CHITHRALEKHA PUNARADHIVASA COMMITTEE, KANNUR(Campaign update as on 08-04-2008)

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CHITHRALEKHA PUNARADHIVASA COMMITTEE, KANNUR

(Campaign update as on 08-04-2008)

Dear friends,
It is 8 months since the campaign to raise the targeted amount of Rs 1.5 lakhs in rehabilitating Chithralekha by restoring her means of livelihood by procuring a new auto rikshaw for her, with the money raised from concerned citizens took off. The whole story needn't be repeated here, as we are too well aware of the background from which this campaign happened to take off.
Presently, we have an amount of Rs 70,000/= collected so far .You may please note that this is much below the target. We feel that this modest effort to raise funds can no longer be maintained indefinitely in time, and therefore, we have to close it without further delay. In order to meet our end, we are left with no option other than availing a loan for the remaining sum needed to purchase an auto rikshaw. With a view to minimising the burden of bank loan to the least extent possible on the Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, we request that those who haven't already made a donation may do it immediately.
Please peruse here the details of contribution we received so far:
S/sri
1.Salim T.K ( Thalassery/ UAE): Rs1,500.00
2.Jayasree A.K (Rajamundry,A.P) : Rs 1,000.00
3.Mr.K.K.Baburaj(Kottayam) : Rs 1,000.00
4.Dr Sivashankar (Chennai) : Rs 1,000.00
5.Sri.K.Panur (Kannur) :Rs 100.00
6.Jenny Roweena, }
Carmel Christy, Ranjith.R} Rs 10,000.00
and others (Hydbad), }
7.Jenson Joseph (Hydbad): Rs 1,000.00
8.P.V.Ayyappan(Trissur): Rs 1,000.00
9.Dr.A.V.Bharathan(Trissur): Rs 1,000.00
10.Dr.M.R.Govindan(Thrissur) Rs 500.00
11.Dr.K.K.Rahulan(Thrissur) Rs 200.00
12.C.R.Parameswaran(Thrissur) Rs 500.00
13.K.Venu(Thrissur)
Rs 1,000.00+1,000.00= Rs 2,000.00
14.Dr.A.K.Ramakrishnan
(MGU,Kottayam): Rs 1,000.00
15.Dr.V.C.Harris,
(MGU,Kottayam): Rs 1,000.00
16.Dr.K.M.Seethi
(MGU,Kottayam): Rs 500.00
17.Dr.N.J.Phillip(Kottayam) : Rs 1,000.00
18.V.P.Zuhara(Kozhikkode) : Rs 500.00
19.Deepa V.N( Kottayam) :Rs 5,000.00
20.Mythri, Roshni,
Sunitha, Vijaya(CDS,Tvm) : Rs 500.00

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21.Dr.Alice(CDS,Tvm) : Rs 500.00
22.Dr.Anita Thampi(CDS,Tvm): Rs 500.00
23.B.R.P.Bhaskar(Tvm): Rs 1,000.00
24.Dr.Ranjini Lakshmi(CDS,Tvm): Rs 6,650.00
25.Dr.Shivanandan(CDS,Tvm): Rs 500.00
26.P.N.Gopeekrishnan(Thrissur) Rs 500.00
27.M/s.SNA Oushadhashala(Thrissur) Rs 500.00:
28V.G.Thampi (Thrissur): Rs 250.00
30.Hiranyan(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00
31.M/s Anveshi (Kozhikkode): Rs 2,000.00
32.Dr.Mini Sukumaran(Calicut University)
33.Ravi.P.C(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00
34.N.N.Gokuldas,(Thrissur) : Rs 1,000.00
35.K.Radhakrishnan(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00
36.Dr.Jayaraj,(Thrissur) : Rs 1,000.00
37.Anil, Altermedia(Thrissur): : Rs 250.00
38.K.V.Abdul Azeez(Thrissur) : Rs 2,000.00
39.Dr.T.T Sreekumar (Singapur) : Rs 6,000.00
40.Dr.K.V.Devadhasan(Payyanur): Rs 1,000.00
41.V.P.Sreenivasan(Payyanur) : Rs 1,000.00
42.K.M.Hrisheekeshan(Payyanur) : Rs 1,000.00
43.K.M.Nandakishor(Payyanur) : Rs 1,000.00
44.Dr.K.Aravindakshan(Thrissur) : :Rs 500.00
45.T.P.Yakub(Kozhikkode) : Rs 2,000.00
46.Suresh,K.P.Mohsin,
Dinesh,Dr.K.V.Balakrishnan, } : Rs 500.00
Dr.Geethakumari,Raju Kuttan,
(Calicut University)
47.Mohanakrishnan.V (Calicut University) Rs 500.00
48.Ganga Parvathi Shankar (Pune) : Rs 1,000.00
49.Ajesh C.A (Calicut University) : Rs 500.00
50.O.P.Ravindran (Calicut University) : Rs 500.00
51.C.R.Ramesh(Thrissur) : Rs 200.00
52.Harinarayanan (Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00
53.U.K.Nair(Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00
54.Harishankar,(Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00
55.Dr.J.Devika (CDS) and others : Rs 1,100.00

Total amount so far: Rs 70,000.00(approximately)
This list is almost update, with the possibility of very few omissions ( for want of returns of the details/ pendency of remittance by friends who may be involved in collection)
We hope however, that the process will successfully be completed in another short

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period, by active participation from everybody.
Chithralekha, had been violently deprived of her means of livelihood by political actors encouraged by the characteristically casteist and sexist mode of hate, which was ultimately played out against the victim. We need to take immediate steps to rehabilitate her, notwithstanding the outcome of the cumbersome legal battle (in which too, she needs support.)
It is proposed to shortly convene a well attended public meeting; prominent leaders and acivists will be invited to participate , and the keys of the new vehicle will be handed to Chithralekha in a different atmosphere of goodwill and better understanding,where the old hostilities are best expected to be rolled back.
Yours sincerely,
K.M.Venugopalan,
Convener, Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee.
phone:09447488215.




Let's also go back to the original message by the Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee here, which may help recap the whole story . It also helps to find to where and how the donations ( very much needed still), are to be sent .

Subject: An Appeal Made On Behalf of The Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur, Kerala

[Following is the translated text of an appeal released at a press conference on 26-09-07 in Kannur, by the Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur, Kerala ]

Dear friends,
Despite our pride in having achieved 100% literacy, we have to acknowledge sadly that Kerala's social life continues to be reigned by several unwrit rules of caste and gender, rather than by law. A series of incidents that took place at Edat (Payyanur, Kannur District) starting from organized abuse and harassment of a dalit woman at her workplace, physically attacking her for having complained to the police, and finally seeing her only means of livelihood, an autorikshaw, destroyed by unknown persons setting fire to the vehicle in the dead of night, and to cap these all, a CITU autorikshaw workers' union coming out openly to defend the accused persons, seems to demonstrate this.

Chithralekha had procured her autorikshaw under the PMRY Scheme in October 2004. Nevertheless, she had to wait for three months before the permission to park her vehicle in the Payyanur College bus stop Autostand as well as the membership in the Union was given to her by the CITU Union.
When finally she did succeed in this, she was greeted by an all-male group of non-dalit

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autoworkers by the following comments"Look, the pulachi ( female gender for pulaya, name of a prominent SC) is coming with with her auto".

Since then, Chithralekha had to suffer a host of humiliations and untold sufferings. On 11-10-2005, Ajith, a fellow auto driver tore the hood of her vehicle. She complained to the Union only to be ridiculed and turned back. Further, a complaint made to the Police ended up with her tormentor being warned by the police. Obviously outraged by this daring act of Chithralekha petitioning against a comrade to the police, Ajith along with Pavithran, Naveen and Rameshan physically attacked Chithralekha at her workplace, the auto stand on 14-10-2005 morning. They publicly dragged her out from the vehicle and drove one of the autorikshaws on to her body, which caused injury to her leg serious enough to stay as inpatient in the Payyanur Govt hospital for many days. As they were doing all these acts of brutality, one of them shouted these words" pulachies of your ilk in future shall never ride auto here, and it is the union's decision"

The above incident has been booked by the Payyanur Police under various sections of IPC as well as under sections of the SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act of 1999. This case with FIR No 367/05 is presently posted for trial before the Special Court (SC/ST Atrocities), Thalassery.
We believe that but for the timely intervention of the District Level Monitoring Committee which is a statutory committee for monitoring such cases of atrocities against dalits, the above mentioned case would not have been booked at all; on the contrary, the dominant caste-gender set up in combination with the generally existing status-quoist bias of individual police officers would have ensured impunity for the offenders and further institutionalization of such crimes.
Even against the successful intervention on the part of the Dist Level Monitoring Committee to get the case booked and properly pursued, collectively expressed hatred and openly displayed hostility against Chithralekha were only heading to a point of vantage. In the night of 31-12-2005, her vehicle was burned by unidentified persons. This incident was registered as FIR No 474/05 in the Payyanur Police Station.
As we hear further stories of intimidation and demoralizing of witnesses by several quarters of vested interests with a view to weakening of these cases as such, we notice that unless the civil society actively involves in the process of bringing justice to the victim, this kind of crimes motivated by caste and gender is going to get institutionalized.
Chithralekha is presently dependent solely on the Monitoring Committee that includes a few civilian(dalit) representatives and the State mechanism available. While it needs to be clearly reiterated that without such State mechanism it would not have been possible to bring the culprits to book under the relevant provisions of law, the ridiculously unwarranted attempts to impose virtual compromise on the victim by intimidating and demoralizing her witnesses and in many other ways need to be resisted. The absolutely unfair interventions of political manipulators to protect the non-dalit, male accuseds from the reach of law, in this case, should be effectively challenged by vigorous pursuit of the Rule Of Law by an informed civil society.
It is worth mentioning in this context, that a citizens' action committee based at Payyanur was indeed on the scene until April 2006 to support Chithralekha. The committee though succeeded in getting an auto for her on rental basis and as part of their endeavour to

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restore work to Chithralekha, it became defunct soon after the election campaign for the Kerala Assembly picked up momentum. Due to several reasons, Chithralekha was virtually compelled to return the hired vehicle to its owner. Since then, she had to support herself and her family by going outside for unskilled labour in the building sector, evenwhile she refused to compromise in her determined struggle against the cast-gender hostilities still propagated against her.
On the 29th August of this year, a new initiative to support Chithralekha came to existence by forming a new forum based at Kannur, the District headquarters. The meeting convened by Dr D.Surendranath was personally attended by Mr. K.K.Kochu,the well known dalit leader.Several other prominent dalit activists and intellectuals had also extended thier support to this initiative. This committee was named as Chithralekha Punaradhivasa (Rehabilitation) Committee and it took stock of the situation as a whole.,against the background of conspicuous lack of any collective expression of solidarity with her continuing struggle.The next meeting of this committee on 4-09-2007resolved to extend unconditional support to Chithralekha in her struggle for justice.The committee identified the urgent need of rehabilitating Chithralekha, with the work as well as a nightmares-free workplace restored to her. For this, it was decided to purchase a new autorikhshaw for her by collecting the necessary fund from the people. For carrying out this effectively and transparently, Dr Surendranath(Chairman), Mr.P.K.Ayyappan (Treasurer) and Mr.K.M.Venugopalan (Convenor) would jointly operate an account in the Thalap branch of the Kannur District Central Co-operative Bank in connection with collecting and depositing of a targeted fund of Rs1,50,000/=
While we ourselves fully endorse the above mentioned objectives of the Chithralekha Punaradhivasa Committee,Kannur, we would like to request the entire civil society of Kerala to come forward in support of these causes ,viz; of ending hostilities toward a dalit woman and allowing the law to take the right course on the one hand, and helping rehabilitation of Chithralekha by restoring her means of livelihood and work.

Hence,we request everybody to make contribution to the Cithralekha Rhabilitation Fund either by depositing direct to Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee SB Ac. No.1 of Thalap branch of CDCC bank of Kannur ( Kannur District Central Co-operative Bank), or by sending in Ac.Payee Cheque or crossed DD payable at Kannur, or Money Order, to the following address :-
Dr.D.Surendranath,

Chairman,

Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee,

Pallikunnu P.O., Kannur.



Among the persons who have already signed this draft are ---Bhargavi Thankappan (former Dy Speaker,Kerala Assembly), L.Natarajan ( Retd IAS),K.C.Venu ( Retired Director, Public Relations, Thiruvananthapuram) K.K..Kochu (Dalit activist and writer),Sunny Kapikkad (Dalit writer and activist, Kottayam) , M.B.Manoj ( Poet and Dalit activist, Kottayam), Rekha Raj (Dalit Women's Forum, Kottayam), K.Panur (Senior

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campaigner and writer on Adivasi-Dalit issues & Human Rights, Kannur), K.Venu , Dr.M.Gangadharan, Dr .A.K.Ramakrishnan (School Of International Relations, MG University, Kottayam), K.Ajitha (Campaigner in Womens' issues and the leading activist in Anweshi, Womens'Organization, Kozhikkode) , A.Vasu ( Human Rights activist, Kozhikkode), Dr.J.Devika (CDS, Thiruvananthapuram), V.P.Zuhara ( Nisa,Organization For Progressive Muslim Women, Kozhokkode) , Anivar Aravind (Greenyouth Forum& GAYA, Trissur), B.R.P.Bhaskar (senior Human Rights campaigner and journalist, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr.V.C.Harris (School Of Social Sciences, MGU, Kottayam) , C.K.Janu (leader, Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha, Wynad), Prof Sara Joseph ( Literatuer and Womens' Rights campaigner, Thrissur), Advocate P.A.Pauran (PUCL-Kerala, Manjeri), K.Haridas ( writer and Human Rights activist, Mumbai ), Dr.Jenny Roweena (Writer and Researcher in Gender and Caste Issues ,Hydbad), Carmel Chrity (Research Scholar, Hyderabad Central University & activist researcher In Gender and Caste ), Elizabeth Philip( Sahaja, Womens' Rights organization, Kottayam), Ranjith Thakappan ( Lecturer, Indira Gandhi Open University, New Delhi), I.Gopinath (Media Initiatives and Human Rights activist, Thrissur), Sarat (Thirdeyefilms , Ernakulam), A.Arun (Research Scholar, Hyderabad Central University), P.Baburaj (Thirdeye films,Ernakulam), K.K.Ushakumari (Janakeeya Samskarika Kendram, Kodungallur), Radhika Menon (Forum For Democratic Initiatives,New Delhi), Vinod.K.Jose ( Human Rights activist and Fellow, Columbia Journalism School, New York), K.P.Sasi( Human Rights activist and film maker, Bangalore), Bauraj.K (writer and activist, Kodungallur), Shyla.K.John (Secretary, AIMSS, Kerala), Advocate Kasthuri Devan (social activist, Kannur), Dr.A.K.Jayasree( womens'rights campaigner,Rajamundri, A.P) ,Dr.K.M.Seethi (School Of International Relations and Political Science, MG University, Kottayam), Deepa V.N (Sahayatrika, Kerala), Girija K.P (Kerala),S.Sanjeev (Kerala), Rev Sunil Raj (Bangalore), Mustafa Desamangalam ( Media and Films activist, Kerala), Sudeep Joseph (Bangalore), Bobby Kunju (Human Rights and Legal activist,New Delhi),Sandhya P.C (GAIA,Thrissur, Kerala), Anil Tharayath Varghese (National Centre For Advocacy Studies, Pune), Dr.Ratheesh Radhakrishnan (Kerala), Shinaj.P.S(Hyderabad Central University), I.K.Shukla (Writer, Los Angeles ) ,Sushovan Dhar (Radical Politics,Mumbai).Subhash Lokjith (Pune), Sukla Sen, (Peoples' Media Initiative, Mumbai ), George Pulikuthiyil (Jananeethi Institue, Kerala), Bindhulakshmi (Hyderabad), Ajay(People's Watch), Dr.Sanal Mohan (School Of Social Sciences, MGU,Kottayam), Salim.T.K (Greenyouthsgooglegroup), Savad Rahman (Journalist, Kochi),Rajesh Ramakrishnan (Activist and Researcher, New Delhi), Dr.Soma Marik( Kolkatha), Dr.T.T.Sreekumar ( Academic / Asst Professor, National University Of Singapore), Gilbert Rodrigo (Pondicherry Fisher peoples' forum),T.Peter (Secretary, National Fishworkers' Forum & President, KSMTU,Kerala), Dileepraj ( writer and Human Rights campaigner, Kerala ).

We look forward to your co-operation in further spreading the message.

.

thanking you,
for Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur .
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Kindly use the following postal addresses/ emails as well, for future communication:

Dr.D.Surendranath,
( Chairman, Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee),
Pallikkunnu P.O;
Kannur-4,
Kerala (State),
S.India
Pin code- 670004
email: dskannur@gmail.com
phone: 04972-701279

K.M.Venugopalan,
Convenor, Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur.
email: kmvenuannur@gmail.com
phone: 09447488215.

C.K.Vishwanath,
Member, Chithralekha Punaradhivasa Committe, kannur
email: ckvishwanath@gmail.com
ck_vishwanath2000@yahoo.com
ck_vishwanath@yahoo.com
phone: 04985-277680.

With immense gratitude to everybody and In solidarity,
K.M.Venugopalan.

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USA 2008: The Great Depression?

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USA 2008: The Great Depression?

By David Usborne

01 April, 2008
The Independent

We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.

Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

The increase – from 26.5 million in 2007 – is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.

Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.

Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. "We have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it climbing more in recent months," Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan's programme, said. "It's been increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be going without."

But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 per cent increase in the past year.

In Rhode Island, the segment of the population on food stamps has risen by 18 per cent in two years. The food programme started 40 years ago when hunger was still a daily fact of life for many Americans. The recent switch from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of the stigma associated with the food stamp programme. The card can be swiped as easily as a bank debit card. To qualify for the cards, Americans do not have to be exactly on the breadline. The programme is available to people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line. For Hubert Liepnieks, the card is a lifeline he could never afford to lose. Just out of prison, he sleeps in overnight shelters in Manhattan and uses the card at a Morgan Williams supermarket on East 23rd Street. Yesterday, he and his fiancée, Christine Schultz, who is in a wheelchair, shared one banana and a cup of coffee bought with the 82 cents left on it.

"They should be refilling it in the next three or four days," Liepnieks says. At times, he admits, he and friends bargain with owners of the smaller grocery shops to trade the value of their cards for cash, although it is illegal. "It can be done. I get $7 back on $10."

Richard Enright, the manager at this Morgan Williams, says the numbers of customers on food stamps has been steady but he expects that to rise soon. "In this location, it's still mostly old people and people who have retired from city jobs on stamps," he says. Food stamp money was designed to supplement what people could buy rather than covering all the costs of a family's groceries. But the problem now, Mr Enright says, is that soaring prices are squeezing the value of the benefits.

"Last St Patrick's Day, we were selling Irish soda bread for $1.99. This year it was $2.99. Prices are just spiralling up, because of the cost of gas trucking the food into the city and because of commodity prices. People complain, but I tell them it's not my fault everything is more expensive."

The US Department of Agriculture says the cost of feeding a low-income family of four has risen 6 per cent in 12 months. "The amount of food stamps per household hasn't gone up with the food costs," says Dayna Ballantyne, who runs a food bank in Des Moines, Iowa. "Our clients are finding they aren't able to purchase food like they used to."

And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent.

©independent.co.uk

First Chapter: 'The Appeal' (March 30, 2008)

www.openspace.org.in

First Chapter: 'The Appeal' (March 30, 2008)

Up Front (March 30, 2008)

'The Appeal,' by John Grisham: If You Can't Win the Case, Buy an Election and Get Your Own Judge (January 28, 2008)

Peter Mendelsund

Thrillers thrive on villains and heroes, and usually these characters are not overly complicated; writers don't want to confuse or slow the plot. In John Grisham's page turners the villains are corporate titans and their lawyers, and the plucky, idealistic heroes (played in the movie versions by Tom Cruise in "The Firm" and Julia Roberts in "The Pelican Brief") are renegade lawyers or law students, shocked into action by the corruption they have stumbled across.

Grisham sticks with his formula for the villains in "The Appeal." But he paints a more complicated picture of the heroes, while making an important point about how the justice system in more than half of the 50 states is increasingly threatened by the kind of big-money gutter politics that have made so many Americans disgusted with Washington.

Grisham's heroes in "The Appeal" are plaintiffs' lawyers, the much maligned litigators who represent victims of alleged corporate wrongdoing. Their excuse for taking a third to 40 percent of their clients' winnings — even if those winnings are in the millions or billions (in the case of mass tort claims against asbestos or tobacco defendants) — is that their little-guy clients don't have the money to pay hourly fees in advance of a verdict, and that it's those big paydays that give them the incentive and resources to take on risky cases that deliver powerfully deterrent punishment to those who would otherwise keep committing all kinds of corporate jihad. It's an argument, however, that's been undermined by the spectacle of trial lawyers cashing in on cases where deep-pocketed, well-insured defendants who might not be fully culpable or culpable at all threw in the towel out of fear that sympathetic juries were too easily rewarding any tug at their heartstrings, and by revelations of corruption in recruiting clients and divvying up fees among fellow vultures of the bar who did little more than race to the scenes of tragedies.

Grisham presents both sides. While plaintiffs' lawyers are the heroes in this fast-moving, smartly constructed tale, they also come off as greedy, self-absorbed and repugnant — true ambulance chasers. In fact, at the small, beleaguered Mississippi firm run by his two heroes — the husband-and-wife team of Mary Grace and Wes Payton — a paralegal asks during some down time from the big case if he can go back to chasing ambulances, literally.

To be sure, Payton & Payton are doing God's work. They've spent years representing a woman in a small town in Mississippi whose husband and son died within weeks of each other, victims of cancer allegedly caused by deliberate cost-cutting spills into the town's drinking water by big, bad Krane Chemical. The Paytons' painstaking marshalling of the evidence against Krane makes for a seemingly indefensible defendant. The cancer rate in the town has become 15 times the national average. The town's water is so fouled that the swimming pool has long since been closed and bottled water is trucked in daily for everyone. No one would consider drinking out of the taps; even showering is a bungee jump.

In the real world, most companies would settle a case like this. (Although in the real, real world, no evidence would be as lopsided as Grisham makes it.) But Krane is part of a Manhattan-based conglomerate run by Carl Trudeau. And Trudeau is not settling with anyone.

Trudeau is a parody of evil, Grishamstyle. No shades of gray here. He's an East Side Manhattan insider-trader, corporate killer and philanderer so devoid of redeeming qualities that he even dislikes the 5-year-old daughter he's procreated with the latest trophy wife.

Mary Grace and Wes Payton have had to endure years of the pretrial war of attrition that companies like Krane can throw at plaintiffs. Having ditched other paying clients to concentrate on this case, they've had to sell their house and their car, and move with their two young children into a shoddy rental, where they can afford to hire only an illegal immigrant to be the nanny.

risham opens "The Appeal" with the verdict about to be announced, finally, after 71 days of a mind-numbing trial. Facing the sleepless Paytons in the tense small-town courtroom is a team of well-coiffed corporate litigators. Grisham captures the leader's "I'm getting $500 an hour no matter what these goober jurors say and we'll win on appeal anyway" smugness exactly as I saw it when I was covering trials like this.

I'm not giving anything away by revealing that after 10 pages of overwritten setup, the Paytons win a $41 million verdict, which in theory means $13 million-plus for them and $29 million for their longsuffering client. It also means the start of the appeal process, which is when the real story begins.

Now that one jury has punished Krane and made potential millionaires of the Paytons and their still-teary client, dozens of trial lawyers swarm the town to recruit others who've been harmed. There have already been hundreds of other cancer deaths. Thousands more are sick, and others, encouraged by their new lawyers, will now claim to be sick. Grisham treats us to a vivid picture of the good, the bad and the ugly (mostly bad and ugly, except for Mary Grace and Wes) of plaintiffs' lawyers as they try to cash in on the victory by going after Krane for what could be billions in damages when all the claims are added up.

But the even better action is on the other side. Trudeau, the chief executive who controls Krane, soon hears — through a corrupt Southern senator — about a shadowy man in Florida who operates a secretive political consulting firm that can save Krane. How? Because Krane's appeal of the Paytons' case will go to the Mississippi Supreme Court in the next year or so, and Krane won't have to pay anyone a penny if the court throws the case out.

It turns out that in Mississippi (as in about 30 other states) the top jurists are elected, and one swing-vote justice happens to be up for election in the coming year. What follows is more political than legal thriller. The consulting firm, having taken an $8 million fee (by way of Bermuda) from Trudeau, targets and anoints as their candidate an obscure Mississippi lawyer. He's never been a judge, much less thought about being a Supreme Court justice. But he's a great family man and right on conservative issues (even those irrelevant to Mississippi jurisprudence but good for TV ads). He's especially right on his view of the need for upstanding corporations to be safe from suits by gluttonous plaintiffs and their sleazy counsel. The consultant's operatives tell the credulous lawyer that they represent conservatives who want to protect the nation's courts. Thus, because he's the model of probity and common sense that the Mississippi court needs, they'll contribute millions for a media blitz to support his candidacy. What's more, they'll find and finance a full campaign staff. Meantime, Krane's lawyers file blizzards of paper to ensure that the appeal to the Supreme Court won't be heard until after the judicial election.

An utterly depressing political campaign ensues, in which the scholarly, middle-of-the-road and blindsided incumbent Supreme Court justice is painted in attack ads as a left-wing woman of loose morals. Meanwhile, the Krane consultant's Manchurian challenger, coached by a platoon of operatives who would make Karl Rove blush, preens in 30-second TV spots with his family and his hunting rifle.

There's lots of other intrigue worthy of a Grisham novel — missing witnesses, destroyed evidence, insider stock trading. It's a shame, though, that Grisham's grace in constructing a sophisticated story is so poorly matched by his writing. Clichés and redundancies ("lavish splendor," "a hothead with a massive ego who hated to lose") fill the book, and at times his weakness with words is painful to watch. His description, for example, of Trudeau's anorexic wife at a charity dinner reads as if someone new to English decided to mimic "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

Still, Grisham keeps his story moving. And he not only moves to a surprising ending but makes a real point about how judicial elections undermine the integrity of any justice system. It's bad enough that those in our executive and legislative branches can take contributions from people who have business before them to finance elections quarterbacked by spinmeisters and filled with phony attack ads. But the notion of obscure judges — charged with ruling objectively on crucial, complicated points of law — being showered with millions from lawyers, litigants and other special interests who have cases before them is worse.

One of the publications I used to run, The Texas Lawyer, once did a series of articles on elections for that state's highest court. (We also made a small fortune selling ads to judicial candidates looking for contributions from our lawyer-readers.) Our exit polls found that voters typically knew nothing about the people for whom they had just voted, and that they mostly made their choices on name recognition. Texas was also the state where one obscure lawyer seemed to have been elected a justice simply because his name sounded like that of a respected former Texas politician.

To be fair, in many states big business started to sponsor judicial candidates only after realizing that the trial lawyers had beat them to it. Thus Texas and Mississippi had become what our publication called "plaintiffs' paradises," places where juries would indiscriminately reward plaintiffs' lawyers and their clients, and the appellate courts would go along. Grisham's story doesn't quite convey that Mississippi had, before the emergence of this Krane-sponsored Manchurian judge, become a plaintiffs' paradise, but he implies it in the way he describes the corporate reaction to the Krane case. More important, he focuses on the absurdity, no matter which side you are on, of judicial elections. Unlike a lot of novels and TV docudramas that selectively latch onto facts to create a false picture, "The Appeal" delivers a real picture of a real problem. And, it all goes down easily because he spins it around such a gripping tale.

Climate Change Is a Wake-Up Call to Radically Reform Our Economy By Preeti Magala Sarkar& Tram Nguyen (blog from Alternet)

Climate Change Is a Wake-Up Call to Radically Reform Our Economy

By Preeti Mangala Shekar and Tram Nguyen, ColorLines. Posted March 31, 2008.

The people most affected by the injustices of the polluting economy are already helping to lead the way.
Last year, the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, with a minuscule staff and budget, worked relentlessly to pass the Green Jobs Act in Congress-a bill that if authorized will direct $125 million to green the nation's workforce and train 35,000 people each year for "green-collar jobs." That summer, Ella Baker Center and the Oakland Alliance also secured $250,000 from the city to build the Oakland Green Jobs Corp, a training program that promises to explicitly serve what is probably the most underutilized resource of Oakland: young workingclass men and women of color.

In these efforts lay a hopeful vision-that the crises-ridden worlds of economics and environmentalism would converge to address the other huge crisis-racism in the United States. It is what some of its advocates call a potential paradigm shift that, necessitated by the earth's climate crisis, can point the way out of "gray capitalism" and into a green, more equitable economy. The engine of this model is driven by the young and proactive leadership of people of color who intend to build a different solution for communities of color.

Van Jones, president of the Ella Baker Center, talks about how earlier waves of economic flourishes didn't much impact Black communities. "When the dotcom boom went bust, you didn't see no Black man lose his shirt," he points out, only half joking. "Black people were the least invested in it."

Climate change is the 21st century's wake-up call to not just rethink but radically redo our economies. Ninety percent of scientists agree that we are headed toward a climate crisis, and that, indeed, it has already started. With the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, the clean energy economy is poised to grow enormously. This sector includes anything that meets our energy needs without contributing to carbon emissions or that reduces carbon emissions; it encompasses building retrofitting, horticulture infrastructure (tree pruning and urban gardening), food security, biofuels and other renewable energy sources, and more.

It's becoming clear that investing in clean energy has the potential to create good jobs, many of them located in urban areas as state and city governments are increasingly adopting public policies designed to improve urban environmental quality in areas such as solar energy, waste reduction, materials reuse, public transit infrastructures, green building, energy and water efficiency, and alternative fuels.

According to recent research by Raquel Pinderhughes, a professor of urban studies at San Francisco State University, green jobs have an enormous potential to reverse the decades-long trend of unemployment rates that are higher for people of color than whites. In Berkeley, California, for example, unemployment of people of color is between 1.5 and 3.5 times that of white people, and the per capita income of people of color is once again between 40 to 70 percent of that of white people.

Pinderhughes defines green-collar jobs as manual labor jobs in businesses whose goods and services directly improve environmental quality. These jobs are typically located in large and small for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and public and private institutions. Most importantly, these jobs offer training, an entry level that usually requires only a high school diploma, and decent wages and benefits, as well as a potential career path in a growing industry.

Yet, though green economics present a great opportunity to lift millions of unemployed, underemployed or displaced workers-many of them people of color-out of poverty, the challenge lies in defining an equitable and workable development model that would actually secure good jobs for marginalized communities.

"Green economics needs to be eventually policy-driven. If not, the greening of towns and cities will definitely set in motion the wheels of gentrification," Pinderhughes adds. "Without a set of policies that explicitly ensures checks and measures to prevent gentrification, green economics cannot be a panacea for the ills of the current economy that actively displaces and marginalizes people of color, while requiring their cheap labor and participation as exploited consumers."

What remains to be seen is how green economics will transition out of current prevalent models of ownership and control. A greener version of capitalism could possibly address some of the repercussions of a consumption economy and the enormous waste it generates. But critics and activists also worry that a "replacement mindset" is largely driving the optimism and energy of greening our industries and jobs. Hybrid cars replace conventional cars, and organic ingredients are promised in a wide variety of products from hand creams to protein bars. Many mainstream environmental festivals like the popular Green Festival held in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, have yet to embrace a democratic diversity. Peddling wonderful green products and services that will reduce your ecological footprint, they are accessible, alas, only to elite classes that are predominantly white.

"An authentic green economics system is one that would mark the end of capitalism," notes B. Jess Clarke, editor of Race, Poverty and the Environment. And one that would ensure labor rights and organizing, collective ownership and equality are all at the heart of it, he adds. "The real green movement has not started yet."

A movement toward economic justice requires the mobilizing and organizing of the poorest people for greater economic and political power. A good green economic model would surely be one where poor people's labor has considerable economic leverage. "Wal-Mart putting solar panels on its store roofs is not a solution," says Clarke. "We need real solutions and strong measures-carbon taxes on imports from China would considerably reduce the incentive of cheap imports and make a push to produce locally."

"Green economics can create a momentum-a political moment akin to the civil rights movement. But unless workers are organized, any success is likely to be marginal. So the key problem is in organizing a political base," adds Clarke. Green economics, then, is not just a green version of current economic models but a fundamental transformation, outlines Brian Milani, a Canadian academic and environmental expert who has written extensively on green economics. He writes in his book Designing the Green Economy: "Green economics is the economics of the real world-the world of work, human needs, the earth's materials, and how they mesh together most harmoniously. It is primarily about 'use value,' not 'exchange value' or money. It is about quality, not quantity, for the sake of it. It is about regeneration-of individuals, communities, and ecosystems-not about accumulation, of either money or material."

The $125 million promised through the Green Jobs Act is admittedly a drop in the bucket as far as the amount of financing and infrastructure needed to implement green jobs, activists say. Among the Democratic presidential candidates, all of whom have proposals for clean energy investment, talk has run into the billions of dollars for green economic stimulus.

So who will pay to get the green economy going and train a green workforce?

Throughout history we have freely released carbon and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and not had to pay a penny for the privilege. Industrial polluters and utilities may face fines for toxic emissions or releasing hazardous waste, but there has been no cost for emitting carbon as a part of day-to-day business. However, we have come to find that the atmosphere is a limited resource, and it's getting used up fast.

By limiting the total amount of carbon that can be released, and making industries pay for their pollution, global warming policies finally recognize that the atmosphere has value and must be protected. The policy with the most momentum in the U.S. and around the world is to "cap and trade" the amount of carbon that can be emitted every year. With this policy, the government sets a hard target for CO2 emissions, and then companies have to trade credits to get back the right to emit that carbon, no longer for free.

One often overlooked fact, though, is that under a "cap and trade" policy, a tremendous amount of money could change hands-the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new value created by such a policy ranges from $50 -- $300 billion each year. So far, public debate has focused on setting targets and caps, but the question of who will benefit from those credits has largely been ignored. In fact, many proposals have simply given these valuable new property rights away to polluters for them to sell to each other, because they were the ones who were polluting to begin with.

Under an important variant of the "cap and trade" policy called "cap and auction," the government not only limits the total carbon emissions, but it also captures the value of those carbon credits for public purposes by requiring that all polluters must bid for and buy back the right to emit. A 100-percent auction of permits would give the public ready access to the ongoing funds we will need to reinvest in social equity and bring down poor people's energy bills, or to support new research, or to launch new projects that not only establish training for green jobs, but create those jobs themselves, rebuilding the infrastructure of our communities for a clean energy economy.

However, there can be a lot of slippage between the green economy and green jobs that actually go to workers of color, especially in today's anti-affirmative action context. In one pilot program, nearly two dozen young people of color were trained to install solar panels, but only one got a job. Ultimately, employers can't be told who to hire, though there are some ideas about providing incentives, like requiring companies to show they hire locally and diversely before public institutions will invest their assets there.

"Green for All," the campaign launched in September 2007 by the Ella Baker Center and other partners like Sustainable South Bronx and the Apollo Alliance, is currently among the leading advocates pushing for policy that would ensure a racially just framework for green economics to grow and flourish, without which, green economics can end up being just a greening consumption. With a goal to bring green-collar jobs to urban areas, this campaign positions itself as an effort to provide a viable policy framework for emerging grassroots, green economic models. The campaign's long-term goal is to secure $1 billion by 2012 to create "green pathways out of poverty" for 250,000 people by greatly expanding federal government and private sector commitments to green-collar jobs.

"A big chunk of the African-American community is economically stranded," Van Jones said in The New York Times last fall as the campaign began. "The blue-collar, stepping-stone, manufacturing jobs are leaving. And they're not being replaced by anything. So you have this whole generation of young Blacks who are basically in economic free fall."

The challenge of making the green economy racially equitable means addressing the question of how to build an infrastructure that includes not just training programs but also the development of actual good jobs and the hiring policies that make them accessible. How can we guarantee that all these new green jobs will go to local residents? As one activist admitted, "There's just no good answer to this so far."

Many of the answers will have to come in the doing, and the details, as green industry continues to take shape. There are plenty of ideas about how to create equitable policies, as outlined in the report "Community Jobs in the Green Economy" by the Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat. They include requiring employers who receive public subsidies to set aside a number of jobs for local residents and partner with workforce intermediaries to hire them. Some cities are already requiring developers to reserve 50 percent of their construction jobs for local businesses and residents. Cities can also attach wage standards to their deals with private companies that are pegged to a living wage. In Milwaukee, after two freeway ramps were destroyed downtown, a coalition of community activists and unions won a community benefits agreement from the city to require that the new development include mass transit, green building and living wages for those jobs.

As we have learned in many progressive struggles, communities need to be mobilized and actively involved in generating inclusive policies and pushing policymakers to ensure that green economic development will be just and equitable. Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-author of Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy, says the green economy movement is still in its early stages of building public support. "There is not yet an organized constituency representing the human face of what it means to face climate change. There is an urgent need for a human face, an equity constituency, to enter into the national debate on climate change."

Omar Freilla, founder of Green Worker Cooperative, an organization that actively promotes worker-owned and ecofriendly manufacturing jobs to the South Bronx, is convinced that democracy begins at the workplace where many of us as workers and employees spend most of our time. "The environmental justice movement has been about people taking control of their own communities," he says. "Those most impacted by a problem are also the ones leading the hunt for a solution."

Environmental racism is rooted in a dirty energy economy, a reckless linear model that terminates with the dumping of toxins and wastes in poor communities of color that have the least access to political power to change this linear path to destruction.

Defining and then refining green economics as a way to steer it toward bigger change is at the root of understanding the socio-political and economic possibilities of this moment.

Van Jones calls for a historic approach, one that considers the world economy in stages of refinement. "Green capitalism is not the final stage of human development, any more than gray capitalism was. There will be other models and other advances-but only if we survive as a species. But we have to recognize that we are at a particular stage of history, where the choices are not capitalism versus socialism, but green/eco-capitalism versus gray/suicide capitalism. The first industrial revolution hurt both people and the planet, very badly. Today, we do have a chance to create a second 'green' industrial revolution, one that will produce much better ecological outcomes. Our task is to ensure that this green revolution succeeds-and to ensure that the new model also generates much better social outcomes. I don't know what will replace eco-capitalism. But I do know that no one will be here to find out, if we don't first replace gray capitalism."

The people most affected by the injustices of the polluting economy are already helping to lead the way, and it's business at its most unusual.

Fighting Words: How to Humiliate -- and Convert -- a Right-Winger By John Dolan, AlterNet. Posted March 25, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/80507/?page=entire

Fighting Words: How to Humiliate -- and Convert -- a Right-Winger

By John Dolan, AlterNet. Posted March 25, 2008.

Drop the condescending "populist" talk and get mean.


"....And please, don't tell me you're above such gross playground
considerations. The American people are the beneficiaries of centuries
of serious Leftist violence, starting with the American Revolution and
climaxing in the Civil War. Without brave Leftist warriors
slaughtering British and Confederate soldiers in large numbers, the
whole tradition of American liberalism would not exist......"

I'd like to suggest a very simple strategy for American liberals: Get
mean. Stop policing the language and start using it to hurt our
enemies. American liberals are so busy purging their speech of any
words that might offend anyone that they have no notion of using
language to cause some salutary pain.

Why, for example, not popularize slogans that mock the Bush loyalists
as "suckers"? Something like, "There are two kinds of Republicans:
millionaires and suckers." Put that on a few bumper stickers and I
guarantee a lot of "South Park Republicans" will quit the GOP. They
just smirk when you tsk-tsk at them for being disrespectful. They want
to be disrespectful; every normal young male wants to be.

And this, of course, brings up a big issue: At some point liberal
writers are going to have to decide if it's OK to be young and male at
all. For better or for worse, millions of American men hold on to
playground ethics long after they leave elementary school. For most of
them, the 2004 election came down to a classic playground scene: Would
John Kerry defend himself when attacked by bullies? Liberals, still
stunned by the way a legitimate combat vet like Kerry was beaten by a
combat-dodging spoiled brat like Bush, never understood that for
millions of voters, the question wasn't how well Kerry fought in
Vietnam but whether he would fight in 2004.

Would he defend himself when called out by the gang of disgusting
bullies Bush had gathered around himself? It would have been so
simple, so glorious, if he'd just turned on his accusers and reacted
like a human being: "You're questioning my record on behalf of a skunk
like Bush who spent the war with the Alabama National Guard, and then
went AWOL from the Guard?"

Millions of American voters were waiting, hoping Kerry would react
like any sane person would have. He never did. I don't know why not; I
assume he was in the hands of some Clinton gurus who babbled about
"rising above the fray." Well, that sure worked well.

And please, don't tell me you're above such gross playground
considerations. The American people are the beneficiaries of centuries
of serious Leftist violence, starting with the American Revolution and
climaxing in the Civil War. Without brave Leftist warriors
slaughtering British and Confederate soldiers in large numbers, the
whole tradition of American liberalism would not exist.

And we are the sufferers from the most disastrous wimp-out in recent
American history: Carter's debacle in response to the taking of
American hostages in Iran in 1979. That refusal to use punitive force
to free his country's diplomats may have made pacifists feel nice, but
it was an expensive treat; it got Reagan elected, showed a host of
evil right-wing PR staffers that all they had to do was talk tough to
win, and convinced a huge number of disgusted American male voters
that the liberals would not fight back.

Kerry could have turned that around in 2004; it was almost as if a
Hollywood scriptwriter had arranged the perfect confrontation, in
which the liberal champion could flatten his orc-like tormentors and
show the voters that one can be a progressive without being a wimp.
Instead, he confirmed a prevalent myth that liberals are "soft" on
terrorism and the military -- in other words, like illustrator Gary
Larson's Wimpodites: "Though skilled with their pillow arsenal, the
Wimpodites were frequent targets of Viking attacks."

And so far, the liberal response, the liberal attempt to reach out to
the guys in the big trucks is embarrassing "populist" essays using bad
imitations of American slang. Let's be blunt here: "populism" is
condescension. If you want male voters' respect, stop patronizing
them. (It just creeps them out.) Far better to insult them -- to their
face, in their face, telling them bluntly that the talk radio nonsense
they parrot is pure crap. They know that themselves. Half of what they
say is designed simply to reassure themselves and their friends that
they're not the same sort of wimps their social studies teachers tried
to make them into. So they're not afraid of being called cruel or
insensitive; they're afraid of being suckers.

The minute we start calling them on their suckerdom, they'll change
sides -- and we'll finally have some decent troops on our side. But as
long as liberals speak in the language of Beavis and Butthead's Mister
van Driessen, they'll despise you, even when they know you're right
(which they do). We may not be the most systematically intellectual
tribe on earth, but Americans are very verbally sensitive. They will
not heed Mister van Driessen, even if he's telling them to evacuate a
burning classroom. They'd sooner die. You may find this irrational,
but when I think back to the progressive mindset I became familiar
with UC Berkeley, I understand this reaction very well. I don't
condone it, but damn! I sure do understand it.

Liberals aren't generally perceived as fighting the robber barons --
they appear as a secular clergy far more obsessed with cleaning up our
gloriously obscene language than fighting back.

Note that I've used the word "fighting." Americans are a violent
people -- and I mean that as a compliment. We are a magnificently
violent people who value courage above all else. In this, the ordinary
American is in total agreement with George Patton, John Paul Jones and
John Brown. They were all violent leaders, who sent a lot of Redcoats,
Nazis and secessionist slaveholders to an early grave. I consider that
glorious; so do most Americans.

John Paul Jones said, "I intend to go in harm's way" and coined a
boast that generations of Americans, and even Bugs Bunny himself,
repeated with pride: "I have not yet begun to fight." John Brown
killed and died to provoke a final conflict over slavery. When
American liberals can appreciate, encourage and manipulate the
violence of such people, maybe you can talk to your fellow Americans
again.

A good first step would be accepting the fact that language is a
weapon -- and then start using it effectively. Most liberals affect
scorn for mere words, in the way that I affected scorn for mathematics
after flunking algebra twice in high schools. And most of the hardcore
academic progressives I've known have tin ears. Their sheer awfulness
is adaptive within the academic ghetto, in the way that a lack of any
olfactory ability is adaptive for carrion eaters; but it's disastrous
when they try to talk to people outside their guild.

It's not really that hard, after all. Just stop trying to be
"populists," because frankly when liberals start talking about
"populism," they sound like North Korean infiltrators trying to pose
as surfer dudes. Try smacking your South Park countrymen in their
deluded heads with some bumper stickers of our own, just as down and
dirty as theirs. Wanna get them out of their gas-guzzling Dodge
extended-cab semis? Stop whining at them and try putting these four
little words on the back bumper of your hybrid: "Big truck, small
dick." Yeah, you might get yelled at at a stoplight; you might even
get hit. You might even consider hitting back.

Liberals have always been good fighters, once they get going.

Reply

Forward

India; shame, says Mahasweta Devi

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/taslima-leaves-india-shame-says-mahasweta-devi_10029269.html

India; shame, says Mahasweta Devi


Kolkata, March 19 (IANS) Bangladeshi writer Taslima
Nasreen, confined for nearly four months to a 'safe
house', finally left India Wednesday for medical
treatment abroad. Magsaysay winning social activist
Mahasweta Devi dubbed her departure as "shame" for
India. "I am at Heathrow airport now, waiting for a
connecting flight," Nasreen told a friend in Kolkata
from London but it was not yet clear where she was
heading to from there.

Sources said she left New Delhi Wednesday morning
alleging that she was denied treatment in India and
forced to live like a prisoner in a "death chamber".

Nasreen was almost forced to live in a "safe house" in
New Delhi since November-end after she was shunted out
of Kolkata following unprecedented street violence
over her stay in India and previous writings that
criticize Islam and its treatment of women.

Mahasweta Devi, the 82-year-old activist and writer,
told IANS: "It is a shame. The circumstances under
which she left are reprehensible for a free and
secular India.

"I read her email where she described her stay in New
Delhi like living in a death chamber. I called her up
and asked her to leave and get better treatment," she
said.

"West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
colluded to ensure that she was forced to leave India.
It is a conspiracy in the name of Muslim votes.

"Is this independent India? It is a dangerous
situation where a woman seeking asylum is put behind
walls," she said.

Earlier, Nasreen told IANS: "I can't take it any more.
I will die if I continue to live like this."

"I am losing my eyesight, my heart is damaged. I have
to survive. I am dying like this. I have to
immediately get good treatment because I am not even
getting cardiologists here," she said from her
undisclosed address in New Delhi where she was
sheltered by the government from fundamentalists.

The author, facing protests, was kept incognito for
nearly four months in a place near New Delhi. Security
restrictions were imposed on her movement even in
Kolkata before she was forced out of the city Nov 21
last year following violent protests.

She was living virtually in a house arrest and was not
allowed to receive visitors.

India's external affairs ministry in mid-February
extended her visa but restrictions on her movements
continued.

"I want to come back to Kolkata - my home - if I am
allowed and not put in prison like this again. Right
now my only concern is to live and get proper medical
attention," said Nasreen. She recently spent a few
days in a New Delhi hospital.

"Stress and hypertension is killing me. There is
already a big damage to my heart. I need to save the
rest," she said.

"My world is in Kolkata. I have not been allowed to
visit the city and collect my own belongings. I hope
my friends in Kolkata would help me since I am not
allowed to go there," she said.

West Bengal's ruling Left Front shunted out Nasreen
Nov 21 last year after street violence in Kolkata over
her extended stay in India.

Nasreen, who was already living confined in a Kolkata
apartment, was taken first to Jaipur and then to New
Delhi by the central government and has since been
kept in a safe house.

In an earlier interview, the 45-year-old author had
said impassionedly: "I am only breathing. I don't
think I am alive like you are. Can anybody live like
this? It was beyond my imagination that in a secular
democracy like India, such a thing could happen to a
writer."

On Nov 30 Nasreen had agreed to expunge controversial
portions from her autobiography "Dwikhandita" (Split
in Two).

Though Jyoti Basu, the patriarch of the state's ruling
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said on Dec
25 that Nasreen was welcome to return to Kolkata, the
Left Front government has chosen to remain silent on
her plight.

In a delicate balancing act, Mukherjee had promised to
"shelter" Nasreen but urged her to "refrain from
activities and expressions" that may hurt the
sentiments of Indian people and harm relations with
friendly countries.



______________________________

Unreported world India -THE BROKEN PEOPLE- Parts 1to3

Watch these videos

Unreported world India - "The Broken People" Part 1

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc7iiFPDbDc&feature=related

Unreported world India - "The Broken People" Part 2

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=leUEtR7ZUWk&feature=related

Unreported world India - "The Broken People" Part 3

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GiLFVuosdm4

India may have a booming economy with a soaring stock exchange fast growing technology and services sector, but it's built on service of a much more unpleasant kind, as this week's Unreported World reveals.

Reporter Ramita Navai and Producer Siobhan Sinnerton travel through India exposing the horrific plight of the country's 170 million Dalits; Literally meaning "the broken people" - and previously called "the untouchables", they are at the bottom of India's caste system and are some of the most oppressed people on Earth.

Economic growth has done little to improve the Dalits' lot; despite legislation, they still form 60 per cent of all those below the poverty line. Now, as Unreported World reports, Dalits are starting to fight for political power in an Indian civil rights movement against segregation every bit as bad as apartheid South Africa and the 1950s American South.

The team begin their journey with Dalits who are manual scavengers - a polite term for those whose role in life is to clean latrines by hand. It's a practise which is officially illegal, but a million Dalits do it every day. Navai accompanies Sangita as she begins her daily job cleaning the latrines of upper caste families. She is the third generation to do this and tells Navai that she desperately wishes her children don't suffer the same role.

Not only is it degrading, but the work can be dangerous. The team is told about a Dalit who has died after being overcome by fumes while cleaning a deep sewer. Other Dalits have dragged his body outside the municipality that hired him in protest. By law no Indian municipalities are permitted to employ manual scavengers, so the team goes to question the Chief Officer of the municipality. He denies that any scavengers are employed, despite the crowd outside who claim they are his employees.

The position of Dalits at the bottom of the caste ladder is deeply ingrained and those who step out of line are often ritually humiliated or punished with violence. In Devaliya an activist takes the team to a refuge full of Dalit families who have fled violence and harassment from upper caste families. Inside, Rudiben tells Navai that her husband had been standing up for the rights of Dalits in their village, angering the dominant caste and resulting in a horrific attack when he was speared to death by upper caste villagers. She says that when the case went to court, the villagers threatened to kill her children, intimidated the main witness and were subsequently aquitted.

In Maharashtra, the team meets Bhayalal, whose wife, daughter and two sons were beaten to death after he complained about access to land. Eleven villagers are currently on trial for murder. The Indian Government introduced an atrocities against Dalits law to deal with caste crime 18 years ago, but its implementation has been abysmal with a conviction rate of just two per cent.

Traveling to the eastern state of Bihar, the team finds a group of very young protesters - including school children who are forced by their teachers to clean toilets rather than study when they go to school. One boy tells Navai that when he asked to use the toilet, his teacher locked him in the cubicle for six hours.

Just as Black Americans did in the 1950s, educated Dalits are forming civil rights movements, challenging local governments and demanding equal access to services. As the team leaves the country, it's clear these leaders face an uphill struggle against such an entrenched system, but the price of failure will be to condemn millions to continuing misery and degradation.

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