The question for me is why are the prosecutors in Sweden pursuing Julian Assange relentlessly for such a insignificant crime? I used the word insignificant because the two women in questions - Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén - are no longer interested in pursuing this case further.
I should also note that there is no charges are being laid, Sweden simply wanted Mr Assange for questioning.
Sweden has spent much time and resources, dating from October 2010, to have Mr Assange extradited to Sweden, I don't see why Sweden, in this day and age of the internet and video-teleconferencing, send its prosecutors to the UK to question Mr Assange? Wouldn't that be more efficient?
From this point of view, I think Sweden is not being honest about its agenda for Mr Assange.
This got to be the most hilarious video I have ever seen, not only the cat is very overweight, it is not afraid of the loud vacuum cleaner noise but actually likes being vacuum on! Definitely one of the better way to clean a cat. Notice the expression of the cat and the wagging of its tail, it just loved it!
On a different note, I have the exact same vacuum cleaner, nice and light but the handle is fragile, the plastic broke after one year of usage - hurray for the two years warranty.
I watched a film last night called När Mörkret Faller, English title - When Darkness Falls, a Swedish film made in 2006, it got me thinking...
Especially moving was the story of Layla and Nina, teenage sisters belonging to a Middle Eastern ethnic group living in Sweden. Nina was later murdered by her male relatives because her father discovered a message left on her mobile phone was by a male friend, which he saw as an act of dishonouring the family by associating with boys before marriage.
Not only the image of Nina's violent death lingers in my mind but also the struggle of Layla, the younger sister who witnessed Nina's death, weighing her conscience against what is right and of her loyalty to her family. In the end, Layla put her life in danger by reporting the case to the police.
To make things worse, the girls' mother, whom they both adored and trusted, was in on the game when she lured Layla out of the safety of the police station to accept a cup of hot chocolate, spiked with drowsy substance, in order to get her out of the country, perhaps a fate similar to Nina's. It was also the mother who convinced Nina an arranged marriage in Germany would save the family's honour, tricking Nina into returning to the family from the safety of her refuge, sealing her fate.
The story is not just about murder but also of the betrayal of trust, by the female adults in the family, who failed to protect those in their care. Fortunately, it ended well for Layla, she is cut off from her family but gained a life and freedom of movement.
The film has a profound affect on me as I would never have imagined such violence and primitive practice can be carried out on loved ones - a daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin or niece - let alone another human being, as these stories don't appear very often on the news media in my part of the world.
It got me thinking about honour killings and immigrant families again, I am proud to say that Australia has done well in integrating ethnic groups to the mainstream community, perhaps that is why the statistic for honour killings are significantly lower than countries with a large Middle Eastern and South Asian communities.
Take Sweden for example, ethnic groups and immigrants often live in a concentrated area, or ghetto if you like. In these area, many older immigrants lack Swedish language skill and understanding of Swedish way of life, creating prejudice in the mainstream society and further isolating them. I also think poor language skill and adequate resettlement education contribute to their failure to understand and accept the culture of the country they are in, in turns, rejecting the Westernised outlooks of the younger generations.
The most famous case being the murder of Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal in 2002, who was shot dead by her father in front of her mother and sisters for defying his wishes to an arranged marriage in Turkey.
Stepping into these places is like stepping out of Sweden, it is no wonder some still have the mentality of the old country.
There are similar communities in Australia too, where pockets of migrant communities can be found throughout the suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne but comparing to Europe, the community is still more integrated and cannot be called a ghetto. Although crimes and violence are still present, but rarely crimes of honour killings, where the motivation behind it is purely selfish and served to save face, mostly to the male members of the family.
It is very unfortunate to be born a daughter into these families.
I also detest to the term Honour Killings, there is no honour to these killings, they are called MURDER.
Classic, paper-made and beautifully illustrated, that's my Easter Egg.
Nothing beats a Northern European style Easter Egg where one can put different kinds of goodies in the hollow centre, a great way to give an environmental- or diet-friendly gift to family and friends during Easter.
I always complain that people who drive erratically in order to gain one or two minutes of their life only to waste it on using Facebook.
It may not the whole truth but it is most possible.
Anyone with a Facebook account can attest to this - one can spend hours just browsing through out-of-focus snaps (in another words, photos that should never have been published) or wonder why your friend never responded to your comments on their status updates. All done while facing a devise, instead of another human being.
Yet they called this a social network, most of the time I don't see anything social about it; in fact, it should be renamed as anti-social network.
I dare say most people have no clue, even to the point of almost naive, with online security when they sign up for social networks like Facebook, assuming the names in their Friend List are really friends but in reality just a sugar-coated label. Armed with this false sense of security, many let their guards down and often revealed too much information, forgetting sometimes these information can pass onto the wrong hands, like bullies, opportunist thieves, sex predators and anyone with unkind intentions.
Facebook has been mentioned in some of the teenage bully cases here in Australia, how the victims having not only to endure taunting at school, but to have this anti-social behaviour follow them to the safety of their own homes, when they logon to Facebook. The ones I have heard about resulted in the teens taking their own lives, makes me wonder how many out there are suffering in silence?
If social media is used as a platform for idiotic anti-social group behaviour, what is so social about this networking?
When told, many adults would wave their hands in the air saying the kids are just having fun, it is normal or kids are just being kids, does it imply that ridiculing someone without face-to-face contact is more acceptable?
I think not.
Social media is also the perfect platform for narcissists, everyone has at least one on their Facebook Friend List - the person who couldn't stop broadcasting information about themselves, usually by means of posting photos and status updates. I agree these people already exist in our society but social media magnifies this display like a loud speaker, I worry that people who read and see these display on social media and think it is as a perfectly acceptable normal everyday behaviour.
Narcissism is not quite an idiotic anti-social behaviour but it can be when everybody develop this me first and me want everything outlook, the sense of community and working together as one will be lost.
I accept that social media is not going to go away any time soon but I do hope that creators of social media acknowledge that they have a social responsibility to the public - to provide education on privacy and security matters, as well as sternly reminding the public to use the platform as a responsible and decent human being. As an ex-Facebook user, I hope to see that people realise that social media is an artificial environment which cannot be replaced by the warmth and genuineness of direct one-to-one human contact.
Recurring theme on film or horror story on the news?
The story always start off with the Westernised offspring of an immigrant family who wanted to go native and the family, usually conservative, would object. The offspring then not accepting or comply to the family's wishes, rebelled with the best outcome being disowned by the family, or worst, a homocide case for the police.
I've just watched Fighter, a Danish offshoot of the more well known Bend It Like Beckham, about daughters who went against their family's wishes in pursuing their dreams by participating in sporting activities which the family viewed as forbidden because it involved mingling with the opposite sex. Both were warned to be on their best behaviours at community events and not to bring shame to the family, both films ended with slight differences on how the main characters in handling the situation and their male family members.
On films the endings are usually acceptable to the audiences but stories I read on the news don't (maybe that's why they appear on the news in the first place), with headlines usually screamed Honour Killing.
These stories usually involved Westernised daughters of conservative immigrant families in the West taking in a lover, either a local (Caucasian), or someone different ethnic or religious background, defying the family's wish of marrying within the community. Sadly, the family see the act of love as bringing dishonour and shame, causing them to lose face and making them a pariah within their community because they couldn't control their daughters. Things usually don't end favourably for the daughters.
The culprits are usually the male family members and are almost exclusively of South Asian and Middle Eastern background.
I get that this may be the custom and ways of the homeland as it was what the adults were brought up with and have known all their lives.
What I don't understand is why do they choose to move to a land where they can't or refuse to accept the local ways? If they are not open to the thoughts their offspring and descendents adopting the Western life-style, why not migrate to another country with religion, culture and traditions similar to their own?
I am not talking about refugees as they did not choose to leave their land like migrants do. Migrants have a choice.
People migrate for economical reasons and better future opportunities for their children, but it seems that they wanted the best of both worlds: mindset of the old country and better life in the new country. Unfortunately it is always the 1.5 and the second generation who cop the blunt of family's furor - an upstream struggle between the notion of family unit of the old and of individuality that's favourable in the West. Fortunately this mentality usually die with the first few generations and like colour in water, slowly diluting as the water flow, until you don't see it anymore.
Family Honour + Immigrant Families = Daughters' Burden
The term no-frills is associated by most as cheap and budget. It is the case when it comes to travel - no-frills, budget or low cost - carriers allows many to see many different parts of the world for the first time, or even being inside an aeroplane for the first time.
These carriers often aggressively market themselves to the general public as you only pay for what you need, in another word, you will pay extra for the privilege in choosing a desired seat, have your luggage check-in, inflight snacks and drinks serve to you, the availability of inflight entertainment; all on top of what is perceived as cheap airfares comparing to full-serviced carriers, like Qantas.
Budget carriers, especially Jetstar, should come with a health warning label to all customers, like warning the user on potential hazard of overdosing, because budget carriers can inflict real health hazard like stress and fatigue when it fails to deliver what it promised - getting you there.
Jetstar has been stellar one fine August morning for the unfortunate passengers of JQ8. Scheduled and prepared to land in Melbourne at 06:45am after an 8 hours flight, it was diverted to Sydney due to fog, the flight expected to return to Melbourne at 11:00am. JQ8 arrived in Sydney at 08:54am, sat on the tarmac with all passengers strapped onto their seats, for 2 hours nothing was convey to them what will happen and if the flight will take off once given the all clear.
Finally the passengers were told to disembark because of some regulations concerning the aircraft, but without further information on when or how they will get to Melbourne. For more than an hour at the hectic international waiting lounge, there weren't any Jetstar ground staff to be found.
The passengers were then told to clear immigration and custom, and were told to wait at the Jetstar check-in counters. At midday meal vouchers were distributed and hope renewed with the announcement of boarding information, accordingly a replacement aircraft will fly the stranded passengers to the correct destination. A few moments later, another announcement told the passengers Jetstar will accommodate them in hotels should a replacement aircraft is not found.
After hanging around as the clock ticked by without further information if the passengers will get to Melbourne on the same day, Jetstar finally announced that they will be boarding at around 15:00pm and passengers were told to proceed to check-in. The flight finally took off an hour later and landed in Melbourne in late afternoon. The total delay is around 8 hours, enough for the aircraft to fly back to Singapore.
Imagine that, all these hassle because of a lousy fog caused by mother natural, but the worst thing from this ordeal is something which humans, in this case Jetstar, can control: the lack of communications, and that is what I called no-frill no thrill.
Answer: Obsessed with the guy, invite him to your bed, sleep with him, buy him breakfast the next morning, pay for his train fare home and then let your girlfriend convince you that you have been raped.
