India has two faces. The first is the one we can see in Bollywood movies: beautiful actresses, extravagant costumes and dances, romantic scenarios, love. The second is closer to reality. Women forced into marriage because their parents cannot support them, waves of femicides, sexual harassment – a few examples on a long list. So, between the romanticized image of women and that of women as victims of society, what is it really like to be a woman in India?
Among the G20 nations, a 2012 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the worst place to live for women. Why? In a highly religious and strictly stratified society, women have the lowest status, without a doubt.
In traditional Indian society, women are perceived as inferior to men. Mere housewives, they are expected to stay at home, bear children, and take care of household chores. Most women, even nowadays, are forced into marrying a husband that their family chooses. Furthermore, although female literacy rates have increased, only 65.46 percent of women could read and write in 2011 as compared to 82.14 percent of men. This 16.68 percentage-point gap can be attributed to the traditional view that women do not need to go to school.
This patriarchal mindset is still deeply embedded in Indian mentalities. Even before their birth, women are the victims of discrimination due to the hefty dowry the girl’s family must give the husband’s family upon her marriage. Because women cannot inherit from their families, parents have a strong sex-selection bias towards boys to ensure the survival of their descendant line, triggering waves of femicides. Indeed, femicide has been a great plague in India. Research conducted by economists Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray found that nearly 2 million women are missing in a given year, due to female foeticide and girl killings.
Despite this appalling observation, femicide was only officially recognized as gender-related killing on March 15 of 2013, during the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). For the first time, governments are urged “to implement or strengthen national legislation in order to punish such killings of women, and girls” according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). For the first time, femicide is seen as a crime in itself, and governments ought to “end impunity by ensuring accountability and the punishment of perpetrators of such crimes and reparation for the victims”.
The CSW resolution arrives in a time of social turmoil after the gang rape and subsequent death of a 23 year-old medical student on a New Delhi bus. The wave of rape protests that occurred in New Delhi after this incident spread across Asia, with demonstrations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But these protests did not end sexual harassment in India: in April 2013, a 5 year-old girl in New Delhi was raped and tortured for 40 hours before dying.
But it is really the recent scandal involving an American tourist gang-raped by three men in Northern India that drew more widespread international attention to the issue. In the face of these deplorable incidents, women across India and beyond have been mobilizing for their cause, and the heightened international awareness offers hope that Indian women can look forward to a better future.
– Lauren Yeh
Source: BBC, UN Women, Reuters, Guardian
Photo: JNM Journal
10 Mil Volunteers Revolutionizing Disaster Relief
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is an international non-profit humanitarian organization with four main tenets: charity, medicine, education, and humanitarian culture. So far, with the help of 10 million volunteers and donors, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has provided millions of dollars of relief and aid in over 70 countries.
Tzu Chi was among the first organizations to provide relief to families that were victims of the World Trade Center attacks, Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, and the earthquake in Haiti. Tzu Chi is unique in its approach to disaster relief in that it hands sums of cash directly into the hands of survivors. This is part of Tzu Chi’s philosophy: allowing survivors to use charity money on their own terms.
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation started in 1966 when a group of women began to save two cents from grocery money every day to donate to charity. The organization registered as a non-profit 501(c)(3) in California in 1984, and over the years, it has become an international group of over 10 million volunteers.
Literally meaning “compassionate relief,” Tzu Chi has expanded its program beyond just charity by building schools and hospitals around the world. With deep roots in Asia, Tzu Chi has become one of the most influential charity organizations in that region. Tzu Chi volunteers are easily recognized by their blue and white uniforms, and have frequently been called “blue angels.”
A factor that distinguishes Tzu Chi from many other Buddhist organizations is that it is first and foremost not evangelical. Volunteers are made to feel at home and are encouraged to practice whatever religion they affiliate with. All members are encouraged to improve their behavior and mindset, regardless of the underlying Buddhist ethics.
Tzu Chi is strictly non-political and non-governmental, and does not discriminate based on race, religion, nationality, gender, or ethnicity. For this, it has come under some scrutiny in the past, as many Taiwanese were upset with Tzu Chi for offering relief to mainland China. That criticism passed when Tzu Chi became one of the most coordinated organizations to provide relief to Taiwan during the 921 earthquake.
The organization has expanded to involve university students worldwide. The Tzu Chi Collegiate Association is a worldwide network that was officially established in Taiwan in 1992. The volunteers are often given opportunities to attend international NGO conferences. Tzu Shao is also a branch of Tzu Chi that allows youth 18 and under to get involved.
Tzu Chi is progressive in the idea that human growth is rooted in charity and giving, not just internal meditation. Not only does Tzu Chi help survivors of disasters and tragedies, but it also helps its volunteers. Many people are involved with the organization to help their communities and also for their own personal development.
– Lindsey Rubinstein
Sources: Tzu Chi, NY Daily News
10 Facts About Operation USA
Operation USA is an international relief agency that focuses on working with grass-roots groups to help alleviate the effects of natural and man-made disasters worldwide. The Los Angeles-based group was a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the “International Campaign to Ban Landmines.”
These are ten important facts about it:
Bonus Fact: Julie Andrews is a founding Board Member, and Rosario Dawson also currently serves on the Board of Directors.
– Lauren Brown
Sources: ICBL, Operation USA
Photo: Food For The Poor
Rising Debt Means Falling Aid
While some economies may be taking the first steps towards recovery, the repercussions of the global economic crisis are still being felt in the majority of countries. And one of the biggest casualties of the continued recession could be progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Increased spending over the last few years led to rapid progress on many of the MDGs, however, a recent report entitled “Putting Progress at Risk” by Oxfam International shows that the majority of developing countries are now spending well below the amount required to continue with progress on the various social issues promoted by the MDGs.
While cuts necessitated by the global economic crisis have been made by developing countries – in such areas as agricultural spending, maintenance of water facilities, and wages for teachers and nurse – the problem is exacerbated by the effect the economic crisis has had on developed nations.
The report tracks the spending of 52 developing nations by using data from the Government Spending Watch database. The data shows that these countries have lost a combined $140 billion in revenues during the economic crisis. Unfortunately, at the same time as revenue generation in these countries is declining, international aid is also falling. As a result, countries are being forced to choose between increased borrowing and rising debt, and cutting funding to their own development programs. According to the Government Spending Watch database, only 20% of these countries are meeting targets for agricultural spending, and 40% are reaching the level the World Health Organization recommends for spending on health.
This combination of rising internal debt, and falling external aid, has many developing countries trapped and unable to generate enough revenue to support development, and yet needing that development to happen in order to promote future growth. Developed nations must hold to their initial pledges for aid, otherwise all the progress so far seen could slip away.
– David Wilson
Source: Caledonian Mercury, Oxfam
Obama Pledges $6.5 Billion for Electricity in Africa
According to the International Energy Agency, all developing nations lack adequate access to electricity. This amounts to 1.3 billion people living in the dark worldwide. According to the same source, an investment of $1 trillion USD would be needed to remedy this. Currently, poverty and hunger take center stage. Food is of more use to a starving child than is a night light, but Westerners often take for granted how valuable the power of light can be to a community in poverty.
Not only does electricity make lives easier on a personal level, it helps to mechanize farming operations, which can be a great boost to a company’s agricultural productivity. Natural disasters often become less deadly when people are warned about them ahead of time, which can be accomplished with electric monitoring systems. Socially, populations are less marginalized with improved means of communication and information.
President Barack Obama said during his recent trip to South Africa, “Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It’s the light that children study by, the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It’s the lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs, and it’s the connection that’s needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy.” President Obama then pledged almost $7 billion USD to help provide electricity for Africa.
The White House stated that The Export-Import Bank will carry most of the financial weight of the program, donating $5 billion, and the U.S. Oversees Private Investment Corporation will provide another $1.5 billion.
The funds will go toward preventing the frequent blackouts that plague the Sub-Saharan part of the continent, as well as helping the 85% percent of people in the region without electricity gain access to it. Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique will be the first countries to benefit from the program as it is developed at preliminary stages.
The investment is a great step toward solving the problem, but in all, Africa alone will need $300 billion to achieve universal electricity by 2030. The Alliance for Rural Electrification, a non-government organization, is another ally in combating this issue. As champions of universal electrification, ARE focuses on renewable energy such as solar, which much of Africa is a strong candidate for. This is especially relevant for areas that are geographically isolated where extending the reach of an existing power grid is not feasible.
– Samantha Mauney
Source: ARE, Scientific American, CNN
Photo: Business Insider
How Africa Can End Hunger by 2025
Africa can end hunger completely by 2025, according to Jose Graniano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Graniano da Silva bases his prediction on the great progress that has been made in Africa since the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000.
Since then, eleven countries in Africa have reduced the number of hungry people within their borders by 50%, and several others are on track to do the same by the end of 2015. With the strong momentum that is behind African efforts to combat malnutrition, Graniano da Silva believes that complete elimination of hunger is attainable in the continent by the year 2025.
The Director-General states that the biggest obstacle to eliminating hunger in Africa is accessibility to food. Africa has the second-highest level of economic growth in the world and a multitude of resources throughout the continent, yet 17 of the 20 countries in the world “suffering from prolonged food shortages” are in Africa and “one in four Africans still suffer from chronic hunger.”
The key to reducing hunger, according to Graniano da Silva, is not necessarily by just increasing food production, but rather by making food more available throughout the continent. Increased access to food can be achieved by increasing access to land for growing food and reducing food price volatility.
Other factors that will help contribute to the eradication of hunger in Africa are increasing national budgets on agriculture and providing women with enhanced access to land and credit. Nearly “70% of Africa’s agriculture workforce is female,” making women’s rights and involvement in development essential to reducing hunger.
Jose Graniano da Silva is a former president of Brazil who headed the nation’s Fome Zero program, which successfully lifted 28 million Brazilians out of poverty. The Director-General hopes that similar strategies to the ones that he helped implement in Brazil will help lift millions of Africans out of poverty in the next decade.
– Jordan Kline
Sources: The Guardian, Inter Press Service
Malala Proves Education is Key to Empowerment
Malala Yousafzai is a young education rights campaigner from Pakistan. Malala will soon be celebrating her 16th birthday, a miracle after she was shot by extremists for her outspoken beliefs on education. Malala will celebrate her birthday by traveling to the United Nations where students from more than 80 countries will join her.
Malala and the other young activists will be assembled to call for global education for everyone in the world. She and the other young diplomats believe that education is a right for all – one of the Millennium Development Goals, and a vital component of the path to global citizenship. This belief is well founded in the fact that universal compulsory education represents a future that the world wants. Malala was the first person to sign on to a new worldwide petition calling for urgent action to ensure the right of every child to safely attend school. The petition serves as an initial step in focusing the UN agenda on education.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon supports Malala’s mission to bring education to the world. He states that education is an essential step in a world without poverty, violence, discrimination, and disease. He also recognizes that in order to achieve these objectives, the global society needs to continue pushing forward. The secretary general recognizes that we, as a global society, have made progress on this issue, however, there is much more work to be done. Ban expresses that no child or woman should have to consider going to school as an act of bravery.
Ban states that too many girls around the world are subjected to extremist threats for trying to obtain an education. The benefits of educating women in developing countries have been proven time and time again. Ban explains that when women and girls are educated, a society develops at a more rapid pace than without their education. Additionally, education increases future earnings for women, allowing them to provide their families with additional resources, over time, lifting them out of poverty.
If education is key to empowerment as the path to economic stability and development, why is it so widely contested in many developing countries? The answer lies in fear. If we as a global community continue to fear education for all, we will fail to grow as a global economy. More steps must be taken to ensure each child has access to education.
-Caitlin Zusy
Source: Huffington Post, UN News Center
Photo: Stanford Bookhaven
Developing Countries Become Mobile Phone Consumers
Developing nations have become the mobile phone industry’s biggest new consumer. Some of the poorest countries in Africa have seen a meteoric rise in cell phone use in recent years. Since the invention, cell phones have enabled users to connect across geographic boundaries in ways that were impossible before. Additionally, cell phones are now used in developing for monetary exchanges that have fueled growth.
A vast majority of the population in Africa do not have bank accounts. Instead, their populations are increasingly reliant on “mobile money”, often in the form of pre-paid airtime minutes. Mobile handsets can be acquired at a relatively cheap price and they allow their users to make financial transactions in a way that is independent of inflation or economic stability. Airtime can be transferred between handsets or converted to cash by airtime dealers.
In Botswana, approximately 30% of the population over the age of 16 have a bank account, however nearly 60% have mobile phones. In Cameroon, the difference is even greater, with 7.1% with bank accounts and 36.5% operating mobile phones.
This pattern continues across much of the African continent. The airtime economy offers monetary independence for Africans living on minuscule incomes. Though the cost of entry still prevents the poorest communities from entering the market, handset manufacturers have taken notice of these emerging markets and are developing cheaper, more rugged handsets for poorer communities.
– Andrew Rasner
Source: The Economist, TechCrunch, IST Africa
Photo: Smart Mobile Solutions
What it’s Really Like to be a Woman in India
India has two faces. The first is the one we can see in Bollywood movies: beautiful actresses, extravagant costumes and dances, romantic scenarios, love. The second is closer to reality. Women forced into marriage because their parents cannot support them, waves of femicides, sexual harassment – a few examples on a long list. So, between the romanticized image of women and that of women as victims of society, what is it really like to be a woman in India?
Among the G20 nations, a 2012 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the worst place to live for women. Why? In a highly religious and strictly stratified society, women have the lowest status, without a doubt.
In traditional Indian society, women are perceived as inferior to men. Mere housewives, they are expected to stay at home, bear children, and take care of household chores. Most women, even nowadays, are forced into marrying a husband that their family chooses. Furthermore, although female literacy rates have increased, only 65.46 percent of women could read and write in 2011 as compared to 82.14 percent of men. This 16.68 percentage-point gap can be attributed to the traditional view that women do not need to go to school.
This patriarchal mindset is still deeply embedded in Indian mentalities. Even before their birth, women are the victims of discrimination due to the hefty dowry the girl’s family must give the husband’s family upon her marriage. Because women cannot inherit from their families, parents have a strong sex-selection bias towards boys to ensure the survival of their descendant line, triggering waves of femicides. Indeed, femicide has been a great plague in India. Research conducted by economists Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray found that nearly 2 million women are missing in a given year, due to female foeticide and girl killings.
Despite this appalling observation, femicide was only officially recognized as gender-related killing on March 15 of 2013, during the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). For the first time, governments are urged “to implement or strengthen national legislation in order to punish such killings of women, and girls” according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). For the first time, femicide is seen as a crime in itself, and governments ought to “end impunity by ensuring accountability and the punishment of perpetrators of such crimes and reparation for the victims”.
The CSW resolution arrives in a time of social turmoil after the gang rape and subsequent death of a 23 year-old medical student on a New Delhi bus. The wave of rape protests that occurred in New Delhi after this incident spread across Asia, with demonstrations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But these protests did not end sexual harassment in India: in April 2013, a 5 year-old girl in New Delhi was raped and tortured for 40 hours before dying.
But it is really the recent scandal involving an American tourist gang-raped by three men in Northern India that drew more widespread international attention to the issue. In the face of these deplorable incidents, women across India and beyond have been mobilizing for their cause, and the heightened international awareness offers hope that Indian women can look forward to a better future.
– Lauren Yeh
Source: BBC, UN Women, Reuters, Guardian
Photo: JNM Journal
Boosting African Economies
In their joint op-ed for the Washington Times, former Congressional representatives Howard Berman and Connie Morella refer to US development efforts, saying, “We’re not just talking altruism. We’re talking sound, smart business.”
Berman, a Democrat, and Morella, a Republican, collaborated the op-ed entitled “A Smart Investment in Africa”, which was published Monday, July 1 in the Washington Times. Their overall message: help the developing world.
The article pointed out how in this globalized age, our security and economy have never been more closely tied with that of the African continent. Over half of US exports go to the developing world. This fact, combined with the vast population of the developing world, makes these countries the biggest potential for growth of American businesses and innovations. Investments in the continent of Africa advance economic and governmental reforms, which give American businesses a better foundation with which to expand into the continent.
The former Congressmen also pointed out that, while Americans are often given an image of Africa as a continent fraught with conflict and despair, African economies are growing at an astounding rate, like much of the developing world. Seven of the most rapidly expanding economies in the world are in Africa. As these economies expand and Africans are lifted out of poverty, American businesses will be able to market their products to the vast amounts of new wealthier consumers.
The article also highlighted how important US investment in Africa is for America’s security interests. Extremist groups, such as Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, are looking for ways to take root in Africa, and countries without the economic capacity to build strong infrastructure or security forces are the most vulnerable to these forces. Investing in African economies gives countries the resources and stability to resist extremist influence.
The security benefits of bolstering African economies are exemplified clearly in The World Bank report entitled “Breaking the Conflict Trap” which argues that an unequal distribution of wealth exacerbates societal tensions and “increases the perception of relative deprivation.” Therefore, reduction of poverty in African countries will reduce conflict in these areas which are critical to US security interests.
The former Representatives pointed out in their op-ed on Monday just how important US aid to Africa is, not just for humanitarian reasons, but for the future of US economic and security interests.
– Martin Drake
Source: Washington Times, World Bank
Zimbabwe Election 2013: A Repeat of 2008?
In recent years, aid to Zimbabwe from the United States has made important strides towards improving life for the people. USAID has supported anti-retroviral treatment, improved access to healthcare, and has even reduced the spread of HIV/AIDs to under 15%. Most recently we have been attempting to transform the country into a democratic nation in order to support growth and success. The people are trying to assist with this change, but the government may be getting in their way.
On June 18th, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee gathered for a hearing regarding the upcoming elections in Zimbabwe. The 2008 elections were a disaster, flanked with repression and violence across the African country. As a result of that and of U.S intervention and aid, Zimbabwe’s president, Mugabe, signed a new constitution into law that divides the power between him and Prime Minister Tsvangirai and brings about a 2 term, of 5 years each, maximum for each elected president.
The good news is that this means the Zimbabwean people will finally have the chance to shape the government according to their needs, gaining health care and education reforms. The bad news is that the current government may not be so ready to hand over the reigns to the people.
Part of the agreement the U.S reached with Zimbabwe was that the elections had to be held by the end of July. And, while the elections could seriously improve the relationship between our country and theirs, rushing into things could damage any chances Zimbabwe has of actually making progress. Therefore SADC has requested that we give them more time to make sure everything is ready and the elections will be fair.
Acting Assistant Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Donald Yamamoto, brought forth his arguments before the other panel members. He cited the recent illegal arrests, detentions, and instances of harassment as evidence that efforts are already underway to intimidate voters and sway the election. “Zimbabwe must decide whether it will support a credible electoral process or continue to repress its people and isolate itself from the international community”. This decision does not just decide whether the people stay repressed in poverty, but also whether Zimbabwe becomes involved in trading and business with the rest of the world, including the U.S.
There has also been concern that without enough time, it will be less likely that all the new voters will be registered, inspection of voters’ rolls will take place, and that other needed electoral and democratic reforms will be adhered to. This would make the credibility of the election outcome very questionable and set back the governmental improvements another 5 years.
However, important changes are already underway. For the first time ever, the youth of Zimbabwe are getting together to debate politics and learn about the issues that affect them. If given the chance they could make a noticeable difference in the way things are done and how their country works with the rest of the world.
– Chelsea Evans
Source: Donald Yamamoto, Earl Gast, Dr. Todd J Moss, Reuters
Photo: Zimbabwe Election Watch