These days in Switzerland I don’t read newspapers
at the morning hours. So after the busy and tiresome hours at the university
when I walk back through the railway station I begin my newspaper reading with ‘Blick
am Abend’ and end up in the regular dailies. My colleagues tell me that it needs
to be the other way around. But on 17th of October when I took the
Blick in my hands the main news struck me. It was tragic news of a Swiss family
losing its father at the shores of Mediterranean see at Tuscany. He saw his
three kids drowning in the rough waters and he jumped inside and fought the rising
waves to save his three kids and at last he breathed his last due to
exhaustion. Very tragic. Here I remember the word ‘vicarious’ which is used to
attribute the vicarious atonement of Jesus. The word has its root in latin word
vicarius or vicis meaning substitute, change, alternate, surrogate or
representative. Often the act of Jesus dying for many is attributed to as a
vicarious act of atonement. If Jesus is
the savior of the world, this father of the family who breathed his last saving
his three children, is the Jesus of that family. In reality it is a big loss to
the family, but his name would be written in eternity for turning his life to
be a savior to his three children. I remember writing in an article nine years
before, that my only prayer in my life is to become a ‘Jesus’ or a saving
inspiration at least to one. I still wait for that moment in my life.
31 October, 2012
23 October, 2012
World police again
The third and the final US presidential
debate is over. Who did win the debate, is not of my concern. Both of them
sounded somewhat same and similar in the way they aired their foreign policies.
All through the debate we heard the words Iran, Israel, China, Afghanistan, Libya,
Egypt, Syria being repeated all through the debate. In their rhetoric trying to
woo voters they are just playing with nations. Sitting and watching the debate
live midnight, I was getting irritated the way both of them dictating terms as
if US is more than UN. I still doubt the efficiency and efficacy of the US to
play again the role of world police or a protector of justice and democracy. I read
it at the same time UN thinking of sending peace keeping force to Syria after
forcing both the parties for a ceasefire. But Obama says the days are numbered
for Asad in Syria and Romney suggesting supplying arms to the opposition there.
I am sure that the coming days will see the response from Iran, Cuba, Venezuela
and other countries mentioned there. Rightly China had already warned on the
anti-China tone of both the candidates. Whatever may be, after watching the final
debate I was not at all interested on who wins the election but I would say to
both of them to have some respect to other nations. They are not play toys in
their hands.
15 October, 2012
Crazy world…… when will you learn?
A shocking matter that is being
discussed all over India these days caught my attention also. Seventeen girls
were raped last month in the state of Haryana in North India. Haryana is the
state where I lived three years working with my colleagues in the village. We were
mainly concentrated on working for the upliftment of the women. (Haryana is the
state famous for female feticide as the census 2011 terms the female male ratio
as 830 females to 1000 males). So this news affected me. Later I went into the
matter more and then I read in other reports that from 2007 an average of fifty
women are raped every month here[1].
Most of them who are raped are Dalit[2]
(low caste) women.
More than the shocking news, I was
astonished, startled and disappointed to hear the solutions put forward by the
Khap Panjayaths[3]. (It is a social political
administration or organization which tries to protect the caste rules and
imposed regulations of the society. They are mainly in the states of Rajasthan,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh).
The solutions are very strange and they
never address about the inequality of women and the caste discrimination. Some
of the solutions were the following.
Marry off the girls at an age of 15.
Stop eating fast foods, as these foods
increase the sexual hormones in women.
Teach the girls some self-defense
techniques such as Judo, karate, etc.
Child marriage[4]
So bizarre, unreasonable, foolish and
illogical are the solutions. Still they are blaming heavily the victims of rape
for the incidents. Even one Haryana Congress leader Dharambir Goyat[5]
blamed women telling that 90% of rapes occur due to consensual sex. West Bengal
state chief minister Mamta Banerjee[6]
said that Rapes are happening because men and women are interacting more
freely. And so in this pattern goes the blame.
But no one except the NGO workers and
social activists demand to punish the rapists. No one thinks of doing anything
to eradicate the social inequality or to make rules to stop oppressing low
caste people by the high caste people.
The dream of equality of women and
social equality among all people still remains in the words of constitution
which came into force in 1949. So the untouchability and discrimination exists
in most parts of India, especially in North India. I am also a witness and
victim to this to a certain extent when I was in North India engaging in the
social work. Thank the rapists, at least they treat Dalit women without any
discrimination and touch too much. Crazy world.
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