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**** http://www.GOANET.org ****
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The Rape of Goa - A photo documentary
by
Rajan P. Parrikar
Venue: Menezes Braganza Art Gallery, Panjim, May 21-24, 2008
http://www.parrikar.org/misc/doc-notice.pdf
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/19/weather
What's that smell? A whiff of Europe· Aroma that hit the south blamed
on weather
Met Office warns odour may linger for days
Helen Pidd and Fay Schlesinger
The Guardian, Saturday April 19 2008
This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday April 19 2008 on p5
of the UK news section. It was last updated at 00:13 on April 19 2008.
The Met Office described it as an "atmospheric aroma". But those who
caught a whiff of the foul smell hanging around southern England
yesterday used rather less dainty language.
Within hours of the smell first hitting Britain's nostrils, people in
London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, East Anglia and Devon were
grumbling about the stink, and the big pong had become a national
talking point, with websites espousing increasingly anti-European
theories.
Conservative communities complained about a political stench emanating
from the European commission; the Daily Mail complained of "Le Stink"
(which later became Der Stink, when blame was shifted from France to
Germany); and others named "garlic-eating surrender monkeys". But the
Met Office stepped in to rule that it was basic pollution - the "odour
of ordinary everyday life in northern Europe". Belgian chocolate
factories, Dutch pig farms, German diesel engines and 1,000 other
smells had become trapped under a motionless cloud hanging over
continental farms and factories for several days.
"On Thursday night the wind picked up and it blew over to us. It's
hard to say exactly what it is because we don't know. The air hadn't
moved much so it's picked up all kinds of things. All we can do is
wait for it to blow away. The intensity is likely to decrease but we
don't expect a change in the air flow for a couple of days," said a
Met Office spokeswoman.
Even the Queen wasn't safe barracked away in Windsor castle. A
spokesman at Windsor's tourist office said: "When I left home this
morning the smell was virtually unbearable. I think the Queen is in. I
hope she has her windows closed." In nearby Reading things were no
better. Cara Sheldrake, a barmaid at the Hobgoblin pub in the town
centre, said she had been hit by the smell on her way to work. "I
thought it was seaweed," she said. Julia Clarke, 16, from London,
said: "It smelt like fertiliser - it really stank. I smelt it in Hyde
Park at about 7.30 on my way to school."
The National Farmers' Union thought the odour could have been caused
by Dutch farmers slurry spreading en masse at the end of their winter
no-spread period. The NFU's communications director, Anthony Gibson,
said: "This is what happens when farmers are forced to empty their
slurry store all in one go at the same time instead of being able to
apply it little and often during the winter. We are grateful to the
Dutch farmers for laying on such a pungent demonstration of what could
happen every spring here in the UK if the government presses ahead
with its ill-conceived proposal to implement a blanket ban on winter
slurry spreading."
The charity Water Aid yesterday claimed that London had not smelt as
bad since the Great Stink of 1858, caused by raw sewage. But the Met
Office stressed that yesterday's pong posed no danger to health.
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More at
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/19/london.stink/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
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