When I commenced grad school at GW, new-to-DC-me spent a lot of time in “J street”, a food court so egregiously expensive and depressingly mediocre, I have NEVER complained about airport food since. One night, while gagging down waffle fries from Chik-fil-a, I was yanked away from my deep-fried poo by a popular Bangladeshi kid whom Sajit probably remembers. :D
“Come on, come with me, RIGHT now!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, but I need your help!”
Intrigued, I closed my textbooks and followed him, chucking Chik-fil-ewww on the way. Within minutes I was somewhere I had never been, looking at super hot boys in soccer togs.
“What is this?”
“IM soccer. You’re on our team.”
I chortled, but he was serious. Since he was heading a co-ed team, he needed a certain number of women on the floor and they were one short. Never mind that at that point in my life, I was more of a futbol spectator than a participant, I was suddenly a player. They told me to just stand there, so that they wouldn’t have to forfeit. I stayed in my corner while the footie fiends whom I had befriended kept the ball far away from me. Their efforts were wasted; the other team destroyed them.
I’ll say this much for my friend— at least he used a “live” woman to achieve his ends.
:+:
From the BBC:
Police in Pakistan have launched an inquiry into complaints that two dead women were elected in last month’s local elections.[link]
The women were elected in two separate constituencies of Upper Dir district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), reports say.[link]
In an attempt to increase the number of women elected, a quota was established; in an attempt to prove just how much they love and respect females, shady people drafted a woman who had passed away over a decade ago to run for office with another woman who has been dead for three years. I think election officials are mulling a do-over.
Supporters of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf claimed victory in the local elections, in which individual political parties did not take part.[link]
But opposition parties, and groups such as Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission, said the elections were marred by extensive vote-rigging.[link]
That’s not all they were marred by…for shame. When you consider more background information on the area of Pakistan where it all went down, it’s actually not surprising that they acted so disrespectfully (Thanks, Dhaavak):
Upper Dir is a deeply conservative region where tribal elders backed by radical Islamist clerics in July banned women from standing in the election or casting votes. [link]
But hundreds of women defied the ban after the central government said it was unconstitutional and vowed to support women taking part in the election.[link]
Good for them. If only the media had similar guts:
Newspapers did not speculate on the reason why two dead women may have been nominated or suggest it was a case of mistaken identity.[link]
