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06:17 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
June 23, 2015
Donald Trump has put in his nomination for president of the United States. And why not? He has the money to pay for the election costs. He has that leonine look that could come from central casting, his business acumen is undisputed and he makes the perfect lampoon for the media. They can change Trump Towers to the White House or vice versa and he can select his cabinet by playing The Apprentice. Actually, the more you think of it, why not? After all, isn’t that the essence of the American dream…. anyone can be president.
Has everyone forgotten Nepal including the media? Seems like it. Where is all goodwill and charity and why are there no updates on how things are doing. Over 8,600 people lost their lives according to the official statement and double that were injured. And what of the thousands of displaced families and the children? No one has even given a helping hand to the ‘Come to Nepal’ campaign to regain traction in the tourism sector and that is the country’s lifeline.
How quickly it is all forgotten.
In India, everyone is in a broil over helping former IPL boss Lalit Modi visit his sick wife in Portugal and how a few political bigwigs like Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj put in a good word. Get over it. In a nation where people who killed people are permitted instant bail and can fly abroad what is a little bit of humanitarianism. If all those charged with corruption in India were locked up the nation’s population problem would be solved.
Though one is a bit hard-placed to figure out how cancer treatment in Portugal is better than in the UK.
How do we sleep at night knowing 30 million children are destitute? Next time you gorge or waste or display greed, think about it. It hurts.
And add to that the official refugees of 59.9 million excluding the ones we haven’t reached or do not factor in like child laborers, the exploited and the enslaved and you know what, there seems to be no way out of this mess, none at all.
On the other side of the scale a million people became millionaires. Not you. Not me. We are still trying to make our two ends talk to each other.
The number of people worth $US1 million or more rose by 920,000 last year, hitting a record 14.6 million according to a report from consultant Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.
More than a third of new millionaires – 345,000 – were in the US.
The rise in the number of millionaires – 7 per cent – was about half the rate from the year before.
A surging Indian stock market helped drive up the number of Indian millionaires 26 per cent, the biggest percentage jump among major countries. That country had a total of 198,000 millionaires, and is fast closing in on Italy. There were 219,000 Italian millionaires last year.
England goes onto the front foot in its drive against child abuse after latest reports show the number of recorded sexual offences against children in England and Wales has risen by a third, according to the NSPCC.
There were 31,000 offences recorded in the year up to April 2014, up 8,500 on the previous year.
Figures compiled by the charity show 85 offences were recorded by police every day, with significant rises in Scotland and Northern Ireland also.
A spokesman said high-profile cases had “played a contributory factor” in encouraging people to come forward.
There truly is a lot of bad out there.
Do you get the feeling that FIFA has scored a self goal beyond all doubt and isn’t going to win this match. Imagine 53 bank violations that have to be investigated. Do you really see the noose not tightening around all those top officials? One can see President Sepp Blatter and General Secretary Jerome Valcke being shepherded somehow into the probe. There is no real way they can be exempted. After Swiss police seized FIFA computer data last month.
Switzerland’s third largest listed bank, Julius Baer, said it had launched its own internal investigation in connection with FIFA. It said it was cooperating with the authorities and did not say when the internal probe had begun… suffice it to say it has begun.
Migrants versus the homesteaders seems to be the central issue in Sicily where over 200,000 boat people have been allowed on shore and are now ‘upsetting’ the balance so to speak. Sicilians are resentful and in what can only be seen as irony find themselves victims of robber gangs who defend their assaults by saying they have had no money for seven months and are left with no choice. So much for the mafia that has its roots in this province… now the shoe seems to be on the other foot and the government has to find employment before the battle gets worse… nerves are getting frayed.
One report says: Almost 3,600 migrants have reportedly been rescued from overcrowded boats sailing from Africa to Europe over the past 48 hours, with sea conditions seen as perfect for attempting the crossing.
While more than 600 migrants were brought ashore at the port of Catania in Sicily on Thursday, rescuers picked another 2,500 from boats off the coast of Libya, Italy’s coastguard said.
Racism in its worst form has America reeling as a white supremacist kills nine people in an Afro-American church in Charleston. Church pastor Clementa Pinckney, who is also a state senator, reportedly was among the dead in what is now being labelled as a hate crime. The man just came in and let fly at the congregation. No one knows why. Coming as this massacre does on the heels of several white co-black victim reports the tinderbox could be more than just dry. It could be kindled into another race war.
Most amazingly China has banned Ramadan fasting in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang.
China’s ruling Communist party is officially atheist and for years has restricted the practice in Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
They have been quoted as saying, “Food service workplaces will operate normal hours during Ramadan.”
Officials were given orders: “During Ramadan do not engage in fasting, vigils or other religious activities.”
How do you force someone to eat if they have the will not to? It is one of those absurd commands that cannot be obeyed.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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