Stella's Magazine » Featured Articles

Children Soldiers

stela — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:22:36 +0000

Awil Salah Osman is an ordinary boy in Somalia. He looks like so many other boys in the world, with ripped-up cloths and eyes eager for attention. But he is different. Awil is carrying a fully loaded Kalashnikov rifle, because he works for a military that is financed and armed by the United States of America. He is only 12 years old, but he is already responsible for his checkpoint and stops the drivers who are trying to sneak past it.
It’s a well-known fact that radical Islamist insurgents in Somalia pluck kids off soccer fields and turn them into fighters. Awil isn’t a rebel. He works for Transitional Federal Government in Somalia and is paid only $1.50 a day. But hundreds of other children come on the front lines in Africa in the age of 9. It’s normal here for children to carry a gun, as they have no other option.

Paris Artificial Beaches

stela — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:02:18 +0000

If you feel like hitting the beach in France you don’t need to head for the coast. All you need to do is drop by to Paris. For the ninth year running, the city has built the artificial “Paris Beach” along the Seine with tons of recycled sand. Palm trees, beach umbrellas, and sprinklers are all available for the Parisian looking to relax.

Creepy Dolls Island

stela — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:02:08 +0000

Located in the heart of the Xochimico’s canals, Doll’s Island has a history totally unique. Sometime in the 1950’s Julián Santana Barrera begun collecting dolls found in the trash. He lived in this tiny island in Xochimilco and according to his family, these dolls kept the bad spirits away. The family also says that a young girl drowned at the island and he brought the dolls to keep her spirit happy. The island was for many years forgotten, but then in the 1990’s a program to clean up the canals gave again way for the Mexican style gondolas (trajineras) to pass by the island. Julian drowned at the island on April 17th, 2001. His family keeps the place by visitor’s donations; the place has no electricity, no running water or any other kind of utilities. Cellular phones do get a signal, as Xochimilco is inside the limits of Mexico City’s Federal District.
To get there, you take a “trajinera” from the Cuemanco Pier and ask to be taken there. It’s a 2 hour trip each way, and during the trip you can enjoy beautiful views of Xochimico’s scenery.

Strange Guys

stela — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:02:27 +0000

Men has always been a model of strength and constitution. Well, not any more. In these days there are more and more strange people. this gallery is just a short list of bizarre men. This guys are not even close to that what the men was suppose to represent in the past. Enjoy in this odd gallery if you can ;)

Unusual Mirrors

stela — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:02:01 +0000

it’s amazing what people can do with some usual stuff. This is a set of photographs with some unusual mirrors. Once the mirrors was all the same, with some typical carvings on it’s frames etc. now it’s time for the future. Enjoy in this Unusual Mirrors ;)

Unusual Chairs

stela — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:32:01 +0000

This amazing chairs are the product of various artists. Some of them are truly masterpieces. I’m not sure are they cosily but they surely look awesome. Enjoy in this wonderful photo set of unusual chairs ;)

Hilarious Office Cube Pranks

stela — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:52:56 +0000

I suppose that all of you are very cheerful when it’s time for you to finally go on holiday. The only problem is what will happen to your office cube wile you are away. You can only hope that nothing like this will happen to you ;)
Enjoy in this funny office pranks, and pray that something like this is not going to happen to you :)

Transgenders in Africa

stela — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:30:09 +0000

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from the usual gender roles. Transgender is the state of one’s “gender identity” (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) not matching one’s “assigned sex” (identification by others as male, female or intersex based on physical/genetic sex). “Transgender” does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual; some may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable to them. The precise definition for transgender remains in flux. It is hard to say what gender are the transgenders. The question of gender is more hard to define than the sex. How do these people feel is probably very hard for them, and while very young even painful and confusing. There is political tension between the identities that fall under the “transgender umbrella.” For example, transsexual men and women who can pay for medical treatments (or who have institutional coverage for their treatment) are likely to be concerned with medical privacy and establishing a durable legal status as men and women later in life. What are they than? There are people who feel the same like the ones who got money but can’t help themselves because these kind of operations are very expensive, and it is hard for them. I guess that lot of you have seen photos of some transgenders and I believe that you never would have guess by their appearance what sex they are, and here are the photos of the people with the same issue, but with less money in the Third World countries. They look like this and it is not such an impressive sight on which you all are used to see.

Inside the Romanian Jail for Women

stela — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:17:33 +0000

This very interesting experiment took place in a women’s prison in Tigisoara, Romania. 6 digital cameras were given to 6 inmates and they were making pictures of everything that they thought could be interesting. How it seems, miss Radisoor wanted to see what sort of images might be captured by the residents of a Romanian woman’s prison. In order to do that, they provided the women with six Canon Powershot digital cameras, memory cards, batteries, and all the accessories necessary. They also gave the women instructions on how to use the equipment followed by basic photography lessons over time. This is just one part which I cough to translate, what one woman from the prison said: “I received six Canon PowerShot cameras that I took with me to Tirgsor in July. The cameras scared me, they had so many buttons and the manual was so complex that I was skeptical that anyone could use them; I, for one, wasn’t able to. I felt very nervous”. It seemed like the cameras were terrifying and intimidating, but in the end thousands of pictures were taken. Many of them are absolutely stunning.

Fancy Bars In Namibia Whit Some Hipster Names

stela — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:53:05 +0000

If you love travel, and you love bars… then you’ll love-love this series of Namibian bar photos. I am proud to bring you a consumer’s guide to the top ten bars in Namibia, should you be traveling there in the near future. I don’t have locations for any of these places so good luck finding them, but Namibia as I get to see in the Namibian tourist guide is not so hard to travel, with an experienced native guide I guess you will pretty soon be on the right way and tasting some goon Namibian beer. As I got to learn if countries had hobbies the United Kingdom and Germany’s hobbies would be football. Switzerland’s hobby would be behaving well. The United State’s hobby would be invading Iraq. Japan’s hobby would be scary toilets with lots of buttons. Namibia’s hobby would be beer. Most countries have something of which everyone is proud. Namibians have 11 language groups, a democracy, a bunch of different churches and a soccer team that regularly loses in regional and world championships. Namibian beer is brewed according to the ‘Reinheitsgebot’, an ancient German law that states that beer may contain only barley, malt, hops and water. Most Namibians will tell you that because the beer is so pure, you will not get a hangover. After seeing how the bars look like I guess that a hangover is not necessary. Hansa is the best beer in Namibia, so if you are in these bars, this is what you should order. Hansa rules.