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Inside the world's largest opium factory
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Inside the world's largest opium factory

By Amarnath Tewary
Ghazipur

It remains the world's biggest legal opium factory, dating back nearly two centuries.

And the factory located in Ghazipur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is back in the limelight because of a recently published internationally acclaimed historical novel.

Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies is set during a time when opium trade out of India was flourishing under British rule - and much of the opium was flowing out of this factory.

Ghosh says that opium was essentially the commodity which financed the British Raj in India

But at the 188-year-old Ghazipur factory, nobody appears to be aware of its controversial history or to have read Ghosh's novel.

Brisk business

Instead, it is business as usual: the 52-acre colonial red-brick factory employs 900 workers and has an annual turnover of $45m, with 90% of the opium exported to such countries as the US, Japan, France, and Sri Lanka for pharmaceutical uses.

USA and Japan alone import 200 to 250 metric tonnes of opium from the factory every year.

Photography inside the factory is prohibited and security is tight.

Factory official Manik Mukherjee says that Indian opium is "pure" and has immense pharmaceutical value.

The factory was located in an idyllic environment - a far cry from the bustling border town that Ghazipur is today.

In 1888, Rudyard Kipling, on a reporting trip to the area for the Pioneer newspaper, described it in vivid detail.

"On the banks of the Ganges, 40 miles below Benares as the crow flies, stands the Ghazipur factory, an opium mint as it were, whence issue the precious cakes that are to replenish the coffers of the Indian government," he wrote.

"The opium arrives by challans, regiments of one hundred jars".

Amitav Ghosh has this description in the Sea of Poppies. "The factory was immense: its premises covered forty-five acres and sprawled over two adjoining compounds, each with numerous courtyards, water tanks and iron-roofed sheds.

"Like the great medieval forts that overlooked the Ganga (Ganges river), the factory was so situated as to have easy access to the river while being high enough to escape seasonal floods".

Ghosh studied etchings and lithographs of the factory made by British artists.

Colonial vestiges

"It's quite an imposing sight, you know, if you look at those rooms and the balls of opium in them - it must have been millions and millions of rupees' worth".

The cavernous factory still carries its colonial vestiges - the red brick buildings, a canopy-like water tank and a sun clock donated a British opium agent. The agents auctioned off the opium to traders.

The old processing unit was modernised only two years ago with opium cakes laden on moving trays drying under the sun.

The factory diversified during the Second World War, opening an alkaloid extraction unit for life-saving drugs and became one of the largest exporters of legal opium in the world.

Poppy cultivation declined in the neighbourhood and in the rest of Uttar Pradesh state declined towards the end of the 20th century. A lot of the poppy now comes from the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

But some things, like the grand colonial building, haven't changed.

Ghosh wrote about "a miasma of lethargy" that seemed to be always hanging over the factory's surroundings - one example was the opium addled monkeys who would lap the open sewers carrying the factory's waste.

Monkeys still have the run of the factory, eating opium waste and dozing all day.

"They have become addicted to opium. Most of the time we have to drag dozing monkeys away from this place," a worker says.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7509059.stm

Published: 2008/07/21 12:15:10 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

July 23, 2008 | 6:14 AM Comments  0 comments

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dream
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Dream...
And as you dream,
Remember...
That only you can make
Your dreams come true.

Reach...
And as you reach,
Remember that...
Success takes time,
Devotion,
And sometimes a little
Disappointment.

Believe...
And as you believe,
You will find
Reaching gets easier,
Setbacks get
More manageable,
Life becomes
More meaningful.

There's a wonderful dream
Waiting just for you...
I know you can make it come true.
Have a Great Day Ahead

July 17, 2008 | 6:38 AM Comments  0 comments

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Some Afghans have named their daughters Tulsi
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Three weeks before the Taliban attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul in the worst terrorist attack in Afghanistan since 2001, dancer Astad Deboo performed in the Afghan capital.
The first artiste to perform in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, Deboo, who was honoured with the Padma Shri last year, relives the memorable week he spent in Afghainstan. A first person account, exclusive to rediff.com
A trip to Afghanistan was always on my agenda. I wanted to visit Afghanistan because there was this invitation from my friend Sandeep Kumar, who is the deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy. Moreover, I had been following the political situation of the country right from the time of the Russian occuaption and their withdrawal; then the takeover by the Taliban and their subsequent ouster.
I also wanted to compare notes with the trip I made to Vietnam during the war in 1971, and my trip to Cambodia in 1971, travelling from Thailand to Phnom Penh. The experiences were very different -- in Vietnam and Cambodia, I saw the actual fighting take place whereas here in Aghanistan I had only stories to listen to from people who had been a witness to the situation or were covering it.

When I knew that I was finally going to Aghanistan, I suggested a dance performance because I knew that by offering to perform I would get to meet not only artists but a whole range of people. I finally did meet a lot of interesting people -- from the Afghan man on the street, to students, local hotel owners, the boys who worked there, chauffeurs who drove me around, security men who were assigned to me, journalists, NGOs, diplomats, ministers, musicians, college professors and filmmakers. I also met the Afghan online producer of The Kite Runner and listed to the interesting stories he told me.

Sandeep had mentioned that there would be no money and I told to him it did not matter. I wanted to share my work with the people of Afghanistan. I would be the first contemporary dancer to perform in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.

I left Mumbai for Kabul on June 14. I flew from Mumbai to Delhi, Delhi to Kabul. Indian Airlines is the only Indian airline which flies to Afghanistan. There were a lot of expatriates, diplomats and businessmen on board the flight.

I left my passport at the hotel reception -- the receptionist said he had never seen such a thick passport -- dumped my bags and quickly left to take a look at Kabul.

I was surprised to see such a well structured city. The roads in Kabul are terrific. My driver was in his mid thirties and he had seen it all -- the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the fall of the Taliban, and the war with the United States. People were very curious that I was Indian. Bollywood and its happenings are the rage in Afghanistan. To my surprise, the soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is the most popular serial there. Women look up to Tulsi, the main protagonist. She is so well-liked that some people have even named their daughters after her.

After I returned to the hotel, I went to its coffee shop. It was buzzing; people kept going in and out. Men and women sat at separate tables. I noticed that none of the women wore burqas. Even on Kabul's streets, some of the older women wore burqas, but none of the young girls did.


July 13, 2008 | 3:26 AM Comments  0 comments

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The world's richest tax cheats
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

For years, the pursuit of wealthy tax cheats has been a game most successfully played by the US government. But the Europeans appear to be ratcheting up their tax compliance efforts as well.

The German government has been investigating individuals it suspects of dodging taxes through hiding assets in the tax haven of Lichtentstein, and the resulting sweep has ensnared Germany's top postal official. German officials are working from a list of about 1,400 clients of Lichtenstein financial institution LGT Group. An informant--a former LGT employee--reportedly sold the information to Germany's intelligence service in 2006. The list includes at least 100 Americans.As part of an effort to uncover tax fraud, the US Justice Department in July issued a summons for Swiss banking giant UBS to turn over the names of US clients. It remains to be see just how much Switzerland, with its famous bank secrecy laws, will cooperate. In general, Washington has scrutinized offshore tax havens in recent years as it seeks to freeze terrorist financing in the wake of 9/11.

With an increasing number of people moving their money into tax havens like Andorra, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, governments appear to be cracking down on tax compliance. In the case involving Lichtenstein and Germany, the Great Britain, France, Germany and Sweden are also reportedly involved in the investigationThe recent revenue-chasing efforts seem to provide a good opportunity to take a look back at some of the wealthiest tax cheats in recent years. In compiling a list, we scoured Forbes' annual compilations of the world's billionaires. To be included, an individual had to be convicted of tax evasion, or had to accept responsibility for the charges levied against him (as former Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-Hee did in April when he was indicted on charges of tax evasion and breach of trust).

Not surprisingly, Americans dominate the list. There's Leona Helmsley, the "mistress of mean," who reportedly claimed that "only the little people pay taxes." Convicted of tax evasion in 1989, she remained a billionaire until her death in 2007.More recently, real estate magnate Igor Olenicoff pled guilty in December 2007 to filing a false tax return. Last month, UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld admitted to helping Olenicoff hide assets worth $200 million in tax havens overseas.

And there's the infamous duo of fugitive commodities traders Marc Rich and Pincus Green, who were pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001. Rich and Green, who essentially invented spot-market trading in oil, aroused the scrutiny of the US Justice Department for their shady Middle Eastern trades in the 1970s.

By 1983, a canny federal prosecutor named Rudolph Giuliani indicted them on dozens of charges, including tax evasion. They sought refuge in Switzerland, where they couldn't be extradited. As a result, the US government went after their companies, obtaining a guilty plea in 1984 and $200 million in settlement fees and fines.

Within the last few years, Russia has tried to make an example of energy barons it considers tax cheats. The most popular example: former Yukos oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man. Arrested in 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion, he's now serving an eight-year sentence. But he could be in prison a lot longer; the government recently added money laundering charges to the counts against him. In 2005, the year Khodorkovsky was convicted, Forbes estimated his wealth to be $15 billion.

Khodorkovsky has always maintained that his arrest was politically motivated, and at least one oligarch seems to have learned from his example. Last year, Mikhail Gutseriev, former president of oil company Russneft, fled the country after being charged with tax evasion. His most recent estimated net worth: $2.6 billion.

Of course, some of the world's wealthiest people have long been accused of tax evasion but never found guilty, including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Other convicted tax cheats, like tennis ace Boris Becker--who bilked the German government from revenue by claiming to live in the tax haven of Monaco--simply weren't wealthy enough to make our list.

But with governments taking a closer look at offshore tax havens, more billionaires could very well be added to the roster of wealthy tax cheats. Keep an eye on Europe.







July 11, 2008 | 3:16 AM Comments  0 comments

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everything i do-bryan admas
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Look into my eyes - you will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart - search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

Look into my heart - you will find
There's nothin' there to hide
Take me as I am - take my life
I would give it all - I would sacrifice

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

There's no love - like your love
And no other - could give more love
There's nowhere - unless you're there
All the time - all the way

Oh - you can't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
I would fight for you - I'd lie for you
Walk the wire for you - ya I'd die for you

Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

July 9, 2008 | 3:31 AM Comments  0 comments

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