Category: Southern Central Asia,

India most dangerous country for women, US ranks 10th in survey

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Middle East,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment
Nine of the 10 countries on the list were from Asia, the Middle East or Africa. At number 10 was the United States, the only Western country to be included. 

…The Thomson Reuters Foundation released its results Tuesday of a survey of 550 experts on women’s issues, finding India to be the most dangerous nation for sexual violence against women, as well as human trafficking for domestic work, forced labor, forced marriage and sexual slavery, among other reasons.

It was also the most dangerous country in the world for cultural traditions that impact women, the survey found, citing acid attacks, female genital mutilation, child marriage and physical abuse.

…War-torn Afghanistan ranked second, as the worst country for non-sexual violence against women, which includes conflict-related violence and domestic abuse. It also ranked second worst for access to healthcare and access to economic resources and discrimination.

…Syria, where a war has raged for more than seven years, ranked third on the list. The country is considered the second-most dangerous in terms of sexual violence and access to healthcare. Syria also tied for third with the United States in terms of sexual violence and harassment.

…The foundation’s survey was conducted after the #MeToo campaign emerged in October 2017. The large number of women alleging sexual misconduct since then is the reason the US has been included on the list.

“The United States shot up in the rankings after tying joint third with Syria when respondents were asked which was the most dangerous country for women in terms of sexual violence including rape, sexual harassment, coercion into sex and the lack of access to justice in rape cases. It was ranked sixth for non-sexual violence,” according to the foundation.

India most dangerous country for women, US ranks 10th in survey – CNN

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McDonald’s and Starbucks have been caught in a crackdown on plastics in India.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Modern Parenting,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

The restaurant chains were among dozens of companies hit with fines in Maharashtra state — India’s second-largest with a population of more than 100 million — at the weekend, a government official said.

The ban on single-use plastic items including shopping bags, food containers and cutlery, was announced in late March but went into force on Saturday.

…[The Indian] government has pledged to eliminate single-use plastic in India by 2022, joining a global campaign that has been given added urgency by research showing there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans by 2050.

At least 25 of India’s 29 states have full or partial bans on single-use plastics, but they’re often not strictly enforced.

Maharashtra is cracking down immediately, forcing companies to change their ways.

…Hardcastle Restaurants, the franchisee which runs McDonald’s (MCD) outlets in Maharashtra, said it has begun using wooden cutlery, paper cups and straws made of corn starch.

But the chain was fined because it has not yet found similar alternatives for delivery items such as plastic lids for drinks, a spokesperson for McDonald’s India told CNNMoney. McDonald’s has joined restaurant associations in the region in asking for exemptions from the ban for delivery and takeaway orders, the spokesperson added.

…So far the government of Maharashtra has only exempted plastic containers used to package medicines, milk and solid waste, as well as plastic items for export.

…Neemit Punamiya, secretary of the Plastic Bags Manufacturers Association of India, estimates that India’s plastic industry could lose over $2.2 billion and 300,000 jobs as a result of the ban, local media reported. 

McDonald’s and Starbucks hit by plastic ban in India’s Maharashtra state

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How 700,000-Year-Old Rhino Bones Could Change the Story of Human Migration

On By peanutgallerynhIn Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

A 700,000-year-old butchered rhino carcass in the Philippines is rewriting the history of early human migration around the globe, and telling us more about a tool-using human relative that lived long before Homo sapiens ever existed.

Researchers recently unearthed a rhino skeleton on Kalinga, a province within the Philippine island of Luzon. The skeleton showed signs of deliberate butchering by stone tools. But when these cuts were made more than 700,000 years ago, there shouldn’t have been any tool-users around to butcher the animal—at least according to our old understanding.

…The most likely candidate to have made these rhino cuts is Homo erectus, an ancient Asian species of human that went extinct around 140,000 years ago. The tools used on the carcass seem to corroborate this theory.

But the study authors concede there is a problem with this hypothesis. The Philippines are a fairly isolated chain of islands in the Pacific that, at the time, would have been accessible only by boat. According to the paper, “it still seems too farfetched to suggest” that any early human relative could have made the journey. And yet, the butchered rhino is there.

…It also seems to predate all known watercraft, and Pobiner says, “the evidence from Kalinga also adds to the growing indication that whether intentionally or not, at least one pre-modern human species of hominin was able to cross sea barriers in the Middle Pleistocene.”

…Mysteries surround these early tool-using primates, ancestors to the species of human that still exists today. We don’t know exactly who they were, and we don’t know exactly how they got there. However, the early human hunters of the Philippines apparently enjoyed the taste of rhino.

How 700,000-Year-Old Rhino Bones Could Change the Story of Human Migration

Wild!

Rohingya girls face ‘prison-like’ conditions in refugee camps

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Adolescent Rohingya girls are being kept in stifling conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh, unable to go out, deprived of education and facing prospects of early marriage whether they want it or not, according to a report by the charity Plan International launched on World Refugee Day.

…”Many of them have witnessed horrific violence and are in urgent need of assistance, but they cannot access any of the services on offer to help them cope with what they’ve been through. Instead, they spend almost every hour of every day inside their sweltering tents, where the only activities they have to keep themselves occupied are cooking and cleaning. They long to go to school, to go outside, to make new friends, and to rebuild their lives, but none of these things are possible for them under the current conditions in which they live.”

Plan International wants the aid agencies and governments helping the refugees to “urgently address the needs of safety, education, sanitation, food security and healthcare — including mental health services — that Rohingya girls currently lack and have themselves spoken strongly about in the research report.”

…It said girls repeatedly reported that access to clean water was one of the major challenges that they faced in the camps and warned that “as the monsoon season approaches, the temporary shelters will become untenable and the likely destruction of the makeshift sanitation facilities threatens to contaminate water and spread disease.”

Most of the girls interviewed said they still didn’t have enough to eat.

Rohingya girls face ‘prison-like’ conditions in refugee camps – CNN

Sigh….

India Supreme Court restores ‘love jihad’ marriage

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Religion,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

Hadiya Jahan, who is in her 20s, was born into a Hindu family, but converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

Her family alleged she was brainwashed as part of an anti-Hindu conspiracy, prompting a lower court to annul the marriage.

India’s top court has now set aside the ruling, restoring their marriage.

Marriages between Hindus and Muslims have long attracted censure in conservative Indian families, but the attachment of a deeper, sinister motive to them is a recent phenomenon.

…In November, a top court bench allowed Ms Jahan to leave her father’s custody and resume her studies.

India Supreme Court restores ‘love jihad’ marriage – BBC News

hmmmm

Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages

On By peanutgallerynhIn Race,, Religion,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

First, their villages were burned to the ground. Now, Myanmar’s government is using bulldozers to literally erase them from the earth — in a vast operation rights groups say is destroying crucial evidence of mass atrocities against the nation’s ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

…Myanmar’s armed forces are accused not just of burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, but of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting. The latest crisis in Rakhine state began in August after Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on security posts.

Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages – ABC News

State sponsored evil. Cue the Israeli-like propaganda about racist facism being all about safety for its citizen in 3,2,1…

Lawyers Say Maldives’ Top Judge Unconstitutionally Detained

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

The Maldives’ chief justice is being unconstitutionally detained after being forcefully dragged on the floor from his chambers by security personnel in riot gear, his lawyer said Thursday, expressing grave concern about the reaction to the Supreme Court’s surprise ruling last week to free jailed politicians.

Lawyers Say Maldives’ Top Judge Unconstitutionally Detained | World News | US News

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Amid Cambodia crackdown, this leader fled. But she hasn’t given up on change 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

Recognition abroad for Mu Sochua’s human-rights work hasn’t always translated into political power at home. As a political crackdown in Cambodia continues, she’s been presented with unprecedented pressures – but perhaps new opportunities, as well.

Amid Cambodia crackdown, this leader fled. But she hasn’t given up on change – CSMonitor.com

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Philippines Apologizes to China Over Wrong Taiwan Logo

On By peanutgallerynhIn East Asia,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

The Philippine defense department has apologized to China for the “grievous but purely unintentional mistake” of using Taiwan’s defense ministry logo during a ceremony where the Chinese ambassador turned over assault rifles to the Filipino defense chief and top military commanders.

Philippines Apologizes to China Over Wrong Taiwan Logo – Bloomberg

That’s just hilarious

More than a mail-order bride: The Asian women choosing life in the Faroes 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

All of the women I spoke to had jobs. Granted, most of those jobs were lower qualified positions than what they had studied at home, but they paid much better wages and that made them happy. All of them mentioned safety as the number one attraction of life in the Faroe Islands. And all of them described themselves as strong, independent women because they had chosen to live here.

As one explained, women who marry a European and stay in the Philippines or Thailand often have household help and a high standard of living. Not so on the Faroes. Women have to go it alone to earn money, raise children, learn one of the world’s most difficult languages and survive the long dark winters.

They described the thrill of getting their driver’s license, succeeding at job interviews, having their own bank accounts.

What’s more, they described their husbands as less patriarchal than men in their home countries. This was the most surprising revelation to me. My encounters with Faroese men left me with the impression that they were highly traditional.

…I’ve come to the conclusion that both are probably right. Somehow, these women have found space for themselves to live the life they want, even within the confines of a conservative society.

More than a mail-order bride: The Asian women choosing life in the Faroes | | Al Jazeera

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Duterte says he won’t cooperate in anti-graft body’s probe 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

The Philippine president says he will not cooperate in an investigation being done by a key anti-graft agency on his alleged undeclared wealth and warned he will personally bring one of its top officials to investigators for illegally disclosing confidential information about him.

Duterte says he won’t cooperate in anti-graft body’s probe – The Washington Post

Heh… Of course he’ll only acknowledge corruption if he doesn’t benefit from it. The louder the roar, the smaller the spine.

Former Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years’ jail for negligence 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

The Shinawatras had commanded huge support by courting rural voters, helping them to win every general election since 2001, but their foes accused them of corruption and nepotism.

They won the loyalty of the rural and urban poor with groundbreaking welfare schemes in a sharply unequal country. But their rise angered Bangkok’s army-allied elite, which repeatedly assailed their elected governments with coups or court rulings.

…Yingluck’s downfall revolved around a scheme that saw her government purchase rice from farmers at nearly twice the market price. It was wildly popular in the rural heartlands but slammed by critics as a costly and graft-riddled handout.

Former Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years’ jail for negligence – Channel NewsAsia

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