THE ISLAMIC POPULATION BOMB

THE ISLAMIC POPULATION BOMB
The role of demographics in relation to the Islamic-Western relations

Ioannis Michaletos
(RIEAS Junior Analyst and Editor at Southeast Europe, World Security Foundation)

Copyright: www.serbianna.com

Traditionally- or at least in the past 5 centuries- the West enjoyed an unparalleled superiority in technological, economic and military sphere versus the East. Nowadays the Western and in particular European power is facing a dramatic decline due to an old but very effective weapon, their own population decline and the population explosion by the Muslim states. In the previous decades since the end of WWII a tremendous demographic expansion of the Islamic population worldwide has occurred and the trends are for continuation well into the 21st century.

The Balkans in the 90�s, were the first areas in Europe where the population explosion of Muslims resulted in a virtual takeover in areas such as central Bosnia and Kosovo. Even Montenegro, a traditional Eastern Orthodox nation, has a sizeable Muslim minority that will eventually became a majority within the coming decades should the upward projection trends prevail.

Demographics are a sensitive issue in discussion of worldwide events such as regional conflicts or terrorism. The politically correct modus that dominates the Western political system combined with an absence of historical research, has laid the foundations of ignorance on how macro-historical population alterations can and do change history and remake a civilization and the way of life.

In our age the Muslim world has at its disposal the ultimate weapon to remake the European future. The weapon is not nuclear nor chemical, but simply the population bomb, or as one might state it as the �P-Bomb�!

Islam: The unparallel growth

For centuries the Islamic world was suffering from a weakness in replacing its human resources. The territory traditionally inhabited by Muslims was an area inflicted by various invasions (Mongols, Crusaders, internal conflicts), as well as covered with large segments of non-arable land and desert. Therefore the population growth was weakened by environmental and human factors, resulting into a more or less stable demographic outlook.
In the era of the great Arabic expansion-8th-12th Century A.C- Islam was the religion and way of life for around 40-50 million people that was not more than 10% of world�s then population.

In order to support their continuous invasion plans towards Europe and India, Muslims assimilated foreign elements in their communities like Christians and Jews, and such assimilation was done by proselytism, often forced and sometimes not, to convert them into Islam. Most of these faith-turnarounds were committed by the use of brute force, mass kidnappings of mostly young aged Christians, slavery and alike.
Later as a result of the Turkish Ottoman occupation of the Balkans in the 15th century AD expansion of the Islam penetrated well into the European territory, as far as Southern Hungary.

The decaying nature of the Ottoman Empire that viewed industry with dismay, resulted in the 19th century national rebirth of nations such as Serbs, Greek, Bulgars and a subsequent expulsion of many Islamic communities in South Eastern Europe that were settled there by force in the first place.

At that time, West was viewed victorious: British and French colonialism stretched across most of North Africa and the Middle East and the triumph of the West was self-evident.

The encounter of the Western capitalistic states with the underdeveloped Muslim world in the early 20th century was beneficial for the Muslims as introduction of new agricultural methods, sanitation and industrial production, resulted in the dramatic uplifting of the way of life for millions of Muslims that began to reverse the demographic trends that up to then were characterized by high death rate. A French historian, Fernard Braudel, was the lone voice in 1957 that alerted Europe of the ticking Muslim population bomb. Braudel predicted that the then 75 million Muslims of the Middle East will reach 110 million by the early 21st century, a very low prediction of today's actual of 300 million.

Incredible predictions and possible outcomes

An average woman in the Muslim world is the mother of more than 4 children on average, well more than twice than the European level. This sums up into an annual population increase in the Middle East of around 2%.

In the midst of the Europe's victorious 19th century the population growth rate was not more than 1.5%. One has to remember that such lower European growth did enabled the colonization of most of the America and Australia and the creation of quasi European states such as USA, Australia, Canada that actually dominate the world scene today.

In 1960 the percentage of Muslims worldwide was around 13% while in 2001 it reached just above 20%. If the trends continue -- all thing equal -- in 2050 around 35% of world�s population will be Muslim, by far the largest percentage in Islam�s history.

Another element associated directly with the population growth is the high percentage of young people in Muslim countries that cannot be absorbed into the job markets and have great difficulties in upward social mobility. In combination with the autarchic regimes that govern quite a few Muslim states; a breeding ground for rebellion, terrorism and civil unrest has been unraveled. As the reach in the world shrinks due to improved telecommunications and transport, so do the social ramifications of the Middle East become globally widespread.

In the recent European history the state of Bosnia illustrates the dynamics of demographics in internal politics. In 1948 the Muslim population of that Yugoslav republic was less than 30%. In 1991 when Yugoslavia disintegrated Muslims comprised 44% and became the religious denominators of that new state. In Kosovo, today's Muslim Albanian population in the early 50�s was around 60% and 40 years later reached an overwhelming 90%. Both of these regions became theatres of conflict involving Muslims against Christians.

Of course population growth is not the only explanatory factor of a series of regional conflicts, but is an important element when one wants to predict future peripheral shifts of power that may eventually lead to wars and uprisings.

Europe- Middle East demography

If it is to examine European and Middle Eastern states and their historical demographic projection, interesting notes could be taken, that reveal wider trends and imbalance of power.

In the 50�s the population of Greece was 7 million people, while the one of Turkey was 21 million, a 1:3 analogy. Nowadays Greece encompasses 11.1 million citizens and Turkey 70 million. Therefore the analogy is 1:7 and that may explain to an extent the roots of the current Greek-Turkish rivalry and brinkmanship.

Continuing in the early 70�s the Magreb states of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt had population of 70 million. In the same period the Mediterranean European states, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, were populated in total by 160 million people. Today the numbers are 150 million for North Africa and 180 million for Southern Europe.
The trajectory for the year 2050 will be 250 million for North Africa and just 150 million for Southern Europe. In essence a population gap in Mediterranean Europe will be in stark contrast with an incredible increase in states just a few nautical miles from their shores.
The European Union already has drafted plans for a pan-European coast Guard force, in order to control the inevitable mass immigration from South to the North. Future will tell if that will be an effective measure.

Already, sizable Muslim minorities inhabit European metropolis such as Berlin, Paris and London. In France 75 of the populous cities have Muslims and around 4% in Germany and UK.
The American campaign War on terror coupled with terrorist attacks in Europe over the past few years, has increased European suspicion in their Muslim neighbors and at the same time it has increased the assertiveness of the Muslim communities that view themselves as persecuted and discriminated against.

As Islam precludes assimilating into a new society and teaches that the new society should be assimilated into Islam, coupled with widespread proselytism that has already begun in certain states, the population gap between two communities should further increase the size of Muslim presence in Europe.

Historically, population shifts are a recurring phenomenon and Europe was already witnessed the Barbarian Invasions from the North in the late centuries of the Roman Empire. Later on the infamous Vikings populated areas in the European periphery leaving their marks up to date. From the Eastern territory nations such as the Hungarians, Huns, Tatars and Mongols had populated parts of Eastern Europe and played a significant role in the shaping Europe�s civilization. All of these new nations, however, exhibited cultural tendency to assimilate with one another and accept cultural ways of their neighbors, something not happening with the Muslims.

The Yugoslav conflicts over the past 15 years have revealed the first appearance of militant Muslim posture in a European territory, not previously seen since the Balkan wars of 1912-13. Meanwhile, the illegal immigration of Muslims from North Africa, Middle East and the Hindu Subcontinent into Europe has sharply increased, finding itself safe havens of communication, logistic and transport support in places like Pristina, Sarajevo and Tetovo.
These cities are that green corridor that is now controlled by the Western peacekeeping forces, but many project they will not be there for ever. US has already announced a total withdrawal from Bosnia.

Political correctness is handicapping Europe to use of logic in dealing with the emerging death of its Greco-Roman European civilization - and the outcome quite reasonably would be for Europe to view developments with awe and distress not willing to comprehend the simple facts of life that without rebirth there is only death.

Predicting a Majority-Muslim Russia

by Daniel Pipes
Sat, 6 Aug 2005
updated Sun, 6 Jan 2008

"Russia's Turning Muslim, Says Mufti" is the startling headline in the Times of London today. Ravil Gaynutdin, head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, announced that Russia's population of 144 million contains 23 million ethnic Muslims – and not, as the census indicates, 14.5 million, or, as the Orthodox Church estimates, nearer to 20 million. An estimated 3-4 million Muslims are migrants from former Soviet regions, including 2 million Azeris, 1 million Kazakhs, and several hundred thousand Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz.

Plus, Russians of Orthodox background are converting to Islam. (For one important case, see the story of Viacheslav Sergeevich Polosin.) The Orthodox church claims 80 million adherents, but observers say the real number is about half that, and falling.

And more: while the Orthodox population is in demographic decline, the Muslim population is surging. Although the total Russian population dropped by 400,000 in the first half of 2005, it increased in 15 regions, such as the Muslim republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. The birth rate is 1.8 children per woman in Dagestan, versus 1.3 for Russia as a whole. Male life expectancy is 68 in Dagestan, versus 58 for Russia.

The Times observes that this growth in the Muslim population "has raised fears among Orthodox Church leaders and nationalists that Russia could eventually become a Muslim-majority nation." Aleksei Malashenko, an expert on Islam, does not expect Russia to become "a Muslim society in several years, although maybe in half a century we'll see something surprising." (August 6, 2005)

Feb. 28, 2006 update: Paul Goble, an expert on minorities in the former Soviet Union, agrees with the mufti.

Within most of our lifetimes the Russian Federation, assuming it stays within current borders, will be a Muslim country. That is it will have a Muslim majority and even before that the growing number of people of Muslim background in Russia will have a profound impact on Russian foreign policy. The assumption in Western Europe or the United States that Moscow is part of the European concert of powers is no longer valid. … The Muslim growth rate, since 1989, is between 40 and 50 percent, depending on ethnic groups. Most of that is in the Caucuses or from immigration from Central Asia or Azerbaijan.

Goble notes the exponential growth in Islam since the demise of the Soviet Union: Russia had about 300 mosques in 1991 and now there are at least 8,000, about half of which were built with money from abroad, especially from Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. There were no Islamic religious schools in 1991 and today there are between 50 and 60, teaching as many as 50,000 students. The number of Russians going on the hajj each year, has jumped from 40 in 1991 to 13,500 in 2005. He quotes a Russian commentator predicting that within the next several decades there will be a mosque on Red Square.

June 7, 2006 update: In an article titled, "Russia faces demographic disaster," BBC analyst Steven Eke focuses on the general problem of the country's population declining by at least 700,000 people annually (for example, the slow depopulation of the northern and eastern regions and the emergence of uninhabited "ghost villages"). He also interviews a Russian demographer, Viktor Perevedentsev, who dismisses the prospect of a Muslim majority:

Mr Perevedentsev dismisses the notion that Russia could become a majority Muslim nation, and says this is a spectre being deliberately whipped up by politicians with little understanding of demography. He acknowledges that there are very high birth-rates among these population groups, but insists they merely reflect an earlier stage of development and will ultimately fall. In 50 years' time, he says, Muslims will still be a small part of Russia's overall population.

Comment: Perevedentsev is, of course, correct that the Muslim birthrate will eventually come down. But, as Mark Steyn points out, "demographics is a game of last man standing. The groups that succumb to demographic apathy last will have a huge advantage." We do not know at this time how long it will be until the Russian Muslim birthrate tumbles, and what the percentage of Muslims in Russia will be at that time. In short, Muslims could be a majority in Russia.

Nov. 19, 2006 update: Goble makes an even more dramatic statement to Michael Mainville of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Russia is going through a religious transformation that will be of even greater consequence for the international community than the collapse of the Soviet Union." Mainville updates some statistics in "Russia has a Muslim dilemma: Ethnic Russians hostile to Muslims"

Russia's overall population is dropping at a rate of 700,000 people a year, largely due to the short life spans and low birth rates of ethnic Russians. The country's 2002 census shows that the national fertility rate is 1.5 children per woman, far below the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain the country's population of about 143 million. The rate in Moscow is even lower, at 1.1 children per woman.

But Russia's Muslims are bucking that trend. The fertility rate for Tatars living in Moscow, for example, is six children per woman, Goble said, while the Chechen and Ingush communities are averaging 10 children per woman. And hundreds of thousands of Muslims from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have been flocking to Russia in search of work. Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased by 40 percent to about 25 million. By 2015, Muslims will make up a majority of Russia's conscript army, and by 2020 a fifth of the population. "If nothing changes, in 30 years people of Muslim descent will definitely outnumber ethnic Russians," Goble said.

The political implications of this shift are, of course, far-reaching: "For many ethnic Russians, the prospect of becoming a minority in their country is unthinkable, and nationalist sentiments are on the rise.… Attacks on mosques have been increasing." The authorities have responded:

Russian authorities have begun to crack down. This fall, four Russian regions introduced mandatory classes in Orthodox Christianity in all schools. On Wednesday, [Nov. 15,] the Russian Cabinet announced a new law that will ban foreigners, most of them Muslims, from working in retail stalls and markets, starting next year. Thursday, the director of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said foreigners should not be allowed to create "ethnic enclaves" in which they outnumber "native Russians" in any district or region of the country.… In recent years, Russia has expelled dozens of foreigners accused of preaching radical Islam on its territory.

The media is also encouraging hostility:

On Russian television, Muslims are most often portrayed as either criminals or religious radicals waging a holy war against Christians. One of Russia's bestselling novels last year, The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris, depicted a mid-21^st century Europe where Islam was the state religion and Christians were forced to live in ghettos.

And Goble draws an interesting policy conclusion: Western governments need to encourage the Russians to integrate Muslims and not discriminate against them because "When Muslims are in the majority in Russia, they'll remember whether we spoke out for their rights or failed to."

Dec. 3, 2006 update: Michael Mainville, now writing for the Toronto Star, provides more interesting information in "Islam thrives as Russia's population falls."

• Moscow is estimated to have a Muslim population of 2.5 million - the largest of any European city other than Istanbul.
• Muslims make up about 25 million of Russia's total population of about 143 million, or some 17.5 percent of the population. (That makes the Muslim percentage in Russia just a bit below of the Muslim percentage in Israel.)
• If current trends continue, more than half of Russia's population will be Muslim by mid-century.
• A bestselling novel in 2005, The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris, depicts a mid-twenty-first century Europe where Islam is the state religion and Christians are restricted to living in ghettos.

Demographic tends have heightened tensions between the ethnic Russian population and Muslims, with several manifestations.

• The Russian media has become overtly anti-Muslim. The television often portrays them as criminals or religious fanatics waging jihad against Christians.
• Extreme Russian nationalist groups, such as Alexander Belov's "Movement against Illegal Immigration," are gaining influence. Belov states that "Russia is historically a Slavic, Orthodox Christian land and we need to make sure it stays that way." He wants Orthodox Christianity made Russia's official religion and the state to convert Muslims. Muslims, whether with Russian citizenship or immigrants, should be restricted from living in "traditional Russian lands."
• Responding to such sentiments, four Russian regions recently introduced mandatory instruction in Orthodox Christianity in all schools. And on Nov. 15, "the Russian cabinet announced a new law that will ban foreigners from working in retails stalls and markets next year. The law doesn't specifically target Muslims, but the vast majority of people working in Russia's markets are either Muslim immigrants or from traditionally Muslim parts of Russia."
• Inter-ethnic violence on the rise. "Attacks on mosques are not uncommon," writes Mainville, "and in September an imam in the southern city of Kislovodsk was shot dead outside his home. During days of rioting in August, angry mobs chased Chechens and other migrants from the Caucasus region out of the northwestern town of Kondopoga."

Russia's overall fertility rate is 1.3 children per woman and its population is dropping by 700,000 people a year. But these numbers hide a vast gulf between ethnic Russians, who have an even lower birth rate and larger population drop, and the Muslim population, which has increased by 40 per cent since 1989. Paul Goble again provides a striking sound-byte. "Russia is going through a religious transformation that will be of even greater consequence for the international community than the collapse of the Soviet Union." The implications of that statement deserve careful consideration.

Dec. 4, 2006 update: Another indication of Islam's progress among Russians concerns former-Russian-spy-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died of Polonium-210 poisoning in London on November 23. He converted to Islam on his deathbed, according to Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen Islamist who lived next door to Litvinenko: "He was read to from the Koran the day before he died and had told his wife and family that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition." His father Walter confirmed this development in an interview: Alexander, born an Orthodox Christian told him, "I want to be buried according to Muslim tradition."

Dec. 21, 2006 update: Joseph A. D'Agostino, a demographer at the Population Research Institute, writes in "Motherless Russia - Muslims and Chinese Vie For Huge Assets of Dying Nation":

Some think that France will be the first European country in modern times to be taken over by Muslims due to her very large, violent immigrant population and effeminate native populace. Others point to the Netherlands, from which native Dutch people are beginning to flee in the face of hostile Islamism among the immigrants in that densely-populated nation. But Russia—a huge nation with vast natural resources, thousands of nuclear warheads, and until recently a global superpower—may be the first to go under. This seems possible even though Russia suffers little from the suicidal tolerance and multiculturalism that afflicts Western Europeans. …

In 2015, less than ten years from now, Muslims could make up a majority of the Russian military. Military service is compulsory for young Russian men, though only 10% actually serve due to college deferments, bribes to escape duty, and the like. Given the famously brutal Russian military, perhaps avoiding military service is forgivable. But will the generals be able to avoid having a Muslim military if most young men who haven't fled Russia are Muslim? Will such a military operate effectively given the fury that many domestic Muslims feel toward the Russian military's tactics in the Muslim region of Chechnya? What if other Muslim regions of Russia—some of which contain huge oil reserves—rebel against Moscow? Will Muslim soldiers fight and kill to keep them part of the Russian motherland? …

With birthrates, death rates, and emigration rates the way they are now, it is highly plausible that Russia could be majority Muslim by 2040.

Apr. 10, 2007 update: Russian Islam specialist Roman Silantyev offers a dissenting view to the above, according to an interview he did with Interfax. "The most widespread estimation of 20 million Muslims is unrealistic," he says, calling this "the most serious myth" about Islam in today's Russia. While he has seen estimates varying between 5 and 50 million Muslims in Russia, the number of ethnic Muslims is about 14.5 million, while surveys find only 7 to 9 million people who adhere to the Islamic faith.

Silantyev also dismisses as myth the idea of mass conversions of ethnic Russian to Islam. "Less than 3,000 ethnic Russian have converted to Islam" during the past fifteen years, he says. In contrast, over that same period, almost 2 million ethic Muslims have become Orthodox Christians. In 70 percent of marriages between a Muslim and a Christian, for example, the Muslim spouse converts to Christianity.

July 29, 2007 update: Staving off demographic decline has become a Russian government obsession, as suggested by Edward Lucas's report, "Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp." From the article's opening:

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp's mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia". Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.

With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult. But this organisation - known as Nashi, meaning "Ours" – is a youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life. Nashi's annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness.

Attendance is monitored via compulsory electronic badges and anyone who misses three events is expelled. So are drinkers; alcohol is banned. But sex is encouraged, and condoms are nowhere on sale. Bizarrely, young women are encouraged to hand in thongs and other skimpy underwear - supposedly a cause of sterility - and given more wholesome and substantial undergarments.

Twenty-five couples marry at the start of the camp's first week and ten more at the start of the second. These mass weddings, the ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland, are legal and conducted by a civil official.

Russians at a youth camp, preparing to procreate.

Dec. 18, 2007 update: "Muslim Russia" is a term coming into vogue among Russia's increasingly confident Muslims, reports Paul Goble, thereby frightening the country's non-Muslims.

Until recently, Daniyal Isayev writes in a commentary on the Islam.ru portal, the Muslims of Russia, like most analysts who discuss their community, typically spoke "about ‘Islam and Russia,' ‘Islam in Russia,' and even ‘[non-ethnic] Russian Islam." But they "never" referred to "'Muslim Russia.'" Now, he writes, ever more of the faithful there are doing just that, a reflection of "how much is changing both in the world and in Russia itself"—and "especially in the consciousness, self-conception and position of Muslims" living in that country (http://www.islam.ru/pressclub/analitika/bumora/?print_page).

This shift does not represent a split in Russian society, the Muslim commentator insists, but rather represents an affirmation that Islam is "an inalienable part of Russia" and that "Russia as a state and civilization could not exist without Islam and the Muslims." The Islamic community emerged "on the territory of contemporary Russia not only centuries earlier than in many other regions of the world which today are considered traditionally Islamic but centuries before the appearance of the [ethnic] Russian people and [ethnic] Russian and [non-ethnic] Russian statehood."

"Muslim Russia," he writes, "is Derbent, Kazan, Astrakhan, Ufa, Tyumen, Orenburg and so on. Today, this is also Moscow and St. Petersburg. [It] is the creativity of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Tolstoy, … an enormous territory and peoples of Northern Eurasia who were drawn together by the Golden Horde." Moreover, "Muslim Russia is [also] the victories on the fronts of the First and Second World Wars, gold medals at the Olympics and scientific achievements of recent years." And the future of Muslim Russia, Isayev suggests, is certain to be even richer and more beneficial to the country.

Goble then quotes from four Russian nationalist writers expressing dismay at the surge of Islam in their country. Goble concludes that "these two sets of attitudes, the increasingly self-confident Muslim one, on the one hand, and the increasingly defensive ethnic Russian one, on the other, points to more conflicts ahead," unless both sides pull back and reflect on the dangers that could result.

Related Topics: Converts to Islam, Demographics, Russia/Soviet Union

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What if the Muslims Won?

What if the Muslims Won? by Gene Edward Veith

On October 10, 732 a.d., some 80,000 Muslim cavalrymen attacked 30,000 Frankish infantrymen near Tours in present-day France. Those Muslims had already conquered Northern Africa and Spain, and they were poised to sweep over the rest of Europe. Normally, foot soldiers are no match for horsemen with lances, especially when outnumbered. So the Frankish king, Charles “The Hammer” Martel, arrayed his men at the top of a steep wooded hill, hoping that having to charge uphill and avoid trees would at least slow down the Muslim cavalry. Most importantly, he had his men huddle together to form a large square, their holding up their shields to form a “shield wall” and creating a thicket of spears to fend off the horses. If anyone broke away from the group, if anyone ran away, if the shield wall collapsed so as to force a scattered retreat, the horsemen would easily cut them down as they ran. But during the battle, as wave after wave of cavalry threw themselves against the formation, the shield wall held. Not only that, the Franks utterly defeated the invaders, slew the Muslim general, and drove his surviving forces back over the Pyrenees. Mental experiment: What if the shield wall broke? What if the Muslims won the Battle of Tours? What if the Muslims in the eighth century took over Western Europe? If they did, what would our culture look like today? Thinking that surely Western civilization would have survived despite a Muslim conquest is naive. Medieval Christendom was probably not as culturally robust as the Byzantine Empire was, but after Constantinople fell to the Muslims much later, hardly anything survived that culture’s Islamicization. Just saying that we would be like Iraq or Iran is surely not enough. In their clothing, architecture, and technology, these Islamic countries show a Western influence. When the jihadist terrorists attack Western civilization, they are using bombs, guns, and Internet communications that Western civilization has made. So let us imagine what our culture would be like if the Muslims conquered Europe, as very nearly happened. We would have no legislatures, since Islam does not recognize the creation of new laws, since the Shari’a of the Qur’an is considered sufficient for all time. This would be enforced by an absolute ruler, such as an emperor or caliph. We would today either own or be slaves. The kinds of political liberty we take for granted today would not exist. Islam does not approve of representation art, just elaborate designs for their mosques and tapestries, so we would not have much heritage in the visual arts, and the development of distinctly visual media, such as film and television, would be unlikely. We would have little, if any, music, whether symphonic compositions or rock ‘n’ roll. Islamic countries usually have religious and erotic poetry, but, despite occasional tales such as The Arabian Nights, we would probably have little fiction. The novel would not have been invented. Islam has no drama, and without the biblical plays of the early church and without Shakespeare, neither would we. We might have some science. The ancient Muslim world was good with mathematics. But it would not take the same form. Science would probably remain in the realm of the abstract and theoretical, missing the way Western engineers turned scientific discoveries into applied technology. Christianity would survive. Christ has promised that. But the church would be marginalized and restricted. Islamic tolerance means that Christians would be allowed to stay in their little groups and propagate their faith within existing families, as long as they pay deference to Islam. But woe to you if you try to evangelize a Muslim. Our churches would be little enclaves, as with the Assyrians in Iraq or the Copts in Egypt. Christianity would exist, but Muslims would control the culture. The Qur’an seeks to establish — and to fix permanently — the laws of Allah. Shari’a does not change, and so the culture it governs will not change, especially if it escapes the contingencies of history by becoming universalized. Christianity teaches that human institutions are to be judged according to the transcendent moral law of God. Thus we have the habit of criticizing our rulers and our institutions when they do not measure up. And because Christianity teaches that we live in a fallen world, we know they never do. And because this world is not absolute but contingent, that it passes away, we accept and sometimes even cause cultural change. In short, if it were not for that Frankish soldier who refused to run when the Muslim horses charged down on him, we would still be, for all practical purposes, in the eighth century. To think what Islam’s cultural influence would have been throws Christianity’s cultural influence in high relief. Christianity either directly shaped or allowed to come into being what we now recognize as Western civilization. That the shield wall held is an example of God’s providential reign over history.

Dr. Gene Edward Veith is academic dean of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, and is the author of Modern Fascism.

The aim of Truth and Consequences is to help readers understand the broader cultural and historical implications of every theme Tabletalk magazine chooses to cover. Noted commentator Dr. Gene Edward Veith lends his talents to this column each month.

íntegra do discurso de Sarah Palin na Convenção Republicana

04/09/2008 - 11h16

Leia a íntegra do discurso de Sarah Palin na Convenção Republicana

da Folha Online

No discurso mais aguardado da terceira noite da Convenção Republicana, a candidata republicana à Vice-Presidência dos Estados Unidos, Sarah Palin, rebateu as críticas feitas pela imprensa e a divulgação de notícias sobre sua vida pessoal.

"Mas eis uma notícia para todos esses repórteres e comentaristas: não vou a Washington em busca de sua opinião favorável. Vou a Washington servir o povo do meu país", disse, sob aplausos.

Leia abaixo a íntegra do discurso feito por Palin:

"Senhor presidente, delegados e concidadãos: ser considerada para indicação à vice-presidência dos Estados Unidos é uma grande honra para mim. Aceito o convite para ajudar o nosso indicado à presidência a servir e defender a América. Aceito o desafio de uma luta dura nessa eleição... contra oponentes confiantes... em um momento crucial para o nosso país.

E aceito o privilégio de servir com um homem que já realizou missões muito mais difíceis, e enfrentou desafios muito mais árduos, e sabe com que dificuldade surgem as vitórias o próximo presidente dos Estados Unidos, John McCain.

Apenas um ano atrás, os especialistas consideravam que o nosso indicado estava descartado, porque ele se recusou a atenuar seu compromisso para com a segurança do país que ele ama.

Com sua certeza usual, eles nos informaram que tudo estava perdido que não havia esperança para um candidato que declarou que preferiria perder uma eleição a ver seu país perder uma guerra. Mas os especialistas e os sabichões desconsideraram apenas uma coisa ao descartá-lo.

Desconsideraram o calibre do homem que ele é a determinação, a resolução, a coragem indomável do senador John McCain. E os eleitores conheciam tudo isso.

E isso talvez se deva ao fato de que eles reconheçam que existe um momento para política e um momento para liderança... um momento para fazer campanha e um momento para colocar nosso país adiante de tudo. Nosso indicado para a presidência é um verdadeiro exemplo de coragem, e pessoas como ele são difíceis de encontrar.

Ele usou o uniforme de nossas forças armadas por 22 anos, e se recusou a abandonar seu compromisso para com os soldados no Iraque, que nos colocaram à beira da vitória.

E, como mãe de um desses soldados, esse é exatamente o tipo de homem que desejo como comandante-em-chefe. Eu sou apenas uma daquelas mães que dizem uma oração a mais a cada noite por nossos filhos e filhas que estão enfrentando o mal em nosso nome.

Nosso filho Track tem 19 anos. E dentro de uma semana --em 11 de setembro-- ele será transferido ao Iraque para servir o país com a infantaria do exército. Meu sobrinho Kasey também se alistou, e serve em um porta-aviões no Golfo Pérsico. Minha família se orgulha dos dois, e de todos os excelentes homens e mulheres que servem às forças armadas do país. Track é o mais velho de nossos cinco filhos.

Em nossa família, são dois meninos, e três meninas no meio --minhas fortes e generosas filhas Bristol, Willow e Piper. E em abril, meu marido Todd e eu recebemos o nosso mais novo no mundo, um menino perfeitamente lindo chamado Trig. De dentro, nenhuma família parece típica. E é esse o caso para nós.

Nossa família passa pelos mesmos altos e baixos que qualquer outra, pelos mesmos desafios e as mesmas alegrias. Ocasionalmente, até mesmo as maiores alegrias acarretam desafios. E crianças com necessidades especiais inspiram um amor especial.

Às famílias de crianças com necessidades especiais em todo o país, tenho uma mensagem: há anos vocês vêm tentando fazer dos Estados Unidos um país que receba melhor os seus filhos e filhas. Prometo que, caso eu seja eleita, vocês terão uma amiga e uma defensora na Casa Branca. E Todd merece uma história só para ele.

Trabalhou a vida toda como pescador comercial, como operador de produção nos campos de petróleo de North Slope, no Alasca, como orgulhoso membro do sindicato dos siderúrgicos... e como campeão mundial em corridas de snowmobile. Se acrescentarmos suas origens que remontam aos esquimós Yup'ik, é fácil perceber que ele é algo de especial.

Fomos apresentados no segundo grau, e cinco filhos mais tarde ele continua a ser o homem da minha vida. Minha mãe e meu pai trabalhavam ambos na escola primária de nossa cidadezinha. E entre as muitas coisas que lhes devo está uma simples lição: a de que estamos nos Estados Unidos, e toda mulher pode encontrar abertas as portas da oportunidade.

Meus pais estão aqui na noite de hoje, e tenho orgulho por ser a filha de Chuck e Sally Heath. Muito tempo atrás, um jovem agricultor e proprietário de uma loja de roupas do Missouri também seguiu um percurso improvável até a vice-presidência.

Um escritor observou que "nós cultivamos boas pessoas em nossas pequenas cidades, pessoas honestas, sinceras e dignas". Eu conheço exatamente a espécie de pessoas que o escritor tinha em mente ao elogiar Harry Truman. Foi com pessoas como essas que cresci.

São elas que executam alguns dos mais difíceis trabalhos do país, que cultivam nossos alimentos, trabalham em nossas fábricas e combatem em nossas guerras. Elas amam seu país, nos bons e nos maus tempos, e sempre têm orgulho da América. Tive o privilégio de viver a maior parte da minha vida em uma cidade pequena.

Fui uma mãe média, daquelas que levam os filhos para jogar hóquei, e me inscrevi na Associação de Pais e Mestres porque queria melhorar a educação pública que meus filhos recebiam. Quando disputei um posto no Legislativo municipal, não precisei de grupos de opinião e perfis de eleitores para me orientar, porque conhecia os eleitores e suas famílias pessoalmente.

Antes de me tornar governadora do grande Estado do Alasca, fui prefeita da minha cidade natal. E porque os nossos oponentes na eleição presidencial parecem desconsiderar essa experiência, permitam-me explicar a eles o que esse trabalho envolve.

Creio que o prefeito de uma cidade pequena seja uma espécie de "organizador comunitário", se excetuarmos o fato de que ele tem responsabilidades reais. Eu poderia acrescentar que, nas pequenas cidades, não sabemos direito o que pensar sobre um candidato que despeja elogios aos trabalhadores quando eles estão ouvindo e depois diz que eles se apegam amargamente à sua religião e às suas armas, quando não estão ouvindo.

Tendemos a preferir candidatos que não falem sobre nós de uma maneira em Scranton e de outra em San Francisco.

Quanto ao meu companheiro de chapa, podem estar certos de que, onde quer que ele vá, e quem quer que o esteja ouvindo, John McCain é sempre o mesmo homem. Eu não sou membro permanente da elite política. E aprendi rapidamente, nos últimos dias, que se você não for um membro bem aceito da elite de Washington, há pessoas na mídia que podem considerá-lo como desqualificado para um cargo apenas por isso.

Mas eis uma notícia para todos esses repórteres e comentaristas: não vou a Washington em busca de sua opinião favorável. Vou a Washington servir o povo do meu país. Os norte-americanos esperam que vamos a Washington pelas razões certas, e não apenas para fazer contato com as pessoas certas.

A política não é apenas um jogo de confronto entre partidos e de interesses conflitantes.

O motivo certo é desafiar o status quo, servir ao bem comum e legar um país melhor do aquele que recebemos. Ninguém espera que todos nós concordemos sobre tudo. Mas a expectativa é de que governemos com integridade, boa vontade, convicções claras e com o coração daqueles que almejam a servir.

Prometo aos norte-americanos que me esse espírito orientará meu comportamento como vice-presidente dos Estados Unidos. Foi essa espécie de espírito que me conduziu ao posto de governadora, quando decidi confrontar a política ao modo antigo que costumava ser feita em Juneau. Eu enfrentei os interesses especiais, os lobbies, as grandes empresas de petróleo e a rede de conexões do clubinho dos velhos políticos.

Reforma súbita e incansável jamais cai bem junto aos interesses instalados e aos intermediários políticos. É por isso que é tão difícil realizar reforma real.

Mas com o apoio dos cidadãos do Alasca, nós mudamos as coisas. E em pouco tempo colocamos o governo do nosso Estado uma vez mais a serviço do povo. Assumi o cargo prometendo uma grande reforma ética, e pôr fim à cultura da busca de vantagens pessoais. E hoje essa reforma ética é lei.

Enquanto cuidava disso, me livrei de algumas coisas no gabinete do governador que me pareciam despesas desnecessárias para o povo. O jatinho de luxo era exagero. Eu o vendi no eBay. Também dirijo meu carro para o trabalho.

E confiei em que seria possível sobreviver sem os serviços de uma cozinheira pessoal para a governadora --ainda que eu admita que meus filhos de vez em quando sintam falta dela. Cheguei ao cargo prometendo controlar os gastos --apelando ao bom senso, se possível, e usando meu poder de veto, se necessário.

O senador McCain também promete usar o poder de veto em defesa do interesse público --e, como chefe de um Executivo, posso lhes garantir que isso funciona. Nosso orçamento estadual está sob controle. Temos um superávit. E protegi os contribuintes vetando despesas perdulárias: quase US$ 500 milhões em vetos.

Suspendi o imposto estadual sobre o combustível e defendi reformas que pusessem fim aos abusos no que tange às propostas de dispêndios aprovadas pelo Congresso. Respondi ao Congresso que "obrigada, mas não", quando me ofereceram aquela Ponte para o Nada.

Se o nosso Estado quiser uma ponte, nós mesmos a construiremos. Quando os preços do petróleo e do gás natural subiram dramaticamente e os cofres do Estado ficaram abarrotados, destinei boa parte dessa receita àqueles que a merecem --o dinheiro foi restituído diretamente ao povo do Alasca.

E a despeito da feroz oposição do lobby petroleiro, que gostava das coisas como eram, nós rompemos seu monopólio sobre a energia e os recursos naturais.

Como governadora, insisto em competição e em equanimidade básicas de forma a pôr fim ao controle deles sobre o nosso Estado, devolvendo-o ao povo. Lutei para realizar o maior projeto de infra-estrutura já realizado nos Estados Unidos pelo setor privado. E quando o acordo para ele foi fechado, demos início à construção de um gasoduto de quase US$ 40 bilhões que pode ajudar a conduzir os Estados Unidos à independência energética.

O gasoduto, quando sua última seção estiver instalada e as válvulas estiverem abertas, deixará os Estados Unidos um passo mais distante da dependência quanto a perigosas potências estrangeiras que não levam nossos interesses em consideração. O que está em jogo para o nosso país não poderia ser mais grave.

Quando um furacão atinge o Golfo do México, este país não deveria depender tanto de petróleo importado que sejamos forçados a utilizar a Reserva Estratégica de Petróleo.

E as famílias não devem desperdiçar porção cada vez maior de sua renda pagando pela gasolina e pelo óleo de aquecimento.

Com a Rússia desejando controlar um oleoduto vital no Cáucaso e dividir e intimidar nossos aliados europeus ao usar a energia como arma, não podemos nos colocar à mercê de fornecedores estrangeiros.

Para confrontar a ameaça de que o Irã possa tentar cortar quase um quinto dos suprimentos mundiais de energia... ou de possíveis ataques terroristas às instalações de Abqaiq, na Arábia Saudita... ou de que a Venezuela suspenda suas vendas de petróleo... nós, nos Estados Unidos, precisamos produzir mais petróleo e gás natural. E escutem o que uma garota que conhece a North Slope do Alasca tem a dizer: há muito de ambos os recursos a explorar.

Nossos oponentes não se cansam de repetir que a prospecção não resolverá todos os problemas de energia da América --como se todos nós já não soubéssemos disso. Mas o fato de que a prospecção não seja capaz de resolver cada problema não é desculpa para a inação.

A partir de janeiro, no governo McCain-Palin, vamos construir mais oleodutos, construir mais usinas de energia limpa, criar empregos com o carvão limpo e avançar com a energia solar, eólica, geotérmica e outras fontes alternativas.

Precisamos de recursos de energia norte-americanos, trazidos a nós pela engenhosidade norte-americana e extraídos por trabalhadores norte-americanos. Eu percebi um padrão naquilo que diz o nosso oponente. Talvez vocês também tenham percebido. Todos nós ouvimos seus dramáticos discursos diante de seguidores dedicados. E há muito a admirar e de que gostar em nosso oponente.

Mas ao ouvi-lo discursar, é fácil esquecer que se trata de um homem que já escreveu dois livros de memórias e no entanto não redigiu nenhum grande projeto de lei ou reforma --nem mesmo no Senado estadual. Trata-se de um homem capaz de dedicar um discurso inteiro às guerras em que os Estados Unidos estão envolvidos e jamais usar a palavra "vitória", exceto em referência à sua própria campanha.

Mas quando a nuvem da retórica se vai, quando o rugido da multidão desaparece, quando os holofotes do estádio se apagam, e quando as colunas gregas de isopor são recolhidas a um depósito --qual é exatamente o plano de nosso oponente? O que exatamente ele deseja realizar depois que tiver dominado ás águas da enchente e salvado o planeta? A resposta é tornar o governo maior. Tirar mais de seu dinheiro. Dar a vocês mais ordens vindas de Washington. E reduzir a força dos Estados Unidos em um mundo perigoso. O país precisa de mais energia, e o nosso oponente se opõe a que ela seja produzida.

A vitória no Iraque está enfim próxima, e ele quer abandonar a luta.

Estados terroristas estão procurando armas nucleares o mais rápido possível, e ele deseja se reunir com eles sem impor precondições. Terroristas da Al Qaeda ainda planejam infligir danos catastróficos aos Estados Unidos, e ele está preocupado por eles não serem informados de seus direitos? O governo já é grande demais, e ele deseja que cresça ainda mais. O Congresso gasta demais, e ele promete mais.

Os impostos são altos demais, e ele quer aumentá-los. Os aumentos de impostos que ele propõe estão nas letrinhas miúdas de seu plano econômico, e permitam-me ser específica.

O indicado democrata à presidência apóia planos que elevarão o imposto de renda, o imposto sobre os salários, o imposto sobre a receita de investimento, o imposto sobre espólios, o imposto sobre as empresas e carga tributária com que o povo norte-americano arca, e em centenas de bilhões de dólares. Minha irmã Heather e seu marido construíram um posto de gasolina que acaba de ser inaugurado --como milhões de outras pessoas que operam pequenas empresas.

Como é que eles vão melhorar de vida se os impostos subirem? O mesmo pode ser dito sobre os esforços para manter empregos em uma fábrica em Michigan ou Ohio, ou para criar empregos no setor de carvão limpo na Pensilvânia ou Virgínia Ocidental, ou para manter uma pequena fazenda familiar bem aqui em Minnesota.

Como é que vocês poderão melhorar de vida se o nosso oponente acrescentar uma imensa carga tributária à economia norte-americana? Eis o que penso sobre a escolha que os norte-americanos terão de enfrentar nessa eleição. Na política, existem alguns candidatos que usam a mudança para promover suas carreiras.

E há aqueles que, como John McCain, usam suas carreiras para promover a mudança.

São esses que colocam seus nomes em leis e reformas históricas, e não apenas em faixas e cartazes de campanha ou selos presidenciais que eles mesmos criaram. Entre os políticos, existe o idealismo dos discursos retóricos, nos quais as multidões são convincentemente convidadas a apoiar grandes coisas.

E há o idealismo de líderes como John McCain, que efetivamente realizam grandes coisas. São eles que fazem mais do que falam. É com eles que sempre pudemos contar para servir e defender a América. O histórico de realizações e reformas reais do senador McCain ajuda a explicar porque tantos grupos de interesses especiais, lobistas e presidentes de comitês que se sentem confortáveis em seus postos no Congresso combatem a perspectiva de vê-lo na presidência das primárias de 2000 até hoje.

Nosso indicado não acompanha o rebanho em Washington.

Ele é um homem que está aqui para servir o país, e não apenas ao seu partido. Um líder que não está procurando briga, mas não tem medo de enfrentá-la. Harry Reid, o líder da maioria no Senado inepto que hoje temos, não muito tempo atrás resumiu seus sentimentos sobre o nosso indicado.

Ele disse: "Não suporto John McCain". Senhoras e senhores, talvez nenhum dos elogios que ouvimos esta semana seja melhor prova de que escolhemos o homem certo. É evidente que aquilo que o líder da maioria queria dizer é que ele não consegue suportar a competência de John McCain. E essa é apenas mais uma razão para que tiremos esse líder conhecido pela independência do Senado e o conduzamos à Casa Branca. Meus concidadãos, a presidência dos Estados Unidos não deveria ser "uma jornada de descoberta pessoal". Esse mundo de perigos e ameaças não é apenas uma comunidade, e não precisa apenas de um organizador.

E ainda que os senadores Obama e Biden tenham repetido muitas vezes nas semanas recentes que eles sempre "lutarão por vocês", vamos ser honestos sobre o assunto.

Nesta eleição, existe apenas um homem que realmente lutou por vocês, em lugares onde a vitória significava sobrevivência e a derrota morte, e estou falando de John McCain. Em nossa era, os políticos se dispuseram a revelar histórias de adversidade muito menos severas do que o pesadelo que este homem, e outros homens corajosos como ele, enfrentaram a serviço de nosso país.

A distância entre o medo, a dor e a miséria de uma cela de dois por um metro em Hanói à Casa Branca é muito grande. Mas, caso o senador John McCain seja eleito presidente, é esta a jornada que ele terá percorrido. É a jornada de um homem probo e honrado --a espécie de sujeito cujo nome encontramos nos memoriais de guerra das pequenas cidades deste país. A exceção é que ele conseguiu voltar para casa.

No mais poderoso posto do planeta, ele exerceria a compaixão surgida do fato de que um dia esteve indefeso, a sabedoria que surge até mesmo entre os cativos pela graça de Deus, a confiança especial daqueles que viram o mal e perceberam que é possível derrotá-lo. Um de seus colegas como prisioneiro de guerra, Tom Moe, de Lancaster, Ohio, lembra de observar por uma fresta na porta de sua cela os guardas que conduziam o tenente-comandante John McCain pelo corredor da prisão, dia após dia.

Da maneira como a história é relatada, "quando McCain voltava das sessões de tortura e interrogatório, ele voltava o rosto para a porta da cela de Moe e sorria, erguendo o polegar", como se estivesse dizendo "vamos sobreviver a isso". Meus concidadãos,, é esse o tipo de homem de que o país precisa para nos comandar nos próximos quatro anos.

Um orador inspirado pode inspirar o país por uma temporada com suas palavras.

Mas John McCain nos inspirou a vida toda com seus atos.

Se o caráter é a medida a ser empregada nessa eleição, se a esperança é o tema e a mudança o objetivo que compartilhamos, peço que se unam à nossa causa. Unam-se à nossa causa e ajudem os Estados Unidos a eleger um grande homem como seu próximo presidente.

Obrigado a todos, e que Deus abençoe os Estados Unidos.

Tradução de Paulo Migliacci

Pure Torture - Tom Moe (Hanoi Hilton survivor)

Pure Torture

By Tom Moe

I was hiding under a log. Doing my best to masquerade as North Vietnam terrain, I'd pulled branches on top of me, smeared mud on my face, and arranged leaves and other foliage to stick out of my clothes. I was 20 miles behind enemy lines, having parachuted out of my F-4C fighter aircraft when a weapon malfunction blew it, along with my wingman, to bits. So far my terrain act was working; a group of North Vietnamese soldiers had passed, unaware of my presence, within six feet of me.

I'd heard on my survival radio that two other pilots had been rescued on the day of our mishap. Now, after three days in the cold and rainy jungle, I knew planes were on their way for me. It looked like a question of who would find me first.

I was eventually betrayed by a small hole in my camouflage through which I poked my radio antenna. Within seconds a zillion rifles were pointed straight at my head. Thus began a month-long, 100-mile journey to the "Hanoi Hilton" to begin my five years as a prisoner of war -- where I would get to know pain on a personal basis.

North Vietnamese policy was that POWs were war criminals, a policy that supposedly justified brutal treatment and total control. That control was reflected by a list of regulations posted in each cell. Rule number one was the catchall: "Criminals will strictly follow all regulations or be severely punished."

The scenario was quite simple. An interrogator would tell you to do something, like give out military information. When, predictably, you would refuse, you were told you had violated the regulations and had to be punished. The word "punish" still evokes in me a slight feeling of nausea since it meant, at the very least, beatings that would last several days and nights. Punishment ultimately meant torture, and to torture was to extract submissiveness. I found you could be tortured for accusing them of using torture.

Torture is methodically applied pain to produce a wearing effect -- to make you submit. Usually the pain would reach a level just short of stopping vital functions, although it could continue even after one lost consciousness.

Its preliminary stages could start with something as simple as being sat on a stool, dressed in long pajamas (in summer) or just shorts (in the winter). The summer jungle air was suffocating; the damp, cold winter air was penetrating. After a while, you became a lump of huddled misery, sitting in the heat or biting cold. During a single session I sat on a stool in the same position 24 hours a day for 10 straight days.

Sometimes the guards would tie you to the stool with your wrists strapped to your ankles, but usually you were left untied and told not to move, only being allowed to get up to visit the putrid waste bucket in the corner. And the guards were always nearby. If you moved a muscle, they'd pummel you with their fists and gun butts until they tired. I don't remember sleeping during these periods -- just pain and the interminable passage of time.

After I spent days being worn down, interrogators would enter the scene, curiously almost a welcome break from "stool time." Tired and numb, many of us prisoners at first would give name, rank, and serial number -- like you see in the movies. But this is fool's play and contrary to our military training, because this open belligerency would earn some pretty tough knocks. To survive you had to get your mind going and overcome the tendency to react with your emotions. You had to fight through the haze of fatigue to recall the specialized training, and it worked. Although the interrogations and torture rarely lightened up, with the resistance techniques we were taught we were able to avoid giving any useful or classified information.

I was fortunate because, as a young lieutenant fresh out of pilot training on my first assignment, I didn't know anything of real worth. The senior officers were really under the gun. If the enemy wanted something and knew you knew it, they would stop at nothing to get it. Thus we were trained to be clever, an actor, under stress.

What I was not prepared for were the effects of solitary confinement. For the first nine months of my captivity, and sporadically later, I didn't see, hear or talk to another American. Although physical pain was inflicted on me deliberately and effectively, I would discover what an incredible burden mental pain would add to my suffering, how a dark fog slowly could creep over my consciousness, trying to rob me of my remaining power of reasoning. I saw that the mind could convince life itself to slip away through the beckoning black hole that pain created. I learned how vital it was to keep the mind as sharp as possible.

This was necessary to get through interrogations and also for survival. If you didn't keep your mind clear, the "V," as we called the North Vietnamese, would crush you through a steady dose of pain that eroded mind and body like a vicious chemical.

The body is first to give up. You cannot keep yourself from passing out, throwing up, screaming. I discovered that the more the body convulsed involuntarily, the more I could observe it as though it belonged to someone else. I found I could intellectualize pain, which allowed me to take a quantum leap in my tolerance of it. Sometimes, though, the problem was staying in touch with reality enough to keep alive. Detaching oneself too much has an insidious narcotic effect that invades one's reason and dulls normal danger signals. This is probably the way nature helps us die without being all tensed up.

I walked a psychic tightrope between too much pain and too much mental retreat from reality. That meant fighting back against the siren lure of pain-free death. Sometimes I knew I needed to feel pain. Pain could keep my senses sharp, my contact with reality stronger. I recalled the saying, "Pain purifies." This may not be entirely sensible, but it was curiously relevant then. Sometimes I would try to observe the pain process and translate the feeling into some sort of metaphysical experience -- something interesting to contemplate, something detached. Sometimes when the pain got to be too much for the physical side of me, nature would take over and I would simply pass out.

I based my mental retreats not on fantasy but on real things. I designed and built homes, about 10 of them -- some dream houses, others more practical. First I made a floor plan, then the exterior, and then I would build them in my mind nail by nail, down to the most minute detail. I'd design it, lay the cement, put up the two-by-fours, drive each nail, and even saw each board -- slowly. If it progressed too fast, I would envision a bad cut on a board and resaw it.

I made lists. I made a list of every country I could think of, then every capital. I even made a list of all the candy bars I could think of. I tried to think of everything I had ever learned; once I reviewed everything I'd learned about trees. Sometimes I'd derive mathematical formulas, spending hours in the process. I could get completely wrapped up in this, completely escaping into my mind. With mental exercise came resolve -- if I could help it, this was not going to be the place where I cashed it in.

Isolation lasted about nine months, until I was moved to another prisoner of war camp in Hanoi. There I got a roommate, Myron Donald from Moravia, New York. For more than a year we lived together in a windowless concrete bunker we called the Gunshed. During that time Myron would save my life.

It was a hot box, the Gunshed, so hot we could hardly breathe. It was so stifling that just to breathe we often lay by a small slit under the door through which our jailers slid food.

The food itself was used against us like everything else. It usually consisted of watery green soup (we called it weeds) and a chunk of tasteless bread. The soup was delivered boiling hot in the summer and stone cold in the winter. When it was hot we couldn't take a mouthful, since eating raises the body metabolism and thus body heat. If the guards didn't return too quickly, we would let the food sit until dark and the room temperature had slacked off to, maybe, 110 degrees.

We perspired so much our skin became waterlogged, looking like pale cheese, a crumbling coat of slimy flesh often festering with rash and fungus. Horribly dehydrated, we got only two little teapots of putrid water a day, and we used some of it to dampen our faces and wash off the crumbling skin. On top of this, mosquitoes were thick, their wings creating a constant chorus, and the room stank of the waste bucket. Rat droppings seasoned the food along with razor blades, glass, stones and pieces of wire. Actually some of this unexpected booty came in handy.

After about a year of captivity when, oddly, I was getting accustomed to the harshness, my journey took me down an even darker path. The situation developed slowly. First I was told I might win an early release if I would cooperate and meet with some visiting delegations -- anti-war groups or radical Hollywood personalities -- and tell them I had been treated well. I refused these special favors and at any rate would not participate in their propaganda. When they kept pressuring me, I went on a hunger strike -- an emaciated prisoner would not make good propaganda I reasoned. This got me off the go-home-early list but angered my jailers if only because I was not submissive. Thus began the really hard stuff.

Things started with long sessions of standing immobile around the clock; next I was put on my knees for three, four, six hours at a time. This went on for days. It was the first phase, sort of a limbering-up session to wear me out and take the edge off my powers of reasoning. Then I was told to write a war-crimes confession, saying I was sorry I'd participated in the war. When I refused, I got to serve as a stress reliever for about 20 guards -- each took his turn beating me to a pulp. They pounded me for six or eight hours. By then I was getting pretty shaky. Then they got serious. I was introduced to a bowl of water, some filthy rags and a steel rod. The guards stuffed a rag in my mouth with the rod, then, after putting another rag over my face, they slowly poured the water on it until all I was breathing was water vapor. I could feel my lungs going tight with fluid and felt like I was drowning. I thrashed in panic as darkness took over. As I passed out, thinking I was dying, I remember thanking God that we had made a stand against this kind of society.

When my senses returned I discovered I had been blindfolded and trussed into the "pretzel" position. Thick leg irons shackled my ankles, my wrists were tied behind me, and a rope bound my elbows just above the joints. The guards tightened the bindings by putting their feet against my arms and pulling the ropes until they couldn't pull any harder. Then they tied my wrists to my ankles and jammed a 10-foot pole between my back and elbows. After a few hours the leg irons began to press heavily on my shins and feet like a vise. The ropes strangled my flesh, causing searing pain and making my arms go numb and slowly turn black.

In the middle of the night, one of the less hostile guards, whom we called Mark, sneaked in and loosened the ropes a little. If he hadn't, I'm sure I would have lost both arms. In this case I would have vanished with the other badly injured POWs who never were repatriated.

After a few hours, the guards came back and jerked up on the pole, lifting me up and down by my elbows then slamming me to the floor on my face or backward on my head. This went on through the early morning hours.

At dawn two Vietnamese officers casually strolled in. I told them they might kill me, but I still wasn't interested in their propaganda. They laughed and calmly said, "It's easy to die but hard to live, and we'll show you just how hard it is to live."

Indeed the pain got to the point where I truly wanted to die. My mind games weren't sufficient to help me manage any more pain. I tried screaming to relieve the stress until the grimy rag was stuffed back into my mouth. I tried doing anything to take my mind away from what was happening, but I couldn't. My prayers became desperate gasps. The only solution was to stop living, but what can you do when you're tied up? You can't will your heart to stop beating.

After about a week I finally told the guards I'd write the confession. I had to get out of the ropes, collect my thoughts, and perhaps muster a bit more strength to still do nothing or at least moderate what would happen. My hosts knew exactly what I was thinking and simply said, "It's too late." They brought in a guard who sported the only leather boots I ever saw in North Vietnam. I don't know what they told him, but he looked like he wanted to kill me. He looked insane, his eyes wide open, and he practically jumped up and down when they turned him loose on me.

From my point of view, what went on next didn't last long. He began by kicking me in the back with all the strength he could exert. After this first savage kick, just one kick, I knew I'd been badly injured, maybe mortally. The pain was grave, more of a deep sickening feeling. My mind floated free of my body as if I were a spectator, not a participant. I was beyond pain.

Sometime the next day the guards untied me, and I sprawled on the bloody floor, red fluid oozed out of every opening in my body. I had no strength to sit or stand; I just sort of unrolled. In spite of my sorry state, I did not want to look undignified, so I tried to get up. I managed to crawl to a corner and sit leaning against the wall, trying desperately to gather my thoughts.

We spent the next three days working on the war-crimes confession, but the guards would wave whatever I wrote in my face and scream that it wasn't satisfactory. Were they seeing through my innuendos and double meanings? I could feel myself starting to panic as I could feel my last remaining defenses slipping.

The demands increased now to a taped confession. Somehow I still found the strength to refuse -- perhaps a little bit too resolutely, because they reverted to the hard stuff again. I was having trouble remembering those precious resistance techniques I had been taught so many light years ago. I started making a tape, pushing my sluggish brain to come up with ideas to show acceptable submissiveness to my wards yet useless for propaganda. My attempts were not convincing, so the torture continued. I told myself just to make it one more day, and then just one more. ... Anyone trained in such affairs knows that constant torture can make captives reach a point where they can't maintain mental equilibrium, and my captors knew it too. They could break me, and I was becoming frantic, fearing my strength would not last.

Then, they stopped -- just like that. Some weeks had gone by, and perhaps they had other business. Maybe they figured I might not make it. Although they had murdered prisoners, I believe most of my colleagues who died were accidentally tortured to death. The North Vietnamese knew they could not win the war militarily, but they might succeed if they garnered world sympathy. It would be difficult for them to look good if too many POWs "died in captivity." But I came pretty close, as did many of my mates.

My immediate challenge was to recover from the kidney and chest injuries from that wild night of "kick the Yankee." My entire body was bloated, my eye sockets two puffy slits. You could stick your finger into me up to your knuckle and pull it out leaving a hole that would slowly fill with fluid. Myron didn't recognize me at first when I was thrown back in our cell. He set my broken ribs with his fingertips and used our shirts to bind my chest. Occasionally the ribs would click out of place, and he would reset them. But it didn't take long after I was on the mend for the torture sessions to resume.

As I grew more and more weary, I had to cope with one of the most corrosive elements of the human spirit -- hate. Hate is a terrible distraction, a horribly destructive human enterprise. Hate invades the consciousness when the mind's reasoning power fades. Hate is a way we assign blame for our plight when our faith weakens and our resolve becomes clouded. Pain intensifies hate, making us want to strike out at something.

I stumbled into this blackness and, with vivid flashes of bitter invectives, cursed everything I had held sacred. I bathed in self-pity and resolved all my sufferings with the most wicked solutions. Although I drew some strength from hate, I finally realized I was drawing it from the devil. I journeyed into the lowest point in my life. And then I was truly exhausted.

I "came to" after a particularly horrific torture session, alone, lying on a stone floor, more naked than clothed, bruised, filthy, gaunt, and panting in little puppy breaths. I felt surprisingly free of pain and acutely aware of every inch of my surroundings. I knew I wasn't very healthy, and I was startled at how my body looked like a bag of leftover chicken bones.

My knees looked huge compared to the rest of my scrawny legs. Lying on my side, I could place a fist between my thighs and touch only air. But I didn't hurt anywhere. I thought maybe I was dead. I thought about many, many things as I lay there almost motionless for days. I prayed and prayed and prayed. ...

Finally the cell door peephole quietly opened and an eyeball squinted into the darkness. Then it was gone. A few minutes later the heavy wooden door opened with a clanging of keys and sliding bolts. An enamel plate skittered across the floor and halted just short of my slowly blinking eyes. On it was a mound of raw salt crystals piled on top of some rice. "The salt is for beriberi," the voice said, and the door banged shut.

I thought for a moment: Does he mean the salt will give me beriberi or prevent it? I chuckled to myself. My feeble attempt at humor was an elixir. Even though I would spend several more years as a guest of Uncle Ho, I knew I was over the hump. Humor, faith and mental focus would allow me to endure. I felt human, mentally whole and refreshed.

Maybe there is something to that old saying about pain purifying, but I would not prescribe the treatment.

* * *

Captured in North Vietnam in January 1968, Thomas Moe was released in 1973. Two years later he earned a master's degree from Notre Dame, where he eventually served as professor of aerospace studies and commander of the Air Force ROTC program. He retired from the Air Force in fall 1995.

Independentes e Dependentes

Independentes e Dependentes

Ainda hoje é possível ouvir da boca de um professor de ensino médio no Brasil a expressão "Império Informal". Ela é atribuída a uma teoria que rondou os meios acadêmicos da década de 1960, segundo a qual, o Brasil pós 1808 se tornou um "Império Informal" inglês. Às vezes penso que esse era o necessário ad animum dos intelectuais (se assim se pode chamar, já que a teoria de verdadeira só tem intenção) da esquerda brasileira, que não viam outra forma para desabafar o ódio guardado pela situação política em que se encontrava o país. E o maneirismo que encontraram foi esse: "romper com o verdadeiro e ter a liberdade de inventar". No caso do Maneirismo de Miguel Angel, com tendência ao diferente e belo, foi um sucesso. Mas na arte não há mentiras, o diferente é somente diferente. E história se faz com documentos primários, e essa tentativa de revisionismo bem comum da história crítica ou propriamente de historiadores de esquerda, não deu certo. Aliás, dar certo nesse caso seria uma mentira se passar por verdade. E não passou. O Brasil nunca se tornou uma colônia indireta do Reino Unido.

Os britânicos barravam a entrada do açúcar brasileiro em seu mercado, compravam a maior parte do algodão dos Estados Unidos (depois de 1815) e bebiam muito pouco café. Embora tenham alguns cidadãos britânicos lucrado bastante com o café brasileiro, não foram eles que criaram esse lucrativo negócio de exportação, assim como não foram essenciais para a sua continuidade. Nós brasileiros tampouco éramos dependentes das importações provenientes da Grã-Bretanha; com o dinheiro recebido de nossas importações para os Estados Unidos e para Europa continental, comprávamos os manufaturados naquele país porque era lá que se conseguia os melhores preços. Simples assim. A vantagem tarifária imposta durante os anos 1808-1844, esteve longe de ser suficiente para transformar o Brasil num domínio britânico.

Em resumo, as pessoas que lutaram pela liberdade no Brasil não foram marionetes manipuladas por uma potência estrangeira, e todas aquelas estórias que insistem em repetir, não somente a nível colegial e sim, também, universitário, ao que mais parece é vestígio daquilo que foi um orgasmo retraído da esquerda pós período militar brasileiro.

Postado por Maldinni Garcez, Victor

Monarquia a Preço de Banana.

Monarquia a preço de banana.

Claro, dependendo do ponto de vista, sim, a Monarquia hoje é barata. E tendo como objeto de análise a República Federativa Brasileira, veríamos que o título que escolhi não seria em nada um exagero.

Apesar de nosso presidente acarretar os papéis de Chefe de Governo e Estado - ao contrário de um Monarca que é somente Chefe de Estado -, me parece sobressalente ver que os gastos republicanos chegaram em 2004 aos gritantes R$ 372,8 (1,5 milhão por dia útil de trabalho). Para quem acha que já não basta, os negos tiveram a cara-de-pau de aprovar isso. É, mais gastos. Essa é a plena democracia e igualdade constitucional de direitos daqueles que defendem a tese de que a família Imperial é um grupinho-não-escolhido-de-privilegiados, enquanto muitos vivem do "frio, fome e miséria" e toda aquela empalhação intrínseca da cartilha republicana moderna. Além, claro, dos "desprivilegiados", como nossos ministros, juízes, parlamentares, presidentes (e suas respectivas viúvas e familiares, que sempre que podem tiram uma casquinha do governo).

Os dados atrasados de 2004 apontam que a República Brasileira custava - e nem quero saber hoje - cerca do quíntuplo da monarquia do Reino Unido, já que esta, ano passado, custou aos cofres públicos ingleses entre R$ 75-80 milhões. Obviamente, esses valores não correspondem à dotação do presidente ou Rainha, e sim aos gatos pertinentes a manutenção, compras, serviços, etc... E mais interessante ainda é saber que no website oficial Monarquia Inglesa se pode ver com detalhes o custo anual necessário para mantê-la, ao contrário de nós, que não temos acesso a sequer um dado no website oficial da República Brasileira.

Não são poucos os exemplos de monarquias que, comparados seus gastos com os nossos, dão inveja. Monarquia Espanhola; entre 25 milhões. Monarquia Sueca; 32 milhões. Belga; 29 milhões. Holandesa; 38 milhões.

E ainda tenho que ler em livros didáticos que estamos no apogeu da democracia brasileira, e que nossos imperadores não foram mais que ladrões, déspotas e mulherengos. Mas, Viva a igualdade, Viva a República Brasileira!

Postado por Maldinni Garcez, Victor

Ah! Se fosse os ingleses.

Ah! Se fosse os ingleses.

O grande desenvolvimento e enriquecimento vivido no último século pelos EUA, devido principalmente a Segunda Guerra Mundial, criou de uma maneira geral em qualquer tema discutido sobre a história deles, uma auréola de grandeza, de tal forma, que pensamos que tudo que ocorreu na cronologia de criação da nação norte-americana foi um rio de prosperidade e organização política, urbanística, cultural, assistencial e econômica. E como é de se pensar, países que hoje se encontram longe das determinações de avanço, cai a margem lógica da análise histórica, o que de costume trás várias mentiras ou interpretações grosseiras e tendenciosas. E esse caso ocorre com nós, brasileiros.

Um dos argumentos mais conhecidos para justificar a situação norte-americana em paralelo com a brasileira , é a de que ingleses e portugueses tinham estratégias diferentes em relação as suas colônias. Enquanto Portugal visava somente "extorquir" matérias primas do Brasil, a Inglaterra, tinha como um dos principais pilares em seus planos de colonização, o "povoamento". Duvido que alguém que tenha completado seu ensino-médio - ou que ainda esteja cursando - no Brasil, não tenha ouvido essa famosa afirmação. Se a resposta é não, te considero um afortunado, por que eu já.

Não pretendo me estender muito, quero me centrar principalmente nesse argumento de suposta estratégia de povoamento inglesa. Segundo nos conta André Maurois na página 81 de sua História dos Estados Unidos: "as cidades eram raras e por volta de 1770 somente 5 dentre elas tinham mais de 8 mil habitantes, vindo a Filadélfia em primeiro lugar com 10 ou 12 mil habitantes, em seguida por Boston e Nova York. As fábricas eram modestas e raras, porque a Inglaterra procurava desanimar sua criação. Para os ingleses suas colônias não passavam de empresas lucrativas, servindo de plantações destinadas a lhes fornecer produtos para não dependerem de outros países e de escoamento de seus manufaturados, cuja a produção ficava a cargo da Metrópole". Esse mesmo autor nos diz novamente na página 68 do mesmo livro que em 1763, nas vésperas da Independência, a população americana não passava dos 1.250.000 habitantes brancos e 230.000 negros. Além de que, o território ocupado por eles, era inferior a de 1 milhão de quilômetros quadrados. O mais curioso é que, no Brasil submisso a calamidade das intenções portuguesas, encontrávamos na mesma época, uma população estimada em 4 milhões de habitantes e desde o início do século XVIII uma área aproximada a 8 milhões de quilômetros quadrados, que fora conquistada pelos colonos. Ou seja, população 4 vezes e território 8 vezes maior que o norte-americano.

Agora me pergunto, existe algo relevante em matéria de estabelecimentos culturais, de ensino e de saúde, em cinco cidades com 8 ou 10 mil habitantes? Cidades desse tamanho, tem em si uma simples estrutura, se parecendo mais a uma vila, que poderia comportar no máximo escolas que não ultrapassariam o ensino do ler e do escrever.

Um outro historiador, Robert Southey, em sua obra História do Brasil, que em 1810 foi publicada através de 6 volumes, nos fornece informações valiosíssimas sobre as cidades brasileiras daquela época. Considero essa obra digna de grande confiança, essencialmente por ser o autor contemporâneo de boa parte dos acontecimentos.

Segundo as descrições das folhas 303 a 306 do volume 6, a população de Salvador em 1790 correspondia a de 100 mil habitantes, sendo toda a capitania da Bahia formada por 600 mil. Prosseguindo, diz que na cidade além de vários conventos, também possuía uma biblioteca pública, um hospital de misericórdia, um hospital para lázaros, um recolhimento para órfãos, um seminário para órfãos, um teatro, casa da moeda, vários tribunais, aulas régias de grego, latim, filosofia, retórica e matemática, além de vários livreiros, ouvires e lapidários. Somente a Capitania baiana alcançava quase a metade de toda a população das 13 colônias inglesas. E isso sem contar a cidade do Rio de Janeiro, que já em 1748 contava com 27 mil habitantes, que final do século chegaria aos 100 mil.

Acredito não ser necessário fazer nenhum discurso depois do apresentado. Nos próximos artigos pretendo seguir com esse mesmo tema, fazendo paralelo entre ambas colonizações, tentando o máximo possível apresentar documentos primários, para que assim, a comparação e análises parta mais de vocês que de mim. E por isso que digo, "ah! Se fosse os ingleses"...

Postado por Maldinni Garcez, Victor

COMENTÁRIO:
é bom lemrar que nós brasileiros não spodemos fazer parte dessa confusão afinal nossa formação enquanto estado é bem diferente de qualquer estado americano pelo simples fato de termos sido colonizados por portugueses e estes terem uma formação enqunato estado nacional bem distinta dos demais da europa..."

In an Indian Village, Signs of the Loosening Grip of Caste

In an Indian Village, Signs of the Loosening Grip of Caste
Despite Impediments, Life Visibly Improving For Dalit Communities

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 31, 2008; A14

GADDOPUR, India -- Rubbing his salt-and-pepper stubble, Lasla Ram, 60, stretched out on his wide porch overlooking a fertile knoll in this village of Dalits, the lowest caste in India's social pecking order. His children and grandchildren were gathered at his side as he told his story.

He had been born an indentured serf, he told them. Like his father and grandfather before him, he spent his youth toiling in the fields of upper-caste landlords, cleaning up cow dung and dead animals. He was paid only in millet, the same low-quality grains used to feed pigs and cows.

But 30 years ago, he recalled, he and some friends decided to throw off the shackles of the caste system. They were Dalits, formerly known as untouchables. They didn't stage a revolt. They simply sneaked onto a train headed to New Delhi, 500 miles to the west.

Since then, generations of Dalits have sought to escape the confines of caste by taking trains to India's vast, roiling cities. Today, in this village in eastern Uttar Pradesh state, a survey has found that 68 percent of families, including Ram's, have at least one member who left a landlord's farm for the factories of New Delhi or Mumbai. Although lower castes still suffer discrimination in cities, caste is more easily escaped there. Many Dalits change their last names. They also have greater access to new and better-paying jobs.

"I arrived in New Delhi an illiterate boy, but I was free," Ram said, outside the brick house he built from his earnings. In the capital, he worked as a brick maker. Later, he went to Iraq to manage construction sites. When he came home, he had enough money saved to open a textile business.

India's rapid economic expansion and urbanization since 1991 -- and the new job opportunities generated by those changes -- have loosened the grip of caste, some economists believe. Under the centuries-old system, occupation and social status are inherited at birth. Preliminary research from the first and largest nongovernment study of economic gains made by Dalits in India's strengthening economy, including a survey of 20,000 Dalit households, shows that migration to urban centers is helping one of India's most impoverished and ostracized communities break free from such constraints. The survey is being funded by the University of Pennsylvania.

"The untouchable has been touched by India's growth. Dalits are coming out from hunger and humiliation," said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a popular Dalit newspaper columnist and childhood friend of Ram's.

"Capitalism is beginning to break the caste system," said Prasad, who is conducting the survey.

At the same time, some analysts say, Dalits' economic advancement has been much slower than that of higher castes. For the most part, their rise has been modest -- from landless serfs to low-paid laborers -- with many still living in tin-shack urban slums. They have yet to really share in India's new prosperity, these analysts say, and India's soaring inflation rate, bringing steep rises in the cost of food and fuel, appears to be erasing some of their meager gains.

Dalits still slog away in jobs that no one else wants. An estimated 1.3 million Dalit women, for example, work as manual scavengers, carrying away human waste from dry-pit latrines. In this status-obsessed society, some upper-caste Indians still refuse to eat food prepared by a Dalit.

But to Prasad and Ram, the migration of Dalits to the cities has led to a power shift in the countryside. Upper-caste landlords no longer have anyone to care for their plow-pulling oxen, a burden on the Dalits for centuries. Now they have to hire tractors.

"To me, this is the greatest social change India has ever witnessed in its known history," Prasad said. "The Dalit has been unchained. The answer was found in the machine."

Small Emblems of Progress

The driver of Prasad's rented sport-utility vehicle swerved through rain-filled potholes and maneuvered around goat herders and past computer training centers. Prasad was taking two American journalists on a tour of several of the villages in the study.

Chain-smoking and enthusiastically pointing out the bustling markets, he said he believes that the Dalit's increasing empowerment can be seen in one of capitalism's greatest pastimes: shopping.

Sachets of name-brand shampoos and detergents have started to appear in the markets of Dalit villages. A native son of the region, Prasad measures Dalits' economic progress in terms of their ability to acquire these brightly packaged amenities, however tiny the portions. According to his survey, less than 0.85 percent of Dalit families used shampoo in 1990. In 2007, 81 percent said they use it regularly.

Prasad said he first noticed the increasing prosperity six years ago when he returned home for a family wedding. In the past, he would be asked for cash, saris or radios. He was expected to treat for various feasts, the slaughtering of a piglet and "VIP sweets made from milk," laughed Prasad, patting his expanding waistline to attest to his weakness for desserts.

But this time, he said, the relatives didn't ask him for anything. Many had family members living in cities, and their remittances flowed back into the village. "I was in touch with the countryside, but I was surprised this change was happening so fast," said Prasad, who is considered a maverick for departing from the Dalits' habit of looking to the government to drive change.

India has the world's largest and oldest affirmative action program. Dalit intellectuals have long hoped that quotas for jobs and university places would help lift the community out of poverty. But those programs have been both controversial and corrupt. They are credited with helping create a small Dalit middle class but also criticized for perpetuating the entrenched societal structure.

Prasad's parents were illiterate, land-owning Dalits. His grandfather had worked for the British colonial government and saved enough money to put Prasad and his siblings through school, rare for Dalit families at the time. Later, as a college student, Prasad became angered by the injustices of the caste system and joined the Naxalite movement, a Marxist insurgency against India's government.

But after four years, his life took a major turn. He watched a family happily eating ice cream one afternoon, and that changed his life. "It got me thinking, and I made a quantum jump," he said. "I never developed a hatred for those who live well. Everyone wants a good life. I came to believe that it was not going to happen through the gun. If there was going to be serious conflict in this country, it would be Dalits who would suffer."

'From Horrible to Bad'

Dalit empowerment is so incremental as to be almost invisible to outsiders. Dalits still have the country's highest malnutrition rates, which are also among the highest in the world. Violence and discrimination against lower castes are common, although reports usually end up on the inside pages of India's newspapers. In a recent incident, a Dalit working in Mumbai drove a new car back to his village, where some higher-caste people pulled him out and beat him to death, telling police later that they assumed the car had been stolen. They thought a Dalit could not afford a new car.

But Prasad's survey results showed that discrimination is decreasing, at least in this village. In 1990, 88.1 percent of families questioned in Gaddopur were seated separately during public dinners organized by upper castes. Now, only 30 percent said they were asked to sit apart.

Dalit villages are less likely than others to have paved roads, reliable electricity, running water or health clinics. But where some see squalor, others see progress. In many Dalit villages, brick hovels are replacing mud huts.

"It's gone from horrible to bad. But it's like saying that you have to climb a 10,000-foot mountain and you've have climbed 1,000 feet," said Devesh Kapur, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Advanced Study of India. "Still, the fact that we have seen a change of this magnitude after hundreds and hundreds of years of this community being crushed is really amazing."

Accompanied by Prasad, Kapur recently visited one of the villages in the study and met a Dalit village elder. He asked him if things had changed since he was a boy. "He said, 'It's like the difference between the land and the sky.' "

Unfazed by Setbacks

After working for many years in construction, Ram started his own textile business, which prospered. He was able to afford a grand wedding for his son and build a spacious house.

Like many Dalit households, the family painted a mural at the entrance depicting a studious-looking man in a three-piece suit and glasses: Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar, author of much of India's constitution. Ambedkar often urged Dalits to leave their villages.

With Ram's earnings, his wife, Sola Hanna, no longer had to labor in the fields for the landlord. She recently ran into her former boss. "I saw her once in the market. We didn't speak. But we shared a quiet moment," Hanna said softly. "I had a memory of her shouting at me, calling down to me in front of other neighbors to fetch things. When I realized she could no longer do that, I felt proud."

Beaming as he listened to the story, Prasad said he wanted to check out Ram's nearby pharmacy.

Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit, said goods sold in a village market reflect the caste's progress. (By Emily Wax -- The Washington Post)

As Prasad perused the shelves, stocked with mouthwash, headache pills and thermometers -- items that he said Dalits could not afford in the past -- the power went out.

Undependable power, like the rutted dirt roads and lack of running water, is one of the remaining impediments to economic growth in Dalit villages. Unfazed, Prasad cheerfully continued examining bags of pricey beans, cellphone chargers and dented boxes of cornflakes. All were proof of Dalit progress, and Prasad smiled in the darkness.

DoTheRightThing wrote:

It's unbelievable that this article did not mention the Hindu riots going on these past few days in India in which 13 Catholic workers, nuns and priests were killed by the rioters angry over the murder of one of their own religious leaders reportedly by a Maoist terrorist. Some Hindus resent the Catholics because when an Untouchable converts to Catholicism he is no longer an Untouchable and (apparently) is free to do better-paying work. So the Hindus lose their large supply of cheap labor to do the most menial jobs, and have to pay more for the same services, which impacts their pocket books and their cultural lives. Shame on the WaPo for not mentioning the murders of these 13 Catholics who were nonviolently serving their fellow human beings in India. It's no wonder the main stream media (MSM) is losing readership/viewers -their former market base has discovered the sad truth that the MSM does not now (and probably never did) report all the important news of which it was aware.