Tag Archives: India

Harvey Weinstein In Venice Days After Birth Of Baby (PHOTOS)

Harvey Weinstein was back at work Thursday in Venice for the film festival. He was photographed sitting front and center inside the premiere of ‘Miral,’ sitting next to fellow producer Tarek Ben Ammar.Weinstein’s wife Georgina Chapman gave birth to the… Continue reading

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CHINA AND INDIA: A WAR OF GIANTS

August 30, 2010The highly respected British magazine “The Economist” featured a front-page article in their 21 August issue about the possibility of a major war between China and India.More… Continue reading

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U.S.Wages As Cheap As India

Along the road of the past 30 years, productivity has been soaring (and technology has been a minor part of that) while wages have been flat–thanks to de-unionization and a simple corporate decision to cut wages even when profitable. And, despite that… Continue reading

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The Best the World Has to Offer: Getting the Most from Established and Emerging Countries

Have you seen the $35 touch-screen tablet computer from India that debuted in late July?No matter its shortcomings, it’s a true technical marvel at 1/20th the price of an Apple iPad.More… Continue reading

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Protecting the Environment Can Cost You Your Freedom

While I was in India for the past four and a half months, two events were happening simultaneously: BP’s oil spill, and the trials for Karma Samdrup and his brothers.New stories abounded for the oil spill, and concerned citizens took action. Some of my… Continue reading

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India’s Own Deepwater Moment

While the world’s attention is focused on the terrible oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, India is suddenly facing it’s own Deepwater Moment. It’s council of ministers-the political representatives who make key policy decisions for various departments (called Ministries in India)-severely disagree on the importance of protecting the environment. Many of them believe that giving place of priority to green issues is incompatible with India’s growth ambitions. But India’s Ministry for Forests and Environment (MOEF), responsible for environmental protection, has surprised everyone by firmly refusing to bend the rules, no matter what. Ironically, a set of progressive policies aimed at sustainability has caused a fierce political clash. They have pushed several key political players to suggest that decisions made with environmental considerations in mind are a nuisance.

Take the case of coal mining. Just this year, the MOEF superimposed maps of forests on maps of nine important coalfields. They then came up with the idea of no-go areas-places which were so thickly forested that mining would be banned there. This didn’t go down well with the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, which asked the ministry to reduce the no go areas by 30 percent. If this didn’t happen, they argued, India would lose the opportunity of mining over 600 million tons of coal each year. By this math, saving thick forests is a loss-making proposition! Meanwhile, the MOEF refused to shift by more than 5 percent. A recent, uncharacteristically chatty press release on it’s website said, “High economic growth can be inclusive only if environment and development go hand-in-hand which will mean saying “yes” in some cases, “yes, but…” in some cases and a firm “no” in some others.”

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‘Larson’ Narrates Life

“What have you accomplished” whispers the little voice in my head. Constant questions about my life and my purpose run through my head and I wonder, dear reader, if you have ever had the feeling that you weren’t in control of your life? Or that the voices in your head were unusually loud? Perhaps, there was a narrator to your life?

If you answered yes, to any of the questions above or the little voice in your head said “What questions?”, then you must go see Carlo De Rosa’s latest film Larsen (Feedback). This delightful short was the winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film at both the Beverly Hills Film Festival and the Efebo Corto Film Festival in Italy, and has been warmly received all across the world. From Spain to India, from Africa to Norway, audiences have turned down the voices in their heads and have turned up the laughter for the sweet comedy, Larsen.

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Yoga: Reaffirming the Transformational Practice’s Hindu Roots

Recently, a debate played out on the Washington Post‘s On Faith blog between Aseem Shukla, a physician who heads the Hindu American Foundation, and Deepak Chopra. The argument, which was also reported in Newsweek, began with Shukla’s essay, “The Theft of Yoga,” in which he lamented that the phenomenal popularity of yoga has been achieved at a cost, namely its disconnection from the tradition that gave it birth. “Yoga originated in Hinduism,” he wrote. “It’s disingenuous to say otherwise. A little bit of credit wouldn’t be a bad thing, and it would help Hindu Americans feel proud of their heritage.” Chopra countered on historical grounds — which Shukla later refuted — and on the grounds that modern yoga is one response to the need for a secularized spirituality that transcends religious forms.

It seems like an almost comical irony: yoga proponents, including many of Indian descent, disassociate yoga from Hinduism, while many Hindus wish to claim it. In fact, it is a tribute to the tremendous depth and complexity of India’s spiritual heritage that both sides can be considered correct. The same teachings can be understood in spiritual/religious terms and in secular/scientific terms.

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Asymmetric Threat Of A Second Great Depression?

The asymmetric threat to the global economic recovery caused by the euro crisis is becoming more obvious by the day. Who would have thought that Greece, a country that accounts for 2% of the GDP of the European Union, would be able to derail the mighty euro, which has become the second largest reserve currency of the world. The European Union economy has a combined GDP of more than 16.4 trillion dollars according to the IMF, making it the largest economy in the world. Anything that happens to this giant economic zone has a massive impact on the world’s socio-economic and geo-political equilibrium. Even the mighty United States, China, India, Russia and Brazil are not immune and will find it difficult to sustain a global recovery without stability within Europe.

2010-05-22-great_depression_1.jpgThe Great Depression, 1930s

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Cultural Reorientation in Africa: Nigeria’s “Project Runway”

Nigeria’s image in Western media is a complex combination of exoticism, intrigue and danger. While most people are well acquainted with Nollywood (now the second largest film industry after India’s Bollywood), we are often simultaneously inundated with images of another Nigeria that has nothing to do with entertainment. With the militant groups battling around the conflicted oil-rich Niger Delta, the ongoing violence between the Muslim and Christian communities, rampant political corruption in sectors of leadership, and various human rights violations including judicial corruption and inhumane treatment of prisoners, it is easy for a foreign observer to primarily view Nigeria as a country of political instability and even questionable safety. Add in former President Umaru Yar’Adua’s mysteriously prolonged absence from his duties before his untimely death plus the recent attempted detonation of a transatlantic flight by a young Muslim Nigerian citizen last December, and we officially have a very provocative portrait of Nigeria that is being carefully analyzed by not only Westerners, but also Nigerians themselves.

Nigeria, despite this tumultuous media identity, has ambitious plans as the most populous state in Africa. The Nigerian government is currently working on procuring a spot in the top 20 economies of the world by 2020. The new leader, President Goodluck Jonathan, hopes to pick up where Yar’Adua left off and implement policies that clean out the political corruption that his predecessor was too ill to complete. Meanwhile on the soft power front, Nigeria is actively looking towards their rich indigenous culture in order to promote facets of their society that are given much, much less media attention.

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