You Would Think WONDER WOMAN Would Favor Ban....

...they could be considered a real hazard for anyone flying around in an invisible plane.

 

A new winged menace

Kite flying is perhaps the most benign leisure activity known to man.  Or at least, I used to think so.  Leave it up to a certain cultural diaspora to turn the world’s dullest Sunday afternoon pursuit into a bloodsport…

The city has summarily banned all kites from Milliken Park, a 32-hectare green space and unofficial home of a game that sees skilled kite-masters manoeuvre their flying contraptions to slice their opponents' strings. Every weekend, dozens of mostly Afghan-Canadian families flood the park to barbecue, picnic and watch the thrust and parry of the kites, a sight that reminds them of home.
“This is like a slap in the face to every Afghan,” said Ahmad Sadozai, a 33-year-old Afghan immigrant who used to fly kites at Milliken Park and will now face a $100 fine if he returns. “People ship kites and lines and strings and everything from Pakistan and Indonesia to here so we can play kites.”
But the city councillor who pushed for the ban says this is a case where public safety must trump cultural accommodation: The contests leave the park littered with dangerous kite line, some of it metallic or coated in glass. “People have called my office and said they've been cut by it,” Chin Lee said. “In one case, a person's ear was seriously cut by it ... I've been sent pictures of birds hanging from the kite strings in the tree.”
A local kite-fighting club is planning a Saturday protest of the ban, which took effect Tuesday. This new kite fight appears to be a first for Canada, which hasn't had to grapple with major injuries caused by a sport that Pakistan has banned outright.
The country's Supreme Court banned kite-flying in 2005, objecting to the number of deaths and injuries caused by the sport. In February of that year, Reuters reported that 19 people were killed and 200 injured during the popular Basant festival in Lahore, when tens of thousands come to watch steel-wired kitefighting.

These people are crazy.

Wonder Woman on August 18, 2010