Category Archives: News

Yay, More Hope for Men!

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I wish I were a man. Really. Their problems seem so much more…significant, no?

At least, that’s how I feel after reading a Washington Post article entitled, New Wives Bring New Hope to Sri Lankan Widowers.

sepiarantfish.jpg Thanggod! Some good news about Sri Lanka, I thought, as I clicked the link and started reading:

Plunged into despair after the tsunami killed his wife and two of his four children, Ruknadhan Nahamani passed the first months after the disaster in an alcoholic fog, drowning his sorrows in the potent local liquor known as arrack . But grief was only part of the problem, he said.

“There was nobody to wash my clothes and take care of my kids when I went out to work,” said the wiry 32-year-old fisherman, whose teeth are stained red from chewing betel nut, a mild stimulant. “It was really difficult.”

But Nahamani is a single parent no more. In June, he exchanged wedding vows and jasmine garlands at a Hindu temple with a woman from a nearby village. “We are very happy,” he said outside his tent at a refugee camp as his new wife, Leelawathi, heated cooking oil for the evening meal.[link]

The man survived a tsunami and lost almost his entire family and lives in a refugee camp. Of course he deserves all the happiness he can find. sepiarantwomen.jpg But the grinchy pebble I call a heart couldn’t muster more joy when I remembered all the war widows in Sri Lanka. Some 40,000 at last count.

And the fact that women drowned in massively disproportionate numbers (three times more) during the tsunami because they’re not taught to swim.

And the fact that widows are still treated like amoral harlots in most of South Asia.

Where’s the bloody community support for them? Continue reading →

Forget Starbucks, Wal-Mart is evil!

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walmart blows.jpg

In a development that will not surprise anyone, mammoth retailer and purveyor o’ crap Wal-Mart is getting sued for ignoring the conditions of the factories from whence their ultra-cheap merch comes (via the BBC):

The class-action suit has been filed in Los Angeles on behalf of 15 workers in Bangladesh, Swaziland, Indonesia, China and Nicaragua.
Each claim they were paid less than the minimum wage and not given overtime payments. Some say they were beaten.

Wal-Mart promised that the beatings were merely for morale and didn’t leave any marks. I keed, I keed. America’s superstore said it would investigate the claims, duh.

The lawsuit mentions the obvious; the evil yellow circle who zigs and zags about Wal-Mart’s commercials wantonly dicing and slicing numbers is to blame. If they’re going to sell merchandise for unbelievably low prices, they’ll make up for those sales somehow, somewhere– Gunga Din is the easy choice, it seems.

The superstore is predictably vague in its response:

“It’s really too early for us to be able to say anything about this particular complaint,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Beth Kath.
“It involves a number of companies and manufacturers and we’re just beginning our research to learn more.”

Research away. Continue reading →

Pssst. I’ll sell you some Budhia for $20

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I hate running.  I ran yesterday and my knees are pissed at me today.  I only run if I have to in order to quickly get in shape for something.  A high-altitude hike in two weeks unfortunately qualifies.  I have just never been able to develop that “runner’s high” that so many people get.  Although I love physical challenges of any kind, a marathon is out of the question.  After reading this article in the BBC I hang my head in shame:

He runs seven hours at a stretch, sometimes as much as 48km (30 miles). On a daily basis.

And Budhia Singh is just three and a half years old.

When Budhia’s father died a year ago, his mother, who washes dishes in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern Indian state of Orissa, was unable to provide for her four children.

She sold Budhia to a man for 800 rupees ($20).

But the young boy came to the attention of Biranchi Das, a judo coach and the secretary of the local judo association.

Mr Das said he noticed Budhia’s talent when scolding him for being a bully.

“Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back,” Mr Das told the BBC.

“I got busy in some work. When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running.”

I think if they send him to Kenya to train for a few years Budhia could be a serious contender.  The kid is a beast.  His hobbies include eating an running.

Budhia is enjoying his stay at the judo hostel. “I can run and eat to my heart’s content here,” he says.

I hope they don’t end up taking advantage of his talents though.  It would be a shame if Budhia burns out before his time.

Continue reading →

The Planner

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The President finally accepted some blame for the failed Hurricane Katrina response today (for those of you who still care).  To varying degrees, state an local officials have been showing contrition as well, knowing that their jobs may be in jeopardy.  But, only one person responsible has cried real tears (as far as I know).  The buck stops at Madhu Beriwal’s desk.  Time Magazine reports:

Madhu Beriwal equates disaster planning with marathon running. “You train and time yourself and figure out what you need to do to achieve it,” she says. As the president of Innovative Emergency Management, Inc., in Baton Rouge, La., Beriwal knows about training for marathon-size catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. Her company played a role in the Hurricane Pam simulation, which involved almost 300 officials getting ready for a major-category storm hitting New Orleans. But after witnessing the devastation left by Katrina and the blundered response from relief officials, Beriwal wonders if the training needs to be rethought. “The system failed,” she told TIME when asked who in the end was to blame. “We all share the blame.” After saying this, she begins to cry.

Beriwal is a native of Calcutta, India, who came to the U.S. 25 years ago. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning, she gained a reputation in Louisiana as an expert in disaster preparation. Like many others in similar roles, Beriwal feels a measure of guilt when watching the images of flood victims. She’s also aware that some of the tragedy was because of the “disaster sub-culture” of any population–which is a certain level of resistance to pre-storm evacuation. Some people simply won’t evacuate.

It’s worth noting that I.E.M.’s Pam preparedness plan, which FEMA contracted for almost $1 million, helped 80 percent of the population of the New Orleans area evacuate before Katrina made landfall on August 29th–one of the highest rates ever for a hurricane.

I couldn’t help but click on the “products and services” link at IEM’s website.  We have been meaning to implement a disaster plan here at our North Dakota HQ for some time now.  We just don’t trust local officials here.  One product I found was a master “Guidebook.”  What does this “Guidebook” do?

-The Guidebook combines state-of-the-art analysis with an efficient decision-making process, allowing emergency managers to proceed with confidence as they take the steps necessary to protect their communities.
-The Guidebook is comprehensive–it provides recommendations for millions of possible events.
-The Guidebook makes the technical details involved in the decision-making process invisible to decision-makers, greatly reducing the time required to make the right protective action decision.

I think we could all use a “Guidebook” in our lives. Continue reading →

Isolating a contagion

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Newsweek columnist Christopher Dickey reviews a provocative analysis of suicide bombings that seeks to characterize and combat them as if they were a contagion:

The most useful way to understand how terrorism became so grimly commonplace may be to think of this slaughter as a pathology, like a contagious disease that began with small outbreaks here and there, and has developed into an epidemic. Suicide as such–without the bombing or the terrorism–has been studied as a pathology by social scientists at least since the 19th-century work of Émile Durkheim, which focused on the societal factors likely to increase the risk that people will kill themselves. And while suicidal terrorism may be distinctive, when you demystify it and put aside the Bush administration’s misleading obsession with a “murderous ideology” in the “Global War on Terror,” the similarities with other forms of suicide are instructive.

In the 1980s, for instance, the suicide rates among young people in several European countries rose dramatically. By the early 1990s, studies showed that in several countries more young Europeans were taking their own lives than were dying on the highways. Dutch researcher René Diekstra, then at the University of Leiden, identified the break-up of extended families and the increasing rootlessness of European life as forces behind these trends. Based on a comparative study of suicide in 20 countries over two decades, he determined in the early 1990s that divorce rates, unemployment, the rising number of working mothers, the declining importance of religion, the diminished number of children, all helped to predict the trends in suicide rates.

I am always ready to listen to people who take a shot at demystifying “evil.”  When leaders overuse words like “evil” they sometimes undermine the pursuit of a real solution to the problem.  For example, one of the best articles I have ever read broke down the motivations of the Columbine killers in a way that finally made sense to me.  Returning to the Newsweek article:

No, there’s something more: the contagion. History is full of suicide outbreaks where first a few, then many people kill themselves.

The savagely cynical leaders of Hizbullah, the Tamil Tigers, Hamas, Al Qaeda and other groups have worked to spread the plague of suicidal terror by denying the taboos against self-destruction while romanticizing the young men and women willing to blow themselves away. Hence the video testaments like Khan’s [London Underground bomber].

“Once a specific form of suicide takes place, it becomes part of the thinking and, if you will, the repertoire of people who can identify with that person who killed himself,” says the Dutch researcher René Diekstra, now at Holland’s Roosevelt Academy. “We know that what we call ‘suicide contagion’ is particularly prevalent in the late teens and early adult age. There is a search for identity, and for heroism.”

Continue reading →

Bad memories

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In unfortunate news, particularly since it comes on the four year anniversary of 9/11, a NYC fire-fighter was arrested for a possible hate crime against a Bangladeshi immigrant.  CNN reports:

Hours after many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a firefighter was arrested for attacking an immigrant worker and telling him he looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” police said.

Firefighter Edward Dailey was arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of criminal mischief and felony second-degree assault, Police Sgt. Kevin Farrell said. It had not yet been determined whether the charges would be upgraded to a hate crime, he said.

Dailey, 27, is accused of breaking a piece of Plexiglas off a curbside news stand and throwing it at a 51-year-old man who works there, Farrell said. Dailey had said the man, an immigrant from Bangladesh, looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” Farrell said.

So discouraging to hear this type of thing happen at all, but even worse on the anniversary.  I’m sure they’ll be a case made make a case for PTSD.  Newsday.com has more:

Dailey, who lives on Long Island and works in Jamaica, Queens, was valedictorian of his Fire Academy class last year, according to the Daily News.

The arrest came on a day when many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Police said Dailey had been drinking after attending the memorial service for a fallen firefighter he had known from their previous jobs as emergency medical workers.

In  related news, filmmakers  Valarie Kaur, who blogs at DNSI, and Sharat Raju have a trailer of their upcoming film titled “Divided we Fall.”

A turbaned Sikh man was murdered four days after Sept. 11, 2001 by a man bent on eliminating anyone “Arab-looking.” He screamed: “I am a patriot!” Similar stories of hate crimes swept across the nation in the aftermath.

Armed with only a camera and a question, an American college student journeyed into the heart of a suffering nation in search of answers. She met people, some born and raised in America, others who came seeking a better life and adopted a new land as their own home. All believed in the American dream. Captured on film are their stories — hundreds of them. Stories of sadness. Of unimaginable loss & fear. Of hope, resilience & love.

Two filmmakers. One camera. 14 American cities. Four months on the road. 100 hours of footage. And the question: WHY?

Continue reading →

Where did the love go…

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Oh nooooo…..just two weeks ago, Jhaan mentioned Satya Paul: Indian fashion designer, creator of beautiful saris, a man who didn’t rush to the tacky embrace of East-meets-West “fusion” clothing, the very antithesis of my favorite whipping boy, Anand Jon. sepiasatyaredsari.jpg

Well, apparently succumbing to the siren song of “global presence,” Satya Paul presents his April 2005 India Fashion Week collection in NY tonight. From the press release:

Satya Paul, the premier Indian designer label recognized internationally for its haute couture, saris, fabrics, neckties and accessories, is unveiling a dazzling new collection of apparel and drapes in New York. The collection will be modeled by Indian beauty queens and film stars at a gala benefit at the Broadway Ballroom of the Marriot Marquis, on Saturday, September 10, at 7:00 pm.

But wait! Before you grab your wallet and run out the door – there’s more:

The multi-media show will highlight a fusion of the East and West. The mythological Sita – heroine of the Indian epic, the Ramayana – will be “teamed” with Madonna, the entertainment legend. The Madonna who appears in Satya Paul’s collection mirrors the star in her self confidence and sophistication. At her core is Sita, the woman of timeless elegance, mystery and purity. Satya Paul’s collection brings out the sensuality of the East, blended with the gritty worldliness of the West.

Just so you don’t miss this fusion, the collection is named Madonna Meets Sita. The timeless Eastern elegance of Sita, wrapped in the Western confidence of Madonna….get it?

(I wonder if they’ll play “Like a Virgin” as the models strut the ramp…..I’m sure Madonna wouldn’t resist a man with ten heads, either…..j/k!! don’t send Hanuman after me too!! ) Continue reading →

Do unto others

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Following Sri Lanka’s lead (when was the last time you read those words? ), India has offered sakat / succor in N’awlins, and Uncle Sam has accepted (via Boing Boing):

India, which regularly is hit by flooding from monsoon rains, has said it has a planeload of supplies waiting. The United States said Thursday night that it has accepted $5 million in aid. [Link]

Post-tsunami, India was criticized by some for rejecting assistance, perhaps out of national pride:

It was told by the U.S. Embassy that “at this moment, the U.S. government is not asking for international assistance.” [Link]

Sweden and others are getting stiff-armed by the famous bureaucratic sense of urgency:

For four days, a C-130 transport plane ready to lift supplies to Katrina victims has stood idle at an air base in Sweden. The aid includes a water purification system that may be urgently needed amid signs deadly diseases could be spreading through fetid pools in New Orleans… The one thing that stands in the way of takeoff? Approval by U.S. officials… Poland, Austria and Norway said they had not heard back on their aid offers, and countries outside Europe said they were also waiting for replies. [Link]

And one member of the axis of heck got nothing but pumpkins:

Tehran offered to send 20 million barrels of crude oil if Washington waived trade sanctions, but Thomas said the offer was rejected because it was conditional. [Link]
Continue reading →