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Should London’s East End Pride be cancelled ?

Next month’s East End Gay Pride should be cancelled because it will cause “community tension”, it has been claimed.

Some local gay campaigners say the march, in east London, will cause tensions between gay people and Muslims.

The march, to be held on April 2nd, has been organised by six friends as a response to anti-gay stickers plastered around the East End.

But opponents say it is an “emotional reaction” which “risks antagonising and scapegoating” Muslims.

They have also accused organisers of having “close links” to the English Defence League because some have Facebook friends who appear to be involved in the far-right group.

The organisers have expressly barred political groups such as Unite Against Fascism, the English Defence League and the Socialist Workers Party from having a visible presence in the march.

Although the parade has been backed by local police and Tower Hamlets council, some local campaigners are calling for it to be cancelled.

An open letter signed by Out East chair Thierry Schaffauser and Terry Stewart of the Hackney Community Engagement Board claims that the Pride march may “divide our communities” or be used “to oppress other marginalised groups”.

Out East organises Hackney Pride and the letter has also been signed by Denis Fernando of Unite Against Fascism and the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils.

It says: “We believe that the most appropriate response to the stickers is to liaise with Muslim communities and others to create bridges and communicate with each other.

“We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories.

“We will refuse any attempt to divide our communities or take the risk that an LGBTQ event is used to oppress other marginalised groups, in particular LGBTQ Muslims who will be the most affected by this rising antagonism.”

In response, the organisers of East End Gay Pride said in a statement: “We can 100 per cent confirm that the EDL [English Defence League] or the SWP [Socialist Workers Party] have absolutely nothing to do with this event in any way, shape or form.

“This is wholly a non-political demonstration and purely a high visibility demonstration of the East End gay community. This is not an anti-Muslim march. This is not an anti-anything march. We have stated this over and over again, here and on our website. We simply want to say: ‘Hang on. You’re wrong. The East End is NOT a gay-free zone’.”

East End Pride has also received support from the organisers of Pride London.

It has been suggested that the anti-gay stickers, which warn gay people to “fear Allah”, have been posted by the English Defence League to stir up tension between LGBT and Muslims.

Last month, the Muslim Council of Britain and the East London Mosque condemned the homophobic stickers.

http://cityglobetrotter.com/gay/region/europe/london/

Vietnam: Bob Dylan Tickets

His songs were considered anthems for the anti-Vietnam war era of the Sixties.

But it wasn’t just the Americans who were inspired by him but he also gained a legion fans in the communist country.

And next month they will finally get the chance to see him play live when he performs there for the very first time.

However, there may be some concerns that many will struggle to afford a ticket, with general admission entry costing 900,000 dong (£26) – which is slightly higher than Vietnam’s monthly minimum wage.

VIP tickets cost 2.5 million dong (£75), and will include food and drinks as well as parking, VIP entrance, exclusive access to a VIP bar and tents, and executive washrooms.

The gig will take place on April 10 at the 8,000-plus-capacity RMIT University in Ho Chi Minh City, which used to be known as Saigon.

http://cityglobetrotter.com/lady/region/asia/ho-chi-minh-city/

But despite the ticket prices, Rod Quinton, general manager of promoters Saigon Sound System said this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event because of the cultural and historical significance of Dylan playing in the country for the first time.

He said: ‘We are bringing him here because Bob Dylan is a very important legend of music and we think it’s important that Vietnamese people, particularly the younger generation, are exposed to his legacy and what he’s done for music.

‘It will be something very special when Dylan and his band takes to the stage in Vietnam.’

And he said despite what the Vietnamese may consider high prices for the tickets, he expected that all 8,250 will sell out.

However, he added that they were currently only taking ticket reservations because they were still working out details with the tax department.

Dylan’s 1960s songs ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’ were inspirations for the American civil rights and anti-war movements.

His trip to Vietnam is part of his Asia tour which will also take in a concert in China, his first there too.

Chinese officials allowed the concert in Beijing to go ahead after initially refusing permission last year when plans for the tour were first put in place.

He will become among a handful of western music artists who have performed in the country including Bjork, Beyonce, Eric Clapton and Wham!, who were the first Western pop group to play there.

Its a Girl for Peter & Abbey

He is finding his feet as a new parent after fiancée Abbey Clancy gave birth to their little girl just last night but by the looks of things Peter Crouch doesn’t want to be away from his new family for long.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker was spotted heading into the Portland hospital earlier today and appeared in a hurry.

Although the 30-year-old footballer was by Abbey’s side when they welcomed their little girl into the world at the London hospital he must have made a visit back to his hotel before heading back to the hospital.

Dressed in a pair of smart jeans a grey t-shirt and carrying a bag slung over his shoulder Peter was the proud parent as he made his way back to his fiancée and his new daughter.

The couple celebrated the arrival of their daughter, who weighted in at seven pounds and nine ounces, and a friend confirmed to the Daily Mail: ‘Mother and daughter are doing brilliantly.

‘Abbey and Peter are over the moon. They haven’t picked a name yet, but they are completely in love with her.’

Abbey said previously she was certain she was pregnant with a little boy.

During an interview on This Morning in December, Abbey told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford: ‘I found out I was pregnant the first day I did this show, I was running off to the toilet to be sick.

‘I think it’s a boy from looking at the scans… it’s too boisterous to be a girl!’

The couple became engaged in July 2009 after three years of dating.

Abbey said in an interview earlier this year that she was worried that the stress over Peter’s reported affair might affect the baby.

She said: ‘I worried about stress affecting the baby. I’m a hypochondriac anyway.’

Liverpool born Abbey was left devastated last August after it was claimed Crouch, 30, had enjoyed a sordid romp with a teenage prostitute during a stag weekend in Spain.

Despite allegations Crouch paid £829 to Monica Mint, 19, for sex in a cheap Madrid hotel, Abbey stood by him.

The Liverpudlian model was only a few weeks pregnant when the allegations were published last August.

However, Abbey and Peter moved past the reports, and the Liverpudlian WAG insisted their relationship is now absolutely ‘fine’.

She said: ‘I’m fine. We’re both fine. We’ve got our little baby coming. There are worse things that have happened.

‘It’s weird how you can go from your whole life being perfect – and that excludes living in a nice house and having all that – just being so happy with someone who’s your best friend and then a baby, a miracle.’

Last month, Peter threw a surprise baby shower for Abbey after organising the event with her mother Karen.

A source said at the time: ‘Abbey had no idea. She thought Peter was spending the day relaxing and was amazed when she got back and everyone was there.’

Abbey has now carved a TV career for herself with regular spots on ITV’s This Morning. She is currently hosting E4 show Great British Hairdresser.

http://cityglobetrotter.com/

Japan crisis: 2000 bodies wash up ashore

Two thousand bodies were washed up on the shores of north-east Japan yesterday.

The horrifying tide of death in Miyagi province raised fears that the official expected toll of 10,000 could be a huge under-estimate.

Bodies wrapped in blue tarpaulins were laid on military stretchers and lined up for collection.

Men, women and children were picked from the rubble by rescue workers, their task made that much harder by the constant aftershocks threatening more death and destruction.

Miyagi’s police chief, Naoto Takeuchi, warned: ‘I think the number of deaths here will undoubtedly be in the tens of thousands.’

Senen General Hospital in Takajo town, near Miyagi prefecture’s capital of Sendai, had about 200 patients when the earthquake hit, tossing its medical equipment around and collapsing part of the ceiling in one wing.

All of its food and medicine was stored on the first floor. Everything was ruined or lost in the following minutes when Takajo was flooded by the tsunami.

‘We’re only administering the bare necessities,’ said administrator Ryoichi Hashiguchi.

Nurses have been cutting open soiled intravenous packs and scrubbing down muddy packs of pills with alcohol to cleanse them.

Mr Hashiguchi said he had warned city officials that the conditions of many patients is worsening, adding: ‘I don’t think this is going to be resolved any time soon.’

The pulverised coast has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since Friday, the latest a 6.2 magnitude quake which was followed by a fresh tsunami scare yesterday.

As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search operations and told people on the devastated shoreline to run to higher ground.
The warning turned out to be a false alarm.

‘It’s a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish,’ said Patrick Fuller, of the International Red Cross Federation.

‘The situation here is just beyond belief. Almost everything has been flattened.’

Japan Red Cross president Tadateru Konoe added: ‘After my long career in the Red Cross where I have seen many disasters and catastrophes, this is the worst I have ever seen.’

The Japanese government and aid agencies are struggling to ferry food, water and medicines to survivors after panic-buying stripped shelves bare in the few shops left standing.

Crematoriums were overflowing with the dead and rescue workers ran out of body bags as the nation faced the reality of its mounting crisis.

Officials have been overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis, with millions of people facing a fourth night without electricity, water, food or heat in near-freezing temperatures.

Officials estimate that 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters or with relatives.

The government has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 29,000 gallons of petrol plus food to the affected areas.

The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda following the 9.0 magnitude quake on Friday.

Almost 2million households are without power in the freezing north and about 1.4million have no running water while drivers are waiting in queues for five hours for rationed petrol.

Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, said authorities were receiving just 10 per cent of the food and other supplies they need. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government might turn to foreign undertakers for help.

Experts are now warning a second huge quake – almost as powerful as the first – could hit the country, triggering another tsunami.

The director of the Australian Seismological Centre, Dr Kevin McCue, told the Sydney Morning Herald that there had been more than 100 smaller quakes since Friday, and a larger aftershock was likely.

‘Normally they happen within days.

‘The rule of thumb is that you would expect the main aftershock to be one magnitude smaller than the main shock, so you would be expecting a 7.9.

‘That’s a monster again in its own right that is capable of producing a tsunami and more damage.’

Another expert believes Friday’s quake is the ‘aftershock’ of an earlier eruption two days before, in which a 7.2 magnitude explosion shook the Pacific sea floor near the northern Miyagi area.

John McCloskey, a geophysicist at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, told the journal Nature the quakes have ‘probably also affected the stress field further south along the fault zone, critically increasing the earthquake risk in the Tokyo region’.

He added that the aftershocks ‘may be as large as, or even stronger than, the quake that last month devastated Christchurch in New Zealand’, the website Good reported.

That disaster, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, claimed more than 160 lives.

According to public broadcaster NHK, 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters or with relatives. Another 24,000 people are stranded.

One reason for the loss of power is the damage several nuclear reactors in the area. At one plant, Fukushima Dai-ichi, three reactors have lost the ability to cool down. Explosions have destroyed the containment buildings of the other two reactors.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said it has moved its ships and aircraft away from an earthquake-stricken Japanese nuclear power plant after discovering low-level radioactive contamination.

The fleet said today that the radiation was from a plume of smoke and steam released from the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which has been hit by two explosions since Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160km) offshore when its instruments detected the radiation.

But the fleet said the dose of radiation was about the same as one month’s normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment.

Tokyo Electric Power held off on imposing rolling blackouts planned for today, but called for people to try to limit electricity use.

http://cityglobetrotter.com/gentleman/region/asia/osaka/

http://cityglobetrotter.com/gentleman/region/asia/tokyo/

American Idol: Boys Versus Girls

They had just a minute and a half to try and persuade America to vote for them, but even that was too long for some.

The first ‘live’ America Idol show – recorded a day early to allow the new judges time to settle in – didn’t go well for everyone, with lacklustre performances and dull song choices slowing things down.

The boys were more on form, with Paul McDonald, Casey Abrams, Jacob Lusk and James Durbin all exciting the judges.

Of the girls Pia Toscano lived up to last week’s stunning performance, but many of her fellow females failed to deliver.

Naima Adedapo at least had some energy as she offered up an imitation of Rihanna, but Karen Rodriguez struggled to do justice to her choice of Selena’s I Could Fall in Love and Haley Reinhart was simply labelled ‘boring’ by Randy Jackson.

The finalists had paid tribute to their own Idols as they performed songs by their very favourite artists.

Lauren Alaina kicked off the show, but her version of Shania Twain’s Any Man of Mine was forgettably bland.

Steven Tyler told her she needed more energy.

‘You’ve gotta have a good song,’ he said.’ And I love that song, I just wish it had been a little bit more kick ass.’

Jennifer Lopez felt the same: ‘You don’t have to try, you’re that good. But I think you have to kick it into high gear.’ But, touched by Alaina’s sad face, she added: ‘We love you!’

Next up was Casey Abrams, who injected the night with the first burst of energy with his high octane performance of Joe Cocker’s With a Little Help From My Friends.

Lopez said his singing ‘blew me away.’ And Tyler was even happier, telling him: ‘You are a plethora of passion.’

Following him onto the stage was Ashthon Jones, who was one of last week’s wild cards.

She played it safe with Diana Ross’ When You Tell Me That You Love Me.

Randy Jackson told her that while initially sceptical, he saw the benefits in her unoriginal choice.

‘I tell you what, I liked it,’ he said. ‘I saw you grow a little bit more as a singer, when you were going a little bit sharp or flat you pulled it back with a little vibrato, so I liked it. After her came Paul McDonald, whose unique dancing style kept everyone entertained.

Tyler found fault with his voice, but loved the performance. ‘A little pitchy, be careful next time,’ he advised.

Lopez was worried the audience ‘wouldn’t get it.’ ‘You’re just so unique, there’s just something about you. I hope America gets it. I do really think that you’re great.’Jackson added: ‘I’m sure it wasn’t the most exciting thing for people but I love who you are. I get it and I hope America gets it.’

The highly-anticipated performance from Pia Toscano came next, with the teen belted out Celine Dion’s All By Myself at the top of her lungs. Lopez was almost lost speechless. ‘We love you Pia, I mean… I think a lot of people were wondering what you were going to do to top last week, and that was it. ‘Jackson said normally he wouldn’t advise a contestant to take on such a challenging song.

‘We always say don’t tackle those songs if you can’t do them,’ he began, before admitting that Pia had nailed it.

‘You have that quality, those notes that you hit, you hit them dead on without even thinking about it.’

Tyler said simply: ‘Pia, that was the sum total of all the work you’ve done until now.’

Haley Reinhart performed Blue, a track released by LeAnn Rimes in 1996. And while Tyler and Lopez enjoyed it, Randy found it ‘boring’.

A change of pace from Jacob Lusk was next, with him performing R Kelly’s I Believe I can Fly.

And to emphasise the gospel sound of his voice a choir came onto the stage as backing singers.

Jackson was delighted. ‘You have such an original sound, and to me that’s what singing’s all about,’ he said. ‘You were unbelievable. I love you, I’m excited.’

Thia Megia changed the pace once again with her version of Smile. She began the track alone, with simply a guitar accompanying her voice, before the bad kicked it.

The judges preferred the start, but added: ‘I think all in all it turned out to be good, I loved the beginning more than the end for me.’

Tyler agreed, advising: ‘A little pitchy in the middle there. But you gave it up, thank you.’

Eager not to criticise, Lopez saw only the good. ‘I thought the arrangement was interesting, but I liked see you move. It doesn’t matter – you sing like an angel.

Karen Rodriguez’s voice proved too small for her version of Selena’s I Could Fall in Love.

As always Lopez looked on the bright side, saying: ‘You’re one of our strongest girls, so I hope that you make it to next week.’

But she did admit: ‘I could tell you were uncomfortable with some of the notes, at the lower end, and the higher end also.’

Scotty McCreery stuck to his winning country formula with Garth Brooks’ The River, which was well received by the judges, with Jackson advising him: ‘Don’t change it!’

Naima Adedapo reimagined Rihanna’s Umbrella, but couldn’t improve on the original.

But her high-energy performance delighted the audience, who had just sat through 12 rather dull tracks.

Tyler was appreciative: ‘You brought flavour tonight, which no-one else has done.’

Lopez added: ‘I’m glad you came out there and did what you did.’

http://cityglobetrotter.com/lady/region/america/los-angeles/