EXPLOITATION IN LIFE AND DEATH IN UKRAINE

We were particularly saddened by this story. It seemed so unfair that two women who were victims of human trafficking were fined for passport fraud. No we have seen first hand what happens to these women. One night after a glass of bubbles too many, we and a mate decided to go to Splash Palace, Courtenay Place's' famous strip joint. It was full of stunning Eastern European women strippers. We lasted the length of a small drink. It was just too depressing.

Anyway, it appears the people of Ukraine are being exploited in life and in death

As the German Newspaper Spiegel has uncovered, body bits from cheap Ukrainian corpses find a ready market in developed nations.

In an interesting step, one of our favourite online Newspapers, the Kyiv Post has put its money where its morals are. In a recent editorial they have revealed they willl no longer carry the adverts that have probably led to the exploitation of their countrys vulnerable women.

The Kyiv Post has indirectly participated in the commercial exploitation of women by publishing advertisements that most likely promoted prostitution under the euphemistic headings of "introduction" and "relaxation."Mohammad Zahoor, the Kyiv Post’s new owner, has stopped the practice, effective the Sept. 11 issue. He's taken a small, but important, step to counter exploitation where he can. Now let’s hope many other people do also.

Well done them.

RICH AND FUNNY

We always have a giggle about NBR's rich list - we are amazed at the number of people we know whom it doesn't capture. However it is an interesting read. But it is completely overshadowed by this Ukrainian Rich List in the KYIV Post. It is very irreverent.....

Take this one for instance. ( Yip Cactus - he is cute - go find him!)

Net Worth: $753 million Age: 38 Marital status: Married, three sons and one daughter Industry: Metallurgy Last year: $2.4 billion

In December, Oleg Mkrtchian struck an important deal. The co-owner of the Industrial Union of Donbas (IUD) bought a 75 percent stake in the Kuban soccer club from Krasnodar, Russia. The team handsomely rewarded its new Ukrainian owner by winning the Russian First Division, and so from next season will compete in the Russian Premier League. The club’s annual budget is $18 million – quite impressive for a club anchored near the bottom of the table. For Mkrtchian, Russian football is an important social duty. Thee millionaire has a number of projects in the Krasnodar Territory, one of which is the construction of a metal factory in Armavir. IUD has but put a halt to its construction because of the crisis – one reason being the slack season in the metallurgical sector – but investment in football is a different matter. “For all football in Kuban, such a deal is good news,” writes the North Caucasus newspaper. “The territory’s budget will no longer be spent on the upkeep of a hopeless team.”

This will send you to bed with as smile.

WE ARE EXCELLENT PRODUCERS OF CO2

Apparently the bigger you are the more you do to pollute the planet. According to a Reuters story on Kyiv Post from the Ukraine, Fat people do more harm to the environment.

Overweight people eat more than thin people and are more likely to travel by car, making excess body weight doubly bad for the environment, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler," and food production is a major source of greenhouse gases, researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in their study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

"We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness, and recognise it as a key factor in the battle to reduce (carbon) emissions and slow climate change," the British scientists said.

They estimated that each fat person is responsible for about one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions a year more on average than each thin person, adding up to an extra one billion tonnes of CO2 a year in a population of one billion overweight people.

The European Union estimates each EU citizen accounts for 11 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

What bloody bollocks, its not like we fart like dog or burp like a dairy heifer all day. Thank god we have John Key at the helm - Helen would have instituted a fart tax on fatties on the back of this research. Hell, now she is in the UN , she will be claiming that poor people should stay thin to save the planet from the ravages of global warming!

Where are the economists doing the counter study looking at our high rate of consumerism that helps stoke flagging economies? We should be revered, put on a pedestal ( albeit with a sturdy base) as citizens to emulate. After all we live hard and die quick from the good life. That saves a hell of a lot of hot air.