Archive for ‘Inequalities’

19/07/2012

* In China, wait leads to standoff with officials

San Jose Mercury News: “The Chinese sometimes display a remarkable tolerance for those who cut in line but such forbearance apparently has its limits when queue-jumpers are government officials.

Thousands of people threw water bottles and blocked traffic at a popular nature preserve in northeastern China on Sunday after word spread that the arrival of top Communist Party leaders was causing an hours-long wait to visit a scenic lake. It was one of a string of brash confrontations in recent months between the authorities and Chinese citizens.

The infuriated crowd surrounded the vehicles carrying the government entourage and refused to let them pass, according to scores of microblog posts sent out by those waiting to ascend Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province. The three-hour standoff drew police officers and soldiers, some of whom reportedly beat recalcitrant protesters.

According to one witness, thousands of people chanted for a refund of the $20 entry tickets and later demanded that the officials leave their besieged vehicles and apologize. “Fight privilege!” the witness wrote.

The accounts, posted on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, were later deleted by the company’s in-house censors but many postings were saved and reposted on overseas websites like Ministry of Tofu and China Digital Times whose servers cannot be reached by Chinese censors.”

via In China, wait leads to standoff with officials – San Jose Mercury News.

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19/07/2012

Bad as the situation for Chinese farmers, it pales into insignificance compared to the plight of Indian farmers. 10s of thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide this year alone due to their inability to face the future with mounting debts, and poor harvests. Read http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5389:every-12-hours-one-farmer-commits-suicide-in-india&catid=106:magazine

15/06/2012

* Toilets Become a Battle Cry in India

NY Times: “You could be forgiven for thinking that safety is the top concern for travelers brave enough to venture on Indian railways. It’s not. Unclean toilets appear to be their main grouse, according to a recent survey.

Across India, toilets appear to be the new battleground on which wars are being waged, whether it’s about hygiene, austerity, gender equality or corruption.

On India Ink, we’ve previously written how sanitation is a dump in India, with more than half of all households having no toilet facilities.

Even Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest people, has made his new mission to “reinvent the toilet.” “One of my ultimate dreams now is to reinvent the toilet — find a cheaper alternative to the flush toilet that does not require running water, has smell characteristics better than the flush toilet and is cheap,” he told the Times of India newspaper.

But it’s mostly the women in India who are paying a price for toilets -– literally. On Thursday Jim Yardley wrote in The New York Times that unlike men, many women in Mumbai often have to pay to urinate –- an injustice that has started a “Right to Pee” campaign.

Toilets have also been flushed into the austerity debate last week, when India’s Planning Commission ran up a 3 million rupee, or $54,100, bill for renovating the toilets at its headquarters, a move viewed by some as lavish and a drain on public funds. That was followed by news that the western state of Goa had given 2 million rupees, or $35,700, to build a single air-conditioned toilet in the constituency of the former chief minister of the state.

Think that raises a stink? In India, where the government is reeling with corruption scandals, the innocuous toilet made a brief swirl when many reportedly went missing. According to an April report in an Indian daily, the Telegraph, the federal government says it delivered about 87.1 million toilets to households across villages over the last decade. But the census shows that only about 51.6 million had toilets in 2011. That’s a case of 35 million missing toilets.”

via Toilets Become a Battle Cry in India – NYTimes.com.

Another example of discrimination against women in India.  See: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/06/14/india-the-worst-big-country-to-be-a-woman/

See also: Will India overtake China in 25 years?

27/04/2012

* Negotiations resume; Maoists make fresh demands

The Hindu: “As negotiations between Maoist- handpicked mediators and those of the Chhattisgarh government resumed on the second day to end the hostage crisis involving abducted Sukma

Flag, in style used by many South Asian Commun...

Flag used by many Communist Parties. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Collector Alex Paul Menon, Naxals on Friday made fresh demands for the release of nine of their jailed leaders. Chief Minister Raman Singh’s Principal Secretary N. Brijendra Kumar on Friday told PTI that the state government has received a fax from Naxals, demanding the release of a total of 17 Maoists.

Earlier, they had demanded release of eight of their comrades including two women besides asking the government to halt the anti-Maoist offensive “Operation Green Hunt” and sending security forces in Bastar to barracks. Meanwhile, official sources said that day two of mediators’ talks to secure the safe and early freedom of the 32-year-old IAS officer, resumed at the Pahuna guest house here, after Thursday’s negotiations, remained inconclusive.”

via The Hindu : News / National : Negotiations resume; Maoists make fresh demands.

As The Maoists have released the Italian hostages and the legislator in Orissa, signs are hopeful for the situation in Chhattisgarh, though the leadership may not be united.

26/04/2012

* Maoists treated me well, says freed Odisha MLA Jhina Hikaka

Times of India: “Maoists on Thursday freed Laxmipur legislator Jhina Hikaka in Odishas Koraput district, over 500 km from the state capital, after holding him hostage for 33 days. This brought to an end the twin hostage crisis that had rocked the eastern state in March.

Map of India showing location of Orissa

Map of India showing location of Orissa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At around 10: 30 am, Hikaka was received by wife Kaushalya along with Koraput-based lawyer Nihar Ranjan Patnaik besides hordes of media persons at Balipeta village in Narayanpatna block, which has a strong presence of Maoists and its frontal organization Chasi Muliya Adivaasi Sangh CMAS.

Earlier, Maoists had released Italian nationals Claudio Colangelo and Bosusco Paolo on March 25 and April 12 respectively after kidnapping them from the Kandhamal-Ganjam region on March 14. While the Sabyasachi Panda-led Odisha State Organising Committee had taken away the foreigners, the CPI Maoist Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee AOBSZC had held the legislator captive.”

via Maoists treated me well, says freed Odisha MLA Jhina Hikaka – The Times of India.

30/03/2012

* Senior leader underlines infrastructure building in Xinjiang

Maps of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Ch...

Maps of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China Español: Región autónoma de Xinjiang (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Xinhua: “Senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang on Thursday demanded infrastructure be improved in the western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region through projects supported by central government.

Zhou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China CPC Central Committee, urged authorities to give more support to the construction of major projects in the region, including irrigation systems, reservoirs, railways, electricity and natural gas schemes. Antiquated public facilities had created a major bottleneck constraining the regions development, Zhou said at a meeting attended by representatives from the National Development and Reform Commission, the central bank, and ministries of finance, railways, and water resources. These departments and a group of large state-owned enterprises and commercial banks have been tasked to assist the projects.

Three Uyghur girls at a Sunday market in the o...

Zhou called for more financial support and administrative coordination to push forward these projects, which he said will help enhance the regions capability of self-initiated development, ensure sound economic and social development, and create more jobs. The projects should benefit Xinjiang by improving people’s livelihoods, promoting ethnic solidarity and maintaining social stability, according to Zhou. He also demanded efforts to avoid illegal land use, prevent excessive exploitation of resources and protect the environment in Xinjiang.”

via Senior leader underlines infrastructure building in Xinjiang – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

05/03/2012

* China lowers growth target to 7.5%

(Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao cut his nation’s 2012 growth target to an eight-year low of 7.5 percent and made boosting consumer demand the year’s first priority as Beijing looks to wean the economy off its reliance on external demand and foreign capital. …

“We aim to promote steady and robust economic development, keep prices stable, and guard against financial risks by keeping the total money and credit supply at an appropriate level, and taking a cautious and flexible approach,” Wen said in his annual work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary session. …

His annual state-of-the-nation report to parliament dwelled on the institutional and income barriers the government must break to build a more balanced economy that relies less on exports and shares more wealth with hundreds of millions of poor farmers and migrant workers who are reluctant to spend. …

Shifting that balance is a key goal for Wen and Hu, both 69, as they near the end of a decade in power which has seen China become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, contributing more to global growth than any other nation, while seeing a chasm widen between rich and poor. The number of Chinese billionaires nearly doubled in 2011 to 146 from 2010, Forbes said.

Stability, steady growth and spreading wealth are core justifications for more than 60 years of one-party rule by the Communist Party, which will install a new cohort of leaders by the end of 2012. …

The last year in power for Wen and Hu has shuddered with anxieties about inflation, a feverish property market, local government debt, stubborn inequality and social strains from protesting villages to ethnic tensions in western regions. …

Critics, including prominent policy-advisers, have said the Chinese government can foster healthy long-term growth only by taking on bolder reforms to rein in state-owned conglomerates and other entrenched interests — reforms that ultimately spill into sensitive issues of curbing the party’s own powers.

Wen has stood out among China’s leaders as the most persistent advocate of measured political relaxation, and has cast himself as a passionate advocate for farmers struggling with economic insecurity and land lost to developers.

“We should care more deeply for rural migrant workers and provide more services to them,” he said. “We will place farmland under strict protection.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/05/us-china-economy-idUSTRE82400120120305?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

19/01/2012

* Angry Brides – new Indian game

India has introduced a game Angry Brides loosely based on the hugely popular Angry Birds. This game is in reaction to the illegal (since early 1950s) yet largely practised dowry system. Here, the player throws all kinds of common household objects to dislodge the green pigs (symbolic of husbands?). Given that the pig is considered a dirty animal by Muslims and Hindus alike, the symbolism is indeed strong!  The root cause is that the dowry system is harse on the poor. Some 8,000 women cases of dowry-related deaths in 2010.

http://kotaku.com/5876726/indian-brides-are-angry-about-illegal-marriage-dowries

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