Translations 258
Fidel Castro on his mother Lina
Lina
“Tell me about your mother”, was the request of journalist Ignacio Ramonet to Fidel
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Author: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
August 12, 2018 18:08:16
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Extraordinarily hardworking, there was no detail that escaped her observation, Fidel said of his mother. Photo: Office of Historical Affairs
She brought into the world seven children, all born in that house, always assisted by a rural midwife. There was never and could never be a doctor there, it did not exist in all that remote region. No one tried so hard to get her children to study, she wanted for them what she didn’t have. Without her, I, who always felt the pleasure of studying, would still be functionally illiterate today. My mother, even if she didn’t say it every minute, loved her children. She had character, she was brave and self-sacrificing. He knew how to bear with integrity and without hesitation the sufferings that some of us involuntarily caused her.
Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz, Fidel’s parents. Photo: Office of Historical Affairs
She accepted the Agrarian Reform and the distribution of those lands, which she undoubtedly loved, without bitterness.
Extremely religious in her faith and beliefs, which I have always respected, she found comfort in her sorrow as a mother, and she also accepted with motherly love the Revolution for which she suffered so much, without having had the slightest possibility of knowing the history of humanity and the deepest causes that the events she experienced so closely in Cuba and in the world originated, due to her origin as a humble poor peasant woman.
Lina at her home in Birán. Photo: Office of Historical Affairs
She died on August 6, 1963, three and a half years after the triumph of the Revolution.
Beauty at Any Cost?
Beauty at Any Cost?
The alarm is triggered when health risks are evident when taking on styles and habits that are, far from guaranteeing beauty, touching us with danger.
By Ana María Domínguez Cruz
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Tuesday 07 August 2018 | 09:06:12 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
When it comes to a haircut, a bold nail polish or a bold piece of clothing, it’s not as worrisome, because of the ephemeral nature of fashion, in the end. The alarm is triggered when health risks are evident when assuming styles and habits that far from guaranteeing beauty, touch us with danger.
Beauty, idealized perfection, belonging to a social group that makes them feel accepted, respected and proud are pursued. Author: Twitter Posted: 07/08/2018 | 08:42 pm
Several blogs dedicated to fashion and pseudo beauty, as well as photos, have multiplied in social networks, promoting a series of aesthetic fashions, based on extreme thinness and non-professional criteria. Examples: the bikini bridge, thigh gap, diastema, belly-button challenge and ab-crack, among others.
During the summer, in particular, the fashion of slimming the belly until the rubber on the bottom of the bikini becomes so tight between the hips has spread so far. The textile piece then forms a bridge over the navel that can only be achieved when adolescent girls practice arbitrary diets without any balance or with excessive fasting periods.
When we talk about a thigh gap, it is because we also test our body’s strength by trying to make the upper part of the thighs so firm and thin that it leaves a clear space between them and the pubic area. Specialists warn that this is very dangerous, because, to obtain this separation of the calves from their inner faces, depends on the anatomy of the hips and not on the amount of muscle or fat in the leg, girls often resort to anorexic behaviors that put their nutritional needs at risk.
The furrow of separation between the two muscles of the abdomen in a well-marked way is another tendency between adolescents and adults, called the “ab-crack”. They do not take into account the risk of obsessive hyper-musculation from unbalanced protein intake, or in some cases, from abuse of vitamin supplements and other less-desirable substances.
As if that weren’t enough, there are plenty of images on Instagram and Facebook of teenagers who want to show off their slender bodies, running one arm behind their backs to try to touch their bellybuttons with their hands, while with their other hand they take on a selfie. The belly button challenge also certainly flirts with dangerous diets and eating disorders, as does the so-called collarbone challenge, another challenge for teenagers who want to demonstrate that they can fit a string of coins in the gap between their collarbone and their neck.
For both the female and male sexes, the diastema is now spreading as a fashion, which is nothing more than the search for the separation of the upper denture into two halves after a widening of the central teeth. It is then valued to undergo an expensive dental operation to wear what is not naturally available.
In the area of cosmetic surgery, we note with concern the fact that some teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 want to undergo labiaplasty, an aesthetic operation that seeks to resize the vaginal lips and leave them shorter, more even or more turgid.
The followers of this surgery for aesthetic purposes consider preventive reasons regarding hygiene or pain when having sexual intercourse, as well as psychological reasons when the lips are asymmetrical and when sexual acceptance and self-esteem disorders are associated, but what is alarming is that this type of operation is not recommended before the age of 18, since the vaginal lips during adolescence are in full growth phase.
Also not without risks, and also associated with high prices is the pubic lifting, another practice used by girls and boys who want to attract more from a sexual point of view to their partners. They are exposed to lightening the adipose tissue of the Mount of Venus in women and the lower abdomen in men to rejuvenate the urogenital area.
How many wrong associations with beauty! Imitating aesthetic models that are far removed from what is healthy only shows the vulnerabilities that those who do not feel completely satisfied with their physique and way of being suffer during adolescence.
It is a complex period in life, say psychologists and sociologists, because adolescents need to build their identity and value the opinion that others have of them. However, this is the best time to alert them to the health consequences of certain behaviors and, above all, to the importance of accepting themselves and cultivating what may be invisible to the eyes, but which is ultimately the most valuable.
Bikini bridge: Girls often engage in anorexic behaviors that compromise their nutritional needs.
Diastema: In search of the unnatural separation of the teeth the person undergoes the risks of dental surgery.
Collarbone challenge and Belly button challenge, flirt with dangerous diets and eating disorders
Ab-crack: Teens do not take into account the risk of obsessive hypermusculation from unbalanced protein intake.
Thigh gap: This widespread “fashion” among girls can have serious long-term consequences.
Spike Lee wants Trump to see “BlacKkKlansman”
Director Spike Lee wants Donald Trump to see his movie “BlacKkKlansman”
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Spike Lee at the presentation of his new film. Photo: Reuters.
Spike Lee expects Trump to see “BlacKkklansman”, his film about the Ku Klux Klan, a passionate film, with moments of tension and comedy about race relations in the United States over the decades.
“BlacKkkKlansman,” based on the true story of an African-American police detective in the 1970s who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, hits theaters on Friday.
Lee said the film’s release is specifically scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of last year’s violent clashes between white nationalists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a woman was killed.
Trump was heavily criticized last year for blaming both sides for the violence, and images of the protests are included in the film.
“I want the man in the White House to see it too. I’m not saying his name,” Lee told Reuters Television Wednesday at the film’s Beverly Hills premiere.
“When I saw the horrific act of national and American terrorism, I knew right away that I wanted to do this,” Lee said of what happened in Charlottesville.
Topher Grace, who plays David Duke – leader of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1970s – said the cast and crew were impressed by the film’s contemporary relevance during shooting.
“It becomes more timely with each passing second, unfortunately. This film should not be more timely now than it was when the events occurred, but unfortunately it is,” Grace said.
(With information from Reuters)
Cuba hands over US citizen
Cuba hands over US citizen sought by Interpol
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Cubadebate archives
On 9 August 2018, the Cuban government handed over to authorities of the United States government in Havana the US citizen Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, who was wanted by the US justice system for crimes committed there, and who is also facing an Interpol arrest warrant with a Red Alert. This citizen entered the national territory on 31 July 2018.
This action is based on Cuba’s strict compliance with its international legal obligations and existing bilateral agreements with the United States on compliance and enforcement, and the cooperation that both Governments are developing on that front.
Interpol Red Alerts refer to persons who are under search of national jurisdictions. It provides for the arrest or provisional detention of persons wanted for extradition. The legal basis for issuing a Red Alert Order is the arrest warrant or court decision issued by the judicial authorities of the country concerned.
Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, who is accused by a court in Portland, Oregon, of conspiracy and arson for a series of incidents that took place in the 1990s and 2000s, according to the FBI file, was internationally circulated by Interpol.
(With Information from Cubaminrex and agencies.)
Cuba hands over US citizen sought by Interpol
Cuba hands over US citizen sought by Interpol
On Thursday, August 9, the Government of Cuba handed over to the authorities of the United States government the US citizen Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, who is wanted by the US justice system and who is also subject to an Interpol arrest warrant with a Red Alert.
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The Government of Cuba handed over to U.S. government authorities on Thursday, August 9, the U.S. citizen Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, who is wanted by the U.S. justice system and who is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant with a Red Alert, the daily Juventud Rebelde reports.
Author: Digital Editor | internet@granma.cu
August 11, 2018 10:08:20
Information published on the CubaMinrex website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba details the following:
On 9 August 2018, the Cuban government handed over to United States government authorities in Havana a US citizen wanted by the US justice system for crimes committed there, who is also facing an Interpol arrest warrant with a Red Alert. This citizen entered the national territory on July 31, 2018.
This action is based on Cuba’s strict compliance with its international legal obligations and existing bilateral agreements with the United States on compliance and enforcement, and the cooperation that both Governments are developing on that front.
Interpol’s Red Alerts refer to people who are being sought by national jurisdictions. What it stipulates is the arrest or provisional arrest of the persons sought for extradition. The legal basis for issuing a Red Alert order is the arrest warrant or judicial decision issued by the judicial authorities of the interested country.
Chucho Valdés album dedicated to his father
Chucho Valdés will release an album dedicated to his father
Chucho Valdés: I dedicate the album to my father because this year is the centenary of his birth, he was the first one to insert the batá drums in a Big Band, creating the so-called batanga rhythm.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Thursday August 9, 2018 | 12:39:36 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Cuban jazzman Jesús “Chucho” Valdésut confirmed on Wednesday that he will release the album Jazz Batá II, a recording dedicated to his father, also a jazzman, Bebo Valdés, in October.
“I dedicate the album to my father because this year it is the centenary of his birth. He was the first to insert the batá drums in a Big Band, thus creating the so-called batanga rhythm”, said the multi-awarded pianist in a press conference, according to PL.
One of the songs I include in the recording, he said, “I played it when I was a kid, and many years later I played it for him and I didn’t remember it, I called it 100 years of Bebo.
Another new development from the Cuban jazz musician is the project “Chucho en buena compañía” (Chucho in good company), a series of concerts that he will offer in August each year, starting in 2019, in Havana with special guests.
It will be something special, he said, and I already have plans to start with Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea, said the winner of six Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards.
Valdés is in the capital of the island to present in concert the album “Once. Concierto para dos”, which he recorded with the Argentine singer Patricia Sosa.
Both of them will take to the stage of the Gran Teatro de La Habana “Alicia Alonso” on Saturday, August 11 to perform the songs on the album. The Cuban will also present solo themes, and with a special character they will share a few themes with Omara Portuondo.
Where do Assassins Come From?
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Where do Assassins Come From?
The imam who inspired the Orlando assassin was a homophobic ex-Marine and former FBI agent
14 June 2016 22:36:33 CDT
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Marcus Dwayne Robertson was undercover FBI agent for 15 years.
Author: dailymail
WASHINGTON, June 14.- Omar Mateen, Orlando’s killer, was a follower of Marcus Dwayne Robertson, a former imam who preached hatred of homosexuals.
Robertson, 47, has a past that raises more than one question about the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence controls of suspected terrorists, ANSA said.
The imam, who was allegedly interrogated Sunday along with other colleagues, has been known to law enforcement since 1991, when he was first arrested, Foxnews reported.
This is an American ex-marine who later became the leader of a New York gang known as Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, considered responsible for robbing more than ten banks, post offices and houses, as well as shooting three policemen.
At that time Robertson served as a bodyguard for Omar Abdel Rahman, known as “The Blind Sheik,” who led the terrorist group that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993.
But after his arrest, along with others in the gang, the plaintiff reached an agreement with Robertson: a sentence of only four years in prison, before working as an undercover agent for the FBI to document terrorist plans and networks in Africa, Egypt and the United States.
In 2011, Marcus was re-arrested and sentenced to four years for fiscal fraud and violation of the weapons law: his goal was to pay for a Mauritanian student’s trip to teach him how to be a terrorist.
The prosecution asked to add another ten years for his links to terrorism, but district judge Gregory Presnell released him last year.
During his detention he was confined to solitary confinement because he was suspected of having radicalized at least 36 prisoners.
Robertson launched a seminar on Islam, via the Internet: a spiritual school frequented by Omar Mateen that may not have been the only source of inspiration for the author of the Orlando massacre.
In fact, Mateen was in the Islamic center of Fort Pierce with Imam Shafig Rahman two days before the attack, according to The Washington Post.
This mosque was also frequented by Monar Abu Salha, also known as Al-Amriky (the American), considered the first with that nationality to commit a suicide bombing in Idlib, Syria, in 2014, as a militant of a group linked to al-Qaeda.
Mateen and Abu Salha knew each other and this relationship led the FBI to interrogate the former in 2014, though without judicial follow-up.
Imam Rahman confirmed that Omar “prayed in the mosque three or four times a week” and took part in the evening ceremonies, recently even “with his little son”.
Orlando’s killer was not very sociable: “Once the prayer was over, he left, he didn’t socialize with anyone. He never seemed like a violent person,” Rahman said.
¿De dónde vienen los asesinos?
Un homofóbico exmarine y exagente del FBI, el imán que inspiró al asesino de Orlando
Marcus Dwayne Robertson fue agente encubierto del FBI durante 15 años.
Autor: dailymail
Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
14 de Junio del 2016 22:36:33 CDT
WASHINGTON, junio 14.— Omar Mateen, el asesino de Orlando, era seguidor de Marcus Dwayne Robertson, un exmarine devenido imán, que predicaba el odio contra los homosexuales.
Robertson, de 47 años, tiene un pasado que plantea más de una interrogante sobre la eficacia de los controles a sospechosos de terrorismo por parte de los servicios de inteligencia estadounidenses, dijo ANSA.
El imán, quien habría sido interrogado el domingo junto a otros colegas, es conocido por las fuerzas del orden desde 1991, cuando fue arrestado por primera vez, informó Foxnews.
Se trata de un exmarine estadounidense quien luego se convirtió en jefe de una banda de Nueva York, conocida como Alí Babá y los 40 ladrones, considerada responsable de haber robado más de diez bancos, oficinas postales y casas, además de haber disparado contra tres policías.
En aquella época Robertson se desempeñó como guardaespaldas de Omar Abdel Rahman, conocido como «El Jeque Ciego», quien guió al grupo terrorista que atacó al World Trade Center, en 1993.
Pero tras su arresto, junto a otros de la banda, la parte demandante alcanzó un acuerdo con Robertson: una pena de solo cuatro años de cárcel, antes de trabajar como agente encubierto para el FBI para documentar planes y redes terroristas en África, Egipto y Estados Unidos.
En 2011, Marcus fue arrestado nuevamente y condenado a cuatro años por fraudes fiscales y violación de la ley de armas: su objetivo era pagar el viaje de un estudiante de Mauritania para instruirlo como terrorista.
La acusación pidió agregar otros diez años por sus vínculos con el terrorismo, pero el juez distrital Gregory Presnell lo dejó en libertad el año pasado.
Durante su detención estuvo confinado a aislamiento porque era sospechoso de haber radicalizado al menos a 36 encarcelados.
Robertson lanzó un seminario sobre el Islam, vía Internet: escuela espiritual frecuentada por Omar Mateen y que podría no haber sido la única fuente de inspiración del autor de la masacre de Orlando.
De hecho, Mateen estaba en el centro islámico de Fort Pierce junto al imán Shafig Rahman, dos días antes del atentado, según informó el diario The Washington Post.
Esa mezquita era también frecuentada por Monar Abu Salha, conocido también como Al-Amriky (El estadounidense), considerado el primero con esa nacionalidad en cometer un atentado suicida en Idlib, Siria, en 2014, como militante de un grupo ligado a Al Qaeda.
Mateen y Abu Salha se conocían y esta relación llevó al FBI a interrogar al primero en 2014, aunque sin seguimiento judicial.
El imán Rahman confirmó que Omar «rezaba en la mezquita tres o cuatro veces a la semana» y formaba parte de las ceremonias nocturnas, recientemente incluso «con su pequeño hijo».
El asesino de Orlando no era muy sociable: «Una vez finalizada la plegaria se iba, no socializaba con nadie. Nunca pareció una persona violenta», relató Rahman.
Why Three Popes in Twenty Years?
Why Three Popes in Twenty Years?
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
In less than twenty years, three Popes have visited Cuba. This is something really surprising when you consider that this archipelago is a country geographically and demographically small, and has a relatively small number of Catholics compared to other nations of Latin America.
After four centuries of colonialism –during which the official religion, with total exclusivity, was Catholicism– an “independent” republic emerged in Cuba under the protection and control of the United States. During that republican period, Cuban society, in fact, maintained Catholicism as its main religion for the first half of the 20th Century.
Although the 1902 and 1940 constitutions stipulated the separation between church and state, their texts identified Christian morality as the ethical rule for society. This was to the detriment of any other non-Christian morality and thus ignored the cultural, moral and religious diversity required in such a plural community in terms of ethnicities, religions and traditions.
The process of formation of the Cuban nationality, the struggle for independence from Spain, and the successive stages in building an independent national project as is the current socialist society, have been characterized by a secular orientation… anticlerical to some extent. This does not mean that religion was absent from the motivations of the patriots, but the objectives have always been formulated on secular foundations.
The first time the separation of church and state was proclaimed as a constitutional principle in Cuba was during the Republic in Arms [during the 19th Century war for independence] when Cubans were fighting the colonial regimes of Spain … and Catholicism.
Relations between the Catholic Church and the Revolutionary Government –which took power in 1959 after a bloody struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista– have gone through big challenges and tense moments.
The social transformations generated by the revolution and the development of its independent and socialist project had great impact on the process of demystification of nature. Because of its character, which renewed traditions, customs and culture in general, the revolution had a secularizing effect on society.
The legislative actions and practices of the revolution, such as the law for nationalization of education, limited the social space of the Catholic religion in Cuba, and extended it to others, such as the Spiritualists, those associated with African religions, and the Pentecostals. All these managed access to public spaces to which they had very little access previously, because of the Christian and Catholic religious monopoly.
Just remember that before 1959, the Cuban Criminal Legislation included as an aggravating factor the practice of brujeria
(witchcraft), the term with which the predominant Christian culture identified those religions originated in Africa, that were widespread in Cuba, especially among the poorest sectors.
In 1991, the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba corrected sectarian errors committed in the heat of the initial clashes. It modified its statutes and declared itself as a secular non-atheist organization. It also eliminated admission barriers in the political organization for people with religious beliefs.
As a result of this, in the midst of a situation of apparent contraction of the social space of religion, the Cuban revolution created the basic legal and social conditions for a genuine religious pluralism, without confessional or institutional distinction; as well as for something that had never existed before in the country and which few nations can boast of having: a genuine religious freedom.
Admittedly, after some initial negative episodes promoted by the strong influence of Pope Pius XII and the Fascist ideas of some Spanish priests inserted in the Cuban Catholic hierarchy, the Vatican has promoted a very constructive policy in its relations with Cuba
But the current positive practice did not start as a result of the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998 –as some have written several times– but after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). On this, it is fair to acknowledge as essential, the role of the then newly appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Havana, Archbishop Cesare Zacchi, today considered the “Architect of peace between church and state in Cuba.”
The impressive popular and official welcome offered to Pope Francis in Havana seems to confirm forecasts that Latin America and the humble peoples of the world can count on the moral and ethical support of this charismatic guide of Catholicism who is willing to clean and thoroughly renew the image of his Church, bringing it closer to the Poor.
Now that US elites want to turn back history in the Latin American countries which are in the process of liberation from the domination by the North, this support could be really transcendental.
September 19, 2015.
Mass traffic accident in Sancti Spíritus
Mass traffic accident in Sancti Spíritus, 30 injured reported (+ Photos and Video)
By Israel Hernández Álvarez
July 28, 2018.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
View of the state of the Yutong bus after the traffic accident that occurred at dawn on July 28, 2018 at kilometer 327 of the National Highway, near Cabaiguán, in the Sancti Spíritus province, when the bus went off the road and when trying to get up it overturned. Photo: Oscar Alfonso Sosa/ ACN.
One person was reported seriously injured among the 30 injured in the traffic accident that occurred at dawn this Saturday at kilometer 327 of the National Highway, belonging to the province of Sancti Spíritus.
The incident occurred when a Yutong bus went off the road and its driver, trying to incorporate it into the road, lost control of the vehicle, which overturned.
The general hospital Camilo Cienfuegos received the injured, some of whom received first aid at the mother and child hospital in the municipality of Cabaiguán.
Two children are in a state of care and are cared for at the José Martí Provincial Pediatric Hospital.
At noon today, 22 people with minor injuries had already been discharged from the hospital and, after receiving the appropriate treatment and verifying their good state of health, they continued their journey to Havana, the destination of the National Bus Company’s vehicle, which was arriving by freight from Baracoa, in the province of Guantánamo.
Dr. Eduardo Pedrosa Prado, director of the Camilo Cienfuegos Hospital, told ACN that, as in these cases, the Integrated Emergency Medical System was immediately activated and the injured were provided with the necessary resources for their care.
Every four hours, Pedrosa Prado added, we make the visit pass, and in correspondence with the evolution of the patients we will adopt the behavior to follow with them.
Upon learning of the incident, authorities of the Cuban Communist Party, the Government and the Health Ministry in the territory went to the largest health centre in Sancti Spíritus to take an interest in the wounded and their medical care.
This is the fifth massive accident that has taken place this year in the territory of the Spirit, and the second in less than 10 days; the previous one took place in the early hours of last Saturday at kilometer 332, also on the National Highway, in which 37 people were injured.
Injured patients receive care at the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital. Photo: Cristóbal Álamo/ Escambray.
View of the right side of the Yutong bus state, involved in the traffic accident that occurred at dawn on July 28, 2018 at kilometer 327 of the National Highway, near Cabaiguán, in Sancti Spíritus province, when the bus went off the road and when trying to get on board it capsized. Photo: Oscar Alfonso Sosa/ ACN.
The injured were immediately taken to the Camilo Cienfuegos General Hospital in Sancti Spíritus, where they were treated on July 28, 2018. Photo: Oscar Alfonso Sosa/ ACN.
View of the state of the Yutong bus after the traffic accident that occurred at dawn on July 28, 2018 at kilometer 327 of the National Highway, near Cabaiguán, in the Sancti Spíritus province, when the bus went off the road and when trying to get up it overturned. Photo: Oscar Alfonso Sosa/ ACN.
Curiosities About the Sexual Act
Curiosities About the Sexual Act Around the World
Sexual intercourse is possibly the oldest and most universal practice in the world, but the way in which each person does it differs considerably from country to country.
By Juventud Rebelde digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Published: 03/08/2018 | 05:15 pm
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Love eros is an idealized form of love, it is the passionate feeling of ecstasy experienced at the beginning of a new relationship, where passion and physical attraction are the driving forces, tends not to last in the long run. Author: Juventud Rebelde.
After research by the BBC Crossing Continents programme, she discovered fascinating facts about culture and sex.
When it comes to having sex, there’s a little bit of everything: from people who practice celibacy to those who dance with apples in their armpits as part of sexual conquest.
Some of the most striking customs are:
1. Proper names for the genitals
The ancient Hawaiians used to give their genitals affectionate names. But not only that, both royalty and commoners had their own mele ma’i, a personalized genital song.
These lyrical odes would describe the lower regions of the individual in some detail and quite broadly.
An expert on Hawaiian sexual behavior, Dr. Milton Diamond, tells how Queen Lili’uokulani’s song speaks of her genitals “frolicking, going up and down”.
2. Towards celibacy
The birth rate in Japan is declining, as are contraceptive methods such as condoms and the pill. Abortions and sexually transmitted diseases have also declined.
“The only explanation is that the Japanese are having less sex,” says Kunio Kitamura, head of Japan’s family planning association.
Recent research has shown that there are a record number of couples living in marriage without sex and that one-third of men say they are too tired to have sex.
The report notes that a quarter of women consider sex to be problematic.
Another survey, which examined people between the ages of 18 and 34, found that the proportion of virgin people had skyrocketed over the past decade: almost 45% said they had never had sex.
3. A day marked for conception
In Russia, meanwhile, the birth rate is advocated to increase, so one region of the country has introduced an ingenious way of getting the population to procreate.
The governor of Ulyanovsk, just east of Moscow, declared September 12 as Conception Day: a holiday that encourages couples to stay at home for the sole purpose of producing offspring.
Couples who have a baby nine months later receive prizes such as video cameras, refrigerators and washing machines.
4. The fish of conquest
In the small town of Mehinaku, in central Brazil, women have devised a simple way to decide between their suitors. There, the men who compete for a woman’s affection have to bring her a fish as a gift and the one who gets the biggest piece takes the girl.
5. Apples with fragrance
In rural Austria, it was traditional for women to attend a dance with apple slices under their armpits, after inspecting the men in the room, to offer the chosen one a piece of the sweaty apple.
If the feelings were reciprocal and the man also liked her, he would take a bite out of the apple…. which would certainly have a “special” essence.
6. Falling to the ground
This is a community where being clumsy on the dance floor can really help you in your conquest. The men and women of a Colombian Guajira tribe participate in a special ceremonial dance, in which if a woman causes a man to stumble during the dance, then both must have sex.
This practice gives a new meaning to the phrase “fall asleep”.
7. Holidays…. “active”
According to research by the travel company Spies Travel, Danes have 46% more sex on holiday, not to mention that 10% of Danish babies are conceived during their parents’ holidays.
As a reward for such activity on holiday days, in 2014 the travel agency offered three years of baby supplies and a child-friendly holiday to any of its customers who could prove that they had conceived during their holiday.
8. Those who practice most
According to a global survey conducted by condom manufacturer Durex, which included nearly 30,000 people over the age of 16 in 26 different countries, Greece is the place to be.