Dec 17, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 17 December HERE I am in London and the December season is underway in Chennai. To the unconverted, Carnatic music is staid, forbiddingly technical, repetitive, elitist. And some of its devotees do seem determined to live up the stereotype, preoccupied with tradition, treating the music like a zone of purity,… Read more
Dec 3, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 3 December IN the Draa Valley, in southern Morocco, flanked on one side by an oasis densely planted with date palms and on the other by the high crumbling mud walls of what had been the Jewish quarters of an old and now abandoned village, I read about the Israeli… Read more
Nov 5, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 5 November Whenever scientific research produces results that are inconvenient to people in power, they seek to deny, discredit or downplay them. On October 12th, The Lancet, one of the medical world’s most respected journals, published a peer-reviewed study conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health, one of… Read more
Oct 15, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 October STARBUCKS, the world’s largest coffee retailer, recently unveiled ambitious plans for expansion into major new markets, including Russia, Brazil, Egypt and, of course, India. By the end of 2007, the company will boast 20,000 outlets in 41 countries. Starbucks is, among other things, a symbol, a superstar performer… Read more
Oct 1, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 1st October FOR many years, attacks on “multi-culturalism” in Britain were confined to the far Right, which argued, like its counterparts in other countries, that the nation could only survive if it was homogeneous, welded together by a single racial, religious or cultural identity. However, since 9/11, “multi-culturalism” has come… Read more
Sep 17, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 17 September NEARLY five years after the U.S.-led coalition dispatched the Taliban and proclaimed a new dawn for Afghanistan, foreign troops are waging a full-scale war against insurgents said to control as much as half the country. Meanwhile, millions of Afghans face starvation, and the development and democracy promised by… Read more
Sep 3, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 3 September ON a recent visit to the United States, I made a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, a glistening body of water prized for its depth and clarity (only 20 miles from Boston) as well as for its association with the visionary writer, Henry David Thoreau. From July 1845 to… Read more
Aug 19, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 20 August As a Jew, I’ve been asked if I’m ashamed at what Israel has been doing in Lebanon. And the answer I give is that I am disgusted, I am angry, I am appalled, but, no, I am not ashamed. Why should I be? I bear no personal responsibility… Read more
Aug 6, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 6 August As of November last year, anyone applying for British citizenship has to pass a test demonstrating both proficiency in English and “sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom”. In preparation for the test, applicants are asked to study a booklet that begins with a brief history of Britain…. Read more
Jun 25, 2006
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 25 June At 4 AM on June 2nd, another grim episode in the war on terror was played out on a quiet residential street in east London. In what the media initially hailed as a major anti-terrorist triumph, 250 heavily armed police descended on a house where, it was alleged,… Read more
