Big rigs and the open road: women in driver’s seat

14/02/2022 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender

A triple road train. Photo Credit: Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney/Melbourne, 13.02.2022 (The Sun Herald and The Age): As a seven-year-old, sitting high on the passenger seat with her younger sister, Kersti Jones would observe her mum, Heather, drive a 53-metre triple road train. She would imagine being behind the wheel as she looked below at other cars whizzing by on the highway.

The truck was their mobile home for seven years as they crisscrossed the resource-rich and rugged landscape of Western Australia.

Continue Reading in The Sun Herald

Continue Reading in The Sunday Age

Continue reading →

Child labour rampant in Bangladesh’s leather industry, study

23/07/2021 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 22.07.2021 (SciDev.Net): Children as young as seven years are working with hazardous chemicals, heavy machinery or carrying heavy loads, endangering their health and lives in Bangladesh’s lucrative leather industry, according to a study.

Globally, about 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with nine million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19, according to UNICEF. Almost half of them were in hazardous work that directly imperils their health and moral development, the UN children’s agency said.

The study, published this month and led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), a UK-based international development policy think tank, comes as the world marks 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.

Continue reading →

Of original oil lamps in the times of LED lighting

26/03/2020 3 Comments read Business and Trade, Travel

By Neena Bhandari

Braidwood (NSW, Australia): In the historic town of Braidwood, tucked away on leafy Duncan Street is a store with perhaps the largest collection of original oil lamps in the country.

A sloping gravel pathway leads to an opaque door, which slides open into a space every inch occupied by antique oil lamps from around the world. A young couple is intently listening to a tall man in his seventies, relating the story of a large floor-standing Egyptian oil lamp. It’s the owner of The Original Lamp Shop, Robert J. Aernout, who greets us and continues to show the couple his collection of myriad lamps. There are lamps of all shapes, sizes and materials, adorning the shelves, the floor, and some hanging low from the rafters.

One can’t help, but wonder, who would still be buying this medieval source of light in the times of LED (light emitting diode), sensor and automatic internet-operated lights?

Continue reading →