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

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

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

From McCann Kenya comes a visually-compelling and direct message to stop human trafficking, especially of children. The public awareness campaign through transit ads serve to spread the message quickly, and with a visual connect that is readily comprehensible, action-inducing, agitating, and graphic as any visual communication should be.

The transit ad campaign is the brainchild of Creative Director and Copywriter Inam Kazimi and Art Director Martin Mwangi, and advertiser IOM. The public awareness ad calls on people to act against human trafficking posthaste by phoning in the discovery of victims as well as the perpetrators of the transnational crime. The toll free hotlines are an integral part of the ad’s copy.

The ad directly and succinctly captures the reality of human trafficking and human smuggling where people/victims are clandestinely transported around inside the baggage compartments of buses. This is one of the modus operandi of the crime. By disclosing the ethod and reporting the crime through the hotlines, these human victims are let off the bus and freed from the devastating consequences of the crime.

Operationally defined, ‘human trafficking is the practice of people being tricked, lured, coerced or otherwise removed from their home or country, and then compelled to work with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. The practice is considered to be trade or commerce in people, which has many features of slavery, and which is illegal in most countries. The victims of human trafficking can be used in a variety of situations, including prostitution, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage) and other forms of involuntary servitude. The sale of babies and children for adoption or other purposes is also considered to be trafficking in those children.’

Via COLORIBUS

Henry Ford, the father of the modern automobile industry, ‘refused to do business on Friday the 13th.’ Ford shared the same fear and caution with other stalwarts as Napoleon and President Franklin Roosevelt.

FDR was such a day 13th phobic that he altered his ‘own travel plans on any day of the week that landed on the 13th.’ According to Thomas Fernsler, a University of Delaware mathematician who has studied the number enough to earn the moniker ‘Dr. 13,’  “FDR would not depart on a (train) trip on the 13th.” One story goes that ‘the former president would order the train to leave the station before midnight on the 12th or after midnight on the morning of the 14th.’ “He avoided traveling to the beyond on the 13th,” joked Bob Clark, head archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. FDR died on April 12, 1945. It was a Thursday.

According to Donald Dossey, a North Carolina behavioral scientist and author who named the fear of Friday the 13th as paraskavedekatriaphobia, people are afraid that ‘something tragic or ominous would happen.’ Some people are known to rearrange travel plans or delay surgery schedules to avoid any crucial activities to fall on the day.

Dossey adds that in Norse mythology, Loki ‘crashed a party of 12 gods at Valhalla.’ He says, “That’s really when the number 13 became unlucky.”

‘The phobia around the 13th is a cousin to triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13. The supposedly unlucky number, triskaidekaphobes say, is the reason behind the explosion of Apollo 13, which took off at exactly 1:13 p.m. (1313 military time) on 4/11/70 (digits that add up to 13, naturally).’

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Via Yahoo! News-AP

Surprising common sense and putting it in check survey in 2006, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that people who use the internet and have a cell phone has a bigger and more diverse social network.

According to the study, the isolation rate of U.S. citizens remains the same in 1985: 6% of Americans feel they do not have with whom to discuss important issues. But the possession of a cell and participation in a variety of activities on the Internet were associated with greater and more extensive range of friends.

This is because the use of these services actually causes people to be more inter-connected and more open to communication. Data from Pew Internet shows that people who share photos online are more likely to discuss politics with people from other parties, and bloggers are 72% more likely to participate in a voluntary association site.

The conclusion is that although people spend more time in front of computer screens, it does not bring harm to their relationships in real life. The results show that social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace encourage groups in which there is a greater likelihood of relationship between people with different life experiences, which is an advantage in terms of diversity.

Another finding of the study is that, although many believe the Internet as a means of global communication, people are using their tools, including social networks, email and instant messaging mechanisms to talk to people very close, as friends who live in the same area.

Via: CNET News.

Ex-Miss California Carrie Prejean wanted nothing more than to win the Miss America title and go on to spread the word of Jesus to all her righteous countrymen. Unfortunately for her, there were so many people treading on the wrong paths who just didn’t want for her to be the second Virgin Mary. These vile and evil creatures (gays and lesbians, for the uninitiated) hurled cruel words at her because of her strong belief that they were threatening the holy sanctimony of marriage. Imagine anyone wanting to get married to someone of the same sex just because they are in love; it’s blasphemy!

Such devoted and holy Christians like Prejean live only with the desire to make the world a safe haven for all the straight and homophobic of the world. If, in the process, a few million LGBTs are hurt, humiliated, tortured, raped, and killed, then this world has not lost much. After all, there would still be plenty straight people making babies like crazy so the human species would never become extinct. Prejean’s ill-spoken speeches against the community must have impressed the Pope and certainly convinced all the religious extremists to place her high up on a pedestal. When her nude photos started circulating on the net, Prejean’s supporters declared them photoshopped and some even forgave them as a mistake from her childhood. All she needed to do was whisper a few Hail Mary’s and her sins would be forgiven by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Prejean was such a pure daughter of the faith that she even demanded millions from the Miss California Pageant for dethroning her and revealing to reporters that she had undergone breast enlargement. Having a few million dollars would have been great; self-righteous and angelic Prejean could have started a Straight Church but it now appears that she only needs her faith. Prejean has settled out of court with the Pageant officials after a hardcore sex tape of Prejean having a great time on her own made its way into the discussion. Ah, these damned LGBTs will stop at nothing to destroy the image of Our Lady of Abstinence.

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Via: NewsBlaze

As a communist regime, ‘the political ideology of the CCP has traditionally been hostile to religion, but its policy since the late 1970s has been to tolerate religious belief and expression among non-Party members so long as it does not threaten the CCP’s monopoly of authority or the functions of the state.’

International bodies such as the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have found that the Chinese constitution ‘prohibits religious activities that impair public order, health, or education and proscribes “foreign domination” of religious bodies and religious affairs.’

Thus, ‘the freedom to express one’s religion through activities is not guaranteed by the constitution.’

While China has international legal obligations that should protect the religious freedom of its citizens, ‘China’s policies and practices are in direct violation of these norms.’ Foremost and primordial of these internationally agreed legal obligations is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), an international instrument [of and in] all U.N. member states that is a ‘customary international law that guarantees persons the right to manifest their religion “either alone or in community with others and in public or private, the right to be free from discrimination based upon religion, and the right to be free from unnecessary and arbitrary government regulation in exercising religious beliefs.’

China became a member of the United Nations on  24 October, 1945.

It is clear that China’s pressure and assault on Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs are a manifestation of violating international legal obligations. But even if anybody reminds China of its signed cooperation and agreement, would it actually heed any advice? After all, the political ideology of the CCP and religion do not and will never mix.

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Via Human Rights Watch

The Taliban have apparently been fighting for the institutionalization of the Muslim Sharia law, imposing extremist views on the population. These militants and religious fundamentalists forced ‘their ultraconservative brand of Islam in and around the Swat.’ In the process, they have also been ‘displacing centuries-old traditions,’ as claimed by the Pashtuns.

One of the aspects that have been victimized by the ‘Talibanization’ in Pakistan’s northwest is ethnic Pashtun culture. ‘Pashtun literature used to be full of romance and praise for the beauty of nature. Now it reflects the death and explosions that have filled the lives of Pakistanis.’

The very social fabric of the Pashtuns’ centuries-old culture has been frayed by the Taliban to near–destruction – Pashtun poetry, dancing, even community interaction centers.

‘The Pashtuns, an ethnic group concentrated in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan, live by a revered code of conduct called Pashtunwali. Society has traditionally centered around community centers called hujras, where assemblies of elders and community leaders called jirgas are an important part of the culture.’

Pashtun music has also been victimized, with music stores being attacked. “Music functions are integral parts of Pashtun marriage ceremonies, and even Islam allows the beating of tambourine in marriage functions, but all these things are rapidly becoming a tale of the past in face of Talibanization,” says Dr. Raj Wali Shah Khattak, former director of the Pashto Academy at the University of Peshawar.

According to Said Alam Mehsud, a leader of the Aman Tehreek, a peace movement recently launched in Peshawar, “This is an attempt to Arabize the Pashtun society by attacking their culture and their highly revered institutions.”

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Via The Christian Science Monitor

‘The systemic destruction of Kashgar’s iconic buildings in the Xinjian region, and the much-publicized assault on the Muslim Uighur culture’ are just some examples of how China wages a grand campaign of cultural assimilation that it deems it badly needs for the creation of a ‘more stable’ China.

This is ‘a state that can only be achieved, according to a government increasingly paranoid about instability, by having one Chinese identity.’ Included, or even railroaded, in this grand campaign are citizens of Inner Mongolia and some of the many and various Chinese dialects spoken across the country.

Inner Mongolians are neither completely ethnic Mongolian nor Chinese enough. Ethnic Mongolians have, in fact, become a minority in their own land since the Chinese Communist Party took over 62 years ago turning the province into an ‘inseparable part of China.’

Some of the dialects used in China are now considered endangered by UNESCO. These dialects ‘have less than 1,000 surviving users.’ Once used to preserve the unique differences between provinces, as well as the country’s cultural diversity, these spoken forms are now ‘quickly dwindling.’

Because the vast country was in need of a standardized form of communication, Chairman Mao Zedong radically reduced ‘the number of strokes some of the ornate traditional characters included. Critics have continually complained that much of the essence and history of the language was removed during this process of orthography reformation.’

Recently, the State Language Department announced that ‘new modifications to further standardize characters will be released this year.’

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Via Far Eastern Economic Review