News

Teachers in the north Indian state of Punjab have gone to court to protest at being forced to cook meals for pupils. The primary teachers say the government should cook the food and leave them to do the teaching.

Cooked food must be provided under a government scheme to improve nutrition and attendance.

But teachers say they are given no facilities so must cook in classrooms and then wash up, taking up to four hours from teaching time.

The teachers say unless the situation changes it will have a terrible effect on the learning of Punjab's schoolchildren.

Drop outs

The state schoolteachers' union has petitioned the High Court in the Punjab capital, Chandigarh, demanding that the government be directed to provide cooked food for distribution under the government's Mid-Day Meal Scheme for schools.

The scheme, introduced last year, is part of the federal ministry of human resource development's effort to improve the nutritional status of children and encourage increased levels of attendance.

But the schoolteachers' lawyer, Atul Lakhanpal, said not one of the state-run schools in Punjab had the facilities to cook the meals.

"The chore of cooking, unfairly delegated to the teachers, easily takes up three to four hours of their time in school," Mr Lakhanpal said.

The High Court issued a notice to the Punjab state government to reply by 16 January.

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was introduced to counter a high drop out rate among pupils.

Parents in poor families were keeping them at home to do menial jobs to contribute to the family income.

For many years, schools simply distributed uncooked flour and groceries to the children.

But in many instances this encouraged corruption with school heads either selling off the food or enrolling non-existent students to claim larger quantities of uncooked food to sell at a profit.

Now teachers are supplied raw materials and told to cook them. There are periodic checks on quality, with the teachers held responsible.

Teaching unions have made representations to the government over the issue in the past but say no action has been taken.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4449426.stm

A competition has been launched in Australia to find a new way of describing kangaroo meat. Organisers want to find a name less offensive to diners sensitive about eating a national symbol.

Australia has millions of kangaroos, whose lean red meat has generated a multi-million dollar export industry.

Kangaroo meat is popular in Germany, France and Belgium. Russians have a taste for sausages, but Australia's enthusiasm has always been lukewarm.

This is partly for sentimental reasons. The kangaroo appears on Australia's coat of arms and is one of the country's most recognisable symbols.

Somehow throwing a 'roo steak on the barbecue just doesn't feel right.

Attempts are now being made to combat this national squeamishness.

Australia's kangaroo industry is planning to publish new recipes and develop ready-to-eat marsupial meals and burgers.

They will be promoted as a low-fat alternative to lamb and beef.

Skippy steak?

Organisers are also looking to give kangaroo meat a palatable new name.

Hundreds of suggestions for a new name have already been put forward.

They range from the obvious - including Skippy, the name of an old television series that featured a very sensible kangaroo - to others that will probably make the judges wince, such as Yummy and Kanga.

Up to four million of these unique animals are culled every year under official quotas.

Wildlife activists have described this as a barbaric slaughter.

One campaigner said that turning these beautiful creatures into Russian sausages was a national disgrace


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4452704.stm

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

A competition has been launched in Australia to find a new way of describing kangaroo meat. Organisers want to find a name less offensive to diners sensitive about eating a national symbol ...

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Skippy steak! That's classic.

When I was in Australia, I met a lot of Aussies who despised roos. They eat farm crops and cause human injuries and fatalities when they are struck by vehicles on remote highways.

A French woman has admitted attempting to open an aeroplane door mid-flight so that she could smoke a cigarette. Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane.

She was seen on the Cathay Pacific plane walking towards a door with an unlit cigarette and a lighter.

She then began tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant.

Defence lawyer Helen Shilton said her client had no memory of what had happened on the flight on Saturday, and that she had a history of sleepwalking.

She pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of an aircraft at Brisbane Magistrates Court and was given a 12-month A$1,000 (£429) good behaviour bond - she will forfeit the money if she commits another offence.

The French tourist was at the start of a three-week holiday in Australia with her husband.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4456076.stm

Today, an impending environmental disaster in China along the Songhua river, and in the city of Harbin

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Originally Posted by Logos

Today, an impending environmental disaster in China along the Songhua river, and in the city of Harbin

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Last night I saw a TV news report that concluded China "has polluted its way to prosperity," but will now have to face the dire consequences. For one thing, the report said 190 million Chinese drink water that is contaminated with carcinogens and/or dangerous pathogens.

PetroChina was first saying the `damage' had been contained after their explosion.

As usual `news' from China is questionable. Russian gets to deal with the consequences of this accident as well.

Can you imagine what percentage of 9 million people are poor, poor enough they can't get out of the city to somewhere where they do have access to water, so poor they can't afford to buy drinking water, they get to `deal' with it for at least 4 days, probably longer.

It's reminding me of the people in New Orleans and LA who were stuck in the city during the flooding. Very sad. The haves and the have-nots. The very people who work like dogs to build for prosperity are literally poisoned by it.

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Originally Posted by Logos

The haves and the have-nots. The very people who work like dogs to build for prosperity are literally poisoned by it.

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It's amazing how much "communist" China is beginning to resemble 1900 America: sweatshops with no worker rights, massive pollution, a small number of tycoons becoming filthy rich at the expense of everyone else, etc. Whatever happened to the dictatorship of the proletariat? The more things change, the more they stay insane.

The latest Harry Potter film has been screened to the two-man crew of the International Space Station (ISS). Mission Control in Houston transmitted Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Tuesday on the request of US astronaut Bill McArthur, the station's commander.

It followed a live link-up earlier this month that saw Sir Paul McCartney play two songs to the ISS crew members.

McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, the 12th crew of the ISS, are 55 days into their six-month mission.

"ISS crew members have busy work schedules but they also have a little scheduled downtime," said a Nasa spokesperson.

"Over the years the station has compiled a DVD movie library, along with books, magazines, CDs and other materials to help the astronauts relax."

The Goblet of Fire is now the most successful film in UK cinema history, having made £14.9m in its first three days on release.

On Thursday the ISS crew will celebrate the US Thanksgiving holiday with irradiated smoked turkey, dehydrated green beans and a thermo-stabilised cranberry-apple dessert.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4465760.stm

Elton plans 'quiet' wedding
24 November 2005
Sir Elton John and David Furnish are to "marry" in a private ceremony with only their parents as witnesses, they revealed today

The couple's big day was expected to be a star-studded occasion attended by their celebrity friends, including the Beckhams and Liz Hurley.

But they have decided to keep the ceremony uncharacteristically low-key - although they will follow it up with a lavish evening reception.

Sir Elton said: "The ceremony itself will be very private. That much we know. It'll be a very small family affair and then in the evening there'll be a soiree somewhere, which we have yet to work out.

"But the ceremony itself will be David's parents and my parents and the two of us. They'll be our witnesses. That's the way we want to do it. They've been so fantastic to us and so supportive. Out of respect for their support, we want to just keep it small. Not to make a ballyhoo of the ceremony.

"There will be a party somewhere, but the day will be very low-key and we'll take our parents to lunch afterwards.

"I haven't thought so much about the emotional side of it yet, but I'm sure this is going to be an incredibly emotional day."

Sir Elton and Furnish, a Canadian-born film-maker, have been together for 12 years.

They will tie the knot on December 21, becoming one of the first same-sex couples to "marry" following the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act.

Furnish told Attitude magazine: "As far as I'm concerned, I've always considered myself committed to Elton and he's the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with. So in that sense I don't feel like the dynamic of our relationship is going to change.

"But from a social standpoint, I think it's hugely significant. It is a major, major change. It is one of the defining issues of our times. And I applaud Britain for embracing the diversity of our society."

Is Elton John gay?!? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

By Jodi Wilgoren / New York Times

CHICAGO -- Bridget Dehl shushed her 21-month-old son Gavin, then clapped a hand over his mouth to squelch his tiny screams amid the Sunday brunch bustle. When Gavin kept yelping "yeah, yeah, yeah," Dehl quickly whisked him from his highchair and out the door.

Right past the sign warning the cafe's customers that "Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven," and right into a nasty spat roiling the stroller set in Chicago's changing Andersonville neighborhood.

The owner of A Taste of Heaven, Dan McCauley, said he posted the sign -- at child level, with playful handprints -- in the hope of quieting his tin-ceilinged cafe, where toddlers have been known to sprawl between tables and hurl themselves at display cases for sport.

But many neighborhood mothers took umbrage at the implied criticism of how they handle their children. Soon, whispers of a boycott passed among the playgroups in this North Side hamlet, once an outpost of edgy artists and hip gay couples but now a hot real estate market for young professional families shunning the suburbs.

"I love people who don't have children who tell you how to parent," said Alison Miller, 35, a psychologist, corporate coach and mother of two. "I'd love for him to be responsible for three children for the next year and see if he can control the volume of their voices every minute of the day."

McCauley, 44, said the protesting parents are "former cheerleaders and beauty queens" who "have a very strong sense of entitlement." In an open letter to the community, he warned of an "epidemic" of anti-social behavior.

"Part of parenting skills is teaching kids they behave differently in a restaurant than they do on the playground," McCauley said. "If you send out positive energy, positive energy returns to you. If you send out energy that says I'm the only one that matters, it's going to be a pretty chaotic world."

And so simmers another skirmish between the childless and the child-centered, a culture clash increasingly common in restaurants and other public spaces as a new generation of busy, older, well-off parents ferry little ones with them.

• An online petition urging child-free sections in North Carolina restaurants drew hundreds of signers, including Janelle Funk, who wrote, "Whenever a hostess asks me 'smoking or nonsmoking?' I respond, 'No kids!' "

• At Mendo Bistro in Fort Bragg, Calif., the owners declare "Well-behaved children and parents welcome" to try to stop unmonitored youngsters from tap-dancing on the 100-year-old wood floors.

• Menus at Zumbro Cafe in Minneapolis say: "We love children, especially when they're tucked into chairs and behaving," which Barbara Daenzer said she read as an invitation to cease her weekly breakfast visits when her son was born.

• Even at the Full Moon in Cambridge, Mass., a cafe created for families, there are rules about inside voices and a "No lifeguard on duty" sign to remind parents to take responsibility. "You run the risk when you start monitoring behavior," said the Full Moon's owner, Sarah Wheaton. "You can say no cell phones to people, but you can't say your father speaks too loudly, he has to keep his voice down. And you can't really say your toddler is too loud when she's eating."

Here in Chicago, parents have denounced Toast, a popular Lincoln Park breakfast spot, as unwelcoming since a note about using inside voices appeared on the menu six months ago.

The owner of John's Place established a separate "family-friendly" room a year ago, only to face parental threats of lawsuits.

When a retail clerk in Andersonville asked a woman to stop breast-feeding last spring, "the neighborhood set him straight real fast," said Mary Ann Smith, the area's alderwoman.

Things got ugly

After a dozen years at one site, McCauley moved A Taste of Heaven six blocks away in May 2004, to a busy corner on Clark Street. The clientele is whiter, wealthier and louder, he said. Teachers and writers seeking afternoon refuge were drowned out not just by children running amok but also by oblivious cell phone chatterers.

Children were climbing the cafe's poles. A couple were blithely reading the newspaper while their daughter lay on the floor blocking the line for coffee. When the family whose children were running across the room to flail themselves against the display cases left after his admonishment, McCauley recalled, the restaurant erupted in applause.

So he put up the sign. Then things really got ugly.

"The looks I would get when I went in there made me so nervous that I would try to buy the food as fast as I could and get out," said Laura Brauer, 40, who has stopped visiting Taste with her two kids.

"I think that the mothers who allow their kids to run around and scream, that's wrong, but kids scream and there is nothing you can do about it. What are we supposed to do, not enjoy ourselves at a cafe?"

Miller said that one day when her son, then 4 months old, was fussing, a staff member rolled her eyes and announced for all to hear, "We've got a screamer!"

Kim Cavitt recalled having coffee and a cookie one afternoon with her boisterous 2-year-old when "someone came over and said you just need to keep her quiet or you need to leave."

"We left, and we haven't been back since," Cavitt said. "You go to a coffee shop or a bakery for a rest, to relax, and that you would have to worry the whole time about your child doing something that children do -- really what they're saying is they don't welcome children, they want the child to behave like an adult."

Why suffer such scorn, the mothers said, when clerks at the Swedish Bakery, a neighborhood institution, offer children -- calm or crying -- free cookies? Why confront such criticism when the recently opened Sweet Occasions, a five-minute walk down Clark Street, designed the bathroom aisle to accommodate double strollers and offers a child-size ice cream cone for $1.50? (At A Taste of Heaven, the smallest costs $3.75.)

"It's his business; he has the right to put whatever sign he wants on the door," Miller said. "And people have the right to respond to that sign however they want."

Owner won't back down

McCauley said he had received kudos from several restaurant owners in the area, though none had followed his lead. He has certainly lost customers because of the sign, but some parents say the offense is outweighed by their addiction to the scones, and others embrace the effort at etiquette.

"The litmus test for me is if they have high chairs or not," said Dehl, the woman who scooped her screaming son from his seat during brunch, as she waited out his restlessness on a sidewalk bench. "The fact that they had one high chair, and the fact that he's the only child in the restaurant is an indication that it's an adult place, and if he's going to do his toddler thing we should take him out and let him run around."

McCauley said he would rather go out of business than back down. He likens this one small step toward good manners to his personal effort to decrease pollution by only hiring employees who live close enough to walk to work.

"I can't change the situation in Iraq; I can't change the situation in New Orleans," he said. "But I can change this little corner of the world."

Ahem...Some people may not like this comment, however. The guy who owns the restaurant is quite right kids/weans/sprogs/whatever are terrible,annoying things and this is only made worse by parents who are the strange opinion that their "little angels" should be tolerated and not chastised in any way no matter how much their behaviour interferes with the enjoyment of other patrons. It's quite simple if the thing isnt old enough to sit in a chair without getting up and running around it is not old enough to go to a restaurant.

Hmm. My parents would smack me as a kid, and I think I turned out okay. Just letting "kids be kids" is like asking people to "let rapists be rapists," on a less extreme level. The excuse that the children are doing what children do is flimsy--after all, the parents are the ones that control what the kids do, are they not?

Sorry if this upsets sme folk but this attitude of *children will be children* is
just an excuse and taking the easy way out.

What is wrong with showing children that there is a right and a wrong way to behave and what makes these parents of unruly children think they have a right to let them run riot? I whole heartly agree with the manager, when I go out for a meal I would like to sit and enjoy it without someone's five year old crawling under my table or screaming in my ear. I wonder how they would feel if someone's excited overgrown pup wanted to play 'fetch' or sit on their lap when they went out for dinner sans brats.

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Originally Posted by kilted exile

Ahem...Some people may not like this comment ...

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You call kids sprogs and things? I called mine rugrats when they were young and they thought it was funny. My daughter used to imitate a rat to irritate her mother.

As well-behaved as my kids usually were, I never took them to sit-down restaurants until they were older. It was either home delivery or drive-through window and eating in the car.