Last week there was a brutal attack on a journalist in Moscow. The man was beaten to a pulp and left for dead in front of his house. He is currently in a coma, with his right leg amputated, his frozen fingers cut off, multiple fractures on the skull and broken bones all over the body.
The more striking thing here, however, is not how and why he was targeted, but how his neighbour's maid, on seeing him lying there on the road face down, actually thought to herself "he's probably just had a little to drink and now he's resting".
These attacks are so common-place in Russia that people no longer wonder who'd done it and why. Instead, they marvel at the fact that some manage to survive. This particular journalist was mostly likely targeted for his investigations into some environmental issues in the suburbs of Moscow.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Thursday, 20 March 2008
7.2 magnitude earthquake hits China. 9.8 magnitude cynicism hits me
Could the latest earthquake in the north-west China be a man-made disaster designed to divert attention from the violent clashes in Tibet ? The timing is impeccable and natural disasters are the perfect kind of human tragedies that tend to bring out the shared feeling of national pride in the Chinese. The beloved phrase "we are all Chinese, all brothers and sisters" will no doubt climb out of people's throats once again and time will help heal the scars of the violent clampdown on the Tibetans ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
At times it feels like the 'liberal West' is doing everything in its power to squeeze humility out of China in the run-up to the summer Games. Pressuring China is a feel-good box every celebrity (like Spielberg ) wants to tick. Whether this is necessary or, indeed, useful, is a different question.
At times it feels like the 'liberal West' is doing everything in its power to squeeze humility out of China in the run-up to the summer Games. Pressuring China is a feel-good box every celebrity (like Spielberg ) wants to tick. Whether this is necessary or, indeed, useful, is a different question.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Cash for shedded pounds. Not funny
In an absolutely asinine move, the British government is now looking into introducing financial incentives for people to maintain healthy diets and shed extra pounds. The move is in large provoked by the staggering statistics of child obesity in England and the huge costs of obesity-related health issues passed down to the NHS.
In a Department of Health report entitled Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives published on 23 January, Gordon Brown cracks up scary figures:
This is presumably what got the DH moving.
The Health Secretary Alan Johnson stands behind this £372 million strategy that is meant to help cut the proportion of obese and overweight children by 2020 back to levels in 2000.
Obesity has been linked to every ailment from heart disease to cancer followed by hysterectomy. Obesity has been affecting not just the adults, but children and even pets (according to RSPCA). Projects like 'Pets get slim' have made human stories out of pets fighting the challenge of weight loss. This spirit is about to be echoed in humans.
While it might be unfair to assume that all this weight came from wealth (money translated into food), and using money to gag the mouth is at best counter-productive, it's equally unfair, on the other hand, that alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts never got paid for fighting their demons with their bare hands.
Luckily, the Health Secretary is not entirely ignorant. According to TimesOnline, Mr Johnson said: "The core of the problem is simple — we eat too much and we do too little exercise." Bless thou who sees the truth. Shame on those who try to put out a fire with bottles of cooking oil.
Has anyone thought: oh, if I put on some weight now I'll get paid for losing it! It is not entirely impossible that even if this short-sighted move will be effective, it still runs the risk of developing into a dependency on this financial incentive and create a different form of addiction. Such embarrassing plans should not even pause in the heads of the normal thinking members of society.
In a Department of Health report entitled Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives published on 23 January, Gordon Brown cracks up scary figures:
In England alone, nearly a quarter of men and women are now obese. Almost a fifth of 2 to 5 year-olds are obese, while a further 14 per cent are overweight.
This is presumably what got the DH moving.
The Health Secretary Alan Johnson stands behind this £372 million strategy that is meant to help cut the proportion of obese and overweight children by 2020 back to levels in 2000.
Obesity has been linked to every ailment from heart disease to cancer followed by hysterectomy. Obesity has been affecting not just the adults, but children and even pets (according to RSPCA). Projects like 'Pets get slim' have made human stories out of pets fighting the challenge of weight loss. This spirit is about to be echoed in humans.
While it might be unfair to assume that all this weight came from wealth (money translated into food), and using money to gag the mouth is at best counter-productive, it's equally unfair, on the other hand, that alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts never got paid for fighting their demons with their bare hands.
Luckily, the Health Secretary is not entirely ignorant. According to TimesOnline, Mr Johnson said: "The core of the problem is simple — we eat too much and we do too little exercise." Bless thou who sees the truth. Shame on those who try to put out a fire with bottles of cooking oil.
Has anyone thought: oh, if I put on some weight now I'll get paid for losing it! It is not entirely impossible that even if this short-sighted move will be effective, it still runs the risk of developing into a dependency on this financial incentive and create a different form of addiction. Such embarrassing plans should not even pause in the heads of the normal thinking members of society.
"Gazans"
Speaking on BBC News 24 today, the Political Councillor of the Israeli Embassy in the UK referred to the people living in Gaza as 'Gazans'. There's something disturbing about labelling a people in this casual way. It's not quite the same as saying 'Londoners'. Israel is the very reason the Gaza Strip exists; labelling the people of Gaza as 'Gazans' in a way validates Israel's occupation of Palestine and encourages the viewing of the people of Palestine as two separate entities.
Recalling the dawn of the feminist movement, scholars and campaigners always argued that language influences our subconscious. This is why 'policemen' are no longer police 'men' but police 'officers'. It's not a case of political correctness (no one will feel offended if called a 'Gazan') but a matter of language influencing our minds.
This is not to say the word 'Gazans' should be banned. There's nothing less popular than allowing even the thought of stepping on someone else's rights granted by Article 19 . However, it's worth watching out for those casual slips of tongue that may just influence the future of the Middle East.
Recalling the dawn of the feminist movement, scholars and campaigners always argued that language influences our subconscious. This is why 'policemen' are no longer police 'men' but police 'officers'. It's not a case of political correctness (no one will feel offended if called a 'Gazan') but a matter of language influencing our minds.
This is not to say the word 'Gazans' should be banned. There's nothing less popular than allowing even the thought of stepping on someone else's rights granted by Article 19 . However, it's worth watching out for those casual slips of tongue that may just influence the future of the Middle East.
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