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| Monday, February
12, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
More militant killings Orders for
doctors |
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The
good, bad and ugly Custodial crimes: the role of
NGOs
The season of school
admissions
By Anupam Gupta
Valentine cards to pampered pets
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More militant killings EVEN by the standard of Jammu and Kashmir, 25 killings in two days is brutal and benumbing. And both were somewhat expected. The sneak attack on a police control room in Srinagar carries the patented signs of a suicide squad of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Yet the murderers did their dastardly deed and two of the four even escaped. In Rajouri district it is the village defence committee which provoked a midnight visit and the burning to death of 15 residents, including seven teenagers. In both cases the militants have publicly proclaimed their target. The police is active in counter-insurgency work, somewhat more successfully than other uniformed forces and the Lashkar-e-Toiba has warned more than once that its killers are out to take revenge. More than 400 policemen have fallen victim since the mid-nineties and one-fourth of them last year. The police sources claim that it has eliminated about 1500 militants during the same period. Until about five years ago the police was content to control traffic and keep a low profile and thus remained perfectly safe. In fact, the Army and para-military forces found it convenient to use police flags and registration numbers in their cars so as to hoodwink the terrorists. Hence it was absolutely necessary to keep police stations out of bound for militants who invariably don police uniform to gain entry and also carry lethal weapons, as they did on Friday. The incident exposes horribly lax security at so sensitive a place as the police control room. The guard at the main gate was first shot dead, and that should have galvanised the men inside and felled the intruders. No, according to the police version, four insurgents ran and occupied a safe place to stray bullets on policemen who obviously put up a disorganised defence. That explains the high casualty figure, eight killed and nearly double that number injured. If the claim of the Lashkar-e-Toiba is true, two intruders had escaped, which is a very serious matter. How could anyone mount an attack on a high security centre, keep firing for hours and escape? The Rajouri village killing was both tragic and eminently avoidable. The militants had come to get three village defence committee (VDC) members, suspecting them to be Army informers. Once inside the humble houses, they opened fire killing all those sleeping there so as to liquidate any eye witness. Their aim is to terrorise all those joining the VDCs for a paltry monthly payment of about Rs 150. The VDCs have not been of much help in countering insurgency but have only made the members a potential target of terrorist fire. Some of them carry the ancient .302 rifle which is like asking them to defend themselves with a lathi while facing an AK-47. The VDC men have been demanding more sophisticated arms and training and pay of regular policemen. It is time the government reviewed the VDC concept with a view to minimising the risk to the lives of the members and maximising their usefulness. These brutalities will tend to encourage the hardliners in the government to shut the door on the peace process. That will be playing into the hands of those desperately trying to sabotage the whole plan. First the Gujarat earthquake and now two cases of shocking attack have diverted focused attention on normalising the situation in the valley. While there is logic in going slow on the process, abandoning it will be tragic in view of the widespread interest it generated both in the state and across the world. It is vital to keep alive the hope even if it will be futile to step up the momentum. |
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Orders for doctors THE Medical Council of India has drawn up a fresh set of guidelines for making the profession patient-friendly. However, the introduction of a comprehensive set of guidelines may not be enough for making the medical fraternity give up exploiting, rather than treating, patients. In any case, the situation in India is far more complex than, say, it is in the UK or the USA where medical practitioners face the risk of having their licence revoked on complaints of wrong treatment, wrong diagnosis or misconduct with the patients. In India a large number of doctors literally get away with murder because there is no notified agency where the aggrieved patients can formally register their complaints. No medical practitioner has ever had his licence revoked. In the rare case in which the registration may have been cancelled, no followup action has ever been taken against those practising medicine without a valid licence. Does the Medical Council have a workable plan of action for sending quacks to jail? Consumers courts are empowered to provide relief to individual patients, but cannot revoke the licence of the doctor or the clinic against whom the complaint is made. The Medical Council will need to go beyond merely issuing periodic revised guidelines for the profession if it really wants to achieve the stated objective of securing the interests of the patients. Although it has made it mandatory for the doctors to display in the clinics their registration certificates, consultation fees and the charges for different medical tests, it does not have the infrastructure or the power to ensure compliance. In any case, what purpose will the display of the registration certificates and consultation fees of doctors serve in protecting the patients from being duped by unscrupulous medical practitioners? The Medical Council either does not understand what is actually wrong with the medical care delivery system in India or does not want to go beyond issuing guidelines which may not make any difference to the health of the patients it seeks to protect. The fact of the matter is that the number of conscientious and honest doctors in any district can be counted on one’s fingertips. The honest ones do not need to be told what is expected of them, and the unscrupulous ones will not even bother to look at the fresh set of guidelines issued. The irony is that instead of improvement in the medical care system, the opening up of the economy has made patients more vulnerable to exploitation than ever before. A number of medical service providers with fancy labels have run the small fry out of business by offering packages of treatment at unaffordable rates. The neighbourhood quack used to charge Rs 10, and the upmarket one Rs 100, for treating a common cold. But the five-star clinics give the common cold a different name and charge a mind-boggling amount from the gullible patients for treating it. Does the Medical Council have a prescription for giving the five-star health care centres the treatment they deserve? No. Why? Because the doctors and non-doctors running these fancy shops are too well connected and, therefore, beyond the reach of Indian laws. Of course, for those who can afford to spend a fortune on getting cosmetic surgery done on different parts of their body the bogus medical care industry is a welcome arrival in India. However, to the poor patients in genuine need of medical care at affordable cost the Medical Council has nothing better to offer than the cosmetic exercise of revising the guidelines for the medical profession. |
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The good, bad and ugly ADVERSITY
is said to bring out the best in people, individually and collectively. It activates qualities many of which most of us don’t even suspect we have: a deep sense of fellow-feeling, extraordinary courage in the face of grave odds, an intense desire to help, to save life even at the possible cost of one’s own, to mitigate suffering, a genuine oneness with strangers in their hour of pain and peril. All these qualities came to the fore in the colossal disaster in Gujarat. These were evident in the manner in which people rushed pell-mell to help the victims, in their frenzied attempts to remove huge concrete slabs with their bare hands in a hopeless bid to locate and rescue those trapped in the debris, in the people of a stricken village refusing urgent aid in favour of a more stricken neighbouring village, in the way tens of scores of young men from far and near got into whatever transport they could to reach the devastated areas in a blind desire to help which anyway they could, in women spontaneously pooling their provisions to cook for the destitute, in people from other parts of the state and from other states sending food and blankets for the victims. Unity of sentiment, unity of purpose! Even as ordinary people and voluntary organisations underlined the humanity of humankind, the calamity brought out, yet again, shocking infirmities and worse in our political and civil apparatus. Instead of swinging into action and leading the rescue and relief operations, the authorities were the last to come on the scene. As in other calamities in the past, there was administrative paralysis — and individual callousness. (Three senior IAS officers in the state capital reportedly went to a dinner party at the house of an industrialist on the night of the day of disaster!) Not lacking in exhibition, however, were zeroxed sentiments of shock and sympathy from pedestals high and not so high. The calamity struck before the Republic Day vaudeville in New Delhi, but the spectacle and its bubbly coverage on Doordarshan went on as if nothing had happened. When a celebration is synthetic there is no room for bad news! By the afternoon, even if the full dimension of the disaster was not known, it was clear that what had struck Gujarat was no small tragedy, that thousands of Indians had perished in the earthquake. But in a system where official pomp and ceremony are the name of the game, the President’s celebratory tea party was held as scheduled and went on beyond the slated time. Contrast this with the instant declaration of state mourning when some high-ranking, even retired politician passes away. A Republic indeed! (Asked if the death of many thousands of Indians was not cause enough to declare a national mourning, the Prime Minister is reported to have said, “In future we will keep this in mind”! God save this country!!) The Central government came to life after the tea party by holding a Cabinet meeting — and told the nation that rescue and relief would be organised on a war-footing. And what was the substance of this declaration? Soldiers (as always!) were despatched to the disaster areas, to help somehow — that was the “war” footing! And while these brave and ever-dedicated citizens-in-uniform plunged into action and worked day and night, there was by all accounts no sign of the civil administration in the critical first 48 hours — so much so that the foreign rescue teams which arrived the day after sat for hours together without doing what they had come to do because there was no one to guide them, to coordinate their effort, tell them where to go, where to begin. Some of them even talked about leaving if the local authorities continued to be conspicuous by their absence or inaction. Some Central ministers made the politically fashionable trips to the state and so did the leader of the Opposition and (therefore?) so did the leader of the ruling combine. Aerial surveys and all that. With the exception of Mr L.K. Advani’s third visit when he camped there and tried to get the administrative act together, what did these VIP visitations achieve, apart from disrupting and delaying rescue and relief? What we got from these high-powered visits in the first few days were their estimates of the toll, and these varied from “upto a thousand” to “close to a lakh”, with the state Chief Minister insisting — even a week after the disaster when the whole world knew better — that the figure was “around 25,000”. Even as one wondered why these dignitaries felt obliged to make these guesses, the country was treated to some “encouraging” declarations: “there is need for a national policy on crisis management” from the Home Minister and “the government is thinking of setting up a national disaster management authority” from the Prime Minister. A classic case, if ever there was one, of digging a well after the fire has broken out. Instead of marshalling and using all available resources to rescue the dying and provide food and water and medical attention and shelter to the surviving victims we were treated to long-term rhetoric on crisis management. And this when there already is a crisis management group, except that if it did anything at all to manage this crisis it remains a state secret. To talk of these things when the situation cried for rescue and relief betrays a pathetic sense of priority. Even assuming that a perspective view of such disasters was in order at that juncture, one cannot help noticing that no one in authority talked of the obvious need to end the politician-bureaucrat-builder nexus which caused posh modern structures to crumble (even as old havelis withstood the calamity), or about taking an urgent fresh look at some of the more shoddily built housing colonies (in Delhi and elsewhere) as well as at the gargantuan ecologically disturbing projects underway in the seismologically vulnerable areas. To predict, let alone prevent, earthquakes is not possible. What is possible is to avoid or at least minimise destruction of life and property in such calamities. Is there any serious thinking whatsoever on these lines? No evidence of that even two weeks after the disaster. Instead, we have an entirely monetary view of the tragedy, a petty accountant’s view. Ordaining an income-tax surcharge and warning of a harsh budget, etc are all very well, but is raising money all there is to responding to such a crisis? This cultivated panic on the part of the Centre does not impress; in any case these measures will neither cover nor compensate for governmental and administrative failures, especially in the critical first few days after the calamity. Where, for instance, was the need for money in putting up tarpaulin sheets or big tents which lay around unused for days because the hapless villagers did not know how to put them up? Or in safeguarding medical consignments and reaching them to the needy rather than letting them rot on the roadside. There was no dearth of volunteers and NGOs, the only thing lacking was management — and, sadly, even concern — and that can’t be bought with tax surcharges! Harping on harsh budgetary measures raises certain doubts and misgivings. Are the decreed or proposed imposts really meant for relief and rehabilitation — or is the disaster a godsend (no pun intended) to raise additional revenue for other budgetary reasons? In any case, does the government realise that if you force people to contribute their voluntary instincts get curtailed, and therefore what it may gain on the one hand it will lose on the other? And is taxation the only way to raise additional funds, especially in an emergency situation? What about what the government so lavishly spends on itself? If even a 10 per cent saving is effected in the mind-boggling Rs 75,000 crore spent on the bureaucracy it would yield 10 times as much as the income-tax surcharge. In fact, shouldn’t the “people’s representatives” and the higher bureaucracy (enjoying as they are fat perks and privileges at public expense) as well as the top crust of the economic order be the first to help, and help the most? But doing that requires a certain sensitivity, an uncorrupted conscience, a sense of equity — and these are less than obvious in our political and economic elites. Witness the undisturbed circus of inaugurations, social functions, book and even magazine releases, birthday bashes, fashion shows, beauty contests, the cocktail merry-go-rounds of the swinging glitterati of our globalised metros, so dutifully reported on the glamour pages and portals of the media. These movers and shakers of modern India themselves remain unmoved and unshaken — as much by the Gujarat tragedy as by any other human suffering in this country, and that is the underlying tragedy of the Republic of India. |
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Custodial crimes: the role of
NGOs THE Law Commission of India recently organised a seminar in New Delhi to invite reactions and suggestions from various sections regarding the law of arrest; whether arrest was at all called for with regard to certain offences being the main theme. Another important highlight was the role of non-government organisations (NGOs). The consultation paper prepared by the commission suggested a definite function for the NGOs — empowering them to visit police stations to check law violations and violence while making arrests, as also in police custody. According to the consultation paper, a common complaint often heard in this connection is that quite often a person is taken in police custody without making any record of such detention. People are kept in such unlawful custody for a number of days and quite often subjected to ill-treatment and third-degree methods. To check this illegal practice, there should be a specific provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure to make it obligatory for the officer-in-charge of a police station to permit representatives of registered non-government organisations to visit it at any time of their choice to check and ensure that no one is detained without keeping a record of such an arrest, and to ensure that the provisions of the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure are being observed. For this purpose a procedure must be devised for the registration of genuine NGOs and a record must be kept of their representatives. There were sharp reactions from the police against permitting NGOs inside police stations for various reasons. The “agenda” of the NGOs and the intentions of their representatives were one factor that weighed heavily on the minds of the law-enforcing agencies’ votaries. Obviously, they suspect the credentials of certain NGOs. Besides this, their argument is that many important things, for purposes of investigation, are not to be made public at that point of time, in the larger public interest. Interestingly, certain other participants — including sociologists, criminologists and lawyers — also echoed the apprehensions and sentiments expressed by the police representatives. The predominant view was that certain NGOs might not only work at cross-purposes but also use this facility to defame any agency or create a situation not conducive to the proper functioning of the criminal justice delivery system prevalent in the country. Not to be out-witted by the arguments put forth against allowing the NGOs to visit police stations, those who espoused the cause of human rights and civil liberties came down heavily on the law-enforcing agencies having unbridled powers used “illegally and with impunity” while implementing the law relating to arrests, custody and the production of an accused person in a court of law within 24 hours. It goes without saying that every arrest is subject to judicial scrutiny either by an executive magistrate or a judicial magistrate, as the case may be. But the fact that formal arrests by the police are sometimes recorded and shown after days and weeks of illegal detention can no longer be glossed over. These go unnoticed and unchecked. In such a situation, the NGOs’ role in at least checking what goes wrong and where and how much of the liberty of an individual is curtailed and to what extent, whether endlessly or for the time being, but surely not as per the law, cannot be ignored. Fighting for the NGOs’ visit to police stations and thus setting standards, providing
yardsticks, with honest intentions of the lawful execution of the law and, above all, maintaining a positive attitude in implementing the criminal justice delivery system is a welcome idea. But the police side seeks only infrastructural support from the NGOs, restraining them there with no authority to “cross boundaries”. The police wants the NGOs to improve the living conditions inside the jails and lock-ups. But when it comes to the NGOs’ entry to such places like that of a warrant officer from a court, a big “Excuse us please!” is the police reaction. All said and done, it is high time some balancing instrument was devised to create an environment of trust between the crusaders for human rights and civil liberties and the law-enforcing agencies, so that hapless citizens could be saved from exploitation and there was no undignified curtailment of their freedom in a welfare state. |
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The season of school
admissions APART
from summer, rain, winter and spring there comes another season which is known as season of school admissions. Usually this season starts from mid-February and under normal circumstances lasts till May or June. During this period every person, howsoever rich or poor, earnestly wants his son or daughter to be admitted in the best public school. Some of these schools are so high in demand that one is really surprised to see even grandparents of a few month old children worrying and making plans for their admission which is yet to take place after full three or four years. In our city of Ludhiana where everybody is somebody, it is also a season when people try to reestablish friendship or other contacts with school teachers or with persons who are members of the management committee of a particular school. The sole purpose of this pursuit of revival is to find a dependable sifarish for the admission of their ward. If in any capacity you happen to be even slightly related with any of the premium teaching institutions of the city, in this particular season your telephone will never stop ringing. You suddenly become favourite of those people who earlier on many times had ignored you or not found you even worth to talk with. The real shock is reserved for you afterwards, when due to your out of the way recommendation the child is selected. You really feel like banging your head into the wall when instead of thanking you, the same persons attribute the selection of their child only to his extraordinary intelligence. This admission mania reaches its crescendo when results of interviews are displayed at the entrance gates of the schools. Anxious parents or relatives of the child scramble to read the noticeboards as shouts of
ho gaya (got selected) is the most common word which is heard on that day. Their faces become jubilant as if they have won some big war. The plight of those poor parents whose ward’s name is not in that list is seen to be believed. Males silently leave the premises cursing the utter despotism of the school authorities and also suspecting some foul play in the selection process whereas some ladies are seen wiping their tears. In some homes it is a time of festivities but, real gloom descends on the majority as only around 250 “super intelligent” children make their way out of 5000-odd applicants in a school. Those who come to congratulate the lucky ones also secretly marvel and envy both the luck and connections of these parents. Sometime this whole madness or craze for a few schools of Sarabha Nagar or Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar bring back to me memories of my own childhood. I remember a few glimpses of my first day in the school some 40 years ago. On that morning my father carried me to a very learned Sanskrit scholar who resided near our home to get his blessings. After that I was taken to a very old building where a grey haired masterji noted my brief particulars and thus I started my educational career. It was a desi school situated near Daresi Ground in the old city where we used to sit on long jute carpets which were called tapparh. My father soon left for his shop and I don’t remember any other day when he ever again came to our school. More than a decade later when I made into a professional college at Patiala, my parents were as relaxed as they were on my first day to the school. Today my son is studying in one of these “most wanted” schools and when again the season of admissions has come I silently wonder how the time has changed. While busy arranging my son’s hectic schedule of tuitions after his school hours, my telephone just rings up. It is one of my old acquaintances who is making an enquiry. He wanted to know whether I have some wakfiat with the principal of a particular school as his son couldn’t get admission there. |
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Lessons of Lockerbie judgement “AT 1903 hours on 21 December 1988 PanAm flight 103 fell out of the sky. The 259 passengers and crew members who were on board and 11 residents of Lockerbie where the debris fell were killed.” Thus begins the 82-page judgement of the Scottish High Court of Justiciary at Camp Zeist, pronounced on January 31 and finding Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi guilty of one of the most heinous terrorist crimes of the late 20th century. The blowing up, through an explosive planted in the airliner, of a New York-bound Boeing 747 that had taken off from London and was blasted into four million pieces, scattered from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in north-eastern England to Firth of Clyde in western Scotland. Most of the 259 passengers were Americans, with as many as 35 of them being students from Syracuse University in New York. But the dead came from 21 countries, including Sweden, South Africa and France. The average age of the deceased was just 27, the youngest being two 2-month-old babies from the USA and the oldest a retired doctor (79) from Hungary. The “roll-call of the dead”, Andrew Buncombe, writing in The Independent on February 1, informs us, took an hour to be read out in court. Downed allegedly in retaliation for the 1986 American bombing raid on Tripoli, which killed besides several dozen others the adopted daughter of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, the plane’s fuselage fell mainly on the small Scottish town of Lockerbie and the case has gone by that name ever since. The Lockerbie investigation, the Lockerbie trial and, now, the Lockerbie verdict. “We are aware”, the presiding judge, Lord Sutherland, ruled on behalf of himself and his colleagues, Lord Coulsfield and Lord Maclean, on January 31, “that in relation to certain aspects of the case there are a number of uncertainties and qualifications. We are also aware that there is a danger that by selecting parts of the evidence which seem to fit together and ignoring parts which might not fit, it is possible to read into a mass of conflicting evidence a pattern or conclusion which is not really justified.” Nonetheless, he said, “having considered the whole evidence in the case, including the uncertainties and qualifications, and the submissions of counsel, we are satisfied that the evidence.... does fit together to form a real and convincing pattern. There is nothing in the evidence which leaves us with any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the first accused, and accordingly we find him guilty...” The second accused, 44-year-old Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, station manager for the Libyan Arab Airlines at the Luqa airport in Malta, was however acquitted. “You are now discharged and free to go,” Lord Sutherland told Khalifa Fhimah. Imprisoned alongwith Al Megrahi in the Zeist Prison in the Netherlands during the trial, Fhimah rose from the defendants’ bench in the courtroom and walked out of a side door to freedom. Both the accused had been extradited by Libya in 1999 to face trial as part of a deal with the West brokered by the United Nations. A former NATO base in the Netherlands, Zeist was to serve as the venue of the trial even as Scotland passed a special law permitting three of its judges to try the accused at Camp Zeist. “With the men tried on a patch of the Netherlands declared Scottish,” Donald G. Mcneil Jr wrote in the International Herald Tribune on February 1, “Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, could still claim that he never handed them over to Libya’s enemies.” Immediate suspension of UN sanctions against Libya, a part of the deal, followed in the wake of the extradition. Established way back in history in 1672, the Scottish High Court of Justiciary is both a court of trial and a court of appeal. It has jurisdiction over all crimes, unless its jurisdiction is excluded by statute, and exclusive jurisdiction to try the most serious crimes such as treason and murder. As in England (and India), the onus under Scots law lies on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence he is charged with. More than in other legal systems, however, importance attaches to corroboration. By Scots law, states David M. Walker, Regius Professor Emeritus of Law in the University of Glasgow, in his study of the Scottish legal system, “every essential fact must be corroborated, ie the evidence must be supported by independent evidence from another witness or from facts and circumstances justifying an inference to the same effect.” This is clearly reflected in the Lockerbie verdict. “(W)e turn to consider,” says Lord Sutherland, at para 83 of his opinion, “the evidence which could be regarded as implicating either or both of the accused, bearing in mind that the evidence against each of them has to be considered separately, and that before either could be convicted we would have to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt as to his guilt and that evidence from a single source would be insufficient.” The detachment underlying this succinct formulation is both rare and remarkable and should serve as a model for judicial triers of fact, whichever country or legal system they might belong to. At no point or place in their 90-para, 82-page verdict do the three Scottish judges allow either the enormity of the tragedy and its international implications, or their emotions, to obtrude upon their appraisal of the evidence. And at no point or place is their appraisal of the evidence, or the inferences or conclusions they ultimately arrive at, clouded by the least flamboyance or turgidity of expression. Possibly the sole occasion in the entire judgement when the Bench permits itself a flourish is when it rejects, in para 47, a part of the evidence of Edwin Bollier, a vital prosecution witness. “This account given by Mr Bollier”, writes Lord Sutherland, “belongs in our view to the realm of fiction where it may best be placed in the genre of the spy thrillers.” And yet, the Bench does not shirk from accepting and acting upon some other parts of the testimony of the same witness where it is supported by other sources. The same approach, at once discriminating and sensible, is to be found again in the appraisal of Tony Gauci, a shopkeeper of Malta whose identification of Al Megrahi constitutes a “major factor” in the latter’s conviction. Discussed over 12 pages of the judgement, Gauci’s identification of Al Megrahi was, as the court repeatedly acknowledges, never “absolutely positive” or “unequivocal”. Yet, all said and done, the court prefers to believe rather than disbelieve him. “Unlike many witnesses who express confidence in their identification when there is little justification for it (says Lord Sutherland), he was always careful to express any reservations he had and gave reasons why he thought there was a semblance. There are situations where a careful witness who will not commit himself beyond saying there is a close resemblance, can be regarded as more reliable and convincing ... than a witness who maintains that his identification is 100% certain”. Leaning neither towards the prosecution nor towards the defence, the Lockerbie verdict must be read by all those whose task it is to dispense criminal justice. |
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Valentine cards to pampered pets THE
British are often mocked for caring more for their pets than their children — and now they can even send a Valentine’s card to their favourite animal. “This is a trend which is set to increase as people look upon pets as one of the family — giving Valentine’s cards is a natural progression of this,” said a spokeswoman for Woolworths which is stocking the cards in five major stores. “Some owners use their pets as a way to meet people they secretly admire when they are out walking their dogs, at pigeon racing clubs, cat shows or even the vet’s waiting room. It’s a good way of breaking the ice,” she added.
(Reuters) Women toss oranges to find
a husband Single women tossed oranges into a Singapore river to mark Chinese Valentine’s Day and hopes for a good husband. Under the glow of the full moon on Wednesday night, about a dozen women tossed Mandarin oranges from the concrete river bank in the heart of the city into the murky water below. “In the old days, the single women would throw oranges and the men would come to watch,’’ one woman in her 40s told the Straits Times newspaper. Singapore’s orange tossing tradition is a variation of an ancient Chinese practice. An unmarried daughter from a rich family would toss a colourful silk ball from a balcony on Chinese Valentine’s Day, which also marked the last day of the Lunar New Year, and marry the man who caught it. In the hustle-bustle of the modern city state, where government organisations help singles find their match, the efficacy of the oranges is questionable. But one woman who has been tossing oranges for eight years has not given up yet. “We are ever hopeful,” she said.
(Reuters) The baby whisperer ARNOLD Schwarzenegger swears by her. So do Jodie Foster, Cindy Crawford, and Michael J Fox. They call her “the baby whisperer”, and her knack for understanding the babies of the rich and famous is something to behold. Hand her a wailing infant with a household name, or let that infant wail down the phone, and within seconds she can tell you what he is really saying, and how to calm him down. A word to the wise, though: if you are thinking of hiring her, your first phone call should probably be to the bank. Tracy Hogg, British-born nanny to the stars, does not come cheap. Her day rate is $ 1,000. A three-week stay could set you back $ 15,000. But now we have read things about Hogg’s past that make you wonder how she could have had the nerve to set herself up as a child expert. The story comes from her ex-husband, a former miner named Ray Fear, who talked to the tabloids earlier last week, to coincide with — or perhaps sabotage — the publication in Britain of her book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. In it, Hogg claims that she learned most of her magic from her grandmother, and the rest from working as a nurse with disabled children. However, Fear claims that she did little whispering with her own daughters. There was, allegedly, no breast-feeding: Hogg put both girls straight on the bottle and went straight back to work. Even when they were very small, she left their care to her mother and grandmother. Then, eight years ago, she and her second husband moved to California, leaving behind her daughters, then seven and 10. The latter, Sarah, now lives in Hollywood with her mother. The younger one, Sophie, will be joining them after her school exams. Hogg insists that leaving them was the right decision, and that she maintained a close relationship with the girls via school holidays and the internet. But Fear counters that the girls were distraught when their mother moved away. “Sophie would say, ‘Mummy is in America looking after all these babies and staying with them. Why isn’t she doing it with me?’’ It is a question some of her clients may be asking, too. (Guardian) Bill against domestic violence The Domestic Violence (Family Protection) Bill proposed by the Kenyan Attorney General, Amos Wako, will soon be passed by Parliament. Domestic Violence is defined in the Bill as being physical, sexual and mental in nature and even recognises the issue of a child witnessing violence in the home. The Bill comes close on the heels of a dramatic increase in incidents of spousal and child abuse. Government reports show that three out of every five women in Nairobi are victims of physical assault. In an unprecedented move, the Bill allows local courts to overrule cultural practices that are oppressive to the individual such as coercing minor girls into early marriages. Perpetrators of this oppressive practise will be punished once the Bill becomes law. The Bill also states that persons who force their spouses to leave matrimonial homes will be liable to pay for the cost of the separation. According to the Bill which has generally been accepted amongst all stakeholders in the country, people guilty of violence at the home will be slapped with a fine worth Ksh 100,000 ($1,300), a one-year jail sentence or both. Abused spouses and children will be allowed the option of seeking State protection and the government will set up a special fund to be known as the Domestic Violence Family Protection Fund, to cater for medical treatment, provision of basic daily requirements, counselling and legal assistance.
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS The real prayer arises out of your body, not out of your mind... The body has its own wisdom. It knows how to dance, how to sing, how to pulsate with God ....If you learn the prayer of the body... the prayer of the soul will arise on its own accord.... your body and soul are one; it is the mind that is making them separate. — Osho, The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol.II ***** If anything is sacred, the human body is seared. — Walt Whitman, "I sing the body Electric" ***** He will be the slave of many masters who is his body's slave. — Seneca, letters to lucilius ***** Whatever moves in this universe, whatever is either seen or heard, whatever is inside or outside - all is pervaded by the Lord. He is therein established. — Mahanarayana Upanishad, 244-245 ***** He who dwells in the light, yet is other than the light, whom the light does not know, whose body is the light, who controls the light from within - he is the atman within you. — Brihadaranayaka Upanishad, 3. 7. 14. ***** The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. he is far away, but he is very near as well. He is within everything and yet He is outside of everything. — Ishavasya Upanishad, Mantra 5 ***** Willed by whom does the directed mind go towards its object? Being directed by whom does the vital force, that precedes all, proceed (towards its duty)? By whom is this speech willed that people utter? Who is the effulgent being who directs the eyes and the ears? Since He is the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind, the Speech of speech, the Life of life, and the Eye of the eye, therefore the intelligent men, after giving up (self-identification with the senses) and renouncing this world, become immortal. — Kena Upanishad, I. 1-2 |
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