Month: June 2010

To be black or not black? In Brazil…who cares!

by CARMEN JOY KING

Race is a funny issue in Brazil. I have not met a Brazilian who didn’t boast that “there is no racism in Brazil”. They scoff at race issues in the US. “What’s the big deal,” they might say, “that Barack Obama is black? So what? Us Brazilians don’t see people in those terms. We’re color blind.”

Yet I have not seen one black politician and certainly not a black president. They openly joke about blackness and it’s not considered taboo or racist. In my family they call each other “Negrão,” which means something like “Big Blackie”. Non-racism is a Brazilian “fact” that was probably in large part created by Gilberto Freyre who wrote the infamous work “The Masters and the Slaves”.

Brazzil for more

Not so sexy: The health risks of secret chemicals in fragrance

by HEATHER SARANTIS, OLGA V. NAIDENKO, and JANE HOULIHAN

Makers of popular perfumes, colognes and body sprays market their scents with terms like “floral,” “exotic” or “musky,” but they don’t disclose that many scents are actually a complex cocktail of natural essences and synthetic chemicals – often petrochemicals. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and analyzed by Environmental Working Group revealed 38 secret chemicals in 17 name-brand fragrance products, topped by American Eagle Seventy Seven with 24, Coco Mademoiselle Chanel with 18, and Britney Spears Curious and Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio with 17.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics for more

U.S. is a top villain in Pakistan’s conspiracy talk

by SABRINA TAVERNISE

Conspiracy theory is a national sport in Pakistan, where the main players — the United States, India and Israel — change positions depending on the ebb and flow of history. Since 2001, the United States has taken center stage, looming so large in Pakistan’s collective imagination that it sometimes seems to be responsible for everything that goes wrong here.

“When the water stops running from the tap, people blame America,” said Shaista Sirajuddin, an English professor in Lahore.

New York Times for more

(Submitted by Robin Khundkar)

Pakistan: Would-be ‘gay couple’ remanded in police custody

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE

The court also sent 43 other people, among them 16 eunuchs, on judicial remand to the central prison Peshawar. They were picked up from a “gay marriage ceremony”, according to police. The Faqirabad police produced 50-year old Malik Iqbal and his 19-year old would-be partner Kashif, alias Rani, in the court of Judicial Magistrate Syed Shaukatullah Jan.

The Express Tribune for more

(Submitted by Robin Khundkar. Another reader’s comments: “Age difference. Kalashnikov rifle. The curious but friendly crowd in the picture. The religion-ambiguous name Rani. I just hope a mob does not attack their home. Unlikely, I may add. God knows how many such couples already live happily with the consent of their neighbors. There were a few in Barabanki (in Uttar Pradesh, India) when I was growing up, and they were none the worse for it.)