by M. Swathy Margaret
In this issue of Insight on gender and caste, many articles raise the question of alliance-building among various movements, especially between the Dalit movement and the feminist movement. Dalit feminists share a definite sense of identification with many basic articulations raised by both these movements. We have gained a lot from them. While it is important and strategically wise to form coalitions and build solidarity with other marginalized groups, it should be considered only when a movement is armed with a clear understanding of its own historicity based on the experience of oppression and discrimination. It is productive to have in mind the historical dialogue between different marginalized sections of people. Otherwise, there is the danger of Dalit women, their self-definition and their peculiar positioning in the society being rendered invisible. For example, the Dalit ideologues like Katti Padma Rao, Gopal Guru and Gaddar seem to be less sensitive to the internal patriarchy of Dalit communities. They maintain that all women are Dalits. Since the upper caste women are not allowed to enter into their kitchens and are treated as impure during their menstrual periods, they are also untouchables! Here “untouchability” is the ideal framework to fight against caste oppression, claims Gopal Guru. What Guru overlooks is that untouchability is a phenomenon that evokes various notions and images of bodies–bodies that are marked by their caste, gender, class, age, sexual orientation and other identities. And different bodies are ascribed different cultural meanings. Not all bodies possess even identities. Not all Dalit bodies are one, not all female bodies are one. They interact with each other being caught in a complex web of intersecting identities. Dalit men, even those identified with the movement, do not want to see us as intellectuals. “You are a Dalit body, a Dalit female body. Why can’t I possess it. Why can’t I just come near you”. It is threatening. This happens at a very physical level. To prevent this, one of the strategies that I use, is to stay with upper-caste women as Dalit men will not dare do express and behave in the same manner with them. In such a situation who am I closer to? The Dalit men, or the upper-caste women? Neither.
Full: countercurrents.org

He said: “For me [Blair and Brown] are not the Lennon and McCartney of world development issues.

“They are the Status Quo and it’s a mangy status quo which will do nothing to resolve the ocean of misery and poverty that exists in the world.”

He said the privatisations and the IMF, World Bank, venture capitalists and the “robber barons” of globalised corporations had left poor countries strangled by free market reforms.

“We won’t make poverty history until we make the G8 and their system history,” he said, pointing to unfair trade rules.

Mr Galloway added: “The poor countries are poor because the rich countries became rich in part through making them and keeping them poor.

“Until a seismic shift of wealth is transferred to the people we robbed then justice will not be done.”
Full: bbc.co.uk

SHANGHAI, July 10 – Goldman Sachs and Allianz of Germany are in talks to acquire a $1 billion stake in China’s largest state-owned bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

The talks come at a time when some of the world’s biggest financial institutions are rushing into China to acquire stakes in some of the country’s large but troubled state-owned banks ahead of planned initial public offerings in the next few years. The Bank of America said last month that it would pay $3 billion for a 9 percent stake in the nation’s third-largest lender, the China Construction Bank, which is expected to offer shares to the public late this year.

And UBS said last month that it was considering investing as much as $500 million in the Bank of China, another huge state-owned bank.

“All the big financial institutions want a piece of the action,” said Jack J. T. Huang, who oversees China coverage for the law firm Jones Day in Taipei, Taiwan. “This is not necessarily a rational decision when you look at the numbers. But these institutions believe the government won’t allow these banks to fail. They will step in to help them succeed.”

I.C.B.C. has nearly 400,000 employees, more than 100 million customers and about $500 billion in assets. It is unclear how large a stake in the bank Goldman and Allianz may get. The negotiations were reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Goldman and other large investment banks may be positioning themselves to help take the banks public in the next few years in deals that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment banking fees.

Citigroup was initially expected to help take China Construction Bank public, but bankers said that deal is now likely to be handled by Morgan Stanley and its Chinese joint venture partner, the China International Capital Corporation, after Citigroup passed on buying a stake.
Full: nytimes.com

Canadian oil giant EnCana is considering bringing in Chinese companies to construct and operate drilling rigs in the Colorado Rockies, as the region struggles to keep up with demand and rising energy prices.
EnCana, a major player in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado, said Chinese labor is cheap and the workers are well-educated. The move would be scrutinized in Washington, where politicians are uneasy about allowing Chinese workers to acquire access to U.S.-based oil and gas facilities.

“I am totally against the Chinese government running the jobs in our country,” said Rep. John Salazar, Colorado Democrat, whose district is most affected by drilling. “With the Chinese government getting involved, it’s not even a competitive business model.”

Mr. Salazar and other U.S. lawmakers already are concerned about the China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s interest in buying the U.S. oil and gas conglomerate Unocal Corp.

The House voted June 30 to block China’s cash bid of $18.5 billion. The 398-15 vote came hours after China cited U.S. “political interference” in what it called a purely commercial matter.

“Outsourcing has already claimed millions of jobs,” Mr. Salazar said. “We cannot allow that to happen within our own borders. Rural communities have been hit hard enough. We need to keep American jobs in America.”

EnCana is deciding whether to construct the drilling rigs in China and import them with Chinese workers to the United States.
Full: washtimes.com

Downing Street has rejected a call by Michael Howard yesterday for a full inquiry into possible security failures before the London bombings.
In a television interview, the Conservative leader said: “Let’s look again at our arrangements, let’s have an inquiry into what happened and whether anything more could have been done.”

Tony Blair will today make his first statement to parliament since the attacks, focusing on the hunt for the terrorists, the continuing search for bodies and the arrangements being led by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, to provide advice and help for bereaved families.

In a separate development, the Guardian has learned that MI5 is to conduct an internal investigation into the bombings to try to establish how the terrorists avoided detection.
Security and intelligence officials said yesterday they had “absolutely nothing to hide” and described MI5, the domestic security service, as a “self-critical organisation”.

They added: “[MI5] wants to find out how this got through”.
Full: guardian.co.uk

Tony Blair, the prime minister, today told parliament there was “no intelligence specific enough” to have prevented the London bombings, but promised the government would not rest until the perpetrators were brought to justice.

The capital returned to work today amid unconfirmed reports that the possibility of further attacks has put Britain on its highest ever state of terrorist alert. Mr Blair said an investigation – “among the most vigorous and intensive this country has seen” – was under way to find those responsible.

Speaking outside King’s Cross station, where one of the bombs exploded, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police chief, said the attack was one of the biggest crimes in English history and said the investigation would take time.

The prime minister said it was “probable that the attack was carried out by Islamist extremist terrorists” but insisted anger should not be directed at Muslim communities in Britain. He told British Muslims: “We were proud of your contribution before Thursday, we are proud of it today.

“We are united in our determination that our country will not be defeated by such terror, but will defeat it and emerge from this horror with our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others undiminished.”

The death toll today rose to 52 but could increase further as it was revealed police liasion officers are now working with 74 families. The first two victims of the bomb attack were today named: Susan Levy of Cuffley, Hetfordshire, and Gladys Wundowa of Chadwell Heath, Essex.

Mr Blair said intelligence services and police had worked hard over the last few years to guard Britain against such an attack.

“By their very nature, people callous enough to kill completely innocent civilians in this way are hard to stop,” the prime minister, who has resisted Tory calls for an inquiry, told MPs.

“But our services and police do a heroic job for our country day in day out and I can say that over the past years, as this particular type of new and awful terrorist threat has grown, they have done their utmost to keep this country and its people safe.”

The US president, George Bush, speaking at the same time in West Virginia, vowed to “take the fight” to the terrorists behind the London bomb attacks.

“These kind of people who blow up subways and buses are not people you can negotiate with or reason with or appease. In the face of such adversaries there is only one course of action.

“We will continue to take this fight to the enemy and we will fight until this enemy is defeated.”

Intelligence officials have privately conceded that they received little information in the crucial 48 hours following the bombings.

A meeting on Saturday between top British, US and European intelligence chiefs admitted that there had been few breaks, few leads and no suspects, today’s New York Times reported.

Christophe Chaboud, a French anti-terrorist official present at the meeting, told today’s Le Monde the apparent use of military explosives was “very worrying”.

“We’re more used to cells making homemade explosives with chemicals. How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get them out of a military establishment,” he said.
Full: guardian.co.uk

The defence secretary, John Reid, today said British forces would remain in Iraq “for as long as is needed,” after a leaked report detailed plans to cut the number of British troops from 8,500 to 3,000.
The document – entitled Options for Future UK Force Posture in Iraq and marked “Secret – UK eyes only”, was leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

It said the US was planning to cut its troop numbers from 176,000 to 66,000 as several provinces were handed over to control by Iraqi forces.

In a statement today, Mr Reid said: “We have made it absolutely plain that we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed.

“No decisions on the future force posture of UK forces have been taken. But we have always said that it is our intention to hand over the lead in fighting terrorists to Iraqi security forces as their capability increases. We therefore continually produce papers outlining possible options and contingencies.
Full: guardian.co.uk

Israel’s separation barrier in Jerusalem will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the rest of the city, Israeli officials acknowledged Sunday. Palestinians responded sharply, saying they will face daily complications in reaching jobs, schools and hospitals.

It was the first time the government had said how many tens of thousands of Jerusalem residents would be outside the fence.

Israel’s cabinet called for the swift completion of the partly built barrier in Jerusalem, which has been hit by more Palestinian suicide bombings than any other city. The cabinet endorsed a series of measures intended to minimize disruptions, including building a dozen crossing points that would permit Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to move back and forth.

Palestinians demanded that Israel stop building the barrier and said its route divided Palestinian neighborhoods from one another.

“When the Palestinian people see the construction of the wall, the isolation of Jerusalem and the building of more Jewish settlements, how can Palestinians believe there is a promising future,” said Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian foreign minister.

The Israeli announcement came a year and a day after the International Court of Justice at The Hague handed down an advisory ruling that said building the separation barrier inside the West Bank violated international law.
Full: nytimes.com

EATONVILLE — About 500 people rose to their feet in a standing ovation worthy of a rock star as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hit the stage Saturday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.

The charismatic black politician from Chicago, who at 43 has achieved almost icon status since his wildly popular speech at last year’s Democratic convention, was in town to bolster the upcoming Senate campaign of his colleague U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

…I see a Democratic Party afraid to say they’re Democrats, who voted for the war in Iraq and voted for tax cuts for the wealthy,” said Glenn Anderson of Orlando. “Why should I remain a Democrat?”

It was a tough question. But Nelson and Obama tried to answer it.

“The Democrats at times have lost their way,” conceded Obama. “We are trying to decide what our core values are.”
The criterion for judging the party isn’t whether it’s to the left or right, “but are we true to our core values,” he said. Nobody defined core values.

Balance, Nelson answered, is necessary for government to work. His example: “I call ’em as I see ’em. When I disagree with the president, I vote against him. When I agree with the president, I vote with him.”

Obama gave another example: “I was opposed to the war [in Iraq] when it was launched. But once we’re in, we have an obligation to make it work, to honor those who lost their lives and bring a semblance of democracy to the region.”

Both politicians pushed emotional buttons close to voters’ hearts.
Full: orlando sentinel.com

Oh, ‘core values’….right…. If I happen to run into them I’ll be sure to let the Senator know. Like I said the Democratic Party is dead.

TEN years ago this week, Serbian forces slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Despite the efforts of a dedicated few in Serbia, and despite the war crimes prosecutions at The Hague, Serbia is no closer today than it was a decade ago to reckoning with its war guilt.

For years Belgrade has denied involvement by its citizens in Srebrenica and other massacres of the 1990s. The recent broadcast of a graphic video that showed Serbian paramilitary police executing six young men from Srebrenica should have made it very hard to sustain that revisionism. Amazing as it seems, however, the video was not enough to shatter what Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko has described as the country’s “state of collective denial.”

Fewer than half of Serbs polled last spring believed the Srebrenica massacre took place. And while much has been made of the video’s effects on a shocked Serbian public, it remains to be seen where that public will stand once the furor recedes. The Radical Party, which won 27 percent of the popular vote in the last national elections, making it the largest party in Parliament, has already criticized what it sees as the anti-Serb hysteria that “wishes at all costs to put the burden of all crimes on Serbia.” Graffiti has appeared in several cities praising the “liberation” of Srebrenica. Rumors circulate that the video was doctored, or that the men committing the crimes were acting independently.

Instead of coming to terms with its past, Serbia has circumvented the issue with the narrative skills befitting a psychopath.
Full: nytimes.com

Well Serbia isn’t the only one. I would say the “colonialism was good” talk floating around these days is psychopathic. Jack Straw calls Serbia “a scar on Europe,” Africa ” a scar on the conscience of the world.” A pity these Blairs and Bushes and Chiracs are so oblivious to the scars they leave, and the new wounds they inflict every day.