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sayaka uchida

Jail a 'rite of passage' for Indigenous youth - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corpo... - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2693527.htm

shared by sayaka uchida on 22 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Duncan Johnson, says many find life is easier inside prison.
  • Duncan Johnson, says many find life is easier inside prison.
  • Duncan Johnson, says many find life is easier inside prison.
  • sayaka uchida on 22 Sep 09
     
    'A Queensland Indigenous leader says being sent to jail has become a badge of honour among many young Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.'
jung moon

In South Korea, All of Life Is Mobile - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...25iht-mobile.html

technology mobile-phone South-Korea mobile life

shared by jung moon on 31 Jul 09 - Cached
  • For South Koreans, efforts to replace credit cards and cash hit their stride in 2004, when banks began issuing integrated circuit chips that slot into the mobile phones and allow them to work like credit cards at A.T.M.’s.
  • Mobile payment has been adopted in many parts of Europe and Asia, especially in Japan. Still, phones have a long way to go before replacing plastic.
  • For Kim Hee-young, her mobile is the Swiss Army knife of the digital era. When she wants ice cream, she just asks her phone, and it shows a list of ice cream shops — complete with their menus and customer reviews — and the shortest way to get there.
  • jung moon on 31 Jul 09
     
    mobile phone is like the Swiss Army knife of the digital era. (Kim Hee-young, a student)
Wye Keen Wong

Notes & Neurons | World Science Festival - 0 views

www.worldsciencefestival.com/...notes-neurons-full

Music Science Cultural Communication

shared by Wye Keen Wong on 09 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Is our response to music hard-wired or culturally determined? Is the reaction to rhythm and melody universal or influenced by environment?
  • cross cultural demonstrations
  • Wye Keen Wong on 09 Aug 09
     
    "If music be the food of life"... can it help with our discussion of international culture & communication? An incredibly interesting science festival that considers music and it's place in human reactions.
Nadeem Uddin

'Viagra cream' could prove safer - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8263307.stm

shared by Nadeem Uddin on 21 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Nadeem Uddin on 21 Sep 09
     
    'Viagra cream' could prove safer\nViagra\nSide-effects can include headaches, blurred vision and upset stomach\n\nA cream allowing erectile dysfunction drugs to be applied directly to the skin could one day make them safer to use, say New York scientists.\n\nStudies in rats suggest that Viagra, Levitra and Cialis could pass through the skin in tiny capsules, they say.\n\nThe research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, could mean fewer side-effects, and even significantly speed up the drug's action.\n\nHowever, it could be a decade before creams are fully ready for use.\n\nThe arrival of erectile dysfunction treatments in tablet form has been one of the success stories of the modern pharmaceutical industry, with some estimates suggesting that tens of millions of men worldwide have used them.\n\nHowever, although they have worked for many men, they also carry the risk of side-effects such as headaches, blurred vision or upset stomachs.\n\nIn addition, men with severe heart problems, or who have just suffered a stroke, are advised to avoid the tablets altogether or use them with extreme caution.\n\nLess risk\n\nFor many, this could be solved by the development of the cream, with would confine more of the active ingredients of the drug to a single area of the body, rather than circulating them widely.\n \nThe response time to the nanoparticles was very short, just a few minutes, which is basically what people want in an erectile dysfunction medication\nDr Kelvin Davies\nStudy author\n\nThe research team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, in New York, used nanoparticles, each much smaller than a grain of pollen, and found a way to encapsulate particles of the drug inside.\n\nTheir early tests involved just a few rats bred to have erectile dysfunction later in life.\n\nOf these, 11 were treated with nanoparticles containing Cialis, a newer erectile dysfunction drug called sialorphin, and nitric oxide, a chemical also needed to wid
Christoph Zed

Obama's Kanye West comment sparks debate - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...arks-debate-20090917-fsqz.html

social media obama twitter press etiquette

shared by Christoph Zed on 17 Sep 09 - Cached
  • President Barack Obama's candid thoughts about Kanye West are provoking a debate over standards of journalism in the Twitter age.
  • But he said it is broadcast tradition that such pre-interview chatter is considered off the record until the formal interview begins.
  • The incident is reminiscent of past "open-mic" incidents involving politicians
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "If you're sitting there with a microphone on, you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy,
  • "The president calling Kanye West a 'jackass' is perfect information for a tweet," she said. "In fact, that's the ideal format. You can do it in 140 characters. There's not much else to say."
Lucy Rechnitzer

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Senegal's youths dream of Europe - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8251029.stm

shared by Lucy Rechnitzer on 13 Sep 09 - Cached
  • We sat on the ground and the message from all these fishermen was along the lines of: "They may be talking about an economic crisis in Europe but if you want a real crisis it's right here in Senegal."
  • A very animated and infuriated Abdoulaye told me that his son left for Spain in a fishing boat five years ago, and was now living a far better life than he was. "I am 45-years-old and I don't have half of what he has now, like a nice house and a car," he said, adding that he would do all he could to send more of his relatives to Europe. None of these young men referred at any stage to the risks of getting to Europe even though hundreds - probably thousands - have died at sea in recent years. Senegal looks to Europe more than most countries I have visited. Not so much to Spain, but to the old colonial power, France, which has maintained strong links.
  • If it were not for the West African street traders, the whole of Europe would be squinting and struggling to keep their trousers up, judging by the number of people I have met who said they made their living selling these goods on the streets.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • I used to be able to work in Italy for just one month and earn enough money to spend the rest of the year living it up in Senegal," Vieux told me. He said 10 years ago in Italy people would come knocking on the door offering work but not any more
  • But much of the development is through money sent home from abroad, and economic crisis or not, Europe will still be the target for many young Senegalese looking to swap the horse and cart life for a Renault in the fast lane.
xinning ji

No leave, no life? No interest | Australian domestic tourism slump - 1 views

www.theage.com.au/...no-interest-20090923-g131.html

shared by xinning ji on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • “People are concerned about job security and are a little reluctant to take leave and spend money,"
  • Cheap international travel deals in response to the global financial crisis might also be reducing the effectiveness of the domestic campaign.
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | When can you speak ill of the dead? - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8170429.stm

shared by Christoph Zed on 28 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Has enough time passed for a more impartial assessment of the man
  • Our traditional response to a person's death can be summed up by the Latin "de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est" - roughly translated "don't speak ill of the dead". But in the information age, where the news keeps on rolling and the notion of deference has long since been replaced by a fascination with fame, how does the old maxim hold up?
  • Leith believes politicians like Vaz make a "category error" when they posture in this way. "They appropriate cultural events. You wouldn't really expect Michael Jackson to ratify the Countryside Act 2000 so why should parliament say what a jolly good dancer he was?"
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "The media portrayal of a life has almost become like an autopsy."
glen donnar

Chinese hack into film festival site - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...stival-site-20090725-dwvx.html

communication international china australia film festival

shared by glen donnar on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
  • The hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans
  • "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese Government's demands."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Last week, three Chinese directors withdrew films, with two denying they were forced to do so by Chinese authorities. Director Tang Xiaobai, who withdrew her film Perfect Life after being phoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said it was her decision to boycott the festival."I do not want to see my film screened on the same platform as a film about Kadeer," Tang told the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
Tony Sullivan

Background Briefing - 5 July 2009 - Cairo, a divided city - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2613439.htm

globalisation Egypt

shared by Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Cairo
  • Mr Berry: When you walk in the gate it's nice. It gives you the impression that maybe you have a place in Australia maybe, maybe it feels like you in Australia, maybe somebody else, OK, maybe in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the world, maybe in Italy, maybe somebody has the same feeling like Oh, this looks somewhere in Rome, somewhere in Greece
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Describes 'gated communities' for the affluent, being established in desert areas beyond the border of Cairo city.
  • Mr Berry: Golf, it's a very prestigious thing.
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • Not everyone back in Cairo is happy about the obsession with golf courses. Professor of Landscape and Architecture at Cairo University, Mohammad Refaat says they are a status symbol and the game doesn't come naturally to Egyptians
  • Mohammad Refaat: The first golf course that was created in these new developments was in Katameya Heights. It started - why is that? Because we started to have the Japanese in Egypt. The Japanese, they love golf, and we have several firms with Japanese managers, so it became a luxury to provide the service for them. But I believe that we're never going to be golfers as Egyptians, and I don't know, it's irritating now, because whenever you go, whenever you get a project, even in my private office, they say, 'Ah, the golf', and then we start doing the compound. The main idea of the golf from the owners' point of view is that to provide value for the people so that he can start to sell.
  • Mohammad Refaat: The thing is that I feel that we are Westernising ourselves. The thing is that due to the effect of the media, everybody wants to live in a Dallas, or in a Falconcrest or one of these things that we used to see when we're kids.
  • And they did not understand the Egyptian culture. If I speak about myself, I'd rather live in what we call the hara, or the alley, the old alley that we have, you know, when you have people all living in one street, of having all the services in the street, what we call the philosophy of the extended family. This is very, very Egyptian.
  • Anwar Sadat
  • opened up the country to the world, and very significantly, for the first time, all Egyptians could travel overseas.
  • Egyptians from all classes went abroad to get jobs in Gulf countries. They came back with money and with an appetite for things like shopping and luxury living. Some also brought back new ideas about Islam. It was more conservative and fundamentalist.
  • teachers, engineers, medical doctors, peasants, the large peasant migration
  • get passports, go and work in Jordan, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, come back. Some of them also in Saudi Arabia perhaps never ever encountering women, right? And coming back with new notions of segregation, of headscarf, of Islamisation
  • Hagar Cohen: In Cairo today more and more women are segregated and wear the burqa, which is the full head and body cover. But everyone likes the shopping, and the new and glitzy malls are full of people in all kinds of dress
  • It can be uncomfortable now for women in western clothes, who don't wear scarves, because conservative men and women clearly show their distaste. This mix between consumerism and a very religious lifestyle is sometimes known as 'petro Islam'
  • Mona Abaza: They have different notions and variations of Islamic ideologies. There is a difference between a 16-year-old kid who is out of a family of 10 living in a slum, and a schoolteacher who lives long years in Saudi Arabia comes back, very much influenced by what I call the petro Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabian consumerists, very much into conservative accommodationist kind of religion, enjoying a shopping mall but at the same time dressing in Islamic code for instance. So marrying certain forms of consumer culture, but giving it a flavour that can look Egyptian, so that you convince yourself that you are different.
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Also discussed in relation to Salafism, a quietist social current encouraged by Saudi Araba, in 'The fever under the surface', The Economist 25 July 2009, p11-12, part of a special report on the Middle East.
  • the gated communities inside. the more upmarket, the faster they're selling, and they have names like Beverley Hills, Hyde Park and Dreamland.
  • Another kind of cultural reference for all of this is old Egyptian movies from like the 1950s you know, black-and-white films, where the setting was very, very often the Pasha's villa, which always had a very grand staircase, and a very grand entrance. This is the sort of lifestyle that Egyptians haven't had access to since the 1950s because of the crowding and so on and so forth. So now it's sort of become a lifestyle option for wealthy Egyptians that wasn't really there. So you can now have your own Pasha's villa.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hussanein says she isn't comfortable living in a place with a name like 'Beverly Hills'. Dina Hassanein: That's a very sad thing, because we have a remarkable history and civilisation and yet, you know, we can't think of any Arabic word of our own that we could use to name the places. So I can tell you, Beverly Hills Egypt is nothing like Beverly Hills California
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is a modern woman. She lives on her own, and has a fiancé who lives nearby. She is very beautiful and smartly dressed in Western clothes. She has a job which involves interaction with all sorts of people
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein and other residents have to rely on Old Cairo for almost everything, including shops, restaurants, and health services. There are also no local street markets, little shops or stalls, or workshops. In some places, the rules even forbid them. Big supermarket chains can be found easily, but you have to drive to get to them
  • Said Sadek: And you have rulers who believe in gated communities. Mubarak himself, lives in Sharem el Sheik or Borg el Arab, isolated, always isolated. The ruling elite in Egypt are isolated. And so you can tell by this political orientation of the elite that this is what they want, an isolated community because they cannot meet the demands of the masses. There are 40% of Egyptians below poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. And so this abject poverty amidst people who have a lot of money, may drive people to be envious
  • Very poor quality housing found in slums and shanty towns is expanding in Cairo
  • r Cohen: What in terms of sewage and garbage services? Are they available? Manal Tibe: We are talking about no water, so don't talk about sewage and garbage
  • Hagar Cohen: Manal Tibe says that the government isn't doing anything to improve conditions in slums, but has been very generous to private developers of gated communities. The desert land is subsidised by the government as well as the price of fuel, electricity and water. And that makes expenses in gated communities very low.
  • Manal Tibe: More hatefulness from poor to rich people and also to the government. Now, poor people that they want revenge, and this is being interpreted in some crimes against rich people.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is missing city life, but at the same time she says that she doesn't fit in there any more
  • Dina Hassanein: It's not that I don't want to live there, it's just that our realities are very different, the places that we go are very different. If I were to walk into a slum I might get torn apart. You can't just walk in wearing normal clothes like we do into a place like that. I can barely walk down the streets without getting harassed actually, because it's a much more conservative society, so it's just different, it's almost impossible for these worlds to intermingle.
  • Hagar Cohen: These two very different worlds are on display inside some of Cairo's shopping malls. Western music there is piped through just as it is in any Australian city. This shopping mall is in the suburb of Giza. It's one of the most exclusive ones in Cairo. There's a care there serving Caesar salads and cappuccinos. Just across the road is the Giza Zoo, which is a popular hanging out venue for poorer families
  • This shopping mall
  • It's only a few days before Christmas when we're here, and in this Muslim country, it's ironic that Christian carols are playing throughout the atrium. Mona Abaza: It's a mix of definitely well-to-do Egyptians, and lots of expatriates, foreigners coming. You can see the Christmas decoration. During Ramadan they make Ramadan decorations, tents and Islamic style, and in Christmas they put Christmas decorations
  • Mona Abaza: There is this idea that the old downtown city is now slowly being depopulated by its, let us say, middle class. It used to be a very important commercial centre. It is now losing out this significance, because the centres have been now little by little moving out. So the idea is to get out of the city, because as if it's the inside is rotten, and it's very interesting how the poor can easily look at the lifestyles of the rich. Now this is evidently a bit of a problem for the rich, so that is why they opted for the American Dream, which is getting out and walling off.
  • Mona Abaza: If you look at it just visually, the problem is slums. One can easily say that the view is that as if the whole of Cairo is consisting of slums. Now the past 20 years, the neo liberal ideology of the government is to try and handle the problem of slums, and the way they handle it is as if it's an evil, a cancer that has to be drastically eliminated, with violence, because they consider and they believe that in slums, that we have the breeding of terrorist ideology, Islamist, poverty, violence etc. Now all this is quite often very over-exaggerated. I mean it's a form of discriminating the poor, that's clear. But you have the issue also of the city now experiencing a new form of cleaning up geared towards of course the encouraging of tourism and sites of consumption. So the cityscape is taking place as a huge space for consumer culture and tourism
  • Hagar Cohen: The American University, where Professor Abaza lectures, has also moved out to the desert and is now based in a town called New Cairo. She says it's a bad move, because a whole generation of well-off young people will be isolated, away from historical Cairo or the old Egyptian culture
  • Mona Abaza: You might be astonished but my students, 18 years old, 19 years, have never for instance known anything about downtown, have never even gone to downtown.
  • You will find the American fast food and the Egyptian fast food, and Italian, Mexican. Upstairs there is a McDonald's and Kentucky
  • Towheid Wahab: There is a rule here in the University. There's no mosque, there's no church, there's no temple, there's no monastery. All the people here are equal to do their religion by their own
  • Max Roderbeck: There are good reasons why they want to move, because you get a nice amount of space, you can re-brand yourself with a new image of being something that looks very modern instead of something that's fitted into a shabby old neighbourhood. There's certainly a trend, I mean there are quite a lot of institutions that have moved out.
  • Max Roderbeck: The danger of Cairo being hollowed out is pretty real. And I mean, some of the things that a city needs to be vibrant, seem to be already been pulled out of the centre of Cairo. I've seen other places where downtown becomes either a hollow shell, or ends up just being a sort of transport hub, you know, a sort of junction of roads and things. And I think it's a very real danger with Cairo.
  • Hagar Cohen: Somehow, Cairo has always managed to function as a lively city, says Max Roderbeck, but this time around, things are different
  • These satellite towns were developed in this way because of the government's quick sale of the land to private hands. They wanted to make a return quickly, and big villas and golf courses were in demand. But they don't work as lively urban centres, says environmental architect, Abbas el Zafarany
  • Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
     
    The complexities of globalisation evident in Egypt's largest city and its surrounds
glen donnar

Politics comes before lights and camera - Opinion - theage.com.au - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...1248546628873.html

miff china australia international relations politics culture film nation states

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • THE Melbourne International Film Festival has it all: dramas involving officials from foreign governments, larger than life characters sticking to matters of principles whatever the consequences and the struggles for liberation.
  • documentary about Rebiya Kadeer
  • subsequently three Chinese films were withdrawn.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Loach's
  • The role of political actors, and the nation state in particular, in the film industry is enormous.
  • the film appears as the product of an individual visionary. This view of filmmaking is about as realistic as the standard Hollywood happy ending. The reality is that films are rarely, if ever, the personal, unadulterated vision of a director. They are influenced or, depending on your point of view, compromised from the start by those who bankroll the films.
  • what gets far less attention is the extensive role played by political actors in the filmmaking process.
  • In some respects, the most surprising thing about these kerfuffles is not that they have happened, but that they don't happen more often. While most of us think of film festivals as cultural events, the truth is that they are also deeply political events.
  • most films would not be made were it not for generous state subsidies.
  • And in spite of nice-sounding claims about facilitating cultural dialogue, nation states don't fund films because they love a good story. They do so because film can be a highly effective means of spreading influence. Since they're footing the bill, it's understandable that they want a say in the content of the film and how it is positioned.
  • films and film festivals are the continuation of politics by other means. It shouldn't be imagined that this applies only to authoritarian states such as China or political organisations with clear political objectives. Nearly every Australian film is made with some public money, and so filmmakers are subject to similar, if far more sophisticated and subtle, forms of state influence.
  • China has miscalculated the extent of its reach and, in the process, provided both the Kadeer documentary and the film festival an avalanche of publicity. And Ken Loach, in remarkably poor political judgment, has effectively silenced himself by withdrawing his film.
Rika Ninomiya

Beyond them and us - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...them-and-us-20090605-by7x.html

International student Melbourne

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 31 Jul 09 - Cached
  • how do we foster a sense of community for international students in the short time they are here? And in turn, how do we bridge the often unintentional divide that underpins their experiences?
  • High-density housing is deliberately geared towards the international student market, at the expense of a broader mix. Orientation programs for international students and local students often run at different times. International students pay the full cost for transport, while domestic students get half-price concessions. And at some institutions, separate queues and counters even exist.
  • With their proximity to Melbourne and RMIT, they give students few opportunities to venture out of their comfort zone, explore the rest of the city, and perhaps build new connections. Some have few communal spaces - not exactly conducive to interacting with life beyond the campus zone.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "We need to understand different cultures and perspectives as part of how we do business and relate," says Mr Campbell. "So there's actually a public good in all of this."
  • Rika Ninomiya on 31 Jul 09
     
    Interesting article discussing how international students experience or not experience Melbourne fully during their stay here in Melbourne.
sayaka uchida

Disney World: When Death Comes to the Magic Kingdom - TIME - 0 views

www.time.com/...0,8599,1917776,00.html

shared by sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Over the past six weeks at Disney World, a 21-year-old monorail driver, a 47-year-old actor portraying pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow's henchman "Mack," and a 30-year-old stuntman practicing for the Indiana Jones' Epic Stunt Spectacular died in on-the-job accidents.
  • community's grief is apparent on their Facebook pages. "We lost another one of our own at Disney. Too many, too young. Just wish it made some sense,"
  • "Mark lived for that magic. That's when Mark was most Mark," Babel says. "One's person's life can touch, in Mark's case, millions of guests. And he would make a special connection with each and every one of those kids that he came into contact with. He was amazing. The shining example of someone like Mark is inspiring, and so I kind of take extra care to make the magic in honor of Mark."
  • sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09
     
    Death could bind people? Maybe death the only thing which every single person can share/possess.
Rika Ninomiya

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China iPhone man commits suicide - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8162325.stm

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 07 Aug 09 - Cached
  • A Chinese man suspected of stealing a prototype for the fourth generation iPhone has committed suicide.
  • "We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect," Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong, told reporters. 'Humiliating'
  • On 13 July, Sun reported that he was missing one of the 16 units in his possession.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The company immediately launched an investigation into the disappearance; three days later he had jumped to his death.
  • during the firm's investigation he was beaten, his house was searched and he was locked up alone in a room.
  • one of the most humiliating experiences of his life
  • Mr Gu denies hitting Sun, and a CCTV image of the worker on the day before he died
  • Foxconn has faced allegations in the past that it treats its employees poorly. It has always denied such claims, and was cleared by Apple of any serious abuses, our correspondent says.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 07 Aug 09
     
    Really interesting article on how China man committed suicide because he lost one of sixteen iphone 4th generation prototype.
sayaka uchida

Melbourne's Somali community| shock afer terror arrests| Melbourne terror plot - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...tered-faith-20090806-eazv.html

shared by sayaka uchida on 06 Aug 09 - Cached
  • "There's a lot of discrimination, there's a lot of young Africans who don't have a sense of belonging in this country,"
  • "I know my friends love this country more than anything else. Some of them say, 'yes, I don't have the opportunity but this country gives me the things I need to live my life.' If you go to Somalia, you only go for one reason, to die. Because you can't live there."
  • "The victim mentality is decreasing rapidly. When people meet racism, they say 'what do you mean? I'm Australian like you'."
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Madonna adoption saga on Fringe - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8185988.stm

africa malawi madonna culture identity orphan

shared by Christoph Zed on 06 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The 50-year-old star is portrayed in the play Mercy Madonna of Malawi by a black male actor in a blonde wig
  • It also attempts to depict how people in the African country viewed the case.
  • Without taking sides, it asks whether it is right for a child to be taken away from her culture if it means enjoying a life of privilege.
xinning ji

War and Family Left Behind, Lone Afghan Youths Seek a Life in Europe - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...28afghankids.html

shared by xinning ji on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • “I want to go to school,” he said in English. “I would like it if I could be — it sounds like a lot to ask — an engineer of computing.”
  • Although some are as young as 12, most are teenagers seeking an education and a future that is not possible in their own country, which is still struggling with poverty and violence eight years after the end of Taliban rule.
  • Once in France, the boys face more hardship. The Paris police have started conducting nightly searches to prevent Afghan migrants from sleeping in Villemin Square. The 15-year-old was placed in a cheap hotel, while others were put in temporary shelter in an unused subway station. Others find their own shelter under bridges and beside a canal
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “How should I make a future?” he asked. “I’m 15 already. I’m on my own. What can I do?”
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | Europe | Bhajis and cricket balls in Brescia - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8225202.stm

cricket sport culture clash europe italy immigration identity

shared by Christoph Zed on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • This is the San Polo municipal football ground on the outskirts of Brescia - a big industrial city in the north of Italy home to one of the biggest south Asian communities in the country.
  • The attraction is cricket - the final rounds of a limited overs competition.
  • "It's not a good place to live", he says. "Most Italians only speak their own language and so - unlike Indians and Pakistanis - they don't mix well with people from other cultures."
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • the place could benefit from a "multicultural mix-up"
  • The League is almost invariably described as xenophobic
  • there have been complaints about cricket in the parks; and, yes, it has been banned, with local police ordered to halt games
  • "I want to see more Italian kids take it up," he adds. "Cricket can help build links between the Italian and immigrant communities - and help us avoid some of the problems we've seen in the past."
  • He is a politician - a pragmatist who simply can no longer afford to ignore the demands of his hometown's large south Asian community. And in this case pragmatism - it would seem - might just be the best way to start building a better life for everyone.
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