Mumbai Is Proud Of The "Slumdog Millionaire" Kids! They've Been Given Free Homes!

Remember the outrage that the public expressed over the fact that the "Slumdog Millionaire" children were underpaid? Well,apparently the Mumbai government has decided to step up & give them a free home.Here's more from The Guardian:

"Forget the Oscars, the biggest Indian winners of the Slumdog Millionaire fairytale are two of the film's child actors plucked from the shanty towns of Mumbai, after it emerged they are to be given "free homes" by the state government.

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali Qureshi, nine, who play the lead characters in their younger years, currently live in shacks in the Garib Nagar slum in Bandra East, Mumbai. But Amarjit Singh Manhas, the chairman of the Maharashtra housing authority, told the Times of India: "We felt that since the children have made the nation proud, they must be given free houses."

There had been anger after pictures emerged of the child stars living in squalor despite the £10m movie earning about £69m since its north American release in November. Set in Mumbai, which is part of Maharashtra state, Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards at the Oscars on Monday, including best picture.

Danny Boyle, who won best director for the movie and cast the Hindi-speaking children from Mumbai's slums in the two lead roles, has repeatedly denied accusations he had exploited the children and not paid them enough. Film-makers pointed out that trust funds had been set up for the children and they had been sent to school.

The Mumbai board's decision has delighted the children's families, according to the Times of India. Azharrudin's father, Mohammed Ismail, told the newspaper: "We have barely got any money from the film-makers. In fact, whatever came, has already been spent. We do not even have a pucca wall in this shanty and our future is equally uncertain. In fact, this decision is definitely a piece of good news for us."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire article here.

Why Would This Funeral Director Leave A Rotting Corpse In A Hearse?!

This Alabama funeral director has been charged with leaving a decaying body in the back of the hearse.Why would someone do such an evil thing,you ask? Well,it was all for the money.Here's the whole scoop from The Associated Press:

"A funeral director faces a felony charge after police found a woman's decomposing body in the back of a hearse. Police said the 76-year-old funeral home owner was charged Tuesday with abusing a corpse. Police said the woman died of natural causes in November 2007 at the age of 52. Relatives said they wanted her remains cremated.

But police said the family never signed papers for a cremation or paid the funeral home. So the owner allegedly put the body in the back of a hearse and parked it on a lot with other old vehicles.

Someone complained about a foul odor, leading officers to discover the decomposing remains."(END OF ARTICLE)Taken from this site.

Is The Mayor Of Los Alamitos A Racist?

There is a scandal brewing in the town of Los Alamitos in California.The mayor of this town has sent the above image to an African-American businesswoman & she didn't appreciate the "humor".And I can see why she didn't find such blatant racism funny in any way!Yes,the liberal state of California has more than it's share of racism.Do you know how many fried chicken & watermelon jokes I have heard people tell?!Hell, the last time I heard a racist "joke"it was a Mexican co-worker of mine that told it.Stereotyping people is never funny.And guess what? I hate watermelons!I prefer seafood & beef over chicken.

This type of ignorance shouldn't be tolerated by anyone.I believe that is why Keyanus Price has spoken out about this racist e-mail that she received from the mayor.Here's more from the OC Register:

"Price said she wanted a public apology for the e-mail and today contacted The Orange County Register to share the brief exchange that took place on Sunday.

Grose's e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, "No Easter Egg hunt this year."

"I think he's saying that since there's a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they're growing watermelons in the front yard this year," Price wrote.

She responded to the e-mail with: "Hey, that's not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that."

Grose replied: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests."

Price said Grose's response upset her more.

"As soon as I saw his response; that put me over the top because it was no big deal to him," she said.

Price and Grose have worked together in the past – they both sit on the board of the Youth Center, and she often works with city officials in the community representing her employer. The two have exchanged e-mails in the past.

The e-mail was sent to at least one other person, but the mayor said he isn't sure how many people received it. He said there is a "small group" of people he sometimes forward e-mails to.

In his apology to Price via e-mail, Grose wrote that he was not representing himself as a public official.

"It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail," he said. "People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."

Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU said that while the mayor wasn't acting as a city official at the time, it doesn't mean that it was OK to send.

"Even though as much as we may always think they're always public officials, they're not always public officials; it's kind of going out as a private citizen," Eliasberg said. "That doesn't mean that she doesn't have every right to demand a public apology. It seems like it was pretty offensive."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.