Gripevine

 Friday the 13th marked a milestone for India, not because they won a cricket championship, not because a new leader came into power or a new law was passed in Parliament. It was because four men were sentenced to hang for a brutal gang rape in December 2012 that repulsed not just India, but the world. So what is the milestone that has been achieved here.....? First was the way the men and women of India reacted to the crime, they thronged the streets of New Delhi and brought the capital to a halt as they demanded for justice. The President, Prime Minister and the top police personnel must have heaved a sigh of relief after the funeral of the 23-year-old student whom the people called "Brave heart" and "India's daughter" was concluded without incident in the early hours of Dec 30, 2012. The funeral itself was conducted under heavy security presence, in attendance were cabinet ministers and prominent politicians. When she lost her brave battle to liv...

I am not highlighting this story in my blog because of my empathy towards my canine friends. Naturally this story stood out when I first read it in August, because of the kindness shown to helpless animals. I wanted to write about it then, but I got busy.  It's been a month now, but stories like this one never goes stale, plus the struggles of the hero in question is ongoing. He's a 50-year-old cop in Beijing who rescues dogs confisticated in a crackdown on oversized and unregistered dogs. How does he rescue them? He steals them. Yes, he goes back to the police station late at night when there are less people around, removes the dogs from the cages and sneaks them out. He keeps several dogs at home in defiance of regulations allowing only one dog per-household, several more at an office guardhouse and actively goes online to find new homes for the rescued dogs. Why does he go to all the trouble at the risk of losing his job and facing the full force of the...

 In the first study of its kind, more than 10,000 men in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka were interviewed on the prevalence of rape. The study by South Africa's Medical Research Coucil revealed the following: Almost one in four men surveyed in Asia said they committed rape at least once. One in 10 men said they had raped a woman who wasn’t their partner. Just under half of the perpetrators said they had raped more than one woman. The most common reason men gave for the violence was sexual entitlement, followed by entertainment and the wish to punish the woman. Men with a history of physical violence against a partner, or who had paid for sex or had had a large number of sexual partners were more likely to rape someone they didn’t know.    The study which aims to create a safer future for the next generation of women and girls was published by the Lancet Global Health Journal. Read more of this grou...