Ambimama - India

BMW parks finally in Chennai
German car major BMW decided to set up its $40 million manufacturing facility plant in Mahindra city at Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai and will commence commercial production in the third quarter of 2006.

Ford, which invested $700 million in a greenfield venture again at Maraimalai Nagar, the other big ticket investments attracted by Chennai include Hyundai’s $1.1 billion and Hindustan Motors which produces Mitsubishi Lancer. An eight-member high-level team from Germany led by Norbert Reithofer, director of the BMW group, called on Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalita to confirm the group’s decision to set up the assembly line.

The strong presence of a component supplier base and presence of other big players helped swing the company’s decision in Chennai’s favour. Besides, the BMW brass also considered factors like supply of skilled labour

Research Park by IIT – to be completed by 2006
An Indian Institute of Technology is set to enter industrial Research and Development arena with IIT, Madras, today unveiling its plans to establish a research park, a non-profit firm, here.

The proposed “IIT Madras Research Park” had already received sanction from the Union Human Resources Development Ministry and would be completed by December 2006.
A blue print for the proposed park was getting ready and the new firm would create space for students and faculties in the R & D area.

Tamil Nadu Government had allotted 6.89 acres near the Tidel Park close to the IIT. Space in the proposed research park could be leased to companies in the IT, telecom, biotechnology and manufacturing sector.

An underground passage would be built to connect the proposed park with the IIT.

Rajini to act in French movie “Fredi Mon da Men”Superstar Rajnikant will be soon called an international star as he is all set to appear in a guest role in a French film Fredi Mon da Men.
A fight sequence in Muthu will be included in the French movie by the director.
For this he had met the filmmakers of Muthu and sought their permission and last heard they got it. Not surprising when Rajini is getting an international status who would say

Director wanted for Vikram movie‘Bheema’ is almost complete and Vikram has confirmed that his next film is going to be with producer Kalaipuli S Dhanu. Search is now on for a director.
There were talks that the producer had approached Ramgopal Varma to direct Vikram in the new film.
Ramgopal Varma has got his fingers in so many pies that he was unable to give an immediate consent. But he says that directing an actor like Vikram, who has a versatile image, is something that he’d look forward to. He assured that he’d love to work with Vikram if his ‘Sholay’ schedules permit him to.

Chandramukhi broken records again

The Rajinikanth-starrer ‘Chandramukhi’ will be the inaugural film at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards to be held in Dubai from June 15-17.
With a gross earning of over USD 2.5 million overseas, the super hit Tamil film has broken all records of Indian Cinema, an IIFA release said. For the first time in the seven-year long history of the coveted awards, a South Indian film has earned the honour of not only being screened at the show but also opening it.

Director and Board member of IIFA, Ramesh Sippy, said IIFA, which had been a platform for popularizing Indian cinema globally, will rpt will expand its scope to include the wealth of the South Indian cinema industry.

Bharatanatyam is the manifestation of the South Indian idea of the celebration of the eternal universe through the celebration of the beauty of the material body.
In Hindu mythology the whole universe is the dance of the Supreme Dancer, Nataraja, a name for Lord Shiva, the Hindu ascetic yogi and divine purveyor of destruction of evil
Play time:22 seconds

Thanks to December Music and Dance Festival!

Renowned Carnatic vocalist Sowmya, invocation to Ganesha, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, November 2004
03minutes :35 seconds ckip

This is music and dance seaon in Chennai, The annual Thygaraja Utsavam where all great singers sing “Pancha Ratna Keertana’ in one voice falls on January 4th. A great feast for the ear and soul.

It is proved that different raagas in Carnatic music has the power to cure diseases.

There are enough things said about hanging of Saddam. Shiites are celebrating and Sunnis are silent. And USA and Western countries have more than Oil interest in this brutal killer.

OK he was a dictator and done many worse things. But I am sure this not the real reason for Iraqis hanging him. For me it is sad day. But I do not understand why there are so many protests by Indian Muslims for hanging him. Sure they know nothing of international politics. Just because he is a Muslim, they want to protest. This sure reveals their true colour. They stand for religion first – not for justice or injustice and analyze.
I give below without editing news and views from famous channels like BBC news, Australian news, medialens and CBS News.

CBS NEWS
Saddam Hussain hanged

Iraqi state television showed footage of Saddam Hussein’s guards wearing ski masks and placing a noose around the deposed leader’s neck moments before his execution, Baghdad, Dec. 30, 2006.

In Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City, hundreds of people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.

(CBS/AP) Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after three years in U.S. custody before dawn Saturday in Iraq, which was just before 10 p.m. Friday EST.

He was convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.

Saddam struggled briefly after American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinskton reports that he was shouting ‘long live Islam’ and ‘down with the West’ and he showed no remorse.

But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. He clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows

One of the comments by a Christian to the hanging is:

Cannot and will not celebrate the death of another human being. Ever. Did he get what he deserved? In a sense, yes. But as a Christian, my faith is based on the notion that I will NOT get what I deserve - I deserve condemnation, instead I will receive God’s forgiveness. So I see nothing noble in anyone “getting what he deserves.” Saddam was a sinner. So am I. So are we all.

As an aside, I find it disconcerting that his executioners wore masks. Somehow, I think that people who choose to participate in the killing of another shouldn’t wear masks to obscure their participation.

Posted by richhong at 11:26 AM : Dec 30, 2006
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medialens
November 13, 2006
HANGING SADDAM HUSSEIN - BURYING WESTERN COMPLICITY

The BBC website’s reporting of the judgement was big, bold and triumphal: “Celebrations hail Saddam verdict in Baghdad’s Shia-dominated Sadr City.” (BBC news online, November 5, 2006)
The following day, the New York Times website echoed the emphasis:
“Quotation Of The Day: ‘This is a very great happiness. I will never forget this day.’ Abdul Razzaq Hassan, a laborer, on the sentencing of Saddam Hussein.”

The response in Iraq was, of course, mixed. But both the BBC and the New York Times chose a focus that presented the verdict as a joyous success for the occupying forces.
Although Britain outlawed the death penalty 40 years ago, the editors of the Independent had few qualms about the former tyrant’s fate:

“Shed no tears for Saddam. He was undoubtedly guilty of mass murder…
The Independent editorial discussed above even declared:
“Had Iraq now become the showcase for Middle Eastern democracy that Mssrs Bush and Blair promised, Saddam’s trial might have been the crowning achievement of the process.”
The “crowning achievement” of a “process” that involved nothing less than the supreme war crime - the launching of a war of aggression. And based on the clearest case of government lying and public deception in modern times.
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The Australian World news site says:
Hanging Saddam will make it worse
ANALYSIS
Bronwen Maddox
December 29, 2006
THE rapid confirmation of the death sentence against Saddam Hussein is a long step backwards for Iraq.
It is a brutal, if inevitable, display of victor’s justice that offends the principles the US claimed it was trying to uphold in toppling the Iraqi dictator. It will deepen the conflict between the Shias and Sunnis, perhaps already fatal to Iraq’s unity.

The loud welcome the White House gave to the court’s ruling was ugly. It sounded like an attempt to extract some proof of success from the war, for want of any other. It also contrasted sharply with the response from Saddam, who, in a letter to his countrymen, urged them not to hate the people of the nations that toppled his regime.

“I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for
a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” he wrote.
“I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us.”

If Iraq achieves stability, it may well now be under a Shia strongman - not quite the contrast to Saddam the US intended.
=================================
BBC News says:
By Middle East analyst Gerald Butt

Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq for the past two decades, has the dubious distinction of being the world’s best known and most hated Arab leader.
And in a region where despotic rule is the norm, he is more feared by his own people than any other head of state.

A former Iraqi diplomat living in exile summed up Saddam’s rule in one sentence: “Saddam is a dictator who is ready to sacrifice his country, just so long as he can remain on his throne in Baghdad.” Few Iraqis would disagree with this. Although none living in Iraq would dare to say so publicly.
The Iraqi people are forced to consume a daily diet of triumphalist slogans, fattened by fawning praise of the president.
He is portrayed as a valiant knight leading the Arabs into battle against the infidel, or as an eighth-century caliph who founded the city of Baghdad. Evoking the glory of Arab history, Saddam claims to be leading his people to new glory.
The reality looks very different. Iraq is bankrupt, its economy and infrastructure shattered by years of economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations following the invasion of Kuwait.