Monday, November 12, 2012

Pinki Pramanik Charged with Rape Declared Male

It should have been easy to determine if she had a functional penis for that rape allegation or not, clearly she does not, so why is she in prison? Why is she being housed with men and rough handled by guards as if she was not just a man, but a bad man? Why is she not being given the respect, privacy and legal rights her culture feels a woman deserves? What is all this going to resolve, when the last test is on a chromosomal level and the most highly questionable as a bottom line? Besides did she rape her (so called) "partner"* with a chromosome? Read full article: The Violation of Pinki Pramanik

* Please note in an Interview with Dola Mitra of outlookindia, Pinki stated:  
What was your first reaction when it was said that you are a male and that you raped a woman? The girl who brought these allegations had taken nude photographs of me and was threatening to make them public. She had been blackmailing me for some time, asking me to write my house in her name or give her 20 lakh rupees. She had also been stealing from me, and most recently, while I was sleeping, she stole the gold chain which I wear around my neck. But to be accused of being male and raping her shocked me.
The girl also claimed to be your partner. Did you love each other? No. She was not my partner and we were not in love. She used to live next door on rent with her lover and her five-year-old child. The man left her two years ago and I took pity on her and told her she could stay with me as I live here alone. She used to do all the domestic chores of the house. When she started blackmailing me, my family warned me against her and told me to go to the police, but I didn’t throw her out for the sake of the little child. And if she loved me, would she do this to me? (Pinki breaks down.)
Pinki Pramanik is a male, the police asserted in a district court on Monday citing a medical report and proceeding to charge the former athlete with raping a 32-year old woman, 'his' companion for the past two years...“The medical board that examined Pinki Pramanik declared Pramanik as male having the ability to rape. Accordingly the police have also filed the chargesheet,” Shantomoy Basu, the additional public prosecutor of Barasat Judge Court told HT on Monday...“The medical board that examined Pinki Pramanik declared Pramanik as male having the ability to rape. Accordingly the police have also filed the chargesheet,” Shantomoy Basu, the additional public prosecutor of Barasat Judge Court told HT on Monday.

Pinki said that contrary to the police claim, the medical report concluded that she was incapable of committing rape.  However she said, despite requests, she had not been given a copy of the medical report..."As per my knowledge, the board had said I had symptoms of excess male hormones as after-effect of some of the drugs I had taken during my sports career."
According to the Indiatimes, While a man can be charged under only Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code for rape, a woman has to be charged under Section 376 and additional sections, like Section 108 (abetment) or 34 (common intention). Criminal lawyer M A Khan explained, "Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code clearly states that rape is an offence committed by a 'man' against a woman's will and without her consent. So, ordinarily, a woman can't be charged with rape only under this provision. If she has to be booked, then additional charges, such as abetment, will also have to be applied."
Pinki was arrested June 14th and spent 26 days in custody before being granted bail on July 10th and on Aug 10th Eastern Railway revoked her suspension as a ticket taker. I personally feel that if it took 5 months to conclude she was male with the ability to rape, she is being railroad... and it maybe time for an Olympic ruling to lay this to rest.



"The medical report of Pinki Pramanik suggests that the athlete is male," police said in a chargesheet submitted in court in the town of Barasat in West Bengal state. They said the athlete is also charged with cheating and threatening her then partner, a woman. Pramanik's lawyers have denied the rape charges. The medical tests were carried out by a panel of doctors at a government hospital in the state capital, Calcutta. Two earlier gender tests in Barasat hospitals had been inconclusive. Please note: some sources state that three earlier tests were inconclusive.)

Experts said they were not surprised by the findings of the chromosome (DNA) test. Pinki's aggression and a tendency to lapse into a fit of rage suggested she suffered from a condition known as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplacia (CAH), they said...CAH patients are generally incapable of normal sexual activity, according to fertility expert Rohit Gutgutiya. "The clitoris gets enlarged and starts looking like a phallus. But it's not the real male organ and therefore it's difficult for such people to either have a normal sex life or rape a woman," said Gutgutiya.


For Educational and Informational purposes this from Mayo Clinic - Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (kun-JEN-i-tul uh-DRE-nul hi-pur-PLA-zhuh) is a collection of genetic conditions that limit your adrenal glands' ability to make certain vital hormones. In most cases of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the adrenal glands don't produce enough cortisol. The production of two other classes of hormones also may be affected, including mineralocorticoids (for example, aldosterone) and androgens (for example, testosterone).

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia can cause problems with normal growth and development in children — including normal development of the genitals. It affects both males and females.
Although congenital adrenal hyperplasia can be life-threatening, most people with it can lead normal lives with proper treatment.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia affects your adrenal glands, a pair of walnut-sized organs located above your kidneys.Inherited defect affects cortisol production
Most of the problems caused by classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia are related to a lack of cortisol, which plays an important role in regulating your blood pressure, maintaining blood sugar and energy levels, and protecting your body against stress.
A child with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia may also experience:A lack in the adrenal glands' production of aldosterone.Excess production of the male sex hormones (androgens such as testosterone).

This can result in short height, early puberty in boys, abnormal genital development in girls and severe acne. Signs and symptoms may vary, depending on which specific gene is defective. This can lead to low blood pressure, lower sodium level and higher potassium level. Sodium and potassium normally work together to help maintain the right balance of fluids in your body, transmit nerve impulses, and contract and relax your muscles.

The condition is passed along in an inheritance pattern called autosomal recessive. Children who have the disorder have two parents who either have the condition themselves or who are both carriers of the genetic mutation that causes the condition.

Treatment for girls with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia involves a careful balance of the right amount of cortisone medications. Adequate cortisone replacement is needed to suppress androgens, allowing for normal height and minimizing masculine characteristics. However, too much cortisone may cause Cushing's syndrome. Your doctor will schedule regular tests to monitor your child for these side effects.

As adults, some men and women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia are able to stop taking their replacement hormone medications. However, others, particularly people with the classic form of the disease, may need to take replacement hormone medications indefinitely.


In some infant girls who have ambiguous external genitalia, doctors recommend reconstructive surgery to correct the appearance and function of the genitals. This procedure may involve reduction of the clitoris size and reconstruction of the vaginal opening. The surgery is typically performed between 2 and 6 months of age.

The cause of congenital adrenal hyperplasia is an inherited genetic defect that limits production of one of the many enzymes the adrenal glands use to make cortisol. The enzyme most commonly lacking in congenital adrenal hyperplasia is 21-hydroxylase. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia may sometimes be called 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Signs and symptoms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia are worst when the enzyme deficiency is severe.

Most of the problems caused by classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia are related to a lack of cortisol, which plays an important role in regulating your blood pressure, maintaining blood sugar and energy levels, and protecting your body against stress.

A child with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia may also experience:
A lack in the adrenal glands' production of aldosterone. This can lead to low blood pressure, lower sodium level and higher potassium level. Sodium and potassium normally work together to help maintain the right balance of fluids in your body, transmit nerve impulses, and contract and relax your muscles.
Excess production of the male sex hormones (androgens such as testosterone). This can result in short height, early puberty in boys, abnormal genital development in girls and severe acne. Signs and symptoms may vary, depending on which specific gene is defective.



Update November 13, 2012: Pinkie Speaks Out

“There is a circus going on and I am being treated as a joker,” she said, adding that she felt that she was being treated as an “object of curiosity” because of the repeated references to her gender. “I find it difficult to come out of my home and walk on the roads,” she said.
 
Ever since her arrest on June 14, 2012 after the woman she shared her home with accused her of rape, she has been harassed by the police, and now the remarks on her gender come as a “mental torture”, Pinki said. “All they [police] want is to finish me.” Pinki added that she was “ being cornered in such a manner that I am pushed into losing my self-esteem and [contemplating] taking my life.”
 
“I also hear reports that the police is saying that all my medals will be taken away. Who are they to say so? The police has not awarded me those medals,” she said.
 
Pinki said that she would approach the West Bengal Commission for Women. She claimed that despite approaching the court in September seeking reports of the medical investigations to ascertain her gender, she had not received them yet.  

The function of the State Women Commission is inter alia to see that the constitutional and legal rights of women are properly implemented, to review different provisions of law and recommended amendments thereto, to take up cases of violation of the provisions of the constitution and other laws relating to women with appropriate authorities look into complaints regarding deprivation of women rights, non-implementation of laws providing protection to women, non-compliance of policy decisions or guidelines ensuring welfare and relief to women take up the matter of appropriate authorities, visit jail destitute girls home, women institutions or other places of custody where women are kept as prisons and take up such matters with concerned authorities for remedial action as may be necessary...
For the above purpose Commission has been given powers of a Civil Court under Cr. P.C. in respect of summoning and enforcing attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on death, requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence of affidavits.

AFI: Too premature to say anything about Pinki now

Says C K Walson, secretary general of the AFI (Athletics Federation of India), “It is too premature to say anything now. This is a report done by a panel of doctors and it would be unwise to jump the gun. Only later, if this report is found to be true and everything is finalised, would we write to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to see what we have to do.”

Walson adds, “for seven years there was no suspicion. Even in Doha, there was no issue. Now, after all these years, this has cropped up. People are simply talking, but let me make it clear that we cannot do gender tests – they are only allowed in case of a protest or suspicion. Pinki has been dope-tested all these years when she was competing. Dope tests are usually done with the athletes stripped from the waist downwards and with the same sex officials in the room. There was no suspicion. Now, suddenly this controversy has arisen. As of now, Pinki’s medals are with her.”

Pinki Pramanik (born April 10, 1986 in Purulia) is an Indian female track athlete who specialised in the 400m and 800m. Pramanik had success with the national 4×400 metres relay team, winning silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, gold at the 2006 Asian Games, and gold at the 2005 Asian Indoor Games. She won three gold medals at the 2006 South Asian Games, winning the 400m and 800m events, as well as the relay.




Sunday, November 11, 2012

In The World Today

In The World today

Israel fires a missle into Syria

a warning shot response to

an accidental stray mortar

that caused no injuries

or damages...while

peaceful resolution faltered in Doho

an intial deal was signed and it all

fell apart at 3:00 a.m.

Now Syrian cleric

to lead opposition...

 

The US government says

chilling premeditation

worst case of slaughter since the Viet Nam War

as Afghan survivors

testify to the civilian murder

of 16 villagers

mainly women in children...

 

while...

19 soldiers and veterans raped by their fellow military

during service to our country sue

for denial of their constitutional rights

to due process and entry into a court's system

on the heels of Lackland scandalous accusations

of at least a dozen instructors sexually assulting

young female recruits

 

Obama visited the Jersey Shore.

"We are here for you and we will not forget.

We will follow up to make sure

you get all the help you need to rebuild."

while...130,000 homes and businesses

were still without power on Long Island

while... volunteers hosted a clothing drive and

children's carnival in Rockaway.

 

Last week Iran fired shots at a US Drone

in international waters that today

they claim was in theirs and are proud of it

and will do it again while...

"The IAEA and Iran

have agreed

on 13 December in Tehran,"

 

Let all that...

sink in.

May tomorrow

be a better day.

 

Sunday, August 5, 2012

NASA Announces Next Steps In Effort To Launch Americans From U.S. Soil

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA Friday announced new agreements with three American commercial companies to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years. Advances made by these companies under newly signed Space Act Agreements through the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.‬

CCiCap partners are:
-- Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colo., $212.5 million
-- Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif., $440 million
-- The Boeing Company, Houston, $460 million

"Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit. After the capability is matured and expected to be available to the government and other customers, NASA could contract to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew transportation needs.

The new CCiCAP agreements follow two previous initiatives by NASA to spur the development of transportation subsystems, and represent the next phase of U.S. commercial human space transportation, in which industry partners develop crew transportation capabilities as fully integrated systems. Between now and May 31, 2014, NASA's partners will perform tests and mature integrated designs. This would then set the stage for a future activity that will launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low Earth orbit by the middle of the decade.

"For 50 years American industry has helped NASA push boundaries, enabling us to live, work and learn in the unique environment of microgravity and low Earth orbit," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The benefits to humanity from these endeavors are incalculable. We're counting on the creativity of industry to provide the next generation of transportation to low Earth orbit and expand human presence, making space accessible and open for business."

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities to low Earth orbit, the agency also is developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion MPCV will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Carnage in Aurora Colorado Rocks the Nation

Today the U.S awoke to senseless tragedy in Aurora, Colorado of the magnitude of Columbine and Oklahoma City, which is already being discussed in terms of Norway.
As I post this the death toll is 12 with 58 wound, many of them seriously. Thirty people remain in area hospitals tonight, 11 of them in critical condition, but that is far from the extent of the damages, which have rippled out as the day has unfolded.
The damage done to victims now traumatize for what they did and did not do in that moment of complete dominance and unimaginable carnage, when in truth it was all they could do.
The damage done to children, who came to see their hero defeat the bad guy...
What was set in motion when that exit door swung open at the Century 16 movie theatre is still rocking this nation and will for many days to come.
We are struggling to make sense of an insane act... while expert profilers have begun the debate of psychotic break verses psychopathy and swat teams clear the block to safely enter his apartment.
In a deep empathy for the victims and their family we can not help think what if that had been my children in that theatre?
Tonight we all will fall asleep less certain of our own public safety.

The phone number to call for information for family members about the victims of the Aurora movie theater shooting is 303 873-5292 . If you have any information on the shooting or the shooter you are asked to call the Aurora Police tipline 303-739-1862 .
Bonfils Blood Center is asking for blood donations, especially O negative, A negative and plasma. The need for donations will continue for many days, so if you can't get in today you are asked to call 303-366-2000  to make an appointment or go to Bonfils.org
Children’s Hospital Colorado has set up a Family Support line at 720-777-2300  to help families who need advice or help finding resources related to the Aurora movie theater shooting incident. The line will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and callers will be asked to provide their contact information. A behavioral health specialist will return their call within 24 hours.
Colorado Organization for Victims Assistance is available for victims of this tragedy as well. Visit their website here for more information. http://www.coloradocrimevictims.org
At the request of Aurora PD, donations for the victims of the theater shooting can be mailed to COVA at 90 Galapago Street, Denver CO, 80223. For tracking they ask people to mark checks with "Aurora shooting" in the memo line. You can visit the COVA Facebook page here for more information.
A Facebook page has been set up to help get information out about the shooting here.

 Full Article