Habitat for Humanity
Climate summit comes and goes, but can we protect the world from the devastating impact of climate change?
Those who observed the hustle and bustle of world leaders in Paris summit may have missed the minutiae of deals which were hammered out late into the night.
Despite the leaders’ bravados and platitudes, what mattered most in the summit are the countries’ interests. I mean the geo-political interests of the governments.
President Barack Obama’s signature legislative initiative– Affordable Care Act—completed five years of its meaningful existence. The President signed the epoch-making law on March 23, 2010 which has transformed the lives of more than 16 million Americans.
Prior to Obamacare, the U.S. was one of the only developed nations that didn’t have a national health program.
Every Indian, I’m sure, has an incredible romantic railway memory. Remember the scene in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, 1955), the breathtaking milestone of world cinema, where we see the boundless joy on the faces of Apu and Durga when they are sprinting through kash fields to see the oncoming train? The sight of the train filled the brother-sister duo with utter delight. The portrayal of the kids’ wonderment has been Ray’s master stroke and a cinematic tour de force.
Well, the memories of happy journey have faded into oblivion after successive central leaderships have jerry-rigged things resulting in a massive mess for the ‘nation’s lifeline’.
With the sun disappearing stealthily on the horizon and shadows lengthening on the platform, Howrah-Puri Shatabdi screeched to a halt at Balasore. My host Dr Rabinarayan Dash spotted me among the crowd and rushed to greet me.
“Hey, you’re finally at Balasore,” said Dr Rabi, a renowned rheumatologist based in Lund, Sweden. I was supposed to visit his native village, Badasindhiya, 10km from downtown Balasore.
Destination: Kalitala High School, Hingalganj block, on the India-Bangladesh border, 120 km from Kolkata
Protagonist: A young teacher
This is the story of a teacher, of her intense passion for teaching, of her undying spirit and above all her daily struggle for survival. She’s been taking the long and arduous journey from Dum Dum to a remote hamlet called Kalitala in Hingalganj in north 24 Parganas on the India-Bangladesh border over the past five years.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified as many as 221 journalists in jail around the world in 2014. In 2013 the number was 211. The tally marks the second-highest number of journalists in jail since CPJ began taking an annual census of imprisoned journalists in 1990.
I wonder why freedom of expression is taken away by those countries which have thrown valiant journalists into prisons. I condemn all these attempts at muffling free press.
Jail those scribes who are dishonest, tell lies and resort to falsehood, but not those who are apostles of honesty and rectitude and who always stand by truth, come what may.
Let truth prevail.
Arup Bhandari laid down his life on February 2 fighting to protect women’s dignity. The brave soul fought goons single-handedly but slumped to ground when he was hit with sticks and rods. The intrepid 23-year-old from Salkia, Howrah, who sometimes worked as a civic police volunteer, faced the fury and wrath of five young men when he raised his voice and protested against women’s harassment.
He died unnoticed, unsung.
Thanks for stopping by.
