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Oil on the boil The crisis in Syria |
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Unholy violence
Dithering on Syria
Of wish-lists —
then and now
Canada
Calling IITians flying high Celebrating beauty THE TRIBUNE VISA
WINDOW
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The crisis in Syria The
situation in Syria is far from clear. While the US asserts that there is evidence of chemical weapons being used in Syria, Russia has dismissed the contention and the UN is still studying evidence that could show whether chemical weapons were used in a suburb of Damascus on August 21. The world waits as great powers position themselves over possible military intervention. Even as the Americans maintain that hundreds of civilians have been killed in a chemical weapon attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, the fear of a unilateral American action has receded as President Barack Obama seeks approval from the US Congress; as British lawmakers rebuffed their Prime Minister's support for such action and Russian President Putin emerged as a strong opponent of any attack on Syria by Western powers. Now, President Assad has requested the UN to prevent any aggression against Syria. The UN Security Council has, in any case, frustrated US attempts to seek sanctions against Syria, with two of its members — Russia and China — protecting the Assad regime. However, the Syrian President will have to answer to the world body in case the UN investigators submit evidence of the attack. Military posturing has escalated, with the US positioning a flotilla of five naval ships in the Red Sea and Russia moving its surveillance ship to the area. With rising sentiment against any unilateral use of force, the US should cooperate with the UN. With a reported one-third of the population displaced, Syria is a disaster zone that desperately needs humanitarian assistance. Civil unrest and war of attrition between the forces loyal to President Assad and the coalition of rebels has cost over one lakh lives. It has resulted in the large-scale destruction of a once prosperous nation. Instead of playing the 21st century version of the Great Game, the great world powers should work together to intervene against any use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria. Syria needs saviours; it remains to be seen if the world leaders can rise to the occasion.
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Unholy violence The
burning of around 50 vehicles on the Jhajjar-Gurgaon road — irrespective of whether some trucks were carrying cattle with or without permission — was a wanton act of arson that cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The perpetrators of the violence, especially the instigators, have to be brought to book and made to pay in cash for the damage they have caused. The ferociousness with which they behaved would suggest they have suffered grave hurt over cattle being transported for slaughter. That, however, is belied by the fact that dozens of the head of cattle that they purportedly rescued were left on the road at the mercy of the traffic or farmers whose fields they might damage. Of course, the animals that could yield milk were promptly taken away —which amounts to theft. A youth chasing suspected cattle smugglers had been killed by them only days before the arson. This could be one reason for people in Jhajjar to be perturbed; but why were the cattle rustlers being pursued with such zeal? The episode smells suspiciously of political ambition. The cause of the cow has often been exploited by small-time leaders, who work on people's sincere devotion towards the animal that is considered holy. Then there are groups that receive land to set up cow shelters, and even regular money for running it, but somehow end up giving 'shelter' to animals that produce milk, and not the ones past their prime. Punjab and Haryana are major dairy farming states. While the majority of the milk comes from buffalos, there is a large number of cows too. Around half of the calves produced by these cows would be male, which are of no use to the farmer. Where are these animals? The number of stray bulls we see is nowhere near the number born. Obviously, they are dead - starved or beaten to death, if not run over by vehicles on the road. The law protects them from slaughter, but ends up subjecting them to cruel death. There is obviously a gap that needs honest introspection.
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There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Dithering on Syria
President
Barack Obama's stunning decision to hold his hand in launching cruise missiles at Syrian military targets has left a lot of corpses on the floor. First, there is the diminished stature of the President himself, who has given the impression of dithering in commanding the still most powerful nation in the world. Second, while the world was waiting with bated breath on the launching of the American missiles, President Obama has handed it a lemon. There is to be no missile strike until the Congress has reconvened on schedule and debated on the merits of a military strike. Third, the whole moral issue of punishing a regime the US is convinced launched the chemical war attacks on its own people has gone by the wayside. The passionate advocacy of US Secretary of State John Kerry notwithstanding, President Obama is minding his own back, rather than behaving as the leader of the still remaining super power. Apart from the question of the US Congress approving or otherwise the President's request for authorising narrow limited strikes at Syria as a shot across the bow, the entire issue of retaliation for the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, as the US and many in the world believe, has now been thrown again into the diplomatic basket. The Group of 20 summit meeting, including India, is due to be held in St Petersburg later this week, and in view of President Obama’s dithering, would be an ideal setting to go back to a diplomatic solution. In other words, the road may be open again to the stalled Geneva II talks on the basis of participants on the two sides coming to the talks without preconditions. Perhaps the greatest casualty of the two and a half years of civil war as it has developed is President Obama; second removed is James Cameron, the British Prime Minister, who asked his Parliament for a vote on approval a British military intervention in Syria only to be handed a stunning rebuke. How the American leader will conduct himself in the remaining three years of his presidency is now a question mark. President Obama was well aware that he was elected and re-elected to office as a peace candidate because after Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans were tired of war. He promised to bring home troops from Iraq, which he did, and for a time, after owning the war in Afghanistan, he had second thoughts after his famous surge of troops did not work and set a 2014 deadline to bring back troops from Afghanistan. In his effort to be true to the promise of being a peace candidate, President Obama has gone to the other extreme to show himself as the man who could not take a firm decision when his job as the supreme commander called for it. Americans might be tired of war, but their strong military power and still the most awesome military machine in the world must make them shrink in the face of what can only be described as a classic piece of dithering by their commander-in-chief. In the view of the average American it is better to be the blundering George W. Bush in Iraq's china shop than be a Hamlet at the head of America's military machine. Domestically, President Obama's saga will have a profound impact on his Democratic Party's fortunes in the upcoming congressional elections and in presidential elections. Perhaps the most to be affected will be the prospective candidature of Hillary Clinton, who had seemed poised to take on the challenge the next time around, having lost out to Mr Obama in the Democratic primaries the last time around. On a broader plane, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the host of the G-20 meeting later this week, could assume a key role in bringing the disastrous civil war in Syria to a less happy ending. But his American guest will have major problems in reconciling himself to a Russian-choreographed ending or even a mid-way house. After all, the US Congress will be asked to approve his request for authorising military strikes on Syria, an authorisation he did not need constitutionally. The acuteness to President Obama’s predicament is, indeed, the highlight of the latest phase of the Syrian crisis. How it will end lies in the lap of the future, but the commander-in-chief of the US military will have to live many anxious moments as he goes about performing his many presidential duties. His domestic problems will inevitably mount. In the end, of course, it might be such a bad outcome for the Syrian crisis to meander to the conference table. After all, all crises must be solved, if they are to be solved at all, around a conference table. What is unclear is how much blood there is on the carpet as the main contestants in the American drama fight it out among themselves on the post-mortem of the Assad regime. The world will, of course, be sorry for how Mr Obama, who inspired so many around the world when he first appeared on the world scene, including his iconic speech in Cairo, has strayed so far from his promise. One assumes that his pragmatic side and silver tongue that enhanced his reputation far and wide also has an obverse side, his fear of failure. Perhaps things will be clearer in St Petersburg later in the week. Perhaps there will finally be a Geneva II conference. Perhaps the Russian President and his American counterpart will kiss and make up. On a more realistic plane, the G 20 summit offers an opportunity to pull back and take stock of a vicious civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and made close to two million Syrians refugees in neighbouring countries. As a participant in the G 20 summit, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have a role to play in his trade-mark understated manner although his thought will be full of how to surmount the present economic
crisis.
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Of wish-lists — then and now Come
birthdays and festivals, we kids used to give our wish-lists to Mom, who, after scrutiny, would pass these to Dad for procurement.
I had a fancy for “biscuits, and a sweet tooth for milk chocolates, packed in beautiful tins with the inscription ‘Made in Great Britain’. This was in the 1920s-30s. Now Indian confectionary has an international market. As a boy, my wish-lists also included kites of various colours, sizes, shapes and string coated with powdered glass for a sharp-cutting surface. Our school was four miles away. In one of my wish-lists I also asked for a bicycle. Mom vetoed it, saying: “You are OK in studies but not in sports. So walk to and back from school”. Next year I was in the school kabaddi and football teams and earned the bicycle. Decades later such wish-lists sounded like kid-stuff. The wish-lists of our children included scooters, motor-cycles, cameras, wrist watches etc. The wish-lists of their children now include computers, laptops, mobiles with cameras, volumes of encyclopedias, small cars and trips abroad. However in my case, the culture of wish-lists has still not vanished. lt has only changed direction, from my Mom and Dad, who are nowhere, to God who is everywhere. As a veteran of World War II 1 witnessed in utter agony and amazement mass-scale death, doom and destruction in various theatres of war. Homo-sapiens set mother earth on fire on the ground, sea and air. This global conflagration continued for six long years in1939-45. Countless innocent lives were lost. Vibrant cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were put to eternal sleep. In the ultimate analysis, who caused it? A verse in Sukhmani Sahib postulates: “Karan karaavan karney joge/Jo tis bhaavey soi hoge.” (He alone is the cause. Everything happens as He wishes.) He for His own reasons sent only a few of His apostles as human monsters who set global peace and progress on fire. And now mutual mistrust and fear has resulted in stockpiles of nuclear weapons with countless trillions of mega watts of energy, enough to wipe out life in any form on mother earth. Therefore my wish-list to God is to send His apostles of peace and wisdom to all nuclear powers, to release this unfathomable energy, not for destruction, but for providing potable drinking water to 60 per cent of the world population which goes without it and food for 50 per cent of them, who go hungry with hardly one meal a day. While wounds of World War II were still being dressed, in India God's few apostles balkanised the country, resulting in the loss of a million lives and dislocation of multi-millions from their ancestral homes and hearths, with meals left on the table, not destined to eat. This has been followed by periodical wars and continued skirmishes along the LOC adding to thousands of parents', widows’ and orphans’ bereavement. Therefore my wish-list to God is that enough is enough. We need His apostles of peace on either side of the border to resolve all problems. His apostles have already demolished the Berlin wall and have turned the battle-field Europe into the European Union. Guru Nanak says, ‘Oh vekhey, onaan nadar na aavey, bohta eh vadaan.’ (It is surprising, you don’t see Him, but He sees you all!) Therefore, He also listens to you all. My earnest wish-list to God will surely be joined by one and all of the vast readership of The Tribune because it is said, ‘Awaaz-e khalq ke naqaara-e Khuda samjho’ (God trumpets His acceptance of universal appeal by His
people).
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Canada Calling Indians took over the heart of Toronto at the recent India Independence Day Parade Gurmukh Singh
Barring
individual community events held by various Indo-Canadian groups, Toronto’s India Independence Day parade and related functions are the biggest collective Indian event in Canada. This year, nearly 30,000 people showed up for the day-long parade and cultural events at the heart of Toronto city in downtown Dundas-Yonge Square (referred to as the Times Square of Toronto). Prominent among those who attended these events — organised by Panorama India, which is an umbrella organisation of various Indian associations and the Indian Consulate in Toronto — were Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Canadian federal minister Tim Uppal, Canadian parliamentary secretary and longest serving Indo-Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai, Indo-Canadian senator Asha Seth, former Ontario minister Harinder Takhar, MPs, Toronto Police Board chief Alok Mukherjee, Scotia bank director Pankaj Mehra, Indian-origin MPPs (equal to MLAs) Amrit Mangat and Deepika Demerla, Order-of-Canada Aditya Jha and many more. After the hoisting of the National Flag by Indian Consul General Preeti Saran amid the singing of the National Anthems of India and Canada, Indians took over the heart of Toronto for a brief while as they went around the main arteries in the form of a parade. And this annual India Independence Day parade is acquiring a character of its own. Unlike India Day parades in other major North America cities such as New York and Chicago which feature floats, the Toronto parade instead features colourfully decorated, hand-pulled rickshaws! In fact, various cultural groups representing different Indian states decorate rickshaws in their own colourful way to showcase their unique culture to people on the parade route. As mounted Toronto Police cops followed by dholaks and Indian and Canadian dignitaries led the India Day parade, groups of colourfully dressed people carrying the Tricolour and their state banners waved to the crowds and passers-by as the parade slowly wound its way through downtown Toronto. “We are overwhelmed by the response. It is just getting bigger and bigger by each year,” said Jibanjit Tripathy, head of Panorama India which organised the parade. Interestingly, Manipur became the first state from North-East India to join the Independence Day festivities here this year. “We are just 40-odd people here from Manipur, but we are proud to join our larger Indian family this year,” said Joy Chabungbam, who comes from Imphal in Manipur. After the parade, a non-stop Indian cultural show featuring just about every dance and music form of India, including Bollywood, entertained Toronto till late into the evening. In the middle of the venue, a mini-Indian food and ethnic craft bazaar catered to visitors throughout the day. You never miss India in Toronto!
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IITians flying high IIT is one of India’s top global brands, and IITians are fast making their mark in Canada. In the last couple of years, some IITs have signed MoUs and exchange agreements with Canadian institutions and some others are in the process. Last year-end, IIT Bombay inked three MoUs with major Canadian universities in research and student and faculty exchanges. Though there are less than 2,000 IITians in Canada as compared to more than 60,000 in America, they, too, are fast making their mark in the country of their adoption. Everybody knows the billionaire investor Prem Watsa who is called the “Canadian Warren Buffett”. He is the CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings that he founded. He also sits on the boards of major companies such as BlackBerry. Then, there is Prof Asit Biswas, who has won the Stockholm Water Prize, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in water-related sciences. And then, there is Toronto-based Vasu Chanchlani, who has made a major impact by making huge donations to various educational institutions. He has been instrumental in the creation of the India Policy Centre at the famous University of Waterloo by donating a $1million endowment. First of its kind, the centre is aimed at increasing Canada-India partnership through policy research. To honour this IITian, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has announced the CNIB Chanchlani Global Vision Research Award of $25,000 for research in the field of “vision care and vision enablement worldwide”. Another noted IITian V.I. Lucky Lakshmanan chairs the Canada-India Foundation — which is a sort of equivalent of India Caucus in the US. The foundation has instituted the $50,000 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award with which it has honoured Ratan Tata and Sam Pitroda in recent years. Gururaj Deshpande, another IITian, has set up the famous Pond Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Nova Scotia. Many IITians have made it to the boards of major Canadian companies, banks, universities and other institutions. IITians have come of age in Canada.
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Celebrating beauty Not only Bollywood, Toronto is also home to the biggest and oldest Indian beauty pageant outside of India. Called the Miss India-Canada pageant, this beauty contest is more than two decades old. The beauty pageant held its 23rd edition recently. The packed beauty event was attended by the who’s who of South Asian and mainstream communities as the beautiful Indo-Canadian girls from across Canada went through various rounds of the pageant. They performed their favourite Indian dances and sang Bollywood songs. They walked the ramp in traditional Indian dress. Toronto’s Harleen Malhans (centre in the above photo), walked away with the crown. To a question, Harleen replied, “What is the best part of being a South Asian female in Canada and why? She said, “You get the very best from both the cultures and values systems”. Nikki Shah of Richmond Hill on the outskirts of Toronto and Reema Rachel Khithani of Mississauga were adjudged the first and second runners-up.
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THE TRIBUNE VISA WINDOW If a student does his graduation in the USA, is he eligible to apply for a green card? How much time does it take for the students to permanently settle in the USA? Once they finish their graduation and also their F-1 visa expires, what next step should they follow to stay there? What is the difference between obtaining a “Green Card” and getting “Citizenship”? I also want to say that since these students spend so much time in USA for school and also spend so much money there, there should be some lenient ways of obtaining a Green Card or permanent citizenship. All non-immigrant visas, including student visas (F1), are for people who plan to stay in the US temporarily for a specific purpose. So if a student goes to study in the US, he/she should expect to return home shortly after graduation. A student visa does allow the student to work in the US for up to 29 months in some fields, but this, too, is temporary. There is no provision to stay in the US after studies and become a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR), the legal term for those people who have a “green card.” It is possible after graduation to be hired and to receive a work visa. In some cases, employers can petition for foreign employees to get a green card. All of that comes after someone has successfully completed their studies, which is the purpose of the student visa. However, if someone’s purpose in applying for a student visa is to live permanently in the US, they are not likely to receive the student visa. The student visa is for study, not immigration. The difference between being an LPR and a citizen is that LPR status grants the right to live in, leave and reenter, and work in the US. It does not grant other legal rights, like voting in US elections. Also, LPRs must spend most of their time in the US; if the US government believes that the permanent resident has not maintained sufficient ties to the US to demonstrate intent to keep their green card, the LPR can lose their status. Citizenship, however, never goes away. LPRs can become Citizens after a certain amount of time, passing an exam, and other legal processes. I applied for US immigration on the basis of my daughter being a US citizen. However the work visa card and travel documents were sent back to the sender as the postman failed to deliver them to my daughter’s address. Meanwhile, I returned to India. My interview date has still not been notified. I am a multiple tourist visa holder. Can I revisit on the valid tourist visa or not? If you have a valid tourist visa for the US (B1/B2), then you can use it to travel there. If you are applying for a tourist visa and have an immigrant visa pending, we may ask if your intent is to visit or to live permanently in the US. We will not issue a tourist visa to someone who plans to use it to live in the US. If an applicant plans to visit and return while their immigrant visa is in process, we may issue the tourist visa. As for the immigrant visa process, your interview and paperwork, you can email us at support-india@ustraveldocs.com and we can get you a specific answer. From 4/2010 to 9/2010 processing of family visas was very fast and now it has almost stopped. When it is expected to speed up again? Immigrant visa processing takes some time and some parts of the process take longer than others but we have not slowed or stopped our work. We have been processing more immigrant visa applications, and that can take time, but we work as fast as we can on every application. The process does involve a petition from a relative in the US and that has to be processed through another agency, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services but we work through every case methodically. The more quickly applicants follow the instructions provided by the National Visa Center (NVC) and submit all requested documents, the sooner an appointment can be scheduled and a visa granted. Appointments are usually scheduled for the month after all documents are submitted. If the applicant meets the qualifications, visas are normally ready within a few days of the interview. For certain categories of immigrants, the law allows only a limited number of visas to be issued each year. These cases are processed strictly in order of the date the petition was filed, the “priority date.” Visas cannot be issued until an applicant’s priority date is reached, the application then becomes “current.” While it is impossible to say exactly how long it will take, the Visa Bulletin, published monthly, lists the priority dates currently being processed, which may provide an indication of how much time remains. To learn more about Immigration visa wait times, kindly check our link: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/in-iv-waittimeinfo.asp
Note: Please send your questions to usvisa@tribunemail.com. The US Embassy or The Tribune will only give general answers based on various queries. We will be unable to respond to individual correspondence. For more information, you can consult www.ustraveldocs.com/in or on Facebook for the Visa Fridays feature (www.facebook.com/India.usembassy).
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