It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza, with the Palestinian Authority cut off from funds by Israel, the United States and the European Union after Hamas won the legislative elections on Jan. 25, says STEVEN ERLANGER in The New York Times.
“Since then, the authority has paid most of its 73,000 employees here, nearly 40 percent of Gaza’s work force, only 1.5 months’ salary, resulting in a severe economic depression and growing signs of malnutrition, especially among the poorest children.
“Gaza’s situation has worsened since Palestinian gunmen, including those from Hamas, killed two Israeli soldiers and captured a third on June 25. Israel reinvaded Gaza, and has since killed more than 240 Palestinians, many of them in gun battles.
“An Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s only electrical power plant means that most Gazans now get only 7 to 12 hours a day of electricity, at unpredictable hours, with running water largely dependent on electric pumps.
“Fishermen, now prevented from going more than a few hundred yards from shore by the Israeli Navy, are using hand-thrown nets from the beach to catch a few sprats and sardines.
“Jan Egeland, the United Nations under secretary for humanitarian affairs, said that Gaza was “a ticking time bomb.â€? The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development warned Tuesday that the economy could shrink next year to the level of 15 years ago, and unemployment could rise to over 50 percent. The World Bank expects gross domestic product to decline by 27 percent this year.
“The United Nations is now helping to feed 830,000 people in Gaza, an increase of 100,000 since March, but to receive the relief agency’s aid they have to be classified as refugees, who make up 70 percent of Gaza’s 1.4 million people. The increase is largely refugees who work for the government and did not need assistance before.
“The World Food Program helps to feed the poorest of the nonrefugees and now has 220,000 beneficiaries, an increase of 25 percent since March, which includes 136,000 people considered to be the ‘chronic poor,’ who are not getting previous welfare benefits from the Authority.
(An Israeli soldier giving water to a thirsty Palestinian child.)
” ‘We have a complete deterioration of the economic situation in Gaza,’ said Kirstie Campbell of the agency. ‘People can’t afford the basic things.’ Seventy percent of Gazans now depend on the United Nations for food aid.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.