Robert McAngus
Jul 25, 2017 · 6 min read

The Daily Tulip — International News From Around The World

Tuesday 25th July 2017

Good Morning Gentle Reader…. Back home and was immediately swamped by a big black Labrador, who insisted on bringing all sorts of presents and gifts to us… I guess she was pleased to have us home safe and sound…. This morning she and I walked down to the ocean, glad to be together again, crazy the effect of a dog on someone…..

SAUDIS GRAPPLE WITH FAKE STREET SWEEPERS…. Beggars in the Saudi cities of Jeddah and Riyadh have apparently found a new way of getting hold of money — by posing as street sweepers. According to Arab News, street sweepers in Jeddah only earn 400 riyals ($107; £82) per month, and rely on tips from passers-by to lift their income to a living wage, a fact not missed by people who the paper claims are largely “illegal foreign workers” looking for a slice of this largesse. Street cleaners work an 11-hour day, six days a week, among rats and feral cats, journalist Essam Al-Ghalib writes. However, they can earn an extra 700 to 2,500 riyals per month in tips on top of the tiny salaries, with most of this extra coming from passing motorists motivated by “a sense of pity and charity”.
An official in charge of street cleaning in some Jeddah districts told the paper that there is a problem with imposters “obtaining uniforms and pretending to be street cleaners in order to get money”. This pretence involves loitering near traffic lights with a broom and a high-vis tabard, and pestering drivers when they stop at a red light.

FOOD BUG UPSETS DEPECHE MODE GIG IN BELARUS…. Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan is reported to be recovering from a bout of food poisoning which forced the band to cancel a gig in Belarus. The British synthpop legends announced on their website that they had been unable to perform the show at Minsk Arena on Monday night “due to band member illness”.
The Belorusskiye Novosti website described the incident with Gahan “the most expensive poisoning in the music history of Belarus”.
It quoted the Belarusian gig organiser, Andrey Alekseyev, as saying that the singer fell ill at 1530 local time. Two hours before the concert was scheduled to start, doctors said he had to cancel the show. The show organisers said they had sold 7,000 tickets for the 12,000-capacity venue, and urged fans to retain their tickets as the show might be rescheduled. Ukrainian website Tabloid cited the chief doctor of Minsk’s hospital No 9, Valeriy Kushnirenko, as saying that Gahan’s condition was “satisfactory — he is alright”; and the Belarusian Naviny.by website posted a photo on its Facebook page of the singer posing with medical staff before he left the hospital.

COOK ISLANDER TOPS THE WORLD OF COCONUT TREE CLIMBING…. A Cook Islander has become the first ever world champion in the sport of coconut tree climbing, it’s been reported. George Iona emerged the winner in a field of 16 entrants, winning by the smallest of margins, Tahiti’s Radio 1 reports. He scaled the eight-metre (26.25 feet) tree in 5.62 seconds at the event in the garden of the Tahiti Museum. His time was just one hundredth of a second ahead of American Samoa’s Fiapa’i Ellio, the pre-race favourite.
The objective of the new sport is simple, Tahiti TMTV says: Climb the tree as quickly as possible, with each climber being given two attempts to post their best time. The winning tactic appears to entail wearing a loop of rough rope around the ankles, allowing better purchase on the trunk. Speaking to Tahiti’s Radio 1, event organiser Enoch Laughlin said that Mr Iona’s triumph came as a big surprise, as everyone had expected the Samoan athlete to win following his impressive performance in previous heats. The victor simply told reporters that he was “proud and happy to have won this championship”.

INDIA’S PM WOULD LIKE BOOKS INSTEAD OF BOUQUETS…. ‘A book… becomes part of the family,” Mr Modi has said.
Politicians may be used to bouquets and brickbats, but India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is urging his state governments to lose the flowers presented to him when he visits. The Ministry of Home Affairs this week told states that “No bouquet may be presented to the Prime Minister during his tours within India,” the India.com website reported. At most, it added, the prime minister hopes for just a single flower, along with “a handspun or hand-woven handkerchief, or a book”. This is not the first time Mr Modi has advocated books instead of bouquets for visitors. On a radio programme he hosted in June he said: “The life span of a bouquet is very short. You receive it in your hand for a moment and then abandon it. But when you present a book, it becomes a part of the household, a part of the family.” Yellow roses may mean warm feelings but they probably leave Mr Modi cold The premier’s promotion of India’s handspun cloth industry, known as khadi, harks back to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition of British-backed industrialisation in the country. It was advocated as a way for India to be self-reliant and the industry is still promoted and protected in India, as a symbol of nationalism. The Times of India, citing sources behind the idea, said promoting handspun gifts would help provide employment to the needy.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA COURT ORDER BANS ‘TOMATO’ INSULT…. Papua New Guinea’s electoral commissioner has gone to court to stop a critical blogger from mocking his name as the country goes to the polls. Patilias Gamato won the order against blogger Martyn Namarong, who referred to him as “Tomato”, and was accused of posting an image of the election chief with a tomato for a head, the Post Courier newspaper reports. Mr Namarong denies ever posting the doctored image. According to Australian broadcaster ABC, Mr Gamato said he resorted to court action when Mr Namorong began using the fruit-based insult, although he was not the first person to do so. “He made some defamatory statements and also called my surname ‘tomato’,” he told ABC.
“I don’t look like a tomato, I’m a human being.” In response to the court case, Mr Namarong tweeted a picture of himself gagged and blindfolded. With counting in the Papua New Guinea election still ongoing, Reuters reports that the Commonwealth Observer Group has expressed its concerns over reports of election-related violence and vote buying, “in some cases through the use of state resources and development funds”. Early results show the ruling People’s National Congress party in the lead, with incumbent Prime Minister Peter O’Neill winning his seat.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the slightly odd news from around the world this, Tuesday morning… …

Our Tulips today are of a “Candy Kane” The Daily Tulips logo…

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it’s always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of “Colombian” Coffee and wish you a safe Tuesday 25th July 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff….But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus

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