Indian Couple Punished for Slavery in New York
India-born millionaire couple in New York was convicted of keeping two Indonesian women slaves for four years, often beating, starving and hiding them in their million dollar mansion that has seven bathrooms, according to BBC and Times of India. The woman received 11 years and prison and $25,000 fine.
This case is similar to those women in India tortured by husbands and families for dowry. But who could imagine a case of slavery could happen in the most modern city of the world?
Divided On The Waters: Bangladesh
The divide between the poor and the rich is stark in most developing countries. It is clearly seen in the photographs, taken by Suraj Shakya, of a commuter steamer-boat going from the southern city of Barisal to Dhakka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Boats are often the mode of transportation in a country veined by rivers flowing from Himalayas of the neighboring countries. Waterway is well net-worked and hundreds of passengers traveling from one city to another, do so by paddle-boat steamers. The system is old as the trains in India, both of which were introduced by the British during the Raj.
The luxury room is a double bed, with TV and attached bath. It accomodates up to five people. It sits right above the deck, on which about a hundred Bangalis accomodate themselves. The suite costs up to 3,000 takkas, and the deck, up to 50 takkas.
“Hundreds of passengers accommodate themselves in the deck class of the steamer headed from Barisal to Dhaka, risking their lives as they travel in hazardous conditions,” said Shakya via e-mail. Check for travel reviews.
Nepal Prime Minister Steps Down
Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal’s 83-year-old prime minister, gave up his position on June 26. This move brings the constituent assembly of the country closer to forming the new federal republic government, reported Nepali Times. It also ends the political debate that followed the election.
One Laptop Per Nepali Child Faces Challenges. Q and A.
Open Learning Exchange (OLE) Nepal, an organization that is distributing XO laptops (E-Paati) and designing programs to suit Nepali children, is facing challenges.
At home, OLE Nepal is hurdling the country’s poor education system. On the other side, One Laptop Per Child, based in Massachusetts, U.S.A, does not want to ship laptops in smaller quantities, and hence OLE Nepal cannot expand the project beyond 135 computers they have distributed so far.
Rabi Karmacharya, OLE Nepal’s director, answered questions via e-mail.
Q: 135 computers distributed. How many more are you getting and by when?
A: The next deployment will take place at the beginning of the next school session, April 2009. Since our goal is to integrate the laptops in daily classroom teaching-learning process, it is important to introduce laptops when the school year starts, and not in the middle of the school year. If the laptops are viewed as supplementary education tool, then the chances of them being used regularly in classrooms by teachers are slim. Hence, we focus on turning the laptops into effective tools for teachers and students to use in effective teaching-learning process.
The size of the next deployment cannot be ascertained until we pick the schools. Class sizes vary widely amongst schools in various regions of the country. Our plan is to reach out to 10-12 schools in about five districts. We will soon sit with the government to work on an action plan, and hope to be able to come up with a draft in the near future. That will give us a rough estimate on the number of laptops needed. Based on our initial rough estimate, the number will be anywhere between 1500 – 3000.
Q: How’s the support from Nepal government?
A: The Departmet of Education, Nepal, is quite interested in the idea. We have signed an agreement with them to do a pilot project. However, things don’t happen as quickly and as easily as we would like. Furthermore, they have yet to allocate funds in their budget for this project. So, in that sense, they have little invested on the initiative except verbal commitments.
Q: What are your main challenges?
A: Many. The challenge here is to improve Nepal’s education system. There are things that the OLPC initiative can improve. But there are many inherent problems that laptops can never solve. The main challenge is to convince the stakeholders to improve the other issues surrounding absenteeism, low teacher morale, lack of trained teachers, etc so that laptops can do what they are supposed to do – improve quality of education and lower disparity in access to education.
Boston Cab Drivers Want To Increase Taxi Fare
“Increase the fares,” shouted Boston’s cab drivers at Roxbury Crossings this morning. Their argument: the increased gas price is taking a toll on their daily wages since they have to shell the fuel money out of their own pockets.
If approved by Boston Police, which regulates cab fares, the per-mile fare will increase by 50 percent.
Indian Press Reports: Nepali Prime Minister To Give In
Girija Prasad Koirala, 83, a long standing prime minister of Nepal, is about to give up his prime ministership, amongst much protest from political parties, mainly the Maoists, reported Hindustan Times and Press Trust of India today.
Reports from the Indian press, if true, may come as a relief to Nepalese who are hoping to move ahead from a political deadlock after the April election. This is a step closer to forming a new republican government in Nepal. After the election, in which the Maoists won majority of votes, political parties have been arguing over who should be the first president of Nepal. Koirala belongs to Nepali Congress, a party that did not receive near as many votes as the Maoists. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Koirala did not step down, nor did his party join the Maoist and the Nepali Communist (UML) to form a new coalition government.
The election may have been over, but there’s no government that has started working on issues, such as food emergency and strikes related to gas prices, affecting the daily lives of Nepali people.
Boston Bus – Using Technology To Track Crime
As I was standing in a crowded bus one afternoon in Boston, this poster caught my eye.
This was a public notice by MBTA, the transporation authority and it says, “If you rub against me, I’ll expose you.” And in the second line, it asks passengers to take a picture of the offender with their mobile phone cameras and report it to MBTA police.
Good example of use of technology to catch predators.
Maoists say: Shut Down Kantipur. What’s the future of Nepal’s Press Freedom?
The Red Star, a pro-Maoist Web site, says media organization such as Kantipur, a widely popular source of news in Nepal, should be shut down.
Roshan Kissoon, who claims to have taught English to Maoists (see the given Web site), says newspapers which cater to only a specific class of the soceity should not be allowed in business. In the opinion section of The Red Star, Kissoon also writes such news outlets should be thwarted as it does not represent the poor. Kissoon claims to be an international freelance journalist. He is clearly biased towards the red party.
Maoist, popularly elected largest party and a powerful force in the new government, is allowing opinions about suppressing a media organization, that has been a landmark in press freedom since the early 1990’s. When the powerful speak of suppression, we ought to be alert.
It is important to note that newspapers, big or small, have not been threatened openly in the past, regardless of political turmoil and unstable governments.
A reason Maoists were elected by popular vote is partly because of press coverage provided by newspapers like Kantipur, and a platform to voice opinions by Maoist leaders Baburam and Prachanda.
Today they have openly denounced Kantipur, in the name of social equality. Tomorrow, it may be some other news organization with another radical reasoning. News organizations such as Kantipur may not be completely free of biases, but these are institutions that have long given an outlet to express thoughts, have presented different viewpoints, and been an icon of freedom of expression.
Nepal ranks 137th on the press freedom index, according to Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom advocacy group. During the Maoist revolution, many journalists were killed, mutated and threatened. After the ceasefire, it’s press freedom is recovering. But with the kind of mindset pro-Maoists are floating, it certainly compels a journalist to be weary about press freedom in the red party led regime.
Toilet Treatment At Nepal’s Ministry
Matrika Yadav, a frustrated Nepali Maoist minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, locked his subordinate in a toilet, for an hour and half, in charges of corruption, reported BBC today.
People have long given up hope on Nepal’s justice system. It’s slow and inefficient. And it’s not only general citizens who’ve lost faith in the system, but high-ranking government officials too.
4,000 government workers went on a strike and asked Mr. Yadav’s apology, protesting the toiltet treatment. But the minister was unapologetic and acknowledged his action, reported NepalNews.com., and said he was not guilty for using unconventional method against Dundu Raj Ghimire for not following his orders. On the contrary, Mr. Yadav said he will not hesitate to do it again, if need be. He said he was giving Ghimire a taste of his own foul medicine.
But there’s no word from Ghimire, the victim.
After reading the news on BBC Web site, a friend said, “It happens only in Nepal.”
Laptops For Each Nepali Child
Children in some rural schools in Nepal are using laptops, designed especially for developing countries, to help learn better.
They may not have access to televisions, black boards, books, chairs in classrooms or even electrcity. But these green computers, that can easily pass for toy laptops, are perfect for children in rural mountains. ”XO”, which is what the laptops are called, can be used by children as young as 8-years- old. They’re children-frienly and New York Times described it as ”spillproof, rainproof, dustproof and fallproof.”
Currently it cost about $200 each.
One Laptop Per Child, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed the machine with the intention of making education easy and accessible for children all over the world, especially in the third world.
Developers believe that people in poor countries will jump the technology gap, as the new generation gets access to affordable machines.
Although in trial phase, this is a huge move for Nepal. The design of the computers encourage children to be creativite, and defies the old-school style of learning by committing to memory. Unfortunately, there’s not enough media coverage about this development. An article in Nepali Times wrote a review of the approach. Apart from that, there’s not much media attention and public dialogue about the project that can revolutionize the poor Nepali education system.
Stay tuned for more pictures, comments and updates from Open Learning Exchange (OLE) – Nepal, a key organization to implement the one-laptop-per-child project.
Yerina
