19-25 February 2018 - 16 new-min

NEW DELHI TIMES 

R.N.I. No 53449/91 DL-SW-01/4124/17-19 (Monday/Tuesday same week) (Published Every Monday) New Delhi Page 16 Rs. 7.00 

19 - 25 February, 2018 Vol - 28 No. 3 Email : info@newdelhitimes.com Founder : Dr. Govind Narain Srivastava ISSN -2349-1221 

erik solheim 

‘Modiism legacy’ transcends 

diplomacy to a new level 

Modi becomes first Indian PM to visit Palestine 

Palestine seeks Russia’s support 

over Jerusalem 

NDT Bureau 

Page 12 

erik solheim 

Teacher Professionalism 

Mark Parkinson 

Page 12 

NDT Special Bureau 

Page 2 

Facts about Food Muslims eat 

Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi 

Page 14 

Why should we practice mindfulness 

meditation 

Dr. Pramila Srivastava 

Page 13 

Improving Sino-Japanese relations; 

lessons for India 

Dr. Ankit Srivastava 

Page 3 

Is Canada home to anti-India Sikh 

extremists? 

Tarek Fatah 

Page 2 

1 

twitter@NewDelhiTimes 

facebook.com/newdelhitimes 

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2 

19 - 25 February, 2018 

N 

Editorial 


‘Modiism legacy’ transcends diplomacy to a new level 

◆◆ 

By NDT Special Bureau 

@NewDelhiTimes 

info@newdelhitimes.com 

arendra Modi became the first Indian 

Prime Minister to visit the occupied 

West Bank for talks with Palestinian president 

Mahmud Abbas as part of a Middle East 

tour. He arrived at the West Bank city of 

Ramallah on February 10, 2018. 

Modi and his entourage flew in by helicopter 

from Jordan, landing near Abbas’s Ramallah 

headquarters. And the helicopters were 

provided by Palestine’s arch enemy Israel 

Is Canada home to anti-India Sikh extremists? 

◆◆ 

By Tarek Fatah 

Author & Columnist, Canada 

@TarekFatah 

tarek.fatah@gmail.com 

s Canada home to Sikh extremists 

I 

trying to pump fresh air into the dying 

embers of the so-called Khalistan movement 

that seeks the breaking up of India to create 

a separate Sikh country in Punjab? 

Are there such anti-India Sikhs in the federal 

cabinet and the Liberal Party and its Ontario 

wing? 

Mainstream Canadians outside the circus 

of identity politics could care less about 

the wholesale buying and selling at ethnic 

vote banks, but it’s time they should. India 

is no longer that far-away country of 1985 

when Air India 182 was blown out of the 

sky by Sikh extremists, killing 268 Canadian 

citizens among the 325 murdered over 

Ireland. 

Today’s India is not just a beacon of 

democracy in a sea of tyrants that govern 

much of Asia and Africa, but its economy 

is booming, as is the trade between our two 

countries. Fears expressed by New Delhi can 

no longer be ignored. If they are, it will be 

our loss in Canada. It has been reported that 

the current debate about Canada hosting Sikh 

extremists erupted when the popular Indian 

weekly, Outlook — in its Feb.12 edition — 

ran a cover story, featuring a photo of Prime 

Minister Justin Trudeau, wearing traditional 

orange Sikh handkerchief on his head. The 

headline on the cover read, “Khalistan-II: 

Made in Canada.” 

Sources in India tell me the Outlook edition 

Modi becomes first Indian PM to visit Palestine 

and were escorted by Israeli air force! That 

denotes diplomacy of the highest order. 

Modi’s Palestine visit came weeks after 

he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu in Delhi. Critics view the 

Ramallah visit as New Delhi’s keenness 

to balance its strengthening ties with the 

Jewish state. New Delhi has long backed 

the Palestinian territories’ quest for 

nationhood. Modi has also voiced support 

for an independent state existing peacefully 

alongside Israel. During the wonderful 

meeting, both Indian and Palestinian leaders 

discussed the full range of India-Palestine 

ties including information technology, health 

story came only after the government of 

India and Indo-Canadians noticed a sudden 

spike in anti-India extremist activities at Sikh 

temples across Canada. In one such step, 

Indian diplomats were barred from entering 

any Sikh temple anywhere in Canada. 

In his bilateral meeting with Trudeau on 

the sidelines of the recent World Economic 

Forum meeting in Switzerland, Indian Prime 

Minister Narendra Modi asked Trudeau 

to curb the rise of pro-Khalistan groups in 

Canada. 

The Outlook report includes a Q and 

A segment with Punjab Chief Minister 

Amarinder Singh, who last April refused 

to meet with Canada’s Defence Minister 

Harjit Sajan, calling him a “Khalistani 

sympathizer” — an allegation denied by 

Sajan. 

In a condescending rebuttal, Sajan said: 

“Canadians have the right to express 

(viewpoints), it’s called freedom of speech.” 

Hopefully, Trudeau read the gist of the 

Outlook story and paid heed to Modi’s 

request in Davos. Ideally, Trudeau should 

make an emphatic statement in Delhi on 

behalf of the Canadian state, denouncing 

anyone or any group that uses Canadian soil 

to cause harm to the integrity of India. Of 

course individual Canadians —extremist 

Sikhs and their Pakistani-Canadian allies 

— are free to speak and protest, but the 

Canadian government and its MPs cannot be 

seen as being soft in their approach to this 

menace. 

No longer should Trudeau or any Canadian 

politician send felicitation to events where 

and tourism. Modi was also the first Indian 

leader in history to visit Israel in July last 

year. 

Both Israel and India had then signed 

deals on cyber security and energy. India’s 

shocking refusal to support the United 

States move to recognise Jerusalem as 

Israel’s capital no doubt disappointed Israel 

but it was in perfect alignment with India’s 

support for the Palestinians. 

The Gulf is a critical region for New Delhi 

as more than half oil and energy supplies to 

India is sourced from the region. There is 

another huge stake here. 

A major part of Indian Diasporas - around 

nine million Indians - live and work here 

who send home billions of dollars in 

remittances annually that provides copious 

foreign exchange to Indian economy. 

Modi’s stand on Jerusalem in United Nations 

and subsequent Ramallah visit proves his 

capability for independent decision making 

on Palestine without being influenced by 

Israel. 

It is welcome that Palestinians have heartily 

welcomed Modi, regarded him a World 

Leader, awarding him with the highest 

Civilian award of the land! It is rumoured 

that Modi could very well have carried some 

special package from Netanyahu. Given 

the limited representative credentials of 

Mahmood Abbas - he was elected 16 years 

Sikh extremists parade floats glorifying 

Sikh militant leaders. For example, on April 

30, Trudeau addressed a parade for ‘Khalsa 

Day’, which included floats glorifying Sikh 

militant leaders Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 

Amreek Singh and former general Shahbeg 

Singh who were killed in the siege of the 

Golden Temple and Operation Bluestar in 

June 1984. 

What I have gathered after speaking to 

many senior level Indian academics and 

politicians on both sides of the political 

divide is that India expects nothing short 

of a complete break between the Liberal 

Party and the opposition politicians and the 

Khalistan movement — not just in theory, 

but in practise, too. 

But early indications from the itinerary for 

Trudeau’s state visit to India on Feb. 17- 23 

show the Canadian prime minister will not 

deviate the script of using his trip to cajole 

the Sikh vote bank by donning a ceremonial 

headdress and paying a visit to the Golden 

Temple in Amritsar. 

One Canadian Sikh lawyer in Brampton 

expressed her indignation at how Canadian 

politicians of all stripes use visits to the 

Golden Temple as a vote-getting tactic. “It 

is demeaning to Canada’s Sikhs that Mr. 

Trudeau seeks our votes not by arguing 

the merits of his policy platforms, but by 

dressing up to mimic Sikh identity and 

visit our holiest shrine in India,” she added, 

requesting anonymity. 

Perhaps someone in the PMO noticed that 

Trudeau could massage another vote bank in 

Canada if he paid a visit to a mosque. So 

ago and there have been no elections since. 

Modi’s initiative could lack the requisite 

traction. 

Modi - the master strategist and truly an 

outstanding world leader - is also a great 

statesman who has made India relevant 

on the international scene through a smart 

foreign policy. He has redefined diplomacy 

in the Middle East. 

The extraordinary diplomat in him has 

excelled in keeping both Israel and Palestine 

engaged. The world hopes that he even 

goes on to solve this long standing issue to 

bring peace to the region. His opponents 

unjustifiably criticize him but here is a man, 

who means business, always! Words may not 

be enough to appreciate his achievements. 

All this required a deft act of balancing Indian 

foreign policy, out-of-the-box diplomacy 

and lots of guts to maintain relationship with 

two countries that are constantly at war with 

each other. Good relations with everyone 

are the key to peaceful existence. World is 

curious to see more of Modi. 

Modi truly has great leadership qualities 

and is adept at taking intrepid decisions that 

makes him relevant; a man for all seasons 

who invariably stays on top of things. 

Detractors may disagree but he is the Prime 

Minister any country would be proud of. He 

has made international diplomacy an art of 

having all as friends. His diplomatic persona 

assures to leave ‘Modiism’ as a new legacy! 

the initial itinerary released in Jan. 22 was 

changed on Feb. 7 to include a visit to the 

majestic Jama Mosque in Delhi. 

It will be fascinating to see Mr Trudeau 

lecture the mosque’s clerics about genderequality 

after Syed Yahya Bukhari, president 

of the Jama Masjid United Forum, lashed 

out recently at a Muslim woman who led a 

mixed-gender congregation in the southern 

state of Kerala. Which begs the question: If 

Trudeau is so enamoured by Sikhism and 

Islam, why doesn’t he abandon his Catholic 

faith and join our ranks? And if he is still 

a Catholic, why is he not visiting a single 

one of the many historic Catholic churches 

of India? 

Sanjay Dixit, a senior Indian government 

officer who has served as an election 

observer in the Punjab elections of 2014 

told me that there is no appetite for an 

independent Khalistan among the Sikhs of 

Punjab. 

It is also intriguing that the banner men 

of Khalistan in Canada and the Ontario 

legislature keep feeding young Sikhs 

about the immense injustice committed on 

the Sikhs of Delhi in 1984 when tens of 

thousands are said to have been killed by 

roaming mobs. This is done to stir hatred 

against Hindus in Canada and India. 

One last message to Trudeau: India has 

arrested three would-be assassins who 

came to India to kill a Canadian journalist 

working in Delhi. Could you please find 

out more from the Indian authorities since 

your High Commissioner to India, Mr Nadir 

Patel, seems uninterested in the fate of this 

Canadian? 

www.NewDelhiTimes.com 

India’s only International Newspaper

19 - 25 February, 2018 3 

D 

D 

Editorial 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Ankit Srivastava 

Editor - in - Chief 

@AnkitNDT 

ankits@newdelhitimes.com 


Improving Sino-Japanese relations; lessons for India 

uring the visit of Japanese Prime 

Minister Shinzo Abe to India in the 

later part of 2017, there was much talk 

of coming together of both countries to 

counter-balance China. Things changed fast 

and furious in next couple of months. China 

and Japan now show increasing signs of 

bonhomie. 

Preceding Abe’s India visit, Japan’s ruling 

party leader headed a delegation to the 

Belt and Road Forum for International 

Cooperation in May 2017. In December 2017 

another ruling leader attended the China-Japan 

ruling party exchanges mechanism in Xiamen 

that had the Belt and Road and China-Japan 

cooperation on the agenda. Both Japanese 

leaders met Abe in January, 2018 to talk 

through Japan’s strategy and reportedly 

suggested Fujian Province to be testing 

ground for Sino-Japan Japan cooperation 

on the Belt and Road initiative. Japanese 

Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited Beijing 

on 28th January to help improve bilateral 

ties further. 

Both the countries do not share the best of 

relations; irritants like the Diaoyu Islands 

and other historical disputes are too many. 

Both show keenness to formulate and 

implement an agenda for cooperation to 

resolve such issues. 

The Shinzo Abe government was indifferent 

◆◆By NDT Bureau 



and even negative toward the Chinese 

overtures on Belt and Road initiative. Japan 

has not yet joined the China-initiated Asian 

Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). But 

Abe is now showing willingness to join the 

Belt and Road initiative for cooperation. 

Japanese enterprises are also showing enhanced 

interest in the Belt and Road initiative and 

willing to work with Chinese companies in 

many infrastructure projects in Asia. 

The Japanese are working with Chinese 

manufacturer of solar power modules at 

a massive solar project in the United Arab 

Emirates to bring down power generation 

costs. Japanese company Nippon Yusen is 

interested in working together with Chinese 

companies in the operation of Hambantota, a 

China-built port in southern Sri Lanka. 

Japan is yet to join the AIIB, but exhibits 

flexibility to work with the bank. Since 

commencement of the AIIB operations in 

January 2016, its membership has increased 

from 57 to 84, investments poured into 24 

infrastructure projects in 12 countries, and 

loans exceeded $4.2 billion. 

Japan - led Asian Development Bank estimates 

that infrastructure development cost in Asia 

over the next 15 years could be staggering 

Photo Credit : Shutterstock 

$26 trillion, hence the China-based AIIB 

could be an ally, not rival, in financing those 

infrastructure projects. ADB and AIIB have 

already undertaken co - financing of four 

infrastructure projects in India, Bangladesh, 

Georgia and Pakistan amounting to $805 

million. 

China calculates that Japan’s participation 

in the Belt and Road initiative could benefit 

Beijing. The Development Research Center 

of the State Council puts the total funding 

requirement of Belt and Road infrastructure 

during 2016 to 2020 at $10.6 trillion. 

Japan’s participation would lessen China’s 

burden, enhancing thereby the financing 

sustainability of Belt and Road projects. 

Chinese companies can pick up lessons on 

corporate social responsibility, from their 

Japanese enterprises that have long operated 

in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and South 

Asia. After Bangkok and Jakarta protests 

against Japanese economic dominance in 

the 1970s, Japanese Prime Minister Takeo 

Fukuda pronounced in 1977 the doctrine of 

cooperation with South-East Asian countries. 

As equal partner, Japan contributed more to 

the local economy over last four decades and 

built a positive image for itself in countries 

along the Belt and Road route. Now China 

wants to cash on the Japanese goodwill to 

alleviate the fear of Belt and Road countries 

of being economically too dependent on 

China. Hambantota is not forgotten yet. 

Enmity notwithstanding, China is hell 

bent on improving relations with Japan to 

secure cooperation on the Belt and Road 

initiative. There is lesson here for India too. 

Economy and trade, not the membership of 

any regional grouping, should be the prime 

driver of our economic and foreign policy. 

Kabul is promptly losing control over territories 

in Taliban-infested Afghanistan 

espite US fight against terror in Afghanistan, 

it is a matter of great worry that Taliban 

python is constantly devouring Afghan 

territories. In fact, an official US report 

released on 30th January revealed steady 

decline in the number of districts controlled 

or influenced by the Afghan government 

since 2009. Conversely, the number of 

districts controlled or influenced by the 

militants has been rising. 

John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for 

Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in his 

report to the US Congress expressed concern 

that that this worrisome fact has disappeared 

from public disclosure and discussion. Set 

up in 2008 under a congressional mandate, 

SIGAR has been sending quarterly reports to 

Congress since 2009 on the US involvement 

in Afghanistan. 

The US Department of Defence (DOD) has 

classified the figures for Afghan National 

Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) 

reconstruction instructing SIGAR not to 

release the data this quarter, even classifying 

and restricting information revealed in earlier 

SIGAR reports on ANDSF performance 

such as casualties, attrition, and capability 

assessments. SIGAR’s latest report indicates 

that the expanded authorities given to US 

forces in Afghanistan under new Afghan 

strategy of August have significantly 

increased US air strikes and special 

operations in support of the Afghan security 

forces. 

Afghan security forces are using A-29 

aircraft, supported by US Air Force B-52s, 

F/A-18s, A-10 Thunderbolts and F-22 

Raptors. The ammunitions US dropped in 

October 2017 marked a threefold increase 

from October 2016. 

The civilian casualties caused by sustained 

air campaign erodes support for the Afghan 

government while enhancing support for the 

insurgency. The recent United Nations report 

estimated over 8,000 civilian casualties 

between January and September 2017; 

October and November being two deadliest 

months due to precise munitions delivery of 

250-pound bombs from the most advanced 

fighter aircraft F-22. 

The US casualties also doubled in the first 

11 months of 2017.The ANDSF experienced 

a decrease in casualties from insider attacks 

but American casualties from insider attacks 

have increased. 

These air strikes are yet to increase 

Kabul’s control over its population. The 

press briefing of Gen John Nicholson- the 

commander of US forces in Afghanistanconceded 

in November 2017 that 64 per 

cent of the Afghan population was under 

government control or influence, 12 per cent 

under insurgents and remaining 24 per cent 

are contested. 

The Afghan government has an unachievable 

goal of controlling 80 per cent of population 

within the next two years. Opium sale 

finances Taliban insurgency. SIGAR said 

that despite $8.7 billion in US aid for 

counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, land 

under opium cultivation increased 63 per 

cent and opium production increased 87 per 

cent; both all-time highs. 

The Frankenstein’s monster of insurgency 

unleashed by US in 1980s is now out to 

devour the creator. Washington needs to 

commit more to drag Kabul out of the 

monstrous grip it finds itself in. 

India’s only International Newspaper 


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T 

World 

UK unveils new 

technology to fight 

extremist content online 

he British government is unveiling 

new technology designed to remove 

extremist material from social media, 

amid mounting pressure on companies like 

Facebook and Twitter to do more to remove 

such content from their platforms. 

The software, developed by ASI Data 

Science with funding from the government, 

was announced by Home Secretary Amber 

Rudd ahead of meetings with technology 

executives and U.S. Secretary of Homeland 

Security Kirstjen Nielsen this week in 

Silicon Valley. The program will be shared 

with smaller companies that don’t have the 

resources to develop such technology, the 

agency said. 

“I hope this new technology the Home Office 

has helped develop can support others to go 

further and faster,” Rudd said before the 

meetings. “The purpose of these videos is to 

incite violence in our communities, recruit 

people to their cause, and attempt to spread 

fear in our society.” 

Governments and law enforcement agencies 

have been pressing social media companies 

to do more to prevent extremists from using 

their sites to promote violence and hatred. 

British Prime Minister Theresa May has 

called on internet companies to remove 

extremist propaganda from their sites in less 

than two hours. 

But extremist content is only one type of 

objectionable content on the internet, with 

governments struggling to stem the flow 

of everything from child pornography to 

so-called fake news. The importance of the 

battle was underscored during the 2016 U.S. 

presidential election, during which Russian 

entities sought to influence to outcome by 

placing thousands of ads on social media 

that reached some 10 million people on 

Facebook alone. 

Social media companies have struggled 

to respond. Because the companies see 

themselves not as publishers but as platforms 

for other people to share information, they 

have traditionally been cautious about 

taking down material. 

Amid growing pressure, Facebook, Twitter, 

Google and its unit YouTube last year 

created the Global Internet Forum to Combat 

Terrorism, which says it is committed 

to developing new content-detection 

technology, helping smaller companies 


Photo Credit : AP Photo 

combat extremism and promoting “counterspeech,” 

content meant to blunt the impact 

of extremist material. 

Unilever, a global consumer products 

company and one of the world’s largest 

advertisers has demanded results, saying it 

wouldn’t advertise on platforms that do not 

make a positive contribution to society. Its 

chief marketing officer, Keith Weed, said 

he’s told Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snap, 

and Amazon that Unilever wants to change 

the conversation. 

“Consumers ... care about fraudulent 

practice, fake news, and Russians 

influencing the U.S. election,” he said at a 

digital advertising conference, according to 

excerpts of a speech provided by Unilever. 

“They don’t care about good value for 

advertisers. But they do care when they see 

their brands being placed next to ads funding 

terror, or exploiting children.” 

So far, though, the technology needed 

to detect and remove dangerous posts 

hasn’t kept up with the threat, experts say. 

Removing such material still requires 

judgment, and artificial intelligence has 

not proved good enough to determine the 

difference, for example, between an article 

about the so-called Islamic State and posts 

from the group itself. 

The software being unveiled is 

aimed at stopping the vast bulk of 

material before it goes online. 

Marc Warner, CEO ASI Data 

Science, which helped developed 

the technology, said the social 

media giants can’t solve this 

problem alone. 

“The way to fight that is to cut the 

propaganda off at the source,” he 

said. “We need to prevent all of 

these horrible videos ever getting 

to the sort of people that can be 

influenced by them.” 

Tests of the program show it can identify 94 

percent of IS propaganda videos, according 

to the Home Office, which provided some 

600,000 pounds ($833,000) to fund the 

software’s development. 

But experts on extremist material say even if 

the software works perfectly it will not even 

come close to removing all Islamic State 

material on line. 

Charlie Winter, Senior Research Fellow at 

the International Center for the Study of 

Radicalization at King’s College London, 

said the program only focuses on video and 

video is only a small portion of “the Islamic 

state corpus.” 

“I think it’s a positive step but it shouldn’t 

be considered a solution the problem,” he 

said. “There’s so much more that needs to 

be done.” 

Credit : Associated Press (AP) 


US intel sees signs of Russian 

meddling in midterms 

T 

hree of the nation’s top intelligence 

officials confirmed that they have 

seen evidence of Russian meddling in 

the upcoming midterm elections — part 

of what they say is Moscow’s escalating 

cyber assault on American and European 

democracies. 

“We have seen Russian activity and 

intentions to have an impact on the next 

election cycle,” CIA Director Mike Pompeo 

told the Senate intelligence committee. 

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats 

and Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the 

National Security Agency, agreed that 

Russia’s interference is ongoing. “This is not 

going to change or stop,” Rogers said. 

They didn’t describe the activity, other 

than to say it was related to information 

warfare. “This is pervasive,” Coats said. 

“The Russians have a strategy that goes 

well beyond what is happening in the United 

States. While they have historically tried to 

do these types of things, clearly in 2016 they 

upped their game. They took advantage, a 

sophisticated advantage of social media. 

They are doing that not only in the United 

States but doing it throughout Europe 

and perhaps elsewhere.” U.S. intelligence 

concluded Moscow interfered in the 2016 

presidential election, which has led to the 

current FBI investigation into possible 

Trump campaign connections. Russia denies 

the allegations and President Donald Trump 

has called the FBI probe a witch hunt. 

The three testified in Congress on the same 

day that the intelligence community released 

its annual report on global threats. The report 

predicted Russian intelligence agencies 

will disseminate more false information 

over Russian state-controlled media and 

through fake online personas to spread anti- 

American views and exacerbate social and 

political divides in the United States. 

Pompeo had said earlier that he expected that 

P 

Russia would insert itself in the midterms in 

which Republicans and Democrats will vie 

for control of the House and Senate. And last 

week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told 

Fox News that the U.S. is seeing “certain 

behaviors” of Russian meddling in elections 

in the Northern Hemisphere, including “in 

the U.S.” this year. But the latest testimony 

actually confirmed that it is occurring. 

Coats said the details of any meddling needs 

to be shared with the American people. He 

said there should be a national outcry — that 

people need to stand up and say, “We’re not 

going to allow some Russian to tell us how 

to vote, how to run our country.” 

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking 

Democrat on the committee, said it’s been 

more than a year since the 2016 election, but 

the U.S. still has no plan to battle foreign 

interference in elections. He criticized 

Trump for not issuing more sanctions against 

Russia in response to the meddling. 

“He hasn’t even tweeted a single concern,” 

Warner said. It’s unclear what the U.S. is 

doing covertly to battle back. 

But Coats acknowledged that the U.S. 

is “behind the curve” in coming up with 

policies to penalize those who hack 

America’s critical infrastructure, interfere 

with elections, undermine the government 

or hit financial institutions. 

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said he thinks 

the American people are better prepared to 

deal with Russian influence campaigns in 

the upcoming midterms and beyond. They 

have started to look askance at social media 

and attempts to influence their opinion, he 

said. 

“The American people are smart people,” 

Risch said. “They realize that there’s 

people attempting to manipulate them, both 

domestically and foreign.” 


Polish PM pledges $10 m in aid to 

Syrian refugees in Lebanon 

oland’s prime minister has visited a 

school and clinic for Syrian refugees 

in northern Lebanon, reiterating his 

country’s position that aiding those uprooted 

by the war should take place closer to their 

home. 

A statement issued by Mateusz Morawiecki’s 

office said he has declared $10 million 

to help Lebanon build housing for 1,000 

refugees from Syria. 

Morawiecki said aid to refugees close to the 

countries they want to return to is the most 

efficient form of aid. 

Citing security concerns, Poland’s conservative 

government rejected a European Union plan 

to distribute refugees currently in Greece 

and Italy to countries around Europe. 

Poland has come under criticism and 

warning of sanctions from EU leaders. 

Lebanon hosts over 1 million Syrian refugees 

and asks the international community to 

share the burden. 





World 

Kosovo president slams 

international war crimes court 

K 

osovo’s president has called an 

international war crimes court 

with jurisdiction over potential Kosovar 

suspects a “historical injustice,” adding his 

government only reluctantly accepted it as 

the “price for its liberty.” 

In an interview with The Associated Press 

ahead of the 10th anniversary of Kosovo 

declaring independence from Serbia, 

Hashim Thaci slammed the court, based in 

The Hague, Netherlands, as akin to creating 

a court to judge Jews who were persecuted 

Special Chambers, to confront allegations 

that fighters with the Kosovo Liberation 

Army committed war crimes against ethnic 

Serbs from 1998 to 2000. The court, which 

has jurisdiction over Kosovo citizens, has 

yet to hear any cases. 

U.S Ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie 

said that the court was meant to provide 

justice to the victims. 

“The special court is not about whether the 

Kosovo Liberation Army struggle was right 

T 


US warns EU against defense 

market protectionism 

he United States is warning the 

European Union not to use its 

deepened military cooperation as an excuse 

to protect Europe’s defense industry, saying 

such practices could undermine NATO. 

The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey 

Hutchison, said that “we do not want this 

(cooperation) to be a protectionist vehicle 

for EU.” 

She said Washington is “going to watch 

carefully, because if that becomes the case 

then it could splinter the strong security 

alliance that we have.” 

by the Nazis in World War II. 

“Kosovo held a defensive war for its 

existence as a nation and attacked no one,” 

he said. “We have nothing to hide.” 

Kosovo’s bloody war for independence 

ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign 

in June 1999, which stopped a bloody 

Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian 

separatists. The war left 13,000 dead and 

20,000 Albanian women raped, according to 

Thaci. 

Under U.S. and European pressure, Kosovo’s 

government agreed in 2015 to set up the 

Kosovo war crimes court, known as the 

Italy court sends 

right-to-die case to 

Constitutional Court 

A 

court in Milan has asked Italy’s 

Constitutional Court to rule in the 

case of a right-to-die advocate who brought 

a well-known DJ to an assisted suicide clinic 

in Switzerland to die after he was paralyzed 

in a car crash. 

or not, if the KLA was good or was bad. It 

is about crimes committed by individual 

people against other individual people and 

the victims were all ethnic groups,” he told 

the AP. Thaci said war crimes by the Serb 

army, paramilitary and police have remained 

uninvestigated. Some Kosovar lawmakers 

tried last year to amend the law and extend 

the court’s jurisdiction over Serbs, their 

former adversaries in the war, but they 

appear to have stopped the efforts since. 

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia 

in 2008, recognized by 115 nations but not 

by Serbia. 



EU leaders — 22 of whose nations are also 

members of the U.S.-led NATO alliance 

— agreed last year to jointly develop or 

purchase military equipment like drones. 

Washington is concerned now that the 

bidding process might exclude U.S. firms. 

EU countries also drew up a list of criteria 

and binding commitments to set their 

cooperation in stone, rather than rely on 

the vaguer promises of the past. On top 

of that, they agreed to use EU funds to 

finance Europe’s battle-groups — small, 

expeditionary forces that can rapidly be 

deployed to crisis hotspots. 

Hutchison called for a transparent contract 

bidding process. “We want the Europeans 

to have capabilities and strength, but not 

to fence off American products of course, 

or Norwegian products, or potentially U.K. 

products (once Britain leaves the bloc),” she 

said. 

NATO and the EU have been trumpeting 

their cooperation on things like crisis 

management, the development of military 

equipment, maritime security and coping 

with hybrid warfare and cyberthreats. 

They have constantly underlined that their 

aim is to complement, rather than compete 

with, each other. 

“More European defense spending and 

capabilities can strengthen NATO and 

contribute to fairer burden-sharing, but 

only if the EU’s efforts are developed as 

a complement and not an alternative to 

NATO,” alliance Secretary-General Jens 

Stoltenberg said on 13th February, on the 

eve of a meeting between U.S. Defense 

Secretary Jim Mattis and his European and 

Canadian counterparts in Brussels. 

A senior Pentagon official also said that 

Washington is concerned that EU defense 

cooperation might eventually draw resources 

away from NATO, which the U.S. and allies 

like Britain see as Europe’s top security 

apparatus. 

“Thus far we don’t see signs that that is 

actually going to be a concern,” said the 

official, Katie Wheelbarger. “But we just 

want to make sure that there has to be full 

transparency, so it’s implemented right, so, 

therefore, future initiatives will be based on 

a positive example.” 



Marco Capaldo said that he was grateful 

that the Constitutional Court might finally 

establish that Italians have a right to die. 

Capaldo, a lawmaker with the Radical 

party, helped bring Fabbio Antoniani, a disc 

jockey known professionally as DJ Fabo, to 

Switzerland in February 2017 after he asked 

to die. 

Antoniani had been left paralyzed, blind and 

unable to breathe on his own after a 2014 car 

accident. 

Euthanasia is illegal in Italy, but several 

high-profile right-to-die cases in recent years 

have put the issue on the political agenda. 




6 


Delhi/NCR News 

Delhi HC orders IndiGo, SpiceJet 

D 

to shift operations to T-2 




elhi High Court has asked Indigo, 

Spicejet airlines to partially shift 

operations from Terminal 1 (T1) to Terminal 

2 (T2) at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) 

Airport. 

A bench of judges comprising of Justice 

Hima Kohli and justice Rekha Palli, however, 

directed IndiGo and SpiceJet to approach 

Delhi International Airport Ltd within a 

week.The airport regulator shall in another 

week decide when the airlines have to shift 

their operations. 

The bench, however, gave one last 

opportunity to the two airlines to suggest 

any other sector that they were willing to relocate, 

in place of the three prime sectors of 

Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru shortlisted 

by DIAL. “We grant a last opportunity 

of one week to IndiGo and SpiceJet to 

approach DIAL to suggest other sectors that 

they would be ready and willing to shift 

from T-1 to T-2, as long as they collectively 

meet the yardstick of one-third passenger 

traffic volumes of their operations at T-1. 

In the event such a request is received by 

DIAL within the stipulated timeline, the 

same shall be considered and a decision 

taken under written intimation to both the 

airlines within one week from the date of 

receipt”, the judgment reads. 

In case no such proposal is made, DIAL 

shall fix a deadline for shifting one-third of the 

flight operations of these airlines from T-1 

to T-2, under written intimation to them. 


Delhi Metro 

successfully 

conducts trial 

run on Pink line 

T 




he Delhi Metro has said that the trials 

and testing on the 20.6-kilometer long 

Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South 

Campus section of Pink Line of Phase 3 

has been successfully completed. In a press 

release dated 12 February, Delhi Metro Rail 

Corporation (DMRC) stated that The trials 

and testing on the 20.6 kilometre long Majlis 

Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus 

section of line 7 (Pink Line) of Phase 3 has 

been successfully completed and most of the 

mandatory clearances required for inviting 

the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety 

(CMRS) to inspect the section including 

Fire Safety Clearance, License for Working 

Lifts, Preliminary Independent Safety 

Assessment (ISA) Reports for Signalling 

and Platform Screen Doors, clearances from 

the Department of Telecommunications etc 

have been received by DMRC. The papers 

for scrutiny and detailed examination by 

CMRS are under submission to his office 

and after these are cross checked, examined 

and scrutinised in depth by the office of 

CMRS, further action is expected. 

In addition, since the application involves 

voluminous data of civil, electrical, 

signalling and track, DMRC may also have 

to supply any additional information further 

sought by the office of CMRS. After this 

entire process, it is expected that a suitable 

date for inspection of the section will be 

indicated”. 

The section has 12 stations including three 

interchange stations: Azadpur, Netaji 

Subhash Place and Rajouri Garden. The 

Metro train will also cross Dhaula Kuan at 

a height of 23.6 metres (as high as a seven 

storey building) to reach South Campus 

from Majlis Park. 

The construction of this section posed many 

challenges for the DMRC. As part of Delhi 

Metro’s one of the most challenging corridors 

of Phase 3, the construction of this section 

had to be completed by managing heavy 

traffic at various points on the Patparganj, 

Anand Vihar, Welcome, Jaffrabad and 

Maujpur. The construction in running drain, 

land acquisition at Patparganj, Anand Vihar, 

Welcome, Jaffrabad and Maujpur also posed 

a bottleneck during construction. Major 

utility diversions like shifting of water 

pipelines at Jaffrabad were avoided by realigning 

of station foundations. Electrical 

installations were shifted for the construction 

of Anand Vihar ISBT station. 




Delhi/NCR News 

SC to begin final hearing on Delhi 

unauthorised constructions in April 

T 




he Supreme Court has said it would 

start, from April 2, the final hearing 

on validity of the Delhi Laws (Special 

Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent 

legislation, which protects unauthorised 

construction from being sealed in the 

national capital. The apex court said that it 

will be a day-to-day hearing to decide the 

issue expeditiously. 

In December 2017, Indian Parliament passed a 

bill amending the National Capital Territory 

of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second 

Act, 2011. 

The 2011 Act providedfor the following: 

(i) relocating slum dwellers and Jhuggi- 

Jhompri clusters in accordance with the 

provisions of the Delhi Shelter Improvement 

Board Act, 2010 and the Master Plan for 

Delhi, 2021; (ii) regulating street vendors in 

accordance with the policy for street vendors 

outlined in the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021; 

(iii) regularising unauthorised colonies, 

village abadi areas (and their extensions); 

(iv) creating a policy for farm houses 

constructed beyond permissible limits, and 

(v) creating a policy or plan for all other 

areas of the National Capital Territory of 

Delhi in keeping with the Master Plan for 

Delhi, 2021. 

The Act sought to achieve this by December 

31, 2017. 

The Bill passed by Parliament has extended 

this deadline up to December 31, 2020.Till 

now; over 1,500 commercial establishments 

have been sealed across the city. 

A 




RTI reply show AAP’s expenditure 

four times that of previous govt 


ccording to a RTI reply the AAP 

government has spent an average of Rs 

70.5 crore annually in the past three years on 

advertisements -- four times more than the 

previous government`s expenditure on print, 

electronic and outdoor advertising. 

In the first year after assuming office 

in February 2015, the Arvind Kejriwal 

government spent Rs 59.9 crore on 

advertisements, Rs 66.3 crore the next year 

and Rs 85.3 crore up to December 31, 2017, 

the Directorate of Information and Publicity 

(DIP) said in a reply to an RTI. 

The average annual expenditure of the AAP 

government on advertisements from April 

2015 to December 2017 was Rs 70.5 crore. 

The Congress` average was Rs 17.4 crore in 

the last five years of its rule (2008-2013). 

In the run-up to celebrating its three years 

in office, the government in the first two 

weeks of February carried advertisements 

flashing pictures of the chief minister or 

other ministers. The highlights included 

inauguration of community toilets, 

excellence awards distribution for students, 

a government meeting on “smart gaon”, and 

invitation of applications for scholarship 

schemes. 

The AAP government’s spending on 

advertisements increased by about 300% 

compared to the Congress government, said 

the RTI reply. 

Refugees, human displacement dominate 

major Indian art fair 

A 

s you enter the maze, painted panels 

with portraits of suffering refugees line 

your path. The sound of crashing waves fills 

your ears. Light flickers. 

This is “The Flow,” an art installation by 

New Delhi-based artist Subba Ghosh, a work 

inspired by the world’s ongoing refugee 

crisis, and the millions of people driven 

from their homes by conflict and poverty. 

Human displacement, the suffering 

of refugees and the notion of identity 

dominated the 2018 India Art Fair, an 

important platform for contemporary artists 

that provides a carefully curated glimpse 

into the South Asian art scene through the 

years. 

The themes are universal, the artistic 

expressions deeply personal. 

the critically acclaimed Bangladeshi artist 

Tayeba Begum Lipi, looking inward is as 

important as looking outward. 

Known for hard-hitting work that draws on 

feminist issues and gender rights, Lipi uses 

stainless steel razor blades to create objects: 

a metallic mask, handcuffs, a clutch. 

the modern art masters who remain the bestsellers 

and account for most global sales of 

Indian art. Works by masters like F.N. Souza, 

Ram Kumar and M.F. Hussain remain much 

sought-after by art lovers, said gallery owner 

Nakul Chawla. 

Many of that generation of artists have died 

Female artists are increasingly fueling that 

growth. 

The India Art Fair celebrated the enigmatic 

Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher- 

Gil, one of India’s best-known modern 

artists, who died in 1941 at age 28, with 

a rare collection of photos of her taken 

by her father. Often called India’s Frida 

Kahlo, Sher-Gil’s work is among the most 

expensive by Indian female painters, and is 

a favorite with collectors. 

Art experts say that while men still dominate 

the top end of the Indian art market, women 

are beginning to sell at comparable prices. 

Among those women is Bharti Kher, who 

is known for using bindis, the decorative 

forehead dots worn by Indian women, in 

many of her works. 

Paintings, experimental photographs, abstract 

expressionist art and mixed-media projects 

pushed the boundaries of form, filling a 

sprawling fair grounds in the heart of the 

Indian capital. Seventy-eight galleries from 

18 countries participated in this year’s fair, 

which ended on 12th February. 

One of her pieces sold at auction last year 

for more than $150,000, the most expensive 

Indian contemporary artwork sold in 2017. 

Feroze Gujral, a New Delhi-based art patron 

and collector, said there was growing critical 

appreciation for female artists. 

The young Indian artist Sudipta Das hung 

200 paper sculptures of migrants from the 

ceiling, suspended in the air to symbolize 

their physical and emotional situation. The 

work, “Soaring to nowhere,” took more than 

two months to finish. 

A fourth generation Bangladeshi migrant, 

Das said her work not only visualizes the 

notion of belonging and identity for the 

dispossessed, but also captures the pain of 

their everyday lives. “Within that pain also 

they are living their life,” she said. For 

“Some part of my work is making objects 

and doing sculptures. Those are very much 

intimate with my own life,” she said. “When 

I work with the community, then gender is a 

big issue in my work.” 

The fair is deeply important to younger 

artists looking to make their names, but it’s 


or are no longer painting. “To get a hand on 

extremely priceless works is getting very 

hard,” Chawla said. 

According to the market analysis firm 

ArtTactic, the South Asian market grew by 

13 percent in 2017, with sales estimated at 

$223 million. 

“It’s really about output and work,” she said. 

While there are still fewer big-name female 

artists, they increasingly dominate the 

larger art world: heading art collectives and 

museums, managing artists and galleries, 

collecting, curating, representing auction 

houses. 

“They are everywhere,” said Das, the young 

Indian artist. 




8 


Neighbourhood News 


T 

B 

US Cautiously Welcomes Pakistan’s 

Actions Against Sanctioned Terrorists 

he United States has cautiously 

welcomed the steps Pakistan has taken 

this week to ban individuals and groups on 

the United Nations Security Council list of 

“terrorists.” But U.S. officials are not saying 

whether the move is enough for Washington 

to ease up on its push to add Pakistan to an 

international terrorism-financing watch list. 

“We look forward to additional information 

on how these steps are being implemented 

and what concrete steps are being taken to 

counter the groups, which is crucial,” a State 

Department spokesperson said. 

According to a Reuters report this week, 

the U.S. and Britain put forward a motion 

with the Financial Action Task Force, an 

international anti-money laundering watch 

group, to put Pakistan on its grey list. 

Later, the report said the two countries 

had convinced France and Germany to cosponsor 

it. 

A plenary meeting of the task force will 

begin in Paris on February 18. 

A senior Pakistani official said the country 

is complying with the UNSC regulations 

and is also briefing the member countries 

on the steps Pakistan is taking to address the 

terrorism financing issue. 

“Our envoys have already arrived in 

different member countries and briefing 

them,” the official added. 

Hafiz Saeed 

Of particular concern to the U.S. is Hafiz 

Saeed, and groups linked to him. Saeed is 

listed as a “terrorist” by the U.S. and the 

UNSC for his alleged involvement in 2008 

UK’s top diplomat meets Myanmar’s Suu Kyi on 

Rohingya crisis 

ritish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson 

met Myanmar leader Aung San Suu 

Kyi to discuss the Southeast Asian nation’s 

Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority and how 

almost 700,000 of them can be repatriated 

safely after fleeing to Bangladesh to escape 

violence perpetrated largely by Myanmar’s 

military. 

A statement from Myanmar’s Foreign 

Affairs Ministry said Johnson and Suu Kyi 

discussed repatriation and developments in 

Rakhine, the western Myanmar state from 

where the Rohingya have fled over the past 

few months. Johnson arrived in Myanmar 

from Bangladesh, where he visited with 

Rohingya refugees. 

“Discussed importance of Burmese 

authorities in carrying out full & independent 

investigation into the violence in #Rakhine 

& urgent need to create the right conditions 

for #Rohingya refugees to return to their 

homes in Rakhine,” Johnson wrote on his 

Twitter account of his meeting with Suu 

Kyi, who also serves as foreign minister. 

The meeting took place in Naypyidaw, 

Myanmar’s capital. The Rohingya have 

long faced severe discrimination and were 


terror attacks on the Indian financial capital 

Mumbai that killed more than 150 people, 

including Americans. The U.S. has a bounty 

of $10 million for information leading to his 

prosecution. 


Groups linked to Saeed, such as Lashkar 

e Taiba, which, according to the UNSC, 

morphed into Jamaat ud Dawa and later 

Falah i Insaniat Foundation, also are listed 

as terrorist entities accused of involvement 

in militancy in India and Afghanistan. 

Until now, Saeed, and the latter of these 

two groups, were on a terrorism watch list 

in Pakistan but not banned. They could 

raise funds and operate charitable entities. 

Saeed was put under house arrest by the 

government several times, but he managed 

to get relief from the courts who said there 

was not enough evidence to convict him. 

Pakistan amended its anti-terrorism law to 

automatically ban individuals and entities 

sanctioned by the UNSC. Pakistan’s Interior 

the targets of violence in 2012 that killed 

hundreds and drove about 140,000 people 

— predominantly Rohingya — from their 

homes to camps for the internally displaced, 

where most remained until last year’s fresh 

violence, the scale of which has led to 

accusations that Myanmar’s army carried 

out ethnic cleansing or even genocide. 

Myanmar’s government has denied carrying 

out any large-scale or organized abuses 

against the Rohingya. 

The government refuses to recognize the 

Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic 

minority. Most Rohingya are denied 

citizenship and its rights. 

“I pay tribute to the hospitality and 

compassion shown by the government of 

Bangladesh, who are facing an enormous 

challenge in providing humanitarian 

assistance to the Rohingya community,” 

Johnson said that after visiting Rohingya 

refugees at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, 

on the border with Myanmar. “While I 

welcome steps by both the Burmese and 

Bangladeshi governments towards ensuring 

that these people can return home, it is vital 

that the Rohingya refugees must be allowed 

Ministry issued a notice ordering a seizure of 

all assets, “movable, immovable, and human 

resource” associated with these groups. 

The government of the Punjab province, 

where the groups are headquartered, has 

started taking over seminaries and health 

facilities operated by JuD or FiF, according 

to local media reports. 

In January, the Securities and Exchange 

Commission of Pakistan issued a circular 

warning companies against donating money 

to entities sanctioned under UNSC. 

Terrorism finance list carries heavy penalty 

While the FATF does not have the power to 

sanction a country, getting on its grey list 

can put a tremendous financial burden on a 

country’s economy. 

Banks rely on a network of correspondent 

banks in multiple countries for international 

transactions. When a country is on the grey 

list, the correspondent banks become more 

wary of the monetary flow with them. 

To avoid landing in trouble for supporting 

terrorism financing or money laundering, 

they put in precautionary measures and 

the listed country’s banks have to pay the 

additional cost. 

“Every time your bank interacts with the 

outside world, the cost would go up,” said 

Khurram Hussain, a financial columnist 

in Pakistan’s English language daily The 

Dawn. 

He pointed out that this would not just raise 

the cost of doing business for Pakistan, it 

also could drive down remittances from 

to their homes in Rakhine voluntarily, in 

safety and with dignity, under international 

oversight, and when the conditions in Burma 

are right,” he said. 

Myanmar was previously known as Burma. 

Myanmar’s Catholic cardinal said it’s 

likely that Rohingya Muslim refugees in 

Bangladesh won’t ever go home, and that 

“the elements of ethnic cleansing” that 

drove them out are now apparent. 

Two months after Pope Francis visited 

Myanmar and Bangladesh, Cardinal Charles 

Bo said that even though the Myanmar 

government was making plans to receive 

Rohingya back, many would opt to go 

Pakistanis living overseas. Pakistan gets 

more than $13 billion in remittances every 

year, most of them from Pakistanis working 

in the Middle East. 

Hussain said these people are very sensitive 

to the cost of remitting money and would 

switch to informal means of sending money 

home. 

In addition, this could raise the cost 

for Pakistan of borrowing money from 

international markets. 

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said 

putting Pakistan on the grey list would help 

the terrorist outfits by “adversely impacting 

funding of our security operations that 

Pakistan is paying out of our own pocket.” 

He also said Pakistan has a “collective will 

and plan to root out terrorism and extremism 

from our society,” but greylisting the country 

would help the terrorist outfits because it 

would send a signal to the population that 

the agenda was “foreign and West driven.” 

The U.S. accuses Pakistan of taking action 

against terrorists that threaten its own 

security but not against those active in either 

India or Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad 

denies. 

“We stand ready to work together with 

Pakistan to combat terrorist groups 

without distinction. We will continue these 

conversations with the Pakistani government 

in private,” said a State Department 

spokesperson. 

Credit : Voice of America (VOA) 

elsewhere. He cited security fears, continued 

discrimination and economic necessity. 

Bo, who was at a Vatican conference on 

human trafficking, defended Suu Kyi, who 

has come under severe criticism for inaction 

in curbing abuses of the Rohingya, saying 

she has no constitutional right to speak out 

against the military. 

While saying more proof was needed, Bo 

acknowledged in an interview with The 

Associated Press that “the elements of ethnic 

cleansing” against Rohingya existed. 





Canada News 

Canadian PM Trudeau 

and LA mayor toast 

friendship with hike 

C 

apping off a three-day swing through 

California that’s mostly been focused 

on business and trade, Canadian Prime 

Minister Justin Trudeau toasted his 

country’s friendship with Los Angeles by 

taking a brisk morning hike with Mayor Eric 

Garcetti. 

Dressed in shorts and athletic shirts, the two 

men spoke with reporters before walking 

through Griffith Park. The appearance came 

the morning after Trudeau gave a speech 

about the importance of the North American 

Free Trade Agreement at the Ronald Reagan 

Presidential Library in Simi Valley. 

A California Highway Patrol officer 

accompanying the prime minister was 

injured in a crash that happened shortly 

after Trudeau’s motorcade left the library. 

Garcetti said that the officer is expected to 

recover from a broken clavicle. 

Trudeau’s vehicle was not involved and 

he was not injured. Asked by a reporter if 

the officer’s injury was overshadowing the 

purpose of his trip, Trudeau said the message 

that the two countries share close ties has not 

been lost. 

“That emphasis that we are working 

together for the betterment of our citizens 

is a message that does continue and does 

resonate,” he said. The two men made 

statements in English, French and Spanish. 

Garcetti warmly welcomed Trudeau to Los 

Angeles and said that Canada was a major 

trading partner for the city. 

“It’s very important for us in this moment, 

when there is so much supposed division in 

the world to reinsure that there is friendship 

and strength,” Garcetti said. “We see 

friendship as a strength and conflict as a 

weakness.” 

The two men, both in their 40s, then set 

off at a brisk pace. They chatted with 

other hikers and posed for a “selfie” with 

one group. Trudeau said the hike was 

“awesome” and “beautiful.” Trudeau came 

with an unambiguous message that NAFTA 

is a success that needs to be modernized and 

not abandoned. The next round of talks over 

the trade pact is set to begin in Mexico later 

this month. President Donald Trump called 

the 24-year-old agreement a job-killing 

“disaster” on the campaign trail, and he has 

threatened to pull out unless the deal requires 

more auto production in the U.S., while 

shifting additional government contracts to 

U.S. companies. Trudeau argued that the 

deal has sent benefits both ways across the 

border. But he added: “President Trump and 

I agree about this: Too many people have 

been left behind, even as our economies 

surged.” 

Trudeau was in San Francisco, where he 

picked up promises of investments and 

jobs during his first official visit to the city. 

Among them, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff 

announced the online business software 

company will invest another $2 billion in its 

Canadian operations. 

The speech was a centerpiece on his swing 

in which he warned Canada won’t be 

muscled into a trade deal that is unfavorable 

to his country, while promoting the country 

as a destination for California technology 

firms uneasy with shifting U.S. immigration 

policy. 



In US swing, Trudeau mixes 

job deals with defense of 

NAFTA 

C 

anadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 

came with an unambiguous message on 

his latest US visit: the North American Free 

Trade Agreement is a success that needs to 

be modernized, not abandoned. 

With the next round of talks over the trade 

pact set to begin in Mexico later this month, 

Trudeau used a speech at the Ronald Reagan 

Presidential Library to cast the deal as part 

of a long history between the two countries 

that has been beneficial for both. 

Yet he also echoed frequent criticism 

from President Donald Trump, who has 

threatened to pull out of NAFTA, that too 

many workers are being left behind in the 

global economy. 

“We need to collectively do a much better 

job of ensuring the benefits of trade are 

shared more broadly,” Trudeau said. 

The speech was a centerpiece on his swing 

in which he warned Canada won’t be 

muscled into a trade deal that is unfavorable 

to his country, while promoting Canada 

as a destination for California technology 

firms uneasy with shifting U.S. immigration 

policy. 

After the speech, a California Highway 

Patrol motorcycle officer who was part of 

Trudeau’s motorcade crashed and was sent 

to a hospital with moderate injuries, the 

Ventura County Fire Department said. The 

vehicle carrying the prime minister was not 

involved and he was not hurt. 

Trudeau picked up promises of investments 

and jobs during his first official visit to San 

Francisco. Among them: Salesforce CEO 

Marc Benioff announced the online business 

software company will invest another $2 

billion in its Canadian operations. 

Trump called the 24-year-old agreement a 

job-killing “disaster” on the campaign trail, 

and he has threatened to pull out unless the 

deal requires more auto production in the 

U.S., while shifting additional government 

contracts to U.S. companies. 

Trudeau argued that the deal has sent benefits 

both ways across the border. 

He said 9 million jobs in America are tied 

to trade and investment with Canada and 

“the truth is that both Canada and the United 

States are winning. And so is Mexico. And 

that’s exactly how we should keep it.” But 

he added: “President Trump and I agree 

about this: Too many people have been left 

behind, even as our economies surged.” 

But an agreement, he warned, will take “a 

willingness to compromise on all sides.” 

The location of the speech carried symbolic 

weight, alluding to the longstanding trade 

relationship between the U.S. and Canada. 

In 1988, Reagan and then-Prime Minister 

Brian Mulroney signed the first free trade 

agreement — a precursor to NAFTA. In his 

speech, Trudeau made repeated references 

to the historic connections between the two 

countries and argued that backing away 

from NAFTA could unspool deep ties across 

the continent — with an unknown cost. 

The liberal Trudeau argued that differing 

political views need not stand in the way of 

trade agreement, alluding to the Republican 

president. 

Reaching agreements has always required 

“persistence and no shortage of sunny, 

Reagan-esque optimism on both sides,” he 

said. 

Uncertainty over Trump’s immigration 

policies has provided momentum for 

Trudeau’s economic pitch to Silicon Valley, 

where many companies that rely on foreign 

workers have become uneasy. On his visit to 

Northern California, Trudeau promoted his 

country’s fast-track employment permit for 

certain workers, dubbed the “global skills 

strategy visa.” 

Trudeau also met with Amazon Chief 

Executive Jeff Bezos as Bezos considers 

possible locations for a second headquarters. 

Toronto, which has created a governmentsponsored 

innovation hub for tech 

companies, was the only one of several 

Canadian cities that made the shortlist. 

Trudeau’s stop in San Francisco highlighted 

the already strong ties between Canada 

and California, particularly in research, 

academia and technology. 

While much of the attention on the North 

American Free Trade Agreement has focused 

on physical commodities such as vehicle 

manufacturing, dairy and timber, skilled 

workers have also become increasingly 

mobile between the U.S., Canada and 

Mexico. 

Google built its latest DeepMind artificial 

intelligence facility at the University of 

Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. 




No new remains 

found in Toronto 

yard tied to 

alleged killer 

T 

oronto police said that they found 

no additional human remains in the 

backyard of a house where they earlier 

discovered planters containing the remains 

of six men, but say they still are hunting for 

more victims of a suspected serial killer. 

Police spokesman Meaghan Gray said that 

investigators had finished their excavation of 

backyard at a home suspect Bruce McArthur 

had used to store items for his landscaping 

business. 

“We did not locate any additional remains,” 

Gray said. 

Gray said they will also search the main 

drain of the property for potential evidence. 

But she said police will primarily now focus 

on looking through planters found at that 

property and elsewhere around the city. 

McArthur has been charged with the 

murders of five men, all connected with the 

city’s Gay Village district. Police say they 

expect to file more charges. 

“We still have properties that we are 

searching, that long client list of Mr. 

McArthur’s that we are making our way 

through,” Gray said. 

Authorities have checked at least 30 other 

places the landscaper was known to have 

worked, including some of Toronto’s 

wealthiest neighborhoods, and have 

collected at least 15 planters. 

Police say they are thinking of excavating a 

second property in Toronto but have not yet 

made a decision on that. 

Investigators say the 66-year-old McArthur 

is believed to have met his victims in 

Toronto’s Gay Village and on gay dating 

apps for older and large men with names 

such as “SilverDaddies” and “Bear411.” 

Edward Royle, a lawyer for McArthur, has 

declined comment on the case, which is due 

back in court. He has yet to enter a plea. 

McArthur was arrested Jan. 18 and charged 

with two counts of murder in connection with 

the disappearances of Andrew Kinsman, 49, 

and Selim Esen, 44, who were last seen in 

the Gay Village. Not long after that, he was 

charged with the murders of three more 

men: 58-year-old Majeed Kayhan, who 

went missing in 2012, 50-year-old Soroush 

Marmudi, who went missing in 2015, and 

Dean Lisowick, who went missing between 

May 2016 and July 2017. 

Police said they will eventually look at 

hundreds of missing person cases and try to 

determine if they were victims of McArthur. 

They are also running down tips that have 

come in from around the world. 




10 


Z 

S 

Africa News 

6 African nations among the worst 

to be young in a war zone 

ix African nations are among the 10 

worst in the world to be a child in a war 

zone, a new report says. 

The Save the Children report released on 

15th February looks at factors including 

attacks on schools, child soldier recruitment, 

sexual violations, killings and lack of 

humanitarian access and is based on analysis 

by the Norway-based Peace Research 

Institute Oslo. 

Syria tops the list followed by Afghanistan, 

Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan, 

Iraq, Congo, Sudan and Central African 

Republic. 

Almost 360 million children worldwide, or 

one in six, live in affected areas, the report 

says. In addition, conflicts are grinding on 

longer than before. 

“Crimes involving children are not lesser 

crimes and need to be pursued with the 


same vigor that we expect when war 

crimes are committed,” said Tirana Hassan, 

crisis response director with Amnesty 

International. “Concern and outrage are not 

enough.” 

The new report comes just ahead of the 

Munich Security Conference, which brings 

together global leaders to discuss security 

policy. 

Children living in conflicttorn 

countries like South 

Sudan, where civil war has 

entered its fifth year, say 

they’re traumatized. 

“When you expose children 

to bad things like killing 

and death it’s very bad for 

the child,” one former child 

soldier named Roda told The 

Associated Press in the town 

of Yambio last week. The AP 

is using only her first name to 

protect her identity. 

Three years ago, at age 14, she said she was 

abducted from school and forced to fight 

for the opposition. She spent the next three 

years praying she’d stay alive. Although she 

was one of over 300 child soldiers released 

this month, she said she still has nightmares 

of being recaptured. 

More than 19,000 children have been 

recruited to armed groups since South 

Sudan’s war erupted in 2013 and over 

2,300 children have been killed or injured, 

according to UNICEF. 

Rights groups say children in South Sudan 

have lost their innocence. 

The government said it doesn’t mean to 

make life “uncomfortable for the children” 

and that others share the blame. 

“It’s the responsibility of the international 

community and (the United Nations mission 

in South Sudan),” government spokesman 

Ateny Wek Ateny told the AP. 

He blamed the U.N.’s protection of civilian 

sites, where more than 200,000 civilians 

shelter, for “aggravating the children’s 

situation” by having them live in harsh 

conditions. 

The U.N. has said it is committed to 

protecting children and that the ongoing 

fighting has severely affected them. 

Save the Children is calling on world leaders 

to do more to hold perpetrators to account. 

“Crimes like this against children are the 

darkest kind of abuse imaginable and are a 

flagrant violation of international law,” said 

Carolyn Miles, the aid group’s president and 

CEO. 



Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai dies at 65 

imbabwean opposition leader Morgan 

Tsvangirai died on 14th February at 

age 65, ending a long campaign to lead his 

country that brought him jailings, beatings 

and accusations of treason. 

Tsvangirai died in a Johannesburg hospital, 

said Elias Mudzuri, a vice president of the 

Movement for Democratic Change party. 

The opposition leader had been battling 

colon cancer for two years. 

Tsvangirai for years was longtime ruler 

Robert Mugabe’s most potent challenger 

and even became prime minister in an 

uncomfortable coalition government for a 

few years. Mugabe, 93 and in power for 37 

years, resigned in November after pressure 

from the military and ruling party. 

In January, the ailing Tsvangirai suggested 

that he would be stepping down, saying he 

was “looking at the imminent prospects of us 

as the older generation leaving the levers of 

leadership to allow the younger generation 

to take forward this huge task.” 

His death leaves the opposition in disarray 

just months before national elections. An 

opposition alliance had endorsed him as its 

candidate, even as his deputies tussled to 

act as party leader while he was out of the 

country for treatment. 

Those power struggles are now likely to 

intensify, which may give an edge to the 

ruling party, ZANU-PF, and its candidate, 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa. 

“We are still mourning. This is not the time 

to talk about that,” MDC party spokesman 

Obert Gutu said. 

Tsvangirai came tantalizingly close to 

the presidency in 2008 when he won the 

most votes in the election. But the results, 

delayed nearly a month as Mugabe’s 

officials “verified” the count, gave him just 

47 percent, shy of the more than 50 percent 

majority needed to win outright. Tsvangirai 

boycotted the runoff, citing widespread 

violence against his supporters, handing 

Mugabe the victory. 

Negotiations then led to the coalition 

government, an uneasy alliance that ended 

in 2013 when Mugabe won elections amid 

charges of intimidation and rigging. 

Being Mugabe’s most prominent opponent 

brought Tsvangirai considerable hardship. 

He was jailed several times and charged 

with treason. He suffered a fractured skull 

and internal bleeding when he and more 

than a dozen other leaders of his party were 

arrested and beaten with gun butts, belts and 

whips in 2007. 

In an earlier incident Tsvangirai was 

almost thrown from his office window by a 

government agent. 

“Morgan Tsvangirai will be remembered 

as one of Zimbabwe’s great patriots,” 

opposition figure and human rights lawyer 

David Coltart said . “Although, like all of us, 

he made mistakes none of us ever doubted 

his commitment to transform Zimbabwe 

into a modern, tolerant state.” 

Born March 10, 1952 in the rural Buhera 

area southeast of the capital, Harare, 

Tsvangirai was the oldest of nine children. 

After graduation from secondary school 


he worked at the Bindura Nickel Mine 

for 10 years, eventually becoming plant 

supervisor. It was during the years of the 

nationalist war against white minority-ruled 

Rhodesia. Tsvangirai later said he did not 

join the guerrilla fighters because his salary 

supported the education of his younger 

siblings. 


When Zimbabwe became independent in 

1980, Tsvangirai joined Mugabe’s ZANU- 

PF party and became active in trade unions, 

rising to become secretary general of the 

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The 

labor organization had been a rubber stamp 

supporter of Mugabe and ZANU-PF, but 

under Tsvangirai’s leadership it became a 

vocal critic of Mugabe’s government. 

The labor federation became a key 

component of an emerging network of antigovernment 

civil society groups including 

lawyers, students and churches demanding 

an end to worsening human rights abuses 

and deepening economic problems. 

In 1999 he founded the MDC, which 

attracted support from blacks and whites and 

in rural and urban areas. The party quickly 

became a serious challenge to Mugabe’s 

party. 

Tsvangirai was also leader of the National 

Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of 

civil society groups that successfully 

campaigned in a 2000 referendum against a 

new constitution they alleged gave Mugabe 

too many powers. Most of the organization’s 

leaders joined Tsvangirai’s MDC. Nine 

months after its formation, the MDC won 

57 seats in parliament, five short of the 

ruling party’s 62, the first time Mugabe’s 

party came close to losing its parliamentary 

majority. 

Tsvangirai then continued for years as 

the country’s opposition leader, facing 

significant repression from Mugabe and 

ZANU-PF. Shortly after becoming prime 

minister in 2009, Tsvangirai suffered a 

serious blow when his wife, Susan, died 

when the car they were travelling in 

overturned. Without his wife, Tsvangirai 

lost domestic stability and became involved 

in romances that were widely publicized by 

the Zimbabwean press. 

His time as prime minister was criticized as 

being marked by his search for a new wife 

and also by his enjoyment of the trappings 

of power, but Tsvangirai was also credited 

with encouraging stability, civility and 

international goodwill. His long struggle as 

Mugabe’s main challenger was credited with 

helping to keep a measure of democratic 

space open in Zimbabwe. 

“Thank you for making it possible for people 

like me to find the courage to say enough is 

enough,” said pastor Evan Mawarire, who 

led large anti-government protests in 2016. 

“Zimbabwe owes you a great debt.” 


Tunisia’s central 

bank head 

resigns amid 

pressure 

T 

he governor of Tunisia’s central bank 

has resigned after Prime Minister 

Youssef Chahed set in motion a process to 

remove him from his post. 

Chedli Ayari tendered his resignation, a 

week after the European Parliament put the 

North African country on a list of non-EU 

nations believed to pose a risk of money 

laundering and terrorist financing. 

Tunisian media accused the Central Bank 

of Tunisia, under Ayari’s direction since 

2012, of turning a blind eye to “obscure 

transfers” received from non-governmental 

organizations and political parties. 

Ayari’s critics also hold him responsible for 

the fall in the value of the Tunisian dinar 

and the decline in the central bank’s foreign 

reserves, which have reached their lowest 

level in over 20 years. 




North America News 

New Texas group opposes 

bipartisan efforts to end cash bail 

A 

new Texas nonprofit promoting crime 

victims’ rights is opposing bipartisan 

efforts to end cash bail systems that have 

gained traction around the country — hitting 

back at one of the few issues that unified 

powerful advocates on both the right and 

left. 

Formally kicking off, the Texas Alliance for 

Safe Communities said it wants to strengthen 

public safety and curb violent crime by 

pushing in the Republican-controlled 

Legislature and beyond for criminal justice 

system accountability while preserving 

“judicial discretion.” 

The group hopes to halt bail system overhauls 

favoring assessments of defendants’ danger 

to the public. Supporters of such changes 

say defendants deemed little risk should 

be eligible to be released from jail on 

“unsecured” bonds that don’t require cash 

payments — rather than traditional, cash 

bond systems where defendants forfeit 

payments if they fail to show up in court. 

“Texas communities are under assault by 

activist judges and misguided bureaucrats 

determined to let violent criminals get out 

of jail free,” said Mark Miner, who was 

spokesman for former Texas Gov. Rick 

Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign and now 

holds the same role for the alliance. 

Similar groups defending cash bonds have 

popped up in other states and are often 

sponsored by bail bond companies worried 

about losing business. Miner said bail bond 

interests “are assisting with funding as the 

group is beginning.” He said two of its five 

founding board members have links to the 

industry. “They are part of the organization, 

but they’re not the only part,” Miner said of 

bail bond interests, adding that the alliance 

expects to attract members of other victims’ 

groups, police organizations and “many 

ordinary citizens.” 

Bail system reform has been approved in 

New Jersey and New Mexico, and discussed 

in California, Florida and elsewhere. It’s 

been applauded by conservatives anxious 

to reduce prison costs, like the powerful 

Austin think tank the Texas Public Policy 

Foundation, as well as groups including the 

American Civil Liberties Union, that argue 

current bail rules — like the prison system 

as a whole — disproportionately punish 

minorities and poor people. 

“Money bail doesn’t have anything to do 

with public safety because there’s not really 

a correlation between how much money 

someone has and whether they’re a risk 


to the public,” said Marc Levin, the Texas 

Public Policy Foundation’s vice president 

for criminal justice policy. 

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David 

Koch haven’t been as vocal about bail 

reform, but have promoted a variety of wider 

criminal justice reform efforts, including 

initiatives meant to reduce prisoners’ 

recidivism rates. 

A proposal mandating risk assessments 

for bail-eligible criminal defendants was 

approved by the Texas Senate last year but 

stalled in the state House. Still, a lawsuit in 

Harris County, Texas’ largest, prompted a 

federal judge to rule in October that county 

bail requirements violated the rights of poor 

defendants accused of minor crimes — and 

to order jails to release within 24 hours 

nearly all offenders facing misdemeanor 

charges. 

An appeals court panel mostly upheld the 

previous decision but found some of its 

conclusions “overbroad” and ordered the 

24-hour deadline pushed back to 48 hours. 

That was a small win for the Alliance for 

Safe Communities, which had said that 

because misdemeanor defendants released 

in Harris County didn’t have to put up a cash 

bond or hire a bail bond service, 43 percent 

failed to appear for subsequent court dates. 

County officials, though, have questioned 

the accuracy of that figure, pointing to 

confusion in jail reports — including 

inmates possibly being double-counted. 

The alliance has produced two online 

ads it contends highlight the dangers of 

ending cash bail. They include the case of 

a Harris County man suspected of killing 

his girlfriend in October, days after he was 

previously jailed on assault charges but 

released after saying he couldn’t afford 

$5,000 bail. 

“The other side has been very well-financed, 

but on one side of the issue,” Miner said. 

Houston Police Officers Union President 

Joe Gamaldi said cash-free bonds should be 

extended to people jailed for minor offenses 

like shoplifting, but not violent criminals or 

repeat offenders. 

“Not every case is the same,” Gamaldi said, 

citing the same 43 percent failure-to-appearin-court 

figure from Harris County. “When 

you paint everything with a broad brush, this 

is what happens.” 




Report details harm to 

Cuba diplomats but offers 

no cause 

D 

octors are releasing the first detailed 

medical reports about the hearing, 

vision, balance and brain symptoms suffered 

in what the State Department has called 

“health attacks” on U.S. diplomats in Cuba. 

Still missing: A clear diagnosis of just what 

happened to trigger their mysterious health 

problems. 

All together, the symptoms are similar to the 

brain dysfunction seen with concussions, 

concluded a team of specialists from the 

University of Pennsylvania who tested 21 

of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be 

affected. 

Whatever the cause, the Havana patients 

“experienced persisting disability of a 

significant nature,” the Penn team concluded. 

Cuba has insisted there were no attacks. 

The Journal of the American Medical 

Association released the report, although 

key findings were first disclosed by The 

Associated Press in December. The mystery 

began in late 2016 when U.S. embassy 

personnel began seeking medical care for 

hearing loss and ear-ringing that they linked 

to weird noises or vibrations — initially 

leading investigators to suspect “sonic 

attacks.” 

Now, officials are carefully avoiding that 

term, as doctors involved in the probe 

wonder whether the sounds were a byproduct 

of something else that might help explain 

the full symptom list: memory problems, 

impaired concentration, irritability, balance 

problems and dizziness. 

The report makes clear that the findings 

are preliminary, essentially a listing 

of symptoms and tests. And important 

complications remain, including that there’s 

no information to compare the patients’ 

brain or hearing health before they went to 

Cuba. 

“Before reaching any definitive conclusions, 

additional evidence must be obtained and 

rigorously and objectively evaluated,” JAMA 

associated editor Dr. Christopher Muth 

cautioned in an accompanying editorial. He 

noted that many of the symptoms overlap 

with a list of other neurologic illnesses. 

“It really looks like concussion without the 

history of head trauma,” report co-author Dr. 

Douglas Smith of Penn’s Center for Brain 

Injury and Repair, said in a podcast provided 

by JAMA. He said that sound, heard by 18 

of the 21 patients, couldn’t be to blame: 

“There is no known mechanism for audible 

sound to injure the brain. We have to suspect 

that it’s a consequence of something else.” 

The mysterious case has sent U.S.-Cuba 

relations plummeting from what had been a 

high point when the two countries, estranged 

for a half-century, restored relations under 

President Barack Obama in 2015. 

The new report outlined the battery of testing 

the patients underwent, including some 

findings that can’t be even unconsciously 

altered, bolstering the doctors’ belief that the 

symptoms were not mass hysteria. At least 

six people had a change in work performance 

noted by supervisors and colleagues, the 

JAMA report found. 

Viruses or chemical exposures are unlikely, 

Smith’s team wrote, although they couldn’t 

be “systematically excluded.” Advanced 

MRI scans spotted “a few” changes in what 

are called white matter tracts of the brain in 

some patients, with three showing more than 

would be expected for their age, the report 

said. But the authors acknowledged those 

abnormalities could be due to something 

earlier in life. 

For many the symptoms lasted months, and 

doctors designed customized rehabilitation 

therapy that did seem to help. 

Dr. S. Andrew Josephson, neurology chairman 

at the University of California, San Francisco, 

who wasn’t involved in the study, called the 

work “a really important step” because it 

carefully describes the medical findings and 

shows they are remarkably similar across 

the group of patients. 

“It moves you closer to understanding what 

the possible causes may be,” he said. 

The State Department, which wasn’t 

involved in writing the article but reviewed 

it to ensure it did not contain any classified 

information, issued a health alert citing the 

article “in order to inform U.S. citizens and 

medical providers.” 

“We encourage private U.S. citizens who 

have traveled to Cuba and are concerned 

about their symptoms to share this article 

with their doctor,” the State Department 

said. 




12 


Editorial 


Palestine seeks Russia’s support over Jerusalem 

W 




ithin three days of Indian Prime 

Minister Modi’s visit to Ramallah, 

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas set 

out on a visit to Russia in a bid to secure 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support 

following Washington’s recognition of 

Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. His visit came 

within two weeks of a similar visit by Israeli 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to 

Moscow. According to reports from Interfax 

news agency, Mahmoud Abbas told Russian 

President Vladimir Putin that he could no 

longer accept the role of the United States 

as a mediator in talks with Israel because 

of Washington’s behavior. “Given the 

atmosphere created by the United States’ 

actions, we refuse any cooperation with the 

United States as a mediator,” Abbas told 

Putin. “In case of an international meeting, 

we ask that the United States be not the only 

mediators, but just one of the mediators.” 

Palestinians see the Trump administration’s 

recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli 

capital at the end of 2017 as an out-of-sync 

step that broke with years of international 

diplomacy. Washington’s decision meant a 

denial of Palestine’s claim to East Jerusalem 

and put paid to their hopes of projecting the 

city as the capital of an eventual Palestinian 

state. Abbasis naturally miffed since and 

refuses any contacts whatsoever with 

Trump. Of course he is officially scheduled 

to visit the US to speak at the United 

Nations Security Council on February 

20. The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki 

Haley, has accused Abbas of lacking the 

courage needed to forge a peace deal with 

Israel thattook control of East Jerusalem in 

the 1967 Six-Day War, annexed it and later 

declared it the indivisible capital of Israel. 

Abbas in turn has rejected any mediation 

by Washington in the Israeli-Palestinian 

conflict and has promised his people to work 

towards full recognition of a Palestinian 

state by the United Nations. 

Critics view Abbas’s Moscow visit ‘an 

attempt to cosy up to Russia - a consistent 

ally - and to stop Netanyahu leading 

Moscow astray thro.ugh improved Russia- 

Israeli ties,’ which, after Netanyahu’s visit, 

seems positioned on a more stable platform. 

During his Russian visit on January 29, 

Netanyahu along with Putin attended a 

memorial ceremony at the Jewish museum 

in Moscow for the victims of Nazi camps. 

While Netanyahu accused Iran of wanting to 

‘destroy’ the Jewish state, Putin likened anti- 


Semitism to ‘Russophobia’ and said Russia 

and Israel were ‘cooperating closely’, 

against ‘attempts to falsify history’. 

Given this background, Abbas’s Moscow 

visit appears a ‘necessary political gesture’ 

but can do little in the practical sense 

with no break-through expected from this 

visit. The Russian offer in 2016 to host 

one-on-one talks on Israel-Palestine issue 

without preconditions between Abbas and 

T 

◆◆ 

By Mark Parkinson 

@Mark_Parkinson 

markp.india@gmail.com 

markparkinson.wordpress.com 

oo often in education there’s an 

inconsistency that’s a little hard to 

explain. On the one hand, most are quick to 

state as a truism that the key to better quality 

of education for every child is the teacher. 

However, these words don’t tend to be 

backed with adequate and effective action to 

raise the professionalism of teachers. 

That the professionalism needs to be higher 

is the case, backed by recent research by 

the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation 

and Development – the same body 

that runs the PISA tests), and not limited to 

teachers in any one country or part of the 

world. 

I believe we can put some of the blame 

on the fixed industrial model that plagues 

education. When the teachers are seen as 

interchangeable widgets in an industrial 

process or production line, this is not a 

conducive mindset to think positively about 

how to enhance the skills levels, attitude, 

motivation and purpose of the individual 

teacher. 

This article shares the key findings from the 

recent OECD research. I think it’s appropriate 

that they haven’t tried to simplify or suggest 

that there is one simple solution that can be 

applied every where. Professionalism is a 

sophisticated set of standards, expectations 

Teacher Professionalism 

Netanyahu never materialised. Russian 

Foreign Minister has recently estimated the 

chances of direct talks between the two sides 

as ‘close to zero’. 

The Palestinians currently have strong 

emotions towards Trump. There has been 

rumour in recent months that the US is 

about to publish some ‘major deal’ that 

could satisfy all. However nobody has seen 

or heard of such a document or even any 

statement. Abbas may be hoping against 

hope that as US-Russia relations dip to 

a record low for the post-Cold War era, 

it could get even worse and then Russia 

could do something to spite the US. In the 

meanwhile Trump had a telephonic talk 

with Putin regarding Israel-Palestine peace 

agreement. 

On November 29, 2012, after a vote by 

the General Assembly, the United Nations 

designated Palestine as a non-member 

observer state. That enabled the Palestinians 

to join international organizations and the 

International Criminal Court. Today, more 

than 130 countries recognize Palestinian 

statehood. However Palestine is yet to 

become a full UN member state. 

Jerusalem being a holy place for all the 

Muslims has never remained just as a 

Palestinian issue. All the Shias and Sunnis 

seem united on Jerusalem. Both Russia 

and China, however, should stay clear of 

Palestine issues not to complicate the matter 

further. Abbas’s Moscow visit takes the 

moral responsibility of hammering out a 

solution off India’s shoulder a bit. 

and common norms that all members buy 

in to. This isn’t about lessening autonomy 

or scope for creativity. In fact, commitment 

to continuous improvement, innovation and 

contribution of new and innovative ideas to 

the profession are important components 

of what it should man to be a professional 

teacher. 

The Journal – OECD – Teacher Professionalism 

Needs Improvement Worldwide 

When looking at the findings, I can see 

them from the perspective of teachers in 

the Indian private school system. Teachers 

do get pre-service training whilst in-service 

development is often rather ad hoc. However, 

we know that the quality and standards of 

that pre-service development are woefully 

inadequate. 

Talk of major overhaul of the B.Ed syllabus 

has gone on for years with little meaningful 

change. Worse, vat numbers of the colleges 

given licence to run B.Ed courses are substandard 

money-making operations with 

lack of consistency, standards or awareness 

of international best practices. For this 

reason, I’ve often seen that better results 

can be achieved taking teachers without the 

B.Ed who have more worldly professional 

experience, training them on the job and 

merely requiring them to get the B.Ed within 

3 years to satisfy the rules and requirements. 

The fifth of the observations is an interesting 

one, that I’ve seen in practice. There tends to 

be more professional development available 

to teachers working with younger children 

than for those in secondary and higher 

secondary. 

This often comes because of 

perceptions from both sides (the 

teachers and management) that 

for those teachers, niceties like 

theory or science of learning are 

mere flim-flam and that their job 

is to know the syllabus material 

and to target all of their time and 

energies on putting as much of it 

as possible in to the pupils’ heads 

long enough for it to stick to 

produce the best possible results 

in competitive examinations. 

People who are merely dispensers of 

gobbits of knowledge don’t require much 

professional development! In fact, its 

sometimes seen as a distraction and a waste 

of their time. 

The four recommendations make a lot of 

sense and are quite strongly in aligment 

with ideas that I’ve been developing lately 

in looking at the whole ‘end to end’ process 

of recruiting and developing professional 

educators who rise above the average. 

Acknowledging that the pre-service training 

available to them isn’t all it might be, we 

have to go further to counteract this negative 

effect. High impact induction, proper 

mentoring and buddying systems and setting 

them on the right path as lifelong learners are 

critical factors, after recruiting for attitude, 

EQ, child-centricity and commitment to 

the role. Talent with the sciope to grow in 

to leadership roles should be identified 


early and nurtured. This isn’t always easy 

in single stand-alone schools. Groups can 

do it. otherwise, schools should learn to 

collaborate more in this area, perhaps where 

they are not in direct competition. 

Then, the teacher professional networking 

can be taken to higher levels. Today, 

teachers have the scope to network with 

fellow professionals anywhere in the world. 

Within schools, we need a culture where 

teachers don’t feel threatened by each 

other’s presence in their classrooms and we 

need to be training teahers in action research 

– especially in countries where there is little 

or no education research coming out of 

universities. In short, if we start to really act 

like we mean it when we say that teachers 

are the key to raising the bar, there is much 

we can do. That work needs to start now. 




Think - Tanks 



Why should we practice mindfulness meditation 

“T 

O 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Pramila Srivastava 

@PramilaBK 

ps.a@iins.org 

o understand the immeasurable, the 

mind must be extraordinarily quiet, 

still” 

Jiddu Krishnamurti 

According to the Buddhists traditions, 

meditation is a means of transforming the 

mind. They have practices and techniques 

that encourage and boost concentration, 

positivity a feeling of Zen in all aspects of 

our lives. Mindfulness meditation is often 

seen as a method to rewire our minds and 

subsequently our bodies to learn new 

patterns and habit, it allows us to nurture and 

develop more positive ways of being. A lot 

of people I’ve met tell me that meditation is 

a waste of time: they would rather be doing 

something at the gym or at work. Sitting 

quietly for 20 minutes is very difficult for 

a lot of people and hence the dismissal as it 

being a fad. 

Meditation can be spiritual or just an 

emotional form of expression. Its benefits 

are so large that it can literally change your 

entire life. People underestimate the power of 

mindfulness and meditation, but as someone 

professionally has encountered a lot of 

people dealing with anxiety, mindfulness is 

the difference between depressed or having 

◆◆ 

By International Institute 

for Non - Aligned Studies 

@iinsNAM 

iins@iins.org 

a happy life. So if you don’t believe me, I 

will let science do the talking research has 

shown that meditation is very beneficial for 

our mental and physical health. Here are the 

different ways it can change your life. 

Change our immune system 

Yes, mindfulness meditation can boost 

your immunity in this modern world where 

we simple living has been exchanged 

for a heavy price, we are surrounded by 

pollution, toxins, viruses etc and having a 

strong immunity makes a big difference. 

A research showed that just 8 weeks of 

meditation activated the left hemisphere of 

the brain and when they studied the immune 

responses between the two groups, one who 

had meditated daily for 8 weeks and the 

other group which didn’t they discovered 

that the group who had meditated had more 

antibody titers to the vaccine which basically 

means they had better immune function and 

the effects of that lasted for months. 

Decreases pain and inflammation 

Living with pain has becomes the new 

reality for a lot of people young and old, 

people resort to painkillers and various 

other means to reduce the pain. One 

skeptical researcher tried out the efficiency 

of mindfulness on reduction of emotional 

and physical pain and the results blew his 

mind, he found out that out of all the groups 

mindfulness showed the best result beating 

even the score of medication. He found out 

that while morphine reduces physical pain 

by 22%, people who practiced mindfulness 

meditation showed a 27 % decrease in pain 

intensity and a 44% reduction in emotional 

pain. Using MRI results he found out that the 

mindfulness group was using a different part 

of the brain region to cope with pain. Similar 

results were found for inflammation in the 

body as well. In each study mindfulness 

based meditation outperformed all other 

techniques. Though a doctor should be 

consulted before switching to any other 

technique. Integrating mindfulness based 

meditation in our day to day lives is a 

practice that could save us a lot of pain. 

Helps us go from negative to positive 

Mindfulness meditation is clinically known to 

help combat depression and other symptoms 

of the same. When we are depressed one 

of the main symptoms is having a constant 

negative thought factory in our mind, 

we cannot process the positive and only 

continue to see the negative. Meditation 

helps increase positive emotions and also 

helps reduce symptoms of depression. 

Anxiety another cause and symptom of 

depression also can be reduced with the 

help of mindfulness based meditation. Just 

taking that 20 minutes or 45 minutes to quiet 

the mind and focus on the positive helps 

us to overcome the negative in our lives. 

There are so many other proven benefits 

to mediation like boosting our social life, 

meditation helps us increase our emotional 

intelligence and by doing so we can make 

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better social connections. It helps us become 

more compassionate and that helps forge 

that beautiful connection of the mind body 

and soul. 

If you think that meditation requires a lot 

of time think again, even taking 10-20 

minutes every day to meditate can make a 

huge difference. It will be difficult in the 

beginning but we soon learn to take some 

quiet time for ourselves, sit in the right 

posture and allow the rest of the world to 

quite the mind and focus on our breathing 

and get out chaotic mind in control. 

Mindfulness meditation is a lifestyle, it 

is not to be done once in a while, it can 

be done using religion or it can just with 

breathing exercises and positive thinking. 

It doesn’t have to be elaborate it can be fit 

into any lifestyle; mindfulness meditation is 

a way for our mind, body and soul to forge 

a connection, so why wait. One researcher 

asked Dalai Lama as to the minimum amount 

of time a person should practice meditation 

and he replied a ‘lifetime’. 

NAM encouraging Trade Flow among Members 

ne of the key reasons for the formation 

of the Non –Aligned Movement was 

to declare solidarity between nation states 

with a shared history of oppression and 

facing similar challenges of technological 

and economic development. The cold 

war which became the pretext of this new 

solidarity also influenced many political and 

cultural changes in many nation states. 

The need for NAM back then during Cold 

War ushered in with factions dividing the 

world into two grabbing for power creating 

a vacuum between US led West and Soviet 

Union leading the East turning other nations 

as mere pawns to their own game of power 

and authority on the global chessboard. 

However, NAM came into existence 

bringing a balanced outlook and catering 

and protecting also while strengthening the 

developing countries. But in the present 

where the relevance of NAM has been 

questioned again and again, Non-Aligned 

Movement has a very relevant and vital part 

to play with certain important issues facing 

the Southern countries on the globe. 

The Movement has not only sought a 

greater role in increasing the assertion of the 

developing world in the international order, 

but has also striven for active participation 

of its member state in international financial 

institutions, so as to ensure transparency 

and bridge the divide between the global 

North and the Global South. One of the 

major contributions of the Non–Aligned 

Movement towards this objective is the 

conceptualizing of the New Economic 

International Order (NEIO). 

Developing countries have lost their 

growth due to asymmetric global economic 

order. They have lagged due to technology 

deficiency, exploitation of their resources 

by developed countries and ever increasing 

debt burdens. 

They have fallen under dependency in 

under the unequal impact of globalization. 

Born out of the African-Asian Solidarity 

Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in 

1955, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), 

created officially in Belgrade in 1961, 

allowed the Third World Countries to affirm 

an autonomous political existence and call 

for more equitable economic exchanges 

between North and South. 

NAM has co-sponsored a number of 

resolutions presented by the Group of 77 

on issues such as trade and development, 

cooperation for industrial development, 

environment and sustainable development, 

human settlements, population, external 

debt, food and sustainable agricultural 

development, an Agenda for Development 

and renewal of the dialogue on strengthening 

international economic cooperation for 

development through partnership. 

NAM has urged the developing countries to 

review their development policies in view of 

the global economic situation. This involves 

issues like how the global south can rely 

less on exports to the West and rely more on 

domestic and regional demand and on South- 

South trade and investment, and promote a 

strong role of the state in economic policies, 

along with devising appropriate policies for 

industry, agriculture and services, including 

financial policy in developing countries. 

NAM has urged the need for South-South 

coordination and cooperation. As North- 

South relations go through difficult or 

tumultuous times, South-South solidarity 

and action is even more urgent. NAM has a 

critical role to play in this. 

From its inception, the idea of South-South 

cooperation was very much based on a model 

But within the broader concept of South- 

South co-operation, there is also a specific 

development co-operation dimension. It 

typically combines aid with investment and 

enhanced market access opportunities. The 

southern actors are delivering “expertise 

and financial support to foster the economic 

and social welfare of other developing 

countries”. 

(in arrangement with 

News from Non-Aligned World) 

www.iins.org 

One year 

Five year 

Rs. 350 Rs. 1500 

A-2/59 Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi - 110029 India 

Ph. No : +91-11-26102520, Fax : +91- 11- 26196294 

E-mail : info@newdelhitimes.com 

Web : www.newdelhitimes.com 


of solidarity among developing countries 

and collective self-reliance through various 

co-operation agreements to address common 

development challenges. 

The emergence of a number of large 

developing countries as major players on the 

international stage has brought the question 

of South-South co-operation to centre-stage 

once again. South-South ties, be it economic 

or political, are more important now than 

they have ever been. 


14 


R 

A 

Technology & Health 


◆◆By Smt. Maneka 

Sanjay Gandhi 

@ManekaGandhiBJP 

ecently the Hyderabad based Muslim 

seminary Jamia Nizamia, started in 

1876, issued a ban on Muslims eating prawn, 

shrimp, and crabs, calling them Makruh 

Tahrim (abominable) 

According to Islam, there are three 

categories of food : Halal (allowed) , Haram 

(prohibited, Makruh (strictly to be avoided 

as abominable) 

Most Muslims eat meat, every kind. In fact 

the religion defines itself by the eating of 

meat – even though the Holy Prophet was 

a vegetarian. However, most Muslims have 

no idea of what they are allowed to eat. 

The maximum they know is that butchery 

is divided into two – Muslims eat Halaal 

and non-Muslims eat Jhatka. (It is another 

matter that the animals slaughtered in India 

are neither halaal nor jhatka and make a 

mockery of both religions) If you have 

Muslim acquaintances, you could pass this 

on to them. 

There are four categories of food - 

1. Halal - lawful. 

A halal slaughter involves a sharp knife. The 

animal should not see before it is slaughtered; 

the animal must be well rested and fed 

before slaughtering, and the slaughtering 

may not take place in front of other animals. 

The jugular vein of the neck should be cut in 

order to drain all the blood of the live animal 

and the butcher should invoke Allah’s name 

saying “Bismillah” in order to take the 

animal’s life to meet the lawful need of food. 

Only vegetarian animals are allowed to be 

killed. Birds that eat seeds and vegetables 

are permitted. Birds that eat forbidden items 

like insects are only permitted if insects are 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Wasim Rasool 

Wani - Consultant 

Endodontist 

Specialist at Dantah 

smile is one of the main ways we 

interact positively with others and 

express happiness. If you are ashamed to 

smile in public due to discoloration of your 

teeth, you could be holding yourself back 

from many social situations. There are many 

factors that can cause discoloration of teeth. 

Teeth can develop discoloration by stains 

on the external surface or by changes on the 

tooth material. Discoloration is generally 

divided into three main categories: 

• Extrinsic discoloration – it occurs 

when the outer layer of tooth (enamel) 

is stained by dental plaque and calculus, 

food and beverages, tobacco, chromogenic 

bacteria, topical medications, and metallic 

compounds. 

• Intrinsic discoloration – it occurs when 

inner structure of tooth (dentin) darkens 

or becomes yellow. It is caused by dental 

materials (eg, tooth fillings), dental caries, 

trauma, infections, medications, nutritional 

deficiencies and other disorders like 

complications of pregnancy, anemia and 

bleeding disorders and genetic defects and 

hereditary diseases which affect enamel and 

Facts about Food Muslims eat 

not a major part of their diet. Insects such as 

Locusts are permitted, all others forbidden. 

Fruits and Vegetables must be inspected 

before eating to see that they have no insects. 

Fish killed by removal from water, or by a 

blow, are permitted. Shellfish are forbidden. 

Cheeses coagulated with acid or vegetable 

enzymes are permitted. Grains are permitted, 

provided they have not been prepared using 

animal fats or other forbidden ingredients. 

Vinegar which is not made from fermenting 

alcohol is permitted. 


2. Haram - forbidden, unlawful. 

Haram is an Arabic term meaning “forbidden”. 

Acts that are haram are prohibited in the 

religious texts of the Quran and the Sunnah. 

If something is considered haram, it remains 

prohibited no matter how good the intention 

is, or how honourable the purpose is. 

In Islamic law, dietary prohibitions are said 

to help with the understanding of divine will. 

Muslims are prohibited from consuming 

flowing blood. Meats that are considered 

haram, such as pork, dog, cat, monkey, 

or any other haram animals, can only be 

considered lawful in emergencies when a 

person is facing starvation and his life has 

to be saved through the consumption of 

this meat. However, these meats are NOT 

considered a necessity or permissible if his 

society possesses excess food. All carnivores 

with fangs such as lions, tigers, wolves, 

dogs, cats are haram. All birds with talons 

such as hawks, falcons, vultures, eagles are 

haram. Domesticated donkeys are haram. 

Animals which are commanded to kill such 

as mice, scorpions, snakes, are haram. In fact 

all reptiles, amphibians (frogs) and rodents 

are haram. Any animal that has died before 

being slaughtered in the Islamic manner, or 

has not been properly slaughtered, is haram. 

Animals that are slaughtered in the name of 

anyone but Allah are prohibited. 

Intoxicants, or Khamr, are prohibited in 

Islam. The Prophet forbade the trading, 

export, import, gifting of intoxicants, even 

with non-Muslims. It is not permissible for 

a Muslim to work in, or own, a place that 

sells intoxicants. This is not just alcohol but 

intoxicants, such as tobacco, paan, dokha, 

and khat. A Muslim is not even allowed to 

sit at a table where alcohol is being served. 

Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and any other 

substances which cause intoxication, are 

also forbidden. 

Nutmeg, asafoetida, vanilla extract and 

gelatine are also forbidden, either due to 

being intoxicants containing alcohol (vanilla 

extract) or other forbidden items such as pig 

parts (gelatine). This actually rules out most 

confectionary, as it contains nutmeg, vanilla 

extract and gelatine. 

Anything made from a human part is haram. 

(But all commercial biscuits use melted 

human hair called L Cysteine. And most of 

the world’s supply comes from the Hindu 

temple of Tirupati where the hair has been 

consecrated to the Hindu goddess). 

Carnivorous animals, birds of prey and land 

animals without external ears (i.e. snakes, 

reptiles, worms, insects etc.) Since all birds 

eat insects as the larger part of their diet , 

this should technically rule out all of them 

including chickens. But only Muslims run 

roadside chicken shops. Foods contaminated 

with blood or by-products, or any of the 

Tooth Discoloration 

dentin development or maturation. 

Symptoms 

Symptoms include brown, black, gray, 

green, orange, and yellow stains or even 

metallic sheen may be present. 

Prevention 

Rinsing mouth with water after having foods 

and drinks like wine, coffee that can stain 

your teeth is recommended. Brushing your 

teeth after every meal will help prevent 

some stains. Effective tooth brushing twice 

a day with a tooth paste helps to prevent 

extrinsic stains. Most tooth pastes contain 

abrasive, a detergent and an anti-tartar agent. 

Some tooth pastes may also contain tooth 

whitening agents. Intrinsic stains which 

are caused by damage to nerve and blood 

vessels inside the tooth (pulp) due to injury 

can be prevented by undergoing root canal 

treatment which removes the pulp before 

it gets decayed or darkened. To prevent 

intrinsic stains in children, avoid water that 

contains a high fluoride concentration. You 

can check the concentration of fluoride in 

your drinking water supply by calling the 

public health department. 

Treatment 

Dental treatment of tooth discoloration 

involves identifying the cause and implementing 

therapy. 

• Diet and habits: Extrinsic staining caused 

by foods, beverages, or habits (eg, smoking, 

chewing tobacco) is treated with a thorough 

dental prophylaxis and cessation of dietary 

or other contributory habits to prevent 

further staining. 

• Professional tooth cleaning: Some 

extrinsic stains may be removed with 

ultrasonic cleaning and rotary polishing with 

an abrasive prophylactic paste. Repeated use 

of these modalities is not recommended as 

their excessive use may lead to enamel wear. 

• Enamel microabrasion: this technique 

involves rotary application of a water 

soluble paste containing weak hydrochloric 

acid and silicon carbide particles. It results 

in smooth and glazed enamel surface. It can 

be used in removal of superficial intrinsic 

discoloration which are caused by Fluorosis 

and decalcification secondary to orthodontic 

brackets and bands. 

• Bleaching: It is a safe, easy and inexpensive 

treatment modality. Bleaching is helpful 

in patients with yellow, orange or light 

brown extrinsic discoloration. In-office 

power bleaching is done by the dentist by 

applying the light activated bleaching gel 

over the enamel of affected teeth for 30 to 45 

minutes. This technique results in significant 


above products, is illegal. 

3. Mashbooh, Mushtabahat - questionable 

or doubtful. 

There is a grey area called mushbooh. If one 

does not know the Halal or Haram status of 

a particular food or drink it should not be 

consumed. 

4. Makrooh - inappropriate, distasteful 

or offensive. 

Although makruh actions are less severe 

than haram, it is recommended to avoid 

performing them. This will give a Muslim 

a better chance of reaping Allah’s rewards. 

Makruh food, determined by the Quran, 

states that man should only eat pure food, 

and anything that is impure is regarded as 

makruh. This includes food that is spoiled or 

rotten. Into this comes now prawn , shrimp, 

crabs – all of which are carrion eaters. 

So, a Muslim should look out for : 

Soup stock made of bones as these are likely 

to have pig in them, unless specially stated. 

Any cosmetic (lipstick etc.), or food dye of 

a pink/red colour as these are usually made 

from crushed and dried female insects called 

Cochineal beetles. Lard, which is usually fat 

from swine and is used in pastry. Gelatine, 

which is obtained by boiling the bones, and 

other waste parts of animals, and forms the 

basis of most sweets and jelly. 

I am not even going into the emulsifiers used 

in food like Diglycerides and others (E470 

to E483) which can be obtained from pork, 

or non-halal sources, or magnesium stearate 

which is used in medicine tablets. Even 

digestives have pepsin: a digestive enzyme 

made from pig stomachs. 

To join the animal welfare movement 

contact gandhim@nic.in, 

www.peopleforanimalsindia.org 

whitening effect of teeth. Follow up 

treatments may be needed for this therapy. 

• At home Bleaching: Stains can also be 

removed by applying at-home bleaching 

gel in a mouth guard prescribed by dentist. 

These gels are weaker in comparison to 

those used by dentists in in-office power 

bleaching techniques, so treatment may take 

longer to get desired results – usually two to 

four weeks. 

• Nonvital bleaching: It is done after root 

canal treatment of the teeth which are 

discolored by pulp degeneration due to tooth 

injury. Dentist places the bleaching agent 

inside the tooth foe as long as one week. 

Two to three sittings may be needed to get 

the desired effect. 

• Surgical care: teeth discolored by dental 

caries or dental materials need removal of 

the dental caries and old restorative materials 

followed by proper restoration of the tooth. 

For generalized intrinsic discolorations partial 

or full coverage dental restorations (laminate 

veneers) may be needed. Tooth discoloration is 

mainly a cosmetic problem. Call your dentist 

if you’re unhappy with the appearance of your 

teeth. Any change in a child’s normal tooth 

color should be evaluated by a dentist. 

By Dr. Wasim Rasool Wani - Consultant 

Endodontist & Specialist at Dantah 



Entertainment & Lifestyle 


At 31, Ryan Coogler ascends to the top with 

‘Black Panther’ 

R 

yan Coogler was feeling overwhelmed 

by “Black Panther.” 

It was only his third feature film and, at 

just 30-years-old, he was making it with 

Hollywood’s most powerful studio under 

enormous cultural expectations and with 

$200 million to get it right. 

And he really didn’t want it to “suck” (his 

word). 

The Oakland, California, native got into 

filmmaking almost on a lark when a creative 

writing professor at St. Mary’s College in 

Moraga, California, where he was attending 

on a football scholarship, suggested he look 

into screenwriting. He had thought he would 

play football and be a doctor, maybe, to 

help his community. But this idea of being 

a filmmaker took hold, and after making a 

splash at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, 

he had solidified himself as one of the most 

promising and vibrant young directors to 

watch. 

His first feature, the indie “Fruitvale Station,” 

about the final 24 hours of Oscar Grant 

III, put him on the map after winning the 

Sundance Grand Jury and Audience prizes 

in 2013, a handful of critics groups awards 

and a Film Independent Spirit Award. His 

second, the “Rocky” spin-off “Creed,” put 

him on another level. 

The $35 million film grossed over $173 

million worldwide and reinvigorated a 

franchise for Warner Bros. 

It’s the kind of one-two punch that made 

people who didn’t even know him at the 

time, like actress Danai Gurira, feel proud. 

“I had been at Sundance the same time he 

was there with ‘Fruitvale Station.’ I had so 

much respect and pride,” Gurira said. “I 

had never met him but I was proud of him, 

of what he’d done and how he’d moved 

forward in the world and told stories that 

needed to be told.” 

Still, “Black Panther” was going to be a 

huge leap, even if odds that it would “suck” 

were slim. Coogler, 31, was used to making 

personal films at his own speed. This was a 

different beast — with visual effects, a huge 

ensemble cast and set pieces that would 

make any veteran filmmaker wake up in a 

cold sweat. “This is the first project that I 

ever did that I felt like I had to make peace 

B 

with the fact that I would never be caught 

up in my work,” Coogler said. “I had to 

figure out how to let myself rest. You could 

work 24 hours a day and it still wouldn’t be 

enough on a film like this. There’s so much 

happening and so many decisions to be 

made.” 


“I had to learn to be more efficient,” he 

added. “I got to learn how to do in 30 

minutes what it took me two hours to do on 

the last movie.” 

To help, Coogler surrounded himself 

with a handful of constants, like his muse 

Michael B. Jordan, cinematographer Rachel 

Morrison, production designer Hannah 

Beachler and editor Michael Shawver, and 

got used to trusting those he hired to go off 

and do their jobs while he did his, knowing 

that he couldn’t get hung up on details like 

what color someone’s shoes would be. That’s 

what Oscar-nominated costume designer 

Ruth E. Carter was there for, after all. 

And Jordan, who starred in both “Fruitvale 

Station” and “Creed,” said Coogler handled 

the pressure well. 

“I didn’t have as much time as I usually have 

with him. He had so many other things to 

tackle,” Jordan said. “But other than that 

he’s the same guy and that’s what makes 

Ryan Ryan. He’s unapologetically who he 

is 24-7. And he’s consistent. A lot of people 

can’t say that about themselves. We’re still 

blasting music in between set-ups and takes 

and everybody on the crew was feeling like 

a big family. It was awesome.” 

On “Black Panther,” Jordan just wanted to 

be there to support his friend when he needed 

it — Coogler always did it for him. “Every 

movie that we’ve done I’ve been in some 

physically uncomfortable situations whether 

it’s being freezing cold out somewhere or 

taking a punch or being in some extreme 

situation. Ryan? If I’m cold he’s going 

to be cold. If I’m in some thin T-shirt or 

shirtless or in the elements, he’s going to 

take his shirt off too and be right there with 

his actor,” Jordan said. “He’s willing to do 

whatever it is, whatever the actor is going 

through so we can do it together. That’s a 

testament to him, man, teamwork, just being 

there for each other. I think that’s rare. And 

it makes you want to follow him even more. 

He’s a great leader.” 

Even recruits to the Coogler universe like 

Daniel Kaluuya and Letitia Wright felt part 

of the “family.” “I don’t have the work, the 

credentials such as my other cast mates,” 

said Wright. “I’m still piecing my career 

together. But he never made me feel less 

than, he never made me feel like I’m a 

newcomer.” 

Kaluuya felt similarly. 

“He sees people. He sees the content of 

their character. And he’s smart, he’s deeply 

intelligent. You can see it in his films. Not 

every 30-year-old could do this,” Kaluuya 

said. “He’s a special, special director.” 

Coogler ultimately began to trust that the 

Marvel Studios execs actually did want him 

to make his own decisions and the deliver 

the film he always wanted to. Now he just 

hopes what he’s made isn’t going to fade. 

“The fear I have is that you make something 

that’s like dispensable, disposable, 

something somebody watches and forgets. I 

like movies that you can go back to. Movies 

that feel like they were always around, as 

soon as you see it, it feels like it was always 

there,” Coogler said. “The worst thing in the 

world is to make this movie and be like, “Oh 

that was ok and. on to the next.” Especially 

not for this one. It’s like you’ve got one shot, 

you’ve got to get this right.” 


UK film industry promises action on 

harassment, bullying 

ritain’s film industry announced a 

plan to tackle bullying and sexual 

harassment, backed by stars including 

Emma Watson, Gemma Arterton and James 

Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. 

Organizations including the U.K.’s film 

academy, the British Film Institute, and 

unions have united behind a set of principles 

in response to “urgent and systemic issues.” 

They said the goal is “to eradicate bullying 

and harassment and support victims 

more effectively.” The measures include 

procedures for reporting and investigating 

abuse, a commitment to take “appropriate 

action” against bullies and abusers, and a 

confidential support line. 

Films will have to sign up to the principles to 

receive funding from the BFI, which hands 

out tens of millions of pounds (dollars) to 

new productions each year. 

Former “Harry Potter” star Watson said the 

principles “are not just about protecting 

individuals but are also an important step in 

embracing a greater diversity of voices” in 

the industry. Scores of entertainment figures 

have been accused of sexual harassment and 

abuse since women came forward to accuse 

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein last 

year. 



Metallica, Afghan 

ensemble win 2018 

Polar Music Prize 

A 

merican heavy metal band Metallica 

and Afghanistan’s National Institute 

of Music have won the 2018 Polar Music 

Prizes, a Swedish award. 

It is the first time a heavy metal band gets 

an award given each year for significant 

achievements in music. 

The award panel said Metallica had “through 

virtuoso ensemble playing and its use of 

extremely accelerated tempos” taken rock 

music “to places it had never been before.” 

It said the Afghan ensemble “revives Afghan 

music, and shows you can transform lives 

through music.” 

Drummer Lars Ulrich, who co-founded 

Metallica, said getting the prize “puts us in 

very distinguished company.” 

They have been invited to receive their 

awards, including a cash prize of 1 million 

kronor ($124,000) each, on June 14 from 

members of the Swedish royal family in 

Stockholm. 



Producer Ryan 

Murphy signs 

exclusive Netflix 

deal 

T 

V and movie producer Ryan Murphy 

is expanding his empire to Netflix. The 

streaming service says Murphy signed a deal 

to produce new series and films exclusively 

for it starting in July. Details of the multiyear 

deal were not disclosed. 

Murphy has been producing TV shows 

for the Fox broadcast network and FX 

cable channel, including “Glee,” ‘’9-1-1,” 

‘’American Crime Story” and “American 

Horror Story.” He will continue working 

on the Fox and FX shows produced by 20th 

Century Fox Television, a spokesman for 

Murphy said. 

Two new shows that will premiere on 

Netflix, “Ratched” and “The Politician,” 

also will be produced by Fox, his spokesman 

said. Murphy’s big-screen credits include 

“Running with Scissors” and “Eat Pray 

Love.” 





16 


Sports 

PyeongChang 2018 Winter 

Olympics : Promoting 

Sustainable Development 

T 




he Declaration of the 2030 Agenda for 

Sustainable Development acknowledges 

the role of sports for social progress. 

The Declaration states that “Sport is 

also an important enabler of sustainable 

development. We recognize the growing 

contribution of sport to the realization of 

development and peace in its promotion of 

tolerance and respect and the contributions it 

makes to the empowerment of women and of 

young people, individuals and communities 

as well as to health, education and social 

inclusion objectives.” 


As part of this objective, Sustainability 

Report for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic 

and Paralympic Winter Games was released 

by Pyeongchang Organising Committee for 

the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter 

Games (POCOG) in April 2017. 

It may be mentioned that PyeongChang 

2018 are the first Winter Games in history 

to receive the ISO20121 certification – an 

international standard for the establishment 

of a sustainable management system that 

minimizes the burdens on local communities 

while maximizing positive impacts. 

With a view to achieving its sustainability 

objectives, POCOG put into action five key 

themes encompassing the environmental, 

economic and social aspects of the Games: 

“Low-Carbon Green Olympics”, “Stewardship 

of Nature”, “Good Life”, “Proud People with 

Tradition and Culture”, and “Globalizing 

PyeongChang: Opening to the World”. 

During the launch of the report, POCOG 

President Lee Heebeom said: “The international 

community has set forth sustainable 

development as a new paradigm for 

humanity to face unseen challenges due 

to climate change and resource depletion, 

and the Olympic and Paralympic Games is 

expected to take a leading role in realizing 

sustainability. 

Many initiatives have been undertaken 

to promote the sustainability efforts. 

One such example is the Wind Village 

project- one of the PyeongChang 2018 

Sustainability Partner projects conducted 

by KT (the telecommunication partner for 

the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games) 

has been revitalising the local economy 

by creating new jobs to the local residents 

and expanding the sales channels of locally 

produced products utilising advanced 

technology. 

Moreover, the electric vehicles that are used 

as operation fleet during the PyeongChang 

2019 Olympic Winter Games may also 

contribute to mitigating the environmental 

impacts of the event. 

In a significant development, United 

Nations offices in the Republic of 

Korea (UNDP, UNESCAP, UNHCR, 

UNICEF, OHCHR, WFP and UNGC) 

have used the 2018 PyeongChang 

Winter Olympics as a tool to raise 

public awareness of the Sustainable 

Development Goals (SDGs) and the 

PyeongChang 2018 sustainability 

efforts. 

The “PyeongChang 2018 Olympics & 

SDGs Talk Concert” – the centrepiece 

of the campaign took place on 6 

February 2018 in Seoul. 

The Talk Concert was a joint effort of 

the UN offices in Korea, the PyeongChang 

Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic 

and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) 

and the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of 

Korea. 

One of the key speakers at the conference 

was refugee athlete Yiech Pur Biel. He shared 

his view on Goal 16 out of the 17 SDGs -- 

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. 

“To talk about the Sustainable Development 

Goals we must start it with peace,” Biel said, 

noting that there are more than 2.5 million 

refugees from South Sudan, with seven 

million people there in need of emergency 

aid. “Because without peace, there’s no 

development in a country,” he stressed. 

“It’s important to provide refugees with 

such basic necessities as shelter and food, 

but it must begin with peace. When we have 

peace, we might have justice and we might 

have development.” 

Sustainable Development is one of the key 

goals of the 2018 Winter Olympics and it 

is a welcome sign that UN agencies at the 

regional level are extending their full support 

towards the realisation of the Sustainability 

Report for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic 

and Paralympic Winter Games. 


Premier League TV growth halted as 

UK rights sold for $6bn 

T 

he Premier League’s inflationary 

bubble burst when the $6 billion sale 

of British television rights produced a drop 

in the value of matches. 

The past two domestic deals both produced 

70 percent jumps in the value of rights, 

fueling spiraling wages and transfer fees 

and cementing the competition’s status as 

the world’s richest league. But the auction 

of 2019-2022 rights left two of the seven 

packages still up for sale as Sky emerged the 

big winner and rival broadcaster BT saw its 

position weakened. 

The sale of 160 games has raised 4.464 

billion pounds ($6.2 billion), compared with 

5.14 billion pounds for 168 fixtures from 

2016 to 2019. The league will be looking 

to the sale of overseas rights to provide an 

upsurge in revenue for its 20 teams, who split 

the foreign income equally. While remaining 

the biggest broadcaster of most games in 

Britain with four packages, Sky boasted how 

it was now paying 16 percent less per fixture 

in its 3.579 billion pound, three-year deal to 

show 128 games per season. That equates 

to savings of almost 600 million pounds for 

the European pay TV giant while showing 

an additional two games a year from the 

league it helped to grow from its inception 

in 1992. But while Sky’s price per game 

drops from 11 million pounds to 9.3 million 

pounds, BT had to agree to pay 9.2 million 

pounds — up from 7.6 million pounds — for 

one package of 32 games. The broadcaster, 

which was launched in 2013 by Britain’s 

former telephone monopoly, has lost 10 

games and will only screen games now on 

Saturday lunchtimes. BT said it “remained 

financially disciplined” while bidding. 

The Premier League increased the number 

of games available for live broadcasting in 

Britain to 200, with only overseas channels 

able to air all 380 fixtures a year live in a bid 

to maintain large attendances at stadiums. 

The Premier League said “multiple bidders” 

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remain interested in the two remaining 

packages that allow broadcasters to show 

every game in four rounds of matches. It is 

the first time an entire schedule of fixture 

can be aired live domestically, and there is 

intrigue over whether digital companies like 

Amazon, Netflix or Facebook will use them 

as a chance to gain a foothold in the Premier 

League. 

“To have achieved this investment with two 

packages of live rights remaining to sell is 

an outcome that is testament to the excellent 

football competition delivered by the 

clubs,” Premier League chairman Richard 

Scudamore said. “It provides them with 

certainty and will underpin their continued 

efforts to put on the most compelling 

football, invest sustainably in all areas, 

and use their popularity and reach to have 

a positive impact on the sport and beyond.” 

The 2019-2022 Chinese rights have already 

been sold to online video streaming service 

PPTV for $700 million in the league’s 

biggest-ever global deal. In 2015, the 

American rights were sold through 2022 to 

NBC in a six-year deal worth $1 billion. 

The auction comes amid uncertainty at Sky 

with regulators in Britain assessing the 

attempt by Rupert Murdochs’s 21st Century 

Fox to buy the 61 percent of the broadcaster 

it does not already own. The Walt Disney 

Co. has also bid $52.4 billion to take over 

the majority of Fox in a deal that Disney 

envisages leading to full ownership of Sky. 



Sayers added to Australia 

test squad after Bird injury 

U 

ncapped fast bowler Chadd Sayers has 

been added to Australia’s squad for its 

test tour to South Africa as a replacement for 

Jackson Bird who has a hamstring strain. 

The 30-year-old Sayers angered chairman 

of selectors Trevor Hohns when he publicly 

complained that he was not informed by 

telephone of his original omission from the 

squad. 

Hohns said it was not his practice to contact 

players individually when 

teams were named. 

Sayers has spoken with 

Hohns since and his callup 

suggests the air has 

been cleared. 

The South Africa test 

series begins on March 1. 

Captain Steve Smith 

said Bird’s injury is 

“disappointing for Jackson. 

But it’s exciting for Chadd at the same 

time. They both stand the seam up nicely 

and Chadd’s been rewarded for what he has 

done in (Sheffield) Shield cricket for the last 

couple of years.” 

Sayers, from South Australia, has 246 firstclass 

wickets at an average of 24.11 and 

has been the leading wicket-taker in the 

Sheffield Shield over the past 18 months. 


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Printer and Publisher: Dr. (Mrs.) Pramila Srivastava, on behalf of Dr. Ankur Srivastava, Printed at Sudhir Printers, 151, Desh Bandhu Gupta Market, Karol Bagh, Delhi - 110005, 

Published at A-2/59 Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110029. Ph.: 26102520, 26105846 Fax: 26196294 Email: info@newdelhitimes.com, Vol. 28, No. 3 Editor : Dr. Ankit Srivastava

19-25 February 2018 - 16 new-min

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