Bonjour Planet Earth: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Rice Village waiter receives $5,000 tip!!!

A waiter at a Rice Village restaurant said he’s speechless after receiving a $5,000 tip.

Greg Rubar has worked at D’Amico’s Italian Market for 16 years. Over the weekend, a married couple, who are his regular customers, handed him the big tip.

“I told them thank you when they gave it to me, I knew it was money, but I didn’t know how much,” he said. “Maybe like a half hour after they left I went in the bathroom and I opened it, and looked at it and I could tell it was $5,000 because it was still wrapped, it still had the band on it from the bank.”

Rubar said the couple knew that his car was destroyed in recent thunderstorms in Houston. When they gave him the check they told him to go buy himself a car. He said that’s what he plans to do. Source + video...

Related posts:

Teens arrested after trying to trade sex for McDonald's meal...

A Valley teen is facing a child prostitution charge after attempting to trade sex for food.

Faelyn Ritz, 18, was arrested Monday after she and a 14-year-old girl agreed to have sex with two men in exchange for a meal at McDonald’s.

Police approached Ritz after watching her, the 14-year-old, and the two men discuss a deal in the area of Priest and Broadway.

While speaking with officers, Ritz admitted that she had reached an agreement with the men to swap sexual favors for food at McDonald’s. Full story...

Related posts:

Shaun Ellis, a man among the wolves...

Related posts:

Christina Zenato and her friends the sharks...

Chito and and his pet crocodile Pocho...

Swiss supermarket giant Migros to label items from Israel's occupied territories...

The Swiss wholesaler Migros sells a number of products from Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, such as dates, potatoes, fruit, herbs and Soda-Club machines.

In the future, the store will declare their origins.

At the moment, these products are declared to be from “Israel.”

However, some products are actually imported from Palestinian territories like the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are being settled by Israel, said a report in the Migros Magazine on Monday.

The settlements violate international law, according to the UN and the Federal Council. Full story...

Related posts:

ACTA rejected by EU Parliament committees in crucial vote...

The European Parliament has opposed the controversial ACTA treaty, after three of its influential committees said the trade agreement should be rejected.

The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) all voted against implementing the agreement, which caused mass protests in several European countries this year.

In ITRE, the votes were split 31 members for and 12 votes against a draft opinion which called on the Parliament to reject ACTA. One member abstained.

In JURI, 10 votes were cast for a pro-ACTA draft opinion and 12 against, while two committee members abstained. The small-margin victory still went to opponents of the treaty. Full story...

Related posts:

Cancelled Lady Gaga concert gives Indonesia "international black eye..."

Three days after rock diva Lady Gaga cancelled her sold-out concert on concerns that Islamic militants might commit violence, the fallout continues in Jakarta, with the two English-language dailies taking radically different stances and with international dismay growing at the country’s rising radicalism.

The abandonment of the concert by one of the world’s most popular pop stars, provocative as she is, has earned the country, usually described as the world’s most tolerant Muslim society, an international black eye. Some 52,000 tickets had been sold for the event, scheduled for Sunday. Although the 26-year-old singer has faced protests from Christian groups at her shows in the Philippines and South Korea, they have been allowed to continue and have gone off without incident. She was scheduled to fly to Jakarta after playing three shows in Singapore, then fly to New Zealand and Australia and on to Europe.

Gaga issued an apology to her Indonesian fans on Twitter, saying she was “just as devastated as you if not more. You are everything to me. I will try to put together something special for you. My love for Indonesia has only grown.” She had said earlier that she wouldn’t tone down her shows to accommodate the Indonesian audience. Some 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslims, although just how Muslim they are is open to question. Much of Indonesian Islam is a mixture of animism and witchcraft. Other pop stars including Beyonce and the Pussycat Dolls have performed there, although they reportedly agreed to tone down their dress. Full story...

Related posts:

Anger grows over IMF chief Lagarde's tax-free salary. (And she accused the Greeks of dodging taxes!!!)

It was called her "Let them eat cake" moment. Now Greece will be saying: "Make her pay tax".

The IMF chief Christine Lagarde was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after it emerged that she pays no income tax – just days after blaming the Greeks for causing their financial peril by dodging their own bills.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without "justification" – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night.

Unlike Mr Obama, however, she does not have to pay any tax on this substantial income because of her diplomatic status. Full story...

Related posts:

Robert Mugabe asked to be UN 'leader for tourism'

With a line-up that includes Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin, the UN's choice of ambassadors has been known to cause raised eyebrows or the odd smirk.

Seldom, however, has there been such anger, or questioning of the organisation's credibility, as that greeting the appointment of a new international envoy for tourism: Robert Mugabe.

Improbable as it seems, the Zimbabwean president, who is widely accused of ethnic cleansing, rigging elections, terrorising opposition, controlling media and presiding over a collapsed economy, has been endorsed as a champion of efforts to boost global holidaymaking.

Despite that fact Mugabe, 88, is under a travel ban, he has been honoured as a "leader for tourism" by the UN's World Tourism Organisation, along with his political ally, Zambian president Michael Sata, 75. The pair signed an agreement with UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai at their shared border at Victoria Falls on Tuesday. Full story...

Related posts:

Queen Lizzie’s diamond drivel-ee and her media bitches...

(...)

Her holdings are vast and estimated in the trillions and her real estate empire is worldwide. One little side real estate tidbit is all the seabeds surrounding the UK. Tell me how you pull that one off!

And her political power, outwardly at least, is no rubber stamp. She has something called the “royal prerogative”, very akin to the U.S. President free-handed untouchable Executive Order.

But royal prerogative is the subject of controversy, because it confers on governments the power to make major decisions without recourse to parliament. When Edward Heath brought Britain into the EEC in 1972, parliament was not consulted until afterwards. Similarly, Margaret Thatcher used royal prerogative to go to war in the Falklands in 1982.

(...)

All the while deceiving a brainwashed public she’s this benign little old grandmother who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

If she or all the other royalty had one iota of compassion or empathy, which they don’t, they’d open their overflowing coffers of gems and jewels and gold and silver and vast amounts of obscene wealth and start feeding the starving people of the world. Full story...

Related posts:

Prince Charles gets more taypayer money, but pays less taxes...

Why are the Queen, wealthy people and corporations receiving EU farm subsidies?

Salman Rushdie talks about the 'stupid, archaic' British monarchy...

Leaked email reveals BBC's suppression of anti-monarchy views...

Calls to end detention of children in Australia...

Related posts:

Asylum seekers in Australia sew their lips together in detention protest...

Greek suicide epidemic continues as debt-strapped pensioner hangs himself...

A 61-year-old Greek pensioner has hung himself from a tree in a public park after succumbing to the pressure of crushing debt. A note in his pocket indicates he is merely the latest in a rash of economic crisis-induced suicides.

The pensioner’s lifeless body was found dangling by an attendant in a public park not far from his home in the suburb of Nikaia, Athens. The attendant also found a suicide note in the man’s pocket, The Athens news reports.

The man, identifying himself as Alexandros, said he was a man of few vices who “worked all day.” However, he blamed himself from committing one “horrendous crime”: becoming a professional at the age of 40 and plunging himself into debt. He referred to himself as a 61-year-old idiot who had to pay, hoping his grandchildren would not be born in Greece, as the country’s prospects were so bleak.

(...)

Crisis-bred suicides have become almost a daily occurrence in Greece over the last several months.

Alexandro’s suicide follows the death of a 42-year-old man on Tuesday. The man apparently jumped from the fifth story of a hospital in Chania, Crete, after losing his job several days prior.

And last week, a 60-year-old Greek musician and his 91-year-old mother jumped to their deaths from their fifth floor apartment in an apparent suicide pact. Full story...

Related posts:

Tibetan mother burns herself to death in Sichuan...

A Tibetan mother of three has died after setting herself on fire in Sichuan province, two reports say.

The woman, in her 30s, set herself on fire outside a monastery in Aba county, Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet said.

Aba county has been at the heart of a series of self-immolations involving Tibetans in apparent protest against Chinese rule.

On Sunday, two men set themselves on fire in Lhasa, the first incidents in the Tibetan capital.

One of the men died while the other "survived with injuries", Xinhua news agency said. Full story...

Related posts:

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A baby made in India: American couple's dream come true...

Robyn and Jason Wright are learning the dusty streets of their son's birthplace, where spluttering rickshaws weave around abandoned cows with bright painted faces, piles of trash smoldering on the sidewalk.

This is Anand, half a world away from their American home, where amid all the chaos, passersby strain to catch a glimpse of the tiny bundle Robyn is cradling in her arms.

Baby Jake Wright, seven weeks old and weighing just four pounds is the baby they thought they would never have, as Robyn was unable to carry a child after a hysterectomy.

“We’d written it off, thought we’d never have kids,” Robyn told us. “Someone had mentioned doing surrogacy in India. I thought they were crazy.”

Crazy as it seemed, the Wrights flew from their home in Wyoming to the Akanksha Infertility Clinic here in Anand: the reproductive tourist hub for an international baby boom. They supplied the egg and sperm for baby Jake and he was carried in the womb of an Indian surrogate mother called Usha, who gave birth to him in December. Full story...

Related posts:

Houla massacre in Syria sparks media blame-game: BBC once again caught lying...

Related posts:

'I'm a whore and proud of it'

Madame Lisa, the manager of the biggest brothel in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, has spoken out about the joy she derives from her profession in her newly published memoirs.

The mother of three, who is now in her forties, describes her life at the brothel Venusia in Geneva as “beautiful”.

“I am a whore. And proud of it. According to the Petit Robert Dictionary, I am also a pimp, because I draw earnings from the prostitution of others,” she says in the opening lines of her book.

Venusia is a 700-square metre brothel, kitted out with a large Jacuzzi, a cigar room and other themed rooms. Madame Lisa describes it as her life's masterpiece, online news site Le Matin reports. Full story...

Related posts:

Bradley Manning's lawyers accuse US govt of secrecy even worse than at Guantanamo...

Two years and two days since his arrest in Iraq on May 26, 2010, Pfc. Bradley Manning still awaits the start of his court-martial, as his lawyers and other sympathizers try to take the government to task for its secrecy regarding the 24-year old, who faces 22 charges, including “aiding the enemy,” a charge that, in theory, carries the death penalty, although prosecutors have said that they will not be pressing for his execution, if he is convicted.

Manning, a former US intelligence analyst, is the alleged whistleblower responsible for leaking thousands of classified US government documents to WikiLeaks, dealing with the Afghan and Iraq wars, and the prisoners in Guantánamo, as well as hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. Held in damaging isolation for the first eleven months of his detention — in Kuwait and then at a military brig in Quantico, Virginia, he was then moved — after pressure was exerted by his many supporters, and by legal experts — to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remains. His Article 32 hearing, preparing the way for his trial, took place last December, and he was referred to a general court-martial by the judge, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza. He was arraigned on February 23 this year, when he declined to enter a plea.

Now, as the Guardian reported last week, with hearings taking place prior to his court-martial, possibly in August, a coalition of lawyers and media outlets, led by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, “has petitioned the Army court of criminal appeals calling for the court-martial against Manning to be opened up to the press and public,” claiming that his military trial “is being conducted amid far more secrecy than even the prosecution of the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantánamo.” Full story...

Related posts:

Never forget that Bradley Manning, not gay marriage, is the issue...

Are cell-phones causing a 50 percent increase in frontal and temporal lobe tumors in children?

The Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom discovered a 50 percent increase in frontal and temporal lobe tumors in children during the ten year span covering 1999 to 2009. Was this a result of cell phone radiation?

The Department of Health in the UK would appear to think so. One in three children under the age of ten currently has a cellphone in their possession. The governmental agency put out the following statement: "Children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short."

The facts: while adults definitely absorb some radiation from using cellphones, children are at considerably greater risk. When compared to adults, children's brains can take in up to three times the amount of radiation.

(...)

MobileWise, a non-profit organization from the UK whose mission is to inform the public about the potential risks to children from engaging in cell phone use, released a report in 2011 in which researchers expressed concerns. Why have cell phones been deemed safe when more than 200 peer-reviewed studies convey an association between cellphone usage and serious health complications, including brain damage?

Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon and editor of The Blaylock Wellness Report, may have the answer. Blaylock shares, "There is considerable evidence that cellphones damage the brain as well as other tissues and organs. In fact, two of the scientists cellphone companies backed to do these studies were fired when their studies demonstrated DNA damage in all cells exposed to the wavelengths and energy from cellphones." Full story...

Related posts:

Mobile phones are dangerous and we're deliberately being kept ignorant about it...

Cell phone tower near California school causing cancer?

Italian striker Balotelli threatens to kill racists who throw bananas...

MARIO BALOTELLI has threatened to kill anyone who throws a banana at him during next month's European Championships. The volatile Manchester City striker has been selected in the Italian squad for the tournament amid growing concerns that Europe's top players will be subject to racist abuse in the Ukraine and Poland.

Earlier this week former Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has urged fans not to travel to Eastern Europe unless they wish to return "in a coffin", comments that drew a sharp response from Ukrainian officials and public figures.

But the families of England players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have said they won't be travelling to the Championships because of racism concerns but Balotelli intends to tackle the problem head on and has issued a stark warning to the host countries. In an interview with France Football, the 21-year-old said: "If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to prison because I will kill him." Full story...

Related posts:

India’s unlikely romance with Ayn Rand...

Literary tastes in India, as anywhere, change with the times, but one writer has never gone out of vogue: Ayn Rand — the high priestess of free-market capitalism and unfettered individualism.

A marginal, and often derided literary figure in many other countries, Rand is a perennial presence on Indian bestseller lists and regularly name-checked on the “favourite author” list of influential Indians — from company CEOs to Bollywood stars.

Until 2007, Indians conducted more Google searches for the Russian-American novelist than residents of any other country, and in recent years have ceded the top spot only to Americans.

Rand’s rabid anti-statism and promotion of laissez-faire capitalism has long resonated with conservatives in the United States, where former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan numbers among her high-profile devotees. Full story...

Related posts:

Atlas Shrugged and John Galt coming alive...

Did Ayn Rand know that her Atlas would shrug?

Swedish woman loses phone, and finds nude photos of herself on her Facebook page!!!

A woman from northern Sweden who had her mobile phone stolen at the weekend was later horrified to find naked pictures of herself posted on her own Facebook page.

The 21-year-old ex-phone owner was out at a bar in Sundsvall, northern Sweden, on Saturday evening when she discovered her phone had been stolen, according to Sundsvall Dagbladet newspaper.

Her mobile telephone was in the back pocket of her trousers, which made easy pickings for the thief’s light fingers.

The thief took the opportunity to pilfer the phone, but wasn’t finished there. Full story...

Related posts:

Indian women warned about boyfriend sex videos...

Nude Facebook revenge photos cost ex-boyfriend £350...

Teacher kills herself after ex-boyfriend posts naked photos of her on Facebook...

Stray dog runs 1700km to Tibet with Chinese cyclists!

Related posts:

A rising tide of Filipinos in Singapore’s fast-changing demography...

FILIPINOS are starting to stamp their footprints on Singapore’s fast-changing demography.

Tens of thousands of them – known as among South-East Asia’s most happy-go-lucky people – have flocked here to work, making them the fourth largest migrant nationality.

Although they play second fiddle to Malaysia, China and India in numbers, the Filipinos – totalling 180,000 – are now playing catch-up.

Most came in recent years to work as professionals and domestic maids. This is by no means unique. Singapore is far from being a major recipient.

With 11 million of its people working overseas, the Philippines is the world’s third largest exporter of migrant workers. Full story...

Related posts:

Manchester United voted most popular football club in the world...

A recent survey by market research agency Kantar has declared that Manchester United are the world's most popular club with 659 million followers globally.

The study was the largest football fan survey ever carried out, with 54,000 respondents from 39 countries taking part.

According to Kantar's findings, the Red Devils have 71m fans in North and South America, 90m in Europe, 173m across Africa and the Middle East, and critically, 325m fans in the ever-expanding Asian market.

A similar study was commissioned in 2007 and, at that time, United only boasted half of their current number of fans.

The clubs's commercial director, Richard Arnold, was understandably pleased by the survey's findings, which added to Forbes magazine's recent declaration that United are the world's most valuable sports brand. Full story...

Related posts:

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Facebook could pay over $1 billion for Opera browser...

Opera Software shares soared over 20 percent on Tuesday on talk Facebook Inc. was in discussion to buy the firm, while analysts said competition from Google and others could push the price tag of any deal over $1 billion.

Shares of Oslo-listed Opera, coveted for its advanced mobile phone software technology, jumped as much as 26 percent, valuing the firm at over $800 million.

Opera's mobile technology, along with 170 million Opera Mini users, give the firm extensive commercial relationships with mobile phone manufacturers and operators.

Facebook has struggled to convert its rapidly increasing traffic from mobile platforms to revenue, and purchasing Opera would be a faster solution than building its own platform or browser, analysts added. Full story...

Related posts:

Let me tell you a story...

Related posts:

Education is killing children's creativity...

Do you think you are an educated person?

"Information please." A true story...

The dog-biscuit miracle...

Phony ‘Houla Massacre’: How media manipulates public opinion for regime change in Syria...

If you are still needing an academic tutorial on exactly how the mainstream media is able to generate a completely phony public consensus to support foreign intervention projects, you need look no further than the dangerous, fictional narrative currently being rolled out regarding Syria.

This past Saturday and Sunday morning, almost every major corporate mainstream newspaper and TV network in North America and in Europe ran with the average headline, “Massacre of the children as Syrian forces hit rebels”, giving hundreds of millions of readers and viewers to artificial impression that it was Syrian government forces – and not western-backed terrorist groups, who carried out a massacre on children and others days ago - even though, the true culprit of these attacks has not yet been determined – a fact which was only briefly mentioned later on in these very same media reports.

One of the UK best-selling weekend papers and most widely read online journals, Guardian media group’s The Observer, ran such a headline – one which shamelessly implied that the Syrian government carried out a massacre in Houla. This was used to shape public opinion in Europe, a reality which is later shaped for the North American market. Full story...

Related posts:

English soccer fans warned to stay away from Euro 2012 "because you could end up coming back in a coffin".

Sol Campbell, the former England international, has warned England fans to stay away from Euro 2012 "because you could end up coming back in a coffin".

He said Uefa was wrong to choose Poland and Ukraine to host the tournament because it put supporters in danger of racism and violence.

The former Arsenal and Tottenham defender told BBC Panorama: "Stay at home, watch it on TV. Don't even risk it ... because you could end up coming back in a coffin."

His warning came as the family of two black England players said they would not go to Euro 2012. Full story...

See also: England fans avoid Euro 2012

Related posts:

Inquiry begins into racial quotas in French soccer ...

Spanish racists target Lewis Hamilton with voodoo-style attacks...

Ferdinand condemns Fifa on racism, suggests points reduction...

Racism in French football: the John Mensah affair...

Computer virus Flame is more sophisticated than Stuxnet...

SECURITY experts have discovered the world’s most complex computer virus, dubbed Flame, which they say has been lurking undetected in computers in Iran and the Middle East for up to five years.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the malicious software is 20 times more powerful than any other known cyber warfare programmes including the infamous Stuxnet virus, and could only have been created by a state.

Flame is the third computer virus aimed at systems in the Middle East to have been exposed in the past three years: Iran has accused Israel and the West of using cyber warfare to sabotage its nuclear programme.

The Flame virus was detected by Kaspersky Labs, a Russian security firm that specialises in targeting malicious computer codes and which was set up by the discoverer of Stuxnet, Eugene Kaspersky. Senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg said they had never seen such sophisticated programming. Full story...

Related posts:

Pakistanis sentenced to death for singing and dancing at wedding...

FOUR women and two men have been sentenced to death in northern Pakistan for singing and dancing at a wedding, police said Monday.

Clerics issued a decree after a mobile phone video emerged of the six enjoying themselves in a remote village in the mountainous district of Kohistan, 176 kilometres (109 miles) north of the capital Islamabad.

Pakistani authorities in the area said local clerics had ordered the punishment over allegations that the men and women danced and sang together in Gada village, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings.

"The local clerics issued a decree to kill all four women and two men shown in the video," district police officer Abdul Majeed Afridi told AFP. Full story...

Related posts:

Online support grows for Diane Tran, the Texas student jailed for truancy...

The clamors for Judge Lanny Moriarty in the State of Texas to lift its decision for Diane Tran have been building with recent update on the petition at Change.org reaching 20,000 signatures as of May 28, 2012.

Diane Tran is a 17-year-old honor high school student in Texas who was ordered to spend 24 hours in jail and pay a $100 fine when she missed her classes last week as reported by Khou.com based in Houston, Texas.

According to Texas law, if a student has ten or more unexcused absences within a six-month period, the school district may refer the student to a juvenile court. “In such cases, resolution of the issue is entirely in the hands of the court,” reads a statement on the website of the Willis Independent School District.

Tran reasoned out her part-time works for missing her classes. She said she is working very hard to support her siblings – an older brother who is attending his school at Texas A&M University and a baby sister who lives with her relatives in Houston. Full story...

Related posts:

Teacher suspended for calling her students 'jerks' and “disengaged, lazy whiners”

Radioactive tuna from Fukushima found off California coast...

If your muscles start swelling to superhero proportions after your next sushi meal, this might be why.

Researchers from Stony Brook University in New York have discovered bluefin tuna are carrying radioactive contamination leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant all the way across the Pacific to the United States, 6,000 miles away.

This is the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance, as they generally metabolise the contamination during their journey.

'We were frankly kind of startled,' said researcher Nicholas Fisher, who reported the findings on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The levels of contamination were 10 times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the California coast in previous years. Full story...

Related posts:

Japanese government losing public trust as nuclear crisis worsens...

China moves to tame microbloggers amid censorship claims...

China's Sina Corp has introduced a code of conduct for users of the local version of Twitter amid accusations of censorship to rein in what has grown into a raucous online forum to air political and social grievances.

The code of conduct, first announced earlier this month, stipulates that users of Sina's Weibo microblogging site cannot post information that is against the principles of the constitution, cannot harm national unity, disclose state secrets or publish false information, among other rules.

Many users said the restrictions were aimed at muzzling the often scathing and anonymous online chatter in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for open discussion.

The move, the latest in a series of steps to rein in discussion on Weibo, comes as China prepares for a once-in-a-decade leadership handover, expected to be announced at a party congress later this year. Full story...

Related posts:

Angry Canadians "make noise" with pots and pans...

Related posts:

BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre'

The BBC is facing criticism after it accidentally used a picture taken in Iraq in 2003 to illustrate the senseless massacre of children in Syria.

Photographer Marco di Lauro said he nearly “fell off his chair” when he saw the image being used, and said he was “astonished” at the failure of the corporation to check their sources.

The picture, which was actually taken on March 27, 2003, shows a young Iraqi child jumping over dozens of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad.

It was posted on the BBC news website today under the heading “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows”. Full story...

Related posts:

Let's stop pretending there's no racism in India...

The mysterious death of Loitam Richard in Bangalore, the murder of Ramchanphy Hongray in New Delhi, the suicide by Dana Sangma and other such incidents serve as reminders of the insecure conditions under which people, particularly the young, from the north-east of India have to live with in the metros of this country. What these deaths have in common is that the three individuals were all from a certain part of the country, had a “particular” physical appearance, and were seen as outsiders in the places they died. These incidents have been read as a symptom of the pervasive racial discrimination that people from the region face in metropolitan India.

Quite expectedly, such an assertion about the existence of racism in India will not be taken seriously; the response will be to either remain silent and refuse to acknowledge this form of racism or, fiercely, to reject it. Ironically, most Indians see racism as a phenomenon that exists in other countries, particularly in the West, and without fail, see themselves as victims. They do not see themselves harbouring (potentially) racist attitudes and behaviour towards others whom they see as inferior.

But time and again, various groups of people, particularly from the north-east have experienced forms of racial discrimination and highlighted the practice of racism in India. In fact, institutionalised racism has been as much on the rise as cases of everyday racism in society. Full story...

Related posts:

Monday, May 28, 2012

Greece's sex industry hit by economic crisis...

Greece's once-thriving sex industry has become the latest victim of the country's debt crisis as Greeks spend less on erotic toys, pornography and titillating underwear.

About 50 people, almost all young men, lined up on Friday as the Athens Erotic Dream - Greece's biggest sex fair - opened its gates in a nondescript building squeezed against a highway on the outskirts of the capital.

The annual show attracted big crowds when it opened in 2008, at the height of Greece's debt-fuelled economic bubble. But interest has wilted alongside the Greek economy, mired in its fifth consecutive year of recession.

The austerity measures Greece adopted as part of the country's international bailout deal have led to record unemployment, while wage cuts and tax hikes have throttled consumer spending. Full story...

Related posts:

An apple that tastes like ... pussy?

Related posts:

India's Hampi families face eviction from historic ruins...

The men came in the middle of the night and painted red crosses on the houses chosen for demolition. In the morning the people who had lived and traded in the ruins of the old Hampi bazaar stood by helplessly as the bulldozers moved in. The past, they were to discover, had come back to haunt them.

Hampi is India's Pompeii. Once home to half a million people, it was sacked in 1565 by the armies of the Bahamani sultanates. For hundreds of years, the City of Victory lay abandoned until it was rediscovered by the British in the 19th century. Now it is a place of sprawling beauty, a world heritage site of 2,000 monuments scattered across a landscape of enormous granite boulders, pulling in nearly half a million visitors a year from around the world.

But of the people who helped transform it from an overgrown ruin, who made it a living monument rather than a museum, there is virtually no sign. They have been swept away, ordered out by conservation authorities determined to restore the site to the way it looked in its medieval heyday. Full story...

Related posts:

A poisonous Pentecost for the Pope and the Vatican...

The Vatican faces a widening scandal that in one short week has seen the butler of Pope Benedict XVI arrested, the president of its bank unceremoniously dismissed and the publication of a new book alleging conspiracies among cardinals.

It was a poisonous Pentecost Sunday for the Pope, who likely had the tumultuous events of the past week on his mind as he celebrated a mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the day regarded as the birthday of the church.

On Saturday his personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, 46, was formally charged with stealing confidential papal documents in the scandal that has come to be known as “Vatileaks.” Some of the documents allege cronyism and corruption in contracts with Italian companies. Full story...

Related posts:

Greeks attack IMF chief Lagarde in "Facebook War..."

Greek web users waged Facebook war against IMF head Christine Lagarde today after she accused their countrymen of dodging taxes.

The French managing director of the International Monetary Fund received more than 10,000 messages, many of them obscene, on her page on the online social network -- where her postings typically draw a couple of hundred comments.

By late Sunday afternoon a separate Facebook page had sprung up titled "Greeks are against Lagarde".

Its creators described it as "the page through which to show displeasure as a nation towards Lagarde!", with a picture of the IMF chief. Full story...

Related posts:

Tibetan capital sees first anti-China self-immolations ...

Two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire outside a Buddhist temple in Lhasa, the first of a series of self-immolation protests against Chinese rule over Tibet to take place in the regional capital, Radio Free Asia reported on Monday.

The broadcaster said the monks were taken away by security forces who quickly cleared the area where the immolations took place on Sunday in front of the Jokhang Temple, a key pilgrimage site and tourist destination in the heart of Lhasa.

The city was "filled with police and paramilitary forces and the situation is very tense" in the wake of the self-immolations, the U.S. government-sponsored broadcaster quoted an unidentified source in Lhasa as saying.

At least 34 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against China's six-decade rule over Tibet, according to Tibetan rights groups. At least 24 have died. Full story...

Related posts: