Photos: Does nude protest work? From the Doukhobors to FEMEN

Doukhobors in 1903 - not a pretty sight!

We can thank the Doukhobors in the early 20th century for initiated nude protest, but protesting in the buff really didn't gain momentum until the 1960's ,when people realized the power of "letting it all hang out." PETA has done an admirable job of putting naked, attractive women in public for their cause, but likely no one has done it better in recent times as the bizarre protest group FEMEN. I say bizarre because they appear to be a group of women from the Ukraine whose sole activity is to  protest anywhere about anything. In the nude of course. The group's listed purpose is "to develop leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of the young women in Ukraine. To build up the image of Ukraine, the country with great opportunities for women" Well yes, if the FEMEN women are an indication, they do have great looking women, then again I do know quite a few Ukrainians, and they run the standard gamut in terms of appearance. Nice try girls.

 There is little doubt that public nudity grabs people's attention, but does it actually further a cause? Are you less likely to wear fur after seeing naked women at a PETA protest? I have my serious doubts, but as they say any press is good press.

In any case, The Cry Baby would like to come out and officially support FEMEN and wish them luck on what ever the hell they are protesting about.

The women of FEMEN

PETA protester

Related articles

• 'Femen' Stage Naked Protest Against Putin in Moscow [PHOTOS] (ibtimes.com)
• Three activists from feminist group claim they were arrested and left naked in forest after topless protest in Minsk (dailymail.co.uk)

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Photos: thousands protest in Egypt

Have a look at this National Post photo gallery of the Egyptian protests:

View gallery here

Flooding in Saudi Arabia kills 10 – 3 missing

Who knew desert countries experienced such severe floods? Well at least the people know their king will look after them when he isn't busy suppressing them or lending moral support to the Egyptian president.

Read more on CNN.com

Shocker: Saudi king slams Egyptian protesters!

From CNN: Saudi King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and "was reassured" about the situation in Egypt, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

"During the call, the king said, 'Egypt is a country of Arabism and Islam. No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition,'" the news agency reported.

Saudi Arabia "strongly condemns" the protest, it said.

 

Read more in the National Post

Egypt goes silent on the internet

In a move that has been anticipated by many, Egypt has literlally pulled the plug on the internet. All ISPs have been ordered to shut down there services, as the government tries to quell protests across the nation. Today, large protests are planned and as demonstated in Tunisia recently, social networking has helped protesters avoid arrest and danger as well as broadcast the events to the world. It's watch and wait for the moment.

From the Renesys blog:

"At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt's service providers. Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide."