Ok, here is the new schedule for the Blog Mela - we are going back to the weekly format, but the voting and the prize will be for the best entry of the month. Bloggers, let me know if you want to host - pick your slots - remember, it is a chance for a free “Instalanche”!
October:
7th October - hosted by Ravages (Ravages, you need to put up an announcement on your blog calling for nominations of blog posts made within the period between the last Mela the 6th of October - collate them like Ravi did and make the Mela post on the 7th).
14th October - hosted by MadMan
21st October - hosted by Aadisht
28th October - hosted by Yazad
November:
4th November: hosted by Ashish Hanwadikar
11th November: hosted by Sameer
18th November: hosted by Patrix
25th November: hosted by Anil
December:
3rd December: hosted by MD
10th December: hosted by Debashish
17th December: Yazad
(Our new motto - We volunteer you for things we are too lazy to do! ;))
Following the trend of the times, I have outsources the blog Mela to the shores of Bangalore…go check it out at Ravi uncle’s place - The Examined Life: Blog Mela - Time for some demarketing
It is my two-year blogiversary and I am up to my neck in work-related stuff. I promise promise PROMISE to put the Mela up over the weekend. Have fun! Gotta run!
Send in your blog mela nominations, if you haven’t already. The Mela will be up tomorrow.
I have been busy with work and reading up on the CBS document forgery issue, so I will catch ya’ll tomorrow :)
This is in reply to Dilip D’Souza’s comment to the previous post and an effort to move the Gujarat discussion to an appropriate thread -
Dilip,
I am sincerely against anyone who wantonly unleash destruction on innocents - be it Hindus or Muslims or Christians or atheists. I agree it is easy to get defensive when fellow Hindus are accused of fanaticism. It is very easy to overlook in ourselves something that sticks to us when another group exhibits it. I was horrified when I heard of the pregnant women whose bellies were ripped and their fetuses murdered. I unequivocally condemn the acts - no ifs and buts.
That said, I think part of being defensive comes from the media frenzy that is quick to condemn any violence by Hindus while ignoring the Muslim provocation. At least some horror stories like the one Arundhati Roy had made up about the so-called murder of a Muslim politician’s family - when in fact nothing like that had happened - give people who are looking for excuses to defend their own, cover. If someone I like and admire is accused of something bad, I am going to try to look for loopholes in the argument. I am not going to admit they might have been wrong, especially when I already believe the world is against me.
Am I saying that kind of thinking is right? NO. I think all Hindus need to sit down and assess what they believe, just like all Muslims should or all other people. Like someone said in a comment on the previous post, everybody is afraid in India - everybody is also afraid of being first one to propose peace. Whenever there are traces of peace between the communities, idiots like Imam Bukhari and Bal Thackeray rush in stop the efforts. When these so-called Imams openly support Pakistanis and Jehadis, it is easy for the Hindu fanatics to point fingers and manipulate an already frightened and distrustful Hindu community to believe every Muslim amongst them is a Pakistani in disguise.
I have no solutions for the problem - I am just telling it that way I see it - here is what I wrote about the Gujarat riots and the communal problem in India in general, in previous posts - This is a sick attitude - Where is India going? - India and Islam - Hindus, Muslims and Patriotism.
Update: The murder Roy referred to was of minister Ehsan Jefri’s daughters - they were not murdered while the minister and a few from his family were. Arundhati Roy published a retraction of the fact. I want to add I was mistaken in assuming the minister’s murder didn’t happen - it did happen. The only thing that didn’t happen was the murder of Ehsan Jefri’s daughters.
Fucking bastards!
The Command Post - Global War On Terror - Russia Updates - Rescue Operation Declared to be OverSeventy-nine bodies of the hundred-and-more casualties were identified, most of them were shot in the rear while trying to escape from the besieged school.Kids. Shot in the back.
I will post something later once the steam in my head cools off a bit!
Should I count till ten first? hundred? thousand?
Feminists Compare Bush’s 2000 Election Victory to ‘Savage Rape’ — 09/02/2004New York (CNSNews.com) - A featured performer at a National Organization for Women rally accused President Bush of having “savagely raped ” women “over and over” by allegedly stealing the 2000 presidential election.People like this are the reason why I hate being called a feminist even though I consider myself a huge womens’ rights proponent. These women are ridiculous and do not deserve to be seen as representing the women of America. They desert women who are against their party of choice (see the ridicule they heaped on Paula Jones for saying Clinton raped her - rape doesn’t mean shit when your favorite party is accused of it). They have been stck on a single issue all their lives, the “right to eject something from my womb” whenever I feel like it.Poet Molly Birnbaum read aloud to a crowd of feminists gathered in New York’s Central Park on Wednesday night, as part of a NOW event dubbed “Code Red: Stop the Bush Agenda Rally.”
“Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole,” Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries.)
These women cheapen genuine rape and rape victims all over the country with their comaprison of an opponent political party winning to rape of women. Get over it, idiots! That is not just a cheap shot, but a travesty and a slap in the face of women who have been raped and go through the trauma every single day of their lives. Don’t like Bush? Get him voted out in November - if not, he is out after another 4 years anyways. That is absolutely no reason to go batshit. Remember the story of crying “wolf” - too much rhetoric will cheapen you, your organization and the people you claim to represent until you become a cariacature of yourself as drawn by people who don’t like you. Don’t make yourselves more irrelevant than you are, for you are turning more and more into the drunk uncle we are embarrassed to admit we are related to with this kind of stupid crap.
p.s. - so ironic that I should see this news the same day I was originally going to post about how politics has turned into mudslinging these days and otherwise sane bloggers are going nuts with hate for the opposing party.
update: My comment replying to Dilip went on a little too long, so I am posting it here.
Dilip, I wish NOW were a fence-sitter. I really wish they would care for no politics other than those of women. I really think it is good to have someone with their resources actually help women. I don’t like the fact that they have either turned into “man haters” like those who wrote the “Vagina Monologues” or shills for the Democratic Party.
NOW was outraged when Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harrassment, but had absolutely no sympathy for Paula Jones’ accusations towards Bill Clinton. Why the double standard? Why not just stand for women regardless of politics?
I consider myself a fence-sitter since I don’t hate either of the political parties with the kind of passion many other bloggers seem to have for the opposition. I will not feel raped if Kerry became President. I don’t think it is helpful at all or even possible to have a middle ground when one side starts off from the extreme. You and I disagree on issues a lot more than we agree - we can still talk because we know the other person is not a monster but another regular person.
Let’s say Bush wins in November - how can NOW go to him and work with him to help women if they have antagonized him this bad? Isn’t that stupid the organization? This is why I am against politicizing womens’ rights movements or any other such movements for that matter. Once you pick sides, there is a 50-50 chance you might lose and that is not acceptable for a movement supposedly concerned with the uplifting of it’s constituency.
Why do all the cars with Kerry/Edwards stickers stay in front of me resolutely during rush hour and refuse to go even a mile over 30 mph? On the other hand, why are all the Bush/Cheney-stckered cars/SUVs always in such a rush that they are trying to run me off the road even when I am going 10 miles over the speed limit?
In yet another attempt to resurrect the blog mela (I am holding to your promise of help, MD :p), we are seeking nominations of your favorite posts from the Indian side of the blogosphere. Only rules are that the posts are made by Indians or pertaining to Indian issues and they be made between August 16th and September 14th
Email me the posts or leave them in the comments - the winner of the best post voting still gets $10 amazon gift certificate.
p.s. - to the person who found my site via this search - you are a loser! Who cares what Madonna thinks?
Another journalist falls prey to the charms of the blogosphere. In continuing with his trend of dealing with us bloggers on our own turf, Dilip D’Souza got his own blog and the comments are turned on too - Death ends fun. I applaud him on this decision to be more accessible to the janta. This should be the start of a good give-and-take between us. Us bloggers have been whining about journalists not listening to us for so long we should not let this opportunity go to waste.