Not many people appreciate huge billboards blocking out landscapes and pushing companies’ products on such a large scale. Some companies are using innovative methods to change this perception of billboard advertising and clean the environment for their communities. This blend of environmentalism and economics allows companies to sell their brand while cleaning the air and water in their cities. These three types of billboards are doing just that:
1. River-Filtering Billboards
The Pasig River in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has been devastatingly polluted for decades. A Japanese company has plans to clean up the river through the use of floating billboard advertising.
Shokubutsu Hana, a Japanese cosmetics brand, teamed up with the Pasig River Rehabilitation commission, Vetiver Farms and agency TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno to design an advertisement using a grass called vetiver. Vetiver has the ability to filter water that passes through its system, cleaning pollution out of 2,000 to 8,000 gallons of water per day. It can filter out nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals, all of which are found in the Pasig.
The billboard is planted to spell out “clean river soon,” an encouragement to the community that their river is being cleansed of pollution. This phrase also serves as a reminder to passersby to avoid throwing garbage in the water. With the success of this billboard, there are plans to create more floating advertisements along the river.
2. Water-Purifying Billboards
The fifth-largest city in the Western Hemisphere is Lima, Peru. It is also located in the middle of a coastal desert, and it sees approximately half an inch of precipitation per year, while also averaging 83 percent humidity. Poor families in Lima cannot afford the exorbitant price of water — a basic necessity to survive.
The University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) has developed a new billboard that pulls moisture from the atmosphere and converts it into drinkable water — all to advertise for the school. Although it requires electricity to run, the billboard is far easier than the unclean wells that many Lima citizens currently use. It has the capacity to produce 9,450 liters in three months, which is enough to sustain hundreds of families. The idea was the brainchild of advertising agency Mayo DraftFCB, with the hope that the billboard would draw students into engineering at UTEC, while also providing a service to the many people in need.
3. Air-purifying Billboards
In addition to the lack of water, the air quality in the city of Lima, Peru is the poorest in South America. A recent increase in construction has created a toxic atmosphere for many of the city’s residents. The pollutants near these sites cause disease, and possibly even cancer. Again partnering with Mayo DraftFCB, UTEC has developed an air-purifying billboard to alleviate the air pollution caused by growing construction.
The billboard purifies the air as much as 1,200 trees, creating a safe place to breathe within a radius of five city blocks. The billboard dissolves pollutants into water before releasing clean air back into the street. That waste water can then be recycled back into the system, and all of this happens while using only about 2,500 watts of electricity per hour.
UTEC is not the first brand to purify the air with a billboard. Back in Manila, in 2011, Coca-Cola created a billboard that actually contained plants, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is made up of 3,600 Fukien tea plants, which combined removed almost 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year. The plants grow as the background, forming a silhouetted Coca-Cola bottle. Even the pots the tea plants grow in are recycled from old Coca-Cola bottles. All the plants are watered through trickle irrigation, which drips water down the billboard.
Both billboards provide a healthy environment for citizens who pass through the pollutant-free area.
— Monica Roth
Sources: Fast Company, Visual News, Time, FCB Mayo, Gizmag, Triple Pundit
Photo: Shaw Contract Group
Hunger in Tanzania
It is difficult to believe that large quantities of people could go hungry in a country that relies heavily on agriculture to sustain its economy, but that’s exactly the case in Tanzania. Not only does agriculture account for a quarter of Tanzania’s GDP, but also approximately 75 percent of Tanzanians (most of whom are women) are employed by that sector. Yet nearly half of households don’t have access to adequate amounts of food, and Tanzania’s malnutrition levels are among the highest in Africa. Something isn’t adding up.
What is the problem? It isn’t that Tanzania is exporting all of its food, leaving its own people to starve. Tanzania is actually considered “food self-sufficient,” meaning that it makes most of the food its people need to live. The problem is poverty. Classified as a low-income country and ranked in the bottom fifth of countries in terms of human development, Tanzania simply hasn’t yet developed the infrastructure necessary to get the food from the fields into the hands of those who need it most.
The future is bright, though. Tanzania’s economy has been growing for several years and has the potential for continued growth. Targeted agricultural infrastructure investments could radically reduce the number of hungry Tanzanians, as Tanzania already has excellent land and water resources, in addition to international access via a major port city (Dar es Salaam.) The climate disposes itself to a wide variety of crops, and simply improving the quality and amount of seeds available to Tanzania’s agriculture sector and building the rural roads necessary for the distribution of food could vastly increase Tanzania’s food yield.
International aid organizations like USAID are already working to make hunger in Tanzania a thing of the past. The Tanzanian government is also taking steps to eradicate poverty in its country by instituting policies and programs such as Kilimo Kwanza (which means “agriculture first”) and the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania, which aim to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty by promoting agricultural growth. Motivated to feed themselves, the Tanzanian people simply require the capital to make prosperity a reality.
— Elise L. Riley
Sources: IFPRI, UNDP, USAID, World Food Programme
Photo: WFP
UN Crisis Response in South Sudan
A recently released report from the U.N. offers a sobering update on crisis response and relief efforts in the conflict-torn country of South Sudan. The report said that the U.N. and its various agencies have only received about $739 million of the approximately $1.8 billion that it needs in order to help rebuild after the devastation that has occurred since the conflict first broke out.
The report comes on the six-month anniversary of the outbreak that started in December of 2013, when then-Vice President Riek Machar was forced out of office by Salva Kiir, triggering racial conflict between Nuer and Dinka people, respectively.
Some of the statistics are quite alarming, considering the already catastrophic amount of destruction that has already happened. Over 1 million people are internally displaced, and at least 366,000 have fled the country, while 3.9 million people are at high risk of hunger or famine. And the prices of staple foods have been steadily increasing.
Furthermore, the entire country has also been plagued by a multitude of public health problems. On May 15, a cholera outbreak was declared in the capital city of Juba, with two other outbreaks being declared in other locations. By the end of the year, 116,000 people across the country could be affected by cholera alone. There have also been documented outbreaks of Hepatitis E, meningitis and measles, not to mention that during the current wet season, outbreaks of malaria and pneumonia are on the rise. Without the necessary aid, these statistics could become even worse, and South Sudan could slip even further into disarray.
Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General in South Sudan, said “Men, women and children have fled from their homes and sought refuge in the bush, inside U.N. bases and in neighboring countries…With many communities unable to farm or tend properly to their cattle, the risk of famine looms large. In some particularly hard-to-reach areas of the country, people are already starving.”
But despite many of the grim statistics laid out in the report, there have been some successes. For example, 80 percent of communicable diseases have been responded to within 48 hours, 63 percent of children under the age of 5 with severe acute malnutrition have been treated and 82 percent of people that have been affected by the conflict have been provided with safe water.
Fortunately, there is hope for those living in South Sudan. In the words of Lanzer: “With the continued generosity and solidarity of donors around the world, we can help prevent more unnecessary death and despair. Every dollar counts and makes a difference to people’s lives.”
— Andre Gobbo
Sources: The Guardian, United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, The Borgen Project
Photo: Action Against Hunger
Aid to Education Decreasing
Aid to education has decreased by 10 percent since 2010. There are still 57 million children and 69 million adolescents who are not enrolled in school. Countries are beginning to worry that the goals set by the Education For All Act and the Millennium Development Goals will not be met.
For the first 10 years of the 21st century, aid to education has been steadily increasing. All three divisions — basic education, secondary education and post-secondary education — have seen rises in their funding. But educational funding hit its peak in 2010; since then, total funding has decreased, specifically in the basic education category.
Basic education is the level of education where children learn the foundational skills and core knowledge necessary to advance in the world. This is a vital step in the educational process for children across the globe, but seems to be neglected the most. Basic education is currently receiving the same amount of aid as it was in 2008.
The areas feeling the cuts most are those that are furthest from reaching their educational goals. Sub-Saharan Africa holds half of the world’s children who are not in school, and 12 of the African countries have experienced cuts totaling $10 billion since 2010.
South and West Asia have experienced the most severe cuts in their education aid. They saw cuts worth over a quarter of their total aid in 2010. India and Pakistan were hit the hardest with financial cuts.
Education seems to be a cause that is getting pushed aside when it comes to where aid is being allocated. Other sectors are receiving higher amounts of humanitarian aid; in 2013, the food sector received 86 percent of its requested funds and the health sector received 57 percent of its requested funds. Meanwhile, the education sector is struggling, receiving only 40 percent of its requested funds.
The Global Partnership for Education’s Replenishment Pledging Conference in Brussels is a two-day conference, beginning on June 25, during which donors will be asked to resubmit themselves to the global education cause. The goal is to raise $3.5 billion to support education in the poorest countries.
“We owe it to the children of the world — particularly the poorest and most marginalized — that both international donors and developing country governments step up and commit more funding to education,” said Julia Gillard, board chair of the Global Partnership for Education.
— Hannah Cleveland
Sources: World Education Blog, The World Post, RTT News
Photo: Teach
Manure as a Water Source for Developing Nations?
Access to clean water is critical for human life and agriculture. From the LifeStraw filtration technology to solar-powered irrigation pumps, engineers seek innovative ways to provide water to communities that otherwise could not get enough. A team of scientists at Michigan State University are developing methods to extract water from another unlikely source: cow manure.
How can clean water come from such a dirty source? The McLanahan Nutrient Separation System, as the engineers call it, works using surprisingly simple principles. “About 90 percent of the manure is water,” noted professor of agricultural engineering Steve Safferman. The process merely separates the water from the other components. Using an aerobic digestion machine, which creates energy from animal waste inputs, the system extracts the existing water and leaves other chemicals behind.
The technology is not yet perfect. The engineers are currently able to get 50 gallons of water from 100 gallons of manure, but they hope to increase the output to 65 gallons. The resulting water has not been proved safe for human consumption, but it is clean enough to nourish livestock and crops.
The McLanahan Nutrient Separation System is set to be sold later this year, and the engineers want to market the system to U.S. farms. However, this technology may have an even greater benefit for farmers in developing nations, especially those with less access to water. Many communities already suffer from water crises; according to the U.N. Human Development Report, 1.2 billion people live in areas with limited amounts of water, and another 1.6 billion face water shortages because they do not have the funds to build wells or get clean water from rivers. By investing in new technology to extract water from manure, foreign aid providers may be able to free up more water for human use.
In addition to providing more water for irrigation and livestock, manure filtration has other agricultural benefits. The technology also stores nutrients found in the animal waste, which can then be used to grow crops. Jim Wallace, a student working on the McLanahan system, reports that their process can “capture a large percentage of the ammonia that would otherwise be lost in the atmosphere,” and ammonia is a common component of fertilizer. In developing nations, this fertilizer would be vital for soil enrichment and could lead to stronger harvests.
Collecting manure and removing the nutrients and other chemicals for storage and later use will also have environmental benefits. A study conducted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences found that 75 percent of greenhouse emissions from cattle comes from those developing nations, and much of this comes from decomposing manure that is not disposed of properly. Harvesting manure for water and fertilizer will allow farmers to capture greenhouse gases, like methane, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Innovative systems to extract water from manure aid in all aspects of farming and have great potential to help developing countries. Though the technology is still in its developmental stages, further exploration and investment could benefit millions of lives and reduce water shortages globally.
— Ted Rappleye
Sources: Michigan State University, IRIN Global, United Nations
Photo: Wikimedia
Climate Change Affects Poverty
For years we have all heard that climate change threatens the sustainable future of our environment. After studying the changes and effects of the climate on the biosphere, 97 percent of climatologists agree that these climate-warming trends will only continue, especially since human activities are the most likely cause of these trends, according to NASA. Reducing these trends will not only provide a safer and healthier environment for future generations, but it will also help those living in extreme poverty.
Especially in developing countries, the poor rely heavily on their environment. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization, the use of forest resources contributes to the livelihood of almost 1.6 billion people globally. Forests provide essential resources such as food, fuel, medicine and even income, showing that these billions of people and the environment in which they live share an interdependent relationship with one another.
With the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on the rise, the livelihoods and habitats of these people could soon disappear completely. It is for this reason that USAID announced the plan to give 45 million Kenyan shillings to a global climate change initiative, which will address a variety of environmental concerns, such as the loss of biodiversity, deforestation and other vulnerabilities to climate change.
With this initiative and other programs already in place, researchers are hopeful that poverty might also decrease along with the effects of climate change. Purdue University researchers announced on May 29 that global malnutrition — one of the key causes of poverty — could decrease by 84 percent by 2050. This would be a huge decrease, since the U.N. currently estimates that approximately 870 million people suffer from malnourishment globally.
However, this percentage decrease relies heavily on the improvements to be made in agricultural productivity and if climate change does not damage that productivity. Although researchers at Purdue University agree that an increase in temperatures and carbon dioxide could benefit agricultural productivity for some time by lengthening the season and improving water proficiency, they also agree that these possible benefits would only be temporary.
All this shows that climate change could have a direct impact on not only nutrition levels, but also the environments of the poor in developing countries. Since these issues are so closely connected, U.N. advisor Professor Jeffrey Sachs warned the New Environmentalism Summit that “We have to tackle climate change if we are to have any hope of tackling poverty.” Sachs also stressed the idea that climate change is not a problem for future generations, but a problem that we must address in today’s society.
Global leaders are experimenting with ways to address this issue, and many, like Sachs, hope that climate change will be a central element in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which will expand on the current Millennium Development Goals, to continue global progress in a variety of health and societal issues after 2015. Regardless of disagreements over how to best resolve this problem, climate trends must be addressed in some way to not only help the poor, but also the planet.
— Meghan Orner
Sources:
Sources: NASA, FAO, All Africa, Purdue University, Business Green, U.N.
Photo: The Guardian
China Arrests Human Rights Lawyer
Pu Zhiqiang, a prolific human rights lawyer and defender, was arrested by Chinese police on Friday, June 13, for “creating disturbances and illegally obtaining personal information.” Pu, one of China’s most outspoken advocates for human rights, was detained last month, along with more than 40 other journalists, lawyers, scholars and activists, after attending the 25th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square crackdown.
Pu has worked as an activist for the New Rights Movement, a group that urged Chinese leaders to disclose their assets. He has also opposed forced labor camps, which the Chinese government eventually abolished, and has publicly criticized government officials, specifically calling for the cremation of Mao Zedong, who he claimed was “not any better than Hitler.”
Pu’s lawyer, Si Weijiang, said political reasons led to his arrest. “He’s innocent,” said Weijiang. “He hasn’t committed these crimes.”
Yet Pu’s state of innocence may not matter; Zhang Sizhi, a longtime rights lawyer, was able to meet with Pu this past week, and was told that Pu had been subjected to daily interrogations which would last for more than 10 hours. According to Sizhi, Pu could face a long jail term. In China, crimes for “disturbing the peace” carry a jail sentence of up to five years, while the charge for “illegally obtaining personal information” carries a maximum jail term of three years.
Pu’s arrest has been just one of many regarding recent governmental crackdowns on human rights advocates. Prior to this year’s Tienanmen anniversary, police put nearly 100 people in detention or under house arrest. Current President Xi Jinping, who took office in 2013, has only tightened these strict protocols against activists and intellectuals.
Despite Pu’s advocacy, he remained optimistic prior to his arrest. “I think I’m fine,” he told CNN last summer. “I’m a moderate, and the government has treated me well. I’m a veteran lawyer and haven’t made mistakes in my career. I’m not radical, and I don’t threaten the government.”
Yet his recent arrest has stirred friends and fellow activists, including the dissident artist, Ai Weiwei, who Pu represented. As Pu’s “other alleged crimes” are under investigation, Pu, via his lawyer, has remained quiet on the matter. “If I have to pay a price for June 4, I will do it,” Pu said, regarding the 1989 pro-democracy Tienanmen Square protests in which he took part. If this is the price, Pu will have gone down in history as an ardent activist who worked tirelessly to bring human rights issues to the forefront.
— Nick Magnanti
Sources: CNN, The Guardian, Reuters
Photo: CNN
World Cup Viewed Across the Globe
The World Cup truly defines the idea of international competition. With the current 2014 World Cup only two weeks in, the viewership of clips, games, advertisements and the like are higher than any other international competition. According to latinpost.com, people have watched over 1.2 billion minutes of World Cup-affiliated advertisements, which is four times more views than the 2014 Super Bowl ads received.
FIFA research supports this, demonstrating numbers from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Over 3.2 billion people tuned in for at least one minute of the games, compared to 900 million that tuned into the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which is the most highly watched portion of the event.
3.2 billion people represents a large demographic of the world, many of whom represent developing countries. The World Cup represents the level of accessibility isolated countries have to opportunities even to just watch a game. There is a level of danger to watching games in some countries such as the 48 people who died in Kenya at a viewing party, but the dedication to their countries trumps their socio-economic status.
Few events draw the attention of billions, however the World Cup bonds nations. The U.S. typically has a low viewership rate of Major League Soccer in comparison to the NBA, NFL and NHL views.
The Miami Herald reported that 15.9 million Americans tuned into ESPN and Univision to watch the U.S. versus Ghana game, which is the second highest recorded viewership for a World Cup match in the U.S. It pales only to the U.S. versus England match of 2010 which held 17.1 million viewers. Trumping this, are the 18.2 million people who tuned in to watch the U.S. and Portugal battle it out, according to CNN Money.
The possible reason for this is the higher number of countries filming and reporting on the event, with 48 countries present and 34 ultra-high definition cameras watching from all angles. The more access countries have to the games, the more people who will flock to small businesses who play the games for those without home access.
Many of the countries competing represent developing countries, such as Colombia, Uruguay, Nigeria, Ghana and many others. These countries typically have low participation and success in other international competitions such as the Olympics, so they find their nationalism and support in the World Cup due to the accessibility and commonality of soccer.
The number of people tuning to watch their home countries fight for international competitive prestige shows that even in times of turmoil and struggle, nations can be united through watching a small, fuzzy screen of their teams playing everyone’s favorite sport.
— Elena Lopez
Sources: CNN, Latin Post, Miami Herald, Reuters
Photo: Zap 2 It
3 Ways Billboard Advertising Can Help Humanity
Not many people appreciate huge billboards blocking out landscapes and pushing companies’ products on such a large scale. Some companies are using innovative methods to change this perception of billboard advertising and clean the environment for their communities. This blend of environmentalism and economics allows companies to sell their brand while cleaning the air and water in their cities. These three types of billboards are doing just that:
1. River-Filtering Billboards
The Pasig River in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has been devastatingly polluted for decades. A Japanese company has plans to clean up the river through the use of floating billboard advertising.
Shokubutsu Hana, a Japanese cosmetics brand, teamed up with the Pasig River Rehabilitation commission, Vetiver Farms and agency TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno to design an advertisement using a grass called vetiver. Vetiver has the ability to filter water that passes through its system, cleaning pollution out of 2,000 to 8,000 gallons of water per day. It can filter out nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals, all of which are found in the Pasig.
The billboard is planted to spell out “clean river soon,” an encouragement to the community that their river is being cleansed of pollution. This phrase also serves as a reminder to passersby to avoid throwing garbage in the water. With the success of this billboard, there are plans to create more floating advertisements along the river.
2. Water-Purifying Billboards
The fifth-largest city in the Western Hemisphere is Lima, Peru. It is also located in the middle of a coastal desert, and it sees approximately half an inch of precipitation per year, while also averaging 83 percent humidity. Poor families in Lima cannot afford the exorbitant price of water — a basic necessity to survive.
The University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) has developed a new billboard that pulls moisture from the atmosphere and converts it into drinkable water — all to advertise for the school. Although it requires electricity to run, the billboard is far easier than the unclean wells that many Lima citizens currently use. It has the capacity to produce 9,450 liters in three months, which is enough to sustain hundreds of families. The idea was the brainchild of advertising agency Mayo DraftFCB, with the hope that the billboard would draw students into engineering at UTEC, while also providing a service to the many people in need.
3. Air-purifying Billboards
In addition to the lack of water, the air quality in the city of Lima, Peru is the poorest in South America. A recent increase in construction has created a toxic atmosphere for many of the city’s residents. The pollutants near these sites cause disease, and possibly even cancer. Again partnering with Mayo DraftFCB, UTEC has developed an air-purifying billboard to alleviate the air pollution caused by growing construction.
The billboard purifies the air as much as 1,200 trees, creating a safe place to breathe within a radius of five city blocks. The billboard dissolves pollutants into water before releasing clean air back into the street. That waste water can then be recycled back into the system, and all of this happens while using only about 2,500 watts of electricity per hour.
UTEC is not the first brand to purify the air with a billboard. Back in Manila, in 2011, Coca-Cola created a billboard that actually contained plants, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is made up of 3,600 Fukien tea plants, which combined removed almost 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year. The plants grow as the background, forming a silhouetted Coca-Cola bottle. Even the pots the tea plants grow in are recycled from old Coca-Cola bottles. All the plants are watered through trickle irrigation, which drips water down the billboard.
Both billboards provide a healthy environment for citizens who pass through the pollutant-free area.
— Monica Roth
Sources: Fast Company, Visual News, Time, FCB Mayo, Gizmag, Triple Pundit
Photo: Shaw Contract Group
Postpartum Depression Abroad
Mental health is not only one of the most overlooked facets of health around the globe, but also one of the most important features of holistic health. Although depression, the most prevalent mental illness, is the leading cause of disability in the world, the U.S. spends less than $2 per person on researching and investing in mental health. Unfortunately, the developing world has even less to spend on making its people mentally well.
This is a problem for mothers in low-income countries who develop postpartum depression. According to the World Health Organization, 20-40 percent of women in developing nations experience postpartum depression, which is the moderate to severe depressive state induced by childbirth. That figure likely does not account for the women who suffer in silence, as postpartum depression – like all depression – is highly stigmatized in many corners of the globe and is one of many reasons that affected women may not seek treatment.
Studies from the University of Michigan show a high correlation between maternal mental health and the health outcomes of their children. The children of mothers who live with postpartum depression are at significantly higher risk of child mortality, malnutrition and chronic illness.
To raise awareness about maternal mental health, an organization called Postpartum Progress hosted an event on June 21 in which it encouraged women around the world to hike or climb mountains in order to symbolize the “climb out of darkness” that women experience when they recover from postpartum depression. This event is the largest in the world that creates awareness about the intersection between mental and perinatal health. Though solving postpartum depression for mothers around the world will require much more than awareness, this event is an honorable first step in the right direction. The next steps needed are the infrastructure for treatment and long-term recovery options.
Making mental health a priority in the developing world is crucial to seeing poverty become less prevalent. Mothers suffering from postpartum depression have decreased ability to seek or keep employment, take care of their families and access other resources. The declining health of children with suffering mothers may also pull other family members out of the workforce as they stay home to care for both mother and child. In order to see a world free of poverty, international global health campaigns must address all mental illnesses, including postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression is an overlooked issue, but with increased attention to all mental health threats, it is an issue that can be resolved. Mothers in the developing world deserve the same care and attention we give to those affected by more well-known conditions, such as malaria. By attending to the needs of women with postpartum depression, we create a better world and a more prosperous future for not only them, but their children as well.
— Elise L. Riley
Sources: University of Michigan, One
Photo: Humanosphere
Rape in India: Women Still Living in Fear
Last month, two girls were found hanging from trees in India’s Katra village. Another woman claimed she was gang-raped by four police officers. India has had a women’s rights problem for a while now, yet it is only increasing, despite more strict laws. The body of a 19-year-old was just recently found hanging by her scarf from a tree in Uttar Pradesh, making her the state’s fourth female victim in only two weeks.
Rape in India is a rising problem, yet one that is not easily solved. According to official statistics, around 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, though the number is thought to be much higher due to a common fear of punishment and social stigma. Simply, the problem lies in attitude, not a lack of legislation or protection. “Even though the laws are there, many people feel they can get away with anything, an attitude that some of our politicians have gone out of their way to encourage,” said Ranjana Kumari, a prolific women’s rights activist in New Delhi.
Certain politicians have only exacerbated the problem. Earlier this June, Madhya Pradesh state Home Minister, Babulal Gaur (who oversees police,) claimed that rape was a “social crime,” which depended on the man and woman. “It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.” Gaur’s statements came just months after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav opposed the death penalty for rape, claiming “boys will be boys. Sometimes they make mistakes.”
The most recent victim was thought to have been raped and murdered by two men who she told her family had been bothering her. While they have filed a report claiming their suspicions in her death, the case is basically smoke and mirrors: a district police officer told the New York Times that a preliminary postmortem examination found no evidence to suggest rape.
Unfortunately, this ability for men to “get away” with their crimes is exactly what has caused it to spread to this extremity. “This is not something that is particular for Uttar Pradesh,” said Amnesty International India’s senior researcher, Divya Iyer, on the most recent death. “These sporadic news of rapes bring the issue to the fore, but it is important to see it as a continuum. For every case of rape, there are many more that are not reported, because of the stigma attached and the fear of reprisals. It is important to hold politicians accountable for their statements in order to send the right signals to the community.”
— Nick Magnanti
Sources: Fox News, Religion News, Time, NY Times
Photo: Asia Society