Singapore Approves 'Brokeback Mountain'

by Peter Hacker, 365Gay.com Asia Bureau Chief
February 15, 2006 - 2:00 pm ET

(Singapore) In a move that surprised even the film's distributor "Brokeback Mountain" Wednesday was passed in its entirety by Singapore's film censorship board.

Homosexuality is illegal in Singapore. The law defines gay sex as "an act of gross indecency" punishable by a caning and up to two years in prison.

The censor board in a statement said that it approved the movie because it did not "promote or glamorize the lifestyle".

The movie will, however, carry an R21 listing meaning it will be restricted to moviegoers over the age of 21 and must carry a warning message: "mature theme, sexual scenes".

The approval signals a new liberalism for the censor board which brought in new rules in 2004.
Prior to the new rules it banned the Taiwanese film "Formula 17" about two teenage boys falling in love and in 2002, a scene in "The Hours", which depicted two women kissing, was chopped.

In Malaysia the country's largest distributor has said it would not even ask for approval to release "Brokeback Mountain" in the mostly Muslim country. China's censor's banned it last month and the United Arab Emirates banned it earlier this month.

In the United States the movie was dropped from the playbill at a Salt Lake City theater after the movie chain's owner discovered it had a gay theme. (story)

© www.365Gay.com 2006

China: Drug bid to beat child ban

Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Posted: 0039 GMT (0839 HKT)

The number of multiple births in China annually may have doubled due to easy access to fertility drugs.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- More Chinese women are exploiting easy access to fertility treatments to skirt China's one-child limit, leading to a boom in numbers of multiple births, an official newspaper reported Monday.

The main pediatric hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing recorded 90 births of twins or triplets last year, up from an average of 20 in past years, the China Daily said.

While many women underwent fertility treatment because they could not conceive, others -- especially among the urban upper class and in conservative rural areas -- did so specifically to get more babies per birth, the report said.

In the late 1970s China began limiting most couples to one child, harshly punishing violators in the hope of limiting its ballooning population, which now stands at 1.3 billion.

Although the number of exceptions has broadened in recent years, the limits remain, despite fears that the working age population is shrinking.

While no exact figures were available, previous media reports said the number of twins born annually has doubled nationwide. There are no penalties for multiple births.

Fueling the trend is the accessibility of imported fertility drugs in clinics and pharmacies.
Although the Health Ministry banned their use by healthy women in 2005, enforcement was virtually nonexistent, China Daily said.

The only way to control the sale was by forcing chemists to ask for prescriptions before selling the drugs, an unnamed Nanjing municipal Health Department official told the newspaper.
The phenomenon of taking fertility drugs specifically to produce twins is not limited to China alone.

British doctors say around 10 percent of women seeking fertility treatment specifically ask for twins.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Today's Word: Chiasmus (Noun)
Pronunciation: [kI-'æz-mês]

Definition 1: A two-part rhetorical structure with a clever inversion of the first part in the second, e.g. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" or "Never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate."

Usage 1: The adjective is "chiasmic (chiastic, or chiasmal)" which can double as a noun referring to someone who is addicted to chiasmuses. One of the most quoted chiasmuses of the past century is John Kennedy's, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Letter chiasmuses, that only switch one (alphabetical) letter, are also popular: "An experimental psychologist is someone who pulls habits out of rats" or, "Scholars are advised to apply for several grants at the time so as not to put all their begs in one askit."

Suggested usage: Here are a few chiasmuses to practice on. Lord Byron wrote, "Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure." An old Edwardian toast runs, "Here's to champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends." Betsy Cronkite, wife of U.S. newscaster, Walter, said, "Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old girl. Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he's going to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old." Finally, perhaps the most quoted U.S. chiasmic, Mae West, said, "I'd rather be looked over than overlooked" and "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men." (For more examples of chiasmus, read "Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You" by Dr. Mardy Grothe.)

Etymology: From Greek chiasmos "crossing, diagonal arrangement" from chiazein "to mark with a cross" from the Greek letter chi (X). Related to "chiasma" (plural "chiasmata"), as in the optic chiasma, the crossing of the optic nerves in middle of the brain. (We are grateful that our paths crossed that of John Daly of Bloomfield, Connecticut, so that he could pass along today's word.)
—Dr. Language, www.yourDictionary.com

"Mindfulness is not just a word or a discourse by the Buddha, but a meaningful state of mind. It means we have to be here now, in this very moment, and we have to know what is happening internally and externally. It means being alert to our motives and learning to change unwholesome thoughts and emotions into wholesome ones. Mindfulness is a mental activity that in due course eliminates all suffering."

-Ayya Khema, "Be an Island"

Copyright Wisdom Publications 2001.
Reprinted from Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations ,
edited by Josh Bartok, with permission of Wisdom Publications,
199 Elm St., Somerville MA 02144 U.S.A,
www.wisdompubs.org .