More from the Free Food-A-Thon -- click here.

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 After the Medicaid event on the Senate side of the capitol....I went around to all of the “international” food places in Union Station and had my share of samplings. But it was at Aditi India Kitchen that I had the most luck. As I was looking at the menu, Gautaum (the nice man at the register) asked me where I was from in India. I so cutely said, “I’m Guju, from Gujarat!”…he excitedly said, “Oh! Guju! Very good. Your deddy has hotels?”…I laughed and said, “No he doesn’t. But good guess!” I winked and batted my eyes. Then I said, “You know, I don’t really like Gujarati food… I really love Punjabi food, like Naan!”… then exactly what I wanted to happen… happened…..He went to the back of his small kitchen and pulled out a small fresh piece of naan. He gave it to me and said, “For the road” and tilted his head slightly, revealing his sweet smile.

My initial reaction was, “Ew I just flirted with a man to get free food…” but then I thought “Success!” Even though I felt horrible about leading my dear friend Mr. Gautaum on… I got my free piece of delicious naan! Yay!!

Feeling accomplished and extremely full… I trekked back to the Center with three pastries (from the Medicaid briefing) for my favorite judges. On my way out of Union Station, I saw a man with a sign that said, “Hungry and Homeless”… so I gave him a cherry pastry. He looked at me with deep, sad eyes and said, “God Bless You”. I left with a smile. I felt as though I actually had been blessed.

I redeemed myself from feeling horrible about going to an event (Medicaid) just for the food, missing work in search of food and well, generally obsessing about food for most of my morning. The guilt-factor crept up on me and I began to think about people in Sudan inflicted with genocide, mothers that do not have ANY food to feed their hungry children and the millions of people living on welfare. (Sorry to bring in the reality of the situation but I must)…

My experience this morning made me realize something deeper, something beyond the fact that so much food is wasted at these political events…it made me realize that instead of sitting and enjoying our morning pastries, sipping our coffees and listening to political hogwash… we must always remain aware, divinely aware, that some people do not have these luxuries. Be thankful. Be joyous. Do not waste… and if you have some free food or left overs, give it to the homeless.

More from the Free Food-A-Thon -- click here.

For those of you who associate Timbaland with Nelly Furtado or Justin Timberlake, here's something new.

As the resident MIA-obsessed Campus Progress staffer, I encourage you to check out MIA and Timbaland's Come Around (sadly, not on the US-release - just UK... Americans never get the cool stuff).  I love MIA (in an almost creepy sort of way, but oh well).  But, though I also love Timbaland as a producer, I have heard a lot of interesting things about how and where he gets his beats and samplings from, without giving credit to independent artists (which he, and a ton of other record producers, have done in the past).

For this song, in particular, there's a good minute, spliced up, that's been ripped from an older Bollywood song (another thing you should know about me is my completely irrational obsession with Bollywood).  I wouldn't be surprised if they're not getting any portion of the profits - the same thing happened with Dr. Dre-produced Addictive by Rakim and Truth Hurts (oh, and don't even get me started on the obnoxious exoticizing of India in that video).  The Indian producer got wind of it (with it being an internationally successful song, playing obviously on MTV India... idiots), and sued Dr. Dre, accusing him of "cultural imperialism." 

The lawsuit wasn't publicized at all, and I wonder how many people just think Dre is so creative and came up with it all by himself.  I only heard about the whole lawsuit because my best friend's grandfather was the director of the Bollywood film (Jyoti) that the song (Kaliyon Ka Chaman) was originally in, and he was involved in the lawsuit.  (And, weird tidbit - the huge popularity of Addictive led Indian music producers to remix the song into catchy, but strange and confusing turnaround of the song with American beats in the back and a horribly embarrasing rip-off of the video - sort of the opposite of Addictive.  Maybe it's just a music industry thing across the world.  They just love ripping-off each other?)

Anyway, maybe the MIA song is a different case.  I just can't imagine her ripping off her people like that.  But, maybe it's just my starry eyes that blind me from the corruption of giant music industries and record production.  What's original anymore?

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, Signal International hired hundreds of guest laborers in India, promising them greencards and permanent residency, along with well-paying jobs.  Many of the workers spent their life savings or even sold their houses to pay the fee for H2-B visas, but upon arriving here, were only given the temporary visas, paid half of what they were promised, and found their living conditions squalid.

About a week ago, company representatives and armed security guards raided the workers’ camp, took 6 workers, and locked them in a room, saying they would be deported to India.  One of the workers, Sabu Lal, even slit his wrists hoping that his self-mutilation would keep him from deportation.  He was recently interviewed on Democracy Now: 

“How I can go back to India? There is nothing. My family is waiting for me to fulfill their wishes by earning something from America. They are dreaming to come to America. These guys cheated me. From India, for ’til I come here, they cheated me, and family is cheated…They are treating us like slaves. And whenever we making some comments, they are saying that ‘Just shut your mouth.’”

In India, men outnumber women by 8%.  In most western countries, women outnumber men by 3%.

What could cause this discrepancy?  A number of factors, but according to most experts in India, one of the causes of the 882 females for every 1,000 males in India is anti-female selective reproductive procedures.  This can include anything from termination of a female foetus due to an ultrasound, to female infanticide.  The Guardian recently published an excellent article on the subject, delving into issues of patriarchy, the culture of marriage, and resulting trafficking due to the shortage of women in many parts of India.  I could write an entire post on the article itself, but that’s not what this is about.

 The article compelled me to once again mentally hash out my pro-choice views.  I’m fiercely pro-choice and feminist, I wholeheartedly support Gloria Steinem’s famous words, “In my heart, I think a woman has two choices.  Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.”  But mass termination of female foetuses is decidely anti-feminist—and more than that, reeks of eugenics.  Yet, I am fiercely pro-choice.

I am PRO-CHOICE, and ANTI-SELECTION.  This means that although I will fight to guarantee a woman the right to terminate a pregnancy for any reason, I do not fundamentally believe that as a soceity, abortion should be an excuse for eugenic-related selection--for example, an aversion to having a female child, or because the child will be born with certain mental or physical disabilities.