Lack of freedom of expression and basic human rights

Human Rights violations in Islamic countries is not a new thing. However, the United Arab Emirates(especially Dubai, one of the seven Emirates which make up the UAE) projects itself as a forward thinking country. Regardless, through my personal experiences of having lived in that place, I can safely say that all the gloss is commercial and farcical. One of the most common,taken-for-granted practices is the confiscation of one's passport by the 'sponsor'(your employer). Even people working in prestigious institutions in high posts are not spared this indignation. Equal opportunity (for the sexes) employers is a rarity, if ever there is. There are a myriad other ways in which foreigners are subject to subtle violations of their basic human rights.

This article by Human Rights Information is very enlightening about some of the issues there but it is by no means exhaustive.

The country would well do to remember that a place is not all about tall buildings,all year long indoor ski resorts,imported Louvre museum branches, underwater restaurants and other such exotic stuff. A disgruntled populace is not the foundation that it should be building its commercial hub on.

Payday Loans

These days most people live paycheck to paycheck. But sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, we may need a short infusion of cash to tide over a certain adhoc requirement when our current paycheck gets exhausted and the fresh one is yet to roll in.

A payday loan comes in handy during such emergencies and is a small, short term one that is intended to offset our temporary expenses. Loan amounts are in the range of $100 and $1500 for a period that can range from 4 to 30 days.

Cash advance 1500 is one such service which provides us with payday loans. Its transactions are all online.

Benefits of this service are plenty:

Easy to process unlike personal loans.

Time taken for approval is fast.

No credit checks are done. However certain minimum criteria like employment status, threshold monthly income and an active checking or savings account are looked into.

Loans are unsecured. So, there is no question of giving up of assets as collateral.

Completion of application in the privacy of your own home.

Avoid sticky situations like bouncing of checks due to low balance, borrowing from family and friends or selling hard funded equity.

Secure and anonymous.

Option of “rolling over” a loan,which means that the loan can be extended to the next payday.

Access to several other websites that cater to payday loans for specific groups and their needs.

The website also educates you on the steps to be taken in choosing an online payday lender.

Dirty Hotel Secrets

Hotels are not the best places to live in. But one generally is under the impression that the big star hotels might put in a lot of care into the cleanliness aspect of their rooms. So, its quite shocking to see this undercover video which shows the scant regard shown by hotel cleaners in the upkeep of hotel glasses. I am very sure that sheets and towels also go through the same pedestrian treatment.

Is India under threat from the Chinese?

The Chinese are long since the aggressors where India is concerned. For some time now, China has been eyeing the North-East border state of Arunachal Pradesh and not even issuing visas to Indian tourists from that state of India to its country as it considers the residents of Arunachal Pradesh to be Chinese! India, it seems, is still to wake up from the all too real threat! Even after 146 incursions in 2006! Isnt that strange!

Ugliest man!

He doesnt look ugly to me. But the poor rich man has lost faith in his looks garnering a wife for him! And to date, he has had 5000 marriage proposals turned down! That must be a downer for him! But he hasnt given up hope yet!

He seems to have gone grey and lost most of his hair in his quest.
Maybe if he stopped trying so hard, he may find success!

More

Chinese recycling!

Do we ever stop and wonder how China makes goods so cheaply? It cant be cheap labor alone.

As per this report used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent.People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns.

Leave it to the Chinese to recycle stuff!

Taser death

Cops in the North American continent routinely taser people for subduing them momentarily. Though tasers, usually, are not lethal, they can cause derivative deaths due to certain frailities in the humans involved. After all, 50000 volts of electricity being zapped on one's person is not a small jolt.

In the video shown below,Canadian mounties taser an agitated international passenger who arrived at Vancouver airport who died minutes after that.Hm,this is defenitely overkill.

'Islamic' Products

The flavour of the month is to bring about products which are Islamic-friendly.While Sharia-compliant stocks and bonds are being touted by the Indian stock houses and the UK Treasury respectively, Malaysia's carmaker Proton has gone a step ahead and is teaming up with Iran and Turkey to jointly develop an 'Islamic car',with Moslem-only features like a compass to determine the direction of Mecca for prayers and a Koran and headscarf keeping compartment!

Meanwhile, the disconnect in the Islamic world continues merrily with Saudi Prince Walid Bin Talal placing his order for a luxury Airbus 380 personalised to his requirements.

iPhone makes its debut in the UK

Apple has finally unveiled its wondrous iPhone in Britain where according to the Guardian, Apple 'worshippers' stood in line in the chilling cold for more than a day to get the gadget which comes with a price tag of £269, and a compulsory 18-month contract with the service provider!
In September, Apple slashed its price here, from $599 to $399 for the uber-hyped 8-gigabyte iPhone prompting a woman in NY to sue Apple for $1m over issues of her profit!

How to handle loud cellphone talkers

A number of times I have experienced this annoying habit in people not only making a racket and a nuisance of themselves talking on cellphones without and with bluetooth handsfree devices tucked away in their ears. I found this appropriate video for sharing my angst. Watch the fun unfold here.
These day cellphone jammers are being used by private individuals (though it is illegal)who effectively jam out the signals of loud talkers around them. Cellphone etiquette has still not quite caught on if people are desparate enough to use private jammers!

Marine Dumping

What does dumping several hundred tons of industrially-produced synthetic urea in the sea or ocean do? The as-yet untested geoengineering experiment is supposed to promote phytoplankton,which is CO2 absorbent,sequester carbon in the ocean depths. This is apparently,in a bid,to reduce global warming and consequent climatic changes. However, its effects on marine life and other plant life residing on the ocean bed has not been studied up until now. International scientific bodies, including the International Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)have warned that toxic tides and lifeless oceans might instead result from such activities.

The government of Philippines has recently approved an Australian company's plan to absorb excess CO2 by dumping massive amounts of urea in the Sulu Sea which is situated to the south-west of the Philippines.The global south is slowly becoming a dumping ground for such risky technologies by the for-profit organisations. Such a trend disguised as a humanitarian one could do more damage than good and is turning the fight of global warming into a commerical enterprise.

Fatwa creating chaos!

LOL.The fatwa rulings seem to be creating one hell of a confusion for moslems. According to this article, Cairo's Al-Azhar university fatwa department issues about 1000 edicts a day! What with contradictory and infinitely confusing fatwas and a countless number of them,it would be impossible to compile them all and make a "Fatwas for Dummies" book! Heh!Heh!

Online Casino Review Website

When we gamble online, we need resources to help us select and review and sort out through the maze of online gambling sites that are there. We can be guided by intelligent feedbacks to make our decisions as to which sites are good to gamble in and which casinos have our desired games because it is our money that we are playing with and we need to play responsibly and securely.

Pro360.com is an online casino review website that gives absolutely detailed reviews of the many casinos that are there in the cyberworld and has a rating system based on customer and editor feedbacks which are collected from actual players who have experienced the casino's experience. They have reviews on all aspects of casino gaming like trust score, game experience, bonuses offered and payout percentage offered by the listed casinos. Also given are reviews which are game-based on games like black jack, slots, video, poker, roulette, craps, bingo, backgammon and more.

Pro360 immensely helps those - who like gambling online - in selecting the casino which offers them the best benefit and services. Pro360 also provides a quick list of the top 80 casinos everyday on their website which can be very useful in making the choice for the time-challenged ones.The site is also extremely simple to navigate and all we have to do is select the game you are interested in and a list of casinos/online game providers will be shown to you. For each entry you will find a detailed review, the casino certificate, the available bonus, the editor and player rating.

Musharraf declares Martial Law

So, it had to happen - it was just a matter of time before Pervez Mussharraf proved that he is desparate to cling on to every conceivable means to remain in power. The Supreme Court ruling on the constitutional validity of his last month's clearly contrived elections was due to come up and probably go against his favor.
Benazir Bhutto too left the country in a hurry and has come back again after hearing the news of the clamping down of emergency!
Musharraf defends his action of declaring emergency rule by saying that he could not allow the country to commit suicide with the spreading of lawlessness.Sure,Pakistan has been lawless from its inception 60 years back and more so in the recent past. No surprises there! The country and its various leaders have been duplicitous and Musharraf is cut from the same cloth. What a pitiable state of affairs!

For related entries:
Is Musharraf going to declare emergency?

Medical and Pharma facts

Some facts to ponder over :

Antidepressants boost diabetes risk by 200%-300%.

Medical advertisers and doctors tell us that an aspirin a day will keep heart attack away. Science proves otherwise. Aspirin is only an anti-coagulant and keeps the blood from clotting. It does not prevent heart attacks.

Calcium intake causes kidney stones:
Kidney stones are caused by a mix of genetic and external factors like fluid intake, diet and so on. They are not caused by ingesting calcium.

Drinking eight glasses of water keeps us from dehydrating:
Its a misconception that the average person has to have 8 glasses of water to be not dehydrated. To remain healthy, we just need to replenish the amount of fluid we lose through perspiration, excretion and other bodily fluid losses.

Drug Companies are charging exorbitant rates for our medicines as they have to spend this amount on their R&D:
Drug companies offset the cost of their R&D by pricing their drugs exorbitantly and give us false figures of what they are spending on their research in actuality. The actual cash outlay for each new drug approximately just one-fifth of the figures touted by PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America). The Pharma lobby is one of the most powerful lobbies here in the US.