Thursday, May 29, 2008

Poverty Facts by Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli was taken off guard to see these disbelieving yet unfortunately true facts!

Do You Know?

1. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.

2. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”

3. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

5. 4. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

6. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

7. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.

More facts to follow on Navtej Kohli Blog. Keep checking back!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Brangelina buy 35 million pounds house - Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli has an interesting news for all Brangelina fans.

Hollywood star couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie has bought a house on the French Riviera worth a whopping 35 million pounds to cater for their expanding brood.

The sprawling chateau comes complete with it's own vineyard, moat, lake and forest.

“It’s incredible – the drive is three miles long,” the Sun quoted a source as, saying.

The couple will be welcoming their twins into the world on August 19 this year, and they always wanted to have them in France, the native place of the actress’ beloved late mother.

The new additions will take the number of kids in Brangelina’s brood to 6.

The couple are already parents to two boys – Maddox and Pax, and two girls – Zahara and Shiloh.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Polar bears gets the much awaited justice - Navtej Kohli report

Navtej Kohli is happy with the court's decision of announcing POLAR BEARS as federally Threatened species.

Here he shares the report:

Following a three-year legal battle to protect the polar bear from extinction due to global warming, three environmental groups won protection for the species with the announcement today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the polar bear as a federally “threatened” species.

The decision was issued in response to a 2005 scientific petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and was required by a court order in a lawsuit brought by the groups to end the administration's delay in issuing a final Endangered Species Act listing decision.

While the polar bear listing is one of the administration's clearest acknowledgments to date of the urgent threat posed by global warming, the administration is simultaneously attempting to reduce the protections the bear will receive under the Act. It claims in the listing decision that federal agencies need not consider the impact of global warming pollution on the polar bear; it has also proposed a separate regulation reducing the protections the polar bear would otherwise receive.

This decision is a watershed event because it has forced the Bush administration to acknowledge global warming's brutal impacts,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the 2005 petition. “It’s not too late to save the polar bear, and we'll keep fighting to ensure that the polar bear gets the help it needs through the full protections of the Endangered Species Act. The administration's attempts to reduce protection to the polar bear from greenhouse gas emissions are illegal and won't hold up in court.”

Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice for all their essential needs. Global warming is an overwhelming threat to the polar bear, which is already suffering starvation, drowning, and population declines as the sea ice melts away.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Famine fears for seven million Ethiopian children - Navtej Kohli Blog

A CNN report on Navtej Kohli blog:

A year of drought and soaring food prices has threatened the lives of tens of thousands of Ethiopian children.

"We have nothing to feed our children," said Egu's village elder. "We are losing our children day by day."

Ethiopia's Health Ministry, along with UNICEF, monitors the health of thousands of children here, but the number of areas they have been able to regularly visit has been cut in half this year.

Due to scanty rainfall Ethiopian farmers could not plant second crop this year, Which has exacerbated already critical food shortage.

"It's an open crisis, and there are more people than we expected who need additional food," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of UNICEF Ethiopia.

There is a crucial shortfall in the supply of therapeutic foods used to treat children with severe acute malnutrition, the UNICEF official said.

The UN's children's agency is appealing for $10 million to pay for emergency needs of more than 7 million children under 5 as well as pregnant and nursing mothers in 325 drought-affected districts.

The World Food Programme supplies the emergency food for UNICEF, but rising food prices mean it could not guarantee aid for all the areas in need.

"Unless you get immediate assistance the risk is, you fall into severe malnutrition and eventually death, so unless our supporters come in immediately for this, we fear that is what is going to happen in the country," said Jakob Mikkelse, the program's nutrition and education chief.

Egu is a village UNICEF is no longer able to visit on a regular basis.

"If we were not here, those children who we had found now with severe acute malnutrition would have died at home," UNICEF Emergency Nutrition Project Officer Samson Dessie said.

UNICEF estimates that 6 million Ethiopian children under the age of 5 are at risk and that more than 120,000 have only about a month to live.

As the relief workers depart Egu, they leave behind a few emergency food packs and a promise to return.

The Ethiopian government has worked with UNICEF since 2004 on the Enhanced Outreach Strategy to provide food for child survival. The effort distributes child survival packages that include vitamin A supplementation, de-worming, measles catch-up, nutritional screening and referral to supplementary or therapeutic feeding programs.

"EOS is really very important from many perspectives with regard to child survival," Dessie said. "The first is it brings high-impact, low-cost child survival packages like vitamin A, which can reduce child mortality by up to 35 percent."

Friday, May 16, 2008

China's Earthquake may claim more than 50000 Lives



Navtej Kohli brings a terribly shocking report!

China's government has given warning that 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that has devastated large areas of Sichuan province.

So far, 19,509 people are known to have been killed – an increase of more than 4,000 on Wednesday's estimate of the disaster's human toll - and has directly affected 10 million people.

Survivors are still being pulled from the ruins of their homes and public buildings.

But time is running out in the search for survivors from the earthquake, which struck on Monday.
"Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Centre. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."

One of the surviver told that the start of the earthquake sounded like a train approaching.

So far, the full extent of the damage inflicted by the earthquake, which measured a magnitude of 7.9, has not been assessed.

The Disaster Relief Headquarters of China's State Council said the final death toll could exceed 50,000

The authorities said that another 30,000 troops will be deployed in Sichuan to reinforce the 50,000 already helping the relief operation. Although the chances of finding survivors are diminishing by the hour, the government vowed to continue the search.

"This is only a beginning of this battle, and a long way lies ahead of us," said Gao Qiang, the deputy health minister. "We will never give up hope. For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase a hundred fold. We will never give up."

Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, visited the wreckage of school in Sichuan where dozens of children died.

He thanked doctors and nurses for helping the injured and said: "The party and the government are grateful to you. The people need you. They see you as a relative."

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Congestion charge does not cut pollution - Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli shares an interesting story. Recently he came across the following report based on a study that shows congestion charge does not cut pollution.

A new study has shown that city centre congestion charges do nothing to cut pollution or better the quality of air.

Researchers from King's College, London have concluded that the capital's charge, which was introduced in 2003 affecting couriers working the capital, has made no difference to levels of smog in the city as extra buses and taxis are using the roads.

Professor Frank Kelly, environmental health expert at the institute and the study leader, said: "The problem was that the central zone was only one per cent of the Greater London area.

"Even though it reduced the traffic by 40,000 vehicles a day, there was a dramatic increase in the number of buses."

Kelly added that the introduction of the low emission zone (LEZ) could see improvements to the air, with people undertaking courier work and other large vehicle drivers having to pay between £100 and £200 to enter most of London if their vehicles do not meet pollution standards.

Meanwhile, in what could be good news for couriers, plans to introduce a £25-per-day congestion charge for high emission vehicles could be scrapped by new London mayor Boris Johnson who pledged to abandon the initiative in his manifesto.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Navtej Kohli on rising oil prices

Navtej Kohli shares his concern about the rising oil prices. Oil is not cheap anymore!

Oil prices have increased by almost 280% for the past five years, and the market has become increasingly seasonal and volatile. In 2007, for example, the commonly used benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, averaged close to $72 a barrel, and its range was between $50 and $100 a barrel.
Since the beginning of 2008, oil prices have set several records. And recently they hit another new level - crude-oil spot prices and oil futures reached nearly $120 a barrel. This latest spike in prices was due to the earlier minor disruptions in oil production - the Nigerian rebel group attacked oil pipelines in the region, and a Japanese oil tanker was struck off the coast of Yemen.
The recent increases in oil prices are due to a slowdown in oil-supply growth and the surging demand from developing countries, in particular China and India.
A falling US dollar has also pushed up the oil price, since oil is traded in the currency. Other factors include speculation on the oil futures market, increasing risk aversion and market uncertainty from the recent US credit crunch, and geopolitical threats in the Middle East.
However, the main concern remains consumers' purchasing power, and not so much the rising oil price itself. Increases in the price of oil are like a tax increase, affecting mostly low- to middle-income households. Economic growth depends on stronger consumer spending to keep the economy going. If consumers are made poorer (or feel poorer) by higher oil prices and cut back spending, growth forecasts may not be as good as predicted.
Going forward, WTI prices are projected by several research houses to average in the range of $90.50 to $101 a barrel in 2008 and $80 to $92.50 in 2009, provided that there is no further sharp dollar decline and severe geopolitical tensions. Although the oil market seems to be coming down, it will remain at a high level.
The era of cheap oil is over. A new paradigm of thinking about energy is, therefore, essential. We should not be too concerned about short-term fluctuations in oil prices, but focus more on medium- to long-term solutions. Conservation and efficient use of energy are perhaps the best policy choices at hand, but the government should also seriously explore alternative energy options and make decisions.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

How Did a Classified Ad Lead to the World's Most Popular Hobby?

A fun fact by Navtej Kohli

In 1841, the London Times carried a most unusual classified ad. It was placed by a young woman interested in wallpapering her bedroom walls. And she wanted to do it with postage stamps!
This young woman thus became the world's first philatelist, or stamp collector. The millions of philatelists the world over who followed her in stamp collecting, however, did not collect for the purpose of papering their bedroom walls.