My tableau

A Festival of India, showcasing Indian art, craft and culture, is being held in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time and is proving a big draw for people of all ethnic groups in the island where over 40 percent of its 1.3 milllion population is of Indian origin.

Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra said that the event, which commenced last Saturday and marks India’s 62nd Independence anniversary, will continue for a month.

“On Aug 15, India got her Independence and on Aug 31, Trinidad and Tobago got hers. We celebrate this month and in commemoration of that celebration, we are observing `Festival of India’ for the first time in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

The festival was inaugurated at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Cultural Cooperation at Caroni, Central Trinidad.

There are five elements to the festival.

The Indian government is willing to help in the installation of a monument at Trinidad and Tobago’s Nelson Island where nearly 147,000 Indians arrived between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations, an official said.
D.N. Srivastava, joint secretary in the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Monday told a press conference: “Whatever requests come to us for both the installation of a monument at Nelson Island, and the enhancement of the systems and facilities at the Indo-Caribbean Museum would be fully considered and supported.”

The press conference was jointly organised by the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and the Indian High Commission at Gaston Court, Chaguanas.

Nelson Island was the main entry point for over 147,000 labourers who came to this country from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations and to rescue the failing agricultural capacity.

Trinidad and Tobago also houses the Indo-Caribbean Museum, the only facility in the western world to preserve the instruments, religious texts, tools, jewellery, cooking utensils of the people who migrated from India.

Asics Shoes is having a great year when it comes to good looking shoes. In continuing their Runovation series they are releasing some exclusives in Belgium and Holland only. As if the shoes couldn’t be more exclusive only a few accounts will have the sneakers and when they are gone they are gone. Leaving us Americans to fret or look for friends across the pond.
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Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman, nicknamed “the Crocodile” by fans because of his pugnacity on court; he is now known primarily as the namesake of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.
Lacoste was one of The Four Musketeers, French tennis stars who dominated the game in the 1920s and early 1930s. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles in the French, American, and British championships but never made the long trip to Australia to play in their championships. He was the world number one player for both 1926 and 1927.
In 1933, Lacoste founded La Société Chemise Lacoste with André Gillier. The company produced the tennis shirt which Lacoste often wore when he was playing, which had an alligator embroidered on the chest.
In 1963, Lacoste created a sensation in racquet technology by patenting the first tubular steel tennis racquet. Until then, racquets had almost always been made of wood. This new racquet’s strings were attached to the frame by a series of wires, which wrapped around the racquet head. The racquet was marketed in Europe under the Lacoste brand, but in the United States it was marketed by Wilson Sporting Goods and achieved critical acclaim and huge popularity as the Wilson T-2000, used by American tennis great Jimmy Connors.
There are numerous explanations of why Lacoste was originally nicknamed the Crocodile. A 2006 New York Times obituary about Lacoste’s son, Bernard, provides an apparently authoritative one. In the 1920s, supposedly, Lacoste made a bet with his team captain about whether he would win a certain match. The stakes were a suitcase he had seen in a Boston store; it was made of crocodile skin. Later, René Lacoste’s friend Robert George embroidered a crocodile onto a blazer that Lacoste wore for his matches.

The Iraqi government has done nothing to stop militias’ torture and murder of gay men, the US-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.
The organisation estimated that hundreds of gay men have been tortured and murdered in Baghdad on suspicion of engaging in homosexual behaviour this year, following a campaign of incitement from leaders of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army.

“Iraq’s leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programme at Human Rights Watch.

“Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.”

Witnesses and survivors told Human Rights Watch that masked men have pulled suspected homosexuals out of their homes at night, then murdered them, or attacked them in the street. Many of the victims suffered grisly torture before their death, the organisation said.

The New York-based group said the Iraqi government had “done nothing” to stop the killings, and that some of the people of the organisation’s researchers interviewed had accused Iraqi security forces of assisting in the attacks.

The group said a man it interviewed in April described being tied from the ceiling and gang-raped by interior ministry officers over the course of days.

“They beat me all over my body,” the man, identified in the report by the pseudonym “Nuri”, told the group’s researcher. “When they had me hanging upside down, they used me like a punching bag … They used electric prods all over my body.”

Harry Porter actor Daniel Radcliffe has donated a large sum of money to help suicidal lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs), after he found the figures “extremely distressing”.

The 20-year-old star has given the money to The Trevor Project, an American helpline for the LGBTs and ‘Questioning’ teenagers.

The Sun quoted Radcliffe as saying: “I am very pleased to begin my support of The Trevor Project, which saves lives every day through its critical work.

“It’s extremely distressing to consider that in 2009 suicide is a top three killer of young people, and it’s truly devastating to learn that LGBTQ youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

“I deeply hope my support can raise the organisation’s visibility so even more despondent youth become aware of the Trevor helpline’s highly trained counsellors and Trevor’s many other resources.

“It’s vitally important that young people understand they are not alone and, perhaps even more important, that their young lives have real value.”

Radcliffe who had earlier confessed to being brought up around gays, recently featured on the cover of the gay magazine, Attitude.

Unemployed youth attended a Jammu and Kashmir Police recruitment rally on Saturday here.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police in collaboration with the State Government has decided to raise five Reserve Police battalions.
Officials said similar recruitment rallies would be organised at every district headquarter in the state.
The 300,000 unemployed of the State are pinning their hopes on young Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Those attending the rally said they did not want to participate in protests anymore and wanted to achieve something in life.
We want to do something; we want to move forward and do something in life. We do not want to depend upon stone pelting during protests anymore,” said Niyaz Ahmad, an unemployed youth.
Youths in Srinagar said they have great expectations from Abdullah, and believe he can solve the unemployment problem in the state.
“We want unemployment to vanish completely from here. We expect the new government, and especially Abdullah to do this, said Shabir Ahmad, another unemployed youth.
However, reported moves by the State Government to increase the age of retirement from 58 to 60 have been greeted with dismay by experts.
One expert said that the solution does not lie in increasing the age of superannuation, but lies in the development of human resources and equipping the next generation with appropriate skills.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS) The Kerala government will introduce a law to ensure that all private sector jobs are brought under the employment exchanges in the state, Labour Minister P.K. Gurudasan Wednesday told the assembly. Gurudasan said there are around 4.17 million unemployed people registered at the various employment exchanges.

“Currently, there are 32 employment exchanges in the state, which are computerised and in due course we will computerise the remaining 50 employment exchanges. Since we assumed office in May 2006, we have given employment to 30,521 people through the employment exchanges,” said Gurudasan in reply to questions raised in the assembly.

He also said this fiscal, the state government has paid unemployment dole worth Rs.530 million to over 337,000 people.

According to Associate Professor Margaret Allman-Farinelli, they are not only exercising less than older generations did at the same age, they are also doing less exercise than older people are doing today.

The study showed that women now aged in their 20s – Generation Y – are estimated to be doing just 15 minutes of leisure-time physical activity per day.

However, most of the baby boomers were exercising for the recommended 30 minutes daily.

“Clearly Generation Y needs to lift its game,” News.com.au quoted Allman-Farinelli as saying.

“The results indicate that younger Australians are living increasingly more sedentary lifestyles than their predecessors, with less time spent in physical exercise than people of retirement age,” she added.

While baby boomer generation is considered to be those born during the spike in birth rates recorded after World War II, Generation Y is said to include those born from the late 1970s to as recently as 2000.

The study suggests that baby boomers and earlier generations were born into a world “before the television, computer and widespread motor vehicle usage, so … their everyday physical activity energy expenditure was probably greater.

“Individuals born after 1970 entered a high-tech society with few demands on physical activity,” said the researchers.

Moreover, longer working hours and fewer opportunities for physical activity in the workplace could provide another explanation.

Australian men risk being lonely and isolated in retirement unless they create social and leisure circles before giving up work, a new survey has found.

Dr Joanne Earl, the report’s co-author, found that men prepare for their financial security in retirement but ignored plans for their happiness.

The survey, which examined 377 men and women aged 50-66 years, revealed that more women concentrated on their health and leisure interests than men before entering retirement.

Dr Earl said: “Our finding is significant because a person’s level of leisure involvement during their working years tends to predict their involvement during retirement. People are less likely to start new activities after retirement, so getting involved in activities and social activities pre-retirement make good sense.”

She continued: “There is a strong emphasis in society to plan and save money for retirement but I think the bigger questions are: ‘What am I saving for?’ and, ‘What do I really want to do when I retire?’.”

The UNSW psychologist also suggested that employers should lent in a helping hand to their employees to plan all aspects of their retirement rather than just focusing on their financial future.

Dr Earl and her UNSW colleague PhD student Alexa Muratore further found that older workers were more likely to map finances for their retirement as compared to younger workers.