CorrectOfCenter
CorrectOfCenter's JournalCultural revolution in China's bedrooms
The rowdy scene at the Guangzhou National Sex Culture Festival was a graphic illustration of how sexual taboos are loosening in the once deeply conservative country – and the opportunities for those able to exploit it.
China is estimated to make more than 80 percent of the world’s sex toys, with 1 million people employed in the industry, but an increasing proportion of the products are staying in the country to feed domestic demand.
An adventurous generation of young, mainly urban Chinese is pushing back the frontiers of what is accepted. These youth are adopting attitudes far removed from the puritan days of radical Communist rule their parents lived under.
Pornographic videos are banned in China, but softer varieties and the wider sex product industry are booming.
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More than 2,000 sex shops have been set up in each of Beijing and Shanghai since laws were relaxed in 1993, according to state-run media, and the market for sex toys is growing at 63 percent a year.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Lifestyle/2013/Dec-03/239671-cultural-revolution-in-chinas-bedrooms.ashx#ixzz2mMWLH2Cv
Happy 43rd birthday, EPA!
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency owes its existence to people like you. More than four decades ago, the pollution concerns of individuals grew out of local communities and into a nationwide grassroots movement that culminated in the first Earth Day in 1970. Public outcry for a cleaner, healthier environment didn't belong to a political party; it didn't belong to any single social demographic. It belonged to all of us; it was overwhelmingly the voice of the American people. The resonance of that voice led to the establishment of the EPA and the passage of America's landmark environmental laws.
To overcome environmental challenges, we must confront them at their local roots. That's why at EPA, our work has always come back to local communities. Progress in communities is more than an aspiration, it's a practice. From dealing with conventional environmental harms to our contemporary fight against climate change -- at EPA, the focus of our work has always been local community driven.
Prudent action to protect public health and the environment must be sensitive to individuals and to differences among people and places. EPA's actions are guided by public openness and partnerships with rural towns, cities, and suburbs alike; with, environmentalists, local officials, and tribes. And we measure our success by progress we make in those communities.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-mccarthy/progress-in-communities-e_b_4371888.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
