Tag: sense

Little evidence that China is seriously approaching its India talks with a sense of goodwill: US

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Washington: Reiterating that the United States supports a resolution of the Indo-China border dispute through a negotiated settlement and direct conversations between the two countries, Biden Administration’s point person for South and Central Asia on Thursday said the US sees little evidence that Beijing is seriously approaching these talks with a sense of goodwill.
“Our position on India’s border dispute with China is long-standing. We support a resolution of that border dispute through a negotiated settlement and through direct conversations between the two countries,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told PTI in an interview.
“Having said that, we see little evidence that the Chinese government is seriously approaching these talks with a sense of goodwill. What we see is the opposite. We see provocations that happen on the line of actual control on a pretty regular basis,” Lu said in response to a question.

India, the senior State Department official said, can count on the United States’ standing with India as it faces the challenge of its northern neighbour.
“We demonstrated that resolve in 2020 during the Galwan crisis, and we continue to find opportunities to cooperate with India on information but also on military equipment, exercises and that will go forward into the years ahead,” he said.
A top American think-tank Centre for a New American Security in a report last month said the increased prospect of India-China border hostility has implications for the United States and its Indo-Pacific strategy.
As the United States considers the role that India will play in the Indo-Pacific and how to maximise US-India cooperation to meet security challenges in the region, US policymakers must closely monitor and be prepared to respond quickly to future India-China border crisis, said the report authored by Lisa Curtis who served as deputy assistant to the president and NSC senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021 and senior defence analyst Derek Grossman.
The report recommended the Biden Administration that to help deter and respond to further Chinese aggression along the border with India, the United States should elevate Indian territorial disputes with China on par with Beijing’s assertiveness against other US allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and ensure this is reflected in all national security related documents and speeches.

“Offer India the sophisticated military technology it requires to defend its borders and initiate co-production and co-development of military equipment. Assist India in strengthening its maritime and naval capacity, and conduct joint intelligence reviews with India to align assessments of Chinese plans and intentions along the LAC and enhance coordination with Indian officials on contingency planning in the event of a future India-China conflict,” it said.
It urged the US to establish or support an official or unofficial organisation charged with collating unclassified commercial satellite imagery on the position of PLA troops along the LAC and disseminate these images routinely for public consumption. “Criticise Beijing’s efforts at land-grabbing in multilateral forums, including the UN, Shangri-La Dialogue, G20, and East Asia Summit.
Message Pakistan and enlist help from Islamabad’s other important partners to convey similar points about the need to stay neutral in the event of a potential future India-China border flare-up. And be prepared to extend full support to India, in the event of another border crisis or conflict,” recommended the think-tank in its report.
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#evidence #China #approaching #India #talks #sense #goodwill
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 21, 2023
Quick Sense (Qs-H1) Plastic 220v AC High power Hooter Security Alarm for Securities, Loud Sound 200mtrPolice Tone Sound
Price: [price_with_discount]
(as of [price_update_date] – Details)

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- Easy installation
- Easy connection with just two wires
- Loud sound no automatic function inside it
- Colour :Black
- Not Capable with motion sensor
Sound level:118 dB at 1 Meter Distance (at 12V )
This is a fixed sound alarm used in security alarms like police siren
Hooter can not tuned to change sound And .Not Capable with motion sensor
The alarm covers range a of 200 meters around it. It is essential for your safety to be aware and here we have an alarm for you to be safe from complicated situations & emergencies.

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#Quick #Sense #QsH1 #Plastic #220v #High #power #Hooter #Security #Alarm #Securities #Loud #Sound #200mtrPolice #Tone #Sound
April 4, 2023
Religion gives sense of duty, connects us with moral values: Adityanath

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Gorakhpur: Religion gives a sense of duty and one should not mistake it just as a medium of worship, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday, while greeting people on Ram Navami.
Talking to reporters after completing rituals of Kanya Pujan and Shri Ram Janmotsav at the Gorakhnath temple here, he also said the world is realising the power of a strong and powerful India.
“New India is being formed with positivity and creativity under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said and added that “the concept of Ram Rajya is also being realised in ‘Samarth Bharat’” with benefits of schemes reaching every section of society without any discrimination.
“Many public welfare programmes are in front of everyone. The needy were given free of cost accommodation, toilet, cooking gas connection, electricity connection without any discrimination,” he said.
Not only this, free ration was also made available to the poor in time of crisis and efforts are being made to bring about comprehensive change in the life of every citizen, Adityanath said.
Greeting people on the festival, he said, “Religion should not be mistaken just as a medium of worship. It gives a sense of duty. Religion connects us with virtue, duty and moral values…”.
Adityanath said Ram Navami is being celebrated with enthusiasm across the state, particularly in the birthplace of Ram, Ayodhya.
“Since Wednesday, more than 15 lakh devotees have visited Hanumangarhi and Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya after bathing in the holy Saryu river,” he said.

The government has also organised Durga Saptshati and Akhand Ramayana recitations in various places in the state, the chief minister said.
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#Religion #sense #duty #connects #moral #values #Adityanath
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 30, 2023
Why a Glenn Youngkin Presidential Candidacy Makes Sense for the Republican Party

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Republican members of the Virginia legislature applaud Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s State of the Commonwealth speech in Richmond on Jan. 11, 2023.
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John C. Clark/AP Photo
It’s a matter of taste, to be sure, but many people do not find Youngkin painful. His approval ratings among Virginians is at 58 percent, according to a recent Roanoke College poll. Those who recoil at his rhetorical contradictions and the evident calculation behind them are heavily concentrated here around the state capitol: Legislators who resent what they regard as his unseemly haste in pursuing national ambitions, or local reporters stiffed by a governor who doesn’t much care about their questions.
When politicians can play both ends of the keyboard — sounding notes of grievance and aspiration with equal fluency — they often go far. This spring will likely force a decision by Youngkin about how far, and how fast, he wants to try to go. Should he run for president, even as he was only elected governor, his first foray into politics, less than a year and a half ago?
The reasons to be skeptical are fairly simple. The Republican donor and operative class that wants to put Trump out of their misery for good — the people Youngkin will need if he runs — are worried that the field of candidates will grow too large, dividing the anti-Trump vote. Youngkin’s biography, a wealthy private-equity executive known for his earnest religiosity, conveys a superficial resemblance to Mitt Romney. The 2012 nominee was an establishment natural and may have won some suburban independents that Donald Trump never could — but hardly enough to compensate for his lack of populist energy.
The reasons Youngkin could win over the voters Romney could not — and be an intriguing addition to the field — are more complex. Republicans are divided over the question of division. Do people want an end to the politics of conflict and bombast represented by Trump and his one-time protégé, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis? Or is exploiting the alleged cultural and ideological excesses of the Democratic left the path to defeating President Joe Biden? Youngkin’s potential appeal is that it isn’t necessary to decide — just say yes to both questions.
At first blush, Youngkin attracted national notice for one main reason: He showed that he could harness the coalition of voters who like Donald Trump without having his own reputation and candidacy be hijacked by the former president. His success seemed fueled in significant measure by the national pollical climate and the self-inflicted wounds of his normally skilled opponent, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
At second blush, it seems clear that Youngkin’s ascent owes to more than a flukish convergence of circumstances. In terms of political skills, he is plainly as talented as other Republicans hoping to halt Trump’s return as the party’s nominee next year — but talented in different ways. Near-term, Younkin has many obstacles. If he surmounted them on the way to the GOP nomination, the McAuliffe experience leaves little doubt he would be a formidable opponent to President Joseph Biden or another Democratic nominee.
The contrast with DeSantis is telling. The Florida governor’s ascent has been powered in large measure by his zeal at cultural and ideological scab-picking, such as his battles with the Walt Disney Company over the state’s bill banning public schools from discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity before fourth grade. The appeal is essentially Trumpism without Trump.
Youngkin, too, regularly wades into the cultural politics swirling around public education, including such topics as whether schools teach racial history. He’s scored local high schools in Northern Virginia for being slow to tell students they won merit scholarship awards, allegedly because school officials thought these violated principles of equity. During his election, he went to battle with school officials in Loudoun County for their handling of sexual assault on a student in a girl’s bathroom by a male classmate wearing a skirt. Like DeSantis, he often goes on favored platforms like Fox News to talk about these issues.

Unlike DeSantis, however, he also pivots at other moments to sound like a Republican version of Bill Clinton’s 1990s centrism. He says the GOP must avoid exclusionary rhetoric and ideological litmus tests. “What I’d seen in Virginia, and I think I see across this nation, is we in fact have to bring people into the Republican Party, we have to be additive, not [rely on] subtraction.” (For more from the Youngkin interview, see my colleague Daniel Lippman’s report.)
In an age when many politicians emphasize mobilization—firing up voters who are already natural supporters with grievance-based appeals —nYoungkin said his experience shows politicians must also revive the art of persuasion.
Virginia is a state where most statewide races trended Democratic in recent years. “People thought it was purple,” Youngkin said, but in fact “it was pretty darn blue….It required us to, yes, bring new people in, to persuade a number of folks who might not have ever voted for a Republican in their lives.”
The reality is that Youngkin is less an updated version of Mitt Romney than he is of someone who actually became president, George W. Bush. Apparently by chance rather than design, what Youngkin articulates is something very much like “compassionate conservatism,” the credo that got Bush elected in 2000 and then went into retreat as he became a war president after 9/11 and the Iraq War. That is reflected in Youngkin’s prominent advocacy of improved state mental health services — “Nobody has been spared this crisis” — and a state partnership with the impoverished and predominantly Black city of Petersburg, just south of the capital.
Like Bush early in his national career, Youngkin combines the background of a wealthy elite with an affable jockish sensibility — Youngkin played Division I basketball at Rice — that helps with populist messaging. As with Bush, his political persona is intertwined with a plainly sincere if showy religiosity. “Can I say grace real quick?” he asked during a recent interview. Assured by his more secular visitors this was fine, he spoke aloud a minute-long prayer to the Heavenly Father, thanking him for the meal of fried chicken tacos and seeking his blessing for the “General Assembly members and the work we are about to do.”
As he ponders a presidential run, Youngkin presumably is seeking guidance from a higher power than political journalists. Even so, the political press has an obvious interest in his answer: A Youngkin candidacy would be an entertaining addition to the 2024 race. And it would test the hypothesis that there is a future for a brand of GOP politics that lies somewhere between the nihilism of Trumpism and the pallor of Romneyism.
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#Glenn #Youngkin #Presidential #Candidacy #Sense #Republican #Party
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 29, 2023
Economy and diplomacy: The writer defends Jaishankar’s ‘Common Sense’ statement on China

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India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in an interview a few days ago: “Look they (China) are a bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with bigger economy? It is not a question of being a reactionary; it is a question of common sense.”
Obviously, Jaishankar is advising caution in dealing with China because its bigger economy translates into greater military strength and stronger diplomatic clout. Most political and diplomatic commentators have kept quiet about the far-reaching implications of this statement and those who have spoken, have reacted adversely generally characterizing it as ‘capitulatory mentality’.
Leaving aside the question whether External Affairs Minister should have publicly broached the subject or left it to closed-door conclaves of policymakers, one must frankly accept that the whole issue of Economy and Diplomacy is extremely important and needs to be openly discussed. Informed public opinion is essential for the success of Government policies in a democracy. One hopes that Jaishankar’s frank articulation of the problems of pursuing a viable security policy vis a vis China because of economic asymmetry will start a much-needed debate on the importance of economy for defense and diplomacy.
Public should be made aware of facts
China’s GDP is $18 trillion while that of India is $3.47 trillion or 1/5 that of China. In 1950 the GDP of both countries was about the same.
For perspective it may be noted that US GDP is 25 trillion, that of Japan 4.94 trillion and Germany 4.25 trillion. When US power was at its peak in the 1950s after the Second World War, its GDP was 40% of the world’s total. Today its economic and military preeminence is not the same, because other economies have risen and its share of world GDP has shrunk to about 23%.
China’s diplomatic clout has been increasing in the step with its economic power. Mao had famously said that “power flows from the barrel of a gun,” but it is Deng’s pragmatic economic policies exemplified by his famous declaration “no matter it is white cator black as long as it can catch mice” that has transformed China into a global power. With this one sentence he jettisoned three decades of ideological dogmatism in economy and substituted it with result-oriented pragmatism. Within 40 years China became an economic giant and manufacturing hub of the world.
Diplomatic muscle of Japan and Germany

Other examples of diplomatic muscle because of their economic strength are Japan and Germany the third and the fourth largest economies in the world. With large foreign exchange reserves these countries can pursue economic diplomacy to promote their national interest very effectively. The relationship between economy and diplomacy is the same as between body and fist, the power of the latter depends on the strength of the former.
India’s own international footprint has increased since 1991 when under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the economy was unshackled and the suffocating “license Raj” relaxed. In 1991 India was about to default on its foreign payment obligations. With foreign exchange reserves adequate only for about three weeks of imports it had to pledge gold in international market to borrow hard currency for its foreign exchange requirements. Today, with its foreign exchange reserves position comfortable, India is in a position to stand up to international pressures much better and pursue foreign policy dictated by its national interest. The frequent difficulties faced by the Latin American countries to effectively pursue independent foreign policy due to external debt and inadequate foreign exchange reserves, clearly establishes the relationship between economy and diplomacy.
It is easy to establish the correlation between economic strength and diplomatic clout but impossibly difficult to attain it. Often there is a tendency to attribute China’s economic progress to its authoritarian system. It is a mistake. Soviet Union despite its authoritarian decision-making failed to achieve economic progress and collapsed. China’s economic progress took off when it allowed free enterprise in economy while retaining one-party rule politically. Many in India attribute its slow economic growth to the elaborate consultative decision-making progress inherent in a democracy. This is a mistaken notion.
Democracy can outperform authoritarianism
Democracy can outperform authoritarian system in all respects–economic, political, technological–if it has the honest commitment of the people and the leaders for its success. Democracy and economic success need political leadership which truly adheres to the rule of law, justice, equality, individual freedom, human rights, transparency and accountability. Democracy has a self-correcting mechanism which prevents things from going over the cliff as has happened to so many authoritarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries e.g., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet communism, dictatorships in Middle East.
On the part of captains of business and industry it requires honest commitment to rule of open and free competition, not pursuit of cronyism for quick wealth. Cronyism is feudalism in economics. It prevents inclusive and sustained growth which alone can make a society stable and strong.
Comparative studies of democracies and authoritarian regimes in 20th century clearly show that democracies have achieved much more economically and have shown more sustaining power politically than authoritarian systems.
But democracy requires patience and honesty on the part of the people for its success. Impatience leads to shortcuts to attain political power and cronyism in business and industry.
Democracy is a government of the patient, for the patient and by the patient just as authoritarianism is a government of the impatient, by the impatient and for the impatient.
All authoritarian leaders display impatience while good democratic leaders act with patience and stamina. Impatience is inherently unsustainable and quickly self-destructs. A study of the 20th century dictatorships and democratic regimes establishes the validity of this proposition. Dictators are gone while democracies plod on.
China will have to one day reconcile its one-party political system with the free enterprise economy. It cannot go on with this dichotomy between its political and economic systems without tensions and conflicts. India for its part will have to protect, preserve, and strengthen its democracy.
Ishrat Aziz is an expert on a variety of subjects including democracy and its connectivity with Islam. A former ambassador of India to several Middle Eastern countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he now resides in the US.
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#Economy #diplomacy #writer #defends #Jaishankars #Common #Sense #statement #China
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 13, 2023
RSS meet to focus on social harmony, developing sense of self-reliance among people

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Samalkha: A key annual meeting of the RSS leadership will begin here Sunday, with the deliberations focusing on how to create an atmosphere of social harmony, motivating people to perform their duties and making them self-reliant.
The three-day meeting will also review the progress of the organisation’s expansion plan for the centenary of its foundation in 2025, head of media relations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sunil Ambekar had said.
He had said that the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha will be attended by more than 1,400 office-bearers, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.
From the BJP, president J P Nadda and general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh will attend the meeting, he said.
A select number of office-bearers of 34 RSS-linked organisations, including Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), will also attend it, he added.
The Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha is the highest decision-making body of the RSS, the ideological fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Ambekar had said, “RSS shakhas are actually centres for bringing change in society and they work for it in their respective jurisdictions based on the study of society conducted by swayamsevaks.”
The meeting will discuss the studies done by the swayamsevaks (volunteers) over the past few years and the work done on the basis of such studies, he said.

It will also discuss a range of socio-economic issues, “especially how to create an atmosphere of social harmony, motivate citizens to perform their duties and make them self-reliant,” Ambekar said.
It will also review the functioning of shakhas (local meeting units) and prepare a future road map, he added.
The Pratinidhi Sabha will adopt some resolutions before the conclusion of the meeting on March 14, he added.
“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is going to complete 100 years of its establishment in 2025. The Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha will review the work in 2022-23 under its centenary-year expansion plan and set targets for 2023-24,” Ambekar said.
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#RSS #meet #focus #social #harmony #developing #sense #selfreliance #among #people
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 12, 2023
‘How can we get out of here?’: survivors of Cyclone Gabrielle describe sense of loss and despair

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In the New Zealand city of Napier, black army helicopters hum overhead. Leonard Fleming has damp clothes, no food and faces a third night sleeping in his car with his dogs Beadle and Mika. Fleming knows he has likely lost everything he left behind when he fled his home in nearby Eskdale, Hawke’s Bay, ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle on Monday.
“I’ve never had my house burned to the ground but I imagine it’s the same thing,” he tells the Guardian over a crackling phone line; service to the area is recently restored but coverage is intermittent. “All you can do is run away and I started thinking this morning about all the stuff that I’ve lost.”
This picture shows a coastal home after part of its back garden and sand was washed away during the storm surge caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in Waihi Beach in the Bay of Plenty. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
The ex-tropical cyclone which lashed New Zealand’s North Island on Monday and Tuesday – with high winds and heavy rain wreaking havoc in more than half a dozen regions – was the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century, said the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, whose government announced a rare national state of emergency on Tuesday.
Four deaths have been confirmed by the police, including a child whose body was found in Eskdale on Wednesday afternoon.
The trail of damage included fatal landslips, closed highways that cut off towns, flooding so severe and rapid that hundreds of people awaited rescue on their roofs, and widespread power, water and telecommunications outages. Some of the worst-affected areas were rural towns that were isolated even before the storm hit, with potholed roads and patchy cellphone reception.
Even as painstaking restoration of services continued on Wednesday, communication woes made it difficult to assess the scale of the devastation.
Fleming hoped those ferried back and forth in the army helicopters above him on Wednesday included his neighbours in Eskdale – a rural settlement 25km north of Napier. Some had stayed behind when he evacuated two days ago and now cannot be reached by phone.
The Esk River across the street from Fleming’s house breached its banks on Tuesday morning and he was told that water at surrounding properties reached roof level. Fleming cannot return home – or travel to the nearby city of Hastings to stay with his son – because bridges and state highways in the area are impassable due to flooding, slips and downed trees.

Army trucks and air force helicopters were sent to rescue hundreds of people in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday as residents of cut-off settlements took to their roofs. Warnings were issued by civil defence officials on Sunday that residents of several areas should prepare to evacuate, but for many, the perilous speed of the rising water came as a shock.
Jenna Marsh from central Hawke’s Bay said the water rose metres in minutes at her parents’ house in Pakowhai – a town between Hastings and Napier. Her mother had told her everything was fine as she fed her horses on Tuesday morning.
Trees damaged by gale-force winds at a commercial pine forest in Tongariro. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
“Less than an hour later she texts me saying, ‘We’re on the roof,’” Marsh says. Her mother estimated the water level had risen by about three metres in 10 minutes.
Marsh’s parents spent eight hours on the roof before they were rescued by helicopter, carrying nothing but their two dogs.
“They had to pick between rescuing grab bags or their dogs and they picked their dogs,” Marsh says.
The family’s pet goat was left bobbing in a boat and they hope to find their horses, one of which was last seen swimming past the house.
The government says there are major animal welfare concerns for livestock and horses in rural areas lashed by the storm.
On Tuesday morning, a group of orchard workers – many of them apparently visiting seasonal workers from Tonga – made news headlines as they broadcast live on Facebook, some using mattresses as flotation devices and others sheltering on the roof of their accommodation. They were rescued on Tuesday afternoon by the army.
Tomas Lopez Castro and his host family in Napier on Wednesday
The communications blackout in Hawke’s Bay provoked panic for relatives living abroad. One family in Bogotá, Colombia, whose 15-year-old son arrived in New Zealand a fortnight ago for a six-month exchange program, were not able to reach him for two days.
Juan Sebastian Lopez says his younger brother, Tomas, is staying with a host family in Taradale, Napier, where evacuations were widespread. The family had felt reassured by New Zealand’s relative safety when they farewelled “our prince” on his first solo adventure abroad – and watched the news of rising flood waters in horror.
“We never imagined that this was even possible,” Lopez says.
Frantic with worry – and still unable to contact Tomas or his host family on Wednesday morning – the family filled in a police missing person form and waited. Lopez was overjoyed when Tomas and his host family were able to briefly confirm their safety on Wednesday afternoon, after traveling to a location with working wifi. More than 1,400 people have been registered with the police as uncontactable.
A view of flood damage in the the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay. Photograph: New Zealand defence force/Reuters
Further north in Coromandel, widespread power cuts left residents in slip-prone beach settlements unsure about what was happening outside their towns and worried about food supplies running out if the roads to the peninsula cannot be reopened quickly.
Claire Moyes, her husband and their visiting guests, spent two “terrifying” nights with “thunder, lightning and wind right on top of us”. Worried the stream beside their property would flood their home, the group dug trenches to funnel rising water away from their driveway.
“It came all the way up to the garage twice during high tide,” Moyes said, but their house was spared. Most of the houses nearby are holiday homes, and the couple spent Tuesday checking their neighbours’ properties.
By Wednesday, they had not showered in three days, and while power was briefly restored, it was not expected to last.
Residents in Taradale clean up silt on Wednesday from flood waters in Napier. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
Bigger problems loom: the coastal settlement is reliant on tourism, and Moyes said a mudslide at one of the peninsula’s best-known spots, Cathedral Cove – which is now closed – and erosion at popular Hahei beach would have lasting effects on the local economy.
“But at the moment, it’s just like, how can we get supplies? How can we feed ourselves for the next few days? How can we shower? How can we get out of here?” Moyes said.
In Napier, Leonard Fleming has dog food, coffee and a burner to brew it on – but no food and no access to his bank account to buy more due to power cuts. He does not want to seek refuge at an evacuation centre.
“When you’re in this situation, all you really want to do is just go home, relax, put your feet up and get a nice sleep in a cosy, warm bed but it’s all gone,” he said. “That’s really starting to sink in.”
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#survivors #Cyclone #Gabrielle #describe #sense #loss #despair
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

February 15, 2023
‘How can we get out of here?’: survivors of Cyclone Gabrielle describe sense of loss and despair

[ad_1]
In the New Zealand city of Napier, black army helicopters hum overhead. Leonard Fleming has damp clothes, no food and faces a third night sleeping in his car with his dogs Beadle and Mika. Fleming knows he has likely lost everything he left behind when he fled his home in nearby Eskdale, Hawke’s Bay, ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle on Monday.
“I’ve never had my house burned to the ground but I imagine it’s the same thing,” he tells the Guardian over a crackling phone line; service to the area is recently restored but coverage is intermittent. “All you can do is run away and I started thinking this morning about all the stuff that I’ve lost.”
This picture shows a coastal home after part of its back garden and sand was washed away during the storm surge caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in Waihi Beach in the Bay of Plenty. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
The ex-tropical cyclone which lashed New Zealand’s North Island on Monday and Tuesday – with high winds and heavy rain wreaking havoc in more than half a dozen regions – was the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century, said the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, whose government announced a rare national state of emergency on Tuesday.
Four deaths have been confirmed by the police, including a child whose body was found in Eskdale on Wednesday afternoon.
The trail of damage included fatal landslips, closed highways that cut off towns, flooding so severe and rapid that hundreds of people awaited rescue on their roofs, and widespread power, water and telecommunications outages. Some of the worst-affected areas were rural towns that were isolated even before the storm hit, with potholed roads and patchy cellphone reception.
Even as painstaking restoration of services continued on Wednesday, communication woes made it difficult to assess the scale of the devastation.
Fleming hoped those ferried back and forth in the army helicopters above him on Wednesday included his neighbours in Eskdale – a rural settlement 25km north of Napier. Some had stayed behind when he evacuated two days ago and now cannot be reached by phone.
The Esk River across the street from Fleming’s house breached its banks on Tuesday morning and he was told that water at surrounding properties reached roof level. Fleming cannot return home – or travel to the nearby city of Hastings to stay with his son – because bridges and state highways in the area are impassable due to flooding, slips and downed trees.

Army trucks and air force helicopters were sent to rescue hundreds of people in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday as residents of cut-off settlements took to their roofs. Warnings were issued by civil defence officials on Sunday that residents of several areas should prepare to evacuate, but for many, the perilous speed of the rising water came as a shock.
Jenna Marsh from central Hawke’s Bay said the water rose metres in minutes at her parents’ house in Pakowhai – a town between Hastings and Napier. Her mother had told her everything was fine as she fed her horses on Tuesday morning.
Trees damaged by gale-force winds at a commercial pine forest in Tongariro. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
“Less than an hour later she texts me saying, ‘We’re on the roof,’” Marsh says. Her mother estimated the water level had risen by about three metres in 10 minutes.
Marsh’s parents spent eight hours on the roof before they were rescued by helicopter, carrying nothing but their two dogs.
“They had to pick between rescuing grab bags or their dogs and they picked their dogs,” Marsh says.
The family’s pet goat was left bobbing in a boat and they hope to find their horses, one of which was last seen swimming past the house.
The government says there are major animal welfare concerns for livestock and horses in rural areas lashed by the storm.
On Tuesday morning, a group of orchard workers – many of them apparently visiting seasonal workers from Tonga – made news headlines as they broadcast live on Facebook, some using mattresses as flotation devices and others sheltering on the roof of their accommodation. They were rescued on Tuesday afternoon by the army.
Tomas Lopez Castro and his host family in Napier on Wednesday
The communications blackout in Hawke’s Bay provoked panic for relatives living abroad. One family in Bogotá, Colombia, whose 15-year-old son arrived in New Zealand a fortnight ago for a six-month exchange program, were not able to reach him for two days.
Juan Sebastian Lopez says his younger brother, Tomas, is staying with a host family in Taradale, Napier, where evacuations were widespread. The family had felt reassured by New Zealand’s relative safety when they farewelled “our prince” on his first solo adventure abroad – and watched the news of rising flood waters in horror.
“We never imagined that this was even possible,” Lopez says.
Frantic with worry – and still unable to contact Tomas or his host family on Wednesday morning – the family filled in a police missing person form and waited. Lopez was overjoyed when Tomas and his host family were able to briefly confirm their safety on Wednesday afternoon, after traveling to a location with working wifi. More than 1,400 people have been registered with the police as uncontactable.
A view of flood damage in the the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay. Photograph: New Zealand defence force/Reuters
Further north in Coromandel, widespread power cuts left residents in slip-prone beach settlements unsure about what was happening outside their towns and worried about food supplies running out if the roads to the peninsula cannot be reopened quickly.
Claire Moyes, her husband and their visiting guests, spent two “terrifying” nights with “thunder, lightning and wind right on top of us”. Worried the stream beside their property would flood their home, the group dug trenches to funnel rising water away from their driveway.
“It came all the way up to the garage twice during high tide,” Moyes said, but their house was spared. Most of the houses nearby are holiday homes, and the couple spent Tuesday checking their neighbours’ properties.
By Wednesday, they had not showered in three days, and while power was briefly restored, it was not expected to last.
Residents in Taradale clean up silt on Wednesday from flood waters in Napier. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
Bigger problems loom: the coastal settlement is reliant on tourism, and Moyes said a mudslide at one of the peninsula’s best-known spots, Cathedral Cove – which is now closed – and erosion at popular Hahei beach would have lasting effects on the local economy.
“But at the moment, it’s just like, how can we get supplies? How can we feed ourselves for the next few days? How can we shower? How can we get out of here?” Moyes said.
In Napier, Leonard Fleming has dog food, coffee and a burner to brew it on – but no food and no access to his bank account to buy more due to power cuts. He does not want to seek refuge at an evacuation centre.
“When you’re in this situation, all you really want to do is just go home, relax, put your feet up and get a nice sleep in a cosy, warm bed but it’s all gone,” he said. “That’s really starting to sink in.”
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#survivors #Cyclone #Gabrielle #describe #sense #loss #despair
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

February 15, 2023
Kangana takes U-turn, supports Uorfi Javed’s dressing sense

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Mumbai: The controversial celebrities of the entertainment industry, Kangana Ranaut and Uorfi Javed had an interesting exchange on Twitter on Monday. Kangana advocated for the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country while she was replying to a tweet from Uorfi Javed. On Tuesday, Uorfi again replied to the Queen actress and it seems that the duo are not going to stop exchanging opinions on the microblogging site.
Both celebrities are attracting a lot of comments from Twitter users and even people are sharing memes in reply to their tweets. Kangana Ranaut who seems to be jealous of the success of SRK’s Pathaan tweeted against Muslim actors and actresses recently and Uorfi Javed reacted to her tweet. Uorfi replied to Kangana that art is not divided by religion and there are only actors and no Hindu or Muslim. After reading Javed’s tweet , the Himachali actress tweeted her opinion. She said the country must introduce a Uniform Civil Code and till the time the constitution is divided the nation will remain divided.
Now, on Tuesday morning Uorfi reacted to Kangana’s UCC idea. She quoted Kangana’s tweet and wrote ”Uniform wound be a bad idea for me maam ! I’m popular only because of my clothes.”
After Uorfi’s said that she is being recognised because of her dressing sense, Kangana reacted in an unexpected turn. The ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ actress gave an example of Mahadevi Akka who was a devotee of Lord Shiva. She said that Mahadevi Akka dropped her clothes and started living in the forest without covering her body. She wrote, ”In India there was Queen called Mahadevi Akka,who loved Shiva her husband before the court said if she loved Shiva n not him then she shouldn’t take anything from him,she dropped all her clothes left the palace and never covered her body again. Clothes and a lack of them (cont ).”
In India there was Queen called Mahadevi Akka,who loved Shiva her husband before the court said if she loved Shiva n not him then she shouldn’t take anything from him,she dropped all her clothes left the palace and never covered her body again.
Clothes and a lack of them (cont ) https://t.co/g9mtjYE5oz
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 31, 2023
She further wrote, ”Both are self expression, Mahadevi Akka is a shinning star In the world of Kannada literature she is the greatest, she lived in forests and never wore clothes. Don’t let anyone shame you about your body, you are pure and divine, my love to you.”
Both are self expression, Mahadevi Akka is a shinning star In the world of Kannada literature she is the greatest, she lived in forests and never wore clothes.
Don’t let anyone shame you about your body, you are pure and divine, my love to you 🤗
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 31, 2023
It seems that Kangana advised Uorfi Javed that she should not let anyone shame her body and that Uorfi is divine and pure.
Well, the exchange between the two on Twitter did not remain between them only as netizens have flooded the micro blogging site with their own opinions. Some users are targeting directly both Uorfi and Kangana while others are sharing memes. Check out below

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#Kangana #takes #Uturn #supports #Uorfi #Javeds #dressing #sense

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 31, 2023
‘There Is a Real Sense That the Apocalypse Is Coming’

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Onishi: I’m happy to say that Balmer outlined that history in grand detail in POLITICO and elsewhere.
Ward: You also argue that Barry Goldwater’s campaign in 1964 prefigured some of the Christian nationalist themes that became more explicit in the 1970s. Goldwater famously broke with the religious right in the 1980s, but how did his campaign contribute to the incipient white Christian nationalist project?
Onishi: Goldwater presented an uncompromising conservatism. He was bombastic on the campaign trail. He said that we might need to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam. He said that while he personally supported the idea that Black and white folks in the South should live and work next to each other, he said that he was not going to sign any laws that forced integration. And he famously delivered a line during his presidential nomination acceptance speech where he said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”
I think that’s worth thinking about. In essence, he’s saying that in times like these — the 1960s, when the civil rights movement was brewing, there were calls for immigration reform, women were pushing for independence and autonomy — extremism is the way that you can keep a hold on your country. Extremism is the modus operandi you are going to need to adopt if you are going to continue to hold positions of power in the political, social and economic realms. The foot soldiers of Goldwater’s campaign never forget this message.
Ward: Speaking of his foot soldiers, historians often point to the formation of the Moral Majority in 1979 as the moment when the religious fervor of evangelicals like Jerry Falwell formally entered into a political alliance with the political extremism of the New Right, led by former Goldwater supporters like Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie. But in some respects, that moment marked not only the beginning of a new sort of conservative politics, but also the culmination of a decades-long project of organization and collaboration between those two camps. What sort of political legwork went into making that union possible?
Onishi: Goldwater lost in a landslide in ’64, but his foot soldiers never lost their enthusiasm for his message and for this extremism. So throughout the ’60s, people like Paul Weyrich, Richard Viguerie and Morton Blackwell were working to build a political apparatus that would match what they saw on the Democratic side. What they wanted to do was take all of the charisma of Goldwater and turn it into a set of institutions and bureaucracies that would enable the takeover of the GOP and of American politics writ large.
What they realize in the early 1970s is that they don’t have enough votes, but they realize that if they can form a coalition with white, conservative Christians, they can find tens of millions of votes. And if they can promise the leaders of that movement — someone like Jerry Falwell — access to power, [those leaders] will no longer be laughed away as backward, rural Christians or old-timey people that have not caught up with modern America. This coalition building was already happening in the late ’60s and early ’70s, well before the official formation of the Moral Majority in 1979.
Ward: Weyrich, in particular, was not coy about his aims. For instance, you cite his statement: “We are all radicals working to overturn the present power structure.” If that’s not a pretty clear echo of Goldwater’s endorsement of political extremism, I don’t know what is.

Onishi: That’s exactly right. And Weyrich said that as somebody who was actively building the Council for National Policy and the Heritage Foundation. It’s easy to write him off as a boring institution builder, but what he was trying to do was instill the revolution into the institutions that make the GOP move and run — and he succeeded, largely.
Ward: One of the first actions of the New Religious Right was to declare war on Jimmy Carter. Carter was an evangelical, but he embodied a very different style of evangelical politics. What did the clash between the New Religious Right and the Carter administration reveal about the nature of their project?
Onishi: Jimmy Carter was almost made in a lab, in terms of being a white Christian president. He’s a Southern Baptist by birth, a military officer, a peanut farmer, and married to his high school sweetheart. However, when Carter got into the White House, he put more women and people of color in the judiciary than anyone before him. He was not publicly outraged by calls for more representation of gay Americans and gay families. He was not taking a hard-line stance on abortion. And perhaps most damning was that he was a dove on foreign policy — he wanted to use diplomacy when it came to America’s interest in conflicts all over the world.
It was all of those components that led Weyrich, Falwell and their cohorts to put everything they had behind Ronald Reagan, who was not one of them in a very strict sense. What this tells me is that their project was about power and not piety.
Ward: Another defining feature of the New Religious Right was an intense focus on “family values” — and in particular on a certain vision of sexual purity — embodied by groups like James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. You write very movingly in the book about how purity culture influenced your own upbringing, but could you explain how the movement’s intense focus on individual purity also contributed to its political radicalism?
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#Real #Sense #Apocalypse #Coming
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 27, 2023