Mahatma Gandhi is remembered even in Slovenia
Ljubljana: Slovenia’s picturesque city municipality of Slovenj Gradec, the peace messenger city where now stands a statue of Mahatma Gandhi presented by India, commemorated the 67th death anniversary of the great thinker and peacekeeper Friday.
Slovenj Gradec has become one of the 73 cities in the world where officially the statue of Gandhi has been erected. This small city in northern Slovenia in central Europe remembers Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary on Oct 2 and the anniversary of his death Jan 30 as a biannual ritual, the Indian embassy here said.
This year, the commemorative events on Martyr’s Day, which marks the assassination of Mahatma in 1948, began Thursday evening when the feature film “The Making of the Mahatma” was screened in Kulturni dom.
On Friday, wreaths were laid by the mayor of the city, Andrej Cas. An exhibition of photographs reflecting the life of Gandhi was inaugurated on this occasion. The exhibition was lent by the Indian embassy and it will be open for about three weeks. (IANS)
Women’s fund-raising group to honour Hillary
Washington: Hillary Rodham Clinton will be honoured next month by Emily’s List, a Democratic fund-raising powerhouse, as she considers a potential 2016 presidential campaign that could make her the first woman to win the White House. Emily’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, said today that Clinton would appear at its 30th anniversary awards gala in Washington on March 3. The former secretary of state will receive the group’s We Are Emily Award to honour her leadership “as a fighter for women and families,” said Stephanie Schriock, the group’s president. Schriock said Clinton has “dedicated her life to bettering the lives of women and families and has inspired the next generation with a focus on increasing economic empowerment across the country and around the world.”
The political action committee has been among the Democratic groups laying the groundwork for a Clinton campaign, holding events promoting the idea of electing the nation’s first female president and commissioning polling on US interest in sending a woman to the White House.
Schriock noted that the group has backed Clinton since her 2000 Senate election in New York. Clinton is the leading Democratic contender for the White House and is widely expected to announce another presidential campaign in the coming months. The group will also honour former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for her “commitment to community” and dedication to women and families. Giffords was gravely wounded in a 2011 shooting during a political event she held at a Tucson, Arizona, shopping center. Six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Giffords. The former congresswoman has since become a leading advocate for gun control measures. (AP)
Iconic Tintin cover fetches near-record 2.5 mn euros
Brussels: The original cover design for Tintin adventure “The Shooting Star” has been sold for 2.5 million euros (USD 2.8 million) in a near-record for a work by the boy detective’s Belgian creator Herge, a dealer said on Monday. The yellowing, line sketch that Herge made for the 1942 book was bought by a European investor, Marina David of Petits Papiers-Huberty-Breyne, specialist comic book dealers, told AFP.
David declined to give further details, saying only “the buyer is neither Belgian nor French,” with the sale showing just how strong the market is for comic-book art. The published, colour version of the cover shows Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy looking on in astonishment as a huge, red and white-capped mushroom swells up out of a barren rocky beach, part of a meteorite, hence the title which has fallen into the sea.
At 2.5 million euros (USD 2.9 million), the price is one of the highest for a work by Herge who sold some 230 million Tintin ablums by the time of his death in 1983.
Since then, investors and collectors alike have looked more and more seriously at comics as potentially valuable works of art in their own right. In May, a two-page spread depicting Tintin in various risky escapades against the villains of his day sold for 2.65 million euros in Paris, at the time a world record equal to USD 3.58 million.
In June, a near-flawless edition of the first book featuring Superman dating from June 1938 fetched USD 3.2 million, according to auction site eBay. “Shooting Star” was Herge’s tenth Tintin album after he began the series in 1930 with “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.”
David said that apart from the Tintin cover, the gallery also found buyers for about 60 pieces by Philippe Geluck, the Belgian designer behind the Le Chat series, while works by Francois Avril and Dominique Corbasson who use the comic book format for their paintings also did well. The “Shooting Star” cover design was put up for sale by a private collector. Most of Herge’s work is held by a family foundation which jealously guards his legacy and so increases the rarity value of any work coming to market. (AFP)
Funds pour in for US man who walks 21 miles for his daily commute
DETROIT: Hundreds of people have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to help a Detroit man who says he typically walks 21 miles (34 kilometres) to get to and from work. The Detroit Free Press reports that James Robertson rides buses part of the way to and from his factory job in suburban Rochester Hills. But because they don’t cover the whole route, he ends up walking about eight miles (13 kilometres) before his shift starts at 2pm and 13 miles (21 kilometres) more when it’s over at 10pm. Lately, he’s been getting occasional rides from a banker who passes him walking every day and finally asked what he was doing. (AFP)
After the newspaper wrote about the 56-year-old’s situation oer the weekend, multiple people started crowdfunding efforts to help him buy a car and pay for insurance. Some have offered to drive him for free and others have offered to buy or give him cars. Robertson began making the daily trek to the factory where he molds parts after his car stopped working ten years ago and bus service was cut back. He’s had perfect attendance for more than 12 years.
“I set our attendance standard by this man,” said Todd Wilson, plant manager at Schain Mold & Engineering. “I say, if this man can get here, walking all those miles through snow and rain, well I’ll tell you, I have people in Pontiac 10 minutes away and they say they can’t get here – bull!”
Evan Leedy, a 19-year-old student at Wayne State University, read the story and started a GoFundMe site with the goal of raising $5,000. As of Monday afternoon he had raised more than $90,000.
Robertson said he was flattered by the attention and amazed strangers would step in to help him out.
Asked about a federal program newly available through Detroit’s bus system that might pick him up at home and drop him off at his job, Robertson said, “I’d rather they spent that money on a 24-hour bus system, not on some little bus for me. This city needs buses going 24/7. You can tell the city council and mayor I said that.”