Sankranthi Subhakankshalu
All stats in post are from About.com who I think is fairly non-partisan. All statistics I am putting in here are for the US only, since this is the only situation I know enough to comment about.
First, the numbers for abortions through the years as Niket asked…
1996 - 1,365,700 | 1985 - 1,588,600 | 1974 - 898,600
1995 - 1,363,700 | 1984 - 1,577,200 | 1973 - 774,600
1994 - 1,431,000 | 1983 - 1,575,000
1993 - 1,500,000 | 1982 - 1,573,900
1992 - 1,528,900 | 1981 - 1,577,300
1991 - 1,556,500 | 1980 - 1,553,900
1990 - 1,608,600 | 1979 - 1,497,700
1989 - 1,566,900 | 1978 - 1,409,600
1988 - 1,590,800 | 1977 - 1,316,700
1987 - 1,559,100 | 1976 - 1,179,300
1986 - 1,574,000 | 1975 - 1,034,200
[edited the figures above for readability]
In 2001, 1.31 million abortions took place.
What is more interesting of course, was this set of numbers that caught my eye -
25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing.
21.3% of women cannot afford a baby.
14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child.
12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy.)
10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career.
7.9% of women want no (more) children.
3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health.
2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health.
Which means that only 6.1% of the above abortions were medically necessary. All the rest, choices! Atleast 36.3% got the abortion since they didn’t want children just yet or that it will disrupt their career or education, in other words, having children would cramp their lifestyle.
Seriously, how many of these could have really been avoided by responsible use of contraception? One fact on the site says 54% said they used ocntraception during the month before they got pregnant - that leaves 46% using abortion as birth control. In all fairness, is it really fair to create a life and then destroy it just because you can?
I think the pro-life people are as much to blame in this as the pro-choicers. In their relegious zeal, a lot of them don’t support use of ocntraceptives (a few condoms would have Andrea Yates some good) and are trying to stifle research and availability of such emergency contraceptives as the RU-486 pill. I’d rather some one not conceive or get rid of the unwanted conception before there is time for it to develop than wait till the baby is big enough to present a grisly photo-op for the pro-lifers.
Two Indian roommates are studying for Masters’ in the Computer Science department of a university on the US. One guy has completed his assignment and the other wants to copy it. The first one doesn’t like the idea, but the second guy still persuades him to show it to him, just so he can get an idea of the solution, so he can wriet his own version of it. What ends up happening unbeknownst to the first guy is that the second one copies the entire assignment - changes variable names and submits it.
Results day, both guys got an “F” (for Failed) on their assignments and the course - that too, when the first guy was expecting an “A” for the work he did the entire year. Investigations are done, the second guy admits to plagiarism and changes his major just so he can graduate from the Masters’ program. The professors would have never allowed to pass easily after the one plagiarism incident. This is not a hypothetical situation - the first guy in the story was my husband. Should the professors have let the two guys go on with a slap on the wrist? It was only one assignment - nobody was physically or monetarily harmed because of this. What do you guys think? Guys studying in the US, what do you think?
p.s. This is for the ultra-touchy people - this post has absolutely nothing to do with Rohan. I was thinking of this after reading through a discussion on Gaurav’s blog and someone brought up similar points. As you can see from the last few lines, this is a true story and one of the people involved was my husband. So, please don’t discuss Rohan’s situation here.
Does this mean I should just bite the bullet and have another baby? For the sake of saving the world?
(link via Instapundit)
Jokes aside, this article is probably the most heart-wrenchingly pro-life one I have seen in my life.
I had a baby just a few months ago. I saw him since he was nothing but a few cells of tissue at the age of 4 weeks. I have felt him move when he was 12 weeks-old, the usual time you get an abortion. I saw him move on the ultra-sound at my 12-week-exam. I saw his tiny heart beat hard and fast and I thought, this is my baby. I didn’t know if it was boy or a girl - I had no name for him, yet he was my baby. He was not a fetus to me even at 8-weeks-old when I saw his tiny little self for the first time via ultra-sound.
I would ask you all to be very careful when you read the article I mentioned above - it is really hard to read, especially if you have had babies. I almost burst into tears and still cannot get myself to finish reading it. For the life of me, I don’t think I could have an abortion now. I have seen my baby alive and kicking at 8-weeks. How can I try to kill him at 12-weeks or even later? How many women do you think would try to abort their babies if they were shown an ultra-sound of the little one before the procedure?
We live in a culture where people howl about the mistreatment of animals (I am one of them) - how can we let things like saline abortions and late-term abortions happen to little babies? Are we really that selfish as a group that we will kill living beings without any compunction just so we can carry on with our lifestyles? As mothers, we flinch when our baby gets a shot - what of the babies whose lungs are burning while dying slowly due to the saline injections? As pet owners and lovers, we feel bad and rush them to the vet the minute a little thing goes wrong with them - how can we let babies with a heartbeat and a life in them be torn apart in pieces?
I guess once I start, this is an issue I cannot stop talking about. Let me keep venting. Here is another thing - we women claim it is a choice - it is our body. Great! But about the choices of the baby? Did the baby ask to be conceived? You, consciously or not, voluntarily or not, made the decision. You decided you wanted to do something that ended up being a baby. As a woman, you are in a unique position of being responsible for not just yourself but for another life. Deal with it, or get your uterus taken out. I will not say every woman has to have and raise a child by herself - have it put up for adoption. Maybe, you will learn to be a little careful the next time around.
Yeah, I know there are people who will argue that it is better for a child to die rather than have a tough life growing up. That is a bullshit argument. There are also a lot of people who had a tough childhood but grew up to be great. Ultimately, the decision is to take a life or let it be. We cannot be crying out for the rights of convicted murderers while murdering our babies by the dozen without appeals or even a hearing.
p.s. I don’t agree with a lot of things in the article linked above, but there were a lot of things in it that really moved me.
Think hypothetically - let’s say something bad happened to you. You are initially not very bothered by it since it is not such a big deal in the overall picture. You try to mend it and make it alright. The person who has done you bad refuses to back down - it all turns into a big fight. There are sides in the fight now. There are people who support you since the wrong was done to you (regardless of the how big or small deal it is) - there are people who support the person who wronged you.
Now, you start wondering why would someone support someone who obviously did something wrong and refuses to accept any responsibility. As far as I can tell, some people are perpetual champions of the underdog and the only quailification be that the person is an underdog - he/she doesn’t have to be in the right. Some people on the other hand, have no bone in the fight, but just like appearing all compassionate or understanding - again, doesn’t matter who did wrong or who did right.
Ultimately, the whole dynamic breaks down into a group who want justice served regardless of the size of the transgression, a group who will give a pass in the name of compassion without so much as a pause to think about the offended sensibilities of the victim and even if the wrongdoer still refuses to admit he/she did anything wrong and finally a group of people who just snipe at everybody depending on the opportunity.
Seriously, if you are in the first group, you would be getting more and more angry by now and something that didn’t seem like such a big deal now becomes a fight to get justice since the other side will not give you an inch without trying to play victim (I know wrongdoers playing victim is the classic problem in a lot of cases we are seeing these days). Apparently as far as a few people are concerned, doing right doesn’t matter. Of course, there are gray areas in all these scenarios, but how is one side helping but entrench the other side unless they are willing to meet them half-way? When a simple sorry will do to alleviate a lot of trouble, it is very disingenuous to actually concoct a cock-and-bull story and then accuse your accusers of a witch-hunt. Sometimes, some people deserve all they get.
Note: There is a reason I am not naming any names here - we wouldn’t want to start a feeding frenzy here now, do we?
update: Read this too.
Rohan Pinto apologized. Yes, he did and Amit has it here.
Happy Republic Day, India :)
Talking of Republic Day evokes memories of going to school, marching in front of the flag, getting candies and then rushing back home to watch the Republic Day parade on TV :) That was such an inseparable part of the celebration of the day.
Pssst…it is really on Jan 26th, but this is intended to be for the Indian audience who will celebrate it this evening.
Well, that was really my paraphrase of the “Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism”. They seem to be a pretty fair and interesting group of people as you can see by their positions on different current issues. I am glad to see this organization which is one of many to try and refute the argument that Islam is not conducive to democracy. I wish them all luck.
(Link to site via Dean Esmay, who loves their position on elections in Iraq where they call for fair represenation of the Sunni Muslims while hoping to see free elections for all other oppressed Iraqis too).
What is going on with Radio shock-jocks these days? There used to be a time when they came close to the line but never crossed it while still managing to be funny. First comes the controversy of the RJs calling Indian call-center employees and abusing them - now they are actually trying to make fun of tsunami victims with the “tsunami song”. Huh? How are lyrics like these supposed to make you laugh? What kind of sick and disgusting vile beings come up with such songs?
..All at once you could hear the screaming ch*nks and no one was safe from the wave there were africans drowning, little chinamen swept away you could hear god laughing, “swim you b*tches swim”
So now you’re screwed, it’s the Tsunami
you better run or kiss your ass away, go find your mommy
I just saw her float by, a tree went through her head
and now the children will be sold to child slavery…
It is one thing to make prank calls to stores and tease the employees or even frustrate them - it is completely over the line and unacceptable to leave people in tears over the harrassment and try to cash in on human tragedy by using racist gags. It is sick! I think it is in the hands of consumers to show these radio stations that there is a difference between crazy and just plain nasty and we the public will not let them get away with blurring those lines.
Yeah, I know lots of military men and women blog now. What is different about 1st. Lt. Neil Prakash (apart from the fact that his name is very close to my son’s) is that he is an Indian American in the US military serving in Iraq and blogging while doing so.
Apparently he has been doing a great job of both blogging and fighting. Read below for details.
Platoon Leader awarded Silver Star for conduct under fireFORWARD OPERATING BASE SCUNION, BA’QUBAH, Iraq — After leading his platoon through a fierce onslaught, enemy fire pounding them from every direction, 1st Lt. Neil Prakash went back in for more.
First Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste joined Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment at FOB Scunion Jan. 14 to award this 24-year-old tank platoon leader one of the military’s highest honors - the Silver Star Medal.
Check out this week’s blog mela hosted by Ravages. He has done a great job of it. All original!
update: Apparently copying was the least of our copycat’s problems - read on to find out the other frauds he has been upto.
Here she is, Folks! We are nauseated to present the [evil bitch] mother of the week to Michelle Shelton for her awesome understanding of parenting do’s and don’ts. I mean, who hasn’t slipped a little crack in their babies’ food now and then to “calm” them down? Fess up, y’all!
Woman Charged With Giving Crack to Son, 4KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A mother has been arrested on charges that she gave crack to her 4-year-old son to “calm him down.” Michelle R. Shelton, 32, of Kansas City, was arrested Thursday on a child endangerment charge. Police said the boy did not suffer any obvious injuries from taking the highly addictive drug. He remains in state custody.While I am glad the boy didn’t suffer any “obvious” problems from her mother’s administrations, I have got to wonder at the logic of trying to give someone crack to calm them down - I am no expert on drugs, but I have never heard of the tranquilizing effects of crack, only that it might get you hyper…Hmmm…
Amit Varma writes about an article in TOI about some Americans calling call-center workers in India and harrassing systematically - Remote racism. I can see where those callers are abusive and wrong. Are they racist too as Amit and the article seem to think? I am not so sure of that. We have to understand these are people who have been told that there are these Indian people who are grabbing all their jobs for cheap and leaving them broke economically…Sounds familiar? Oh, just scroll down a bit and the post is right here on my first page.
Liked the post here about Sun imitating Microsoft? Don’t worry - it is copied archived safely here. Don’t know about Canadian Mind Products’ Java Authentication definitions? You are in luck again, since the you will find the exact copy here. Dossy’s “comically ironic” joke? here. Now Running’s review of Raincoat? here.
Did you get the drift yet? No? Well, apparently Rohan Pinto is such an awesome writer that many of us have been plagiarizing his posts even before he wrote them…in an alternate universe, that is. In the real world, he shamelessly copies content from other sites (including comments in some cases - moe and Turiya from the racism post) and puts them on their blog with no attribution or even an indication that it could be written by someone else. Amit found him about 40 hours ago - I sent him an email asking him to remove my post from his blog - haven’t heard from him yet and the post is still there including the plagiarized comments.
See, this is a post as much out of irritation as frustration that he will not take the easy way out that I gave him and quietly remove the plagiarized posts. He had his chance - missed it. I already complained to Google AdSense to revoke his account. Let’s see what happens.
Update: Amit Varma (thanks for catching the guy!) weighs on the matter here.
Final Update: Rohan Pinto called Amit and apologized unconditionally. As far as I am concerned, the issue ends here. Thanks, all those who supported me through this!
January:
28th January: Ravikiran
February:
3rd February: Fadereu
10th February: Patrix
17th February: Shanti
24th February: Amit Varma
I break my rule of silence about articles that don’t mention my blog and fawn all over me to link to this Indian Express editorial on blogs by Amit Varma…Good read, folks! Maybe he will mention me the next time around. Heh!
First they came for the cigarettes - they are planning to come for the drinks - now they are trying to come for the food. Seriously, doesn’t the EU have better things to do than trying to play nanny to the Union’s population? Honestly, I think advertising is such a big part of the free markets that bans like this seem stupid. Let them promote a healthy lifestyle - promote moderation, but don’t take away a medium’s freedom to advertise whatever it feels like.
Health News: EU wants junk food ads bannedJan 20, 2005 (AXcess News) London - EU health commissioner, Markos Kyprianou, warned the food industry to stop junk food advertising aimed at children or face an ad ban.This is not just the EU’s problem - there are plenty of people here in the US who want the Government to play big daddy to us mindless imbeciles who cannot make our own lifestyle choices. I understand that most of these bans word them as those ads that are geared towards kids and teenagers…I am just not too comfortable to let the world’s governments start off with the seemingly innocuous steps in a direction in which you are left with nothing but the PC-choices for your life.
The EU junk food ads are to stop within one year or face legislation that could ban junk food ads aimed at children all together.
I have launched a line of designs inspired by Rangoli on Cafe Press. Check out the designs at http://www.cafepress.com/rangolidesigns. Look around and let me know what you think I am doing right and what I can do better. I have just one design uploaded right now. I am in the process of creating more. Any help in the form of critiques from you, dear readers, is appreciated.
Check the mela out for some good weekend reading, folks! It touches on all kinds of topics from food to abusive RJs to gas pipelines to language-wars…Lots of interesting stuff.
Amit Varma writes about an article in TOI about some Americans calling call-center workers in India and harrassing systematically - Remote racism. I can see where those callers are abusive and wrong. Are they racist too as Amit and the article seem to think? I am not so sure of that. We have to understand these are people who have been told that there are these Indian people who are grabbing all their jobs for cheap and leaving them broke economically. Quite a few of them might have actually seen this in action up-close. It is easy to see why they could be pissed at this phenomenon and want to do something about it. Do I feel they shoiuld be doing this? No! I think this is perhaps the dumbest revenge idea I have ever seen. But racist? I don’t think so.
I think it is almost a reflexive reaction to think, “White Americans abusing Brown Indians”…lo, that is racist! In reality, if these guys could call up someone in China they would act the same way. Heck, if they thought someone from Ireland stole their job and they could call and abuse them for free, they would do it. This has more to do with frustration and helplessness than with racism. I think labeling anything and everything racism tends to take away from the seriousness of the real thing. It will only serve to raise the shock value while undermining any real discussion.
He was a fine actor who brought his own sense of power and awe to roles ranging from villains to caring fathers…
In case you don’t remember, Prasenjeet at Chaoszone is hosting this week’s Mela - Chaoszone - Prasenjeet Dutta on the Web - go submit your entries to him…It is an order! :p
A private intelligence firm hired by the United Nations to look into corruption in the oil-for-food program provided valuable leads to U.N. investigators, but they were ignored, the company’s director says. “We found it extremely frustrating to be in a position where we could do something significant to dramatically assist the investigation into the oil-for-food fraud and not be allowed to proceed,” said Derek Baldwin, director of operations for IBIS Risk Management Services Inc.I thought the UN was getting all open about its methods now…Oops, guess not…read on…
Meanwhile, a U.N. panel investigating the humanitarian program yesterday refused to release documents to two U.S. senators, who last week accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a letter of blocking their subcommittee’s probe into the matter. In his reply to the letter sent by Sens. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, and Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, obtained by Agence France-Presse, U.N. panel chief Paul Volcker pledged to release “all evidence” bearing on its reports and findings but insisted that now was not the time to do so.Yeah, let us just wait till everyone forgets about the scandal and then release the documents quietly into the night, eh?
After a rather bleak 2004 when the UN found itself squeezed out of Iraq and the lucrative multi-billion-dollar ‘oil for food’ programme, and scandal after scandal of financial malfeasance and worse surfaced, painting the world organisation, to quote a particularly colourful though apt description, as a ‘miasma of corruption beset by inefficiency,’ a ‘Kafkaesque bureaucracy’ that deliberately obfuscates the truth and maintains a conspiracy of silence, it is party time for Kofi Annan and his aid administrators.
All those who have pledged money to help the survivors of Black Sunday, Kofi Annan has been quick to tell them in Jakarta, should pay up and pay up fast. The party has begun, the bills can’t be allowed to pile up.
I watched all the three DVDs listed above over the New Years’ weekend. Spider-Man 2 was pretty good. A super-hero movie with heart and some actual plot? Who would have thunk that! I enjoyed seeing the conflict behind the mask so to speak and see the man behind the hero. Worth owning on DVD!
Dodgeball was a bunch of inane fun that is sure to make you laugh as long as you remember to check your brain out before you start watching the movie.
The movie that affected me the most happened to be Open Water. Amazing, considering almost nothing happens in the movie. It is the story of a yuppie couple who may or may not be married, living the usual busy life and planning a last minute vacation to a generic island getaway. They go scuba-diving and get left in the ocean full of sharks (real one, not computer-generated or mechanical) due to a counting error on their boat’s behalf. The rest of the movie is basically about what happens next and I don’t know if I want to give anything away.
Why I found this amazing is that I got sucked into it without even realizing it. When it started off, my first thought was about how it really felt like a made-for-TV movie with the bland actors, bland settings, bland dialogue - pretty much bland everything. It was so uninteresting. You feel like you are looking into your neighbor’s bedroom, it is so boring. The first night on the island, the couple gets naked in bed, but as any couple with a loooong-time relationship, decides against having sex. They are too tired to do anything. I was ready for the sharks to show up 5 minutes into the movie.
Spoilers ahead…
I think it is this everyday quality of the actors that actually makes the movie hit so close home. It could be you! Most of the movie is really the couple bobbing up and down in the ocean - first having fun in the water, taking pictures, then wondering if they are lost, then finding out that their boat actually left them, arguing about swimming vs. waiting for the boat to come back. They go through a whole gamut of emotions including blaming each other and getting defensive like you and I would.
You go through this entire emotinal journey with them and without realizing it, you start thinking like them…surely, the boat people will realize these people were missing…surely, there will be a search party…surely, someone would miss them…For God’s sake, how can anybody not realize they are gone? The direction and editing is awesome in that there are no dramatic moments in the movie. Just a slow march towards inevitability. Just the time it takes till you come out of denial and realize the hopelessness of the situation for what it is. It is more about loneliness when the world forgets about you more than about the sharks that go bump into you in the ocean. I think that is why the movie haunts me so much.
So many things in this list sound cliched, it is really interesting why we don’t them more often. It took seeing my son practice these day in and day out that made me think how easy and how awesome it is to be like him -
Express yourself - with my son, you are never in a doubt where you stand with him. When he sees the people he likes, his eyes, his face and his entire being lights up. He shows in no uncertain way that you have made him very happy just by being there and looking at him. He is also not afraid to ask for attention. He wants a hug? You see his arms spread wide and when you hold him he will smother you in a tight embrace.
He makes me think of all the times I was afraid of showing emotion thinking I will be hurt or when I was sulking at something and refused to show how happy I really was to see someone. This also brings me to the next thing -
Don’t hold a grudge - He doesn’t sulk - he doesn’t remember a grudge long enough to hold it. He can be crying hard because of something you did, but the minute you tickle him or do something crazy he forgets all and starts laughing. How often is it that we waste precious moments because we are too caught up in proving points to others by sulking or being angry and petty over unimportant things.
Don’t give up - I keep wondering at what point in our lives do we lose that spirit of not giving up till we master something. If you count the number of times my son fell down before he finally managed to crawl around, it was heartbreaking as a mom for me. He didn’t care. He tried pushups till he made his little arms and legs strong enough till they could support his weight, he then tried to crawl only to figure out he couldn’t balance himself. He fell forward so many times his nose turned red. None of these setbacks meant he was giving up. Now he is on his way to standing up by holding on to the sofa - he is almost ready to walk - once he figures out how to balance himself on his pudgy feet…after about another 100 or so falls I guess.
Explore - There is a reason behind all that determination of his to learn how to crawl and walk. He is extremely curious. He wants to see everything - touch, feel (and lick) everything. There is no satisfying his appetite for new things. Everything is a new challenge to be dissected and understood completely. When I see that, I wonder at point do we lose that curiosity and settle for monotonous apathy in our lives. How exciting it would be to be exploring relentlessly and learning as much as we can about everything through our lives!
The tsunami/New Year’s version of Blog Mela is now up at MadMan’s blog. Check it out - good entries galore as usual and a lot more introspection and anger than ever before. It is an emotional Mela, this one.
As for a Hindi version of the Mela, we can probably have a spin-off if there are enough Hindi-bloggers to host it week after week. Let me know what you guys think. Also, if you are not reading Dilip D’Souza’s dispatches on after-tsunami conditions in India, you are missing out on a lot of first-hand information.