December Issue

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
WORLD
UN appeals for $22.5 bn
humanitarian aid for 2018
United Nations, The United
Nations has appealed for a
record $ 22.5 billion in humanitarian
aid for 2018.
The global aid appeal aims to
raise funds to help 91 million of
the world’s most vulnerable people,
out of 136 million in need, a
UN statement said on Friday,
BBC reported. More than $10
billion is needed to address the
humanitarian crises in Syria and
Yemen alone, it added. The UN
also said needs are rising substantially
in a number of African
countries. Driven by conflicts in
Africa and the Middle East, the
number of people in need of
New Delhi : When it comes to tweeting,
former US President Barack Obama has
some advice for all, including the current
President Donald Trump — think hard
before you tweet and don’t just post thoughts
as they appear in your mind.
According to Obama, you must think
before you open your mouth, you must ponder
over before you tweet and should not
allow the first thing that pops into your head
to become your thought to the world. “I have
many more followers on Twitter than those
who use the social media tool more often.
We should be mindful of the power the social
media tools have and must post after weighing
thoughts carefully,” Obama told the gathering
at the HT Leadership Summit here on
Friday.
Obama has 97.4 million followers on the
micro-blogging platform while Trump has
43.7 million followers.
Taking an apparent jibe at Trump who is
famous for introducing typos and spelling
errors in his tweets, though without naming
him, Obama said: “Remember your parents
humanitarian aid has increased
by more than 5 per cent, according
to UN co-ordinator Mark
Lowcock. The targeted fund is a
1 per cent increase on the
amount requested last year. By
the end of November, the agency
had raised nearly $13 billion —
which the UN says is record levels
of funding. More than a third
of the fund requested is to
address the needs created by the
devastating civil war in Syria:
$3.5 billion to provide humanitarian
aid inside the war-ravaged
country and $4.2 billion to help
the 5.4 million registered Syrian
refugees in neighbouring countries.
In Yemen, which is facing
the world’s worst humanitarian
Think before you tweet : Obama’s
advice apparently to Trump
when it comes to tweet —
think first and post later.
Before I tweet, I do spell
check and use punctuation
tool and don’t forget to put
period at the end of the sentence,”
Obama chuckled.
Trump, who has been
tweeting round the clock,
has grabbed global attention
for typos and spelling errors,
like “unpresidented act,”
“honered” or the most hilarious
one “covfefe” (that
meant coverage).
“Think before you tweet so that you do
not need to delete it later,” Obama told the
gathering during a question and answer session
with seasoned journalist Karan Thapar.
According to Obama, the habit of tweeting
casually about sensitive subjects which may
affect millions was not a healthy practice.
“Don’t just say ‘climate change is a hoax’ on
Twitter as it shuts all doors to debate, to evaluate
for various stakeholders. It is difficult
for a democracy to work in
that situation. If you say it is
a hoax then there is no way
we can build bridges,”
Obama emphasised.
Trump has been issuing
periodic statements, affirming
his belief that man-made
climate change is a myth.
“We need to do deep
analysis with all stakeholders
around the concerned
topic and then evaluate it
collectively. Don’t just
scratch the surface and
tweet,” Obama added. On a question of how
the media is becoming biased, Obama said:
“This is part of a trend globally. In the US,
Fox News and The New York Times have
completely different viewpoints. If I watch
Fox News, I won’t even vote for me! The
NYT is doing things in its own ways,”
Obama said. Fox News is tilted towards
Trump while the NYT continues to question
Trump and his policies.
crisis, the UN says $2.5 billion is
needed to assist those most desperately
in need. The UN has
acknowledged they aim to cover
the needs of only half of the 20
million people in Yemen who are
in need of urgent humanitarian
assistance. Eleven million of
those are children and 400,000
are affected by severe acute malnutrition.
Each of Congo,
Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia,
South Sudan and Sudan are in
need of more than a billion dollars
of aid to assist the most vulnerable.
The UN statement also
said that in some other countries,
including Afghanistan, Ethiopia,
Iraq, Mali, and Ukraine, humanitarian
needs have declined.
Ockhi raises questions over Kerala's disaster preparedness
KERALA : Cyclone Ockhi
not only left a trail of destruction
across South Kerala, but also
raised questions over the State’s
preparedness to deal with major
natural calamities affecting tens
of thousands of families. Even as
the Coast Guard, Navy, and Air
Force began efforts to rescue
over 150 fishermen reported
missing at sea, coastal communities
allege that the storm had
exposed fundamental flaws in
the State’s disaster management
system. They are demanding
action against the State Disaster
Management Authority (SDMA)
for the failure to provide warning
in time. The Kerala
Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali
Federation and National
Fishworkers Forum alleged that
the disaster management set up
in the State had failed to respond
to the situation. Friends of
Marine Life, a city-based NGO,
said the SDMA was guilty of
having ignored the warnings
issued by the India Met
Department. According to
Robert Panipilla, coordinator,
FML, efforts to rescue fishermen
were launched a full 40 hours
after the storm had started
wreaking havoc along the Kerala
coast. Countering the allegations,
a press note issued by the
SDMA said the routine alerts on
strong winds and high waves
issued by the IMD and INCOIS
could not be taken for a disaster
situation. The SDMA kicks in
only after a cyclone has been
declared.
“Our Standard Operating
Procedure lays down clear
guidelines on when to declare an
emergency. This is to avoid creating
false alarms that could lull
vulnerable communities into
complacency,” it said.
The SDMA said the authority
had wasted no time in informing
the officials concerned and the
media about the cyclone. “Early
morning on Thursday, the IMD
had announced the formation of
a depression 270 km south east
of Kanyakumari. There was no
cyclone warning for the State. A
second bulletin at 8.30 a.m.
showed that the system had
intensified into a deep depression
over Comorin and a cyclone
alert was issued for
Lakshadweep,’’ it said.
“It was only at 12 noon that
the IMD issued an Orange message
with a cyclone warning for
South Kerala. Immediately after,
the SDMA had issued a warning
to officials and the media, activated
the SOP and alerted emergency
services. By evening, the
Chief Minister convened a meeting
to coordinate and discuss the
arrangements,” it said.
December 2017
23
Senate
Republicans
release new
version of
tax bill
Washington : Senate
Republican leaders have
released a new version of their
tax plan that incorporates a
number of changes that lawmakers
sought in order to support
the bill, the media reported
on Saturday. The changes in
the “substitute amendment”
released by Senate Finance
Committee Chairman Orrin
Hatch on Friday night include
an increase in the deduction for
pass-through business income
from 17.4 per cent to 23 per
cent, reports The Hill magazine.
These changes are paid
for in several ways, including
the restoration of the alternative
minimum tax, which was
initially repealed in the bill.
The new version of the bill,
which stands at 479 pages, was
panned by Democrats for
being released close to the
final vote, without much time
to review.
Democrats received a copy
earlier in the day and noted
that it includes some handwritten
changes. Democrats
also criticised specific provisions
that were added to the
bill, such as one that they said
would benefit Wall Street and
another that they argued was
targeted to exempt conservative
Hillsdale College from an
excise tax on university
endowments.
Republican leaders were
racing on Thursday night and
Friday morning to find support
for the bill, hoping to avoid a
repeat of the health care bill
debacle earlier this year that
left them empty handed.
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