The South Asia Thread

[SS-18 ICBM]

A thread for this burgeoning region home to over 1.7 billion people. News on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives welcome.

Anyway, some trouble on the Indo-Pakistani border.

NEW DELHI — Two heavily armed militants wearing Indian Army uniforms opened fire on a police station near the Pakistani border early Friday, leaving six people dead, including the militants, officials said.

The attack, which Indian officials blamed Pakistan for, was the first since a new coalition government took power in the disputed region earlier this month. It could sway a debate over whether to overturn a contentious law that gives Indian security forces wide latitude to use force in the region without fear of prosecution.

Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which makes up part of Jammu and Kashmir State’s new governing coalition, have opposed lifting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and the attack Friday could provide them with further justification for their stance.

“Our neighbor is not rectifying their ways,” Jitendra Singh, a junior minister in Mr. Modi’s office, said after the attack, referring to Pakistan.

The police station, which is in the Jammu region about 10 miles from the heavily guarded Pakistani border, came under attack from two militants dressed in Indian battle fatigues who opened fire with Kalishnikov rifles, officials said. “They asked the guard to open the door and immediately shot him dead,” Danish Rana, a police inspector general, told reporters.

“We immediately cordoned off the police station, and after three and half hours of heavy exchange of fire we neutralized both the suicidal attackers,” Mr. Rana said.

In addition to the militants, three Indian security personnel and a civilian were killed, officials said.

Ten people, one of them a civilian, were wounded by gunfire; all were in stable condition, said Dr. Raj Kumar Sangrama, a local medical officer.

The Indian-Pakistani border is dotted with small bodies of water, which Indian officials say are used by Pakistani militants to cross into India undetected.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL that China's desire for wood is not good. For India.

NEW DELHI — The decades of cat-and-mouse between the police and red sandalwood smugglers have yielded some extraordinary stories: of precious, fragrant logs hidden among bags of flour or inside lengths of PVC pipe, of crime kingpins who, when not smuggling sandalwood, had sidelines in trafficking opium and humans.

Yet few stories have been as unsettling as the one unfolding now.

Six days after a state anti-smuggling task force fatally shot 20 loggers in the state of Andhra Pradesh, saying officers had opened fire in self-defense during a chaotic confrontation, two witnesses told India’s National Human Rights Commission on Monday that the workers had been detained when they were riding buses toward a work site, then shot while in custody.

Violent confrontations are not unusual in the forests of southern Andhra Pradesh, where illegal loggers have been known to set fires to distract the authorities while they covertly cut and remove trees.

The sums of money at stake are enormous: The price for a ton of red sandalwood — used in East Asia to make musical instruments and ornamental furniture, and as an extract to treat erectile dysfunction — starts above $30,000, forestry officials said. They added that top-quality wood could be sold in China and Japan for far more — up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a ton.

The Human Rights Commission voted to open a judicial inquiry into the police shootings, and called on the state government of Tamil Nadu to provide police protection to the two witnesses, their families and village leaders.

In the villages where the workers had been recruited, relatives were asking how simple day laborers had become casualties in a decades-old war over an endangered tree.

 

[Borachio]

China's thirst for timber wasn't good news for Tibet. So I don't expect it will be good news for India, either.

https://woodsmoke.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/how-china-is-plundering-the-natural-resources-of-tibet/

 

[Wrymouth3]

Will there be another war where most of the combatants were killed for getting too high ?

 

[Cutlass]

Siberia has endless timber. Why is China not going there for it?

 

[Borachio]

I expect it will eventually. It's going for the low-hanging fruit first. There's no point aggravating a fellow permanent security council member unnecessarily.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Well that provides an interesting backdrop for the documentary on drone strikes I'm seeing this Saturday.

WASHINGTON — Two hostages held by Al Qaeda, including an American aid worker, were accidentally killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan in January, government officials disclosed on Thursday, prompting President Obama to offer an emotional apology and assume “full responsibility” for their deaths.

The two hostages, Warren Weinstein, an American held by Al Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian held since 2012, died after the American attack on a compound in Pakistan. Officials said they had no idea that the hostages were being held there despite hundreds of hours of surveillance before the strike and that they only learned afterward that the civilians were among the casualties.

Mr. Obama came to the White House briefing room shortly after a statement was issued announcing the deaths, appearing unusually affected by the tragedy. “As president and as commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations,” the grim-faced president told reporters. “I profoundly regret what happened,” he added. “On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.”

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

This is pretty neat.

In the quest to address issues of menstrual health and hygiene, however, most of the ingenuity and innovation has been spearheaded in the developing world, where millions can’t access sanitary products, often resorting to dirt, leaves and bark to absorb menstrual blood. Lack of plumbing and access to toilets further exacerbate the problem, and superstition and religious tradition leave countless women isolated and ashamed. In fact, India — where only 12 percent of women in India use sanitary products — offers many lessons that can be adapted here in the United States.

This summer I had the opportunity to join Annie Lascoe, founder of Conscious., an organic tampon business that will partner with Los Angeles-based community organizations and shelters to help low-income and homeless women meet menstrual needs, on a trip to India. We went directly to the source: Arunachalam Muruganantham, the creator of a menstrual micro-enterprise model that is nothing short of revolutionary. A school dropout from a poor family in southern India, Muruganantham first became aware of the issue in 1998; newly married, he was shocked to witness his wife’s struggle to manage (and hide) her monthly bleeding. At great personal cost – financial and social – he dedicated himself to inventing a machine to make low-cost sanitary pads out of pulverized wood fiber. Today he supplies machines to more than 400 production sites serving 1,300 villages in the poorest and most under-developed regions of India. All are managed and staffed by women, who make and sell the pads at minimal cost (approximately 2.5 rupees per pad, mere pennies in U.S. currency).

Muruganantham’s work has been celebrated by world leaders and philanthropists, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and last year he was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Appreciating the vast and desperate need for sanitary products, Muruganantham is refreshingly open to allowing others to build on his model. One such innovator is Swati Bedekar, a former science and math teacher in the western state of Gujarat. After observing that girls missed school several days every month due to menstruation, Bedeker sought to help. She started with Muruganantham’s machines – but went on to simplify the production process, and also created a slimmer, more modern pad with “wings,” beloved by Indian women who adore the American touch. She’s since launched 40 production sites, run by women who are paid per pad they produce – which are sold in packages of ten for 20 rupees (around 35 cents) under the name “Sakhi” (Hindi for “female friend”). The workers also receive training in menstruation education – which they impart to women and girls, men and boys alike – as well as in basic financial management.

Bedekar’s husband, Shyam, a textile engineer and farmer, invented a special incinerator to dispose of the pads. Made from terracotta or cement and resembling a flower pot, the incinerator is brilliant in its simplicity: Because it doesn’t require electricity, it can be operated discreetly, burning the used pads and turning them into ash without spreading smoke and eliminating odor. Other benefits: production of the incinerators has become a source of livelihood for local potters; and the ash that is produced, when mixed with soil, is beneficial to locally grown plants.

Aakar Innovations, a Mumbai- and Delhi-based hybrid social enterprise founded by Jaydeep Mandal, employs a similar model – and has created pads that are 100 percent compostable and biodegradable, meeting a higher environmental standard than much of what is on the commercial market. Aakar’s 40 women-run and women-staffed production sites are often established in partnership with local NGOs, which provide a full array of social and educational services. The NGO partnership also enables women to be paid a regular, reliable stipend, rather than on a per pad basis. Each site employs 15 to 30 women who produce 1,600 to 2,000 pads per day, enough to meet the needs of 5,000 women each month. Aakar is being recognized by the United Nations next month for its socially responsible and sustainable programs that empower women.