Consequences of gender discrimination

Consequences of gender discrimination
Badiul Alam Majumdar
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=5935

Gender discrimination is all pervasive. Beginning from the dawn of civilisation, it has been continuing over centuries. Although it shows up in different forms and manifestations in different cultures, it exists in every society. It encompasses every segment of the society, irrespective of economic condition and social standing. Discrimination exists throughout the entire lifecycle of women, beginning from conception to death, and it has ominous consequences.

Feticide and infanticide

Gender discrimination begins early, even before the birth of a girl child. Modern diagnostic tools make it possible to determine a child's sex in the earliest phase. In many societies, these techniques are often misused for female feticide. Although there is no conclusive evidence to confirm it, birth histories and census data reveal an unusually high proportion of male births and male children under-five in China and India, indicating sex-selective feticide and infanticide in the world's two most populous countries, despite commitments to eradicate these practices in both countries. Fortunately, these are not serious problems in Bangladesh.

The early years

A principal priority for the early years of childhood and adolescence is ensuring access to, and completion of, quality primary and secondary education. With some exceptions, it is mostly girls who are deprived of educational opportunities.

Primary education: For every 100 boys out of school worldwide, there are 115 girls in the same situation. Though the gender gap has been increasingly closing over the decades, nearly 1 out of every 5 girls who enrolls in primary school in developing countries does not complete the primary education. Lack of primary education deprives a girl of the opportunity to develop to her fullest potential. Studies have shown that educated women are less likely to die in childbirth and are more likely to send their children to school. Evidence indicates that under-five mortality rate falls by about half for mothers with primary school education.

Secondary education: Recent Unicef estimates show that, on an average, 43 percent of girls of the appropriate age in the developing countries attend secondary school. There are many reasons for this low attendance rate. Because of greater emphasis on universal primary education, many developing countries have neglected to allocate adequate resources to increase enrolment and attendance in secondary education. Childhood marriage is another reason. Parental inability to meet educational expenses due to poverty is also a reason.

Secondary education has many benefits. It is most effective in delaying the age at which a young woman first gives birth, and it can enhance freedom of movement and maternal health. It strengthens women's socioeconomic and political participation, and also enhances their status both in the family and in the larger society.

Adolescence

Among the greatest threats to adolescent development are abuse, exploitation and violence, and the lack of vital knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS.

Child marriage and premature parenthood: Globally, 36 percent of women aged 20-24 were married or in union before they reached their 18th birthday, and most such marriages take place in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This problem is serious in Bangladesh. Parents often consent to child marriages out of economic necessity, or because they believe that marriage will protect girls from sexual assault.

Premature pregnancy and motherhood are inevitable consequences of child marriage. An estimated 14 million adolescents between 15-19 give birth each year. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their twenties. If a mother is under 18, her baby's chance of dying in the first year is 60 percent higher than that of a baby born to a mother who is older than 19. Even if the child survives, he/she is more likely to suffer from low birth weight, under nutrition, and late physical and cognitive development.

Sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking: The younger girls are when they first have sex, the more likely it is that intercourse has been imposed on them. According to a World Health Organisation study, 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of physical and sexual violence in some countries during 2002.

An estimated 1.8 million children are involved in commercial sex work. Many are forced into it, either by being sold into sexual slavery by desperately poor families or being abducted and trafficked into brothels or other exploitative environments. Children exploited in the commercial sex industry are subjected to neglect, sexual violence, and physical and psychological abuse. In Bangladesh, sexual exploitation and trafficking are serious problems. For example, every year, an estimated 20,000 women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh. During the last 30 years, more than a million women have been trafficked to India, Pakistan, and the Middle East.

Sexual and reproductive health: Because unprotected sex carries the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, knowledge of sexual and reproductive health is essential for the safety of young people. Although information alone cannot provide protection, it is certainly a first step. Nonetheless, adolescents around the world continue to have limited knowledge of reproductive health issues and the risks they face.

HIV/Aids: By 2005, nearly half of the 39 million people with HIV were women. In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, young women (aged 15-24) are up to six times more likely to be infected than young men their age. One reason is physiological -- women are more than twice as likely as men to become infected with HIV during sex. The other crucial factor is social -- gender discrimination in patriarchic societies denies women the right to say "no" to men's demands for sex. Promiscuous behaviour of men is also a factor. High rates of illiteracy among women prevent them from knowing about the risks of HIV infection and possible protection strategies. A survey of 24 sub-Saharan countries reveals that more than two-thirds of young women lack clear knowledge of HIV transmission. Even though it is not yet a serious problem in Bangladesh, we face potentially serious risks because of high rate of HIV/AIDS in neighbouring India.

The dramatic rise in infection among women increases the risks for children. Infants become infected through their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. In 2005, more than 2 million children aged 14 years or younger were living with HIV.

Motherhood and old age

Two critical periods in many women's lives, when the pernicious effects of both poverty and inequality can combine, are motherhood and old age.

Maternal mortality: It is estimated that each year more than half a million women -- roughly one woman every minute -- die as a result of pregnancy related complications and childbirth. About 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with over 90 percent of those in Africa and Asia. Two-thirds of maternal deaths in 2000 occurred in 13 of the world's poorest countries. The same year, India alone accounted for one-quarter of all maternal deaths. In Bangladesh, maternal mortality is 360 per 100,000. One out of every 16 sub-Saharan African women dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth, compared to just 1 out of every 4,000 in industrialised countries. Moreover, motherless newborns are between 3 to 10 times more likely to die than newborns whose mothers are alive. Many of these women's lives could be saved with access to basic health care services, including skilled birth attendants, and emergency obstetrics care.

Women in old age: Elderly women often face double discrimination because of both gender and age. Women tend to live longer than men, and they generally lack control of family resources and face discrimination from inheritance laws. Many older women are forced into poverty at a stage of life when they are most vulnerable. Only a few developing countries have safety nets for older people in the form of non-contributory or means-tested pensions. Bangladesh also has no such scheme.

Grandmothers in particular possess a great deal of knowledge and experience related to all aspects of maternal and child care. They are often a mainstay of child care for working parents. Experience has shown that children's rights are advanced when programs initiated to benefit children and families also include elderly women.

It is clear that women face discrimination from the period of being conceived until death. Women of all ages have to pay for such inequalities, often with their lives. The consequences of the prejudice are very serious for an economically backward country like Bangladesh. For example, the endemic malnutrition that prevails in the society due to deprivation of women saps the productivity of the population, creating serious obstacles for the progress of the nation. To overcome such obstacles, discrimination against women throughout the lifecycle must be ended, and opportunities created for them. This will, in turn, require ending of patriarchy, and the National Girl Child Day is celebrated every year on September 30 to create awareness about it.

Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is President, The Girl Child Advocacy Forum. This article is based on The State of the World's Children 2007.

Consequences of gender discrimination

Consequences of gender discrimination
Badiul Alam Majumdar
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=5935

Gender discrimination is all pervasive. Beginning from the dawn of civilisation, it has been continuing over centuries. Although it shows up in different forms and manifestations in different cultures, it exists in every society. It encompasses every segment of the society, irrespective of economic condition and social standing. Discrimination exists throughout the entire lifecycle of women, beginning from conception to death, and it has ominous consequences.
Feticide and infanticide

Gender discrimination begins early, even before the birth of a girl child. Modern diagnostic tools make it possible to determine a child's sex in the earliest phase. In many societies, these techniques are often misused for female feticide. Although there is no conclusive evidence to confirm it, birth histories and census data reveal an unusually high proportion of male births and male children under-five in China and India, indicating sex-selective feticide and infanticide in the world's two most populous countries, despite commitments to eradicate these practices in both countries. Fortunately, these are not serious problems in Bangladesh.

The early years

A principal priority for the early years of childhood and adolescence is ensuring access to, and completion of, quality primary and secondary education. With some exceptions, it is mostly girls who are deprived of educational opportunities.

Primary education: For every 100 boys out of school worldwide, there are 115 girls in the same situation. Though the gender gap has been increasingly closing over the decades, nearly 1 out of every 5 girls who enrolls in primary school in developing countries does not complete the primary education. Lack of primary education deprives a girl of the opportunity to develop to her fullest potential. Studies have shown that educated women are less likely to die in childbirth and are more likely to send their children to school. Evidence indicates that under-five mortality rate falls by about half for mothers with primary school education.

Secondary education: Recent Unicef estimates show that, on an average, 43 percent of girls of the appropriate age in the developing countries attend secondary school. There are many reasons for this low attendance rate. Because of greater emphasis on universal primary education, many developing countries have neglected to allocate adequate resources to increase enrolment and attendance in secondary education. Childhood marriage is another reason. Parental inability to meet educational expenses due to poverty is also a reason.

Secondary education has many benefits. It is most effective in delaying the age at which a young woman first gives birth, and it can enhance freedom of movement and maternal health. It strengthens women's socioeconomic and political participation, and also enhances their status both in the family and in the larger society.

Adolescence

Among the greatest threats to adolescent development are abuse, exploitation and violence, and the lack of vital knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS.

Child marriage and premature parenthood: Globally, 36 percent of women aged 20-24 were married or in union before they reached their 18th birthday, and most such marriages take place in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This problem is serious in Bangladesh. Parents often consent to child marriages out of economic necessity, or because they believe that marriage will protect girls from sexual assault.

Premature pregnancy and motherhood are inevitable consequences of child marriage. An estimated 14 million adolescents between 15-19 give birth each year. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their twenties. If a mother is under 18, her baby's chance of dying in the first year is 60 percent higher than that of a baby born to a mother who is older than 19. Even if the child survives, he/she is more likely to suffer from low birth weight, under nutrition, and late physical and cognitive development.

Sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking: The younger girls are when they first have sex, the more likely it is that intercourse has been imposed on them. According to a World Health Organisation study, 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of physical and sexual violence in some countries during 2002.
An estimated 1.8 million children are involved in commercial sex work. Many are forced into it, either by being sold into sexual slavery by desperately poor families or being abducted and trafficked into brothels or other exploitative environments. Children exploited in the commercial sex industry are subjected to neglect, sexual violence, and physical and psychological abuse. In Bangladesh, sexual exploitation and trafficking are serious problems. For example, every year, an estimated 20,000 women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh. During the last 30 years, more than a million women have been trafficked to India, Pakistan, and the Middle East.

Sexual and reproductive health: Because unprotected sex carries the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, knowledge of sexual and reproductive health is essential for the safety of young people. Although information alone cannot provide protection, it is certainly a first step. Nonetheless, adolescents around the world continue to have limited knowledge of reproductive health issues and the risks they face.

HIV/Aids: By 2005, nearly half of the 39 million people with HIV were women. In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, young women (aged 15-24) are up to six times more likely to be infected than young men their age. One reason is physiological -- women are more than twice as likely as men to become infected with HIV during sex. The other crucial factor is social -- gender discrimination in patriarchic societies denies women the right to say "no" to men's demands for sex. Promiscuous behaviour of men is also a factor. High rates of illiteracy among women prevent them from knowing about the risks of HIV infection and possible protection strategies. A survey of 24 sub-Saharan countries reveals that more than two-thirds of young women lack clear knowledge of HIV transmission. Even though it is not yet a serious problem in Bangladesh, we face potentially serious risks because of high rate of HIV/AIDS in neighbouring India.
The dramatic rise in infection among women increases the risks for children. Infants become infected through their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. In 2005, more than 2 million children aged 14 years or younger were living with HIV.

Motherhood and old age

Two critical periods in many women's lives, when the pernicious effects of both poverty and inequality can combine, are motherhood and old age.

Maternal mortality: It is estimated that each year more than half a million women -- roughly one woman every minute -- die as a result of pregnancy related complications and childbirth. About 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with over 90 percent of those in Africa and Asia. Two-thirds of maternal deaths in 2000 occurred in 13 of the world's poorest countries. The same year, India alone accounted for one-quarter of all maternal deaths. In Bangladesh, maternal mortality is 360 per 100,000. One out of every 16 sub-Saharan African women dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth, compared to just 1 out of every 4,000 in industrialised countries. Moreover, motherless newborns are between 3 to 10 times more likely to die than newborns whose mothers are alive. Many of these women's lives could be saved with access to basic health care services, including skilled birth attendants, and emergency obstetrics care.

Women in old age: Elderly women often face double discrimination because of both gender and age. Women tend to live longer than men, and they generally lack control of family resources and face discrimination from inheritance laws. Many older women are forced into poverty at a stage of life when they are most vulnerable. Only a few developing countries have safety nets for older people in the form of non-contributory or means-tested pensions. Bangladesh also has no such scheme.

Grandmothers in particular possess a great deal of knowledge and experience related to all aspects of maternal and child care. They are often a mainstay of child care for working parents. Experience has shown that children's rights are advanced when programs initiated to benefit children and families also include elderly women.

It is clear that women face discrimination from the period of being conceived until death. Women of all ages have to pay for such inequalities, often with their lives. The consequences of the prejudice are very serious for an economically backward country like Bangladesh. For example, the endemic malnutrition that prevails in the society due to deprivation of women saps the productivity of the population, creating serious obstacles for the progress of the nation. To overcome such obstacles, discrimination against women throughout the lifecycle must be ended, and opportunities created for them. This will, in turn, require ending of patriarchy, and the National Girl Child Day is celebrated every year on September 30 to create awareness about it.

Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is President, The Girl Child Advocacy Forum. This article is based on The State of the World's Children 2007.

Drug-haul cover-up?

Drug-haul cover-up?
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/09/1223

The Narcotics Control Bureau is sitting tight on an important investigation even as illegal drug use in the country shows an upward trend
Akash Bisht Delhi

On the day when the BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was shot dead by his brother, another news item was jostling for the headlines. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized 200 kgs of cocaine, worth Rs 500 crore, tucked inside a container that had come from Hong Kong to the Jawahar Lal Nehru Port, Mumbai. While the Mahajan saga continued to occupy prime space on television and in newspapers, the record drug haul story mysteriously disappeared.

More than ten months later, this drug haul is being discussed in hushed tones in political and enforcement circles. Suggestions of shady Indian companies pulling strings to rescue the cocaine from the maalkhana (police storehouse) are going around. There are even rumours that crooks are replacing the cocaine with talcum powder.

Even though this allegation may be far-fetched, the truth is that the enforcement agencies have not really tried to get to the bottom of the cocaine haul. There is no clarity as to who sent it and for whom. The NCB claims that the ship, after leaving Ecuador, stopped at Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong ports, before reaching Mumbai. Although sources say the drugs were eventually headed for Spain, the NCB has refused to comment on their likely destination. According to an NCB official, "No investigation was done after the seizure. No official was sent to Ecuador to find out about the people involved in this. Since the consignment was not meant for India, not much investigation was needed." But no answers are forthcoming to the disturbing question about why this sensational seizure is being hushed up.

It took the NCB 15 years to zero in on Kanoui Julian, a French national who is a notorious drug supplier and has been on the most wanted list for a long time. Julian was finally caught by the NCB in New Delhi earlier this month. Documents pertaining to a container that was sent to Belgium were recovered from his possession. Julian, in his statement made during interrogation, also revealed that he has been shipping more than five containers of hashish worth crores of rupees, every year, from India to various European destinations.

In spite of these dramatic disclosures, NCB officials insist that India is no longer a transit point for drug traffickers, because of the fencing of the LoC between India and Pakistan. "The drug trafficking in Asia has been taken over by Albanians and now most of the drugs from Afghanistan are first sent to Albania and then to Russia, from where they enter Europe," said Shankar Rao, head of the Delhi zone of the NCB.

If the NCB is to be believed, most of the drug cartels operating in India have already been busted and only small time peddlers remain. Officials from the agency say the north-eastern states are witnessing a downward trend in heroin abuse, mainly due to the AIDS scare and the traumatic withdrawal symptoms experienced by addicts deprived of the drug.

However, there is an upward trend in the consumption of pharmaceutical drugs, especially cough syrups, in the same region. Cities like Ludhiana and Chandigarh and the countryside in Punjab are also witnessing massive cocaine abuse while Goa and Mumbai continue to show a high degree of party drugs consumption. Cocaine, ecstasy and vile are the drugs of choice for high-profile celebrities — especially those from the fashion fraternity. "Mumbai and Goa are famous for rave parties where a lot of these so-called party drugs are used. These posh parties are held secretly and it is difficult to know about their whereabouts. A lot of teenagers from influential families have started to experiment with these drugs and their numbers are growing," emphasised Rao.

However, the NCB’s claims of busting drug cartels and decreased drug use in India are not being treated seriously by the US government’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA has reservations about the Indian government’s drug enforcement programme and the continuing export of poppy and its derivatives from licit areas of cultivation. Even reports from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare suggest that the problem of drug addiction in the country is very serious.

No hatred so common

No hatred so common
By Russell Working
September 30, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-antisemitism_thinksep30,0,2533445,full.story

Imagine you're walking down Michigan Avenue when a madman in soiled pajamas and a tinfoil Viking hat strides up. He hands you a photocopied cartoon of an ogre with a Star of David on his chest. The creature is devouring a baby. You speed up. So does your new friend. He mutters: Hey buster, listen up. See, it's all their fault. These wars? They're to blame. The Holocaust? They bought it on. The bake the blood of children into matzos. They use "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, Lions Clubs and AIDS to dominate the world. You know who I mean: The Jews.

So how to deal with this fellow? A) Secure him a professorship at a leading university. B) Hire him to produce a television series. C) Appoint him to a position of power and allow him to deliver policy speeches to UN agencies. D) All of the above.

If you answered "D," you are on to something. Or so one is tempted to conclude when considering the resurgence of the ancient madness known as anti-Semitism.

In its scope, anti-Semitism is rare among Earth's infinite hatreds. Hutus exterminated Tutsis in Rwanda, Christians are targeted in China and Iraq, and Muslims see persecution in many lands, from India to France to the U.S. Discrimination is a daily fact of American life, not just for blacks but for Asians, Latinos and Native Americans.

But few hatreds unite such a vast range of establishment voices worldwide. The perfidy of the Jews is espoused by Syrian authors, Lebanese TV anchors, Italian cartoonists, Egyptian newsmen and heads of state from Malaysia to the Mediterranean. And it is coming home to roost once again in Europe.

Matthias Kuentzel, a German scholar who has traced the influence of Adolf Hitler in the Muslim world, says Judeophobia is at its worst level since the Nazi era. The Middle East conflicts fuel anger at Israel, but this is more than just frustrated people blowing off steam.

It is a demonology that encompasses all Jews, wherever they live or whatever their stand on Israel. It is an "infrastructure of the soul" for those who embrace it, Kuentzel says.

Consider: The madman's tirade above was based on real sources:

Editorial cartoons across the Middle East and Europe portray Israelis as ogres who devour babies, drawing on medieval and Nazi imagery.

The Irish News—following the lead of many other media—published a cartoon last year depicting an Orthodox Jew controlling Pentagon policy.

A store on Devon Avenue in Chicago sells books by a Turkish author who argues that Zionist leaders cooperated with the Nazis in organizing the Holocaust against their own people.

In 2003, a Lebanese television series dramatized Jews kidnapping and murdering Christian children and draining their blood to make matzos. In a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a rabbi munches the unleavened bread and observes, "This one is tastier and holier because it was kneaded with pure blood, the blood of Joseph." Similar claims routinely circulate in the Islamic world.

The Hamas charter blames Jews for evils dating to the French Revolution. The document also may be history's first revolutionary manifesto that lists, as a cause for war, an imaginary plot by Jews to control the world through Lions and Rotary clubs.

Egyptian and Jordanian newspapers have reported that Jews were selling drug-laced gum. Other accounts blame the spread of AIDS on Jewish doctors purposely infecting children with HIV.

A cultural adviser to the Iranian Education Ministry went on state television last year to explain that "Tom and Jerry" was part of a Jewish plot to improve the image of rodents, because Jews are, after all, regarded as "dirty mice."

It's not just the Islamic world in which bigotry threatens. The Community Security Trust, a British group that helps Jewish organizations set up security, tracked 412 attacks on Jewish targets outside Israel in the 25 years following 1968.

Stores were bombed in Paris; Lima, Peru; and Melbourne, Australia. In 2003, bombs at two synagogues in Istanbul killed 25 and wounded more than 300. A bomb outside a kindergarten in Vienna in 1982 failed to go off. It takes a certain level of indoctrination to conclude that 5-year-olds pose a danger so grave they must be eradicated with TNT.

The United States tends to be a safe part of the world for Jews, but it takes only one nut to endanger others. Last year a gunman offered his contribution toward the liberation of Palestine by forcing his way inside a Seattle Jewish center with a gun in the back of a 14-year-old girl. He then wounded five women and shot another dead, police said.

The man has pleaded insanity. How that distinguishes him from other anti-Semites is another issue.

(A word here on terminology: Arabs often say that because they are Semitic peoples, it is absurd to call an Arab "anti-Semitic." But the term traditionally has been defined as an animus toward the Jewish people, and that is how it is used here.)

Some people, including many Jews, who decry anti-Semitism as very real and extremely ugly trace its worsening to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. It can be a tricky topic, holding Israel accountable for its actions toward Palestinians without condoning anti-Semitism.

"You don't want to say it's Jews' fault that there are anti-Semites," said Jesse Bacon of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago. "But it's more a question of what could we concretely do in keeping with our own values to lessen this problem. And I would suggest that would be reaching a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In Britain last year, attacks on Jews and other anti-Semitic incidents reached their worst level on record, according to the Community Security Trust. A parliamentary report last fall concluded that anti-Semitism is going mainstream in the United Kingdom, and that "has contributed to an atmosphere where Jews have become more anxious and more vulnerable to abuse and attack than at any other time for a generation or longer."

Studies in the European Union and Russia have drawn similar conclusions.

Among the British victims was Jasmine Kranat, a north London Jewish girl who went with a friend to buy fruit and yogurt to make smoothies for a sleepover last summer. On the bus home, a group of Asian and black teenage girls boarded the bus.

"One girl asked me, 'Are you English or Jewish?' " said Jasmine, who was 12 at the time, in a phone interview.

She answered, "I'm English," but the girls attacked her. Ignoring her friend, who was wearing a crucifix, the teens beat and stomped Jasmine, fracturing her eye socket and knocking her out. Jasmine's friend dragged her off the bus, and Jasmine was hospitalized.

The turning point in the resurgence of anti-Semitism was a UN-sponsored anti-racism conference in South Africa in 2001, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based group that battles bigotry worldwide.

That week, Iranians stormed a Wiesenthal news conference and turned over tables. Thousands of Muslim trade unionists demonstrated against Israel, some waving signs that read "Hitler was right." Police said they couldn't guarantee Cooper's safety if he left his hotel. And delegates voted to strike a condemnation of anti-Semitism from the conference's final statement.

As Cooper and about 30 other Jewish delegates walked out, some 3,000 people purportedly committed to battling racism worldwide hooted and jeered.

"The script for what it is we are struggling against was consecrated at that conference," Cooper says.

Last month, planning began on a follow-up gathering to the 2001 anti-racism conference in Durban. Jewish groups are already bracing for Durban II in 2009, fearing it will bring more anti-Semitic bashing of Israel.

An inventory of recent oral and written attacks on Jews by people of power and stature is as long as it is appalling.

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, beseeched Allah to annihilate the Jews, reported the Middle East Media Research Institute. After all, he said, they are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs." Imagine the riots if Pope Benedict XVI spoke this way about Muslims.

In April, the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council prayed this about Jews and Americans: "Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one."

Surveying the intra-Palestinian fighting in Gaza, Egyptian liberal author Kamal Gabriel recently wrote that the battle with Israel had transformed from hatred of Zionism to a loathing of all Jews. And that "culture and psychology of violence," once unleashed, threatens Palestinians too.

"It starts with the Zionist enemy who is occupying the Holy Land, and then the violence and the hatred spread dangerously, like fire, in the psyche of the one over which [the violence and hatred] have gained mastery," Gabriel wrote. These destructive tendencies "consume everything around them—and the first thing they consume is the light of reason."

Try telling that to the guy in the tinfoil hat.
rworking@tribune.com

Indian Poet Named Ambassador for Good Will World Peace Treaty

Indian Poet Named Ambassador for Good Will World Peace Treaty
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/9/prweb557158.htm
Poet and three-time world record holder Nikhil Parekh is now elected as Good Will Ambassador for the Good Will World Peace Treaty.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat (PRWEB) September 29, 2007 -- Nikhil Parekh, a 30 yr old poet from India has been elected Ambassador for the Good Will World Peace Treaty. This treaty, a brainchild of Celebrity Consultant and Inspirational Author Bryant McGill is aimed at spreading peace, good will, compassion and a sense of humanitarian understanding amidst all across the planet. Creator McGill, who'd earlier been featured for his numerous poetic and humanitarian achievements on the front page of Wall Street Journal, passionately says this about his treaty, "The Treaty gives you a path of action, that if followed, will make a difference. Our intention is to have all people sign this treaty. It is further, our intention to have all people in positions of power and influence sign this treaty by hand. Every city mayor, governor, celebrity, entertainer, TV personality, major corporate director, activist, foreign dignitary, senator, congressman, and ultimately, all world leaders. Don't be the weak link, declare your intentions with us now, and be the difference!".

Parekh, now the Indian Ambassador for the treaty, revealed that he would be putting devoted number of hours each day to spread the treaty and get as many people as possible to sign the same. His efforts via the Internet would reach countless World Leaders, Organizations, Individuals, Forums, Groups, Blogs, News Channels and virtually every legitimately conceivable juncture to spread the treaty and apprize the whole world about signing it. Parekh already has 3 world records with India's number one Limca Book of Records for --'Writing most number of letters to and receiving most number of replies from World Leaders and World Organizations'-- 'Being 1st Indian to win an EPPIE Award for best poetry ebook'-- 'Being 1st Indian to be published in Commonwealth Newsletter for his poem on AIDS'. He now plans to set a new record in approaching the maximum number of people on earth and to have them sign the Good Will World Peace Treaty. This is one record he says he'd cherish the most as it aims at the dissemination of world peace; love and goodness. Ambassador Nikhil Parekh can be visited at nikhilparekh.com or authorsden.com/nikhilparekh for thousands of his poems, world records, various works, achievements and books.

The Good Will Treaty for World Peace can be signed electronically as well as can be downloaded to sign by hand and emailed back to the organization, from its website goodwilltreaty.org.
# # #

Daughter, Twin, Author

Daughter, Twin, Author
Jenna Bush makes the case for safe sex in her new book about an HIV-positive mother in Latin America.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21047653/site/newsweek/

By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek
Oct. 8, 2007 issue - Ana and Jenna don't have much in common. Ana's father was a poor South American cabdriver who died before she hit puberty. Jenna's dad became the 43rd president of the United States the year she started college. But the two lives converged in 2006 when Jenna, a 25-year-old UNICEF intern, and Ana, a 17-year-old single mother with HIV, met during an AIDS workshop in Latin America. Out of that union came "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," a book by Bush for young teens that aims to raise awareness about poverty, AIDS and child abuse in developing countries. "In the U.S., we don't pay as much attention to these things, that people all over the world are living with these problems," says Bush. "The more you travel and talk to those affected by HIV, the more you know. But I'm still learning a lot, for sure."

Indian Court Denies HIV-positive Woman Custody of Daughter

Indian Court Denies HIV-positive Woman Custody of Daughter
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49447.asp

An Indian court has denied an HIV-positive woman custody of her 8-year-old daughter, a rights activist said Friday.

The woman, who was not identified to protect her privacy, married a soldier from northwestern Rajasthan state in the late 1990s without knowing that he was HIV-positive, said Kavita Srivastav, state convener of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, a private rights group.

Her husband died four years ago. After his death, her in-laws began treating the woman badly and took her daughter on the grounds that the mother had become HIV-positive, Srivastav said.

She moved to her parents' home and later approached a court in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, for custody of her daughter.

The court rejected her plea earlier this week, ruling that she would not able to take care of her daughter because of her HIV-positive status, Srivastav said.

The People's Union for Civil Liberties challenged the verdict in an appeals court in Jaipur on Thursday. The court put the lower-court decision on hold and has agreed to hear the petition, according to the woman's attorney, Ajay Jain. (AP)

© 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Girl Trafficking From Nepal on the Rise: UN

Girl Trafficking From Nepal on the Rise: UN
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullstory.asp?filename=aFanata0vfqzpba2Ua7wa.axamal&folder=aHaoamW&Name=Home&dtSiteDate=20070926

Anil Giri

New Delhi, September 26At least 10,000 to 15,000 girls are being trafficked from Nepal to India, the data revealed by the UN Regional Office for South Asia for Prevention of Drugs and Crimes said.They are allured to India of good job and sold there, head of the regional office, Gary Lewis, said on Tuesday. He said illiteracy, poverty and Nepal's long armed conflict and other economic and social causes are behind it.The office, which stands as guardian of the UN protocol against the trafficking, has continued to provide training to the police who are working to check the human trafficking and other human crimes, he said.

"We are actively involved in the programmes like implementation of the laws, capacity building, rehabilitation of the victims in South Asia, including Nepal," he said.

According to the project coordinator of the office Ajit Roy, the number of displaced has surged in Nepal, problem of internal migration has worsened and Kathmandu has prospered as a centre of trafficking of women and children due to the long armed conflict."The women and teenage girls who come to Kathmandu in search of the jobs become soft targets for the pimps," Roy added.

Saying that AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases were on the rise due to the trafficking, he said the recent study conducted by a US institution showed that 40 per cent of the sexual workers returning to Nepal from different Indian cities carried HIV/AIDS.

Our office is working with some NGOs in Nepal for rehabilitation of those returning to Nepal, he said.

In this context, a South Asia-level conference will be held in New Delhi from October 9 to October 11, he said.

Deaf and dumb AIDS patient raped and killed

Deaf and dumb AIDS patient raped and killed
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=033b1843-1e91-4db3-8e1d-306936251c9a&ParentID=7aba1965-7c57-4e70-acce-9f107384db42&&Headline=Deaf+and+dumb+AIDS+patient+raped+and+killed

Press Trust Of IndiaIndore, July 06, 2007

A deaf and dumb woman, also affected with AIDS was allegedly raped and killed by some unidentified persons in Indore on Friday, police said.

The victim was strangulated to death under mysterious circumstances, police said, adding it appears that she has been raped by the accused.

Her body was found near her house in the Devendra Nagar area, without proper clothing leading to suspicion that she was raped before being killed.

The victim's husband also died some time back and he too was an AIDS patient, police said, adding it has registered a case and further probe is on.

Indians’ sex life better than most: Survey

Indians’ sex life better than most: Survey
Only Greeks and Mexicans are ahead of us
Tribune News Service

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070926/main9.htm

New Delhi, September 25
Indian lovers are among the most open in the world about telling their partners what they like to do in bed and have one of the most exciting sex lives.

This inference has been drawn by a new global survey on sexual well-being. ‘In the bedroom’ is the second in the series of reports generated by the Durex global survey.

It says, “Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of Indians are comfortable with telling their partners what they like in bed — way above the global average of 58 per cent and the UK number of 49 per cent. We are beaten in this only by the Greeks (76 per cent) and Mexicans (80 per cent).”

Although Indians are very frank with their partners about their expectations in bed, 26 per cent are too shy with their lovers. More than a third of those interviewed in India said that their sex lives lack variety.

The survey has inferred that “Indians are very active with their partners and 71 per cent of Indian lovers have sex at least once a week with 19 per cent making love at least five times a week or more.”

Indians also indulge in a wide range of bedroom antics. “These include sensual massages and erotic materials for 55 per cent of us, with sexual fantasies (58 per cent) topping the menu for boosting our libido,'' says the report.

The findings of the survey are based on interviews with 26,000 people in 26 countries. Commissioned by Durex and carried out by Harris Interactive, the survey conducted online in August and September questioned respondents about all aspects of their sex lives, including what they do in the bedroom.

Almost half (45 per cent) of the Indian lovers interviewed expressed their desire to increase their knowledge about how they could please their partner.

The study found that masturbation is widely practised in India as almost nine out of 10 (87 per cent) Indians have masturbated at some time in their lives, compared to 83 per cent globally. More than four out of 10 Indians (41 per cent) masturbate once a week.

Indians have had fewer lovers than respondents in other countries. While Indian men on an average have six partners, women have two partners. In the UK, the figures are 16 and 10 respectively.

Almost six in 10 (57 per cent) Indians think it is acceptable for products aimed at improving sex lives to be available in mainstream stores. At present, only 9 per cent of Indians use vibrators compared to 21 per cent the world over. One-third of Indians use lubricants which is close to the global figure of 34 per cent. Compared to most other nations, Indians seem a little reluctant to experiment. “While 22 per cent of us would like to try massage oils, only nine per cent of Indians are interested in an orgasm-enhancing gel and only seven per cent would consider aphrodisiacs or pheromones,'' says the report generated by the survey.

Indian men feel less inhibited than women. While 51 per cent of Indian women say they feel self-conscious during sex, only 45 per cent of Indian men agree.

Sources in Durex say that the survey will enable them remain at the forefront in helping people fulfil their sexual desires and enjoy better sex. “The results will help us keep abreast of sexual attitudes and behaviour of people in India and across the globe.”

New York state isn't waiting to stop funding abstinence-only sex education programs.

New York state isn't waiting to stop funding abstinence-only sex education programs.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/09/21/2007-09-21_new_york_state_holds_out_on_abstinenceon.html

Officials announced this week that state money will now go solely to programs that offer more comprehensive information about preventing pregnancy and sexual health.

New York state Health Commissioner Richard Daines, in a statement on the department's Web site, stated that "The Bush administration's Abstinence-Only program is an example of a failed national health care policy directive, based on ideology rather than on sound scientific-based evidence that must be the cornerstone of good public health care policy."

Since 1998, the state had receieved up to $3.7 million annually in federal money earmarked for abstinence-only programs. An additional $2.6 million in state money was given to the programs on a yearly basis.

Starting October 1, the state money will be funneled into sex education programs that provide a full range of information about preventing pregnancy and disease.

State officials decided in July not to reapply for federal money, and the mainly religious organizations that provided the abstinence-based programs were told their fuding would not be renewed.

"We're very unhappy," said John Graham of Catholic Charities in Onondaga County, one of the organizations that received the federal funding. "We were having a pretty effective program with the families and children we were working with," he said. "And now, we’re not able to do that."

Health Department spokesperson Claudia Hutton said, "We want to invest in programs with a better track record, that will acknowledge that there are many viewpoints about sex."

Law Commission suggests panel for ‘mercy killing’

Law Commission suggests panel for ‘mercy killing’
ShubhenduSeptember 14, 2007
http://www.igovernment.in/site/law-commission-suggests-panel-for-%e2%80%98mercy-killing%e2%80%99/

In its bid to prevent the harassment of doctors who withdraw life support to terminally-ill patients, India’s Law Commission has recommended formation of an expert medical panel to clear such decisions.

According to a PTI report, while providing safeguards to doctors against litigation, the Commission also encouraged patients and their relatives or friends to approach High Courts and get a declaration whether the decision to continue or withdraw life support is ‘lawful’.

Once a High Court has declared that a doctor’s decision is ‘lawful’, it will be binding on civil or criminal courts not to proceed against him in any matter relating to the case, the Commission said in its 434-page report “Medical Treatment to Terminally Ill Patients (Protection of Patients and Medical Practitioners)”.

Recommending the setting up of a three-member panel of reputed medical persons having at least 20 years experience to clear decision to withdraw life support, the Commission said it should be formed by statutory body and the names of the experts should be published in the gazette and official websites for quick access.

The majority decision of the panel will prevail and would be binding on doctors, it said. Maintaining that the withdrawal of life support to terminally-ill patients has always been held lawful in all countries, the Commission sought to make it clear that this was different from euthanasia or assisted suicide, which were always “held unlawful and continue to be unlawful”.
The Commission referred to several judgements passed by the highest courts of the US, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia and News Zealand to show that they have been “unanimous on the legal principle” of enabling the withdrawal of support to terminally-ill or “living vegetable” patients.

Drawing a sharp line between an ‘informed’ and ‘uninformed’ decision by the patient on whether to continue or discontinue treatment, the Commission said a doctor must go by the ‘informed decision’.

The informed decision should be made by a competent patient, one who knows the nature of his ailment, alternative treatments available, their consequences, and consequences of remaining untreated.

The Commission pointed out in such cases, the informed decision will be “binding on the doctor” and neither the patient will be accused of suicide nor the doctor tried for abetting it.

The report also defined an “incompetent” patient as a minor or a person of unsound mind, or one who is unable or impaired and cannot understand, retain, weigh or communicate information about his ailment.

In such cases, the doctor would need to find out what is the “best interest”—not just medically but also in the light of “ethical, social, moral and emotional” considerations.

Asia's fishermen at risk for unwanted catch: HIV

Asia's fishermen at risk for unwanted catch: HIV http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jhV4LiKEuDZPb_IOyuQ-FcoUmo_A

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — In appearance, they couldn't be more different.

Ririn, with her warm brown skin and plump face, simply glows. Young and sweet, just two months after giving birth to a baby girl.

Edi stands out as the roughest in a circle of men on the fishing dock. Streaks of motor oil mix with sweat on his chest and weather-beaten face as he puffs on a cigarette and talks loudly, not caring that his frayed cutoffs are unzipped.

The two are part of an expanding nexus that's spreading HIV and AIDS. He's a deep-sea fishermen who spends his short time ashore prowling for sex; she's a woman in port who gets paid to provide a warm body.

Bali is a famed tourist playground, but there's a side to the island most foreign visitors never see. Indonesian fishermen who often haven't seen land for months put in at Benoa Harbour and make straight for the closest bar with two things in mind: getting drunk and finding women.
These habits have put fishermen at high risk of getting HIV or AIDS - especially in Asia, because it's home to 2.5 million fishermen, or about 85 per cent of the world's total. Yet fishermen have been largely overlooked since the virus began raging 21 years ago, with only a handful of surveys focusing on them.

One report found that out of 10 poor countries, all but one had fishermen with HIV rates four to 14 times higher than the general population.

Two studies of fishermen on big commercial vessels found over 15 per cent were HIV-positive in Thai and Cambodian ports. That's more than five times the rate of other migrants at high risk for infection, such as truck drivers.

A few programs in Papua New Guinea, Thailand and elsewhere in the region are now working to reach fishermen, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization earlier this year urged that they be recognized as high risk. But fishermen weren't even mentioned in UNAIDS' 630-page 2006 global report.

"I don't think there's been much targeting of treatment and health service availability," says Edward Allison, of The WorldFish Center in Malaysia, who has researched HIV in fishermen.
The bulk of Asia's fishermen are small-scale operators who return to home port frequently or stop at coastal fishing camps where women and booze are readily available. Others work aboard bigger vessels for months at a time.

In Bali, most of the fishermen are bachelors in their 20s and 30s from Indonesia's main island of Java. Many come from conservative Muslim farm families but have traded their traditions for a culture of danger and machismo.

Some return to home port in Bali at voyage's end. Others fish well beyond native waters, docking as far away as South Africa, Sri Lanka, Spain and Panama. Either way, their pockets are filled with money and the only women waiting ashore are those looking to get paid.

Ririn, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, grew up on a rice farm with her parents and seven siblings on the island of Java. She dropped out of school in fifth grade.

At 20, she was offered a chance for a better life, working as a maid on Bali, a neighbouring island she imagined was full of hope and money.

"I wanted to help my family back home," she says. "There's a lot of mouths to feed."
But after three months of cooking, cleaning and caring for someone else's children, she had only US$20.

Like many young women far from home, she was wooed by a man promising $40 to $50 a month for fewer hours. She would only do it for a little while, she thought. Just long enough to save up for a small business of her own.

After six months as a prostitute, she learned about HIV - when she tested positive. She kept working until her sixth month of pregnancy.

There are no condom machines or AIDS outreach workers on the crowded wharf in Bali. Some fishermen say they've had a disease "down there" or know someone who has, but many are convinced that certain women, mostly Indonesians, are free of HIV.

"This area is very safe," fisherman Herman Shokana said above the roar of boat engines. "But when we go abroad, we'll probably get it."

Most sailors infected with STDs treat themselves with cheap antibiotics. They may take the wrong dose or stop treatment when symptoms disappear, allowing STDs to linger, which makes it easier to contract HIV. They also are misled by greedy peddlers.

"When the ships come in, medicine vendors or peddlers are already waiting for them," said Made Setiawan, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who's researching fishing culture and the risks of HIV in Bali. The peddlers' typical patter runs, "Here, take this medicine and go have sex in the brothels."

In Thailand, most commercial fishermen are Cambodian and Burmese migrants. They change boats regularly and go to different docks, making it difficult to visit clinics or get test results.
At some Thai ports, outreach workers from the nonprofit Raks Thai Foundation distribute condoms and talk to the men about AIDS. Some fishermen also are being trained to provide HIV education and help treat STDs.

But experts say there's a need to establish STD clinics at ports and better educate the fishermen about everything from safe sex to getting infections at tattoo parlors.

"We're making progress," says Brahm Press, a program manager for Raks Thai. "How much of that progress has been able to reduce the spread of HIV, we're not certain."

Edi, 20, is the shortest guy on the dock in Bali, but his muscles are the thickest. He's been on shore nearly two weeks after five straight months at sea fishing between Indonesia and Australia.

He brags he had sex with up to 10 women a night. His monthly pay of about $70 wouldn't have lasted long at the going rate of about $6 for 15 minutes.

He usually doesn't use condoms, complaining it's not satisfying. He's never been sick or tested for STDs, but points to a friend who's had syphilis.

"There's a medicine for HIV. There is a cure," he says. "Maybe it will take longer to cure, but you will get better."

While at sea, the men get little sleep and regularly risk injury or even death. They could be swept overboard in storms, get fouled in lines or cut off fingers while cleaning fish. They live in cramped boats smelling of diesel and gutted fish. Some question why they should lessen the little pleasure they get by wearing a condom.

Some fishermen also insert BB-sized, glass or plastic pellets into cuts in their penises for enhancement. The wound is sometimes still fresh when they make shore, but it doesn't stop them from hitting the bars lined with women in miniskirts.

"They don't have any self-esteem. They are ordered around by the company and the captain to do this and that," said Setiawan, who's researching the fishermen. "Sex workers can give them their self-esteem back."

Ririn, 22, may sleep with up to 10 men a night. Many are fishermen. Worried she may infect a man who could then give HIV to his wife, she sometimes begs customers to wear condoms - which is more than anyone did for her.

Most refuse.

"I tell them, 'I'm a working girl. There's a chance you might catch something from me,"' she says.

"The man says, 'That's tomorrow's problem.' "

She fears, too, that her daughter Meisa may be infected, but it will take 18 months for the test results.

Now, Ririn's back on the street, still trying to earn enough to open a small shop. She hopes she can quit within a year, but realizes it won't be easy. Especially with a hungry little one at home and a steady stream of fishermen like Edi, all in search of love for sale.

Abortion; you're rights vs your infant's rights

Abortion; you're rights vs your infant's rightsBy MagePathfinder - Posted on September 9th, 2007
http://www.progressiveu.org/230415-abortion-youre-rights-vs-your-infants-rights

Here is where my almost purely liberal views stagger to the right a bit...

Abortion; taking away the life of a young unborn child, known as a fetus, by sucking apart its little body with a needle. Also the process in which a mother with a larger fetus which is not yet fully developed, is induced into labor giving partial birth to the fetus, head first where the back of its neck is cut (IE bleeds to death) or feet first in which the head remains inside the mother to suffocate.

There are so few times when I aggree that abortion is a good choice. Rape, incest, or rare pregnacies in which mother and or child would die anyway. There are just so many better alternatives... adoption for one. many lesbian and gay couples, for example obviously each lack part of the building blocks for life. Infertle heterosexual couples also need to adopt to have children.

teenagers who get pregnant? they have unprotected sex knowing full well that should there be a slip up, there IS such a thing as abortion. Its illegal in most states for some one under the age of 18 (16 in some states) to have sex. but what happens to the ones that do break this law? nothing. Why not send these teens who get busted having sex to a clinic to teach them about safer sex practices. pregnancy isn't the only thing you can get by having unprotected sex; STDs... pregnancy would be the least of your concerns if you happened to contract HIV or AIDS. a condem could prevent pregnancy and it can also save your life.

Mentally ill undertreated globally: study

Mentally ill undertreated globally: studyhttp://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=907b074e-a279-425f-8402-54a94dd03065

Julie Steenhuysen, ReutersPublished:
Thursday, September 06, 2007 Article tools

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Most people in the world with mental illness get no treatment at all, and scarce mental health resources are not reaching the people who need them most, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

"The treatment data we have are pretty troubling," said Dr. Philip Wang of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, whose study appears in the Lancet medical journal.

Wang and colleagues studied mental health treatment data on 84,850 adults in 17 developed and developing countries taken from the World Health Organization's mental health surveys.
The lack of mental health treatment was most severe in less-developed countries, where only a few people with serious disorders received any treatment in the past year.

But even in developed nations, roughly half of those with severe disorders got no care at all.
"Even in the United States, which is by far the most resourced country, it is by no means adequate. In our country, folks who meet the criteria for the most serious illness, only about half get anything," Wang said in a telephone interview.

"Many aren't receiving healthcare at all. The situation is concerning," he said.

Patients who were male, married, less-educated and at the extremes of age or income got the least amount of care, the researchers found.

Not surprisingly, the number of people using any mental health services was generally lower in developing countries compared with developed countries.

The researchers also found a correlation between use of mental health services and the percentage of a nation's gross domestic product spent on health services.

But Wang and colleagues also found that resources are poorly allocated when they are used.
And while efforts to control mental health spending, such as utilization review and prior authorization, might reduce use, they do little to direct care to the neediest patients.

"We're good at reducing utilization. We're not so good at channeling it among the people with the greatest need," Wang said.
© Reuters 2007

Depression 'damages health more'

Depression 'damages health more' http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5is7WTpkDRtde4qbfl4jYhThOn5Rg

Depression does greater damage to a person's overall health than long-term physical diseases, according to scientific research.

Mental illness has more impact on sufferers general well-being than angina, arthritis, asthma, and diabetes, a paper published in medical journal The Lancet concluded.

Saba Moussavi, of the World Health Organisation, and his colleagues said depression needed to be addressed as a public health priority.

On a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 indicating worst health and 100 indicating best health, sufferers of depression had an average score of 72.9.

This compared with 80.3 for asthmatics, 79.6 for angina sufferers, 79.3 for arthritis sufferers and 78.9 for those with diabetes.

Previous studies have ranked depression as having the biggest disabling effect of any disease worldwide.

The mental disorder often comes hand-in-hand with other chronic illnesses, and as the world's population lives longer, it is expected to become more and more common.

In 2000 scientists rated depression as the disease which had the fourth greatest public health impact globally.

By 2020 it is predicted to have jumped to second place.

At some point in their life it is estimated that around one in every five women and one in every 10 men will suffer from depression.

India disagrees with global corruption report

India disagrees with global corruption report
ShikhaSeptember 8, 2007
http://www.igovernment.in/site/govt-disagrees-with-transparency-internationals-report/

The Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report, 2007 says that 77 per cent of the general public has stated the Indian judicial system to be corrupt. The Government, however, does not agree with the said perception.

According to the the Minister of Law and Justice H R Bhardwaj, the Government has already introduced Judges (Inquiry) Bill, 2006 in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill seeks to devise a suitable legislative framework for empowering a judicial forum to deal with complaints against judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.

As far as the district and subordinate courts are concerned, the respective high courts are empowered to take cognisance of complaints against the members of the lower judiciary.
The minister was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Friday.—iGovernment Bureau
Read Executive Summary and Country Report on Judicial Corruption

Covenant University misunderstood on pregnant, HIV students, says Prof. Obayan, VC

Covenant University misunderstood on pregnant, HIV students, says Prof. Obayan, VC

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/viewpoints/vp609092007.html
Posted to the Web: Sunday, September 09, 2007

HAVING been conducted round the Covenant University by a corporate affairs staff of the university, many things were observed by this reporter that she could hardly believe in an institution that has only existed for less than five years. The buildings erected for each school were imposing while the hostels appeared more than enough to accommodate all the students.
The electronic library situated at the heart of the campus is a place to behold. Is it the staff quarters one wants to talk about or the great honour accorded the professors with their Professor Village? There is no imported furniture in the institution, as people are employed to produce the plank through the university sawmill.

With all these observations, one was itching to have a chat with the person at the helm of affairs who has taken the university to such a level that can be compared with the best in the world, the vice chancellor, Professor (Mrs) Aize Olohigbe Imouokhome Obayan. She spoke on why the seat is for a woman, the position of the school on pregnant and HIV students, and other issues concerning the university.

WHY is the post for a woman?
Well, I don’t know whether it is about being a woman or not but I believe definitely there are some traits in terms of characteristics either innate or God given that actually put you in a better stead to do the assignment. I believe in the nurturing side of a woman - aesthetics of a woman. When you ask a woman to take charge, what I know is that most women would not want to fail. They try to be the best. I also know that before you ask a woman to take charge, playing a leading role, she must have worked very hard.

It is possible that in addition to being a woman and, by the grace of God, the things she has been able to connect with, in terms of learning, in terms of being in school, in terms of exposure, there is a God given assignment by reason of what God has called one to do and I would want to look more on the path of pre-destination.

In other words, there are clear purpose and clear assignment by reason of birth or by reason of an assignment that God says this is what you are born to fulfil which goes beyond gender and I believe when you are able to align with the purpose of your creation, God opens up opportunities for assignment.

The experience: It is difficult in a few minutes to talk about experience. Maybe I would talk more about exposure, maybe I would talk more about opportunities that God opens up and maybe I would talk more about persons God allows one to meet.

I know from the beginning that I wanted an academic career at the end of my first year in the university because I saw that university lecturers have pride of place. They enjoy what they do, they make contributions, they are persons always at the library and I enjoy books and, at the same time, a university campus appears so beautiful and most universities then were residential. I looked at it that it wouldn’t be bad to be a university lecturer to make contributions from a career base and I know then that I loved working with people.
I also see the subject area that counselling gave me in terms of training, particularly in people’s skills, in human development base, in understanding the context of a mind, feelings and emotion. All these actively combine to help me do my assignment in the office of Vice Chancellor with a lot of relief. You train as a counsellor to understand people even if they don’t say anything.

You connect with their reality and I think in terms of alignment and harmony with one’s environment and with people one works with, I have been able to get into a point of fulfilment. However, I believe in God’s connection which is a definite key to bring all the loose ends together in a holistic way. So when you are situated body, soul and spirit, you will definitely be there.

Is it because you are into guidance and counselling that has helped you in your assignment?
That is part of the reason. Another reason is the enabling environment of the university and the fact that there is a cause we are all driving at, which is to ensure that the dignity of the black man is restored and that the black man can also take his place. That is, when the conditions are right in terms of learning, a good and fine environment that brings out your best, you don’t have a choice than to also give in your best.

I believe persons in the field of computer talk about “garbage in garbage out.” When you throw in garbage, you don’t expect to produce anything less than garbage. So when you provide a good environment, your products that get out can only take after the vessel that has formed them. As a university, if we are able to achieve our vision of raising a new generation of leaders then Covenant University would have made its contributions in terms of fulfilling the mandate.
However, we are not just talking about certification but the students who go through here, the lecturers who train them and the entire context that provides this kind of empowering environment must be driven and directed to ensure that “total” graduate gets out of Covenant University.

Total graduate in the sense that they would be able to inculcate the values to the society and when they are out there in the world of work, you see them able to connect theory and practical and able to identify what solution to be applied even to take the immediate charge of their content and also improve their content by the difference they would make to be members of that content community.

However there are some fundamental guiding rules in terms of their core values. Every Covenant University graduate must know that he/she is a leader to make a difference, a leader who will ensure responsibility at all times, who will be disciplined, who would want to add value to the system; one who would make contributions and not about what he would gain and such a person would not go on to be part of corruption.

All of these are incorporated in the context of spirituality bymaking sure that in all their knowing and in all their doing, they have the wisdom of God so that even if they are asked to chair a board meeting, the course of what has been inculcated in their value base and in terms of qualitative curriculum and in terms of their spiritual connection with God, all of these add together to give you a superior product which can be taken anywhere, tried and tested.
You said the vision is to restore African dignity. In the recent world ranking, Nigerian universities are far behind, what do you think is wrong?

I believe what would have happened is the awareness about the place that ICT has come to take. Right now, in a world that is driven by technology, by computer and awareness of being able to create on a worldwide web, how much do the present universities have? If you look at the context of our nation, a number of things may have made this to happen in terms of debilitating influences. Number one, it takes hours to even be on the web in terms of regular electricity and it also takes having a proper support for ICT and awareness as to how these things should be driven.

It takes a lot to have your own server and then the backbone that will continuously enable you to make sure that consistently things are being put on the web or to have facility that promotes an ICT culture or even have the right personnel to drive it. However, what we have had by this ranking report is sensitisation.

I know that courtesy of the NUC’s effort, webometric committees are being set up in the universities which would ensure that the profile of the universities is present in the web and talking about electronic context, how much of university lecturer academic publications are in such journals? How much of the university information is put on the web? I am glad that as a university we have a webometric committee and we are consistently ensuring that we have a lot of information present in the web. We have just in February this year put the college quota in place.

You can do a lot of on-line registration for courses where parents could click into college site and see the students results, courses they are registering for and students can talk to their lecturers.
To get back to your question, I believe we can look towards the future. Now, what steps are we taking, as a university that wants to restore the dignity of Africa. I remember an interesting quotation I came across, by Thomas Fregman. When he was young, he heard his mother saying, ‘eat your food, India and China are waiting for your dinner’ but right now he finds himself telling his daughter ‘quickly finish your home work because people in India and China are waiting to get your job.’

I believe it is about capacity building mandate and awareness. In other words, information is so powerful and you must get right on the bandwagon of what it would take to be a learning organisation and a knowledge based industry. It is also about being pro-active about what we set out as our goal. Many atimes we react to problems but we are not able to identify and plan and say, in twenty years time, what would the employment content be? We are talking about being able to forecast, we are talking about doing time series analysis. However, we must be able to identify information from research base.

Conducting research

Are we even conducting research that is able to predict what will happen in five years time if certain things are not put in place or what it would take when these things are put in place to ensure that we become architect? One mandate that we receive right in the book of Genesis is to go out to dominate and take charge.

I believe that many Americans in terms of the pride they have, regardless of their identity, they are bound together in the American dream. You can only get there when you have identified that you are a people with a mission, a people with a goal and you are a people driving a cause. In the Covenant University context, beyond saying that we are a university and at the end of your tenure here as a student, it is about a social re-awakening, it is about a renewed consciousness, it’s about taking your place and making sure you matter. It is about when you are no longer here, what legacy would you have left? It is what the Asian have caught and there is economic revolution.

The awareness should be created from the primary school to encourage our pupils to begin to get excited and passionate about taking career in the sciences particularly in the information based computer sciences which is expensive too. That means our laboratory should be fully equipped. We have taken steps in our own little way to ensure that we are an ICT driven university. We have quite a lot of resources to support that like ensuring we access the library through our electronic visuals and being able to get a lot of electronic journals in place.

The issues of pregnancy and HIV tests as part of requirements to graduate: What type of policy is that since you deal with adults here?The test is a requirement for entry and exit to know the health status of the students. There are lots of placements we do in terms of hall of residence allocation. If for example you are asthmatic, it would be unfair to put you on the fourth floor.
One should look at the totality of the health nature. One of the compulsory requirements of the curriculum is to go on jogging and if your health status states that you are not fit, you have to be excluded. It is with the right information that we can do this. Of course about pregnancy, we want to make sure we are not exposing the pregnancy women to some very demanding requirements.

Remember the name of the university is Covenant University and that is to say we have taken a vow to deliver quality and everything that will take to deliver it in terms of understanding the requirement of the human development package. This means that we want to know the person we are dealing with not just as a statistic but what are the needs, how do you prepare the environment to take care of what makes him/her unique and what will it take to support the student? Then, when the students are going out, we also have to have the requirement because we are under covenant that the graduate of Covenant University is able to be a leader and we need to know that whoever we certified, what we say he/she is what he/she is.

Does that mean a person who is pregnant in the university cannot be a leader?

We have had married students here but we are just saying we prefer that they stay focused because the curriculum we drive here is a very rigorous one. School is directed towards a goal of having a right skill so that you can begin to contribute your own quota to the good of the society. As a country and as a people, it is better to get our priority right. The reason you come to school is to finish school in terms of being character worthy and also academic training worthy so that you are fulfilling a role and where that is lacking, that means you are depriving society the privilege of having that input and, as a university, I believe the products we want to give out are royal army. We prefer they are able to stay focused. However, we are providing an environment to ensure that every student that passes through here is connected with their God given potential. That is why in addition to your certificate you must learn skills for wealth creation, learn skill on how to live as a person. Even before you graduate, you must go through a total graduate course which we see as a bridge between university and the world of work. What it will take to understand the requirement of marriage, how to manage your money, getting ready for interview, packaging you just to mention a few.

That means a student can be pregnant if he/she can cope?

May be we should get understanding of what a university should provide. Education is for the common good and the university should be able to open its door to students from all contexts. However, the law of the land talks about not discriminating on the basis of age, religion, gender, etc. In that case we are talking about a university which wants to make its contributions in the area of raising a new generation of leaders. There would be a context that is created in terms of a conducive empowering enabling base to ensure that all of these happen. We are saying that, at Covenant University, this is what it should take to make and shape a leader. Already, right from the students that are attracted to us, they know exactly that if they come here, they are being shaped as leaders. From the interview, and the selection process, by the time they come here, there is a purpose that they want to fulfil. They’ve already caught a vision.

In the first year, we are asking them, what is your vision?

They commit themselves to what it would take to realising that vision and they also work out the timing. It is not about the compulsive way of saying this is what you must be but students who are exposed to a curriculum where they have also read a history of great men and women that have succeeded, with the ‘Total Man Concept’(TMC) where they are taught about planning their lives and having their lives goals, I believe that they are being shaped for leadership. I am not saying those who are pregnant would never be leaders because everybody is a leader in his own right but there is a leadership mandate to go and make a difference to his world and so our students are being raised and they see themselves as soldiers. I also believe that as a result of what has been put into them, it has not made them to consider it.

It is very rare to see pregnant women in the university who want to finish in four years. Maybe when sessions are not able to run regularly and you don’t know when you would start and when you would end it does happen. Of course there are other important life involvement that must also need to be taken on board, you would see persons who want to get married but students are now seen coming to the university early and so marriage and child bearing are being delayed until later because there are other things to do. So as a university we’ve not have to deal with that. However, in terms of responsible living, I don’t believe any parent would want a child that has not got married to get pregnant. Even in our cultural context, it is something that we would not want to promote.

What about the HIV issue that if a student tests positive, he/she is not going to graduate? Where do they run to if the Christian mission church that preaches love rejects them?

Can I let you know that there was not such thing. We don’t know where such thing came from. There is nobody in the university that was prevented from graduating. Of course if there is such case, we are talking about restoring the dignity of the black man, it would be irresponsible to shout it all over the place. It is not just about HIV/AIDS, it’s about a responsible way of managing students information and no organisation that is really worth its salt would do anything to stigmatise and to wrongly expose that which is not supposed to. They are persons to be cared for and being HIV positive does not mean that is the end of the world.

As a university, we have made our own contributions to research proposal and promoting support for research as to how we can be part of finding solution to that. There are some of our staffs who are volunteer counsellors. It is something beyond university context, it is something of national, continental, global concern and I believe that we must all come together to see how to better manage it. We are a Christian mission university, the entire ingredient of Christianity is about love and if we do anything less of that, we would not be living true to our creed.

However, we would all play a responsi-bility of also ensuring that we endear discipline as well but in the context of love.

There has been news all over that Covenant University is a glorified secondary school because of restriction to phone, movement and all that?

Well, you cannot carry your mobile phones because, in this environment, we are trying to create. Can you imagine what it would be like when a lecture is going on and phone from every corner is coming in. In many work contexts, especially in the bank, you are not allowed to use your phone during the working hour. The phone is a tool that should enhance and support whatever else we do. It shouldn’t be something that distracts. We are not saying our students cannot have contact with the outside world, there are telephone café and centres where they can make call. However, in the kind of context that we promote, we call this place a royal academy, there is the packaging that depicts the palace culture. There is the carriage the king and queen have in the Nigerian culture.

There is dignity, there is decorum and because we are raising kings and queens, there are rules of the palace which take a grooming process if you want to be. There are certain privileges you are allowed and there are certain things that you have to do away with for a time and by the time you are announced to your world, you are able to now use these things. It is like having a child and you are now saying because you have not attained the age of 16 or 18, you can’t begin to drive a car because you know that a car in the hand of a person that is not ripe for it is asking for a disaster. There are rights of passage in order to be able to attain a particular position or to be able to take up a particular privilege. Beyond all of that we are saying a context where persons take into cognisance the living context of our day.

If we are talking about how to manage your money right, our students are not yet earners. It doesn’t matter what kind of homes they come from but responsibility also teaches that when you are able to earn and pay for your own SIM cards or mobile phone and also take care of the bills, your own earnings can now take care of whatever it would need to service having a phone. Again we know our students come from different backgrounds and we don’t want to put pressure on some other students who may not be able to afford phone and we are saying that is what has been provided for all of us here to use and we want you to know that by the time you can now afford it, you would use it sensibly.

What is your philosophy in life?

My philosophy in life is ensuring that it is not over and it is never over. It is about pushing and pressing to ensure that you keep making contributions and you keep seeking ways for continuous improvement in a context that allows the best in you to thrive because, in reality, it’s about doing what God has created you to do and ensuring that you deliver right on course along this line and emptying yourself on a daily basis and never put your head on a pillow until you know that you’ve really given your best for that day.

Covenant University misunderstood on pregnant, HIV students, says Prof. Obayan, VC

Covenant University misunderstood on pregnant, HIV students, says Prof. Obayan, VC
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/viewpoints/vp609092007.html
Posted to the Web: Sunday, September 09, 2007

HAVING been conducted round the Covenant University by a corporate affairs staff of the university, many things were observed by this reporter that she could hardly believe in an institution that has only existed for less than five years. The buildings erected for each school were imposing while the hostels appeared more than enough to accommodate all the students.
The electronic library situated at the heart of the campus is a place to behold. Is it the staff quarters one wants to talk about or the great honour accorded the professors with their Professor Village? There is no imported furniture in the institution, as people are employed to produce the plank through the university sawmill.

With all these observations, one was itching to have a chat with the person at the helm of affairs who has taken the university to such a level that can be compared with the best in the world, the vice chancellor, Professor (Mrs) Aize Olohigbe Imouokhome Obayan. She spoke on why the seat is for a woman, the position of the school on pregnant and HIV students, and other issues concerning the university.

WHY is the post for a woman?
Well, I don’t know whether it is about being a woman or not but I believe definitely there are some traits in terms of characteristics either innate or God given that actually put you in a better stead to do the assignment. I believe in the nurturing side of a woman - aesthetics of a woman. When you ask a woman to take charge, what I know is that most women would not want to fail. They try to be the best. I also know that before you ask a woman to take charge, playing a leading role, she must have worked very hard.

It is possible that in addition to being a woman and, by the grace of God, the things she has been able to connect with, in terms of learning, in terms of being in school, in terms of exposure, there is a God given assignment by reason of what God has called one to do and I would want to look more on the path of pre-destination.

In other words, there are clear purpose and clear assignment by reason of birth or by reason of an assignment that God says this is what you are born to fulfil which goes beyond gender and I believe when you are able to align with the purpose of your creation, God opens up opportunities for assignment.

The experience: It is difficult in a few minutes to talk about experience. Maybe I would talk more about exposure, maybe I would talk more about opportunities that God opens up and maybe I would talk more about persons God allows one to meet.

I know from the beginning that I wanted an academic career at the end of my first year in the university because I saw that university lecturers have pride of place. They enjoy what they do, they make contributions, they are persons always at the library and I enjoy books and, at the same time, a university campus appears so beautiful and most universities then were residential. I looked at it that it wouldn’t be bad to be a university lecturer to make contributions from a career base and I know then that I loved working with people.
I also see the subject area that counselling gave me in terms of training, particularly in people’s skills, in human development base, in understanding the context of a mind, feelings and emotion. All these actively combine to help me do my assignment in the office of Vice Chancellor with a lot of relief. You train as a counsellor to understand people even if they don’t say anything.

You connect with their reality and I think in terms of alignment and harmony with one’s environment and with people one works with, I have been able to get into a point of fulfilment. However, I believe in God’s connection which is a definite key to bring all the loose ends together in a holistic way. So when you are situated body, soul and spirit, you will definitely be there.

Is it because you are into guidance and counselling that has helped you in your assignment?
That is part of the reason. Another reason is the enabling environment of the university and the fact that there is a cause we are all driving at, which is to ensure that the dignity of the black man is restored and that the black man can also take his place. That is, when the conditions are right in terms of learning, a good and fine environment that brings out your best, you don’t have a choice than to also give in your best.

I believe persons in the field of computer talk about “garbage in garbage out.” When you throw in garbage, you don’t expect to produce anything less than garbage. So when you provide a good environment, your products that get out can only take after the vessel that has formed them. As a university, if we are able to achieve our vision of raising a new generation of leaders then Covenant University would have made its contributions in terms of fulfilling the mandate.
However, we are not just talking about certification but the students who go through here, the lecturers who train them and the entire context that provides this kind of empowering environment must be driven and directed to ensure that “total” graduate gets out of Covenant University.

Total graduate in the sense that they would be able to inculcate the values to the society and when they are out there in the world of work, you see them able to connect theory and practical and able to identify what solution to be applied even to take the immediate charge of their content and also improve their content by the difference they would make to be members of that content community.

However there are some fundamental guiding rules in terms of their core values. Every Covenant University graduate must know that he/she is a leader to make a difference, a leader who will ensure responsibility at all times, who will be disciplined, who would want to add value to the system; one who would make contributions and not about what he would gain and such a person would not go on to be part of corruption.

All of these are incorporated in the context of spirituality bymaking sure that in all their knowing and in all their doing, they have the wisdom of God so that even if they are asked to chair a board meeting, the course of what has been inculcated in their value base and in terms of qualitative curriculum and in terms of their spiritual connection with God, all of these add together to give you a superior product which can be taken anywhere, tried and tested.
You said the vision is to restore African dignity. In the recent world ranking, Nigerian universities are far behind, what do you think is wrong?

I believe what would have happened is the awareness about the place that ICT has come to take. Right now, in a world that is driven by technology, by computer and awareness of being able to create on a worldwide web, how much do the present universities have? If you look at the context of our nation, a number of things may have made this to happen in terms of debilitating influences. Number one, it takes hours to even be on the web in terms of regular electricity and it also takes having a proper support for ICT and awareness as to how these things should be driven.

It takes a lot to have your own server and then the backbone that will continuously enable you to make sure that consistently things are being put on the web or to have facility that promotes an ICT culture or even have the right personnel to drive it. However, what we have had by this ranking report is sensitisation.

I know that courtesy of the NUC’s effort, webometric committees are being set up in the universities which would ensure that the profile of the universities is present in the web and talking about electronic context, how much of university lecturer academic publications are in such journals? How much of the university information is put on the web? I am glad that as a university we have a webometric committee and we are consistently ensuring that we have a lot of information present in the web. We have just in February this year put the college quota in place.

You can do a lot of on-line registration for courses where parents could click into college site and see the students results, courses they are registering for and students can talk to their lecturers.
To get back to your question, I believe we can look towards the future. Now, what steps are we taking, as a university that wants to restore the dignity of Africa. I remember an interesting quotation I came across, by Thomas Fregman. When he was young, he heard his mother saying, ‘eat your food, India and China are waiting for your dinner’ but right now he finds himself telling his daughter ‘quickly finish your home work because people in India and China are waiting to get your job.’

I believe it is about capacity building mandate and awareness. In other words, information is so powerful and you must get right on the bandwagon of what it would take to be a learning organisation and a knowledge based industry. It is also about being pro-active about what we set out as our goal. Many atimes we react to problems but we are not able to identify and plan and say, in twenty years time, what would the employment content be? We are talking about being able to forecast, we are talking about doing time series analysis. However, we must be able to identify information from research base.

Conducting research

Are we even conducting research that is able to predict what will happen in five years time if certain things are not put in place or what it would take when these things are put in place to ensure that we become architect? One mandate that we receive right in the book of Genesis is to go out to dominate and take charge.

I believe that many Americans in terms of the pride they have, regardless of their identity, they are bound together in the American dream. You can only get there when you have identified that you are a people with a mission, a people with a goal and you are a people driving a cause. In the Covenant University context, beyond saying that we are a university and at the end of your tenure here as a student, it is about a social re-awakening, it is about a renewed consciousness, it’s about taking your place and making sure you matter. It is about when you are no longer here, what legacy would you have left? It is what the Asian have caught and there is economic revolution.

The awareness should be created from the primary school to encourage our pupils to begin to get excited and passionate about taking career in the sciences particularly in the information based computer sciences which is expensive too. That means our laboratory should be fully equipped. We have taken steps in our own little way to ensure that we are an ICT driven university. We have quite a lot of resources to support that like ensuring we access the library through our electronic visuals and being able to get a lot of electronic journals in place.

The issues of pregnancy and HIV tests as part of requirements to graduate: What type of policy is that since you deal with adults here?The test is a requirement for entry and exit to know the health status of the students. There are lots of placements we do in terms of hall of residence allocation. If for example you are asthmatic, it would be unfair to put you on the fourth floor.
One should look at the totality of the health nature. One of the compulsory requirements of the curriculum is to go on jogging and if your health status states that you are not fit, you have to be excluded. It is with the right information that we can do this. Of course about pregnancy, we want to make sure we are not exposing the pregnancy women to some very demanding requirements.

Remember the name of the university is Covenant University and that is to say we have taken a vow to deliver quality and everything that will take to deliver it in terms of understanding the requirement of the human development package. This means that we want to know the person we are dealing with not just as a statistic but what are the needs, how do you prepare the environment to take care of what makes him/her unique and what will it take to support the student? Then, when the students are going out, we also have to have the requirement because we are under covenant that the graduate of Covenant University is able to be a leader and we need to know that whoever we certified, what we say he/she is what he/she is.

Does that mean a person who is pregnant in the university cannot be a leader?

We have had married students here but we are just saying we prefer that they stay focused because the curriculum we drive here is a very rigorous one. School is directed towards a goal of having a right skill so that you can begin to contribute your own quota to the good of the society. As a country and as a people, it is better to get our priority right. The reason you come to school is to finish school in terms of being character worthy and also academic training worthy so that you are fulfilling a role and where that is lacking, that means you are depriving society the privilege of having that input and, as a university, I believe the products we want to give out are royal army. We prefer they are able to stay focused. However, we are providing an environment to ensure that every student that passes through here is connected with their God given potential. That is why in addition to your certificate you must learn skills for wealth creation, learn skill on how to live as a person. Even before you graduate, you must go through a total graduate course which we see as a bridge between university and the world of work. What it will take to understand the requirement of marriage, how to manage your money, getting ready for interview, packaging you just to mention a few.

That means a student can be pregnant if he/she can cope?

May be we should get understanding of what a university should provide. Education is for the common good and the university should be able to open its door to students from all contexts. However, the law of the land talks about not discriminating on the basis of age, religion, gender, etc. In that case we are talking about a university which wants to make its contributions in the area of raising a new generation of leaders. There would be a context that is created in terms of a conducive empowering enabling base to ensure that all of these happen. We are saying that, at Covenant University, this is what it should take to make and shape a leader. Already, right from the students that are attracted to us, they know exactly that if they come here, they are being shaped as leaders. From the interview, and the selection process, by the time they come here, there is a purpose that they want to fulfil. They’ve already caught a vision.

In the first year, we are asking them, what is your vision?

They commit themselves to what it would take to realising that vision and they also work out the timing. It is not about the compulsive way of saying this is what you must be but students who are exposed to a curriculum where they have also read a history of great men and women that have succeeded, with the ‘Total Man Concept’(TMC) where they are taught about planning their lives and having their lives goals, I believe that they are being shaped for leadership. I am not saying those who are pregnant would never be leaders because everybody is a leader in his own right but there is a leadership mandate to go and make a difference to his world and so our students are being raised and they see themselves as soldiers. I also believe that as a result of what has been put into them, it has not made them to consider it.

It is very rare to see pregnant women in the university who want to finish in four years. Maybe when sessions are not able to run regularly and you don’t know when you would start and when you would end it does happen. Of course there are other important life involvement that must also need to be taken on board, you would see persons who want to get married but students are now seen coming to the university early and so marriage and child bearing are being delayed until later because there are other things to do. So as a university we’ve not have to deal with that. However, in terms of responsible living, I don’t believe any parent would want a child that has not got married to get pregnant. Even in our cultural context, it is something that we would not want to promote.

What about the HIV issue that if a student tests positive, he/she is not going to graduate? Where do they run to if the Christian mission church that preaches love rejects them?

Can I let you know that there was not such thing. We don’t know where such thing came from. There is nobody in the university that was prevented from graduating. Of course if there is such case, we are talking about restoring the dignity of the black man, it would be irresponsible to shout it all over the place. It is not just about HIV/AIDS, it’s about a responsible way of managing students information and no organisation that is really worth its salt would do anything to stigmatise and to wrongly expose that which is not supposed to. They are persons to be cared for and being HIV positive does not mean that is the end of the world.

As a university, we have made our own contributions to research proposal and promoting support for research as to how we can be part of finding solution to that. There are some of our staffs who are volunteer counsellors. It is something beyond university context, it is something of national, continental, global concern and I believe that we must all come together to see how to better manage it. We are a Christian mission university, the entire ingredient of Christianity is about love and if we do anything less of that, we would not be living true to our creed.

However, we would all play a responsi-bility of also ensuring that we endear discipline as well but in the context of love.

There has been news all over that Covenant University is a glorified secondary school because of restriction to phone, movement and all that?

Well, you cannot carry your mobile phones because, in this environment, we are trying to create. Can you imagine what it would be like when a lecture is going on and phone from every corner is coming in. In many work contexts, especially in the bank, you are not allowed to use your phone during the working hour. The phone is a tool that should enhance and support whatever else we do. It shouldn’t be something that distracts. We are not saying our students cannot have contact with the outside world, there are telephone café and centres where they can make call. However, in the kind of context that we promote, we call this place a royal academy, there is the packaging that depicts the palace culture. There is the carriage the king and queen have in the Nigerian culture.

There is dignity, there is decorum and because we are raising kings and queens, there are rules of the palace which take a grooming process if you want to be. There are certain privileges you are allowed and there are certain things that you have to do away with for a time and by the time you are announced to your world, you are able to now use these things. It is like having a child and you are now saying because you have not attained the age of 16 or 18, you can’t begin to drive a car because you know that a car in the hand of a person that is not ripe for it is asking for a disaster. There are rights of passage in order to be able to attain a particular position or to be able to take up a particular privilege. Beyond all of that we are saying a context where persons take into cognisance the living context of our day.

If we are talking about how to manage your money right, our students are not yet earners. It doesn’t matter what kind of homes they come from but responsibility also teaches that when you are able to earn and pay for your own SIM cards or mobile phone and also take care of the bills, your own earnings can now take care of whatever it would need to service having a phone. Again we know our students come from different backgrounds and we don’t want to put pressure on some other students who may not be able to afford phone and we are saying that is what has been provided for all of us here to use and we want you to know that by the time you can now afford it, you would use it sensibly.

What is your philosophy in life?

My philosophy in life is ensuring that it is not over and it is never over. It is about pushing and pressing to ensure that you keep making contributions and you keep seeking ways for continuous improvement in a context that allows the best in you to thrive because, in reality, it’s about doing what God has created you to do and ensuring that you deliver right on course along this line and emptying yourself on a daily basis and never put your head on a pillow until you know that you’ve really given your best for that day.