The Lovely and Talented Mila Kunis

 

Mila Kunis in 'GQ'

Actress Mila Kunis is leaving her "That 70s Show" persona behind and taking the silver screen by storm. After films like "Extract" and "The Book of Eli," the bubbly brunette appears in "Date Night" this month.

The potty-mouthed starlet gives "GQ" the scoop on "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" co-star Jason Segal's... manhood, and more.

“I love a good d*ck joke,” Mila tells the magazine. “Fart jokes. Poop jokes. They’re hilarious. They never get old. But especially not a d*ck joke.”

In 2008’s "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Ms. Kunis acted opposite a nude Jason Segel. “Look, I want it on the record, okay?” she says. “It’s a nice d*ck. Well proportioned. Handsome. I have nothing but good things to say about Jason Segel’s penis.”

Mila at 'The Book of Eli' Premiere

Mila poses at the premiere of her movie "The Book of Eli" in Hollywood on January 11, 2010.

Mizoram Police Blames Sex Tapes For Sexual Assault, Rape Incidents

By Rahul Karmakar

Guwahati, Nov 15 : Fairly permissive Mizoram had been wondering why 'mainland malaise' such as rape and pedophilia were stalking the highlanders. The police have found an answer – sex videos – after an influential students' body blamed it on 'sexy' school dresses. Finding a pattern to rapes in Mizoram, the police in

this northeastern state discovered that most men caught on charges of rape were aged 40 years or above. And a majority of their victims were girls aged 10-15 years.

"Convicted rapists and others caught on charges of sexually assaulting young girls and minors confessed they watched sex videos before striking," said Aizawl superintendent of police Lalbiakthanga Khaingte.

The study also revealed that 30.2% victims were in the 10-15 age group, 20.3% in the 5-10 age group and 18.3% aged between 15 and 20 years.

The findings followed a rally by the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) last week to condemn the increasing rate of crimes against women in Mizoram. MHIP is Mizoram's apex body of women.

"We have been seeking stringent laws to check rapes, murders and other crimes against women," said MHIP president Lalthlamuani. "The most disturbing trend in Mizoram is the rape and murder of minors."

A 5-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Aizawl on November 11. A similar case was reported elsewhere in the state on October 18.

According to the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or Mizo Students' Union, the government's lethargy in implementing strict dress codes in educational institutions has been 'encouraging' sexual attacks.

Mizoram's school education department had earlier this year formed the Committee on Indecent School Dress and Hairstyle after the MZP demanded a ban on underwear-showing low-slung trousers and micro mini skirts in schools and colleges.

"But the government is yet to issue orders to the schools to ensure a decent dress code," MZP president Khraws Hmehova told HT from Aizawl on Monday. He added the MZP was mobilizing its units for implementing strict social codes aimed at checking involuntary sex and punishing men who cross the line.

Back to Mizoram

By Satyabrata Chakraborty

The Mizoram government has finally started repatriating Bru (Reang) evacuees from Tripura but no one is sure when the process will be completed. The first batch of 51 families, comprising 251 men, women and children, left on 3 and 4 November. The Centre had set 31 October as the deadline.

The repatriation process had to cross many hurdles. The Mizoram government under Zoramthanga, a diehard Mizo nationalist and supporter of parochial ethnicity, ignored the Supreme Court’s directive and repeated appeals by the National Human Rights Commission to take back the evacuees.

Union home minister P Chidambaram’s recent visit to Aizawl and his talks with chief minister Lalthanhawla brought about a significant change in Aizawl’s stance.

When Lalthanhawla, known for his moderate approach to minority issues, returned to power in the last Assembly elections, hopes were raised that the repatriation process would get a boost but he, too, was bound by political  compulsions.

He said in Aizawl recently that he had appealed to the Bru evacuees not to leave Mizoram in October 1997. He also said that RSS leaders had accused him of burning 20 Hindu temples and that he was responsible for driving the Brus from the state.

According to him, the Brus were never Hindus but atheists who had converted to Christianity.

“We have set up 10 refugee camps and we are posting three senior officers and doctors in each of them. We are concerned about the wellbeing of the Bru minorities and we are ready to talk to them to find solutions to the problem.”

Bru refugee leaders want the Mizoram administration to take appropriate steps to  provide adequate security for minorities and their property.

During their absence from Mizoram, their property had allegedly been grabbed by locals. The refugees want their land and property restored.

What has complicated the repatriation process is the claim on the actual number of those who fled Mizoram in 1997. Aizawl has refused to accept the lists prepared separately by the Tripura North district administration and the Forum of Bru Evacuees.

At the  initial stage 13 years ago, following ethnic clashes in Mizoram, there were said to be as many as 50,000 refugees.

Since then, many have left on their own, a few have mingled with the local tribal population and some families crossed over to the Chittagong Hills Tracts of Bangladesh in search of jhum land.

About 38,000 evacuees are still in the camps but Aizawl claims that only 15,000 of them are the genuine citizens of Mizoram and that it is not responsible for the “aliens” living in the camps.

In an agreement between the Mizoram government and evacuee leaders, Aizawl promised to release Rs 80,000 for each of the displaced families for constructing houses.

They will be  given free rations for 12 months beginning November and there will be special development programs for them. Minority interests will be protected. Refugee leaders want a regrouping of their villages at a new location in Mamit district, something which the government has rejected.

Mizoram also has the problem of illegal migrants from Myanmar. They are ethnic Mizos, with the same features and share the same customs and religion. These people work as manual labourers at wages cheaper than that of locals. And they are slowly displacing locals from unskilled and manual jobs.

**The writer is Agartala-based Journalists

Dam Projects ~ The Bigger Picture

By Prasenjit Biswas

The recent protests over the National Hydel Power Corporation-run project in Gerukamukh, officially known as the Lower Subansiri Dam Project, highlighted the sordid portrayal of impending human disaster.

Following the report of the three-member expert committee appointed by the Assam government about the possible environmental impact of the Subanbsiri project, intellectuals, students, peasants and conscientious sections of Assamese society are up in arms against the ongoing construction at the Gerukamukh site.

In fact,  work has left much of North Lakhimpur’s paddy fields covered with downstream sand, rendering these uncultivable.

This sorry situation, at the very initial stage of construction, has only substantiated the possibility of a massive artificial change in the carrying capacity of the Brahmaputra’s tributaries that could affect cultivation, livelihood and aquatic life. The popular opinion is reflected in mobilisations by Akhil Gogoi, a firebrand youth leader – he is of peasant stock — who has become a darling of the people of Assam in recent times.

Sensing the mood, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi did some damage control by suggesting his government “will not allow any dam at the cost of lives of people”. The state Assembly also held a day-long discussion on the construction of an astounding 168 big river dams in Arunachal Pradesh. During the discussion, Congress leaders pointed out how the main Opposition party, the Asom Gana Parishad, had, during the NDA regime, helped make the Brahmaputra Board a defunct organisation.

The AGP government had in fact handed over responsibility of construction of the lower Subsansiri dam to the NHPC, which it is now criticising. Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sharma also pointed it out that the BJP, another Opposition party in Assam, had a dual standard as it supported the Narmada dam and demanded more dams in Uttarakhand.

In the Brahmaputra’s case, the BJP even supported a river inter-linking project during the Atal Behari Vajpayee regime, he said. Congress legislators even pointed out the dual role of the CPI(M), as Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar supported the construction of the Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river.

The Congress strategy of pointing out the double standards of parties like the AGP, CPI(M) and BJP served to silence the Opposition on big river dams, effectively robbing the combined Opposition of any electoral gain it hoped to achieve through anti-dam propaganda.

To add a further twist, Tarun Gogoi proposed that the Northeast Water Development Authority would concentrate on flood and erosion control, a greater share of electricity and royalty from the proposed Subansiri dam, a good compensation package and the setting up of another expert panel to study the environmental impact of the lower Subansiri dam.

Such proposals were aimed at dampening the growing public opinion against big river dams.

During the Assembly debate, the only legislator who made a clear mark was Bhuban Pegu, providing the necessary theoretical back-up to his opposition to big river dams. Outside the house, were voices like Ranoj Pegu and Akhil Gogoi, who justifiably highlighted the disastrous effect of the dams being constructed in Arunachal Pradesh.

One very important point raised by these activists was that there was no informed prior consent from the tribes and communities living upstream and downstream of the Subansiri river. These people had plied their agricultural trade for some centuries but they were seemingly ignored when it was decided to construct a dam.

To compound matters, there was no proper study of the geotectonic and seismic conditions that could affect such construction as much of the Northeast region is located in the sensitive zones IV and V of earthquake faultlines.

The Kopili dam that releases water to Nagaon district has already played havoc with farmers. In fact, Ranoj Pegu pointed out that as per the current estimate, the lower Subansiri dam would release very little water during the day but in the evening would discharge some 3,000 cubic metres every day, resulting in doom for the river basin and flooding the plains. The impact could disrupt the intricate socio-cultural linkages of indigenous communities.

The debate on stopping the construction of big dams in Arunachal Pradesh is partly responsible for the Assam government’s proposal to redesign the lower Subansiri dam so that it not only generates electricity but also helps control flooding and augments the riverine environment.

Such a moderated proposal only legitimises the construction that has already begun in Gerukamukh where the effect of cutting away hills and mining is evidenced in terms of the thick desertification of cultivable land in the northern side of the Brahmaputra.

The proposal for redesigning, therefore, may only reduce the height and the size of the reservoir, work on which is already in progress.

Moreover, the proposal does not include downstream impact assessment covering the entire course of the river, and informed public opinion is certainly not on the agenda. Substituting one panel of experts with another because the first went against the dam construction at Gerukamukh comes across, instead, as a sop for construction agencies.

Apart from lower Subansiri, the people of Assam are concerned about the future once Arunachal Pradesh goes ahead with constructing all its 168 dams. This concern will grow with each passing day and become the most important electoral issue in Assam’s ensuing Assembly elections.

The writer is an associate professor of philosophy at Nehu, Shillong

Mizoram Doing Wonders With Rural Job Scheme

By K. Balchand

MNREGS has given them the leeway to club a number of schemes

Primary importance is attached to construction of roads

Aizawl, Nov 15 : The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been adopted as a community work by the well-knit, classless society in Mizoram.

Unlike in other States, people in Mizoram do not apply for jobs; it is the village council or local administration which sends out invitations to each household to send at least one job card holder to execute the work in their village or area.

The village council, an elected body, has been created under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and exercises control at the grassroots level. However, dissolution of some of these councils falling within the jurisdiction of the capital city of Aizawl is on the cards now with its transition towards governance through a municipal body. The first election to its 19 wards was held earlier in the week.

The proposal for dissolution of some of the councils is meeting opposition not because almost 40 per cent of the State's population inhabit its capital but also because it plays a crucial role in the life of the small population of 10 lakh Mizos who are otherwise sparsely spread on the treacherous though beautiful terrain of this mountainous State.

In villages, however, the councils are evolving the development process with greater ingenuity, particularly after the introduction of MNREGS which has given them the leeway to club a number of schemes.

A case in point is Sakeiram---Tiger Land. Sakei means tiger in Mizo language and Ram stands for land as in the case of Mizoram--land of the Mizos. More than 700 men and women of all ages are collectively cutting a 6-km pathway in the mountains with the objective of setting up an altogether new locality in Serchhip district. The village council had issued a call and the job card holders responded as if they were taking up a community work. Of course, the wage rate is Rs.110 per person day.

It sure is a multipurpose road suggestive of a unique model of convergence of various schemes taken up with the idea of not only linking Thensal village with the main road but also to facilitate construction of an AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) hospital, ring in a new mode of agriculture and give a fillip to horticulture and floriculture.

Several programs are thus clubbed, but primary importance is attached to construction of roads. MGNREGS doubles up even with Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) as the hilly terrains are still inaccessible.

Horticulture and floriculture are among the schemes permitted under the MGNREGS to develop the land of BPL and Scheduled Tribes households. This is being used to wean them away from jhum cultivation which typifies the shifting cultivation.

To save ecology, the government last week launched a New Land Use Policy (NLUP) with the promise to provide at least two hectares to 1.2 lakh families over the next three years. The government also intends to provide help to develop their land for tilling purpose. With people living on the higher slopes of the mountain, water is a major problem despite several rivers crisscrossing the State. MGNREGS has come in handy for taking up water conservation schemes. It is being combined with other structures for setting up reservoirs.

Rape Cases On The Rise in Mizoram

Aizawl, Nov 15 : Mizoram has witnessed an increase in rape cases during the last few years, Aizawl Superintendent of Police Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said here today.

Police registered 66 cases of rape in 2007, while there were 70 rape victims in that year. Fifty-one rape cases and 56 rape victims were registered in 2008, which increased to 68 rape cases and 71 victims.

This year the police have registered 76 rape cases and the names of 69 victims, the police official said.

He was speaking at an observation of a 'black day' by the states apex women’s body Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl here to show its strong condemnation of the recent rape and murder of two five-year-old girls in Aizawl and a spurt in violence against women.

Explaining the difference between the number of rape cases and victims, Mr Khiangte said in some cases the same accused victimized more than one person while in some cases, a victim got raped by more than one persons.

The police official believed that it was possible that more cases of rape went unreported due to the parents and the victims fear of stigmatization.

Most of the rape victims were aged between 10 and 15, the police official said, constituting 30.2 per cent of the victims.

This was followed by 15-20 age group who accounted for 18.3 per cent. He said girls aged between 5 and 20 are the most vulnerable to rape.

The police official further revealed that in most cases, the accused and the victims were near or dear ones.

Stating that there is high incidence of child sexual abuse, the Aizawl SP stressed the importance of imparting sex education to children.

Shillong Choir To Sing in Bangalore Soon

By Francis Sundar Singh

Bangalore, Nov 15 : “I hope we have done justice to our country,” says Damon M Lyndem, coordinator and member of the Shillong Chamber Choir, who were given a chance to perform before US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle at a banquet hosted by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan during their recent visit to India.

Performing at a VVIP banquet is no easy task, especially in the presence of several dignitaries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other leaders.

The 16-member choir from Meghalaya sang three pieces, including a Khasi opera, composed by its choirmaster Neil Nongkynrih; a tribute to their motherland.

“The entire evening was just fabulous. It was a proud moment for us to sing for President Obama, and we are glad we could sing in our native language, Khasi,” Lyndem said.

“The Khasi opera was composed as a tribute to our beloved motherland. Khasi is one of the dying languages of the world. We thought it right to perform this opera before President Obama and also showcase our tradition,” added Lyndem.
The choir sang My tribute, an American song composed by songwriter Andrae Crouch and a medley of Hindi songs that ended with Ye dosti hum nahin todenge — the evergreen number from Sholay.

My Tribute was the icing on the cake during the evening as it was an apt song for the visiting dignitaries and also has a direct connect with the American world, said Lyndem.

The performance comes at a time when the entire North-East region is dealing with several violence-related issues. However, Lyndem said that the performance is not just for their region, but the entire country. “Our performance is not only for the North-East, but for the entire country to show the world that we are also a major power. Our choir itself is happy that it got an opportunity to present India to the world,” he said.

Though the members of the choir were not able to meet the Obamas in person, they did get a positive vibe from Sonia Gandhi.

“The evening would not have been complete without you,” the Congress president was quoted as saying, said Lyndem.

Congress scion Rahul Gandhi is said to have appreciated the choir from Shillong.

“We feel ecstatic. I had been to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan many times for performances, but this was a totally different experience,” said Neil Nongkynrih, without whose guidance, the choir wouldn’t have performed so well.

The Shillong Chamber Choir is now setting its sights on performing in Bangalore, if the opportunity comes through.

“We have been performing in several places both in India and abroad. But, we would love to perform in Bangalore since the city has got a good music-loving crowd. We are just waiting for the right time and opportunity,” Lyndem added.

The choir will now be performing in Malaysia, Kuwait and Chennai over the next few months.

‘Corruption Almost Legalised in Nagaland’

Dimapur, Nov 15 : Former Nagaland Chief Minister Dr SC Jamir has rued that corruption has become so legitimate in Nagaland that it has become an almost essential part of governance and administration.

Jamir, who also served as Governor of Goa and Maharashtra, stated this at the inaugural session of the first ever technical festival ‘Techaura 2010’ organized at the School of Engineering & Technology and Management (SETAM), Nagaland University, which concluded here recently.

Referring to the recent remark made by the State Vigilance Commissioner that ‘corruption in the State has become institutionalized’, he said the statement couldn’t be truer as corruption has indeed become a legalized institution in Nagaland.

He further voiced apprehension that if the trend of corruption which is being witnessed in almost all the functions of the State mechanism is to continue, the moral foundation which is the very basis of our societal structure will soon disintegrate.

The veteran leader reminded of the fate that society would fall into if its moral foundation decays away while citing instance of the history of the Roman Empire which collapsed because of moral degradation eventually leading to disintegration of its political, economic, religious and other social institutions.