Two Muslims to be honoured with Kabir Puraskar for saving Hindus from mob attack

Two Muslims honoured for helping Hindus during riot, terror attack

Submitted by kashif on 3 October 2008 - 1:43pm. 

• Indian Muslim

New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) Two Muslims, one from Gujarat and the other from Jammu and Kashmir, will be honoured with the Kabir Purskar 2008 for saving lives of Hindus during violence.

While Abdul Gani Abdullabhai Qureishi, resident of Vadodara in Gujarat, saved two Hindu families from a rioting mob in 2006, Ghulam Ahmed Bhat from Jammu and Kashmir protected lives of several Kashmiri Pandits in a terror strike in 1997.

The Kabir Puraskar is a national award instituted by the central government in recognition of acts of physical or moral courage displayed by a member of a caste, community or ethnic group in saving the lives and properties of members of another caste, community or ethnic group during caste, community or ethnic violence.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs.50,000.

According to a home ministry statement Thursday, Qureishi saved lives of two Hindu families during communal violence in Vadodara May 1, 2006, following the demolition of a dargah.

"A large violent mob of Muslims had assembled there and two Hindu families in two vehicles passing through that area got caught in the mob fury. Qureishi without caring for his safety, displaying exemplary physical courage, entered the mob riding on his scooter," the press statement said here.

"Braving the stones pelted by the mob, Qureishi stood there firmly and valiantly rescued both the vehicles with their Hindu occupants from fury of the mob."

On May 26, Qureishi saved Kalpesh Madhusudan Pawar from another riotous mob. According to the statement, had he not barged into the rioting mob, Pawar would have been hacked to death.

Bhat also displayed exemplary courage. "In March 1997, militants attacked village Sangranpora, in Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir, in which seven Pandits were killed. Bhat reached the spot even before the police and stood guard for whole of the night saving the rest of the family members."

"On the day following the massacre, Bhat cremated the deceased persons without caring for his own life. Bhat also helped their family members in completing legal formalities required for getting the compensation," the statement added.  read 

Thich Nhat Hanh visits India

Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Naught-Han) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. He has conducted many mindfulness retreats in Europe and North America helping veterans, children, environmentalists, psychotherapists, artists and many thousands of individuals seeking peace in their hearts, and in their world. ...Thich Naht Hanh biography  ------------------ Order of Interbeing  One of the best known Buddhist teachers in the West,[4][5] Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings and practices appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds. He offers a practice of mindfulness adapted to Western sensibilities.[6] He created the Order of Interbeing in 1966, and established monastic and practice centers around the world. As of 2007 his home is Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France[2] and he travels internationally giving retreats and talks. He coined the term Engaged Buddhismin his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.[7] 'Terrorists are victims who create more victims' Times of India 2 Oct 2008, 0019 hrs IST,TNN Midway through the news meeting on Wednesday, the grim news came in: Agartala had been rocked by serial blasts. All eyes immediately turned to Ven TOI Guest Editor Thich Nhat Hanh. (TOI Photo) erable Thich Nhat Hanh, the Guest Editor for our special Peace Edition. As journalists, what should we do on a day like this? The Zen master, who has rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centres, resettled homeless families and for a lifetime advocated tirelessly the principles of non-violence and compassionate action, pondered for a while. When he spoke, it was with great clarity, ''Report in a way that invites readers to take a look at why such things continue to happen and that they have their roots in anger, fear, hate and wrong perceptions. Prevent anger from becoming a collective energy. The only antidote for anger and violence is compassion. Terrorists are also victims, who create other victims of misunderstanding.'' This, remember, is the monk — now 82 years old — credited with a big role in turning American public opinion against the war in Vietnam — for which Martin Luther King Jr had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. And so, his words are not to be dismissed lightly.  more from Wikipedia  Read it all

Sarvodaya: The Phoenix Settlement of Gandhiji in Durban

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's Phoenix Settlement 25 km outside  Durban, South Africa, off the Kwa Mashu Highway, where Gandhi made his home in the 1890s amidst ‘undeveloped’ land and sugarcane plantations,  is preserved as a historic site, formally opened as such by the erstwhile South African President Mbeki in February 2000. The Phoenix Settlement Trust Committee was established in 1969 to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Gandhi. This is the venue where Gandhi first thought out his philosophy of passive resistance to injustice. It is here in 1904 that Gandhi started the Indian newspaper — Opinion — disseminating his ideas. It was here that he lived those ideals by experimenting live, the model community life that he envisioned. As per his belief the settlement was to be run on a non-commercial basis with just enough for all with all, sharing in the work on the farms and the press.

Gandhi’s home there is remembered by the term ‘Sarvodaya’, which he coined himself. ‘Sarva’ meaning all, and ‘uday’ meaning upliftment, together conveying welfare for all.  more 

Gandhi’s Hinduism was a religion of humanity

The Asian Age - Opinion

Jagmohan ( former governor of J&K and a former Union minister

On Gandhi’s birthday, instead of going round the Mahatma’s Samadhi and attending prayer meetings ritualistically, the ruling elite will do well to think how a strong and healthy India could be built on its spiritual traditions and how Hinduism, as viewed by Gandhiji, could be used to refertilise and revitalise that tradition. Dr S. Radhakrishnan, in connection with his study of religion, posed three questions to Mahatma Gandhi: "What is your religion? How are you led to it? What is its bearing on social life?"

Gandhi replied the first question thus: "My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is the religion of humanity and includes the best of all religions known to me." In response to the second question, Gandhi said: "I take it that the present tense in this question has been purposely used, instead of the past. I am led to my religion through truth and non-violence. I often describe my religion as religion of truth. Of late, instead of saying ‘God is Truth’, I have been saying ‘Truth is God’. We are all sparks of Truth. The sum total of these sparks is indescribable, as yet unknown Truth, which is God. I am daily led nearer to it by constant prayer."

To the third question, Gandhi replied: "The bearing of this religion on social life is, or has to be, seen in one’s daily social contact. To be true to such religion, one has to lose oneself in continuous and continuing service of all in life. Realisation of Truth is impossible without a complete merging of oneself in and identification with this limitless ocean of life. Hence, for me, there is no escape from social service; there is no happiness on earth beyond or apart from it. In this scheme, there is nothing low, nothing high. For all is one, though we seem to be many."

Gandhi elaborated: "The deeper I study Hinduism, the stronger becomes the belief in me that Hinduism is as broad as the universe. Something within me tells me that, for all the deep veneration I show to several religions, I am all the more a Hindu, nonetheless for it."

On the Mahatma’s birthday, it seems necessary to bring home these fundamentals, particularly to those who go on condemning Hinduism without even studying it and also to those members of the ruling elite whose attachment to fake and fraudulent "gods" have made the country a den of corruption, callousness, confusion and criminality.

Gandhi’s elucidation makes it clear that true Hinduism is nothing but spiritual secularism. To relegate such a religion and to follow a shallow and superficial secularism is one of the worst sins that the false prophets of contemporary India are committing. They call Gandhi the Father of the Nation. And yet in practice they do everything to negate all his beliefs.

Throughout human history, religion has remained a potent force, despite all the pounding it has received from thinkers like Marx who called it "opiate of the masses" and Freud who termed it as "a collective neurosis of the masses". It may be relevant to recall a talk between Cardinal Gonsalvic and Napoleon. The Cardinal was pleading the case for the Catholic Church. Napoleon got annoyed on some point and shouted at the Cardinal: "Your Eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?" The Cardinal smiled and replied: "Your Majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, for the last 1,800 years, have done our level best to destroy the Catholic Church. We did not succeed. You will not succeed either." This conversation brings out in a telling manner the staying power of religion, notwithstanding its internal and external destroyers.

While religion has its influence in every country, it is more so in India. Swami Vivekananda, with his characteristic clarity and insight, has observed: "Each nation, like each individual, has one theme in its life, which is its centre, the principal note around which every other note comes to form the harmony. If any one attempts to throw off this central note, that is, its national vitality, the direction which has become its own through the transmission of centuries, that nation dies. In India, religious life forms the centre, the key-note of the whole music of national life. Take away religion from India; nothing would be left."

Power, in present day India, has become an end in itself. Justice is being buried deeper and deeper. Means, howsoever unscrupulous, are resorted to and then rationalised. Corruption in public life has attained alarming proportions. Most of our institutions have lost their underlying motivation of service and become effete and venal.

Why has this happened? Why have our State and society become soulless entities? Why have criminals enlarged their hold on politics? And why have power and pelf become everything, and justice and truth nothing?

The answer to these questions is that the ethical foundation of Hinduism, as seen by Gandhi, which could provide "an awakened conscience" to an individual and make him an honest, just and compassionate component of society, has been destroyed partly by the stink and slush of our past degeneration and partly by the type of spurious secularism which has been exploited in post-Independence India.

Hinduism, as made clear by Gandhi, sees all human beings as "sparks of truth/divinity". As such, it neither goes against any other religion, nor is it incompatible with the constitutional goals of equality, fraternity, liberty and justice. If the same divinity constitutes the core of all individuals, they cannot but be equal. Further, divinity in one person cannot in any way be unjust to the same divinity in another person. As the Gita puts it: "Seeing the same God equally present in everything, one does not injure the self by self; and goes to the highest goal".

In Hinduism, Gandhi saw a unique quality: "In it there is room for the worship of all the prophets of the world. It is not a missionary religion in the ordinary sense of the word". Gandhi underlined: "God is not encased in a safe to be approached only through a little hole in it, but He is open to be approached through billions of openings by those who are humble and pure of heart".  source 

Gandhi Jayanti 2008: “Alternative Nobel" recognizes Gandhian vision of Sarvodaya

‘Alternative Nobels’ Shared by Four :

Amy Goodman, Monika Hauser, Asha Hagi, Krishnammal

Sarvodaya couple from Tamil Nadu share the honours

Amy GoodmanMonika HauserAsha Hagi Krishnammal

Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan for their efforts to promote social justice through their non-profit organisation Land for the Tillers’ Freedom (Lafti).

The   award  recognizes life long work dedicated to realising in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development.”  -- the Sarvodaya 

STOCKHOLM: An activist-couple from Tamil Nadu, an American journalist, a Swiss-born doctor and an activist from Somalia were named on Wednesday as this year’s winners of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel.”

They will share a 2 million kronor (about Rs. 1.34 crore) cash award that will be split in four parts.

A Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull founded the awards in 1980 to recognise work he felt was being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

American reporter Amy Goodman, founder and host of the syndicated radio and television programme Democracy Now!, was honoured for “truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by mainstream media,” the organisers said.

The programme works to provide listeners with independent reports from around the world to portray the effects of U.S. foreign policy, featuring artists, activists, academics and analysts.

Ms. Goodman, born in 1957, was also one of about 800 demonstrators and journalists arrested during protests at a Republican National Convention in the U.S. in mid-September.

The jury also honoured the founder of medica mondiale, gynaecologist Monika Hauser, for her work to help sexually abused women in world crisis zones.

The Swiss-born doctor holds an Italian passport and lives and works in Germany.

Organisers of the awards said Dr. Hauser and her colleagues have helped more than 70,000 traumatised women and girls in war and post-war areas.

Somali lawmaker Asha Hagi was honoured for her efforts to promote peace in her homeland by “continuing to lead at great personal risk the female participation in the peace and reconciliation process,” the organisers said.

Ms. Hagi is also chairwoman of Save Somali Women and Children, which helps women get involved in politics.

The last part of the prize was shared by Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan for their efforts to promote social justice through their non-profit organisation Land for the Tillers’ Freedom (Lafti).

The group works to raise the social status of Dalits and by helping redistribute land to poor, landless families.

The Sarvodaya couple and Lafti receive the award “for two long lifetimes of work dedicated to realising in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development.”

The organisers have referred to them as “India’s soul.”

The octogenarian Krishnnamal Jagannathan is a recipient of the Padma Shri and the Opus Prize 2008 given by Seattle University.

She started Lafti at Kuthur in Nagapattinam district in 1981.

Sankaralingam Jagannathan was an active participant of Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement.

The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Swedish Parliament on December 8, two days before the Nobel Prizes are handed out.  Source 

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 IndianStampGhar.com

Gandhi stamps to go on show

http://www.asianimage.co.uk/display.var.2451714.0.gandhi_stamps_to_go_on_show.php

Asian Image - UK

A unique collection of stamps on Gandhi and Jainism (non-violence) is to be exhibited The Nehru Centre in London later this month.

In the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi?s death, more than 300 individual stamps of Mahatma Gandhi, from over 60 countries, highlight how the world has honoured the father of India through philately.

The first ever stamps depicting Gandhi were issued in 1948 to mark the first anniversary of Indian independence and in 1961 the USA issued stamps with the great leader under the theme of ?Champions of Liberty?.

Over 100 countries throughout the world have followed suit with commemorative stamps and coins.

De-gendered loos in University of Manchester

It’s the “battle of the bathroom” in Britain after the University of Manchester decided to “de-gender” its students’ union toilets.
Controversy erupted after signs of “ladies” were changed to “toilets”, while the “gents” were converted to “toilets with urinals”.

The changes are in response to an unspecified number of complaints from trans students who are uncomfortable using the men’s toilets, reports BBC News website.

A university newspaper criticised the move but the student union said it was needed to tackle transphobia.  more 

Frank McGarahan,of Barclays Wealth, while saving a couple from gang assault in UK

• News
• UK news
• Crime

• City banker dies after trying to save couple from gang assault
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Adam Bell
• The Guardian, 
• Tuesday September 30 2008
• Article history

A senior banking executive died of head injuries after he intervened in a street brawl.

Police said Frank McGarahan, 45, who was the chief operating officer , sustained a "fatal injury" early on Sunday morning after witnessing an assault in Norwich. Witnesses said the father-of-two intervened when a group of youths assaulted a young couple.

He was waiting with his one of his younger brothers and another relative when the incident occurred.

A member of Mr McGarahan's family told the Daily Mail: "They were at the back of the queue waiting quietly to go back to their hotel when they saw an assault taking place on a young man and his girlfriend by a mob of nine or 10 blokes in their early 20s. ....more

Yves Rossy flies over English Channel at a speed of 200km per hour

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Switzerland's Yves Rossy flying with a jet-propelled single wing over the Alps in Bex, Switzerland in May. Rossy crossed the English Channel in 13 minutes, averaging 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour. By Anja Niedringhaus, AP Swiss man flies over English Channel on jet-propelled wing Posted 3h 19m ago | Comments3 | Recommend2 E-mail | Save | Print |
Enlarge By Michel Setboun, National Geographic Channel and Jetman Live via AP Rossy parachutes to the ground near Dover, England, after he completed his attempt to cross the English Channel. Rossy passed over a thin strip of land in front of South Foreland lighthouse, looped over onlookers and opened his parachute, his wings still strapped to his back. Yahoo! Buzz  Digg  Newsvine  Reddit  Facebook What's this? DOVER, England (AP) — He had nothing above him but four tanks of kerosene and nothing below him but the cold waters of the English Channel. But Yves Rossy leapt from a plane and into the record books on Friday, crossing the channel on a homemade jet-propelled wing. Rossy jumped from the plane about 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) over Calais, France, blasting across the narrow body of water and deploying his parachute over the South Foreland lighthouse, delighting onlookers who dotted Dover's famous white cliffs, cheering and waving as Rossy came into view. Backed by a gentle breeze, Rossy crossed the Channel in 13 minutes, averaging 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour. In a final flourish, he did a figure eight as he came over England, although the wind blew him away from his planned landing spot next to the lighthouse. ...>  Mor

Science and Religion: Indian American Mathew L. Thakur wins 2008 Benedict Cassen Prize for Nuclear Medicine

Science and Religion: Indian American Mathew L. Thakur wins 2008 Benedict Cassen Prize for Nuclear Medicine

Ragpickers who saved Delhi

Ragpickers who saved Delhi
Sidharth Pandey
Monday, September 15, 2008, (New Delhi)

Without them Delhi's serial blasts could have been a lot worse. Two ragpickers who found two live bombs in dustbins at Children's Park at India Gate and near Regal Cinema in Connaught Place and alerted the police are getting Rs 50,000 each as a reward.

A 12-year-old baloon seller and two young rag-pickers are the capital's latest heroes while one of the boys is helping the police narrow down on the men who may have carried out one of the blasts, the other two prevented two bombs from exploding by alerting the police in time.

However, NGOs say that this is a bitter irony as the capital's 1 lakh street children are often at the receiving end of the law.

Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi, also home to thousands of street-children who are its eyes and ears but go unnoticed, unheard.

It's been a long walk for Javed and Sunil, both in their teens, from broken families one from Bareily the other from Madhya Pradesh.

A year ago, they ran away from their homes and came to Delhi looking for work. But all they managed to do is this risky business especially after live bombs were found in dustbins on Saturday.

"We are scared as we pick garbage and especially from dustbins it could be bomb and something may happen but what to do, it's about survival," said Mohammad Javed, ragpicker.

The two walk over five kilometers each day, looking for stuff that can be sold to scrap dealers, 40-50 rupees is all they earn, life on the streets is not easy.

"The problem is that people keep beating us up, especially if something like this happens," Javed added.

There are lakhs of children like Javed and Sunil who form an virtual invisible army which work on the streets of most Indian cities and for years NGOs have been asking the police not to treat them as a problem but as a solution.

"It is important that the police be sensitised and that they realise that we have to include these kids in society," said Sunil Gupta, Chief Executive, Chetna, NGO.

A day after the serial blasts, it's business as usual for Javed and Sunil walking the same stretch where two bombs exploded only hours ago.

Keeping off work would mean no food, the daily struggle for survival continues.

Anglican Church's Apology to Darwin

News Makers
Darwin to get apology from Anglican Church
The Asian Age Sept.15, 2008
By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
London

BRITISH NATURALIST Charles Darwin, who is famous for his theory of evolution by natural selection, will get an official apology from the Church of England on Monday. Darwin, who died in 1882, introduced the theory about evolution by natural selection in his groundbreaking book The Origin of Species, in 1859.

The Church will apologise directly to Darwin almost 150 years after he propounded his theory and more than 125 years after his death. The Rev

Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church’s director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops’ Council, will write in the apology that will be posted as an article on the church website, "Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends."

"But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests," according to the extracts from the apology, printed in the Mail on Sunday.

It further said, "People, and institutions, make mistakes and Christian people and Churches are no exception. When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it’s easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights. The Church made that mistake with Galileo’s astronomy and has since realised its mistake. Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. So it is important to think again about Darwin’s impact on religious thinking, then and now."

Link

William Temple

Born into the Establishment, his father Frederick being Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896-1902, Temple was both a national and international figure.

Appointed Bishop of Manchester in 1921 at the age of 40 and then in 1929 Archbishop of York, Temple and his ministry came to epitomise the face of a renewed Church engaging with society in the midst of a nation in social and political turmoil, coping not only with the aftermath of one war but also another dangerously looming on the horizon.

A philosopher of deep spirituality with an insatiable appetite for hard work and ability to communicate with all classes, Temple’s Oxford University Mission addresses of 1931 entitled Christian Faith and Life to the packed University Church influenced a whole generation of future leaders: “People are always thinking that conduct is supremely important, and that because prayer helps it, therefore prayer is good. That is true as far as it goes; still truer is it to say that worship is of supreme importance and conduct tests it.”

Conscious of the deepening divisions within Europe, he was determined that if the Churches were to have any future credibility they should present a united front spiritually and socially. In 1942 he co-founded the Council of Christians and Jews. From the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 to the foundation of the World Council of Churches he helped to steer the ecumenical ship, and the success of the first General Assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam in 1948 was in no small part a credit to him.

Together with his keen interest in education and his collaboration with Rab Butler on the 1944 Education Act, Temple’s contribution was decisive in Labour’s landslide victory in 1945. A not uncritical supporter of the Labour Party and following in the Christian Socialist tradition of F. D. Maurice and Henry Scott Holland, it was Temple who coined the phrase “the Welfare State”.

Working with his Rugby contemporary R. H. Tawney, the seminal Labour thinker, and William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare reforms which sought to banish the five giants of want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease, Temple’s book Christianity and Social Order, published in 1942, provided a challenging theological gloss to this vision: “. . . there is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labour and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and that the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social and economic system under which they and their fellows live.”
He died at the age of 63 after being Archbishop of Canterbury for only 30 months.

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Simple Church - Amish Church

I heard a news story this week that really made me think about a simple church. I heard about a group of people bound by a similar faith. These people have no outreach program. These people do not practice evangelism. These people do no vacation Bible school. These people do no church camp or recovery groups or community Christmas programs. These people do not do world missions and have no "cooperative program." This ecclesiastical body must be shrinking and dying, you say? No, guess again. This group of people have doubled their population in sixteen years. They are growing much, much faster than Baptists and all other evangelical churches. Who are they? The Amish.


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Tips for Saving Money on Your Grocery Bill

America's Cheapest Family' Offers Tips for Saving Money on Your Grocery Bill
The Economideses Share Deals, Discounts and How to Reduce Food Costs for Their Family
By MIKE VON FREMD
Aug. 22, 2008

At a time when many consumers' grocery bills are rising, the aptly named Economides family is able to feed itself inexpensively.
The cheapest family in America offers tips on how to save money.

The family of six spends only $350 monthly on groceries.

Annette Economides said she and her husband, Steve, see the search for great deals as thrilling entertainment.

"If your job is to stretch your dollars and you can do it and have success at it, wouldn't you?" she said.

The pair and self-proclaimed cheapest family are able to stock a lot of food for a little bit of money, thanks, in part, to coupons. They use them for almost every item. During one recent shopping venture, for instance, the Economides bought more than $140.58 worth of food for $53.01.

Read more

Maker of Film on Binayak Sen's Life Imprisoned for 90 days

Ajay T G, who made a film on the life and work of Dr. Binayak Sen, was arrested under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security (CSPS Act, 2005)on May 5, 2008, for “having links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). Dr. Sen was also arrested on similar charges on 14 May 2007. Ajay has been serving as a state executive of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Chattisgarh. When the police failed to find any evidence to support their charges within the mandatory 90 days period, Ajay was granted statutory bail on August 4. He was warned not to travel or speak to the press and the case against him has not been closed. This has been the case with Binayak Sen who is still in prison for more than one year. In this blog we have requested the readers' support to the efforts to free Binayak Sen.

Ajay and his wife, Shobha, attended Tuesday’s public meeting in Delhi organized by human rights activists and journalists, including Arundhati Roy, at their own risk.


Read it here

Chengara Land Struggle: Sign the Petition

Aound 5000 landless families who are engaged in a struggle to claim land for a living in Chengara in Kerala State are facing violent reprisal from a bunch of goons with the connivance of the Government of Kerala. In order to show solidarity to the victims and to o put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice a petition addressed to the President of India by some concerned individuals and organisations are being circulated. You can also participate in this campaign by signing the petition. To sign click here.

The Chengara struggle is a movement by landless Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised peoples to gain ownership of land that began on 4th August 2007 in the southern plantation belt of Pathanamthitta. It is a fight to re-claim ownership of land that has been part of a long standing promise of the Government. To this end about 5000 families totaling around 24,000 people from different parts of the region have moved on to the Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd estate, building tents with poles and plastic sheets to establish the struggle front. The impugned land was a part of a leasehold to Harrison Malayalam Ltd, which expired in 1985 and no rents have been paid to the State exchequer since. The struggle is also a statement against illegal encroachment of land that ought to belong to the people by a corporate entity for commercial purposes with the tacit support of the State machinery.

The Chengara Land struggle is being carried forward under the banner of Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV) and has the support and solidarity of various Civil Society groups, movements and citizens across the country. In order to show solidarity the people in struggle and to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the landless people petition, addressed to the President of India is Constitutional authorities in this country, epeaceful protestors.

The State Government is yet to make any serious move to initiate negotiations with the protestors. The past feeble attempts at discussions were more a ploy to threaten the agitators with police action and subvert the agitation. The ruling party has resorted to a violent reprisal resorting to violent intimidation including rape, defamation and deliberate cutting off food and other lifeline supplies to the protesters for more than 10 days.

Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror

Manorama Online Home - Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror


Tuesday,29 July 2008 17:10 hrs IST
Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror
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Ahmedabad: Just like the proverbial silver lining behind every dark cloud are the stories of valour and compassion that come to the fore with every terror attack. And Ahmedabad was no different in the many instances of those who helped out without regard to life or limb as one bomb after another exploded with relentless regularity two evenings ago.

Dinesh Kumar, Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore, Kamlesh Tank, Bhavesh Kabir, Paresh Panchal or Mukesh Lalani... just some names in the list of at least 50 dead and more than 200 injured when 21 blasts tore through the peace of this Gujarat city Saturday evening.

Some of them died even as they rushed to help or commiserate after the news of the first blasts came.

Their acts of goodness stood out like beacons of hope through the dark days following the terror strike.

Mukesh Lalani, 52, was one who lived to tell the tale. He had rushed to help the injured at the Civil Hospital when a bomb exploded just behind him and he was seriously wounded himself.

Two days later, the 52-year-old Lalani recounted with gratitude Monday: "I tried to help when the ambulance entered; god seems to have repaid my kindness."

"I had gone to the Civil Hospital where a friend was being discharged after being hurt in an accident. I had a word with him and was leaving a little while later when I saw an ambulance entering the hospital premises. It came to a screeching halt. On impulse, I decided to help even as a couple of paramedics approached the rear door," Lalani told IANS.

That's when all hell broke loose.

"There were only the injured all around me. And then, even as I was helping a stretcher out of an ambulance there was a loud explosion behind my back. I dived trying to reach under the ambulance even as the stretcher fell with a thud."

It will be some time before Lalani, who suffered serious shrapnel injury, walks again. But he at least managed to escape without any serious injuries to his chest or head.

Twenty-year-old Bhavesh Kabir ran towards the Civil Hospital -- in what is perhaps a first, the bomb at the Civil Hospital exploded just as injured from earlier blasts were being brought in -- as soon as he heard about the injured coming in.

Just as he was getting a trolley, a bomb exploded leaving Kabir with severe burns -- and his mother weeping helplessly.

"I only came to help, why this happen to me," he was quoted as murmuring from his hospital bed.

They were the luckier ones.

Paresh Patil, 38, went to the Civil Hospital to donate blood on hearing about blasts but never came back. His body was found Sunday morning but his 12-year-old son and 10-year-old were still waiting in hope.

As was perhaps the family of Dinesh Kumar Jain who was also caught in the blast in the hospital just as he was trying to help move the injured out of the ambulance. He was killed and his three friends were reportedly seriously injured.

Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore and Kamlesh Tank, who along with Dinesh Kumar, were at the forefront when Gujarat was struck by a quake, and then the riots of 2002 a year later, are in hospital while their friend lies dead.

As Ahmedabad counts its dead and looks beyond, they are the ones who will help in the task of rebuilding lives shattered by terrorism.

Generate your own power, use it and sell it too

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Generate your own power, use it and sell it too
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Salzburg: The Indian government has placed solar energy development at the centre of its strategy for energy security and combating climate change. There is a town in Germany where most new buildings have solar power roofs that not only cater to all the energy requirements of homes, but also allow residents to sell power to the grid.

With more than half the world's population living in cities now, and the figure estimated to go up to 70-80 percent by 2025, the focus of planners dealing with climate change is shifting to making cities self-sustainable in renewable energy production.

Freiburg is a city in Germany that has perhaps moved more in this direction than any other. Its chief architect, Wulf Heinrich Daseking, explained exactly how this was being done at a recent session of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Combating Climate Change at Local and Regional Levels: Sustainable Strategies, Renewable Energy.

Planners and academics from around the world attended the session. IANS was the only media organisation from Asia to be invited.

A city of around 200,000 people near Frankfurt, Freiburg started with a basic disadvantage - it had no industry, so it was not a rich city. "That is an advantage in some ways," said Daseking. "When you don't have much money, you have to find the best way to use what you have."

The greening of Freiburg started with local opposition to a proposed nuclear power nearby. The locals won, "but then the question was: How do we keep the lights from going out?" Daseking said.

"Six to eight people got together and said, 'We have the city with the most sunshine hours in Germany, let us try to use that'. From that small start, we now have entire neighbourhoods with solar panels as their roofs."

Private entrepreneurs put in the roofs and take care of maintenance for the first three years as part of the contract. By that time, residents have already recovered the extra cost of putting in the solar power roofs because they do not have to pay any electricity bills.

What is more, the solar panels generate more electricity than the household can consume, so the residents sell it to the grid and have a perpetual source of income from their homes.

Apart from its solar-powered houses, Freiburg has a public transport system that makes it quite unnecessary to own a car. Be it trams, buses, local trains, intercity trains, cable cars, aircraft, private cars, or bicycles - all are interchangeable at one hub, the railway station.

"The trick is to integrate all the transport systems at one point," Daseking said. "The commuter obviously finds it most convenient. And the city also saves money."

A single ticket that costs 53 euros a month enables the commuter to use all these forms of transport as often as he or she wishes. On weekends, families can travel without paying anything extra. With dedicated lanes, travelling by tram or bus is faster than driving - and far more comfortable.

There are two dedicated bus lanes and tramlines, one going from the eastern end of the city to the western end, and the other from north to south. The city planners have placed as many offices and residential neighbourhoods close to these lanes as they can.

The result, there are parts of Freiburg where the number of cars per 1,000 residents has come down from 550 to 85, even as the per capita income is going up.

Of course, this has the major additional advantage of saving energy and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the Earth's atmosphere and leading to climate change.

"We must build up the density of population in a city, not reduce it," Daseking said. "Everyone lives together, as they did for so many centuries. That also reduces the overall energy used for transportation."

That was the way to go, in more senses than one, said one delegate at the end of Daseking's presentation.