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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Daniel Andrews announces ‘A strong team to keep delivering for all Victorians’

Half the Victorian Cabinet are women

F

or the first time in the state’s history, half the Victorian Cabinet will be women.

Premier Daniel Andrews has today unveiled the new Andrews Labor Government’s Cabinet, which will have 50 percent women, and 50 per cent of the lead Ministers of Government departments will be women.

This is a strong, progressive, and united team that will not waste a single day implementing Labor’s election promises and delivering for all Victorians.

Deputy Premier James Merlino will continue as Education Minister, as we upgrade 1,300 schools across Victoria,open 100 new schools over the next eight years, and roll out universal three-year old kinder.

Gavin Jennings will be the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council and remain as Special Minister ofState, along with responsibility for Priority Precincts and Aboriginal Affairs.

Jaclyn Symes will join the Cabinet as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council. As a strongadvocate for regional Victoria, she will take on the portfolios of Regional Development, Agriculture, and Resourcesbut will not been sworn in until the Victorian Electoral Commission declares her election. Minister Pulford and theTreasurer will continue to have responsibility for these portfolios until that time.

Tim Pallas will remain as Treasurer, continuing to oversee Victoria’s strong economy and budget surpluses. He willalso be responsible for Economic Development and Industrial Relations. He will work with Robin Scott as theAssistant Treasurer, who will also be the Minister for Veterans.

The Andrews Labor Government is embarking on the biggest infrastructure program Victoria has ever seen. Toensure this is delivered, Jacinta Allan takes on the portfolio of Transport Infrastructure,

with responsibility forprojects including the Level Crossing Removal Program, North East Link, West Gate Tunnel, Metro Tunnel andSuburban Rail Loop.

Minister Allan leads an all-female transport team with Jaala Pulford becoming the Minister for Roads, Road Safetyand the TAC, and Minister for Fishing and Boating.

New Cabinet member Melissa Horne will become Minister for Public Transport and Ports and Freight.

Our record infrastructure investment means more jobs for Victorians, as well as new and growing industries.

It alsomeans we need to train more Victorians to give them the skills they need, for the jobs they want.

Martin Pakula will be

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the lead Minister in the Government for jobs, with responsibility for Jobs, Innovation andTrade. He will also be Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, and Minister for Racing.

Gayle Tierney will keep our training sector strong as the Minister for Training and Skills and Higher Education andwill be responsible for the roll out of Free TAFE.

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Daniel Andrews announces...

Jenny Mikakos takes on the vital role of Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services.

She will deliver our Government’s massive hospital building program – so Victorians can get the care they need, close to home –and roll out the Free School Dental Program.

Martin Foley will continue as the Minister for Mental Health and will oversee Australia’s first ever Royal Commission into Mental Health. He will also be responsible for Equality and Creative Industries.

Luke Donnellan will continue our significant reform agenda as the Minister for Child Protection. As the Minister forDisability, Ageing and Carers he will also give a greater voice to our hardworking carers, who will have a dedicatedMinister for the first time.

Lily D’Ambrosio will continue her work as the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. She willimplement our commitment to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. And as the Minster for Solar Homes, shewill have responsibility for Solar Victoria as it rolls out our massive program of solar panels, solar hot water systemsand batteries to keep power bills down.

Jill Hennessy has been appointed as Labor’s first

female Attorney General.

As first law officer of Victoria, she willoversee the implementation of Australia’s toughest bail laws and ensure we have the statute book we need to helpkeep Victorians safe.

She will also be Minister for Workplace Safety – because ensuring workers come home from work safely is a key priority of the Government.

Lisa Neville will become the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, overseeing our rollout of 3,135 new police,and ensuring our emergency services workers get the

resources they need.

Minister Neville will also continue asthe Minister for Water.

Ben Carroll will become the Minister for Crime Prevention and Victoria’s first Minister for Victim Support. He willalso be the Minister for Corrections and Minister for Youth Justice.

Family Violence remains Victoria’s number one law and order issue. We will continue our record investment tocombat family violence and keep women and children safe.

Gabrielle Williams will take on this important work asMinister for the

Prevention of Family Violence. She will also be the Minister for Women and as the youngestmember of Cabinet, will serve as the Minister for Youth.

Marlene Kairouz continues as Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation. She will also beMinister for Suburban Development to ensure our growing outer suburbs get the services they need and deserve.

AdemSomyurek returns to the Cabinet as Minister for Local Government, working with councils across the state toensure rate payers are getting value for money.

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He will also be the Minister for Small Business.

Richard Wynne will continue as Minister for Planning and take on the Housing portfolio. Minister Wynne has longbeen a passionate supporter and advocate for our diverse and vibrant state and will also become the Minister forMulticultural Affairs.

Mary-Anne Thomas will continue in her role asthe Cabinet Secretary and Danny Pearson will serve as ParliamentarySecretary to the Premier.

The Cabinet will be supported in their work by a number of Machinery of Government changes, effective from 1January 2019.

The Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources will transition to two newdepartments – the Department of Transport (DOT) and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR).

A renewed focus on improving community safety and crime prevention in Victoria will be a priority for theDepartment of Justice and Regulation, which will be renamed the Department of Justice and Community Safety(DJCS).

Source: Media release from The Hon Daniel Andrews MP, Premier. 29 November 2018.

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Kaushaliya Vaghela makes it to the Victorian Parliament

By Neeraj Nanda

M

ELBOURNE, 13 December: Kaushaliya Vaghela, a familiar face for Indians and South Asian communities has, finally, made it to Victoria’s upper house from the Western Metropolitan Region, bagging the 4th position among the five candidates elected for the Region. She is now a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and is the first India-born MP in the Victorian Parliament and the first India-born Hindu in any Parliament in Australia. No doubt, the marathon complicated counting days and waiting had massive suspense but victory for Kaushaliya and the ALP came and has been widely welcomed in the community.

It’s historical and a victory for multicultural Victoria and Australia.

Kaushaliya, came to limelight during her leadership of the Little India, Dandenong stir when the Labor Party was in the opposition.

Her fiery speech outside the Victorian Parliament during the Little India traders rally remains an inspiration till today.

She is a graduate of the St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad, studied her Masters of Applied Science by Research at the RMIT University, and is a former researcher at the Monash University, Clayton.

She has been very active in the Subcontinent Friends of Labor (SCFOL) being its President and as Secretary in the South Asian Public Affairs Council (SAPAC), the organisation which unites migrants from South Asia in Australia.

She is also former Ministerial Advisor at the Victorian Government.

There has been a wave of happiness in the community at Kaushaliya’s victory and the social media has been abuzz with messages of congratulations.

In a Facebook post, Kaushaliya has said, “Thank you to each and every one who made this possible.”

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Embracing India with Kevin Sheedy

All photos: Ankita Patel, ShareSmiles Photography.

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 28 November: The Essendon Football Club and AFL legend Kevin Sheedy, Essendon FC Captain Dyson Heppell, star player Joe Daniher and Essendon clubs very first Best & Fairest award winnerfor the VFL Women’s team Hayley Bullas celebrated the club’s connection with India and the local Indian community at a largely attended fundraiser at the Premier’s Room, Windy Hill venue in Essendon. The fundraiser was to support the development of Australian Rules Football back in India, especially for the upcoming annual National Championship 2019 to be held in Kolkata, West Bengal

on 5th and 6th January 2019.

The night started with a special dance workshop by Pushpa Narayan from Mai Nachungi Dance Company where she got the players including Kevin Sheedy to join in and dance on Bollywood tunes.

The AFL players were then interviewed on stage

by Harbir Singh, who has become popular as AFL’s Hindi & Punjabi commentator for the AFL’s multicultural games. The players who have been to India in the past thanks to Essendon Football Club’s focus on India, described their experiences while out there. Kevin Sheedy addressed the gathering explaining his exciting tour of Kolkata in January 2017 to promote and encourage emerging young players

in the AFL India teams. A documentary on the subject was also shown.

Those attending enjoyed a three-course dinner, special entertainment and helped raise funds for AFL India’s 2019 NationalChampionship held in Kolkata. The competition will see 200 Indian locals from underprivileged backgrounds representing their states in senior and

junior divisions to win the Premiership.

Australian Rules Football was launched in Kolkata in 2008 by former Australian Cricket Captain Ricky Ponting and since then the game has spread to 11 Indian states with over 10,000 participants playing under Australian Rules Football Association of India (AFL India). Majority of the work has been led by

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Sudip Chakraborty, who is now employed by the AFL and Essendon FC on a joint Community role and drives the Indian strategy of the Essendon Football Club at present.

For more information on AFL in India and to follow the development, visit – Website - http://aflindia. org/ Facebook - https://www. facebook.com/AFL.in.India

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

SBS National Languages Competition winners celebrate Australia’s linguistic diversity

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 12 December: SBS Radio today announced the winners of the SBS National Languages Competition 2018 – a nationwide initiative which aims to inspire and encourage language learning and retention.

The competition received nearly 4000 entries from all states and territories across Australia spanning 82 languages, including Mandarin, French, Japanese, Arabic, German, Greek and Spanish.

Selected across five age categories, the winning entries were chosen based on their creative approach and unique stories.

Winners are: Ayaan Khan from Geelong English Language Centre, VIC (Age 4-7, English) Harneep Kaur from Creekside K-9 College, VIC (Age 8-12, Punjabi) Summer Frisch from Cairns School of Distance Education, NSW (Age 13-15, Italian) Kelsey Booth from St Margaret AGS, QLD (Age 1618, Mandarin) Georgia Leyendekkers who recently graduated from Murdoch University, WA (Age 18+, Indonesian).

SBS Director of Audio and Language Content, Mandi Wicks said, “We are thrilled with the response the competition has garnered with many participants entering the 18+ category, and English language learners entering for the first time this year.”

"Our winners demonstrated their dedication, commitment and love for learning languages through their inspiring entries. Many of the entries showcased how learning

another language deepens cultural understanding; strengthens family ties and improves future career prospects.”

Winners were announced earlier today (Wednesday 12 December) at an awards ceremony held at SBS in Sydney hosted by SBS Managing Director, James Taylor and SBS Director

of Audio and Language Content, Mandi Wicks, with special guest Hon. Dan Tehan MP, Minister for Education.

In its third year, the SBS National Languages Competition 2018 expanded to engage Australians of all ages learning a language, including English and Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander languages.

Participants were required to answer: “What amazing possibilities does learning a language open for you?”, by submitting a photo or illustration accompanied by a caption in the language of their choice and an English translation. Throughout the entry period, photo submissions were built

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into a mosaic of the map of Australia in real time and entries were shared across social media platforms.

The SBS National Languages Competition 2018 was sponsored by the Australian National University and supported

by Community Languages Australia.

Source: SBS

community

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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Learn driving through new app

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 12 December: The Andrews Labor Government is making it easier for families to help their kids become safer drivers, launchinga brand-new app that allows learner drivers to digitally log their driving hours.

The new app and accompanying website will mean families can throw away inconvenient old paper log books,giving them a better way to record and manage learner drivers’ hours behind the wheel.

Minister for Roads and Road Safety Jaala Pulford launched the myLearners app, allowing learners andsupervising drivers to log their driving hours on a smartphone or tablet, and track their progress.

The Minister said, “Young drivers are among the most vulnerable people using our road – myLearners will help learners and their supervisors better manage their driving practice and develop safe driving behaviours when they get on the road.”

Supervisors will be able to approve driving hours directly through the app or a computer with no need

for anadditional paper log book.

The app will also encourage young drivers to use a purpose-built website to help them progressively organisedriving sessions that match their experience.

VicRoads Director Service Strategy and Innovation Jill Fitzroy said “myLearners will make it simple for learners to track their driving experience, and provide vital information at all stages of driving to keep them safer on our roads and

start them on the right track to drive solo.” my Learners was successfully trialled by 63 learner drivers and 59 supervisors from around the state in Septemberand October this year to improve the operation of the app.

The app includes a range of features including reminders for both learners and supervisors to put their phonesaway while driving.

TAC Lead Director Road Safety Samantha Cockfield said, “It’s vital that road

safety education remains relevant to our next generation of drivers, and myLearners will help ensure that we are giving young drivers the tools, skills and knowledge they need to stay safe on our roads.”

This project has been funded through TAC’s young driver program as part of the Labor Government’s $146 millionYoung Driver Safety Package which aims to reduce road trauma among young people.

It’s vital that road safety education remains relevant to our next generation of drivers, and myLearners will help ensure that we are giving young drivers the tools, skills and knowledge they need to stay safe on our roads.

Victoria Police release findings of its employees mental health prevalence

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 13 December: Victoria Police is today releasing the findings of the landmark Mental Health and Wellbeing Study which provides a more accurate picture of the mental health issues impacting employees.

The study found Victoria Police employees have a lower lifetime and 12-month prevalence rate of mental health conditions compared to the general Australian community.

However, some issues do exist within the organisation at higher levels than in the community, including: • 19.9 per cent of participants reported having received a diagnosis of depression at some point in their lifetime. This is higher than the reported Australian lifetime prevalence of 14 per cent.

• Police employees also

reported drinking alcohol at a level likely to indicate dependence at a higher rate than the community.

• The study found higher rates of suicidal ideation and planning than in the general community, however suicide attempts were not reported to be higher than those of the general community.

Despite police employees reporting higher exposure to trauma than the community, the percentage of employees who reported to have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in their life is within community norms.

However, 4 in 25 respondents met the symptom criteria for PTSD so it continues to be a priority area for Victoria Police due to the proportion of employees experiencing the symptoms.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said

The results from this study provide us with valuable information about the type and prevalence of mental health issues across our workforce and will be used to provide a baseline from which to direct more effective delivery of services and programs.

the study is important in recognising the responsibility Victoria Police has for looking after the mental health and wellbeing of all employees.

“The results from this study provide us with valuable information about the type and prevalence of mental health issues across our workforce and will be used to provide a baseline from which to direct more effective delivery of services and programs,” Chief Commissioner Ashton said.

“Since the Mental Health Review in 2016, we have made significant changes to better improve the support for current and veteran employees and their families experiencing mental health issues.

“While we cannot always prevent exposure to trauma in policing, we are working hard to ensure that our employees are prepared and supported to minimise the impact of such events.

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“While this study focussed on current employees, we are also working hard to support our police veterans.

“The recent Head to Head walk was an important step in the right direction, raising much needed funds for retired police veterans and starting a conversation about mental health in life after policing.

“Mental health will continue to be a priority for Victoria Police, and we want all employees to be mentally fit, ready and capable to contribute to a safer Victoria.”

An executive summary outlining the key findings of the 2017 Victoria Police Mental Health and Wellbeing Study and work that is already being done in response is available at: https:// www.police.vic.gov.au/ retrievemedia.asp?media_ id=146237&status=a...

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community

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Police reflect on lives lost in 2018

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 13 December: Victoria Police is honouring the memory of the 199 people who have lost their lives on the state’s roads this year with a Christmas tree featuring baubles inscribed with their first names and ages.

In what has become an annual tradition, police have once again put up the tree as a symbol of the human cost of lives lost on our roads.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said the baubles were a poignant reminder that behind the statistics of road trauma are real people.

“Everyone who loses their life on our roads is missed by someone, and each of these baubles represents a person who was special to those who knew and loved them.

“It’s a reminder that lives lost on our roads is not about numbers – it’s about

families losing cherished members.

“Behind each of these baubles is a story of a family that is grieving

for a mum, dad, brother, sister, son or daughter who won’t be coming home this Christmas.

The unveiling of the tree

comes as police prepare to launch their annual operation to keep people safe on our roads over the Christmas, New Year and summer holiday period.

Operation Roadwise will run from 14 December to 6 January, and will focus on enforcement and improving driver behaviour.

Police will be out in force to target the five leading causes of death and serious injury on our roads – speed, impairment, distraction, not wearing seatbelts and fatigue.

Assistant Commissioner Leane said that in the run up to Christmas, police would have a particular focus on drink and drug driving.

“Many people will be attending parties and other events to celebrate the end of the year, so if you are going to have a few drinks, then make sure you’ve planned how to get home without driving.

“Alcohol and drug buses will be operating throughout the state and our officers will be testing as many motorists and riders as

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possible to get those who are impaired off our roads.”

With a higher number of pedestrians expected, especially around shopping precincts, police are reminding everyone using the roads to look up and look out for each other.

People who are heading away for a break after Christmas are also being reminded of the risk of fatigue.

“As well as sticking to the speed limit and driving to the conditions, drivers should take regular breaks and, where possible, share the driving,” said Assistant Commissioner Leane.

“All we want for Christmas is for everyone to get to where they’re going and get home again safely.”

Operation Roadwise starts 14 December and runs 6 January, 2019.

The ‘Lives Lost’ Christmas tree is available for viewing in the corporate reception area of the Victoria Police Centre at 637 Flinders Street, Docklands, until Operation Roadwise ends.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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COMMUNITY

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Syndicate organising fake marriages for Indians wanting permanent residency busted

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 20 November: The Australian Border Force (ABF) has busted an ‘contrived marriage syndicate’ operating out of Sydney, with a 32-year-old Indian national facing court over his alleged role as the main facilitator. A further four Australian citizens are facing charges for allegedly convincing individuals to fraudulently marry noncitizens seeking to obtain permanent residency, says a ABF media release.

The syndicate targets South Asians by organising contrived marriage scams with promises to Indians wanting permanent residency in Australia.

The long running operation by the ABF also resulted in 164 foreign nationals having their applications for a Partner visa refused after they were linked to the syndicate.

None of the participants in this scam obtained permanent residency.

Some of these clients paid significant amounts of money, for no immigration outcome.

While contrived marriages are not unique to any one nationality, this particular syndicate was attempting to illegally facilitate fake marriages with non-

Those seeking a visa through a contrived marriage also need to understand that paying a facilitator will not buy them a permanent visa pathway in Australia. There is rarely any financial recourse in the event that their Partner visa application is unsuccessful. citizens in the South Asian community.

These types of scams generally target vulnerable young Australian women, many of whom come from disadvantaged and low socio-economic backgrounds. The noncitizens, attempting to enter or stay in Australia, generally pay a significant sum of money to the facilitator.

The ABF has also been successful in combating contrived marriages in Victoria, with one individual sentenced to six months imprisonment for fraud offences against the Migration Act. ABF Acting Investigations Commander, Clinton

Sims, said the syndicates undermine the integrity of Australia’s visa program and exploit desperate individuals.

“Many of the women involved in these scams have suffered a history of substance abuse, family violence and financial hardship, and are lured in with promises of substantial payments,” Commander Sims said.

“Those seeking a visa through a contrived marriage also need to understand that paying a facilitator will not buy them a permanent visa pathway in Australia. There is rarely any financial recourse in the event that their Partner visa application is unsuccessful.”

“Protecting the integrity of the visa system is an operational priority for the ABF and anyone found to be involved in, or facilitating sham marriages should expect to be investigated and face criminal prosecution. Registered agents and marriage celebrants also face losing their registration.”

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has charged the 32-yearold Indian national with four counts of arranging a marriage to obtain permanent residence, contrary to Section 240 of the Migration Act 1958. The maximum penalty is a fine up to $210,000 and/or 10 years imprisonment.

The remaining four individuals have each been charged with offences under the Migration Act and Criminal Code.

The Department of Home Affairs has a range of measures in place to ensure the integrity of the Partner visa program. These measures include assessing detailed documentary evidence, conducting interviews and home visits, and limitations on the number of times a person can sponsor a partner to Australia.

Members of the public who have information about

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The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has charged the 32-year-old Indian national with four counts of arranging a marriage to obtain permanent residence, contrary to Section 240 of the Migration Act 1958. The maximum penalty is a fine up to $210,000 and/ or 10 years imprisonment. possible visa fraud are encouraged to report it to ABF’s BorderWatch program by visiting Australia.gov.au/ borderwatch. Information can be given anonymously.

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COMMUNITY

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Carmichael mine to be selffinanced, protests continue

By Neeraj Nanda

M

ELBOURNE, 30 November: The controversial Carmichael coal mine and rail project in Queensland will be 100% financed through the Adani Group’s resources, Adani Mining CEO Lucas Dow announced in Central Queensland.

The project has faced fierce opposition from environment groups who claim carbon emissions from the mine will badly hurt the nearby iconic Great Barrier Reef, already facing destruction from global warming.

In an Adani Mining media release, Dow says, “We have already invested $3.3 billion in Adani’s Australian businesses, which is a

Gautam Adani clear demonstration of our capacity to deliver a financing solution for the revised scope of the mine and rail project.

“The project stacks up both environmentally and financially.

“Today’s announcement

Adani Mining CEO, Lucas Dow removes any doubt as to the project stacking up financially,” he says.

The media release claims, “The Carmichael Project will deliver more than 1,500 direct jobs on the mine and rail projects during the initial ramp-up

and construction phase, and will support thousands more indirect jobs, all of which will benefit regional Queensland communities.”

Meanwhile, in a media release, the Wangan & Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council says, “‘They

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don’t have our consent, they can’t build their mine.

“We demand a guarantee from the Queensland Government they won’t now extinguish our native title for Adani. Queensland Labor has said they recognise that the registration of the Adani ILUA is contested and they acknowledge and respect our right to have our complaints considered and determined by a court.

“We have an appeal before the full bench of the Federal Court. To act before this concludes would be to deny our rights and open the way for a grave injustice. Without our consent, the mine is not ready to proceed”.

There have also been protests by school students against the proposed mine across Australia and rallies outside Labor Party offices.

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

community

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Shorten Labor Govt. to make sending money overseas cheaper rate spreads. A full-time worker who wanted to send half her salary home would be toiling away for more than a week every year just to pay financial middlemen.

The problem has become so bad that we have been told about migrant workers who want to send money abroad to support their families, and find that the cheapest way to do it is to pack the cash into a suitcase and take it with them on the plane. Even aid agencies have been affected.

According to the World Bank,

Australia is the fourth most expensive G20 country to send remittances from. For every $1000 money transfer, Australians pay $23 more than the Americans, $9 more than the British, and $4 more than the Canadians.

Labor’s policy is the result of roundtables in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and consistent engagement with money transfer experts and the nation’s multicultural community, including Pacific Islander, Filipino and African community leaders.

By SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 13 December: A Shorten Labor Government will make it cheaper for Australians to send money overseas to loved ones by helping drive down international remittance and transfer fees.

The announcement was made by Andrew Leigh MP Shadow Treasurer in the presence of Jennifer Yang Labor candidate for Chisholm at the Treasury Place, Melbourne.

Right now, many banks and money transfer companies are confusing customers with a mix of fees and exchange rate mark-ups. The result is that it is almost impossible to compare the true cost of transferring money overseas. By befuddling this customers, these organisations are making it harder for customers to shop around.

Australians are being overcharged by millions of dollars for sending money overseas.

For example, one major bank’s website misled customers by saying ‘when transferring money overseas by the internet, we charge a fee of $20’ – neglecting to mention their exchange rate mark-up.

Labor wants to ensure that Australians who send money overseas get a competitive deal. That’s why a Shorten Labor Government will require remittance providers to disclose the full cost of international remittances prior to remittance, bringing it into line with comparison rates Australians already enjoy when shopping for car loans, mortgages and credit cards.

A Shorten Labor Government will task the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to determine if misleading ‘no fees or charges’ advertising by remittance providers can be controlled using the Australian Competition Law, or if further enforcement mechanisms are necessary.

One study found that a person who tries to send $1000 from Australia to a developing country will see $77 eaten up by transaction fees and exchange www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

International money transfers need to be carefully monitored and Labor will not support any change that would in any way jeopardise national security. Instead, Labor’s policy will help developing nations.

In recent years, Australia’s annual aid budget has been cut by about one-third, to $4 billion. By contrast, our remittances now amount to $16 billion. Not all of this money goes to developing nations, but Australian remittance flows include $2 billion to India and $1 billion to the Philippines.

south asia 16 South Asia Timestimes

ENCRYPTION

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

The security derangement complex: Technology companies and Australia’s anti-encryption law in the world

By Dr Binoy Kampmark

M

ELBOURNE: Australia is being seen as a test case. How does a liberal democracy affirm the destruction of private, encrypted communications? In 2015, China demonstrated what could be done to technology companies, equipping other states with an inspiration: encryption keys, when required, could be surrendered to the authorities.

It is worth remembering the feeble justification then, as now. As Li Shouwei, deputy head of the Chinese parliament’s criminal law division explained to the press at the time, “This rule accords with the actual work need of fighting terrorism and is basically the same as what other major countries in the world do”. Birds of a feather, indeed.

An Weixing, head of the Public Security Ministry’s Counter-Terrorism division, furnishes us with the striking example of a generic state official who sees malefactors coming out of the woodwork of the nation. “Terrorism,” he sombrely stated, reflecting on Islamic separatists from East Turkestan, “is the public enemy of mankind, and the Chinese government will oppose all forms of terrorism.”

Given that such elastic definitions are in the eye of the paranoid beholder, the scope for indefinite spread is ever present.

The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, must be consulting the same oracles as those earning their keep in the PRC. The first rule of modern governance: frighten the public in order to protect them. Look behind deceptive facades to find the devil lurking in his trench coat. Morrison’s rationale is childishly simple: the security derangement complex must, at all times, win over. The world is a dark place, a jungle rife with, as Morrisons insists upon with an advertiser’s amorality, paedophile rings, terrorist

cells, and naysayers.

One of his solutions?

The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018, otherwise known by its more accurate title of the Anti-Encryption Bill. This poorly conceived and insufferably vague Bill, soon to escape its chrysalis to become law, shows the government playbook in action: tamper with society’s sanity; draft a ponderous bit of text; and treat, importantly, the voter as a creature mushrooming in self-loathing insecurity in the dark.

The Bill, in dreary but dangerous terms, establishes “voluntary and mandatory industry assistance to law enforcement and intelligence agencies in relation to encryption technologies via the issuing of technical assistance requests, technical assistance notices and technical capability notices”. Technology companies are to become the bullied handmaidens, or “assistants”, of the Australian police state.

The Pentecostal Prime Minister has been able to count on supporters who see privacy as dispensable and security needs as unimpeachable. Those who get giddy from security derangement syndrome don the academic gown of scorn, lecturing privacy advocates as ignorant idealists in a terrible world.

“I know it is a sensitive issue,” claims Rodger Shananan of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, “but the people arguing privacy just don’t have a handle on how widespread it’s used by the bad people.” The problem with such ill-considered dross is that such technology is also used by “good” or “indifferent” people.

Precisely in being universal, inserting such anti-encryption backdoors insists on a mutual presumption of guilt, that no one can, or should be trusted. It is in such environments that well versed cyber

criminals thrive, sniffing out vulnerabilities and exploiting them. Computing security academic Ahmed Ibrahim states the point unreservedly. “If we leave an intentional backdoor they will find it. Once it is discovered it is usually not easy to fix.”

The extent of such government invasiveness was such as to trouble certain traditional conservative voices. Alan Jones, who rules from the shock jock roost of radio station 2GB, asked Morrison about whether this obsession with back door access to communications might be going too far.

Quoting Angelo M. Codevilla of Boston University, a veteran critic of government incursions into private, encrypted communications, Jones suggested that the anti-encryption bill “allows police and intelligence agencies access to everyone’s messages, demanding that we believe that any amongst us is as likely or not to be a terrorist.” Morrison, unmoved, mounted the high horse of necessity.

Like Shanahan, he was only interested in the “bad” people.

To that end, public consultation has been kept to a minimum. In the words of human rights lawyer, Lizzie O’Shea, it was “a terrible truncation of the process”, one evidently designed to make Australia a shining light for others within the Five Eyes Alliance to follow. “Once you’ve built the tools, it becomes very hard to argue that you can’t hand them over to the US government, the UK – it becomes something they can all use.”

There had been some hope that the opposition parties would stymy the process and postpone consideration of the bill till next year. It could thereby be tied up, bound and sunk by various amendments.

But in the last, sagging sessions of Australia’s parliament, a compliant opposition party was keen to remain in the elector’s good books ahead of Christmas. Bill Shorten’s Labor Party took of the root of unreason, calculating that saying yes to the

contents of the bill might also secure the transfer of desperate and mentally ailing refugees on Nauru and Manus Island to the Australian mainland.

Instead, in what became a farcical bungle of miscalculating indulgence, the government got what it wanted. The medical transfer bill on Nauru and Manus Island failed to pass in the lower house after a filibuster in the Senate by the Coalition and Senators Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson. The Anti-Encryption Bill, having made is way to the lower house, did.

Shorten’s deputy, Tanya Plibersek, was keen to lay the ground for Thursday’s capitulation to the government earlier in the week. A range of “protections” had been inserted into the legislation at the behest of the Labor Party. (Such brimming pride!) The AttorneyGeneral Christian Porter was praised – unbelievably – for having accepted their sagacious suggestions.

The point was elementary: Labor, not wanting to be seen as weak on law enforcement, had to be seen as accommodating.

Porter found himself crowing. “This ensures that our national security and law enforcement agencies have the modern tools they need, the appropriate authority and oversight, to access the encrypted conversations of those who seek to do us harm.”

International authorities versed in the area are looking at the Australian example with jaw dropping concern. EU officials will find the measure repugnant on various levels, given the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws in place. Australian technology companies are set to be designated appropriate pariahs, as are other technology companies willing to conduct transactions in Australia. All consumers are being treated as potential criminals, an attitude that does not sit well with entities attempting to make a buck or two.

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This ensures that our national security and law enforcement agencies have the modern tools they need, the appropriate authority and oversight, to access the encrypted conversations of those who seek to do us harm.

Swift On Security, an often canonical source on cyber security matters, is baffled.

“Over in Australia they’re shooting themselves in the face with a shockingly technical nonsensical encryption backdoor law.”

Not only does the law fail to serve any useful protections; it “poison-pills their entire domestic tech industry, breaks imports.”

Li’s point, again something which the Australian government insists upon, was that the Chinese law did not constitute a “backdoor” through encryption protections. Every state official merely wanted to get those “bad people” while sparing the “good”.

The Tor Project is far more enlightening: “There are no safe backdoors.” An open declaration on the abolition of privacy in Australia has been made; a wonderfully noxious Christmas present for the Australian electorate.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.

Email: bkampmark@gmail. com Source: CounterCurrents, 6 December 2018.

community

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 17 Asia Times

KAYO: Sunil Gavaskar & Harbhajan Singh to lead Hindi commentary for Australia V India tests

By SAT News Desk

CEO, said: “We’re thrilled with how popular the alternate commentarywas during the first Test so we decided to continue to provide the additional Hindi commentary acrossthe remainder of series. This exciting initiative delivers choice and control to cricket fans and is exclusive to Kayo subscribers across Australia.”

Finding the additional feed is simple, as users will be able to easily navigate to the match by locatingthe tile written in Hindi on their Kayo homepage.Kayo’s ‘Key Moments’ feature will also be available in the alternate commentary and coverage, whichmeans fans will get quick access to all the match highlights.

Selected from the video player timeline, users can easily jump between any ‘Key Moment’ and the live action.

CONTD. ON PG 18

M

ELBOURNE: Kayo Sports announced today it would continue to provide cricket fans in Australia with alternativeHindi commentary for the Australia v India Test in Perth, starting from tomorrow (Friday, 14December). Exclusive to Kayo in Australia, the added commentary will be available throughout theentire second Test and the remainder of the series.

Kayo’s Hindi commentary team consists of current and former players including: one of cricket’sgreatest ever batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar, specialist spin bowler, Harbhajan Singh, as well as Ashish Nehra, Vivek Razdan, Deep Dasgupta, Murali Kartik and Mohammad Kaif.

Julian Ogrin, Kayo Sports

FIA Diwali Lights Competition: Prize Awards Ceremony

By Neeraj Nanda

A

splendid culmination to the Forum for India (FIA) Australian’s Diwali Lights Competition 2018 was a Prize Distribution Event. The event on 30th November at the Seasons 5 Resort in Point Cook recognised the competition’s winners.

The competition invited Melbourne residents from all backgrounds to light up their front home facades for at least 2 weeks in the lead up to Diwali. Many great entries were received and selection of the winners

was a difficult task in itself. The competition created an awareness of the importance of Diwali throughout Melbourne.

In fact, many homes kept their lights on in the lead up to Christmas.

The competition was supported by the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

In the well-attended prize distribution event, Joanne Ryan MP (Federal member for Lalor) graced it as the chief guest. She graciously outlined the work of FIA in bringing this competition to successful fruition and the importance it has in strengthening multicultural communities.

Ms. Ryan has earlier spoken about FIA’s Diwali Lights Competition at the Federal Parliament, on how she was looking forward to see her electorate light up during Diwali. She also awarded the prize winners and acknowledged the support of all sponsors and partners.

The following prizes were awarded: Overall Best in Melbourne

- Dilsher Singh Gill - Tarneit - $1,000 Northern Metropolitan Region - Sunny Dutt - Wollert - $500 South Eastern Metropolitan Region - Ritika Sharma - Rowville - $500 Western Metropolitan Region - Rajiv Saharan Point Cook - $500 Prize for Outstanding effort - $500 (Mr Shalveen Lal) FIA Thanked all the

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supporting organizations, community leaders, Competition participants, FIA's team of volunteers & the entire community who have worked very hard to make the Diwali Light Competition a Big Success!

The team behind FIA is already looking forward to next year’s Diwali lights competition, which is quickly becoming a signature event in Melbourne.

—Supplied

south asia 18 South Asia Timestimes

community

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

KAYO: Sunil Gavaskar & Harbhajan Singh to lead Hindi commentary for Australia V India tests

CONTD. FROM PG 17 Kayo Sports is a ground breaking multi-sports streaming service with over 50 sports live and on demand. It features the biggest Aussie sports with the bestfrom overseas on your favourite device instantly streamed with game changing features personalised for the user.

Kayo Sports is powered

by FOX SPORTS Australia, ESPN and be IN SPORTS. Kayo is currently featuring plenty of on demand content in the lead up to the second Test, includinghighlights from the recent T20 series and the 2014/15 and 2017 Test series’ against India, as well ason demand shows such as Fox Cricket Classics and Cricket Legends.

Fans who want to catch all the cricket action can sign up to Kayo and be

watching all the action withinminutes!

With Kayo’s ‘No Spoilers’ feature, fans who have

missed the match or join the action late can getpeace of mind by switching off the scores

and jumping in to watch the action as if it were live.

Kayo features over 50 sports instantly streamed,

www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

with the biggest Aussie sports and the best fromoverseas. In addition to the cricket, Indian sports fans can tune into Indian Super League football,which is also live and on demand on Kayo.

Sports fans can sign up for $25 per month to access two concurrent streams, allowing them to watchgames or events at the same time on two different devices. For $35 per month, users can access threeconcurrent streams, allowing them to watch games or events at the same time on three differentdevices.

All this non-stop sport can be streamed on iOS and Android devices, laptop, PC and on TV with TelstraTV, Apple TV and Chromecast Ultra.

Fans can sign up now at www.kayosports.com.au for a 14-day free trial and start streaming the action.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

NEWS ANALYSIS

southSouth asia times 19 Asia Times

Hand that rocked the boat

Now that Congress has bounced back after a cliffhanger, the BJP has to deal with a serious challenge

By Prabhat Shunglu*

n

EW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s exhortation to political parties at the start of the winter session of Parliament to debate issues, carried an extraordinary friendly tinge.

“Let’s debate sharply, if you want. Let’s rise above partypolitics to discuss public issues and have a ‘samwad,’ (dialogue) he said.

It is hard to read whether that mellowed and fervent appeal from PM reflected his mental turmoil at a time when counting for five state elections were in progress and the BJP seemed to be trailing in all the five states.

As the trends started pouring in for the five states it became clear the K Chandrashekhar Rao government was retaining its throne in Telangana and people wanted Raman Singh and Lal Thanhawla out in Chhattisgarh and Mizoram respectively.

But it were the electoral trends in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that kept party workers, supporters and political pundits, guessing through the day. The two states saw a tortuous seesaw battle between the two major contenders – the BJP which was defending its turf in both the states, and the Congress, the principal challenger.

A few takeaways.

Chhattisgarh proved to be a veritable case of voter fatigue. The Congress’s early start to campaigning in the state coupled with populist promises of farm loan waiver proved decisive. The antiincumbency only rubbed the proverbial salt into Raman Singh’s wounds bringing his juggernaut to a halt.

Chhattisgarh may well be in the Congress kitty, but there are no less than four contenders for the post of chief minister, including party state unit chief BhupeshBaghel, party’s lone MP from Durg, TamradhwajSahu and former leader in last state assembly T S Singh Deo. Former minister Charan Dal Mahant is also in the race.

In MP, Congress leaders went into a huddle deliberating each and

every result as they poured in. They don’t want the BJP to do a Goa in MP. In such a close contest, the Congress shall prefer a veteran like Kamal Nath over Jyotiraditya to lead the party in the Assembly, in the event of it maintaining the lead and being invited to form the government.

In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh proved to be a tough customer, refusing to cede ground to the Congress. As the trend emerged it seemed `Mamaji’ could sail through.

But by late afternoon, the trends had tipped towards the Congress. It consistently hovered around the mid-way mark of 115, at times even slipping as the BJP caught up to close the gap, keeping the game wide open for either party.

It appears the Congress strategy of not projecting a CM face did not go down well with the voters in a state that had grown familiar with the style and functioning of ShivrajChouhan over the last decade-and-ahalf. His ‘personal touch’ with constituents is now legendary.This only shrunk Congress’s lead.

Even in Rajasthan, the party fell short of its ownexpectations. The state alternates between theCongress and the BJP. The BJP had returned to power in 2013 with more

than three-fourth majority.

By evening, the Congress barely crossed the half way mark on Tuesday, as the trend showed BJP losing half of its seats. As in other states, the Congress had not projected anyCM face and had relied on the ingeniousness of a veteran like Ashok Gehlot and a young colt like Sachin Pilot, heading the party in the state.

But the ticket distribution triggered rebellion in the party. The trends showed 25 ‘Others’ leading in their respective constituencies.

Later it turned out, many of these ‘Others’ were Congress rebels. Gehlot seems to have an edge over Pilot in the race for chief ministership.

The Congress went alone in both these states, failing to strike an alliance with the BahujanSamaj Party.

And this could have led to party’s less than bright showing in the state.

With Mizoram having slipped from the Congress kitty, the BJP has partly realized its dream of a Congress-mukt North-East, if not Bharat, albeit the party barely managed to win a single seat.

The BJP was handed a drubbing in Telangana, where voters rejected brand Hindutva. The BJP did everything it could to polarize the elections by pitching Yogi Adityanath

as star campaigner in the last leg. Yogi’s acerbic utterances in Hyderabad boomeranged on the party.

Modi lost, but Rahul did not win. Congress’s Hindu card and its recent flirtation with religiosity did not yield results.

In fact, the monster of demonetization followed byclumsy execution of GST only weighed heavily on the three BJP chief ministers, as they geared forcampaigning at the start of the elections.

Posters and banners bore images of chief ministers, rather than prime minister Modi. Agrarian distress coupled with shrinking job avenues did not help matters.

Losing crucial elections in Hindi belt states while managing to stay afloat in some others at a time when country stands at the cusp of another general elections, is a sure indicator that the Modi-Tsunami of 2014 has been tamed.

The pre-2019 election state results clearly show Modi now has a new competitor in Rahul Gandhi, who is desperate to swim ashore and reach there first. The state election results have also proved that the BJP’s hypothesis of delivering a Congressmukt Bharat had no firm basis. If at all, the BJP needs Congress for its survival and vice-versa.

The election results may

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The pre-2019 election state results clearly show Modi now has a new competitor in Rahul Gandhi, who is desperate to swim ashore and reach there first.

The state election results have also proved that the BJP’s hypothesis of delivering a Congress-mukt Bharat had no firm basis. give Rahul more heft in the Mahagathbandhan, if it firms up, but it has alsounderlined that if he fails to stitch up strategic alliances he shall be a loser nonetheless.

• The writer is a senior journalist.

Source: DNA, 12 December 2018.

south asia 20 South Asia Timestimes

MEDIA

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Four journalists, one newspaper: Time Magazine’s Person of the Year recognises the global assault on journalism

t

ime Magazine has just announced its “Person of the Year” for 2018, and for once, it isn’t one person.

This time it is four people and a newspaper.

Collectively calling them “The Guardians”, Time has awarded the accolade to the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa who edits the Rappler news website, two young Reuters journalists Wa Lone and KyawSoeOo currently serving seven-year sentences for exposing a massacre in Myanmar, and the staff of The Capital Gazette newspaper in the American town of Annapolis, Maryland, who continued publishing after five of their colleagues were gunned down in an attack in June.

Time’s Person of the Year cover is reserved for those who the magazine judges have had “the greatest impact on the news”, and not always for the better (it famously nominated Adolf

Hitler in 1938). Its decision to name a collection of journalists is a marker not just of the impact those individuals have made, but a nod to the wider global crisis of confidence in journalism and “the truth”. The nominees are there partly for what they have done, but also for what they have come to represent.

Khashoggi is undoubtedly the best known of the group. The grim details of his assassination, in which he was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his marriage before he was strangled and dismembered with a bone saw, are as compelling as any airport novel. But they also exposed the cynicism of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has tried to present himself as Saudi Arabia’s Westernfriendly liberal saviour while ruthlessly and illiberally cracking down on dissenters.

As Khashoggi himself once asked in a Washington Post column:

Must we choose between movie theatres and our rights as citizens to speak out, whether in support of or critical of our government’s actions?

Maria Ressa is less well-known but no less courageous. A former CNN correspondent, she cofounded Rappler seven years ago, building it into one of the most trusted independent sources of news in The Philippines.

Rappler has fearlessly covered President Duterte’s authoritarian edicts, including his war on drugs that has taken an estimated 12,000 lives. In the process, she has weathered a storm of assaults from Duterte himself and his army of online trolls. She now faces up to 10 years in prison on tax evasion charges that seem contrived not to punish financial crimes but silence a vital critical voice.

Read more: Book: In the name of security - secrecy, surveillance and journalism Wa Lone and KyawSoeOo

Maria Ressa is less well-known but no less courageous.

A former CNN correspondent, she co-founded Rappler seven years ago, building it into one of the most trusted independent sources of news in The Philippines.

www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

produced one of the most impressive pieces of journalism of 2017, investigating the murder of ten Rohingya Muslim men with forensic attention to detail. They unearthed a series of photographs of the victims and their killers, and were able to piece together a detailed narrative so compelling that the authorities were forced to imprison the soldiers responsible for 10 years. For their work, the Reuters journalists were also arrested for violating the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years.

(A police officer testified in court that they framed the journalists.)

And The Capital Gazette?

A few hours after a gunman burst into the newspaper’s offices and murdered five staffers, one of its reporters, Chase Cook, tweeted: “I can tell you this. We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow”. The paper did exactly that.

CONTD. ON PG 21

MEDIA

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 21 Asia Times

Four journalists, one newspaper: Time Magazine’s Person of the Year ...

CONTD. FROM PG 20 It was not producing the kind of work that might attract a murderous response. It is a local rag that covers council elections and school sports, not autocrats and genocide.

And yet the press is now so demonised that a reader felt justified in shooting it up for its reporting of his own court case.

From the local to the global, these examples expose the way one of the most fundamental pillars of a free, liberal society - journalism itself - is under assault. The digital revolution is partly to blame.

It has created a firehose of information that has enabled us to find “news” that confirms whatever we want to believe. In the process, it has eroded trust in the media and enabled

anyone who squirms under its spotlight to dismiss it as “fake”. In the process, our capacity to hold informed, rational public debate has been dangerously undermined.

Make no mistake. This is a global crisis that strikes at the foundations of democracy, which is why Time’s decision is so timely and important.

Journalists are not without fault. News is a messy, imperfect human construct, and in the rush to create stories that stand out from the digital noise, standards have slipped. But the verbal and physical assaults on news agencies and their staff fail to acknowledge the professionalism that so many bring to their craft.

The difference between fake news and the real thing is that good journalists acknowledge errors and

correct them fast.

Read more: How investigative journalists are using social media to uncover the truth The Time cover also demands a response. If we do nothing, we will end up heading further down a path that nobody but the authoritarians are happy with. Even in Australia, where national security laws have dramatically limited the ability of journalists to keep watch over government, the problems are acute and deteriorating. That is why a group of colleagues and I have set up the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom to advocate for media freedom in the broadest sense - the ability to work free of unnecessarily restrictive laws, in a financial environment that supports independent quality news.

The questions are

huge. How do we balance the democratic need for transparency and accountability, with the demands of national security? How do we pay for journalism that is costly and necessary but not always commercially viable? How do we restore trust in an institution that underpins the way our society and our government works?

The AJF has partnered with the University of Queensland, where I am UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication, to work on research that tackles some of these most pressing problems.

If we do nothing, we can expect to see a lot more cases like Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, The Capital Gazette or Wa Lone and KyawSoeOo. I suspect that is a world few of us would relish.

From the local to the global, these examples expose the way one of the most fundamental pillars of a free, liberal society journalism itself is under assault.

Source: The Conversation Article published under Creative Commons licence.

Government must listen to concerns on encryption legislation - MEAA

BY SAT News Desk

M

ELBOURNE, 2 December: The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has called on the government toreconsider its proposed encryption legislation to address concerns about the impact on journalists and their sources.

MEAA Chief Executive Paul Murphy said the bill should not be allowed to proceed in its current form.

(The bill was passed later with amendments).

“This bill would grant access to the communications data of journalists without any proper judicial oversight, and with no consideration of the need to protect public interest reporting,” Mr Murphy said.

“Journalists increasingly rely on encrypted communications to protect the identity of confidential sources. Offering this protection is vital. It gives whistleblowers

the confidence to come forward with public interest concerns.

“In the absence of that confidence many important stories will never come to

light.”

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has received nearly 100 submissions to its inquiry on this

bill. Virtually all of the submissions raised serious concerns about its impact.

“Instead of listening to the concerns raised by technology experts, lawyers, privacy advocates and many others, the government is instead seeking to ram the legislation through Parliament next week,” Mr Murphy said.

“Everyone accepts the need to give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies adequate powers to keep us safe. But weakening encryption is a serious and technically complex exercise, one that no other government has done.

“The risk in ramming through complex legislation with undue haste is that it will actually make us less safe and trample on the very democratic freedoms we are seeking to protect,” Mr Murphy said.

“There needs to be much more careful consideration of the risks this legislation poses.”

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ournalists increasingly rely on encrypted communications to protect the identity of confidential sources. Offering this protection is vital. It gives whistleblowers the confidence to come forward with public interest concerns.

south asia 22 South Asia Timestimes

GENDER

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Women’s resistance, inequality marks 2018

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage

U

NITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2018 (IPS) - Despite the rise in women’s resistance, women’s rights continue to be sidelined and increasingly face blatant attacks, Amnesty International said.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Amnesty International launched its annual report reviewing the state of human rights around the world—and it doesn’t look good.

“In 2018, we witnessed many of these selfproclaimed ‘tough guy’ leaders trying to undermine the very principle of equality – the bedrock of human rights law. They think their policies make them tough, but they amount to little more than bully tactics trying to demonise and persecute already marginalised and vulnerable communities,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Kumi Naidoo in the foreword of the report.

Amnesty’s Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Yamini Mishra echoed similar sentiments to IPS, noting that these “tough guys leaders” have come into power using misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic platforms.

“It is very distressing,” she said.

But among the rays of hope is women-led movements, Mishra added.

While the #MeToo movement has captured international attention, women have mobilised mass movements on women’s rights around the world in the past year at a scale never seen before.

In Argentina, one million women took to the streets demanding the legalisation of abortion, while in Nigeria thousands of displaced women mobilised for justice for the abuses they suffered at the hands of Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces.

“Mobilisation really comes from people,” Mishra told IPS. While some of these movements were galvanised in response to newer forms of oppression, others are against old forms of discrimination that have no place in today’s society.

Mishra pointed to India

where earlier this year, a group of women activists advocated for their right to participate in a historic pilgrimage to Sabarimala temple, one of the holiest sites in Hinduism which has long barred entry to women of menstruating age.

While the Right to Pray movement successfully led to the Supreme Court overturning the ban, violent protests have erupted in the southern state of Kerala as devotees block women from entering the temple.

It is thus hard to celebrate the rise of women’s activism as the stark reality is that many governments and societies continue to support policies and laws that oppress women, this year’s ‘Rights Today’ report found.

This can especially be seen around sexual and reproductive health rights.

El Salvador has some of the stricter abortion policies in the world as women can be jailed if they are suspected of having an abortion.

Almost 30 women are reportedly incarcerated under the policy.

In February, Teodora del Carmen Vasquez was released after spending

a decade in prison after having pregnancy-related complications which resulted in a stillbirth.

Despite protests against the draconian law, the country failed to pass a reform to decriminalise abortion in April, leaving women and girls with no control over their reproductive and sexual health.

Mishra particularly expressed concern over the increasing attacks on women human rights defenders (WHRDs).

According to Front Line Defenders, approximately 44 WHRDs were killed in 2017, an increase from 40 in 2016 and 30 in 2015.

Among those killed in 2018 was Marielle Franco, a Brazilian politician and human rights activist who was shot in her car in March.

Women activists have also been jailed around the world including Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef, Saudi activists who led the movement fighting for women’s right to drive.

Amnesty International recently found that several Saudi Arabian activists, including women, have also

faced sexual harassment and torture while in detention.

Such attacks on human rights defenders is not happening in a vacuum, but rather in a world where civil society space is shrinking, Mishra noted.

“It is important for us to recognise that even the shrinking of civil society space is not genderneutral…women human rights defenders as opposed to male human rights defenders face specific kinds of vulnerabilities and heightened vulnerabilities,” she said.

Mishra highlighted the need for action at all levels to achieve human rights for all, but civil society in particular must step up.

“All these years, human rights organisations have really not done enough on women’s rights. We’ve always treated it as a secondary kind of issue… now that it has been 70 years of UDHR, it is time for us to think how do we really bring women to the centre of our work,” she told IPS. The report urges civil society and governments to raise their commitments to uphold women’s rights, and implement changes to

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harmful national laws.

Naidoo particularly pointed to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), whose 40th anniversary is soon approaching, will be an “important milestone that the world cannot afford to overlook.”

While CEDAW is the second most ratified human rights treaty, with 189 state parties, the non-legally binding document allows states to reject provisions.

For instance, Kuwait reserved its right to not implement Article 9 which grants women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.

Niger expressed reservation to Article 2 which states the need to refrain from engaging in any act of discrimination against women and to modify and abolish existing laws and practices which constitute such discrimination.

“Governments must stop merely paying lipservice to women’s rights.

If the undeniable surge of women’s activism this year proves anything, it is that people will not accept this.

And neither will we,” Naidoo wrote.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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South Asia Times south asia 24 South Asia Timestimes

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

More people dying due to air pollution than tobacco use: Govt of India-supported study

a

Government of India-sponsored study has raised the alarm that 1.24 million deaths, or 12.5% of the total deaths, in India in 2017 were "attributable" to air pollution, which is one of the highest in the world.

Titled "The impact of air pollution on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017", the study, funded by the Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says, this suggests India has a "disproportionately high mortality and disease burden due to air pollution."

Also supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the study says that the population-weighted mean PM2.5 (atmospheric particulate matter that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair) in India in 2017 was 89.9 μg/m3 (concentration of an air pollutant [eg. ozone] in micrograms [one-millionth of a gram] per cubic meter air).

It adds, though India made up 18.1% of the global population, it had 26.2% of the global DALYs attributable to air pollution in 2017.

At the same time, the study, published in well-known health journal, Lancet, states, the disability-adjusted lifeyears (DALY) rate -- a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death -attributable to air pollution in India in 2017 was much higher for lower respiratory infections than the rate attributable to tobacco use.

Excerpts from the study: The annual exposure to ambient particulate matter, as the population-weighted mean PM2.5, in India in 2017 was 89.9 μg/m3, which was one of the highest in the world. The highest annual population-weighted mean PM2.5 in India in 2017 was in Delhi (209.0 μg/m3, followed

by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Haryana in north India (range 125.7–174.7 μg/m3), and then in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and West Bengal (range 81.4–93.4 μg/m3. Exposure was highest in the low socio-demographic index (SDI) state group (125.3

μg/m3).

Of the total population in India in 2017, 42.6% of residents were exposed to mean PM2.5 greater than 80 μg/m3 and 76.8% were exposed to mean PM2.5 greater than 40 μg/m3, which is the limit recommended by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards in India.

Across the states of India, the annual population-weighted mean PM2.5 exposure was 12.1 times greater in the state with the highest exposure than in the state with the lowest exposure in 2017.

In 2017, 1.24 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution. Of the total deaths in India in 2017, 12.5%

could be attributed to air pollution; this proportion was 10.8% in people younger than 70 years and 15.1% in those aged 70 years or older. 51.4% of the deaths attributable to air pollution in India in 2017 were in people younger than 70 years.

This proportion was higher in the low SDI group than the high SDI group, but there were variations within each SDI state group. For example, in the low SDI state group, this proportion was higher in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar than in the other states, and in the high SDI state group, there was a striking contrast between states, with Punjab having a

much higher proportion than Kerala. Across the states of India, the proportion of deaths attributable to air pollution in 2017 was 3.1 times greater in the state with the highest proportion than in the state with the lowest proportion.

The number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution in India in 2017 was 0.67 million and the number attributable to household air pollution was 0.48 million. Among the low SDI states, the point estimate of the number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution was two times higher than that of household air pollution in Uttar Pradesh and 1.4 times

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higher in Bihar, although with wide uncertainty ranges, consistent with the very high exposure to ambient particulate matter pollution in these states.

In most of the other low SDI states, however, the point estimate of the number of deaths attributable to household air pollution was higher than that of ambient particulate matter pollution, but again with wide uncertainty ranges. Delhi, in the high SDI state group, stands out as having an extreme contrast between the deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution.

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More people dying due to air pollution than tobacco use...

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Two other north Indian states, Haryana and Punjab, also had a higher number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution than attributable to household air pollution.

In two neighbouring high SDI states in south India, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Tamil Nadu had twice the number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution than to household air pollution, whereas Kerala had a similar number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution than to household air pollution. These findings were consistent with the higher exposure levels to ambient particulate matter pollution in Tamil Nadu than in Kerala, and vice versa for household air pollution exposure.

The point estimate for the number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution in males in India in 2017 (0.39 million) was 38.3% higher than for females (0.28 million). By contrast, the point estimate for the number of deaths attributable to household air pollution in India in 2017 was 17.6% higher for females (0.26 million) than for males (0.22 million). Although the direction of these male versus female trends was similar in most states, there were many variations between the states in the magnitude of these differences.

Of the total 480.7 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in India in 2017, 38.7 million or 8.1% were attributable to air pollution.

21.3 million or 4.4% of the total DALYs were attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution, 15.8 million or 3.3% were attributable to household air pollution, and 2.6 million or 0.5% were attributable to ambient ozone pollution. The 1.38 billion people in India in 2017 made up 18.1% of the global 7.64 billion population, but India had 38.7 million (26.2%) of the global 147.4 million DALYs attributable to air pollution in 2017.

The DALY rate attributable to household air pollution in 2017 was 1.9 times higher in the low SDI group than in the high SDI group and the rate attributable to ambient particulate matter was 1.4 times higher in the low SDI group than the high SDI group.

The DALY rate attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution was highest in the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi,

Punjab, and Rajasthan, spread across the three SDI state groups.

The DALY rate attributable to household air pollution was highest in the low SDI states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam in north and northeast India.

The highest DALY rate due to household air pollution was 144.8 times the lowest rate and the highest rate due to ambient particulate matter pollution was 5.6 times the lowest. The overall DALY rate attributable to air pollution was highest in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.

Of the total DALYs attributable to air pollution in India in 2017, the largest proportions were from lower respiratory infections (29.3%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (29.2%), and ischaemic heart disease (23.8%), followed by stroke (7.5%), diabetes (6.9%), lung cancer (1.8%), and cataract (1.5%). The DALY rate attributable to air pollution in India in 2017 was much higher for lower respiratory infections than the rate attributable to tobacco use. For non-communicable diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung cancer, and cataract, the DALY rate attributable to air pollution was at least as high as the rate attributable to tobacco use.

If the air pollution levels in India had been lower than the theoretical minimum risk exposure levels associated with health loss, the average life expectancy in India in 2017 would have been higher by 1.7 years, with this increase exceeding 2 years in the north Indian states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (2.2 years), and Haryana (2.1 years). If the exposure to ambient particulate matter pollution had been lower than the minimum levels associated with health loss, the average life expectancy would have increased in India by 0.9 years, with the highest increase in Delhi (1.5 years), Haryana (1.4 years), Punjab (1.3 years) and Uttar Pradesh (1.3 years).

If the exposure to household air pollution due to solid fuels had been lower than the minimum levels associated with health loss, the average life expectancy would have increased in India by 0.7 years (0.6–0.8), with the highest increase in Rajasthan (1.0 years), Chhattisgarh (0.9 years), and Madhya Pradesh

(0.9 years). Generally, across the states, this beneficial impact on life expectancy would have been slightly

higher for males in relation to ambient particulate matter pollution and slightly higher for females in relation to

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household air pollution.

Source: Counterview, December 7, 2018.

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SOUTH ASIA

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Asia Bibi case: Pakistan’s Supreme Court, PM and lawyers Used Islam to hit out at the bigots

By P. K. Balachandran

C

OLOMBO: Pakistan’s Supreme Court, its Prime Minister Imran Khan, and lawyer Saiful-Malook, have all used Islamic principles to buttress their arguments in the Asia Bibi blasphemy case and in handling the violence which was unleashed by Islamic radicals after her acquittal.

The panel of three Supreme Court judges ruled that Asia, a Christian mother of five, was “wrongly” accused by two sisters with the help of a local cleric, based on “material contradictions and inconsistent statements of the witnesses, which cast a shadow of doubt on the prosecution’s version of facts.”

The ruling further said that the alleged extrajudicial “confession” was not voluntary but rather resulted out of coercion and undue pressure

as the appellant was forcibly brought before the complainant in the presence of a gathering, who were threatening to kill her.

“As such, it cannot be made the basis of a conviction. Therefore, the appellant being innocent deserves acquittal,” the judges said.

While acknowledging that blasphemy is a “serious offense” in Islam, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa wrote that “the insult of the appellant’s religion (Christianity) and religious sensibilities by the complainant party and then mixing truth with falsehood in the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) were also not short of being blasphemous.”

Justice Khosa observed that it was possible that the blasphemous words that Asia Bibi was accused of uttering, were actually made up by the lawyer who drafted the complaint against her.

The judge also stated that the witnesses and the complainant had adulterated the truth by removing that part of the incident from their testimony which was not going in their favor.

Coming down strongly on fanatical vigilantism, the bench comprising Chief Justice MianSaqibNisar and Justices Khosa and MazharAlam Khan Miankhel said: “Blasphemy is abhorrent and immoral besides being a manifestation of intolerance, but at the same time a false allegation regarding commission of such an offence is equally detestable besides being culpable.”

“If our religion of Islam comes down heavily upon commission of blasphemy, then Islam is also very tough against those who level false allegations of a crime.”

“It is, therefore, for the State of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to ensure that

no innocent person is compelled or constrained to face an investigation or a trial on the basis of false or trumped up allegations regarding commission of such an offence.”

The Chief Justice ended the ruling by citing the following hadith (saying) of Prophet Muhammad: “Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, or curtails their rights, or burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Prophet Muhammad) will complain against the person on the Day of Judgment.” (Abu Dawud).

“All concerned would have certainly done better if they had paid heed to what Almighty Allah has ordained in the Holy Qur’an: “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just, that is

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nearer to righteousness.

And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is acquainted with what you do.” (Surah AlMa’idah: verse 8).

“So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, acquainted.” (Surah AnNisa: verse 135).

Justice Khosa also criticized Bibi’s accusers for violating a covenant made

by Prophet Muhammad with Christian monks on Mount Sinai in 628.

“The promise made was eternal and universal and was not limited to St. Catherine alone,” he wrote.

“The rights conferred by the charter are inalienable and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) had declared that Christians, all of them, were his allies and he equated ill treatment of Christians with violating God’s covenant.”

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Asia Bibi case: Pakistan’s Supreme Court, PM ...

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“It is noticeable that the charter imposed no conditions on Christians for enjoying its privileges and it was enough that they were Christians.”

“They were not required to alter their beliefs, they did not have to make any payments and they did not have any obligations.

The charter was of rights without any duties and it clearly protected the right to property, freedom of religion, freedom of work and security of person,” Justice Khosa said.

Asia’s lawyer Saif-ulMalook, chose to argue her case not under secular law, but under Islamic law.

That tactic forced the witnesses who accused her, to be held to the Islamic standard of eyewitnesses, a much more difficult standard to achieve, notes a Christian publication.

“SaifulMalook, based his appeal on the argument that the person who brought the case against Bibi, a local cleric, should not have been allowed to do so since he didn’t hear the blasphemy first-hand.”

“In addition, his report was filed five days after the quarrel. In a previous case, judges threw out the death sentence for a defendant because three hours lapsed between the offense and the first report made. The Pakistani law holds that the time lapse smacks of premeditation, according to the American Center for Law and Justice,” the publication added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that unleashing violence to win a point; threatening to kill judges who delivered the verdict; questioning the religious affiliation of the army chief and asking soldiers to mutiny; are all repugnant to the Medina principles for good governance, enunciated by the Prophet himself.

Clause 47 of the Medina Charter says that no quarter should be given to any injustice or wrongdoing. Clause 25 says that freedom is guaranteed to each community to practice its own religion. The Prophet had proclaimed Medina as a sacred sanctuary (haram) where violence of any kind was

prohibited.

PM Imran regretted that the people take to violence and political parties should use religion to incite violence when the goal of his government is to rule as per the principles of the Prophet’s Medina Charter.

He warned of stern action against those who hold the country to ransom in the name of religion. The demands of the cleric could hardly be called “Islamic”.

However, the neversay-die Islamic radicals led by Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TEL) have been on the rampage after the acquittal.

Pakistan’s schools are closed and most roads in Lahore and Karachi are deserted.

The Balochistan Assembly unanimously resolved that the Supreme Court must entertain an appeal on the Asia acquittal.

Responding to the allegation that the army is soft on those who indulge in blasphemy and that this is because the Army Chief is not a Muslim, the InterService Public Relations clarified that it had nothing to do with the Asia Bibi

case. It asked those against the acquittal to go on appeal.

TLP’s patron Pir Afzal Qadri, had earlier demanded that “Any judge who acquits Asia must be killed.”

“Even the state should kill him because he has become an apostate by releasing her. Earlier, based on my fatwah, Iqbal Bhatti (a High Court judge who had released two 14 year old Christian boys SalamatMasih and RehmatMasih, in 1997 in a frivolous blasphemy charge] was killed by a lion, Ahmed Sher Niazi.

Now I give the same fatwah [for these Supreme Court judges],” Qadri said.

This resulted in Taseer’s being gunned down by his own security guard MumtazQadri in January 2011. Later ,the Christian minister in the federal cabinet, Shahbaz Bhatti, was also gunned down

by Tehreek-e-Taliban for supporting Bibi and for advocating that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws be amended.

In October 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld

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the decision of the trial court to send Bibi to the gallows.

The Case In 2009, while Bibi was working in the fields, she had brought water for her two female co-workers who were sisters. But the co-workers refused to accept water telling her that she was a “Christian”, a community deemed untouchable in rural Pakistan. Hot words were exchanged but there was no blasphemy, as the Supreme Court found out later.

Accuser Salaam’s lawyer, Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, said that Asia Bibi is a Christian preacher and was doing exactly what the Christians of Spain did against the Muslims hundreds of years ago, namely indulging in blasphemy.

Asia denied that had criticized the Prophet, as she too loved him. On the charge that she was a Christian preacher she said that she was illiterate and could not be one.

Source: The Citizen, 3 November 2018.

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south asia

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Worries Over Adverse Impact of Political Crisis on Lankan Economy E

By B. K. Balachandran

ven as the people of Sri Lanka are waiting with bated breath for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the dissolution of parliament and the functioning of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, European nations, which have close economic relations with the island, are reportedly very concerned about the status of the country’s economy, and what might happen to it if the political and constitutional impasse spills over into 2019.

In Europe’s estimation, the Sri Lankan economy is in bad shape, though it is admitted that the ongoing political crisis is not entirely responsible for the situation, and that the crisis might only have exacerbated it.

However, the crisis is, by itself, deep and unprecedented making its future course quite unpredictable. Its unpredictability is an added cause of worry.

As on date, there is no Prime Minister and a council of ministers after the Court of Appeal issued an interim stay on the functioning of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his 49-member team of ministers. The case is now on appeal in the Supreme Court.

The Executive President, Maithripala Sirisena, armed with extraordinary constitutional powers, is refusing to re-appoint sacked Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe even though the latter has demonstrated that he has majority support in parliament with 122 of the 225 members voting with him on four different occasions in parliament after he was unceremoniously sacked and replaced by Mahinda Rajapaksa on October 26.

A case against the dissolution of parliament by the President is pending in the Supreme Court and a ruling is expected only next week.

If the court rules that the dissolution was constitutional, fresh elections, which will follow early next year, is likely to

settle the issue.

However, if the United National Front (UNF) comes back with a majority under the leadership of Wickremesinghe, the President will continue to make a fuss over appointing him as Prime Minister (unless he had mellowed in the meanwhile). But given the deep seated animosity against Wickremesinghe lurking in the mind of the President, the fight may continue to the detriment of the country.

If the Supreme Court ruling is against dissolution, the current parliament will continue till mid-2020. In that event, the ball will be back in the court of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. Given the mandates the two enjoy (one is a directly elected President and the other has majority support in parliament) a continuation of the row is guaranteed.

And given the deep seated differences between the two, it seems unlikely that they will work in harmony anytime soon.

While the President has been saying that he will not re-appoint Wickremesinghe “even if all the 225 members of parliament want it,” Wickremesinghe’s UNF is equally adamant that its candidate for Premiership will be Wickremesinghe and Wickremesinghe alone.

The gigantic clash between two powerful constitutional entities, ie: between a directly elected Executive President on the one hand, and a parliament holding the nation’s purse strings on the other, will continue to torment the country struggling to get up and walk after a 30-year debilitating internal war.

Though politics is the art of the possible, and there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, a compromise or a stepping back by one or both, appears unlikely now or in the foreseeable future.

Economy In the meanwhile, the economy seems to be weakening. GDP Growth projection has come down from 5% to 3.5%. The Lankan rupee (LKR) has been losing value vis-à-vis the US dollar steadily to be LKR 181 now.

However, the fall of the LKR has been on even before the political crisis sparked off on October 26.

According to the Central Bank, the LKR weakened by 4.% in September and 3% in October. Overall, through 2018, it had come down by 15.4% vis-à-vis the US Dollar. The LKR’s value vis-à-vis the Euro, has also fallen - from LKR 181 in August to LKR 200 now.

The fall of the LKR has curtailed household consumption. Companies have put on hold expansion plans and new projects.

The banking sector may see a rise in nonperforming loans. The retail sector is also set for a downturn. The Christmas season, which is a time for people to go on a buying spree, is not likely to see much cheer as people are not exactly making a beeline to the shopping Malls.

Sri Lanka being import dependent, the fall in the value of the rupee could lead to slow down of imports. It could lead to inflation followed by a tight monetary policy and higher interest rates. This in turn will slow down investment and growth.

Moody’s downgraded

Sri Lanka from B1 to B2 due to low reserves and the tightening of domestic and international financing conditions.

The government had taken a US$ 1 billion loan from the China Development Bank to ease the pressure on the currency. In September, the Sri Lankan Central Bank said that it proposes to raise US$ 250 million by issuing Renminbindenominated ‘Panda’ bonds and US$ 250 million by issuing Yen denominated ‘Samurai’ bonds in an effort to expand the country’s investor base. These bonds will allow Sri Lanka to tap into the Chinese and Japanese capital markets.

In addition, Sri Lanka is talking to Qatar and Oman about a currency swap amounting to US$ 2 to 3 billion.

Government hoped to raise tax revenue by 22% in 2018, but the rise was only to the tune of 3% despite a new revenue collection law.

Due to the price reductions and tax cuts announced by the short lived post-October 26 Mahinda Rajapaksa government, the IMF has decided to put on hold aid under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

The new giveaways contradicted IMF’s conditions. Therefore ,the pending IMF tranche of US$ 500 million has not been disbursed.

Some of the key concessions announced by the then Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa are: reduction of tax rate for agricultural businesses from 24% to 14%; reduction of tax on Small and Medium Enterprises from 24% to 14%; the increase of the threshold for VAT for small businesses from LKR 12 million to LKR 24 million; and for wholesale and retail businesses from LKR 50 million to LKR 100 million.

Rajapaksa had lifted the Withholding tax on interest on deposits and the tax on remittances. He had also cut the Telecom tax from 25% to 15%. Petrol prices were brought down by LKR 10 per liter and diesel by LKR 7 per liter.

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Public Debt Sri Lanka is debt ridden with the public debt to GDP ratio being 77.6% which is well above the permissible level. According to Moody’s, interest payment will absorb about 40% of the country’s revenue by 2020.

Debt servicing is a huge problem for Sri Lanka, even though it has never defaulted. According to the figures put out on October 2, the total debt servicing requirement in 2019 would be LKR 2057 billion of which the money to be paid to foreign funders will be LKR 786 billion (US$ 4.65 billion).

The Wickremesinghe government hoped to borrow LKR 1.9 billion from local and foreign sources to pay loan installments and finance the budget deficit in 2019.

The government may have to curtail public expenditure in 2019 which could cause hardship to the common man.

There has been a flight of foreign investors from the Colombo Stock Market.

Foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth LKR 20 billion in 2018.

Foreigners also left the bond market to the tune of LKR 23 billion.

Growth in Credit Thanks to Central Banks’s intervention, there has been a growth in credit, with private credit going up by 15.4% in 2018 compared to 14.3% in 2017. However, with the fall in the value of the rupee, importers are disadvantaged. The ratio of Non Performing Loans have gone from 1.9% at the end of 2017 to 2.4% at the end of June 2018.

As for international aid, while Chinese funded projects are going ahead full steam, aid from the West has been put on hold. These include the US$ 500 million Millennium Challenge Cooperation fund from the US. EU and World Bank sponsored programs are also on hold.

There are subtle warnings that some of these could be cancelled if the political situation deteriorates and spills over into in 2019.

Source: The Citizen, 10 December 2018.

finance

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 29 Asia Times

Mortgage or Super – The Trade-off – Part I

BY Balki Balakrishnan

F

or most Australians the second most important asset they will have in their life time after their own home is their super. The question that is commonly asked is… what do I do with the extra cash I can save? Do I use the money to pay off the home mortgage or contribute to super? The purpose here is to present the pros and cons of the two strategies and get you thinking as to what you need to do next.

Let us have a look at the benefits and the risks in topping up super instead of using the surplus cash to pay off the mortgage.

Super is the money that is put aside while you are working so you can receive a regular income later in your life when you are retired and not earning any employment income. As we all know your super is built up over time mainly from the mandatory employer contribution to the fund of your choice. You can also make before tax contributions through salary sacrifice and/or additional contributions albeit subject to a cap of $25,000 per annum.

These contributions are called Concessional Contributions and taxed at 15% in the fund as the super law stands to-day. You can also make contributions to super from your after-tax income.

These Non-concessional contributions are capped at $100,000 per annum. You can also use the 3 year bringforward rule to contribute a maximum of $300,000 on one financial year.

First let us look at the pros and cons of contributing to super. Making concessional contribution as explained above will reduce your tax.

However, this tax benefit has to be compared against the 15% contribution tax charged when the money goes in to your super fund.

Therefore, this strategy will be more effective for people at a higher Marginal Tax Rate (MTR) compared to people at lower MTR. The Marginal Tax Rate is the effective rate of tax you pay on your income including medicare levy.

Apart from the tax benefit there are other advantages in contributing to super. Super is the best tax shelter you can get because the earnings in super are taxed at a flat rate of 15% whereas an investment return outside super will be taxed at your MTR. The capital gains within super are taxed at a flat rate of 10% whereas it will be taxed at your MTR after tax rebate. If the capital gains were to be triggered when the member is in pension phase, no capital gains is payable.

The other important benefit to note is that

the compound nature of the growth in super over a period of time will result in substantial super balance when you retire. Your super fund is similar to managed funds in the sense that it is invested in a wide variety of asset classes such as Bonds, Shares, Listed Property, Infrastructure, ETFs etc.

Your money is invested both in the Australian market and nationally by professional fund managers.

Therefore, your money in super provides you with the diversity you require in your investment portfolio but also ensure you are exposed to international markets which is considerably larger and more diverse compared to Australian market.

Let us take a typical scenario to illustrate the benefit of topping up super.

Sam is 55 years old and planning to retire at 65. He has a home mortgage loan of $300,000 and a loan term of 10 years. We will assume he is on 35% MTR, the average

interest rate over the 10 years period is 5% and the rate of return on his super investment is 6% per annum after fees, charges and tax.

We will also assume that Sam has $1,000 per month to spare from his before tax income.

Let us look at what will happen if Sam decides to pay off the mortgage. At 35% MTR Sam will have $650 per month after tax to top up his mortgage repayment. With these extra payments, Sam will pay off the mortgage in 7 years and 11 months. In the remaining we expect Sam to contribute the $3,182 per month mortgage repayment he was making to his super as Non-Concessional Contribution (NCC) from his after-tax income. We also expect him to salary sacrifice $1,000 per month from his before tax income assuming he doesn’t get over the concessional contribution cap with his contribution. Sam will save $350 on tax because of this salary sacrifice which Sam can use to contribute to

his super as NCC. Therefore, Sam is contributing $4,382 per month more to super in the months after having paid off his home loan. His super balance will be boosted by $116,280 at the end of 10 years and Sam will also have no debt.

The above is a pretty good outcome compared to business as usual approach.

But what are the downsides in such an approach. Other considerations could apply depending on your circumstances as follows.

The money is super cannot be accessed until you meet a condition of release which could be a few years away depending on your age.

Therefore, you need to decide whether you will require this money for any other purpose such as – cash for emergency, a lump sum requirement, build an investment portfolio outside of super, invest to fund children education etc.

You may not have sufficient surplus cash flow like Sam and thus may not be able make additional mortgage repayments or contribute to super.

There are a host of other factors to consider such as your age, your propensity to take risk, the loan size, other financial commitments and the like before you can adopt the strategy.

What about the other strategy where you contribute more to super rather than pay off the mortgage as explained in this article? We will explore this alternate strategy in the next article in this newspaper.

Choosing the ideal course of action depends on myriad of factors and require expert advice. You are sure to benefit if you could take the time to consult a Financial Advisor on this.

Consult a Financial Advisor today to secure your financial future!

Be wise, Be Prepared, Be Safe!

Opes Financial Solutions Pty Ltd trading as Opes Financial Planning ACN618 122 795 is an Authorised Representative of Merit Wealth Pty Ltd AFSL 409361.

Balki Balakrishnan

Director | Financial Advisor Authorised Representative Number: 409415 Merit Wealth Pty Ltd. AFSL No: 409361 M: 0419 506 560

This article contains information that is general in nature. It does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. You need to consider your financial situation and needs before making any decisions based on this information. Please contact us at 0419 506 560 if you want more information or need to review your insurance covers.

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South Asia Times south asia community cinema 32 South Asia Timestimes

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www.ekantipur.com/en THE RISING NEPAL: www.nepalnews.com.np

SBS Radio's South Asian

SUNDAY Language Programs Hindi..................................9 am to 10 am – 93.1 FM BANGLA Urdu................................10 am to 11 am – 93.1 FM Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Tamil...............................11 am to 12 pm – 93.1 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio 2 Hindi.................................8 pm to 10 pm – 88.3 FM Monday & Saturday Singhalese.......................8 pm to 11 pm –97.7 FM 6-7 PM GUJARATI MONDA Y Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Hindi....................................3 to 4 pm – 93.1 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBSPm Radio Bengali...............................4 pm to 5 pm – 93.1 FM Wednesday & Friday 4-5 PM Hindi...................................6 pm to 8 pm – 88.3 FM Indian (Fiji)..................................6 pm to 8 pm 88.3 HINDI Punjabi........................1 1 am to 12 Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 noon 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio 2

Daily TUESDAY 5 PM Hindi.....................................

6 am to 8 am – 97.7 FM Hindi....................................

2 pm to 4 pm – 97.7 FM kannada Sydney SBS Radio 3

Melbourne SBS Radio 3 WEDNESDAY Tuesday 3-4 PM Hindi.................................... .6 am to 8 am – 97.7 FM Hindi.........................................

12 to 1 pm – 93.1 FM Nepali Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS1Radio 2 12 pm - 92.3 FM Punjabi............................

1 am to Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Hindi................................... .8 pm to 92pm – 97.7 FM Saturday & Sunday 4-5 PM

THURSDAY PUNJABI Hindi...............................

5.30 am to 7 am – 97.7 FM Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 9 pm – 92.3 FM Tamil....................................

8 pm to Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio 2 Sinhalese..........................

Monday & Saturday 1 1 pm to 3 am –92.3 FM Punjabi.............................

9 pm to 10 pm – 93.1 FM 9-10 PM SINHALESE FRIDAY Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Indian.................................. .8 am to 92am – 88.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri

11AM-12 PM SATURDAY Sinhalese............................ 7 am to 8 am – 92.3 FM TAMIL TSydney amil.....................................

12-12.30 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 pm – 88.3 FM Indian....................................

5 am to 62am - 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Sun, Mon, Wed, Sat Punjabi..........................................

12-2 am – 92.3 FM 8-9 PM Indian................................

9 pm to 10 pm – 92.3 FM Punjabi..................................................

11 pm to 1 am urdu Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio24/7 2 Radio stations Melbourne FM & SBS Radio (Subscription) 2 Indian Link93.1 Radio Wednesday & Sunday 18000 15 8 47 6-7 PM Radio Santa Banta (Internet) Santabanta.com.au WORLD NEWS AUSTRALIA RADIO SydneyJhankar 1107AM88.6 & SBSFM; Radio 1 Thursday; 8 to Radio Every Melbourne 1224AM & SBS Radio 1 10 pm; Contact: 94668900 or 0411247320 or Monday & Friday 9404 2111 6-7 am & 6-7 PM

South Asian websiteS India TEHELKA – www.tehelka.com OUTLOOK – www.outlookindia.com FRONTLINE- www.flonnet.com THE HINDU: www.hinduonnet.com TIMES OF INDIA: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com HINDUSTAN TIMES: www.hindustantimes.com Pakistan DAWN: www.dawn.com THE FRIDAY TIMES: www.thefridaytimes.com THE NEWS INTERENATIONAL: www.thenews.com.pk Sri Lanka DAILY MIRROR: www.dailymirror.lk DAILY NEWS: www.dailynews.lk THE ISLAND: www.island.lk Nepal THE HIMALAYAN TIMES: www.thehimalayantimes.com KANTIPUR NATIONAL DAILY:

PLACES OF WORSHIP HINDU Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple 57 Boundary Rd, Carrum Downs, Melbourne, Vic 3201, Ph: 03 9782 0878; Fax: 03 9782 0001 Website: www.hsvshivavishnu.org.au Sri Vakratunda Vinayaka Temple 1292 - 1294, The Mountain Highway, The Basin, Vic 3154, Ph: 03 9792 1835 Melbourne Murugan Temple 17-19 Knight Ave., Sunshine VIC 3020 Ph: 03 9310 9026 Durga Temple (Durga Bhajan Mandali) Neales Road, Rockbank, Vic 3335 Ph: 03 9747 1628 or Mobile: 0401 333 738 Hare Krishna (ISKCON) Temple 197 Danks Street, Middle Park Vic 3206 Ph: (03) 9699 5122 Email: 100237.354@compuserve.com Hare Krishna New Nandagram Rural Community Oak Hill, Dean’s Marsh Rd., Bambra VIC 3241, Ph: (052) 887383 Fax: (052) 887309 Kundrathu Kumaran Temple 139 Gray Court, ROCKBANK Victoria 3335 Ph: 03-9747 1135 or M: 0450 979 023 http://www.kumarantemple.org.au/ Sankat Mochan Temple 1289 A North Road. Huntingdale Morning: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm daily Evening: 4:30 pm – 8.00 pm daily Site: http: www.sankatmochan.org.au Contact: 0427 274 462 Shirdi Sai Sansthan 32 Hailey Avenue, Camberwell Vic 3124;Ph: (03) 9889 2974; Site: shirdisai.net.au Sai Baba Temple, 50 Camberwell Road Aum Sai Sansthan Temple 76 Albert Street (Enter From : Bear Street) MORDIALLOC VIC - 3195 Website : www.aumsai.org.au Contact : 0468 362 644

SIKH BLACKBURN Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 127 Whitehorse Road, Blackburn VICTORIA 3130, Ph: (03) 9894 1800 CRAIGIEBURN Sri Guru Singh Sabha 344 Hume Highway, Craigieburn VICTORIA 3164 (see map), Ph: (03) 9305 6511 KEYSBOROUGH Gurdwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib 198 -206 Perry Road, Keysborough VICTORIA 3073 (see map) LYNBROOK Nanaksar Taath, 430 Evans Road,

Lynbrook VICTORIA 3975, (03) 9799 1081 HOPPERS CROSSING Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 417 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing VICTORIA 3029, Ph: (03) 9749 2639 WERRIBEE Gurdwara Sahib Werribee 560 Davis Road, Tarneit VICTORIA 3029 PH: (03) 8015 4707 SHEPPARTON Gurdwara Sahib Shepparton 240 Doyles Road, Shepparton VICTORIA 3603 PH: (03) 5821 9309

JAIN Melbourne Shwetambar Jain Sangh Inc 3 Rice Street, Moorabbin, Vic - 3189, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9555 2439 info@melbournejainsangh.org http://www.melbournejainsangh.org

MUSLIM Melbourne West Mosque 66-68 Jeffcott Street, Melbourne Ph: 03 9328 2067 Broadmeadows Mosque 45-55 King Street, Broadmeadows Ph 03 9359 0054 Islamic Call Society 19 Michael Street, Brunswick Ph: 03 9387 7100 Islamic Centre of Australia 660 Sydney Road, Brunswick Ph 03 9385 8423 Australian Islamic Cultural Centre 46-48 Mason Street, Campbellfield Ph: 03 9309 7605 Coburg ISNA Mosque 995 Sydney Road, Coburg North Coburg Mosque (Fatih Mosque) 31 Nicholson Street, Coburg Ph 03 9386 5324 Deer Park Mosque 283 Station Road, Deer Park Ph 03 9310 8811 United Migrant Muslim Assn.

72 George Road, Doncaster Ph 03 9842 6491, Footscray West Mosque 294 Essex Street, Footscray Glenroy Musala 1st Floor, 92 Wheatsheaf Road, Glenroy Heidelberg Mosque Corner Lloyd & Elloits Streets, West Heidelberg Islamic College of Victoria (Mosque) 201 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing Ph 03 9369 6010 Huntingdale Mosque 320-324 Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale Ph 03 9543 8037 Al Nur Mosque 34-36 Studley Street, Maidstone Meadow Heights Mosque Hudson Circuit, Meadow Heights Springvale Mosque 68 Garnworthy Street, Springvale

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

EMERGENCY CONTACTS EMERGENCY CONTACTS Police, Fire & Abulance ........................

000 Victoria State Emergency Service (SES).......................................

132 500 Traffic hazards and freeway conditions..........................

13 11 70 Gas escape...........................................

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13 22 89 Kids Help Line.........................

1800 551 800 Lifeline (provides confidential telephone counselling).................

13 11 14 Suicide Help Line....................

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9224 2222

INDIAN CONSULATE Indian Consulate Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia P.O. Box No: 33247 Domain LPO Vic 3004 Consular Enquiries: +61-3-9682 5800 (9.30am-12.30noon only) General Enquiries (other than Consular): +61-3- 9682 7836 Fax No:+ 61-3- 9696 8251 Email: consular@cgimelb.org Web site: www.cgimelb.org Indian Consulate Consular services are handled by VFS Global Visa / Passport / PCC / IDLV / PIO / OCI services contact VFS +61 2 8223 9909.

Address: Part 4 Suite, Level 12, 55 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Site : www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/ Services handled by Indian Consulate Melbourne itself: OCI Misc. services, Registration of Birth, Birth Certificate, Renunciation of Indian Citizenship, Surrender of Indian Passport, New Passport Details on PIO, Transfer of Valid Visas, Marriage Certificate, Affidavit for Applying Child’s Passport in India, Documents Attestation.)

Student Welfare Officer in the Indian Consulate Melbourne Consulate General of India, Melbourne Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC – 3000 Phone: 03-96826203 Fax: 03-96968251 Email: cgo@cgimelb.org Website: www.cgimelb.orgExternal website that opens in a new window Contact person for Students welfare: Mr. Nirmal K. Chawdhary Designation: Deputy Consul General Mobile: 0430020828

HIGH COMMISSION FOR PAKISTAN,CANBERRA 4 Timbarra Crescent, O’Malley ACT 2606 (Australia), Tel: 61-2-62901676, 61-2-62901676, 62902769, 62901879 & 62901031, Fax: 61-262901073 Email: parepcanberra@internode. on.net, Postal Address: PO Box 684, Mawson ACT 2607 (Australia)

southSouth asia times 33 Asia Times

quick community guide

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

contd from previous page Suite 536, No 1 Queens Road,

Sri Lanka Consulate Melbourne VIC 3004 Telephone: +61 3 9290 4200 Fax: +61 3 9867 4873 Email:mail@slcgmel.org Web: http://www.slcgmel.org

Bangladesh High Commission, Canberra 43, Culgoa Circuit, O’Malley, ACT-2606 Canberra, Australia, Ph: (61-2) 6290-0511, (61-2) 6290-0522, (61-2)6290-0533 (Auto hunting).

Fax : (61-2) 6290-0544 E-Mail :hoc@bhcanberra.com

Consulate of Nepal, Melbourne Email: cyonzon@nepalconsulate.net.au Level 7, 28-32 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Ph: (03) 9650 8338 Email: info@nepalconsulate.net.au

TV GUIDE SBS1 – Daily NDTV News - 11:05 am - Monday to Saturday. (From New Delhi, India).

Urdu news SBS1 - PTV News – 9.30 am - Every Sunday – (From Pakistan).

SOUTH ASIAN Garments Roshan’s Fashions 68-71 Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9792 5688

VIEW POINT

South Asia Times

Vic 3175, Ph: (03) 9791 9227 Site: heritageindia.net.au

DVDs, Music CDs & Film Stuff Baba Home Entertainment 52C Foster St., Dandenong 3175, (03) 97067252

Travel Agents Gaura Travels 1300 FLY INDIA or 1300 359 463 info@gauratravel.com.au Travel House 284 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168 Ph: (03) 95435123, Mobile: 0425803071 mail@travelhouse.com.au

lAWYERS MLG Lawyers Ronny Randhawa 144 Sydney Road, Coburg Vic Ph 9386 0204 & 138 Walker Street, Dandenong Vic Ph: 9793 9917 Mobile : 0402 256 712 Vera Lawyers Kusum Vaghela Level 1, Suite 2, 373 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong Vic, Mobile: 0433 827 124

Jewellery Bhadra Laxman Jewellers 22ct Gold Jewellery / Silver Pooja (03) 9846 7661

Raj Rani Creations 83-A Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9794 9398 desi estyle 76 Foster St., Dandenong 3175 (03) 87744853; 0413707685 Heritage India 54-56 Foster Street, Dandenong,

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south asia 34 South Asia Timestimes

CINEMA

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Biggest ever showcase of Australian films at the Kolkata International Film Festival curated by Mitu Bhowmick Lange

Phillip Noyce, Garth Davis, Benjamin Gilmour, Mitu Bhowmick Lange, Simon Baker, Geoffrey Wright and Sue Maslin. Photo: Cinestaan

By SAT News Desk

K

OLKATTA: In the biggest ever showcase of Australian films in India, Australia Fest brought a curated selection of the best of Australian cinema to the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) held 1017 November 2018.

The film showcase was curated by Mitu Bhowmick Lange, who is the CEO of the of the iconic Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) held every year in Melbourne.

“What a wonderful honour for all of us to be a part of the Kolkata International Film festival , in the home of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen and many other legendary film makers,” said Mitu.

“We are so excited to be celebrating the 100 years of Australian cinema, with the screening of the very first Australian film - The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) to the sensational Breath, that will be presented by popular

film star Simon Baker, along with a Poster exhibition and the Retrospective of Australian icon Phillip Noyce’s films. We can’t wait to celebrate and revel in the magic of Cinema that binds us all together,” she remarked.

Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Her Excellency Ms Harinder Sidhu said, “Australia is proud to be the focus country at the 24th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), presented in partnership with the West Bengal Government. I am delighted that we are able to share a diverse range of Australian

films with the Indian audiences.”

“Australia has a strong bilateral engagement with West Bengal and surrounding states. We will shortly open a new consulate-general in Kolkata.

Our association with KIFF will further deepen our cultural relationship," added Ms Sidhu.

"In the last 7 years, Kolkata International Film Festival has had many partners. In the 24th edition of KIFF we have the pleasure of having Australia as a focus country. Australia stands out for celebrating diversity and freedom of expression. KIFF brings to its viewers some of the finest of Australian cinema.

KIFF is thankful to the Australian High Commission in India for its wholehearted cooperation," said Ms Mahua Banerjee, Director, Kolkata International Film Festival.

As the focus country, Australian films were presented in three broad categories – 100 Years

of Australian Cinema; Contemporary Section and Retrospective of Phillip Noyce. The festival will also celebrate 100 years of both the Australian cinema and the West Bengal Cinema through a poster exhibition.

100 Years of Australian Cinema showcase included the restored version of the first feature length movie ever made in 1906 - The Story of the Kelly Gang, the greatest silent Australian film made from a poem

by C.J Dennis of the same name - The Sentimental Bloke, a historical tale of an important battle won

by Australians - 40,000 Horsemen. This category will also include screening of films like The Dressmaker, Romper Stomper, classic Australian cult comedy Malcolm and Palme d’Or award 1965 winner Clay.

Internationally acclaimed Australian films screened in the Contemporary Section including Breath, Mary Magdelene, and Flammable Children.

Some of Australia’s

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celebrated film personalities also were at the festival to talk about their work and the retrospective of the Australia’s most highly acclaimed and successful film directors PhillipNoyce will have screening of some of his all-time favourites: Rabbit Proof Fence, Newsfront, TheQuiet American, Patriot Games, Clear and Present danger, and more.

Actor Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada, Breath); Director Garth Davis (Lion); Producer Sue Maslin (The DressMaker); Writer Christos Tsiolkas (Blessed); Oscar- Award nominated Editor JillBilcock( Moulin Rouge, Elizabeth); Producer Jamie Hilton (Breath, 1%); Director Geoffery Wright(Romper Stomper); Actress, Writer and Producer Victoria Hill (Macbeth, First Reformed); DirectorBenjamin Gilmour (Jirga) and Iconic Director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, Patriot Games).

CINEMA

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 35 Asia Times

Church priest tries to "stall" screening of film on atrocities on Christians

D

ecember 10, 2018: KP Sasi, a Bengalurubased human rights activist, writer, cartoonist and film maker, has regretted that a Christian priest tried to stall the screening of their documentary, `Voices from the Ruins' in a Church in Pune, even though the film, according to him, was on the largest attack on the Christian community during the last few centuries.

In an email alert, circulated through Dalit Media Watch, Sasi says, "I did not have much space to talk. That was fine.

The pastor who organised the screening spent more than one-hour shouting `Hallelujah' on top of his voice. And I was sitting behind the crowd wondering why the hell did I make this film. The film was on the persecution of Christians in India. But I was a total failure in communicating."

I am only a human rights activist in this situation. I genuinely care for this issue. I can respect your faith. But please respect my convictions also.

Sasi continues, "This idiot was not interested in discussing the real issue.

And when I came out, a couple of youngsters came to discuss with me. At that time, the same pastor came

and piled on to me. His problem was that I was an atheist. He was very keen to impress me with his knowledge of his God. I told him: `Look, sir. I am only a human rights activist in this

situation. I genuinely care for this issue. I can respect your faith. But please respect my convictions also'."

He adds, "The youngsters got the message. But

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the older one was only bothered about the fact that I was smelling some beer.

He could only smell from outside appearance of me.

Not from inside."

-CV News

south asia 36 South Asia Timestimes

TECHNOLOGY

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Virtual Reality – Entering into the complete new world By rajesh yogi

V

irtual reality (VR) is an interactive computer-generated experience-taking place within a simulated environment. It incorporates mainly auditory and visual feedback, but may also allow other types of sensory feedback like haptic. This immersive environment can be similar to the real world or it can be fantastical.

A person using virtual reality equipment is able to "look around" the artificial world, move around in it, and interact with virtual features or items.

Virtual Reality Images & Video Production of VR images and video is done by the omnidirectional cameras, also known as 360-degree cameras or VR cameras, that have the ability to record 360 interactive photography, although at low-resolutions or in highly compressed formats for online streaming of 360 video.

VR Cameras can be brought in range of $300 -$40k.

Potential VR use cases 1. VR is most commonly used in entertainment applications such as gaming and 3D cinema.

2. In robotics, virtual reality has been used to control robots.

3. In social sciences and psychology, virtual reality offers a costeffective tool to study and replicate interactions in a controlled environment.[50] It can be used as a form of therapeutic intervention.

For instance, there is the case of the virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), a form of exposure therapy for treating anxiety disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias 4. In medicine, simulated VR surgical environments - under the supervision of experts - can provide effective and repeatable training at a low cost, allowing trainees to recognize and amend errors as they occur 5. Virtual reality has been used in rehabilitation since the 2000s. Despite numerous studies conducted, good quality evidence of its efficacy compared to other rehabilitation methods without sophisticated and expensive equipment is lacking for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

6. VR can simulate real

workspaces for workplace occupational safety and health purposes, educational purposes, and training purposes. It can be used to provide learners with a virtual environment where they can develop their skills without the real-world consequences of failing. It has been used and studied in primary education,military,astronaut training,flight simulators, miner training, driver training and bridge inspection.

7. Immersive VR engineering systems enable engineers to see virtual prototypes prior to the availability of any physical prototypes 8. It also has been claimed to reduce military training costs by minimizing the amounts of ammunition expended during training periods 9. History &museums have begun making some of their content virtual reality accessible.

10. Retail, Shopping & e-commerce is going to challenge brick and mortar retailers using VR How one can use & experience VR Apps To use VR on your smartphone you can pick up a budget headset such as Google's Daydream View, the Samsung Gear VR, or even the simple Google Cardboard. There are also plenty of budget virtual reality headsets that work well with iPhones, such as the Homido V2.

Headsets There are a whole host of

VR headsets available, from powerful, high-end ones like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to mobile experiences like the Samsung Gear VR, the new Google Daydream View, or the do-it-yourself Google Cardboard.

VR & associated health risks Be aware of the health risks of VR and decide if it’s something you want to expose yourself to VR. Before you or your children try out your shiny new VR gadgets, be sure you're fully aware of the potential health risks of this technology.

1. Anxiety The immersive nature of virtual reality can induce stress or anxiety after wearing a full occlusion headset for more than a few minutes.Depending on what images they are seeing, virtual reality can bring in waves of emotions more than just looking at photos or watching videos.

For example, virtual reality footage of the war in Syria can cause the viewer to feel fearful, stressed and shocked.

2. Nausea Some people who use VR headsets complain of dizziness and nausea.

Its realistic simulated motions can affect a person’s perception of time and space and can induce fatigue, nausea or wooziness.

3. Eye Strain VR headsets can cause severe eyestrain among users. They strain their eyes in order to focus on a pixelated screen that uses a single refractive optic element. Headsets do not

see themselves doing so virtually.

usually addresses the optic issues with near-to-eye devices, and they quickly become uncomfortable after a few minutes.

Children at most risk Families with younger children should be especially cautious with virtual reality, even if they purchased the game for teens or young adults.

Children may not know how to communicate discomfort of any sort, such as visual discomfort or motion sickness, so you don't want prolonged exposure on screen.

What sort of VR one is exposed to -Content is the key Virtual reality content can also affect your perception of reality. When VR is done well, the brain believes it is real.

VR can be stored in the brain's memory centre in ways that are strikingly similar to real-world physical experiences.

That's great if the content is fun, educational or inspirational. For example, research shows that adults can be taught to recycle, increase their physical activity or become more empathetic to those of different races if they

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What happens if the VR content is scary or violent or porn?

Some of today's popular VR games allow you to fight off bloody zombies, get a "virtual tour of hell," battle "endless waves of combatants" and kill as many as you can in "survival horror." In one game, you can even shoot yourself in the head.

If the content is frightening, violent, or anxiety provoking, it can cause your body to react physically, including increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. It can also, in some individuals, cause psychological reactions, including anxiety, fear, or even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Where is the future leading?

Technology can affect life both positively and negatively. New technology always changes our life very much and takes it to a new level. It is like the new way of thinking or doing the normal things differently, better and much faster with less hassle and at a much affordable rate.

Technology unlocks life that was unimaginable, the life that only existed in people’s dreams. Technology is the reflection of people’s imagination on solving existing problems. These problems push human beings to transform imagined ideas to solving these problems into technological innovations, which as a result improve life.

human rights

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 37 Asia Times

The significance of human duties and responsibilities in human rights

By Dr Chandra Muzaffar

A

s we observe the 70th anniversary of the adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN General Assembly on the 10th of December 1948, it is imperative that we remind ourselves of the vital importance of Human Duties and Responsibilities in the life of a society. In fact there is a profound link between rights, on the one hand, and duties and responsibilities, on the other. It is a link that is acknowledged in almost every religious philosophy.

This is why in 1947 Mahatma Gandhi when asked to contribute his thoughts to the UDHR that was being drafted at that time wrote in a letter to the Director of UNESCO, “I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved come from duty well done.”

Similarly, the Confucian scholar, Wu Teh Yao who was involved in the preparatory work that went into the formulation of the UDHR tried to convince his colleagues that it would not be judicious to produce a document that only emphasised rights without giving equal attention to responsibilities. The contemporary Islamic thinker, SeyyedHossein Nasr has also argued that rights should emanate from responsibilities.

Over the decades there have been attempts to integrate rights with duties and responsibilities. The most notable of these is the Universal Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (UDHDR) proclaimed in Valencia in 1998 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UDHR. The UDHDR was initiated and developed by former heads of State and heads of Government, Nobel Laureates and experts and contains 12 chapters and 41 articles.

It not only emphasises

Finally, religion also has the potential to strengthen a sense of responsibility and a commitment to duty in the individual and her community if it moves away from its current obsession with form and identity.

our responsibility to uphold human rights but also elaborates on our responsibility to ensure integrity, a decent standard of living, human security, the right to participate in public affairs and to build an equitable international order. It is a pity that the UDHDR has been given very little attention by the international community.

And yet human duties and responsibilities have become far more crucial today than ever before. A brief look at five spheres of society will convince us of this. If the present generation is confronted by a monumental environmental crisis, underscored by the vagaries of climate change, it is partly because we human beings have not been faithful to our responsibility to protect our planet.

Likewise, if corruption and abuse of power among elites is more pervasive now than in the

past, it is because some of them lack a sense of responsibilityto those they govern manifested through the ease with which they trample upon the ethic of honesty and accountability. It is because we do not feel that we have a duty to look after our fellow human beings that we have allowed an economic and financial system to evolve that concentrates wealth in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. Hatred and bigotry that targets the religious or cultural ‘other’ has gained much more currency in recent years for a variety of reasons among them, a dearth of respect for human beings who are not part of one’s own tribe, an inability to understand that in this day and age we have a duty to appreciate, even celebrate, ethnic differences. It may be because many of us have no commitment to

responsibility as a value and a principle that we have no qualms about misusing the new modes of communication to spread lies, to peddle half-truths and to distort realities.

Our collective failure to adhere to our responsibilities and to fulfil our duties has imperilled our civilisation. It has brought humankind to the brink of catastrophe. How do we arrest our decline as a species?

To instil a deep sense of responsibility in the human being, one has to begin with the family.

It is the most effective institution for inculcating those habits and practices that enhances one’s sense of duty. The entire education process from the kindergarten to the university has also got a critical role to play. Social and cultural activities and the media can make a huge contribution to the challenge of creating an

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atmosphere that sustains the ethic of responsibility.

Political leaders and other elites should also demonstrate through ‘other-serving’ deeds their commitment to duty rather than to their own self-interest. This will have an exemplary impact upon society.

Finally, religion also has the potential to strengthen a sense of responsibility and a commitment to duty in the individual and her community if it moves away from its current obsession with form and identity. If it is perceived and practised as values and principles rooted in an understanding of life and its purpose that goes beyond self in the narrow sense, faith in God can become a powerful conduit for the fulfilment of a profound responsibility that centres on selfless service to humanity. It is then that life itself becomes a sacred responsibility, a precious gift from God, while the way we live becomes our gift to God. Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

Malaysia.

Source: CounterCurrents, 9 December 2018.

south asia 38 South Asia Timestimes

sports

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

Australia is next with two T20 World Cups coming in 2020

By SAT Sports Desk

M

ELBOURNE: Australia is officially next to host the newly renamed ICC T20 World Cup following the conclusion of the Women’s World T20 tournament in the West Indies.

Two T20 World Cups will be played in Australia in 2020, starting in just under 15 months’ time with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, comprising 10 teams playing 23 matches from 21st February – 8th March 2020, followed by the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, involving 16 teams playing 45 matches from 18th October – 15th November 2020.

The ICC announced on Friday that the World T20 will be known as the T20 World Cup from 2020 onwards. This elevation to World Cup status outlines the importance of the shortest format of the game for all 104 Member countries. The T20 World Cup and the (50-over) Cricket World Cup are now

considered equal in the game – each is the pinnacle in that format.

For the first time, T20 cricket’s global showpiece women’s and men’s competitions will be played as standalone events in the same host country and in the same year. 8 host cities

and 13 venues throughout Australia will host matches, with both competitions having broad national footprints, meaning as many Australians as possible will have the chance to see the world’s best players in their backyard.

The women’s and men’s

finals will receive equal billing, with both matches taking place at Australia’s biggest stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The women’s final is scheduled for International Women’s Day, Sunday 8th March 2020. This presents an opportunity for Australia to set a new world record for the highest ever attendance at a women’s sporting event.

Nick Hockley, CEO of the ICC T20 World Cup Australia 2020 Local Organising Committee, said: “Australia has an unparalleled reputation for hosting major international sporting events as well as passionate, knowledgeable and diverse fans who love T20 cricket.

“Lots of people have already been referring to the World T20 as the T20 World Cup. For this name change to be formalised by the ICC, only reinforces the importance of T20 cricket to the global game and that the T20 World Cup is the format’s pinnacle competition.

“Only twice previously

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has Australia hosted international cricket’s showpiece events, with the Men’s 50-over Cricket World Cup held in Australia in 1992 and 2015. So, 2020 represents a rare and special opportunity to welcome the cricketing world for not just one, but two World Cups.

“We’ve just witnessed a fantastic tournament in the West Indies, with a brilliant atmosphere and some record breaking performances that have taken the game to new levels. Congratulations to our counterparts in the West Indies for delivering a superb event.

“We look forward to working with host cities, venues, the community and all our partners over the coming months, so that both the women’s and men’s T20 World Cups in 2020 make up a spectacular celebration that everyone can be part of.”

Ticketing information: to get early access tickets, fans can register now at T20WORLDCUP.COM.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

southSouth asia times 39 Asia Times

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south asia 40 South Asia Timestimes

www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019