Today is the 20th anniversary of UN’s Convention on Rights of the Child and various ceremonies are being held all over the world to mark the event. This Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) was signed in 1989 and it endorses and guarantees basic right of all children to life, education, play and protection from abuse. This landmark human rights treaty it seems was ratified by record 193 countries with noteworthy intriguing omission of two nations -US and Somalia.

Has this Convention on Rights of the Child made any difference to the state of children around the world? There are record high number of children dying every day due to disease, lack of proper nutrition and conflicts. Overflowing orphanages, abandoned children, school drop-outs and child labor still exist. Gun totting child soldiers in Congo and other parts of the world are a reality. Scores of children are getting killed, maimed and injured due to continuing conflicts and wars all over the world. Many more are getting abused in the comforts of homes and school.

The only difference is modern world acknowledges child rights and there are various organizations which create awareness for its implementation, legalities to protect children are in place too but we are very far from creating a safe world for our children.

Via Guardian

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish is an example of how human the priests, rabbis and other religious heads are. These men of virtue, ethics and high handedness are so full of weakness just like you or me. Rabbi Baruch Chalomish lost his wife who died of cancer sometime back. He turned to alcohol, got addicted to cocaine and sought solace in prostitutes.

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish must sometime listen to Crucify by Tori Amos and wonder why he seeks saviours in those dirty streets and sheets. While most would be too fast to accuse him of damaging a successful career by getting caught in the scandal of cocaine and whores, it certainly might not have been easy for the 55 year old man.

Jonathan Goldberg, QC, for the defence maintained that the Rabbi’s “fall from grace was a tragedy”. If the rabbi had suffered a silent torture, having to face the demons within him and had committed suicide, he would have been instantly turned into a hero.

The moment he sought solace in drugs, sex and alcohol just like most humans in his condition would, he immediately fell from grace and faced the wrath of the nation. While the consumption of cocaine isn’t legal, his mental and personal conditions have to be considered before judging a depressed and grieving middle aged man, who would be lonelier than you could ever imagine. The trial is being continued.

Via: Times Online

The 18 year old twins John and Edward Grimes are the topic of most tabloids in the U.K. The twins have been ridiculed and hated for “having no talent” and for making “unintelligent” remarks. The kids have been almost been the subject of the worst ridicule any teen could go through and the ridicule doesn’t come from peers but adults and newspaper journalists as well. Their fault could be that they look crisp and fresh, and sing less and talk less and look good on stage.

The X Factor experts have come down heavily on the twins but their popularity only seems to be rising. It is a different thing to be able to sing or not, but to rip two kids apart in tabloids and make fun of everything they say or do is something that is uncalled for and not expected of a civilized country. Jedward, or how the twins are known, are virtually indistinguishable and you could go ahead and read about them on Daily Mail.

The twins were also abused physically and verbally at school as they always stick to each other. The tabloids do not seem to be treating them any better. If you do not like someone’s singing, you have the option of not listening to them. Or you could be grateful for all the juice they provide for the tabloids to bitch about. Making a pair of 18 year old twins the object of national hatred is uncalled for.

The surfboard abs have always been craved for by most guys and desired by people of both the genders. However, it is also one of the most difficult to acquire and when you look at a guy like Diego Cristo, you would only go green with envy or red with desire. He acted in the Brazilian soap Caras & Bocas, and was recently photographed in this month’s issue of Nova. Nova is the Brazilian equivalent of the Cosmo.

Brazilian actors are known to be better looking than their counterparts in Hollywood or elsewhere but the kind of body that Diego has would only make every guy run to the gym or cringe at the thought of eating a piece of cake. While most women have already gone through that guilt of gobbling down pieces of cake, men will soon begin to feel that way too.

This I say because, to acquire abs like Diego, you would have to stick to protein rich fat free diet all your life and perhaps even cut on your alcohol intake! Nevertheless, strong ab muscles are known to support the back and save you from lumbago when you get old. So, working on abs is really important and if nothing motivates you, take a second look at Diego Cristo.

Via: Made in Brazil

Oprah Winfrey one of the media icons who took her popular talkshow to dizzy heights of success in last more than 20 years has decided to end her show in 2011 and move on to create her own television channel. She has grown along with the medium in past two decades and her decision should not come as a surprise as she is not dumping the television media which made her a household name. She will be back in a big way with many more interesting shows on her OWN (Oprah Winfrey Channel) channel.

Oprah Winfrey show is a long standing show and it would be difficult to point at one reason for its immense success. If one has to pick up one reason for its popularity then it is definitely Oprah herself. Her candid style of conversation with her celebrity and non celebrity guest, the issues she addresses and all laced with wit and emotions has touched a chord among Americans and people all over the globe. She has made glass ceiling non-existent for here is a black woman who has made to the top and is aiming higher.

Critics have much to say about her shows but in today’s media TRP is the last word. Oprah, all the best and you know why audiences love you!

Via Guardian

Besides the new look, the service has implemented tools that help in the understanding of non-Latin languages such as Chinese, Arabic or Persian. For these languages, will be offered the option “show romanization, which will enable the understanding of the sound of words from a phonetic writing. You can also write in any language is from the Latin sounds of words, which will be converted to characters of the selected language, according to information from the PC World site

According to Tom Kratz, site CNET News, this is an important step in the Google translator, adding language that comes into service in recent years, but that was a bottleneck in the translation between languages Latin and non-Hispanics.

For translations into English service will also provide an icon that will hear the words translated, as explained awaneesh Verma, product manager at Google, the official blog post. Just click the icon for the speaker to hear the sentence translated. The instant translation, which comes as the User types the phrase to be translated, is also one of the new service.

Via: PCWorld.

Marriage is often referred to as a dead institution because the most basic tenets of a marriage are not fulfilled today. Most people would advice you that it is a pure waste of time, a trap, a merely temporary legal binding between two individuals who would eventually lose their freedom (as well as their state of mind). Whether the idea of a marriage fills you with a warm glow or encourages your up-chuck reflex, it remains a fact that in all societies, civilized and primitive, marriage still remains one of the most basic rights awarded to every human being.

Or is it? Every culture and every religion will tell you that marriage is the binding of two souls, the next step to a relationship, barring all the differences that arise from religion, race, and what not. And yet, millions of individuals in this so-called modern world of ours are denied this right to celebrate their love because of something as simple and unimportant as their sexuality. The fight between LGBT/gay friendly people and homophobic for equal marriage rights to all is at a critical point and the support of every individual is needed. Pledge your support today with White Knot for equal marriage rights.

White Knot is a US-based non-profit organization founded by Frank Voci a year ago to battle Proposition 8 which restricted the legal definition of marriage to one occurring only between a man and woman. The work of the organization, and the White Knots, has spread to the rest of the world as it celebrates a year of service. The White Knot symbolizes marriage and wearing one is a proud declaration that you support this noble cause and intend to do your best to spread the message and educate as many people in the attempt to create a truly impartial and unbiased world. Whether you have rainbow dreams or are a well-wisher of the community, get yourself a White Knot and show people that you care enough to look beyond a person’s sexual preference.

The White Knot site has a host of information on how you can spread the word, live news related to SSM laws, links to other similar dedicated sites, stories of gay weddings (and straight gay-friendly weddings!), and lots more. If the desire to be true to yourself and do the right thing hits you, then join the White Knot organization, become their fan on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. You can make a difference in someone’s life, take the step in the right direction today.

Via: WhiteKnot

Some actresses, no matter how sexy or famous, have to be seen in several films before they make a strong enough impression on the audience’s mind to never be forgotten, and then, very rarely, someone like Rachel McAdams comes along and you know that seeing her just once is enough to make her one of your most favourite actresses.

Beauty and talent are the milder terms with which one can describe Rachel. She is sensual, yet innocent in a way that makes you want to watch out for her and take care of her; even so, as you sit in a darkened movie theatre and watch as the whole place is lit by her smile, you sense that you are in the presence of an exceptional woman. Rachel first shot to fame from the 2004 movie Mean Girls which had Lindsay Lohan in the lead. The Notebook which came out later that year solidified her status as an actress and a celebrity. Her on-screen chemistry with co-star Ryan Gosling spilled over into her real life and they eventually dated for quite a few years.

The following year was just as good for Rachel as the release of three big movies, Wedding Crashers, Red Eye, and Family Stone, saw her in varied roles that put her in romance, drama, and action genres. In each of these movies (especially Red Eye), Rachel McAdams stole the screen space from her co-stars and appeared to completely dominate the audience’s interest with much élan, almost without effort.

As amazing an actress as she is, Rachel McAdams may come across as the girl-next-door type and yet she is so much more. Extremely concerned about the environment, she usually takes a bus or cycles in an effort to save gas; she even co-founded a green website, GreenIsSexy. Rachel’s latest movie, Sherlock Holmes, which releases on the 25th of December will see her playing the role of Irene, the only woman that ever outsmarted Holmes and even managed, perhaps, to gain his heart.

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Phnom Penh has been developing at breakneck speed. Infrastructure dots the capital. The result of this property boom is the sad and sorry reality that the city’s poor are being displaced at an alarming rate. ‘Activists are calling it the largest epidemic of evictions since the Khmer Rouge emptied all of Phnom Penh in 1975.’ The government has also been failing ‘to control land-grabbing.’ It is said that ‘133,000 people, or 10% of the population, have been evicted in Phnom Penh since 1990. That’s not counting the 250,000 victims of land-grabbing in 13 other provinces.’

Phnom Penh, today, is a young city with a population that mostly came in as countryside migrants. The wave of internal migration came after the Khmer Rouge was toppled in 1979, and during the United Nations peacekeeping operation of 1992-93. It is one of the most glaring cases of destructive migration and unsustainable urbanization. The city is an ocean of slum and squatter colonies whose population is estimated to number nearly a million.

Governments all over the world, using the power of eminent domain, have ‘the right to evict people for the public good.’ Cambodia is not an exception to the practice. ‘But in Cambodia, land-grabs come more with the promise of fattened wallets. Most land is ceded in secret, for government-connected moguls building hotels and high-end condominiums, sometimes by intimidating local residents with armed force or arrest.’ The result is hundreds of forced evictions where poor city residents are ‘often thrown into squalor outskirts without health-care services, clean water and sanitation, in remote areas where they can’t commute to the city.’

Via Far Eastern Economic Review

When Maggie Gyllenhaal made her first appearance in father Stephen Gyllenhaal’s Waterland in 1992, she was only 15 years old and more desirable than most guys could hope for. Over the years and through the many amazing performances that Maggie has delivered, her attractiveness and raw sexuality may have been subtly hidden away because of her preference for choosing slightly quirky roles that cast her as erotica-obsessed, deranged, un-ladylike or ill-fitted in society, but her appeal as an actress and a woman has only increased over the years.

Maggie appeared with actor-brother Jake Gyllenhaal of Brokeback fame in the movie Donnie Darko which was perhaps her first claim to fame. A year later, Secretary released and Maggie’s portrayal of a mentally disturbed woman who enjoyed a sado-masochistic relationship with her employer further elevated her to the status of actresses one could never forget. Provocative and something of a neo-feminist, her personality is possibly least concealed in the movie Mona Lisa Smile in which she played out-of-control Giselle Levy.

Attempting to break the mould she had created for herself, Maggie chose to go mainstream by playing Rachel Dawes in the hugely successful movie The Dark Knight and though she wouldn’t like it much, this maybe the role that Maggie would be most remembered for. The actress has a 3 year old daughter with husband Peter Saarsgard (remember Jarhead?) but even motherhood hasn’t changed this temptress into the type of quiet and obliging woman that society expects them to be. Strangely, although she is the more sexy and talented of the two, Maggie Gyllenhaal remains lesser known when compared to brother Jake but hopefully all that will change when Crazy Heart comes out next year!

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