In North Korea, a state news agency has lashed out at the United Nations by using homophobic insults about a man who led an investigation. The insults in the report stated, “As for Kirby who took the lead in cooking the “report”, he is a disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality. He is now over seventy, but he is still anxious to get married to his homosexual partner. This practice can never be found in the DPRK boasting of the sound mentality and good morals, and homosexuality has become a target of public criticism even in Western countries, too. In fact, it is ridiculous for such gay to sponsor dealing with others’ human rights issue.”

North Korea will always be under scrutiny as its country does not have a good relationship with the United Nations. However, attacking them with homophobic slander is not under ethical human rights standards. North Korea propaganda is well-known for its abusive language and insults against foreign critics. Earlier this month, the  state newspaper Rodong Sinmun called South Korean President a “bitch,” and in 2009, KCNA reported that a North Korean official had labelled Hilary Clinton a “funny lady” who was “by no means intelligent.”

In New Delhi, school authorities have a notorious record for discriminating against children from marginalized communities, denying them their right to an education. Within these four Indian states, they are discriminating against Dalit, tribal and Muslim children. According to Human Rights Watch, “the discrimination creates an unwelcome atmosphere that can lead to truancy and eventually may lead the child to stop going to school. Weak monitoring mechanisms fail to identify and track children who attend school irregularly, are at risk of dropping out, or have dropped out.”

An eight-year-old tribal boy from Uttar explains that “the teacher tells us to sit on the other side, if we sit with others, she scolds us and asks us to sit separately, the teacher doesn’t sit with us because she says we are dirty.” This discriminatory behavior saddens me because in the United States, children being educated do not receive discrimination to this level or even at all.

Instead of encouraging children from poverty-stricken communities who are usually the first out of their families to receive an education, teachers mistreat and neglect them. I think that the Indian government should enact more effective measures in order to monitor the treatment of vulnerable children. According to the Indian government, almost 80 million children drop out of school before they get the chance of completing elementary school.

Amazon: Online goods provider, cable cutter and shipper?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Amazon is taking over the world. A few weeks ago, Amazon introduced Amazon Fire TV to the market in order to compete with Apple TV, Roku and other cable cutting devices. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published an article describing Amazon’s plan to now compete with shippers such as FedEx and UPS.

With all of Amazon’s new ventures, the company aims to offer the same service as their competitors, but with an added twist. With Amazon Fire TV, they added a speaking component to their remote, and with Amazon deliveries, they are hoping to offer same day as purchase delivery. Continue reading →