divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/69467?ns=guardianpageName=Education%3A+Betraying+the+student+body%3Fch=Educationc3=The+Guardianc4=Students%2CGender+%28News%29%2CWomen+and+women%27s+interests%2CEducation%2CLife+and+style%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CWomen%2CStudents+Educationc6=Emine+Sanerc7=2008_12_05c8=1129229c9=articlec10=GUc11=Educationc12=Studentsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FEducation%2FStudents" width="1" height="1" //divpOver the past few months, a series of beauty contests has been held in London. So far, so sexist. But what distinguishes this particular competition is that all the women taking part are students at some of London's best universities. Last week, for instance, Lile He, a politics and economics student, was named Miss School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), at a pageant staged at a nightclub. And at the final in February she will compete against female students from five other universities - including the London School of Economics, King's College and University College London. /ppAround 400 students have entered the competition; some were "spotted" at nightclubs and encouraged to apply, while others filled out an online application form, giving information about their age and height, and answering searching questions such as "Which Sex and the City character would you most relate to?" The winner will receive prizes from the event's sponsors, which include the cosmetics company Clinique and a jewellery firm. /ppWhile some women have clearly embraced the pageant concept with open arms, the contest is a source of consternation and protest for others. At the "Miss Soas" event there was a rally, with around 40 students carrying banners and signs, and shouting slogans such as "Soas is for education, not for your ejaculation!" Eleanor James, women's officer at the Soas Student Union, helped to organise the protest and says that she sees the beauty contest "as part of the backlash against the fragile gains that feminism has won. I think it's really sad this is happening, but it doesn't surprise me because, at the moment in universities, you find pole dancing societies; because of top-up fees, there are students who work in lap-dancing clubs. So having a beauty pageant is a natural progression."/ppThe Miss University London contest was started in 2006 by Christian Emile. A former student at LSE, Emile was organising student events for nightclubs when a friend from Italy - where beauty pageants are relatively common - suggested they try to launch one here. Emile's company, 121 Entertainment, br /organises other events for nightclubs, including the supply of belly dancers. He describes the university beauty pageant as "a bit of fun" and says that, contrary to some reports, the women involved have not been asked to give waist and breast measurements. "I can understand the apprehension, but it's due largely to a misconception of the event," he says. "We don't have a bikini contest, the girls wear evening dresses of their own choosing and there are a series of questions to demonstrate their personality and charisma." But the competition is, basically, about their physical appearance? "Yes, I'm not denying that. But I want to emphasise that a lot of it has to do with personality." Fair enough, although it's arguable how much you can deduce by asking questions such as "What three items would you take to a desert island?"./pp"I don't think it objectifies women," he says. "If you talk to any of the contestants, they will tell you it is actually empowering. They get their moment in the spotlight, it's a bit of fun." Keelin Gavaghan, an accountancy undergraduate who was named as Miss London School of Economics at that university's heat last month, has said that she fails "to see what is wrong with feeling glamorous for one night. We hardly sold our souls. Nowadays I believe that we are post-feminism." /ppLooking into the set-up of the event - the venues where it is held, the audiences it attracts - I started to wonder just who it is aimed at. Most of the preliminary rounds are being held at the Crystal Club in London, which markets itself as an exclusive venue that has "hosted some of the world's most celebrated elite society". There is a pound;15 fee to get in, with tables then costing up to pound;1,000. To have a bottle of vodka or champagne delivered to your table costs at least pound;150, while drinks at the bar average around pound;8. It seems very expensive for students. "You do get students who can afford that," says Emile. "If you want to come and have a drink at the bar, that's fine. But if you want a pound;1,000 table, that's also fine." The tickets are available by guestlist and Emile admits that the contest isn't only open to a student audience. According to some reports, around a third of the 300 people at one event were not students, but older men. Emile disagrees, saying about "five non-students go to the events", including, he says, a professional footballer or two, "though I can't say who". At last year's pageant, the London Student newspaper approached the Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, who told a reporter, "I came here for the pretty girls." Much has been made of the idea that the contest benefits the charity Cancer Research, but Emile says that while his company "tries" to give 20% of the event's profits to them, "it depends on how much we make"./ppMiss University London isn't the only beauty pageant for students. Earlier this year, a beauty contest called Miss Student Body was launched in Edinburgh, with contestants from five colleges in the city. It was forced to close when the organisers ran out of money. /ppEmile plans to launch his beauty contests in university cities around the country over the next few years, and there is already a popular national competition, Miss Student UK, which advertises at freshers' fairs and in nightclubs popular among students: the first prize is pound;10,000. The website for Miss Student UK includes pictures and videos uploaded by women, in which they are often wearing nothing more than a bikini or underwear, or are dressed as Playboy bunnies. In 2006, Loughborough University student union hosted the FHM "High Street Honeys Tour", where female students were "spotted" to appear in shoots for the men's magazine. Loughborough has also held a "Playboy mansion party" with performances from pole dancers. York University has a pole dancing club, and other universities, including Warwick and Bath, have sold calendars of female students posing in their underwear./ppAll of this may be indicative of a new sexism in student life. But many women are fighting back. Katie Curtis, the National Union of Students' women's officer, says that "it is unacceptable for events which objectify women to take place in our educational institutions. Universities should be about expanding people's minds, not judging them on their appearance." /ppRuby Buckley, women's officer at LSE, and part of the group that has been protesting against these events, agrees. I ask her why she thinks educated young women are choosing to get involved in a contest that seems, at best, like a sad throwback to a more sexist age. She says some of the contestants are finding ways to justify taking part "but it's an illusion, a con from society telling women that this is emancipation. I think what summed it up for me was when one contestant was asked, 'Would you rather have brains or beauty?' and she said beauty, because if she wasn't beautiful, nobody would want to listen to her anyway. This isn't fulfilling, to be ogled at and judged and it's such a shame that these are educated women, who could be the future leaders of the world, who are not standing up and questioning what they are doing. They are worth more than this competition and they need to realise that."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students"Students/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender"Gender/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women"Women/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v4-bKfr1w2w2jsWlE7yx_lJG5Ac/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v4-bKfr1w2w2jsWlE7yx_lJG5Ac/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

There is some sort of chain email currently going around which claims that section 49-0 of the People’s Representative Act (PRA) allows people to file a protest vote which would lead to countermanding of the election if the numbers of people casting a negative vote is higher than people voting for a candidate.

There is no concept of negative vote in India. You can refuse to vote for a candidate but it won’t affect the eventual results. Please don’t fall for such emails.

If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.
This Infers that in no case will there be a re polling in the said constituency, however the negative/neutral vote is registered and counted so as to cross check on the total number of votes polled. VoteIndia.in encourages Voters to cast a protest vote incase they feel there is no right candidate to vote for.[link]

And yes, please do VOTE. Please don’t lose faith in democracy–it is India’s greatest strength. It matters. It is what makes India what it is.

Posted in Views On News      

div style='clear:left;'img style="float:left;padding-right:5px;" src="http://www.faz.net/m/{F64A5F06-F0BE-45D5-836D-3D84C99428C5}File2.jpg" width=111 height=148 border=0 /Der Wolfsburger Trainer Felix Magath will 10.000 Euro Strafe wegen Schiedsrichterbeleidigung nicht hinnehmen. Nun wollen die VfL-Fans symbolisch für Magath sammeln - und damit gegen den DFB protestieren. Im FAZ.NET-Interview erklärt VfL-Fan Thomas Neuhäußer die Solidaritätsaktion.div style="margin: 5px 0 5px 0; border-top:1px solid #7A89CC; font: 10px arial; color: #7A89CC; clear: both;" a href="http://www.faz.net/s/homepage.html" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"FAZ.NET - Homepage/a a href="http://www.faz.net/politik" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Politik/a a href="http://www.faz.net/gesellschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Gesellschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wirtschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wirtschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/finanzmarkt" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Finanzmarkt/a a href="http://www.faz.net/sport" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Sport/a a href="http://www.faz.net/feuilleton" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Feuilleton/a a href="http://www.faz.net/reise" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Reise/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wissen" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wissen/a a href="http://www.faz.net/auto" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Auto/a a href="http://www.faz.net/computer" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Computer/a /div /div

Kurz vor seinem 105. Geburstag hat sich Johannes Heesters mit unüberlegten Äußerungen über Adolf Hitler in die Nesseln gesetzt. Er bejahte die Frage eines niederländischen Journalisten, ob Hitler ein "guter Kerl" gewesen sei. Auch der Protest seiner Ehefrau brachte ihn davon nicht ab.

Relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes have staged a dramatic courtroom protest during the closing stages of the inquest into his death.

h4eBay cares not/h4 peBay users are howling in protest after discovering hackers are using automated scripts to win hundreds of steeply discounted auctions as part of a holiday season contest designed to draw visitors to the site..../pa href="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/jump/reg.rss.4159/main;sz=336x280;ord=12345678922?" target="_blank"img src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/ad/reg.rss.4159/main;sz=336x280;ord=12345678922?" border="0" alt=""/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/62108?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Zimbabwe+moves+to+tackle+cash+shortage+as+soldiers+riotch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Zimbabwe%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Chris+McGrealc7=2008_12_04c8=1128359c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Zimbabwec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FZimbabwe" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Zimbabwe government has greatly increased the amount of money people can withdraw from banks from today in an attempt to quell unrest, including riots and looting by soldiers this week, over a cash shortage caused by hyperinflation. /ppThe central bank has raised the withdrawal limit from the equivalent of 18p a day to about pound;33 a week following protests in which scores of troops angry at waiting in long bank queues targeted shops in th capital, Harare, that will only accept payment in US dollars and black market money changers dealing on the streets. /ppThe anger among soldiers and other Zimbabweans is in part because of the difficulty of using the national currency to buy anything but a few locally produced vegetables and bread after the US dollar was made legal tender. /ppThe central bank is also issuing new Zimbabwe dollar banknotes today worth Z$50m (pound;17) and Z$100m to keep pace with inflation officially put at 231,000,000 percent in July but which economists now estimate runs in to the billions./ppRiot police yesterday arrested trade union leaders and broke up a protest over limits on cash withdrawals. The union leaders were detained as they led a march of a few dozen people to deliver a petition to the central bank demanding an end to the restrictions. /ppThe demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks" - many people spend hours queuing each day just to get enough money to cover transport and a few basic foodstuffs./ppThe police yesterday also broke up a protest by doctors and nurses trying to deliver a petition to the health ministry in Harare objecting to the lack of medical supplies and the closure of some large government hospitals. /ppThe collapsing health service is grappling with the extra burden of cholera. The UN said yesterday that it had confirmed 565 deaths from cholera among 12,546 reported cases but medical charities say the real toll is at least double. /ppOne-third of the deaths were in Harare, where water has been cut off for days because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply./ppThe government said it will punish troops involved in the protests but some of Robert Mugabe's critics suspect the demonstrations may have been orchestrated to justify a further crackdown on his opponents and possibly the introduction of a state of emergency. /ppThe former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who has joined a breakaway faction from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told the IRIN news service that the protests may not be what they seem. /pp"I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down on the people, or even worse," he said. "You can't rule out what they [the government] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people."/ppSuspicion is rife because the government has sought to retain the backing of the army by ensuring that banks regularly delivered cash to the barracks. /ppHowever, the troops still have much to be disgruntled about. The central bank is issuing the new banknotes today as the national currency continues its interminable decline. A new Zimbabwe dollar was launched in August after 10 zeros were wiped off the currency because banks and shops could no longer handle the numbers./ppBut the new dollar has plummeted just as fast, falling from about Z$10 to the pound in early August to Z$3m today for cash. Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone./ppThe government caught up with reality by legalising the use of US dollars and other hard currency in September. Dollars and South African rand were already in use in what amounted to underground supermarkets selling imports. Now the transactions are legal, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe"Zimbabwe/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9v-rkuzkooZ4O2uXuEkN2RsAna4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9v-rkuzkooZ4O2uXuEkN2RsAna4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/14725?ns=guardianpageName=Politics%3A+Speaker%27s+allegations+set+constitutional+crisis+rollingch=Politicsc3=The+Guardianc4=Michael+Martin%2CDamian+Green%2CConservatives%2CPolice+%28politics%29%2CPolitics%2CUK+newsc5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUnclassifed+Contributorsc6=Nicholas+Wattc7=2008_12_04c8=1128407c9=articlec10=GUc11=Politicsc12=Michael+Martinc13=c14=h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FMichael+Martin" width="1" height="1" //divpA constitutional crisis was sparked yesterday when Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, all but accused the Metropolitan police of breaking the law by failing to follow proper procedures before searching the parliamentary office of Damian Green MP./ppAmid growing cross-party criticism of his handling of the affair, the Speaker took the unprecedented step in modern times of censuring the police. In a nine-minute statement he expressed his "regret" at their failure to produce a search warrant - and their failure to explain to the Commons authorities that the officials were entitled to demand such a warrant before allowing the search to take place./ppThere were signs last night that the Speaker's statement had failed to stabilise his position as the government refused to offer him support and the Tories said he was "severely damaged"./ppAsked repeatedly on BBC2's Newsnight whether she had confidence in the Speaker, the Commons leader Harriet Harman said: "Well I'm not saying I've got full confidence in anything or anybody."/ppHarman's intervention capped a dramatic day at Westminster. There were gasps when the Speaker said the police may have breached the law when they searched the parliamentary office of Green after simply persuading Jill Pay, the serjeant at arms, to sign a "consent form". Green, who is suspected by police of encouraging a junior Home Office official to leak a series of embarrassing documents, was arrested last Thursday and detained for nine hours./ppTo cries of protest, Martin told MPs: "I was not told that the police did not have a warrant. I have been told that the police did not explain, as they are required to do, that the serjeant was not obliged to consent or that a warrant could have been insisted on."/ppSir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said last night the police had failed to follow proper procedures. "They should convey to the individual that consent can be withheld. It doesn't appear to be the case that they did that," he said./ppThe statement by the Speaker set the scene for noisy parliamentary exchanges and prompted demands for police to be summoned to the Commons to explain their actions. The Speaker responded to these concerns with three commitments: that the police will never be allowed to search the Commons again without a warrant and his personal approval; that a Commons debate would be held on Monday; and that he would appoint a seven-strong committee, composed of senior MPs, to review the police action./ppHarman said she may push for even tougher restrictions. She told Radio 4 that MPs might be put "on the same footing as judges, which is not just a magistrate's warrant but perhaps a warrant granted only by a high court judge"./ppHer comments came after the Tories attempted to turn the pressure on to Gordon Brown, and Green used the occasion to defend his actions. "An MP endangering national security would be a disgrace," he said. "An MP exposing embarrassing facts about Home Office policy which ministers are hiding is doing a job in the public interest."/ppDavid Cameron, the Tory leader, offered support. "Parliament is here to call the government to account, to question, to challenge and to publish information that is in the public interest," he said./ppBoris Johnson, the London mayor, said he had a "hunch" Green would not be charged. Speaking as chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, he admitted speaking to Green after his arrest and said he had yet to be convinced police did not act "disproportionately", adding that he knew the arrest would cause "huge political convulsions"./ppJacqui Smith, the home secretary, who has faced Tory accusations that she is presiding over a police state, will attempt to wrest control of the agenda today when she makes a statement to MPs on the incident./ppShe will outline a two-pronged approach: an acknowledgment that serious questions were raised by the search, but also attack on the Tories for encouraging an official to leak documents./ppThis approach was outlined by Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, who said the anger of many Tory MPs was a "smokescreen" to hide their party's role in colluding in law-breaking. Mandelson told the Today programme: "The separate and equally important issue is the apparent relationship between the opposition and a Home Office official who, in an attempt to pursue his political ambitions in the Conservative party, allegedly systematically passed sensitive and classified Home Office papers to the Conservative party."/ppConservative frontbenchers conceded last night that Cameron was "skating on thin ice" in this area after former home secretary John Reid mocked him for endorsing the leaks. "He is announcing in advance that [as prime minister] he will be perfectly happy that any civil servant on their own judgment can release any information and he will support that in terms of publishing that," Reid said./ppThe prime minister made clear Smith would stand by her insistence that it would be wrong to question a police operation. He said: "You cannot pick and choose whether you support the operational independence of the police."/ppMPs believe the Speaker has bought himself some time but he has been damaged by his failure to ask more searching questions and his attempt to blame Pay./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/michaelmartin"Michael Martin/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/damian-green"Damian Green/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/conservatives"Conservatives/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/police"Police/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-cRrflvZkNrLvEkyO2vlKJlHUDg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-cRrflvZkNrLvEkyO2vlKJlHUDg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

The a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081013/1135502530.shtml"latest/a in a a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071231/135451.shtml"long line/a of attempts by the Australian government to censor the internet is now starting, as a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7760996.stm" target="_new"ISPs are beginning to filter the internet/a (sometimes under a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081118/0331192866.shtml"protest/a), agreeing to block access to sites on a government blacklist. This plan will cost Austrlian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, on top of the a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070810/024822.shtml"large amounts/a already spent on a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070827/013237.shtml"earlier/a plans that failed. br /br / In response to the start of the new filtering, Australian citizens are a href="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/269615/anti_content_filtering_rebels_take_streets?fp=16#038;fpid=1"taking to the streets in protest/a, though it's unclear how much of an impact that will have. Once these "trials" fail, with both false positives and false negatives, maybe, just maybe someone in power down under will recognize that censorship is just a bad idea.br /br /a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081203/1315353007.shtml"Permalink/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081203/1315353007.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081203/1315353007op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=1bf06ee86945a12857be274e488e9ac5p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=1bf06ee86945a12857be274e488e9ac5p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=1bf06ee86945a12857be274e488e9ac5" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=MGi4o"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=MGi4o" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/474112345" height="1" width="1"/

I am still surprised that moderate Muslims around the world don´t rally in protests against radical Muslims who commit horrendous atrocities in the name of Islam. Why don´t moderate Muslims stage demonstrations in London after the terrorist attacks of July 7th as moderate basques do against ETA after ETA assassinates? I am Jewish and when the State of Israel attacks Lebanon in what I consider a disproportionate response to the kidnapping of soldiers by Hezbollah I protest and explain my views in such a way as creating a site known as Jews For Lebanon, that obtains donations from like minded Jews for organizations that rebuild Lebanon. Why don´t I see similar gestures or organizations on the Muslim side?

What happened in Mumbai is pure hatred. Muslim terrorists targeting British and US nationals and the only Jewish center in this Indian city and killing and injuring hundreds of innocent people. Now, how can the Muslim world rally so effectively into massive demonstration over such incidents as some offensive Danish cartoons, and moderate Muslims cannot organize in horror over the current Mumbai massacre?

Think of what would happen if the opposite were true. Imagine a group of racists, anti Muslim militias who would go around London asking people if they were Muslim and shooting them or randomly taking them hostage. Wouldn´t all of European society stand by Muslims everywhere and strongly condemn this act? Why can´t Muslims everywhere demonstrate against the Mumbai massacre? Why couldn’t the hundreds of thousands of Spanish Muslims condemn the Atocha massacre?

In my view, until moderate Muslims, who are the majority of Muslims, mobilize against terrorists, and not only against some Danish cartoons I don´t think things will change.

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Rallies scheduled to take place throughout the country to protest govt plan for mandatory Internet filtering of "offensive and illegal material"by ISPs. It all started as a voluntary effort to "protect children," but quickly spiraled into an all out attempt by the Australian govt to make it mandatory for ISPs to filter the Internet of all "inappropriate content" and "offensive and illegal material." It quickly deteriorated from an attempt to somehow safeguard children from things like child pornography to things like legal pornography and gambling and has made Australian citizens rightly upset. Protests have been organized by groups like the Electronic Freedom Project and Digital Liberty Coalition, and will be held throughout the country on December 13th. The list of locations includes: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, and Perth.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83656?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Zimbabwe+tackles+cash+shortage+amid+riots+and+lootingch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Zimbabwe%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Chris+McGrealc7=2008_12_03c8=1128153c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Zimbabwec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FZimbabwe" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Zimbabwe government is set to greatly increase the amount of money people can withdraw from banks from tomorrow in an attempt to quell growing unrest, including riots and looting by soldiers this week, over a drastic cash shortage caused by hyperinflation. /ppThe central bank has raised the withdrawal limit from the equivalent of just 18p a day to about £33 a week following the protests in which scores of troops apparently angry at waiting in long bank queues targeted shops in Harare that will only accept payment in US dollars and blackmarket money changers openly dealing on the streets. /ppThe growing anger among soldiers and other Zimbabweans is due in part to the increasing difficulty of using the national currency to buy anything but a few locally produced vegetables and bread after the US dollar was made legal tender. /ppThe central bank is also issuing new Zimbabwe dollar bank notes tomorrow worth Z$50m (£17) and Z$100m to keep pace with inflation officially put at 231m% in July but which economists now estimate runs in to the billions./ppRiot police today arrested trade union leaders and broke up a small protest over the limits on cash withdrawals. The union leaders were detained as they led a march of a few dozen people to deliver a petition to the central bank demanding an end to the restrictions. /ppThe demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks" because many people spend hours queuing every day just to get enough money to cover transport and a few basic foodstuffs./ppThe police today also broke up a protest by doctors and nurses attempting to deliver a petition to the health ministry in Harare objecting to the lack of medical supplies and the closure of some large government hospitals. /pp"We are forced to work without basic health institutional needs like drugs, adequate water and sanitation, safe clothing gear, medical equipment and basic support services," the letter said./ppThe collapsing health service is now grappling with the additional burden of cholera. The UN said today that it had confirmed 565 deaths from cholera among 12,546 reported cases but medical charities say the real toll is at least double. /ppOne-third of the deaths were in the capital, Harare, where water has been cut off for days because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply./ppThe government said it will punish troops involved in the protests but some of Mugabe's critics suspect the demonstrations may have been orchestrated to justify a further crackdown on his opponents and possibly the introduction of a state of emergency. /ppThe former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who has joined a breakaway faction from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told the IRIN news service that the protests may not be what they seem. /pp"I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine, and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down against the people, or even worse," he said. /pp"You can't rule out what they [the government] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people. Anything is possible - they face so many problems that I don't rule out any move to contain the situation."/ppSuspicion is rife because the government has sought to retain the backing of the army by ensuring that banks regularly delivered cash to the barracks. However, the troops still have much to be disgruntled about. /ppThe central bank is issuing the new bank notes tomorrow as the national currency continues its interminable decline. A new Zimbabwe dollar was launched in August after 10 zeros were wiped off the currency because banks and shops could no longer handle the numbers./ppBut the new dollar has plummeted just as fast, falling from about Z$10 to the pound in early August to Z$3m today for cash. Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone./ppThe rioting soldiers told bystanders they were angry that what little money they have can be used for little more than paying for transport and buying a few of the sparse locally produced goods. /ppThe government caught up with reality by legalising the use of US dollars and other hard currency in September. Dollars and South African rand were already in widespread use in what amounted to underground supermarkets selling imports. Now the transactions are legal, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars. /ppThe Spar in Ballantyne Park, in northern Harare, is used by middle-class Zimbabweans and their domestic workers. It prices almost everything in US dollars and will accept payments only in the American currency, rand or sterling. /ppChange is given in bread rolls because of a shortage of small foreign notes. Only locally produced vegetables, eggs and bread can be paid for in Zimbabwe dollars./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe"Zimbabwe/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YFRFX4MaPuMkawLl7pW8MdNKws4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YFRFX4MaPuMkawLl7pW8MdNKws4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

In order to protest global climate change, this man from Red Cross Argentina turned himself into a puddle and handed out information on ways to protect the planet from imminent climate disaster such as reusing plastic bags, conserving water, and buying energy efficient cars and appliances. We just wonder how long it took him to get out of there.

via InHabitat

a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/man_turns_himself_into_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/man_turns_himself_into_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" / Permalink/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/man_turns_himself_into_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments" /Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arts/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more articles in Arts/a | a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F12%2Fman_turns_himself_into_a.htmltitle=Man%20turns%20himself%20into%20a%20puddle%20to%20protest%20climate%20changebodytext=%20In%20order%20to%20protest%20global%20climate%20change%2C%20this%20man%20from%20Red%20Cross%20Argentina%20turned%20himself%20into%20a%20puddle%20and%20handed%20out%20information%20on%20ways%20to%20protect%20the%20planet%20from%20imminent%20climate%20disaster%20such%20as%20reusing%20plastic%20bags%2C%20conserving%20water%2C...topic=tech_news" /Digg this!/a

Police in Zimbabwe chased away residents from long bank lines and arrested several trade union leaders Wednesday to head off a protest against limits on cash withdrawals in the inflation-ravaged African nation.

Police in Zimbabwe chased away residents from long bank lines and arrested several trade union leaders Wednesday to head off a protest against limits on cash withdrawals in the inflation-ravaged African nation.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=HzxouBaR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=07EWZdYU"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=Yf4eor97"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=Yf4eor97" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=OcjtVx2t"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=P6XKeJS0"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=P6XKeJS0" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/R0MIFi6pPos" height="1" width="1"/

Police in Zimbabwe chased away residents from long bank lines and arrested several trade union leaders Wednesday to head off a protest against limits on cash withdrawals in the inflation-ravaged African nation.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/S5FKaKOFQzM" height="1" width="1"/

Bangkok’s airports are now open. The protesters have agreed to end their protests after the country’s top court ordered the dissolution of the ruling party which forced the Prime Minister to step down. Military troops are now guarding the airports. Tourists are advised to contact their airlines and tourism offices to check for flight schedules.

Last week protesters belonging to the People’s Alliance for Democracy have occupied Bangkok’s two airports demanding the removal of the corrupt government. The airport takeover has stranded more than 300,000 passengers in the country.

Because of the favorable court order, the protesters have declared victory. However, they vowed to launch similar protest actions in the future if reforms are not instituted. Excerpts from PAD’s statement:

“The PAD would like to call on whichever side that attains power to run the country to find a solution for the current problems and not to create conditions for another political turmoil in the country. Do not bring to power people from the Thaksin regime. Address the wrongdoings conducted by those in the Thaksin regime. Join with the people in making new politics a reality.”

The PAD would like to make the following pledges.

1. If a proxy government of the Thaksin regime is set up again or if there is an attempt to amend the Constitution or the law to whitewash the wrongdoings of those in the Thaksin regime, to benefit politicians, or to lessen the power of the King, the PAD will return.

2. From now on, if there is any government which comes into power but is insincere in its efforts to launch new politics with the people, the PAD will return.

Thaksin is former Prime Minister of Thailand who was ousted in a coup two years ago. PAD accused the last two Prime Ministers of being puppets of Thaksin.

Thai Politico interprets the PAD statement:

“The implication at the moment is that if the next PM is not to the PAD's liking they will occupy the airport again. Will the security forces now completely secure Thailand's airports so that nothing like this can take place again? Or will we see the army back off like scared rabbits into the corner?”

New Mandala believes PAD’s victory will be short-lived:

“The celebrations by the yellow shirts at Suvanabhumi will be short-lived. The parliament has not been dissolved and the government looks very likely to maintain its majority. The Democrat-except-when-you-can’t-win-an-election-and-then-a-judicial-coup-is-OK Party simply can’t muster the numbers. More blatant judicial or military intervention will be required to remove the government.”

Political cartoon by Sacravatoons

PAD is popular in Bangkok (but the airport takeover has made it less popular today). PAD is accused of having close ties with Bangkok’s elite. On the other hand, most of the rural voters are supportive of Thaksin’s party. Someone asked: What if the farmers staged their own protest against PAD and the urban elite by refusing to plant rice?

Stranded tourists are now recounting their experience in Thailand. Tuesdaynight narrates how he and his wife were able to leave the country by traveling to Malaysia and Singapore by land. He writes:

“Finally, I have to say, after all this, I consider us to be lucky. We found a way out of the country and it worked. I truly feel for the hundreds of thousands people whose travel was impacted because of this. More importantly, I feel for the Thai people who have yet to find some form of political stability.”

Despite the airport chaos, life in Bangkok seemed like normal the past week. Oneditorial writes:

“During the week, I called my family to get their views on this event. They did not seem to be thinking too much about what is going on. They still carry on their daily lives as usual. As a matter of fact, on the day I talked to my mother on the phone, the entire family was completely absorbed in watching a Thai soap on the telly, never mind the fact that the country is in a state of political turmoil. I just wish I could be as detached as them.”

Andrew Biggs asks if the airport crisis would produce positive results:

“Could it be that the pain, shame and anger we have all experienced with the PAD’s closure of the airport actually be heralding a new era of politics in Thailand? Could it possibly be that something good is going to come out of all this?”

An anonymous commenter criticizes the organizer of the protests:

“Im sure terrorist groups in South-East Asia have witnessed the complete lack of security at the airport and thus it would be a sitting duck for groups who plan terrorist attacks against planes and passengers. Bangkok as a major hub? I dont think so any more. What airline will want to fly in and out of Bangkok when the airports own security guards ran like scared children from their own people. Shame on Thailand for allowing this anti democratic group to act like terrorists and hold an entire country to ransom. Thailand is about to see the trickle down from this catastrophe and I pity the ordinary people who were not involved in this protest but could lose jobs.”

Gabriella Haynes describes the mood in Bangkok:

“The atmosphere in wider Bangkok since the protests started has been calm and business as usual in general. While the city’s residents don’t take the sporadic and seemingly random spurts of violence and the loss of life and income lightly, there is no sense of widespread panic and concern. International news agencies report airport mayhem and interview distressed and worn-out tourists stranded in the country, yet most Thais I have spoken to only express concern about the potential violence of the situation and concern for the economy.”

And let’s not forget that pro-government supporters are also numerous in the city:

“The PAD has ceased their protests for now but the capital has also been inundated with pro-government supporters, which means the situation has not been completely diffused.”

Flickr photos from Ronn Ashore and Willie Lunchmeat

Thomas Wanhoff from Vietnam is disappointed that tourists are complaining of missed flights while Bangkok protesters are fighting for some cause:

“This is just unbelievable. There are people in Thailand trying to fight for democracy (but of course is their understanding of), at least stand up against the corrupt government, and tourists are just complaining about missed flights.”

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/50703?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+First+flight+reaches+Bangkok+after+airport+blockade+endsch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Thailand+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnon%2CPeter+Walkerc7=2008_12_03c8=1127880c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Thailandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FThailand" width="1" height="1" //divpThe first commercial flig