Last update: 7:01 p.m. EST Nov. 12, 2008
BRUSSELS, November 13, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- - Diabetes Activists Worldwide Organize Events to Draw Attention to Growing Pandemic With the Focus on Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
November 14 is the most important day of the year for the over 250 million people with diabetes worldwide. World Diabetes Day draws attention to the global diabetes epidemic and the need for action to improve care, prevent the disease in those at risk and find a cure. People on every continent, from countries as far apart as Australia and Uruguay, have organized activities to mark the day.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced World Diabetes Day more than 15 years ago in response to the worrying rise of diabetes around the world. Today the picture is even more alarming, with the total number of people living with diabetes now estimated at over 250 million. The figure will continue to grow without significant action and investment to reverse the trend. One of only a handful of health days officially recognized by the United Nations, World Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on 14 November-a date chosen to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting, who is widely credited with the discovery of insulin in 1921.
On World Diabetes Day, local, national and international events are organized to educate the public and inform policy-makers about the need to respond to the diabetes threat. Each year, the campaign centres on a theme established by the International Diabetes Federation. This year, the theme is diabetes in children and adolescents.
Diabetes in Children
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. It can strike children at any age, including pre-school children and even toddlers. Over 200 children a day develop type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that cannot be prevented. Type 2 diabetes, widely associated with weight gain and lack of exercise, was previously thought to be an adult-only disease. Type 2 is now affecting an increasing number of children worldwide.
Diabetes in children is often diagnosed late or is misdiagnosed as something else such as the flu. One of the campaign goals for World Diabetes Day 2008 is to make the public aware of the most obvious warning signs of type 1 diabetes: frequent urination, rapid weight loss, lack of energy and extreme thirst. Those closest to the child - family members, school staff, the family doctor - need to know these signs.
The global campaign, led by the International Diabetes Federation, calls on diabetes advocates around the world to bring diabetes to light. Campaign Director Phil Riley explained: "We want people to draw attention to diabetes. We encourage them to do fun things that involve family, friends and colleagues. We need people with diabetes everywhere to know that they are connected to a global community."
Bring diabetes to light
On and around World diabetes Day, over 800 buildings and landmark sites will light in blue for diabetes. The buildings are all listed on the campaign website at http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/monuments and include the Pyramids in Egypt, Niagara Falls in Canada, the Tower of London in the UK, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the United Nations Headquarters in the United States, the Burj al Arab in the UAE, the Sagrada Familia in Spain and the Tokyo Tower in Japan. They are lighting in the blue colour of the diabetes circle, the global symbol of diabetes and logo of the World Diabetes Day campaign.
No child should die of diabetes
Dr Martin Silink, President of the International Diabetes Federation, highlighted the serious impact of diabetes that underlies the campaign. "While we want people to enjoy the celebrations, we don't want them to lose sight of the serious global impact of diabetes. The stark truth is that many, children included, are dying in the developing world because they cannot access the medication, monitoring and education they need to survive. It's been 87 years since Banting, Macleod and the team in Toronto discovered insulin, yet it still does not reach many of the world's most vulnerable citizens."
The World Diabetes Day campaign can be followed online at http://www.worlddiabetesday.org.
Note to editors:
About World Diabetes Day
World Diabetes Day (WDD) is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world. Led by the International Diabetes Federation, the campaign is a multi-stakeholder partnership that involves a broad alliance of diabetes representative organizations, individuals and government agencies. Official World Diabetes Partners contribute support to help World Diabetes Day reach its goals. The 2008 Official World Diabetes Day Partners are: AstraZeneca, Boston Scientific, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Insulet Corporation, LifeScan, Eli Lilly, Medtronic, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda. The theme for World Diabetes Day 2009-2013 is 'diabetes prevention and education'.
About the theme: diabetes in children
Type 1 diabetes is growing by 3% per year in children and adolescents, and at an alarming 6% per year among pre-school children. It is estimated that 70,000 children under 15 develop type 1 diabetes each year (200 children a day). Of the estimated 440,000 cases of type 1 diabetes in children worldwide, more than a quarter live in South-East Asia, and more than a fifth in Europe. Type 2 diabetes was once seen as a disease of adults. Today, this type of diabetes is growing at alarming rates in children and adolescents. In the US, it is estimated that type 2 diabetes represents between 8 and 45% of new-onset diabetes cases in children depending on geographic location. Over a 20-year period, type 2 diabetes has doubled in children in Japan, so that it is now more common than type 1. In native and aboriginal children in North America and Australia, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes ranges from 1.3 to 5.3%. Source: Diabetes Atlas 3rd Edition, International Diabetes Federation, 2006.
About the International Diabetes Federation
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is an umbrella organization of over 200 member associations in more than 160 countries, advocating for the more than 250 million people with diabetes, their families, and their healthcare providers. Its mission is to promote diabetes care, prevention and a cure worldwide. The International Diabetes Federation is an NGO in official relations with the World Health Organization and an associated NGO with the United Nations Department of Public Information. The International Diabetes Federation leads the World Diabetes Day and Unite for Diabetes campaigns. Additional information is available at http://www.idf.org
SOURCE The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We're going back with our tail between our legs: Ponting
Nagpur, Nov 10 (PTI) "We will go back with our tail between the legs a bit" is how captain Ricky Ponting today summed up the mood in the Australian camp after losing the Border-Gavaskar trophy to India.
A candid Ponting said he himself was a let down both as a captain and as a batsman and after the 0-2 defeat, Australia would return home with the bitter memory of a resounding series defeat.
"When we came, we hoped to be more competitive than we have been. We had very good chances of winning the series but eventually, it didn't go our way," rued the Australian captain.
Ponting said in both the drawn Tests, Australia had an upper hand but they just could not translate it into wins.
"We made hard efforts in the last two matches. We had our chances in Bangalore, there was opportunity in Delhi and here too we had a little opening. But we were not good enough to capitalise on that," Ponting lamented.
Losing toss made a lot of difference, reckoned Ponting.
"No excuse but toss is so important here, to lose it 3-4 times...It was pretty important," he told NDTV.
Ponting's captaincy, especially his using part-time bowlers to revive over-rate and escape a ban, drew flak from all quarters and the Australian said he himself was not satisfied with the way he led.
"It was a hard series for me both as a player and captain...If I give myself five on 10, I think I would be generous," he said. PTI
A candid Ponting said he himself was a let down both as a captain and as a batsman and after the 0-2 defeat, Australia would return home with the bitter memory of a resounding series defeat.
"When we came, we hoped to be more competitive than we have been. We had very good chances of winning the series but eventually, it didn't go our way," rued the Australian captain.
Ponting said in both the drawn Tests, Australia had an upper hand but they just could not translate it into wins.
"We made hard efforts in the last two matches. We had our chances in Bangalore, there was opportunity in Delhi and here too we had a little opening. But we were not good enough to capitalise on that," Ponting lamented.
Losing toss made a lot of difference, reckoned Ponting.
"No excuse but toss is so important here, to lose it 3-4 times...It was pretty important," he told NDTV.
Ponting's captaincy, especially his using part-time bowlers to revive over-rate and escape a ban, drew flak from all quarters and the Australian said he himself was not satisfied with the way he led.
"It was a hard series for me both as a player and captain...If I give myself five on 10, I think I would be generous," he said. PTI
Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know
The Daily Telegraph First Published : 10 Nov 2008 10:26:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 11 Nov 2008 01:41:43 AM IST
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
Monday, November 10, 2008
Hang your head in shame: Aus media to Ponting
Melbourne, November 10: Handed down an emphatic defeat by India, Australian captain Ricky Ponting was on the mat on Monday with country's cricket establishment asking him to explain his tactics in the Nagpur Test and the media asking him to 'hang his head in shame'.
In a bid to speed up Australia's sluggish over-rate - which could have earned him a one Test ban - Ponting rested his regular bowlers in yesterday's final session and operated mostly with the part-timers. Ponting's ploy to escape the ban let India off the hook after the hosts, struggling at 166 for six at one stage, found themselves in a spot of bother. Cricket Australia is far from amused and CA Chief Executive James Sutherland said the board would seek an explanation from Ponting.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to Ricky today about what went on during the tea break and what the messages were that came from the umpires," Sutherland was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
"I'd like to understand the situation, I'm not going to stand here and make comment about a situation without having a full understanding of what actually the circumstances were," Sutherland added.
The CA chief said he would talk to the International Cricket Council about the slow over-rate issue.
"In a broad sense, I have major concerns about over rates in international cricket. Generally speaking, the public deserves more by way of over rates and that's certainly something we'll be taking up with the ICC."
Sutherland, however, ruled out any sanction against Ponting.
"I don't think that's going to happen," he said.
Ponting also drew flak from the media and former greats for his "selfish" ploy to escape a ban for the first Test against New Zealand.
'Herald Sun', a daily, said Ponting should hang his head in shame for thinking of saving himself first.
"Ponting had every reason to hang his head in shame after allowing India to escape the noose in the crunch fourth Test.
"In his most embarrassing moment in his 48th Test as captain in five years in charge, Ponting opted to worry more about improving Australia's sluggish over-rate than going for broke to try and snare a must-win match when a result was clearly on the line.
"Ponting - amazingly - was more concerned about being suspended for next week's first Test against cricketing backwater New Zealand at the Gabba.
"What a joke. With wickets desperately needed, Ponting had to roll the dice and unleash chief strike weapons Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee or Shane Watson immediately after tea," it said.
Former Australia skipper Allan Border, the game's longest serving captain, said Ponting should have attempted to win the match and not worried about his suspension.
"I don't know what to make of all this. They go into the tea break on a high and come out worrying about over rates," Border said.
"They let a golden opportunity slip," he rued.
In 'Sydney Morning Herald', noted cricket writer Peter Roebuck too slammed Ponting for sacrificing the country's interest for personal gains.
"In one of the most baffling displays of captaincy seen in the long and proud history of Australian cricket, Ricky Ponting has denied his side a deserved chance of securing a famous victory...There was a match to win. To an almost bizarre degree, Ponting lost the plot," he wrote.
In a bid to speed up Australia's sluggish over-rate - which could have earned him a one Test ban - Ponting rested his regular bowlers in yesterday's final session and operated mostly with the part-timers. Ponting's ploy to escape the ban let India off the hook after the hosts, struggling at 166 for six at one stage, found themselves in a spot of bother. Cricket Australia is far from amused and CA Chief Executive James Sutherland said the board would seek an explanation from Ponting.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to Ricky today about what went on during the tea break and what the messages were that came from the umpires," Sutherland was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
"I'd like to understand the situation, I'm not going to stand here and make comment about a situation without having a full understanding of what actually the circumstances were," Sutherland added.
The CA chief said he would talk to the International Cricket Council about the slow over-rate issue.
"In a broad sense, I have major concerns about over rates in international cricket. Generally speaking, the public deserves more by way of over rates and that's certainly something we'll be taking up with the ICC."
Sutherland, however, ruled out any sanction against Ponting.
"I don't think that's going to happen," he said.
Ponting also drew flak from the media and former greats for his "selfish" ploy to escape a ban for the first Test against New Zealand.
'Herald Sun', a daily, said Ponting should hang his head in shame for thinking of saving himself first.
"Ponting had every reason to hang his head in shame after allowing India to escape the noose in the crunch fourth Test.
"In his most embarrassing moment in his 48th Test as captain in five years in charge, Ponting opted to worry more about improving Australia's sluggish over-rate than going for broke to try and snare a must-win match when a result was clearly on the line.
"Ponting - amazingly - was more concerned about being suspended for next week's first Test against cricketing backwater New Zealand at the Gabba.
"What a joke. With wickets desperately needed, Ponting had to roll the dice and unleash chief strike weapons Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee or Shane Watson immediately after tea," it said.
Former Australia skipper Allan Border, the game's longest serving captain, said Ponting should have attempted to win the match and not worried about his suspension.
"I don't know what to make of all this. They go into the tea break on a high and come out worrying about over rates," Border said.
"They let a golden opportunity slip," he rued.
In 'Sydney Morning Herald', noted cricket writer Peter Roebuck too slammed Ponting for sacrificing the country's interest for personal gains.
"In one of the most baffling displays of captaincy seen in the long and proud history of Australian cricket, Ricky Ponting has denied his side a deserved chance of securing a famous victory...There was a match to win. To an almost bizarre degree, Ponting lost the plot," he wrote.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
An open letter to Obama about Kashmir Problem !
Kashmir was the original in habitat of Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus since centuries. During the rule of Muslim rulers, Hindu Pandits were tortured, prosecuted, murdered, slaughtered, intimidated, raped or scared away with little choice left, that's either they were forcibly converted to Islam or they just ran away for their lives and limbs to other parts of India. That's what the Muslim have done all over the world, where ever they had set their foot on. The glaring example of this was the Martyrdom of 9th Sikh Guru Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji who wanted to save the Kashmiri Pandits from cruel and inhuman Muslim rulers, but he himself was beheaded in Chandani Chowk, Delhi at the instance of a madly bigot, rabid and ultra Islamist Muslim ruler Aurangzeb ( whom incidently the Muslims consider very pious and religiously saint person- that's how their saints are ! ). Then after decades of atrocities, killings and mass scale forcible conversions and mass exodus of Hindus, the peaceful majority Hindu Kashmir was gradually converted to a volatile Muslim dominated region.
After partition, Hindu ruler of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh wanted to join India, but Muslim majority was hostile towards India as usual. It was the combined weakness, fickle mindedness and ignorance of Gandhi and Nehru who kept on dillydallying, but had no guts to oppose this Muslim and Pakistani agenda to keep the things boiling. Gandhi and Nehru wanted to keep all the Muslims in India as a good will gesture, but lacked courage or determination to retain full Kashmir. Now the whole world knows that situation in Kashmir is being disturbed in because of the violence created by Lashkar-e-toiba, Taliban, Al-Qaida, Mujahideen and other Islamic terrorist outfits.
Supporting Kashmiri separatists will be like supporting Al-Quida, Taliban and Lashkare-toiba etc. I hope Obama won't do this kind of folly.
That's what the Indian leaders did in Tibet too. Majority of Tibetans are in India including Dalai Lama, but land is with China. Even Mansarover, Kailash Parvat, the abode of Lord Shiva, is with China. I never knew Lord Shiva was a Chinese ! Any how even if He was not one, Gandhi & Nehru made Him Chinese because they did not feel it appropriate to annex Mansarover , Kailash Parvat as they were not sure about the nationality of The Lord Shiva when it was lying vacant, but China did precisely that after 12 years of Indian Independence in 1959 because of Indian Leaders' apathy and impotence. Now We have to seek the permission of China to visit Mansarover & Kailash Parvat. And it's their sweet wish whether they allow us or not.
Now the same developments are going on in Kashmir about Amarnath Yatra. The Pro- Pakistan and Pro-Terrorist Kashmiri separatist leaders are not ready to give even shelters to the devotees for night stay in such extreme weather conditions.
Now these are the two biggest challenges faced by India- Kashmir & Tibet.
I sincerely hope that Indian leaders & Public remain very determined, vigilant and clear about Kashmir policy and let not others meddle in these affairs, who so over they are including newly elected president Obama.
As Obama was elected because of huge support of democrat Indians, I think he will not do anything to set them against democrats from the very world go. Indians are vocal and influential and want the best of relations between the two great countries.
Indians have lost Tibet because of weakness of Gandhi and Nehru. Now they can not afford another folly of their leaders.
After partition, Hindu ruler of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh wanted to join India, but Muslim majority was hostile towards India as usual. It was the combined weakness, fickle mindedness and ignorance of Gandhi and Nehru who kept on dillydallying, but had no guts to oppose this Muslim and Pakistani agenda to keep the things boiling. Gandhi and Nehru wanted to keep all the Muslims in India as a good will gesture, but lacked courage or determination to retain full Kashmir. Now the whole world knows that situation in Kashmir is being disturbed in because of the violence created by Lashkar-e-toiba, Taliban, Al-Qaida, Mujahideen and other Islamic terrorist outfits.
Supporting Kashmiri separatists will be like supporting Al-Quida, Taliban and Lashkare-toiba etc. I hope Obama won't do this kind of folly.
That's what the Indian leaders did in Tibet too. Majority of Tibetans are in India including Dalai Lama, but land is with China. Even Mansarover, Kailash Parvat, the abode of Lord Shiva, is with China. I never knew Lord Shiva was a Chinese ! Any how even if He was not one, Gandhi & Nehru made Him Chinese because they did not feel it appropriate to annex Mansarover , Kailash Parvat as they were not sure about the nationality of The Lord Shiva when it was lying vacant, but China did precisely that after 12 years of Indian Independence in 1959 because of Indian Leaders' apathy and impotence. Now We have to seek the permission of China to visit Mansarover & Kailash Parvat. And it's their sweet wish whether they allow us or not.
Now the same developments are going on in Kashmir about Amarnath Yatra. The Pro- Pakistan and Pro-Terrorist Kashmiri separatist leaders are not ready to give even shelters to the devotees for night stay in such extreme weather conditions.
Now these are the two biggest challenges faced by India- Kashmir & Tibet.
I sincerely hope that Indian leaders & Public remain very determined, vigilant and clear about Kashmir policy and let not others meddle in these affairs, who so over they are including newly elected president Obama.
As Obama was elected because of huge support of democrat Indians, I think he will not do anything to set them against democrats from the very world go. Indians are vocal and influential and want the best of relations between the two great countries.
Indians have lost Tibet because of weakness of Gandhi and Nehru. Now they can not afford another folly of their leaders.
What the CIA should tell Obama on Kashmir ?
B. Raman is an expert on security and anti-terrorism operations. He headed the Counter-Terrorism Division of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) for six years. He has been a member of various special task forces related to security and intelligence issues. An internationally acclaimed writer and lecturer, he regularly contributes articles to various national and international publications on security-related topics.
From November 5, 2008, US President-elect Barack Obama started receiving from the Director National Intelligence (DNI) a daily brief on the state of the world the previous day called the President's Daily Brief (PDB).
The CIA would do well to incorporate the following in its PDB to Obama.
There is amazement - and confusion - in India over reports that one of the first acts of the President will be to appoint former President Bill Clinton as his Special Envoy on the Kashmir issue to facilitate a settlement between India and Pakistan.
Also read: Will President Obama be good for India?
Well-informed sources in India say that if the President-elect wants to severely damage the developing Indo-US relations he could not have thought of a better idea than to meddle in Kashmir. So many Americans----Presidents, Presidents-elect and defeated Presidential-aspirants---- thought they could help in finding a solution to the Kashmir issue and burnt their fingers and damaged Indo-US relations.
This started from Adlai Stevenson, who after losing the election to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, proceeded to Srinagar ostensibly for a houseboat holiday on the Dal Lake and tried to meddle in the affairs of the State by suggesting to Sheikh Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, that he should seek independence and promised that the US would support him.
When the Indian Intelligence Bureau informed Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, of Stevenson's secret discussions with Abdullah, he sacked Abdullah. Adlai Stevenson became persona non grata with the Indian political class and public.
Also read: Hey Ram: Let`s give away Kashmir
When Clinton became the President in 1993 he could not resist the temptation to have a go at settling the Kashmir issue. He chose as his secret emissary not a distinguished American, but an old college mate of his called Robin Raphael, who was posted as a junior diplomat in the US Embassy in New Delhi. Her American colleagues in New Delhi used to allege that after Clinton took office, she used to go around projecting herself as if she was a trusted adviser to Clinton, who took her into the State Department.
Our Indian sources say that she had two "achievements" to her discredit. She instigated the formation of the Hurriyat , a hotch-potch of anti-New Delhi Kashmiri personalities, which added to the existing mess.
She also encouraged the formation of the Taliban in 1994 with the help of her close personal friends Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister, and Asif Ali Zardari, the present President of Pakistan. She even met Mullah Mohammad Omar, who subsequently designated himself as the Amir of the Taliban, secretly and sought his help for a project of the Unocal for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via the Herat area of Afghanistan.
Also read: Kashmir: Postcards from the edge
According to the sources, her misadventures in Kashmir further damaged Indo-US relations and her godmothering the Taliban inexorably set in motion the train of events that led to Osama bin Laden shifting from Khartoum to Jalalabad in 1996 and launching from Afghanistan the terrorist strikes outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in August 1998, the attack on USS Cole off Aden in October,2000, and the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US homeland.
Our Indian sources say that in the history of Indo-American relations since India became independent in 1947, there have been more instances of meddling by Democrats than by Republicans. They feel that Democrats seem to think that they understand sub-continental affairs better than anybody in the US and find it difficult to resist the urge to meddle.
According to them, that is why Indian security agencies feel uncomfortable when the White House has a Democrat as incumbent. They say that if one draws a graph of terrorism in J&K, one would find that it tends to go up when a Democrat is the President.
Also read: Also read: A diary of Kashmir’s murky politics
At a time when India and Pakistan are on the road to slowly mending their bilateral relations, Indians are amazed that the President-elect oblivious of the past misadventures of the US in the sub-continent should be thinking of one more.
From November 5, 2008, US President-elect Barack Obama started receiving from the Director National Intelligence (DNI) a daily brief on the state of the world the previous day called the President's Daily Brief (PDB).
The CIA would do well to incorporate the following in its PDB to Obama.
There is amazement - and confusion - in India over reports that one of the first acts of the President will be to appoint former President Bill Clinton as his Special Envoy on the Kashmir issue to facilitate a settlement between India and Pakistan.
Also read: Will President Obama be good for India?
Well-informed sources in India say that if the President-elect wants to severely damage the developing Indo-US relations he could not have thought of a better idea than to meddle in Kashmir. So many Americans----Presidents, Presidents-elect and defeated Presidential-aspirants---- thought they could help in finding a solution to the Kashmir issue and burnt their fingers and damaged Indo-US relations.
This started from Adlai Stevenson, who after losing the election to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, proceeded to Srinagar ostensibly for a houseboat holiday on the Dal Lake and tried to meddle in the affairs of the State by suggesting to Sheikh Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, that he should seek independence and promised that the US would support him.
When the Indian Intelligence Bureau informed Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, of Stevenson's secret discussions with Abdullah, he sacked Abdullah. Adlai Stevenson became persona non grata with the Indian political class and public.
Also read: Hey Ram: Let`s give away Kashmir
When Clinton became the President in 1993 he could not resist the temptation to have a go at settling the Kashmir issue. He chose as his secret emissary not a distinguished American, but an old college mate of his called Robin Raphael, who was posted as a junior diplomat in the US Embassy in New Delhi. Her American colleagues in New Delhi used to allege that after Clinton took office, she used to go around projecting herself as if she was a trusted adviser to Clinton, who took her into the State Department.
Our Indian sources say that she had two "achievements" to her discredit. She instigated the formation of the Hurriyat , a hotch-potch of anti-New Delhi Kashmiri personalities, which added to the existing mess.
She also encouraged the formation of the Taliban in 1994 with the help of her close personal friends Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister, and Asif Ali Zardari, the present President of Pakistan. She even met Mullah Mohammad Omar, who subsequently designated himself as the Amir of the Taliban, secretly and sought his help for a project of the Unocal for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via the Herat area of Afghanistan.
Also read: Kashmir: Postcards from the edge
According to the sources, her misadventures in Kashmir further damaged Indo-US relations and her godmothering the Taliban inexorably set in motion the train of events that led to Osama bin Laden shifting from Khartoum to Jalalabad in 1996 and launching from Afghanistan the terrorist strikes outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in August 1998, the attack on USS Cole off Aden in October,2000, and the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US homeland.
Our Indian sources say that in the history of Indo-American relations since India became independent in 1947, there have been more instances of meddling by Democrats than by Republicans. They feel that Democrats seem to think that they understand sub-continental affairs better than anybody in the US and find it difficult to resist the urge to meddle.
According to them, that is why Indian security agencies feel uncomfortable when the White House has a Democrat as incumbent. They say that if one draws a graph of terrorism in J&K, one would find that it tends to go up when a Democrat is the President.
Also read: Also read: A diary of Kashmir’s murky politics
At a time when India and Pakistan are on the road to slowly mending their bilateral relations, Indians are amazed that the President-elect oblivious of the past misadventures of the US in the sub-continent should be thinking of one more.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Of Gandhi, spirituality and sexuality!
New Delhi, November 6: To Mahatma Gandhi the greatest obstacle in his spiritual striving was the promptings of his sexuality, says psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar.
"The manner in which he conceived the struggle and the weapons he chose to employ in a lifelong conflict with the god of desire have earned him the derision of many, especially in the West, who have discerned crankishness, if not worse, in his ideas that relate to sexuality," writes Kakar in ‘Mad And Divine: Spirit And Psyche In The Modern World’.
"For an explanation of his failure to influence people and the course of events, Gandhi would characteristically probe for shortcomings in his sexual abstinence, seeking to determine whether Kama, the god of desire, has perhaps triumphed in some obscure recess of his mind, depriving him of his spiritual powers," the book, published by Penguin, says.
According to the author, in the midst of widespread political turmoil and religious frenzy, Gandhi wrote a series of five articles on celibacy in his weekly newspaper.
"But more striking than his public evidence of his preoccupation were his private experiments wherein the aged Mahatma sought to reassure himself on the strength of his celibacy by having close women associates (his 19-year-old granddaughter among them) share his bed and try to ascertain in the morning whether any trace of sexual feeling had been evoked, either in himself or in his companions.”
"In spite of criticism by his co-workers, Gandhi stubbornly defended these experiments which he regarded as exercises in self-purification and tests of his celibacy and insisted that they be public even if they met general condemnation from his close associates."
Besides the contemplative and ecstatic spiritual traditions, Gandhi was a pioneer of a new spirituality, Kakar writes.
"The manner in which he conceived the struggle and the weapons he chose to employ in a lifelong conflict with the god of desire have earned him the derision of many, especially in the West, who have discerned crankishness, if not worse, in his ideas that relate to sexuality," writes Kakar in ‘Mad And Divine: Spirit And Psyche In The Modern World’.
"For an explanation of his failure to influence people and the course of events, Gandhi would characteristically probe for shortcomings in his sexual abstinence, seeking to determine whether Kama, the god of desire, has perhaps triumphed in some obscure recess of his mind, depriving him of his spiritual powers," the book, published by Penguin, says.
According to the author, in the midst of widespread political turmoil and religious frenzy, Gandhi wrote a series of five articles on celibacy in his weekly newspaper.
"But more striking than his public evidence of his preoccupation were his private experiments wherein the aged Mahatma sought to reassure himself on the strength of his celibacy by having close women associates (his 19-year-old granddaughter among them) share his bed and try to ascertain in the morning whether any trace of sexual feeling had been evoked, either in himself or in his companions.”
"In spite of criticism by his co-workers, Gandhi stubbornly defended these experiments which he regarded as exercises in self-purification and tests of his celibacy and insisted that they be public even if they met general condemnation from his close associates."
Besides the contemplative and ecstatic spiritual traditions, Gandhi was a pioneer of a new spirituality, Kakar writes.
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