news.bbc.co.uk SAPPORO, JAPAN, November 3, 2006: (HPI note: This struck us as a lesson in how old traditions, in this case Shinto weddings, can be displaced by fads.) Mark Kelly, originally from England and living in Japan for six years, works as a fake priest performing Christian wedding ceremonies on weekends. “I was living in Sapporo, studying Japanese, and I…
www.organiser.org HYDERABAD, INDIA, November 1, 2006: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the richest temple in the country, will hand out one gram of gold to poor families to keep them from converting to other religions. The new board that runs the TTD took this decision following complaints from religious leaders that preachers of other religions are luring poor Hindus…
www.vrg.org UNITED STATES, October 31, 2006: Almost everybody seems to have a relative or a friend who is vegetarian. Even large corporations have become greatly interested in vegetarian and cruelty-free items. For example, Colgate recently purchased control of Tom’s of Main for $100 million. Silk and its parent company White Wave were bought by Dean Foods, the largest U.S. processor…
www.26noticias.com.ar BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, October 30, 2006: The Buenos Aires zoo is commemorating their 118 year of operation Sunday, November 5. Among the zoo’s many features is a Temple of the Elephants — a monument built 102 years ago as a replica of a Hindu temple located in Mumbai, India. The official press release reports that the statues of the…
gethuman.com KAUAI, HAWAII, November 2, 2006: We thank the dozen or so people who promptly and expertly answered our plea yesterday about yahoo.com. The HPI reports were getting blocked to nearly a thousand subscribers. Several people were able to direct our complaint to the right departments within yahoo, and we think (will find out after today’s HPI) the problem has…
www.hinduvoice.co.uk LONDON, ENGLAND, October 30, 2006: The October edition of the UK Hindu Voice e-magazine is now available online. This edition contains a number of articles covering Hindu issues in the UK such as Cambridge University discontinuing their Sanskrit studies program, an update on the Blagclub’s use of Hindu Deities in their decor, an insightful interview with Swami Ramdev and…
news.bbc.co.uk KATHMANDU, NEPAL, November 1, 2006: The Supreme Court in Nepal has ordered an inquiry into whether the tradition of worshipping a living Goddess has led to the exploitation of girls. The landmark order has come in response to a petition seeking an end to the tradition, which campaigners say is a violation of human rights. A final ruling is…
www.dnaindia.com KENDRAPARA, INDIA, November 1, 2006: About 1,200 Dalits have threatened to embrace another religion if they are not allowed to enter and worship at the Jagannath temple at Keredagarh. “While Dalits are free to enter temples elsewhere in the district, upper caste people have been debarring us from doing so here,” says Raj Kishore Muduli, leader of the group.…
HPI KAUAI, HAWAII, November 1, 2006. More than a thousand of our HPI subscribers have accounts with yahoo.com. For unknown reasons, yahoo.com started rejecting most of the HPI reports with a “452 Too many recipients” response. As a result, about 70% of the yahoo subscribers no longer get their HPI. We don’t think they blacklisted us, it seems to be…
www.pib.nic.in FIJI, October 20, 2006: Shri Vaylar Ravi, Indian Minister of Overseas Affairs, visited Fiji for the first time in October with a mission of strengthening ties between the two countries. The Indian Diaspora is well established in Fiji and the Minister wanted to catalyze Indo-Fijan relations including growth of ties in higher education training, networking of academic institutions, forging…