Monday, October 16, 2006

Naked Newz Update 10/06


Earlier this month we reported the Nude news, stories with Nude in them, this update is for news stories with Naked in them.

Da Newz......

Nice to see she has work after her cocaine debacle.....

Kate Moss has made her most saucy film yet for the Agent Provocateur underwear label.

The supermodel, 32, strips off to just her knickers in the short 30-minute clip.

The film, which begins with Moss wearing a skirt and shirt, is the latest collaboration between the underwear label and the model.

Click here to see a trailer of the movie

A previous clip was so popular that the underwear company's website crashed.


Help crash the website again. Says Rolling Stone she has done more provocative work......

Let’s all just calm down and watch Kate pole dance in that White Stripes video. It’s art. Seriously. It is.


Harry Potter gets Barn chores......

Harry Potter boy star in naked West End role

Daniel Radcliffe may find that the audience is a little too close for comfort when he performs a sensational nude scene on stage in the West End next year. Sixty people from the audience will actually be seated on stage when the Harry Potter star simulates a sex act

Yes but its a sex act with horses like something out of All Creatures Great And Small.

Is being naked sex? I thought it was nudity. Being naked is not sexual, it is natural. Sex is in the mind of the voyuer. And yes being naked is good for the cause just ask PETA.

Would you strip naked for a good cause?
Sometime last year, several female celebrities decided to pose nude for a calendar. They didn't mind because they did it for a "good cause" and any money they received was to be donated (was it for children with cancer? I don't remember). On my campus, similar publications circulated and they were surprisingly popular. Yesterday, there were a group of college-age students parading around the neighborhood half-naked claiming they were raising money for some sort of organization. Is this what our society has come down to? People exploiting their sexuality to raise money in the name of a good cause?

These guys in Germany posed for a good cause.... a rose by any other name......Naked Men's Garden Calendar Fundraiser

These folks also from Germany couldn't wait to do a calendar so they did some direct action... Protestors Strip Naked at Library Threatening to be closed due to lack of use, the Kingsteignton library was the scene of a naked protest held by locals that feel that it is essential the library stay open.

And speaking of performing sex for the public for some folks it just comes naturally....

Naked Truths
Many things have been said of Sook-Yin Lee over the years, but the notion that she lacks sufficient courage has not been among them. Shortbus, which opened here recently, she downplays her iconic boldness to play Sofia, a seemingly gentle couples counsellor with some serious relationship problems of her own. Despite a vigorous—really vigorous, as we see in the movie’s long, highly explicit opening sequence—sex life with her husband, Sofia has never had an orgasm. And thus launches a pursuit that centres the rest of the tale, which takes her repeatedly to the anything-goes nightclub of the title. “Frankly, I don’t think I did any acting before this,” confessed Lee, back in town for the film’s local debut, at the just-wrapped Vancouver International Film Festival.

Wait a minute is this a remake of Deep Throat Canadian style? Well the opening party for the film sort of confirms this...Sex-starved East Village hippies get naked for John Cameron ... Wait a minute when were hippies ever sex starved?


In small town Manitoba they don't want women strippers....but male strippers are popular....

Naked hostility

A strip show set for tomorrow night at the Ste. Anne Hotel has been met by stiff opposition from some area residents, and town council appears to have taken their side. "We don't think exotic dancers are the best image for our community," Mayor Robert Gosselin told the Sun yesterday. Hotel manager Amanda Koltusky said she's surprised at the sudden opposition, especially since it's so close to the show. She said they've been advertising since before the September Long Weekend, and it's not the first time the bar has hosted strippers. Customers were so keen to see four male dancers last April, Koltusky said she had lineups out the door and had to turn people away.

The cheeky writer did manage to get the word stiff in the opening line of an article on strippers.

Its not what you think....
RACING NAKED STREAKS

It's about horse racing.

In New Zealand the Invisible Woman appears......

Invisible to the naked eye
You may have noticed the massive billboards stopping traffic on Fanshawe Street and on the Airport Bendon headquarters building- a seemingly naked woman reclining with "invisible" written across her- as if she were anything but! Then, the full story was revealed...and she was wearing the new "Invisible" bra designed-unlike the billboard model- not to ever be noticed at all! The days of the VBL (Visible Bra Line) are numbered thanks to the brand new, ultimate t-shirt bra from Bendon which eliminates dreaded bulging back fat and “double boobs”, resulting from cup spillage; unsightly symptoms which many women can experience with regular bras.


 The stunning actress, who shot to fame playing a sexy stripper in ‘Sin City’, insists she will never bare all on the big screen and doesn’t care if her prude attitude harms her Hollywood career. She told Elle magazine

Hypocrisy is spelled A L B A ...sure she has morals...they allow her to pose like this... but she is opposed to being seen naked....go figure....

Jessica Says She Will Never Strip Naked For A Movie

The stunning actress, who shot to fame playing a sexy stripper in ‘Sin City’, insists she will never bare all on the big screen and doesn’t care if her prude attitude harms her Hollywood career. She told Elle magazine

“I don’t do nudity. I just don’t. Maybe that makes me a bad actress.

Maybe I won’t get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety.”

Alba, who was seen almost entirely in a bikini in her 2005 film ‘Into the Blue’, has a no nakedness policy because it goes against her morals.


Bare breasts will get you kicked out of a PG-13 rating, but swearing and violence of course won't.....
Scarlett Johansson Was Stopped From Exposing Her Breasts

Getting naked on stage or screen is not limited to female stars, more guys are doing it now...NAKED AMBITION PERHAPS it's something in our water, but James McAvoy has joined fellow Scot Ewan McGregor as an actor who likes stripping off. Like his more famous countryman, Shameless and Narnia star James is fast gaining a reputation for going nude on stage and film. McAVOY: "I LIKE BEING NAKED ON STAGE'

Of course it is smart to make sure you have no security cameras recording you.....but to get busted for public indecency when you are in the privacy of your office afterhours....well that is pushing it......Ohio Prosecutor Naked in Government Building After-Hours ...Maybe he can sue for violating his presumption of privacy.....

Contrary to the headline no the stockbroker is not naked....
Getting naked isn't such a great idea when you're selling options

However as reported here before, naked short selling is right up there in damaging the political economy of capitalism as hedge funds are...

President and CEO, Richard A. Altomare, a prominent and outspoken critic for over ten years on the adverse effect of naked shorting on smaller public companies, their stockholders, investors and employees and the severe economic damage of this practice on the economics of States and Localities, heartily endorses the well reasoned comment statement to the SEC dated October 4, 2006, on the scandal of naked shorting by the very prestigious North American Securities Administrators Association, Inc. (NASAA).

The sexism of haute coture and RockNRoll culture shows through in the self deprecations of one Posh Spice.....
Victoria says she looks "awful naked" ...Because she has had children and now looks like any other mother. "I've got so much saggy skin on my stomach," Mrs Beckham added: "I might fit into jeans but, trust me, I look really awful naked." Gee what does that say to the other mothers out there ? Get thee into a Burka?

He will eat what? ......
Naked chef doesn't have balls Jamie said: "One thing I won't cook is genitals - the balls and the general genital area. Some countries tend to cook that and I'm not into that. I don't mind offal, but not genitals."

Of course even though he wears the apron in the family his refusal to cook balls may have something to do with a slight castration phobia....mind you his comments should be taken with a grain of salt considering it comes from a guy with his mouth full of offal..... Naked truth spices up debate

THEY were comments intended as food for thought but celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's views on working women and the demise of family life has caused tempers to reach boiling point.
The young father-of-two, who wears the apron in his own home, told Good Housekeeping magazine that working mothers were responsible for crumbling family values because they no longer had time to cook healthy meals or ensure their families shared dinner together.



Like the Naked Chef the nudity is TV title titillation only....Close encounter with A Naked Scientist



Ice T who once upon a time was a rapper before he
became a cop on TV has released a new old album entitled Gangsta Rap...sheesh...he ain't no gangsta he's Mr. Law and Order...maybe he should have called it Gangsta Buster......

Or he could have called it the Two Virgins since he and his wife imitate John and Yoko......

The cover shows both Ice T and his wife, CoCo, spread naked across a bed.

Of course John and Yoko were more political, and politically savvy, than Ice T who will not be spied upon by the FBI.....
'The US vs. John Lennon'
The movie covers Lennon's days as a social activist and war protestor, explaining, for example, the seemingly loony publicity stunt of doing press conferences in bed with wife Yoko Ono in 1969 (immortalized by the song Ballad of John and Yoko). In truth, Lennon was more crafty than crazy, figuring he could grab the world's attention by acting outrageously. Lennon succeeded in the publicity arena, but didn't make much headway on his overall goal: to end the war in Vietnam.

Of course the way to woo a girl is to do yoga for her....naked....shows how flexible you are....
Fiennes steps out with new love he wooed with naked yoga

The new generation of gaming geeks and nerds have their own version of the Snap On Tools calendar...of course the nude gamers are women models... we all know that the majority of gamers are guys....but would nude geeks and nerds sell asks
Joystiq?

Totally Nerdcore has launched a calendar to try and please gamers and simultaneously line their own pockets. It contains full-on nudity, and the site doesn't come close to being SFW, so surf at your own peril. Yes, you can now own a photo of a naked woman wearing nothing but a Nintendo Power Glove, complete with a convenient, built-in hanging loop. It will really tie your game room together.



Spanish political candidate offers 'naked truth' He is wearing clothes in this photo...typical politician can't trust them to really expose themselves to the public.

Albert Rivera, a 26-year old lawyer, holds up a campaign poster showing himself naked, in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 20, 2006. (AP / Manu Fernandez)

Albert Rivera, a 26-year old lawyer, holds up a campaign poster showing himself naked, in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 20, 2006. (AP / Manu Fernandez)

And some folks look plain ugly naked, but they may reveal the secrets to a long life.....They're naked and they live longer

they're ugly, they're naked, their homes are underground, but they may hold a secret that could help humans live longer.

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Naked Mole-Rat May Hold Answer to Longer Life


This little guy is ugly but you know what's uglier? A naked Troll. Naked Troll Project reaches its goal

Of course this little fella ain't as cute as Suzanne Sommers but then again the science behind his longevity is better than hers, remember she promoted the flaky thigh master
,

SOMERS' HORMONE BOOK CAUSES CONTROVERSY

THREE'S COMPANY star SUZANNE SOMERS has been blasted for writing "nonmedical, misleading and unsubstantiated" claims in her new book on hormone therapies.The 59-year-old actress claims her book AGELESS: THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT BIOIDENTICAL HORMONES contains a "medically validated approach", which can help maintain "a healthy, vibrant, mentally sharp, sexually active life - while building the body's natural defenses against age-related diseases".However, DOCTOR ERIKA SCHWARTZ, from the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in New York City, tells the New York Post, "We believe Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones is detrimental and dangerous to the thousands of women who will read it.

Speaking of TV and Movies faux-auter director David Lynch, Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, Dune, etc. etc. doesn't like to talk about his movies...Naked Lynch Stripping himself of celluloid, the 'Inland' emperor has no clothes

This gives new meaning to cruising...
Cruise to get religion, get naked, get your Klingon
When Holland America's Maasdam sets sail to the Caribbean in February, the first thing most of the 1,250 passengers will do is shed their clothes. Every stitch. And why not? They will be participating in a nudist cruise — just one of many special-interest sailings that cater to fans of everything from "Star Trek" to chocolate concoctions to the sound of Sinatra. The people who organize such cruises, sometimes chartering an entire ship, say they are a wonderful way for people with similar interests or lifestyles to get together.


If we all fought naked there would be less wars....Naked War by Pickford Brothers


Sometimes women ask the darndest questions.
The near-naked truth Why do men visit strip clubs? Experts offer varied explanations for behavior

And when they don't the answer they want they ask someone else
....
She wasn't satisfied with just one guy....
Boca Raton woman pens book about ‘527 naked men’

More exploitation of gamer grrls by Adult MSM...that is Main Stream Mens Mags.....Tekken Girls Get Wet And Naked in Maxim

Some folks are crazy enough to go looking for the hottest spot on earth and they still wear their clothes.

Pure, Naked Heat Tourists seek out one of Earth's most scorching spots

This is a way to make sure you weigh in and of course it happened in Thailand home of Ladyboys and the worlds largest sex market and the reporters are still shocked...go figure....Boxer goes naked to make weight for world title fight
Caballero stunned reporters by removing his underwear at the weigh-in for his WBA super bantamweight fight with champion Somsak Sithchatchawal of Thailand.

Cheeky Turk......Top designer's hat trick with naked model

Enlarge the image

In a cheeky parody, avantgarde Turkish-born, British based designer Hussein Chalayan shocked the Paris Fashion Week crowd yesterday by sending a model down the runway wearing little more than a hat and a fetching pair of heels. Perhaps this pared-down part his collection will be available shops - as the Emperor's New Clothes range?

She would feel right at home at these Nude Festivals........

Running of the Nudes
Spain has long been famous for the running of the bulls at Pamplona. While Hemingway was a big fan, there are those who object to the cruelty factor and, in protest, have staged their own festival — the Running of the Nudes. The festival takes place at the beginning of July a couple of days before the running of the bulls.

With the exception of the presence of the bulls, the general idea is pretty much the same. Both involve crowds of people running frantically through the streets of Pamplona, except that in the one instance everyone is completely starkers. So if you care for the well-being of bulls and are a bit of an exhibitionist then this is the festival for you.

Hadaka Matsuri
When it comes to running naked through the streets, the Japanese in Inazawa City are old hands. Since 767 BC the Naked Man has been taking a nude journey to the Kounomiya Shrine. The Naked Man’s odyssey currently takes place on January 13 each year. As he walks through the town, the Naked Man is said to absorb all the evil and bad luck of the people who touch him and after he has paid his respects to the Shinto deity, he is driven out of the town, taking all the bad luck with him.

Being the Naked Man is no easy task. In the depths of winter he has to walk the streets in a cotton loin cloth, while 9000 men in similar attire jostle frantically to touch him, while ‘guards’ lining the streets douse them all with icy water. Apparently it is a great honour.


Also See:

Nude

Naked

Sexuality

Gender


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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Mercer Pushes Rae Over the Top


Bob Rae is finally ahead of Michael Ignatieff in a poll of Canadians done by the Toronto Star Canadians favour Rae to lead Liberals

Thanks to two things, one a quick response to the provocation of Harpers comments that Liberals were Anti-Israel (and Anti-Israeli, implying anti-semitism).

The other was that on the same day Rae waxed indignant, Rick Mercer featured him on his satirical TV program. The boys went fishing, and then went skinny dipping.

Video: Skinny-dipping with Bob Rae


A human side to Rae emerged, that went beyond his previously well scripted mushy middle. Anger was palitable in his response to Harper. And self effacing humour, as well as admiting that his government in Ontario had made mistakes, with Mercer. These two factors have to be taken into account when weighing in on the Iggy failures in the same week.

First putting his foot in his mouth, then waiting two days to respond in a scripted fashion to Harpers attacks on the Liberals which were the result of his comments in the first place. And even then he still ended up looking too aloof, too academic, and it was hard to understand his mumblings for his feet in his mouth.

Yep Iggy is looking like toast. Of course the interesting factor in the poll itself, like in the delegate selection is the number of those who said they were undecided. Exactly the same number as those that support Rae.

There is lots of room to move here, and Rae is not a shoe in either, with Kennedy and Dion bringing up the rear, and the all important undecided delegates holding the key to victory. Of course now it might become an anybody but Rae campaign...
Dion, Kennedy join Ignatieff push to disqualify most Rae delegates ...
Which would be political suicide for the Liberals.

However given the Rae is a politician and Iggy wants to be one, well who would you vote for leader if it was your party and you want to defeat Harper. Which is becoming all the more possible, since he had as bad a week as Iggy. As
Chantal Hébert writes, Harper's hopes fading

See:

Liberal Leadership Race

Ignatieff




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Hinduism Is Fascism

Modern Hinduism is fascism and racism. It is the origin of what we would call modern Fascism. Based on a religious caste system that is Aryan in origin, it divides up the world into three castes, warriors, priests, merchants, and in a slave class; the Dalit's or Untouchables. India Caste System Discriminates

The influence of Hindu Fascism on the Occult is well documented. Especially in the racialist constructs of Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical movement. It is the concept of the Secret Chiefs, of higher beings who contact select humans, usually Caucasian Europeans, while relegating other 'races' of humanity to lesser rungs in the celestial hierarchies. Hence the belief in reincarnation, karma, dharma, etc. gets interepreted as the need for these lesser races to evolve to be accepted into the divine prescence fo the Secret Chiefs.

Later Aryan racialists would look at India as the home of the purist of the Aryan social constructs, that is the caste system, which they equated with the Indo-European peoples and as dating back to the orginal Aryan/Germanic expansion into the region. Savtri Devil, Hitlers Priestess was such a Indo-Aryan revivalist. The underlying construct of Hinduism is of whiteness/light verus black/darkness, which appealed to the Aryan racialists.


Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India
Originally published in India under the title Apartheid in India, V.T. Rajshekar's passionate work on the plight of the Indian Dalits was first introduced to North American readers through the publication of DALIT: The Black Untouchables of India in 1987. This book is the first to provide a Dalit view of the roots and continuing factors of the gross oppression of the world's largest minority (over 150 million people) through a 3,000 year history of conquest, slavery, apartheid and worse. Rajshekar offers a penetrating, often startling overview of the role of Brahminism and the Indian caste system in embedding the notion of "untouchability" in Hindu culture, tracing the origins of the caste system to an elaborate system of political control in the guise of religion, imposed by Aryan invaders from the north on a conquered aboriginal/Dravidian civilization of African descent. He exposes the almost unimaginable social indignities which continue to be imposed upon so-called untouchables to this very day, with the complicity of the political, criminal justice, media and education systems. Under Rajshekar's incisive critique, the much-vaunted image of Indian nonviolence shatters. Even India's world-celebrated apostle of pacificsm emerges in less saintly guise; in seeking to ensure Hindu numerical domination in India's new political democracy, Mahatma Gandhi advocated assimilating those whom Hindu scriptures defined as outcastes (untouchables) into the lowest Hindu caste, rather than accede to their demand for a separate electorate. Rajshekar further questions whether the Brahminist socio-political concepts so developed in turn influenced the formation of the modern Nazi doctrine of Aryan supremacy, placing the roots of Nazism deep in Indian history.


At the Culture and the State Conference at the U of A three years ago there was a concurrent conference of Dalit's from across North America. It was organized by my comrade John Ames. It was there I picked up their materials denonucing Hinduism as Racism and Fascism. These texts advocated a secular socialist humanist perspective on the Dalit struggle against the feudalist religion and politics of Hinduism.


Many Dalit groups, taking their cue from civil liberties organizations, ignore much of the economic ground for untouchability. Communist leader Brinda Karat notes that “only Communist inspired movements, enabled by the active participation of Dalits, have led to concrete gains against casteism.” In West Bengal, she shows, the Communist government initiated land reform that now forms “the backbone of Dalit self-respect and dignity in the State.”Badges of Color

Dalit Voice - The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights
Dalit Voice was the first Indian journal to expose this closely guarded secret and shock the outside world and make history. That is how Dalit Voice has become the organ of the entire deprived destitutes of India, the original home of racism. Started in 1981 by V.T. Rajshekar, its Editor and founder, Dalit Voice, the English fortnightly, has become the country's most powerful "Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights". A veteran journalist, formerly of the Indian Express, powerful and fearless writer, V.T. Rajshekar, had to face the wrath of the ruling class, arrested many times, several jail sentences, passport impounded and subjected to total media boycott.


The Dalits are not only literal shit collectors in India they are also the largest group of workers in the service sector including government and the public sector. The political activism of the Dalits has been to unite in unions, broad based populist political parties, movements for womens rights, etc. to confront the Hindu Caste State in India.


Dalit Rising

Ghettoised Indians of the gutter society, eternally condemned. Not anymore, writes Amit Sengupta. The uprising is not a revolution, but it is no less

Buddha Smiles: Mass-conversion of dalits to Buddhism, November 4, 2001 Delhi
The sun of self-respect has burst into flame Let it burn up these castes!
Smash, Break, Destroy These walls of hatred
Crush to smithereens this aeons-old school of blindness Rise, O People!
Marathi song, anti-caste movement, 1970s



In other words, five thousand years and more after, almost 60 years after ‘Independence’, dalits in India are a priori condemned, even before they are born. Even after they die when they are buried in separate village graveyards. Even when they become educated or employed, within or outside the politics of half-fake affirmative action.

Unlike in Punjab, with plus 30 percent dalit population, many of them economically well-off, not dependent on land, where Kanshiram begun his first mobilisation. The dalit-sufi secular traditions (they control dargahs) are as strong here, as is the old Ghadarite-Leftist-radical traditions — be it during the freedom struggle, or in the great sacrifices made against terrorism. The Mansa and Talhan movements are examples of organised dalit reassertion: political and ideological (see story).

In Bant Singh Inquilabi’s amputated limbs, lies the epic story of a nation defiled, like his raped daughter in Mansa. But the truth is that this ‘invisible nation’ is refusing to accept its fatedness anymore. As in Gohana in Haryana, in Bhojpur in Bihar, Ghatkopar in Mumbai, Talhan in Punjab, this rising is rising like a wave on a full moon night. It’s only that we only want to see the dark side of the moon.




The Politics of the Caste System and the Practice of Untouchability

The Hindu religious belief that" ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT BORN EQUAL" is deeply entrenched in the psyche of the upper-caste Hindus, leading them to see themselves as a superior race destined to rule and the out-castes (the Untouchables or Dalits) an inferior race born only to serve. This system, which has resulted in the destitution of millions of people due to racial discrimination, has not changed one iota after 50 years of Indian independence.


"For the ills which the Untouchables are suffering, if they are not as much advertised as those of the Jews, and are not less real. Nor arc the means and the methods of suppression used by the Hindus against the Untouchables less effective because they are less bloody than the ways which the Nazis have adopted against the Jews. The Anti-Semitism of the Nazis against the Jews is no way different in ideology and in effect from the Sanatanism of the Hindus against the Untouchables.The world owes a duty to the Untouchables as it does to all suppressed people to break their shackles and set them free."

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in a preface to his book,

"Gandhi and the Emancipation of Untouchables" - 1st September 1943

Man who redefined Dalit politics- The Times of India

October, 10, 2006

NEW DELHI: Kanshi Ram, the Dalit icon who changed the political landscape of north India, was cremated as per Buddhist rituals at a funeral conducted by his political legatee, Mayawati, after Delhi High Court turned down the plea of his family for staying the last rites.

For a man who single-handedly turned the politics of North India on its head by thrusting Dalits as a factor in the regional power-play, Kanshi Ram's end was rather sedate, passing away on Monday, at 72, after being confined to bed for almost four years.

As in life, Kanshi Ram, in death, did not miss to shock his main haters — the urban middle classes — as he pulled the subaltern in droves on to the Capital's roads, throwing them off gear in sweltering heat.

Post-independence, Kanshi Ram redefined Dalit politics in the idiom of defiance. Hailing from a Ramdasiya Sikh family of Ropar and employed as a research assistant in a defence ministry lab, he resigned over the right of Dalit staff to get leave to celebrate Ambedkar and Valmiki jayantis.

What unfolded was a long-drawn mobilisation of Dalits, which changed political faultlines of the Hindi belt, marked by rebellious rhetoric and neat networking.

Kanshi Ram first targeted the better-off among Dalits, who had benefited from job quota. The result was the birth in 1978 of the Backwards and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF), the first countrywide network of government employees from these categories.

APPRAISAL

KANSHI RAM

The Dalit Chanakya

If Ambedkar was theory, Kanshi Ram was practice. Roaring practice.

RAMNARAYAN RAWAT

Magazine | Oct 23, 2006

The dalit in India - caste and social class

THE dalit or "Untouchable" is a government servant, the teacher in a state school, a politician. He is generally never a member of the higher judiciary, an eminent lawyer, industrialist or journalist. His freedom operates in designated enclaves: in politics and in the administrative posts he acquires because of state policy. But in areas of contemporary social exchange and culture, his "Untouchability" becomes his only definition. The right to pray to a Hindu god has always been a high caste privilege. Intricacy of religious ritual is directly proportionate to social status. The dalit has been formally excluded from religion, from education, and is a pariah in the entire sanctified universe of the "dvija." (1)

Unlike racial minorities, the dalit is physically indistinguishable from upper castes, yet metaphorically and literally, the dalit has been a "shit bearer" for three millennia, toiling at the very bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. The word "pariah" itself comes from a dalit caste of southern India, the paRaiyar, "those of the drum" (paRai) or the "leather people" (Dumont, 1980: 54).




Barbaric Assault on Bant Singh (AIALA Leader)
Petition to Prime Minister of India


We the undersigned condemn the savage and barbaric assault by powerful Congress-backed Jat landlords which has left Bant Singh, Dalit leader of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (All-India Agrarian Labour Association) in Mansa, Punjab, with both hands and one leg amputated. Further we note that this criminal attack was planned in retaliation for Bant Singh̢۪s sustained campaign against caste and gender based power and violence, and in particular, his struggle to bring his minor daughter̢۪s rapists to justice. We stand by Bant Singh and his family in the face of this unspeakable tragedy and we believe passionately that such atrocities cannot be acceptable in 21st century India.




Dalit Religious Conversion

A Struggle for Humanist Liberation Theology

The development of Buddhist and Christian conversions as a political force for change is key to the Dalit philosophy. Rather than being absorbed into their new religion, the Dalit's use religious conversion to counter the hegemonic cultural domination of Hinduism. In that they adapt their new religious affiliations to meet their needs, ironically which are based on a humanistic and secular view of the world that oppresses them.

Low-caste Hindus mourning
Despite advances, India's lowest Hindu castes remain downtrodden
Tens of thousands of people are due to attend a mass conversion ceremony in India at which large numbers of low-caste Hindus will become Buddhists.

The ceremony in the central city of Nagpur is part of a protest against the injustices of India's caste system.

By becoming Buddhists low-caste Hindus, or Dalits, can escape the prejudice and discrimination they normally face.

The ceremony marks the 50th anniversary of the adoption of Buddhism by the scholar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

He was the first prominent Dalit - or Untouchable as they were formerly called - to urge low-caste Indians to embrace Buddhism.

Similar mass conversions are taking place this month in many other parts of India.

Several states governed by the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, have introduced laws to make such conversions more difficult.

Dalit Theology-

Dalit-liberative hermeneutics is scientific and praxis-oriented.

The Travancore Pulaya mass conversion movement to Anglicanism in the latter half of 19th century was an expression of social protest. For thousands these conversions were protests heralding exit from the inhumanity of the caste system. These oppressed also saw the doors opening for them as a way out of the misery with the success of the anti-slave campaign championed by the missionaries.

Guru Ghasidas

Guru Ghasidas according to delivers of the Satnami panth was born on 18th December 1756 and died at the age of eighty in 1836. He was born in village Girodhpuri in Raipur district in a dalit family. Ghasidas was born in a socio-political milieu of misrule, loot and plunder. The Marath the local had started behaving as Kings. Ghasidas underwent the exploitative experiences specific to dalit communities, which helped him the hierarchical and exploitative nature of social dynamics in a caste-ridden society. From an early age, he started rejecting social inequity and to understand the problems faced by his community and to find solutions, he traveled extensively in Chhattisgarh.

Ghasids was unlettered like his fellow dalits. He deeply resented the harsh treatment to his brotherhood', and continued searching for solutions but was unable to find the right answer. In search of the right path he decided to go to Jaganath Puri and on his way at Sarangarh attained true knowledge. It is said that he announced satnam and returned to Giordh.On his return, he stopped working as a farm worker and became engrossed in Tapasya. After spending six months in Sonakhan forests doing tapasya Ghasidas returned and formulated path-breading principles of a new egalitarian social order. The Satnam Panth is said to be based on these principles formulated by Ghasidas.


Dissident Sects & Anti-Caste Movements:

Both Vedic ritualism and gnosis [supremacy of Brahmans] were bound to be called in question by the common people. The popular discontent found expression in dissident sects like Jainism (540-468 B.C.) and Buddhism (563-483 B.C.). There is no doubt that Jainism and Buddhism were the first attacks or revolts in general against the caste system.

Lord Buddha initiated a radical critique of contemporary religion and society. He was forthright in repudiating the caste system and the notion of ritual purity associated with it. One of his famous sayings runs like this:

No Brahmin is such by birth,

No outcaste is such by birth.

An outcaste is such by his deeds,

A Brahmin is such by his deeds.”

From out of the struggle between Vedic religion and heterodox movements like Jainism and Buddhism was born what is today called Hinduism, which reached its golden age in the Gupta period (300-700 A.D.). Many factors were responsible for this new development. Brahminism succeeded in integrating within itself popular religions. Popular deities were absorbed into the Vedic pantheon through a process of identification or subordination. Even Buddha was given the status of a vishnuite incarnation.

Dalit poems and sayings on evil brahminic system

Tell a Slave is a Slave!

Surely and invariably he will rebel!

For most of times Slaves know not they are Slaves!

Always they only keep enjoying and relishing their Slavery!

They say that had been their lives generations after generations!

That too over the many many millenniums!

Slogging in the fields and mines for the landlords!

Taking just a pittance in return and still be proud and happy!

Listen to this! This is what the landlords, who had raped butchered killed otherwise murdered in cold-blood, and burnt SC&ST Dalits say –

We had all along for generations employed them paid them given them grains, fed them and looked after them! Now they had forgotten all that, to believe in the Govt, go for Education, seek Govt Employment, trust the Parties, run behind the Party Workers, follow the useless Leaders, pin their Hopes on the meaningless Govt Programmes, lean on the fake NGOs, and repose faith in all those stupid Activists! And, they have turned against us, we who have been feeding them for Generations! We can’t understand this! Hence we had to teach them a Lesson! Discipline them! Put them in their Places! They are like our Children! They are our Responsibility! And in fact it is our Duty to Discipline them, and bring them back to the right path – their old ways!

That is it. The Landlords want now to reclaim the SCs&STs, bring them back under their total and tight control, and keep them in their fold, as in the good old days! The old bondage and slavery!

Yes, it is true! Many SC&ST Dalits still toil as Slaves to crude cheap landlords and goons! They don’t realise their status and slavery. They don’t know that the World had changed!

One need not be surprised or feel shocked by this ignorance, and lack of knowledge or realisation of the World. After all they are poor rural labourers of backward feudal areas! But even the educated and employed SC&ST Dalits are not aware of all their Dues and Rights! In fact the depth of their ignorance is shocking! If the Dalits’ Knowledge of Dalit Issues are so shallow, what can we say of others understandings of Dalit Problems! It is for this reason that any writings on Dalit Issues, and Dalit Views have to be in so much of, perhaps what appears to be too detailed! That includes Dalit Poetry on Dalit Issues and Problems! Hence, the Prose like Poetry, or Prose rendering of Poetry! That may not matter, but that also so inevitable!

Dalit Womens Struggles

The oppression of women is a double burden in slave societies, and amongst the Dalit's women have played an important role in linking their struggles with that of being Dalits and women. It has created a syncratic feminism that is reflected in the movement regardless of their religious affiliations. Again emphasising the humanist nature of Dalit relgious conversion.

Ruth Manorama, voice of Dalits
Ruth Manorama is a women's rights activist well known for her contribution in mainstreaming Dalit issues. Herself from the Dalit community, she has helped throw the spotlight on the precarious situation of Dalit women in India. She calls them "Dalits among the Dalits." A peacewomen profile from the Women's Feature Service and Sangat.

DALIT WOMEN: The Triple Oppression of Dalit Women in Nepal

Terai Dalit Women - Violation of Political Rights

Attacks on Dalit Women: A Pattern of Impunity - Broken People ...

FEMINIST DALIT ORGANIZATION

Dalit Women Literature Review

Dalit Feminism By M. Swathy Margaret

EMPOWER DALIT WOMEN OF NEPAL is a small human rights organization for Dalit women, the “untouchable” women on the lower rungs of Nepal’s caste hierarchy.


Five pledges for dalit shakti

By Freny Manecksha

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Martin Macwan’s Dalit Shakti Kendra in Gujarat provides vocational training to dalit youth. More importantly, it gives them a sense of identity




It began as a small agitation in Ranpur, Dhanduka taluka, Gujarat. Women of a particular dalit sub-caste, who still performed the menial task of manual scavenging despite legislation against it, had asked the panchayat for new brooms but were refused on grounds that there was no budget for it.

This was a seminal moment for Martin Macwan, a dalit activist who had set up the Navsarjan Trust in 1989 against scavenging. “What totally devastated me was that they were not agitating against the practice. They were merely begging the panchayat to give them more brooms to prevent their hands from being soiled with shit. They didn’t dream of eliminating scavenging.” (Mari Marcel Thekaekara in Endless Filth, Saga of the Bhangees)




Globalization and the Dalit

The Green Revolution in India as well as the later developments around GMO's etc. have had a disproportionate negative impact on the Dalit's agricultural communities. Modernization and industrialization have not benefited these peasant economies, as much as chaining the Dalits to their landlords.

Free Trade – A war against Dalits & Adivasis

Dalits and Adivasis have never been the part of the conventional trade systems. Today they are faced with the horrible hostility of trade and market policies. In recent times trade entered the scene on mass scale through the principles of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. Mega industrial production still plays the key role in all trade deal not only at the national level but also at the international level.

Industrialisation, which made a colourful and dreamy entry, is turning out to be the worst form of human development. The steady economic growth of industries with active support from the state machinery is directly proportional to the unchecked exploitation of masses. Most of them belong to marginalized communities such as Dalits, Adivasis, women, working class, etc. Though during the independence struggle “land to the tillers” and “factory to the workers” prominently came on to the national agenda, nowhere in India had we witnessed the later one being implemented in the post independence era. Resultant displacement, migration, repercussion of workers, loss of land and livelihood, pilfering state revenue, forest resources, etc. has outgrown to monstrous level.

This has amplified particularly with WTO taking the centre stage of all sorts of trade related agreements and transactions at the international level. Trade is no longer buying and selling of goods and services but it encompasses issues like Intellectual Property Rights. With this the global market has wide open for exploration and exploitation of resources under the aegis of free trade. Industrialised nations found their tools to maintain supremacy on world trade. Prophets of trade and commerce argue that free trade maximises world economic output. This is what is considered to be progress. But what we have been witnessing with the Dalits and Adivasis in India is diametrically opposite to these claims.


Dalit woman shows the way to better yields



Dalit Academic Perspectives

A Dalit Bibliography

558, February 2006, Dalit Perspectives

Seminars and Workshops of Deshkal Society | Seminars on Dalit


Dalit Resources

Nepal Dalit Info

CounterCurrents.org Dalit Issues Home Page

Dalit Freedom Network: Abolish Caste, Now and Forever

Dalit foundation - Accelerating change for equality

Dalit Welfare Organisation (DWO)

Dalit Human Rights

Punjab Dalit Solidarity-A blog

National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)

The Bhopal Dalit Declaration

International Dalit Solidarity Network

Formed in March 2000, the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) is a network of national solidarity networks, groups from affected countries and international organisations concerned about caste discrimination and similar forms of discrimination based on work and descent.

IDSN campaigns against caste-based discrimination, as experienced by the dalits of South Asia to the Buraku people of Japan, the sab (low caste) groups of Somalia, the occupational caste people in West Africa and others.

The work of IDSN involves encouraging the United Nations, the European Union and other bodies to recognise that over 260 million people continue to be treated as outcasts and less than human and that caste-based discrimination must be regarded as a central human rights concern. IDSN insists on international recognition that "Dalit Rights are Human Rights" inasmuch as all human beings are born with the same inalienable rights.

IDSN brings together organisations, institutions and individuals concerned with caste-based discrimination and aims to link grassroots priorities with international mechanisms and institutions to make an effective contribution to the liberation of those affected by caste discrimination.


More than 260 million people worldwide continue to suffer under what is often a hidden apartheid of segregation, exclusion, modern day slavery and other extreme forms of discrimination, exploitation and violence.


See:

India




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Global Warming and Ice Cream

You scream, I scream we all scream for Ice Cream.

Global warming may melt caribou 'ice cream'
The residents of this island village eat dried seal meat, sell animal skins and hop on snowmobiles to hunt down polar bears and caribou. But the age-old traditions of Shishmaref are threatened by global warming which has already forced the 600 residents to vote to move to the continent as the sea chips away at the village's eroding shore.

Nope it's not ice cream for the caribou it is ice cream made from the caribou....

See:

Arctic


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Abbey on Anarchism


Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.

- Edward Abbey




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Atlantis In Sardinia


Lost Continent' of Atlantis Stirs Debate; Scholars Gather to Debate Merits of Sardinia Theory

Ok add Sardinia to the list of possible sites for Atlantis including Spain,Crete, Cyprus, the Black Sea, Ireland, Bermuda Triangle etc.

See:

Atlantis Discovered

And Then They Built An Ark


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A Newfie Joke


Canada Fights Ban on 'Bulldozers of the Sea'; Minister Calls Measure 'Not Appropriate' Canada's decision not to follow an international ban on bottom trawling is appropriate, says Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries minister.Tom Rideout says Canada is right not to endorse a blanket ban on draggers because it would not be practical.

Ah yes the old it ain't practical argument. Always a good sound bite, though it is a baseless canard used by those in power to avoid change. Of course Rideout is a Tory like his Federal counterpart; Loyala Hearn. So birds of a feather....

Hearn is the idiot who proclaimed that the Royal Newfoundlanders fought and died at the Somme to protect Newfoundlanders right to hunt seals.

Now he and Rideout continue the hilarity with this justification for bottom trawling.
Rideout said he does not believe that bottom trawling will affect all fish stocks. "The evidence is to the contrary. Vast sections of the ocean are not affected," said Rideout.

Ohh stop it you are cracking me up. Of course vast sections of the ocean are not affected, its the areas that are fished that are affected.

See:

Bottom Feeders


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