ABRACADABRA

Sex-education via bathrooms-The Chinese way
Beijing: Allowing boys and girls to peep into each other’s bathroom to understand gender roles seems to be the new Chinese way to teach sex education in school.

Third graders at the Chaoyang district school in Beijing received their first lesson in sex education in the form of a toilet tour. Giving children an opportunity to peek into the other gender’s bathroom is a way to help boys and girls understand gender roles under the new initiative, educators said. “Children tend to be curious about the bathrooms of the opposite sex,” sex lecturer Hou Wenjun at Anhuili Central Primary School told Beijing News. Hou believes that education starts with curiosity.“A tour to the bathroom lets children see what behavioural differences there are between the two sexes.” Now an official part of the school’s curriculum for grades one to 6 (ages 6 to 11), sex education begins with the fundamental subject of fertillisation, a report in the state run Global Times said.

Students first viewed a Power Point presentation illustrating how sperm fertilise eggs. When asked how gender is determined, the students came with guesses such as “it depends on what Mom wants” and “bigger eggs grow into boys while smaller ones make girls.”
Visiting the bathroom can be a good technique in teaching gender codes to students, Zhang Meimei, sex education expert at Capital Normal University said. “The bathroom of the opposite sex can be a mysterious place. I have known a lot of third-and fourth-grade boys who would sneak into the lady’s room just to see what it is like,” Zhang said. “Sex educators can take this curiosity and turn it into knowledge of social norms regarding sex.

US judge, 103 still at work!

Wichita (US): In a courtroom in Wichita, Kansas, the day begins much as it has for the past 49 years: Court is in session, US District judge Wesley Brown presiding. But what happens next is no longer routine; it’s a testament to one man’s sheer determination. As lawyers and litigants wait in respectful silence, Brown, who is 103, carefully steers his power wheelchair behind the bench, his stooped frame almost disappearing behind its wooden bulk. He adjusts under his nose the plastic tubes from the oxygen tank lying next to the day’s case documents. Then his voice rings out loud and firm to his law clerk, “Call your case”. Brown is the oldest working federal judge in the nation, one of four appointees by President Kennedy still on the bench. Federal judgeships are lifetime appointment, and than no one have taken that term more seriously than Brown. “As a federal judge, I was appointed for life or good behavior, whichever I lose first,” Brown quipped in an interview. How dose he plan to leave the post? “Feet first,” he says.

One in five Britons don’t visit the dentist

London: At least one in five Britons do not go to see the dentist because of the high cost. In a survey of 11,000 people, conducted by the National Health Service (NHS) Information Centre and the Office for National Statistics, 26 percent of adults said the dental treatment they opted for was influenced by cost, and 19 percent delayed treatment for the same reason, according to the Daily Mail.

People say the expense affects their choice of treatment. Some opt to have teeth removed rather than pay for costlier preservation methods such as root canals.
A similar research for the British Dental Association said the economic climate led to a surge in cancelled or deferred appointment and a rise in emergency treatment.

Denied salary, imam locks mosque
Dubai: Disgruntled over the non payment of the salary, an imam in Saudi Arabia locked the doors of a mosque and prevented worshipers to perform the prayers, media report said. According to the report, the Saudanese imam is said to have locked the place of worship after a benefactor volunteered to pay the salary for leading the prayers but failed to provide the money. Attempts by the inhabitants of the small village in the Wadi Al Dawaser to persuade the imam to call off his strike or least to open the mosque so that they could pray could not change his mind, according to Saudi daily ‘Al Yaum’. “People look forward to more spiritual commitment through prayers and reading the Quran during the holy month, but this imam is taking action against us,” a resident was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Around 60 people pray regularly at the mosque, the newspaper said. “We have repeatedly appealed to the authorities to appoint an imam so that we do not have such problems,” another resident reportedly said. “We should never have a repeat of such a dilemma”.

Government secretive on secrete accounts !
New Delhi: The Centre again declined to disclose in the Supreme Court names of people who have stashed black money in foreign banks, saying it is not possible to disclosed information received from foreign governments under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements. The Centre, however, agreed to reveal the names of six persons who had deposited money with the Liechtenstein Bank in Germany and who are being prosecuted by the government authorities.