[Reader-list] Fwd: [Fwd: Re: HIV and male circumcision]

[Taha Mehmood]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tapas Ray <tapasrayx at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Subject: [Fwd: Re: [Reader-list] HIV and male circumcision]
To: Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>


Taha,

The post below bounced from the list, so I have sent it again. If it
doesn't go through this time, could you please forward it to the list?
I would really appreciate that.

Thanks,

Tapas


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] HIV and male circumcision
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:05:11 -0400
From: Tapas Ray <tapasrayx at gmail.com>
To: Sarai Reader-list <reader-list at sarai.net>

Taha,

Thank you so much for your informative and insightful posts in this
thread. The tragicomic account of your cousin's brush with death shows
what may be in store for Hindus who have undergone the procedure, at the
hands of fellow Hindus, just as your cousin was so kindly bought a
ticket to heaven by his fellow Muslims - a ticket he so ungraciously
failed to utilise. (I am assuming that your cousin is a good man and
does not have to go to hell.)

You are right about the cards. Beards, penises, dresses, sacred threads
and tikas (the last two mentioned by an irate list members in an offlist
message) will not matter when we all have those little plastic cards.
But just the cards won't do. Potential rioters (Hindu, Muslim,
Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, etc.) will have to beg, borrow, steal, grab
or - in the worst case - buy small, portable card readers.

Just as you have noted in relation to the cards, there also are great
opportunities in the card reader business for the entrepreneurially
inclined, if any, among us. The readers should be, preferably, networked
with central databases so that the subject's family, place of work,
etc., can be located. In case s/he has been unsporting enough to make
her/himself scarce from home, s/he and her/his folks can be easily found
so that the business at hand does not have to wait. Assuming that some
of the rioters may not be literate, the readers should have visual and
aural indicators for subjects of different religions. For instance,
there may be a flashing  saffron LED and the sound of "aarti" bells when
a Hindu is identified, a  flashing green LED and the sound of azaan when
a Mussalman is identified, etc.

There are plenty of possibilities. One simply needs some vision and
imagination to profit/benefit from them. I shall be happy to offer my
services as a consultant, with a discounted fee for list members only.
Till offers last and conditions may apply.

Tapas

Taha Mehmood wrote:
>
> Dear Sanjay,
>
> You're welcome!!
>
> But tears and laughter apart I am amazed by the articulate silence on
> part of our so called intelligentsia and the so called media to
> produce informed ideas and arguments about identity, identification
> and identification practices.
>
> In the recent history we have seen how -Identity- was used, especially
> in the late eighties and nineties, as a force to mobilize people for
> political capital and after twenty years this notion has become so
> everyday that there's going to be a massive, massive transfer of
> capital in the name of securing identities of all 'Indians' and there
> seems to be absolutely no sophisticated, intelligent, critical
> discourse emerging from our so called sociologists, political
> scientists, economists, documentary film makers to analyze, inform and
> engage active citizenry. Maybe it is time to do a real time analysis
> of an unfolding social reality and built some stakes in way in which
> we are governed or we want to be governed.
>
> Here we are... still debating about circumcision, when the State is
> telling us, that LOOK!!! circumcision may not matter any more. All men
> can grow beard and all can have their penis circumcised, so long as
> their fingerprints are in order, so long as they have a plastic token,
> so long as they are remembered by a digital archive.
>
> Warm regards
>
> Taha
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