Flash flood in Afghanistan kills at least 95, sweeps away thousands of homes

Crisis-hit Afghanistan loses lives in flash floods. Apart from deaths, homes have been swept away leaving the people stranded. The country is reeling from an economic and humanitarian crisis. These are because of Western sanctions imposed after the Taliban returned to power last year. It is now the people who are suffering and are at the receiving end. The extreme weather is aggravated by the flooding in neighboring Pakistan. Its Disaster Management Authority reveals floods have killed 820 people since mid-June. Moreover, thousands of homes are damaged or destroyed as are many bridges. These have disturbed the lives of the people and limited the travel options. Nearly 100 dead in Afghanistan floods, officials say.

Deputy Minister of Disaster Management of Afghanistan informed a section of the media that food assistance had been dispatched to many flood-affected areas. Moreover, there are promises from aid organizations for delivery of emergency assistance. However, these might fall short of actual requirements. With winter around the corner, the affected families with women and children would face difficult times. They have lost their shelters. To add to their miseries, they have lost their agricultural farms and orchards. Either these are destroyed or their harvest has been damaged. In fact, their survival is at stake and the situation will worsen in the coming weeks and months. They need help to return to normalcy as soon as possible. An earthquake in Afghanistan in June killed more than 1,000 people and the country has been through a number of natural disasters and extreme weather events. Hence, aid organizations, the United Nations and the global community have to extend help to the flood-affected Afghans. The immediate need is for basic amenities like food, shelter and medicine apart from homes, livelihood and drinking water sources.

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Police in Bali set free 31 captive sea turtles that were headed for China

Marine police of Bali released 31 rare pig nosed sea turtles into the ocean - these turtles had been captured by an illegal gang of smugglers and were destined to be flown to Guangzhou in southern China. These reptiles faced an uncertain future after they were caught by the smugglers and could have been on their way to a restaurant or to be used in traditional Chinese medicine.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 14 April 2016.

Fortunately, police came to now of the sinister plot and raided the gang's hide out to rescue the turtles before they could be smuggled out of the country. The rescue teams of police, aided by wildlife officials, carried the heavy turtles across the sand at Kuta beach on the island of Bali. The turtles had been rescued last week.
It may be recalled that earlier this year, Indonesian authorities had foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 4,000 protected baby turtles worth tens of thousands of dollars to China. More than 3,700 pig-nosed turtles and nearly 900 snake-necked turtles were found concealed in containers in a building on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.
These turtles valued at nearly $90,000, were concealed among clown loach fish, which can be legally exported from Indonesia.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the pig-nosed turtle as vulnerable and the snake-necked turtle as critically endangered - both species are popular as pets. Moreover, some turtle species are also popular in China as exotic food or for use in traditional medicine.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Education in India – coaching classes, suicides and foreign degrees

It is a quirk of fate that all Indian parents want their children to acquire such an education that they stand out among the masses and pursue professions in the engineering or medical fields – this has resulted in the concept of coaching classes, a necessary evil.
It may sound weird but to the Indian parent, education means either engineering or medicine – these are the first priorities. No one is interested in general education or alternate job-oriented courses. Their hidden desire is to see that their children achieve what they themselves had been denied. The denial could have been due to financial problems in the family or the low IQ of the parents themselves.
In India, in order to get admitted to the prestigious streams of engineering or medicine, the student has to crack the JEE – Joint Entrance Examination. The rank he obtains in this exams would determine which stream he can get admitted to. And – it is here after announcement of results that heartbreaks occur because of not getting enough marks to opt for a branch of choice.
And – coaching classes take responsibility of grooming the students in the proper way so that they can crack the JEE with ease and come out with flying colors.
Of course, such a situation has given rise to this group of exploiters whose tentacles reach out to far corners of the country – they arrange special classes and students make a queue to join up when they are in the fag end of their schooling.
The operators of the coaching classes spend heavily on ads in the media and seize the opportunity to mint their millions by setting up coaching classes.
The concept was mooted sometimes in the 1970s and, students began to make a beeline for these classes because their classmates did. And – unless they also join the crowd, they would be left out, ridiculed and made to feel inferior – they would get isolated.
It was not a state of things that any society would want but it had to accept the changing mindset that led to psychological problems and the tendency of students to commit suicide – the reason was their inability to rise to the expectations of their parents. It kept preying on their minds and unable to succumb to the pressure, they took the easy way out.
Another trend that is gradually growing is of parents who send their children to study abroad – whatever the stream of knowledge, a foreign degree is always more sought after as compared an India degree. Of course, this option is meant only for those who can afford the high costs involved.