Issue No.
13381
THE IRISH TIMES
Women’s Day
...all too many, women included, choose to assume the battles of the past are won, rights assured. The EU on [March 5] reported a pay gap (gross hourly earnings) between men and women that ranged from 4 to 30 percent from Italy to Estonia. Ireland is close to the union-wide average at 17 percent. That gap has barely fallen over the last 15 years - in some countries it is even increasing and, not surprisingly 82 percent of Europeans told Eurobarometer they think that urgent action should be taken to tackle the gap. Today we should reflect on such realities.
CHINA DAILY
Centennial of Women’s Day
We Chinese are justly proud of the progress that has been made in the People’s Republic. Where once women’s feet were bound, we like to say, women now hold up half the sky. Yet even here, progress is relative. The prejudice in favour of boys remains alarming. Although nearly as many women as men graduate from college, women often must outperform their classmates to get a job. At the other end of the spectrum, the first generation of modern Chinese professional women is being pushed into early retirement. By legal decree, professional women are required to retire five years before men. In the prime of their working lives, many are passed over for promotion because they are “nearing retirement”, to the too-evident pleasure of their men counterparts. In China and much of the developed world, the heavy lifting has been done. The sustained effort necessary to assure true gender equality lies ahead.
THE TIMES OF INDIA
Rape ruckus
On the eve of International Women’s Day, [the] Chief Justice of India [CJI] ... came up with a strange suggestion. Addressing a meet on justice for rape victims, the CJI said that “due regard” must be given to the wishes of a rape victim if she wants to marry the rapist or give birth to a child conceived following the crime ... The courts or the state shouldn’t have any say on the course of action that a rape victim intends to take. It is paternalism - something that the CJI has accused activists and lawyers of - to decide on behalf of rape victims. What should be of utmost importance for law-enforcing agencies is to ensure that rapists are convicted and handed the maximum possible punishment. At present, rape figures in India tell a sorry story. According to some statistics, only one in 69 rapes is reported, and out of these the conviction rate is a pathetic 20 per cent.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Germany’s tug-of-war with Greece
Germany is now run by a generation with no personal memories of the war. Germany’s historical debate is now focused on the fate of Germans who suffered from wartime bombing and postwar deportation, not on the fate of Germany’s victims — in Greece or anywhere else. Sooner or later, Germans will collectively decide that enough sacrifices have been made and that the debt to Europe has been paid. Thanks to the ungrateful Greeks, with their island villas and large pensions, that day may arrive more quickly than we originally thought.
THE MOSCOW TIMES
Mr Nyet
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had parity with the United States as a superpower and was able to project its power all over the world. Now Moscow has trouble projecting its power even in the Commonwealth of Independent States. But one way it can still project its strength globally - and particularly vis-a-vis the United States - is to be the spoiler in international affairs, a modern-day version of “Mr Nyet”. Missile defence has become a great excuse for Russia to say “Nyet!” at every opportunity. The paradox is that while Russia disingenuously claims that US missile defence undermines its security, it is precisely the absence of a nationwide missile defence system in Russia that undermines its security.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Turkey and the army
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan needs to curb his own autocratic tendencies and push for replacing the military-imposed constitution with one that enshrines rights for Kurds and other minorities, religious and press freedoms, a commitment to secular rule and a law-based judiciary. And Turkey’s military leaders need to continue exercising restraint.
THE GUARDIAN
Iraq: Slogging towards stability
In Washington hopes are rising for a final exit from the quagmire George Bush created. Vice-President Joe Biden has spun a clever line about how “politics have broken out” in Iraq. The truth is that in Iraq politics and violence go together. There are grounds for qualified optimism but there is no certainty that those politics will become more important and more effective in allowing this fractured country to slog on towards the stability it deserves.
ATHENS NEWS 06/09/2010, page: 17
