Not Everything is Negative in Pakistan; There are Positives too - By Wusatullah Khan - پاکستان، سیڑھی اور آزادی

بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام :Courtesy

پاکستان، سیڑھی اور آزادی

وسعت اللہ خان

یہ درست ہے کہ آج کا پاکستان ہر طرح کی لاقانونیت میں مبتلا ہے۔اٹھارہ کروڑ لوگ ہر صبح یہ خدشہ لے کر اٹھتے ہیں کہ کہیں آج کچھ اور برا نہ ہو جائے۔یہ ٹھیک ہے کہ اس ملک کی بے حال اکثریت کو ریاست نے’جہاں رہو خوش رہو‘ کی دعا دے کر اپنے حال پر چھوڑ رکھا ہے۔لیکن اس گئی گذری صورت کے باوجود پاکستانیوں کو بہت سی ایسی آزادیاں اور سہولتیں حاصل ہیں جنہیں بہت سے ممالک میں آج بھی عیاشی یا مہم جوئی سمجھا جاتا ہے۔

We Pakistanis are getting Senseless - By Wusatullah Khan - کیا آپ یہی چاہتے ہیں؟

بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام :Courtesy

کیا آپ یہی چاہتے ہیں؟

وسعت اللہ خان

اس دن بھی جماعت پنجم کے ماسٹر لطیف صاحب پڑھاتے پڑھاتے حسبِ معمول بہت دور نکل گئے ۔ انہوں نے تاریخِ پاکستان کا مضمون ایک طرف لپیٹ کر رکھ دیا اور انسانی درندگی پر شروع ہوگئے۔ پھرماسٹر لطیف نے اپنے تھیلے سے ایک اخباری مضمون کا تراشہ نکالا۔

مضمون جنگِ ویتنام کے بارے میں تھا اور اس میں چھپی تصویر میں ایک ویتنامی پولیس افسر ایک امریکی فوجی کی موجودگی میں ایک مشکوک مقامی نوجوان کو کنپٹی کے قریب ریوالور رکھ کر گولی مار رہا تھا۔اس نوجوان نے موت سے لمحہ بھر پہلے شتر مرغ کی طرح اپنی آنکھیں بند کی ہوئی تھیں اور ہونٹ بھینچ رکھے تھے۔

A recipe for riots in Africa: Rising food prices can cause mayhem (The Economist, 26 May 2011)

Courtesy: "The Economist", 26 May 2011
Food in Africa: A recipe for riots
Rising prices can cause mayhem

ADDIS ABABA AND NAIROBI

PEOPLE living in the towns of sub-Saharan Africa spend a bigger share of their income on food than do urban residents almost anywhere else in the world. Labourers often use up over half their wage just to eat. And since Africans tend to depend on a few staple crops, rises in cereal prices can be devastating. More money on food means less on school fees, sanitation and health. It may also mean more girls forced into prostitution and more violent crime.
In some African markets maize and wheat prices have risen by 30% this year. Political tension invariably rises, too. Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda have had food-related demonstrations and riots. Some people worry that price rises may push Sierra Leone back into chaos and keep Côte d’Ivoire on edge.

Euthanasia (Mercy Killing) & India: Supreme Court Verdict in Aruna Shanbaug case Revives Debate (IPS News, 27 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IPS)", 27 May 2011
Supreme Court Verdict Revives Euthanasia Debate
By Sujoy Dhar
MUMBAI, May 27, 2011 (IPS) - In a secluded hospital bed in this bustling Indian metropolis, a woman who has lain brain dead for 37 years after a brutal sexual assault is at the centre of a national debate on mercy killing.
India’s Supreme Court has ruled that Aruna Shanbaug should live, while at the same time supporting passive euthanasia - or the withholding of medical treatments that are keeping her alive.
The court’s decision to rule out euthanasia of any kind for Shanbaug gladdened her former colleagues - nurses at the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital - who have taken care of her since the day in 1973 when she was sodomised and strangled with a dog chain by a hospital custodian whose advances she had spurned.

Qadhafi's GMMR (Great Man-Made River): Water Emerges as a Hidden Weapon in Libya (IPS New, 27 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IPS)", 27 May 2011
Water Emerges as a Hidden Weapon
By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, May 27, 2011 (IPS) - Libya’s enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon of choice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on free flowing freshwater.
With only five percent of the country getting at least 100 millimetres of rainfall per year, Libya is one of the driest countries in the world.
Historically, coastal aquifers or desalination plants located in Tripoli were of poor quality due to contamination with salt water, resulting in undrinkable water in many cities including Benghazi.
Oil exploration in the southern Libyan desert in the mid-1950s revealed vast quantities of fresh, clean groundwater - this could meet growing national demand and development goals.

Lt. Abdul Wakil unearths Salary theft fraud, A Widespread phenomenon in Afghan Army (Associated Press, 28 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 28 May 2011

Afghan army salary theft shows fraud widespread

By HEIDI VOGT

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) -- The theft took just a few keystrokes - a couple of numbers changed on a spreadsheet and suddenly one soldier's salary was dumped into another's bank account.

For a long time, no one noticed. The three Afghan army officers didn't divert the salaries of active duty soldiers. Instead they kept deserters on the books and directed their pay into their own accounts. Sometimes they diverted bonuses.

When 14 soldiers at a northern Afghan army base were eventually charged in the theft, about $22,000 had been stolen.

Vatican convenes AIDS experts amid condom flap (Associated Press, 27 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 27 May 2011

Vatican convenes AIDS experts amid condom flap

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican on Friday welcomed AIDS experts from around the world for a two-day symposium on preventing HIV and caring for people with the virus, just months after the pope made international headlines with his groundbreaking comments about condoms and AIDS.

Organizers insist the meeting won't call into question traditional church teaching opposing artificial contraception. Yet Pope Benedict XVI's comments last year about condom use with prostitutes with HIV seem to have removed a certain Vatican taboo that had all but ruled out public discussion of whether condoms were even effective in reducing HIV transmission.

China drought impact widens, reaching Shanghai (Associated Press, 26 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 26 May 2011

China drought impact widens, reaching Shanghai

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

SHANGHAI (AP) -- China's worst drought in a half-century is deepening, with the parched weather that has left millions in the Yangtze River region without enough drinking water pushing inflation higher and adding to widespread power shortages.

Shanghai's government promised Thursday that the city's 23 million residents would not face shortages at home, after the city's electricity utility warned that some stores and factories may have to close in the hottest days of summer to limit demand.

China's commercial center is scrambling to protect its drinking water from being overly tainted by salinity due to higher tides as the flow of the Yangtze River weakens. Upstream, conditions are worse, as crops wither and both people and livestock run short of drinking water.

Nepal: Political turmoil looms over the peaks of the Himalayan Nation (Associated Press, 26 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 26 May 2011

Political turmoil looms over Nepal's peaks

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Amongst Nepal's Himalayan peaks and glacier-fed rivers is a capital with only a few hours a week of running water. The country had no prime minister much of the past year, and risks having no government at all by the weekend.

Five years after the country's communist rebels gave up a bloody revolt to join a peace process - raising hopes of a new era of stability - the country is sinking deeper into political turmoil, leaving its dreams of becoming a modern Switzerland of the East unrealized.

Nepal went seven of the past 12 months without a prime minister because of a power struggle between the main political parties. They still haven't figured out what to do with the former insurgent fighters, many of whom are still confined to demobilization camps.

Death in the Mediterranean: Did European Soldiers Fail to Help Refugees in Distress? (Spiegel, 25 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Spiegel International, Germany", 25 May 2011
Death in the Mediterranean 
Did European Soldiers Fail to Help Refugees in Distress? 
By Fiona Ehlers and Clemens Höges

Over 60 African refugees, including women and children, recently died trying to reach Europe when their boat ran adrift for two weeks in the Mediterranean. Western military personnel allegedly saw the boat and did nothing to help. Now the United Nations is investigating the case. SPIEGEL talked to survivors and reconstructed the course of events.

It was a brief moment of happiness on a voyage that would end in death for many on board. They held a child up in the air, cheered and hugged each other. They were so delirious that they almost caused the overcrowded boat to capsize.

A helicopter was circling above their heads, say three of the nine survivors of the dramatic voyage, as they sit in Shousha refugee camp on the Tunisia-Libyan border. They say that they were able to make out the word "army" on the fuselage. Two months since their failed attempt to flee Libya, they can still write the word on a piece of paper and make a detailed drawing of a helicopter.

Clarke forced to apologise for rape comments (Guardian, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 18 May 2011
Clarke forced to apologise for rape comments

Justice secretary set to rethink plan to cut sentences after rejecting suggestion in radio interview that 'rape is rape'

By Alan Travis and Nicholas WattKenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, is expected to announce a climbdown over his plan for sentence discounts of up to 50% for early guilty pleas after he provoked a row by appearing to suggest that some rapes are more serious than others.
A chastened Clarke apologised under pressure from David Cameron, who was furious with the veteran justice secretary after he rejected a suggestion in a live radio interview that "rape is rape".
Clarke, who had initially refused to apologise in a round of TV interviews, wrote to a victim of attempted rape who had broken down in tears when she confronted him on a Radio 5 Live show over his "disastrous" plan.

"I have always believed that all rape is extremely serious, and must be treated as such," Clarke wrote. "I am sorry if my comments gave you any other impression or upset you."
The political fallout from Clarke's intervention could come as early astommorow amid speculation that he will use an appearance on a BBC Question Time special filmed at Wormwood Scrubs prison, in London, to announce changes to his sentencing plans.
Clarke had told MPs on Tuesday it was "likely" that his proposal to increase the sentence discount for early guilty pleas from a third to half the sentence, including in rape cases, would be included in the final government plans. He spoke with confidence after the cabinet home affairs sub-committee, chaired by Nick Clegg, had appeared to sign off on his plans on Monday.
But a meeting of the sub-committee is expected to review his plans again. The sentencing green paper, which was to set out proposals to stabilise the prison population next week, is now likely to be postponed for three weeks until after the Whitsun recess.
One Whitehall source highlighted the irritation with Clarke in No 10. "These plans have not been signed off on yet. Government policy is not government policy until it is in a white paper or a bill. Ken's language was wrong."
Clarke, who is already under fire from the Tory right over his plans to reduce the number of prison places, sparked fury among victims' and women's groups when he tried to distinguish between more and less serious forms of rape.
In response to the comment "rape is rape" during a BBC interview, he replied: "No it's not – if an 18-year-old has sex with a 15-year-old and she's perfectly willing, that is rape. Because she is under age, she can't consent. What you and I are talking about is … about a man forcibly having sex with a woman and she doesn't want to – a serious crime."
The justice secretary also said that so-called date rapes were included in the figures, adding: "Date rape can be as serious as the worst rapes but date rapes … in my very old experience of being in trials [from his time as a practising lawyer] … they do vary extraordinarily one from another, and in the end the judge has to decide on the circumstances."
Clarke later, during an interview with Sky News, accused his critics of focusing on rape simply to "add a bit of sexual excitement to the headlines".
Cameron was unaware of Clarke's comments when Ed Miliband challenged him in the Commons. "I have not heard the justice secretary's interview, but the position of the government is very clear: there is an offence called rape and anyone who commits it should be prosecuted, convicted and punished very severely," the prime minister said, adding that the plea bargaining plans were designed to increase the number of rape convictions. Clarke, who was due to comment on the exchanges in the Commons for the BBC Daily Politics programme, walked out of the studio five minutes into the weekly session of prime minister's questions. The justice secretary then embarked on a series of interviews, which ended in his apology.
Asked by the BBC whether he would apologise or comply with a demand from Miliband for him to resign, he said: "Well, if someone can explain anything that I said as factually incorrect of course I would consider it...People are slightly spinning and loading into what I said in a way to get false indignation."
Amid nerves in Downing Street he agreed to appear again for the cameras just after 2pm. "I haven't apologised as far as I am aware. I apologise if an impression has been given which is not my view and which I don't think I stated. My view is that all rape is serious." At 6pm his letter of apology was released.
Background Ministry of Justice documents show that the plan to encourage all defendants to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity by increasing the maximum discount from 33% to 50% is designed to save £130m a year within three years.
An official impact assessment suggest it could save as many as 3,400 prison places a year by 2014 but reveals that officials expect the plan will only increase the average sentence discount of 25% to 34%.
Justice officials believe there are large savings to be made in providing an incentive for earlier guilty pleas as more than 10,000 cases a year end in a guilty plea at the door of the court but the proposal has been attacked by senior judges. Although the justice secretary's lack of personal empathy with the issue clearly infuriated his critics and political opponents, the Sentencing Council's guidelines for judges set out a sliding scale of seriousness for the sentencing in rape cases.
Using a scale devised under Labour's 2003 Criminal Justice Act it ranges from a 15 year starting point for serial rapists to five years for a single offence of rape by a single offender. It adds that cases involving mutually agreed experimental sexual activity between two children where the victim is under 16 should be regarded as strong mitigation.
Labour said Clarke's repentance did not go far enough. 
Clarke's long day
10am "A serious rape with violence and an unwilling woman – the tariff is longer than [15 months]."
11am "Rape has been singled out … mainly to add a bit of sexual excitement to the headlines."
3pm "If I've given the impression I do not regard all rape as a serious crime, I will have a look at it and see how on earth I gave that impression."
6pm "I have always believed all rape is extremely serious. I am sorry if my comments gave you any other impression or upset you."

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Measles Claims Many Lives in Congo as Public, Private Resources Stretched Thin (Inter Press Service, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IOS)", 18 May 2011
Measles Claims Lives as Public, Private Resources Stretched Thin
By Emmanuel Chaco
KINSHASA, May 18, 2011 (IPS) - More than 3,000 cases of measles have been recorded in the past three months in two districts of Maniema Province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Provincial statistics seen by IPS for the districts of Kibombo and Kindu, show that since mid-April, a measles epidemic has caused more than 15 deaths at health facilities, and three or four times as many have died at home, in cases where families did not take stricken children to medical centres.
"The villages further upstream along the Congo River are the worst affected by measles," says Dr Théo Katako, interim head of the Provincial Inspectorate of the Ministry of Public Health. "Meanwhile, the province was only able to organise a vaccination campaign against polio, for lack of resources to take on these two epidemics at once."
"The total number dying of measles at home in April, could have been more than 60; for lack of a way for these families to bring these patients to the hospital because of the distance to health facilities," says Germain Musombo, a member of civil society in Maniema.
"The fear is even greater because the measles vaccination campaign, planned for last week, did not take place for reasons no one has explained," says Julie Bibi Bin Kito, a small trader and mother of a six-year-old who died of measles last week. "We who don't have money would have benefited from these vaccinations to protect the lives of our children."
She told IPS it would take more than four hours to walk to the nearest hospital to her home. She has no access to a car, and that hospital requires patients to pay to open a medical file before they can receive care. Neither she nor her husband had any money on the evening their child died.
Dying of poverty
"The question of poverty is critical throughout the province of Maniema," says Musombo. "A large majority of the population lives on rice and cassava leaves grown in small gardens near the family home. There is also the fact that the province is landlocked and doesn't benefit from commerce with the rest of the country."
The province is generally underdeveloped, with few people enjoying access to clean drinking water and just 52,000 of the provinces' estimated population of two million having access to electricity.
"With the population living under these conditions, there is cause for concern," says Martin Bila Omari, who is responsible for epidemiology at the provincial inspectorate of the health ministry.
"The provincial authorities have outlined a plan to end the epidemic and prevent new cases," says Bila Omari, "which will cost 180,000 dollars. But there is an acute shortage of financial resources to carry it out. The modest provincial budget will not allow for an urgent response."
For the moment, the authorities are trying to raise awareness. "Several weeks ago, the government launched and awareness campaign for the population, and families in particular, on the necessity of vaccinations for children between six and 59 months and urging them to bring children in from time to time for their routine vaccinations," Dr Benoît Kebela Ilunga, director of the campaign against measles at the national health ministry, told IPS.
He said the government has also strengthened monitoring of new cases with a view to arresting the present outbreak of measles.
"Happily the province is benefiting from the support of UNICEF [the United Nations Children's Fund] and other international humanitarian organisations like Médecins Sans Frontières - France," says Bila Omari, adding that a measles vaccination campaign could be organised almost immediately as these partners already have the necessary vaccines in hand.
While the province of Maniema struggles with epidemics of measles and polio, non-governmental organisations warn of 80 cases of measles in the territory of Bukama, in Katanga province, in the southeast of the DRC. 


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Syria: Mass grave found near Protest hub Deraa, residents say (Guardian, 17 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 17 May 2011
Syrian mass grave found near Deraa, residents say

Human rights groups report 13 bodies unearthed from field in southern city at centre of protest movement

Nidaa Hassan

Thirteen bodies have been retrieved from a mass grave in Deraa, the hub of Syria's protest movement, according to residents cited by rights organisations.
People from the southern city say hundreds are unaccounted for since a crackdown on protests began on 18 March and intensified when the army moved in on 25 April to try to quash unrest against Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.
Radwan Ziadeh, the US-based head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights, said so far seven bodies had been identified by residents.

Five of the dead were reportedly from the same family: Abdulrazaq Abdulaziz Abazied and his four children, Samer, Samir, Suleiman and Mohamed.
Wissam Tarif of the human rights group Insan said: "Nobody knows who is behind the grave but the fact that there were people with hands tied behind their back and we have seen an operation across the country by the army, security and shabiha makes us believe the state is behind this."
The National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria also reported a grave found on Monday. "Authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies," it said.
Several videos purporting to show the unearthing of bodies from a field close to the city have been posted.
The government said reports of a mass grave were "completely untrue", state TV reported on Tuesday.
The official Syrian news agency, Sana, said Assad met a delegation from Deraa and they discussed the "positive atmosphere there as a result of co-operation between the residents and the army".
Residents report that landlines have been restored, the curfew shortened and tanks have withdrawn to the outskirts, but the city remains under tight control.
Accounts of the mass grave could not be independently verified, although the pro-regime newspaper al-Watan acknowledged on Tuesday that five bodies had been found.
"Given that Syria's officials have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of launching an independent investigation, it should be the UN-mandated international inquiry that looks into these killings," Nadim Houry, the Beirut-based senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian.
Nick Harvey, the UK armed forces minister, said it was "highly likely" that the international criminal court would seek the arrest of Syria's president for his role in the violent crackdown on protesters in the two-month uprising.
Britain has demanded the end to the use of violence but has not called for Assad to step down.
Meanwhile, the protests and crackdown have continued as the US condemned Syria's role in the breaching of the Israeli border by protesters on Nakba Day, and the EU and US this week consider further moves, including sanctions on Assad himself.
Referring to the fatal Nakba Day protests on Sunday, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said: "It seems apparent to us that is an effort to distract attention from the legitimate expression of protest by the Syrian people."
Thousands of protesters marched through the town of Saqba close to Damascus on Monday night for the funeral of Ahmed Ataya who died from wounds sustained at a protest last month, while at least 15 tanks were deployed around Arida, near the border town of Tel Kelak.
Activists said at least seven civilians were killed in Tel Kelak on Sunday when troops shelled the town, and one was killed on Monday, raising the death toll since troops entered on Saturday to 12. Syrian officials say five soldiers were killed by armed gangs in the town.
Veteran dissidents who have met government officials say that officials acknowledge the protests in private.
But in public, authorities have blamed most of the violence on armed groups backed by extremists and foreign powers.
"Syria's leaders talk about a war against terrorists, but what we see on the ground is a war against ordinary Syrians," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Sunday.

• Nidaa Hassan is a pseudonym for a journalist in Syria

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CDC: New regimen shortens Tuberculosis (TB) treatment to three months (Associated Press, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 16 May 2011

CDC: New regimen drastically shortens TB treatment

By MIKE STOBBE

ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials on Monday celebrated a faster treatment for people who have tuberculosis but aren't infectious, after investigators found a new combination of pills knocks out the disease in three months instead of nine.

That means more people are likely to finish their treatment for latent tuberculosis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said.

"New, simpler ways to prevent TB disease are urgently needed, and this breakthrough represents one of the biggest developments in TB treatment in decades," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said, in a prepared statement.

For decades, people infected with TB bacteria but not ill have been treated with a special TB pill, isoniazid, taken once a day for nine months. It's been the standard regimen despite problems getting people to take the pill every day.

But in one of the largest federal trials to examine preventive tuberculosis therapy, investigators found that another regimen was just as effective. Just once a week and for just three months, patients took a larger dose of isoniazid and also a dose of another antibiotic, rifapentine.

About 82 percent of the people in the three-month regimen completed the full treatment, while just 69 percent on the nine-month regimen did. Rates of the most serious side effects were the same for both regimens.

What's more, only seven cases of TB disease developed in people on the new treatment, compared with 15 in the standard group.

"It was quite effective," said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a Columbia University professor of medicine and epidemiology who was involved in the study.

The three-month regimen is also more expensive. The medicines alone cost about $160, most of that from the price of rifapentine. Nine months of isoniazid costs less than $6.

The costs of both regimens grow when lab tests and other aspects of care are thrown in, but the three-month regimen still ends up being more than twice as expensive as the standard treatment.

The study was led by Dr. Timothy Sterling of Vanderbilt University and was presented Monday at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Denver.

The CDC is working with consultants to examine the study's results and draft new guidelines for treatment of latent TB. The guidelines should be finished later this year, agency officials said.

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria spread from person to person through the air. TB usually affects the lungs, and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. Globally, it kills about 1.7 million people each year.

Thanks to antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low - a total of 11,181 reported cases of TB illness.

But more than 11 million Americans have latent TB, meaning they are infected with the TB bacteria but have not had symptoms and are not infectious.

About 5 percent to 10 percent of people with latent TB develop the disease if not treated, meaning they are a major obstacle to eliminating TB in the United States.

"The 11 million persons with latent TB represent a ticking bomb. They're the source of future TB cases," said Dr. Kenneth Castro, director of the CDC's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination.

Most Americans with latent TB don't know they are infected, but testing has been targeted at groups of people who tend to have higher rates of TB infection or who are more susceptible to TB infection progressing into illness. About 300,000 to 400,000 Americans with latent TB start treatment each year.

But many don't stick with it, sometimes because they feel well and don't see the need to keep taking a pill against an illness they haven't developed. Some don't like that they cannot drink alcohol while taking isoniazid.

The study looked at about 8,000 people with latent TB in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Spain. They were followed for nearly three years from the time they started the study. Most of the top TB research centers in the United States were involved.

About half were given the standard treatment, a daily 300 milligrams dose of isoniazid for nine months, and they took it on their own. The other half were put on a 900-milligram dose of isoniazid and a 900 milligram dose of rifapentine, but did it in front of a doctor or other health-care worker.

The researchers acknowledged that follow-up studies are needed to see if patients on the three-month regimen are as faithful at taking their medicine when they aren't being monitored.

Also, it's not clear how well the strategy would work in countries where TB is more common and the odds of re-infection are much higher, health officials said

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North Korea's Food Shortage: 'We Cannot Leave the Children to Die' (Spiegel International, 17 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Spiegel International, Germany", 17 May 2011
North Korea's Food Shortage
'We Cannot Leave the Children to Die'
Interview with Bernd Göken
Yet another hunger crisis is taking shape in North Korea. The government in Pyongyang has asked for help and aid groups have already begun shipments. Bernd Göken, from the German group Cap Anamur, described for SPIEGEL what he saw on a recent visit to the country.

At the invitation of Pyongyang's embassy in Berlin, the head of the German relief organization Cap Anamur, Bernd Göken, 45, recently visited two provinces and four cities in North Korea, which is facing new food shortages and a dramatic hunger crisis.

"With every visit and every discussion, the enormous scale of the shortages was confirmed," said Göken. "The people are starving. They have nothing left to eat. For the rural population and orphans, the shortage of food will become a real threat during the coming weeks." Cap Anamur experts say that only 20 percent of North Korean land is farmed. And by its own admission, the North Korean regime has said it is lacking 1 million tons of food needed to provide for its people and has issued an appeal for foreign aid. Cap Anamur said it has already dispatched its first shipment of 200 tons of rice to the country. North Korea has depended on foreign food aid since a devastating famine killed around 2 million people during the mid-1990s.
Some countries have delayed decisions to provide aid to the country because of North Korea's nuclear tests and deadly attacks on a South Korean warship in March 2010. Following an appeal by the United Nations and the accusation one month ago by former President Jimmy Carter that the United States was committing a "human rights violation" by not providing relief, Washington said this week it would decide within days whether or not to send a mission to look into the the food shortage situation in the country.
'Misery Predominates'
The business news wire Bloomberg reported that South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek stated on April 25 he believed that Pyongyang's plea for handouts was politically motivated and that shortages this year weren't any worse than in past years.
For Cap Anamur, the food project is not the organization's first involvement in North Korea. From 1997 to 2002, Cap Anamur provided several North Korean hospitals with medication, medical supplies and technical equipment. It has also provided food and clothing shipments in the past.
Göken, who visited North Korea between April 26 and May 5, shared his observations with SPIEGEL on a food shortage he says is getting more critical by the day. He says that the problem is very real and that "misery predominates".

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SPIEGEL: You just spent eight days traveling in North Korea. What did you see? Göken: We visited orphanages, schools and clinics, and the same misery predominates in each -- there is barely any food left. We saw emaciated children and elderly women on the edge of the road stuffing weeds into their mouths.
SPIEGEL: How many people have been affected by the food shortages?
Göken: The World Food Program estimates between 5 and 6 million. At least 400,000 tons of grain is lacking.
SPIEGEL: What enabled the disaster to happen?
Göken: The extreme winter, with temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) destroyed large parts of the year's crops. In addition, they are also lacking modern equipment -- I didn't see any tractors in the fields. Nor can one say that there is effective crisis management on the part of the government.
SPIEGEL: Under these conditions, do sanctions against North Korea still make sense?

Göken: They punish the wrong people. We cannot leave the children, pregnant women and elderly to die -- it is not their fault that they have to live under this regime. SPIEGEL: Shouldn't North Korea's partner, China, be rushing as the first to provide aid?
Göken: There are no relief deliveries from Beijing. The Chinese have even refused to sell rice to our organization intended for delivery to North Korea. We have had to purchase it from Thailand.

Interview conducted by Daniel Steinvorth
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Indian Secularuism; Religion and the Public Sphere in India (Inter Press Service, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IOS)", 16 May 2011
Religion and the Public Sphere in India
By Christophe Jaffrelot*
PARIS, May 16, 2011 (IPS) - In contrast to most South Asian countries, modern India has always been officially "secular", a word the country inscribed in its Constitution in 1976.
Secularism, here, is not synonymous with the French "laïcité", which demands strong separation of religion and the state. India's secularism does not require exclusion of religion from the public sphere. On the contrary, it implies recognition of all religions by the state.
This philosophy of inclusivity finds expression in one article of the Constitution by which all religious communities may set up schools that are eligible for state subsidies.
India's secularism, therefore, has more affinities with multiculturalism than with "laïcité". Its emphasis on pluralism parallels the robust parliamentary democracy and federalism that India has been cultivating for 64 years.

But today, secularism is in jeopardy in India. The main threat comes from the rise of Hindu militancy and its consequences not only for electoral politics, but also for the judiciary and society at large.
The rise of Hindu nationalism
The core belief of the Hindu nationalist movement, whose key organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was founded in 1925, is that the Indian identity is embodied in Hinduism, the oldest and largest religion of India. For decades the RSS has worked at the grassroots level, recruiting children who are taught to fight religions founded outside India (including Islam and Christianity), and forming new fronts (that include student, labour and peasant groups).
The RSS and its offshoots consistently criticised pro-minority policies. But it mostly remained a marginal player until the 1980s when the ruling Congress Party was again assailed by the old Hindu nationalists' critique of "pseudo-secularism".
The RSS-supported party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), mobilised on claims that the government and courts favoured Muslims, and also demanded the (re)building of a temple where the Babri Masjid mosque was constructed in 1528 at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
This campaign culminated in the demolition of the mosque by a Hindu mob in 1992. It was accompanied by widespread wave of communal riots aimed at polarising the voters along religious lines. It contributed to electoral gains for the BJP, and in 1998-2004 the party was in position to head a new national-ruling coalition.
Towards an ethno-democracy
The 1980s-90s were a turning point in the India's secularism. This period could have been a parenthesis, since the Congress Party regained power in 2004, but India has never returned to the balance of religious co-existence and compromise that prevailed in its first three decades of independence.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid and the communal clashes that accompanied the BJP's rise to power have never been addressed properly by the policy and judiciary. Muslims were massacred in numbers unprecedented since India's 1947 partition; about 1,000 were killed in Bhagalpur in Bihar State alone in 1989, and violence rose to the level of pogroms in Gujarat State in 2002 when about 2,000 Muslims were killed after 59 Hindus were burnt alive in train coaches in Godhra, Gujarat.
Inquiry commissions prepared reports that were either never made public or not followed by serious action. In most democracies, the kind of violence Gujarat experienced in 2002 would have resulted in at least a "Justice and Reconciliation" commission.
And minorities must cope with marginalisation. Christian Tribals are victims of violence, especially in Orissa and Gujarat, where they are requested to (re)convert to Hinduism. Muslims face discrimination in the job and housing markets, and Muslim ghettoisation is increasing in northern and western India.
On the political scene, Muslims are marginalised with less than six percent of MPs in the lower house of Parliament while representing 13.4 percent of the population. In 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commissioned a report on the status of India's Muslims by a committee named after its president, Justice Rajinder Sachar.
But none of the Sachar Committee's key recommendations to improve Muslims' situation has been implemented, perhaps from political fears that the BJP will again denounce "pseudo-secularism".
India is gradually moving away from multiculturalism toward a type of democracy exemplified by Israel and Sri Lanka, known as "ethnic democracy", where minorities are treated as second-class citizens.
With this transformation, India may well lose one of the key pillars of its soft power, the quality of its multiculturalism - and more alarmingly, perhaps also its adherence to the rule of law.
*Christophe Jaffrelot is a senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS.
This article is part of the series "Religion, Politics & the Public Space" in collaboration with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and its Global Experts project (www.theglobalexperts.org).
The views expressed in these articles are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nation Alliance of Civilizations or of the institutions to which the authors are affiliated. 

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Holocaust guity, John Demjanjuk: The Deeper Meaning of the Verdict (Spiegel International, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Spiegel International, Germany", 16 May 2011
'It Was Clear What Happened': The Deeper Meaning of the Demjanjuk Verdict

By Gisela Friedrichsen

Some were critical that Holocaust helper John Demjanjuk was sentenced to just five years and then released. But the verdict came as a profound relief to victims' families. It also demonstrates that the German justice system has changed -- for the better.

The purpose of a criminal trial can also be that it takes place in the first place and ends with a convincing verdict. Were this the 1960s and 70s, John (Ivan) Demjanjuk would have either never been put in the dock, despite the more conclusive evidence that could have been presented at the time, or the proceedings would have been discontinued with the stereotypical remarks that the defendant was merely a cog in the Nazis' killing machine -- or that he never dared to refuse orders or flee out of fear for his life.

But the German justice system has changed. Today's judges don't automatically exonerate a man like Demjanjuk who, according to the prosecution, became a "foreign helper" for the Nazis after the he was captured as a Ukrainian prisoner of war in 1942. The justices don't see him as a trained SS guard dog who was only following his natural instinct to survive when he drove Jews into the gas chambers of the Sobibor extermination camp, but rather as an individual who had the freedom to choose between good and evil -- a quality that differentiates man from animals. "It was clear what happened," Chief Justice Ralph Alt said in his explanation of the verdict. This new approach by the justice system comes as a relief. When a number of the now-gray-haired children and siblings of the thousands of people who were murdered in Sobibor gathered in an area designated as the "Demjanjuk collection zone" in front of the Munich regional court on Nov. 30, 2009, their faces were marked by a life in which they had sought justice in vain.
Easing the Anxiety
They were put up in a hotel in Dachauer Strasse. Dachau, yes, was also the site of a concentration camp. In the courtroom they had to furnish proof of their right to appear as co-plaintiffs, which they dutifully did. They showed the only photograph that they still had of their mother, or a tattered birth certificate or some other document that proved that they were individuals whose roots had been eradicated by the Germans.
If just one of the outcomes of the Demjanjuk trial had been that it eased the deep-seated anxiety of these people, then it would have fulfilled its purpose. Right up until the beginning of the trial, some of the survivors had refused to set foot on German soil. Some had for decades refused to buy German products or fly with Lufthansa. They could not bear to hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler or listen to a Wagner opera. This unresolved and unfinished chapter weighed heavily on their minds.
When the main courtroom at Munich's criminal justice center on Nymphenburger Strasse was unavailable as the prosecution's case was drawing to a close, and the Demjanjuk trial had to be transferred to a smaller venue, the main proceedings were held in the old Palace of Justice on Stachus square -- the building where Nazi resistance activists Sophie and Hans Scholl and others were sentenced to death by the Nazis in 1943. The co-plaintiffs felt that it was an honor to be able to present their arguments there.
Last Thursday, they entered the courtroom wearing relieved smiles. They embraced each other -- not because revenge is sweet, but because they now feel like they are part of a big family, a community, as one of them said, in which they have rediscovered their inner sense of freedom. Now they can put the past behind them.
Outside Prison Walls
They shook the hands of German journalists and warmly thanked justice officials who had attentively looked after them. One of the co-plaintiffs recounted how he is now able to hold his head up high as he walks through the city. An elderly woman has been to a museum and attended an opera. Another woman intends to return and perhaps take part in follow-up trials. She has found her identity, she says, because the Munich court has worked so painstakingly to clear up the circumstances surrounding the murder of her parents.

The importance of the Demjanjuk trial would only be inadequately described, however, if it were confined to the impact that it had on the families of the victims of Sobibor. It also has a historical dimension. Indeed, it represents a turning point. The approach pursued by former district court judge Thomas Walther, who could be called the guiding spirit of this trial, has brought clarity to many a legal specialist befogged by force of habit. It is not a new realization that the crime of the millennium was not only perpetrated by Hitler and Göring and a handful of people who committed excessively cruel acts. The unfathomable atrocities of the Holocaust required countless willing helpers who were also guilty of committing crimes. Instead of putting these hundreds of thousands of individuals behind bars, it was perhaps decided merely to forget them -- just as so many other things were forgotten. All that has come to an end now.
Unlike the tabloid media, which remains blithely ignorant of legal matters, the co-plaintiffs were not bothered by the five-year prison sentence, or the fact that the 91-yaer-old stateless defendant was freed despite the sentence. They know that he will have to bear the burden of his guilt for the rest of his life, whether he is behind bars or outside prison walls.

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen
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Swiss voters reject ban on assisted suicide for foreigners (Guardian)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 15 May 2011
Swiss voters reject ban on assisted suicide for foreigners

Early projections in Zurich referendums show 80% are against proposals to outlaw 'suicide tourism'

Agencies in Zurich

Voters in Zurich have rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide and "suicide tourism" in which foreigners travel to Switzerland to receive help in ending their lives.
Out of more than 278,000 ballots cast in the referendum, the initiative to ban assisted suicide was rejected by 85% of voters and the initiative to outlaw it for foreigners was turned down by 78%, according to Zurich authorities. About 200 assisted suicides are carried out each year in premises in Zurich rented by the assisted death group Dignitas.
Assisted suicide has been allowed in Switzerland since 1941 if performed by a non-physician who has no vested interest in the death. Euthanasia, or "mercy killing", is legal only in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the US state of Oregon.

Many terminally ill foreigners – particularly from Germany, France and Britain – travel to Switzerland to kill themselves, taking advantage of rules on suicide which are among the world's most liberal. But a rise in foreigners seeking to end their lives in Switzerland, and a study showing more and more people who seek assisted suicides there do not suffer from a terminal illness, have provoked heated debate.
The Swiss government has said it is looking to change the law to make sure it is used only as a last resort by the terminally ill and to limit "suicide tourism''.
Right-to-die group Exit has agreed rules to govern assisted suicide with prosecutors in Zurich in the hope they may eventually form the basis of national regulation.
Foreigners are not explicitly excluded under the new rules, but a Swiss doctor who prescribes the deadly anaesthetic must have met the person twice over a period of time to be sure of their wishes.

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China: Detained artist Ai Weiwei in 'good physical health but mentally conflicted' (Guardian, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 16 May 2011
Ai Weiwei in 'good physical health but mentally conflicted'

Chinese authorities allow wife, Lu Qing, to visit artist and activist who had not been seen since arrest at Beijing airport on 3 April

By Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies Detained artist Ai Weiwei seems to be in good physical health but mentally conflicted and tense, his wife has said after seeing him for the first time in six weeks.
Lu Qing said she was taken to see her husband for about 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the first contact friends and relatives have had with the 53-year-old Chinese artist and activist since officials stopped him at Beijing airport on 3 April.
It is not clear where he is being held and the people who arranged the visit did not show her identification, she added.

"I could see redness in his eyes. It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me, someone from his family," Lu told Associated Press. "He seemed conflicted, contained, his face was tense."
The couple sat across the table from each other and their visit was supervised by two people, one "who seemed to be in charge of Ai", and another who took notes.
"We could not talk about the economic charges or other stuff, mainly about the family and health," Lu said. "We were careful, we knew that the deal could be broken at any moment, so we were careful."
Ai was not handcuffed, was wearing his own clothes rather than a uniform, and retained his beard. He said he had his blood pressure checked several times a day and had received medication he needed for diabetes. He was able to exercise by walking and said he was eating and sleeping well.
"The fact that Lu Qing could see him was already a very merciful act by the authorities," his mother, Gao Ying, said, adding that Ai did not discuss his charge beyond saying he "did not understand it".
She added: "The rumours that we've heard about him being tortured have been too much for us to take, but now seeing is believing. His condition is good."
Gao said her son had been particularly concerned about her health. "Of course [Lu] had to tell him that I'm doing well and not that I'm at home crying everyday … He was very moved and tears welled up in his eyes," she added.
Ai's sister Gao Ge said: "Now that we've seen that his health is OK, of course we are a bit less anxious, but that's not to say we want him to stay where he is … We really want this case to be dealt with as soon as possible and for the government to follow proper procedures in keeping with Chinese law."
Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer who has said he is willing to represent the artist if necessary, said Ai was not in a jail or a detention centre, but that neither Lu nor Ai were sure where he was being held.
He said police had still not informed Ai's family of detention and that he suspected the artist was being held under residential surveillance. Joshua Rosenzweig of the Dui Hua foundation, which supports political prisoners, said the law did not spell out whether police should notify family members of the measure because normally it would be carried out at an individual's home.
Residential surveillance orders last around six months. In comparison, police must inform relatives of detention within 24 hours, unless it would impede the investigation, and report to prosecutors on the case within a month.
"[Residential surveillance] is supposed to be less punitive but the way it is being carried out – if it is – is really turning things on its head. It is much more advantageous to police. There are very few limits on their ability to interrogate you," added Rosenzweig.
Ai's case comes amid a broader crackdown on lawyers, dissidents and activists in recent months. His friend Wen Tao, 38, driver and cousin Zhang Jinsong, also known as Xiao Pang, 43, accountant Hu Mingfen, 55, and colleague Liu Zhenggang, 49, all remain missing.
Officials have said Ai is under investigation for suspected economic crimes.
Last week, the vice-foreign minister, Fu Ying, said it was "very condescending for the Europeans to come in to tell China that some people are beyond the law".
But relatives believe his detention is retaliation for his social and political activism.
Gao Ying told CBS recently: "I think in reality, he was taken because he was protecting the rights of ordinary citizens and speaking for them … I think … he offended people in power and they hate him, so now they are looking for an opportunity to take him down."

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The budget and food security: Pakistan's scenario - By Dr. Akmal Hussain (Express Tribune, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: Daily "Express Tribune, Pakistan", 16 May 2011 
The budget and food security
By Dr Akmal Hussain
If the budget is to have any relevance for the people of Pakistan, it must address the twin problems of deep recession and high inflation which, together, are causing acute distress to a large proportion of the population. A consequence of per capita GDP growth becoming negative has been a rapid rise in poverty and unemployment. At the same time, the 25 per cent food inflation rate is placing large chunks of the population into a very desperate situation. As much as 74 per cent of Pakistanis are food insecure. The challenge in the short run is that under tight budgetary constraints, fiscal space must be found to provide at least atta to the poor at an affordable price. The challenge in the medium term is to revive the economy and place it on a new growth path that is both equitable and sustainable. Let us see how the short term objective can be achieved in the next fiscal year.

Last year, the peasantry produced a food surplus and yet, food grain slipped out of the grasp of the bottom 30 per cent of small farmers, who are net buyers of grain. Also, a large proportion of the non-farm rural and urban population are now finding it difficult to buy wheat flour. It is likely that a significant proportion of the food grain that the government procured last year was lost in storage. The government is envisaging export of the six million tons that remains in its possession at a price that is now lower than the price at which it was purchased last year. It is a poignant paradox that the government is thinking of exporting food grain at a time when the majority of the population is food insecure.
It would be better economic logic to supply the surplus food grain to the poor population at an affordable price and thereby insulate them to some extent from the ravages of food inflation. This can be done by issuing plastic ration cards to each poor household that has been identified in the recent World Bank survey of poor households. This card would entitle a household to acquire 40 kilogrammes (kg) of wheat flour per month from utility stores at a fixed, subsidised price of about Rs800 for one 40 kg bag. The total cost to the government of this subsidy to 60 million poor households would be, a maximum of, Rs108 billion. This can be financed by reducing the subsidy on fertilisers which predominantly goes to the large farmers who, in any case, last year, enjoyed a selling price of Rs950 per 40 kg bag — higher than the world price. While the cost of the wheat flour is modest, the human welfare resulting from the protection of the poor from inflation would be immense.
In the medium term, the government can find the fiscal space to stimulate the economy through four measures: (i) I have estimated that Rs91.5 billion can be saved by reducing the number of unnecessary and overlapping government departments and ministries. The government needs to rightsize itself, instead of spending tax payers’ money in ‘accommodating’ its political allies and redundant government officials. (ii) Restructure and privatise public sector entities which are currently generating Rs140 billion losses, which have to be financed by the government. (iii) Reduce the existing Rs343 billion of badly targeted subsidies and refocus them to benefit the underprivileged sections of the population. (iv) The government ought to stop trading in commodities, for which it has neither the storage capacity nor the marketing skills, but on which it spent Rs450 billion last year.
The government needs to drastically cut down its wasteful expenditures on an oversized government, prevent corrupt and mismanaged public sector enterprises from haemorrhaging the exchequer, pull out from trading activities which are better done by the private sector and reduce unnecessary subsidies. This will provide the fiscal space for stimulating economic growth in the medium term and provide succour to the poor in the short term. The cry of the hungry citizens, who have no voice in the market, must be heard by the government which purports to represent them.

The writer is distinguished professor of economics at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore 
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