Documentary: Sex Trafficking in South India

Prostitutes of god

Journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India -Devadasi girls are dedicated to a Hindu deity and spend their lives selling sex.

Interview by Matilda Battersby
Monday, 20 September 2010

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India’s temple prostitutes – Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers.

The first instalment of the four-part exclusively online documentary ‘Prostitutes of God’ goes live today on VBS.tv.

I first went to India after I left The Independent three years ago. I wanted to run away and do something really different, so I went to volunteer with a charity in southern India which rescues victims of sex trafficking.

On my very first day there I stumbled into a meeting of Devadasi prostitutes. I was told that they were temple prostitutes, but didn’t have any understanding of what that meant.

I began to research it and in February 2008 was invited to northern Karnataka, which is the centre of the tradition in India. I interviewed a few of the women and wrote an article about it for Vice magazine. But visiting them stayed with me, and I wanted to find out more. continue reading full article at The Independent.

watch Prostitutes of God

AFC Football… and More Asses

I don’t waste time, so here are my AFC picks for 2010.  I know that the season already started, but these are long-term picks, not spur-of-the-moment.  People make too much of Week 1 anyways.  Teams are rusty, holdouts come in late (see Brett Favre), but my picks will be there at the end because I say so.  So there.

AFC East: New England Patriots

I hate the Patriots.  They are smug assholes, especially that Bellicheck.  I know I spelled it wrong but I don’t care, I hate him.  But they still have the best team in the division.  Their defense is shaky but that offense with a healthy Wes Welker and a sober Randy Moss is nearly unstoppable and can put up enough points to make up for their suspect D.

Hey Tom you got any weed?

The Jets are talented on defense and can run the ball, but QB Mark Sanchez is young and the offense struggles too much.  I love the Dolphins too, but the Patriots are gonna win.  Tear.

AFC North: Balitmore Ravens

This would be an easy pick considering they beat the Jets in Week 1, but I’m fine with that.  As a Rutgers alum I have an awkwardly passionate love for Ray Rice, so I’m somewhat biased.  The passing game has been greatly improved via the addition of wide outs Anquan Boldin and TJ H… I won’t try spelling that one.

Ray Rice

Thus the Ravens finally have a running and passing game to match their nasty D.  The Steelers will miss Ben Rapist-berger, and the Bengals don’t have the offense to match the Ravens.

AFC South: Tennessee Titans

This one’s tough because the typical pick is the Colts, but their running game is non-existent, and their defense can’t stop the run.  The Texans are the sexy pick, but they always find a way to lose so I have zero faith in them.  The Titans have Chris Johnson.  And Vince Young is pretty dumb but he is still a very good QB.

AFC West: San Diego Chargers

Their division sucks.  Oh and Phillip Rivers is great.  But really, their division just sucks.

Wild Card: Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets

Peyton Manning’s magic will get the Colts into the playoffs, but they can’t win the division.  They did already lose to the Texans.

The Jets have the defense to shut teams down, but they will struggle to score with talented AFC teams like the Patriots within their own division.

Wild Card Round:

Chargers def. Jets 16-13

Colts def. Ravens 28-14

Divisional Round:

Titans def. Colts 21-10

Patriots def. Chargers 34-24

AFC Championship:

Titans def. Patriots 17-10

Super Bowl:

Titans def. Vikings 27-21

And the Titans win the Super Bowl!  Yay, and Brett Favre retires, for good.  I hope…

Hell even I don't know

But who cares about all that?  Here’s the ass:

More Yoga TV

Mark and Joanne Darby on DK news.

click to view at politiken.dk

Ashtanga Trivia: what was Darby before yoga/India?
-A Catholic
-A Professional Dancer
-A Kindergarden Teacher

Cooking with Saraswati

Although no one seems to agree on the spelling of her name (we’ve seen Saraswati and Saraswathi), her cooking is a different story.  The first of many cooking vids with Master S?

Saraswati recipes v1 from JOIS YOGA on Vimeo.

link: http://vimeo.com/15005887

CNN likes Indian Weddings

link to video: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/09/12/int.vassileva.singh.cnn

Nice Asses and NFL Football

I love sports in September.  Baseball is boring as hell, and I would rather watch fake NFL games than real anything (by “fake” I mean “pre-season”).

So now everyone is talking up their teams, caught up in stupid holdouts and off-season drama, hoping for what ain’t gonna happen: I’m talking to you Jets fans! You’re not going to the Super Bowl so just shut up already!!!!!!

I digress, the point is everyone has their favorite team and everyone thinks theirs will go 16-0.  Even the Rams have hope.  Luckily I’m here to predict the NFC division winners for the 2010 season.  And I’ll help you not sound like a complete idiot when arguing with your buddies!

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys will pull out the division because, well just look at their depth chart.  They are stacked at every position on offense and defense.  They have questions at Left Tackle, but there is still young talent there.  And Tony Romo has plenty of targets to hurl to, probably throwing a lot of interceptions along the way, but still winning games.  Sorry Giants fans, but Eli’s broken face shows that their Offensive Line is old and stupid.

This would never have happened to my brother!

If you can’t convert a hand-off, you have major issues.  Ultimately their defense just isn’t what it was that Super Bowl year.

NFC North: Minnesota Vikings

The least creative pick ever, but the obvious one.  The Packers will be quite good, putting up big offensive numbers along the way, and they will end up a wild-card team.  But Minnesota is virtually the same team as last year, minus wide outs Sidney Rice and a healthy Percy Harvin.  They can run, defend the run, and pass the ball.  Their pass defense is not quite up to par with the rest of the team, but it is still not bad.

NFC South: Atlanta Falcons

Yeah, the Saints won the Super Bowl.  But unless there is another hurricane in New Orleans in the next week, the NFL isn’t gonna give the Saints another title.  Oops, my bad.  The NFL doesn’t fix games…

What's this doing here?

Anyways, the Falcons win because they have the best running game in the division, a young and improving QB in Matt Ryan, and a defense that will no doubt be better than last year.  The Saints are just too weak on defense to have another “magic” season.

NFC West: San Fransisco 49ers

Niners fans rejoice that Kurt Warner isn’t Brett Favre and won’t come back from retirement to steal your division!  Thus the 49ers win the West because they have a beast in Frank Gore, also Patrick Willis and a nasty defense.  They do so in spite of QB Alex Smith who is not a #1 overall draft pick, that is clear.  Their weak schedule will be the biggest help for them to end up on top at the end of the year.

Wild Card: Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints

The Packers have possibly the best passing attack in the league, but a poor running game and an inconsistent defense.  You could say the same for the Saints. Yeah, I’ll go with that.

Wild Card Round:

Saints def. Falcons 27-20

Packers def. 49ers 31-13

Divisional Round:

Vikings def. Saints 24-21

Packers def. Cowboys 23-16

NFC Championship:

Now this is just confusing

Vikings def. Packers 21-17

Tune in next week and I’ll tell you who plays the Vikings in the Super Bowl on the AFC side!!  Yay!

Oh yeah here’s an ass for you:

Not bad huh? Here’s a front view: