The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| First gay sports fest shows changing Nepal attitudes Posted: 14 Oct 2012 11:59 PM PDT  A contestant casts a shadow on a wall as she waits to enter the stage for the Pink Pageant, during the closing ceremony of the first South Asia Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Sports Festival in Kathmandu October 14, 2012. — Reuters pic About 1,500 spectators cheered as the athletes, waving rainbow colored flags, marched at the Dasharath Stadium in the heart of Kathmandu in the opening ceremony of the three-day event that showed how attitudes are changing, albeit slowly, in the conservative, Hindu-majority nation. The athletes were accompanied by masked dancers and Panche baja—musicians playing Nepal's traditional instruments including pipes and drums. "After I participated in the tournament, my confidence has increased," said 29-year-old Bakti Shah, who took part in football and athletics. American Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, on a visit to Nepal to support the rights of sexual minorities, kicked off the event at a football match, wearing a Nepali cloth cap and cream-colored Buddhist prayer scarf. "Initially, I was a little worried whether we will be able to hold such a big event in a major public venue," said well-known activist Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society, a leading gay rights group. "We have done it and proved that we can do," added Pant, a former member of parliament. Homosexuality is still taboo in Nepal, which does not have clear laws about the rights of the increasingly assertive gay community. Same sex marriages have taken place in public, but wedding certificates are not given by authorities as there are no laws that recognise such unions. People found guilty of "unnatural sex" face up to one year in jail. Until about six years ago, homosexuals were beaten on the streets of Kathmandu and arrested. Changing attitudes "Personal attitudes in the conservative society are slowly changing. It is a good thing," Pant said. Nepal, home to Mount Everest and the birthplace of Buddha, emerged from 10 years of Maoist conflict in 2006, after which the country began to increasingly recognise the rights of the underprivileged communities. In 2007, the country's Supreme Court ordered the government to do away with laws that discriminate against gays and guarantee them the same rights as other citizens. Gay beauty contests are now organised and held, and gay pride parades have been held in several major cities, including Kathmandu. Early this year, a teenage boy who underwent a sex-change operation in Thailand was welcomed home by his family as the country's first known transsexual. Gays still face numerous difficulties. Schools and colleges won't accept them, and they have trouble getting national identity cards in the gender they prefer. But ordinary Nepalis were positive about the event. "I think it is good they have assembled here for the sports tournament," said a 24-year-old college student Raju Shakya. "They should be entitled to the same rights as others without discrimination. They are also human beings like us." — Reuters |
| Moon rocks, chunks of Mars auctioned Posted: 14 Oct 2012 08:23 PM PDT  David Herskowitz, a natural history consultant at Heritage Auctions, handles a portion of Dar Al Gani 1058, the fourth largest piece of moon rock available to the public in New York October 12, 2012. —Reuters pic More than 125 meteorites were offered in the private sale, from gray pockmarked lumps of iron to highly polished slabs glittering with extraterrestrial gems. But many of the big-ticket items, estimated to sell for US$50,000 or more, did not find buyers. The most expensive items on offer were four pounds (1.8kg) of Moon rock that were once embedded on the dark side of the Moon before an asteroid sent them hurling into space. They sold for US$330,000 after the auction's end. The rocks went for US$10,000 less than the low-end, pre-sale estimate, organisers said. The most hotly contested lot was a slice of the Seymchan meteorite, pieces of which were found in Siberia in the 1960s. The 23-cm-tall slice, embedded with olivine crystals, went for US$43,750, about 12 times its estimated sale price. Items that failed to sell included a large fragment of the Tissint meteorite of Martian origin that fell in Morocco last year, and an iron meteorite resembling a howling face that was found in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. It was valued at US$175,000 to US$225,000. Meteorites are priced for their size, rarity, beauty and provenance. Some items sold for as little as a few hundred dollars. "We wanted to make certain there's something for everyone. We want to be egalitarian when we're offering outer space," said Darryl Pitt, the meteorite consultant for Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale. Buyers are typically willing to pay more for bits of rock or iron known to have originated on the Moon or Mars. Lunar meteorites are particularly rare, he said, with only about 61.2kg of the rock known to exist on Earth. "It is the oldest material mankind can touch, the raw ingredients of the planets," Pitt said in describing the appeal of collecting meteorites. One buyer, who asked not to be named, spent tens of thousands of dollars in several successful bids, including one for a Martian meteorite. He said he was taking instructions from a copy of the auction catalog heavily annotated by his meteorite-loving wife. While one iron meteorite weighed in at nearly 725kg, several other lots featured flecks of rock about the size of a nickel. A piece of the so-called Peekskill meteorite, which was caught on camera 20 years ago burning through the sky before smacking into a Chevy Malibu in New York, sold for US$16,250. One buyer paid US$1,375 for a piece of stone involved in the only documented fatality caused by a meteorite when it crashed down in 1972. "It was a cow," auctioneer Ed Beardsley said. "It was pulverized. It was quick." —Reuters |
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