Cinco de Mayo observances cause student protests

Students demonstrated near the Braun Music Center on Monday in an effort to educate the campus community about the history of Cinco de Mayo and protest the alleged cultural appropriation of the day’s Mexican heritage.

“We were thinking we want to have a demonstration given that today is Cinco de Mayo to raise awareness about the issues of cultural appropriation and why a lot of people can be offended by things that go on on this day,” explained Brenda Muñoz ’14.

Cultural appropriation refers to actions that trivialize aspects of a culture by not respecting a custom’s symbolic significance or the history of a style of dress or other artifact. On Cinco de Mayo, protestors noted, many students wear serapes, sombreros, and fake mustaches in an effort to dress “Mexican.”

In addition to the offensive costumes, students also expressed concern that the meaning of the Cinco de Mayo holiday has become lost for most Americans. The holiday is celebrated more often in the United States than in Mexico because it marks a specific, regionally celebrated battle between Mexico and France, rather than Mexican independence generally.

“I just feel like Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick’s Day have just become holidays that have just become the norm now to just drink and people have just accepted and haven’t really stopped to think about that it’s really offensive,” said Karen Oropeza ’17 about the holiday’s misrepresentation.

Read More: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/05/06/cinco-de-mayo-observances-cause-student-protests/

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Man arrested for claiming US-South Korean drill caused ferry sinking

A South Korean man has been arrested for spreading an Internet rumor that a U.S.-South Korean military drill caused a passenger ferry to sink off the country’s southwest coast, according to the National Police Agency.

The Sewol went down April 16, leaving about 300 people, mostly high school students, dead or missing.

The incident, which is being attributed to overloading and lax adherence to safety standards, has caused an outpouring of grief and anger at the government. President Park Geun-hye has offered several apologies.

Police have cracked down on government critics — as well as detractors of the victims — under a law that bans spreading false information that harms someone’s reputation.

An NPA official said 39 people, more than half of them teenagers, have been investigated for spreading rumors about the accident or defaming the dead, their families or the government. Three have been arrested, including a 50-year-old man, identified only by his last name of Shin, after the South Korean navy filed a complaint over an internet posting that said “the ferry Sewol sank because it deviated from its course due to the joint South Korea-U.S. exercise.”

Shin posted a photograph of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine operating off South Korea’s west coast, and claimed the Sewol changed course to avoid the sub. Police said the photo was “randomly” taken from the internet and was unrelated to current U.S. military activity in the region.

Read More: http://www.stripes.com/news/man-arrested-for-claiming-us-south-korean-drill-caused-ferry-sinking-1.282228

'Attempted' annexation of Crimea latest in US 'diplospeak' euphemisms

By now, most people know that Russian President Vladimir Putin took over the neighboring Crimea region of Ukraine and formally annexed it after a hastily called referendum there that drew outrage from across the globe.

U.S. officials don’t dispute what happened — they saw the Russian celebration of the “return” of Crimea and heard the challenge to Western domination in Putin’s speech — but the official government lexicon hasn’t caught up to the facts on the ground. The State Department’s latest verbal twist is to refer to Putin’s land grab as an “attempt” at annexation, to underline U.S. opposition to a move it considers illegitimate.

Such language causes eye rolling among foreign policy specialists, some of whom harbor more serious concerns that the empty wording also signals a lack of policies that factor in the uncomfortable realities of places such as Ukraine, Syria, Egypt and China.

“Isn’t this already a fait accompli? It’s already taken,” a reporter pointed out at a recent State Department briefing where spokeswoman Marie Harf defended the use of “attempted annexation” for the Crimea crisis.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/attempted-annexation-of-crimea-latest-in-us-diplospeak-euphemisms-1.277418

The sex-obsessed world of Brunei

Last week, celebrities including Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres, Sharon Osbourne, Richard Branson and Clive Davis united for an unlikely cause: a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel, because its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, recently announced the implementation of Sharia law in his tiny South Asian nation.

“Theory states that Allah’s law is cruel and unfair,” said Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, “but Allah himself has said that his law is indeed fair.”

Under Sharia law, the following is considered criminal behavior, punishable by fines, jail, amputation of limbs, public flogging or death by stoning: absence from Friday prayer services; becoming pregnant out of wedlock; wearing indecent clothing, and for women, refusal to wear a hijab; employing a non-Muslim babysitter; the use of the word “Allah” by Christians and the discussion of faith by any non-Muslims; publicly eating or drinking during Ramadan; theft; homosexuality; and adultery.

The Sultan, now 67, has slowly been moving Brunei in this direction for decades, but this recent, drastic declaration has no clear motive. Brunei is so rich with oil it’s fully independent; nor is it a target of Islamic extremists.

So, why now?

Read More: http://nypost.com/2014/05/10/inside-the-wacky-sex-obsessed-world-of-brunei/

Plane with smoke in cockpit returns to LAX

Source: AP

A United Airlines flight has arrived safely back at Los Angeles International Airport after smoke was reported in the cockpit and cabin during a flight to Hawaii.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says United flight 1296 landed without incident at 11:38 a.m. Saturday, about three hours after it took off.

United spokesman Charles Hobart says nobody was hurt.

The Boeing 757 was headed for Kona International Airport with about 150 people on board when the smoke was reported by crew members.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Plane-with-smoke-in-cockpit-returns-to-LAX-5468410.php

Family: Fremont teacher slapped boy over math test

A Fremont schoolteacher slapped a 9-year-old boy who he believed was mocking him by purposely misplacing a decimal point on a math test, the boy’s attorney and father said Thursday.

The teacher, Frederick Berg, 58, of Fremont was placed on paid administrative leave after the April 28 incident but is returning Friday to Patterson Elementary School over the objections of the boy’s parents, said the family’s attorney, Dionne Choyce.

“It’s shocking,” Choyce said. “Parents send their kids to school in the hopes that they’re in a safe environment and they’re protected from acts like these. You just don’t expect a teacher to put their hands on a child.”

Fremont police are investigating the incident, which happened as the boy was taking a math test in preparation for the STAR exam, said his father, Danny Rivera Jr.

The boy asked Berg for help on a question, and Berg twice slapped the student in the face in an incident witnessed by other students, Choyce said.

Read More: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/05/08/family-fremont-teacher-slapped-boy-over-math-test/

Budget-strapped Israeli military banks on future US aid

Budget-strapped Israel is pressing the United States to conclude a deal extending defense aid beyond 2017, when Washington's current $3 billion annual payouts to its Middle East ally expire, officials said on Friday.

They said a swift agreement on future U.S. grants would help Israel's military draft a five-year austerity plan accommodating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative government.

"It's difficult to budget into 2018 and 2019 without knowing what funds will be available," an Israeli defense official said.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will visit Israel next week and the future aid will probably be raised by his hosts, according to a different official who declined to be identified by name or nationality.

Read More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/09/us-israel-usa-defence-idUSBREA4807A20140509

Rice: Every $1 spent on Israel’s security is an investment

President Barack Obama’s security adviser said US investment in Israel’s defense shows it is committed to its security.

Susan Rice said Friday that the Obama administration and Israel recently signed an agreement for further US investment in its Iron Dome system.

The Iron Dome defends Israel against short-range rockets fired by militants in Gaza, Sinai and Lebanon. It detects the rockets and strikes them in midair.

Rice said that the new deal “will take our total investment in Iron Dome, which has saved countless of Israeli lives, to nearly $900 million, a sign of our continued commitment to Israel’s security.”

“Every American dollar spent on Israel’s security is an investment in protecting the many interests that our nations share. Whether that’s preventing rockets from terrorizing the Israeli people, defending against the growing ballistic missile threat in the region, or advancing our commitment to defend freedom and democracy,” she went on.

Read More: http://www.timesofisrael.com/susan-rice-us-committed-to-israels-security/

Never has the United States been more supportive of Israel than under President Obama. That they don't return the support speaks volumes.