Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 09 Nov 2011 06:01 PM PST
FBC Media's Italian branch concluded a contract with Gulnara Karimova, the notoriously grasping eldest daughter of the country's savage dictator, to boost her public image as she attempted to launch a global fashion and pop star career.
Gulnara is regarded as 'the most hated person in Uzbekistan', according to diplomatic cables released through WikiLeaks, because of her extraordinary raids on the country's wealth (which includes oil and gas) and her own flamboyant self-promotion. She is also regarded as her father, President Islam Karimov's likely successor and the second most powerful person in the country. When Gulnara divorced her husband, he was immediately stripped of his favoured monopoly over soft drinks in the country (which was given to her). He took refuge in the United States, but 24 members of his family were then arrested and sent at gunpoint over the border into Afghanistan! She poses in multiple roles as a billionaire business-woman, pop singer, diplomat, government minister, her country's permanent representative to the UN as well holding a position as a university academic and acting as patron of various organisations – all thanks to her father's patronage!
Above all Gulnara wants to be a famous fashion designer and has poured her country's resources into fashion shows in top locations so she can show-case her talents! Indeed, Karimova, who has been dubbed 'The World's Worst Daughter', appears to combine plain greed with a burning desire to be considered sexy and artistic, as well as clever. As the pictures below would suggest, Gulnara's Daddy has provided her with everything, except an ability to see herself as others do!
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| The Curse of Eve - a bedtime story Posted: 09 Nov 2011 05:06 PM PST Our story begins thus, as do all bedtime stories … Once upon a time, far, far away, there lived a poor sod called Adam. God made him from dust. He was immortal. Our hero lived in a beautiful garden called Eden. In the garden there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Adam ate its fruit, he would know the difference between … yes, good and evil. And that would be bad, or must have been, because God told Adam that if he ate from it, he would surely die (Genesis 2:16). Our hero got lonely. So God created Woman from his rib to be his 'helper'. God loved them. He made them in his image, perfect and sinless. They would never be ill, never be harmed and never die. And God was a real sport when he said, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:27). And how could they not live happily ever after? … I must pause here. There is a tiny dispute of fact. This tale in Genesis of the Christian God, his Adam and Eve, suggests that Eve was the first woman. However, a Jewish book called The Alphabet of Ben Sira (circa 8th Century A.D.) tells the story of Lilith; that she and not Eve, was Adam's first wife, created at the same time and from the same dust. Claiming to be thus created equal, Lilith refused to sleep "under him". This was a problem for our hero who, ever the ladies man, insisted, "I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one." Lilith freaked. She flew away into the air where she 'knew' many demons, spawning hundreds of baby demons a day. And thus was coined the oath "I wouldn't sleep with you if you were the only man in the whole universe". Adam sobbed to God, "O Sovereign of the Universe, the woman you gave me has run away". Oh boo hoo. But God was good to Adam, so he sent three angels after her. They threatened to drown her if she refused to return to him. "O piss off" she must have said, because they did. So God, perhaps regretting Free Will a little, made Eve, but this time from Adam's rib to prevent her from leaving him.[1] I readily accept this version as Genesis 1:27 suggests a woman before Eve, but more so because Lilith sounds really hot. Despite Lilith, the consensus is that Eve represents Woman and that She did not come into existence in her own right but only to fulfill man's needs. This is significant, as we shall see. Where was I? Ah yes. There was a serpent in the garden who was actually Satan (Revelations 12:9). Before he lost the War in Heaven, he was called Lucifer, God's first and most beautiful angel, the Angel of Light. The Morning Star. He felt that although Adam and Eve would be eternally happy in paradise, they would also be eternally ignorant. So he persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit for then her eyes would be opened, and like God, she would have knowledge. She ate. The now wicked Eve then seduced poor Adam into taking a bite himself. Immediately his eyes were opened. With all this knowledge, he realised he was butt naked and so put on an apron (Genesis 3:7). But then he heard God walking in Eden in the cool of the day. 'O bummer', he must have thought and he hid. But God called for him and Adam said, "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Genesis 3:10). (What happened to the apron?). God figured it out (well, of course He would) and asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Adam blamed Eve, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." (Genesis 3:12). Eve blamed the snake, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate (Genesis 3:13). God didn't buy it. The serpent got off lightly though, probably because it was Satan and he was only doing his job. But it was off on its belly for the rest of its life. And to be hated by Eve and her children (oh that must have hurt). Adam was cursed (for listening to evil wifey, of course), (Genesis 3:17-19): "And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it', cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." But Eve's curse was worse (Genesis 3:16): "To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And God banished them from Heaven, to the East of Eden. And Death did come to Adam and Eve. The Christians, in another one of their cool euphemisms like 'the Rapture', call it 'the Fall'. I think 'the Almighty Cock-Up' would be more appropriate. But I don't get what's so awful about knowledge. Certain Gnostic sects actually honour the snake for bringing knowledge to Adam and Eve. But it is the treatment of Eve that is truly baffling. Her curse is two-fold. The first was increased pain[2] during childbirth and in raising children.[3] There is also the post natal extra fat, wider hips, stretch marks and of course, the sag. And children will always find ways to break a mother's heart. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Women have more pain in childbirth than any other creature. God 1, Woman 0. And the Puritans took the Curse very seriously. In 16th and 17th century Europe, midwives were tried and burned at the stake as witches for administering any form of pain relief. There was an outcry from the Church when chloroform was discovered and used in childbirth by Sir James Simpson in the early 19th century. It was seen as an unholy attempt to rebel against God's curse on Eve. Even Queen Victoria was heavily criticized for having used anaesthesia with the birth of her 8th child. But Eve's second curse is the real cracker: "… yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." I confess I am thoroughly enjoying the very suggestion of a man's divine right to rule over his wife. After all, Adam did name her Woman because she was created of man (Genesis 2:18-23). This is no slip of the quill; Genesis earlier recognised the headship of man before the Fall (Genesis 2:18 and 2:22). This means that God's later ruling 'he shall rule over you' cannot be a punishment in itself and is accordingly, simply the way things are. So to obey God's edict the wife must submit to her husband, I surmise with glee. What's worse is 'desire' is interpreted as Woman's need to 'control'[4] her husband. This is a curse because her need can never be fulfilled, as man's headship is an edict of God that cannot be usurped. God 2, Woman 0. St. Paul himself did not accept Woman's control over man. He said (I Timothy 2:11-15), "And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control." The Twentieth Century New Testament provides a truly brave translation of this clause, "But women will find their salvation in motherhood". Try telling Liz Taylor that childbearing and submission to her husband (singular) are her salvation.
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World's worst daughter? – Gulnara Karimova
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