2011年6月27日星期一

Life lurches in the fast lane

This activist/journalist from Manipur in north-eastern India has been on a fast since 2000! She has been demanding a repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which has led to gruesome violence in Manipur and other parts of northeastern India. Having refused food and water for over 10 years,A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Sharmila has been dubbed "the world's longest hunger striker."

Wonder what Mahatma Gandhi ¡ª the original 'faster'¡ªwould have made of modern-day brouhaha over fasts? After all, the Satyagrahi had fasted on 17 occasions for more than a day, usually from three days and twice for three weeks. He believed that "Fasting for the sake of personal gain is nothing short of intimidation. Such was the putative hold of Gandhi over the masses that Time magazine noted in the year 1939 that "Saint Gandhi's hunger pain is mightier than the sword¡­native riflemen have not got a fraction of the concessions from Britain that Saint Gandhi's torturing fasts have".

Even the Bombay stock exchange had to occasionally down shutters during Gandhi's fasts. There were even dire predictions of a "great mass uprising" in India should the beloved Mahatma die during one of his prolonged strikes.The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model, Gandhi's well-documented abstinence kept the British on tenterhooks. On one occasion, it is said that the British Cabinet had to even convene an emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street at midnight to appease the Mahatma!

In recent Indian history, another fast that had far-reaching political repercussions was that of a politician from southern India.Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet products in the evo shop. Chandrasekhar Rao fasted for 11 days in 2009 and ended it only after the central government capitulated to his demand for carving up India's 29th and newest state of Telengana from Andhra Pradesh. Not the noblest of reasons to create a political state, if you ask me, but then not for nothing in Indian politics known as the theatre of the absurd. Hunger strike has been employed as a potent political tool for non-violent protest through the Middle ages too. Religious texts document the use of fasting as a method of protest in India and pre-Christian Ireland. Consequently, some of the world's longest and most politically significant hunger strikes have also been done by the Indians and Irish. Terence Joseph MacSwiney, Irish playwright and politician who was arrested by the British on charges of sedition, protested his trial by a military court. He launched a hunger strike, which lasted for 74 days and resulted in his death.

Another world famous hunger strike was of Bobby Sands, an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army during 1981. He and his colleagues demanded to be recognised as political prisoners rather than criminals. But the Margaret

Thatcher government refused to relent. Sands' strike garnered international publicity as during the strike, he not only got elected as an MP but also died soon after.

Often fasts attract little by way of public sympathy. Mainly because the causes are either frivolous, politically orientated or amount to emotional bullying. In September 2006, Agasi Vartanyan of Shlisselburg, a town near St. Petersburg, attempted to establish a world record by fasting for 50 days. He crafted an elevated,Detailed information on the causes of dstti, glass-encased box, stocked it with 150 litres of drinking water, 50 packs of cigarettes,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices an electric heater, bedding, changes of clothing and got down to business.

After losing his job as a construction worker, Vartanyan knew that he would be going hungry anyway. So why not make the most of a bad situation by going on a fast? Never mind the fact that his weight whittled down by 51 pounds during the ordeal. However, his roomy box, kept near the iconic statue of Peter the Great, became an immediate great tourist attraction. Jostling crowds thronged the venue to snap their photos here. Thereby proving that life in the fast lane needn't always be lonely!

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