Eleanor Beardsley slanted towards opponents of France's ban on the niqab, or Islamic face veil, on two NPR programs on Monday. Beardsley played several sound bites from French Muslims during her Morning Edition report who forwarded the notion that the law contributes to an ” anti-Muslim climat e” in the country, and agreed with a guest on Tell Me More who labeled the ban ” sinister .” The correspondent led her report on Morning Edition with a clip from the imam of a mosque in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris, who stated, ” You know there is an Islamophobic climate right now and the police don't like to see us praying in the streets .” She also turned to another Muslim man who singled out the niqab ban for contributing to this apparent climate: BEARDSLEY: Rachid Zaieri says for the most part, it's fine being a Muslim in France, though he admits in the last few years, there has been a rise in political talk against Islam, and this burqa ban is part of that , he says. RACHID ZAIERI (translated from French): We don't feel this law is sincere. It doesn't mean we're for the burqa, but we think this law is just an excuse to tell French people, watch out: there's a growing Muslim population that you should be afraid of. Beardsley continued by touting how ” many Muslims here blame President Nicolas Sarkozy for what they say is an anti-Muslim climate in France today . They say the French president creates debates around Islam so that people will forget about the real problems, like the economy.” (the NPR.org article she wrote to go along with her report used this claim in the title: ” France's Burqa Ban Adds To Anti-Muslim Climate “) She then highlighted two Muslim women who wear the niqab: BEARDSLEY: …Even by the French government's own estimates, fewer than 2,000 women across the country wear the niqab. Twenty-two-year-old Someya, who doesn't want to give her last name, is one of them. SOMEYA (translated): I feel like I'm doing something higher. I'm wearing it for God and for my husband, so that he'll be the only person who can see me and be able to appreciate my face. BEARDSLEY: Someya says she'll take off her niqab today because she has no choice, but she believes the government is infringing on her personal freedom. Eighteen-year-old Sarah Morvan, a Muslim convert who also wears the niqab, has just pulled on her long black gloves and stepped out into the street. Not a bit of skin is showing. Morvan says she will not remove her veil, and the new law will only force her to stay at home more often with her three-month-old daughter, who she pushes in a stroller in the afternoon sun. (audio clip of Sarah Morvan speaking in French) It's a very emotional experience to wear the niqab, says Morvan, who embraced wearing it two years ago. You are sheltered from all onlookers and completely cut off from society. The NPR reporter played only one sound bite from a Muslim supporter of the ban at the very end of the report: BEARDSLEY: Aubervilliers is 70 percent Muslim. Many, like cafe owner Kamel Mesbah, say they understand the intent of the law, to weaken what he calls the burqa culture . (audio clip of Kamel Mesbah speaking in French) You can't have things like men and women refusing to shake each other's hands and separate hours for boys and girls at the public swimming pool , he says. That's just not France. Later in the day, Tell Me More host Michel Martin brought on Beardsley to talk about the law, along with French Muslim feminist Sihem Habchi, a supporter of the ban, and French journalist Nabila Ramdani, who, as Martin pointed out, wrote “a number of commentaries for London's Guardian newspaper expressing her opposition to the new law.” Ramdani blasted French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his support of the ban: RAMDANI: Well, we've heard a segment from Nicolas Sarkozy earlier, and he's right. The law is not about religion. As an actual fact, the text of the law doesn't mention Islam even once. He claims it's about liberty and dignity. And it is, for me, abundantly clear that this ban is a violation of fundamental human rights, and has little to do with the liberation of women or the dignity . Quite the opposite, because in actual terms, what this ban would mean is that it forbids women from stepping out of the house, which means that, effectively, it prevents them from being free individuals. It excludes them from society completely, and it effectively puts them under house arrest. It's, in fact, a very sinister state interference into a religious matter, and a cynical political move to capture the far right vote ahead of the presidential elections next year. And it is a cynical text of law because it not only tells women how to dress, which is patronizing enough, but worse still, it criminalizes a handful of women who have chosen a lifestyle of their own, in respect of the secular nature of French society, and I have to insist on that point, to choose to cover their faces. Near the end of the segment , Martin asked the NPR correspondent for her take on the law's future. She agreed with Ramdani and even used the same label: BEARDSLEY: … One thing I would say is that I do think the law is a bit political. I agree with Nabila when she says that . There's so few women that wear the burqa and the niqab, and in a country like France, I think the garment will ultimately disappear because, you know, I interviewed an 18-year-old who said she wanted to wear it till the day she died. But really, how long is he going to last in France with her complete covering black over her entire body? Probably not very long. So I think that Sarkozy is just pushing for this law. Really, it's a non-issue, I think, and he wants voters from the far right. He's scared of a rise in the far right. So I think the reasons for enacting it are a bit sinister . — Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here .
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The skyscraper has ruined London’s skyline and our lack of complaint suggests we’ve become blind to architectural ugliness Someone has to speak up for the London skyline. It is being viciously attacked, invaded by philistines, and a nation stunned into acceptance of every monstrosity so long as we are told it is modern seems happy to see taste, style and proportion go out of the window. Why are we putting up with the Shard ? There should be protests, tormented editorials, parliamentary questions about the monster skyscraper that is unstoppably rising up near London Bridge. But compared with the controversies that greeted the infinitely superior Gherkin there appears to be general passivity, even enthusiasm, for this far more arrogant structure. From the sunny top of Primrose Hill at the weekend, London spread out in blue and silver glory. The London Eye, the rounded, elegant form of Norman Foster’s 30 St Mary Axe (said Gherkin) and the dome of St Paul’s all dance together nicely in that urban masque. Modern architecture can work beautifully among the old streets and buildings that define London. But architectural conservatives have long said otherwise. In the aftermath of their falsely grounded scepticism about fine modern buildings, it is understandable that people decide the new is always good. The same has happened in art. After years of wrongly denouncing everything new in art, the entire British media at some point rolled over on its back and gave up. There is no public debate about art any more, because everyone seeking admittance to the elite is scared to look old-fashioned. It is so British, this inability to decide visual cases on their own merits. People who have no natural feel for art judge it ideologically. I fear we are not a very visual nation at all. Compared with other countries, we seem totally incapable of appreciating, say, an urban public space. We think a healthy piazza life is the crowded carnival that Trafalgar Square has become . And we cannot tell the difference between a beautiful modern building that adds to the visual interest of London, and an aggressive, bombastic distortion of the skyline. The Shard is grotesquely out of scale with other London landmarks: it is so big that it demands a massive skyscraper forest around itself. In other words, as you read this, the future history of London is being decided. This city, which grew gradually over centuries, will not keep its character in our century. It will become an anonymous maze of corporate citadels, a Houston-on-Thames , as the Shard generates copies and rivals. Skyscrapers can be ugly. They can also be beautiful. The British fear of modernity once refused to see their beauty. But it invited a backlash that now seems blind to their potential ugliness. Competing polemics produce an insensitive society. London has been enriched by new architecture in recent years. But the Shard and the unneeded grandiosity it will unleash can only impoverish a great city. Future generations may see this building as the most significant in London in our time – but they will not thank us for it. Architecture Design London Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk
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When Carlos Saldanha’s 3D animation opened on the first warm weekend of 2011, there was only ever going to be one winner … The wipeout Sunny skies are the mortal enemy of cinemagoing in the UK, and that’s never truer than on the first properly sunny weekend of the year. Most people choose parks and gardens over darkened multiplexes on any fine day, but when it’s the first to come along in many months, it’s really no contest. The executives at 20th Century Fox will be cursing the weather gods now that the weekend numbers are in for Rio, the studio’s big animation of 2011, which took £1.52m including £109,000 in previews. That’s by no means a flop, but hopes will have been much higher for a talking-animal 3D animation overseen by Carlos Saldanha, who directed or co-directed all three Ice Age movies. The first Ice Age – which, like Rio, did not have the advantage of a built-in audience established by previous films – debuted with £3.03m back in 2002. Its sequels, The Meltdown (2006, £9.78m) and Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009, £7.64m) opened with significantly bigger numbers. (All figures include preview takings.) Even the less appealing Robots, likewise from Fox’s Blue Sky Studios, managed a £2.62m debut back in 2005, and that film didn’t have the benefit of Rio’s 3D or its Angry Birds app marketing tie-in. Although Rio has yet to release in the US, it opened in 72 countries internationally at the weekend, grossing $55m. Considering the UK is traditionally a buoyant market for Blue Sky and animation in general, Fox will be disappointed that the territory delivered less than $2.5m (just over 4%) of that total. Russia contributed $10.4m, Brazil $8.3m (the biggest animated opening of all time, although in fairness the film is set there), and Mexico $5.3m. Several major territories, including France and Italy, have yet to open. Fox will be hoping for better things – much better – now that many UK schools have broken up for the Easter holidays. The losers Overall, the market posted the worst tally since June 2010, when World Cup football persuaded all the major studios to give plexes a full body swerve, resulting in a couple of consecutive weekends that delivered the lowest grosses in five years. That month saw the likes of Killers, Letters to Juliet and Death at a Funeral dumped into a blockbuster-free zone, and the current frame also has its share of unappealing titles, including three Hollywood offerings released on a combined 700-plus screens, grossing a collective total of £320,000. Sony’s The Roommate, an update on the Single White Female formula starring Leighton Meester and Cam Gigandet, limped across the finish line with £120,000 from 227 venues. Disney animation Mars Needs Moms (retitled for the UK as Mars Needs Mums) took £114,000 from 303 cinemas; shockingly, this dismal figure benefits from £70,000 in previews, mostly grossed the previous Saturday and Sunday. Paramount’s teen action flick Tomorrow, When the War Began, which has the alibi of an Australian setting and unknown cast, kicked off with £86,000 from 205 cinemas. These results confirm the oft-observed phenomenon that while audiences will ignore the rival temptation of sunny skies if there is a film they have an urgent need to see, lesser attractions are particularly vulnerable to warm weather. If it’s not a must-see, why rush? According to virtually everybody, The Roommate, Mars Needs Mums and Tomorrow, When the War Began are not must-see movies. The steady holders Most weekends, respective falls of 35% and 39% for Source Code and Limitless would hardly merit comment. But with audiences shunning cinemas in general, and drops of 56% and 57% for Hop and Sucker Punch, those numbers look positively heroic. Duncan Jones’s Jake Gyllenhaal sci-fi has now taken a robust £2.99m in 10 days, while the Bradley Cooper thriller has posted an even more impressive £5.74m in 19 days, confirming The Hangover star’s status as a leading man capable of opening a movie. Also doing better than expected is Adam Deacon’s urban comedy Anuvahood, with a nifty £1.88m so far, clearly on course for a lifetime total of four times its opening weekend – considered a good multiple for this traditionally front-loaded genre. The big faller Plenty of films are plummeting down the chart, but notable among them is Killing Bono, based on the comic memoir of Neil McCormick. Shedding two thirds of its initial extravagant rollout of 253 cinemas, the Nick Hamm-directed flick collapsed by 81%, and is surely set to suffer another brutal purge of screens and showtimes this weekend. The niche hit Although the current market lacks a major new arthouse hit (Submarine at number 15, Cave of Forgotten Dreams at 19 and Oranges and Sunshine at 23 are the sector’s brightest spots), Bollywood flick Thank You is thriving in limited release. Its opening gross of £160,000 is hardly stellar for the genre, but in today’s depressed climate that’s good enough to earn seventh place, and its screen average of £2,967 is the highest of any film on release. The Akshay Kumar comedy also earns the distinction of achieving the weekend’s top engagement (Cineworld Feltham), and also its fifth (Cineworld Ilford). Overall, the top engagement chart is dominated by Rio, with 21 of the top 30 and 51 of the top 100. The indie sector is flat, with best results coming from Source Code at the Electric Notting Hill and Hampstead Everyman, unless you count Sucker Punch at the BFI Imax. The future For the sixth week in a row, the market lags significantly behind the equivalent frame from 2010, on this occasion by a troubling 46%. The exhibition sector has got some serious catching up to do, and hopes will be pinned on this week’s fresh crop, which include Scream 4, James Franco in Your Highness, Amanda Seyfried in Red Riding Hood and a new Winnie the Pooh from Disney. Cinema owners will be praying for dreary weather throughout the Easter holiday. Top 10 films 1. Rio, £1,515,853 from 522 sites (New) 2. Source Code, £848,366 from 416 sites. Total: £2,990,826 3. Limitless, £737,417 from 394 sites. Total: £5,744,993 4. Hop, £611,367 from 499 sites. Total: £2,623,612 5. Sucker Punch, £346,399 from 392 sites. Total: £1,633,285 6. The Eagle £181,823 from 342 sites. Total: £2,504,508 7. Thank You, £160,191 from 54 sites (New) 8. Unknown, £135,025 from 207 sites. Total: £6,225,112 9. The Roommate, £120,365 from 227 sites (New) 10. Mars Needs Mums, £113,559 from 303 sites (New) Other openers Tomorrow, When the War Began, 205 screens, £85,841 The Silent House, 11 screens, £8,539 Before the Revolution, three screens, £5,146 + £549 preview Snap, six screens, £4,418 Urumi, five screens, £2,981 Armadillo, four screens, £2,213 Rubber, one screen, £829 Animation Film industry Drama Science fiction and fantasy Charles Gant guardian.co.uk
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To give you an idea of the kind of hysterical predictions the global warming crowd have made in recent years, the United Nations in 2005 actually forecast that by the end of the previous decade, there would be 50 million environmental refugees around the world as a result of climate change. Britain's Guardian reported October 12, 2005: Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Janos Bogardi, director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn, said creeping environmental deterioration already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse. “There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change,” Dr Bogardi said. “This new category of refugee needs to find a place in international agreements. We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations.” Hans van Ginkel, UN under-secretary-general and rector of the university, said: “This is a highly complex issue, with global organisations already overwhelmed by the demands of conventionally recognised refugees. However, we should prepare now to define, accept and accommodate this new breed of refugee.” As Gavin Atkins of the Asian Correspondent noted Monday, the U.N. back in 2005 provided a handy map to identify “places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean.” Atkins chose to look at census figures for some of these “at risk” locales to see whether the U.N.'s predictions – pun intended – hold water. What he discovered was that far from seeing a population exodus, many of these areas are growing in their number of homo sapiens. These included the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Seychelles, and the Solomon Islands. Atkins continued: Meanwhile, far from being places where people are fleeing, no fewer than the top six of the very fastest growing cities in China , Shenzzen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Puning and Jinjiang, are absolutely smack bang within the shaded areas identified as being likely sources of climate refugees. Similarly, many of the fastest growing cities in the United States also appear within or close to the areas
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In the second of our series, Rob Steen, who illustrated Ricky Gervais’s zany Flanimals picture books, teaches you how to master monsters
Continue reading …Villa Erotica opens in St Andrä im Lungau after overcoming objections ranging from moral concerns to low ceilings Does prostitution count as “heavy physical work”? Will the presence of a brothel next to a through-road increase the accident rate? How many cubic metres of air are needed for two people to have sex safely? Not questions a judge has to consider every day, but these are the conundrums courts in Austria have been mulling over lately in a farcical battle over a planning application from a pimp. St Andrä im Lungau is a picturesque village nestled in a valley in a mountainous area of Salzburg. It boasts quaint houses, a lovely pub, a famous steam railway and now – after a bitter nine-year legal battle – a lemon yellow bordello called Villa Erotica. In 2002 a former wrestler, Norbert Sendlhofer, decided the 770 inhabitants of St Andrä needed not another pub but a place to buy sex. He put in a planning application to turn an old hunting lodge on the outskirts of the village into what locals quickly called a den of iniquity. The mayor was horrified and, backed by his outraged constituents, began a campaign to thwart Sendlhofer’s ambition, exhorting every law they could think of to stop the sex trade from coming to St Andrä. Commercial law, property law, criminal law, health and safety regulations – all were tried. Prostitution is legal in Austria, but they were determined to keep their village prostitute-free. For years, planning experts and officials trooped in and out of Villa Erotica, asking questions and taking measurements. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that in July 2005 St Andrä authorities informed Sendlhofer that his application had been rejected on the advice of the local public health officer, who claimed there were “inadequate sanitary facilities” for “business transactions which specifically deal with the excretion of bodily fluids”. That wasn’t all: an operation like Villa Erotica could “impair the moral, religious and psychological” life of the village” said the rejection letter, according to Der Standard. Sendlhofer was undeterred. He installed new showers to meet hygiene requirements, and when the council criticised the quality of drinking water at Villa Erotica, he dug new wells. In 2007, increasingly desperate to find reasons to reject the application, one resourceful local hit upon the notion that prostitution could be classed as “physical labour” and as such was subject to special health and safety regulations. A medical expert wrote a report for the council, claiming “prostitution is heavy physical work which is carried out in all possible postures”. They reached the conclusion that the ceilings of Villa Erotica were too low for suitable work spaces for prostitution and there were too few cubic metres of air to give sex workers the “volume of air” needed to carry out their duties. The ploy worked – briefly. Alas for the burghers of St Andrä, a higher court in Salzburg last year quashed the verdict and Villa Erotica was given the green light. Ironically, it was the brothel’s red light which caused its next problem: apparently, you need special planning permission to install unusual external lighting. When the brothel finally opened for business recently, Sendlhofer had the last laugh. The fuss of the previous nine years resulted in enormous press interest, and he was able to goad his opponents by telling TV cameras there was “no better location in the whole of Austria” for Villa Erotica. Austria Europe Prostitution Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Almost 20% of service jobs to go, including 560 frontline positions, over next five years in effort to save £53m London Ambulance Service has announced plans to cut 890 jobs over the next five years in an effort to save £53m. LAS said the reductions would include 560 frontline positions and most of the total losses would come from natural attrition. The reduction represents almost 20% of the service’s 5,000 staff and will fuel the controversy over the government’s health reforms. Union leaders attacked the move and one campaign group said it would mean “total carnage” for the capital’s ambulance service. The LAS chief executive, Peter Bradley, said: “Unfortunately we are not immune to the financial pressures facing the NHS. This means all areas of our business will face closer scrutiny as we look for ways to make savings while improving the care we give to patients. “But with nearly 80% of our budget spent on staff costs it would be impossible to make the savings required without removing posts.” LAS said it expected to reduce the number of frontline posts – those responsible for direct patient care – by 560, with a further 330 posts removed from management and support services. Compulsory redundancies would be avoided wherever possible, it said. “We are confident that the large majority of posts can be reduced by not filling vacancies. We have an average turnover rate of 7%,” Bradley said. “As part of our planned response we will be introducing a number of measures to control payroll costs, including tighter control of recruitment and reduced use of agency workers. “We are committed to managing these reductions so that the impact on staff is minimised and at the same time creating an improved and efficient service for patients.” NHS Health London Public sector cuts Health policy Public services policy Public finance Public sector careers guardian.co.uk
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Dr Freddy Patel tells inquest he was asked by police at the postmortem to rule out any assault or crush injuries A senior police officer asked a pathologist whether Ian Tomlinson’s injuries were consistent with a baton strike or a dog bite – four days before video footage emerged showing his encounter with police, the inquest into his death has been told. The pathologist who first examined Ian Tomlinson after he was knocked to the ground by an officer during the G20 protests said he was asked by police at the postmortem to rule out any assault or crush injuries. Dr Freddy Patel told an inquest that police told him that broken bottles and sticks were lying around Tomlinson’s body but there were no police officers “in the immediate vicinity” when he was found. Tomlinson, 47, collapsed and died shortly after being pushed to the ground by PC Simon Harwood. Asked by Alison Hewitt, counsel for the inquest into the newspaper vendor’s death, whether he “was requested by the police to rule out any assault or crush injuries as a result of public order?” Patel replied: “Yes. That’s right.” He was then asked: “Did you have this in mind when you conducted your postmortem examination?” He replied: “That’s correct, yes.” Patel, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the inquest that before the examination began, he had been given “new information” by the police officers involving the crime scene. “It was that he had collapsed outdoors on the pavement, but there was no police officers nearby in the immediate vicinity of the body. There were a lot of broken glass bottles and there were a lot of protesters were using sticks and there were a lot of sticks around the area where it was found.” Patel found Mr Tomlinson’s death was consistent with natural causes because he had coronary artery disease and could have died at any time. But another two pathologists, Dr Nat Cary and Dr Kenneth Shorrock, later carried out their own postmortem examinations and came to a different conclusion, the inquest jury has heard. Cary suggested Tomlinson could have been pushed so he fell with his right arm trapped under his body, hitting his liver and causing it to bleed internally. The inquest heard that four police officers, including Detective Superintendent Tony Crampton, the City of London officer leading the investigation into Tomlinson’s death, had attended the postmortem. During the examination, Crampton asked the pathologist whether his injuries could have been caused by a baton or a dog bite ‚ four days before a video emerged which showed what happened. Patel told the inquest that he had found several injuries on Tomlinson’s legs, including lacerations on his right leg and an elongated bruise on the outside of his left leg. Earlier, the inquest heard evidence from PC Simon Harwood, who struck Tomlinson with his baton on the left leg and pushed him to the ground shortly before he died. Hewitt, counsel to the inquest, asked Patel: “Do you recall Detective Superintendent Crampton asking you whether that injury could have been as a result of a baton strike? “Did you say to him at the time that you could not rule that out but you thought it was more likely to have been as a result of falling against something?” Patel replied: “If I remember correctly, what I said was that, as you say, I can’t rule it out, but it’s in keeping with contact with or from, against a linear object.” Crampton also asked whether puncture wounds on Tomlinson’s right leg might have been caused by a dog bite. Patel told the inquest: “I explained to him that they weren’t typical of a dog bite.” He told the inquest: “Because I was told there were lots of broken bottles there I said it could have been caused by a rugged sharp object.” The inquest heard from Patel that Tomlinson’s postmortem examination was originally scheduled as a “section 19″ or routine, but he had been told that it has been “upgraded” to a “section 20″. Patel said that he may have asked why police were present at the postmortem, which was on 3 April, 2009. “I may have queried why police were attending and I was informed by the coroner’s officer that they would like to rule out whether there was any assault or any crush injuries ‚ and there was a big crowd there – related to the protesters and public order.” Ian Tomlinson Dr Freddy Patel G20 Protest Police London Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Democrats Call for Federal Investigation into WI Supreme Court Election as Recall Efforts There Continue
April 12, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Ed Schultz talked to Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson and The Nation’s John Nichols about the latest in Wisconsin. As Larson noted, he’s supporting his fellow Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin in asking Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the voting irregularities and the “surprise discovery of 14,000 votes” in the Supreme Court race in Waukesha County. Congresswoman asks U.S. Attorney General to investigate Waukesha vote reporting : Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is asking for a federal investigation into the surprise discovery of 14,000 votes in Waukesha County for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Rep. Baldwin sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Friday night asking him to assign the Justice Department Integrity Section. It oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said “human error” resulted in the miscount there. The change gave incumbent Justice David Prosser a 7,500-vote edge over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said Saturday in an email that the department would review the letter. He declined further comment. In the letter, Baldwin says the mishap raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the state’s electoral process. And as they noted, their wingnut Governor Scott Walker went running to Newsmax to accuse the unions of trying to “steal” the election from Prosser and compared what happened to Al Franken’s narrow election win there. That’s rich, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Scott Walker is going to be called to testify before Rep. Darrell Issa’s committee next week. I’m sure we’ll get to watch a union bashing side show from the Republicans during that hearing. And as the recall efforts in Wisconsin are still moving along where it would be very nice to see this union busting Republican shown the door — Wis. Dems To File First Recall Petitions Against GOP State Sen. Dan Kapanke .
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