Chinese varsity imposes blanket punishment on students

— By IANS | Sep 19, 2015 06:15 pm 

Beijing: A Chinese university forced its female students to wrap themselves in blankets in the hot sun as a form of punishment during the school’s compulsory military training, a media report said. The incident took place at a university in Hunan Province, according to Global Post.

Instructors at the College of Foreign Studies in Changsha ordered the group of 20 students to lie down on a paved athletic track and cover themselves in heavy quilts as a penalty for their “unkempt dormitory”, the report said. Drills and disciplinary action are part of China’s military education programmne. The report also quoted a school official defending the instructor’s actions, saying the punishment lasted “only five minutes”.

“The weather was good and temperatures were below 32 C,” said Xie Yong, a deputy director of the college’s student work department. The students were subjected to the penalty as more than 2,000 others participating in the military training watched. The school called the spectacle “punishment education”.

“It’s really miserable and embarrassing (to be punished) in front of thousands of people,” said an unnamed student. A freshman too sided with the authorities and said extreme measures are understandable.

“They don’t do what they’re told because they’re pampered at home,” said Hu Ling (pseudonym). “The instructors are being strict for our own good.” But Xie said such punishment was not appropriate for girls on an emotional level and that the school will arrange for counselling of the students.

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Another drowned toddler washes up on Turkish beach

— By FPJ Bureau | Sep 19, 2015 01:37 am 

Istanbul : A four-year-old Syrian girl’s body washed up on a beach in western Turkey today, state media said, just weeks after images of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi shook the world.

The yet-to-be identified girl was found lifeless on a beach in the Aegean town of Cesme in Izmir province after a boat carrying 15 Syrians to the Greek island of Chios sank, the official Anatolia news agency said.

It said the Turkish coast guard rescued the remaining 14 Syrians, including eight children, from the inflatable boat. The girl appeared to be the only casualty.

Harrowing pictures of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, whose body was found washed up on a Turkish beach after the boat carrying his family to the Greek island of Kos sank, caused an outpouring of emotion around the world, pressuring European leaders to step up their response to the refugee crisis.

But two weeks later EU members are still at odds over how to accommodate the tens of thousands of new arrivals.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Friday that the Turkish coast guard had rescued over 53,000 migrants from stricken boats since the beginning of the year.

He said around 274 migrants have lost their lives in Turkish waters this year seeking to leave the country by sea for Greece.

In the latest tragedy, 22 people who had left Turkey drowned on Tuesday when their wooden boat sank off Kos.

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Chileans deal with aftermath of 8.3 quake

— By FPJ Bureau | Sep 19, 2015 01:33 am 

Coquimbo : Hundreds of traumatised Chileans spent a second night out in the open or in shelters night after an offshore 8.3 magnitude earthquake left 12 dead.

In the coastal city of Coquimbo, the wrath of the earth’s twitch in this quake-prone country was clear and ugly: a jumble of fishing boats, remains of homes, trucks, vendors’ stands and cars washed up by tsunami waves bore testament to the sea’s fury.

Maria Zamorano, 60, recounted how she and her large family ran from the shoreline to save themselves from the surging waves.

“If we had stayed here we would have perished,” she told AFP, as people slowly and warily returned to see what was left of their homes. The town is 400 km north of the capital Santiago.

The earthquake Wednesday evening was the sixth strongest in the history of Chile and the most powerful anywhere in the world this year, officials said.

Close to one million people were evacuated from Pacific coastal areas as a precaution as Chile sounded a tsunami alert, with warnings issued as far away as Japan and New Zealand.

But as of Thursday, most of the evacuated Chileans had returned home.

Still, Interior Minister Jorge Burgos said that some 600 people remained in shelters or elsewhere and that some 650 homes were damaged, mainly in Cocquimbo.

The quake occurred at a shallow depth and the epicenter was 228 kilometers (about 140 miles) north of the capital Santiago, a city of 6.6 million people, where there were scenes of pandemonium as thousands fled swaying buildings.

In the hours that followed, tsunami waves of up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) came crashing onshore in the Coquimbo region, causing extensive damage to the region’s port. Eight of the 12 victims were in Coquimbo.

Scenes of destruction also littered the badly hit coastal town of Illapel, further south.

“It was a nightmare,” Maria Ramirez told AFP as she swept up debris outside her house.

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Muslim teen not to return to school that got him arrested

Houston : A Muslim boy in the US arrested over a homemade clock today said he will not return to the school where teachers got him arrested for an invention that ‘looked like a bomb’ as more support gathered for the 14-year- old, with people questioning the real motive of his detention.

Ninth-grader Ahmed Mohamed from Irving in Texas does not wish to return to MacArthur High and is searching for another school though his three-day suspension came to an end today, the CNN reported.

The teen’s family stated that they will consider other schools, possibly even some outside of the US. Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed said his son will either enrol at a private school or be home schooled.

Mohamed’s handcuffing and arrest over an innocent attempt to impress his teachers with his homemade clock sparked a debate, including on social media where netizens questioned the real motive of teachers and authorities amid fears of Islamophobia as the child in question was of brown skin and a Muslim.

Some Facebook users ‘shared’ a post that suggested the authorities never really thought the teen had a real bomb and wanted to ‘humiliate a little Muslim, African boy’.

The post highlighted why the school was not immediately evacuated following the beep and discovery of the clock — a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front.

“…they (authorities) didn’t evacuate the school — like you do when there’s a bomb. They didn’t call a bomb squad — like you do when there’s a bomb. They didn’t get as far away from him as possible — like you do when there’s a bomb. Then they put him and the clock in an office — not like you do when there’s a bomb. Then they waited with him for the police to arrive. Then they put the clock in the same car as the police. Then they took pictures of it…” it read.

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Pressure to be ‘cool’ and look good harmful to kids

— By PTI | Sep 11, 2015 03:13 pm 

London: The pressure to be ‘cool’, look good and own the ‘right stuff’ is detrimental to many children and teenagers, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have warned. The study by the University of Sussex psychologists shows that while many young people buy into consumer culture believing it will make them feel better about themselves and help them to make friends, often the reverse happens.

The result is a negative downward spiral, said the researchers, whereby those with low well-being turn to consumerist values, which impacts further still upon their state of mind. In the study of 1,000 UK children aged 8-14 over three years, being disruptive, having ‘cool stuff’ and looking good was often seen as the best way to become more popular among peers.

The results, however, showed that valuing these behaviours actually has the opposite effect, with peer relations worsening over time for those kids turning to consumer-culture values. There were also some interesting differences between boys and girls: depressive symptoms in boys tends to predict increases in their materialism, whereas depressive symptoms in girls tends to predict the internalisation of appearance concerns.

“Our results suggest that children who have low levels of well-being are particularly likely to become orientated towards consumer culture, and thus enter into a negative downward spiral,” said Dr Matthew Easterbrook, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex.

“Consumer culture may be perceived as a coping mechanism by vulnerable children, but it is one that is detrimental to their well-being,” he said. “Our study shows how consumer-culture values are tied up with images of social success in childhood,” said Robin Banerjee, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Sussex.

“Although friendly and helpful children were ultimately more popular over time, young people mistakenly predicted that the route to being liked was in having a reputation for disruptive behaviour, having ‘cool’ stuff and looking good. “What we found was another example of a downward spiral – those rejected by peers then turned to consumer culture, which actually worsened, rather than improved, those relationships,” he said.

The latest research is part of a wider project at the University, led by Sussex psychologist Dr Helga Dittmar, that is systematically examining the impact of consumer-culture ideals on children’s personal and social well-being. The research was presented at the British Psychological Society’s Developmental and Social Psychology Section annual conference.

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Climate change will hit food security

— By Bharat Jhunjhunwala | Sep 05, 2015 12:09 am 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his resolve to help Island countries of the Pacific Ocean face climate change. The melting of glaciers due to global warming is expected to lead to an increase in the level of water in our oceans. This will lead to some islands completely being submerged into the ocean. Modi is also slated to join hands with President Obama on the issue of global warming during his coming visit to the United States. These steps taken by Modi are both timely and welcome. But there is a much more urgent problem lurking in our backyard that needs attention much before the global action plan is worked out.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that global warming will increase the number of extreme climate events such as floods, droughts and cyclones. The rainfall pattern is likely to become more variable too. Few days of intense rain followed by long periods of droughts are likely to take place even though average rainfall may remain the same. The average temperature in India has risen by 0.6 degree Celsius in the last century. It is expected to increase by 2.4 degrees by the year 2100. What we will face will be four times the increase in present century compared to what we have seen in the last century.

The impact of climate change will be more severe on rain fed agriculture. Crops like bajra, corn and ragi are cultivated in large tracts of the country. I have lived for a few years in Rajasthan. Often there are good rains at the time of sowing followed by long dry spells such that the farmer only harvests the straw at the end of the season. Climate change will hit at rain-fed agriculture majorly. Farmers in these areas will demand facilities of irrigation such as from canals. Crops in irrigated areas will also come under pressure. It is predicted that there will be a reduction in winter rains. Long spells of no rains in the monsoons will increase the demand for irrigation for paddy as well. There will be an increase in demand for irrigation in all the seasons.

The availability of water, on the other hand, will reduce. It is predicted that there will be less snowfall in the hills. That will lead to less flow into the rivers during the summers when the demand for water is the highest. Greater variability in the rainfall pattern will lead to less recharge of groundwater aquifers. Continuously drizzling water for a number of days enables large amounts of water to seep into the earth. One gush of heavy rainfall, on the other hand, provides less time for the water to seep into the earth. Most water flows into the rivers and into the sea. Our efforts to control flood have also led to less recharge of aquifers. Previously flood waters used to inundate large tracts of land and water used to seep into the aquifers. Now we have built embankments along many rivers which prevent the spread of flood water. As a result, groundwater level is fast reducing in most areas of the country.

The availability of water for irrigation will be further reduced due to evaporation from large storage reservoirs like Bhakra and Tehri. A study of 12 large reservoirs in the United States predicted that evaporation loss will increase by nine percent in the next century. The loss is likely to be more in our warmer climate. We are faced with a double whammy. The demand for irrigation will increase while availability of water for irrigation will reduce.

Climate change will also have global political implications for us. Warmer temperatures will be mildly positive for colder countries of Europe and North America; while it will be hugely negative for tropical countries like India which means that developed countries will be able to produce larger quantities of food grains while our production may decline. We had to go with a begging bowl to Washington in the sixties for supply of food grains under the United States’ PL 480 programme. A similar situation may be created yet again. Thus climate change will affect sovereignty.

We need to make changes in our agriculture and water policies to face these multiple challenges arising from global warming. The indigenous varieties of food grains like paddy and wheat are more resistant to climate variations. We had abandoned these varieties in favour of High Yielding Varieties to augment our food production in the wake of the food crisis of the sixties. We will have to retrace our steps. We must encourage farmers to grow traditional varieties even though the production may be less. The farmer is willing to make this change. He wants to insulate himself from the vagaries of weather. His problem is that he cannot make his ends meet if the production is less. Therefore, we must put in place a system of incentives for growing indigenous varieties. We must adopt water conservation measures such as drip irrigation so that we can grow same amount of grains with less water. Once again the problem is that of price. The farmers do not have the income or the incentive to invest in drip irrigation systems. This requires increase in price and provision of incentives.

We are consuming large amounts of water for growing water-intensive crops like grapes, sugarcane, and red chillies that are often produced for export. We pack our scarce water into these crops and export our water to foreign countries. There is a need to assess the availability of water in each block of the country and put restrictions on growing of crops that consume more water than is available. Farmers make tens of irrigations in dry areas of Gulbarga and Jodhpur to grow grapes and red chillies. This must stop.

Our water policy also needs reconsideration. Present policy is to make large reservoirs like Bhakra and Tehri and store monsoon water for use in the summers. As told above, this is leading to huge losses due to evaporation. Instead, we must store water in groundwater aquifers. We must remove all embankments along the rivers and let the flood waters spread over large areas so that the aquifers are recharged. We must build villages on mounds and houses on stilts so that loss of life is minimised during floods. Prime Minister Modi must be congratulated for putting global warming on the agenda in his talks with foreign countries. But one does not lecture about the need to buy a new fire engine when one’s house is on fire. Modi must first make policies to insulate India from global warming. Only then would his interactions with other countries be credible.

Author was formerly a Professor of Economics at IIM Bengaluru

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Movie review: Gauraiya – Gritty but distasteful!

— By Johnson Thomas | Aug 28, 2015 08:06 pm 

Cast: Raiya Sinha, Karamveer Chaudhary, Vijay Jora, Sumit Chawla, Sushma Salvi

Director: Rajesh Hans

Rating: * *

Runtime: 109 mins

Supposedly centered around true incidents of sexploitation of Harijans by Dacoits, thekedars and other armed forces located in the north Indian desert regions of Patha and Chitrakoot, this film tries hard to ensnare it’s audience with a surfeit of cuss words and exploitative frontal nudity.

 While the treatment is gritty and the ethos, look  and cultural landscape tends to realism, the overabundant use of dehumanizing slang and copious plants of frontal nudity in the guise of sexploitation exposes, is just not palatable. It seemed like the director had some noble intentions to begin with- like making a case for cautious implementation of the 216 A law that empowers the police to take in hapless villagers as a preventive measure against armed attack. But those intentions  get lost in the exploitative content masquerading as a social awareness treatise.

The writer/Director does try to broaden the ambit a bit by adding a young activist/writer, Shefali, working on a book titled ‘End of crime’ as part of her PhD thesis work – to the story. Shefali visits the oppressed and the oppressors,  making notes and soothing pained brows as part of her effort to understand the cycle of crime and criminality.  But there’s little or no affect there other than as a convenient prop- just like the NGO sent to the village to serve the oppressed victims, becoming yet another spoke in the wheel of oppression.

Also, the characters have no growth curve. The lead character Gauraiya(Raiya Sinha), moves from one sexploitative experience to another without any repulsive action to showcase her unwillingness. The performances are pretty sanguine though. The villains are also typically vicious and boot happy. There’s absolutely no relief to be had in the abusive assemblage. The entire experience was gross and the rendering criminally  undermines the cause of women’s empowerment. Token posturing of one so-called strong woman character who stands up against oppression doesn’t balance it out either. Best avoided or else be resigned to your thankless fate!

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