Argentina Ban Beauty Pageant And Replaces Them With Community Awards

A Chivilcoy beauty contest Photo: http://www.dechivilcoy.com.ar

Harriet Alexander Telegraph
A town in Argentina has become the first in the country to ban beauty pageants, passing a new ruling which will see the annual contests replaced by awards for those who have contributed the most to their community.

Chivilcoy, a soya farming town of 60,000 people in Buenos Aires province, 100 miles east of the capital, passed the ruling unanimously.

"These beauty contests between girls, teenagers and young women reinforces the idea that women should only be valued and prized for their physical appearance," the text of the new ruling stated.
It said that the pageants, popular across South America, were based on "stereotypes, promoting in many cases an obsession with body shape and a physical ideal which can never be achieved."

The politicians who approved the ban added that such tournaments encouraged eating disorders such as bullemia and anorexia.

Canadians of ukrainian descent answering call of the homeland

Toronto resident Krystina Waler, left, with Ganniday, a Ukrainian soldier who was wounded in the current conflict with Russia, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Torstar News Service
Marko Suprun of Winnipeg joined the Maidan uprising more than a year ago in Ukraine, and he’s never left.

Sunnybrook surgeon Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn led a team of 25 physicians, nurses and medical professionals from across Canada to Kyiv last month to operate on people burned and disfigured by injuries.

And Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators and supporter of orphaned children in Ukraine for two decades, couldn’t say no when he was asked to lend a hand to support Antohyshyn’s work.

From fancy dinners attended by the likes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and hockey great Wayne Gretzky, to online fundraising campaigns and bake sales, the 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage have opened their hearts and wallets, donating money, time and ingenuity to help win a war in another land.

Chinese Commuinity Banishes Boy Aged EIGHT Because He Is HIV-Positive

DailyMail
A boy aged just eight has been banished from a Chinese village - because he was found to be HIV-positive.

The youngster's own grandfather was among 200 people in the community, in China's southwestern Sichuan province, who signed a petition to expel the child to 'protect villagers' health'.

It has been reported that the boy - who was given the pseudonym Kunkun by Chinese media - contracted the virus from his mother.

The case, reported in the Global Times newspaper, has highlighted the stigma attached to the disease in China, where many sufferers face widespread discrimination.
Previous reports said the boy was refused admission to local schools and villagers would avoid contact with him.

'Nobody plays (with me), I play alone,' Kunkun said, according to a report on the website of the People's Daily newspaper.