US warns India about possible WikiLeaks release

Nov 27, 2010

Nov 27: The US has warned India and other key governments across the world about a new potentially embarrassing release of classified documents by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks which may harm the American interests and create tension in its ties with its "friends".

"We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of documents," State Department Spokesman P J Crowley told PTI. "We do not know precisely what WikiLeaks has or what it plans to do. We have made our position clear. These documents should not be released," Crowley said, ahead of the expected release by the website of millions of sensitive diplomatic cables.

It is not known yet what is contained in these documents about India-related issues. The WikiLeaks has said there would be "seven times" as many secret documents as the 400,000 Iraq war logs it published last month.
On his Twitter account, Crowley said the State Department officials have also contacted leaders in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Britain, France and Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton too reached out to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, as the WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, is expected to release some three million classified US cables involving some of its key allies including Australia, Britain, Israel, Russia, Turkey and India.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged WikiLeaks to stop "dangerous" leaks. "I would hope that those who are responsible for this would, at some point in time, think about the responsibility that they have for lives that they're exposing... and stop leaking this information," Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN.

"It continues to be extremely dangerous," he said. "We are very mindful of the announcement that WikiLeaks made earlier this week, that there is a release of documents pending at some point in the future."

Source: Deccanchronical

 

Birth of Vagicon

Nov 26, 2010

There just aren't many good words to describe how women manipulate men and those that do have long fallen out of use, now meaningless to most modern ears—words like termagant, virago, fishwife. All of these words are ancient, dating back to the Middle Ages or earlier, and focus on the nagging, scolding, nattering nature of women known to mankind long before the advent of feminism. None describe the sexual manipulation of men that has escaped the confines of the harems and brothels of old to permeate our culture like snot soaks a Kleenex.


A new word, then. Writing in a living language it is ours to shape and where inadequate to relate the vagaries of our decaying culture, our duty to invent terms by careful design or serendipity that add to our cognitive repertoire and descriptive power. Thus, vagicon—a portmanteau of vaginal con artist.

A vagicon is a woman who manipulates a man into doing her will with the suggestion, whether by innuendo in speech or titillation through posture, expression, or provocative dress, that by obedience he will be rewarded with sex, but then reneges on the offer. She has many tricks of her deceptive trade: heels that pitch the buttocks into a display of receptiveness, tints to color the face like a sex flush—the engorgement of skin with blood as a signal of intense arousal, highlights for the eyes to appear wide with desire. The boob-hoist, the hair-toss, the sultry pout.

The vagicon is everywhere. Whether you are emptying your wallet in a local pub in the vain attempt to get her pants to liquefy or stripping the skin from your palm opening that stubborn jar of spaghetti sauce (two advanced university degrees and she still can't figure out that trick with a wet dishcloth) the vagicon is everywhere. You'll even find her in the hallowed ranks of feminist activism, like those Ukrainian chicks demonstrating in skimpy outfits slathered with mud like lady wrestlers, railing against sex tourism. (OK say men, we'll campaign against prostitution. Can we have sex now?) It never occurs to these vagicon activists to praise men for their kind attention. It never occurs to them to thank men for bringing much needed cash to their underdeveloped country and demonstrating highly refined taste by showing appreciation for the beautiful Ukrainian people—and for scrumptious, hunky poon.

If you have ever wondered how after showering a woman with attention and gifts you can be left with your dick in your hand, if you have ever lept to a woman's defense only to be backhanded at the slightest displeasure, if you live each day in a hellish cycle of repeating arousal and rejection, my friend, you have been vagiconned by a woman who believes that modernity has relocated the axis of the Earth to rotate around the vortex of her pussy.

Take great care not to get sucked in.
Source: avoiceformen

Fools and Feminists

Feminism has achieved this for women. Feminism has achieved that for women.

But this is just not true.

Feminism has achieved very little for women. If anything, it has retarded the progress of women. And, furthermore, it is likely to push back the 'progress' of women in the near future.

Women enjoy greater freedoms today because of progress in the areas of science, medicine and technology, not because of feminism.

Those who have doubts about this should try to imagine how feminist policies or attitudes could possibly have succeeded 100 years ago - or in impoverished places in the world today.

Ask a poor woman in Afghanistan why she still wants to wear the burka when she walks about in the street. Ask her why she would still much prefer to be married to a man who has some real concern for her welfare.
Women - feminists or otherwise - have probably always got what they aimed for throughout History. They were biologically designed to manipulate and to use men for their own purposes. This is why they survive in so many circumstances in which men do not.

The less harsh is the world outside, and the less vulnerable that women are to it, the more do they venture out into it.

When human beings were living in caves the women said to the men, "You go out first."
And they did.

And this is the way that it has been ever since.

But in most societies 'going out first' was not a sign of liberation.
And only fools and feminists would think so.

It is science, medicine, technology and men that have today 'liberated' western women to an unparalleled degree, not feminism.

Going out into the world of work is enormously more pleasant, safe and comfortable than it ever was.

Relatively safe contraceptive devices and abortion methods have saved them from being burdened by unwanted pregnancies and unwanted offspring. Computerised well-funded welfare systems and incredible economic developments have enabled them to survive without the need for men solely dedicated to their well-being. Going out into the world of work is enormously more pleasant, safe and comfortable than it ever was. Communications, transport and security systems are more widespread, more effective and more powerful by a long way than they were, say, even fifty years ago.

These are the sorts of things that have truly 'liberated' women - and, indeed, men.
Feminism has been of virtually no significance at all in comparison.

It is also often argued that women in western societies were unfairly discriminated against in the past with regard to various 'important' jobs and roles that were more or less denied to them. The truth, however, is that they were discriminated against on very good grounds indeed!

For example, the vast majority of women were going to end up having children. This is what they wanted to do.

And this is still what most of them want to do!

And it was wasteful for society - and for individual families and organisations - to expend huge resources in training women over many years for jobs that they were extremely unlikely to end up doing.

Even fifty years ago, what would have been the point in training women to become, say, doctors or lawyers

Even fifty years ago, what would have been the point in training women to become, say, doctors or lawyers - thereby denying men such training -  when the vast majority of such women would have dropped out pretty quickly to create their own families?

And what makes anyone think that younger women in those days actually wanted to undergo the serious long-term training that was required in order to do such jobs when they knew full well that they were extremely unlikely to want to do them?

Even today, the UK's National Health Service is suffering from significant inefficiencies and failures because women doctors are dropping out of work for years on end in order to have children - with some never to return. (e.g. see Is the Training of Women Doctors A Waste of Money?)

In other areas of work where physical fitness and strength were important - such as in the police force or in the army - where was the value to society in employing women to do such work when men were not only available to do it but were also able to do it far more effectively? Even fifty years ago, such jobs were far tougher than they are now.

Can you imagine women police officers patrolling the streets alone fifty years ago, on foot or on their bicycles?

Can you imagine women police officers patrolling the streets alone fifty years ago, on foot or on their bicycles? - with a whistle being their only communication method when trying to rally some help in times of trouble.

Just look at the construction industry today. You will not find many women wanting to lay bricks or to climb scaffolding. But, of course, if ever there comes a time in the future where such work can be done merely by pushing buttons while chatting to one's colleagues, then women will want to do it.

And, no doubt, the feminists of the future will then perpetuate the lie that today's women were discriminated against in the construction industry and that they were mostly desperate to lay bricks and climb scaffolding!
Furthermore, in the past, where paying jobs outside the home were not very plentiful, and where there were no significant welfare systems to protect the unemployed, it would have been absolutely disastrous for communities if many families had no bread-winners at all, while others had two, or even more. And it was clearly in the interests of everyone that jobs were distributed among families as best as possible.

You only have to look at impoverished communities today to see what happens when the men - particularly the young ones - are unemployed.

And these are the reasons why, in the past, women often had to give up their jobs if they got married. The idea was to make their jobs available to men who had to support families, and the assumption was that married women would be supported by their husbands - which they were.

And for similar reasons, women were sometimes paid less than men for the very same jobs.

even most women in those days would have thought it unfair had they got paid the same as the men

And, believe it or not, even most women in those days would have thought it unfair had they got paid the same as the men. They were not as selfish as the women of today, and they recognised that men had a financial responsibility to look after their wives and their children.

For example, In 1936, a Gallup poll asked a national sample, “Should a married woman earn money if she has a husband capable of supporting her?” By overwhelming majorities, both men and women said that she should not.

But thanks to science, medicine, technology and men, - and, of course, the growth in the economy that they have brought about - women nowadays have greater access to the world of work, should they so desire it.
And feminism had very little to do with this.

Younger women also often claim that they are glad to be alive today rather than in earlier times not long gone. And they seem to believe that the feminists of the 70s are largely responsible for the better circumstances that now exist for them.

This is hokum.

There is no denying that life is decidedly better in many ways nowadays than it was in the past - for both men and women - but what, exactly, did feminism achieve - apart from the long catalogue of disasters listed in the piece sarcastically entitled The Benefits of Feminism?

It is often argued, for example, that feminists were at the forefront in loosening the shackles of traditional gender roles which made men masculine and women feminine.
But was it?

Surely, if any particular group is to be especially credited with leading the way in this area it was the gay movement not the women's movement.

Even the entrapment of people into fixed gender roles brought about by the huge influence of religion was loosened far more by the developments taking place in science (discovery of DNA 1953) and the very rapid growth of a 'youth culture' with its defiant pop music (during the 1950's) than it was by the later influences of feminism. (For example see the short piece entitled The Shackles of Masculinity?.)

It is also often claimed that men and women now stand far more on an equal footing than they did some decades ago.

Oh really?

In what areas, exactly?

Women can nowadays kick their husbands out of their homes, deny them access to their own children, and, in many western countries, even make them continue paying for children who are not even theirs! There are now some 20 times as many men in western prison cells as women. Men currently die, on average, some 5 years earlier than women. And so on.

This is greater equality?

Indeed, it would be interesting to know on what basis there is greater equality today than there was in the past. And how does one measure it?

For example, does the fact that women were once not entitled to vote (as was true for most men) not somehow balance the fact that men alone could be conscripted into the army?

even only 50 years ago - the vast majority of men had to do really awful jobs for very long hours

Does the fact that - even only 50 years ago - the vast majority of men had to do really awful jobs for very long hours in order to cater for themselves and their families not somehow balance the fact that the women were mostly stuck at home with the kids?

So what, exactly, is more gender equitable about today's western world?

The feminist trick that infects the ether is to hold up examples of what appears to be unfairness toward women in the past, but to hide the unfairness that was being heaped upon men.

The suffering of women is highlighted and exaggerated and the suffering of men is denied and hidden. For example, look at the way that the domestic-violence industry still caters only for women and denies the existence of such violence against men. (Indeed, the UK government's previous Solicitor General - Harriet Harman - and the Home Office itself purposely ignore domestic violence against men; e.g. see Good Luck Ms Harman.)

And the modern-day history books have been cleansed by the left wing and the politically-corrected in the educational establishments and in the media in order to hide the suffering and the achievements of men and to elevate unduly into the public consciousness those of women.

And the extent to which these lies are continually perpetrated is absolutely astonishing.

 last year western TV viewers were subjected persistently to images of the Taleban police in Afghanistan whacking away with their sticks at the women

As just one example, last year western TV viewers were subjected persistently to images of the Taleban police in Afghanistan whacking away with their sticks at the women (mostly at their heavy clothing) as they 'got out of line' in the long queues for food. Over and over again the same images were presented to us to drum into our heads how badly women were being treated by the extremely religious Taleban. But in one scene on the BBC - which was shown once, and never shown again - a TV reporter asked one of the policemen why they were not whacking the men He chuckled and said that they did not need to do this because the men were so terrified of them that they always did what they were told.

And, sure enough, the men could be seen standing in an orderly line without the pushing and shoving that was taking place among the women.

And so what these images really showed was that the women were completely unafraid of the policemen wielding their sticks while the men dared not put a foot out of line.

The truth of the matter was the complete opposite of what the media were persistently trying to portray.
(Indeed, if you watch TV footage of scenes in poorer countries wherein the inhabitants are standing up to their governments, it is very often the women who are leading the charge!)

Even men's rights activists seem to think that feminism has benefited women in some major way. For example, in his truly excellent piece Fundamental Feminism even Richard Davis says,

"In contrast to progressive feminists, fundamental feminists do not seek gender equity. Their goal is gender superiority and authority. There is no question that women and men now live in a more gender equitable world than the one this author was born into. As a father of three daughters and two sons this author expects and demands equity of behavior and equal opportunity for all five of his children. Most of the credit for this contemporary view of gender equity must be given to progressive feminism."

Pardon?

"Most of the credit for this contemporary view of gender equity must be given to progressive feminism."

Where is the evidence for this?

And what on Earth is 'progressive feminism'?

I have never even heard of it! - despite years of being involved with the men's movement.
How can it possibly be that this 'progressive feminism' can be given the 'credit' for our current view of 'gender equity'?

Where? How? When?

WHO?

What the Hell is it?

And what about the 'independent' feminists, the 'equity' feminists and goodness knows what other types of feminists who are also often alleged to have brought about this current view of gender equity?
Do they count at all?

And have the gays not contributed most significantly to the current view of gender equity?
And what about black people?

Yes. Even the black racial activists witter on about gender equity.

And even many raging white male anti-feminists, if not most of them, are pretty sold on the idea of 'gender equity'.

And so the idea that feminists - of any kind - have some superior claim when it comes to the successful promotion of 'fairness' and 'justice' toward women is just nonsense. They are but a small fraction of the hundreds of other groups that have sought goodwill, justice, fairness and peace on Earth etc.
And the worthwhile achievements of feminists are almost non-existent.

Richard talks about wanting the same opportunities and the same fair treatment for his sons and his daughters.
And quite right too!

But if you travel back fifty years in time and beyond, what meaning could this possibly have had?

There was just no way that normal young males and females could have been treated the same way and the results be equitable.

There was just no way that normal young males and females could have been treated the same way and the results be equitable.

For example, how could it have been 'equitable' to insist that your son and your daughter both train hard for several years and to imbue them both with high professional expectations when the daughter would most likely want a completely different life for herself as an adult? - i.e. marriage to a suitable young man.

Do loving parents who believe in 'equitable' treatment fill their children's heads with grandiose ideas and expectations knowing full well that they are extremely unlikely to achieve them, or when they do not even want to achieve them?

And what, for example, if one lived in a mining community?

Would it have been 'equitable' to treat the boys and girls in the same way, and expect them both to work down the mines for 12 hours a day as a future career?

Similarly, allowing your 15 year old daughter to stay out until midnight and not requiring her to have an escort home would have been the height of madness fifty years ago. Even today, most responsible parents will have somewhat different rules for their boys and their girls when it comes to how they view their socialising habits.
And, of course, girls who got pregnant fifty years ago would have found themselves in all sorts of trouble.

It makes no sense at all to believe that society could have treated men and women the same way fifty years ago. 

It makes no sense at all to believe that society could have treated men and women the same way fifty years ago. And if it had done so, the results would certainly not have been 'equitable'.
Indeed, if feminism had been of major influence in those days our societies would have collapsed completely.
You only have to look at the effects that feminism has had on our poorer communities to see what a disaster it has been for so many people.

Indeed, if western economies were to deteriorate significantly in the future, and if millions of jobs were lost on a permanent basis, there is no way that feminist policies could be implemented or enforced.

women would willingly rush back into being housewives again.

For example, people might demand that jobs were distributed on the basis of one income-earner per household. And if, for some unimaginable reason, the only jobs available were onerous ones, or the world outside became a particularly dangerous place to be - as it used to be - women would willingly rush back into being housewives again.

And just imagine what would happen if, for some strange reason, abortions became unsafe and the contraceptive pill disappeared.

When you look back even fifty years ago, it is quite clear that women were not being oppressed by the 'patriarchy'. The patriarchy was serving them very well indeed, given the circumstances in which people lived.
In summary, feminism has achieved very little indeed. 

It is science, medicine, technology and men that have today 'liberated' western women - and men - to an unparalleled degree, not feminism.

The two men who came up with Google will do far more to 'liberate' women ... than feminism could ever do.

Goodness me. The two men who came up with Google will do far more to 'liberate' women - and many others - than feminism could ever do.


Feminism has damaged our society. It has damaged all of us.
And it continues to do so.

Not only is it a hugely destructive force but any society that is largely influenced by it is actually doomed to disappear.

The birth rates in feminist-dominated societies have plummeted to well below their population replacement rates, and the children who are being born are increasingly the offspring of those with lower levels of ability.
Well, with any luck, science, medicine, technology and men will, once again, manage to deal with the problems that will arise from such things.

But, firstly, this will not be easy. And, secondly, feminism has got to go.

---

If you really want to see just how hopeless and how highly destructive to all of us is the bogus search by feminists for 'equality' then please read my piece entitled Equality Between Men and Women Is Not Achievable and you will discover the real motives behind this continual 'search for equality'.

Source: angryharry.com/

Obama's domestic violence initiative: hope, hype, and hogwash

Nov 23, 2010

Desperate times call for desperate measures. So shortly before the November 2 elections, Barack Obama pulled out all the stops to woo the fading female electorate, unveiling a multi-pronged effort to "end domestic violence against women," as the president theatrically called it. But did the president's 5-point initiative deliver on the goods?

Let's begin with Obama's Hope about "ending" domestic violence. Folks, let's get real — the only way to put a stop to partner aggression — think Blondie chasing Dagwood with her rolling pin at the ready — would be to separate men and women at birth and ship them off to opposite corners of the universe.

But wait! It turns out domestic violence is twice as high among lesbians as among heterosexual married couples. Well, scratch that idea.

If the hopey-hopey routine doesn't do the trick, let's turn to the Hype. And here, Tinker Bell's magic wand sparkles with a wondrous gleam.

Because President Obama has taken to casting a spell on women with this Abuse Fairy Tale: Take a piece of paper and inscribe the words, "Stay away, you big meanie!" Sprinkle Pixie Dust, and now call it a Restraining Order.

And the would-be ravisher of women will slink away, knowing her magical scroll has the amazing power to ward off bullets, knives, and any other conceivable weapon of mass destruction.

Seriously, there's not a scrap of research that shows restraining orders deter violence, but this is what President Obama's "Fact Sheet" claims with a straight face: "Protective orders are effective in reducing the level of violence."

Once the woman comes to believe that piece of paper will ward off the Abuse Demons, the Protector-in-Chief will conjure up a copy of A Woman's Guide to Green Jobs. According to the Department of Labor website, the Guide will "aid in increasing women's access to high-growth and emerging industry occupations in the green jobs section nationwide."

That and the Jolly Green Giant.

Enough Hype? Now on to the Hogwash!

Folks, this is really the best part. But before we plunge any farther into President Obama's domestic violence rabbit hole, let's get a firm grip on reality. (For the skeptics, I'm providing the links below.)

In the area of child abuse, the federal Administration for Children and Families somberly notes, "In 2008, approximately 56% of child abuse and child neglect perpetrators were women and 42% were men." http://faq.acf.hhs.gov/cgi-bin/acfrightnow.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=70

As far as dating violence, girls win the battle of sexes hands down. According to a national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 9% of teenage girls, compared to 11% of adolescent boys, have been slapped, hit, or otherwise hurt by their opposite-sex partner: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5704a1.htm, Table 11.

And in a landmark 2007 article published in the American Journal of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control researchers reported 7 out of 10 instigators of one-way partner violence are...can we break the spell?...female: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/42/15/31.2.full

Scholarly research echoes the same theme: "Women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners," according to a recent summary of 275 studies by California State University researcher Martin Feibert, PhD.

The evidence is conclusive: Government surveys and scholarly research point to members of the Fairer Sex as the persons who are more likely to abuse. But not a single word of the president's carefully orchestrated White House event even hinted as to the existence of aggressive women or abused men.

The truth about female-initiated violence should be vexatious to persons who fancy themselves the champions of women. Because if the abuse escalates, it's more likely the female who will be harmed. As CDC lead researcher Daniel Whitaker explains, "a woman's perpetration of violence was the strongest predictor of her being a victim of partner violence."

So in a sane world, we would get more help for stressed-out moms, teach conflict resolution skills to teenage girls, and provide drug and alcohol treatment for violence-prone women. We might even devise a few programs to help abused men.

According to a 2006 Harris Poll, 88% of Americans have seen or heard of a male abuse victim in the past year. So most voters, men and women alike, will view the Administration's domestic violence initiative as a cynical political ploy.

But Barack Obama is seemingly enamored of a different logic: As long as we can sway unsuspecting women into believing their husband is a closet batterer, we can justify the unfettered governmental intrusion into the private affairs of citizens, and the continued expansion of the power of the state.

Source: renewamerica

Headscarf ban and Islamist feminists

Nov 26, 2010

There is certainly quite a weird paradox in the whole headscarf discussion. So-called “modern Turks” fight against the idea of women covering themselves, in the name of emancipating them, but the ban on the headscarf serves nothing but the maintenance of the patriarchal culture in Turkey.

The male-dominant, patriarchal culture in Turkey dictates that women should stay at home, just look after the kids and stay away from social contact where they would interact with men. Does the very ban on the headscarf not serve exactly the same purpose? As a result of the ban on the headscarf, covered women are prevented from getting an education, being employed, representing their constituency in Parliament, and even getting into public buildings. If you consider that 60 percent of women cover their heads in this country, you can begin to understand the social and cultural impact of the headscarf ban in Turkey. I believe the headscarf ban, with all its practical implications, is a serious breach of human rights of women and should be lifted unconditionally wherever it is imposed. Advocates of the headscarf ban put forward many arguments, but if you look at the bottom line, you see this: They believe the only way for women to be “modernized” is to take their veils off their heads. A woman with a headscarf cannot be a modern person, cannot be an independent individual, according to proponents of the ban. This understanding of “modernization” is undoubtedly an orientalist one, and is just a reflection of the social engineering that has been in operation since the beginning of the Turkish Republic. This understanding of “modernization” simply ignores real social dynamics and has no potential to create real change. Social dynamics cannot be changed through outside pressure; they can only be changed from within. Social dynamics in conservative and religious societies can only be influenced and changed with the forces operating within these societies themselves. If we can overcome this nonsensical ban, I believe the patriarchal discourse in conservative segments of Turkish society will find themselves struggling with the countervailing discourse raised by “Islamist feminists.” Islamist feminism is not an oxymoron and refers to women feminists who defend women’s rights from within the Islamic discourse. One of the proponents of this movement in the West, Asra Q. Nomani, an Indian-American journalist and author, put what they advocate as follows: “To many, we are the bad girls of Islam. But we are not anti-Shariah [Islamic law] or anti-Islam. We use the fundamentals of Islamic thinking -- the Quran, the Sunnah, or traditions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, and ijtihad, or independent reasoning -- to challenge the ways in which Islam has been distorted by Shariah rulings issued by ultraconservative men.” In the same vein, one of the well-known Turkish “Islamist feminist,” Ms. Hidayet Tuksal, says that “religion has been interpreted differently by different people throughout history, leading to male-dominated interpretations.” They basically try to change these interpretations. Today in Turkey we have many covered women who wholeheartedly defend women’s rights and fight against the patriarchal culture. If the headscarf ban is lifted, I believe these brave women will start to engage in a much fiercer war with male domination in their own circles. There are few feminist movements in Turkey in which covered and uncovered women come together to fight for gender equality and against patriarchal values. The Ankara Women’s Platform is one of them and I was really delighted to read their statement denouncing “control over women’s bodies, whether in the name of modernity, secularism, the republic, religion, tradition, custom, morality, honor or freedom.” That’s it. We should all fight against control over women’s bodies, whatever the justification, whether secular or religious. Source: todayszaman.com

(Isreal) Feminism in Israel remains an esoteric movement of zealots

Nov 25, 2010

Certain men, of course, are guilty, but women also bear a significant portion of the blame. The name of the game is solidarity and struggle - rare qualities in Israel, indeed.

Here it is once again, the same old song - as men in Israel continue to ask women "What do you mean?" after they are told "No." Say what we will, the truth of the matter is the situation for women in Israel remains terrible. An affair such as that involving the suspected sex crimes of a potential police chief apparently needs to happen for any public discussion to get under way. While it is true that we've come a long way, equally true is the fact that we have a comparably long way still to go.

Certain men, of course, are guilty, but women also bear a significant portion of the blame. The name of the game is solidarity and struggle - rare qualities in Israel, indeed.

Why is it that the latest complainant - "O." - must remain anonymous? Does someone filing a complaint about a robbery or break-in have to act this way? Can anyone imagine that others would say the plaintiff in a robbery "spreads his money around, anyway"? And if O. were a prostitute, what difference would that make? In acts of crime, the offenders covers their faces in shame; but when it comes to sexual harassment or rape, it seems it is the victims who should be embarrassed.

Men who commit misdeeds and defame others are to blame for any shame felt by the victims, but women are also guilty as they do not demonstrate alongside their aggrieved comrade in a show of solidarity. Women are apathetic, and men enjoy themselves: As long as the marginal feminist camp in Israel fails to strengthen and expand, O. and other complainants will continue to hide in shame.

Feminism in this country remains a synonym for an esoteric movement of zealots. And while all women generally benefit from the feminists' persistent campaigning, many keep a distance from the struggle.
"I do not define myself as a feminist, because the term has a negative connotation," the non-Israeli Baroness Ariane de Rothschild said in a recent interview with The Marker. What does it mean to not join a just cause because of its reputation? This "negative connotation," to be sure, has been fashioned by men, for their own purposes and uses.

Feminism does not have a bad name in all places, however. In egalitarian Scandinavia, for example, no political candidate has a chance of being elected without committing to feminism. It's the same as the need to be a Zionist to win an election in Israel. We remain quite far from such a situation regarding feminism. Who is really a feminist here?

Take a look, for instance, at the small screen. It's hard to find a female news presenter here older than 40; and no woman is allowed to read the news alone - certainly not a requirement for men. Most are blonde, covered in makeup and dressed in loud clothing which we men enjoy, particularly if it's revealing.
We men, on the other hand, wear black jackets, to pronounce our importance, while women are clothed in more color because that's the way we like them. The female newscasters are fortunate that we don't see their legs, and so they don't have to wear heels - another torturously imposed male whim. Television projects the state of the generation, illustrates what equality means in Israel.

As in other spheres, with sex crimes, the aggressor becomes the victim and the victim becomes the aggressor. It's a world turned upside down. O.'s activities are dealt with as though they are tantamount to those of her accused male assailant. Former police chief Assaf Hefetz whines, in an article published in Israel Today, whether the only appropriate candidate would be "someone who lived in a monastery?" No, there are many men who were never monks but who were never accused of sex crimes either; they simply know how to treat women.

The accusation that O. has chosen to lodge her complaint now for expedient reasons is ridiculous: She could have keep quiet, but she felt an obligation to come forward given the possibility that the accused could become police commissioner.

As opposed to a claim made by the current police chief, David Cohen, this affair clearly relates to the competition for the post. As well it should. From this point forward, every lower ranking member of the police force will know that illegal behavior could not only ruin their chances for promotion to higher ranks, but could also lead to indictment for criminal offenses.

The police internal affairs department will conduct its investigation into the present affair, and its inquiry will determine whether sex acts or sex crimes were committed. If we believed that the practice of evading guilt by posing the question "What do you mean, no?" was gone from power-oriented frameworks such as the Israel Defense Forces and the police, we were wrong. If we thought the struggle for equality was complete, we were mistaken.

Women should stand up, as should men, and behave like feminists. Should multitudes congregate around a complainant such as O. in a show of support, she would not need to cover her face in shame - or perhaps there would be not such anonymous victims anymore.

 Source: haaretz.com

(PDF)The Counter-Feminist Issue

MRm! - Issue 1

Muslim activists protest 'anti-women' divorce fatwa

Muslim Feminazi they get lots of support from Male Biased Indian government run by Eunuch Prime Minister

Nov 26, 2010

MUMBAI: A group of Muslim women activists has challenged the Darul Uloom Deoband's recent fatwa that states a divorce "pronounced" by a man over the phone is valid even if his wife failed to hear it due to network problems.

The Islamic seminary's fatwa department stated: "For talaq, it is not necessary that the wife should hear it or witnesses are present on the spot."

At a press meet on Thursday, members of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) lashed out at the "anti-women, regressive fatwas that had rendered the life of many Muslim women miserable". BMMA's Maharashtra convener Khatoon Shaikh asked, "If a marriage requires the consent of the bride, without which a nikah is not valid, how can the same union be terminated unilaterally without the consent of the wife?" Pointing out the Quran's spirit of gender justice, some of the activists read out relevant verses from the holy book that say arbitration is required before talaq is pronounced. "Muslim laws need to be codified. Once it is so done according to the Quranic principles of justice and equality, such fatwas will have no relevance," said Noorjehan Safia Niaz, BMMA's founding member, who has also written to the Deoband seminary. The letter, among other things, questions the source of the fatwas that prohibit women from riding bicycles, talking loudly and working with men without wearing veils. Condemning such fatwas, Javed Anand of Muslims for Secular Democracy (MSD) said, "These fatwas are anti-women, anti-human, anti-Islamic and anti-Constitutional. Deoband must stop making mockery of religion."

The BMMA, along with a number of other women's groups such as Mahila Shakti Mandal, Samjhauta Mahila Mandal, Hukook Mahila Sangathan and Ashana Trust, provides legal and emotional support to women in distress.

Source:TimeofIndia

Man fighting for harassed husbands fined 1L by HC

Nov 26, 2010

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat HC on Thursday slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Dashrath Devda, president of Akhil Bharatiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh for protesting against alleged misuse of domestic violence laws. A division bench fined him for filing frivolous PIL and for wasting court's time.

Devda had approached the HC by way of filing a PIL demanding judicial interference in the alleged misuse of protection laws for women. He was demanding a protection in legislation for men, who are according to him henpecked by their wives.

Devda has been claiming that women have abused the laws, which are in favour of them, but certain protection for men is also required against the misuse of the legislation. He filed this PIL, which came up for hearing before a division bench. When Devda began arguments as party-in-person, the court asked him to withdraw his PIL because his demand was to amend the legislation. Refusing to pay any attention to what the court was hinting at, Devda continued to argue how women in this country are worshipped, and no law is required for their protection. However, the chief justice repeatedly asked him to withdraw the PIL.

Ultimately, the court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Devda and asked him to pay the money to the Self Employed Women's Association — an NGO working for women empowerment. The court has directed Devda to pay the amount of penalty within two months.

Devda and members of his association often stage demonstrations and take out rallies in the city in protest against the domestic violence laws. They also help men in court proceedings, who face charges of domestic violence from their spouses. In this PIL also, Devda tried to assert their views that different pieces of legislation favouring women are misused, and ultimate sufferers are the family members. The association has been protesting against anti-dowry law of Section 498A of IPC, alimony related provisions in Section 125 of CrPC and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

Source:TimesofIndia

The role of business in governmental corruption

Nov 16, 2010

The great hope of economic liberalisation was that government will be less intrusive and dominant and that this would end not just the vice-like grip of politicians and bureaucrats over the lives of people but also mean less corruption.

But this is one great hope that has been betrayed. It looks like that politicians and bureaucrats are still enjoying their power to dole out favours, whether it is mining or telecom licences, and that business folk find it useful and even profitable to cultivate the politicians and their minions in the government. Right from the Enron episode in the 1990s to the 2G spectrum allotment just goes to show that business is deeply involved in the corrupt system.
The captains of industry and their spokespersons are sure to argue that they are caught in a vicious circle and that they have no other option but to play along. The business stakes are a little too high to take unrealistic ethical positions.

That is an argument of expediency, plausible but not convincing enough. It is not necessary to pinpoint Indian businesses — and here we are not speaking about the honourable exceptions but about the majority who follow corrupt practices out of necessity, if not out of sheer villainy and cynicism — as the only culprits. It is quite evident from the time of Enron, that multinational corporations learned only too quickly the bad ways of doing business in developing countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria and of course India.

While it is necessary to nail politicians and officials, is there some way of pinpointing the culpability of private businesses? After the Volcker report on Iraq’s oil-for-food scam, Congress politician and then minister for external affairs Natwar Singh was forced to step down. But the Volcker report cited many Indian business houses which paid their way to get at the oil barrels. Similarly, while DMK’s A Raja is being rightly cornered for his brazen indiscretions, the business houses which got special favours are not even mentioned.

Someone has to pick up enough courage to look squarely at the issue of complicity of businesses in the great public corruption system. While there are laws to punish businesses for violating the law in their business dealings, there are no explicit ones for penalising them in trying to win favours from the government. The issue should not be seen in ideological terms or as a socialist attack on the free market system. Even an ardent free market advocate cannot deny that private business is not above the temptation of giving bribes and soliciting privileges.

The private sector has kept out of the political debate on corruption under the mistaken assumption that that is an issue to be settled by the people and the politicians and there is not much that they can do about it. The truth is that politicians are indeed dependent on businesses to fill the coffers of their respective parties as well as their personal war chests. If business can bring itself to say no to the politician because it has sufficient clout to do so then it could be contributing to curbing corruption in the Indian public sphere.

As a matter of fact, the demand for best corporate practices should include provisions of not bribing public representatives and officials. This will place greater pressure on governments to be fair and impartial and for a transparent rule-based system, so essential for the functioning of an efficient free market system, to emerge.

Source:DNA

Why journalism is becoming the theatre of the absurd

November 25, 2010 

Is news journalism in India headed for the rocks? What else can one conclude when newspersons are becoming news themselves, when they are busy doing deals for dubious politicians, when TV anchors become judges and inquisitors, and when news is no longer even “that stuff between ads” but “ads masquerading as stuff”?

If this sounds like grandpa’s lament about a fall in journalistic values, rest assured this isn’t the direction my argument is taking. Journalism, and especially print journalism, is thrashing about looking for a future when technology and the internet have completely changed the rules of the game. With readers now able to access all kinds of relevant information instantly — even on mobiles — the old journalistic skills of “accessing sources, determining significance of information, and conveying it effectively” are no longer of great value, says Robert G Picard, professor of media economics at Sweden’s Jonkoping University.

Picard makes a hefty point about value. In an article provocatively titled Why journalists deserve low pay, Picard says most publications do not add value anymore. “One cannot expect newspaper readers to pay for page after page of stories from news agencies that were available online yesterday and are in papers today.”
In India, the problem of poor value delivery has been compounded by the soaring cost of content, thanks to the proliferation of newspapers, news channels and internet sites. Good journalistic talent costs a bomb (by Indian standards, certainly, and increasingly by world standards, too), and this cost pressure has led publishers to economise on headcounts and use more generic content — exactly what Picard notes. One fallout of this shortage is that titles are getting inflated: anyone who’s been a couple of years in reporting or sub-editing is called an ‘editor’, even though all he may have edited is an occasional agency copy.

Since title inflation is often offered in lieu of higher pay or work content, these ‘editors’ seek psychic growth by pretending to be big shots with outsiders and influence peddlers. Lobbyists and racketeers pander to their egos by pushing “exclusive” content to god-help-us editors, weakening newsroom cultures further.
Proprietors are partly to blame because, for many of them, publishing is an ego trip. Newspapers and channels that have no reason to exist also end up pushing the cost of content. Reason: whether you are a good publication or a bad one, you still need some editors who can write news or anchor it. As for the revenue model, blackmail will do: positive and negative stories are often linked to advertising or the lack of it.
At the other end of the spectrum, the more legitimate newspapers and channels are fighting irrelevance by pushing down the prices of their publications to levels that anyone can afford: zero. Just in case you haven’t noticed, the Indian newspaper is practically free for the reader, though cover prices are not exactly zero. For most papers, news-stand prices — which range from a minimum of Rs1.50-2.50 for language dailies to Rs2.50-4.50 for English dailies in the metros — are barely enough to cover 10-20% of the cost of paper and printing. As for newspapers sold on long-term subscriptions, net recoveries after paying the hawker can be zero or even negative.

When the advertiser is footing 80-90% of the cost of attracting eyeballs, it’s no surprise why paid news is all the rage. Directly or indirectly, advertisers determine what kind of content they want.
The influence can be subtle, or direct.

However, the free model is not unique to newspapers. The internet model is essentially that, with basic content being free and value-adds costing you something. Every business has a mass brand which barely covers costs and a high-margin one that brings in the moolah: in airlines, the early seats booked cost much lower than the later seats; in petro-goods, diesel costs less than petrol, and kerosene costs much less than aviation fuel — though their individual production costs do not vary much. In power, the first units consumed cost you much less than latter units.

Which brings me to the starting point of this article: why our newspapers and TV channels have become loud and devoid of serious content. If some language channels and newspapers cater to low tastes, the English channels are not necessarily better. News anchors are trying to hold their audiences by taking up shrill causes in the belief that if people are not willing to watch sensible news, they will at least watch a movie, starring Arnab Goswami or Rajdeep Sardesai, who will disembowel their victims verbally. If you like mush, there’s Barkha Dutt. If your newspaper lead story looks tame and sensible, you should jazz it up with graphics and provocative headlines that may be a bit off the mark, but will at least fetch a second glance.

Style and sizzle are replacing substance in the fight for short-term relevance. Till news media discovers a real, value-adding offering for which viewers will pay, they can only get worse. So, hang on to that remote.

 Source: DNAIndia

Something rotten in Allahabad High Court: SC

These type of Judges should be removed from the bench immediately no questions asked. 

Nov 26, 2010

In a strong indictment of the Allahabad High Court, the Supreme Court on Friday observed that "there is something rotten" there and raised serious questions over integrity of several of its judges. 

"Something is rotten in the State of Denmark, said Shakespeare in Hamlet, and it can similarly be said that something is rotten in the Allahabad High Court," said a Bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra, adding the high court "really needs some house cleaning". 

The Bench also asked the chief justice of the high court to take some strong measures, including recommending "transfers of the incorrigibles". 

It made the observation in a 12-page order, while making the insinuation that several judges of the high court suffer from 'uncle judge' syndrome, which refers to judges passing favourable orders for parties represented by lawyers known to them. 

The Bench flew into a rage while scrapping a single-judge Bench order of the Allahabad High Court which had asked a Bahraich-based Waqf Board to temporarily allot a portion of its land in May-June this year to the proprietors of a circus for its show during an annual fair. 

"The faith of the common man in the country is shaken to the core by such shocking and outrageous orders," said Justices Katju and Mishra. 

"We are sorry to say but a lot of complaints are coming against certain judges of the Allahabad High Court relating to their integrity," said the Bench, without disclosing the contents of complaints. 

Referring to the rampant 'uncle judge' syndrome allegedly plaguing the high court, the apex court Bench said, "Some judges have their kith and kin practising in the same court. 

"And within a few years of starting practice, the sons or relations of the judge become multi-millionaires, have huge bank balances, luxurious cars, huge houses and are enjoying a luxurious life. 

"This is a far cry from the days when the sons and other relatives of judges could derive no benefit from their relationship and had to struggle at the bar like any other lawyer," the Bench added. 

The judge, however, sought to add a note of caution, saying, "We do not mean to say that all lawyers who have close relations as judges of the high court are misusing that relationship. 

"Some are scrupulously taking care that no one should lift a finger on this account. However, others are shamelessly taking advantage of this relationship," the judges observed. 

"There are other serious complaints also against some judges of the high court," they said in a joint order, adding, "The Allahabad High Court really needs some house cleaning (both Allahabad and Lucknow Bench). 

"We request the chief justice of the high court to do the needful, even if he has to take some strong measures, including recommending transfers of the incorrigibles," justices Katju and Mishra said and also asked the apex court treasury to send their order to the Allahabad High Court chief justice to "do the needful". 

The judges had flown off the handle, after detecting some legal errors in the high court order, which included absence of territorial jurisdiction to pass it as Bahraich falls under the jurisdiction of the high court's Lucknow Bench. 

The high court had also granted full legal relief to the circus proprietor in an interim order, which is barred in judicial proceedings, the apex court Bench pointed out. 

Source: Indianexpress

Protection of Women from Domestic Violence

Nov 26, 2010

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) is implemented by the States/Union Territories. The State Governments are required to appoint Protection Officers, register Service Providers and notify shelter homes and medical facilities for implementation of the Act. The Implementation of the Act was reviewed in the meeting of the State Ministers and Secretaries in charge of Women & Child Development, on 16-17 June, 2010, and particularly with regard to the appointment of Protection Officers and registration of Service Providers.

The PWDVA is a Civil law meant to protect and provide support to victims of domestic violence. Under the Act, the aggrieved woman can seek various reliefs such as protection order, residence order, custody order, compensation order, monetary reliefs, shelter and medical facilities. The aggrieved woman can also file a complaint under Section 498A of IPC, where ever relevant. A few complaints/representations alleging misuse of the Act together with alleged misuse of 498A of IPC have been received. These complaints are primarily against alleged misuse of Section 498A IPC rather than any specific provision of the PWDVA.

Under the PWDVA, various reliefs are provided to the aggrieved women on the orders passed by the Magistrate after following due procedure. The Act also has a provision for appeal against the orders of the Magistrate. While adequate safeguards under existing laws such as Section 211 of IPC and Section 250 of CR.PC are available to deal with misuse, if any, of legal provisions, the Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an advisory on 20.10.2009 to all State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to comply with the procedure as directed by the Courts and follow the advisories issued by the Government of India from time to time, to put to rest the allegation of misuse of Section 498A of IPC.

This information was given by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State for Women and Child Development in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. 


Source:PIB

Newly-wed woman killed in Bangalore home; cops suspect ex-lover

Oct 12, 2010

Bangalore:  A newly married woman in Bangalore was found murdered at her home around 5 pm on Monday with her throat slit with a glass piece.

Valarmazi's husband Balasubramanyam, a mechanical engineer, reached home around 9 pm and informed the police. The police reached by 10 pm and sent the body to Victoria Hospital for post-mortem around 12.30 am.

The couple had recently moved to the city in September and rented a house in SMS Residency in BTM Layout.

Primary investigation by the police revealed that the accused was known to Valarmazi as the house was not broken into. Valarmazi even offered buttermilk to the guest as the police found buttermilk on the floor.

The accused allegedly took her to the bedroom and slit her throat as glass pieces were strewn on the floor of the hall. As Valarmazi's body was found in a semi-nude condition, the police are not ruling out rape.

Valarmazi allegedly died because of heavy blood loss. Surprisingly, SMS Residency has five floors but none of the neighbours heard any sound.

Police personnel are also not denying that the accused could be Valarmazi's boyfriend as the accused took two gifts -- a Ganesha idol and another a heart-shaped show piece -- for her.

D Rachappa, ACP, Mico Layout said, "The accused got gifts shows that he is a known person. Valarmazi also offered him buttermilk. The glass is broken in the hall. The accused took her to the bedroom and slit her throat. The body was found in a semi-nude condition so we are not ruling out rape. But only after the investigation can we conclude who the accused is."

Mico Layout Police Inspector C N Janardhan said, "A complaint has been registered at Mico Layout police station and we will investigate the case."


Source:NDTV

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/newly-wed-woman-killed-in-bangalore-home-cops-suspect-ex-lover-59119?pfrom=Cities?from=rightpanel&cp

Mother told about daughter's death on reality show

Oct 10, 2010

Avetrana, Italy:  Thousands of people have walked past the coffin of a 15-year-old girl whose killing - announced to her mother on live TV - has shocked Italy.

Sarah Scazzi disappeared on August 26th while walking in the town of Avetrana, in southern Italy. She remained missing for weeks while police searched for clues.

This week, police pulled the body of a girl resembling Scazzi out of a cistern just outside the town.
The girl's mother was a guest on a live TV show on Wednesday when she was told her daughter was likely dead and her brother-in-law had allegedly killed her.

Concetta Serrano, clearly in shock, reportedly said that her brother-in-law was innocent before saying she could not believe what was happening.

Federica Sciarelli, the anchor of a popular show about missing person cases on RAI state TV, reportedly told her late on Wednesday night the breaking news that one of the persons being interrogated by police in Taranto, southern Italy, had allegedly confessed to killing Sarah Scazzi, 15, and that the body had been found.

When Sciarelli asked whether the mother understood what was happening, Serrano looked lost and said she was trying to understand.

It was later confirmed that her brother-in-law, Sarah's uncle, Michele Misseri, had confessed to killing his niece, and accompanied police to the cistern where he had hidden the body over a month ago.

Sarah disappeared while she walked the short distance through the town of Avetrana to her uncle's house, where she was supposed to meet a cousin to go to the beach along the Mediterranean in Puglia.

The uncle raised suspicions about a week ago when he gave police Sarah's burned cell phone he claimed to have found while burning leaves near his house.

Source:NDTV

Wife commits suicide, husband jumps off building

April 16, 2010

A woman on Friday allegedly committed suicide and her husband jumped from third floor of a building, after they had a fight, in Mutthiganj area here police said.

The cause of the quarrel was their one month old son who was suffering from physical deformity since birth, they said.

After today's quarrel, when the husband left for his office the wife hung herself from the ceiling and died.

Meanwhile, the husband too jumped from third floor of a building after hearing this news, police said adding his condition is critical.

Source: NDTV

False case against in-laws ground for divorce: Bombay High Court

April 18, 2010

In a significant order, the Bombay High Court has held that a false criminal case filed by an estranged wife for harassment against her husband and in-laws amounted to cruelty and was sufficient ground to seek divorce.

"In our view, embarrassment, humiliation and suffering that is caused on account of arrest of a husband and his family members in a false case constitutes mental cruelty to enable the husband to seek divorce on this sole ground", a Bench observed recently while granting divorce to a couple.

Justices A P Deshpande and R P Sondurbaldota disagreed with a family court's order that a single complaint filed by a wife against her husband and in-laws does not indicate tendency of the wife to make false allegations.

"We fail to understand the logic behind the reasoning adopted by the family court to hold that a singular complaint of this nature under section 498A IPC resulting in arrest and detention of family members and relatives thereby causing embarrassment, humiliation and suffering does not constitute mental cruelty. It is illogical that more than one complaint is necessary to constitute mental cruelty", the bench noted.

"In our opinion, the approach of the family court is wholly perverse and its reasoning cannot be sustained in law. We are of the view that cumulative effect of the behaviour and conduct of the wife is good enough to draw an inference that she has caused utmost mental pain and suffering which amounts to mental cruelty to the husband and, hence, he is entitled for divorce on the ground of cruelty," it said.

Source: NDTV

New corruption scandal deals blow to India's image

Nov 25, 2010

This is proof corruption starts at the very top, CEO of LIC finance India is charged with taking Millions of dollars in bribes. This is a string of corruption cases coming up one after the other in the last few weeks, it is a never ending battle to fight corruption, but the problem is the Government doesn't have the will or the grit to stop this, naturally the politicians are the biggest crooks.
There is a saying the more corrupt a nation is the lower the standard of living is for her citizens. This should not surprise anyone, the ruling Congress party has a history of being and excepting corruption for decades. The Prime Minster is a man with no will of his own, pity. 

 India's reputation as a place to do business took another hit after the scandal-tainted government charged top public sector bankers with accepting bribes initially estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
The scandal is one of the biggest to taint India, potentially harming the image of Asia's third-largest economy as destination for foreign investors, especially as it comes a few days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has had to defend his government in another graft scandal involving telecoms licences sold at rock-bottom prices.

The federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested five officials from state-run listed lenders, including the chief executive of LIC Housing Finance(LICH.BO), accused of taking bribes to facilitate large corporate loans.

Three senior executives from a listed private company were also arrested on charges of handing out the bribes.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement on Thursday he had asked all banks, financial institutions and insurance firms to look into their exposures to firms named by federal investigators in the case.
"The message is not good, both for the market also for the economy," said D.H. Pai Panandiker, head of private think tank RPG Foundation in Delhi.

"All these things create a very bad image about the country and it's kind of loss of faith in the system," he said.
The scandals are unlikely to deter investors from India, one of the four key BRIC emerging markets in the world and a hot investment destination, analysts say.

"Anyone who has been an investor in India, has to be familiar with issues like these," Vikas Pershad, Chief Executive of Veda Investments in Chicago.

"So, if someone is pulling out of India based on the recent events, he or she is really mistaken. The long-term growth story is intact."

Investors are keen to tap into a country with a young and fast-urbanising population of 1.2 billion. Economic growth is forecast at 8.5 percent in 2010-11, and then between 9 and 10 percent every year after that, levels rivalled only by China.

India was ranked 87th in Transparency International's 2010 ranking of nations based on the perceived level of corruption. India lies behind rival China, which is in 78th place.

Shares in companies affected fell sharply since the scandal broke, dragging the Mumbai stock index lower.
"The gratifications are huge, more than thousands of crores (hundreds of millions of dollars)," CBI Joint Director P. Kandaswamy, who is in charge of the probe in Mumbai, told reporters on Wednesday. CBI's main spokesman in Delhi on Thursday said he could not confirm the size of the bribes.

The arrests are the culmination of a year-long investigation across five cities in India, the Delhi-based CBI said.

The Delhi government, however, sought to play down the scandal, saying it was an isolated incident.
"I do not think that the scale should be lost sight of. It's very small as far as the banking system as a whole is concerned," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told NDTV Profit.
"I think that our banking system is pretty well regulated. Both the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and the (finance) ministry, I'm sure, are doing whatever is necessary to send the right signals," he said.
The CBI said those arrested included senior officials at state-run Central Bank of India(CBI.BO), Punjab National Bank(PNBK.BO) and Bank of India(BOI.BO) -- all major banks with operations across the country.

The executives in custody have yet to comment on the charges, but the companies involved have all denied any knowledge of wrongdoing and said they would review their internal regulations.
Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), the country's largest insurer and parent company of LIC Housing Finance, said it would appoint a new CEO for its housing financing unit.

INDIA REELS FROM MORE SCANDALS

The CBI said the accused had received bribes from listed private broker Money Matters Financial Services, which acted as a "mediator and facilitator" of corporate loans and other facilities.
Lending to developers, which LIC Housing and the other state-run banks in question are heavily involved, has grown considerably in recent years as part of the economic boom.

Real estate firms, some lacking sufficient credit-worthiness, have often used intermediaries to lobby for loans.


"Basically these are corruption charges against public officials. There is no systemic risk, its not going to impact the retail lending," Indian top mortgage lender HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh told Reuters.
The CBI declined to disclose details about the size of the loans, but they would have been significantly larger than the alleged bribes. Apart for Money Matters, the CBI did not disclose the names of the other companies that allegedly gave bribes.

Suzlon Energy confirmed it had used Money Matters in 2009 for a loan exercise and said in a statement it was confident that the transaction was in compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements.
This is the fourth big corruption scandal to blow up and linked to the Congress party in the past month and a half.

The government has been jolted by controversy over licences and radio airwaves that a state auditor says were given out too cheaply, and often to companies not eligible, depriving the government of up to $39 billion in revenues.

The telecoms minister was forced to resign and the prime minister has been asked to explain himself to the Supreme Court. Opposition parties want a full parliamentary probe and have blocked proceedings until the government relents.

Before that, the $6 billion Commonwealth Games that India hosted were also riddled with corruption allegations.

A large housing scam has also rocked the government where party officials, bureaucrats and military personnel are accused of taking land in Mumbai belonging to war veterans and building luxury flats.
The government has resisted additional probes into the telecoms scandal, saying a CBI investigation is under way.

Critics say the government fears it will be dragged into a long-running investigation ahead of state elections.
Parliament was again adjourned on Thursday as the opposition continue to disrupt business to press their demand for a full parliament inquiry into alleged corruption at the telecoms ministry.

That has weakened the government's ability to move key economic measures and delayed legislation in areas such as banking and mining, although the government is not at risk of collapsing.

Source: (Reuters) 

Raja Chaudhary arrested for beating girlfriend

 November 20, 2010

Bhojpuri actor Raja Chaudhary was today arrested while his friend and small-time actress Shraddha Sharma was booked for allegedly causing nuisance by fighting in public in suburban Oshiwara, police said.

According to police, Chaudhary went to Sharma's flat at a building in Oshiwara where the duo had a scuffle over an issue with the actor also ransacking her house.

Subsequently, the society informed the police about the altercation, they said.

When a police constable tried to intervene, the two did not pay any heed to him and continued fighting on a road near the building, police said.

Chaudhary, who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol, and Sharma, who was admitted to a hospital as she sustained injuries, were booked under IPC section 160 (punishment for committing affray).

The Bhojpuri actor has been involved in similar incidents earlier too and had also attended a rehabilitation camp to change his volatile behaviour.

Source: NDTV

Divorce cases bring high drama to family court

Nov 25, 2010

HYDERABAD: It's not just dramatic divorce cases but some real drama unfolding at the Secunderabad family court premises. In the last one month alone, two men in two separate incidents have attempted suicide in the family court "unable to cope'' with the mounting pressure of cases and charges (both civil and criminal) against them.

In one case, a 40-year-old man, Venkatesh, battling many charges of harassment filed by his wife consumed a liquid mosquito repellent, which he was incidentally carrying in his pocket during the hearing. He was rushed to Gandhi Hospital and his life was saved. The Marredpally police which took his statement said that he cited `tension' over the number of cases filed against him as the reason for taking the drastic step. However, he was spared of another case of attempt to suicide as the police let him off with a warning.

The other person who attempted suicide is reported to have lost his job while pursuing umpteen cases at various courts. Apart from a string of cases filed by his wife, this man's parents had also filed a maintenance claim on him.

Taking a note of such instances at the family court, the judge has now issued strict guidelines to men against trying such tricks to influence the court's decision in their favour.

Lawyers note that men and women contesting murky divorce battles have started bombarding each other with as many cases as possible, resulting in long-drawn courtroom proceedings. The battles, which often begin with wives levying charges of 498 A (dowry harassment) of the IPC and Domestic Violence Act on their husbands, end with men approaching the court to file a divorce petition. In cases where the husband moves the court first to file a divorce petition, the woman files a restitution of conjugal rights counter-case.

A second round of maintenance claim and child custody cases follow. "The latest to join the case bandwagon is Section 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC, either or both of which are being used extensively by individuals to strengthen their cases against their spouse," said P Sunderaiah, senior advocate at Hyderabad family court." Add to that a breach of trust, claiming the return of 'streedhan' and property declaration cases, he said.

"There have been cases where the man has moved the court for an anticipatory bail the minute the wife has threatened him even verbally with a domestic violence or dowry harassment charge," said Wasim Ahmed Khan, senior family court advocate.

Source:TimesofIndia

Divorce likely 'if husband is happier than wife'

 May 21, 2010

It may appear a bit strange, but ladies, please note -- if your hubby is happier than you, then divorce is likely, a new study has claimed.

Economists at Deakin University have carried out the study and found that divorce is more likely if married couples have different happiness levels -- especially if the husband is happier.

For the study, the economists analysed data from three different countries -- Australia, Germany and Britain -- and found that the higher the gap in happiness, even during the first year of marriage, the higher the risk of divorce.

Also, in three countries across all couples, women were happier than men. But men were happier than women during marriage only for those couples whose marriages ended with divorce, the study found.

Lead economist Dr Cahit Guven said: "We found that the gap in happiness is typically several times higher for couples in de facto relationships than for those who are married.

"In Australia for instance an increase in the happiness gap by one per cent increases the probability of separation by 0.2 per cent for legally married couples versus 0.9 per cent for de facto couples after controlling for potential factors of divorce.

"Compared with Germany this is pretty good, their probability was 0.5 per cent for de facto couples and 0.16 per cent for those who were legally married.

"Interestingly, the happiness gap decreases after the divorce for the divorced couples. However, the happiness gap between the divorced spouses after the divorce is still higher than those couples who stay married.

"This shows that they have made a bad choice at the beginning and the happiness gap stays at some level and does not disappear even though they are not together anymore.

Dr Guven said the divorce probability was correlated with levels of income and the distribution of the housework load. "The risk of divorce is positively related to the wife's income but negatively relates to husband's individual income."

However, the economists said in contrast the likelihood of divorce was reduced if the wife was retired, a housewife or full-time student, the housework was shared or there was a common religion or background.

Dr Guven said: "Evidence is also emerging to suggest that people have a happiness baseline which may flow according to life events, but it rarely stays below a certain level.

"Our research tends to support this view, and also shows that unlike other benefits in a marriage, happiness isn't able to be redistributed between the husband and the wife for those couples whose relationship ended with divorce.


Source: India Today

Indian-origin teacher jailed for sex with pupils

Nov 23, 2010

A 37-year-old Indian-origin woman was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for having sex with two teenaged students in Britain.

Hina Patel, who worked as a classroom assistant and swimming teacher at Birkdale High School in Merseyside, admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child at North Sefton Magistrates' Court last month. She was sent to Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing.

According to the Sun, Patel invited the youngsters to her home, where she had sex with one boy then the other just a few hours later.

During her sentencing on Tuesday, Mr Martin Decker, prosecuting, said the single mother of two was employed to provide support and supervision for pupils who had been disruptive in class.

Mr Decker told the court how she came to meet the two boys in February this year and during a one-to-one supervision she exchanged mobile phone numbers with them. 

Describing an exchange of text messages between Patel and one of the boys, Mr Decker said: "Initially she was being friendly and saying he was a 'good lad' but after about four days the content became sexual."

"The boy described the texts as being normal at first and then 'weird'. After about a week she invited the boys to her house," Mr Decker told the court.

Patel collected one boy in a hired car as the other made his own way to her home where they watched DVDs, the court was told. 

"In his police interview the boy said she started touching him and kissing him and this led to sexual intercourse. The boy was asked how he felt about this and he replied that it felt 'weird'," Mr Decker said.

The youngster left the house about an hour later leaving Patel alone with the other boy.

The pair arranged to meet on a second occasion but the boy changed his mind after Patel picked him up and got out of her car, Mr Decker said. 

He told a friend he had sex with Patel and the friend was later arrested after burgling the teacher's home. That boy told Youth Justice officials about Patel's relationship with her pupils and the police raided her house.

They seized her mobile phone which contained text messages from the boys which included "the police know everything" and "don't tell people". 

Mr Gary Loveridge, head teacher of Birkdale High School, said Patel was never employed as a swimming teacher by the school and did that job separately to her work at Birkdale.

Source: Deccan Chronical

NFHS Discussion: Strategy and facts to remember to fight DV cases

1. What is DV Act?

THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005 NO. 43 OF 2005
[13th September, 2005.]

Chapter 1: An Act to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-sixth Year of the Republic of India.

2. What relief/orders wife can get under DV ACT
Wife can seek the following relief’s from the concerned court -

a) An order enjoining your abuser from threatening to commit or committing further acts of domestic violence or violence to any person in whom you may be interested;
b) An order prohibiting your abuser from harassing, annoying, telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with you, directly or indirectly.
c) An order removing your abuser from residence;
d) An order directing your abuser to stay away from your residence, school, place of employment, or any other specified place frequented by you and another family or household member;
e) An order prohibiting you abuser from using or possessing any firearm or any other weapon or dangerous substance as specified by the court.
f) An order granting you possession of your personal effects and other necessary articles in the shared household and an order to put you again in the possession of the shared household;
g) An order granting you custody of your child or children;
h) An order denying your abuser visitation;
i) An order specifying arrangements for visitation, including requiring supervise visitation;
j) An order for interim monetary relief, including but not limited to payment of rent for the premises of the shared household, maintenance for you and your children, medical expenses and compensation for any other mental or physical injury caused to you by the abuser;

3. NFHS did study and RTI inspection of some of the magistrate orders. Our conclusion is magistrates’ are basically finding reason’s to hold husband guilty so that they can pass maintenance. Unless the husband is held guilty no order of relief can be passed against him. In one such order NFHS has found that the reason given by magistrate is “I find husband guilty of DV based on arguments, wife has produced a medical certificate of treatment and 498A is registered against husband.”  He however held that “FIL has not done any DV as a 65 years old person cannot do DV on 28 year old women”. So the important thing is to demolish all allegation of DV from her petition though it is very difficult to do so.

4. The main attraction for girls is to claim the Right to Residence (RTR) from Husband/Male partner. So make sure you do not own a house or flat in your name. Even though wife/female partner can claim RTR only against Husband/Male partner but nothing stops the wife/female partner from filing a petition under DV act and come and sit inside the house.

5. Another important point is wife/female partner can claim maintenance under the DV act. This is in addition to other maintenance ordered under CrPC 125 or HMA section 24. So in case your wife is granted maintenance under CrPC 125 or HMA section 24, then your lawyer has to forcefully argue to the court that basic need of the wife is taken care by other maintenance and hence there is no need of any additional maintenance.

6. Please note DV act cannot be filed against a female but if you are a victim of the DV act then make sure your mother files a DV case against your father-in-law/brother-in-law. This is a strategy which may not succeed but from the point of view of keeping pressure it is good.

7. Your wife/female partner can be provided with protection order from local SHO. So you should be in good relation with your local SHO else your wife/female partner can create enough trouble for you. E.g. she can simply walk to the SHO and file a complaint that you were following her or that you had threatened her in the court to withdraw cases etc.

8. Please remember that from various judgments of the various high courts, there is no clarity whether DV act is retrospective or not. Various HC’s have given contradictory judgments in this regard. Retrospective means even though DV act came into existence only in September 2006 but a husband/male partner can be booked for incidents which had occurred before DV act came into existence. But your lawyer must take this stand. The problem is even if the opposite party is able to show one incident after separation even then you can be booked.

9. Even though there is no mention of arrest in DV act but non-compliance of order by magistrate can lead to issuance of non-bailable-warrant. DV is neither purely civil nor criminal. There is a beautiful judgment in this regard from Chhattisgarh HC.

10. There was a case booked in Madya-Pradesh where even though divorce was granted in 2003 but wife restored to DV act in 2007 and that subsequently lead to non-bailable-warrant.

11. The basic difference between 498a and DV act is in 498a husband is liable for punishment but wife does not get any financial relief but in DV wife/female partner gets lots of relief but there is no punishment/arrest (unless husband violate court order). Another difference is 498a can be booked against husband or his relatives but DV can be booked only against male members of a family.

12. Another point to remember is that as per Supreme Court judgment in batra vs batra any relief to the wife cannot be granted to wife against the property of mother-in law. So it may be wise to transfer the immovable property to mother’s name but again as per Chennai HC order where husband transferred the property to wife but she captured it and HC termed it correct. So you must be very careful in this.

13. Please remember that under DV act Magistrate is having sweeping powers. So make sure not to keep much cash in the known bank accounts.

14. There is a recent Chennai high court judgment where even though the husband has transferred the property to the mothers name but high court did not like this and they passed the RTR in favor of wife. So I guess the safest way out is to sell the property and park the funds in investments which wife cannot track down.

15. The key to win DV case is demolish her evidence of violence. Normally the girls’ side will project that 498A is filed and hence violence has happened. The problem is 498A takes around 5-7 years to finish and DV runs very fast. So in the cross examination of wife all her allegations must be demolished wrt the violence.

16. Behavior in the court and how the judge observes you is very important in such cases as evidence in matrimonial cases always does not tell truth.

17. Try to give as many evidence as possible to build your cases. Even if lower court ignores your evidence then also you will have a chance in HC to argue. Remember getting a favorable order from lower court is very important as in HC mostly it is your luck.

18. Though your lawyer will discourage you from filing a lengthy affidavit but you need to make sure that her cruelty part is highlighted properly. Normally lawyers will suggest that don’t bring the cruelty as it is more relevant to the divorce case but that is not true. You need to bring every aspect of her cruelty as it will prove that you are the one who had undergone DV.

19. Attack DV in your affidavit saying the law is made on flaw and is against the principle of natural justice and against constitution of India article 15 which guarantees equality to each citizen. Though it will not help you directly but will convey the message to the judge that you might have undergone DV at the hands of your wife.

20. In your affidavit at the end you must put a paragraph mentioning how greedy women are misusing the laws made for the needy women. This will help creating awareness and help the larger cause.

21. Remember your lawyer will say just keep on denying all the allegations and finish the affidavit. That is wrong strategy. You cannot escape just by denying allegations. You need to bring out your story in proper way and convey to the magistrate that you are the one who had suffered at the hands of your cruel wife.

22. Remember your greedy wife is behind your money. She is least interested in saving the marriage or you. When she has filed a false case of DV against you means for all practical purpose marriage is dead. So you need to safeguard your finance part. There are innumerable judgments where it is ordered that educated; working women are not capable for maintenance.

23. Now the question is once your wife captures your house then how do you vacate her as she had captured just to harass you? She may not be even staying there.

24. Use 91 CrPC applications effectively to bring out true facts.

25. Use 340 CrPC applications to put them on the back foot as it deals with punishment for lying on oath.

26. Use RTI effectively to collect evidence.

27. Use TEP, DP3 etc effectively to push them to wall and to give them their own taste.

28. Talk to volunteers and attend weekly meeting regularly.

29. Never file an application in the court without reading the entire contents twice. Normally I never allow my lawyer to file application. I do all the paper work myself and enjoy it.

30. Remember there only two important things to decide DV Case. One is domestic relationship and another is domestic violence. In most of our cases domestic relationship is not disputed so only other thing to be decided is domestic violence.

31. You need to understand how the Magistrate/Session court decides the matter and how the HC/SC decides the matter.

32. Should you delay and drag the case or finish it as fast as possible.

33. Why it is dangerous
It is dangerous because it is retrospective in nature. i.e. even if any alleged domestic violence has occurred even before the implementation of this act even then this act can be used. It gives sweeping Ex-Parte relief to women even without ascertaining whether any kind of domestic violence has taken place. The wordings of the DV act are not very “happily worded” (observed by Honorable Supreme Court). So it is bound to be misused by ladies to take revenge. Magistrate can pass Ex-Parte order.

34. Use following page to get judgments related to DV:
http://498amisuse.wordpress.com/category/resource/domestic-violence/dv-judgements/
http://www.498a.org.in/rsrcs_ctnts_DV.html

35. Use following page to get misuse judgments related to DV:
http://498amisuse.wordpress.com/category/resource/domestic-violence/dv-misuse-judgements/

36. Use following page to get strategy related to DV:
http://www.498a.org.in/rsrcs_strtgy_DV.html

37. Use following page to get FAQ related to DV:
http://www.498a.org.in/rsrcs_faq_DV.html

• Remember it is not about to know DV Act but rather to fight it.
• Also point of discussion will be “How to get the house captured by DIL”?
• How to reduce maintenance?
• What is relevant to decide a DV Case?
• Strategy to Cross opposite party in DV Case.
• What constitutes Evidence in a DV Case?
• How to write Chief Affidavit?