MTV AIDS Summit

MTV has an AIDS summit in Mumbai every year. The aim- to spread awareness about AIDS.

What I fail to see is how this summit will help achieve the goal. Singers come up on stage, lipsync their songs, say something like "Please don't get AIDS" and go away. The sweaty crowd goes mad with frenzy at seeing those singers on stage.

MTV's target audience is a bunch of young people, who are hep, well-educated, and have full pockets. Most of them already know about AIDS, and those who don't, don't care. They don't care about the fact that they are probably going to die someday of lung cancer because of their chain smoking, so my guess is that they won't care about this either.

Furthermore, I don't see celebs coming on stage, and repeating every few minutes, "Don't do this and this and this."

The crowd is there just for fun. AIDS is just an excuse for them.

PS-- Does anyone know whether the AIDS summit is free, and if not, how much is the ticket for?

'I have an Idea!'

A professor at a Japanese university has an idea- to record all ideas ever thought of.

Now that's something!

Beauty with a Purpose

The Miss World contest has been shifted to London, due to the riots in Nigeria in which more than 200 people were killed. And that was just the fuel added to the fire. The fire began when many contestants refused to participate because of the fatwa against a couple of Nigerian women, charged with adultery. According to sharia (Islamic) law, those found guilty of adultery, must be stoned to death.

Of course, the young girls protested. After all, that's what Miss World is about, isn't it? But this protest sparked off a riot. And the consequences are clear.

As if a bunch of reed-thin girls could sway the rulers of the land.

And, according to me, what the girls were doing by telling the rulers what to do was: interfering in the internal affairs of the state. It may seem to be done in good faith, but why just protest when in that country? After all, the contest is about beauty with a purpose, isn't it? Why not protest against thousands of injustices done to women, day after day, year after year?

Where were these beauties when Bawandari was raped? Where were these beauties when hundreds of thousands of women were beaten up by their husbands for reading the Bible of feminism, The Female Eunuch? Where were these beauties when hundreds of women were lulled into prostution in the pretext of transforming them into beautiful models and actresses? Where was ex-Miss World, Aishwariya Rai's protest, when her boyfriend beat her up?

Next year: The anorexic young ladies will summon a press conference to protest against war. Will George Bush lend them a ear?