V (Soora Al-Maida) Verse 79).

But instead of preaching the above mentioned verses of Quran to those who are the allies of Jamat-e-Islami in APDM by adopting the below mentioned verse of Quran. The Jamat Islami is conspiring to disturb the peace in the country.

Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright. [AN-NAHL (THE BEE) Chapter 16 - Verse 125]

WHY JAMAT-E-ISLAMI IS UN-ISLAMIC:

Instead of advising the Ethnic Parties in APDM to shun their Ethnic Politics in APDM the Jamat-e-Islami is promoting Ethnic Politics of Mohajir Qaumi Movement of
Afaq Ahmed [an offshoot of MQM Altaf Group]:

Efforts to end Aamir-Afaq rivalry fail By Mazhar Tufail Sunday, April 20, 2008

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=14216

ISLAMABAD: Efforts for a truce between two senior leaders of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqiqi) - Aamir Khan and Afaq Ahmed - failed to materialise, `The News´ learnt here on Saturday. Younas Khan, a former member of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the MQM-Haqiqi who is currently settled in Islamabad, confirmed to The News that some important quarters made frantic efforts for settlement between Aamir and Afaq but they failed.

He said efforts were also made on many occasions in the past to bring the two senior MQM-Haqiqi leaders to terms. "Currently, hundreds of our workers are living in different parts of the country like refugees and they are waiting for a congenial atmosphere
in Karachi to return to their homes," he said. The News also learnt that the top leadership of the MQM-Haqiqi approached Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed but no formal meeting could be held because the Jamaat chief was away from Islamabad.

When contacted by The News, Jamaat Central Secretary Information Ameer-ul-Azeem confirmed that some leaders of the MQM-Haqiqi wished to meet Qazi Hussain Ahmed
and this contact was part of efforts for a rapprochement between the top Haqiqi leaders.
Some important quarters, who had a key role in Karachi in the past, have expressed that if no settlement between Aamir Khan and Afaq Ahmed is reached, peace in Karachi will be difficult to achieve. Whereas, they believe, in case of a truce between the two MQM-Haqiqi
leaders, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement might face numerous problems.

JAMAT-E-ISLAMI IS PROMOTING ETHNIC POLITICS WHICH IS NOT ALLOWED IN ISLAM:

Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: "And whosoever fights under a blind (rayah) pannier (it is not known whether this flag represents the truth or falsehood), gets angry along with his group of people, or calls to a group of people, or supports a group of people, and is subsequently killed because of that, then this killing is a jahili (sinful) killing." [Muslim]
Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: And whosoever is killed under a blind (rayah) flag, gets angry along with his group of people, and fights for the sake of his group of people, then he is not from my ummah." [Muslim]

In both narrations, there is a strong warning from the prophet (S.A.W.) to the one who is triggered by asabiyyah to call for it, or to get angry for it, or to support it. In the first narration, it clarifies to us that if he gets killed because of asabiyyah, then his killing is a jahili (sinful) killing. In the second narration, the prophet (S.A.W.) excludes the one who carries asabiyyah from his ummah. Both of these warnings indicate how serious and great the sin of asabiyyah is.

Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: "He is not of us if he calls to asabiyyah, and he is not one of us if he fights for the sake of asabiyyah, and not one of us if he dies on asabiyyah." [Sunan Abu Dawood]

Also when two men one from Muhajireen and one from Ansaar differed, each one called to his group for help, so each group got ready to support their man, then the Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: "What is this? Are you calling the call of the people of Jahiliyyah? Leave it, for surely it is filthy." [Muslim]

Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: "Whosoever supports his group of people not on the truth, he is like a camel that fell from a high peak into a deep valley where it only could move its tail." [Sunan Abu Dawood]

Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] gave the example of the one who fights wrongfully for the sake of his group of people with the camel that fell from a high peak into a deep valley; it is helpless, scolded, humiliated, and can not do anything except move its tail uselessly at the bottom of the valley. [Sunan Abu Dawood]

Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said: "Allah (S.W.T.) took away the asabiyyah of jahiliyyah from you, and your boasting about your fathers. So, man is either a righteous believer or a corrupted non-believer. You are the children of Adam, and Adam is from dirt; let men quit their boasting of their own people, they are nothing but coal from the coal of Hell or they will be more humiliated in the sight of Allah more than the dung beetle that pushes dung with its nose." [Sunan Abu Dawood]

http://360.yahoo.com/tarot66

--- On Sat, 4/25/09, K H U R R A M <k_pk2000@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: K H U R R A M <k_pk2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: [SindhPost] Fw: ALTAF HUSSAIN KI HALAT-E-JIHAD - ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½
To: pakistan-zindabad@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 10:27 PM

--- On Fri, 4/24/09, Razi Khan <as.razikhan@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Razi Khan <as.razikhan@gmail.com>
Subject: [MQM-Realface] ALTAF HUSSAIN KI HALAT-E-JIHAD - Ø§Ù„Ø·Ø§Ù� ØØ³ÛŒÙ† Ú©ÛŒ ØØ§Ù„Øª Ø¬Û�Ø§Ø¯ [1 Attachment]
To: as.razikhan@gmail.com
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009, 10:04 AM

Ø§Ù„Ø·Ø§Ù� ØØ³ÛŒÙ† Ú©ÛŒ ØØ§Ù„Øª Ø¬Û�Ø§Ø¯

REF.: DAILY EXPRESS, 20/04/2009, THIRD COLUM

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6. The READER in the Shadow of HOLOCAUST, Kate Winslet and Bengal Inte
Posted by: "palashc biswas" palashcbiswas@yahoo.co.uk palashcbiswas
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

The READER in the Shadow of HOLOCAUST, Kate Winslet and Bengal Intelligentsia`s APPEAL for CHANGE

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 214

Palash Biswas

the nazi holocaust holocaust concentration camps holocaust death camps

Like the characters of the Hollywood Film The READER, we the people of South Asia, irrespective of Race, Caste, Religion, Clan and Nationality, have not come over the HOLOCAUST of Partition till this date. Generation after generation, we are PREDESTINED to live and die in the SHADOW of the HOLOCAUST never passing away, completely DEGENERATED! Completely SEGREGATED. We are predestined to live in Infinite Concentration Camps, Gas chambers and Death chambers while the WAR Criminals rule us with the INFAMOUS GESTAPO!
My friends often complain that I tend to be NON Academic and like the Ambedkarites and Maoists, I sound so LOUD, so EXTREMIST. Even the little mags as well as literary field and Journalistic ARENA DESPISE most!
But I may not help it.
This morning, my son steve was browsing TV Channels and discussing the SRILANKAN Crisis with an outlook comon in the Generation Next. They believe in the Official Information flow most ans immerse themselve into Virtual Reality.
I just could not help myself to say, `Look on the Tamil refugees, you may get your Grand father somewhere. Our people have been stranded in the GEOPOLITICS wide WAR ZONE suffered as the Tamils suffer in Srilanka. Our Women were Unsafe, Captured, converted and raped in lacs, Children STARVED in lacs and the People Died in lacs´!
Even this day, we are the Most DESETTLED people as a Nationwide Deportation Drive is launched by the ADWANI PRANAB BUDDHA AXIS! We have been DEPRIVED of CITIZENSHIP and we may IDENTIFY with the PALESTINE PEOPLE living in the CONTINUITY of HOLOCAUST!
Snadip Panday,the famous social activist, has written a STUNNING report in his news letter SACHHI MUCHHI that TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY EIGHT Families belonging to Eleven Districts around lucknow, living in a SLUM, near the river GOMATI, had been ousted as they are BRANDED as BANGLADESHI although non of them happens to be Bengali speaking! amongst these POOR People eighty Five families came from the adjoining district HARDOI where SANDIP and ARUNDHUTI are based! The DUO could not help them!
The URBAN SLUM DWELLERS, the SLUM DOGS are now being treated as SLUM DOGS!
I have been insisting in Interactions with FRIENDS all over the COUNTRY that this BLOODY CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT and the TWIN TERROR Acts as well as AFPSA would soon break the limits of regions and Communities as these are going to be the BEST TOOOLS for EVICTION, DISPLACEMENT, DEPORTATION, PROMOTER BUILDER MNC RAJ and MANUSMRITI APARTHEID Rule. I had been correct, I always knew. But our friends, specially Social Activists, Intellectuals and Journalists had always been DETACHED as the VICTIMS were only the MUSLIMS, BENGALI DALIT Refugees and the ALIENATEd North East and kashmir People for whom the HOLOCAUST continues and the War Criminals are never tried!
The Crimininal executing all MASSACRES in West Bengal, GUJARAT, MUMBAI or elesewhere have never been TRIED as the NAZIES and FASCISTS had been. if tried, they got CLEAN CHIT!
No body even demanded JUSTICE for MARICHJHANPI Genocide!
The so called Mainstream, the CIVIL Society, the Intellegentsia or the Media have no SYMPATHY whatsoever for us the SLUM DOGS and the partition Victims still suffereing from the Partition holocaust!
Recent reports show that the the RESETTLED BENGALI Refugges in Dandakaranya are being BRANDED as MAOIST. Hitherto they were BRANDED as ILLEGAL BANGLADESHI INFILTERATORS! Where this DUAL IDENTITY would leave our people too, unfortunately this depends on the TRIIBLIS SATANIC Axis irrespective of ELECTORAL GOVERNMENT.
No POLITICAL Change may help us to RECOVER from the LONGEST POSSIBLE shadow of the HOLOCAUST!
The BENGALI INTELLIGENTSIA has signed a JOINT Statement APPEALING CHANGE in Bengal! the SIGNATORIES are:
Mahashweta Debi, TARUN SANYAL, Jaya Mitra, Sabyasachi Deb, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Amelendu Chakrabarti, Chaitali Chattopadhyaya, Partha PRATIM Kanzilal, Prasun Bhowmik,SOMON Mukhopaddhaya, Shyamal Bhattacharya, Aneek RUDRA, Sanjukta Bandopaddhyay, Anuradha Mahapatra, Abhijit Sengupta, Shambhu Rakshit, Jashodhara Roychowdhari, Abheek Majumdar, Shibasheesh Mukhopaddhyaya, Shubhro Chattopaddhyaya, Swati Chakrabarti, Shantanu Bandopaddhyaya, Sujoy SOME, Atanu Bannerjee, Subir Sarkar, Debashish Kundu, JOY GOSWAMI, Amal Dutt, Debbrato Bandopaddhyaya, SUNANDA SANYAL, Bolan Gangopaddhyaya, Rushit Sen, Kalyan Rudra, NABO DUTT, Mainak Biswas, Dr. Debpriya Mallik, Amiyo Chowdhari, Amiyo Dhar, Dilip Chakrabarti,Amitabh Chowdhari (Shri NIRAPEKSHA), APARNA SEN, Alokananda ROY, Manasi Sanyal, Bidipta Chakrabarti,BIRSA Dasgupta, SUMAN bandopaddhyaya, INDRANEEL Roychowdhari, RAJA MITRA, Raja Dasgupta, BIBHAS CHAKRABARTI, Kaushik Sen, Shayamal Chakrabarti, Manish Mitra,
SUMON MUKHOPADDHYAYA, Gautam Mukhopaddhyaya, SOHINI Sengupta, Debashish Sengupta, Kakoli majumdar, Arpita Ghosh, BRATYA BASU, SHAONLI MITRA, SHUBHOPRASANNA, Shipra Bhattacharya, Samir AICH, Hiran Mitra, Sanatan Dinda, Chanchal Mukherjee, Arup Das, Amit Chakrabarti, SHAIBAL Mitra, Samiran Majumdar, Apu dasgupta, Dipankar Dutt, Asit Poddar, pradosh Pal, Shyamal Gaain, Aleek Das, Sujit Das, Abhijit Mitra, Dilip Samanta, Shantanu Dutt, Chayan Roy, Nikhil Bhowmik, Atish Pal, Rajshekhar Aich, Vijoy Chowdhari, GANESH HALUI,JOGEN CHOWDHAURI, MAMATA SHANKAR, Chandrodaya Ghosh, Sunetra Ghatak, SUPRIYO SEN, Vidyarthi Chatterjee, chtralekha Ghosh, Someshwar Bhowmik, Sumita samanta, Nilanjan Bhattacharya, Ranoo Ghosh, Pramod Gupta, Anamika Bandopaddhaya,Chiranjib Pal,Indrajeet das, Rajshree Mukhopaddhyaya, Gautam Chakrabarti, Barun Moitra, Ashim Chowdhari,, Partha burman, Nilotpal majumdar, DEVLEENA, Shaibal Bandopaddhyaya, Joy Basu, naveenand Sen,Ladlee
Mukhopaddhaya, ANANYA CHATTOPADDHYAYA, Pratul Mukhopaddhaya, Anindo Chattopaddhyaya, Tapan Sinha, Asim GIRI, Amit Roy, Keya Chattopaddhyaya, sanhita Bandopaddhayaya, PALLAB KIRTONIA and NACHIKETA!
Well, we suppot this CALL just to have at least a DEMOCRAT FREE Environment in West Bengal to mobilise any SOCIAL Mobilisation for the LIBERATION of ABORIGINAL INDIGENOUS Minority Communities!
But the fact remain that none of these CELEBRATES would support our demands for EQUALITY, Liberty, OPPORTUNITY, EMPOWERMENT, JOB, Livelihood, Citizenship, Human and civil Rights and JUSTICE, an RESERVATION! They would never help us to recover from the Geopolitics WIDE Continuity of HOLOCAUST SHADOW!
They would not stand with us while we are DEPORTED! Massacred! DISCRIMINATED!
None of them have demanded JUSTICE for MARICHJHANPI Ethnic Cleansing for long Thirty years! They have not arranged any MASS CONVENTION on MARICHJHANPI!
They have never DEMANDED to stop the DEPORTATION, PERSECUTION and KILLING of DALIT REFUGEES all over INDIA!
What so?
We stand united with them as we want the ECZEMA must go!
We want to get RID of the HOLOCAUST SHADOW for GENERATION Next!
"The Reader" is a scrupulously tasteful - more on that word tasteful later - film about an erotic affair that turns to love. It is also, more obliquely, about the Holocaust and the generation of Germans who came of age after that catastrophe.
Directed by Stephen Daldry; written by David Hare, based on the book by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Carol Brown Janeway; directors of photography, Chris Menges and Roger Deakins; edited by Claire Simpson; music by Nico Muhly; production designer, Brigitte Broch; produced by Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris; released by the Weinstein Company. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes.

WITH: Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz), Ralph Fiennes (Michael Berg), David Kross (Young Michael Berg), Lena Olin (Rose Mather/Ilana Mather) and Bruno Ganz (Professor Rohl).
The Guardian writes:
Much praise has been given to this adaptation by screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry of Bernhard Schlink's 1995 novel Der Vorleser, or The Reader - the German title has the sense of "reader-aloud". Everyone involved in this film is of the highest possible calibre, but their combined and formidable talents could not annul my queasiness that the question of Nazi war guilt and the death camps had been reimagined in terms of a middlebrow sentimental-erotic fantasy. This was, I admit, a problem I had with the original novel, and the movie treatment has not alleviated it. Its full, questionable nature emerges as the narrative unfolds; those fearful of spoilerism had better look away now.
The Reader Release: 2008 Countries: Rest of the world, USA Cert (UK): 15 Runtime: 123 mins Directors: Stephen Daldry Cast: David Kross, Jeanette Hain, Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Susanne Lothar More on this film Kate Winslet gives a typically intelligent performance as Hanna, a sturdy, unprepossessing woman in a provincial town in 1950s West Germany; she is employed as a tram conductor. One rainy day, she chances upon Michael (David Kross), a teenage boy shivering, throwing up and almost delirious with undiagnosed fever in the courtyard of her apartment building. With brisk and motherly can-do, she mops his brow, sloshes away the sick with a bucket of water and makes sure he gets home all right. Some months later, after a lonely recuperation, he comes back to her flat with a bunch of flowers to say thank you. They end up having a glorious affair, and their passionate lovemaking is accompanied with a ritual hardly less erotic - she loves him to read
aloud to her from the classics: Chekhov, Homer, Rilke.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/02/the-reader-kate-winslet-film

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels announced a unilateral cease-fire Sunday, saying they will halt fighting to allow humanitarian workers into the war zone to help civilians.
The Sri Lankan government immediately rejected the offer. Sri Lanka is expressing appreciation for the offer of a humanitarian mission from the United Nations. But the government denies the international aid community's assertion there is a humanitarian crisis. No one, however, disputes that many civilians remain trapped on the small piece of land in the northeast where the rebel Tamil Tigers are putting up a desperate last stand.Sri Lanka's government and military say they are doing their utmost to minimize civilian casualties after cornering the remnants of the rebel force that once controlled a large swath of the north. The rebels appear on the verge of total defeat after a quarter-century violent quest to create an independent ethnic Tamil homeland.

Rebels in Sri Lanka claim some 150,000 people are on the brink of starvation in the territory held by the Tamil Tigers in the northeast. The Sri Lankan government says the rebels are to blame for the plight of the civilians in the remaining area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The accusations come amid rising international concern over mass civilian suffering in the dwindling war zone.
On the other hand, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made an unannounced trip to Lebanon ahead of critical legislative elections there that could result in hard-line militants taking power.Clinton was scheduled to meet Sunday with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman during her brief stay in the capital, Beirut.In a written statement distributed to reporters, Clinton said the people of Lebanon must be able to choose their own representatives in open and fair elections, without the threat of intimidation or violence, and free of outside influence.
Former U.S. Iraq commander General David Petraeus said the latest bombings in Iraq underscore the need for vigilance to prevent the situation from deteriorating.Attacks by suicide bombers that have killed at least 140 people in the last two days, 185 so far in April, have caused renewed concern in the U.S. Congress, where General Petraeus testified to a House committee.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called on Pakistani leaders to do more to fight the Taliban, which he called a threat to the existence of democracy in the country. Speaking at a Marine Corps base in North Carolina Thursday, Gates also discussed the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.Secretary Gates was asked about the impact on the U.S. effort in Afghanistan of the Pakistani government's agreement with militants in the Swat Valley and the Taliban move into the Buner district near the nation's capital, Islamabad, this week.
"My hope is that there will be an increasing recognition on the part of the Pakistani government that the Taliban in Pakistan are in fact an existential threat to the democratic government of that country," said Robert Gates. "I think that some of the leaders certainly understand that, but it is important that they not only recognize it but take the appropriate actions to deal with it."
Gates' comments came the day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused the Pakistani government of abdicating its authority to the Taliban by agreeing to impose Islamic law in Swat. Gates indicated that future U.S. relations with Pakistan depend, at least in part, on the government's ability to take on the Taliban threat.
The Reader(Cert 15)

Philip French The Observer, Sunday 4 January 2009 Article historyThe Reader is an exemplary piece of filmmaking, superbly acted by Kate Winslet, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes, beautifully lit by two of Britain's finest cinematographers (Roger Deakins and Chris Menges) and sensitively directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare. In certain ways they sharpen Bernard Schlink's bestselling German novel of 1995 which deals with a subject - Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust - that has hung over my generation since the outbreak of war in 1939, days after my sixth birthday.
The Reader Release: 2008 Countries: Rest of the world, USA Cert (UK): 15 Runtime: 123 mins Directors: Stephen Daldry Cast: David Kross, Jeanette Hain, Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Susanne Lothar More on this film In 1940, we were made aware of the camps satirically by Chaplin's The Great Dictator, and sombrely by the Boulting brothers' film about the incarceration of the anti-Nazi cleric Martin Niemöller, Pastor Hall. Five years later newsreel from Belsen and Buchenwald showed us what went on inside those camps.
Since then, there has been an unending stream of Holocaust movies (nearly 300 are dealt with in the third edition of Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, Annette Insdorf's standard work on the subject), ranging in character and quality from scrupulous documentaries like Claude Lanzmann's Shoah and Alain Resnais's Night and Fog to, for me personally, the two most offensive, Liliana Cavani's near-pornographic The Night Porter and Roberto Benigni's sickly Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/04/the-reader-review
Review: The Reader
by Jette Kernion Dec 12th 2008 // 3:02PM
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Theatrical Reviews, The Weinstein Co.
Opening in limited release this week with a wider release planned for January, The Reader has "prestigious arthouse drama" written all over it. It's an adaptation of a critically acclaimed German novel by Bernhard Schlink, but translated into English for wider appeal, and features a big dramatic performance from Kate Winslet in which we see her character over the span of decades. It's directed by Stephen Daldry and adapted by David Hare, who collaborated on another prestigious adaptation together, The Hours in 2002. This time, their movie explores German relationships that are affected, even decades later, by the Holocaust.
The movie is told as a flashback from the point of view of a middle-aged lawyer in Berlin, Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes). Back in the late 1950s, 15-year-old Michael (David Kross) falls ill on the way home from school one day, and is comforted and helped by a strange woman (Winslet). When he recuperates and returns to her home to thank her, a sexual spark flares up between them into an inappropriate but sympathetic relationship. They meet every afternoon, not just for sex but for reading -- he starts by reading her the books assigned to him for school, but ends up finding all manner of literature for them to share. However, Hanna is full of secrets -- she is even reluctant to tell Michael her name -- and the effects of her past and her secret-keeping are long-reaching and dramatic.
The structure of The Reader is rambling and hard to follow -- you think the movie is drawing to a close, and then you get 15 minutes more, making me feel impatient near the end of the two-hour film, as though there were too many endings. (I had the same problem with Changeling.) The frequent shifts in time -- Michael in the present time of the film (1995), an extended chunk of the film during his teen years, another long flashback as a young man, and then shorter sequences that skip three years here and five there. The narrative arc isn't quite clear enough for the movie to shift in this way without a slight sense of disorientation. It may be that the decision to keep the novel's narrative structure impacted the film -- I haven't read it, but descriptions seem to indicate that the movie is fairly faithful to the events in the book.
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/12/12/review-the-reader/
The Reader (Der Vorleser) is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States (translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway) in 1997. It deals with the difficulties which subsequent generations have in comprehending the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media. This question is increasingly at the center of Holocaust literature in the late 20th and early 21st century, as the victims and witnesses of the Holocaust die and its living memory begins to fade.
Schlink's book was well received in his native country, and also in the United States, winning several awards. The novel was a departure from Schlink's usual detective novels. It became the first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list, and US television mogul Oprah Winfrey made it a selection of her book club in 1999. It has been translated into 37 languages and been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature and German language and German literature. A 2008 film adaptation directed by Stephen Daldry was well received.
The Reader is a 2008 drama film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The film adaptation was written by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry. Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star along with the young actor David Kross. It was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom died before it was released. Production began in Germany in September 2007, and the film opened in limited release on 10 December 2008.

Meanwhile,Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa dismissed the rebel group's announcement, saying the rebels are "running from" government forces and in a position where they are cornered and "must surrender."
U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss told VOA the situation in Sri Lanka is the "toughest humanitarian crisis in the world at the moment."
The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, John Holmes, is in Sri Lanka meeting with officials in Colombo. He is urging leaders to let aid workers take badly needed supplies to the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the small strip of land still under rebel control in the northeast of the island.
The Tamil Tigers accuse the government of blocking food deliveries to the area under rebel control, and they say the civilians there are facing starvation.

Lakashman Hulugalle, director general, Media Center for National Security, points to location on map of remaining LTTE rebel-held territory
A Sri Lankan Defense Ministry spokesman Lakshman Hullugalle says the rebels are to blame, saying they have been stealing any aid the government has sent for civilians.
The spokesman estimated that between 200 to 300 rebel combatants remain in the war zone, and he said they could be vanquished instantly if not for the precautions government forces are taking to minimize civilian casualties.
The U.S. State Department has renewed its call for a cease-fire in the war zone, saying the safety of civilians and respecting international humanitarian law must be the foremost priority of both sides in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's ruling party won an overwhelming majority in a local election. The win announced Sunday is seen as an endorsement of military victories against the separatist Tamil Tigers.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Freedom Alliance won 68 seats in the council of Western Province, which includes the capital, leaving 36 seats in the hands of opposition parties.

posting on a pro-rebel Web site, attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, claims 150,000 civilians are on the brink of starvation.
Sri Lanka's government says the civilians - it puts the number at no more than 10,000 - are hostages of the rebels, who claim the military is blocking desperately needed food.
The head of the Defense Ministry's media center, Lakshman Hulugalle, tells VOA News it is the Tigers who are to blame for anyone starving on the northeastern coast.

Lakashman Hulugalle, director general, Media Center for National Security, points to location on map of remaining LTTE rebel-held territory
"What we have sent to those areas is not being distributed to the innocent people. It's been robbed by LTTE. This is the only government in the world feeding terrorists and fighting against terrorists," he said.
A United Nations spokesman tells VOA the world body has "no information about government food going in" recently to the affected area. It says at least 50,000 people are trapped by the fighting.
The Tamil Tigers have seen their territory shaved down to less than eight square kilometers amid a final offensive by the military.
Defense spokesman Hulugalle says the rebel remnants - he estimates at 200 to 300 combatants - could be instantly vanquished if not for the precautions government forces are taking to minimize civilian casualties.
"For the Sri Lanka government and for the forces it's a matter of a few hours. If not for these innocent Tamils we should have crushed LTTE within hours," he said.
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, is to meet Sunday here with government officials. The United Nations says he will push for enhanced humanitarian missions in and around the conflict zone where access to the tens of thousands of displaced people is very limited.
The White House, in a statement, is calling on both sides to immediately cease fighting and allow civilians to exit the conflict area. It says aid organizations and journalists should have access to those refugees who have already escaped.

Film Reviews
Film Review: The Reader
By Kirk Honeycutt, November 30, 2008 11:00 ET
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Cast and CrewOpens: December 10, 2008
Executive Producer: Bob Weinstein
Executive Producer: Harvey Weinstein
Co-Executive Prod.: Jason Blum
Producer: Sydney Pollack
Producer: Scott Rudin
Producer: Redmond Morris
Producer: Anthony Minghella
Co-producer: Henning Molfenter
Co-producer: Charlie Woebcken
Associate producer: Michael Simon de Normier
Director: Stephen Daldry
Screen Writer: David Hare
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Director of Photography: Chris Menges
Editor: Claire Simpson
Line Producer: Arno Neubauer
Prod. Designer: Brigitte Broch
Art Director: Christian M. Goldbeck
Art Director: Erwin Prib
Set Decorator: Eva Stiebler
Costume Designer: Donna Maloney
Music: Nico Muhly
Casting director: Simone Bar
Casting director: Jina Jay
Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Michael Berg), Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz), Karoline Herfurth (Marthe), Bruno Ganz (Professor Rohl), Hannah Herzsprung (Julia), Jeanette Hain (Brigitte), Susanne Lothar (Carla Berg), Alissa Wilms (Emily Berg), Florian Bartholomai (Thomas Berg), Friederike Becht (Angela Berg), Matthias Habich (Peter Berg)
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Box Office:
Week of 04/19/2009
Pos.: 38 Gross: $55,229 Bottom Line: A love affair between a younger man and an older woman sharply reflects the conflicts between Germany's war and postwar generations
During the making of "The Reader," producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella passed away. This last film is a testament to the kind of productions each was associated with in his career -- films of entertainment, often with stars, that also reach out in terms of situations, themes and settings to embrace larger issues that confront society.
"The Reader" is a well-told coming-of-age yarn about a young boy growing up in postwar West Germany and experiencing his first love affair. But the outreach is to an issue crucial in that country but also genuinely disturbing to any viewer. This is the troubling dilemma of Germany's so-called "second generation," which had to come to terms with the Nazi era and a Holocaust perpetuated by parents, teachers and even lovers.
Certainly "The Reader," for all its erotic scenes involving Kate Winslet, presents a difficult marketing challenge. The lively, nonlinear structure imposed by screenwriter David Hare and tight, focused direction from Stephen Daldry make this an engaging period drama. But German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject matter for the holiday season. The film opens Dec. 10, expands Christmas Day and goes national Jan. 9.
"The Reader," based on Bernhard Schlink's controversial German novel, deliberately places a Holocaust perpetrator at the story's focal point. But since we first meet her in an entirely different light, as a kind, loving and passionate woman, it explores the challenges of this second generation in navigating a welter of deeply psychological and morally complex issues.
The film opens in 1995 Berlin, where Ralph Fiennes plays aloof, emotionally numb attorney Michael Berg. We're swiftly conveyed back to 1958, when his younger self (very well played by David Kross) has a chance encounter that will forever affect him. Coming down with what he later learns is scarlet fever, he is helped home by a stranger, Hanna (Winslet). Upon recovering, he looks her up to thank her and is startled to find himself losing his virginity to her. They embark on an affair with its own kind of feverish urgency.
As part of their bedroom rituals, he starts to read to her from books by Mark Twain, Homer and Anton Chekhov. She calls him "Kid" and clearly an "oldness" afflicts her beyond her years. Yet there is a kind of role reversal in his reading to her that allows him to expose her to worlds she never knew.
Then she disappears. Eight years later, as Michael attends a war crimes trial as a law student in Heidelberg, she makes a startling reappearance as a defendant. Michael is shaken to his core by growing evidence that his first love is, by any standard, a monster. But how does one deal with a monster who is a lover? One can only condemn her; but in that condemnation, where lies the process of understanding?
The film makes no attempt to answer this question if indeed there is an answer. There is an explanation, not immediately apparent, for why Hanna found herself in a position to dictate life or death. But there is neither an excuse nor an offer of atonement ready for her.
Neither Hare nor Daldry shows us any easy way to look at this character. They muddy the waters and complicate the emotions, but the facts of her actions smother any possible empathy.
What remains unclear, in the film at least, is why Michael has seemingly never thought about any of this before 1966. Did he never question his father -- depicted here as a stern, unsympathetic man -- about what he did during the war?
To Winslet and Kross belong the gutsy, intense performances of the film. Lena Olin as a unyielding camp survivor and Bruno Ganz as a sagacious law professor put in memorable appearances. Fiennes is solid as the elder Berg, but by this stage of life the "oldness" Hanna once exhibited has caught up with him too, making his a somewhat listless role.
Superior production work in Germany by top professionals led by two of the world's finest cinematographers in Chris Menges and Roger Deakins gives what is a very tough story a fine professional polish.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/film-review-the-reader-1003917714.story

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nandigramunited: CHANGE WANTED! PARIBARTON CHAAI!Face of the ...
The SLOGAN is PARIBARTAN CHAAI! Change wanted in Bengal! The Cream of West Bengal Intelligentsia, the CULTURAL ICONS, which turned away from CPM, ...
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The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Metro | Mamata turns brand ... - 22 Apr
Sample 3: "The same Left government that had tried to prevent computerisation later introduced computers because the people of Bengal wanted change. ...
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    1. The Reader (2008)
Press conference with the cast of The Reader during the 2009 Berlin Film .... Discuss this title with other users on IMDb message board for The Reader (2008 ...
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    2. The Reader (2008) - Plot summary
THE READER opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is ... THE READER is a story about truth and reconciliation, about how one ...
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    3. The Reader - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reader (Der Vorleser) is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States ...
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    4. The Reader (2008 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reader is a 2008 drama film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The film adaptation was written by David Hare and ...
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    5. YouTube - "The Reader" - Trailer
Kate Winslet winning Best Actress for "The Reader" ... DER VORLESER - Deutscher Trailer / THE READER - German Trailer ...
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    6. Senterfold: The Reader Review Champions
18 Mar 2009 ... The only reason I'm responsing this late to The Reader Review Challenge is primarily because it took ages to sift through all your entries, ...
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    7. reader-list Info Page
The Reader List partly serves as a platform to create a lively community that discusses and debates key issues in new & old media practice and theory and ...
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    8. The Reader: Better Off Than The Viewer | DearCinema: World Cinema ...
The Reader could have been an intriguing film. But every intrigue demands that it be sufficiently resolved before the end. The film prompts you to ask many ...
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    9. The Reader
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    10. The Reader is not that engaging
6 Mar 2009 ... Despite the Oscar-winning performance of Kate Winslet, The Reader is still a movie that can best be summarised as 'when bad movies happen to ...
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Maoist gunned down village head in Malkangiri
odishatoday.com -Â â€ŽApr 24, 2009â€Ž
By our Correspondent Kalimela (Orissa): The suspected Maoists have gunned down a village head of Palkhonda village of Skikhpali Panchayat under Malkangiri ...
Village head killed by Naxalites in Malkangiri of Orissa Orissadiary.com
Maoists kill village head The Statesman
Rebels kill rural chief Calcutta Telegraph
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odishatoday.com
EVMs snatched in Malkangiri
Hindu -Â â€ŽApr 16, 2009â€Ž
Although tight security arrangements were made in the naxalite zones, several incidents were reported from Malkangiri. The Maoists snatched away the ...
Low turnout likely in panic-stricken Malkangiri Times of India
Maoist threat results lowest polling in Malkangiri of Orissa Orissadiary.com
Kandhamal, Malkangiri too vote for peace Express Buzz
SamayLive - BreakingNewsOnline.
and more »
Re-polling in 17 booths after April 28 in Malkangiri
odishatoday.com -Â â€ŽApr 22, 2009â€Ž
By our Correspondent Malkangiri (Orissa): Re-polling in 17 booths of the leftwing insurgency hit Orissa's Malkangiri district will be held after April 28 in ...

Orissadiary.com
Maoists kill candidate in Malkangiri
Hindu -Â â€ŽApr 9, 2009â€Ž
BERHAMPUR: Maoists struck in Orissa's Malkangiri district on Thursday, killing Somnath Madkami (55), a candidate of the regional `Samruddha Odisha' party ...
Poll candidates of Malkangiri bear Maoist menace Sakaal Times
Samruddha Odisha candidate killed in Malkangiri KalingaTimes
Candidate killed in Malkangiri Express Buzz
BreakingNewsOnline. - Times of India
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Naxals bare their fangs in Malkangiri and Kandhamal
Hindu -Â â€ŽApr 4, 2009â€Ž
On Saturday afternoon suspected armed Maoists looted around Rs. 99 lakh from a vehicle of a bank near Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district. ...
Maoists blow up cellphone towers in Orissa Times of India
Suspected Maoists loot nearly Express Buzz
Maoists loot Rs 99 lakh from State Bank staff KalingaTimes
Hindu Business Line
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Cops, Maoists battle it out in Malkangiri
Times of India -Â â€ŽApr 6, 2009â€Ž
KORAPUT: Police said around 200 rounds of gun-fire were exchanged between security personnel and Maoists in a forest in Malkangiri district on Monday. ...
Heavy exchange of fire in Malkangiri odishatoday.com
Fake gun-battle between Maoists, Indian troops in Malkangiri Pakistan Daily Mail
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Orissa on boil at over 40 C; toll climbs to 40
SamayLive -Â â€Ž22 hours agoâ€Ž
Titlagarh recorded 43.2, Malkangiri 43.2 and Sambalpur 43.8. Though mercury dipped at many places in the desert state of Rajasthan, the intensity of ...
Orissa CEO recommends repoll in nine polling stations
Hindu -Â â€Ž3 hours agoâ€Ž
Though elections could not be in nearly two dozen of booths in Malkangiri and Koraput districts under Koraput and Nawarangpur parliamentary constituencies ...

odishatoday.com
Orissa in grip of searing heat, toll mounts to 39
SamayLive -Â â€ŽApr 24, 2009â€Ž
Maximum temperature in Malkangiri was 43.2 degrees, followed by 43 in Sambalpur, 42.6 in Hirakud, 42.5 in Sundargarh and 42.3 in Jharsuguda. ...
Heat Wave continues to play havoc in Orissa; 39 die in Sun Stroke BreakingNewsOnline.
all 9 news articles »
At least 16 poll officials abducted by Naxalites in Malkangiri
Orissadiary.com -Â â€ŽApr 17, 2009â€Ž
Report by Siba Prasad Das, Malkangiri : At least 16 poll officials abducted by the Naxalites on Thursday evening and taken away the EVM from tham , released ...
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Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil civilians who crossed into government controlled areas rest near war zone in Puthukudiyiruppu, 24 Apr 2009 Rebels in Sri Lanka claim some 150,000 people are on the brink of starvation in the territory held by the Tamil Tigers in the northeast. The Sri Lankan government says the rebels are to blame for the plight of the civilians in the remaining area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The accusations come amid rising international concern over mass civilian suffering in the dwindling war zone.

A posting on a pro-rebel Web site, attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, claims 150,000 civilians are on the brink of starvation.

Pakistani Forces Launch Offensive Against Taliban Militants
Military officials report intense fighting in Lower Dir district, and say scores of militants, including a militant commander, have been killed in the ongoing clashes

http://www.voanews.com/english/Asia.cfm

At a protest in New Delhi on Saturday, held to commemerate the 20th birth anniversary of The Panchen Lama. The Tibetan government-in-exile based at Dharamshala has sought the intervention of the UN Human Rights Council and asked the Chinese government to withdraw the case against the Tibetan monk Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, on trial in a Chinese court for allegedly possessing illegal arms. AFP

http://www.thestatesman.net/

    1. The Partition of India
The partition of India and its freedom from colonial rule set a precedent for nations such as Israel, which demanded a separate homeland because of the ...
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    2. The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest - Rs 795 : Buy Books ...
4 Dec 2006 ... Buy Books Online @ Book Store India: Online Bookstore:Electronic Cigarettes:Fedora:Debian:Linux Softwares The Holocaust of Indian Partition: ...
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    3. The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest
From the JacketThe Partition of India was a traumatic event. Apart from destroying the unity of India, the two-nation theory created a divide between the ...
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    4. Manas: History and Politics, Partition of India Bibliography
Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998. Nandy, Ashis. "The Invisible Holocaust and the Journey as an Exodus. ...
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    5. Partition of India
he partition of India in 1947 brought forth many woes; the holocaust of carnage, loot, murder and rape; the painful birth of a new nation, ...
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    6. The Telegraph - Calcutta : Opinion
Some writers have described Partition as India's Holocaust. I would not go so far - for Hitler's extermination of the Jews was a far more focussed act of ...
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    7. The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest
The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest. By Madhav Godbole. The Partition of India was a traumatic event. Apart form destroying the unity of India, ...
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    8. The Holocaust Of Indian Partition by Madhav Godbole
The Holocaust Of Indian Partition, Madhav Godbole, $48.2,reviews of The Holocaust Of Indian Partition Indiaclub.com guarantee, toll free support, NJ, USA.
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    10. The Partition of India and Pakistan
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    11. Book results for Partition of India holocaust
Remembering Partition: Violence Nationalism ... - by Gyanendra Pandey - 236 pages
The Partitions of Memory: The Afterlife of the ... - by Suvir Kaul - 294 pages
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The Reader (2008 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Reader

Promotional film poster
Directed byStephen Daldry
Produced byAnthony Minghella
Sydney Pollack
Scott Rudin (uncredited)
Written byDavid Hare
StarringKate Winslet
Ralph Fiennes
David Kross
Alexandra Maria Lara
Lena Olin
Bruno Ganz
Music byNico Muhly
CinematographyChris Menges
Roger Deakins
Editing byClaire Simpson
Distributed byThe Weinstein Company
Release date(s)December 10, 2008
Running time124 min.
CountryUSA , Germany , United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$32 million
The Reader is a 2008 drama film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The film adaptation was written by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry. Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star along with the young actor David Kross. It was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom died before it was released. Production began in Germany in September 2007, and the film opened in limited release on 10 December 2008.
It tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a personal secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past, a secret that - paradoxically enough - could help her at the trial.
Winslet and David Kross, who plays the young Michael, have received much praise for their performances. Winslet received praise and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 81st Academy Awards for her role in the film. The film has also been nominated for several other major awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reader_(film)

Kate Winslet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kate Winslet

Palm Springs Film Festival, 2007
BornKate Elizabeth Winslet
5 October 1975 (1975-10-05) (age 33)
Reading, Berkshire, England
OccupationActress/Singer
Years active1991-present
Spouse(s)Jim Threapleton (1998-2001)
Sam Mendes (2003-present)
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress and occasional singer. She is noted for having played diverse characters over her career, but probably best-known for her critically acclaimed performances as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sarah Pierce in Little Children, April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, and Hanna Schmitz in The Reader.
Winslet has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Reader. She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as well as being nominated for an Emmy. At the age of 22, she became the youngest actress to receive two Oscar nominations;[1] at age 33, she is now the youngest actor of either sex to receive six nominations. David Edelstein of New York Magazine hails her as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Winslet

Writing in blood: The Indo-Pak partition- Part III
Merinews -Â â€ŽApr 23, 2009â€Ž
Violence between India and Pakistan, did not end with the partition. Hindus and Bengali Muslims alike were massacred in the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. ...
All the Fuss about the "Settlers" of the Hilly Districts: Whose ...
Media Monitors Network -Â â€Ž16 hours agoâ€Ž
The territory became impassable and unlivable for most Bengali speaking people. They would be kidnapped, and often times killed, even when ransom money had ...
New Delhi's endgame?
Macleans.ca -Â â€ŽApr 23, 2009â€Ž
While it is quite likely that the RAW was active in East Pakistan, are we to believe that nearly 10 million refugees came to India just because RAW agents ...
My dilemma with Shashi Tharoor
Rediff -Â â€ŽApr 13, 2009â€Ž
Most gentlefolks in India (the equivalent of the Bengali bhadralok, or in the inimitable and entertaining vocabulary of the Communists, ...
Asean has failed to save Rohingyas
Aliran Monthly -Â â€ŽApr 15, 2009â€Ž
In India, some 450 people have been found by the local navy and are ready to be deported. The false classification of these genuine refugees unfortunately ...
Foreign hand in Balochistan chaos?
Saudi Gazette -Â â€ŽApr 14, 2009â€Ž
THE situation slightly eased when the 49-year-old head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Balochistan province, John Solecki, ...
Asia's New Boat People
Radio Free Asia -Â â€ŽApr 16, 2009â€Ž
The Rohingyas themselves say they are Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan traders, who migrated to Burma as early as the 7th century ...
North Arakan: an open prison for the Rohingya in Burma Media Monitors Network
Bali process failed to solve Rohingya boatpeople issue: AI Mizzima.com
and more »
New Year celebrations make a splash
CNN -Â â€ŽApr 16, 2009â€Ž
... Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and parts of India are ushering in their New Year. According to the traditional Bengali Calendar, ...
India: Christians and Muslims demand respect
Spero News -Â â€ŽApr 23, 2009â€Ž
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are trapped. The Catholic archbishop of Chennai denounced the international community for inattention to the ongoing ...
`If Lanka doesn't implement truce, snap diplomatic ties'
Express Buzz -Â â€ŽApr 18, 2009â€Ž
By Rasika Reddy India, that was India, invaded the erstwhile East Pakistan when there was a huge exodus of East Bengalis (mostly Muslims) when they could ...
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Tehran launches its custard pie strike
Times Online -Â â€Ž16 hours agoâ€Ž
As far as Israel is concerned, the true irony is that Ahmadinejad's speech was on the eve of its own Holocaust memorial day and also the 120th anniversary ...
Letter: Naive attempts at peace
Yale Daily News -Â â€ŽApr 21, 2009â€Ž
I write in the shadow of Holocaust Remembrance Day. I write in the shadow of operation Cast Lead. I write to remind us that as I once heard Shaul Mishal say ...
MONTGOMERY: Holocaust remembrance: `In the Shadow of Shoah'
Packet Online -Â â€ŽApr 20, 2009â€Ž
Ms. Wertheimer-Stanton will be signing her latest book, "Still Alive in the Shadow of Shoah," a memoir based on her life which includes her time spent in ...

Straits Times
Tragic history
Daily Gleaner -Â â€ŽApr 22, 2009â€Ž
... million Jews who perished in the Nazi holocaust. israeli leaders vowed that there wouldn't be a second holocaust, their pledges ringing in the shadow of ...
Video: Tattoos From Auschwitz Reunite Survivors The Associated Press
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Holocaust survivor ElieWiesel continues to write to bear witness ... Providence Journal
Bangor Daily News - Journal of Turkish Weekly
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Interrogation controversy casts long shadow on agenda
Washington Examiner -Â â€ŽApr 23, 2009â€Ž
Then he abruptly pivoted to other issues - Earth Day, Holocaust remembrance, credit card abuse and more. But others are not moving on, and the torture issue ...
This year's Yom Hashoa service looks at children in Holocaust
The Jewish Chronicle -Â â€ŽApr 22, 2009â€Ž
Last, they were torn from their families in the shadow of the gas chambers. Children had their own nightmarish experiences in the Holocaust, ...

New York Times
Lost in Bernie Madoff's Shadow
New York Times -Â â€ŽApr 11, 2009â€Ž
Elderly investors, widows, Holocaust victims, charities - the list of the injured seems endless. Anyone with a heart grieves for these people. ...
Book Notes: Holocaust Survivor and Louisvillian Fred Gross' Book ...
Jewish Community Federation of Louisville -Â â€ŽApr 22, 2009â€Ž
His shadow hovers over this narrative with the possibilities of what might have been. Valuable supplements to the story are a map of the journey created by ...

Times Online
Durban II, another opportunity missed
guardian.co.uk -Â â€ŽApr 24, 2009â€Ž
The dark shadow of Durban 2001 hung heavily: no one wanted a repeat of that awful event. It was clear that no governments wanted to stir up trouble. ...
Video: Durban II: UN meeting adopts final draft France 24
UK to attend UN anti-racism conference InTheNews.co.uk
Durban II: Thwarting Human rights for the sake of religion Afrik.com
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The Holocaust in a different way
Indiana Statesman -Â â€ŽApr 21, 2009â€Ž
Both parts of this novel are available at Cunningham Memorial Library, as well as another of Spiegelman's graphic novels, "In the Shadow of No Towers."
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    1. Bengal intelligentsia erupts in anger, sorrow
Kolkata, Mar 16: A day after the "Black Wednesday" of Nandigram, the famed Bengal intelligentsia, known to tread the Left path, is on a discordant note, ...
news.oneindia.in/2007/03/16/bengal-intelligentsia-erupts-in-anger-sorrow.html - Similar pages -
    2. Bengal intelligentsia anger, sorrow at Nandigram killings
Kolkata, Mar 16 (UNI) The famed Bengal intelligentsia, known to tread the Left path, today termed the Nandigram killin.
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    3. Imperialism and theatre: essays on world theatre, drama, and ... - Google Books Result
by J. Ellen Gainor - 1995 - Art - 264 pages
2 MISE-EN-(COLONIAL-) SCENE The Theatre of the Bengal Renaissance Sudipto Chatterjee You see before you, as it were on a stage, two actors, the Anglo-Saxon ...
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    4. BANGLAPEDIA: Intelligentsia
Paradoxically, the annulment of partition created the conditions for a major step forward in terms of the development of the Eastern Bengal intelligentsia: ...
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    6. Letter from Kolkata: Decadence of Bengali Intelligentsia ...
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    8. Bengali intelligentsia decries Nobel theft
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West Bengal's intelligentsia rallies behind fasting Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar and other human rights activists, boycotting a ...
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Mainstream, Vol XLVII No 19, April 25, 2009
Letter from Kolkata: Decadence of Bengali Intelligentsia
by Amitava Mukherjee, 26 April 2009
    *
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    *
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As the general election campaign is coming to a close, there are increasing signs that the Bengali intellectual life is at a crossroad, often exhibiting signs of terrible decay and partisanship, a direct result of penetration of Left ideas in the Bengali social life after independence.
Every election since 1967 has brought to fore the bankruptcy of the Bengali middle class. Remember the 1967 general elections when the two Communist Parties, dominated by middle class intellectuals, started slander campaigns against the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Prafulla Chandra Sen, an honest Gandhian, as he had advised the people of the State to use green plantains as an item of food because there was a crisis of rice in the market. Prafulla Chandra Sen might have been undiplomatic but he was an honest man. The Communists deliberately chose not to see the better side of the man and instead started a low-grade slander campaign against him. More reprehensible was the allegation from a certain middle class quarter that Sen had purchased the Stephen House, a palatial building in the heart of Calcutta. But when he died Prafulla Chandra Sen left nothing behind and had in fact spent his last days on whatever his friends and associates, notably Ashok
Krishna Dutta, a veteran Congressman, gave him voluntarily. The Communists gave a pathetic exhibition of their poor taste as they marched on the streets of Calcutta after Prafulla Chandra Sen´s defeat in the election with green plantains. The Bengali middle class also rejoiced at this cheap show. That was really the beginning of the destruction of the intellectual life of Bengal.
Servility and mediocrity are tantamount to infectious diseases and the first seeds of these, planted in 1967, saw the flowering of the poisonous tree after the Indira Congress captured power in West Bengal in 1972. The corrupt and mediocre Bengali intelligentsia remained quiet, with a handful of exceptions, as hoodlums donning jerseys of political parties let loose an atmosphere of terror on the streets of West Bengal. The Bengali bhadralok again chose to turn a blind eye and instead decided to pay obeisance to Sanjay Gandhi when her mother clamped Emergency on the country. Who can forget the pathetic scene in Calcutta when a renowned historian from the Calcutta University was seen jostling with others to occupy a front-row seat at a meeting which was addressed by Sanjay Gandhi at the height of the Emergency? Or try to recollect the uncouth attempts of violent Youth Congress workers led by a present Union Minister to prevent Jaya Prakash Narayan from
entering the University Institute in Calcutta where JP was scheduled to address a meeting. At that time also the Bengali intellectuals had not raised their voice.
¨
However, after the Left Front´s coming to power things have definitely taken a qualitative turn. Under Congress rule there was no attempt to create any segment among the middle class which would always look towards the ruling party for approval before airing any view. The society was free and unshackled. Syncophancy was there but it remained largely at the individual level and there was really not much attempt to create any section which would play the role of his master´s voice.
Developments over Singur and Nandigram have exposed this trend in the most unabashed manner, no doubt. But the process had started much earlier immediately after 1977 when the Left Front Government started doling out favours to sections of the middle class, mostly journalists, writers, singers and other cultural personalities. Many of them were favoured with lands and flats on out- of-turn basis. Side by side regimentation of the society was carried out with professional perfection through appointments of hangers-on in various government and academic jobs.
It was not, therefore, surprising that the Bengali society on the whole remained quiet even after gruesome killings of refugees from Eastern Bengal on the Marichjhanpi island or the Anand Margis on the streets of Calcutta. To a great extent Bengalis remained quiet when the palms of several persons were chopped off in the Howrah district for their sin of being Congress workers. Numerous persons have lost their lives in police custody. But the Bengali society, except some civil rights organisations, have remained quiet. The Left Front parties have dishonoured their promise of bringing to book these police officers who were guilty of excesses during Congress rule, and instead gave them promotions. Even that was not enough to stir up the society.
Happenings in Singur and Nandigram form a very painful chapter of not only West Bengal´s history of `development´ but its intellectual life as well. People of the State saw a veteran filmmaker like Mrinal Sen joining the unprecedented precession of common men protesting against State terrorism in Nandigram on one day and participating in the State Government sponsored procession in support of the State action on another day. What does Sen´s action signify? Why have Sunil Gangopadhyay, the litterateur, and Saumitra Chattopadhyay, the film personality, become controversial by their reticence to speak out against the powers that be over the events in Singur and Nandigram?
Highly controversial too is the case of another person, named Amartya Sen; he has, over long years of painstaking work, acquired considerable international reputation. He at first supported the West Bengal Government´s decision to invite the Tatas for their motor car factory in Singur and even spoke in favour of the land acquisition measures, and then made a volte face and conceded that loss of profession of the displaced farmers is too serious an issue to gloss over after volleys of protests had come from different quarters over his earlier remark; but thereafter, in a quite amusing manner, he tried to justify himself by saying that he too was a supporter of Left ideas from his student days.
It is now time for the Bengali society, mostly its middle class, to introspect about its values, about is contributions during the freedom struggle and also about the abysmal depth to which it has sunk during the last thirty years. Bengalis must stop deceiving themselves if they really want to play a laudable role in future.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1316.html

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The Reader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the film based on the book, see The Reader (2008 film). For other uses, see The Reader (disambiguation).
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008)
The Reader
AuthorBernhard Schlink
TranslatorCarol Brown Janeway
Cover artistKathleen DiGrado (design), Sean Kernan (photo)
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
Genre(s)Novel
PublisherVintage International
Publication date1995
Media typeprint (paperback)
Pages218 pp
ISBN0-375-70797-2
The Reader (Der Vorleser) is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States (translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway) in 1997. It deals with the difficulties which subsequent generations have in comprehending the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media. This question is increasingly at the center of Holocaust literature in the late 20th and early 21st century, as the victims and witnesses of the Holocaust die and its living memory begins to fade.
Schlink's book was well received in his native country, and also in the United States, winning several awards. The novel was a departure from Schlink's usual detective novels. It became the first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list, and US television mogul Oprah Winfrey made it a selection of her book club in 1999. It has been translated into 37 languages and been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature and German language and German literature. A 2008 film adaptation directed by Stephen Daldry was well received.
Contents[hide]
    * 1 Synopsis
    * 2 Characters
    * 3 Literary elements
    * 3.1 Style
    * 3.1.1 Guilt and the German generation gap
    * 3.1.2 Illiteracy
    * 4 Literary significance and criticism
    * 4.1 Germany
    * 4.2 English translation
    * 4.3 Criticism
    * 5 Film adaptation
    * 6 References
    * 7 External links
[edit] Synopsis
The story is told in three parts by the main character, Michael Berg. Each part takes place in a different time period in the past.
Part I begins in the city of Heidelberg, West Germany in 1958. After 15-year-old Michael becomes ill on his way home, 36-year-old tram conductress Hanna Schmitz notices him, cleans him up, and sees him safely on his way home. He spends the next several months absent from school battling hepatitis.
He visits her to thank Hanna for her help and realizes he is attracted to her. Embarrassed after she catches him watching her getting dressed, he runs away, but he returns days later. After she directs him to retrieve coal from the cellar, he is covered with coal dust. She watches him bathe and seduces him. He returns eagerly to her apartment on a regular basis, and begins a heated affair. They develop a ritual of bathing and having sex, before which she frequently has him read aloud to her, especially classical literature, such as The Odyssey and Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog. Both remain somewhat distant from each other emotionally despite their physical closeness. Hanna, wrestling with her own guilt, is at times physically and verbally abusive to Michael.
Months later, Hanna suddenly leaves without a trace. The distance between them had been growing as Michael had been spending more time with his school friends. He feels guilty and believes it was something he did that caused her departure. The memory of Hanna taints all his other relationships with women.
In Part II, eight years later, while attending law school, he is part of a group of students observing a war crimes trial. A group of middle-aged women who had served as SS guards at a satellite of Auschwitz in occupied Poland are being tried for allowing 300 Jewish women under their ostensible "protection" to die in a fire locked in a church that had been bombed during the evacuation of the camp. The incident was chronicled in a book written by one of the few survivors, who emigrated to America after the war; she is the star witness at the trial.
To Michael's stunned surprise, Hanna is one of the defendants, sending him on a roller coaster of complex emotions. He feels guilty for having loved a remorseless criminal and at the same time is mystified at Hanna's willingness to accept full responsibility for supervising the other guards despite evidence proving otherwise. She is accused of writing the account of the fire. At first she denies this but then in panic admits it in order to not have to give a sample of her handwriting. Michael, horrified, realizes that Hanna has a secret she considers worse than her Nazi past - she is illiterate.
This realization explains many of Hanna's actions: her refusal of the promotion that would have put her in the position to kill these people directly and also her panic the rest of her life over being discovered. During the trial, it comes out that she took in the weak, sickly women and had them read to her before they were sent to the gas chambers. Michael decides she wanted to make their last days bearable; or did she send them to their death so they would not reveal her secret? She is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He could have revealed her secret and so spared her that, but cannot master his emotions.
Part III: Michael, trying to come to terms with his feelings for Hanna, begins taping readings of books and sending them to her without any correspondence while she is in prison. Years have passed, Michael is divorced and has a daughter from his brief marriage. Hanna begins to teach herself to read, and then write in a childlike way, by borrowing the books from the prison library and following the tapes along in the text. She writes to Michael, but he cannot bring himself to reply. After 20 years, Hanna is about to be released, he agrees (after hesitation) to find her a place to stay and employment, visiting her in prison. On the day of her release in 1984, though, she commits suicide and Michael is heartbroken. Michael learns from the warden that she had been reading books by many prominent Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and histories of the camps. The warden is angry with him for not communicating with Hanna in
any way other than the audio tapes. Hanna left him an assignment: give all her money to the survivor of the church fire.
In a dénouement, Michael visits the Jewish woman now living in New York who wrote the book about the winter death march from Auschwitz. She can see his terrible conflict of emotions and he finally tells of his youthful relationship with Hanna. The unspoken damage she left to the people around her hangs in the air. He reveals his short, unloving marriage, and the distant daughter. The woman, comprehending but unable to resolve her own loss of family, refuses to take the savings Hanna had asked Michael to convey to her, saying, "That would mean giving absolution, which I cannot do". She asks that he donate it as he sees fit; he chooses a Jewish charity for combatting illiteracy, in Hanna's name. The woman does, however, take the old tin tea box in which Hanna had kept her money and mementos, "to replace the similar tea box which was stolen from me as a child in the camp"-a small gesture towards her former guard, and healing her own memories. Returning
to Germany, Michael visits Hanna's grave for the first and only time.
[edit] Characters
Beyond Michael and Hanna, none of the significant characters who actually appear in the mimetic sense have names.
    * Michael Berg, a German who is first portrayed as a 15-year-old boy and is revisited at later parts of his life, when he is a researcher in legal history, divorced with one daughter, Julia. Like many of his generation, he struggles to come to terms with his country's recent history.
    * Hanna Schmitz, illiterate and former SS guard at Auschwitz. She is 36 and working as a tram conductor in Heidelberg when she first meets 15-year-old Michael. She takes a dominant position in their relationship.
    * Michael's father, a philosophy professor who specializes in Kant and Hegel. During the Nazi era he lost his job for giving a lecture on Spinoza and had to support himself and his family by writing hiking guidebooks. He is very formal and requires his children to make appointments to see him. He is emotionally stiff and does not easily express his emotions to Michael or his three siblings, which exacerbates the difficulties Hanna creates for Michael. By the time Michael is narrating the story, his father is dead.
    * Michael's mother, seen briefly. Michael has fond memories of her pampering him as a child, which his relationship with Hanna reawakens. A psychoanalyst he sees tells him he should consider his mother's effect on him more, since she barely figures in his retelling of his life.
    * Ilana Mather (The Jewish woman who wrote the book about the death march from Auschwitz). She lives in New York City when Michael visits her near the end of the story, still suffering from the loss of her own family.
[edit] Literary elements
This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)
[edit] Style
Schlink uses both the hardboiled tone of the detective novels he had previously written and a more reflective, sometimes poetic, approach more consistent with the weighty material. The former is exemplified by the bluntness of chapter openings at key turns in the plot, like "Next morning, she was dead." The latter comes into play in passages like "It was one of the pictures of Hanna that has stayed with me. I have them stored away, I can project them on a mental screen and watch them, unchanged, unconsumed."
He also deftly uses chiasmus ("I didn't reveal anything I should have kept to myself. I kept to myself something I should have revealed") at times to accentuate Michael's confusion.
[edit] Guilt and the German generation gap
The novel's take on the Holocaust is doubly unusual among Holocaust fiction in that not only does it put historical distance between its narrative and the wartime period, it has as its main contact with those events a perpetrator instead of a victim.[citation needed]
Schlink's main theme is how his generation, and indeed all generations after the Third Reich, have struggled to come to terms with the crimes of the Nazis ("the past which brands us and with which we must live"). For his cohorts, there was the unique position of being blameless and the sense of duty to call to account their parents' generation,
... (which) had been served by the guards and enforcers, or had done nothing to stop them, or had not banished them from their midst as it could have done after 1945, was in the dock, and we explored it, subjected it to trial by daylight, and condemned it to shame ... We all condemned our parents to shame, even if the only charge we could bring was that after 1945 they had tolerated the perpetrators in their midst ... The more horrible the events about which we read and heard, the more certain we became of our responsibility to enlighten and accuse ... The Nazi past was an issue even for children who couldn't accuse their parents of anything, or didn't want to..[1]
But while he would like it to be as simple as that, his experience with Hanna complicates matters:
I wanted simultaneously to understand Hanna's crime and to condemn it. But it was too terrible for that. When I tried to understand it, I had the feeling I was failing to condemn it as it must be condemned. When I condemned it as it must be condemned, there was no room for understanding ... I wanted to pose myself both tasks - understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both.[1]
Hanna and Michael's asymmetrical (and illegal, then and now) relationship enacts, in microcosm, the pas de deux of older and younger Germans in the postwar years. "... the pain I went through because of my love for Hanna was, in a way, the fate of my generation, a German fate," Michael concludes.
A strong version of this plays out in the scene where the student Michael hitchhikes to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp site during the trial, to get what he hopes will be some first-hand knowledge he has not gotten during the trial. The driver who picks him up is an older man who questions him closely about what he believes motivated those who carried out the killings, then offers an answer of his own:
An executioner is not under orders. He's doing his work, he doesn't hate the people he executes, he's not taking revenge on them, he's not killing them because they're in his way or threatening or attacking them. They're a matter of such indifference to him that he can kill them as easily as not.[1]
After the man tells an anecdote about a picture of mass executions he supposedly saw that shows an unusual level of insight into what a Nazi officer shown might have been thinking, Michael suspects him of being that officer and confronts him. The man stops the car and asks him to leave.
[edit] Illiteracy
In addition to complicating Michael's (and our own) estimation of Hanna's true culpability, her illiteracy becomes a metaphor for modern understanding of the Holocaust. Even the title of the book plays on this (in German, the verb vorlesen applies only to reading aloud, as Michael does for Hanna, and as her indictment is read aloud to her in court over a day and a half).
The Reader abounds with references to representations of the Holocaust, both external and internal to Michael's narrative, some real and some invented by Schlink. Of the latter, the most important is the book by the death-march survivor that constitutes the basis of the case against Hanna. It is summarized at some length and even briefly quoted, although its title is never given. Michael must read it in English since its German translation has not yet been published: "(It was) an unfamiliar and laborious exercise at the time. And as always, the alien language, unmastered and struggled over, created a strange concatenation of distance and immediacy." On a second reading in later life, he says, "it is the book itself that creates distance."
This conceit applies to the Holocaust as a whole as seen through late 20th-century eyes, throughout the novel. Hanna, once she attains literacy and understands the situation more fully than we can, cannot live with herself anymore. She tells Michael:
I always had the feeling that no one understood me anyway, that no one knew who I was and what made me do this or that. And you know, when no one understands you, no one can call you to account. Not even the court could call me to account. But the dead can. They understand. They don't even have to have been there, but if they do, they understand even better. Here in prison they were with me a lot. They came every night, whether I wanted them to or not. Before the trial I could still chase them away when they wanted to come.
Her choices become far more problematic after we are aware of her situation. Many of Hanna's decisions, Michael realizes, are inexplicable without this understanding. When she breaks with German practice and asks the judge at her trial "What would you have done?" about whether she should have left her job at Siemens and taking the guard position, she really wanted an answer, and wasn't just exasperated or asking rhetorically. As a result of her shame at being illiterate, she has not only let the bulk of the crime be pinned on her, she has let those with a greater share of responsibility escape full accountability.
For our part, Michael is aware that all his attempts to visualize what Hanna might have been like back then, what happened, are colored by what he has read and seen in movies. He feels a difficult identification with the victims when he learns that Hanna often picked one prisoner to read to her, as he would later on, only to send that girl on to Auschwitz and the gas chamber after several months. Did she do it to make the last months of one almost certain to die a little more bearable? Or to keep her secret safe? Michael's inability to both condemn and understand springs from this.
He asks himself and the reader:
What should our second generation have done, what should it do with the knowledge of the horrors of the extermination of the Jews? We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable, we may not inquire because to make the horrors an object of inquiry is to make the horrors an object of discussion, even if the horrors themselves are not questioned, instead of accepting them as something in the face of which we can only fall silent in revulsion, shame and guilt. Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame and guilt? To what purpose?
[edit] Literary significance and criticism
Schlink's novel was a huge commercial success not only in his native country but in the English-speaking world, becoming the first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list when it was translated two years later.
[edit] Germany
The Reader sold 500,000 copies in Germany. It received several literary awards and many favorable reviews. In 2004, when the television network ZDF published a list of the 100 favorite books of German readers, it was 14th, the second-highest ranking for any contemporary German novel on the list.[2]
Critic Rainer Moritz of Die Welt wrote that it took "the artistic contrast between private and public to the absurd."[3] Werner Fuld wrote in Focus that "one must not let great themes roll away, when one can truly write about them."[4]
[edit] English translation
In the pages of the New York Times itself, Richard Bernstein called it "arresting, philosophically elegant, (and) morally complex."[5] While finding the ending too abrupt, in the Book Review, Suzanne Ruta said Schlink's "daring fusion of 19th-century post-romantic, post-fairy-tale models with the awful history of the 20th century makes for a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work." [6]. It went on to sell 750,000 copies, many of them after Oprah featured it in her book club in 1999.
That same year, Sir Claus Moser, chair of the Basic Skills Agency of Britain's Department for Education and Employment discussed Hanna's story in the foreword to the BSA's comprehensive report on illiteracy and innumeracy. The book sold 200,000 copies in the UK, although reviews there were slightly more mixed.
The book won the 1999 Boeke Prize.
[edit] Criticism
Schlink's problematic approach toward Hanna's culpability in the Final Solution has been a frequent complaint about the book. Early on he was accused of revising or falsifying history. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Jeremy Adler accused him of "cultural pornography" and said the novel simplifies history and compels its readers to identify with the perpetrators.[citation needed]
In the English-speaking world, Cynthia Ozick in Commentary Magazine called it a "product, conscious or not, of a desire to divert (attention) from the culpability of a normally educated population in a nation famed for Kultur."[7] Frederick Raphael was blunter, saying no one could recommend the book "without having a tin ear for fiction and a blind eye for evil.[cite this quote] Ron Rosenbaum, criticising the film adaptation of The Reader, noted that even if Germans like Hanna were metaphorically "illiterate" with regards to the Holocaust, "they could have heard it from Hitler's mouth in his infamous 1939 radio broadcast to Germany and the world, threatening extermination of the Jews if war started. You had to be deaf, dumb, and blind, not merely illiterate... You'd have to be exceedingly stupid."[8]
As critics of "The Reader" argued increasingly on historical grounds, pointing out that everybody in Germany could and should have known about Hitler's intentions towards the Jews, they chose not to remark that Schlink had decided to have "Hanna" born outside of Germany in "Hermannstadt" (Transylvania, Romania). The first study on the reasons why Germans from Transylvania entered the SS appeared only in 2007, 12 years after the publishing of the novel; at that point however, discussions on "The Reader" had already solidly placed Hanna in the context of Germany. The study paints an equally complex historical picture as Schlink's novel.[9]
Schlink has said, "in Israel and New York the older generation liked the book" but those of his own generation were more likely to criticize Michael (and his) inability to fully condemn Hanna. He added (also in The Guardian), "I've heard that criticism several times but never from the older generation, people who have lived through it."[10]
[edit] Film adaptation
Main article: The Reader (film)
The film version, directed by Stephen Daldry, was released in December 2008. Kate Winslet played Hanna,[11] with David Kross as the young Michael and Ralph Fiennes as the older man.[12] Bruno Ganz and Lena Olin played supporting roles. It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Winslet won the Oscar for leading actress.
[edit] References
    1. ^ a b c Schlink, Bernhard (1995; English translation 1997 by Carol Brown Janeway). The Reader. Vintage International, 157. ISBN 0-679-44279-0.
    2. ^ ZDF.de - Top 50
    3. ^ Rainer Moritz. Die Welt. October 15, 1999
    4. ^ Werner Fuld, Werner. Focus. September 30, 1995.
    5. ^ Bernstein, Richard (1997-08-20). "Once Loving, Once Cruel, What's Her Secret?". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE6D71F3FF933A1575BC0A961958260. Retrieved on 2007-09-10.
    6. ^ Secrets and Lies - New York Times
    7. ^ http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-rights-of-history-and-the-rights-of-imagination-8997
    8. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2210804/pagenum/2
    9. ^ Paul Milata: Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu: Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS. Böhlau. Cologne 2007.
    10. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/feb/09/fiction.books
    11. ^ Jeff Labrecque, "Best Actress," Entertainment Weekly 1032/1033 (Jan. 30/Feb. 6, 2009): 45.
    12. ^ Winslet Replaces Pregnant Kidman in Film IMDb
[edit] External links
    * Oprah's book club page with biography, reviews, questions and forum
    * Publisher's guide with 16 questions
    * bookrags.com study guide with chapter synopses
    * Der-Vorleser.com Project from a german school class about "The Reader"
    * Reading guide with questions from a college German history course
    * Book review: The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reader"
Categories: 1995 novels | Holocaust literature | German novels | German-language novels
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The Reader (2008 film)
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The Reader

Promotional film poster
Directed byStephen Daldry
Produced byAnthony Minghella
Sydney Pollack
Scott Rudin (uncredited)
Written byDavid Hare
StarringKate Winslet
Ralph Fiennes
David Kross
Alexandra Maria Lara
Lena Olin
Bruno Ganz
Music byNico Muhly
CinematographyChris Menges
Roger Deakins
Editing byClaire Simpson
Distributed byThe Weinstein Company
Release date(s)December 10, 2008
Running time124 min.
CountryUSA , Germany , United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$32 million
The Reader is a 2008 drama film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The film adaptation was written by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry. Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star along with the young actor David Kross. It was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom died before it was released. Production began in Germany in September 2007, and the film opened in limited release on 10 December 2008.
It tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a personal secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past, a secret that - paradoxically enough - could help her at the trial.
Winslet and David Kross, who plays the young Michael, have received much praise for their performances. Winslet received praise and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 81st Academy Awards for her role in the film. The film has also been nominated for several other major awards.
Contents[hide]
    * 1 Plot
    * 2 Cast
    * 3 Production
    * 4 Release
    * 5 Reception
    * 6 Awards and nominations
    * 7 References
    * 8 External links
[edit] Plot
The Reader begins in 1995 Berlin, where Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) is preparing breakfast for a woman who has spent the night with him. After she leaves, Michael watches a U-Bahn pass by, flashing back to a tram in 1958 Neustadt. A teenage Michael (David Kross) gets off because he is feeling sick and wanders around the streets afterwards, finally pausing in the entryway of a nearby apartment building where he vomits. Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), the tram conductor, comes in and assists him in returning home.

Michael (Kross) reads to Hanna (Winslet).
Michael, diagnosed with scarlet fever, must rest at home for the next three months. After he recovers he visits Hanna. The 36 year old Hanna seduces and begins an affair with the 15 year old boy. During their liaisons, at her apartment, he reads to her literary works he is studying, such as The Odyssey, The Lady with the Little Dog, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tintin. After a bicycling trip, Hanna learns she is being promoted to a clerical job at the tram company. She abruptly moves without leaving a trace.
After seeing the adult Michael, a lawyer, we see him (played again by David Kross) at Heidelberg University law school in 1966. As part of a special seminar taught by Professor Rohl (Bruno Ganz), a camp survivor, he observes a trial (similar to the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials) of several women who were accused of letting 300 Jewish women die in a burning church when they were SS guards on the death march following the 1944 evacuation of Auschwitz. Hanna is one of the defendants.
Stunned, Michael visits a former camp himself. The trial divides the seminar, with one student angrily saying there is nothing to be learned from it other than that evil acts occurred and that the older generation of Germans should kill themselves for their failure to act then.
The key evidence is the testimony of Ilana Mather (Alexandra Maria Lara), author of a memoir of how she and her mother survived. Hanna, unlike her fellow defendants, admits that Auschwitz was an extermination camp and that the ten women she chose during each month's Selektion were gassed. She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample.
Michael then realizes Hanna's secret: she is functionally illiterate and has concealed that her whole life. The other female guards who claim that she wrote the report are lying in order to place the brunt of the responsibility on Hanna. Michael informs Rohl that he has information favorable to one of the defendants but is not sure what to do since she wants to avoid disclosing this. Rohl tells him that if he has learned nothing from the past there is no point in having the seminar.
Hanna receives a life sentence for her admitted but untrue leadership role in the church deaths while the other defendants get shorter terms. Michael meanwhile marries, has a daughter and divorces. Rediscovering his books and notes from the time of his affair, he begins reading them into a tape recorder. He sends the cassette tapes, a tape recorder, and the books to Hanna. Eventually she learns to read and write, and she writes back to him.
Michael does not write back or visit, but keeps sending tapes, and in 1988 a prison official (Linda Bassett) telephones him to seek his help with Hanna's transition into society upon her upcoming release. He finds a place for her to live and a job, and finally visits. The night before her release Hanna hangs herself and leaves a tea tin with cash in it and a note to Michael, asking him to give the cash from the tea tin and some money in a bank account to Ilana.
Michael travels to New York. He meets Ilana (Lena Olin) and confesses his past relationship with Hanna. He tells her about the suicide note, and that Hanna was illiterate for most of her life. Ilana tells Michael there is nothing to be learned from the camps. Michael suggests that he donate the money to an organization that combats adult illiteracy, preferably a Jewish one, and she agrees. Ilana keeps the tea tin since it is similar to one stolen from her in Auschwitz.
The film ends with Michael getting back together with his daughter, Julia, at Hanna's grave and beginning to tell her the story.
[edit] Cast

Ralph Fiennes as the older Michael
    * Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz.[1] Winslet was originally the first choice for the role, though she was initially not able to take on the role due to a scheduling conflict with Revolutionary Road, and actress Nicole Kidman replaced her. A month after filming began, however, Kidman left the role due to her pregnancy, enabling Winslet to rejoin the film.[2] Entertainment Weekly reports that to "age Hanna from cool seductress to imprisoned war criminal, Winslet endured seven and a half hours of makeup and prosthetic prep each day."[3]
    * David Kross as Michael Berg when he is 15 and falls in love with Hanna in post-World War II Germany, and turns 16, and when he is a 23-year-old student.[1]
    * Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg as an adult.[4] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly writes that "Ralph Fiennes has perhaps the toughest job, playing the morose adult Michael - a version, we can assume, of the author. Fiennes masters the default demeanor of someone perpetually pained."[5]
    * Alexandra Maria Lara as young Ilana Mather, a former victim of the concentration camp where Hanna Schmitz worked as a guard[6]
    * Bruno Ganz as Professor Rohl, a Holocaust survivor and one of Michael's teachers at Heidelberg University.
    * Lena Olin as Rose Mather (Ilana's mother) who testifies alongside her daughter at Hanna Schmitz's trial. She also plays the older Ilana Mather, who Michael visits at the end of the film.
    * Hannah Herzsprung as Julia, Michael Berg's daughter
    * Karoline Herfurth as Martha, Michael's love interest at university
    * Burghard Klaußner as the judge
[edit] Production
In April 1998, Miramax Films acquired the rights to the 1995 German novel The Reader by Bernhard Schlink,[7] and principal photography began in September 2007 immediately after Stephen Daldry was signed to direct the film adaptation and actor Ralph Fiennes was cast into a lead role.[8][9] Kate Winslet was originally cast as Hanna, but scheduling difficulties led her to leave the film and Nicole Kidman was cast as her replacement.[10] In January 2008, Nicole Kidman left the project, citing her recent pregnancy as the primary reason. She had not filmed any scenes yet, so the studio was able to re-cast Winslet into the lead role without affecting the production schedule.[2]

Kate Winslet in age makeup as the 66-year-old Hanna in the later half of the film
Filming took place in the cities of Berlin and Goerlitz and was finished in Cologne on July 14.[11] Filmmakers received US$718,752

Kate Winslet
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Kate Winslet

Palm Springs Film Festival, 2007
BornKate Elizabeth Winslet
5 October 1975 (1975-10-05) (age 33)
Reading, Berkshire, England
OccupationActress/Singer
Years active1991-present
Spouse(s)Jim Threapleton (1998-2001)
Sam Mendes (2003-present)
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress and occasional singer. She is noted for having played diverse characters over her career, but probably best-known for her critically acclaimed performances as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sarah Pierce in Little Children, April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, and Hanna Schmitz in The Reader.
Winslet has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Reader. She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as well as being nominated for an Emmy. At the age of 22, she became the youngest actress to receive two Oscar nominations;[1] at age 33, she is now the youngest actor of either sex to receive six nominations. David Edelstein of New York Magazine hails her as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation."[2]
Contents[hide]
    * 1 Early life
    * 2 Career
    * 2.1 Early work
    * 2.2 1992-1997
    * 2.3 1998-2003
    * 2.4 2004-2006
    * 2.5 2007-present
    * 3 Music
    * 4 Personal life
    * 5 Filmography
    * 6 Awards and nominations
    * 6.1 Academy Award nomination milestones
    * 6.2 Awards for noncinematic work
    * 7 References
    * 8 External links
[edit] Early life
Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom, the daughter of Sally Anne (née Bridges), a barmaid, and Roger John Winslet, a swimming-pool contractor.[3] Her parents were "jobbing actors", with Winslet commenting that she "didn't have a privileged upbringing" and that their daily life was "very hand to mouth".[4] Her maternal grandparents, Linda (née Plumb) and Archibald Oliver Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory Theatre,[4] and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver!. Her sisters, Beth Winslet and Anna Winslet, are also actresses.[4]
Winslet, raised as an Anglican, began studying drama at the age of eleven at the Redroofs Theatre School,[5] a co-educational independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where she was head girl and appeared in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs cereal, directed by Tim Pope.
[edit] Career
[edit] Early work
Winslet's career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science fiction serial Dark Season in 1991. This was followed by appearances in the made-for-TV movie Anglo-Saxon Attitudes in 1992 and an episode of medical drama Casualty in 1993, also for the BBC.
[edit] 1992-1997

Winslet at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
In 1992, Winslet attended a casting call for Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in London. Auditioning for the part of Juliet Hulme, a vivacious and imaginative teen who assists in the murder of the mother of her best friend, Pauline Parker, played by Melanie Lynskey, she won the role over 175 other girls.[6] The film was released to favourable reviews in 1994 and won Jackson and partner Fran Walsh a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[7] Winslet was awarded an Empire Award and a London Critics' Circle Film Award for her performance;[8] The Washington Post writer Desson Thomson commented: "As Juliet, Winslet is a bright-eyed ball of fire, lighting up every scene she´s in."[9] Speaking about her experience on a film set as an absolute beginner, Winslet noted: "With Heavenly Creatures, all I knew I had to do was completely become that person. In a way it was quite nice doing [the film] and not knowing a bloody thing."[10][11]
The following year, Winslet auditioned for the adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, featuring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman, intending to get the small but pivotal role of Lucy Steele.[12] She was instead cast in the second leading role of Marianne Dashwood.[12] Director Ang Lee admitted he was initially worried about the way Winslet had attacked her role in Heavenly Creatures and thus required her to exercise tai chi, read Austen-era Gothic novels and poetry, and work with a piano teacher to fit the grace of the role.[12] Budgeted at $16,500,000, the film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a worldwide box office total of $135 million and various awards for Winslet, winning her both a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.[8][13]
In 1996, Winslet starred in Jude and Hamlet. In Michael Winterbottom's Jude, based on the Victorian novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, she played Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings who falls in love with her cousin, played by Christopher Eccleston. Acclaimed among critics, it was not a success at the box office, barely grossing $2 million worldwide.[14][15] Richard Corliss of Time magazine said "Winslet is worthy of [...] the camera's scrupulous adoration. She's perfect, a modernist ahead of her time [...] and Jude is a handsome showcase for her gifts."[16] Winslet depicted Ophelia, Hamlet's drowned lover, in Kenneth Branagh's all star-casted film version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The film garnered largely positive reviews and earned Winslet her second Empire Award.[17][8]
In mid-1996, Winslet began filming James Cameron's Titanic (1997), alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. Cast as the sensitive seventeen-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater, a fictional first-class socialite who survives the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, Winslet experienced physical and emotional exhaustion on set: "Titanic was totally different and nothing could have prepared me for it. We were really scared about the whole adventure. Jim [Cameron] is a perfectionist, a real genius at making movies. But there was all this bad press before it came out, and that was really upsetting."[18] Against expectations, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than $1.8 billion in box-office receipts worldwide,[19] and transformed Winslet into a commercial movie star.[20] Subsequently, she was nominated for most of all high-profile awards, winning a European Film Award.[1][8]
[edit] 1998-2003
Hideous Kinky, a low-budget hippie romance based on a novel and shot prior to the release of Titanic, was her first and only film of 1998.[21] Winslet rejected offers to play the leading roles in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Anna and the King (1999) in favor of the role of a young English mother named Julia who moves with her daughters from London to Morocco hoping to start a new life.[22][21] The film garnered generally mixed reviews and received limited release only,[23] resulting in a worldwide gross of $5 million.[24] Despite the success of Titanic, the next film Winslet opted to star in was Holy Smoke! (1999) featuring Harvey Keitel, another low-budget project - much to the misery of her agents, who felt "miserable" about her preference of arthouse movies.[18][25] Feeling pressured, Winslet has said she "never saw Titanic as a springboard for bigger films or bigger pay cheques," knowing that "it could have been that, but would have destroyed
[her]."[26] The same year, she voiced Brigid in the computer animated film Faeries.[27]
Winslet's first effort of the 2000s was the period piece Quills with Geoffrey Rush and Joaquin Phoenix. Inspired by the life and work of the Marquis de Sade, the actress served as somewhat of a "patron saint" of the movie for being the first big name to back it, accepting the role of a chamber maid in the asylum and the carrier of the The Marquis' manuscripts to the underground publishers.[28] Well-received by critics, the film garnered numerous accolades for Winslet, including nominations for SAG and Satellite Awards.[8] The film was a modest art house success, averaging $27,709 per screen its debut weekend, and eventually grossing $18 million internationally.[29]
In 2001's Enigma, she played a young woman who finds herself falling for a brilliant young World War II code breaker, played by Dougray Scott.[30] Her first war film, Winslet regarded "making Enigma a brilliant experience" as she was five months pregnant at the time of the shoot, forcing some tricky camera work from the director Michael Apted.[30] Generally well-received,[31] Winslet was awarded a British Independent Film Award for her performance.[8] A. O. Scott of The New York Times described Winslet as "more crush-worthy than ever."[32] In the same year she appeared in Richard Eyre's critically acclaimed film Iris, portraying Irish novelist Iris Murdoch. Winslet shared her role with Dame Judi Dench, with both actresses portraying Murdoch at different phases of her life.[33] Subsequently, each of them was nominated for an Academy Award the following year, scoring Winslet her third nomination.[8] Also in 2001, she voiced the character Belle in the
animated motion picture Christmas Carol: The Movie, based on the Charles Dickens classic novel. For the film, Winslet recorded the song "What If," which was released in November 2001 as a single and whose proceeds went to children's cancer charities.[34] A Europe-wide top ten hit, it reached number-one in Austria, Belgium, and Ireland.[35]
Her next film role was in the 2003 drama The Life of David Gale, in which she played an ambitious journalist who interviews a death-sentenced professor (Kevin Spacey) in his final weeks before execution. The film underperformed at international box offices, garnering the half of its $50,000,000 budget only,[36] and generated mostly critical reviews,[37] with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times calling it a "silly movie."[38]
[edit] 2004-2006
Following David Gale, Winslet appeared alongside Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), a neosurrealistic indie-drama by French director Michel Gondry. In the film, she played the role of Clementine Kruczynski, a chatty, spontaneous and somewhat neurotic woman, who decides to have all memories of her ex-boyfriend erased from her mind.[39] A departure from her previous roles, Winslet revealed in an interview with Variety that she was initially upended about her casting in the film: "This was not the type of thing I was being offered [...] I was just thrilled that there was something he had seen in me, in spite of the corsets, that he thought was going to work for Clementine."[40] A critical and financial success,[41] Winslet received rave reviews for her Oscar-nominated performance, which Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described as "electrifying and bruisingly vulnerable."[42]

Winslet at the 61st British Academy Film Awards.
Another film of 2004 was Finding Neverland. The story of the production focused on Scottish writer J. M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet), whose sons inspired him to pen the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. During promotion of the film, Winslet noted of her portrayal: "It was very important for me in playing Sylvia that I was already a mother myself, because I don´t think I could have played that part if I didn´t know what it felt like to be a parent and have those responsibilities and that amount of love that you give to a child [...] and I've always got a baby somewhere, or both of them, all over my face."[43] The film received favorable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Winslet's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of $118 million worldwide.[44][45]
In 2005, Winslet appeared in an episode of BBC's comedy series Extras, as a satirical version of herself. While dressed as a nun, she was portrayed giving phone sex tips to the romantically challenged character of Maggie.[46] Her performance in the episode led to her first nomination for an Emmy Award.[8] In Romance & Cigarettes (2005), a musical romantic comedy written and directed by John Turturro, she played the character Tula, who Winslet described as "a slut, someone who´s essentially foulmouthed and has bad manners and really doesn´t know how to dress."[47] Hand-picked by Turturro, who was impressed with her dancing abilities in Holy Smoke!, Winslet was praised for her performance.[47] Derek Elley of Variety wrote: "Onscreen less, but blessed with the showiest role, filthiest one-liners, [and] a perfect Lancashire accent that's comical enough in the Gotham setting Winslet throws herself into the role with an infectious gusto."[48]
After declining an invitation to appear in Woody Allen's film Match Point (2005), stating she wanted to be able to spend more time with her children,[49] she starred in the 2006 films All the King's Men, Little Children, and The Holiday. In All the King's Men, featuring Sean Penn and Jude Law, Winslet played the small role of Anne Stanton, the childhood sweetheart of Jack Burden (Law). The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.[50][51] Todd McCarthy of Variety summed it up as "overstuffed and fatally miscast [...] Absent any point of engagement to become involved in the characters, the film feels stillborn and is unlikely to stir public excitement, even in an election year."[52]
Winslet's next appearance in a film fared far better when she joined the cast of Todd Field's Little Children, playing Sarah Pierce, a bored homemaker who has a torrid affair with a married neighbour, played by Patrick Wilson. Both her performance and the film received rave reviews; A.O. Scott of the New York Times wrote: "In too many recent movies intelligence is woefully undervalued, and it is this quality - even more than its considerable beauty - that distinguishes Little Children from its peers. The result is a movie that is challenging, accessible and hard to stop thinking about. Ms. Winslet, as fine an actress as any working in movies today, registers every flicker of Sarah´s pride, self-doubt and desire, inspiring a mixture of recognition, pity and concern that amounts, by the end of the movie, to something like love. That Ms. Winslet is so lovable makes the deficit of love in Sarah´s life all the more painful."[53] For her work in the
film, she was honored with a BAFTA Britannia Award[54] and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and at 31, became the youngest actress to ever garner five Oscar nominations.[55]
She followed this with a role in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy The Holiday, also starring Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black. In it she played Iris, a Britishwoman who temporarily exchanges homes with an American woman (Diaz). Released to a mixed reception by critics,[56] the film became Winslet's biggest commercial success in nine years, grossing more than $205 million worldwide.[57] Also in 2006, Winslet provided her voice for several smaller projects. In the CG-animated Flushed Away she voiced Rita, a scavenging sewer rat who helps Roddy (Hugh Jackman) escaping from the city of Ratropolis and return to his luxurious Kensington origins. A critical and commercial success, the film collected $177,665,672 at international box offices.[58]
[edit] 2007-present

Winslet at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
In 2007, Winslet reunited with Leonardo DiCaprio to film Revolutionary Road (2008). Directed by husband Sam Mendes, it was Winslet who suggested both to work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe,[59] resulting in both "a blessing and an added pressure" on-set as it was her first opportunity to work with Mendes.[60] Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for the film,[60] which earned them favorable reviews.[61] Her seventh nomination, Winslet was finally awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance.[8]
Also released in fall 2008, the film competed much against Winslet's other project, a film adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's 1995 novel The Reader, directed by Stephen Daldry and featuring Ralph Fiennes and David Kross in supporting roles. Originally the first choice for her role, she was initially not able to take on the role due to a scheduling conflict with Revolutionary Road, and actress Nicole Kidman replaced her. A month after filming began, however, Kidman left the role due to her pregnancy, enabling Winslet to rejoin the film.[62] Playing with a faked German accent, the actress portrayed a former Nazi concentration camp guard who has an affair with a young man (Kross) who later witnesses her war-crimes trial,[63] a role she noted hard to act as she was naturally unable "to sympathise with a SS guard."[64] While the film garnered mixed critics in general,[65] Winslet received rave reviews for her performance.[65] The following year, she earned her
sixth Academy Award nomination and went on to win the Best Actress award, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.[8]
[edit] Music
Winslet has enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single What If from the soundtrack of Christmas Carol: The Movie, which reached #1 in Ireland and #6 in the UK (she also filmed a music video for the song). She participated in a duet with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Sandra Boynton CD Dog Train, and sang in the 2006 film Romance & Cigarettes. She also sang an aria from La bohème, called "Sono andati", in her film Heavenly Creatures, which is featured on the film's soundtrack. She was considered for the lead in Moulin Rouge! (which eventually went to Nicole Kidman); had she taken the part, she would have sung the full soundtrack.
[edit] Personal life
While on the set of Dark Season, Winslet met actor-writer Stephen Tredre, with whom she had a five-year relationship. He died of bone cancer soon after Winslet completed filming Titanic, so she missed the premiere because she was attending his funeral in London. She and Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio have remained good friends since the filming.[66]
Winslet was later in a relationship with Rufus Sewell, [67] but on 22 November 1998 she married director Jim Threapleton. They have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on 12 October 2000 in London. After a divorce in 2001, Winslet began a relationship with Sam Mendes, whom she married on 24 May 2003 on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, was born on 22 December 2003 in New York City.
Mendes and his production company, Neal Street Productions, purchased the film rights to the long-delayed biography of circus tiger tamer Mabel Stark.[68] The couple's spokesperson said, "It's a great story, they have had their eyes on it for a while. If they can get the script right, it would make a great film."[68]
The media have documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to allow Hollywood to dictate her weight. In February 2003, the British edition of Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally enhanced to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent. GQ issued an apology in the subsequent issue.
Winslet and Mendes currently reside in Greenwich Village in New York City. They also own a manor house in the tiny village of Church Westcote in Gloucestershire, England. They spent £3 million on the secluded Westcote Manor, a rambling Grade II-listed house with eight bedrooms, set in 22 acres. They have reportedly spent more than £1 million on interior renovations, as well as restoring the original water garden, mulberry garden, and orchard, all of which fell into disrepair when the former owner, equestrian artist Raoul Millais, died in 1999.
As a result of both being involved in aircraft incidents, and fearing leaving their children parentless, Winslet and Mendes never fly on the same aircraft.[69] He was scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked on 11 September 2001 and subsequently crashed into the Pentagon.[69] In October 2001, Winslet was seven hours into a London-Dallas flight with daughter Mia when a passenger who claimed to be an Islamic terrorist, later charged with creating mischief, stood up and shouted "We are all going to die."[69]
[edit] Filmography
Year
Film
Role
Notes and Awards
1991 Dark Season (TV series) Reet
1994 Heavenly Creatures Juliet Hulme Empire Award for Best British Actress
London Film Critics' Circle Awards - Best British Actress of the Year
New Zealand Film and TV Awards - Best Foreign Performer
1995 A Kid in King Arthur's Court Princess Sarah
Sense and Sensibility Marianne Dashwood BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Evening Standard British Film Awards (also for Jude)
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1996 Jude Sue Bridehead Evening Standard British Film Awards (also for Sense and Sensibility)
Hamlet Ophelia Empire Award for Best British Actress
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1997 Titanic Rose DeWitt Bukater Blockbuster Entertainment Awards - Favorite Actress - Drama
Empire Award for Best British Actress
European Film Awards - Jameson Audience/People's Choice Award for Best British Actress
Golden Camera - Germany - Film - International (Exceptional work in a non-German production)
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - London Film Critics' Circle Awards - British Actress of the Year
Nominated - MTV Movie Awards - Best Female Performance
Nominated - MTV Movie Awards - Best Kiss (shared with Leonardo DiCaprio)
Nominated - MTV Movie Awards - Best On-Screen Duo (shared with Leonardo DiCaprio)
Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Awards - Best Actress
Nominated - European Film Awards - Outstanding Achievement in World Cinema
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998 Hideous Kinky Julia
1999 Faeries Brigid (voice)
Holy Smoke! Ruth Barron
2000 Quills Madeleine 'Maddy' LeClerc Evening Standard British Film Awards - Best Actress (also for Enigma and Iris)
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated - Blockbuster Entertainment Awards - Favorite Actress - Drama
Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Awards - British Actress of the Year
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
2001 Enigma Hester Wallace British Independent Film Award for Best Actress
Evening Standard British Film Awards - Best Actress (also for Iris and Quills)
Christmas Carol: The Movie Belle (voice)
Iris Young Iris Murdoch Empire Award for Best British Actress
Evening Standard British Film Awards - Best Actress (also for Enigma and Quills)
European Film Awards - Jameson Audience/People's Choice Award for Best British Actress
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2003 The Life of David Gale Bitsey Bloom
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Clementine Kruczynski Empire Award for Best British Actress
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress (also for Finding Neverland)
London Film Critics Circle Awards - British Actress of the Year (tied with Eva Birthistle for Ae Fond Kiss...)
Online Film Critics Society Awards - Best Actress
Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Outstanding Performance of the Year Award (also for Finding Neverland)
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated - People's Choice Awards - Favorite Leading Lady
Nominated - People's Choice Awards - Favorite On-Screen Chemistry (shared with Jim Carrey)
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress (film)
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Finding Neverland Sylvia Llewelyn Davies Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress (also for Eternal Sunshine)
Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Outstanding Performance of the Year Award (also for Eternal Sunshine)
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated - Teen Choice Awards - Choice Movie Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2005 Romance & Cigarettes Tula
2006 All the King's Men Anne Stanton
Little Children Sarah Pierce BAFTA Awards - The Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year
Gotham Awards - Tribute Award
Palm Springs International Film Festival - Desert Palm Achievement Award
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Flushed Away Rita (voice)
The Holiday Iris Simpkins
Deep Sea 3D Narrator (voice)
2008 The Fox and the Child Narrator (voice)
The Reader Hanna Schmitz Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress also for Revolutionary Road
London Film Critics Circle - Actress of the Year also for Revolutionary Road
RopeofSilicon Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Awards - British Actress of the Year
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated - Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Revolutionary Road April Wheeler Alliance of Women Film Journalists - Best Actress
Detroit Film Critics Society Awards - Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress also for The Reader
London Film Critics Circle also for The Reader
Palm Springs International Film Festival - Best Cast Performance
St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards - Best Actress
Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Montevito Award
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
[edit] Awards and nominations
Main article: List of Kate Winslet awards and nominations
Winslet won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Reader, as well as two Golden Globe Awards, one in the category of Best Actress (Drama) for her performance in Revolutionary Road, the other in the Best Supporting Actress category for The Reader. She has won two BAFTA Awards: Best Actress for The Reader, and Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Sense and Sensibility (1995). She earned a total of six Academy Award nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, and seven BAFTA nominations.[70][71]
She has received numerous awards from other organizations, including the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association (LAFCA) award for Best Supporting Actress for Iris (2001) and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Sense and Sensibility (1995) and The Reader (2008). For Holy Smoke! (1999), she was declared Best Actress runner-up by both the New York Film Critics' Circle (NYFCC) and the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC). Winslet was also NYFCC's Best Actress runner-up for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Premiere magazine named her performance as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the 81st greatest film performance of all time.[72]
[edit] Academy Award nomination milestones
With her Best Actress nomination for The Reader, Winslet became the youngest actor to receive six Oscar nominations. At age 33, she passed the mark formerly held by Bette Davis, who was 34 when she received her sixth nomination for her performance in Now, Voyager (1942).[73] Winslet previously set the marks as the youngest actress to receive two nominations for her performance in Titanic (1997), and the youngest actor of either gender to receive four and five nominations, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Little Children (2006), respectively. Winslet was 26 when she received her third nomination, for Iris, missing the mark of Natalie Wood, who received her third nomination at age 25.[citation needed]
She has received two nominations for playing younger versions of another nominee in the same film-the only two instances of different actors playing the same character in the same film both being nominated.[74] She played the younger versions of the characters played by nominees Gloria Stuart in Titanic[74] and Judi Dench in Iris.[75]
When she was not nominated for her work in Revolutionary Road, she became only the second actress to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress (Drama) without getting an Oscar nomination for the same performance (Shirley MacLaine was the first for Madame Sousatzka [1988], and she won the Golden Globe in a three-way tie with Jodie Foster and Sigourney Weaver). Academy rules allow an actor to receive no more than one nomination in a given category; as the Academy nominating process determined that Winslet's work in The Reader would be considered a lead performance-unlike the Golden Globes, which considered it a supporting performance-she could not be nominated for Best Actress for both films.[76]
[edit] Awards for noncinematic work
In 2000, Winslet won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Listen To the Storyteller.[77] Winslet was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for playing herself in a 2005 episode of Extras.
[edit] References
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    32. ^ Scott, A. O. (2000-04-12). "Among the Code Crackers Behind Egghead Lines". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E7D9143FF93AA25757C0A9649C8B63. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
    33. ^ Howe, Desson (2002-02-15). "Iris: Heroic on a Human Scale". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=style/movies/reviews&contentId=A9577-2002Feb14. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
    34. ^ "Race on for Christmas number one". BBC. 2001-12-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1716199.stm. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
    35. ^ "Kate Winslet - 'What If' (SONG)". Swisscharts. http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Kate+Winslet&titel=What+If&cat=s. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
    36. ^ "The Life of David Gale". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/LIFDG.php. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    37. ^ "The Life of David Gale (2003)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/lifeofdavidgale?q=David%20Gale. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    38. ^ Ebert, Roger (2003-02-21). "The Life Of David Gale ". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030221/REVIEWS/302210304/1023. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    39. ^ Hobson, Louis. "Kate Winslet refutes Internet rumours". CANOE -- JAM!. http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/W/Winslet_Kate/2004/03/15/762717.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    40. ^ Oei, Lily (2005-01-03). "Kate Winslet: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Variety (Highbeam). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-127975140.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    41. ^ "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/eternalsunshineofthespotlessmind?q=Kate%20Winslet. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    42. ^ Travers, Peter (2004-03-10). "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind review". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5948633/review/5948634/eternal_sunshine_of_the_spotless_mind. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
    43. ^ "Mother Superior". The Age. 2005-01-02. http://www.theage.com.au/news/Film/Mother-superior/2005/01/01/1104345034348.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    44. ^ "Finding Neverland (2004)". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/people/KWINS.php. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    45. ^ "Finding Neverland (2004)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/findingneverland?q=Finding%20Neverland. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    46. ^ Brand, Madeleine (2005-09-22). "'The Office' Star Ricky Gervais Back with 'Extras'". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859247.
    47. ^ a b Schaefer, Stephen (2007-11-27). "[www.bostonherald.com Romance'´ role calls for bawdy, cussing character]". Boston Herald. www.bostonherald.com. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    48. ^ Elley, Derek (2007-09-05). "Romance & Cigarettes review". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117928084.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    49. ^ Horowitz, Josh (2008-01-17). "Woody Allen Explains His Love For Scarlett Johansson, Why He Doesn't Do Broadway". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1579782/story.jhtml.
    50. ^ "All the King's Men (2005)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/allthekingsmen?q=All%20the%20king's%20Men. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    51. ^ "All the King's Men". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2006/AKNGM.php. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    52. ^ McCarthy, Todd (2006-09-10). "All the King's Men review". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931520.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&s=h&p=0. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    53. ^ Scott, A.O. (2006-09-29). New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/movies/29chil.htmlPlayground Rules: No Hitting, No Sex.. Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
    54. ^ "The BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards Presented By Bombardier Business Aircraft". BAFTALA.org. http://www.baftala.org/britannia.php?. Retrieved on 2009-02-20.
    55. ^ Gallo, Phil (2007-08-23). "This year's Oscar fun facts". Variety. http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117957938.html.
    56. ^ "The Holiday (2006)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/holiday?q=Kate%20Winslet. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    57. ^ "The Holiday". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2006/HOLID.php. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    58. ^ "Flused Away". http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2006/FLUSH.php. Retrieved on 2009-02-07.
    59. ^ Wong, Grace (January 23, 2009). "DiCaprio reveals joys of fighting with Winslet". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/23/kate.leo/index.html?section=cnn_latest. Retrieved on January 23-2009.
    60. ^ a b "Interview: Kate Winslet on Revolutionary Road". News Shopper. 2008-01-28. http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/leisure/4083115.Interview__Kate_Winslet_on_Revolutionary_Road/. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
    61. ^ "Revolutionary Road (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/revolutionary_road/. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
    62. ^ Meza, Ed; Fleming, Michael (2008-01-08). "Winslet replaces Kidman in 'Reader'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978660.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
    63. ^ Kaminer, Ariel (2008-01-28). "Translating Love and the Unspeakable". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/movies/07kami.html/. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
    64. ^ Carnevale, Rob. "Revolutionary Road - Kate Winslet interview". http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/revolutionary-road-kate-winslet-interview. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
    65. ^ a b "The Reader (2008)". Metacritic. metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/reader?q=The%20Reader. Retrieved on 2009-02-20.
    66. ^ Thornton, Michael (2008-09-23). "DiCaprio, Winslet reunite on 'Road'". http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a130875/dicaprio-winslet-reunite-on-road.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-10.
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    69. ^ a b c "Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes never fly together for fear of crash that would orphan their children". Daily Mail Online. 2009-02-09. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1127209/Kate-Winslet-Sam-Mendes-fly-fear-crash-orphan-children.html?ITO=1490. Retrieved on 2009-02-10.
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    72. ^ "The 100 Greatest Performances of All Time: 100-75". Premiere. http://www.premiere.com/List/The-100-Greatest-Performances-of-All-Time/The-100-Greatest-Performances-of-All-Time-100-75. Retrieved on 2009-01-30.
    73. ^ Goodridge, Mike (2009-01-22). "Benjamin Button Tops Oscar Nominations". Screen Daily. http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=42788. Retrieved on 2009-01-30.
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    75. ^ Vallely, Paul (2009-01-17). "Kate Winslet: The gold girl". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/kate-winslet-the-golden-girl-1418269.html.
    76. ^ Graham, Mark (2009-01-23). "Getting to the Bottom of Kate Winslet´s Unprecedented Oscar Snubs". New York. http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/01/kate_winslets_unprecedented_os.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-30. Brevet, Brad (2009-01-23). "Winslet Oscar Query Solved and `The Dark Knight´ Probably Wasn´t Snubbed". RopeOfSilicon.com. http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/winslet-oscar-query-solved-and-the-dark-knight-probably-wasnt-snubbedl. Retrieved on 2009-01-30.
    77. ^ "Grammy Award Winners". Grammy Awards. http://grammy.org/GRAMMY_Awards/Winners/Results.aspx?title=&winner=kate%20winslet&year=0&genreID=0&hp=1. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kate Winslet
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kate Winslet
General
    * Kate Winslet at the Internet Movie Database
    * Kate Winslet at TV.com
    * New York Times Oscar Issue by Tom Perrotta, 9 February 2009
    * Actress Winslet wins damages over diet story
Interviews
    * The Blurb interview (April, 2004)
    * The Early Show interview (20 February 2003)
    * Index Magazine interview (2004)
    * USA Weekend interview (24 February 2002)
    * "Kate Winslet video interview with stv.tv, December 2006". Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012165548/http://stv.tv/out/showArticle.jsp?source=opencms&articleId=/out/hotnow/films/Kate_Winslet_interview.
    * Tiscali Interview (February 2006)
    * Kate Winslet Interview in Ananova (2007)
    * Kate Winslet Interview in BBC NEWS ENGLAND (Friday, 2004)
    * Kate Winslet Interview (16 October 2004)
Awards and achievements
Academy Awards
Preceded by
Marion Cotillard
for La Vie en Rose Best Actress
2008
for The Reader Succeeded by
TBD
BAFTA Awards
Preceded by
Kristin Scott Thomas
for Four Weddings and a Funeral Best Supporting Actress
1995
for Sense and Sensibility Succeeded by
Juliette Binoche
for The English Patient
Preceded by
Marion Cotillard
for La Vie en Rose Best Actress
2008
for The Reader Succeeded by
TBD
Golden Globe Awards
Preceded by
Cate Blanchett
for I'm Not There Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2008
for The Reader Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Julie Christie
for Away from Her Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2008
for Revolutionary Road Succeeded by
TBD
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Preceded by
Dianne Wiest
for Bullets Over Broadway Outstanding Supporting Actress
1995
for Sense and Sensibility Succeeded by
Lauren Bacall
for The Mirror Has Two Faces
Preceded by
Ruby Dee
for American Gangster Outstanding Supporting Actress
2008
for The Reader Succeeded by
TBD
[hide]
v o d o eAcademy Award forBest Actress
Halle Berry (2001) · Nicole Kidman (2002) · Charlize Theron (2003) · Hilary Swank (2004) · Reese Witherspoon (2005) · Helen Mirren (2006) · Marion Cotillard (2007) · Kate Winslet (2008)
________________________________

Complete list · (1928-1940) · (1941-1960) · (1961-1980) · (1981-2000) · (2001-present)

Persondata
NAME Winslet, Kate Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English actress
DATE OF BIRTH 5 October 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Reading, Berkshire, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Winslet"
Categories: 1975 births | BAFTA winners (people) | Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners | Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners | Best Actress Academy Award winners | English Anglicans | English film actors | English stage actors | English television actors | English voice actors | Grammy Award winners | Living people | People from Reading, Berkshire | Shakespearean actors
Hidden categories: Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2009

Yeh dil maange more
Times of India -Â â€Ž13 hours agoâ€Ž
... pumps worn by Freida Pinto on the Vogue cover or a private tete-a-tete with Kate Winslet on your honeymoon - it's all about accessing the inaccessible! ...

Indian Express
Kate Winslet named `Ultimate Natural Beauty'
Indian Express -Â â€ŽApr 20, 2009â€Ž
Oscar winning actress Kate Winslet has been named the `Ultimate Natural Beauty' in a new poll. The `Titanic' star was given the title for having `a classic ...
Kate Winslet 'most natural beauty' Metro
Kate Winslet tops natural beauty poll Digital Spy
Kate Winslet Wins Beauty Title FemaleFirst.co.uk
The Sun
and more »

Allure Magazine
Kate Winslet handed top beauty honour
3 News NZ -Â â€ŽApr 23, 2009â€Ž
Kate Winslet's classic English rose looks have been honoured - she's been named the ultimate natural beauty in a new poll. The Titanic star topped a survey ...
Winslet Recognized For Her Beauty CareFair.com
Who's The Top Timeless Beauty? Allure Magazine
and more »
Amazing performance by Kate Winslet
Canada.com -Â â€ŽApr 17, 2009â€Ž
In the case of Kate Winslet's turn in Stephen Daldry's The Reader, the novel emotional destination is just part of the triumph as Winslet yanks us into the ...
NEW ON DVD: Controversial 'Reader,' with a winning Kate Winslet Chicago Tribune
New on DVD: Winslet in `The Reader' Inside NoVA
Schlink on the Screen The Vienna Review
Fort Worth Star Telegram - Albany Times Union
and more »
dvds Released This Week, April 26 edition
Reading Eagle -Â â€Ž10 hours agoâ€Ž
(PG-13: P, V) ``REVOLUTIONARY ROAD'' (June 2): ``Titanic'' stars Leonardo dicaprio and Kate Winslet reunite as a 1950s couple whose seemingly idyllic life ...

Movie City News
Fearless acting by Winslet propels Reader into top 10
Calgary Herald -Â â€ŽApr 14, 2009â€Ž
In the case of Kate Winslet's turn in Stephen Daldry's The Reader, the novel emotional destination is just part of the triumph as Winslet yanks us into the ...
Finding More Context for 'The Reader' Washington Post
"The Reader," "The Spirit" released Seattle Times
New on DVD: 'The Reader,' 'The Spirit,' 'Splinter' New York Daily News
Akron Beacon Journal - Salt Lake Tribune
and more »

X17 Online
Kate Winslet with daughter Mia in New York City
South Asian Women's Forum -Â â€ŽApr 17, 2009â€Ž
Oscar winner Kate Winslet was on a girls' day out with 8-year-old daughter Mia Honey on Friday, April 17. Photo Credit: Splash News April 17, 2009, ...
Kate Winslet's everyone's favourite woman Reading Evening Post
Kate Keeps it Casual X17 Online
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Palash Biswas

Pl Read my blogs:

http://nandigramunited.blogspot.com/

http://www.bangaindigenous.blogspot.com/

http://www.troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/

palashcbiswas,
gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551

Messages in this topic (1)
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7. Deobandi Mullahs, International Banking and Militancy.
Posted by: "Mansoor Hallaj" tarot66@yahoo.com tarot66
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Consider the board chairman of the Dow Jones Islamic Index (IMANX), one Mufti Taqi Usmani. Mr. Usmani is widely reputed to be one of the world´s top experts on sharia finance. Whatever his stockpicking abilities may be, they are dwarfed by his jihadist credentials. A key executive of Pakistan´s prominent Deobandi jihadist factory, the madrassa Darul Karoom Karachi (currently headed by his brother, Rafi Usmani), Taqi Usmani has openly advocated jihad by Muslims in the West, and just last month again publicly endorsed suicide bombing and the Taliban.

Jihad Comes to Wall Street "Sharia finance" does exactly what it promises, financing the spread of sharia - and terror. By Alex Alexiev

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjBhMTM5MTlmN2YzNzE0MmFkOTg2OGYxNWM2MGNiNTQ=

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjBhMTM5MTlmN2YzNzE0MmFkOTg2OGYxNWM2MGNiNTQ=&w=MQ==

If you´ve seen Geert Wilders´s film Fitna, you may not have noticed a single headline amongst all the bombings, beheadings, and earnest expressions of Islam´s eventual world domination: Halal-fund: investments for Muslims. But the investment vehicles referenced are an essential part of radical Islam´s efforts to insinuate itself into Western societies in order to destroy them from within. And Wall Street, barely out of the woods from its disastrous run-in with sub-prime mortgages - and having lost one of its historic investment houses, Bear Stearns, in the process - is now chasing the very kind of "sharia finance" against which Wilders's movie warns, a business line that may eventually wind up being even more calamitous than the subprime-mortgage fiasco.

For the growing army of its acolytes, who salivate at the prospect of tens of billions of dollars in transaction fees from the burgeoning industry, sharia-compliant finance is seen as little more than a cuddly Islamic version of socially conscious investment - with ethical strictures forbidding usury and sin industries, and emphasizing charity. Indeed, a conference on the subject last Fall co-sponsored by the Wall Street Journal was titled just that: "Islamic Ethical Investment." According to this rosy interpretation, sharia finance is a windfall for capital markets - allowing Wall Street to skim some foam off the ocean of petrodollar liquidity in the Middle East, and put it to good use.

#ad#Other interpretations are possible, of course. Critics see sharia finance as a massive subversion campaign by radical Islam designed to legitimize sharia in the West, to undermine our markets, and ultimately to imperil our free-enterprise system and national security - all the while exposing banks to financial risks that make the sub-prime fiasco look like a walk in the park. For its proponents and ideological enablers - such as the well known suicide-bombing advocate, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi - sharia finance is nothing less than "Jihad with money." As al-Qaradawi explains, "God has ordered us to fight enemies with our lives and with our money." Unfortunately for Wall Street, it´s hard to argue with the good sheikh on that score. Far from being a guide to ethical investment, sharia finance is indistinguishable from sharia itself.

Sharia is a reactionary-to-the-core medieval Islamic doctrine that claims control over every aspect of every Muslim´s life. It imposes such "ethical" mandates on Muslims as the obligation to discriminate against women and non-Muslims; to kill homosexuals, adulterers, and apostates; to establish and maintain Muslim rule around the world; and to carry out violent offensive jihad against infidels. Notably, for those Muslims who cannot engage in physical jihad using force of arms, sharia requires that they support jihad financially. This is what sharia finance is all about.

Far from being a legitimate investment vehicle, sharia finance facilitates religiously sanctioned support for terrorist organizations - as well as providing radical Islamists with highly paid sinecures as sharia-finance board advisors in the sanctum sanctorum of capitalism, all the while that they are pursuing a subversive campaign to destroy it.

Predictably, none of this is even remotely disclosed by any of the dozens of Western banks promoting sharia finance today, which obviously exposes them to huge non-disclosure risks ranging from fraudulent misrepresentation, to material support for terrorism.

Consider the board chairman of the Dow Jones Islamic Index (IMANX), one Mufti Taqi Usmani. Mr. Usmani is widely reputed to be one of the world´s top experts on sharia finance. Whatever his stockpicking abilities may be, they are dwarfed by his jihadist credentials. A key executive of Pakistan´s prominent Deobandi jihadist factory, the madrassa Darul Karoom Karachi (currently headed by his brother, Rafi Usmani), Taqi Usmani has openly advocated jihad by Muslims in the West, and just last month again publicly endorsed suicide bombing and the Taliban.

Since sharia-finance funds like the IMANX may invest in companies that are not completely halal - that derive their profit from interest or other sharia-prohibited activities - returns on investment in those companies must be purified by donating a portion of that ROI to charity. More often than not, it is people like Usmani who are paid lucratively to sit on sharia-finance boards in order to determine what charities will receive the sharia-finance institutions´ donations - and it´s a fair bet that the March of Dimes is not among them.

IMANX itself is owned and operated by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), an organization listed as an un-indicted co-conspirator by the Department of Justice in a recent terrorism-finance trial, and the proprietor of hundreds of radical mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S., including some that have been closed down by the government as criminal enterprises.

The chairman of both NAIT and IMANX, Bassam Osman, has been the top executive of terrorist-funding organizations like the Quranic Literacy Institute (suspected financiers of Hamas whose assets were seized by the U.S. in 1998) and the Islamic Academy of Florida (founded by Sami al-Arian, a convicted financier of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist criminal enterprise), and is a board member of other un-indicted co-conspirators like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Is Dow Jones aware of all this? Is Rupert Murdoch? And if they are not, shouldn´t they be?

The IMANX marketing slogan is "Markets Fluctuate. Principles Don´t." Judging by the ideological principles of those involved in its leadership, that is precisely what Wall Street - and the West - should fear.

The legitimization of sharia in the West and its gradual imposition in Muslim communities and beyond is a key objective of sharia finance, and there is no doubt it has already made huge strides. Indeed, the precedent of legal sharia-finance transactions was used by the hapless archbishop of Canterbury to buttress his argument that introducing sharia in the United Kingdom was unavoidable.

Given the reality of malignant Islamism now spreading into our own capital markets to the loud cheers of the same Wall Street masters of the universe who gave us sub-prime mortgage securitization, Americans have a right to ask: Where are the U.S. Treasury Department and the SEC, whose job it is to protect our markets? Given the outright fraudulent misrepresentation of the potential liabilities of sharia-finance funds under existing regulations, they should get involved soon.

- Alex Alexiev is vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy.

Messages in this topic (1)
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8. corrected message puj
Posted by: "DGPR Handouts" dgprhandouts@gmail.com
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

1 of 1 Photo(s) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/communistpartyofpakistan/attachments/folder/770021294/item/list

pujs.jpg

Messages in this topic (1)
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9a. Re: Soonni Arab bombings of Shiya Arabs in Iraq
Posted by: "Jimmy Jumshade" jimmybug@rocketmail.com
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

What the heck is: "Soonni??!!"

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, S Turkman <turkman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: S Turkman <turkman@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Rawalpindi] Soonni Arab bombings of Shiya Arabs in Iraq
To: communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com
Cc: pakhtu@yahoogroups.com, pashtunpf_uk@yahoogroups.com, Baba_e_Balochistan@yahoogroups.com, balawaristan@gmail.com, Sindhpost@yahoogroups.come, hyderabad_waly-digest@yahoogroups.com, izlamabad@yahoogroups.com, rawalpindi2@yahoogroups.com, pakistaniz@yahoogroups.com, "Z" <pakistan-zindabad@yahoogroups.com>, "T nk" <think-tank-of-pakistan@yahoogroups.com>, karachi_ki_awaz@yahoogroups.com, KarachiCity@yahoogroups.com, Karachi-Waly@yahoogroups.com, kool-karachi@yahoogroups.com, friendly_peoples@yahoogroups.com, friendzsoul@yahoogroups.com, friendzspot@yahoogroups.com, insaaniyatlist@yahoogroups.com, PWAP@yahoogroups.com, indiathinkersnet@yahoogroups.com, "7 ro" <sa7rong@yahoogroups.com>, "t t" <tritiomatra@yahoogroups.com>, bogra@yahoogroups.com, "di a" <Diagnose@yahoogroups.com>, the_real_women@yahoogroups.com, v_expressions@yahoogroups.com, Outclass@yahoogroups.com, "syed-mohsin naquvi" <mnaquvi@yahoo.com>
Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 12:51 PM

Mr. Naqvi,
.
Whatever USA does can not change the hate of Soonni Arabs against Arab Shiyaa majority of Iraq.
.
FACTS:
.
Do you know, ...
.
* ... only 12% of Iraq's Soonni Arab population had been ruling Iraq for centuries?
* ... how many times ruling Soonni Arabs had slaughtered Shiyaas of Iraq in the past and how many?
* ... Saudis enter Iraq to blow-up Shiyaas taking revenge against killings of their Arab Soonnis that they had faced after Saddam was toppled?
* ... 95% of the 5 million Iraqi Refugees in Syrian and Jordanian UN Refugee Camps are Soonni Arabs and 2% are Christians and Pagans beaten out of Iraq by Shiyaa Extremists backed by Iran?
* ... Saudis do not provide any financial help to those Refugees except after watching their daughters dance in Syrian Nude Bars or after having Sex with their daughters in the towns bordering Saudi Arabia?
* ... UNCHR is spending $ 1.6 billion a year on Refugees just in Syria but no Moslim Country is spending a Penny on Iraqi Refugess except Syria and Jordan?
* ... 1200 of those Non Moslim Iraqi Refugees families in Syria have been granted Political Asylum in the West and USA but no rich Moslim Country has given Immigration to any of the Moslim Regugees in Jordan and Syria because all they want is Slavish cheap labor out of poor Moslim?

Othe Statistical Info:

* Iraq's Population 29 million before US Invasion. Present 24 million (population decreased because 5 million Iraqis are now Regugees in other countries, not because of killings because Birth Rate equals that decrease in population).
* Before US Invasion: Arabs 65%, Turkish speaking Kurds 23%, Persian Speaking Azerbaijani 5.6%, Turkish speaking Turkman 1.2%, Persians 1.1%.
* Now Arabs 46%, Kurds 28%, Azeri 6.5%, Turkman 1.5%, Persians 1.4%.
*  Before: Shiya 62%, Soonnis 34%, Christians 3.2%, Yazidi Pagans 0.8%.
* Now: Shiya 70%, Sonnis 28%, Christians 1.5%, Yazidi 0.5%.
* Not as many Christians were killed by Moslim Arabs in Kurdistan or Northern Iraq.
* Before Invasion Arab Soonnis: 12%, Now 7% (21% of rest of left-over Soonis are Non Arabs).
* Sonni Arab and Non Moslim Refugees in Syria, Jordan and other countries: 5 million.
* Before Invasion Shiya Arabs: 61%, Now 69%.
* Iraqis dead since Invasion because of Shiya-Soonni War are equal to new births since then therefore, no population increase in Iraqis in Iraq or as Regugess since then.

    ---------------------------------.
--- syed-mohsin naquvi <mnaquvi@...> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
> Â
> As US government's new policies announce the eventual withdrawal of the US forces out of Iraq, a new wave of violence and intimidation begins.
> Â
> Pilgrims who had gathered to visit the shrine of the seventh Imam at Kazmayn have been targetted for suicide bombings.
> Â
> We had visited the shrine only three months ago (January 2009) and everything looked so peaceful and under control. But suddenly this happens.
> Â
> Whatever the US policies, one thig has become very apparent in the last few months. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban cannot be negotiated with. Their sole aim is to craete anarchy in the world. They have to be eradicated like an infectious disease.
> Â
> Read on.
> Â
> Thank you.
> Â
> Sincerely,
> Â
> Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
> ===========================================
> Â
> Storm of Violence in Iraq Strains Its Security Forces
>
> Christoph Bangert for The New York Times
> Above, a child at a hospital after the bombings on Friday.
>
> Â
> By STEVEN LEE MYERS and SAM DAGHER
> Â
> Published: April 24, 2009
>
> Â
> BAGHDAD âEUR" A deadly outburst of violence appears to be overwhelming IraqâEURTMs police and military forces as American troops hand over greater control of cities across the country to them. On Friday, twin suicide bombings killed at least 60 people outside BaghdadâEURTMs most revered Shiite shrine, pushing the death toll in one 24-hour period to nearly 150.
> Â
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To read the full report visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/middleeast/25iraq.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

Messages in this topic (2)
________________________________________________________________________
9b. Soonni Arab bombings of Shiya Arabs in Iraq
Posted by: "S Turkman" turkman@sbcglobal.net torkmaan
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Mr. Naqvi,
.
Whatever USA does can not change the hate of Soonni Arabs against Arab Shiyaa majority of Iraq.
.
FACTS:
.
Do you know, ...
.
* ... only 12% of Iraq's Soonni Arab population had been ruling Iraq for centuries?
* ... how many times ruling Soonni Arabs had slaughtered Shiyaas of Iraq in the past and how many?
* ... Saudis enter Iraq to blow-up Shiyaas taking revenge against killings of their Arab Soonnis that they had faced after Saddam was toppled?
* ... 95% of the 5 million Iraqi Refugees in Syrian and Jordanian UN Refugee Camps are Soonni Arabs and 2% are Christians and Pagans beaten out of Iraq by Shiyaa Extremists backed by Iran?
* ... Saudis do not provide any financial help to those Refugees except after watching their daughters dance in Syrian Nude Bars or after having Sex with their daughters in the towns bordering Saudi Arabia?
* ... UNCHR is spending $ 1.6 billion a year on Refugees just in Syria but no Moslim Country is spending a Penny on Iraqi Refugess except Syria and Jordan?
* ... 1200 of those Non Moslim Iraqi Refugees families in Syria have been granted Political Asylum in the West and USA but no rich Moslim Country has given Immigration to any of the Moslim Regugees in Jordan and Syria because all they want is Slavish cheap labor out of poor Moslim?

Othe Statistical Info:

* Iraq's Population 29 million before US Invasion. Present 24 million (population decreased because 5 million Iraqis are now Regugees in other countries, not because of killings because Birth Rate equals that decrease in population).
* Before US Invasion: Arabs 65%, Turkish speaking Kurds 23%, Persian Speaking Azerbaijani 5.6%, Turkish speaking Turkman 1.2%, Persians 1.1%.
* Now Arabs 46%, Kurds 28%, Azeri 6.5%, Turkman 1.5%, Persians 1.4%.
*  Before: Shiya 62%, Soonnis 34%, Christians 3.2%, Yazidi Pagans 0.8%.
* Now: Shiya 70%, Sonnis 28%, Christians 1.5%, Yazidi 0.5%.
* Not as many Christians were killed by Moslim Arabs in Kurdistan or Northern Iraq.
* Before Invasion Arab Soonnis: 12%, Now 7% (21% of rest of left-over Soonis are Non Arabs).
* Sonni Arab and Non Moslim Refugees in Syria, Jordan and other countries: 5 million.
* Before Invasion Shiya Arabs: 61%, Now 69%.
* Iraqis dead since Invasion because of Shiya-Soonni War are equal to new births since then therefore, no population increase in Iraqis in Iraq or as Regugess since then.

    ---------------------------------.
--- syed-mohsin naquvi <mnaquvi@...> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
> Â
> As US government's new policies announce the eventual withdrawal of the US forces out of Iraq, a new wave of violence and intimidation begins.
> Â
> Pilgrims who had gathered to visit the shrine of the seventh Imam at Kazmayn have been targetted for suicide bombings.
> Â
> We had visited the shrine only three months ago (January 2009) and everything looked so peaceful and under control. But suddenly this happens.
> Â
> Whatever the US policies, one thig has become very apparent in the last few months. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban cannot be negotiated with. Their sole aim is to craete anarchy in the world. They have to be eradicated like an infectious disease.
> Â
> Read on.
> Â
> Thank you.
> Â
> Sincerely,
> Â
> Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
> ===========================================
> Â
> Storm of Violence in Iraq Strains Its Security Forces
>
> Christoph Bangert for The New York Times
> Above, a child at a hospital after the bombings on Friday.
>
> Â
> By STEVEN LEE MYERS and SAM DAGHER
> Â
> Published: April 24, 2009
>
> Â
> BAGHDAD âEUR" A deadly outburst of violence appears to be overwhelming IraqâEURTMs police and military forces as American troops hand over greater control of cities across the country to them. On Friday, twin suicide bombings killed at least 60 people outside BaghdadâEURTMs most revered Shiite shrine, pushing the death toll in one 24-hour period to nearly 150.
> Â
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To read the full report visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/middleeast/25iraq.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

Messages in this topic (2)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
10. Dr Mehdi Hasan on Pakistan.
Posted by: "Mansoor Hallaj" tarot66@yahoo.com tarot66
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

The Man Who Stooped to Conquer by Dr. Mehdi Hasan

Dr. Mehdi Hasan is the Vice Chairperson (Punjab) of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Dean of School of Media & Communication at Beaconhouse National University.

The Man Who Stooped to Conquer by Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Dated, September 8, 1998

After the conviction of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto by the Supreme Court, the heads of several countries urged the Chief Martial Law Administrator Gen. Ziaul Haq to remit the death sentence. The Western mediastated that a dead Bhutto would prove more dangerous for the military junta then a Bhutto alive.

This statement proved correct, but partially. A dead Bhutto was dangerous, only so far as he kept the PPP alive despite chaotic conditions among the leadership ranks and an onslaught by the military junta.

On the other hand, the legacy Bhutto's Frankenstein, Ziaul Haq left behind has proved more dangerous and more harmful for Pakistan. He has left so deep an imprint on society that even nine years after his death, the country remains under his shadow.

The worst conditions of law and order, unparalleled corruption national life, seemingly unstoppable sectarian sectarian violence, political opportunism, tax evasion, smuggling and anti-people stance of all governments after 1977 are some of the legacies of the departed military ruler, the most ruthless of all dictators Pakistan has had so far. And he did it all with a smile.

Gen. Zia was a master in the art of seeking favors from the right quarters, someone who did not mind stooping low in his attempt to conquer hearts. Ministers in ZA Bhutto's cabinet used to narrate an incident when during a break at a meeting a few drops of tea trickled from the cup on to prime minister's shoes. Gen. Zia quickly took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the shoe clean. According to another story, when Prime Minister Bhutto appointed him as the army chief, General Zia, on his own, called for a copy of the Quran and pledged his allegiance to the prime minister.

Zia didn't do this purely out of courtesy: he was careful that his good acts were properly registered.

A Karachi-based interior decorator narrates how he was assigned to renovate Mr. Bhutto's residence in Ghar Khuda Baksh in the 1970s and how he came across Gen. Zia there. He says that one evening he went to the family graveyard of the Bhutto's to offer fateha, to be followed there a few minutes later by Zia. The general also offered fateha and the started to dust the grave of Bhutto's father, Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto, with a broom. On enquiry, he said, he respected Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto like his own father and it was an honor for him to sweep his grave.

The interior decorator was impressed - until the general requested him to narrate the episode to Mr. Bhutto whenever he got the opportunity.

After he captured power on the night between July 4 and July 5 1977, it was largely his public relationing skills which made Zia appear as someone who could get away with anything. Even murder.

The general like to describe himself as a reluctant ruler, an assertion obviously directed at providing his ruthless acts a benign cover. He would give a helping hand to a toddler son of the Indian film actor Shatrugan Sinha to climb up the ladder in the C-in-C House and ask the child to call him grandfather.

He was fully aware of the importance of the Middle Eastern countries in Pakistan's foreign policy, especially in the background of the successful held Islamic summit, ironically by Bhutto, in 1974 at Lahore. Therefore, when he by-passed his announcement to hold election in 90 days, he decided to visit Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa. After all he had rebelled against and imprisoned the president of the Islamic Conference and an immediate damage-control job was called for. He visited Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Libya. General Zia's visit to Libya had a special significance, as Qaddafi was a close friend of Bhutto. Libya, during Bhutto's time, had a large number of Pakistan Air Force men serving there on deputation. Besides, a small contingent of officers and men from Pakistan Navy was also stationed there on deputation. How Zia went about soliciting support of the large number of Pakistanis working there provides another
example of his public relationing skills.

His entourage included Gen. FA Chistie, Air Cdr. Waqar Azim and Group Capt. MM Alam, who was especially included in the entourage. Only a few years earlier, at the outbreak of the Middle East war in 1973, Prime Minister Bhutto had sent a contingent of air defense controllers and fighter pilots to Syria, Jordan, Libya and Egypt as a gesture of solidarity. Alam was included in that contingent and was now recognized as a hero of the 1965 war with India.

After landing in Libya on November 5, 1977, Zia was driven straight to the state guesthouse and told to wait until Qaddafi could spare some time for him.

Meanwhile, Alam and Waqar Azeem arrived at Tripoli's biggest airbase, where majority of the Pakistani officers was stationed. All the Pakistani officers at the base were asked to gather and listen to the two PAF officers.

The visit came only five months after the imposition of martial law and the unkept promise of an election within 90 days was fresh in people's memory. Naturally, much of the discussion centered on the political situation back home. The opinion of the officers stationed in Libya was distinctly divided. Some believed the country had once again been rescued by the armed forces, while others held that something bad an unusual had happened in the form of martial law.

The two senior PAF visitors listened to the deputationists patiently and told them that Gen. Ziaul Haq would see them the next morning and answer whatever questions they had in mind.

Later, the PAF and Naval officers were summoned to attend Gen. Zia's briefing at the Pakistan embassy. Muslehuddin, the news controller of PTV, was present with his crew to record the proceedings. Some of the officers attended the meeting in civilian clothes as they served in Libya without uniform.

The general began the show by greeting everyone with his famous smile. Then he asked the television crew to leave, as the proceedings were off-the record. The process of making the tense atmosphere informal and cordial had begun.

Next, instead of occupying the presidential chair, he chose an ordinary seat placed against a small table. Still smiling, he began to address the audience. He said that being away from their country the officers might genuinely be worried about the events in Pakistan. And since he thought they were sure to already have an idea of the circumstances in which the army had to move in, he directly invited questions from the officers, without wasting any time on details. Obviously, Zia wanted to gauge the audience's mood before what he would say to them.

It was a few minutes before an officer broke the silence - in civilian dress. But first he introduced himself: "Sir, I am Flt, Lt. XYZ, Pak Number such and such and belonging to so and so branch of the PAF." Now, according to general convention, the officers of the armed forces divulge this information about themselves when kept as POWs. Senior officers present considered it a sarcastic remark on Martial Law, while the officer concerned might have in fact thought that since he was in civilian dress the introduction was necessary.

Even if it was meant to be sarcastic, the general ignored it and smilingly allowed the question. The officer reminded Zia that all martial laws in the past were imposed in the name of law and order and it was promised that democracy would be restored once the politics had been cleaned up. But that had never happened; what were the guarantees that Zia would leave after fulfilling his promise of holding elections?

General Ziaul Haq defended his act, saying that it had become unavoidable because of the rigging of the elections and mistreating the opposition alliance PNA. He told that gathering that due to Bhutto's policies, Pakistan had been totally cut off from the US and was almost at the point of entering the Soviet Bloc.

The questioner was not satisfied and proceeded with another query. He said that all persons in uniform were associated with Martial Law and therefore they were embarrassed to face the public.

That gave Zia something to Zia, which was certain to appeal to the gathering. He told them how the honor of the armed forces was endangered prior to the imposition of Martial Law and how it had been saved by his timely action.

Bhutto, he said, had called him earlier that year and expressed his dismay at the langra loola (crippled) military action against the PNA. "Why can't you call a few dozen of few hundred people to save the constitution and democratic government?" General Zia quoted Bhutto as asking him.

He said he told the Prime Minister that killing of few hundred people would not serve the purpose and the cost of such an action could go up to twenty thousand lives. If Zia's revelations were to be believed, Bhutto did not mind the price, maintaining that after all the army DID kill thousands of people in East Pakistan in an attempt to save the country. Notwithstanding whether he actually said it to Bhutto or not, the answer as related by Zia to the Tripoli audience did certainly have an element of truth in it. He said his reply was: There is a difference between East and West Pakistan. Pakistan army could not kill people in West Pakistan.

Today, in what is left of Pakistan, the political setup headed by Mian Nawaz Sharif and his close associates was built and patronized by Gen. Ziaul Haq in his 11-year rule. Although he was forced to pick up a Sindhi, Mohammad Khan Junejo, to head the civilian administration under the Martial Law umbrella, Zia did not have a smooth relationship with his own political choice; he ultimately sacked Junejo and fell back on his biggest support base - Punjab.

The acknowledgement and acceptance Gen. Zia received from Punjab was missing from other provinces. Even now huge hoardings and banners have been erected in Lahore to commemorate the death anniversary of Pakistan's last military ruler. Temporarily removed because of the August 14 celebrations, they display a smiling Zia and also show the province's inclination to condone military action.

The rise of Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan, in fact, was the continuation of the Zia-wave in Punjab. It is hardly surprising then that Nawaz has agreed to visit Zia's grave in Islamabad to commemorate the last military dictator's death anniversary.

http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/04/man-who-stooped-to-conquer-by-dr-mehdi.html

URL: http://www.chowk.com/articles/4321

Giving Way to Intolerance by Dr. Mehdi Hasan

Dr. Mehdi Hasan is the Vice Chairperson (Punjab) of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Dean of School of Media & Communication at Beaconhouse National University.
Talking Faith - Dr Mehdi Hassan [Video]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3371930000326799954

Giving Way to Intolerance by Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Dated, September 14, 1998

During the last many years, religious intolerance and sectarian fanaticism have created a war-like situation in Pakistan. The amount of freedom available to the forces of obscurantism to spit venom against each other and tobrandish sophisticated lethal weapons in public is in contrast to the general condition of individual freedom and liberty in Pakistani society after the post-independence period.

Extremist religious and sectarian tendencies surfaced for the first time as early as November 1947, when one of the religious parties of pre-independence days, the Majlis-i-Ahrar, decided to revive itself. Since then it has been a story of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear, and in certain cases offering government patronage and pampering towards the dangerous and harmful activities of these elements.

During the dark age of General Zia-ul-Haq, small religio-political groups, with little or no suport from the public, were able to assume a militant posture through state patronage, as the unconstitutional and authoritarian regime nurtured these groups for its own benefit. The military dictator had decided to use the slogan of 'Islam', or rather his own brand of the religion, to prolong his period of power. To do so, he halted all activities that could lead to people demanding democracy and the establishment of an enlightened and liberal society. The vacuum created by the absence of healthy political activities was filled by the forces of obscurantism and fanaticism.

How these militant religio-political groups were allowed to preach hatred and practice violence to an extent that led to a point of no return in a society where freedom of expression and the concept of individual liberty had always been an illusion, is an interesting, but painful, study.

At the time of independence, the newly constituted government of the All India Muslim League that adopted the name of the Pakistan Muslim League, inherited British colonial laws and ran the newly independent state of Pakistan according to these. The ruling elite, being faithful and obedient servants of the British colonialists, followed these laws faithfully including laws restricting the freedom to print, publish and express certain views.

These primitive colonial laws had originated in 1799, in the days of the East India company, and were updated from time to time. They were frequently used by the governments against political opponents and publications which challenged their right to power, including works of fiction and literature. The custodians of law were specially quick to pounce on the work of writers, poets, and scholars who were in line with the ideology of the Progressive Writers Movement, founded in 1936. The writers belonging to this movement had contributed considerably to the formation of progressive and enlightened public opinion in South Asia.

The government of Pakistan decided to follow the policy of the West, to become an important ally of the West at the height of the cold war, and to act as the front-line state to check communist expansion. In line with this policy, the freedom of dozens of progressive political workers was restricted. Publication of progressive thoughts and opinions was banned, and declared as 'Communist Literature'. In the Punjab alone, 31 newspapers and magazines were banned to their political difference with the administration, including the cancellation of the declaration of the daily Nawa-i-Waqt, during the first seven years of independence. Mr. Z.A. Suleri's paper was also closed down and he was arrested and prosecuted. The greatest short story writer of Urdu, Saadat Hassan Manto, was charged with obscenity five times. At the same time newspapers, magazines and wall chalkings were full of advertisements for products to enhance sexual abilities. Scores of political
workers of the Communist Party of Pakistan, the Democratic Students Federation and various trade unions were constantly harassed by the intelligence agencies, even after these organisations were banned in 1953 and 1954 respectively.

The government, on the one hand, was extremely careful in ensuring that the ideas and opinions communicated to the people were meticulously filtered, while on the other hand religious groups and individuals exploiting the religious sentiments of the masses were given full freedom and liberty to poison through their vicious attitudes, the society in the newly established state of Pakistan, the creation of which they had so vehemently opposed in the recent past.

The first crisis of a religious nature was created in November 1947, when the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Hind announced its revival as a party in Pakistan. The Majlis-i-Ahrar, organised in 1931, had opposed all other religious organisations aof Muslims, and the separatist politics of All India Muslim League. And in doing so, the leaders of this organisation had abused and maligned Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and other prominent leaders of the Pakistan movement.

According to intelligence reports dating back to pre-independence and post independence days and governor punjab Sardar Abdur Rab Nashtar, obscene and filthy language was the trademark of the Ahraris.

When they announced their revival at a Karachi convention on November 18, 1947, they stuck to these traditions and abused the Quaid-i-Azam, and held him responsible for the abduction and rape of 50,000 Muslim women at the time of independence. They alleged that "Jinnah was in a hurry to become the Governor General of Pakistan and sacrificed the lives and honour of millions of Muslims for the purpose." The Ahrar leaders also abused foreign minister Chaudhri Zafarullah and the prime minister's wife, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali.

This was to be the beginning of a prolonged, slanderous and violent campaign in the name of religion that ultimately resulted in the worst kind of law and order situation. Localised martial law had to be imposed in parts of the Punjab. In 1950-51, an emergency was formally imposed but the violent campaign continued unabated. On August 11, 1948, during a public meeting of Ahrar in Quetta, the audience lynched a serving major, Dr. Mehmud Ahmad, whose car had broken down neat the venue of the meeting. No action was taken.

Interestingly, almost everyone in the administration seemed convinced that the religious provocateurs were against the creation of a peaceful, democratic society, and were out to exploit religious sentiments to rehabilitate their lost prestige and credibility - but no serious effort was made to curb these dangerous tendencies. As a result the violence reached a point where martial law had to be imposed in March 1953 in some parts of Punjab after large-scale riots and arson. In Lahore, those who called themselves religious leaders declared their own 'government' with Masjid Wazir Khan as the government headquarters. The army, called in to restore the authority of the government, succeeded in controlling the situation within six hours. About 20 persons were killed and 60 wounded.

Although the explosive situation created in the name of religion had been brought under control temporarily, the religious pressure groups had gathered momentum after being completely washed out during the struggle for Pakistan. The separate state for Muslims was created as a result of a constitutional struggle and political movement based on modern democratic principles led by an enlightened, progressive and forward looking leadership. The revival of the religious pressure groups had been possible through the exploitation of religious, sectarian and communal feelings in violation of all democratic norms and values. It seemed strange that the rulers of the newly independent Pakistan had come to power through a democratic process, but succumbed, wittingly or unwittingly, to fascist tendencies and tactics at the initial stage of the democratic era.

After the religio-political crisis had been forced to subside temporarily, another small religion based party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, emerged on the political scene and declared Pakistan a 'laboratory' in which it would experiment on Islam according to its own interpretation. Interestingly, the same group of 'scholars in Islamic thought' had opposed the establishment of this 'laboratory' a few years previously. The ruling elite of Pakistan, who had lost touch with the masses soon after coming to power, made no attempt to counter the misinterpretation of recent historical events, and remained engaged in intrigues to gain power and in search for shortcuts and back door routes to the corridors of power.

During military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan, the use of all the restrictive and oppressive laws of the past, as well as new ones imposed by the authoritarian regime, continued against all enlightened and progressive forces of society. The prestigious establishment of Mian Iftikharuddin, the Progressive Papers Limited, was confiscated by the military junta at the beginning of this era of naked authoritarianism. Ayub Khan had a team of civil bureaucrats who were fond of being called intellectuals. This team of pseudo-intellectuals helped him in thwarting liberalism and enlightenment, while obscurantism flourished unchecked and the 'laboratory attendants' discreetly infiltrated all important and strategic spheres of national life.

The second martial Law of General Agha Mohammad Yahya continued the same policy of officially patronising religious fascist groups, and oppressing progressive thought. During an unusually prolonged and aggressive election campaign in politically anarchic conditions, the mushroom growth of political groups unleashed a violent religious propaganda campaign against democratic and nationalist forces. All these political parties and personalities were declared 'kafirs', 'anti-Pakistan' or 'agents of the enemy', although they stood for the solution of the various economic, social and political problems of the masses.

The politico-religious groups coined a new term, 'Nazaria-e-Pakistan' (Ideology of Pakistan), and distorted the history of the struggle for Pakistan in an attempt to fit themselves into the course of events. The verdict of the people once again went against the exploiters of religious emotions, and the enemies of democracy and enlightenment were defeated. After the 1966 elections, the 1970 elections once again proved beyond doubt that Pakistan was created, and must exist, as a modern, progressive democratic state. However, the usurpers created a political crisis by refusing to honour the verdict of the people.

The anti-democracy elements exploited the situation and tried to enter the corridors of power through the back door on one pretext or the other. The people of East Pakistan were forced to a point of no return. The newly coined term of 'Nazaria-i-Pakistan Kay Dushman' (Enemies of the ideology of Pakistan) was used against the majority of the country's population and military action was resorted to with the active participation of the defeated religious forces. After much bloodshed and political victimization of the worst kind, the military rulers were defeated in the battlefield and Bangladesh was created.

After the surrender of the Pakistani armed forces in Dhaka, in the remaining part of Pakistan people were totally demoralized and uncertain of their future. At that critical juncture, the self-styled custodians of Islam also vanished from the political horizon. The Pakistan People's Party and Z.A. Bhutto were chosen by the defeated military junta, who had realised that it was not possible for them to remain in power after the debacle in the eastern wing, and some strategic bungling of the western front. General Yahya was cast as a scapegoat, and Bhutto was given the uphill task of rebuilding a smashed nation.

Bhutto, through his untiring efforts, popular support from the downtrodden, and the selfless contribution from a team of sincere and honest comrades, was able to revive the nation in a very short time. But once the confidence of the nation was restored and it had taken the right path to progress and prosperity by establishing a society free of exploitation, the anti-people forces again reappeared. Moreover, Bhutto also fell a victim to obscurantism, and a large number of the traditionally corrupt ruling elite of the past jumped on to the PPP bandwagon.

The large scale influx of people with a totally different approach to politics changed the complexion of the party so much that the founding fathers of the party were elbowed out by persons like Kausar Niazi, Sadiq Hussain Qureshi and other of the same creed. Consequently, the party was unable to counter the violent agitation of the defeated opposition alliance of nine parties of conflicting political ideologies. Bhutto, surrounded by political opportunists, tried to tackle the violent movement started in the name of religion, using their tactics, and through half-hearted religious actions.

After he had declared 'Ahmadis' as non-Muslims in the Constitution, thus authorising the state to decide about the faith and belief of its subjects, he considered himself to be an upholder of the ideology of Islam like any other bearded maulana. Perhaps he made a mistake by not recognising the real reason for the inherent enmity of the political monopolists towards the Pakistan People's Party, which stood for the cause of the common man. As a result, after a war-like agitation which lasted five months, and in which 212 persons were killed and public and private property worth billions of rupees was looted and destroyed, yet another military adventurist appeared on the scene and imposed the country's third martial law.

Since General Zia was helped into power by the PNA on a violent religious campaign, he decided to use the slogan of Islam to justify his unconstitutional rule. Like other dictators he had to divert the attention of people from the real issues, He tried, and succeeded to a great extent, in wooing the otherwise unknown and uncared for 'religious leaders' into his fold by creating a vested interest group of such elements through state patronage. The politics of plots, permits, bank loans and even television appearances was introduced, and General Zia took upon himself the all important task of Islamisation of a society that had been Islamic for the last many centuries.

During eleven years of oppression and totalitarianism, the anti-democracy, intolerant religious fanatics completely dominated national life Zia made sure that all political and social activities that could lead people to demand democratic and fundamental rights and freedoms were curbed. In turn he encouraged all activities based on sectarian, tribal, cast and religious differences.

The natural consequence of this policy was the revival of centuries old conflicts and controversies over the interpretations of religious beliefs. Since the social fabric of the society had already been destroyed because of the long years of fascism and the absence of political institutions, the war of words soon assumed a state of open war among various factions armed to the teeth.

Although religious political parties and pressure groups have never enjoyed popular support in Pakistan, for a variety of reasons all successive governments have pampered and patronised these elements - at the cost of progress, enlightenment and liberalism.

http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/04/giving-way-to-intolerance-by-dr-mehdi.html

URL: http://www.chowk.com/articles/4328

Agenda for Pakistani Press by Dr. Mehdi Hasan.

Dr. Mehdi Hasan is the Vice Chairperson (Punjab) of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Dean of School of Media & Communication at Beaconhouse National University.
Agenda for Pakistani Press by Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Dated, December 14, 1998

The Pakistani press played an active role during the crisis between the two tiers of the executive, the president and the prime minister, and the judiciary. It stood divided into two separate camps - the pro-president and pro-prime minister.

The press here thrives on political crises, reproducing thecomments of different people and groups about various political ,social economic or religious issues -seldom trying to ascertain facts.

In the process it has created a large number of "newspaper leaders" and organisations, who have no credibility, and have repeatedly been rejected by the masses through the democratic process. Their existence depends solely on getting published in the newspapers To stay in the limelight, many of them have switched party loyalties and political stands several times over the last fifty years.

Described by the press as "elderly or "senior", they wait for a crisis to surface and immediately call conferences and meetings of like -minded , not-so-successful colleagues.

Newspapers in Pakistan got the freedom to report (without the right to know) in 1988, after the death of military dictator General Ziaul Haq. The policy of granting declarations for new newspapers ventures was also liberalised. The party based electoral process and comparatively liberal policies resulted in the growth of the press.

A large number of newspapers, mostly owned by not so credible owners, emerged overnight, creating jobs for journalists and editors. The pre-1988 figures of 260-300 journalists swelled to 700 in Lahore alone. Several sub-editors and crime reporters became `editors´ as most owners of the new ventures had no credentials for this sensitive profession, paving the way for a large number of untrained and unprofessional persons to enter journalism. The institution of editor gave way to un-professional political appointees´.

The new breed of journalists lacks the sense and ability to interpret and analyse situations and are only good at reproducing `statements´ by a leader or so-called leader. If the system of justice was properly organised in the country , most reports published could be proceeded against for libel and slander.

Column writing suffered the most. The institution of Urdu column writing was started by Maulana Ghulam Rasul Meher and Maulana Abdul Majid Salik much before independence. Ibrahim Jalees, Maulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi dominated after independence, During the 60s and 770s Munnoo Bhai and Intezar Hussain stood out.

The last Martial Law was responsible for creating several columnists who through their writings wanted to communicate their close relationship with the military dictator. After 1988, Urdu journalism saw a mushroom growth of "columnists", mostly part-time journalists who use newspapers space to project themselves or publicize their contacts with the ruling elites. Their writings are so personalised that readers seldom come across a piece in which "mein" is not repeated several times.

Developments in the field of technology and the availability of alternate channels of information to the general public has created a `credibility crisis´ and the media in Pakistan is losing `believability´ . In a free society, believability is vital for the survival of an institution like press. Since major of our newspapers are filled by what the politicians say, and the politicians and politics in Pakistan have no ethics, coverage of politicians, personal ethics has damaged the credibility of the press.

Newspapers can get better grades for believability if they present straightforward news, separated from opinion. The statements issued by politicians , more often than not, are their personal opinions. To publish opinions in the news columns is to avoid the responsibility of providing the public hard facts.

About two hundred years ago, when the press was still new in the sub-continent, it assumed the role of a partisan, with a clear division of Muslim and Hindu journalism. In those days each newspaper would attack and defend from a particular position. Respect for truth and reality was usually missing.

Most literates in Pakistan derive information from the newspapers, but the press is certainly not the only medium engaged in discovering and reporting the truth. Lots of other people, organisations including political, non-political and non-governmental organisations, courts, interest groups and scores of concerned citizens also inform the public.

The press is biased against the minority views - since it thrives on reproducing the utterances of the politicians, who have to play upon the popular sentiments for their survival. The bias for the beliefs of the majority is prominent - untenable in a free democratic society where press claims to be the watchdog for the underpriveleged and the exploited. In a democratic society, an average citizen has both the right and ability to decide the appropriate course of public policy. Therefore, he must be informed about the range and quality of the options available. One way to achieve this is to encourage the full diversity of competing views by providing unlimited freedom of speech and the press.

Journalists occupy a crucial position, for they decide which views and spokesperson will be heard. If the reporting is accurate, fair, and comprehensive, the content is determined by the participant. But if the second or not so popular opinion is blacked out or reported ion a negative manner then the whole debate becomes one-sided and biased. The journalists then becomes an active participant in the debate with the power and inclination to modify its agenda.

The constant emphasis on news that would make sensational copy denies the public the range of information it needs to guide its decisions. In these circumstances the press cannot adequately discharge its task of ensuring a well-informed public. This strikes at the very root of the democratic process.

The post-industrial world is developing revolutionary ways of transmitting information. Print journalists are only one of the sources of information, and thus not as important in the 19th or mid-20th century. They have to compete with other advanced methods of communication. Therefore, it would be both in their interest and the institution of the press, if they stoop considering themselves as one of the powerful interest groups, against whom they profess to campaign.

http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/04/agenda-for-pakistani-press-by-dr-mehdi.html
URL: http://www.chowk.com/articles/4425

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11. Railway Mail Service Trageted for Disinvestment in Indian Post as Se
Posted by: "palashc biswas" palashcbiswas@yahoo.co.uk palashcbiswas
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Railway Mail Service Trageted for Disinvestment in Indian Post as Seven Banks CEASE to be INDIA Owned! NHPC, Oil India (OIL) and RITES have to be on STAKE! Others PSUs including SBI, SAIL, COAL INDIA, LIC, RAILWAY and Post Office Have to FOLLOW SUIT. LIST OF 84 PSUs READY for the New GOVERNMENT!

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 215

Palash Biswas

Pl contact:09903717833

POSTAL MANUAL
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REGULATIONS
FIFTH EDITION
http://www.indiapost.gov.in/PM_VOL_5.pdf

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Railway Mail Service is Targeted for DISINVESTMENT in Indian POST as the PSU Minesfield EXPLODES even before the COMPLETION of the LOKSABHA POLLS! Just think what may wait for you all IRRESPECTIVE of ELECTION Results!

The Reserve Bank of India has pointed out that under new FDI norms, SEVEN banks would Cease to be INDIAN OWNED!RBI has recently written to DIPP that under the recent FDI normsapart from seven banks including ICICI, HDFC, Development Credit Bank and ING Vysya cease to be India Owned!DIPP has sought FINMIN opinion on ICICI`s submission.

Economis times published the news headlined `ICICI Bank is Simply Indian´ ints Kolkata edition today . Blacked out by MEDIA! But the ITEM is missed on WEB! Why?

Indian Media , PRINT as well as Electronic do engage themselves in Reality shows, laughter and Comedy and never deals with the ECONOMY. You may not have any idea of the changing Economic scenerio or Policies reading Newspapers and browising TV channels. You have to read some BUSINES papers meant for the RULING Class. The Informations are catered for the ELITE while the masses and Productive forces remain in DARK. Thus , the COLD BLOODED SYSTEMATIC ECONOMIC KILLING goes on without any noise.

Indian Political parties win the Elections and play the GOT UP game to SUSTAIN the HEGEMONY affliated to ILLUMINITI without addressing Food security, Starvation, Calamities, Jobloss and employment, Inflation in Food Commodities, Public and Civil Service, human rights and civil Rights, nationalities, Identities, Environment and ecology, Global warming and Drought and the basic issues whatsoever. Politics is all about Demographic Adjustment, Plarisation, Clubbing of castes and Communities, inclusion ans exclusion ansd Equations changing with Mind control, Brain washing and continuous MISINFORMATION campaign. All Political ideologies have been INVESTED in GENOCIDE CULTURE and mass DESTRUCTION!

For MNC RAJ, India Inc, Foreign Investment, Indo US Deal, Retail chain, SEZ, PCPIR, Nuclear park, Strategic realliance under US Israel Lead, the NATURE has to be GANG RAPED and nature associated aboriginal Indigenosu people have to be MASSACRED!

White CHOLOR Previleged GOVT employees and PSUs, Workers in Comapnies and Private sector have evaded ECONOMIC Crisis and have some how become AFFLUENT with the Entry in the open market of Durable consumer Goods with better purchasing power! they have no syapathy with us. Abolishment of RESERVATION and QUOTA was accomplished with large sacale Privatisation called DISINVESTMENT Strategically.

But the PSU crisis is like the FIRE in the FOREST which has not to spare anyone, whoever!

NHPC, Oil India (OIL) and RITES have to be on STAKE! Others PSUs including SBI, SAIL, COAL INDIA, LIC, RAILWAY and Post Office Have to FOLLOW SUIT. LIST OF 84 PSUs READY for the New GOVERNMENT!

Recently, I have been engaged to understand Indian Political Economy and ILLUMINATI under Manusmriti Apartheid Zionist fascist Imperialist Corporate Order.

Since the people, even the previleged and educated escape from ECONOMICS, the KILLER MONEY Machine has not to face any Resistance whatsoever. More over, Indian workers and peasants, the Productive forces have beenbetrayed by the MARXISTS All round as they helped the RULINg HEGEMONY to work out the CAPTURE of the ECONOMY and People by LPG Mafia in a WASHINGTON Dictated Polity bypassing parliament and killing the Constitution.

I have been writing on the Imminent pay cut and Inevitable Disinvestment in Public sector! I have been on speaking tour. But the Govt. employees overjoyed with SIXTH Pay commision remained quite UNAWARE of the DEVELOPMENTS. Foreign banks and Insurance compnies diverted the Business, fundamentals and Transactions of indian banks and LIC, which makes the DISINVESTMENT IMMINENT. Hundred percent FDI SANCTION has made the DEFENCE sector also VOLATILE. Lalu have executed strategeic disinvestment in RLY with E Tickets, Catering and Premises management. No body objected.

To my knowledge, Indian POST is the least MANIPULATED, least CORRUPT PSU in India which works with EFFICIENCY with maximum Workload with minimum Award.

Now RAILWAY MAIL service is targeted for Disinvestment. The Night shift has to be abolished and COMPUTER would exchange the Man Power. The SECTIONs working in trains have been already abolished. Posts abolished. Telegraph abolished. Speed post has to kill REGISTRTION and MO will go for Sattelite MO. Mail has gone. MIS may introduce ATM cards and certificates and Bonds may be disbursed with computer. The STRENGTH of INDIAN POST is going STREAMLINED Mercilessly and the Trade Unions as well as Postal workers have not any idea of it!

Kolkata GPO has reduced its NIGHT sets 20-30 to only TEN from TONIGHT. Computor training is in progress! I do not know what goes ELSEWHERE as media balcks out the INFORMATION and we may not get any feedback from the TRADE UNIONS! though I have talked to friends in Metros and states without no result significant.

Provided you have any FEED please post immediately so we may enable our friends to mobilise at least some RESISTANCE!

Divestment of the government´s stake in public sector undertakings may kick off within three weeks of the new government taking over, according to a senior official in the finance ministry. The department of disinvestment (DoD) is completing the paperwork for initial public offerings to divest the government´s stake in NHPC, Oil India (OIL) and RITES, the official said requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, : Holding back clearance under the Foreign Exchange Management Act to the controversial FDI rules, the RBI has raised concerns over the new guidelines resulting in far-reaching changes in the ownership pattern of private banks.

As per the new guidelines, for the purpose of calculation of indirect foreign investment in an Indian entity, a sum total of FDI, stake from non-resident Indians, American and Global Depository Receipts, Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds and Convertible Preference Shares will be taken into account.

With these changes, several private sector banks may find themselves transforming their status from being 'resident entities' to the non-resident entities.

The RBI, as also the Finance Ministry, has raised issues concerning these far-reaching changes which will throw several banks into a different regime of governance in terms of policy clearances, an official said.

As these concerns are yet to be addressed, the RBI has not notified the FDI guidelines amended in February. "The RBI has yet to notify the new guidelines... but we are hopeful they will notify" an official in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said.

The North Block was concerned on the new FDI rules prompting several domestic firms to rework their ownership structure for attracting FDI in areas like retail through backdoor.

DIPP, the nodal point for FDI guidelines, is examining the issues raised by the Finance Ministry.

According to the new guidelines, if an Indian company with foreign equity of less than 50 per cent invests in an another firm, it would not be considered as FDI.

While, the DIPP in a further clarification stated that the sectoral cap would apply even to downstream investments, several domestic firms seem to be ignoring this advice.

The government expects to raise more than Rs 2,500 crore by divesting 5% stake in NHPC and 10% each in OIL and RITES.

Two other officials involved in the disinvestment process, whom ET spoke to, said investor appetite for public sector companies will be strong once the market stabilises. "We think the Sensex is already at a comfortable level. It has recovered from about 8,000 in March to 11,000 now. It will improve after the formation of the new government," said a senior DoD official.

The government had put its disinvestment plans on the backburner in the second half of last fiscal as investor appetite was low and promoters could not afford to sell equity cheap.

Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises chairman Nitish Sengupta pointed out that besides helping the government tide over fiscal deficit, it will also improve the governance of these enterprises.

Proceeds from disinvestment now flow into the National Investment Fund. As much as 75% of the earnings from such investments are channelised into social sector schemes.

A large corpus would also shore up earnings from its deployment. This, in turn, would lower the government´s direct expenditure on such schemes and thereby bring down its deficit to an extent.

The government has budgeted for a gross market borrowing of Rs 3,62,000 crore in the current fiscal year, higher than the revised Rs 3,06,000 crore borrowing in the previous fiscal, and any upward revision in the borrowing targets is expected to crowd out private investments.

The founding fathers of our republic used the public sector as an essential and vibrant element in the building-up of India´s economy. One of the basic objectives of starting the public sector in India was to build infrastructure for economic development and rapid economic growth. Since their inception, public enterprises have played an important role in achieving the objective of economic growth with social justice. However economic compulsions, viz., deterioration of balance of payment position and increasing fiscal deficit led to adoption of a new approach towards the public sector in 1991. Disinvestment of public sector undertakings (USUs) is one of the policy measures adopted by the government of India for providing financial discipline and improve the performance of this sector in tune with the new economic policy of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) through the 1991 Industrial Policy
Statement. The aims of disinvestments policy are: (i) raising of resources to meet fiscal deficit; (ii) encouraging wider public participation including that of workers; (iii) penetrating market discipline within public enterprises; and (iv) improving performance.

UPA caused economic mess: Arun Shourie
Ahmedabad: Hitting out at the UPA government's economic policies, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former union minister Arun Shourie said here on Friday that the present economic crisis in the country is a result of the Centre's financial mismanagement.
"The current bad situation in our country is not because of the global recession. The UPA government is covering up its mismanagement under the garb of recession. From 1986 to 1991, the average fiscal deficit of the country was 7.7% of the GDP. This year, after successive budgets presented by the Congress-led union government, the deficit has risen to 11%," Shourie said at a press meet.
He added that the consequences of this economic mismanagement would be felt next year.
"If the government takes money from the market to cover its losses then there is no liquidity and growth is chocked."
Taking a dig at the UPA government, Shourie said that the development, which political parties were promising to bring for the people, had already been done in Gujarat. "The UPA is talking about broadband connectivity in villages but in Gujarat, each village already has broadband."
Shourie, who held the posts of minister for communications and IT, disinvestment and commerce in the NDA regime, added, "No government has been as corrupt as this UPA government. The progress that was being made in areas like telecom, building of national highways, economic and fiscal reforms has all been stalled."
He refuted statement by union home minister P Chidambaram that the NDA had started the disinvestment process in PSUs while the UPA had turned them into profit-making units. "The disinvestment process was started during Manmohan Singh's time. The government used to sell minority shares to make up the deficit. Chidambaram himself favoured divestment but as he could not go ahead with it, he is now making it a virtue. The PSUs revived due to market conditions and not due to the government's intervention," he said.
Shourie, who has written extensively on political and economic issues, also criticised the government for its failure on security and foreign policy fronts. He said the situation in India's neighbourhood was alarming but the government had failed to act decisively. Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were all facing political instability that would be dangerous for India but the government was a mute spectator.
The internal security situation was no better, he asserted. "According to the government's own report, 170 of 610 districts in the country are affected by Naxalism. The red corridor threatened by the Naxals from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh has become a reality. But the government has stopped the police modernisation programme and restarted the participatory notes through which money was finding its way into the economy and used for financing terrorist cells."

RBI offers Rs 60,000 cr at special repo
27 Apr 2009, 1300 hrs IST, REUTERS

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India said it would conduct a special repo auction for Rs 60,000 crore. The reversal of the auction will be on May 11, it said in a statement.

The special repo facility was introduced on Oct. 14, offering Rs 20,000 crore to meet liquidity needs of mutual funds.

The central bank later increased the facility to Rs 60,000 crore to include liquidity needs of non-banking financial companies and housing finance companies and has said it would be held every day till Sept. 30, 2009.

At its policy review on April 21, the central bank said the auction will be conducted every Monday till March 2010.

India seeks increase in IMF quota; willing to buy $10 bn bonds for now

27 Apr 2009, 0858 hrs IST, IANS

WASHINGTON: India, underlying its growing economic importance, has sought an increase in its quota share in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but is ready to contribute about $10 billion to boost the Fund's resources in proportion to its current share.

But New Delhi would prefer to make the contribution by buying securities that the IMF could issue, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who represented India at the G 20 meeting, told reporters Sunday.

"Our concern here is that this contribution should take the form of investment in IMF securities by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)," he said, as a direct contribution from the government becomes part of fiscal deficit.

The IMF, Ahluwalia suggested, should issue securities which can become eligible for the countries to invest their reserves in so that no fiscal position is affected. A redployment of funds also does not require any government permission.

The RBI, for instance, will shift some of its money currently held US treasury bills or other US government bonds to proposed IMF securities, which are obviously backed by the same government, he said. But the modalities are still being worked out.

In India's view resources being given to IMF should be viewed as an interim measure through its New Arrangements to Borrow, or NAB, Ahluwalia said adding, "In the longer term the way to fund the IMF is to increase the quota."

When they increase the quota the share of the developing countries should reflect their economic importance, he said. "Clearly our view is that India' s share should be increased."

"Our view is that our importance in world economy is more than two percent," Ahluwalia said. The IMF uses a complex formula for determining quotas, but if Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is used as a measure, India's quota will be four percent.

But since a quota review will happen only in January 2011, "for the present, we are willing to contribute in proportion to our existing quota" of two percent making for a contribution of $10 billion in an NAB of $500 billion agreed to at the G-20 summit.

Asked why was India not willing to invest more, he said: "Frankly quota reflects the amount of weight and vote. I don't see why we should contribute more than our vote share."

"If they increase our quota, we would be willing to contribute more in proportion. Otherwise this becomes a funding leaving the quota unchanged. We are not in favour of that."
India seeks increase in IMF quota; willing to buy $10 bn bonds for now

27 Apr 2009, 0858 hrs IST, IANS

RBI, government divided on FDI relaxation in press notes
Arun Kumar & Rituparna Bhuyan / New Delhi April 27, 2009, 0:12 IST

It's the central bank & finance ministry versus commerce over 'unintended liberalisation' permitted in February guidelines.

Differences have developed between both the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the finance ministry and within the government on the impact of Press Notes 2, 3 and 4 issued in February 2009 that significantly relax the guidelines on foreign direct investment (FDI).
The alignments appear to be RBI and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), which comes under the finance ministry, against the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the commerce ministry, the nodal agency for FDI-related matters, to clarify several issues.
On March 20, RBI had asked the DEA to review the new guidelines on FDI issued under press notes 2, 3 and 4 in February 2009, saying they would lead de facto to full capital account convertibility.
The new norms need to be notified under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) by RBI to give it legal sanctity.
Significantly, the DEA also raised objections to the new FDI norms after receiving RBI's letter and has asked the DIPP to clarify several issues. (DEA was, however, involved in the process of formulating the new press notes.)
According to government officials close to the developments, DIPP feels a comprehensive review of the new norms is not possible. The department, however, is open to releasing clarifications, which could take the form of "minor tweaking and not complete reversal of the new norms".
Capital account convertibility means that an investor is allowed to move freely from the local currency to a foreign currency. India has limited capital account convertibility to prevent shocks to the capital account and maintain a stable exchange rate, by stipulating sectoral norms that ensure a lock-in period for investments.
The press notes simplify the method for calculating FDI and broadly state that as long as Indian promoters hold a majority stake (more than 51 per cent) in any operating-cum-investing company, it can bring investment up to 49.9 per cent through FDI. This company would be treated as an Indian company and it can invest through a joint venture in any other company that may be engaged in industries in which FDI has a sectoral limit. Several companies like retailer Pantaloon and media house UTV have restructured their organisations to raise FDI in their businesses through step-down joint ventures - FDI is prohibited in multi-brand retail and is restricted to 26 per cent for media
Questioning the proposed definition of Indian ownership and control, given in Press Note 2, RBI stated that ownership and control by a company may not be related to formal equity holding and the right to appoint a majority of directors on the board of the company in which the investments are being made.
"Control may be maintained through other forms such as funding through preference shares or loans, vesting of executive authority or super minority provisions (like right of first refusal or veto power) in minority shareholders through shareholder agreements," argued the central bank in its letter. "Therefore, there is a need to fine-tune the definition of control rather than relying on the power to appoint majority directors," the letter added.
Echoing RBI´s views, the DEA has also stated that an investing company with 49 per cent FDI can go ahead and invest in any FDI-prohibited sectors or exceed the sectoral limits in those industries that have them, sources said.
"In one sweep, therefore, any sectoral cap of 49 per cent and below has become meaningless in so far as downstream investment by a company with foreign investment below 50 per cent and qualifying as an Indian owned and controlled company," the DEA argued in a letter, sources said.
"Such a company can apply for cable TV operations (49 per cent cap), FM broadcasting license (20 per cent cap), licensed defence items manufacture (26 per cent cap), printing news papers (26 per cent cap) up linking TV news channels (26 per cent cap) etc. Whether this stance has been approved as such or is an unintended liberalisation is not clear," the DEA letter said..
The central bank expressed a similar view. "Not only will this lead to the formation of Indian companies that are primarily shell companies whose sole intention would be the downstream investment in sectors with FDI restrictions, but it would also lead to the near total circumvention of the extent FDI policy making it ineffective," RBI said in the letter to the DEA.
________________________________

Also read:
March 28: Walt Disney stake hike proposal in UTVi tests new FDI guidelines

April 20: Pantaloon restructuring tests new FDI rules
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/rbi-government-dividedfdi-relaxation-in-press-notes/356331/

Pl read:
MANUAL
ON
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
IN
INDIA
- Policy and ProceduresMAY- 2003
http://dipp.nic.in/manual/manual_0403.pdf

DISINVESTMENT IN INDIA´S PUBLIC SECTOR
S. Sethuraman*
Disinvestment of a percentage of shares owned by the Government in public undertakings emerged as a policy option in the wake of economic liberalisation and structural reforms launched in 1991. Initially, it was not conceived as privatisation of existing undertakings but as limited sales of equity with the objective of raising some resources to reduce budgetary gaps and providing market discipline to the performance of public enterprises in general.    A comprehensive policy on public sector was set out in the Industrial Policy Statement of July 24, 1991 - the year when the country had to tide over an unprecedented economic crisis reflected in its internal and external finances. The steps adumbrated included a review of public sector investments to focus on strategic and essential infrastructure enterprises and new procedures to tackle chronically sick and loss-making units.
    The ambit of disinvestment was gradually widened in the latter half of 1990s by the subsequent coalition governments to make a clear distinction between strategic and non-strategic enterprises so as to bring down Government share holding to 26 per cent in non-core undertakings through gradual disinvestment or strategic sale while retaining majority holding (51 per cent) in strategic undertakings.
    A Disinvestment Commission was set up in 1996 to carefully examine withdrawal of public sector from non-core, non-strategic areas with assurance to workers of job security or of opportunities for retraining and re-employment. The Commission, in its three-year term, gave its recommendations on 58 enterprises referred to it and proposed, instead of public offerings as in the past, strategic trade sales involving change in ownership/ management for 29 and 8 undertakings respectively. In other cases, there was to be offer of shares or closure and deferment of disinvestment.
    By strategic sale, privatisation was envisaged though confined to non-strategic areas. The classification was redefined by Government in 1999 to include only defence-related, atomic energy undertakings and railway transport among strategic enterprises and treat all other undertakings as non-strategic. This major decision of the Government also stipulated that reduction of its stake going down to less than 51 per cent or to 26 per cent would not be automatic but would be governed by consideration as to whether continued presence of the public sector in an enterprise was required to prevent concentration of power in private hands. A Department of Disinvestment was established early in 2000 to give an impetus to the programme of disinvestment and privatisation.
    In a policy statement while presenting the Union Budget for 2000-01 last year, the Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha, said the main elements were restructuring and reviving potentially viable PSUs; Closing down PSUs which cannot be revived ; bringing down Government equity in all non-strategic PSUs to 26 per cent or lower, if necessary; and fully protecting the interests of workers. Over the last three years, the Finance Minister had listed in his budget speeches some major public undertakings for sizeable disinvestment or restructuring in the oil, telecom and aviation sectors. These are yet to take off. The utilisation of receipts from disinvestment/privatisation was to be for meeting expenditure in social sectors, restructuring of PSUs or retiring public debt.Balance-Sheet of the Decade (1991-2000)
    Disinvestment was conceived in the context not only of the acute financial stringency of the Government of India, which had to continually provide budgetary support to loss-making units, but also of the failure of public sector as a whole to provide a reasonable rate of return on the total investments in 240 undertakings.
    At the end of March 2000, the investments totalled Rs. 2,52,554 crore. Of this the Central Government´s share, through equity and loans was Rs. 1,11,058 crore. The profit-making enterprises averaged between 125 to 130 over the years while over 100 undertakings were loss-making, chronic in a large number of cases.
    The progress of disinvestment in India has been very slow, considering the strides in privatisation that developing countries in the East and South East Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe have made by transfer of productive assets to private investors, especially in infrastructure (power, telecommunications, oil and minerals) and financial services.
    According to the World Bank (Global Development Finance) 2000, earnings from privatisation in all developing countries totalled 272 billion dollars in the 1990s till 1998. Of this India´s share was seven billion dollars. Except for three years (1991-92, 1994-95 and 1998-99), the budget targets for disinvestment were not met. Between 1991-92 and 1999-2000, the total realisation was Rs. 18,368 crore against the targeted Rs. 44,300 crore.
    The Government had divested a part of Central PSUs ranging from about 2 per cent to 49 per cent in forty undertakings till March 1999. The largest chunk of over 40 per cent of government equity had been disinvested in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Videsh Sanchar Nigam, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation and Hindustan Organic Chemicals.
    The Prime Minister´s Economic Advisory Council in a report on Economic Reforms early this year suggested that where PSUs cannot function as commercial organisations, able to compete with other private sector units and with imports, they should be sold to the public or financial institutions or to a strategic private investor. The resources realised from the sale of equity could be more profitably deployed in building essential infrastructure or in retiring public debt, it said.
    The Economic Survey of the Union Government (2000-01) has also emphasised the need to "get the Government out of the business of production and enhance its presence and performance in the provision of public goods" )basic infrastructure, education, health etc). Funds from privatisation would also help to reduce public debt and bring down the debt-GDP ratio while competitive public enterprises would be enabled to function effectively.
    Beginning in the 1950s, with basic industries like steel, the public sector helped build strong economic foundations and a diversified industrial base. In the first four decades of Independence, there was rapid expansion of public sector into almost every area of economic activity and became in time a heterogeneous conglomerate of both basic and consumer goods production units and service enterprises including trading and marketing services. Many of them would have rendered a better account of themselves had they been invested with maximum autonomy, freed from bureaucratic controls, and made accountable. Their net profit to turnover has been pitifully low in spite of the outstanding performance of a select group of undertakings, such as the oil majors.
    Although the Government has over the years de-reserved some of the areas reserved exclusively for the public sector, investments in public enterprises had not declined. There was nearly 150 per cent increase in investments in the 1990s. The Government has also had to bear the losses of several enterprises by providing support to them to sustain themselves. Between 1998 and 2000, financial restructuring support to enterprises like the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) and other potentially viable units amounted to more than Rs. 13,000 crore.
    The Budget for 2001-02 has assumed disinvestment receipts at Rs. 12,000 crore although the Government could not realise the target of Rs. 10,000 crore in each of the two earlier years. The Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha reiterated that Government is determined to go ahead with large-scale privatisation and achieve the target in the new fiscal year Rs.7000 crore of the targeted receipts would be for restructuring assistance to PSUs, safety net to workers and debt reduction while Rs. 5000 crore would be additional budgetary support for the plan provision, mainly in social and infrastructure sectors. Shri Sinha is hopeful that the gamble this time would pay off.
* Senior Freelance Journalist
http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2001/fmar2001/f150320012.html

Policy on Foreign Direct Investment

India has among the most liberal and transparent policies on FDI among the emerging economies. FDI up to 100% is allowed under the automatic route in all activities/sectors except the following, which require prior approval of the Government:-

1. Sectors prohibited for FDI
2. Activities/items that require an industrial license
3. Proposals in which the foreign collaborator has an existing financial/technical collaboration in India in the same field
4. Proposals for acquisitions of shares in an existing Indian company in financial service sector and where Securities and Exchange Board of India (substantial acquisition of shares and takeovers) regulations, 1997 is attracted
5. All proposals falling outside notified sectoral policy/CAPS under sectors in which FDI is not permitted

Most of the sectors fall under the automatic route for FDI. In these sectors, investment could be made without approval of the central government. The sectors that are not in the automatic route, investment requires prior approval of the Central Government. The approval in granted by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). In few sectors, FDI is not allowed.

After the grant of approval for FDI by FIPB or for the sectors falling under automatic route, FDI could take place after taking necessary regulatory approvals form the state governments and local authorities for construction of building, water, environmental clearance, etc.

Manual for FDI brought out by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion provides details about FDI Policy and Procedures and is available at

http://www.dipp.nic.in/manual/FDI_Manual_Latest.pdf

All Press Notes of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion that provides details about FDI policy are available at their website http://siadipp.nic.in/policy/changes.htm .

FDI policy is also notified by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and could be seen at www.rbi.org.in.
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Procedure under automatic route

FDI in sectors/activities to the extent permitted under automatic route does not require any prior approval either by the Government or RBI. The investors are only required to notify the Regional Office concerned of RBI within 30 days of receipt of inward remittances and file the required documents with that office within 30 days of issue of shares of foreign investors.
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Procedure under Government Approval

FDI in activities not covered under the automatic route require prior government approval. Approvals of all such proposals including composite proposals involving foreign investment/foreign technical collaboration is granted on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Application for all FDI cases, except Non-Resident Indian (NRI) investments and 100% Export Oriented Units (EOUs), should be submitted to the FIPB Unit, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance.

Application for NRI and 100% EOU cases should be presented to SIA in Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Application can be made in Form FC-IL. Plain paper applications carrying all relevant details are also accepted. No fee is payable. The guidelines for consideration of FDI proposals by the FIPB are at Annexure-III of the Manual for FDI.

Form FC-IL - COMPOSITE FORM FOR FOREIGN COLLABORATION AND INDUSTRIAL LICENCE http://siadipp.nic.in/download/il-form.doc

IEM Form http://siadipp.nic.in/policy/policy/ip202.htm

Manual for FDI http://www.dipp.nic.in/manual/FDI_Manual_Latest.pdf
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Prohibited Sectors

The extant policy does not permit FDI in the following cases:

i. Gambling and betting
ii. Lottery Business
iii. Atomic Energy
iv. Retail Trading
v. Agricultural or plantation activities of Agriculture (excluding Floriculture, Horticulture, Development of Seeds, Animal Husbandry, Pisiculture and Cultivation of Vegetables, Mushrooms etc., under controlled conditions and services related to agro and allied sectors) and Plantations (other than Tea Plantations)

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General permission of RBI under FEMA

Indian companies having foreign investment approval through FIPB route do no require any further clearance from RBI for receiving inward remittance and issue of shares to the foreign investors.

The companies are required to notify the concerned Regional Office of the RBI of receipt of inward remittances within 30 days of such receipt and within 30 days of issue of shares to the foreign investors or NRIs.
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Industrial Licensing

With progressive liberalization and deregulation of the economy, industrial license is required in very few cases. Industrial licenses are regulated under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act 1951. At present, industrial license is required only for the following: -

1. Industries retained under compulsory licensing
2. Manufacture of items reserved for small scale sector by larger units
3. When the proposed location attracts locational restriction

The following industries require compulsory license: -

I Alcoholics drinks
II Cigarettes and tobacco products
III Electronic aerospace and defense equipment
IV Explosives
V Hazardous chemicals such as hydrocyanic acid, phosgene, isocynates and di-isocynates of hydro carbon and derivatives
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Procedure for obtaining an industrial license

Industrial license is granted by the Secretariat for Industrial Assistance in Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India. Application for industrial license is required to be submitted in Form FC-IL to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Form FC-IL - COMPOSITE FORM FOR FOREIGN COLLABORATION AND INDUSTRIAL LICENCE http://siadipp.nic.in/download/il-form.doc
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Small Scale Sector

Ministry of Agro and Rural Industries and Ministry of Small Scale industries have been merged into a single Ministry, namely, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
http://msme.gov.in/

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Locational restrictions

Industrial undertakings to be located within 25 kms of the standard urban area limit of 23 cities having a population of 1 million as per 1991 census require an industrial license. Industrial license even in these cases is not required if a unit is located in an area designated as an industrial area before 1991 or non-polluting industries such as electronics, computer software, printing and other specified industries.
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Environmental Clearances

Entrepreneurs are required to obtain Statutory clearances, relating to Pollution Control and Environment as may be necessary, for setting up an industrial project for 31 categories of industries in terms of Notification S.O. 60(E) dated 27.1.94 as amended from time to time, issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests under The Environment (Protection) Act 1986. This list includes petrochemicals complexes, petroleum refineries, cement, thermal power plants, bulk drugs, fertilizers, dyes, papers etc.,

However, if investment in the project is less than Rs.1 billion (appox. $ 22.2 million), such Environmental clearance is not necessary, except in cases of pesticides, bulk drugs and pharmaceuticals, asbestos and asbestos products, integrated paint complexes, mining projects, tourism projects of certain parameters, tarred roads in Himalayan areas, distilleries, dyes, foundries and electroplating industries.

Setting up industries in certain locations considered ecologically fragile (e.g. Aravalli Range, coastal areas, Doon Valley, Dahanu etc.) are guided by separate guidelines issues by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
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Other approvals/clearances at State level
Land, Water, Electricity, Registrations etc.

For further details please refer the website of Ministry of Environment and Forests http://envfor.nic.in

Environmental Clearance (EC) Process in India: A new website - [http://www.ecprocess.nic.in]
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http://www.indianembassy.org/newsite//Doing_business_In_India/FDI_Policy_Procedures.asp

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In Search Of Strategy
Posted: 2002-12-09 00:00:00+05:30 IST
Updated: Dec 09, 2002 at 0000 hrs IST

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India's disinvestment plans now easy: Kotak
: Investors at home and abroad will eagerly anticipate Union disinvestment minister Arun Shourie´s promised statement in Parliament on the government´s revised strategy on disinvestment. It is not clear how exactly this three month debate went within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Sangh Parivar, but it seems like the government is trying to pass off a compromise as a strategy. If the final statement is a mish-mash and a halfway house on disinvestment in the petroleum sector alone, doubts will remain on the government´s overall policy with respect to public sector undertakings (PSUs). The BJP had a formulation in its 1998 manifesto, but the 1999 NDA Agenda is less precise on the subject. It merely states "We will also expedite comprehensive reform of the PSUs, including restructuring, rehabilitation and divestment." This vague sentence requires fleshing out to avoid future controversy. The Union
finance ministry´s Mid-year Review of the Economy (MYRE) categorically states that disinvestment should not be viewed purely from the revenue perspective. This is an important clarification coming from a ministry that has been suspected of eyeing this turf. The MYRE correctly seeks an "unlocking" of the productive potential of public investment. For both reasons, the finance ministry should not take on the burden of handling disinvestment. Outright privatisation rather than piecemeal disinvestment is the best way to `unlock´ the potential of most PSUs. Dr Shourie will hopefully clarify where exactly the government stands on this question and not confine his statement to the case of oil sector privatisation alone.
The government must also come forward with a clear policy on where it will allow foreign direct investment into the disinvestment/privatisation process and where it will not do this. There is as yet no clear thinking within the government on this question and this confusion has partly contributed to the policy paralysis in oil sector disinvestment. The Prime Minister and the Union council of ministers must also take a view on what role individual ministries have in taking policy decisions on disinvestment. It is not the administrative ministry in charge of a particular PSU that should decide overall policy on privatisation, since ministers are bound to veto proposals that will diminish their empires and curtail their patronage. The privatisation decision is a policy decision that the Prime Minister must shape in a cabinet form of government and the disinvestment ministry must execute. The insidious...

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/in-search-of-strategy/67073/
EC blocks service tax sops for SEZ units

27 Apr 2009, 0128 hrs IST, Amiti Sen, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Developers of special economic zones (SEZ) and units operating in them will have to wait until a new government is formed to get a keenly-awaited exemption on service tax payments for services availed inside the zones.

The Election Commission (EC) has refused to allow the finance ministry to pass a notification allowing the exemption while elections are on because it could result in direct benefits to a section of the electorate, a government official has said. It will be the new elected government which will bring out the notification," the official said.

Until the elections are over, these units will have to pay the service tax and claim refunds, much to their disappointment as this process is lengthy and locks up cash.

Initially, SEZ units and developers had been allowed exemption on service tax on services availed within the boundaries of the zone, but were made to pay tax on services enjoyed outside the zone.

Following representations from the industry, the finance ministry decided to allow SEZs to claim refunds on services such as banking, courier and port-handling availed outside the zones.

The new notification, however, laid down that SEZ developers and units will get refunds for service taxes on services consumed both outside and inside the zones.

The commerce department, therefore, on behalf of SEZs, had asked the finance ministry to restore the exemption benefit which the zones had been enjoying on service tax availed within the zones.

"The finance ministry has agreed to the proposal. However, it has to wait now till the elections are over," the official added.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Finance/EC-blocks-service-tax-sops-for-SEZ-units/articleshow/4452654.cms

Gold sales poor on Akshaya Tritiya

27 Apr 2009, 1801 hrs IST, REUTERS
MUMBAI: Several Indian gold jewellers said their sales on a major gold-buying festival on Monday are likely to be down 20-40 percent on year, with

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rising prices and an economic slowdown hitting consumers' spending capacity.

Akshaya Tritiya, one of India's two biggest gold-buying festivals, is the pinnacle of sales in the first half of the year, and offers pointers to full-year demand.

"This year is more difficult than last year," said T.K. Chandiran, managing director of KTM Jewellery Ltd in Coimbatore, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. "Sales could be only about 60-70 percent of last year."

Demand has already been very weak in 2009, with imports at 2.7 tonnes for January to March, down 96 percent from a year earlier, data from Bombay Bullion Association (BBA) shows.

Akshaya Tritiya, when people believe buying gold will lead to prosperity, is more popular in south India where jewellers open shops early in the morning and carry on selling till the last of customer leaves.

"They have a religious belief so they are buying, but the quantity is less," said Jitendra Vummidi, partner with Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.

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A dealer in a large state-run trading company that imports gold and sells in the wholesale market said sales were down 20 percent this month from a year earlier, showing jewellers bought less to prepare items for sales on the festival day.

On Monday, India's gold price was at Rs 14,780 ($294) per 10 grams, up 1 percent from Saturday and 27 percent over the past year.

In global markets, gold jumped to its highest in almost four weeks as fears of a global flu pandemic prompted investors to seek safer assets.

From 701 post offices in 1854, to 155,000 a 150 years on

By Jayanta Kalita

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, second from right, releases a special First Day Cover to mark the 150th anniversary of India Post on Oct. 4, at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. Also seen in the photo are Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, second from left, and IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran, right. PHOTO INSET, the First Day Cover released by Kalam. (Photos: Courtesy, Press Information Bureau) NEW DELHI : India Post, the world´s largest postal network, is celebrating 150 years of its existence this year. Along with railways and telegraph, the post office is one of the oldest institutions in India. As Dayanidhi Maran, minister for communications and information technology, said recently: "One hundred and fifty years is a long period in the life of an organization, especially when it has stood by the most momentous events in the nation´s history."

India Post´s network of post offices was born on Oct. 4, 1854. At the time, the Postal Department, as it was known then, had only 701 post offices under the control of a director general. Today, that number has grown to a mind-boggling 155,000. The organization has grown in other ways as well. "In 1854, our staff strength was 24,500," says Vijay Bhushan, secretary, Department of Post. "Now it is more than 560,000."

The Post Office Act of 1854 reformed the earlier postal system, providing total monopoly to the British government in the management of the post offices and conveyance of letters. "The Railway Mail Service was also established in 1854 and a new sea mail service was introduced from India to Great Britain and China," informs Bhushan.

The turn of the century saw 635 out of the 650 princely states in India join the British government-controlled postal system, marking the end of private influences - of kings and zamindars - on the postal service.

Oct. 1, 1854, was another milestone in India´s postal history. "It was on this day that the first postage stamp valid across the country was issued at an affordable and uniform rate of postage, fixed by weight and not by distance. For the first time, the common man could avail of the facility of free delivery of letters, a privilege earlier enjoyed only by heads of states and other high-ranking officials," explains Bhushan. "However, the postage stamp then was just an ordinary piece of paper, a token for tax which was prepaid for carrying mail from one place to another.

"Today, it is much more than that. It is now known as the aesthetic aspiration of the country. It is also a medium of education, because a postage stamp can tell you about the blue poppy found in the Himalayas. A postage stamp can tell you about art, about cultural heritage, about historical traditions, about scientific achievements, about the national movement, many details about our country."

India Post has thus traversed a remarkable distance since 1854, a distance ranging from pre-colonial India to post-colonial India. India´s independence made the Postal Department stronger, helping to spread its reach to the farthest corners of the country. One of the reasons behind this unimaginable reach, Bhushan says, is a system called the "extra departmental" system. Under this system, local persons engaged in other professions, including farming and trading, were employed to carry out postal services in very remote areas. At present, 127,000 of India´s 155,000 post offices are located in rural areas.

Bhushan has a note of exuberance in his voice when he talks about the gigantic size of the Indian postal network.

He boasts, and quite rightfully: "We have the largest number of post offices in the world. In the United States, there are only 35,000 or so post offices. China has 76,000 post offices - about half of what we have. With more than 155,000 post offices, our network is the largest in the world."

India Post handles 110 billion items of mails every day. "During Diwali, Christmas and New Year, we have to bring in helpers from outside to handle the huge rush of mail. We employ these people on a casual basis," he says.

Bhushan reveals that India Post is not the oldest postal system in the world; that honor belongs to the one in Britain.

"However, since our system was a part of the British empire, it is one of the oldest systems in the world. But we have come a long way since then. After Independence, by 1954, we already had more than 27,000 post offices (from 701 in 1854)."

Today, India Post has emerged as the largest retail network in the country.

Its capacity to handle financial transactions, its intimate knowledge of the local environment in every part of the country and its unparalleled access renders it an efficient, cost-effective means of accessing customers anywhere.

Former President Zakir Hussain, third from left, speaking at the inauguration of the Parliament Street Post Office in New Delhi in 1962. Others in the photo are, from left, Minister of State for Communications B. Bhagwati and Communications Minister Jagjivan Ram. Others in the photo were not identified. PHOTO INSET, Rai Bahadur Salig Ram, the first postmaster general of India. (Photos: Courtesy, A.M. Narula) Asked what strategy India Post has adopted to overcome business challenges, Bhushan says: "We have a business development directorate which is focused on procuring revenue from our premium products, which include Speed Post and Business Post. We can happily withstand the challenges of modern technology and the challenges posed by our rivals. This is partly because we are committed to providing a universal service. We have a social obligation to provide an affordable service in the remotest of areas in the country, which no other organization can
give. At the same time, we have increased our business in the urban areas with our premium products."

Bhushan asserts that no private organization can acquire the accessibility and mobility of India Post. This is his department´s USP. "We have 156 national Speed Post centers, which no other organization will have the opportunity to create," he says. "In the parcel sector, too, we are trying to introduce logistics post to carry larger parcels from one city to another."

India Post is now focusing on rapid modernization. The first phase of this exercise is the computerization of its vast network. Sources reveal that currently, there are 1,772 fully computerized post offices in India. Many more post offices have computers for back office activities, including supervision, back office management and information management, says Bhushan.

"The Government of India has provided India Post Rs. 8.36 billion ($181.73 million) under the Tenth Plan for the computerization of another 6,000 post offices. This has to be completed by the end of 2007," says Bhushan.

Post office savings banks are another service offered by India Post, which are of prime importance, especially in remote areas. "As far as the banking sector is concerned, we go down to the deepest villages. Practically every post office offers a savings bank facility," he says.

Bhushan explains that E-post is a sector that caters to the needs of nonresident Indians. "Our collaboration with Western Union Money Transfer will definitely benefit the Indian diaspora, especially in the Middle East," he says.

E-post, he explains, is a hybrid of e-mail and ordinary mail. It is e-mail sent from a post office by those who don´t have a computer at home, but it is delivered by a postman. Interestingly, India Post controls 20 per cent of Western Union´s South Asian market.

"We have also tried selling gifts and flowers during the festival seasons. Though carried out as an experiment, this has worked in some places," says Bhushan.

Bhushan asserts confidently that private couriers were more of a challenge for India Post 10 years ago than they are now. "Now our credibility has gone up considerably and the credibility of the couriers has gone down. Now we are better because we provide value added services as well. We provide credit facilities, too, like any courier does."

"I think the image of India Post is improving all the time. After all, we must not forget that it is an organization that is 150 years old," he affirms. Although India Post has diversified into several areas, including banking and insurance, its core area will continue to be mail, he maintains.

Talking of India Post´s entry into the digital era, Bhushan says the computer automation software developed by the Postal Training Center in Mysore has attracted attention from neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Nepal, the Maldives and Uzbekistan, and these are now seeking India Post´s help in setting up similar systems.

"We are helping these countries in computerization," he says. "At an international seminar I attended recently, I found that a number of African countries were also interested in our software. Cambodia has shown an interest, too. Our Mysore training center is doing an excellent job."

Today, India Post demonstrates an incomparable blend of tradition and modernity. "We have literally and figuratively traveled a long way. We still use aeroplanes, railways and motor transport for the delivery of mails. But now we are going to rely heavily on the Internet, too. Even electronic fund transfer will be possible soon via Western Union. Then we have technology for money orders. So we combine modern technology with traditional systems."

http://www.newsindia-times.com/nit/2004/11/26/tow-18top.html

People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
________________________________
Vol. XXXIII
No. 16

April 26, 2009

EDITORIAL
Perfidy, Thy Name Is BJP

THE BJP seems to be making a habit of issuing its "vision" in instalments. Maybe, this is their way of keeping in tune with the global economic recession when payments are being deferred or at best paid in instalments. Or, maybe, it is the lack of any clarity of vision that is making them take recourse to such steps. Or, yet again, maybe, this is a convenient methodology that can allow them to completely contradict themselves and renege from their earlier promises to the people.

Following their electronic "vision" to empower all Indians to be cyber savvy came the BJP's manifesto, which as the name suggests, should have detailed their proposals if they, by any chance, form the government, post elections. However, now has come their `vision' on infrastructure development with promises of more bombardments of such `visions' in the future. This is not merely the unfolding of the lack of clarity in instalments but more like a distress sale under recession: `buy one, take two free'.

Promising to adopt a hundred projects of national importance, this document has virtually nothing that has not been said earlier by everyone including the BJP. However, there are two aspects that merit a comment. The first is the brazen negation of their attitude to India's public sector when they were leading the government between 1998 and 2004. They had established a separate ministry for disinvestment and proceeded to try and decimate the public sector systematically. Recollect the scams involved in the sale of public sector units and properties during that period. Under pressure from the Left, the first decision that the UPA government took was to disband this ministry in 2004.

Look at what they say now in this `vision' document: "India's public sector, which has amassed tremendous experience in infrastructure project implementation over the decades, is our national pride (sic). The NDA government will strengthen the public sector, and enable it to make its fullest contribution to infrastructure expansion in India. At the same time, we will also fully encourage participation by India's private sector, which has grown enormously both in size and project implementation capability. The government will fully leverage the private sector's resources and capabilities by aggressively expanding the scope of Public-Private Partnership." Indeed, as noted above, a very convenient methodology to renege from its past position! More importantly, this is a crass cynical attempt to woo the votes of a vast section of Indians that support and depend upon the public sector.

This brings us to the second aspect, that is, Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Both the Congress and the BJP continue to emphasise this concept. However, what has been our experience of the past. Take the instance of the PPP model adopted for airport modernisation. Because the private party is currently incurring losses due to their own miscalculations and decrease in the volumes of passenger traffic due to global recession, they have been permitted to levy a hefty user development fee per passenger at the airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad. It is the public that has to pay for the business miscalculations of the private parties. This is the logic of PPP. Note that the government-run airports, even if they are making losses, are not allowed to do so since these are public utilities. Clearly, this BJP 'vision' is one of imposing greater burdens on the people.

Such a methodology of double-speak was also evident when the BJP's prime ministerial hopeful L K Advani while releasing this document turned turtle on `BJP's stand on the India-US nuclear deal'. On November 28, 2007, the following were Advani's last words in the debate on the India-US nuclear deal in the Lok Sabha. "I shall conclude my remarks by saying that the 123 Agreement, as it stands, is unacceptable to the nation because it is deeply detrimental to India's vital and long-term interests. Let me say that hereafter if NDA gets a mandate, we will renegotiate this deal to see that all the adverse provisions in it are either deleted or this treaty is rejected completely."

Now what does he say? "I take cognisance of the fact that the government is a continuing matter. Treaty signed by an earlier government cannot be easily disregarded". Leave alone rejecting the treaty "completely", there is no mention of even an effort to "renegotiate" the treaty. Likewise, the word `renegotiate' does not appear in the voluminous manifesto that the BJP had issued earlier.

Clearly, the BJP was misleading the nation on the India-US nuclear deal, in an effort to mask its real pro-US imperialist stand. After all, it was the BJP-led NDA government that initiated the process of developing a strategic alliance of India with US imperialism. It was they who further strengthened relations with Israel. The UPA government under Dr Manmohan Singh's leadership has ably carried forward this process of subservience to US imperialism. Advani is now promising that if ever the BJP comes to power, it shall carry forward this process further and make India a junior subordinate ally of US imperialism.

Such are the perfidious games that the BJP plays. What they say for public consumption is entirely different and, at times, the complete opposite of their real agenda and intentions. The most blatant expression of this is their so-called acceptance of the secular democratic foundations of the modern Indian Republic. Functioning as the political arm of the RSS, they want to convert this Republic into a rabidly intolerant fascistic "Hindu Rashtra". It is for this precise reason that they must be prevented from holding the reins of State power. Indian people must, for the sake of a better India and a better future of its people, ensure that a non-Congress, non-BJP secular alternative forms the government post 2009 general elections.

(April 22, 2009http://pd.cpim.org/2009/0426_pd/04262009_1.htm

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Railway Mail Service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The United States Postal Service's Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US during the time period from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the United States from the 1890s until the 1960s.
Contents[hide]
    * 1 History
    * 2 Operating Divisions - 1950
    * 3 See also
    * 4 External links
    * 5 References
[edit] History
George B. Armstrong, manager of the Chicago Post Office, is generally credited with being the founder of the concept of en route mail sorting aboard trains which became the Railway Mail Service. Mail had been carried in locked pouches aboard trains prior to Armstrong's involvement with the system, but there had been no organized system of sorting mail en route, to have mail prepared for delivery when the mail pouches reached their destination city.[1]
In response to Armstrong's request to experiment with the concept, the first railway post office (RPO) began operating on the Chicago and North Western Railway between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa, on August 28, 1864.[1] The concept was quickly seen as successful, and was expanded to other railroads operating out of Chicago, including the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Chicago and Rock Island, Pennsylvania and the Erie.
By 1869 when the Railway Mail Service was officially inaugurated,[1] the system had expanded to virtually all of the major railroads of the United States, and the country was divided into six operating divisions. A superintendent was over each division, all under the direction of George B. Armstrong, who had been summoned from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to become general superintendent of the postal railway service. Armstrong served only two years as general superintendent before resigning because of failing health. He died in Chicago on May 5, 1871, two days after his resignation.
Armstrong's successor in Chicago, George S. Bangs, was appointed as the second general superintendent of the postal railway service. Bangs encouraged the use of fast mail trains, trains made up entirely of mail cars, traveling on expedited schedules designed to accommodate the needs of the Post Office rather than the needs of the traveling public.

Railway Mail Service (note the "RMS" in the obliterator) postal cancellation
In 1890, 5,800 postal railway clerks provided service over 154,800 miles (249,100 km) of railroad. By 1907, over 14,000 clerks were providing service over 203,000 miles (327,000 km) of railroad. When the post office began handling parcel post in 1913, terminal Railway Post Office operations were established in major cities by the RMS, in order to handle the large increase in mail volume. The Railway Mail Service reached its peak in the 1920s, then began a gradual decline with the discontinuance of RPO service on branchlines and secondary routes. After 1942, Highway Post Office (HPO) service was utilized to continue en route sorting after discontinuance of some railway post office operations. As highway mail transportation became more prevalent, the Railway Mail Service was redesignated as the Postal Transportation Service.
Abandonment of routes accelerated in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and many of the remaining lines were discontinued in 1967. On June 30, 1974, the Cleveland and Cincinnati highway post office, the last HPO route, was discontinued. The last railway post office operated between New York and Washington, D.C. on June 30, 1977.
[edit] Operating Divisions - 1950
    * First Division: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts. Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts.
    * Second Division: New York, New Jersey. Headquarters: New York City.
    * Third Division: District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina. Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
    * Fourth Division: Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Florida. Headquarters: Atlanta.
    * Fifth Division: Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio. Headquarters: Cincinnati.
    * Sixth Division: Illinois, Iowa. Headquarters: Chicago.
    * Seventh Division: Missouri, Kansas. Headquarters: St. Louis, Missouri.
    * Eighth Division: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona. Headquarters: San Francisco.
    * Ninth Division: Michigan, also lines of New York Central Railroad between New York City and Chicago. Headquarters: Cleveland.
    * Tenth Division: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan peninsula. Headquarters: St. Paul, Minnesota.
    * Eleventh Division: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma. Headquarters: Fort Worth.
    * Twelfth Division: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi. Headquarters: New Orleans.
    * Thirteenth Division: Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington. Headquarters: Seattle.
    * Fourteenth Division: Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska. Headquarters: Omaha.
    * Fifteenth Division: Pennsylvania, Delaware, also lines of Pennsylvania Railroad west of Pittsburgh. Headquarters: Pittsburgh.
[edit] See also
    * Railway mail service library
    * Washington Park and Zoo Railway
[edit] External links
    * History of the United States Postal Service 1775-1993: Railway Mail Service
    * National Postal Museum - Railway Post Office
    * Bergman, Edwin B. (1980) 29 Years to Oblivion, The Last Years of Railway Mail Service in the United States, Mobile Post Office Society, Omaha, Nebraska.
    * Wilking, Clarence. (1985) The Railway Mail Service, Railway Mail Service Library, Boyce, Virginia. Available as an MS Word file at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/articles/THE_RMS.DOC
    * U.S. Post Office Department. (1956) MEN AND MAIL IN TRANSIT, Railway Mail Service Library, Boyce, Virginia. Portion available as a video clip at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/videos/m&mit01.MPG
    * National Postal Transport Association. (1956) MAIL IN MOTION, Railway Mail Service Library, Boyce, Virginia. Portion available as a video clip at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/videos/MIM-01.MPG
[edit] References
    * Carr, Clark E. (1909) The Railway Mail Service, Its Origin and Development, A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.
    * Bergman, Edwin B. (1980) 29 Years to Oblivion, The Last Years of Railway Mail Service in the United States, Mobile Post Office Society, Omaha.
    * Romanski, Fred J. The Fast Mail, History of the Railway Mail Service, Prologue Vol. 37 No. 3, Fall 2005, College Park, Maryland.
    * Pennypacker, Bert The Evolution of Railway Mail, National Railway Bulletin Vol. 60 No. 2, 1995, Philadelphia.
    1. ^ a b c White, John H., Jr. (1978). The American Railroad Passenger Car. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 475-476. ISBN 0-8018-1965-2.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Mail_Service"
Categories: Rail transport in the United States | United States Postal Service | History of Chicago, Illinois

Mail
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This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (December 2008)
For other uses, see Mail (disambiguation).

Collection of British Pillar boxes at the Inkpen Post Box Museum, near Taunton, Somerset
Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.[1]
In principle, a postal service can be private or public. Governments often place restrictions on private postal delivery systems. Since the mid 19th century national postal systems have generally been established as government monopolies with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is often in the form of adhesive postage stamps, but postage meters are also used for bulk mailing.
Postal systems often have functions other than sending letters. In some countries, the postal system also has some authority over telephone and telegraph systems. In others, postal systems allow for savings accounts and handling applications for passports.
Contents[hide]
    * 1 Early postal systems
    * 1.1 Persia (Iran)
    * 1.2 South Asia
    * 1.3 China
    * 1.4 Rome
    * 1.5 Mongol Empire
    * 1.6 Other systems
    * 2 Etymology
    * 3 Modern mail
    * 3.1 Organization
    * 3.2 Payment
    * 3.3 Rules and etiquette
    * 3.4 Rise of electronic correspondence
    * 3.5 Collecting
    * 3.6 Deregulation
    * 4 Types of mail
    * 4.1 Letters
    * 4.1.1 First-class
    * 4.1.2 Registered and recorded mail
    * 4.1.3 Repositionable Notes
    * 4.2 Postal cards and postcards
    * 4.3 Other
    * 5 See also
    * 6 Famous letters
    * 7 Notes
    * 8 References
    * 9 External links
[edit] Early postal systems

Many early post systems consisted of fixed courier routes. Here, a post house on a postal route in 19th century Eastern Europe
The art of communication by written documents carried by an intermediary from one person or place to another almost certainly dates back nearly to the invention of writing. However, development of formal postal systems occurred much later. The first documented use of an organized courier service for the diffusion of written documents is in Egypt, where Pharaohs used couriers for the diffusion of their decrees in the territory of the State (2400 BC). This practice almost certainly has roots in the much older practice of oral messaging and may have been built on a pre-existing infrastructure.
[edit] Persia (Iran)
The first credible claim for the development of a real postal system comes from Persia (present day Iran) but the point of invention remains in question. The best documented claim (Xenophon) attributes the invention to the Persian King Cyrus the Great (550 BC), while other writers credit his successor Darius I of Persia (521 BC). Other sources claim much earlier dates for an Assyrian postal system, with credit given to Hammurabi (1700 BC) and Sargon II (722 BC). Mail may not have been the primary mission of this postal service, however. The role of the system as an intelligence gathering apparatus is well documented, and the service was (later) called angariae, a term that in time turned to indicate a tax system. The Old Testament (Esther, VIII) makes mention of this system: Ahasuerus, king of Medes, used couriers for communicating his decisions.
The Persian system worked on stations (called Chapar-Khane), where the message carrier (called Chapar) would ride to the next post, whereupon he would swap his horse with a fresh one, for maximum performance and delivery speed. Herodotus described the system in this way: "It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day´s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed".[2]
[edit] South Asia

The use of the Scinde Dawk adhesive stamps to signify the prepayment of postage began on 1 July 1852 in the Scinde/Sindh district,[3] as part of a comprehensive reform of the district's postal system.
The economic growth and political stability under the Mauryan empire (322-185 BC) saw the development of impressive civil infrastructure in ancient India. The Mauryans developed early Indian mail service as well as public wells, rest houses and other facilities for the common public.[4] Common chariots called Dagana were sometimes used as mail chariots in ancient India.[5]
Systems for collecting information and revenue data from the provinces are mentioned in Chanakya's Arthashastra (ca. 3rd century BC).
In ancient times the kings, emperors, rulers, zamindars or the feudal lords protected their land through the intelligence services of specially trained police or military agencies and courier services to convey and obtain information through runners, messengers and even through pigeons. The chief of the secret service, known as the postmaster, maintained the lines of communication ... The people used to send letters to [their] distant relatives through their friends or neighbors.[6]

Early stamps of India were watermarked with an elephant's head.
In South India, the Wodeyar dynasty (1399 - 1947) of the Kingdom of Mysore used mail service for espionage purposes thereby acquiring knowledge related to matters that took place at great distances.[7]
By the end of the Eighteenth century the postal system in India had reached impressive levels of efficiency. According to British national Thomas Broughton, the Maharaja of Jodhpur sent daily offerings of fresh flowers from his capital to Nathadvara (320 km) and they arrived in time for the first religious Darshan at sunrise.[8] Later this system underwent complete modernization when the British Raj established its full control over India. The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 provided that the Governor-General of India in Council had the exclusive right of conveying letters by post for hire within the territories of the East India Company. The mails were available to certain officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed. On this basis the Indian Post Office was established on October 1, 1837.[9]
[edit] China
Main article: Chinese postal system

China 4-cent on 100-dollar silver overprint of 1949
China enjoyed postal relay stations since the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). During the Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan, China was integrated into the much larger Örtöö system of the Mongol Empire.
[edit] Rome
The first well documented postal service is that of Rome. Organized at the time of Augustus Caesar (62 BC-AD 14), it may also be the first true mail service. The service was called cursus publicus and was provided with light carriages called rhedæ with fast horses. Additionally, there was another slower service equipped with two-wheeled carts (birolæ) pulled by oxen. This service was reserved to government correspondence. Another service for citizens was later added.
[edit] Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan installed an empire-wide messenger and postal station system named Örtöö within the Mongol Empire. During the Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan, this system also covered the territory of China. Postal stations were used not only for the transmission and delivery of official mail, but were also available for traveling officials, military men, and foreign dignitaries. These stations aided and facilitated the transport of foreign and domestic tribute, and trade in general. By the end of Kublai Khan's rule there were more than 1400 postal stations in China alone, which in turn had at their disposal about 50000 horses, 1400 oxen, 6700 mules, 400 carts, 6000 boats, over 200 dogs and 1150 sheep.[10]
The stations were 15 to 40 miles apart and had reliable attendants working for the mail service. Foreign observers, such as Marco Polo have attested to the efficiency of this early postal system.[10]
[edit] Other systems
Another important postal service was created in the Islamic world by the caliph Mu'awiyya; the service was called barid, by the name of the towers built to protect the roads by which couriers travelled.
Well before the Middle Ages and during them, homing pigeons were used for pigeon post, taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find his way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach his original nest.
Mail has been transported by quite a few other methods throughout history, including dogsled, balloon, rocket, mule, pneumatic tubes and even submarine.
Charlemagne extended to the whole territory of his empire the system used by Franks in northern Gaul, and connected this service with the service of missi dominici.
Many religious orders had a private mail service, notably Cistercians' one connected more than 6,000 abbeys, monasteries and churches. The best organization however was created by the Knights Templar. The newly instituted universities too had their private services, starting from Bologna (1158).
Popular illiteracy was accommodated through the service of scribes. Illiterates who needed to communicate dictated their messages to a scribe, another profession now quite generally disappeared.
In 1505, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I established a postal system in the Empire, appointing Franz von Thurn und Taxis to run it. The Thurn and Taxis family, then known as Tassis, had operated postal services between Italian city states from 1290 onwards. Following the abolition of the Empire in 1806 the Thurn and Taxis postal system continued as a private organisation, continuing to exist into the postage stamp era before finally being absorbed into the postal system of the new German Empire after 1871.
It was around this time nationalization and centralization of most postal systems took place. Today, the study of mail systems is known as postal history.
[edit] Etymology
The word mail comes from the Medieval English word male (spelt that way until the 17th century), which was the term used to describe a traveling bag or pack.[11] The French have a similar word, malle for a trunk or large box, and mála is the Irish for a bag. In the 1600s the word mail began to appear as a reference for a bag that contained letters: "bag full of letter" (1654). Over the next hundred years the word mail began to be applied strictly to the letters themselves, and the sack as the mailbag. In the 19th century the British usually referred to mail as being letters that were being sent abroad (i.e. on a ship), and post as letters that were for localized delivery; in the UK the Royal Mail delivers the post, while in the USA the US Postal Service delivers the mail. The term e-mail (short for "electronic mail") first appeared in 1982. The term snail-mail is a retronym that originated in 1983 to distinguish it from the quicker e-mail.
[edit] Modern mail
Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally interconnected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in the world relatively easily and cheaply. The Internet has made the process of sending letter-like messages nearly instantaneous, and in many cases and situations correspondents use electronic mail where previously they would have used letters (though the volume of paper mail continues to increase.)[12]
[edit] Organization

In the United States, private companies such as FedEx and UPS compete with the federal government's United States Postal Service, particularly in package delivery. Different mailboxes are also provided for local and express service. (The USPS has a monopoly on First Class and Standard Mail delivery.)

Postal truck in Brazil

Zabrze (Poland) - post office.

Delivery by bicycle in Germany
Some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without a legal monopoly.
The worldwide postal system comprising the individual national postal systems of the world's self-governing states is co-ordinated by the Universal Postal Union, which among other things sets international postage rates, defines standards for postage stamps and operates the system of International Reply Coupons.
In most countries a system of codes has been created (they are called ZIP Codes in the United States, postcodes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and postal codes in most other countries), in order to facilitate the automation of operations. This also includes placing additional marks on the address portion of the letter or mailed object, called "bar coding." Bar coding of mail for delivery is usually expressed either by a series of vertical bars, usually called POSTNET coding, or a block of dots as a two-dimensional barcode. The "block of dots" method allows for the encoding of proof of payment of postage, exact routing for delivery, and other features.
The ordinary mail service was improved in the 20th century with the use of planes for a quicker delivery (air mail). The first scheduled airmail service took place between the London suburbs of Hendon and Windsor on 9 September 1911. Some methods of airmail proved ineffective, however, including the United States Postal Service's experiment with rocket mail.
Receipts services were made available in order to grant the sender a confirmation of effective delivery.
Mail going to naval vessels is known as the Fleet Post Office.
[edit] Payment
Worldwide the most common method of prepaying postage is by buying an adhesive postage stamp to be applied to the envelope before mailing; a much less common method is to use a postage-prepaid envelope. Franking is a method of creating postage-prepaid envelopes under licence using a special machine. They are used by companies with large mail programs such as banks and direct mail companies.
In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service authorised the first tests of a secure system of sending digital franks via the Internet to be printed out on a PC printer, obviating the necessity to license a dedicated franking machine and allowing companies with smaller mail programs to make use of the option; this was later expanded to test the use of personalised postage. The service provided by the U.S. Postal Service in 2003 allows the franks to be printed out on special adhesive-backed labels. In 2004 the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom introduced its SmartStamp Internet-based system, allowing printing on ordinary adhesive labels or envelopes. Similar systems are being considered by postal administrations around the world.
When the pre-paid envelope or package is accepted into the mail by an agent of the postal service, the agent usually indicates by means of a cancellation that it is no longer valid for pre-payment of postage. The exceptions are when the agent forgets or neglects to cancel the mailpiece, for stamps that are pre-cancelled and thus do not require cancellation and for, in most cases, metered mail. (The "personalised stamps" authorized by the USPS and manufactured by Zazzle and other companies are in fact a form of meter label and thus do not need to be cancelled.)
[edit] Rules and etiquette

"The Steamboat" - mobile steaming equipment used by Czech StB for unsticking of envelopes during correspondence surveillance and censorship
Documents cannot be read by anyone other than the receiver; for instance, in the United States it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the receiver to open mail. However, exceptions do exist, such as postcards, which can be read by the postman for the purpose of identifying the sender and receiver. For mail contained within an envelope, there are legal provisions in some jurisdictions allowing the recording identities.[13] The privacy of correspondence is guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution, and is alluded to in the European Convention of Human Rights[14] and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[13] According to the laws in the relevant jurisdiction, correspondence may be openly or covertly opened or the contents determined via some other method, by the police or other authorities in some cases relating to their relevance to an alleged or suspected criminal conspiracy, although black chambers (largely in the past, though there is
apparently some continuance of their use today) opened and open letters extralegally. Military mail to and from soldiers on active deployment is more often subject to strict censorship. International mail and packages are subjects to customs control.
Control of private citizens' mail based on its content is a form of censorship and concerns social, political, and legal aspects of civil rights. Even though often illegal, there have been cases over the centuries of governments illegally opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail.[13][15] While in most cases this censorship is exceptional, in the military, censorship of mail is routine and almost universally applied, particularly with respect to soldiers near a battlefront.
Modern alternatives such as the telegraph, telephone, and e-mail have reduced the attractiveness of paper mail for many applications. Sometimes these modern alternatives are more attractive because, unlike paper mail, there is no concern about unfamiliar people learning your address from the return address on the outside of an envelope. Modern alternatives can be better than paper mail because vandalism can occur with mailboxes (although it can also be argued that paper mail does not allow for computer viruses). Also, dangerous hazards exist for mail carriers such as unfriendly pets or bad weather conditions. Due to hazards or inconveniences postal carriers may refuse, officially or otherwise, to deliver mail to a particular address (for instance, if a clear path to the door or mailbox is not present). Postal mail is, however, still widely in use for business (due to the particular legal standing of signatures in some situations and in many
jurisdictions, etiquette, or transmission of things that cannot be done by computer, as a particular texture, or, obviously, items in packages) and for some personal communication. For example, wedding invitations in some Western countries are customarily sent by mail.
[edit] Rise of electronic correspondence
Since the advent of e-mail, which is universally faster (barring some extreme technical glitch, computer virus or the like), the postal system has come to be referred to in Internet slang by the retronym "snail mail". Occasionally, the term "white mail" or "the PaperNet" has also been used as a neutral term for postal mail.
In modern times, mainly in the 20th century, mail has found an evolution in vehicles using newer technologies to deliver the documents, especially through the telephone network; these new vehicles include telegram, telex, facsimile (fax), e-mail, and short message service (SMS). There have been methods which have combined mail and some of these newer methods, such as INTELPOST, which combined facsimile transmission with overnight delivery. These vehicles commonly use a mechanical or electro-mechanical standardised writing (typing), that on the one hand makes for more efficient communication, while on the other hand makes impossible characteristics and practices that traditionally were in conventional mail, such as calligraphy.
This epoch is undoubtedly mainly dominated by mechanical writing, with a general use of no more of half a dozen standard typographic fonts from standard keyboards. However, the increased use of typewritten or computer-printed letters for personal communication and the advent of e-mail, has sparked renewed interest in calligraphy, as a letter has become more of a "special event." Long before e-mail and computer-printed letters, however, decorated envelopes, rubber stamps and artistamps formed part of the medium of mail art.[citations needed]
In the 2000s with the advent of eBay and other online auction sites and online stores, postal services in industrialized nations have seen a major shift to item shipping. This has been seen as a boost to the system's usage in the wake of lower paper mail volume due to the accessibility of e-mail.
Online post offices have emerged to give recipients a means of receiving traditional correspondence mail in a scanned electronic format.
[edit] Collecting
Postage stamps are also object of a particular form of collecting, and in some cases, when demand greatly exceeds supply, their commercial value on this specific market may become enormously greater than face value, even after use. For some postal services the sale of stamps to collectors who will never use them is a significant source of revenue for example postage stamps from Tokelau, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Niuafo´ou and many others. Stamp collecting is commonly known as philately, although strictly the latter term refers to the study of stamps.
Another form of collecting regards postcards, a document written on a single robust sheet of paper, usually decorated with photographic pictures or artistic drawings on one of the sides, and short messages on a small part of the other side, that also contained the space for the address. In strict philatelic usage, the postcard is to be distinguished from the postal card, which has a pre-printed postage on the card. The fact that this communication is visible by other than the receiver often causes the messages to be written in jargon.
Letters are often studied as an example of literature, and also in biography in the case of a famous person. A portion of the New Testament of the Bible is composed of the Apostle Paul's epistles to Christian congregations in various parts of the Roman Empire. See below for a list of famous letters.
A style of writing, called epistolary, tells a fictional story in the form of the correspondence between two or more characters.
A make-shift mail method after stranding on a deserted island is a message in a bottle.
[edit] Deregulation
Several countries, including Sweden (1 January 1993),[16][17] New Zealand (1998 and 2003), Germany (2005 and 2007)[18] and Argentina have opened up the postal services market to new entrants. In the case of New Zealand Post Limited, this included (from 2003) its right to be the sole New Zealand postal administration member of the Universal Postal Union, thus the ending of its monopoly on stamps bearing the name New Zealand.
[edit] Types of mail
[edit] Letters

Pillar boxes on the island of Madeira. (1st class mail in blue and 2nd class in red)
Letter-sized mail comprises the bulk of the contents sent through most postal services. These are usually documents printed on A4 (210×297 mm), Letter-sized (8.5×11 inches), or smaller paper and placed in envelopes.
While many things are sent through the mail, interpersonal letters are often thought of first in reference to postal systems. Handwritten correspondence, while once a major means of communications between distant people, is now used less frequently due to the advent of more immediate means of communication, such as the telephone or e-mail. Traditional letters, however, are often considered to harken back to a "simpler time" and are still used when someone wishes to be deliberate and thoughtful about his or her communication.
Bills and invoices are often sent through the mail, like regular billing correspondence from utility companies and other service providers. These letters often contain a self-addressed, envelope that allows the receiver to remit payment back to the company easily. While still very common, many people now opt to use online bill payment services, which eliminate the need to receive bills through the mail.
Bulk mail is mail that is prepared for bulk mailing, often by presorting, and processing at reduced rates. It is often used in direct marketing and other advertising mail, although it has other uses as well. The senders of these messages sometimes purchase lists of addresses (which are sometimes targeted towards certain demographics) and then send letters advertising their product or service to all recipients. Other times, commercial solicitations are sent by local companies advertising local products, like a restaurant delivery service advertising to their delivery area or a retail store sending their weekly advertising circular to a general area. Bulk mail is also often sent to companies' existing subscriber bases, advertising new products or services.
There are a number of other things almost without any exception sent exclusively as letters through postal services, like wedding invitations.
[edit] First-class
First-class mail in the U.S. includes postcards, letters, large envelopes (flats) and small packages, providing each piece weighs 13 ounces or less. Delivery is given priority over second-class (newspapers and magazines), third class (bulk advertisements), and fourth-class mail (books and media packages.) First-class mail prices are based on both the shape and weight of the item being mailed. Pieces over 13 ounces can be sent as Priority Mail.[19]
[edit] Registered and recorded mail
Further information: Registered mail
Registered mail allows the location and in particular the correct delivery of a letter to be tracked. It is usually considerably more expensive than regular mail, and is typically used for legal documents, to obtain a proof of delivery.
[edit] Repositionable Notes
The United States Postal Service introduced a test allowing "repositionable notes" (for example, 3M's Post-it notes) to be attached to the outside of envelopes and bulk mailings,[20] afterwards extending the test for an unspecified period.[21]
[edit] Postal cards and postcards
Postal cards and postcards are small message cards which are sent by mail unenveloped; the distinction often, though not invariably and reliably, drawn between them is that "postal cards" are issued by the postal authority or entity with the "postal indica" (or "stamp") preprinted on them, while postcards are privately issued and require affixing an adhesive stamp (though there have been some cases of a postal authority's issuing non-stamped postcards). Postcards are often printed to promote tourism, with pictures of resorts, tourist attractions or humorous messages on the front and allowing for a short message from the sender to be written on the back. The postage required for postcards is generally less than postage required for standard letters; however, certain technicalities such as their being oversized or having cut-outs[22] may result in payment of the first-class rate being required.
Postcards are also used by magazines for new subscriptions. Inside many magazines are postage-paid subscription cards that a reader can fill out and mail back to the publishing company to be billed for a subscription to the magazine. In this fashion, magazines also use postcards for other purposes, including reader surveys, contests or information requests.
Postcards are sometimes sent by charities to their members with a message to be signed and sent to a politician (e.g. to promote fair trade or third world debt cancellation).

This antique "letter-box" style U.S. mailbox is both on display and in use at the Smithsonian Institution Building.
[edit] Other
Larger envelopes are also sent through the mail. These are often made of sturdier material than standard envelopes and are often used by businesses to transport documents that are not to be folded or damaged, such as legal documents and contracts. Due to their size, larger envelopes are sometimes charged additional postage.
Packages are often sent through some postal services, usually requiring additional postage than an average letter or postcard. Many postal services have limits on what can and cannot be sent inside packages, usually placing limits or bans on perishable, hazardous or flammable materials. Some hazardous materials in limited quantities may be shipped with appropriate markings and packaging, like an ORM-D label. Additionally, because of terrorism concerns, the U.S. Postal Service subjects their packages to various security tests, often scanning or x-raying packages for materials that might be found in mail bombs.
Magazines are also sent through postal services. Many magazines are simply placed in the mail normally (but in the U.S., they are printed with a special bar code that acts as pre-paid postage - see POSTNET), but many are now shipped in shrinkwrap to protect the loose contents of the magazine.
Hybrid mail, sometimes referred to as L-mail, is the electronic lodgement of mail from the mail generator´s computer directly to a Postal Service provider. The Postal Service provider is then able to use electronic means to have the mail piece sorted, routed and physically produced at a site closest to the delivery point. It is a type of mail growing in popularity with some Post Office operations and individual businesses venturing into this market. In some countries, these services are available to print and deliver emails to those unable to receive email, such as the elderly or infirmed. Services provided by Hybrid mail providers are closely related to that of Mail forwarding service providers.
[edit] See also
    * List of national postal services
    * Airmail
    * Pony Express
    * Mail chute
    * Post office, Postal code, ZIP Code
    * EPPML (Extensible Postal Product Model and Language)
    * Courier, Mail carrier, Express mail
    * Online post office
    * Electronic mail
    * E-Mail Letter
    * Fan mail, Hate mail, Love letter, Snail mail
    * Irradiated mail
    * Railway post office (US), Travelling Post Office (UK): Two types of railway car used for sorting mail aboard a train en route.
    * Mail forwarding
    * Mailing address format by country
    * Digital stamp
[edit] Famous letters
    * Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet
    * Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail
    * The Pauline epistles
    * Samantha Smith's letter to Yuri Andropov
    * Virginia O'Hanlon's letter to the New York Sun, replied to in a famous editorial
    * The Zinoviev Letter, which affected the outcome of the United Kingdom general election, 1924
    * The Canuck Letter, which affected the outcome of the 1972 U.S. Democratic primary elections
[edit] Notes
    1. ^ In Australia, Canada and the U.S., mail is commonly used both for the postal system and for letters, postcards and parcels; in New Zealand, post is more common for the postal system and mail for the material delivered; in the UK, post prevails in both senses. However, the British, American, Australian, and Canadian national postal services are called, respectively, Royal Mail, United States Postal Service, Australia Post, and Canada Post; in addition, such fixed phrases as post office or junk mail are found throughout the English-speaking world.
    2. ^ HERODOTUS, Herodotus, trans. A.D. Godley, vol. 4, book 8, verse 98, pp. 96-97 (1924).
    3. ^ [1] First Issues Collectors Club (retrieved 25 September)
    4. ^ Dorn 2006: 145
    5. ^ Prasad 2003: 104
    6. ^ Mazumdar 1990: 1
    7. ^ Aiyangar 2004: 302
    8. ^ Peabody 2003: 71
    9. ^ Lowe 1951: 134
    10. ^ a b Mote 1978: 450
    11. ^ "mail, n.2". Dictionary.com (Unabridged (v 1.1) ed.). 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mail.
    12. ^ Direct Marketing Association article (registration required)
    13. ^ a b c Back when spies played by the rules, Deccan Herald, January 17, 2006. Retrieved 29 Dec 2006.
    14. ^ Article 8(1): Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. [2]PDF (179 KB)
    15. ^ CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans (400 KB download)
    16. ^ City Mail, Sweden
    17. ^ Frycklund, Jonas Private Mail in Sweden, Cato Journal Vol. 13, No. 1 (1993)PDF (511 KB)
    18. ^ Letter monopoly, Wikipedia.
    19. ^ "First-Class Mail". USPS. http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/senditwithintheus/firstclassmail.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-09.
    20. ^ "Postal Service Helps Businesses "Stick" to their Message". 2005-04-05. http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2005/pr05_028.htm. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
    21. ^ "Marketing 'Notes' Extended for Additional Year: U.S. Postal Service Governors Issue Decision on Repositionable Notes". 2007-07-06. http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007/pr07_055.htm. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
    22. ^ "Cut-Out Postcard - Postage Due". Members.aol.com. http://members.aol.com/raustin13/modernph/pc14due.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-24.
[edit] References
    * Peabody, Norman (2003). Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521465486.
    * Dorn, Harold; MacClellan, James E. (2006). Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801883598.
    * Aiyangar, Sakkottai Krishnaswami; S. Krishnaswami A. (2004). Ancient India: Collected Essays on the Literary and Political History of Southern India. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 0801883598.
    * Prasad, Prakash Chandra (2003). Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 8170170532.
    * Lowe, Robson (1951). Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps (v. III). London.
    * Mazumdar, Mohini Lal (1990). The Imperial Post Offices of British India. Calcutta: Phila Publications.
    * Mote, Frederick W.; John K. Fairbank (1998). The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521243335.
[edit] External links
Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision dated 2006-05-31, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
More spoken articles
    * A Hundred Years by Post by J. Wilson Hyde
    * Potts, Albert, "US19,578 (First U.S. street mailbox patent)". US patent office. 1858
    * GRC Database Information: links to worldwide postal services websites
    * The British Postal Museum & Archive
    * Royal Engineers Museum British Army Postal Services History
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail"

PM´s Council on Trade reviews economic steps
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, April 29 - The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today announced that he would set up an implementation committee, headed by the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, to put into action the various recommendations made by his expert Council on Trade and Industry.
The Prime Minister´s Council on Trade and Industry comprising leading Indian industrialists, experts and senior Ministers, which has been divided into six special subject groups, has made recommendations on several spheres of economic planning, Secretary in the Prime Minister´s Office, Mr N.K. Singh, said here.
The recommendations made cover several areas, including the power sector, textiles, chemicals, tea, education, agriculture, and health.
The two-hour meeting of the Council at the Prime Minister´s residence today was attended among others by the Finance Minister, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Cabinet Secretary and leading industrialists, Mr Mukesh Ambani, Mr Sanjeev Goenka, Mr N. Srinivasan, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Mr Nusli Wadia, Mr G.P. Goenka, Mr Rahul Bajaj and Mr Arun Bharat Ram.
The Prime Minister in his opening remarks at the meeting spoke about the strong economic fundamentals of the economy and added that the implementation committee would give a status report on the recommendations of the Council at its next meeting.
Mr Singh said the Prime Minister assured the members of the Council that the Government would continue with a credible disinvestment programme and pursue policies of fiscal consolidation, reforms of banks and financial institutions, besides removal of infrastructural bottlenecks. High priority would be accorded to education, health and rural development, he added.
Elaborating on the recommendations made by the various sub-groups, set up in December 1999, Mr Singh said the group on disinvestment recommended that stronger PSUs should enter the market first, channelising of divestment proceeds for retirement of public debt and entrusting the sell off responsibility solely to the new Disinvestment Ministry.
Mr Singh however, clarified that these were the committee´s views and the Government had differences on some sensitive issues like disinvestment and dereservation of textile sector.
On the power sector, the recommendations relate to beginning the reforms process with transmission and distribution, increasing tariffs over a three-year period for agriculture, moving subsidisation from SEBs to State budgets and breaking up of monolithic SEBs into different corporations. Private distribution through management contracts, joint ventures or full-fledged licenses and making regulatory commissions independent and autonomous are also part of the recommendations.
On textiles, it has been recommended that structural anomalies be removed, knitting and garment sectors hitherto reserved for the SSI be opened up to improve scale of economies and competitiveness and procedures for relocation and closure of unviable units be simplified. Setting up a brand equity fund for promotion of Made in India label, development of legal and industry knowledge infrastructure and strengthening of anti-dumping mechanism are also among the recommendations.
The committee on tea industry has suggested that there should be a single point Central Income Tax and this should be shared with States, labour productivity should be improved and investments should be made for brand building.
On sugar, full decontrol, setting up a futures market and allowing use of the Sugar Development Fund for modernising existing units have been recommended.
A strategy for a reconvened WTO Ministerial meeting has also been recommended and this includes: re-assert the relevance of special and differential treatment for developing countries; in case of industrial tariffs, demand a substantial reduction of tariffs by industrialised countries on labour intensive and low technology manufacturers; and even while ensuring food security and protecting the interest of farmers, seek greater market access for exportable agricultural products.
The Committee on Avoiding pitfalls of globalisation said that the Government should focus on disinvestment, privatisation and commercialisation of assets, mainly to retire public debt. It cautioned against Government borrowing to ensure macro economic stability and elimination of revenue deficit. It suggested that the capital market be made more broad-based to attract more Indian investors and safeguards be instituted against financial panics by strengthening the SEBI.
Levy of additional tax on areas which increase health care costs like use of tobacco and liquor, and focus of Government´s role on primary and preventive health care programmes were also among the recommendations.
The committee on unshackling the Indian industry said there was a need for a clear cut compliance policy, defining in unambiguous terms the list of compliances which an investor has to meet, computerisation and updating of land records, allowing contract labour in all non-core activities of a company and abolishing the need for Government permission for closure, retrenchment and layoff. It said a unit should be allowed to close down after it pays a mutually agreed compensation to the employees.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000430/biz.htm

Tell me How
The prime minister invites 11 industry bigwings to suggest ways to revitalise the economy further. But is there a death of advice on economic reforms ?
By Rohit Saran
Where there is a will, there is a way. Where there is no will, there is a survey.
Last fortnight the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government displayed a bit of both. First came a flurry of bold economic decisions. The insurance sector was opened for private participation, the notorious Foreign Exchange Regulation Act was repealed and replaced with a more contemporary Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), and a separate Department of Disinvestment was created. Preceding all these were non-populist measures like a steep hike in diesel prices. The Government, it seemed, had the guts and gumption required to undertake tough economic measures.
THE DISPOSERS
An implementation Review Committee comprising Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission K.C.Pant will evaluate the recommendations of previous committees pending with the Government and ensure that suggestions are implemented with urgency
That confidence was belied, at least partially, when Vajpayee decided to take fresh lessons on basic economic reforms. In his first meeting with the reconstituted Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry (PMCTI) on December 11, Vajpayee set up not one, not two, but eight committees (called subject groups) to "recommend implementable action points". The committees will suggest policy reforms in areas ranging from good governance in the private sector, to public-sector disinvestment, to power-sector reforms (see box). Last year too, the trade and industry council was split into six sub-groups, each of which had given recommendations on specific areas of reforms.
Says a Mumbai-based member of the council: "The last thing the Government needs is more advice on reforms. Dozens of reports have already detailed what needs to be done and how it could be done." The cynicism over the prime minister's move stems from two factors. The recommendations of the six sub-groups constituted last year are yet to be implemented. In fact, some of the new committees will be replicating the work that last year's committees have done. For instance, last year's sub-group on infrastructure headed by Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had given detailed recommendations on power-sector reforms. Yet a new committee has been set up for suggesting power-sector reforms. Similarly, the work of the newly appointed committee on administrative reforms will overlap with last year's committee on administrative and legal simplifications.
In the absence of anything new to say, the new committees may end up reinventing the wheel. That's exactly what happened last year. The 1998 committee on administrative and legal simplifications endorsed the suggestions of a prior commission on administrative reforms which was set up in May 1998. The commission had listed 1,300 Central laws for outright abolition and amendments to another 110. Similarly, last year's subject group on infrastructure had drawn heavily from the 1997 Rakesh Mohan Committee's report on infrastructure.
The PMO, however, hopes that the new committees will be able to make a break from the past. "Most of the subject groups set up this year will deal with the issues either not dealt with by earlier committees, or the issues on which the recommendations given were not very practical," clarifies N.K. Singh, secretary to the prime minister. For instance, the committee on administrative reforms will focus on the problems of red tape in the post-industrial delicensing era. That's because industrialists have been complaining that a series of new clearances introduced by different government departments have nullified the benefits of delicensing. In addition, the panel will also suggest ways to revive India's traditional industries like textile and leather.
But for them to be of any worth, these recommendations have to be implemented. Council members are betting on Vajpayee's firm resolve to ensure speedier implementation. Even before he appointed the eight sub-groups, the prime minister had announced an Implementation Review Committee with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Industry and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant as its members. The committee's brief is to take "urgent steps to put into action the recommendations that are worthy of acceptance". Vajpayee reassured the sceptics in the council by stating that "implementation and accountability must become the hallmark for assessing the success of our reform strategy".
THE PROPOSERS
The eight sub-groups and their members
» Good governance in the private sector:
N.R. Narayana Murthy
Kumar Mangalam Birla
» Private investment in education, health & rural development
Mukesh Ambani
Kumar Mangalam Birla
» Strategy for WTO meet
N. Srinivasan*
Rahul Bajaj
» PSU disinvestment
G.P. Goenka
Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Nusli Wadia
» Review of rules and procedures to unshakle industry/measures to revive traditional industry
Nusli Wadia
Ratan Tata
» How to avoid pitfalls of globalisation
Rahul Bajaj
Sanjeev Goenka
» Power sector reforms
G.P. Goenka
A.C. Muthiah
» Harnessing wealth and talent of NRIs for development
Mukesh Ambani
All sub-groups to submit report before March 11, 2000.
* Not shown in the picture
Many industrialists feel that the importance of the PMCTI is not restricted to just what the sub-groups do. Says G.P. Goenka, president of FICCI and a PMCTI member: "Consultations with the industry - which is the real practitioner of economic reforms - helps government fine tune its policy." This is especially true since the private sector is playing an increasingly larger role in the economy. Agrees Singh: "The council was created to develop a lasting partnership and trust with the industry. That, to me, is the more important than any set of recommendations."
There are other benefits of the prime minister's direct interaction with the industry. An obvious one is the positive effect on business sentiments. Points out Sanjeev Goenka, vice-chairman, RPG Enterprises and a member of the council: "Regular interactions with the prime minister and his team instil confidence in industry."
In some ways, the bureaucracy too gets more serious about reforms. Says Jagdish Shettigar, a BJP economic ideologue and a member of the prime minister's economic advisory council: "With the prime minister becoming the prime mover of the reforms, the administrative machinery down the line get more active." Observers also feel that the debates such meetings generate could help achieve consensus on the next generation of reforms. Says G.P. Goenka: "Interactions with the Government lead to wrestling of minds over future policies." Hopefully, actions will soon speak louder than words.

http://indiatodaygroup.com/itoday/19991227/economy.html

Palash Biswas

Pl Read my blogs:

http://nandigramunited.blogspot.com/

http://www.bangaindigenous.blogspot.com/

http://www.troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/

palashcbiswas,
gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551

Messages in this topic (1)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
12a. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
Posted by: "Jimmy Jumshade" jimmybug@rocketmail.com
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

So??!! Big deal. TALIBAN are former "Mujahideen" created by & darlings of the USA who did the biggest favour to USA by defeating the USSR, with vital help of Pakistan ARMY. But the USA an arrogant & unreliable friend & ally dumped them/deserted them & never rebuilt Afghanistan or thanked Pakistan properly.

Therefore, "The Mujahideen became TALIBAN".......so, the US has nothing to complain about or make enemies of friends.....just because of an obvious inside job.....you will never hear this from CNN/FOX......but only from "JIMMY NEWS"...................

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, R.Rahi <rahioftoronto@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: R.Rahi <rahioftoronto@yahoo.com>
Subject: [WideMinds] Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "Taimur Rahman" <175286@soas.ac.uk>, cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "--Believer" <amongbelievers@yahoogroups.com>, "--CPP" <communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com>, "--GEO" <geonews@geo.tv>, "--LPP" <labour_party@yahoo.com>, "--O`P" <Lahore@yahoogroups.com>, "--PakFront" <PakistanFront@yahoogroups.com>, "--PESH" <JACNWFP@yahoogroups.com>, "--WM" <wideminds@yahoogroups.com>, "--Writers" <writers_forum@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 5:11 PM

Dear Taimur,
Allow me to salute you,
A TRUE CHILD OF SOHNI-DHARTY.

God'sOwnSocialist, This is RAHi
________________________(^v^)

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk> wrote:

From: Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk>
Subject: [cmkp] Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "cmkpmod" <cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com>, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com
Received: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 3:01 PM

StarBytes
Laal speak out vociferously
against the Taliban and write to the Chief Justice
At a time when people are wondering when the same liberals who were gung ho about the restoration of the judiciary are keeping silent in the wake of the Taliban, Laal are a refreshing change. In letters going out to members of Laal on Facebook and printed in the Op-ed section of this paper, Taimur Rehman accuses the Taliban of being created by the United States whose purpose is to make both Afghanistan and Pakistan backward.

"We must fight them for every inch of Pakistan," writes Taimur Rahman in his letter. "They destroyed Afghanistan with the help of imperialism. They took billions of dollars from US imperialism to ruin that country, plunge it into chaos, anarchy and backwardness. They destroyed the lives of millions. They call themselves anti-American. They are not anti-American. They are the scum that US imperialism left in our region. They are scoundrels and counter-revolutionaries."
He maintains that it is up for the people of this country to fight them. Following up his letter to the fans of Laal and the newspaper, Taimur Rahman has also written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary
"The Taliban and the TSNM have flagrantly violated the rule of law. They have beheaded people, flogged them, murdered them, raped them, kidnapped and looted the people. They have begun to extract jaziyah from the Sikh community. Can this state of affairs continue without being challenged?
Dear Sir, you know that the three major institutions to complete any state are an army, a judiciary and tax collection. Today the Taliban have their own army. The Taliban have their own judiciary (that does not accept the Supreme Court or High Court). And they are also collecting taxes in the form of jaziyah and other forms. In the meantime, nearly the entire political class of Pakistan and the armed forces have either surrendered to the Taliban or in some cases are rejoicing at their victory and praying behind Mullah Fazlullah.
We call on you Sir to take a stand against religious extremism and the breakup of Pakistan, just as you took a stand against military dictatorship. Pakistan needs another one of your historic 'NO' responses."
It is interesting to note that Taimur is a member of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party. This is an example of the kind of actions activists of his ilk take. They do come out onto the roads and speak out even as they go the whole mile to shake the system. This is possibly the first time pop musicians have taken these measures, after Junoon. It is heartening to see their activism. Art is not just entertainment. At times like these it is necessary that it becomes our conscience.

All new Yahoo! Mail - Get a sneak peak at messages with a handy reading pane.

Messages in this topic (3)
________________________________________________________________________
12b. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
Posted by: "Jimmy Jumshade" jimmybug@rocketmail.com
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

And the USA had to use it's long accumulated Military power..........or lose it & they did & are doing..............the world will welcome the new kinder, gentler & decent Super Power.......CHINA.....................

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Jimmy Jumshade <jimmybug@rocketmail.com> wrote:

From: Jimmy Jumshade <jimmybug@rocketmail.com>
Subject: [IndianJustice] Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "Taimur Rahman" <175286@soas.ac.uk>, cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com, WideMinds@yahoogroups.com, indianjustice@yahoogroups.com, sindhpost@yahogroups.com, sindorg@yahoogroups.com, pakistan-zindabad@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "--Believer" <amongbelievers@yahoogroups.com>, "--CPP" <communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com>, "--GEO" <geonews@geo.tv>, "--LPP" <labour_party@yahoo.com>, "--O`P" <Lahore@yahoogroups.com>, "--PakFront" <PakistanFront@yahoogroups.com>, "--PESH" <JACNWFP@yahoogroups.com>, "--WM" <wideminds@yahoogroups.com>, "--Writers" <writers_forum@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 5:51 PM

So??!! Big deal. TALIBAN are former "Mujahideen" created by & darlings of the USA who did the biggest favour to USA by defeating the USSR, with vital help of Pakistan ARMY. But the USA an arrogant & unreliable friend & ally dumped them/deserted them & never rebuilt Afghanistan or thanked Pakistan properly.

Therefore, "The Mujahideen became TALIBAN".......so, the US has nothing to complain about or make enemies of friends.....just because of an obvious inside job.....you will never hear this from CNN/FOX......but only from "JIMMY NEWS"...................

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, R.Rahi <rahioftoronto@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: R.Rahi <rahioftoronto@yahoo.com>
Subject: [WideMinds] Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "Taimur Rahman" <175286@soas.ac.uk>, cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "--Believer" <amongbelievers@yahoogroups.com>, "--CPP" <communistpartyofpakistan@yahoogroups.com>, "--GEO" <geonews@geo.tv>, "--LPP" <labour_party@yahoo.com>, "--O`P" <Lahore@yahoogroups.com>, "--PakFront" <PakistanFront@yahoogroups.com>, "--PESH" <JACNWFP@yahoogroups.com>, "--WM" <wideminds@yahoogroups.com>, "--Writers" <writers_forum@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 5:11 PM

Dear Taimur,
Allow me to salute you,
A TRUE CHILD OF SOHNI-DHARTY.

God'sOwnSocialist, This is RAHi
________________________(^v^)

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk> wrote:

From: Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk>
Subject: [cmkp] Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "cmkpmod" <cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com>, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com
Received: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 3:01 PM

StarBytes
Laal speak out vociferously
against the Taliban and write to the Chief Justice
At a time when people are wondering when the same liberals who were gung ho about the restoration of the judiciary are keeping silent in the wake of the Taliban, Laal are a refreshing change. In letters going out to members of Laal on Facebook and printed in the Op-ed section of this paper, Taimur Rehman accuses the Taliban of being created by the United States whose purpose is to make both Afghanistan and Pakistan backward.

"We must fight them for every inch of Pakistan," writes Taimur Rahman in his letter. "They destroyed Afghanistan with the help of imperialism. They took billions of dollars from US imperialism to ruin that country, plunge it into chaos, anarchy and backwardness. They destroyed the lives of millions. They call themselves anti-American. They are not anti-American. They are the scum that US imperialism left in our region. They are scoundrels and counter-revolutionaries."
He maintains that it is up for the people of this country to fight them. Following up his letter to the fans of Laal and the newspaper, Taimur Rahman has also written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary
"The Taliban and the TSNM have flagrantly violated the rule of law. They have beheaded people, flogged them, murdered them, raped them, kidnapped and looted the people. They have begun to extract jaziyah from the Sikh community. Can this state of affairs continue without being challenged?
Dear Sir, you know that the three major institutions to complete any state are an army, a judiciary and tax collection. Today the Taliban have their own army. The Taliban have their own judiciary (that does not accept the Supreme Court or High Court). And they are also collecting taxes in the form of jaziyah and other forms. In the meantime, nearly the entire political class of Pakistan and the armed forces have either surrendered to the Taliban or in some cases are rejoicing at their victory and praying behind Mullah Fazlullah.
We call on you Sir to take a stand against religious extremism and the breakup of Pakistan, just as you took a stand against military dictatorship. Pakistan needs another one of your historic 'NO' responses."
It is interesting to note that Taimur is a member of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party. This is an example of the kind of actions activists of his ilk take. They do come out onto the roads and speak out even as they go the whole mile to shake the system. This is possibly the first time pop musicians have taken these measures, after Junoon. It is heartening to see their activism. Art is not just entertainment. At times like these it is necessary that it becomes our conscience.

All new Yahoo! Mail - Get a sneak peak at messages with a handy reading pane.

Messages in this topic (3)
________________________________________________________________________
12c. Re: Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
Posted by: "R.Rahi" rahioftoronto@yahoo.com rahioftoronto
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Dear Taimur,
Allow me to salute you,
A TRUE CHILD OF SOHNI-DHARTY.

God'sOwnSocialist, This is RAHi
________________________(^v^)

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk> wrote:

From: Taimur Rahman <175286@soas.ac.uk>
Subject: [cmkp] Laal speak out vociferously against the Taliban
To: "cmkpmod" <cmkp_mod@yahoogroups.com>, cmkp_pk@yahoogroups.com, may12thgroup@yahoogroups.com, socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com
Received: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 3:01 PM

StarBytes
Laal speak out vociferously
against the Taliban and write to the Chief Justice
At a time when people are wondering when the same liberals who were gung ho about the restoration of the judiciary are keeping silent in the wake of the Taliban, Laal are a refreshing change. In letters going out to members of Laal on Facebook and printed in the Op-ed section of this paper, Taimur Rehman accuses the Taliban of being created by the United States whose purpose is to make both Afghanistan and Pakistan backward.

"We must fight them for every inch of Pakistan," writes Taimur Rahman in his letter. "They destroyed Afghanistan with the help of imperialism. They took billions of dollars from US imperialism to ruin that country, plunge it into chaos, anarchy and backwardness. They destroyed the lives of millions. They call themselves anti-American. They are not anti-American. They are the scum that US imperialism left in our region. They are scoundrels and counter-revolutionaries."
He maintains that it is up for the people of this country to fight them. Following up his letter to the fans of Laal and the newspaper, Taimur Rahman has also written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary
"The Taliban and the TSNM have flagrantly violated the rule of law. They have beheaded people, flogged them, murdered them, raped them, kidnapped and looted the people. They have begun to extract jaziyah from the Sikh community. Can this state of affairs continue without being challenged?
Dear Sir, you know that the three major institutions to complete any state are an army, a judiciary and tax collection. Today the Taliban have their own army. The Taliban have their own judiciary (that does not accept the Supreme Court or High Court). And they are also collecting taxes in the form of jaziyah and other forms. In the meantime, nearly the entire political class of Pakistan and the armed forces have either surrendered to the Taliban or in some cases are rejoicing at their victory and praying behind Mullah Fazlullah.
We call on you Sir to take a stand against religious extremism and the breakup of Pakistan, just as you took a stand against military dictatorship. Pakistan needs another one of your historic 'NO' responses."
It is interesting to note that Taimur is a member of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party. This is an example of the kind of actions activists of his ilk take. They do come out onto the roads and speak out even as they go the whole mile to shake the system. This is possibly the first time pop musicians have taken these measures, after Junoon. It is heartening to see their activism. Art is not just entertainment. At times like these it is necessary that it becomes our conscience.

__________________________________________________________________
Make your browsing faster, safer, and easier with the new Internet Explorer® 8. Optimized for Yahoo! Get it Now for Free! at http://downloads.yahoo.com/ca/internetexplorer/

Messages in this topic (3)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
13. Calamity [Fitnah] of Fatwa Mongering in Pakistani Mullahs
Posted by: "Mansoor Hallaj" tarot66@yahoo.com tarot66
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:24 pm ((PDT))

Ansar Abbasi, The News International and Calamity of Fatwa Mongering by Sufi Muhammad.

http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/04/ansar-abbasi-news-international-and.html

Messages in this topic (1)

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My story Troubled Galaxy Destroyed dreams

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Re: [communistpartyofpakistan] Digest Number 1359[1 Attachment]

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