Stories about South Asia from April, 2011
Sri Lanka: Much Ado About The UN Advisory Panel Report
Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca provides a voice of reason regarding the much hyped and loathed UN Advisory panel report on human rights abuse during the fag end of Sri Lanka's war against the LTTE. The blogger comments that the debate is not exactly helping towards reconciliation.
India: Twitter, The Life Changer
Venkat Ananth at Blogadda writes how twitter has changed his life: “twitter has been a supremely humbling experience for me not just because of the fact that ‘a nobody’ got noticed somewhat, but because I think fundamentally, the medium has democratized communication radically.”
Pakistan: Urdu Losing Its Glory?
“Urdu stands at the brink of artistic and aesthetic extinction,” opines Pakistani blogger Salman Latif.
Sri Lanka: UN Panel Report Causes An Uproar
An United Nations (UN) advisory panel, led by former Indonesian Atty. Gen. Marzuki Darusman, has submitted a report to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in which they find credible evidence that the Sri Lankan military shelled civilians in no-fire zones and sought to silence critics in a brutal fashion, during the war against guerilla group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.
Pakistan: Deaf And Dumb Policy On Balochistan
Hamid Abbasi at Chowrangi criticizes the deaf and dumb policy of the Pakistan government regarding Balochistan.
India: Higher Education, An Opportunity Lost
“Higher Education in India, in particular, is a game of political privileges and cronyism; consequently, Indian institutions fail to make it to global top table and also fail to equip its 2.9 million graduates a year with basic employment skills,” comments Supriyo Chaudhuri at Sunday Posts.
Pakistan: In Support Of The Burqa Ban
Kalsoom at CHUP! Changing Up Pakistan highlights Nabiha Meher Sheikh, a freelance writer based in Lahore, who explains why she supports the burqa (full face veil) ban in France.
Bhutan: What's Good With The Facebook Ban At Office?
“Wasting time on Facebook is Not the problem, it is a symptom of a greater problem,” opines Dipika while discussing about the efficacy of the Facebook ban at some offices.
India: Dr. Binayak Sen Is Free
Dheera Sujan at South Asia Wired reports that Indian Right to Information activist Dr. Binayak Sen has been freed and she requests Indians to keep protesting at the summary arrests of people like Dr Binayak Sen.
Sri Lanka: Sinhala And Tamil New Year In Jaffna
Marisa De Silva at GroundViews reports that the people of Jaffna had a quiet new year celebrations because of the heavy presence of security forces and their regular questioning.
Bangladesh: Communal Attacks On Indigenous People
Unheard Voice blog is reporting that tension is running high in the Chittagong Hill tracts of Bangladesh as Bengali settlers attacked Jumma People with the direct support of security forces.
Bangladesh: Approval Of A Coal Mine Threatens Displacement And Destruction
ShahidulNews reports that “a massively destructive coal mine could be approved in northwest Bangladesh that would displace tens of thousands of families, destroy vital farmland, and devastate mangrove forests that protect the climate-fragile country from rising sea levels”.
India: Social Media Powers Anti Corruption Bill Campaign
On April 5, 2011, social activist Anna Hazare started a fast-unto-death campaign to demand an effective anti-corruption law and hundreds of thousands of Indians supported him. Social media helped spread the campaign of Anna Hazare; netizens analyze why the campaign will never tip into a social movement.
Bangladesh: Yunus And After
After the removal of Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus from the post of Managing Director of Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh government faces a challenge to run the bank smoothly with the new appointees. An Ordinary Citizen opines that Grameen Bank may be a political liability for the government in future...
South Asia: Reactions On The Burqa Ban In France
The recent ban imposed by France on burqa (niqab), the Islamic face veil, has created a lot of buzz across the different blogosphere of the world. Some South Asian bloggers are discussing this issue.
India: Cricket On Overdrive
Proloy Bagchi has this to say about the hype on the game of cricket in India driven by billions of dollars in advertisement revenues: “it has become a year-round circus and is no longer a sport for the three or four winter months”.
India: The Pitiful State Of Indian Television
Sujoy at OneKnightStand.Net discusses about five issues that are responsible for the present pitiful state of Indian Television.
India: The Missing Girl Child Exposed In The Census
Using the recent census data in India Razib Khan at Sepia Mutiny tries to analyze why the ratio of girl child against the boy child is dropping in different parts of India.
India: How Much Is A Housewife Worth?
In a ruling Indian Supreme Court questioned the Indian government’s Census parameters which placed housewives in the same economic bracket as “prostitutes, beggars and prisoners”. In this context Phoenixritu tries to fathom how much is an Indian housewife worth.
Pakistan: Text Books Being Updated After 11 Years
Faisal Kapadia at Deadpan Thoughts welcomes the steps by the Education Ministry of Pakistan to update the text books and supplementary materials for both students and teachers of primary and secondary schools, which were pending for so long. In states like Sindh & Baluchistan they were not revised in the...
Bangladesh: New Year Festival Getting Popular Each Year
Jyoti Rahman at Mukti analyzes why each year the Pahela Baishakh, new years celebrations in Bangladesh are getting bigger and more popular with the participation of mass people.
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