... in other news today [women banned from Eiffel tower]

[Haji 2003]

 

 

[Haji 2003]

Wisconsin shooting

 

 

BUT

 

 

BUT

 

[Haji 2003]

Canadian Ice Hockey

in decline
 

Quote

In 2022, 340,365 under-18s played hockey at a junior level, according to governing body Hockey Canada, down from 523,785 in 2009 — a 35 per cent drop. Although the numbers rebounded slightly in 2023 to 360,031, they remain 15 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. South of the border in the US, youth participation has steadily increased over the same period.

https://www.ft.com/content/a42f0e01-ee39-405b-a54e-cdf718e78618

[Haji 2003]

Free school meals in Indonesia
 

Quote

President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship programme [is] to provide free lunch for all school children and pregnant mothers.  Fully implemented, it will be one of the world’s largest free meals programmes, reaching more than 82mn people at an estimated cost of $28bn a year.

https://www.ft.com/content/69209b1a-37b1-437e-83b5-b52d9194d74e

Interesting reader comment:
 

Quote

Most of us from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu owe it to our greatest chief minister, Kamaraj, who introduced free mid-day meal scheme to ensure people went to school back in the 1960s. This is the key reason for the better development outcomes we see in Tamil Nadu today vis-a-vis other large Indian states. God bless any administrator who has the foresight to invest in the health and wellbeing of children!

 

[Haji 2003]

Americans discover RedNote - they are so stunned that there's some profanity

Cautioned against Chinese propaganda ... but the reality is sinking in.

 

[Haji 2003]

Iraq gives Tunisia free wheat

 

[Haji 2003]

Imperial College named its library after Abdus Salam

(my alma mater)

[Haji 2003]

Story seems to be true, (his Linkedin profile is removed) 

 

[Haji 2003]

Qur'an recital for slain Michigan police officer

 

 

[Haji 2003]

Eiffel tower closed for women due to visit by a Guru

This sounds completely unreal but I double checked and it's true: the Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday due to a Hindu sect that demanded that all women "make themselves invisible" so their 93-year-old guru wouldn't have to see them.

The sect in question is BAPS - "Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha," which roughly translates to "the organization of Swaminarayan followers who believe in Akshar Purushottam, based in Bochasan" (a village in Gujarat). It's a very wealthy organization with deep ties to Modi's BJP (Modi is himself from Gujarat), known for building mega-temples around the world and whose doctrine demands absolute obedience to a living guru as the sole path to God.

It's not their first controversy: in 2021, the FBI raided their massive New Jersey temple after workers - mostly Dalits, India's lowest caste (the so-called "untouchables") - alleged they'd been lured to the US on fake religious visas, had their passports confiscated, and were forced to work 13-hour days for about $1 an hour, confined to a guarded compound (see https://nytimes.com/2021/05/11/nyregion/nj-hindu-temple-india-baps.html).

Long story short, they just opened a new mega-temple in France (the website: https://bapsmandirparis.fr/main-home) - specifically in Bussy-Saint-Georges (30km away from Paris) - presented as "the biggest Hindu temple built in continental Europe in a traditional style" (https://france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20260906-foule-%C3%A0-l-inauguration-d-un-temple-embl%C3%A8me-de-l-hindouisme-en-france).

Their guru was there for the inauguration and, as you do, wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower while in France.

But, thing is, his doctrine dictates that women must not be in his presence. And here is where it gets unreal: when his entourage requested a private visit, the Eiffel Tower's management actually agreed to the terms and ordered all female employees - including subcontractors - to hide (https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/paris_75056/la-tour-eiffel-met-a-l-ecart-son-personnel-feminin-lors-d-une-visite-privee-le-monument-reste-ferme-ce-lundi_64758503.html).

This was on Saturday and, France being France (in a good way), on Monday the women who'd been told to make themselves invisible made themselves very, very visible: the staff went on strike and shut down the Eiffel Tower. So there you have it, unreal but true: the Eiffel Tower, symbol of the French Republic, is closed because a 93-year-old Hindu guru refuses to be in the presence of women. (picture below the picture of their guru on his visit, taken from https://x.com/BritIndianVoice/status/2096273026652283336?s=20)

 

[notme]

On 9/8/2026 at 2:46 AM, Haji 2003 said:

Hindu sect that demanded that all women "make themselves invisible" so their 93-year-old guru wouldn't have to see them.

Does he lack eyelids? 

Typical man, inconveniencing everyone just to save himself a small effort!

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 9/8/2026 at 1:46 AM, Haji 2003 said:

Eiffel tower closed for women due to visit by a Guru

This sounds completely unreal but I double checked and it's true: the Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday due to a Hindu sect that demanded that all women "make themselves invisible" so their 93-year-old guru wouldn't have to see them.

   

 

[notme]

6 hours ago, Ashvazdanghe said:

 (disgust emoji)