Shibani Joshi under #India posted a link to a Time.com article on the Apple Store that was opened in New Dehli. According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, India is very important to Apple and they are excited to provide for many Indians. This is very pleasant on the surface but on a deeper level it is most definitely going to be used to broaden Apple’s sphere of influence and accessibility to foreign markets.

Why is this important? Well on a positive note, India could use a technological boost in order to interconnect the people of India and raise media literacy rates. This coincides with some of the main points that we have discussed in the class about internet availability and technological availability amongst all people in India. However, does India need Apple to do all of this? With that being said, Apple smart phones are not a necessity, they are a commodity. People use their phone as a part of their social status. The Times article claims that the only people in India who are investing in new Iphones are those who have the disposable income to do so. This is a very blunt statement but it makes sense… Will a new Apple Store steer Indian people to spend their money unwisely or will it drive them into negative consumer based goals? I think that Tim Cook is wrong in trying to monopolize in India yet, the article claims that this is an attempt to outsource out of China which produces 90% of the worlds IPhones, this is a staggering statistic.

https://twitter.com/shibanijoshi/status/1652773573528879104/photo/1

“From March 22 to April 26, 2023, as many as eight people died while cleaning sewers in #Gujarat, raising concerns about the continuing deaths of manual scavengers despite the fact that the practice has been declared illegal across #India.” 

This tweet provides a link to an article by TheHindu.com, essentially the Tweet summarizes that in India many sewage workers have been dying because they are manually cleaning out sewers without any sort of protective gear. The article claims that they mainly die due to asphyxiation because of poisonous gasses that are in the sewage systems in India. Both the article and the tweet states that this is an illegal practice.

I think that the overarching issue in this tweet is that the government has laws in place to prevent incidents like this from happening but does not have the reach or political influence in certain regions to enforce their regulations. I also believe that poverty and low education levels has a lot to do with this. Because many Indians are living in abject poverty, they are going to take any job that they get payed from even if it means risking their lives. In terms of education, the kind of people who are unfortunately taking these kinds of jobs are generally uneducated and don’t know about the risks of working in such unsanitary conditions. It is also very manipulative of the local governments to put people in these kinds of working conditions even after it was declared as illegal.

https://twitter.com/the_hindu/status/1652696857976479747?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

In this article from the Hindustan Times tells a story about a Guddu Muslim who in weeks past followed through on a terrorist attack involving crude bombs in Umesh Pal which killed a local lawyer. The suspected victim has been able to evade the police for the past two month, the Hindustan times claims that he has been able to do so because of his unique ability to disguise himself. They also claim that he may be disguised as a Hindu man. The rest of the article speaks about how the police have been tracking him down and reporting on the various potential locations where he could be hiding, disguised as a Hindu man.

I found this article to be quite comical, yes a muslim man was accused of doing a terrorist attack on innocent Indians and this is a proven fact. However, how can the police determine that he has been utilizing methods of disguising himself as a Hindu man? I think that this is just an excuse that the police are making for their inability to actually find the man they are looking for. This also probably has something to do with the media source that this article was found in. Yes, there is some truth and validity to the article yet upon further observation the Hindustan times appears to be a sensationalist low funding news outlet. So take it with a grain of salt.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/police-on-the-hunt-for-guddu-muslim-suspect-he-s-using-disguises-and-false-identities-to-evade-arrest-for-february-murders-101682866806754.html

BBC News has reported on a mysterious gas leak in the Northern port city of Ludhiana, India. The article claims that there are 11 people dead as a result of the leak of the mysterious gas. Several locals in the area gave eyewitness accounts of people randomly falling unconscious in public after being exposed to the deadly gas. The article gives a brief remark from a local official who claims that the poison gas is most likely a product of a leaked chemical compound and the methane that is found in manholes. The BBC also reported that this is not the first time that there have been deaths in India resulting from mysterious gasses or chemical leaks, for example, “In 1984 a chemical leak in a pesticide plant at the central city of Bhopal killed thousands of people, in what is acknowledged to be the world’s worst industrial disaster.”

I found this article to be quite slim in information, this is most likely because either the Indian government is simply not acting or reporting on the situation or this kind of event is common in India. I feel as if it is a combination of both. Though this kind of issue may seem particular to developing countries like India, in The United States we have experienced even worse environmental disasters like the BP oil spill and the chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio. So as much as this seems a localized issue it may represent a broader issue of  industrial waste poisoning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65440546

Within the tigers jungle we have always struggled with a change in our kingdoms leadership. For generations we have seen many Cobra’s slither into the ranks of the strongest tigers and have them stray away from the righteous path of our historic people. However, as time has shown, we as tigers have a tendency to be tenacious in our hunt for power leaving little regard for the lesser animals of our great kingdom. As we have developed into a powerful jungle one of the largest in the world with an extremely diverse population of animal species it has become hard to maintain peace and harmony amongst each other. In recent years our once long trusted and established council of tigers has failed us and have been slandered by the peoples committee of tigers who have centralized their power around their shrewd leader, the old white tiger. The old white tiger comes from the highest levels of our kingdom and has keen interests in promoting the sanctity of his fellow pure white tigers. In doing so, the great white tiger has ousted one of our kingdoms favored contesters to his power a descendant of the sacred bengal tiger leader. The great white tigers ferocity is not uncontested but he garners much support from those of his kind especially in his strong values of white tiger superiority and solidarity within our jungle.

This is the year in which we can oppose his rule but he leans on the elders of our jungle who make law and order. Time and time again our jungle has fallen short of glory in allowing other groups to be represented in the highest echelons of our kingdom. How is it that we can make a change, how can we as animals of this great and storied jungle stand in unity to protect the representation of all when the great white tiger has his teeth so deeply sunken into the roots of our jungle? We have heard fables of far away forests and mountain land who have seen leaders with the likes of the great white tiger, ferocious animals who hold such charisma and influence over the animals of their kingdoms. I see an option in utilizing our new found innovation in spreading messages of dissent and hope with a unique tigers cry that can be emulated and accessed by all animals of our jungle. This cry may enlighten and change the lesser animals of our kingdom and open they eyes like wise opening their claws; showing their teeth in opposition to the tyrannical great white tiger.

HR:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/world/asia/modi-india-gandhi-judiciary.html