[ picks of the day ]
This bawdy world of boobs and gams shows how far we’ve left to go
Ariel Levy
Friday February 17, 2006
This is not about the sex industry; it’s about what we have decided the sex industry means … how we have held it up, cleaned it off and distorted it. How we depend on it to mark us as an erotic and uninhibited culture at a moment when fear and repression are rampant. In 2004, George Bush, the leader of the free world, proposed an amendment to the United States constitution to for ever ban gay marriage – which was already illegal. In opinion polls, about 50% of respondents said they thought Bush had the right idea. If half my country feels so threatened by two people of the same gender being in love and having sex (and, incidentally, enjoying equal protection under the law) that they turn their attention – during wartime – to blocking rights already denied to homosexuals, then all the cardio striptease classes in the world aren’t going to render us sexually liberated….
also check out
Judge’s anger at US torture
Richard Norton-Taylor and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday February 17, 2006
The UN inspectors refused a US offer to tour Guantánamo after they were barred from visiting the prisoners. The 40-page document is the UN’s first to address Guantánamo. Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, dismissed its findings as a “rehash of old allegations” and “a discredit to the organisation”. “The detainees are being treated humanely,” he said. “Remember these are terrorists.”…
35 rescued, hundreds feared dead in S. Leyte landslide
At least 35 people were rescued after a massive landslide buried three villages in Saint Bernard town, Southern Leyte province, Friday.
A rescue worker said the next 24 hours would be crucial in pulling out survivors trapped underneath tons of mud and rock in Barangay Cabagawan, Sug-angon and Guinsaugon.
Initial reports said a large portion of a mountain in between Sogod and Saint Bernard towns buried at least 300 houses including two school buildings in the area.
“It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled. I could not see any house standing anymore,” Survivor Dario Libatan told DZMM.
“It was like the whole barangay was wiped off the map,” added Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado.
Authorities said a minor earthquake and heavy rainfall might have caused the landslide.
Renato Solidum, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director, said a 2.6 magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern portion of Southern Leyte at 10:36 a.m. He said the quake was felt at intensity 2 in Sogod town.
“This earthquake could not have triggered a landslide alone. You need an intensity 7 to do that. Other factors were also present especially heavy rainfall. You only need 100mm of rainfall to trigger a landslide,” he told ANC.
Officials said rainfall in Southern Leyte hit a record 500mm from February 1 to 16 due primarily to the La Niña phenomenon.
Mercado also blamed unchecked logging activities in the area for the disaster. He said he had informed environment authorities about the logging problem, which had been ongoing for the past 30 years.
Southern Leyte Gov. Rosette Y. Lerias said the landslide happened around 11:15 a.m. Many of the casualties were feared to be children as classes were going on in an area school when the disaster occurred.
Lerias said bodies have been retrieved in barangays Cabagawan, Sug-angon and Guinsaugon. PNRC officials earlier estimated the death toll at 200, with 1,500 residents still missing.
Lerias said most of the residents evacuated the area earlier this week but returned after the weather cleared up.
“The daytime has been sunny lately but the rains usually come at night so that’s when the people evacuate. Unfortunately, the landslide happened in the daytime,” she said.
Emergency teams from the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Philippine Army, Philippine National Police and the Southern Leyte provincial government have been deployed in the area, Lerias said.
Didita Kamarenta, who lives on a mountain next to one of the villages in Saint Bernard town in Leyte province, said the earth shook and there was a strong gust of wind.
“I felt mud at my feet. I heard someone outside screaming for help,” she said on radio. “All the children, including my two children, are lost. They might have been buried.”
Like much of Eastern Visayas, Southern Leyte has been experiencing continuous rainfall for the past two weeks, which experts attributed to the La Niña weather phenomenon.
Last Sunday a landslide hit Sogod municipality, also in Southern Leyte, where eight people died.
The Philippines is lashed by about 20 typhoons each year, including a series of storms in late 2004 that left about 1,800 people dead or missing in provinces northeast of the capital, Manila.
