[sacw] SACW | 24 Dec. 00

Sat, 23 Dec 2000 22:24:54 +0100

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE -
24 December 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)

#1. India and Pakistan give tit-for-tat peace moves a try
#2. Pakistanis Fear Growing Influence of Radical Islam
#3. India: Gender Sensitivity of Chairman, World Bank Funded Punjab Health
Systems Corp.
#4. India: Ayodhya - Everything, but a solution!
#5. India: Hindu Far Right Sours the X'mas cake
#6. India: Pentium-III & cellphones usher in the New Year at RSS training c=
amp

--------

#1.

Christian Science Monitor
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2000
WORLD

India and Pakistan give tit-for-tat peace moves a try

India extended Kashmir cease-fire Wednesday; Pakistan pulled back troops.

By Farhan Bokhari
Special to The Christian Science Monitor

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

When Muslims worldwide observe the fasting month of Ramadan, it's a time
devoted to prayers in anticipation of heavenly blessings.

But since 1989, when an armed insurgency began in Kashmir, those blessings
have hardly been a source of comfort in the predominantly Muslim
territory-until now.

The government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last month
unilaterally announced a pre-Ramadan cease-fire for the territory divided
between India and Pakistan. It was the first in a series of moves between
the two countries this year that have brought the hope of peace to an
embattled region. On Wednesday, Mr. Vajpayee extended the cease-fire beyond
Ramadan, which ends next week.

Pakistan, with whom India has fought two major wars over the division of
Kashmir in the past 53 years, reciprocated on both of India's peace
overtures. The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered a Ramadan
cease-fire, which meant that Pakistani troops were ordered not to fire
across the line of control, or LOC, an otherwise routine matter between the
two sides. This week, Vajpayee's announcement was met by a Pakistani
statement that it had recalled an unspecified number of troops from the LOC
to rear military positions.

For many South Asia watchers, the tit-for-tat peace overtures mark an
important step. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are a constant source of
concern for many Western governments. Analysts refer to Kashmir as the
world's likeliest nuclear flashpoint, in view of the large troop
deployments on both sides that at certain spots are less than a football
field's length apart along the Himalayan terrain.

According to Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political-science professor at Lahore's
Punjab University, the two countries are showing signs of conciliation
mainly because of the continuing international pressures. "India and
Pakistan can no longer ignore the global fears of another military exchange
between them leading to a nuclear exchange," he says.

Other leading analysts welcome the recent moves, but warn that a new
Indo-Pakistan peace process would be a very fragile one. "You have to
acknowledge that even if this is the beginning=8A, there will be reversals,=
"
says Teresita C. Schaffer, director of the South Asia Program at
Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Peace
processes worldwide have gone through bumps on the road."

Senior Western diplomats, however, say that the new peace round is
encouraging, as it has so far shown no signs of repeating some of the
mistakes that quickly derailed previous peace attempts.

In August, the Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest group of separatist
fighters, announced a cease-fire in its operations against Indian troops.
But that attempt derailed when Mujahideen representatives insisted that
Pakistan, which has traditionally backed the Kashmiri freedom struggle,
must have a seat at the negotiating table. India has refused tripartite
negotiations with Pakistan and representatives of Kashmiri groups.

Analysts say that India and Pakistan may be finding the stakes becoming
increasingly high if they continue to leave the Kashmir dispute unresolved.
"For Pakistan, there's a horrendous financial cost of maintaining a large
military, because a third of its budget is spent on national defense, and
that's only because of the dispute with India," says Marika Vicziany,
director of the Melbourne-based National Center for South Asian Studies in
Australia. "For India, the cost is mainly that of a serious international
image problem. Many people want to know why a country like India, with its
thriving IT revolution and good future economic prospects, is so caught up
on Kashmir and cannot resolve it."

Many factors could force the two sides to retreat to their previously
hostile postures. In India, the more hardline nationalists among Vajpayee's
Hindu nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) are certain to continue
demanding a tough posture against Pakistan, while General Musharraf is
equally certain to be accused of a sell-out by the country's Islamic
militant groups. But Western diplomats say that despite the risks, the two
men for now appear determined to try giving peace a chance.

_____

#2.

Washington Post
22 December 2000

Pakistanis Fear Growing Influence Of Radical Islam

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
December 22, 2000

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Sitting primly in the front seats of grubby urban
buses, tickets clutched in their laps and pink uniform scarves draped over
their heads, the female conductors of the New Shandaar transport company
seem unlikely targets of religious outrage. But this is Pakistan, where
conservative Islamic influence is steadily creeping into daily life and
clerics emboldened by the political vacuum created during 14 months of
military rule are flexing their muscles with increasing success. Last
month, when the provincial government inaugurated the new Karachi bus
service with Pakistan's first female conductors, there were immediate
protests from clerics and religious parties, who argued that it was immoral
and offensive to have women working among strange men in public places.
"Islam says women should stay home, under the veil, looking after their
children," said Abdul Rehman Salafi, who heads a mosque in the city. "If
men and women are allowed to mix freely, it lea!
ds to crimes, and unmarried women become mothers. Islam gives full freedom
to women, but only within four walls." The bus company has not changed its
policies, and the conductors say they have encountered no difficulties
doing their jobs. Most are young housewives who need the $85 a month to
help feed their families and see nothing wrong with earning it punching bus
tickets. "Everyone has been respectful and cooperative," said Zahida Begum,
29, a mother of four who started working for New Shandaar three weeks ago.
"These religious leaders should not object. We are doing this only because
of economic pressure. If women can be air hostesses, why not bus
conductors?" Most Pakistanis would agree, and many are proud that their
country -- long dominated politically and economically by a secular,
Westernized elite -- has remained religiously moderate and tolerant aside
from pockets of radicalism influenced by strict Islamic teachings from
Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. N!
o religious party in Pakistan has won more than a handful of elected
political offices, they note, and periodic efforts to impose Islamic law,
or sharia, over the secular constitution have failed. But under their
breath, many secular Pakistanis admit they fear the increasing stridency
and street power of radical Muslims, whom the military government headed by
Gen. Pervez Musharraf seems unwilling to challenge and who appear to be
gathering strength at a time when political parties have been banned.
Already the government has backed off plans to modernize the curriculum of
religious academies and to change the law to make it more difficult to
accuse someone of blasphemy. And it has allowed religious groups to hold
public rallies while prohibiting those by political groups. It gives free
rein to Islamic guerrillas fighting in India's portion of the disputed
Kashmir region, even while saying it wants to seek peace with India.
"Musharraf must rein in the religious g!
roups if he wants to do business with the rest of the world, but he does
not want to provoke them," said Khalid Mahmoud, a scholar with the
Institute of Regional Studies. "The extremist groups are not popular, and
they are not in a position to take power, but they can create a lot of
trouble." In such cities as Peshawar, which is heavily influenced by the
strict Islamic codes practiced in next-door Afghanistan, religious groups
have shut down cable TV operations and music halls. Banners recently
appeared across the city calling for restoration of the caliphate, a form
of hereditary Islamic rule. Some secular Pakistanis are also alarmed at the
growing religious conservatism their children bring home from school and
play. Hundreds of thousands of poor Pakistani children attend madrassahs ,
autonomous academies devoted to the study of the Koran, and Islamic
influence is growing in public schools as well.

One college professor said most of his female students come to class with
their heads veiled; a generation ago only a handful did. Another man, a
middle-aged bureaucrat, said he was horrified to learn his children were
being asked to take up collections for Muslim rebels in Russia's
secessionist Chechnya region. Some Pakistani analysts, however, say fears
of radical Islamic influence are exaggerated. Only a handful of religious
groups espouse Islamic revolution, and only one relatively moderate group
-- the Jamiat-e-Islami party, headed by Qazi Hussain Ahmed -- has the
organizational and financial strength to mount a political challenge to the
establishment. "Jamiat does not believe in violence, but in teaching," said
a senior Jamiat scholar. "Not all members wear beards or veils. We support
a peaceful, political process. This is not the right time for us to move.
If the army fails, there could be chaos. But the political parties have
lost grass-roots support, and their governments have proven corrupt or
incompetent. So what is left? The religious groups who have never been in
government." In Karachi and Peshawar, a few Islamic clerics have from time
to time shouted anti-Western invective over mosque loudspeakers at Friday
prayers, warning of plots by foreign charities to emancipate Muslim women
or threatening to kill Americans if the United States launches a military
attack on Afghanistan. But others take a more moderate approach, raising
objections to decadent secular ways without invoking followers to violence.
Salafi, who at a recent Friday prayer meeting protested the employment of
women bus conductors, said he was only doing his religious duty by calling
attention to an immoral practice. "Islam teaches us what is right, and it
is my duty to speak against what is bad," he said. "It is hard for us to
make a difference, but more and more people are attracted to Islamic
teachings. People do listen to us now. One day, with God's help, we hope
that Islamic laws will be enforced in Pakistan in totality!."

_____

#3.

"Gupta" <vineetag@c...>
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 13:10:32 +0530

Gender Sensitivity of Chairman, World Bank Funded Punjab Health Systems
Corporation, India

Bhatinda 24.12.00

The women and officers are two categories as far as Punjab Government is
concerned. It reminds of colonial days in India and Apartheid regime of
South Africa when whites and blacks were two categories.

In office of Mr. P. K. Verma, Chairman of the World Bank (WB) Funded Punjab
Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) there are two bathrooms. One is for women
"Aurta laiyee" and other is for officers "Afsaran laiyee". In 21 St
century in a democratic country, women are treated in such a
discriminatory manner. These kind of officers are entrusted with making
gender sensitive policies and making WB funded health corporation more
women and poor friendly.

On 4.12.00 in a Family Planning sterilization camp organized by health
department of Punjab 11 women were operated out of which two died and rest
of the 9 are struggling for their lives in different hospitals in state.
Insaaf International is preparing a detailed investigation report on this
family planning camp to be released soon. During the investigation I
started interviewing from the lowest step of health officials at village
level to the director Family planning. Every one sent me to their seniors
for comments on the happenings of 4.12.00 camp showing their inability to
make official comments. Ultimately it boiled down to meeting the head of
the Health services in Punjab Mr. P.K. Verma, to get official version of
what had happened and to know the results of official inquiry report. I
waited three days in Chandigarh to get interview with Mr. P.K. Verma who
is Principle Secretary health, Punjab and Chairman of the World Bank
funded Punjab State Health Systems Corporation. The interview lasted for
less than two minutes. Mr. Verma asked me in very angry tone that why does
it bother me if the services were rendered by the State or Corporation. He
failed to see the difference the State services and Corporatized services
make for common people especially poor. He objected to my taking notes of
the interview, then he summarily ended the interview by saying that he has
" no time for such things". It is no wonder in India that the bureaucrats,
the left over of Colonial Raj find negligence, which killed two young
mothers and all others, hospitalized with severe abdominal infection,
insignificant. The attitude of Mr. Verma is very typical of Indian
bureaucrats who are trained in Colonial pattern of British rule when they
used to be masters rather than public servants. Nothing much has changed
since then.

The hospitalized include Daya who lost three months old breast-fed baby
girl to hunger. Poor Daya could not afford to keep her infant near her.
The three-month-old child breathed her last in lap of her 10 years old
sister in presence of other two siblings. The children were alone at that
time. All operated in that camp are housewives and very poor. Their
husbands are daily wage earners. The expenses have pushed them into debt
trap that probably they will not be able to break for whole of their
lives. Till writing of this report no compensation or monetary support was
given to them by the government.

The photographs of the signs on bathrooms are available.

Dr. Vineeta Gupta
General Secretary, Insaaf International
Kishori Ram Hospital Building, Basant Vihar, Bhatinda, Punjab, India
Phone 91-164-215400 (work), 91-164-253903 (home), Fax 91-164-214500
Email < vineetag@c...>
Website: www.geocities.com/insaafin

_____

#4.

rediff.com
21 December 2000
Guest Column

Everything, but a solution!

[by] Sajid Bhombal

One more December 6, one more tamasha over Babri masjid/Ram mandir issue,
with no solution at sight.

This time the tamasha started with the prime minister's statement.
Ironically, it came during an Iftar party! Well, to start with, let us ban
all Iftar parties.

There are two good reasons for this. The first one is 'secular'.

It is no business of political parties to engage themselves in religious
ceremonies.

The second one is religious. I am not going here in details of essence of
Ramzan, but it is enough to say that 'partying' goes against the essence of
Ramzan.

Coming back to the topic, at the end of the tamasha , our lawmakers, to use
Saisuresh Siwaswamy's <12sai.htm>words, 'those who control destinies of men
and nation' have left the whole issue hanging in the air, to be sorted out
by the disputants. That they do expect to, and probably will, laugh all the
way to their respective vote banks is a different matter'.

But who are the 'disputants' here? Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims.
Together they constitute 97 pc of the nation's population. That is to say,
the entire nation is 'disputant'. But to who is the resolution of the
problem left to? Hindu leaders and Muslim leaders?

Can so-called Hindu leaders and Muslim leaders solve this problem for us,
ordinary Hindus and Muslims? If they can, they need a platform for it. And
who is going to give them the platform, since the lawmakers, after the
ritual, have gone back to their business.

Till the next December 6, they will be busy in their respective
'businesses'; they neither have the time nor the inclination to create a
platform from which a solution could be worked out.

Even otherwise, a solution can be worked out only if we have a competent
Muslim or Hindu leadership in our country. The present leadership is
hopelessly incompetent.

It is often said that Muslims do not rise above their leadership, and that
they have handed over their reins to the wrong hands. Point taken.

But, to be only fair, by the same yardstick Hindus have not done anything
different. By allowing ek dhakka aur do-type of leaders to hijack the Ram
mandir issue, Hindus haven't really helped the cause either.

But can there be a tangible Muslim leadership in India? Or for that matter,
can there be a tangible Hindu leadership in India?

Let me take up the Muslim leadership here.

The general perception is that the Hindu leadership is secular, while the
Muslim leadership is communal.

When we talk of Muslim leadership, what exactly do we mean? On what basis
is the so-called Muslim leadership termed as such? Leadership needs a
mandate, but do these leaders have a mandate? Leadership also needs to be
accountable. Are these leaders accountable? To whom?

Who can be termed as a Muslim leader? The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi?
But on what basis? Syed Shahabuddin? Again, on what basis?

They are mere self-proclaimed leaders. To say that they represent all
Muslims is to say that Bal Thackeray or Ashok Singhal represents all Hindus=
.

The truth is, the present Muslim leadership is a fallacy, it does not have
any mandate. There is simply no mechanism to have an exclusive Muslim
leadership. Whether it is needed or not is a different issue, I am merely
stating the fact that there is no mechanism by which an exclusive Muslim
leadership could emerge in India.

As things stand, if five-odd Muslims gather in Delhi tomorrow and call a
press conference, over delicious kababs and falooda, make some statement on
Babri masjid, we can safely assume that a new Muslim leadership will have
been formed through the front pages of our national newspapers.

Can we then say those Muslims duly elected by the people are the true
representatives of Indian Muslims? Who does it mean -- people like Ghulam
Nabi Azad (a Kashmiri who is a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra), who
recently argued that 'the Congress government of P V Narasimha Rao was as
blameless as a bird of heaven when Babri masjid was demolished'?

Or, Shahnawaz Hussain, whose speech in Parliament recently -- in spite of
the ovation he got from the treasury benches -- must be among the most
hilarious ones ever. He may not have said anything wrong, but even a child
could make out that it was not his speech he was reading out there.

Both kinds of leaders, those who do not have a mandate and those with a
mandate but not an exclusive one to represent Muslims, have proved
themselves to be ineffective while representing the second largest
community in India.

If this is true of Muslim leadership, it is equally true of the Hindu
leadership as well. Given that, how can we leave a matter as serious as
Ayodhya in the hands of these ineffective, self-proclaimed community
leaders?

But we have to look beyond what is available, to get us on the road to an
amicable solution. Some leadership should come up and offer us different
options to choose from.

For example, it is said that Muslims should hand over the Babri Masjid site
as a gesture of goodwill, and that Hindus will not rake up the issue of any
other disputed site.

Let us assume that Muslims want to accept this deal. What can I, a Muslim,
do? To who, and more importantly, how will I articulate that okay, it is a
deal, we accept? To Imam Bukhari? To Ashok Singhal? To Ghulam Nabi Azad?
You can see the dilemma here.

Or take another example, a more practical and effective one. Say, people
like Dr Rafiq Zakria and M V Kamath and other Hindu and Muslim
intellectuals want to look at different options and solutions and help
their communities solve this problem.

Now, how will these intellectuals help to solve the problem, for which they
need a platform? Who will provide that platform?

In both of the above examples, what is needed is political will from those
who control the destinies of men and nation.

An ordinary Indian, Hindu or Muslim, expects that an amicable solution be
offered to him and that he has the means and mechanism to either approve
or disapprove the solution offered. The intellectuals who could offer
priceless help in this matter need a platform to put forward their
suggestions.

Ordinary Indians are not expected to be accurate in their knowledge of
history. The historic aspect to the Ram mandir/Babri masjid needs to be
placed before the nation by a just and fair authority, which must be
accountable to the Constitution and the people of the country.

Historic aspects propagated by the Hindutva brigade will not be easily
accepted by Muslims. They don't trust them, and with a reason. Or, for that
matter, will the vice-versa be accepted by Hindus.

Our political leadership, our lawmakers, should come forward and work on a
solution, and then offer that solution to the nation for its approval.

We need political parties to go to the public with, 'Look we have this
problem, which is explosive in nature, as we have seen in 1992. We need to
solve this problem. These are the facts. This is the historic evidence.
These are the opinions of intellectuals. This is what we think could be the
solution'.

Blaming the Muslim or Hindu leadership is like shooting arrows in the air.
It is not the Muslim or Hindu leadership which has failed. They are quite
successful in holding the nation to ransom. What has failed is our secular
leadership.

It has failed in offering a just and fair solution to this problem. It has
failed to displayed the necessary political will to solve the problem. And
the sooner we realise this, the closer will we be to a solution.

______

#5.

The Hindu
24 December 2000

Saffron sours the X'mas cake

Tension has gripped the Christians in the Dangs and elsewhere in south
Gujarat as Christmas approaches. MANAS DASGUPTA reports.

AN EERIE silence prevails in the tribal-dominated Dangs district and
elsewhere in south Gujarat where the people, tormented by the last two
years of disturbances, are anxiously hoping for a peaceful Christmas.
Though there is no early sign of Hindu militants making any attempt to
disrupt Christmas celebrations, both the district administration and the
Christians are keeping their fingers crossed.

Unlike in the previous two years, there is no public announcement or even
pamphleteering for any programme aimed at disrupting Christmas
celebrations, but, as the Christian leaders put it, there is a ``hush
hush'' campaign to mobilise Hindus in the name of inauguration of a
temple. ``This is the rumour we hear in the market,'' said sister Lilly of
the Deep Darshan missionary school which was attacked by a frenzied mob on
the Christmas eve in 1998. ``There is tension in the air though overtly
everything seems normal,'' she says apprehensively.

An official spokesman of the district administration, however, was
categorical: ``The situation is absolutely peaceful, there is no pro-Hindu
programme and no one will be allowed to vitiate the atmosphere''.

The senior bureaucrat in-charge of the Dangs, Mr. S. K. Nanda, is equally
confident of a peaceful Christmas this year. Mr. Nanda, who was in the
Dangs this week, held meetings with both minority and majority community
leaders.. He is sure that if ``outsiders'' are not allowed to infiltrate
into the district, Christmas will pass off incident-free. ``The local
people are more concerned about their own problems rather than disrupting
Christmas.''

The recent attack in a church in Chhindia village in neighbouring Surat
district and a few incidents of assaults, though some of these were due to
personal enmity, were causing concern to the Christians. But the militant
Hindu organisations, including the Hindu Jagran Manch and the Bajrang Dal,
which organised rallies on the eve of the Christmas causing a sense of
insecurity among the Christians in the last two years, now seem to be in
total disarray in the Dangs after their hate campaign failed to yield the
desired results in the panchayat elections held in September.

Differences cropped up in the various organisations over the selection of
candidates and the self-styled leader of the HJM, Mr. Janu Pawar, one of
the most vocal anti-Christian leaders, fell from grace after he extended
support to a Christian candidate in the panchayat elections. A bitter
Swami Ashimananda, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader who was leading the
re-conversion campaign in the tribal-dominated district, left the Dangs on
being ignored by the BJP in the candidate selection, and is not due to
return till January 10. The district BJP president, Mr. Ramesh Chaudhary,
and many of the other party leaders attached to the VHP and the HJM were
among the losers in the elections and are still busy licking their wounds.

The State Government has directed the district authorities not to permit
any Hindu rally on Christmas Day. Though there were reports that the
Hindus were planning to organise the ``Pran Pratistha'' ceremony of the
Ram temple at Halmodi village in Vyara taluka of Surat district, no
organisation has announced any such official programme. A rally proposed
earlier at Ahwa, the Dangs district headquarters, by a group of Hindu
leaders, has been cancelled.

As a precautionary measure, the State Government has deployed more police
personnel to ensure a peaceful Christmas.But this is not what the local
Christians want. ``We do not want to celebrate Christmas under heavy
police guard,'' says a Christian spokesman. They want a preemptive
crackdown on known trouble-makers but the district authorities are not
willing saying this could boomerang and result in a Hindu backlash.

``One can not be sure about mobocracy if the Hindus are allowed a
congregation,'' says the convenor of the Gujarat United Christian Forum
for Human Rights, Fr. Cedric Prakash. Tension has gripped the Christians
in south Gujarat but the State authorities are also alert to ensure a
peaceful though heavily-guarded Christmas.

______

#6.

Indian Express
24 December 2000

Pentium-III & cellphones usher in the New Year at RSS training camp

by SANTOSH VIJAYKUMAR

December 23: Just a couple of days from now, 615 men clad in khaki shorts
will practice exercises at a reclusive training camp 10 km from Bhayander,
in the run-up to the new year. The participants, activists of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will arrive from 40 countries, at the
pictersque Keshav Shrishti. The event is the RSS's Vishwa Sangha Shibir
(VSS) meet, held once every five years, for a week from December 26.

More than 400 workers from 360 RSS shakhas have set a scorching pace,
erecting red-and-white pandals over 200 acres. The decision to hold only
the third such meet in Bhayander was taken nearly a year ago. While the
first VSS was held at Bangalore in 1990, the second was held at Baroda in
1995.

``They are being put up for the Bouddhik Manch (`public address' for the
RSS) and the delegates to perform their exercises,'' says a beaming
worker. Union Home Minister L K Advani will arrive here to address the
activists on December 27. Union Minister for Human Resource Development,
Murli Manohar Joshi, too will attend, to inaugrate a science exhibition on
December 25.

They are all professionals from different fields, and will come here ``to
be better men,'' says an RSS spokesperson. ``But Advaniji and Joshiji will
not come here as politicians but only as RSS volunteers,'' he insists.

The menu, honed to the very last delectable detail, includes cuisine from
different states so that the delegates get a taste of India's culinary
diversity. The rigorous training programme, which extends from 5 am to 11
pm, includes physical exercises as well as discussions on the problems of
each country.

While the grounds at Shrishti are being levelled, the Vile Parle office of
the RS is abuzz with young swayamsevaks working round-the-clock on
state-of-the-art computer systems, plucking printouts and updating
information.

The volunteers are busy making arrangements for 250 families in Mumbai and
Thane who will host a few of the visiting RSS delegates from abroad,
before and after the event. During the VSS, of course, the male activists
will stay at the Ram Ratna Vidya Mandir (dedicated to the Bharatiya
culture, as their brochure says) at Shrishti, while the women and children
will be housed in small bungalows at the Rambhau Maligi Prabhodi. With
Pentium-III sets, dreamy bungalows and buzzing cellphones, the 75-year-old
Hindutva outfit has definitely found ways to perform their disciplinary
rituals in style!

______________________________________________
SACW is an informal, independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since 1996.
Dispatch archive from 1998 can be accessed
at http://www.egroups.com/messages/act/
////////////////////////////////////
Disclaimer: opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily correspond to views of SACW compilers.