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dailyanarchistposts · 2 months

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YOUNG COMRADES,

Our country is passing through a chaos. There is mutual distrust and despair prevailing everywhere. The great leaders have lost faith in the cause and most of them no more enjoy the confidence of the masses. There is no programme and no enthusiasm among the ‘champions’ of Indian independence. There is chaos everywhere. But chaos is inevitable and a necessary phase in the course of making of a nation. It is during such critical periods that the sincerity of the workers is tested, their character built, real programme formed, and then, with a new spirit, new, hopes, new faith and enthusiasm, the work is started. Hence there is nothing to be disgusted of.

We are, however, very fortunate to find ourselves on the threshold of a new era. We no more hear the news of reaching chaos that used to be sung vastly in praise of the British bureaucracy. The historic question “Would you be governed by sword or pen”, no more lies unanswered. Those who put that question to us have themselves answered it. In the words of Lord Birkenhead, “With the sword we won India and with the sword we shall retain it.” Thanks to this candour everything is clear now. After remembering Jallianwala and Manawala outrages it looks absurd to quote that “A good government cannot be a substitute for self-government.” It is self-evident.

A word about the blessings of the British rule in India. Is it necessary to quote the whole volumes of Romesh Chandra Dutt, William Digby and Dadabhai Naoroji in evidence to prove the decline and ruin of Indian industries? Does if require any authorities to prove that India, with the richest soil and mine, is today one of the poorest, that India which could be proud of so glorious a civilisations, is today the most backward country with only 5% literacy? Do not the people know that India has to pay the largest toll of human life with the highest child death rate in the world? The epidemics like plague, cholera, influenza and such other diseases are becoming common day by day. Is it not disgraceful for us to hear again and again that we are not fit for self-government? Is it not really degrading for us, with Guru Govind Singh, Shivaji and Hari Singh as our heroes; to be told that we are incapable of defending ourselves? Alas, we have done little to prove the contrary. Did we not see our trade and commerce being crushed in its very infancy in the first effort of Guru Nanak steamship co-started by Baba Gurdit Singh in 1914; the inhuman treatment meted out to them, far away in Canada, on the way and finally, the bloody reception of those despairing, broken-hearted passengers with valleys of shots at Bajbaj, and what not? Did we not see all this? In India, where for the honour of one Dropadi, the great Mahabharat was fought, dozens of them were ravaged in 1919. They were spit at, in their naked faces. Did we not see all this? Yet, we are content with the existing order of affairs. Is this life worth living?

Does it require any revelation any revelation now to make us realise that we are enslaved and must be free? Shall we wait for an uncertain sage to make us feel that we are an oppressed people? Shall we expectantly wait for divine help or some miracle to deliver us from bondage? Do we not know the fundamental principles of liberty? “Those who want to be free, must themselves strike the blow.” Young men, awake, arise; we have slept too long!

We have appealed to the young only. Because the young bear the most inhuman tortures smilingly and face death without hesitation. Because the young bear the most inhuman tortures smilingly and face death without hesitation. Because the whole history of human progress is written with the blood of young men and young women. And because the reforms are ever made by the vigour, courage, self-sacrifice and emotional conviction of the young men who do not know enough to be afraid and who feel much more than they think.

Were it not the young men of Japan who come forth in hundreds to throw themselves in the ditches to make a dry path to Port Arthur? And Japan is today one of the foremost nations in the world. Were it not the young Polish people who fought again and again and failed, but fought again heroically throughout the last century? And today we see a free Poland. Who freed Italy from the Austrian yoke? Young Italy.

Do you know the wonders worked by the Young Turks? Do you not daily read what the young Chinese are doing? Were it not the young Russians who scarified their lives for Russians emancipation? Throughout the last century hundreds and thousands of them were exiled to Siberia for the mere distribution of socialist pamphlets or, like Dostoyevsky, for merely belonging to socialist debating society. Again and again they faced the storm of oppression. But they did not lose the courage. It were they, the young only, who fought. And everywhere the young can fight without hope, without fear and without hesitation. And we find today in the great Russia, the emancipation of the world.

While, we Indians, what are we doing? A branch of peepal tree is cut and religious feelings of the Hindus are injured. A corner of a paper idol, tazia, of the idol-breaker Mohammedans is broken, and ‘Allah’ gets enraged, who cannot be satisfied with anything less than the blood of the infidel Hindus. Man ought to be attached more importance that the animals and, yet, here in India, they break each other’s heads in the name of ‘sacred animals’. Our vision is circumscribed by…. * thinks in terms of internationalism.

There are many others among us who hide their lethargy under the garb of internationalism. Asked to serve their country they reply: “Oh Sirs, we are cosmopolitans and believe in universal brotherhood. Let us not quarrel with the British. They are our brothers.” A good idea, a beautiful phrase. But they miss its implication. The doctrine of universal brotherhood demands that the exploitation of man by man and nation be nation must be rendered impossible. Equal opportunity to all without any sort of distinction. But British rule in India is a direct negation of all these, and we shall have nothing to do with it.

A world about social servicre here. Many good men think that social service (in the narrow sense, as it is used and under stood in our country) is the panacea to all our ills and the best method of serving the country. Thus we find many ardent youth contending themselves with distributing grain among the poor and nursing the sicks all their life. These men are noble and self-denying but they cannot understand that charity cannot solve the problem of hunger and disease in India and, for that matter, in any other country.

Religious superstitions and bigotry are a great hinderance in our progress. They have proved an obstacle in our way and we must do away with them. “The thing that cannot bear free thought must perish.” There are many other such weakness which we are to overcome. The conservativeness and orthodoxy of the Hindus, extra-territorialism and fanaticism of the Mohammedans and narrow-mindedness of all the communities in general are always exploited by the foreign enemy. Young men with revolutionary zeal from all communities are required for the task.

Having achieved nothing, we are not prepared to sacrifice anything for any achievement; our leaders are fighting amongst themselves to decide what will be the share of each community in the hoped achievement. Simply to conceal their cowardice and lack of spirit of self-sacrifice, they are creating a false issue and screening the real one. These arm-chair politicians have their eyes set on the handful of bones that may be thrown to them, as they hope, by the mighty rulers. That is extremely humiliating. Those who come forth to fight the battle of liberty cannot sit and decide first that after so much sacrifices, so much achievement must be sure and so much share to be divided. Such people never make any sort of sacrifice. We want people who may be prepared to fight without hope, without fear and without hesitation, and who may be willing to die unhonoured, unwept and unsung. Without that spirit we will not be able to fight the great two-fold battle that lies before us – two-fold because of the internal foe, on the one hand, and a foreign enemy, on the other. Our real battle is against our own disabilities which are exploited by the enemy and some of our own people for their selfish motives.

Young Punjabis, the youth of other provinces are working tremendously in their respective spheres. The organisation and awakening displayed by young Bengal on February 3, should serve as an example to us. Our Punjab, despite the greatest amount of sacrifice and suffering to its credit, is discribed as a politically backward province. Why? Because, although it belong to the martial race, we are lacking in organisation and discipline; we who are proud of the ancient University of Texila, today stand badly in need of culture. And a culture requires fine literature which cannot be prepared without a common and well developed language. Alas, we have got none.

While trying to solve the above problem that faces our country, we will also have to prepare the masses to fight the greater battle that lies before us. Our political struggle ‘began just after the great War of Independence of 1857. It has passed through different phases. Along with the advent of the 20th century the British bureaucracy has adopted quite a new policy towards India. They are drawing our bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie into their fold by adopting the policy of concessions. Their cause is being made common. The progressive investment of British capital in India will inevitably lead to that end. In the very near future we will find that class and their great leaders having thrown their lot with the foreign rulers. Some round-table conference or any such body will end in a compromise between the two. They will no more be lions and cubs. Even without any conciliation the expected Great War of the entire people will surely thin the ranks of the so-called champions of India independence.

The future programme of preparing the country will begin with the motto: “Revolution by the masses and for the masses.” In other words, Swaraj for the 90%; Swaraj not only attained by the masses but also for the masses. This is a very difficult task. Thought our leaders have offered many suggestion, none had the courage to put forward and carry out successfully and concrete scheme of awakening the masses. Without going into details, we can safely assert that to achieve our object, thousands of our most brilliant young men, like Russian youth, will have to pass their precious lives in village and make the people understand what the Indian revolution would really mean. They must be made to realise that the revolution which is to come will mean more than a change of masters. It will, above all, mean the birth of new order of things, a new state. This is not the work of a day or a year. Decades of matchless self-sacrifice will prepare the masses for the accomplishment of that great work and only the revolutionary young men will be able to do that. A revolutionary does not necessarily mean a man of bombs and revolvers.

The task before the young is hard and their resources are scanty. A great many obstacles are likely to block their way. But the earnestness of the few but sincere can overcome them all. The young must come forth. They must see the hard and difficult path that lies before them, the great tasks they have to perform. They must remember in the heart of hearts that “success is but a chance; sacrifice a law”. Their lives might be the lives of constant failures, even more wretched than those which Guru Govind Singh had to face throughout his life. Even then they must not repent and say, “Oh, it was all an illusion.”

Young men, do not get disheartened when you find such a great battle to fight single-handed, with none to help you. You must realise your own latent strength. Rely on yourselves and success is yours. Remember the words of the great mother of James Garfield which she spoke to her son while sending him away, penniless, helpless and resourceless, to seek his fortune: “Nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be thrown overboard to swim or sink for himself.” Glory to the mother who said these words and glory to those who will rely on them.

Mazzini, that oracle of Italian regeneration, once said: “All great national movements begin with unknown men of the people without influence, except for the faith and the will that counts neither time nor difficulties.” Let the boat of life weigh another time. Let it set sail in the Great Ocean, and then:

Anchor is in no stagnant shallow. Trust the wide and wonderous sea, Where the tides are fresh for ever, And the mighty currents free. There perchance, O young Columbus, Your new world of truth may be.

Do not hesitate, let not the theory of incarnation haunt your mind and break your courage. Everybody can become great if he strives. Do not forget your own martyrs. Kartar Singh was a young man. Yet, in this teens, when he came forth to serve his country, he ascended the scaffold smiling and echoing “Bande Mataram”. Bhai Balmukund and Awadh Bihari were both quite young when they gave their lives for the cause. They were from amongst you. You must try to become as sincere patriots and as ardent lovers of liberty as they were. Do not lose patience and sense at one time, and hope at another. Try to make stability and determination a second nature to yourselves.

Let then young men think independently, calmly, serenely and patiently. Let them adopt the cause of Indian independence as the sole aim of their lives. Let them stand on their own feet. They must organise themselves free from any influence and refuse to be exploited any more by the hypocrites and insincere people who have nothing in common with them and who always desert the cause at the critical juncture. In all seriousness and sincerity, let them make the triple motto of “service, suffering, sacrifice” their sole guide. Let them remember that “the making of a nation requires self-sacrifice of thousands of obscure men and women who care more for the idea of their country than for their own comfort and interest, than own lives and the lives of those who they love”.

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maaarine · 1 year

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India overtakes China to become world’s most populous country (Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, April 24 2023)

“It is also the first time since 1950, when the UN first began keeping global population records, that China has been knocked off the top spot.

China’s population decline follows decades of strict laws to bring the country’s booming birthrate under control, including the introduction of a one-child policy in the 1980s.

This included fines for having extra children, forced abortions and sterilisations.

While initially highly effective in controlling the population, these policies became a victim of their own success, and the country is now grappling with an ageing population in steep decline, which could have severe economic implications.

Part of the problem is that because of a traditional preference for boys, the one-child policy led to a massive gender imbalance.

Men now outnumber women by about 32 million. “How can the country now shore up birth rates, with millions of missing women?” asks Mei Fong, the author of One Child, a book about the impact of the policy.

Recent policies introduced in China trying to incentivise women to have more children have done little to stimulate population growth.

Women still have only 1.2 children and the population is expected to fall by almost 10% in the next two decades.

According to projections, the size of the Chinese population could drop below 1 billion before the end of the century.

In India, the population has grown by more than a billion since 1950. Though growth has now slowed, the number of people in the country is still expected to continue to rise for the next few decades, hitting its peak of 1.7 billion by 2064. (…)

India’s demography is far from uniform across the country.

One third of predicted population growth over the next decade will come from just two states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the north of the country, which are some of India’s poorest and most agricultural states.

Uttar Pradesh alone already has a population of about 235 million, bigger than Nigeria or Brazil.

Meanwhile states in India’s south, which is more prosperous and has far higher rates of literacy, population rates have already stabilised and have begun to fall.

In the next decade, states in the southern states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu are likely to start grappling with an ageing population, and by 2025, one in five people in Kerala will be over 60.

The divide in population growth between India’s north and south could also have political implications.

After 2026, India’s electoral lines are due to be revised and redrawn based on census data, in particular relating to the number of people in constituencies.

Many politicians in southern states have expressed concern that their successes in bringing down population numbers, through education programmes, family planning and high literacy, could result in a reduction in their political representation in parliament, and a further political domination of the northern states that continue to have a population boom.

Currently the average age in India is just 29, and the country will continue to have a largely youthful population for the next two decades.

A similar “demographic dividend” proved highly useful in China, leading to an economic boom, particularly in manufacturing.

While India has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the world, and recently overtook the UK as the fifth-largest, experts have stressed that the country needs more investment in education and employment to seize the opportunity presented by a young population over the next few decades.

India continues to struggle with high youth unemployment and less than 50% of working-age Indians are in the workforce.

The figure for women is even lower, with just 20% of women participating in the formal labour market, a figure that is decreasing as India develops.”

#article #politics #weaker sex

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dasha-aibo · 9 months

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"Let's just take the money from the rich and give it to the poor" sound so, so good, it plays on our innate sense of justice and fairness and it absolutely never works.

First and foremost, money is absolutely meaningless. It only has a role because we give it value and it reflects an aspect of our economy. By itself, you could be living in a mansion, decked out in gold and expensive furs and still be poor as shit.

This is what happened in the USSR following the revolution. Yeah, all the aristocrats and businessmen were killed or exiled, their factories and mansions sacked, their gold and luxuries taken. And people were starving on the street, because there was no one to manage proper food supply chains.

For its entire existence USSR wasn't under heavy sanctions. Like, yeah, it didn't trade with the US, but it did trade with Europe, India, China, Africa, Vietnam, the entire Warsaw pact and so much more. Factories were built by foreign specialists using money USSR bought with raw resources, because it was all it could produce.

The cars were shit, household electronics were terrible, the food supply faced constant shortages and overall the quality of life of a soviet man was miles behind the life of anyone in the poorest Western country.

Because the Soviet system as a whole stole all the money and had no way to meaningfully produce anything of value. The entire incentive system was shot, when factory bosses weren't chosen by their skill, but by their loyalty to the party. All USSR knew is how to extract raw resources from the Earth and sell it.

And if you bring up "well, the Soviets ate more meat than Americans!" shit I will fucking explode, because that was a blatant lie. My mother and grandmother grew up in Moscow, the richest city in the country and they couldn't afford enough meat until USSR fell apart.

The statistical bureau was under the party thumb and only produced numbers the Party wanted to see. You have to be either naive or knowingly trying to spin the numbers to trust any Soviet statistics.

You can't "simply redistribute the wealth". It doesn't work. You have to create conditions where the living standards of everyone are way higher, regardless of how the rich live. That is much harder and much less glamorous, but it's the only working solution.

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 5 months

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Today in Christian History

Today is Monday, January 1st, 2024. It is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; Because it is a leap year, 365 days remain until the end of the year.

404: Last known gladiator fight in Rome. Sometime earlier, Telemachus, a monk from the eastern Roman empire, had been killed by spectators in the Roman Coliseum for attempting to separate gladiatorial combatants. According to church historian Theodoret, when Emperor Honorius learned of this, he declared Telemachus a martyr and abolished the games.

1519: The Swiss Reformation begins when Huldrych Zwingli (pictured above) assumes his duties as priest of Zurich and begins preaching through the Bible.

1622: The Gregorian Calendar, so called because it was promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII, makes January 1st the first day of the year in Catholic countries. Under the Roman calendar, March 25th had been the first day of the year.

1802: In reply to the Danbury Baptist Accociation (of Connecticut), which is concerned that Baptists could be forced to belong to an established church, Thomas Jefferson declares there is “a wall of separation between Church and State,” a phrase which never appears enshrined in the US Constitution, but will later be wrested out of context to deny public expression of religious belief on governmental property.

1824: Over breakfast, David Naismith organizes The Glasgow Young Men’s Society for Religious Improvement. One object spelled out in its constitution is “to establish and promote throughout the city and suburbs associations of Young Men for Mutual Religious Improvement.”

1871: An act to disestablish the Church of Ireland goes into effect, meaning it will no longer be the government-run church of that country.

1927: Kawai Shinsui publicly announces that he is establishing the Christ Heart Church, a Japanese denomination independent of the west.

1937: Death of J. Gresham Machen, a gifted Presbyterian scholar and defender of the Christian faith in the United States. Concerned with a rising tide of liberalism among Presbyterians, he had helped found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

1945: Death of Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah, first native-born Anglican bishop of India. He had relinquished leadership in two mission agencies to work in Dornakal, one of the poorest regions of India. Upon his arrival in Dornakal, Christians had numbered 8,000 with six Indian ministers and one hundred and seventy-two lay-workers. By his death the diocese had one hundred and fifty ministers and about three hundred thousand converts despite the opposition of Mahatma Gandhi.

1979: Beginning of the Third General Council of the Latin American Episcopate, held in Puebla, Mexico. It will emphasize popular piety and place special emphasis on the poor.

2011: Muslims in Alexandria, Egypt, bomb the crowded Two Saints Coptic Church, killing more than twenty Christian and wounding scores of others.

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fangirlshrewt97 · 9 months

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I am so proud of the growth India is showing.

I know every country has its issues, and India has many, but it is also an inspiring nation as a whole, going within 3/4s of a century from one of the poorest countries in the world, to now being rightfully seen as one of the global leaders.

Can't wait to see what else we achieve ❤️🇮🇳🇮🇳

#india #g20 #g20 summit

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freifraufischer · 1 year

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You don't get to be offended when you make a racist and classist excuse for Dipa testing positive. Doubling and tripling down on your racism and classism is not a good look.

This is almost hilarious.

I'm racist because A) I believe the athlete who says she doesn't know how the substance got into her system because B) I'm apparently more aware of the conditions of environmental contamination in her home country then you are and have read the scientific and public policy papers about the impact of pharmaceutical dumping in India.

Environmental racial justice seems to be a concept lost on you but yes, kiddo, you do need to consider the specific circumstances of a person and the place they live to understand larger issues. Late stage capitalism has taken advantage of poverty and lax regulation in India to place horrific pollution risks among the population.

Dipa Karmakar does not live in a bubble protected from the risks around her. In fact the society around her is why it made economic sense for her to take the risks she did in gymnastics. It was no accident that the majority of Produnova throwing gymnasts in the 2016 quad came from some of the poorest economic conditions among elite gymnastics. Karmakar is from one of the poorest states in India with some of the most polluted water supply. It's not racist to say this. It's racist to ignore it. You are not being class conscious when you try to place all the blame on an individual when there is a massive industry (much of it not owned by Indians) which is dumping massive amounts of pharmaceutical waste into the water supply.

If someone who lived next to a copper mine found that they had heavy metals in their blood supply would decide that it was classist to talk about where they were living?

And if you are the same person who keeps invoking "there would be tons of Indian athletes testing postive" you might want to know that India has the second largest number of WADA suspended athletes (behind Russia) which is quite remarkable given how small their Olympic teams are by population.

Take a seat kiddo. You are wearing clown shoes.

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digital-lab-english-language-lab · 1 year

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Role of English Language in India

Languages are important in the life of any nation. The members of a social group need language to communicate with each other, for all social purposes, for public administration, for commerce and industry, for education and so on.

Ours is a country with Multilingual, Multicultural, and pluralistic milieu. Social aspirations can best be fulfilled when they are allowed to function through the mother tongue. Therefore it is natural to think of mother tongue for the purpose of education. But the necessity to have a common language for interaction has led to the learning of English.

The English language is a powerful force not just for economics, business, and trade, but for mutual respect and progress. It is also becoming the common future of human commerce and communication. English is the best tool to provide good opportunity for the learner to learn. This is also the language of instruction in all the Universities and colleges across the country. The scenario is such that one needs to polish the skills of English to obtain a job. Mere knowledge of subjects is no more the only criteria to secure a job in today’s date. With the growing globalization, one must definitely be able to communicate in English and should have a good English vocabulary, if one wants to go across the country for educational or job purposes.

Thus, though a foreign language, English occupies a unique position in the Indian educational system. Even after independence, it continues to be a major language having a prestigious position in our society. This chapter attempts to focus attention on the role of the English language and the changing needs of English Language Teaching and Learning in India. English speaking and English listening are given a very high priority in the Indian educational system. The elite society in India sends their children to English-medium schools and even the poorest of the poor aspire to send their children to the same since English is seen as a language that provides upward economic and social mobility.

Speaking is one of the most difficult skills language learners would face. In spite of this, it has traditionally been forced into the background while teachers of English, have spent all the classroom time trying to teach students how to write, to read and sometimes even to listen. English speaking is generally thought to be the most important of the four skills. This skill is the most complicated due to the fact that non-native speakers have to interpret not only the message that other speakers try to express, but also take into account other possibilities.

Contrary to what everybody thinks about foreign language learning, listening competence is wider than speaking competence. It has taken many years to give the listening skill the importance it deserves in second and foreign language learning among the teaching profession. This is the reason why recently, the language teaching profession has brought into focus on English listening comprehension.

English is the only language which is understood by educated people all over the country. English speaking and English listening are needed not just for operational purposes but also for identifying oneself with those who use the language in India and abroad.

According to Dr. S. Radha Krishnan Commission on Education “English is the only means of preventing our isolation from the world and we will act unwisely if we allow ourselves to be enveloped in the folds of a dark curtain of ignorance”.

#EnglishSpeaking #EnglishFluency #SpeakingSkills #ListeningSkills #PresentationSkills #GroupDiscussion

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mariacallous · 2 years

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COVID-19 has kept more than 168 million children around the world out of school for more than one year, but as schools reopen it is important not to forget another stubborn and powerful barrier keeping children out of the classroom—distance.

According to the World Bank, “The single most important determinant of primary school enrollment is the proximity of a school.” In country after country, from India to Mali, evidence shows that the farther children are from school, the less likely they are to attend. And as we see in Figures 1 and 2, this is especially true for girls.

Figure 1. Enrollment or completion of grade nine schooling by distance and gender, India

Source: American Economic Journal, 2017.

Distance to school is a particular challenge for girls in sub-Saharan Africa, where data from eight countries indicates that more than 1 in 4 primary school children live more than two kilometers from the nearest school, while secondary schools for rural students are often hours away on foot.

This long walk to school amplifies the already considerable challenges facing rural girls, including poverty, insecurity, violence, and social norms hostile or indifferent to girls’ education. The walk to school can leave girls vulnerable to harassment and assault and can deepen their family’s poverty by preventing girls from helping on the family farm before or after school. When the walk is in addition to daily chores, such as fetching water, girls may be forced to make part of their journey before dawn or after dusk.

In the face of these challenges, many parents—fearful for their daughter’s safety or concerned about making ends meet—pull their daughters out of school. According to UNESCO, just 1 percent of the poorest girls in low-income countries complete secondary school.

Getting girls to school

A robust global body of evidence has found that getting girls to enroll in school and maintaining attendance for as long as possible is one of the most powerful levers for empowering girls, sparking economic growth, improving health outcomes, and reducing exploitative practices such as child marriage.

Until recently, strategies for increasing girls’ enrollment and attendance focused on three levers: building more schools, lowering school fees, and conditional cash transfers to families. Building more schools can be effective, but in many rural areas this can lead to an educational model based on sub-scale, one-room schoolhouses incapable of delivering high-quality education. Lowering school fees and providing conditional cash transfers to families who enroll their daughters in school does not address the fundamental challenge facing girls—miles and miles of unpaved roads between their home and school.

Evidence that bicycles help girls get to school and stay in school

There is increasing recognition—based on research in Colombia, India, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and a high-quality randomized control trial in Zambia—that bicycles can serve as an effective conditional non-cash transfer to help girls get to and stay in school.

For the last ten years, the Ministry of Education in Zambia has partnered with World Bicycle Relief to help nearly 37,000 rural girls get to school quickly and safely through a cost-effective locally managed program. Girls enrolled in the program sign “service to own” agreements with their community, pledging to complete their studies in return for use and eventual ownership of a bicycle. In addition to providing at-risk rural girls with specially designed bicycles, the program trains local mechanics to keep those bicycles in service for years to come.

A rigorous randomized control trial and subsequent evaluations of the program found that girls provided with a bicycle cut their commute time by more than an hour a day, reduced their absenteeism by 28 percent, were 19 percent less likely to drop out, and scored higher on mathematics assessments (see Figure 3). They also reported feeling more in control of decisions affecting their lives, ranked themselves higher academically, had a greater belief in their potential to succeed in life, and experienced 22 percent less sexual harassment and/or teasing on their way to school.

Figure 3. Results of WBR’s bicycle program in Zambia

Source: Adapted from World Bicycle Relief, 2022. Designed by Brookings.

One father remarked that his daughter, equipped with a durable specially designed bicycle for the rough terrain, was suddenly “more intelligent.” The heartbreak is that we know she didn’t suddenly gain IQ points. She gained time and energy.

We know all these girls have gifts. Some are brilliant writers, some are creative thinkers, some are math whizzes, and others budding engineers. But when they are exhausted and hungry from their long walks to and from school and fetching water and working on the farm, they are even further challenged to demonstrate or develop that brilliance or talent.

We recognize that durable, fit for purpose bicycles will not ensure every girl gets to school, stays in school, and learns in school. But it is a powerful, low-cost, and sustainable tool effective in many circumstances and geographies that too many governments and funders have—until now—ignored. As schools reopen, the world has one chance to respond with a holistic set of solutions to prevent an entire generation of girls from losing an education due to rural exclusion. In addition to investing in quality learning, let’s reconsider what demands we’re putting on rural girls, lighten their load, and recognize the miles and miles of unpaved roads that stand between them and the world they (and we) want.

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mylasttwobraincellsandi · 2 years

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Alright exams are over and I am here to rant about random shit again. Reminder that this is not meant to offend but to rather educate. Please don't come for me.

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Foreigners coming to India, living on a dollar a day, eating street food three times a day for 5 days a week and claiming that they saw the "real" india is my only real pet peeve ever.

Fuck that shit. If I go to New York and live off of eating 2 dollar hot dogs and 1 dollar pizza for weeks on end I'll get sick too. If you don't take care of yourself in any country you will get sick. And especially as a foreigner.

No your stomachs cannot handle our extremely spicy food if you haven't eaten stuff at that spice level consistently before. So quit eating them.

No one here expects you to do that. You are not expected to just somehow mimic our culture entirely just cause you are here.

The fact that other countries expect this of tourists and especially migrants is and will always be insane. You can be American or British or French or German or japanese or south african or Algerian or Moroccan or whatever nationality you belong to. And you can still experience or ,if you are enamored enough by it, adopt parts of our culture into your life.

Being respectful however is not optional. This doesn't mean you have to take misogyny or sexist comments or homophobia from anyone. But be aware that there are conservatives here. And no not everyone is like that. The queer community in india is often overlooked but we are here. Liberals are here.

But treat people with respect. Wherever you go. That is not optional.

But to see people on YouTube talk about how cheaply they travelled in india is...kinda off. I get what they are trying to show. Yes india is a cheap country to live in. But quit glorifying it. The fact that over 20 percentage of our population lives under the poverty line is not something we are proud of. And the fact that so many people come here assuming that all indians are poor simply shows how little they actually know about the country. I am not saying that you should all book into 5 star resorts and avoid all meaningful interactions with indians. You absolutely should not do that. Instead talk to the people here like...you know...people. This might surprise some of you but a vast majority of us are infact middle class families who are fairly happy and even in many of the poorest households pretty educated (the recent generations I mean. We can't overturn history.).

Don't come here to pity us. Treat us as equals. And if you find yourselves thinking "how dare this bitch not talk about the poor. They are ones that need to have a platform to talk." You are absolutely right the poor need a good platform to discuss their issues. But these youtubers are not doing that though. They live on as little as they can to "experience true india". That's not "true india" or whatever other bullshit they spew. All of India needs to be seen. From the poorest to the richest. The poorest need more real representation. Ones where their problems get light shed on. Ones where they get to talk about their issues. Not have some random ass person say "omg look how poor they are." Like bitch you are not helping and you damn well know that.

And a personal issue I have is that...I never see the india I see in most videos. I didn't grow up eating roti and sabzee. I didn't grow up in a giant metropolitan city or a small village. Hindi is not my native language. I grew up loving the smell of rain on the soil and seeing coconut trees everywhere. I grew in a well developed but not cramped city. I grew up eating does and rice. I grew up with fish as a staple in our cuisine. Our food is even spicier. Our language is in an entirely different script. But I don't see any of that in many videos (I said many. Not all.).

And when I do see the india I see in the few videos that are out there I feel happy. It's nice Knowing that you are not invisible.

So to anyone that made it this far, india is not a monolith. We are an incredibly diverse country full of all kinds of people. No not all of us are scammers. And no not all us are software engineers (but you can probably find a fair few.). We are not all Hindu and don't all speak Hindi. We don't all look alike either. Quit going to northeastern states and posting videos with titles like "is this really india !!!". Yes. Yes it is. And we are really fucking proud of the fact that we are that diverse.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

#india #nj rambles #don't come for my ass #here to just vibe #might delete later

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igormicunovic · 10 days

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⛩ Why drink tea?

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. Tea is the world’s most consumed drink, after water. It is believed that tea originated in northeast India, north Myanmar and southwest China, but the exact place where the plant first grew is not known. Tea has been with us for a long time. There is evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago.

Tea production and processing constitutes a main source of livelihoods for millions of families in developing countries and is the main means of subsistence for millions of poor families, who live in a number of least developed countries.

The tea industry is a main source of income and export revenues for some of the poorest countries and, as a labour-intensive sector, provides jobs, especially in remote and economically disadvantaged areas. Tea can play a significant role in rural development, poverty reduction and food security in developing countries, being one of the most important cash crops.

Tea consumption can bring health benefits and wellness due to the beverage's anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and weight loss effects. It also has cultural significance in many societies.

🧧 International Tea Day

Re-emphasizing the call from the Intergovernmental Group on Tea to direct greater efforts towards expanding demand, particularly in tea-producing countries, where per capita consumption is relatively low, and supporting efforts to address the declining per capita consumption in traditional importing countries, the General Assembly decided to designate 21 May as International Tea Day.

The Day will promote and foster collective actions to implement activities in favour of the sustainable production and consumption of tea and raise awareness of its importance in fighting hunger and poverty.

⛩ Why not make some delicious baked green tea treats on International Tea Day and have a bake sale to raise money and awareness regarding working conditions in the tea industry? Green tea recipes are available in their abundance. People are actively searching for different ways to enjoy green tea. While green tea is delicious when simply mixed with hot water, there is nothing wrong with switching it up from time to time, especially on International Tea Day!

An easy and delicious recipe is Matcha Meringue Kisses. To make this you will need Matcha, sugar, egg whites, and powdered sugar. Begin by sifting together the Matcha and the powder sugar, and then whip the egg whites until they have soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and whip until stiff peaks. Gently fold the Matcha into this mixture and then transfer to a pastry bag. Pipe the mixture into small kisses onto a baking tray and then bake for around an hour.

Or, why not make Green Tea Donuts? For this, you need green tea, honey, melted butter, milk, egg, salt, baking powder, sugar, and cake flour. You whisk the green tea, salt, baking powder, sugar, and flour. Add the honey, melted butter, milk, and egg, and then whisk. Use a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the mould. Then, simply bake the donuts for eight minutes. You can make your own glaze to go on the top – chocolate goes well!

Other delicious baked treats to try include green tea muffins, brownies and shortbread!

#internationalteaday #tea #teaday

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nuadox · 1 month

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Taking the bite out of snake venom

- By Michael Allen , Horizon -

In November 2023, police in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg issued an alert about an “extremely venomous” snake that was two metres long and had escaped from its confines.

The green mamba was eventually found behind a plaster wall in the owner’s house, easing public concern and ending what had been a national news item.

Millions of bites

The incident gave city dwellers in Europe rare exposure to a threat that many millions of people elsewhere face on a regular basis.

Every year around 5.4 million people globally – often in the world’s poorest communities – are bitten by venomous snakes, with countries such as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, India and Nigeria estimated to have large numbers of cases.

Globally, these bites cause between 81 000 and 138 000 deaths and around 400 000 permanent injuries including amputations resulting from severe tissue damage. Snakebite envenoming is deemed a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization and is more deadly than all other WHO-recognised neglected tropical diseases.

Professor Nicholas Casewell is seeking to reduce these numbers as part of a research project that received EU funding to improve snakebite treatments, which have barely changed in the past 100 years.

‘If you get the right antivenom quickly enough, then they can be effective – they are life-saving treatments,’ said Casewell, an expert in snakebites at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. ‘But they have so many deficiencies associated with them.’

Antivenoms are currently produced by injecting horses or sheep with low doses of venom so that the animals develop antibodies against it. Blood serum containing these antibodies is then collected from the host animals to be used as antivenom – a process first demonstrated by a French physician named Albert Calmette in the 1890s.

Antivenoms are expensive, prove often to be ineffective and need to be kept refrigerated. They can also cause severe adverse reactions such as rashes, joint pain, fever and lymph-node swelling.

Furthermore, large pharmaceutical companies have stopped producing antivenoms because they aren’t considered to be financially viable. That increases the need for new treatments.

New nanoparticle

The project in which Casewell is involved brings together research institutes and universities from Belgium, France, Portugal and the UK. Called ADDovenom, it runs for four and a half years until March 2025.

The researchers have turned to a new synthetic nanoparticle to develop more effective snakebite treatments. Virus-like, it is known as an ADDomer.

ADDomers are self-assembling because they are made up of many copies of the same protein. These proteins can be modified in a way that enables them to grab and neutralise specific targets.

In the case of ADDovenom, those targets are the toxins in snake venom.

Vipers and mambas

The project focuses on the saw-scaled vipers and mambas of Africa. They cause a substantial medical burden among snakes in the sub-Saharan region.

Saw-scaled vipers signal when they feel threatened and may bite by coiling into a pretzel shape and rubbing their scales together – an action that creates a sizzling sound.

Mambas, which are closely related to cobras, seek to scare off aggressors by rearing up and hissing.

The venom from these two types of snakes has very different effects. In saw-scaled vipers it causes internal bleeding, while in mambas it triggers paralysis.

Under ADDovenom, proteomics experts at the University of Liege in Belgium have been analysing the venom of these snakes harvested at the herpetarium at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which houses the largest collection of venomous snakes in the UK and is one of the most diverse in Europe.

Venoms are a mix of different components. The project’s goal is to identify and neutralise the most dangerous toxins in saw-scaled vipers and mambas.

‘We now know the composition of these venoms and we can extract the most abundant and most pathogenic toxins,’ said Professor Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel, a biochemist at the UK-based University of Bristol who runs the project. ‘These are our targets.’

More effective, affordable

Current antivenoms work in anything but a targeted fashion.

At most only around a third of antivenom antibodies target snake venom. The rest are antibodies that the animals from which the antivenom was created had circulating in their bodies to fight off other pathogens.

This, combined with the fact that the antibodies are animal-derived, is why antivenoms can make people sick. Patients develop a condition known as serum sickness, which is an allergic reaction to these additional and unnecessary components in the animal serum.

‘Here we are trying to do things in a much more rational, informed way,’ Casewell said.

The researchers hope that, as well as being more effective, their planned treatments will be safer.

And because ADDomers remain stable at high temperatures, the treatments wouldn’t need to be refrigerated, making them more accessible to remote rural communities in the tropics.

While the project will wrap up in less than a year, the research won’t.

As well as further developing ADDomer nanoparticles for different toxins, the scientists will examine how these products could be manufactured to scale to keep them affordable.

‘The cost is really important because we are talking about developing countries and rural areas,’ Berger-Schaffitzel said. ‘People definitely have problems affording treatment.’

Just when ADDomer-based treatments will become available depends on matters such as the protection they confer in mice against the toxins and the viper venom. For a life-saving treatment, the goal is a broad reactivity across venoms from different vipers.

Lab-made antibodies

ADDomers aren’t the only hope for developing new ways to tackle snakebites.

Other EU-funded researchers are trying to do so with human monoclonal antibodies. These are laboratory-produced clones of the human body’s countless antibodies.

‘We have antibodies in our blood, but it is a mix of millions of different antibodies,’ said Andreas Hougaard Laustsen-Kiel, a professor in antibody technologies at the Technical University of Denmark. ‘A monoclonal one is just one of these many, many antibodies.’

Engineered monoclonal antibodies are already used in several areas of medicine, mainly as targeted therapies for cancer and as treatments for autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis.

Laustsen-Kiel and colleagues are engineering antibodies that neutralise multiple related toxins in snake venoms.

‘It is relatively straightforward to find a monoclonal antibody that just binds one target,’ he said. ‘The more difficult thing is to find a monoclonal antibody that binds several different targets.’

Their project, MABSTER, is due to wrap up in December 2024 after five years.

As with ADDovenom, the researchers have been focusing on snake toxins that cause a significant medical burden.

MABSTER has developed and tested on mice a mixture of antibodies that can neutralise coral snake venoms, a family of brightly coloured, highly venomous snakes that live in the Americas.

The team is also close to completing a mix for treating bites from African cobras and mambas, according to Laustsen-Kiel.

Fewer side effects

In addition to engineering the antibodies to target specific toxins, the team is trying to ensure the antibodies survive longer in the body to fight new toxins again.

Normally, after an antibody has bound to its target, known as an antigen – in this case a venom toxin – it neutralises the antigen and signals it for destruction. In this process, the antibody remains occupied by the antigen until both are destroyed.

By engineering the monoclonal antibodies to be sensitive to their microenvironment, it’s possible to programme them so that they release the antigen during cellular recycling of the antibody-antigen complex, according to Laustsen-Kiel.

This leaves the antibody intact and free to go and bind more toxins.

Recycling antibodies in this way could allow lower doses of treatment to be used, increasing efficacy and potentially reducing side effects.

Laustsen-Kiel echoed Berger-Schaffitzel by stressing the importance of affordability when it comes to such treatments.

‘The next big research question is how to manufacture these things cheaply,’ he said.

Research in this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon Programme including, in the case of MABSTER, via the European Research Council (ERC). The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

This post Taking the bite out of snake venom was originally published on Horizon: the EU Research & Innovation magazine | European Commission.