Trump’s big election lie pushes America toward autocracy By Timothy Snyder BOSTONGLOBE.COM Clinging to power by claiming you are the victim of internal enemies is a very dangerous tactic. Don’t underestimate where this can go. Updated November 11, 2020, 10:14 a.m. When you lose, it is good and healthy to know why. In the First World War, the conflict that defined our modern world, the Germans lost because of the overwhelming force assembled by their enemies on the Western Front. After the Americans entered the war, German defeat was a matter of time. Yet German commanders found it convenient instead to speak of a “stab in the back” by leftists and Jews. This big lie was a problem for the new German democracy that was created after the war, since it suggested that the major political party, the Social Democrats, and a national minority, the Jews, were outside the national community. The lie was taken up by the Nazis, and it became a central element of their version of history after they took power. The blame was elsewhere. It is always tempting to blame defeat on others. Yet for a national leader to do so and to inject a big lie into the system puts democracy at great risk. Excluding others from the national community makes democracy impossible in principle, and refusing to accept defeat makes it impossible in practice. What we face now in the United States is a new, American incarnation of the old falsehood: that Donald Trump’s defeat was not what it seems, that votes were stolen from him by internal enemies — by a left-wing party. “Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal,” he tweets. He claims that his votes were all “Legal Votes,” as if by definition those for his opponent were not. Underestimating Donald Trump is a mistake that people should not go on making. Laughing at him will not make him go away. If it did, he would have vanished decades ago. Nor will longstanding norms about how presidents behave make him go away. He is an actor and will stick to his lines: It was all a fraud, and he won “by a lot.” He was never defeated, goes the story; he was a victim of a conspiracy. This stab-in-the-back myth could become a permanent feature of American politics, so long as Trump has a bullhorn, be it on Fox or on RT (formerly Russia Today) — or, though Democrats might find this unthinkable, as an unelected president remaining in power. After all, a claim that an election was illegitimate is a claim to remaining in power. A coup is under way, and the number of participants is not shrinking but growing. Few leading Republicans have acknowledged that the race is over. Important ones, such as Mitch McConnell and Mike Pompeo, appear to be on the side of the coup. We might like to think that this is all some strategy to find the president an exit ramp. But perhaps that is wishful thinking. The transition office refuses to begin its work. The secretary of defense, who did not want the army attacking civilians, was fired. The Department of Justice, exceeding its traditional mandate, has authorized investigations of the vote count. The talk shows on Fox this week contradict the news released by Fox last week. Republican lawmakers find ever new verbal formulations that directly or indirectly support Trump’s claims. The longer this goes on, the greater the danger to the Republic. What Trump is saying is false, and Republican politicians know it. If the votes against the president were fraudulent, then Republican wins in the House and Senate were also fraudulent: The votes were on the same ballots. Yet conspiracy theories, such as the stab in the back, have a force that goes beyond logic. They push away from a world of evidence and toward a world of fears. Psychological research suggests that citizens are especially vulnerable to conspiracy theories at the time of elections. Trump understands this, which is why his delivery of conspiracy theory is full of capital letters and bereft of facts. He knows better than to try to prove anything. His ally Newt Gingrich reaches for the worst when he blames a wealthy Jew for something that did not happen in the first place. History shows where this can go. If people believe an election has been stolen, that makes the new president a usurper. In Poland in 1922, a close election brought a centrist candidate to the presidency. Decried by the right in the press as an agent of the Jews, he was assassinated after two weeks in office. Even if the effect is not so immediate, the lingering effect of a myth of victimhood, of the idea of a stab in the back, can be profound. The German myth of a stab in the back did not doom German democracy immediately. But the conspiracy theory did help Nazis make their case that some Germans were not truly members of the nation and that a truly national government could not be democratic. Democracy can be buried in a big lie. Of course, the end of democracy in America would take an American form. In 2020 Trump acknowledged openly what has been increasingly clear for decades: The Republican Party aims not so much to win elections as to game them. This strategy has its temptations: The more you care about suppressing votes, the less you care about what voters want. And the less you care about voters want, the closer you move to authoritarianism. Trump has taken the next logical step: Try to disenfranchise voters not only before but after elections. If you have been stabbed in the back, then everything is permitted. Claiming that a fair election was foul is preparation for an election that is foul. If you convince your voters that the other side has cheated, you are promising them that you yourself will cheat next time. Having bent the rules, you then have to break them. History shows the danger in the familiar example of Hitler. When politicians break democracy, as conservatives in Weimar Germany did in the early 1930s, they are wrong to think that they will control what happens next. Someone else will emerge who is better adapted to the chaos and who will wield it in ways that they neither want nor expect. The myth of victimhood comes home and claims its victims. This is no time to mince words. In the interest of the Republic and of their own party, Republicans should accept the results. Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University, is the author of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century” and, most recently, “Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty From a Hospital Diary.” Follow him on Twitter @TimothyDSnyder.

On the pulse: three delicious dal recipes from the Financial Times

 

https://www.ft.com/content/af024f37-a58f-4110-bd40-3fa23f8198fe

On the pulse: three delicious dal recipes

The superfood lends itself to countless flavours and textures. Here FT journalists share their favourite recipes

August 12 2020

© Charlie Bibby

Anjli Raval

This time of the year reminds me of my childhood home in east London.

In the late afternoons, as my brother and I played, my grandfather would sit at the head of the dining table slicing fruit for the evening’s dessert. When Indian mangoes were in season, he would sneak us sweet, unctuous orange pieces. Later, strawberries, slices of watermelon or other summer fruits.

But the overwhelming aromas filling the air at that time of the day came from my grandmother’s Gujarati rasoi. Above all, from her “everyday” dal.

The scent of her red gram and moong lentils bubbling away with cinnamon, cloves, sweet and sour kokum, curry leaves, ginger, chilli and jaggery is fixed in my memory. The reddish-brown, thin, soupy dal packed a punch. The spice kick would hit the back of your throat. It was never meant to be had on its own or just with rice. It was part of an array of dishes on our steel thalis. A small bowl would be set amid a masala-stuffed potato dish or okra curry, something fried like a methi bhajiya (fenugreek fritters) with coriander chutney, a sambharo salad made with shredded cabbage and carrot, rotli (flatbread), yoghurt, rice, pickle and papad.

Dal itself can mean a dried legume — such as a lentil or pea — that grows as a seed inside a pod and can be split or cooked whole. But it is also the soupy dish or stew made from these same pulses that is particularly nutritious. The Oxford Companion to Food calls it “one of the principal foods of the Indian subcontinent”.

Each dal differs in flavour, texture and cooking method. Varieties change according to the region — south Indian specialities are thinner and translucent, for example, while heartier and creamier ones are popular in the north. They can be finished with tempered spices or some finely chopped fresh coriander. They can be sweet or tomatoey, packed with curry leaves or a spice blend such as Bengali panch phoran, which includes fennel seeds, fenugreek, nigella seeds, cumin seeds and mustard seeds. The range is seemingly endless.

© Charlie Bibby

© Charlie Bibby

© Charlie Bibby

© Charlie Bibby

When I went to university and later moved abroad, my grandmother’s cooking was no longer accessible. I didn’t have the time or, frankly, the knowledge to make the array of dishes that made up the flavour-laden thalis the women in my family seemed to curate subconsciously. And with that my grandmother’s “everyday” dal disappeared from my life.

Eventually, however, my stomach pined for home cooking and I started compiling a compendium of family recipes. Until then, no one had really written them down. Measurements were vague and told to one another in “mutthi” or fistfuls, as opposed to grammes or cups. I interpreted recipes and wrote down everything — my grandmother’s original flavour combinations, my mum’s different versions of dishes and soon enough my own adaptations.

A recent survey of my family yielded more than 20 ‘favourite’ dals. Results depended on mood, occasion, where they were eating the dal and who was cooking

Preferences and styles of cooking vary even among those who have grown up together. A recent survey of my family — via a 14-person WhatsApp chat — yielded more than 20 “favourite” dals. Results depended on mood, occasion, where they were eating the dal and who was cooking.

Eight years ago, I rang my grandmother from New York and told her that my go-to dal had become a tweaked version of my mum’s tadka dal — originally a Punjabi dish, which she makes with yellow split peas and split moong beans. “You mean that thick one that is a meal in itself?” she asked. I remember how appalled she was, implying it was heavier and not as delicately spiced as her everyday dal.

It is indeed a meal in itself and that’s exactly why I turned to it when I was thousands of miles away from home. My everyday dal was simple to make, rich, delicious and it didn’t need the supporting acts.

© Charlie Bibby

These days, I’m not an ocean away from home. I’m six and a half miles down the road in London. Like many people lately, I have been cooking comfort food — including all the extras I never felt the need to make before. And at the centre of it all is my dal — even if the recipe is not one my granny will necessarily agree with.

1. My mum gave me a small pressure cooker many years ago, it is one of my prized possessions. It follows me wherever I go — and dramatically cuts the time it takes to make a dal.

2. Wash the yellow split peas, then put them in a pressure cooker with the moong dal, two cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. Turn the gas under the pressure cooker on to a medium heat. After you hear about five whistles — roughly 15 minutes — turn it off and let it cool before you open it. The dal should be cooked through but not mushy. (If you do not have a pressure cooker, soak the dal for a few hours — or overnight — and then boil it in a pan with water and salt until cooked.)

3. In a separate pan add the oil and, when hot, the cumin seeds and dried red chilli. Then add the asafoetida and diced onion. When slightly brown and soft, add the grated garlic and ginger followed by the cooked pulses. Add another three cups of cold water. As the dal simmers, add the chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and salt to taste. Once the dal starts to bubble, add the blended chopped tomatoes (or passata).

4. Simmer for a further 15 minutes on a low heat, stirring frequently. You can use a hand blender to blitz it a little but try to keep the texture of the dal. You can make it as thin or thick as you like, adding water as needed. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander.

Anjli Raval is the FT’s senior energy correspondent

---

Mamta Badkar

Growing up in Bombay, dal was a staple at lunch and dinner, and essential, my mother said, to add protein to my vegetarian diet. Yet it was something I ate willingly only when I was unwell.

I had a taste for more eclectic cuisine and my mother, an exceptional cook, pandered to these whims now and then. But dal — the prosaic pulse, the lacklustre legume — remained a constant fixture.

Every day I would try to mount a resistance and every day my mother would crush the sole mutineer at the dining table like some gastronomic despot. I found consolation in the sabzis (vegetables) — okra and a fenugreek and green pea curry were my favourites — and rotis.

Weary of my intransigence, my mother started to whip up a variety of dals. Most days we would have a simple tadka dal or a spicy masala dal, but then she started to pepper our menus with kali (black) dal — a creamy dal makhani — and a version of meetha (sweet) dal that uses jaggery and tamarind paste. Still, eating any dal was mostly a chore and something I associated with being ill.

Later, as I headed off to university in New York City — foodie paradise — I was ready to purge dal from my diet once and for all.

Notwithstanding, my mother scribbled a handful of simple Indian recipes into a notebook and tucked it — along with some essential spices and a small pressure cooker — into my suitcase.

It took moving halfway across the world for me to realise that my mother’s daily dal was an expression of her love

These recipes remained in my luggage during my first few months in America, as I tested the limits of my metabolism. As a student, my daily budget was tight and my meals consisted largely of falafel wraps from the halal cart just outside my campus, plus Koronet’s jumbo pizza slices, heavy on the grease and arteries, but light on my pocket.

It was the winter chill that made me long for the warmth of home — and, to my surprise, my mother’s homemade spicy dal. Much as I had dismissed it in my teens, it was what I had eaten when I was under the weather or stressed and nothing could comfort me more.

So, in December 2009, during my winter break, I reached for my mother’s notebook. She had helpfully led with an index of spices in both English and Hindi, followed immediately by an easy masala dal recipe.

I made my way from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Murray Hill (or Curry Hill as it is often called) and bought some dal, chillies, onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger from an Indian store. As I set out to cook dal for the very first time, I realised I didn’t have any bay leaves and panicked. My mother chuckled, explained that they aren’t essential and assured me that my cooking plans were not in fact ruined. She walked me through her recipe — one that I stick to, more or less, a decade later.

It took moving halfway across the world for me to realise that my mother’s daily dal was an expression of her love. Living in New York, one of the epicentres of the pandemic and far from family, it’s the meal I most often cook for my husband and me. And when I return home to Bombay, my first meal is always homemade curd rice and a serving of dal.

1. Wash the red lentils and split pigeon peas, then put them in a pressure cooker with three cups of water and the turmeric. Close the pressure cooker and set it on a medium flame until you hear three whistles. Then turn off the stove.

2. Prepare your tadka (tempering) ingredients, while the dal cooks. On a low flame, heat some sunflower oil, add the mustard seeds, cumin, one bay leaf and a pinch of asafoetida. Don’t let the spices burn.

3. Add the chopped onion and cook until it turns yellow, then add in the ginger and garlic. Add the finely chopped tomatoes, along with the green chillies and red chilli powder (I like to use Kashmiri chilli powder) and mix well. Then add the curry leaves and salt and, finally, pour the dal into the pan and let it all simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn off the flame.

4. To top it off, rinse coriander leaves, chop and sprinkle on the cooked dal. Serve with roti or rice.

Mamta Badkar is US head of fastFT

---

Tony Tassell

Lately, I have gotten a little more dal, turning to the superfood of the subcontinent and one of the world’s great comfort meals.

For many, dal is a taste of home. Meera Sodha writes in her cookbook Made in India: “Ask any Indian what their favourite food is, and they will most likely tell you that it’s their mother’s dal-bhaat (dal and rice). It might sound humble, but in the hands of an Indian cook these simple ingredients are transformed into food for the soul.”

I first acquired a taste for it on family trips to India as a kid and later as an adult, including a stint living in Mumbai in the 1990s. From bustling train station cafeterias to five-star restaurants, dal was found pretty much everywhere, in countless variations and flavours across the country.

Loyalty to favoured variations runs deep. In my family, we have developed a dal that we like most, a great, quick weekday meal, saving more elaborate dals for weekend experimentation or dinner with friends.

I have made it so many times, I could almost do it with my eyes shut. Once, when I was on a diet, I ate it every day for lunch with its slow-burning sustenance reducing the need for snacks. And as I have cut back on meat in recent years, I have cooked it more.

My recipe is based on an old one by the chef Merrilees Parker but I have adapted it over the years. Each time I make it, it is a little different. This is not precise cooking.

1. Wash the red lentils in a saucepan until water runs through it clear. Drain. Then add 900ml of water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 20-30 minutes. Remove any scum that comes to the surface during cooking. Blitz with a hand blender, if you have one, to your desired consistency. Or hand mash a little.

2. Add a tablespoon of tomato paste and a tin of tomatoes. Stir and let simmer for a few minutes. In a separate pan, make what is called the tadka — flavoured oil. Heat up three to four tablespoons of oil. If you want a richer dal, use ghee instead.

3. Into the oil go the curry leaves, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red or green chilli split down the middle, chilli flakes and about four cloves of thinly sliced garlic. Fry for a minute or two. Then tip the tarka into the dal and stir. Add salt to taste and the juice of half a lemon.

4. Sometimes I will also add a few handfuls of spinach to the mix. Another variation is to add a couple of teaspoons of grated ginger to the lentils when they are being boiled or to the tarka. Sometimes I will add coconut milk to the boiled lentils to make a richer flavour. But this is very forgiving cooking. It should be tweaked to your own tastes.

Tony Tassell is the FT’s deputy news editor

Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first.

Corruption in New York State

Areas of corruption in New York State.
Corrupt practices tend to build up over time as interest groups get legislation favorable to themselves passed.
Some of the more egregious examples in New York are:

Title Insurance Oligopoly

Liquor Store Restrictions

Labor Union Inflation of MTA contracts

Notes:
Please look at Zephyr Teachout book on corruption.

War crimes in Afghanistan

Please go to the link below to read the story:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NcmOKOLjZjCJtUie0jJepFiJxwuxUL-_S1zT8CF1nCY/edit?usp=sharing

Carlotta Gall has written an important and well researched book on the American war in Afghanistan. She covered the war as a New York Times reporter from 1999 to 2009 and won a Pulitzer Prize.

For me, the most shocking part of the book were the details of the innocent civilians killed in American air strikes that were not necessary or completely disproportionate to the threat that the enemy posed.

Gold - literally part of the fabric of India

October 30, 2013 6:07 pm Financial Times India: Part of the fabric By Avantika Chilkoti and James Crabtree Can the government curb the country’s insatiable appetite for gold?   Amid the rush of Mumbai’s chaotic international airport, customs officers beckon a passenger to step aside. A cardboard box held together by a large number of tiny staples catches their attention. Closer inspection reveals the joins are made of gold, moulded and coloured to resemble steel stationery. It is far from an isolated incident. Border officials say gold seizures have increased dramatically in recent months. Prominent signs in main airports tell arriving passengers that gold must be declared, whether it is delicate bangles and necklaces or ingots. Still it has been found secreted in chocolate bars, television sets and even underwear. Gold cases have jumped threefold since the start of this year, according to an administrator from India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, an agency that covers smuggling. Trade Into uncharted waters “We have been making seizures but there is no way you can stop it 100 per cent,” says John Joseph, an official at the agency. “The trend will continue and more seizures will take place.” India absorbed about a quarter of worldwide gold supplies last year, making it the biggest gold importer. The seemingly insatiable appetite for gold is often viewed as a charming national quirk driven by elaborate weddings and lavish religious offerings. But with imports surging, ever-growing demand became one of the forces pushing Asia’s third-largest economy towards financial crisis. India increased gold duties repeatedly only for imports to hit their highest ever level in May. The influx helped to push the nation’s current account gap to record levels, leaving India especially vulnerable during the capital flight that swept emerging markets this summer, dragging the rupee down more than 15 per cent. In August the duty increases finally began to take hold, causing an import collapse and severe disruption to India’s gold market, says Bhaskar Bhat, managing director of Titan, a jeweller. Shortages and price surges followed, encouraging black market operators to ship in gold that legitimate traders could no longer supply. “It comes from Dubai, from Singapore, from Bangladesh,” he says. “It is hard to stop.” Now India’s government faces a double dilemma. Its curbs worked, at least in the short term. But demand for gold remains strong, particularly as the country heads into its annual season of weddings and Hindu festivals. During this time, purchases soar, notably around this weekend’s celebrations for Diwali, raising fears of a swift return to higher imports, and yet further pressures on external finances. In the longer term, however, policy makers are engaged in a campaign to wean citizens off using gold to save and invest, a centuries-old obsession that many economists feel is now stifling the financial system. They hope their country’s enormous gold stock – 20,000 tonnes worth a staggering $1.1tn, according to broker CLSA – can be diverted into capital for productive investment. “If I have one wish which the people of India can fulfil, it is don’t buy gold,” P Chidambaram, the finance minister, said in June. So far his counsel is being ignored. As a result, India stands midway through its most sustained attempt yet to beat back the metal’s appeal, the results of which will have consequences not just for the growth of one of the world’s most important emerging economies, but the $200bn global gold market as well. World gold prices rose sharply following the global financial crisis as investors sought safety in haven assets. Asian buyers proved especially hungry, attracted by the metal’s rising value as much as a taste for jewellery and trinkets. Indian demand jumped from 471 tonnes in 2001 to 1,017 tonnes in the year to March, worth $54bn. The surge put severe strain on the fragile finances of India, which has almost no domestic gold mines. The result was a jump in imports that accounted for about half of the country’s current account deficit over the last financial year. Mr Chidambaram declared a crackdown in January, more than doubling import duties over six months, while the Reserve Bank of India introduced a regulation in July forcing all gold importers to re-export a fifth of what they brought in. The latter policy had a pronounced effect. “This brought the entire industry to a standstill,” says Ashok Minawala of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation. The value of gold and silver imports fell 83 per cent year-on-year in September to $800m. Even so, the jewellery industry doubts whether New Delhi’s emergency restrictions can be sustained. Economists say imports are set to tick up again soon even if they remain in place; India has enjoyed a good monsoon, spurring gold spending in rural areas. “Demand can’t be wished away by curbing supply,” says PR Somasundaram, managing director for India at the World Gold Council, a trade body. . . . That demand stems from an affinity for gold woven deeply into the fabric of India’s culture – often literally, as in the case of the saris women wear on their wedding days. About half of gold purchases are tied in some way to weddings, where the metal is used for dowries. “In our community they will definitely ask you for gold . . . otherwise they won’t marry,” says Kalavati, a domestic worker from the southern state of Karnataka, who spent six times her Rs10,000 ($163) monthly wage buying gold for her daughter’s wedding, satisfying demands from her son-in-law’s family. Religion is another important factor, not least during tomorrow’s festival of Dhanteras, when precious metals are used to honour Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Along with heaps of scented marigolds, offerings of gold jewellery and ornaments are brought to places of worship throughout the year. Such donations have transformed India’s temples into vast gold stores, with the country’s three largest owning a stock of 3,500 tonnes, according to a recent report from Credit Suisse. In 2011, just one, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in the southern state of Kerala, revealed a gold trove that it estimated to be worth as much as $20bn at current market prices. “Nowadays people are giving more. Day by day, the rush is increasing,” says Subhash Vittal Mayekar, who heads the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai. These cultural and religious affinities have become more important over the past decade, causing demand for gold to increase in step with the growing affluence of India’s population. Yet the nation’s gold surge has as much to do with investment as piety and nuptial celebrations, especially in a country where 40 per cent of people do not yet have a bank account, says Renny Thomas, a partner at McKinsey, the consultancy, in Mumbai. “If you are a mass-market consumer and live in a semi-urban or rural area and have some money to save, you can buy gold easily, close to where you live, and it is liquid and fairly safe,” says Mr Thomas. Loans against gold are easy to come by too – though in a nation where relinquishing family stocks carries stigma, this option tends to be used only in emergencies. Sharply rising rural incomes have spurred gold investment further, a factor that in some instances is complemented by the metal’s rising price. “If gold prices go up it doesn’t deter people from buying . . . it is only an indication that it is a good investment,” says Shinjini Kumar, a director at PwC India. More affluent savers have also poured money in, attracted by returns over the past five years that have outstripped comparable assets such as bank deposits, according to the RBI. This provides a hedge against inflation, though gold can also serve darker purposes – most notably as a repository for untaxed income, known in India as “black money”. Ultimately it is the combination of a long-established gold culture with rising affluence that has driven India’s demand surge. Yet the widespread reliance on gold assets now presents significant challenges for India’s financial development, given that capital tied up in gold cannot be placed in other productive assets, such as stocks or bonds. Were Indian gold demand to fall back below 1 per cent of gross domestic product, its average in the decade before the financial crisis, an extra $200bn of investment flows would be generated for the broader economy, according to research from Goldman Sachs. Breaking out of the cycle will not be easy, says Eswar Prasad, an economist at the Brookings Institution, requiring the creation and successful marketing of other products. “The allure of gold is symptomatic of the weakness in India’s financial system, and finding financial alternatives to it is crucial for the country’s development,” he says. Raghuram Rajan, the RBI governor, says savings certificates indexed to inflation, which the central bank issued this week, can be part of the answer. The RBI has also talked up other gold-backed financial products, including gold deposit schemes, where investors earn interest by depositing personal stocks with banks, which the lenders can then recycle into the domestic market, reducing demand for imports. . . . Such products raise different doubts, however. “I still find it difficult to imagine a father presenting his favourite daughter with a certificate for a gold-linked exchange traded fund on her big day,” says one senior policy maker. Instead, in the longer term, ending the lust for gold is likely to mean grappling with more basic factors, such as access to bank accounts. “Curbing the demand for gold will require a lot more – a stable outlook on inflation, [new types of] savings products and controlling black money,” says Shinjini Kumar. In the short term, India may have some breathing room. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and others expect global gold prices to fall over the next year. If they are correct, this could undermine its attractiveness as an investment. India’s current account deficit is set to fall over the next six months, providing space for gold imports to tick up once more, and possibly for New Delhi to ease import restrictions. But until this happens, the breadth of India’s gold demand, across almost all segments of its population of 1.2bn, means pressure for fresh supplies is likely to keep growing, creating more work for officials at India’s borders. “If you focus on one thing they will stop it and invent a new thing,” says Arvind Singh, who works in customs at Mumbai’s international airport. Airline personnel are suspected of being involved, carrying gold and using staff passes to leave the airport without passing through customs, while middlemen are paid by sponsors to travel overseas, where they meet a dealer and bring the metal home. Reducing such illicit imports, much like demand more generally, will take time, says Nupur Pavan Bang of the Indian School of Business. “As long as people have money, nothing is going to stop the smuggling,” she says. “They’ll get it fixed in their teeth, they’ll get it fixed in the sole of their shoes.” ------------------------------------------- Markets: Tracking astrologers and weather forecasts Commodity traders are not, for the most part, a superstitious bunch. But when it comes to the gold market, they pay close attention to the prognostications of astrologers, writes Jack Farchy. The reason? Indian astrologers decide which days are auspicious for a wedding. And gold-buying during the Indian wedding season is one of the single most important drivers of the gold price. Analysts and traders at investment banks in London, New York and Zurich also maintain close ties to the Indian weather service: the strength of the annual monsoon season determines the level of disposable income for rural Indian families, who are some of the largest buyers of gold. “The role that India plays in the bullion markets is very prominent,” says James Steel, precious metals analyst at HSBC in New York. India has traditionally been the world’s largest consumer and importer of gold, accounting for about a quarter of demand for the metal last year. Gold dealing banks such as the Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC and JPMorgan have large networks around the country. The country’s influence in the gold market has waned somewhat in recent years, as western investment and Chinese demand have both surged, helping to push gold prices up. As western investors lose patience with gold, however, the traditional sources of demand are once again catching the attention of traders and analysts. Since the government restrictions on imports began to take effect, the amount of gold being smuggled into India has become one of the key unknowns for the market. “It’s one of the main things we’re looking at,” says one hedge fund manager. “It’s fair to say that the physical markets are becoming more important again as the investment markets have contracted,” says Mr Steel. “India’s prominence is moving closer to centre stage again.”

First Presidential Debate

Watched the first Presidential debate between Obama and Romney.
Romney was more glib and aggressive than Obama.
He kept making assertions that are simply not true.
Romney is a snake oil salesman.
Romney falsely stated that Obama had doubled the deficit. “The president said he’d cut the deficit in half,” Romney charged. “Unfortunately, he doubled it.”

From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/an-unhelpful-presidential-debate.html?_r=2&ref=politics

October 4, 2012

An Unhelpful Debate

The first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, so long anticipated, quickly sunk into an unenlightening recitation of tired talking points and mendacity. With few sparks and little clarity on the immense gulf that truly separates the two men and their policies, Wednesday’s encounter provided little guidance for voters still trying to understand the choice in next month’s election.

The Mitt Romney who appeared on the stage at the University of Denver seemed to be fleeing from the one who won the Republican nomination on a hard-right platform of tax cuts, budget slashing and indifference to the suffering of those at the bottom of the economic ladder. And Mr. Obama’s competitive edge from 2008 clearly dulled, as he missed repeated opportunities to challenge Mr. Romney on his falsehoods and turnabouts.

Virtually every time Mr. Romney spoke, he misrepresented the platform on which he and Paul Ryan are actually running. The most prominent example, taking up the first half-hour of the debate, was on taxes. Mr. Romney claimed, against considerable evidence, that he had no intention of cutting taxes on the rich or enacting a tax cut that would increase the deficit.

That simply isn’t true. Mr. Romney wants to restore the Bush-era tax cut that expires at the end of this year and largely benefits the wealthy. He wants to end the estate tax and the gift tax, providing a huge benefit only to those with multimillion-dollar estates, at a cost of more than $1 trillion over a decade to the deficit. He wants to preserve the generous rates on capital gains that benefit himself personally and others at his economic level. And he wants to cut everyone’s tax rates by 20 percent, which again would be a gigantic boon to the wealthy.

None of these would cost the Treasury a dime, he insisted, because he would reduce deductions and loopholes. But, as always, he refused to enumerate a single deduction he would erase. “What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit,” he said. “No economist can say Mitt Romney’s tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.”

In fact, many economists have said exactly that, and, without details, Mr. Romney can’t simply refute them. But rather than forcefully challenging this fiction, Mr. Obama chose to be polite and professorial, as if hoping that strings of details could hold up against blatant nonsense. Viewers were not helped by a series of pedestrian questions from the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, who never jumped in to challenge either candidate on the facts.

When Mr. Romney accused the president of supporting a “trickle-down government,” Mr. Obama might have demanded to know what that means. He could then have pointed out that it is Mr. Romney whose economic plan is based on the discredited idea that high-end tax cuts trickle down to the middle class and poor.

Mr. Romney said he supported the idea of regulation but rejected the Dodd-Frank financial reform law because it was too generous to the big “New York banks.” This is an alternative-universe interpretation of a law that is deeply despised and opposed by the banks, but Mr. Obama missed several opportunities to point out how the law limits the corrosive practices, like derivatives trading, that led to the 2008 crash and puts in place vitally important consumer protections.

On health care, Mr. Romney pretended that he had an actual plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and that it covered pre-existing conditions. He has no such plan, and his false claim finally roused the president to his only strong moment of the evening. The country doesn’t know the details, he said, of how Mr. Romney would replace Wall Street reform, or health care reform, or tax increases on the rich because Republicans don’t want people to understand the hard trade-offs involved in these decisions.

There are still two more presidential debates, and Mr. Obama has the facts on his side to expose the hollowness of his opponent. But first he has to decide to use them aggressively.

The US loves the Kurti

By Visi R. Tilak

Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The ‘kurti’ is now among the most sought after garments in the U.S, says Visi R Tilak.

Michael Phelps’s mother was sporting one while watching her son compete in the London Olympics, and gymnastics gold medalist Mary Lou Retton also wore one when interviewed on television. Mothers in the U.S. are wearing kurti style tunics while waiting outside school for their kids, and trendy young women in nightclubs are dancing with their glittery kurtis swaying. Even women at the beach are wearing them.

Yes, the kurti is everywhere – it is becoming a versatile, sought after garment in the U.S., even among non-Indians.

Chico’s, a trendy store at most malls in the U.S., carried a typical Indian kurti it called the “Luxe Linen Bethany Top” in its online store. Below this was a note that said, “We’re so sorry: this item sold out sooner than expected. For an equally chic substitute, please call our Personal Service Associates.”

Walking into any large store in the U.S., be it Nordstorm or Macy’s, Gap or Talbots, one cannot help but notice a popular variation of the kurti.  Ann Taylor, which operates 280 stores across the country, as well as an e-commerce website, had a similar issue to Chico’s. Its “Everyday Tunic,” a very simple collared white kurti, was sold out, according to the company’s website.

Why are kurtis so popular? Is it the Bollywood influence, is it their elegance, or is it just that they are comfortable to wear and suit all body types?

“Indian tunics/kurtis are just great easy pieces to have in your wardrobe. Since the comeback of leggings, tunics have gotten even stronger,” say Vivek Patel and Radhika Rana, co-owners of Vira Boutique in Boston Massachusetts. The two were voted among the 25 most stylish Bostonians of 2012 by the Boston Globe.

“When we first opened, we had a small collection from Indian designer Masaba. She does bright pops of color and print mixed with Western elements. This collection sold out with the first two weeks. The richness of silks and unique prints were very eye catching for customers,” says Mr. Patel.

“While they are great casual or dressy, they are easy and very flattering on all body types, hence people are more likely to opt for them. They prove comfort yet still show a sense of style. They are great styled casual with leggings during the day. Or another option is dressing them up with dark skinny jeans and a pair of heels,” he adds, noting that this versatility is an important reason for the kurti’s popularity.

Designer Rachel Roy, who has dressed Michelle Obama and Hollywood actresses such as Kate Hudson, Jennifer Garner, Sharon Stone and Penelope Cruz said in an interviewthat she plans to incorporate Indian styles into her outfits.

While many Indians in the U.S. choose to eschew Indian outfits and “blend in,” Indian influences are manifesting themselves in the Western fashion scene.  “A couple of years ago, Naomi Campbell wore a sari by designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee for Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. It was beautiful! I have always been attracted to the sari because not only is it part of my heritage, but it is effortless, elegant and exotic,” Ms. Roy, whose father was Indian, was quoted as saying in an article in “SheKnows.”

“I am venturing to India in October and I plan to study the tradition behind the sari, in hopes to recreate and modernize it for a future collection,” she added.

The fabrics used are sometimes very traditional, yet when executed in a popular design style they are easier to sell to Western clients, adds Mr. Patel.

Vira Boutique plans to carry Indian designers such as Rohit Gandhi, and Rahul Khanna for Fall/Winter 2012. “We have chosen some tunic style tops and hand embroidered dresses.”

According to Mr. Patel, what makes fabrics and designers from India enticing is that they are unique and have great quality. He adds that as retail businesses go more global, it helps people be more unique in their fashion sense.

“Pairing a white tee and jeans with a beautiful embroidered waistcoat from India is just what global fashion is. The designers from India just see a very unique vision for their garments. The mix of Western silhouettes with Indian fabrics and embroidery is just what is needed. These garments are very different and that’s what people are looking for these days,” he says.

Visi R. Tilak is freelance writer with bylines in publications such as the Boston Globe, Indian Express, India Today and Tehelka.  She can be reached via email visitilak@gmail.com, her website www.visitilak.com or on Twitter @vtilak.

Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

Saiyaara

Banjaara from Ek Tha Tiger

As Republican convention emphasizes diversity, racial incidents intrude

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Jon Cohen, Published: August 29 TAMPA —

 From the convention stage here, the Republican Party has tried to highlight its diversity, giving prime speaking slots to Latinos and blacks who have emphasized their party’s economic appeal to all Americans. But they have delivered those speeches to a convention hall filled overwhelmingly with white faces, an awkward contrast that has been made more uncomfortable this week by a series of racial headaches that have intruded on the party’s efforts to project a new level of inclusiveness. The tensions come amid a debate within the GOP on how best to lure new voters. The nation’s shifting demographics have caused some Republican leaders to worry not only about the party’s future but about winning in November, particularly in key swing states such as Virginia and Nevada.

  “The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” On Tuesday, convention organizers ejected two attendees after they reportedly threw peanuts at a black CNN camerawoman and told her, “This is how we feed animals.” Organizers called the conduct “inexcusable and unacceptable.”

That followed an on-air shouting match between MSNBC host Chris Matthews and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus over whether presidential nominee Mitt Romney was injecting race into the campaign by joking about President Obama’s birth certificate and attacking his record on welfare reform. “There’s no doubt he did,” Matthews declared. “Garbage,” Priebus retorted. And on Wednesday, Yahoo News fired Washington bureau chief David Chalian after a live microphone caught him telling a colleague, before an online event, that Romney and his wife, Ann, were “happy to have a party with black people drowning,” a reference to the RNC’s decision to go ahead with the convention while Hurricane Isaac lashed New Orleans. Chalian later apologized. By early Wednesday, the conservative Drudge Report featured a block of headlines devoted to issues of race at the convention, most of them critical of liberal news outlets that didn’t air speeches by the GOP’s diverse lineup. Not all of the race talk has been of the party’s own making. Many Republicans argue that Democrats’ obsession with the issue has forced it to the forefront. They say Democrats have used overtly racial appeals to fire up their base, citing Vice President Biden’s recent charge at a Virginia campaign event attended by hundreds of black voters that the GOP’s approach to financial regulation would“put y’all back in chains.”

Still, the discussions of race this week have highlighted the Republican Party’s continued difficulty in attracting non-white supporters. Exit polls from 2008 showed that 90 percent of GOP voters were white, a homogeneity that has been consistent for more than 30 years, even as the percentage of the electorate that is white has fallen. Nonwhite voters favored Obama over Romney by better than three to one in a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll from early August; 74 percent of Latino voters and 90 percent of African Americans backed Obama. And despite a speaker lineup in Tampa that includes Artur Davis, a black former Democratic congressman; former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice; and Utah congressional candidate Mia Love, who would be the party’s first black congresswoman if she won in November, just 2 percent of convention delegates are black. That’s according to an analysis by David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Bositis also said that only two members of the 165-member RNC are black and that none of the leaders of the committees responsible for drafting the GOP platform and adopting the convention rules are black.

 “This Republican Party base is white, aging and dying off,” he said. Many Republicans, however, worry about making overt racial appeals to minorities. “Amongst politicians, amongst people who cover politics, there’s an overwhelming tendency to silo voters,” said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at a breakfast hosted by The Post and Bloomberg News. “As Republicans, we take on a huge risk if we try to appeal to voters . . . within a mind-set of silos instead of making direct appeals on the issues that they’re actually talking about in their household — not necessarily in their category, but in their household.” A new Post poll put the difference between the two parties’ perception of minority voters on stark display. Respondents were asked an open-ended question:

Why do most black voters so consistently support Democrats? Though “don’t know” was the top answer for members of both parties, a close second among Republicans was that black voters are dependent on government or seeking a government handout. Democrats more often said that their party addresses issues of poverty. In Tampa, Republicans have devoted significant time to brainstorming how to expand the party’s appeal to Latinos. At various forums and lectures, they have debated whether the GOP should change its tone in discussing illegal immigration, appeal more directly to religious Latinos on social issues or make a more explicit argument that Republicans can help boost the economic prospects of Latino communities. “We as a party have got to get it,” said Mel Martinez, a former senator from Florida and a former RNC chairman, speaking at a Tuesday event sponsored by Univision and the National Journal. “We’ve got to get smart about this. We could be relegated to a minority party. . . . We’ve got to find a way to make that connection.” There has been less discussion of new ways to reach out to black voters, in part out of a recognition that the first African American president has a special relationship with African American voters. Davis, who in 2008 helped nominate Obama at the Democratic National Convention but became disenchanted with the president’s handling of the economy, said that to reach black voters, Republicans must expand their message beyond limiting government. “It’s not just enough to go into the black community and say, ‘We want to keep government from taking over your life.’ That doesn’t resonate in a whole lot of the black community, who have come to see government as a salvation and as economic leveler,” he said. “It’s going to take being willing to define conservatism as not just a defense of economic liberty but as a broader way of constructing a society that can promote social mobility.” Romney adviser Tara Wall said, “We know that a majority of black Americans will vote for President Obama,” but “that doesn’t mean Democrats or President Obama own the black vote or can take every black vote for granted.” She said Romney’s policies on school choice, social issues and job creation appeal to black families. “These are some common principles that we share and that we can engage on,” she said. “This is a long-term effort. It doesn’t happen overnight.” Raynard Jackson, a black GOP political consultant, wrote Tuesday on the RootDC Live blog that he is “embarrassed by the lack of diversity” at the convention and frustrated by his party’s empty promises. “The Republican line is that the overwhelming majority of blacks will vote for Obama because he is African American,” Jackson wrote. “I find this thinking extremely insulting as a black Republican. The reason the majority of blacks will vote for Obama is because Republicans have not given African Americans a reason to vote for Republicans or Romney.”

 Aaron Blake contributed to this report. © The Washington Post Company