Why we need an Indian compass

In January this year, my friend Chetna Mahadik came to me with a business idea, a travel website that catered to the new age Indian traveller. The site would offer not information, but infotainment specifically our experiences living in and travelling around Europe.

This website is about things guidebooks don’t tell you, like where to go for Yash Chopra’s Switzerland or a word of caution not to forget an adapter when travelling across continents. These are not reviews, but our three years living in Europe condensed into hilarious anecdotes and a series of unfortunate events like getting stuck on borders and bad mushroom trips in Amsterdam.

Already Indian Compass has 121 Facebook likes and it’s less than a month old. Our friend Sakshi Ojha is helping Chetna manage the site and I occasionally contribute when my work schedule allows it.

I would definitely recommend a look. Even if you’re not looking to travel, it’s a collection of short well written pieces that hold your hand through the continent, in a friendly sort of way.

Would you be my girlfriend?

When I first arrived in Sierra Leone almost two years ago, I couldn’t get into a cab without being asked for my phone number or having a note slipped into my hand by an eager Sierra Leonean man. I even had a motorcycle taxi driver suggest to me that he was a good lover. I started giving out my housemate Stephen’s phone number and felt incredibly guilty every time he got an unwanted call.

As my Krio got better, the male attention stopped and I began getting offers from women wanting to be my girlfriend. I was flattered. I attributed it to the fact that they no longer found me threatening. For the men, I was no longer new and interesting.

Then last year everything stopped altogether. No more ‘I love you’ or ‘I want you’ or even a ‘Good friend good friend.’ No one hassles me in taxis anymore or offers to carry my bags (which I miss to be honest!). The money changers on the kerbs even stopped offering me change. Worst off all, instead of ‘white girl, they started calling me Ma and Mommy.’ Even the women stopped asking to be my friend. Maybe I’d blended in to the point of becoming invisible.

Then yesterday, as I was walking to my favourite café Bliss from home, a young girl of about 16 came up to me and said she wanted me for her girlfriend. “I’ll keep a look out for you,” she said. Yeah, I still got it baby!

Who bears the greatest responsibility?

Living in Sierra Leone has made me think carefully about the chain of responsibility for war crimes and acts of terrorism. The Special Court for Sierra Leone decided to concentrate its energies on only those who bore the greatest responsibility for the crimes against humanity that were committed during the decade long civil war. So only the leaders of the rebel groups and Liberian head of state Charles Taylor were indicted, 13 people in total, not every single person that fought on the streets or amputated their own people. Except Taylor, whose trial is still underway, eight people have received life sentences.

The decision by a special court in India last week on the Godhra issue, made me think about responsibility once again. In this verdict 11 people have been sentenced to death and 25 life sentences have been given out. Going back a bit, the Godhra incident refers to the burning of a train in 2002 carrying Hindu pilgrims by Muslim protestors. This led to bloody riots in the state of Gujarat where about 1,000 Muslims citizens were massacred.

Are the right people taking the fall? As this Hindustan Times article points out, who takes the blame for the bloodbath against Muslims that followed the burning? Who bears the greatest responsibility in this case? 11 people might die as a result of this sentencing but we need to think about whose orders they were following and whether the right people were indicted.

In Sierra Leone and in many international criminal tribunals such as Rwanda and Yugoslavia, the doctrine of Joint Criminal Enterprise has been employed. While it is quite complex, if simplified it means that a number of individuals had a common plan to commit a crime. Last year Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi was given a clean chit in the riots case. Last week a cleric named Maulvi Umarji was among those acquitted last week. The Special Investigative Team (SIT) found that he had ordered his lieutenants to carry out the attacks. It is widely acknowledged that these were politically motivated decisions. Both the burning and the targeted genocide that took place against Muslims were well planned, not spontaneous acts of violence. How is it possible that no incriminating evidence was found against either of them? The same goes for the 1992 bomb blasts and riots in Mumbai. Everyone knows the Shiv Sena were involved, but will anyone ever invoke the joint criminal enterprise against the Thackerey family?

In Sierra Leone, people murmur that many army leaders were not indicted or convicted because of political reasons. While bodies like the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the special court in India should not be politically slanted, unfortunately it is often people with influence that escape punishment.