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haakhai · 1 year ago

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Kashmiri students at DB University share ordeal of their struggle for justice

A sit-in protest outside Punjab’s Desh Bhagat University was called off after receiving assurance from the government of Punjab to take action against the management, accused of cheating dozens of Kashmiri students.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Man directed DBU to pay Rs 10 lakh to each enrolled student as compensation for the trauma they have caused them and for the dislocation they will have to face and further stated that the DBU will not enrol any students in any courses onwards.

For about a month, nursing students at DBU have been protesting against the university administration’s arbitrary decision to transfer their admissions to a college that lacks approval from the INC and PNRC and are demanding enrollment in a registered college immediately.

According to the students, they say they are voicing their concerns, but no response has come from the university side.

“We have been cheated by the university. We are stressed and traumatised. We did not know that the university would transfer us to a college that would not be registered. We are just demanding enrollment in a registered college, and we do not want our careers to be affected by the fault of the university,” Heena Azad (name changed), a third-year BSc Nursing student told Maktoob

The DBU has transferred around 70 Kashmiri students enrolled in various paramedical courses to a newly established college, the Sardar Lal Singh Memorial College, without their consent. This unilateral move by the university has been ongoing since last year when around 500 students from Jammu and Kashmir found themselves embroiled in a distressing admission debacle.

“We have been continuously raising our voices against the unjust decision of the university. This is not the first time we have protested here or raised our concerns. It has been happening since last year when we came to know that the college where we were transferred is not approved under the Indian Nursing Council (INC) and Punjab Nurses Registration Council (PNRC),” says Azad.

On September 14, at around 4 a.m., these students gathered near the gate of the university after learning there was a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) visit. According to the students, they wanted to highlight their concerns but were met with violence.

The students claim that the university staff mocked them while they were planning to hold a peaceful protest and even abused and said numerous things to them.

Fatima Nasir (name changed), who was among the protesting students, says, “We were subjected to violence and assaults; we were thrashed brutally by the university staff, including the vice chancellor; lathi charges were done by the Punjab police and even local goons were called by the university to hackle us”.

“Our clothes were torn. We are Muslims and our hijabs were forcefully pulled from our heads. We were abused and character assassinated. We were given life threats by the university staff,” Nasir said.

The students, mostly females, received injuries and were shifted to the nearby hospital.

According to the students, in the 2020 academic session, they were enrolled in various four-year paramedical courses at the DBU while following the proper admission process. The students claimed that during the start of their first year, classes and clinical training were conducted for both male and female students together. However, after the completion of the first-year exams, the students were informed that the university administration had decided to separate the female students from that batch and transfer them to another college, the Sardar Lal Singh Memorial College.

The decision was made without considering or asking for the consent of the students or their parents.

While posing questions about segregation, the students claimed that the university administration lied to them, saying, “It is just a division of sections, not the institutions”. To which the student says, “The college to which these students were transferred was not included in the INC’s suitability list for the 2020 session, leaving the students frustrated and cheated”.

Seeking answers to their grievances, the students approached the university administration in 2021, which had promised recognition from the INC, but so far nothing has happened or changed for these students.

According to these students, the university established Sardar Lal Singh Memorial College in 2022 and transferred all the female students from their batch except two who fell under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSS). Later on, the university administration changed the student records from the original university to the newly established and prepared new admission files without informing the students, even though they had forged their signatures.

Being frustrated and wronged, students began a four-day protest last year, seeking a solution, and the university remained unresponsive until an FIR was filed by the students involving the Punjab police and Sub-District Magistrate Amloh. In response, the university then presented documents prepared by the DBU administration itself, including INC registration, PNRC registration, and college IDs, which the students claimed were “fake documents” and were presented to safeguard the reputation of the university and hide the loopholes in the system.

Refuting the claims of the university, these students stated that at that time, they were threatened by saying “Their degrees would be delayed, and if their parents came, they would misguide them and tarnish their characters in front of them”.

Another student says, “When we were asking the university administration to enrol us in the registered colleges or what the status of the INC was, they used to character assassinate us, saying, “This time you are demanding this; next time you will say we want boys in our hostel, then we would have to fulfil your that demand also.” We do not understand how a person says that and labels us with anything.”

The students say that we have been facing injustice all these years, and now we have sat on a peaceful protest until our demands are not fulfilled.

Last year, the university administration assured the students that the issue would be resolved. Unfortunately, despite these promises, the students’ predicament has worsened over time. They are currently in their third year of academics and have been informed by the DBU administration that they must cancel their admissions. This announcement has left the students with limited options and a bleak academic future.

The situation has become unbearable for us, and we are thrown into chaos, and our vows are going to deaf ears, the students unanimously said.

According to the students, 20 days ago, they visited the director of the university seeking clarification over the status of the recognition of the newly established college by the INC. In response to the students, he furiously replied, “The students should take the refund and return home“.

Duped by the university, the students claimed that the university had admitted around 140 students, a number far exceeding the approved intake capacity, which typically ranges from 40 to 60 students. Now, these students are facing a situation in which abandoning the degree seems like a viable option.

Meanwhile, the students claim that the university disregarded the prescribed seat allocation by the INC, which had designated only 100 seats for their nursing courses. Despite the continuous raising of their concerns regarding the admission of additional students, the university staff dismissed the matter, asserting that it was merely a minor concern and fell within the purview of the university’s management.

During the recent protest on September 14, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against 16 Kashmiri students for their only fault, as they were protesting against fraud committed by the university by making them study in an unregistered college, which falls under the umbrella of DBU but lacks approval by the INC and PNRC.

Earlier, the students were assured that the FIRs would be cancelled against them, but according to the students, “There is no official notice that claims it and the FIRs are still pending in the police station against them”.

Jammu and Kashmir Police have filed an FIR against the university for doing fraud with these students. The families of these Kashmiri students also staged a protest in Srinagar’s press colony, seeking justice for their children who are enduring wrath in Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab.

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voiceofbangus · 2 years ago

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SKUAST-K training students on Quality Management at SP College Srinagar

Srinagar 15 Feb 2023: One week Existing-MDP Training Programme on the “Total Quality Management Practices for SME’s” sponsored by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises organised by the School of AE & HBM in collaboration with SP College, w.e.f Feb, 15-21, 2023 under SKUAST-kashmir Innovation, Incubation & Entrepeneurship (SKIIE) was inaugurated on Feb 15, 2023 in Auditorium of SP college.

Prof. Haroon R. Naik Director, P & M; Prof. Khursid Ahmad Khan (principal, SP college), and other faculty members of SKUAST-Kashmir & SP College were special guests on the occasion. At the outset Dr. Omar Fayaz Khan, Asst. Prof. and Programme Coordinator, School of Agricultural Economics and Horti-Business Management, SKUAST-K gave a formal welcome address to the Chief guest and Guest of honour, faculty and students.

Prof. Khursid Ahmad Khan (principal, SP college), talked about the work done by SP college for incubation and startups. He stressed the need for creating more synergies in the educational ecosystem for skilling of the youth. Dr Shabana, Provided a brief account of the work done by their Incubation centre

Dr. F.A.Shaheen, Programme Organizeer, School of Agricultural Economics and Horti-Business Management, SKUAST-K talked about the change in the ecosystem of education system towards skill based in order to usher for self-employment. Further, he deliberated about the relevance of the TQM in present day time

Prof. Haroon R. Naik, Director, Planning & Monitoring highlighted the need for skilling of the youth in the contemporary times where students have access to knowledge base and is no longer dependent on teacher. He discussed the role of SKUAST-K a major institute of excellence and pioneer in adopting NEP 2020. He welcomed innovative ideas from students for handholding and incubation by SKUAST-kashmir.

The session concluded with the vote of thanks by Dr. Omar Fayaz Khan, Programme coordinator.

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internationalnewz · 2 years ago

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'No time to die': India's crackdown on Kashmir rebel's funerals

Mukhtar is among hundreds of militants killed in combat and hastily interred by police in remote parts of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region home to a long insurgency.

WADDUR: Three weeks after he laid down his tools and took up arms, Kashmiri carpenter Mukhtar Ahmed was killed in a firefight with Indian government forces, who buried his remains in an unmarked grave hour from his family home.

Mukhtar is among hundreds of militants killed in combat and hastily interred by police in remote parts of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region home to a long insurgency.

Officials have justified the policy by saying it aims to stop "glamourising terrorists" during often violent anti-India demonstrations that accompany the public funerals of dead rebels.

But these "martyrs' graveyards", as they are known locally, have traumatised the families of slain young men and outraged Kashmiris chafing under a broader clampdown on dissent.

Police brought Mukhtar's body to a compound in the city of Srinagar after shooting the 25-year-old dead in October. It was shown to his family there for identification.

"We pleaded for the body to be given over to us," brother-in-law Bilal Ahmed told AFP.

"But they refused, loaded it onto an armoured vehicle and drove away without even telling us where they were going to bury it."

Bilal and other relatives followed the vehicle until it stopped at the small village of Waddur, witnessing a hurried burial just before sunset with nothing to mark the spot.

A modest slate headstone now sits above Mukhtar's remains, erected by relatives and decorated with artificial flowers.

The remote forested area, one of at least five sites used to bury militants far from population centres, has become a place of pilgrimage for the loved ones of slain militants.

Some visitors make video calls from their phones to relatives unable to afford trips there or too anxious about the army checkpoints along the journey.

Mukhtar's family is weighing whether to uproot themselves and resettle in the mountains near his resting place.

"I can hardly spend two weeks at home without needing to visit," his father Nazir Koka told AFP. "Beg or borrow, I have to travel here often."

Armed revolt

Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since both countries achieved independence 75 years ago. Both sides claim the territory in full.

India has accused Pakistan of training and supporting militants there, which Islamabad denies.

The portion controlled by India has for decades been the site of an armed revolt by rebels seeking independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and Kashmiri rebels have been killed in the conflict.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has clamped down on dissent since a snap 2019 decision to rescind the territory's limited autonomy under India's constitution.

Authorities have imposed severe curbs on media freedoms and public protests in an effort to stifle dissent.

The death toll has fallen since but young men continue to join the insurgency.

Mukhtar is one of at least 580 suspected rebels killed in confrontations with Indian forces and whose bodies were then denied to their families for proper funerals since April 2020, official records show.

The practice began at a time of government protocols banning mass gatherings at burials to avoid the spread of coronavirus infections but has continued even after other pandemic-spurred restrictions ended.

Huge crowds used to throng militant funerals before the ban and shout slogans demanding Kashmir's independence, sometimes clashing with security forces and causing deaths and injuries on both sides.

Officials say separatist fighters exploited those gatherings to recruit more men into their ranks and inflame anti-Indian sentiment.

"We have not only stopped the spread of Covid infection but also stopped glamourising terrorists and avoided potential law and order problems," Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar said of the policy in a 2020 interview with The Hindu newspaper.

Kanchan Gupta of India's information ministry told AFP the implementation of policies to maintain law and order was a matter for local authorities and security forces in Kashmir.

'Pray quickly and leave'

Legal experts say the effective ban on funeral gatherings is unlawful.

"It's a disproportionate response to the state's concerns and carries a flavour of collective punishment," a lawyer in Srinagar told AFP on condition of anonymity, fearing government reprisal.

Security forces have exhumed at least five bodies from the remote gravesites and returned them to families after investigations found they were not insurgents.

The remains of three labourers were removed and reburied after family protests prompted the army to concede that the men, killed during a July 2020 firefight, were not "terrorists" that had returned fire during a shootout.

Authorities have sought to stop commemorations of the dead at some gravesites.

Some families have marked the resting places of their relatives only to return and find that headstones had been removed. Others are told not to linger at the graves.

Ghulam Nabi Lone regularly travels 150 kilometres (90 miles) to visit the forest where his son was buried by security forces after being killed in a shootout last year.

"Police don't allow us to spend enough time at my child's grave when we manage to go there," Lone told AFP at his home.

"They order us to 'just pray quickly and leave'."

#Kashmir #India

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kashmironlinenews · 3 years ago

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Kashmir New Train Timings 2022 | Latest Time Table 2022

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 4 years ago

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The Journals Of Derek Grady Part 1

This is a story set within my Bioshock Rebirth AU. A reimaging/reboot of the Bioshock franchise. https://geekgemsspookyblog.tumblr.com/post/626141727587270656/bioshock-rebirth-timeline-this-is-a-timeline-of-an Just as a heads up if anyone is wondering about the context. I’ve had some stories in my drafts for a long time now and I’m finally publicly sharing them.

I made a post talking about this. There is this character named Derek that was in one of my pilot stories for this AU. But I felt strangely ashamed of how I wrote him. But I’d feel it’s best to use him in better context. In something very intriguing. Mainly the point of view of the Rapture Civil War from someone who fought in it.

There is this silly theme of certain characters being named Derek in some AU’s of mine. Usual they are men that seem well intentioned, but their mind isn’t always in the best place. I’m just gonna make this because this is something I wanna make.

This was first started/made on December 23rd 2020. I’m not gonna have this beta read. It’s time I just upload this shit. I got the two tags done with. But I would like to mention I was heavily or so inspired by the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic story. Especially with the first journal from this character being inspired by the, “Knightfall” level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lgG2ENW5Ac Spoilers ahead.

12/31/2001. The attack on the Kashmir restuarant.

I was a young kid when I first arrived in Rapture. I was naïve like many others. Many of used to believe in Andrew Ryan’s so called, “Great Chain”, until things started to fall apart. Especially after the death of scumbag Frank Fontaine. I find it funny he tried to put on a nice guy act whenever he met someone new or when he was in public, but I’ve heard the stories. The stories of the type of man he was.

But after Ryan nationalized Fontaine Futuristics in January 1999, a lot of people weren’t happy. It was surprising how long it took something to happen. So much dividing of social classes, so much shit that had happened during those years. What was gonna happen tonight would change everything forever...

I’ve been on Atlas’s crew of bandits since July. I felt joining Atlas was the best decision I made in my entire life. Because I felt I fighting for the right thing, a good cause. But what Atlas had planned sounded to me almost like terrorism.

Yet when I thought about it, I really thought hard to myself. After everything we’ve suffered, how Ryan started to push everyone away, how he tried keep himself in power. Even though Rapture was supposed to be the perfect paradise...Andrew Ryan, Brigid Tenenbaum, Augustus Sinclair, Sander Cohen, Yi Suchong, Sofia Lamb, and so many others...how they treated us.

First it was just riots, but now it was time for Ryan and everyone who supported him knew what we were. What we stood for. They were gonna find out we weren’t some bandits who kidnapped some rich assholes to get payback or robin hood archetypes helping poor folks.

There was no more talk for peace. Because Ryan never gave a damn...he never did.

1/31/2002. The Civil War starting. Apollo Square. Atlas and crew.

It’s been a month since we launched an attack on Kashmir. Things started to really change because the war for this city finally had truly begun. I have never been in war, but with the skills I’ve learned from Atlas and Daisy. I’d felt I was ready, because I needed to be. Not many of us were actual soldiers. But that didn’t matter to us. We knew what had to be done.

But we didn’t knew that Ryan would try to make Apollo Square a prison camp. Yet that didn’t matter, when those so called security officers first started to set people ablaze when they tried escaping. We shot any who would tried to do such things again. When they were hanging people, we fought back because we got tired of their bullshit. We didn’t fuck around. I felt proud when I shot one of those damn officers in the head.

Apollo Square was practically our paradise. Sure Ryan’s army kept trying to get in, yet we always defended it. Yet even without Ryan, we still had others to worry about.

I feel pretty damn grateful a lot of our weapons were smuggled from the surface. We kept some of the weapons Ryan’s men had as well.

But I think what I felt more grateful was our leaders. Daisy Fitzroy was practically Atlas’s 2nd in command. She was a tough woman, she didn’t take shit. Considering she worked for that weird kinky lady known as Ava Tate, I can’t blame her becoming that. She’s one of the bravest and smartest women I’ve fought with. I’m surprised she didn’t form our rebellion first.

Bill was lucky enough to be convinced by Atlas to join us after he resigned from the council. But Bill was like us. Even though he believed in Rapture, he was just an old man who wanted the best for people. I found that admirable of him. I also think he’s grateful we hid his ass after he left Ryan. Considering how Ryan gets upset with whoever betrays him, he’d rather want them dead...yet that might of been different considering he was best friends with Ryan himself.

Diane was new, she was a hostage once with Julie Langford. But when Ryan never paid her ransom and practically didn’t care for her. But I do think she noticed those Jasmine Jolene posters throughout the city, making Ryan’s betrayal seemingly more worse. She originally came to Apollo Square to yell at us of how we possibly ruined her life. But when she saw the shit we were going through, she soon understood even more of the situation. Especially when we heard it wasn’t made better when hearing Ryan’s thoughts on people like us.

She joined us rather quickly, she was like Bill in a way. Diane was honestly a kind woman, it always felt nice to have more supporters. I do find it surprising from what I’ve seen that her and Daisy seemed to have developed a thing. Yet I found it surprisingly adorable...mainly because it was so strange to see Daisy seem soft to another person. But I think it gave the ladies more of a reason to keep fighting on.

But Atlas...he was something else. There was a reason people followed him. I followed him for plenty of good reasons. He seemed like a action hero you see out of those films from Hollywood. But I have never met a man so kind, yet so humble. He was the best of us...or that’s what I thought. You can have a good laugh with him too while having a drink. The man had a family, but he didn’t spoke of them much to keep them safe. I also remember hearing he was a captain in the Irish army. Which gave us an advantage in some ways over Ryan’s men.

He was the perfect anti-thesis to Andrew Ryan. Atlas was someone many genuinely respected and loved. Men wanted to be him, women loved him. To me and others. He wasn’t just a friend. Atlas was sometimes like a brother, or even a father.

Sure he wasn’t perfect and did some questionable things. But we knew it was for the best. Atlas is our best shot at winning this war. And I’m proud to fighting side by side with him, no matter what.

2/1/2002. Johnny Topside.

I never met the man, but Atlas knew him only for a year. The way he talked about Johnny. I’ve heard stories of him, well that’s because Atlas didn’t want his memory to die. Atlas said Johnny Topside was a diver who had discovered Rapture years ago and for sometime was forced to live in Rapture until he finally had enough.

Johnny Topside was the start of our rebellion. He was the one that planted the seeds. Johnny was the first to stand up to Ryan, but it resulted in tragedy. No one knows fully what happened to him. But Atlas said Ryan had tried to erase Johnny’s memory from history, and that it was very likely he may of been turned into...a Big Daddy...the idea of that horrifies me.

When Atlas spoke of him, he spoke of him so highly. Saying that Johnny was like a younger brother to him. You could of even seen at times Atlas nearly choked up when talking about him. I can’t blame him, losing someone that was like a brother to him. I’ve would of been nearly tearing up.

The story of Johnny Topside was something that kept us going, it inspired us. Hell, it even inspired me. Atlas didn’t want his memory to die, because what he was doing wasn’t just for everyone. But it was also justice for Johnny...justice for everyone that had enough of Ryan.

My only disappointment is that I never got to meet Johnny...because when Atlas says he’d would rather had him lead us...that says a helluva lot about Topside.

2/3/2002. Booker Dewitt and Ryan’s personal guard.

I’ve heard the stories of Dewitt...he merely sounded like a ghost. But he wasn’t. This was the man that shot down Fontaine, and most likely helped captured Johnny Topside.

Captain Dewitt was known to the citizens as, “The Grim Reaper Of Rapture” and he damn well earned it. But he was also Ryan’s new best friend after Bill left. Dewitt kept Ryan’s enemies in check. Whether by killing them when no one was looking, or capturing them.

Security was fine, but Ryan’s personal guard and when Dewitt was leading them...that was scary. I think what scared us rebels was whenever he showed up. He always wore that mask...which gave him more of a reason to call him a grim reaper...because he damn sure was.

Ryan’s personal guard weren’t just police officers enforcing Ryan’s rule, they were literal soldiers. They were formed when Johnny Topside had discovered Rapture. The guard was basically a better version of security.

They were made up of men who either genuinely believed in the, “Great Chain” or just were looking to be paid by Ryan. Some of them were ex soldiers, mercenaries, and they were all just horrible people.

The guard weren’t pushovers, they had years of experience or training by Dewitt. They were merciless, brutal, and effective. The fact Ryan had now decided to use them even more now showcased he truly wasn’t fucking around anymore. He wanted to win this war. But we weren’t gonna let that happen.

I think we were just thankful they didn’t really use Plasmids...if they did...then I felt this war may be over already. But it also gives us a easier chance to kill them all.

2/15/2002. Splicers.

Over the years since ADAM was discovered. Splicers became thing. Poor folks who used too spliced too much...they were once people...but they were sadly monsters now. I think what surprised us is how some of them were on our side...but not many. Unless they controlled themselves.

The Splicers of many types were a pain in the ass for Ryan and Atlas. Killing the rebels or Ryan’s personal guard. They had no allegiance...all they wanted was ADAM...they were basically drug addicts. I remember seeing one time a woman shanking a man for his ADAM, we had to put her down.

I didn’t really use Plasmids much, or some of the others like Atlas, Daisy, Diane, and Bill. It seemed good for Atlas that some of the rebels didn’t try to splice up. Which meant we can deal with less people turning into those...things.

There was one time I had to put down one of them. The man was just 21, but he had spliced up so much that he had gone insane. He tried attacking Daisy and Diane, but me and Daisy took him down shot him in the chest. But he was still breathing.

...I shot him in the head...I hesitated at first for about five seconds...he was younger than me. I wanted to make his death as quick and painless...it gave me a haunting reminder of why we were still fighting. All this pain and suffering...it started with the discover of that damn thing called ADAM...

I’m surprised I haven’t spoken about Tenenbaum yet...I feel like she was 2nd in place for me to kill after Ryan.

3/15/2002. Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and Brigid Tenenbaum.

I think the other thing that haunts me a lot and so many others is these two...I’ve seen them countless times and I have fought them when I joined Atlas.

Big Daddies are practically these...monsters that used to be people...slaves to protect what were once literal children...

These monsters looked like literal giant diving suits at times...some had drills, some had guns. They were tough sons of bitches. These things could kill a man easily, or even a group of a men if you weren’t careful.

But it’s the Little Sisters that horrify me and other rebels...not because they are dangerous or that they are killers. It’s the fact of what they are. They were children...or possibly still are...forced to collect ADAM because they were implanted with some...damn sea slug Tenenbaum discovered...

There is no known cure for them. I think many of us want a cure. But the only way to help these girls is something horrific...harvesting them. Atlas said it was to put them out of their misery. They had ADAM in them.

From what I’ve seen, some rebels harvested them, some didn’t. Daisy didn’t do it. Neither did Diane or Bill. I remember seeing Atlas making the most sickened face after harvesting one, he didn’t enjoy it at all.

I think it may of bothered Atlas some didn’t harvest them...but it’s understandable why some wouldn’t. Because I remember seeing one 37 year old man, after he had harvested just one Little Sister. The man about 5 minutes later literally put a pistol under his jaw and killed himself.

We all understood why he even did that. Because after you witness a child being horrified by you about to harvest them...it’s a sight you’re never going to forget.

I can still hear those girls screaming. Daisy and Diane do too...it’s in our nightmares. For some reason...the harvesting of a Little Sister scars me than seeing a Splicer or whatever else...I don’t know why...I think it’s because all that innocence was lost...or actually taken. Because there was no other way to help them.

It was all because of one woman, Brigid Tenenbaum. I heard she worked with Frank Fontaine to help make those girls into what they are. I’ve heard she’s had a hard life, but that doesn’t excuse what I find one of the most horrific crimes I’ve ever seen. She’s been in hiding for 4 years after being exposed for what she did.

If we ever find Tenenbaum...I want to put my foot on her throat...whatever what we want to do to her. To be honest, I think I want to kill her more than Ryan...because I don’t know how you can be forgiven for doing that to a child.

God forgives, and whenever I have to put down a fellow rebel because they spliced up too much, I make it quick and painless as possible...but Tenenbaum...quick and painless is not gonna mean anything if we ever find her.

6/3/2002. SOS and Archie Wynand.

After six months of war with Ryan’s personal guard and the Splicers. Whether some were controlled or not...things were going south for us. We fought hard, we planned as best as we could. But nothing was working, because Ryan was nearly winning.

There was panic among us, we were fearing that all of this could be for nothing. But Atlas revealed something, which he said was a risk in case. He somehow gave an SOS message to the surface to whoever would get it. Because he knew we weren’t gonna win this on our own anymore. We needed help, we needed the surface to discover Rapture. But also, we needed someone to help us take down Ryan. It was on Sunday Atlas gave out the message for help. We prayed someone would answer it. Luckily for us, someone did answer it.

Despite his aircraft was shot down by Ryan, and being the only survivor of his squad. Someone had arrived. That someone was a young man named Sergeant Archie Wynand. An Army Ranger sent by the US Government to discover where the SOS came from.

To be honest, I was worried by the fact only one man had survived. I’d feared we still didn’t stand a chance. But after I saw that man enter combat and killed so many Splicers, I have never seen a man fought hard like that. He was still young like me, but he was like a commando in his way. It was as if someone like Atlas again had come to save us.

Me and him never really talked, but from what I’ve seen. That man is the bravest soul I’ve ever seen. He’s loyal to a fault and unbreakable, it was like seeing a warrior unlike any other. I will admit, I felt a bit jealous when Atlas has giving him a lot more attention than me.

But Archie was important. Atlas sent him commands and he followed through. But I think what confused me the most was something Atlas had revealed earlier. Which resulted in ordering Archie to go to a certain building, a tower in the middle of Rapture.

6/4/2002. Elizabeth.

A day before Archie had arrived. There was this strange new information Atlas had discovered. That there was some girl in this tower in Rapture. Her name was Elizabeth. Atlas had discovered it when raiding a building near that tower.

We were so confused on why Ryan had a girl in this tower. In fact? Why was she there? Who was she really? Even Atlas was confused, but she seemed important.

But I feel our questions were answered when Archie saved her. I didn’t get to talk to her personally, but I have seen her in action with my own eyes. Along with some footage.

Somehow, this young girl had some powers of an unknown source. She was able to summon old sentries, and other things. It felt unnatural. Sure the Plasmids and other discoveries in Rapture were very special...but what this girl could do...it made us question even more who the hell she was and why Ryan had her locked away.

Gonna admit though, she was honestly adorable.

6/5/2002. Elizabeth’s purpose, and what the Hell is Archie? What the Hell is going on?

I think it horrified me and the rebels of what Elizabeth was supposed to be. Why she was kept secret from Rapture. What Atlas had discovered more is that she was secretly a weapon Ryan would use in case against someone like us. A sleeper agent that would of slipped through our ranks or anyone else...almost like a female fatale Ryan wanted to make personally...it confused me because from what I’ve seen, she’s nothing like that.

But I think we surprised us more is that she had been in Rapture since 1983. For about 19 years, Ryan had her in there, with hardly anyone knowing. I think it sickened me a bit more hearing Ryan was gonna use a young woman as a secret weapon in case someone like Atlas came along. It was almost like what happened with the Little Sisters.

Yet the other thing that’s been on my mind is Archie. I’ve talked about how much of a warrior he was. Ever since he rescued Elizabeth, she’s been by his side ever since. I haven’t seen such a effective team. It was like they were perfect for each other.

But again, it’s Archie that has me thinking. Sure he’s a soldier...but compared to any of us...and even compared to Ryan’s personal guard. I have never seen a man be so efficient in what he does. This was a young man, yet he fought like he was like some sort of super soldier. Hell, I don’t even think Atlas and Daisy are that efficient. He’s fast and strong.

He was also using so many Plasmids without mutating. I couldn’t get it? He wasn’t becoming spliced up. I couldn’t believe it? I had lost count of how many times he injected a Eve Hypo into his wrists.

I think the scary part is how many Big Daddies he’s killed...how can one man kill so many. I didn’t understand it? But from what I’ve seen from footage is...him curing the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it.

Where were he and Elizabeth staying at? I heard Atlas yesterday say they were at Tenenbaum’s...I couldn’t understand...I’m confused...

6/5/2002 A bigger Big Daddy.

I didn’t understand nor could I comprehend what I had witnessed. Ever since Archie arrived...things were changing. What made me think this way was when I saw...something I didn’t think was possible.

Out of all the Big Daddies we’ve killed. I had never seen one so big. He was about 12 feet tell...he looked older than any of the Big Daddies. He looked similar to the Alpha series Big Daddies...I couldn’t understand. I was lucky to have lived, but I witness it killed so many rebels, Splicers, and Ryan’s army. This Big Daddy was vicious. It seemed like he was on a mission. As if he was tracking down Elizabeth.

I’m just in disbelief...I don’t understand.

I was a witness also to see Elizabeth teleport it somewhere...I think it’s dead...I’m not sure.

6/6/2002. The war soon coming to an end.

To be honest, I was fearing we may never win. But somehow we made it. Captain Dewitt was beaten yesterday, and now Ryan is soon to be dealt with.

I’ve learned from Atlas that Tenenbaum had created a cure for the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I asked him again if he was telling the truth, and he was. That’s why Archie and Elizabeth were staying with Tenenbaum somewhere.

It still sounded so crazy. But the next piece of news is that these three would be coming to Atlas’s headquarters, our base of operations. I couldn’t believe I was seeing Tenenbaum...I had...weird feelings.

The plans were while Archie and others went to Ryan’s office to finally take him down. There was hardly anyone left to defend him. While Elizabeth and Dr. Tenenbaum stayed at Atlas’s headquarters. It...an experience meeting this young girl...even after everything she’d been through, but so kind.

But I wasn’t gonna be staying for long either like Archie. Atlas sent me and some men to take over Fort Folic considering Archie and Elizabeth’s recent visit there. As if the freak that was Sander Cohen had finally left somewhere. It was no longer locked up.

I felt genuine hope for the first time. As if this whole nightmare will finally end. But I will admit, I wanted to kill Ryan as much as anybody else. I had my orders, and I listened. Besides, taking back Fort Folic was a huge win

I do recall Ryan playing golf at times. Hopefully when Archie gets to his office, he’ll beat the Walt Disney lookalike of a fuckhead with his own golf club. It’s what Ryan deserved...it’s what many of us wanted.

6/7/2002. Atlas...and the end...

...I don’t even know what to say...the war is over...it’s actually over...

But it didn’t end with Ryan dying or getting captured...

Atlas...our leader...my hero...my best friend...the anti-thesis to Ryan...was Frank Fontaine.

He’s dead...he was brutally hung...by Archie...his corpse is hanging for everyone to see...he...looks like half of a monster.

Everything we’ve done...everything we stood for...I feel betrayed, but I feel relived. I think others are feeling a similar way...I need no I want answers...

6/8/2002. The birth of the Vox Populi. Tenenbaum discovering these journals.

I think what happened on Thursday and Friday...changed so many of us...even myself...I thank Daisy and Diane for explaining it to me.

There was a huge meeting with the remaining rebels. Archie, Elizabeth, and Dr. Tenenbaum joined in as well. So many discussions were had. Rapture was finally ours...

While Splicers were still a thing, and some rich assholes were still around. Considering half of the city was still going, but we came together to formulate a plan.

There won’t be another Andrew Ryan, or even another Frank Fontaine. The end of the Rapture Civil War was only the beginning of something much better.

We weren’t just called rebels anymore, we were officially given a name now. The Vox Populi. It was Daisy’s idea for the name. We were basically the reformed version of Atlas’s rebellion. But now, we had genuine people who actually gave a damn. Who wouldn’t use us as puppets. That we will strive for a better tomorrow.

For peace, a better community. So we can help out every Little Sister we can find out there, and help whoever else is in Rapture. We’re gonna make this shithole of a city a better living place. No more tyrants, no more conmen, no more rulers, just people wanting to make this place a better place for everyone.

Justice, peace, and all that...I think many of us are still getting over what happened with Atlas...I’m still getting used to it...I’m just grateful it’s over.

But before this the huge meeting, Dr. Tenenbaum discovered my journals...she read what I wrote about her...our struggles. I apologized to her, but she said it’s okay. She said she doesn’t blame me for being angry. I think what surprised me more was the one person that her the most was herself...

For some odd reason, I forgave her...she just stared at me with surprise. She gave me a small smile...and then I said I think I could forgive her after everything she’s tried doing to fix her mistakes. Because I told her trying to fix your mistakes is better than doing nothing.

#bioshock rebirth #derek grady

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Thursday, May 6, 2021

Nearly 20 million more people hit by food crises last year (Reuters) Nearly 20 million more people faced food crises last year amid armed conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes, and the outlook for this year is again grim, according to a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises. The humanitarian agency, set up in 2016 by the European Union and United Nations, also warned that acute food insecurity has continued to worsen since 2017, the first year of its annual report into food crises. “We must do everything we can to end this vicious cycle. There is no place for famine and starvation in the 21st century,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He added that conflict and hunger need to be tackled jointly, as they reinforce one another. Defined as any lack of food that threatens lives, livelihoods or both, acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse impacted at least 155 million people last year, the highest number in the report’s five-year existence.

America’s new normal: A degree hotter than two decades ago (AP) America’s new normal temperature is a degree hotter than it was just two decades ago. Scientists have long talked about climate change—hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather—being the “new normal.” Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put hard figures on the cliché. The new United States normal is not just hotter, but wetter in the eastern and central parts of the nation and considerably drier in the West than just a decade earlier. “Almost every place in the U.S. has warmed from the 1981 to 2010 normal to the 1991 to 2020 normal,” said Michael Palecki, NOAA’s normals project manager.

Nature at its craziest: Trillions of cicadas about to emerge (AP) Sifting through a shovel load of dirt in a suburban backyard, Michael Raupp and Paula Shrewsbury find their quarry: a cicada nymph. And then another. And another. And four more. In maybe a third of a square foot of dirt, the University of Maryland entomologists find at least seven cicadas—a rate just shy of a million per acre. A nearby yard yielded a rate closer to 1.5 million. And there’s much more afoot. Trillions of the red-eyed black bugs are coming, scientists say. Within days, a couple weeks at most, the cicadas of Brood X (the X is the Roman numeral for 10) will emerge after 17 years underground. There are many broods of periodic cicadas that appear on rigid schedules in different years, but this is one of the largest and most noticeable. They’ll be in 15 states from Indiana to Georgia to New York; they’re coming out now in mass numbers in Tennessee and North Carolina. When the entire brood emerges, backyards can look like undulating waves, and the bug chorus is lawnmower loud.

Reuniting refugee families (Washington Post) President Biden began fulfilling a campaign promise Tuesday as U.S. authorities started to help to reunite a number of migrant families forcibly separated by the previous administration. President Donald Trump imposed a “zero tolerance” policy on those crossing the U.S. border illegally that led to myriad unauthorized migrants being rushed through criminal proceedings and deported while their children who had accompanied them remained in the United States. It was easier to track the children than their parents. In some instances, advocates had to post radio advertisements in Mexico and Central America. The reunions Tuesday would mark, Kevin Sieff wrote, “the start of a massive relocation of parents deported by one U.S. president and returned by another. In total, more than 1,000 families are expected to be reunited.”

The Little Nation That Could (Guardian) The island of Cuba is dealing with a pandemic while suffering its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The US trade embargo restricts the medical equipment the island can import; even so, of the 27 coronavirus vaccines in final stage testing around the world, two are Cuban. The UN has called on the US to lift sanctions on the island during the pandemic, but the embargo has actually toughened since the outgoing Trump administration put Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. “The US is trying to starve Cuba into submission,” said one of the doctors on the coronavirus taskforce. “It’s not only that it’s difficult to buy things directly from the US. It’s also that all these sanctions that the Trump administration put in place have dried up many sources of revenue.” Nevertheless, Cuban scientists are confident that widespread vaccination will be attained this year. “When you have everything, you don’t have to think so much.” said another scientist. “But when you have difficulties, you have to think up new ways to innovate.”

Years of Unheeded Warnings. Then the Subway Crash Mexico City Had Feared. (NYT) The capital had been bracing for the disaster for years. Ever since it opened nearly a decade ago, the newest Mexico City subway line—a heralded expansion of the second largest subway system in the Americas—had been plagued with structural weaknesses that led engineers to warn of potential accidents. Yet other than a brief, partial shutdown of the line in 2014, the warnings went unheeded by successive governments. On Monday night, the mounting problems turned fatal: A subway train on the Golden Line plunged about 50 feet after an overpass collapsed underneath it, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens more. The accident—and the government’s failure to act sooner to fix known problems with the line—immediately set off a political firestorm for three of the most powerful people in Mexico: the president and the two people widely believed to be front-runners to succeed him as leaders of the governing party and possibly, the country.

Brexit problems (Foreign Policy) France has threatened “retaliatory measures”—including cutting power to Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands—as tensions rise over fishing rights between Britain and France. Since the post-Brexit trade deal, French fishermen have been angered by delays in newly required licenses that have prevented them from accessing British waters—an area they say is necessary for their livelihoods.

Scottish independence 'front and center' in May 6 election (Washington Post) Scotland goes to the polls Thursday in a vote that could eventually lead to a truly historic event: the crackup of the United Kingdom. The independence movement has gained momentum in the wake of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit. And the pandemic has further encouraged the idea that Scotland might be better off going its own way, with policies determined in Edinburgh viewed more favorably by Scots than those pronounced at Westminster. As a result, the Scottish National Party, led by the popular First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, 50, is expected to perform well in Thursday’s vote for seats in the regional Parliament, with pro-independence parties winning a solid majority of the 129 seats in Holyrood. The talk shows, political magazines and news columns in Britain are full of speculation about a looming breakup. Since 2014, Scotland has voted overwhelmingly against Brexit, 62 percent to 38 percent. Many Scots then saw Johnson’s hard-split version of Brexit as an unnecessary affront. And since Britain left the European Union, Scotland has tallied more harms than benefits. The Scottish fishermen, for instance, say their industry is in crisis.

Belgian cyberattack (1440) Belgium was hit with a sweeping cyberattack yesterday, leaving its parliament, government agencies, universities, and other organizations without internet service for hours. The effort knocked out both websites and internal systems, including the country’s coronavirus vaccine registration portal. Hackers targeted the government’s service provider with a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack—a strategy that overwhelms networks with massive amounts of artificial internet traffic. Experts say such attacks are often meant to knock systems offline rather than steal information. It was unclear who was behind the attack. The incident highlights the growing ability of cybercriminals, either independent or state-affiliated, to strike unprepared governments and companies—some estimate cyberattacks will cost the global economy $6T in losses in 2021.

EU seeks rapid response military force, two decades after first try (Reuters) Fourteen European Union countries including Germany and France have proposed a rapid military response force that could intervene early in international crises, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, two decades after a previous attempt. The countries say the EU should create a brigade of 5,000 soldiers, possibly with ships and aircraft, to help democratic foreign governments needing urgent help, the official said. First discussed in 1999, the EU in 2007 set up a combat-ready system of battlegroups of 1,500 personnel to respond to crises, but they have never been used. Those battle groups could now form the basis of a so-called First Entry Force, part of a new momentum towards more EU defence capabilities. From this year, the bloc has a joint budget to develop weaponry together, is drawing up a military doctrine for 2022 and detailed its military weakness last year for the first time.

Staunch anti-India Kashmir politician dies in police custody (AP) A prominent politician in Kashmir who challenged India’s rule over the disputed region for decades died Wednesday while in police custody. Mohammed Ashraf Sehrai was 78. Sehrai’s son, Mujahid Sehrai, said his father was denied proper medical care while in jail. Sehrai was arrested last July under the Public Safety Act, which allows authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir to imprison anyone for up to two years without trial. All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main separatist grouping in Kashmir, said authorities had left Sehrai unattended in jail until his condition worsened. In a statement, it said it “deeply regrets this inhuman attitude of the authorities and is pained by it.” It also expressed concern about the health of hundreds of other Kashmiri political detainees as India faces a massive health crisis because of an explosion of coronavirus cases. Last week, the grouping said the prisoners were being denied “even basic amenities,” leading to “serious health problems among the prisoners.”

India’s COVID-19 surge spreads to Nepal (Reuters) Nepal is being overwhelmed by a COVID-19 surge as India’s outbreak spreads across South Asia, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Wednesday. Nepal is now recording 57 times as many cases as a month ago, with 44% of tests now coming back positive. Nepalese towns near the Indian border could not cope with the growing number of people needing treatment, while only 1% of the country’s population was fully vaccinated.

Myanmar’s military disappearing young men to crush uprising (AP) Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block. When the military’s trucks finally rolled away, Shwe’s 15-year-old brother was missing. Across the country, Myanmar’s security forces are arresting and forcibly disappearing thousands of people, especially boys and young men, in a sweeping bid to break the back of a three-month uprising against a military takeover. In most cases, the families of those taken do not know where they are, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than 3,500 arrests since February. It is a technique the military has long used to instill fear and to crush pro-democracy movements. The boys and young men are taken from homes, businesses and streets, under the cover of night and sometimes in the brightness of day. Some end up dead. Many are imprisoned and sometimes tortured. Many more are missing.

Turkey and Egypt on the mend (Foreign Policy) Representatives from Turkey and Egypt meet in Cairo today for “exploratory” discussions “on the necessary steps that may lead towards the normalization of relations” according to a joint statement. Relations between the two countries have frayed due to maritime border disputes, Libya’s civil war, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opposition to the 2013 coup which brought Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power. There were some signs of rapprochement in March, when the Turkish government directed Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated media channels in the country to refrain from criticizing the Egyptian president.

Why Nearsightedness Is on the Rise in Children (NYT) Look and you shall see: A generation of the real-life nearsighted Mr. Magoos is growing up before your eyes. A largely unrecognized epidemic of nearsightedness, or myopia, is afflicting the eyes of children. People with myopia can see close-up objects clearly, like the words on a page. But their distance vision is blurry, and correction with glasses or contact lenses is likely to be needed for activities like seeing the blackboard clearly, cycling, driving or recognizing faces down the block. The growing incidence of myopia is related to changes in children’s behavior, especially how little time they spend outdoors, often staring at screens indoors instead of enjoying activities illuminated by daylight. Gone are the days when most children played outside between the end of the school day and suppertime. And the devastating pandemic of the past year may be making matters worse. The prevalence of myopia in the United States increased from 25 percent in the early 1970s to nearly 42 percent just three decades later. And the rise in myopia is not limited to highly developed countries. The World Health Organization estimates that half the world’s population may be myopic by 2050.

#headlines #news

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hrvistas2020 · 4 years ago

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Chai pe Charcha

Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex and largely hostile due to a number of historical and political events. Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947 which started the Kashmir conflict, and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion.

Soon after gaining their independence, India and Pakistan established diplomatic relations, but the violent partition and reciprocal territorial claims quickly overshadowed their relationship. Since their independence, the two countries have fought three major wars, as well as one undeclared war, and have been involved in numerous armed skirmishes and military standoffs. The Kashmir conflict is the main centre-point of all of these conflicts with the exception of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Bangladesh Liberation War, which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

There have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship, notably the Shimla summit, the Agra summit, and the Lahore summit. Since the early 1980s, relations between the two nations have grown increasingly sour, particularly after the Siachen conflict, intensification of the Kashmir insurgency in 1989, Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998, and the 1999 Kargil War. Certain confidence-building measures, such as the 2003 ceasefire agreement and the Delhi–Lahore Bus service, have been successful in de-escalating tensions. However, these efforts have been impeded by periodic terrorist attacks. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack brought the two nations to the brink of a nuclear war. The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, which killed 68 civilians (most of whom were Pakistani), was also a crucial turning point in relations. Additionally, the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by Pakistani militants resulted in a severe blow to the ongoing India–Pakistan peace talks.

After a brief thaw following the election of new governments in both nations, bilateral discussions again stalled after the 2016 Pathankot attack. In September 2016, a terrorist attack on an Indian military base in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 19 Indian Army soldiers, the deadliest such attack in years. India's claim that the attack had been orchestrated by a Pakistan-supported jihadist group was denied by Pakistan, which claimed the attack had been a local reaction to unrest in the region due to excessive force by Indian security personnel. The attack sparked a military confrontation across the Line of Control, with an escalation in ceasefire violations and further militant attacks on Indian security forces. Since 2016, the ongoing confrontation, continued terrorist attacks, and an increase in nationalist rhetoric on both sides has resulted in the collapse of bilateral relations, with little expectation that they will recover. Notably, following the 2019 Pulwama attack, the Indian government revoked Pakistan's most favoured nation trade status, which it had granted to Pakistan in 1996. India also increased the custom duty to 200% which affected the trade of Pakistani apparel and cement.

Case in hand

The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan have agreed to improve their diplomatic relations by holding bilateral talks in Pakistan that will go on for a period of 3 days. You are Mr. Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister and you are in-charge of creating a report entailing the details of the PM’s visit that contain the following specifics:

Task in hand

Human Resource workforce allocation for the PM’s security.

Job Description and Job Specification of the entire security team.

Unconventional Recruitment and Selection Plan for the Security personnel.

Unconventional Training and Development Plan for the Security personnel that have been deployed to protect the PM.

List of equipment required by security personnel.

A detailed Security Deployment Plan for the Prime Minister and his convoy.

A detailed per day schedule of the PM.

A blueprint of the place of stay.

Brief of issues to be addressed for the bilateral talks.

Unconventional Contingency plan, in case of something happening to the PM’s convoy.

Deliverables:

Prepare a report of minimum 40 pages and a PPT of not more than 25 slides.

Submission Details

Mail your task to [email protected]

Submission time: 8 AM, 10th November 2020

P.S. This is the last mile. Make it count 😊

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brookstonalmanac · 4 months ago

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Events 10.1 (after 1950)

1953 – Andhra State is formed, consisting of a Telugu-speaking area carved out of India's Madras State. 1953 – A United States-South Korea mutual defense treaty is concluded in Washington, D.C. 1955 – The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is established. 1957 – The motto In God We Trust first appears on U.S. paper currency. 1958 – The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is replaced by NASA. 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1961 – The United States Defense Intelligence Agency is formed, becoming the country's first centralized military intelligence organization. 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. 1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying racial segregation rules. 1963 – On its third anniversary as an independent nation, Nigeria became a republic. 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka. 1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with no survivors in Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9. 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time. 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida. 1971 – The first practical CT scanner is used to diagnose a patient. 1975 – Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines. 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1979 – The MTR, Hong Kong's rapid transit railway system, opens. 1982 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence. 1982 – EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida. 1982 – Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan; on the same day, Sony releases the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind. 1985 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israel attacks the Palestine Liberation Organization's Tunisia headquarters during Operation Wooden Leg. 1987 – The 5.9 Mw  Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley with a Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 200. 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal same-sex registered partnerships. 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Siege of Dubrovnik begins. 2000 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Palestinians protest the murder of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah by Israeli police in northern Israel, beginning the "October 2000 events". 2001 – Militants attack the state legislature building in Kashmir, killing 38. 2003 – The popular and controversial English-language imageboard 4chan is launched. 2009 – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords. 2012 – A ferry collision off the coast of Hong Kong kills 38 people and injures 102 others. 2014 – A series of explosions at a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria completely destroys the factory, killing 15 people. 2014 – A double bombing of an elementary school in Homs, Syria kills over 50 people. 2015 – A gunman kills nine people at a community college in Oregon. 2015 – The American cargo vessel SS El Faro sinks with all of its 33 crew after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin. 2016 – The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Pedro Sánchez, resigns. He would return to the position a year later. 2017 – Fifty-eight people are killed and 869 others injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival at the Las Vegas Strip in the United States; the gunman, Stephen Paddock, later commits suicide. 2018 – The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia. 2019 – Kuopio school stabbing: one dies and ten are injured when Joel Marin, armed with a sabre, attacks a school class at Savo Vocational College in Kuopio, Finland. 2021 – The 2020 World Expo in Dubai begins. Its opening was originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

#Events

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neoarmmetic · 5 years ago

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7 Best Places to visit in India in 2020

As we all know traveling doesn’t come cheap, but you'll be glad to know that there are many places in India that make for a perfect holiday package for 2020. We have gathered 7 pocket-friendly Indian Destinations after thorough research. If you wish to gain travel experience and save big bucks you can plan a trip to these destinations in 2020.

Jaipur:

Jaipur, which is popularly called a pink city is the capital of Rajasthan. People who love exploring forts and palaces, Jaipur is the best pocket-friendly destination for you. The place is home to a number of resorts and hotels. The food here is delicious and is budget-friendly.

Best Time to Visit Jaipur: Nov-Mar

How to Reach

By Air: Sanganer Airport is the nearest airport which is well connected with all the major cities.

By Train: Shatabadi Express connects Jaipur to all the major cities.

By Road: If you are preferring road then buses by RSRTC runs on frequent intervals.

Srinagar:

Srinagar is one of the amazing places to visit in India. The gorgeous city is the home to some breathtaking lakes and features several boathouses on Dal Lake. Those boathouses can be booked at decent rates. Srinagar is popularly considered as heaven on earth. Experience its charismatic charm and natural beauty before the turmoil spoils it.

Best time to visit Srinagar : Apr-Oct

How to reach

By air: Srinagar has its own airport.

By rail: One has to reach either Jammu Tawi or Udhampur railway station, to reach Srinagar by train.

By road: The road is not a preferred way to reach Srinagar unless you are traveling from a city of Jammu & Kashmir.

Manali:

Manali is one of the magnificent places to visit in Himachal Pradesh. If you are an adventure seeker, loves Peace and nature then this is the place for you.

Best time to visit Manali: Oct-Feb

How to reach

By air: Kullu-Manali Airport is the nearest airport to Manali. It is located at a distance of about 52 km.

By rail: The nearest railway station to Manali is Joginder Nagar. It is located at a distance of about 160 km.

By road: Manali can be easily accessed by road via state-run, private buses, private cabs, or cars

Goa:

The list is incomplete without mentioning Goa. Amazing nightlife, Beach shacks, a variety of booze and cheap price. Goa is one of the best holiday packages that will make your trip memorable.

Best time to visit Goa: Nov-Feb

How to reach

By air: The major airport in Goa is Dabolim International.

By rail: Thivim Railway Station and Madgaon Railway Station are the main railway heads of Goa.

By road: Many people prefer taking a car/bike ride from Mumbai and Pune. Margao Bus Terminal, Mapusa Bus Terminal, and Kadamba Bus Terminal are best-connected bus terminals in Goa.

By Sea: You can also opt for ferry services which are an excellent way of commuting. You can take a ferry from Mumbai to Panaji and can easily reach Goa.

Sikkim:

Extremely pleasant and alluring Sikkim is one of the most breathtaking and peaceful places in India. Apart from adventure activities, sightseeing you can also go for some meditation sessions at one of the old monasteries.

Best time to visit Sikkim: Mar-June and Sept-Dec

How to reach

By air: Bagdogra Airport which is 124 km from Gangtok in West Bengal is the nearest airport.

By rail: New Jalpaiguri Railway Station in Siliguri which is 148 km from Gangtok is the nearest railway station.

By road: The cities of Sikkim are well-connected by good quality roads to Darjeeling (West Bengal)

Andaman:

Scenic beaches and crystal clear water Andaman is one of the most perfect destinations for an enjoyable vacation. There you can, go for a deep sky diving, go on long treks or laze around the backwaters of the island.

Best time to visit Andaman: Nov to mid-May

How to reach

By air: Vir Savarkar Airport in Port Blair is the major airport of archipelagos.

By sea: Ships ply between Haddo Wharf Port in Port Blair and cities Visakhapatnam, Kolkata and Chennai.

Kerala:

Thousands of tourists visit Kerala because of its picturesque places, coconut fringed beaches, colorful festivals, pristine backwaters and many more.

Best time to visit Kerala: Nov-Jan and June-Aug

How to reach

By air: Kerala has three main airports – Cochin International Airport, Calicut International Airport, and Trivandrum International Airport. These airports connect Kerala with different cities across the world, such as Chennai, Muscat, Dubai, Delhi, and Mumbai.

By rail: Kollam Junction railway station, Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station and Ernakulam Junction railway station are three major railheads of Kerala. These stations connect the state with towns and cities across India.

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mysolarjob · 5 years ago

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HOW TO JOIN PAK ARMY 2020: ALL ENTRY ROUTES AND JOBS FOR Pakistan ARMY

Pakistan Army is like a dream come true for the youth residing in Pakistan because they have the passion of serving their country in their hearts and even if they had to take a bullet in their chest then they would do that happily. In this article, we will discuss about different ways through which you can join this prestigious department. The eligibility criteria vary with different courses available to join Pakistan Army. Most students knew only about the ways after the completion of their FS.C but people after graduation (2 Years) and graduation (4 Years) can also apply but the criteria of eligibility and application will be different for each category. Below we will list down different routes as well as the separate eligibility criteria for each course.

146 PMA Long Course:

Pakistan Military Academy situated near Kakul Village in the District of Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a training academy for Army officers accompanied with NUST University for educational purposes. Citizens of Pakistan apart from their race, creed, gender, etc. can apply if they will fulfill the following eligibility criteria.

Eligibility Criteria:

Citizens of Pakistan with original CNIC issued by NADRA apart from their religion, race, creed, gender, etc. can apply if they will fulfill the following eligibility criteria.

Education:

Candidates who have recently completed their intermediate (FSC, ICS, FA, ICOM, etc.) with 60% marks.

Those who have done graduation (2 years) with 60% marks and 50% marks in intermediate.

Graduates with 4 years’ program (BS/BA (Hons), BBA, BPA).

Individuals who are serving Pak Army/Navy and Air Force with 55% marks in intermediate.

Candidates who have domicile of certain areas included Baluchistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA, District Neelum Azad Jammu Kashmir, Chitral, District Kohistan, Tehsil Bala Kot (Naran, Kaghan) of District Mansehra in KPK, Tehsil Umer Kot and Tharparker in Sindh, District Rajanpur, etc. are eligible with 55% marks in FA/FSC.

Individuals who have passed A Level with 60% marks can also apply.

People who have given Part-I of intermediate with 60% marks and are waiting to appear or appearing can also apply with the “Certificate of hope”.

Gender:

Only male candidates of a family are accepted by this course of Pakistan Army.

Female candidates are ineligible to apply for this course but are eligible for many other course offered by Pakistan Army.

Age:

Applicants who will fulfill above mentioned criteria for education with the age between 17 to 24 are eligible to apply.

Relaxation with three months above and lower of the age can be applied.

Nationality:

Only citizens of Pakistan are eligible to apply with original CNIC and Domicile of the area.

Domicile holders of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are eligible.

Candidates who will have dual nationality will have to surrender the other one at the time of final selection.

Physical Standards:

The height of the applicants must be 5’-4’’ (162.5cm) or above it at the time of application.

The weight of the individual should be as per the BMI (Body Mass Index).

The applicants must be physically fit and should not be crippled in anyway.

Marital Status:

Civilians who wish to apply must be unmarried.

People who are serving Armed Forces in any way are eligible to apply in both cases; married or unmarried if the age is above 20.

Ineligibility Conditions:

People who have applied two times and both the times got rejected or screened out by ISSB.

Applicants who are disbarred/dismissed/removed by any government sector including Armed Forces of Pakistan.

Those who are convicted/guilty for any heinous act or offence in the Court of Law.

Appear to be unfit or got the certificate from the Medical Board of being unfit cannot apply.

Declared unfit by the Medical Board because of having Hepatitis B and C.

On disciplinary grounds, got withdrawn by any Armed institution or Forces.

Candidates who will apply with any incorrect information or tampered certificated or forged details will be rejected at once.

Applicants who will appear to apply by any unwanted means will be declared ineligible for their whole life.

Application and Selection Criteria:

Application Process:

Applicants who will fulfill all the above mentioned criteria and who are excited to join Pakistan Army can apply by any of the two processes:

Interested individuals can apply online by registering themselves on Pakistan Army official website www.joinpakarmy.gov.pk. Applicants must create an account with their name on their page and then wait for the time and date of the preliminary test. Candidates are advised to bring along all the required documents along with the computerized slip with a roll no. on it. Date of the test will never change and applicants must appear on the given time.

Another way of applying will be by visiting Army Selection and Recruitment Centers (AS&RCs) with all the required documents and the fee for the prospectus for the completion of registration process.

Selection Process:

Once the candidate will complete the procedure of application, a date for written test will be given to them which they have to pass to appear for the interview. Applicants who will pass this test will appear for a physical test and interviews of the selected individuals will be taken afterwards. But for completion of the selection process, candidates who will pass the above screening test of ISSB will get their medical checkup done from nearby CMHs and medically fir individuals will be sent on a training session of two years.

Documents Required for Selection:

Original mark sheet and certificates of passing of Matric, FA/FSC or Equivalent.

Original computerized CNIC, if the candidate is above 18 years, otherwise computerized B Form with original CNIC of Parent/Guardian, if the candidate is less than 18 years.

3 passport size photographs

One set of attested photocopies of all the above mentioned documents.

32nd Technical Cadet Course:

Candidates who have done their intermediate with engineering courses will do this Technical Cadet Course to join Pak Army. Candidates in this session will get degrees from different NUST institutions and 1-year training program at PMA Kakul. All the finances are done by Pak Army. Below we are mentioning the eligibility criteria, selection and application process for your help.

Eligibility criteria:

The eligibility criteria of this course is same as we have mentioned in PMA Long course the only difference is in educational criteria.

Education:

Candidate who have done their FSc with pre-engineering with subjects Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry/Computer Studies/ Computer Science with 65% marks are eligible to apply.

O-Level passed with compulsory English subject and A-level passed with subjects Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry/Computer Studies/Computer Science with grades between A-C.

Applicants who are applying with O/A-level background must apply with their equivalence certificate issued by IBCC, Minister of Education of Islamabad.

Candidates who have passed their FSc Part-I with minimum 65% marks and waiting to be appeared or waiting for the results of FSc Part-II can apply for this course by submitting the Certificate of Hope issued by the Dean of the Institution.

Individual must submit the result of FSc Part-II within a week after the announcement of the results.

Applicants with the background of Computer Science can only apply for the degree of Computer Software Engineering.

Applicants will fill the form according to their interest in each disciplines but once the application is submitted the priority will not change at any cost.

Individual will get an engineering degree and then the cadet will undergo a training session for one year in PMA.

Application and Selection procedure:

The procedure of application and selection is same as the process written above in PMA Long Course.

Bond:

Applicant will sign a bond of Rs. 100 that will show that they will serve the Pakistan Army for 13 years.

Short Service Regular Commission (SSRC):

This course is for people who have secured their MBBS or BDS degree and other degree for specialization from recognized universities and want to serve Pak Army in future.

Eligibility Criteria:

Applicants who have MBBS degrees recognized by PM&DC between the age 28 to 35 can apply for the position of General Duty Medical Officers (GDMO’s) as Captain.

Those who have MBBS degrees along with Higher Postgraduate qualification known as FCPS and both the degrees are recognized by PM&DC with the age relaxation of 32 to 40 years can apply for the designation of Classified Specialist as Major.

With an MBBS degree, FCPS (general) qualification along with FCPS (specialization) in any of the discipline with age in between 32 to 40 years can apply for the post of Sub Specialist as Major.

Candidates who have a BDS degree recognize by PM&DC between age of 28 to 35 can apply for the designation of General Duty Dental Officer (GDDOs) as Captain.

Doctors who have a BDS Degree and FCPS in Periodontics and maxillofacial dentistry can apply for the Specialist as Major and age should be in between 32 to 40 years.

Applicants who have done 1-year house job in any of the famous hospitals will be given preference in selection criteria.

People who have achieved all their qualification from government institution will be given preference.

For these positions, both male and female candidates can apply without any restriction to race, color, religion, etc.

Minimum height of the male applicant is 5’4’’ (162.5) and of female is 5’ (152.4).

Rest of the eligibility criteria is same as mentioned above in PMA Long Course.

Application and Selection Criteria:

The process for application and selection will be same that we have written for PMA long Course.

Direct Short Service Commissioned:

Aspirants who are serving or supporting the officers and the family of soldiers can apply to join Pak Army through Direct short service Commissioned. As we know that this is the era of computer and as the main weapon in the army these sectors and their information must be strictly hide from the hackers. Hacking is prevailing as a wild fire in today’s world that is why army hire individuals who are good at technicalities of computer to save the intelligence reports and many other stuff from enemies. Nowadays many videos and dramas are also sponsored or made by the ISPR and to do that work they hire the individuals as ICTOs.

Eligibility Criteria:

Applicants with BSc (Hons) or MSc in Computer science/Computer Engineering/Software engineering can apply.

Bachelor (hons)/ Masters in Geographical Information System can also apply.

Applicants with Masters in Information Security are also eligible for the post of ICTOs.

Only the male candidates are eligible to apply for the above mentioned position.

Individuals who have the above mentioned qualification or 16 years of qualification with the 62.5% marks and CGPA of 2.5 can apply.

Individuals with the experience of 1 to 2 years in the same or related field will be given preference on others.

Married and unmarried, both the applicants are eligible.

Rest of the eligibility criteria is same as mentioned above in PMA Long Course.

Application and Selection Criteria:

The Procedure of application and selection is same that we have already mentioned in PMA Long Course given above.

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#Pak Army Jobs #jobs in pak army #join pak army

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Headlines

American tourists face bans and restrictions across the world amid pandemic (Yahoo) The reputation and prestige once associated with a passport from the United States have suffered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For Americans right now, traveling is harder than ever before—they aren’t welcome in the majority of the world’s countries because of the U.S. response to the outbreak. As a result, the U.S. passport ranking has fallen 50% in the last year, down from the no. 3 spot to the no. 19 spot in the Passport Index. “The American passport was always in the top five passports over the last five years,” Armand Arton, founder of Passport Index, told Yahoo Money. Pre-pandemic, an American passport holder could access 70% of the world’s countries without a visa. Arton said the “only reason” for America’s sudden fall from grace was the coronavirus. “It is not foreign policy,” he said. “It is not the visa restrictions. It is really the temporary limitation of travel of U.S. citizens, based on the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t want U.S. citizens coming to their countries.”

Millennials and younger are new US majority (AP) Sorry, boomers. Millennials and their younger siblings and children now make up a majority of the U.S. population. A new analysis by the Brookings Institution shows that 50.7% of U.S. residents were under age 40, as of July 2019. The Brookings’ analysis of population estimates released this summer by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the combined millennial, Generation Z and younger generations numbered 166 million people. The combined Generation X, baby boomer, and older cohorts represented 162 million U.S. residents. Millennials typically are defined as being born between 1981 and 1996. Baby boomers, long considered a primary driver of demographic and social change in the U.S. because of their large numbers, were born between the end of World War II and the arrival of the Beatles in the U.S. in 1964.

The Pandemic Workday Is 48 Minutes Longer and Has More Meetings (Bloomberg) We log longer hours. We attend more meetings with more people. And, we send more emails. From New York City to Tel Aviv, the telecommuting revolution has meant a lot more work, according to a study of 3.1 million people at more than 21,000 companies across 16 cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East. The researchers compared employee behavior over two 8 week periods before and after Covid-19 lockdowns. Looking at email and meeting meta-data, the group calculated the workday lasted 48.5 minutes longer, the number of meetings increased about 13% and people sent an average of 1.4 more emails per day to their colleagues. During the two month time frame, there was one part of working that did improve: Those additional meetings were shorter, according to the analysis by researchers at Harvard Business School and New York University.

Pandemic Is Changing the Military, From Boot Camp to Office Work (Bloomberg) The U.S. military is finding its footing and changing how it operates as cases of the coronavirus keep rising. The services have been forced to continue widespread use of quarantines and to rethink future training, deploying, and day-to-day work. The virus curve has shot up from 10,462 cumulative cases in early June to 37,824 total cases by late July, according to the Defense Department. The figure includes more than 14,300 current infections among active-duty troops, as well as total cases reported among civilian workers, dependents and contractors since the pandemic began.

Seeking refuge in US, children fleeing danger are expelled (AP) When officers led them out of a detention facility near the U.S.-Mexico border and onto a bus last month, the 12-year-old from Honduras and his 9-year-old sister believed they were going to a shelter so they could be reunited with their mother in the Midwest. They had been told to sign a paper they thought would tell the shelter they didn’t have the coronavirus, the boy said. The form was in English, a language he and his sister don’t speak. The only thing he recognized was the letters “COVID.” Instead, the bus drove five hours to an airport where the children were told to board a plane. “They lied to us,” he said. “They didn’t tell us we were going back to Honduras.” More than 2,000 unaccompanied children have been expelled since March under an emergency declaration enacted by the Trump administration, which has cited the coronavirus in refusing to provide them protections under federal anti-trafficking and asylum laws. Lawyers and advocates have sharply criticized the administration for using the global pandemic as a pretext to deport children to places of danger. No U.S. agents looked at the video the boy had saved on his cellphone showing a hooded man holding a rifle, saying his name, and threatening to kill him and his sister, weeks after the uncle caring for them was shot dead in June. And even though they were expelled under an emergency declaration citing the virus, they were never tested for COVID-19, the boy said.

Coronavirus surprise: Remittances to Mexico rise during pandemic (Washington Post) It was an intuitive prediction, supported by virtually every expert who had studied the subject: As the coronavirus pandemic caused the global economy to tumble, remittances to Mexico and Central America would crash. It turns out the forecast was wrong. Instead of collapsing, remittances to Mexico were up year-over-year in five of the first six months of 2020. In June, payments to El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras also increased compared to the same period in 2019, after a dip earlier this year. In March, the month the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, remittances to Mexico topped $4 billion—a record. Across the United States, migrants and the children of migrants say they have prioritized sending money to family in Mexico and Central America during the pandemic.

Economy tanking, Cuba launches some long-delayed reforms (AP) With its airports closed to commercial flights and its economy tanking, Cuba has launched the first in a series of long-promised reforms meant to bolster the country’s struggling private sector. The island’s thousands of restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts, auto mechanics and dozens of other types of private businesses have operated for years without the ability to import, export or buy supplies in wholesale markets. While the communist government began allowing widespread private enterprise a decade ago, it maintained a state monopoly on imports, exports and wholesale transactions. As a result, the country’s roughly 613,000 private business owners have been forced to compete for scarce goods in Cuba’s understocked retail outlets or buy on the black market. That has limited the private sector’s growth and made entrepreneurs a constant target of criminal investigation. With the essential tourism business cut off by the novel coronavirus and the government running desperately low on hard currency, the government last month announced that it would allow private restaurants to buy wholesale for the first time. Ministers also announced that private businesspeople could sign contracts to import and export goods through dozens of state-run companies with import/export licenses.

Former Colombian president placed under house arrest (Economist) Colombia’s Supreme Court ordered that Álvaro Uribe, a conservative former president, be placed under house arrest. It is examining whether Mr Uribe had tried to tamper with witnesses in an investigation that he instigated against a left-wing senator. Mr Uribe, the mentor of Colombia’s current president, Iván Duque, is the first sitting or former president since the 1950s to be detained.

Emergency lockdown in Scotland (Foreign Policy) Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon moved quickly to impose a partial lockdown in the city of Aberdeen on Wednesday, after 54 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. The outbreak was linked to a bar, leading Sturgeon to close all pubs in the city and impose a ban on all non-essential travel. Sturgeon told reporters that the lockdown was a necessary measure. “We need to take decisive action now in order to prevent a larger outbreak and further harm later on,” she said.

Closed for vacation: France faces new virus testing troubles (AP) With virus cases rising anew, France is struggling to administer enough tests to keep up with demand. One reason: Many testing labs are closed so that their staff can take summer vacation, just as signs of a second wave are building. Testing troubles have plagued the U.S. and other countries too. But France’s August ritual of fleeing cities for weeks of holiday rest on seashores, mountainsides or grandma’s country house is an added tangle. “Closed for vacation” signs dangle from door after door across Paris this month, from bakeries to shoe shops and iconic cafes. Doctor’s offices and labs are no exception. Their staff need a rest more than ever this difficult year. But this August, socially distanced lines snake outside the scattered Paris labs that remain open, from the Left Bank to the city’s northern canals. Trying to get a test appointment can take a week or more. So can getting results.

Pakistan stands behind Kashmir (Foreign Policy) On the first anniversary of the Indian government’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special autonomous status, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan heaped criticism on his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, and reiterated his support for Kashmiri self-determination. In a statement, Khan called Indian activity in the region since the move a “crime against humanity,” and in a subsequent address to the legislative assembly, he said Modi has been “exposed in the world.” One year later, the region is still saturated with troops, communications are slow, and arrests are a routine part of daily life.

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Foreign Policy) Anti-government protests took place in Thailand earlier this week as demands for limits on the power of the monarchy grow. Due to strict laws forbidding criticism of royals, the demonstrations featured a happy twist. Many of the 200 activists showed up dressed as Harry Potter and other characters from the popular book and film series in an effort to draw parallels between their fight against the government and Harry Potter’s battle against the totalitarianism of Lord Voldemort.

Survivors mark 75th anniversary of world’s 1st atomic attack (AP) HIROSHIMA, Japan—Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attack’s 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons. An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout, but the bombing survivors’ message was more urgent than ever. As their numbers dwindle—their average age is about 83—many nations have bolstered or maintained their nuclear arsenals, and their own government refuses to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty. The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. The United States dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia. But the decades since have seen the weapons stockpiling of the Cold War and a nuclear standoff among nations that continues to this day.

As Smoke Clears in Beirut, Shock Turns to Anger (NYT) Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the country’s lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: by bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself. But the 2,750 tons of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless. Beirut’s governor said the damage extended over half of the city, estimating it at $3 billion. The government has vowed to investigate the blast and hold those responsible to account. But as residents waded through the warlike destruction on Wednesday to salvage what they could from their homes and businesses, many saw the explosion as the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the country’s politicians. And with the country already deep in the throes of a major economic crisis, residents had no idea how they would afford to rebuild. Because of the financial crisis, banks have placed strict limits on cash withdrawals to prevent runs.

U.S. eyes Saudi nuclear program (NYT) American intelligence agencies are scrutinizing efforts by Saudi Arabia, working with China, to build up its ability to produce nuclear fuel. A classified analysis has raised alarms that doing so could be a cover to process uranium and move toward development of a weapon, U.S. officials told The Times. American officials have searched for decades for evidence that the Saudis are moving toward a nuclear weapon, and the kingdom has made no secret of its determination to keep pace with Iran. But the spy agencies have been reluctant to warn of progress, for fear of repeating the colossal intelligence mistake that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

#headlines #news

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xtruss · 3 years ago

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The Future of American Power

Arundhati Roy on America’s Fiery, Brutal Impotence

The US leaves Afghanistan humiliated, but now faces bigger worries, from social polarisation to environmental collapse, says a novelist and essayist

— September 3rd, 2021

— By Arundhati Roy

This By-invitation commentary is part of a series by a range of global thinkers on the future of American power, examining the forces shaping the country's standing.

IN FEBRUARY 1989 the last Soviet tank rolled out of Afghanistan, its army having been decisively defeated in a punishing, nearly decade-long war by a loose coalition of mujahideen (who were trained, armed, funded and indoctrinated by the American and Pakistani Intelligence services). By November that year the Berlin wall had fallen and the Soviet Union began to collapse. When the cold war ended, the United States took its place at the head of a unipolar world order. In a heartbeat, radical Islam replaced communism as the most imminent threat to world peace. After the attacks of September 11th, the political world as we knew it spun on its axis. And the pivot of that axis appeared to be located somewhere in the rough mountains of Afghanistan.

For reasons of narrative symmetry if nothing else, as the US makes its ignominious exit from Afghanistan, conversations about the decline of the United States’ power, the rise of China and the implications this might have for the rest of the world have suddenly grown louder. For Europe and particularly for Britain, the economic and military might of the United States has provided a cultural continuity of sorts, effectively maintaining the status quo. To them, a new, ruthless, power waiting in the wings to take its place must be a source of deep worry.

In other parts of the world, where the status quo has brought unutterable suffering, the news from Afghanistan has been received with less dread.

The day the Taliban entered Kabul, I was up in the mountains in Tosa Maidan, a high, alpine meadow in Kashmir, which the Indian Army and Air Force used for decades to practise artillery and aerial bombing. From one edge of the meadow we could look down at the valley below us, dotted with martyrs’ graveyards where tens of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims who had been killed in Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination are buried.

In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist group, came to power cunningly harnessing post-9/11 international Islamophobia, riding a bloody wave of orchestrated anti-Muslim massacres, in which thousands were murdered. It considers itself a staunch ally of the United States. The Indian security establishment is aware that the Taliban’s victory marks a structural shift in the noxious politics of the subcontinent, involving three nuclear powers: India, Pakistan and China, with Kashmir as a flashpoint. It views the victory of the Taliban, however pyrrhic, as a victory for its mortal enemy Pakistan, which has covertly supported the Taliban in its 20-year battle against the US occupation. Mainland India’s 175m-strong Muslim population, already brutalised, ghettoised, stigmatised as “Pakistanis”—and now, increasingly as “Talibanis”—are at even greater risk of discrimination and persecution.

Most of the mainstream media in India, embarrassingly subservient to the BJP, consistently referred to the Taliban as a terrorist group. Many Kashmiris who have lived for decades under the guns of half a million Indian soldiers, read the news differently. Wishfully. They were looking for pinholes of light in their world of darkness and indignity.

The details, the nuts and bolts of what was actually happening were still trickling in. A few who I spoke to saw it as the victory of Islam against the most powerful army in the world. Others as a sign that no power on Earth can crush a genuine freedom struggle. They fervently believed—wanted to believe—that the Taliban had completely changed and would not return to their barbaric ways. They too saw what had happened as a tectonic shift in regional politics, which they hoped would give Kashmiris some breathing space, some possibility of dignity.

The irony was that we were having these conversations sitting on a meadow pitted with bomb craters. It was Independence Day in India and Kashmir was locked down to prevent protests. On one border the armies of India and Pakistan were in a tense face-off. On another, in nearby Ladakh, the Chinese Army had crossed the border and was camped on Indian territory. Afghanistan felt very close by.

In its scores of military expeditions to establish and secure suzerainty since the second world war, the United States has smashed through (non-white) country after country. It has unleashed militias, killed millions, toppled nascent democracies and propped up tyrants and brutal military occupations. It has deployed a modern version of British colonial rhetoric—of being, in one way or another, on a selfless, civilising mission. That’s how it was with Vietnam. And so it is with Afghanistan.

Depending on where you want to put down history’s markers, the Soviets, the American- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen, the Taliban, the Northern Alliance, the unspeakably violent and treacherous warlords and the US and NATO armed forces have boiled the very bones of the Afghan people into a blood soup. All, without exception, have committed crimes against humanity. All have contributed to creating the soil and climate for terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates to operate.

If honourable ‘intentions’ such as empowering women and saving them from their own families and societies are meant to be mitigating factors in military invasions, then certainly both the Soviets and the Americans can rightly claim to have raised up, educated and empowered a small section of urban Afghan women before dropping them back into a bubbling cauldron of medieval misogyny. But neither democracy nor feminism can be bombed into countries. Afghan women have fought and will continue to fight for their freedom and their dignity in their own way, in their own time.

Does the US withdrawal mark the beginning of the end of its hegemony? Is Afghanistan going to live up to that old cliché about itself—the Graveyard of Empires? Perhaps not. Notwithstanding the horror show at the Kabul airport, the debacle of withdrawal may not be as big a blow to the United States as it is being made out to be.

Much of those trillions of dollars spent in Afghanistan circulated back to the US war industry, which includes weapons manufacturers, private mercenaries, logistics and infrastructure companies and non-profit organisations. Most of the lives that were lost in the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan (estimated to be roughly 170,000 by researchers at Brown University) were those of Afghans who, in the eyes of the invaders, obviously count for very little. Leaving aside the crocodile tears, the 2,400 American soldiers who were killed don’t count for much either.

The resurgent Taliban humiliated the United States. The Doha agreement signed by both sides in 2020 for a peaceful transfer of power is testimony to that. But the withdrawal could also reflect a hard-nosed calculation by the US government about how to better deploy money and military might in a rapidly changing world. With economies ravaged by lockdowns and the coronavirus, and as technology, big data and AI make for a new kind of warfare, holding territory may be less necessary than before. Why not leave Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran to mire themselves in the quicksand of Afghanistan—imminently facing famine, economic collapse and in all probability another civil war—and keep American forces rested, mobile and ready for a possible military conflict with China over Taiwan?

The real tragedy for the United States is not the debacle in Afghanistan, but that it was played out on live television. When it withdrew from the war it could not win in Vietnam, the home front was being ripped apart by anti-war protests, much of it fuelled by enforced conscription into the armed forces. When Martin Luther King made the connection between capitalism, racism and imperialism and spoke out against the Vietnam war, he was vilified. Mohammad Ali, who refused to be conscripted and declared himself a conscientious objector, was stripped of his boxing titles and threatened with imprisonment. Although war in Afghanistan did not arouse similar passions on American streets, many in the Black Lives Matter movement made those connections too.

In a few decades, the United States will no longer be a country with a white majority. The enslavement of black Africans and the genocide and dispossession of native Americans haunt almost every public conversation today. It is more than likely that these stories will join up with other stories of suffering and devastation caused by US wars or by US allies. Nationalism and exceptionalism are unlikely to be able to prevent that from happening. The polarisation and schisms within the United States could in time lead to a serious breakdown of public order. We’ve already seen the early signs. A very different kind of trouble looms on another front too.

For centuries America had the option of retreating into the comfort of its own geography. Plenty of land and fresh water, no hostile neighbours, oceans on either side. And now plenty of oil from fracking. But American geography is on notice. Its natural bounty can no longer sustain the “American way of life”—or war. (Nor for that matter, can China’s geography sustain the “Chinese way of life”).

Oceans are rising, coasts and coastal cities are insecure, forests are burning, the flames licking at the edges of settled civilisation, devouring whole towns as they spread. Rivers are drying up. Drought haunts lush valleys. Hurricanes and floods devastate cities. As groundwater is depleted, California is sinking. The reservoir of the iconic Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, which supplies fresh water to 40m people, is drying at an alarming rate.

If empires and their outposts need to plunder the Earth to maintain their hegemony, it doesn’t matter if the plundering is driven by American, European, Chinese or Indian capital. These are not really the conversations that we should be having. Because while we’re busy talking, the Earth is busy dying.

— Arundhati Roy is a novelist and essayist.

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brookstonalmanac · 1 year ago

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Events 1.6 (after 1910)

1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th U.S. state. 1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift. 1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship). 1929 – Mother Teresa arrives by sea in Calcutta, India, to begin her work among India's poorest and sick people. 1930 – Clessie Cummins arrives at the National Automobile Show in New York City, having driven a car powered by one of his diesel engines from Indianapolis. 1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address. 1946 – The first general election ever in Vietnam is held. 1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket. 1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China.[31] The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response. 1951 – Korean War: Beginning of the Ganghwa massacre, in the course of which an estimated 200–1,300 South Korean communist sympathizers are slaughtered. 1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami. 1960 – The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties. 1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta. 1969 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 crashes in Lafayette Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States, killing 11. 1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States. 1989 – Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh are sentenced to death for conspiracy in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; the two men are executed the same day. 1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup. 1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.[ 1993 – Four people are killed when Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634 crashes on approach to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, France.[ 1994 – U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.[ 1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.[ 2000 – The last natural Pyrenean ibex, Celia, is killed by a falling tree, thus making the species extinct. 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen is indicted for the 1964 murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner during the American Civil Rights Movement. 2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, United States, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas. 2012 – Twenty-six people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus. 2017 – Five people are killed and six others injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida. 2019 – Forty people are killed in a gold mine collapse in Badakhshan province, in northern Afghanistan. 2019 – Muhammad V of Kelantan resigns as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, becoming the first monarch to do so. 2021 – Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump attack the United States Capitol to disrupt certification of the 2020 presidential election, resulting in five deaths and evacuation of the U.S. Congress.

#Events

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years ago

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Shanthie Mariet D’Souza on how India was ‘ill-prepared’ for the dramatic Taliban takeover

The Taliban are in charge in Afghanistan. The rapid overthrow of the Afghan government that many expected would take another few months ended last week, as the Taliban entered Kabul, prompting President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country. This sudden development has major ramifications for every nation in the South Asian region, not least India – which benefited greatly from the US presence in Afghanistan and may now have to see Pakistan once again playing a dominant role in the country.

What can New Delhi do? How is it to deal with the fallout? Shanthi Mariet D’Souza is the founder of research outfit Mantraya, founding professor at the Kautilya School of Public Policy and an Afghanistan expert who has worked on the country for years, including as adviser, Independent Directorate of Local Governance to the Afghanistan government in 2015-16. She has also edited Afghanistan in Transition: Beyond 2014?

I spoke to D’Souza over e-mail about what the Taliban takeover means for New Delhi, whether the question of engaging with the Taliban is any different from the last time they were in power in the 1990s, and what this means for India’s relations with other major powers.

For some background to the conversation, read our interview with Avinash Paliwal, back in May, when India was still debating the question of whether to engage with the Taliban.

For the reader, could you tell us a little bit about how you got into studying Afghanistan and your background with the country? I am a scholar, researcher and founding professor with specialisation in International Relations with more than a decade-long experience of working in think tanks, universities, governmental and non-governmental sectors, as a consultant, adviser and board director for think tanks, governments and international organisations in Afghanistan and South Asia, as an associate editor and editorial board member for international peer reviewed journals, and as a subject matter expert and trainer designing modules on regional and international security, governance, economic development, gender and non-traditional security challenges in Asia for diplomats and security personnel. I have also conducted field studies in Pakistan, China, Africa, Canada, United States, Australia, Jammu and Kashmir and India’s North East.

My interest in Afghanistan sparked in the 1990s, when I embarked on my M Phil program at the American Studies division of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. At that time, I found that there was scant academic and policy attention on Afghanistan, which was in India’s neighbourhood. It was a glaring gap in academia and policy research.

As I started my M Phil in the summer of 1999, the IC-814 hijacking brought attention to Afghanistan and the Taliban regime when the plane with Indian citizens was hijacked from Kathmandu and taken to Kandahar and the then Bharatiya Janata Party government was brought to its knees and had to swap passengers for terrorists. This was an important lesson for India not only in hostage negotiations, but also in lack of policy attention on Afghanistan since withdrawal from that country in the wake of the capture of power by the Taliban in the mid-1990s.

As I commenced my doctoral programme at SIS, JNU on the topic “United States and emergence and decline of the Taliban”, in the summer of 2001, the 9/11 terror attacks took place in the American homeland. That once again brought back the US and world attention to a country, which was largely forgotten and considered distant. While most analysts concluded that the US military intervention of October 2001 would result in the decimation of the Taliban, my hypothesis was to the contrary and proved correct in the years that followed.

The central argument of my PhD thesis and critique of the nature of the international intervention in 2001 was that the international community did not pay adequate attention and resources in institution building, shoring up the capabilities of the Afghan government (host nation) or addressing the issue of sanctuaries and external support that the Taliban received from their sponsors in Pakistan from where they regrouped, rearmed and carried out attacks in Afghanistan.

The reemergence of the Taliban was evident in 2005-06, when US President George W Bush diverted the limited resources and troops from the “the limited and quick” war in Afghanistan to Iraq. The aversion to nation building did not help build institutions that Afghanistan required to rebuild its security, political and economic sectors. Most of the international aid created parallel structures of governance rather than strengthening the Afghan government’s institutions for governance and revenue.

President Barack Obama refocused attention on the “just war” in Afghanistan from Iraq through his Af-Pak strategy, but announced exit by 2014 along with the troop surge which strengthened the battlefield and negotiating potential of the Taliban. The repeated calls for exit were based on the American political calendar under President Donald Trump and now President Joe Biden’s administration, and not on the needs of the Afghans or conditions on the ground. The Taliban bided their time. In the villages of southern Afghanistan where I visited, the Taliban would in a jocular vein say, “the Americans have the watches, we have the time”.

The international community needed to focus attention and resources for the long term stabilisation of Afghanistan, building key institutions of service delivery and strengthening the security, political and economic sectors to build the credibility of the Afghan government. Most of the quick impact projects of the international community did little to build the credibility and/or extend the writ of the Afghan government. The security sector needed to be built, trained and equipped to fight insurgency and not a conventional army, as Afghanistan is fighting an asymmetrical war.

The western notions of democracy and state building had limited utility in the long term stabilisation of Afghanistan and preventing its slide into present levels of chaos and violence. Afghanistan needed assistance to build its own security, political and economic institutions based on its needs and specificities rather than replicating foreign models.

I have, since the completion of my doctoral studies and Fulbright Fellowship, studied Afghanistan through various prisms – the security sector, political and peace building, sub national governance, and regional cooperation, to understand the challenges and prospects of long term stabilisation of Afghanistan, which the rest of the international community has not paid much attention to.

From my specialisation in American Studies, I have tried to make myself useful to academia, policy-makers, security and diplomatic personnel, media and international non governmental organisations, by focusing my attention and work on the internal and external dynamics of the Afghan conflict, India-Afghanistan relations, and prospects of regional cooperation in Afghanistan through various field studies, assignments and consultancy projects in various provinces of Afghanistan, rather than confining myself to Kabul, to provide a better understanding of the urban-rural divide and help bridge the disconnects.

As Team leader the for Local Planning and Budgeting–IDLG-UNDP-LOGO project, Kabul, Afghanistan (2020); Adviser, Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2015-16); International Election Observer for the audit and recount of Afghanistan’s Presidential Runoff elections,( 2014); Senior Transition Consultant, United Nations Mine Action Service (2013), Kabul and External Reviewer for the country programme of Action Aid International, Afghanistan (2011), I have worked with governmental and non-governmental sectors for more than a decade in various provinces of Afghanistan.

US soldiers stand guard behind barbed wire at the airport in Kabul. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP

Would you say that you take any particular approach, or fall into a specific school of thinking, when it comes to your analysis? I do not consider myself to be belonging strictly to any particular school of thought. However, broadly, I do see myself as aligned to the school of Constructivism, seeing the world as socially constructed and exploring the role of identities and interests. Constructivists believe agency and structure are mutually constituted, which implies that structures influence agency and vice versa.

Agency can be understood as the ability of someone to act, whereas structure refers to the international system that consists of material and ideational elements. I have increasingly witnessed that while studying Afghanistan and policy-making either in India or outside, there has been little understanding and application of the structure-agency debate and role of identities and interests. More importantly, there is very little anthropological study of the tribal dynamic and social networks, culture and religion in Afghanistan. Thus, Afghanistan remains a puzzle that many have not taken the time and effort to understand.

I charted my own path to tread into unknown terrain, taking many risks and moving out of my comfort zone with multiple field visits to Afghanistan from Singapore and India to get first-hand, primary, qualitative and ethnographic data, rather than relying on secondary sources and not contributing anything new or useful to the academic and policy debate.

I have muddied my hands to work on issues of governance (which is the key to stabilisation) and election observation, to understand Afghans and Afghanistan, and debunk many myths about the people and the country. I have used different approaches and prisms to understand the challenges and prospects of long-term stabilisation of Afghanistan. These include the social network approach, participant observation, ethnographic data, and first hand information collected through interviews and discussions with Afghans across a wide spectrum. I have travelled to various provinces in Afghanistan for collection of primary resource material for more than a decade. I have carried out interviews, discussions and “person on the street” narratives to gather qualitative data.

My field visits to Afghanistan and interactions with key policy-makers, interlocutors, scholars, security and media personnel, members of international organisations, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, women’s groups, youth groups, farmers’ associations, dairy associations, business groups and “person on the street” narratives have helped deepen my knowledge of the country and the need to adopt alternative approaches to bring in long term peace and stability.

I have conducted field-based research and consultancies with the governmental and non-governmental sectors in Afghanistan. As an Adviser on downward accountability with the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (DFID funded project), Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2015-2016), I have worked on issues of sub-national governance and strengthening downward accountability; developed guidelines and data collection instruments to enable provincial councillors improve service delivery in eight crucial sectors – education, agriculture, health, roads, electricity, water and sanitation, security and legal services.

I have contributed to the development and finalisation of the Provincial Council (PC) internal procedure and oversight regulatory authority; developed formal internal procedures for the channelling of PC reports to relevant line ministries at the Centre (through the IDLG) and provinces (through the governor); and revised the reporting template for the PCs informing councillors of their mandates, legal and policy frameworks, minimum service delivery standards and constraints to effective service delivery. I also provided organisational assistance in restructuring, strategic and annual plans, training materials and manuals for the conduct of consultative workshops and capacity building programmes for provincial councillors and awareness workshops for women provincial councillors.

As a Senior Transition Consultant, United Nations Mine Action Service, Afghanistan (September 2013), I conducted extensive field analysis, interviews and focused group discussions with Afghan government officials, key policy-makers, donors, non-governmental organisations, UN Mine Action personnel, de-miners, community elders and other key stakeholders to review the mine action programme in Afghanistan. Case studies considered for the project included Cambodia, Laos, Liberia, South Sudan, Mozambique, Bosnia, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Colombia, Lebanon, Western Sahara, Mali, Ivory Coast, DRC, and Yemen, which helped in learning from the best practices in actualising transition in the Afghan context.

At the end of the field study, I presented the findings at a workshop in Kabul and submitted a report identifying options to locate responsibility for the mine action mandate within the Afghan government and key stakeholders with a list of “pros and cons” for each option and the steps required for implementation in the transformation decade.

As an international Election Observer, Afghanistan with The Asia Foundation, for the audit of Afghanistan’s Presidential Runoff elections held in June 2014, I was involved in report writing, data entry and short-medium term observation of the audit and recount process.

I have been a Consultant and Reviewer for the country programme of Action Aid International Afghanistan, May-June 2011. I conducted programmes and organisational reviews of AAA’s programmes, project and functioning in Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan using a Rights based approach and a participatory approach, like Participatory Rural Appraisal, to analyse, plan and monitor the development activities. I submitted a detailed report titled “Country Programme Review” with key learning gaps to inform the management on the state of the country programme as well as provided recommendations on future directions to guide the formulation of the next country strategy paper on developmental strategy and policy planning.

The speed of the Taliban takeover has taken everyone by surprise. You wrote recently that “there is an overwhelming sense of helplessness” in New Delhi “as its contributions and gains made in the last two decades wither away.” Why is that so? Do you think it will be some time before that sense is shaken off or is it likely to remain as long as the Taliban are in charge? India has pursued its soft-power approach in Afghanistan under a security umbrella provided by the US since 2001. It is the largest regional donor, having pledged more than $3 billion in various capacity building and infrastructure development projects. Its development assistance policy accrued a tremendous amount of goodwill for India. The challenge was to convert soft power gains into long term tangible outcomes when the tide turned. Even though there was a sense in India that the US would withdraw its forces in 2014 – the date of withdrawal announced by President Obama – India did not prepare for such a scenario and hoped for an outcome that would not put the Taliban in a dominant position.

However, all those calculations have changed quickly. The sense of shock and dismay from the fall of Kabul and the total capture of power by the Taliban is not unique to India. In the coming days, the entire world will be forced to internalise the dramatic changes that have taken place in Afghanistan and how those changes have made past policies redundant. India too will have to go through that phase of self-assessment and revisit its policies in the face of new realities.

Indian citizens aboard a military aircraft at the airport in Kabul on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

What are the immediate implications for India – both in terms of interests and policies – with the new Afghanistan situation, once the question of evacuating citizens and others is taken care of? India’s challenges are multiple and at various levels. These include:

Evacuation/safety of all Indians, friends of India in Afghanistan (Afghans who worked for India), and the willing members of the Hindu and Sikh communities;

Preservation of the gains made by India in the last two decades, i.e, the infrastructure projects and, also, the leverage within the political elite;

Dealing with the resurgence of Pakistani and Chinese influence;

Staying engaged in Afghanistan’s development sector to prevent a humanitarian crisis and continuing the existing level of trade and commerce; and

Developing working relations with the new political dispensation as stipulated in the Agreement of Strategic Partnership ( October 2011).

India has been ill-prepared for this scenario. Even evacuating its personnel was difficult. The Taliban set up roadblocks, making it difficult to reach the airport. More importantly, India could not evacuate Afghans who worked for its embassy and consulates, leaving them in great danger and discontent.

For India, which had pledged more than $3 billion dollars in development assistance since 2001 and accrued a huge amount of goodwill, Afghanistan is now a dramatically transformed terrain. New Delhi faces disruption to its intense engagement in the country’s development sector. Its gains of the past two decades, achieved through high-value and small-scale projects, face dangers of reversal.

India, a regional stakeholder and an unwavering supporter of an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled” peace and reconciliation process, has struggled to find a place in the numerous groupings that seek to decide the fate of the country. Its last-ditch efforts at opening a channel of communication with the Taliban, as part of its bid to engage with all stakeholders in the Afghan conflict, too has not yielded much result.

Is India likely to play a role in offering a home to Afghans – either refugees or, as it has in the past, some of the political elite? Yes. It will probably do so on a limited scale, given the declared prioritisation only for the Hindus and Sikhs. Some members of the political elite are already in India. A few others will be in India in the coming weeks. Similarly, the government will have to clarify its policies on the thousands of Afghans who are either on study or medical visa in the country. For obvious reasons, India can’t send them back to Afghanistan, where their lives will be at risk. India needs a coordination cell dealing with repatriation, refugee and IDP settlement and humanitarian assistance.

Does India’s presence as chair of the USNC alter the potential path in any significant way? Internationally, India needs to take a leadership role as the current UNSC chair in framing resolutions, providing relief, setting up humanitarian response teams and conflict mediation mechanisms. India cannot afford to abandon the people of Afghanistan once again without implications for its image as a reliable friend and a major power in the region. This is a unique opportunity to demonstrate its leadership role at the UNSC.

Given India’s history with them, would you expect questions about recognition of the Taliban government by New Delhi to go differently from the 1990s? New Delhi faces a stark choice of engaging the Taliban and recognising them, or opting to totally disengage from that country. The latter would imply a return to the 1990s, where a contact-vacuum facilitated events like the IC-814 hijacking and anti-India groups like LeT, JeM finding bases to operate from that country.

A realist’s approach would be to reach out to the Taliban in order to continue aid and development assistance, and a constructivist approach seeking to link aid with conditionalities that will help in mainstreaming and blunting the extremist worldviews particularly in dealing with women, minorities and children.

While the Taliban’s ascendancy is clearly a disruptor of India’s presence in Afghanistan, some opportunities for its continued engagement could also be available in the near-medium term. The Taliban leadership has made favourable statements asking India to continue with its developmental activities. The Taliban search for legitimacy may help India retain its foothold in the country, although it may not be as intense as it used to be. However, engagement should not be tantamount to granting recognition or legitimacy.

India needs to continue its aid policy for Afghanistan to prevent a humanitarian disaster and refugee crisis. It must establish some communication links in that country to moderate the extremist movements ideology and protect the rights of women and minorities.

Taliban fighters sit over a vehicle on a street in the Laghman province on Sunday. Photo: AFP

The Northern Alliance is nothing like what it was in the 1990s. Do you believe there is space for India to continue to court players in Afghanistan to counter the Taliban? Yes. The erstwhile Northern Alliance is a redundant force as most of the leaders have reached out to the Taliban, surrendered or fled the country. The call by the Vice President, Amrullah Saleh, to be a caretaker President to counter the Taliban and defend the territory could lead to a new resistance. To gather India’s support, Mr Saleh will have to establish his reach and unifying effort within the NA as a potent adversary to the Taliban.

You’ve written that India “missed the bus” on Afghanistan, and that “in strategic terms, India’s loss would be Pakistan and China’s gain”. Could you explain to the reader why you believe that is the case?The withdrawal of the US and resultant political change has created a huge strategic vacuum in Afghanistan. Pakistan, due to its locational and strategic advantages and links with the Taliban, and China, due to its proactive policy and links with Pakistan can hope to occupy much of this vacuum. India had twenty years to make up for its strategic and locational disadvantages.

However, it chose to rely on a policy, which looked impressive while at work, but had no long-term strategic thinking and planning built into it. One can understand the strategic competition with Pakistan which had nurtured the Taliban to regain strategic depth. But at one point of time, India was thinking of joint projects with China in Afghanistan as declared at the Wuhan informal summit. Did that fail because of China’s attitude or New Delhi’s own lackadaisical approach? This needs to be answered by policy-makers.

Do you think the current Indian administration has sufficient capacity and will to engage with all dimensions of the Afghanistan question? The MEA is understaffed and doesn’t have enough capability and skills to get feelers from the ground. As the situation was rapidly deteriorating, New Delhi continued with its “wait and watch” policy. This has led to systemic inertia, risk aversion, lack of long-term planning, and policy fuzziness. The MEA needs trained specialists who know the language, culture, ethnography and have contacts in the field for real time information flow and action.

Some fear that the Taliban’s return to Kabul will empower terrorists and militants, and that India may see fresh surges on the LoC. Others have said that the security implications for India may not be so direct or immediate. What do you make of these fears? The security threat is real if not immediate. Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have a presence in Afghanistan and are known to have built checkpoints in certain areas with the help of the Taliban. While the US-Taliban peace agreement obligates the Taliban to stop using Afghan territory for terror attacks by the al Qaeda and the Islamic State against the US and its allies, no such guarantee insulates countries like India from the activities of Kashmir-specific groups such as the LeT and JeM, and even the AQ and Islamic State’s Khorasan Province.

Its assurance to not operate in Kashmir notwithstanding, the Taliban’s capacity to prevent self-activation of these groups against India is questionable. It will boost terrorist morale and ability. However, whether it will actually result in a dramatic rise in terror attacks in J&K remains to be seen. India has pursued militancy with a multi-dimensional approach, which includes neutralisation of hundreds of cadres, targeting their over-ground networks and their financial resources. Yet, the infrastructure and the factors that breed terrorism and militancy remain.

Just a month ago you wrote a number of policy prescriptions for India in Afghanistan over the next decade, but most of them were predicated on at least a prolonged period of civil war, and not such a quick Taliban takeover. What would your list look like today? My list had also included suggestions in the wake of a rapid take over by Taliban. My writings and suggestions were based on scenario-building, which included the rapid takeover of power by the Taliban as the worst-case scenario which the policy makers in New Delhi needed to pay heed to.

A pragmatic and astute policy would explore ways and means of engaging the Taliban to ensure continuation of its present development assistance for the Afghans to prevent a humanitarian crisis and preservation of the gains of the last two decades. The Taliban have sent such feelers for engagement for some time now that need to be carefully explored for the near and medium-term.

Such engagement could work in moderating their extremist ideology. Aid can be provided with conditionalities of preserving women, minorities and human rights. The engagement with the Taliban could be based on the Agreement on Strategic Partnership which India had signed with Afghanistan in 2011. India, having a seat at the UNSC, can take a leadership role in building international consensus of preventing the subversion of the democratic experiment in Afghanistan, ensuring that the linkages between Taliban and global terror groups are severed through monitoring by counter-terrorism committees, linking any international aid to the Taliban to protecting women and human rights and reaching out to the Afghan by the deployment of quick response teams to avoid a catastrophic humanitarian disaster and refugee crisis.

Finally, the last three questions we like to put to everyone: Are there misconceptions about Afghanistan or the India-Afghanistan relationship that you find yourself having to correct all the time, whether coming from scholars, journalists or lay people? Yes. There are a lot of preconceived notions and stereotypes about Afghans and Afghanistan that get fed into policy and public information through the media. Most academics and journalists write on Afghanistan without even going to the country. Others write and report from Kabul, which does not depict the reality or diversity evident in the provinces. No one has made a serious effort to understand urban-rural differences or to use ethnographic data to understand the tribal and local dynamics of that country.

Are there areas of research on Afghanistan that you wish the Indian government or those in the policy space put more resources into?

India’s aid and development assistance policy review & impact studies

India’s security and strategic planning including hostage negotiation, evacuation and crisis management

Anthropological, ethnographic and linguistic studies

Institution building in fragile states

A special cell on Afghanistan with external experts

What three books (or podcasts/papers/videos) would you recommend to those interested in the subject?

There are several. However, a few that stand out are:

Louis Dupree, Afghanistan

Ali A Jalali, A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror

Thomas J Barfield’s Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History

Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars

Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan

Ahmed Rashid’s Descent into Chaos

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