Voice of America features a news story about the community of Artesia, California known for its very visible Indian population, and their bid to post a highway sign designating Artesia with the nickname “Little India.” The full story can be viewed here and a transcript can be read here.

Artesia, California – population 16,000, was settled as a farming community by Portuguese immigrants in the 19th century. Today Artesia’s rural past is a faint memory, its main street paved, the shops along it owned for the most part by merchants from the Indian subcontinent. But plans to officially recognize the city’s altered social landscape have received unexpected resistance from many in the community.

What’s the resistance about? Well despite the Indian community’s overwhelming visibility, they only make up 5% of the actual population. That rubs some the wrong way. Says the leader of the local Portuguese Cultural Center:

“Artesia is composed of Hispanic, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, all sorts of diversity as you can see, including Indian. Now the Indian community does have quite a few shopping centers in Artesia, but it’s only a small percentage in the whole big picture of all the shopping centers.”

Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez is more reasonable:

“This sign is not about celebrating just one culture, one community. It’s about celebrating the vast diversity of this city. And it just happens to be that one of the richest destinations in California, Southern California, is here on Pioneer Boulevard – and it’s “Little India.”

The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has decided to ban all tobacco products from Wednesday, a government notification says. Shops, hotels, restaurants and bars selling tobacco products have been ordered to dispose of existing stocks before 17 December. Those who violate the ban will be fined $210 and owners of shops and hotels will lose their business licenses.

Are you a tourist who desperately wants to go to Bhutan, but who can’t go a few days without a smoke? Don’t worry, you’re OK as long as you don’t sell your stash to the locals:

The tobacco ban will not apply to foreign tourists, diplomats or those working for NGOs. [However] Foreigners selling tobacco to locals will be severely punished. “If any foreigner is caught selling tobacco products to Bhutanese nationals, he will be charged with smuggling. Tobacco will be treated as contraband,” Karma Tshering of Bhutanese Customs told the BBC.

Now what puzzles me is why people at high altitudes are smoking at all? I mean, isn’t the air thin enough? Apparently, Sherpas in Nepal do so all the time, as they lead expedititions up the mountain. And I remember reading about cases where mountaineers would suck in oxygen from a tank, then inhale their cigarette (dangerous!), and then get more oxygen, etc. (like this: “Meanwhile, Finch had been staving off the effects of altitude with regular gasps of oxygen — between puffs on a cigarette!”). However, the best quote I found on the subject was:

“This is the fucking life, no ?” — Jean Afanassieff, first frenchman on Everest (on the summit of which he smoked a cigarette waiting for the others).