Tag: Beautiful Women

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-44

About –the stories of the world this week, 30 October to 5 November: endless war, un-covering women, not educating girls, a shooting, firing missiles, political comebacks – left & right, crowding tragedies, and a marriage of beauties.

Everywhere

The Russia-Ukraine War fires-on, with Russia pounding the Ukraine capital Kyiv and mostly hitting civilian targets, perhaps to break the steely resolve of the people. And Ukraine continues fighting back, in a war that seems to be ‘marching slowly into an unclear future’.

The protests in Iran, against the severe, restrictive Islamic Dress Code for Women, continue. Is it possible for Iran return to the more uncovered times of the Rule of the Shah of Iran when, some say, a woman was much more respected if she was not covered from head to toe? In the United States (US) more than 2,000 academics from universities across the country wrote to President Joe Biden urging him to do more to support the anti-government protesters. Many of these protesters are coming out of Iranian universities and schools, as young Iranians take to the streets and face off against Iran’s brutal security services.

In next-door Afghanistan, it’s 410 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school and continues to remain the only country in the world preventing girls from getting an education – for the singular reason that they are of the female gender. That’s outrageous: clothes can cover the body, but if your mind is clouded and cloaks your thinking, how do you uncover that? Meanwhile, Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has jumped 32% during this year 2022 despite the ruling Taliban’s ban on narcotics, according to an annual report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. What does one make of this?

Moving into Pakistan, ousted Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan survived a gun attack on his convoy while holding an anti-government protest in the eastern city of Wazirabad, Pakistan. He was shot in the leg, and seven other people were also hurt, and one killed, when a burst of gunfire hit the container-mounted platform-towed by a lorry- from which he was making a speech. Moments later the suspected shooter was wrestled to the ground by a bystander. And the shooter made a confession saying he acted alone and intended to kill Imran Khan. Khan was rushed to a hospital in Lahore and was declared to be safe and not in any life-threatening condition.

Recall former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at a public rally in 2007. The chaos continues, but after a very long time Pakistan is seeing the emergence of a popular leader in Imran Khan. Could the powerful Pakistan Army, who fire the shots from behind, finally be tamed?

Swinging across to East Asia, North Korea thinks only missiles and nothing much else. And this week they went about launching a dozen of them – including an Intercontinental Missile that apparently failed. This comes at a time when the United States and South Korea are staging their largest-ever joint air drills, which North Korea has strongly criticised as ‘aggressive and provocative’. North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan – the first time it has done so in five years. And it fired some into the seas bordering South Korea, which actually crossed the delicate Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime border between the Koreas. This time South Korea got its tail up and returned in kind, firing three missiles about the NLL. There is a slow fire brewing there.

Brazil: Lula’s Comeback – Left

Presidential Elections held in Brazil early this October were bitterly divisive and saw one of the most abrasive campaigns in recent times. And without an outright victory for any of the contesting candidates, it led to a run-off on 30th October to decide the winner.

Recall, Ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) secured 48.4% of the vote to incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s 43.2% and a third candidate Simone Tebet obtained 4.2%, in the Elections. The run-off became necessary as no candidate crossed the threshold of the mandatory ‘at least 50%’ of the vote.

This Sunday the run-off Election was held and Lula beat Bolsonaro by a razor-thin margin winning 50.90% of the votes, while the latter won 49.10%. This marks Brazil returned to left-wing politics.

It’s a stunning comeback for the lathe-machine-metal-worker-turned-politician Lula, who could not run in the last presidential election in 2018 because he was in jail and banned from standing for office. Lula was President of Brazil for two terms, from 2003 to 2006, and 2007 to 2011, where he led the country through a commodities boom that helped fund huge social welfare programs and lift millions out of poverty. Those were the times when BRICS was a famous term used for the five emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Lula left office with a 90% approval rating, but this record was tarnished by Brazil’s largest corruption probe, dubbed ‘Operation Car Wash’, which led to charges against hundreds of high-ranking politicians and businessmen across Latin America. Lula himself was convicted for corruption and money laundering in 2017, but a court threw out his conviction in March 2021, clearing the way for his political rebound. By the time, Lula had spent 580 days in jail.

“They tried to bury me alive, and here I am,” said the 77 years old Lula, kicking off his victory celebrations. He made the right noises of the importance of unity and moving Brazil upwards. However, his rival, Bolsonaro, has not unambiguously conceded defeat and could dampen Lula’s victory.

Israel: Bibi’s Comeback – Right

This week, if Brazil swung to the Left, balance in the World was restored by Israel swinging to the Right!

Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition headed to victory in Israel’s parliamentary elections-the 5th in less than 4 years. With his ongoing bribery and corruption trial running in the background the win may provide Netanyahu a means of staying out of jail. But he is not the Election’s biggest winner. That honour goes to Israel’s Religious Zionism party led by neo-Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have moved from the fringes to the mainstream, winning 14 seats in the 120 member Knesset. He achieved what his hero, Meir Kahane – the assassinated extremist rabbi who was banned from Israeli electoral politics – only dreamed about. Ben-Gvir may become the minister of public security, in charge of the country’s police – as already demanded of Netanyahu. That means the hard right would have a guiding hand on the country’s internal security apparatus. “It’s time to be the landlords of this country again”, said Ben-Gvir when he sighted victory.

The coalition of Netanyahu’s Likud, the Jewish nationalist Religious Zionism/Jewish Power Bloc, Shas and United Torah Judaism would, on paper, be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, winning 64 seats – a comfortable majority.

Current Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his allies won 51 seats. An Arab alliance called Hadash-Taal won 5 seats, and is unlikely to support either Netanyahu or Lapid to lead the country.

The final election results confirm that Bibi can now build a stable majority government with his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, this will also end nearly four years of an unprecedented political stalemate.

Tragedy, Tragedy

South Korea: a Street too Narrow

Late last week and early this week we saw two absurd and avoidable man-made disasters which killed over 300 people who were just going about their lives in South Korea and in India.

In South Korea, during most weekends the narrow alleys of Itaewon, the neon-lit nightlife district in the capital Seoul, are busy with partygoers and tourists. Now it’s the site of one of the country’s worst disasters.

Last Saturday night, tens of thousands of people flooded into the area in central Seoul to celebrate Halloween, but panic erupted as the crowds swelled and surged into a narrow alley. It became hard to breathe in the crowd, which precipitated a stampede in which mostly young people became trapped and crushed, killing at least 151 people and injuring over 80 others. The casualties were young, mostly in their teens and early 20s. Among the 151 dead were 19 foreign nationals, with victims from Iran, Norway, China, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

Saturday night marked the first Halloween since the country lifted various restrictions including that related to the pandemic – lending it particular significance for many eager participants in Seoul, as well as international visitors, foreign residents, and tourists.

Hotels and ticketed events in the neighbourhood had been booked solid in advance, and large crowds were expected. Itaewon in particular is popular among backpackers and international students.

It’s hard to pinpoint what might have triggered the crush, but authorities would have anticipated high numbers, before Saturday night. There is a responsibility on the part of the authorities to be monitoring crowd volume in real time, so they can sense the need to get people out. Standing out, is the failure by the Police to manage and control the surging crowds.

India: a Bridge too Old

In the 1600’s Morbi, in India’s present day Gujarat State, was founded as a princely state and rule by the Jadeja clan of Rajputs who bore the title ‘Thakur Sahib’ until the last ruler, Sir Waghji, gave himself the title ‘Maharaja’. It became a British protectorate in 1807, during British rule in India.

To reflect the progressive and scientific nature of the rulers of Morbi, Sir Waghji built a 1.25 metre wide 230 metre span suspension bridge across the Machchu River, which is similar to the Ram and Lakshman Jhulas across the Ganga in Uttarakhand. It used the latest technology available in Europe in those days, and material for the construction of the bridge was sourced from England.

The bridge served to connect the Darbargadh Palace and the Nazarbag Palace, which were the residences of the royal families. It was first inaugurated in 1879, by then British Governor of Mumbai. And was ‘kept alive’ as a heritage bridge, all these years, becoming a tourist spot to hang-out on.

The bridge was entrusted to a company called Oreva for operation and maintenance under a 15 years contract. In March, this year, it was closed to the public for renovation and reopened on the Gujarati New Year Day, celebrated on October 26.

A tragedy occurred late this Sunday when the heritage bridge collapsed packed with tourists and city residents at around 6.30 pm, killing about 135 people. Prima facie, the bridge gave away as too many people in the mid-section were trying to sway it from one side to the other. About 200 people were on the bridge, at the time of collapse. And it was actually meant to hold about 125 people at a time.

The Oreva Group is a company which once described itself as the ‘world’s largest clock manufacturing company’, before foraying into making lighting products, battery-operated bikes, home appliances and TV sets. With no background in ‘maintaining heritage bridges’ one wonders how they won the contract in the first place.

It’s also learnt that the bridge had not received a thumbs-up Fitness Certificate from the local Municipality, after completion of the renovation work.

One can see a clear failure to ‘understand the bridge’ and carefully regulate the people on the bridge, given its heritage nature. The investigation should be able to reveal the actual reasons.

Going back in time, in 1979 the Machchu-2 Dam across the same river collapsed sending a wall of water through the town of Morbi, killing more than 2000 people is one of the greatest dam-burst tragedies of all time.

The Machchu-2 Dam is an earthfill dam meant to serve as an irrigation scheme. Considering the long history of drought in Saurashtra region, the primary consideration at the time of design was water supply, not flood control. It consisted of a masonry spillway of 206 metres with 18 sluice gates across the river section and long earthen embankments on both sides. The failure was caused by excessive rain and massive flooding, leading to the disintegration of the earthen walls of the four kilometre long dam. The actual observed flow following the intense rainfall reached about three times above the flow the dam was designed for, resulting in its collapse. 762 metres of the left and 365 metres of the right embankment of the dam collapsed. Within 20 minutes the floods of 3.7 to 9.1 m height inundated the low-lying areas of Morbi industrial town located 5 km below the dam.

The Machchu-2 Dam failure is listed as one of the worst dam bursts in the Guinness Book of Records

Please Yourself

There is a new power couple in Town: a tale of picture perfect love – literally.

A former Miss Argentina and a former Miss Puerto Rico shocked and awed fans by announcing their surprise marriage on Instagram. Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentin met at the 2020 Miss Grand International Competition in Thailand, where they represented Argentina and Puerto Rico, respectively. After making it to the pageant Top 10, the two beauty queens remained close friends on social media and secretly dated.

The pair posted matching Instagram Reels showing moments from their relationship, including romantic walks on the beach, candid cuddles, champagne toasts, and a proposal with gold and silver balloons saying, “Marry me?”

The pair did just that and married on 28 October at the City Courthouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened the doors on a special day”, said the two beauties – in one frame!

More delightful and beautiful stories coming up in the weeks ahead. It’s alright to stay married to World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-42

About –the stories of the world this week, 16 October to 22 October 2022: dangerous Pakistan, schooling the Taliban, dressing-up Iran, taxing cow burps, a lettuce outlasts a Prime Minister, grand-old party elections, jungle raj, and the science of the most beautiful woman in the world.

Everywhere

United States President Joe Biden seemed to suddenly wake up from a deep slumber and come alive to say that ‘Pakistan may be one of the most dangerous nations in the World, which holds nuclear weapons without any cohesion’. Ask any grown-up, and he would have said that without blinking an eye or stumbling over the stairs.

In Afghanistan, it’s near about 400 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school. Afghan girls have been forced to contemplate a life without formal education, locked out of their classrooms only because of their gender – being female. The World is still unable to collar the Taliban on education. And we have to work harder to find a way to open schools to girls.

Meanwhile, in Iran, protests against the Islamic Dress Code continues unabated and last week yet another young girl, with dreams in her eyes, was killed. This was when Iranian Security Services raided the Shahed Girls High School in Ardabil, on 13 October, and demanded a group of girls sing a pro-regime song: 16 years old Asra Panahi was beaten to death in her classroom for refusing to sing.

School girls have emerged as a powerful force, in the current protests across the country, to bring the regime in Iran to understand their freedom concerns.

If you thought Australia is funny, New Zealand is getting there, when last week New Zealand’s Prime Minister (PM), Jacinda Arden unveiled plans for the world’s first levy on agricultural gases and biogenic methane, which mainly comes from burps produced by the country’s estimated 6 million cows and 26 million sheep. Tax on burping? What next, tax on breathing?

Close behind New Zealand’s creative taxing, is the United Kingdom with British politics trying to emulate Australia’s style of politics. Following a disastrous economic policy roll-out, unfunded tax cuts, and energy price guarantees, the 45 days old, new Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned this week as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Earlier, the PM had sacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer over the controversial economic plan. A new PM is expected to fill the space by next week and figure out how to take Britain forward.

Counting her ‘net days’ as PM, a lettuce on the shelf outlasted her – as many went about predicting her downfall. The dice was loaded against her from the start!

The British Government is in shambles and rolled us to a ‘deja-vu’ of the Boris Johnson times. A day earlier, a ‘brave’ Home Secretary quit over a ‘security mistake’ – the second fall after the Finance Minister. And before others could even stir, the PM found the door out of 10 Downing Street wide open.

Liz Truss’ is the shortest serving period of Prime Ministership in the history of the UK. And if I were a four months old baby I would have lived through four Chancellors, three Home Secretaries, two Prime Ministers and two Monarchs. The UK will now see its fifth PM since the divisive 2016 Brexit Referendum, intensifying calls for an early general election.

Maybe a dose of ‘reverse colonisation’ would do Britain enormous good. Last heard, India’s Prime Minister is expanding his 56 inch war chest!

Grand Old Party, Grand Old Elections

This week, after 24 years, India’s Congress Party finally held an election to the top post of President: the acting President was Mom Sonia Gandhi after son Rahul Gandhi resigned taking responsibility for a string of Election defeats, which have since only got worser. Conveniently, only two Congressmen contested: one, the stylish Shashi Tharoor, who has a way with words, and two, old warhorse Mallikarjun Kharge. The latter entered the fray after the Congress’ Rajasthan Chief Minister (CM) tried to whack the Presidency and also keep the Chief Ministership of his State. But then, in walked a rule which said one-person-one post, enforced by the now Bharat Jodo Yatra walking Rahul Gandhi, and the CM decided to stay-put in Rajasthan. The Election was tacitly sealed with the Gandhi family backed Kharge invisibly declared elected. But then, the hand of Elections must be visible to show ‘democracy at work’: enter Sashi Tharoor, who played his role to perfection – to the little finger in the hand.

The Election results were announced on Wednesday this week, and as widely predicted Mallikarjun Kharge won. He polled 7897 votes (84.14%) against Shashi Tharoor’s 1072 votes (11.42%). And the 137 years old Congress Party finally has a 80 years old President as it 98th President. If only age means wisdom, in the true sense, we can see fireworks in the coming months and years!

Kharge is a senior Congress Party politician from the State of Karnataka. He had contested the 2019 General Elections (which kept the ruling BJP in the Government at the Centre) in Karnataka’s Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency and lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate by over 95,000 votes. Later in the year 2020, Kharge was elected to the Rajya Sabha, from Karnataka. And in February 2021 was appointed Leader of Opposition in India’s Parliament’s Upper House, the Rajya Sabha, which position he held until his election as Congress President.

Will an old hand be able to revive the nose-diving fortunes of the Congress. My only wish is he tries to do a Narashima Rao to the Congress Presidency!

P V Narashima Rao (PVNR) was a die-hard Congress loyalist who lost almost all his hair and most of his teeth ( I can still recall that rare toothless smile) ploughing along with the various leaders of the Congress Party. When in his sunset years and into retirement, he was called to fill-in as PM at the age of 70, on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He went on to become one of the best PMs, the Congress Party could offer India. His path-breaking economic reforms of 1991, with Dr Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister, dismantled India’s strangulating Licence Raj, broke the shackles of the Indian Economy, and unleashed a never-before seen growth in India. I do not know whether this helped, but PVNR could speak 17 languages – 9 Indian and 8 foreign.

In my opinion, the Gandhi Family and the Congress Party failed to give PVNR the respect he deserved – having done better than anyone of them!

Return of the Jungle Raj: wanted a Tarzan

The state of Bihar was once known for its lawlessness had earned the epithet, ‘Jungle Raj’ (law of the jungle) under former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav who was subsequently found guilty of stealing fodder meant for cattle, convicted and sent to prison. The present Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Yadav was ruling with the support of the BJP and in a Tarzan style vine swing, jumped away from the BJP tree, resigned as Chief Minister, joined hands with Lalu’s Party tree, and swung back as Chief Minister. Tarzan would have been proud. Well, that smelt of the forest, and armed robbers and thieves who had became trees in the jungles of Bihar retuned to normal life and like America’s Wild-Wild-West stopped a train – the Delhi -Kolkata Duronto Express- near the Capital Patna and looted the passengers off their valuables, at gun-point – leaving only the life inside them. This is a swinging return to the bad old times in Bihar!

The Science of Beauty

Long ago, Greek Philosopher Plato said, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’, which made beauty subjective. Then English Poet John Keats came along and said ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’. We all agreed. But what if ‘(any) lies told by the eyes’ are pinned down and there is an objective science to beauty? Scientists have been working on finding the magic ever since.

British Actress, Jodie Comer, has been declared the most beautiful woman in the world, according to Science – scientifically. Singer Beyonce and reality-show star Kim Kardashian also made it to the top ten. Actor and model Deepika Padukone is the only Indian on the list of the 10 most beautiful women in the world.

The list has been declared by a scientist, who used the latest computerised mapping strategy to apply an ancient Greek technique called ‘Golden Ratio of Beauty’ to decide the world’s most beautiful women.

The Golden Ratio of Beauty, also called Phi, is a mathematical method, in which formulas are applied to determine physical perfection. According to the ancient Greeks, beauty can be measured by specific ratios on one’s face and body, and in the numerical form, the closer the ratios are to 1.618, which equals Phi, the more desirable a person is said to be.

Jodie Comer is the world’s most beautiful woman as her facial elements equaled the perfect ratio. Other contenders, such as actor Zendaya and model Bella Hadid, met the physical qualifications and were placed on the second and third spot, respectively.

Jodie Comer was a clear winner when all elements of the face were measured for physical perfection. She had the highest overall reading for the positioning of her nose and lips, with a score of 98.70%, which is only 1.30% away from being the perfect shape. Jodie also had the highest score for her nose width and length and she was near the top for the shape of her lips and the position of her eyes. Apart from Jodie, the Golden Ratio scores of other celebs on the list are: Zendaya – 94.37%, Bella Hadid -94.35%, Beyonce – 92.44%, Ariana Grande 91.81%, Taylor Swift 91.64%, Jourdan Dunn 91.39%, Kim Kardashian 91.28%, Deepika Padukone-91.22%, and HoYeon Jung – 89.63%. Go ahead and google to learn more about their shapes and sizes.

Jodie Marie Comer is an English actress, born and raised in Liverpool.

In addition to this ‘beauty award’, she has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award; nominations for two Golden Globe Awards, two Critics Choice Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

More scientifically beautiful stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Make friends with Tarzan and stay alive with World Inthavaaram.

Happy Diwali: light-up your life with the goodness of humanity, we are all beautiful in our own way.