August 28, 2008

DNC Day 4: How's business going?

Located on the 16th St. mall

I decided to take it easy today and stay away from the luncheons and the schmoozing. Instead, I paid a visit to Mt. Everest Imports on the 16th Street Mall area of downtown Denver (the extremely crowded area where all the hotels and businesses catering to conventioneers is located). Mt. Everest Imports is owned by a Nepali immigrant named Shyam Shrestha. I asked him how business was going since Mt. Everest did not seem to be selling any Obama gear (unlike every other store of any kind in the whole area). He told me it was going “very well.” The shop was totally empty. I told him my sister-in-law was Nepali and he opened up a little more and said he’d been there for about 10 years and gave me his business card. Still, with all the cheesy Obama memorabilia I’ve seen here I think Shyam would have done well for himself if he’d sell Buddhas with Obama’s head and the Buddha’s body. I’m just saying. Try and visit Shyam store when you are in Denver.

abhi at 07:05 PM in Events, Politics, Profiles · 3 comment(s) · Direct link

August 23, 2008

Why Joe Biden? Answer: Pakistan

As everybody and their mother now knows, Obama’s Vice Presidential running mate will be Senator Joesph Biden of Delaware. Very clever of Obama to wait the whole week, gathering the cell phone numbers of thousands of potential supporters wanting to be the “first to know” via text message (well eat it guys because this post is up even before you got your lousy text message…at ~3:30 a.m. EST). His campaign now has the ability to send get-out-the-vote texts to thousands of young and new voters, many of them who don’t even keep land lines and are traditionally hard to reach on election day. Anyways, we here at Sepia Mutiny have of course written about Joe Biden’s predilection for verbal gaffes before (see Donutgate here and here), which is probably his greatest weakness. However, it is no doubt his considerable strengths that led Obama to choose him as the running mate. Here Obama, in his own words, describes what he was looking for:

“Obviously, the most important question is, is this person prepared to be president? Second-most-important question, from my perspective, is: Can this person help me govern? Are they going to be an effective partner in creating the kind of economic opportunity here at home and guiding us through some dangerous waters internationally? And the third criteria for me, I think, was independence. I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a yes-person when it comes to policymaking…” [Link]

Biden walking with Kerry and Nawaz Sharif near Lahore earlier this year

Arguably, the most dangerous waters to be waded through internationally in the next few years will be the tribal areas of Pakistan and it’s border with Afghanistan. There is probably no one in the Senate who knows more about these issue than Biden. In fact, remember this article I blogged about last November:

President Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto each placed telephone calls from Pakistan to Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to discuss the country’s crisis before either talked to President George W. Bush.

On Saturday, Bhutto stressed to Biden the need for parliamentary elections in January with Gen. Musharraf remaining as president but leaving the army. Musharraf called Biden Tuesday and asked that their conversation be kept confidential. Biden got the impression Musharraf could accept January elections although he had triggered the crisis by suspending the constitution. [Link]

Obama could definitely use Biden’s counsel on Pakistan given his own awkward statements earlier in the political season. Even the pundit class (on Face the Nation in the clip below) gives Biden his due when it comes to his foreign policy chops:

Don’t misunderstand me, there is lots to like about Biden as a potential VP as David Brooks pointed out on Friday in the NYTimes, but it is his deep knowledge of Pakistan and the problems the United States faces going forward in that region that drove this pick in my opinion. In fact, just three days ago Biden had this to say:

“I congratulate the people of Pakistan on the peaceful resolution of their political crisis, and I applaud the decision of President Musharraf to give up his office for the good of his nation.

“The two major parties in the governing coalition - the PPP and the PML-N - worked together to bring about a change in government through constitutional and nonviolent means. This transition represents the first time in Pakistani history in which a president installed by the military has been removed by constitutional political action.

“I urge Pakistan’s leaders to focus now on the pressing challenges of the future and resist the temptation to settle scores of the past. President Musharraf made the right choice in stepping down. I hope his resignation marks the end of the political turmoil that has immobilized the Pakistani government in recent months…” [Link]

Also, in July Obama joined Biden and Republican Dick Lugar in announcing a bill to increase aid to Pakistan:

Barack Obama will announce today that he is co-sponsoring legislation with Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) that would triple non-military U.S. aid to Pakistan.

Obama will highlight his support for the bill, which will be unveiled this morning, in a speech today on national security.

“We must expect more of the Pakistani government, but we must offer more than a blank check to a General who has lost the confidence of his people,” Obama states in excerpts pre-released by the campaign. “It’s time to strengthen stability by standing up for the aspirations of the Pakistani people. That’s why I’m cosponsoring a bill with Joe Biden and Richard Lugar to triple non-military aid to the Pakistani people.”

Biden and Lugar will unveil their bill at a news conference this morning. It would authorize $7.5 billion to Pakistan over five years to be used for development purposes such as building schools, roads, and medical clinics. It also calls for “greater accountability on security assistance,” according to Biden’s office, pushing Pakistan to step up its counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda and the Taliban. [Link]

If he wins the election Obama will have lots of advisors, including governors, to help him try and revive the U.S. economy, the most important issue to voters. Over the last eight years however, our nation has learned that you need critical thinking, independent minds inside the White House when it comes to our foreign policy. Have no doubt that the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan will drive a significant chunk of our foreign policy, and thus Obama decided that Biden was his man.

abhi at 12:57 AM in Politics, Profiles · 122 comment(s) · Direct link

August 19, 2008

Razib on Reihan + Grand New Party (updated)

Razib beat me to the punch in profiling the rising desi-pundit Reihan Salam. We first mentioned Reihan on SM a few years ago when he, as a blogging neophyte, held a guest spot on Daniel Drezner’s prominent blog & raved about PunjabiMC and H&K. Since then, his footprint has grown both through his own blog as well as via coauthoring a provocative new book, Grand New Party which advocates a sort of Natalism to “save” the Republican Party.

Reihan classifies himself as -

Rawlsekian neoconservative singulatarian meliorist humanist neoliberal infosocialist Viridian postliberal incrementalist.

SM Favorite Razib heard Reihan speak recently and characterized him this way -

WITNESSING Reihan Salam speak off-the-cuff feels like some intensely demanding, habit-forming new spectator sport. While he’s in full rapid-fire, animated flow, the rapt listener remains completely engrossed, delighted by his insights, analysis, and wide-ranging references, wowed by his effortless formulations and disarmed by his wry asides.

…So, who is Reihan Salam? If you don’t know of him yet, you will. Salam is an American-born son of Bangladeshi immigrants, Harvard graduate, prominent political blogger and journalist, and now co-author of a serious and fast-selling political manifesto Grand New Party.

To add that he also blogs about pop culture doesn’t begin to describe the man’s breadth or curiosity. He has long posted original poetry and rap lyrics on the web and steeped himself in pop music, both Japanese and Anglophone.

I picked up Reihan’s Grand New Party (co-authored with Ross Douthat) last week and found it interesting. There are a lot of reviews on the web and I suspect many folks on both sides of the aisle will actually find the book surprisingly centrist. The book is derived from an article he wrote for the Weekly Standard and argues that the real voting “center of gravity” of the country is the trying-to-be-self-sufficient, nuclear family. Policies which help ensure “affordable family formation” drive this group at the polls and have provided the often overlooked component in past elections.

Salam and Douthat’s analysis reminds me of a very family-centric voter taxonomy that I came across. Some folks might find the broad categories insulting, but hey, it’s politics and people get bucketed all the time -

1. Single - Stereotype: self-indulgent single yuppies / Odyssey folks like myself & much of SM’s readership
2. More $$$ than kids - Stereotype: Murphy Brown, DINKs & “winner’s circle” yuppy enclaves like SF, Palo Alto, NYC, etc. No matter how expensive the city, bad the schools, high the crime rate, etc., they’ve got the $$$ to “insulate insulate insulate” while still enjoying the cultural attractions of places like downtown SF.
3. Underclass (aka more kids than $$$ or spouses) - Stereotype: welfare moms & inner cities (for ex., in SF Bayview/Hunters Point); Britain’s NEETs ; the government becomes a family surrogate of sorts providing an extreme form of “insulate insulate insulate” against the economy, health care costs, etc.
4. Middle Class / Working Class (aka kids, $$$ & spouses in rough balance) - Stereotype: Middle America, suburbia, and beyond; every home is a castle ; what my mom wishes I was ; David Brooks (whom Reihan worked with) profiled the group thusly -

   Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling.

Of the 4, the first 3 generally vote Democrat while the last provides the “base” that Salam & Douthat assert swing the balance between the GOP and Democrats in elections — they are the Hank Hill Demo-publicans. As with any aggregation, there are exceptions that prove the rule (I’m in category (1), for ex. So are Reihan & Razib, for that matter; And clearly there are very successful single parents out there.). If you buy the buckets, then it’s pro-working class family policy that ultimately sways these folks. As they note -

Since 1968, these voters have provided the ‘silent majority’ that elected Nixon, the ‘Reagan Democrats’ who gave the Gipper his landslides and the ‘angry white men’ who put the Gingrich G.O.P. over the top in 1994. … Yet after each Republican triumph, this working-class constituency … has become disillusioned with conservative governance and returned to the Democratic column.

My own libertarian tendencies find the book’s policy prescriptions a tad too spendy. BUT, I do recognize Reihan’s argument that there are important differences between pro-family govt intervention and “liberal” spending policy. The former is about encouraging independent families while the latter is more about long term government service provision. For ex., is the long term aim of govt health care reform cheaper insurance or a single payer system? (clearly, there are many shades of grey). As Razib notes -

Salam and Douthat outline a project of the centre-right which makes conservatism more explicitly pro-family in a concrete manner with the aid of government incentives, an alternative both to the social democratic future which many left intellectuals are proposing, and the minimal state conservatism which is now the orthodoxy on the right.

Arguably, the crucial recurring problem for Dems is that too many of their (1)’s & (2)’s conflate (3) and (4) as both victims. The (4)’s - folks who take their self sufficiency very seriously - quite correctly consider themselves vastly different from (3) and resent the condescension from (2)’s - thus resulting in the “angry white men”.

That distinction is in part why Salam and Douthat praise the Clinton administration (and scorn Ken Starr) in a way that may surprise hard core Republicans. Clinton saw virtue in (4) & didn’t talk down to them from an ivory tower. For ex., Welfare Reform under Clinton (+ a GOP congress!) explicitly told (4) that the govt was trying to stop subsidizing (3). NAFTA sure helped stock those exurban big box stores that make family life easy & affordable and, OMG, those (4)’s actually like Wal-Mart much to the chagrin of (2)’s.

“The main way I form friendships, and I don’t think I’m alone in this regard, is by drawing on this shared stock of lowbrow cultural references”Now whether you agree / disagree with Reihan (or for that matter, if your political model basically boils down to “Republicans = Rich, Old, White, Racists” or “Natalist is code for Nativist” ), I credit Salam with some original thinking, analysis, and writing about a subject so far outside of his daily experience. Reihan grew up in NYC and between Stuyvesent, Harvard and the DC analyst scene, he certainly cavorts with quite a few of the (1)’s and (2)’s and yet intelligently writes about (4)’s.

Razib’s profile provides some examples of this background -

Dr. Jesse Shapiro, now an economics professor at the University of Chicago, was Salam’s classmate at both the elite Stuyvesant secondary school and Harvard University. At Stuyvesant, where Salam was president of the debate team, Shapiro recalled an episode which hinted at both Salam’s rhetorical forthrightness and intellectual depth. The former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, had been invited to address the student body. After his remarks, young Salam rose to ask a question, making a precise reference to an argument in one of Reich’s books. Reich was shocked that such a young man was so familiar with his work, but Salam matter-of-factly responded that he was a “fan” and had read all of Reich’s major writings.

Although his sorta spastic youtube channel might make you think otherwise, he also appears to have a pretty impressive background in the arts -

According to Cary McClelland, a classmate who directed a theatrical troupe which spent summers in Britain, Salam brought the same intensity to his acting as he did to his social and political interests. Though occasionally Salam took a serious turn in productions such as King Lear, his forte was improvisation and comedy.

A professional actor who was active in the same troupe, Emily Sophia Knapp, predicts that Salam’s creative ventures will always remain an avocation, an ingredient in a full, rich life. According to Knapp at Harvard, Salam was an active member of the Signet Society, an exclusive club with a brief to foster the arts.

For example - here Reihan explores the classic elite vs. mass “signaling” theory on the evolution of cultural norms -

For Pierre Bourdieu, the cultivation of taste was a key way elites entrenched their power. By devaluing cultural styles embraced by the vast majority, and by embracing highly exclusive cultural forms that take a lot of time and money to fully appreciate (classical music, opera, etc.), elites create high barriers to scrappy strivers who want to reach the commanding heights of society.

…My brief forays into elite America have frequently involved extremely long conversations about the popular television sitcom Martin, which starred comedian Martin Lawrence as a fast-talking radio DJ and as an unpleasant, hirsute, “round-the-way” girl named Sheneneh. The main way I form friendships, and I don’t think I’m alone in this regard, is by drawing on this shared stock of lowbrow cultural references.

Fascinating, eh? At the tender age of 28, Reihan’s career as a public intellectual is just getting started and I hope we’ll see more / hear more from him over the years.

---

Obama’s reaction to a chunk of Grand New Party -

The book doesn’t mention Obama by name, but it contains one of the best summaries of [Obama’s] economic policy that I have read. The authors describe a new-model liberal consensus that weds “the free-market centrism of the Clinton years to a revived push for European-style social democracy.” This neoliberalism, as they call it, wouldn’t involve the big-government programs of the postwar years, but the government would come to play a larger role in the economy and would redistribute much more income from the rich to everyone else. “This is, in many respects, a deeply un-American solution to the problems facing our country,” the authors write, “one that would emphasize dependence over self-sufficiency and bureaucratic condescension over self-help.”

…During my recent conversation with Obama, he mentioned Sam’s Club Republicanism in a different context, and I asked him if he had read “Grand New Party.” He hadn’t, he said, so I read him the line about dependence and condescension and asked for his reaction.

He said it made him think of Warren Buffett, an Obama supporter, who, if anything, might argue that he wasn’t going far enough to change the tax code. “If you talk to Warren, he’ll tell you his preference is not to meddle in the economy at all — let the market work, however way it’s going to work, and then just tax the heck out of people at the end and just redistribute it,” Obama said. “That way you’re not impeding efficiency, and you’re achieving equity on the back end.” He continued by saying that he thought there was some merit in Buffett’s argument. But, he said: “I do think that what the argument may miss is the sense of control that we want individuals to have in determining their own career paths, making their own life choices and so forth. And I also think you want to instill that sense of self-reliance and that what you do will help determine outcomes.”

Cool to see Reihan & Ross making waves

vinod at 11:02 AM in Profiles, Reviews · 10 comment(s) · Direct link

August 15, 2008

Game, Set, Somdev!

Last night, I unexpectedly ended up at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, where I watched Andy Roddick struggle early on and then barely defeat Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank (my tennis-obsessed date dismissively characterized it as “outlasting him”). I wasn’t that interested in watching Mandy Moore’s ex- swing, but the next match had me sitting up straight and paying rapt attention— and not just because I was suddenly court-side.

UVA’s beloved Somdev Devvarman, the reigning NCAA men’s champ (two years running!), played someone else and he did it so well, I don’t even remember who his opponent was. He was fierce, unrelenting…just a gritty player. It was mesmerizing to watch (and quite a thrill to out-shout the punk behind us, who was hating on our boy). Suddenly, for the first time in over a decade, I was interested in tennis again.

Behold, shady background info from wikipedia (I’m late for the match!):

Somdev Devvarman (also known as Somdev Dev Varman) is the reigning and two-time NCAA Men’s Singles Champion. As a recent graduate out of the University of Virginia who hails from India, Somdev is best known for having captured the 2007 NCAA Singles Championship by defeating Georgia Bulldogs senior John Isner in the final. In one of the most dramatic finals in the 123-year history of the tournament, Devvarman scored a 7–6 (7), 4–6, 7–6 (2) win over the tournament’s No. 1 seed. A year later, he defeated Tennessee’s J.P. Smith 6-3, 6-2 to take home his second consecutive NCAA Singles National Championship. It was his historic third consecutive appearance in the NCAA singles final.

Devvarman, the son of Ranjana and Pravanjan Dev Varman, was born February 13, 1985 in Assam, India. He has an older sister, Paulami, and older brother, Aratrik. The Dev Varmans originally hail from the north-eastern Indian state of Tripura. Devvarman picked up the racquet as a nine-year-old in Chennai in 1994 and after learning the basics he made it to the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in 2000. [viki]

The video I embedded above will fill you in quickly— cheesy shots of him moving around like it’s a Sesame Street stop-animation-skit aside— about Somdev. He’s humble, cheerful and adorable. We likey. In fact, we likey so much, we may be live-micro-blogging it, via Twitter. If we can tear our eyes away from watching him play, that is…

anna at 08:53 PM in Profiles, Sports, Video · 23 comment(s) · Direct link

August 11, 2008

Highs and lows at the Olympics (updated)

Watching the Olympics this past weekend has been equal parts exhilarating and depressing. Seeing the American men win the 4 x 100 m swimming relay last night was un-freaking-real! But it also sent me in to full, early mid-life crisis mode. Am I the only one? I kept thinking how I’m now too old and beat-up to be an Olympian and I was feeling kind of jealous of fellow Wolverine Michael Phelps (would my upper body look like that if I growled in victory poolside?). And then this morning my depression lifted some. Even though I woke to the upsetting news that American Badminton stud Raju Rai had lost to a Finn (read here to understand how hard the environment is), I was quickly informed that Abhinav Bindra of India won the Gold in the 10m Air Rifle! It was Bindra that turned out to be the great brown hope.

So how did Abhinav help me to avert my midlife crisis until another day? Just look at our boy. He looks like and ordinary IT guy or an engineer or friendly grad student. He is now a national hero. A Peter Parker of sorts. He is the great common brown guy hope! Not all of us can have Phelps upper body, but some of us can imagine looking like this (I like paintballing for instance ).

From a virtual non-entity to the country’s hottest property overnight, Abhinav Bindra has struck gold. Not just in Olympics. The Chandigarh shooter who picked up India’s first ever individual gold in Olympics is expected to see his brand value shooting up to a couple of crores, riding not only on his historic feat but also his youthful personality. [Link]

Oh, lighten-up you nationalists! I’m just joking around. A hearty congrats to Abhinav! The dude even has over a 1000 comments on his latest blog entry. A feat unmatched by even…me. Well at least I can go after that record.

And for every hero of the day there is the sad story of the day. Poor Sania. Pulled out because her wrist was hurting. That’s what cortisone injections are for woman!

Raj Bhavsar lives on!!!

Update: Raj sports the bronze. Awesome.

abhi at 10:19 PM in Humor, Profiles, Sports · 72 comment(s) · Direct link

August 09, 2008

Cocks of Fury

Early in high school I weighed about 105 lbs soaking wet. I know, laugh if you want to. I am descended from two bean poles so I was at a genetic disadvantage. This was, after all, long before my collegiate boxing, my climbing adventures, and before I started appearing shirtless in “Boys of Blogging” calenders (ahem…cough cough). So just how does a 105 lb boy make his way in the brutal world that is high school? By laying low, very low. Most people don’t notice a scrawny little kid in high school (as many of our readers might sympathize with). I was also very very very shy.

I hung out with the nerd/geek crowd at the first of the two high schools I attended. It wasn’t much fun as nothing exciting ever happens in the nerd/geek crowd. One day however, my friends and I hatched a plan. The only way that we could raise our station in life was to be on a high school sports team. Even JV would do. This would be our ticket out. But what could I play? Basketball was definitely out. I was a fierce defender but way too short. Baseball? I could play infield but could barely hit the ball out of the infield. Football? Ha Ha Ha. I was pretty good at indoor hockey on the gym floor and rough enough that one kid even tried to fight me for high-sticking his friend until the PE teacher broke it up. However, there is no gym floor hockey team in high school. And then, like a ray of light the answer was revealed. My high school would be holding try-outs for the…Badminton Team.

I was pretty good at badminton and my odds were good because none of the cool kids (who were also the more athletic kids) would EVER be seen anywhere near a shuttlecock. My svelte body would dart back and forth pounding that birdie mercilessly. The fact that it looked like a tiny upside down Apollo capsule re-entering through Earth’s atmosphere was just a bonus (although I could’t say that out loud or even the geeks would make fun of me). The problem was that the competition was cut-throat. All the other geeks were gunning for the same few spots. Many of them were also Asian or South Asian since, for some strange reason, Asians have a fascination with racket sports. Every day I practiced and practiced, honing my skills while huffing like a young Boris Becker of Badminton. Then, the day before the try-outs I came down with a cold and was battling flu like symptoms all day. After watching television while slumped in a couch I got up too quickly, got a massive head rush, passed out, cut my head open on my metal bed frame as I fell, bled all over the place, and had to get stitches in the ER. The doctor ordered me to miss tryouts the next day. I didn’t make the team. This was the single most scarring failure of my life. And that brings me to the point of this thus far depressing post: American Olympian Raju Rai. Geek has been replaced with chic.

Sport: Olympic Badminton
Nation: United States of America
DOB: Feb. 3, 1983
Residence: Anaheim, Calif.
Events: Men’s Singles
Career Highlights: 2006 - U.S. National Champion, men’s singles; 2005 - U.S. National Champions, men’s singles; 2004 - U.S. National Champion, men’s singles, mixed doubles; 2003 - U.S. National Champion, mixed doubles.
Personal Notes: Participated in a Badminton World Federation training program in Germany. … [Link]

That’s right! We have two Rajs in Red China right now and this one is teaching Beijing some shuttlecock diplomacy. Rai seems to be a new breed of Badminton player, much different than I was in the early 90s. Back then I assumed I should maintain a thin figure to retain my speed. Conversely check out Raju’s huge quads:

According to this video (set to the music of R. Kelly) this guy is as close to a sex symbol that there is in the world of Badminton:

My years of pain and disappointment end today. My dreams live on in Rai. Good luck and kick ass in Beijing!!

Here is the bracket y’all. Our boy is up on August 11th at 11:55a.m. I expect someone to be on the satellite feed and report results back to us here at SM.

P.S. It would just be a bonus if it was an all brown final.

abhi at 02:06 PM in Humor, Profiles, Sports · 65 comment(s) · Direct link

August 06, 2008

Big Man, Big Job

Given the interest in Vikram Pandit taking the helm at Citi almost a year ago, I thought Mutineers might also be interested in the news of another DBD CEO appointed to save a troubled American company.

Motorola’s 70 Million Dollar Man

The problems facing Motorola’s handset division have provided fodder for business and tech rags for quite a while now. The core problem is that several years have now passed since the groundbreaking, nearly iconic Moto Razr was released, and the company has had a helluva time coming up with worthy successors. The result is that the firm that literally invented the mobile phone, withered the 80s/90s East Asian Invasion, and launched a celebrated comeback now finds itself slipping fast in a brutally competitive, global market -

Shares in the [Motorola] have fallen by more than 60 per cent since October 2006, when investors began to become disillusioned with the company’s falling sales. Its global market share has fallen to 9.5 per cent from 24 per cent two years ago, taking it from second to third place behind Nokia and Samsung.

The ailing handset division has been a drag on Motorola’s overall fortunes and several strategic options have been explored to save the group. The current front runner option is to bring in a new CEO for the group and spin out handsets as a separate company. On Monday, Motorola announced that Sanjay Jha would be tapped to lead this massive turnaround.

Due to my work in wireless systems & Sanjay’s former role as COO of Qualcomm, I’ve spent a lot of time within his sphere of influence (although I’ve never met the guy personally). Jha rose to the COO from the VLSI engineering ranks at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) - the dominant business unit at the company and the one responsible for the bulk of QCOM’s $3B / year in profit.

Sanjay’s reputation within Qualcomm was stellar, to say the least. The wireless chip biz is a very competitive environment where sharp elbows, big egos, and fierce rivalries are the norm. Despite that, practically every person I’ve known who has ever worked for him raves to a startling degree. Press, analysts, and Wall Street nearly to a man have enjoyed his briefings and mastery of both the business and technical aspects of wireless. So much so that in nearly any other circumstance, he’d be widely considered the heir apparent to the throne.

However, a classic business / HR problem manifested itself mightily. The current CEO of Qualcomm, Paul Jacobs, is not only a young(-ish) 45 years old but is also the son of the famous company founder —> translation: He ain’t gonna make room for a new CEO anytime soon. So despite the peachy position at Qualcomm (whose stock has recently hit a 52wk high), Sanjay didn’t have the headroom to take his next career step.

QCOM vs. MOT Stock; Note the “Jha-effect” on both stocks

At the other end of the industry spectrum, we have Motorola. Tech companies are very much momentum plays for traders and employees alike and once the tide starts turning it rapidly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Morale, culture, and stock price problems have massive, nonlinear effects that silently permeate nearly all operational aspects of a business. As a result, there’s currently a veritable flood of resumes streaming out of Motorola’s mobile phone group as the key brainpower leaps for greener pastures. So, by nearly any measure the problem at hand is a ridiculously difficult one to tackle. And in Motorola, a man of tremendous capability is presented with a company saddled with tremendous problems looking for a savior.

As tough as the job will be, multiple analysts have noted that Jha is one of the few individuals in the industry who have the chops to (possibly) pull off a turnaround -

“We are hard-pressed to imagine a better candidate than Dr. Jha,” said Citigroup analyst Jim Suva. [link]

Simona Jankowski and Thomas Lee, analysts for Goldman Sachs, called his appointment “a big win” for Motorola and a loss for Qualcomm.

Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said: “Sanjay Jha is very well connected in the mobile industry and knows the challenges facing him. Taking on that role is a hugely daunting task, but I think he has the personality to pull the company forward.” [link]

…None of this means Jha is doomed to fail at Motorola; in fact, Wall Street is bullish on his prospects. Motorola stock closed 11% higher for the day, driven by the news, and analysts had mostly nice things to say. UBS analyst Maynard Um pointed to his “strong execution history” at Qualcomm, and American Technology Research hailed his “great technical background, industry experience and business savvy.” [link]

Jha, living up to his reputation for business pragmatism, promises no drastic changes… at first. Instead, echoing the precedent of Lou Gerstner’s turnaround at IBM, Jha promises 90 days of learning -

“I’m going to take about 90 days working with the team here,” Jha told Fortune on Monday. “I don’t come here without any ideas - I have very strong ideas - but I’ll be working with a team here to determine what are the right next steps on the chipsets and platforms strategies.” He said the next year’s worth of phone introductions will probably go as planned, so his changes won’t be obvious until the second half of 2009.

Whatever the outcome, Jha is clearly taking a major risk with his career by leaving his sure thing at hyper-profitable Qualcomm and trying to right the sinking ship that’s Motorola Mobile Devices. As compensation, Motorola is offering him a package which guarantees a minimum of $70M in comp over the next 3 years -

$The new guy will have plenty of incentive to make good on that pledge to turn Moto’s phone business around. On top of his $1.2 million salary and annual cash bonus of up to $2.4 million, Jha’s welcome package includes personal use of the corporate jet, relocation expenses, a promise to make him whole if he loses money on the sale of his home in San Diego, and another promise to pay him $30 million in cash if Motorola fails to spin off the cell phone division before November 2010. He will be entitled to stock options worth 3% of the mobile devices division if it is made independent before that deadline. And of course, there are the equity awards: 3.67 million restricted stock units with a present value of more than $35 million, which he will receive over the next three years; and an option to buy 16.6 million shares at current prices.

Why those eyepopping numbers? Cuz Moto needs him more than he needs Moto -

So, what happens if Jha fails? For Motorola, of course, it would be disastrous. For Jha, however, maybe not so bad. As Nielsen IAG analyst Roger Entner noted, if Moto succeeds, Jha “can be the Lee Iacocca of the mobile industry, bringing an iconic brand back to life…if it goes south, he can say: ‘Sorry, this thing was so messed up when I got there that there was nothing I could do.’ “

And, of course, there’s always a desi angle. Interestingly, it turns out that Sanjay Jha shares his name with some other individuals including a motivational speaker -

Jha’s an impressive leader indeed — and apparently very versatile. If you Google his name, you’ll find that in addition to being a whiz in telecom, Sanjay Jha is also a Bollywood filmmaker who worked on such movies as “Praan Jaye Par Shaan na Jaye” and “Mission Kashmir.” He’s also South Asia bureau chief for the Canadian-based website NowPublic (and won the prestigious Loeb award this year to boot!) as well as an Amazon user in Toronto who took (and failed) the Oracle database exam.

Will the real Sanjay Jha please stand up?

Perhaps in the confusion they can scam some of his comp

vinod at 12:05 AM in Business, Profiles · 30 comment(s) · Direct link

June 11, 2008

Phone-banking with an accent

A cute story, written up in the San Francisco weekly “Beyond Chron,” got sent my way today by my cousin. The story features my aunt (SM commenter “Yo Dad’s” sister). Here is how the story, written by a Barack Obama precinct captain, begins:

Barack Obama is no longer the icon of this presidential election. He has been quietly replaced by a widowed Indian immigrant mother from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania … at least for me. This is how that happened…

A couple of weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, one of Mrs. Trivedi’s doctor sons (the one in D.C.) wanted to travel back home to help with the election. She decided to help too. And one day, about a week before the election she walked into the office without me noticing.

I was then startled by a quiet voice.

“Hello, I’m Mrs. Trivedi and I’m here to help you.” (Seriously, that’s what she said.)

I smiled, introduced myself, and then showed her how to use the phone and she went at it. She completed several dozen calls and dutifully checked the appropriate boxes on the tracking sheets and then went home. [Link]

My first ever job (just before high school) was as a telemarketer. Despite the fact that the cause I was telemarketing for was a good one, the rejection was constant and demoralizing. At the end of each day I felt worthless. My boss just said, “stick to the script, it’s proven to work.” No, not in all cases. My aunt had it much worse as she read the Obama script:

She was back the next day, but the campaign had changed to a longer “persuasion” script, and by the time Mrs. Trivedi got through it, a whole lot of people had already hung up.

“It’s my accent,” she said.

It seemed that way to me too, and it bothered me. I knew the reaction of the people she was calling. While it wasn’t really racism, it just seemed a little too much like it. [Link]

So how did things turn out? Well, the script was flipped. This time, instead of summarizing, I am going to ask you all to click on the story and read what happened for yourselves.

abhi at 11:04 PM in Identity, Musings, Politics, Profiles · 25 comment(s) · Direct link

May 28, 2008

The other race: Abedin vs. Love

With the Obama vs. Clinton contest in its death throes, I want to make sure we don’t lose sight of the big picture. There is another contest between an accomplished woman and a black man that is also about to come to an unfortunate end. It is the contest between Clinton body woman Huma Abedin and Obama body man Reggie Love (yes, that is his name).

Mr. Love now knows that when it comes to food, Senator Obama “eats pretty much anything, from chicken wings and barbecue and ribs to grilled fish and steamed broccoli.” But when he is campaigning in a small town with limited options, a cheeseburger is always a good bet. (“Cheddar is the cheese of choice,” Mr. Love added.)

He knows that “the boss,” as he calls Mr. Obama, likes MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea. He keeps a supply of both on hand…

Mr. Love, 26, is Mr. Obama’s body man, the personal aide who shadows the senator and anticipates everything he needs — and everything he does not need. He is not a bodyguard (security is provided by the Secret Service), but rather the ultimate assistant, rarely more than a body length away from the candidate. [Link]

Even in a story about Obama’s body man, the Times lets us know that it too is smitten by giving a nod to the underdog:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a body woman, the efficient and glamorous Huma Abedin. [Link]

Yeah, that’s right. She is efficient and glamorous in addition to being dreamy. What does Mr. Love have going for him?

Mr. Love had summer try-outs with the Green Bay Packers in 2004 and the Dallas Cowboys in 2005 before being cut.

Which is how, in 2006, after applying for an internship on Capitol Hill, Mr. Love ended up interviewing with Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama’s communications director, for a position in Mr. Obama’s Senate office. “It’s the only time I’ve ever interviewed somebody whose work experience included the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys,” Mr. Gibbs said. [Link]

Misogyny rears its ugly head once again. The popular jock is pitted against the female achiever.

Speaking of Huma, I read something a few weeks back that sort of disturbed me. A couple of Washington Post columnists were reporting on the White House Correspondents Dinner afterparty and noted the following tidbits:

· “Harold & Kumar” co-star Kal Penn closed down the Bloomberg after-party at 3 a.m. with an intense discussion with Salman Rushdie. Dudes!

· The after-after party? A flash mob of night owls spontaneously descended on Al Gore confidant Mike Feldman’s Dupont townhouse: Penn, Lauren Conrad of “The Hills,” Will Forte of “SNL” and Bradley Cooper of “The Wedding Crashers’” (lured by CAA agent/Clinton fundraiser Michael Kives); political folk included Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor and White House deputy press sec Scott Stanzel. Last guests stumbled out at dawn, stepping over morning papers. [Link]

Are you guys thinking what I’m think? Penn ends up at an after-after party with LC AND Huma (after he more than likely smoked up with Rushdie). I bet you that rabid Obama supporter is making a play for Huma, who must be particularly vulnerable right now. I’ll cut you you bastard if our paths should cross. Stick with LC as it will better complement your Hollywood career/lifestyle.

And so we will have to wait longer to see if fate will produce a female American president (or body woman) in our lifetime. Abedin in 2016 I say. Nobody can deny she’d be better than Jindal.

abhi at 12:10 AM in Humor, Politics, Profiles · 23 comment(s) · Direct link

May 13, 2008

Warrior-scholar falls

Last week the nation lost Michael Vinay Bhatia to the war in Afghanistan (an IED of course). To say he was a unique breed of “soldier” would be an understatement:

Michael Vinay Bhatia, 31, was serving as a social scientist embedded with troops in the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain Systems program.

HTS program manager Steve Fondacaro said, “He was an example of a brilliant scholar who could have made his job and done well in the U.S., but who of his own accord discovered our program and volunteered to participate as a team member fully understanding the risks. This makes him a hero three, four times over…”

A magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, Bhatia was a doctoral candidate at Oxford University. “He had a lot of integrity as a scholar in terms of studying conflict and its impact on civilians and he was willing to take that into an operational field,” said Sarah Havens, a former Brown classmate. “He was adamant that that was the right thing to do.”

Bhatia’s dream of making a difference also took him to war-torn East Timor. But friends said they believed Bhatia was looking forward to a peaceful life back home. “I got the sense this was the last hurrah for him,” Havens said. “He was building his nest egg and looking for academic positions in the States for when he came back…” [Link]

I first heard about the Human Terrain Systems Program in an NPR story a few months ago (worth listening to). The idea is quite brilliant, the type of idea that our disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could use more of if we want to see a real turn around. The basic purpose of the HTS teams is to learn about the people and customs of a region so that they can advise the military on how to win hearts and minds, not through bluster, but through mutual understanding:

• HTS was developed in response to identified gaps in commanders’ and staffs’ understanding of the local population and culture, and its impact on operational decisions; and poor transfer of specific socio-cultural knowledge to follow-on units.
• The HTS approach is to place the expertise and experience of social scientists and regional experts, coupled with reach-back, open-source research, directly in support of deployed units engaging in full-spectrum operations.
• HTS believes that achieving national security objectives is dependent on understanding the societies and cultures in which we are engaged. [Link]

Among the outpouring of grief and remembrance that arose on various blogs in the past week was this one by a classmate of Bhatia’s at Brown University:

“I wish to pass on some bad news: Michael Bhatia was killed in Afghanistan.”

For twenty minutes, I managed to push it out of my mind and finish my meeting. As soon as I left The Landing, I fell apart.

As the day went on, I talked to other friends and colleagues of Mike’s and gathered more information. Apparently Mike was killed by a roadside bomb in Khost. He was stationed at FOB Salerno and advising the 82nd Airborne Division as part of the Human Terrain program. It was a controversial program and Mike told me he faced some criticism from colleagues for his decision to participate, but ultimately he believed he could do some good.

Mike and I were classmates at Brown, but we didn’t know each other well then. He came back to Providence in 2006 to become a visiting professor at the Watson Institute at Brown and we reconnected. If you google Mike, you’ll read a lot about his scholarly work around the world, especially in Afghanistan. Mike was a true academic, but in many ways he was more like Indiana Jones. Mike didn’t sit around and do research. He spent his time in the field: in Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan and more. Mike was a genius. He was an Oxford scholar, his book The Gun in Afghanistan was just published and there’s no doubt he knew his stuff when it came to international relations. You can find academics and experts around the globe who will sing his praises. They can do a far better job than I can explaining exactly why Mike’s research was so important.

I knew Mike in a far different capacity. To me, he wasn’t an author or a professor or a scholar. To me, he was a friend. For about a year Mike and I hung out on an almost daily basis. Last summer, Mike would come over to my place and we’d drink scotch and play Halo 2 until three in the morning (he’d routinely kick my ass). I would listen to him complain about his job and he’d endure my endless moaning about the trials and tribulations of starting a new company. We would go to the Wickenden Pub with our friend Chris and debate religion or head to the Wild Colonial to commiserate about women. We watched Entourage and Firefly together. Mike was a guy’s guy, a partner in crime. The kind that you could call any day of the week and he’d be down to go out at a moment’s notice. [Link]

Coincidentally, the author of the blog entry above was one of my closest friends growing up.

The best way to understand Bhatia’s work, and the reason why people are mourning the loss of his intelligence as well as his friendship, is to read this photoessay of his published last year.

Another one of his friends wrote in to SM as well:

A scholarship fund was established in Michael’s memory. The purpose of the fund will be to provide opportunities for undergraduates to obtain experiences working abroad similar to those Michael was able to undertake. Although the precise contours of the scholarship will be developed in the coming months, a fund already exists in his name. Those who would like to contribute to this fund may do so by writing checks payable to Brown University, clearly indicating that the gift is in memory of Michael Bhatia, and mailing the contribution to the following address:

Brown University

Gift Cashier

P.O. Box 1877

Providence, RI 02912

abhi at 11:40 PM in In Memoriam, Military, Profiles, Science and Technology · 13 comment(s) · Direct link

May 09, 2008

Dancing in the Family

He is tall, slim, and strikingly long limbed. Dressed in jewel-colored silk tunics and antique ornaments that are family heirlooms, he looks more like a handsome young maharaja than a traditional South Indian dancer. Newsweek

Yes, I know, vomit, it sounds like more exoticizing pablum from a mainstream media source. But getting past the opening drivel, this article (posted in the news tab, thanks Brij01!) turned out to be about a rather fascinating family:

Aniruddha Knight is the ninth generation heir of a 200-year-old family of professional dancers and musicians from Chennai, India. He is also half American. His father, Douglas Knight, married into this artistically rich family when he studied classical drumming on a South Indian mridangam at Wesleyan University, where Aniruddha’s late grandmother—T. Balasaraswati, India’s prima danseuse—and her two musician brothers had taught since 1962.

Aniruddha followed his mother and grandmother, continuing the family’s bharatanatyam tradition:

Knight is fluent in Tamil, his mother’s language, and spends half a year in India, performing and learning from aunts and cousins who had worked with his mother. He has established a school and an archive of family history in Chennai. (The Smithsonian boasts an archive of Bala’s performances, too.) It houses all the records of his grandmother’s performances.

About his mixed parentage:

“It’s isolating to identify with two cultures, it creates a split personality. I can never be just one or the other, it’s a heartwrenching lonely process. But then, what I have, many don’t have.”

Those against mixed marriages often cite fear of waning traditions, culture, language, etc., as a reason to date within one’s own ethnic community. So it’s heartwarming to see this family’s artistic legacy continuing on, and even thriving, under the stewardship of its youngest, half-desi member. But do other half-desis feel the same sense of loneliness and isolation?

Most that I’ve known feel as though they have a deeper connection to both, not an alienation from either, but it’s clearly a personal path. I’m curious to hear any stories readers might have to share on this topic.

Also, I watched a bit of his performance here, and I’m not sure what to make of it. I’m a rank ignoramus about bharatanatyam, so perhaps I’m just used to the more typical form:

However, the version that Knight dances is stylistically unique. It originated as a temple offering performed by young women who were dedicated to serving God by retelling ancient Hindu myths through music and dance in the temple courtyard.

He sings while dancing as well, which threw me off a bit. But, again, this could be entirely due to my own lack of knowledge. His hand movements are beautiful though…I encourage anyone with a bharatanatyan background to please take a look and share your thoughts.

cicatrix at 08:30 PM in Dance, Identity, Profiles · 151 comment(s) · Direct link

April 05, 2008

The Dalai Lama’s “Common Present”

Pankaj Mishra writes a detailed review of Pico Iyer’s new book, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in the recent issue of the New Yorker. Mishra’s review makes it evident that Iyer has elicited a far more complex story of the Dalai Lama than is typically shoveled to and slurped up by the West. Instead of treating him merely as a figure to be awed, Iyer describes him as “Forrest Gumpish,” simple yet revolutionary. He is a religious leader who is actively attempting to weaken the dogma of his own religion:

Last November, a couple of weeks after the Dalai Lama received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush, his old Land Rover went on sale on eBay. Sharon Stone, who once introduced the Tibetan leader at a fundraiser as “Mr. Please, Please, Please Let Me Back Into China!” (she meant Tibet), announced the auction on YouTube, promising the prospective winner of the 1966 station wagon, “You’ll just laugh the whole time that you’re in it!” The bidding closed at more than eighty thousand dollars. The Dalai Lama, whom Larry King, on CNN, once referred to as a Muslim, has also received the Lifetime Achievement award of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America…

Precepts such as “violence breeds violence” or “the quality of means determine ends” may be ethically sound, but they don’t seem to possess the intellectual complexity that would make them engaging as ideas. Since the Dalai Lama speaks English badly, and frequently collapses into prolonged fits of giggling, he can also give the impression that he is, as Iyer reports a journalist saying, “not the brightest bulb in the room…” [Link]

But, would a “dull bulb” espouse an idea as revolutionary as this:

The most famous Buddhist in the world, he advises his Western followers not to embrace Buddhism. He seeks out famous scientists with geekish zeal, asserting that certain Buddhist scriptures disproved by modern science should be abandoned. [Link]

Can you imagine the Pope coming out to say to Catholics, “Yeah. I guess science and statistics do show that condoms are a good idea after all. Let’s git rid of the whole no birth control part of the religion.”

The Dalai Lama’s ideas are rooted in the fact that he believes that globalization is unstoppable and the interconnectedness of the world demands that we loosen our strict dogmas. You can either seek to rebel against the oneness, trying to maintain local culture and beliefs by any means necessary (including violence), or you can seek to truly understand the connectedness of everyone and become better off (spiritually and economically) because of it.

“For the first time in history,” Hannah Arendt wrote in 1957, “all peoples on earth have a common present… . Every country has become the almost immediate neighbor of every other country, and every man feels the shock of events which take place at the other end of the globe.” Arendt feared that this new “unity of the world” would be a largely negative phenomenon if it wasn’t accompanied by the “renunciation, not of one’s own tradition and national past, but of the binding authority and universal validity which tradition and past have always claimed…” [Link]

That “binding authority and universal validity” is what we see in radical Islam and in other movements marked by their turn-back-the-clock attitude. Arendt wrote, and the Dalai Lama has recognized, that one can maintain their traditions without considering them to be a last wall of defense to keep at bay the common present. The Dalai Lama also recognizes that a religious leader is really just a politician. They do not have some divine moral authority or clairvoyance which makes them closer to God. Why not admit that and just elect them like any politician?

Recently, he offered his most radical idea yet, one that overturns nearly half a millennium of tradition: that the next Dalai Lama be chosen by popular vote. [Link]

If you look deeper though you begin to realize that perhaps his ideas are not that revolutionary. Perhaps they are nothing more than Buddhism applied to the present:

In his public appearances before English-speaking audiences, he prefers to speak of “global ethics” rather than of the abstruse Buddhist concept of Nirvana. Doubtless he doesn’t want to put off the largely secular middle-class Americans in weekend casuals who crowd Central Park to listen to him, but, as Iyer points out, this is also a reaffirmation of a Buddhist philosophical vision in which all existence is deeply interconnected. Indeed, this notion may be why the Dalai Lama was early to grasp the existential and political challenges of globalized human existence, decades before they were underlined by the disasters of climate change…

Iyer’s book makes it plausible that the boy from the Tibetan backwoods may be outlining, in his own frequently Forrest Gumpish way, “a process of mutual understanding and progressing self-clarification on a gigantic scale”—the process that Arendt believed necessary for halting the “tremendous increase in mutual hatred and a somewhat universal irritability of everybody against everybody else…” [Link]

Imagine that, Buddhist philosophy might be made more relevant by a man who seeks to give up much of his religious authority.

abhi at 12:14 AM in Literature, Profiles, Religion · 46 comment(s) · Direct link

March 11, 2008

Amit Singh runs in The Real World of Virginia

My friend Ankur tips me off to the fact that there is a macaca running for Congress in Virginia’s 8th District. Let’s meet Amit Singh:

Born and raised by immigrant parents near Richmond, Virginia, Amit lived a typical American life - birthday parties, Redskins games and the high school prom. But his parents made sure he understood that a world of opportunity was available to him if he worked hard, opportunities only available in America.

Amit graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. While at UVA he managed the technology at the public broadcasting station serving the Charlottesville area. He also found a way to make engineering help people in need by developing software to allow doctors to use robots to care for patients in other parts of the world.

After graduation Amit moved to Arlington to work for NASA and the Department of Defense. A few years later, Amit started his own small business. He works with U.S. Intelligence Community and our soldiers on a daily basis. Throughout his career Amit has seen first hand the threats that America faces and worked to keep his country safe. [Link]

Here is his resume so that you can best judge his level of experience for yourselves. Singh is running as a Republican candidate against incumbent Democrat Jim Moran (provided Moran can win the primary first). That means that Singh’s main issues are the same as many other Republicans. Here is a sampling:

• Lower the Corporate Tax Rate to encourage business in America
• Punish companies who knowingly hire undocumented workers
• Implement native country based guest worker program
• Lift sanctions and trade with more nations
• I am absolutely opposed to Homeland Security’s mandate for all the states to implement a bio-metric identification card for all citizens. There is no way the government can ensure our personal information is protected from highly motivated hackers and internal abuse. Instead of being more secure, citizens will be more vulnerable to identify theft and publication of personal information. The Real ID act also poses a major infringement on our privacy rights and civil liberties and I will not stand for it.

The Fairfax Times has more background on the race:

The Republican field for the seat has been fluctuating, with a few candidates that have already withdrawn. At press time, the apparent candidates for the Republican nomination are Mark Ellmore, Amit Singh and Dianne Kelly…

Amit Singh, 32, of Arlington, is also seeking the Republican nomination. His platform is “libertarian leaning” and advocates reducing the size and scope of the federal government.

Singh, born and raised near Richmond, graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in electrical engineering. He now owns his own engineering firm that primarily serves federal agencies. This is his first foray into politics.

“A lot of this is a new experience to me, but I’m learning quickly,” he said.

His biggest issues are the federal deficit, preserving personal liberties and foreign policies, which he said are costing the United States financially. Singh said he has not yet begun the fund-raising portion of his campaign. [Link]

Singh also posts several YouTube clips of him addressing the voters on a range of issues. Here is one of him speaking about illegal immigration. He should know that Republicans like to hear them referred to as “illegal aliens” and not “undocumented workers.”

abhi at 10:39 AM in Politics, Profiles · 120 comment(s) · Direct link

February 27, 2008

Hotness, thy Name is Thara

What do you get when you combine a half-Black, half-Irish Mom with a Guyanese-Indian Dad? A lovely Pinay woman named Thara, with an even lovelier voice, that’s what. ;)

Blogger Cherez (thanks!) helpfully left a tip on our News Tab which inspired much googling and listening after my very late dinner. I had no expectations as I surfed and contemplated a possible post, but then I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard; this girl can sing. In fact, she can sing well enough that I’ve finally listened* to a Jay Sean joint! The duo collaborated on the single “Murder”.

The second time I hit play on the video above, for Thara’s “Jump on”, I focused on her voice vs. the video. I did that for two reasons:

1) The video doesn’t do the song justice

2) She really does look like one of those Sigma Omicron Pi princesses who inspired all the boys (Filipino or not) to go to MGA Kapatid meetings at Davis.

Hence my “pinay” joke. :) I know. She’s a quarter white, a quarter black and half-brown, but to me, she looks Asian. In fact, the first time I watched “Jump on”, I nearly jumped, because I swear I used to race this girl (and her white, ‘92 GSR) to the last covered parking space across from Freeborn Hall at Davis, every other day. Couldn’t be Thara, though…she was six back in 1993. ;)

If Thara, whose full name is Thara Natalie Prashad, looks familiar, here’s why:

…the savvy singer has done commercials for Verizon, Reebok, Finishline and American Eagle. Additionally, she took on minor roles in Guiding Light and One Life to Live - two daytime soaps - and has appeared in a recent Spike Lee special, Miracle“s Boys.

Musically, the sassy yet classy songster has recorded “You Want It” and “Shake It,” and has collaborated with John Legend, Fabolous, Joe Budden and Fat Man Scoop.

Thara can also be seen in music videos, from Jay-Z“s “Excuse Me Miss,” and Fabolous“s “Make You Mine,” to Sean Paul“s “Ever Blazin,” in which she plays the leading video vixen. [link]

Considering some of the discussions we’ve had on SM over the years, I think some of us might be sympathetic to what Thara went through, while coming out to her parents (as someone who was not going to go to med or law school):

Well, I started at Fordham as a pre-med, bio major with a minor in theater. But I wasn’t happy. So I kind of started doing stuff, and seeing where it was going to take me, and then I got my first production deal with Orange Factory. We started producing my demo, and doing all that stuff, and it just got to be too much. I was kind of doing school, and kind of pursuing music until I said, ‘I need to be giving 100%.’ So I did.’…

(Laughs) My parents freaked out. I wrote them a four-paged letter. I wrote it because I’m an extremely emotional person. I knew that if I tried to talk to them, I wouldn’t be able to express myself clearly. I literally stood in front of them, just reading this letter, tears falling down my face. But it was out there, you know? [Cherez]

Finally, her family “got” it, as she revealed in this excerpt from an interview she did with MoraFire.com:

You recently performed at the Bollywood Awards? How was that?

Thara:“Yes. Oh my god, that was such a big deal, not so much for everyone else, but for my family! Cause it was the first time that they could get what I was doing. My grandma was able to come and my aunts and uncles and all my cousins. For them the Bollywood Awards were such a big deal because it was with all the stars they watch in their movies … and for me to perform on the stage with all of them was really big!”

I must admit (bashfully) that the moment I read that, I wondered what Thara had worn to the event, because I had a flashback of Truth Hurts moaning her way through that awful “addictive” song on-stage, at some similar desi show, while sporting a pair of kundi-cutters which were painful to behold. Whatever. It’s wonderful that Thara’s loved ones support her, despite the fact that she doesn’t “come from a family that’s ever done this.”

Thara was on DJ Clue’s label, Desert Storm, an honor she shared with Fabolous (holla back young’n, hoooo hoooo!), but according to her MySpace page, she’s no longer with them. I agree with a comment I saw on YouTube, under her “Jump on” video; she sounds just as good as, if not much better than what I’m subjected to when I masochistically turn on my radio (I hate DC stations). If Thara’s music doesn’t catch on, perhaps she should do an MTV reality show; it’s not like Heidi Spencer would have been able to writhe around on the beach in a bikini if she hadn’t been on The Hills. Oh, what passes for talent these days…

::

*I know a lot of people who think that writing for SM must make us super-brown, but at least in my case, I find that I’m ignorant of a lot of what constitutes “desi culture”. Jay Sean for example— I had never heard a single song of his until tonight. It’s an odd feeling, to be in the middle of the baddest, brownest blog of ‘em all and to not have exposure to what I “theoretically” should know all about…:)

anna at 11:32 PM in Music, Musings, Profiles · 49 comment(s) · Direct link

February 12, 2008

The mini Hercules

As a person who appreciates his time at the gym (and advocates fitness in general), I knew I had to post this story as soon as I read it earlier today. Meet India’s Aditya ‘Romeo’ Dev, the world’s smallest bodybuilder:

Unlike many dwarfs, Romeo is well proportioned, with a head circumference of 15in and a chest measurement of 20in.

Romeo said: “I’ve been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world.

“I have always been fit but since I started working out, I have become famous for my strength. [Link]

I doubt very much that he is the strongest dwarf in the world, but I do admire his ambition. What I appreciate most about “Romeo” is that he just does his thing with confidence. One big fear some people have about going to the gym is that they will look weak in front of the rest of the “big muscle-bound” guys. As you can see from the pictures, Dev isn’t even afraid to wear Calvin & Hobbes shorts while working out:

Don’t stare without pinhole sunglasses

Finally, the media will have something from India besides the Little Superstar to talk about. At least this guy is a certified pimp.

abhi at 10:43 PM in Health and Medicine, News, Profiles, Sports · 39 comment(s) · Direct link

December 17, 2007

Meet the Mutiny: SM interviews Candidate J. Ashwin Madia

At the end of October I profiled Jigar Ashwin Madia, a “Democrat” (or DFLer) who is running for Congress in the 3rd District of Minnesota. An important thing to note here is that, as I understand it, in order to compete in the general election as a DFLer in Minnesota, you have to first obtain an endorsement from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the US state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The nickname “DFLers” is often used in Minnesota by both members and non-members of the party as an alternative to “Democrats”. [Link]

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will base part of its decision (a long process) on which candidate has raised the most money by the end of the year, since money in the war chest is an indicator of general election viability (an unfortunate fact about politics in America today). Therefore, the month of December is critical to Madia’s campaign if he hopes to contend for this seat. One of Madia’s staff explained the process to me back in November:

“…the fundraising period that matters most ends December 31, 2007. That period matters most because the results from that time will be what voters know going into the endorsement process that begins on February 5, 2008. (Ashwin has agreed to abide by the results of the endorsement process, so if he does not receive the endorsement from the Democratic Party, the campaign is over.) The next round of fundraising numbers will not come out until April 15, 2008, and at that point, the endorsement process will be almost over.”

Asking for your effort as a volunteer or for a monetary contribution, just like asking for your vote, demands that a candidate explain his positions clearly and thoughtfully enough to satisfy you as a voter or donor. I asked Madia a few questions that I was curious to know the answer to (some of them just to warm him up for you all). I am counting on our smart readers to vet him some more with thoughtful questions. If you like what he has to say, consider supporting him. If not, this is still a chance for one-on-one participation in the political process. Here we go:

Abhi: Tell us a little about your experiences in Iraq. What are the top three things you learned over there that you feel helps make you a better candidate now that you are back in Minnesota?

Madia: While in Iraq, I worked with the military, the State Department, the Justice Department, the European Union, the United Nations, and Iraqi judicial officers to strengthen Iraq’s legal system and establish the rule of law. I learned that: 1) Iraq is a beautiful country with some of the most gorgeous sunrises I’ve ever seen; 2) the Iraqi people (at least those that I dealt with - primarily lawyers and judges) are brave and very kind; and 3) we, the Americans, need to do a better job of establishing unity of command of our military and State Department efforts, to ensure cohesion and maximize the effectiveness of our efforts. I believe these understandings make me a better candidate because they will give me the foundation to help reestablish Congressional oversight over the conduct of the war through probing questions and initiatives. I can draw upon my experiences to push the military and State Department when necessary about their planning and execution of long term strategy in Iraq.

Abhi: How did your family feel about you being deployed to Iraq? Did you join the military through a ROTC program that helped pay for college or by some other manner?

Madia: They didn’t like it. I think it’s natural for family members to worry, particularly my parents, who of course are from India and had no prior experience with the American military - let alone the Marine Corps - prior to me joining. Mom and Dad initially didn’t even like the idea of me getting in the Corps in the first place, because I think they had an idea in their head of what it was (brainwashing, hazing, etc.) that was based on certain media images but not necessarily reality. They came to love it, though - after I got through basic training and was stationed in Japan, they really came to appreciate it. I didn’t join through ROTC. At the end of college, I just decided I wanted to do it, so I went through a program that let me go through Officer Candidates School, then go through law school, and then go on active duty immediately afterwards and report to The Basic School.

Abhi: Your opponents will probably focus in on your relatively young age in their efforts to sell themselves as more experienced than you. How do you hope to convince the voters that you have enough experience and don’t need to start with a more local position?

Madia: A few ways. First, on the age question. When we make a decision to go to war, it’s young people that end up going. When we make the decision to bust our budget, it’s young people that will end up paying for it. And when we make the decision to trash our planet, it’s young people that will inherit the consequences. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have someone under the age of 50 contributing to our national discussion on these policies. On the experience question, I say that experience is important, but there’s different kinds of experience. I may not have experience sitting in committee meetings, but I’ve got experience in Iraq, and with the military. When I talk about Iraq and the military, it’s not because I read about it in a book or saw it in a movie - I was there. I have experience advocating on behalf of unemployed people, immigrants, disabled children, battered women, and the LGBT community. In fact, I was one of the first marines to successfully defend a gay marine from “don’t ask, don’t tell.” I’ve traveled much of the world: India, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq, and seen some of the effects our policies have on other nations. In short, I haven’t been sitting on my hands for 29 years - I’ve done a lot of living and have plenty of life experience to draw on. Finally, I’d point out that Dick Cheney has plenty of experience, but that obviously hasn’t made him a great vice president. There are other traits that matter: values, integrity, judgment, dependability, unselfishness, courage, and endurance. I’d like people to look at my life and my stances and judge for themselves whether I have these traits.

Abhi: Why are you running as a Democrat? Researching your background one wonders why a lifelong Republican (I’m assuming since you were a member of the College Republicans at the University of Minnesota) would decide to run as a Democrat. Do your ideals now align better with the Democrats and is this primarily because of your experience in Iraq or is it because of a host of issues?

Madia: It’s true that I considered myself a moderate Republican in college, but I wasn’t a member of the College Republicans. When I ran for student-body president, I ran with a liberal Democrat as my running mate, and my supporters (and ultimate governing coalition) were a motley crew comprised of moderate Dems, moderate Repubs, and a whole lot of independents. I stopped calling myself a Republican in late 2002, when the Iraq War resolution was stampeded through Congress - I didn’t understand why we couldn’t give the UN inspectors more time to find out if Iraq really had WMD and I didn’t like the political timing of the resolution (Nov 2002 - just in time for our domestic elections). I also was disgusted by what the RNC did to Max Cleland (triple amputee Vietnam War veteran), comparing him to Bin Laden in its ads. I didn’t want to be associate with them anymore, so I left, and haven’t looked back since.

Abhi: Your first name is Jigar but you go by Ashwin (for the purposes of your campaign I suppose). What does your family call you (feel free to include embarrassing nicknames)?

Madia: I’ve used my middle name for years, but my family and old friends still call me Jigar. Mom also calls me “Jiggie,” “Jiggie-baby,” and of course, “Beta.” Something tells me no election in the world could get her to stop. I wouldn’t want her to stop, anyway.

Abhi: What are the top two changes you’d like to bring to your district? I mean specific policy changes you’d like to implement, not just vague ideals.

Madia: First, I want to expand Minneapolis’s light rail system to the western suburbs in my district. There are many people in my district who live in the suburbs, but work downtown (and vice versa, as well). If I can get some federal funds to help quicken the expansion of the light rail - everybody wins: it’s better for the environment, it clears congestion on our local highways, it produces jobs to build and operate the new lines, and increases productivity for businesses as their employees will be coming in to work fresh and rested, not having just spent an hour honking their horn in bumper to bumper traffic. Second, I want to help create a fund that will assist some people in my district - particularly the northern part of my district - who have been deeply affected by the sub-prime loan crisis.

Abhi: Reading up on you I got the feeling that running for office isn’t something you just decided to do on a whim, or even mostly because of your experiences in Iraq. It seems (please correct me if I am wrong) as though you’ve been working toward this methodically for years. When you were in 5th grade, what did you say you wanted to be when you grew up?

Madia: When I was in 5th grade, I’m pretty sure I was telling people I wanted to be a basketball player. I used to shoot hoops for hours every day (it was the one sport that I was reasonably competent at, so naturally I should do it professionally, right?). As I got older, I always thought I’d be a doctor, I think. Not because I was particularly interested in medicine, but more just because that’s what I think I felt was sort of expected. I never really thought hard about it and just assumed that’s where I would end up. I was pre-med in college for a couple years, but - I discovered, or maybe was reminded - I’m terrible at science. Organic Chemistry handed me my rear end and I decided it was probably best for everyone if I found another career path. I majored in political science and decided to go to law school. I was always interested in politics, but never really thought of myself as a candidate. I thought I’d do a tour in the Corps and then come back home and maybe try to open up a small practice. It didn’t quite happen that way, but everything happens for a reason.

Abhi: In your opinion/experience do South Asian Americans contribute enough money to political campaigns? If not, then why not? Do you think they are just uninspired by candidates or are they uninterested in politics in general?

Madia: You know, I’ve heard that before but I haven’t experienced it personally. In fact, I’d say the opposite. South Asian Americans have been incredibly supportive and generous to my campaign and I’m very grateful for it. I’m a first time candidate who’s never run for anything before, yet they (and others) have given to me in amazing numbers, and I’m honored by it. Of course, I’d like more - both in terms of larger contributions and larger numbers of South Asian Americans believing in my campaign and contributing, but that’s more a function of just how expensive it is to run. So, if you’re reading this, and you believe in my campaign, please forward my website and your personal endorsement on to people you think might be supportive. Sorry to do that, guys, but I have to. I hate asking for money, but it’s just a necessity for this line of work. I’m a proud man and so is my dad. I could be unemployed and out on the street and I wouldn’t ask anyone for a dime, but since I decided to do this, I spend most of my day asking for money. Ultimately, I think we need to move toward public financing of campaigns to just take the money out of it.

Abhi: To the best of your knowledge are there any particular issues that South Asian American voters in your district care about more than the average voter? Are there any issues that you have a position on that you feel might inspire South Asian American voters from outside of your district to contribute to your campaign?

Madia: I think many care about the bureaucracy and inefficiency at the Dep’t of Homeland Security in processing citizenship applications. I’d like to explore the reasons for the bottleneck there and find out if there’s a way we can make it better, so that it still effectively processes and screens, but without the exceedingly long waiting periods. In terms of specific issues that might inspire South Asian Americans from outside my district to contribute, I don’t know. I think the issues that are the basis of my campaign - ending the Iraq War responsibly; balancing our budget; addressing global warming; making health care more affordable and accessible; renewing the federal commitment to education; and restoring and safeguarding our civil liberties - apply to all of us and I hope and believe that South Asian Americans will be motivated by them. Also, I think it’d be remarkable to have a South Asian American in Congress - currently, there are none in the House and none in the Senate. Bobby Jindal was the only one and he moved on to become Governor in Louisiana.

Abhi: Based on your campaign so far, what one point of concrete advice can you give our readers who might want to run for a Congressional seat of their own someday?

Madia: If you want to run, run. No matter what, just do it. Do not listen to all of the bad odds that people will give you and the reasons to wait, etc. There will always be more reasons not to run than to run, e.g. you have a nice job, it will disrupt your life, you need more time, etc. Don’t listen to those reasons - just get in and pursue it with everything you’ve got. You can either wait your entire life for someone to tap you on the shoulder and say, “Now, it’s ok - it’s time, you should run now,” or you can get in, give it everything inside of you, talk from your heart, and say what you’ve got to say. Run if you have the desire to do it.

If any of you would like to get involved or contribute to Madia’s campaign, you can do so by visiting his website. But first, interview him with your own questions. Like I said, I was just getting him warmed up for you all.

abhi at 07:57 AM in Blog, Politics, Profiles · 52 comment(s) · Direct link

November 28, 2007

The first desi in the Oval Office?

Relax, this post has nothing to do with Bobby Jindal. Banish the thought and just bear with me for a moment. Last week, after one of the candidates I was eyeing as the potential recipient of my vote made a monumental policy blunder (which made me question everything about this candidate), I started giving a closer look to another candidate who had more sensible and educated things to say on the same issue. And that is when I decided that it was finally time (after months of my teenage-like infatuation where I contemplated the perfect post that might get her to take notice of me) to write about an awesome potential development that would take place IF Hillary Clinton goes on to win the White House. I’m talking about that goddess beautiful and capable assistant of hers, Huma Abedin. Huma currently serves as Clinton’s “body man,” similar to the character of Charlie on the show The West Wing. If she doesn’t go on to become the Chief of Staff, she would certainly remain one of Clinton’s closest advisors, with daily access to the Oval Office. From an article I first read in April:

Last June, under an oppressive sun, at a rally to save the Niagara military base at the University of Buffalo, all of New York’s top politicians—George Pataki, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton—poured sweat.

Yet there was exactly one member of the wilting delegation who managed, somehow, to stay cool: Hillary Clinton’s mysterious, glamorous and eerily unflappable aide de camp, Huma Abedin.

“It was like 110 degrees outside,” recalled the source, a political aide who asked to remain anonymous. “We were all just pouring down with sweat. But I have this distinct memory of Huma traipsing in in this blue pantsuit—it was like this wool pantsuit—not a bead of sweat on her brow, not a hair out of place, with everything perfectly organized in her Yves Saint Laurent handbag.”

That sort of fantastical, supernaturally tinged tale is not unusual. Indeed, in the insular world of New York and D.C. politics, Huma Abedin has become a sort of mythical figure. [Link]

Huma was born in Michigan to an Indian father and a Pakistani mother. She interned at the White House in the mid-90s and graduated from GW. If she goes on to become Chief of Staff it is entirely possible that she could broker a lasting peace in South Asia by helping to end the Kashmiri conflict. I’m just saying, if I was at the negotiation table I’d commit to any concession she proposed. Let’s give peace a chance.

“I think she has special powers,” said public-radio broadcaster Katia Dunn, who recently crossed paths with Ms. Abedin and Mrs. Clinton at a café on Capitol Hill.

Ms. Dunn explained that she had heard about the “cult of Huma,” but had never met her. “All of a sudden, I turn around and there was this woman I now know to be Huma. And it wasn’t just that she was gorgeous—she did just sort of have this presence. She stopped me in my tracks for a second…” [Link]

For those of you who think that the “special powers” quote above is an exaggeration, check out this clip. She is as agile as a secret service agent in protecting Ms. Clinton from the attacking flags (apparently Clinton forgot to wear a flag pin on her lapel and the flags in the audience were really pissed). At the end of clip you can see her calming down some of the flags: