kendras-blog-currentevents-blog

[kendras-blog-currentevents-blog]

Blog Post #5

December 5, 2017

https://globalvoices.org/2017/11/14/in-india-class-and-gender-inequities-impede-justice-for-sexual-harassment-victims/

Recently, a law student in the US from Singapore who goes by the name of Raya Sarkar (Raya prefers to go by the pronouns of they/them so that is what I will be using in this blog) posted a list of 58 academicians at 29 universities, mostly in India who students have accused of sexual assault or rape. There is a backlash against these accusations because no one who has accused any of these people have come forward. Raya says that they have evidence but is not going to share it to keep the anonymity of the individuals who have been assaulted. Raya says that once victims come forward they will show the evidence, but for now it will stay anonymous. While many believe that releasing names of people without showing any of the victims or the evidence may be unjust, many are backing up Raya’s list stating “If we lived in a world where being on an anonymous list did anything to your reputation or career, anonymous lists wouldn’t even be needed.” When people report sexual harassment or assault they are often told they are doing it for money, fame, attention, etc. When the reality is, these people are going through a traumatizing experience and dealing with the affects of it and for most people even admitting to one person about their experience is recovery so for people to undermine them is harsh and cruel. While this is a gender issue as we see cases of women getting sexually assaulted and being asked what they were wearing or doing as if it matters, we also see that men are sexually assaulted and rarely step up and report it. They don’t because they are in fear of being judged, made fun of, told that men cannot be raped, and that they should “be glad it happened”. I am a strong believer that the stigma around sexual harassment and assault should go away for both men and women. Something I’ve noticed is that 3 of my blog posts have been centered around India, maybe there is just a lot of things happening in India right now, but I don’t think this is the case. I think India needs a lot of help in all different aspects. I think with the #me too campaign we have seen a lot of survivors and victims step up and share their experiences in hopes to change the stigma, and to offer their help or advice for anyone going through what they did/are. I think all around the world we are being shocked by the numbers of people who have gone through this kind of trauma and we are starting to reevaluate how we talk about it and how we deal with the situations. *All information is from the website at the top of the blog, all images are from google images.*

[kendras-blog-currentevents-blog]

Blog Post #4

December 5, 2017

https://globalvoices.org/2017/11/11/toxic-smog-in-new-delhi-leaves-residents-coughing-and-demanding-action/

In New Delhi, India there is a massive problem with toxic smog that is not only plaguing Delhi, but much of Northern India as well. The World Health Organization has now named New Delhi the World’s most polluted mega city. Doctors are saying that in the last 2 years half of their lung cancer patients have been non-smokers. People are getting lung cancer in their 40′s and even their 30′s from not even smoking. Many people are developing respiratory illness and because of the air quality this is very dangerous. People all over Delhi are wearing masks to try and protect themselves, many are developing coughs or asthma, and many are afraid of catching a respiratory illness in fear that it will get worse because of the terrible air quality. The main causes of the smog are the factory and vehicle emissions, the amount of people living in a smaller area, road dust, and farmers burning their crops and the wind blowing it into the city. Many people are attempting to leave in fear for their health and because of this plane ticket prices have skyrocketed. For many people this is terrifying. They are in fear of getting very sick or dying from the air quality, the young and the old are especially vulnerable, as well as people with respiratory illnesses. In class, we learned about how when many people live in a smaller area that can greatly affect the air quality, especially when they have no environmental regulations like Canada does. This not only affects peoples health now it causes hospitals to get busier and as I talked about in my previous blog post, many rural hospitals are not capable of taking care of people. The environment is something that is often overlooked by people, but is is our lifeline in the long run. The government of Delhi hasn’t responded to the people’s outcries, how long will they wait? Till people are dying and hospitals are filled with sick, possibly un treatable people? Till healthcare professionals get sick and can no longer care for the public? This is an issue that should be addressed now as it affects every single persons health and their overall life, when will the lives of people stop being overlooked? Below I have attached a picture of the smog in New Delhi. *Information from the website at the top of the blog, all images from google images.*

[kendras-blog-currentevents-blog]

Blog Post #3

December 5, 2017

https://globalvoices.org/2017/11/15/women-die-in-childbirth-in-rural-india-where-hospitals-lack-doctors/

Rural areas in India are struggling because of doctors only wanting to work in the cities. This has resulted in many maternal and infant deaths, which is what the article focuses on specifically. It follows multiple different cases and examples of people being failed by their healthcare systems. Many times ambulances can take an hour or more to come. People are getting transferred from hospital to hospital to hospital while in labor, during birth or after giving birth. Women are being sent home by nurses from the hospital, being told that they aren’t in labor and they should go home, only for them to go home and find out they were in labor the whole time. India has been working to decrease their maternal death rate but still about 5 women die every hour in India from complications to do with childbirth. “As of March 2015, 8 percent of India’s 25,300 primary health centers had no doctor. More than 80 percent of community health care centers, where specialists practice, had no surgeons; 76 percent had no obstetricians and gynecologists, and 82 percent had no pediatricians.” This is a very scary stat for anyone to read, but especially for those in India. We cannot control where we are born. And most people cannot just easily immigrate to another country, education level, income, family, friends, all of it is taken into consideration. Many times someone can Masters degree or PhD in somewhere like India, but then they come to Canada and only have the equivalent to a Bachelors if they’re lucky. This can be very challenging and frustrating for many, so people don’t have the money or aren’t approved to move to a different country. No one parent should have to go through losing a child, and no child should have to go through losing a parent especially when it could be completely preventable. This is a case of someones government failing them. In India they built a beautiful new hospital with air conditioning and state of the art equipment, but it is not being used because there are no doctors and nurses to work there. I think India should make incentives for doctors to persuade them to work in rural hospitals and try to improve ambulance times. Building more health care centers in between would also help. But, the professionals who are trained are what is needed most.Below I have posted an image of what a rural hospital in India looks like. *Information taken from the website at the top of the blog, all images from google images.*

[kendras-blog-currentevents-blog]

Blog Post #2

December 5, 2017

https://globalvoices.org/2017/11/26/a-students-suicide-prompts-demands-for-higher-education-reform-in-afghanistan/

In Afghanistan, a 25 year old female student named Zahra Khawari at Kabul University recently committed suicide after her thesis, the only thing that she had to complete before being able to graduate her veterinary medicine program, was rejected for the third time by her instructor. According to her roommate she had revised and changed the whole topic each time and had spent a lot of her own personal money on the project. Since Zahra came from a poor farming family she had no more money left to redo her thesis for a fourth time and felt the pressures and committed suicide as a result of this. Many of her peers and friends believe that her instructor was being discriminatory based on her race and gender, and the fact that the Kabul University is in great need of a reform. In the article a current instructor stated how there are many bad people within the university and when they commit a crime, such as raping their students, they are bribed and made to keep quiet. Another injustice in this specific situation is that the head of the dorms would not approve for an ambulance to be called for Zahra after she poisoned herself, claiming they needed to see her residency card. Zahra wasn’t taken to the hospital until her aunt finally showed up to drive her there, and by this time it was too late. In our Country Analysis project my group researched Afghanistan and the one thing I talked about in our presentation was the broken education system and, how girls are treated in Afghanistan. Reading this article, knowing a little bit of background information made me sad because Afghanistan claimed that in the last ten years they have been revising their educational system and attempting to hire better instructors. But in the real world, as described in the article, many instructors are manipulative and discriminatory. Suicide is a topic that I feel strongly about as I have had people in my life commit suicide, and people in my life with mental illness. No one should have to go through tent times more work because of what gender their biological body parts say they are. Our world could all use this as a lesson to stand up to institutions that are mistreating their students. And for anyone who is too afraid to speak up for someones injustices that they are seeing, speak up someone will always listen because you might save someones life by doing so. To me it is very sad to see a young girl who had gone through so much education in order to help animals, which were her passion, is now dead because her educational system, her culture, and her country failed her. *information from website at the top of the blog, pictures from google images, bottom picture was taken at Kabul University*

[kendras-blog-currentevents-blog]

Blog Post #1

December 1, 2017

https://globalvoices.org/2017/11/28/after-10-years-of-legal-battles-mozambiques-only-lgbt-organization-takes-a-step-closer-to-legal-recognition/

In Mozambiques, Africa a group of LGBTQ+ people and supporters of them are finally closer to being recognized as a group in their country. They have been trying for 10 years to be recognized as a group by their country and even though they aren’t fully recognized now, they at least aren’t illegal and have a chance of being recognized. To me, this is such an amazing feat for the LGBTQ+ community not only in Mozambiques, but all over the world. This is something I have always thought strongly about because how can someone be punished, tortured, killed or had their sexual orientation be made illegal? We cannot control who we love and are attracted to. And, while the United States has come a long way since 2015 when the supreme court ruled same sex marriage to be legal in all states in America. There are still many places where people are being tortured and brutally killed for the way they were born, or for sticking up for someone who is not heterosexual, or has a different gender identity. For example, the article states that in Sudan, parts of Nigeria and Somalia, homosexuality is punishable by death. And in other places in Africa it is punishable by a life of imprisonment. Many people in the LGBTQ+ community in Africa will face discrimination in the healthcare system. Reading this broke my heart. How can someone take someones health or even their life away from them because of who they love? In healthcare we have to be non biased and every individual deserves equal treatment. Can you imagine going into a hospital with a severe burn or cut and being told that they can’t treat you because of your sexuality. A lot of these people don’t even have families to go to because their families have disowned them. In my lifetime, I wish to see the end to the hate of gay, lesbian, bisexual, pan sexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual and every other single thing that someone chooses to identify as, that affects only them. *Website used is at the top of the blog, image of children jumping is from the webpage, African pride one is from google images.*