GO TO SOURCE BOMBAY, INDIA, February 12, 2001: The Shiv Sena organization in India has ordered its members to disrupt any Valentine’s Day celebrations in the capital of Bombay by targeting beach and garden parties. The leader of the party, Mr. Bal Thackeray, condemns the festival. He called it shameless and contrary to Indian culture. Shops in Uttar Pradesh selling…
GO TO SOURCE AHMEDABAD, INDIA, February 13, 2001: Conservative Muslims of Ahmadabad and Surat, 580 miles southwest of New Delhi, are destroying their television sets because Muslim cleric Mufti Imtiaz said television was the cause of the country’s killer earthquake. “The mufti told us about the poisoning of minds through television, making Allah angry and causing the earthquake,” said Abdulbhai…
GO TO SOURCE SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS, USA, February 11, 2001: Jim Lewis got his share of “licks” with a paddle when he was a student in public school. Now that he’s a principal himself, he paddles students only on rare occasions and as a last resort. “Most principals now are far from the disciplinarians that principals used to be,” said Lewis,…
GO TO SOURCE PALAKKAD, INDIA, February 6, 2001: You can’t miss the sign, “Sale, purchase or possession of all intoxicants is punishable.” A reminder of good intentions gone awry. For the air in Attapadi, the largest tribal block in South India, is full of the scent of poppy, ganja and hooch, a trade the locals have perfected. The Karumber, the…
GO TO SOURCE LEICESTER, ENGLAND, February 2, 2001: Government figures have just projected that Leicester will become, in a decade, the first British city with a nonwhite majority. Instead of experiencing the cultural antagonisms and anti-immigrant politics that have occurred elsewhere in Britain and in Europe, where once all- white populations have increasing numbers of immigrants in their midst, the…
GO TO SOURCE GUJARAT, INDIA, February 12, 2001: A body of fresh water discovered in the western state of Gujarat may be an ancient branch of Pakistan’s famous Indus river. Recent satellite images taken above the epicenter of last month’s earthquake, in the Rann (literally, “salt desert”) of Kutch region, have uncovered the underground water channels in a barren area…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, NEW YORK, February 6, 2001: America’s business and commodities bible, the Wall Street Journal, in a move to capture attention to it’s new software, has incorporated and trademarked the word “yogi” in the name “PurpleYogi Discovery Systems.” The word popularly translates into one who has an evolved mystical knowledge. The Purple Yogi software claims to…
Source: The Associated Press BHUJ, INDIA, February 7, 2001: In front of an altar fashioned from shipping crates, Hindu priests prayed for the victims of India’s quake Wednesday, chanting Sanskrit verses and name after name into the dusty air, remembering those killed by the worst earthquake to hit India in 50 years. The prayer organizers, followers of the Gujarati saint,…
Source: Deccan Chronicle DHORI, INDIA, February 4, 2001: Thousands of villagers in quake-stricken Gujarat vowed to lead a more reverent life after local priests declared that the Earth, revered as Mother Goddess, had roared and shuddered under the weight of sin. After the January 26 earthquake, villagers believe they have to be more religious to avoid future disasters. Local priests…
GO TO SOURCE LAKHOND, INDIA, February 8, 2001: Even though streets are strewn with rubble and houses are useless heaps of stone, one structure that can’t be shaken in India, even by a killer earthquake is the caste system, according to this report in the Indian Express. The town has six distinct tent camps for the earthquake homeless – four…