Rape became a capital offense in India after the 2012 gang-rape of a student in Delhi, yet India recently added another two high-profile cases of sexual violence to its infamous record. The rape of a recovering15-year-old rape victim at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital by a security guard demonstrates the lack of security Indian women face. Meanwhile, the refusal of onlookers in Bengaluru to help a 21-year-old Tanzanian woman, who was pulled from her car, stripped naked, and sexual assaulted, as she ran through the streets in search of safety reveals how cultures that disenfranchise others make the abuse and rape of individuals acceptable throughout the world.
Where much of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America still need to make violence against women a far greater priority, India has only begun to tackle the issues that North America and Europe continue to struggle with after decades of progress. Unfortunately, groups like the “Return of Kings” and their push to decriminalize rape on private property to allegedly fight rape by perversely encouraging woman to consider their actions resonates in many corners of the world. Consequently, the effort to combat rape starts with understanding the mentality of those who commit acts of sexual violence and those who protect them from the consequences of their actions.
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Asians scurry among giants on the verge of war.
Although world powers have largely been distracted by their crusades in the Middle East, and South America in the case of China and Russia, the rise of China as a global power with an increasingly aggressive foreign policy has set the stage for Asia to become the focus of a major global power struggle. Undertaking what it deems a “freedom of navigation patrol” through the Paracel Islands on January 30, the US Navy once again responded to China’s island-building efforts in the South China Sea. The ongoing South China Sea Crisis can either be the spark that ignites a major conflict or the catalyst that helps resolve long-standing territorial disputes. Despite Beijing’s sensitivity to US military activity in its backyard, the reality that the US vessel stayed 12 nautical miles away from the Chinese administered, yet disputed, Triton Island means the US did not directly challenge Chinese sovereignty or territorial claims. The Obama Administration does hope to assure America’s Asian partners that the US will help defend them against Chinese aggression, but the measured actions of the US Navy only discourage the closing of international waters. For that reason, the US and the Asian nations in conflict with China must directly address Beijing’s intentions or risk a standoff in the South China Sea escalating into an armed conflict. |
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April 2020
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