SABHA - 4M Report Arvind Kumar, 14 Jan, 2005
Your regular dose of pseudosecularism
  1. AID logo similar to Communist symbol!

    Reader Bubba from Kerala, who has seen a lot of Marxist meetings sends in this one.

    The "charity" organization that calls itself Association for India's Development (AID), and which has got into a controversy for being connected to Communists, has a logo that isn't very different from the Communist symbol of Hammer and Sickle.

    Rotate AID's logo clockwise and it bears a striking similarity to the Communist symbol!



  2. How to double your money!

    Here is an idea on how to double one's money - first you take your money and divide it into two equal piles. You then add up the two halves and presto! Each half has doubled and so your money has doubled!

    Sulekha's webpage lists the contributions ostensibly collected for the relief of victims of the recent tsunamis. The catch is that the "matching fund" was created by halving the contributions received by sulekha. You can find the original scheme here. Note the part that says

    Your tax-deductible online contribution to Tsunami Relief in India will be matched dollar for dollar from the Sulekha-AID matching fund.

    At least one contributor did not know that his donation would be labeled as a matching contribution. From his blog:

    I recently donated $500 through Sulekha's portal & was shocked to see my contribution listed as a matching donation though I made no such explicit choice.


  3. Islamic intellectuals: Tsunami was Indo-Israeli conspiracy to exterminate humanity!
    The earthquake that caused tidal waves to slam into the coast of Southeast Asia, killing at least 145,000 people, could have been the result of joint American, Israeli and Indian underwater weapons testing, an Egyptian weekly and other Arab media charged.
    Jerusalem Post reported that according to the Egyptian weekly, Al-Osboa', India was helped by United States and Israel, both of which "showed readiness to cooperate with India in experiments to exterminate humankind."

  4. Tsunami is sign that Jesus is coming!

    A letter titled 'Tsunami augurs second coming' in York Daily Times explains the tsunami:
    In St. Matthew, chapter 24, verse 7, Jesus tells his disciples what would be the signs of his return to earth and the end of the world: “For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places.”


  5. Allah sent an autographed tsunami

    According to a Muslim scholar in Sri Lanka, Allah not only sent the tsunami but also signed it.
    Proof, according to Mohamed Faizeen, manager of the Centre for Islamic Studies in Colombo, is a satellite picture taken seconds after the tsunami smashed into Sri Lanka's west coast near the town of Kalutara and as it was receding.

    "This clearly spells out the name 'Allah' in Arabic," Faizeen said, pointing to the shape of the waves...
    He also explains the punishments sent by Allah.
    "Allah first sends small punishments - like loss of business. If we ignore the warning, He sends bigger ones - loss of life. If we still ignore the warnings, the big punishments, like earthquakes and tsunamis will come."


  6. Socialist website: Tsunami victims are victims of capitalism!

    David North writing on World Socialist Web Site has a different take on it. Not Jesus, not Allah, the villain is capitalism!
    The impact of the tsunami exposes in an especially graphic manner the irrational nature of capitalism, its inability to develop the productive forces in a manner that raises the living standards of the broad masses of the people.
    He ends this article with quite a mouthful:
    There exists no philosophical tendency with more dangerously reactionary implications than one that separates the activity of “the will” from the scientific cognition of objective, law-governed social processes that are the essential determinants of man’s social practice. The activity of the revolutionary party must proceed from a correct appraisal of the basic tendencies of socioeconomic development on a world scale. Unless grounded in this foundation, the work of the revolutionary movement will rest on nothing more substantial than impressions and guess work...and it will end in disaster.

    In simple language, he has a grand plan for the direction the Revolution must take. Meanwhile, we have news for North. The Revolution did end in disaster for one revolutionary who proceeded from a correct appraisal of the basic tendencies of socioeconomic development on a world scale. A Naxalite was shot dead and the Revolution was crushed.