Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Bobby Ghosh - Why global Jihad is losing
I'm going to talk about the power of a word: jihad.
To the vast majority of practicing Muslims, jihad is an internal struggle for the faith.
It is a struggle within, a struggle against vice, sin, temptation, lust, greed. It is a struggle to try and live a life that is set by the moral codes written in the Koran. In that original idea, the concept of jihad is as important to Muslims as the idea of grace is to Christians. It's a very powerful word, jihad, if you look at it in that respect, and there's a certain almost mystical resonance to it. And that's the reason why, for hundreds of years, Muslims everywhere have named their children Jihad, their daughters as much as their sons, in the same way that, say, Christians name their daughters Grace, and Hindus, my people, name our daughters Bhakti, which means, in Sanskrit, spiritual worship.
But there have always been, in Islam, a small group, a minority, who believe that jihad is not only an internal struggle but also an external struggle against forces that would threaten the faith, or the faithul. And some of these people believe that in that struggle, it is sometimes okay to take up arms. And so the thousands of young Muslim men who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight against the Soviet occupation of a Muslim country, in their minds they were fighting a jihad, they were doing jihad, and they named themselves the Mujahideen, which is a word that comes from the same root as jihad. And we forget this now, but back then the Mujahideen were celebrated in this country, in America. We thought of them as holy warriors who were taking the good fight to the ungodly communists. America gave them weapons, gave them money, gave them support, encouragement.
But within that group, a tiny, smaller group, a minority within a minority within a minority, were coming up with a new and dangerous conception of jihad, and in time this group would come to be led by Osama bin Laden, and he refined the idea. His idea of jihad was a global war of terror, primarily targeted at the far enemy, at the crusaders from the West, against America. And the things he did in the pursuit of this jihad were so horrendous, so monstrous, and had such great impact, that his definition was the one that stuck, not just here in the West. We didn't know any better. We didn't pause to ask. We just assumed that if this insane man and his psychopathic followers were calling what they did jihad, then that's what jihad must mean. But it wasn't just us. Even in the Muslim world, his definition of jihad began to gain acceptance.
A year ago I was in Tunis, and I met the imam of a very small mosque, an old man. Fifteen years ago, he named his granddaughter Jihad, after the old meaning. He hoped that a name like that would inspire her to live a spiritual life. But he told me that after 9/11, he began to have second thoughts. He worried that if he called her by that name, especially outdoors, outside in public, he might be seen as endorsing bin Laden's idea of jihad. On Fridays in his mosque, he gave sermons trying to reclaim the meaning of the word, but his congregants, the people who came to his mosque, they had seen the videos. They had seen pictures of the planes going into the towers, the towers coming down. They had heard bin Laden say that that was jihad, and claimed victory for it. And so the old imam worried that his words were falling on deaf ears. No one was paying attention.
He was wrong. Some people were paying attention, but for the wrong reasons. The United States, at this point, was putting pressure on all its Arab allies, including Tunisia, to stamp out extremism in their societies, and this imam found himself suddenly in the crosshairs of the Tunisian intelligence service. They had never paid him any attention before -- old man, small mosque -- but now they began to pay visits, and sometimes they would drag him in for questions, and always the same question: "Why did you name your granddaughter Jihad? Why do you keep using the word jihad in your Friday sermons? Do you hate Americans? What is your connection to Osama bin Laden?"
So to the Tunisian intelligence agency, and organizations like it all over the Arab world, jihad equaled extremism, Bin Laden's definition had become institutionalized. That was the power of that word that he was able to do. And it filled this old imam, it filled him with great sadness. He told me that, of bin Laden's many crimes, this was, in his mind, one that didn't get enough attention, that he took this word, this beautiful idea. He didn't so much appropriate it as kidnapped it and debased it and corrupted it and turned it into something it was never meant to be, and then persuaded all of us that it always was a global jihad.
But the good news is that the global jihad is almost over, as bin Laden defined it. It was dying well before he did, and now it's on its last legs. Opinion polls from all over the Muslim world show that there is very little interest among Muslims in a global holy war against the West, against the far enemy. The supply of young men willing to fight and die for this cause is dwindling. The supply of money — just as important, more important perhaps — the supply of money to this activity is also dwindling. The wealthy fanatics who were previously sponsoring this kind of activity are now less generous.
What does that mean for us in the West? Does it mean we can break out the champagne, wash our hands of it, disengage, sleep easy at night? No. Disengagement is not an option, because if you let local jihad survive, it becomes international jihad. And so there's now a lot of different violent jihads all over the world. In Somalia, in Mali, in Nigeria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, there are groups that claim to be the inheritors of the legacy of Osama bin Laden. They use his rhetoric. They even use the brand name he created for his jihad. So there is now an al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, there's an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, there is an al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. There are other groups -- in Nigeria, Boko Haram, in Somalia, al Shabaab -- and they all pay homage to Osama bin Laden. But if you look closely, they're not fighting a global jihad. They're fighting battles over much narrower issues. Usually it has to do with ethnicity or race or sectarianism, or it's a power struggle. More often than not, it's a power struggle in one country, or even a small region within one country. Occasionally they will go across a border, from Iraq to Syria, from Mali to Algeria, from Somalia to Kenya, but they're not fighting a global jihad against some far enemy.
But that doesn't mean that we can relax. I was in Yemen recently, where -- it's the home of the last al Qaeda franchise that still aspires to attack America, attack the West. It's old school al Qaeda. You may remember these guys. They are the ones who tried to send the underwear bomber here, and they were using the Internet to try and instigate violence among American Muslims. But they have been distracted recently. Last year, they took control over a portion of southern Yemen, and ran it, Taliban-style. And then the Yemeni military got its act together, and ordinary people rose up against these guys and drove them out, and since then, most of their activities, most of their attacks have been directed at Yemenis.
So I think we've come to a point now where we can say that, just like all politics, all jihad is local. But that's still not reason for us to disengage, because we've seen that movie before, in Afghanistan. When those Mujahideen defeated the Soviet Union, we disengaged. And even before the fizz had gone out of our celebratory champagne, the Taliban had taken over in Kabul, and we said, "Local jihad, not our problem." And then the Taliban gave the keys of Kandahar to Osama bin Laden. He made it our problem. Local jihad, if you ignore it, becomes global jihad again.
The good news is that it doesn't have to be. We know how to fight it now. We have the tools. We have the knowhow, and we can take the lessons we've learned from the fight against global jihad, the victory against global jihad, and apply those to local jihad.
What are those lessons? We know who killed bin Laden: SEAL Team Six. Do we know, do we understand, who killed bin Ladenism? Who ended the global jihad? There lie the answers to the solution to local jihad.
Who killed bin Ladenism? Let's start with bin Laden himself. He probably thought 9/11 was his greatest achievement. In reality, it was the beginning of the end for him. He killed 3,000 innocent people, and that filled the Muslim world with horror and revulsion, and what that meant was that his idea of jihad could never become mainstream. He condemned himself to operating on the lunatic fringes of his own community. 9/11 didn't empower him; it doomed him.
Who killed bin Ladenism? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed it. He was the especially sadistic head of al Qaeda in Iraq who sent hundreds of suicide bombers to attack not Americans but Iraqis. Muslims. Sunni as well as Shiites. Any claim that al Qaeda had to being protectors of Islam against the Western crusaders was drowned in the blood of Iraqi Muslims.
Who killed Osama bin Laden? The SEAL Team Six. Who killed bin Ladenism? Al Jazeera did, Al Jazeera and half a dozen other satellite news stations in Arabic, because they circumvented the old, state-owned television stations in a lot of these countries which were designed to keep information from people. Al Jazeera brought information to them, showed them what was being said and done in the name of their religion, exposed the hypocrisy of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and allowed them, gave them the information that allowed them to come to their own conclusions.
Who killed bin Ladenism? The Arab Spring did, because it showed a way for young Muslims to bring about change in a manner that Osama bin Laden, with his limited imagination, could never have conceived.
Who defeated the global jihad? The American military did, the American soldiers did, with their allies, fighting in faraway battlefields. And perhaps, a time will come when they get the rightful credit for it.
So all these factors, and many more besides, we don't even fully understand some of them yet, these came together to defeat a monstrosity as big as bin Ladenism, the global jihad, you needed this group effort.
Now, not all of these things will work in local jihad. The American military is not going to march into Nigeria to take on Boko Haram, and it's unlikely that SEAL Team Six will rappel into the homes of al Shabaab's leaders and take them out.
But many of these other factors that were in play are now even stronger than before. Half the work is already done. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. The notion of violent jihad in which more Muslims are killed than any other kind of people is already thoroughly discredited. We don't have to go back to that. Satellite television and the Internet are informing and empowering young Muslims in exciting new ways. And the Arab Spring has produced governments, many of them Islamist governments, who know that, for their own self-preservation, they need to take on the extremists in their midsts. We don't need to persuade them, but we do need to help them, because they haven't really come to this place before.
The good news, again, is that a lot of the things they need we already have, and we are very good at giving: economic assistance, not just money, but expertise, technology, knowhow, private investment, fair terms of trade, medicine, education, technical support for training for their police forces to become more effective, for their anti-terror forces to become more efficient. We've got plenty of these things.
Some of the other things that they need we're not very good at giving. Maybe nobody is. Time, patience, subtlety, understanding -- these are harder to give. I live in New York now. Just this week, posters have gone up in subway stations in New York that describe jihad as savage.
But in all the many years that I have covered the Middle East, I have never been as optimistic as I am today that the gap between the Muslim world and the West is narrowing fast, and one of the many reasons for my optimism is that, because I know there are millions, hundreds of millions of people, Muslims like that old imam in Tunis, who are reclaiming this word and restoring to its original, beautiful purpose. Bin Laden is dead. Bin Ladenism has been defeated. His definition of jihad can now be expunged. To that jihad we can say, "Goodbye. Good riddance." To the real jihad we can say, "Welcome back. Good luck." Thank you. (Applause)
Friday, November 30, 2012
History of Flags
A Brief History of World Flags
People have used flags for over 4,000 years. Authentic flag design of ancient peoples includes a metal flag from Iran, ca. 3000 BC, and reconstructions of vexilloids shown on ancient Greek coins, Egyptian tomb carvings, etc.
Vexillogy: The first type of flag was called a vexilloid. Vexillology is the scientific study of flags. This word comes from a Latin word which means "guide". First flags or vexilloids were metal or wooden poles with carvings on top. About 2,000 years ago, pieces of fabric or material were added to some vexilloids for decoration. These looked more like the flags we know today.
A flag is a piece of colored fabric or material that is used as a symbol, or for sending a signal. Some flags are used only for decoration. Usually, flags are messages from a person or a group of people.
At war
People use flags to give others information, such as, who they are. Long ago, armies carried flags into battle because it was hard to know who the armies were. They were sometimes dressed up in uniforms and covered in armor or sometimes dressed even in civilian clothes and ready for battle! Flags were important because they helped soldiers tell their friends from their enemies in battle.
Countries Today
Today, every country in the world has a flag. As governments change, so do their flags. Every state in the United States has a flag, too. Flags are used to give information, signals or stand for special symbols or things. Many organizations or groups like the Girl Scouts or the United Nations have flags. Clubs and organizations have their own flags too. The five circles of the Olympic flag represent the coming together of people from five continents in friendly competition. Peace is the message of the olive branches cradling the world in the flag of the United Nations. Some people, like a king or queen, have their very own personal flag. Sometimes it flies over any building or place where they are staying.
Flags include symbols that are used to show ideas which would otherwise take many words. Flags are used for wars, as well as for the celebration of special events. On sad occasions, flags are flown at half-mast to honor the dead, and draped over the coffins of national heroes.
The colors found in flags have special meanings:
Red - danger, revolution, bloodshed of war, courage, power
White - peace, surrender, truce
Orange- courage, sacrifice
Green - safety, land, youth, hope
Yellow - caution, gold
Black - mourning, death
Flags come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. They can be used for important events, or to represent something special or give a special message. Sometimes an interesting decoration at the tip of the flag pole is added. This is called a finial.
One flag that almost everyone knows is the "White Flag of Surrender". Waiving a white flag is the international sign for surrender. Soldiers carrying or waving the "White Flag" are not fired upon. These "White Flags" are not made up in advance and are usually made out of any materials available at the time it is to be used.
Another well known flag is the "Jolly Roger", used by pirates to frighten people. These flags usually had a black background which stood for "no quarter" or "no mercy will be shown to those who resist."
Another well known flag is the "Red Flag" which means danger.
People who design flags have an important job. They must get their message and information on the flag without using many words or pictures. The pictures and colors on a flag symbolize something important. Flag designers used to make sketches with pencils and paints, now they use computers to help them design flags.
Many flags have the same basic patterns such as stripes, both horizontal and vertical, and stars. Many flags are divided into quarters and some are given a border. Colors on a flag are important.
Years ago, flags were made by hand by sewing pieces of fabric together or embroidered with yarn or painted. Today, flags are usually printed in long rolls of fabric which are run through a machine which prints a pattern over and over again on the fabric. Then the fabric is washed, dried and then cut into separate flags.
People have used flags for over 4,000 years. Authentic flag design of ancient peoples includes a metal flag from Iran, ca. 3000 BC, and reconstructions of vexilloids shown on ancient Greek coins, Egyptian tomb carvings, etc.
Vexillogy: The first type of flag was called a vexilloid. Vexillology is the scientific study of flags. This word comes from a Latin word which means "guide". First flags or vexilloids were metal or wooden poles with carvings on top. About 2,000 years ago, pieces of fabric or material were added to some vexilloids for decoration. These looked more like the flags we know today.
A flag is a piece of colored fabric or material that is used as a symbol, or for sending a signal. Some flags are used only for decoration. Usually, flags are messages from a person or a group of people.
At war
People use flags to give others information, such as, who they are. Long ago, armies carried flags into battle because it was hard to know who the armies were. They were sometimes dressed up in uniforms and covered in armor or sometimes dressed even in civilian clothes and ready for battle! Flags were important because they helped soldiers tell their friends from their enemies in battle.
Countries Today
Today, every country in the world has a flag. As governments change, so do their flags. Every state in the United States has a flag, too. Flags are used to give information, signals or stand for special symbols or things. Many organizations or groups like the Girl Scouts or the United Nations have flags. Clubs and organizations have their own flags too. The five circles of the Olympic flag represent the coming together of people from five continents in friendly competition. Peace is the message of the olive branches cradling the world in the flag of the United Nations. Some people, like a king or queen, have their very own personal flag. Sometimes it flies over any building or place where they are staying.
Flags include symbols that are used to show ideas which would otherwise take many words. Flags are used for wars, as well as for the celebration of special events. On sad occasions, flags are flown at half-mast to honor the dead, and draped over the coffins of national heroes.
The colors found in flags have special meanings:
Red - danger, revolution, bloodshed of war, courage, power
White - peace, surrender, truce
Orange- courage, sacrifice
Green - safety, land, youth, hope
Yellow - caution, gold
Black - mourning, death
Flags come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. They can be used for important events, or to represent something special or give a special message. Sometimes an interesting decoration at the tip of the flag pole is added. This is called a finial.
One flag that almost everyone knows is the "White Flag of Surrender". Waiving a white flag is the international sign for surrender. Soldiers carrying or waving the "White Flag" are not fired upon. These "White Flags" are not made up in advance and are usually made out of any materials available at the time it is to be used.
Another well known flag is the "Jolly Roger", used by pirates to frighten people. These flags usually had a black background which stood for "no quarter" or "no mercy will be shown to those who resist."
Another well known flag is the "Red Flag" which means danger.
People who design flags have an important job. They must get their message and information on the flag without using many words or pictures. The pictures and colors on a flag symbolize something important. Flag designers used to make sketches with pencils and paints, now they use computers to help them design flags.
Many flags have the same basic patterns such as stripes, both horizontal and vertical, and stars. Many flags are divided into quarters and some are given a border. Colors on a flag are important.
Years ago, flags were made by hand by sewing pieces of fabric together or embroidered with yarn or painted. Today, flags are usually printed in long rolls of fabric which are run through a machine which prints a pattern over and over again on the fabric. Then the fabric is washed, dried and then cut into separate flags.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Singapore rejects calls to abolish death penalty
Singapore rejects calls to abolish death penalty
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-rejects-calls-abolish-death-penalty-195231018.html
Singapore on Wednesday rejected calls to abolish executions, saying the death penalty is still necessary to deter serious crimes despite legal reforms designed to lessen its use.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also minister for home affairs, said abolishing hanging would send the wrong signal to potential criminals.
Singapore has unveiled legal amendments that will enable judges to impose life imprisonment on low-level drug couriers and people who commit murder with "no outright intention to kill".
Mandatory execution will be reserved for hardcore murderers and traffickers.
"The mandatory death penalty strengthens this deterrent message," Teo said during a debate in parliament on a bill amending the anti-drugs law to allow judges some discretion under exceptional circumstances.
If Singapore abolished capital punishment as some legislators have advocated, "we would be sending the wrong signal that the risks of drug trafficking into Singapore have now been lowered, that the society is now more accepting of drugs", Teo said.
"They (abolition advocates) have looked at this from the point of view of the drug trafficker who has been apprehended. We also have to look at abolition from the point of view of society and the victims of drugs."
International campaign groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also called on Singapore to abolish the death penalty.
Judges currently have no choice but to impose the death penalty on anyone convicted of murder or trafficking in illegal drugs above specific volumes.
Teo said care must be taken so the reforms will "not open the doors wide" to mitigating factors which would undermine the country's "strict penalty regime and its deterrent value".
Pointing to the death penalty's deterrent effect, he said kidnapping and firearms offences fell sharply after capital punishment was introduced for these crimes.
For drugs, "we know that the mandatory death penalty has a deterrent effect because drug traffickers deliberately try to keep the amounts they carry to below the capital punishment threshold", he said.
Officials have said there are currently about 35 inmates on death row in Singapore, although executions have been suspended since July 2011 as part of a review that led to the proposed new legislation.
From 2004 to 2010, a total of 26 Singaporeans and 12 foreigners were executed, according to government figures.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-rejects-calls-abolish-death-penalty-195231018.html
Singapore on Wednesday rejected calls to abolish executions, saying the death penalty is still necessary to deter serious crimes despite legal reforms designed to lessen its use.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also minister for home affairs, said abolishing hanging would send the wrong signal to potential criminals.
Singapore has unveiled legal amendments that will enable judges to impose life imprisonment on low-level drug couriers and people who commit murder with "no outright intention to kill".
Mandatory execution will be reserved for hardcore murderers and traffickers.
"The mandatory death penalty strengthens this deterrent message," Teo said during a debate in parliament on a bill amending the anti-drugs law to allow judges some discretion under exceptional circumstances.
If Singapore abolished capital punishment as some legislators have advocated, "we would be sending the wrong signal that the risks of drug trafficking into Singapore have now been lowered, that the society is now more accepting of drugs", Teo said.
"They (abolition advocates) have looked at this from the point of view of the drug trafficker who has been apprehended. We also have to look at abolition from the point of view of society and the victims of drugs."
International campaign groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also called on Singapore to abolish the death penalty.
Judges currently have no choice but to impose the death penalty on anyone convicted of murder or trafficking in illegal drugs above specific volumes.
Teo said care must be taken so the reforms will "not open the doors wide" to mitigating factors which would undermine the country's "strict penalty regime and its deterrent value".
Pointing to the death penalty's deterrent effect, he said kidnapping and firearms offences fell sharply after capital punishment was introduced for these crimes.
For drugs, "we know that the mandatory death penalty has a deterrent effect because drug traffickers deliberately try to keep the amounts they carry to below the capital punishment threshold", he said.
Officials have said there are currently about 35 inmates on death row in Singapore, although executions have been suspended since July 2011 as part of a review that led to the proposed new legislation.
From 2004 to 2010, a total of 26 Singaporeans and 12 foreigners were executed, according to government figures.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Food Safety
AFP News – Sun, Nov 11, 2012
Chinese officials accustomed to the tame questions of a compliant state press were caught out by a plucky 11-year-old reporter during the country's sensitive Communist Party congress.
Sun Luyuan, a Beijing sixth-grade student, on Friday shook up one of the tightly-controlled party meetings on the congress's sidelines with a question that put officials on the spot over China's miserable food-safety record.
Noting that a steady stream of scandals and health scares involving tainted or unsafe food products had particularly affected students, leaving many sickened in various incidents, Sun asked why China can't clean up its act.
"I love snacks, but I don't dare to eat snacks now because we see so many reports these days of problems with food products," Sun asked high-level officials during a congress delegate meeting, according to state-run China News Service.
During the meeting at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People, Sun, who works for the Chinese Teenager News, continued by asking "why are these kinds of food products available for purchase?"
"As many primary and middle school students eat our lunches at school, what can you do to put us at ease over food safety?" she asked.
The Communist Party is presenting a tightly-scripted image of national unity for the week-long congress that opened on Thursday.
Held every five years, the congress will end next Wednesday with the unveiling of a new top leadership line-up widely expected to be headed by Vice President Xi Jinping, who will lead for the next ten years.
Ma Kai, a top official in China's cabinet who presided over Friday's meeting, passed the question to Education Minister Yuan Guiren, the China News Service said.
Yuan offered a stock official response pledging the government was addressing the situation and putting proper safety measures in place, a line repeated for years even as the scandals have persisted.
Increasingly anxious Chinese consumers are regularly hit with food scares ranging from cancer-causing toxins found in cooking oil to food items that are expired or contain dangerous chemicals and additives.
In 2008, China was rocked by one of its biggest-ever food safety scandals when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.
At least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill after drinking the tainted products.
Chinese officials accustomed to the tame questions of a compliant state press were caught out by a plucky 11-year-old reporter during the country's sensitive Communist Party congress.
Sun Luyuan, a Beijing sixth-grade student, on Friday shook up one of the tightly-controlled party meetings on the congress's sidelines with a question that put officials on the spot over China's miserable food-safety record.
Noting that a steady stream of scandals and health scares involving tainted or unsafe food products had particularly affected students, leaving many sickened in various incidents, Sun asked why China can't clean up its act.
"I love snacks, but I don't dare to eat snacks now because we see so many reports these days of problems with food products," Sun asked high-level officials during a congress delegate meeting, according to state-run China News Service.
During the meeting at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People, Sun, who works for the Chinese Teenager News, continued by asking "why are these kinds of food products available for purchase?"
"As many primary and middle school students eat our lunches at school, what can you do to put us at ease over food safety?" she asked.
The Communist Party is presenting a tightly-scripted image of national unity for the week-long congress that opened on Thursday.
Held every five years, the congress will end next Wednesday with the unveiling of a new top leadership line-up widely expected to be headed by Vice President Xi Jinping, who will lead for the next ten years.
Ma Kai, a top official in China's cabinet who presided over Friday's meeting, passed the question to Education Minister Yuan Guiren, the China News Service said.
Yuan offered a stock official response pledging the government was addressing the situation and putting proper safety measures in place, a line repeated for years even as the scandals have persisted.
Increasingly anxious Chinese consumers are regularly hit with food scares ranging from cancer-causing toxins found in cooking oil to food items that are expired or contain dangerous chemicals and additives.
In 2008, China was rocked by one of its biggest-ever food safety scandals when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.
At least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill after drinking the tainted products.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Y! Exclusive: Law Minister K Shanmugam on the ISA
Y! Exclusive: Law Minister K Shanmugam on the ISA
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/y--exclusive--law-minister-k-shanmugam-on-the-isa.html
In an exclusive interview with Yahoo! Singapore, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam sits down and tackles head-on tough questions within (and just beyond) his portfolio. In this first part, the minister shares his personal take on the Internal Security Act.
olding two portfolios, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam is a busy man indeed.
He hasn’t yet filled the cabinets in his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tanglin — instead stacking his three-sided desk with books and papers.
The main source of colour in his office comes from a world map, upon which red tacks indicate Singapore’s embassies around the globe. The only personal touch comes from an electronic photo frame at a corner diagonally behind where he sits that show pictures of his wife and two children, both of whom are studying abroad.
Yet, based on an interview with Yahoo! Singapore last month, the 53-year-old former senior partner at Allen & Gledhill seems to enjoy his work at both ministries.
In the one-hour meeting, he spoke on a host of hot-button topics as well as on matters related to his previous portfolio, Home Affairs, which he held for a year before taking on the foreign affairs position from his predecessor George Yeo last year.
Should the ISA be abolished?
While still at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he was frequently asked about the Internal Security Act (ISA) — a law that enables the government to detain people without trial. The issue also recently grabbed headlines when the Catholic Archbishop of Singapore retracted a letter of support he sent to activist group Function 8, when it organised an event earlier this year calling for its abolition.
Asked for his views on more controversial detentions in Singapore's history, including Operation Coldstore in 1963 and Operation Spectrum in 1987, he felt it inappropriate to offer comment on specific incidents in the past because he was not privy to the specific security considerations applicable to them.
With clearer knowledge of the situation between 2008 and 2011, however, Shanmugam is certain of the overarching rationale for the Act in the current international security environment -- that ultimately it acts as a preventive measure where security threats are discovered on classified intelligence.
With the days of mass, high-profile detentions a thing of the past, though, whether the law should stay or not, he feels, all boils down to the evaluation of which of two risks Singapore is more prepared to take.
“(The ISA) gives the power to the government to detain people without going through the due process of the courts. Once you have such a structure, is there a possibility of abuse? Of course... so that’s the risk,” he acknowledged.
However, he pointed out, “Society has got to decide between that risk, or the risk that an incident might actually occur, and then you have to ask yourself, ‘What are the consequences of each of the two risks materialising? What is the impact on Singapore?’ and then people have to choose.”
Shanmugam explained that where Singapore lacks in natural resources, it makes up for in a clean ecosystem that is friendly to businesses.
“There is no particular reason to come to Singapore, but we have created an ecosystem (here) — a regulatory framework which is clean, with good human capital and talent, and a good judicial system, rule of law, excellent logistics, clean, non-corrupt system — all these are positive factors, and underlying it all, confidence,” he said.
“If you destroy that confidence in Singapore, you create a question mark on our economy. There are many ways in which that confidence can be affected — one way, I believe, would be if there is a major terrorist incident in Singapore,” he argued.
A further reason he gives in favour of the ISA’s existence is the nature of the circumstances by which intelligence is gained on a particular security threat or suspect. The Act, he says, allows the government to “move ahead of time” and detain people even before an offence has been committed, purely on the basis of sound intelligence, information that is often classified at security levels too high to bring up in court.
Guantanamo Bay example
“The Americans acknowledge it, others acknowledge it — you get a tip-off, or if you have a mole in the organisation and as a result you get a tip-off, you’re not going to release it in court,” he said, adding that even for all the championing that America does for its constitutional rights, it practices the same thing for its prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
Of all the U.S.’ detainees there, Shanmugam pointed out that only one of them, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, was actually brought to trial.
“Congress was very reluctant to have many detainees brought to trial in the U.S. because they didn’t want to take the security risk these detainees posed,” he said. “The U.S. has its principles of due process, constitutional rights, but they sidestep it by saying they don’t apply to people in Guantanamo because they are not Americans.”
Even in Khalid’s case, he added, the U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder said during Khalid’s trial that if for some reason the court decided to acquit him, America would detain him anyway.
“That was the reality, (and) often much of the discussion overlooks this reality,” he said.
From this, he explained that although both Singapore and the U.S. practice detention without trial, he noted that Singapore does it in the form of the ISA, and has over time applied two levels of safeguards to the ISA: an independent advisory board led by a Supreme Court judge, which reviews the detention, and Singapore’s president, who is empowered with the ability to grant the release of a detainee without the advice of the Cabinet.
The independence of the President
Shanmugam did, however, acknowledge that some Singaporeans may not recognise the president as being fully independent.
“I’m sure there are people who think that,” he said. “But you have independent elections for the president... he’s chosen by the mandate of Singaporeans — and you take the current president, you take the previous president, they’re both people who have outstanding achievements and record of public service; it would be I think a minority of people who will not acknowledge that and who will think they are going to not be independent.”
Noting also that one of Singapore’s first elected presidents, Ong Teng Cheong, was widely respected as independent, despite being part of the government for a long period, he said also that anyone who knows the country’s current president Tony Tan would know how independent he is as well.
"He's a very strong character," he added.
Ultimately, though, he said that for any law to change, be relaxed or eventually abolished, for that matter, Singapore's wider society will need to accept and support these amendments.
"Laws always need public support to be enforceable, particularly laws of this nature," he said. "So questions on what more needs to be done (with respect to the ISA, for instance) have to be considered as society and the security environment changes, and you've got to tweak it according to the changing needs."
It’s been a long time coming, but change is underway.
In what is expected to be a landmark legislation later this month, the Singapore government is expected to abolish the mandatory death penalty (MDP) for certain homicides and drug offences. This, nearly 40 years after the law was first introduced for murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and firearms offences.
But as Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam told Yahoo! Singapore in an exclusive interview recently, the proposed changes were the result of the government’s continuous review of laws and not from activist campaigning.
“This is something we do continuously. We monitor to see firstly, is it necessary, because it’s a serious penalty. Secondly, is it effective? And, thirdly, are there tweaks or changes that need to be done to this system?” he said. “Any responsible government will do this — which is what we’re doing.”
The abolition of the MDP, which was first proposed in Parliament in July and will be expected to be passed when Parliament sits again on 12 November, comes with certain conditions.
For murder, lawyers must first prove that their clients had no intention to kill. For drug trafficking, the defence must be able to prove that those charged were only transporting, sending or delivering drugs, have helped the Central Narcotics Bureau substantively or are mentally disabled.
Most importantly though, judges will now have greater discretion in meting out the death penalty.
In the case of homicides, Shanmugam explained the purpose of the MDP in those scenarios was to reduce and deter them. In that light, he noted then that there were 16 recorded ones last year, translating to a rate of 0.3 for every 100,000 people.
“Given that, we can ask, do we really need the mandatory death penalty for all homicides? So we keep it for the most serious intentional murder, but for the other kinds of homicide we say look, we can give discretion to the judges,” the 53-year-old former top lawyer pointed out.
On drug cases
For drug cases, judges too will have the ability to hand down life imprisonments instead of the death penalty, especially for cases involving a reduced level of mental faculty.
While the new legislation will give more discretion to the courts, Shanmugam pointed out that it is made clear at immigrations, whether through land or air, that Singapore’s strict drug laws are still intact.
He explained that nearly all drug offences are committed by people who have made careful calculations to do so.
“In the first place, if there is mental incapacity, you’re not even guilty because that’s a defence,” he said.
“We’re not talking about people who didn’t know what they were doing; we’re not talking about insane people; we’re not talking about people with mental incapacity. We’re talking about people with lesser IQ, or a level of diminished responsibility — that’s the technical term.
“They hide the drugs, they smuggle the drugs because they know it is illegal. They know what they are doing is wrong, so let’s be clear about that… but if there is diminished responsibility, that should be taken into account,” he said.
When the landmark legislation is passed later this month, at stake will be the lives of 34 prisoners on death row, among them the likes of 24-year-old Malaysian Yong Vui Kong and Singaporean Pathip Selvan Sugumara, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend in 2009.
Drug kingpins
“If we catch them and have evidence, we will charge them in court, and that has been done. But often they stay outside Singapore, and the few who come in or who we catch sometimes, there isn’t enough evidence to charge them in court, because the drugs are not found on them and we have to rely on someone else giving evidence. If I know you are a drug kingpin but I have nothing on you, what do I do? That’s where we detain them for maximum periods. If there is a different, better approach, tell us.”
The 14.99g rule
“The Attorney-General has the leeway to decide to charge people who carry amounts that just exceed 15g with a token figure of “14.99g” instead — a move that decides whether or not a person will face the death sentence, or 20 years of prison instead.”
“We are now giving this additional discretion (of life sentence) to judges, but the prosecution will continue to have that discretion. In a fair number of cases AG will look at the particular facts and say, okay, look — this is just above 15 grammes, or if there are peculiar reasons why for this person, discretion ought to be exercised, AG exercises it. A lot of people don’t realise this, but in a significant number of cases this discretion has been exercised and a charge for 14.99 grammes has been brought in court. The AG only proceeds on cases where he feels the death penalty really is merited — on the facts.”
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/y--exclusive--law-minister-k-shanmugam-on-the-isa.html
In an exclusive interview with Yahoo! Singapore, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam sits down and tackles head-on tough questions within (and just beyond) his portfolio. In this first part, the minister shares his personal take on the Internal Security Act.
olding two portfolios, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam is a busy man indeed.
He hasn’t yet filled the cabinets in his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tanglin — instead stacking his three-sided desk with books and papers.
The main source of colour in his office comes from a world map, upon which red tacks indicate Singapore’s embassies around the globe. The only personal touch comes from an electronic photo frame at a corner diagonally behind where he sits that show pictures of his wife and two children, both of whom are studying abroad.
Yet, based on an interview with Yahoo! Singapore last month, the 53-year-old former senior partner at Allen & Gledhill seems to enjoy his work at both ministries.
In the one-hour meeting, he spoke on a host of hot-button topics as well as on matters related to his previous portfolio, Home Affairs, which he held for a year before taking on the foreign affairs position from his predecessor George Yeo last year.
Should the ISA be abolished?
While still at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he was frequently asked about the Internal Security Act (ISA) — a law that enables the government to detain people without trial. The issue also recently grabbed headlines when the Catholic Archbishop of Singapore retracted a letter of support he sent to activist group Function 8, when it organised an event earlier this year calling for its abolition.
Asked for his views on more controversial detentions in Singapore's history, including Operation Coldstore in 1963 and Operation Spectrum in 1987, he felt it inappropriate to offer comment on specific incidents in the past because he was not privy to the specific security considerations applicable to them.
With clearer knowledge of the situation between 2008 and 2011, however, Shanmugam is certain of the overarching rationale for the Act in the current international security environment -- that ultimately it acts as a preventive measure where security threats are discovered on classified intelligence.
With the days of mass, high-profile detentions a thing of the past, though, whether the law should stay or not, he feels, all boils down to the evaluation of which of two risks Singapore is more prepared to take.
“(The ISA) gives the power to the government to detain people without going through the due process of the courts. Once you have such a structure, is there a possibility of abuse? Of course... so that’s the risk,” he acknowledged.
However, he pointed out, “Society has got to decide between that risk, or the risk that an incident might actually occur, and then you have to ask yourself, ‘What are the consequences of each of the two risks materialising? What is the impact on Singapore?’ and then people have to choose.”
Shanmugam explained that where Singapore lacks in natural resources, it makes up for in a clean ecosystem that is friendly to businesses.
“There is no particular reason to come to Singapore, but we have created an ecosystem (here) — a regulatory framework which is clean, with good human capital and talent, and a good judicial system, rule of law, excellent logistics, clean, non-corrupt system — all these are positive factors, and underlying it all, confidence,” he said.
“If you destroy that confidence in Singapore, you create a question mark on our economy. There are many ways in which that confidence can be affected — one way, I believe, would be if there is a major terrorist incident in Singapore,” he argued.
A further reason he gives in favour of the ISA’s existence is the nature of the circumstances by which intelligence is gained on a particular security threat or suspect. The Act, he says, allows the government to “move ahead of time” and detain people even before an offence has been committed, purely on the basis of sound intelligence, information that is often classified at security levels too high to bring up in court.
Guantanamo Bay example
“The Americans acknowledge it, others acknowledge it — you get a tip-off, or if you have a mole in the organisation and as a result you get a tip-off, you’re not going to release it in court,” he said, adding that even for all the championing that America does for its constitutional rights, it practices the same thing for its prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
Of all the U.S.’ detainees there, Shanmugam pointed out that only one of them, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, was actually brought to trial.
“Congress was very reluctant to have many detainees brought to trial in the U.S. because they didn’t want to take the security risk these detainees posed,” he said. “The U.S. has its principles of due process, constitutional rights, but they sidestep it by saying they don’t apply to people in Guantanamo because they are not Americans.”
Even in Khalid’s case, he added, the U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder said during Khalid’s trial that if for some reason the court decided to acquit him, America would detain him anyway.
“That was the reality, (and) often much of the discussion overlooks this reality,” he said.
From this, he explained that although both Singapore and the U.S. practice detention without trial, he noted that Singapore does it in the form of the ISA, and has over time applied two levels of safeguards to the ISA: an independent advisory board led by a Supreme Court judge, which reviews the detention, and Singapore’s president, who is empowered with the ability to grant the release of a detainee without the advice of the Cabinet.
The independence of the President
Shanmugam did, however, acknowledge that some Singaporeans may not recognise the president as being fully independent.
“I’m sure there are people who think that,” he said. “But you have independent elections for the president... he’s chosen by the mandate of Singaporeans — and you take the current president, you take the previous president, they’re both people who have outstanding achievements and record of public service; it would be I think a minority of people who will not acknowledge that and who will think they are going to not be independent.”
Noting also that one of Singapore’s first elected presidents, Ong Teng Cheong, was widely respected as independent, despite being part of the government for a long period, he said also that anyone who knows the country’s current president Tony Tan would know how independent he is as well.
"He's a very strong character," he added.
Ultimately, though, he said that for any law to change, be relaxed or eventually abolished, for that matter, Singapore's wider society will need to accept and support these amendments.
"Laws always need public support to be enforceable, particularly laws of this nature," he said. "So questions on what more needs to be done (with respect to the ISA, for instance) have to be considered as society and the security environment changes, and you've got to tweak it according to the changing needs."
It’s been a long time coming, but change is underway.
In what is expected to be a landmark legislation later this month, the Singapore government is expected to abolish the mandatory death penalty (MDP) for certain homicides and drug offences. This, nearly 40 years after the law was first introduced for murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and firearms offences.
But as Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam told Yahoo! Singapore in an exclusive interview recently, the proposed changes were the result of the government’s continuous review of laws and not from activist campaigning.
“This is something we do continuously. We monitor to see firstly, is it necessary, because it’s a serious penalty. Secondly, is it effective? And, thirdly, are there tweaks or changes that need to be done to this system?” he said. “Any responsible government will do this — which is what we’re doing.”
The abolition of the MDP, which was first proposed in Parliament in July and will be expected to be passed when Parliament sits again on 12 November, comes with certain conditions.
For murder, lawyers must first prove that their clients had no intention to kill. For drug trafficking, the defence must be able to prove that those charged were only transporting, sending or delivering drugs, have helped the Central Narcotics Bureau substantively or are mentally disabled.
Most importantly though, judges will now have greater discretion in meting out the death penalty.
In the case of homicides, Shanmugam explained the purpose of the MDP in those scenarios was to reduce and deter them. In that light, he noted then that there were 16 recorded ones last year, translating to a rate of 0.3 for every 100,000 people.
“Given that, we can ask, do we really need the mandatory death penalty for all homicides? So we keep it for the most serious intentional murder, but for the other kinds of homicide we say look, we can give discretion to the judges,” the 53-year-old former top lawyer pointed out.
On drug cases
For drug cases, judges too will have the ability to hand down life imprisonments instead of the death penalty, especially for cases involving a reduced level of mental faculty.
While the new legislation will give more discretion to the courts, Shanmugam pointed out that it is made clear at immigrations, whether through land or air, that Singapore’s strict drug laws are still intact.
He explained that nearly all drug offences are committed by people who have made careful calculations to do so.
“In the first place, if there is mental incapacity, you’re not even guilty because that’s a defence,” he said.
“We’re not talking about people who didn’t know what they were doing; we’re not talking about insane people; we’re not talking about people with mental incapacity. We’re talking about people with lesser IQ, or a level of diminished responsibility — that’s the technical term.
“They hide the drugs, they smuggle the drugs because they know it is illegal. They know what they are doing is wrong, so let’s be clear about that… but if there is diminished responsibility, that should be taken into account,” he said.
When the landmark legislation is passed later this month, at stake will be the lives of 34 prisoners on death row, among them the likes of 24-year-old Malaysian Yong Vui Kong and Singaporean Pathip Selvan Sugumara, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend in 2009.
Drug kingpins
“If we catch them and have evidence, we will charge them in court, and that has been done. But often they stay outside Singapore, and the few who come in or who we catch sometimes, there isn’t enough evidence to charge them in court, because the drugs are not found on them and we have to rely on someone else giving evidence. If I know you are a drug kingpin but I have nothing on you, what do I do? That’s where we detain them for maximum periods. If there is a different, better approach, tell us.”
The 14.99g rule
“The Attorney-General has the leeway to decide to charge people who carry amounts that just exceed 15g with a token figure of “14.99g” instead — a move that decides whether or not a person will face the death sentence, or 20 years of prison instead.”
“We are now giving this additional discretion (of life sentence) to judges, but the prosecution will continue to have that discretion. In a fair number of cases AG will look at the particular facts and say, okay, look — this is just above 15 grammes, or if there are peculiar reasons why for this person, discretion ought to be exercised, AG exercises it. A lot of people don’t realise this, but in a significant number of cases this discretion has been exercised and a charge for 14.99 grammes has been brought in court. The AG only proceeds on cases where he feels the death penalty really is merited — on the facts.”
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
JAI JAGAT : Welcome to the World’s Biggest School: City Montessori School (Lucknow, India)
Welcome to the World’s Biggest School
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, has 39,437 pupils and 2,500 teachers.
By Patrick Boehler | October 15, 201
Lucknow
, the capital city of India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, is now home to the world’s biggest school, according to the new edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. The last academic year, 2,500 teachers taught a mind-boggling 39,437 students in 1,000 classrooms at Lucknow’s City Montessori School. According to the school’s website, it now boasts over 44,000 pupils.
The school was founded in 1959 by Bharti and Jagdish Gandhi with just 300 borrowed rupees ($5.70 at current exchange rates) and a total of five students. More than half a century later, the school, which spreads over several campuses, can’t gather for assembly as there is no venue in town that is big enough. Students ages between three and 17 are divided into classrooms of 45 children each; every pupil wears identical school uniforms, AFP reports. Younger students pay about $18, older students $47 in fees per month. The school held the record once before, in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils — beating a school in the Philippines with roughly 20,000 pupils.
Uttar Pradesh is in dire need of schools. The Northern state has a literacy rate below India’s national average of 74% and ranks 29th among India’s 35 administrative divisions, according to the 2011 census. Lucknow’s City Montessori School not only excels in size, it has over the years been showered in awards and recognition. In 2002, it received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. Two years ago, the Dalai Lama conferred his Hope for Humanity award to the school founder.
The size of the Gandhis school, which does not receive government funding, is however dwarfed by the world’s largest university, also in India. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Delhi has no less than four million students — ten times larger than its U.S. equivalent, the online University of Phoenix.
India, a country of extremes, boasts some other, more obscure, records: nowhere have there been more people standing on one moving motorcycle (54), has a larger foreign object been left in a patient (a pair of 13 inch-long artery forceps) or a higher number of green coconuts been smashed in one minute by elbows (92, 7 of which were disqualified).
World's biggest school gives Indian kids lessons for life
By Sagarika Dubey (AFP) – 1 day ago
LUCKNOW, India — The first day in class for any new pupil can be an overwhelming experience, so imagine arriving for lessons as one of 40,000 pupils on the roll-call of the world's biggest school.
The latest edition of Guinness World Records awards the title to the City Montessori School in the Indian city of Lucknow with 39,437 registered pupils in the 2010-2011 academic year.
The school says that enrollment numbers have already risen above 45,000, with 2,500 teachers, 3,700 computers, 1,000 classrooms -- and one of the hardest first eleven cricket teams to break into.
CMS, as it is known, was opened by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti in 1959 with a loan of 300 rupees ($6 at current rates) and just five pupils.
Today it sprawls over 20 sites in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, and is as famous for its exam results and international exchange programmes as for its scale.
"The phenomenal growth of our school is a reflection of our efforts to please our parents with our service to their children," said Gandhi, who is still involved in the school's management at the age of 75.
"Our students have exceptional academic results each year and outstanding global exposure. Getting this Guinness record is heartening but it's not just about size," he told AFP.
The pupils, who are aged between three and 17, all wear uniform and each class has about 45 members, but the whole school never gathers for assembly as there is nowhere big enough to hold them.
CMS, which receives no government funding, charges 1,000 rupees a month in fees for younger pupils, rising to 2,500 a month for seniors.
"In such a large school, there are many advantages, one being you get to make a lot of friends across the many sites that we have," Ritika Ghosh, 14, who has been at CMS for two years, told AFP.
"But as the school is so huge it takes a lot of effort to get noticed. Otherwise you are just one of the thousands that study.
"There are certainly more challenges and competitions, which in the end prepares us for real life."
Fellow pupil Tanmay Tiwari, 16, credits the large size of the school for making him more outgoing.
"I used to be very shy but the school has given me that confidence," he told AFP. "Now I am in the college team, debating in national competitions."
The school's size is matched only by its idealistic ambitions, with pupils taught a philosophy of universal peace and globalism under the motto "Jai Jagat" (Victory be to the World).
With pupils under fierce pressure to get good exam results, sport is not always a top priority, but cricket coach Raju Singh Chauhan says selecting a team is still tricky.
"To fish out sports talent in the 45,000-plus students can be a huge problem," he said.
"For this reason we hold inter-branch competitions to dig out the best children and then eventually we get the bigger picture and our best eleven for the team."
CMS first held the title of the world's biggest school in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils, beating the previous record holder, the Rizal High School in Manila, Philippines, which had 19,738 pupils.
Alumni include Ushhan Gundevia, an executive banker at Goldman Sachs, and Prakash Gupta, a senior United Nations diplomat in New York, as well as Harvard scholars and several leading surgeons and scientists.
"The school is an inspiration not only to the pupils, but also to anyone, anywhere who wants to make a positive difference," Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, told AFP from London.
"The school understands that teaching is the most sacred of professions, and from humble origins to being the largest and one of the most respected educational establishment in the world, it is a truly awe-inspiring story."
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, has 39,437 pupils and 2,500 teachers.
By Patrick Boehler | October 15, 201
Lucknow
, the capital city of India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, is now home to the world’s biggest school, according to the new edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. The last academic year, 2,500 teachers taught a mind-boggling 39,437 students in 1,000 classrooms at Lucknow’s City Montessori School. According to the school’s website, it now boasts over 44,000 pupils.
The school was founded in 1959 by Bharti and Jagdish Gandhi with just 300 borrowed rupees ($5.70 at current exchange rates) and a total of five students. More than half a century later, the school, which spreads over several campuses, can’t gather for assembly as there is no venue in town that is big enough. Students ages between three and 17 are divided into classrooms of 45 children each; every pupil wears identical school uniforms, AFP reports. Younger students pay about $18, older students $47 in fees per month. The school held the record once before, in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils — beating a school in the Philippines with roughly 20,000 pupils.
Uttar Pradesh is in dire need of schools. The Northern state has a literacy rate below India’s national average of 74% and ranks 29th among India’s 35 administrative divisions, according to the 2011 census. Lucknow’s City Montessori School not only excels in size, it has over the years been showered in awards and recognition. In 2002, it received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. Two years ago, the Dalai Lama conferred his Hope for Humanity award to the school founder.
The size of the Gandhis school, which does not receive government funding, is however dwarfed by the world’s largest university, also in India. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Delhi has no less than four million students — ten times larger than its U.S. equivalent, the online University of Phoenix.
India, a country of extremes, boasts some other, more obscure, records: nowhere have there been more people standing on one moving motorcycle (54), has a larger foreign object been left in a patient (a pair of 13 inch-long artery forceps) or a higher number of green coconuts been smashed in one minute by elbows (92, 7 of which were disqualified).
World's biggest school gives Indian kids lessons for life
By Sagarika Dubey (AFP) – 1 day ago
LUCKNOW, India — The first day in class for any new pupil can be an overwhelming experience, so imagine arriving for lessons as one of 40,000 pupils on the roll-call of the world's biggest school.
The latest edition of Guinness World Records awards the title to the City Montessori School in the Indian city of Lucknow with 39,437 registered pupils in the 2010-2011 academic year.
The school says that enrollment numbers have already risen above 45,000, with 2,500 teachers, 3,700 computers, 1,000 classrooms -- and one of the hardest first eleven cricket teams to break into.
CMS, as it is known, was opened by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti in 1959 with a loan of 300 rupees ($6 at current rates) and just five pupils.
Today it sprawls over 20 sites in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, and is as famous for its exam results and international exchange programmes as for its scale.
"The phenomenal growth of our school is a reflection of our efforts to please our parents with our service to their children," said Gandhi, who is still involved in the school's management at the age of 75.
"Our students have exceptional academic results each year and outstanding global exposure. Getting this Guinness record is heartening but it's not just about size," he told AFP.
The pupils, who are aged between three and 17, all wear uniform and each class has about 45 members, but the whole school never gathers for assembly as there is nowhere big enough to hold them.
CMS, which receives no government funding, charges 1,000 rupees a month in fees for younger pupils, rising to 2,500 a month for seniors.
"In such a large school, there are many advantages, one being you get to make a lot of friends across the many sites that we have," Ritika Ghosh, 14, who has been at CMS for two years, told AFP.
"But as the school is so huge it takes a lot of effort to get noticed. Otherwise you are just one of the thousands that study.
"There are certainly more challenges and competitions, which in the end prepares us for real life."
Fellow pupil Tanmay Tiwari, 16, credits the large size of the school for making him more outgoing.
"I used to be very shy but the school has given me that confidence," he told AFP. "Now I am in the college team, debating in national competitions."
The school's size is matched only by its idealistic ambitions, with pupils taught a philosophy of universal peace and globalism under the motto "Jai Jagat" (Victory be to the World).
With pupils under fierce pressure to get good exam results, sport is not always a top priority, but cricket coach Raju Singh Chauhan says selecting a team is still tricky.
"To fish out sports talent in the 45,000-plus students can be a huge problem," he said.
"For this reason we hold inter-branch competitions to dig out the best children and then eventually we get the bigger picture and our best eleven for the team."
CMS first held the title of the world's biggest school in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils, beating the previous record holder, the Rizal High School in Manila, Philippines, which had 19,738 pupils.
Alumni include Ushhan Gundevia, an executive banker at Goldman Sachs, and Prakash Gupta, a senior United Nations diplomat in New York, as well as Harvard scholars and several leading surgeons and scientists.
"The school is an inspiration not only to the pupils, but also to anyone, anywhere who wants to make a positive difference," Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, told AFP from London.
"The school understands that teaching is the most sacred of professions, and from humble origins to being the largest and one of the most respected educational establishment in the world, it is a truly awe-inspiring story."
Current nuclear technology not suitable for Singapore
Current nuclear technology not suitable for Singapore
Published : Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
By : The Straits Times
Category : Energy
Region : Singapore
Tags : energy security, natural gas, nuclear, power plants, research
Current nuclear energy technology is not suitable for Singapore, a pre-feasibility study has concluded.
Mr S. Iswaran, Second Minister for Trade and Industry, said in Parliament yesterday that the risks of housing a nuclear power plant here to generate electricity still outweigh the benefits, given the country’s size and dense population.
But the two-year study by government agencies, external consultants and independent expert advisers, in response to an Economic Strategies Committee recommendation in 2010, did not rule out nuclear energy totally.
It recommended that Singapore continue to monitor new technologies.
The country also needs to strengthen capabilities to understand nuclear science and technology, and in emergency response and radioactive waste disposal, said Mr Iswaran, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs.
Many of the Republic’s Asean neighbours are planning to build nuclear power plants. Vietnam aims to build 10 nuclear reactors by 2030. Malaysia is studying having one in operation by 2021.
Hence, Singapore should also play a role in global and regional cooperation on nuclear safety. It is, for example, a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, an inter-governmental body that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Dr T.S. Gopi Rethinaraj, an assistant professor and nuclear energy expert at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is not surprised the nation has ruled out the nuclear option for now.
“Current technology may not be suitable,” he said. This is because the designs require large safety buffers, including an uninhabited zone with a 2km radius and a 5km low-density zone.
Newer, safer designs exist only on paper, he added. These would be at least 20 to 30 years from commercial development.
“In the foreseeable future, the best bet would be natural gas in the near term,” he said.
Singapore aims to have a stable, economically competitive supply of energy while minimising carbon emissions and pollution. Eighty per cent of electricity is generated from natural gas piped from Indonesia and Malaysia. It has limited scope for solar, wind and other renewable energies.
But a liquefied natural gas terminal, set to begin operations next year, will allow Singapore to import gas from other countries.
This and the growth of unconventional gas sources like shale gas could help alleviate Singapore’s energy security concerns even without a nuclear power plant, said Dr Michael Quah of NUS’ chemical and biomolecular engineering department.
And even if Singapore does not build a nuclear plant, others in the region will, and it can help train people for regulatory and other industry roles. “Nuclear has long coat-tails. Where in the supply chain can we develop manpower?” said Dr Quah.
http://www.eco-business.com/news/current-nuclear-technology-not-suitable-for-singapore/
Published : Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
By : The Straits Times
Category : Energy
Region : Singapore
Tags : energy security, natural gas, nuclear, power plants, research
Current nuclear energy technology is not suitable for Singapore, a pre-feasibility study has concluded.
Mr S. Iswaran, Second Minister for Trade and Industry, said in Parliament yesterday that the risks of housing a nuclear power plant here to generate electricity still outweigh the benefits, given the country’s size and dense population.
But the two-year study by government agencies, external consultants and independent expert advisers, in response to an Economic Strategies Committee recommendation in 2010, did not rule out nuclear energy totally.
It recommended that Singapore continue to monitor new technologies.
The country also needs to strengthen capabilities to understand nuclear science and technology, and in emergency response and radioactive waste disposal, said Mr Iswaran, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs.
Many of the Republic’s Asean neighbours are planning to build nuclear power plants. Vietnam aims to build 10 nuclear reactors by 2030. Malaysia is studying having one in operation by 2021.
Hence, Singapore should also play a role in global and regional cooperation on nuclear safety. It is, for example, a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, an inter-governmental body that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Dr T.S. Gopi Rethinaraj, an assistant professor and nuclear energy expert at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is not surprised the nation has ruled out the nuclear option for now.
“Current technology may not be suitable,” he said. This is because the designs require large safety buffers, including an uninhabited zone with a 2km radius and a 5km low-density zone.
Newer, safer designs exist only on paper, he added. These would be at least 20 to 30 years from commercial development.
“In the foreseeable future, the best bet would be natural gas in the near term,” he said.
Singapore aims to have a stable, economically competitive supply of energy while minimising carbon emissions and pollution. Eighty per cent of electricity is generated from natural gas piped from Indonesia and Malaysia. It has limited scope for solar, wind and other renewable energies.
But a liquefied natural gas terminal, set to begin operations next year, will allow Singapore to import gas from other countries.
This and the growth of unconventional gas sources like shale gas could help alleviate Singapore’s energy security concerns even without a nuclear power plant, said Dr Michael Quah of NUS’ chemical and biomolecular engineering department.
And even if Singapore does not build a nuclear plant, others in the region will, and it can help train people for regulatory and other industry roles. “Nuclear has long coat-tails. Where in the supply chain can we develop manpower?” said Dr Quah.
http://www.eco-business.com/news/current-nuclear-technology-not-suitable-for-singapore/
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