1 Europe’s American cushion (Khaleej Times) When US President Barack Obama spent 10 days in Asia last November to publicise the new US pivot to that region, the move was met with concern, not just in Beijing, but in Brussels as well. NATO members have reasons to worry about the new Asian focus of their principal North Atlantic partner. With the developed world drowning in debt and shrinking budgets, the American shift could mean trouble for the Western alliance unless properly managed. In rolling out the Pentagon’s new Defence Strategic Guidance, Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta explicitly stated that Europe has become a lower defence priority compared with Asia.. There is a risk that Europe will become increasingly irrelevant and unable to promote stability even in nearby regions.
2 North India and South Pakistan (Khaleej Times) The two regions of the sub-continent, Uttar Pradesh in India and Sindh in Pakistan to be precise, have a unique bond, and a disconnect too. First, the bond: A huge number of Muslims from Uttar Pradesh migrated in 1947 to Sindh in Pakistan. Every fifth inhabitant of Sindh belongs to third or second generation of migrants from India at large and UP in particular. They all had migrated in pursuit of a peaceful society and prosperous family lives and their children’s text books kept on reminding them over the next many decades that the cherished dream could never be realised with Hindus roaming around all over and dominating every thing.
The same Uttar Pradesh recently elected members for its 403-seat state (provincial) assembly. Muslims still live in that Indian state that is bigger than Pakistan in population. UP’s population according to a 2011 census is 199.6 million and 19.8% of these are Muslims. Or every fifth inhabitant of the present-day UP is a Muslim. Muslim candidates were serious contenders for around half of the general seats of the state. In fact 68 of them won to become a member legislative assembly (MLA) and another 64 stood second in contests.
This is not to say that everything is hunky dory in India. A massive number of Hindus migrated from Sindh to India in 1947. But a few hundred thousand did not migrate. Non-Muslims in Sindh are around 9% of the total population or half the percentage of Muslims in UP. Have you ever heard of a non-Muslim contesting elections on a general seat and winning too? That’s the disconnect between the two regions and the two states. It is not that Hindus in Pakistan consider politics haram, but political parties think that Hindu candidates are not halal enough for their pious voters.
3 Surge in church foreclosures (San Francisco Chronicle) A growing number of religious fellowships around the US may lose its house of worship to foreclosure. "More and more churches are facing this problem," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition civil rights advocacy group. "Churches are full of members who lost jobs, who face home foreclosures themselves," Jackson said. "Church is their place of refuge. If the refuge closes, they have no place to go." Financial issues span denominations but often are most acute for small to mid-size evangelical churches that are relatively new and are located in areas hard hit by the economic downturn. They are not unlike struggling homeowners: When the economy was booming, some churches took on extra debt to expand, rehabilitate or move to larger spaces. Risky lending fueled the situation.
4 James Cameron touches deepest ocean point (BBC) Hollywood director James Cameron has returned to the surface after plunging nearly 11km (seven miles) down to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. He made the solo descent in a submarine called "Deepsea Challenger", taking over two hours to reach the bottom. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, before a speedy ascent back to the surface. His craft was kitted out with cameras and lights so he could film the deep. This is only the second manned expedition to the ocean's deepest depths - the first took place in 1960.
The earlier descent was made by US Navy Lt Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard. They spent about 20 minutes on the ocean floor but their landing kicked up silt, meaning their view was obscured. Cameron spent the last few years working in secret with his team of engineers to design and build the craft, which weighs 11 tonnes and is more than 7m (23ft) long. He describes it as a "vertical torpedo" that slices through the water allowing him a speedy descent.
5 Repeat divorces on the rise (Straits Times) A small but rising number of Singapore couples are seeing their marriages crumble repeatedly. The number of men and women who have been divorced at least twice has quadrupled over a 20-year period, and experts expect this rising trend to continue. In 2010, 213 men in civil divorces had been divorced before - almost four times more than the 59 such men in 1990. These men made up 3.9% of all men in civil divorces in 2010, up from 2.7% in 1990. The number of women divorced at least twice is not far behind, going by Department of Statistics data.
6 Siddis: Karnataka’s Indian-African tribe (The Wall Street Journal) Siddis descend from a group believed to have migrated from Africa to India about 400 years ago. Many of them live in forests, on which they depend for their livelihoods. Although theories vary, with some anthropologists saying Siddis have been in India since ancient times, most agree they were brought to India from coastal Africa by Portuguese merchants, who sold them as slaves and servants to Indian rulers, along with horses and cattle.
7 Messi v/s Pele (The Wall Street Journal) Every couple of weeks, it seems, Lionel Messi does something stupendous. Last week it was his hat trick against Granada that made him Barcelona's all-time leading scorer. Earlier this month, it was his unprecedented five-goal Champions League game. But how does he compare to the greatest players ever?
The principal argument against Messi is his—and his team's—performance in international play. With Messi, the Argentine national team has never been past the quarterfinal in the World Cup or Copa América. The Brazilian legend Pelé, by contrast, won the World Cup three times, while Diego Maradona—Messi's countryman and former national-team coach—almost single-handedly led Argentina to a world title in 1986.
Pele Maradona Messi
Games 1,362 583 385
Goals 1,281 292 257
Scoring rate 0.94 0.50 0.67
8 Mob and the minister (The Times of India) Manoje Nath, one of Bihar's senior-most Indian Police Service officers, explains how it makes sense for the mafia and the politician to coexist. And why the mob boss is often rewarded with a party ticket: We just cannot wish away the mafia. And there are so many of them. The resource mafia -- illegally exploiting coal, timber, sand and even wild life -- depredates our environment. The development mafia -- bagging contracts for roads, bridges, railway lines -- takes away from us the fruits of planned growth. Then there's the land mafia, education mafia, health mafia, electricity mafia, cooperative mafia -- one could go on and on. These decentralised dictatorships mediate a host of functions of the state.
We do not find anything unnatural about it. Because we have come to accept the political culture wherein a politician is expected to provide avenues for his caste men and cronies for looting the state. Why are we reaping such a bountiful harvest of mafias? The answer must lead us to the nature of our politics which has now completely rid itself of its ideological baggage. In the absence of passion in the field of politics the pursuit of political power is less about mobilisation and more about managerial enterprise. In an environment where the political tenure is short and uncertain, a brutish and nasty mafia is the obvious mode of entrepreneurship. After all, has it not been said that the mafia is illegal capitalism, capitalism is legal mafia.
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