Young women ‘have more sexual partners’ than men
December 10, 2008
Young women are more promiscuous than men, according to a survey that claims the average 21-year-old has had nine sexual partners compared with seven for men.
By Martin Beckford
The poll of 2,000 by the magazine More also found that one in four young women has slept with more than 10 people, compared with one in five men who had done the same.
In addition, half of those questioned admitted they had been unfaithful, whereas only a quarter said they had been cheated on by a boyfriend.
It comes just a week after an academic study branded Britain one of the casual sex capitals of the Read more
Rape’s vast toll in Iraq war remains largely ignored
November 26, 2008
Many rape victims have escaped to Jordan but still don’t have access to treatment and counseling.
By Anna Badkhen | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Amman, Jordan – As though recoiling from her own memories, Khalida shrank deeper into her faded armchair with each sentence she told: of how gunmen apparently working for Iraq’s Interior Ministry kidnapped her, beat and raped her; of how they discarded her on a Baghdad sidewalk.
But her suffering did not end when she fled Iraq and became a refugee in Jordan’s capital, Amman. When Khalida’s husband learned that she had been raped, he abandoned her and their two young sons.
Rumors spread fast in Amman; soon, everyone on her block knew that she was without a man in the house. Last month, her Jordanian neighbor barged into her apartment and attempted to rape her.
Khalida never reported the incident. Like tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, she does not have a permit to live or work here, and she is afraid that if she turns to authorities for help she will get deported. So instead of seeking punishment for her assailant, she latched the flimsy metal door of her apartment and stopped going outside.
Her story sheds light on a problem that is little researched, poorly understood, and largely ignored: Iraqi rape victims who now live in Jordan illegally and without protection. Sexual assault is heavily Read more
Will energy drinks become the taste of new generation?
November 4, 2008
Preethi Chamikutty, ET Bureau.
Since time immemorial, humans have chased the mythical elixir of life or the fabled potion of youth to add those extra springs to their steps. Now, brands are seeking to make a business out of this fixation. Enter the new and improved, version 3.0 of the elixir, or potion as you may like to call it: energy drinks. And you don’t have to be god or the blessed one to consume it.
What entered Indian stores and pubs less-than-a-decade back, in the form of Coca-Cola’s Shock and Red Bull is now making serious business sense for the later entrants. Ani Mohandas, managing director, Power Horse India, estimates the market size for energy drinks in India to be in the region of Rs 500 crore. And the year-on-year growth rate, an astounding 50%. “The category is witnessing massive growth. Though it will take some time, it will be like the mobile phones in a few years,” continues Mohandas.
At present retailer shelves are stocked with energy drinks that Read more
Destitute and confused: bleak future for refugees caught in the crossfire
October 3, 2008
Residents of grim camp tell of clashes between coalition forces and the Taliban
Jason Burke in Kabul
The Guardian
An Afghan girl in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP
In the evening the temperature falls at last and light slants across the camp, throwing long shadows across the stagnant puddles and shining through the kites, made from plastic bags, that the children fly.
It shines, too, through the thin walls of the makeshift tents that cover a patch of wasteland in the west of Kabul. The 3,500 refugees who live in them are a long way from their homes in the badlands of the south where the British are fighting. Most of the refugees are from districts such as Sangin, Nawazad, Kajaki or Gereshk in the southern province of Helmand, sites of fierce battles between British troops and the Taliban.
Their stories reveal a different side of the conflict. Few understand who is fighting, even fewer distinguish between British troops and those of other nationalities, all tell stories of civilians killed by coalition air strikes. There is little sign of progress in the campaign to win hearts and minds.
Rozi Khan, a day labourer from Kajaki, said he had no idea which soldiers were fighting around his village when he left two months ago. In fact, securing Kajaki with its strategically important reservoir and dam has been a British objective since the initial days of the deployment in 2006. Last week British soldiers successfully transported a huge turbine to the dam, which could eventually supply nearly 2 million people with electricity. Coalition spokesmen claimed to have killed more than 250 Taliban during the operation.
But there is little evidence of material improvement on the ground, according to the refugees. “They say they have come to help us but they have come for fighting,” Khan, 25, said. “But instead of killing one person who has attacked them they kill 50 people in the village. Is this a help?”
Bismatullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said “the Americans” and the Taliban were fighting around his home in Sangin, again in the British zone of operations. He too spoke of how large numbers of civilians had been killed and buildings destroyed. Independent confirmation of the claim was unavailable.
Bismatullah, 32, was nostalgic for the days when the Taliban were in power. “There was peace and security and no real fighting. The Taliban were following the path of the Qur’an,” he said.
Such sentiments appear widespread. Many refugees interviewed said that the insurgents had not bothered them; others said that, as they had nothing, the Taliban had accepted their refusal to provide food. “They came asking but I showed them my children who are hungry and have no clothes and they left me alone. They get food from the richer people,” said one farmer from Sangin.
Elsewhere, however, the refugees said the Taliban demanded food, lodging or even volunteers. “If you have nothing else to give them you have to go with them and they give you a gun and you have to fight. They haven’t committed any atrocities but people are afraid of them,” said another Sangin resident.
Often, villagers made a distinction between local Taliban they knew personally, such as those apparently operating in Kajaki district, and those who came from elsewhere, sometimes Pakistan, with whom they had more trouble. The real problem, most said, was not the Taliban or the “Amriki”, as western troops are universally known, but the combination of the two.
“We had to leave because the Taliban were coming to our village and firing once or twice and there would be a big bombardment and some civilians would die,” Ahmed Shah, from Nawazad district, said. The word bombardment has been integrated into local languages.
Nato spokesmen frequently allege that the Taliban deliberately invite attacks that will kill civilians in order to turn local populations against the international forces and the Afghan government they support. Taliban spokesmen deny the charge. The situation is muddied further as local officials and tribal elders often inflate the number of civilian casualties for political gain or more compensation.
But that the villagers are caught in the crossfire is without doubt. Nor is their extreme poverty. Most are landless labourers forced to travel to seek work. For them the war brings particular problems.
“If I went out of my village I risked being shot by the government as a Taliban spy or shot by the Taliban as a government spy,” said one refugee from the central Oruzgan province, where Dutch and US soldiers are deployed. “The government holds the district centres, the Taliban run everything outside.”
Most of the refugees are destitute, often having borrowed money or sold their last possessions to travel by truck to Kabul. The unauthorised camp has been established on unused government land. There is no sanitation and summer temperatures reach 40C (104F). They live on scraps of stale bread scavenged from rubbish piles across the city.
As a widow with four young children, Gul Pari is in a worse situation than many. She said her husband, a labourer, was killed a year ago in Helmand in a “bombardment” but is unsure which side was to blame. “When there was fighting, we did not know what was going on. But I think it was the fault of the Taliban because they were shooting and then there was an attack afterwards. Now we have nothing except the 50 Afghani [65p] each day that my son gets from selling ice creams.”
The refugees have received blankets and plastic sheets from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and an initial ration of food from the government, and are helped by local businessmen.
“They are in a poor situation but are better off than many other such communities around the country who are less visible,” said Mohammed Nader Farhad of the UNHCR. “Especially in the south and east there are problems with displacement due to military operations. Most people want to go home but can’t due to the fighting.”
Government estimates place the number of internally displaced by the conflict at 10,000, though aid agencies believe the true total is seven times greater.
Said Ali, who last month fled the Helmand town of Gereshk, where British troops have struggled for two years to stabilise a secure zone, said: “There was fighting with the Taliban and local people shooting at the soldiers and then the planes were coming. My house was destroyed, my animals were killed, my brother injured. We have nothing there and we have nothing here.”
Ali was unsure of the future. “When there is peace we will go home but now there is war,” he said.
For a few autumn months at least the temperatures will be relatively pleasant and the dust storms will end. But then the vicious Kabul winter will come.
Courtesy: The Guardian
Lights, camera, India!
September 13, 2008
By Abdulla Mahmood Special to Explore.
For decades, Bollywood has been flocking to foreign destinations — from the Far East to Europe and the United States — often at the expense of ignoring beautiful places in India.
But move aside Bollywood — it’s time now for Hollywood to start exploring Indian shores.
Due to globalisation, there has been a rise in the number of Hollywood movies being shot in India.
In fact, Indian locations came into the limelight with the twin Hollywood projects Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) and the Roger Moore-starrer James Bond flick Octopussy (1983), shot in north Indian locations.
Again, it took Patrick Swayze’s City of Joy (1992) to bring into focus the east-Indian city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta).
There was a lull in Tinseltown after this but in the past decade Hollywood has again opened up to visiting India, with stars such as Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody coming down to shoot..
Let’s check out Hollywood’s favourite destinations in India when it comes to shooting and some of the major films shot in famous locations:
RAJASTHAN: This is definitely the most popular destination for Hollywood films. In fact, this state is one of Asia’s most popular tourist spots.
Rajasthan lies in the lap of the vast Thar Desert and has a rich history, culture and tradition. With some beautiful surroundings and heritage sites, Rajasthan has some amazing sites to offer filmmakers.
The lakes in Udaipur (the Lake City), the palaces in Jaipur (the Pink City), Jodhpur (the Sun City), the desert areas of Jaisalmer and, of course, the famous Palace on Wheels luxury train are just some of the attractions that Hollywood can’t ignore.
Octopussy captured the scenic beauty of Udaipur as it shot in the palaces at the Jagmandir and Jagniwas islands amid Lake Pichola.
The award-winning movie The Warrior (2001), starring Irrfan Khan, and Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair (2004), starring Reese Witherspoon, were shot in the beautiful locales of Rajasthan.
One Night with the King (2006) had its plot based in the Middle East and the deserts of Rajasthan were found the best alternative to Gulf sands.
The Fall (2007) by Tarsem Singh (director of Jennifer Lopez’s path-breaking thriller The Cell) stunningly captured the beauty of Jodhpur.
Last year, Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, starring Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, was shot in the Palace on Wheels and may well have influenced many Westerners to take a trip around Rajasthan on this luxury train.
Salman Khan’s first international project, Marigold (2007) co-starring Ali Larter and directed by Willard Carol was shot at Jodhpur and the famous Khimsar Fort bordering the Thar Desert.
AGRA: When it comes to awareness overseas, no one would have been aware of the city of Agra had it not been for the Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Tourists from all over the world flock to visit this magnificent white marble monument. This is also one of the prime reasons for Hollywood filmmakers to go to Agra other than for shooting at the Taj Mahal on the banks of the Yamuna River.
The Agra Fort is also a lure but ranks second in importance to the Taj Mahal — Octopussy and Gandhi did do a good job of promoting the latter.
The Oscar-nominated A Little Princess (1995) was also shot at the Taj Mahal and Sharon Stone’s The Last Dance (1996) and Singh’s The Fall were shot in Agra.
Moreover, the recently released The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, included a visit to the Taj Mahal as part of its India itinerary.
NEW DELHI: Being the capital of India, New Delhi has always had prominence when it comes to films centred on Indian diplomacy and politics, such as Gandhi and the 2007 English flick Partition.
Old Delhi is fascinating because of its culture and historic landmarks, which provide Hollywood films with an interesting backdrop.
A glimpse of the Red Fort is enough to capture the flavour of this city.
Delhi gives a true peek into Indian life and this was captured in Kate Winslet’s Holy Smoke (1999), Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) and the critically acclaimed Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005).
Moreover, a glimpse of Delhi can also be seen in the 2004 movie Day After Tomorrow.
GOA: This place is considered the most exotic place in India due to its sunny beaches and tourist-friendly environment.
The Portuguese ruled Goa until 1961 and left behind a strong influence that can be felt even today — and this suits Western sensibilities well. It is no wonder, then, that Goa attracts Western filmmakers.
The Hollywood flick that gave Goa’s fame a boost was Matt Damon’s The Bourne Supremacy.
The film wonderfully captured the lazy Goan beaches and the action sequence shot in the bylanes of Panjim caught the attention of moviegoers the world over.
There are also talks of a film to be made on the Scarlett Keeling murder case in Goa, which, along with capturing the beautiful Goan beaches, may depict its dark side as well.
MUMBAI: Of course, how could Hollywood skip Mumbai, the hub of Bollywood and the financial capital of India?
All major Bollywood studios are based in Mumbai, which means any sort of infrastructural or technical support and manpower required to shoot a film in India has to be sourced from Mumbai.
The landmarks in Mumbai, such as the Gateway of India, have a special place in Hollywood films.
Gandhi was shot mostly in Mumbai and, of recent films, Angelina Jolie’s A Mighty Heart zoomed in on Mumbai and Pune as its choice destinations.
Since some of the sequences in A Mighty Heart could not be shot in Pakistan due to security reasons, sets were replicated in Mumbai, which passed off as Karachi and Islamabad in the film.
But the biggest Hollywood film to be shot in Mumbai or, for that matter, in India, will be Mira Nair’s Shantaram, starring Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The film is due to be out in 2009.
In fact, this film is also expected to be shot in India’s IT cities Hyderabad and Bangalore and at the famous historic sites of Hampi in the southern state of Karnataka.
OTHER LOCALES: Besides these places, films such as City of Joy and Namesake have captured bits and pieces of Kolkata.
Kerala, also known as God’s Own Country for its natural beauty and famous backwaters, was depicted in all its splendour in the art-house project Cotton Mary (1999).
And Simla, the popular north-Indian hill station, was shown in the films A Little Princess and The Warrior.
So be prepared to watch more of India in Hollywood in the coming days.
— Abdulla Mahmood is a UAE-based freelance writer
Courtesy: gulfNews
Fighting the Taliban: What it’s really like
August 24, 2008
Last week, yet more members of Western forces were killed in Afghanistan. In a new book, Sunday Telegraph defence correspondent Sean Rayment, a former Army officer, describes the horrors of war faced by British soldiers.
The whispered words “Moving in five minutes” ripple along the column of soldiers standing in the dust of the Helmand desert. Tense faces are illuminated beneath a moonlit sky. After hours of waiting, we are setting off to hunt down the Taliban in the Green Zone, a lush green strip that borders the Helmand river and the most dangerous part of Afghanistan.
The soldiers call it Bandit Country, and for good reason. This is where the Taliban hold sway.
It is one in the morning and, despite a cool breeze, I’m sweating beneath my helmet and body armour. There’s a delay but we are not told why. The 120 soldiers who are about to march out on the operation check and re-check their weapons and equipment for a final time. Rifle, bayonet, ammunition, hand grenades, tourniquet, morphine, field dressing, water, rations, spare socks – almost everything the modern British soldier needs for fighting in Helmand. The other thing is luck.
Another message floats along the column of soldiers: “Prepare to move.” I look down the line and see young faces illuminated by the glow of cigarettes being sucked for the final time. Others are hauling their impossibly heavy packs on to their backs. There is a flurry of activity and then, without ceremony, we move silently beyond the walls of Patrol Base Inkerman. After 20 minutes we stop in a small hamlet and a soldier crawls towards me and whispers: “If we get ambushed and you find yourself in the killing zone, stick with me.” I ask him what he means by “the killing zone”. “It’s the area of ground in an ambush where you have the greatest chance of being killed. If you’re in it, you’re in the s**t.” He then smiles and says: “And if I’m dead, you’re probably f****d.”
The Taliban, ejected from power in Afghanistan after 9/11, continued to fight against the new regime, and throughout 2003 and 2004 it became clear that they were far from beaten. Isaf – the International Security Assistance Force – would have to move beyond the boundaries of Kabul and towns such as Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and down to the south of Afghanistan, Helmand, where the Taliban was strong and growing. By early 2005, the planning for the deployment of 16 Air Assault Brigade was in full swing. By May 2006, a large portion of the 3,150 troops who made up the task force had arrived in Helmand.
Nowzad, it was decided, was the place where the Paras would make their mark. The town had changed little since medieval times. High mud walls, several feet thick, separated areas from one another.
Operation Mutay, which took place on June 4, 2006, was centred on a large high-walled compound situated in a “bocage” – an area consisting of dense orchards, irrigation ditches and many inter-connected walled compounds. It was the perfect place in which the Taliban could ambush anyone trying to enter.
In the sky, the Paras would be supported by Apache attack helicopters, US A–10 Warthogs and B1 Bombers throughout the operation. H-Hour, the time at which all operations begin, was 1200hrs and L-Hour, the time at which the heliborne force was due to land, was 1210hrs.
The flight time from Camp Bastion to Nowzad is around 30 minutes, but the troops arrived at their muster stations at least an hour before flying. The men checked and re-checked their equipment; section commanders briefed and rebriefed their men. A few soldiers sat in silence, while others laughed and joked.
The troops embarked on to the Chinooks at around 1130hrs. Almost from the moment the troops landed contacts began breaking out everywhere. The first bursts of AK47 fire were aimed at the Gurkhas and the Patrols Platoon. The Patrols Platoon took the brunt and were attacked by 10 Taliban fighters armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The reaction from the Paras was devastating. Within a few minutes, three of the enemy lay dead. A Forward Air Controller (FAC) attached to one of the Para patrols called one of the circling Apaches. The FAC sent through the enemy’s location and his request to fire was acknowledged with: “Roger, engaging, out.” Just 100m above the troops, the pilot aligned the cross hairs of his helmet-mounted sight on the enemy position. Slung beneath the Apache’s nose, the 30mm automatically swivelled towards the target. The pilot pressed the firing button and the gun roared into life.
A hail of bullets tore into the target area, felling trees and churning up the dusty desert before ripping into the frail bodies of the Taliban who had been foolish enough to give away their position. They were left in a bloody, dismembered heap.
“I’m glad those f***ers are on our side,” said one Tom to another when the firing from the Taliban position stopped.
Friday April 13, 2007 began early for the majority of the Royal Anglians housed in the secure compound at Nowzad that served as their base. It was still dark and cold and the men queued for their breakfast of beans, powdered scrambled egg and barely edible sausages. This was A Company’s first large-scale operation.
The tension started to build as the soldiers moved into their patrol formation. Then it was time to go. Slowly and quietly, the three platoons moved out from the base and into the empty, dusty town. The plan was for the company to move through the town at first light, around 0600hrs. The operation was going well. At around 0930hrs, the process began of moving back to the base for a cup of tea. The route back to the compound took the company across open ground.
1 Platoon were ordered to move forward and take up fire positions to cover the rest of the company. As the troops moved forward, about a dozen members of the Taliban armed with automatic weapons and RPGs launched a surprise attack.
Simon Panter, the sergeant of 3 Platoon, described the moment: “The Taliban were already in the position which 1 Platoon were trying to occupy and as we moved they opened up on us. It was a classic ambush and there was so much fire zipping around our heads that it was difficult to work out where the Taliban were. All hell broke loose.”
With the Royal Anglian soldiers pinned down, the Taliban began to move into a flanking position. The move was spotted by a soldier, who told Sgt Panter. If the Taliban managed to get into position, his platoon would be caught in crossfire. Sgt Panter ordered his men to outflank the Taliban. As Cpl Billy Moore’s section headed for a new position, with young Pte Chris Gray leading the move, they came face to face with half a dozen Taliban fighters, who opened fire from behind a wall, just a metre or two in front of Pte Gray. Both Cpl Moore and Pte Gray, armed with the rapid-firing minimi, opened fire. The burst tore into the Taliban and four were killed outright. However, a burst of fire from another direction hit Cpl Moore in the arm, while another bullet smashed through Pte Gray’s chest armour, leaving him badly wounded. Cpl Moore’s upper arm was sliced open but, despite the pain, he stood over Pte Gray and continued to fire while shouting: “Man down, man down.”
As the fighting continued a third soldier, Pte Craig Fisher, was hit in the leg. The situation was now critical. Unless the Anglian could overpower the Taliban, they ran the risk of sustaining even more casualties. Pte Gray was rushed back to the compound and medics fought to keep him alive while a Chinook with a medical team flew in from Camp Bastion.
Back on the ground, the whole of A Company was now locked into a ferocious, 360-degree battle with the Taliban. Sgt Panter recalls: “The Taliban were around us and amongst us. The soldiers were quite literally bumping into them. It was a f***ing fierce fight all day.”
A Company finally managed to break free from the Taliban. Short on ammunition and exhausted, the soldiers returned to their base to learn that Pte Gray hadn’t made it.
Although only 19, Pte Gray was mature beyond his years and was a highly regarded soldier. He was the point-man of the lead section. His ability to open fire quickly and kill three Taliban fighters helped save the lives of those behind him.
Courtesy: The Daily Telegraph
Yemen confronts plight of child brides
August 23, 2008
Widespread poverty and deep-rooted tradition keep young girls at risk for early marriage.
By Ginny Hill.
SANAA, YEMEN – Two months ago, at the start of the school vacation, 12-year-old Reem was forced to marry her 30-year-old cousin.
“While my hair was styled for the ceremony, I thought of ways to set fire to my wedding dress,” she says. “When I protested, my dad gagged me and tied me up. After the wedding, I tried to kill myself twice.”
Reem is the latest child bride to run from her husband’s arms into the media spotlight. But she is not the youngest girl to escape from domestic violence and sexual abuse in recent months. This spring, 9-year-old Arwa and 10-year-old Nujood became the first “tiny voices” to alert the world to Yemen’s widespread practice of child marriage.
The girls’ stories have instigated a campaign against the practice, which is believed to be a consequence of widespread poverty as parents unable to provide for their children give, and in some cases sell, them into matrimony.
According to estimates based on surveys by university researchers and development agencies, half of all brides in Yemen are age 18 or younger. But there are no reliable national figures.
Child brides are prevalent in Yemen because the minimum marriage age of 15 was revoked a decade ago to allow parents to decide when their daughters should marry. The ruling abides by an interpretation of the Koran that claims there is no prescribed age for marriage.
Deep-rooted traditions also play a role. “Early marriages are universal in Yemen because of the cultural premium placed on shaping a young bride to meet the husband’s needs,” explains Naseem ur-Rehman, the chief of communications for the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen.
Parliament is considering a proposal to re-instate a legal minimum, setting the age at 18. But some lawmakers remain opposed on religious grounds. “Yemenis follow established customs more closely than the law,” says Ahmed al-Gorashi, chairman of the child-protection charity Seyaj. “Tribal leaders and imams have more influence than the state. But it’s important to amend our marriage laws to create a benchmark. We need a new place to start from.”
Yemeni women are the most vulnerable
UNICEF warns that soaring inflation rates and high food prices threaten to turn increasing numbers of young girls into child brides, as families struggle to survive.
“There’s an avalanche of factors working against the girl child. We should be on a war footing … to save young girls from the inferno of child marriage,” says Mr. Rehman.
He explains that the phenomenon of child marriage transcends the urban-rural divide and cuts across economic categories. “Even powerful families arrange alliance marriages by bartering their daughters into the power structures at an early age, but girls from the poorest families are most at risk,” he says.
Arwa was sold to her husband for 30,000 Yemeni rials ($150) by relatives who needed the cash. Nujood’s family also traded her to a violent man who would chase her through the house before raping her.
Both girls reached beyond their family circle in search of help. Arwa went to a local hospital, while Nujood caught a taxi to a court house where she told her tale to a sympathetic judge. Each was swiftly granted a divorce.
The girls’ experiences reveal a fragile existence at the margins of society in the poorest country in the Arab world.
More than a third of the population – 7 million people – are undernourished, according to the United Nation’s World Food Program. Yemen is heavily dependent on food imports, making its citizens especially vulnerable to global price shocks.
“The cards are stacked against the girl child, and those shuffling the cards don’t even understand the risks to their sisters and daughters,” adds Rehman.
Pregnant women in Yemen are at high risk of dying during childbirth. Early marriage contributes to this problem, as teenage mothers are five times more likely to die from complications during labor than women giving birth in their twenties, says Rehman.
No support after divorce
Reem, Arwa, and Nujood have broken free from unwanted marriages, but their lives have become a spectacle and they are still struggling to adjust. Front-page coverage has provoked a much-needed national debate about a taboo practice. But it has also left the girls exposed in a culture where women are veiled and marriage is treated as a private matter.
“They’re all very confused,” says Yemen Times editor Nadia Saqqaf, whose newspaper first reported the girls’ stories. “They don’t know if they are girls or women.”
Ms. Saqqaf wants other child brides to come forward, but concedes there is no support network in place for them. “We have to establish a trust to look after the girls’ interests over the next few years. We need to find a model that will work for all victims of early marriage.”
Meanwhile, Reem is still waiting for a judge to grant her divorce. The judge claims that Reem, as a minor, is unable to decide what is best for herself and must wait until she is 15 to see if she still wants a divorce. Reem’s lawyer is currently appealing the verdict.
For now, Reem is at her mother’s apartment. Her parents are separated; her mother did not have prior knowledge of the arranged marriage. Reem’s father has threatened to kidnap her. “My dad said he’ll kill me for defying him, but I want to go back to school. I’m too young for the responsibility of marriage,” she says. •
• Research for this article was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor
AIDS in India, through the eyes of litterateurs
August 15, 2008
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi.
Shobhaa De, Amit Chaudhuri and William Dalrymple, become investigative reporters? The outcome is they create a gripping picture of AIDS in India – who the killer disease is affecting, how and why.
AIDS Sutra, Untold Stories from India is a ground-breaking anthology by the writers who travel the country to talk to housewives, vigilantes, homosexuals, police and sex-workers and together to bring out an eye-opening, hard-hitting and moving account.
In the book, Rushdie spends a day with Mumbai’s transgenders; Dalrymple meets the devadasis (temple women), many of whom are now living with HIV; Kiran Desai travels to the coast of Andhra Pradesh where sex workers are considered the most desirable; Seth tells the real story behind a long-ago poem; De tells how AIDS came home and Chaudhuri talks to doctors who are fighting more than just AIDS.
In his account, Rushdie writes, “The hijras (eunuchs) of Mumbai and the rest of India are held to be the community most at risk of HIV infection. There have been improvements in organisation, outreach, education and self help, but for many hijras, their lives continue to be characterised by mockery, humiliation, stigmatisation, fear and danger…Many hijras are mired in poverty and sickness.”
The other writers in this book published by Random House India are Siddhartha Deb, Nikita Lalwani, Nalini Jones, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Jaspreet Singh, Sonia Faleiro, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, CK Lakshmi, Mukul Kesavan and Aman Sethi.
“AIDS Sutra”, with a foreword by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and introduction by Bill and Melinda Gates, is published in collaboration with Avahan, the India AIDS initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and sales proceeds will go towards a fund for AIDS orphans.
In his foreword, Sen says that there are crucial economic issues to be addressed in dealing with the AIDS epidemic.
“One of the central ones is the need to devote much more resource to tackling the epidemic – on prevention, on treatment, on care, on rehabilitation, and no less importantly, on education about the disease.”
He says the ethics of responsibility has been a big subject in analysing the social aspects of AIDS and so there is a need to take personal responsibility seriously.
“We have to avoid the errors of half understanding as well as those of ignorance. We have to stop blaming the victims and stop looking for reasons leaving them to look after themselves. We are in it together,” he suggests.
Expressing surprise over the stigma AIDS is in India, Melinda and Bill Gates write in the introduction: “This kind of stigma is cruel and senseless. There are nearly three million Indians living with HIV today. If we’re going to stop AIDS, we have to embrace every one of them – regardless of social class, line of work, or circumstance.”
The book says India is home to 5.2 million HIV cases. “But AIDS is still a disease stigmatised and shrouded in denial. It is stigma that prevents people from openly discussing the facts around HIV, and keeps them from getting treatment. Stigma leads to discrimination against HIV positive people in hospitals, schools and even among families,” it says.
Courtesy of Hindustan Times
The build up to the Olympics
August 7, 2008
In the build up to the Olympics city officials hired some of the worlds leading architects and if you’re looking for a conversation here in Beijing just mention some of the new buildings that have sprung up.
First up and for many, the first entrance to the middle kingdom is the new terminal three at Beijing Capital International Airport. On entering T3 one is met by a reddish orange glow shining down from the sunlit ceiling, always a lucky color in Chinese culture. Passengers here are lucky too, with the amount of space and room – T3 is the world’s biggest passenger terminal and in this the Olympic year is expected to handle more than 60 million passengers.
And out the front in time for the games a new rail link has opened running direct to downtown Dongzhimen
Next up, travelling along the newly opened subway line 10, get off at Jintaixizhao Station, in Beijing‘s Chaoyang Central Business District and the soon to be complete CCTV tower. Coming in at over 230-metres high once finished, it’ll become a workplace for more than 10,000 people.
From the CCTV tower we now cut across town into the heart of old Beijing into the soul of the city’s ancient past and the arts – paying a visit to the national theatre tucked neatly next to Tiananmen Square. This luminescent bubble serves as an opera house seating up to 6,500 people. Up close the titanium and glass dome floats like a lily pad on a lake blending the organic with the futuristic.
Let’s leave the arts and travel north to the centre of the city’s sports where one arrives at The National Aquatic Centre, the location for the swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming Olympic events. Structured like a soap bubble it glows a translucent blue at night.
And finally our tour finishes arriving at what has been referred to as the defining landmark, not just of the Olympics, but of the new China — the National Stadium, or the Birds’ Nest.
Perhaps no insight into contemporary Beijing would be complete without looking at the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest. These two locations add to the city in a way that is just as fascinating as any visit to the Great Wall.
And perhaps, years later, visitors to the city will still be coming here and commenting on the legacy that was left behind in the build up to the Olympics.
Courtesy: China Daily
The Legend Lives On: A Generation Later, Bruce Lee’s Legacy is Still Kicking
August 6, 2008
By: Rex Feng.
Picture the span of Asian American history as a play in several acts: an epic saga set against a backdrop of rich cultural resonance and decades of struggle and triumph. Its ensemble cast includes laborers, restaurateurs, artists, politicians and countless others from all backgrounds. Yet if one were asked to think of a single character whose impact on our story could not be rivaled, decades after he played his part and well after his time in the spotlight became the stuff of legend, many might still think of the same man.
Stage left. Enter the dragon.
Bruce Lee is the prototypical Asian American cultural icon and remains a source of both pride and consternation for Asian Americans like none other. His achievements in martial arts and Western cinema shaped both fields for decades, most notably introducing high-flying Hong Kong action films to the American moviegoer’s palate.
While some lament that Lee’s fists and signature whooping battle cries did much to pigeonhole Asian Americans into stereotypes, none can dispute that he was the first to break through the barriers in Hollywood and pave the way for many who followed him. As an Asian American leading man, Lee had no predecessor.
As such, it is perhaps unsurprising that now, almost 35 years to the day after his mysterious death at the age of 32, Lee’s legacy has continued to thrive and inspire many Asian Americans. He was one of the first heroes and remains one of the greatest.
Decades after his death, Lee continues to make news. This month saw the unveiling of plans for a Seattle museum — the Bruce Lee Action Museum or BLAM — that would occupy a full city-block and cost $50 million. (Lee lived in Seattle from 1959 to 1964.)
Plans for a Hong Kong museum dedicated to Lee are also in discussion, to complement the eight-foot-two-inch bronze statue that was erected on the city’s harbor in 2005. Lee’s two-story Hong Kong home was to be sold in July for as much as $13 million to benefit victims of the Sichuan earthquake, but its philanthropist owner, responding to pleas from Lee’s fans, decided instead to donate the property to the city so it can be turned into a museum.
Lee endures as one of the most recognized Chinese people in history, and China has embraced the San Francisco-born actor as much as Chinese Americans. A Bruce Lee theme park with a memorial statue and hall is scheduled to open in his ancestral home of Shunde, China, in 2009. He is today celebrated in China as a symbol the nation’s society: China’s national broadcaster is preparing a $6.4 million, 40-part series on Lee to promote Chinese culture in advance of the Olympics.
Here in the United States, younger generations — even those born after his death — continue to embrace Lee as an icon. A group of students at the University of Washington in Seattle last year campaigned to have the campus memorialize Lee, who they say is perhaps, paradoxically, the school’s most famous and at the same time least-known minority student. (Lee took classes at the University of Washington in the 1960s but never graduated.)
University of Washington alumnus Jamil Suleman pioneered a class at the university called “Bruce Lee Dedication” upon learning that the martial arts legend had attended his alma mater.
“I was kind of shocked that I didn’t know,” Suleman said in an interview with Seattle Weekly, emphasizing that the point was not just to commission a statue but to use the university’s nonrecognition of Lee as an example of ethnic insensitivities.
Director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift) was also sufficiently inspired by Lee to make the black comedy Finishing the Game, an official selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Lin’s film was based on the making of Lee’s famously uncompleted final movie, Game of Death, which was cobbled together by the studio after Lee’s demise using body doubles and stand-ins.
“Enter the Dragon comes out, it becomes an international hit, he becomes a superstar, and the studio is sitting there saying, ‘Oh, we have 12 minutes of him fighting here’,” Lin said in a 2006 interview with MTV. “Basically, they have this fake Bruce Lee walking around for 70 minutes, just so that they could use the 12 minutes of footage of the real Bruce Lee fighting.”
Finishing the Game parodies the studio’s bumbling efforts to complete the project using a cast of seemingly interchangeable Asian American men. The film offers a tongue-in-cheek critique of Hollywood’s attitude toward Asian American actors by paying homage to one of the greatest.
“[Bruce Lee] transcends time and age,” Lin told MTV. “It doesn’t matter
Courtesy: asianweek.com