Time to abolish the United Nations. I just do not understand their decision on Syria while hundreds are dying. The US should cut off funding 13 hours ago
A 50-something year old white woman arrived at her seat and saw that the passenger next to her was a black man. Visibly furious, she called the air hostess.
“What’s the problem, ma?” the hostess asked her
“Can’t you see?” the lady said – “I was given a seat next to a black man. I can’t seat here next to him. You have to change my seat”
- “Please, calm down, ma” – said the hostess
“Unfortunately, all the seats are occupied, but I’m still going to check if we have any.”
The hostess left and returned some minutes later.
“Madam, as I told you, there isn’t any empty seat in this class- economy class.
But I spoke to the captain and he confirmed that there isn’t any empty seats in the economy class. We only have seats in the first class.”
And before the woman said anything, the hostess continued
“Look, it is unusual for our company to allow a passenger from the economy class change to the first class.
However, given the circumstances, the commandant thinks that it would be a scandal to make a passenger travel sat next to an unpleasant person.”
And turning to the black man, the hostess said:
“Which means, Sir, if you would be so nice to pack your handbag, we have reserved you a seat in the first class…”
And all the passengers nearby, who were shocked to see the scene started applauding, some standing on their feet.”
****THIS IS NOT A TRUE STORY. WOULDN’T IT BE NICE THOUGH IF IT WERE******
Nepal has some of the worst maternal death statistics in the world, with some six women dying in childbirth every day.
Despite the political instability of the past ten years of civil war, the Nepalese government is introducing measures to improve safety for mothers but so far little seems to be working.
Subina Shrestha, a Nepalese filmmaker who is herself five months pregnant, sets out to find out why so many mothers are dying in childbirth. In the following account she looks at the human stories behind these statistics.
Ten years of civil war in Nepal took over 15,000 lives. Within the same period, childbirth took the lives of over 22,000 women.
The war led to a revolution and there was an overhaul of the Nepali political system. The maternal deaths, however, hardly even featured in the newspapers.
When I realised that I was pregnant, I thought there would be no better time then now to look into this situation. And there was no better place than Accham.
Accham to me is one of the darkest corners of Nepal. I had been to the district ten years ago and had been shocked by the total lack of services. Ten years on, I believed myself to be a jaded journalist and a filmmaker. Accham proved me wrong once again.
Our destination, Sanfe Bagar, a dirt track flanked by shops of corrugated iron sheets, was as dusty as before. The mules had been replaced by motorcycles and people ran around scared every time young men drove spewing out dust and exhaust.
Nepalese women have to stay in a chaupadi during menstruation
Deadly traditions
We did not have to go far to see that things had hardly changed.
Just around Sanfe, each house still had a chaupadi – an outhouse hardly big enough for two goats to crouch inside.
For five days every month during menstruation women have to live there.
I was shocked to hear a story about a woman who had to stand out in the rain all night with an umbrella because her family was too poor to build a chaupadi. She died of a snakebite.
And women are still dying. A few weeks before I reached Accham there was a story in the newspapers about a young woman who died in a chaupadi.
Toya Raj Giri, a health consultant from Unicef who accompanied us, explained that women light small fires in the hut to keep the cold away. With terrible ventilation, some get asphyxiated.
Within a day, I found myself getting angry. But I was preoccupied with finding a woman due to give birth that week. I heard there was a village where there were eight such women.
A five hour walk later we were told that all the babies were already born – a week premature. With multiple pregnancies and hard labour, women hardly ever make it to their due date.
By the time we found Basanti a few days later, I was convinced that I would fall into the category of village women who pop a baby out with considerable ease.
And women had been giving birth! There were children everywhere, running around with their big malnourished bellies and naked feet and flies stuck to their snotty noses and infected eyes. No woman in their late 20s had less then four children.
The narrow trails were full of defecation. None of the villages had toilets. Every monsoon, Accham suffers from diarrhoea and a few people die.
Stuck in the first floor of a house without improvised stairs, made of cement sacks on a cold rainy night, Toya started to vomit. I started to fear that the film would never be made.
The next day, when some men objected to us filming Basanti, I was certain that our time in Accham was up. I realised later that it was just envy, and that all the men wanted was attention and hopefully some money.
What struck me the most was the open mindedness and yet the helplessness of the women.
Accham has hardly any men – most men migrate to India for work. The handful that remain appear to do nothing but play cards and drink.
The women told me that many men bring “bad blood” from India – they return infected with HIV and infect their wives.
Thirty-one year old Basanti got married when she was 14 and is expecting her sixth child
Lack of medical service
Laxmi, a nurse, told me that it is a nightmare; not only to change the attitudes of the people but also to get doctors and specialists to visit.
Women, including Basanti, wanted to get a permanent family planning operation done but the service was not available.
To Laxmi’s knowledge, there has been one mini laprotomy camp, a permanent family planning procedure for women. Only one woman was operated on before the doctor packed up.
The government has sent many vasectomy camps, but with all the men in India it was a futile gesture.
Doctors occasionally visit to correct a prolapsed uterus in a woman. Malnourished and overworked, Laxmi believes that almost half the women in Accham have a prolapsed uterus. Nationwide, one in ten women suffer from uterine prolapse.
Laxmi had tales of women dying while giving birth. She talked about women who begged to be saved but their family refused to take them to a hospital, and of women whose vaginas were hacked by village “healers” after their baby died inside them.
No wonder Basanti was so keen to have us around. It meant that we would not let her die.
Tales of women suffering in Accham could make any sane person’s blood boil. Even if women survive one childbirth, they might die in the next one.
If they have daughters, they are obliged to keep trying until they have several sons. Those who live through it all might have prolapsed uterus. When I think of the fate of 13-year-old Sunita, it breaks my heart.
Accham is like a black hole where women’s dignity is destroyed. Even before the filming ended, all I wanted was to get out of there.
Over? Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are said to have separated
Just last month they opened the doors of their luxury Malibu home and happily posed for an intimate family photo shoot.
But Hollywood power couple Will Smith, 42, and wife Jade Pinkett-Smith’s seemingly picture perfect marriage has now come to a shock end, according to a new report.
The pair, who have been married for 13 years, are said to have decided to call it quits, according to America’s In Touch Weekly magazine.
They have two children together – Jaden, 13, and Willow, ten.
They certainly gave no hint of trouble during their interview with Architectural Digest magazine only weeks ago.
When describing the layout of the 25,000sq ft house, Smith gushed that it had been designed with no ‘dead ends… to create an infinite cycle that represented what Jada and I hoped for our love’.
Jada, 39, also told the magazine: ‘For Will and me this home was always a spiritual endeavour.
‘We’re very earthy, organic people. We wanted to create a family retreat, something made by hand and as natural as possible, something that ties back to the land.’
She continued: ‘Whatever it becomes, the craftsmanship will always represent our union and the love of our family.’
This will be the second marriage to end for Smith, who divorced former fashion design student Sheree Zampino in 1995 after
three years together.
They have a son, Willard Christopher Smith, also known as Trey, who is now 18.
He famously dedicated his 1998 single, Just the Two of Us, to Trey. Lyrics included: ‘It didn’t work out with me and your mom/But yo, push come to shove/You was conceived in love.’
After his first divorce, Smith found comfort in Jada, whom he had first met in 1990 when she auditioned and was rejected for the role of his girlfriend on his hit TV show, The Fresh Prince.
In 1997, they married in a lavish ceremony at a mansion near her hometown of Baltimore in front 100 friends and family.
Famous family: Will and Jada have two children together Jaden, 13 and Willow, ten
Smith is one of the biggest film stars in Hollywood, with his blockbuster hits including Independence Day, I, Robot, Hitch, I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness and I Am Legend.
He recently began filming the third instalment of his hit franchise, Men In Black.
Jada, who enjoyed success with her acting career early on, recently spoke of her decision to sacrifice her singing aspirations for the sake of her family.
In an interview with the August issue of Redbook magazine she claimed she even turned down a chance to perform with Guns & Roses to support her children’s budding careers.
‘It was excruciating, completely excruciating,’ Jada said of her decision.
‘When Jaden was auditioning for The Pursuit of Happyness, my band had just gotten an offer to open for Guns N’ Roses in Europe.’
‘For me, that was unbelievable. But the choice was: I could be a rock star, or I could be on the set with my son to make sure he was healthy and happy. We all know how that story ended!’
Jada admitted she would rather be performing but she knows that her duty is to her children.
‘I had to make choices. Believe me, I would still be on the road with my band, Wicked Wisdom, and making as many movies as I can a year, and doing all sorts of other things if I didn’t have the responsibility of a family.’
‘But I have children with their own talents and dreams, and I know I have to be standing next to them for that journey.’
Last month, 60-year-old British florist and total mom-zilla, Carolyn Bourne attacked. After her stepson’s bride-to-be, Heidi Withers, was a guest in her house she had a thing or two to teach her before she entered the Bourne family.
So Bourne sent the 29-year-old a soul-crushing email. The subject line: “Your lack of manners.” The bullet points for the bride, in paraphrase: her wedding is going to be tacky, she’s too picky of an eater, her sense of humor sucks, and her stepson is making a dreadful choice in marrying her. And one more thing: her out-of-work parents are cheap.
When Withers received the email (Bourne sent it three times to be sure) she did what anyone would do: she forwarded it to a few friends to share in the shock. What was the alternative —respond with a ‘frowny’ face? But instead of simply offering advice, some anonymous friend got pro-active and forwarded Bourne’s e-attack, launching a viral sensation in a matter of hours. Now everyone in the Western Hemisphere has laid eyes on Bourne’s email.
In a way, it’s the ultimate revenge on a mother-in-law who needed to be put in her place after such power-mongering. But it’s not going to make for smooth wedding. Bourne has been labeled the mother-in-law from hell by media outlets and Withers’ father Alan has fueled the fire by publicly calling Bourne “Miss fancy pants.” Now parents on both sides of the couple are fueding and nobody’s manners are in check. Suggestion for Heidi and Freddie, her groom: elope.
Bourne has told London’s Telegraph she still plans to attend the wedding, but will maintain a “dignified silence.” She may know about English etiquette but she’s clueless about the cardinal rule of the Internet: never send an email you don’t want the world to see. You almost have to feel bad for the lady, mom-zilla or not. That is, until you read the actual email she sent Withers. Here’s an excerpt:
from: Carolyn Bourne to: heidi withers subject: your lack of manners
Here are a few examples of your lack of manners:
When you are a guest in another’s house, you do not declare what you will and will not eat – unless you are positively allergic to something.
You do not remark that you do not have enough food.
You do not start before everyone else.
You do not take additional helpings without being invited to by your host.
When a guest in another’s house, you do not lie in bed until late morning in households that rise early – you fall in line with house norms.
You should never ever insult the family you are about to join at any time and most definitely not in public. I gather you passed this off as a joke but the reaction in the pub was one of shock, not laughter.
You regularly draw attention to yourself. Perhaps you should ask yourself why. No one gets married in a castle unless they own it. It is brash, celebrity style behaviour.
I understand your parents are unable to contribute very much towards the cost of your wedding. (There is nothing wrong with that except that convention is such that one might presume they would have saved over the years for their daughters’ marriages.)
If this is the case, it would be most ladylike and gracious to lower your sights and have a modest wedding as befits both your incomes.
One could be accused of thinking that Heidi Withers must be patting herself on the back for having caught a most eligible young man. I pity Freddie. Ouch. There’s no denying it’s harsh, but if you’ve ever been in the line of fire in a wedding party, you know marriage anxieties strike darkness in the hearts of man. What do you think: Is this mom’s email forgivable?
Last week, after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court charged six senior Kenyan officials with orchestrating widespread violence following the 2007 national elections, President Obama rightly called on all Kenya’s leaders to “cooperate fully” with the court.
Similarly, declaring that “there has to be accountability,” Obama called on Sudan to cooperate with the court after it accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan of genocide in Darfur in July.
To its credit, this U.S. administration has repeatedly affirmed the centrality of international justice to U.S. foreign policy. But many wonder at the apparent disconnect between American support for justice abroad and Obama’s determination to “look forward not backward” at home.
Resistance to judicial scrutiny of post-9/11 U.S. government abuses, from torture to extraordinary rendition to unlawful surveillance, has made the president’s solemn exhortations to others ring hollow, and it has undercut the credibility of U.S. aspirations to global leadership on human rights.
This month’s WikiLeaks disclosure that the Bush administration pressured Germany not to pursue 13 C.I.A. operatives suspected of involvement in the unlawful 2003-2004 abduction and mistreatment of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, is yet another reminder that the U.S. must change course. And Masri’s pathbreaking lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights offers a timely opportunity for Washington to do just that.
As is now well known, Masri was seized by security officers in Macedonia on Dec. 31, 2003, while crossing the border by bus from his home in Germany. He was detained incommunicado for 23 days, during which time he was threatened, interrogated and denied permission to contact a lawyer, a consular officer or his wife. On Jan. 23, 2004, he was handcuffed and blindfolded, driven to Skopje airport and turned over to the C.I.A.
Told he would be medically examined, Masri was instead severely beaten. His clothes were sliced from his body and his underwear forcibly removed. He heard the sound of photographs being taken, he was thrown to the floor, his hands were pulled back and a boot was placed on his back. A firm object was forced into his anus.
With chains attached to his wrists and ankles, Masri was flown to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was locked up for more than four months in a secret prison known as the “Salt Pit.” During this time, he was beaten and kicked, force-fed following a 27-day-long hunger strike and denied medical care. He was never charged or given access to his family or German representatives.
On May 28, 2004, long after U.S. officials knew they had the wrong man, Masri was flown in a C.I.A.-chartered aircraft to a military airbase in Albania, then driven several hours in a car, dumped on the side of the road and instructed not to look back.
After meeting with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in December 2005, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that the U.S. government had admitted that Masri had been “erroneously taken.” Official inquiries by the Council of Europe, the European Union, and the German Parliament have all pointed to U.S. involvement. Nonetheless, Washington has never publicly acknowledged its role in Masri’s mistreatment.
Instead, senior U.S. officials have persistently denied responsibility and obtained dismissal of Masri’s attempts to secure judicial redress in U.S. courts on the grounds that “state secrets” precluded consideration of his claims.
In 2009, represented by my organization, Masri filed a complaint in Europe’s highest court against Macedonia for its part in the affair. Last month, the court confirmed that this case will go forward.
The Masri case provides the United States a chance to back up President Obama’s accountability rhetoric with substance. Although the U.S. is not a party to the proceedings, it may assist the court by acknowledging that Masri’s rendition was a mistake and providing information about what happened.
There are many good reasons for the U.S. to use the case to signal a new direction. Masri was victim of a practice — extraordinary rendition to torture — that the U.S. has since repudiated.
The European Court is a symbol of another time in which governments recommitted themselves to the rule of law after having gone astray. Most important, we can’t preach justice to others without practicing it ourselves.
James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, served as coordinator of prosecutions and senior trial attorney in the office of the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 22, 2010, in The International Herald Tribune.
PARIS, Nov 24 – Binge drinking, long known as a cause of liver damage, is also linked to heart disease, according to a 10-year study in Northern Ireland and France published on Wednesday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Researchers from Britain and France contrasted the drinking patterns among more than 9,700 middle-aged men in three cities in France (Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse) and in Belfast, the Northern Irish capital.
The volunteers, aged 50-59, were free from heart disease at the start of the study in 1991.
Over the course of a week, the volume of alcohol they consumed was roughly the same.
In France, though, the drinking was spread out quite evenly over a week and mainly involved wine. In Belfast, the men usually consumed beer, followed by spirits, and heavily concentrated their drinking at weekends, imbibing between two and three times more than in France.
Men who were “binge” drinkers were nearly twice as likely as regular drinkers, during the 10-year course of the study, to have a heart attack or die from heart disease.
Binge drinking was defined in the study as more than 50 grammes of alcohol drunk over a short period of time, such as one day during the week. Fifty grammes equates to four to five drinks, and a drink to 125 millilitres (4.2 fluid ounces) of wine or half a pint (284 millilitres) of beer.
Mr Mandla Zwelivelile Mandela, 36, is emerging as a powerful figure in South Africa, as he trades on the name of his grandfather, the legendary Nelson Mandela, to build a political and business career for himself.
He first shot into the public limelight in 2007 when he was appointed chief of the Traditional Council in Mvezo, birthplace of the anti-apartheid icon.
At first, the community elders offered the chieftaincy to Mr Mandela, but he rejected it in favour of Mandla, whose father was Makgatho, Mr Mandela’s late son by his first wife, Evelyn.
Recalling in an interview with South Africa’s News 24 media channel how he became aware of his blood ties to Mr Mandela, then a political prisoner, Mandla said: “I started becoming conscientised of the name in the mid-1980s when riots started in Soweto and everyone was shouting ‘Viva Mandela’ and I always asked my father:
‘Why is our name being shouted in the street?’ It was only then that he started introducing me to the identity.”
He suggested that Mr Mandela had chosen him as his heir.
“In 2002, after I had been out of school for a good seven or eight years, he (Mr Mandela) insisted that I should go back to study.
He really wanted to ensure that if there was a next one in mind to take over and look after the Mandela legacy he needed that individual to have a strong foundation,” said Mandla, who later graduated with a politics degree from South Africa’s Rhodes University.
Peter Vale, a lecturer at the university, says Mandla was “not in the top drawer academically, but he was serious and very respectful.”
Mandla began to play a high-profile political role during last year’s bitterly-fought election campaign when he threw his weight behind the African National Conmgress (ANC) and its controversial leader Jacob Zuma in their campaign to stave off a challenge from a breakaway party, the Congress of The People (Cope).
Amidst intense speculation that the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which is officially in charge of the former president’s affairs, wanted him to stay out of the divisive campaign, Mr Mandela surprised observers by sharing public platforms with Mr Zuma and Mandla, a possible sign of the grandson’s influence over the nonagenarian.
The ANC rewarded Mandla by nominating him to parliament but, says Mr Vale, he “will struggle to go far politically. The big figure of the man will always be there.
(Courtesy www.africareview.com)
“He (Mr Mandela) gave his life to the party and he decides for himself. And who is Jakes Gerwel (the chairman of the board of trustees of the Nelson Mandela Foundation) to tell me where to take my grandfather?” he told Johannesburg’s Mail&Guardian newspaper.
Flag-bearer
The ANC rewarded Mandla by nominating him to parliament but, says Mr Vale, he “will struggle to go far politically. The big figure of the man will always be there.
“This is not like the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty of India. There was sort of a tradition there that the children will follow. I don’t think that will happen [in South Africa]. The ANC is too contested,” Mr Vale adds.
Mandla, however, seems determined to portray himself as Mr Mandela’s flag-bearer.
