Veena Malik's Feet

Veena Malik has filed a defamation suit against the Indian magazine for the cover photo of her posing nude with the initials of Pakistan's intelligence agency on her arm.

Malik's spokesman, Sohail Rasheed, said yesterday that the actress was seeking 100 million rupees ($1.9 million) in damages from FHM India, which insists the nude cover shoot was genuine and consensual.

"The picture has been morphed," Rasheed said in Islamabad, adding that the magazine had targeted Malik's "credibility and character".

"Veena Malik never indulged in nudity  unsecured loans and has no intention to do it in future," he added.

The magazine's December issue only hit newsstands yesterday afternoon, but a weekend preview of the cover on its website triggered a media frenzy.

FHM India editor Kabeer Sharma said that he was mystified by Malik's allegations.

"Maybe she is facing some kind of backlash, so maybe that's why she is denying it.

"We have not photo-shopped or faked the cover. This is what she looks like, she has an amazing body," Sharma said.

In his Twitter feed, Sharma said he would release a series of photos from the shoot proving his version of the story.

While Malik's pose on the cover preserves a scant degree of modesty, any nudity is still very much frowned upon in conservative India - and indeed in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

What has raised more eyebrows was her arm sporting the initials ISI - the acronym for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have gone to war three times and the ISI has been routinely accused by New Delhi of masterminding militant attacks on Indian soil.

Sharma said the idea had been to take an ironic swipe at India's obsession with the ISI.

A tag line on the cover that points to the initials, reads: "Hand in the end of the world too?"

"People, especially young people in both countries, want to move past this kind of thinking," the editor said.

"It's a very powerful picture - it took a lot of guts for her to do that. It shows a powerful,  bad credit loans sexy woman not afraid to speak her mind."

Veena Malik poses on the set of the forthcoming Bollywood Hindi film, All U Need Love. Picture: AFP

Another picture on the inside of the magazine - entitled "the cover we didn't use" - showed a topless Malik, again with the ISI tattoo, biting the pin of a hand grenade.

The photo has so far garnered little interest in Pakistan, but has incurred the wrath of Malik’s father, who said he had disowned her over her scandalous work in arch-foe India, which had "humiliated" the family, the country, and Islam.

Weeping, retired soldier Malik Mohammad Aslam, 56, said: "I have disowned her, I have severed all ties with her and I don't want her to have any share in whatever meagre assets I have until she is cleared of the controversy and pledges not to visit India again."

Mr Aslam said he did not support his daughter's showbiz career and said he hoped the authorities would punish his daughter if found guilty of posing nude: "so that no other woman would think of doing such thing".

"I can ignore if she disobeys me but I cannot tolerate anything against my country and my faith," he said.

The actress is already well known in India for appearing on Big Boss, the country's version of the television reality show Big Brother.

She incurred the wrath of hardline Islamic clerics in Pakistan for her performance on the show, during which she indulged in several intimate scenes with Indian actor Ashmit Patel that included massaging his head and neck.

What the Fuck is Zwarte Piet?

Zwarte Piet, directly translated from Dutch means “Black Pete”.  Although his exact function and portrayal is highly and tensely debated, he accompanies Sinterklass (Dutch Santa, sort of. Their Santa is actually called Kertsman, or Christmas-man) during a Christmas-like tradition in the Netherlands and gives out gifts to kids.  So why all the tension?  Well, Black Pete is, how do we put this?…Black (at least visually).  Every year, in early December, Sinterklass is rumored to roll in from Spain on a steamship (watch out P. Diddy)  with his sidekick Black Pete, a white guy done up in black face paint, bright red lipstick, wearing gold bling and minstrel helper clothing.

One reason celebrators give for Black Pete’s existence is that Sinter is too old to deliver gifts so he got a side kick, Black Pete, to do it for him.  Pete tends to go through the chimney to deliver unsecured loans these gifts, gets covered in soot and that’s why he’s black.   Strange that American Santa does the same thing but still pops out white as hell.

At the other end of the spectrum, Black Pete is black because he is a Moorish slave, not just an innocent, dirty-faced helper.  This perspective comes from the imposition of cross-cultural values on something that superficially resembles a similar form of discrimination.  This end of the debate is most intensely argued by Americans. For Americans, Black Pete hits a nerve that brings back the days of Black Face Minstrels where white actors would perform the black character roles in black face paint, exaggerated pink lips and raggedy clothing.  The actors would further proliferate racist stereotypes by portraying the black characters as dumb, funny slaves or ex-slaves.  This went on for 100 years in America! Zwarte Piet is a reminder of days white Americans would rather forget.  Although many celebrators cherish Pete as a traditional character of the holidays, Americans are appalled by the seemingly blatant racism that Pete represents.

Some proposed solutions to the problem:

• Felix De Rooy of NRC Handelsblad suggested replacing Black Pete with a smurf-like character (yeah Felix, get all the blue people fired up).
• Get rid of Zwarte Piet altogether and let Sinterkalss lug the presents around all by himself.  This creates another issue as the Dutch feel getting rid of Zwarte Piet puts Sinterklass on the chopping block for elimination.
• What about replacing Sinterklass with Santa and Zwarte Piet with elves? Sounds great right?  If everyone could just celebrate Christmas the way Americans do the world would be a better place.  Oh wait, aren’t elves midgets?  Why hasn’t the little people community had a shit fit about this yet?

So is Pete a children’s tale or a racist figure?  We promise no definitive answer exists. We’re not saying this tradition is not objectifying black people in a racist way and it is understandable that Americans have the strongest feelings on the topic because Zwarte Piet is visually too close to what our racist roots look like.  But Americans must also realize that our own history drives bad credit loans us to apply what we know about our own racist past on traditions that may not have anything in common but black face paint.  Although it may be racist in some way, we cannot just superimpose our own racist history atop another country’s tradition and say it’s the same. Either way, we hope a happy medium exists that doesn’t involve smurfs, midgets or complete Americanization of world traditions.

Racist Rant Leads to Arrest of Woman in 'My Tram Experience' YouTube Video

A 34-year-old woman was arrested in London after her tirade of abuse on her fellow passengers on a tram was filmed and uploaded on YouTube.

The police were informed about the video "My Tram Experience" that went viral on YouTube, which shows a woman, with a child on her knee, go on a racist rant against fellow passengers in a tram.
In the two-minute clip, the woman from New Addington in Croydon, south unsecured loans London, is seen shouting at other passengers saying they are not British and should “go back to where you come from.”
The shocking video, filled with expletives and racist abuse, quickly spread on Twitter and YouTube, sparking unprecedented outrage.
“The woman has been arrested for racially aggravated offense as a result of #mytramexperience video brought to our attn,” British Transport Police said on its Twitter account.    
The video footage shows the woman saying: "What has this country come to ... with loads of black people and a load of f------ Polish.”
"Sort out your own countries, don't come and do mine, Britain is nothing now, Britain is f--- all, my Britain is f--- all now."
When a passenger pointed out that there were children on the tram, she replied: "Yeah fine, I've got my little kid here."
The video was shot on the Croydon-to-Wimbledon bad credit loans Tram link route, although police are yet to discover exactly what happened and where it happened.
A British Transport Police spokesman told BBC News they would "not tolerate racism in any form on the rail network."
The video ends when another passenger in the tram tells the woman that she was waking up her baby.
The video was uploaded on YouTube Monday, and more than 124,973 people had viewed it by Tuesday.