India Idiocy

No major news for the markets. Hurricane Gustav swung at a wide pitch and missed. Oil is down big from Friday and other unconnected commodities are down, too. I suspect some monthly asset re-allocation in the big pension funds. I am doing nothing.

Rumors of Kremlin lack of control over generals appears. Interesting development. Also, they seem to believe their own propaganda.

See yesterday's blog post for more world events of significance.

Here are excerpts from the story from India that needs some notice, The Wall Street Journal online of September 2, 2008, with emphasis added:

***Start of Quote***
Hindu Mobs Burn Four Churches In Eastern State

NEW DELHI -- In some of the worst anti-Christian violence in India in years, rioting continued over the weekend and sporadically on Monday in the eastern state of Orissa, shattering hopes that a week-long spate of violence had been contained.

Hindu mobs burned at least four churches Saturday and Sunday and intermittent violence was reported Monday, according to police. Orissa officials said 13 people had been killed over the past week. The Asian Centre for Human Rights said as many as 50 people died.

More than 7,000 people have entered government-run refugee camps, according to a state government spokesman. "It's a breakdown of the state law-and-order machinery," said Joseph D'Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, which maintains a chapter in Orissa. "The violence has not yet been completely brought under control. Thousands are homeless. People, at nights, are still disappearing into the forests" to avoid roving mobs.

Armed with torches, Hindu rioters burned Christian homes and churches in the southern part of the state last week. Christians have fled to refugee camps or taken to hiding in the forests in the region, eyewitnesses reported.

"The violence is so much that people are afraid to talk to each other," says Padma Sahu, a doctor at Christian Hospital, in an area where some of the violence has taken place. However, Christian hospitals and schools have mostly remained untouched, she added.

The weekend's attacks were the latest on Christians, most of whom are Catholic, in a series that flared up after a Hindu religious leader was found killed in a temple along with four disciples Aug. 23. Police officials said they suspect Maoist rebels, who have long plagued the area, for the death of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.

Mr. Saraswati was a leading member of Hindu fundamentalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which publicly blamed the state's Christian minority following his death. A spokesman for the group declined to comment on the violence when reached by phone Monday.

Christians make up roughly 2% of India's 1.1 billion population. Many were originally lower-caste Hindus, who converted to try to escape the strictures of Hinduism's strict caste system and the poverty that accompanied their status. People convert "because they are neglected by the state government," said Jagannath Lenka, a professor of economics at North Orissa University. "Now the problem is that Hindus say Christians are converting their people."

The current spate of violence has centered on the district of Kandhamal, an impoverished area mostly populated by two tribal groups -- one that has largely converted to Christianity and another that has joined ranks with Hindu fundamentalist groups.

The conservative alliance governing the state, which includes the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has made clamping down on Christian conversions a key part of its electoral platform in polls expected next year. So far, the national government, while condemning the violence, hasn't directly intervened, saying it is a matter for the state to handle.
***End of Quote***

So in simple terms, the ruling classes in this state in India want to continue to oppress the poor via forcing them to remain in the lower casts of the Hindu religion. The poor want to lead their own lives and convert to Christianity to escape the oppression. I think India has a problem to deal with. Do human rights and freedom exist there for the poor ?

Word of the Day

"Distaff" - adjective and noun [$10]
Distaff means (adjective) maternal; female; (noun) 1. a woman's work or domain; 2. the female branch or side of the family.
Sentence: Will Big John McCain's move to select a distaff running mate help put more women voters into his column ? I think that depends on her ability to project honesty, competence and willingness to oppose corruption and the selling of political indulgences in DC.