The other side of Canadian GP - Sex Trade & Human Trafficking

June 5th, 2008 Natty Posted in Formula1, Glitz, News, Rounds, The Money 6 Comments »

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Well, stumbling on the web I found this article on the uglier side of the race this week, the Montreal GP in Canada. Though not normally talked about, forced sex trade and human trafficking is a big part of major international sporting events, such as the World Cup, Olympics and F1 Gp’s. Such events up the demands for young female prostitutes. The same is true for the Canadian Grand Prix as partying race fans roar into the city on their annual pilgrimage. But many of the sex workers who are used to fill the commercial void are unwilling participants, human rights activists point out.

Sharon DiFruscia, who’s part of a Montreal coalition against human trafficking, said most of the women are exploited as sex slaves.

“Not only in Montreal, but for large sporting events, it’s a well-known fact that many women are brought in to the city,” said DiFruscia, adding it’s difficult to estimate just how many.

“Some of these women are from other countries, but some of them are from our own country.”

A U.S. report on global issues released on Wednesday shows Canada looks good on paper as far as human trafficking is concerned, but Canada still has a long way to go to stamp it out.

“The bad news is we’ve not been able to turn our tough talk on human trafficking into action,” UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin told The Canadian Press.

“We know that human trafficking is continuing to flourish in Canada and that it’s one of the most serious crimes in our country and a fundamental abuse of human rights.”

Canada does comply with the “minimum standards” but the report criticizes the country for “lacking punch.”

“Over the last year, Canada increased victim protection and prevention efforts, but demonstrated limited progress on law-enforcement efforts against trafficking offenders,” the document says…

As per the report, Canada has lagged when it comes to rounding up sex tourists, who travel abroad abusing children.
sex tourism drives human trafficking around the world.

Canada, meanwhile, has convicted only one person in the last decade on sex-tourism charges, he said.

“We’ve really fallen behind globally in preventing our child-sex offenders from exploiting children in impoverished countries overseas,” said Perrin, the founder of The Future Group, a non-governmental organization dedicated to ending human trafficking.
He added,
“We’re not bashing the Grand Prix, it’s just to make sure people are aware when there are big sporting events in a city that this happens,” said DiFruscia, the co-ordinator of the social action office of the Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal.

Read the full article here at the canadianpress.

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More on BMW

June 1st, 2008 Natty Posted in Auto, Glitz, News, The Money 1 Comment »

  1. BMW Formula1:

    BMW Formula-1 car to use hybrid technology from next year

    BMW AG has announced that they are working on developing hybrid technology to enhance the capabilities of their Formula-1 car.

    This technology is currently planned for integration in their car to be used in the next Formula-1 season.

    The company said that as per the rules of the F-1 governing body, they are going to rely on hybrid technologies to boost the performance of their car.

    The rules allow the teams to boost the power of their cars using fuel saving technologies, including hybrid.

    Mario Theissen, director of motor sport at BMW said in his statement: “From 2009 BMW will use hybrid technology in Formula One.”

    — Source –> Business Techwhack

  2. BMW Automotives:After Fiat, BMW is planning to source its auto components in India. As part of the German luxury car makers massive expansion plans in India, it is currently aiming at high level of auto component sourcing in India. BMW also plans to source engineering services and IT technologies in future for development of its cars worldwide.

    According to Herbert Deiss, BMW Board Member, International Parts Sourcing, “India is an important market for us and we recognise its engineering talent. We already source some components for bikes and auto parts for some of our cars and bikes from India. Considering the increasing capabilities of Indian vendors to provide quality spares, we plan to source more parts and services from the country.”

    — Source –> Car Trade India

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New Jaguars & The BMW M3 In India

June 1st, 2008 Natty Posted in Auto, Glitz, News, The Money No Comments »

  1. Jaguar XF Sport: Looks like the the now Indian owned Jaguar Motors has a very bright future ahead of it and the Tata’s might well benefit from it, the timing for the takeover of Jaguar couldn’t have been better because Jaguar had just launched it’s new XF sport series. The XF cars are not only stunning to look at but they are also stunning to drive and rumor has it that the XF series car might just be launched here in India. The rumor is un-confirmed but the fact that the XF’s are great machines is not. You may not be an auto buff and you may not have the money to buy a Jag, but the Jag XF’s sure are worth considering.
  2. BMW M3 Series launched in India: Meanwhile, it just may not matter weather the XF series is launched here in India or not, because if you are luxury car freak with an insatiable appetite for performance as well, look no further, the BMW M3 series is here in India. The M3 cars were officially launched in January 08. BMW M3 will be sold as CBU (complete built unit), in limited numbers, and has been priced around Rs 74 lakh!!(whew).So, if you want a car with stunning looks, smooth performance and unbridled fun, BMW M3 is just the thing for you!
  3. JAG & The Chics

    Jaguar Insides

    BMW

    BMW INSIDES

    Jaguar

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Vijay Mallya’s Fly Kingfisher party at Monaco

May 28th, 2008 Natty Posted in Glitz, KingFisher, Rounds, The Money, Vijay Mallya No Comments »

Well, win or loose, Vijay Mallya will party anyway and you can always count on his parties being fantastic. Despite the poor or perhaps … unfortunate result for Force India Ferrari F1 in Monaco, there was this huge fly Kingfisher party at Monaco and guessing from the pictures, Dr. Mallya and everyone else there were having a blast. Thanx wolf for the great post and the pics.

Neon From the outside Mallya with David Dhawan DJ Sakon Yamamoto Girls in red Joking around Gorgeous!! what could she be saying

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Star’s in need for speed

May 27th, 2008 Natty Posted in Glitz, Rounds, The Money 6 Comments »

Well, they don’t call Monte Carlo the playground of the millionaire’s, the rich and famous for nothing, all the yachts you see anchored on the coast next to the track are testimony to this. Monte Carlo was the original Las Vegas and many still like it more. Testament to this fact is that the Monaco Grand Prix in each season is the most glamorous, glitzy of all the Grand Prix’s. And this year was no different.

The someone very important list this year included Nicole baby, aint she sexxxy

  • George Lucas,
  • P Diddy,
  • Quentin Tarantino,
  • The very sexy Nicole Scherzinger,
  • Micheal Carrick,
  • Sir Cliff RIchard and
  • Boris Becker - a sports great himself, I absolutely loved his Tennis.

“It’s no secret - everybody knows that I’m a huge fan of Formula One,” said an enthusiastic George Lucas. “So whenever I have the chance to come I grab it. I’m here for the Cannes Film Festival with Harrison Ford and the Indiana Jones crew so Monaco was just a little detour. Unfortunately I’m not able to stay for the race, but honestly qualifying is as mesmerizing as the race. To see the guys driving flat out for the fastest lap - pulling out all stops- that is in best Indy spirit.”

You can catch up with what the rest of the star’s had to say in this official formula1 site’s article.

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Jag’s in the bag officially!

March 27th, 2008 Natty Posted in Auto, Formula1, Glitz, Other - Motorsport, Red Bull, The Money, This Site 3 Comments »

Talking of Jaguar, any motor sport aficionado immediately remembers that Jaguar is the only car that has won the ‘Le Mans’ 6 times! Le Mans is a 24 hours race and most motor sport enthusiasts, pundits will tell you that Le Mans is THE most grueling in Motor sport. So every one was shocked a bit at least Ford put up Jaguar and even Land Rover brands up for sale. And as was rumored since some time now, Jaguar and Land Rover brands were to be sold to Tata Motors. The deal was officially confirmed by both sides yesterday on 26th March. Yesterday, Ford officially announced it’s agreement to sell the brands to Tata Motors Jaguar Logo Rover Tatafor aproximately 2.3billion$. Tata Motors can now boast of a range from as low as Rs 1 Lakh (approx 2500$) to 50 times that price at much more than hundred thousand$.

The irony of this is getting chuckles everywhere. India is now the second largest source of foreign investment in UK. And a company from England’s former colony has come to the aid of the ailing Jaguar & Land Rover brands which are seen as icons of British Luxury. To give you an idea of how iconic these brands are, the last time Tony Blair pulled out of 10 Downing street, he did so in a Jaguar and higher up the British Aristocracy, her majesty, the Queen of England Queen Elizabeth II herself uses a Land Rover to drive around the gardens in Windsor Castle.

Then, Jaguar has also competed 4 times in Formula1 championships. Though it’s performance was dismal in F1 with zero wins, zero pole positions, two podiums, a handful of points. In November of 2004, Ford finally sold of the Jaguar Racing to the energy drink giant, Red Bull and the team has since then be christened Red Bull Racing team. What I can’t help but wonder is: Will we see another Formula1 team in years to come by owned by an Indian? Will Tata motors ever reintroduce the Jaguar brand in F1 or even in other motorsports or better yet, will we see Tata F1 in the not so distant future? Only time will tell…

Anyway, as for the business angle, many blame Ford for the mess Jaguar is in now and a change of ownership is being viewed with optimism every where. Tata now can count itself amongst companies such as Daimler & Toyota who also have a full range portfolio. The jury seems to be divided on whether this is strength or a liability.

The ever positive and optimistic visionary business man - Ratan Tata had this to say:

Toyota created Lexus, Nissan has Infinity. No one is saying, ‘How can BMW handle the Mini?’ But they’ve made a huge success of it. So why is it impossible?

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