Of course, everyone reads the news paper differently. My friend Hunty would always read the Times of India backwards, starting at sports. I tend to skip through most of the national politics to the international section. Now that I am in a hotel with air conditioning and a TV, I have been jumping between CNN and BBC. Three stories caught my attention today and are influenced by the jobs I have had and where I am from.
My Wireimage and Tibetan interest led me to Sharon Stone’s comments this week at Amfar in Cannes. It seems that she thinks that due to the Chinese human rights violation in Tibet, she thinks that the eathquake in Chengdu is due to bad karma. I especially liked how she called H.H. the Dalai Lama a “very good friend.” The full story can be read here. To simplify how people feel about the situation in Tibet she is quoted as saying “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.” If only a little kindness could solve all the worlds problems!
To show some interests a little closer to home and also with a more serious Getty slant, I have been following the Gujjar protests that now have seeped into New Delhi. I have missed any travel through the affected region, and hopefully will continue to do so. Interestingly, the Gujjars actually want to have their caste lowered so that they can have access to more government jobs. It seems that the Indian government offers certain amounts of these jobs to lower castes, and the Gujjars current status excludes them from those possibilities. The Times of India article adds some more details here.
Finally, as I have met a few Koreans this trip, and also know a few back in New York, I followed the US beef story in Korea. South Korea had banned US beef 5 years ago due to the export of some beef infected with ‘mad cow.’ The South Korean government has lifted the ban even though continued protests have been held. The BBC tells more here. What I enjoyed the most about this story, is that although the government has confirmed a lift of the ban sue to the safety of the meat, the Koreans continue protesting due to the safety of street food. The report on CCN said that in fact the peoples main concern was with the parts of the animal that Americans don’t eat that carry more of the disease. If Koreans would just stop eating the intestines, then a large part of the risk would disappear. As a solution to this, many road side vendors have turned to pig intestines instead. Having seen how many pigs in Asia sit at the base of toilets to eat human excrement, I can’t imagine that their intestines are much cleaner than a cows (especially as they never proven there to be any link between BSE and CJD).
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