In Asia |  |
- Connecting Philanthropy and Aid for Pakistan’s Flood Survivors
- Can Tragedy Trigger Sex Education Reform in Malaysia?
- Shanghai Expo and Memories Conjured
- Event: Remembering Afghan Women
| Connecting Philanthropy and Aid for Pakistan’s Flood Survivors Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:03 PM PDT In the farmland regions of Pakistan’s southern Punjab, what used to be fields are now covered with water. Acknowledged as the worst humanitarian crisis in Pakistan’s history, flooding that began three weeks ago in northwestern Pakistan has now displaced more than 20 million people.  Pakistani families carry their belongs in search of higher ground. Over the past three weeks, more than 20 million people have been displaced from flooding. Photo credit: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images Bringing together Give2Asia’s private donor community and The Asia Foundation’s program expertise in Pakistan, the two organizations are working to attract much-needed philanthropy and aid for flood survivors. United Nations officials report that the total number of people affected by the floods exceeds the combined number of those affected by the 2004 Andaman Sea tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Yet, surprisingly, the event has drawn relatively little international donor support. While visiting Pakistan’s hardest-hit areas on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this is the worst disaster he has ever seen and strongly urged the world to step up its assistance. Approximately 750,000 homes have been damaged, and 2.6 million acres of cropland, along with roads and bridges, are destroyed, which makes availability and delivery of essential goods difficult. Riots and protests have already broken out in parts of the country due to the slow delivery of aid. One reason for the slow response to date may be the low death toll relative to total damage. An estimated 1,600 people are dead, but many more are at risk. Yet, with minimal humanitarian funding to deliver health care and clean water to survivors, the UN warned that at least 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly waterborne diseases, such as cholera. More casualties are predicted in the coming days and weeks as additional rains and increased flooding are forecast. Flood Relief Fund Launched Last week, Give2Asia launched its Pakistan Flood Relief Fund, with initial investments of $35,000 from individual donors. Additional investments are expected from corporations and corporate foundations. The Asia Foundation’s office in Pakistan is directly involved with procuring relief items in bulk and transporting goods to local partners in affected locations. With Give2Asia’s relief fund, donors can help affected families in Nowshera and Swat, the worst-hit areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly known as North-West Frontier Province). Partner Organizations Initial assessment by The Asia Foundation has resulted in three local partners to support the relief and recovery effort. They will work to deliver relief packages to approximately 4,000 survivors. Relief packages will include necessities such as rice, salt, sugar, flour, dates, petroleum jelly, cotton rolls, mosquito repellent lotion, and water purification tablets. Local partners include:
Learn more about Give2Asia’s Pakistan Flood Relief Fund. Birger Stamperdahl is the Director of Marketing & Partnerships for Give2Asia. He can be reached at bstamperdahl@asiafound.org.   |
| Can Tragedy Trigger Sex Education Reform in Malaysia? Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:02 PM PDT Last week, the Malaysian Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development reported three more incidents of “baby dumping” in a 24-hour period, bringing the total to 60 abandoned babies this year. Many of these children have been found in dumpsters and toilets. In hopes of deterring such incidents, Malaysia's Cabinet has recently requested that the police start classifying baby dumping investigations as attempted murder, or if found with intent, murder. But critics say capital punishment is not the answer. Rather, says Women’s Aid Organisation President Ivy Josiah, sex education and better access to help for pregnant mothers is what's needed. On the prevention side, the Malaysian Government is considering introducing sex education into the core syllabus of Malaysian national schools. This announcement –which isn't the first time they've considered this addition to the curriculum – from Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, acknowledges that the problems surrounding abandoned babies stem from a lack of reliable information on reproductive and sexual health among youth. Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, says a lack of sex education in Malaysia has led to an increase in sexual assault cases, unwanted pregnancies, and abandoned babies. She says if the schools don’t teach it, kids turn to the Internet and other dubious sources. The two ministries have now set up a technical committee of experts to guide the process and decide whether to include sex education as an extra-curricular subject or incorporate it into the existing academic syllabus. At present, sex education in Malaysia is taught in bits and pieces from primary to secondary school. In 2009, Shahrizat’s ministry introduced a pilot “sex education” co-curricular module titled “I'm in Control,” jointly developed by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and various NGOs, the module has been rolled out in five secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Kelantan, and Pahang. The pilot has already demonstrated a significant increase in awareness as well as better knowledge and attitude among the participating students, according to Minister Shahrizat. It was hoped that this pilot program would lay the foundation for a wider scale program. The new initiative announced by the deputy prime minister last week is expected to provide more comprehensive coverage. Minister Shahrizat has stressed that the new module must include the basics of reproductive and sexual health so young people understand how their bodies work. Furthermore, youth should be aware of communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and STDs. A key challenge, however, is lack of professional training among Malaysian teachers on the sex education curriculum and how to convey it effectively to their students. This long-debated initiative to introduce sex education in Malaysia continues to face fierce resistance, mainly from conservative religious groups. Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of Malaysia’s main opposition party, PAS, has likened the teaching of sex education to “teaching thieves how to steal properly.” A long-standing opponent of the concept of sex education, his opinion continues to influence the Malay Muslim majority. Sensitive to their opposition, the deputy prime minster suggested that sex education be incorporated into the biology or science syllabus. Regardless of differing opinions on the concept of sex education, the baby dumping tragedy has compelled the Malaysian Government to take a stand and consider a course of action. Hopefully they will do so before another baby is found in a dumpster or a teenage girl is sent to the gallows. Anthea Mulakala is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Malaysia. She can be reached at amulakala@asiafound.org.  |
| Shanghai Expo and Memories Conjured Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:01 PM PDT Recently I attended the Shanghai Expo, which has been labeled as “the biggest expo ever.” China spared no expense spending $55 billion – more than twice the amount Beijing spent on the 2008 Olympics – to ensure that people could get to the Expo by adding metro lines, airport terminals, railway stations, and other infrastructure.  China's pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo is three times taller than any other country pavilion. Photo used under a Creative Commons license. By the time it ends in October, Chinese officials anticipate 70 million people will have passed through the Expo’s turnstiles. Even if there were no long lines, it is absolutely impossible to see everything in one day. With 192 countries represented, one could easily spend a week at the Shanghai Expo. The only other Expo I ever attended was as a 10-year-old boy at the Expo ‘67 in Montreal. I remember visiting “Habitat 67,” a form of architecture that was designed to depict how modern apartment living in crowded cities would be in the future. I thought “Habitat 67″ looked ugly, though I was impressed by the plush blue wall-to-wall carpeting, something I had never seen before. I also remember visiting a number of country pavilions, particularly France, Ethiopia, Japan, and Thailand. But when I think of world expositions I can’t help but think about the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. (Up until the late 1960s, most world expositions were referred to as fairs, but are now more commonly referred to as expos.) As an 8-year-old, I was enthralled by the “Futurama” show at the General Motors pavilion which took people in moving chairs to show what life would be like in the year 2024: from what it would be like to vacation at an underwater hotel, to living on the lunar base of another planet. This was at the time of the great space race to see who would send the first man to the moon, America or the Soviet Union. There was also the “City of the Future” where the streets moved, so people would not have to walk. I remember also watching in awe as a lifelike robot of Abraham Lincoln recited the Gettysburg Address, and going past Michelangelo’s Pieta in the Vatican pavilion. In the mid-1960s, America was feeling good about itself and understandably so, as we were a great power and our economy was strong. What better place to hold the World’s Fair than in New York, when the city was at the height of its economic power and world prestige? Although President Kennedy had been assassinated less than a year before, Americans were not yet facing the escalation of the war in Vietnam, other political assassinations, or the increasing struggle for civil rights. In 1964-65, I visited the New York World’s Fair seven times. I spent five days in Montreal at Expo 67. On this trip to Shanghai, I was there for only five hours but wanted to make sure I visited at least two pavilions: China and the United States. I spent over 90 minutes in the China pavilion, a striking, massive, inverted red pyramid with hints of a modernized Forbidden City. It is three times taller than any other pavilion at the Expo, with exhibits from 31 of the country’s provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and special administrative regions. The pavilion portrays China as a nation wanting to do things bigger and better, with a particular focus on its modernization and development over the past three decades, while at the same time, harking back to China’s 5,000 year-long history. Shanxi province touts its production of LED lamps and methanol-fueled vehicles and other advances in science and technology, while Xianjiang touts itself as a “harmonious land” – an intentional effort to put behind the ethnic tensions that flared between the Uyghurs and Hans in 2008 and 2009. While the other provincial exhibits didn’t stand out as much for me, Hebei province, site of the Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976 that killed 250,000 people, was an exception. The exhibit featured a short, computer-animated movie whose main character is named “Phoenix One.” “Phoenix One” is a cloned man who finds himself living in Tangshan in 2076. He is both confused and awestruck by all the technological advances made since the earthquake reduced his town to rubble 100 years earlier. The film goes back and forth between 2076, 1976, and today. The story illustrates how Tangshan has literally risen like a phoenix from the rubble and that its people have not only endured and survived, but have thrived. Taiwan had its own separate pavilion next to the mainland China pavilion. A decade ago, Taiwan would likely not have even had a pavilion because of its strained relationship with the mainland. However, with improved cross-strait relations under Ma Ying-jeou’s administration in Taiwan particularly in the area of economics and trade (as evidenced by the recent signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), there are now direct flights between Taipei and Shanghai and increasingly more and more Taiwanese are visiting the mainland, and vice-versa. As a goodwill gesture, each family coming from Taiwan to attend the Shanghai Expo is given one free pass. Although I found some of the Chinese provinces’ exhibitions weaker than others (and I did not have the opportunity to visit the top floor of the China pavilion), I found the United States pavilion disappointing all around. What I liked most were the three young American college students who are studying Chinese greeting people in Chinese. Two of the three students were African-American and, given that few Chinese have any interaction with African-Americans, I thought this was very positive. There is a short film where Americans from many walks of life say hello and a couple of other polite phrases in Chinese. Some people are well known, such as Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson, while others are simply American citizens, like Con Edison workers in downtown Manhattan. I thought this was a nice way for the U.S. to recognize China’s importance economically, politically, and culturally. The rest of the pavilion left quite a bit to be desired. In one section, a short film called “The Garden” was shown. The thrust of the story was how a young girl got other people of all ages and races to work together to create a garden in a drab, urban area. I found the film boring, and from the audience’s reaction, most Chinese people felt the same way. Given the considerable investment made by America’s corporate giants, including Chevron, McDonald’s, and more than 50 other companies, perhaps they could have hired the Children’s Television Workshop and had Sesame Street characters in the film which may have been more recognizable to Chinese audiences since Sesame Street is broadcast in China. The last room near the gift shop consisted largely of advertisements for companies like Motorola, FedEx, and Visa that funded the pavilion. The gift shop sold tee-shirts that said “I Love the USA Pavilion: Shanghai 2010,” straw hats, stuffed teddy bears and American bison, and pins. All of these products were made in China. The only thing I found which wasn’t made in China were boxes of Wisconsin ginseng. Sadly, the United States pavilion lacked a sense of vision of what the future might be like; something the U.S. has been characterized as having over the last several decades. Perhaps because I was a young boy at the impressionable age of eight, I regard the New York World’s Fair much more highly. I was proud of American astronauts, impressed by the “city of the future” and the technological advances they encompassed, but most of all, I remember that palpable optimism held by many Americans then, something I don’t believe exists today. What I was able to see of the Shanghai Expo made me think it was more a government- and corporate-sponsored theme park than a great exposition of lasting impression such as the ones held in Paris and Chicago in the late 19th century. Nonetheless, the Shanghai Expo is important to the Chinese national psyche and its people should be proud of their nation’s economic and development achievements over the past three decades. I am sure there are plenty of 8-year-old Chinese children fascinated by the exhibits and country pavilions like I was in New York in the mid-1960s. John J. Brandon is The Asia Foundation’s Director of International Relations Programs in Washington, D.C. His visits to the New York World’s Fair in 1964-65 contributed greatly to his interest in the world and other cultures. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.  |
| Event: Remembering Afghan Women Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:00 PM PDT On Sunday, the world watched while the Taliban executed a young couple who had eloped by stoning them to death. The couple said they’d eloped because the young woman was promised in an arranged marriage to a relative of her lover, and she did not want to marry him. Nader Nadery, a senior commissioner on the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said in the New York Times, “We've seen a big increase in intimidation of women and more strict rules on women.” A recent Time Magazine cover story about a young woman maimed by the Taliban and recent opinion-editorials published by Human Rights Watch’s Rachel Reid and Tom Malinowski, have also served as reminders of the precarious status and future of Afghan women. Following the overthrow of the misogynistic Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the situation for women seemed to enter a promising era. A Ministry of Women was established, and a new constitution guaranteed women 25-percent representation in the legislature. But progress has been stymied in Afghanistan. In the meantime, dedicated organizations continue to actively work to promote women’s development and institutionalize women’s rights in Afghan society. In the midst of debate over security and political solutions for an exit from Afghanistan, what can be done to ensure that these positive efforts toward Afghan women’s development continue? Join RAND Corporation’s senior international policy analyst Olga Oliker and Katherine Brown, Truman National Security Project fellow, former communications advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and former Asia Foundation staff member, on Monday, August 23 for a discussion at the Commonwealth Club on the status and future of Afghan women, and what we can do to help in the short and long-term. Register for the event.  |
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