My Karisma Maven

Gourmet Inclusive means that Karisma Resorts only uses the finest authentic ingredients and prepare most of their foods in-house. Each resort bakes their own bread and pastry on a daily basis. They make their own pasta. All of their sauces are made from scratch. They do not believe in pre-made or canned foods.

And they only use the finest food suppliers. All food prepared at the El Dorado Spa Resorts & Hotels and the Azul Hotels are made with their guests in mind. also, they often test new dishes just to make sure they are absolutely delicious and satisfying.

They are passionate about their hospitality and cuisine. Their food preparation techniques are a melting pot of international influences. The goal of their chefs is to not only produce some mouth-watering creations for their guests, but to turn each meal into an experience in itself.

Technorati Tags: Gourmet Inclusive

ma-ven [mey-vuhn] –noun: an expert or connoisseur, “…one who accumulates knowledge. The fact that Mavens want to help, for no other reason than because they like to help, turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting someone’s attention. The one thing that a Maven is not is a persuader. [They are] not the kind of person who wants to twist your arm. To be a Maven is to be a teacher. But it is also, even more emphatically to be a student. Mavens are really information brokers, sharing and trading what they know. A Maven is someone who wants to solve other people’s problems.” From “The Tipping Point”, by Malcolm Gladwell, 2000.

At My Karisma Maven we strive to partner with our clients to assure a vacation of a lifetime. Whether a Honeymoon, Destination Wedding or a Romantic Getaway, tell us your desires and let our Gourmet Inclusive Vacation Consultants guide you to the vacation of your dreams.

Technorati Tags: My Karisma Maven

Wow, what a trip! We (Patrick and I) just returned from a ‘working vacation’ to Mexico. Our host hotel was the award winning El Dorado Seaside Suites located south of Playa del Carmen in the beautiful Mayan Riviera. We were guests of Funjet Vacations and the El Dorado Seaside Suites. The trip was for Funjet’s top producers and included over 100 travel agents from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama (If I left out any other states, I apologize.)

The trip was a combination of hotel inspections, classroom training and speeches by local tourism boards and government officials. There was some ‘fun’ time, too, as we had some pool and beach time. They also threw us several beach parties which were a blast.

Our arrival at the Cancun Airport was uneventful with the lines at immigration very short. One new thing was filling out a short health form and our temperature taken with a light emitting thermometer (I’ve never seen this before, it was way cool!) While a bit strange, I was comforted that they are serious about keeping folks out that are running a temperature on arrival. So be prepared and don’t travel to Mexico if you’re sick!

Our bus transfer time to the hotel was about 1 1/2 hours. Our group check-in was done on the bus, so on arrival we were whisked right to our room. We had a ground floor Swim-Up Jacuzzi Junior Suite. Exiting our terrace back door, we walked right into the ‘lazy river’ and waded a short distance to the swim-up bar. Which we did, promptly! The rest of the day was at leisure so we hung out at the pool.

That night we were treated to the first of two beach parties. It was a great time as we rekindled old friendships and made new ones. The DJ was hot, and open to requests. We dined on the beach with gourmet fajitas and deserts. It was wonderful!

Technorati Tags: azul beach, azul fives, azul sensatori, El Dorado Maroma, El Dorado Royale, el dorado seaside suites, GIVC, karisma hotels

Azul Beach Hotel Description

• Azul Beach Hotel is a family-friendly, boutique-style property located on a gorgeous beach 20 minutes from Cancun International Airport.
• All of the 98 rooms are just steps from the beach, pools, restaurants and bars.
• Featuring the Gourmet Inclusive® concept, epicurean offerings include candlelight dining on the beach, a fresh fish fry and butler service to the canopied beach beds. There’s an all-lobster menu, 24-hour room service and over 30 tequilas in the tequila lounge.
• Azul Beach especially caters to families with young children with loaner baby equipment, kid’s club and parent support.
• Our exclusive Family & Friends Vacation Planner coordinates family reunions. Romantic couples love Beachfront Sky Massages and Suite Scenes. Weddings are exclusive here – just one is held each day.

Top 10 Reasons to Vacation at Azul Beach Hotel

1. Close to the Airport: Azul Beach Hotel is just 20 minutes from Cancun International Airport, so you can be on the beach in record time. This is a great benefit for families with young children tired from traveling.
2. Intimate Size Resort: With just 98 rooms, everything is just a short walk away at this boutique resort, from the pools and beach to the bars and restaurants.
3. Great for Families and Reunions: Rooms sleep two adults and three children and connecting rooms double the capacity. Loan programs for baby equipment and Fisher-Price® toys adds convenience and there’s a free service for reunion planning.
4. Fun for Kids: Kids will love the beach activities, night pajama parties, balloon wars, Azulitos Kid’s Club with Fisher-Price® toys, kids pool and beach playground.
5. Special for Destination Weddings: Get married on the beach in one of three special settings. Choose one of our value-added packages, then further customize your event. Our U.S.-based Advance Wedding Planner handles details.
6. Romantic for Couples: You’ll love the Beachfront Sky Massages, decadent Suite Scenes, candlelight dinner on the beach and romantic breakfast in your room. Book the Azul Suite with a Jacuzzi for two.
7. Outstanding Cuisine: Enjoy a three-course candlelight dinner on the beach, an all-lobster menu, 24-hour room service included, a fresh fish fry on the beach, a la carte restaurants and more than 30 tequilas in the tequila lounge.
8. Signature Experiences: Have a private dinner on the beach, plan a movie night in your room and let butlers deliver picnic baskets to your canopied beach bed. For couples, perhaps the chocolate fondue on the beach or sunrise seaside massage with mimosas.
9. Attentive, Upscale Service: At this personalized hotel, enjoy beach and pool butlers, 24-hour room service and a concierge to fulfill your requests. Advance and on-site wedding coordinators and the Family and Friends Vacation Planner meet specific needs.
10. One-Stop Travel Arrangements: Get advice and have your travel reservations handled by a Gourmet Inclusive Vacation Consultant. With special training on the hotels and the destination, our travel agents can help ensure the vacation experience you want.

Technorati Tags: AZUL Beach Hotel

Enjoy a 4 day/3 Night Luxury Included® Vacation for a family of four to
Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa featuring the New, All-Suite Italian Village & Waterpark. Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages and Spa in Providenciales is the Caribbean’s most comprehensive family vacation! Created to fulfill everyone’s idea of the perfect vacation, only Beaches Turks & Caicos includes anything and everything for everyone in the family from tiny tots to doting grandparents. Beaches Turks and Caicos is set on the longest, most coveted stretch of 12-mile Grace Bay Beach and offers every imaginable land and water sport including snorkeling and unlimited scuba diving. Make a splash at the Caribbean’s largest action-adventure Pirate’s Island waterpark featuring nine waterslides, a lazy river and surf simulator. The little ones will love The Caribbean Adventure with Sesame Street® where they can vacation with Elmo and friends; or enjoy fun and games at the age-appropriate Kids Camps including activities at the Crayola® Art Camps. Tweens can score big at the Xbox 360® Game Garage or learn to mix and scratch and burn at Scratch DJ Academy® or chat it up at Trenchtown or kick it up at Club Liquid. And parents will thrill at the luxury of relaxing or being pampered at the exclusive Red Lane® Spa. When its time to get together, everyone will enjoy unlimited gourmet dining and premium brand spirits at our 16 specialty restaurants, Families can enjoy nightly entertainment including stage shows, parades, nightclubs, karaoke and so much more. And when it’s time to retreat, the new, all-suite Italian Village features lavish family suites with plasma TVs, separate kids’ rooms with bunk beds and trundles, Xbox 360 game consoles, marble bathroom with Roman tub and even optional personal butler service. So come and experience Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa…the Yours, Mine and Ours Luxury Included® Family Vacation that is perfect for everyone!

Certificate expires on 5/31/11.

Bid Now! https://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action?id=110839047

WXXIs Annual Auction, helps to insure that WXXI can continue to bring quality programs and services so many depend on in the Greater Rochester community.
For more info go to http://wxxi.org/auction

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Technorati Tags: 2010, all inclusive, Auction, Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort, family, luxury, Rochester NY, WXXI

En una zona privilegiada, frente a la playa y a sólo 5 minutos del centro y del puerto de Punta del Este, se encuentra Punta Azul.

Un Apart Hotel pensado para el regocijo, el descanso y el placer, donde podrá contemplar los más bellos atardeceres, sentir el aroma dulce de los pinos y escuchar el susurro del mar.

Punta Azul le ofrece una infraestructura ideada para que usted pase sus mejores vacaciones: piscina climatizada con techo corredizo las 24 hs del día, relajantes y saludables clases de hydrogimnasia gratuitas, completo gimnasio, spa, sala de juegos para los más chuiquitos, desayuno continental, restaurante, cafetería, Internet libre, garage cubierto y servicio de mucama.

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Technorati Tags: Al, Anges, Apart, AWA, azul, Baie, Barradas, beach, Belvedere, Cangrejo, Capilla, Casa, Clevers, Club, Cumbres, de, del, Des, Di, Dunas, Este, Esturion, Golden, golf, hotel, Il, Jean, La, Lago, Las, Lauberge, Mantra, Montoya, Olas, Posta, Pueblo, Punta, Rafael, Remanso, resort, Rincon, San, Serena, Solanas, spa, Tenis, Uruguay, vacations

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Lage:
Das Hotel liegt nur ca. 5 min von Tulum entfernt. Hier finden Sie verschiedene Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, Restaurants, Bars, öffentliche Verkehrsmittel und das archäologische Gebiet. Bis nach Xel-Ha fährt man etwa 10 min und nach Playa del Carmen ca. 30 min. Coba liegt ca. 42 km, Puerto Aventuras in etwa 44 km, Xcaret ca. 58 km und der Flughafen Cancun etwa 117 km entfernt.

Ausstattung:
Das klimatisierte Boutique-Hotel wurde im Jahr 2006 eröffnet und ist in modern mexikanischem und mediterranem Stil eingerichtet. Es verfügt über 96 Zimmer in 6 Gebäuden mit maximal 2 Etagen. Es gibt eine Empfangshalle mit 24 h Rezeption, Wechselstube, Garderobe und Aufzügen. Darüber hinaus stehen den Gästen ein Friseur, Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, Fahrradverleih, Konferenzräumlichkeiten, Internetzugang (WLAN), medizinische Betreuung, Zimmer- und Wäscheservice, Spielplatz und ein Parkplatz zur Verfügung. Für das leibliche Wohl gibt es Café, Bar und Restaurant.

Zimmer:
Alle Zimmer sind in modern mexikanischem und mediterranem Stil eingerichtet und verfügen über ein Marmor-Bad mit Haartrockner. Neben Direktwahltelefon stehen allen Gästen Sat.-/Kabel-TV, Stereo-Radio, Internetzugang, Minibar, Sitzecke, Bügeleisen und –brett, Balkon oder Terrasse, sowie ein Kingsize- oder 2 Queensize-Betten zur Verfügung. Heizung und Klimaanlage können individuell geregelt werden.

Sport/Entertainment:
In der Außenanlage befindet sich ein Pool mit Sonnenterrasse, Liegestühlen, Sonnenschirmen und Pool-/Snackbar. Zudem gibt es ein Temazcal-Bad (Schwitzbad der Azteken), Sauna, Whirlpool, Außenpool, Spa mit verschiedenen Massageservices, Meditationsunterricht sowie ein Fitness-Studio mit Kardiogeräten und Gewichten. Zusätzlich können die Gäste am Meer diversen Wassersportarten wie Katamaran und Motorboot fahren, Angeln, Tauchen oder Schnorcheln nachgehen. Darüber hinaus wird ein Animationsprogramm geboten.

Verpflegung:
Die Gäste können sich ihr Frühstück an einem Buffet zusammenstellen. Sowohl Mittag- als auch Abendessen können à la carte oder als Menü gewählt werden. Zudem werden den Gästen spezielle Gerichte geboten. Es besteht die Möglichkeit, Bed & Breakfast, Vollpension oder All-Inclusive zu buchen.

Kreditkarten:
Es werden Kreditkarten von American Express, Visa Card und MasterCard akzeptiert.

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Technorati Tags: azul, blue, Halbinsel, hotel, Maya, Mexiko, myhotelvideo, Riviera, Yucatan

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Location:
This apartment hotel is situated in Puerto Pollensa, just 100 m from the beach and the centre of town. The immediate vicinity features shops, restaurants, bars and pubs. Son Sant Joan Airport is 65 km from the accommodation.

Facilities:
This complex comprises a total of 3 low-rise blocks offering a total of 148 apartments. There is a spacious lawn, a large terrace and an interior and exterior bar. The apartment hotel is fully air-conditioned and includes a lobby with 24-hour reception service, hotel safe and currency exchange facilities. There is a TV lounge, a café and a restaurant, and WLAN Internet access and laundry service are both provided. The complex offers a bike hire service as well as storage space for up to 150 bikes.

Rooms:
Each of the suites has one bedroom and a living room with a double sofa bed. The en suite bathrooms feature shower/bathtub and hairdryer. Amenities include direct dial telephone, fridge, safe, plus air conditioning and central heating.

Sports/Entertainment:
The apartment hotel has its own outdoor swimming pool with childrens paddling area. Sun loungers and parasols have been laid out poolside, whilst guests looking for refreshments can head to the poolside snack bar. Guests looking to top up their tans can head to the solarium. An entertainment programme is also provided for guests.

Meals:
A buffet breakfast is served in the restaurant each morning. An evening buffet is also available for guests.

Payment:
The apartment hotel accepts VISA credit cards.

How to get there:
The accommodation can be reached from both Pollensa and Alcudia. The apartments are on the right hand side, close to the second roundabout on the new road leading to Formentor.

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Technorati Tags: azul, de, hotel, Mallorca, myhotelvideo, myhotelvideo.com, pollensa, Puerto, Spain, video

http://www.vrbo.com/201598
Luxury vacation condo rental in Cancun
3-Bedroom, 3-Bath oceanfront condo in Punta Cancun Hotel zone.

Punta Cancun is a luxurious high rise building located in the heart of the famous Hotel Zone in Cancun. The building is located between 2 beautiful hotel resorts, Riu Palace and Fiesta Americana Coral Beach. It is surrounded by shopping malls, restaurants, famous nightclubs and a gorgeous beach front, all within walking distance. Our condo is on the 4th floor with every room facing this breathtaking turquoise green and blue water of the Caribbean Sea. The view is just spectacular – you feel like you are floating on the ocean! All the windows and the sliding doors are glass from the floor to the ceiling, creating an unobstructed view of the ocean and the white sandy beach below. We have furnished the condo with loving care so that you can enjoy your vacation with all the luxuries and amenities you would find in your own home. Cancun is the place to be to spoil yourself.

We are very privileged to be located in the center of the Hotel Zone in Cancun. All the famous shopping malls, nightclubs, restaurants, water activities, day tours are within walking distances. Renting a car is not necessary but easily available in the airport or across our building. We have dedicated parking spaces in the basement. There are so many things to do in Cancun to interest the entire family and anyone in any age group. Water activities of all kinds start in front of our beach. Beautiful golf courses are available in many locations here in Cancun. Day tours to the Mayan Ruins, Xcaret Ecological Park, Isla Mujeres, AquaWorld, Interactive Aquarium, Playa de Carmen, etc. are available to all. In summary, Cancun is the ideal place for the family to relax by the pool or on the beach, and at the same time provide many other options like exploring the many adventurous and exciting parks, water sports, famous nightclubs, world class shopping malls and great restaurants.

Contact Susan Young at Mar Azul, Inc
marazul.inc@gmail.com

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Technorati Tags: cancun, Cancun Condo, Cancun Condo 4 Rent, Cancun Condo Rental, cancuncondo4rent, Guy Maeda, Mar Azul, Punta Cancun, Susan Young

Checked in last night during a major storm and after driving for 5 hours. Only had one room left that they gave to us for half price…

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Technorati Tags: DSCN1394

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Location:
The hotel is located just 100 m from the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. Palma de Mallorca Airport is 5 km away while the town of Palma is 2 km away.

Facilities:
The hotel is divided into 3 floors and has been completely renovated. It has 18 rooms as well as a reception area with a 24-hour reception service, 24-hour check-in/check-out, hotel safe and lift service. There is also an air-conditioned restaurant, café, bar, TV lounge, conference room, wireless Internet access, laundry service, bike rental and a play area.

Rooms:
The en suite rooms have terraces and wide views of the sea and the mountains. Further facilities include a balcony or terrace, direct dial telephone, Internet access, minibar, safety deposit box and individually adjustable climate control system. Satellite/cable flat-screen TV, a king-size bed, radio, hairdryer and an iron and ironing board also come as standard.

Sports/Entertainment:
Guests will enjoy the variety of water sports available at the hotel, including jet skiing, motor boating, diving, surfing, windsurfing, sailing, catamaran sailing, rowing and canoeing, which all cost an extra fee. Other sports which incur a fee include tennis, horse riding, mountain biking and golf. Massages are available for an extra charge. Beach volleyball can be played on the beach, where there are also sun loungers. The hotel also has a solarium as well as an activities programme (fees apply).

Meals:
Guests should prepare themselves for a remarkable eating experience, where modern touches are perfectly combined with cuisine from days gone by. Primarily Mediterranean cuisine, the food also features exotic influences of sea food as well as fresh ingredients. The result is a great variety of dishes such as paellas, salads, fish dishes and lobster.

Payment:
American Express, MasterCard and VISA are accepted.

Misc.:
The hotel does not permit children or pets.

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Technorati Tags: azul, de, hotel, Mallorca, myhotelvideo, myhotelvideo.com, Palma, Playa, sea, Spain, Urban, video

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Location:
The apartment complex lies directly in the tourist area and only approximately 300 m from the sandy beaches of Cala Ferrera and Cala Esmeralda. Shops, bars and restaurants are to be found in the vicinity (100 m away) and links to the transport network are also situated in the vicinity. The centre of Cala d’Or is within 800 m of the complex and the nearest nightclub is about 1 km away.

Facilities:
Built in 1995 and renovated in 2004, this complex comprises a total of 126 apartments spread over 3 floors. There is a foyer with a 24-hour reception desk, lifts, a hotel safe and a currency exchange counter. An air-conditioned à la carte restaurant with highchairs for infants, a bar, a café, a small supermarket, shops, a hairdressing salon, a games room, a TV room, conference rooms and a public Internet terminal (WLAN). Furthermore, there is medical assistance, a playground, a kids’ club, a laundry service, a car park and a bicycle hire service/bicycle cellar on offer.

Rooms:
The pleasing apartments are air conditioned and include a combined living room/bedroom, separate bedroom, en suite bathroom, a hairdryer, a direct dial telephone, satellite/cable TV, a kitchenette, a fridge, tiling, central heating, a hire safe and a balcony.

Sports/Entertainment:
In the sprawling outdoor complex is a freshwater swimming pool with a children’s pool as well as a sun terrace with sun loungers and parasols laid out ready for use and a poolside snack bar. Further facilities include an indoor swimming pool (heated from May to October), a sauna, a gym as well as a massage service. Sports options include aerobics, aqua aerobics, table tennis, beach volleyball and bocce. For an additional fee, tennis, cycling/mountain biking, pool and minigolf may also be enjoyed. A seasonal entertainment programme also features amongst the leisure facilities.

Meals:
Guests may select their breakfast and evening meals from ample buffets. Special dietary requirements may be accommodated and individual-specific dishes may be prepared. Guests have the opportunity to book a half-board stay.

Payment:
American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and VISA are accepted as methods of payment.

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Technorati Tags: azul, Cala, d'Or, Garden, hotel, Mallorca, myhotelvideo, Spain

Hotel Playa Azul, Cala’n Porter, Menorca, Spain.
Music: Zeropage, Ambient Pills, Ambient Voyager.

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Technorati Tags: beach, Cala'n Porter, holiday, Hotel Playa Azul, Menorca, Playa, Sol, Spain, sun, Vacaciones

Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India’s 9/11

http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/dec/ 12/mumbai- arundhati- roy

 

The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ‘India’s 9/11′, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.

 

We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India’s 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.

 

As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn’t act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India’s 9/11.

 

But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.

 

It’s odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India’s richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir’s most ravaged districts.

 

The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something’s going very badly wrong in this country.

 

If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.

 

We’re told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That’s absolutely true. It’s an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I’m sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn’t that war. That one’s still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.

 

That war isn’t on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.

 

There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let’s call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.

 

Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm’s way. Which is a crime in itself.

 

The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."

 

And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."

 

But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don’t want to be cremated, they’re afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don’t care if I’m hanged … just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay … I will finish them off … let a few more of them die … at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."

 

And where, in Side A’s scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."

 

Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here … a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."

 

(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)

 

All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi’s former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India’s biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.

 

Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.

 

If that’s not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.

 

So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I’d pick Side B. We need context. Always.

 

In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain’s final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

 

Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can’t seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi’s predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India’s bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.

 

By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.

 

This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn’t surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).

 

In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan’s ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

 

So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligenc e operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today’s world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It’s almost impossible.

 

In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let’s try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world’s most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)

 

Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America’s ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America’s jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.

 

Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan’s borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.

 

If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India’s shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

 

On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.

 

While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don’t hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. ) But this was different. And it was on TV.

 

The boy-terrorists’ nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that’s worth.

 

Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it’s precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they’ve died, they’ve journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.

 

One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don’t want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You’re surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don’t you surrender?"

 

"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It’s better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn’t seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.

 

If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn’t it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don’t figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

 

Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected? ). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.

 

We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush’s famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn’t George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can’t seem to get away from.

 

Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn’t surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We’re now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

 

Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.

 

Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It’s an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we’re still learning. (If Kashmir won’t willingly integrate into India, it’s beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegr ate into Kashmir.)

 

It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don’t really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.

 

More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India’s many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists" . There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national" . Of course there has been no inquiry.

 

Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi’s Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.

 

This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra’ s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.

 

On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia’s possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.

 

While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.

 

So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters" . This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they’ve escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.

 

How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?

 

Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It’s not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?

 

Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they’re for people that governments don’t like. That’s why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They’re just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It’s what they want.

 

What we’re experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet’s squelching under our feet.

 

The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We’re standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There’s no third sign and there’s no going back. Choose.

 

MUHAMMAD SHAKEER KS
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/arundhati-roy-mumbai-was-not-indias-911-711720.html