1857 IST, Tuesday, July 22, 2014 
Conversation/Comment
Blood Diamonds? Africa has cleaned up its actBy Shantanu Guha Ray
Global experts from India and Dubai - hot spots of the world diamond trade - have called for restraint in what they call continued Western criticism of working conditions in diamond mines in Africa that contribute nearly 60 percent of the world's supplies. |
Studying women's rights in Arab world through sexBy Shilpa Raina
What goes on inside bedrooms reflects the politics of a system, believes British author of Egyptian descent Shereen el Feki, who in her debut book has used sex as a lens to peep into the conservative lives of the Arabs and has correlated it with the stifled voices of women at various levels - from politics to economics - in the Arab world, especially Egypt. |
Racism Alive in India, and is More Than Skin DeepBy Kim Barrington Narisetti as published in The Economic Times
My 12-year-old daughter gets exasperated easily. Maybe it's because she's 12. She gets even more exasperated because she says I seem to have a saying for everything: Patience is a virtue. You can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. Never judge a book by its cover. When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. The last two seem to be the most relevant as they apply to racism and racist acts in India. |
A broken army lies at the heart of conflict in South SudanBy Aman Sethi/ The Hindu
Seen from the air, the capital of South Sudan appears a cluster of reflective, tin-sheeted roofs amid a vast expanse of scrubland riven by the White Nile. When he returned to Juba from Kampala last month, the policeman found his city fearful, his brother dead, his home abandoned and his three wives and 13 children in a United Nations camp. |
Turmoil in the heart of AfricaBy Francois Richier/ The Hindu
The Central African Republic (CAR) is an impoverished country of 4.5 million inhabitants spread over 623,000 sq. km, located in the centre of Africa, which became independent from France in 1960. It has recently turned into another hub of instability. Responding to an urgent appeal from the African Union and the transitional authorities of the CAR, on December 5, 2013, France decided to deploy 1,600 soldiers in the country. The French soldiers are bolstering the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA). Several international partners — many European — have contributed with logistical and financial support. |
Because we can...By C.P.Bansal published in The Indian Express
This week, we mark the three-year anniversary of the last case of polio virus in India. It is a monumental achievement - and arguably one of the greatest public health success stories of all time. The legacy of the polio campaign is more than just the successful eradication of the crippling disease. The systems and strategies put in place to reach every child in every part of the country with lifesaving polio vaccines can be used to save millions of children from other preventable diseases. |
Citizen participation is growing even in rural IndiaBy Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner/ The Indian Express
As the 2014 general elections loom, the sight of the world's largest democracy at work is indeed marvellous. But what is the state of India's democracy beyond the voting booth? The yawning gap between procedural democracy and its substantive outcomes has been widely noted. The pressing issues of development, poverty, distribution and corruption, that bring voters to the polls are not resolved with the simple casting of ballots. What do the citizens of the world's largest democracy do on a day-to-day basis when seeking the attention, resources and services of the state? |
South Africa’s continuing conundrumBy Arvind Sivaramakrishnan/ The Hindu
Even as Nelson Mandela’s body lay in state in the Union Buildings in Pretoria in December 2013, the same question that had been, predictably, asked before he stepped down from his presidency in 1999 — he was one of the few African leaders to leave voluntarily at the end of his term — namely, that of what is to follow, presses as urgently now as it did then. Since 1999 too, much has emerged to cause concern over the possible if not likely loss of what had seemed a wonderful inheritance. |
India to showcase its soft power in US, FranceBy Shilpa Raina
It has taken India almost a quarter of a century to open a cultural centre in Washington. The hurdles have been finally cleared and New Delhi will very soon be able to showcase its "soft power" in the world's most powerful nation, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) president Karan Singh said. |
The Return of HopeBy Tarun Basu
Hope, said one writer, is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment. And, in the reigning atmosphere of despondency about the future, no single event has done more to re-kindle hope in India's 'aam admi', or the common man, as the eponymous party has in these past weeks with its most unexpected victory and ride to power after the recent state elections. |
