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Creating Light from Garbage
July 22: We all create garbage. Every day we throw away armloads of things that we don’t need. Wrappers, leftovers, car parts, torn cloth, vegetable remains and mounds of other such stuff. What we throw away at home is domestic garbage. There’s much more that factories throw away. Garbage from factories is often very dangerous, because it could be poisonous chemicals, or plastics that choke the earth. The result of all this throwing away is that garbage levels around the world are rising, and fast....
The Tiger Cubs who Lost their Parents
August 5: What’s the worst thing that could happen to a kid? The death of his parents. But it’s not just us humans who feel the pain of becoming orphans. Three orphaned tiger cubs have shown that when you lose your folks, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an animal or not. The pain is the same. The Tiger Cubs who Lost their Parents [Illustration by Shiju George] A happy white tiger family lived in Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa....
A Penalty Kick into Disaster
Where: Kandahar, Afghanistan July 22, 2000: It was the strangest football match that the Pakistani team had ever played. There they were in the city of Kandahar, in Afghanistan, for a match with a local team. Every sportsperson knows that home teams always get a lot more support than the visiting team, and is even prepared for it. But none of the Pakistani players were quite prepared for what happened to them on the football ground....
An Olympics with a Difference
August 19: For all those who are physically challenged, Abilympics offers a wonderful opportunity to do something special. An Olympic competition featuring ‘sports’ like painting, tailoring, jewellery-making, book-binding, embroidery and computer programming? Welcome to the fifth Abilympics, the three-day International Skill Competition that celebrates the abilities of the physically challenged to stand on their own in a harsh and competitive world. Held in Czechoslavakia starting August 15th, the day India celebrates her independence, the Ablilympics are quite different from the Olympics....
Bermudas on Beaches — and in Parliament
August 12: Very soon members of Parliament in Bermuda will go to work wearing Bermuda shorts. This is what the lawmakers of Bermuda Islands have decided. Usually, parliaments across the world are known for their sober dress sense to convey that being a member of the legislature is no laughing matter, and the prestige of the Parliament has to be kept in mind while dressing for it. Bermudas on Beaches — and in Parliament [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] The Bermudian House of Assembly, which is where the members of Parliament assemble, recently voted to relax the dress code of its parliament....
Olympic Games are Fair Game for TV Satire
August 5: Heard of facts imitating fiction? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in Australia. There’s a comedy serial on Australian television these days. It is a spoof or hilarious leg-pulling on the Australian officials who are in charge of making all the arrangements for the Olympic Games scheduled to start in the Australian capital Sydney. The really strange part is, much of what the serial shows as fiction, ends up happening as fact some time later, says a report in ‘The Times of India’....
Buried under a Garbage Mountain
August 5: Recently, a group of homeless people living in the streets of Manila came to know the meaning of a mountain of garbage. One such mountain loomed behind their makeshift shelter. The pile of garbage grew and grew. Like Jack’s beanstalk. And, then, one day, it rained. The rains loosened the pile and it collapsed. On the houses of the squatters. Crushing them and the people in them, in the process. The result: At least 218 people dead....
Creating News to Cover News
August 12: Throughout the world, the media’s hold on the minds of people is increasing day by day. We are often asked not to believe everything we see on television or read in the newspaper. But so compelling are the words and pictures that these media use, that it’s hard not to. The media has become so powerful that they are forgetting a very important thing. Their job is to record news, not to create it....
Computer Whiz Grans
July 31: A.Yogananda is learning the basics of the computer at a computer centre in Pune. Like how to send and receive e-mails to friends in US, Mumbai and Bangalore. He is as excited as any kid who is learning something new. This eager student is all of 79 years old. And he is not the only one. Senior citizens in Pune are rushing to computer classes and taking notes like never before. In the process they are discovering a strange universe of computer terms....
A Girl Soldier Speaks Out
September 8: At seven Arumuyam Malar could handle a gun better than a pencil. At eight she could handle the wireless radio and knew how to use hand grenades and semi-automatic rifles. As an ‘Eelam tigress’, or a child guerrilla of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, she was told that she had to fight till the end for her Tamil homeland or Eelam — and commit suicide by taking a cyanide pill upon capture....