India’s anger exposes gormless leaders and media

A 23-year old girl, raped and beaten to pulp by half a dozen goons, battled for life in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital for almost thirteen days; a day before the end she was flown to a Singapore hospital in a vain last-ditch attempt to save her life. She died early in the morning of December 29. Her injuries were so severe that an ordinary person may not have survived even for a day, but ‘Nirbhaya’ as a section of the media began to call her, wanted to live. Nirbhaya in Hindi means fearless, not the hallmark of the current political class and their media minions.

The candle light vigils and prayers for the young student of physiotherapy were a major protest to make life safer for women. The goons are already behind bars and the judiciary will have to handle this one very carefully. The government has already announced two inquiry commissions, one to look into women’s safety and another to speed up trial and conviction in rape cases.

Sensing trouble during the week-long mass protests, the administration and Delhi Police bared their fangs with mindless violence and restriction on the movement of citizens. Using water cannon in freezing Delhi, they somehow managed to disperse the protesters and yet they kept coming to India Gate, President’s House and the homes of senior leaders. The National Police Commission’s lengthy eight volume report published from 1979 to 1981 in which there were many important recommendations on handling rape cases as well as public issues are still gathering dust.

Normally, Christmas to New Year is a raucous week, but not this time. It’s been quiet and solemn. Many are quietly shedding tears, young and old alike.

 The pompous pontificating of major western media [BBC, CNN, Fox, etc] projecting sexual harassment as a way of life in India was gross propaganda and purposive dysinformation. Has the BBC ever uncovered the paedophiles masquerading as brain dead ruling Elites in British society? Has CNN and Fox done anything  to unravel why San Fernando valley is home to global pornography where thousands of unsuspecting women are lured into drugs and sex and disposed off like dregs of the society and no one notices it? Has the New York Times exposed the porn industry in which some US Senators have major shareholding? Has any newspaper reporter exposed the fact that woman Peace Corps volunteers from prestigious US universities in Cambodia sleep with 12-14 year old poor girls?  

 And despite the powerful feminist movement in Anglo-Saxon countries, are women safe there? Their conviction rate is as bad as India’s but I’d like to see a mass protest there when a raped girl dies as we have seen here. Europeans don’t have a monopoly to civility and being do-gooders.

 When Sextus Tarniquinius raped Lucretia in ancient Rome, Lucretia committed suicide. Sextus was son of the King Tarquin of Rome. Lucretia’s dead body was paraded through the streets of Rome. People revolted and banished the King and his son from the Kingdom paving the way for what eventually became the Roman Empire.  

 The dull, brainless western and Indian mainstream media’s sole responsibility now is not to state the truth as it is, but to project a criminal ruling class as do-gooders. It could have reformed today’s closely integrated global society; instead it shamed and discredited our profession. Since these rogues have chosen to be the minions of the ruling class, many more young girls and minor children and many more nations will be violated.  

by Arun Shrivastava

Painting by muscles: The art of massage

With its cartoon-like skeleton and blood-red muscles on display, the horse parading around the race track has all the appearances of a very late Halloween prank.

Resembling an equine beast turned inside-out, the otherworldly creature daubed in brightly-colored paint completes a mini obstacle course, drawing excited murmurings from the gathered crowd.

It’s not a ghoulish apparition, but a living piece of art, used to vividly show the inner workings of our four-legged friends.

Equine massage therapist Gillian Higgins spent two years painting all 11 anatomical systems on horses — from the skeletal, to the digestive, muscular, respiratory and reproductive — as part of an innovative teaching aid.

The animals, decorated in washable, hypoallergenic paint, are then displayed at races and equine training events across Britain.

“Anatomy can be quite dry and difficult to remember,” said Higgins, manager of equine educational organization Horses Inside Out, based in Nottingham, England.

“But if you see a horse moving and jumping around with a skeleton painted on the side, it really brings it to life.

“It’s not just about knowing the names of the bones, it’s about understanding exactly what they do.”

Higgins first started painting horses six years ago, to help equine massage students memorize the animal’s 700 muscles.

Today, her carefully decorated horses appear at veterinary classes, industry lectures and racing competitions.

“It’s an interesting and easy to understand way of learning the horse’s anatomy,” Higgins said. “A lot of people have told me it’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.”

It takes around four hours to paint a horse, and Higgins usually uses 15-year-old thoroughbred Freddie Fox. With his gray coloring and placid temperament, Freddie is an ideal model.

“My horses have been painted hundreds of times and they’ve never reacted. In fact, they quite like the attention,” Higgins said.

“They can mooch around in the stable doing whatever they’d normally do while I paint them. They find the brush strokes calming.”

Once seen as a superfluous luxury, equine massage is now standard treatment for many professional thoroughbreds, with a growing number of private owners also treating their beloved horses to a rub down.

And with racing spelling big business in the UK — superstar colt Frankel won almost £3 million ($4 million) in prize money before retiring this year — owners will be hoping it also gives them that competitive edge.

“If you’d spoken about equine massage 20 years ago, many people would have said ‘What’s the point of that?’ ” therapist Nicole Rossa told CNN. “But it’s become very popular, particularly in the last 10 years.”

Sessions usually run from 30 minutes to one hour, costing around £25-£40 ($40-$64), according to Britain’s Equine Massage Association.

“Regular massage helps pick up problems early. For example, a sore back may be treated by changing how the jockey is riding in the saddle,” Rossa added.

“Massage may also help to calm them down — some horses get anxious before a competition or tense after a long journey.”

There are now just over 80 equine masseurs registered in Britain, with therapists required to first complete a massage course for humans before treating horses.

Once in the profession it’s no easy ride, as each therapist requires permission from a vet before starting work.

As an equine masseur, it’s essential to know the inner workings of an animal unable to vocalize what it is feeling — making the anatomy paintings an important point of reference.

But the fine art of painting horses isn’t all science based — Rossa also decorates thoroughbreds purely for aesthetic value.

Earlier this month she painted a racehorse from neck to hoof in an intricate Christmas jumper, as part of The Jockey Club’s online advent calendar.

For the photoshoot, 17-time champion jockey, Tony ”AP” McCoy donned a matching festive jumper as the pair leaped over a golden hedge laden with presents.

It wasn’t the first time Rossa had used a horse as canvas, also painting a thoroughbred in the Union Jack as part of a special shoot for July’s Barbury International Horse Trials in Britain.

Eventing competitor Laura Collett was pictured riding the remarkable painted horse jumping over a mini Stonehenge obstacle course.

It took Rossa more than five hours to paint the gray horse, using brown sticky tape to create the straight lines of the flag. “The horses seemed to quite enjoy it — some just love the attention and being paraded around,” she said.

With their insides vividly on display, these thoroughbreds are no oil paintings. But their eye-catching outfits may have proven picture perfect for training therapists the fine art of massage.

Sheena Mckenzie

Should Child Beggars be given Money or Not?

India may be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but the irony is that there is still large number of children begging in the streets of its leading

 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Kolkata. These innocent children do not beg on their own and hardly get anything, as they are exploited by mafia gangs, and gang leaders. Why do we see children below the age of 14 begging? The truth is that there are people who get money from child beggary, which has become a kind of forced labour and slavery.

                                                                                  

While walking in the street for shopping, we often come across mutilated children, who have lost their hands or legs. Our hands invariably go into our pockets seeing the pitiable condition of these children, but please tarry a little here. Does the money that you give them actually help them or nourish them? The truth is bitter! These children are mostly chosen by gang members to invoke sympathy in the minds of people, so that they are given money. There are also alleged reports of other harsh realities that suggest that these kids do not lose their limbs in an accident. So how does it happen? There are no guesses to make here. These innocent children are physically and mentally tortured. They are taught how to beg, pose sad faces, and cry. If they do not cry, then they are beaten up. There are also gangs who ‘steal’ small children to make them beg.

Such a case was reported by CNN this year. A 7 year old Bangladeshi boy was brutally mutilated by gang members as he refused to beg. The boy was hit on the head with a brick and his throat was slit. When his mother found him, he was hardly recognizable. This young boy survived and has become the key witness in a national investigation against the gang members in question.

Shocking everybody, a report by the Human Rights Commission in India has said that apart from begging, children are kidnapped for various purposes, “Working as cheap forced labour in illegal factories, establishments, homes, exploited as sex slaves or forced into the child porn industry, as camel jockeys in the Gulf countries, as child beggars in begging rackets, as victims of illegal adoptions or forced marriages, or perhaps, worse than any of these, as victims of organ trade and even grotesque cannibalism.”

                                                                                   

A CNN IBN special investigation in 2006 had proved the existence of Beggar Mafia in Mumbai. The investigation had astonishingly linked mafia to doctors. The IBN report had said, “For the greed of earning a few substantial extra bucks, these doctors are ready to forget their professional ethics and code of conduct. The investigation reveals the brutal truth of these doctors, who charge large sums of money and comply with the Beggar Mafia in amputating limbs of perfectly normal people and force them into begging.”

In 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to order an enquiry as the scenes of movie slumdog millionaire became a reality. The Daily Mail carried a report on how gangs were severing the limbs of street children in Mumbai to make them beg for extra money. Irrespective of the concern show by the PM, the ground reality has hardly changed.    

                                                                                              

So how can we really help these poor children? Giving a few coins or notes that are taken by the mafia gangs may not be the right way. The existence of children begging rackets may actually have arisen due to people giving large amounts to these unfortunate mutilated kids. Instead it would be a great idea to directly provide them treatment ,and food so that they are also nourished and there is no such thing as begging mafia in the long run .

Related articles

• Begging – Should it be Encouraged ? (niravisms.wordpress.com)
• We all are beggars. Difference is only in size. (anuragpage.wordpress.com)
• Is It OK To Give Money To The Homeless? (waystoselflove.com)