NFHS: Does India Really Have More Women Than Men?

Does India really have more women than men now?

According to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data, released by the Indian government recently, there are now 1,020 women for every 1,000 men.

Experts advise caution while interpreting the data - the survey covers only about 630,000 of India's 300 million households - and say the real picture will emerge only once we get the census data.

"The census surveys the entire population of the country and, therefore, provides a more accurate account of the overall sex ratio," the director of the Population Fund of India, Poonam Muttreja, told the BBC.

But the numbers have made headlines in India, with some claiming that they point to significant societal shifts in a country where a preference for sons has historically led to a very skewed sex ratio in favour of men.

The health ministry said this was the first time ever that the female population had surpassed the male population in India. One official said this was due to the "measures taken by the government for women's empowerment".

Media reports hailed it as a "massive achievement" and "a demographic shift". One journalist wrote that India had "now entered the league of developed nations".

But campaigners say the numbers just don't add up and describe the government claim as "absurd" and "next to impossible".

- bbc.com

'' MARADONA'S -WORLD HONOURS- MAJESTICITY ''

Buenos Aires : The World honours ' Golden Kid ' Maradona on anniversary. Last Thursday marked one year since the death of Argentina's legendary footballer.

THE WORLD LAST THURSDAY MARKED the one-year anniversary of the death of Diego Maradona, regarded by some and many as the best player of all time and a man adored in his home country Argentina despite, or perhaps because of, his human flaws.

Argentina club matches marked a minute of silence and players arranged themselves in a ''10'' formation on the pitch to honour Maradona's famous jersey number, while special masses were held - including in the Buenos Aires slum where Maradonna grew up, to mark the day he passed away.

In Naples, - where he spent part of career, two statues of the striker were unveiled.

'' We'll miss you for the rest of our lives,'' said the Argentine Football League in homage on the eve of  the anniversary, with a video of the life, goals, and many trophies of the man nicknamed ''Pibe de Oro''{ Golden Kid }

Maradona died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.

The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli star had battled  cocaine and alcohol addictions for years, and was suffering from liver, kidney and cardiovascular disorders when he died.

His death shocked fans around the world, and tens of thousands queued to file past his coffin, draped in the Argentina flag, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires during three days of national mourning.

He may be dead, but in Argentina Maradona is everywhere.

From ubiquitous mural frescos that portray him as a diety to television series about his life and even a religion bearing his name.

His two goals in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals, which saw Argentina triumph over England just four years after the Falklands War, made Maradona an instant hero.

His rags- to- riches story, stellar sporting achievements, complicated life and dramatic death entrenched his place in the Argentine psyche.

In the cities, Maradona's name is memorialized in countless graffiti :

''Diego lives'' '' 10 Eternal '' and '' D10S '' a play of words with the Spanish word for god, '' Dios '' and, Maradonna's famous jersey number.

Murals in Buenos Aires depict him with angel wings, as a patron saint complete with halo and scepter, or back here on Earth, kissing the World Cup.

Maradona is perhaps remembered as much for his '' Hand of God '' goal -which illegally came off his hand in what he ascribed to supernatural intervention - as for his second in the same match against England which would later become known as the '' Goal of the Century ''.

These extremes - '' a virtuous goal and a sinful goal '' that also reflected Maradona's conflicted life of virtue and vice - help explain people's fascination  with him, according to Latin American columnist  Eduardo Galeano. [ AFP ]

Headline, November 28 2021/ ''' '' SAYING STUDENTS SPARKS '' '''

''' '' SAYING STUDENTS

 SPARKS '' '''

REMEMBER : ON THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY, students's, social and institutional trust are very critical when the future is anything but damn, damn uncertain.

GLOBAL FOUNDER FRAMERS : Do we have a FALLBACK position strategy? Missteps can serve as lessons in why transparency is critical for navigating through uncertainty. Don't try living by imagining an utopian world. Trust, if maintained, could make a huge difference.

IF WE IMAGINE THAT SPEECH has existed for 24 hours, - then according to all modern estimates, writing came along only sometime around 11: 30 p.m.

YOU MAY NOT AGREE, AND THAT'S THE POINT. IF YOU have something to say, then say it. Why do we prize writing skills over the ability to make an oral presentation?

When I have given oral presentations, I reach people more directly than if I'd written everything down for them to read. When people can see your face and hear the melody of your voice, your point gets across more vividly. Language evolved, after all, for face-to-face contact, not rendered as glyphs on paper.

AS TIME GOES BY - I AM EVER MORE perplexed by way we make students learn to write the classic five-paragraph essay but have so much less interest in developing their spoken argument skills.

As much as I love writing, I wonder if there is something arbitrary in the idea that education must focus more on the written than on the spoken word.

I'm not referring to the mano a mano of debating or the thrilling but colloquial speechmaking of preaching. I'm talking about formal oratory.

Back in the day, people would clear their throat and deliver. They weren't winging it. They would plan their remarks, without writing them out word for word. They knew their topic and, from that, they spoke.

Today, people may give a talk but with no expectation that they have their material down and not usually with the idea that they will attempt to convince us of a proposition by making a case. Our sense of spoken presentation is less formal, more personal, looser. But more formal oratory has its uses.

Sheer aesthetics is one of them. For example, to Americans in Gettysburg on Nov-19, 1863, the address they gathered to hear was not delivered by Abraham Lincoln. His speech lasted but two minutes. Former Secretary of State Edward Everett gave a two-hour speech from memory.

This was no talk of the kind we most often encounter these days, but an oration, opening with :

''Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and nature.''

He spoke of the hypocrisy of slavery in a country that was supposed to be free, the crime of the Confederacy's rebellion and the horrors of war.

The question is why oratory of this kind is so much less central to the culture than it once was. The fact that there exists an organization like Toastmasters, which fosters ability in public speaking, only underscores that this skill is no longer a given from schooling and general acculturation.

Imagine a square divided into four smaller ones. The top left square is casual speech; the top right square is formal speech. The bottom left square is casual writing; the formal right square is formal writing. We have, as it were, an empty square in our grid.

Casual speech is how we communicate most of the time. Down from that square, casual writing once upon a time meant the way you may have written letters to friends or the written language of passed notes or dorm message boards.

More recently it is texting and email, in which we use the mechanics of writing to express ourselves in a way that sounds like talking. Formal writing is the five-paragraph essay, and, of course, books and articles.

I wish students had the choice of either writing essays or speaking them. We would train them in the ability to speak carefully and coherently with the same goal of making a point that we require in writing.

A LOT OF PEOPLE really hate writing. It's an unnatural activity, as humanity goes.

If we imagine that speech has existed for 24 hours, then according to all modern estimates, writing came along sometime around 11:30 p.m. Writing is an artifice, and given a choice, most people would rather talk [ or text ].

I have done this in one of my classes, and often the students who choose speaking make a better case than many of those who opt for writing. They seem to connect more readily to the task of talking than to writing an argument and execute it with more passion.

It is unclear to me that there is a reason to classify the oral suasion as something lesser than the written version, as long as students are instructed that they are to maintain a basic, tempered poise, without relying on volume or colourful rhetoric to stand in for logic.

Some will object that students will need to be able to craft arguments in writing in their future endeavours. But to channel the modern kind of response : Will they though?

To be sure, only formal writing can harbor '' Beloved '' or '' Ulysses,'' extended scientific proofs or detailed historic documentation. However, when it comes to individuals expressing their intelligence for assignments or teaching, I cannot see that writing is the only legitimate and effective vehicle.

We are a society that values speaking engagingly but places less of a value on speaking precisely. This is a matter of cultural preference; I wish it would change.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Concepts, Logics and Debates, continues. The World Students Society thanks author John Mcwhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011.

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS : HONOURS

 

LOS ANGELES : BTS reign supreme beating Taylor, Drake and Ariana.

K- Pop band BTS was the biggest winner at the American Music Awards just four years after making their first appearance on the fan-voted show.

The seven member band from South Korea beat veterans Taylor Swift, rapper Drake, pop singer Ariana Grande, teen phenomenon Olivia Rodrigo and Canadian The Weeknd for the night's biggest prize -artist of the year.

Adored by an army of fervent fans, they were also named favorite pop group and won best pop songs for their summer hot Butter. The band, known for its positive uplifting music, called the artist of the year win a miracle.

'' We're truly honored to be on this stage with such amazing, tremendous  artists,'' said Kim Nam-Joon, known as RM.

''It's been a long and amazing ride.... nobody could have ever bet on the odds of us standing here and receiving this award, except you all,'' he added, referring to the band's fans.

 BTS closed the show with a performance of Butter and earlier joined Coldplay on stage for a rendition of their single  My Universe, marking a post-pandemic return to live performances for the K-pop band.

Swift was among several top nominated artists, including Grande, The Weeknd and Drake, who did not attend Sunday's ceremony. She took home the trophies for favorite female artist and best pop album for her lockdown album Evermore.

'' I'm so lucky to be in your life, and to get to have you in mine,'' Swift told fans in a video acceptance speech.

First-time host Cardi B pulled off a series of extravagant costume changes and confessed she was worried about messing up. 

''I'm a little nervous. I'm shaking, the Badak Yellow rapper said, sporting a head-to-toe black feather headdress, as she opened the show.

Rodrigo, 18, who burst into charts in January, had gone into Sunday's show with a leading seven nods, but ended up with just one - best new artist.

While Doja Cat picked up three awards, including one for her  Kiss Me More collaboration with SZA. Rapper Megan Three Stallion also won three including favorite female hip hop artist.

Machine Gun Kelly grabbed the favorite rock artist award. 

''I want to accept this for all the aspiring musicians, the one who desires to play an instrument, wants to rap, wants to sing - not just the rock artists, but all the artists,'' he said, according to AP.

The Weeknd was crowned favorite male R&B artist and Drake won the Favorite male hip-hop artist, noted the outlet. Underwood won for favorite inspirational artist and favorite female country artist.

While Luke Bryan was named favorite country artist, Bad Bunny, the favorite male Latin artist and Becky G won favorite female Latin artist and thanked the Latinx community. 

''You are not alone,'' she said. '' We are the American dream.''

New Edition and New Kids on the Block brought some 1980s nostalgia when they took stage together to promote their comebacks, Jennifer Lopez sang her new ballad On My Way, and Italian Eurovision song contest winners Maneskin delivered a rock version of 1960s Four Seasons hit Beggin'.

Rodrigo performed her hit Traitor live on a stage covered with flowers and Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean brought a little country to the stage when they sang their pre-taped duet If I Didn't Love You.

With a little help from Julieta Venegas and Tainy, Bad Bunny performed their hit Lo Siento BB.''

The nominees were based on Billboard music chart performance, streaming and album sales, radio play and social media engagement, and the winners were chosen entirely by fans. [Reuters]