TresSugar

LPGA Decides to Ditch Ban on Non-English Speaking Golfers

LibertySugar — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:00:00 -0700

The triumph of non-native English speakers, who won three LPGA majors this year, indicates that speaking English is not a required skill on the golf course. Even so, the international women's pro-golf association announced a policy recently that would suspend players who do not speak English. After much outrage, the plan has been rejected.

The LPGA Tour commissioner explained:

After hearing the concerns, we believe there are other ways to achieve our shared objective of supporting and enhancing the business opportunities for every tour player.

The original plan did not require players to be fluent, only "effective." The LPGA explained that it wanted players to interact effectively with pro-am partners, do media interviews, and give a winner's acceptance speech in English. The LPGA offers online language training, and also has a cross-culture program.

Considering that players have an incentive to improve their language skills if they want to further their careers off the course, it's probably not necessary for the LPGA to ban players with poor English from playing golf, a sport that doesn't require much speaking. We all have heard stories of white-only golf courses - why do you think the sport has a tendency to back away from diversity?

Source

No Kid Miners! Sustainably and Responsibly Sourced Gold

CitizenSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:30:59 -0700

In the story about children mining gold in Africa, lots of you were interested in making sure your baubles and bling had no part of the sad practice of exploiting children to extract the precious metal. I am not afraid to be servicey so I found this brand that answers that accessory predicament.

It's called Love, Earth and it's a pilot project that's a collaboration of companies in the jewelry supply chain. Not just committed to protecting kids, the brand produces pieces that can be traced back to the ecologically-sustainable mine it cam from. Since every single gold ring made produces 20 tons of mining waste, and the processing makes thousands of gallons of cyanide, they've gone ultraresponsible and transparent, allowing you to track the entire history of the piece.

Want to know where to find the line? You may be surprised. . . To find out, read more.

Oh, yeppy yep! Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart! I know a lot of you have complicated feelings about the chain, but this line of jewelry is pretty remarkable and groundbreaking.

Each piece you purchase from the store has a tracking number allowing you to trace the whole story, an important step in making the whole jewelry industry more accountable and responsible to people, the earth, and ladies who like to wear finery. Wal-Mart is looking to add similar responsible diamond jewelry in the future.

Do Wal-Mart's big goals to supply itself by 100 percent renewable energy, and the fact that they're using their might for good, make them better in your eyes?

All That Glitters Is Gold - and Is Mined by Kids in Africa

CitizenSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:00:59 -0700

Africa: a continent of untold riches in gold and diamonds, contrasted with shocking poverty of citizens living on the surface just above the treasure trove. Veins of gold run through the earth demanding to be mined - a job dangerous enough for adults, but savagely brutal when you're four years old.

The AP conducted a yearlong study of six African gold mines and found more than 150 child miners to interview, tracking the gold from kid to ring. The United Nation's labor agency estimates that there are 100,000 to 250,000 child miners in West Africa alone. One of these, a 12-year-old miner (who is less than four feet tall) was lured to the trade after his village's only teacher left, and the global price of gold spiked. He and two friends hiked with their recruiter for 100 miles, to the mine where the boys live, sleeping on mattresses crammed between adults. It's not just boys lured into the trade; girls also start as young as four and can be working full-time by the age of 10.

To see how the children mine, read more.

Some boys squeeze down mine shafts as narrow as manholes that run 100 feet deep - and some get bags of dirt that men have mostly picked clean of gold, only crumbs remain. The boys pour mercury (the same substance that attacks the brain and can cause retardation and blindness) into their bare hands and rub it into the mud to coax the gold crumbs to stick.

After the treasure has changed hands up to the eventual gold dealers, it's far removed from the young sources. One gold merchant said when asked about child miners, "We don't live in the bush, so we have nothing to do with child labor. We just buy gold." The boys know the sweat value of the metal. The 12-year-old says, "If I have one wish, it's that I might someday have a little bit of money. Sometimes I dream that one day I'll own something made of gold."

The complication comes as it's near impossible to know which gold has been extracted from the earth by small hands - by the time it becomes jewelry, its provenance is all but mute.

Source

Tourists Join Full-Time Gold Prospectors in Gold Country!

LibertySugar — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:45:25 -0700

The gold rush is back! As gold hits a record high of $1,000 an ounce, 160 years after the original California Gold Rush, 21st-century Americans are panning for gold. Even though the original 49ers found $12 billion worth of gold by today's standards, at least 85 percent of California's gold remains undiscovered.

Prospectors include Californians giving up their day jobs to pan gold full time, as well as tourists from around the country trying their hand. One BBC reporter gave it a try and made $30 in 30 minutes. $1 per minute - not bad!

BBC interviewed a full-time gold digger, who said that most short sessions turn up a few flecks. Even though he doesn't make tons of money, he said what he finds is enough to pay the bills and gives him glimmering hope that he may hit the jackpot someday.

With these tough economic times a trip to gold country sounds like a perfect vacation! Perhaps you can make up the cost of your trip, or more, with a few hours spent shaking out some gold. Perfect if you were trying to head out this expensive Memorial Day weekend. Check out these photos and tell me if you want to be part of the new gold rush!

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Infamous Reform School For Girls Closes Its Doors

TresSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0700

The idea of a reform school for girls seems to come straight out of a B-movie from the '50s, complete with stock characters like the naïve innocent, the hardened mean girl with a heart of gold who ends up plotting a way for them both to escape, and an evil warden who gets in their way. It's hard to believe that such a place could still exist.

Until August of this year, the notorious Beloit reform school for girls in Beloit, KS did exist, and the school, founded in the 1890s, only recently shut down because the state could no longer afford to house the remaining 21 girls to the tune of $200,000 a year.

Although the school's founders had good intentions, Beloit's dark history includes the severe mistreatment of girls, many of who were running away from physically and sexually abusive homes. In effect, the abused were shipped off to be further abused. How bad did it get? In the '30s, a superintendent who was influenced by Nazi eugenics practices had 62 of her charges involuntarily sterilized. To read more about the history of Beloit and how it evolved, read more

Beloit was founded and in part funded by the suffragist and pro-Prohibition group The Women's Christian Temperance Union in the 1890s. Sometimes, the girls there were practically "indentured" by farm families in this rural town in order to earn the food they ate. (This was all before the state took over.)

At the time, according to Russell Jennings, commissioner of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority, girls "were really viewed in our society much more as property." They didn't even have to run away to be deemed "incorrigible" or "wayward." They only had to be, as he put it, "a pain in the neck."

In a file from a girl housed (incarcerated?) at Beloit in the '30s, her offenses were that she "associated with Mexican men" and "became intoxicated at dances." Another woman was sent to the reform school for "being immoral (with father)."

A federal law passed in the mid-1970s ended the practice of sending girls to reform school when their offenses, if they'd been committed by adults, would not be considered crimes. But their incarceration continued in Kansas until 1983. Now, troubled teenage girls are sent to community centers where they can get the help that they need.

In spite of its history, for some who stayed there, Beloit was a haven from abuse at home. "I will always believe that because of Beloit and the staff, I am where I am today," said a 50-year-old who is happily married with three children and counsels survivors of sexual abuse. "They saved the lives of unwanted children."

Source

Flashback: Solid Gold Dancers

GiggleSugar — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:00:00 -0800

Why don't dancers dressed like strippers do interpretive dance to contemporary music anymore? Why, why, why? (Gotta love the periodic explosions, too!)

Flashback: Solid Gold Dancers

GiggleSugar — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:00:00 -0700

Why don't dancers dressed like strippers do interpretive dance to contemporary music anymore? Why, why, why?

Front Page: Barack and Michelle Go For the Gold in Denmark

TresSugar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:00:45 -0700

Michelle Obama promises "take no prisoners" when she and Barack go to Denmark Thursday with hopes of nabbing the 2016 Olympics for Chicago. - CNN
The US plans to economically isolate Iran if the country does not allow international inspectors in to examine its nuclear program. - Washington Post
At least 240 people have died in the Philippines as a result of severe flooding. - Wall Street Journal
An overreach by Roman Polanski's lawyer may have been behind the director's arrest. - NY Daily News
Predictably, abortion is complicating the healthcare debate. - New York Times
Things are looking good for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after she won re-election over the weekend. - New York Times

The Ultimate Crappy Job? Bangladeshis Pan Gold in Sewers

CitizenSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:30:22 -0700

While we all might get "a case of the Mondays," the story of the job these Bangladeshis do is so intense, it makes most job complaints pale in comparison. A new market has opened in the sewers of Dhaka, Bangladesh and for those who have the entrepreneurial spirit, they’re literally finding gold. The catch? You have to pan it from human waste in an open sewer. That’s right, people are now digging through sewage in an effort to make money.

With gold reaching a high of $1,000 an ounce, many who endeavor to such extremes find it rewarding. One such “miner” was quite matter of fact about his work: “I used to think that this work was really nasty, but I’m used to it now, it’s just my job and it brings me money.” And it does. The sewer which runs alongside nearly 350 gold shops into which gold specks and occasionally the odd piece of jewelry fall. These shops belong to a centuries-old bazaar run that employs nearly 20,000 people. When the shops are swept clean gold and other bits of precious metals are swept into the drain along with urine, feces, and any other garbage you can imagine.

To see how much these workers make, read more.

Sometimes a team of three can find as much as $50 a day in gold. On average it is estimated that someone in this line of work will make about $12 a day, but that may soon change as the price of gold begins to rise and fewer customers visit this historic gold market. It's estimated that nearly two-thirds of all the workers in this market will be let go by the end of the year which, in turn, means that the sewer miners will be up the proverbial creek when it comes to their livelihood.

Source

Caster Semenya Now in Hiding, Tests Reveal She's Intersexed

TresSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0700

It's easy to forget that in the middle of this battle to figure out South African runner Caster Semenya's sex, there's an 18-year-old, raised as a girl, who trained hard to win the gold medal at the World Championships in Berlin last month.

Now that the IAAF's (International Association of Athletics Federations) sex test results have come back and reveal that Semenya is intersexed, she's in hiding.

The test results indicate that Semenya doesn’t have a womb or ovaries, she has internal testes and three times the amount of testosterone that an average woman would have. It is still unclear whether the IAAF will strip Semenya of her medal or bar her from future races - but her case has caused outrage all over the world. The National Assembly sports committee chairman Butana Komphela made an official complaint to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights saying that the IAAF has been racist and sexist toward Semenya. (Remember also, that she was tricked into allowing these sex tests, thinking they were testing for drugs.)

The general population knows so little about intersexed people, and we are so conditioned to believe that there are two sexes and two sexes only. The fact of the matter is, one's sex is actually determined by a complicated set of factors, including variations in chromosomes and hormones and their interaction. Gender, on the other hand, is a social construct, how we "perform" our sex. (This renders the repeated use of the term "gender testing" in news reports on Semenya's case nonsensical.)

If there's a silver lining in this sad tale, it's that more light will be shed on what some call the myth of two sexes. Stay tuned for more posts on this fascinating topic. How do you feel about how Semenya's been treated?