Mizoram SSA Teachers Unpaid For Past 3 Months

Aizawl, Sep 26 : Teachers working under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), both in the Primary Schools and Upper Primary Schools in Mizoram, are yet to receive their salaries since June last, officials in the SSA State Mission said on Wednesday.

The officials said that there are 550 teachers in the Primary Schools and 1,643 in the Upper Primary Schools, who could not get their salaries for three months.
     
The Mizoram government's inability to release the state matching contribution of 10 percent was the reason for the SSA state mission's failure to disburse the salaries, the officials said.
     
Fund for training of teachers and development of a number of schools are also withheld due to the fund crunch, they added.

BJP Eyes Pre-Poll Alliance in Mizoram

Aizawl, Sep 26 : Keeping its eye on the Mizoram assembly elections this November, BJP has decided to try its best to forge a pre-poll alliance with all non-Congress parties in the state so that they can edge out the Lalthanhawla government from the 40-member house.

At a recent meeting of the BJP Mizoram state unit high command, held in Aizawl under the supervision of the visiting national general secretary (organization) Ramlal, an election alliance committee was formed to initiate discussions with all non-Congress parties.

The committee includes BJP state in-charge & national executive member Nalin S Kohli, the party's Mizoram president Lalhluna and former state president Khawvelthanga.

A press statement issued by the state unit said the committee will hold negotiations with Mizo National Front (MNF), Mizoram People's Conference ( MPC), Zoram National Party (ZNP) and others.

The Congress government in Mizoram, the statement said, has failed to keep the promises it had made and the people of the state are suffering because of total misgovernance, lack of development, inflation and rampant corruption.

"Teachers and other government employees in Mizoram are not receiving their salaries on time," the statement said.

Forging a strong non-Congress alliance will give the people of the state an option and they will be able to vote for change as is evident from the distinct anti-Congress mood in the country, it added.

"In this atmosphere of despondency and economic turmoil, the announcement of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the NDA's prime ministerial candidate is being received with great enthusiasm, hope and excitement all over the country," the statement said.

It also pointed out that as a result of its failure at governance and sullied image during UPA-II, the Congress party is unable to present either Manmohan Singh or any other alternate prime ministerial candidate before the people.

However, regional parties in the state are not very keen to join hands with BJP which is known for its Hindutva agenda, a senior leader of MNF said. He added that it would be a political suicide to team up with the BJP which has become an untouchable party in this Christian-dominated northeastern state.

That's The Spirit: Why Indians Prefer Strong Beer, Liquor

Credit Danish Siddiqui / Reuters /Landov

A bartender pours Haywards 5000 strong beer into a glass at a restaurant in Mumbai. Strong beer, with alcohol content of 5 to 8 percent, accounted for 83 percent of all beer sold in India last year, according to research firm Mintel.

Sometimes we at Parallels see a story that's so compelling, we make an extra effort to chase down the facts. So it's in that spirit, this story from Reuters caught our attention:

"Strong beer, with alcohol content of 5-8 percent, accounted for 83 percent of all beer sold in India last year, according to research firm Mintel, a figure industry players say is the biggest strong beer share of any major market. Brewers expect that to grow to 90 percent over the next three to five years."

Alcohol consumption isn't high in India, mainly for religious and cultural reasons. Only a third of the country's 1.1 billion people drink regularly. And when people do drink, Samar Singh Shekhawat, senior vice president of marketing at United Breweries, told Reuters, it's to get buzzed.

That explains why strong beer outsells its low-alcohol counterpart; it also helps explain why spirits — like whiskey — are still the drink of choice in India, as this chart shows.

Of course, India isn't the only country where the consumption of spirits outpaces that of beer.
Russian vodka, French wine and rum in Caribbean nations outstrip the consumption of beer in those places.

Alcohol consumption in India remains low — but it's growing fast. That makes it an attractive destination for Western brewers and distillers.

Diageo, which makes Johnnie Walker, has a $2 billion stake in United Breweries, the world's largest liquor company by volume. As The Wall Street Journal noted in November 2012:

"Sales of such local whiskeys — which are dominated by United Spirits — doubled India's whiskey consumption to 1.2 billion liters between 2005 and 2010, making India the world's largest whiskey market by volume. Meanwhile, the market for imported liquors such as Diageo's Johnnie Walker has remained tiny because of India's high alcohol import taxes."

India's locally made whiskies dominate global whiskey sales, though few people have heard of them outside the country. For example, United Spirits' McDowell's No. 1 lives up to its name; it's the world's top-selling whiskey.

But India isn't the only country where local drinks dominate the market — and the world.

As NPR's Tom Dreisbach reported on weekends on All Things Considered, the the best-selling spirit in the world is one you probably haven't heard of: It's South Korea's Jinro soju, a rice-based drink that's about 20 percent alcohol.

The Weirdest Sex Manuals Throughout History

Want 2400-year-old Viagra? Try bee stings. 

By Johannah King-Slutzky

Everyone knows that the sexual revolution invented sex, right? Oh, people have been doing this for millennia? With Masters of Sex premiering Sunday, it's clear sex how-to is more than a one-off source of fixation. But what did sex manuals look like before contemporary iterations like The Lovers' Guide or Savage Love? Nerve scavenged Google Books to find out just how variable (and seemingly ahead-of-its-time) sex advice can be. Some of it's beautiful, some of it's weird, some of it's eerily prescient: Here's our favorite historical sex advice. (Illustrations might be NSFW.)

1. The School of Venus, 1680

This premodern sex manual is surprisingly frank about sexuality, covering seemingly anachronistic ground like condoms, female orgasms, and fuck buddies. Samuel Pepys, noted diarist, called it "the most bawdy, lewd book that ever I saw" -- and then bought it. Excerpts and illustrations below. (h/t The Appendix)

2. An ABZ of Love, 1963

A favorite of Kurt Vonnegut's, this tender sex manual authored by Danish couple Inge and Sten Hegeler promises: "aspects of sexual relationships seen from a slightly different standpoint.” In the Hegelers' case, that meant a progressive approach to LGBT rights, sexism, and family-oriented sex ed, often penned in a sweet, wry tone.

"We are none of us so full of common sense as we would like to think ourselves. So there are two paths we can take: one is try to deny and suppress our emotions and force ourselves to think sensibly. In this way we run the risk of fooling ourselves. The other way is to admit to our emotions, accept our feelings and let them come out into the daylight. By being suspicious of all the judgments we pass on the basis of what we feel (and not until then) we shall taken a step towards becoming practitioners of common sense."

 

h/t Brainpickings.

 

3. Private Sex Advice To Women, 1917

Penned by R.B. Armitage, M.D., this guide for "For Young Wives and Those Who Soon Expect To Be Married" is morally a mixed bag. On the one hand, Armitage spends several chapters talking about the major hip new technology of his time, eugenics. Not so great. But there's also advice that sounds surprisingly contemporary, namely, on the ethics of birth control and abortion. It's still just another old white guy talking to women about their bodies; but it's pretty cool that he grasped the importance of planned parenthood and the weight of such a personal choice before there was a Planned Parenthood or Pro Choice. The more things change...

"One of the most distressing features of the popular prejudice against Birth Control, arising from a total misconception of the subject, has been the widely spread and popularly accepted notion that Birth Control is practically analogous to abortion[...]. We realize that in exercising control over the entrance gate of life we are not fully performing, consciously and deliberately, a great human duty, but carrying on rationally a beneficial process which has, more blindly and wastefully, been carried on since the beginning of the world. There are still a few persons ignorant enough or foolish enough to fight against the advance of civilization in this matter; we can well afford to leave them severely alone, knowing that in a few years all of them will have passed away. It is not our business to defend the control of birth, but simply discuss how we may most wisely exercise that control." (Via.)

4. Kama Sutra, 400 BCE-200 CE

Everybody knows the Kama Sutra is kinky. But what you probably didn't know is that its fascinations don't stop at the art of human pretzels. In Sanskrit Kama means sensual pleasure (one of the four goals of Hindu life) and Sutra, the root-word for English's "sew," means thread. All told, the Kama Sutra is a vast compendium of prose, poetry, and (eventually) illustration which served as both a practical guide to sex and a long treatise on love, family, and well-being. But while beautiful, to modern eyes it can get downright weird. For example, want 2400 year old Viagra? Try bee stings.

"When a man wishes to enlarge his lingam, he should rub it with the bristles of certain insects that live in trees, and then, after rubbing it for ten nights with oils, he should again rub it with the bristles as before. By continuing to do this a swelling will be gradually produced in the lingam, and he should then lie on a cot, and cause his lingam to hang down through a hole in the cot. After this he should take away all the pain from the swelling by using cool concoctions. The swelling, which is called 'Suka', and is often brought about among the people of the Dravida country, lasts for life.” (Via)

5. The Canons of Theodore, ca. 900

Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic church was a rapidly changing institution over the course of the 500 some odd years that make up what we now call "the Medieval Era." Penitentials are one such artifact of that transitioning. First compiled by Irish monks in the 6th century, penitentials are little handbooks that detail the sins a monk might be likely to hear in confession.Though they might cover anything from murder to eating habits, sex was the main course for these monastic manuals. The Canons of Theodore, whose manuscript is featured below, is one example. The proscribed punishments in these things aren't that weird -- just seemingly arbitrary. But the many yays and nays of monastically approved sex in the 10th century are totally wacky. (See: flowchart.) 

(Via.)

 

6. The Pillow Book, 1002

No that's not a zipcode-- it's the year Lady Sei Shonagon completed her surprisingly fresh collection of musings on life, love, and the art of negging. The Pillow Book belongs to a genre of writing called zuihitsu, which -- and I'm sure I'm mincing culture horribly here -- was more or less collected bedside Post-it notes. Very bloggerly. The Pillow Book feels particularly anachronistic because it was written by a woman, so instead of getting some kind of 11th century Act Like A Lady pulp, you end up with chapters called "Men Have Really Strange Emotions." No joke. Want some commentary on celebrities schtupping the maid? The Pillow Book's got you covered: "Sometimes a man will leave a very pretty woman to marry an ugly one." Or how about what it's like to order from ModCloth? "It is a great pleasure when the ornamental comb that one has ordered turns out to be pretty."

Image via Tumblr.

"I greatly enjoy taking in someone who is pleased with himself and who has a self-confident look, especially if he is a man. It is amusing to observe him as he alertly waits for my next repartee; but it is also interesting if he tried to put me off my guard by adopting an air of calm indifference as if there were not a thought in his head. I realize that it is very sinful of me, but I cannot help being pleased when someone I dislike has a bad experience."

Sangliana: Not Enough Being Done To Develop Northeast States

Bangalore, Sep 25 : Former Member of Parliament, H T Sangliana, on Tuesday lashed out at the Ministry for Development of North-East Regions (DoNER) for not making enough efforts to develop the ‘seven sisters’.

Speaking at the two-day conclave on North-East States, conducted by DoNER, MP Sangliana said that although the states have to immediately see development, the ministry is not focussed on the idea.

“The north-eastern states have a lot of potential and are a good market for investments in education and healthcare. But even after receiving funds, enough work is not being done,” Sangliana said. He further said that the NE states need better roads, but do not have the raw material required to build them.

M Rafeeque Ahmed, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), said the conclave was being organised to give exposure to the economic, social and cultural strengths and potential of north- eastern states and find ways to strengthen the economy.

“A huge constraint to accelerated growth in this region is poor infrastructure which affects road, rail and air connectivity, cyber and telecom connectivity and power. Economic development can take place by encouraging private investment in productive sectors,” he said.

Rafeeque Ahmed stressed on the need for bold policies to be initiated by the Central and State governments.

These include declaring certain areas of the north-east as free trade areas and a strategy for creating a growth quadrangle with the north-east, Myanmar, south-west China, northern Thailand and Bangladesh.

Arvind Madhav Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of DoNER, was also present at the conclave.

Pillar Erected in Mizoram To Mark New Border Trade Agreement

Aizawl, Sep 25 : A pillar was recently erected by Lalrinliana Sai, the minister of trade and commerce for Mizoram state in India to mark the Indo-Myanmar border trade agreement in Saikhumphai village where many Chin people reside.

The Minister invited village leaders from both Saikhumphai and Vaphai village councils as a peace building measure. Conflicts between the two villages have been ongoing for many years. Recently many Chin families from Myanmar that were living in Saikhumphai had their houses burned by Vaphai residents. Some were also deported.

During the placing of the trade monument the minister told the attendees that they are all brothers and sisters that they are all “derived from one tribe”.

“We have to forget all the chaos in the past and we have to be proud of having a border trade centre for the benefit of India and Myanmar,” he said.

The Sakhumphai village Chairman Pu T. Lalchawivela also expressed his gratitude.

“We are very thankful to the government and are welcoming the border trade center in this place.”

Vaphai village Council President Pu Saithansiama gave his thanks for Lalrinliana Sai initiatives towards unifying the two villages. 

A new border trade road will cross from Mizoram, India to Hakha town in Chin state, Myanmar.


Source: Khonumthung News

A Conversation With: Environmental Activist Akhil Gogoi

By BRIAN ORLAND

Akhil Gogoi, general secretary of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, an organization for farmers, at his office in Guwahati, Assam.

Akhil Gogoi, an environmental activist, has been campaigning against the construction of the big dams and highways in the mountainous northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China. Mr. Gogoi believes that natural disasters like the floods that hit the northern state of Uttarakhand and killed several thousand could also happen in Arunachal Pradesh if dam and road constructions go unchecked.

He first gained national recognition in India for his use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to fight corruption. Mr. Gogoi, whose parents were sharecroppers, has also worked as an activist for peasant land rights. In 2005, he formed the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), an organization of farmers in the northeastern state of Assam with more than a million members.

India Ink spoke to Mr. Gogoi at the KMSS office in Guwahati, the capital of Assam.

Q.

Why are you protesting against the construction of large dams in northeastern India?

A.

The rivers have flowed down from the hills from the ancient times to give us life and livelihood. Our farmers are hugely dependent on the river. Dams will destroy this critical relationship between the river and the people. The ecology of Assam is part of the ecology of Arunachal Pradesh. Assam bears the cost of developmental projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
One big dam is enough for all the people in the Northeast. But the dams in Arunachal Pradesh are not being built to supply power for local people. They are being constructed to supply power to corporations. This is corporatization of water. Water should be a community resource.
Before constructing a big dam, we should have a very proper, genuine scientific study on the river and the ecosystem. No such study was conducted.

Q.

Your anti-dam campaign has largely focused on the 2,000 megawatt Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project on the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which is now roughly 50 percent complete. In 2011, you led a protest movement to block the turbines from reaching the construction site. How did you do that?

A.

KMSS, along with other organizations, succeeded in mobilizing the farmers and middle classes on the dam question. Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in the process. We chopped down huge trees on the road. We dug a trench. We blocked roads with electricity poles. All the roads were blocked. The government accused us of being Maoists, Naxalites, and carrying on an armed struggle. But we are not. Ours is a ferocious resistance and we have put all our energy against this dam.

Q.

Recently, there has been an increasing presence of Maoists in upper Assam, especially in the tea garden communities. Your leftist ideology and reverence for Maoist revolutionary ideas is very similar to theirs. How is your struggle different?

A.

Our politics is mass people politics and their politics is based on weapons and violence. We have no weapons. We do not do extortion. We collect money through voluntary donations.

Q.

How do you use Right to Information requests to fight corruption and why is this method so important to your movement?

A.

First we get all the information we need for using the RTI and then we start to fight.
The base of our popularity comes from the use of the RTI Act as an instrument of social mobilization and our anti-corruption movement. The anti-corruption movement made KMSS possible. This is why the middle class has accepted us.

Q.

Last year, KMSS opened “fair price” vegetable stalls in Guwahati, the capital of Assam. What does this achieve?

A.

We tried to address two questions. The price of vegetables is high for customers, but the farmers get very little for it. A farmer gets only get 1.5 rupees per kilogram for tomatoes but the customer has to buy it for 30 to 40 rupees. The profit goes to the brokers, not to the producers. We wanted to establish a market that directly connects producers and customers.
We understand that this is a temporary experiment. But it shows that price control as well as profits to the producers can be provided by sincere state effort.

Q.

You recently announced plans to start a political party in 2015. Will you be contesting elections?

A.

We are going to form a party, but not fight for parliamentary elections. The issue has been continuously debated within the organization. The party is for social and democratic reform and revolution. Till now, KMSS is a mass organization, and no mass organization can bring about serious change. Only a strong political party can achieve this.

Q.

The movement you led in 2002 against the forest department’s eviction drive launched you as an activist beyond student politics. What happened?

A.

There was a massive eviction drive by the Forest Department throughout Assam. I was one of the five students from Guwahati University, who went to Tengani area in Nambar Reserve Forest in Golaghat district. We found many houses burned and others demolished by the Forest Department’s elephants. We held a meeting and formed an organization to resist the eviction drive and my real movement was started.
On Aug. 7, 2002, we led a protest from Tengani to the district headquarters in Golaghat 40 kilometers away. We went on foot, 10,000 to 15,000 people, starting at 4 a.m. In Golaghat town we fought against the police. After quarreling for an hour, the deputy commissioner came and he gave an assurance that no eviction drive would happen in Tengani area before discussing it with the people. It was the first time I spoke about land rights.

Q.

How was KMSS formed and what issues does it care about the most?

A.

After two years in Tengani, we had an intense confrontation with the government. The police and the ruling Congress party were strongly opposing us. We could not resist the government in such a small area, so we decided that we must spread the democratic mass movement all across Assam.
On June 28, 2005, we began a bicycle procession with 200 people, split into two teams. One went to lower Assam, and the other to upper Assam. We met many flood-affected people and people living in the forests in every district of Assam. This was a big source of learning for us, and we connected with many local organizations and NGOs throughout the state. After one month, we gathered in Tezpur town and formed the KMSS.
We demand land reforms in Assam. Land must be distributed to peasants and farmers. Our second demand is for community rights over natural resources. And third is to find a solution to problems of flooding and erosion. Also, we want 100 percent irrigation in paddy fields.

Q.

What’s the hardest part about being a leader?

A.

It is a lot of stress. People think Akhil Gogoi will stop dams. They have such big expectations. KMSS has 300 to 400 full-time workers and 30,000 volunteer workers who are all my responsibility. Recently the police registered a case against one of our workers in Barpeta District. I went to his house and his father said, “My son has been sent to jail and is living in terrible conditions. When will he come home? What are you doing about this?” Now I have to figure out how to get him out of jail. Just today, 30 members of our organization are getting bail.

(This interview has been slightly edited and condensed.)

Brian Orland is a freelance journalist.

Pakistan's Earthquake Was So Powerful It Created a New Island

Twitter: @Senator_Baloch

By Connor Simpson

A major earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan earlier today killing over 100 people; injuring thousands more; collapsing building and houses; and, incredibly, causing a small island to form in the sea off Pakistan's coastline.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake that hit Pakistan's Baluchistan province early Tuesday morning was a 7.8 magnitude. Officials recently said that at least 150 people died during the quake, with that number expected to rise as the Pakistani military continues the clean up. Many one-level houses in the impoverished area where the quake hit collapsed on the people inside.

In addition to the physical damage, the power and force of the quake was underscored by the small, visible island that rose off the coast of Gwadar in the Arabian Sea. Reuters reports "a crowd of bewildered people [gathered] on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon." Pakistan's Geo News reports "the island's altitude is 20 to 40 feet and width around 100 feet," and that the island is roughly 350 feet off shore, citing deputy inspector general Moazzam Jah. Arif Mahmood, the head of Pakistan's meteorological department, says they're planning to investigate further.

The new island is certainly interesting because most earthquakes rarely have such a drastic effect on the world surface. The last time an earthquake caused such a drastic change, according to i09's Annalee Newitz, was when an 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile altered the country's coastline.

Unfortunately, the damage to Pakistan and its people is more than just cosmetic. While information is still rapidly changing, some experts believe the number of casualties could rise dramatically over the next few days. Two people who created their own independent systems to estimate earthquake damage believe that, based on location and magnitude, between 1,000 and 4,600 people died in today's earthquake. For now, the official totals are much lower than that.

[Image via Sana Baloch via Twitter]