Indian Rape Case Tragedy Leading to Increasing Women and Victim’s Rights

On December 16th, 2012 a 23 year old student was brutally gang raped, and then violated with an iron rod on a bus in New Delhi, India. The girl died in a hospital several days later.

Forbidden from releasing her name, Indian media called her “Nirbhaya”, or “fearless.”

In a culture that often blames victims and where rape cases often take years to resolve, this case was solved quickly. All of the men except for one (who was a juvenile at the time), were sentenced to death.

This tragic story drew headlines from around the globe. India is making tremendous progress to decrease the level of sexual harassment in the country. According to the Huffington Post stalking, voyeurism, and sexual harassment are now all crimes.

According to the Guardian, women are being inspired by the government’s quick response to this case and are increasingly reporting sexual assault.

While it seems like India is heading in the right direction, the Huffington Post cautions that it will take more than one year to undo generations of victim blaming and sexism.

According to a CNN article, girls in rural India are often seen as a burden. The author speculates that if the case had happened in rural India, there would not have been such a tremendous uproar.

For women in India (and throughout the world), there is still an uphill battle to fight. Undoing thousands of years in which women were viewed as second class citizens is going to take time and effort.

Nirbhaya’s story is a tragedy, but hopefully, it will lead to a permanent changes so that women can live in a world where they are free from victim blaming and sexual harassment.

Reality TV: America’s Cultural Export

Reality television is a genre that everyone seems to love to hate. We discuss how “trashy” and “useless” it is, yet we continue to watch it.

One of our country’s biggest exports is entertainment. When we “export” our American reality shows, we are giving other countries a glimpse at our “culture.”

According to a CNN article, we have a fascination with reality TV bullying. However, the real problem with reality TV is the promotion of stereotypes. Reality television shows rely on stereotypes for most of their content.

For example, the show “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” on TLC also airs in the UK. The Guardian, criticizes the show for showing the worst aspects of an entire part of America.

The article  says, “In a sense, it does for Georgia what Jersey Shore did for New Jersey.”

A 2010 article from The Guardian, talks about Jersey Shore’ s promotion of stereotypes that are often attributed to Italian Americans.

The same perpetuation of stereotypes is now happening with “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

Shows like “Here Come Honey Boo Boo”, and many other “redneck culture” shows like it, promote negative stereotypes that are commonly associated with poverty in the Southern part of the United States.

Not only are these stereotypes going to American’s receiving these media messages, but we are passing these stereotypes on to other countries that consume our media.

A Forbes headline  described “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” calling it, “Dwarf Tossing for the Reality Show Age.”

Reality shows are showing international consumers  a false picture of our country, and reinforcing stereotypes both domestically and abroad.

The Scars of Hurricane Andrew

Hurricane Andrew one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. According to NPR, it was the second costliest storm after Hurricane Katrina.

In August of 1992, my parents were living in South Florida near Miami. Despite having lived in Florida for many years, they had never experienced a hurricane.

They figured their relatively new house would protect them. All they did was put some tape on their windows.

The following day, images of devastation started coming in. My father’s work was near ground zero, so he went to check on it.

He was somber while describing what he experienced,

“The highways were completely blocked, like a parking lot. For every house left standing, another was destroyed. All street signs were gone. All cell towers were down.”

Interestingly, it took a long time for there to be any real coverage of the disaster.

“It was a pre-internet, pre-social media world. We had very little news from the ground. With Andrew there was a 25 foot storm surge. Anchors could not stand out with their raincoats and play the hero,” my dad explained, “It wasn’t until half way through the day after landfall that you started seeing helicopters. Nobody could get gas, food or basic necessities like water.”

The day after the disaster, a New York Times headline read, “Hurricane Rips Through Florida and Heads Into Gulf.”

The devastation of Andrew eventually spread around the country and the world.

As a result of Andrew, my dad takes hurricanes and insurance much more seriously.

He has seen first hand the total destruction that they have the potential to bring.

He  never takes his life for granted. He understands how easily they could’ve been killed due to their lack of preparedness had the storm decided to hit closer to their house.

His business, which was struggling before Andrew, was able to help rebuild the city. From August until March of the following year, he only spent 15 nights at home. He spent most nights sleeping at the branch, and working to help rebuild.

Because the storm happened over twenty years ago we do not have the same amount of home video footage that we do from Katrina and Sandy.

We did not see live tweets from people in the center of it all, or know minute by minute details.

Nonetheless, for those who lived through its devastation, Andrew left a deep and lasting impression.

How Many People Have to Die Before People Start to Care?

Our culture is obsessed with entertainment.

We tweet and post about celebrities. Sharing memes is second nature to us. We easily spread the latest entertainment media with ease, but for some reason, no one is talking about South Sudan.

The older care for the younger

Recently, I tried to do a fundraiser for the thousands of people who have been displaced due to the recent violence, as well as spread awareness. Only three people donated. Only two people shared the info in total over the course of multiple days and multiple posts. No likes. No comments.

Fast forward two days. I share a random quiz. Fifteen likes, two shares, and six comments.

Sudan has a long history of violence. A few years ago, the fighting began calm down and South Sudan became the worlds youngest country. 

Recently, new violence has been drawing some international media coverage. Out of Lebanon, The Daily Star reports the horrific accounts of war crimes. They paint a very grim and graphic picture.

Living Water Community Transformation

Reuters does not get as graphic as The Daily Star, but they do draw attention to the growing problem and note the thousands of deaths and over 800,000 refugees.

Aljazeera mentions the cease fire, a trial, and the continued violence.

Clearly, international media is paying attention. However, it is not making front page news. There are no viral blog posts about South Sudan’s crisis. Why not?

800,000 people and  growing. Thousands have been killed and there are reports of war crimes. Even in peacetime, 90% of the population lives on less than $1 a day, and 1 in 6 pregnant women will die.

Why is there not more media attention? I think it is because the majority of people do not care enough to take action. Most of us do not know anyone from Sudan. If people do care, they do not know what they can do to help, which leads to inaction.

It is much easier to have a discussion about the Kardashians. We don’t have to sacrifice to share a meme. While we sit on social media, people are dying. When we start caring more, perhaps the media will cover South Sudan more. Until we start talking about it and doing something to help, nothing is going to get better.

How many more people have to die before people finally start to care enough to do something?

China’s Air Pollution is a U.S. Problem

The subject of China’s massive air pollution, has been drawing media attention from around the world.

The Taipei Times, focused on a subsidy program China is doing to reduce pollution.

The article briefly talks about electric bus subsidies, then it moves into an explanation about China’s pollution problems and what China is doing to fix it.

This Washington Post article however, brings in some new information. The article focuses on a study done which concluded that China’s air pollution is blowing over the Pacific ocean and impacting West Coast air quality.

According to the Washington Post, while we have decreased our own pollution emissions, China has seen a massive increase in pollution.

It would be easy to think that the pollution is just China’s problem, but according to the study, this is not the case.

The Washington Post article complements a Huffington Post Article with a similar idea. The article is not simply factual like the Taipei Times article. It also does more than the Washington Post article.

The Huffington Post points out that it is our demand for products that has led to the huge increases in pollution in China.

Towards the end, the writer makes an excellent point saying, “The U.S. is a world leader. If we were to take leadership and commit to meaningful carbon reductions, it would make a bold statement to China and the rest of the world to follow suit.”

These words couldn’t be any more true. Clearly, we need to be a better example and continuing to cut back on our emissions is a good way to start. Pollution is not just China’s problem. It is a global problem.

Germany is Still Fighting Hitler’s Ghost

It appears that Germany is still struggling against remnants of Nazi extremism. According to The Global Post, the National Democratic Party allegedly has neo-Nazi links.

Recently, it has come into the public light that a neo-Nazi cell is allegedly responsible for the murders of nine immigrants, robbed banks, a 2004 bombing in Cologne, and the murder of a policewoman.

According to the Irish Times,  16 federal states in the upper chamber filed to ban the party at the end of 2013.

Interestingly, the Irish Times points out that the very reason that Germany is hesitant to ban a party is because of Nazi era banning of political opponents.

The Irish Times essentially just reports the facts and offers a possible explanation as to why it has failed to pass but why it should be passed.

The Global Post, agrees with the Irish Times.  They say, “However, constitutional protections for free speech have made it difficult to ban the NPD just because its ideology bears some similarity to Adolph Hitler’s. To do that, the plaintiffs must show the party is actually working to overthrow the state through violence.”

Both news outlets complement each other. They highlight the problems that Germany faces in banning this extremist party, as well as outline the alleged crimes. It seems that Germany is still fighting Hitler’s Ghost. They can not ban a party for fear of turning into Hitler like regime themselves, and they have to live in fear of extremists.

Cold Weather Threatening the Super Bowl?

The term “polar vortex” has been tossed around quite frequently the past few weeks. While most of the Eastern United States has seen record low temperatures, places like Alaska have seen record highs.

Ordinarily, this would be nothing more than an inconvenience for the people caught in the cold weather’s path, but now the cold weather threatens the Super Bowl. If the weather is extreme enough, the Super Bowl may have to switch days. Currently, they are expecting weather in the 30’s according to The Weather Channel.

According to the International Business Times, the NFL is “hoping people will embrace the cold weather”, but that fans will probably not be happy if the day or time has to change due to weather. The International Business Times approaches the potential “fiasco” with a somewhat cavalier attitude. The world must look at us and laugh that we cower away from a little cold weather.

It seems that all of the fuss is for nothing. The Washington Post put it this way, “While this will be the first Super Bowl held outdoors in a cold-weather climate, it certainly won’t be the worst weather fans have faced during an important football game in recent history.”

It seems that like we did with swine flu, we are overreacting to the threat of cold weather. It is nothing we haven’t braved before, and people in Norway with a high today of 23 degrees must think we are rather silly to be worried about this at all.

Actually, He’s not JUST Ours

It is no secret that the United States is a huge producer of entertainment and culture around the world. We also have no shortage of embarrassing celebrities that give citizens of other countries a bad impression of American culture. It is fairly difficult to avoid an eye roll when more news of pop singer Justin Bieber’s escapades surface.

Bieber’s latest alleged egging incident has made headlines around the globe. The Guardian simply reported the facts. Justin Bieber was allegedly filmed egging his neighbor’s expensive house while his neighbor and his neighbor’s daughter were on their balcony. It is certainly not the most scandalous thing we have seen from Mr. Bieber.

He certainly is not helping the United States’ reputation abroad. Interestingly, while Bieber resides in the US, he is actually Canadian. Canada had some sarcastic and unenthused words about the pop singer’s latest hijinks. The Toronto Star reported,  “Remember how on Friday, I told you about the latest eggscapade of our tiny, national treasure? Justin Beiber egged his neighbour’s house and there’s video and audio and everything. Such a dear.”

Clearly, Canada is not particularly thrilled with our little pop star. They take a much more frustrated tone when describing his behaviors. Because for them its more personal, just like the cast of Jersey Shore in Italy was personal for the US. For reporters in the UK or elsewhere, he is just a funny Canadian/American celebrity getting into trouble once again.

It’s interesting to see how one person can make so much world wide news just by egging a house. However, whether he’s declaring his retirement over twitter, or being kicked out of a Paris hotel, we get to share the celebrity embarrassment with our dear friends in Canada. Finally, we can sit back and laugh with the rest of the world because this time he is not just ours.