EDITORIAL : THE USA TODAY, USA

Can NCAA really change football-first culture?

The NCAA's unprecedented crackdown on Penn State fits the school's reprehensible conduct. The four-year ban on postseason bowls, a drastic cut in football scholarships and a $60 million fine send a strong message that no child's safety should ever be compromised to protect the reputation of a big-time athletic program.

OPPOSING VIEW: Penn State deserved 'death penalty'

But as fitting as the punishment is, this single action shouldn't be confused with tough leadership from the NCAA. Hitting Penn State hard and fast for the Jerry Sandusky scandal was easy. The NCAA would have been pilloried if it had done any less. In fact, some critics say it didn't go far enough.

Although NCAA leaders talked Monday about ending Penn State's "football-first culture," they might have pointed a finger at themselves for standing by while that culture grew out of control at universities across the country. Time after time, the NCAA has dawdled through investigations, focused on picayune violations of its rule book (an absurd 434 pages long) and handed down sham punishments.

Consider that the NCAA is still investigating allegations from last summer that 72 Miami players took money, prostitutes and other benefits for years from a booster who's now in prison. Or that five key Ohio State players were allowed to play in the 2011 Sugar Bowl despite being suspended for trading championship rings and memorabilia for tattoos and other benefits.

The implication? Big winners can skirt the rules.

For a time in the 1990s, college presidents tried to take back their sports programs from free-wheeling coaches, athletic directors and boosters whose influence obscured the real purpose of college: education. But their assertion of power quickly bled away as money from TV contracts continued to swell.

USATODAY OPINION

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Opinions expressed in USA TODAY's editorials are decided by its Editorial Board, a demographically and ideologically diverse group that is separate from USA TODAY's news staff.

Most editorials are accompanied by an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature that allows readers to reach conclusions based on both sides of an argument rather than just the Editorial Board's point of view.

As NCAA President Mark Emmert acknowledged as he announced Monday's penalties, "One of the grave dangers stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, indeed too big to even challenge."

Give the NCAA credit for moving quickly and decisively in the Penn State case — and for resisting calls to impose its "death penalty" to shut down the Nittany Lion football program for at least a year.

The death penalty would have hurt a lot of people — players, employees and local businesses — who have no culpability. And the only previous invocation of the death penalty, a one-year shutdown of Southern Methodist University's football team in 1987, devastated that program while having little deterrent effect on other schools.

Penn State officials, no doubt relieved to have been spared the death penalty, accepted the punishment and agreed not to appeal. Appropriately, the $60 million fine against Penn State, an amount equivalent to the football program's annual revenue, is to be used to endow programs to prevent child sexual abuse or assist victims.

That's a hopeful sign that some good could come of this fiasco, as is the involvement of college presidents in fashioning the sanctions against Penn State. Now the question is whether the NCAA and the presidents truly have the courage to promote the sort of cultural change that's so badly needed in big-time college sports.

What Sally Ride meant to USA

As astronauts go, Sally Ride was a far cry from those chosen for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. She was not a fighter pilot but a physicist. She wasn't known for fast driving and hard partying. And, of course, there was the obvious: She was a woman.

In 1968, as the Apollo program was gearing up for a trip to the moon the following year, it would have been unthinkable that she could be an astronaut. Ten years later, she was.
Ride, who died of cancer Monday, became the first American woman in space when she flew on the seventh shuttle mission in 1983, five years after being accepted into the astronaut corps.
More than anyone else, she represented NASA's shift from an agency immersed in a strategically important moon race with the Soviet Union to one pursuing a long-term goal of engaging the public on the worth of space exploration and space-based science. Her background and gender spoke to this. But so, too, did her career. After two shuttle flights, she led the agency's first strategic planning exercise, proposing robotic missions into deep space and for Earth observation purposes, and human trips back to the moon and to Mars. (Only the robotic elements have come to pass.)
Perhaps more important, Ride was a marker of changes in American society. If it is unthinkable that she could have been an astronaut in the 1960s, it is almost as unthinkable that she could have had a Stanford Ph.D. in physics then. Not long before she went off to college, women were openly being told not to major in fields such as physics, chemistry and engineering. Employers would not be interested in them, was the reason. And neither would graduate programs.
In this regard, Ride was a pioneer long before going into space. Had she never joined the space program, she would have served as a role model to women interested in science or other fields dominated by men. That she did is testament to her perseverance and to a maturation at NASA and in American society.

EDITORIAL : STARS AND STRIPES, GERMANY

Stars and Stripes should move, but not to Fort Meade

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says it’s too late this year to move Stars and Stripes’ independent news operation to the home of Pentagon-controlled public affairs at Fort Meade, Md. But he wants to see it happen next year.

Instead, the objective should be to relocate Stripes to government-owned space other than at Fort Meade. That would protect Stripes’ credibility and its mission as a First Amendment publication while also achieving the common goal of eliminating the cost of a commercial lease.

That’s not how Panetta sees it.

“I do not believe moving Stars and Stripes to Fort Meade will have any impact on its editorial independence,” Panetta wrote to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich. “In these fiscally austere times, the Department must seek ways to be more efficient and this move would save the department more than $1 million a year in commercial lease costs.”

Echoing the position expressed by the leadership of the Defense Media Activity since this relocation was proposed early this year, Panetta wrote, “Where they sit should not have any influence over what they write and I don’t believe this move would have any impact on the product they now deliver to our troops.”

Levin’s staff provided the July 3 letter this week. Panetta was responding to a Feb. 29 letter from Levin, in which the chairman relayed the Stripes staff’s concern that moving Stripes’ central operations from the National Press Building in Washington, D.C., to the home of command-centered DOD media would compromise the newsroom’s independence and encourage the damaging perception among readers that Stripes’ content is under military control. In his letter, Levin called the staff’s concern “well placed” and said it justified a search for alternatives.

That remains true. Although the Pentagon and DMA leaders appear to be focused on accomplishing the move to Fort Meade next year, the search for alternative, government-owned space should continue — with added energy and determination.

As Panetta indicated, it doesn’t make sense for Stars and Stripes to pay for commercial office space in the current environment of significant expense cuts. He’ll find no argument there. That’s the position of nearly everyone involved, including Stripes Publisher Max D. Lederer Jr.

Smart, frugal fiscal management is essential to Stripes, as it is to any news operation dealing with the shifting economics of the news business these days. But it’s only part of the answer.

The long view should also recognize that Stripes’ credibility with the troops and its historic, hard-earned reputation for independence is a precious asset that would indeed be damaged by co-location with the center of command-oriented, command-serving public affairs operations.

For now, a one-year renewal of the National Press Building lease seems to be in the works. But that’s temporary. Citing language in the House-passed 2013 Defense Authorization Act that would block the move to Fort Meade, Panetta asked for Levin’s support to remove that obstacle when the defense bill goes to conference, so the move can proceed next year.

"The Department strongly supports the Stars and Stripes mission even as we continue to look for ways to achieve savings during this period of fiscal austerity," Bryan Whitman, the DMA's Interim Director, said Thursday.

In his letter to Levin, which also went to ranking minority committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Panetta did express support for Stars and Stripes and took note of its unique role.

“Stars and Stripes will continue to be a major contributor to the department,” he wrote. “It produces a unique paper with a long history of keeping our troops and their families informed. Stars and Stripes tells the story that no one else does and we look forward to continuing that tradition.”

Telling the story that no one else does sometimes means telling the story somebody doesn’t want told. That’s what it means to describe Stars and Stripes as a First Amendment publication.

The best way to continue that tradition is not to have the independent journalists work in the shadow of the DOD public affairs operation in the DMA building on Fort Meade. It’s to do away with the rent but also reinforce Stripes’ legacy of independence by moving to other government-owned space in the D.C. area.

Providing a credible, independent report for the troops and their families is indeed a proud tradition, but it’s even more. It’s Stripes’ mission.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

Dairy industry: milking the market

The dairy industry has been under pressure for a generation, as the statistics so vividly illustrate

Anyone who ever wanted to get to grips with the global economics of food should be paying close attention to the current row between dairy farmers and the supermarkets about the price the latter pay the former for their milk. It is a paradigm of how an apparently straightforward market relationship can be distorted. And that is why what might look like a standard spat between rural conservatives versus urban defenders of cheap food is so significant – and why the deal forged by the farm ministers from England, Wales and Scotland, who hastened to the bucolic surrounds of the Royal Welsh Show at Builth Wells to try to arbitrate between the two sides, is unlikely to have much of a shelf life.

The dairy industry has been under pressure for a generation, as the statistics so vividly illustrate. In 1995 there were 28,000 dairy farmers. Last year there were just over 11,000. Over the same period the average herd size has more than doubled as the less efficient holdings were forced out of the business – but even so, the UK no longer produces enough fresh milk for consumers. Meanwhile, the price of a pint of milk (or, more likely, four) has tumbled. Milk is the ideal supermarket commodity: an everyday essential with a short life span. Cut its price and it's sure to bring in the shoppers. Market fundamentalists would cheer at the benign effects of competition, and as food takes an ever larger share of the daily budget, while charities report that the demand for food handouts is reaching a new high each week, it might seem contrary to quibble.

But the backstory to cheap milk is a tale of ever more powerful supermarkets, and their growing capacity to distort the market. Last year, a long investigation by the Office of Fair Trading resulted in fines for price fixing against eight dairies and supermarkets. But they don't need to break the law to shape the world in which they operate. According to DairyCo, the industry's independent research and advice organisation, this power is well illustrated in the rise in the margin the major retailers like Asda and Morrisons take on a pint of milk. Ten years ago it might only have been 2p on a 30p pint: now the cut can be as much as 10p. The consequence of the retailer taking more is that there is less for the middlemen, the processors who buy the milk from the farmers and sell it on to the supermarkets. They have been squeezed, often squeezed out of existence, destroying on the way ambitious attempts at producer co-ops. The ones that survive do so only by holding down the price that they pay to farmers. The news that the Royal Welsh deal will allow producers to escape unfavourable contracts with processors more quickly will not have much impact if there is no better prospect on offer.

And that is only part of the equation. This market is so dysfunctional that the price of milk is no longer responsive to the cost of producing it. Normally a cut in price like the one the supermarkets were imposing would be prompted by a fall in the cost of production. Unfortunately, most dairy farmers have been hit by the soaring grain prices that are also threatening global food security, This means that producers are not only facing the prospect of a 4p per litre cut in price, but also simultaneously confronting a 2p per litre rise in costs. The effect is that the average farmer who as recently as March was just about breaking even is now 6p per litre below that. The result is exactly the kind of outcome Mr Micawber would have predicted.

This is not a question of driving efficient production. Nor is it a nostalgic appeal for the benefits of the traditional way of doing things. Milk can be produced competitively by small farms, even though some farmers will no doubt argue that the future lies in units for 8,000 cows nurtured by teams of vets. In the end this is not about price, but about value. The issue is the value of food and the value of food security. It is about regulating the market, and keeping it regulated. Only governments can do that. And only producers can make them do it.

Stock markets: dial Kay for capitalism

The real question is whether British business can be given sticks and carrots to change the cultural habits of a lifetime

Can the rhetorical vogue for "responsible capitalism" be made to mean something in practice? In the wake of the financial crisis there are few more important questions for the credibility of an alternative economic vision. The issue haunts the report which the business secretary, Vince Cable, commissioned from Professor John Kay last year. If the answer to that question were to be no, then it is hard to see where the non-socialist progressive project to which Mr Cable and so many other UK politicians are committed now stands. On Monday Mr Kay came up with his findings – in the shape of a 40,000-word review of UK equity markets and their impact on the performance and governance of UK quoted companies. In essence his answer is, yes, responsible capitalism can work, but equity markets will have to change big-time if it is to happen.

Mr Kay thinks the markets suffer from a number of interrelated structural failures. At the heart of them is short-termism, which has meant that executives have succumbed to a groupthink that encourages them to maximise shareholder value through strategies which focus on restructuring and mergers rather than investment and product development. The equity markets are central to this, since they encourage the sale of shares over the stewardship of good companies, and because they are now so thoroughly globalised, thus reducing the connection and engagement between shareholders and executives.

This has spawned and been characterised by a second problem which Mr Kay calls "an explosion of intermediation", in which transactional toll collectors have inserted themselves into the old relationship between investors and executives, taking large personal profits out of the investment in the process. The list of these transactional professionals now includes nominees, fund managers, fund of fund managers, insurance companies, pension fund trustees, retail platforms, independent financial advisers and more. The longer the chain, the weaker the relationship between investor and company executive. The result is lots of transactions but very little in the way of long-term relationships.

What to do about all this? Mr Kay has plenty of good suggestions. They range from stopping the need for companies to report quarterly, and banning short-term, performance-related bonuses, through EU-wide obligations to act prudently in clients' interests and encouraging asset managers to run more focused portfolios and use their power against rogue companies. Mr Cable rightly promises early action, but the real question is whether British business can be given sticks and carrots to change the cultural habits of a lifetime. It is hard to be optimistic. But if it does not happen, responsible capitalism will remain a phrase, not a reality.

In praise of … the Cockburns

These radical aristocrats – or aristocratic radicals – have been pillars of progressive journalism for decades

When distinguished sons and daughters follow distinguished parents it is easy to mutter about charmed circles. Yet there are genuine family talents that span the generations. The Huxleys and Freuds are examples, and the death of Alexander Cockburn is a reminder that the Cockburns are another. These radical aristocrats – or aristocratic radicals – have been pillars of progressive journalism for decades. Claud Cockburn, although not without some blind spots, battered at received wisdom in the 1930s. His sons, Alexander and Andrew, continued the tradition in the United States, Alexander indicating that continuity by calling one of his columns Beat the Devil, from the title of his father's novel. Here, Patrick Cockburn has been for years one of the best Middle East reporters and analysts. Alexander's writing has been praised as the key to "a life of joyful and creative resistance" – a fine phrase that could well be applied to them all.

EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

Better disaster prevention ability needed

The heavy rainfall that pounded Beijing Saturday has claimed 37 lives and led to massive economic losses. Unfortunately, while disaster relief efforts were impressive, disaster prevention is still weak.

In March 2011, Japan's disaster relief work after the tsunami and earthquake was criticized for lagging way behind China's quick response to the earthquake that struck Sichuan Province in 2008. 

 

But when it comes to everyday disaster prevention, why does China appear so backward compared with developed countries like Japan? 

 

Advantages in the Chinese system enable the government to quickly mobilize all kinds of forces in an emergency. But this is of little help when it comes to disaster prevention, which relies mainly on society's willingness to invest in largescale safety.

Currently, Chinese society prioritizes making money, and many are willing to sacrifice certain safety considerations for this end. This also influences the mentality of the authorities.

The concept of "security" that prevails in developed societies is far from taking root in China. Chinese metropolises have levels of hardware similar to those of their Western counterparts, but fall behind in safety protection, especially in fields such as food and transportation.

We are also outdone in both social and individual preparation before severe natural disasters happen.

Disaster prevention is more costly than postdisaster rescue work. For instance, when the road under an overpass is swamped, it takes only a few pumps to drain the water.

But in order to ensure the flood doesn't happen at all, a grand project to repair the drainage system is required. All these costs are ultimately borne by the taxpayer.

Now the question is whether China is truly prepared to pump more money into safety.

Some officials believe the country is not ready for it. Meanwhile, there are people who take the opportunity to criticize the government for misspending money on “image projects."

Such beliefs are onesided. The public aspires to greater safety in daily life, which has been repeatedly reinforced by all kinds of incidents.

With regards to improving disaster prevention ability, the government should be more farsighted than the public, or at least shouldn't fall behind the public's wishes.

The government, media and public figures should all be honest about improving disaster prevention. They should lay out both the advantages and the costs that the public should bear. China's efforts to modernize should be adjusted to create more public security.

This is a path that all developed countries have taken, and there won't be an alternative for our nation.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

Revise law to improve Japan peacekeeping operations

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The government should step up efforts to deal with issues left unresolved since the enactment of the nation's U.N. Peacekeeping Activities Cooperation Law 20 years ago.

The Foreign and Defense ministries and the Cabinet Office have jointly compiled a bill to revise the PKO law. A major feature of the bill is a provision to allow the Self-Defense Forces to dispatch its members to rescue civilians in remote locations. Since several members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan are cautious about the revision, submission of the bill to the current Diet session may be difficult. However, we expect the Cabinet to approve it as soon as possible.

Under the current PKO law, SDF members engaged in a U.N. peacekeeping operation are not allowed to use weapons except in self-defense and to avert imminent danger. Therefore, even if civilians caught in the middle of a riot, for instance, ask the SDF to rescue them, SDF members may not be able to do so.

If SDF members use weapons against "an actor equivalent to a state," such as an armed insurgent, it may constitute "an exercise of force against other nations," which is prohibited by the Constitution, the Cabinet Legislation Bureau says.

===

Legalize rescue dispatch

However, is it feasible for the SDF to turn down a rescue request made by civilians--Japanese nationals in particular--because it might violate the Constitution? Such a situation could occur at any time.

In such a case, SDF members may rush to a scene to rescue civilians but will not use weapons unless their own lives are threatened. The law, which forces SDF commanders to make a difficult decision, must be revised.

When the SDF began participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations, public opinion was divided. In the beginning, it might have made sense to place tight restrictions on the SDF's use of weapons.

Today, however, an overwhelming majority of Japanese support SDF participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Not only has this become a normal role for the SDF, but it has been upgraded to one of its primary missions.

We think it is reasonable to review restrictions on the use of weapons to improve the effectiveness of SDF activities, while taking the experience and needs of members actually involved in the activities into consideration.

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New condition nonsensical

The bill stipulates that SDF members would be allowed to use weapons only to support and supplement security efforts by a host state.

However, the Cabinet Legislation Bureau has urged that a condition be added so an SDF rescue mission would be limited to a situation where an attack by a state or an actor equivalent to a state is not expected.

This condition makes coordination of views more difficult. We have doubts about the opinions of the bureau.

Japan is the only country that interprets the use of weapons during peacekeeping operations based on a U.N. resolution as an exercise of military force. This contradicts conventional wisdom of the international community. If the Cabinet Legislation Bureau's condition is added to the envisaged revision, it could restrict SDF activities even more.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is positive about making SDF rescue missions legally possible. We hope the prime minister will tackle this issue based on the realities of places where peacekeeping operations are needed.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 23, 2012)

(Jul. 24, 2012)

Prosecutors should advance steadily under new leadership

The Yomiuri Shimbun

It is not easy to regain public trust once it has been lost. The nation's top prosecutor must have the leadership to rebuild the prosecutorial organization and conduct proper investigations.

Haruo Kasama has retired as prosecutor general and been succeeded by Hiroshi Ozu, former superintending prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office.

Following an evidence-tampering and cover-up scandal involving the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation unit, Kasama displayed leadership over the past 1-1/2 years in establishing a system to scrutinize prosecutors' investigations, deciding on an ethics code and making audiovisual recordings of interrogations on a trial basis.

Kasama's retirement from the post came after he had set in motion a process to reform the prosecutorial organization.

Yet the true value of the reforms will be tested from now on. The responsibility of the new prosecutor general is extremely grave.

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Dual purpose of reforms

Through the reforms, the prosecutors office not only has to eradicate internal misconduct but also fulfill its primary mission of maintaining public order by enhancing its investigative capabilities to deal with ever more complicated and sophisticated crimes.

Ozu spent much of his career at the Justice Ministry, a stark contrast to Kasama, who was consistently in the investigative field.

To carry out the prosecutorial reform, which has just started, the first task Ozu has to tackle will likely be to firmly lead prosecutors on the front line of investigations.

A major cause of the scandal was the closed nature of the prosecutors office. It is essential to correct this trait and create an organizational atmosphere that will not lapse into self-righteousness.

A supervision and guidance department, established in July last year in the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office to specialize in probes of internal misconduct, looked into about 170 cases based on information from both within and outside the prosecutors office.

Among the 170 cases, the department issued guidance for improvement in four cases, including one involving an inappropriate remark by a prosecutor during an interrogation.

Regarding the questioning of mentally disabled people, in which the voluntariness of confessions is often questioned, the top prosecutors office has regularly received advice on prosecutorial management from an external committee of experts. These efforts need to be expanded further.

===

Admit mistakes gracefully

On July 10, the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office made an unusual summation and recommendation regarding sentencing, seeking acquittal of a suspect indicted for professional embezzlement. It was made due to a bungled investigation.

We hope such a stance will spread among prosecutors working on the front line of investigations, in which they admit wrongdoing gracefully if errors are found in their attempts to prove something through evidence, without fixating on acquiring a guilty verdict.

However, bar associations and other organizations say the disclosure of evidence by prosecutors is still insufficient.

The prosecutors office was reluctant to disclose evidence during the initial trials regarding the murder of a female employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the murder of a middle school girl in Fukui Prefecture, as well as during sessions of the panels examining requests for retrials in the cases.

In both cases, retrials were granted.

Evidence collected at taxpayers' expense and with public authority is "public property" that does not exclusively belong to the prosecutors office but should be utilized to reveal the truth.

It is necessary to discuss the possibility of greater disclosure of evidence, including showing lists of all evidence to defense counsel.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 23, 2012)

(Jul. 24, 2012)

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Save children: save our pride

There is inescapable public outcry against violence against women and children that demands an immediate discontinuation of the disturbing trend. There are women’s rights activists demanding justice for the helpless victims while the religious institutions are banding together to fight child abuse.

Clearly, the cry is too loud to fall flat on deaf ears!

The reports that flood the newsrooms and go on air, hint of a national disaster, which, if not curbed in time, might turn out be more atrocious than the quarter-century war, we had to fight as a nation.  The fact that, even with the bomb explosions and midnight air raids, the women and children found the country a safer place then, is no exaggeration.

The women’s rights activists who recently held a demonstration urged the government to appoint community police groups in every village and implement a special court to investigate and prosecute crimes against women and children.

Time and time again, the importance of introducing rigid laws to fence criminals has been emphasized. When the grip of law is loose in the places where it ought to be tight, there is very little the people can do as a community to net the perpetrators or prevent a phaedohpile from committing a crime.  

No doubt, the time when  exclusive security was a privilege limited to politicians, has become a thing of the past. In fact, given the magnitude of the danger, one would even say that women and children deserve more security than all the politicians put together; for, the politicians have the power to shield themselves which the vulnerable sections of society do not seem to have.

As soon as the war was concluded, the word of victory of the head of state carried a line in which he claimed to be the proud father of all the children. With the outrageous trend of rape and abuse that has taken the country by storm, it is rather doubtful whether he can still make the same proud proclamation.

It is high time the high heads understand that those who become victims of such unspeakable crimes do not do so by their choice. Contrary to those who said women and children invite rape with their attires, no woman or child in their right mind, would want to undergo the trauma of abuse no matter which form it comes in.

The call is to save their right to be safe. It is about safeguarding their right to make choices. Women are the caretakers of the nation and children, its forerunners. As a nation, we have been investing our pride in them, so much so that the head of state swears by it.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

Pilgrims’ distress

As the number of Amarnath yatra pilgrims rises by the year, the casualty figures appear set to create a distressing record. Over the first four weeks of the 39-day yatra period, 97 pilgrims have died. There are 10 days left in the window for the year, and it is feared that the final toll may outstrip that of 2011 when 107 people died — which marked a spike over the 68 deaths in 2010 and 45 in 2009. The trip to the venerated Himalayan shrine involves an arduous trek in extreme cold conditions along a narrow path to reach an altitude of about 12,755 feet. Most of the deaths have been attributed to cardiac arrest and pulmonary problems. Dearth of oxygen in the rarefied high-altitude atmosphere is the biggest cause. The Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board, which is in charge of the arrangements, has made it mandatory for each pilgrim to carry a medical certificate. However, it turns out that in their eagerness to qualify, some pilgrims obtain fake fitness certificates. The devout set out on an empty stomach after an ice-cold bath. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who linked the high number of deaths to issues of age, poor fitness levels and lack of acclimatisation, may have hit the nail in the head. There is a case to put in place a fool-proof system involving multi-stage health screening — ensuring that those who have not registered through the proper process are not allowed to risk their lives. The CRPF and the BSF have created a network of medical camps that are functional round-the-clock along the two yatra routes, and there are medical aid posts set up by the State government, but their efficacy in handling life-threatening situations remain to be assessed. In the event of an emergency, there should be arrangements for swift evacuation to base camps, and thereafter to specified hospitals in Srinagar.

The Supreme Court’s decision to appoint a high-power committee to look into the deaths reflects concerns that have been widely felt. Taking suo motu note of reports, it has sought an explanation from the Central and Jammu and Kashmir governments on the medical and other facilities made available en route. It has also directed that the committee examine issues including the widening of the pilgrim passage route and provision of amenities. The court has asked the committee to visit the shrine. The state cannot be impervious to the pilgrims’ distress. The findings of the committee should form the basis for a protocol that would minimise deaths from accidents as well as from health emergencies along the yatra route at least from next year on.

Contraception, but no coercion

Rich countries pledged large financial resources to expand access to contraception to some 120 million women and girls in the developing world at the recent London Summit on Family Planning. Such promises seem audacious, especially when many G8 countries — having reneged on their aid commitments for years — are now pulling back even more under the domestic drive of austerity. The fresh commitments announced also come close on the heels of the perceived failure of the June 2012 U.N. conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio declaration was criticised as having failed to restore lost momentum on gender equality in recent years owing to reduced resource allocation and diminishing political support. The positive fallout of the global impetus on family planning in the 1980s and 1990s is there for all to see. According to World Health Organisation estimates, the number of women who died annually due to pregnancy and childbirth related deaths declined by one-third between 1990 and 2008. Over this period, deaths among newborns declined from 3.5 to 3.2 million annually. The U.N. Population Fund estimates that doubling current investments to $24.6 billion would reduce the still unacceptably high rates of maternal and neonatal deaths, especially in the developing world.

Family planning lies at the heart of a host of politically contentious and divisive issues surrounding human development. The issue of women’s reproductive rights has acquired immense political potency given the backlash from the religious right in the United States and some orthodox Muslim and Christian countries where issues around family planning get mixed up with abortion. Then, it is also tainted by association with the much discredited ‘population control’ policies and the resort to coercive use of sterilisation at the expense of women’s agency and autonomy. In India and other Asian countries, attempts to enforce the so-called two-child norm to determine family size, against the cultural backdrop of a preference for boys, has already resulted in skewed sex ratios. The Indian government must actively move away from the recourse to incentives and disincentives to influence healthy fertility outcomes and instead promote measures to augment women’s overall well-being and gender equality. In addition to access to appropriate contraception services, a policy framework is needed that would empower women to control pregnancies, and space and limit child-births. The absence of such an environment is said to be the reason why the international community is farthest from reaching targeted reductions in rates of maternal mortality under the Millennium Development Goals.

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Election preparation

WHO will get to vote, and will the Election Commission be able to protect that vote? The new chief election commissioner was sworn in yesterday, and these are the two major issues he should focus on before the next polls. As many as 20 million Pakistanis of voting age — the majority of them women — are estimated to have been unregistered in the draft electoral rolls revealed in March. The other major problem was registration of citizens at the wrong addresses, especially migrants registered in their hometowns. What is important now is that the time is taken to fix these flaws if they still exist in the updated rolls due this month so that no citizens — especially women, migrants and young people who have recently turned 18 — are disenfranchised. There has been a general hurry about this, with the ECP, in part pushed by the Supreme Court, rushing to draft rolls, producing a flawed list and missing several self-imposed revision deadlines. But if the new list is also flawed, the ECP needs to ensure citizens have an easier way to check and correct their status this time by increasing the number of display centres and making the process more efficient. In the worst case, if problems are widespread, it may have to conduct another door-to-door exercise. But ensuring that all citizens have the ability to vote is worth the effort.

There is also the issue of the ECP’s authority over polling staff. Brought in from the local bureaucracy, they are not subject to disciplinary action by the commission. Nor does the ECP have the authority to transfer or discipline administrators, such as those from Wapda or the police, who can influence outcomes in their areas. Electoral reforms to address these issues have been praised in the Indian context, but they are languishing somewhere between the ECP and parliament in Pakistan, and now is the time to pass them. There are other issues with staff too — both polling staff and many returning officers are under pressure from local politicians. Posting them outside their districts, or appointing more lower-court judges as returning officers, are alternatives to look into.

Much progress has been made since the last election. Linking electoral rolls to Nadra data has reduced duplication and will allow more reliable identification of voters. We now have an ECP and a CEC appointed by consensus between the government and the opposition. But these improvements are not enough. More people need to be able to vote, and the commission needs to be empowered. It is worth taking the time to do this before the country goes to the polls.

Addressing change

THE Saudi king has called a summit of Muslim leaders for next month to address risks of ‘sedition’ within Muslim countries. It is not yet clear if this will be a purely Saudi-led initiative, or if it’ll happen under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s aegis. Over the past few years, confronting change from within has become the biggest challenge for Muslim-majority states. However, even though the events of the Arab Spring have severely shaken the status quo, many Muslim autocrats remain in a state of denial. First and foremost, that is about clinging to power in a world that is crumbling around them. As in the case of Egypt, Middle Eastern rulers rallied to Hosni Mubarak’s support at first, frightened by the possible repercussions for them if a symbol of the old order collapsed. But, as in the case of Bahrain and Syria, sectarian dimensions have also crept in.

The lack of fundamental freedoms is what is driving the fury and anger against Muslim rulers. Apart from a handful of democracies, Pakistan — imperfect as it is — being among them, most Muslim-majority nations are either ruled by absolute monarchs or strongmen in republican garb. Democracy and representative rule need to be gradually structured into the systems so that people don’t take to the streets or, as in Syria’s case, take up arms and seek to violently overthrow the system. The often violent suppression of dissent in many Muslim countries has also been citied as a key factor behind the growth of extremism and terrorism. The mode of ruling countries through families and clans needs to be reconsidered. If the meeting in Saudi Arabia can succeed in discussing meaningful reform for the people’s welfare, it’ll be a considerable achievement. If it is just another OIC-like talk shop, or worse, an attempt to protect Muslim autocrats, the masses shouldn’t expect much from the summit. The proposed meeting also raises questions about the OIC’s utility, for the pan-Islamic body has been a perpetual underachiever. In short, Muslim leaders can choose to address and accommodate change, or wait for the anger of the masses to boil over into the streets.

Archives in distress

IF anyone ever wonders why Pakistan seems to learn no lessons from the past, part of the answer can be found in the manner in which we treat our links with history. Even when the state’s intentions are good, poor execution means that the end result is far from desirable. Just recently, the Karachi police intercepted a truck-load of Gandhara-era artefacts. Yet the police then went on to handle it with such carelessness that a number of pieces were damaged; others were stolen from the police station premises. No better treatment is being meted out to the treasure trove of archival material collected at the National Archives of Pakistan, including irreplaceable documents such as the Quaid-i-Azam Papers that include Jinnah’s personal notebooks, Fatima Jinnah’s letters and royal orders from the Mughal emperor Akbar. But the collection is aging and decaying, partly due to insufficient temperature-control facilities and partly because of the institution’s inability to carry out restoration work.

Preserving and restoring documents is a specialised field, and it is to some extent understandable that NAP is unable to do much in this regard. However, that such historical records are allowed to be damaged by the elements — heat, humidity, etc — is unpardonable. The fault lies not so much in funding as in interest, as is evidenced by the fact that the same careless attitude is evident in institutions across the country. Paintings in Islamabad’s National Art Gallery are suffering damage because the administrators have not been able to ensure a suitable environment, for example. The situation at the permanent art gallery at the Alhamra Cultural Complex in Lahore is no different. For such cultural and historical treasures to be saved, it must become a priority. And for that to happen, Pakistan must learn to recognise the value of such material. That is a far harder task than installing air-conditioners and dehumidifiers.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

Restoring common lowest slab

Implement it immediately

We welcome the news that the government is considering restoring the common lowest slab facility for all consumers. This is an overriding issue which we think should have been addressed much before. With the common lowest slab withdrawn since March, consumers now are faced with a steep rise in their monthly electricity bills at a time when spiraling prices of essentials are adding to their woes. In the month of Ramadan, the situation has only worsened. Therefore, instead of merely thinking about it, the government must immediately implement it and restore the common lowest slab facility in order to relieve consumers of hefty electricity bills.

Before the common lowest slab, consumers had to pay a mandatory minimum bill and additional bill for consumption above the 100 units mark. Whereas now, there has been a change in the power tariff structure according to which consumers have to pay at three different rates depending on their consumption per month without any common slab, i.e. consumers using below 100 units pay Tk 3.05 per kilowatt; those using above 100 units and below 400 units pay Tk 4.29 per unit and those above 400 units Tk 7.89 per unit.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has so far justified this rate by repetitively stating that it was necessary to reduce pressure on government subsidies for power generation. It has also come up with the explanation of increased production cost of power from fuel-based rental plants following rise in oil prices in international market. As we have said in this column before, increased production cost was the result of the government's policy on rental power generation, which should not be passed on to the common people. Therefore, we think the government's plan to restore the common lowest slab should be translated into reality without further delay

BERC was established to bridge the gap between the producers and consumers of power. However, we have so far found it concerned only with the producers' concerns and not with the consumers' plight. We hope that it will also be equally concerned with the consumers' woes.

Pranab Mukherjee, India's new president

His experience gives the office a new sheen

The election of Pranab Mukherjee as president of India is important for a couple of reasons. In the first place, it is reflective of the clout the veteran Bengali politician has had on Indian politics, given his experience in government. In the second, it promises to be a marked change from how the presidency has been looked upon in the past five years under Pratibha Patil, against whom allegations of impropriety have been levelled on a fairly regular basis. Mukherjee's elevation to the presidency is also significant in light of the fact that he did not have the unanimous support of all political parties. His rival P.A. Sangma did not have a chance against him, of course. Even so, Mukherjee would have been happier had a wholesale consensus built up around him. There is too the belated support he drew from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

All said and done, though, president-elect Pranab Mukherjee is the one man who at this point can restore Rashtrapati Bhavan to the sanctified image it has generally had since India attained freedom in 1947. Mukherjee steps into a presidency which in the past has been exalted by the presence of Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, V.V. Giri, Shankar Dayal Sharma and others of equally high intellectual brilliance. In a sense, Mukherjee has a certain edge over them in that he arrives at the presidency after substantive experience gained at such important ministries as finance, defence and foreign affairs. A Mukherjee presidency, therefore, will be one that cannot be taken for granted despite the holder of the office traditionally being a figurehead. For once in a long time, India could look forward to an activist president who has a good record as a consensus builder.

We in Bangladesh welcome the rise of Pranab Mukherjee to India's presidency. In every position he has served, he has been careful to understand Dhaka's concerns when it came to dealing with Delhi on various bilateral issues. His position on a sharing of the waters of common rivers and on other matters has been one of respect to Bangladesh's people and political leadership. Like the people of India, we in Bangladesh look forward to a thriving, throbbing presidency under Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi.