Francois Hollande's Haircut

 

Francois Hollande's Haircuts Costs More Than 10,000 Euros A Month

French taxpayers aren’t finding anything funny over the revelation that Francois Hollande’s coiffed mane costs them an arm and a leg.
Satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported on Wednesday the French president pays 9,895 euros — more than S$11,000 — every month for a personal hairdresser.
The expense is on par with what a government minister earns per month, according to The New York Times.
According to the BBC, the hairdresser is sworn to secrecy and accompanies Hollande on his foreign trips.

Stephane Le Foll, a French government spokesman, confirmed the hairstylist's salary but defended it as reasonable. He said the hairdresser is available at all times to the president.
“Everyone has their hair done, don’t they?" he said. "This hairdresser had to abandon his salon and he’s on tap 24 hours a day.”
The hairdresser is so available that he has “missed the births of his children," The Washington Post reports.
The New York Times points out that Hollande himself may have not known how much the hairdresser was getting paid. His former companion, Valérie Trierweiler, said in a tweet that she "can attest to his anger when he learned" about the salary.
Like most politicial scandals, news of Hollande's haircuts' expenses swiftly received a "-gate" suffix. Users on Twitter shared memes and poked fun at the president using the #CoiffeurGate hashtag.

By: John On 12:28 PM

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Free Healthcare

Healthcare in Iran is based on three pillars: the public-governmental system, the private sector, and NGOs.The healthcare and medical sector's market value in Iran was almost US $24 billion in 2002 and was forecast to rise to US $31 billion by 2007. With a population of 75 million (2012), Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East. The country faces the common problem of other young demographic nations in the region, which is keeping pace with growth of an already huge demand for various public services. The young population will soon be old enough to start new families, which will boost the population growth rate and subsequently the need for public health infrastructures and services. Total healthcare spending is expected to rise from $24.3 billion in 2008, to $50 billion by 2013, reflecting the increasing demand on medical services.[3] Total health spending was equivalent to 4.2% of GDP in Iran in 2005.73% of all Iranians have health care coverage.[4] Iran is also the only country with a legal organ trade.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2000, Iran ranks 58 in healthcare and 93 in health-system performance.In 2013, Bloomberg News ranked Iran 45th most efficient healthcare system ahead of United States and Brazil.[8] The report shows life expectancy in Iran is 73 years and per capita spending on healthcare is $346.[8] The health status of Iranians has improved over the last two decades. Iran has been able to extend public health preventive services through the establishment of an extensive Primary Health Care Network.[9] As a result, child and maternal mortality rates have fallen significantly, and life expectancy at birth has risen remarkably. Infant (IMR) and under-five (U5MR) mortality have decreased to 28.6 and 35.6 per 1,000 live births respectively in 2000, compared to an IMR of 122 per 1,000 and a U5MR of 191 per 1,000 in 1970. Immunization of children is accessible to most of the urban and rural population.

By: John On 2:41 PM

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Internet Control By Country

Social Media Censorship by Country

Enemies of the Internet:
Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Countries Under Surveillance:

Australia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

The OpenNet Initiative classifies the magnitude of censorship and/or filtering in a country in four areas.
The level of censorship is classified as below:

• Pervasive: A large portion of content in several categories is blocked.
• Substantial: A number of categories are subject to a medium level of filtering or many categories are subject to a low level of filtering.
• Selective: A small number of specific sites are blocked or filtering targets a small number of categories or issues.
• Suspected: It is suspected, but not confirmed, that Web sites are being blocked.
• No evidence: No evidence of blocked Web sites, although other forms of controls may exist.

The classifications of the following areas:

• Political: Views and information in opposition to those of the current government or related to human rights, freedom of expression, minority rights, and religious movements.
• Social: Views and information perceived as offensive or as socially sensitive, often related to sexuality, gambling, or illegal drugs and alcohol.
• Conflict/security: Views and information related to armed conflicts, border disputes, separatist movements, and militant groups.
• Internet tools: e-mail, Internet hosting, search, translation, and Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, and censorship or filtering circumvention methods.

By: John On 4:45 PM

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Miss Lebanon

When does a selfie featuring two beauty queens become an international incident? When the countries involved are Israel and Lebanon, of course.
The trouble started last week, when this year's Miss Israel Doron Matalon posted a photo on Instagram featuring herself alongside Saly Griege, this year's Miss Lebanon, and her fellow contestants from Japan and Slovenia. The picture caused an uproar in Lebanon, which has a law forbidding its citizens from fraternizing with Israelis. In 1993, the government disqualified its Miss Universe representative after Agence France-Presse moved a photo of her smiling arm-in-arm with her Israeli competitor.

For her part, Griege claimed that she had been the victim of a sinister photobomb, writing on Facebook and Instagram, "I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me) ... I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media."

Matalon responded with a Facebook post of her own, saying that Griege's reaction "doesn’t surprise me, but it still makes me sad." Addressing her rival, she added, "Too bad you can not put the hostility out of the game, only for three weeks of an experience of a lifetime that we can meet girls from around the world and also from the neighbouring [sic] country."

By: John On 4:53 PM

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The lost half

President Hassan Rouhani's approval to run for presidency by the constitutionally-mandated and appointed 12-members of the conservative Guardian Council, his endorsement of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, his promises of bringing "dignity" to the nation, freeing political prisoners, promoting civil rights, normalcy, reintegrating Iran in the world economically and politically, struck a chord with many Iranian people. In addition, Rouhani's relative acceptance and legitimacy within Iran's political spectrum (the hardliners, conservatives, moderate, principalists -- Osulgarayan -- and reformists), his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's revolutionary principles, his background profile as a government insider and chief nuclear negotiator, the blessings of Supreme Leaders for him, and the low standards from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, placed Rouhani in a unique position last year for the presidency.

Avoiding to adopt extremist political and economic positions, categorized as a pragmatic, moderate, realist, and centrist in the political realm, campaigning for "Prudence and Hope" (tadbir va omid), advocating for normalcy, attempting to merge the Islamic Republic's ideology, principles with its economic and national interests, has predominantly defined President Rouhani, the "Diplomatic Sheikh."

With all the aforementioned promises, coupled with years of a deteriorating economy, high inflation, double-digit unemployment rate, severe economic and political sanctions, as well as domestic crack down, human rights violations and lack of freedoms (assembly, press, and speech), the expectations from President Hassan Rouhani were high domestically, regionally and internationally.

Last year at this time, President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist government insider, took the oath and assumed the office of the presidency after he was unexpectedly elected as president of the Islamic Republic by winning more votes than the five other hardliner candidates put together.

By: John On 8:07 PM

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Niavaran

Women in Iran have been posting pictures of themselves after 'stealthily' taking their hijabs off in public, in a country where it is illegal for a female to leave the house without wearing a headscarf under Islamic law. Over 150 photos have been posted to the Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women Facebook page which has amassed more than 140,000 likes since it was created just a week ago by the Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. Ms Alinejad, who left Iran to pursue her studies in the UK in 2009, told The Independent the page began when she posted a photograph of herself driving down a road in the country without wearing a headscarf.
The image was captioned with: “Hijab is being forced on women not only by the Morality Police, but also out of consideration for family, through wanting to keep a job and because of fear of judgment from others." "I wrote that I had experienced all of these pressures too," she explained. "I was sure that most Iranian women who don’t believe in the forced hijab have enjoyed freedom in secret, [so] I asked them if they wished to share this moment of stealth freedom." The response she received shortly after starting the page was "staggering", something she feels "delighted" at, but not surprised by.

By: John On 10:20 PM

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Shahrak Gharb

In the photos, which Ms Alinejad publishes without including full names, women in different outdoor environments can be seen after removing their hijabs alongside a few words describing the lack of freedom embodied in having to wear a hijab, or what it means to be briefly remove it in public. The site is dedicated to Iranian women inside the country "who want to share their 'stealthily' taken photos without the veil". Ms Alinejad said: "It is a basic right for any person to have freedom of choice. Women in Iran, along with many other countries, want to choose what they wear. It should not be legislated nor should it be enforced."
One post shows a smiling woman stood by the Valasht Lake in Iran, accompanied by the caption: “I was bursting with happiness to feel the wind through my hair without someone around to see it and warn me to keep covered properly.” In another, a woman can be seen sat by the Tomb of Cyrus in Iran with her back turned to the camera. "The police officer who was around saw that my daughter and I wanted to take photos with our scarves taken off," she explains in the accompanying text. "He said: 'Go on..take your photos the way you please. The person who has been sleeping here for long years is the source of the whole world's freedom and this place belongs to everybody.'" Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has expressed more progressive views than his predecessors since his election. On the subject of the strict Islamic dress code that includes the hijab, he said he was against a crackdown on women wearing looser clothing in the sweltering summers. "I'm certainly against these actions," Rouhani told youth magazine Chelcheragh in response to religious police who monitor loose hijabs and inappropriate clothing during the warmer months earlier this year. "If a women or a man does not comply with our rules for clothing, his or her virtue should not come under question.. In my view, many women in our society who do not respect our hijab laws are virtuous. Our emphasis should be on the virtue." However, more conservative men and women have staged protests in Tehran demanding authorities act on women wearing 'bad' hijab.

By: John On 10:20 PM

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