It’s a Weird World

Standard People
SPITTING OFFENCE: Chinese people who live in government-sponsored housing in a prosperous southern province may be evicted if caught repeatedly spitting in public, according to a draft plan.

SPITTING OFFENCE: Chinese people who live in government-sponsored housing in a prosperous southern province may be evicted if caught repeatedly spitting in public, according to a draft plan.

The plan includes littering, making too much noise and gambling among more than 20 other “misdeeds” that would lead to eviction, based on a point system. Spitting once in the community carries a three point penalty, littering five, dropping things from upper stories seven and not paying the rent for three consecutive months carries the maximum of 20 points, the plan said. People in such housing will be forced to move out if they rack up a total of 20 points. Spitting in public is common in China, despite repeated government campaigns to wipe it out as a health menace. The bureau’s website said it had “borrowed ideas from the advanced experience of Hong Kong on public housing management.” Guangzhou is the capital of the country’s export-oriented economic heartland province of Guangdong. The bureau is now seeking public opinions on the draft. –– Reuters.

OFFICE NEST: Exterminators called in to deal with a mice infestation at a London police station found a nest on one officer’s messy desk.Pest controllers were called to an office in Kennington used by weapons and technology experts at the Metropolitan Police after reports of ‘mice everywhere’.They found that a family of mice had set up home in a pile of paperwork on one police worker’s messy desk, reports the Daily Telegraph.An internal police report reminds workers of the Metropolitan Police of the clear desk policy under which desks should be cleared at the end of each day so cleaners can do their jobs.“Some of the desks were so messy it was a wonder anyone could find anything,” said one officer.“It got to the stage where mice droppings were found on desks and that’s when everyone thought ‘it’s time to do something about our desks’.“That’s when one guy found a mouse nest in his paperwork. It’s fair to say he was a little embarrassed”. –– Ananova.

UN-ISLAMIC BEHAVIOUR: Pakistan’s parliament fined a national hockey player and two team officials for un-Islamic behaviour after pictures circulated of them hugging a woman and apparently drinking alcohol in Argentina last month.Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country where men hugging women in public is taboo and even men shaking hands with women is frowned upon. Drinking alcohol is illegal for Muslims.National field hockey team player Rehan Butt was fined $1 175 while coach Shahid Ali Khan and manager Asif Bajwa were fined $600 each, the chairman of the National Assembly’s standing committee on sports said.“Islamic culture does not allow us to hug a lady and have alcohol,” committee chairman Jamshed Ahmed Dasti told Reuters.Pictures run by a Pakistani television channel and posted on the Internet showed one of the men hugging a woman and another apparently drinking a beer.Another picture showed a group of men sitting at a table with glasses in front of them, apparently containing alcohol..Dasti said the team’s failure at the tournament made the “disgusting” activities that much worse.In 2007,  Tourism minister Nilofar Bakhtiar handed in her resignation after religious hardliners raised a storm of criticism when a picture of her appeared hugging her parachute instructor after completing a jump for charity in France. –– Reuters.