Our World in 7 Headlines: Oct. 15

The world on Oct. 15, 2013, through local media headlines—from banned slang in a London school to how Jews are coping with international anti-circumcision bills.
Our World in 7 Headlines: Oct. 15
A file photo of pupils at at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, England. A BBC article published Oct. 15, 2013, looks at a London school that has banned slang to help students improve their communications skills and job prospects. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Tara MacIsaac
10/15/2013
Updated:
10/15/2013

England: Slang banned from Croydon school to improve student speech

Slang such as “ain’t”, “innit” and “coz” has been banned from a school in south London to try to help students find future employment.
Harris Academy Upper Norwood said it implemented the initiative to allow its students to “express themselves confidently and appropriately”.

Pupils heard using “informal language” will be asked to “reflect” on it.

Other banned words include “like”, “bare” and “extra” and the phrases “you woz” and “we woz”.

Starting sentences with “basically” and ending them with “yeah” is also considered to be too informal at the Croydon school. …

BBC

 

Dubai: Dubai’s biggest landfill becomes venue for special Eid lunch

Hundreds of trucks daily dump over 4,000 tonnes of waste in the landfill which receives more than 60 per cent of the waste generated in the emirate. 

The smell of garbage was replaced with the aroma of biryani with about 400 people feasting at the most unlikely lunch venue, Dubai’s biggest landfill.

The landfill in Al Qusais became the venue for a special Eid lunch for hundreds of workers from the site and the neighbouring labour accommodations in Sonapur on Monday. Hundreds of trucks daily dump over 4,000 tonnes of waste in the landfill which receives more than 60 per cent of the waste generated in the emirate.

Contrary to what one would expect, the landfill - spread over an area of about 3.5 square kilometres - is no more an eyesore and stinky dump yard, thanks to an eco-friendly initiative that has changed the look and, of course, the smell of the waste disposal site.

The landfill gas recovery plant at the site has changed the way the site was operating till last year. The gas collection system implemented by Green Energy Solutions and Sustainability for Dubai Municipality recovers methane emitted from organic waste to be converted into electricity by flaring the gas. The plant, the first of its kind in the region, can reduce 250,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. ...

Khaleej Times

 

Venezuela: Attending Need, Not Profit: Venezuela’s Experiment with Community Medicine

How should the healthcare needs of a society be met? Conspicuously absent from international media coverage and under fire from conservative critics at home, Venezuela is developing a public healthcare system distinct from both U.S. market-driven and European welfare-state models. Perhaps nothing makes this system more unique than the kind of doctors being trained to run it. 

The first remarkable thing to note about Venezuela’s comprehensive community medicine program is how little is known about it outside of Venezuela. The attempt to train tens of thousands of aspiring doctors in Cuban-style preventative community medicine, the majority of these new physicians from lower-income backgrounds, has merited next to no attention from the international mass media. …

Venezuelanalysis

 

Pakistan: As fodder gets costlier, people forced to feed cattle on trees, grass

ISLAMABAD—Retailers of fodder have not even spared cattle, and are seizing the opportunity of selling the feed at high rates in the twin cities. On the other hand, people in the capital have opted for feeding their sacrificial animals on plants, trees and grass on greenbelts, marring the beauty of the city just to save some money....

There is no price mechanism and traders selling fodder at cattle markets and on the roadsides are overcharging without any fear of a crackdown. …

Daily Times

 

Mongolia: Car wash centers to no longer use public drinking water

… Over 60 tons of drinking water per day can potentially be saved per day once the illegal usage of water by car wash centers is resolved. Each car wash requires an average 30 liters of water and if the centers wash 20 cars a day, over 6,000 liters of drinking water for the public is being wasted now. According to this estimate, those 100 car wash centers consume around 60,000 liters of water each day. …

UB Post

 

Israel: ‘Circumcision ceremonies should be held at Israeli embassies in Europe’

MKs [Members of Knesset, Israeli governing body] search for creative solutions to fight motions to turn anti-circumcision resolutions into law.

MKs must make every effort to lobby against anticircumcision resolutions, Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee chairman Yoel Razbozov (Yesh Atid) said Monday.

“No one can force us and Diaspora Jewry to follow certain religious values and not others. We should be allowed to observe all Jewish customs,” Razbozov stated.

“If necessary, we will instruct embassies to hold circumcision ceremonies on their territory, which is Israeli sovereign territory.” …

Jerusalem Post

 

Mexico: Most Living In Tijuana Canal Were Long-Term U.S. Residents

Researchers from Tijuana’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte interviewed 401 deportees living in the two-kilometer stretch of Tijuana River canal that borders the U.S.

COLEF researchers found that more than half of them have been living there for more than a year — in lean-to’s, in drainage pipes, in holes they’ve dug into the riverbank.

Four out of 10 deportees in the Tijuana River canal called the U.S. home for at least 15 years before being deported, according to the survey.

COLEF estimates that up to 1,000 deportees live in the canal in precarious conditions. The canal population was likely even larger before municipal police swept the area in early August. ...

KPBS via Mexico Star