Los Angeles Times - 09.08.2019

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T

he contested regionof Kash-
mir has long stoked the rivalry
between neighbors India and Pa-
kistan and has been the subject
of repeated armed conflict be-
tween the two powers. But despite the peri-
odic flare-ups, there has also been a useful, if
precarious, balance, with both sides claim-
ing the entire region while each nation ad-
ministers territory on its own side of the de
facto border known as the Line of Control.
China administers another disputed part of
the region to the east.
The equilibrium has been maintained in
part by a section of the Indian constitution
known as Article 370, under which the Indi-
an-controlled portion was granted a mea-
sure of autonomy. The region remained ma-
jority Muslim — the only area in the country
that is — even as Hindu nationalists rose to
power in India in recent years.
Now the balance has been thrown off.
Over the weekend, the Indian government
suspended telephone and internet service,
imposed curfews, ejected tourists and
placed local leaders under house arrest. On
Monday, authorities stripped the state of
Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and
announced that it would be split and placed
under direct parliamentary control. A ban
on property ownership by outsiders was
lifted, potentially allowing Hindus to settle
and end the Muslim-majority status (the
portion of the territory known as Ladakh
that borders Tibet is majority Buddhist).
Hindu nationalists and Ladakh are
cheering the moves, which were championed
by recently reelected Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata
Party. Pakistan and China are protesting.
And the world’s most militarized region once
again has been thrown into turmoil. Both In-
dia and Pakistan are nuclear powers.
These unilateral, aggressive and provoca-
tive acts by the Indian government do no
credit to the world’s largest democracy. Re-
stricting civil liberties and cutting off com-
munications are hallmarks of thuggery, not
freedom. And needlessly exacerbating ten-
sions in this tensest of regions is irresponsi-
ble.
Although the particulars differ, a useful
comparison may be made with the current
situation in Hong Kong, where residents feel
the impatient and oppressive hand of the
central Chinese government moving to
undermine the territory’s special status and
limited autonomy.
But India has gone further, not just
undermining but sweeping away autonomy.
Lifting the ban on property ownership by

outsiders brings to mind the Israeli govern-

ment’s encouragement of Jewish settle-

ments in territories it seized by war and that

are overwhelmingly populated by Palestin-

ian Arabs.

The moves are the disheartening, but in-

creasingly common, rejection of ethnic

pluralism not just in India but also around

the globe, including in the United States.

Kashmir lies partly in and partly adjacent

to the Himalayas and includes alpine

glaciers and lush valleys. It has always been a

crossroads for migrating peoples and invad-

ing armies, and its people represent multiple

ethnicities, cultures, languages and faiths.

Like most of the rest of the Indian sub-

continent, it was occupied for centuries by

British overlords who ruled through local

princes and nobles.

In 1947, India won its independence but

was at the same time partitioned into two

countries — majority-Muslim Pakistan to

both the east and west, and the Dominion,

later the Republic, of India in the center.

(East Pakistan later broke away and became

Bangladesh.)

The Kashmiri territories were courted by

both India and Pakistan, and also contem-

plated independence. The state of Jammu

and Kashmir, although majority Muslim,

was ruled by the Hindu Hari Singh. War

broke out among rival forces. Singh signed

his state over to India, which maintained an

uneasy truce with Pakistan until renewed

warfare in 1965, in 1971 and again in 1999.

In recent decades, Kashmiri separatists

have sought further autonomy or independ-

ence from India, which alleges that Pakistan

is behind the unrest.

In February, a member of the Pakistan-

based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed

carried out a suicide attack on an Indian

paramilitary convoy. The Indian Air Force

responded by crossing the Line of Control

and then entering into airspace over Paki-

stan proper, dropping bombs near the town

of Balakot. Pakistan then shot down an Indi-

an plane and captured, then quickly re-

leased, the pilot.

The history of the India-Pakistan conflict

includes numerous episodes of military ac-

tions that resulted, perhaps intentionally, in

little damage and few casualties while send-

ing clear messages of defiance to the other

side and pride to voters at home.

But it also includes verifiable battles and

slaughters that exacerbate the misery of the

people of Kashmir and perpetuate the con-

flict between the two countries. Both of

which, it bears repeating, are armed with nu-

clear weapons.

India’s power grab in Kashmir

O

ne of the mainreasons people
object to bans on single-use
plastic products is that they fear
being inconvenienced. How do I
get my groceries from the check-
out to the car without those free plastic
bags? How can I possibly consume a frosty
beverage if restaurants stop handing out
plastic straws? What if the wood pulp spork
gives me splinters?
Amore appropriate question might be,
“Why is no one doing something about the
fact that microparticles of plastic are seep-
ing into the drinking water and food sup-
ply?” Yet convenience too often trumps
smart environmental choices. For that rea-
son, we’re heartened to see that San Fran-
cisco International Airport seems to have
figured out how to shut down one of its most
ubiquitous and pernicious sources of dis-
posable plastic trash in a single swoop, and
with very little inconvenience to the roughly
58 million travelers who pass through its
gates every year. It will do this by prohibiting
its concessions from selling waterin single-
use plastic bottles, starting of Aug. 20.
Hang on — we know what you’re think-
ing. In fact, we had the same initial thought
upon hearing about the latest bold idea
from California’s most aggressively prog-
ressive big city: That it is the opposite of
“very little inconvenience” to deprive trav-
elers of the ability to buy a bottle of flat or
sparkling water when they aren’t allowed to
bring their own supply through security.
What are they supposed to do, suck down
sugary sodas or lap up water from bathroom
sinks?
But SFO has done two smart and neces-
sary things to prepare for this change, which
is part of its zero-waste strategy. First, to go
along with the existing water fountains, the
airport has installed about 100 refilling sta-
tions on both sides of the security check-
points (compared with only about 15 at the
vast Los Angeles International Airport)
where travelers can get as much free filtered
water as their reusable water bottles can
hold. And second, it installed liquid pour-
out stations where travelers can empty their
half-consumed bottles of Dasani and take
them through security to fill up on the other

side. Otherwise, they’d have to toss them in

the trash, which is what people have to do at

most airports unless a potted plant is handy.

The immediate effect will be the elimina-

tion of an estimated 4 million plastic water

bottles that would otherwise be sold each

year, most of which would have ended up in

the trash or littering the landscape. Even

though California requires consumers to

pay a 5- or 10-cent deposit on most bottled

beverages, and even though most water bot-

tles are shuttled to a recycling center, they

may not actually be recycled. The interna-

tional market for plastic has cratered. It’s

cheaper right now for manufacturers to

make new plastic than to turn used plastic

into something else.

Even if the airport concessions simply

switched to water in aluminum cans or glass

bottles, that would still be better for the en-

vironment, because healthy recycling mar-

kets remain in place for glass and aluminum.

Also, they will be competing against the re-

filling stations’ water, which will be available

at the attractive price point of zero.

One thing SFO could do to help travelers

would be to make sure that retailers offer

reasonably priced reusable bottles for sale,

something like the $1 reusable plastic water

bottle Starbucks rolled out a few years ago.

Even though San Francisco caps the mark-

up of products sold at the airport to just 10%

above the market average cost, it doesn’t re-

quire concession tenants to stock anything

other than high-end, pricey water bottles if

they don’t want to.

We’d love to see Los Angeles Interna-

tional Airport, which is currently working on

asustainability plan to reach zero waste,

pay attention to what SFO is doing, with an

eye toward considering something similar.

Understandably it would be a much bigger

lift for LAX, the world’s fourth-busiest air-

port, to ban plastic bottles. But with 87.

million travelers a year, it could have a much

bigger environmental and social impact. If it

goes without a hitch, it would provide LAX

and other public venues — including sports

stadiums, college campuses and malls —

with a road map to reining in the growing

pile of single-use plastic without invoking

the all-powerful curse of inconvenience.

The plastic bottle ban at SFO

While the president has

made illegal immigration a

cornerstone of his fear-

based governance, both

parties have failed to por-

tray immigration in Ameri-

ca honestly.

If the government were

truly serious about “con-

trolling” illegal immigra-

tion, it could do so with a

simple policy adjustment:

Require every employer in

every industry to screen

their employees, both

current and prospective,

through the existing U.S.

government program

called E-Verify.

The E-Verify system is

easily available to all em-

ployers. A simple phone or

website contact quickly

allows an employer to

verify the eligibility of a

new hire with regard to

citizenship.

Though employers are

currently required to

screen their prospective

employees with the federal

I-9 form and its attendant

“two forms of qualified

identification,” it is widely

known that such forms can

be fake, there is no routine

monitoring of this require-

ment, and employers are

under no obligation to

verify their accuracy.

If the federal govern-

ment really wanted to stop

illegal immigration, it

could simply impose an

E-Verify requirement on

every employer. Stiff penal-

ties, such as those imposed

on employers who fail to

collect and pay their em-

ployee taxes, would deter

noncompliance.

Mark Downing

Santa Rosa

::

ICE is on the wrong

track raiding chicken

processing plants in Mis-

sissippi and arresting and

planning to deport hun-

dreds of immigrants work-

ing jobs that few Ameri-

cans will perform.

Employees like these

pay taxes and support

their families, and entire

communities depend on

their support and busi-

ness.

Instead of pursuing and

deporting criminal immi-

grants, as they are released

from jails and prisons, ICE

is preoccupied with hard-

working people in one of

the poorest of our states.

Who is now going to pro-

cess the chickens we eat?

Alan V. Weinberg

Woodland Hills

Getting ethnic

studies right

Re “What will ‘ethnic stud-

ies’ be?” editorial, Aug. 4

California is in the

process of developing an

ethnic studies model cur-

riculum in response to a

2016 state law that requires

providing a guide to high

schools interested in offer-

ing such courses.

The recently posted

draft, written by an advis-

ory committee to the In-

structional Quality Com-

mission, will be reviewed

and substantially revised

several times before it

makes its way to the State

Board of Education next

year. Californians have

submitted hundreds of

comments, which the IQC

will consider in September.

A revised draft will then

be posted for a second

comment period and po-

tentially more revisions. In

addition, the State Board

of Education may request

further edits in 2020 when

it finally reviews the docu-

ment.

Research shows that

thoughtful courses in

ethnic studies can help

students think more

deeply about history and

society and feel more con-

nected to school, improv-

ing graduation rates. Cali-

fornia is committed to

getting this work right. We

will not accept a curricu-

lum that fails to address

difficult issues or does not

promote open-mindedness

and independent thought.

Linda

Darling-Hammond

Palo Alto

The writer, a professor

emeritus of education at

Stanford University, is

president of the California

State Board of Education.

::

From the late 1960s to

the mid ‘80s, many local

public schools had ethnic

studies before it was forced

out of the curriculum.

My Chicano students

took my U.S. history

classes, but they also took

my Mexican American and

Latin American history

courses. They did this so

they could learn their own

history and the contrib-

utions their ancestors

made not only to American

history but also world

history.

Their U.S. history books

did not talk about the

Toltecs, Olmecs, Mayans,

Aztecs, the war that made

them Chicanos, the Com-

munity Service Organiza-

tion, Mendez vs. Westmin-

ster, Cesar Chavez or the

American G.I. Forum. No

one taught them of the

struggles of their parents

and grandparents. A whole

generation had to wait

until it got to college to

learn what students did.

Just bring ethnic stud-

ies back and worry about

the little stuff later.

John Perez

North Hollywood

::

The L.A. Times Editori-

al Board is so correct that

the state’s new ethnic

studies model curriculum

will have little effectiveness

if students are not chal-

lenged to read, question,

listen, gather facts and

think critically about con-

troversial issues.

And, of course, the

understanding that teach-

ers must have of compli-

cated cultures and histo-

ries is not easy to commu-

nicate to high school stu-

dents.

Furthermore, the draft

curriculum’s assertion that

the Boycott, Divestment

and Sanctions operation is

a social movement and not

anti-Israel activism is

wrong. This is a compli-

cated issue, and we need to

let our lawmakers know

that the curriculum’s char-

acterization of BDS is not

acceptable.

Marcia Jacobs

Culver City

::

While members of the

editorial board might have

trouble wrapping their

minds around terms like

“cisheteropatriarchy” and

“womxn,” I promise you

that thanks to Twitter and

Teen Vogue, your average

American teenager has

encountered them and

would welcome the oppor-

tunity to delve deeper than

280 characters, which

makes them more qualified

to comment on the value of

this curriculum than the

board of a nationally recog-

nized newspaper.

The editorial lists a

selection of historical and

contemporary movements

led by people of color and

then asks about “studying

a range of ideas. Who is left

out in a range that spans

the Black Panthers and

BDS? Should students be

forced to study the ideol-

ogies of segregationists

and white nationalists to

meet your criteria of bal-

ance?

Instead of concern-

trolling, your board’s time

would be better spent

actually learning about the

issues.

Maya Mackrandilal

Los Angeles

Print the names

of suspects

Re “Just call them ‘the

shooters,’ ” letters, Aug. 6

I’ve seen several calls

not to print names of mass

shooters. Here are some of

the reasons the media

report their identities.

Omitting names or

other information allows a

lack of transparency that

opens the door for legal

system corruption; the

shooters are largely white

men, so it would arbitrarily

protect criminals of one

class and race; and the

news is the public source of

record — the names will get

out, from less credible

sources, with possibly

inaccurate information.

There are so many

bigger issues related to

mass shootings than keep-

ing the press from doing its

job. For instance, more

effort should go into under-

standing red flags related

to violence and personality

—not the easy fallback

“mental illness,” but actual

behavioral indicators.

The media are not even

close to being the issue.

Maureen Milliken

Belgrade Lakes, Maine

Scooter safety

Re “Those ubiquitous

scooters,” editorial, July 31

As more people have

taken advantage of electric

scooters, the companies

have worked aggressively

to educate users and pro-

mote responsible behavior.

Whether it’s Lime’s “Re-

spect the Ride” pledge or

Jump’s “Ride Safe. Ride

Smart” campaign, pro-

viders will continue to

encourage responsible

behavior through apps,

events and community

engagement.

The fines and penalties

suggested in this editorial

would place a discrimi-

natory burden on shared

e-scooter providers. Say

someone illegally double-

parked a rented car from

Hertz or Avis; would you

suggest a fine or puni-

shment for car rental com-

panies?

As access to e-scooters

grows, providers, custom-

ers and local officials

should work together to

encourage safe roads for all

users and responsible

ridership without resorting

to imposing unfair penal-

ties on operators.

Ryan McConaghy

Washington

The writer is executive

director of The Micromo-

bility Coalition.

Do we feel safer?

Re “Mississippi immigration raids lead to 680 arrests,”

Aug. 8

If the 680 undocumented people detained by U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Mississippi

were such “dangerous criminals,” why were they all

picked up on their jobs?

The “dangerous criminals” I’ve known over the years

didn’t go to work or have jobs. They did criminal stuff, not

work in a food processing plant. And they definitely were

not worried about their kids left with baby-sitters. They

worried about criminal stuff.

The book written about this era will not be called “The

Diary of Anne Frank.” It will be called something like

“The Diary of Maria Hernandez.” I am ashamed.

Ted Perlman

Pasadena

Rogelio V. SolisAssociated Press

AMAN is taken into custody as federal immigra-

tion officials raid a food plant in Morton, Miss.

EXECUTIVECHAIRMANDr. Patrick Soon-Shiong

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Opinion

Nicholas Goldberg EDITOR OF THEEDITORIALPAGES

F OUNDED DECEMBER 4, 1881 Sue Horton OP-ED ANDSUNDAYOPINIONEDITOR