Impedance Mismatch over HTTP

A Muslim woman in India named Imrana has been ordered by a fatwa imposed by religious leaders to separate from her husband because she was raped by her father in law.

Why doesn’t anyone want to listen as to what she wants to do? Why does not the Indian government ask this question? Who gave the religious leaders the right to define her destiny? If this does not make the case for Uniform Civil Code, I don’t know what would. We know the answers don’t we? This is a classic case of cancerous pseudo-secularism. Mulayam has backed the fatwa decision made by the religious leaders. We have just witnessed a new record low to which people can stoop to.

The Indian media has been relatively quiet while the Mukhtaran Mai case has gained significant coverage in the world media. Mukhtaran Mai is now free to travel to the United States and tell her story, thanks to bloggers who kept the pressure and forced the reluctant American media to cover a story which spoke the truth even if it meant covering a negative story about it’s ally in the “War Against Terror” especially now that Bush is having a hard time justifying 1700 American deaths in the war.

Please blog about Imrana as she needs your support. It is now possible to make the media pay attention and influence lives. Mukhtaran is a shining example of how justice can be sought via viral communication.

There are certain events which are so influential but appear very ordinary at the same time. One such was the meeting held by Hitler’s top generals such as Eichman and Heydrich as depicted in the movie “Conspiracy”. The results of this meeting changed history for ever.

One such meeting took place as part of a series of meetings though not on the scale of the fateful SS meeting took place recently in Tokyo.

The main takeaway from this meeting is that the US wants to throw its weight to get a Security Council seat for Japan but won’t support India until it gets what it wants from India. It wants to mould India into an ally, as a deterrent to China and wants us to subscribe to it’s China-containment strategy.

The New Zealand herald article talks about it in greater detail but of interest to me will be the US approach when it comes to dealing with the Congress Government.

The commies in the govt will essentially morph into mad dogs and start barking at the very hint of a stronger military. Will the US try to influence the Indian population by giving Pakistan a cold shoulder and showing them in bad light to embarrass the current Congress govt? Will this act influence the Indian population? Will this gamble payoff and help BJP win the next election? It is quite clear that with the current Congress Govt the US cannot achieve it’s goal of arming India and making us a deterrent against China. The US needs a stronger India which would go against the Congress idea of pandering to the Pakis. It would be interesting to watch how things turnout in the Indo-Iran pipeline deal. The developments over this issue will provide hints about the US agenda.

Nobel Prize Winner Jack Kilby died in Dallas on Monday, he was 81. He invented the integrated circuit and coinvented the electronic calculator.

Without his contributions, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

an excerpt..

One day in late July, Jack Kilby was sitting alone at Texas Instruments. He had been hired only a couple of months earlier and so he wasn’t able to take vacation time when practically everyone else did. The halls were deserted, and he had lots of time to think. It suddenly occurred to him that all parts of a circuit, not just the transistor, could be made out of silicon. At the time, nobody was making capacitors or resistors out of semiconductors. If it could be done then the entire circuit could be built out of a single crystal — making it smaller and much easier to produce. Kilby’s boss liked the idea, and told him to get to work. By September 12, Kilby had built a working model, and on February 6, Texas Instruments filed a patent. Their first “Solid Circuit” the size of a pencil point, was shown off for the first time in March

References:

1. Integrated Circuits
2. Yahoo Link
3. 
   Kilby’s First Integrated Circuit @ Texas Instruments

This is an incredible tale of a young woman in Pakistan who had been gang raped under orders from the elders in the society for her brother’s wrongdoing.

Here are excerpts from a NY Times article written by Kristof

Kristof’s articles about Mukhtaran

1. Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced
2. A Free Woman
3. The 11-Year-Old Wife

Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300.

Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with the backing of a local Islamic leader, she fought back and testified against her persecutors. Six were convicted.

Then Ms. Mukhtaran, who believed that the best way to overcome such abuses was through better education, used her compensation money to start two schools in her village, one for boys and the other for girls. She went out of her way to enroll the children of her attackers in the schools, showing that she bore no grudges.

Readers of my column sent in more than $133,000 for her. Mercy Corps, a U.S. aid organization, has helped her administer the money, and she has expanded the schools, started a shelter for abused women and bought a van that is used as an ambulance for the area. She has also emerged as a ferocious spokeswoman against honor killings, rapes and acid attacks on women. (If you want to help her, please don’t send checks to me but to Mercy Corps, with “Mukhtaran Bibi” in the memo line: 3015 S.W. First, Portland, Ore. 97201.)

A group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday (see www.4anaa.org). Then a few days ago, the Pakistani government went berserk.

On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.

Even if Ms. Mukhtaran were released, airports have been alerted to bar her from leaving the country.According to Dawn, a Karachi newspaper, the government took this step, “fearing that she might malign Pakistan’s image.”

This is the time to show your support. Mukhtaran and women like her all over the world need your support.

Demonstration on Wednesday, June 22 at 5th Avenue and 65th Street, New York City, between 10:30 - 12:30

Itinerary of Mukhtaran Bibi in the United States

Resources:

1. Tom Watson’s Blog
2. Readers Comments @ New York Times
3. Sunni Sisters
4. 4anna.org