Japan: Difficult Shift From Aid Donor to Recipient

by Suvendrini Kakuchi (Tokyo)Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Inter Press Service

April has traditionally being the time for ‘hanami’ or cherry blossom festivals here when millions of Japanese hold parties under the pink flowering trees in parks and streets lit up gaily by lanterns. A girl writes a message to Tohoku victims on a message board at the Okinawa International Film Festival. – Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPS But, one month after the earthquake and tsunami of Mar. 11 which left almost 30,000 people dead or missing, a widespread donation drive has supplanted the festive hanami spirit in Tokyo and other major cities. ‘The terrible Tohoku disaster has galvanised the nation to launch a nation- wide charity movement,’ Kyoichi Kobayashi, a social critic and author here, told IPS. ‘The drive is an entirely new experience for the people who have gotten used to an affluent lifestyle that marks Japan’s post-war economic might.’ Indeed, from Hokkaido, Japan’s north island, to Okinawa, the southern tip in the archipelago, hundreds of local volunteer groups, companies and organisations have launched frantic aid projects or are working as volunteers to help the stricken populations in the disaster zones. For example, the international movie festival held annually in Okinawa by Yoshimoto Kogyou, a leading entertainment company, turned from its original purpose of boosting the Okinawan economy into a charity for Tohoku instead.

 

Governor Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, the nation’s capital and lynchpin of the local economy, has asked people to voluntarily refrain from hanami parties to show their solidarity with the pain of Tohoku. ‘This is not an era in which people at this time of year may drink viewing cherry blossoms, even during day time.’ Such unusual steps, according to Kobayashi, are a clear example of how Japan, after decades of being a country that gives charity given its rich economy, is now trying to cope with being a country that needs help. The massive destruction including the ongoing nuclear radiation emergency, explained Kobayashi, has exposed and turned into a bitter lesson, the lack of preparation in the country despite its vulnerability to earthquakes.

‘The chaos we witness in Tohoku – thousands of people still stuck in evacuation centres and the lack of food and water – is sobering,’ Kobayashi said. Japan has gone ‘in a few seconds’ from a country that was – till recently – the world’s top aid donor, ‘to becoming a recipient itself.’ Indeed, the emerging new mood in Japan is a scenario best described by the country’s leader himself. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, published a message in newspapers worldwide Monday. He wrote of ‘Kizuna’, or bonds of friendship, shown by more than 130 countries and regions after the disaster and pledged that Japan will ‘recover from their own efforts and with the help of the global community.’ Japan will ‘come back even stronger… to repay you,’ Kan said.

International relations expert, Takeshi Inoguchi explains that outpourings of financial donations from countries like Rwanda and Sri Lanka – who are struggling to overcome domestic hurdles of their own – have been welcomed in Japan. ‘The Japanese view such generosity as important signs of encouragement during their bereavement and are very grateful,’ Inoguchi said. Bilateral donations covering 117 countries were offered through the Japanese Red Cross and totalled more than 33 million dollars (Yen 2.8 billion) according to figures released here. Inoguchi also pointed out that, apart from warm international expressions of support and armies of volunteers entering Tohoku, there are other encouraging developments arising form the dire situation. A case in point is China’s support and help. Prior to the quake, Sino-Japanese relations were tense due to territorial issues, but leaders in Beijing have been at the forefront of the aid effort in Japan.

The Asahi Newspaper noted Tuesday that China reacted ‘calmly’ to the discharge of radioactive material from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea so close to its borders. China’s reaction comes in sharp contrast to the vociferous name calling that went on in September 2010 after a Chinese skipper was arrested, and later released, by Japan after he rammed into a Japanese navy patrol vessel close to the Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by both countries.

Help is also coming from Russia with which bilateral relations have been tense since November when Russian leader, Dimitry Medvedev, visited the Northern Territories, which are occupied by Russia but claimed by Japan. Russia has sent 161 workers and also announced an energy support measure at a time when Japan is facing black outs. Meanwhile, Mokoto Torri, a Tokyo resident who decided to abandon hanami celebrations this year, told IPS ‘the disaster is terrible’. But, pointing dejectedly at the long line of trees, in full pink bloom, lining the streets, he said, ‘I wonder whether I am doing the right thing after all.’

© Inter Press Service (2011)

All Rights Reserved Original source: Inter Press Service

SAFE THE ENVIROMENT

WHAT IS GOVERNMENTS ROLE IN THIS ISSUE?

Current atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and methane are higher now than at any time in the past 650,000 years, while sea levels may be rising twice as fast as in previous centuries. New laws committing governments to reducing CO2 every year by a fixed amount are essential.

COMMIT TO PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS

Governments fear discussing the impact of climate change for fear of upsetting the economy. But campaigns of the kind used in the UK to tackle health issues like smoking are needed to shock the public out of a naivety that ranks climate change as less important than terrorism, Third World debt and Aids.

TACKLE THE GAS GUZZLERS

Raise vehicle excise duty on fuel-heavy cars; make it more than £1,000 in the UK with further planned rises. Insist on a health warning on the side, similar to packets of cigarettes: “This Vehicle Damages The Environment, Your Health And Your Future.”

OBLIGE OIL COMPANIES TO BLEND BIOFUELS INTO FORECOURT PETROL AND DIESEL

Biofuels, which are made from crops do not add to the emissions of CO2. They are “carbon neutral” because the CO2 they produce when burnt was absorbed from the atmosphere by the crops used to make them. Governments of industrialised nations should draw up biofuel obligations requiring oil companies to blend a fixed proportion of biofuels with all the fuel that they sell in garages.

SLASH THE GROWTH OF CHEAP FLIGHTS

Raise air passenger duty to end flights cheap on the pocket and pricey to the stratosphere (CO2 emissions from aircraft are rising faster than any other source). End the oopholes which allow most airlines to escape paying fuel duty.

SIGN UP DEVELOPING NATIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL TARGETS

Rapidly expanding industrial economies such as China and India must be bound to meeting environmental targets, in the same way that the Kyoto protocol legally binds 141 countries to cutting pollutant greenhouse gases.

CONVINCE THE US TO TAKE CLIMATE CHANGE SERIOUSLY

The world leaders concerned about global warming need to bend the ear of America’s leader – who in turn needs to

placate the oil lobby. Without the United States, the fight against climate change lacks conviction or global reach.

DECENTRALISE ENERGY SUPPLY SYSTEMS

Legislate that new buildings in industrial nations should be CO2-free, with a power station in the basement. Features should include solar panel roofs, and mini-wind turbines to soap up wasted heat.Governments should have targets, audited by an independent body with sanctioning powers.

BOOST NEGLECTED RENEWABLE ENERGIES; SOLAR, WAVE AND TIDAL POWER

Properly fund and support renewable energies other than wind. These have vast potential to supply CO2-free electricity but are underdeveloped. Oblige electricity supply companies to provide an increasing amount of their power from renewable sources.

OFF-SHORE WIND

Renew the impetus behind off-shore wind farms through government development subsidies. Few coastal nations are making any progress. The UK made a good start but stalled after technical and financial difficulties.

The World’s Ten Grossest Diseases

The World’s Ten Grossest Diseases

 

 

10. Fatal Familial Insomnia

Incurable hereditary disease of the brain that stops you sleeping completely. Then you die. The gene responsible is found in just 28 families worldwide.

It’s caused by a protein mutation that causes plaque to develop on the thalamus – the region of the brain responsible for sleep. The disease begins at around the age of 50. The first symptom is insomnia, resulting in panic attacks and phobias. Soon hallucinations begin. Then there’s a complete inability to sleep, followed by rapid weight loss.

Unsurprisingly, after months huddled in front of the TV in the witching hour flicking between Christian City TV, half hour ads for “Time Life’s Best Ballads of all time 8 CD collection” and re-runs of Hotdogs’ Up Late, the sufferer becomes demented and mute. Then they die. There’s no cure.

9. Tapeworm

Ten metre parasitic worms that live in the digestive tract. They use their head to attach to the intestine and have a segmented body containing male and female sexual organs, which are shed. These segments – resembling a grain of rice – can, scarily, move on their own, and can pop out whenever they want.

Tapeworms are caught from eating poorly cooked meat. They are treated with a single pill. However the worms, which can live inside you for up to 10 years, go through a half hour of death throes – squirming, twisting and having spasms inside you in the process. When killed, the parasite must be removed from the body – in a literal hand-over-hand process. All the time you can feel it slithering gently through your digestive tract. Nice.

But that’s not bad at all, at least relatively. Some species of tapeworm can migrate into surrounding tissues and eventually different organ systems. Larvae develop into large fluid filled cysts after travelling in the blood stream all over the body. When cysts are present in the central nervous system they can lead to seizure, dementia and irreversible brain damage. It’s said the “ye olde” treatment involved starving the patient, tying them down and hanging a piece of meat in front of their mouth and waiting to grab the emerging tapeworm. Unfortunately that could not be substantiated.

8. Chronic Hiccups

Chronic Hiccups can last for over a month – the longest case is 68 years for a total of 430 million hiccups. Long bouts can lead to depression, weight loss, insomnia, physical pain and exhaustion. Though even foetuses hiccup, they don’t seem to have any purpose.

Home remedies for curing them include breathing into a paper bag, standing on your head, and drinking from the far side of the glass. Clinical trials show that sex can stop hiccups and as a regular sufferer, I assure you the opposite is also the case.

7. Human Maggot Infestation

The sufferer is literally eaten alive by maggots. Caused when the larvae of the fleshfly or blowfly begin to feed on the person’s tissue, quickly spreading through the body. The larvae are originally laid in an open wound, a weeping sore or in the mouth, nose or ears. Sometimes maggots are introduced on purpose to sores that aren’t healing to eat the dead tissue. Once the larvae have finished feeding they mature and metamorphoses into either adult blowflies, Hillsong pastors, used car salesmen or motivational speakers.

6. Cateplexy

When a cateplexy sufferer laughs, they drop to the floor paralysed for five minutes. Cateplexy is often suffered by narcoleptics – those who fall asleep uncontrollably. Many also hallucinate. It is believed when they laugh, get angry or are surprised, they instantly go into REM sleep – a process that usually takes hours.

5. Water Poisoning

If you drink too much water you can die. OK, so it’s not really a disease but it’s still pretty cool. Basically if you drink heaps you dilute the electrolytes in your blood and your cells expand and eventually explode. Most deaths have been from water drinking contests or Marathon runners who keep drinking water without replenishing electrolyte supplies. A famous recent case last year involved a 28-year-old Californian mother of three who was found dead in her home after trying to win a Nintendo Wii game console in a radio competition called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii”.

4. Anthrax

Anthrax starts with a scary name and just gets worse. It’s a spore carrying bacterium you get from exposure to infected animal tissue. It is scary because anthrax spores lie dormant for decades in soil, infect an animal, feed on it until it’s gone, then lie dormant again.

There are three types – skin, inhaled and intestinal. Ninety-five percent of natural cases are skin – you get a painless black ulcer and probably won’t die. Intestinal anthrax has you vomiting blood, and there’s a good chance you’ll die. Inhalation Anthrax is usually fatal – you get it if you’re slicing buttons from animal horn or stretching skin to make drums, and you inhale the spores.

Of course, Anthrax is most famed as a biological weapon. It was used in 1978 by the Rhodesian government during its war with black nationalists. The UK tested it on a Scottish island, rendering it uninhabitable for 50 years and the US once had a spill that forced them to seal an entire building with glue and plastic. The UK and US armies routinely vaccinate their armies against it in certain war zones like Iraq. They knew Saddam had it because Republican Presidents Regean and Bush Snr still had the receipts in an old shoebox. After anthrax spores were mailed to American Senators and news outlets in 2001 many government organizations worldwide have been forced to use protective equipment when sorting mail. Thankfully ‘weaponised’ anthrax is very hard to make.

3. Alien Hand Syndrome

Sometimes called anarchic hand or Dr. Strangelove syndrome it’s when a person’s hand performs complex tasks without the person realising. It’s usually caused by the two sides of the brain being separated surgically or because of brain damage. Sometimes a sufferer mightn’t even be aware of what the alien hand is doing. Most simply believe their rogue limb is possessed by some spirit that they must fight or punish in order to regain control. Examples abound of sufferers putting cigarettes in their mouth with their good hand and reaching for a lighter while their other hand whips it out and throws it across the room. No, that’s just plain weird.

2. The Ebola Virus

Some strains of Ebola have the highest kill rates of any human virus. A strain of Ebola which broke out in Zaire had a fatality rate of 90%. Amazingly the high rate of fatality, and the speed with which it kills are two reasons the virus is not considered that dangerous, or in other words that a widespread epidemic is considered low – i.e. too many infected people, and die so quickly they don’t infect others. When you get it you get nausea, vomiting, and bloody diarrhoea – ho, hum I hear you say – yeah that’s before internal and external bleeding starts. Basically you start to liquefy from the inside out and your insides start coming out of every orifice. Thankfully it is not airborne and can only be passed by contact with bodily fluids.

1. Tree Man

OK, only one guy’s got it, but still it’s pretty horrid. Basically, he has the wart virus, but because he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system his body it unable to contain the warts. The virus is then able to “hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells”, and make them produce the tree-like growths on his hands and feet. Doctors hope to be able to give him some use of his hands by giving him massive doses of Vitamin A and by using surgery to cut off the worst of the growths.

Top 10 Common Methods of Suicide

The unfortunate and depressing issue of suicide has become a staggering piece of harsh reality in today’s world. In the US, ranking 46th in the world of rates per capita, we experience 11,000 self-inflicted deaths per year, and the UK: 7,000. This has become a serious issue for many countries whether the factors be family issues, health issues, money problems, or relationship failures. The ways in which people decide to shuffle this mortal coil are numerous and varying. Ten of the most often seen are as follows.

10. Drowning

How it’s Done: Maybe a relationship tremor has caused you to rethink your life here on the planet, and the weight of it all has made you decide to drown yourself. Sometimes, driving or even convincing yourself to walk into a large body or water will do it, otherwise many perish in as little water as a slightly-filled bathtub.

Results From Failure: Oxygen deprivation can cause severe and permanent brain damage.

9. Electric Shock

How it’s Done: Sometimes the thought of continuing to live in a world inundated with problems and insurmountable issues results on one wanting to die by electric shock. Something as simple as jamming a utensil in a wall outlet, to the more notable dunking an appliance in an occupied bathtub, can result in death by electric shock.

Results From Failure: Deep burns from 500-1000 volts, ventricular fibrillation at 110-220 volts, and severe neurological damage.

8. Exsanguination

How it’s Done: Frequently the most obvious way to rapidly harm one’s self yet pass on relatively slowly, is to slit the wrists or the carotid, radial, ulnar, or femoral artery. Using a sharp implement is the easiest way to go. Razors or knives are popular. Contrary to popular belief, the effective method for this is not to cross the wrist, but to draw the blade up the forearm (as is evident in the photograph above). This is the same way Japanese perform Jigai (women) and Seppuku (men), although their’s is often for more spiritual purposes.

Results From Failure: Extreme loss of blood causing the heart to dramatically slow eventually depriving the brain of oxygen. Also, most often, deep scars and tissue damage.

 

7. Jumping

How it’s Done: Pondering the emptiness in one’s life can be a painful experience. Yet, when it all seems so overwhelming, you might decide to plummet from a significant height to your own death. Leaping from a building to the pavement below is quite lethal, and popular. However, romantics may choose to use a cliff over jagged rocks. Or bridges.

Results From Failure: Shattered femurs from impacting with water up to severe bodily harm from impacting with any solid surface.

6. Suffocation

How it’s Done: You’ve decided that your life is in disarray and you can no longer stand the pressure. One way to end it all is to encase your head in a plastic bag and asphyxiate yourself. Or, if you’re really ready to go, nitrogen or helium directly inhaled is useful.

Results From Failure: Turning back at the last minute before passing out can result in serious and long-lasting to permanent brain damage.

5. Carbon Monoxide Inhalation

How it’s Done: It’s all so difficult and the full weight of the world is seemingly square upon your shoulders. You’ve decided to go to the great beyond and you are going to lock yourself in a car, in a closed garage with the engine running and go to sleep. Or, if you have any appliance that puts of CO, that’ll do.

Results From Failure: CO molecules irreversibly attach themselves to human hemoglobin and the result is often fatal even if one backs out.

4. Poisoning

How it’s Done: Romeo and Juliet had it down when, once seeing the other presumably dead, the other fatally poisons himself. Taking a substance internally not meant to be done so can be considered poisoning: cleaners, industrial fluids, diazepam, cyanide, and the like.

Results From Failure: The toxic levels of poison required to kill one’s self are generally non-reversible. However, hospital staff can attempt it and often make one vomit or something similar. Lasting effects can include internal organ damage

 

3. Hanging

How it’s Done: It’s all over. Nothing in life seems to make it worth living any more. You can acquire a length of rope and construct yourself a noose, which is, by the way, considered a deadly weapon if tied correctly. Once built, wrap one end securely around something high: a rafter or a ceiling fan, and leap, head fastened within the loop, from a chair. Or, if you’re short of rope, anything strong enough to support your weight from your neck can be employed.

Results From Failure: Brain damage from lack of oxygen, Often, failure to actually break your own neck may only yield strangulation and you can be saved, but damaged. Also, permanent rope burns or implement scarring can occur.

2. Drug / Alcohol Overdose

How it’s Done: The pressure and stress of daily routines has beaten you down for the final time. Within your medicine cabinet lies the answer to your extermination: prescription and over-the-counter meds. A huge mouthful can do you right in. Or, to speed along the process, couple your target pills with a few swigs of alcohol. Many of our favorite musicians have chosen this route. Even alcohol alone, in extreme excess can kill you.

Results From Failure: Severe to permanent organ failure if successful removal isn’t achieved, as well as impaired judgment. Often, clinical assistance is necessary if attempt is repeated.

1. Gun Shot

How it’s Done: One of the most often achieved forms of suicide is by gun shot. Generally a head shot is desired since its results are 99 percent effective, however a chest shot can be equally as devastating.

Results From Failure: Sometimes the blast isn’t enough to kill. In this case, severe to permanent bodily damage can occur as well as blood loss, organ and tissue damage, and brain damage.

Support

Suicide is never a solution. There is no problem so great that it can not be resolved with time and care. This list is meant not as an instruction guide, but a description of the most common forms of suicide. The following is a list of sites you can visit to get help if you are feeling beyond help. Please remember, no matter how bad things get, someone, somewhere is able to listen to you and help you through.

Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
The Samaritans UK

 

HOW TO BECOME A SKINHEAD

HOW TO BECOME A SKINHEAD

 

Skinheads are members of a subculture that grew out of Great Britain and then spread throughout the world. The skinhead subculture has been active since the mid to late 1960s, but the term skinhead remains a loaded word evoking many different connotations. Like many subcultures, skinheads have evolved and changed with the times. Splinter groups have formed for certain beliefs, the movement naturally evolves as society changes, and backlash reactions to generalizations made against the subculture by the dominant culture have also changed the movement. Today the label skinhead is subject to much misunderstanding and confusion, increased only by the radically different meanings associated with the term in different cultures and classes.

 

Steps

1. Before you can “be” a skinhead you have to know what it means. For many music, culture and fashion movements what individuals’ stand for is clear for the whole group. For skinheads, this is not true. To know what kind of skinhead you want to be consider:
   • The history of the skinhead movement.
   • The kind of skinhead groups local to you.
   • What draws you to being a skinhead? Is it the music, the clothing, political beliefs, social class or something else?
   • Know how to dress, and how not to dress

Know the history

In the early 1960s, before the hippie movement, there were primarily two youth groups based on music in the United Kingdom. One group was called the mods, the other the rockers. Mods mostly listened to R&B, soul, ska and British rock bands such as The Who and Small Faces. Rockers mostly listened to 1950s American rock & roll. Being a mod meant dressing very well, riding a scooter and dancing late into the night. Rockers rode motorcycles and wore leather jackets, similar to greasers, their American counterparts To learn more about mods and rockers watch the movie Quadrophenia (1973).

When the psychedelic 1960s hit England, the mods split into a wide variety of fashions and styles including hippies and the skinheads. This period is where the fashion of skinheads was first defined. Skinhead fashion is intended to show pride in a traditional English working-class look.

As time went by and the skinhead movement spread around the world, the original beliefs and values evolved and split into a variety of different subcultures. Today, skinhead can mean almost anything, depending on your own beliefs, country, culture, class and where you get your information. The fascist skinheads, originally a very small minority, got a lot of press attention and in many ways were the first “ambassadors” of the skinhead look to the rest of the world. Fascist skinheads are about as common as regular fascists, and they are the exact opposite of the original skinhead philosophies and music.

Know your local skinheads

1. Find clubs or other places where ska, reggae, soul, Oi!, or old-school hardcore and punk is played in your area. These are the types of music skinheads are most interested in.
2. Find your local skinheads. They shouldn’t be hard to pick out of the crowd.
3. Eventually, if the scene’s a good fit for you, you’ll wind up shaving your head or having it shaved for you.
4. Never act like you know everything.
5. If you find that the skinhead scene where you live does not reflect your beliefs, then consider an alternate subculture that better reflects your own values.

 

Understand the kinds of skinheads

1. Today, skinheads can be broken down in many ways, but the following categories may be a good place to start. Skinheads are divided into categories based on style and categories based on political beliefs.

 

Style categories

• Traditional skinheads identify with the original skinhead movement (Spirit of 69) in terms of music, style, culture and working class pride. Unlike the other categories, traditionalist skinheads often do not regard attitudes toward racism as central to the subculture.
• Oi! skins and punk-skinheads – Originating after the development of punk rock, they prefer Oi! and punk music. They often have shorter hair and more tattoos — and wear items such as high boots, tight jeans, T-Shirts and flight jackets. Although the original Oi! bands advocated a pro-worker populist stance, the Oi! fanbase includes a wide range of political beliefs.
• Hardcore skins – A United States-based version of skinheads, part of the hardcore punk music scene associated with bands such as Iron Cross, Agnostic Front, Cro-mags, Sheer Terror, Warzone and Murphy’s Law. Hardcore skins tend to dress a little bit more casual, often donning Adidas samba’s instead of boots. Somewhat baggier jeans and non traditional “Windbreaker” type jackets and hooded sweatshirts are also commonplace. Certain aspects of the traditional skinhead style, like Muttonchops, Ben Shermans, Scally Caps and of course, cropped hair are still present however, to identify with the subculture.
• Gay Skinhead – A gay person who identifies with the skinhead subculture. Gay skinheads can also fit into other style or political categories.

 

Political categories

• Anti-racist (SHARP): Aggressively opposed to neo-Nazism and racism, although not always political in terms of other issues. The label SHARP is sometimes used to describe all anti-racist skinheads, even if they aren’t members of a SHARP organization.
• Apolitical, Centrist or Anti-political skinheads, or skinheads who keep their political views out of the skinhead subculture. They often have a sense of working class pride, but not so much in a political sense. Most traditional skinheads, or “trojans” fit this category.
• Left-wing skinheads are anti-racist and anti-fascist, taking a militant pro-working class stance. The most well-known organization in this category is Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH).
• Right-wing: Conservative and patriotic, but not necessarily extreme or fascist. This type of skinhead seems to be common in the United States.
• White Power or Nazi skinhead: Racist, extremely nationalist and highly political. Despite the common moniker, many Nazi skinheads have no connection to the original skinhead culture in terms of style or interests. SHARPs and traditional skinheads often refer to them as boneheads. Racist skinheads are found largely in prisons, as part of a gang. However, many of these members are not truly racist, but form a white gang because of the existence of black and Hispanic prison gangs.

Know how to dress skinhead

• Hair:
  • Originally, between a 2 and 3 grade clip-guard (short, but not bald); beginning in the late 1970s, typically shaved closer, with no greater than a number 2 guard. Now some skinheads clip their hair with no guard, and some even shave it with a razor. This started with the introduction of the Oi! scene.
• Coats:
  • MA-1 type flight jackets (popular brands: Warrior and Alpha), usually black or green; Harrington jackets; monkey jackets; Crombie-style overcoats; sheepskin 3/4 length coats; donkey jackets; parkas.
• Bottoms:
  • Men: Levi’s, Lee or Wrangler jeans (usually blue), straight leg with rolled cuffs (turn-ups) to show off boots, often with hem cut off and sewn to give neater, flatter turn-up; Sta-Prest flat-fronted slacks and other trousers; bleachers (jeans splattered with bleach to resemble camouflage trousers), popular among punk-influenced Oi! skins; combat trousers (plain or camouflage), popular among Oi! skins and scooter boys.
  • Women: Same jeans and trousers as men, or skirts and stockings. Some skingirls wear fishnet stockings and mini-skirts, a style introduced during the skinhead revival.
• Footwear:
  • Men: boots, originally army surplus or generic workboots which is what Dr. Martins were, originally, surplus British Army boots. Then commercialized Dr. Martens (AKA Docs, DMs or Doc Martens) boots and shoes. Other brands of boots have become popular, partly because Dr. Martens and Grinders footwear are no longer made in England.
  • Women: Dr. Martens boots or shoes, monkey boots, loafers or brogues.
• Hats:
  • Trilby hats; pork pie hats; flat caps (AKA Scally cap, Benny or driver cap). Less common have been bowler hats (AKA derby hats), mostly among suedeheads and those influenced by the film A Clockwork Orange (1971).
• Braces:
  • Various colours, usually no more than ½ inch in width. In some areas, wider braces may identify a skinhead as either white power or a wanna-be.

 

Warning

• You can’t become a skinhead by reading an Internet instruction guide.
• If you run in to real skinheads, you will probably get made fun of and maybe beat up.
• Never be a poser, do it or dont bother.  

HUMAN FETUS AS DELICACY IN CHINA?

HUMAN FETUS AS DELICACY IN CHINA?

HUMAN FETUS AS DELICACY IN CHINA?

The Next Magazine, a weekly publication from Hong Kong, reported that infant corpses and fetuses have become the newest supplements for health and beauty in China. Not only is the placenta considered a beauty remedy, but also aborted fetuses are much sought after delicacies. In Guangdong, gourmet body parts are in high demand and can even be purchased through hospitals. The magazine’s investigations into this form of cannibalism took them to Liaoning province.

According to The Next Magazine, during a banquet hosted by a Taiwanese businessman, a servant Ms Liu from Liaoning province on the mainland inadvertently revealed the habit of eating infants/fetuses in Liaoning province and her intention to return for the supplement due to health concerns. The Taiwanese women present were horrified.

Ms Liu also disclosed that even though people can afford the human parts there are still waiting lists and those with the right connections get the “highest quality” human parts, which translates to the more mature fetuses. A male fetus is considered the “prime” human part.

At the The Next Magazine’s request, Ms Liu personally escorted the reporter to a location where a fetus was being prepared. The reporter observed a woman chopping up a male fetus and making soup from the placenta. During the process, the woman even tried to comfort everyone by saying, “Don’t be afraid, this is just the flesh of a higher animal.”

The boy’s remains were cremated in the mountains in accordance with the customs of the region.

In fact, in China, reports about meals made from infant flesh have surfaced from time to time. A video is on the Internet for people to view. In the introduction, the Chinese claim that eating a human fetus is an art form.

On March 22, 2003, police in Bingyan, Guangxi Province seized 28 female babies smuggled in a truck from Yulin, Guangxi Province going to Houzhou in Anhui Province. The oldest baby was only three months old. The babies were packed three or four to a bag and many of them were near death and none were claimed by their parents.

On the morning of October 9, 2004, a person rifling through the garbage on the outskirts of Jiuquan city in the Suzhou region, found dismembered babies in a dumpster. There were two heads, two torsos, four arms, and six legs. According to the investigation, these corpses were no more than a week old and they had been dismembered after cooking.

Although China has laws that prohibit the eating of human fetus, the regime’s forced abortions to ensure the one child policy is strictly adhered to thereby creating many opportunities for these sorts of atrocities to occur.

What would make people do such a thing without any fear of condemnation?

 

FROM CONDOM HAIRBANDS TO CONDOM DRESSES

Condom Hair Bands

Imagine you walk into a salon to get your hair shampooed, cut and styled. You are given rubber hair bands to help keep your hair up and out of your face. Then you find out that these are not your typical hair bands. These hair bands are recycled…recycled used condoms. This is what happened to one disgusted Chen Wenlan from Dongguan, China after visiting her local hair salon. Wenlan says, “Many of my friends have not yet heard the news. And it is really terrible.”

Whoever had the idea of recycling used condoms may have had good intentions to help save the planet, but their methods were not exactly well thought out. The recycled used condoms have popped up all over China’s Pearl River Delta, including hair salons and local popular marketplaces. Unfortunately, these rubber hair bands are so inexpensive and so alluringly colorful that they have been selling very well. This poses a major health risk to both locals and shopping tourists.

Doctors from Pearl River Delta have issued warnings that these recycled condom hair bands could infect its users with sexually transmitted diseases like genital herpes and warts and HIV, especially when women place the rubber hair bands in their mouths while fixing their hair. Says one local dermatologist, “There are a lot of bacteria and viruses on the rubber bands and hair ties made from used condoms. People could be infected with AIDS, warts or other diseases.” One package of ten of these rubber hair bands goes for approximately 25 fen (or three US cents) at the marketplace, a steal for hair bands.

Condom Fashion

When I was browsing Google for some funny images, I came across some of these women who were wearing traditional Chinese high-necked dresses and holding colorful fans. Others were seen prancing down the runway in gorgeous billowy swimsuits. Then it hit me. Why were these fashions coming up on a condom image search? I looked closer at the different fashions I had just been admiring and realized they were all made from condoms! Even those colorful fans were fashioned from colorful condoms!

This condom-based attire was made for a fashion show which took place at China’s fourth annual Reproductive Health New Technologies & Products Expo in 2007.  Each outfit was painstakingly made with various types of condoms of multiple colors. Even the lollipop props being held by the models were made from condoms. The show was sponsored by the leading Chinese manufacturer of condoms, Guilin Latex Factory. This fashion show was produced to endorse condom use and to push for an end to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has swept the globe.

 

BECOMING A MILLIONAIRE

BECOMING A MILLIONAIRE

HOW HARD CAN IT BE???

The first reason why a lot of people find it difficult to make money

is because there are many people out there who look for the quick and easy way to make money.

You see, a lot of people end up making the wrong decisions why they go into the business and some people think that wealth creation is an instantaneous overnight thing. I think there’s so much hype about it that, you take a look at newspaper advertisements and it claims certain things about total earnings and so on.

 

And one of the things about wealth creation and especially about learning about business fundamentals or investing is that you need to be able to read, read about them, you must be able to digest all that information rapidly

You must be willing to invest time and a lot of effort.

Second reason why a lot of people do not make money easily is because a lot of us have been brainwashed by the media in terms of the mindset of wealth, we’ve got the wrong concept of wealth so to speak.

Here’s an example. When I ask people, what makes a person wealthy?

People say its how much you earn, it’s the car you drive, and it’s the house you own. That’s not true. It’s not how much you earn because there are some people I know, who earn $20,000 a month, who are broke. And there are people who earn $3,000 a month who are wealthy because they invest it all.

As a result of watching a lot of movies and watching the media, a lot of people have this idea that you know, to be rich, I must buy a bigger house, a bigger car.

So in the end, they spend all their money, all their time buying what they call negative cash flow assets that make them poorer and poorer. And they don’t invest in positive cash flow assets.

And even if they do, they do it in such a way similar to a stock market, casino concept where they lose it all because they don’t understand what they are doing. So it’s the main reason why they lose money. They cannot be rich.

I know that making real, good money is never fast, quick and easy.And most people think that it’s easy and quick and that’s why it never leads to money.

How To Become A Millionaire: 10 Mandates To Get To A Million

#1 Know that any type of work or business can make you rich if it has a market.
Any line of work can potentially make you a millionaire if you’re successful at it, and especially if you’re really good at it. Your skills, if they answer a strong demand, could be your ticket to big things. Many of the wealthy are people who excel at what they do whether it be in sports, entertainment, sales, real estate, business, art, engineering, writing.

#2 Make some money by doing something you like to do.
If you enjoy what you do, the chances of you becoming great at your chosen area of work will increase. It bears repeating that if you are in a marketable line of work or calling, you have the opportunity to rise to the top and conceivably make very good money.

#3 Enter the field you want to be in and find out what’s marketable about it.
Strategically work towards the goal of breaking into a marketable career. For example, you can start out in food preparation. But then build your experience and learn the business as best as you can so that one day you may start something on your own.

#4 Help yourself succeed with the following traits: positive mindset, can-do attitude, willingness to learn, knowledgeability, persistence, determination, passion and being action-oriented.

#5 Be willing to make sacrifices and to reset priorities.
Stop spending, watch your budget and set aside some money. Try to find some inspiration to help you through the financial challenges. Look into other people’s success stories and take encouragement from their own experiences.

#6 Don’t buy into the belief that you can get rich overnight. The only way you can do so is by being lucky. You can have a windfall fall on your lap tomorrow, but that would be lady fortune smiling upon you  a chance event. Lotteries and casinos are obvious crap shoots. If someone offers you the formula to get rich tomorrow with very little work all for a “small” fee, run away. It’s a scam.

#7 Start saving and investing early.
The younger you are, the greater your chance of making a million if you start saving and investing early.

#8 Learn all you can about finance.
Don’t invest blindly. Read up on it, learn how other successful people have made it and do the research via books, the web, workshops, classes or seminars.

#9 Learn all you can about business, if you want to become an entrepreneur.
Don’t get into business blindly. Learn how to run, operate and manage a business before you take on that risk. There are many people with specific talents who entered into business and failed. That’s because it’s not enough to be able to cultivate an idea or a skill, you’ll also need to know something about business before starting one. Either you have the head for business, or get a partner who does.

#10 Know the rest of the wealth formula, realizing that making money is just the first step to success.

Make money: this is obvious. You have to start somewhere, after all.
Grow your money: Your money has to work for you as well. So learn how to make it grow.
Preserve it, keep it, protect it: this is one element often overlooked in conventional financial advice because it’s not as exciting as the “making” and “growing” steps. But this is a whole realm of finance you’ll want to keep abreast of to be able to grasp the big picture. Some topics on this cover trusts, estate planning, asset protection, insurance and other wealth preservation strategies.

 You don’t have to do everything yourself. You can always hire others  reputable experts  to implement your plan. But I’d advice that you don’t hire a professional without knowing about these subjects yourself. You don’t want someone else, no matter how much you trust them, to be in control of your finances. In the end, you are the one who cares the most about your money and who wants to be that millionaire; hence, you’ll need to be your own financial boss.

NEVER EVER TRAP IN SCAMS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sex museum generates HIV awareness

SEX MUSEUM GENERATES HIV AWARENESS 

A rare sex museum in Mumbai, India’s teeming financial capital, is drawing hundreds of prostitutes and their regular clients who say they learn more about HIV/AIDS from its graphic exhibits than staid lectures on safe sex.

Antarang, which means “intimate” in Hindi, is a one-room exhibition of nude statues, models of the human anatomy, and illustrations near a well-known red light district in Mumbai. And it is India’s only sex museum, according to its management.

Devoid of the glamour of sex museums of Amsterdam or New York City, Antarang greets a visitor with a “lingam,” a Hindu phallic-shaped symbol worshipped as one of the representations of Lord Shiva, Kama Sutra verses, and wooden and plastic models showing the act of conception and child birth as well as descriptions of various sexual diseases.

“A sex museum is a better place to learn about sex and everything related to it,” M.G. Vallecha, the chief of Antarang, entry to which is free, told Reuters.

The museum is run by the state government in an effort to combat HIV and AIDS in India. There are an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country, according to U.N. figures.

Experts say that number could quadruple by 2010 as many people are still reluctant to discuss safer sex openly.

Authorities all over India try various innovative ways, including street plays and “condom parties,” to spread awareness about sexual diseases.

Mumbai is not only India’s biggest and most cosmopolitan city but is also home to millions of migrants who leave their families in villages to search for jobs.

Antarang, whose floor tiles are painted to look like sperm, was opened in 2003. It became popular among prostitutes and some of their clients after health workers began taking them there.

“A major bulk of our thousands of visitors every year are sex workers and health volunteers,” Vallecha said.

Some sex seekers also visit. In India, many prostitutes act as mistresses for one regular client who pays for her upkeep. They can often develop close relationships and sometimes visit the museum together, officials said.

“At first, sex workers coming to the museum are shy. But slowly they discover new things about something they thought they knew all about,” said Manish Pawar, a health worker who has brought hundreds of prostitutes and their clients to the museum.

Many of the sex workers say the museum has changed their lives by teaching them about the need for safe sex.

“When they told us about AIDS, we didn’t understand much, but now after visiting the museum it is much clearer to us,” said Jyoti, a middle-aged prostitute who gave only one name.

“Now we tell clients, ‘No condom—no sex.'”

Authorities said they have few ordinary tourists.

“The area where the museum is located is stigmatized, and even if [tourists] want to come, they don’t because they don’t want to be seen in a red light district,” said Nirupa Borges, who helps run Antarang. “We have some school and college students, but we would like more members of mainstream society.”

Authorities are planning to open another sex museum in a northern suburb, away from the red light district, to attract a wider audience.

“This museum is serving its purpose very well. We need more sex museums like this,” Borges said.

>from the advocates.com< 

 Antarang was inaugurated by the BMC in 2002 following a sudden upsurge of HIV/AIDS cases in the city. The museum presently lies shut on Belassis Road, Kamathipura in Grant Road. Devoted to sex education, the plot of land on which the museum stands was handed over to a private developer for redevelopment. “The exhibits were to be moved to the complex of the leprosy hospital in Wadala, but the approximate cost of shifting is still being calculated,” said BMC Additional Commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye.Sarang is completely upbeat about his new project, but faces a big hurdle in finding an appropriate place for the gallery. “I had seen one space, but it was too small. I want a bigger plot of land, as I want this new museum to be bigger and better than the previous one.” He has approached his friends in Goa, who are looking for a place to set up the museum.

 

 

 

>from http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/aug/300708SexMuseum.htm<

THE CULTURE OF TATTOO

THE CULTURE OF TATTOO

Tattooing is one of peoples’ oldest art forms, coming somewhere between scratching in the dirt and cave painting. All it took was a few klutzes to fall in the fire and land on a charred, pointed stick, and someone else to notice that a mark was left when healing took place. It was more complex than scratching in the dirt, but simpler than mixing paints and making brushes for painting on cave walls. Sharpen a stick, char it in a fire, stick holes in your skin and you have art. Early man didn’t perceive tattooing as only art. Due to three major factors; Pain, Permanence, and the release of the sacred life force, Blood; early people gave tattooing a mystical or magical significance. Tattooing to bring a person into a relationship, with a God, a magic power or future state was an idea with wide geographical distribution. Early tattooing was used to symbolize the fertility of the earth and of womankind, preservation of life after death, the sacredness of chieftainship and other cultural factors.

Primitive people usually believe that the spirit is an exact replica of the human body. This matches many modern occultist beliefs of the astral body. In both cases, spirit and astral, this allows you to use the proper tattoos as a rite de passage in the spirit world. The people of Borneo, especially the Kayans, believe that not only would their tattoos get them into the proper spirit world, but could also be used as a further qualification, for obtaining certain profitable occupations in the spirit world.
Clan markings are another common ritual tattoo. Not only can you recognize your friends quickly, even in the frenzy of battle, but more importantly, your people are connected even beyond death. The Wu Tang Physical Culture Association is one of the modern groups that are trying to revive the clan tattoo.

Modern people still tattoo to continue relationships with deceased loved ones, even if they do it on a subconcious level. You can see gravestones with spouses, parents, children, and friends names on them, sunken ships on surviving sailors, and symbols of battles lost on returning soldiers. All of these are modern examples of tattooing to connect the living to the dead.
Tattooing as a rite of adulthood. or passage into puberty is another common tattoo ritual. The idea is: if a girl can’t take the pain of tattooing, she is un-marriageable, because she will never be able to deal with the pain of child birth. If a boy can’t deal with the pain of his puberty tattoos, he is considered to be a bad risk as a warrior, and could become an outcast.

Since the dawn of tattooing, people have been marking themselves with the signs of their totem animals. On the outer level of meaning, they are trying to gain the strengths and abilities of the totem animal. On a more inner and mystical level, totem animals mean that the bearer has a close and mysterious relationship with this animal spirit as his guardian. Totem animal tattoos often double as clan or group markings. Moderen dragon, tiger, and eagle tattoos often subconsciously fall into this category. My snake tattoos are examples of conscious totem markings

Tattooing for health purposes has been a widespread practice in the Orient and South Pacific. The Tibetians learned to tattoo, from their southern neighbors, the Shans. The Tibetians quickly decided that tattooing a sacred mantra on a moving part of the body was akin to mantra wheels and mantra flags, which created the same effect, as chanting the mantra for the same amount of time, that the mantra is in motion. This helps the tattoo wearer to achieve inner as well as outer balance and harmony. The Tibetians also tattoo on certain acupuncture points and with medicinal herbs in the dyes, to obtain certain medical effects. In the 1970’s, Richard Tyler, a.k.a., The Rev. Relytor, revived ritual Tibetian tattooing, in his Uranian Phalanstery, on the Lower East Side of New York City. The Rev. was in communication with the Dalai Lama’s doctors and recieved medical dye additives from them. Unfortunatly, The Rev passed away in 1983.

Another common practice in tattooing for health was the tattooing of a god on the afflicted person, to fight the illness for them. In India, the Monkey God, Hanuman, can be tattooed on a recurring dislocating shoulder, to relieve the pain. Ainu women tattoo marks to assume the appearance of their goddess, so that evil demons of disease will mistake them for the goddess, and flee.
An offshoot of tattooing for health is tattooing to preserve youth. Maori girls tattooed their lips and chin, for this reason. When an old Ainu lady’s eyesight is failing, she can re-tattoo her mouth and hands, for better vision.

Tattoos for general good luck are seen world-wide. A man in Burma who desires good luck will tattoo a parrot on his shoulder. In Thailand, a scroll representing Buddha in an attitude of meditation is considered a charm for good luck. In this charm, a right handed scroll is masculine and a left handed scroll is feminine. Today, in the West, you can see dice, spades, and Lady Luck tattoos, which are worn to bring good luck. My first tattoo is a lucky spade that I got during my first month in the Army. It was the Vietnam era, and a young soldier needed all the luck that he could get.

The Hawaiians are prominent among people who have specific tattoo gods. In Hawaii, the images of the tattoo gods are kept in the temples of tattoo priests. Each tattoo session begins with a prayer to the tattoo gods that the operation might not cause death, that the wounds might heal soon, and that the designs might be handsome. Many modern American tattooist will tell you, “When you should get a tattoo, the tattoo god will tell you that it is time.”

In the 1970’s, American tattooing discovered primitive, tribal tattoos. People wanted simple designs with meaning and they began copying designs, primarily from Borneo, Japan, and the islands of the South Pacific. In the 1980’s, people of European stock began looking for tribal tattoos of their own origins, Mike McCabe, of New York City and Micky Sharpz Lewis, in England, answered the call with Celtic design tattoos. They were followed by Pat Fish, from California and, eventually, by a horde of young tattooists who copied their style.

The ancient Celts didn’t believe in written record keeping, consequently, there is little evidence of their tattooing remaining. Most modern Celtic designs are taken from the Irish Illuminated Manuscripts, of the 6th and 7th centuries. This is a much later time period than the height of Celtic tattooing. Designs from ancient stone and metal work are more likely to be from the same time period as Celtic tattooing.

Sailors were the first to return tattooing to Europe. They were some of the last people to retain their magical ideaology of tattooing. From the 1600’s to the Second World War, sailors tattooed a chicken on one foot and a pig on the other, as a charm against drowning. In the Big WWII, this was augmented with a new charm against drowning, twin propellers, on your rear end, to propel you to shore. When he had five thousand sea miles under his belt, a sailor recieved a bluebird on his chest. When he doubled the mileage, he got a second bluebird. A clothesline with skivvies and girl’s stockings represented a second cruise. When a sailor crossed the equator, he could get Neptune tattooed on his leg. A hula girl tattoo meant that he had been to Honolulu, and a sailor crossed the international dateline to earn the right to wear a dragon.

Outside the unsular life of seamen, tattooing with magical significance has had a worldly decline, since the 1850’s. In the late 1800’s, even the tribes of Borneo began to trade designs among themselves, until the meanings were lost. In the late 1960’s, tattooing for the sake of art alone became quite popular and has been on the rise ever since. This has vastly improved the artistic quality of tattooing in the past thirty years, but unfortunately, the idea of RITUAL TATTOOING is almost lost. The effects of the sacrifices of Pain-Permanence-and Blood, that our primitive ancestors were so aware of, are slipping away.