News You Shouldn’t Miss - Nov 2006

We need a better race and faith debate, says New Generation Network -20/11/06
New Generation Network has been set up by journalist and commentator Sunny Hundal, founder of Asians in Media and the acclaimed Pickled Politics weblog – which focuses on politics, media and society from a broad, mainly South Asian perspective.

Its founding statement is backed by Sunder Katwala (general secretary of the Fabian Society, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (writer and journalist), Gurpreet Bhatti (author of the banned Sikh play Behzti), Robert Beckford (TV presenter and black theologian), Simon Barrow (co-director of Ekklesia), Rohan Jayasekera (associate editor, Index on Censorship magazine), Catherine Fieschi (acting director, Demos), and writers Ziauddin Sardar***, Hari Kunzru and Dave Hill along with others. continue reading

See also Faithwise Review of the Week @ Multifaith Information Gateway

What makes the South a golden part of India?
CNN-IBN unveils the changing face of south India and celebrates the Dravidian spirit in a special series The Golden South.
The history of south India can be traced back to over 2,000 years. However, it was only 50 years ago when the four southern states were created along linguistic lines. continue reading

India a flawed democracy - Economist
Among the 54 flawed democracies India is seventh and overall 35th. South Africa, Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, Estonia and Italy are ahead of India in the category of flawed Democracies.

Indians can't stomach everything Western
MUMBAI: Wine is apparently fine for the heart, but what about the traditional gut?
At a time when Indians, especially those living in the metros, are aping Western lifestyles and diets, this wine quiz was served at the just concluded XIth World Congress on Clinical Nutrition held in the city to stir some delectable debate. The take-home message was simple: not everything Western would suit the Indian gut.
"The query is about the traditional gut and modern foods," said Canada-based Dr Tapan Basu, executive director of the International College of Nutrition.

Concession E-Mail To Hindu Sen.: 'Know Jesus'
(WCCO) Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, a practicing Hindu, was re-elected in District 50 last week on the Democratic ticket, netting 63 percent of the vote. But rather than placing a call to concede the race, his Republican opponent Rae Hart Anderson instead offered him an e-mail concession that he said read like an attempt to convert his religious beliefs. continue reading

see also related post:

Diversity Resources - Accommodation, Tolerance and Coexistence

***Dr. Ziauddin Sardar is a former librarian, information scientist, now an author and freelance journalist.