Global Quickies: 18/10/13
I’ve got lots of links for you this week and not all of them are depressing! Okay, most of them are, but not all.
INDIA AND BANGLADESH
Both countries refused to sign the first-ever global resolution on early and forced marriage of children led by the UN.
INDIA
The number of quacks prescribing “allopathic” medicines (aka: medicines) is on the rise in Goa, endangering patients with wrong diagnoses and prescriptions. Anti-quackery campaigners receive calls from politicians asking them to back off when they try to do something about it.
INDIA (again)
A man killed his 8 month-old son with an axe to appease Kali, the goddess of destruction and rebirth. (Sorry, Daily Mail link).
MALAYSIA
A court has ruled that only Muslims can use the word Allah, as it constitutes a threat to the sanctity of Islam.
MEXICO
A young woman brutally beaten by a “friend” she refused to have sex with had to hear her morals being questioned for having lost her virginity at 17 during trial and see her attacker get off with minor charges. Now she has written a sarcastic letter to the judge and her attacker’s lawyer, and she’s bravely campaigning to put a stop to violence against women.
FRANCE
The top appeals court upheld The Church of Scientology’s conviction of organized fraud from 2009.
GOLF COUNTRIES
The Gulf Cooperating Countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will start doing routine “medical screenings” of expatriates entering the countries to prevent LGBT foreigners from entering.
EL SALVADOR
Since abortion is strictly banned in the country, women seeking medical attention for miscarriages are being jailed.
Two extra inspiring stories out of…
MEXICO
- A community regarded by local cell phone companies as too small and remote to be worth putting on their networks, set up their own. Welcome Talea to Cellular Network.
- The “barefoot champions of the mountain”, a basketball team of children from the indigenous Triqui region of Oaxaca, won the Mini-basketball International Festival in Argentina. Although shoes have been donated to them, they like to play barefoot because that’s how they are used to training (and they don’t want to ruin the shoes).