Author Archives: marzia rizvi

Women today face several biases in society despite all the progress that has been made. This is more prevalent and drastic still in the developing world. Conservative and reserved societies have made it challenging for women to stand up for themselves and their basic rights, whether it is their health, education or dignity. Honor killings have started to take up the media by storm in Pakistan, since a few cases brought rage to the public. This issue was further highlighted by the Emmy award winning documentary “A Girl in the River: A Price for Forgiveness” by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Women face bias in Pakistan due nature of the society, as they are not treated as equals to men, particularly in the more conservative rural and tribal areas. Even if a girl or a woman is raped or sexually assaulted the blame is placed on her, which further complicates the matter, as it indicates that they are seen as a second-class citizen.

According to statistics provided by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 15222 cases of honour crimes pertaining both men and women were reported between 2004-2016. These statistics only provide a little insight, as there are several cases that go unnoticed and unreported. What adds to the problem further is how there is a problem is for turning a blind eye towards the issue. A lot of the people who might observe certain family problems just avoid interfering since they would claim it is not their place to say anything. However, when such acts are committed that is when the guilt of others comes to play a role. Therefore, there is a fundamental problem with the way people see and approach this issue.

Source:http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/State-of-Human-Rights-in-2016.pdf

Zimbabwe has long had the prevalent presence of Robert Mugabe, who even at the age of 93 maintains his position. He has even in recent times refused to resign and that has stirred further opposition to this. The future of Mugabe seems to be in the hand of Mugabe himself, particularly how he plans to navigate this crisis in the best way possible.

Despite the growing distrust and popular opposition to him, Mugabe has stated that “he will still chair an upcoming party congress” (The Economist). The very fact Mugabe is still in power has made many feel anxious. This sense of anxiety of the next leader is coupled with the problems that need to be carefully and immediately addressed, in particular with regard to the economy.

However, what it is imperative is how Mugabe has managed to be in power for 37 years. The careful weeding out and carefully constructed support has allowed him to be almost untouchable. It was noted in recent unrest and coup that “the Zimbabwe Defence Forces says it is arresting ‘criminlas’ around Mr Mugabe, but not questioning his authority” (The Economist).

Having said that, maybe the time for Mugabe to step down has finally come. It has be noted that “should Mr Mugabe fail to step down, impeachment proceedings could begin as early as Tuesday November 21st, when parliament sits” (The Economist). However, the matter of the proceedings will not be simple and even if Mugabe is impeached, the aftermath will be critical to deal with. The political landscape will become open to challenges and the other leadership methods will be carefully analyzed.

Challenges to the ousted former vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Grace will become apparent. The structure of how the military and the political parties will deal with a new road map for Zimbabwe.

It will be interesting to follow this story further and see how the shape of the country will potentially change and how the neighboring countries will react to them.

(Source:  https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21731506-formally-ousting-despot-hard-when-army-pretends-its-coup-was-not)

After conducting the data collection for the Global Affairs social media census, it could be noted that there were some interesting points that were brought to light. The part that was under my analysis was to do with the use of Facebook for different embassies of Canada across the world. There was a clear implication that there were some posts and embassies that were more active and popular than others. In terms of popularity, it means the amount of likes, comments and shares they had. It was interesting to note that specific types of events gained more likes than others and therefore, had a greater reach. Additionally, what was also imperative was how there were two languages for Canada’s embassies, however the English one was far more popular for some countries than others, indicating that was the more likely language of choice over French.

The Rohingya crisis is getting more pertinent and is a pressing matter that needs to be sorted out quickly. The purpose of this brief is to briefly analyze how this crisis escalated to the level it has.

To a large extent, it can be said that the Rohingya crisis has risen due to foreign policy failure, of key states. The Rohingya’s have been classified as an ethnic minor in Myanmar for a long time and have been persecuted. Even though, the international community noticed that they were victimized under the Buddhist-majority there was no call to action made.

Foreign policy towards Myanmar from the international community should have considered having significant pressure on Myanmar, to include the Rohingya with proper status and respect into the system. The refugee problem that has risen has also shown the weakness of the neighboring countries as well. As they are not able to and/or want to deal with the influx of people within their borders. The issue of providing shelter, food etc arises, the more complex and stringent the neighboring countries will get.

Additionally, “Washington already had restrictions on its engagement with Myanmar’s armed forces, as well as a long-running embargo on all military sales, and the withdrawal of military aid serves to reinforce that position” (The Guardian). Having said that, the US also needs to apply pressure to the regional actors in order to instigate action in dealing with the refugee crisis.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/24/us-withdraws-assistance-from-myanmar-military-amid-rohingya-crisis#img-1

The Sustainable Development Goal 16 aims to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive societies for sustainable development” (Sustainable Development). This goal targets a lot of different themes and relates them to sustainable development. The complexity of this goal is that it is trying to tackle important themes all within the same sphere. For the purpose of this blog, there would a focus on the security and peace implications all the above listed themes provide, and vice versa.

In the past few decades security threats, particularly with regards to terrorism has been the key to the hindered growth of the developing world. I will take the case for Pakistan as a prime example for this blog post. Security threats, whether they are sectarian or terrorist have undermined Pakistan’s ability to grow at the rate it has potential for. Additionally, poor institutions and governance levels lead to corruption, which in effect manage to undermine the society’s ability to prosper as corrupt politicians and civil service do not provide the services they are hired for. This leads to the question of accountability, which usually is push back and forth between different institutions and levels in a hierarchy. In the case of many developing nations it can be seen that power resides in the hands of a few, who are for the sake of maintaining power will not let institutional reforms take place. This prevents their power from being questioned and undermined. Therefore, it can be said that for the SDG 16, the key challenge is to break the current norm and structure in many societies so that they may become cohesive and effective, particularly with regards to the judicial system.  It is noted, “progress with respect to the rule of law and access to justice is mixed” (Sustainable Development). This indicates that more focus needs to be placed on actively working on respecting and implementing the rule of law.

Having analyzed the different elements of SDG16 it can be said that the goal is trying to accommodate a range of different issues into one. By doing so, the challenge is of effectively working on every aspect. The UN needs to make sure that they can effectively assess the success of the signatories of the SDG.

The implications of UBC’s transportation program are quite apparent. As a new student and resident at the campus, I have noticed that a large proportion of the people walk, bike or use transit to get around UBC and Vancouver. As someone who is new to using public transport on a daily basis, it is refreshing to see how it is actively encouraged. Moreover, having a student U-Pass program has further assisted in reducing the traffic and has encouraged students to take the public transport.

Having said that, there are certain elements of transportation that UBC should further look into and evaluate. One of the imperative elements that the university needs to look into is parking spots for commuters. Despite having a few parkades around campus, there are still not sufficient spots. What further adds to the struggle for parking is that students need to fee for parking. There is an understanding that having few parkades and a fee on parking spots should encourage the use of public transport. However this is not practical for people living in greater Vancouver area, as the commute time via use of transit is significantly longer. In addition, other modes of transportation such as carpooling are not preferred as it is not as convenient as it sounds.

(Source: UBC Vancouver Transportation Status Report Fall 2016 – Campus and …)

The Rohingya refugee crisis that has taken the media by storm has a stifling effect on the world, particularly because of the Myanmar’s de facto leader is a Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the crisis started in August, she had not made a public appearance to talk about this problem, which has been described as ““textbook example” of ethnic cleansing by a UN official (The Guardian).

The dynamics of this crisis are entirely baffling as Aung San Suu Kyi managed to not entirely acknowledge the problem that was happening in the Rakhine state. With todays technology, media and the global reach the world has been shown exactly what has been happening to the Rohingya’s. It should be noted that this is not the first time that they have been persecuted. As a minority “Rohingya people have been systematically persecuted for decades by the Burmese government, which, contrary to historical evidence, regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and restricts their citizenship rights and access to government services” (The Guardian). In addition, it should be kept in mind that the Rohingya’s are not the only ones who have been displaced due to this conflict.

This brings the questions of the leadership into the limelight. Despite there being claims of taking care of the Rohingya and accepting them as citizens of Myanmar, there is evidence to suggest, particularly with regards to this crisis, that aid is being limited to the Rohingya. As the “International Committee of the Red Cross has been afforded limited access” (The Guardian). All this begins to question Suu Kyi’s leadership and a role model in the international community.

The interesting aspect of this crisis is how the world leaders and also Suu Kyi will tackle this problem, and come up with the best way to deal with this genocide.

Sources:

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/11/un-myanmars-treatment-of-rohingya-textbook-example-of-ethnic-cleansing

BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41312931

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/fact-check-aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya-crisis-speech-myanmar

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Title: President Moon Jae-in – The Right Choice for South Korea

Author: Hannes B. Mosler, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Korean Studies and the Graduate School of Asian Studies at Freie Universaität Berlin

Table of Content: N/A

Analysis and Conclusion

The brief discusses the suitability of President Moon Jae-in in the context of the now impeached Park.Even though the policy brief does not have a table of content, it has a structured flow to the policy. Historical context is presented in an insightful manner.This brief is quite detailed and has analytically hit all the crucial points while exploring President Moon Jae-in’s stance on several policies, such as labour market and energy, alongside environmental policy. This brief manages to look at the elements that President Moon Jae-in will explore and wants to tackle during his time in office. Additionally, it also explores the challenges that Moon will have during his time in office. Moreover, it is imperative to note that this policy brief does not have a policy recommendation. It just explores different issues at hand.

Source: https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/user_upload/Asia_Policy_Brief_DA_2017_02_engl.pdf

Title: Migration

Author: No named author. This policy brief was published by OECD, under Germany Policy Brief.

Table of Content: N/A

Analysis and Conclusion

This policy brief is concise, but it delivers the readers the required information on Germany’s stance on migration. There is a clear discussion of the issue at hand, with the sufficient data to back it up in a concise, yet coherent manner. Additionally, the style of writing has managed to convey the issue of migration in Germany in an insightful manner. Furthermore, this policy brief is concluded with policy recommendations, that are crisp and concise in relaying the possible approaches that Germany can make to tackle is growing challenge of integration. Moreover, this policy brief is written clearly and manages to deliver the information on migration issues in a clear manner, that it can be understood by the general public and experts alike.

Source: https://www.oecd.org/germany/germany-integrating-refugees-and-other-migrants-into-education-and-training.pdf