India launches spacecraft to Mars

India has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Red Planet - with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to reach Mars.

The Mars Orbiter Mission took off at 09:08 GMT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the country's east coast.
The head of India's space agency told the BBC the mission would demonstrate the technological capability to reach Mars orbit and carry out experiments.
The spacecraft is set to travel for 300 days, reaching Mars orbit in 2014.
If the satellite orbits the Red Planet, India's space agency will become the fourth in the world after those of the US, Russia and Europe to undertake a successful Mars mission.
A 56-hour countdown to the launch began on Sunday.

What ordinary Indians think of the country's mission to Mars

Some observers are viewing the launch of the MOM, also known by the informal name of Mangalyaan (Mars-craft), as the latest salvo in a burgeoning space race between the Asian powers of India, China, Japan, South Korea and others.

Prof Andrew Coates, from the UK's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News: "I think this mission really brings India to the table of international space exploration. Interplanetary exploration is certainly not trivial to do, and [India] has found some interesting scientific niches to make some measurements in."

Those niche areas include searching for the signature of methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere, which has previously been detected from Martian orbit and telescopes on Earth. However, Nasa's Curiosity rover recently failed to find the gas in its measurements of atmospheric gases.
CH4 has a short lifetime in the Martian atmosphere, meaning that some source on the Red Planet must replenish it. Intriguingly, some 95% of atmospheric methane on Earth is produced by microbes, which has led some to propose the possibility of a biosphere deep beneath the Martian surface. But the gas can be produced by geological processes too, most notably by volcanism.
Definitive conclusions are likely to be elusive, but the spacecraft's Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) instrument will aim to make measurements and map any potential sources of methane "plumes".
The spacecraft will also examine the rate of loss of atmospheric gases to outer space. This could provide insights into the planet's history; billions of years ago, the envelope of gases around Mars is thought to have been more substantial.

 

 At $72m (£45m), the mission is comparatively cheap, but some commentators have still questioned whether a country with one of the highest rankings for childhood malnutrition in the world should be spending millions on a mission to the Red Planet.
In one sense, India was left with reduced options because of the failure of its most powerful launcher, the first choice to loft the MOM into orbit. That left the country's space agency without a means to fire the satellite directly out of Earth's atmosphere.
As a fuel-saving alternative, the spacecraft will circle Earth in an elliptical orbit for nearly a month, building up the necessary velocity to break free from our planet's gravitational pull.
The formal name for the route MOM will take to Mars is a "Hohmann Transfer Orbit". The spacecraft takes advantage of a favourable planetary alignment, carrying out six small engine burns over November to lift it to a higher orbit before a final burn sends it off on an interplanetary trajectory.
But in order for the MOM to embark on the right trajectory for its 300-day, 780-million km journey, it must launch by 19 November and carry out its final orbital burn by 30 November.
The difficulty of visiting the Red Planet will not be lost on Indian officials; just under half the total attempts to reach Mars have succeeded. But Prof Coates said the planned mechanics for getting to Mars were on a sound footing, and that the probe stood a good chance as long as its engines fired correctly.

Those who defend India's current direction in space exploration say the technological development required to mount this mission could indirectly benefit the country's other activities, including poverty reduction.

Nisha Agrawal, chief executive of Oxfam in India, told the BBC: "India is home to poor people but it's also an emerging economy, it's a middle-income country, it's a member of the G20. What is hard for people to get their head around is that we are home to poverty but also a global power.
"We are not really one country but two in one. And we need to do both things: contribute to global knowledge as well as take care of poor people at home."
K Radhakrishnan, chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), told the BBC's India Business Report: "Why India has to be in the space programme is a question that has been asked over the last 50 years. The answer then, now and in the future will be: 'It is for finding solutions to the problems of man and society.'
He added: "A great revolution has taken place over these last 50 years in the country by a meagre expenditure that has been put into the space programme."
Mr Radhakrishnan played down talk of a race between China and India in space, commenting: "We are not in a race with anybody, but I would say we are in a race with ourselves. We need to excel, we need to improve, and we need to bring new services."
But a successful launch would allow India to surge ahead of regional rival China, at least in the exploration of Mars. China's Yinghuo-1 spacecraft was to have reached Martian orbit in late 2012. But it was piggybacked on the Russian Phobos Grunt spacecraft, which became stranded in low-Earth orbit shortly after launch in November 2011.
The MOM was to have been launched as early as 28 October, but rough weather in the Pacific forced officials to postpone lift-off.

In Indonesia, the dead are removed from their tombs to change clothes

In Tana Toraja, Indonesia, the dead are removed from their tombs to replace their clothing each year. The Toraja people have fascinating rituals surrounding death and the afterlife.

When someone dies, their ritual states that the deceased are to be buried in the town they were born in (and not necessarily in the town in which they have died).

According to the Zombie Research Society website:

Further research into the term “Rolang” uncovered a Tibetan connection. This one is even more freaky.

In this scenario, a holy man (a “ngagspa”) gets shut up in a dark room with the newly deceased and lies on top of the corpse, wrapping his arms around it and placing his mouth over the mouth of said dead person (EWWW! ).

By breathing into the dead body’s mouth, the corpse is eventually revived, and leaps to it’s feet, attempting to escape the grasp of the ngagspa.

The holy man must hold onto the thrashing corpse, or he will be killed. Oh, and he has to wait for it to stick out its tongue, so he can bite it off. Apparently the tongue makes a powerful magic weapon used in healing etc.

Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk (“the way”).

The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo (“Way of the Ancestors”).

Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region.

The picture below which was first placed on the Indonesian blog mamasa-online.blogspot.com, talks about a personal story involving the walking corpses of Tojara, Indonesia. But only recently the picture is gaining attention.

Child trafficking in Ghana

Human trafficking is an international problem affecting millions of people and many countries around the world. In Ghana, West Africa, the internal trafficking of children is one of the biggest challenges.

Many Ghanaian children are trafficked from their home villages to work in the fishing industry. Living in meagre conditions and working long hours every day, these kids are exploited by fishermen desperate to feed their families and eke out a living along the banks of Lake Volta.
Created by the construction of the Akosombo dam in the early 1960s, Lake Volta is one of the world's largest artificial lakes. A number of fishermen who have depended on the bounties of the lake for many years report that fish stocks are decreasing, making it difficult to survive off fishing alone. Other work is scarce in a country where unemployment is widespread and approximately 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.
The depletion of stocks is one of the key reasons why children are needed as workers in the fishing industry. In addition to being cheap labour, their small, nimble fingers are useful in releasing the fish from the ever smaller nets.
"The Government should ban the use of nets with tiny holes," says Jack Dawson, Executive Director of APPLE, a local NGO that works in several fishing villages. "Doing so would allow fish stocks to improve and discourage the use of kids because there would be no need for such small hands."
Another task that trafficked children frequently perform is diving to disentangle the fish nets from the numerous tree stumps that are scattered throughout the lake. As nets are often dragged along the bottom of the lake, they tend to get stuck. Diving is a dangerous job that can have dire consequences for the children, from catching water-based diseases such as bilharzia and guinea worm to death from drowning.
On mission to Ghana, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Julia Ormond, who focuses on human trafficking, visited a number of villages. Accompanied by a local team, Ormond spoke to child traffickers, trafficking victims and their parents, and people working to combat this crime.
When visiting the fishing villages, Ormond observed several boats and their crews. She recalls that spotting victims of trafficking was relatively easy as their demeanour differed from that of children still living with their parents. Whereas kids tend to be playful and seek the attention of visitors, particularly those who have cameras, trafficked children are generally more reserved.
"There was this young boy who came off the lake," she says, "he simply froze when he saw us! Carrying his paddles, his jeans falling off him; he wanted the attention of the camera, and gave a little smile, but it was so diffident, so broken."
The driving forces behind child trafficking extend beyond fish scarcity. Deep-rooted traditions can also help explain the prevalence of this crime. For example, it is common in Ghana for children to participate in apprentice work with a relative or family friend. Many kids, and their parents, believe that going away to work is a route to a better life.
"Child trafficking is actually a distortion of the old cultural practice of placement with relatives or townspeople," says Joe Rispoli, Head of the Counter-Trafficking Department of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana. "And many parents don't know the value of education; for them, it's more immediately valuable for their children to learn how to fish."
Child labour and even trafficking is deeply ingrained in the fishing industry in Ghana. Through conversations with child traffickers, it becomes clear that many of them simply do not realize that it is wrong for children to be away from their parents, not attending school and performing hard physical work for long hours.
For example, Benjamin Tornye, a fisherman for 15 years, used to visit parents and ask them if their children could help him with his work. As he said, "children are good fishers." He would teach them how to use the boat, swim and dive, and he believed he was doing the right thing.
However, a few years ago, an IOM intervention made Tornye and other traffickers realize that children should not be made to work like adults. "We have understood that it is wrong, and that kids should be with their parents and in school," Tornye says. Now, he is working as a community coordinator for APPLE, taking great pride in his work to stop child trafficking in Ghana.
Emmanuel Agyapong also works with APPLE, educating both traffickers and parents about the perils of child trafficking. He says that reducing its incidence is a process that requires patience.
"We need to build trust, to win the parents' hearts and souls," he says. "If they open up to us, we can make them understand. Therefore, we don't use legal arguments, as that frightens them."
The legal framework on trafficking in Ghana was strengthened in December 2005, when the Government passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, with assistance from a variety of international organizations. And while Ghana has not ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, there is optimism that it will be ratified in the near future.
"We are definitely going to ratify the UN Convention," says Marilyn Amponsah, Director of the International Children's Desk for the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. "We have participated in ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) regional cooperation for many years, and we are now ready for the UN."
However, Amponsah stresses that the Ghanaian Government will need external assistance to be able to effectively implement the Convention. The international community could, for example, help build local capacity on human trafficking-related topics, finance micro-credit schemes to prevent and combat human trafficking, and provide the equipment necessary to perform day-to-day administrative tasks.
In fact, IOM has provided micro-credit assistance to some of the traffickers who have released children as well as to the parents and guardians of the children under its programme. However, there have been certain conditions attached to the provision of these loans, such as the development of a viable business plan and timely attendance at meetings.
"While there is a need for a certain grace period to establish their business," Rispoli says, "we don't want to be seen as Father Christmas. This way, we're not encouraging dependency."
Currently, IOM and APPLE both rescue children from trafficking situations and bring them back to their families. Rescued children are first taken to a government-run shelter for up to three months before they are reunited with their parents. At the shelter, they receive medical checks and treatment, psychological counselling and basic education, preparing them to attend school back home. However, insufficient resources limit what this institution can do.
"Our biggest challenge is lack of transportation," says Sharon Abbey, the shelter's Principal. "And we can't offer the children as much counselling as we would like. Their experiences can make them a bit difficult to deal with, but we would like to teach them responsible behaviour."
Having learned about the complexity of the child trafficking situation in Ghana, Julia Ormond says that in spite of the problems and the horrendous conditions facing many children, she is encouraged by the efforts and the commitment to fight child trafficking she has witnessed during her stay.
"I am touched by the work done by people on the ground here," she says. "It's effective! The villagers are responding (to the sensitization), as are the traffickers and children - it's fabulous to see!"

Child trafficking in Ghana

Human trafficking is an international problem affecting millions of people and many countries around the world. In Ghana, West Africa, the internal trafficking of children is one of the biggest challenges.

Many Ghanaian children are trafficked from their home villages to work in the fishing industry. Living in meagre conditions and working long hours every day, these kids are exploited by fishermen desperate to feed their families and eke out a living along the banks of Lake Volta.
Created by the construction of the Akosombo dam in the early 1960s, Lake Volta is one of the world's largest artificial lakes. A number of fishermen who have depended on the bounties of the lake for many years report that fish stocks are decreasing, making it difficult to survive off fishing alone. Other work is scarce in a country where unemployment is widespread and approximately 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.
The depletion of stocks is one of the key reasons why children are needed as workers in the fishing industry. In addition to being cheap labour, their small, nimble fingers are useful in releasing the fish from the ever smaller nets.
"The Government should ban the use of nets with tiny holes," says Jack Dawson, Executive Director of APPLE, a local NGO that works in several fishing villages. "Doing so would allow fish stocks to improve and discourage the use of kids because there would be no need for such small hands."
Another task that trafficked children frequently perform is diving to disentangle the fish nets from the numerous tree stumps that are scattered throughout the lake. As nets are often dragged along the bottom of the lake, they tend to get stuck. Diving is a dangerous job that can have dire consequences for the children, from catching water-based diseases such as bilharzia and guinea worm to death from drowning.
On mission to Ghana, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Julia Ormond, who focuses on human trafficking, visited a number of villages. Accompanied by a local team, Ormond spoke to child traffickers, trafficking victims and their parents, and people working to combat this crime.
When visiting the fishing villages, Ormond observed several boats and their crews. She recalls that spotting victims of trafficking was relatively easy as their demeanour differed from that of children still living with their parents. Whereas kids tend to be playful and seek the attention of visitors, particularly those who have cameras, trafficked children are generally more reserved.
"There was this young boy who came off the lake," she says, "he simply froze when he saw us! Carrying his paddles, his jeans falling off him; he wanted the attention of the camera, and gave a little smile, but it was so diffident, so broken."
The driving forces behind child trafficking extend beyond fish scarcity. Deep-rooted traditions can also help explain the prevalence of this crime. For example, it is common in Ghana for children to participate in apprentice work with a relative or family friend. Many kids, and their parents, believe that going away to work is a route to a better life.
"Child trafficking is actually a distortion of the old cultural practice of placement with relatives or townspeople," says Joe Rispoli, Head of the Counter-Trafficking Department of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana. "And many parents don't know the value of education; for them, it's more immediately valuable for their children to learn how to fish."
Child labour and even trafficking is deeply ingrained in the fishing industry in Ghana. Through conversations with child traffickers, it becomes clear that many of them simply do not realize that it is wrong for children to be away from their parents, not attending school and performing hard physical work for long hours.
For example, Benjamin Tornye, a fisherman for 15 years, used to visit parents and ask them if their children could help him with his work. As he said, "children are good fishers." He would teach them how to use the boat, swim and dive, and he believed he was doing the right thing.
However, a few years ago, an IOM intervention made Tornye and other traffickers realize that children should not be made to work like adults. "We have understood that it is wrong, and that kids should be with their parents and in school," Tornye says. Now, he is working as a community coordinator for APPLE, taking great pride in his work to stop child trafficking in Ghana.
Emmanuel Agyapong also works with APPLE, educating both traffickers and parents about the perils of child trafficking. He says that reducing its incidence is a process that requires patience.
"We need to build trust, to win the parents' hearts and souls," he says. "If they open up to us, we can make them understand. Therefore, we don't use legal arguments, as that frightens them."
The legal framework on trafficking in Ghana was strengthened in December 2005, when the Government passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, with assistance from a variety of international organizations. And while Ghana has not ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, there is optimism that it will be ratified in the near future.
"We are definitely going to ratify the UN Convention," says Marilyn Amponsah, Director of the International Children's Desk for the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. "We have participated in ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) regional cooperation for many years, and we are now ready for the UN."
However, Amponsah stresses that the Ghanaian Government will need external assistance to be able to effectively implement the Convention. The international community could, for example, help build local capacity on human trafficking-related topics, finance micro-credit schemes to prevent and combat human trafficking, and provide the equipment necessary to perform day-to-day administrative tasks.
In fact, IOM has provided micro-credit assistance to some of the traffickers who have released children as well as to the parents and guardians of the children under its programme. However, there have been certain conditions attached to the provision of these loans, such as the development of a viable business plan and timely attendance at meetings.
"While there is a need for a certain grace period to establish their business," Rispoli says, "we don't want to be seen as Father Christmas. This way, we're not encouraging dependency."
Currently, IOM and APPLE both rescue children from trafficking situations and bring them back to their families. Rescued children are first taken to a government-run shelter for up to three months before they are reunited with their parents. At the shelter, they receive medical checks and treatment, psychological counselling and basic education, preparing them to attend school back home. However, insufficient resources limit what this institution can do.
"Our biggest challenge is lack of transportation," says Sharon Abbey, the shelter's Principal. "And we can't offer the children as much counselling as we would like. Their experiences can make them a bit difficult to deal with, but we would like to teach them responsible behaviour."
Having learned about the complexity of the child trafficking situation in Ghana, Julia Ormond says that in spite of the problems and the horrendous conditions facing many children, she is encouraged by the efforts and the commitment to fight child trafficking she has witnessed during her stay.
"I am touched by the work done by people on the ground here," she says. "It's effective! The villagers are responding (to the sensitization), as are the traffickers and children - it's fabulous to see!"

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Classes and Castes. Ghana's stratification system follows both precolonial and modern patterns. Most traditional kingdoms were divided into three hereditary classes: royals, commoners, and slaves. The royals maintained exclusive rights to fill the central offices of king and, for Akan groups, queen mother. Incumbents acquired political and economic privileges, based on state control over foreign trade. Unlike European nobilities, however, special status was given only to office-holders and not their extended families, and no special monopoly over land

A busy street in Kumasi. Ghana's urban centers are dominated by European-style buildings, a reminder of its British colonizers.

was present. Moreover, royals regularly married commoners, a consequence of a rule of lineage out-marriage. Freemen held a wide variety of rights, including unhampered control over farm land and control over subordinate political positions. Slavery occurred mainly as domestic bondage, in which a slave could command some rights, including the ability to marry a nonslave and acquire property. Slaves were also used by the state for menial work such as porterage and mining.

Slavery is no longer significant. Traditional royalties are still recognized but have been superseded by Westernized elites. Contemporary stratification is based on education and, to a lesser degree, wealth, both of which have led to significant social mobility since independence. Marked wealth differences have also emerged, but have been moderated by extended family support obligations and the communal rights that most Ghanaians hold in land. Northerners, however, form a noticeable underclass, occupying low status jobs. Bukinabe and Togolese are especially disadvantaged because, as foreigners, they cannot acquire land.

Symbols of Social Stratification. In traditional practice, kings and other hereditary officials marked their status through the use of regalia, such as umbrellas and staves, and the exclusive right to wear expensive clothing, such as kente cloth, and to consume and distribute special imported goods. In modern times, expenditure on Western consumer items has become the dominant status marker. Clothing, both expensive Western and traditional items, is an important symbol of education and wealth. Luxury cars are also significant—a Mercedes-Benz is the most dominant marker of high rank. Status must also be demonstrated in public display, especially in lavish funerals that acclaim both the deceased and their descendants.


—BRIAN SCHWIMMER

Drug addiction and its effects on the family

Drug addiction  among the   youth of Ghana  is visible in almost every part of the country. The problem is that many Ghanaians, that is, the addicts and non-addicts, are refusing to accept that drug addiction is gradually taking over the leisure time of many people in Ghana.

With a visit to the beach, night clubs, beer bars, and parties in various parts of the country, one can easily conclude that drug addiction is on the rise. Going through the various courts of the country, one will be surprised to note that about 40% of criminal offences are on the use or possession of drugs, especially marijuana.

Many of the youth have ended up spending part of their lives in prison due to the use or possession of drugs. As the addict sees himself or herself as always being right, they go to jail and perfect their addiction in drugs.

Drug addiction is adversely affecting the prospects of the youth in the country, especially, in the case of boys. Many junior high and senior schools in the country have become a place of initiation to drug addiction for the youth. Drug addiction in Ghana is always said to have great effect on the country and its future, but its effect on the family is rarely spoken about or thought of.

Imagine sending your intelligent ward to a boarding school to study to become a great person in future for you to become proud of, and all of a sudden after four months, comes home looking out of place. He looks unhealthy, lacks focus, is visionless and begins acting almost the opposite of what you taught of him, or how you brought him up to be. Sadness, grief and disappointment will be the first emotion, even though the reason behind his or her attitude would have not yet been figured out.

Families and drug addicts

In the early part of this month, at an Accra circuit court, a man, who seemed to in his late twenties, was convicted to five years in prison for using one wrapper of marijuana. When he was convicted and asked if he had anything to say about his charge of using a narcotic drug, he said, “marijuana has been my daily bread for quite a long time now. I cannot live without it. And in fact, I use it every day.”

For many addicts, it is impossible to free themselves from the bondage of drugs, since their level of addiction has taken over the better part of them for many years. In the case of this man who was convicted to five years in jail, he said he had no family to be with him in court, and from the look of things, his family might not even be aware that he has been convicted, since they don’t even know his whereabouts.

Many families, due to the level of stigmatisation by society, tend to alienate themselves from their relations when they realise they have become drug addicts. When the addict has no job or has been fired from his job because of his addiction, he tends to rely solely on the family for his livelihood.

Unfortunately, as time goes on, the family gets tired of fending him due to the addict’s frequent spending of money on drugs.

The members of the family then decide to wash their hands off him, which gradually leads him to the streets. He either joins a gang of drug users to enable him get the drug for free, or engage in crime to cater for his addiction.

Many families in Ghana tend to shun the addict, while some are disowned, since the family does not want to bear any kind of disgrace from society. It is even assumed that the probability of someone in the family losing his or her suitor is high, since drug addiction is considered to be inherent, and that it runs through a family.

For the caring families who never give up, they never stop seeking help for their wards, as some goes to the extent of losing most of their possessions and money just to get a cure. In Ghana, many so-called pastors have taken advantage of the situation, and succeeded in convincing many families that drug addiction is a demonic attack, which can only be solved by special spiritual prayers and fasting.

They go ahead and charge these families huge amounts of money to solve the situation, which in the long run, sometimes worsens. Some attempt herbal medicines, while others try their luck on spiritualists.

Effect of drug addicts on the family

Having a drug addict in the family in a way does not make it a happy one, especially, in the case of a husband or a father. The husband or father is the head of every household, and imagine the father who the family looks up to, and even see as a role model, engaging into drugs. As an addict, he sees his actions to be always right and never considers corrections or suggestions.

He becomes the total decision maker of the family, and as time goes on, friction in the form of rebellion begins to develop between him and the family, especially his wife. Domestic abuse then begins to set in. Apart from alcohol, many incidents of domestic abuse are caused by drug addiction, as when the family rebels against the authority of the man, he feels humiliated, disrespected and disobeyed, and to him, the best way to solve it is to teach them a lesson by physically or verbally abusing them.

Drug addiction is sometimes the cause of broken homes. Imagine your husband being labeled as a drug addict by society. Imagine the humiliation you get from your friends, especially, when you have been brutally been beaten up by your husband. The marriage eventually lands on the rocks.

If the children are not careful, since they see the father as a role model, they might end up being addicts like him. Not long ago, this reporter had a chat with an old man who seems to be in his late 60s about the use of marijuana.

According to him, he had been using it almost all his life, and that some of his children are addicts. He even said they had a ghetto in the bush where almost all the drug addicts in the neighborhood meet there to smoke marijuana.

Conclusion

Drug addiction is gradually destroying the homes of many people in the country. It is unfortunate that the country does not have enough rehabilitation centers for addicts like in the developed world. Many addicts end up in jail as a form of correcting their mistakes, but end up getting worse.

If addicts are given attention and well catered for through rehabilitation, then it won’t be necessary to choke the various prisons in the country with drug users who come out worse than before.

Being a drug addict does not make the ability of the individual redundant; helping that fellow to overcome his or her addiction will go a long way in saving many lives.

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