South Asia Citizens Web

The Ottawa Citizen, October 27, 2008
Canada’s Asbestos Time Bomb Part 3
This week in Rome, 126 countries will debate whether chrysotile asbestos should be added to a ’watchlist’ of dangerous chemicals. Canada, which exports 95 per cent of the chrysotile asbestos it mines, has vetoed the addition in the past, arguing the material can be used safely. Critics at home and abroad call Canada’s position "self-serving." In a four-part series on the eve of the Rome talks, Katie Daubs examines (…)

October 24, 2008
Press Release
Progressive members of the Nepali community in the Americas, particularly in North America, have created an organization - the Progressive Nepali Forum in the Americas (PNEFA) - with the objective of contributing to the movement for social justice in Nepal and abroad. The organization responds to the increasing Nepali diasporic population in this part of the world.
PNEFA seeks to promote sense of social responsibility among Nepali Diaspora by providing (…)

The News, 13 October 2008
A significant event passed by relatively unnoticed last week when media reported that traders on Lahore’s Hall Road deliberately set alight thousands of pornographic VCDs and DVDs. The Anjuman-e-Tajiran had resolved to weed out the “objectionable” media after vendors in the area reported receiving anonymous letters and phone calls threatening them of dire consequences if the sale of such “obscene” material continued.
The event was widely reported, but the (…)

The Morning Leader, October 22, 2008 As the importance of peace, reconciliation and national unity in Sri Lanka grows in salience and Tamil Nadu as well as New Delhi agitate on the one hand and voice their serious concerns on the other in respect of these overarching issues, representatives of the ruling regime seem more determined than ever to go on the offensive in more ways than one.
This columnist, amongst others, has addressed the remarks of the Army Commander on the history and (…)

24 October, 2008
We, the citizens of Maharashtra protest against the planned and instigated violence against north Indians in Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. Neither Mr. Raj Thackrey nor the MNS have actually done any good to the ordinary Maharashtrian Bahujans on whose behalf he is advocating. The major issues of the State and its toilling masses like that of the agrarian crisis, land and homelessness, displacement due to SEZ and other development based projects or mill workers in Mumbai have (…)