Abhinav Bindra is why I love the Olympics. I should probably first explain that my favorite part of the games has always been the parade of nations. Seeing all the different countries, many that we seldom hear of, walking proudly in support of their people is a pretty amazing thing. The sad part about the parade of nations is that, as the annoying announcers told me 50+ times on Friday night, most of teams have not and will never win a medal.

And while Bindra’s team of India has won medals, they’ve never won an individual gold. That all changed this morning when Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10- meter air rifle event and India’s national anthem played for all to hear.

More than that, he wasn’t the favorite to win by a longshot:

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Seven bombs went off in the city of Bangalore India this morning. They all went off in 15 minutes and ended up killing one woman and injuring even more. There is not much information on the blasts or who set them off in India’s tech center - Bangalore is home to 40 percent of the countries IT and software industry.

takepart to read more and keep updated on the situation. If this blast is like other recent incidents, I’d imagine it will get blamed on foreign militants, but we shall see. In the meantime, we’ll be thinking about the people of Bangalore, especially those who knew someone that was injured.

Go below the jump for a video report

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The world’s richest nations and emerging economies joined together at a summit on the island of Hokkaidou, Japan to commit to long range cute in global greenhouse emissions. They concluded their meetings today, calling climate change “one of the great global challenges of our time.” Good news, right? Well, not just yet.

Yesterday, leaders of the G8 (United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Britain and Russia) pledged to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050. But the Group of 5 emerging economies (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) refused to sign onto that goal. They are holding out until rich nations like the United States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next decade.

“It is good that the developing countries have embraced the principal of a global target that they will participate in,” Philip Clapp of the Pew Environmental Group said. “It would have been better if the United States and the other G-8 countries would have been willing to step up to the plate and make a strong commitment about what they would do over the next 10 years.”

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Necklacing Returns to South Africa, Tutu Calls for Peace, and History Repeats Itself

Ted Kennedy’s Malignant Brain Tumor: Sad News, But the Work Goes On

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Nicole Hughes:

Bush’s Food Aid Package Promotes Use of GMOs

Gas Prices Exceed Those of 1973 Oil Crisis

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Andy Kondrat:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Cost US 38 Trillion Annually

USDA Budget Squeeze Forces Agency to Stop Tracking Pesticide Use

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Jon Popham:

Brooklyn Bridge Birthday Celebration!

Smokey the Bear: Environmental Icon

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Giulia Rozzi:

Suicide Tourism in New York City

Kristin Davis and Her Solar Powered Home

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Gina Telaroli:

Media That Matters Film Festival Premieres on May 28th

Top 10 Ways Indiana Jones Saved the World: Part #1

It’s Indy mania! Stay tuned to the TakePart blog over the next week to see the Top 10 Ways Indiana Jones Saved the World and how you can be just like Indy and save it too! Each new entry will have action links that allow you to do what Indy did - in the comfort of your own home of course. For now, here’s are first entry:

1) Stopping Child Labor in The Temple of Doom:

When a town full of children are missing, Indiana Jones comes to the rescue. After crash landing in India, a small village claims that a valuable stone is missing (along with the children) and our amazing Jones gets down to business and in the process finds out the children aren’t really missing… They’re working in a mine!

Speaking of the mine - here’s a classic scene from the flick.

To find out how you can be like Indy click HERE >>>

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Mike Myers’ new comedy “The Love Guru” is creating a furor amongst many Hindus. Based on the trailer of the upcoming summer movie, many Hindu leaders are claiming the film lampoons their religion and throws around many Hindu terms frivolously. Some Hindu groups have even requested that India’s Central Board of Film Certification and Ministry of Information ban screenings of the movie entirely in India, home to the majority of the world’s 1 Billion Hindus.

Bhavna Shinde of the Hindu organization Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Society for Scientific Spirituality, based in Mumbai, was quoted as saying in the Indian press:

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“Deluxe” is a new exhibit of photographs, video and sculpture by visual artist Stuart Hawkins. The installation presents the stark contrast between the developing world and the elite vacation resorts found along coastlines and elsewhere in many developing countries.

Hawkins worked with local artists in Kolkata, India to create oversized prop sculptures of items typically found at a luxury resort, such as the giant hotel bed seen in the photo, enormous tennis courts and rackets, and a supersized beach umbrella. The props are then placed in less opulent settings indicative of the developing world and photographs are taken of local Kolkata residents doing improvised performances with the items. After the shoot, the materials from the props were taken apart and recycled back into the community in Kolkata as carpets, insulation, tents and tables. According to the press release:

“The realm of the elite is re-contextualized, resituated, and re-built with the hands of many and not a few.”

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“Amal” a new independent feature, directed by Richie Mehta and starring Rupinder Nagra, has won the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Shot in Digital Video on the streets of New Dehli, the narrative follows a humble autorickshaw driver - the title character, Amal - as he happily plies his trade on the streets of India’s capital. Things change though when he comes across a passenger who changes his life.

According to the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles program:

“This charming fable examines the true nature of happiness in a society obsessed with speed, technology and monetary wealth. In AMAL, Mehta introduces the rarest of heroes, one whose spirit will undoubtedly leave an indelible impact.”

Director Richie Mehta tells more about “Amal” below:

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The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most moving and transformational chapters of Black history so it’s appropriate to highlight it during Black History Month. And it is hard to imagine the Civil Rights Movement without the songs people sang during the good and the bad, during the rallies, sit ins, marches, arrests and beatings. In the face of violence, the songs were not just tools of inspiration but tools of non-violent resistance. While there were too many songs too count, these stand out as among the best.

1. We Shall Overcome was a gospel song, which became a civil rights anthem during a strike in Charleston in 1946. One of the women walking the picket line outside of the American Tobacco Company, started singing the spiritual. Zilphia Horton, the co-founder of the Highlander Research and Education Center, learned the song and taught it to Pete Seeger, who taught it to other folk singers, including Guy Carawan who performed it and taught it at the founding meeting of the Civil Rights Organization SNCC ( Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.) The song then became an anthem not only for the Civil Rights movement in the United States, but for South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, North Ireland’s independence movement, and many other independence movements in countries including India, Bengal, Czechoslovakia. Listen to Mahalia Jackson sing We Shall Overcome:

2. Oh Freedom is an anti-slavery spiritual that was sung by slaves. It is fitting that in 1963, this freedom song inaugurated the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where 250,000 would rally for civil rights and labor rights, and where Martin Luther King would deliver his legendary I have a Dream speech. On the morning of August 28th, the protesters gathered at the Washington Monument, where Joan Baez sang Oh Freedom, immortalizing the song for generations to come.

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Our second installation of the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is here give you the very best of Katie, Nicole, Giulia, Gina and Kerry! More blogs means more to love this Valentine’s Day week, and more social action means a healthier and happier world for everyone. Check out our most popular posts of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

5 Ways to Take Action and Get Action On Valentine’s Day

Top 10 Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gifts: Show Your Valentine You Have a Heart

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Nicole:

Kiva: Microlending to Change Lives

Top 10 New Releases to Inspire Social Change

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Giulia:

Alicia Keys Uses Grammys to Help Keep a Child Alive

V-Day Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary!

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Gina:

Top 10 Movie Characters That Make A Difference

Art As Politics In “The Silence Before Bach”

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Kerry:

Tap Project Gets Donations Flowing For Safe Global Water

Levon Helms’ “Dirt Farmer” Wins Grammy Gold