Anyways, as I catch up on news from around the globe this evening, here are some snippets of news - mainly thru IHT/NYT.
Firstly, is some welcome news! NYT editorials are to be free again! Nice! Aah...to read Janet Dowd and Paul Krugman and Frank Rich again :)
In celebration, here are some other interesting articles I found, mainly on NYT/IHT.
WORLD POLITICS
The World Bank and the United Nations announced Monday that they were setting up a system to help developing nations recover assets stolen and sent abroad by corrupt leaders that amount to an estimated $40 billion a year. ….What... reverse-419 scams, u mean? Or if they succeed, then no more 419s? ;)
IRAQ
No comments. The title says it all!
Put politics aside to save Iraq, says Henry Kissinger. Look who's talking - person with the least moral authority about saving a country (see next item re: the consequences of his role in Vietnam. Also, part of the blame for Iraq also falls on him perhaps as he is real close to the Bushies and has consulted the White House on its path in Iraq!) Maybe I knew this but was just reminded that he got the 1973 Peace Nobel....oh man... Peace Prize is a political award but thats like giving Rumsfeld the peace prize for bringing freedom to Iraq. WTF!
ENVIRONMENT
In Vietnam, healing the damage done to nature by the American War (Also this related article about the after-effects of Agent Orange.)
Driven by a combination of climate change, trade policies and competition for cattle feed from biofuel producers, global milk prices have doubled over the past two years. In parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline. There are reports of cows being stolen on Wisconsin dairy farms.
ARTS
Have not seen too many German Westerns, have you? Seems the Germans are obsessed with the American Wild West.
At powwows — there are dozens every year — thousands of Germans with an American Indian fetish drink firewater, wear turquoise jewelry and run around Baden-Württemberg or Schleswig-Holstein dressed as Comanches and Apaches. There are clubs, magazines, trading cards, school curriculums, stupendously popular German-made Wild West films and outdoor theaters, including one high in the sandstone cliffs above the tiny medieval fortress town of Rathen, in Saxony, where cowboys fight Indians on horseback. A fake Wild West village, Eldorado, recently shot up on the outskirts of Templin, the city where Angela Merkel, the chancellor, grew up.
As parents invest in the latest academic software and teachers consider how to weave the Internet into lesson plans for the new school year, it is a good moment to reflect upon the changing world in which youths are being educated. In a word, it is digital, with computer notebooks displacing spiraled notebooks, and blogs, articles, and e-mails shaping how we read and communicate. Parents, teachers and scholars are beginning to question how our immersion in this increasingly digital world will shape the next generation's relationship to reading, learning and to knowledge itself.
TRAVEL
Tourists, monks and history: Whose islands are they?: Solovetsky Islands, an archipelago in the White Sea of northwestern Russia, about 100 miles from the Arctic Circle. (Never heard of Solovetsky Isles before!)
Female boxing in Thailand: In a country where femininity is highly prized and girls are often told by their parents to be discreet, obedient and gracious, female boxing is now a surprise hit.
Beautiful picture of the Svartisen Glacier, the Northernmost point in Europe, as seen on a Hurtigruten tour in Norway.
2 comments:
I stumbled upon your blog, Sanjeev..:) If you want to read, ah, Janet Dowd again, just mosey over to http://janetleigh.wordpress.com/ , if in fact, this is the Janet Dowd you were alluding to..in which case..I'm sure she'd like to see an old buddy again........|\..... ;>
What a great site you have, Janet! And what a weird way to find it.
I just realized I inadvertently wrote Janet Dowd at NYT instead of Maureen Dowd at NYT.
I used to know a Janet Dowd, who was a poet too...10+ years back. From outside DC area in Virginia.
Is this the same Janet Dowd? Likely not..but I'll be pleasantly surprised and really happy if it is.
If not, pleasure to make a new acquaintance -- and a very talented one, from the little I have seen at the site so far -- and hope to make a new friend. :)
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