Second-class citizens

The Economist

THERE WERE nearly 32,000 rapes reported in India in 2022, the latest year for which data are publicly available, according to the national crime records bureau. That number hugely understates how common sexual violence is in the country. Most incidents are never reported.Those that are rarely make the news.

Once in a while a particularly gruesome case leads to national outrage. So it went in 2012, when a 23-year-old student was gangraped on a bus in Delhi before being left for dead by the side of the road. She later died of her injuries. Or in 2020, when a 19year-old Dalit farmworker was gang-raped in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a group of upper-caste men from her village. She, too, died.

And so it has been over the past couple of weeks, following the rape and murder on August 9^th of a 31-year-old trainee doctor during her night shift in a hospital in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal.

Women across the country have taken to the streets demanding safety from violence and equality at work and in public life. Doctors have gone on strike for better working conditions.The outrage is important, says Vrinda Grover, a lawyer and activist: “It says this is wrong, and we as a society won’t condone this violence.”

Seeing Palestine ruin ‘more confronting’

Otago Daily Times

A FORMER Otago Daily Times videographer who went to Palestine says the destruction due to the war was even more confronting in person.Cole Yeoman said there were many things he was shocked by during his visit to the West Bank even after previously seeing tonnes of documented footage in the media.

‘‘It becomes a lot more personal because you’re seeing the people who are affected by it.‘‘It’s a lot more confronting because you can’t just switch off and tune out.’’ He recalled meeting Palestinian man Zachariah, whom he had earlier seen on social media being shot by an Israeli settler. When he met Zachariah, months after he was shot, Zachariah could barely pick up his children and was unable to travel long distances.

‘‘It becomes a lot more real because these stories aren’t isolated to 30­second clips you see on

social media.’’He also saw the man who shot Zachariah walking about scot­free and continuing to intimidate other Palestinians, Mr Yeoman said.

In another incident he and a Palestinian farmer, Hafez, tried to tell an Israeli settler to stop grazing his sheep on Hafez’s land and as a response about 20 Israeli soldiers with six military vehicles showed up in the settler’s defence.

‘‘If the Palestinians were to report every incident on their farm, they would never get any farming done.’’

Gold jewellery shoppers beat record prices with schemes

Khaleej Times,

Gold and jewellery shoppers in the UAE are leveraging various options — such as monthly saving schemes, loyalty and reward programmes, trading in old gold, flexible payment options and credit card offers — to offset the impact of record-high prices of the precious metal.

With the gold prices in Dubai staying above Dh300 per gram, gold jewellers in Dubai said the

demand for such programmes and schemes has increased as shoppers are adjusting future purchases of precious metal jewellery to beat high prices.The yellow metal prices reached an all-time high earlier this month, hitting $2,550 an ounce globally and Dh306.75 per gram in Dubai. The prices closed at $2,512.18 per ounce globally and Dh304.25 per gram in Dubai – trading above the key psychological barriers.

Analysts and gold jewellers expect further increase in prices in the coming days due to escalation in Middle East conflict and expectations around the US Federal Reserve decision to cut interest rates.

Anuraag Sinha, managing director of Liali Jewellery, said people are increasingly subscribing to monthly saving schemes and loyalty programmes to better manage their finances, mitigate the effects of gold price volatility, maximise the value of their purchases, and achieve their long-term goals.

“Loyalty programmes and saving schemes indeed provide significant advantages for shoppers looking to buy gold jewellery during periods of high prices. They offer ways to earn rewards, access discounts, and manage spending more effectively, which can help mitigate the financial impact of rising gold costs.

As a result, many people are increasingly turning to these programmes to cope with the financial challenges posed by record gold prices,” Sinha told Khaleej Times.