How I became a vegetarian — Mohani Niza

DEC 30 — I have done it. I have become a vegetarian.

Never in a million years did I think I would become one. I had always regarded vegetarians as fervent tree-huggers and Birkenstock-wearing hippies. Me? I was cool. I was one of the boys — I enjoyed my steak.

It's only been a bit over a month since I made the leap, but it feels like I've been doing it forever. And I know there's no turning back.

A friend commented that I took her by surprise. She had not spoken to me in three weeks, and all of a sudden I was swearing off meat.

I laughed.

The fact is I had long debated with myself on whether I should become a vegetarian.

I have always loved animals. About three years ago, I started to feel that perhaps killing animals for human consumption was wrong.

This realisation did not land all of a sudden. In fact, it wasn't a realisation at all, as much as it was a feeling.

But each time that feeling came up, I would push it away. I was raised in a culture that loved consuming meat. To acknowledge that something which I had regarded as normal could perhaps be wrong scared me.

However, I did explore my doubt a few times. I surfed the web for pro-vegetarianism arguments, and even bought a book about animal ethics (I never finished it). But it didn't spur me into action. After all, if you can find an argument for an issue, you can also easily find three arguments against it. Why? Because we see what we want to see.

And an intellectual argument, however elegant, remains exactly that: an intellectual pursuit.

This may explain why I have not done a million things that I say I want to do: like jog every morning, or read newspapers back-to-back. At the end of the day, they remain things that I think I should do. Deep down inside I don't believe in them. Do I really think that reading the newspaper back-to-back would make me a better person? I think not. There are a million ways to be curious.

One night, nearly two months ago, I was writing a college essay about an animal rights campaign. And so I braved myself to watch videos about the treatment of farm animals. I had heard so much about such videos, but had shrugged them off as cheap sentimental ploys. But I know now I was just scared.

Those videos convinced me what I had already felt all along, but was scared to acknowledge: that it is wrong to inflict pain on another living being. 

That very same night, I decided that I would not eat meat again.

I have learned a few things since I turned vegetarian. Such as I can easily flick off my desire to eat meat. And that yes, vegetarian food can be scrumptious -- you just have to find ways to be creative. But most of all, I have learned to embrace my feelings.

Once you do this, you are bound to do things that you want to. And those things that you never get around to doing? You simply don't want them enough.

This new year, I am not making any resolutions.

Exhibitions: Picasso Zurich exhibition recreates art landmark

December 25, 2010

Melancholy Woman - Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas. 100 x 69.2 cm. — Reuters pic

ZURICH, Dec 25 — In September 1932, already a world-famous artist, Pablo Picasso drove from Paris to Zurich for the opening of a mega-exhibition of his works that was to mark a turning point in Western cultural history.

Although he curated the exhibits himself and stayed at a luxury lakeside hotel nearby for two days, hobnobbing with art connoisseurs and critics, he mysteriously never went to see the show at the city’s Kunsthaus Museum.

This autumn, and to celebrate its own centenary, the Kunsthaus has recreated the landmark exhibition — or something under a half of it — and it has been pulling in the crowds.

For the original, the then already 51-year-old Picasso chose the 229 works himself — paintings, lithographs and a handful of bronze sculptures — to be displayed.

“In effect,” says Tobia Bezzola who put together the new show, “he curated this one too.”

At a time when contemporary art was normally displayed in private and commercial galleries, the 1932 exhibition was probably the first retrospective of a living artist to be put on in a museum, cultural historians say.

Covering the Spanish-born Picasso’s output from 1899, when he was an 18-year-old prodigy in Barcelona, through the Pink, Blue, Cubist, Constructivist and semi-Surrealist periods that followed when he moved to Paris at the turn of the 20th century, it set a trend that swept the art world after World War Two and still dominates it.

With its catalogues, in cheap and expensive versions, its posters and press releases, the first Kunsthaus show was a prototype of the art blockbusters that boost revenues for major and minor museums around the world today.

Not that it brought much cash in then, a time of deep economic woes as the world moved into the Great Depression of the 1930s, despite — for the time — an impressive total of 32,000 visitors during the two months it was on.

A reflection of the cash-strapped age was that none of the canvases which Picasso offered for sale at the Kunsthaus were bought except one, by the museum itself.

That Cubist work, “Guitar on a Gueridon” of 1915, is one of the central pieces at the new show, which opened on October 15, closes on January 30 and has already hosted 250,000 visitors.

Only about 100 pieces, including engravings and three bronze heads, are there — loaned by over 40 art institutions worldwide and many private collectors — and they include many of the best-known Picassos of his first 50 years.

Among them are a penetrating portrait of depression in “The Melancholy Woman” of 1902, the sensual “Girl in a Chemise” of 1905, the Cubist “Man with a Clarinet” of 1911, “Harlequin Musician” of 1924, the miniature “Players with a Beachball” of 1928, and “Sleeping Woman with Mirror” of 1932.

Kunsthaus guide and art historian Paula Lauger suggested that one of the most colorfully stunning canvases in the latest show — the playfully erotic “The Yellow Belt” — may also provide an answer to the mystery of why Picasso did not visit the first show after putting so much effort into it.

The famously priapic artist had brought to Zurich his wife, former Ballets Russes dancer Olga Khokhlova and their son Paulo, and the clearly marked sub-title of The Yellow Belt is “Marie-Therese Walter” — a model with whom he began a long and secret affair when she was a 17-year-old in 1927, Lauger said.

“I think, perhaps, Picasso just didn’t want to upset Olga.” — Reuters

A Muslim perspective on Christmas

 Abdul Malik Mujahid

December 25, 2010

DEC 25 — Christmas is an annual Christian religious holiday commemorating the birth of Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him. For many Muslims who even do not celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, it becomes an issue of what stand they should take. 

There have been a number of legitimate criticisms of the holiday from Muslims and non-Muslims based on theological and cultural considerations. However, this cannot be used to disregard the holiday as merely an exercise in ancient pagan practices, for instance, or excessive consumerism. Muslims have to remember that for practicing Christians, Christmas really is about Jesus. 

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was so accommodating of Christians that according to the two earliest Islamic historians, Ibn Saad and Ibn Hisham, the Prophet even allowed a delegation of 60 Byzantine Christians from Najran in Yemen to worship in his own mosque in Madinah. 

Lead by their bishop (Usquf), they had come to discuss a number of issues with him. When time of their prayer came, they asked the Prophet’s permission to perform this in the mosque. He answered, “conduct your service here in the mosque. It is a place consecrated to God.” 

God expects us to stay away from mocking the religious beliefs of others, no matter how much we disagree with them. He says in the Quran: “And insult not those whom they (disbelievers) worship besides God, lest they insult God wrongfully without knowledge. Thus We have made fair-seeming to each people its own doings; then to their Lord is their return and He shall then inform them of all that they used to do” (Quran, 6:108). 

We also have to remember that even if for many nominal Christians, the celebration is not really about participating in religious traditions, Christmas is a time for families to get together. In a number of cases it is the only time of year families get together, either because family members are scattered in different parts of the country or the world, because of communication and relationship problems, or because in America today, the family unit is becoming weaker and weaker. 

Christmas is a great time to relate to our neighbors. We should not forget though, that “relating” does not mean “preaching”. Da’wah cannot be made in a rude manner. Allah says in the Quran: “Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful advice, and reason with them by ways that are the best and most gracious: because your Lord knows best, (those) who have strayed from His Path, and those who receive guidance “ (Quran, 16:125). 

In particular, when dealing with Jews and Christians, Allah says: “Do not argue with the People of the Book unless it is in the politest manner, except for those of them who do wrong. Say: ‘We believe in what has been sent down to us and what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God is [the same] One, and we are Muslims before Him’“ (Quran, 29:46). 

This may not be an occasion to emphasis the differences as much as the commonality of our beliefs, unless someone is really asking you about them. 

A starting point for a discussion about Christmas could be the Islamic belief in all Books revealed by Allah and all Prophets sent by Him. In this discussion, special emphasis could be made on Prophet Jesus. Non-Muslims are often surprised to discover that Muslims also believe in this noble Prophet and his great mother Mary (peace be upon her). 

Remember that respect does not mean compromise. This article is not asking you to compromise anything. You have freedom of religion given by God to believe in what you believe in. But in a world where conflict is increasing, a Muslim should be a bridge- builder and a peacemaker. It was due to the Muslim practice of Islamic ideals of respect and tolerance that the key of the holiest Christian Shrine in Jerusalem, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, remains entrusted with a Muslim family, as it has been for over 1400 years. 

These are the lessons which need to be learned by those extremists who attack Christians during their worship in Nigeria and those extremists who burn Masjids in the USA. — harakahdaily.net/en

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication.

My Blackberry Is Not Working! - The One Ronnie, Preview - BBC One

My Blackberry Is Not Working! - The One Ronnie, Preview - BBC One

Europe travel chaos eases but pain remains

December 22, 2010

A British Airways aircraft lands as another taxis for take off at Heathrow Airport in west London December 21, 2010. Airline and international train services were limping back towards normal in parts of Europe today. – Reuters pic

LONDON, Dec 22 – Airline and international train services were limping back towards normal in parts of Europe today, but the lingering effects of ice and snow that caused widespread chaos still weighed on schedules.

The disruptions to airlines and high-speed trains in continental Europe, and linking Britain to the continent, created travel chaos for tens of thousands of travellers in the busy Christmas period following heavy weekend snowfalls.

They also brought calls for legislation to force airports to deal more effectively with snow and other bad weather.

European Union transport chief Siim Kallas said he was considering forcing airports to provide a minimum level of infrastructure support during severe weather.

London’s Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, and Frankfurt Airport, the biggest on the continent, said on their websites that operations were returning to normal after severe disruptions.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of airline BMI, owned by Lufthansa, accused BAA of being unprepared for the heavy snow at Heathrow.

“What is really incredible is that 10cm of snow closed the airport down for two days and then it operated at one-third capacity,” he told the Times newspaper.

“BAA was not prepared. It did not have enough de-icing fluid.”

A spokesman for BAA, which is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, denied there had been a de-icer issue at Heathrow and said lessons would be learnt.

But he added: “This was unprecedented weather which closed most of northern Europe’s airports.”

Heathrow was scheduled to operate 70 per cent of a normal day’s service, about 800 flights, but it was still advising passengers not to come to Heathrow unless they had confirmed flights, the spokesman said.

“We’re hoping by the end of the day we’ll be up to full operation,” he said.

Heathrow reopened its second runway yesterday, offering a ray of hope for thousands of passengers stranded in departure halls, some for days in scenes that British newspapers said resembled refugee camps.

“Airlines are currently operating a significantly reduced schedule while they move diverted aircraft and crew back into position,” BAA said on its website.

British Airways said that, in line with a directive from BAA, it would operate only a third of its normal flight schedule at Heathrow until 6am tomorrow.

“It will take some time to rebuild an operation of our size and complexity at our hub airport, Heathrow,” the airline said on its website.

“We ask you not to travel to the airport unless you have a confirmed booking on one of the flights that is operating.”

Frankfurt international airport was open and running at full capacity today after heavy snow shut it down on Monday for several hours and 400 flights were cancelled.

An airport spokesman said there was a backlog of about 3,500 stranded passengers, including some 600 who spent the night on emergency cots at the airport.

“The airport operation is getting back to normal,” airport spokesman Thomas Uber said . “But it will take a while to catch up.”

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it would add extra train services from today to cope with a surge in demand due to air travel disruptions. Deutsche Bahn board member Berthold Huber said the added service would stay in place until December 31.

Eurostar, operator of the high-speed train between London and Brussels and Paris, said it would resume normal check-in service, but asked passengers not to show up until an hour before departure “to avoid congestion and an unnecessary wait”.

Yesterday, thousands of people were forced to queue in frigid temperatures for hours around St Pancras station in north London as every available Eurostar seat was snapped up by travellers bounced from airlines.

Eurostar said nine of its 52 trains would be cancelled today but that passengers for those services would be “reallocated onto one of the next available trains”.

Although the logjam of travellers was starting to ease, many passengers were irate.

“This was our holiday of a lifetime,” a man at Heathrow who’d been planning to travel with his wife told Sky News. “And it’s a nightmare.” – Reuters

In Malaysia, 105 men for every 100 women

UPDATED @ 08:14:11 PM 22-12-2010

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 22 — A preliminary report released today by the National Department of Statistics revealed an overall sex ratio of 105 males for every 100 females in Malaysia.

The Housing and Population Census 2010 report, which was released today, also said that the country’s total population in 2010 was 27,565,821 people.

Out of the total population, 14,112,667 are males and 13,453,154 are females.

Johor recorded the highest male to female ratio, with 112 males to 100 females. Putrajaya recorded the lowest with 88 males for every 100 females.

The findings of the Housing and Population Census 2010 found that Selangor is currently the most populous state in Malaysia with 5,411,324 people, which made up 19.63 percent of the country’s total population.

The state which recorded the highest population growth during the 2000-2010 period was the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (17.77 per cent) followed by Selangor (3.17 per cent).

The report also revealed a drop in Malaysia’s average annual growth rate for the 2000-2010 period.

The findings of the Housing and Population Census 2010 found that the average annual growth rate for Malaysia dropped to 2.17 per cent for the 2000-2010 period. Malaysia’s average yearly growth was 2.60 per cent for 1991-2000 and 2.64 per cent for 1980-1991.

Based on this year’s census, there are 6,396,174 households and 730,865 living quarters in Malaysia.

The 2010 Population and Housing Census of Malaysia (Census 2010) is the fifth census conducted since the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

The Census 2010 provides information on the characteristics of living quarters, households and population in Malaysia.

The report also showed a decreasing trend in the average household size in the country, with an average of 4.31 per cent in 2010 compared to 4.62 per cent in 2000.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop also said that separate research done by the department found that Malaysia's fertility rate was on a decline.

According to the minister, the country’s fertility rate in 2009 was 2.3 per cent, a drop from 3 per cent from the year 2000.

“Based on our calculations, there is a possibility that the country’s fertility rate might decline further to 2.1 per cent by 2015. But a lower fertility rate is not a cause for concern, it is a global trend,” said Mohamed Yakcop
.

It’s only football Mr. President!

(AFP) U.S. President Barack Obama By Mustafa Fetouri Dear President Obama When Qatar won the right to host the 2022 FIFA world cup against the United States as finalist I was expecting to hear barrage of foul cries from American soccer fanatics and perhaps couple of op-ed pieces in local papers making fun of Qatar and accusing FIFA of bias. All that was forthcoming immediately after the decision was announced: many U.S. media outlets, their Australian counterparts, and number of some Arabs as well contributed their share in questioning FIFA’s decision in some sense. But it was you Mr. President who surprised me the most with your quick ill considered reaction when you said that FIFA made the “wrong” decision by awarding the games to tiny Qatar. Yet Crown Price H.H. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani chose to say it was “slip of the tongue” on your part. A very polite reply; don’t you think sir! I wish you elaborated little more so I could understand what you mean sir. I’m unclear if he you meant the decision was wrong because Qatar won, because the USA lost, because the tournament is going to theMiddle East or, because the idea of tiny Qatar hosting the world cup is altogether wrong. Whatever you had in mind sir you surprised me. You made me rethink again about good article I wrote about you right after your famous Cairo speech. In it I played the devil’s advocate given your country’s history in our region. You also made me question the very basic values you seem to be cherishing. I know that The U.S. could make about 900 times as many Qatars, and your countrymen would make around 206 times as many Qataris, Qatar never hosted a world, and its summer temperature averages above 40 degrees Celsius. I know all that but Mr. President I’m not sure if that was the reason for which you have said what you have said! You came to power preaching not only fair play but also equal start for all with no room for cheating. In that Cairo speech, if you still remember, you talked of new beginnings with the Islamic world, told us something different, and above all wanted us to believe you and forget all about your notorious predecessor. Your favored slogan “yes we can” still rings in our minds. Yet; I think we have waited more than enough only to hear you complain about the World Cup. You did not complain about other major issues you promised to resolve such as the Jewish settlements which have so far eaten nearly Qatar’s total size of the West Bank and you still talk of a “Palestinian State”! Mr. President I could easily understand and accommodate the reactions of your football mad countrymen which are no more than our own football fanatics’ noise as usually the case in such circumstance but your reaction is something different. You also appeared surprised by the fact that huge America could lose to tiny Qatar. I’m sure you realize Mr. President that the world today is not the same as it was two decade ago and far from what it was just a decade before. Had it been the same you would not have been president of the United States now. I’m certain you also know that the rules of the game are not the same either. You probably agree with me that the world in which we live today is dynamic, changing, almost borderless, and above all lines between the powerful and the powerless are blurring. The very definition of power itself has changed Mr. President. No clear cut limits to what others can do or how they do it. It is here where Qatar won and America lost: how each side made its bid in a fair play on equal terms notwithstanding FIFA’s alleged corruption. Even with FIFA’s dubious reputation the latest Wikileaks documents would give America the lead in any dirty game! If the world had not changed Mr. President you would not be obliged, for economic reasons, to visit huge poor India seeking to foster stronger and wider economic ties. I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that 1 out of 3 jobs in your country keep going to India, and that the bulk of IT companies cross America, indeed the world, depend heavily on India in one way or another. Digital India still poor and corrupt, maybe, but it’s competing successfully against giants like your own country mainly because the world that made India chronically poor and economically crippled does not exist any more and that India, like Qatar, successfully finding its niche. Tiny Qatar would have lost if it had tried to compete in size, population, GDP, public debt, or indeed technology but it chose to compete in innovative ideas however costly. The human race progresses because of innovation Mr. President. It’s hard to lose I know but football is about losing as much as it’s about winning as Mr. Seep Platter put it just before throwing his bomb by announcing Qatar as the winner not the United States. A sport, football in particular, is more than twenty two men chasing a ball; it’s about coexistence, talent, and human spirit where the game is played for that very reason: it’s a game! U.S.’s Al Udied Air base is still in Qatar and that is no secret. Some facilities might well be built near it, and many of its pilots would watch the tournament but that does not change the fact that FIFA World Cup is going to “new land” just as Mr. Platter put it. Awarding the games to Qatar says too many new things about the world but your reaction, unfortunately, only reinforces what people in this region already know or suspect America to be. I did not want to say this Mr. President but I feel obliged to. In our region people see America as selfish, double faced, greedy, and manipulative. While it preaches fair play it does not actually play fairly if it means losing. Fair play is lesson number one we go away with after a nice football match! Unfortunately, again, your leaked archives on Wikileaks’s only confirm what people already suspect or know about the USA. -- Mustafa Fetouri is an academic and political analyst based in Tripoli. He received the 2010 Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press for best opinion article.

Malaysia struggles to meet refugee needs: rights report

Source: Mizzima News

Date: 17 Dec 2010

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The government of Malaysia remains delinquent in meeting the needs of refugees seeking greener pastures, including Burmese, finds the latest study on the status of refugee needs in the Southeast Asian state.

Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), or Voice of the Malaysian People, a Malaysian civil and political rights group, in its 2010 overview chastises Kuala Lumpur for failing to do enough to satisfy the rights of those either seeking temporary or permanent asylum in the country or victims of human trafficking.

"Although the government appears to have the intention of seeking ways to deal with this population [refugees], violations of refugee rights continue to occur," the report's authors concluded.

Thousands of Burmese are among the over 90,000 refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia.

On June 12 of 2010, according to the report, Suaram "was informed that an estimated 500 Burmese detainees at Lenggeng Immigration Detention Centre [southeast of Kuala Lumpur in the state of Negeri Simbalan] went on hunger strike … to protest against the lack of water supply which had been going on for five days. However, it was reported that the Immigration Department denied that there was a lack of water supply at the detention centre".

The incident followed a February occurrence at the same location over which the Burmese leader of a hunger strike was detained for seven months, though the UNHCR was able to visit the centre shortly after the onset of the protest, securing the release of 106 refugees.

In January this year, 26 Burmese asylum-seekers were arrested by Malaysian authorities upon trying to enter the country, allegedly being denied their basic rights as asylum-seekers in proceeding developments.

Suaram believes the behaviour of the Malaysian authorities is consistent with Kuala Lumpur exhibiting little interest in ratifying the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, or introducing domestic legislation to recognise the status of refugees.

"Due to the lack of legal status, refugees continue to face denial of basic rights," continues the rights' group's assessment.

Moreover, as of this year, the trafficking of Burmese refugees by Malaysian immigration officers was reportedly still occurring, while in March four Burmese destined for Australia were discovered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport as part of a human-trafficking scheme, the report said.

Suaram said the trafficking victims were then subjected to detention centres in violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007, which stipulates such individuals be placed in shelters as opposed to detention centres.

Overall, the report finds that despite the optimism surrounding the advent of the Malaysian government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, which observers had hoped would place greater emphasis on the realisation of human rights when he took office in April last year, "all the incidents and controversies that have happened in 2010 signal a return to the Mahathir era, a period of stifling control, abuse of powers and suppression of human rights".

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and remains a complex political character, including in developments related to social and civil rights.

Suaram also contends the Malaysian Election Commission has thus far refused to take issue with allegations of illegal electoral conduct by Najib's ruling party, which opponents say has offered preferential treatment in return for voter favouritism, especially during May's by-elections in the region of Sibu.

In Burma's national elections last month, the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party was widely accused of using similar illegal electoral tactics to sway voter allegiance.

Meanwhile, in another apparent signal of abuse of power by the Najib government, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and three allies were suspended from parliament for six months yesterday, in votes that triggered pandemonium and an opposition walkout, the Australian broadcaster ABC News reported online.

"Anwar, who is also facing trial on sodomy charges that he says are a political conspiracy, was this week found guilty by parliament of misleading members in a row over a national unity slogan," the ABC reported.

The suspension came after he had criticised the Najib government's One Malaysia banner aimed at promoting unity in the multiracial nation, saying it had been taken from the 1999 One Israel political bloc of former Israeli leader Ehud Barak, the report said.

The charge is highly sensitive in the predominately Muslim country, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel and supports a Palestinian state.

The government on Wednesday also cited three senior opposition MPs for contempt for criticising the parliamentary disciplinary probe against Anwar, and demanded that they also serve six-month suspensions.

"It's so clear, it's blatantly biased," Anwar told ABC after vote in parliament, where Najib's ruling coalition has a clear majority. "It's a mockery of the entire proceedings."

Chaotic scenes filled the house where debate was drowned out by 30 minutes of shouting, and opposition lawmakers displayed signs reading "Save the Parliament" and "Rule of kangaroo".

They later walked out, chanting "shame on you", the report said.

Anwar was once a deputy prime minister in the ruling coalition but was sacked and jailed a decade ago on separate sodomy and corruption charges, widely seen as politically motivated.