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1. Blacks account for 13% of the U.S. population but about 50% of the two million prisoners. Writing in Sunday’s New York Times, Harvard professor Orlando Patterson attributes this “virtual gulag of racial incarceration” to unfair law enforcement, draconian mandatory sentencing, retreat from rehabilitation, far higher crimes committed by blacks and the catastrophic state of black family life.

2.  According to Nancy Benac of the Associated Press, 40% of Americans – a whopping 116 million – have never lived when there wasn’t a Bush or Clinton in the White House, either as President or Vice President. To all those Indians who whine about the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s hold on power, take heart. Things in America ain’t no better.

3. When you read that 23% of cars sold in the U.S. are manufactured elsewhere (mainly Japan, South Korea, Germany), you begin to realize why the American auto industry is going down the toilet. Just watch, things are only gonna get much worse for U.S. auto workers when the American car companies GM, Ford and Chrysler start importing cars from China and other low wage countries.

4. About 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This means most of them cannot afford to visit a doctor unless they are unlucky enough to be struck with a catastrophic illness in which case they become bankrupt.

5. According to the New York Times, the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 is projected to hit $800 billion by the end of 2008.

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Much as we love Jamie Foxx, it was the Israeli actor Ashraf Barhom who commanded our attention in Peter Berg’s new action flick The Kingdom.

As the Saudi colonel Faris Al Ghazi responsible for guarding a bunch of FBI Special Agents investigating a horrific attack in Saudi Arabia in which many American lives were lost including an FBI colleague, Ashraf Barhom brings an intensity to his character that Foxx – who plays an FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury here - never seems to achieve.

I suspect we’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more of Ashraf Barhom in Hollywood productions.

A geopolitical action thriller with car chases and its twin siblings bombings and kidnappings, The Kingdom is not in the same league as that edge of the seat, steroid-laced thriller of this summer Bourne Ultimatum.

Simply put, former CIA operative Jason Bourne trumps FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury in every department – story, action and pace.

But don’t get us wrong.

The Kingdom is still a decent movie compared to any of the currently running Bollywood nightmares at the Indian theatres in New York, New Jersey or California.

Against the wishes of the wimpy Attorney General Gideon Young (Danny Huston) and the State Department, four FBI agents land in Saudi Arabia to investigate a deadly attack.

With just five days to complete their difficult mission, the FBI agents led by Foxx meet with a hostile reception in Saudi Arabia both from the local U.S. State Department fellow Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) as well as from their Saudi hosts.

Saudi colonel Faris Al Ghazi is responsible for their security and also for ensuring that the FBI agents do not step out of line in a country where for much of the local population Osama bin Laden is the hero and the Americans are the villains.

Saudi Arabia is a harsh terrain in every way – language, culture, anti-American sentiments and other prejudices stymie the FBI agents at every turn.

Although the story is not gripping in its entirety, The Kingdom has a lot of good moments.

Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper as the other FBI agents and particularly Ali Suliman as the Saudi Sergeant Haytham do an adequate job.

Much of this geopolitical thriller was actually shot – literally and figuratively in this case – in Arizona though it’d hard to figure that out if you didn’t know it already.

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Even in the land of Khushboo a.k.a the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, thin is apparently in these days.

Besides the voluptuous yesteryear actress Khushboo (for whom devoted fans once built a temple), several prominent Tamil heroines like Jyothika, Ramya, Nagma, Sripriya  and Nayantara have been rather plump by Hollywood – and even Bollywood – standards.

But according to the hacks at the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), plump is out of fashion these days in India.

Gone with the wind are the days of yore when plump, fleshy heroines were the stuff of every young man’s fantasies. A WSJ feature item takes note of this new phenomenon in the Friday edition of the paper: 

In the home of the country’s Tamil-language film industry, full-figured heroines used to be the hottest stars. Until a few years ago, actresses considered too chubby for the country’s mainstream Hindi-language Bollywood movies could find roles easily in this city. No more.

Well, that’s a bit of exaggeration considering that full figured Tamil actresses like Nayantara and Meera Jasmine still have the young uns – and, ahem, quite a few old ones too like yours truly – drooling.

Hooey, say the folks at the WSJ. They argue that for a new generation of young women in India, weight reduction, yoga, diet and thin are the new shibboleths.

In a country where full figures have long represented the ideal for feminine beauty, thin is increasingly in. An influx of glossy international fashion magazines and a growing number of opportunities for women in the work force are prompting a move toward fitted Western-style fashions and away from flowing national garb. Now, weight-loss clinics are proliferating in urban centers.

Well, count us out among the new fans of the thin, svelte Indian babes.

Not for us the Shreyas and Asins. We’ll stick with the Jyothikas and Nayantaras, thank you.

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Today’s New York Times features a puff piece on Indian entrepreneur Sunil Bharti Mittal tooting his horn about his recent deal with Wal-Mart to set up a wholesale distribution system.

Amidst all his prattle about the cold chain, the trucking, storage  etc, what caught our attention in the NYT story was Sunil Mittal’s juvenile boast that India

can become a food supplier to the rest of the world.

What is Sunil Mittal smoking? Come, on India is a country that still can’t feed all its citizens let alone becoming food supplier to the rest of the world.

More than 60 years after Independence, Indian media sources periodically report starvation deaths in different corners of the country.

India’s million-plus small retailers and their employees rightly fear the entry of huge chains like Wal-Mart will drive them out of business. Without a safety net, where will these folks go?

In many parts of the U.S., mom-and-pop stores have been wiped out because of chain stores like Wal-Mart. After the public outcry against Wal-Mart, some cities in California, Illinois and New York have been reluctant to let Wal-Mart open outlets in their localities.

Wal-Mart also has a shabby trackrecord vis-a-vis its employees in the U.S., many of whom are poorly paid and rely on the government for their medical care because of their low wages.

Do we really need companies like Wal-Mart in India?

Recently, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati did the right thing in shutting down 10 Reliance Industries superstores after protests by small traders and political activists.

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The folks at local search engine AskLaila have snagged $10 million in a Series B round of funding, according to VC Circle.

Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round in AskLaila’s parent Bangalore-based Four Interactive.

Silicon Valley Bank and return investor Matrix Partners India also participated in the latest round.

Matrix invested $2 million in the startup seven months back.

We did a quick check of AskLaila’s service and found it still has ways to go. The service is currently restricted to Bangalore but the company plans to extend it to the other major Indian cities.

AskLaila’s peers include JustDial and the 800-pound gorilla Google. JustDial did better than AskLaila in our quick search of restaurants in Bangalore.

The big question is how all these Indian local search fledglings plan on making decent money at the end of the day. After all, as the dot com boom in the U.S. proved any idiot can start a company. Few can sustain it and fewer still make decent money off it.

AskLaila is the brainchild of Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoorie.

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Amazon.com’s new online music store Amazon MP3 offers songs in several Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Kannada.

We checked the Amazon store for songs from old and new Hindi and Tamil movies including Aradhana, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dhoom and Ilamai Oonjaladigirathu (Tamil). Guess what, we found ‘em all there.

A preview option lets you listen to the songs for a short while before making the purchase.

Most of the Hindi and Tamil songs we checked were priced at 89 cents each while some were 99 cents.

The good news for buyers – the songs are available in MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

This means that customers can enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens, iPhones, RAZRs and BlackBerrys.

Buyers are also supposed to be able to organize their music using any music management application such as iTunes or Windows Media Player and burn songs to CDs.

Amazon’s new music download service is offering a total of two million songs from 180,000 artists in a wide variety of genres.

Will Amazon.com be able to make a dent in the face of the Apple iPod juggernaut? Watch this space.

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