It’s summertime in Kashmir Valley, and tourists are returning to savor a rare season of peace after years of insurgency and domestic unrest. Gulmarg in the Valley is emerging as one of India’s favorite ski spots, attracting overseas tourists too with its rock-bottom prices and the creation of much-needed jobs. Let’s hope this summer’s peace will […]
A Sanskrit newspaper in a small south Indian town is trying to keep the classical Indian language alive. Like Latin, Sanskrit is now primarily a liturgical language, but boasts a wealth of ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts originally written in Sanskrit. Sudharma, “good faith” in Sanskrit, is the only Sanskrit-language daily that reports global news. It sells […]
A bit of good news from Afghanistan! As this story shows, it’s possible to have a good time in Kabul, and it’s possible for one woman, against the odds, to own and run a business in this male dominated society. Meena Rahmani, 28, borrowed money from her parents and opened a 12-lane bowling alley in the […]
By Nizam Ahmed DHAKA (June 1, 2012) – Bangladesh, known as the bottomless bread basket in the 1970s, is now an emerging South Asian economy, with annual exports of some $23 billion, mainly from garment products, remittances of some $18 billion and GDP growth of over 6% despite its confrontational politics over past decades, analysts […]
A promising and feasible way of addressing global hunger is described in an article by Amanda Richardson, Fellow at the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights. Here’s an excerpt: “…even though in general the land women own is usually smaller and of poorer quality than land men own, [according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of […]
“This story is ultimately about how small acts of kindness can bring a little humanity, even in a tragedy that defies all imagination.” It’s an account of what a retired undertaker has achieved in Kamaishi, Japan. Atsushi Chiba took it upon himself to clean and tend to the dead bodies of hundreds of last year’s earthquake and […]
Today, as reported by the BBC, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to deliver a campaign message and even to criticize her country’s political system. A clear sign that things are changing positively in Burma, she was able to speak for 15 minutes on national television and radio as part of a […]
This story has been reported by several news channels in the last few days, but it’s worth repeating. The UN has reached one of the millennium development goals ahead of schedule. Goal number 7 is to “Ensure environmental sustainability.” Within that goal, target 7C is to “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without […]
Yes! It’s time to rejoice and congratulate all those who contributed to an entire year without polio in India! Do so here.
Here’s a message from the Geneva-based World Economic Forum: “In case of a major humanitarian disaster, the primary mechanism for coordinating humanitarian assistance is the Cluster system – unique cooperation involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners. The Logistics Emergency Teams (LET) developed by the World Economic Forum and partner companies are the first example […]
