BECOMING THE SUPERORGANISM OF HUMINITY
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MAY BE OLDEST LIVING BEING PERSON EVER
FRASQUIA, Bolivia — If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented.
They say he turned 123 a month ago.
The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.
He walks without a cane and doesn’t wear glasses. And though he speaks Aymara with a firm voice, one must talk into his ear to be heard.
“I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming,” he tells Associated Press journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the world’s oldest person.
Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger. Like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing it all his life.
Guinness World Records says the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman. The oldest verified age was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997.
Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said it wasn’t aware of a claim being filed for the Bolivians.
TIME FOR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP TO BITE A BULLET
Time for the Political Leadership to Bite the Bullet
by cogitASIA Staff • • 0 Comments
By Tridivesh Singh Maini
Soldiers patrol the fenced border in Jammu between India and Pakistan. Guest author Tridivesh Maini argues breakthrough in Indo-Pak relations will require bold leadership. Source: auweia’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.
Indo-Pak dialogue, which was suspended in the aftermath of tensions across the Line of Control (LOC) in January 2013, was to resume in August 2013, and prime ministers of both countries were to meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September. The recent tensions across the LOC have cast a shadow on both. The strong resolution passed in the Pakistan National Assembly earlier this week has not helped the cause of reducing tensions.While the events of the last week are tough to overlook for both sides, especially India, since elections are less than a year away, they must move forward. It is imperative for both New Delhi and Islamabad to avoid jingoistic discourse and ensure that engagement does not stop. To do this both sides need to take some bold steps.
It is unfortunate engagement is again thrown in question because the last two months have witnessed some encouraging developments.
First, India’s external affairs minister, Salman Khurshid met with Sartaj Aziz, advisor to Pakistan’s prime minister on national security and foreign affairs in Brunei on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. Second, Pakistan prime minister Sharif’s special envoy, Shahryar Khan, also met Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh on July 5. Sharif, who faces numerous domestic security and economic challenges, sent a letter via Khan with warm wishes for the people of India, and also expressed a desire to take the bilateral relationship to new heights. A possible visit for Singh to Pakistan and a meeting between Singh and Sharif in New York were discussed.
http://cogitasia.com/time-for-the-political-leadership-to-bite-the-bullet/
PAKISTAN GAY CYBER-PRIDE SENT BY TAHIR MAHMOOD IN AL-JAZEERA
Karachi, Pakistan – Pakistan’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has launched a website in a hostile cyberspace in which the government blocks thousands of sites for displaying “objectionable and offensive” material.
“Queer Pakistan”, launched last month, aims to act as a virtual support group for an LGBT community on the fringes of mainstream society that has no other platform to interact with one another. The site already has an estimated 8,000 users.
The website attempts to provide psychological support, counselling and networking while raising awareness about sexual health in a country where the topic is rarely discussed in schools or families.
“The LGBT community in Pakistan is a vulnerable group. They exist, but the mainstream society just looks the other way,” explained Noman*, who helped spearhead the initiative. “This website is our way of breaking the silence and shame that surrounds us.”
| In our society, there is not even basic sex education in schools – it is impossible for people to know about things like an identity crisis or prevention of HIV.- Noman* |
In Pakistan, a tightly guarded silence surrounds the issue of homosexuality, which is religiously and legally condemned – making it very rare for those with a different sexual orientation to acknowledge this openly.
Homosexuality remains an offence under Pakistan’s penal code, by which a person voluntarily engaging in intercourse “against the order” of nature can be sentenced to 2-10 years in jail – or, in some instances, to death.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/08/201386115346584582.html