Wednesday 1 September 2010
Petah Tikvah city hall won't let Ethiopian kids transfer out of elementary school
Dozens of parents of Ethiopian origin have been blocked by the Petah Tikva municipality from moving their children from the majority-Ethiopian religious Ner Etzion elementary school to other schools in the city.
Most of the requests were based on the parents' desire not to have their children studying in a school whose student population was nearly exclusively Ethiopian. The municipality, backed by the Education Ministry, rejected most of the requests, saying that it could not force the other religious schools, private and public, to accept a large group of Ethiopian students.
"The arrangement with the schools is based on the assumption that each religious school takes only a small group of Ethiopian students. Taking several dozen such children is out of the question," a source with close knowledge of the Petah Tikva education system told Haaretz.
Of the 290 students expected to attend Ner Etzion this year, only one, first-grader Ran Keinan, is not of Ethiopian origin. The process by which the Ethiopian students became the school's majority took place over a period of years, and is due to the large number of Ethiopian families in the underprivileged neighborhoods for whom this is their default school, and partly because the parents not of Ethiopian background removed their children from the school.
While some moved their children to independent Orthodox schools (most of them associated with Shas), while others moved their children to other state-religious schools, with the approval of the municipality.
Another source said that Ner Etzion provided a convenient solution for everyone involved - everyone, that is, except the parents who wanted to move their children to a different school. "The existence of a school that contains nearly 300 children of Ethiopian background means other schools don't need to take them," the source said.
Young Ran Keinan comes to the school from a "Shuvu" network kindergarden, where most children are from families with their origins in the former Soviet Union. "Ran had a great time in the kindergarten, and there's no reason why he shouldn't get along fine in Ner Etzion, even if he is the only 'white' kid in the school," said Ran's father, Rabbi Amiel Keinan. He said that the mass exodus of veteran Israelis from the increasingly Ethiopian-majority school was "utterly shameful. It's a phenomenon that disgusts me."
Rabbi Keinan teaches in a yeshiva in Petah Tikva, which includes students with special needs. "It's all about values," he says. "Integration and equality are very important in our yeshiva, so I thought, why not do the same at home. In the class I teach in the yeshiva there are recent immigrants from Ethiopia, France and the United States, as well as native Israelis. And it's fine. Why can't the same be happening in first grade? This was the background for my decision to register Ran at Ner Etzion."
Sources in the municipality stressed to Haaretz that the students at Nir Etzion "get special assistance not enjoyed by any other schools. They get longer schooldays, up to 4 P.M., a hot meal and hundreds of hours of extra classes [schoolwide] each week. Students who didn't read Hebrew a year ago have acquired the language, test results are excellent, and graduates are accepted into the best yeshivas."
One municipality source said: "With all due respect to the parents, in other schools these kids wouldn't get the same attention." The sources also stressed that all transfer requests to secular schools were confirmed.
The Education Ministry said in a statement that student registration falls under the responsibility of the local authority, but decisions made at the local authority level can be appealed to the district director at the ministry. "No appeals hav been received so far," the ministry said, noting it ran support programs in schools with high percentages of recent immigrants.
Children in the largely Ethiopian neighborhood were divided on the issue, with some saying they'd like to have some "white" friends and other saying caucasian Israelis shunned them at school and called them "Negroes."
Or Kashti @'Haaretz'
Artists Make DIY Bike Lane Along Helsinki Thoroughfare
Hämeentie is the longest street in Helsinki, Finland, and one of the city's main thoroughfares. It has four lanes of traffic, but no space whatsoever for cyclists. There's no bike lane between the buses and the sidewalk.
To create their own, the Finnish collective Länsiväylä poured paint along one section of the street and then invited a group of cyclists to ride through it at midnight, leaving a visible trace of where bikes would ride if there were space, and creating a colorful new boundary.
Law-and-order types, worry not: The paint they used washes away with water. Unfortunately, that means that Hämeentie won't really have a permanent new bike lane. At least not yet: The huge turnout might make city planners take notice.
Andrew Price @'GOOD'
Banksy targets BP oil spill with dolphin ride
Street artist/prankster Banksy has unveiled his latest work, a dolphin ride for children on the boardwalk in the English seaside resort town of Brighton. This coin-operated dolphin is seen leaping over a BP barrel of leaking oil.
Iranian media warned after paper calls Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a 'prostitute'
The Iranian government today urged the country's media to refrain from insults after a hardline newspaper twice described Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France's first lady, as a "prostitute".
The Keyhan daily paper made the comments after Bruni-Sarkozy condemned the stoning sentence against an Iranian woman convicted of adultery.
Ramin Mehmanparast, a foreign ministry spokesman, said insulting foreign dignitaries was incorrect and was not officially sanctioned.
The paper first called Bruni-Sarkozy a prostitute on Saturday and repeated the comment today. It said that, like Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to stoning, Bruni-Sarkozy deserved to die, as did actor Isabelle Adjani, who also condemned the sentence.
Ashtiani, whose sentence has been suspended, could still face execution after a review of her case, which has prompted international outrage that appears to have rattled the authorities in Tehran.
The mother of two has already received 99 lashes for having an illicit relationship with two men.
Bruni-Sarkozy was one of several French celebrities who published open letters to Ashtiani.
"In the depths of your cell, know that my husband will plead your cause unfailingly and that France will not abandon you," she wrote.
"Spill your blood, deprive your children of their mother? Why? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you are a woman, an Iranian? Every part of me refuses to accept this."
Kayhan, whose editor in chief – currently Hossein Shariatmadari – is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported Bruni-Sarkozy's letter on Saturday under the headline: "French prostitutes enter human rights uproar."
Today, it returned to the subject, criticising Bruni's "illicit relationships with various people" and blaming her for causing Nicolas Sarkozy's divorce from his second wife.
"Studying Carla Bruni's record clearly shows the reason why this immoral woman is backing an Iranian woman who has been condemned to death for committing adultery and being an accomplice in her husband's murder and, in fact, she herself deserves to die," the paper said.
"Bruni is the singer and decadent actress who managed to break the Sarkozy family and marry the French president."
Mehmanparast called on Iran's media to use more temperate language. "Insulting the officials of other countries and using inappropriate words … is not approved of by the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.
"The policies, the manners and the comments of other countries' officials, we criticise them, we make objections to them and we call for them to review their deeds, but we don't think using inappropriate words and insulting words is the right thing to do."
However, Iranian state-run TV also described Bruni-Sarkozy as "proud of her immoral acts".
Earlier this month, an Iranian vice-president attacked Britons as "inhuman" idiots saddled with a dunce of a prime minister.
The president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urged Americans to "pour water where it burns", a reference to a phrase about people who are so angry that their buttocks catch fire.
Ian Black @'The Guardian'
From 1968 to 1975, gangs ruled New York City. Beyond the idealistic hopes of the civil rights
movement lay a unfocused rage. Neither law enforcement nor social agency could end
the escalating bloodshed. Peace came only through the most unlikely and courageous of events that would change the world for generations to come by giving birth to hip-hop culture. Rubble Kings, the most comprehensive documentation of life during this era of gang rule to date, tells the story of how a few extraordinary, forgotten people did the impossible, and how their actions impacted the world over.
movement lay a unfocused rage. Neither law enforcement nor social agency could end
the escalating bloodshed. Peace came only through the most unlikely and courageous of events that would change the world for generations to come by giving birth to hip-hop culture. Rubble Kings, the most comprehensive documentation of life during this era of gang rule to date, tells the story of how a few extraordinary, forgotten people did the impossible, and how their actions impacted the world over.
How The Record Labels Kill Off Innovative Startups With Ridiculous Licensing Demands
We recently showed a graphic description of the ridiculous licensing spiderweb any new music startup needs to go through these days. That was a UK depiction, but it's quite similar in the US and other parts of the world as well. What's not seen in the graphic, however, is just what some of the demands are from those copyright holders in order to secure the necessary licenses. We've heard time and time again from innovative music startup after innovative music startup, that when the major record labels come calling, they do so with outrageous demands for upfront payments, excessively high ongoing royalties and a demand for equity. Quite frequently, the record labels try negotiating through lawsuit, by suing the startup as a part of the "negotiation." While many of these lead to "settlements," the results are ridiculously burdensome, leading many of these startups to go out of business.
Playlist.com is a startup that has gone through much of this cycle, including lawsuits from the majors and "settlements." Except, the settlements were so burdensome that Playlist declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to try to get out from under some of its liabilities. What that's also done is given us a glimpse behind the scenes of just how much the labels end up getting from such startups. For example, Playlist apparently owes the four major labels a combined $24.4 million for helping people find and listen to music.
Playlist.com is a startup that has gone through much of this cycle, including lawsuits from the majors and "settlements." Except, the settlements were so burdensome that Playlist declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to try to get out from under some of its liabilities. What that's also done is given us a glimpse behind the scenes of just how much the labels end up getting from such startups. For example, Playlist apparently owes the four major labels a combined $24.4 million for helping people find and listen to music.
(Click to enlarge)
These fees were the result of the settlement licenses worked out by the labels, but the company can't even come close to paying them off. And, because of this, people will just get the same music elsewhere -- from offerings that probably don't pay the labels a dime. It's really quite impressive when you look at the long list of innovative music services startups killed by ridiculous major label demands.
Die Antwoord & Aphex Twin live @ LED Festival
comment on youtube:
"good video quality but *REALLY* bad sound recording. Aphex was playing the most insane sounds and Die Antwoord were merely background sounds like ghostly voices in a raging sonic storm, it worked quite well. This video shows Die Antwoord as the main sound and aphex as the background."
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