Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Addiction versus De-addiction

5 comments
-Gyati Tado (Tadu)
President, Union of Apatani Educated Unemployed Youth (UAEUY)

Alcoholism and drug addiction are two ignored social evils which endorse for weakening people's moral fibre. It spells disaster not only for the addict but also to his family and society as a whole. If we take a closer look of social and cultural fabric of our society, the "O" culture is most predominant. At this stage of globalization and modernization we surely are on backstage and struggling for identity. Every man of prudent mind can understand the evil effects of alcoholism and drug abuse but nobody is concerning and for why? Being a social animal we can atleast appreciate Apatani Youth Association (A.Y.A) and District Administration, Ziro for their noble initiative i.e., 'Mission De-Addiction' by banning GUTKA.

Legally, it is a crime in which the addict himself is criminal as well as victim. However, sociologists and criminologists reveals through investigation that a major chunk of the crimes are committed by a person in abuse of narcotic drugs and alcoholism. Under the influence of intoxication the person loses self- control and may develop criminal tendency which results into acts of misbehaving, indecency, aggression or assault at any moment.

The process of addiction starts when person makes stimulant like alcohol and narcotic drugs as relief for stress, depression, tension, family discord, discontentment etc. In broader sense the spread of these evils are mainly due to apparent failure in personal life, unemployment especially among youths, lack of parental care, careless habits of elders at home that arise interest among younger to taste it, negative influence of peer group and the recent development in pharmaceutical and medical sciences having capable to produce variety of toxic synthetic substances like nail polish remover, dendrite etc. Among the youngster it happens as fun or enjoyment on experimental basis at first and gradually good majority of them turn out to be habitual. Due to addiction they detach themselves from worldly affairs. Consequently, the individual's health gets affected as mental faculty of an alcoholic does not function in a normal way and delinquency especially juvenile delinquency follows addiction.

To eradicate this twin menace there is a dire need to evolve an effective control mechanism to check unrestricted production and their sale in open market. Accordingly, the Constitution of India under Article 47 mandates that the State should endeavor to bring about prohibition of intoxicating beverages and drugs which are injurious to public health. But society cannot blame administration all the time for eroding social and cultural fabric mainly caused by individual's irresponsible act. It is a part of individual's duty to stay away or abstain/refrain from devastating melody of alcoholism and drug addiction. Administration, however, has corresponding duties to undertake corrective measures as India being one of signatory to International Convention on Drugs which reiterated faith in human dignity and the legitimate aspiration of humankind for a decent life. It insist the need for generating universal consciousness of, and determination to battle, the drug problems in all it's pervasive forms at national, regional and international level. Under the auspices of United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 under proviso (1) of Article 38 and International Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 under proviso (1) of Article 20 has emphasized the need for prevention of abuse of psychotropic substances and early identification, treatment, education, after- care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the person involved. The Indian Parliament by taking legislative measures has enacted the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (Ammenament) Act, 1988 to tackle these menace in socio-legal perspective. Under Section 71 of the Act, it provides for rehabilitation and reformative measure for an addictive whether he is an offender or not. Thus the Act seeks to prevent people from the dangers of drug-abuse.

Despite existence of various tough and reformative laws the menace of alcoholism and drug addiction cannot be effectively controlled without the helping hand of voluntary social organization in cooperation with Government Authorities and self-realization of the addicts. To check these evils, every sections of the society should stand unitedly by saying ''No" to narcotic drugs & alcohol. Besides, the addicted should be given a chance for treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration and that would definitely turn out to be Midas touch to our society. Due to acute problems of drug-abuse in North -Eastern States the Government of India has decided to provide 100% liberal grants to start drug de-addiction centres in these states. For this noble venture, a voluntary social organization should come forward to bring awareness about it's harmful effects and rehabilitation. As the principle and purpose of reformative penology is to "destroy criminality in a human being without destroying humanity in a criminal."

Addiction versus De-addiction

5 comments
-Gyati Tado (Tadu)
President, Union of Apatani Educated Unemployed Youth (UAEUY)

Alcoholism and drug addiction are two ignored social evils which endorse for weakening people's moral fibre. It spells disaster not only for the addict but also to his family and society as a whole. If we take a closer look of social and cultural fabric of our society, the "O" culture is most predominant. At this stage of globalization and modernization we surely are on backstage and struggling for identity. Every man of prudent mind can understand the evil effects of alcoholism and drug abuse but nobody is concerning and for why? Being a social animal we can atleast appreciate Apatani Youth Association (A.Y.A) and District Administration, Ziro for their noble initiative i.e., 'Mission De-Addiction' by banning GUTKA.

Legally, it is a crime in which the addict himself is criminal as well as victim. However, sociologists and criminologists reveals through investigation that a major chunk of the crimes are committed by a person in abuse of narcotic drugs and alcoholism. Under the influence of intoxication the person loses self- control and may develop criminal tendency which results into acts of misbehaving, indecency, aggression or assault at any moment.

The process of addiction starts when person makes stimulant like alcohol and narcotic drugs as relief for stress, depression, tension, family discord, discontentment etc. In broader sense the spread of these evils are mainly due to apparent failure in personal life, unemployment especially among youths, lack of parental care, careless habits of elders at home that arise interest among younger to taste it, negative influence of peer group and the recent development in pharmaceutical and medical sciences having capable to produce variety of toxic synthetic substances like nail polish remover, dendrite etc. Among the youngster it happens as fun or enjoyment on experimental basis at first and gradually good majority of them turn out to be habitual. Due to addiction they detach themselves from worldly affairs. Consequently, the individual's health gets affected as mental faculty of an alcoholic does not function in a normal way and delinquency especially juvenile delinquency follows addiction.

To eradicate this twin menace there is a dire need to evolve an effective control mechanism to check unrestricted production and their sale in open market. Accordingly, the Constitution of India under Article 47 mandates that the State should endeavor to bring about prohibition of intoxicating beverages and drugs which are injurious to public health. But society cannot blame administration all the time for eroding social and cultural fabric mainly caused by individual's irresponsible act. It is a part of individual's duty to stay away or abstain/refrain from devastating melody of alcoholism and drug addiction. Administration, however, has corresponding duties to undertake corrective measures as India being one of signatory to International Convention on Drugs which reiterated faith in human dignity and the legitimate aspiration of humankind for a decent life. It insist the need for generating universal consciousness of, and determination to battle, the drug problems in all it's pervasive forms at national, regional and international level. Under the auspices of United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 under proviso (1) of Article 38 and International Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 under proviso (1) of Article 20 has emphasized the need for prevention of abuse of psychotropic substances and early identification, treatment, education, after- care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the person involved. The Indian Parliament by taking legislative measures has enacted the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (Ammenament) Act, 1988 to tackle these menace in socio-legal perspective. Under Section 71 of the Act, it provides for rehabilitation and reformative measure for an addictive whether he is an offender or not. Thus the Act seeks to prevent people from the dangers of drug-abuse.

Despite existence of various tough and reformative laws the menace of alcoholism and drug addiction cannot be effectively controlled without the helping hand of voluntary social organization in cooperation with Government Authorities and self-realization of the addicts. To check these evils, every sections of the society should stand unitedly by saying ''No" to narcotic drugs & alcohol. Besides, the addicted should be given a chance for treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration and that would definitely turn out to be Midas touch to our society. Due to acute problems of drug-abuse in North -Eastern States the Government of India has decided to provide 100% liberal grants to start drug de-addiction centres in these states. For this noble venture, a voluntary social organization should come forward to bring awareness about it's harmful effects and rehabilitation. As the principle and purpose of reformative penology is to "destroy criminality in a human being without destroying humanity in a criminal."

Monday, October 27, 2008

Happy Deepavali!!

0 comments
Arunachal Diary wishes it's reader a very Happy Diwali.

Say 'No to Crackers' this Deepavali.

Happy Deepavali!!

0 comments
Arunachal Diary wishes it's reader a very Happy Diwali.

Say 'No to Crackers' this Deepavali.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

New look of Arunachal Tourism official site

15 comments
While going through the recent comments section, I had to navigate to the post where I had written how the tagline-'Gateway to Serenity' came into being for the Department of Tourism, Government of Arunachal Pradesh (Read the story here.) The post led me to navigate to the official site of Arunachal Tourism. I was quite impressed by it's new simple look (see snapshot at left), which has elements of Web 2.0 design (if I'm not wrong) and I'm glad that the state government departments are trying to make their official site more vibrant unlike the NIC managed dull sites. Just check state government's official site. Coming back to the Arunachal Tourism site-Hey! where is the logo and the tagline? Have they forgotten to include the logo in the design or has purposefully refrained from using the logo...*wicked smile*...

One of the turn downs that makes both foreign and domestic tourists from putting Arunachal Pradesh in their itinerary is the Entry Formalities i.e., RAP & ILP and the lack of information on how to obtain them. The section Entry Formalities of the site just covers that and gives information on where to apply for ILP or RAP. However, it fails to address one pertinent question-How long does it take to obtain ILP or RAP? Also the section is updated with the information on recent relaxation in entry formalities for foreign visitors.

The Destination Section has a brief on existing travel circuits like places of interest, how to reach, where to stay etc. But I failed to understand why destination Tawang and West Kameng alone has been given dedicated full pages and not for other destinations?

Besides, the site has briefs on Festivals, Arts and Crafts, People, Wildlife and Orchids and information on government registered tour operators.

So head on to the official tourism site of Government of Arunachal Pradesh for information on entry formalities, travel circuits etc., if you are planning a trip to Arunachal, soon.

New look of Arunachal Tourism official site

16 comments
While going through the recent comments section, I had to navigate to the post where I had written how the tagline-'Gateway to Serenity' came into being for the Department of Tourism, Government of Arunachal Pradesh (Read the story here.) The post led me to navigate to the official site of Arunachal Tourism. I was quite impressed by it's new simple look (see snapshot at left), which has elements of Web 2.0 design (if I'm not wrong) and I'm glad that the state government departments are trying to make their official site more vibrant unlike the NIC managed dull sites. Just check state government's official site. Coming back to the Arunachal Tourism site-Hey! where is the logo and the tagline? Have they forgotten to include the logo in the design or has purposefully refrained from using the logo...*wicked smile*...

One of the turn downs that makes both foreign and domestic tourists from putting Arunachal Pradesh in their itinerary is the Entry Formalities i.e., RAP & ILP and the lack of information on how to obtain them. The section Entry Formalities of the site just covers that and gives information on where to apply for ILP or RAP. However, it fails to address one pertinent question-How long does it take to obtain ILP or RAP? Also the section is updated with the information on recent relaxation in entry formalities for foreign visitors.

The Destination Section has a brief on existing travel circuits like places of interest, how to reach, where to stay etc. But I failed to understand why destination Tawang and West Kameng alone has been given dedicated full pages and not for other destinations?

Besides, the site has briefs on Festivals, Arts and Crafts, People, Wildlife and Orchids and information on government registered tour operators.

So head on to the official tourism site of Government of Arunachal Pradesh for information on entry formalities, travel circuits etc., if you are planning a trip to Arunachal, soon.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Charcoal Sketch

2 comments
Did I told you that other than blogging, my indulgence includes sketching? ;) ... Well, well, that was a long... long ago, infact. It has been ages since I seriously tried my hands on sketching...again. It was some days back when I was flipping through my steel trunk of college days, that I came across this sketchbook which reminded me that long back I had tried my hands at sketching. Below, I am sharing two of my sketches from that sketchbook done with charcoal, around a decade back.


Tried to do portrait of a lady that appeared in some magazine.


Was it an ad for Jeans or for Shoes? Hmm..I don't seem to recall. (Again from some magazine)

P.S. What above sketches got to do with Arunachal or Arunachal Diary? Nothing...but then, Arunachal Diary is also the personal space of AG besides space for issues related to Arunachal, right? ;)

Charcoal Sketch

2 comments
Did I told you that other than blogging, my indulgence includes sketching? ;) ... Well, well, that was a long... long ago, infact. It has been ages since I seriously tried my hands on sketching...again. It was some days back when I was flipping through my steel trunk of college days, that I came across this sketchbook which reminded me that long back I had tried my hands at sketching. Below, I am sharing two of my sketches from that sketchbook done with charcoal, around a decade back.


Tried to do portrait of a lady that appeared in some magazine.


Was it an ad for Jeans or for Shoes? Hmm..I don't seem to recall. (Again from some magazine)

P.S. What above sketches got to do with Arunachal or Arunachal Diary? Nothing...but then, Arunachal Diary is also the personal space of AG besides space for issues related to Arunachal, right? ;)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Rants on BSNL Service at Ziro-Hapoli

2 comments
In the first instance, this sounds 'Cool', doesn't it? A 3G services for NE States by BSNL, by January 2009? But try asking the consumers' of BSNL services in this part of the country i.e., Ziro-Hapoli Township of Arunachal Pradesh, for them, this is an irony, a joke.

Why?

There is this mobile service provided by BSNL (the lone service provider), but no network to make a call (and you are talking about 3G services). There is this supposedly 'always-on Broadband Service' provided by BSNL, that seems to have forgotten when to turn on. And the greater irony is that the consumer has to shell out their hard earned cash for the service that has been denied to them by the service provider's laxity in restoring the service.

This on and off relationship with the services provided by the BSNL has been prevailing since 14th June, when torrential rain and subsequent landslide washed away the OFC linking Ziro Exchange with Itanagar Exchange. I wonder what is keeping the BSNL authorities such long from restoring the service? The only response that is forthright from them whenever anyone enquire about the prevailing condition of service is the cliché, 'Sir, the OFC has been cut by some miscreants at X or Y or Z location'. Well, can't they think of any other alternative to provide the service or to lay OFC that is out of reach from the so-called miscreants? Or is it just an excuse not to restore the service, after all they are getting paid for the services they are not providing ;)?

And to talk about the ambitious project of providing 3G services to NE states by January 2009; why don't they first concentrate on improving quality of service in this part of the country? Without network and poor QoS what would be the utility of 3G services, I wonder....

Rants on BSNL Service at Ziro-Hapoli

2 comments
In the first instance, this sounds 'Cool', doesn't it? A 3G services for NE States by BSNL, by January 2009? But try asking the consumers' of BSNL services in this part of the country i.e., Ziro-Hapoli Township of Arunachal Pradesh, for them, this is an irony, a joke.

Why?

There is this mobile service provided by BSNL (the lone service provider), but no network to make a call (and you are talking about 3G services). There is this supposedly 'always-on Broadband Service' provided by BSNL, that seems to have forgotten when to turn on. And the greater irony is that the consumer has to shell out their hard earned cash for the service that has been denied to them by the service provider's laxity in restoring the service.

This on and off relationship with the services provided by the BSNL has been prevailing since 14th June, when torrential rain and subsequent landslide washed away the OFC linking Ziro Exchange with Itanagar Exchange. I wonder what is keeping the BSNL authorities such long from restoring the service? The only response that is forthright from them whenever anyone enquire about the prevailing condition of service is the cliché, 'Sir, the OFC has been cut by some miscreants at X or Y or Z location'. Well, can't they think of any other alternative to provide the service or to lay OFC that is out of reach from the so-called miscreants? Or is it just an excuse not to restore the service, after all they are getting paid for the services they are not providing ;)?

And to talk about the ambitious project of providing 3G services to NE states by January 2009; why don't they first concentrate on improving quality of service in this part of the country? Without network and poor QoS what would be the utility of 3G services, I wonder....

Monday, October 20, 2008

AD is still alive!!

2 comments
Have you thought Arunachal Diary is 'dead' and won't be updated anymore?

Well, this is a very short post to announce that Arunachal Diary is still alive and kicking but for the forced short hiatus I had to take due to unplanned trip down South to Bangalore (Bengaluru) and to Coimbatore, which kept me out from updating the blog. Watch out for the space till I update myself with the latest happenings of the state and let you updated about Arunachal Pradesh. :)

Thank you all for visiting Arunachal Diary even when it was not updated for a while.

AD is still alive!!

2 comments
Have you thought Arunachal Diary is 'dead' and won't be updated anymore?

Well, this is a very short post to announce that Arunachal Diary is still alive and kicking but for the forced short hiatus I had to take due to unplanned trip down South to Bangalore (Bengaluru) and to Coimbatore, which kept me out from updating the blog. Watch out for the space till I update myself with the latest happenings of the state and let you updated about Arunachal Pradesh. :)

Thank you all for visiting Arunachal Diary even when it was not updated for a while.