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Gesundheit, Macht und soziale Ungleichheit?! - Der Umgang mit der Corona-Pandemie in den Philippinen
No full textDer Corona-Lockdown in den Philippinen von März bis Ende Mai 2020 gilt als einer der härtesten Lockdowns der Welt. Die staatliche Pandemiebekämpfung agiert nach wie vor rigoros, zu Lasten der philippinischen Bevölkerung. Wachsende soziale Ungleichheit und immer kleiner werdende Handlungsspielräume für die Zivilgesellschaft polarisieren die Corona-Krise in den Philippinen
Indian Urban Policy for Environmental Sustainability: The Role of Behavioural Economics
No full textThe adoption of practices such as washing hands for a minimum of 20 seconds, excessive and frequent sanitisation, maintaining physical distance, etc. has compelled us to change our behaviours and adapt to the crisis, even if reluctantly. Amidst this pandemic, the world continues to face an ongoing environmental crisis. We still have many and much urgent problems to counter which are related to our behaviour towards the environment. This article will review past influences of behavioural economics on policymaking and inquire as regards the ways in which behavioural economics can play a significant role in the future. Our goal is to design effective and efficient, behaviourally ‘guarded’ environmental policies
A European water partnership with South Asia
No full text[...] European institutions have developed important initiatives on water management – for example the ‘water framework directive’ – and in 2016 a water partnership with India was promoted. Some attention has also been paid to some other critical situations of Himalayan-originated water basins, such as the Aral Sea crisis or the Mekong River. Still, there is a prevailing lack of understanding and political relevance given to the issue of water management in South Asia and elsewhere. This surfaced in the European declaration on the recently celebrated water day (22 of March), which oddly opens with considerations on the present pandemics and continuously downgrades the importance of water management, as if water could be thought as a mere chapter of the ‘climate urgency’. Actually, water has ceased to be an issue solely dependent of climate many thousands of years ago and to tone it down as a mere consequence of ‘climate change’ is a disservice to an understanding of the challenges we are confronted with. In the name of a new ‘urgency’, most basic historical facts that have conditioned human relations with water have been forgotten or downplayed. It is therefore necessary to have them in mind when looking at the challenges posed to the World’s most important water basins, those originating in the Himalaya Mountainous system. The two main Himalayan water basins running towards South Asia are the Indus, home to around 300 million people, and the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna rivers basin where an estimated 630 million people live. Although some of the regions covered by these basins are in China, the vast majority of the population residing within these basins belongs to South Asian countries – in fact we can say that over half the population of South Asia lives in these two basins. Only two members of South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the islands of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, have no connection with them. The comparison of Europe and South Asia on water issues enhances the potential for Euro-South-Asian cooperation in water governance as regards the immediate issues at stake in the water-land-food-energy-urbanisation system of connections. Other less direct issues include potential climate impacts of greenhouse gases resulting from water mismanagement. [...
Only an Afghan-led peace process can bring peace to Afghanistan
No full textBy analysing the US-Taliban deal and the United States-Afghan joint declaration, this SADF Focus sheds light on the current and upcoming role of the Afghan government in the intra-Afghan dialogue. It is argued that the Afghan authorities need to lead the intra-Afghan dialogue and the overall peace process. If any deal is achieved that excludes them, they will lose their remaining legitimacy, resulting in a further enhancement of the urban-rural divide. This would also give regional power sharing arrangements with local stakeholders and militant groups further momentum. Moreover, the process of institution building and public services delivery by non-governmental agents, especially the Taliban in areas under their direct control, will continue. Considering the current political crisis in Kabul, the authors highlight the need for the US to maintain an oversight role in the country, particularly a ‘hands-on approach’ in the negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities
Resurgent Rebellion in Balochistan
No full textDuring the last few months, the security situation in Balochistan witnessed an increase in militancy. It seems that the escalating violence in the region is linked with the growing Chinese presence and intensified activities by the Pakistani armed forces and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). This SADF Comment subscribes to the following rationale: Locals feel exploited and deprived from the benefits obtained from the use of their provincial resources, as well as politically marginalized by the Pakistani state. The rising numbers of Chinese development projects, companies, workers and security personnel in Balochistan are perceived as threatening to the social and economic conditions of the Baloch people seem to be directly provoking further armed responses. The situation becomes more complicated due to the persistent suppression of the freedom of expression (along with other political and human rights) and the lack of a fair, adequate representation of the Baloch people and their interests on the national level – which prevents them from translating their concerns into the country’s political processes. Chinese development projects in the framework of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are increasingly identified by the Baloch people as tools of exploitation (Wolf, 2019) of their natural resources (Coal, Oil, Copper, Gold etc.) – but also as measures supporting the central government’s grip over the province. Chinese assets are becoming the main targets of Baloch guerrillas, through actions understood as retaliation measures. […
The Curious Case of Media ‘freedom’ in Pakistan
No full textPakistan yet again featured on global headlines when on Tuesday, May 21 2020, a journalist, relatively critical of the country’s military and security agencies, was kidnapped in broad daylight by men in police uniforms. Matiullah Jan, who works in Islamabad, was picked up at around 11 a.m. by 10 men after he arrived at a school to drop off his wife for work. The kidnapping became the headline on the country’s social media – with journalist associations, civil society and opposition politicians demanding Jan’s release. Twelve hours after his kidnapping, and after consistent pressure exerted by civil society on social media, Jan posted on his Twitter account that he was back at home safe: I am back home safe & sound. God has been kind to me & my family. I am grateful to friends, national & int. journalist community, political parties, social media & rights activists, lawyers’ bodies, the judiciary for their quick response which made it possible, Jan tweeted. While narrating the ordeal of his kidnapping on his YouTube channel, Jan explained how men in Police uniforms picked him up from outside his wife’s school. He further explained that soon after he was picked up, he was kept in a cell in an unknown location with his face and eyes covered. He believed that his kidnappers were the same people ‘who have always remained against democracy and the country’s constitution’. […
Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Peace Agreement or a Mere Withdrawal Deal?
No full textThe United States and the Taliban have recently signed a peace agreement aimed at bringing the nineteen-year-long war in Afghanistan to an end. Negotiations between the two parties were broadly based on the exchange of a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan against an assurance from the Taliban on preventing the use of Afghan soil for any future attacks against the United States and its allies (US Department of State, 2020). However, the peace agreement left most issues concerning the future of the Afghan polity and society unresolved - to be taken up later by an intra-Afghan negotiation process between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The crucial issue concerns whether the ‘Agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan’ signed between the US and the Taliban will help bring about the intended peace and stability in Afghanistan - or whether it will merely act as a withdrawal agreement allowing the United States to pull out troops from a long-stretched battle in a war-torn country. […
Das vorläufige Ende der Demokratisierung in Malaysia?
No full textIn Malaysia ist die vorsichtige Demokratisierung, die seit Mai 2018 langsam in Gang gekommen war, zum Erliegen gekommen. Auch aufgrund einer rätselhaften Entscheidung des Königs gelang es den „Kleptokraten“, die alte Regierung zu stürzen. Und das, obwohl bis heute unklar ist, ob eine Mehrheit im Parlament den Machtwechsel unterstützt
New or Renewed Town: Sustainable Urbanisation in Kolkata
No full textThis report assesses the sustainability of urbanisation in Kolkata, by identifying possible investment projects of suitable nature that could be of interest to both public and private local, national and international stakeholders. The comparative analysis of Kolkata and India, South Asia and the World, highlights the eminent and existing lack of sustainable infrastructure and the resulting reduced productivity. It is argued that the strategy to create a sustainable city, is to invest in the modernisation of infrastructures and services paid with effective tax collection on plots and houses. Thus, both compliable land use plans and efficient transport networks are due, to avoid urban sprawling, protect agricultural and ecological lands, and connect the city with the outside world, reinforcing its global centrality. The argument of this paper, being that it is of more use to promote connectivity and have a Renewed Sustainable Town close to the urban centre rather than a New but Unsustainable Town
Gone to the dogs in ancient India
No full textDogs are no cynosure in Indian life, as are cows, but according to the Jātaka belong to the world of men and play a more differentiated role than other animals, as is shown below by the many words for 'dog' in literature (see under 2.1 and 3), the quantity of references and stories collected here, and last but not least: the great epic begins and ends with a dog story. To quote Satya Prakash Sarasvati, "dog is neither regarded a domestic animal nor a wild creature" (1988: 304); he gives no source for this, but dogs are not one of the seven kinds of domestic animals mentioned by Baudhāyana in Caland's note on PancavBr 2,7,5,8 and wild dogs or dholes are a species of their own, whereas a dhobi's dog belongs neither to the house nor to the riverside. At any rate, for the ancient Indians, as against, e.g., for the Spanish in the early 20th century, it was not necessary to describe what a dog was. The following lines intend to sketch their relation to humans and their fellow quadrupeds and birds from the ancient sources, as was done exhaustively for Greek and Latin literature long ago