UK Hindus Start Campaign to Prevent Europe-Wide Ban on Swastika

LONDON, ENGLAND, January 20, 2004: Hindus in the UK are starting a campaign to reclaim the swastika from its Nazi associations. German MEPs called for a Europe-wide ban of the symbol after Prince Harry wore it on a fancy dress costume. But Hindu Forum spokesman Ramesh Kallidai said the swastika had been a Hindu good luck charm for centuries. The group will stage public awareness workshops across the UK and lobby politicians in an attempt to educate the public and prevent a ban, he said. "It's the second most sacred symbol in the Hindu tradition which has been used for 5,000 years to ward off evil," Mr. Kallidai said. The forum would make a particular effort to get the message across to Jewish groups, he added. "After all it is the Jewish anguish that needs to be considered. They were the community that was most affected by the misuse of the swastika so naturally they would have concerns. "Hindus use the swastika merely as a religious sacrament, to express their devotion to God, surely nobody can have any objections to that," he said.

Displaying the swastika is illegal in Germany. However, Mr. Kallidai said a similar ban in the UK would have an adverse affect on Hindus who regarded a swastika in much the same way as a Christian viewed a cross. Buddhists also view the swastika as a good luck charm. "You find it in houses, temples and in portraits of Hindu gods. A swastika is even painted on the head of a baby who's just had his first hair-cutting sacrament," he said. The Hindu swastika faces to the right, unlike the one adopted by the Nazis which faces to the left. (HPI note: This is a commonly repeated but incorrect statement. Hindus use both the left- and right-handed swastikas, and examples can be found of both together on Indus Valley seals.) It is also traditionally red, a color regarded as auspicious by Hindus. "Just because at a particular moment in history one section of society used it, or a mirror image, to unleash xenophobic ideology does not mean Hindus should be punished," Mr. Kallidai said. "It's like saying the Ku Klux Klan burn crosses so therefore let's ban the use of crosses worldwide."

The Hindu Forum's campaign has gained backing from other groups. Maganbhai Patel of Leicester's Hindu Association said the general public's confusion needed to be addressed. "Hindus have been using the swastika for centuries, whereas it was only adopted by Hitler comparatively recently, in the 1920s and 1930s. "We use it for marriage ceremonies and also for other religious ceremonies and events," Mr. Patel said. And Kapil Dudakia, of Milton Keynes Hindu Association, said the swastika was viewed "positively" by billions of people around the world including followers of the Buddhist and Jain faiths. "When I got married, literally as soon as you entered the hall where the marriage took place you saw swastikas everywhere. They were also on the invitation cards," he said. "It's only in certain quarters of the Western world where you've got these very negative connotations. "What we've got to do is separate the evil of Hitler and his ideology from the symbol of the swastika which actually means something quite different," Mr. Dudakia said.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4188141.stm

Romanian woman gives birth at 66

A 66-year-old Romanian woman is believed to have become the world's oldest mother yesterday, after giving birth to a girl.  Doctors at the Giulesti Maternity hospital in Bucharest said Adriana Iliescu's daughter, Eliza Maria, was delivered by caesarean section more than six weeks before the end of a normal, 40-week pregnancy. The child's twin sister was stillborn. Ms Iliescu's extraordinary case is likely to lead to renewed calls for curbs on fertility treatment. She had earlier defended her decision to become pregnant by saying that she came from a family with an unusual history of longevity. A hospital spokeswoman said last night that her daughter weighed 1.5 kilos (3.2 pounds) less than half the weight of an average newborn. She was in the intensive care unit, but breathing on her own. "The mother is doing well. She is saying she has been given a new lease of life," the spokeswoman added. Doctors performed the emergency caesarean after the smaller of the twins died in Ms Iliescu's womb. Ms Iliescu had undergone fertility treatment for nine years, including procedures to reverse the effects of menopause, before being artificially inseminated, said Bogdan Marinescu, who runs the hospital. When he was asked why he had been so willing to help a 66-year-old woman become pregnant, Dr Marinescu replied: "She was in the right condition to carry a pregnancy."  - Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1392095,00.html

Researchers find secret lab of Leonardo Da Vinci

Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo Da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence. The workshop rooms, located between the Institute for Military Geography and the Basilica, include frescos on walls painted by Da Vinci that have "impressive resemblances" to other examples of his experimental work, including a tryptich of birds circling above a subsequently erased representation of the Virgin Mary that "constitutes a clear citation of the studies by the Maestro on the flight of birds", according to the three researchers, Alessandro Del Meglio, Roberto Manneschalchi and Maria Carchio. - Read the article at the IOL site.

Happy Birthday Dr.King!

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15,1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had been graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955 In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “l Have a Dream”, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. ~ From the Nobel Peace Prize Profile.

Scientific Meditation for Happiness

I watched an excellent episode of the Charlie Rose show - http://www.charlierose.com - last night where he interviewed a series of scientists and academics on the new scientific thinking on happiness. Yes, Americans are not the happiest people in the world and while buddhist monks did rate the highest in all studies, people in Latin American and Asian third world countries came out on top. The French and Japanes came out close to the bottom. A positive outlook on life it seems - no matter how bad things seem materially - is the secret to happiness! Martin Seligman, the Director of The Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania put forward an exercise they have developed that guranteed an increase in your happines quotient within a month. Every night, before going to sleep, write down 3 things that went well for you today (made you happy, raised a good feeling in you, felt succesful.) Do this religiously every night for four weeks and then assess your happiness levels. I started yesterday - let's give it a shot!

Giant ice slabs set for collision

Two giant slabs of ice are about to hit each other in Antarctica, possibly with spectacular results, say Nasa experts. A 160km-long iceberg is heading on a collision course with a huge floating glacier in the sea near the US McMurdo Research Station. The B-15A iceberg should collide with the Drygalski Ice Tongue no later than 15 January 2005, though it is slowing. US space agency scientists are studying the iceberg's progress by monitoring satellite images of the region. See the amazing/worrying photographs and story.

Ten days of the Hajj

For Muslims all over the world, these first ten days of the month (1/12 - 1/21) of Dhu al-Hijjah are the days of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, commemorating the journey of the Prophet Mohammed, his family and supporters from Mecca to Medina, to establish a new faith based on the revealed word of the Qu'ran. This solemn rite of pilgrimage, which every Muslim must make once during his or her life, emphasizes the central Muslim tenets of submission to divine will, brotherhood, and unity, and also commemorates the trials of the Prophet Abraham and his family in making their arduous, perilous God-directed journey into Egypt. The ten days of the Hajj are followed and climaxed by the holy days of Eid al-Adha. ~ From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst.