Condoms too big for Indian Men

Byoliveridley

This is precisely the kind of story that makes the most emailed list of the bbc news website. It’s got everything, obsession and insecurity about size, snigger potential, the chance to laugh at a whole race of not so well endowed men, etc!

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Condoms ‘too big’ for Indian men

The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms. It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India. The two-year study was carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.

The story does everything except tell you what the average length was and what the average condom length is, I guess they wanted to spare the blushes.

But this is the priceless part of the article…

But Indian men need not be concerned about measuring up internationally according to Sunil Mehra, the former editor of the Indian version of the men’s magazine Maxim. “It’s not size, it’s what you do with it that matters,” he said. From our population, the evidence is Indians are doing pretty well.

No, really! You don’t say!

All joking aside, an ill fitting condom is buzz kill, and a disincentive for men to use it. But isn’t girth more important than length? A condom that’s too long does not tear or slip off as long as it fits otherwise, it is a condom that is too tight that will tear. This article mentions a failure rate of 20%, but is that really length related? After all, latex is affected by heat and humidity, especially if the seals are broken. I don’t know. But vending machines are the way to go, as well as “fitted” prophylactics. After all, when you buy a pair of jeans, it is waist and length, right!

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Happy Independence day, Pakistan

Byoliveridley

Pakistan turns 60 today, and this article provides good perspective

The poor neighbour | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

Amid all the hoopla surrounding the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, almost nothing has been heard from Pakistan, which turns 60 today. Nothing, that is, if you discount the low rumble of suicide bombings, the noise of automatic weapons storming the Red Mosque and the creak of slowly collapsing dictatorships.

In the world’s media, never has the contrast between the two countries appeared so stark: one is widely perceived as the next great superpower; the other written off as a failed state, a world centre of Islamic radicalism, the hiding place of Osama bin Laden and the only US ally that Washington appears ready to bomb.

On the ground, of course, the reality is different and first-time visitors to Pakistan are almost always surprised by the country’s visible prosperity. There is far less poverty on show in Pakistan than in India, fewer beggars, and much less desperation. In many ways the infrastructure of Pakistan is much more advanced: there are better roads and airports, and more reliable electricity. Middle-class Pakistani houses are often bigger and better appointed than their equivalents in India.

The first three paragraphs nail it. Pakistan is home to a burgeoning and prosperous middle class, but I bet all the average American thinks of is Madrassas, Osama, veils and nukes. I am sure Pakistan has all of them 🙂 However, there’s much more!

Happy I. Day, Pakistan, don’t forget, India’s up next on the 15th of August!

Bomb goes off In Hyderabad, India

Byoliveridley

An attempt to start another riot, I guess. It won’t work.

Five killed, 16 injured in blast at Hyderabad mosque- Hindustan Times

At least five people were killed and 16 injured in a bomb blast during Friday prayers at the historic Mecca Masjid here.

Eyewitnesses said the blast occurred when thousands of Muslims were about to complete ‘namaz’.

The blast took place near ‘wazu khana’ or water tank, where Muslims do ablution before offering prayers.

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Tamil MPs play hardball for LTTE

Byoliveridley

Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu will have to resign if the Centre does not come forward to ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks, according to a resolution adopted at an all-party meet chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday.

Asked if this meant Ministers in the Union Cabinet and MPs in the Rajya Sabha would resign in the event of the ceasefire not happening in two weeks, Mr. Karunanidhi told The Hindu that he meant that all MPs would tender their resignation. “Ministers are MPs first, are they not?” he asked.

via The Hindu : Front Page : T.N. MPs to quit if Centre fails to ensure ceasefire

As Malini Parthasarathy points out in her editorial, this sudden increase in rhetoric coming from the DMK and other Tamil parties seems to coincide with an apparent impending military breakthrough by the Sri Lankan army. Why apparent? Because the only sources of news are the SL army and the LTTE, and neither, are, shall we say, neutral! Overt support for the LTTE has been absent since the late ’80s and especially since Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, so the timing most definitely reeks of LTTE’s covert influence on the Tamil parties in Tamil Nadu. This would be a good time for the LTTE to get some breathing room and regroup.

The Central government would become a minority if this threat was carried out. Which is why the Sri Lankan envoy was summoned and India’s “concerns” were addressed, whatever that means.

I think that the LTTE is a band of ruthless terrorists who should disappear from the face of this Earth. They have systematically eradicated moderate Tamils in their bid to be the only Tamil voice. Additionally, they have killed many civilians, Tamil, Sinhalese and Indian over the course of their bloody insurgency. The Sri Lankan army and polity, of course, are guilty of mass genocide and human rights themselves. But, they have the power of the nation state behind them and smell a final victory. I don’t seem them stopping now.

How is this going to end? Not very well for the central government, who will lose quite a bit of support after only recently surviving a confidence vote. Not too well for the millions of civilians caught in the conflict, who will bear the brunt of increasing desperation on both sides of the war. Will the LTTE ask for a negotiated ceasefire if things get too hot for them? Probably. Will the Tamils of Northern Sri Lanka ever get the autonomy they so deserve? Not if the Sri Lankan government sees itself as being in a position of strength. So, why was this war fought? I don’t know. But, I don’t believe in war, so there…

As a great believer in the educational power of fiction, I heartily recommend Love Marriage, a story set in the Sri Lankan tamil community, tells the history from the tamil side. You can read a Q&A with the author at the always excellent Sepia Mutiny.

Book cover of the book Brotherless night by VV Ganesananthan
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Brotherless Night – Go Read

Byoliveridley
Brotherless Night is the book I wanted to read, so I wrote it. VV Ganeshananthan
Book cover of the book Brotherless night by VV Ganesananthan

I grew up in Chennai in the 80s and got to witness the Sri Lankan civil war from just across the border. I read about it mostly from the Indian English news media (The Hindu, Indian Express) and remember many parts of the conflict: The initial profusion of Tamil groups, the LTTE takeover, the quick suppression of peaceful/non-violent voices by the LTTE, the Indian “peace” mission, and then much of the mayhem that followed, including the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. My opinions were filtered through my pro-Sanskrit anti-Tamil Brahmin upbringing and I don’t remember being especially sympathetic to the cause back then.

This book really took me back and filled in the blanks. I learn history best when told through the experiences of those affected the most, the women, children, “civilians”. It’s a beautiful, extremely challenging history lesson on the Sri Lankan war told from the viewpoint of a young woman growing up in Jaffna. VV’s writing makes you read through the horror of war, the clear and repeated threads of who suffers and how no one involved in violence is “noble” or “heroic”. Read it if you are able, trigger warnings all the way with violence, sexual violence, family violence 🙁 It is however a story primarily of resistance, survival and how important it is to catalogue the horrors of war as they are happening, and not let that story get buried in traditional war jingoism.

In this world we’re in right now, dominated by war coverage and the daily unchallenged assertions by those committing war that they are “right”, “honourable”, “just”, etc., reading accounts of war from the perspective of those most affected are a reminder. They are a reminder that when you commit to continuous violence, even if it starts as self defense or resistance, there’s no nobility there, no heroism: you’re killing human beings, you’re destroying lives, homes, gardens, libraries, schools, music, love and everything that makes us human. I really wish all war coverage focused on what is lost, not on who gained a bridge or how the great leader sitting in his well-protected mansion is waging the war.

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Bhutan to pay for others climate sins

Byoliveridley

Bhutan is a small country nestled in the Himalayas, breathtakingly beautiful and “quaint”. Unfortunately, it’s about to be hit by a truck!

Reuters AlertNet – FEATURE-Bhutan to pay for others climate sins

The retreat of Bhutan’s glaciers presents an even more formidable and fundamental challenge to a nation of around 600,000 people, nearly 80 percent of whom live by farming.

Bhutan’s rivers sustain not only the country’s farmers, but also the country’s main industry and export earner — hydro-electric power, mostly sold to neighbouring India.

For a few years, Bhutan’s farmers and its hydro power plants might have more summer melt water than they can use. One day, though, the glaciers may be gone, and the “white gold” upon which the economy depends may dry up.

The threat led the government’s National Environment Commission to a stark conclusion.

“Not only human lives and livelihoods are at risk, but the very backbone of the nation’s economy is at the mercy of climate change hazards,” it wrote in a recent report.

Scientists admit they have little solid data on how Bhutan’s climate is already changing, but say weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable.

Well, as I keep saying, Americans and Europeans will be incovenienced by global climate change, Asians and Africans will die. I don’t have an answer, though, which is depressing on this gray and cloudy Friday morning…

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