June 26, 2009
Today, a young Brazilian asked me for my opinion on mandatory voting in India. He remarked that in Brazil it was compulsory to vote. And if you don't, there is a fine.
I replied, speaking entirely in my personal capacity, that I favored mandatory voting. Australia, along with Brazil, are two
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June 26, 2009
On April 16, the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in history began taking place, as Indian voters headed to the polls to elect a new national Parliament. They have done this 14 times since India gained its independence in 1947. Each time India has voted has been the world's
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June 26, 2009
Thank You for your support April 09, 2009, 11:26 AM Thank you for reading my first email. Your response has been heart-warming. I share your hopes and dreams and we will work together to make them happen. I consider it a great honour to serve the people of Thiruvananthapuram .
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June 26, 2009
NEW DELHI – With the world’s most developed economies reeling under the incubus of what is already being called the Great Recession, India at the beginning of the year took stock and issued a revised estimate for GDP growth in the 2008-2009 fiscal year. Its projection came out at a
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June 26, 2009
NEW DELHI – Indians haven’t often had much to root for at the Oscars, Hollywood’s annual celebration of cinematic success. Only two Indian movies have been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the last 50 years, and neither won.
So Indians take vicarious pleasure in the triumphs of
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June 26, 2009
NEW DELHI - The fallout from the terror attacks in Mumbai last week has already shaken India. Deep and sustained anger across the country - at its demonstrated vulnerability to terror and at the multiple institutional failures that allowed such loss of life - has prompted the resignations of the
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June 26, 2009
In a statement that has long encapsulated for me the essential premise -- and presumption -- of British imperialism, the College of Heralds in Victorian London once blandly declared: "The Aga Khan is held by his followers to be a direct descendant of God. English Dukes take precedence."
The quote does
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June 26, 2009
THE RULING CASTE Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj By David Gilmour Farrar Straus Giroux. 381 pp. $27
In a statement that has long encapsulated for me the essential premise -- and presumption -- of British imperialism, the College of Heralds in Victorian London once blandly declared: "The Aga Khan is
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June 26, 2009
Ambassadors in New York are now working day and night to hammer out the details of the current UN reform proposals to be debated at the summit of heads of state. But whatever they manage to agree upon, as a long-time UN official I am conscious of how much the
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June 26, 2009
WAR, Clausewitz famously said, is nothing but the continuation of state policy by other means. All international sport is, in turn, nothing but an exercise in national chauvinism by other means. At some level we all pretend to tune into the Olympics to admire human athleticism at its finest, but
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