Plan, the ChildrenÂ’s aid organization, issued a report with the following sobering statistics (Thanks, Al Mujahid):

• Nearly half of Asia’s 1.3bn children live in poverty, denied basic needs, says a new report.
• India has the largest number of poor children in Asia, with 80% of its 400m young severely deprived, it says.
• 600m Asian children under the age of 18 lack access to either food, safe drinking water, health or shelter.
• Of those, 350m were described as "absolutely poor", meaning they do not have access to two or more of a child’s essential necessities.
[BBC]

Though Africa (especially lately) is the continent many of us associate with poverty and desperation, Asia has double the number of “severely deprived” children.  IÂ’m ashamed of my ignorance of this fact.  ItÂ’s so easy to focus on Bangalore and Gurgaon, on starbucks-esque “third places”, on “desirable” India.  I heard so much about IndiaÂ’s fabulous new middle class, I forgot that

Despite high growth rates in countries like India and China, millions of families were being left behind, according to the report.

Among the causes, the report said, were the pressure of rapid population growth on scarce resources, lack of access to education, health care, clean water or sanitation, caste discrimination, and weak governance and corruption.[BBC]

Around half of IndiaÂ’s children who are age five or younger are malnourished; additionally, India has more children working than any other country. Sixty percent of IndiaÂ’s youngest citizens are “absolutely poor”.  In contrast, only 13 million or ChinaÂ’s 380 million children are considered “deprived”.

China, the report said, had made "great strides in poverty reduction in recent years".[BBC]

WhatÂ’s being done?

Child aid organisation, Plan, author of the report, has pledged to spend $1bn on poverty reduction in 12 Asian countries over the next decade.

It also wants rich nations to reduce subsidies given to their own farmers and to cancel Third World debt. [BBC]

Sigh. Continue reading →

A wee bit of good news:

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a prominent Islamic leader in connection with last week’s wave of bombings.

Moulana Fariduddin Masud, a senior member of the Jamaate Ulamaye Islam group, was detained at the main airport in the capital, Dhaka. [BBC]

Masud was on his way to Dubai when he was busted and dragged off his flight. Well, he probably wasn’t dragged, but you get the picture.

Last Wednesday’s mass-bombing stole two lives, including that of a little boy who was killed when he picked up one of the small, home-made explosives. Over 100 people were injured by the 400 bombs which went off around government buildings in Bangladesh last week.

More raids are happening to find others who may be responsible. One sought-after suspect is Abdur Rahman; he lead the banned fundamentalist group (Jamatul Mujahideen) that left leaflets around bombing sites, taking credit for the blasts. Unfortunately, authorities think Rahman may have succeeded where Masud failed– he has probably already fled Bangladesh. Interpol has been alerted.

Sigh. I’ll close by focusing on the positive, yes? At least they caught SOMEONE:

Moulana Masud was later taken into the custody of the elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), for interrogation.

Little is known about him but police said he was among 20 people wanted in connection with the attacks. [BBC]

Interrogate away. I’m haunted by the horrifying possibility that last week was just a “dry run”. Continue reading →

Mata Amritanandamayi, the world-famous “hugging saint” whose charitable trust runs schools and hospitals all over the world, is safe after being attacked yesterday by an unidentified assailant. The attempted stabbing occurred in the Kollam district of Kerala, where the spiritual leader is based.

Reports say her followers wrestled the attacker on to the ground before he could reach the stage where she was leading prayers for 18,000 people.[BBC]

Two of the disciples who rushed to protect their leader experienced minor injuries.

Mata Amritanandamayi, (“Mother of Absolute Bliss”) or “Amma” as she is sometimes called cautioned against revenge:

Ms Amritanandamayi said on Monday she wanted her followers to forgive the attacker.

“All those who are born will die one day. I am going ahead keeping this reality in mind,” she said.

“I will carry on. I will continue to give darshan to the devotees coming here to meet me. I don’t want my [followers] to create any problem for what had happened yesterday.”[BBC]

Hail Lucifer?

The Indian Express newspaper said the attacker may have been a follower who was expelled recently.[BBC]

The spiritual leader’s website had this statement:

August 21, 2005 – Latest News from Amritapuri

Amma is unharmed. She is giving Devi Bhava darshan now. Stranger with a hidden knife rushes to the stage during Amma’s bhajans. Devotees overpowered him and have handed him over to the police. None of today’s Devi Bhava programs were interrupted by this incident.

Continue reading →

The Village Voice tries to make everything it likes into something sexy, cool, and happening.

They’re aiming to do the same with Fareed Zakaria in their profile of him in this week’s issue. Joy Press piles on the adjectives, starting with the subtitle to the article: “Muslim, Heartthrob, Super-Pundit.” A rather unlikely string of words, isn’t it? (Especially jarring is “Muslim” and “Pundit.” But we’ll let it go.)

Press pushes the sexy button a bit more before Zakaria’s anti-sexy, policy wonk energies start to dominate the interview:

Sitting in his airy corner office at Newsweek, Zakaria is the definition of dapper, clad in a pale yellow checked shirt and crisp khakis. He ignores the constant ambient ping of incoming e-mails and phone calls as he talks about his PBS show. Zakaria may be the pundit world’s answer to the Backstreet Boys, but there’s nothing sexy about Foreign Exchange. It has the standard muted tones of a serious news program, complete with generic set and antiquated electronic theme music. “People ask how we’ll distinguish ourselves from the competition,” Zakaria says animatedly. “What competition? There’s literally not another show on American television that deals only with foreign affairs–you know, the other 95 percent of humanity.” (link)

She starts off this paragraph with a kind of journalistic optimism that her subject is in fact hot and happening. Looking dapper! Ignores email pings! (Translation: he’s a busy man, but cool about it.) Argably, the reference to the Backstreet Boys doesn’t help her cause (though maybe the Backstreet Boys are cool again and I am just out of the loop). However, this earnest effort at Cutening Fareed is betrayed by Zakaria’s use of the word “foreign affairs,” which is about as appealing to the fashion-obsessed Voice as a Slurpee in January. From here on out, the interview is all rigor, internationalism, policy, and PBS.

The other 95 percent of humanity is not sexy. Fareed Zakaria is interested in them. Therefore, Fareed Zakaria is not sexy. QED.

For the record, that’s just fine with me: the U.S. media needs more unsexy Muslim heartthrob superpundits. And less Botox News, please.

See more Zakaria SM posts here, here, here, here, and here. Continue reading →