Crazy World News - 8 - Inter species marriage.

First there was the Russian Siberian guy, Boris Gabov, who sought permission by asking the president if he might be permitted to marry his beloved cow claiming that all the girls in the village had left already, moving to the city..

I'm unaware if the president ever replied, but likely this mans ridicule was not nearly as bad as a young Balinese guys, who caught with his pants down with a cow, was consequently forced to marry it by other locals. Apparently he passed out from the humiliation of the ceremony, and his new wife, the innocent victim, was immediately drowned (I thought the Balinese were Hindu and that thus the cow was considered a sacred animal!). I always found the Indonesians to be a majoritively bizarre lot.. (see: The Jakarta Globe).

In a somewhat similar incident, a Sudanese man was also forced into marrying an animal, in his case, it was a goat. Unlike In Bali, it's still possible the couple have remained together. (See: BBC News)

Those last 2 aren't exactly cases of people willingly entering into wedlock with different species, but bizarrely enough, that happens sometimes too.. Just relatively recently a millionairess British woman, and self proclaimed nonpervert, Sharon Tendler, of her own free will, married a dolphin in Israel. (See: Sydney Morning Herald) - How did she know that the dolphin wasn't already married? I thought they were supposed to be monogamous creatures..

Then, over in Taiwan, there's the story of the Taiwanese office worker who unable to find a suitable partner, and tired of waiting, decided instead to marry herself. (See: Taiwanese Woman Marries Self).. She's even honeymooning by herself in Australia.

Then if you think that's weird, there's a Japanese guy, who so engrossed in his virtual make believe fantasy world of some alternate reality game he plays on his Nintendo, has now married his virtual girlfriend.. (See: Japanese guy Marries Virtual Girl).

Enough already? One last one first though:

The most recent example I've seen of clearly one sided obsession that leads some humans to act strangely with mostly full disregard for their objects of desire, is a British guy who is in love with and wishes to marry his christmas tree.. (See: Man In love with Christmas Tree)

Actually, wikipedia even has a page dedicated to human-animal marriages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-animal_marriage

It would certainly seem to me that in such cases, humans, as per usual, generally have little respect for other species, doing with them as they wish with no real thought or concern given to the welfare or desires of the animal in question..

Crazy World News - 7 - Smoking 2 year old..

Recently I ran across a story about an Indonesian toddler, hooked on cigarettes..



Not only hooked on cigarettes, but hooked on a massive 40(!) a day.. And not only 40 cigarettes a day, but a diet that has him, at just 2 years old, weighing in at 4 stone (.. I think that's about 25 kilos!)!

My initial reaction was "how sad", followed closely after by feelings of "this is child abuse, why don't the authorities step in and do something about this!"..


2 year old smoker
But then, I thought some more, and started questioning whether or not I really thought it was right that a child in this situation should be forcibly removed from their family.. after all, that's what it would probably have to boil down to if his parents were unable or unwilling to make changes..

His father is even quoted as saying he doesn't know what the problem is as he believes his son looks healthy!!


Smoking Ardi Rizal with friends and family
Clearly there must be many people out there, (maybe even the majority?), that would agree to him being removed from his current environment, and taken into care by those that are wiser..  But I'm just not so sure..

Naturally I find the whole situation repugnant, but the truth of the matter is, if I had a child, and it became public common knowledge that I was only feeding it fruit, which would be the case, make no bones, there would most definitely be a good proportion of people out there, that would want the authorities to step in and stop me/us abusing the poor malnourished baby..

And in the, God-forbid, scenario where such a child were removed, I would be, frankly, devastated.


smoking and playing with guns
I look around and see children being abused everywhere. toddlers eating salty chips and crispy golden cheesy fat saturated chicken nuggets.. lollies, bread, ice cream, pasteurized milk saturated denatured sugar enhanced cereals and greasy chocolate soda pops, and nobody thinks to remove them to a cleaner healthier environment.. In fact, child food abuse is mainstream and pretty much everywhere you turn..

I think despite the ignorance with which this particular child is being raised, it's still quite possible that the parents and family are loving and supportive, with mutual attachment from all sides..

Which is why, I guess, when all's said and done, I would not intervene, other than through education and leading by example...


Sad smoking 2 year old
What do you think?

You can read more of this story here.

Peace,
Mango.

Topsy-Turvy World - 6 - Candidasa

I've travelled a couple of times to Bali..

I am not as impressed with it as some people I know.. For starters I think it is heavily over populated, especially in the south of the Island. The tourist trade has ruined much of the beach front. - I am sure though, that once upon a time, it used to be a veritable paradise.

True, there are parts of the island that are still untouched and rather beautiful.. Especially the north of the island and extra especially the north west, which is mostly still national park with limited access, and much of the centre of the island too..

But I am in no great hurry to ever return there. On average, I found that, in general, many of the people living there were too pushy for my linking, and I was especially disgruntled by the fact that most men smoke from sunrise to sunset apparently using just one match a day, as each dieing cigarette is used to light the next one..

OK.. I may exaggerate some, but that's certainly how it seemed to me at the time..

Candidasa (pronounced Chandy-dassa) is one place that I'd like to mention as an example of human folly.. (it's a beach town in the south east of the island). This place used to have beautiful golden sand beaches with coral a short swim from the shore, and teams of multi coloured fish of varying size.. The sea was mostly calm, and the beach was full of coconuts..

All that, changed with the advent of tourism.. Money hungry businesses started erecting concrete buildings as huts for the tourists. In an effort to keep costs low, they harvested most of the coral to use for making the cement (ground up for the lime I guess)..

The result became shortly evident.. Removing the coral caused the sea to boil wildly as the coral had previosly acted as a wave breaker, keeping it otherwise calm.. Anyhow, the sea came in, and washed away the beautiful beaches.. Excepting a few die hards that managed to survive, the multicoloured fish all but disappeared with their shelter, home and playground stolen from them, and Candidasa became something totally else within the space of about a decade, with the ugly concrete buildings lining the beach front where once stood coconut palms..

After realising what they had done, there was a massive attempt to restore things.. Concrete was poured back into the sea to replace the nolonger coral and to act as wave breakers.. The beaches never regained their golden splendour but instead remained mostly bared rock, stone and pebbles.

Of course, far more cement was used than was ever made from killing the coral..

Quite sad really..

True, people often appear to be quite friendly there, but alas a good many of them put on a smile in attempts to do some kind of business with you.. whether it be to get you to buy their sarong, or to overnight in the multitude of guesthouses across the island... (Apologies to the genuinely nice people that I met on the island, because there are certainly some of you!!)

Needless to say, I've no plans on going back there any time soon (though I try not to say never!)..

To leave things on a positive note.. the durian is good there, and those lovely unique white mangoes that I've only seen there and no where else.. And they have great tasting unique flavoured passion fruits that I was practically living off of..

Well.. I guess we all make mistakes. (that's not meant as an excuse.. just a fact)

hugs,
Mango.