The Dabbawalas of India will be celebrating Charles’ coronation

I like Indian people so I am very glad to hear this

Weaving through the throng on a hot May afternoon, Kiran Gavande had a determined look on his face, despite the sweat that trickled down from his head. This wasn’t a routine trip to the market in Mumbai’s Lal Baug neighbourhood for Mr Gavande. Instead of buying onions and tomatoes, he was searching for a silk turban and an intricate shawl to give as a gift to King Charles.

His gifts would soon be handed over to the British High Commission before being shipped over to the UK and presented, by hand, to Charles, following his coronation today.

‘When we heard of Charles’s ascension to the throne, I wrote to him personally to offer my congratulations, I held a party and distributed sweets among my neighbours,’ recalls Mr Gavande, wearing a linen shirt and white Gandhi cap, known as a topi.

Back in 2003, Mr Gavande and his colleague, Raghunath Medge, met King Charles III for the first time. The monarch, then the Prince of Wales, was visiting India and requested a meeting with Mumbai’s Dabbawala community at the city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus – formerly known as Victoria Terminus.

Since the 19th century, the several thousand-strong Dabbawala community have run a lunchbox delivery service for workers in India’s financial capital. To this day, they still deliver 200,000 lunches by hand using an intricate colour-coding system that identifies every box’s destination and recipient. The meals are delivered by bicycle via the city’s local train network.

‘We told Charles that he could only meet us between 11.15 and 12.15 because the customer is our God and that is our break time,’ recalls Mr Medge.

‘Charles was very interested in our coding system and he was amazed at the work we do every day. He even showed concern for our health, asking about our necks and backs as the buckets that we load onto our bikes can weigh up to 40 or 45 kilograms.’

It was the start of an unlikely but incredible friendship. Charles requested that the Dabbawalas deliver him food every day while he was in Mumbai. Then, remarkably, the future monarch invited two Dabbawalas to attend his wedding to Camilla in 2005.

Mr Medge was one of the two Dabbawalas who travelled to London for the occasion. He was unsure why he was chosen but believes it might have been because his grandfather claimed to have delivered food to Queen Victoria many years before.

‘When we met, we gave him one of the topi caps that we wear and then we saw the same hat on display in Windsor Castle surrounded by diamonds and other jewels from India,’ he remembers, laughing.

It was quite the trip for the portly 67-year-old who grew up in a simple one-room home in the village of Raj Guru Nagar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and who normally earns £170 per month. He has no photos of his trip to the UK but the memories remain fresh.

‘When we arrived we were taken out sightseeing in London but we had only arrived in our Indian wedding clothes and it was freezing cold for us,’ said Mr Megde.

‘Instead of drinking chai tea to keep warm we were given whiskey and wine. We met the late Queen, who was very warm hearted and gave us tea and biscuits. She gave us a lot of love and respect.’

Mr Megde and his colleague, Sopan Mare, attended the wedding ceremony and the reception afterward, where they mixed with celebrities and dignitaries from around the world. A princess from the royal family of the western Indian state of Rajasthan was on hand to help translate for the two men and help them order vegetarian food. In India, it is custom to scatter rice over the heads of newlyweds. But, in accordance with British tradition, they said they threw rose petals instead.

When Islamic terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008, killing at least 166 people, the Queen sent her condolences to the Dabbawalas. In turn, the Dabbawalas led the mourning in Mumbai when the late Queen died last year. At Byculla Railway Station, in the south of Mumbai, a stand was set up outside the entrance and Dabbawalas lit candles and said prayers for Queen Elizabeth II.

While Mr Gavande may have looked like just another flustered Mumbaikar as he navigated the crowds at Lal Bagh on Tuesday, he was instead strengthening the historic relationship between the United Kingdom and India. The Puneri Pagadi turban, worn by royalty in the Indian city of Pune, and a Warkari shawl, associated with several great emperors from western India, were purchased by Mr Gavande with pride.

‘Charles recognised the Dabbawalas when no one else did and elevated us to global status. He came and met us and it wasn’t just a performance, he really took a keen interest,’ said Mr Gavande.

‘We wish him happiness and prosperity and we hope that his rule lasts forever.’

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/05/the-dabbawalas-of-india-will-be-celebrating-charles-coronation

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Montana Governor Signs Slew of Pro-Life Legislation

The Republican governor of Montana signed five pieces of pro-life legislation into law on Wednesday, stating, “Montanans sent us to Helena to boldly defend life, not send their tax dollars to abortion clinics.”

Gov. Greg Gianforte added: “Montanans’ hard-earned money should not be used by the government to fund elective abortions.”

“This package of pro-family, pro-child, pro-life bills will make a lasting difference in Montana. We couldn’t have done it alone, and I just want to thank the thousands of Montanans throughout the state who made their voices heard and made today possible,” the governor said.

The legislation strengthens Montana law to prevent taxpayer dollars from paying for elective abortions.

According to the governor’s office, “the package defends life, protecting babies born alive following a botched abortion, restricting dismemberment abortion of babies, and prohibiting the abortion of viable babies, unless necessary to protect the life of the mother.”

One of the bills signed into law on Wednesday, SB 154, sponsored by state Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, “clarifies the right to privacy in the Montana Constitution does not mean the right to an abortion.”

“Senator Regier’s Senate Bill 154 was one of the most important bills brought this session. For years in Montana, abortion activists have used the cloak of a shaky legal interpretation to advance their pro-abortion agenda. That stops today. No more,” Gianforte said.

There are five other pro-life bills awaiting action from Gianforte, according to the governor’s office.

Pro-life advocates applauded the move, praising the governor for standing up for life.

“We thank Gov. Gianforte and legislative leaders for establishing new protections for life and support for women that mirror the compassion of their constituents,” Adam Schwend, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s Western regional director, said in a statement.

“[Wednesday’s] advances in Montana are a part of an ongoing post-Dobbs trend to advance human rights in the states and provide mothers with more resources during pregnancy and after a child is born,” he added. “This progress led by bold state leaders is saving tens of thousands of lives across our nation.”

Dobbs is a reference to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case decided last year that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states more say in crafting their own abortion laws.

Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action for America, the grassroots arm of The Heritage Foundation, applauded the governor’s actions. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

“As the Left pushes for a radical pro-abortion, anti-child agenda across the nation, Gov. Greg Gianforte decided to push back, signing five bills aimed at defending unborn lives in Montana,” Anderson said. “Montana has continued the nationwide momentum of states championing pro-life and pro-family values in a time where they’re needed the most, including defending babies born alive after botched abortions and protecting the rights of medical providers who refuse to perform abortions.”

“These bills make clear the absolute truth that every life is worth saving, especially those of innocent unborn children,” Anderson said.

But pro-abortion groups accused Gianforte of putting women’s health at risk.

“These laws have the potential to harm thousands of Montanans and people across our region who have already been forced to travel to Montana for care,” claimed Martha Fuller, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana president and CEO. Fuller’s statement does not address specifics about the bills that would jeopardize women’s health.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/05/04/montana-governor-signs-slew-of-pro-life-legislation

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The New Ugly Americans

The old cultural imperialism was supposedly greedy corporatism like Disneyland, McDonald's, and Starbucks sprouting up worldwide to supplant local competitors.

But these businesses spread because they appealed to free-will consumer demand abroad. They were not imposed top down.

The U.S. presence in Afghanistan collapsed in August 2021 amid the greatest American military humiliation in modern history. A billion-dollar new embassy was abandoned. Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure at the huge Bagram Airbase was dumped.

We still do not know how many billions of dollars of sophisticated new weapons were left to the Taliban and now are making their way through global terrorists' marts.

Yet, in our skedaddle, the LGBTQ flag still flew high from our new Kabul embassy. A George Floyd mural was prominent on city streets.

And gender studies programs - to the tune of $787 million in American subsidies - were showcased at Kabul University, in one of the most conservative Islamic countries in the world.

Rainbow flags and Black Lives Matter banners have hung from our embassy in South Korea.

Such partisan cultural activism is a diplomatic first.

The woke Left has now weaponized the country's diplomatic missions abroad to advance highly partisan and controversial agendas that can offend their hosts, and do not represent the majority of American voters at home.

American foreign policy toward other nations seems now to hinge on their positions on transgender people, LGBTQ promotion, abortion, climate change, and an array of woke issues from using multiple pronouns on passports to showcasing transgender ambassadors.

The Biden Administration in January 2022 stopped the EastMed pipeline. That joint effort of our allies Cyprus, Greece, and Israel sought to bring much needed clean-burning Mediterranean natural gas to southern Europe.

Apparently, our diplomats felt it violated our own New Green Deal orthodoxies. So we imperialists interfered to destroy a vital project of our closest allies.

The White House manifesto called the "National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality" offers a blueprint for how to massage nations abroad to accept our values that are increasingly at odds with much of the world's.

Do Americans really believe that embracing drag-queen shows at military bases, abortion to the moment of birth, transgender men competing in women's sports, and the promised effort to ban the internal combustion engine are effective ways to ensure good relations with the United States?

No wonder the Biden Administration's new cultural imperialism is proving disastrous for a variety of reasons.

One, these imperialistic and chauvinistic agendas are pushed abroad at the very time the respect for the U.S. military is at an all-time low. It was humiliated in Afghanistan. It is now unable to recruit sufficient qualified soldiers. Its stocks of critical weapons are depleted.

The Pentagon leadership of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, along with Joe Biden, do not radiate competence.

But they do exude woke pieties.

While we offend Middle East oil exporters and Central Europeans, China allies with Russia and Iran. India and Turkey triangulate away from the United States. Sanctimonious hectoring while appearing weak is a bad combination.

Two, these warped standards are incoherent. Is an abortion-on-demand, totalitarian China therefore an ally? How could we damn supposedly non-woke Saudi Arabia as we begged it to pump more of its non-green oil before the 2022 midterms?

Some of our most loyal allies are in Eastern Europe - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania. These countries have experienced traumatic histories on the front lines against Islamic Ottoman expansionism, czarist and Soviet aggression, and German Nazi bullying and invasion.

They are democratic and pro-American. Yet they are now targeted by our woke imperialists because they remain steadfast as the most religious and traditional of our European allies.

Yet these nations would be more likely to dispatch credible forces for NATO's defense than many of our left-wing, woke, and militarily less capable Western European nations.

Three, most of the 7.9 billion people in the world are not woke. They are aspiring to obtain a modicum of the luxury and affluence taken for granted in America.

The rest of the planet worries whether it will have enough food, energy, security, and shelter to live one more day. For most, the incessant, woke virtue-signaling from affluent Americans comes across as the whiny bullying of pampered, self-righteous - and increasingly neurotic - imperialists.

Four, traditionally the party that controls the State Department does not politically weaponize its embassies with wedge issues that have not won majority support among Americans.

Such abject politicalization rattles and alienates foreign nations. They do not want to be drawn into the American Left's internal propaganda efforts that they know are bitterly controversial inside the United States.

How odd that those on the Left who in the past decried "American imperialism" are now proving the greatest imperialists of all.

https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2023/05/04/the-new-ugly-americans-n2622816

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Tedious Leftist propaganda from Australian public broadcaster

Just when Media Watch Dog readers may have thought that the recent “deep dive” session into “impartiality” awareness (the quotes are taken from an ABC staff email) might have an impact – along came last Saturday’s Coronation.

The coverage kicked off at 5pm on Saturday (AEST). Presented by Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird – guests included Stan Grant (ABC), Craig Foster (Australian Republic Movement), author Kathy Lette and indigenous lawyer Teela Reid. Republicans all, as far as MWD can work it out. There were also comments by Liberal MP Julian Leeser (a constitutional monarchist) and academic lawyer Dr Anne Twomey. Both Mr Leeser and Professor Twomey are mild mannered types and not of the ranting kind.

Not so Comrades Grant, Foster, Reid and Lette (although the last named does try to be funny). Needless to say, the first three used the occasion to rant against the monarchy, colonisation, contemporary Australia and all that. There’s nothing wrong with the Grant/Foster/Reid trio expressing their views on the taxpayer funded public broadcaster. It’s just that none of the trio was seriously challenged by the presenters or other panellists.

Stan Grant accused the Crown of conducting an exterminating war. Craig Foster declared that, due to the Crown, many of our beautiful multicultural communities suffered. And Reid declared that the Crown had perpetuated colonisation all around the world at the expense of First Nations peoples of colour. She also called for the abolition of the prison system – it’s not clear what relevance this had to the Coronation, but there you go.

MWD changed channels during all this ranting. Free-to-air channels Network 7 and National 9 – which outrated the ABC – were showing footage of guests entering Westminster Abbey. So was subscription channel Sky News. In short, 7, 9, 10 and Sky covered the news. Not so the ABC which seemed to be of the view that Australians need to be “educated”.

Gerard Henderson voted “Yes” in the referendum on the republic in 1999. But Australia remains a constitutional monarchy. And while the Coronation affects contemporary Australia, the taxpayer funded public broadcaster should give impartiality a go.

ABC management could have instructed staff to report the Coronation as an important news event. But the ABC is very much a staff collective – and the occasion was loaded with leftist commentary.

As Sophie Elsworth and James Madden report in today’s Australian, the ABC defended its Coronation coverage (Quelle surprise!) and declared that it reflected a diversity of views. Not so – this would have only been the case if the Grant/Forster/Reid opinion had been challenged by three articulate performers who held a contrary view.

By the way, ABC Chair Ita Buttrose (AC OBE) went into “no comment” mode and referred questions from The Australian to an ABC spokesman. Sure, the board does not run the ABC – but it is entitled to comment on the taxpayer funded broadcaster’s performance.

Currently ABC ratings are in free fall. This reflects, in part, the fact that the broadcaster has alienated so many of its traditional audiences. The coverage of the Coronation is an example of the problem – and the ABC’s no-problem-here response indicates that no solution is in sight while it remains a Conservative Free Zone.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/media-watch-dog-abcs-impartiality-training-flunks-first-hurdle-with-coronation-coverage/news-story/c23675ce5830356c276b1704817a248e

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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