A random collection of reading material, as and when I find them:
1. Last week, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote a Senate bill authorizing the US to provide Pakistan an annual amount of $1.5 billion as part of the strategic partnership between the two countries in the war on terror. So what does Pakistan think of its generous partner? Here you go.
Even as the Obama administration takes pride in the new funds for Pakistan, the increased aid has been criticized in the Pakistani news media and among politicians as too little, one calling it “peanuts.”
2. Continuing from my post of early this morning on the Commonwealth Games, a story in the New York Times has this brilliant wtf line:
“The Commonwealth Games present a problem because the work actually has to get done,” Mr. Mukhopadhyay said. “There are hard deadlines.”
As opposed to? Getting budgetary allocations, misusing/misappropriating the money, leaving the work undone, asking for more money, rinse, repeat.
3. Gore Vidal on a topic that is something of a hobby-horse — the decline and fall of the American empire.
4. Recession watch: The BBC reported that murder is now being outsourced to India. Open magazine reports that recession has hit the Bombay underworld so badly, it can no longer afford to hire and arm hit-men. Possibly related: the company that makes AK-47s is facing bankruptcy.
5. Marie Brenner, in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, revisits 26/11 in Mumbai. [Link courtesy Rahul Bhatia on Twitter]
6. Falling in love, it says here, makes you more creative. Must be a new development — last time I was in love, my creativity began and ended with finding ways to get her into bed.
7. From friend Atanu Dey, a lovely read — oh hey, lookit the byline.
8. Francis Storrs does unto Dan Brown what the author does unto others. Enjoy: the mystery of the mystery writer.
9. The infernal memory of the Internet.
Later.
Smoke Signals 