The Kiss wiht Consequences

I’m pretty sure all of you have heard about Richard Gere’s misadventure when he kissed Shilpa Shetty, and Indian celebrity, at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi.

In our culture such a spontaneous gesture wouldn’t bother anybody, but displays of affection are strictly forbidden in India, the land of great diversity. Protestors even demanded that Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere should be killed for their careless and abusive action.

This incident happened on April 16th nevertheless Indian people are not satisfied with the simple apologies from Richard and Shilpa. Today I’ve seen on BBC that Indian priests will fight until both of them have been punished.

What do you think? Can you understand such intense reactions? In my opinion it should be considered that Richard Gere is an American, who is obviously not aware of Indian codes of behaviour. On the other hand he proudly declared himself as a great admirer of Indian culture, which shows that he should take further insights into their customs.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6560371.stm

Tunnel between Russia and the USA

Today I’ve read that a new tunnel is supposed to be built between Russia and the USA. Seems to be an extremely expensive affair. As a matter of fact, some are concerned about the technical feasibility of this project. Nevertheless, Russians are eager to realize it because it would increase trade between Asia and North America. In addition, travel coast could be cut.

I was surprised by the fact that the inspiration to build a tunnel across the 85-kilometre Bering Strait is not new. 100 years ago people thought about this project, but in became less important during the Soviet era.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0704/070420-tunnel.html

!!This link includes a listening task, which is quite useful!!

Global Studies

If you would like to know how the world has changed in the last 40 years, you should definitely follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUwS1uAdUcI

Latin America, Africa, China, Arabic States, OECD, USA etc. were compared, by an Professor of International Health, in terms of income distribution, life expectancy, seize of families, child survival etc.

It took me just 20 minutes to watch the video but much longer to realize that there has been an enormous change over the last 40 years, especially in the third world.