Eliminating Period Poverty, across countries

Period poverty is a challenge not just of the developing world, but developed countries too. On a positive note though, each is finding its own way of tackling it. In India, tax on sanitary napkins was removed recently and much effort has been made to break the taboo around a discussion on the matter. Producers and retailers of these sanitary products in the UK are also creating greater awareness on this subject, besides making a contributiont to eliminating it.

In a revision of tax rates under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Government of India de-taxed sanitary products from the earlier rate of 12%, a hard won victory in the concerted drive towards ensuring that necessities remain free from taxation.  In a country where girls drop out of schools on puberty on account of being unable to afford menstrual products, this is a step in the right direction.

It remains to be seen whether sanitary product prices will indeed fall as a result, since the manufacturers can no longer avail of the input tax credit for taxes already paid at various stages of production of the end good. But that is the next question. For now, a first breakthrough has been achieved. And with no small effort. 

Film Review: Hereditary has shock, not necessarily chills

The Hereditary trailer looked promising. A dark tale of family secrets, unusual professions and a knowing, quiet child. Unfortunately, despite all the drama that ensues in the film, the trailer seems to promise something different, if not more, than the movie actually offers.

The film starts with a mother's funeral, where the daughter has not one nice thing to say about her and doesn't even know many of the people attending it. The 13 year old granddaughter is the only one who seems to be visibly affected by the passing. The family seems to be inching back to normal life when their lives suddenly spin out of control, with shocking occurrences eventually leading up to an ending that can only be described as bizarre.

Delivering on the shock value can be an essential part of keeping the audiences engaged. But shock itself can be shown in multiple ways. Hereditary relies on the most visually brutal of these ways, namely, decapitated heads, last seen to great effect, most popularly in the very medieval series Game of Thrones. Except, that this is the 21^st century. The trailer suggested that this was a relatively more sophisticated horror film, than one that will get into such raw territory. The use of music, especially in the first half of the films, to deliver chills where there is little to fear and the film's falling into adolescent explorations of the supernatural like seances with the dead using glasses, also do disservice, despite some good acting. Notably, Milly Shapiro, who plays the 13 year old girl, is fabulous as a haunted, hard to read teenager. Unfortunately, her part is quite small.

Gender neutrality in defining professions

As a student of the German language, I made an attempt at introducing myself to the class a few weeks ago, only to stumble on the word for my profession (and despite my lovely teacher's consistent encouragement). It turns out that the word for 'economist' in the language is Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin. I know, right? Challenging as the word is, this was only the tip of what is worth dwelling over.

It turns out, that in German, the word for a female economist is different from a male economist. The word being as opposed to Wirtschaftswissenchaftler for a male economist. Which, of course, led to a quick discussion on the question of gender neutrality in defining professions. Particularly so, since it is a sharp distinction from the terms used in the English language. An economist, is an economist, irrespective of their gender. No one is slotted as a female economist or a male economist. Which makes sense. Because, what difference does the gender make in a profession about numbers and analysis? In all the years of being one and engaging with other economists I have never seen difference in either inclination or capability.