India: A Feast for the Senses, often overwhelming...

My sister and I just got back to the U.S. from a high school reunion in India - we were in Delhi, Manesar (Haryana), and Kerala, and I still feel overpowered with the sights, sounds, and smells!

Sunsets, Massages, da Gama

We enjoyed the beach at Kovalam: the warm water, silky sand, and dramatic sunsets are such a contrast to the gray freezing water - even in the summer - of the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast U.S.; the little houseboat rocking in the backwaters at Alleppey; the Ayurvedic massages with hot scented oils being poured down one's back and fragrant rose petals to soak one's feet; and historic old Cochin with its Chinese fishing nets, synagogue*, and Vasco da Gama Church, now (ironically) Anglican!

Yeah, da Gama would be turning in his grave that his former burial place is no longer Roman Catholic!  The Portuguese took his body away and reinterred him in Portugal, unlike St. Francis Xavier** in Goa. To think that, even before da Gama landed in Cochin in the 15th century, the early Jews and Christians had already arrived in India, fleeing persecution. (One wonders if it was a different country then, perhaps more welcoming to foreigners and minorities)!

Pollution at a Critical Level

The traffic and pollution in Delhi have reached a critical level. One of my friends and a former colleague from the New Zealand High Commission, is suffering from advanced lung disease and is tied to an oxygen machine. His doctors think his irreversible breathing problems (only a small portion of his lungs work) were caused by the ever-present smog, the dangerous particles from diesel fuel, and driving a Vespa scooter for more than 35 years. We were sad to see Rajan so diminished.

When we arrived at Indira Gandhi Airport, you could see and smell the smoke and haze. According to a State Department official who visited Delhi during Diwali, the sources of pollution are wide ranging: crop burning, vehicles, construction, fireworks, and (worst of all), poor people burning non-biodegradable trash, including plastic and rubber, to keep warm.

My acupuncturist told me that southwest China has seen the rise of alarming new sinus cancers that may be caused by particle pollution from construction sites.  Is India going the same route?

Currency Crisis

The demonetization of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on the eve of our visit caused all kinds of hassles.  We were lucky to have a friend who brought rupees to our hotel, otherwise we would've been in dire straits!  There were press reports of people dropping down dead while standing in lines outside banks, queueing up for hours (often unsuccessfully) to change their money.

We visited former BBC chief of bureau Mark Tully - who still does programs for the Beeb - and his partner, Gillian Wright. Tully agreed that otherwise smart and savvy Indians have a bee in their bonnet when it comes to the PM and his policies; they refuse to acknowledge that the government messed up and caused a currency crisis because of poor planning. Gillian, who writes Urdu books, had spent the morning trying and failing to get money out of a bank in Nizamuddin and then Parliament Street, and was not happy.

Public Hygiene

It is wonderful to go back to one's country of birth and who wouldn't be proud of India's successes!  But public hygiene is still a major issue.  I've not seen so many people peeing in public as I did in New Delhi!  What's happened to Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) is another disaster: it could attract the same level of tourism as, say, the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, but it doesn't.  It needs investment, planning, and heightened public awareness.

Other developing countries have made huge strides in improving sanitation. According to a study I saw at the World Bank, only 1 percent of Chinese and 3 percent of Bangladeshis relieve themselves outdoors compared with half of Indians. It is a question of both attitude and access. Constructing and maintaining millions of toilets in India would cost a lot of money; however, a survey found that many people still prefer going to the bathroom outdoors!

Tourism Infrastructure

I visited the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in the 1980s when it was still fairly pristine, with the waters of the Triveni Sangam (the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean) meeting at Cape Comorin. It was a spot where one could immerse oneself in romantic, mood-enhancing sunrises and sunsets!  Sadly, much of Kanyakumari is now like a public latrine with mounds of trash, broken down stalls, plastic litter, and vendors cluttering up the place. To add insult to injury, an entire wardrobe of discarded saris, half saris, "dupattas," underwear, "dhotis," "chappals," and sandals had been abandoned and draped all over the rocks - just where we were trying to view the sunset!

The problem may be with Tamilnadu and the deterioration of tourism infrastructure - or just infrastructure in general. I remember how efficiently-run the hotels of the Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation were in earlier decades and how closely the TTDC worked with the Archaeological Survey of India to create the right kind of environment for historic and cultural sites.  On the other hand, the same cities that I visited in Kerala in the 70s and 80s have progressed in ways that Tamilnadu hasn't. Maybe it's the high level of literacy in Kerala but, whatever it is, it's working for the state.

Jayalalitha

The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Jayalalitha, passed away while we were in Cochin.  Life came to a sudden halt in Tamilnadu where politicians (many of them former film stars) are revered like minor deities!  I recall when a former Chief Minister Annadurai died; girls at Nirmala College, Coimbatore were throwing themselves on the floor in hysterics!  When MGR (also a CM) died, mourners were just as melodramatic and unhinged!  That's Tamilnadu politics!  But Jayalalitha was one of a kind; we may never see her like again.

As I write this, it is a frosty 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8.33 degrees Celsius!) in Washington.  After the balmy weather in India - the temps were in the 80s in Kerala and 60s in Delhi - this is like a punch in the guts, a shock to the system! I can't stand it! I need to head back!

Ludi Joseph
Washington D.C.
December 15, 2016


* Check out the photos: "Jew-Town" and "Jew Town Road" would cause a few worried eyebrows to be raised in the U.S. And be branded anti-Semitic!  But folks are less P.C. in India!

**Legend goes that the Portuguese colonists tried several times to bring Francis Xavier's body back to Portugal from Goa but, after a series of unfortunate events, they decided that the perfectly preserved (although emaciated and shrunken) body did not "want" to be returned. It was declared a miracle! Millions of pilgrims have viewed the remains of St. Francis which are kept in a casket in Old Goa's Bom Jesu Cathedral. It is more than 500 years old.

Check out my blog post on New Delhi from two years ago!

Sunset, Kanyakumari 

Remembering Vasco da Gama

Plaque, St.Francis Church, Cochin 

Exterior: St Francis Church 

Exterior: Synagogue, Cochin

Street Sign, Cochin

Street Sign: Jew Town

Houseboat, Alleppey

Vivekananda Rock Memorial

Confessions of An (Almost There) First-Time Voter!

A friend asked me if I had voted early. Many states let you do that and, as of now, maybe 40 million people across the country have already done so. I said no, I was waiting for the big day, November 8. While exercising my civic duty, I even speculated that I might be voter-intimidated by big burly gun-toting white-trashy low-IQ rubes! Just half-kidding, or am I? This is the District of Columbia after all, not some southern state. Not to dump on southern states or anything, but y'all sure appear to be the bastions of Trump-world and the ultimate experts in voter suppression of poor folks!

This is my first time voting in the U.S. having only become a citizen last year. I was excited to vote for America's first woman president, an admired and accomplished person - check out my cool stickers, buttons and badges at the end of this blog.  I also wanted to dwell on, drink in, and fully appreciate the ambience of the voting booth while floating on a cloud of woolly-headed patriotism! How clueless of me! All that was before this entire election cycle was hijacked and turned on its head by that "orange amoeba" as they once referred to him on Saturday Night Live!

It's not just ordinary Americans who are bemused and befuddled by these strange goings-on. The world is watching these shenanigans play out on their TV screens and is scandalized (almost daily) by how this dreadful man out-Trumps himself at every turn, and gets away with it. Reagan was known as the Teflon president (because nothing bad ever stuck to him); this guy has an even thicker skin and more demented followers.

Worse than what the candidate is saying is what he has unleashed in a large portion of the electorate: open hatred of anyone who doesn't think or look like them, racism, bigotry, misogyny, and prejudice. By his words and actions, Trump tells his followers that it's okay for them to savor and spit out the bile they're feeling; that it's fine to discriminate against Blacks, Latinos and other minorities; to mistreat women and the disabled; to deny not just climate change but all science and all reality; to disregard and question NATO; to let all that long-suppressed xenophobia out, and blame everyone else for their troubles! I know there are real problems of unemployment in an underperforming economy, but shattering the voter's psyche is not how you fix them!

Public discourse has never been as rancid as it is today.  Even after his projected November 8 defeat, the 30-40 percent of the electorate that supports him are not going gently into the good night (to paraphrase Dylan Thomas) or returning to their opioid-abusing lives of unquiet desperation. No, the genie is out of the bottle and may never ever go back. All the advances made in civil rights from the last half-century and more are being kicked into the sewer.

We are already hearing about how the Senate plans to impeach Clinton and strangle her Administration by investigating her ad infinitum. (We saw how Obama was blocked and stymied by the Hill for the last eight years). But, worse still, Senate Republicans have said they will never allow a Supreme Court nominee to be confirmed as long as there is a Democrat in the White House. And this from John McCain, who was himself the GOP presidential nominee in 2008 and not usually given to idiocy but, then, he did foist Sarah Palin on an unsuspecting electorate!

All this is so extreme and so unprecedented that one has to ask oneself: is America on its way to becoming a third-rate banana republic?  State Department officers in the far corners of the world are hanging their heads in shame trying to explain the unexplainable!  (Yeah, America, no more lectures to "backward" countries that reportedly mistreat minorities; first clean up your own front yard!  I was a working reporter in the 90s in D.C. when India was constantly being scolded by Congress and the Administration about a range of fractious issues from stealing patents to "extra-judicial killings" in Kashmir and Punjab).

But I digress. We are already witnessing the politicization of the FBI which is interfering with the electoral process in unheard-of ways. Remember all those stories about J. Edgar Hoover blackmailing Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers (JFK and RFK) after illegally listening in on phone calls?  The current FBI action seems to be in the same hoary Hoover tradition, except that happened more than sixty years ago!

Perhaps the most mind-boggling phenomenon we are witnessing is Russia's blatant intervention through state and non-state actors - including Wikileaks - hacking and publishing Democratic Party and private emails!  Such abuses of power ought to be strongly condemned by all progressive-minded countries but those countries are themselves afraid of what's going to happen if the election goes the wrong way and this unhinged man gets into the White House.

I appeal to my fellow South Asians including those who have cast their lot with Trump!  Have you seen some of his rallies on TV?  There are minorities (self-loathing Blacks, Latinos, and Asians) positioned in the front rows - to fool us into thinking that the Trumpsters will take care of them when "Celebrity White House" comes to Washington.  Maybe in an alternate reality!

After Brexit, I thought there might be a nationalist (near-fascist) sharp right turn in Western Europe but who knew it could happen this side of the Atlantic, in this great bastion of democracy!  This tests one's resolve. I know people who are resorting to apathy. They're saying, my vote can't or won't make a difference. But, hey, stop and think!  Give a damn! Don't be scared by the KKK tactics of the other side.  I'm going to cast that vote, come November 8, and no big burly school-dropout roughneck is going to stop me!

Ludi Joseph
Washington, D.C.
November 6, 2016

Britain:  Brexit fallout!  BoJo Appointed new Foreign Secretary!

No, not a joke!  Boris Johnson (dubbed BoJo by the tabloids) is indeed Britain's new Foreign Secretary. The man who has offended hundreds of people with his special brand of humour will now be in charge of leading foreign affairs in the UK at this particularly sensitive time when the country needs to craft a cohesive post-Brexit policy!

Let's catch up!  BoJo is a UK legislator (Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and Ruislip) and a former mayor of London.  He played a major role in the "leave" European Union campaign at last month's Brexit referendum, and was the initial favourite to succeed former Prime Minister David Cameron.  Like a scene played out in a Shakespearian tragi-comedy/farce, BoJo's leadership ambitions (and those of other Brexit-eers) came crashing down when key ally, Michael Gove, stood against him; Boris took himself out of the race leaving others to "clean the mess he'd made," according to media observers.  One by one, the slew of Prime Minister-wannabes dropped out of the running, leaving only current PM Theresa May (ironically, not a Brexit supporter) standing.

Gaffes and Racist Remarks

Boris is known for his gaffes and racist comments in newspaper articles. Among his choicest remarks, he called Turkish President Erdoğan a "wankerer" (masturbator) who had sex with a goat!  This was in response to Turkey's censorship crackdown.  (Johnson's limerick won a poetry competition and was published!)

After Obama supported the "remain" campaign, Boris called him "part Kenyan" and accused him of an “ancestral dislike” of Britain (shades of Trump and birther-ism?).  He has compared Hillary Clinton to a “sadistic nurse in a mental hospital" and used the derogatory term "piccaninnies" when referring to Black people. He said the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with "regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies," and mentioned their "watermelon smiles!"  Yes, clearly an equal opportunity offender!

The EU as "Ill-fitting Underwear"

Boris has likened the European Union to "badly designed" and ill-fitting underwear that was too tight and constrictive in some places and "dangerously loose" in others!  He finished that little homily on undergarments (which can be found online) with the slogan, "knickers to the pessimists and all those who talk Britain down!" This was of course when he was campaigning to "take back control of Britain," before the Brexit vote.

Readers will recall his criticism of former PM Tony Blair in a 2006 Telegraph column.  He wrote, “For 10 years we in the Tory party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party.”  He did apologise later but insisted that he'd seen pictures of PNG warfare (and cannibalism!) in a Time-Life book!

Downgrading the FCO?

Observers are astonished that Boris (who did more than anyone to mislead the British people about Brexit) should be "rewarded" with the Foreign Office. Some have suggested that his appointment is a huge demotion for Britain's much vaunted FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), a model for former colonies and Commonwealth partners, and that it might lose its status and heft in the world!

The FCO used to be in charge of aid, but lost that to DfID (the UK's Department for International Development, responsible for administering overseas aid) which separated from the FCO nearly two decades ago, under a former Labour Government. Now the FCO is losing trade to Liam Fox, the new Secretary of State for International Trade, who will negotiate trade deals with Europe, the US, China, India, and so on.  Clearly no one thinks Boris is up to the task!

The newly-created role of Secretary of State for Exiting the EU has gone to David Davis, a Eurosceptic lawmaker who says the risk of losing a key export partner will force EU leaders such as Angela Merkel to agree to a free trade deal. So Boris - the man who was the face of Brexit - will not lead the charge to take the UK out of the EU, after all!

Insulting Allies?

Johnson's presence may accelerate the FCO's transformation to a "glorified trade promotion agency," according to some analysts.  The Brexit department and department of trade are expected to do the heavy lifting while the PM's office takes over foreign policy at critical times (which also happens in New Delhi), leaving Boris to do what, exactly?  Fly around the world, insulting allies?

Some might have thought that George Osborne, the former chancellor of the exchequer, would be a better choice for foreign secretary but he is out in the cold as is Cameron - two figures that ran conservative politics for more than a decade.

Mark Toner, State Department spokesperson - who clearly struggled not to laugh at his Washington briefing when asked for a reaction on Johnson's appointment - said the US-UK bond “is frankly a relationship that goes beyond personalities” and that "we're always going to be able to work with the British no matter who is occupying the role of foreign secretary because of our deep abiding special relationship with the UK.”  One wonders if that was a little dig against Boris for what he said about Obama and Hillary!

Good for Laughs?

If nothing else, Boris will be good for a few laughs after the major doom and gloom of the Brexit vote and its mindless chucking overboard of the EU, an essential pillar of influence. He will be a showy "celebrity" presence as he travels the globe, selling an image of a new free-trading "independent" Britain; hopefully, not some neo-isolationist xenophobic "little England" throwback!  With apologies to Shakespeare's "Henry VIII," if David Cameron is Hamlet or Prince Hal, then BoJo must be the big buffoon, Falstaff!

Ludi Joseph
Washington, DC
July 13, 2016

Why Brexit — Observations from a Former EU Person

I used to work for the European Union (EU), so the Brexit referendum results with the United Kingdom (UK) voting to "Leave" the EU, comes as a bit of a shock!  One always expected the Brits to be more aware and at least more attuned to their own self-interest. How could the smart, savvy Londoner be seduced by the "Leave" campaign which trafficked in fear to a repulsive degree and waved the spectre of a controlling global force stealing national identity.

My faith in Londoners and the people of Edinburgh was well founded! The liberal, metropolitan voter class in London cast their ballots overwhelmingly to "Remain" in the EU. So did Scotland and Northern Ireland.  But the small towns and provincial industrial centres of England — many of which are hard-hit by the flight of corporate capital and good jobs — voted overwhelmingly to "Leave." 

Xenophobia Rules!

Two Uber drivers in the past week asked me why this was happening. It's the same xenophobia and fear of immigrants taking their jobs that is driving the blue collar white vote Stateside (in the Republican Party) to support Donald Trump.  The run-up to the UK referendum was marked by a bitterly divided campaign, one that was as much about immigration fears as it was about the global economy.

Outside London, Britons don't much like the idea of multiculturalism. Xenophobia appears to be the electorate's response to what they consider is large-scale immigration to an already overpopulated country, particularly when the immigrants are of a different race or culture. At this present time, the "other" seems to overwhelmingly mean people from Poland, Turkey, and countries in the Middle East.(Not so much South Asian "Pakis" — yeah, big surprise!)

Reaction to Globalisation

It is also a reaction to globalisation and an escape valve for the frustration and fear of the majority.  Britons saw their jobs disappearing overseas or going to foreigners: the usual phenomenon of capital seeking the cheapest labor, the most lax environmental guidelines, and a more favourable regulatory environment beyond national borders. I saw a comment that it is better to cast a ballot than wield "the guillotine or headman's axe!"  Okay, but in the 21st century, we should be able to find parallels outside the French Revolution!

It won't be easy for the UK to extract itself from the EU's mind-boggling bureaucracy.  It may take years of negotiation.  What is worse is that Scotland and Northern Ireland have voted to "Remain" so this may mean a second referendum by Scotland for independence from the UK. That particular disaster was avoided two years ago but what happens now?  Will Northern Ireland and Wales follow suit?

Cameron and Johnson

Outgoing prime minister David Cameron (who thoughtlessly engineered the referendum without regard for how it would turn out) has much to answer for and may go down in history as the biggest "boob" as well as the architect of Britain's downfall!  Boris Johnson, his likely successor— the tubby, cycle-riding, bombastic pol and former London mayor who made his name during the 2012 London Olympics — is perhaps less shamelessly racist than UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, head of the "Leave" EU campaign.  

But Johnson and Cameron (both Conservatives) blotted their copybook with overtly racist comments in the campaign that voted in Sadiq Khan (Labour Party), the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London (May 2016). Khan is a firm opponent of Donald Trump and has attacked him on a number of occasions. During his mayoral campaign he accused British Conservatives of using the "Donald Trump playbook" to divide communities in order to prevent his election.

Britain has had classic xenophobes like the late Enoch Powell a half century ago (did you know he wanted to be Viceroy of India?), while France currently has Marine Le Pen and the Dutch have Geert Wilders. But Britons have always been more outgoing, less insular, more of this world!  This is something one expects from newly-liberated Eastern and Central European former Communist countries (that have now settled into apparent dictatorships), not the liberal west and certainly not the country that gave us the Magna Carta and the pillars of modern democracy (regard for human rights and civil liberties).  Yes, few observers expected to see this happen.  You don't throw out the baby (the EU) with the bath water - you fix the baby!  And true, there is much to fix!  

Brits Googling "What is the EU?"

Despite all-out attempts by both sides to court voters, Britons were not only in the dark by what would happen if they left the EU — many seemed not to even know what the European Union is (not kidding)! Web watchers report that the question most Googled the week of and the day of the referendum was (wait for it) "what is the EU?"

When Trump arrived in Britain, he said the vote to quit the EU was “a great thing” and used his favourite phrase, the British “took back their country.” He did not say took back from whom.  He left his audience to fill in the blanks!  Sarah Palin was also celebrating!

Consequences

So far the referendum has had both expected and unexpected consequences.  It has caused stock markets and currencies to plunge worldwide. The Financial Times said it could damage the chances of Britain’s biggest steel producer, Tata Steel, (also a large employer of skilled British workers) maintaining its operations in the UK, as well as Tata Motors, and maybe its UK subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover. 

Ludi Joseph

June 24, 2016

Washington, DC

The New "Knick Hotel" - Symbol of History, Glamor, and New York Lore 

Check out the Josephs and Pals on the roof of the newly-reopened Knickerbocker Hotel ("The Knick"), celebrating "me Mum's happy birthday" as we say in the old country, Inja!  Behind us you can see the building from which the Waterford Crystal Ball is famously dropped on New Year’s Eve. Also visible is the Paramount building with its ticking clock.  

We ate dinner at the Charlie Palmer restaurant (named for the Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur whose Progressive American menu has gained a big following), and also checked out the St. Cloud rooftop bar. The "skypods" built into the corners of the mansard-style roof seem to float 200 feet above Times Square and - come December 31 - will most certainly become prime real estate, likely costing $1,000 or more a pod!

Sanctuary from the High-Voltage Energy of Times Square!

The first thing that strikes you when you enter the historic hotel on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway is the muted decor (brown, beige and silver tones) as well as the low lighting and remarkable quiet.  It is meant to be a contrast to the high-voltage sensory overload of Times Square's boundless blinking energy: the endless noise, sirens, general hubbub, and giant digital billboards that overwhelm one's ears and eyes!  You can see the frenzy of lights and traffic from the restaurant and lounge windows inside the hotel - but don't hear a thing! 

The first Knickerbocker Hotel was built in 1906 by John Jacob Astor IV (who died aboard the Titanic in 1912).  In its heyday, it was one of the swankiest hotels in New York until its closure in 1921, mainly due to Prohibition.  The glitterati came in droves: New York and other East Coast socialites, the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, and celebrities from Broadway such as producer-playwright George M. Cohan who wrote Yankee Doodle Dandy, among other famous songs.

Pavlova and Caruso

Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova stayed at The Knick in 1910 when she performed at the Metropolitan Opera; her debut marked the beginning of the ballet era in the U.S.  (This was before Pavlova worked with Indian classical dance revivalists Uday Shankar and Rukmani Devi Arundale). On Armistice Day 1918, tenor Enrico Caruso - who led a lavish lifestyle as a long-term Knickerbocker resident - serenaded crowds in Times Square from his open hotel window with 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'

Beaux-Arts Landmark

The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is in the French Beaux-Arts style which influenced American, especially New York, architecture between 1880 and 1920. (Other nearby examples of Beaux-Arts tradition include Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library). To restore the hotel's broken copper green façade dating back to 1906, copper was imported from Europe; the effect is both grandiose and impressive.

The new hotel - whose redesign reportedly cost $250 million - has a Caruso Suite, a Cohan Suite and a Parrish Suite to commemorate its famous residents. The centerpiece of the original bar, the 30-foot "Old King Cole" mural by artist Maxfield Parrish, is now housed at another Astor hotel, the St. Regiis.

There is a story that an old "shadowy" Knick barman called Martini invented the Martini drink.  Not so, say purists!  It was someone called Martinez!  Of course, I had to try a classic Knick martini (gin, vermouth, bitters); strong but good!

"Knickerbocker" - synonymous with New York City

The term "Knickerbocker" traces its origin to Dutch settlers who came to the New World in the 1600s.  It refers to the style of pants they wore, rolled up below the knee, which became known as "Knickerbockers" or "knickers."  The word was introduced into lore by Washington Irving, who wrote a satiric history of New York under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. 

In Irving's day, the word "knickerbocker" meant a New Yorker who could trace his ancestry to the original Dutch settlers.  The "Father Knickerbocker" character - clothed in a cotton wig, three-cornered hat, buckled shoes, and knickered pants - became synonymous with New York City.  Many years later, it was also chosen as the name of the city's once-storied basketball team: The New York Knickerbockers, shortened affectionately to The New York Knicks.