Teen who cleaned up after protests gets job offer
Buffalo (US): A Buffalo teenager who spent 10 hours cleaning up glass and garbage following protests in his city has got a job offer from the mayor.
It was the latest honour for Antonio Gwynn Jr. since word of his actions began circulating a week ago. The 18-year-old high school senior already has received a 2004 Ford Mustang from an admirer. Medaille College in Buffalo will provide him a full scholarship.
Mayor Byron Brown offered him a job in the city’s buildings department on Saturday.
I’m actually pretty excited because I didn’t have an actual plan, but now this is helping me put more of my life ahead, Gwynn told reporters after being recognized at a city ceremony.
After a night of unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Gwynn set about cleaning up, hours before others arrived with the same intention.
Antonio, without anyone asking him to do it, without anyone telling him to do it, got out after two o’clock in the morning and spent over 10 hours cleaning up Bailey Avenue, in his neighborhood, Brown said.
Gwynn said he will study business at Medaille with hopes of owning his own cleaning company. (AP)
Brazil’s biggest cemetery to exhume graves to free up space
Sao Paulo: Brazil’s biggest metropolis has an unorthodox plan to free up space at its graveyards during the coronavris pandemic: digging up the bones of people buried in the past and storing their bagged remains in large metal containers.
Sao Paulo’s municipal funeral service said in a statement Friday that the remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags, then stored temporarily in 12 storage containers it has purchased.
The containers will be delivered to several cemeteries within 15 days, the statement said.
Sao Paulo is one of the COVID-19 hot spots in Latin America’s hardest-hit nation, with 5,480 deaths as of Thursday in the city of 12 million people.
And some health experts are worried about a new surge now that a decline in intensive care bed occupancy to about 70 per cent prompted Mayor Bruno Covas to authorize a partial reopening of business this week.
At Sao Paulo’s biggest cemetery, Vila Formosa, Adenilson Costa was among workers in blue protective suits digging up old graves on Friday.
He said their work has only grown more arduous during the pandemic, and as he removed bones from unearthed coffins, he said he fears what is to come.
In April, gravediggers at Vila Formosa buried 1,654 people, up more than 500 from the previous month. Numbers for May and June aren’t yet available. (AP)
US’ tallest Hanuman statue built in Delaware
Delaware [USA]: The US’ largest Hanuman statue of 25 feet height has been built in Delaware. It is the tallest statue of a Hindu God in the country.
It has been carved from a solid block of black granite and took over a year to complete the work, reported a local media.
“Once the statue is made according to a prescribed process by an artisan and is delivered to the temple, the temple priests normally conduct a 10 day, a 5 to 10-day rituals, mostly involving fire offerings and other rituals. And also the community is invited to bond with the statue,” Delaware Public Media quoted PatibandaSarma, president of Hindu Temple Association in Hockessin.For proper installation of the statue, Yantra Pratishtha and Prana Prathishtha is done, he said while adding that amid the coronavirus pandemic there will not be much of a gathering during these ceremonies.
The Hanuman statue is the second largest religious statue in Delaware after Our Lady Queen of Peace statue at Holy Spirit Church in New Castle. (ANI)