Monsoon Journal

India’s newly-elected parliament has elected its fi rst woman speaker - Meira Kumar. She is also a member of the country’s low-caste Dalit community. Her name was put forward by the Congress Party, which won a sweeping victory in the recent general elections. Amid applause from lawmakers across ruling and opposition benches, 64-year-old Meira Kumar was elected, unopposed, by a voice vote as speaker of the lower house of Parliament, Wednesday. A smiling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as an “historic occasion.” “For the fi rst time, a woman member of this august house has been elected as speaker, and that, too, a woman belonging to the Dalit community. In electing you to this august offi ce, we members of Parliament pay tribute to the womanhood of our country,” he said. Not new to Parliament Meira Kumar is a fi ve-term member of Parliament. She was sworn in as a Cabinet minister last week, but resigned after the Congress Party offered her the speaker’s post. She is the daughter of a former deputy prime minister, Jagjivan Ram, who was a prominent leader of the low castes. Political analysts say the choice of Meira Kumar as speaker will enable the Congress party achieve twin objectives as it seeks to build on its decisive victory in the recent general elections. Image boost It will boost the Congress party’s image as being a pro-women party. During its last term in offi ce, the Congress Party was instrumental in helping Pratibha Patil become the country’s fi rst woman president. Even more signifi cantly, the party hopes to strengthen its base in the lowcaste Dalit community, which in recent decades has switched its loyalty to a host of regional parties headed by low-caste leaders. The Dalits belong to the lowest rung of Hindu religion’s complex caste system and have faced discrimination for centuries. Congress wants to be seen as a party committed to improving their social and economic status. A smiling Meira Kumar said she is overwhelmed and has promised to do her best in her new job. “It would be my endeavor to run the house as well as I can and give a very fair chance to all sections of the house,” she said. Not easy The task may not be easy in a house where noisy disruptions are common and lawmakers frequently stall proceedings by shouting slogans and storming the podium. The prime minister has already ap- India’s Parliament Chooses First Woman Speaker pealed to lawmakers to observe a “new beginning” and allow parliament to function smoothly. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee backs the plea. “Perhaps I would like to have the indulgence of the house that … we would like to create a new precedent not of obstruction, but debate and discussions,” said Mukherjee. But not many people are sure that will happen in India’s raucous and noisy democracy.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned as “senseless acts of violence” a series of race attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. The Indian high commissioner is demanding greater protection for Indians studying in Australia, as state authorities in the southern state of Victoria draw up new laws to crack down on hate crimes. A series of assaults on Indian students in Australia prompted about 3,000 people to take part in a recent rally in Melbourne to demand greater protection from the authorities, who are accused of doing too little to stem the violence. There were ugly clashes between protesters and police. More than a dozen people were arrested. Indian High Commissioner to Australia Sujatha Singh says many young expatriates are furious that their concerns have not been properly addressed. “Our Indian communities overseas are law abiding. They go by the rules and, if they’re being provoked into this [protests], it is because they have very real concerns,” said Singh. In the past year, about 70 attacks on young Indians in Melbourne have been reported and there are claims by community groups that the vast majority have been racially motivated. The latest victim of the violence - a 25- year-old Indian student - is in a critical condition after being stabbed with a screwdriver by intruders at a birthday party. His friend, Srinivas Vedantam, insists the attack was carried out by racist thugs. “When they entered the party and they started abusing - using the racial abuses, like ‘You black Indians,’ like that stuff. So it ended up with a racial attack,” said Vedantam. However, senior police offi cers doubt that the violence directed toward the Indian community in Australia is exclusively motivated by racial prejudice. Victoria Police Chief Simon Overland insists that students, in general, have become “easy targets” for opportunistic criminals. “It’s partly violence against Indian students,” he said. “It’s escalating robberies and we have used the term ‘soft-target robberies.’ Now, the Indian students have taken that as referring directly to them; it’s not. What we have seen is that robberies are now happening more directed against people in the street, directed against people who are wandering around with laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods, cash. And, if they’re alone, they’re vulnerable.” The attacks have caused diplomatic friction between Canberra and New Delhi. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has publicly reassured the Indian government that Australia is not a racist country and says he was appalled by the assaults. “These are senseless acts of violence. Those who carry out these attacks stand condemned,” he said. In response, the Rudd government has set up a special task force to deal with the violence. The new unit will be lead by a former chief of Australia’s Special Forces, Duncan Lewis, who is one of the government’s most-senior national security advisers. Offi cials in Victoria also want those convicted of racially-motivated offenses to be given more severe punishments. Victoria Attorney General Rob Hulls says judges should take bigotry into account when passing sentence. “We want to send a message that any crime that’s committed purely based on hatred or prejudice against a group of people is not to be tolerated, but it ought be something that is taken into account in the sentencing principles in this state,” he said. But some Indian students, like Jayasanker Bagiepalli, are too fearful to remain in Australia and are heading home. “See what happens here? We are being attacked. Not once, twice. Many people, many Indians are being attacked. That’s what happens here. So if this country, you know, people from India really stops coming here. My parents doesn’t (sic) want me to stay here,” said Bagiepalli, About 90,000 Indian students are living in Australia. They generate millions of dollars for the national economy, each year. The Australian wave of violence has made headline news across India. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan has rejected an honorary doctorate from a university in Queensland to protest the assaults on Indian students in Australia. [voa news]

By Phil Mercer Some economists warn that New Zealand will suffer if it cuts immigration because of the recession. As unemployment rises, there is growing pressure on the government to reduce its intake of skilled workers, imitating decisions made across the Tasman Sea in Australia. Unemployment in New Zealand is at a six-year high and stands at fi ve percent. The economy slipped into recession last year, well before many other developed countries, and the chances of a speedy recovery appear slim. The International Monetary Fund expects the New Zealand economy to shrink by two percent this year. Unions: scale back immigration program Trade unions argue that in such dismal economic times the government in Wellington should reduce the level of skilled migration to protect local workers, especially in hard-hit industries such as construction. Union offi cials think New Zealand should follow Australia’s example and scale back its immigration program. Canberra cut migration levels by almost 15 percent because of the global economic slump. Some economists, however, think this is a short-sighted view. British economist Philippe Legrain says New Zealand needs to prepare now for economic recovery by keeping immigration strong. He says that new migrants are a lifeline to the world economy and a “launch pad” for recovery. “Different people, with different experience, different ideas, different perspectives sparking off each other can create new solutions to problems, can help to innovate and it is precisely in a recession that businesses need to innovate in order to be prepared for the recovery,” he said. Some migrants complain they are being overlooked Some well qualifi ed migrants complain that they are being overlooked when applying for suitable positions in New Zealand. Enoch, who arrived from Rwanda in 2002 armed with two university degrees and the ability to speak four languages, says it took him two years to fi nd work. He thinks companies in New Zealand are too ready to dismiss overseas qualifi cations and experience. “When you have work experience that can be transferred to businesses here is what matters and sometime some employers do not look closely to the CVs to fi nd what is really your experience and what you can do for their businesses,” he said. PM resists calls to scale back immigration So far, New Zealand’s conservative Prime Minister John Key seems likely to resists calls to scale back immigration. Mr. Key says that skilled foreign workers will help the country of just over four million people to eventually recover from its recession. The largest groups of migrants settling in New Zealand come from Britain, China and Australia, followed by Samoa and India. [voa news]

By Carol Pearson Millions of people use glasses to correct their vision. Others turn to a surgical procedure called LASIK that permanently changes the shape of the cornea, the clear part of the eye over the iris. But now there is another choice for people who are nearsighted. Tommy Hardeman cannot believe how well he can see. “Everything is so clear,” he said. “I’m still not fully used to not wearing glasses or contacts.” He is a 20-year-old college student who says that he did not get perfect vision with LASIK. Hardeman had contact lenses surgically implanted in his eyes. This procedure is most often used for patients who cannot have laser surgery and whose low vision cannot be corrected any other way. Dr. Jeffery Whitman is enthusiastic about the results. “Patients are really thinking this is better than sliced bread (a vast improvement),” Dr. Whitman said. Implanting the lenses involves minor surgery. The doctor makes one small, self-healing cut in the eye and inserts a plastic lens in front of the patent’s natural lens. Patients are awake, and the procedure takes about 10 minutes per eye. The surgery is similar to cataract surgery, except the patient’s own lens is left in place. And unlike LASIK, this technology does not permanently change the shape of the cornea. “We have a lens that we can remove if we want to do something, (if) a new technology comes out and we want to do something down the line,” Dr. Whitman said. “And we haven’t interfered with the structure of the eye at all.” “It left me more options than LASIK did,” Hardeman said. “For later on in life, if my eyesight had to change a little bit, I (am) still able to fi x that.” The American Academy of Ophthalmology says as eye doctors become more comfortable with this procedure, it will become more common. In some countries the procedure has been done for more than 20 years. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the lenses for use in the U.S. four years ago. New lenses are being developed that are expected to be better than those already available. [VOA News]

Low-cost facilities, world-class expertise and almost no waiting list in Orthopaedic surgeries have made India the hub of medical tourism with more foreigners, needing joint replacements or affected with bone injuries, fl ocking to the country for treatment. The market for orthopaedic implants has grown by fi ve to six times in the last decade and a large portion of this growth has been driven by medical tourists from developed countries, as also from Africa and Middle East, experts say. The cost factor, which is almost one twentieth of what it is in the western countries, is the primary motivator for foreigners, who want to avail “world-class” facilities at affordable prices, they say. “There has been an evident change in the sector in the past few years with orthopedic implant surgeries becoming acceptable with greater number of Indians and the infl ow of foreigners also going up considerably,” said O N Nagi, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Ganga Ram hospital, Delhi. Besides providing cost-effective treatments, Indian medical centres also cut down the painful procedure of waiting for their turn in countries where the sector is congested, said Dr. Nagi, who conducts 500 surgeries annually, 30-50 among them being for foreign patients. “The last decade has seen the number of surgeries done, including those of foreign patients, go up by 5-6 per cent,” he told PTI. A knee surgery which costs $40,000 in America, can be availed at $8,000 in India, thus benefi ting those opting for it even after adding up the travel costs. Hip replacement surgery in India costs Rs 45,000 for a cement-less implant and Rs 75,000 for a cemented implant and the expenses are one-twentieth of what stands in the US or the UK. Orthopaedic implants which include knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, among other surgeries are recommended to patients who have suffered damage to joints, sometimes by injuries but mostly by thinning away of cartilage, wasting of muscles, bone overgrowth and deformities. “As the number of people undergoing orthopedic implant surgeries has steadily gone up by 5-6 times in the last decade, knee and hip replacements are the most sought after surgeries,” said C S Yadav, orthopedic surgeon and professor in the Department of Orthopedics at AIIMS. The surgeries are sought after because they considerably improve the quality of lives of people undergoing them, and unlike people suffering from heart ailments, patients from western countries can travel long distances to avail low-cost facilities in developing countries, Dr. Yadav says. While the medical aspects of the sector have been showing positive trends, the area of concern is the quality of implants produced in India, doctors say. “There is no innovation in the Indian market. Indian companies have no copyrights and most of the implants or their designs are imported or copied,” said Yash Gulai, orthopedic surgeon, at Apollo hospital. According to estimates, the global demand for orthopaedic implants is likely to reach $23 billion by 2012. As per a research by US-based consultancy fi rm Deloitte, India was the world’s second largest destination for medical tourists after Thailand, treating an estimated 4.5 foreign patients in 2007. [PTI]

By Carol Pearson Depression is a common mental disorder characterized by sadness and lack of energy. It is a leading cause of disability worldwide. In severe cases, it leads to 850,000 suicides around the world each year. “[It] can affect their school, their relationships with friends, increased risk for suicide and increased problems with drugs and alcohol,” explained Judy Garber, a doctor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. She presented the results of a study on teenagers and depression at a conference in New York. She studied teens because adults who suffer from depression say it often begins in adolescence. “I’d like to eliminate the stigma that’s associated with it because it is common, and it is treatable, and we think, preventable,” she added. Garber led a study on more than 300 teens who already had one episode of depression. Half the teens were in a control group. The other half had regular group therapy that examined depression and taught coping skills, ways of solving the problems that caused their depression. “We focused on looking at how they were thinking about things, particularly how they deal with stress, particularly when a stressor occurs,” she explained. “Do they they blame themselves, do they think that things are going to be terrible forever? Do they think that it’s all their fault? We get them to look realistically at what are the consequences of the events, consequences of their own actions, and then, what they can do about it.” When the study ended, those in the prevention program had an 11 percent lower incidence of depression compared to the control group. Garber points out that preventing depression has broad social implications. Depressed teens sometimes act out and commit crimes. Preventing depression saves precious community resources. Another thing the researchers learned: if a parent is depressed, teenagers were much more likely to feel depressed. A parent’s depression was such a strong factor that she says it prevented the program from helping these teens. The researchers says their fi ndings have the potential to improve the lives of many teenagers and reduce lost productivity when they enter the workforce. [VOA news]

The World Health Organization said the number of countries with confi rmed cases of the swine infl uenza A-H1N1 has risen to 66. In its latest fi gures released on June 3, the WHO said there are more than 19,000 confi rmed cases of swine fl u worldwide and that the virus is responsible for 117 deaths. In addition to that count, authorities in Saudi Arabia Wednesday confi rmed the country’s fi rst case of the virus. Saudi Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah told news media a nurse arrived in the country Friday aboard a fl ight from the Philippines. He said she began showing symptoms of the virus and later tested positive for the virus. In the Philippines, health offi cials said De La Salle University in Manila has suspended classes for 10 days starting Wednesday after a foreign student tested positive for swine fl u. The WHO has said it is closer to declaring a pandemic as the infection appears to be taking hold outside North America. The WHO had said previously it needs to see clear evidence of sustained community transmission of the virus from person to person in at least two regions of the world before it raises its alert to the Phase 6 pandemic stage. The alert level is currently at Phase 5. Most of the swine fl u cases have been reported in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Mexico has the most swine fl u deaths, with about 100. [VOA News]