DTN News - INDIA NEWS: DTN News Wish Indian in India and Around The World A Happy Independence Day

DTN News - INDIA NEWS: DTN News Wish Indian in India and Around The World A Happy Independence Day

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 15, 2013: Independence Day, observed annually on 15 August, is a national holiday in India commemorating the nation's independence from British rule on 15 August 1947. India attained freedom following an independence movement noted for largely nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience led by the Indian National Congress. Independence coincided with the partition of India, in which the British Indian Empire was divided along religious lines into the Dominions of India and Pakistan; the partition was accompanied by violent riots and mass casualties.

The flagship event in Independence Day celebrations takes place in Delhi, where the Prime Minister hoists the national flag at the Red Fort and delivers from its ramparts a speech. The holiday is observed throughout India with flag-hoisting ceremonies, parades and cultural events. Indians celebrate the day by displaying the national flag on their attire, accessories, homes and vehicles; by listening to patriotic songs, watching patriotic movies; and bonding with family and friends. Books and films feature the independence and partition in their narrative. Separatist and militant organisations have often carried out terrorist attacks on and around 15 August, and others have declared strikes and used black flags to boycott the celebration.

DTN News Wish Indian in India and Around The World A Happy Independence Day.

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DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Obama Thanks Troops At White House July Fourth Celebration

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Obama Thanks Troops At White House July Fourth Celebration

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources American Forces Press Service
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 5, 2013: (WASHINGTON) President Barack Obama praised and thanked U.S. military members and their families for their service to the nation during an Independence Day celebration held yesterday on the South Lawn of the White House.

The event was attended by military members representing all branches of the armed forces.

“We are incredibly grateful for your service, and we're thankful that you get a chance to spend the Fourth here with us,” Obama told the service members.

This year’s Fourth of July celebration marked 237 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the president said. Today, the United States “stands as the greatest nation on Earth,” he said.

“And what makes us great is not our size or our wealth, but our values and our ideals and the fact that we're willing to fight for them,” the president added.

America continues to be “a land of liberty and opportunity; a global defender of peace and freedom; a beacon of hope for people everywhere who cherish those ideals,” Obama said. 

And the nation’s service members -- past and present -- “have defended our nation at home and abroad,” Obama said.

“You fought for our nation's beliefs, to make the world a better and safer place,” he told service members at the White House. “People in scattered corners of the world live in peace today are free to write their own futures, because of you.”

Obama praised the “incredibly capable and brave men and women” serving in the nation’s armed forces, and he highlighted some of the military members in attendance, including Army Spc. Heidi Olson, who, after being wounded by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, gave lifesaving treatment to other injured soldiers.

Olson “had to be ordered to stop and get treatment for herself when the MEDEVAC aircraft arrived,” the president said. “And for her courage, she was awarded a Bronze Star. ”

The president also saluted Navy Petty Officer Joe Marcinkowski who, he said, “serves wounded warriors at Walter Reed, coordinating their care and supporting their families throughout their recoveries. ”

Obama also recognized Air Force Staff Sergeant Adam Ybarra. The airman, he said, “helped save nine lives in 11 combat search-and-rescue missions in Afghanistan in 2012. ”

The president also praised Marine Corps Cpl. Amber Fifer. Fifer “was shot five times in an attack in Helmand province [in Afghanistan], and has stayed on to serve as a Marine Corps drill instructor,” the president said.

Obama also saluted Coast Guard Petty Officer Randy Haba. The Coast Guard member, the president said, “was one of the first responders to rescue the crew of a ship off the coast of North Carolina when Hurricane Sandy struck and saved the lives of five mariners.”

Each day, U.S. service members are “carrying forward the ideals that inspired that American Dream [that began] 237 years ago,” Obama said.

“Defending our nation and our freedoms with strength and with sacrifice is your daily charge,” the president told the service members. “And it's the charge of all of us -- the charge of all who serve worldwide, including our troops that are still in harm's way, and their families back home. They serve, too. And so we think of them, we pray for them.

“And on behalf of all Americans, I want to say thank you and wish you all a very, very happy Fourth of July,” Obama continued. “You've earned it. So, God bless you. God bless your families. God bless the United States of America.”

Related Sites:
President's Remarks 
Video
Related Articles:
President Salutes Independence Day in Weekly Address

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources American Forces Press Service
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DTN News - INDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

DTN News - INDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

Source: This article compiled by compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 3, 2013:  Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Adams's prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.

Historians have long disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.

In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, the Fifth President of the United States, died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge, the Thirtieth President, was born on July 4, 1872, and thus was the only President to be born on Independence Day.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News
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DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Why My Father Hated India

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Why My Father Hated India

**Aatish Taseer, the son of an assassinated Pakistani leader, explains the history and hysteria behind a deadly relationship

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Aatish Taseer WSJ - Courtesy Sanaya Hoon

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 18, 2011: Ten days before he was assassinated in January, my father, Salman Taseer, sent out a tweet about an Indian rocket that had come down over the Bay of Bengal: "Why does India make fools of themselves messing in space technology? Stick 2 bollywood my advice."

My father was the governor of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, and his tweet, with its taunt at India's misfortune, would have delighted his many thousands of followers. It fed straight into Pakistan's unhealthy obsession with India, the country from which it was carved in 1947.

Mohandas Gandhi visits Muslim refugees in New Delhi as they prepare to depart to Pakistan on Sept. 22, 1947.

Though my father's attitude went down well in Pakistan, it had caused considerable tension between us. I am half-Indian, raised in Delhi by my Indian mother: India is a country that I consider my own. When my father was killed by one of his own bodyguards for defending a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, we had not spoken for three years.

To understand the Pakistani obsession with India, to get a sense of its special edge—its hysteria—it is necessary to understand the rejection of India, its culture and past, that lies at the heart of the idea of Pakistan. This is not merely an academic question. Pakistan's animus toward India is the cause of both its unwillingness to fight Islamic extremism and its active complicity in undermining the aims of its ostensible ally, the United States.

The idea of Pakistan was first seriously formulated by neither a cleric nor a politician but by a poet. In 1930, Muhammad Iqbal, addressing the All-India Muslim league, made the case for a state in which India's Muslims would realize their "political and ethical essence." Though he was always vague about what the new state would be, he was quite clear about what it would not be: the old pluralistic society of India, with its composite culture.

Every day at sunset, Indian and Pakistani guards on the Wagah border face off in a militaristic flag-lowering exercise called the Beating Retreat Ceremony. WSJ's Tom Wright reports on India's effort to tone down the bizarre display.

Iqbal's vision took concrete shape in August 1947. Despite the partition of British India, it had seemed at first that there would be no transfer of populations. But violence erupted, and it quickly became clear that in the new homeland for India's Muslims, there would be no place for its non-Muslim communities. Pakistan and India came into being at the cost of a million lives and the largest migration in history.

This shared experience of carnage and loss is the foundation of the modern relationship between the two countries. In human terms, it meant that each of my parents, my father in Pakistan and my mother in India, grew up around symmetrically violent stories of uprooting and homelessness.

But in Pakistan, the partition had another, deeper meaning. It raised big questions, in cultural and civilizational terms, about what its separation from India would mean.

In the absence of a true national identity, Pakistan defined itself by its opposition to India. It turned its back on all that had been common between Muslims and non-Muslims in the era before partition. Everything came under suspicion, from dress to customs to festivals, marriage rituals and literature. The new country set itself the task of erasing its association with the subcontinent, an association that many came to view as a contamination.

Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, in May 2009. He was assassinated in January 2011.

Had this assertion of national identity meant the casting out of something alien or foreign in favor of an organic or homegrown identity, it might have had an empowering effect. What made it self-wounding, even nihilistic, was that Pakistan, by asserting a new Arabized Islamic identity, rejected its own local and regional culture. In trying to turn its back on its shared past with India, Pakistan turned its back on itself.

But there was one problem: India was just across the border, and it was still its composite, pluralistic self, a place where nearly as many Muslims lived as in Pakistan. It was a daily reminder of the past that Pakistan had tried to erase.

Pakistan's existential confusion made itself apparent in the political turmoil of the decades after partition. The state failed to perform a single legal transfer of power; coups were commonplace. And yet, in 1980, my father would still have felt that the partition had not been a mistake, for one critical reason: India, for all its democracy and pluralism, was an economic disaster.

Pakistan had better roads, better cars; Pakistani businesses were thriving; its citizens could take foreign currency abroad. Compared with starving, socialist India, they were on much surer ground. So what if India had democracy? It had brought nothing but drought and famine.

But in the early 1990s, a reversal began to occur in the fortunes of the two countries. The advantage that Pakistan had seemed to enjoy in the years after independence evaporated, as it became clear that the quest to rid itself of its Indian identity had come at a price: the emergence of a new and dangerous brand of Islam.

As India rose, thanks to economic liberalization, Pakistan withered. The country that had begun as a poet's utopia was reduced to ruin and insolvency.

The primary agent of this decline has been the Pakistani army. The beneficiary of vast amounts of American assistance and money—$11 billion since 9/11—the military has diverted a significant amount of these resources to arming itself against India. In Afghanistan, it has sought neither security nor stability but rather a backyard, which—once the Americans leave—might provide Pakistan with "strategic depth" against India.

In order to realize these objectives, the Pakistani army has led the U.S. in a dance, in which it had to be seen to be fighting the war on terror, but never so much as to actually win it, for its extension meant the continuing flow of American money. All this time the army kept alive a double game, in which some terror was fought and some—such as Laskhar-e-Tayyba's 2008 attack on Mumbai—actively supported.

The army's duplicity was exposed decisively this May, with the killing of Osama bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. It was only the last and most incriminating charge against an institution whose activities over the years have included the creation of the Taliban, the financing of international terrorism and the running of a lucrative trade in nuclear secrets.

This army, whose might has always been justified by the imaginary threat from India, has been more harmful to Pakistan than to anybody else. It has consumed annually a quarter of the country's wealth, undermined one civilian government after another and enriched itself through a range of economic interests, from bakeries and shopping malls to huge property holdings.

The reversal in the fortunes of the two countries—India's sudden prosperity and cultural power, seen next to the calamity of Muhammad Iqbal's unrealized utopia—is what explains the bitterness of my father's tweet just days before he died. It captures the rage of being forced to reject a culture of which you feel effortlessly a part—a culture that Pakistanis, via Bollywood, experience daily in their homes.

This rage is what makes it impossible to reduce Pakistan's obsession with India to matters of security or a land dispute in Kashmir. It can heal only when the wounds of 1947 are healed. And it should provoke no triumphalism in India, for behind the bluster and the bravado, there is arid pain and sadness.

—Mr. Taseer is the author of "Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands." His second novel, "Noon," will be published in the U.S. in September

**Aatish Taseer, the son of an assassinated Pakistani leader, explains the history and hysteria behind a deadly relationship....Link to comments

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DTN News - BIRTH OF A NATION NEWS: From Decades of Strife And Conflict, Africa's Newest Nation Is Born

DTN News - BIRTH OF A NATION NEWS: From Decades of Strife And Conflict, Africa's Newest Nation Is Born

Source: This article compiled by Roger Smith DTN News

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 8, 2011: The boundaries on Africa's maps will once again be re-drawn, this time as the newest nation in the world readies itself for full independence from Sudan on Saturday. After a decade of civil war with Khartoum and an uneasy five year cease-fire, celebrations marking the formation of the new state are set to get underway in the South Sudanese capital of Juba on Saturday. This new nation will be slightly smaller than the state of Texas in terms of size.

Reportedly a number of expats will make their way to the new country from overseas for the occasion while a number of events as far afield as Sioux City, SD are planned for those unable to make it to Juba by July 9th.

The Republic of South Sudan came about as a result of the internationally-brokered Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the South and Khartoum that was signed in Nairobi. The terms of the 2005 ceasefire included six years of autonomy from Khartoum followed by a referendum on independence which took place earlier this year. Voters in the south overwhelmingly approved of secession from northern Sudan by a nearly 99% margin. The population of the South is largely Christian or Animist while the northern Sudan is majority Muslim.

Although rich in oil deposits, the South faces a number of challenges including rebuilding infrastructure damaged by years of civil war, AIDS, a high infant mortality rate. There is also the risk that lingering resentment towards the north could reignite into an armed conflict once again. To that end, the United Nations has sent approximately 7000 peacekeepers to act as a buffer between northern and southern forces.

There is also the problem of exporting the oil, since the new country is land-locked and the only pipelines into and out of the south are to Port Sudan and and easily be cut off if hostilities between the two nations resume.

The days and weeks leading up to the independence day have been marked with skirmishes with the northern militias and attacks on refugees. As recently as May of this year, forces from South Sudan and Sudan traded artillery fire and the Sudanese air force bombarded the region around the border town of Abyei.

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