The Australian tourist had only $8 on his person at the time, but promised to hand in the rest this week.

Footage on social media shows the tourist beside a temple in Kediri wearing just a pair of shorts as he whoops with delight while he is up the tree.

Hindus believe all banyans are ancient trees representing the earth's divine creator. Read more

"A harsh punishment for a bruised ego I thought, until this morning.," says journalist Mahvash Ali in an opinion piece published in Stuff.

"I am a Muslim woman, a pretty friendly one actually.

And I really don't want to offend you - friendly blokes of the world - but out of respect for the other gender, I don't shake hands.

And it works both ways, so Muslim men may also avoid shaking hands with women.".

Ali says people's choices need to be respected. To refuse to shake hands does is not necessarily a sign that the person dislikes you.

A newsletter from vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon to all university staff said the unnamed, male staff member intentionally set out to force the young student to shake his hand.

The employee acted knowing it was culturally and religiously inappropriate for Muslim women to have physical contact with a man who was not a close relative or husband, McCutcheon said.

But, "What if this wasn't a Muslim woman?" Ali asks.

"She is a female who did not want to physically interact with a man and he forced her to do it.

- It is a choice, the single most modern and liberal thing about our society.

Now please tell me you have struck 'sexual discrimination' off your list and replaced it with "I am a mature man and I don't mind because it's her choice".

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: Satyar Emani Fars news agency

It has been criticised for perpetuating stereotypes of Polynesians by depicting Maui as overweight.

One of the movie's directors, John Musker, said music had to play a big part in the movie to really capture the culture.

"I mean, we were hearing music all the way through the islands."

"You know, we, when we visit the islands, of course since the islands have been churches have come down, there's a church every two blocks. "

"And so there's music in all these different denominations. There's the Catholic church and the Protestant church and this church and the Mahdi church."

Musker says music is a part of the islands. People "sing songs of farewell, sing songs, work songs and all that. So we just felt like and it's such a rich, man, we heard songs before we went too."

The movie will be titled Vaiana in many countries following a trademark conflict. It will be titled Oceania in Italy, while the name of the protagonist will be Vaiana in lieu of Moana, presumably to avoid confusion with an Italian porn star of the same name, Moana Pozzi.

In addition to accusations of stereotyping, a costume made to tie in with the film was pulled by Disney from its online store following complaints about it being culturally insensitive.

The problematic Halloween costume is a bodysuit that gives kids brown tattooed skin like Maui's. It was met with a firestorm of online criticism shortly after it was made available at Disney stores.

Disney pulled the costumes and released the following statement:

"The team behind "Moana' has taken great care to respect the cultures of the Pacific Islands that inspired the film, and we regret that the Maui costume has offended some."

"We sincerely apologize and are pulling the costume from our website and stores."

Moana is due for release in on 23 November.

Source

• slashfilm.com
• en.wikipedia.org
• chicagotribune.com
• Image: img.cinemablend.co

No self respecting party hire business can afford to not have a big stock of false nun's habits for hire .

So, "What's the fuss about Dame Trelise Cooper adorning some of her catwalk models in faux Native American headdresses?" asks Dr Avril Bell, senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Auckland.

"After all, haven't we all long worn gear like this at fancy dress parties — or to the rugby sevens? And even other garments that may be considered sacred in different quarters, such as nuns' habits as used by Moschino at the Milan Fashion Week"

So "How come it's acceptable to appropriate the attire and adornments of some cultures and not others?" asks Bell.

"There are various ways to address this question. One obvious point that could be made is that in referencing the nun's habit, Moschino was making use of the sacred within their own (Italian, Catholic) culture." says Bell.

She then goes on to say, " But I want to focus on another aspect of the issue, which is the role that cultural appropriation has played in the colonial history of societies such as our own, the United States and Canada."

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image:Theboonreport