Imran Khan - Funny Truth

Double screening on USA airports

Nurses asked to wear ‘burqa’ to avoid doctors’ sexual assault

According to reports, last week a doctor of the Mayo Hospital Lahore tried to sexually assault a nurse. Had her fellow nurses not taken to the streets to protest the incident, it might have been brushed under the carpet because, initially, the medical superintendent of Mayo Hospital had told the victim to “forget about the incident and cover her face”. Men with Mayo Superintendent’s mindset unfortunately hold women without ‘Hijab’ responsible for inciting males to an extent that they loose control over themselves and act devilish---the women must cover and segregate themselves from men to avoid such predicament and sinning the men to commit sins. Thankfully, after the nurses’ protest outside the Punjab Assembly, a three-member inquiry committee was formed, but on the basis of preliminary investigation, the accused was only terminated from service. This incident is reflective of how women are unsafe in a working environment. Nurses, who have to work night shifts with their male colleagues, are at particular risk. This is not the first time a case like this has come to the surface. Not too long ago, a nursing student at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, was assaulted by her male seniors, including a medico-legal officer. In that incident too nurses protested and pressurised the authorities to investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book, but the matter cooled down after a lapse of some six months and the accused was recently granted bail by the court. It is a shame that in our society, women who have the courage to leave their homes to earn a living are made to suffer in this manner. Such incidents discourage people from sending their daughters, sisters and wives out to work due to the fear for their security. Alarmingly, we are a society where, more often than not, aggressive males get away with criminal assaults on weaker female subordinates. The fact that the hospital’s administration, instead of questioning the accused and taking action against him, interpreted the entire incident as if it had dishonoured the girl and that she should be ashamed and ‘cover her face’ as if she was the real culprit and not the victim speaks volumes about how we view victims of such abuse. Clearly, this is injustice at its worst, where a victim is forced to live incognito and the culprit is allowed to lead a respectable life. On the other hand, it also proves that refusal to accept maltreatment can lead you to justice. One must commend the exemplary unity of nurses who stood up for their colleague and got noticed by the media and authorities. Nevertheless, there is a dire need to establish permanent mechanisms to address the issue of harrassment at the workplace. Moreover, the perpetrators must be made an example of in order to teach others of this mindset a lesson. http://thenews.com.pk/blog/blog_details.asp?id=1021

China questions dollar dominance

The US is accusing China of undervaluing its currency to get an unfair trade advantage [EPA]

The Chinese president has resisted US arguments about why China should let its currency strengthen, saying the dollar-based international currency system is a "product of the past".
However, Hu Jintao admitted that it would take a long time to make China's yuan (RMB) a world currency.
"China has made important contribution to the world economy in terms of total economic output and trade, and the RMB has played a role in the world economic development," he told two US newspaper in a written interview ahead of his visit to th US next week.
"But making the RMB an international currency will be a fairly long process."
Critics say China intentionally undervalues the its yuan to make its exports cheaper and gain a trade advantage, contributing to the huge US trade deficit.
Hu said arguments that allowing the yuan to appreciate would curb inflation are too simplistic, adding that China is fighting inflation with a range of policies including interest-rate increases.
'Moderate inflation'
While inflation in China hit a 28-month high in November, Hu told the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post that prices were "on the whole moderate and controllable."
"We have the confidence, conditions and ability to stabilise the overall price level," he said.
US legislators are among the biggest critics of China's exchange rate policy. Three Democratic senators - Charles Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, and Bob Casey - said on Sunday that they would propose legislation to try and fix the problem.
The legislation would impose stiff new penalties on countries that the treasury department designated as currency manipulators. The treasury has not labelled any country a currency manipulator since July 1994 when it cited China.
On other issues, Hu struck an upbeat tone about ties with the US.
"We should abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality," he said and "respect each other's choice of development path."
The president suggested co-operation with the US in areas like new energy sources, clean energy, infrastructure development, aviation and space.
"Both sides should keep to the right direction in the development of our relations, increase exchanges, enhance mutual trust, seek common ground while reserving differences, properly manage differences and sensitive issues and jointly promote the long-term, sound and steady development of China-US
relations."
Optimism on Koreas
He also expressed optimism about the outlook for resolving tensions on the Korean peninsula, an area of concern to both Washington and Beijing, saying he sees signs of decreasing tensions between the North and the South.
"Thanks to joint efforts by China and other parties, there have been signs of relaxation," Hu said. He was convinced "an appropriate solution to the Korean nuclear issue" could be found, a reference to North Korea's nuclear arms programme.
The Chinese leader, who is expected to step down as president and general secretary of China's Communist Party in 2012, arrives on Wednesday in Washington for his first and last state visit.
Eswar Prasad, a Brookings Institution economist and former International Monetary Fund, said Hu's generally conciliatory tone augured well ahead of his Washington meetings with Barack Obama, the US president, and other officials.
"Hu makes it clear that China intends to move forward on opening its markets, freeing up its exchange rate and restructuring its political system, but at its own pace and with little heed to external pressures for more rapid or broader reforms," he said.http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/01/20111171020882839.html