Audrey Jenkins – Staff Writer
llendale, Michigan: Grand Valley State University removes campus wrecking ball in light of recent imitations of pop star Miley Cyrus’ explicit music video, “Wrecking Ball.”
“We’ve became concerned…from a safety standpoint… Also, the structural integrity….So we’ve elected to remove the ball for now,” a Grand Valley college official said in a video on Time.com. Students protested the college’s actions by singing, “Wrecking Ball.”
Athens, Greece: 34-year-old antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, otherwise known as Killah P, was murdered in the street on Tuesday, Sept. 17. Police have arrested a 45-year-old man who claims to have committed the crime as a member of the extremist Greek nationalist group, Golden Dawn.
Now six years into the recession that has radicalized Grecian politics, Greece is hardly unfamiliar to political violence such as this.
Although the suspect’s affiliation with far-right Golden Dawn is unconfirmed, Amnesty International has asked the Greek government to relay a hard position of intolerance to attacks such as these.
Dongguan, China: Along with registering for classes and buying books, the 5,000 college first-years of City College of Dongguan University of Technology were required to sign a suicide waiver upon entering college.
The university defends the waiver, which states that the college cannot be held responsible for any suicides committed by students, by explaining that the waiver is just a formality. Although China has traditionally placed a large value on education as the means for success, many Chinese citizens are now questioning this.
Thailand: A Thai charity reports that an estimated 200 Westerners are homeless on the streets of Thailand right now, largely due to overly-extravagant lifestyles that have left them stranded in the country with no way to support themselves, and no way to get back home.
Because of the easy access to alcohol, drugs, and prostitutes, many normally self-controlled tourists come to Thailand and find their usual willpower gone, leaving them to succumb to crushing addictions. In addition, many tourist men have been known to be naïve when it comes to the bar girls in Thailand. Westerners may invest everything in a relationship, only to have the woman leave them penniless.
Breda, Netherlands: More than 5,000 natural “gingers” from 80 different countries gathered in the Netherlands for the eighth annual Redhead Days Festival. Since its inception in 2005, festival attendance has grown exponentially from 150 attendants to the most recent 5,000.
Each year, the festival decrees a color that all attendees must wear to accentuate their natural hair color. This year, that color was blue. Unfortunately for all ginger wanna-bes, only those with natural red hair are allowed to attend. Festival activities include picnics, motivational classes, and ginger community building.
Japan/Alaska: Sarah Outen became the first person in history to row solo from Japan to Alaska. Outen, a native of Great Britain, made the 3,750 mile journey in 150 days.
She battled rough waves and poor weather conditions, arriving in Adak, Outen celebrates becoming the first person to make the journey between Japan and Alaska.
Alaska on Monday, Sept. 23. This was not Outen’s first attempt at the row, as she tried and failed in May of 2012 when Tropical Storm Mawar wrecked her tiny sailing vessel. Outen returned with a new ship. In the coming spring, Outen plans to kayak through the Aleutian Islands to the mainland and then bike down through Canada to the United States.