[An Nahar] Police in northern India are investigating a village council after it banned "love marriages" and barred women under 40 from shopping alone or using mobile phones in public, reports said Friday. If you want to know who we are,
We are gentlemen of Japan India:
On many a vase and jar--
On many a screen and fan,
We figure in lively paint:
Our attitudes' queer and quaint--
You're wrong if you think it ain't, oh!
In a slew of restrictive measures on women's behavior, the council, or "panchayat," in the predominantly Moslem village Asara in Uttar Pradesh state also insisted women cover their heads in public, said the Press Trust of India. If you think we are worked by strings,
Like a Japanese an Indian marionette,
You don't understand these things:
It is simply Court village etiquette.
Perhaps you suppose this throng
Can't keep it up all day long?
If that's your idea, you're wrong, oh, oh!
If that's your idea, you're wrong.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram condemned the orders, saying they had "no place" in a democratic society. A wandering minstrel I--
A thing of shreds and patches,
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby!
And dreamy lullaby!
"Police must act against anyone issuing such diktats. If anyone takes action against any young man or woman based on illegal village courts, then they must be arrested," Chidambaram said at a presser. Behold the Lord High Executioner
A personage of noble rank and title-
A dignified and potent officer,
Whose functions are particularly vital!
Defer, defer,
To the Lord High Executioner!
Local police superintendent V.K. Shekhar told PTI that an inquiry had been ordered into the content and legality of the council restrictions. Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try
A plan whereby
Young men might best be steadied.
Panchayats often comprise an unelected group of elders, who are seen as the social and moral arbiters of village life. Although their rulings carry no legal weight, they can be highly influential and have been blamed for numerous abuses, such as sanctioning "honor killings" of women whose actions are deemed to have brought shame on their family. So he decreed, in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked
(Unless connubially linked),
Should forthwith be beheaded, beheaded, beheaded
Should forthwith be beheaded.
The measures were swiftly condemned by women's rights groups. This stern decree, you'll understand,
Caused great dismay throughout the land!
For young and old
And shy and bold
Were equally affected.
"This notion that women up to the age of 40 need protection and need to be controlled is extremely chauvinistic and undermines all basic norms," said Sudha Sunder Raman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association. The youth who winked a roving eye,
Or breathed a non-connubial sigh,
Was thereupon condemned to die--
He usually objected, objected, objected,
He usually objected.
The head of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, said the council rulings were "laughable" and unenforceable. And you'll allow, as I expect,
That he was right to so object.
And I am right,
And you are right,
And everything is quite correct!
"Panchayats do not enjoy constitutional powers. And if there are no powers, there is no need to follow the orders," Sharma said. And so we straight let out on bail
A convict from the county jail,
Whose head was next
On some pretext
Condemned to be mown off,
And made him Headsman, for we said,
"Who's next to be decapited
Cannot cut off another's head
Until he's cut his own off, his own off, his own off.
Until he's cut his own off."
Council representatives interviewed by the Mail Today newspaper said the rules were intended to safeguard women from "bad elements" in society. And we are right, I think you'll say,
To argue in this kind of way;
And I am right,
And you are right,
And all is right--too-looral-lay!
Council member Sattar Ahmed said "love marriages" as opposed to parentally arranged marriages, were damaging and a "shame on society." Here's a how-de-do!
If I marry you,
When your time has come to perish,
Then the maiden whom you cherish
Must be slaughtered, too!
Here's a how-de-do!
Here's a how-de-do!
"It is very painful for the parents, specially the girl's family, because such marriages dent their respectability," Ahmed said. The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Have nothing to do with the case.
I've got to take under my wing,
Tra la,
A most unattractive old thing,
Tra la,
With a caricature of a face,
With a caricature of a face.
And that's what I mean when I say, or I sing,
"Oh, bother the flowers that bloom in the spring."
Tra la la la la,
Tra la la la la,
"Oh, bother the flowers of spring."
The villagers themselves were reportedly satisfied with the panchayat rulings, saying they would help prevent young women being misled and forming unsuitable relationships. "Mobile phones are a curse, especially for girls. I would have been more happy if the panchayat had completely banned girls from using mobile phones," villager Tarun Chaudhary told the Mail Today. On this subject we pray you be dumb --
Dumb -- dumb!
We think you had better succumb --
Cumb -- cumb!
You'll find there are many
Who'll wed for a penny,
Who'll wed for a penny,
There are lots of good fish in the sea,
There are lots of good fish in the sea,
There's lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
There's lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
In the sea, in the sea, in the sea, in the sea.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
You forgot one,
"Katisha. And you won't hate me because I'm just a little teeny weeny wee bit bloodthirsty, will you?
Ko-Ko. Hate you? Oh, Katisha! is there not beauty even in bloodthirstiness?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
We have a guy in our town who liked to run around nekkid in his yard. The neighbors have been frustrated with the guy and are worried the little tykes might see him. He has been reported to the cops a number of times but it is suspected that he has a police scanner and runs away or gets dressed before they show up. The latest dust up has him operating a chainsaw nekkid. The police caught him this time before he circumcised himself with his chainsaw.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The visit of President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... to Ukraine, aimed at tightening ties with Russia's neighbour, appeared to have the opposite effect Friday as leading figures castigated him for "rudeness" in showing up four hours late.
Putin on Thursday held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in the Crimean resort of Yalta, seen as an attempt to smooth out a dispute over Ukraine's gas imports from Russia.
The Russian president arrived several hours behind schedule but rather than rushing to meet his host he instead went to greet a group of Russian bikers known as the "Night Wolves" whose events he has attended in the past.
After talking with his biker friends -- who included a legendary Russian biker known as the "Surgeon" -- Putin finally headed to Yalta to meet Yanukovych.
"President Putin exceeded the limits of a delay. He went to look at motorheads and their friends, showing his priorities" in Ukraine, Emergency Situations Minister Viktor Baloga wrote on his Facebook page.
Adding that once Putin finally showed up he failed to offer Ukraine any concession in the gas dispute, Baloga said: "It is no longer interesting for Ukraine to hear this. Kremlin, please change the music."
Former foreign minister Volodymyr Ogryzko fumed: "Instead of hurrying to the meeting he stopped to have a drink with the bikers. In my opinion this is a diplomatic slap or rudeness."
Leading commentator Vitaly Portnikov said that the meeting with the bikers was aimed at humiliating Yanukovych and undermining Ukraine's independence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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#5
90% of the world's Muslims are Sunnis. AFAIK, most Muslim organizations are run by, and represent Sunnis. Sunni majority countries tend to persecute Shiites, almost as a matter of state policy, in some countries.
[CNBC] With his first Bastille Day approaching on Saturday, François Hollande and his government have had a good start to his presidency, impressing the French with a down-to-earth style. Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, and his prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, have ordered downgrades in official luxury that have set a tone self-consciously different from that of the supposedly "bling bling" presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
In politics, symbols are also substance, and the changes range from the large to the small. Mr. Hollande has actually taken the train to Brussels, without a state jet following him, and his ministers have been ordered to hit the rails when possible (with a free pass on the national railway system). When they fly, they are encouraged to travel in coach class on commercial airlines. (Upgrades on Air France are probably a given for ministers, in any case.)
Official cars have been diminished in size and in luxury. Mr. Hollande has given up the presidential Citroën C6 for a smaller but hardly shabby Citroën DS5 diesel hybrid. He has reduced the ranks of his official drivers to two from three, and they are now supposed to stop at red lights. Mr. Ayrault gave up his C6 for a cheaper Peugeot 508. Cabinet ministers have also traded down, and the housing minister, Cécile Duflot, an ecologist who was criticized for wearing jeans to an Élysée Palace meeting, has ordered four official bicycles.
Champagne at receptions has largely been replaced by Muscadet, a considerably cheaper white wine, and prices at the official cafeterias for ministerial employees, always a bargain, have been raised modestly.
Even security has been put to the knife, at least a little. Junior ministers no longer get bodyguards, and the number of security workers attached to the presidency has been reduced by a third.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Does he carry his own suit bag, like Jimmy Carter used to?
[An Nahar] Around 1,500 Jordanians, mostly Islamists, marched on Friday to reject a controversial electoral law, a day after the Moslem Brüderbund decided to boycott early polls expected later this year.
"We demand a democratic electoral law. We want to change the constitution and fight corruption," read a banner carried by the protesters in central Amman.
"The people want the downfall of the electoral law. If change does not happen, revolt is the solution," they chanted as they carried a large national flag.
The Brotherhood's shura advisory council voted on Thursday to boycott parliamentary elections because of "lack of political reform."
"We have decided the boycott because we did not want to be part of a conspiracy against reform," said Salem Falahat, a top dovish Brotherhood leader.
He saluted "tribes and political parties who want to boycott the vote."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Southeast Asia's main political bloc failed to issue a joint communiqué at the end of its forum in Cambodia on Friday, after a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea threw negotiations into gridlock. The ASEAN talks ended in acrimony due to on-going tensions between China and Philippines. In April, Manila accused Chinese fishermen of poaching in the uninhabited Scarborough Shoal, leading to a stand off between Philippine and Chinese warships.
Both the Philippines and Vietnam wanted to include a statement in the final communiqué about the South China Sea dispute, a move that Chinese-ally Cambodia resisted. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong denied accusations of protecting Beijing's interests.
[NY Times] President Thein Sein of Myanmar invited American business executives on Friday to return to his impoverished country after an absence of 25 years, promising them an easing of economic restrictions to smooth the way. It was the latest sign of a significant warming of relations between the United States and Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country that had been firmly in China's orbit.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edmund Randolph ... welcomed Mr. Thein Sein at a dinner in this ancient Cambodian city on the last full day of her Asia trip, one intended to show that Washington's commitment to the region reached beyond strengthening of military alliances to include interest in expanding economic ties as well. Most countries in the region, with the Philippines as an exception, do more trade with China than with the United States.
The meeting followed President B.O.'s announcement on Wednesday of the easing of sanctions on American investments in Myanmar, a decision reached after two months of debate within the administration over how much and how quickly to reward the Myanmar government for the reforms it has undertaken so far.
The administration placed some conditions on investments, including the requirement that American companies investing more than $500,000 must report to Washington on their human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... policies and anticorruption efforts. American energy companies that conclude deals with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise -- which the opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, wanted to be kept under sanctions -- will be required to report their investments to Washington within 60 days.
The meeting of American business executives at a hotel in the city that is a base for tourism to the hundreds of temples near here was organized weeks ago in anticipation of Mrs. Clinton's trip to Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, her last stop in Asia before flying to Egypt on Saturday and then to Israel.
While few chief executives of major companies made the trek to this out-of-the-way location, the audience of several hundred, many of them regional representatives of United States corporations, received Mr. Thein Sein, a former military general, warmly. Dressed in a business suit instead of the traditional Myanmar attire he wears at home, Mr. Thein Sein spoke in English about how his government was dropping the "centralized system" of the past 50 years.
Antiquated laws that prevented foreign investment in the past are in the process of being removed, he said, adding that bigger challenges lay ahead. "We must also reform the bureaucratic system and the mind-set of government officials," he said.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Thein Sein met for an hour before the dinner, and Mr. Thein Sein stressed, according to a senior State Department official, that his government wanted to attract American businesses that not only exported Myanmar's plentiful raw materials but also brought added value to the country to aid in its development.
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A Chinese warship has run aground on a reef off Palawan while patrolling contested waters in the West Philippine Sea, an Australian newspaper reported on Friday. Reporter John Gaurnaut of The Sydney Morning Herald, citing unnamed Western diplomatic sources, said the Peoples Liberation Armys naval ship No. 560 [a Jianghu-class frigate.] became thoroughly stuck on a reef at Half Moon Shoal during the previous night.
The Philippines refers to Half Moon Shoal as Hasa-Hasa Shoal, which military sources said is only about 111 km (60 nautical miles) from the municipality of Rizal on the main island of Palawan province, well within the countrys 370-km (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone. Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan in Palawan confirmed the incident and said it has been 10 days since it happened according to field reports.
When reached for comment, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the military was checking out the report. The militarys Western Command (Wescom), which covers the West Philippine Sea, reportedly sent out a ship a plane Friday afternoon to verify.
If there is a need to offer assistance to help them leave the area, we will help, Gazmin said.
Lt. Col. Neil Estrella, Wescom spokesperson, said that the military was prepared to provide assistance to the stricken Chinese vessel.
Any ship or naval vessel in distress, we are duty-bound to provide assistance, regardless of whether or not they intruded into our territorial waters, Estrella said.
Chinas defense ministry on Friday acknowledged that one of its frigates had run aground while conducting patrols in the disputed part of West Philippine Sea. In Manila, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement saying the frigate ran aground around 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Currently the rescue work by the Chinese Navy is under way, the embassy said. The embassy said no injuries were reported.
The Sydney Morning Herald said salvage operations could be diplomatically challenging, given that the vessel appears to have run aground within the Philippines exclusive economic zone. The stricken vessel has in the past been involved in aggressively discouraging Filipino fishing boats from the area.
#1
Uh, uh, either a new CO whom didn't do too well at chart-reading/navigation class(es); or else the PLAN wants to copy the Russ Navy example of keeping ocean-going fleet tugs along???
#4
If I'm the skipper of that ship, I don't think I'm in such a hurry to be rescued. Got a feeling the Chinese navy won't just let him "retire" like over here.
To parrot James Reston's famous lead written the day after the Chappaquiddick incident:
Tragedy has against struck the Kennedy family.
From TFA:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's ex-wife, Kerry Kennedy, was arrested Friday for driving while impaired by drugs after she accidentally struck a tractor-trailer and fled, police said. In the finest Kennedy tradition
Kennedy is the seventh of 11 children of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. That whole branch of the family just has problems...
State police said she was found Friday morning behind the wheel of her disabled vehicle on the side of a road in Westchester, just north of New York City. And human rights activist and a leader of Amnesty International. We get to hear her prattle on about human rights; this is what they do...
Authorities say 911 callers reported the car was driving erratically on Interstate 684 and collided with a tractor-trailer in the town of North Castle. The car was damaged and had a flat tire, police said. Hard to keep those cars from "driving erratically". It is almost as if Ms Kennedy is not taking responsibility. That can't be it, can it?
A spokesman for Kennedy, who lives in nearby Bedford, denied that she was driving under the influence of drugs. Booze and drugs? A Kennedy? Pshaw!
"Kerry Kennedy voluntarily took breathalyzer, blood and urine tests -- all of which showed no drugs or alcohol whatsoever in her system," spokesman Ken Sunshine said in an emailed statement. "The charges were filed before the test results were available."
Police said Kennedy was issued traffic tickets that must be returned to the town of North Castle Court on Tuesday. Her mouthpiece will be there to be sure...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] Police in northern India are investigating a village council after it banned "love marriages" and barred women under 40 from shopping alone or using mobile phones in public, reports said Friday.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
With his first Bastille Day approaching on Saturday, François Hollande and his government have had a good start to his presidency, impressing the French with a down-to-earth style. Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, and his prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, have ordered downgrades in official luxury that have set a tone self-consciously different from that of the supposedly "bling bling" presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
A Chinese warship has run aground on a reef off Palawan while patrolling contested waters in the West Philippine Sea, an Australian newspaper reported on Friday. Reporter John Gaurnaut of The Sydney Morning Herald, citing unnamed Western diplomatic sources, said the Peoples Liberation Armys naval ship No. 560 [a Jianghu-class frigate.] became thoroughly stuck on a reef at Half Moon Shoal during the previous night.
