Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

Femicide – Stop violence against women

Protecting women against gender-based violence is a human rights issue often overlooked globally. In every country, the laws exist to protect women, but those laws are often not uniformly implemented. Femicide is used to describe the gender-related killing of women and girls, and it has been described as the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women and their inequality. There are numerous categories of femicide: intimate femicide; non-intimate femicide; honour killings; sexual-orientation-hate crimes; murder of aboriginal women and girls; dowry-related femicide; organised crime femicide; and targeted killings of women in armed conflict, among others. Around the world, as in Pakistan, the rate of femicide is stubbornly high. Recently, in a bone-chilling incident, a woman was attacked with knives and then shot dead for giving birth to third daughter. According to the details, the victim Asia Parveen was working as a teacher in Gujrat and was often humiliated at her home after she gave birth to the third daughter. The authorities must implement laws regarding the prevention of femicide and actions must also be taken at the individual, family, social and community levels to reduce the likelihood of women being killed because of their gender.

Saleeha Imran,
Lahore.

Structural failure and negligence

Building components tend to fail depending on materials, designs, method of construction, environmental conditions and the use to which the building is put. Substandard materials and design errors are major causes of component failure. Some of the main causes for building collapses are bad design, faulty construction, foundation failure, extraordinary loads, unexpected failure modes or a combination of causes. But collapses also occur due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones and fires. Most of the structural failures (other than those caused by natural disasters) have occurred due to such faults, which are controllable. Recently, one such structural failure caused three residential buildings in Karachi’s Golimar area to collapse, killing more than 20 and wounding more than a dozen people. This mishap could’ve easily been avoided and dozens of lives would’ve been saved with good operational planning and detailed deliberations. The well-designed structures, coupled with the hard effort of the experts and correct materials could’ve saved the failures of the valuable structures.

Umaima Noman,
Karachi.

Drop in oil prices: Good or bad?

The markets around the globe were rocked by the significant drop in the global oil prices last week. According to reports, oil prices have suffered their biggest fall since the day in 1991 when American forces launched air strikes on Iraqi troops following their invasion of Kuwait. For many consumers and businesses, this fall in the price of oil will be a welcoming reduction in the cost of living and the cost of business. However, is such a steep fall in oil prices good for the Pakistani economy? According to experts, a fall in the oil price can help the economy. Lower oil prices will reduce the cost of transport and lead to lower costs for business, which can increase profitability. This fall in oil prices helps reduce inflation. It has been estimated that the average annual inflation could potentially come down by 1-1.5 per cent due to $20 per barrel lower oil prices. The combined effect of lower prices, more spending power and lower costs of business can help boost economic growth. However, the problem of falling oil prices will be felt most significantly by oil producing countries and oil companies. The fall in oil prices will lead to lower revenues and deterioration in their current account.

Hamza Mirza,
Islamabad.