Rose

Another odd article I found on the BBC website.
Well, shit happens...

Sudan's famous goat 'wife' dies

Charles Tombe is refusing to comment on the affair

The best-known goat in Sudan has died months after being "married" to a man in the South Sudan capital, Juba, the BBC has learned.

Local elders ordered a man found having sex with the goat, later called Rose, to "marry" her last February.

"The idea was to publicly embarrass the man," says Tom Rhodes, editor of the Juba Post, which first ran the story.

The BBC's story of the "wedding" caught the public imagination and became one of the most read internet stories.

Rose, black and white, is believed to have died after choking on a plastic bag she swallowed as she was eating scraps on the streets of Juba.

'Sense of humour'

After the marriage, Rose had a male kid - but "not a human one" - Mr Rhodes said, hastily.

The "husband", Charles Tombe, said he was drunk at the time but has since refused to comment on the issue. The kid is owned by Mr Tombe.

More than a year after the BBC story was first published, it is still picked up by various web forums and being emailed across the world. Recently it got more than 100,000 page views for five successive days.

Over time, it has received several million hits - making it historically one of the biggest-hitting stories the BBC News website has published.

A Google search uncovers more than 1m different web pages, based on the same story.

Mr Rhodes, a Briton who helped found the Juba Post in 2004, was shocked when he learned how many people around the world had read the story his newspaper had originally published as a short, light-hearted account and not even bothered to publish on its website.

"Wow - what have we done? We have triggered a monster," he said.

He said that he had seen that it occasionally returned in the BBC's "Most read stories" and was worried that he would have trouble with South Sudanese, accusing his paper of tarnishing the image of the region - now trying to rebuild after 21 years of war.

But he says he has not come across any such anger.

"It doesn't portray Sudan in a bad light - it shows the Sudanese have a sense of humour," he says, referring to the elders' original punishment.

He has, however, had people come up and say to him: "Oh, you're the goat man."

Mr Rhodes explains that South Sudan remains a conservative society.

If a man is caught sleeping with a girl, he is ordered to marry her immediately in order to save her honour and that of her family, he says.

This was the basis for Mr Tombe's punishment, after the goat's owner found him with his animal and complained to local elders.

They ordered him to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50, at the time) and also named the goat Rose.

Afterwards, he left with the goat, not quite hand-in-hand, more hand-in-hoof, to his home in the Hai Malakal suburb of Juba - and not in Upper Nile State as we originally reported.

"Mała Brytania"

So here we are... Finally we could watch Little Britain on the Polish telly. Last Friday on TVP2 [Polish TV, Channel 2] there was the first episode of Mała Brytania. Together with couple of my friends we were waiting for this moment for quite a long time. But after we've seen it, we're not as enthusiastic as before. Why? Simply because the Polish translation of the film leaves a lot to be desired. Especially the moment at the beginning when Vicky speaks - the very famous "no but yeah but". Polish "voice" is much too slow for Vicky's pace. And of course Andy ("want that one") who's just one of a kind. I also didn't like it so much cos the speaker did it with no emotions and without even changing the tone of voice, pity. I think it would be better if there were also English subtitles cos the language these two guys use and how they use it is the essence of the comedy. But on the other hand, it's almost impossible to translate it faithfully. Just watch the original and you'll know what I mean. But it doesn't discourage me though, to watch it every week because I love these two crazy guys phenomenally exaggerating the reality.

Here's the official BBC website for Little Britain: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebritain/

Monks vs. Ants

I've just been browsing the BBC News website and I came across this a little bit funny article. Have a look

Malaysian monks face ant dilemma

By Jonathan Kent BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Penang's wildlife have been known to make temples their homes

A group of Buddhist monks in Malaysia is appealing for help to solve a problem with ants.

Buddhism forbids devotees from harming any living creature.

So the monks are looking for a creative and non-violent solution to deal with the insects, which are biting worshippers.

The monks at the Ang Hock Si Temple, also known as the Hong Hock See temple, in Georgetown on Penang Island have had to learn to live with nature.

Some years ago they shared their temple compound with a cobra.

The chief monk, the Venerable Boon Keng, told the BBC that they had become used to meditating alongside the snake but eventually decided to catch it and take it away to a nearby forest.

Now he says the cobra's place has been taken by a colony of fire ants.

Vacuum cleaner

But the ants are dropping from the temple's sacred bodhi tree onto people meditating below - and when they bite it causes painful swelling.

The Venerable Boon Keng practises what he calls "letting go" meditation - so he "lets go" of the pain.

But out of consideration for worshippers less far along the path to enlightenment the monks are looking for ways to persuade the ants to go.

An attempt to remove them using a vacuum cleaner failed, so the Buddhist community is appealing for help.

They cannot encourage anyone to harm the ants, but the chief monk says that if someone turns up unbidden and deals with them without the monks' involvement then that is the will of the universe.

Spring?

Mmmm... Isn't it wonderful that spring is already giving us first signs of its presence? I can smell the fresh air, the trees and when I get up to school in the mornings, which is rather early, sometimes have to get up at 6.00, I hear the birds singing, ahhh...

So it's Saturday... from the very morning I can see and hear my dad and few other guys tiding up the backyard, preparing the ground to sow new grass on the lawn, raking up etc.
Wunderbar! I love autumn and winter for real, but after having it for half a year or so I'm just enough of it.

Just to keep you in this spring mood I highly recommend u listen to these few songs. Whenever I listen to them it makes me wanna dance, really.
So here u go:
Fatboy Slim - I See You Baby; Right Here Right Now; The Rockefeller Skank; Cuba Club - Cuba; and of course my beloved haba haba Andre TanneBerger - Let You Go.
Enjoy!

Good news

Just a small amendment to the previous post - fortunately, Mr Sikorski IS going to stay in the government. Lucky us ;-) But it doesn't change the fact that the Ministry of Defence won't be governed by the most appropriate (currently in Poland) person for this post. Shade schade schade...

Bad news

This post won't be extremely creative, I'm just bored with writing my thesis or rather trying to do it :-/ I reached an impasse and I'm too lazy to get down to writing again... Maybe because I've had quite a hectic day, don't know. After few hours of driving from one place to the other and getting pissed off by 'Warsaw drivers' (call them whatever u like) I got home really knackered. I thought that if I sit in a comfy armchair and see what's on telly I'll relax. Nothing more wrong! I watched the news and, frankly, it wasn't a good idea coz I got even more frustrated than before... When I heard that they got rid of Minister of Defence, haba-haba Radek Sikorski, I thought: 'what the bloody hell is going on in here?!' Highly skilled, experienced and internationally respected persona is not in the government anymore. Will they ever stop being preoccupied only with their own egos and start taking seriously the future of our country? Damn it! Sikorski is one of my favourites. What a great loss...

Memories

It's been a long time since I posted anything new so I though it's high time I shared some bits & bobs... Today I don't know why but I thought about my violin. Yes, I have a violin. Only some of you might know that I used to play the violin a bit. Or I should rather say - I attempted to play (if you can call it playing ) this 'mysterious' instrument. Anyway, here's the story... It's all started about 2 years ago when my grandpa (a great guy, really!) gave me his very very old violin. It's hard to believe but his father found it somewhere in a trench during the WW II. Unbelievable, I know. So when he passed it on to me, I knew that I was obliged in a way to learn how to play it and I knew my grandpa wanted it too. But I have to admit that I was very eager myself. So I took some lessons and, believe it or not, I learned few tricks. Impossible is nothing! I really enjoyed practicing it and I was proud of myself that I can actually play something because it's bloody difficult, believe me. But even more satisfactory was the moment when I saw the unbelievably happy face of my grandpa when I was playing 'Happy Birthday' for him. Unfortunately, after a year or so I quit... Sometimes I regret it all end up and I think to myself that I wasted my chance and that it could be a germ of a new hobby... Well, maybe at some point in my life I'll get myself and start again. Hopefully it won't be too late