Pakistan Information & News

Many of the nation’s estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers are turning to their parents or other adults for free alcohol.

A government survey of teens from 2002 to 2006 said slightly more than half had engaged in underage drinking.

Asked about the source of alcohol, 40 percent they got it from an adult for free over the past month, the survey said. Of those, about one in four said they got it from an unrelated adult, one in 16 got it from a parent or guardian and one in 12 got it from another adult family member.

Roughly 4 percent reported taking the alcohol from their own home it means the habit starts either from parents or elder siblings.

“In far too many instances parents directly enable their children’s underage drinking — in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being,” said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. “Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem — but it is a critical part.”

The nationwide study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, being released Thursday, tracks the social contexts involved in underage drinking, a problem leading to thousands of alcohol-related traffic deaths and injuries each year.

About one out of five of those aged 12 to 20 — or roughly 7.2 million people — said they had taken part in binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month, the survey said. Rates were significantly higher if they lived with a parent who engaged in binge drinking.

The study, which uses data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, is based on a scientific random sample of 158,000 people aged 12 to 20 in the United States. Among the other findings:

–Over half of current underage alcohol users were at someone else’s home when they had their last drink, while 30.3 percent were in their own home. About 9.4 percent were at a restaurant, bar or club.

–About 3.5 million teens aged 12 to 20 each year meet the diagnostic criteria for having an alcohol use disorder, such as dependence or abuse.

–Among younger teens, slightly more girls reported drinking than boys did. In the middle teens, they drank at roughly the same rate. Among 18 to 20-year-olds, boys outpaced the girls.

–Rates of underage drinking and binge drinking were slightly higher at the opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

–Rates of current and binge alcohol use among 12 to 20 year olds were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.

–Rates of alcohol use disorder among those aged 12 to 20 was higher for American Indians or Alaska Natives (14.9 percent) than for whites (10.9 percent), blacks (4.6 percent), Hispanics (8.7 percent) and Asians (4.9 percent).

“This report provides unprecedented insight into the social context of this public health problem and shows that it cuts across many different parts of our community,” said Terry Cline, administrator of SAMHSA. “Its findings strongly indicate that parents and other adults can play an important role in helping influence — for better or for worse — young people’s behavior with regard to underage drinking.”

Source Mail.com

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Miss China won Miss World 2007 in Sanya, China, yesterday, much to the delight of a partisan audience. Miss Angola came second and Miss Mexico third at the beauty pageant, held on the southern holiday island of Hainan.

At Sanya a tourist resort boasting palm trees that overshadow sugar-white beaches has been eked out and largely separated from the more traditional and less affluent urban areas where the local population lives.

Two billion people in 200 countries were expected to tune in to watch the show, which saw Miss China take the crown ahead of 106 of the world’s most beautiful and talented women. The 57th edition of the contest was held on World AIDS Day as organisers wanted the annual showcase of gloss and glitz, seen by critics as a sexist throwback, to help increase awareness of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Hometown fans were cheering on Miss China — Zhang Zi Lin, a 23-year-old secretary from Beijing — hoping she could live up to her billing as one of the pre-contest favourites and bring home the crown and she sure did. But Ada Aimee De La Cruz of the Dominican Republic was also hotly tipped by British bookmakers as the biggest threat among the 106 contestants. To underline their commitment to AIDS awareness, organisers had invited former South African president Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter Maki to serve on the panel of judges.

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Just three weeks ago the Nari Jibon center in Dhaka, Bangladesh was announced as one of five recipients of the first round of Rising Voices outreach grants. The grants, which provide small amounts of funding to groups and individuals who spread citizen media to communities not represented online, will in this case help Nari Jibon integrate blogging into its Bangla, English, and computer classes.
Nari Jibon was founded in Dhaka by Professor of Sociology Kathryn Ward in 2005. The project provides literacy courses and on-the-job training for young Bangladeshi women so that they can empower themselves and find jobs in sectors other than domestic labor and the garment industry.
Already, the young women at Nari Jibon are using the tools of citizen media to document the world around them. They have started two blogs: in English, Bangladesh from our View and in Bangla, Our Stories. You will find a review of Bangladeshi cinema, a portrait of the life of a rickshaw driver, and, most recently, the story of a lower-middle-class girl who is now a sex worker.
Understanding, Caring, and Staying Involved
Let me be frank. You cannot visit these blogs and expect the New Yorker or any other top-rate publication. This isn’t media consumption, this is direct communication.
So why should we care? Why should we invest the time to understand more about their lives? to compare their lives with our own? to initiate dialogue?
I can only attempt an answer with another question: why should we care about anyone? Why do we communicate with anyone? Why do we follow the lives of celebrities and our neighbors? And why can’t we choose to make young women in Dhaka our neighbors as well?
Understanding Bangladesh
At Global Voices we do an amazing job building bridges between blogging communities that tend to form around a shared region or language or even political viewpoint. But we don’t always offer the background information and context so that an outsider can understand and take part in those conversations. That was the goal of this podcast: to tell the story of Bangladesh, how it gained its independence, how the lives of women have changed over the past several decades, and how blogging can play an instrumental role in empowering the voices of Bangladeshi women. We also get to know the voices of those bloggers who keep us informed about Bangladesh here on Global Voices. They are:

Rezwan Islam, Global Voices’ Bangladesh contributor
Ahmad Tariq Karim, former Bangladesh ambassador to the US
Shafiur Rahman, documentary filmmaker of Bostribolikara and blogger at Imperfect World
Ferdouse Oneza, blogger at Adhunika
Kathryn Ward, Founder of Nari Jibon

Mentioned links and relevant posts:

Photo gallery of Nari Jibon’s current students
Photo gallery of Nari Jibon’s cyber cafe
Rezwan’s review of Nari Jibon’s outreach program
Rezwan on the Concert for Bangladesh
Documents related to Bangladesh and collected by Shafiur Rahman
5 minute clip of Shafiur Rahman’s documentary Bostrobalikara: Garment Girls of Bangladesh
Review of first ever Bangladeshi bloggers meetup in February, 2006
“Eve teasing” on Wikipedia
“Where Women Enjoy More Freedom, East or West?” by Ferdouse Oneza on Adhunika Blog
Video montage of Adhunika’s IT [...]

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