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Both Late and Sorry: Australia Apolgizes to Her Native Peoples
2008-02-13 01:51:00 The Christian Science Monitor announced,Australia to apologize to Aborigines for injustice: how helpful?The "how helpful?" part makes me crazy. In the early 20th century, Based on the premise that "full-blood" Aborigines were a race headed for extinction, up to 100,000 mixed-race children were taken from their parents between 1910 and 1970. The children, some of them babies, were often snatched from sobbing mothers by policemen or government officials. Homes were torn apart. Children were wrenched from their families and put into foster care by strangers. Short of actually committing genocide, the cruelty the aboriginal families suffered is hard to imagine. And the writer of the article above questions whether a public apology would be helpful. Well, if you mean, as in fixing the cruelty, increasing the life expectancy of the native population, improving their poverty and living conditions, then, no, an apology would not be helpful like that directly.But indirectly, an apology is ...
By: Tumerica
Middle Eastern Countries: Barbaric or Civilized?
2007-11-29 18:13:00 My dear girlfriend wrote me, angry about a woman in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to an extreme punishment after having been gang-raped. Yes?the victim of a horrible crime was herself punished for the ?crime? of being alone with a man just prior to the gang-rape (the case is currently under review). Hello?!? Of course it's these sorts of insane outcomes (such as ?honor killings?) that give Middle Eastern countries a barbaric reputation in the West.But first of all, there are many countries that make up the Middle East, each with different styles of government, with different levels of women's rights, and with varying flavors of secularity versus religiosity in control. Is it fair for well-educated, even well-meaning Westerners to lump these 19 countries (subject to debate?is Turkey a Middle Eastern country? Egypt? Algeria?) together.Ever since September 11, 2001, I've been exposing myself to more information about Middle Eastern cultures and governments?bit by bit, because...
By: Tumerica
Mashup of cultures and scattered
2007-11-27 12:50:00 Report: Expat Arts Web Magazine Author: Peter Orange, Editor Expat Arts represents a global community of people mostly living in a country other than their homeland. That choice can be for any number of reasons, but it is one that changes us profoundly on the way we perceive the world, ourselves, our goals and indeed it also ...
From Eight Limbs to Four: A Toddler's Transformation Brings Many Blessings
2007-11-13 01:06:00 Petite, two-year-old, gorgeous toddler, Lakshmi Tatma looks like other children from the waist up. Okay, maybe she's a little cuter than is fair, but blessings sometimes come in odd packages. Lakshmi, as you may have heard, was born with parts of a parasitic twin attached to her pelvis. Born into a Hindu culture that worships the many-limbed deity, Vishnu, it seems natural that local villagers would wonder if she were the reincarnation of the true goddess.Although it might have been tempting for the Tatma family to revel in the goddess status of their little girl, the bad news was that her chances of living beyond adolescence in her condition were slim.When I first heard about the story, I hoped her parents would not choose the route of glory but would put their girl first. And blessedly, they did. Even a wealthy family, however, could not have afforded the extensive surgeries that doctors said would be necessary to transform Lakshmi from an eight-limbed child into a four-limbed on...
By: Tumerica
festival of world cultures
2007-08-23 19:48:00 The Marine Hotel?s multimedia projection performance is the ultimate Festival experience. Designed by Emilio Arteaga and his son Sebastian; a Melimage project for the Royal Marine Hotel, the 2D and 3D video projection will illuminate the façade of the building, bringing it?s magnificent architecture to light for a 20 minute spectacular fanfare, featuring an atmospheric audio backing track to create a brilliant and engaging trompe l?oeil.The fluid computer generated light-show will combine fine art imagery and superimposed video to create a magical illusionary effect; where the viewer is unsure of what is real and what is virtual.Using a multitude of images and film edits the show will ascend to a glittering crescendo and virtual firework display featuring a performance by the extraordinary female singer Sainkho Namtchylak. With emphasise on illusion, such as altering building features, characters appearing from behind windows, or covering a wall with foliage in moments, Emilio?s wor...
By: weblogART
U.S. Drops Atom Bomb on Hiroshima, August 7, 1945: The Choice between Hell
2007-08-06 16:54:00 How unfortunate for the citizens of Hiroshima, Japan to know that their city is famous throughout the world only as the first city to be bombed with a nuclear bomb. The bombardier of the Enola Gay dropped ?Little Boy? on the unarmed city 62 years ago today, killing 70,000 civilians instantly. Not distinguishing among elderly, babies, women, or other innocent non-military.But that wasn't the end of it. 70,000 may have perished as a direct result, but 60,000 more died shortly thereafter from related injuries and illnesses. And as many as 200,000 total died within five years, from the bombing or the after-affects.Nagasaki became the only other city to be the victim of an atomic bomb a few days later, where Japanese report 75,000 more were killed instantly.One week after the first bombing, Japan surrendered, perhaps explaining the propaganda found in every American child's history textbook that the "atomic bombing was justified as a stimulus to end the war" If you could stand in the ...
By: Tumerica
India's Elects First Female President
2007-07-23 18:44:00 Congratulations to the people of India for electing the first female President. In a landslide victory?a whopping 66%?Pratibha Pail, 72, was elected last Saturday. She defeated incumbent, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.India has also had a female Prime Minister?by far the more powerful position?the much-loved Indira Gandhi. (Indira was no relation to Mohandas Gandhi although he was a family friend). Indira Gandhi was the daughter of the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, of the Nehru collar. When Indira was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, it set off nationwide protests that could have spun into civil war.You may remember another female elected leader of the post-partitioned Indian state of Pakistan, the lovely Benazir Bhutto, who was elected not once but twice. In India, the position of President is mostly ceremonial, but has traditionally been one to represent and to help underprivileged in the country. Discrimination against women is still a powerful force in a country...
By: Tumerica
World Cultures
2007-04-20 19:04:00 World Culture Posters and Prints at Art.com World Culture Posters and Prints - Find World Culture Posters and Prints at Art.com or select a Are you an artist? Show and sell your work online with us today! 1995-2007 Art.com, Inc. … ……
By: Fine Art Prints
Nuestro Himno: Spanish Language National Anthem an Outrage or a Delight?
2006-05-12 23:11:00 Bush Sounds off on How Citizens Should Sing Our National AnthemSitting in traffic, flipping channels on the radio, I came in during the middle of an NPR news piece. I heard a snippet of a beautiful, heart-felt voice singing what sounded like "The Star-Spangled Banner"?in Spanish. My first thought was, Whoa?that's a shocker. Then I thought, Cool?it's beautiful and thought-provoking. Why not? Next, came the sound of Bush's voice saying, in his faltering, emotion-laden way, "I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English." Sounds like he stole that sound bite straight from a Conservative talk show host (and I snidley wondered about his own poor ability to speak English). He couldn't have said anything more incindiary to both his enemies and to pro-immigration constituents. Nor could he have said anything more un-American. Here's why . . .Some Mottled Background for a Drinking SongWhen Fr...
By: Tumerica
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