Latest news with #Death
CBS News
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
"Death! A Musical" produced entirely by kids opens at Minnesota Fringe Festival
The Minnesota Fringe festival brings over 100 performing arts performances to over a dozen metro venues, and one of this year's shows is produced entirely by kids. Inside the Phoenix Theater, Director Gabriel Shen is running rehearsal for the musical they wrote last year as a 12-year-old called "Death! A Musical." "Adults rarely talk about death even when people around them are dying, it's still an uncomfortable topic," Shen said. "Every single person will be exposed to it at some point, many when they're very young and it's important to learn about it and not be afraid to talk about it." Vivienne Steele plays the show's protagonist, Alana Hemming. "The show isn't scary, even though it's called 'Death.' It's more humorous and it teaches you a lot," Steele said. The show features 20 mostly middle school-aged kids. "It can be chaotic at some times, but we're all also kids still, so that's kind of expected," Steele said. "I think Gabriel is doing a very good job and the fact that they were able to write this musical is really impressive." The musical score is coming alive under the direction of Orchestrator Angela Steiner. She and Shen's parents are the adults assisting the musical. It's easy to see the confidence, creativity and community coming alive. For Shen, their career path could take any number of avenues, but they aren't focused on Broadway. "All the skills that I'm learning from this production are going to be very helpful with whatever I do in the future," they said. The musical depicts what young people are capable of. "They actually think about things," Shen said. "Oftentimes a lot more than adults. And they spend a lot of time reflecting and thinking and they have important thoughts and their thoughts aren't simple." The musical about death is living proof that there's plenty to learn from young people. "Death! A Musical" is playing at the Southern Theatre starting Friday.
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
5 top new shows to stream this week on Netflix, Peacock and more (July 28-Aug. 3)
The summer heat isn't letting up — and neither is your watchlist. With new shows premiering on Netflix, Peacock and other streaming services, now's the perfect time to cool off inside with something worth bingeing. This week's TV lineup delivers a little bit of everything. Jason Momoa goes full warrior mode in the sweeping historical saga "Chief of War," while "Twisted Metal" season 2 brings back post-apocalyptic mayhem. For reality fans, "Perfect Match" returns with its most drama-inducing cast yet, including contestants from outside the Netflix bubble. Here are our top picks for new TV shows to watch this week. Stand-up comedian Leanne Morgan turns real-life heartbreak into sitcom gold in a new comedy based on her hit Netflix special, 'I'm Every Woman,' and co-created by Chuck Lorre. It's about picking up the pieces — while experiencing a hot flash or two — after your husband of 33 years leaves you. Morgan plays a grandmother suddenly thrust back into the dating pool. She leans on her loud, loving family, including sister Carol (Kristen Johnston), as she discovers it's never too late for a fresh start. All 16 episodes premiere Thursday, July 31 at 3 a.m. ET on Netflix 'The Sandman' season 2 aired its series finale last week, but this bonus 12th episode is a treat for fans that turns the spotlight on Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). It's adapted from Neil Gaiman's 1993 comic about the one day every hundred years when Death walks the world as a mortal. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Her companion this time around is Sexton (Colin Morgan), a suicidal teen who's not exactly thrilled to be alive. Episode premieres Thursday, July 31 at 3 a.m. ET on Netflix The stakes are even bloodier on this post-apocalyptic action comedy. John Doe (Anthony Mackie) and Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) are diving headfirst into Calypso's no-mercy demolition derby, where one wish is up for grabs … if they can outdrive a bunch of lunatics. Cars will burn, clowns will kill and Anthony Carrigan will be smirking as the world goes up in flames. Dollface and Mr. Grimm crash back in for more mayhem, plus there's a scrappy kid in the mix. Episodes 1-3 premiere Thursday, July 31 at 3 a.m. ET on Peacock Jason Momoa goes full warrior-poet in this gritty, sweeping historical epic set during Hawai'i's fight for unification in the late 1700s. He plays Ka'iana, a high-ranking chief who returns home and gets swept into the brutal campaign to unite the islands. But soon, he begins to question what he's actually fighting for. Momoa co-created the series with Thomas Pa'a Sibbett and directed the finale episode. The Polynesian cast includes Cliff Curtis, Temuera Morrison, and newcomer Kaina Makua. Episodes 1-2 premiere Friday, Aug. 1 at 12 a.m. ET on Apple TV Plus Netflix's messiest dating show is back, and in season 3, it's drawing the cast not just from other Netflix reality shows but from outside the streamer, too. Stars from 'The Bachelor,' 'Love Island' and 'Siesta Key' are crashing the villa alongside familiar faces from 'Love Is Blind' and 'Too Hot to Handle.' Among the newcomers are 'Bachelor' exes Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia, so expect plenty of drama. Hosted by Nick Lachey, the season will feature wild challenges and power plays as couples vie to earn the power to break up others and bring in fresh singles. Episodes 1-6 premiere Friday, Aug. 1 at 3 a.m. ET on Netflix
Scottish Sun
21-07-2025
- Health
- Scottish Sun
Man left with riddled with ulcer-like boils 24 hours after catching bubonic plague from pet cat
Cats are especially vulnerable to plague because their immune systems struggle to fight off the infection 'BLACK DEATH' Man left with riddled with ulcer-like boils 24 hours after catching bubonic plague from pet cat Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MAN started growing boils up his arm just hours after catching the bubonic plague from his pet cat. The 73-year-old from Oregon, US, had accidentally cut his finger with a kitchen knife in January of 2024 before touching the feline. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 A pensioner is believed to have caught the plague from his pet cat. Credit: Getty 5 The case marked the earliest the bubonic plague has struck in Oregon The cat was already on antibiotics for an infection, thought to be a neck abscess, at the time. Within a day, a "tender" ulcer appeared on his wrist, according to a paper in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Over the next several hours, the infection spread, causing redness and bumps called buboes that extended up his arm toward his armpit. Buboes are swollen lymph nodes that enlarge and become tender due to the infection. If left untreated, the infection can cause the skin over the buboes to turn black and die, which is where the plague gets its name, the 'Black Death.' Four days later, the pensioner went to hospital, where doctors put him on antibiotics. Tests later confirmed he was infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, according to US Centre for Disease Controls Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Medics then switched him onto stronger plague-fighting drugs, including gentamicin and levofloxacin, and he began to improve. He was kept in hospital for over a week and sent home with more medication to finish recovering. At a check-up days later, he was back on his feet, although still feeling wiped out. Arizona Reports Fatal Black Death Case: Plague Claims Life in 24 Hours Though many believe the medieval disease is long gone, some countries still suffer deadly outbreaks of plague due to animals carrying the bacteria. In recent years, it has reported in the US, Peru, China, Bolivia, Uganda, Tanzania and Russia. Experts writing the report, published last week, said the case marked the earliest the bubonic plague has struck in Oregon, with previous cases usually hitting from May onwards. They believe rising winter temperatures could be helping plague, carrying fleas stay active longer, increasing the risk of off-season outbreaks. The man's cat later died after surgery because the owner was unable to give it antibiotics. Tests later confirmed the cat was positive for the same deadly plague bacteria that infected the man. The infectious bacterial disease is carried by wild rodents and their fleas. Officials haven't confirmed exactly how the infection passed from the cat to its owner, but if the cat was bitten by infected fleas, it could have brought the bacteria or fleas into the home, exposing the man. 5 London was ridden with plague in the 1300s Credit: Getty - Contributor Cats are especially vulnerable to plague because their immune systems struggle to fight off the infection. Plus, they're more likely than many other pets to hunt and catch rodents carrying infected fleas, increasing their risk of contracting, and spreading, the disease. Plague remains on both the WHO and UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) priority pathogen lists due to its potential to cause a pandemic. The WHO estimates between 1,000 and 2,000 cases of plague occur globally each year. Though now rare and treatable with antibiotics, plague can still be deadly. The three types of plague Plague takes a few forms. Bubonic plague, the most common form. The main symptoms include buboes, usually in the neck, groin, thighs, or armpits. They may also burst open, releasing the pus inside. Septicemic plague occurs when the infection spreads to the bloodstream. It can develop on its own or as a complication of bubonic plague, causing symptoms like fever, abdominal pain, shock, and bleeding into the skin and organs. Pneumonic plague, the deadliest form, is fatal in up to 90 per cent of patients if left untreated. It often develops when untreated bubonic or septicemic plague spreads to the lungs. But it can also be caught from inhaling the respiratory droplets (e.g. via coughing or sneezing) from an infected person. It infects the lungs and can spread rapidly between humans through airborne droplets. Symptoms include fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and sometimes coughing up blood. Pneumonic plague requires immediate medical attention. Last week, health officials in Arizona announced that a man had died from pneumonic plague just 24 hours after his symptoms began. 5 Bubonic plague can cause the skin and tissue to turn black and die Credit: Wikipedia 5 The blackened hand of a man recovering from a rare case of The Plague in the US Risk to Brits is 'very low' On average, there are seven human plague cases are reported in the US each year, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, plague is no longer found in the UK, and the risk of imported cases is considered 'very low,' according to government guidance. However, Covid jab scientists are developing a Black Death vaccine over fears the disease could re-emerge and kill millions. The team behind the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine said they had made progress on an injection that could prevent bubonic plague from developing. The last significant British outbreak occurred in Suffolk in 1918, though a few isolated cases have been suspected since.
Bloomberg
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
There Is No Demographic Crisis. Only a Crisis of Care
Illustration: Uli Knörzer for Bloomberg There Is No Demographic Crisis. Only a Crisis of Care The world's population is expected to start shrinking this century. Political demographer Jennifer Sciubba says that's no reason to panic. Share this article Is the trajectory of the world's population a threat to humanity? For decades, the dominant worry about the number of people on Earth was that there would soon be too many for available resources. And indeed, numbers are still growing, with the expectation that we will get to 10 billion people in around 50 years' time. Published in 1968, The Population Boom helped ignite widespread alarm about the threat of overpopulation. But a new shift has become apparent. Birth rates are not only declining in richer, industrialized nations such as Japan, South Korea and the United States, but across the globe, from Mexico to Brazil, Nigeria, Morocco, India and Indonesia. Could we soon have too few people? Might Elon Musk be right when he says that a 'collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces'? We turned to political demographer Jennifer Sciubba for some expert answers, including — unexpectedly — why her skills have been needed at the Pentagon. She's the author of 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World. Published in 1968, The Population Boom helped ignite widespread alarm about the threat of overpopulation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Might I start with what seems like a contradiction in two different things I've heard you say? Sure. One is that you're not an alarmist about population change. But you also say that there's 'a shift towards pervasive and permanent low fertility, population aging and eventual depopulation.' That sounds to me like a cause for alarm. You've latched onto one of the most interesting things about being in this field of population science. It's not so much the numbers themselves but how people feel about them. There are some people I could give that same second statement to, and they'd say, Thank goodness or Not fast enough. Others are panicked and say, This is the worst thing that could happen to humanity. As a political scientist, I'm always tracking the response to the data. And I think my job is to contextualize and interpret, so that people know what they're supposed to do with that information. 1 1 Sciubba gets straight into the psychology of how we see population in a way I find intriguing. I too absorbed the prevailing worry about overpopulation throughout my adolescence and adulthood, which is why the pivot towards depopulation concerns has taken me by surprise. So perhaps I've revealed more about myself than I intended by saying that I hear 'depopulation' and it feels like a cause for alarm! Although I should clarify: Depopulation does not mean there's no one left. It means a substantial reduction? It does. And we're not anywhere close to that at a planetary level. We're not yet at peak population, so we still are going to add somewhere between 1 billion and 2 billion more people. I might not see peak population in my lifetime. My kids, however, certainly will. 2 [At] the national level in the United States, 40% of our counties are shrinking. Overall the interesting thing is: This will become the norm. And decades ago that would have been the exception. 2 The latest UN projection is that the world's population will peak in the mid 2080s, at around 10.3 billion people, and then gradually decline. But is it also correct that something really fundamental has changed in projections within the last decade? We used to hear that it was not very likely that the global population would start shrinking this century. I track it so closely [that] it feels like it's been a little bit longer, but we're certainly hearing it more in the media. What changed is the idea that there was something exceptional about the decline in fertility rates, that it was mainly going to characterize higher-income countries. We now know that is not the case. The Global Population May Start Shrinking in the 2080s When the fertility rate fall below about 2, population falls. Source: UN Population Division The people who have been talking about this vociferously in recent years are people like Elon Musk 3 and JD Vance. Musk said, 'The birth rate is very low in almost every country. Unless that changes, civilization will disappear.' These are apocalyptic terms, but do the pro-natalists have a point that others need to wake up to? 3 Musk, who has at least 12 children himself, has said he is 'doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.' In 2023 Bloomberg revealed Musk had made a $10 million donation to support a new Population Wellbeing Initiative at UT Austin. They're not the only ones who have made that point, they're just the ones with the loudest microphones lately. There are a few fundamental changes that made people wake up to this. One is when we hit 8 billion people in 2022 and you start to see the media around that. Not long after, China begins to depopulate, which is astounding because this is a country where people were obsessed for decades with how rapidly they were growing. The one-child policy was put in place in large part to slow that growth. Then India surpasses China as the most populous country. All these things hit in succession, and it made people wake up to the fact that we have seen a big shift in our birth patterns around the world. A billboard for China's 'one-child' policy in the Guangxi region in 2007 reads: 'Have less children, have a better life.' Photographer: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images Crowds waiting for the train in Mumbai. India surpassed China as the world's most populous nation in 2023. Photographer: Bhushan Koyande/Why? Now you've hit the long question. For so many reasons. If you have to have me boil it down to one, it has to do with preferences and norms. Which is largely a good thing, right? It means that women — I'm not loading this on women, but they're the ones giving birth — in many parts of the world can now say, I'm going to choose how big my family is, if I have children at all. Yes. And men and women are choosing fewer. And so when you really start to look at this, expense is a theme. Children are very expensive. 4 4 The link between cost and shifting preferences is important, as this Bloomberg Opinion piece from 2024 underlines. Rather than people simply wanting fewer children, Kathryn Anne Edwards writes, 'what's more likely is that families want to have children and more of them but are thwarted by circumstances.' I'm speaking to you from the UK. A lot of people have a real worry about projections for the population, which is 69 million now and projected to hit 72 million around 2032. People worry about pressure on public services. People say it's a small island. Would you say the bigger problem is down the road, and that worry about an increasing population in the immediate future is misplaced? We can't say that it's misplaced because that's what we feel and experience, right? We run into the same thing in the US. Part of what we do at PRB [Population Reference Bureau] is help municipalities make demographic projections so they can understand what the needs of the community will be. But as one of our demographers says, she'll sit in a room with people and say, You have an acute housing shortage for 30 years and then it completely drops off. Now what do you do with that as a planner? So I think where there is cause for alarm is in not having the tools that we need to understand how to deal with the immediate and near-future being so different from what's on the other side. Which has very serious implications, doesn't it? Your housing development, is it going to deliver a return for decades? You're left wondering what the return on that investment is by the end of the century. 5 5 Simulations by OECD researchers project that housing prices will ease over the next few decades in countries with shrinking populations. Yes — infrastructure, schools, all of that. When the medium term sees such a shift, it's hard to wrap your brain around that. And the other challenge is that all of our assumptions about the way the world works, theories we were taught about economic growth or development, they were formed in a time where we just assumed the population would continue growing. We all need to sit together and say, Wow, what if all of our underlying assumptions are upended? What does that mean for how we understand the world? What does that mean for how we understand the good life, or prioritize wellbeing over GDP growth rates? Those assumptions come into perceptions of other countries too, don't they? I was intrigued to discover that you used to work at the Pentagon when the US was engaged in two very significant wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What was a demographer doing at the Pentagon? This was a time when the Pentagon was turning to social scientists to say Perhaps things aren't going quite as the planners had thought they would, in terms of regime changes, and peace, and conflict. And so there was a real effort to understand some of the underlying dynamics in the society that might be driving some of these governance outcomes. One of the areas was demography. We know that countries in the world that have very young age structures — so lots of young people and fewer older people — tend to be the countries that have higher incidences of civil conflict. 6 They are less likely to be democratic. It's just a way to paint a fuller picture of the world. And I think that's the best part of being a political demographer, is it does lead you to ask different questions about the world, to look at a different lens. 6 Political violence is more common in countries with a higher share of 15- to 24-year-olds, a UN review found in 2012. But that risk is lower where young people have access to education and employment. And did you come to conclusions about Iraq and Afghanistan that fed into policy? Yes. I don't think it's necessarily things that people wouldn't guess. However, there are some pieces about Russia and China that are a little different. What did the US not understand about the populations of Iraq and Afghanistan? This is a time in history when there were assumptions about being able to export democracy. And to me, the biggest thing that a demographic lens did was show that would not be a very smooth path. And indeed it has not been. Why does that lens help show that it's not a smooth path? The cohorts of young people are so large that it becomes incredibly challenging to create jobs for them. They might be closed out of the political system because of the regime type. When they come of age, they can't vote, et cetera. This leads to a lower opportunity cost of engaging in armed conflict, and there's a lot more chance for coups, for example. The research really shows that. On Russia, was there a perception that the shrinking Russian population meant Russia was not going to be what it is today? That its threat or its capacity to act in an aggressive way would naturally be diminished? Yes, there was. The assumption [was] that demography is destiny, which I always work to counter because the same demographic trend in two different places can show up quite differently. With Russia there was a desirability bias. And there continues to be among a lot of people, that what they hoped to see happen would happen. Russia's been shrinking by half a million people a year, life expectancy for men was really low — below 60 because of high alcoholism rates — and the fertility rate was low as well. 7 7 I found this statistic shocking. In the early 1980s, life expectancy for Russian men was around 65. An anti-alcohol campaign initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev contributed to some improvement, but the Soviet Union's collapse affected public-health messaging. By 1994, men's life expectancy was down to 57. And so there was, on the part of some people, a desire to see that as a sign of a weaker adversary. But they forget the context. Who has power in society? How are these institutions structured? What does that leader want? Those things really matter, and they matter with China as well. Let's turn to individual societies and governments. There's an obvious thing, that if you're trying to run a welfare state, you need enough people earning and paying into that welfare state for those who are older to be able to draw money out of it. What do you think are the lessons from your work for the design of government policy? An important question, because there are so many countries that don't yet have a welfare state but that are rapidly aging. I hope that they're looking at ways to institute sustainable systems that can follow them along that demographic transition through time. The least sustainable way to set up these institutions is to have people be incentivized to exit the labor market early, with decades to go before the end of their lives, because this becomes very expensive. 8 8 Brazil is one country that was weighed down by the cost of people retiring in their 50s. Under former President Jair Bolsonaro, changes were finally made in 2019 to what had been one of the world's most generous pension systems. 'It took three presidents, four finance ministers, and countless setbacks,' Bloomberg reported. But they have made that change in Japan, haven't they? More people are now retiring after age 70? There's a difference between what an official retirement age is and what the effective retirement age is. In some cultures, and at some times, people are able to exit the labor market earlier than the official retirement age through other schemes. In Japan, yes — the effective retirement age has gotten closer to 70. But this is also a country where there's still quite a few barriers to people being able to work longer, and that's present in every society. The good news is you don't necessarily have to have some sweeping reform at the national level to change this; you can start to break it down into little pieces that are politically much easier. Is there still discrimination on the books, or can you get rid of that through legal pathways? You can start to work with companies to say: Would you benefit from being able to bring people back as consultants or part-time? I'm optimistic that if we don't try to do some national-level reform to raise the retirement age — which people don't like — and break it down into other pieces, we could see real changes. 9 9 This is interesting. Raising the retirement age is politically explosive (just ask France, China and Russia), but Sciubba is suggesting that removing other labor-market barriers could keep older people in the workforce. In her book, she notes that workers in Japan 'fought for the right to continue working in old age' and won the 'removal of mandatory retirement and age discrimination.' There's another way to look at this, which is pro-immigration — that there are countries in the world where fertility rates are still high. Many of them are very poor. They are places people want to move from. Yes. However we have to be careful to not assume that the pool is infinite. When I talk to audiences, once they understand that fertility rates have changed, they say, We can just open the doors to more immigrants. But not everyone who wants to move will actually move. There are a lot of things I think I might want to do in life. I might want to take up sewing again, but I'm not actually going to do it. You don't want to look at the percentages of people who want to emigrate and use that in order to project who might be in this pool. Most people — 96% — don't move. 'There's so many people who are left behind in our depopulating world. It's clear to me that numbers are not the problem.' And politically — in most of the countries people would be interested in moving to — the mood is very much against immigration these days. So I was talking supply and you're talking demand. Add those two together, and it definitely paints the picture that there's not this infinite pool of people. And with so many countries depopulating, if they do turn to immigration, which is a perfectly viable solution to add workers, they're now competing with each other over talent. How do you feel about pro-natalist arguments? 10 A good challenge. Pro-natalism can be defined as simply the belief that having children is good, but its use in political rhetoric and policy has been controversial. In Communist Romania, for example, women who didn't have children were called 'deserters.' Today, leaders who espouse pro-natalism are often also against immigration. 'We do not need numbers, but Hungarian children,' Hungarian President Viktor Orban said in 2019. 'In our minds, immigration means surrender.' We will get into actual pro-natalist policies, but when you hear people like JD Vance saying, 'I want more babies in the United States,' or President Trump saying, 'You can call me the fertilization president.' What do you think when you hear those statements? I think the same thing about both pro- and anti-natalists' framing, which is that it's the wrong framing to get what you're after. For example, you mentioned the welfare state earlier. A pay-as-you-go retirement system. When that's broken, is it because of population or is it because it wasn't a great institution for long-term sustainability in the context of shifting demographics? Is it that you have a population problem or you have a labor problem? It's fascinating to see how countries will go from thinking they have too many people [to] Wait a minute, there are too few people and we're not growing at all and we want to solve that. If we shift our focus to different metrics like wellbeing — Are these people thriving? Are they happy? Is there a strong sense of community? Is this the country that we wanted to build together? — different framings can get us a lot further. 'I think having policy makers who are really flexible and nimble in their thinking is really important. It can be quite tough to do that though, when politicians are chasing the next election.' The pro-natalists often get people's backs up if they think You're putting me back into this patriarchal model. Women having more babies need to be at home more. Reproductive rights are under assault anyway, in so many American states. Some policies that might be labeled pro-natalist, we could label them differently and perception might change across the political spectrum. For example, why is childcare considered pro-natalist these days? Even a decade ago people might have assumed that was more on the political left. It's begun to be framed in this very polarizing way, which is a real shame because it didn't have to be. A lot of these issues are things that I think the political right and left could agree on, like investing in families. Of course, who is a 'family' then? This gets into your political polarization as well. But you can try to keep it at, How do we support people to live their best lives? How do we keep choice in the mix? It doesn't have to be quite so polarizing. Policies in places like South Korea, which are overtly about encouraging people to have more children — is there any evidence that they work? 11 11 'Baby bonuses' are among the ways South Korea has been trying to raise its birth rate, which is the lowest in the world. There's a large variety of these kinds of incentives. If the goal is a population target, then the answer is no. We do not see a sustained rise in fertility based on these types of financial incentives. Sometimes we see a short-term spike like Oh, I was gonna have a baby sometime in the next five years, and while this is on offer, let me go ahead and do this now. But if we change our measure of success and instead say, Did that make it easier for people to support their families? Then maybe the answer is yes, this is successful. But we haven't really been measuring success that way. So in our last few minutes... Design a country for us. [Jennifer laughs.] Design a system. Because it seems clear that there's a high likelihood that the global population will start shrinking this century. What is the system that works in that reality? Well, of course the answer is we don't know because we've never seen this before. But little pieces that I pick up on throughout my research and career are things like strong communities. Incredibly important, because not only do they help support people with younger kids, they also help support you throughout this demographic transition, so the older people can get the kind of care that they need. So care is a really important theme. And where does care happen? It happens locally. I think having policy makers who are really flexible and nimble in their thinking is really important. It can be quite tough to do that though, when politicians are chasing the next election. 'We talk about 'population' and there's no 'people' in it. We could be talking about anything, the population of squirrels.' Can I just understand what you mean by care? You've chosen this as your number one policy objective. You mean childcare, health care and elder care? All easily available at a local level? Absolutely. Because we talk about 'population' and there's no 'people' in it. We could be talking about anything, the population of squirrels. But we're really talking about people, and how we go through our lives is experienced locally. Having people cared for is what's going to give us that wellbeing. I think that's the whole point. Cradle-to-grave is a really interesting dimension to this. Amid this focus on birth rates, you're saying that we must think about what we need at the end of our lives, as well? Right. Just having babies, creating more people, doesn't really get you to whatever it is you think you need. It's usually economic growth that people are interested in. Will these be productive citizens who have the exact skills that you think that they need? Maybe not. And so you want the biggest numbers possible. There's so many people who are left behind in our depopulating world. It's clear to me that numbers are not the problem. And it's easier to have slogans about having more babies than to think hard about what people want in old age. Few of us really want to think about what being old will be like. Absolutely. And that is a big barrier to seeing us move ahead. What does it look like to flourish as an older society? We don't have images of that. There's so much negativity and there's so much fear. There's fear because this overall demographic shift is unknown and we're usually afraid of what we don't know. Our only metric for understanding population aging is our individual aging. And the reward for aging is death, [which] becomes very scary to people. So there's not a lot of room in our psyche to see what could possibly be good about this coming world. Mishal Husain is Editor at Large for Bloomberg Weekend.
NDTV
17-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
The Anguish Of Nimisha Priya And The Imperative Of Compassion
My heart, like those of countless fellow Keralites, is heavy with the plight of Nimisha Priya. This young woman, a daughter of our soil, finds herself ensnared in a legal quagmire of the most profound and perilous nature in Yemen, facing the grim prospect of the gallows. It is a predicament that transcends mere jurisprudence; it is a deeply human tragedy, especially for her family - parents, husband and child - resonating with the universal fear of losing a loved one to circumstances far beyond their control. Death Of A Dream Nimisha's story is, sadly, one that epitomises the hopes and vulnerabilities of many Keralites who seek opportunity in distant lands. She embarked for Yemen with dreams of a better future, a future for herself and, crucially, for her family back in Kerala. Yet, these dreams tragically transmuted into a nightmare, culminating in the death of a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi. Though it seems this individual, her employer and partner, was harassing and abusing her, leading to her alleged criminal killing of him, her subsequent conviction and death sentence remains inexpressibly tragic. While the intricacies of the Yemeni legal system, particularly its adherence to Sharia law, are profoundly different from our own, the immediate human crisis demands our utmost attention and empathy. A Complex Situation The core of her precarious situation lies in the concept of 'blood money' or diya - a pathway to pardon recognised under Sharia law, whereby the victim's family may accept financial compensation in lieu of execution. Indians' collective efforts, both governmental and private, have been tirelessly directed towards this avenue. The family has not so far accepted the amounts offered and is insisting on her execution. The reported postponement of her execution, originally scheduled for today - albeit a temporary deferral - offers a flicker of hope, a precious window of opportunity that we must seize with every fibre of our being. The path to her possible reprieve has been fraught, to say the least. Our Ministry of External Affairs has been doing its best, in circumstances complicated by the Civil War in Yemen and the irregular situation of the authorities holding her, as well as by the fact that the Indian Embassy has been relocated out of the country because of the grim political and security situation there, and is operating from a camp office in Djibouti in North Africa since April 2015. This operational constraint, born of dire necessity, has unfortunately hampered the efficacy of our diplomatic overtures thus far. The Intervention Of The Grand Mufti It is within this challenging landscape that a new, vital beacon of hope has emerged. The intervention of the Grand Mufti of India, Ustad Kanthapuram A.P. Abubakar Musliyar, the esteemed General Secretary of All India Sunni Jamiatul Ulama and Chancellor of Jamia Markaz, through his long-standing friendship with the revered Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz, offers a slender ray of hope and even optimism. All of Kerala now unites in fervent prayer for the success of his crucial efforts. In an era increasingly characterised by attempts to divide people and foster hatred and animosity in the name of religion and community, the venerable Kanthapuram Ustad has delivered a powerful and timely message. His humanitarian initiative underscores a fundamental truth: that humanity stands paramount above all divisions of religion, gender or community. It is a testament to the enduring power of compassion and cross-cultural understanding in navigating even the most intractable of crises. This is not about condoning any alleged wrongdoing, but about upholding the fundamental human right to life, and exploring every conceivable diplomatic and humanitarian channel to secure her reprieve. It is a stark reminder of the complexities inherent in the lives of our citizens who seek their fortunes abroad, often in regions fraught with political instability and distinct legal frameworks. The case of Nimisha Priya compels us to reflect on the imperative of robust consular support and proactive engagement in safeguarding the interests of our diaspora. Our government has, commendably, stated its commitment to doing "whatever is utmost possible", and indeed, the latest intervention by such a respected religious figure has bought us invaluable time. We Need A Diplomatic Offensive As a public representative from her home state, my plea is not merely for bureaucratic intervention, but for a concerted, compassionate, and indefatigable diplomatic offensive. We must ensure that every conceivable effort is made to engage with the victim's family, to appeal to their sense of forbearance, and to facilitate any viable resolution through the established legal and customary pathways in Yemen. This is a moment that calls for the very best of Indian diplomacy and humanitarian outreach. We owe it to Nimisha Priya, and to every Indian citizen abroad, to exhaust every avenue to bring her home, or at the very least, to save her life. For in saving one life, we reaffirm our collective humanity - and our solidarity with every Indian in distress, wherever she may be, anywhere in the world. (Shashi Tharoor has been a Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is an author and a former diplomat.) Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
