Neil Samson Katz

FRIENDS OF CRAIGSLIST KILLER

2009-04-27T11:18:00.001-04:00

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Childhood and college friends of alleged Craigslist Killer, Philip Markoff, spoke to our team at CBS News.

MARK FISHER

2009-02-24T11:43:00.004-05:00

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In 2003, Mark Fisher, a handsome NJ college student, was gunned down in Brooklyn after attending a house party with a group of people he had met in a Manhattan bar. The host of the party, John Guica, and a friend, Antonio Russo, were convicted and given 25 to life. Prosecutors said Guica and Russo were trying to toughen up their gang, the Ghetto Mafia.

But Guica's mother refused to believe her son was guilty and decided to go undercover to prove it.

Doreen Giuliano became Dee Quinn, a thinner, blonder, sexier version of herself and playing the damsel in distress set out to befriend one of the jurors. After months of secret audio recordings she claims the juror admitted to misconduct that could win a new trial for her son.

Through his lawyer, the juror says he did nothing wrong. Prosecutors will respond to Ms. Giuliano's motion for a new trial for her son on Thursday.

All Access Grammy Special

2009-01-29T17:25:00.003-05:00

My production team at CBS News is producing a prime time Grammy interview show hosted by Katie Couric. Justin Timberlake, Lil Wayne, Katie Perry, and Taylor Swift all sit down with us. We also shot 14 Grammy-nominated artists including Metallica, Ne-Yo, and Carrie Underwood. A little taste of Ne-Yo below. Catch all our interviews here.

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CBS Inauguration Part II

2009-01-21T12:19:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama was able to energize a new generation of voters. At CBS, we wanted to energize a new generation of reporters. So for the president elect's inauguration, we partnered with American University's graduate journalism program who sent more than a dozen young reporters into the melee. Armed with flip cams and wifi connections, they brought back colorful video reports from the field. Their reporting captured the voices of African Americans, young kids, and musicians who jammed through the night.

Three stories made it onto the CBS Hot Sheet political blog. Not bad for newbies.

In the Crowd: DC Jams for Obama
In the Crowd: Obama's Youngest Supporters
In the Crowd: Emotions Run Deep for African Americans

Producer / CBS News

CBS INAUGURATION COVERAGE

2009-01-21T12:11:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama was elected on the promises of change and hope. CBS News asked Americans in five cities, New York, San Francisco, St. Louis and Chicago about their hopes for the new president and their dreams for the next four years.

WATCH THEIR STORIES

Producer for CBS News

48 HOURS: VEGAS HEAT

2008-11-10T13:25:00.004-05:00

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On an early December morning outside Las Vegas, firefighters responded to a report of a possible brush fire. But what they found instead was a burning car, with the body of a woman inside. Who was this woman and what led to her murder?

Field Produced for CBS News / 48 Hours

CBS NEWS: PALIN'S PREGNANCY PROBLEM?

2008-09-02T08:32:00.002-04:00

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Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's daughter is one of 750,000 pregnant teens this year. While many parents and the party faithful are supportive, her own peers may be more judgmental.

Field Produced for CBS News

IRAN: VOICES FROM THE STREET

2008-09-02T08:24:00.001-04:00

What does the country that invented "Death to America" really think about Americans and the upcoming presidential election? We took the streets of Tehran to find out. The answers may surprise you.

PBS Frontline World

ON ASSIGNMENT: IRAN FOR PBS

2008-08-25T12:24:00.003-04:00

Friday Prayers in Tehran, July 2008

I have just returned from assignment in Iran for PBS Frontline World Rough Cuts. I am going to be a little mysterious about the story. It's fundamentally about the intersection of faith and science. I guarantee you will be surprised with what we found there. PBS will run our story online sometime in October.

In the meantime, here's a flickr gallery of some of our adventures.

'INDIA'S MISSING GIRLS' WINS SAJA NEW MEDIA AWARD

2008-08-25T12:15:00.004-04:00

My wife and I were honored to even be considered for a new media award from the South Asian Journalists Association. We were blown over when our little movie, India's Missing Girls, actually won.

2008 SAJA Awards List

POLYGAMY: A WORLD APART

2008-08-25T11:58:00.005-04:00

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April 3, 2008 -- Texas authorities invaded the compound of a polygamous Mormon sect and took more than 400 children into custody on fears of rampant sexual abuse and underage marriage. The Fundamentalist Church of Later Day Saints, or FLDS, struck back, accusing the state of kidnapping their children without cause or due process. They dared Texas prosecutors to present evidence of sexual abuse and fought their case all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, whose decision would hold the future for an entire generation of FLDS children.

Field Produced for CBS News / 48 Hours.

WHO KILLED KENT LEPPINK?

2008-03-12T00:13:00.006-04:00

In 1996 Kent Leppink was found dead on a small trail 90 miles south of Anchorage. He was shot three times at point blank range, no evidence how he got there or who killed him. But as police looked into his private life they found a tangled web. His fiance, Mechele Hughes, an exotic dancer at the Alaskan Bush Company, seemed to be engaged to two other men, at least the men thought so. At times Mechele lived in the same house with two of them, although not always the same two.

Police soon found a million dollar insurance policy on Kent's life naming Mechele as the beneficiary. And a strange letter written by Mechele and John Carlin, one of her other fiances, appeared to have lured Kent to the small town in which he died.

But with no physical evidence connecting anyone to the crime, it sat unsolved for 11 long years.

Since then Mechele has become a model PTA mom. She got a masters degree, married a doctor in Olympia, Washington, and has an eight-year old daughter. She is active in her school and church. She adamantly maintains her innocence and claims she has done nothing by try to help the investigation.

But Alaska's new cold case division is still gunning for Mechele and with new computer forensics and shocking new testimony they believe they finally have a case.

Love and Death in the Wild.
A 48 Hours Mystery

VIETNAM CULTURE BY THE GLASS

2008-03-11T23:10:00.014-04:00

Over the last few years Vietnam has exploded as a serious foodie destination. From savory noodle broths to French infused pastries, the national cuisine seems to have it all. But for all good food there must be drink. And for the thirsty traveler, open to a few strange pit stops and the occasional tingling lips, a journey into Vietnam’s heart through its high-octane elixirs will not disappoint. It is this promise that recently drew my wife and me on a two week journey from the nation’s southern canals to its frigid northern mountains.

Most Emailed New York Times Travel Story Week of March 8th.

Read the New York Times Story
View the New York Times Video

VIETNAM PHOTOS

2008-01-28T18:17:00.001-05:00

Not exactly reporting, well not yet. My wife and I recently traveled to Vietnam, mostly for vacation, but partly for an upcoming New York Times travel story.

Here are some of the shots

NYT: ALZHEIMER'S, THE RAREST GENE

2008-01-13T10:12:00.001-05:00

One family's deadly struggle with early-onset Alzheimer's has given scientists a window into the disease and its genetic origins.

When Chuck Jackson was only fourteen he was forced to nurse his 44-year-old mother through Alzheimer's. Now, at 53, he has it too. In fact much of Chuck's family has been struck by the disease. Scientists discovered they carry a rare genetic mutation that almost always triggers early-onset Alzheimer's. But this genetic quirk may also offer clues on how to prevent or delay the disease in others.

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SOLSTICE FILM FESTIVAL PLAYS INDIA'S MISSING GIRLS

2007-07-17T15:21:00.000-04:00

We were honored to have India's Missing Girls be part of the Second Annual Solstice Film Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota.

PBS MOVES INDIA'S MISSING GIRLS TO YOUTUBE

2007-07-17T14:28:00.000-04:00

Finally.

ROLANDA SHOW FEATURES INDIA'S MISSING GIRLS

2007-07-11T08:33:00.000-04:00

Rolanda Watts broadcasts a nationally syndicated radio show from LA. Her show is part of the Greenstone Network, a women's radio network. It's like Oxygen for radio. Rolanda brought Marisa and I on to talk about the documentary.
Listen

INDIA'S MISSING GIRLS PREMIERES ON FRONTLINE/ WORLD ONLINE

2007-05-01T16:47:00.000-04:00

In 2006, when my wife and I traveled to India to live and work, the one issue that kept grabbing our attention was northern India's deep cultural preference for sons over daughters. The desire for sons can be so great, that some families, after having a girl or two, will abort female fetuses until they bear a son. The practice is called female feticide or sex selection. We trekked from the small farming villages of Punjab to the narrow alleys of New Delhi to find out why.

Now PBS Frontline/World is webcasting our documentary film on the topic.
CHECK IT OUT

NY TIMES RUNS SIX REAL ESTATE STORIES

2007-04-30T11:38:00.000-04:00

SEDONA

PALM SPRINGS

ASPEN

PBS FRONTLINE BUYS INDIA'S MISSING GENERATION

2007-01-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

We are so excited to announce that PBS Frontline has purchased our documentary on India's female feticide epidemic. We are back in the studio re-cutting the piece now and plan to premiere it on Frontline Rough Cuts sometime in late March or April.

Stay Tuned.

NYT: GIFTS FROM UKRAINE

2007-01-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

Programs that allow children available for adoption to visit American families often lead to happily-ever-after, but sometimes end painfully. Produced for the New York Times.

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NYT: FIRST GAY VOWS FOR NEW YORK TIMES BROADBAND

2007-01-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

Peter Vincent and Clifton Taylor decided that their wedding could not wait for New York to legalize gay marriage. Produced for the New York Times.

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NYT: JAMES BROWN'S HARLEM FAREWELL

2007-01-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

Thousands of fans and mourners thronged the streets of Harlem to get a last chance to pay respects to the legendary rhythm and blues performer, who died Dec. 25. Geoff McGhee and I produced this piece for the New York Times.

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NYT: BRAIN FITNESS FOR BOOMERS AND BEYOND

2006-12-27T20:38:00.000-05:00

Brain health programs are aimed at baby boomers anxious about entering their golden years and at their parents trying to stave off memory loss or dementia. Produced for the New York Times.

Watch the Story

VIDEO: INDIA'S MISSING GENERATION

2006-11-30T00:06:00.000-05:00

Indian Road Documentary: An exclusive look inside India's growing female feticide epidemic.

NOTE: Some video has not yet been cleared. This video is for demonstration only.
Read the Original Story as Published in the Washington Post and NJ Star Ledger

http://www.neilkatzphoto.com/video/feticide/movieplayer480270.html

TABLE MANNERS

2006-09-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

This story was originally written for the New York Times Magazine. They chose not to publish it, so I am putting it here for your enjoyment. The story describes events from March, 2006.

The most important thing about eating fire red ants with tribal people in the forests of India is table manners. My momma always taught me, no matter what, never insult your host.

In this case, I was the guest of R.P. Kushwa, the informal leader of a tribal relief camp in the southern tip of Chhattisgarh. He hadn’t invited me exactly, actually not at all. I just showed up, driver and translator in tow, to report on camp conditions for an American newspaper.

It was dicey business. Maoist rebels were prowling the forests and had thoughtfully placed landmines underneath the road into the camps. Not surprisingly the tribals received few guests. Which might explain why, after making sure I wasn’t the most lost tourist in the history of India, they welcomed me with open arms.

Kushwa and company insisted, despite their meager resources, on preparing their finest cuisine called ‘chapda’ or ant chutney.

Great fanfare was made. Young men were dispatched to hunt fresh ants. Yesterday’s ants would never do. Apparently, like sushi, they don’t keep well. The men climbed the tall trees to fetch the frenetic little critters and their gushy white eggs. How they killed them I never found out, but thankfully, they weren’t moving by the time I had to face them.

The tribals prepare the ants raw like ceviche, lightly dusting them with chili powder and salt. Like great gourmands, the tribal chefs don’t want fancy sauces masking the natural flavors.

Kushwa ushered us to a wooden table and invited me to sit next to him. He put his meaty arm around me. The body length rifle that never left his shoulder was pressed between us. The mental note about good manners seemed particularly apropos.

Around fifty tribal men gathered around us, the younger ones pushing through their elders to get a look at the strange dinner guest. The crowd was oppressive, pushing Kushwa and I closer together. Someone from behind kept pinching and punching my back, perhaps to make sure I was real.

Kushwa threw a wide smile and announced first we would have special fish. “It has twelve feet,” Kushwa said. “I am sure you will like it. We serve it French style.”

I did a double take to my translator, Subodh. “Did he really say twelve feet and French style?”

Subodh shrugged. He was a journalism student from New Delhi, a city slicker, and was as far out of his element as I.

I was getting shaky thinking about the Fear Factor feast to come. A boy emerged with a shiny aluminum plate, a generous pyramid of spicy red shrimp piled high on it. Ah, the twelve-footed fish was not so scary after all. And it was delicious too, an almost perfect Cajun barbequed shrimp. It was even served peal-and-eat style.

I began to relax. Ants or no ants, these guys were good cooks.

Kushwa called for drinks. Two tall glasses were placed before us. A wiry man poured pale yellow liquid. Kushwa picked up his glass, gave a sly grin, gulped the contents down in one shot, and slammed his glass onto the table.

The crowd chanted for me to drink what I surmised to be highly toxic moonshine. Whether standing naked in a frat house hazing or sitting with Gondi tribesman, men are men. And the best way to earn their confidence is getting plastered with them. Dogs sniff backsides. We drink.

I put the glass to my lips, threw my head back and sloshed the liquid down. When I slammed my glass to the table the men went crazy, laughing and cheering. We were friends.

The moonshine’s flavor was halfway between lemonade and fermented socks. An acquired taste. The wiry man re-emerged to fill our glasses. Gulp. Slam. Cheer.

The moonshine was beginning to have its way with me. We all laughed together, likely at different jokes.

Kushwa motioned for the main course. An easy-faced tribesman brought a wad of newspaper and laid it on the table. Kushwa opened it and flashed that grin again.

I stared down at a scraggly pile of red ants, their tiny black eyes mocking me. In between the ants were shiny white globs that must have been their eggs.

I started sweating and reached for another shot of fermented sock juice. And then, remembering momma’s adage about table manners, I threw my hand into the red ant mix, scooped a healthy pile, placed them into my mouth and chomped down.

I felt little ant legs scratching the tip of my tongue and egg juice shot across my mouth like prehistoric pop rocks.

“Yummy,” I said as I chewed. The crowd erupted in laughter, giving me the impression that they don’t actually eat ants. Perhaps they just wanted to see what kind of crazy stuff they could make the new guy do.

“Are they good for you?” I asked.

“Oh very much,” Kushwa said. “If you eat two portions a day for one month you can ward off malaria and sickness.”

“What about black ants? What are they good for?”

“Black ants. Are you crazy? Why would anyone eat black ants? That’s totally disgusting.”

By now my driver was frantically motioning for us to go. Darkness was fast approaching and he feared driving through rebel territory at night.

I waived for the check, thanked Kushwa for his hospitality and took my month’s supply of chapda in a doggy bag to go.

The author, seconds after the delightful ants hit his tongue.

Another classic face.

Neil Samson Katz is a freelance writer and photographer living in New York City. He spent February and March working and traveling in India.

VIDEO: INDIA'S WAR IN THE WOODS

2006-07-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

CHHATTISGARH, India — The 78-kilometer road between Sukma and Konta is nearly deserted. Scores of villages, once bustling with tribal life, are now vacant. Across the rough orange and green terrain of the nearby forests, hundreds of other villages similarly have been abandoned. Tens of thousands of tribal people are simply gone.

This is not war-torn Afghanistan or Sudan. This is central India, where super sleek call centers and software factories have brought millions of poor into the modern middle class.

Watch the Video
Read the Original Story for NJ Star Ledger

GRATEFUL TO BE ALIVE, MORE GRATEFUL, STILL, FOR MOTHERHOOD

2006-05-14T10:08:00.000-04:00

Bracha Witonsky, 29, spends time with Shina, one of her daughters, during a hospital stay. Witonsky has cystic fibrosis, a disease that claimed her sister at age 16. Neither of her daughters has the affliction.

BY NEIL SAMSON KATZ
SPECIAL TO THE STAR LEDGER
PUBLISHED MAY 14, 2006
Star Ledger Link

NEW YORK — For Bracha Witonsky it wasn’t easy growing up with a sick sister who was fighting cystic fibrosis.

Shulamis got all the attention. Every day the family gave her physical therapy, they injected the intravenous antibiotics she needed to clear the thick mucus from her lungs and they watched helplessly as she lost pound after pound. When Shalumis died at 16, perhaps the hardest thing for 8-year-old Bracha was knowing she was sick, too.

"When my sister died, I felt when I would reach 16, I would die too," Witonsky said.

Today, Witonsky is 29 years old and living in Marine Park, Brooklyn. She even has been healthy enough to fulfill her lifelong dream “to have a baby girl and to be able to name her after my sister."

"That was my dream for life," Witonsky said. "Anything more than that was extra for me.”

This Mother’s Day Witonsky has plenty to be thankful for, notably her two baby girls — 6-year-old Shulamis Zahava (Hebrew for complete gold) and 5-year-old Shina. Neither has the deadly genetic disorder that afflicts Bacha.

Cystic fibrosis, a disease that attacks the lungs, pancreas and digestive system, has for ages been known as a childhood affliction because few patients lived past their teens. But over the past three decades, new medicines and better care have helped children with cystic fibrosis become adults. And increasingly women like Bracha are seeking out a new and unexpected challenge: motherhood.

"Now we have more and more patients living into their adult years," said Dr. Robert Zanni, a cystic fibrosis specialist at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch. "They don’t spend as much time in the hospital. They are going to school, getting jobs, having a family life. It’s a major difference from 30 years ago."

Indeed, half of all people with cystic fibrosis now live past 37, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the primary advocacy group for the disease. Many patients live far longer, some into their 60s.

Still, motherhood remains a fairly exclusive club among those with the disease. There were only 107 births in 2004, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s most recent numbers. Eight were in New York and New Jersey.

Though 10 million Americans are carriers for the disease, only an estimated 30,000 people have full blown cystic fibrosis. Patients have two defective genes that cause thick bacteria-trapping mucus to build inside the lungs and create constant infections. Over time, those infections degrade the lungs, making breathing difficult and eventually impossible.

Mucus build up also prevents the pancreas from producing enzymes vital for absorbing food. Many patients become frighteningly thin. And while there still is no cure, with powerful antibiotics, careful nutrition, and aggressive physical therapy, doctors are keeping patients healthy far longer.

"These women, when they were born, they were told they would die by the time they were 18 years old. Now they are told that the average age is 37. They are very hopeful that the number will continue to rise and they will beat the odds," said Dr. Moira Aitken, director of the adult cystic fibrosis program at the Washington University Medical Center in Seattle. "My job is to make these women live as long as they possibly can and have all the joys in life that they possibly can. And so far so good. These children bring them incredible joy."

'A TOTAL MIRACLE'

Motherhood puts new stresses on any woman. For someone with cystic fibrosis, it also means lung infections can get out control and they may have trouble gaining weight. The antibiotics used to treat their infections might also harm their fetuses. But many doctors have been able to keep mother and babies healthy, and genetic testing makes it nearly impossible for mothers to pass the disease to their children.

"Ten years ago we were concerned that it would be a real drain on them and they would lose lung function and couldn’t recover," Zanni said. "But I think we are in a new era now. They are being successful as mothers."

That doesn’t mean pregnancies are always easy.

Bracha spent weeks in the hospital throughout her first pregnancy and delivered Shulamis eight weeks early, a common problem among cystic fibrosis moms. Shulamis was kept in the intensive care unit and went into crisis days later, unable to breath.

"I ran under my blanket and started crying," Bracha said. "I thought she had cystic fibrosis or something was really wrong with her."

Shulamis did not have cystic fibrosis, but there was a hole in each of her tiny lungs. The doctors said Shulamis had seven months to live if she made it at all, according to Bracha. But instead she went home in two and a half weeks and has been healthy since.

"It was a total miracle," Bracha said. "All of my family prayed a whole book of psalms every day."

Many mothers with cystic fibrosis have an easier time of it.

Melissa Shiffman, a 32-year-old with a blue-eyed, baby girl, lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She also had a sibling who died of the disease when she was a child. Though Shiffman has had 11 surgeries to remove blockages from her nose and, like many other cystic fibrosis patients, requires daily physical therapy and antibiotics, she always felt healthy enough to tackle pregnancy.

"It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t give birth," Shiffman said. "My doctors freaked out at first when I told them I wanted to have a child. We had a very long talk about it. They were very clear on the pros and cons, well not the pros just the cons."

Luckily, her doctors’ concerns proved largely unfounded. Though she delivered baby Chloe two and a half weeks early, both mother and daughter’s health held firm.

"I loved it," Shiffman said while laughing. "There were a couple of times I was nervous because that is my nature, but for the most part it was just amazing. Just to feel the progression of it. Going to the doctor at seven weeks and hearing a heartbeat is an overwhelming feeling. You don’t realize it until that moment, watching the baby grow, feeling it kick, having her hiccup, talking, singing, and dancing. I was really excited and nervous, but mostly excited."

A DIFFICULT CHOICE

Melissa Shiffman, a 32-year-old mother with cystic fibrosis plays with her infant daughter, Chloe.

On a recent sunny afternoon, Shiffman rolled around the carpet with her 1-year-old daughter. Chloe put on a fashion show with mommy’s hat, a big pink floppy number, and wild sunglasses to match. Chloe accessorized the ensemble with three different wristwatches while mom beamed a thousand watt smile.

Shiffman is now considering her second child but she also has doubts. "I’m worried that I’m being selfish and playing Russian roulette with (husband) Steve and Chloe’s future because I want two kids," she wrote in an e-mail. "There is no guarantee that my health would be jeopardized at all, but there are no guarantees that it wouldn’t."

Counseling young women about the risks of motherhood is tough, according to doctors who treat the disorder.

"CF is still a life shortening disease," said Dr. Mark Tonelli, a medical ethicist and cystic fibrosis specialist at the Washington University Medical Center. "We have to talk about the possibility that they may not be alive in 20 years. They need to acknowledge there is a significant risk that they may not be there to raise their children."

But many cystic fibrosis patients, like Erin McNalty, a 31-year-old social worker from Yonkers, N.Y., who is thirty weeks pregnant with twins, face that question head on.

"When I was born, the average age to live was 13. In my teenage years I thought I would never go to college. Then in college I though I would never get married. So I am always waiting for another shoe to drop," she said, adding that "if my health starts to decline I will be able to teach my kids who I was. And they will be strong enough to go on."

Despite the risks, many doctors remain optimistic about their patients becoming mothers.

"These are people that don’t take their children for granted, that’s for sure," Tonelli said. "And I think they understand better than the rest of us that each day is precious."

Linda Clark, a 57-year-old, crisis counselor, from Chehalis, W.A. knows better than most. Despite battling cystic fibrosis she has two grown children and six young grandchildren.

“They are healthy beautiful children and very much a delight in my life,” Clark said. “They are such an encouragement and make me focus so much on being alive.”

“I am here for them and they are here for me and that is an awesome force.”

Neil Samson Katz is a freelance writer and photographer based in New York City. He may be reached at neil@neilkatzphoto.com.

GENDER AS A LIFE-AND-DEATH ISSUE

2006-05-08T09:15:00.000-04:00

BY NEIL SAMSON KATZ
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-LEDGER
PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2006
Star Ledger Story Page 1
Star Ledger Story Page 2
Re-published by Washington Post

NEW DELHI — In a tight alleyway in East Delhi, Radhika Devi, a bashful mother of two girls, and Manjula Thomas, a health worker that cares for pregnant women, rush to an ultrasound clinic. Devi is five months pregnant and desperately wants to know the sex of her unborn child.

"It’s better if it’s a boy," she says, her hands shaking nervously. "If it’s a girl, we will get it aborted."

Radhika, her husband, Radheshyam, and their two daughters share a single room in the congested, mostly lower class neighborhood of Khichripur. Radheshyam brings home less than $2 a day as a bus driver - barely enough to put food on their table - and they worry about marrying off their two young daughters. "All girls’ parents must pay dowries," Radhika explains. "We will take loans and pay it back bit by bit. It might take up to a year’s time."

Though dowries are illegal in India, the law is widely ignored and the Devis fear a third daughter will send them over the edge financially.

Instead they hope for a son to one day provide for the family. He would fetch his own dowry upon marriage, take care of his parents as they grow old — India has no social security program — and carry on the family name.

In India’s male dominated society, especially the northwest, this is the logic that drives parents to abort half a million female fetuses each year, according to experts.

The practice, called female feticide, is responsible for at least 10 million female abortions since 1985, according to a controversial study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, in January.

"All kinds of famines, epidemics and wars are nothing compared to this," said Dr. Punit Bedi, a gynecologist in New Delhi. "In some parts of India one in every five girls is being eliminated at the fetal stage.
"It is a genocidal situation."

Added Sabu George, a public health activist in New Delhi who has criticized feticide for more than 20 years: "There has been tremendous pressure on having small families and the small families are being created by eliminating girls. We are not dealing with son preference. We are dealing with daughter hatred. Our civilization wouldn’t have survived if it was hating girls the way it has in the last few decades."

In Kajampur, India, mother Jagdish Kaur and father Majit Singh proudly display their infant daughter, Jasdapp. Unlike much of India, where are an estimated half-million female fetuses are aborted every year, girls and boys have been born in equal numbers for several years in Kajampur, partly due to government efforts.

Abortion — legal in India since 1971 — originally was trumpeted as a way to control the country’s rapidly expanding population, now 1.1 billion people, making it the second most populous country in the world, behind China.

"It was understood that all programs (to control the population) were failing because people would not stop having children until they had at least two boys," Bedi said. "Even one was not considered enough in a country where you cannot ensure childhood survival beyond 60 percent."

In 1994, under pressure from a coalition of activists, the Indian government changed course, outlawing the use of ultrasound machines to reveal fetus gender. In 2002, the penalties were stiffened: up to three years in jail and a $230 fine for the first offense and five years imprisonment and $1,160 for the second.

Aborting a child because of its gender has never been legal, but experts said doctors still act with impunity.

"It’s a very low risk, high profile business," Bedi said. "Not only do the doctors make a lot of money, they are absolutely sure they will not be caught."

In Punjab, a male-dominated state with the most disparate gap between boys and girls in India, only one doctor has been convicted in the past four years of performing a sex-selective abortion, according to Dr. V.K. Goyal, a senior Punjabi health official. The convicted doctor’s medical license was suspended for five years and he was fined 400 rupees, around $10.

The Lancet study seemed to confirm that laws were not deterring families from sex selection. By analyzing national birth records and fertility histories from a 1998 Indian government survey of 1 million households, the study estimated at least 500,000 female fetuses in 1997 were aborted. Based on that one year, they came to the 10 million figure.

The study also found that families whose first child was a girl were 30 percent less likely overall to produce another girl. And if the mothers had at least a 10th grade education the gap was twice as large as that for illiterate mothers.

"Normally in public health the poor are worse off," said Prabhat Jha, an epidemiology professor at University of Toronto and lead author of the Lancet study. "But here we have the rich and educated that are more often performing sex selections. And that is entirely consistent with being able to afford and have access to ultrasound technology."

Indeed, the drive for male heirs has created an explosion in ultrasound clinics that can determine the sex of a fetus and medical practices that profit mostly from doing sex-selective abortions, activists said. A new ultrasound machine costs $5,000, a used one as little as $2,000 and banks eagerly provide loans, according to Bedi.

"Everybody bought an ultrasound machine. Just about anybody that could make out a girl or a boy bought a machine," Bedi said. "The machine pays for itself within three to six months. The amount of money to be made was so much."

Doctors collect anywhere from $80 to $230 for an ultrasound plus abortion package, according to health officials. Through precise numbers are hard to come by, experts estimate the business to be worth $100 to $200 million each year in India.
"I have never seen a qualified doctor starving," Bedi said.

In New Delhi, doctors offering to abort female fetuses are busted by television news channels on almost weekly basis. But few clinics are shut down, according to activists.

Devi, the mother seeking an ultrasound, was helped by Datamation, an Indian charity that sometimes helps news channels bust clinics that break the law.

Datamation paid for Devi’s ultrasound in return for letting a spy camera-armed health worker accompany her. But fearing a setup, Devi’s doctor would not reveal the gender of her fetus. Instead she said Devi could return for an abortion, according to Datamation.

But Devi wasn’t sure. She vowed to seek another ultrasound on her own.

IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

In the village of Chakli Sujait, where these children live, 34 boys have been born over the last six years, but only 19 girls.

The big business of feticide has moved well beyond India’s major cities, according to health officials. Take the rich, agricultural state of Punjab as an example.

When the state’s first ultrasound clinic opened in 1979 there were 925 girls for every 1,000 boys below the age 7, according to George. By 1991 it was 875, and by 2001 it had plummeted again, to 793, according to national census figures.

In Nawanshahr, a small farming district in central Punjab, a recent government survey revealed village after village had fewer than six girls for every 10 boys. In the tiny village of Nai Majara, a second grade class has 14 boys and only three girls. Last year the town produced less than five girls for every 10 boys, according to the survey.

On a recent visit to the quiet village of Chakli Sujait, the town’s midwife, Manjit Kaur, explained, "I know about every pregnant lady and no abortions are performed here." Earlier, however, the town’s health worker had quietly revealed the birth records for the past six years: 34 boys and 19 girls.

Despite the disparity in the number of births of boys and girls in Chakli Sujait, the town's midwife, Manjit Kaur, insists that no abortions are done here.

Experts warn not to draw conclusions from the small number of births found in Nawanshahr’s tiny hamlets. But the district’s own survey revealed parents across all of Nawanshahr managed to produce only 775 girls for every 1,000 boys over the past six years.

In the center of Nawanshahr, a row of private hospitals and ultrasound clinics have sprouted up to handle the demand for sex selections, according to local doctors. A sign outside each office reads, "Sex Selection and Female Feticide is Not Done Here." But according to Dr. Gurmaj Kaur Saini, a female gynecologist practicing for over 20 years in Nawanshahr, just the opposite is true.

"I don’t want to name. There are so many," she said.

According to her own records, Saini delivered 60 boys last year and only 35 girls. But Saini denied any wrongdoing and said mothers only will spend the extra money for a delivery in her clinic if they are already sure their child is a boy. Girls, she said, are delivered at home with less expensive but poorly equipped midwives.

As feticide spreads to rural areas like Nawanshahr it is becoming increasingly dangerous for pregnant women, according to Bedi. Ultrasound tests, which bounce sound waves off of a fetus, cannot accurately determine its gender until at least the 16th week of pregnancy and sometimes not until the 18th week. Often mothers go for two or three ultrasounds to be sure. That means most sex-selective abortions are done near the end of the second term and some later than that, according to doctors. By then many women "exhaust their money by getting scans done," said Bedi. "Then they go to the cheapest, least qualified and shadiest clinics in town."

Women who cannot afford doctors turn to village midwives for abortions. But according to Saini, midwives often use a crude method — inserting emcredil, a poisonous die, into a woman’s uterus then using another chemical, pitocen, to force labor. The results can be disastrous, including massive bleeding and death. "The midwife is only supposed to do the delivery. They are not supposed to do abortion," Saini said. "This is a criminal offense but no one does anything."

She said she sees one or two botched abortions each month.

Unsafe abortions account for one in five maternal deaths in India according to a 2005 World Health Organization report.

AMERICAN FETICIDE
Some academics and clinicians are now raising questions about how many Indian immigrants continue the practice of feticide after they come to the U.S.

"I think it’s happening with Indian immigrants here," said Barbara Miller, a professor of anthropology and international affairs at George Washington University who studies feticide in India and the U.S.

At American Fertility Services, a fertility and gender selection clinic with offices in Manhattan and Hackensack, 30 to 40 percent of the patients are Indian. The clinic uses several techniques to help parents choose the gender of their children: either isolating sperm that carry the male or female chromosomes or using a stain to identify the gender of an embryo before implanting it into a woman’s uterus. Neither technique is foolproof.

"In the Indian population, the majority, all of them want males," said Dr. Nabil Husami, a partner in the firm. "If an Indian couple has three females and they want a male, but they get another female, certainly more than half will terminate."

But Husami is quick to add most of his Indian clients come for help in having children. Choosing gender often is a second priority. And experts point out there is no statistical evidence linking Indian immigrants to feticide in the West. The authors of the Lancet study now plan to study Indian immigrants in Canada to see if their values about feticide are changing.

Meanwhile, attitudes are changing in some communities in India.

In Kajampur, a small village in Nawanshahr, girls and boys have been born in equal number for several years now.

"People here aren’t worried about carrying on the family name or paying dowries for daughters," said Mohinder Singh, the proud uncle of a new baby girl. "Due to education in the schools our thinking has changed."

Students at the College for Girls in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, also are rejecting old ideas. "In my personal view a female is as capable as a male. I would not make a distinction whether I had a son or a daughter," said Georgia Georg, a 19-year-old psychology major from the southern state of Kerala. "Kids are in the hands of god."

Neil Samson Katz is a freelance writer and photographer. He spent the last two months working and traveling in India. He may be reached at neil@neilkatzphoto.com

INDIA’S WAR IN THE WOODS

2006-04-27T10:20:00.000-04:00

A tribal widow cries for her future. Her husband was killed in a mine blast set off by Maoist rebels.

By NEIL SAMSON KATZ
SPECIAL TO THE STAR LEDGER
PUBLISHED APRIL 24, 2006

Star Ledger Story Page 1
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CHHATTISGARH, India — The 78-kilometer road between Sukma and Konta is nearly deserted. Scores of villages, once bustling with tribal life, are now vacant. Across the rough orange and green terrain of the nearby forests, hundreds of other villages similarly have been abandoned. Tens of thousands of tribal people are simply gone.

This is not war-torn Afghanistan or Sudan. This is central India, where super sleek call centers and software factories have brought millions of poor into the modern middle class.

But the country’s drive to become a first world power has left many of its most vulnerable behind and frozen economic development across swaths of this vast country. At its most extreme and most dangerous — in remote forested areas — a four-decade-long rebellion has erupted into violent intimidation, exploitation of the young and dozens of murders.

To some, the rebellion is seen as a modern day tale of Robin Hood, with attacks on corrupt landlords and capitalists. To others, the rebels are now killing many of the same people they spent a generation fighting the government to protect: the poor villagers.

"They fooled the rural people saying that they would work for them," said Soyam Muka, a tribal teacher whose brother was killed by the rebels. "But instead they are torturing them. They are killing them."

Like revolutionaries in neighboring Nepal, the Indian rebels, called Naxalites, preach economic justice for the poor and violent confrontation with the government or anyone opposing their mission. Both uprisings, while largely independent of each other, take their cues from the playbook of Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse Dung.

Over the past 38 years the Naxalites have, by fits and starts, carved a "liberated zone" in a strip of heavily forested territory that stretches from India’s southern border with Sri Lanka to its northern border with Nepal.

There they hope to build the kernel of a communist state and, according to some security analysts, they are succeeding. One quarter of the country’s 602 counties are affected by varying degrees of Naxal violence and the Indian home ministry estimates the Naxalites have a force of at least 10,000. The fighters are flush with machine guns, explosives and land mines, according to police, much of it pilfered from poorly protected government stocks or manufactured in jungle factories.

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Naxalism the country’s "single biggest internal security challenge."

"They violate all human rights. They attack security forces, policemen on duty, or police vehicles," said O.P. Rathor, the top police commander in the Naxal afflicted state of Chhattisgarh. "They have been targeting even the innocent civilian population."

Since 2004, when India’s largest Naxalite groups merged to create the Communist Party of India-Maoist, their attacks have become more daring and deadly, and more often directed at tribal people. Nearly 1,000 people were killed last year and more than half of the 282 people killed so far this were from the heavily tribal state of Chhattisgarh, according to the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.

"This is absolutely senseless killing," Rathor said. "They are just killing poor people. There is nothing of Communism in that."

Local media reports highlight a stunning series of attacks:

In November, hundreds of Naxalites stormed a jail in Bihar state, freed more than 300 prisoners and melted back into the forest.

Then in March, rebels captured a train carrying several hundred security personnel to protest the killing of a rebel commander.

And just last week, 14 Naxalites shot up a police station in Chhattisgarh, killing 11.

The violence is often blamed for the lack of development in the region.

"Because of Naxalism, there is a constant threat on the people over here," said Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, the top state official. "If the government tries to make roads, the Naxalites bomb the cars. If you try to develop these places the people are forced to leave them. Schools and hospitals, ashrams for children ... they have all stopped."

Some security analysts said the government’s neglect of tribal areas has made it easier for the Naxalites to spread their campaign.

“In the tribal areas there is only the notional presence of government and they are not concerned with tribal welfare,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, a security think tank. “As far as the government is concerned the tribals are a nuisance.”

Along the road from Sukma to Konta the signs of development are sparse indeed.

Naxalite mine blasts have turned the road’s patchy pavement into crater-pocked moonscape. Last month near the refugee camp of Dornapal, a lone sandal lay in a field of broken glass 50 feet from a giant hole in the road, the gruesome remnants of a viscous mine blast that killed 30.

A few kilometers ahead, a small schoolhouse was turned to rubble. Elementary English books lay under bricks that were once the roof. The Naxalites destroyed the school because Indian police used it to quarter their forces, according to a local journalist.

Without infrastructure or education the tribals have lived off the forest for generations. Picking sal seeds, mawa or tendu, a leaf used to wrap Indian cigarettes, they eke out a meager existence.

Only now, according to local police, the Naxalites are extorting protection money from contractors that buy the tribal produce. Those who do not pay are beaten or murdered.

‘The Naxalites don’t allow us to build anything in the village. They stop us from farming. They stop us from digging wells," said Soya Muka, a tribal leader from Irrabor who fled his village after the Naxalites threatened to kill him. "If we don’t do that, how will we survive? How will we get our livelihood?"

In frustration, tribal leaders formed an anti-Naxal movement last June called Salwa Judum, or peace march. The government got behind it and promised security, training and guns. Relief camps were set up to house tribals who feared the Naxalites. Other tribals were “forced in” to the camps by Salwa Judum leaders eager to swell their ranks, said Sahni.

Whether by force or fear the camps quickly became overrun. Today, almost 50,000 tribals are housed in 26 camps across the Bastar and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh. In Konta, where more than 8,000 tribals are scrambling for shelter, Salwa Judum leaders said they don’t have materials to build fast enough.

Some refugees share houses with local villagers; the less fortunate make do in a dusty field on the outskirts of town, pitching tarps over wooden sticks.

Inside one large tent, Basanti Samaro cried out for her husband who died from injuries suffered in a mine blast weeks earlier. "My husband is no more. My husband has died," she wailed in her native Gondi tongue, "What will I do now? My life is no more."

Her husband, Sodi Somaro, was part of a caravan carrying Salwa Judum supporters from an anti-Naxal rally on Feb. 28 when a land mine tore through their truck. Then, according to witnesses, the rebels sprang from the forest and attacked anyone the mine didn’t already kill. The final toll was 30.

"They were killing us by knives, guns, and swords," said Musaki Ganga, a 25-year-old tribal who survived the attack. "You could hear the sounds of gunshots and screaming."

The tribals now know to stay off the roads. But it’s not clear the government-supported Konta camp is much safer. A barbed wire fence marks the camp’s perimeter but no one was guarding the entrance during a recent visit. The local police chief was sitting in front of his home with a machine gun on his lap but wouldn’t speak on the record for fear of his life.
Conditions in other camps are better.

The refugee camp in Dornapal seems well organized: tribals live communally under quickly built structures with tin roofs, and said they have enough food. A separate camp across the road houses several hundred suspected Naxal sympathizers and a few surrendered rebels. Armed security personnel are stationed next to the camps and rifle-toting police walk patrols with bow and arrow-armed tribals.

The government is training thousands of young tribals to become special police officers paying them $35 per month, a good wage here. But that is putting inexperienced tribals rather than the police on the front lines of the conflict.

The tribals, for the most part, are more than willing. In camps, the Salwa Judum leaders repeatedly had one message: "Give us guns and we will fight."

In Dornapal, many special officers are no more than teenagers who said they have received neither training nor wages. At night — armed with only bows and arrows and a patch of fabric denoting their deputized status — they must stand guard at the gates of the camp. They hope the well-armed rebels do not attack them.

"We only have bows and arrows. They can kill us from far away and we can do nothing," said R. P. Kushwa, a Salwa Judum leader in Dornapal.

In a March report, the New Delhi-based Asian Center for Human Rights claimed it has evidence that both the government-backed Salwa Judum and the Naxalites are training child soldiers.

The government doesn’t like to talk about children being trained to fight, and its officials preferred to talk about Salwa Judum being a peace movement reminiscent of Indian civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi.

"This is the first time in history that, against such terrorism, there is a peace march," said Mahendra Karma, a powerful tribal politician who has backed Salwa Judum from the start. "If it is successful the whole world will get a new technique against terrorism."

Whether Salwa Judum remains a Gandhi-like enterprise, it has put the Naxalites in a politically tricky situation. Fighting the Salwa Judum means attacking the people they always have relied on for food, shelter, and support.

‘Until yesterday the Naxalites were talking against imperialists, capitalists, industrialists and monopolists," said Karma, who lost a brother to Naxal assassins. "But they have gone against their own cause. They have deviated from their principles. And they’re killing the people who are involved in Salwa Judum."

Back in Dornapal, the tribals are less philosophical about their future.

"We are not afraid," said Soimarra, a camp leader who, like many tribals, uses only one name. "Now that we have stood up against them we will destroy them and we won’t stop in between, because if we stop they will destroy us first."

Neil Samson Katz is a freelance writer and photographer. He spent the last two months working and traveling in India. He may be reached at neil@neilkatzphoto.com.

Chapra

2006-04-03T07:50:00.000-04:00

A delightful chutney made from red ants, ant eggs and spices. Yumm. I hade a big ole scoop of it as my tribal hosts in Dhornapal Salva Judum camp insisted.

My face after eating it.

Another face.

Victims of Naxal Violence

2006-04-03T07:44:00.000-04:00

Widows cry after hearing their husbands and sons have been killed by a Naxalite laid land mine that blew up a truck killing 30.

Flickr Slideshow

Waterfalls in Chhattisgarh

2006-04-03T07:40:00.000-04:00

Flickr Slideshow

Let's Play Holi

2006-03-19T04:45:00.000-05:00

All of India goes crazy for Holi, a festival where splashing each other with colored paints and water balloons and throwing each other in mud is mandatory. Like Christmas, the fun stuff has little to do with the holiday's religious underpinning. That's how we like it. Marisa and I were invited by our friend, Sid, to a farm house one hour's drive outside of Delhi. It was quite beautiful and four days later we are still getting paint out of our years.

Flickr Slideshow

Spiritual Home of the Taliban

2006-03-12T05:37:00.000-05:00

Marisa and I met up with a class of journalists from Columbia University and travelled to Dar-ul-uloom, the maddras that is billed as the spiritual home of the Taliban.
Flickr Slide Show

Tibetan New Year in New Delhi

2006-03-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

This one is from last week but forgot to post. We spent Tibetan New Year in a Tibetan exile village in the northern part of Delhi.

Female Feticide in Punjab

2006-03-06T00:30:00.000-05:00

Anganwari worker, Surinder Kaur, keeps track of births in the small village of Kajampur in the Narwansharh district of Punjab. The state has become well known as the epicenter of female feticide in India. Still, Kajampur is a success story. Partially due to the government's enforcement efforts, more girls than boys were born here last year.

See Flicker Slideshow

Marisa and I went to Punjab this weekend to research the practice of female feticide, that is the aborting of female fetuses in order to give birth to only boys. This happens all across India, but the prosperous state of Punjab is one of the worst offenders. Across the state, there are less than 800 girls born for every 1000 boys. In some villages that number dips down to less than 500 girls for every 1000 boys.

Ultrasound clinics have become booming business in Punjab. And midwives are the primary channel to direct pregnant mothers to testing centers and eventually to abortion doctors. Since it is illegal for doctors to use ultrasound machines to reveal a fetus' gender, scanning centers will not even speak to the mothers. They speak in code to the midwives: sat sri akal (a Sikh greeting) if the test reveals a girl and namaste (a Hindi greeting) for a boy. The midwives make around 2000 rupees ($50) for arranging the ultrasound and abortions.

Of course, no one will admit to sex selecting their children and over the last several years an ernest crack down has begun on the practice. But it's not easy, since no one makes a complaint to the government. Parents, midwives, scanning centers, and abortion doctors are satisfied co-conspirators.

We met with top health officials in Punjab's capital that told us the state was making major headway against the practice. Then we met with Krishan Kumar, the district commisioner for Nawanshahr. Kumar admits that many villages under his purview are doing worse not better. He has implemented a computer system to track all pregnant mothers in his district and he holds meetings with town leaders where the sex ratios are particularly low.

We went to one such village, Chakli Sujait. Over the last six years, the village has seen 53 births. Thirty four were boys and only 19 were girls. The villagers and midwife we spoke with vehemently claim that it is just nature and they love their girls as much as their boys. Indeed, they may be telling the truth since the sample size is so small. Still, we got the feeling that they were lying and the NGO worker that brought us to the village told us much the same.

It was not surprising that this town knew the script. There has been much media attention paid to the district, partially because of it's dismal numbers, but also because of the very active and vocal work of Kumar.

Next week we hope to travel to other areas that are not as well coached in order to find the truth.

Fashion Designer Manish Arora

2006-03-01T04:33:00.000-05:00

Shot Manish for the Sunday Edition of the Indian Express. This guy is really talented. His stuff is colorful, loud, ornate and beautiful. It is also expensive by Indian standards. Dresses cost $300 to $1000 American. That's up to 43,000 rupees.

Pushkar, Rajistan

2006-02-27T08:21:00.000-05:00

Flickr Slideshow

Udaipur

2006-02-27T07:56:00.000-05:00

From Jaipur we kept driving to beautiful Udaipur.

Flickr Slideshow

Jaipur, Rajistan

2006-02-27T07:38:00.000-05:00

Due to some technology constraints here I am sort of loading adventure in reverse. Here are some shots from our time in Jaipur two weeks ago.

Flickr Slideshow

Meena Bazaar

2006-02-27T05:42:00.000-05:00

This is Meena Bazaar in the shadows of the minirets of the great Jami Masjid, the largest mosque in Delhi. This market is bustling with activity and the streets surrounding it are even more crackling with commerce, chaos and masculine motion. You can buy anything from live chickens to gold necklaces to plumbing parts to used truck tires. Suprisingly they also had beautiful stationary stores which contained very exquisite wedding invitations, much nicer than Kate's Paperie.

Flickr Slideshow

Cathedral of Redemption

2006-02-27T04:47:00.000-05:00

Cathedral of Redemption, the oldest church in Delhi.

Bird Flu

2006-02-27T04:46:00.000-05:00

There is a special bond between a man and his chicken and no darn bird flu is going to change that. Damnit.

Demolition

2006-02-27T04:44:00.000-05:00

demo.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

I am told that 80% of all buildings in Delhi are built illegally, that is without proper permits or on land zoned for some other purpose. The problem is not unique to Delhi but the city government and courts have been particularly aggresive in punishing the offenders. The odd part is that offendors are often big property developers that are building sleak shopping malls or office bulidlings.

Last week I photographed what the Delhi government considers the solution. They use bulldozers to demolish the shiny new buildings, which would be fine if they actually demolished the buildings and hauled away the rubble. But they never get that far. Instead they ruin the buildings, then put a sign outside saying the building is dangerous and condemned. So the end result is the nice buildings are ruined and the old, dirty buildlings next to them are left standing.

The logic is theater of the absurd to me, but most people I talk to here agree with the policy. You have to start somewhere they say. And why not start with the rich developers that have skirted zoning laws to save a buck and have paid off politicians to make it happen.

Fine but why destroy the buildings and not remove them. Better yet, why not fine the building developers or just take their buildings and use them for the community. Or have the government rent them out and use the revenues for special programs.

Fashion

2006-02-27T04:39:00.000-05:00

fashion2.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

Preview of Fashion Week coming to New Delhi, India.

guns.jpg

2006-02-27T04:37:00.000-05:00

guns.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

It's a bad idea to give teachers guns as demonstrated by a professor shooting competition at St. Steven's College in New Delhi

flower.jpg

2006-02-27T04:36:00.000-05:00

flower.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

I am working on a story here about people that spend outrageous amounts of money on the most extravagant flowers.

sesame2.jpg

2006-02-27T04:35:00.000-05:00

sesame2.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

Muppet master, Marty Robinson, on the set of the new Indian version of Sesame Street called Galli Galli Sim Sim.

sesame3.jpg

2006-02-27T04:33:00.000-05:00

sesame3.jpg
Originally uploaded by Namaste Neil.

Sesame Street is finally hitting India. I shot on the set of the new show here called Galli Galli Sim Sim. Big Bird is gone but replaced by the fun loving Boombah the Lion. The costume is so big that the actor who walks around in it cannot see. Thus he is clumsily led on and off of the set.

Delhi Traffic

2006-02-27T03:08:00.000-05:00

The best way to get around this town is definitely by scooter or motorcycle. Marisa and I have been shuttled around on the backs of motorcycles by our friends here. And on Friday, Aju, a reporter at the Indian Express let me loose on his scooter, giving me my first taste of navigating the madness of Delhi traffic.

Most of the time we must take auto rickshaws, here just called autos.
They have regular rickshaws too, the kind that are drawn by a man on bicycle, but those are only for small journeys and the city is quite large.

By and large, the auto drivers are out to screw you for the fare. They try to screw locals on every ride so you can imagine their delight when they see us coming. A few days ago a driver tried to hit us for ten times the real fare. All of the autos have meters but very few of the drivers will agree to use it. So most of the time you must negotiate. Which would be fine if the drivers would take a reasonable rate, but most would rather lose the fare entirely than miss an opportunity to screw you. I don't quite get it.

At this point, I know the price of most fares around the city, but sometimes it still takes me talking to five or six autos before one will agree to take me for a reasonable rate or the meter.

The Himalaya Playa and the Chandigarh Kid

2006-02-27T00:22:00.000-05:00

Marisa and I have become fast friends with two people that work at the Indian Express: Tashi, The Himalaya Playa and Sourav, The Chandigarh Kid.

Sourav, not surpisingly, comes from Chandigarh, the capital of the western state of Punjab. He is one of the top reporters here at the Indian Express and has been a tremendous help in learning our way around Delhi and in getting sources for stories I am working on. We hope to travel with him next week to his home state to find out about female feticide.

Tashi, the Himalaya Playa, is a refugee from Tibet. His parents escaped the Chinese occupation of Tibet but not all of his family was as lucky. His aunt and other family members were starved to death in Chinese prisons. Tashi speaks and writes seven languages and spent an entire year trekking through the Himalayas. He shot over 50 hours of footage of his adventure and is trying to figure out how to edit it down to a documentary size.

Last night Tashi and Sourav took us to a Tibetan village on the eastern side of Delhi. In the 60s (check that) the Indian government gave Tibetan refugees a few plots of land on which to build refugee camps. This was one of them and they made good use of it. The buildings are so close together that there are no real roads, only alleyways where one can touch both sides if he holds his arms out stretched.

But those alleys are filled with activity. Visitors are greeted by sneaker shops filled with lime green and sherbert colored, designer sneakers imported from Asia and Europe. Internet cafes, small hotels, and restaurants line the alleys, as do teenagers wearing hip hop hoodies. The alleys are so narrow that even enterprising Indians cannot drive through them. So there are no loud horns from cars, buses and motorcycles or street calls from fruit vendors. After a week in Delhi, this place is blissfully quiet.

Tashi led us to the center of the village where a small courtyard had been cleared and there is a Tibetan temple. Along the route, Tashi showed us the hidden alleys that lead out of the village. Teenagers use these alleys to sneak out together to do as teenagers do.

We removed our shoes and entered the Tibetan temple. Inside incence wafted through the warm air from huge wooden boxes on the floorboards. A combination of soft lights and oil fed candles lit the room. The walls contained glass cases with ornate dolls of important monks (I assume). Orange and crimson clad monks softly filtered through the room. At the room's center was a blurry, 5-foot, blow-up, poster of the Dali Lama. The poster's colors had long since faded into 1970s tones of oranges and browns. Amongst all of this ancient tradition it seemed odd to put an ink jet poster of a guy who is still alive and doing interviews on CNN. But for the Tibetans the Dali Lama represents the most current incarnation of the Buddha. So praying in his presence, even a computer rendered facsimile of his presence, is a powerful force for them.

The American image of Tibetans is of a devout people with total respect for all living creatures. Well they may respect them but they have no problem eating them. Tashi tells us that his people eat a lot of meat, especially Yaks back home. The Yak's eyeballs and tongues are given to children and guests. Fortunately it is not easy for Tibetans to find Yaks here. Otherwise we would Fear Factor our way through Yak balls.

The Tibetans are also heavy drinkers and this had caused social problems in the village. So last year the Dali Lama sent a nice letter to the village asking them to refrain from alcohol because some peoples' lives were being ruined. Within days the town had been cleared of liquor. According to Tashi, the Dali Lama sent money for the poorer villagers who relied on alcohol sales for thier income. The villagers politely sent the money back.

Tashi took us to the second best restaurant in town where we chowed down on vegetable noodle soup, Tingmo (Tibetan breads), steamed momos (dumplings), and mixed vegetables in a warm, brown gravy. We also drank Tibetan tea, which tastes like a cup of warm butter. Except for the butter drinks our bellies were most thankful for a relatively healthy meal not overloaded with oil.

Luckily this week is the Tibetan New Year. We plan on going wiith Tashi to see the celebrations.

Angry Mobs and Wedding Crashers

2006-02-21T07:06:00.000-05:00

India is interesting. We were chased by an angry mob of 50 Muslim youths when our taxi brushed against a kid's motorcycle in Udaipur. I pushed a cop (no uniform) as he tried to tow our car. Twice he tried to clip the car while we were still in it and I had to push him away both times. Then our driver finally returned and sped away backwards leaving me to chase after the car with sirens behind me.

There are many old forts here from conquered empires, which leads one to think never to ask Indians for help in building a fort.

People here are very friendly and curious. They often want to take pictures with us as we want to take pictures of them. We see a Sadhu, naked with paint on his face and think that is interesting. They see white people sweating like bastards with big sneakers and think that's interesting.

I have already crashed a street wedding, as is my custom when traveling. Crash at least one wedding. Be the stupid white guy in their home video. They can laugh about that in 20 years provided they can still play VHS tapes and their cultures have not yet accepted divorce.

The food is tasty but so rich you can't eat it more than once per day. There is so much oil and frying in the food here that I am shocked the average life span is 60. I am taking grape seeds and acidopholous but it is no match for the Indian microbes. At least no puking yet. I lost 10 pounds in three days. It's the dysentery diet. Great stuff. Instead of slim fast it's called Shit Fast.

It is impossible to be clean here. Everything is terribly dirty. The country needs a troop of Germans or Swedes to hit it with a mop. They export IT workers but need to import some spic and span.

We are now in Delhi after a one day world wind tour to find an apartment here. We found a full flat for around $400 in a very posh (very relative term here) part of Delhi called Lajpat Nagr.

I start work at the Indian Express tomorrow. We shall see how that goes. Marisa and I are researching a big story here about feoticide. Seems that parents, afraid of the cost of dowries they must pay to marry of their daughters are aborting them and giving birth only to sons. In Punjab, where it worst, there are only 700 girls for every 1000 boys born. That is going to create a massive booty deficit in 15 years. The kicker is the richer the parents the more likely they are to be able to afford the prenatal screening and abortion. So money and education are making it worse not better. Laws were passed outlawing the practice but that has forced it slightly underground. Abortions are now done in nursing homes and midwives are the middle men. Wacky. I think it will make one hell of a doc. Looking into it now.

Stupid Video Tricks

2006-02-21T06:49:00.000-05:00

More pictures coming soon. Just trying to find an upload spot. In the meantime Marisa and I have prepared some terribly stupid videos for your enjoyment.

Bhangra Cow Shit

Sitar and Tabla at Sunset in Udaipur

The World's Second Worst Puppet Show

Marisa's Beautiful Indian Dance

First Few Days

2006-02-12T02:38:00.000-05:00

Not much time to write as I got hit hard by the sun yesterday. I now have a heat rash overtaking my body like the Soviet invasion of Europe. And Marisa has Bird Flu. Otherwise we are well and enjoying the country side.

The pictures are at:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

T Minus

2006-02-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

T Minus 12 hours before take off to Delhi. Get ready India.

Raul Gatica

2004-07-13T20:02:00.000-04:00

I return to the Zocalo to find Cristobal and David in hopes of scoring an audience with Raul Gatica, the leader of CIPO. They are already at the CIPO office. A pickup truck rolls through the Zocalo. Juan, a campensino I met previously is riding in the flatbed. He recognizes me and tells me to get in. Raul is waiting for me.

Spanish is Juans second language. He is Mixteca. I promptly teach him all the vital English words like "toaster oven" and "hoobestank" which mean "hello" and "your stepping on my foot" in that order.

The thing about Raul is that he fears the paramilitaries here will kill him. He claims they have tried before. Certainly they have killed others in his organization. Thus, you cant actually ask for a specific time and place to meet him. You cant call him and the CIPO office will not tell you if he is in or not. A bit of serendipity is required. Juan in a pick up truck is mine.

Two white chicks are sitting in the front cab of the truck. We arrive at the CIPO house. Claire and Ciara pile out. They are students from California and travelling Mexico to meet with human rights groups. They hope to write an article on how different rights groups are structured and the success or failure those structures bring. More importantly, Claire speaks fluent Spanish which she perfected during five months in Cuba.

Inside the CIPO house Raul Gatica is busy preparing his people for a series of protests across the state. He will later claim that he is not the boss, merely part of the consensus building process. Still when he speaks other people listen with big eyes and then around a lot. The difference is lost on me.

Gatica leaves momentarily and returns calm and focused. His boyish smile and animated eyes make for a handsome face. He seems strong if not powerfully built. In poetic phrases he lays it down for us.

"The jails , the hospitals, and the cemetaries are filled with the indigenous. 75% (his stat) of the people suffer from malnutrition. They have diseases that have cures: disentary, smallpox, and others. The jails are filled with our people, forced to cultivate marijuana (wonder if they are forced to smoke it too). We are hungry, margianalized, and without jobs. That is where are crimes are born."

Gatica claims that the goverment builds highways and damns over indigenous towns without reporations, sells their communal forests to paper companies, fail to provide basic services such as clean water, electricity and schools, and generally dont include them in decisions that deeply affect their lives. Then there is the violence.

He brings out large photographs mounted to stiff cardboard. The first is of a dead man, his obese stomach lined with blood soaked bullet holes. The next, a pregnant woman beaten down, her baby lost. Men, they claim are paramilitaries, getting into a clearly marked police truck. The one that scares the most somehow, shows a group of men with white shirts and dark sticks (they claim machetes) amongst a crowd of panicked villagers. Behind them, a man with deranged eyes fires a machine gun into the air. There is a deep sense of panic, chaos, and fear in that photo. This is in broad daylight by the way.

We ask Gatica if he is afraid. "Of course I am afraid," he says. "I am afraid all the time. I am sad. I am angry. For that, I fight." But he has a strategy. Gatica doesnt go anywhere without a gringo. He says the government doesnt like shooting gringos. Mexicans are a different story. So Gatica asks for white skinned volunteers to accompany him. A few days from now, the group asks me if I would like to accompany Raul for a reunion with his people in the Zocalo. I politely refuse as I will be very busy picking lint from my belly button.

Regardless of my human shield status, I like Gatica. He is charming and speaks in lyrical phrases of justice and open heartedness, of the beauty of the forest and the human spirit. Its good stuff. That and some guns and he may get what we wants. But what specifically he wants is difficult to discern.

CIPO represents indigenous people across the state and is managing disputes in at least 28 towns. Worse, each town seems to have specific problems. In San Isidro, a forest is in dispute and peaceful organizing has been met with violence. In a town near Vera Cruz, a highway has paved over an indigenous community. In Jualtulco, an indian way of life is being transformed into mega hotels with frosty big gulp cups brimming with salty migaritas. In Tuxtapec (not sure on spelling) a hydroelectric dam put 20 communities under water. The people were moved from their original towns without electricity into other towns without electricity.

Generally, CIPO seems to be trying to build an indigenous protest force that can universally represent indian rights. Its sort of like the ACLU in a country that doesnt have working courts or Jewish lawyers. Gatica claims that they have taken photos documenting the killings and beatings. "We know the killers," he says. "They are from the next town over."

The courts have done little but the paramilitaries seem to stay busy. Just days earlier they raided a CIPO house in Jualtulco, says Gatica. And the police drove them there, he says. Seems strange to carpool to a beat down. You have your own machetes but you cant score a ride. Lame.

"We dont hate North Americans," he explains. Its nice of him to include Canada so the Americans arent singled out, but i get the drift. Those damn Canadians. You cant turn your back for a minute.

"But we do have sadness because our government robs the people here," he continues. "When the North Americans come here, much of what you have is the result of robbing our people."

So what does Gatica want?

"We are not against everything," he says. "We are against ideas that only think of money and not people. You cant eat money." Of course you arent supposed to eat people either, but i refrain.

And like that our time is up. Gatica must return to planning a week of protests, starting tomorow. I ask for access to one of the protests. For security reasons or perhaps just because they are terribly disorganized, they wont tell me which town. Regardless, the next day it is arranged that I will travel by bus to the mountain town of Tlaxiaco (pronounced however you feel like it. Its not going to be right, trust me) for a grand protest filled with vandalizing cars with people in them, taking over government offices, and kidnapping giant passenger buses. And the food was good too.

This is the main plaza nestled between two churches in Oaxaca City. It is rather serene in this picture. In a few days it will be filled with angry campensinos and then with riot police firing tear gas. The story to come...

I leave you with a quote from Gatica. "Peace will not happen by luck or miracle. We must have direct action for peace and justice."

Rich Street Kids

2004-07-11T17:49:00.000-04:00

The other night i met some high school kids who live in the street here. they come from educated and most likely, wealthy stock in mexico city. like many priveledged folks in america, they are unhappy with the injustices of their economic system and identify romanticly with the poor rather than their own background.

David, 18, has one more year left of high school in Mexico City. He sleeps in the streets of Oaxaca this summer and works for a local human rights charity, CIPO. A sweet and soft spoken boy, his shirt says "blow up yuppies." He listens to American electronic music on his MP3 player.

David and cristobal, my new street friends, are very bright and sweet people. cristobal has a tremendous command of english and is serving as my defacto translator. he has introduced me to members of a human rights group here that defends the rights of indigenous campesinos (poor farmers) called CIPO.

David, 18, has one more year left of high school in Mexico City. He sleeps in the streets of Oaxaca this summer and works for a local human rights charity, CIPO. His English is superb and he has been my defacto translator the last two days. His shirt says Stop War.

I think Mexico is like America would be if it didn't desimate its own indigenous people beyond an ability to fight. The indians here are in a perputal struggle with more western and wealthier interests. There are constant land battles. The police, wealthy landowners, and corrupt politicans seem to use violence and intimidation to increase their land holdings and of course their wealth.

There is a constant tension in the countryside between indigenous people and the wealthy bosses. There is also a socialist ideology here that runs deep in mexican political blood and popular culture. Che gueverra is a hero. Pirate radio stations are strewn across the country and have been for 50 years. It's a tradition as much as a movement.

Not exactly sure what it says yet but i sense its not pro capitalism.

There is deep resistance on the part of the indigenous people to join the global economy and ways of life. They rightly fear their culture will have to compete with American and European cultures and will not retain its purity. Similarly they do not desire to take advantage of the holes in the system they oppose. forming corporations out of their villages and hiring an army of jewish lawyers to aggresively pursue their land rights would be a start.

Leonor, 15, is from the indigenous village of San Isidro Aloapam. Her village suffered killings and intimidation from local strongmen during an ongoing land dispute. She creates videos documenting her town's plight with advanced computers at a nearby charity for human rights, CIPO.

the indians here are stuck with an unfortunate contradiction. their values oppose the idea of land ownership, yet it is only the pursuit of their ownership rights which can protect them from encroachers.

I was supposed to meet with the human rights group, CIPO, today to talk all of this out, but their offices were "invaded" by a group 40 strong, according to their representatives in Oaxaca City. They said the attackers removed 5 familes from the CIPO office in Jualtulco. The details and motivations are unclear at this time. i hope to find out more soon.

Getting your shoes shined is a popular past time in the Zocalo (central square) in Oaxaca City.

If This is Montezuma's Revenge He Can Have Texas Back

2004-07-11T16:42:00.000-04:00

All my pictures will be online at
http://www.neilkatzphoto.com/projects/oaxaca

They have a lot dogs running about here, but not many Alaskan huskies on roofs.

Sorry it has taken me nearly a week to write to you all. The first half of it I spent with crushing fevers and food poisening. it took me only a day and a half to eat the wrong thing, namely a soup of turkey mole negro, a dark and complicated sauce (over 30 ingredients), popular here.

Before i start, none of the enclosed pictures are from this story because i didnt bring my freakn camera!

I went to a town of indegenous people about 30 miles outside the city and walked into a wedding, where i was promptly turned into the guest of honor. Chairs are brought out, a place at the table found, a rapid sequence of mezcal, tequila, and brandy served, and finally the offending mole.

I can not figure out in good consciuos how to turn it down without being rude. after a few bites of turkey (i have not meat in 7 years), my guide kindly takes the bird onto her plate. But i finish the sauce with relish.

Then I am whisked away to take part in playful ritual similar to the throwing of the bouqet in our weddings. The bride puts a rolled tortilla into her grooms mouth leaving it half out. Then he leans forward and she puts the other half in her mouth, an act that is like kissing. Then he bites into the tortilla and each eat their half. next the bride goes to honored couples in the family and they do the same ritual.

Ruins at Monte Alban. Bet they would have made em a bit bigger if they knew people would still be hanging about.

Well of course they call the wacky gringo over for a little fun adn me my guide get the treatment only i forget to bite, sending the tortlla to the ground and the room into fits of laughter. And its all on two video cameras. This is a town where the primary mode of transportation is a donkey cart, still they have video cameras for this moment. years from now this couple is going to say who the fuck was that guy.

Ruins at Monte Alban. They have lots of big sky here.

Not eight hours later i am asking what the fuck was in that mole. Montezuma´s storm comes on me like a plague from Egypt. If this is his revenge he can fucking have Texas back and take George Bush with him. I'll even thow in the dallas cowboy cheerleaders. Well maybe not all of them.

Three days of fever induced madness and the rest i will spare you. Still i only eat some vegetables and a few slices of bread a day, but boy do i look good. I weigh 84 pounds without my sneakers on. This is better than the coke diet and i have seen some people really succeed with that one.

Church of the holy something or other. They love Jesus here. And Jesus loves them.

Told you so. (Its time to return to the belief in Jesus)

Finally i venture outside. my eyes can no longer adjust to the light. i look like tom hanks in cast away. I stumble my way to one of the main markets here called 20 de noviembre, after the date of the mexian revolution in 1910. Old women and young women,
getting old in a hurry, line the entrance, sitting with stacks of large tortillas called tlaludas. the building holds a serpentine maze of stalls selling traditional (tipico) clothes and breads both regular and dulce (sweet). mixed amongst them is the odd cellular phone stall and leather pocket book stall. If there were any mexican jews there would probably be a corn beef stall, a quicky accounting booth, and a place to call your mother. But alas not.

El Bus. The only way to travel.

In the center are the food stalls, more spacious and better lit, a marketing mistake to be sure. Small children and old ladies sell a paltry array of avocodoes, tomatoes and celantro on fly infested blankets on the floor. The larger stalls sell cheese and meats or have a lunch counter for local fare, something sort of steamy, dark adn greasy.

Around a bend there is a long alley way reserved for meat stalls and here the problem becomes clear. Strips of meat, some in various stages of curing, turning into chorizo or perhaps meat puppets for the kids to play with, hang on thin metal rods or lay on dirty strips of paper. Flies find their garden of eden and no one is too concerned. The real issue is that oaxacans havent gotten the memo yet that meat needs refrigeration. Even if my Spanish were good enough i wouldnt tell them.

A little drunken swagger on the way home.