MONTH THAT WAS

Dutch rent out prison cells

Dan Bilefsky: The Netherlands has a problem many countries can only dream of: A shortage of prison inmates.

While countries like Belgium, Britain, Haiti, Italy, the United States and Venezuela have grappled with prison overcrowding, the Netherlands has such a surplus of unused cells that it has rented some of its prisons to Belgium and Norway. It has also turned about a dozen former prisons into centers for asylum seekers.

About a third of Dutch prison cells sit empty, according to the Ministry of Justice. Criminologists attribute the situation to a spectacular fall in crime over the past two decades and an approach to law enforcement that prefers rehabilitation to incarceration. The relative lack of prisoners has spurred the Dutch to be creative.

At jails transformed into housing for asylum seekers, former cells for prisoners have been converted into apartments for families, albeit some with the original cell doors. At De Koepel, a former prison in Haarlem, refugees played soccer in a large interior courtyard that doubled as a soccer field.

At a time of austerity, the government has also been able to raise money by outsourcing empty prisons to countries with overpopulated detention facilities. Two years ago, Norway agreed to pay the Netherlands about 25 million euros per year for a three-year lease of Norgerhaven Prison, a high-security facility, where it sent 242 prisoners. Earlier, Belgium had sent about 500 prisoners across the border.

Professor Swaaningen also argued that in the digital age, an increasing number of 12- to 18-year-olds — the most high-risk age group for committing petty street crime — spent time hunched over their computers, taking them off the streets and potentially reducing levels of criminality.

Yet in the Netherlands, not everyone is rejoicing, including many of the roughly 2,600 prison guards who could lose their jobs in the next four years if more prisons close. Moreover, some law enforcement officials also say that the excess of vacant cells is a symptom of poor policing and the reporting of fewer crimes, rather than a reflection of Dutch crime-fighting prowess.

In France adultery= freedom of speech

PARIS: Dating site Gleeden can keep singing the praises of cheating, a French court ruled in throwing out a complaint from a federation of Catholic families that the site's business model is immoral and illegal because it encourages extramarital affairs.

A Paris civil court said that promoting infidelity in advertisements wasn't unlawful because adultery isn't a criminal offense in France and that cheating on one's spouse is a private matter.

"It is a victory of freedom of speech over religious bigotry," Caroline Mecary, the lawyer for Gleeden said. Gleeden caters to married women and men looking to date other married people. 

The French Catholic association had accused Gleeden of helping people commit adultery and break one of the obligations of marriage. The dating site was also seen by the group as promoting "anti-social behaviors" for business purposes.

Solar power tariff goes record low

NEW DELHI: Solar power tariffs in India have found a new floor at `2.97 per unit, sinking below the average cost of `3 for electricity supplied by state-run generation utility NTPC from its coal-fired plant.

The record low tariff was quoted by the Mumbai-based real estate developer, for the first unit of the 750 MW Rewa solar park in Madhya Pradesh, the bidding for which closed.

"India marches on towards realising the clean energy vision of Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi," power minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.

The quoted tariff is for the first year of the project, which has three units of 250 MW each. The project, however, envisages an annual escalation of 5 paise for 15 years and 33 paise is to be added for levelised tariff. Solar power tariffs have been falling in the last two years due to the Narendra Modi government's thrust on raising India's green energy footprint and reduce oil imports by 10% by 2030.

Pak female MLA threatens immolation

Karachi: A Pakistani woman lawmaker threatened to self-immolate in the Sindh assembly after a provincial minister passed sexist remarks, inviting her to his private chamber, an incident which highlighted the position of women in the country.

Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, who belongs to the Muslim League Functional party, created an uproar in the assembly after provincial minister for works and home, Imdad Patafi, misbehaved with her on the floor of the house. The furor over the issue finally came to an end when Abbasi ‘forgave’ Patafi in the name of ‘tradition’. In the incident which highlighted the position of women in Pakistan’s feudal community, Patafi invited Abbasi to visit his private chambers so that he could give a “satisfactory reply” to questions she had asked on the assembly floor.

Another lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party was also captured on camera making snide remarks about the female parliamentarian. The lawmaker’s behaviour caused a storm on the social media and on television channels and was seen as sexist and harassment of women. Patafi had to face the criticism even from PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sister Bakhtawar Zardari, who directed their lawmaker to apologise to Abbasi.

Abbasi came to the session with a bottle of petrol, threatening self-immolation unless Pitafi was sacked. To finally bury the hatchet, Patafi draped a traditional shawl over Abbasi’s head and apologised to her over his behaviour. But , Abbasi again complained to speaker Shehla Raza that she was not being allowed to speak her mind on a point of order. “I want to highlight the fact that in the Sindh assembly female lawmakers are not being given their due place and rights,” she said.

“What happened and the way I was treated it only highlighted our problems. I only accepted the apology because of the traditional shawl,” she said. Abbasi, who belongs to the opposition, said she would have carried out her threat of self immolation in front of the assembly if Bilawal and Bakhtawar had not intervened. “The media saw everything and they also saw Patafi’s remarks as sexual harassment. The deputy speaker was also not willing to listen to me,” she said. The incident caused widespread embarrassment to PPP which was headed by slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Abbasi said though the incident was over but the government needed to review further laws governing women’s rights and protection.

“Before me also there has been an incident in this assembly and also in the national assembly where sexist remarks were made by fellow lawmakers and they later apologised,” she said. Abbasi said the government needs to quickly enforce the laws as women face discrimination in Pakistan’s conservative society.

Technology Solutions for plastic waste and potholes

Mumbai: Transforming Mumbai’s major slum area, Dharavi was the central aim of the TEDx event which was hosted at Maharashtra Nature Park. The event organised by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) — a non profit organisation, witnessed speakers, entrepreneurs and social workers from various backgrounds who shared their experiences and ideas to improve the basic civic problems of the city.

Plastic waste is one of the key problems as it forms a major portion of the garbage collected from every household. Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a scientist also known as the plastic man of India, shared his invention to solve the issue of plastic waste by using plastic to construct roads. Vasudevan said, “Using plastic for constructing roads is a cost effective method. It makes the roads durable and prevents recurring potholes. In addition, it helps to treat the waste in an eco friendly way as over 75 percent of India’s population uses plastic and a tonne of waste is generated daily from every area.”

Over 20,000 kilometre (km) of plastic roads have been laid at Tamil Nadu using this technology while a 1.5 km road has been constructed at Prabhadevi in Dadar. Considering that Dharavi generates a major portion of the plastic waste, Vasudevan added, “The project of constructing plastic roads is being carried out in over 11 states of India. This method would help the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to prevent road damages due to heavy moving vehicles as these roads can manage a load of 2,500 kilograms and also resolve the potholes issue.”

Bhau Korde and Jockin Arputham, both social workers, expressed the need for an individual to take small steps to bring about change in the society. Civic issues like garbage collection and disposal, lack of infrastructure, roads, sewage, communal violence and women empowerment were highlighted.

Raghuveer Surupa, organiser of the event, told, “Dharavi is an area with large number of civic problems. Therefore, the whole idea of having the event here was to re-imagine what Dharavi can be in future and also to redefine the perception that people generally have towards this area.”

Lagori goes inter-state

Bhayandar:  The ancient and traditional lagori (earlier seven stones, now plastic tiles) sport is expected to get a boost in the twin-city as the fifth edition of the state level championship for juniors will be hosted in the Kashimira area of Mira Road. Organized by the Shiv Shakti Seva Mandal under the aegis of the Maharashtra Lagori Association, the two-day event will be held at the Adarsh Vidya Niketan School ground. 42 teams including 23 represented by boys and 19 girls team from 22 districts across the state will participate in the tournament. “With computer games gaining priority, our humble and traditional outdoor sports are on the verge of extinction. By launching this tournament here we aim to revive this sport.” said orgainser- Kesarinath Mhatre. A game officially recognized as sport in Maharashtra, Lagori is played by two teams of 12 members each.  A member of one team (the seekers) throws a soft ball at a pile of plastic tiles to knock them over. Then the seekers try to restore the pile of pile while the opposing team (the hitters) throws the ball at them. If the ball touches a seeker, he is out and his team continues without him. But a team member can always safeguard himself by touching the opposite team member before the ball hits him.

First female Arab pilot

Dubai: Shaikha Mozah Al Maktoum, one of the female members of Dubai’s ruling family, is claimed to have become the first woman commercial pilot.

A few members of the Al Maktoum family took to Instagram to congratulate the young achiever, expressing their pride and joy on her accomplishment. 

Shaikha Latifa posted on her Instagram account a photograph of her cousin Shaikha Mozah, which said in Arabic: “Mozah Marwan. My sister’s daughter. The first female pilot in the family, who is on her first assisted flight as a commercial pilot for Emirates. As long as you can dream it, you can achieve it,” the Gulf News reported.

Other members of the ruling family sent their congratulations on social media to the young royal pilot, with Shaikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum saying: “So proud of you cousin.”

Although the veracity of the airline -that she flies for- cannot be confirmed, but the uniform looks similar to the one worn by Emirates pilots.

Drug and Buddhist Monk

Myanmar: A Buddhist monk in Myanmar has been caught hiding more than 4m methamphetamine pills in his monastery, police said, following a record haul of stimulant seizures last year.

The monk, named Arsara, is in custody after police discovered hundreds of thousands of the tablets in his car as he was driving from Shwe Baho village in the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh. “First they found 400,000 drug pills” when they searched his vehicle, local police chief Kyaw Mya Win told. “The police then went to the monk’s monastery and found another 4.2 million pills.” Myanmar is one of the top narcotics-producing nations, manufacturing huge quantities of methamphetamines as well as opium and cannabis.

PIO pledges $1mn to pay off jailed expat debts

Dubai: An Indian businessman in the UAE has pledged $1 million (Dh3.6 million) to pay off the debts of expatriates who are jailed here, a newspaper reported. Firoz Merchant, who operates a number of gold jewellery shops here, recently visited the Ajman Central Jail to help secure the release of the first batch of 132 prisoners whose combined borrowings worth $40,837 (Dh150,000) were settled,  according to IANS