Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Monday, July 30, 2012

How may I kick the bucket?

Execution methods are becoming more humane over time, but can the same be said for the criminals?

Rulers, and the governments after them, have used various methods to punish the condemned – crucifixion, poisoning, burying/burning alive, beheading, throwing them to hungry predators or in front of firing squads and so on. Methods have become more civilized over the years. Yet, there are instances of laws in certain countries that advocate public stoning to death (as practised in Iran), using chemical weapons to annihilate several hundreds (as Saddam Hussein did to Kurds in 1988), or starving the accused to death (principal means of handing out death sentences in North Korea)!

These methods are ghastly indeed, but they are thankfully aberrations! The most common roster of executions reads beheading, hanging, gas chamber, electrocution, lethal injection and shooting in recent history. Saudi Arabia has a dubious distinction of being one of the very few countries that still practise beheading. Between 2007 and 2010, as many as 345 people have been beheaded in that country. Hanging is prevalent in most countries. India, where as per Amnesty International, 33 people were sentenced to death in 2001, 23 in 2002, 77 in 2005, 40 in 2006 and 100 in 2007; belongs to this category. Shooting squads are deployed by a number of countries with 58 cases in 2010 – 18 executions in Libya, 5 in North Korea, 4 in Equatorial Guinea, 1 in US and Bahrain et al. Gas chambers and electric chairs are mostly practiced in US. As per the Death Penalty Information Centre, 157 electrocutions and 11 gas chamber executions were reported since 1976. Lethal injection has been pioneered by US (as the most ‘peaceful’ method of execution) with 1090 deaths since 1976; this method has now been adopted by China, Thailand & Vietnam.


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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Food Prices Up; R&D Down

Dwindling Focus on R&D Investment in Agriculture Spells Disaster!

The advent of 20th century saw a sharp positive shift in the trajectory of global poverty alleviation by the means of enhanced agricultural production aided by R&D which lifted millions out of abject poverty. But R&D investment in agriculture has not been witnessing very positive signs.

As per a book titled ‘Developing World: Too little too late?’, from the period 1981 to 2000, worldwide R&D investment in agriculture increased by 51% (from $15.2 billion to $23 billion). Out of this, the contribution of rich countries was $12.8 billion in 2000 – two third of which came from just 4 countries – US, Japan, Germany and France. However, R&D spending in agriculture is negligible when compared to other industries even beyond 2000. In 2005, the European Commission data confirmed that, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology ($97 billion in R&D), technology hardware and equipment ($101 billion), automobiles and parts ($92 billion) and software and computer services ($35 billion) grossed more in R&D investments than agriculture, which rose by 2.3% in the last decade – pharma and biotech grew at 8.3%, technology hardware & equipment at 7.2% and software grew at 9.2% in just one year; 2005.

FAO’s biannual outlook mentions, “In international food trade, the global food import bill is expected to reach a new record of $1.29 trillion in 2011 – 21 percent more than in 2010. Low-Income Food Deficit Countries and Least Developed Countries would be hardest-hit since they would likely have to spend respectively 27 and 30 percent more on food imports than last year.World Bank estimates there was just 1.46% growth in agriculture during 2008-2009 in low income countries. Global food price index was estimated to have been around 36% higher yoy in March 2011, which has ensured that 44 million people moved back below the poverty line.


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