Monday 15 September 2008

Paris and Unicyles


About a million Japanese tourists visit Paris every year. And of those million, about 12 Japanese tourists per year develop "Paris syndrome" and must return home. Some are returned home with a doctor or nurse.
Paris Syndrome is a psychiatric breakdown caused by the gap between a "deeply romantic" expectation of Paris and the reality encountered . The most common sufferers are women in their 30s.
BBC describers the trigger: "An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures. But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much."
Source, source.

If you are willing to pay for it, there are several companies that will provide you with private paparazzi.
Some companies offer the full treatment, filled with paparazzi, stretch limos, "adoring fans," and bodyguards. Some companies even offer fake gossip magazines with their client's picture on the cover.
If the company approach is not for you, you can imitate Phillip Barker who hired a paparazzo over Craig's list for his 29th bar-hop birthday. His paparazzo fooled people into thinking he was an important person, and he was bumped to to the front of several club lines.
The events the paparazzi are hired for vary. From bar crawls to weddings. From corporate events to bachelor parties. Stran Vez hired paparazzi to surprise his finance Paige Hill. The paparazzi ambushed them as they left a theater, taking pictures and asking questions. Tania Cowher, one of the paparazzi said, "A couple of times, Paige tried to run away. . . so we ran along with her."
King of Clubs founder, John Theiss, offers the same experience to his VIPs. His most extensive package is $24,000 and includes a "publicist or a crazed fan who w[ill] ask for an autograph during dinner." Theiss says, "The ruse is really on the general public that’s watching all this thing."
Source, Source,
To raise money for Nepal, Steve Colligan will unicycle 1000km (620 miles) across the Roof of the World. To accomplish this feat, Steve will have to deal with an average elevation of 4000 meters (2.49 miles), and temperatures of -15 degrees centigrade (5 degrees Fahrenheit). He will be camping. His journey will take him up to the Mount Everest base camp and down the longest downhill slope (4,500 meters/ 2.8 miles. Colligan describes the slope as "great if you're a mountain biker, who can free-wheel, but us unicyclists have to keep pedaling the whole way to stop from falling off."
His Blog where you can follow his progress
Source, Source, Source
49-year-old Ramchandra Katuwal of Nepal has found hapiness in his 25th marriage to Sharada. They have been married 7 years. First married at age 26, Ramchandra's first wife ran away with her lover, a trend continued by many of his following wives. He also cites his struggle with poverty as a contributing factor. Over the next 16 years, Ramchandra only fully remembers 9 of his wives' names. Even though he resolved to never marry again after wife 24 left, he married Sharada. Why? ""I wanted to have a wife, because a house is not house without a wife."
Source.
This story reminds me of an earlier story I did on Kamarudin Mohammed which I will include.
72 year old Kamarudin Mohammed is a Muslim from Malaysia who has been married 53 times. His shortest marriage lasted 2 days and all but one ended in divorce. His most recent wife is also his first wife. Says Kamarudin: "I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women."
Source.
In Sharia law (Muslim law), a talak means for the husband 'to untie the matrimonial knot by articulating a word denoting divorce.' If a husband utters the word on his wife, the two of them would automatically be divorced and the wife would be in a state of iddah. If, during iddah, the parties wish to reconcile, the divorce may be revoked without their having to go through the process of nikah." (For detailed info from a Muslim court go here.)
Some men have tried to pronounce talak on their wives through text messages, causing the issue to reach courts.
Singapore rejected text message divorces. Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates upheld them. Malaysia fines men who use text messages, but upholds their legality.
Egyptian courts are debating the issue.
According to CAMPAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics), In Egypt, a divorce is filed every 6 minutes and 1/3 of marriages break up in the first year.
Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source.

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