Republican party apologises after ad featuring Ganesha

Agencies
September 20, 2018

Houston, Sept 20: The ruling Republican party in the US has apologised to the Hindus after a newspaper advertisement featuring Lord Ganesha to woo the minority community voters in Texas ended up "offending" them.

The advert, on the occasion of the 'Ganesh Chaturthi' festival, included the imagery of Lord Ganesha with the text, "Would you worship a donkey or an elephant? The choice is yours".

The elephant is the party symbol of the Republicans while Democrats have a donkey as their party's symbol.

The Indian-American community described the political advertisement of the Grand Old Party in an Indian-American newspaper as "offensive" for featuring Lord Ganesha.

The party's county unit, Fort Bend County Republican Party which published the ad, apologised and clarified that it "was not meant to disparage Hindu customs or traditions in any way".

The ad, with arrows pointing to the body parts of Lord Ganesha, listed out qualities such as – 'A BIG HEAD, TO THINK OUT OF THE BOX', 'BIG EYES TO LOOK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE', 'LARGE EARS TO LISTEN TO OTHERS ATTENTIVELY', 'LARGE STOMACH, TO PEACEFULLY DIGEST ALL THE GOOD AND BAD IN LIFE' among others.

An advocacy group, the Hindu-American Foundation (HAF) of Houston, called on the Fort Bend County Republican Party to apologise for the advert about the celebration of the 'Ganesh Chaturthi' festival.

"While we appreciate the Fort Bend County GOP's attempt to reach out to Hindus on an important Hindu festival, its ad - equating Hindus' veneration of the Lord Ganesha with choosing a political party based on its animal symbol - is problematic and offensive," said Rishi Bhutada, HAF Board Member and Fort Bend County resident.

Using religious imagery in order to explicitly appeal for political support should best be avoided by any political party, he said.

"The implication regarding the worship of animals as gods was also disheartening to the HAF leaders, as that is a common misconception taught in US schools, which frequently ends up becoming a taunt used to bully Hindu students," the HAF said.

Bhutada also called upon the Fort Bend County Republican Party to apologise for the offensive and inaccurate reference, not to run the advert again and for elected officials in the County to send the same message to the Party as well.

Sri Preston Kulkarni, the Democratic candidate for the US Congress from District 22 in Texas, seized on the Republican advert, calling it offensive in a tweet on Tuesday.

"Asking Hindu-Americans if they would rather vote for a donkey or an elephant by comparing Ganesha, a religious figure, to a political party is highly inappropriate. The Fort Bend County Republican party must retract this ad," he said.

Meanwhile, the Fort Bend Republican party responded and said: "The ad was not meant to disparage Hindu customs or traditions in any way. We offer our sincerest apologies to anyone that was offended by the ad. Obviously, that was not the intent".

In a letter, chairman Jacey Jetton, the first Korean-American to lead the Fort Bend County Republican Party said: "The ad was meant to be part of the celebration to acknowledge the 'Ganesh Chaturthi' festival of September 13".

"This ad was created with input from those of Hindu faith so that we could properly pay respect to the sacred festival. This highlights the difficulty in outreach that can be positive for one group but not for another in the same community.

"We offer our sincerest apologies to anyone that was offended by the ad. Obviously, that was not the intent. The ad was not meant to disparage Hindu customs or traditions in any way," Jetton said. 

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News Network
July 6,2020

Beijing, Jul 6: A city in northern China on Sunday sounded an alert after a suspected case of bubonic plague was reported, according to official media here.

Bayannur, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, announced a level III warning of plague prevention and control, state-run People’s Daily Online reported.

The suspected bubonic plague case was reported on Saturday by a hospital in Bayannur. The local health authority announced that the warning period will continue until the end of 2020.

"At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly,” the local health authority said.

On July 1, state-run Xinhua news agency said that two suspected cases of bubonic plague reported in Khovd province in western Mongolia have been confirmed by lab test results.

The confirmed cases are a 27-year-old resident and his 17-year-old brother, who are being treated at two separate hospitals in their province, it quoted a health official as saying.

The brothers ate marmot meat, the health official said, warning people not to eat marmot meat.

A total of 146 people who had contact with them have been isolated and treated at local hospitals, according to Narangerel.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. It can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A couple died of bubonic plague in the western Mongolian province of Bayan-Ulgii last year after eating raw marmot meat.

The news of bubonic plague came after Chinese researchers issued an early warning over another potential pandemic caused by an influenza virus in pigs.

Scientists from China Agricultural University, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutes detected a pig influenza virus bearing genotype 4 (G4), which is contagious among pigs and has the possibility of jumping to humans, as the G4 virus is able to bind with human cells, state-run Global Times reported last week.

The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak, BBC reported.

"Controlling the prevailing G4 EA H1N1 viruses in pigs and close monitoring in human populations, especially workers in the swine industry, should be urgently implemented," Chinese researchers warned in the paper.

The new diseases were reported even as China grappled with the second attack of Covid-19 in Beijing after controlling it in Wuhan where it was first reported in December last year.

On Saturday, Beijing reported a single-digit Covid-19, local authorities said Sunday.

The number of newly confirmed Covid-19 cases reached a peak in Beijing on June 13 and 14 and then started declining in general, Xinhua quoted local officials as saying.

From June 11 to July 4, the city reported 334 confirmed locally transmitted cases, 47 per cent of whom are workers of the Xinfadi wholesale food market, the official said.

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News Network
June 1,2020

New Delhi, Jun 1: Actor Kendrick Sampson, who stars in HBO series Insecure, was struck by rubber bullets as Los Angeles police officers tried to disperse a crowd protesting George Floyd”s death in Minneapolis.

Floyd, a black man, died last Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. The officer was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder.

The actor went live via Instagram on Saturday to show his view of events, but he could be also be seen on a CNN broadcast simultaneously, with viewers watching him get hit by a police baton on TV.

Sampson posted several videos on his page of a large demonstration at Pan Pacific Park near the city”s Fairfax District, where violent clashes took place throughout the day outside the Grove shopping center.

In one video, LAPD officers can be seen firing rubber bullets to try and regain control at the park.

“They shot me four times already. I already got hurt and I got hit with a baton,” Sampson said in the video on Instagram.

Another clip showed him moving away from the police, as he appeared to be hit by an officer”s baton.

“Y”all ain”t see no police f*****g up white folks when they took guns to the statehouse,” he said, referring to an incident in Michigan over coronavirus restrictions, not in California. “Y”all didn”t see police attacking white folks, beating em up with batons, shooting them with rubber bullets when they brought guns to f*****g state houses. We came up here with no weapons, with masks.… And we”re the ones who are not peaceful,” Sampson alleged.

Protests turned violent over Floyd”s death and other police killings of black people spread Saturday in dozens of US cities, with police cars set ablaze, reports of injuries mounting on all sides, shops and showrooms vandalised amid the lockdown.

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Agencies
March 25,2020

Moscow, Mar 25: An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck off Russia's Kuril Islands on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The magnitude of the quake, which occurred at 2:49 am (UTC), was registered at a depth of 56.7 kilometres, about 219 kilometres southeast of the Russian town of Severo-Kuril'sk, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to the property as a result of the quake.
Further details are awaited.

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