26th September 2013

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The Morung Express

Dimapur VOL. VIII ISSUE 264

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Miss Mokokchung 2013 on October 4

By Sandemo Ngullie

DC Dimapur speaks out on Rights Violation [ PAGE 02]

al-Shabab claim 137 killed in Kenya mall attack

[ PAGE 11]

[ PAGE 08]

reflections

Thursday, September 26, 2013 12+4 pages Rs. 4

Well, at least these criminals are self reliant!

Yes

no

Others

India Himalayan Legislators Meet today KoHImA, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExN): The 1st Indian Himalayan Legislators Meet as part of the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-III Nagaland will take place on September 26 at around 3:30 PM at the Committee Room of Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

“It is even more heartening to know that more than 50 elected members from different states are here today to actively participate in the legislators meet, as well as in the Summit as a whole,” Chief minister Neiphiu Rio said today. This, he said, indicated changing priorities of legislators from across the Himalayan states and hoped that important decisions will emerge from this summit. NLA speaker Chotisuh Sazo will chair the meet, while Karma Tempo Namgyal Gyaltsen, Speaker Sikkim Legislative Assembly and Bhubaneshwar Kalita, MP and Secretary General GLOBE will be co-chairs. P.D. Raid, MP and convenor IMI will be the moderator.

Govt announces 7th Pay Commission

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NEW DELHI, SEptEmbEr 25 (ptI): Ahead of elections, the government on Wednesday announced constitution of the Seventh Pay Commission, which will go into the salaries, allowances and pensions of about 80 lakh of its employees and pensioners. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the constitution of the 7th Pay Commission.

Its recommendations are likely to be implemented with effect from January 1, 2016”, finance minister P Chidambaram said in a statement. The setting up of the Commission, whose recommendations will benefit about 50 lakh central government employees, including those in defence and railways, and about 30 lakh pensioners, comes ahead of the assembly elections in 5 states in November and the general elections next year.

The government constitutes Pay Commission almost every ten years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modification. As the Commission takes about two years to prepare its recommendations, the award of the seventh pay panel is likely to be implemented from January 1, 2016, Chidambaram said.

[ PAGE 10 ]

of ethics and justice Dimapur | September 25

Should VIP security be reduced and instead be redeployed towards public security?

Ben hopes for ‘new chance’

the MountAin Discourse child rights: A matter Morung Express news

Vote on www.morungexpress.com SMS your answer to 9862574165

–Charles Kettering

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Is it possible to develop sustainably?

The Morung Express POLL QUESTIOn

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The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress

India-US ties lose shine over economic differences

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Participants of the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-III nagaland at the nBCC Convention Hall in Kohima on September 25.

Chizokho Vero Kohima | September 25

Heavy downpour greeted the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-III Nagaland which kicked off in Kohima on September 25. Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio termed it as a “shower of blessings” in his speech as the Chief Guest.

Organized by the Indian Mountain Initiative and hosted by Sustainable Development Forum of Nagaland, the summit will go on till September 27. It will witness discussions on matters of water, agriculture and forest in mountain states of India.

In his inaugural address at NBCC Convention Hall, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said the mountain states of India are industrially underdeveloped, with limited opportunities for gainful employment. But on the other hand, mountain regions are treasure troves of biodiversity, minerals and knowledge systems, he added.

Stating that North East India is one of the 35 biodiversity hotspots in the world, Rio said “Should we now exploit these resourc-

es, or should we conserve them for future generations? If we choose to exploit them, how to do so in a sustainable manner?”

Rio said the mountain states of India are yet to benefit from the global carbon markets on the basis of the Kyoto Protocol and viewed that this issue can also be discussed during the summit.

“However, let us be firm in our view that irrespective of whether we get financial compensation or not, the need for maintaining the ecosystem of the Himalayan Mountains should not be compromised at any cost,” Rio said. He added that planning for mountain regions must encompass the cultures, values and system of “our” ancestors, while at the same time, trying to meet the aspiration of future generations.

The Chief Minister advocated that the summit must seek out solutions for better integration of people into the modern world, without disrupting traditional foundations, based on hard work, robust health and wise living.

“Our educational systems must be oriented to-

wards harnessing these unique principles of mountain peoples, rather than infusing our young with greed, easy living and wicked lifestyle,” he said. Stating that effects of urbanization are disastrous to mountain ecosystems, Rio said most of the state capitals in the NE are being stretched beyond their capacities.

“Nagaland is now contemplating ways to decongest our uplands by developing foothill areas where both industrial and economic development goals can be pursued,” he said and announced that it is the intention of the state to develop a superhighway and a railway line along the foothills of the state, which will be the basis for future cities and industrial growth centers.

“This Special Development Zone (SDZ) will cover six districts of the state, and the length of the foothill road will be about 250 km,” he said adding that the state is in the process of introducing the required land reforms to allow for investment to emerge.

Referring to the recent disasters in Uttarakhand and Sikkim, he said “our

prayers and concerns still reach out to the thousands who lost precious lives and property.”

Rio was optimistic that the summit will bring out tangible recommendations “to face the challenges confronting us, and how to preserve our ecology and environment, and how to reverse the process of degradation of the only planet that we have.”

Earlier, Chief Secretary Alemtemshi Jamir delivered the welcome address while PD Rai, Sikkim MP (Lok Sabha) and Convenor IMI) gave the opening remarks.

Lise Grande, Resident Coordinator for United Nations, New Delhi; Janine Kuriger, Councillor and Director of Cooperation for the Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi; Dr. David Molden, Director General for International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and Helga Fink, Program Manager for CCA-NER, GIZ, Shillong, Meghalaya also spoke at the inaugural function. The function was followed by inauguration of photo and exhibition stalls and a cultural extravaganza.

What is the plight of children and women in Nagaland? How do we create a safe and child friendly environment? How do we bring about desired changes for today and tomorrow? These were some of the burning questions highlighted and discussed at the first State level Consultative and Coordination Workshop organized by Nagaland Alliance for Childs Right (NACR) held on Wednesday at Saramati Hotel, Dimapur. It was held under the theme “Towards a Stronger Nagaland Alliance for Children & Women”.

“Child Rights is not a welfare topic, it’s a matter of ethics, and it’s a matter of justice,” stated Razia, Activist and Co-Convener of Indian Alliance for Child Rights (IACR), New Delhi at the first session of the consultative meet. She highlighted that it is not just physical violence but a non caring attitude, negligence and carelessness that deeply affects a child’s life. “A Child’s childhood is beaten by all these forms of negligence,” she said.

Highlighting the lack of emotional help and repair made available to children in trouble, she declared a need for trained counselors and institutes to train counselors. She questioned on the feasibility to develop such training courses, and also on the possibility of research on issues of child and women rights violation. She further suggested the possibility of the State University implementing such modules.

Razia appealed, “Hav-

First State Level Consultative meet on Children & Women Rights held

ing known second class citizenships as women, are we not the perfect voice for children?” On the state level consultative meet, Razia felt that through such alliances, organizations are able to generate more effect and gather more validity. She called upon the gathering to stand up for all children and added, “Let us set our sights more clearly and a little more higher today.”

Acknowledging the rampant increase in crime against children and women in Nagaland, Keyanilie Peseyie, Minister for Social Welfare, Women & Child Development appealed to concerned NGOs/ Agencies/ individuals working in the field of child rights to come together under the theme ‘Are our children safe in our field especially in Dimapur.’

Speaking as the chief guest, Keyanilie announced that the State Cabinet has approved proposals to constitute Child Rights Commission in Nagaland. He said the rapid expansion of Social Welfare Department entails bigger responsibility to Child Rights Commissioners and members of the commission for rendering better and meaningful service to the children and women in the state. He added that the commission had been authorized to handle cases on child rights violation.

Under Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), many programmes have been planned for the welfare of children in conflict with law or children in

need of care and protection. He said that ICPS sensitizes people and creates awareness on the needs of children. He mentioned that the Department of Social Welfare Nagaland is the first state department in NE region to sign the MOU with GoI for ICPS. He also announced that a new centre for Women attached to the Dimapur District Hospital for special care of women and children will be opened very soon.

At the consultative meet, NCAR also submitted an ‘Appeal Letter’ to the chief guest calling for urgent attention and intervention to ensure rights, justice, and safety to children and women in Nagaland.

Mayang Lima, Registrar of Guwahati High Court (Kohima bench), Member secretary, State Legal Service Authority also gave a presentation on Children & Women Rights, while a representative from NACR provided a brief glimpse into children and women rights violation scenario in Nagaland.

The consultation was held with an aim to develop an alliance among district partner organizations and individuals for addressing rights of children and women. It also aims to safeguard children and women against any forms of rights violation and to facilitate participatory information sharing and consultative preparation for meaningful linkage with the state on children and women related issues.

Related news on page 2

Forest department gearing ‘Setting up medical college is a priority’ up to protect Amur Falcons

DImApUr, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExN): Nagaland Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Head of Forest Force, M. Lokeswara Rao conducted a meeting of all Divisional Forest Officers and Chief Wildlife Wardens on September 24 in the Conference Hall of the PCCF office to foresee the protection measures, conservation and safe passage of Amur Falcons during its migration in October to November 2013.

A press note from the PCCF stated that there were deliberations on protection measures taken for smooth passage of Amur Falcon. All the Divisional Forest Officers have communicated the direction of banning of hunting to all GBs, Village Councils, VDB – Secretary, Village elder law abiding authorities, Agencies and NGOs, it added.

In some Districts like Mokokchung the matter was discussed in District Planning Board meetings and the Mokokchung DC has issued an order not to shoot/ hunt animals or birds in Mokokchung. This was issued after consultation with Ao Senden, Watsu Mongdang, Ao Students Conference and Village Council.

It has also been consulted with the Rural Development Office of districts to send information to all villages through R.D Block and Range Office not to hunt Amur Falcon, with cautions that strict penalty would be imposed against defaulting villages by not giving aid under the R.D. fund. The Chief Wildlife Warden also informed that a forest protection force will be deployed to Amur Falcon roosting areas during the first week of

October and that the force will be stationed till the Amur Falcon migrates from Nagaland.

All DFOS have been instructed to patrol the Amur Falcon roosting areas and take the help of Deputy Commissioners, Superintendent of Police of the district, NGOS, Churches etc.

The Wildlife Wing of the Forest Department has published pamphlets which will be distributed to all villages for awareness. Flexi banners have also been made which will be exhibited in all districts. The Forest department further conducted an awareness programme in Wokha district on September 19 which was attended by the World life trust of India, Natural Nagas, Forest staff and villagers. It may be noted that the programme decided to form mobile squads by DFO Dimapur and DFO Kohima to check illegal selling of meat in markets and in National High ways.

In view of people donating animals to the Nagaland Zoo, the PCCF stated that the zoo may be crowded with animals after some time. As such, it suggested better management of the Zoo be initiated and that a “society can be formed like the Zoo’s in other parts of the Country.” It also suggested that people, institutions, NGOs etc can adopt the animals and contribute animal feed for one year. The Zoo authorities can keep the name plate of the people who adopted the animals on the enclosure, it stated. The note stated that the donated animals can be kept in rescue centers, after which they animals can be released in to their natural habitat.

DImApUr, SEptEmbEr 25 (DIpr): Nagaland Governor, Dr. Ashwani Kumar on Wednesday asserted that setting up of a medical college in Nagaland is a priority. He however lamented the high cost of construction which hampers infrastructure development in the state and also advised for using only local architects and materials while setting up infrastructures to save cost.

Kumar said this while visiting the Christian Institute of Health services and Research (CIHSR) at 4thMile, Dimapur

on September 25. In an interaction with the faculty and staff of CIHSR, the Governor said that visiting the institute had enriched him; however he added that much work has to be initiated for the upliftment and development of the institute.

He also added that the study of medicine is one of the noblest professions and that he himself had at one point of time dreamt to be one.

He mentioned that the Government of India has prioritized health education and infrastruc-

tures sectors. He assured to give his best efforts in making CIHSR a modern medical institute and to pursue the matter with the government of India, DONER and the State government.

He appreciated the faculty and staff of CIHSR saying that the hospital was excellent, clean with healthy environment, well maintained and at the same time it was rendering a yeomen service not only for the people of the state but for the entire North eastern part of the country.

Earlier the Governor visited

the different wards in the hospital including the nursing institute and interacted with the students. He also took note of all the suggestions and issues concerning the institute and assured to give all possible help.

Director of CIHSR, Dr. Abraham Joseph gave a power point presentation on the establishment of the institute since 1986 and its progress till date. The Governor was accompanied by his wife, Dimapur DC, Dimapur SP, District medical officers and others.

eci seeks collaboration with media

DImApUr, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExN): With the aim to enable a credible, transparent and impartial electoral process, the Election Commission of India has issued a framework for engagement with the media. The ECI in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officers of all states informed that the aim of this engagement is to provide inclusive elections through information, education, motivation and facilitation.

A copy of the letter provided

by Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer stated that this endeavor aims to bridge gender gap in registration and voter turnout, fight urban apathy, overcome youth disconnect, facilitate inclusion of marginal sections, promote informed and ethical voting and bridge the gap in information, awareness, motivation and facilitation in the electoral process.

A framework of engagement to promote electoral democracy

As per the ECI framework, a start off criteria for the endeavor will require media houses to be non-political and non-partisan with clean antecedents.

It entails media houses to have high credibility and reputation among the people with a good reach in the concerned region.

It requires the CEOs of the states to accept media houses as a partner organization in promotion of electoral democracy. Under the framework, the CEOs shall share the material on voter education/awareness with the media house for wider dissemination.

Under the framework, media houses are responsible for public disseminating of information

pertaining to when, how, where and why to register as voters on pro-bono basis. They would also provide free print space and airtime during elections and ahead of summary revision to air messages and promos from the CEO’s office encouraging voter registration and participation. Promotion of ethical and informed voting, free of inducements; educating voters; creating individual promos and spots for registration and voting on pro-bono basis, especially during elections etc are other responsibilities of the media.

However, it added the all such content should be vetted by the CEO. The collaboration

will be without any funding arrangement and without any financial liability on part of Election Commission and CEO. It stated that this framework will become operational between Ed/CEO and any media house through exchange of appropriate letters, if the CEO wishes to get it operational.

“Since non-partisan, objective, non-political citizen awareness, facilitation and engagement are the basis of this framework of engagement, any deviation will automatically mean that the working arrangement with the concerned Media House has lost its relevance and stands disengaged forthwith,” it added.

As such, The Nagaland CEO in his letter requested collaboration from all media houses in Nagaland and expressed hope that the media houses would voluntarily participate in this venture.

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Thursday 26 September 2013

Morung Express News Kohima | September 25

“It is time that, you as students set your sail in the right direction. It depends on how you set your sail. Twen-

ty years from now, Nagaland will depend on how you set your sail,” said Temjen Toy, IAS, Commissioner & Secretary, Works & Housing and Home Commissioner, Nagaland during the inaugural

MEx File

ANSAA Dimapur Unit PWD prog on Sept 28 Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The All Nagaland Sectional Assistant Association (ANSAA) Dimapur Unit PWD has convened a general meeting cum farewell programme on September 28, 10:00 am at the PWD office complex, Dimapur (under construction building).

ANSAA Dimapur Unit PWD general secretary Lipokjungshi in a press release has requested the retired SA (201213) and all the members to attend the meeting. Fine will be imposed on the absentees, the note said.

ASKK general meeting on Sept 28

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Kohima, September 25 (mexN): The Aphuyemi Sumi Kuqhakulu Kohima (Pughoboto Area Public Organization Kohima) has convened its general meeting on September 28 at Hotel CIMORB Old Ministers’ hill at 10:30 am to discuss some important issues concerning Sumi Aphuyemi community. Therefore, advisors, executive members, village welfare presidents and representatives, ex-office bearers and ex-advisors of ASKK and Pughoboto Area GB Association, SAKK, SAKD, SAKZ, officers, leaders and concern members are requested to attend the meeting.

Career counseling for Razeba students

Kohima, September 25 (mexN): Razeba Students’ Union is organizing a one day seminar on career counselling on September 28, 10:30 am at Mount Sinai Higher Secondary School, Ministers Hill Kohima.

The resource speakers - Deputy Commissioner, Kiphire Kesonyu Yhome will speak on the topic “Career in civil service” and Rozelle Mero, Managing Director, The People Channel will speak on “Career Planning”.

The union has requested for the participation and cooperation of its senior students and college students.

Dimapur Excise seizes liquor

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2nd Nagaland Spelling Bee Competition commences DC Dimapur speaks

function of the 2nd Nagaland Spelling Bee Competition and Extempore and Elocution Competition 2013 at the Capital Convention Centre on September 25.

The inaugural func-

tion began with a prayer

by Aphre Kiewhuo, Pastor from Faith Harvest Church with a welcoming speech

by Shiirhovol Naleo, Convenor, Organising committee.

Vipralhou Kesiezie, Direc-

tor SCERT gave the keynote address and a special number presented by Keneilezono Chale, Naga Idol Finalist 2008.

Temjen Toy further asserted that the Competition heralds the 50th Statehood anniversary of Nagaland.

“As we look back at the fifty years, what kind of state has Nagaland become? Are you proud of being a Naga?” he asked the students and further urged them to become an asset to the society.

Altogether 64 schools are participating at the competition with fiftynine from private schools and five from government schools. There were 104 participants for the Spelling Bee competition while 23 participants for the Extempore Competition and 27 participants for the Elocution Contest.

tueNSaNg, September 25 (mexN): Chare OST Centre was launched on September 23 at chare PHC the program was attended by representative from administration, Goan buras, church leaders, student leaders, teachers, NACO/NERO, NSACS DAPCU and from various organization.

Dr Rose State Program

Officer HIV TB NSACS launched the centre. Speaking on the occasion Dr Rose said that drug addict in the Naga society is a social concern and stressed that OST may be a small thing but it can benefit the society socially. Sharing on the role of the stakeholders, he said that public leaders have an important role to play for

the success of the program.

He requested all the leaders to cooperate for the success of the programme. Rovikhoto Mor DPO DAPCU chaired the programme, invocation

by Tsali, short speech by Litingse Head Dobashi and Sethrongkyu President GB’s union vote of thanks from Dr P. Imti Kichu MO OST Chare and benediction by Lima.

Commissioner & Secretary Temjen Toy, IAS addressing the 2nd Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship and Extempore & Elocution Competition 2013 at Capital Convention Centre, Kohima on September 25. (DIPR Photo)

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The Morung Express

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): In the past seven days, Dimapur Excise personnel has seized a total of 539 bottles of assorted Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer at the New Field check gate and various pockets of Dimapur. In the connection, five accused persons were also arrested. According to a press release issued by Superintendent of Excise & Prohibition, Dimapur K Yangpongkyu Sangtam all the accused have been booked under the NLTP Act and seized articles have been deposited at the Excise Malkhana for destruction. Further, the release has warned all not to violate the prohibition Act as strict surveillance and frisking will be carried out in all suspected areas. It also requested for co-operation from the public.

NSACS launches OST centre at Chare PHC

Morung Express News

Dimapur | September 25

Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, N Husheli Sema on Wednesday declared that there is an urgent need to address child and women rights violation issues in Dimapur and other districts of Nagaland. She stated this while participating at the 1st State Level Consultative Meet on Children and Women Rights held at Hotel Saramati, Dimapur.

Commending the initiative taken by the Nagaland Alliance for Child Rights to hold the consultation, Husheli expressed hope that with the presence of the Minister for Social Welfare, Women & Child Development, Kiyanelie peseyie “something concrete will come about through the meet.”

Lamenting that the media today is filled with news on child abuse, Husheli opined that Nagaland is neither secluded nor segregated from “such happenings”. “We cannot say that as Nagas, we are something very special, something exclusive and therefore we are free from this kind of injustice and abuse.” On the role of technology contributing to the rise of crimes against women and chil-

dren, she stated, “Maybe because of us not being aware of the advantages of technology, we are twisting or maybe we are diverting towards negativity. So let us not keep our eyes closed.”

She further highlighted instances where children are taken from Nagaland on the pretext of education and a better life but are abused at the end. She pointed out that most of the children are from places where parents are not very educated and said, “Even you and I, the so called educated are not aware of the motives the people come up with”.

She urged upon the gathering to not only depend on the government, department, commissions, legal authority or the police to safeguard children and women. Instead, she called for all citizens to work together and ensure that women and children are safe and treated with dignity and respect. “We should create an environment where our children grow up with positive attitude and become a positive human being,” she added.

Stating that Nagas have a strong community based society and the core of this community is the church,

Team from Nagaland along with others during their visit to Mizoram from September 17 to 21.

to winery distillation at Champai Valley managed

by Grape Growers society, Anthurium festival at Reik, Zopar Foriculture Farm, Mamit having Hitech floriculture units and water storage tank using

Geomembrane technology from Israel, and the Plant quarantine Office at Zokhawthar located in the Indo-Myanmar border demarcated by river Tiau.

Besides, the state officials were given a warm re-

ception over lunch by Dr. C. Lalzarliana, Director Agriculture at the Directorate of Agriculture and to a dinner hosted by Samuel Rosanglura, Director of Horticulture along with his senior officials.

FUNERAL SERVICE

1934-2013 DIED ON FUNERAL TIME VENUE

CCO annual session on Sept 28

pheK, September 25 (mexN): The Chakhesang Cultural Organisation (CCO) will be holding its annual session on September 28 at Chetheba Town Hall. CCO president Tavehu Thingo in a press release stated that the inaugural session would commence from 11:00 am with Chotisuh Sazo, speaker, NLA as the chief guest. The office bearers of the Chakhesang Frontal Organisation have been invited to attend the session. All office bearers of CCO, CCRI, and attire committee have to attend the meeting. Representatives from CPO, CSU, CYF, CMA, CWWS and all area presidents have been requested to participate in the session.

: 25/09/2013 : 26/09/2013 : 10:00 AM : KUSHIABIL, DIMAPUR NEAR LOCAL GROUND

Kohima, September 25 (mexN): All the pensioners drawing pensions from Kohima North Treasury are informed that the physical verification for the current year will be conducted as per the following schedule: Live pensioners – October 9 to 18, Family pensioner – October 22 to 25. The timing for the same will be 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm except on Wednesday (10:00 am to 4:00 pm). All pensioners concerned have been informed to check their serial numbers and date on the notice board as the verification will be carried out in that sequence.

Original documents and necessary certificates for family pensioners will also be needed. No further extension will be made beyond the grace period i.e, October 19 to 21 for lice pension and October 28 to 29 for family pension. No payment will be made without the annual physical verification. This was stated in a press release issued by Senior Treasury Officer P Ajung Amer.

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): Dr Benjungliba, parliamentary secretary of Agriculture, Chairman of NSAMB and S. Chuba Longkumer, MLA Vice chairman of NSAMB attended the meeting in regard to underground ginger cold storage, machineries and fruit processing unit in Nagaland at NSAMB conference hall on September 24.

The team of agricultural officers led by Howoto, Jt Director of Agriculture and Korean delegates was lead

by Dr. Kim who innovated the simple technology of underground ginger cold storage, which is very suitable, profitable, and manageable in Korean country.

Rev Moong, State coordinator along with three delegates visited Jalukie under Peren district and IETC

‘Towards self sufficiency’

LAUNCHING PROGRAMME

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Nagaland and Korea ventures into agri business

NAGALAND PIG FARMERS ASSOCIATION (NPFA)

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she urged the church to play a vital role in building up society. She called upon church leaders to spread the message and create awareness. “Children should be brought up with dignity,” she asserted.

To the Police and the administration she urged for support, stating, “We have to work together as stakeholders and put our heads together and work out something where things are effectively put into practice.”

The DC also said that Dimapur being “the hub of everything,” bears witness to not only good things but bad things as well. As stakeholders in Dimapur, Husheli called upon the women hohos, churches, and all responsible for this meeting that undesirable things are “put to rest.” If we all network together then our objective would be successful, sustainable and positive, she added.

Husheli implored that as parents and dutiful citizens, everyone should ensure that children and brought up in a safe and dignified environment.

“Then definitely we will be producing citizens who will be law abiding and respectful of the environment as well,” she added.

Kohima North Treasury pensioners informed

OF LATE DR.THINO ZELIANG

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out on Rights Violation

Nagaland agriculture team visits Mizoram

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): A five-member team led

by Rongseninla, Joint Director Agriculture visited Mizoram from September 17 to 21. Dr. Elithung Lotha, Dy Director (Horti), Peter Yanthan, DAO, Wokha, Hewoto Sema, DAO, Phek and Dr. I. Amenla, LTO, SNO office were the other Agri & Allied officials.

Director of Agriculture, Kohima in a press release informed that the Departments of Agriculture & Horticulture, Government of Mizoram arranged schedules to study Oil Palm Nursery & Oil Palm Cultivation at Dialdaw, NFSM, RKVY, ATMA block activities under Hybrid Rice Technology, Improved Paddy Programme, SRI at Tuisem Paddy fields under Khawzawl Agriculture Subdivision. The team had a firsthand experience in the Lo Zawh the completion of weeding with Mizo farmers and farmwomen.

Furthermore, there were impressive visits

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DATE : 28th September, 2013 TIME : 2pm onwards VENUE : Hotel Saramati, Kohima road, Dimapur.

Chief Guest:

Shri. Yitachu, Hon’ble Parliamentary Secretary, (Veterinary and Animal Husbandry) For more details Please contact: Rev. Subong Aier (President) : 9436261461 Mr. K. Katy (General Secretary) : 9856208417

Medziphema in Dimapur district on September 23.

Dr. Kim said that the soil and other related factor is favorable for the said project.

After viewing the visit report of the two areas, Dr. Benjungliba suggested IETC at Medziphema to initiate the work modalities as pilot project and in Jalukie, a ring well type about 20-24 ft should be immediately dug to see the soil status and determine the water level. He requested Dr. Kim to depute experts (engineers) from Korea in order to complete the work by December end.

He assured that department engineers and departmental experts will assist this project subsequent in all district in the state.

As suggested by secretary agriculture, Dr. Kim and Lim in principle agreed to provide engineers (technicians) till the completion of this project. It was also decided that few numbers of Korean power machineries would be purchased on trial basis. Another important point was discussed that Cha, a businessperson and agriculturist suggested that he would like to open agro food processing unit called Soo-Hyen Farming Corporation in the state.

The meeting was attended by S Chuba Longkumer, MLA and vice-chairman of NSAMB, L. Mero, Addl Director Agriculture, I. Panger.

Secretary NSAMB, Howoto JDA, Inavi, Deputy Director Marketing, Hansing Alet, DDA, Ahovi JDA, Bendang DAO(D), N. Wotsa DDA (I/c Lab Chmst), Jacob Yanthan SDO (Store I/c) Dimapur and other officer of the department.

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Regional

The Morung express

Thursday

26 September 2013

Dimapur

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Police kill ULFA militant, arrest three Tripura development package for tribals guwAHATI, SEPTEMBER 25 (IBNS): Security forces apprehended three arms dealers with a huge cache of arms and killed a hardcore militant of Paresh Baruah alias Paresh Asom led United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) in two separate incidents in Assam on Monday night, police said on Tuesday.

According to reports, security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and apprehended three persons at Jorabat area, outskirts of Guwahati city on Monday night.

“Based on intelligence input, Guwahati city police had launched operation at Jorabat area, bordering area of Assam-Meghalaya on Monday night and recovered the arms from a Scorpio vehicle, which were carried out from Sivasagar to Goalpara by instruction of top ULFA leader Dristi Rajkhowa,” Assam police IGP of Central and Western range Dr LR Bisnoi said.

“The arms were delivered by ULFA militants from Myanmar to Sivasagar,” Dr Bisnoi said.

Security forces recovered three AK-81 rifles, nine magazines and three

ULFA warns Assam cops

guwAHATI, SEP 25 (IANS): A day after Assam Police claimed to have killed a member of the antitalk faction of rebel group United Liberation Front of Assam, the outfit Wednesday threatened to target unarmed policemen.

"The Assam Police have been killing our unarmed supporters and well wishers...the situation has reached such a level that now we are going to target unarmed police officials who are not on duty," said Arunodoi Asom, assistant publicity secretary of outfit's faction led by Paresh Baruah, in a statement sent to reporters.

Police killed ULFA cadre Assam police display arms and ammunition they claim to have seized from three suspected rebels of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), three men standing be- Radhum Rabha at Aithan hind, in Guwahati, Assam on Tuesday, September 24. The ULFA is one of the main rebel village in Goalpara district early Tuesday. groups in India's troubled northeast. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

US-made bottle grenades and apprehended three persons.

The nabbed people were identified as Krishnakanta Rabha, Priyanath Rabha and Dhananjoy Rabha.

“During the interrogation, the nabbed carriers had revealed that, a six

Northeast Briefs

NSUI Manipur allege ‘misuse of power’ IMPHAL, SEPTEMBER 25 (NNN): The National Students’ Union of India, Manipur unit have expressed its shock to learn about the incident occurring since last few days at the only institute of technology in the state, Manipur Institute of Technology. The NSUI-Manipur Unit also expressed sadness on the security force personnel allegedly misusing their power to disperse the students staging a democratic way of protest demonstration at the institution premise. NSUI, Manipur unit general secretary M.J Haokip said the NSUI-Manipur intervened into the matter to minimise the burning incident. "Therefore, NSUI-Manipur had faxed a message regarding the issue to Rohit Chaudrary, national NSUI president for his intervention into the matter in the interest of the students’ welfare in the state," claimed MJ Haokip.

Manipur University employees agitate

IMPHAL, SEPTEMBER 25 (NNN): Manipur University Staff Association under the aegis of the All India University Employees Federation launched a pen down strike besides staging a protest dharna on Wednesday. After launching the strike for the day, the varsity staff staged a dharna at the bus stand of the institution here. The demands of the association include uniform UGC pay scale, unvarying service condition and representation of non-teaching employees in university bodies, and discontinuation of contractual appointment.

NPF Tamei on IT Road and Barak Bridge

IMPHAL, SEPTEMBER 25 (NNN): The Naga Peoples' Front, Tamei division has expressed anguish over non-completion of the Barak bridge between Dikiuram and Katang in Tamei subdivision and the pathetic condition of IT Road. NPF, Tamei division president Kabehah Robin and its secretary A Lunglinbou wondered as to why the state government is taking over 7 years to complete the bridge over Barak river. It urged the authority to speed up the construction work. Regarding the IT Road condition, Kabehah Robin and A Lunglinbou said it is one of the oldest road of Manipur "but till date the state government continues to neglect it."

crore for the development of tribals in the next five years and the money would be spent for both capacity building of beneficiaries as well as development of infrastructure.

"The package will extend support to 1.20 lakh land-deed owners, who got patta under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and also to frame a comprehensive plan for holistic development of people," added Debbarma.

"Tripura has been persuading the Centre for a long time to finance program-based activities for the beneficiaries of Forest Right Act, as the state became pioneer in patta distribution," he said.

Rebels' shutdown hits life in Meghalaya

sonnel had reached the area near Deuripara of Goalpara district along the Assam-Meghalaya border, the militants started fire and forced us to exchange bullets,” Dr Bisnoi said.

During the gunbattle a militant was killed on spot and security forces recovered two 9 mm pistols in

possession of him.

Other militants of the group had managed to flee from the area with the help of darkness.

Recently, Guwahati city police had recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition of Garo militant group Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA).

SHILLoNg, SEPTEMBER 25 (IANS): Normal life in the western part of Meghalaya's Garo Hills was crippled Wednesday with the start of a two-day shutdown called by the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) demanding a separate Garoland state.

"Attendance in government offices was thin in all the five districts of Garo Hills region, but there was no report of any untoward incident," Pravin Bakshi, district magistrate of West Garo Hills, told IANS. He said most vehicles remained off roads

AgARTALA, SEPT 25 (IANS): Vice President Hamid Ansari today inaugurated the Northeast's biggest museum at 112-year-old Ujjayanta Palace, Tripura's royal mansion here.

Set up over 800 acres of land in the capital city, Ujjayanta Palace was the command hub until the erstwhile princely Tripura's accession to India in October 1949.

"The museum will showcase the lifestyle, arts, culture,

tradition and utility crafts, beside the customs and practices of various communities residing in the northeast India," Kishore Ambuly, Tripura's higher education department secretary, told IANS. "The state museum will exhibit cultural tradition and perception of spiritual life and rituals, religious beliefs, utility articles and aesthetic creative forms," he said.

The collections displayed in the 22 galleries of the mu-

seum include sculptures, terracotta figurines, coins, copper and stone inscriptions, bronze images, textiles, oil paintings, sketches and drawings, tribal ornaments, musical instruments, art and craft objects, folk articles and a number of other antique treasures. "The sculptures mostly date back from 9th century to 13th century. A low relief Dasavatara panel (in stone) belonging to 18th century is an exquisite piece

of local craftsmanship," Ambuly added. Hamid Ansari accompanied by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Higher Education Minister Bhanulal Saha appreciated the museum for its rich collection.

A senior official of the Tripura government told IANS: "The two-storeyed Ujjayanta Palace has been made the museum, as per an agreement signed with the erstwhile separatist outfit All Tripura Tribal Force (ATTF) in March 1993."

and shops were shut in the district.

Home Minister Roshan Warjri said combing operations against the rebels will continue in Garo Hills. "All necessary steps have been taken to neutralise GNLA's anti-national activities," Warjri told IANS. The Garo Hills State Movement Committee - a conglomeration of several Garo organisations and the Garo National Council, a political party based in Garo Hills - earlier called the shutdown to put pressure on the government to implement the Garoland statehood demand.

Biggest museum of Northeast opens in Tripura palace

Institutionalised presence needed in social media: Minister

SHILLoNg, SEPTEMBER 25 (IANS): Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has asked state governments to have an institutionalised presence in social media.

"The social media is the largest ungoverned space, and never before in the history of mankind has there been so much power in the hands of the people concurrently located in so many places," he said addressing a function to commemorate the 69th anniversary of Meghalaya's leading local English daily The Shillong Times here Tuesday evening.

Training programmes to be implemented directly by training partners with funding from NSDC the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The scheme is to be implemented through the State Government and provides 100% funding for training cost of youths in different trades both in situ and outside of the North East by any entity, public or private with placement rate of 75% and salary of not less than Rs. 7000. There are 1400 recognized modules across 70 plus sectors and NCVT Certificate are issued to successful candidates. Registration of Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) is to be done online.

Since the programme has to be implemented through the State Governments, the Director General of Ministry of Labour urged the State Government representatives to come up with specific

Seventies for the development of tribals, still more than 28,000 tribals are practising slash-and-burn (jhum) method of agriculture, alleged Tripura Pradesh Congress president Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, who is also a tribal.

"Taking advantage of government support to poor tribals in rubber cultivation, a section of affluent non-tribals has set up rubber estates on tribal land, destroying forests," said Hrangkhawl.

He added that the opposition has been demanding a comprehensive development plan for the tribals because central funds are being siphoned off in the name of tribal development.

Debbarma, however, said the state government would spend Rs 3,400

members militant group was hiding along the Assam-Meghalaya border and the city police had launched operation against the militant group at the bordering area on the wee hours of Tuesday, where a hardcore ULFA militant killed in gun battle,” the IGP said.

“When security per-

He added: "Media is too precious (for its) freedom to be left in the hands of a regulator." He said state governments and district administrations should have an institutionalised presence in social media, and for this to materialise, he promised that his ministry would offer the best practices on how to go about having an institutional framework. He said his ministry has already established a new media wing, which would address the communication and dissemination requirements on social media platforms.

Manish Tewari

Tewari said the wing would integrate the communication tools horizontally and vertically through various social media stages. He said though there was danger to the

Skill development meeting at NEC Shillong held SHILLoNg, SEPTEMBER 25 (DIPR): Secretary, NEC took a meeting on Skill Development in the North Eastern Council Secretariat on September 23. The meeting was attended by Joint Secretary and Director General, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Representatives from Ministry of Rural Development, National Skill Development Corporation, Ministry of DoNER, State Secretaries, officials engaged in implementation of the Skill Development programmes in the NE states and Training Providers operating in the North East.

The meeting was called with the back drop of incidents of high literacy rate not leading to employable qualification, high incidences of dropout rate at all stages including class 5, class 8 and class 10 and also unemployment rate which are comparatively higher than the national average.

Detailed discussions were held on the revised Guidelines on Skill Development Intensive Schemes (SDIS) of

AgARTALA, SEPTEMBER 25 (TNN): The Left Front government in Tripura on Tuesday announced a separate development package of Rs 4,463 crore for tribal and minority communities in the state.

After 1999 and 2004, this is the third time that the Left Front government announced a development package for the tribals and the government has a view that backwardness of tribal areas needs special attention.

Tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma admitted that safe drinking water is yet to reach 1,675 hamlets, while 1266 villages do not have power. Besides, most of these places also don't have road link.

Despite spending crores of rupees since the

proposals and Job Melas within the next 2/3 months where a platform is provided to the un-employed youths desirous of joining Skill Development Programmes and various VTPs, as was organized in Itanagar recently.

The youths can identify courses and the institutions where they want to take the training. He also highlighted the substantial increase of fund available for upgradation of existing ITIs and also for establishing new ITIs in the States and pointed out that funds released for the ITIs to the States were not being utilized to the extend of 70% in Arunachal Pradesh, 60% in Assam, 50% in Meghalaya, 42% in Mizoram, 80% in Nagaland and 66% in Tripura.

The participants were also informed that funds for Skill Development un-

der NRLM has increased to 25% and the National Urban Livelihood Mission is also approved and that atleast 20% of BOCW cess to be used for Skill Development.

The Aajeevika Scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, which is also to be implemented through the State Government provides for 90% of the Training cost where the course content is to be certified by NCVT, SSC or other body certified by MoRD, provides boarding and lodging for the trainees, assistance for holding Job Melas, placement incentive to training providers etc. The Chief Operating officer and dedicated team for the programme in the States for effective implementation of the programme is not yet identified and established in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

The National Skill Development Corporation which is a Public Private Partnership Agency created by the Ministry of

Finance also has a mandate to Skill 150 million people by 2022 on different skill trades across the board. The training programmes are to be implemented directly by the training partners with funding from the NSDC. Trainers are to draw a 10 year plan for training of youths and submit their proposal directly to the NSDC. The representative from the NSDC had urged upon the training institutes operating in the North East States to come forward and take full use of the scheme.

The UDAAN Scheme implemented by the NSDC for Jammu & Kashmir for training of graduates and post graduates where there is direct placement linkage with the industries and corporate bodies could be considered for replication also for the North Eastern States. This will help in solving the unemployment problems faced by the graduated youths who otherwise have some difficulties in getting jobs both in the government and private sectors.

democratisation of information space as its common rules of engagement have not emerged. "The common rules of engagement in modern virtual space are unfortunately not emerging, and my apprehension is that if these rules do not emerge swiftly and agreed to by nations, we will also see the vulcanization of the web, as we saw the emergence of the world wide web," he said. He said: "Nations need to agree to the common rules of engagement in the virtual civilization, to prevent any cataclysmic impact it could have on the physical world."

The Tripura government's museum, which was established in 1970 at the heart of Agartala city, along with the state archives has also been shifted to the new museum premises. Ujjayanta Palace, which was purchased from the royal family by the Tripura government in 1972-73 and housed the Tripura legislative assembly until July 2011, was constructed by then Maharaja Radhakishore Manikya Bahadur in 1899-1901. The palace

has three large domes, the largest of which is 86 feet high, and it reflects the combined influence of Mughal, Roman and British architecture.

In July 2011, the Tripura assembly shifted to a newly-built complex on the capital's outskirts. Lalit Kala Academy chairman K.K. Chakraborty and experts from various parts of the country have guided the authorities in setting up the museum in the royal palace.

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public discoursE

Thursday 26 September 2013

The Morung Express

The Beautiful Inter-Connected Tapestry Of Life On Earth

(A personal statement)

A

INTRODUCTION: t the outset, allow me first to explain (for the sake of those who might not know) that a tapestry is a work of art where different colors of wool are interwoven together into a harder fabric to produce an inter-connected and beautiful picture.

Life on earth is not an unconnected compartmentalized set of independent entities. On the contrary, life on earth is an inter-connected tapestry of different entities interwoven together into a whole by God the creator. We can call this interconnected whole as “The Beautiful Inter-connected Tapestry of Life on Earth.” In this interconnected reality of life, religion is connected to law; law is in turn connected to politics and politics to economy, etc. The invisible but personal God who created this beautiful tapestry of life can be felt and experienced not only through the spirit but even through law, politics or economy. This experience can be experienced through obedience to

grEETings

his spiritual, legal, political and economic commandments given in the Bible. In this way, we can experience the invisible God not only in our spirits but also in our physical lives too. In fact we can feel his presence in all facets of our lives on earth by obeying all his commandments.

In this inter-connected tapestry of life, only the naive and the ignorant can insist that religion and politics have no connection. In fact, religion is the guiding principle of politics.

Here if we analyze the political reality of the world, we will find that all civil laws that governs political systems in the world are based on religious truths and commandments. In fact, all constitutions of the world including all judicial systems as well as all universal human rights declarations are all based on the Ten Commandments of the Bible.

That being the fact, when just laws are enacted based on these just commandments of God - just political systems are established leading to a just society where equality, fraternity and liberty can reign. In such a society, economic prosperity

can also develop with security to life and property.

Many Christians think that all good things meant for humanity will happen only in heaven. Some even think that to have happiness on earth is unchristian in principle. But from reading the Bible, which I believe is the revealed word of God; I am convinced that God wants us to live happily in this world too.

However, as stated earlier that happy life can be lived only when we obey his commandments regarding our personal lives, family lives, national lives and international co-existence.

That however does not mean that I believe in the possibility of a utopian world where perfection can be established on earth.

I do not believe in the possibility of such a life because fallen man can never restore the Garden of Eden to all its former glory in his own effort. (The Bible tells us that only God will do this in the future new heaven and the new earth.(See Rev 21:23-26) Human history also stands testimony to the fact that man in his fallen nature will always make a mess of his life on earth. However what-

ever life’s imperfection may be, the goal and the ideal is to always strive for the best possible life on earth under the obedience of God’s laws. Therefore, in summary and in the Nagaland context, while I do not believe in a utopian Nagaland on earth, I do ardently believe in a far better world then the present Nagaland in which I have lived for the past fifty seven years of my life. (For examples of a better world on earth read Zach.

8: 3-8 or Duet. 28:1-8. These Bible verses are in fact my vision and reasons for striving for a better Nagaland).

It is however, true that contrary to the ideal world that I long for, when the commandments of God are violated by man and wrong laws are enacted, political chaos and economic disasters overtake societies leading to even the very nullification of the right to life and property. Nagaland has suffered under such a suffocating political system for the past over half a century.

By God’s grace Nagaland has been gifted with a lot of natural beauty and mineral and economic resources. Its inhabitants are also a proud and versatile people.

National Seminar on ‘India’s Look East Policy & the Response of the North-Eastern States’

Date: 4th October to 5th October, 2013, Place: St. Joseph’s College, ] Jakhama, Nagaland.

Convenor: Mr. Dihe Mao, HoD Political Science.

Co-Convenor: Ms. Lilly Humtsoe

of the importance attached to “Look East Policy”, there is an increasing realization that if infra-structure development takes place, North East India could become a point of convergence among the dynamic economies of Southeast Asia, Southern China and India.

The seminar intends to study the composition of India-ASEAN trade in order to suggest the policy measures that will facilitate the changes in the production structure of the North Eastern Region in conformity with the demand structure of ASEAN which will lay a strong basis for trade between the region and the ASEAN. The proposed seminar also seeks to assess the views of the ASEAN economic agents in relation to their prospects of economic engagement with the North Eastern Region.

It also aspires to investigate the nature of incentives that the federal and the state governments can device in order to transform the North- Eastern Region growth in the region.

This seminar also seeks to find out how the new policy thinking, the ‘Look East’ apparently intended to deliver India’s Northeast from its presently landlocked and peripheral status produces new geopolitical imaginaries that are not necessarily bound by the limits set forth by it.

Teachers and students from universities and colleges are most welcome.

Concept Note ndia’s Look East policy represents India’s efforts to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia in order to bolster her standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People’s Republic of China.

Initiated in 1991, it marked a strategic shift in India’s perspective of the world.

It was developed and enacted during the government of Prime Minister P.V. NarasimhaRao, and rigorously pursued by the successive administrations of AtalBehari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

The Look East Policy (LEP) touted as the harbinger of change and prosperity to the North-Eastern Region (NER) of India, for all purpose and intent remains more on papers. The significance of Northeast India as a bridgehead between India and Southeast Asia is being increasingly realized by the policy makers in New Delhi. For a long time since independence, the security dimension dominated Indian thinking. As a result, Northeast India was perceived as aliability and a burden. However, in the context

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHANIEL! May God Bless you with every good gifts from above.

With Love, Mummy, Daddy and Irene.

I

Dearest Aso, T h e re could not be a better time to wish nice things for you, beginning with a birthday that is happy all day through and after that, the very best of luck and health and cheer, and everything it takes to make a very happy year. May everything happy and everything bright be yours on your birthday, now and then through the year! May the same thing hold true so that each day is filled with life’s best things for you! Happy Birthday.

With best wishes, Moa

However its beautiful lands, natural resources- and most of all- its people have been desecrated by foreign invaders. And in this context, I just can’t understand those Nagas who doesn’t care about what has overtaken Nagaland from 1947 to the present. Yes, I just can’t understand those Naga who pretend that everything is fine with Nagaland.

In this inter-connected reality of life that I fully believe in, the whole concept begins with God and ends with humankind’s happiness on earth. My role in life, as I understand it from reading and believing in the Bible is to fight for the establishment of a just society which will be based on the just laws of God. For the past sixteen years, I have fought for just such a political establishment where I and my children (and all other fellow Nagas) can have life and security here on Earth.

Here, my mission in life is God centered. I am fighting and risking my life in this fight because I believe in God’s just laws with all my heart and soul and mind.

Concerning my present work, many friends think that I am doing something God has not called

me to do. They think that God has called me for greater things like saving souls and laying up treasures in heaven etc. These well meaning friends think that instead of engaging myself in eternal issues, I am wasting my time on temporal and earthly affairs.

While appreciating their concerns and also appreciating others who are in full time church ministries, here, I wish my detractors to know why I am doing what I am doing. I also want them to know that I am doing what I am doing because I believe this is what God wants me to do. The present thing that I am doing is not at all what I had always wanted to do. In fact many a times, I have been tempted to just abandon my present work and go back to the former life of a preacher and minister of the Church. In that former life I never encountered any opposition from any quarter for preaching the truths of God’s words. In fact, instead of opposition, I was patted and praised whenever I preached or taught from the Bible. But the moment I stared to apply my Biblical knowledge to contemporary politics and economy insisting

that we should practice what we preach, I started getting opposition and treats to my life even to the extend of abduction and intimidation of all sorts. What I eventually discovered is that as long as one is preaching about “heaven in the afterlife” there will be no opposition from the world. But the moment you start preaching “heaven on earth” you will get into trouble! What I discovered is that as long as you are preaching on the principles of the kingdom of God into heaven, you will face no opposition. But the moment you start preaching about practicing the principles of the kingdom of heaven into this world, you will get into trouble.

But trouble or no trouble, as long as God grants life, the struggle for freedom and liberty shall go on. This is because, as far as I am concerned- to give up on the struggle is to give up on all that I believe about God and his laws.

Kaka D. Iralu

(N.B. A fuller and more detailed account of this article will appear in my third forthcoming book.)

A Hero Forgotten? P. Shilu Ao

The First Chief Minister of Nagaland on his 25th Death Anniversary

A

man known for his dedication and strong commitment for the cause of the people of Nagaland, late P. Shilu Ao was elected to be the first Chief Minister of Nagaland. Lt. P. Shilu Ao was the fourth child among the seven children of Mr. Metongchiba Pongen and Mrs. Melungnenla Imchen of Longjang Village under Mokokchung District of Nagaland, who was born on 24th December 1916.

Lt. P. Shilu Ao did his early schooling at Impur Mission School from where he passed his class VI in 1st division in 1934. In the year 1938 he completed his Matriculation from Jorhat Mission School in 1st Division, which was regarded as one of the biggest achievements of his time. He continued his intermediate Arts at Cotton College, Guwahati and passed his Bachelor of Arts from the same college in the year 1952 and completed B.T. from Shillong in the subsequent year.

Between 1939 and 1940 he served as a lower Primary School Teacher at his native Village Longjang with a month of salary Rs. 10/-. After his intermediate studies, he taught at Impur Mission School from 1941 to 1947. Lt. P. Shilu Ao was the Chairman/ President of the Ao Christian Mungdang

(ABAM) Platinum Jubilee Celebration in 1946. In 1948, he joined government service as Inspector of Schools at Kohima where he served until 1949. During the same period, he also served as the Pastor in-charge of the Kohima Ao Baptist Church. From 1950 to 1952 he further served as Headmaster of Government Middle School, Wokha.

During 1954 - 1960, he served under the Government of Assam Service as EAC Cum First Class Magistrate.

When the Naga Peoples’ Convention was formed in 1960, he resigned from the Government of Assam Service and gave full service for the cause of the Naga people. He was the Chief Executive Councillor of the Nagaland Interim body between 1961-63 during the process of conversion of Naga Hills district of Assam to Nagaland state. In the midst of tremendous hurdles and challenges, he bravely worked for the welfare of the Naga people.

With the attainment of Nagaland statehood in 1963 he was elected from Impur Assembly Constituency as a member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the first state election of Nagaland in 1964.

He then became the first Chief Minister of Nagaland from 1964 to

1966. The ceasefire agreement between the Government of Nagaland and Naga undergrounds was signed in September 1964 under his initiative as Chief Minister of Nagaland, between 1966 and 1968 he was appointed as the Chairman of the SC/ST Commission under Indian Union.

P. Shilu Ao, a man of wisdom and a visionary leader for the upliftment of Nagaland passed away on the 19th September 1988 at the age of 72, leaving behind his wife, three sons and four daughters. His dedication, conviction and sacrificial commitment for Naga people is indisputable and worthy of highest respect and honor who will be remembered with gratitude in the annals of Naga history.

The year 2013 is the 25Th Death Anniversary of our great leader Late. P. Shilu Ao, which incidentally is also the 50th anniversary of Nagaland Statehood on this auspicious year if the people of Nagaland can once again pay its tribute and honor to this great leader and first Chief Minister by befittingly remembering him, it would remove the feeling of obvious neglect and casual attitude to all concerned towards the departed pioneer.

Neken Longkumer, Kohima

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

_

LEISURE

Simple Rules - There is just one simple rule: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box co ntains the digits 1 through 9.”

SUDOKU Game Number # 2659

DAILY CROSS WORD

CROSSWORD # 2671

Answer Number # 2658

DiMaPuR Civil Hospital:

STD CODE: 03862

Metro Hospital: Faith Hospital: Shamrock Hospital Zion Hospital: Police Control Room Police Traffic Control East Police Station West Police Station CIHSR (Referral Hospital) Dimapur hospital Apollo Hospital Info Centre: Railway: Indian Airlines Northeast Shuttles Chumukedima Fire Brigade Nikos Hospital and Research Centre Nagaland Multispecialty Health & Research Centre

KOhiMa

Police Control Room: North Police Station: South Police Station: Fire Brigade: Naga Hospital: Oking Hospital: Bethel Nursing Home:

232224; Emergency229529, 229474 227930, 231081 233044, 228846 228254 231864, 230889 228400 232106 227607, 228400 232181 242555/ 242533 224041, 285117, 248011 230695/9402435652 131/228404 229366 22232 282777 232032, 231031 248302, 09856006026

STD CODE: 0370

Northeast Shuttles

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ACROSS

B i L L K a i S L i n g L u F P L E h E

1. Leaf opening 6. Fraud 10. how old we are 14. Duck down 15. Ripped 16. Peddle 17. without company 18. Regretted 19. Couch 20. Functional 22. Modify 23. Circle fragments 24. ancient ascetic 26. Beige 30. Consumed food 31. aye 32. Bridle strap 33. Swear 35. Overact 39. whole number 41. Male ruler of an empire 43. Pilfer 44. Border 46. a noble gas 47. Second (abbrev.)

49. Mistake 50. Lacquered metalware 51. a person without pigment

54. Tumbled 56. King of the jungle 57. growing 63. alley 64. Dwarf buffalo 65. Risk 66. 1 1 1 1 67. Enumerate 68. genus of heath 69. Sailors 70. Carry 71. Drugged

DOWN 1. Oceans 2. Lean 3. Smell 4. List of options 5. Betel palm 6. System 7. Parts of a meal 8. Region 9. Potpourri 10. appraisal 11. Crystal-lined rock 12. Spritelike 13. Tablet 21. Small amount 25. Dribble 26. Twin sister of ares 27. 1/100th of a dollar

28. Liturgy 29. Feelings of anxiety 34. Discriminate 36. Chocolate cookie 37. anagram of “Loot” 38. Sea eagle 40. Secluded valley 42. European blackbird 45. Thaw 48. a hard metallic element 51. Bestow 52. Tropical vine 53. Silly mistake 55. Bounded along 58. Pearly-shelled mussel 59. Roman emperor 60. Colored part of an eye 61. agreeable 62. happy

Ans to CrossWord 2670

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The Morung Express

Thursday 26 September 2013

State FPai conducts free contraception camp Our Correspondent

BENEFITS OF TUBECTOMY

Kohima | September 25

As prelude to World Contraception Day, which falls on September 26 and observed worldwide annually, the Family Planning Association of India, Nagaland Branch today conducted a free contraception camp at its clinic Reproductive Health & Family Planning Centre (RHFPC) with indentified clients who will be provide free Tubectomy (female sterilization).

The state branch of FPA India is working on sexual reproductive health and family planning as its core activity.

The objective of World Contraception Day is to improve awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health. Under the motto “Your Future.

Your Choice. Your Contraception,” WCD 2013 focuses on empowering young people to think ahead and build contraception into their future plans, in order to prevent an unplanned pregnancy or Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI).

Talking to media persons, state branch manager

V. Vincent Belho made the stand clear that the FPAI is not for limiting or controlling the population but its intention is to secure quality of life, male participation and mother’s health care.

Kavili Achumi, counselor and Mhonthang Tungoe, programme officer also present at the briefing.

Universal access to reproductive health is key to achieving the millennium development goals. It is key to reducing maternal mortality, preventing unwanted pregnancies, curb-

ing the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and AIDS, empowering women and girls and building a more sustainable world for all people.

Tubectomy or female sterilization is the most popular method of contraception in India. It comprises of about 80% of all contraceptives accepted by a couple. It is a permanent method of contraception performed on the female partner when couples do not want to have any more

children. Occlusion of the fallopian tubes by some form so as to prevent the union of the sperm and the egg is the underlying principle.

Tubectomy fulfills most of the criteria of an ideal method of sterilization. It is a technique that can be performed in an out patient setting. It can be done without general anaesthesia. It is simple quick and easily learnt, has minimum side effects and can be reversed.

As per the guidelines the woman should be married,

moN, September 25 (Dipr): The Deputy Commissioner Mon, Angau I Thou, IAS accompanied by ADC Tobu, SDO Civil Mon, DPRO and DBs visited the major landslide area near Yakshu field, which occurred on August 16 last and cut off the Tobu area from the district Hq. The mudslide had damaged the Telangso Hydro Project Channel, resulting in non-functioning of the hydro project.

The DC Mon interacted with the leaders of Tobu at Telangso Hydro Project rest house. She expressed her appreciation to the people of the area for taking the initiatives in bringing essential commodities through

alternative route via Longleng district without any complaint. She also urged upon the people of the area to continue to extend their cooperation in maintaining peace and tranquility in the area for development. She also informed that road to Monyakshu headquarter is via Chen area and trucks carrying essential commodity are plying normally.

On the inquiry of the DC, it was learnt that the road would be cleared only after retrieving the JCB that was carried away by the landslide. The incharge of BRTF 71 Camp informed the DC that the road will be through within four to five days after the JCB is retrieved. While

inspecting the inter district road, which is also an alternative road connecting Tobu – Mon via Longleng district, she also inspected the site for construction of concrete bridge over river Yetyouang.

Besides massive mudslide near Yakshu field, multiple landslide/ mudslides along the Tobu road between 71 BRTF camp to Kimang river have occurred affecting the roads by washing away culverts and blocking the roads.

All minor landslides/mudslides have been cleared by the BRTF. The landslide and mudslide have also affected many paddy fields of that area.

moN, September 25 (mexN): A free comprehensive health camp & awareness programme was conducted on September 25, 2013. The camp was organized by D Coy 12th NAP (IR) & E Coy 6th NAP led by Additional SP-Aron Patton, Asst Commandant 12th IRJames Jami, Armed Branch Inspector 12th IR-Imli Amer & Armed Branch Inspector 6th NAP-Chuba Longkumer in association with District Health Society, Mon. This was informed in a press note received here.

The note mentioned that the Assistant Commandant encouraged his personnel to take full advantage of this camp in order to stay physically healthy to carry out their duties. Medical Officer,

a sense of normalcy and peace. It also requested the judiciary not to bail the criminals out easily as it demoralizes the morale of the police force and makes their efforts go in vain.

BAN also pointed that the due to lack of police in areas around Kushiabill, Dimapur where most bricks and sand come from, a lot of extortion is taking place unhindered, causing extreme harassment and leading to price rise in these commodities. Therefore, it requested the administration to depute PCR van and patrolling parties in these areas on regular basis.

BAN in the note stated that it also looks forward to assist, cooperate and work with the police force and the Administration in the future.

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The GPS, new building constructed under DMA (SSA) 20122013, was inaugurated at Kijumetouma Basa village.

A press note received here stated that Zaveyi Nyikha, Director of School Education, Nagaland speaking on the occasion emphasized that parents/ teacher are the back-bone to uplift in the light of education through community participation.

Also, R. Angami, Deputy Director School Education, exhorted and encouraged the youth with enthusiasm through competitive in spirit. Ruokuolhoulie SDEO, Kohima also exhorted the congregation to uphold the legacy of integrity.

The note mentioned

Vincent and others addressing media persons in Kohima

It is a one time permanent almost irreversible surgical contraception. It is the most cost effective method of family planning. It does not hamper sexual pleasure, in fact it may improve it due to freedom from anxiety of unplanned childbirth. There are no side effects on physical, psychological, menstrual or sexual functions of woman and her husband. Complications are minor like wound infections, scar hernia in properly selected cases. The overall failure rate is about 0.7%.Failure rate is increased when tubectomy is done along with Caesarean section. Failure may be due to fistula formation or due to spontaneous reanastomosis. Occasionally couples regret after the operation and request reversal. To avoid such problems couples should be well counseled before the procedure that this is a permanent method of sterilization. Microsurgical techniques give excellent results for reversal. Reversal of tubectomy with restoration of tubal patency is very good with laparoscopic cases. But pregnancy rate is low (50%).

should be between the ages of 22 and 45 years and the couple should have at least one child whose age is above one year and is fully vaccinated. The woman or her partner should not have undergone sterilization in the past unless it is a case of sterilization failure.

The couple should be in a perfectly normal state of mind so as to understand the full implication of the procedure. Mentally ill patients should be certified by a psychiatrist and in such cases consent should

Dimapur

5

MEx FILE Vehicle recovered Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The Operation Acceleration Dimapur Town of the NSCN/GPRN under the command of its ‘Commander’ Lt. Col. Nagaho has informed that on September 24, 2013 one Tata Six Wheeler with Engine No. 69TTC58PQZ 122653, Chassis No. MAT36101491P33326 was recovered A press note issued by OADT, NSCN/GPRN Investigation Officer Capt. Hotoi stated that the rightful owner may claim it with proper document within fifteen (15) days through the following contact number: 9402988715 (I/O), 9856844268 (Adjt.).

Mass social work at Phek on Sept 28

phek, September 25 (Dipr): Deputy Commissioner, Phek Neposo Theluo has informed that a mass social work will be held on September 28, which will commence from 6.00 a.m. onward in view of the All Nagaland College Students Union (ANCSU) Conference at Phek Headquarter from October 2 to 5 and the visit of Chief Minister and other dignitaries. He therefore rebe given by spouse/guard- quested all inhabitants of Phek Town to cooperate for ian. Counseling must be the successful conduct of the social work. thorough before the procedure. The couple must understand that this is a per- SHGs’ Marketing Day on September 27 manent procedure. They must be informed of all Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The Jotthe other methods of fam- soma Village women SHGs under Horticulture Techily planning like condoms, nology Mission has informed that it will host its anoral pills, IUCD, injections. nual ‘Economic Day’ by organizing the Village SHGs’ They must be counseled Marketing Day on September 27, 2013 at Lezo Cha, in a language they under- National Highway 29. A press note issued by Vizetostand. They must be made no Nakhro, SHGs’ Facilitator Jotsoma Village stated, to understand what will “The SHGs’ members from Jotsoma village request happen before, during and all passers by in the NH way 29, halt for a second and after the procedure, the po- pick up your choice of organically produced vegetatential side effects and the bles, fruits and other food items for your loved ones.

Remember, as you buy and eat SHGs’ products, you complications. are not only satisfied with its quality and nutritional value, but it also directly impacts SHGs positively in term of food security or enhanced incomes, that results in long term quality of life. Come and support our venture”.

DC Mon visit areas affected by major landslide Free Health Camp held for police personnel Longyim, DPO NSACS, interacting with the battalions.

Dr Chumdemo introduced his team members and thanked the police department for taking the initiative in conducting the programme. “We know it’s your job to look after people and it’s our job to look after you” said Dr Chumdemo.

Also, awareness on HIV/ AIDS & Malaria was shared

by Longyim DPO, DAPCU & L.Mangyang, Malaria Inspector. While spreading the awareness, Longyim gave

BAN assures support New GPS building at Kijumetouma Basa to Nagaland police

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The Business Association of Nagas (BAN) formerly known as NBOADD has appreciated the commendable job done by Nagaland police, for cracking down on extortionist and criminals, who are increasing by the day and creating a fear of psychosis and lawlessness not only among the business community but also the public. This was stated in a press note issued by Mar Longkumer, information & publicity secretary, BAN. BAN in the note also requested the police force to keep constant vigil on the anti social elements and exert increasing pressure upon the criminals so as to send a stern message across and to restore

World Contraception Day September 26, 2013 World Contraception Day is an annual event taking place on September 26 every year. WCD is a global campaign with a vision for a world where every pregnancy is wanted.

Its mission is to improve awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health.

Every year, countries and regions around the world organize events to mark World Contraception Day and to demonstrate their commitment to raising awareness of contraception and improving education regarding reproductive and sexual health. This worldwide campaign was launched in 2007 by the European Society of Contraception with the mission of

raising awareness about contraception, so that all young people can make informed sexual and reproductive decisions.

Under the motto, “Your Future.

Your Choice. Your Contraception”, WCD 2013 focuses on empowering young people to think ahead and build contraception into their future plans, in order to prevent an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection (STI). For future years WCD will be using an umbrella theme: 'It’s your life; it’s your future'. This theme has been chosen as it is forward-looking, positive and empowering.

There are 3 sub-themes: • Your options where young people can learn about all the contraceptive options available, using a reliable, unbiased source of information.

• Your future: understanding how unplanned pregnancies can happen and how the body changes during puberty

Zaveyi Nyikha, Director of School Education, Nagaland speaking at the inauguration of GPS, new building at Kijumetouma Basa village.

that the chief guest was accompanied by R. Angami Deputy Director Of School

Education, Vikeinuo Assistant Director Of School Education, Theyeivilie assistant District co-ordinator DMA (SSA) and staffs and Khriekethozo, SIS under SDEO,Kohima Yalie VEC Chairman chaired the function while pastor Medielhou CRC Kijumetouma invoked blessings, followed welcome note by Sobulie Paunuo, VCC Kijumetouma Bassa Village and highlighted along with a special song by GPS Teachers and Students of Kijumetouma Basa Village.

Lastly, a brief report on construction was accounted by Thepfungulie VEC members Secretary, and the function ended with a vote of thanks from Pejumvu GB.Kijumetouma Basa Village.

details of the services provided by NSACS. Imli Amer, ABI (Armed Branch Inspector) 12th IR proposed the vote of thanks in which he thanked all the Medical Staff for sparing the time inspite of their busy schedule.

There were 42 patients, T.T injections 33, T.T Hep B-1, Malaria-Nil. Those who required further examination were asked to utilize the facilities at the District Hospital.

Wildlife Preservation Volunteers

Wokha, September 25 (mexN): Wildlife Preservation Volunteers Sungro Range, Wokha has been formed with convenor W Nyimthungo Yanthan, secretary N Subenthung Odyuo, and members-Zaremo M, Nzanbemo R Ezung and E Nzanbemo Kithan. The Wildlife Preservation Volunteers comprises of 25 members including educated unemployed, fishermen, bird trapper and hunters. The organisation stated in a press release that Sungro, Pangti and Asha villages are signatories of MoU with Wildlife Trust of India, Natural Nagas and the Government of Nagaland to protect Amur Falcon.

The Range Volunteers will give support and co-operation to the government and its agencies in implementing various activities.

‘Obtain permission for weekly bazaars’

kohima, September 25 (mexN): All the ward Panchayats within the jurisdiction of Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) are informed that any ward/colony willing to conduct weekly bazaar in their locality should first obtain permission from the KMC office. On KMC’s approval only, the weekly bazaars can be conducted, according to a notice issued by Elizabeth Ngullie, Chief Executive Officer, KMC. Stating that checking will be conducted by the KMC staff, the notice informed that the precaution is mainly due to the waste generated from these bazaars. Hence, all ward/colony concerned chairmen have been directed to comply with this order. Failing which, action will be taken against the Panchayat, it added.

One arrested with Ganja

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): Personnel from the Government Railway Police Station on September 25 apprehended one person in possession of around 24 Kilograms of illegal contraband Ganja. Police identified the accused as one Ganesah (39), who was arrested at the Dimapur railway station platform.

It was informed that the accused had procured the consignment of illegal contraband from Mao gate and was planning to take it to Assam. A case has been registered in this connection.

WCH condoles

Dimapur, September 25 (mexN): The Western Chakhesang Hoho (WCH) has stated that the untimely demise of late Thepusato (Boshi), S/O late. Vamuzo, former Chief Minister, Nagaland who passed way on September 22, 2013 has been a terrible blow and a great loss for the WCH in particular and the Chakhesang tribe in general. A condolence note issue by Vekhosayi Nyekha, president WCH and Medozhoyi Lohe, publicity & information secretary WCH stated, “Our hopes and expectation were high on late Boshi who was an upcoming young leader holding the post of state NPF general secretary. In his death, a dream has been lost whilst the plans of God cannot be question”. At this time of grief and loss, in conveying our sincere condolence, the WCH pray that that God the merciful will grant strength and comfort to Mrs. Sano Vamuzo and all the near and dear ones. “Bidding farewell to late Thepusato Boshi, we humbly pray God Almighty will rest his soul in peace,” it stated in the note.

Public SPace

• Your partner: learning to talk to your partner about contraception and how to build a trusting relationship based on reliable information WCD reiterates the right of all people to access to safe, affordable, accessible, acceptable and effective forms of contraception. This enables women and men to assert their rights to sexual and reproductive health, including access to family planning services and protection against HIV/ AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).It is important for both genders to have equal information, as a newborn child becomes a shared responsibility.

Family Planning Association of India, a premier national voluntary organisation today observe World Contraception Day along with the rest of the world. FPA India is an accredited member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and its main focus of work is Sexual and Reproduc-

tive health. FPA India believes that Sexual and Reproductive rights are internationally recognised human rights that should be guaranteed for and exercised by everyone. Over the years FPA India has expanded its work to include programmes covering maternal and child survival, male involvement, adolescents and young people, sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, HIV/AIDS, gender inequities and basic rights of men and women.

The organisation believes that in a country facing serious problems of poverty, disease, illiteracy and high maternal and child mortality, a balanced mix of contraception and development would break the vicious cycle of overpopulation and poverty as well besides quality life. FPA India, Nagaland Branch appeals to individuals/organizations to ensure that every pregnancy is a planned and wanted pregnancy with access to contraception knowledge.

The 8 Millennium Development

Goals is a promise to the people by the nations and FPA India, Nagaland Branch as part of its efforts to complement the promise with focus on MDG5 (a) & (b): “Improve Maternal Health” & “Achieve universal Access to Reproductive Health” respectively is working towards providing easy and free access to Reproductive health services with provision of different types of contraceptive methods both short-term and long-term.

Condoms, IUD, OCP, Injectables are provided to clients for temporary contraception, while Tubectomy & Vasectomy services are provided for permanent contraception at the Reproductive Health & Family Planning Clinic (RHFPC) at Daklane, Kohima.

Ville Rhetso Counsellor, RHFPC FPA India, Nagaland Branch

Clarification In the light of the press release issue on the 29th August 2013, where-

in it mentions as Nkio-Khelma Area, the undersigned is constraint to issue a corrective rejoinder once and for all. Whereas, the Kebai-Khelma Area is a general accepted form of nomenclature used to denote Zeliang public living beyond Ahthibung circle, upto Khelma.

And wheras, the Government of Nagaland have in an official notification Date Kohima, the 1st Jun 2009, NO. GAB-1/COM/142/2007(PTI) clearly indicated the said area, while creation of a Boader Magistrate Post.

And, hence publication of vested news items will have no say, and further cautioned the public not to issue such provocative and self-styled name of the area for peaceful co-existence.

Agui Riamme Secretary Kebai Khelma Public Organisation Peren: Nagaland

Nteukut President Kebai Khelma Public Organisation Peren: Nagaland

The Morung Express is introducing “Public Space” as part of our intention to provide deliberate space for the opinions of the people to be expressed and heard through this newspaper.

Nonetheless, The Morung Express points out that the opinions expressed in the contents published in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper or the editor.

6

IN-FOCUS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express THursDAy 26 sEPTEmbEr 2013 vol. vIII IssuE 263

by Aheli moitra

Responsibility for peace

A

religious leader asked peace activist Niketu Iralu at the lunch table on the 6th North East Youth Peace and Cultural Festival 2013 a pertinent question. “Who is responsible for peace in Nagaland?” It was one of those sweltering days of September in Dimapur and nearly 600 young delegates from the North East of India, representing various religions had congregated to talk about peace. Niketu Iralu thought for a moment before he responded to the religious leader with a gentle laugh, “even god is confused about that.”

A little before this, he had made a stirring speech on ending selfishness in the lives of people. A “red line” has to be drawn, he said, to end selfishness; to end the murky and complicated society where cures have become as painful as the ailment. In this way, everyone could contribute to move towards peace— the responsibility for peace, then, lies with no one entity.

In a similar line of thought, through an entirely different style of delivery, Rev. Dr. Wati Aier next day said that we are all responsible for peace. And by changing the barriers set by the principalities of ethnicity, gender or class, the youth could usher peace into the region.

Could we?

Often the youth is faced with the terminology of peace, not knowing which module to follow. The State offers a model of peace. It uses armed violence to “maintain peace and security,” and gives a certain set of rights. While this creates as much violence and insecurity, can claiming self-determination through armed violence then offer peace?

In Nagaland, many are “responsible” for peace. There are the leaders of tribes who offer peace. There are civil organizations that aspire to “spread the fire of peace” yet peace remains internally evasive. Organized religion offers peace, as does the capitalist market. Elsewhere, the left brigade wants to deliver peace. Then the ecology lobby will talk of saving “our environment for our generation” for future peace. The crown, of course, is held by the United Nations.

All of these groups bring people together. While providing definitions in rigid terms, they also foster harmony among sections of the population. Communal practices, need for selfpreservation and cultural significance act as glue. However, all of these also fuel war, or stand by it in their own ways. But does war not bring the news of change?

We could take the responsibility to bring peace, but has the young son of an old leader changed the ways of governance to bring peace? Who will sign up for my neighbor to inculcate just behavior? If we stand up against the injustices of one agency, will the other defend us against the repercussions?

We, the youth, sometimes do not know. In a place like the North East of India, the close packing of social, political, ethnic, religious or capitalist spaces make it hard for the youth to distinguish what mode of peace to pursue. Sure, each of us must maintain cleanliness and discard selfishness. Institutionally though, we need a long process of education on structures of discrimination and abuse. Peace congregations of all kinds help towards that but they need to inform us of our communal context, apart from the individual. Only then can we, the youth, become active participants in the search for peace, and simultaneously feel empowered to take responsibility for it.

For voicing suggestions and confusions on peace, write to moitramail@gmail.com

lEfT wiNg |

Arun Kumar Source: IANS

No historic handshake

A

historic handshake between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was not to be. But in unmistakable signs of thaw both leaders signalled in their UN speeches a willingness to talk, with Obama saying Washington was "not seeking regime change" and Rouhani stating that Tehran "does not seek to increase tensions" with the US. Taking the floor first at the UN General Assembly Tuesday, Obama responding to what he called "positive signals" from Iran offered a diplomatic path to solve Tehran's nuclear issue. At the same time he made clear that the US was committed to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon saying "We will not tolerate the development or use of weapons of mass destruction."

America's "difficult history" with Iran can't be overcome overnight as "the suspicion runs too deep," Obama told the annual gathering of world leaders but he did see an opportunity to take a "major step down a long road toward a different relationship."

"The road blocks may prove to be too great, but I firmly believe that the diplomatic path must be tested," Obama said assuring Tehran "We are not seeking regime change, and we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy."

The president also said he is directing Secretary of State John Kerry to work with Iran's government on a diplomatic solution to the issue of Iran's nuclear programme. Kerry will meet Thursday with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif along with his counterparts from five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany negotiating to contain Iran's nuclear programme.

Thursday's meeting would be the first formal face-toface session between the top US and Iranian diplomats since the overthrow of pro-American Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi more than 34 years ago.

As Obama spoke there was widespread speculation that he may give further impetus to his offer with a "chance encounter" and a handshake with Rouhani.

But shortly before Rouhani spoke, two senior administration officials told reporters that the two would not be meeting as such an encounter proved too complicated for Iran back home.

Hours later, Rouhani striking a conciliatory tone signalled Iran's willingness to "engage immediately in timebound and result-oriented talks to build mutual confidence and removal of mutual uncertainties.

"Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defence doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions," he said.

Decrying international sanctions against Iran Rouhani said: "Sanctions, beyond any and all rhetoric, cause belligerence, war-mongering and human suffering."

Asserting that "Iran seeks to resolve problems, not to create them," Rouhani said his country "does not seek to increase tensions with the United States."

The Iranian leader said he listened carefully to US President Barack Obama's speech and hoped that the United States "will refrain from following the short-sighted interests of warmongering pressure groups" so that the two nations "can arrive at a framework to manage our differences."

Three US Republican senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte offered cautious support to Obama administration's diplomatic initiative with Iran saying they were "deeply sceptical about the real motivations behind Iran's charm offensive."

"We need to approach the current diplomatic initiative with eyes wide open, and we must not allow Iran to use negotiations as a tool of delay and deception," they said.

The Washington Post also editorially cautioned that "New hopes for diplomacy should not blind the US to Iran's bottom line" and advised the Obama administration "to swiftly demand that Mr. Rouhani make clear his bottom line - and prick the bubble he has been inflating."

THE EDIT PAGE

C O M M E N T A R Y

David Elstein

Broadcasting for Scotland

Scotland's bid for autonomy is also a chance to build an independent media, one that is not based in London and puts Scottish perspectives first

T

he BBC faces a possibly existential threat in the next 12 months and it comes, not from uncertainty over the future of the BBC Charter and licence fee, but because of the implications of Scottish independence if the “yes” camp wins next September’s referendum.

Independence would profoundly affect two key pillars of the broadcasting economy: the allocation of spectrum and the structure – and financing – of the established broadcasters.

In terms of spectrum management, the role of the Westminster government and its appointed regulator, Ofcom, would presumably be ended by a “yes” vote for independence.

It is not hard to see an independent Scottish government using its newly-acquired powers over spectrum allocation to force a re-drawing of the ITV map, with the Border franchise (currently part of ITV Tyne Tees Border, delivering local programmes to Cumbria and southern Scotland from Gateshead!) being broken up, so as to create either a unified Scottish ITV contractor, licensed by the Scottish equivalent of Ofcom, or a re-divided system north of the border.

Similarly, Channel 4 north of the border might be re-licensed by a Scottish government, using its existing spectrum, in exchange for a significant boost in commissioning and scheduling content originated in Scotland.

Alex Salmond has also spoken of creating a Scottish public broadcaster based on the assets and premises of the BBC in Scotland: he has not pronounced on whether this would be a fully-fledged replacement, using all BBC spectrum north of the border, as well as diverting all licence fee revenue gathered in Scotland.

It is impossible to discuss broadcasting in the UK without the BBC being at the heart of the debate. The BBC’s roots lie firmly in the 1920s, when public corporations were the fashion of the day and the Empire was still a thriving institution. Indeed, the World Service as we know it today was launched as the Empire Service, funded by the licence fee, by that most famous son of the manse, John Reith.

When Reith was finally winkled out of the BBC in 1938 after 16 years at its head, he fetched up as chairman of Imperial Airways, better known today as British Airways.

The BBC, like the UK government, is run from London. Of course, it has elaborate regional and national structures, with councils, boards and advisors.

But you just need to follow the money to understand how the organisation works. The vast majority of the BBC’s income - £3.6 billion from the licence fee, plus a further £1.5 billion gross and £150 million net from its commercial activities – is controlled from London, in the shape of budgets for network television and radio channels, all of which are run from London (apart from Radio Five Live, which was moved to Salford, for entirely political reasons).

Even when the chairman lives in Birmingham – or

T

HEY can’t do without the farmer story. When people who wish to transform India through the Internet talk about their plans, they tend to tell a story that goes something like this: A poor farmer is about to sell his crop very cheap when someone, often a smart adolescent granddaughter, checks the market price online, and the farmer makes a more informed decision.

It appears that technology executives feel they must treat the Internet as something deeply noble and serious in order to substantiate its importance in an impoverished nation.

Even Facebook, that great time suck of FarmVille, not farmers, seems to have suffered a head injury and is now imagining itself as Mother Teresa. Internet.org, the company’s recent push along with other companies to bring affordable access to the more than two-thirds of the world that is not yet online, has the grave tone of social reformation. Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said last month that the goal was to “create a backbone for many things, including access to information, access to information about health care, education, jobs and just so many good things.”

Too many people presume that what the poor want from the Internet are the crucial necessities of life. In reality, the enchantment of the Internet is that it’s a lot of fun. And fun, even in poor countries, is a profound human need. Quality of life is as much an as-

Edinburgh – the vast majority of board meetings for the old Governors and the new Trust were and are held in London. Like Edward the First in Wales, the BBC has built an impressive series of fortresses – Salford Quay, Pacific Quay – costing hundreds of millions of pounds, but these are as much an expression of the BBC’s power and how it exercises it as of any serious devolution of decision-making to the nations and regions.

I gave evidence last month to the House of Lords Communications Committee that is investigating how to measure media plurality. I argued that the BBC’s 60% share of all news consumption by UK adults needed to be mitigated by substantial devolvement of editorial decision-making within the organisation: separating authority as between radio and television, as between news and current affairs, as between network services and services in the nations and regions, and even allowing the BBC News Channel its editorial independence.

My argument was that this would benefit the BBC, UK citizens, the degree of plurality in UK media and democracy in its widest definition. What I did not emphasise then, I underline now: a channel run by Scots, for Scots and funded by Scots is anyway overwhelmingly overdue, both as part of that process of devolving editorial authority, and – just as importantly – as an expression of the Scots nation.

A bi-partisan Scottish Broadcasting Commission, appointed by the Scottish Parliament, reported in 2009 that there was a need significantly to upgrade the quality, extent and identifiably Scottish nature of broadcast content in Scotland. A key component of the report was the recommendation that a dedicated volume of output be broadcast by a Scottish Digital Network.

In the four years since the SBC’s report, there has been little progress on the Digital Network, which consequently already has a slightly dated air about it. For instance, the emphasis on more news and current affairs has been somewhat overtaken by the expansion of such output in the light of the impending referendum.

Even if the SDN were refined in concept, it would still remain stuck between the BBC’s present unwillingness to countenance it and the Scottish Parliament’s inability either to fund it or to ensure its place on the various broadcast systems.

The SBC estimated the cost of the Network at about £75 million a year. The BBC collects well over £300 million a year from Scottish homes through the compulsory licence fee, but returns far less than that in terms of programme budgets and commissions. £75m to provide content targeted at 6 million Scots in Scotland and millions more outside compares favourably with the £95 million a year cost of the Welsh-language channel S4C, serving half a million Welsh speakers, which the licence fee will be funding from next year.

Could the Scottish Parliament leave the BBC in place, and itself pick up the bill for a Scottish Net-

work? It already spends some £12 million a year on BBC Alba (virtually the entire cost of the channel), serving just 50,000 Gaelic speakers, and for Scottish licence fee payers it would be adding injury to insult if they had to pay an extra £12.50 on top of the licence fee to provide a Scottish Digital Network that arguably should be funded by the licence fee anyway.

Moreover, under current laws, the Scottish Parliament does not control broadcasting spectrum in Scotland, so could not impose a Scottish channel on a fully-stretched transmission system. Providing access solely online is a very unattractive and costly alternative. STV does a reasonable job for Scottish viewers, but has too little practical independence from the ITV network to do significantly more.

Meanwhile, the coalition in Westminster has preempted a crucial slot on the various electronic programme guides for the local TV services that Jeremy Hunt was so keen to see launched throughout the UK. A Scottish channel might find no suitable slot on the EPGs. How could Scotland escape from this triple bind?

The first objective should be to demand from the Westminster government the right to pre-empt the spectrum and EPG placing secured for local TV services for one or more dedicated Scottish channels, national or local. Making that demand ahead of the 2015 referendum serves a useful purpose: Westminster might deem it politic to concede the point before it became a referendum issue – and if Westminster refused, a referendum issue it should and would become.

The second objective is to confront the BBC. We should never forget that S4C was conceded by a Conservative government in response to a hunger strike by the Welsh Nationalist leader, Gwynfor Evans. The coalition ambush of the BBC in October 2010 was another salutary event. In a brief 48 hours, the BBC conceded that it would finance out of the licence fee the BBC World Service (a Foreign Office project), S4C (a Treasury project), broadband rollout (an industrial project) and local TV (a Jeremy Hunt project). The collective cost of these commitments – none of them a legitimate charge on licence fee payers – is close to £400 million a year: and the BBC opted for this hefty burden to avoid having imposed on it the cost of providing free TV licences for the over-75s: which would have cost some £600 million a year.

2015 will be the year when the BBC faces a wide range of pressures over its scale and scope, its governance and its financing, as renewal of its Royal Charter looms closer. So the coming 12 months must be the year in which the Scottish government asks the BBC whether it really wants to risk the full potential impact of independence, or would rather reach a concordat ahead of voting day that would take broadcasting substantially off the referendum agenda.

That concordat would concede not just the financing of a Scottish Digital Network from 2016 onwards, but detailed editorial independence for BBC news and current affairs departments from 2015. In return, the Scottish government would discuss with the BBC the basis for continued collection of the licence fee and continued use of spectrum and assets in Scotland such that the major BBC channels and BBC programming for Scotland survive a “yes” vote.

The BBC is in many ways a wonderful organisation.

But its structure, its design, its history, its DNA and its mindset render it resistant to real change, let alone constitutional upheaval. But like many seemingly powerful institutions, it is also vulnerable to a carefully planned attack.

Ofcom, the UK media regulator, is already putting pressure on the BBC Trust to find ways to offset its dominant place as a news provider by extending internal plurality. Granting far greater independence to BBC Scotland is one way to meet this demand. The bigger step – a fully independent Scottish network, funded by the licence fee – needs to be built above this, and can be delivered by a determined campaign launched as part of the independence campaign.

Of course, the prospect of a fully independent Scottish broadcasting system, if the referendum result allows it, will make appeal to many Scottish voters. But I suspect the BBC is rather more popular in Scotland than the union itself, so arguably that prospect should best be used as a lever to deliver stages one and two of the Scottish broadcasting agenda, even if that involves leaving unharvested some of the possible fruits of independence, should it be voted through. I am a great believer in the bird in hand. And the case for independence might actually be strengthened for many voters if the future of the BBC in Scotland has been resolved before polling day next September.

Let the Poor Have Fun manu Joseph Source: NYT

sortment of happy frivolities as it is the bare essentials of survival. And India is a perpetual reminder that a lot of good — even the somber sociological stuff — can come from people setting out in pursuit of joy.

What the poor want from a technological revolution is probably best understood by watching the way they react to electricity. They do not crave electricity so they can keep newborns warm in incubators. They want it for the simple pleasure.

Chibaukhera, a village in northern India where electricity has been available only since March of this year, is now under the spell of television. As television sets were much sought-after and prestigious dowries, several houses had them even before they got electricity. Now that the TVs and plugs have finally met, the villagers are hooked on Hindi films and serials about family feuds. In time, they will have incubators, too.

It is not always true that entertainment is the collateral consequence of progress; progress, often, is the collateral benefit of the pursuit of pleasure.

So what is the problem if Facebook

and others have acquired a halo as they try to reach out to developing nations with false notions about what the poor actually want? After all, they do plan to bring the Internet to places that do not have access. But the tech industry’s misreading of the biggest audience in its own revolution will lure it into committing the same mistake of so many other altruistic projects.

The last 15 years have seen numerous well-intentioned missions to transform society through computers and the Internet — remember One Laptop Per Child? — but few of them have had much impact.

Today, of the roughly 207 million occupied rural homes in India, only about 1.2 million have computers with an Internet connection. But there are 300 million cellphone subscriptions in these areas. And according to a recent survey, more than seven million of those users connect to the Internet only through their phones.

The extraordinary triumph of the cellphone among India’s poor stemmed from its ability to enable a most mundane human need, which is

wRiTE-wiNg

to chat with other people. And when the poor chat, it is not always about curing a child of diarrhea.

The Indian government has several valiant plans to bring Internet access to the villages, but they largely center on connecting government offices for ID databases and for software simulation to teach citizens skills like plumbing.

Wouldn’t it be better if the poor were offered direct connectivity over their phones, free or cheap, and were left to decide what they wanted to do with it?

Mr. Zuckerberg’s belief that connectivity is a human right is honorable.

Where he and his allies err is in imagining that fun is not, and in underestimating the power of entertainment to transform society. Chatting with friends online may not save the world, but if it can get more people to log on, the rest will follow.

Many years ago, when I worked for a lifestyle magazine, I was given my worst assignment ever. I had to call some of the richest people in southern India and ask them what they usually had for breakfast. The first man I called told me, “I don’t eat gold biscuits.” It was a welldeserved reprimand for presuming that rich people were somehow different from other humans.

It is equally ridiculous to presume that what poor people want from the Internet is lessons in plumbing.

Manu Joseph is the editor of OPEN magazine and the author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People.”

Letters to the Editor should be sent to: The morung Express, House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur - 797112, Or –email: morung@gmail.com All letters (including those via email) should have the full name and Postal address of the sender.

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

7

Thursday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

26 September 2013

PERSPECTIVE NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE

diplomacy helps Taliban abduction Syria shuffle global order left her 'even braver' George Gao

W

Nahal Toosi

T

Associated press

he Taliban kidnappers moved her to at least 13 homes, made her sleep on the ground, and kept asking where she'd been, what she'd done and whom she knew. Every few days, she would be given a chance to call her family.

Still, the militants would push her only so far — they knew they needed to keep their bargaining chip in good shape.

Fariba Ahmadi Kakar's four-week ordeal ended this month after the Afghan government gave in to her captors' demands to free some prisoners. In an interview with The Associated Press, the 39-year-old Afghan lawmaker gave a rare account of what it's like for a woman to be held captive by the Islamist insurgents.

"I wasn't tortured. I wasn't under constant stress. But I wasn't free," Kakar said.

She's also lucky to be alive.

Since July, several prominent women have been attacked in Afghanistan. Among them: two police officers who were killed in the south, an Indian author living in eastern Afghanistan who was killed years after her memoir about 1990s life under Taliban rule became a Bollywood film; and a senator who was wounded in an ambush.

These and other attacks on female leaders in recent years have generally been blamed on the Taliban, though the Afghan militant group, mindful of cultural sensitivities, usually does not admit to targeting women. The assaults have added to growing fears that what few gains Afghan women have made since the U.S. toppled the Taliban government in 2001 could be erased once American-led foreign troops finish withdrawing next year.

Being a woman in the public eye is a special challenge in Afghanistan, where tribal and conservative Islamic mores have long subjected women across the social spectrum to violence and discrimination.

The spotlight can be a shield, making men think twice about mistreating a woman and perhaps even guaranteeing that she'll be assigned a bodyguard. At the same time, it can make a woman a more attractive target for insurgents hoping to spread fear and weaken confidence in the Afghan government.

Kakar is one of 69 female lawmakers in the 249-seat lower house of parliament, and she's never been naive about the danger she and other prominent Afghan women face.

Still, her initial encounter with her kidnappers was so swift and shocking it's still something of a blur today.

Kakar, her four children, her bodyguard and her driver were traveling from southern Kandahar province to Kabul, the Afghan capital, when a handful of armed militants on motorbikes appeared ahead of them on the outskirts of Ghazni city. The gunmen made the driver turn off the highway onto a bumpy, dirt road that led to a small village.

The militants put the group in the home of an Afghan Taliban family, separating the men from the women and saying little. Kakar, though, quickly began pleading with the captors to free her three daughters and son, ages 2 to 20.

She tried to calm her children but did not downplay what was happening. "I told them, 'This is the situation in this country. I will try to make sure you are safe,'" she said.

The Taliban fighters let her call her family. Within a couple of days her children were released to her mother and brother. Kakar, though, was shifted from place to place and kept separate from her driver and bodyguard.

Just days before the kidnapping, a fellow female legislator was wounded in an am-

I

f Michael Jackson were still alive today, he would have just celebrated his 55th birthday and the world would know the outcome of his comeback efforts.

He might be embarking on a new career in filmmaking and probably would be nudging his eldest son in the same direction.

As a trial pursued by the singer's mother against the promoters of Jackson's planned comeback concerts draws to a close, jurors may soon be considering intriguing what-ifs had the King of Pop lived.

Throughout the trial, which has spanned 21 weeks and more than 50 witnesses, the panel of six men and six women has heard evidence about Jackson's ambitions and his undisputed devotion for his three children and mother. If jurors determine that AEG Live LLC is liable for Jackson's death, the group will then have to decide how much to compensate the singer's three children and his mother for the loss of a loving father and an entertainer potentially capable of earning tens of millions of dollars a year.

In order to award Jackson's family any money, the panel would have to determine that AEG Live hired the doctor convicted of administering an overdose of the anesthetic propofol in June 2009. AEG denies it hired former cardiologist Conrad Murray or bears any responsibility for Jackson's death. The company's lawyers point to evidence that Murray treated Jackson for years before prepara-

In this Tuesday, September 17, 2013 photo, Afghan lawmaker Fariba Ahmadi Kakar speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since July, several prominent women have been attacked in Afghanistan. Among them: two police officers who were killed in the south, an Indian author living in eastern Afghanistan who was killed years after her memoir about 1990s life under Taliban rule became a Bollywood film; and a senator who was wounded in an ambush. These and other attacks on female leaders in recent years have generally been blamed on the Taliban, though the Afghan militant group, mindful of cultural sensitivities, usually does not admit to targeting women. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

bush by suspected Taliban gunmen not far from where Kakar was seized. Sen. Rouh Gul Khairzad's young daughter was killed, as was a bodyguard, while other family members also were wounded.

The militants who kidnapped Kakar had a different goal: They wanted the government to release some prisoners, and Kakar was their leverage.

In recounting her ordeal, Kakar wavered from calm to anger to wariness, and wouldn't always delve into details. At times she looked faint, but then she'd break into a sudden grin.

When asked what she did all day in the various homes in which she was held captive, she smirked and said, "Nothing!"

She had only a vague idea of what was happening between her captors and authorities seeking to free her.

Kakar had a couple of female minders, whom she called "the doctor's mother" and "Zolaikha," but she wouldn't go into specifics about them. She said, however, that most of the women she encountered would tell her, "We have no power or authority to talk to you."

The men, like many Taliban, were hard-line Muslims who tried to avoid interacting with women outside their families. They would tell her their commanders were dealing with the details of her case.

Now and then, Kakar would be interrogated by the militants — usually three or four of them, and they didn't hide their faces. They'd ask her questions about her travels, her political activities and if she had met President Hamid Karzai. Nonetheless, they always treated her with "full respect," she said, even cutting short the questioning if they saw she was getting tired.

Kakar leads a privileged life compared to most Afghans, and she was deeply troubled by the poverty and ignorance around her. There were no beds to sleep on, the food was often "inedible," and there was no sense of any government presence. When she needed medicine, she'd give the militants some of her own money so they could buy it for her.

"The people in these villages don't even

know what vaccines are," said Kakar, a former development worker whose constituency is in Kandahar city.

In early September, the captors told Kakar it would be just days before she'd be free. That same week, militants dragged Indian author Sushmita Banerjee out of the home she shared with her Afghan husband in eastern Afghanistan and fatally shot her. Banerjee's 1990s tale of life under the Taliban was the basis for the 2003 movie "Escape from Taliban."

Kakar was freed Sept. 7. Her bodyguard and driver were released separately. But there are conflicting accounts about whom the government freed in exchange.

Zholina Faizi, secretary of the Ghazni provincial council and one of the few in the government willing to discuss the matter, told the AP that seven male insurgents and one woman were released.

But the Taliban, in a statement announcing Kakar's release, said the prisoners were "four innocent women and two children." The militants also emphasized they had treated Kakar "in a very Islamic and humane way."

Kakar said government officials told her four women and 10 children from Taliban families were let go, including babies born in prison. She said she was told the women's husbands made them transport explosive materials, but that the women were unaware what it was they were carrying and were taken into custody.

The ordeal has left Kakar even more determined to pursue her political activism, especially in light of next year's presidential election, which she says will be a "lie" when so many Afghans lack access to government services or basic information.

"I am even braver than before," she said. "I will defend Afghanistan, especially the women, until the last drop of my blood."

As Kakar spoke, the news was rapidly spreading that suspected Taliban gunmen in southern Helmand province had shot and killed one of Afghanistan's top policewomen, some two months after a fellow female officer was slain.

Inter press Service

hen US President Barack Obama tried to drum up momentum for airstrikes in Syria to punish and deter the use of chemical weapons, he failed to gain much of a following.

At this month's Group of 20 summit in St Petersburg - which featured leaders from 20 of the world's top economies - the US proposed a statement to condemn Syria's use of chemical weapons. But over half the other participants - from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the European Union, Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico and Germany - chose not to sign.

Domestically, a range of public opinion polls reflected US citizens' growing distaste for military interventions. The New York Times and CBS, for example, asked 1,011 people from September 6-8 whether the US should take the leading role in trying to solve international conflicts, and 62% of respondents said no.

"You see characteristics of a more gradual change that's taking place," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Since World War II, the US has been a "provider of last resort" in acting alone or with a coalition to address international problems, Kupchan told IPS. But now, the US public is more focused on domestic issues and increasingly wary of intervening abroad.

"The US simply doesn't have the same sway that it used to," said Kupchan, who cited a process in which power is slowly diffusing on a global scale. "In some ways, Syria is emblematic of these more long-term trends."

The recent case over Syria was also interesting at grassroots levels. While Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pushed for intervention, public representatives in congress and parliament held them back. "Not since the Vietnam War era had we seen such decisive influence from the grassroots over international policy," said James Paul, former executive director of Global Policy Forum.

"Washington did not command the beliefs or the respect of world public opinion. ... Governments wanted to go along, but could not without losing their support. Even Gulf monarchs have to think about how the public will receive their policies," Paul told IPS.

US leadership The idea that the US is "failing" to lead unilaterally is a stigmatized one in US society, whereas the US's main competitors have recently trumpeted ideas of diplomacy and multilateralism. Chinese President Xi Jinping, for example, has been touting the phrase "win-win cooperation", in which countries engage each other as partners, and Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised the notion of "American exceptionalism" in his recent New York Times op-ed.

"There are big countries and small countries ... [but] we must not forget that God created us equal," wrote Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the initiative in brokering a diplomatic deal between the US and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - which forces Assad to turn over his chemical weapons arsenal to the international community

at the expense of a US military attack. But Obama took criticism at home for backing into such an agreement.

"Today, the US has less leverage, less respect and less flexibility than it once had," said Paul. "But we must see the Syria outcome not as a US failure, but rather as a kind of success, in that the Obama administration recognized its limits and was ready to change course rather than head into a very risky option of war."

Nonetheless, many US officials are wary of Russia's Putin, who granted the US whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum in his country. Putin's recently established anti-gay laws also cast him under a negative light in the West.

"There is a certain predisposition in the United States to look askance at partnerships with non-democracies," said Kupchan of CFR. "That's simply part of America's ideological equipment."

However, engaging diplomatically with Russia over Syria may improve bilateral relations and give new momentum for the US-Russia "reset". It may, for example, allow US and Russia to renew negotiations for nuclear disarmament. "But if this agreement stumbles, and it appears that Russia acted in bad faith, it will do more harm than good," said Kupchan.

Paul said that the US-Russia deal finally puts the spotlight back on diplomacy at the UN, paving a way for UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to have another try in negotiating a political settlement to end Syria's deadly civil war.

"When the great powers use the UN, we can breathe a sigh of relief," argued Paul. "Hopefully, the Syrian people can anticipate peace and political renewal.

Western publics, by opposing war, have made this [opportunity] possible. " The multipolar world On the heels of the G-20 summit in Russia was another meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, which gathered heads of state from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - an assembly of former Soviet nations and China. SCO leaders have also pioneered new ideas for development and trade across Eastern Europe and Asia. When the US applied for observer status to the SCO in 2006, its application was rejected.

The SCO reflects the increasing role of regional organizations and alliances to deal with international issues in a "multipolar" world. Such organizations include the European Union, the African Union, The Union of South American Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council, among others.

Asked if diplomacy or coercion will be the norm in a "multipolar" world, Kupchan said, "I think it could go either way. You could say that in a world in which there are multiple centers of power, those centers of power can address global challenges only through multilateral cooperation. As a consequence, you can expect more of it.

"An alternative view would be: in a world in which there is a diffusion of power, there will be more competition for primacy and status, and as a consequence, you will see less multilateralism and more geopolitical rivalry. But I'm enough of a realist to say that the default position will be growing rivalry, and only through really good policy and steady efforts will we tame that rivalry through multilateral cooperation," said Kupchan.

What if Michael Jackson was still alive?

tions for the "This Is It" shows began and testimony that the singer was secretive about his medical care.

Yet whether or not the jury will need to determine compensation for Jackson's family, the trial has revealed new details about the superstar's post-tour plans.

Witnesses have described the entertainer's interest in another career as a filmmaker after wrapping up his "This Is It" shows, which were slated to begin in July 2009. The singer's contract included provisions for a worldwide tour after the singer completed a run of 50 shows planned at London's O2 Arena, but AEG executives say the global shows weren't a certainty.

Experts hired by Jackson's mother have testified Jackson could have earned a billion dollars or more on a worldwide tour, a figure that defense experts have attacked as speculative and far in excess of earnings from the singer's previous tours.

Jackson's success or failure during the "This Is It" shows would have determined his future course.

By many witnesses' accounts, including his son Prince and a trusted nephew, Jackson was eyeing a second career as a filmmaker. He considered his long-form music videos such as "Thriller" and "Remember the Time" as films, but was eyeing even bigger projects on Egypt's King

anthony McCartney Ap entertainment Writer

In this December 3, 1984 photo, Michael Jackson performs with his brothers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, as part of their Victory Tour concert. Jackson's earning potential may become an issue when a Los Angeles jury begins deliberating a negligent hiring lawsuit filed by the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, against concert giant AEG Live LLC over her son's 2009 death. Witnesses have testified throughout the 21-week trial that the pop superstar was planning a new career in movies after completing his "This Is It" tour that was scheduled to begin in July 2009. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac/File)

Tut and a Chicago gangster film.

Prince Jackson, 16, recalled during the trial that his father would often show him films twice

— the first time with the sound off so that they could analyze shots together. The teenager still has aspirations in show business

and told jurors he is considering film school, a decision his father might have steered him toward if he was alive.

The singer suggested to his nephew Taj that he study filmmaking as well, urging him to focus on 3-D technologies that hadn't yet become mainstream in 2009. "He just loved the technology and he wanted to do something groundbreaking with it," Taj said. He said his uncle talked about working with famous directors and about doing movies based on some of his hits, including "Smooth Criminal."

Jackson's devotion to his three children has been a major focus of the trial. The entertainer closely guarded their privacy and often had them wear masks while in public.

Since their father's death, Prince, Paris and Blanket have become household names and their faces are now well-known.

The children now live with Katherine Jackson and are supported by their father's estate, which has successfully erased the singer's sizable debts and have kept interest for his music high. But their father's death has taken away the children's primary caregiver and a father who by all accounts during the trial sought to bring his children happiness and instill in them a sense that they should help others.

The family's attorneys haven't told the jury how much they're asking for the loss of Michael Jackson, yet they could reveal a suggested amount during closing arguments, set to begin Tuesday.

Attorneys and experts hired by AEG Live have presented a different version of Jackson's long-term prospects throughout the trial, showing evidence that the singer was deep in debt and sought out the anesthetic that eventually killed him in the months before his death.

Jackson was on the brink of losing his signature asset, his stake in the Sony-ATV music catalog that includes songs by The Beatles and other top acts, the company's experts told the jury. The singer's medical care has also been thoroughly detailed throughout the trial and it has revealed new information about Jackson's relationship with Murray.

The former cardiologist accompanied Jackson to a 2007 medical appointment in Las Vegas and paid for the cosmetic procedure, a doctor who treated Jackson recalled in testimony. AEG's attorneys have argued that Murray was Jackson's personal doctor and the company was merely advancing the physician's $150,000 a month fee to work on the "This Is It" shows.

It will take at least nine jurors to agree that AEG indeed hired Murray if the panel is to then consider the what-ifs of Michael Jackson's ambitions.

Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

8

Dimapur

NATIONAL

Thursday 26 September 2013

The Morung Express

India-US ties lose shine over economic differences

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 25 (rEutErS): When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last visited the White House in 2009 he was feted at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, a star-studded affair that reflected the excitement about blooming ties between the two big democracies. Back then, optimists in Washington saw India as a counterbalance to a rising China and a new engine for the U.S. economy. In a dinner toast, Obama talked of his “duty” to bring the two countries closer.

That duty has only been partly fulfilled. As the two leaders prepare to meet again at the White House on Friday for a working bilateral meeting, Obama is under pressure from lobby groups and lawmakers seething at what they see as India’s protectionism and lax enforcement of intellectual property rights. India’s $60 billion trade with the United States is widely seen as less than it could be and is just an eighth of U.S. trade with China. Even India’s national security adviser accepts there is a perception the relationship is drifting off course.

“It arises from the macro-economic situation. U.S. friends mention concerns about economic reforms and specific policy issues in India. These concerns are not unique to the U.S. They

US President Barack Obama and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) drink a toast among candlelight during a State Dinner in a giant tent on the South Lawn of the White House, November 24, 2009. (REUTERS File Photo)

are, first and foremost, of concern to Indians,” National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said on Friday.

India has still not shaken off memories of foreign domination through trade and it is increasingly hard for the government, ahead of elections next year, to push ahead with economic reforms and deals seen as favouring U.S. companies.

In turn, Indian IT firms which operate in the United States are angered by restrictions on travel visas for skilled workers. In June, fourteen U.S. business groups took the unusual step of forming a coalition specifically to pressure Obama over India’s perceived protectionist measures, piracy and patent laws. Indian sourcing rules

US targeted Indian diplomats with sophisticated bugs: Report

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 25 (aFp): The US National Security Agency targeted the Indian embassy in Washington and the Indian UN office in New York with sophisticated surveillance equipment that might have resulted in hard disks being copied, a report said on Wednesday.

The Hindu newspaper, which has been collaborating with the Guardian newspaper reporter Glenn Greenwald, said the Indian offices were on a top-secret list of countries chosen for intensive spying. The NSA “selected India’s UN office and the embassy as (a) ‘location target’ for infiltrating their computers and telephones with hitech bugs,” the paper said, citing a secret internal document from the spy agency.

It said India’s missions were marked for various snooping techniques including one codenamed “Lifesaver” which “facilitates imaging of the hard drive of computers.” India and the US have put past difficulties behind them and become firm allies over the last decade, with Prime Minister Manmo-

han Singh set to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Friday.

The revelations about US spying activities, leaked through documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have already strained relations between Obama and his foreign allies, notably Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The Hindu’s report gives more detail on previous revelations published in the Guardian by Greenwald in July that 38 embassies and diplomatic missions were targeted by the NSA, including India’s.

New Delhi has previously defended widespread snooping on Internet users and phone calls by US intelligence agencies, saying such scrutiny had helped prevent “terrorist attacks.” But the foreign ministry expressed concern about suspected spying on its diplomatic missions in July and said it would raise the issue with US authorities.

The new revelations are likely to lead to calls from the opposition in India for the government to take a firmer line with Washington.

Parties oppose ordinance on convicted lawmakers

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 25 (iaNS): A range of political parties, including the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Wednesday opposed an ordinance that negates a Supreme Court order disqualifying members of parliament and legislatures convicted in a criminal case.

The government opted for the ordinance route Tuesday after a bill on the same issue could not be passed in the monsoon session of parliament.

Terming the step “uncalled for”, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said: “The government stands condemned in the eyes of the people of the country for taking this unconstitutional and immoral route.” He said: “If the government had any reservations on that order, it should go back to the Supreme Court and ask it to review it.” “In this case, I would say that (review) also may not be necessary because we are all faced with declining standards in politics and criminalisation of politics, and it should be the combined duty of all of us to ensure that this is stopped,” Sinha told a news channel.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “Union cabinet has approved an ordinance on convicted MPs. We are opposed to this. We request the president not to sign this ordinance.” CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said that at an all-party meeting convened to discuss the issue, it was decided that if somebody has been convicted in a lower court, it is possible that he gets reprieve from the higher court.

“But, we had said there should be a discussion and the matter should be brought before parliament,” he said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia said: “We will not give any ticket to any corrupt leaders. It is our challenge that in all the 70 Vidhan Sabha seats (in Delhi), we will have clean politicians and even if any one (corrupt person) comes, we will cancel his nomination.” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari took to Twitter and responded: “The constitutionality or otherwise of legal enactments are tested in constitutional courts and not in the BJP’s moat.”

Tewari added: “Unsolicited advise is neither appreciated nor taken seriously. These are the first principles of the legal profession, advise of leader of opposition amusing/surprising.” The ordinance would save the elected members from disqualification from house, but would take away their perks. The ordinance, once approved by President Pranab Mukherjee, will have to be passed by parliament during the winter session, likely November-December.

for retail, IT, medicine and clean energy technology are contentious and U.S. companies gripe about “unfair” imports from India of everything from shrimp to steel pipes. In June, more than 170 U.S. lawmakers signed a letter to Obama about Indian policies they said threatened U.S. jobs.

Even U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden grumbled

about India’s reluctance to open up to U.S. companies, or align with the United States on the world stage, during a visit to Mumbai in July. Traditionally, India has been reluctant to get too close to any one big power and Singh is heading to Russia and China over the next two months on trips his staff have described as “economic diplomacy”.

FULL SPECTRUM To be sure, India and U.S. ties are closer now than they have ever been, thanks in part to a 2008 civil-nuclear pact forged by Singh and then President George W. Bush that ended India’s isolation after nuclear weapons tests and cleared the way for closer defence ties. Menon last week described a “full spectrum” relationship of defence, economic and commercial ties with the United States, a far cry from the wariness during the Cold War when India had warm ties with the Soviet Union.

The United States still sees India as a counterbalance to China and in a sign of the level of trust, revelations in the Indian media about spying by the U.S. National Security Agency on Indian institutions, including its embassy in Washington have not led to a spike in tension, at least in public. From almost zero in 2008, India is now buying billions of dollars of de-

fence equipment from U.S. suppliers, including a $640 million deal to buy six C130J Super Hercules from Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) that might be signed during Singh’s visit.

The Indian cabinet on Wednesday approved a preliminary contract with Toshiba’s (6502.T) U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse relating to a major nuclear power plant project - the first such deal under the 2008 agreement and likely to be signed in Washington.

But the fact that it took five years to reach even a preliminary deal to work on reactors, because of worries about Indian liability laws for nuclear suppliers, underscores the problems U.S. companies face doing business in India.

“The Americans want to know what Singh and Sonia are ready to do to get the Indian economy back on track, and the Indians want to know what the Americans intend to do in Afghanistan and Pakistan after 2014,” said Bruce Riedel, who advised four U.S. presidents on South Asian affairs, referring to Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress party.

India fears that the withdrawal of U.S. and other Western forces from Afghanistan next year will expose it to more Islamist violence, including attacks

by Pakistan-based groups.

New land bill will prevent forcible acquisition: Ramesh

bhubaNESWar, SEptEmbEr 25 (iaNS): The new land bill once implemented would stop forced land acquisition in the country and would protect the rights of farmers and tribals, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said here Wednesday. “For the first time in the country, after this bill there will be no forcible land acquisition. There will be no police firing anywhere,” Ramesh said at a press conference here.

Describing the Land Acquisition Bill as historic and revolutionary, the union minister said that provisions have been made to provide more compensation to the people.

The bill was passed by parliament in its monsoon session.

The farmers and landowners would be paid up to four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas. In urban areas, they would get two times the market value.

Citing the example of Niyamgiri mining project in Odisha which was rejected by the local people few months ago, he said consents of gram sabha (village councils) would be needed for acquiring land in all scheduled areas. Similarly, in other areas consultation with local people would be mandatory. Approval of 80% of local people would be required for private projects in other area, while 70% landowners need to give their consent for projects which would be carried out under public-private partnership mode.

Hearing in Delhi gang rape verdict October 1

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 25 (iaNS): The Delhi High Court Wednesday deferred till Oct 1 the hearing on the death sentence awarded to four men for gangraping and murdering a young woman here Dec 16. A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani referred the hearing while directing police to supply the necessary documents to the convicts.

Counsel for the convicts submitted to the court that they did not have the documents. On Sep 24, the bench fixed the hearing on a day-to-day basis. Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan agreed to supply the complete set of documents within 2 days. The court also asked the Registry of High Court to furnish a translation of the victim’s dying declaration in English and relevant statements of witnesses.

The trial court Sep 13 awarded death sentence to Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) and referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the sentence. On Dec 16, 2012, a 23-year-old woman was brutally gang-raped in a bus by six people, including a juvenile. She died of her grave intestinal injuries Dec 29. Of the six accused, the juvenile has been sent to a remand home for three years, the maximum sentence permissible under the law. One accused was found dead in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Centre has not developed skilled manpower: Modi

GaNDhiNaGar, SEptEmbEr 25 (iaNS): The central government lacked the vision to harness the skills of the youth, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said and added that had the country invested in its youth power, it could have skipped many difficulties.

“The prime minister talked about skill development five years back. But what did he do with that?

The government has no vision for skill development. Had the country invested in manpower, maybe we could have skipped many difficulties,” Modi said here Wednesday while addressing around 7,000 people at the National Conference on Skill Development.

The conference was organised by the Labour and Employment Department of the Gujarat government along with Confederation of Indian Industry. “Unemployment is a big problem. On one hand,

there is demand for skilled labourers and on the other hand there is lack of skilled manpower. There is no leader or government to work towards making the two ends meet,” he said.

Modi added: “In Gujarat, we have done many things on that direction, but it would have been better had the central government done it.”

According to a report by the National Skill Development Corporation, net enrolment in vocational courses in India is about 5.5 million per year compared to 90 million in China and 11.3 million in the US. A mere two percent of Indian workers are formally skilled.

The bulk of the labour force in India - about 93 percent - who work in the unorganised sector are largely untouched by any kind of formal training. By way of comparison, 96 percent of the workers in South Korea receive formal

skills training. This is 80 percent in Japan, 75 percent in Germany and 68 percent in Britain.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in August 2008, outlined his vision for skill development in India, stating that experts have estimated that India has the capacity to create 500 million certified and skilled technicians by the year 2022.

Modi claimed that the central government has failed to take up skill development exercise in the country. He said the centre has recognised the Kaushalya Vardhan Kendra project of the Gujarat government in 2013. This project imparts desired training at the doorstep of the needy in rural areas and provides multi-skill opportunity.

Modi said that 35 percent of the Indian population is below 35 years old. “The world is now focussing on human resource and we also should focus on that.” “We

An Indian motorist tries to balance himself as a bus drives past him on a flooded road after heavy rains in Ahmadabad, on Wednesday, September 25. Massive flooding has forced 15,000 people to evacuate villages in the west Indian state of Gujarat where heavy rains and swollen rivers have inundated cities and closed off roads and railway lines. (AP Photo)

cannot think in isolation. We have to set our priorities according to global requirement, so that we do not lag behind. That is the need of the hour.”

He said development is the centre of gravity and where there is skilled manpower, development is bound to happen at that place.

“Those states which will focus on skilled manpower will get more investments.” Talking about the school dropouts every year, Modi said once these young people are trained, “they will not beg or depend on government aid - they will live their life with respect”.

He said proper training would help the unskilled labourers to produce quality products, which can be exported to earn more foreign exchange that will make rupee stronger. The Gujarat government is celebrating this year as Youth Development Year.

Rise in hand, foot and mouth disease among children

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 25 (iaNS): Doctors in the Indian capital are seeing a sudden spurt in the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) that afflicts mostly toddlers and children and spreads through saliva, mucus from the nose and even from faeces. As the virus spreads very fast among children, one of the prestigious Delhi schools has closed down its nursery wing, while many schools are issuing circulars to parents to keep the child home if they find their child is suffering from cough, cold and fever.

HFMD is accompanied by sores or rashes on the hands, feet, posterior, genital areas and ulcers in the mouth, especially on the inner lip area. Speaking to IANS, paediatricians said the virus is not new, but this time has seen a rise.

“This virus is nothing new, but this year, we have seen a sudden rise in the cases,” Arvind Kumar, senior paediatric, Fortis Healthcare, told IANS. He said the virus affects mainly children below five years old. It is known to occur mainly at the time of season change.

“The infection being a viral will last from a week to 10 days, but since it spreads very fast it is important to keep the child in isolation,” added Kumar. With ulcers making it difficult for the kid to eat, Kumar advised that the child should only be given cold liquids as it will help numb the ulcers and enable the child gulp down food. The doctors have also advised parents to ensure hygiene among children.

They said children should wash their hands regularly and keep their toys and surroundings clean.

tory of detachment in their families. Sudden flashes of light, black spots and blurry vision should not be ignored, especially by such patients,” he said. Agrees Sanjay Dhawan, director of ophthalmology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurgaon, who says that people with myopia should get regular eye check-up done.

“Prevention is always better than cure. If not diagnosed and treated at the right time, it can lead to blindness. Getting early medical aid and surgery is the best way. In such surgeries, holes are created to reattach the retina, which are then sealed with laser,” Dhawan said. The World Retina Week is

observed from Sep 23 to 29. Singh said that while the initial detachment could be restricted, if left untreated for a long time it can even cause blindness in the affected eye.

“If the doctor checks your eye and all is well, the floaters and flashes subside. However, further examination is needed if you suddenly develop a lot more flashes or floaters - this could be a small tear, or a shutter or curtain of blurred vision drifting across your eye, sometimes from below. To check for this, cover one eye at a time for a few seconds every day. If the uncovered eye sees well in all directions, all is well,” said Singh.

Beware! Those flashes in eye could mean retinal detachment

NEW DElhi, SEptEmbEr 24 (iaNS): Sudden flashes of light in the eye, haziness and decrease in vision are some of the symptoms of retinal detachment and are not to be ignored, caution eye care experts, creating awareness on the occasion of the World Retina Week. Retinal detachment is a condition where the retina the light sensitive area of the eye - gets separated from its normal position, leading to deterioration in vision. The retinal tissues get detached from the layer of oxygen providing blood tissues and fail to form a clear picture.

Explaining the phenomenon of Posterior Vitreous De-

tachment (PVD), which leads to retinal detachment, Deependra V. Singh, director of Eye-Q Institute of Retina, told IANS that the centre of the eye is filled with a clear jelly, known as the vitreous, through which light passes to reach the retina. “As you get older, the vitreous collapses and may shrink away from the retina.

This may happen earlier if you are short-sighted or have an eye injury. Sometimes, this shrinking process may happen rather suddenly. This process is called PVD. The PVD can occur in three ways, and less commonly will result in the formation of a retinal tear or hole that can lead to retinal de-

tachment,” he said.

Though such detachment is more common in adults, experts say it can affect people in any age group. According to data, up to 10 percent of myopic eyes have retinal thinning and holes in the periphery that can lead to retinal detachment. Such detachment in myopia can occur even at a young age. Shashank Rai Gupta, head Vitreo-Retina at the Vasan Eye Care Hospital, said that retinal breaks, tears, trauma, and eye injuries are the most common causes that lead to retinal deterioration.

“People with myopia or high myopia need to be extra careful, including those who have a his-

INTERNATIONAL

The Morung Express

Thursday 26 September 2013

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Al-Shabab claim 137 killed in Kenya mall attack NAIROBI, SeptemBeR 25 (Ap): The terrorist group behind the takeover of a Nairobi mall claimed Wednesday that the Kenyan government assault team carried out “a demolition” of the building, burying 137 hostages in rubble. A government spokesman denied the claim and said Kenyan forces were clearing all rooms, firing as they moved and encountering no one.

In a series of tweets from a Twitter account believed to be genuine, al-Shabab also said that “having failed to defeat the mujahideen inside the mall, the Kenyan govt disseminated chemical gases to end the siege.”

Kenyan government spokesman Manoah Esipisu told The Associated Press that no chemical weapons were used — including tear gas — and that the collapse of floors in the mall was caused by a fire set by the terrorists and that the official civilian death toll remains 61.

“Al-Shabab is known for wild allegations and there is absolutely no truth to what they’re saying,” he said. But officials said the death count will likely rise. Estimates varied between only a few bodies to dozens of bodies possibly still inside the mall.

Photos and video of the damage showed the mall’s top level parking lot collapsed in the middle of the building. That brought the second level down onto the ground floor on top of at least eight civilians and one or more attackers, said Esipisu.

The United States Ambassador to Kenya says U.S. experts

Mary Italo, center, grieves with other relatives for her son Thomas Abayo Italo, 33, who was killed in the Westgate Mall attack, as they wait to receive his body at the mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday, September 25. Thomas was an accountant and the breadwinner of the family who helped look after Mary who is sick, according to relatives. Kenyan authorities prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after the country’s president declared an end Tuesday to the four-day siege of the Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo)

are helping Kenyan forces search for bodies and evidence in the collapsed mall that Islamic terrorists held for four days.

Robert F. Godec said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. is providing technical support and equipment to Kenyan security forces and medical responders.

Godec said, at the request of the Kenyan government,

Pakistan earthquake death toll rises

QUettA, SeptemBeR 25 (ReUteRS): The death toll from a powerful earthquake in southwest Pakistan rose to 327 on Wednesday after hundreds of mud houses collapsed on residents throughout the remote and thinly populated area, local officials said.

Pakistan’s army airlifted hundreds of soldiers to help with the aftermath of the worst earthquake in the South Asian country since 2005, when about 75,000 people were killed in the country’s north. Tuesday’s earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Baluchistan, a huge earthquakeprone province of deserts and rugged mountains, and was felt across South Asia.

It destroyed houses and cut communications with the worst affected district of Awaran, and was so powerful it caused a small island to emerge from the Arabian Sea, just off the Pakistani coast.

“Two hundred and eightyfive bodies have so far been recovered in the Awaran district,” Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, the deputy commissioner of Awaran, the worst affected town, with a population of about 200,000, told Reuters.

“And 42 bodies were found in the neighbouring Kech district. We have started to bury the dead.”

The spokesman of the government’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Kamran Zia, put the death toll at 259 by early Wednesday evening. Rescue teams found it hard to reach the remote location quickly, and some officials said the death toll was likely to rise as emergency workers fanned further into the mountains to assess the damage.

Mohammad Shabir, a journalist, described scenes of grief and chaos in villages, saying survivors were digging rows of graves and picking through the debris. “As far as the human eye can see, all the houses here have been flattened,” he told Reuters from Awaran, adding that rescue teams were distributing supplies. The earthquake struck Pakistan at a time when the country was still mourning the deaths of more than 80 Christians in a suicide bomb attack on an Anglican church in the city of Peshawar on Sunday.

To the south, on the beach near Gwadar port, crowds of bewildered residents gathered to witness the rare phenomenon of an island that the quake thrust up out of the sea.

The island would not survive long because sea waves would eventually break it down, the NDMA spokesman said.

the U.S. is assisting the investigation to bring the attack’s organizers and perpetrators to justice.

Kenyan forensic experts — aided by American FBI agents and Israeli specialists — are working to reconstruct what happened in the attack, said Esipisu, speaking at the mall scene Wednesday. British forensic experts are also expected. In an-

other development, a British man was arrested in Kenya following the terrorist attack, Britain’s Foreign Office said.

British officials are ready to provide assistance to the man, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. Officials would not provide his name or details. He is believed to be in his 30s. Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper said he was arrested

Monday as he tried to board a flight from Nairobi to Turkey with a bruised face and while acting suspiciously.

Kenyan officials have said that 11 suspects in total have been arrested in connection with the attack, including at least seven at the airport. They are being questioned about the attack, said the government spokesman.

The International Criminal Court in the Hague has said it is prepared to work with Kenya to bring the attackers to justice.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that while Kenya has primary jurisdiction in the slaying of civilians in the Westgate Mall, the atrocity could also fall under the court’s jurisdiction.

The Westgate Mall, which was popular with foreign residents of the capital as well as tourists and wealthy Kenyans, is now being treated as a crime scene and the Kenyan military has handed over control of the building to the police.

President Uhuru Kenyatta told the nation Tuesday night that the terrorists had been defeated and declared three days of national mourning beginning Wednesday. Early Wednesday morning, occasional gunshots could still be heard from the mall. Esipisu said they were from Kenyan forces going room to room in the large Westgate Mall, firing protectively before entering unknown territory.

“During sanitization once you take control of the place if you go to a room where you haven’t visited before you shoot first to make sure you aren’t walking into an ambush,” he said. “But there hasn’t been any gunfire from the terrorists for more than 36 hours.”

The attack claimed by Somali militant group al-Shabab killed at least 61 civilians, six security officers and five extremists, the president said.

Another 175 people were injured, including more than 60

who remain hospitalized.

Fears persisted that some of the attackers could still be alive and loose inside the rubble of the mall, a vast complex that had shops for retailers like Bose, Nike and Adidas, as well as banks, restaurants and a casino.

A high-ranking security official involved in the investigations said it would take time to search the whole mall before declaring that the terrorist threat had been crushed. That official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss information not publicly disclosed.

Al-Shabab, whose name means “The Youth” in Arabic, first began threatening Kenya with a major terror attack in late 2011, after Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a spate of kidnappings of Westerners inside Kenya. The al-Shabab extremists stormed the mall on Saturday, throwing grenades and firing on civilians.

The group used Twitter to say that Somalis have been suffering at the hands of Kenyan military operations in Kenya, and the mall attack was revenge. “You could have avoided all this and lived your lives with relative safety,” the group Tweeted Tuesday. “Remove your forces from our country and peace will come.”

The militants specifically targeted non-Muslims, and at least 18 foreigners were among the dead, including six Britons, as well as citizens from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. Five Americans were among the wounded.

UN urges leaders to stop fueling Syria war

UNIteD NAtIONS, SeptemBeR 25 (Ap): SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders on Tuesday to stop fueling the bloodshed in Syria with weapons and get both sides to the negotiating table to end the “biggest challenge to peace and security in the world.”

In his state of the world address to open the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers and monarchs at the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. chief said the international response to last month’s “heinous use of chemical weapons” in Syria “has created diplomatic momentum - the first signs of unity in far too long.”

Ban called on the Security Council to adopt an “enforceable” resolution on a U.S.-Russian agreement to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control for destruction and bring to justice the perpetrators of the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus “either through referral to the International Criminal Court or by other means consistent with international law.”

U.N. diplomats say differences between the U.S. and Russia on how a resolution should be enforced have held up action in the Security Council. Russia is opposed to any mention of Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which includes military and non-military actions to promote peace and security. Russia and China have vetoed three Western-

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens gather at the scene of a car bomb exploded in the residential al-Tadhamon neighborhood in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday, September 24. Damascus has been hit by a wave of explosions over the past leaving scores of people dead. (AP Photo)

backed resolutions that would have pressured Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the 2 1/2year war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

U.S. President Barack Obama noted the Iranian and Russian support for the Syrian regime.

“It’s time for Russia and Iran to realize that insisting on Assad’s rule will lead directly to the outcome they fear: an increasingly violent space for extremists to operate,” Obama said. “In turn, those of us who continue to

support the moderate opposition must persuade them that the Syrian people cannot afford a collapse of state institutions, and that a political settlement cannot be reached without addressing the legitimate fears of Alawites and other minorities.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul welcomed the US-Russian agreement to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons but said that should not allow those who perpetrated a “crime against humanity” by using the weap-

ons against civilians to escape justice. Gul, whose nation borders Syria to the north and hosts refugees from the conflict, also lamented that “geopolitical considerations” had stymied Security Council action to stop the fighting.

“It is a disgrace that the United Nations Security Council has failed to uphold its primary responsibility in this case,” he said, predicting that if the international community fails to act, the death toll would double by

next year. Jordanian King Abdullah II said Syrian refugees have overwhelmed his nation and now amount to one-tenth the size of his country’s population.

Ban decried the plight of the more than 7 million Syrians forced to flee their homes and called on the Syrian government and opposition to “lift all obstacles” to access for humanitarian workers and release “the thousands of men, women and children whose detention has no basis in international law.”

Beyond Syria, the secretarygeneral said, “we can see tremendous stress and upheaval across the region.” “Historic transitions have stumbled or slowed. Springs of inspiration are giving way to winters of disillusionment,” Ban said, without naming any countries. “The challenges are immense: building democracy and pluralistic dialogue; dousing the flames of sectarianism; filling the security vacuum after the iron grip of dictators is gone.”

Ban welcomed the revival of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and urged both sides to show leadership, warning that the window for achieving a two-state solution “is closing fast.” Abdullah called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the Mideast’s “core crisis” and said it “feeds the flames of extremism around the world.” “It is time to put this fire out,” he said.

Iran’s president tones down anti-Israel rhetoric UNITED NATIONS, September 25 (AP): The Iranian president’s first speech to world leaders was absent anti-Israel rhetoric and offered up negotiations with the U.S. and its allies over the disputed nuclear program, showing a more moderate face of the hard-line regime in Tehran.

However, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani also took repeated digs at America and the West on Tuesday, much like those that were staples of his predecessor’s annual messages to the United Nations General Assembly. Rouhani’s

Hasan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters,on September 24. (AP Photo)

speech signaled Iran’s return to a more measured, if still resolute, approach in its foreign policy even as it delivered a reality check that diplomatic warming will not come quickly or easily.

Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said he did not think Rouhani’s speech was conciliatory. But his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “set an incredibly low bar for dignified behavior” and Rouhani delivered a less polarizing, less divisive speech, he said. “Given how vitriolic that Ahmadinejad’s language was, in contrast he certainly appears as a moderate,” Sadjadpour said.

Rouhani even went a step further in an interview with CNN airing on Wednesday, saying “the crime the Nazis created toward the Jews is reprehensible and condemnable.” Ahmadinejad, in contrast, once called the Holocaust a “myth” and later said more research was needed to determine whether it had really happened. And while Rouhani briefly touched on what he described as Palestine’s depravation and subjugation, he also ended his speech with a reference not only to the Quran and Bible, but also the Torah.

Israel, however, was not pacified.

The Israeli delegation walked out of his speech, and Israeli Minister for Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Yuval Steinitz called his rhetoric a “game of deception.” “Rouhani came here today in order to cheat the world,” Steinitz told reporters in a hastily organized news conference at the U.N. after the speech.

“And unfortunately many people are willing to be cheated.”

The day began with breathless speculation that America and Iran would start to bury decades of suspicion and animosity with a handshake and an exchange of pleasantries if they crossed paths inside the U.N. But the euphoria was fading by midday, when Rouhani skipped a lunch where he could have greeted President Barack Obama. He may have passed on lunch because alcohol was being served — something that could have been shameful for the devout Muslim back home.

Rouhani spoke just hours after Obama also addressed the General Assembly. The American leader spoke of the years of isolation between the two nations since the 1979 Iranian revolution that spurred the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Obama said he needs proof of Iran’s goodwill before the U.S. would be willing to

shift its tough stance against the country’s nuclear program, a reference to harsh sanctions that Washington has imposed.

While Ahmadinejad had insisted that Iran continued to flourish despite the punishing Western sanctions, Rouhani called them “violent” and said they violated human rights. Iran is seeking relief from the sanctions at nuclear negotiations.

World powers for years have tried to curb Tehran’s nuclear program to prevent Iran from being able to build a bomb. But Iran insists its program is peaceful, and has long demanded the world recognize its right under international treaties to enrich uranium — a process that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons or nuclear energy.

Rouhani said Iran is prepared to immediately engage in nuclear negotiations on condition that the world acknowledge it has the right to enrich uranium. He said all nations — and not just Iran — should publicly commit to building nuclear programs for peaceful purposes only. Israel’s Steinitz said in reality, little has changed in Iran since Rouhani was elected in June. “Not even one centrifuge was stopped,” he said, referring to Iran’s enrichment of uranium.

On Syria, Rouhani repeated Iran’s condemnation of the use of chemical weapons. But he said the greatest danger to the Mideast would be for chemical weapons to fall into the hands of extremists and terror groups, and said any negotiated disarmament plan in Syria would have to prevent that. Western officials are hoping Iran will play a role in ending the Syrian war. And Rouhani appeared willing to sanction Iran’s participation in negotiations for a peace settlement in Syria, French officials said. That could put more pressure on Assad.

Obama said it was unrealistic to expect that the U.S. and Iran would see eye-to-eye any time soon or easily bridge the chasms between them. “I don’t believe this difficult history can be overcome overnight — the suspicions run too deep,” he said. “But I do believe that if we can resolve the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, that can serve as a major step down a long road toward a different relationship, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect.”

Neither Obama nor Rouhani attended each other’s speech. But Rouhani said he had followed Obama’s words and was confident the two nations can manage their differences.

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SPORTS

Thursday 26 September 2013

Ben hopes for 'new chance'

SEOUL, SEptEmbEr 25 (rEUtErS): Cheat.

Disgrace. Canada's shame: Ben Johnson has been called all these things and more in the last 25 years.

Few athletes evoke the same depth of disdain as Johnson, the Canadian sprinter whose steroidfuelled surge to gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics opened the world's eyes to the menace of doping.

Twenty-five years to the day since he blasted down lane six of Seoul's Olympic Stadium, leaving arch-enemy Carl Lewis wide-eyed in his wake, Johnson returned to the South Korean capital on Tuesday with a warning for the next generation of athletes: stay clear of performance-enhancing drugs.

Now 51 and, he says, "older and wiser", Johnson said no mother should have to watch her son or daughter experience what he has lived through for the last 25 years.

"I broke the rules and I got punished. Twenty-five years later I'm still being punished for something I did," he said.

"There's people who murder and rape people, go to jail and get out. I just break the rules in sport and I've been nailed to the cross."

Johnson was indeed crucified by the media. After hailing him "Bentastic" following the scintillating victory, the media hounded Johnson out of Seoul, labelling him a "disgrace" and "Canada's shame". Awardwinning Canadian journalist Earl McRae wrote in a searing column for the Ottawa Citizen: "Thanks Ben, you bastard."

Johnson, however, said ordinary people in Canada were not baying for his blood as had been reported. "Maybe people in the government were upset.

Maybe because I was more famous than the prime minister of Canada," he told Reuters in an interview.

"But the general public, two months, three months after it happened I had a lot of fans, a lot of support."

comes I'll deal with it'."

Johnson was the only one of the eight finalists to test positive in Seoul, though that final has come to be known as the "dirtiest race" in history as only two remained untouched by doping scandals. The Canadian was banned for two years.

He got a second chance at the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992, but went out in the semi-finals. Five months later, he was banned again, this time for life, when he tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone.

Canada's former sprinter Ben Johnson poses with his foot print in wet cement as he stands in the track where he once competed in the Seoul Olympics on Sept. 24, 1988, during a world tour for an anti-doping campaign at Seoul Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea on Sept. 24. Johnson failed a routine drug test after winning the 100 meters final and had his gold medal taken away. The former sprinter returned to the track on this day he competed the race 25 years ago, to promote an international anti-doping campaign, called "Choose the Right Track." (AP Photo)

paign that calls for radical improvement of the antidoping system, Johnson talked of a "second chance at life", of moving on, of a future helping young athletes to "choose the right track". At exactly 1:30 p.m. local time, the time that the 1988 race started, a video of the final was shown on the stadium's big screen.

Dressed in black polo shirt, grey checked trousers and red trainers, Johnson had a hint of a smile on his lips as he watched his younger self tear down the track, crossing the line with arm aloft, to win the 100 'Second Chance' On the final leg of a cam- metres in the Seoul sum-

mer sunshine.

He is a smaller man now. The massive shoulders that just squeezed into lane six 25 years ago have shrunk. He has a fuller face but with the same unmistakable eyes; eyes that barely blinked in the most important 9.79 seconds in the history of sport.

The then world record, which was erased after he tested positive for the steroid stanozolol, is what Johnson remembers most about the race. "9.79. That's what everyone was going crazy about," he told Reuters in the bowels of the cavernous, decaying Olym-

‘Skills that Save Lives’, such as Maternal Health, Newborn Health, Child Health & Nutrition, and Newborn Health & Women’s Reproductive Health. For testing their ability on the trained topics ASHAs were given worksheets to answer, and practical session was held everyday. On the last day of the training, exams were also conducted. The training was also monitored and facilitated the ASHAs by ASHA State Nodal officer, State Community Mobilizer and State Facilitator.

pUngLwA, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExn): Sainik School Punglwa successfully observed Hindi Fortnight (Pakhawara). A press note received here informed that the occasion began with Calligraphy followed by Story Writing, Essay Writing, and Poem Recitation etc.

The event culminated with a debate on the topic “Fast Food Adhunik Yug Ki Jarurat Hai” (Fast Food is a Necessity of the Modern Age).

In each of the event, cadets of the six houses competed for the top spot. Saramati House emerged as the overall champion of the event.

KOhImA, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExn): Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) conducted a oneday advocacy sensitization program on HIV&AIDS for the unorganized labourers of Kohima district at LCS

Building here on September 22.

The programme aimed to empower the unorganized labourers in prevention of STI and HIV, as well as to promote health seeking behavior, a press

14TH OF NSF MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL TROPHY 2013

DAY 5 Result 1st match: Mereima VYO edged out Zeliangrong FC, 3-2 1st goal-Kekhriengulie (10) MVYO-17 minutes 2nd goal-Palmei (10) ZFC-24 minutes 3rd goal-Neiphrezolie (7) MVYO-42 minutes 4th goal-Pouhim (8) ZFC-53 minutes 5th goal-Kekhriengulie (10) MVYO-62 minutes

5th goal-Tia Sunep (8) NP-26 minutes 6th goal-Lemtong (9) NP-30 minutes 7th goal-Lima Kumzuk (12) NP-43 minutes 8th goal- Lima Kumzuk (12) NP-60 minutes 9th goal- Lanulemba (16 ) KSC-63 minutes 10th goal-KH Ramesh (18) NP-69 minutes

4th match: Kohima Bible College won over Ehunu&Yikhanu SU,3-0 2nd match: DEF Kohima blanked Alder College 1st goal-Eyimbemo (4) KBC-12 minutes 2-0 2nd goal-Kelesezo (10) KBC-26 minutes 1st goal-Daikho Venuh (10) DEF Kohima-11 3rd goal- Kelesezo (10) KBC-62 minutes minutes 2nd goal- Daikho Venuh (10) DEF Kohima-55 SEPTEMBER 26 MATCHES minutes 1st match-10am Utd.Blood Brothers FC vrs Ablazer’s FC 3th match: Nagaland Police thrashed Kohi- 2nd match-11.30am ma Science College,9-1 Capital College of Hr.Edu vrs Sphinx FC 1st goal-Ninja (11) NP-1.36 second 3rd match-1pm 2nd goal-Lima Kumzuk (12) NP-12 minutes Tyrant’s FC vrs Nevuus FC 3rd goal- Lima Kumzuk (12) NP-15 minutes 4th Macth-2.30pm 4th goal- Lima Kumzuk (12) NP-24 minutes Inpui Naga Warriors Mnp vrs St.Joseph’s College

Neymar strikes as Barca extend perfect start

mADrID, SEptEmbEr 25 (Ap): Neymar scored his first league goal in Spanish football as Barcelona maintained their 100 percent start to the campaign with a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou on Tuesday. The Brazilian bundled home Alexis Sanchez's cross after just five minutes and then expertly teed-up Lionel Messi to plant a diving header past Claudio Bravo three minutes later. Sergio Busquets added a third before half-time with a sweet strike from 20 yards to register his first goal of the season as the home side produced their best 45 minutes of the season to date. Alberto De la Bella reduced the arrears for Real Sociedad midway through the second half, but Messi crossed for Marc Bartra to round off the scoring 14 minutes from time as Barca scored four for the third consecutive game. Amazingly, the visitors had made the brighter start with Ha-

ris Seferovic striking the bar from 20 yards inside two minutes.

However, the game was virtually lost for them just six minutes later. Firstly, a horrible defensive mix-up between Liassine Cadamuro and Bravo allowed Neymar to bundle home his first and possibly the easiest goal he will ever score for Barca at the Camp Nou. And three minutes later the Brazilian delivered a perfect left-footed cross from which Messi headed home at the far post.

Bravo had to rush from his line to prevent Neymar scoring his second of the evening moments later as Barca threatened to run riot. And things went from bad to worse for Real when captain Xabi Prieto had to be replaced by Imanol Agirretxe with a muscular problem that will make him a serious doubt for their Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen next week.

The annual sports meet for Alder College Kohima was held from September 17-20. Amongst various indoor and outdoor games, special features of this year’s sports event were the 1st Alder Slam (Naga Wrestling) and the Alder Carnival, 2013. The stroke of indigenous sports and the various stalls and games at the carnival were refreshing components.

LOCAL

How the ‘apple’ found its home in Nagaland

ASHA training held in Phek Dist

phEK, SEptEmbEr 25 (mExn): District Health Society Phek conducted the 3rd Round Block level Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) training on Modules 6 & 7 from August 19 to September 13.

It was conducted in all the five blocks namely, Phek Sardar, Pfutsero, Kikruma Chozuba and Meluri Block, according to a press release received here. The resource persons were Dy. CMO Phek, SMOs, MOs, DCM, BACs and ToT (ASHA ToT).

The ASHAs were trained on

pic stadium. "That was the key," he smiled. "9.79."

Johnson said he was running so fast at that time that he would have won Olympic gold without doping. "I would have still won that race without drugs in 1988. 9.92 was second place, Carl Lewis. I could've won that race without drugs. "We knew six weeks out that we were capable of 9.72, 9.70."

So why not race clean?

"It just didn't happen that way. I didn't go down the path of staying clean. That was my destiny. "I didn't worry about getting caught.

I just said: 'When the time

'Ugly Feet' Out on the track, Johnson watches footage from the anti-doping tour stops in Tokyo, London and New York. It is a slick campaign that seems to be putting a human face on the poster child for the doping era while pushing for cleaner sport.

A petition of more than 3,700 names calling for the eradication of doping is unfurled down lane six as Johnson walks slowly down the track, stopping to inspect the names.

Milan Novak, Czech Republic.

Chris Sharp, New Zealand.

Bernard Brogan, Ireland.

Vida Sismundo, India.

"A lot of names, man," he says. "Lots from the United Kingdom. Lots of Bens!"

At the urging of the media Johnson runs the last 30 metres towards the cameras, switching from stationary object to human missile in the blink of an eye.

He is still very fast. A born sprinter. Jaimie Fuller, the Australian businessman whose SKINS sports compression wear company is behind the campaign, summed up why he thinks Johnson has been vilified for so long.

"There's no bigger stage than the Olympic Games and there is no bigger event at the Olympics than the 100 metres final," he told Reuters. "It was a seminal moment in the history of sport."

The Morung Express

Roselinda Longchar DIPR feature

Sainik School observes Hindi Fortnight

Parliamentary Secretary for Irrigation & Flood Control, Vikheho Swu planting a sapling at Dimapur District Badminton Stadium, Nagarjan during a tree plantation drive organized by the Dimapur District Badminton Association on Saturday.

NSACS empowers the unorganized sectors release received here said.

Tribhuwan, Residential Counselor, Kripa Foundation, spoke on substance abuse and HIV. Azonuo Ciesotsu, Psychotherapist, Kekhrie Foundation shared on the services

available. Paul R Chawang, Consultant, Mainstreaming and Civil Society and Ayieno Kechu, Deputy Director (IEC) enlightened on the scenario of HIV in the state. 13 people came forward for free HIV testing.

Kapfo Mission Hostel conducted a seminar on student’s life on September 22 with Dr. Alo Lohe, lecturer, UTCM and Rev Dr Paulah Kapfo, mission director M.I as resource persons.

A debate competition on the topic ‘Negative and positive impact on student’s life through mobile’ was conducted.

Youngphukhiung, an unassuming man from Thanamir, little did he know that his display of cordial Naga hospitality towards the Assam Rifles would, many years after, bring glory and recognition to his village. In 1981, he sowed the seeds of three apples he had received as gift from the AR in return for a lump of wild boar-meat he gifted them.

The rest is history, for today, the little strongwilled apple seed stands proud and fertile as the mother apple tree at Thanamir village, giving life to many Nagas’ utopian dream of a Naga village laden with ripe, delicious apples. “Spreading its good seed to the entire Saramati belt and everywhere it could possibly go on its quest to make the area a rich horticultural zone and a hot-spot for eco-tourism,” reflected Parliamentary Secretary of Horticulture, Neiba Kronu.

How the apple found a home in Nagaland is an incredible story that has touched lives and has brought people from all walks of life together as was vividly evident at the 4th Apple Festival held on September 12, 2013 at Thanamir village of Pungro Block under Kiphire district.

On September 11, as the convoy headed to Thanamir for the apple festival, it drove through the majestic mountains with its thick lush vegetation in the Kiphire-Pungro region, Dr. Elithung, Deputy Director of Horticulture gave few of us an insight into their farming practices. The vibrant reddish patches of vegetation on the steep slopes were actually the stalk of the maize plant after it had been plucked, with the fresh green shoots

of the kidney-bean plant at the base, all eager to wind about it. In some patches was the nitrogen-fixing soya-bean planted along with the maize to increase the nitrogen content of the soil and hence its fertility.

Mixed-cropping was illustrated at its best.

The people of this presumed “backward area” had an innate intelligence that made them more resourceful and wise to combat the extreme climate and hostile terrain of this region. Perhaps the word ‘hostile’ was uttered too soon for when we entered this small town soon after the most welcoming sight greeted us. A beautiful place with gentle topography, fertile soil and warm people, nestled comfortably on a hillock was Pungro. We could now empathize with Dr. Elithung, why he would choose Pungro, if he had to adopt a village.

As Thanamir drew nearer, the roads that led us defied all laws of physics determined to take us to the lands where only the strong-willed live. The fact that these roads had initially been leveled by the people with hardly any modern machines in preparation for the 1st apple festival in 2010 was admirable.

This power of strong-will first beckoned a missionary by the name Tangit Imsong, an active member of Nagaland Missions Movement (NMM).

Imsong was the headmaster of the NMM sponsored school at Pungro. In 2007, when students from Thanamir brought him apples claiming it to be from their village, he had to physically come to the village and see it himself to believe it.

It excited him no end that there were indeed apples in Thanamir. The parent body of NMM, Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC) was called in and together

with the Chirr community of Thanamir village in the far-flung Saramati belt near the Indo-Myanmar border, work began towards putting Thanamir on the map of Nagaland as the ‘Apple Village’.

This is only the beginning of the story of how the apple found its home in Nagaland. The later act of carrying the story forward and making the vision become a reality is profound.

Various organizations and individuals play inspirational roles. The NBCC fights all odds to channel the strong-willed and hard-working nature of the people in the right direction and help them make optimum use of their natural resources. Along with the apple project they also work for school education.

A modern guest-house with all modern amenities has been constructed in the steep terrain.

The Department of Horticulture, Nagaland undergoes the bumpy, tedious ride all the way to the village to educate the people on proper care of the apple plants and to supply high density apple saplings, cutters and such tools required. Since 2011, 150 hectares of apple saplings have been provided.

The maturity of the trees has not been achieved and the economic potential not fully reaped, but that does not deter the relentless hard-work of the department. Director of Horticulture Watienla Jamir, at the 4th Apple festival further assured the people of a training centre at Thanamir for the village and the surrounding villages.

Parliamentary Secretary, T.Torechu, at the same event rightly observed that the ‘collective effort of the Government and the people was the main reason why economic potential was reaped by Thanamir’.

Declaring Thanamir a ‘Vegetable Village’ at the festival is a step further towards such collective effort.

Of all such inspirational roles in the making of ‘the apple village’, the role of the natives of the village is unmatched and most admirable. While in most villages, the Government goes to the people prompting them to take up novel socio-economic ventures or projects, this tiny village has brought the government to the village and motivated the latter to sponsor and organize the apple festival. The day is not far when Thanamir and the adjoining villages shine as the richest belt of horticultural zone and the most sought after eco-tourist spot, ushering the area rapidly into modernity and generating revenue for the people as well as the state.

A journey to this village is definitely eventful. Even as one entered the threshold of the village, one cannot help but think of the unfeasibility and economic unviability of the vision, but the thoughts took a different turn as one stands in the presence of the ‘mother apple-tree’. Not of majestic appearance or awe- inspiring presence but of one that imparts joy and hope; struggles are forgotten, selfishness is destroyed and worldly inhibitions are shed. This tree brings people of all walks of life together to keep its ‘will’ alive – to reach out to the people of Nagaland and enrich their lives. As the 4th Apple festival concluded with all grandeur and bonhomie of a true festival, the little strong-willed apple seed knows it has finally found its home in Nagaland – in the hearts of the people of Thanamir and to all who care to know about its incredible journey from the little seed to the ‘mother apple-tree’.

Entertainment

The Morung Express C M Y K

Miss Mokokchung Naga Orpheus Hunt 2013 2013 on october 4 T M iss Mokokchung 2013 beauty pageant contest is scheduled to be held on October 4, 2013. Fab Affairs under the aegis of the MDACC will be presenting the contest. In a statement to the media, it stated that the “prize money for the pageant in respect of the event will be Rs. 50,000/-, Rs. 30,000/- and Rs. 20,000/- respectively with a load of other goodies to be taken home by the winners.”

he 4th round of auditions for the Naga Orpheus Hunt (NOH) 2013 were held in Zunheboto town on September 24, which set the real spirit of the competition. Much needed enthusiasm was injected by the youth of Zunheboto into the spirit of the Naga Orpheus Hunt by their flowering performances. The morning fog and cold rain did not deter 39 young boys and girls from auditioning, each bringing distinct styles, voices and capabilities to the show, which till now had found limited enthusiasm. There was endless

entertainment provided to the judges, Tali Angh, Moanungsang and Aheli Moitra, by the contestants as they short listed 7 talented youth. Perhaps the sunshine streaming through the weather and minds of the NOH 2013 team later in the day was due to this.

This never-say-die attitude was also set by the partner organizers of The Roots (main event organizers) in Zunheboto. They are a small bunch of young people in Zunheboto town who, having received news of the event just last week, organized themselves quickly and aptly termed themselves

‘B’coz We Can’. They approached school principals and parents of youth from Zunheboto they thought capable—they took responsibility where adults showed doubt in a “music career.”

Their argument was simple—a place like Zunheboto has no avenues for showcasing talent and this opportunity had to be provided to the youth. “We would have liked to bring young talent from other parts of the district as well but time was limited,” said Araito, one of the pioneers of ‘B’coz We Can’.

Their hard work was visible as the dilapidated Circuit House, the “best”

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tourist infrastructure in Zunheboto, was converted into a cosy audition venue which the whole team enjoyed being in. The main organizers and judges made their way to Zunheboto to hold a round of auditions here when the number of contestants shot up to 16 last week after the immediate announcement of the event. It was a reflective journey to Zunheboto from

Mokokchung and back for the team—Zunheboto’s development, especially that of its roads, belong in the last era, and can compete only with the other ignored regions of east Nagaland.

For a spirited and enthusiastic people who inhabit Zunheboto, its leaders should wake up and harness the potential that is currently choked up by the lack of opportunities.

Selected contestants are: 1) OBED N. JIMO 2) MUGHASHELI Y. YEPTHOMI 3) MIKATO. SUMI 4) NOGHELI Z MURU 5) KINITOLI Y.YEPUTHO 6) VIKATOLI YEPTHOMI 7) TONAKOLI AYEMI

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BCCI had their day, but I will have the last call: Lalit Modi NeW DeLhi, September 25 (pti): Banned for life from India's cricket establishment, a beleaguered former IPL boss Lalit Modi is not ready to throw in the towel yet and declared that he would indeed have the "last call" in this entire issue. "They (BCCI) will have their day and I will have the last call. I am not going anywhere. I will be right here," Modi told 'Times Now' after BCCI imposed a life ban during a special general meeting (SGM) in Chennai today. Modi also took a veiled potshot at BCCI's controversial president N Srinivasan accusing BCCI members of protecting the Tamil Nadu strongman.

"I think fans are a little disappointed on this match-fixing issue and also the persons involved. It is really sad that they banned the person who created the league but people who are fixing matches and those who are running the Board are being protected by the BCCI members," Modi said.

"The issue is very simple to me. The brand itself is bigger than any one person. But my name is married to IPL. I am the architect of IPL. It was a difficult dream but I realized it. "I did a few things but I wanted the league to improve. But it's now going in backward direction. Hope BCCI get their act together. I wanted to tighten the rules but at the same time make it transparent," the former IPL czar said from his London residence.

Modi feels that it's imperative that one makes all the owners "responsible for running the game" but at the same time said that "BCCI probably doesn't want to lose control". However on the issue of financial irregularities, Modi didn't come up with a concrete answer.

Nagaland Premier League

FC Naga Tornadoes beat Doyang FC

Kohima, September 25 (mexN): After a heartbreaking loss to debutants Veda FC in their first outing of the 2nd edition of the NPL last week, FC Naga Tornadoes made amends for last week’s loss by plundering three goals against Doyang FC at Matchday 2 of the NPL today at Kohima.

Playing in soggy conditions courtesy of the noon showers, the first thirty minutes of the game saw both the teams placed equally mounting counterattacks on each other, FCNT drew first blood after a defensive error at the goal mouth saw Tiayanger taking full advantage of the mistake and scoring at close range during the last 10 minutes of the first half.

Following the first half the second half saw FCNT dominating the play and some great skills from their winger David who had a wonderful shot denied by the wood work and the rebound being cleared by the Doyang defence.

FCNT scored their second after their captain Victor converted from the spot kick after David was brought down inside the D-Box. Ten minutes later Victor scored the third for the team and his second from a 20 yards free kick after the keeper failed to collect the ball and it ricocheted off his arm. Doyang did show moments of brilliance with Nribemo constantly threatening to split the Tornadoes defence with his slick passes. However Doyang were unlucky not to have found the net and the Tornadoes defence held on to ensure a clean sheet for the team going into their next outing.

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Kohima Komet No 7 celebrating his goal at match day 2 of the 2nd NPL. (Photo by Mireuyi Herie)

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