Around the world: Aftermath of the great quake

The 8 point Richter scale quake that hit Sichuan’s Southern Province in China suffered further damage from 182 after shocks which followed the great quake that killed nearly 70,000 people with about 20,000 going missing. The after shocks that came within half an hour of one another ranged from 5.4 to 5.7 on the Richter scale, knocked down 420,000 houses.

Described as the worst earthquake yet, it has forced China to change its family planning programme. Couples who have lost their only child will be allowed to have another. And those parents whose only child has been killed or disabled in any way can apply to the Family Planning Council for permission to have another.

A curious feature of the May 12 disaster was that it was preceded by strange animal behaviour. The press carried reports of frogs and toads seen migrating in vast numbers. At that time no one guessed the reason. But now scientists say that animals can predict earthquakes; may be because they are sensitive to pressure waves.

As a chemist and oceanographer George Pararas Carayannis puts it, “Physical and chemical stimuli emanate from the earth prior to an earthquake and animals probably sense that.”

Old timers talking of this curious animal behaviour recall how 32 years ago in Tangshan when a quake killed an estimated 240,000 people, it was preceded by the wild howling and barking of dogs, hours before the quake struck. They said that mice and snakes skittered around crazily while horses and cows kicked at their stable walls.

Earlier, water in wells that had plunged to their lowest depths weeks before rose suddenly hours preceding the quake with some wells overflowing. Even the behaviour of people in Tangshan became strange. “People were irritable and confused and there were many fights that night. They thought that the bad tempers were due to a sudden heat wave.”

Vulgar TV ads

Advertisements appearing on TV can be vulgar and indecent. So India has found them to be. Accordingly, the Government has decided to ban two underwear advertisements. The Ministry concerned has now issued to all entertainment channels a notice asking them to pull out Frenchie X and Lux Cozy off the air.

The scenario for the Frenchie ad has a young man standing in a room only in his briefs. Enter a supple figure of a woman and shuts the door.

The rest is left to the viewer’s imagination. This particular ad figured prominently on the screens relaying the IPL matches and has contributed to many complaints from the viewing public. “We have received a lot of complaints from viewers. So we have asked all channels to refrain from showing such ads,” Ministry sources explained.

Earlier an ad for a deodorant which had been carried by Star News and MTV was also found violating the advertising code. The Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act lays down that “indecent, vulgar, repulsive, suggestive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements.”

In the notice issued to the channels that carried an item that was “indecent, vulgar, repulsive or suggestive,” they were asked to run a scroll for three days apologising for screening the new Age deodorant advertisement.

Many advertisements screened even on our TV channels can easily come under these prohibitions stipulated by the Indian TV code. For a lack, presumably, of such guidance viewers are outraged by some advertisements which openly encourage many of our social vices.

Benazir’s daughter

Many may be unaware that the slain Benazir Bhutto left behind two daughters, both students, studying in Dubai. The elder girl, Bhakthawar who is seventeen was interviewed by the ARY One World Channel on her future plans.

Asked whether she will follow her mother’s political path, she said she shared her mission for the women of Pakistan but she was not sure of treading a political path.

Giving a hint of what this mission was, she said that the hoped to see the same sort of gender equality that prevailed in her own home was available to the women of Pakistan.

Education, she reminded viewers, was one of her mother’s missions. At the moment she was engaged in her studies and was also interested in singing. Her mother had encouraged her to sing.

To expand her knowledge in that field she had asked a journalistic friend in the US to introduce her to the famous American hip hop singer Puff Daddy.

Writing in her last book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West Benazir said she and her husband made a careful calculated and difficult decision in returning to Pakistan.

“We understood the dangers and the risks of my return, and we wanted to make sure that no matter what happened, our daughters and our son, Bilawal would have a parent to take care of them, The people of Pakistan will always come first.

My children understood it (the decision) and not only accepted it but encouraged me,” she wrote.

- Roving Eye