A United States drone strike has killed at least 14 people in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province.

Local sources said three Taliban militants were among the dead. It is not clear whether the rest of the casualties were civilians.

Hundreds of unmanned aircraft have been used to conduct surveillance flights and airstrikes in Afghanistan since 2001.

The US says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militant groups, but civilians have also been the victims of the attacks in many cases.

Such attacks are also carried out inside Pakistan, where Taliban members are also present.

One such attack killed the Taliban’s then-leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour inside Pakistan on May 21.

Following the attack, the Taliban picked Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader.

Akhundzada on Saturday called on the US to end its “occupation” of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan faces a security challenge since the US-led invasion in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still beset with bomb attacks, kidnapping incidents and murders.

Original article

Iceland’s remarkable Euro 2016 campaign came to an end as they fell to a 5-2 defeat to host-nation France in an entertaining quarter-final match in Saint-Denis.

France controlled large parts of the game and put in a superb first-half performance that saw them go in 4-0 up at the break. Iceland came into the game more in the second half and scored twice, but France also scored again to ensure they ran out comfortable 5-2 winners.

The result sends France through to a semi-final clash against Germany at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille on Thursday.
For Iceland, it brings to an end a wonderful run at a tournament in which they defied expectations.

Appearing for the first time in a major tournament finals, the Icelanders have captured headlines and hearts around the world through their determined style of play and the vociferous support of their fans.

The nation with a population of just 330,000 had progressed to the quarter-final stage following an unbeaten three matches in the group stage and a historic win against England in the first knockout round.

This time, however, Iceland came up against a France team which, roared on by a partisan home crowd, proved too full of attacking verve for the Icelandic defense.

Striker Olivier Giroud gave France the lead on 12 minutes after latching on to a through ball and firing between the legs of Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldórsson from 8 yards out.

France doubled the lead eight minutes later when midfielder Paul Pogba powered in a header at the back post from an Antoine Griezmann corner.

Dimitri Payet made it 3-0 on 43 minutes with a left-footed strike from outside the box, and Griezmann added a fourth just moments later when he ran through to chip the ball over advancing Iceland ‘keeper Halldórsson.

Iceland was more of a threat in the second half and got the goal their efforts deserved on 56 minutes when Kolbeinn Sigthórsson poked in a cross.

Although the French lead was restored to four goals just three minutes later when Giroud connected with a free-kick to head past Halldórsson, Iceland refused to give up, and grabbed another goal on 84 minutes through midfielder Birkir Bjarnason to make it 5-2.

It was a hugely entertaining game in which Iceland more than played their part, and their fans, as always, gave a fantastic account of themselves with numerous performances of their famous Viking hand clap.

Ultimately though it proved a step too far for Iceland, as they came up against a France team that is starting to look like the side that so many have tipped to win the tournament.

The French have clicked into gear at the right time and Didier Deschamps’ men will be in confident mood when they face Germany in Marseille on Thursday – with the winners of that game surely being favorites for victory in Sunday’s final at the Stade de France.

The other semi-final sees Wales take on Portugal in Lyon on Wednesday, with the Welsh now flying the flag as the tournament’s underdogs.

Iceland, despite the heavy defeat, can hold their heads up high after a superb tournament that will live long in the memory for the country, its fans, and millions of others around the world.

Undercover morality police will be engaged in Gilan-Iran for the “establishment of a more spiritual atmosphere in the province’s beaches and preservation of moral values” under a new plan called “Pure Gilan”, officials of the northern Iranian province announced.

Provincial security officials say in addition to both regular and undercover police, roads will also be consistently patrolled to confront “inappropriate behaviour” adding that the actions are part of the larger plan for “Healthy Beaches”.

The Healthy Beaches plan was introduced after the Islamic revolution of 1979 with aim of creating gender-segregated water fronts. The women are separated from men. If women want to swim or play, they are forced to go to a separate beach which is segregated by tent-like structures.

The so called “Healthy Beaches” project takes effects each summer in the shores of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran which is one of the most popular domestic tourist destinations in the country.

It is mainly aimed at preventing women from swimming and using any part of the beach save the limited areas allocated for them. Each year the police use new methods of enforcing their restriction on women. These allocated areas are limited for women and families are forced to go to only certain beaches that segregation has been made possible.

This year head of Gilan security forces told Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that they will be working in unison with the Revolutionary Guards in the “Healthy Beaches” project adding that “the Basij [plain cloth militia] will be assisting the police in establishing optimal security in the beaches.” The Basij is the militia branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The police have also called on ordinary citizens to support the plan and prevent “the province and its Islamic values from being compromised by its detractors.”

Since moderate president Hassan Rohani won the elections under a platform of greater social liberties for citizens, Iran’s conservative factions have further dug their heels over enforcement of strict social regulations such as hijab (Islamic dress code in public specifically for women to cover their hair). In early spring the police announced that it will engage Basij and volunteer forces in the cities as undercover patrols to inform the police of hijab violations in public.

President Hassan Rohani has challenged the plan, and his adviser on women and family issues, Shaindokht Molaverdi was quoted as saying that families are highly concerned about the adverse effects of the so-called undercover patrols.

The police have dismissed the opposition saying the public has in fact been asking for the deployment of the undercover patrols. Now it appears that the undercover informers are also patrolling the Caspian Sea shorelines.

By David W. Murray*

What is wrong with the marijuana legalization debate, and who is responsible for its sorry state? No better example of misdirection can be offered than the results of a recent Colorado poll. Because of the public health stakes for the nation’s youth, getting this right is essential.

The 2015 version of the Healthy Kids Colorado (HKCS) school survey, which polled both middle school and high school students, garnered a tremendous amount of news. Since it is the first state level estimate to be taken after marijuana legalization (accelerated with retail sales in January 2014), there was reporting concerning possible impact, compared to the previous HKCS taken in 2013.

While not without flaws, the study is an interesting snap-shot of youth health concerns, and legitimately alerts us to some genuine problem areas for marijuana use. But the media reporting was appalling, and the HKCS did little to prevent misunderstanding.

Media Advocacy

Uniformly, media described good news for marijuana legalization advocates. Most coverage (in the Washington Post, Denver Post, Fox News) reported that, compared to two years prior, marijuana use was “flat,” because not “statistically significant.”

Yet even a flat outcome is surprising, not least because other national surveys in Colorado have disclosed alarming increases in use for adults and young adults, rates rising in ten years some 99 percent (7.5 percent to 14.93 percent).

Moreover, in the regional breakdown there were major increases since 2013 in past month use for some students who were juniors and seniors, the increase in some regional breakdowns rising between 50 and 90 percent.

But the survey combined those results with younger grades to produce an overall mean (an ill-advised methodology without weightings), so officials were reported to declare no statistically significant change in marijuana prevalence.

Predictably, the results were treated as a report card on legalization, and media seized on the purported lesson — no rising rates, hence, no worries.

There was even more confusion (or worse) by some media. Both Time magazine and the Scientific American ran articles claiming that the survey had indeed found change, after all. But remarkably, they reported that the new results showed marijuana use had “dipped” from 2013. Of course, in the absence of significance, this claim would be simply wrong. If the non-significant outcome cannot be up, it certainly cannot be down.

There is worse in store. Media thought that calling the changes “not significant” meant that changes were not sufficiently large. But as we shall see, what happened is that the survey did not, methodologically, produce an outcome capable of being statistically significant, as a true weighted probability survey would be. That is a very different matter.

What they seem to have produced is a (partial) census of students, for whom marijuana is variously steeply up or on occasion down, depending on grade and geography. But this survey does not fulfill the necessary criteria for a probability sample.

What National Average?

A further question is, to what are the results being compared? Both the HKCS report itself, and the media, compared the outcome of HKCS 2015 not only to HKCS 2013, but to what they termed the “national average” of youth marijuana use.

According to the reports, 21.2% of Colorado teens were past month marijuana users in 2015. The “national rate” of pot use by youth was reported as higher, at 21.7%.

What is the possible source for deriving that “national average”? There is one genuinely national sample of youth drug use, that from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) that covers all states. But this cannot be the basis for the claim. In their latest 2014 estimates, NSDUH reported that 7.2 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 across the nation used marijuana in the past month – that figure, not 21.7 percent, would be the youth “national average.”

Moreover, the NSDUH specifically declared that Colorado had the nation’s highest rates. Adolescent marijuana use ranged from 4.98 percent in Alabama to 12.56 percent in Colorado.

Worse, the NSDUH showed for youth that from 2009, when medical marijuana took off in Colorado, there has been a stunning rise of 27 percent through 2014 (from 9.91 percent to 12.56 percent). So Colorado youth use rates in the NSDUH are not only higher than the national average, but, after freer access to marijuana, have been steeply climbing.

There is also Monitoring the Future (MTF), a school survey (8th, 10th, an 12th grades) produced by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In 2014 MTF showed 21.2 percent of students reporting past month marijuana use. But that rate applied only to seniors in their survey, while the HKCS results were supposed to represent all grades. (Rates for 8th graders in the MTF stood at only 6.5 percent.)

Apparently worried about such data contradictions, the Washington Post sought to mitigate concern by pointing out that the HKCS had a very large in-state sample, of 17,000 kids. Says the Post, “That much larger sample could produce a more accurate estimate than the smaller numbers in the federal drug survey.”

But the Post‘s maneuver only magnifies the problems. HKCS is modeled on the Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS) conducted every two years by the Centers for Disease Control, and the YRBS (which covers most but not every state), also has a sample that estimates a national average.

Critically, however, the YRBS has nowhere near 17,000 youth in each state as their national sample. Their national estimate is based on a total 13,600 responses, for the entire nation; that would average just a few hundred kids per state if evenly distributed. Moreover, the YRBS surveys youth in 9th through 12th grade. Hence, the YRBS is not really comparable to what happened in Colorado.

Likely Missed Most At-Risk Youth

The fact that HKCS and YRBS are both school-based surveys (that is, not taken in households, as is the NSDUH) may account for some of the difference in their respective magnitudes – school surveys produce traditionally higher figures. But this fact raises questions about the validity of any school-based survey.

School-base surveys cannot capture youth not in schools. Given that marijuana use itself is strongly associated with school drop-out rates (as well as high rates of absenteeism), the population of interest may not have been included in a representative fashion. Further, the rising number of young homeless marijuana users flooding into Colorado shows another side of the problem; they are not captured in the school surveys.

That is, the HKCS survey might have systematically missed exactly the kids most at-risk of using marijuana. Of course, if true, the same impact might have affected the HKCS 2013 results that formed the contrast. However, if marijuana use had increased substantially since legalization, there could be a differential impact on student attrition by 2015, as the situation worsened.

Response Rates Undermined Validity

The 2013 survey reported in their “demographics” breakdown that the earlier iteration had an even larger sample than the 2015 run. The 2013 sample was 40,000 youth, who answered with a response rate of 58 percent. But the 2015 sample, the 17,000, registered a truly dismal 46 percent response rate. This is a real problem.

First, when fewer than half of the sample responds, there is a risk that those who did answer are not representative of the actual youth total. Second, that drop in response could signal that there were more youth at risk in the 2015 sample, and hence, not present in the classroom during the second round.

Third, however, these data also show the non-comparability of the surveys. The 58 percent response in the 2013 survey, with a much larger sample, stands in genuine contrast with the lower 46 percent response rate and smaller initial sample for 2015. By way of contrast, the CDC YRBS has an 88 percent student response rate, while the NSDUH stands at 71.2 percent.

Here the point made by the Post about larger samples can be turned back on them; surely the smaller 2015 HKCS would be less accurate than the previous iteration, by the Post‘s own logic. Moreover, the surveys are non-comparable not only because of sample size and response rates, but further because a different set of schools was included in the 2015 iteration, not reporting, for instance, some large school districts near urban areas, where rates of use are often higher.

Given such differences, the two different sets of results cannot meaningfully be put side-by-side. And as we have seen, because the HKCS study was unique to Colorado, there is no methodologically comparable “national average” to which comparisons could be made. Hence, there is no lesson to be derived regarding the impact of legalization; certainly not one sufficiently robust to counter the worrisome NSDUH data to the contrary.

But here’s the most devastating problem of all. The official YRBS, run every two years, requires a 60 percent “participation” rate in order to generate valid weightings for the results. If they are unable to weight a state survey (such as HKCS), they cannot provide an estimate that is representative of the state population. As the CDC participation map shows, Colorado did not receive a proper weighted sample.

This means that the HKCS, according to the criteria offered by the CDC, cannot be used to represent all students in Colorado – there can be no extrapolation of the findings beyond the survey respondents. According to the CDC criteria, these results cannot be extrapolated beyond the participants themselves, and therefore “stands for” no one but the kids who participated. As such, there can be no statistically significant comparisons between these results and previous years, nor with what was termed a “national sample.”

Correction Needed

And yet the media were allowed (where they were not encouraged) to run the “top line” results as though they stood for Colorado youth. And to declare the results “better” following legalization. And to declare use in Colorado post-legalization to be below the national average. As we have seen, none of these statements is warranted.

In fact, we now learn about other states that did not participate in the latest 2015 YRBS round. They include Minnesota, but more importantly, both Oregon and Washington, states that have recently legalized marijuana – that is, states that could have provided a report-card on legalization, but about which we will learn even less than we learned about Colorado. (The next NSDUH state-level estimate won’t come until 2017, post-election.)

This apparent coincidence does little to allay concerns that we are witnessing the effects of a pro-marijuana agenda, perhaps forwarded by well-meaning state boosters and, more surely, by their enablers in the media. Given that other states are looking to Colorado to comprehend their own legalization risks, it is important that the record be corrected.

About the author:
*David W. Murray is a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute where he co-directs the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research.

Source:
This article was published by the Hudson Foundation.

By Prof. V. Suryanarayan*

Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted and unwanted people in the world today.

Thousands of them were forced to flee from their country: they have taken shelter in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Philippines, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Nearly 10,000 of them have been lured to come to India by Dalals (agents). The dalals portray India as a safe haven, where employment is easily available, they could live in comfort and, what is more, they could lead a secure and peaceful life. They cross the porous Bangladesh-India border, come to West Bengal and take the train to different parts of the country. The Rohingyas are concentrated in New Delhi, Jammu, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, and, to a lesser extent, in Tamil Nadu and in Kerala.

The Author came in touch with Rohingya refugees during the World Refugee Day on June 20, when the UNHCR, Chennai office had arranged a function in the Stella Maris College for an interaction with select group of refugees who live in South India. Some Rohingya refugees had come for the get together and they narrated their tale of woe. The Author wanted to learn more about them and along with his junior colleague Ms. Asma Masood of the Chennai Centre for China Studies visited the refugee camp located in Kelambakkam, 35 kms away from Chennai, in Kancheepuram district.

In order to understand the Rohingya predicament, it is necessary to recall their living conditions in Myanmar, the many acts of discrimination to which they were subjected, the concerted attempts to reduce their numbers and, what is more, why they were compelled to get uprooted from familiar surroundings. Today they are not citizens of any country. They have no permanent home.

The United Nations has described the Rohingyas as the most persecuted minority in the world today. All of them are Muslims, belonging to the Sunni sect; they have their language and their distinct culture. According to CIA World Fact Book, Muslims constitute 4 per cent of the population of Myanmar. Their largest concentration is in the Rakhine state (formerly known as Arakan), especially around Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Akyab and Kyauktaw. They are one of the early settlers of the country; however, their number increased during the British rule. The British Government encouraged their migration. They migrated from villages which fall within Bangladesh today. They worked very hard and contributed to the economic prosperity of Burma. They number approximately 800,000.

Their legal status under the British rule was that of British subjects and they enjoyed the same rights and privileges which others who lived in Burma enjoyed. After independence in 1948, the Burmese government, mainly representing majority Burmans, began to systematically discriminate the minorities. The Rohingyas naturally felt alienated and their political leaders began to advocate a separate independent nation. This further alienated them from the majority community. The military junta, which came to power in 1962, cracked down on them. The government records referred to them not as Rohingyas, but as illegal Bengali migrants. It was an illustration of denial of their separate cultural identity.

The Citizenship Act of 1982 further worsened their position. According to the rules prescribed for citizenship, one must belong to one of the 135 national races, whose ancestors had lived in the country before 1823. The Rohingyas could not produce the necessary documents and consequently indiscriminate denial of citizenship took place. The President’s office issued a statement: “Burma will take responsibility for its ethnic nationalities, but it is not at all possible to recognize the illegal border-crossing Rohingyas who are not an ethnic group in Burma”.

Rohingyas had no access to education, health, travel, employment opportunities and, above all, political participation. Those who wanted to get married should apply for permits, which took a long time to get sanctioned. They were forced to do manual labour, without pay, for the armed services. Compounding the situation were regular cycles of violence.

The unprecedented organized riots that took place in 2012 brought the predicament of the Rohingyas to the attention of the international community. As the Minority Rights Group has described: “Since 1982 and their loss of citizenship, Rohingyas have been persecuted and oppressed to an astounding level. They have been particularly targeted for atrocities committed by the Burmese army, such as torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, extra-judicial killings and summary execution, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, destruction of homes, forced labour, forced relocation and eviction, confiscation of land and property etc.” What further humiliated the devout Rohingyas was the wanton destruction of their places of worship. As a well known authority has put it, “The religious activities of these minorities are also severely curtailed. Many mosques and religious schools have been demolished since the 1980’s and repairs to them are often prohibited. There have been substantial reports of Waqf land (mosque land) and Muslim cemeteries being appropriated by authorities, as well as Muslim monuments, place names and historical sites being destroyed”.

While reading about the sorry predicament of the Rohingyas, the author was reminded of Hannah Arendt’s writings with reference to the treatment meted out to the Jews in Nazi Germany. To quote: “We lost our home, which means the familiarity of daily life. We lost our occupation, which means the confidence that we are of some use in this world. We lost our language, which means the naturalness of reactions, the simplicity of gestures, the unaffected expression of feelings. We left our relatives in Polish Ghettos and our best friends have been killed in concentration camps, and that means the rupture of our private lives”.

The return of Aung San Suu Kyi to active politics has not brought about any improvement in the overall situation. She had been silent on the issue, fearing that any word of sympathy for the Rohingyas would cost her the majority Burman support. When the US Secretary of State John Kerry called on her in May 2016 and raised the subject of Rohingyas, Aung Saan Syu Kyi evaded the issue by giving a diplomatic answer: “All that we are asking is that people should be aware of the difficulties we are facing and to give us enough space to solve our problems”.

When the exodus began, naturally Bangladesh, being geographically contiguous, was the first country of preference for the Rohingyas. But to their dismay they were unwelcome in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi border guards threw them back to Myanmar. Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi Prime Minister, asserted that it was not her problem. It is unwise to meddle in the internal affairs of a neighbouring country. At the same time, the Rohingyas constituted cheap labour and many employers were willing to hire them on an informal basis. There is no possibility that the Government of Bangladesh would give Rohingyas permanent asylum. What is worse, the Bangladeshis have started referring to Rohingyas as drug peddlers, arms dealers and Islamic terrorists. In other words, the presence of Rohingyas is viewed not from the perspective of humanitarian considerations, but as a threat to national security.

Unwelcome in Bangladesh, many took the risk of crossing the Bay of Bengal in rickety boats and tried to reach Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The Rohingyas realized that even in Islamic countries like Malaysia and Indonesia they were unwelcome. The official policy was explained by the Home Minister of Malaysia as follows: “We have treated immigrants humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this. They are not welcome here”. The desperate Rohingyas, fearing for their lives, have also reached the shores of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Philippines and Australia. In addition to hazards of travel the Rohingyas also find that the legal procedures for asylum in many countries are weighted against them.

It is in this backdrop of international apathy, we should try to understand the living conditions of the Rohingyas in Kelambakkam. According to the Factsheet India issued by the UNHCR in May 2016 there are 19,142 Myanmarese refugees in India; according to informed sources the Rohingyas will approximately number 10,000 among them. The Rohingyas live in Jammu, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Kozhikode. All of them have come from Bangladesh utilizing the services of dalals who have contacts in various parts of India. As far as Rohingyas in Kelambakkam are concerned, some have come from Jammu and few others directly from Bangladesh.

The UNHCR had been the greatest benefactor of Rohingyas. The Rohingyas in Kelambakkam are recognized as refugees by the UNHCR and they are issued a refugee card which lists out their individual particulars like name with photograph, sex, age, date of arrival etc. The refugee card is a guarantee of their legal status; and they cannot be evicted from India against their wishes. The Chennai office of the UNHCR is confident that as and when validity of the refugee card expires, they could easily get them extended. The UNHCR maintains cordial relations with the Department of Immigration, Government of India.

It had not been smooth sailing for the Rohingya refugees. They were found wandering in different parts of Chennai and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to the Government of Tamil Nadu seeking clarification on the subject. The Collector of Kancheepuram rose to the occasion and provided them accommodation in the community hall in Kelambakkam. During their days of wandering they lived in a makeshift camp in Manali, but the local residents did not like their presence. When the Rohingyas settled down in Kelambakkam they numbered only 14, but the news that they have a permanent home spread and others joined the group. Today they number 64, and belong to 14 families. They comprise 15 men, 16 women, 24 boys and nine girls.

While the Kelambakkam camp provides a roof over the head, it lacks basic amenities. There is only one water tap outside the main building and only one toilet. We found children urinating on the floor. The open veranda where we talked to the refugees was full of flies. When the monsoon hits, one can imagine the pathetic condition that will develop there. The main hall is partitioned by hanging old clothes and each family occupies a space measuring 5’ by 5’. They take their bath and wash their clothes outside; cooking is also done outside with the use of firewood.

Mohammad Kasim, aged 37, is articulate in Urdu and he was the spokesman for the refugees. Following the riots in 2012, he, along with his family, migrated to Cox Baxar in Bangladesh. He migrated to Jammu with the help of a Dalal, paying him 13,000 rupees. He worked as a labourer on daily wages cleaning the railway compartments. He then heard that Tamil Nadu was a safer place to live, with prospects of better job and higher income. After staying in Manali he moved to Kelmbakkam six months ago. The men folk are involved in rag picking, mainly plastic waste. They leave early in the morning and return to the camp by about 3 pm. The whole saler comes to the camp and collects the plastic materials. Mohammad Kasim informed that they earned about Rs. 250/per day. I asked him that if women in the camp also work and take jobs like cleaning of house and washing of clothes, they could supplement the family income. But Noor Mohammad was emphatic that women should not go out and work. It was unislamic. It is man’s duty to earn and feed the family members.

It was the month of Ramadan and there was a glow in the face of Noor Mohammad when he compared their lives in Rakhine State with the life in Kelambakkam. He recalled that they could not follow Islamic rituals because the majority Buddhists wanted to destroy their religious and cultural identity. Their mosques were razed to the ground, their Madarasas were closed down and the Islamic life was in danger of extinction. In Kelambakkam there was no danger to Islamic life; they could observe all the religious rites prescribed by Islam. They go to the nearby mosque regularly. Even though the language used in the mosque is Tamil, which was unintelligible to them, peace and tranquility have returned to their lives.

However I had a disturbed feeling that orthodox Islam stands in the way of their overall development. They refuse to move with the times and want to cling on to outmoded traditions. Ms. Asma Masood, who spoke to women separately, narrated two incidents which illustrate that orthodox Islamic traditions stand in the way of their progress. Waheeda (not her real name) in her late 30’s had six children in rapid succession. When her last child was born in the Government hospital in Kelambakkam her health was shattered. The doctor warned her not to have any more children and advised her to undergo tubectomy. She did not want to comply saying that it was against Islamic practices. Then the doctor advised her husband to undergo vasectomy or at least practice family planning. The husband also refused stating that it was against the tenets of Islam. Will Waheeda continue to be a child producing machine?

Asma also came across a young sprightly girl, Salma (not her real name), aged 12 and studying in Class VI of the Government High School. Genial and friendly, Salma is immensely popular among her teachers and classmates. In the course of her conversation Salma told Asma that she would like to continue her studies and later take up a job in life. Recently Salma attained puberty. The elders in the camp want Salma to discontinue her studies and wait for the day when her marriage will be arranged. Salma’s parents want her to continue her studies, but they do not want to assert their point of view. It is very likely that Salma’s promising career would be sacrificed at the altar of Islamic orthodoxy.

The living conditions of refugees can be improved if the Government of Tamil Nadu adopts a more humane and sympathetic attitude towards them. The Collector of Kancheepuram should immediately include the Rohingyas in the category of people who fall below poverty line. People in this category receive 29 kgs of rice free from the public distribution system and also sugar, kerosene and dal at subsidized rates. These refugees should also be entitled to receive sarees and dhoties during Pongal festival. The Government of Tamil Nadu should also give them table fan, mixer and grinding machine which they have given free to the local people. It is worth highlighting that the Sri Lankan Refugees living in the camps are entitled for these doles. Why deprive the Rohingyas of the state Government’s noble gestures to improve the standard of living of the poor people in the State?

As we were leaving the camp I asked Mohammad Kasim whether he believed that he could go back to Myanmar as equal citizen of the country. He replied that he would love to, provided their land is returned to them and the Government respects their Islamic identity. Till such time comes, he would love o remain in Tamil Nadu.

Mohammad Kasim’s hope and anxiety about returning to Myanmar reminded me of the famous lines of the poem, The State of Siege, written by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The poem opens with the lines: “There on the hill side, gazing into the dusk and canon of time, near the shadow-crossed gardens, we do what the prisoners and the powerless always do, we try to conjure up hope”.

*Dr. V. Suryanarayan is founding Director and former Senior Professor, Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras. His e mail id:suryageeth@gmail.com

In many countries, the very best journalism is to be found not in the capitals or the largest cities but in smaller cities and towns. William Allen White’s “Emporia Gazette” is the archetype of such excellence. But in hyper-centralized Russia, such outstanding outlets in the regions are far less common.

That not only makes the emergence of any kind of civil society there more difficult, but it is especially unfortunate now given that, far more than in White’s day almost a century ago, the Internet means that outstanding journalism at the local level can rapidly be shared with the world even if it first appeared in the newspaper of a small city or town.

And it also means that any attacks on such outlets by the Russian state intended to intimidate or even close them down should receive at least as much condemnation as attacks on media outlets in the capitals. Unfortunately, up to now, that has seldom been the case either within Russian or internationally.

But the latest example of Kremlin overreach may be the occasion to change that. On Friday, the Pskov office of the Russian justice ministry declared “Svobodnoye slovo,” the organization which publishes the remarkable independent newspaper “Pskovskaya gubernia” to be “a foreign agent” (gubernia.pskovregion.org/news/minyust-prinyal-reshenie-priznat-izdatelya-pskovskoy-gubernii-inostrannym-agent/).

The regional office took that step, it announced, not only because “the organization receives money and other property” from “foreign sources” but also because the content of the newspaper shows that it is involved in “political activity” that Russian law prohibits. Among the offending articles almost certainly were those by Lev Shlozberg.

The decision was not unexpected: the newspaper had received a warning from the Russian government’s media supervision office early in June. At that time, Roskomnadzor complained that “Pskovskaya gubernia” had referred to the Right Sector “without noting that this organization is considered extremist and has been banned by a court” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5759AC6C5322F).

“We are the 48,” protesters on the March for Europe chanted in London yesterday.

I guess it’s possible this slogan was meant as a warning against the tyranny of the majority, but it seems more likely it was intended as a way of saying, “we are too many to be ignored.”

Either way, and given the preponderance of young people marching, “We are the 75%,” might have sent a stronger message.

EU referendum by age group — 75% of voters aged 24 and under voted against Brexit https://t.co/eQci0vNffx pic.twitter.com/UADq1NaL8v

— POLITICO Europe (@POLITICOEurope) June 24, 2016

Even so, no sooner had this emphatic support among young voters for remaining in the EU been noted a week ago, then another number started circulating widely — this one from Sky News who reported that among 18-24 year olds, the turnout had only been 36%.

Rather than viewing older voters as having betrayed the interests of their children and grandchildren, it looked like voter apathy among the young was as much to blame for the victory of the Leave camp.

But at the time, Barbara Speed at the New Statesman noted:

Sky isn’t claiming this is collected data – it’s projected, and a subsequent tweet said it was based on “9+/10 certainty to vote, usually/always votes, voted/ineligible at GE2015”. I’ve asked for more information on what this means, but for now it’s enough to say it’s nothing more than a guess.

Francesca Barber, who describes herself as British, European, and American, says “my generation failed to turn up… If we want our world to reflect our values and beliefs, we are going to have to engage and vote.”

But maybe before making strong judgments about generational failure, it’s worth having some renewed skepticism about the numbers in the Sky News tweet.

Michael Bruter, professor of political science and European politics at the LSE, and his colleague, Dr Sarah Harrison, have been analyzing responses from 2,113 British adults questioned between 24 and 30 June.

The Guardian reports:

Bruter and Harrison said they found turnout among young people to be far higher than data has so far suggested. “Young people cared and voted in very large numbers. We found turnout was very close to the national average, and much higher than in general and local elections.

“After correcting for over-reporting [people always say they vote more than they do], we found that the likely turnout of 18- to 24-year-olds was 70% – just 2.5% below the national average – and 67% for 25- to 29-year-olds.

This suggests that even if turnout among young voters had matched the national average, the outcome of the referendum would still have been the same.

For this reason, it’s perhaps worth restating: the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum was conclusive.

Nevertheless, there’s a strong argument to be made that a second referendum will still be necessary at the conclusion of Brexit negotiations, bearing in mind that no one even knows when or if that conclusion will be reached.

The EU has a serious credibility problem when it comes to its perceived lack of commitment to democratic processes. Many EU leaders are currently preoccupied with the fear that favorable terms for Brexit will have a domino effect across the Union. At the same time, some are calling for a “new vision for Europe.”

If the EU gets serious about this and goes beyond measures that are merely forms of damage control, then by the time the UK has finalized its withdrawal terms, the EU the UK will then be about to leave should be quite different from the one to which it now belongs.

This point will be reached in 2019 at the earliest or quite likely some years later. A referendum of British voters at that time would provide the basis for an informed decision.

This is not much different from having an opportunity and the time to read the small print before signing a contract. As things stand right now, British voters bought into a proposition whose terms are completely unknown.

Given that the Council of the European Union, through the Treaty of Nice, employs the use of a form of qualified majority voting which requires support representing 62% of the EU population, the UK could reasonably adopt the same principle in requiring that a second referendum seeking informed consent would need to cross the same threshold.

The EU and the UK have a common interest in showing that Brexit, as it unfolds, demonstrates a mutual commitment to the democratic process whatever the outcome.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he was “deeply saddened” to learn the passing yesterday of Elie Wiesel, a powerful voice for Holocaust remembrance and long-standing UN Messenger of Peace.

“The world has lost one of its most important witnesses — and one of its most eloquent advocates of tolerance and peace,” the UN chief said in a statement issued by his spokesperson.

“Elie Wiesel turned the nightmare of his youth into a lifelong campaign for global equality and peace,” Mr. Ban said. “As a UN Messenger of Peace since 1998, he called for constant vigilance in combatting anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred.”

According to the statement, Mr. Wiesel was a regular presence at the UN, including at the first-ever International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and often spoke about his experiences at the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp and appealed to the world to “reject indifference” in the face of genocide, discrimination and other horrors.

Extending his condolences to Mr. Wiesel’s wife, family and all others touched by this loss, the Secretary-General said that the UN is grateful for Mr. Wiesel’s contributions and remains strongly committed to Holocaust remembrance and the wider struggle for human rights for all, the spokesperson added.

His family said, according to media reports, Mr. Wiesel died peacefully after a long illness.

By Bhaswati Mukherjee*

Friday, July 1, 2016, was the last Friday of Ramadan, a week before Eid, an auspicious day for Muslims worldwide. Ironically, it was also on a Friday, the 13th of November, 2015, that the worst terrorist attack by IS in Europe (France) took place, a day of calamity and bloodshed involving the horrific slaughter of innocent civilians. The same tragedy was repeated in Dhaka on what is now being called the ‘Black Friday’ of July 1, 2016. For us in India, it was a chilling recollection of Mumbai and later attacks, including on the German Bakery in Pune, with a similar pattern of a cowardly heinous assault, carefully timed in a posh upmarket area of the city when the residents were enjoying Iftar and breaking of the fast. As in Mumbai, Pune, Paris and other destinations, the victims were always innocent vulnerable civilians.

What Dhaka witnessed in Gulshan, an affluent diplomatic enclave, was the deadliest and boldest act of terror in a country that has unfortunately become increasingly numb to ever-escalating violence by Islamist militants on Bangladeshis and foreigners. It was both an assault and a warning to the local expat community since Gulshan represents Dhaka’s equivalent of a diplomatic enclave. Despite the fact that all the attackers were reportedly Bangladeshi citizens, with five being known militants, it is difficult to accept the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s assertion and insistence that these were all home-grown terrorists. Speaking on television, an emotional Sheikh Hasina said: “It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don’t have any religion”. Sheikh Hasina added: ‘Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion. Please stop tarnishing our noble religion…I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam.’

Intelligence reports originally were divided on whether the attack was by Al Qaeda branch in South Asia or by the IS. Initial reports noted that it was more likely that Al Qaida in the Indian subcontinent conducted this attack because it had demonstrated a more consistent presence in Bangladesh through several recent attacks. But after images were posted on Amaq, an ISIS affiliated website, approximately 90 minutes before the restaurant was stormed by elite Bangladeshi commandoes, showing the inside of the restaurant with graphic photos of dead hostages, American and Indian intelligence agencies are reportedly focussing on the IS connection.

The story of the Indian victim is particularly poignant. Tarishi Jain, 19, a student of economics at the University of California, Berkley, had gone for a family reunion which went horribly wrong. Hidden in the toilet for over seven hours while the terrorists butchered, tortured and slit open the throats of non-Muslims and foreigners, her luck ran out at 4 a.m. local time when she was gunned down with two of her friends. Other victims included nine Italians who reportedly worked in the garment business, seven Japanese who had come to meet a corporate client, one US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and two Bangladeshis. According to eyewitness account of the survivors, those present in the restaurant were quickly divided into two groups – those who could recite verses from Quoran were spared and even given a meal. The others were slaughtered.

While it would be premature at this stage to speculate on the perpetrators of the attack , their motives and the lessons to be drawn for India, one troubling conclusion would appear to be that whether “home-grown” or not, the IS appears to be embarking on a serious attempt to indoctrinate Bangladeshi youth. Increasingly under challenge in Iraq and Syria, the IS desperately need new recruits. There are already alarming intelligence reports based on a new propaganda video of the IS that Indian fighters are being recruited to fight against Syrian forces. After a long and difficult summer, we need to, as a nation, gear up to the troubling possibility of similar copycat attacks on vulnerable targets in our huge metropolitan cities. It remains to be seen whether the lone surviving militant, Bangladesh’s Ajmal Kasab, will be able to throw some light on the motives, agenda and future plans of these IS-trained jehadis.

What appears to be certain is that the failed Syria policy of US and Europe, which gave rise to the IS in the first instance, has created a monster that is increasingly challenging international peace and security. For Bangladesh herself, proud of her national heritage which includes RabindranathTagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, this is a time for grieving, remembering and healing. This may also be an appropriate moment for the bereaved nation to recall a poignant prayer of a tired traveller in Gurudev’s Geetanjali:

“If the day ends, if birds sing no more,
If the spent wind stops blowing –
Wrap me up on all sides with a veil,
Cover me tenderly in profound darkness –
Remove my shame; nurse me through the night,
Let me blossom again at a new dawn.”

*Bhaswati Mukherjee is a former Indian Ambassador. She can be contacted at: rustytota@gmail.com

The Obama administration should require foreign governments receiving United States military aid to immediately end their use of child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said. On June 30, 2016, the US State Department issued a new list of countries implicated in the use of child soldiers as part of its annual Trafficking in Persons report. The list of 10 countries includes Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits certain forms of US military assistance to countries that either use child soldiers in their national armed forces or support militias or paramilitaries that recruit and use child soldiers. The president can waive the prohibition for national security reasons. Since the law went into effect in 2010, the Obama administration has issued such waivers in 26 of 33 cases, allowing governments using child soldiers to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid.

“Many of the governments listed by the State Department receive US military aid year after year despite their continued use of children as soldiers,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “President Obama should make clear that countries using child soldiers are going to lose US military support.”

President Obama must decide by the end of September whether to waive the law’s military sanctions for any of the listed governments for fiscal year 2017.

Iraq was added to the list for the first time this year. The Popular Mobilization Forces, a government-recognized paramilitary force under the prime minister’s command, has recruited children as young as 11 to fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Human Rights Watch has documented that children as young as 15 have been killed while fighting with one of the militia forces making up the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Nigeria was included for the second year in a row, based on the use of child soldiers by the Civilian Joint Task Force, a government-allied force used to fight the armed group Boko Haram. Rwanda, which had been included in 2013 and 2014 but removed in 2015, reappeared after officials recruited child soldiers from a refugee camp. The other countries have been included for at least four years in a row. Several – Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen – have been named every year since the list was first published in 2010.

Afghanistan was omitted from this year’s list, despite evidence that the Afghan Local Police, a government-backed militia engaged in combat operations against the Taliban and other insurgents, recruits and uses children as soldiers.

“The United States has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to support an Afghan militia that recruits and uses children to fight the Taliban,” Becker said. “Afghanistan should also be on this list and subject to military sanctions.”

Afghanistan was excluded because the State Department determined that the Afghan Local Police fell into a gray area not covered by the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. That decision appears contrary to the plain meaning of the law, Human Rights Watch said. The law covers “governmental armed forces or government-supported armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense forces, that recruit and use child soldiers.” The Afghan Local Police was established under the Afghan interior minister by presidential decree in August 2010, and according to the US Defense Department, is an “integral part” of the Afghanistan security forces.

“There’s no gray area concerning children and the Afghan Local Police,” Becker said. “The Afghan government has failed to rein in the militia’s recruitment of children while the US turns a blind eye.”

In 2015, President Obama gave full or partial waivers to four of the five countries listed that were scheduled recipients of US military aid. Withholding at least a portion of US military aid would provide foreign governments with an incentive to curb child recruitment, Human Rights Watch said.

“President Obama should take a much harder line, and insist that countries that receive US military aid end their use of child soldiers,” Becker said. “Unconditional military aid sends a terrible message that the US knowingly supports countries that use children to fight.”

The Islamisation agenda pushed by right wing politicians and Islamic non-governmental organisations (NGOs), at a time when the opposition coalition is fractured, can motivate non-Muslim swing voters to make pragmatic choices, which can play to BN’s advantage.

By Saleena Saleem*

The by-elections in Sungai Besar, Selangor and Kuala Kangsar, Perak in peninsular Malaysia indicate that Chinese swing voters could have played a deciding role to tilt the balance in favour of the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), as in the recent Sarawak state elections.

Interestingly, BN’s twin wins come after the Najib-led government brought forward in late May a bill on an amendment to the Syariah Courts Act that had been tabled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) President, Abdul Hadi Awang. The bill, referred to as the hudud bill in the media, was widely perceived as part of a long-term PAS strategy to pave the way for criminal punishments such as amputation of limbs and stoning for certain offences under the Syariah Courts. Although Hadi deferred debate on the bill in Parliament till October, Najib’s surprise move resulted in the hudud bill dominating the news in the lead-up to the by-elections.

Chinese Swing Vote to BN

Given that both constituencies are Malay-majority, political analysts rationalised Najib’s move as a tactical one, motivated by a desire to signal to conservative Malays that it too is serious about hudud, and willing to cooperate with its long-standing political rival, PAS, for the greater good of Islam in Malaysia. This analysis is based on the assumption that BN has irretrievably lost the Chinese vote to the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH), which includes the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), and needed to focus on the Malay vote.

However, the observed Chinese swing demonstrates that BN still has the capacity to draw the Chinese vote. It may appear counter-intuitive that Chinese swing voters would turn to BN, given the protracted negative publicity over the Najib-led government and its recent overtures to Islamist PAS.

Yet Chinese voters have pragmatic reasons to do so. While the Chinese vote went to the opposition coalition in 2013, Chinese voters recognise that the opposition coalition is now weakened without PAS, which has strong Malay grassroots support. Even though the newly-formed Amanah, which is part of PH, comprises of former PAS leaders, it lacks the ability to garner Malay votes the way PAS can.

Non-Muslim minorities have little incentive to vote for a fractured and disadvantaged opposition coalition, particularly when there is the risk of right-wing Islamist politicians gaining ground. This line of reasoning, amongst other localised factors, likely contributed to the observed swing to BN.

Right Wing Politics

The non-Muslim minorities have a heightened awareness of the steady expression of religious conservatism within the majority Malay Muslim community. For example, there have been recent incidents of guards at public and government premises taking it upon themselves to bar women (mostly ethnic Chinese) from entry for wearing clothes they deemed inappropriate. Although government officials issued apologies, such incidents, amongst others that include proposals to segregate supermarket trolleys for non-Muslim use and an increased publicity on judgments against non-Muslim minorities in court disputes over religious freedom, feed into concerns about the “creeping Islamisation” of Malaysia.

In the 2008 and 2013 general elections, ethnic minorities turned to the opposition coalition, swayed by its political rhetoric on pro-democracy values of equality and human rights, even though the Islamist PAS was then a constituent party in the coalition. The understanding was that through collaboration the other parties would temper PAS’ Islamist agenda. PAS itself moderated its messaging during its election campaigns, using the tagline “PAS for all”.

The opposition coalition’s successes in those elections, coupled with publicity over legal disputes on religious freedom, contributed to a proliferation of right-wing NGOs that aimed to defend the position of Malays and Islam against the perceived threats of secular-liberal values advocated by the pro-democracy opposition coalition.

While organisations like Perkasa champion Malay supremacy in often coarse terms, Islamic organisations like ISMA are able to bolster the same arguments couched in religious language, which gives it a level of legitimacy in the eyes of conservative Malay Muslims.

It is this socio-political context, with the non-compromising rhetoric from Islamic NGOs; PAS’ departure from the opposition coalition and its renewed push for hudud implementation; and the increasing numbers of conservative Malay Muslims; which appear particularly ominous to the non-Malay minorities.

What Next for BN?

In allowing the hudud bill to be brought forward in Parliament, the Najib-led government was able to project itself differently to different voter groups – and it was a strategy at no loss to itself. To non-Muslim minorities, the move highlighted the threat posed by right wing politics. BN capitalised on this by differentiating itself from PAS on the campaign trail in the Chinese districts as the “moderate” government. To conservative Muslims, the move indicated the government’s willingness to work with PAS on matters perceived as for the good of Islam.

In the past, BN successfully stemmed PAS’ rise by portraying it as radical while highlighting UMNO’s modern and progressive Islamic approach. With evidence of Chinese swing votes tilting the balance in its favour, BN will likely increase efforts to draw in the minority vote.

In an indication that this may be the case, Najib noted at the opening of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry annual general meeting that the election results showed that the Chinese community had broken a “psychological barrier” in voting for BN and that he was ready to listen to the community’s needs.

Despite the sword of Damocles hanging over Najib caused by the political scandals, the by-election results indicate that BN may be in a favourable position to call snap elections next year – though the 14th general election is not due till 2018. Najib might just be tempted to do so before the fractured opposition has a chance to pull itself together.

*Saleena Saleem is an Associate Research Fellow with the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

By Roland Joshua

The implications of BREXIT on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group could be far-reaching and may give rise to many consequences for trade, services, investments and development finance assistance, according to ACP Secretary-General, Dr. P.I Gomes.

In each of these areas, the ACP-UK relations have been longstanding and mutually beneficial, not only for Caribbean countries and other Commonwealth member states, but for the ACP Group as a whole.

For instance, as a contributor of some 17% to the European Development Fund (EDF), the UK has been consistent in its support and has argued in favour of making the EDF less cumbersome in its regulations. “With the UK outside of the EDF Committee the ACP will lose an ally of great value,“ Dr. Gomes said.

“Beyond development financial assistance, the area of greatest concern for Caribbean countries will be in trade in goods and services, investment and technology development and transfer with the preferential arrangements provided under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), signed in 2000, revised in 2005 and 2010 but coming to an end in 2020,” he added.

More recent is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the CARIFORUM Group of countries, CARICOM plus the Dominican Republic that was agreed in 2008 and has indefinite provisions for duty free, quota free trade and the provision of services under preferential conditions.

He said despite the relatively slow pace of implementation of the EPA, a basic question that will be posed by the ACP Group to the UK is the extent to which they will continue to honour the provisions and obligations of the EPA. “This is an area that will call for tough negotiations by the ACP Group and will be clearly linked to what concessions come out of the ‘divorce settlement’ between the UK and the EU,” he added.

The negotiations of the latter are expected to last up to two years after the UK has formally notified the EU of its intention to withdraw from the Union. It has been reported that it is unlikely that such a notification will be made until British Prime Minister David Cameron’s successor is identified by the ruling Conservative Party expectedly in September. But even then, the incoming Prime Minister will weigh his or her options on a date to trigger the notification of divorce.

“While all this means there is some time before the ACP will know what are the substantive areas in the “divorce agreement” of the UK and EU, the ACP Group is setting about pre-emptive actions and will adopt a multi-pronged strategy with a view to securing interests of the ACP member states, as best as possible under the favourable provisions in Cotonou and the EPAs, as well as in the case of Haiti and other LDCs, the provisions of the Everything-But-Arms (EBA) Agreement. This allows duty free/quota free trade with Europe in all goods except military arms and equipment,” the ACP Secretary-General said.

Pre-emptive measures include detailed analytical work on the volume and value of exports to the UK market by ACP countries and for what commodities; along with regulatory requirements of health and safety standards for specific commodities.

“Any such data analysis on which to base our negotiating positions must draw on support of the private sector who are mainly the exporters, in collaboration with commercial representations in the UK,” said Dr. Gomes.

Such a strategy, he said, will require coordination of efforts at national levels and in the regional organisations, in this case CARICOM and CARIFORUM along with parliamentary representatives.

“The latter will be encouraged to invite their counterparts to raise questions in the UK Parliament pointing to the importance and value of trade in goods and services between the ACP countries and UK,” he added.

He said while the waiting period of formal notification to the EU by the UK and subsequent negotiations proceed, the ACP Group will pursue a positive approach that will seek to strengthen mutually beneficial relations with both the EU and the UK.

By Abu Sufian Shamrat*

Bangladeshi people are now living in an environment of constant fear as extremist and militant attacks have intensified and appear to be all around them. Being carried out in what appears to be an incessant fashion, the liberal democratic fabric of Bangladesh is under considerable threat as religious minorities, non-Muslim priests, foreigners, bloggers, atheists, academics, publishers, gay activists and other non-majoritarian progressive groups are being subjected to targeted assault and deliberate attacks. During a night that Bangladesh will remember for long, 20 foreigners and 2 high ranked police officers were killed by the extremists in the Gulshan diplomatic area in an international restaurant in Dhaka. In another instance, yet another Hindu priest was killed in Jhenaidah early in the morning of July 1, 2016- the fateful day whose night saw people being taken hostage by gun and bomb wielding terrorists.

Though violence against foreign personnel and minority communities is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh, people are observing a sort of paradigm shift after the Shahbagh Movement of 2013, especially in terms of the trends, forms, and objectives that these deadly terror activities have come to assume.

Before 2013, a majority of such attacks were not designed to target any specific liberal force, rather these attacks were carried out against political opposition, electoral actors, cultural groups (1999 Udichi Convention and 2001 Ramna Batamul bombings), mass people (less focusing on religion, race, color, or ethnic identity), and non-Muslim minorities. The forms and objectives of these attacks were not to kill or harm any specific person or family or community, but seek power, authority, and legitimacy through terror focusing on identity politics and amplifying the historical fault line between the liberal-secular and anti-liberal fundamentalist forces. The spread of global jihadist’s activities after the 9/11 has also exposed the close ties between sensationalizing activities across the world and local militant groups who carried out attacks across the country in order to establish a political caliphate by defeating the liberal forces.

In 2013 and its aftermath, the deepening clash of thought between the philosophy of Shagbagh movement on the one hand and the politico-empirical Islam on the other, clearly divided the socio-political actors into two parts debating the issue of war crimes verdict. Subsequently, the anti-liberal forces became marginalised and squeezed following the ascendance of liberal forces in the spheres of popular politics, media, governance, justice, and even geopolitics. As the anti-liberal blocs failed to counter the liberals politically, they adopted terror as their new agenda to attack specific and selected people from the liberals or non-fundamentalist groups.

About 85 people have been killed in extremist or militant attacks since early 2013. At the beginning, the extremists targeted secular or atheist bloggers, but from the mid-2015 onward, they have started attacking religious minorities, foreigners, academics and others. This fact about the attacks becomes evident when it is observed that 39 of those who have been killed between April and July 2016 have mostly belonged to religious minority groups or were foreigners. Besides, soft targets like, university professors, spouses of high ranked officials and gay rights activists has expanded the extent of damage that is being done to the secular fabric of Bangladesh. In fact, the country witnessed the killing of 23 persons on July 1, almost all of whom were foreigners, with 2 two high ranked police officers and a Hindu priest; a figure that is almost one fourth of the total killings that have been witnessed between 2013 and June 3016.

In answer to the question related to who these killers are, two contesting arguments have gone viral. The first argument is supported by the international media, donors and other organisations who justify, believe and try to prove the presence of ISIS or Al-Qaeda in the country. When these groups claim responsibility of the terror acts and killings, the international media takes it seriously. On the other hand, the Bangladeshi government rejects the global terror affiliation attached to these attacks, saying, neither the ISIS nor Al-Qaeda has any foothold in Bangladesh; rather, homegrown extremist and militant organisations i.e. Ansarullah Bangla Team, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Ansar-al-Islam and other anti-liberal forces are behind these attacks and killings.

Unfortunately, these killings are getting institutionalized and intolerance is shadowing the liberal order; things are falling apart and neither the government nor any other forces in Bangladesh are in a position to guarantee protection and safety against such violent occurrences. While it is difficult to ascertain the elimination of such incidents entirely, but given that the government of Bangladesh has rounded up more than 11,000 people on the counts of extremism and radicalism but that it is yet to get the matters under control, speaks volumes about the misplaced priorities of those in power.

Major political forces are playing the blame game, and this culture extends the chances for militant forces to grow. Some groups demanding assistance from foreign countries amid the tension in religious line to save them, but none is demanding absolute solution to this problem. No greater national consensus to prevent the spread of extremism has been reached, everyone takes benefits from these killings and thus an atmosphere of suspicion is being created.

Given the rising occurrence of such incidents, Bangladesh is losing its international credibility in the fight against terrorism. The religious minorities, foreigners, and liberal socio-cultural actors are apprehensive about the state of governance, security system, preventive strategies, and judicial culture in the country. The politics of identity is also creating a social vacuum between political secularism and politico-empirical Islam in Bangladesh. The extremists are ultimately using this vacuum in order to occupy political space and further their non-liberal agenda by attacking minorities, foreigners, and liberals.

Vulnerability and inequality within the security system is one of the unrevealed causes behind the growing extremism and militancy in Bangladesh. While the security order in Bangladesh is more focused on urban protection, the extremist and militant organizations are getting stronger day by day carrying out attacks within the less focused rural domain. In turn, the increasing death rate and fear of evil death among the rural and non-city based minorities and liberals are rebuilding a reign of matsanaya (chaos).

Finding effective solution to prevent extremism is not an easy task for the Bangladesh government due to the unidentified trends, debate over actors’ involvement and unanswered questions regarding extremism and militancy. Connection and direct appearance of global militants with local extremists and the sources of terrorists’ funding are not well documented. Also the government’s counter terrorism mechanism and zero- tolerance stance did not do anything impressive due to the unidentified fault line between political activism and extremism.

Now the struggle not only remains in the realm of countering terrorism and extremism but also the fear of evil death among minorities, foreigners, and liberals must have to be erased in order to construct a Bangladesh based on justice, rule of law, equality, freedom, pluralism, inclusiveness, and micro-democratic values.

*Abu Sufian Shamrat is a researcher in Bangladesh who writes on contemporary issues. He can be reached at: shamrat08du@yahoo.com

India has undergone significant social, cultural, demographic and economic change since the year 1991, with the adoption of new economic policy of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization. Before this, the population was heterogeneous, to a limited extent, but after the LPG policy the migration patterns changed in India.

There has been a significant increase in migration to urban areas along with transnational movements, both among males and females. The new destination for them in the process of migration presents the state of transition of the cultures of migrated people. The benefit of migration is the opportunities to develop into both a multi-lingual and intercultural society (only if the process of integration in host countries works efficiently and the policies change periodically). Thus the new set of Diaspora population profile presents us with both new opportunities and challenges.

One of the challenges — and an opportunity — is to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the cultural heritage unique to each different group while at the same time realizing that this is contributing to a shared collective awareness of Indian identity, which is constantly evolving. Migrants in India, represent some 200 nationalities, and a heterogeneous group. They have different cultures, languages and levels of education. A minority may not have received a basic education prior to arriving in India, while the majority are highly educated, many to post-graduate level. Some may not be working in jobs commensurate with their qualifications and experience. There is need forheterogeneity approaches that see continued cultural differences and highlight local cultural autonomy, cultural resistance to homogenization, cultural clashes and polarization and distinct subjective experiences of globalization. (Robinson, 2007). Thus, in a world that is experiencing rapid changes education has a major role to play in promoting social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, through programs that encourage dialogue between students of different cultures, beliefs and religions. Education can make an important and meaningful contribution to sustainable and tolerant societies.

Dynamics of Intercultural Education

Interculturality is a dynamic concept and refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. It has been defined as “the existence and equitable interaction of diverse cultures and the possibility of generating shared cultural expressions through dialogue and mutual respect. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from ‘intercultural’ exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level.

As a minimum, intercultural education requires majorities to learn about the minorities and their cultural and traditions, while minorities must similarly learn about other minorities in the same society as well as about the majorities. (Eide, 1999). Intercultural education, according to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA, 2006), sensitizes the learner to the idea that humans have naturally developed a range of different ways of life, customs and worldviews, and that this breadth of human life enriches all. It is education, which promotes equality and human rights, challenges unfair discrimination, and promotes the values upon which equality is built. Thus, Intercultural Education Strategy aims to ensure that all students experience an education that respects the diversity of values, beliefs, languages and traditions in Indian society and is conducted in a spirit of partnership.

Therefore, schools can play a role in the development of an intercultural society when they are assisted with ensuring that inclusion and integration within an intercultural learning environment become the norm. Intercultural education in schools cannot be just a simple ‘add on’ to the regular curriculum. It needs to concern the learning environment as a whole, as well as other dimensions of educational processes, such as school life and decision making, teacher education and capacity building, curricula, languages of instruction, pedagogy, teaching learning materials etc. This can be done through the inclusion of multiple perspectives and voices. The development of inclusive curricula that contain learning about the languages, histories and cultures of non-dominant groups in society is one important example.

Indian Context

Fundamental values underlying Intercultural education are respect for human rights and rule of law, intercultural values, and openness to world democracy. In India there already exist diversity in cultures and tradition. Indians are subconsciously more aware about other cultures and this awareness subtly contributes to an understanding about others viewpoint. Indians have by default an implicit compassion for other cultures. Indian schools deal with students from different cultures. Their backgrounds differ in terms of parent’s education, religion, socio-economic status, household and family norm, also they differ in values and attitudes, lifestyles, abilities/disabilities, and ethnicity, in case of urban schools even nationality.  Ethnicity or nationality is therefore only one of the factors that make our classrooms diverse and thus influences our student’s culture. But in the existing Indian scenario the contemporary education is at a crossroads and facing multiple challenges related to equity, equality and quality, there is a need to evolve multi-pronged, context-specific strategies for addressing the needs of children from diverse backgrounds.

Time and again government policies attempt to address issues related to equity, equality and quality concerns in education. The National Policy on Education, 1968 and the National Policy on Education, 1986 addresses these issues. Both these policies laid special emphasis on removal of disparity and equalize educational opportunity by attending to the specific needs of those who had so far been denied equality. These policies lay special stress upon making education a vehicle of social transformation and empowerment. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009 is another attempt of government to make primary education for all mandatory. To give effect to the recommendations of commissions, policy initiatives and legal provisions have been made by central and state agencies and civil society to provide education to all irrespective of gender, caste, class, faith and location. A plethora of schools run by different agencies, i.e. government, government aided, private and those managed by minority institutions, provide access to children from diverse backgrounds.

Several national schemes such as the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), 1994, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 2001 and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), 2010 have worked towards fulfilling the unfinished agenda of education for all at different levels. SSA also developed and implemented innovative training model, for primary school teachers in the tribal areas of Orissa. The model focused on attitudinal training of teachers and their sensitization to tribal language, culture and knowledge systems.

Various innovative experiments in school reforms have been taken up by civil society organizations as well as in the government sector in different parts of the country. These experiments have attempted curriculum design, development of teaching-learning methods and materials, and teacher development with child-centered inclusive perspectives.

These have shown encouraging results in terms of the learning achievement of children from diverse backgrounds. Indian schools can transform total school environment with the help of pedagogy that aims at achieving equity and equal educational opportunities for all of the nation’s children, including socio-economically disadvantaged and ethnic minorities in the micro cultures. The Activity Based Learning methodology introduced in response to the poor learning levels amongst children and uninteresting classroom processes is a step towards creating inclusive classrooms. The most notable feature of the reform is its focus on changing classrooms, in terms of methodology, the role of teachers, classroom organization and classroom environment as a whole. Although many efforts are made towards making diverse classroom interesting there is a need for preparation of text books, supplementary materials and bridge courses in the mother tongue of the learners for better comprehension of subject.

In addition, multilingualism and bilingual approaches needs to be explored. Equity pedagogy also requires teacher to develop an understanding of the different learning styles students develop from their own cultural upbringing so that educators can employ alternative instructional strategies to help all students learn the key concepts, principles, facts, and generalizations in the various content areas and academic disciplines. To be able to do this, teachers will need to develop pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions that allow them to adapt alternative teaching methods or modify instructional strategies in culturally diverse classrooms. School and classroom climates must also be changed so that academic success is achievable by students from all cultural groups. Therefore, dealing with intercultural education requires adequate understanding of the demographics of the students, culture, and race in popular culture, and development of social action skills. It also emphasizes the clearing up of myths and stereotypes associated with gender, age, and the various races and ethnic groups by stressing basic human similarities (Nieto, 1997). Apart from this, Intercultural education promotes developing an awareness of discrimination such as cultural racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.

Last Word

There have been many demographic changes in India in recent years. The educational policies and programs therefore are reviewed in light of contemporary circumstances. The development of an intercultural education strategy acknowledged these demographic changes, which are reflected in the education system. But alongside the adequate development of learners’ intercultural competence can’t be achieved exclusively through policies and programs. Without teachers’ sensitiveness and understanding of the diverse student community in the classroom students’ progress cannot be achieved. It is clear that professional growth commitment and motivation of teachers is essential. Thus, through the combined effort from institutions and education agencies, teachers can fulfil their responsibilities with a greater confidence. The Schools must create congenial classroom environment that address the emotional make-up of children and encourage them to voice their opinions and feelings without fear of being intimidated. The creation of such an atmosphere would go a long way in strengthening the bonds between teachers, children and the school. Integration of context specific technology in classroom processes and multiple activities conducted in schools would help in skill development of children from diverse origins for self-reliance.

Samuel Johnson famously considered patriotism “the last refuge of a scoundrel.” His biographer James Boswell, who passed along that judgment, clarified that Johnson “did not mean a real and generous love for our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest.”

This could be describing Donald Trump. And yet the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan theorized in an April 2016 column that Trump’s major appeal to Republican voters came not from his adherence to any political ideology, but rather from his radiant patriotism which has, in her view, been absent from the political status quo. “What Trump supporters believe, what they perceive as they watch him,” she wrote, “is that he is on America’s side.”

There is little in Trump’s rambling off-the-cuff speeches and media interviews, or in his reactionary stream-of-conscious tweets, that demonstrate his understanding of patriotism. Trump is a snake oil salesman, and he is arguably in the midst of his greatest pitch to date. Smart consumers should do their research to find out the truth about the “product” they are being sold by Mr. Trump.

Here are some examples of where the real estate plutocrat comes up short on patriotism.

• Peeved by The Washington Post’s coverage of his presidential campaign and their investigation of the details surrounding his grand claims, Trump has revoked the paper’s press credentials for attending his rallies and political events. He has also banned reporters from Politico, Univision, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post and others. What’s patriotic about muffling the free press when you are running for the highest office in the land?
• Despite lofty rhetoric about “bringing jobs home,” Trump has used cheap foreign production in China and Bangladesh for his signature clothing brands. “They don’t even make this stuff here,” the ever-defensive Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos when questioned about it. Stephanopoulos informed Trump that Brooks Brothers clothing does, does, in fact, “make this stuff” here. What’s patriotic about making profits on the backs of poorly paid foreign workers who are often suffering under dictatorial rule?
• Big talker Trump has claimed to have given millions of dollars to many different charities over the years. According to a recent Washington Post investigation, he’s given far, far less than he’s boasted―and far less than other billionaires of his (alleged) comparable wealth. Most of his donations have come through the Trump Foundation, to which he has donated little of his own fortune. All in all, over the past seven years, the Post reports that Trump has personally given less than $10,000 to charities. What’s patriotic about lying about your own philanthropy?
• One of Trump’s more preposterous statements has been calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Drawing much justified criticism, Trump has been pressured into clarifying and restating his position. He now claims that only immigration from “terrorist countries” would fall under his proposed ban. He also stated last fall that he was “open” to the idea of creating an Orwellian database of all Muslims living in the United States. Is accusatory language of ethnic stereotyping reflective of our patriotic traditions? The inscription on the Statue of Liberty is: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Is repudiating Lady Liberty patriotic?
• Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency has been based upon the supposed strength of his talent and judgment as a businessman and dealmaker. These skills, however, are not totally verifiable, since Trump refuses to release his tax returns. Trump has managed to avoid any severe blows to his personal wealth by strategically insulating himself from failed corporate business endeavors. He has bragged that he “used, brilliantly,” corporate bankruptcy as a competitive advantage. When Trump fails, only the little guys suffer. Not exactly reflecting the last words of the pledge of allegiance―”with liberty and justice for all.”
• Last year, Donald Trump shamefully criticized Senator John McCain who spent over five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The ever-brash Trump dismissed McCain’s extraordinary ordeal, claiming: “He’s not a war hero.” Trump continued, “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Is degrading the suffering of an American veteran patriotic? Unlike McCain, Trump did not serve in the Vietnam War. He has gone on the record, however, for making a different kind of sacrifice. Trump described his romantic escapades in the 1980’s as his “personal Vietnam” due to how he put himself at risk of sexually transmitted diseases. He told Howard Stern that this made him feel “like a great and very brave soldier.”
• “I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme,” Ronald Schnackenberg, a former employee of the unaccredited Trump University, stated in testimony, “and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.” Indeed, much of the information that has come to light about Donald Trump’s “university” reveals that it was little more than a scam meant to drain people of their money while promising them success. Cornered by the allegations, Trump resorted to accusing Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who is scheduled to hear the class action suit in November, of being “a hater” of his due to his Mexican ethnicity. Are these the words of man who loves America or those of a con man caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
• Since starting his bid for the presidency, Donald Trump has produced a veritable Trump Tower of outrageously false statements. According to the nonpartisan Politifact, nearly 80% of the statements made by Donald Trump fall under the categories of Mostly False, False, or “Pants on Fire.” His campaign won the distinction of 2015 Politifact Lie of the Year for its entire spider web of deceptions. What’s patriotic about chronically lying when you’re running for the presidency of the United States?

So what does it truly mean to be patriotic? My parents defined it quite simply. They taught my siblings and me that loving one’s country meant working hard to make it more lovable. This means working to end poverty, discrimination, corruption, greed, cheating and other injustices that weaken the promise and potential of America.

We talk a lot about Patriotism, especially around July 4th, but we need also to take to heart its five basic principles.

First: True patriotism isn’t simply about waving the American flag. And it’s not mostly about securing our borders, putting up walls and keeping others out.

It’s about coming together for the common good.

Second: Real patriotism is not cheap. It requires taking on a fair share of the burdens of keeping America going – being willing to pay taxes in full rather than seeking tax loopholes and squirreling away money abroad. Not just voting but becoming politically active, volunteering time and energy to improving this country.

Third: Patriotism is about preserving, fortifying, and protecting our democracy, not inundating it with big money and buying off politicians. It means defending the right to vote and ensuring more Americans are heard, not fewer.

Fourth: True patriots don’t hate the government of the United States. They’re proud of their country and know the government is a tool to help us solve problems together. They may not like everything it does, and they justifiably worry when special interests gain too much power over it. But true patriots work to improve our government, not destroy it.

Finally, patriots don’t pander to divisiveness. They don’t fuel racist or religious or ethnic divisions. They aren’t homophobic or sexist or racist.

To the contrary, true patriots seek to confirm and strengthen and celebrate the “we” in “we the people of the United States.”

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July.

Catholic media from China and South Korea co-hosted an international symposium at the Franciscan Education Center in Seoul where it was discussed how media could be best used for evangelization purposes.

Around 150 people, including priests from both countries, religious and laypeople, attended the June 25 event, which was titled “Evangelization of Asia through church media.”

Archbishop Thaddeus Cho Hwan-kil of Daegu congratulated the two organizers of the event — The Catholic Times of Korea and the China-based Faith Press.

“I hope such an event presents the right direction for church media and ways for the churches in China and Korea can mutually develop,” said Archbishop Cho in a message.

The president of The Catholic Times, Father Pius Yi Ki-sso, said the two media organizations have decided to cooperate for the evangelization of mainland China and Asia.

“This symposium will be important momentum to realize our promises,” said Father Ki-sso.

Father Joseph Li Rongpin, the director of Faith Press, gave a presentation during the symposium on the role of church media, especially with regards to the internet.

“The Chinese church and media both lead in information sharing through the internet,” said Father Li said.

A major international review of the state of the oceans five years after the Fukushima disaster shows that radiation levels are decreasing rapidly except in the harbor area close to the nuclear plant itself where ongoing releases remain a concern. At the same time, the review’s lead author expresses concern at the lack of ongoing support to continue the radiation assessment, which he says is vital to understand how the risks are changing.

These are the conclusions of a major 5 year review, with multi-international authors who are all working together as part of a Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working Group. The report is being presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Japan. The review paper is also published in Annual Review of Marine Science*. The main points made by the report are:

• The accident. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 led to the loss of power and overheating at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants (FDNPP), causing extensive releases of radioactive gases, volatiles and liquids, in particularly to the coastal ocean. The radioactive fall-out on land is well-documented, but the distribution of radioactivity in the seas and onto the wider oceans is much more difficult to quantify, due to variability in the ocean currents and greater difficulty in sampling.
• Initial release of radioactive material. Although the FDNPP accident was one of the largest nuclear accidents and unprecedented for the ocean, the amount of 137Cs released was around 1/50th of that released by the fall out of nuclear weapons and 1/5th that released at Chernobyl. It is similar in magnitude to the intentional discharges of 137Cs from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant Sellafield.
• Initial fallout. The main release of radioactive material was the initial venting to the atmosphere. Models suggest that around 80% of the fallout fell on the ocean, the majority close to the FDNPP. There was some runoff from the land, peaking around 6 April 2011. There is a range of estimates of the total amount of 137Cs release into the ocean, with estimates clustering around 15-25 PBq (PetaBecquerel, which is 1015 Becquerel. One Becquerel is one nuclear decay per second). Other radioisotopes were also released, but the focus has been on radioactive forms of Cs given their longer half-lives for radioactive decay (134Cs = 2 yrs; 137Cs = 30 yrs) and high abundance in the FDNPP source.
• Distribution in water. Cs is very soluble, so it was rapidly dispersed in the ocean. Prevailing sea currents meant that some areas received more fall-out than others due to ocean mixing processes. At its peak in 2011, the 137Cs signal right at the FDNPP was tens of millions of times higher than prior to the accident. Over time, and with distance from Japan, levels decrease significantly. By 2014 the 137Cs signal 2000km North of Hawaii was equivalent to around six times that remaining from fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests from the 1960’s, and about 2-3 times higher than prior fallout levels along the west coast of N. America. Most of the fallout is concentrated in the top few hundred metres of the sea. It is likely that maximum radiation levels will be attained off the North American coast in the 2015-16 period, before declining to 1-2 Bq per cubic metre (around the level associated with background nuclear weapon testing) by 2020. Sea-floor sediments contain less than 1% of the 137Cs released by the FDNPP, although the sea-floor contamination is still high close to the FDNPP. The redistribution of sediments by bottom-feeding organisms (more common near the coast) and storms is complex.
• Uptake by marine life. In 2011, around half the fish samples in coastal waters off Fukushima had radiocesium levels above the Japanese 100Bq/kg limit, but by 2015 this had dropped to less than 1% above the limit. High levels are still found in fish around the FDNPP port. High levels of 131I were measured in fish in April 2011, but as this has a short radioactive half-life, it is now below detection levels. Generally, with the exception of species close to the FDNPP, there seem to be little long-term measurable effects on marine life.
• Risk to Humans. The radiation risk to human life is comparatively modest in comparison to the 15,000 lives were lost as a result to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. So far, there have been no direct radiation deaths. The most exposed FDNPP evacuees received a total dose of 70 mSv, which (if they are representative of the general population) would increase their lifetime fatal cancer risk from 24% to 24.4%. However, there are still over 100,000 evacuees from the Fukushima area, and many industries such as fishing and tourism have been badly hit.

Lead author, Dr. Ken Buesseler (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA) said:

“This report pulls together much of the academic, industry and government studies to form a more complete picture of the amount of radioactivity released, its fate and transport in the ocean, whether we should be worried or not, and what can be predicted for the future. Overall, the results show a trend of decreasing radiation risk in oceans themselves and to marine life. This is generally true, except for the harbour at Fukushima NPP. The highest remaining oceanic contamination remains in seafloor sediments off coast of Japan.

Despite this, we are still concerned that there is little support to continue assessments as time goes by, in particular from the US federal agencies which have not supported any ocean studies. This is not good, as public concern is ongoing, and we can learn a lot even when levels go down in the environment, and are no longer of immediate health concern”.

Prof. Bernd Grambow, Director of SUBATECH laboratory, Nantes, France and leader of the research group on interfacial reaction field chemistry of the ASRC/JAEA, Tokai, Japan, commented: “This report is an excellent summary of the impact and the fate of the release of radioactive substances to the ocean. While the distribution and impact of radioactive material becomes clearer with time, a lot of work still needs to be done. Discharge flux rates of Cs-137 to the ocean continue to be in the range of some TBq/yr. Forest and soil bound Cs-137 is only slowly being washed away, with waste piles accumulating in many places

The evolution of transfer mechanisms and the flux of radioactive material through soils, plants and food chain from land to ocean are still insufficiently understood and still deserve close attention of the international scientific community.”

The artificial pancreas — a device which monitors blood glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes and then automatically adjusts levels of insulin entering the body — is likely to be available by 2018, conclude authors of a paper in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes). Issues such as speed of action of the forms of insulin used, reliability, convenience and accuracy of glucose monitors plus cybersecurity to protect devices from hacking, are among the issues that are being addressed.

Currently available technology allows insulin pumps to deliver insulin to people with diabetes after taking a reading or readings from glucose meters, but these two components are separate. It is the joining together of both parts into a ‘closed loop’ that makes an artificial pancreas, explain authors Dr Roman Hovorka and Dr Hood Thabit of the University of Cambridge, UK. “In trials to date, users have been positive about how use of an artificial pancreas gives them ‘time off’ or a ‘holiday’ from their diabetes management, since the system is managing their blood sugar effectively without the need for constant monitoring by the user,” they say.

One part of the clinical need for the artificial pancreas is the variability of insulin requirements between and within individuals — on one day a person could use one third of their normal requirements, and on another 3 times what they normally would. This is dependent on the individual, their diet, their physical activity and other factors. The combination of all these factors together places a burden on people with type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their glucose levels, to ensure they don’t end up with too much blood sugar (hyperglycaemic) or more commonly, too little (hypoglycaemic). Both of these complications can cause significant damage to blood vessels and nerve endings, making complications such as cardiovascular problems more likely.

There are alternatives to the artificial pancreas, with improvements in technology in both whole pancreas transplantation and also transplants of just the beta cells from the pancreas which produce insulin. However, recipients of these transplants require drugs to supress their immune systems just as in other organ transplants. In the case of whole pancreas transplantation, major surgery is required; and in beta cell islet transplantation, the body’s immune system can still attack the transplanted cells and kill off a large proportion of them (80% in some cases). The artificial pancreas of course avoids the need for major surgery and immunosuppressant drugs.

Researchers globally continue to work on a number of challenges faced by artificial pancreas technology. One such challenge is that even fast-acting insulin analogues do not reach their peak levels in the bloodstream until 0.5 to 2 hours after injection, with their effects lasting 3 to 5 hours. So this may not be fast enough for effective control in, for example, conditions of vigorous exercise. Use of the even faster acting ‘insulin aspart’ analogue may remove part of this problem, as could use of other forms of insulin such as inhaled insulin. Work also continues to improve the software in closed loop systems to make it as accurate as possible in blood sugar management.

A number of clinical studies have been completed using the artificial pancreas in its various forms, in various settings such as diabetes camps for children, and real life home testing. Many of these trials have shown as good or better glucose control than existing technologies (with success defined by time spent in a target range of ideal blood glucose concentrations and reduced risk of hypoglycaemia). A number of other studies are ongoing. The authors say: “Prolonged 6- to 24-month multinational closed-loop clinical trials and pivotal studies are underway or in preparation including adults and children. As closed loop devices may be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats such as interference with wireless protocols and unauthorised data retrieval, implementation of secure communications protocols is a must.”

The actual timeline to availability of the artificial pancreas, as with other medical devices, encompasses regulatory approvals with reassuring attitudes of regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is currently reviewing one proposed artificial pancreas with approval possibly as soon as 2017. And a recent review by the UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) reported that automated closed-loop systems may be expected to appear in the (European) market by the end of 2018. The authors say: “This timeline will largely be dependent upon regulatory approvals and ensuring that infrastructures and support are in place for healthcare professionals providing clinical care. Structured education will need to continue to augment efficacy and safety.”

The authors say: “Cost-effectiveness of closed-loop is to be determined to support access and reimbursement. In addition to conventional endpoints such as blood sugar control, quality of life is to be included to assess burden of disease management and hypoglycaemia. Future research may include finding out which sub-populations may benefit most from using an artificial pancreas. Research is underway to evaluate these closed-loop systems in the very young, in pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, and in hospital in-patients who are suffering episodes of hyperglycaemia.”

They conclude: “Significant milestones moving the artificial pancreas from laboratory to free-living unsupervised home settings have been achieved in the past decade. Through inter-disciplinary collaboration, teams worldwide have accelerated progress and real-world closed-loop applications have been demonstrated. Given the challenges of beta-cell transplantation, closed-loop technologies are, with continuing innovation potential, destined to provide a viable alternative for existing insulin pump therapy and multiple daily insulin injections.”

By Hasan Selim Özertem *

From the establishment of NATO in 1949 to the Wales Summit in 2014, 26 summits have been taken place. The Warsaw summit, which will take place on 8-9 July 2016, will go down as the 27th summit. That summit will have a historical symbolic significance; Warsaw is the city which gave its name to the pact which established by the Soviet Union against NATO during the Cold War. Considering the Warsaw Pact dissolved while NATO has managed to survive until the 21st century, it is very meaningful for NATO to hold its heads of state summit in Warsaw.

Interestingly, although issues on the summit agendas have centered on the enlargement of the organization, Kosovo, the future of security forces in Afghanistan, and international terrorism have been since 1999, this summit’s linchpin will be Russia. Since the occupation of Crimea, all dialogues with Russia have been fragile and have ultimately failed. Accordingly, this summit’s docket could be dominated by the threat posed by Russia, although this threat is not of the same level as that of the Cold War, as well as a cooperative response to this threat.

With its air defense systems and military force, Russia has changed the security balances particularly in Eastern Europe and Syria, which seriously increased the demand of NATO member countries for the alliance to restructure against hybrid threats. However, nowadays, Russia is not the only threat. Other security issues include the growing threat growing of international terrorism, particularly by ISIS; the emerging security gaps created by the increasing number of failed states; and the deepening rivalry in the realm of cyber security. Considering all of these, NATO searches for a “360-degree” response against Russia, which refers to being prepared against all threats coming from all directions, and aims to develop stronger policies against possible threats coming from the eastern and southern fronts.

The challenges faced by the Alliance

The summit in Warsaw will provide an opportunity for the alliance to articulate new tactics and strategies, which will be critical for NATO to reassert its global role and internal unity. In this respect, the Summit presents a significant opportunity for NATO to clearly reaffirm its reason for existence, while it could be questioned to what extent it would respond to the current challenges.

Within a conceptual framework, Michal Baranowski and Bruno Lété, argue in a 2016 report published by German Marshall Fund that NATO currently faces three main risks: (i) the inability to adapt to the changing nature of threats; (ii) questioning by member countries concerning the capacity of their allies and the extent to which they will fulfill their responsibilities; (iii) the difficulty of leading countries to meet the unbalanced costs and produce enough reasons to make the organization attractive. These risks are core problems that all alliances have faced throughout history. Organizations that have managed to overcome these challenges have persisted and gained strength, while those that haven’t have been relegated to the dusty pages of history, like the Warsaw Pact.

2008 is a breaking point?

Regarding the risks above, it can be argued that 2008 was a turning point. The sudden financial crisis of 2008 required many countries, particularly the US, to apply austerity policies within the Alliance. The first area to be sacrificed was defense expenditures. On the other hand, in the same year, Russia began to follow an aggressive policy and took a more active stance in use its military force, particularly following a five-day war with Georgia. The Kremlin has incrementally increased its military expenditures and equipped its army with modern weapons, and is now determined to use its military force to occupy Crimea in Ukraine and then to intervene in Syria. In reaction, this has led to formation of a strong opinion within NATO that the apron of the Alliance must be strengthened, particularly among the Eastern European and Baltic countries. However, the Alliance has recently appeared as a voluntary coalition, which has triggered new debates. In particular, the US argues that other countries do not make sufficient defense expenditures, so the main burden falls on its shoulders.

At the 2014 Wales Summit, it was again accentuated that countries should spend two percent of their GDP on defense expenditures, but they first agreed to cease the decline in military budgets. In an interview in June with Politico, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg argued that member states have managed to maintain their expenditures during the last two years, and they will focus on enhancing the expenditures to reach the two percent ratio in the coming years.

Protecting the unity and sovereignty of Alliance

Considering the three risks posited by Baranowski and Lété, NATO has made headway in managing one of these risks, albeit only partially. Cessation of the decline of military expenditures is significant for NATO to secure the necessary resources to counteract other current risks. However, one of the other risks is still an intensely debated issue, namely the extent to which the Alliance would fulfill its responsibilities towards its members.

According to studies by the RAND Corporation, the balance of power in Europe has shifted in favor of Russia, and the war scenarios have been discussed such that Russian soldiers could reach to Tallinn and Riga in 60 hours in event of a possible conventional attack. On the other hand, some entourages in Turkey question to what extent the Alliance would defend Turkey after it shot down a Russian warplane. To eliminate this and other questions, many commitments have so far been made at the level of the secretary-general, and some tangible steps have been taken, such as the deployment of air defense systems in Turkey and the strengthening of military forces in the Baltics. However, these precautions are considered as insufficient for now. In this respect, NATO is expected to convey a message at the Warsaw summit that they are ready for all threats coming from all directions, referring to NATO’s reinforced and modernized deterrence and “360-degree” defense concept.

“Nothing has changed” in eastern and southern fronts!

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has faced a dramatically changing security equation after the 2010 Lisbon summit. Besides the rise of Russia, the eruption of Arab public movements have created a landscape in which failed state structures have given rise to migration issues and international terrorism. Regarding all of these threats, the framework put forth in Lisbon presented new strategic concept which could substantially respond the current situation. However, it become has obvious that NATO will have to spend more tangible efforts to adapt to changing dynamics, particularly since 2014.

While many European member states have insisted on taking necessary precautions on the eastern front, they now also place the southern front on their agenda. The members have agreed that the two fronts are not mutually exclusive and they are strongly determined to develop a “360-degree” defense concept. There are some clues as to how NATO would achieve these aims.

The Alliance is willing to share the burden of the migration crisis in the Aegean and Mediterranean and particularly in Syria, and has already deployed a task force to the Aegean Sea. On the other hand, being aware of the changing balances with the Syrian crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean, Brussels has started to prepare some precautions specific to Turkey. Among these are an increased presence in the Eastern Mediterranean through increased visits to ports, increased intelligence sharing, commissioned AWACS in the region, and strengthened air defense systems.

On the other hand, following important experiences in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, the Alliance aims to share the burden by developing the capacities of partner countries rather than becoming directly involved in the issues of the day. In this framework, NATO aimed to provide military trainings to some countries such as Ukraine, Tunisia, Iraq, and Jordan, and developed their capacities to make them self-sufficient against emerging risks. Therefore, NATO aims to establish a stronger structure, which increases deterrence in itself, while establish a safety line around its borders through partnership.

These policies could be regarded as NATO’s efforts to be a key partner in developing solutions for European security on some crucial issues such as terrorism and migration. NATO would protect its status as the primary defense organization in Europe as it responds its problems. However, the alliance will have a number of issues on its agenda beyond Europe, including debates about hybrid war, cyber security, and nuclear policies shaping on the global stage, when have 29 members (including Montenegro) meet. It seems that NATO could focus on strengthening the bonds within its alliance at the summit in Warsaw, and it could share its experience of partnership rather than membership. Looking towards the third decade of the 21st century, the Organization is trying to restructure itself against new challenges as it prepares for Warsaw by developing the alliance ties, strengthening and modernizing deterrence, and actively using political means.

*Hasan Selim Özertem is the Director of Centre for Energy Security Studies at the International Strategic Research Organization.