The Colour Of Blood In Indian State of West Bengal

Replying to a question in the State Assembly on December 23, 2010, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed,

Because of sustained joint operations by 35 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), six companies of Nagaland Police and 51 companies of State Police, the situation in Goaltore, Salboni and Midnapore Sadar blocks of West Midnapore and that in Bankura and Purulia has greatly improved… The situation has changed in the past three months. Some of the blocks [in Jungalmahal] are terror free… (However) Till the situation improves in Jharkhand and Orissa, it would be difficult to keep Bengal unaffected. Till such a time, the paramilitary forces should be there.

Earlier, in an interview to a TV Channel in Kolkata on November 13, the Chief Minister asserted, “The Maoist leadership is now divided. They are now cornered.”

Ironically, on December 17, cadres of the Communist Party of India – Maoist (CPI-Maoist) had shot dead seven workers of the All India Forward Block (AIFB, a party belonging to the ruling Left coalition in the State) at Baghbinda village of Jhalda in Purulia District.

In fact, West Bengal has witnessed a dramatic spurt in Maoist-related fatalities in 2010. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) data base, 425 persons including 328 civilians, 36 Security Forces (SF) personnel and 61 Maoists, including cadres of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), were killed in the State in 2010 (till December 26), as against 158 persons, including 134 civilians, 15 SF personnel and nine Maoists killed in the State in 2009. With this, West Bengal has now earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest Maoist-related fatalities in 2010, dislodging Chhattisgarh, which had topped the list since 2006. The intervening years have seen an extraordinary rise in Maoist-related fatalities in West Bengal, from just six in 2005, through 24 in 2008, and up to 158 and 418, respectively, in 2009 and 2010.

Maoist Insurgency-related fatalities in West Bengal, 2005-2010

Year	Civilian	SF	Maoist	Total
2005	5	1	0	6
2006	9	7	4	20
2007	6	0	1	7
2008	19	4	1	24
2009	134	15	9	158
2010*	328	36	61	425

Source: SATP, *Data till December 26, 2010

Significantly, the civilian casualty figure of 328, which includes the fatalities in the Gyaneshwari Express derailment incident (148) of May 28, 2010, is by far the highest among the Maoist affected States for any past year, followed distantly by Chhattisgarh in 2006, with 189 civilian fatalities. In 2010, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, each, recorded 71 civilian fatalities. Civilian fatalities in West Bengal recorded a 145 per cent increase over the elevated base level of 134 for 2009, already the highest among Maoist-affected States, though West Bengal was placed third in total fatalities last year.

The principal cause for this dramatic escalation is the rapid expansion of the Maoists in the State, and their focused infiltration of the tribal movement in Lalgarh, as a result of which they have taken control of wide areas despite mounting pressure from the SFs. The movement in Lalgarh snowballed after a failed assassination attempt targeting the Chief Minister and then Union Minister for Steel Ram Vilas Paswan at nearby Salboni on November 2, 2008, and the clumsy Police responses that followed. Significantly, unlike other States, the expanding Maoist sway is confronted by the organised (and often armed) cadres of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal. In order to hold the area under their control, the Maoists have neutralised the CPI-M cadre base and terrorised the masses – tactics that explain the large number of CPI-M cadre and ‘sympathisers’ among the ‘civilian’ fatalities in the State. Indeed, of the 328 civilians killed in 2010, CPI-M leaders and cadre account for as many as 116.

SF fatalities have also risen to 36 in 2010, from 15 in 2009, even as 61 Maoists were killed, as against nine in 2009, reflecting increasing direct confrontation between the SFs and the Maoists.

In terms of spatial distribution, fatalities in Maoist-related incidents have been reported from five Districts: West Midnapore (365), Purulia (33), Bankura (23), Birbhum (2) and Murshidabad (2). By comparison, 2009 recorded Maoist-related fatalities from West Midnapore (135), Purulia (10), Bankura (8), Jalpaigudi (1), Murshidabad (1), and South 24-Pargana (2). The focus of Maoist activities evidently remains in West Midnapore District, though the Maoists have also succeeded in intensifying their activities in Purulia and Bankura Districts.

The State witnessed 14 major incidents (involving three or more casualties) through 2010. The most significant among these included:

February 15, 2010: Over 100 armed CPI-Maoist cadres attacked the paramilitary Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Silda, just 30 kilometers from Midnapore town, in the West Midnapore District, killing 24 EFR personnel. One civilian who was injured in the cross fire died later. Another seven troopers were also injured.

May 19: Four CRPF personnel and a Deputy Commandant were killed, while another trooper was critically injured, when CPI-Maoist cadres triggered a landmine explosion targeting the car they were travelling in near Lalgarh in West Midnapore District.

May 28, 2010: At least 148 passengers were killed when cadres of the Maoist-backed PCPA sabotaged the railway track between Khemasoli and Sardiha Railway Stations near Jhargram in West Midnapore District, causing the derailment of 13 coaches of the Gyaneshwari Express. Another 145 persons suffered injuries.

June 16: At least 12 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed and several others injured in an encounter between the Maoist and a joint SF contingent at Ranja Forest near Lalgarh in West Midnapore District of West Bengal.

July 26: Six cadres of the CPI-Maoist, including a woman, and a CRPF trooper were killed in an encounter in the dense forests under Goaltore Police Station in West Midnapore District. 12 weapons, including SLRs and INSAS rifles, were also recovered from the site of the encounter.

August 26: Just before being killed by SFs, Umakanta Mahato, a prime accused in Gyaneshwari Express derailment case, held a ‘people’s court’ at midnight at Kalabani village, near Jhargram in West Midnapore District and ‘sentenced’ three supporters of ruling CPI-M to death after branding them Police informers. The CPI-M sympathizers were executed immediately.

The Maoists were also involved in at least 25 cases of landmine explosions, 18 incidents of arson, and two incidents of abduction (an overwhelming majority of abduction cases go unreported because of fear of the Maoists), and gave bandh (general shut down) calls on at least 29 occasions through 2010. The Maoists also executed seven ‘swarming attacks’ involving significant numbers of their People’s Militia in 2010, as against eight such attacks in 2009.

There were, however, significant SF successes in 2010, including the killing of six Maoists, along with Sidhu Soren, the founding ‘commander-in-chief’ of Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia, in an encounter in Maleta forest in Goaltore area of West Midnapore District on July 26, 2010; the Ranja forest encounter of June 16, 2010, in which at least 12 Maoists were killed; and the Hathilot Forest encounter (near Lakhanpur) of March 25, 2010, where Maoist Politburo member Koteswar Rao alias Kishan was injured. Most significantly, the PCPA founder-president, Lalmohan Tudu, was killed by the SFs on February 22, 2010, along with at least two other PCPA cadres.

These operational successes were compounded by key arrests. Four members of the Maoists’ West Bengal State Committee, including ‘state secretary’ Sudip Chongdar aka Kanchan aka Batas, Anil Ghosh aka Ajoyda, Barun Sur aka Bidyut, and Kalpana Maity, wife of Ashim Mondal aka Akash, were arrested from Kolkata on December 3 and 4, 2010. A day after these arrests, Asim Mondal aka Akash, a senior member of the State Committee, admitted “The arrest is unfortunate and no doubt it is a jolt for our organisation.” Earlier, on March 2, 2010, Venkateswar Reddy aka Telugu Dipak, another State Committee member, had been arrested from Sarshuna near Calcutta. Dipak was the suspected mastermind of the February 15, 2010, attack on the EFR camp at Silda. Indeed, an abrupt leadership vacuum among the Maoists in West Bengal seems to have been created, with seven of the 11 State Committee members either behind bar or dead. [The 11 member Committee included: Kanchan, Deepak, Anil Ghosh, Barun Sur, Dwijen Hembram, Sashdhar Mahato, Madhai Patra, Nirmalda, Mansaram Hembram aka Bikash, Asim Mondal aka Akash and Kalpana Maity aka Anu.]

Further, Bapi Mahato, a prime accused in the Gyaneshwari Express derailment case as well as a senior member of the Maoist-backed PCPA was arrested by a joint team of the West Bengal and Jharkhand Police from the Adityapur area of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand on June 20, 2010. According to the SATP database, at least 245 arrests have been made in 2010 in connection with Maoist activities. On June 18, 2010, however, State Chief Secretary Ardhendu Sen claimed that SFs operating in the Jungalmahal area, which includes Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore Districts, had arrested “about 400 to 500 Maoists”. Nevertheless, the mastermind behind almost all the Maoist attacks in the region, Koteswar Rao aka Kishanji, CPI-Maoist Politburo member in charge of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, remains elusive.

Expecting that the pressure mounted by the SFs would induce some Maoists to lay down arms, the State announced its new surrender policy on June 15. The ‘package’ followed Central Government guidelines, with a one-off payment of INR 150,000, vocational training for three months, and INR 2,000 in a monthly stipend for each surrendering cadre. If arms were also surrendered, they would receive, in addition, INR 15,000 for an AK-47 rifle, INR 25,000 for a machine gun, and INR 3,000 for a pistol or revolver. On June 17, West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Bhupinder Singh stated, “We have received feelers that a number of people are willing to surrender.” By December 26, 2010, however, only five Maoists had surrendered, after the announcement of the ‘package’.

Despite the many SF successes, however, there is little reason for any great optimism. The Chief Minister’s claim that ‘the situation has changed in the past three months’, while not altogether incorrect, nevertheless glosses over the reality of continuing killings in the State, despite the deployment of 92 SF companies in the Jungalmahal area.

Maoist Insurgency-related fatalities in West Bengal, January – December 2010

Month	Civilians	SFs	Terrorists	Total
January	13	1	6	20
February	6	26	9	41
March	10	0	6	16
April	15	0	2	17
May	175	5	0	180**
June	17	1	15	33
July	25	1	9	35
August	11	0	7	18
September	14	1	2	17
October	11	0	2	13
November	13	0	2	15
December	18	1	1	20
Total*	328	36	61	425

Source: SATP, *Data till December 26, 2010
[**Note: The unusually high number of May is because of the Gyaneshwari Express derailment incident in which 148 persons were killed]

Again, the Chief Minister’s claim that “some of the blocks are terror free” cannot be accepted without qualification. It is, of course, the case that, on October 18, 2010, at least 12,000 CPI-M cadres marched 12 kilometres from Dharampur and Goaltore to Lalgarh and ‘reclaimed’ the area amid tight security. According to media reports, earlier, an armed rally of CPI-M party cadres, led by its Zonal Committee Secretary Annuj Pandey, who was driven out of his residence in Dharampur in June 2009, ‘reclaimed’ Dharampur and opened the party office located near his residence. However, the role of armed CPI-M cadres in these ‘recoveries’ can hardly be overlooked. Even Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged, on September 1, 2010, the existence of armed CPI-M camps in the State. Again on December 21, 2010, Chidambaram wrote to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asking him to ensure the armed cadres — including those from the ruling party-supported ‘Harmad Vahini’ – are “immediately disarmed and demobilised”.

In August 2010, the State Government advertised a call for recruitment to 4,767 Police Constables, essentially to fill existing vacancies. The State has a dismal Police Population ratio of 89 per 100,000, way below the national average of 128, as on December 31, 2008 (National Crime Records Bureau Data). There is little possibility of raising the size of the State Police Force to an acceptable level to secure operational efficiency against the Maoists in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the State Government has sent a proposal to the Union Government to declare another three Districts – Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia – Maoist-affected, and the matter is under consideration by the Centre. West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura were already in the list of Maoist-affected Districts. According to reports submitted by the State Police to the State Home Department, eight Police Stations in Nadia, six Police Stations in Birbhum and three Police Stations in Murshidabad have seen increased Maoist activity. The report further disclosed that the Maoists had formed a ‘regional committee’ in Nadia and an ‘area committee’ in Jalangi. The leader of the ‘area committee’ has been identified as Prasanta Das alias Raja, a resident of Kotwal. Das is reported to be the key person in the area, and is involved in strengthening the cadre’s base in Murshidabad and Nadia Districts, and in spreading Maoist influence in the colleges of these Districts. The Maoists had initiated activities by forming a front organisation called Mazdoor Krishak Sangram Samity (Workers and Peasants’ Struggle Committee).

Further, the interrogation of Sudip Chongdar aka Kanchan and other arrested State Committee members revealed that the Maoists were planning to build an urban backup force, with Kolkata as its centre. Recovered documents disclosed that the Maoists had more than 200 primary members in and around the city, and hundreds of sympathisers. Students and labourers from the unorganised sector were the main recruitment pools, and the Maoists were working to set up a viable urban network for shelter and logistics support. The investigating officers revealed that the Maoists had a four-member ‘city committee’, which was in charge of the urban organisation. Police had also recovered several important CDs related to the urban warfare plan of the Maoist ‘Red Brigade’.

A consignment of the hi-tech communication devices recovered after Kanchan’s arrest was found to have been procured for Chhattisgarh. Investigating officers disclosed that the Maoists were trying to develop radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and had already unsuccessfully tested some such IEDs in Jharkhand. Two senior Central Committee members were in charge of the technical cell, and an officer stated, further, “They are also getting help from some city-based students.”

Disturbingly, media reports indicate that the Maoists have been recruiting a large number of teenagers, mainly from the Jungalmahal area. In West Midnapore alone, the Maoists are estimated to have trained about 500 teenagers in the first half of 2010. On May 11, 2010, West Midnapore SP Manoj Verma had disclosed, “The boys are offered a monthly amount of INR 2,500.” In the June 16 incident in the Ranja Forest, Police records indicate that six of the 12 dead were about 15 or 16 years old.

The Political dynamics of the election-bound State are also making things difficult for the success of anti-Maoist operations. The bitter rivalry between the ruling Left coalition and the main opposition party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has polarized constituencies and provoked significant violence, including credible claims of linkages between the TMC and the Maoists in several protest movements of the recent past. On August 7, 2010, the CPI-M claimed that 250 of its activists had been killed by “TMC-Maoist gangs”. On December 3, 2010, on the other hand, the TMC alleged that 150 people, including TMC supporters, had been killed ‘miscreants backed by the CPI-M’ since the last Lok Sabha election. Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs reported that 96 TMC and 65 CPI-M cadres had been killed till December 15. In its bid to dislodge the ruling coalition from power, the TMC has sought to secure the support of the Maoists, and has repeatedly been demanding the withdrawal of joint SFs from Jungalmahal. The TMC had come out openly in support of the Maoist-backed PCPA and had also organised a joint rally with the PCPA in Lalgarh. On December 20, 2010, the TMC took the dead body of Sanatan Hembram, a PCPA supporter who was allegedly killed by CPI-M cadres in the Lalgarh area, in a procession in Kolkata. The TMC claimed that Hembram was its party cadre, though Police claimed he was initially a Jharkhand Party member who later joined the PCPA and was associated with the Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia.

Within West Bengal’s fractious politics, with the principal political parties consolidating their own armed cadres, and the Maoists playing a significant role in shaping the electoral scenario, there is grave risk that the limited gains of the recent past will be washed away in a rising tide of bloodshed.

 

Obama Has Lost The World

After the 2010 elections, it’s not exactly news that Obama has lost America. But in a less public referendum, he also lost the world. Obama’s cocktail party tour of the world’s capitals may look impressive on a map, but is irrelevant on a policy level. In less than two years, the White House has gone from being the center of world leadership to being irrelevant, from protecting world freedom to serving as a global party planning committee.

Even the Bush Administration’s harshest critics could never have credibly claimed that George W. Bush was irrelevant. He might have been hated, pilloried and shouted about– but he couldn’t be ignored. However Obama can be safely ignored. Invited to parties, given the chance to show off his cosmopolitan sophisticated by reciting one or two words in the local lingo, read off a teleprompter, along with some cant about the need for everyone to pull together and make the world a better place, and then dismissed for the rest of the evening.

As a world leader, he makes a passable party guest. He has a broad smile, brings along his own gifts and is famous in the way that celebrities, rather than prime ministers and presidents are famous. On an invitation list, he is more Bono than Sarkozy, Leonardo DiCaprio not Putin. You don’t invite him to talk turkey, not even on Thanksgiving. He’s just one of those famous people with a passing interest in politics who gets good media attention, but who has nothing worthwhile to say.

The only countries who take Obama seriously, are the ones who have to. The leaders of Great Britain, Israel and Japan– who have tied their countries to an enduring alliance with America based on mutual interests and values, only to discover that the latest fellow to sit behind the Oval Office desk no longer shares those values and couldn’t give less of a damn about American interests. It’s no wonder that European leaders ignore him as much as possible. Or that Netanyahu visited America, while Obama was abroad. Or that Japanese politics have become dangerously unstable.

On the enemy side, the growing aggressiveness of China, North Korea, Iran, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda can all be attributed to the global consensus that no one is at home in the White House.And if no one is at home in the White House, then that’s a perfect time to slap the big boy around the yard. China is doing it economically, the rest are doing it militarily. They’re all on board with Obama’s Post-American vision of the world. But unlike him and most liberals, they have a clear understanding of what that means. The America of some years back, which actually intimidated Libyan dictator Khaddafi into giving up his nuclear program, without lifting a hand against him is long gone. So is the Cedar Revolution. Syria and Iran are back in charge in Lebanon. And in Afghanistan, the Taliban are laughing at our soft power outreach efforts.

Obama’s soft power approach emphasizes the ‘soft’ and forgets the ‘power’. It neglects even Clinton era understandings about the role of America in the world, and reverts instead to a Carter era sense of guilt that bleeds into hostility toward American interests and allies. While the rest of the world puts their own interests first, they act like a cog in some imaginary global community, turning and turning toward the distant horizon of international brotherhood. While China, Russia and most of the world walk down their backs and up their jellyfish spines, laughing all the way. And America’s allies gird themselves and prepare for the worst.

From the first, this administration has curried favor with America’s enemies by betraying and humiliating its allies. But these hideous acts of moral cowardice have not won Obama the approval of America’s enemies. Only their contempt. And a Nobel Peace Prize from a committee of elderly left wing Swedes, awarded not for any accomplishment, but for the lack thereof. For being a man without a country, a leader without a spine and a representative of America who gives no thought for the interests of that country.

Now that the Koreas stand on the brink of war, Iran continues its drive toward a nuclear bomb, Al Qaeda is going global, Hezbollah is on the verge of taking Lebanon and Mexico is on the verge of imploding– the impact of America’s absence on the global stage is all too clear. The countless cocktail parties and toasts have not changed the world. All they’ve done is highlighted the transition of the White House from world leadership to global party guest. Trip after trip has ended in photo ops and policy failures. Instead Obama is stuck dumpster diving into the futile quest for a Palestinian state, not because such an entity will make the world any better, but because it will make him look good.

Obama has no mandate at home, and he has even less of one abroad. America’s enemies do not fear him. Only our allies do. Kim Jong Il does not sit up nights worrying what Obama will do. Because the consensus in North Korea, Iran and the rest of the world is that the sea will rise, the sun will set and Obama will do nothing. Except maybe write a strongly worded letter, offset by some quiet backchannel diplomacy from his coterie of international left wing stooges reassuring the offender that, “No, Barry really isn’t mad at you. He’s just concerned. Really, really concerned.”

Liberal pundits mock the rough and ready style of conservatives like Reagan, Bush or Palin in world affairs, but what they fail to realize is that the over-educated naivete, trendy cosmopolitanism and buzzword rich approach of a Kerry or Obama come off as laughably pathetic on the world stage. Republicans might be hated, but they can’t be ignored. Democrats on the other hand are catspaws and pawns, fools who are so sure of their cleverness and determined to embrace every culture in the way that only the graduates of Ivy League institutions can, that any Third World vendor could twirl them around his fingers.

World leaders are rarely liked, but effective ones are respected. And effective world leaders don’t lead with appeasement, don’t compromise before the other side has even made an offer and negotiate on behalf of their country, rather than some intangible global consensus. They understand that they represent a country, not a popularity contest. They don’t travel abroad to be adored or be greeted with parades and gifts, but to achieve tangible results on specific issues. To do otherwise is not to be a world leader, but a celebrity who happens to have picked up a big title along the way.

To be a proper American president on the world stage, means choosing to be respected, rather than liked. Obama always chooses to be liked, rather than respected. Because respect comes from accomplishment and character, while ‘liking’ is a function of appearance and image. Aiming to be ‘liked’ is playing to Obama’s strengths. But being liked is irrelevant outside of an afterschool special. World affairs is not a networking seminar, it is a negotiation between countries who have billions of dollars and millions of lives on the line. And Obama has no idea how to play that game. Like the kid who never fit in anywhere, he’s still trying to be liked. And he’s willing to sell out American interests and allies to get the cool UN kids to like him.

Unfortunately Obama’s irrelevance is also America’s irrelevance. A Republican House of Representatives cannot do what Obama should be doing. And any attempt to show strength gets shouted down by the liberal punditocracy as treason and undermining the White House. As if anyone, anywhere could undermine Obama internationally as much as he undermines himself. The same liberals who considered Ted Kennedy’s treasonous offer of cooperation with the Soviet Union or Kerry’s trip to Latin American Marxist terrorists to be acts of courage, damn Republicans who supported allies in Ecuador and Israel as traitors. And so Obama must have a free hand to do it all on his own. To do what Kennedy or Kerry could have only dreamed of.

Obama has lost the world. He has made the country that he claims to represent into a shadow of its former strength and glory. And his irrelevance endangers American lives. Not just those of soldiers in war zones, laboring under restrictive Rules of Engagement, written so as not to offend Muslims. Not just those of Americans at risk for domestic terrorism under an Attorney General who sympathizes with terrorists, more than with Americans. But to everyone living in a world where countries like North Korea and Iran feel free to do what they want, where our economic rivals such as Russia and China advance their interests and their espionage, and where terrorists across the Muslim world grow in boldness and number because they have no one left to fear anymore. In America and around the world– Barack Hussein Obama endangers us all.

 

Palestinians To Approach UN For State Recognition

By Mohammed Mar’i – Ramallah

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will present the UN Security Council (UNSC) with a draft of a resolution declaring statehood in the coming days, a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a press statement that the resolution is scheduled to be filed when Bosnia takes the UNSC’s presidency in January.

Erekat added that the Palestinian leadership is “waiting for Bosnia to take the presidency of the Security Council.”� The Palestinian negotiator expressed his hope that the US would not veto the move.

He added that Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand would recognize the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

Erekat said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will leave for Brazil on Wednesday to lay the cornerstone of the Palestinian Embassy there on Jan. 1. Brazil recognized the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders in early December.

According to Erekat “the Israeli government is witnessing an international isolation that it hasn’t witnessed before.”�

According to other reports the Palestinians will submit a proposal calling for a Security Council resolution to halt Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday that Palestinians expect wider recognition of their statehood in the coming year and it will mean more than the mere “Facebook state” predicted by an Israeli minister.

Fayyad said recognition by many countries would “enshrine” the Palestinians’ right to a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured along with East Jerusalem in a 1967 war.

Seventeen years of peace efforts had failed to deliver this promise, he told reporters. The current Israeli coalition’s stated commitment to a two-state solution could not be relied on “given the erosion that has taken place,” he said.

Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador announced recognition of Palestinian statehood in the past month. Chile, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are reported to be weighing the same move.

“These are welcome developments,” Fayyad said.

However, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that the US and Europe are straying from the idea of unilaterally establishing a Palestinian state.

The European Union has staved off Palestinian pressure in favor of waiting until an “appropriate” time, while the US House of Representatives passed a resolution this month saying only peace talks could set such a process in motion.

In September, the US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed after Israel refused to extend a 10-month moratorium over freezing settlement constructions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Abbas and other Palestinian officials had threatened to use other diplomatic options, including dissolving the Palestinian Authority, in case Israel keeps insisting not to freeze building settlements.

While the Palestinians say they are still committed to a negotiated peace deal, they have grown increasingly frustrated and have started taking alternative actions to put Israel on the defensive. As part of that campaign, they have been seeking unilateral recognition of an independent Palestinian state, even in the absence of a peace deal.

 

The Struggle For East Jerusalem

By Jesse Rosenfeld

Half way down a hill, sandwiched between Jerusalem’s Hadassa hospital and Hebrew University, sits the compact and overcrowded occupied East Jerusalem village of Issawiya.

Before crossing the makeshift police checkpoint of concrete block obstacles at the edge of the University and entering the neighbourhood – which resembles more of a besieged West Bank refugee camp than a Jerusalem municipality – there is a clearly marked ‘Dead End’ street sign. On the main road leaving towards the hospital on the other side of the neighbourhood there is a wall of concrete cubes blocking any traffic, leaving just a narrow space for pedestrians to cross.

Although the Jewish dominated Hebrew University has expanded onto Issawiya’s land, the picture of Jerusalem from both places couldn’t be more different. While Israeli students attend classes oblivious to life beyond the ‘dead end’, Israeli security forces have orchestrated a campaign of regular night time arrest raids against Issawiya residents in an effort to halt growing popular resistance to segregation, home demolition and land confiscation.

The recent Israeli home demolitions, increasing the pressure on the already squeezed Palestinian community, have given rise to local youth organising ruckus street demonstrations, clashing with Israeli police and border guards at the neighbourhood checkpoints. Now the campaign has expanded and the youth of Issawiya have been joined by Israeli anti-occupation activists.

With Israel continuing to expand Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, squeezing and displacing the Palestinian residents under the banner of an undivided Israeli capital (a claim rejected by most of the world), the Palestinian Authority has been powerless in defending the residents of their future capital. Meanwhile, despite murmurs of discontent from Washington and the international community, international diplomacy has proven just as ineffective in advocating for the rights of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents.

Now, failed by national leadership and abandoned by an international community to the mercy of an Israeli government that is forcing them from sight in order to make way for Israeli control and settlement, Palestinian residents are taking it on themselves to defend their land, rights and presence.

As a result, East Jerusalem Palestinians are seeking to use local resistance to gain a voice in a city where decisions are governed by Israeli national and international interests. Issawiya has become the latest East Jerusalem community to instigate protests inspired by the village of Bi’lin’s model of popular demonstrations coupled with international appeals for civil society and legal action. Loosing a vast amount of village lands to Israel’s wall and settlements in 2005, the West Bank border village pioneered the modern Palestinian model for using popular resistance to fight land annexation. None-th-less, the leader of Bi’lin’s popular committee, Abdullah Abu Rahmah, remains in Israeli military prison after completing an internationally condemned one year military court sentence for his political organising.

At Issawiya’s first joint Palestinian-Israeli demonstration on December 3, hundreds of local residents joined by left-wing Israelis chanted “From Issawiya to Bil’in, we are all Palestine” in Arabic.

“There are many checkpoints, the Israelis close many of our roads and we can’t get out of our village,” said Issawiya resident Rania Arafat who also discussed her brother’s arrest in the recent night raids. “They have taken more than 800 dunnams of our land. We need that land to build houses, we need to be able to live in our village,” she added.

The unrest in Issawiya has built on the momentum of local campaigns against Israeli settler evictions and home occupations in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and more recent unrest against increasing settler presence and Palestinian home demolition in the Silwan neighbourhood. “We are from the same city and are in the same situation. This is what’s happening in Jerusalem,” contends Arafat.

Responding to Palestinian families evicted from their homes by Israeli settlers, last year Sheikh Jarrah was the first Jerusalem community to mount a popular struggle campaign following Bil’in’s example. Yet, despite a broad non-violent protest movement that has brought participation from liberal Israelis, the settlers remain a year on. Not surprisingly, having seen peaceful means yet to remove the settlers, the struggle in Silwan has primarily opted for clashes and rioting to pressure the Israeli government, while Issawiya residents have adopted a mixed approach of joint non-violent struggle with Israelis and local youth clashing with police.

The emergence of these sustaining and expanding local popular struggles is a potential game changer for Palestinians to respond to the increasing segregation and marginalisation in Jerusalem. As Israel has traditionally tried to hamper Palestinian organising in Jerusalem through barring the activity of the PLO and Palestinian national movements, those national grievances are now finding local expression.

While clashes in Jerusalem have traditionally been sparked by emotional responses to Israeli symbolic provocations at sites like the the Al-Aqsa Mosque, now they are part of a calculated escalation that’s building neighbourhood by neighbourhood in response an Israeli policy of systematic discrimination.

No doubt this is a new form of struggle for the residents of occupied East Jerusalem, one that relies on sustained local resistance to challenge the Israeli policy of Jewish dominance carried out for National interests and negotiated on the international stage.

For years now the popular unarmed resistance has been spreading across West Bank villages along the rout of Israel’s wall, but the recent emergence of this type of campaign in easily ignitable Jerusalem could force a local Palestinian voice onto a political playing field that has treated Jerusalem Palestinians as an oppressed object rather than an agent for change.

– Jesse Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in Ramallah and Tel Aviv. He is an editor of www.thedailynuisance.com. (This article was first published in Al Jazeera English. Republished with permission from the writer.)

 

Hope In 2011: Peoples, Civil Society Stand Tall

By Ramzy Baroud

When the Iraqi army fell before invading US and British troops in 2003, the latter’s mission seemed to be accomplished. But nearly eight years after the start of a war intended to shock and awe a whole population into submission, the Iraqi people continue to stand tall. They have confronted and rejected foreign occupations, held their own against sectarianism, and challenged random militancy and senseless acts of terrorism.

For most of us, the Iraqi people’s resolve cannot be witnessed, but rather deduced. Eight years of military strikes, raids, imprisonments, torture, humiliation and unimaginable suffering were still not enough to force the Iraqis into accepting injustice as a status quo.

In August 2010, the United States declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq, promising complete withdrawal by the end of 2011. However, US military action has continued, only under different designations. The occupation of Iraq carries on, despite the tactical shifts of commands and the rebranding effort.

However, were it not for the tenacity of the Iraqi people, who manage to cross-sectarian, political and ideological divides, there would be no talk of withdrawals or deadlines. There would be nothing but cheap oil, which could have ushered in a new golden age of imperialism – not in Iraq, but throughout the so-called Third World. The Iraqi people have managed to stop what could have become a dangerous trend.

2010 was another year where Iraqis held strong, and civil societies throughout the world stood with them in solidarity, a solidarity that will continue until full sovereignty is attained.

Palestine provides another example of international solidarity, one that is unsurpassed in modern times. Civil society has finally crossed the line between words and sentiments of solidarity into actual and direct action. The Israeli siege on Gaza, which was supported by the United States and few other Western powers, resembled more than a humanitarian crisis. It was a moral crisis as well, especially as the besieged population of Gaza was subjected to a most brutal war at the end of 2008, followed by successive lethal military strikes. The four year long siege has devastated a population whose main crime was exercising its democratic right to vote, and refusing to submit to the military and political diktats of Israel.

Gaza remains a shining example of human strength in our time. This is a fact the Israeli government refuses to accept. Israeli and other media reported that the Israeli army will be deploying new tanks to quell the resistance of the strip, with the justification that Palestinians fighters managed to penetrate the supposedly impenetrable Israeli Merkava tank. Israeli military chief Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who made the revelation in a recent parliamentary session, may never comprehend that neither a Mekava (or whatever new model he will be shipping to Gaza soon) nor the best military hardware anywhere could penetrate the will of the unwavering Palestinians.

Gaza is not alone. Civil society leaders representing every religion, nationality and ideology have tirelessly led a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The breadth and magnitude of this solidarity has been unmatched in recent times, at least since the anti-fascist International Brigades units resolutely defended the Second Spanish Republic between 1936-1939.

The solidarity has come at a cost. Many activists from Turkey and various other countries were killed in the high seas as they attempted to extend a hand of camaraderie to the people of Gaza and Palestine. Now, knowing the dangers that await them, many activists the world over are still hoping to set sail to Gaza in 2011.

Indeed, 2010 was a year that human will proved more effective than military hardware. It was the year human solidarity crossed over like never before into new realms, bringing with it much hope and many new possibilities.

But the celebration of hope doesn’t end in Palestine and Iraq. It merely begins there. Champions of human rights come from every color and creed. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, The Most Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former US President Jimmy Carter and other luminaries and civil society heroes and heroines from across the world will continue their mission of peace and justice, as they have for many years.

These well-known names are only part of the story. There are literary millions of unsung heroes that make the hardship of the years more tolerable, and who will continue to guide us through new years and unknown challenges.

Haiti was one country that was hit hardest in 2010.  The small nation was greeted on January 12, 2010 with a most catastrophic earthquake, followed by 52 aftershocks. Over half a million people were estimated killed and injured, and many more became homeless. The year ended on a similarly devastating note, as over 2,000 people died and 105,000 fell ill (according to estimates by the Pan American Health Organization) after a cholera outbreak ravished an already overwhelmed country.

It is rather strange how leading powers can be so immaculate and efficient in their preparations for war, and yet so scandalously slow in their responses to human need when there is no political or economic price to be exacted. But this discrepancy will hardly deter doctors and nurses at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Haiti, who, despite the dangerous lack of resources, managed to save 90 percent of their patients

Our hearts go out to Haiti and its people during these hard times. But Haiti needs more than good wishes and solemn prayers. It also needs courageous stances by civil society to offset the half-hearted commitments made by some governments and publicity-seeking leaders.

It must be said that hope is not a random word aimed at summoning a fuzzy, temporary feeling of positive expectations for the future. To achieve its intended meaning, it must be predicated on real, foreseeable values. It must be followed by action. Civil society needs to continue to step up and fill the gaps created or left wide open by self-seeking world powers.

Words don’t end wars, confront greed or slow down the devastation caused by natural disasters. People do. Let 2011 be a year of action, hope, and the uninterrupted triumph of civil society.

– Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com

 

Burmese Generals ‘Hate China’, Says India

Burma’s hermetic military rulers detest their strongest ally, China, according to an Indian official quoted in a leaked US diplomatic cable.

Washington’s Consul General in India, Peter Kaesthner, also explains in the cable that India feels its position on Burma is compromised by persistent US pressure to be more vocal about rights and democracy.

India, which does not want to be castigated for engaging the Burmese generals, has often rued external pressure. Delhi’s position is that engagement will be more productive than the condemnation of the junta expressed by the majority of western democracies.

The cable dates from 2007, and documents a conversation between Kaesthner and Mohan Kumar, the joint secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

“The more the US presses India to bring Burma before the UN Security Council, [Kumar] said, the more the Burmese tell India to ‘go to hell’,” Kaesthner wrote.

Furthermore, if India engages the generals, then Burma will be able to loosen China’s grip on the country.

“Burmese officials have told Kumar that they ‘hate’ the Chinese and would prefer not to cooperate with China, but do so because they feel Beijing is more reliable than New Delhi”.

No elaboration is given on how India would promote democracy in Burma, were it to be closer to the ruling junta. But, tellingly, the cable reveals that economic objectives in its relations with its eastern neighbour remain key.

While India has sought to increase investments in Burma over the past two decades, particularly in the energy sector, Kumar reportedly told Kaesthner that, “We’re getting screwed on gas”.

“India is not getting any gas contracts from Burma, nor is it getting the transit rights it seeks which would open a bridge to East Asia,” Kaesthner wrote.

This raises an important, but often overlooked, Indian imperative: that whilst China seeks a strategic gateway to the Indian Ocean via Burma, India in turn would seek to use the pariah as its own access point to the growing eastern economies.

It also perhaps alludes to an Indian understanding of US imperatives that look to counter China’s influence in the region.

Moreover, while references to the promotion of democracy arise frequently in the cable, it also makes mention of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, countries where China’s influence is growing and where both India and the US are keen to stem this.

Since the cable was sent in 2007, India has seemingly moved beyond the unidimensional level of cooperation over counterinsurgency on the troubled border to eye with increasing fervour Burma’s vast natural gas capacity.

Delhi has gained a stake in the Shwe gas project and has come closer to developing some of Burma’s hydropower potential, whilst bilateral trade has also increased significantly.

Tension between India and China has been a recurrent theme since the two nations fought a short war in 1962 over their disputed, ill-defined Himalayan border. The tensions persist to this day with Chinese claims for the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Despite trade between the two nations expanding rapidly before a recent visit to Delhi by Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao, Beijing has described the bilateral relationship as “very fragile”.

 

US The Peg, India High In China’s Foreign Policy Deliberations

After a surge in aggressive, sometimes bordering on threatening foreign policy over the last two years, the Chinese leaders have realised that their perceived unchallengeable comprehensive national strength (CNP) could also be fragile.

Although the second largest economy in the world on national GDP, China still figures at 104 in per capita GDP terms. It is the largest exporter in the world, but depends almost exclusively on imported raw material to produce goods. Its galloping economic growth is dependent on energy, on import of oil and gas. Can China use military power to ensure foreign inputs? Absolutely not, though some in the Chinese hierarchy, especially the military, thought so.

It is not an encirclement policy engineered by US President Barack Obama that has caused consternation among China’s neighbours in the Asia – Pacific Region (APR). It was China’s aggressive posture and gun- boat diplomacy. In fact, Barack Obama went out on a limb to court friendship with China from the beginning of his presidential term. But Beijing apparently read it as weakness, given USA’s financial problems. What they missed was how could the USA spend hundreds of billions of dollars in Afghanistan and Iraq? This basic point was missed by those in Beijing who were heady with the wine of self-perceived power.

It’s time to do some serious introspection in China over the country’s growing hard line and ‘fist in your face’ international behaviour. Differences within the top hierarchy are visible, with many foreign policy experts openly disagreeing with their Party’s and government’s stated line. The most important is the disagreement with China’s appeasing and protective policy towards a belligerent North Korea threaten the stability of East Asia.

The official China Daily (Dec. 27, 2010) published an extract from a report “2010: Regional Security Change and China’s Strategic Response” prepared by China’s top think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Institute of Asia – Pacific Studies which reflects a new thinking. The report was obviously prepared at the instance of the Foreign Ministry and the Communist Party, and the extract was published to give only a glimpse at a new trend in China’s thinking in the making.

Briefly, accepting the United States as the fulcrum of global exchanges and balance of power, the extract identified four factors that have changed China’s security environment, and advised five fronts on which China should tighten its regional security management – (i) It admitted that the US remained the bellwether with its “ flying grease “ security structure, (ii) the US – Japan and US – South Korea (ROK) alliances as the second US security chain, (iii) the US relationship with Australia, Thailand and the Philippines as the third, and (iv) ties between US and Vietnam, Indonesia and India as the fourth.

Lately, there has been an open acceptance of India as a power to contend with, but with strategic care. The Liaowang (Outlook Weekly) in December wrote India was a power that could not be ignored by the international system given its economy, demography, culture and military; its status in the post-economic crisis era was pronounced; its relationship with major powers appeared getting better as the year came to an end.

The Liaowang commentary was among other official media reports which were a mix of sobriety and sarcasm, just before Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India. Under the circumstances, Premier Wen was at his classical Chinese best trying to warm relations with India, but not giving an inch. He interacted with school children, emphasized trade and economic relations, and suggested some recent Chinese policies towards India could be adjusted. But he also faced an Indian government very different from his last visit. India insisted on reciprocity, making no concessions on “its core interests”, even indicating that New Delhi could change its support to China’s core interests if Beijing continued to abuse those of India’s, especially on Kashmir. Wen proposed that the “stapled visa” issue could be resolved by officials of both sides. Unfortunately, India accepted it. In negotiations, both sides have to give. But why should India give, and what, on an issue unilaterally created by China.

The CASS report assessed that India’s growing relationship with the US was an issue to address seriously, that even beyond India’s developing relations with Japan, Vietnam and other countries, it was the US ingredient through which China must pay special attention to India’s diplomacy in 2011.

China has been looking at India through the narrow focus of the growing India-US relations following the India-US peaceful nuclear deal of 2008. It senses that this single deal had over turned China’s strategy to constrict India within South Asia, as this had spurred India-US military and high technology exchanges, and cooperation in strategic affairs.

The US was seen as promoting India in the ASEAN, and was more concerned over the May 2006 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPPA), now joined and pushed by the US. The TPPA started with Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, known as the P-4, and was joined by five others – Australia, Malaysia, Peru, United States and Vietnam. Others likely to join the TPPA soon one Japan and South Korea who are in consultation, and India was an eminent candidate for the same.

China views the TPPA as another US vehicle in the region to assert the primacy of its security and economic interests, and render the ASEAN + 3 (China, Japan and South Korea) mechanism as almost redundant.

The CASS thinking cannot yet fully comprehend why the US suddenly hurried back to impose its position in the region, complicating China’s relationship with its neighbours. It was highly perturbed with the leadership of the US, Japan and South Korea declined to join the China proposed six-party (North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan, the US and Russia) talks to calm down the tension in North East Asia, after North Korea sank a South Korean naval ship in March this year, and the shelling of a South Korean island in November.

The report says that China’s most vulnerable security environment lies in North East Asia, but the published extract of the CASS report does not seem to recognize that it was China’s protection to the Pyongyang regime that allowed it to configure its nuclear weapons and delivery systems and threaten its neighbours.

China has its own concerns which the unpublished portion of the CASS report would certainly have discussed with some suggestions. One, the Chinese top leadership fears that if North Korea collapses the two Koreas will unite with South Korean domination. An influx of North Korean refugees in such a scenario would not be a major problem for China. What would threaten China’s security in such a scenario would be a nuclear Korea under US and Japanese influence. Even more threatening would be the repercussion of the collapse of the North Korean communist regime on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is already under some strain from within the country. The collapse of the CCP is visualised as the collapse of China – at least by the party leaders.

Although the collapse of the CCP cannot be visualised in the near future, the dissidence among activists including retired senior elders of the party does raise concerns for the current leadership. Collapse of the CCP will bring about consequences that are unimaginable. Therefore, North East Asia is China’s weak link.

China, however, was making a mistake by strategising that India was riding on USA’s shoulder to contain it. This is neither in India’s strategic interest nor in its economic interest. The two countries could make Asia’s destiny if such perception and mistrust were removed. At the same time, India has its own interests. China has been all over India’s neighbourhood strategically, militarily and economically to counter India. This is very visible currently not only in Pakistan, but in Nepal and Sri Lanka, with some setbacks in Bangladesh after a change in government in that country.

India must strongly pursue its interests in the ASEAN as a group and individually, similarly in North East Asia, and examine joining the TPPA. China cannot take umbrage. This is the reality of a globalised world, as India and China were also cooperating in certain international fora. Beijing should make some very serious introspection about India – partner, friendly cooperation, or antagonism. Till now China has shown little to encourage trust from India.

(The author is an eminent China analyst with many years of experience. He can be reached at grouchohart@yahoo.com)

 

Popular Beaches in India

The natural beauty, exotic locations and rich heritage has helped India to stand as the most visited and most popular tourist spot in the world. The status of “Incredible India”, is defined by an incredible range of nature’s blessings on the Indian subcontinent and this incredibility is doubled by one of the most fabulous tourism option available in the country that are the brilliant and majestic beaches in India. Tourists find it hard to resist from three SSS significance of natural beaches in India that are sea, sun and sand. The magnificent beaches in India fulfil desire of beach lovers and water sports enthusiasts, thereby making the beach tourism in Incredible India, the right choice.

In India the most beautiful beaches are located in states of Goa – Beaches Hub, Kerala – God’s own country, Karnataka – India’s pride and Tamil Nadu – East India’s heritage. Some of the most popular beaches in India are as follows:

Varkala Beach – Kerala

The magnificent sight of sun dissolving in the Sea can be experienced at Varakal Beach in state of Kerala, which is 42 K.M away from Thrivanathampuram. The setting of the Varkala Beach is stunning, and an eye-catchy breathtaking popular Indian beach giving the view of endless Arabian Sea. The coconut palms, hotels, and old-fashioned shops are aligned along the surface of footpath stretching along the length of beach’s stretch. The magnetic attraction of the Varkala beach is not only because of its perfect scenic brilliance but also the mineral water that flows down the hill which is believed to have medicinal properties, and the 800 year old Janardhan Temple dedicated to Hanuman and Ayyappan (Hinduism lords), where even non-Hindu visitors are permitted in to discover its majestic sanctity.

Marari Beach – Kerala

The Marari Beach is known to rest in Marari, which is a small fisherman’s village in Kerala – God’s own country. The beach offers a chance to the visitors to explore Kerala’s backwaters and is peaceful beach, which is not that far from Alleppey in Kerala.

Kovalam Beach – Kerala

The Kovalam beach in India is an internationally famous beach of Kerala and has been the favourite tourist spot since time immemorial. The huge rocky capes have helped to calm the roaring water of the sea thus making it ideal for bathing in the sea. The lively beach of Kovalam is known to attract huge crowd due to its majestic sun-bath, relaxing herbal massage, outstanding cultural programmes and magnificent cruise etc.

Gokarna Beach – Karnataka

Gokarna is one the beaches in India that shows the ancient (prime and successful days) of Goa – World’s paradise, and stands where four India’s most pure and secluded beaches are in the range. The beach finds its location in a remote and small town of Northern Karnataka giving a fair chance for religious pilgrims and joyous holiday seekers to rejoice with immense zeal and enthusiasm.

Mahabalipuram Beach – Tamil Nadu

The most popular eastern coast beach in India is cherished by those tourists who come to spend a quality time in revitalizing Mahabalipuram beach by relaxing at the resorts there.

Baga Beach – North Goa

With a majestic scenic brilliance where sun, sea and sand are known to give immense relief to the tourists from hectic schedule of life; coming from every nook and corner of the globe. One of the most happening beaches in India, where peaceful nature’s blessing, pure ‘n’ fresh air, coconut and palm trees are known to double the experience of holiday makers.

Palolem Beach – South Goa

Being Goa’s most beautiful beach, which is encompassed by dense forest of coconut palms in remote southern part of Goa with expansive white sand, the Palolem Beach is Goa’s popular beach. The Beach is a mile long with semi-circular shape continues to attract maximum count of crowd from all around.

Anjuna Beach – North Goa

With 30 K.M stretch of the coastline bagged by the Arabian Sea, the Anjuna Beach is located in North Goa. The exotic beach of Anjuna is known to attract a wide variety of visitors from all corners of the globe with magnetic attraction of Chapora Fort and Flea Market.

Beach Holiday India – Tourist longing to go for an eternal experience for beach holiday in India, and to explore the majestic three SSS (Sea, Sun and Sand) significance of Beaches in India that can only felt not told then a mere mouse click onIndianBeachResorts.com will help to choose amongst the most affordable yet revitalizing Indian beach tour.

Here are 6 tips to kick start weight loss in the New Year

Washington, Dec 26 (ANI): Now experts from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center can help you stick to that New Year’s resolution of losing weight if you just follow these six tips.

1. Keep moving each day: all it takes to see a weight-loss benefit is 30 to 60 minutes ofaerobic activity daily.

“You don’t need to be athletic. Just brisk walking or dancing to your favorite music or using an aerobic exercise machine like a stationary bike or treadmill is all you need to do – just try to do it each day,” said Anne McTiernan.

“You can break it into 10- or 15-minute sessions throughout the day to get the weight-loss benefit,” she said.

2. Keep a food journal: “By spending a little extra time to write down everything you eat and drink, you’ll be able to see where extra calories sneak in,” said Caitlin Mason, an exercise and health researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division of the Hutchinson Center.

“There are lots of good online tools that can help estimate the calorie content of common foods and track your weight loss progress over time,” she said.

3. Set realistic goals: “For long-term success, aim for a slow, steady weight loss of about 1 to 2 pounds a week. No one wants to lose weight only to gain it all back – and often more – a few months later,” said Mason.

4. Set specific goals: set several smaller but more specific goals, such as eating five servings of vegetables per day, taking a 15-minute walk at lunch each day or drinking six glasses of water per day.

“Adding healthy behaviors to your routine is often easier than telling yourself ‘don’t do this’ or ‘don’t eat that,'” Mason said.

5. Don’t let one slip-up derail your efforts: “Don’t throw your entire routine out the window after one bad day. Instead, try to identify the specific barriers that got in your way and think through strategies to avoid such challenges in the future,” said Mason.

6. Practice yoga: regular yoga practice and weight maintenance and weight loss are related, according to several studies.

Researcher Alan Kristal found that regular yoga practice is associated with the prevention of middle-age spread in normal-weight people and the promotion of weight loss in those who are overweight.

A follow-up study published in 2009 found that regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less likely to be obese.

“These findings fit with our hypothesis that yoga increases mindfulness in eating and leads to less weight gain over time, independent of the physical activity aspect of yoga practice,” Kristal said.

“Mindful eating is a skill that augments the usual approaches to weight loss, such as dieting, counting calories and limiting portion sizes. Adding yoga practice to a standard weight-loss program may make it more effective.” (ANI)

Low vitamin D levels 'up respiratory infections in newborns'

Washington, Dec 27 (ANI): A new study has suggested that newborns with low levels of vitamin D levels are at a higher risk of respiratory infections and the occurrence of wheezing during early childhood.

“Our data suggest that the association between vitamin D and wheezing, which can be a symptom of many respiratory diseases and not just asthma, is largely due to respiratory infections,” said Carlos Camargo led author of the study.

Although vitamin D is commonly associated with its role in developing and maintaining strong bones, recent evidence suggests that it is also critical to the immune system.

The researchers analysed data from the New Zealand Asthma and Allergy Cohort Study, which followed more than 1,000 children in the cities of Wellington and Christchurch

Survey results covering the first five years of the participants’ lives showed that, the lower the neonatal 25OHD level, the higher the cumulative risk of wheezing during that period. But no significant association was seen between 25OHD levels and a physician diagnosis of asthma at age 5 years.

Some previous studies had suggested that particularly high levels of vitamin D might increase the risk for allergies, but no such association was seen among study participants with the highest 25OHD levels.

Camargo noted that very few children in this study took supplements; their vitamin D status was determined primarily by exposure to sunlight.

Camargo said that the study results do not mean that vitamin D levels are unimportant for people with asthma.

“There’s a likely difference here between what causes asthma and what causes existing asthma to get worse. Since respiratory infections are the most common cause of asthma exacerbations, vitamin D supplements may help to prevent those events, particularly during the fall and winter when vitamin D levels decline and exacerbations are more common,” he said.

The findings were reported in the journal Pediatrics. (ANI)