I haven’t updated in a while, so I thought I’d share some of the news stories I’d read this week that seem to have slipped under the radar on most sites.

The Independent has a gut-wrenching story about one of the youngest British soldiers to die in Iraq.  It’s very Dickensian in ways, and puts more of a human face on that war than anything else I’ve seen.  Definitely worth a read, but bring tissues.

In light of what seem to be constant sex-scandals involving conservative Christians, Salon has an article up about the secretive society that ties a lot of them together.  This organization breeds people for politics, and helps engineer cover-ups for them to protect their status as elites.  A choice quote:

“Let’s say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?” The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. “No,” answered Coe, “I wouldn’t.” Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he’s among what Family leaders refer to as the “new chosen.” If you’re chosen, the normal rules don’t apply.

These people have a significant hand in your government.

Here’s a terrible story for which I’m partly guilty.  When I was in Shanghai last year, I bought a few counterfeited items: Ray-Bans, a Tommy Bahama shirt, and a knock-off jacket.  In my defense, I lost the Ray-Bans almost immediately, I don’t even know what brand the coat was supposed to be (I just really liked it), and the shirt looked really good on me.  But, it turns out that some of the practices used by counterfeit sweatshop owners are pretty rough, like breaking children’s limbs to prevent them from sneaking out of work.  Read about it at Daily News, and don’t buy any more counterfeit junk.

Man, this is a depressing update.  How about some lolcat-esque pics to lighten the mood?

That’s all for today.  Thanks for reading.

Edit:

One more pic:

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Hey, friends. Long time, I know. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, not just for me, but for the whole country. So, I thought I’d give you a quick update on the news from this side of the world.

Two weeks ago, two gay men caught together were subject to ten years in prison. Not anymore. On the 3rd, the Delhi high court reversed the law. Religious leaders have all predicted the impending end of Indian society, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’ll let you know if it does.

The overall response here seems to be about what you’d expect from sixth graders. Homosexuality is a little more taboo here than in the US, but it seems like for the most part people aren’t too worried about it. Doubtlessly, it’ll take a long time before people get comfortable with it on a personal level, but this seems like a good first step.

You can read more here.

In other news, water rationing in some cities in the North have led to murders. The monsoon has been really light this year all across India, and it’s starting to be felt. The Guardian has an excellent article here.

Mom is coming in August and I’m setting up a tour of Tamil Nadu for her, so I’ll have some excellent photos then I’m sure. I’d planned a trip to Mysore this weekend, but there’s been religious riots over the past couple of weeks, so I think I’ll cancel that trip.

Not much else new here. I hope all is well with all of you, and as always, thanks for reading.

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So, tired of the endless traffic and constant buzz of Bangalore, I headed to Gokarna this previous weekend. Famous for its beaches and temples, Gokarna lies on the Western coast of India, just south of Goa. I had no interest in the temples.

Gokarna itself lies high up in the foothills of an expansive set of mountains. I’d tell you what the mountain range was called, but I’m typing this up before I leave work, and would rather spend 10 more minutes at home than 10 minutes researching the name of some mountains. The drive in was beautiful – but bumpy. Night buses are a great way to travel when you have good roads, but when your bus hits a speedbump or a pothole in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping and you wake up in the air 12 inches above your bed, it can be a bit disconcerting.

The area around Gokarna is beautiful – palm trees, rice paddies, and dense jungle surround everything.

Below is the town of Gokarna. It’s quiet, beautiful, and quaint. It’s known for its temples, but between the temples not allowing foreigners and me having no desire to do anything but sit on the beach for my three days off, I didn’t see them. In fact, this is the only photo I got of Gokarna town.

I figured it couldn’t be that far from the town to the beach, so I decided to walk it. It turns out that it’s around 7 miles, and that you get rained on really hard for the last two. Regardless, it was a nice walk and I’m glad I did it. There was wildlife everywhere. These guys were most prevalent. I’m pretty sure that they want to infect my brain and use me as a zombie to carry out their nefarious alien plans. I even found a few of them in my room chillin’ on my dirty clothes, just waiting for the chance to crawl into my ear and start the zombification process.

I also saw this guy on the way. He’s a bit hard to see, but if you focus on the yellowish part in the center, you’ll be looking at the beak of some sort of toucan-like bird. I don’t think he was actually a toucan, because he had a huge nose/beak on top of his regular beak, but hey, if you want to know about birds go read an ornithology blog.

After my long rainy hike, I showed up at…

the beach! Pretty, ain’t it? It’s better in person, trust me. I promptly sat down at the little cafe on the beach and ordered a beer and some breakfast. The ‘resort’ is called the Namaste Hotel and Cafe, and was pretty nice for a low budget place. The cafe had a steady supply of Indian beer and Western music, so I spent most of my time here watching the waves.

My hotel room was fun too. All of the walls had holes, the bathroom only had half a roof, and the bed was a thin mat on a concrete slab. At least I got a stylish mosquito net.

On Sunday, as I was packing my bags to head out, I kept hearing something plunk onto the roof. I walked out of my room, and there was a tribe of monkeys angrily throwing rocks and sticks at my hut. I think they must have been in cahoots with the evil alien brain worms. This guy almost fell out of the tree in his rage.

Well, that’s about all. Just in case you’ve ever found yourself wondering what I would look like if infected by evil alien brain worms, see below.

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Just found this, and thought my readers would appreciate it. In the image below, you see a blue spiral and a green spiral, right?

Wrong.

Head over to Discover Magazine to find out why.

Note: Always a skeptic, I checked it out in Photoshop just to be sure. It’s true.

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How could I be so cruel to you, my faithful readers? No posts or pictures in almost two weeks.

Well not much longer, I say.  Tonight, I’m buying a new camera and a ticket to Gokarna, whose beaches supposedly rival those of Goa.  I’ll be leaving Thursday night on an overnight bus, and returning the same way on Sunday.  Expect unrestrained leisure while I’m there, and a ridiculous amount of photos when I return.

You can also look up Gokarna at Panoramio if you want to cheat and look at pictures early.

Update: Got a camera! Got tickets! I’ll find something to take a picture of tonight so that you have something to look at while I’m hanging out on Paradise Beach.

Update 2: I was driving through downtown earlier today, and ‘Kentacky Chicken’ has been renamed to ‘Hyderabad Chicken.’ I wonder if one of my readers reported them to the Colonel.

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Ujjivan (my official employer) just got ranked #1 as the Best Place to Work in India in the microfinance category.
I certainly have no complaints.

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I think Snoop Dog is the shiznit. How could anyone not?

But you know what makes Snoop Dog even cooler? A turban.

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On Friday I accidentally provided a local rickshaw driver with a nearly brand new Canon Powershot SD1100 IS. I feel like I’m really making a difference over here.

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Hey, faithful readers.


I know I promised a Monday update, but I forgot my camera cord yesterday and have been out of the office with a stomach bug all day today.  But, for you, I braved an autorickshaw and a pretty strong headache and am sitting at my desk. I hope you’re appreciative.


On Friday night I left for Davangere, a little town about 200km northwest of Bangalore.  I was told to meet my travelling companions at bus terminal 17.

Awesome.


After about a half hour of trying to ask people where #17 was, I finally figured out I was at the wrong bus station.  So, despite leaving two hours early for my bus, I ended up getting there about 5 minutes before it left.  The ride was pretty awful.  We left at 11:30 pm and arrived around 6 am.  Indian roads aren’t exactly the smoothest, so about every 20 minutes we’d hit a pothole going 40 mph and all get woken up.


So, at 6 we shuffled off the bus, tired and cranky, and headed for the health camp.


These health camps provide free dental, eye, and ENT screenings to customers of Ujjivan and their families.  Most can’t afford the doctor visits, so many of the customers had never been to an eye doctor and will receive their first pair of glasses in the next couple of weeks.  We partner with an eye hospital who charges 120 rupees per pair of glasses, so everything is kept affordable.  We also sent about 60 women in for cataract surgery, for which they’ll receive a reduced rate or even complimentary service if they can’t afford it.

Davangere is actually a pretty cute little town, with several lakes and a general small-town kind of feel.  I caught this picture from the local bus we took to the health camp. You can’t see it in the photo, but off to the left there were about 6 fishermen in tiny little canoes net-fishing for the morning catch.


The eye camp went really well.  My camera battery died as soon as we got there on the first day, but that camp had about 730 attendeess, record attendance for one of our camps.  We did our best with crowd control, but keeping that many people happy for 8 hours was no easy task.  Not to mention that my lack of language skills and general appearance made people a bit standoffish.


The second day was much slower, with around 350 attendees, and things went much more smoothly.  None of the other people there were too keen on letting me help out, but I did what I could.

The woman above was receiving her first pair of glasses.  We had a whole basket full of different styles they could pick from, but most people seemed to just take a glance in the mirror and take the first set of frames they tried.

This girl and her brothers and I became good friends.  They kept insisting that I give them gifts, pulling on my hair, and generally swarming me the entire day. They did teach me some Kannada though (mugu=nose; pariwalla=pigeon).

I didn’t follow up on this one, so I don’t know whether he had any cavities.


Well, that’s all for today, faithful readers.  I have Saturday and Sunday off this coming week, and my plan is to finish getting my apartment set up.  That said, I’m sure I’ll get some time to go exploring around Bangalore, so hopefully we can get a decent sized update then.  I should also have a couple of small ones this week.


Thanks for reading.  Miss you all.

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