Asia

Mayors for Peace is proud to announce that its membership has surpassed the 5000 mark, making Mayors for Peace not only the fastest growing association of local governments in the world, but also, by far the largest international, direct-membership association of local governments.

Heavy monsoon rain in southern Pakistan is hitting children and women worst of all. Over 2.5 million children have been affected by new severe floods, and around 1.5 million women of reproductive age are among the now over seven million victims.

Mayraj Fahim’s field is local governance and he commented on 60 Minutes highlighting the apparent success of the Indian Institute of Technology whereas in reality it was the nation’s failure to do research that is glaringly obvious to him! This contradicts what was shown on that popular programme. He points out a higher reality.

It is a year now that Silo left us in his physical body, bequeathing us and everyone a valuable message of the way of active non-violence to take mankind into a benign and adventurous yet non-harming future. We give thanks to Silo this day and carry on the good work. We watch as the protagonists of an open future take to the streets.

A humanist work camp is scheduled to start October 10, 2011, organised in Panauti, Nepal, as the initial efforts to establish Nepal’s Park of Study & Reflection. This is a small town 32km south east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Panauti is renowned for its rich history, cultural activities, artistic buildings and year-round festivals.

Hazare, 74, embarked on a public fast in New Delhi to pressure the government into backing tough anti-corruption legislation, and attracted huge nationwide support for his cause. His doctor Naresh Trehan said that “there is a 30 percent improvement in his condition, which is quite satisfactory”.

Twenty-eighth August 2011 an eighteen member group headed by Mawlavi Abdul Hadi joined the peace process in Dareim District of Badakhshan Province, according to South Asian Media Net. Abdul Raouf Rasikh spokesman for the Badakhshan governor told the news agency that with the joining of this group the total number of armed men of Mawlavi Abdul Hadi had upped from 110 to 138.

Shahzad Chaudhry – “In India, we have a 74-year-old, feeble man, à la Gandhian mould, leading a popular anti-corruption movement against a corrupt political and business culture and within that challenging an unyielding political system. While in Pakistan, we only cry out the advent of a transformational moment but remain mired in introspective idealism.”

Hong Kong residents originally from the Indian sub-continent gathered on Sunday past to support Anna Hazare and the actions surrounding the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the fourth week in a row. The event took place at the India Club, Jordan, Hong Kong. The initiators were the volunteer international wing of India Against Corruption (IAC).

India’s prime minister appealed Monday for a more reasoned approach to combating corruption, as huge crowds turned out to support a hunger-striking activist on the seventh day of his anti-corruption fast.