Letters - October 31, 2012

Wasted resource

An unfair bar

A British theatre producer who staged a play about homosexuality in Uganda has been jailed after he defied an official ban on its public performance. David Cecil faces criminal charges that could lead to a two-year prison sentence in the East African country.

Saharias face exile, again

Over the line humour

“How do you kill 1,000 flies at once? Slap me in the face.” It is just one of many examples of the racist pictures of Aboriginal people posted on a Facebook page, Aboriginal Memes.

All women press

“We always dreamed of a heroine who would not only denounce violence against women but would also represent us in other spheres,” Kena Lorenzini, director of Chile’s first feminist publication, told news agency IPS. The online daily, La MansaGuman, created and managed solely by women, aims to shed light on the inequality and discrimination suffered by Chilean women, right from the gap in wages to criminalisation of abortion.

Land of discord

Awarding the tyrant

Human rights groups have condemned UNESCO as “shameful and utterly irresponsible” for awarding a prize sponsored by one of Africa’s most authoritarian rulers. The $3 million award, presented to three scientists on July 17, is funded by Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Letters - August 15, 2012

It’s business as usual

Beautiful survivors

With a 79-year-old as the winner, it was an unlikely beauty contest. The pageant was for Holocaust survivors in which 14 women, aged 74 to 97, walked the red carpet and described their sufferings at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. Hava Hershkovitz, who had to flee her native Romania, was crowned the winner.

Baigas in exile