Oxymanus Chronicles

Israel Acts to Curb Illegal Immigration From Africa - An Excerpt

2011-12-13T12:17:00.000+08:00

Israel Acts to Curb Illegal Immigration From Africa

By ETHAN BRONNER - Published: December 11, 2011 (an excerpt)

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government on Sunday announced plans to spend $160 million on efforts to stem the growing number of Africans who enter the country illegally, seeking jobs and political asylum. The money will go toward work on an Egyptian border fence that is already under construction, an expansion of detention centers and increased policing of companies that hire undocumented workers.
About 50,000 Africans have moved to Israel in the last six years.
“If need be, we will close businesses so that the enterprise known as the State of Israel does not close,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a cabinet meeting that focused on the issue.

Over the past six years, about 50,000 Africans, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have trekked across the Sinai into Israel, some of them working in hotels and on construction sites, others living in rundown urban neighborhoods, unable to find work and relying on refugee agencies.

All well-off countries face the challenge of how to handle poor foreign migrants and how much credence to give their accounts of political persecution. But the situation in Israel is complicated by Jewish history and has led to a national debate. On the one hand, this is a small country that wishes to maintain a strong Jewish majority. On the other, the Jews’ past of eviction and persecution makes some here argue that Israel should have special sensitivity for those fleeing prejudice and conflict.

Mr. Netanyahu said that the overwhelming number of Africans who slip into Israel are not political refugees, but are looking to improve their economic status. He said they pose difficulties for the people they settle among. Poorer Israelis, in particular, resent the Africans’ arrival and compete with them for jobs.

“We hear the outcry coming from Israel’s cities,” he said. “We will continue to care for refugees, but they make up a minimal part of the human wave. Entire populations are starting to move, and if we don’t act to stop this we will be flooded.”

Refugee advocacy groups in Israel contend that Mr. Netanyahu is wrong, that the majority of those who arrive here are fleeing civil wars or political persecution.

Mr. Netanyahu plans to visit several African countries early next year and said he would raise the issue of repatriating the refugees.

The influx of Africans began in 2005 after the Egyptian police attacked Sudanese refugees who were camped out in Cairo and demanded asylum. More than 20 people were killed, and word spread that Israel would provide them a better welcome and more job opportunities.

The Israeli government hopes that the fence being built along the Egyptian border will keep out most infiltrators. The demands for a fence have grown in the past year with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the increase in tensions with Cairo that followed his ouster.

Three months ago, demonstrators in Cairo ransacked part of the Israeli Embassy, leading the Israeli government to airlift its diplomatic personnel from Egypt. In August, infiltrators from the Sinai killed eight Israelis near the popular Red Sea resort of Eilat; in fighting afterward, Israeli troops killed five Egyptian security personnel.

But both governments say they wish to maintain ties, and Israel said it would send a new ambassador to Cairo on Monday. No new permanent home for the Israeli Embassy in Cairo has been found.

The Art of Listening By HENNING MANKELL - An Excerpt

2011-12-13T11:53:00.002+08:00

The Art of Listening
By HENNING MANKELL (An Excerpt from NY Times)
Published: December 10, 2011
Maputo, Mozambique
I CAME to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity. I could have chosen Asia or South America. I ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest.
I came and I stayed. For nearly 25 years I’ve lived off and on in Mozambique. Time has passed, and I’m no longer young; in fact, I’m approaching old age. But my motive for living this straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the other in European snow, in the melancholy region of Norrland in Sweden where I grew up, has to do with wanting to see clearly, to understand.
The simplest way to explain what I’ve learned from my life in Africa is through a parable about why human beings have two ears but only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak.
In Africa listening is a guiding principle. It’s a principle that’s been lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else. From my own experience, I’ve noticed how much faster I have to answer a question during a TV interview than I did 10, maybe even 5, years ago. It’s as if we have completely lost the ability to listen. We talk and talk, and we end up frightened by silence, the refuge of those who are at a loss for an answer.
I’m old enough to remember when South American literature emerged in popular consciousness and changed forever our view of the human condition and what it means to be human. Now, I think it’s Africa’s turn.

Everywhere, people on the African continent write and tell stories. Soon, African literature seems likely to burst onto the world scene — much as South American literature did some years ago when Gabriel García Márquez and others led a tumultuous and highly emotional revolt against ingrained truth. Soon an African literary outpouring will offer a new perspective on the human condition. The Mozambican author Mia Couto has, for example, created an African magic realism that mixes written language with the great oral traditions of Africa.
If we are capable of listening, we’re going to discover that many African narratives have completely different structures than we’re used to. I over-simplify, of course. Yet everybody knows that there is truth in what I’m saying: Western literature is normally linear; it proceeds from beginning to end without major digressions in space or time.
That’s not the case in Africa. Here, instead of linear narrative, there is unrestrained and exuberant storytelling that skips back and forth in time and blends together past and present. Someone who may have died long ago can intervene without any fuss in a conversation between two people who are very much alive. Just as an example.
The nomads who still inhabit the Kalahari Desert are said to tell one another stories on their daylong wanderings, during which they search for edible roots and animals to hunt. Often they have more than one story going at the same time. Sometimes they have three or four stories running in parallel. But before they return to the spot where they will spend the night, they manage either to intertwine the stories or split them apart for good, giving each its own ending.
A number of years ago I sat down on a stone bench outside the Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique, where I work as an artistic consultant. It was a hot day, and we were taking a break from rehearsals so we fled outside, hoping that a cool breeze would drift past. The theater’s air-conditioning system had long since stopped functioning. It must have been over 100 degrees inside while we were working.
Two old African men were sitting on that bench, but there was room for me, too. In Africa people share more than just water in a brotherly or sisterly fashion. Even when it comes to shade, people are generous.
I heard the two men talking about a third old man who had recently died. One of them said, “I was visiting him at his home. He started to tell me an amazing story about something that had happened to him when he was young. But it was a long story. Night came, and we decided that I should come back the next day to hear the rest. But when I arrived, he was dead.”
The man fell silent. I decided not to leave that bench until I heard how the other man would respond to what he’d heard. I had an instinctive feeling that it would prove to be important.
Finally he, too, spoke.
“That’s not a good way to die — before you’ve told the end of your story.”
It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats — and they in turn can listen to ours.
Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening.
So if I am right that we are storytelling creatures, and as long as we permit ourselves to be quiet for a while now and then, the eternal narrative will continue.
Many words will be written on the wind and the sand, or end up in some obscure digital vault. But the storytelling will go on until the last human being stops listening. Then we can send the great chronicle of humanity out into the endless universe.
Who knows? Maybe someone is out there, willing to listen ...
Henning Mankell is the author of many books, including the Wallander novels. This article was translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally from the Swedish.

Excerpt From The New York Times – The Opinion Pages Are All Bloggers Journalists?

2011-12-13T11:31:00.004+08:00

Excerpt From The New York Times – The Opinion Pages
Are All Bloggers Journalists?

Introduction –
A federal judge in Oregon ruled that Crystal Cox, a blogger who was sued for defamation after she accused the founder of an investment group of acting illegally and unethically, cannot claim protections afforded to journalists under state shield laws. In his ruling, the judge noted that Ms. Cox was not affiliated with a “newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system.”
What are the implications of this ruling for bloggers and journalists? How should judges decide who is protected and who isn’t?

The Problem With Pre-Internet Laws
Kelli L. Sager is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. She represents newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, authors, Internet companies and other publishers.

The unstated questions that have fueled much of the discussion about bloggers are two-fold: whether bloggers have the same constitutional rights as other authors or publishers, and whether bloggers should be afforded certain statutory protections that apply to mainstream media, such as retraction statutes and reporters’ shield laws.
It's hard to imagine excluding bloggers from the protections that shield laws provide.
The first question is easy to answer: the rights of free speech and press under the First Amendment does not and cannot depend on the medium through which information is exchanged. Whether the expression is conveyed by a lonely pamphleteer or the world’s most sophisticated communications company, First Amendment protections apply. The notion that bloggers have some lower standard of protection is wholly inconsistent with what the United States Supreme Court has recognized as a necessary marketplace of ideas, where one’s ability to communicate freely is not dependent on access to a printing press or broadcast equipment.
The second question is more complex, because it depends in part on the language in a particular statute, and the purpose for which it was enacted. Retraction statutes, for example, typically are intended to provide needed “breathing space” for the exercise of free speech, recognizing that sometimes mistakes will be made. Such statutes also provide an incentive for the timely correction of inaccuracies -- a purpose that benefits the subject of the story as well as the publisher. So why wouldn’t retraction laws apply to bloggers, who can – and often do -- correct a misstatement almost instantaneously? Courts have had little difficulty finding that retraction statutes apply to Web sites; the same rationale includes bloggers.
A similar analysis applies to shield laws, which protect journalists from being compelled to reveal confidential sources and other information. Because most laws were written before the Internet existed, they often refer to then-existing media -- newspapers, magazines and the like -- or simply to “journalists,” without defining who is a journalist.
More than five years ago, a California appeals court rejected the argument that the state’s shield law does not cover web publishers. The court wisely declined the invitation to evaluate whether web publishers are “legitimate journalists,” recognizing that doing so is a dangerous step for any branch of the government to undertake. Instead, the court focused on whether the website in question was actively engaged in the gathering and dissemination of information to the public.

Given the many important stories originating from bloggers, it is hard to imagine a rationale for the wholesale exclusion of those writers from the protections that shield laws provide, whether they are called “journalists” or not.

Rethink Shield Laws
Stuart Benjamin is the Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University Law School and the co-author of "Telecommunications Law and Policy."

The really interesting question is whether blogging should change the legal regime applicable to journalism. This question arises most directly with respect to journalist shield laws and a possible reporter’s privilege. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted statutes giving journalists some protection against subpoenas, and in each case the question arises of exactly who is covered.
The costs and benefits of the protections for false statements seem to have increased in the blogging era.
But I want to raise the less obvious question of the impact of blogging on the desirability of the existing protections against libel and defamation.
Beginning with New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964, the Supreme Court crafted First Amendment protections for false statements of fact on matters of public concern -- requiring “actual malice” if the statement is about a public figure and negligence for a private figure. The Supreme Court opinions laying out these standards do not limit these protections to journalists, or to media more generally.
The opinion a few days ago in Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox mistakenly treats references in some cases to the media as a limitation of the protection to media defendants. But the mistake was in some ways understandable.
In the 1960s and 70s, when the Supreme Court laid out free speech limits on libel and defamation, the obvious potential sources of false statements that could seriously harm one’s reputation (and thus be worth suing for libel or defamation) were large organizations like newspapers, magazines and broadcasters. Do the freedoms extolled in the Supreme Court opinions have the same resonance when everyone and his brother can publish false information to the world at the push of a button? I’m not sure. Both the costs and benefits of the protections for false statements seem to have increased in the blogging era, and it is not obvious to me which have increased more.
And note that the United States is an outlier in the level of constitutional protections it provides to libel and defamation defendants. In the almost 50 years since New York Times v. Sullivan, many other countries have considered a similar regime, and not one has adopted it.

According to the Law
Kyu Ho Youm, the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, is the author of “International and Comparative Law on the Journalist’s Privilege: The Randal Case as a Lesson for the American Press.” He is on Twitter as @MarshallYoum.

Judge Hernandez ruled correctly that Crystal Cox, the self-proclaimed “investigative blogger,” was not a journalist, so she was not privileged to protect her source. But his textual interpretation of the Oregon shield law shows that the pre-Internet law needs updating. As the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated recently, in an era of changing technology and society, “the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status.”
Judges will continue with their traditional journalist-oriented approach unless their state laws become more ambiguous.
The federal court ruling reinforces the judicial reluctance to read bloggers and other journalistic outsiders (“outliers”?) into state shield law. Judges are more likely to continue with their traditional journalist-oriented approach to source protection unless their state laws are ambiguous enough to allow them creative interpretations.
Yet I wish that the still evolving rights for bloggers had been more searchingly examined by Judge Hernandez, instead of focusing on “media person” and “medium of communication” under the Oregon law. Not every blogger can be a journalist entitled to the source protection. And some bloggers deserve protection if their work is similar to that of mainstream media professionals.
In deciding whether a blogger can claim the journalistic privilege, as journalism scholar Jason Shepard of California State University-Fullerton suggested, judges should scrutinize:
1.) whether the blogger’s stated purpose centered on news-gathering and dissemination;
2.) whether news-gathering and editorial decision-making processes were regularly employed; and
3.) whether the end product of the blogger’s work was sufficiently important within the context of public interest.
Otherwise, the privilege would be too broad to serve worthy bloggers in a meaningful way.
Significantly, one of the congressional shield law proposals in the mid-2000s featured some, if not all, of the functional journalistic criteria for privileging non-traditional journalists like bloggers.

A Broader Definition of ‘Journalist’
Ellyn Angelotti teaches about social media, digital trends and media law at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalism and democracy in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Everyone knows that you no longer need to buy ink by the barrel to be considered a publisher. Your grandmother can do it with a laptop.But can anyone be considered a journalist? That is the focus of the Cox ruling. It suggests that a journalist may need to act on a set of professional standards to be recognized as a protected member of the tribe.
Instead of focusing on who is doing the publishing, it is more important than ever to look at how they are doing it.
So who is a journalist? A journalist -- good or bad -- possesses a hunger to pursue the truth and to share it in compelling ways. Yet some of the best journalists have had no academic training in the field.
Blogs compete with mainstream media every day. In some cases, they have become more trustworthy as sources of information than some old school practitioners. Oregon’s shield law does not recognize the blog as a “medium of communication” worthy of special protection. Such a narrow definition of journalism is archaic.
Instead of focusing on who is doing the publishing, it is more important than ever to look at how they are doing it. It's true that the public’s confidence in online news is shaky at best. The once idealized information superhighway has become a parking lot of error, misinformation, rumor and junk. But it shouldn't matter whether the person calls himself a journalist or not, nor where he publishes a story. The quality of the story and the integrity of the method of reporting should count. By that standard, some bloggers would qualify as journalists while some deadwood reporters at newspapers would fail.
The First Amendment is not just for journalists. It affords all Americans the right to unfettered speech. We should celebrate how technology lets us express more speech than ever before -- without discriminating against the “non-journalists.” That doesn't mean that online publishers should not be judged according to an evolving set of standards and practices.

Michael Jackson top earning dead celebrity

2011-10-26T10:44:00.003+08:00

Michael Jackson - still alive and famous !!!

Cover Media – 12 hours ago
Michael Jackson has been named the highest earning dead celebrity.
The King of Pop died two years ago from acute Propofol intoxication but his legacy has lived on and he has earned more dead than in the recent years before he passed away.
Forbes magazine have released their list of the year’s Top Earning Dead Celebrities and have placed Michael in the number one spot with an income of $170 million.
Elvis Presley came in second with $55 million, thanks in part to the Cirque du Soleil show Viva Elvis
Marilyn Monroe made a surprising entry at number three with $27 million. The glamorous 50s icon has not been on the list for a while.
An upcoming biopic of the star may have increased interest in the late actress. My Week With Marilyn starring Michelle Williams is due out next month.
Michael is actually the second highest earning pop act, dead or alive, coming in just behind rock band U2.
Top Earning Dead Celebrities – October 2010 to October 2011
1. Michael Jackson - $170 million Musician Died: June 25, 2009 at age 50
2. Elvis Presley - $55 million Singer, Actor Died: Aug. 16, 1977 at age 42
3. Marilyn Monroe - $27 million Actress Died: Aug. 5, 1962 at age 36
4. Charles Schulz - $25 million Cartoonist, creator of the "Peanuts" franchise Died: Feb. 12, 2000 at age 77
5. John Lennon - $12 million Musician Died: Dec. 8, 1980 at age 40
6. Elizabeth Taylor - $12 million Actress Died: March 23, 2011 at age 79
7. Albert Einstein - $10 million Scientist Died: April 18, 1955 at age 76
8. Theodor 'Dr. Seuss' Geisel - $9 million Author of the famed "Dr. Seuss" children's books Died: Sept. 24, 1991 at age 87
9. Jimi Hendrix - $7 million Musician Died: Sept. 18, 1970 at age 27
10. Steig Larsson - $7 million Author of "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" series Died: Nov. 9, 2004 at age 50

7 Gadgets That Won't Be Around in 2020

2011-10-22T16:36:00.002+08:00

An Excerpt - 7 Gadgets That Won't Be Around in 2020
By Seth Fiegerman

NEW YORK -- Hindsight may always be 20-20, but you don't need particularly great foresight to know many of the gadgets on today's market won't be around in 2020 given how quickly the tech industry keeps changing. In the first half of the 2000s, retailers were buzzing about the prospects of MP3 players and netbooks, but by the end of the decade, those products had largely been replaced by smartphones and tablets.

As tempting as it may be to imagine otherwise, some of the gadgets you may rely on most right now will likely suffer the same fate and be killed off or made obsolete by the end of this decade. Sure, you may still be able to find these products for sale in certain niche stores, but they will no longer be produced for a mass-market audience.

"You can still find and buy VCRs and there are people still using mainframes from 1992, so it's not like this stuff disappears forever," says Stephen Baker, an industry analyst at the NPD Group. Baker notes that the main reason retailers continue to market and sell outdated products is to cater to shoppers who buy them for nostalgia's sake, but for all intents and purposes the market has left these products in the dust.

So which popular products today will join the likes of VCRs, cassette players and transistor radios in the next few years? We asked five tech analysts to offer their thoughts on the gadgets that will largely be phased out by the end of this decade.

Standalone GPS Systems
The days of spending $200 or more on a standalone GPS device won't last much longer, analysts say.
"Portable navigation devices like those sold by TomTom and Garmin will probably not be sold in 2020, just because mobile phones will have taken on that function themselves and because GPS systems will be standard equipment in cars," says Charles S. Golvin, an analyst at Forrester, a market research firm. As a result, there won't be much of a need to buy a product whose only function is to tell you directions.
If there is a demand for these GPS systems, it will likely come from a very specific segment of consumers.

"Maybe you could argue there will be a market for guys climbing Mount Everest or long-distance truckers or the military, but for the vast majority of consumers, standalone GPS systems will be irrelevant and redundant," Baker says.

E-Readers
The e-reader has already undergone significant changes in its short history, evolving from a product with a keyboard to one with a touchscreen and more recently being integrated into a kind of a tablet-hybrid, but according to Golvin, the market for e-readers will mostly disappear by the end of the decade.
"The tablet will largely supplant the e-reader in the same way that the iPod increasingly gets displaced by smartphones," Golvin says. "Tablets will take on the e-reader function of handling magazine, newspaper and book reading." In essence, spending money on an e-reader that can only handle reading when tablets can do this and more will come to seem as useless as buying a GPS system that can only look up directions when other technology does this as well.
Just how small the e-reader market becomes may depend somewhat on advancements in display technology. One of the biggest incentives for consumers to buy a pure e-reader is to have an e-ink display (like reading from a book) rather than a backlit display (like reading from a computer screen), but according to Golvin, manufacturers are already working on ways to merge the two reading experiences and create a tablet that doubles as an authentic e-reader.
Even then, there may be still be some e-readers on the market at the beginning of next decade, but not many.
"It could be that by 2020 you can still buy a super cheap e-reader for $20, but by and large, the volume of sales will be so close to zero as to be indistinguishable, like CD players are now," he says.

Feature Phones
Several of the products that are likely to be phased out will ultimately be the victim of advances to smartphones, and none more directly than feature phones.
Tim Bajarin, a technology columnist and principle analyst with Creative Strategies, predicts that 80% of all phones sold in 2015 will be smartphones and every phone sold in 2018 will be a smartphone. This rapid decline will come about thanks to a drop in prices for consumers and an increase in revenue opportunities for carriers.
"Even today, the money that is made is not on the phone itself but on the services," Bajarin says, noting that carriers will opt to "fade out" their feature phone option in favor of smartphones with more services.

Low-End Digital Cameras
When Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S last week, smartphone competitors probably weren't the only ones beginning to sweat. Digital camera makers also have much to be worried about. Apple's newest phone has a killer 8-megapixel camera that takes in more light and records video at 1080p HD video. Until recently, those kind of specs were unique to digital cameras, but increasingly smartphones are taking over the market.
"Flip cameras went bye-bye and now low-end camera functions are being taken over by smartphones," says Rob Enderle, principle analyst for the Enderle Group. Going forward, consumers will have less incentive to carry around a camera when they already have a phone in their pocket that takes quality pictures. "The point-and-shooters -- and particularly the cameras that sell for under $200 -- will eventually go away and be replaced by cellphones that do the same thing."
On the other hand, Enderle predicts more expensive and high-tech cameras may have a brighter future, though not by much, as a smaller market of photo enthusiasts seek out professional-quality cameras that go above and beyond what's offered on a phone.

DVD Players
DVD players are in the process of being phased out now by Blu-ray players and will likely be erased from the consumer landscape by the end of the decade.

“The DVD player should be replaced by digital delivery,” says Ian Olgeirson, a senior analyst at SNL Kagan, who points to streaming movie services like Netflix as being the future. “Blu-rays and whatever the next generation high-end movie format emerges could prolong the lifespan because of challenges around streaming, but eventually the disc is going to be phased out.”

The idea of placing a disc into a DVD player to watch a movie will eventually seem as outdated as placing a record on a turntable, which brings us to the next product on our list…
Recordable CDs and DVDs
Using CDs and DVDs to view and store content will soon be a thing of the past.
"CDs are clearly not going to make it over the next 10 years because everything will shift over to pure digital distribution, so all those shiny discs will be gone," Bajarin says. This will be due in part to more streaming options for music and movies and a greater reliance on digital downloads, combined with more efficient storage options for consumers, including USB drives, external hard drives and of course the cloud.
"All a CD is is a medium for distribution of content ... and within 10 years, you won't need a physical transport medium," Bajarin says.

Video Game Consoles
Popular video game systems such as the Wii, PlayStation and Xbox may still be in homes next decade, but they will look much different. Rather than buy a separate console, Enderle expects that consumers will instead buy smart televisions with a gaming system built into it, not to mention tablets and smartphones that will continue to ramp up their gaming options.

“It looks like analog game systems won’t make it until the end of the decade,” Enderle says. “You are already seeing the Wii have a tough time holding on to the market and PlayStation has been struggling for a while.”

The gaming systems that will succeed in the future will be those that manage to move away from being focused solely on video games and more on other entertainment options such as movies, evolving from a traditional game console into more of a set-top box.

The Seven Weirdest Things About Moammar Gadhafi

2011-10-22T16:14:00.002+08:00

An Excerpt
- Seven Weirdest Things About Moammar Gadhafi

Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the dictator who ruled Libya for 42 years, was killed by rebels in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday. A dictator who oppressed his own people and sponsored terrorism abroad, Gadhafi's legacy will be stained by violence. But beyond his brutality, Gadhafi will be remembered for something else entirely… being a first-class weirdo.
In no particular order, ABCNews.com brings you the seven weirdest things about Moammar Gadhafi.

1. The "Bulletproof" Tent: When Gadhafi was at home in Tripoli, he lived in a well fortified compound with a complex system of escape tunnels. But when he travelled abroad, this "Bedouin" brought a bit of the desert with him, camping out in the world's capitals. The tent was so heavy it needed to be flown on a separate plane, wherever the dictator travelled. To complete the Arabian Nights theme, Gadhafi often would tether a camel or two outside.

2. All-Female Virgin Bodyguard Retinue: They apparently weren't around when Gadhafi needed them most on Thursday, but the eccentric dictator was historically protected by 40 well trained bodyguards – all of them women. The bodyguards, called "Amazons," were all reportedly virgins who took a vow of chastity upon joining the dictator's retinue. The women, trained at an all-female military academy, were handpicked by Gadhafi. They wore elaborate uniforms, as well as makeup and high-heeled combat boots.

3. His "Voluptuous" Ukrainian Nurse: For a decade, Galyna Kolotnytska, a Ukrainian nurse often described in the press as "voluptuous," was regularly seen at the dictator's side. Kolotnytska was described in a leaked diplomatic cable as one of Gadhafi's closest aides and was rumored to have a romantic relationship with him. Several other Ukrainian women served as nurses and they all referred to him as "Papa" or "Daddy."

4. Crush on Condoleezza Rice: In 2007, Gadhafi called former Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice his "darling black African woman" and on a 2008 visit she made to Tripoli, the dictator gave her $200,000 worth of gifts, including a ring and a lute. But it wasn't until rebels stormed his Tripoli compound that the depths of the dictator's infatuation were exposed. There among Gadhafi's belongings was a carefully composed photo album made up of dozens of images of no one but Rice.

5. Fear of Flying and Elevators: Part of the reason Gadhafi loved travelling with that tent of his was because he was worried about lodging in a hotel where he'd have to ride an elevator. According to leaked diplomatic cables, the Libyan didn't like heights much either, and would only climb to a height of 35 steps. He therefore wasn't much of a fan of flying, refusing to travel by air for more than eight hours at a time. When he would travel to New York of the U.N.'s annual general assembly, he would spend a night in Portugal on the way to the U.S.

6. Bunga Bunga: In 2010, one of Gadhafi's most eccentric pastimes was exposed by Italian prosecutors investigating Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A 17-year-old prostitute named Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby Heartstealer, revealed that she had been invited to an orgy, called a "bunga bunga." "Silvio told me that he'd copied that formula from Muammar Gadhafi," she told prosecutors according to La Repubblica. "It's a ritual of [Gadhafi's] African harem."

7. An Eclectic Wardrobe: In those photos of world leaders standing shoulder to shoulder on the sidelines of this or that international forum, Gadhafi was always the easiest to pick out. His wardrobe was an eclectic mix of ornate military uniforms, Miami Vice style leisure suits, and Bedouin robes. Gadhafi, who pushed for a pan-African federation of nations, often decorated his outfits with images of the African continent. He'd sport safari shirts printed with an Africa pattern, or wear garish pins or necklaces of the continent.

The World's Fastest Growing Airports - An Excerpt

2011-08-04T02:31:00.001+08:00

Istanbul tops list of world's fastest-growing airports
- An Excerpt

AFP Relax – Tue, Aug 2, 2011
Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport is the world's fastest growing airport, according to a new report released by Airports Council International (ACI) August 1.
The World Airport Traffic Report 2010, which analyzed the performance of over 1,300 airports in 157 countries around the world last year, suggests that traffic at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, completed in 2009, jumped by 75 percent last year.
That puts it considerably ahead of Campinas in Brazil, the world's second-fastest growing airport, and Rio de Janeiro, the third.
Charleroi in Belgium and Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport rounded off the top five list.
Overall, traffic through the world's airports grew by 6.6 percent in 2010, the report shows, a total of 5.04 billion passengers -- the first time global air travel has passed the 5 billion mark.
The fastest growth was observed in Latin America and the Caribbean (13.2 percent), ACI said, followed by the Middle East (12 percent), Asia-Pacific (11.3 percent) Africa (9.5 percent), Europe (4.3 percent) and North America (2.5 percent).
Preliminary statistics show that for the first six months of this year, global passenger traffic is up by six percent again.
The busiest airports in the world overall were Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson in the US, Beijing, Chicago in the US, London Heathrow and Tokyo Haneda.
However, stripping out domestic passengers to include just international travel, London Heathrow holds the top spot, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Hong Kong International, Dubai International in the United Arab Emirates and Frankfurt in Germany.
The world's fastest-growing airports
1. Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Turkey
2. Viracopos-Campinas, Brazil
3. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
4. Charleroi, Belgium
5. Moscow Sheremetyevo, Russia
6. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
7. Bogota, Colombia
8. Phuket, Thailand
9. Shanghai Pudong, China
10. Muscat, Oman
11. Ankara, Turkey
12. St Petersburg, Russia
13. Medan, Indonesia
14. Shanghai Hongqiao, China
15. Milwaukee, WI, USA
Data from Airports Council International - http://www.airports.org/

World Top Billionaires 2011

2011-07-06T11:09:00.001+08:00

WORLD'S TOP BILLIONAIRES
» 1. Carlos Slim Helu
» 2. William Gates III
» 3. Warren Buffett
» 4. Bernard Arnault
» 5. Lawrence Ellison
» 6. Lakshmi Mittal
» 7. Amancio Ortega
» 8. Eike Batista
» 9. Mukesh Ambani
» 10. Christy Walton
» 11. Li Ka-shing
» 12. Karl Albrecht
» 13. Stefan Persson
» 14. Vladimir Lisin
» 15. Liliane Bettencourt
» 16. Sheldon Adelson
» 17. David Thomson
» 18. Charles Koch
» 18. David Koch
» 20. Jim Walton
» 21. Alice Walton
» 22. S. Robson Walton
» 23. Kwok family
» 24. Sergey Brin
» 24. Larry Page
» 26. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud
» 27. Iris Fontbona
» 28. Lee Shau Kee
» 29. Alexei Mordashov
» 30. Michael Bloomberg
» 30. Jeffrey Bezos
» 32. Michele Ferrero
» 32. Mikhail Prokhorov
» 34. Vladimir Potanin
» 35. Alisher Usmanov
» 36. Azim Premji
» 36. Oleg Deripaska
» 38. Michael Otto
» 39. John Paulson
» 39. German Larrea Mota Velasco
» 39. Rinat Akhmetov
» 42. Shashi & Ravi Ruia
» 43. Mikhail Fridman
» 44. Michael Dell
» 44. Susanne Klatten
» 46. Steven Ballmer
» 46. George Soros
» 48. Theo Albrecht
» 49. Birgit Rausing
» 50. Vagit Alekperov
» 51. Aliko Dangote
» 52. Mark Zuckerberg
» 53. Roman Abramovich
» 53. Anne Cox Chambers
» 55. Jorge Paulo Lemann
» 56. Savitri Jindal
» 57. Paul Allen
» 57. Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor
» 57. Viktor Vekselberg
» 60. Philip Knight
» 61. Robert Kuok
» 61. Carl Icahn
» 63. Mohammed Al Amoudi
» 64. Donald Bren
» 64. Ronald Perelman
» 66. Alberto Bailleres
» 67. Francois Pinault
» 68. Joseph Safra
» 69. Abigail Johnson
» 70. Viktor Rashnikov
» 71. Leonardo Del Vecchio
» 72. John Fredriksen
» 72. Stefan Quandt
» 74. Dan Duncan
» 74. James Simons
» 75. Luis Carlos Sarmiento
» 77. Nasser Al-Kharafi
» 77. Eliodoro‚ Bernardo & Patricia Matte
» 79. Sammy Ofer
» 80. Len Blavatnik
» 81. John Mars
» 81. Jacqueline Mars
» 81. Forrest Mars Jr
» 81. Ernesto Bertarelli
» 81. Hans Rausing
» 81. Klaus-Michael Kuhne
» 81. Gautam Adani
» 88. Iskander Makhmudov
» 89. George Kaiser
» 89. Johanna Quandt
» 89. Maria-Elisabeth & Georg Schaeffler
» 92. German Khan
» 93. Dmitry Rybolovlev
» 93. Ananda Krishnan
» 93. Nobutada Saji
» 95. Robin Li
» 96. Serge Dassault
» 97. Kumar Birla
» 97. Petr Kellner
» 99. Leonid Mikhelson
» 100. Cheng Yu-tung
» 100. Georgina Rinehart
» 102. Igor Zyuzin
» 103. Anil Ambani
» 103. Pallonji Mistry
» 105. Lee Kun-Hee
» 105. Harold Hamm
» 105. Andrey Melnichenko
» 108. August von Finck
» 108. Julio Mario Santo Domingo
» 110. Sunil Mittal
» 110. Steven Jobs
» 112. Ricardo Salinas Pliego
» 113. Masayoshi Son
» 114. David & Simon Reuben
» 114. Steven Cohen
» 114. Liang Wengen
» 117. Sergei Popov
» 118. Silvio Berlusconi
» 118. Suleiman Kerimov

Suriname - Facts Excerpt

2011-06-29T20:50:00.002+08:00

Official Name: Republic of Suriname

PROFILE

Geography
Area: 163,194 sq. km. (63,037 sq. mi.); slightly larger than Georgia.
Cities: Capital--Paramaribo (pop. 242,946). Other cities--Nieuw Nickerie, Moengo, Brownsweg, Albina.
Terrain: Rain forest, savanna, coastal swamps, hills.
Climate: Tropical.

People
Nationality: Noun--Surinamer(s). Adjective--Surinamese.
Population (2004 census): 492,829.
Annual growth rate (2004): 1.30%.
Ethnic groups (2004 census): Hindustani (East Indian) 27%, Creole 18%, Javanese 15%, Maroon 15%, mixed 12.5%, Amerindians 3.7%, Chinese 1.8%.
Religions: Hindu, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Moravian, several other Christian denominations, Jewish, Baha'i.
Languages: Dutch (official), English (widely spoken in Paramaribo), Sranan Tongo (Creole language), Hindustani, Javanese.
Education: Years compulsory--ages 6-12. Literacy--90%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2004)--7 per 1,000. Life expectancy (2003)--71 yrs.
Work force (100,000): Government--35%; private sector--41%; parastatal companies--10%; unemployed--14%.

Government
Type: Constitutional democracy.
Constitution: September 30, 1987.
Independence: November 25, 1975.
Branches: Executive--President, Vice President, Council of Ministers. Legislative--elected 51-member National Assembly made up of representatives of political parties. Judicial--Court of Justice.
Administrative subdivisions: 10 districts.
Political parties: Governing coalition—(1) Mega Combination: National Democratic Party (NDP), (PALU), (KTPI), and New Suriname (NS). (2) ACombination: ABOP, BEP, SEEKA; (3) People’s Alliance: (PL). Other parties in the National Assembly—(1) New Front: National Party of Suriname (NPS), (VHP), Suriname Labor Party (SPA), (DA’91). (2) (DOE).
Suffrage: Universal at 18.

Economy
GDP (2010 est.) US$ 3.3 billion (Source: ECLAC)
Annual growth rate real GDP (2010 est.): 3%
Per capita GDP (2010 est.): US$ 6,250
Inflation (2010): 10% (at time of this report: 21% per March 2011)
Natural resources: Bauxite, gold, oil, iron ore, other minerals; forests; hydroelectric potential, water, fish and shrimp.
Agriculture: rice, bananas, timber, citrus fruits, fish and shrimp.
Industry: alumina, oil, gold, lumber.
Trade (Source: ECLAC) ): Exports (2010 est.)—US$ 1.887 billion: alumina, gold, crude oil, wood and wood products, rice, and bananas. Imports (2010 est.)—US$ 1.570 billion: machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, mineral fuels including lubricants, food and live animals.

PEOPLE
Most Surinamers live in the narrow, northern coastal plain. For its size, the population is one of the most ethnically diverse in the world. Each ethnic group preserves its own culture, and many institutions, including political parties, tend to follow ethnic lines. Informal relationships vary: the upper classes of all ethnic backgrounds mix freely; outside of the elite, social relations tend to remain within ethnic groupings. All groups may be found in schools and the workplace.

HISTORY
Arawak and Carib tribes lived in the region before Columbus sighted the coast in 1498. Spain officially claimed the area in 1593, but Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the time gave the area little attention. Dutch settlement began in 1616 at the mouths of several rivers between present-day Georgetown, Guyana, and Cayenne, French Guiana.

Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667. The new colony, Dutch Guiana, did not thrive. Historians cite several reasons for this, including Holland's preoccupation with its more extensive (and profitable) East Indian territories, violent conflict between whites and native tribes, and frequent uprisings by the imported slave population, which was often treated with extraordinary cruelty. Many of the slaves fled to the interior, where they maintained a West African culture and established the six major Maroon tribes in existence today: the NDjuka, Saramaccaner, Matuwari, Paramaccaner, Kwinti, and Aluku.

Plantations steadily declined in importance as labor costs rose. Rice, bananas, and citrus fruits replaced the traditional crops of sugar, coffee, and cocoa. Gold exports began to increase in 1900. The Dutch Government gave little financial support to the colony. Suriname's economy was transformed in the years following World War I, when an American firm (ALCOA) began exploiting bauxite deposits in East Suriname. Bauxite processing and then alumina production began in 1916. During World War II, more than 75% of U.S. bauxite imports came from Suriname.

In 1951, Suriname began to acquire a growing measure of autonomy from the Netherlands. Suriname became an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on December 15, 1954, and gained independence, with Dutch consent, on November 25, 1975.

Most of Suriname's political parties took shape during the autonomy period and were overwhelmingly based on ethnicity. For example, the National Party of Suriname found its support among the Creoles, the Progressive Reform Party members came from the Hindustani population, and the Indonesian Peasant's Party was Javanese. Other smaller parties found support by appealing to voters on an ideological or pro-independence platform; the Partij Nationalistische Republiek (PNR) was among the most important. Its members pressed most strongly for independence and for the introduction of leftist political and economic measures. Many former PNR members would go on to play a key role following the coup of February 1980.

Suriname was a parliamentary democracy in the years immediately following independence. Henck Arron became the first Prime Minister and was re-elected in 1977. On February 25, 1980, 16 noncommissioned officers overthrew the elected government, which many accused of inefficiency and mismanagement. The military-dominated government then suspended the constitution on August 13, 1980, dissolved the legislature, and formed a regime that ruled by decree. Although a civilian filled the post of president, military officer Desire Bouterse ruled the country in practice.

Throughout 1982, pressure grew for a return to civilian rule. On December 8, 1982, military authorities cracked down, arresting and killing 15 prominent opposition leaders, including journalists, lawyers, university lecturers, military officers, and a trade union leader.

Following the murders, the United States and the Netherlands suspended economic and military cooperation with the Bouterse regime, which increasingly began to follow an erratic but often leftist-oriented political course. The regime restricted the press and limited the rights of its citizens. The economy declined rapidly after the suspension of economic aid from the Netherlands.

Continuing economic decline brought pressure for change. During the 1984-87 period, the Bouterse regime tried to end the crisis by appointing a succession of nominally civilian-led cabinets. Many figures in the government came from the traditional political parties that had been pushed aside during the coup. The military eventually agreed to free elections in 1987, a new constitution, and a civilian government.

Pressure for change also erupted in July 1986, when a Maroon insurgency, led by former soldier Ronnie Brunswijk, began attacking economic targets in the country's interior. Brunswijk and his supporters formed the Jungle Commando and were later joined by the Amer-Indian Tucajana group. In response, the army ravaged villages and killed suspected Brunswijk supporters. One of these villages was Moiwana, of which 50 villagers, mostly women and children, were killed. (In 2007 the Moiwana Human Rights Organization successfully requested the OAS and International Organization for Human Rights to order the Surinamese Government to compensate the relatives of the victims and to rebuild the village). Thousands of Maroons fled to nearby French Guiana. In an effort to end the bloodshed, the Surinamese Government negotiated a peace treaty in 1989 with Brunswijk, called the Kourou Accord. However, Bouterse and other military leaders blocked the accord's implementation.

On December 24, 1990, military officers forced the civilian president and vice president to resign, through a so-called “telephone coup.”. Military-selected replacements were hastily approved by the National Assembly on December 29 with 77-year old Johan Kraag appointed as president and Jules Wijdenbosch as vice president from December 29, 1990 – September 1991. Faced with mounting pressure from the U.S., the nations of the Organization of American States (OAS), and others, the government held new elections on May 25, 1991. The New Front (NF) Coalition, were able to win a majority in the National Assembly. On September 6, 1991, Ronald Venetiaan was elected President, and Jules Ajodhia became Vice President.

The Venetiaan government was able to implement a settlement to Suriname's domestic insurgency through the August 1992 Peace Accord with the Maroon-based Jungle Commando and the Amerindian Tucajana rebels. In April 1993, Desire Bouterse left his position as commander of the armed forces and was replaced by Arthy Gorre, a military officer committed to bringing the armed forces under civilian government control. Economic reforms instituted by the Venetiaan government eventually helped curb inflation, unify the official and unofficial exchange rates, and improve the government's economic situation by re-establishing relations with the Dutch, opening the way for a major influx of Dutch financial assistance. Despite these successes, the governing coalition lost support and failed to retain control of the government in the subsequent round of national elections. The rival National Democratic Party (NDP), founded by Desire Bouterse, benefited from the New Front government's loss of popularity. NDP vice chairman Jules Wijdenbosch became president of an NDP-led coalition government and Pertaap Radhakishun became the Vice-President. Divisions and subsequent reshufflings of coalition members in the fall of 1997 and early 1998 weakened the coalition's mandate and slowed legislative action.

In May 1999, after mass demonstrations protesting poor economic conditions, the government was forced to call early elections. The elections in May 2000 returned Ronald Venetiaan and his New Front coalition to the presidency. The NF based its campaign on a platform of fixing the faltering Surinamese economy.

In the national election held on May 25, 2005, the ruling NF coalition suffered a significant setback due to widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the economy and the public perception that the NF had produced few tangible gains. Desire Bouterse's NDP more than doubled its representation in the National Assembly. Bouterse, the NDP's declared presidential candidate, withdrew from the race days before the National Assembly convened to vote for the next president and tapped his running mate, Rabin Parmessar, to run as the NDP's candidate. In the National Assembly, the NF challenged Parmessar's Surinamese citizenship, displaying copies of a Dutch passport issued to Parmessar in 2004. Parmessar was eventually allowed to stand for election, and parliament later confirmed his Surinamese citizenship. After two votes, no candidate received the required two-thirds majority, pushing the final decision in August 2005 to a special session of the United People's Assembly, where President Venetiaan was reelected to a third term with a significant majority of votes from the local, district, and national assembly members. His running mate, Ramdien Sardjoe, was elected as vice president. While the Venetiaan administration had made progress in stabilizing the economy, tensions within the coalition continued to impede progress and stymied legislative action.

Long-anticipated legal proceedings against those accused of participating in the December 1982 murders began in November 2007 with the issuance of summonses to 25 defendants, including opposition leader Desire Bouterse. The court martial tribunal convened on November 30, 2007, with a series of preliminary motions. The actual trial with judges hearing witness testimonies started on July 4, 2008. Trial proceedings have continued since then, and the case is ongoing.

The Venetiaan government lost power in the elections of May 25, 2010, when the opposition’s Mega Combination (MC), led by Desire Bouterse, won a majority in the National Assembly. The MC formed a majority coalition with several political parties to bring their total to 36 seats in the National Assembly and elected Jennifer Geerlings-Simons as Speaker of the Assembly, and Ruth Wijdenbosch as vice-speaker. Desire Bouterse was elected President of Suriname and Robert Ameerali as Vice President with all 36 coalition votes cast in their favor.

This was the first time in Suriname’s history that both a president and Vice President were elected with a large majority in the National Assembly. The new President and Vice President were sworn in on August 12, 2010.

GOVERNMENT
The Republic of Suriname is a constitutional democracy based on the 1987 constitution. The legislative branch of government consists of a 51-member unicameral National Assembly, simultaneously and popularly elected for a 5-year term.

The executive branch is headed by the president, who is elected by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly or, failing that, by a majority of the People's Assembly for a 5-year term. If at least two-thirds of the National Assembly cannot agree to vote for one presidential candidate, a People's Assembly is formed from all National Assembly delegates and regional and municipal representatives who were elected by popular vote in the most recent national election. A vice president, normally elected at the same time as the president, needs a simple majority in the National Assembly or People's Assembly to be elected for a 5-year term. As head of government, the president appoints a cabinet of ministers, currently numbered at 17 and apportioned among the various political parties represented in the ruling coalition. There is no constitutional provision for removal or replacement of the president unless he resigns or passes away while in function.

A 15-member State Advisory Council advises the president in the conduct of policy. Eleven of the 15 council seats are allotted by proportional representation of all political parties represented in the National Assembly. The president chairs the council; two seats are allotted to representatives of labor, and two are allotted to employers' organizations.

The judiciary is headed by the Court of Justice (Supreme Court). This court supervises the magistrate courts. Members are appointed for life by the president in consultation with the National Assembly, the State Advisory Council, and the National Order of Private Attorneys.

The country is divided into 10 administrative districts, each headed by a district commissioner appointed by the president. The commissioner is somewhat similar to the governor of a U.S. state but serves at the president's pleasure.

Principal Government Officials
President--Desire Delano Bouterse
Vice President-- Robert Ameerali
Foreign Minister--Winston Lackin
National Security Advisor-Melvin Linscheer
Speaker of the National Assembly - Jennifer Geerlings-Simon
Ambassador to U.S.--Subhaas Mungra
Ambassador to UN--Henry MacDonald
Ambassador to OAS--Subhaas Mungra

Suriname maintains an embassy in the United States at 4301 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 460, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-244-7488; fax. 202-244-5878). The embassy also manages Suriname's representation to the Organization of American States (OAS). Suriname has a separate mission to the UN, located at 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 320, New York, NY 10017 (tel. 212-826-0660; fax. 212-980-7029). There also is a Suriname consulate general at 6303 Blue Lagoon Drive, Suite 325, Miami, FL 33126 (tel. 305-265-4655, fax. 305-265-4599).

NATIONAL SECURITY
Surinamese armed forces consist of the national army, air force, navy, and military police, which are collectively referred to as the “national army,” under the control of the Minister of Defense. A smaller civil police force is under the authority of the Minister of Justice and Police. The national armed forces comprise some 2,500 personnel, the majority of whom are deployed as light infantry security forces. The Netherlands has provided limited military assistance to the Surinamese armed forces since the election of a democratic government in 1991. In recent years, the U.S. has provided training to military officers and policymakers to promote a better understanding of the role of the military in a civilian government, as well as to improve the professional capabilities of its officers and senior personnel. The U.S. also provides assistance and training for disaster preparedness and mitigation as well as significant support for humanitarian aid projects. Since the mid-1990s, the People's Republic of China has provided small amounts of military equipment and logistical material to the Surinamese armed forces. The Netherlands, France, Venezuela, and Brazil also have working relationships with the Surinamese military.

Suriname's borders are porous; largely uninhabited, unguarded, and ungoverned rain forest and rivers make up the eastern, western, and southern borders, and the navy's capability to police Suriname's northern Atlantic coast is limited. Protecting natural resources from illegal exploitation such as unlicensed gold mining is difficult, and significant tax revenue is lost. Porous borders also make Suriname a target for transshipment of drugs.

ECONOMY
Suriname's economy has been dominated by the exports of gold and oil, and to a lesser extent, alumina. Other export products include bananas, rice, and lumber. On the heels of rising world prices for fuel and record prices for gold, these sectors have booked significant successes in 2010. The bauxite sector continued to struggle as world demand for aluminum remained weak. According to the Economic Council for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Suriname’s economy grew by 3 percent in 2010, less than the Latin American average of 6 percent, but significantly better than the Caribbean average of .5 percent. ECLAC predicts that Suriname’s economy will continue to grow in 2011, but at a lesser percentage of 1.2 percent. Suriname’s bauxite deposits have been among the world's richest. After a long standing relationship with Australian owned BHPBilliton, Alcoa subsidiary Suralco became the 100 percent owner of all activities in the bauxite sector on August 1, 2009 after BHPBilliton departed Suriname. In the wake of the world economic crisis this sector has continued to struggle and alumina has lost the importance it once had for the Surinamese economy. In order to survive this world crisis Suralco was forced to postpone all non-essential maintenance, stop all capital investments, and lower production. Another reason cited for reducing production was the expected depletion of reserves in the mines, Kaaimangrasie and Klaverblad, from which the company was operating. Since then, the company has commenced preparations to prepare its concession in the Nassau area in Southeastern Suriname for mining. This new mine is expected to be ready for production in 2013. Additionally the company also launched a bauxite exploration division in 2010 to research possible bauxite residue in areas already mined. This residue is expected to be of a lesser quality, but will, with additional processes, provide sufficient bauxite to keep the refinery operational. The takeover of BHPBilliton assets also left Suralco managing 60,000 hectares of land, of which part is in use by the government. In 2010 the company embarked on a Land Management Program aimed at rehabilitating land no longer being used for mining purposes, and in the case of government-owned land, returning it to its owner. In January 2011 the Government of Suriname officially announced that it was interested in resuming negotiations with Suralco for 40 years worth of bauxite reserves in Western Suriname in the Bakhuys area.

In the formal gold sector, the Government of Suriname (GoS) has announced that it plans to sign an agreement with Surgold, the joint venture company between Alcoa subsidiary Suralco and Newmont Mining Corporation, later this year. The agreement will allow for the mining of gold in the Merian area in Southeastern Suriname in the Nassau Concession, as well as the building of a second gold refinery. This agreement has been under negotiation since 2008. The proven reserves in this area are 3 million troy ounces. At the country’s first gold refinery, Rosebel Gold Mine (owned by Canadian mining giant Iamgold), production for the first nine months of 2010 was 276,000 troy ounces at an average production cost of US$ 499 per troy ounce. The company invested approx. US$ 49 million in exploration. Per December 2009 the proven reserves at Rosebel were 2.6 million troy ounces, while the probable reserves were 2.2 million troy ounces. The Rosebel Gold Mine continues to be the most profitable mine in the Iamgold portfolio, with the highest production levels at the lowest production costs.

In January 2011 the GoS embarked on an ambitious plan to order the informal gold sector. Once considered small-scale this untaxed and unregulated sector is currently estimated at US$ 1 billion annually. Thousands of Brazilians, mostly illegal, and local maroons find employment in this sector. Chinese shop owners have also set up businesses, also unregulated, near the mining sites. The GoS has set up different commissions that will deal with organizing and registering miners, developing legislation to regulate the sector, and to work on making this sector not only sustainable, but also environmentally safe. In the first instance the miners, owners of equipment, concession holders and all others with activities in the sector were asked to register with a special registration office set up by the GoS. In its first week of operations 3,500 persons registered with this office and its 2 satellite sites. To further simplify the registration process, the government intends to open another 5 satellite sites. The government also intends to establish special one-stop centers in the interior for miners to conduct all their activities with the government. In a follow up process the government will also work on the status of the miners. Miners who do not have a permit to be in the country will be allowed to get their paperwork in order to stay.

2010 was a very successful year for Suriname’s oil sector. State-owned State Oil Company Suriname (Staatsolie) reported a gross income of US$ 568 million, which was up by 32 percent compared to 2009 and just US$ 8 million shy from the company’s record earnings of 2008. This was primarily due to increased production and favorable world market prices. Gross profits of US$ 285 million were an increase of 57 percent compared 2009. Tax and dividend payments to the government in 2010 totaled US$ 186 million. Staatsolie produced 5.8 million barrels at an average price of US$ 72 per barrel. Staatsolie is in the midst of implementing its US$ 1 billion expansion project. Of this amount 75 percent will come direct from internal investments. The company took out a US$ 235 million loan from international banks. A national bond issuance brought in US$ 55 million.

Suriname has attracted the attention of international companies interested in extensive development of a tropical hardwoods industry and possible diamond mining. However, proposals for exploitation of the country's tropical forests and undeveloped regions of the interior traditionally inhabited by indigenous and Maroon communities have raised the concerns of environmentalists and human rights activists in Suriname and abroad.

Although Suriname’s energy supply situation has improved, the country continues to have a shortage in affordable energy to support any major expansion of its economy. The bauxite refinery at Paranam depends primarily on diesel generated energy to support its refining operations. According to Surgold, any refinery built in southeastern Suriname will also have to be powered by diesel generated energy. The doubling of the capacity of the power generating plant of Staatsolie has helped in easing the demand for power in Paramaribo. Actualization of the Tapa-Jai project should further help ease demand issues.

Tourism figures for 2008 through 2010 have remained stagnant. The majority of tourists visiting Suriname continue to come from the Netherlands, with some “weekend tourists” from French Guiana. The number of tourists visiting Suriname from other Caribbean countries is on the rise. Tourist organizations have identified the lengthy visa process for Suriname as one of the obstacles to tourism growth, as well as logistics and infrastructure. The lack of organization within the sector has also been identified as playing an important role. In 2009 Suriname was named as one of the top ten destinations in the world for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Additionally the country was also named a top destination spot by Lonely Planet magazine. Suriname’s Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tourism actively takes part in different tourism fairs around the world, primarily Europe, in an effort to promote Suriname. Different private tourism companies are also making efforts to promote Suriname as a tourism destination.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Since independence in 1975, Suriname has become a member of 14 international organizations: the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Suriname is a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market and the Association of Caribbean States; it is associated with the European Union through the Lome Convention. The Netherlands has been Suriname's biggest donor, since independence, but has been surpassed by the U.S. as a trade partner. Suriname participates in the Amazonian Pact, a grouping of the countries of the Amazon Basin that focuses on protection of the Amazon region's natural resources from environmental degradation. Reflecting its status as a major bauxite producer, Suriname is also a member of the International Bauxite Association. The country also belongs to the Economic Commission for Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. In 2008, Suriname signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Since taking office in 2010, the Bouterse government has focused on bolstering its regional relationships, assuming leadership positions in multilateral organizations such as the OAS, UNASUR, and CARICOM, and strengthening its ties to France, Venezuela, China, and Cuba. Bilateral relations with The Netherlands have weakened due to its strong statements against the Bouterse presidency and when he assumed office, as well as the decline in economic assistance with the completion of the Treaty Funds.

At independence, Suriname signed an agreement with the Netherlands providing for about $1.5 billion in development assistance grants and loans over a 10- to 15-year period, called the Treaty Funds. Initial disbursements amounted to about $100 million per year, but were discontinued during the 1980’s period of military rule. After the return to a democratically elected government in 1991, Dutch aid resumed. The Dutch relationship continued to be an important factor in the economy, with the Dutch insisting that Suriname undertake economic reforms and produce specific plans acceptable to the Dutch for projects on which aid funds could be spent. In 2000, the Dutch revised the structure of their aid package and signaled to the Surinamese authorities their decision to disburse aid by sectoral priorities as opposed to individual projects. In 2001 both governments agreed to spend the remaining development funds to finance programs in 6 different sectors: health care, education, environment, agriculture, housing, and governance. In 2008 the Dutch aid was fully allocated to all identified and jointly approved sector programs, which started the process of ending the Dutch donor aid to Suriname. In 2010, the Netherlands stated that Dutch Treaty funds had been allocated and should be fully depleted by 2012. .

Bilateral cooperation agreements with several countries in the region have underscored the government's interest in strengthening regional ties. The return to Suriname from French Guiana of about 8,000 refugees from the 1986-91 Interior War between the military and domestic insurgents has improved relations with French authorities. Longstanding border disputes with Guyana and French Guiana remain unresolved. Negotiations with the Government of Guyana brokered by the Jamaican Prime Minister in 2000 did not produce an agreement, but the countries agreed to restart talks after Guyanese national elections in 2001. In January 2002, the presidents of Suriname and Guyana met in Suriname and agreed to resume negotiations, establishing the Suriname-Guyana border commission. In 2004 Guyana brought a complaint against Suriname under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) regarding their maritime border dispute. In 2007, the UN International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ruled that both Suriname and Guyana are entitled to their share of the disputed offshore basin which is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits. Using the equidistance line, the tribunal awarded Suriname 6,900 sq. miles and Guyana 12,800 sq. miles of this basin. Suriname's earlier dispute with Brazil ended amicably after formal demarcation of their shared border.

Suriname is densely forested, and increased interest in large-scale commercial logging and mining in Suriname's interior have raised environmental concerns. The U.S. Forest Service, the Smithsonian, and numerous non-governmental environmental organizations have promoted technical cooperation with the Surinamese Government to prevent destruction of the country's tropical rain forest, one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. U.S. experts have worked closely with local natural resource officials to encourage sustainable development of the interior and alternatives such as ecotourism. On December 1, 2000, UNESCO designated the 1.6 million hectare Central Suriname Nature Reserve a World Heritage site. Suriname's tourism sector remains a minor part of the economy, and tourist infrastructure is limited (in 2004, some 145,000 foreign tourists visited Suriname).

To Bersih or not to Bersih? – An Excerpt

2011-06-29T20:30:00.003+08:00

A Concerned Malaysian
Jun 29, 11

Frankly, the above title is just a smart-ass title to get your attention. Indeed, "To Bersih or not to Bersih?" is not the question.

Before we even venture to consider such a question, let us be very clear what Bersih is.
Even in the newer version known as Bersih 2.0, it is still a coalition of non-governmental and civil society organisations that are collectively campaigning for clean, free and fair elections. (It is not a movement to defeat the incumbent government or one to support the election of the opposition.)

If I may put it in more concise terms, Bersih is a non-governmental-civil society coalition working towards electoral and political reforms in Malaysia.

I prefer this description simply because it's less value-laden than the official line, which presumes that Malaysian elections are unclean, unfree and unfair.
Out of the three adjectives, I can only honestly say, with clear evidence, that the third is obvious.

To me, and most rational people, a fair contest includes giving all contestants equal access to the judges via all legitimate channels; and, in the case of Malaysian elections, it is only fair if candidates and/or political parties are given equal access to voters via the mainstream and alternative media.

Indeed, to me, the single most important factor in any clean, free and fair election is the information that is made available to the voters, and it's very obvious that the mainstream media, which is under the Federal Government's regulations, is key.

Unfortunately, any party that is not a member of the current government coalition does not seem to have any chance whatsoever to be given publicity by the mainstream media except to cast them in a negative light.
Fair comment?

Now, before I come to the question of whether our nation's elections are clean and free, let me digress a little.

Most Bersih advocates and activists will talk about the electoral roll, the postal ballots, the use of indelible ink and the campaign period. Before I even go there, I'd like to ask the following basic question first:

Are the parliamentary and state constituencies delineated in a transparent and fair manner, which allows constituents to elect their preferred representatives and also enable their elected representatives to work effectively for their constituents?

To help you answer the basic question above, consider the following specific questions: Does it make sense to have constituencies where the areas covered do not have any real communal connection with each other?
And does it make sense that some constituencies have 20 times more voters than others? Further, is the 'first past the post' electoral system really the most effective way to provide voters with a meaningful election result?
I leave it to you to answer the above questions yourself. Whether you like it or not, these are questions that are critical to the fairness and effectiveness of our current electoral system, which - if answered honestly and objectively-will lead us to the logical conclusion that it needs to be reformed.

An acknowledgment that our electoral system needs to be reformed is not an admission that it is not clean, not free and not fair.
Like it or not, the current administration inherited the system from the previous administrations.

If the prime minister of the day wants to be seen as responsible and proactive, he should implement much-needed reforms before they are demanded by the people.
Having said that, it's not too late to do something about it. It's not how we start but how we finish that matters.

At the same time, the Bersih rally organisers must realise that their mandate is not simply to organise a rally but to achieve the so-called eight Bersih demands, which includes strengthening public institutions, stopping corruption and stopping corruption (apart from points covered above), by any effective and peaceful means.

It is very clear to me that Bersih's mandate is a long term one, which imposes on the leaders of the coalition a duty to not only address the Election Commission (EC) and the government of the day but also all participants of the political process in Malaysia.
It is very obvious that the EC cannot strengthen the judiciary and/or stop corruption in the police force. And it is also obvious that the EC cannot stop politicians from 'playing dirty', irrespective of whether they are BN, PR or independent.
If we, the People, represented by Bersih, want the government to reform, we must also be reasonable in our demands and expectations.
If we are sincere and serious about electoral and political reforms, let's work towards it with open minds, not with pre-conceived notions about BN, PR or the EC.
If there is a chance to hold public and/or televised roundtable talks with the EC and/or any interested party, why are we not accepting the offer?
If people want to get together to show their support for Bersih (or electoral and political reforms) and also to celebrate democracy, why can't we do it in a suitable place (read "safe place") instead of on the streets where our boys in blue don't seem to be able to control crowds in a friendly, professional and effective manner?
I am not saying what I am saying to stop people from walking for democracy.
On the contrary, I am saying what I am saying to encourage people to walk for democracy in a safe and effective manner.
Whilst it is the government's responsibility to promote and protect the rights to freedom of assembly and expression, we cannot exercise them and expect the government to undermine the exercise of the same rights by Perkasa and Umno Youth.
However, we can choose to work together with all parties in a fair and transparent process to enjoy the exercise of those rights in a safe, dignified and meaningful manner.
If we, the People of Malaysia, want the Government of Malaysia to change, the real question is, "Are we ready, willing and able to change first?"

..SINGAPORE ELECTIONS 2011: Media changing Singapore election

2011-05-12T14:31:00.000+08:00

..SINGAPORE ELECTIONS 2011: Media changing Singapore election
By Lim Mun Fah in Kuala Lumpur/Sin Chew Daily | ANN – Sat, May 7, 2011
...

Kuala Lumpur (Sin Chew Daily/ANN) - The Singapore general election has been heating up in recent days. In addition to mass rallies, new media have also played their roles. They have added more unpredictable variables to the election and made it more significant.

Some people even said that the relaxed control on new media allowing videos captured during campaign activities to be used in their advertisements is indeed a major historical turning point for long-suppressed Singapore.

As an onlooker, I observed that Singapore's print media have indeed increased coverage for the opposition this time. However, most of the young people still believe that there is no so-called freedom of the press in Singapore and therefore, they do not trust traditional media.

Singapore was ranked 150 out of 196 countries surveyed worldwide in the latest media freedom study conducted by the US-based Freedom House. Its ranking was even worse than Malaysia which was ranked 143. The report has accurately reflected the perception of young people in Singapore.

It is a global phenomenon that the younger generation advocates the new media. However, it has worried the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) when young Singaporeans started to rush to obtain electoral and political information from the new media.

In fact, the opposition's website is more popular than the one of the ruling party. One of the examples is, as of 10am 3 May 2011, the number of Singaporeans who joined the Facebook of 24-year-old Nicole Seah, a fresh woman candidate of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), has hit 60, 244 people. Her popularity is even higher than Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who has been joining politics for over half of a century.

Another example would be Chen Show-Mao, who is considered as the "trump card" of the Worker's Party (WP). He has 14,266 of Facebook fans. Although he has fewer fans compared to Lee Kuan Yew (57,469) and Foreign Minister George Yeo (22,753), he still has more fans than Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (11,046).

In addition, the top 10 candidates with most Facebook fans also include WP Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang (6), WP Chairman Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (7), PAP Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan (8) and woman rookie Tin Pei Ling (9).

Of course, the high numbers of fans do not guarantee a victory. However, it is observed that with the "help" of the Internet, the opposition's rallies have attracted more young people and at the same time, caused a pressure for the PAP.

Undeniably, the rapid politicisation on the Internet has caused a wind of change in Singapore. However, would it be reflected on votes? It is believed to be the greatest expectation of the opposition and the greatest worry of the ruling party.

Translated by Soong Phui Jee
...

PAP delegation to the UN makes a farce of Gay agenda

2011-05-12T14:10:00.000+08:00

PAP 1959

PAP RALLY 2011

WORKERS PARTY RALLY 2011

PAP delegation to the UN makes a farce of Gay agenda Please watch this short video on the Singapore delegation to the UN's recent speech on gay rights in Singapore: ( see link - http://youtu.be/qke8yDBYugs )

This farce of a Singapore delegation said:
"Recognition and success is based on merit and not on factors such as sexual orientation. In the area of employment, the Tripartite Alliance for fair employment practises promotes and educates employers and the general public on fair and responsible employment practises."
Well, a couple of weeks before, just prior to the recent elections campaign, then caretaker Minister of Community, Youth and Sports, Vivian "Rainbow Coalition" Balakrishnan and his GRC team issued a statement that was basically a bid to thwart Singapore's first openly gay politician, Dr Vincent Wijeysinghe, in his attempts for political office.

If the seeking of political office is seen, correctly I would think, to be a seeking of employment, how is it that a government that claims to already have had in place a 'Tipartite Alliance for fair employment practises promotes and educates employers and the general public on fair and responsible employment practises' managed to be the same ones to try and derail Dr Wijeysinghe's bid for office?

All because Dr Wijeysinghe is gay.

Futher, this delegation claims that:

"In recent time, we had robust debates in Parliamentary debates on
whether to decriminalize certain homosexual acts."
Yet, it was Vivian Balakrishnan and his team who posed the question on whether Dr Wijeysinghe was harbouring a "Gay Agenda" that he or the Singapore Democratic Party were planning to pursue in Parliament if elected.

All this while 4 straight men, three of Vivian Balakhrishnan's PAP colleagues - Hri Krishnan Nair, Charles Chong and Baey Yam Keng - as well as PAP-appointed NMP, Siew Kum Hong, who spoke up in support of gay rights in 2007. It would seem that only straight men are allowed to pursue a "Gay Agenda" in Parliament but not gay ones; gays get our rights under the auspices of straight charity.

Vivian Balakhrishnan is of course a Christian; he attends the Barker Road Methodist Church which, along with the Wesley Methodist Church along with many other Christian churches, are known as Christian Taliban Central, and a headhunting grounds for the ruling PAP

Oscar Winners 2011

2011-03-01T08:20:00.001+08:00

The full list of winners at the 2011 Academy Awards ...
Best Picture

* Black Swan
* The Fighter
* Inception
* The Kids Are All Right
* The King's Speech - WINNER
* 127 Hours
* The Social Network
* Toy Story 3
* True Grit
* Winter's Bone

Best Actor

* Javier Bardem, Biutiful
* Jeff Bridges, True Grit
* Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
* Colin Firth, The King's Speech - WINNER
* James Franco, 127 Hours

Best Actress

* Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
* Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
* Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
* Natalie Portman, Black Swan - WINNER
* Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor

* Christian Bale, The Fighter - WINNER
* John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
* Jeremy Renner, The Town
* Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
* Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress

* Amy Adams, The Fighter
* Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
* Melissa Leo, The Fighter - WINNER
* Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
* Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Director

* Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
* David O. Russell, The Fighter
* Tom Hooper, The King's Speech - WINNER
* David Fincher, The Social Network
* Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay

* Another Year
* The Fighter
* Inception
* The Kids Are All Right
* The King's Speech - WINNER

Best Adapted Screenplay

* 127 Hours
* The Social Network - WINNER
* Toy Story 3
* True Grit
* Winter's Bone

Best Animated Film

* How to Train Your Dragon
* The Illusionist
* Toy Story 3 - WINNER

Best Foreign Language Film

* Biutiful
* Dogtooth
* In A Better World - WINNER
* Incendies
* Outside the Law

Best Art Direction

* Alice in Wonderland - WINNER
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
* Inception
* The King's Speech
* True Grit

Cinematography

* Black Swan
* Inception - WINNER
* The King's Speech
* The Social Network
* True Grit

Costume Design

* Alice in Wonderland - WINNER
* I Am Love
* The King's Speech
* The Tempest
* True Grit

Editing

* Black Swan
* The Fighter
* The King's Speech
* 127 Hours
* The Social Network - WINNER

Sound Mixing

* Inception - WINNER
* The King's Speech
* Salt
* The Social Network
* True Grit

Sound Editing

* Inception - WINNER
* Toy Story 3
* Tron: Legacy
* True Grit
* Unstoppable

Original Score

* How to Train Your Dragon
* Inception
* The King's Speech
* 127 Hours
* The Social Network - WINNER

Original Song

* "Coming Home" from Country Strong
* "I See the Light" from Tangled
* "If I Rise" from 127 Hours
* "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 - WINNER

Documentary Feature

* Exit through the Gift Shop
* Gasland
* Inside Job - WINNER
* Restrepo
* Waste Land

Documentary (short subject)

* Killing in the Name
* Poster Girl
* Strangers No More - WINNER
* Sun Come Up
* The Warriors of Qiugang

Makeup

* Barney's Version
* The Way Back
* The Wolfman - WINNER

Animated Short Film

* Day & Night
* The Gruffalo
* Let's Pollute
* The Lost Thing - WINNER
* Madagascar, a Journey Diary

Live Action Short Film

* The Confession
* The Crush
* God of Love - WINNER
* Na Wewe
* Wish 143

Visual Effects

* Alice in Wonderland
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
* Hereafter
* Inception - WINNER
* Iron Man 2

Music exec slams Grammys in full-page NY Times ad

2011-02-21T17:57:00.000+08:00

Music exec slams Grammys in full-page NY Times ad
Reuters - 2 hours 35 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A veteran music executive has lambasted the Grammy Awards as "a series of hypocrisies and contradictions," in a full-page New York Times advertisement that ran a week after last Sunday's annual ceremony.

Steve Stoute's open letter to Grammy organizers ripped the organization and its 12,000-odd voters for snubbing Eminem and Justin Bieber at this year's ceremony, as well as Eminem and Kanye West at past events.

"Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture," wrote Stoute, who is currently CEO of the marketing company Translation.

"Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate."

Eminem, this year's leading contender, lost in most of the major categories for which he was nominated. Two-time nominee Bieber went home empty-handed and disappointed. Both West and Eminem have lost the coveted album of the year race multiple times.

"We must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation," Stoute wrote.

As for Bieber, he wrote, "How is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist?"

Stoute noted a connection between performers and winners, citing Arcade Fire's surprise album of the year win just after they had finished their performance.

"Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation?"

There was no immediate reaction from the Recording Academy. Last Sunday's show, despite or because of the shocks, was the highest rated in a decade.

From the grave - By Imran Garda in Middle East ( Excerpt from AlJazeera)

2011-02-06T23:41:00.001+08:00

Exactly 41 years ago to the day the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell died. Among the countless works that will continue to bring him posthumous recognition, are his various treatises on human psychology and the one thing he considered the principle driving force in social life - power.

As Hosni Mubarak addressed the millions of Egyptian people, marching, protesting, bursting with revolutionary fervour intent on seeing him vacate a Presidential seat he's occupied for 30 years, I pondered over what Russell would think of Mubarak, and his address, wherein he promised to step down - eventually.

Below are extracts from Russell's articles on political power and the book, "The Conquest of Happiness", offset with extracts of Mubarak's latest speech:

BR: The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself in order that he may be able to carry out the high and noble aims which have led him to eschew comfort and enter the arena of public life, is amazed at the ingratitude of the people when they turn against him.

HM: "Those protests were transformed from a noble and civilised phenomenon of practising freedom of expression to unfortunate clashes, mobilised and controlled by political forces that wanted to escalate and worsen the situation. They targeted the nation's security and stability through acts of provocation theft and looting and setting fires and blocking roads and attacking vital installations and public and private properties and storming some diplomatic missions."

BR: It never occurs to him that his work may have had anything but a public motive, or that the pleasure of controlling affairs may have in any degree inspired his activities. The phrases which are customary on the platform and in the Party Press have gradually come to him to seem to express truths, and he mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine analysis of motives.

HM: "I have never, ever been seeking power and the people know the difficult circumstances that I shouldered my responsibility and what I offered this country in war and peace, just as I am a man from the armed forces and it is not in my nature to betray the trust or give up my responsibilities and duties...Hosni Mubarak who speaks to you today is proud of the long years he spent in the service of Egypt and its people. This dear nation is my country, it is the country of all Egyptians, here I have lived and fought for its sake and I defended its land, its sovereignty and interests and on this land I will die and history will judge me and others for our merits and faults.

BR: Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely. And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the causal efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is, indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men.

HM: "My primary responsibility now is security and independence of the nation to ensure a peaceful transfer of power in circumstances that protect Egypt and the Egyptians and allow handing over responsibility to whoever the people choose in the coming presidential election.”

BR: In any autocratic regime, the holders of power become increasingly tyrannical with experience of the delights that power can afford. Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure. If you ask your boss for leave of absence from the office on some legitimate occasion, his love of power will derive more satisfaction from a refusal than from a consent. If you require a building permit, the petty official concerned will obviously get more pleasure from saying 'No' than from saying 'Yes'. It is this sort of thing which makes the love of power such a dangerous motive.

HM: "I am now absolutely determined to finish my work for the nation in a way that ensures handing over its safe-keeping and banner ... preserving its legitimacy and respecting the constitution.

"I will work in the remaining months of my term to take the steps to ensure a peaceful transfer of power

"I will entrust the new government to perform in ways that will achieve the legitimate rights of the people and that its performance should express the people and their aspirations of political, social and economic reform and to allow job opportunities and combating poverty, realising social justice.

"I also demand the judicial and supervisory authorities to take immediately the necessary measures to continue pursuing outlaws and to investigate those who caused the security disarray and those who undertook acts of theft, looting and setting fires and terrorising citizens.

"This is my pledge to the people during the last remaining months of my current term: I ask God to help me to honour this pledge to complete my vocation to Egypt and its people in what satisfies God, the nation and its people”

BR: Disgusted and disillusioned, he retires from the world after the world has retired from him, and regrets that he ever attempted so thankless a task as the pursuit of the public good.

HM: "I say in all honesty and regardless of the current situation that I did not intend to nominate myself for a new presidential term. I have spent enough years of my life in the service of Egypt and its people.”

The Cinematic State of Things - Best Movies of 2010 - An Excerpt

2010-12-28T21:06:00.000+08:00

The Cinematic State of Things
By A. O. SCOTT - Published: December 16, 2010

IN any given year, if you see enough movies — out of habit, ardor or obligation — you will start to notice patterns and clusters. By December the temptation will be nearly overwhelming to generalize from this data, to turn coincidences into trends and trends into matters of world-historical significance. The ad hoc, arbitrary, week-in-week-out sampling of stories and pictures must add up to something, right? Otherwise why bother?

One reason you do bother, of course, is precisely to find experiences that defy expectations and break patterns: movies that challenge your assumptions or alter your habits of perception. How often does that happen? Just enough. (At the end of this article you’ll find 30 examples — 10 best and 20 runners-up — selected from more than 600 movies reviewed in The New York Times in 2010.)

The ritual of year-end list making is a way of sifting through scattered, memorable moments and forcing them briefly into focus. A handful of movies from 2010 will still be interesting in the future, in which case the date of their first appearance will be little more than the answer to a trivia question. Was it a good year for movies? A great year? Hard to say, and finally, who cares? The movies — good and bad alike — shed a blinking, blurry light on the times, illuminating our collective fears, fantasies and failures of will. An attempt at synthesis can only fail, so in lieu of a comprehensive theory of Cinema Now, I offer a handful of postulates on the Cinematic State of Things. I trust they will stimulate sober discussion and principled argument as well as outright ridicule.

1. We are all figments of Leonardo DiCaprio’s imagination. Or Natalie Portman’s. Or Mark Zuckerberg’s. Or Banksy’s. The lines between reality and appearance, reason and madness, truth and fiction have always been blurry, but this was an especially fertile year for dreams, hoaxes and puzzles, many of them playing with fundamental questions of identity. Was Mr. DiCaprio, in “Shutter Island,” a duly appointed federal marshal or loony-bin resident? Awake or asleep in “Inception?” Was “Exit Through the Gift Shop” an elaborate conceptual-art prank by Banksy or an exposé of art-world fraud? And what about “Catfish”? Do our real selves live on Facebook? Or just our real friends?

2. It’s all mom’s fault. 2010 was a very good year for female directors, and for actresses, but also a bad year for mothers. In the maternal monster category — surely Mo’Nique, who broke the mold in “Precious,” should present this award — Melissa Leo from “The Fighter” and Barbara Hershey in “Black Swan” will face stiff competition from the cartoon villainess Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) in “Tangled” and Jacki Weaver’s criminal matriarch in the Australian film “Animal Kingdom.”

3. But mom is miserable. There was plenty of maternal suffering to counteract such demonization. Rodrigo García’s “Mother and Child” was about nothing else, with Annette Bening, Kerry Washington and Naomi Watts acting out a braided melodrama of longing and loss. But no one suffered as grandly as Tilda Swinton in the operatic “I Am Love,” or as pathetically as Paprika Steen in the unsparing “Applause.”

4. Still, the kids are all right. The daughters in particular. It was a year of brave, tough, adventurous and sometimes reckless girls and young women, including the fearless Rapunzel in “Tangled,” who was also a pretty good singer (thanks to the voice of Mandy Moore and the songs of Alan Menken), and both Fanning sisters: Dakota in Floria Sigismondi’s underrated “Runaways,” and Elle in Sofia Coppola’s haunting, clear-sighted “Somewhere.” Not to mention Jennifer Lawrence’s fearless Ozark teenager in “Winter’s Bone,” Hailee Steinfeld’s plucky Old West avenger in “True Grit” and Chloë Grace Moretz’s lonely vampire in “Let Me In.” Perhaps the bravest of all was the sullen, chain-smoking Lisbeth Salander, incarnated (in the Swedish film versions of Stieg Larsson’s best sellers) by Noomi Rapace.

5. And the kids grow up. Not just Harry Potter. Yes, the general wallowing in male arrested development continued, with the usual comic suspects (Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis) appearing in the usual puerile comedies (one of them called “Grown Ups”). But at least two films — “Somewhere” and “Greenberg” — took a tough-love attitude toward their immature male protagonists, reckoning the emotional costs of delayed maturity and extended adolescence. (The same might be said of “The Social Network.”) And the experience of sending a child off to college, hardly a common theme in movies before now, seems to have become a touchstone. Or at least an official three-film, cross-genre trend, thanks to “Toy Story 3,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “The Kids Grow Up”: a cartoon, a comedy and a documentary. (Meanwhile the drift and ambivalence of the mid- and post-collegiate young was minutely captured in “The Exploding Girl” and “Tiny Furniture.”)

6. Superheroes take a break. Yes, there was “Iron Man 2,” but even that offered a respite from the glowering, pretentious action allegories that have dominated screens for most of the past decade. The battle between good and evil rages on in some quarters, but mostly in self-conscious, self-parodic form. In the strangely similar animated kiddie comedies “Despicable Me” and “Megamind” the heroes and villains are self-conscious role players, and the villains are actually nice as well as more interesting than their occasional square-jawed nemeses. This may reflect genre exhaustion (though another round of superhero blockbusters is already on the horizon), or a measure of real-world cynicism. The investigative documentaries that proliferated this year ("Inside Job," “Client 9,” “Casino Jack and “The United States of Money”) suggest that corruption and criminality exist virtually beyond the reach of justice.

7. The Bush era is not over. “Green Zone,” “Fair Game,” “Casino Jack” (both the documentary version and the Kevin Spacey comeback vehicle), “Inside Job,” “Client 9,” “The Ghost Writer.” So many scores left to settle.

8. But can’t the ’90s come back, or the ’80s, or some era more appealing than the one we’re in? “Love and Other Drugs,” “Greenberg,” “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “The Runaways,” “Howl,” any music documentary you can name.

9. Only a great director can make a great movie, but a good actor can make a bad or mediocre or not-quite-great movie much better. For instance: Helen Mirren in “The Tempest,” Ms. Mirren in “RED,” Paul Giamatti in “Barney’s Version,” Mr. Spacey in “Casino Jack,” Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Love and Other Drugs,” Javier Bardem in “Biutiful,” everyone in “True Grit,” Vanessa Redgrave in “Letters to Juliet,” Liam Neeson in anything he was in, Rachel McAdams in “Morning Glory,” Anthony Mackie in “Night Catches Us.”

10. The discussion of movies is frequently more interesting than the movies themselves. It was more fun to read the impassioned, geeky arguments about “Inception” than to endure a second viewing of that film. Early arguments about the accuracy of “The Social Network” and whether that even mattered gave way to a series of reviews, essays and debates about Facebook, digital entrepreneurship, friendship, business, meritocracy and the Ivy League far richer and more relevant to contemporary life than Aaron Sorkin’s glib script or David Fincher’s elegant atmospherics. And as intellectually lazy and emotionally manipulative as it was, Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman” nonetheless focused serious polemical attention on the problems facing American education.

The 10 Best Movies of 2010

1. INSIDE JOB (Charles Ferguson) The crisis of finance capitalism as a great crime story.

2. TOY STORY 3 (Lee Unkrich) The triumph of consumer capitalism as an epic love story.

3. CARLOS (Olivier Assayas) The failure of global revolution as farce, melodrama, erotic thriller and music video.

4. SOMEWHERE (Sofia Coppola) An eccentric, perfect poem about fame, loneliness and cross-generational need.

5. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Lisa Cholodenko) An eccentric, perfect comedy about love, betrayal and cross-generational confusion.

6. GREENBERG (Noah Baumbach) A deliberately imperfect comedy about an eccentric fleeing from love, running from betrayal and wallowing in cross-generational confusion.

7. 127 HOURS (Danny Boyle) It’s all fun until someone loses an arm. And then, strangely enough, it’s even more fun.

8. LAST TRAIN HOME (Lixin Fan) The future of global capitalism, in China and elsewhere: a family tragedy in the form of a documentary, as full of anger, dignity and pathos as a play by Arthur Miller.

9. SECRET SUNSHINE (Lee Chang-dong) A family tragedy from South Korea, in the form of a melodramatic crime story. As dense and gripping as a great novel.

10. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Banksy) All of the above. None of the above. Everything and nothing. An elaborate art-world stunt in the form of a documentary. Or vice versa.

RUNNERS-UP “And Everything Is Going Fine,” “Another Year,” “Black Swan,” “Boxing Gym,” “The Father of My Children,” “The Fighter,” “A Film Unfinished,” “Fish Tank,” “Four Lions,” “The Ghost Writer,” “Howl,” “I Am Love,” “Let Me In,” “Please Give,” “Solitary Man,” “Tangled,” “Tiny Furniture,” “Vincere,; “White Material,” “Winter’s Bone.”

AT&T Video Shows Texting and Driving Don’t Mix - An Excerpt

2010-12-28T20:58:00.001+08:00

December 27, 2010, 7:00 am AT&T Video Shows Texting and Driving Don’t Mix
By MATT RICHTEL

“Where u at”

That was the last text message by Mariah West, who died at 18 when she skidded in traffic and flipped into the oncoming lane. She was texting at the time.

She is among the people who appear in a nearly 11-minute documentary developed by AT&T to warn young people about the dangers of texting and driving.

The wireless company planned to release the video today, before New Year’s Eve. The timing is aimed, the company says, at showing that texting and driving deserves to be considered as dangerous as drunken driving. The documentary includes intense, sometimes disturbing, images, including that of Ms. West, as she spent her last minutes alive on a breathing tube.

“Our goal is to help make texting while driving as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving,” said Gail Torreano, a senior vice president with AT&T. “We want this to be in every school in the country and for teenagers to know a text message is not worth a life.”

Research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that motorists who text face a 23 times greater risk of crash or near crash. Other wireless carriers, like Verizon Wireless, in the last year have increased efforts to warn about the risks of texting and driving.

AT&T says it plans to distribute the documentary to schools, safety organizations and government agencies, and is urging people to take a pledge on its Facebook page not to text and drive.

David Teater, senior director of transportation initiatives at the National Safety Council, a nonprofit safety advocacy organization, said AT&T deserved credit. At the same time, he says, texting can be so hard to resist that teenagers aren’t likely to stop just by hearing such a message.

“The activity is too compelling,” he said, describing texting as having addicting properties. “What they need to do is start deploying technology that will prevent people from being able to text while driving.”

Still, he said: “The wireless industry is very sincere about getting kids to stop texting and driving. I applaud what they’re doing.”

Frequent Flier My Anxiety in Flight, After Free Fall in an Elevator - an excerpt

2010-12-28T20:54:00.000+08:00

Frequent Flier
My Anxiety in Flight, After Free Fall in an Elevator

Published: December 27, 2010
Quote : I’LL be the first one to admit that I’m not a great frequent flier. It’s not just the delays and cancellations; it’s actually the process of flying.

Craig Woerz is a founder and managing partner of Media Storm.
Q. How often do you fly?

A. About three to six flights per month, all domestic.

Q. What’s your least favorite airport?

A. I don’t like any of them since I don’t like to fly. But if I had to pick one, it would be O’Hare.

Q. Of all the places you’ve been, what’s the best?

A. With all the domestic travel I do, I hadn’t ventured overseas. But two years ago, I went to Florence and all through northern Italy. It was amazing.

Q. What’s your secret airport vice?

A. I love my family and miss them when I travel, so instead of using airport or airplane Wi-Fi signals for work, I love to iChat with my kids. I know that’s not a vice, but maybe it is a guilty pleasure.
I used to be O.K. with it and even now, you’d never know I was a little fearful. But I am, although I know that flying is safer than other modes of transport.

About 10 years ago, I experienced free fall in an elevator. Everybody always talks about what they would do if they were in an elevator and it started dropping. Let me tell you, you do nothing. It all happens very quickly.

I was meeting my prospective client on the 37th floor. The elevator was crowded, but by the time we got close to my floor, I was the last person on. I had a weird feeling. Then the lights went out and the thing started dropping. The elevator stopped after it went down about 10 floors, and the doors opened and I got out.

People were milling around and I was told there was a malfunction. No kidding. Apparently, a fire alarm was triggered, and that was supposed to send the elevators down at a slow pace. This one just happened to drop more quickly.

I got back on the elevator, believe it or not, and went to my appointment to make my presentation. I didn’t tell the prospective client what happened, but he could tell something was wrong. I eventually did get his business. Ironically, he wound up being an employee a few years later.

So the elevator incident convinced me that heights and enclosed spaces really can be a bad combination.

To take the edge off of flying, I have a routine. I usually fly out of the same airports, which means I can go to the same coffee shops, clubs and often see the same ticket agents. Once on board, I’ll log on to Wi-Fi, if it’s available, and distract myself.

Still, weird things happen.

I was on a very turbulent flight last year. All of a sudden, the oxygen masks dropped down and the attendants flung themselves into their seats. I was a little freaked, but I put the oxygen mask on. I was a little more freaked when it didn’t fill up. I hit the wrong button. I wasn’t the only one.

After what seemed like an hour, but was really only a minute or two, the pilot came over the speaker system and told us that he had unintentionally hit the wrong control button while trying to send cooling air into the main cabin.

People who are relaxed on planes really have it made. But there is a point where you can be too relaxed. I was sitting next to a woman who actually took off her shoes and stockings and gave herself a little pedicure. That wasn’t fun.

Then there was a time a guy literally laid down in the aisle. I thought something horrible was happening. But then I was told he thought it would be “fun” if someone checked his blood pressure. I didn’t know you had to lie down for that, but I’m sure his was fine.

Good thing they didn’t check mine.

By Craig Woerz, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com.

How Superstars’ Pay Stifles Everyone Else - An Excerpt

2010-12-28T20:49:00.001+08:00

How Superstars’ Pay Stifles Everyone ElsePublished: December 25, 2010
This article was adapted from “The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We Pay What We Do,” by Eduardo Porter, an editorial writer for The New York Times. The book, to be published on Jan. 4 by Portfolio, examines how pricing affects all of our choices.

Associated Press
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall law in the 1930s to separate commercial banking from investment banking. Standing from left are Senator Carter Glass, Senator Duncan Fletcher, Henry Morgenthau Jr. of the Treasury, Jesse Jones and Representative Henry Steagall.
IN 1990, the Kansas City Royals had the heftiest payroll in Major League Baseball: almost $24 million. A typical player for the New York Yankees, which had some of the most expensive players in the game at the time, earned less than $450,000.

Last season, the Yankees spent $206 million on players, more than five times the payroll of the Royals 20 years ago, even after accounting for inflation. The Yankees’ median salary was $5.5 million, seven times the 1990 figure, inflation-adjusted.

What is most striking is how the Yankees have outstripped the rest of the league. Two decades ago. the Royals’ payroll was about three times as big as that of the Chicago White Sox, the cheapest major-league team at the time. Last season, the Yankees spent about six times as much as the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had the most inexpensive roster.

Baseball aficionados might conclude that all of this points to some pernicious new trend in the market for top players. But this is not specific to baseball, or even to sport. Consider the market for pop music. In 1982, the top 1 percent of pop stars, in terms of pay, raked in 26 percent of concert ticket revenue. In 2003, that top percentage of stars — names like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera or 50 Cent — was taking 56 percent of the concert pie.

The phenomenon is not even specific to the United States. Pelé, from Brazil, the greatest soccer player of all time, made his World Cup debut in Sweden in 1958, when he was only 17. He became an instant star, coveted by every team on the planet. By 1960, his team, Santos, reportedly paid him $150,000 a year — about $1.1 million in today’s money. But these days, that would amount to middling pay. The top-paid player of the 2009-10 season, the Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo, made $17 million playing for the Spanish team Real Madrid.

Of course, the inflated rewards of performers at the very top have to do with specific changes in the underlying economics of entertainment. People have more disposable income to spend on entertainment. Corporate sponsorships, virtually non-existent in the age of Pelé, account today for a large share of performers’ income. In 2009, the highest-earning soccer player was the English midfielder David Beckham, who made $33 million from endorsements on top of a $7 million salary from the Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan.

But broader forces are also at play. Nearly 30 years ago, Sherwin Rosen, an economist from the University of Chicago, proposed an elegant theory to explain the general pattern. In an article entitled “The Economics of Superstars,” he argued that technological changes would allow the best performers in a given field to serve a bigger market and thus reap a greater share of its revenue. But this would also reduce the spoils available to the less gifted in the business.

The reasoning fits smoothly into the income dynamics of the music industry, which has been shaken by many technological disruptions since the 1980s. First, MTV put music on television. Then Napster took it to the Internet. Apple allowed fans to buy single songs and take them with them. Each of these breakthroughs allowed the very top acts to reach a larger fan base, and thus command a larger audience and a bigger share of concert revenue.

Superstar effects apply, too, to European soccer, which is beamed around the world on cable and satellite TV. In 2009, the top 20 soccer teams reaped revenue of 3.9 billion euros, more than 25 percent of the combined revenue of all the teams in European leagues.

Pelé was not held back by the quality of his game, but by his relatively small revenue base. He might be the greatest of all time, but few people could pay to experience his greatness. In 1958, there were about 350,000 television sets in Brazil. The first television satellite, Telstar I, wasn’t launched until July 1962, too late for his World Cup debut.

By contrast, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, in which Ronaldo played for Portugal, was broadcast in more than 200 countries, to an aggregate audience of over 25 billion. Some 700 million people watched the final alone. Ronaldo is not better then Pelé. He makes more money because his talent is broadcast to more people.

IF one loosens slightly the role played by technological progress, Dr. Rosen’s framework also does a pretty good job explaining the evolution of executive pay. In 1977, an elite chief executive working at one of America’s top 100 companies earned about 50 times the wage of its average worker. Three decades later, the nation’s best-paid C.E.O.’s made about 1,100 times the pay of a worker on the production line.

This has separated the megarich from the merely very rich. A study of pay in the 1970s found that executives in the top 10 percent made about twice as much as those in the middle of the pack. By the early 2000s, the top suits made more than four times the pay of the executives in the middle.

Top C.E.O.’s are not pop stars. But the pay for the most sought-after executives has risen for similar reasons. As corporations have increased in size, management decisions at the top have become that much more important, measured in terms of profits or losses. Top American companies have much higher sales and profits than they did 20 years ago. Banks and funds have more assets.

With so much more at stake, it has become that much more important for companies to put at the helm the “best” executive or banker or fund manager they can find. This has set off furious competition for top managerial talent, pushing the prices of top-rated managers way above the pay of those in the tier just below them. Two economists at New York University, Xavier Gabaix and Augustin Landier, published a study in 2006 estimating that the sixfold rise in the pay of chief executives in the United States over the last quarter century or so was attributable entirely to the sixfold rise in the market size of large American companies.

And therein lies a big problem for American capitalism.

CAPITALISM relies on inequality. Like differences in other prices, pay disparities steer resources — in this case, people — to where they would be most productively employed.

Despite the great danger and cost of crossing the border illegally into the United States, hundreds of thousands of the hardest-working Mexicans are drawn by the relative prosperity they can achieve north of the border — where the average income of a Mexican-American household is more than $33,000, almost five times that of a family in Mexico.

In poor economies, fast economic growth increases inequality as some workers profit from new opportunities and others do not. The share of national income accruing to the top 1 percent of the Chinese population more than doubled from 1986 to 2003. Inequality spurs economic growth by providing incentives for people to accumulate human capital and become more productive. It pulls the best and brightest into the most lucrative lines of work, where the most profitable companies hire them.

Yet the increasingly outsize rewards accruing to the nation’s elite clutch of superstars threaten to gum up this incentive mechanism. If only a very lucky few can aspire to a big reward, most workers are likely to conclude that it is not worth the effort to try. The odds aren’t on their side.

Inequality has been found to turn people off. A recent experiment conducted with workers at the University of California found that those who earned less than the typical wage for their pay unit and occupation became measurably less satisfied with their jobs, and more likely to look for another one if they found out the pay of their peers. Other experiments have found that winner-take-all games tend to elicit much less player effort — and more cheating — than those in which rewards are distributed more smoothly according to performance.

Ultimately, the question is this: How much inequality is necessary? It is true that the nation grew quite fast as inequality soared over the last three decades. Since 1980, the country’s gross domestic product per person has increased about 69 percent, even as the share of income accruing to the richest 1 percent of the population jumped to 36 percent from 22 percent. But the economy grew even faster — 83 percent per capita — from 1951 to 1980, when inequality declined when measured as the share of national income going to the very top of the population.

One study concluded that each percentage-point increase in the share of national income channeled to the top 10 percent of Americans since 1960 led to an increase of 0.12 percentage points in the annual rate of economic growth — hardly an enormous boost. The cost for this tonic seems to be a drastic decline in Americans’ economic mobility. Since 1980, the weekly wage of the average worker on the factory floor has increased little more than 3 percent, after inflation.

The United States is the rich country with the most skewed income distribution. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the average earnings of the richest 10 percent of Americans are 16 times those for the 10 percent at the bottom of the pile. That compares with a multiple of 8 in Britain and 5 in Sweden.

Not coincidentally, Americans are less economically mobile than people in other developed countries. There is a 42 percent chance that the son of an American man in the bottom fifth of the income distribution will be stuck in the same economic slot. The equivalent odds for a British man are 30 percent, and 25 percent for a Swede.

NONE of this even begins to account for the damage caused by the superstar dynamics that shape the pay of American bankers.

Remember the ’80s? Gordon Gekko first sashayed across the silver screen. Ivan Boesky was jailed for insider trading. Michael Milken peddled junk bonds. In 1987, financial firms amassed a little less than a fifth of the profits of all American corporations. Wall Street bonuses totaled $2.6 billion — about $15,600 for each man and woman working there.

Yet by current standards, this era of legendary greed appears like a moment of uncommon restraint. In 2007, as the financial bubble built upon the American housing market reached its peak, financial companies accounted for a full third of the profits of the nation’s private sector. Wall Street bonuses hit a record $32.9 billion, or $177,000 a worker.

Just as technology gave pop stars a bigger fan base that could buy their CDs, download their singles and snap up their concert tickets, the combination of information technology and deregulation gave bankers an unprecedented opportunity to reap huge rewards. Investors piled into the top-rated funds that generated the highest returns. Rewards flowed in abundance to the most “productive” financiers, those that took the bigger risks and generated the biggest profits.

Finance wasn’t always so richly paid. Financiers had a great time in the early decades of the 20th century: from 1909 to the mid-1930s, they typically made about 50 percent to 60 percent more than workers in other industries. But the stock market collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression changed all that. In 1934, corporate profits in the financial sector shrank to $236 million, one-eighth what they were five years earlier. Wages followed. From 1950 through about 1980, bankers and insurers made only 10 percent more than workers outside of finance, on average.

This ebb and flow of compensation mimics the waxing and waning of restrictions governing finance. A century ago, there were virtually no regulations to restrain banks’ creativity and speculative urges. They could invest where they wanted, deploy depositors’ money as they saw fit. But after the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up a plethora of restrictions to avoid a repeat of the financial bubble that burst in 1929.

Interstate banking had been limited since 1927. In 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act forbade commercial banks and investment banks from getting into each other’s business — separating deposit taking and lending from playing the markets. Interest-rate ceilings were also imposed that year. The move to regulate bankers continued in 1959 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who forbade mixing banks with insurance companies.

Barred from applying the full extent of their wits toward maximizing their incomes, many of the nation’s best and brightest who had flocked to make money in banking left for other industries.

Then, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration unleashed a surge of deregulation. By 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act lay repealed. Banks could commingle with insurance companies at will. Ceilings on interest rates vanished. Banks could open branches anywhere. Unsurprisingly, the most highly educated returned to banking and finance. By 2005, the share of workers in the finance industry with a college education exceeded that of other industries by nearly 20 percentage points. By 2006, pay in the financial sector was again 70 percent higher than wages elsewhere in the private sector. A third of the 2009 Princeton graduates who got jobs after graduation went into finance; 6.3 percent took jobs in government.

Then the financial industry blew up, taking out a good chunk of the world economy.

Finance will not be tamed by tweaking the way bankers are paid. But bankers’ pay could be structured to discourage wanton risk taking. Similarly, superstar effects are not the sole cause of the stagnant incomes of regular Joes. But the piling of rewards on our superstars is encouraging a race to the top that, if left unabated, could leave very little to strive for in its wake.

Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines - An Excerpt

2010-12-28T20:43:00.000+08:00

Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: December 27, 2010

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated Press
Crowds line the way to Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom.
To handle over 30 million annual visitors — many of them during this busiest time of year for the megaresort — Disney World long ago turned the art of crowd control into a science. But the putative Happiest Place on Earth has decided it must figure out how to quicken the pace even more. A cultural shift toward impatience — fed by video games and smartphones — is demanding it, park managers say. To stay relevant to the entertain-me-right-this-second generation, Disney must evolve.

And so it has spent the last year outfitting an underground, nerve center to address that most low-tech of problems, the wait. Located under Cinderella Castle, the new center uses video cameras, computer programs, digital park maps and other whiz-bang tools to spot gridlock before it forms and deploy countermeasures in real time.

In one corner, employees watch flat-screen televisions that depict various attractions in green, yellow and red outlines, with the colors representing wait-time gradations.

If Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride that sends people on a spirited voyage through the Spanish Main, suddenly blinks from green to yellow, the center might respond by alerting managers to launch more boats.

Another option involves dispatching Captain Jack Sparrow or Goofy or one of their pals to the queue to entertain people as they wait. “It’s about being nimble and quickly noticing that, ‘Hey, let’s make sure there is some relief out there for those people,’ ” said Phil Holmes, vice president of the Magic Kingdom, the flagship Disney World park.

What if Fantasyland is swamped with people but adjacent Tomorrowland has plenty of elbow room? The operations center can route a miniparade called “Move it! Shake it! Celebrate It!” into the less-populated pocket to siphon guests in that direction. Other technicians in the command center monitor restaurants, perhaps spotting that additional registers need to be opened or dispatching greeters to hand out menus to people waiting to order.

“These moments add up until they collectively help the entire park,” Mr. Holmes said.

In recent years, according to Disney research, the average Magic Kingdom visitor has had time for only nine rides — out of more than 40 — because of lengthy waits and crowded walkways and restaurants. In the last few months, however, the operations center has managed to make enough nips and tucks to lift that average to 10.

“Control is Disney’s middle name, so they have always been on the cutting edge of this kind of thing,” said Bob Sehlinger, co-author of “The Unofficial Guide: Walt Disney World 2011” and a writer on Disney for Frommers.com. Mr. Sehlinger added, “The challenge is that you only have so many options once the bathtub is full.”

Disney, which is periodically criticized for overreaching in the name of cultural dominance (and profits), does not see any of this monitoring as the slightest bit invasive. Rather, the company regards it as just another part of its efforts to pull every possible lever in the name of a better guest experience.

The primary goal of the command center, as stated by Disney, is to make guests happier — because to increase revenue in its $10.7 billion theme park business, which includes resorts in Paris and Hong Kong, Disney needs its current customers to return more often. “Giving our guests faster and better access to the fun,” said Thomas O. Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, “is at the heart of our investment in technology.”

Disney also wants to raise per-capita spending. “If we can also increase the average number of shop or restaurant visits, that’s a huge win for us,” Mr. Holmes said.

Disney has long been a leader in technological innovation, whether that means inventing cameras to make animated films or creating the audio animatronic robots for the attraction It’s a Small World.

Behind-the-scenes systems — typically kept top secret by the company as it strives to create an environment where things happen as if by magic — are also highly computerized. Ride capacity is determined in part by analyzing hotel reservations, flight bookings and historic attendance data. Satellites provide minute-by-minute weather analysis. A system called FastPass allows people to skip lines for popular rides like the Jungle Cruise.

But the command center reflects how Disney is deepening its reliance on technology as it thinks about adapting decades-old parks, which are primarily built around nostalgia for an America gone by, for 21st century expectations. “It’s not about us needing to keep pace with technological change,” Mr. Staggs said. “We need to set the pace for that kind of change.”

For instance, Disney has been experimenting with smartphones to help guide people more efficiently. Mobile Magic, a $1.99 app, allows visitors to type in “Sleeping Beauty” and receive directions to where that princess (or at least a costumed stand-in) is signing autographs. In the future, typing in “hamburger” might reveal the nearest restaurant with the shortest wait.

Disney has also been adding video games to wait areas. At Space Mountain, 87 game stations now line the queue to keep visitors entertained. (Games, about 90 seconds in length, involve simple things like clearing runways of asteroids). Gaming has also been added to the queue for Soarin’, an Epcot ride that simulates a hang glider flight.

Blogs that watch Disney’s parks have speculated that engineers (“imagineers,” in the company’s parlance) are also looking at bigger ideas, like wristbands that contain information like your name, credit card number and favorite Disney characters. While Disney is keeping a tight lid on specifics, these devices would enable simple transactions like the purchase of souvenirs — just pay by swiping your wristband — as well as more complicated attractions that interact with guests.

“Picture a day where there is memory built into these characters — they will know that they’ve seen you four or five times before and that your name is Bobby,” said Bruce E. Vaughn, chief creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering. “Those are the kinds of limits that are dissolving so quickly that we can see being able to implement them in the meaningfully near future.”

Dreaming about the future was not something on Mr. Holmes’s mind as he gave a reporter a rare peek behind the Disney operations veil. He had a park to run, and the command center had spotted trouble at the tea cups.

After running smoothly all morning, the spinning Mad Tea Party abruptly stopped meeting precalculated ridership goals. A few minutes later, Mr. Holmes had his answer: a new employee had taken over the ride and was leaving tea cups unloaded.

“In the theme park business these days,” he said, “patience is not always a virtue.”

Teena Marie, 1980s R&B Hitmaker, Dies at 54 - An Excerpt

2010-12-28T20:35:00.001+08:00

Teena Marie, 1980s R&B Hitmaker, Dies at 54By BEN SISARIO
Published: December 27, 2010

Teena Marie, a singer whose funky hits in the 1980s, like “Lovergirl” and “Square Biz,” made her one of the few white performers to consistently find success on the rhythm-and-blues charts, died on Sunday at her home in Pasadena, Calif. She was 54.

.The cause was not immediately known, but The Associated Press reported that the authorities said she appeared to have died of natural causes.

Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, Calif., on March 5, 1956, she grew up in a predominantly black area of nearby Venice, Calif., and began singing and acting while still a child. At age 8, she tap-danced for Jed Clampett on an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” under the name Tina Marie Brockert.

After graduating from high school and briefly attending Santa Monica College, she signed with Motown Records and became of protégée of Rick James, then one of the label’s biggest new stars. Teena Marie’s first album, “Wild and Peaceful,” with James as a producer and the chief songwriter — and his Stone City Band backing her up — was released on Motown’s Gordy imprint in 1979.

“I’m Just a Sucker for Your Love,” her duet with James from that album, went to No. 8 on the R&B singles chart. The two began a tempestuous love affair. Another duet, “Fire and Desire,” appeared on James’s hit album from 1981, “Street Songs.” James died in 2004.

Through the 1980s, Teena Marie developed a style that folded bits of rap (as on the 1981 hit “Square Biz”) and rock (“You So Heavy,” from 1986, has a scorching guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan) into danceable, funk-driven pop.

From the start, race was ambiguous in her music. She was not pictured on the cover of “Wild and Peaceful,” which was promoted to black radio stations. With an earthy voice that pierced with power in its high registers, she was highly credible as an R&B singer, and many listeners learned that she was white only when they saw her portrait on the cover of her second album, “Lady T,” in 1980.

“I still have people coming up to me 26 years later and looking at me and all of a sudden going, ‘I didn’t know you were white!’ ” she said in an interview on National Public Radio in 2006.

But she was embraced by the R&B audience, and some of her songs have become ingrained in black musical culture. Her 1988 song “Ooo La La La” was sampled and reconfigured by the Fugees as “Fu-Gee-La” in 1996 on their debut album, “The Score.”

For many of her fellow musicians, Teena Marie’s biggest accomplishment was made offstage. Her lawsuit against Motown in the early 1980s, for nonpayment of royalties, resulted in a clarification of California law — known in the music industry as the Brockert Initiative or the Teena Marie Law — that made it much more difficult for record companies to keep an act under an exclusive contract. After leaving Motown, she signed with Epic and reached her commercial peak. Her 1984 song “Lovergirl” — featuring her impassioned squeal in the chorus, “I just want to be your lover girl/I just want to rock your world” — went to No. 4 on Billboard’s pop chart and became her biggest seller.

In the 1990s, Teena Marie’s career slowed as she raised a daughter, Alia Rose, who survives her. But she continued to release music. She was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for best female R&B vocal performance, for her song “I’m Still in Love” — she lost to Alicia Keys — and released her most recent album, “Congo Square,” on the revived Stax label in 2009.

Although Teena Marie’s race was hidden from the public at the very beginning of her career, she was always forthright about the black influences in her music. In an interview with Essence.com last year, she suggested that the content of the music mattered more than the singer’s color.

“Over all my race hasn’t been a problem,” she said. “I’m a black artist with white skin. At the end of the day you have to sing what’s in your own soul.”

COMMENTARY: Singapore's disdain exposed - an excerpt

2010-12-15T07:48:00.000+08:00

COMMENTARY: Singapore's disdain exposed
ANN - Tuesday, December 14

Kuala Lumpur (The Star/ANN) - Singapore's most senior Foreign Ministry official Bilahari Kausikan is heading for Kuala Lumpur on Dec 22 as a leader of a delegation to discuss KTM Berhad's land swap deal in Singapore agreed in May by the Prime Ministers of the two countries.

This is the fifth round and possibly the last meeting of the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Implementation Team (MSJIT) between officials of both countries, each side with about 20 people representing various ministries and agencies.

After the last meeting two weeks ago, a short one-paragraph joint statement was issued describing the meeting as one held in a cordial atmosphere.

Come Dec 22, the atmosphere will definitely be awkward, at least to some officials.

Simple analogy -- imagine sitting with someone that you know who has been bad-mouthing you to others. How would you feel?

Now, how about sitting down to a meeting with the very man who claimed, among others, that Malaysia was "confused and dangerous, fuelled by the distinct possibility of racial conflict"?

Not only that, Kausikan said back in September 2008 that "a lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia".

Courtesy of WikiLeaks and not exactly denied by his boss, Foreign Minister George Yeo, Kausikan's remarks are riling up officials in Malaysia.

"His remarks are crude and smack of arrogance. It is not just what he has said but how he said it. It shows his sentiment for us.

"Every time there is an MSJIT meeting, the host country will host lunch and dinner. It is going to be an awkward situation for us," said one government official.

Kausikan's predecessor Peter Ho has also made damaging remarks on Malaysia, along with the ministry's ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh whose views of Japan and India were damaging.

"Fat losers, stupid, bad leadership" are some adjectives that had been used by Singaporean diplomats to describe their neighbours.

Yeo, in an immediate attempt to play down reports, defended his officials, saying their comments were taken out of context and were interpretations of views reflected by American officials.

The comments, which Yeo described as "cocktail talk", were confidential and should not have been released.

Yeo said his ministry would not check the veracity of the remarks, nor comment on what could have gone on in an informal and confidential setting.

It is normal for diplomats to get information from others during cocktails. What is surprising, though, is that the information gathered from the Singaporeans merit attention from the Americans.

"I am sure how it was said by the Singapore diplomats and the sentiment that it merits attention," said an official.

For those who have dealt with Singapore, nothing has changed.

The general feeling among officials is that their Singapore counterparts do have condescending traits.

WikiLeaks exposes in the past weeks have caused embarrassment to diplomats and government officials around the world.

This week, it is Singapore's turn. There are thousands of documents yet to be made public by WikiLeaks and who knows if Malaysia would be next, as we are never short of politicians who may not be able to keep their mouths shut.

As Yeo said, he did not think relations with the countries will be affected.

True, but as the closest neighbour with supposedly warm ties, Singapore would do well to show some kind of regret over the remarks made by its officials.

If it had been Singapore at the end of the stick, they would not stop until they get what they want. No doubt, Malaysia will now need to be more alert when dealing with Singapore.

During next week's meeting, officials will need to remain professional when they meet Kausikan.

They have to stick to the agenda as there are objectives to be met since the leaders have given officials until end of the year to iron out details of the KTM land swap deal and other related projects.

The days of being emotional are long gone. It is time to think strategically for the long term and best interest of Malaysia.

If an island state vanishes, is it still a nation? - An Excerpt

2010-12-07T20:04:00.001+08:00

If an island state vanishes, is it still a nation? - AP

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley, Ap Special Correspondent – Mon Dec 6, 2:27 pm ET
CANCUN, Mexico – Encroaching seas in the far Pacific are raising the salt level in the wells of the Marshall Islands. Waves threaten to cut one sliver of an island in two. "It's getting worse," says Kaminaga Kaminaga, the tiny nation's climate change coordinator.
The rising ocean raises questions, too: What happens if the 61,000 Marshallese must abandon their low-lying atolls? Would they still be a nation? With a U.N. seat? With control of their old fisheries and their undersea minerals? Where would they live, and how would they make a living? Who, precisely, would they and their children become?
For years global negotiations to act on climate change have dragged on, with little to show. Parties to the 193-nation U.N. climate treaty are meeting again in this Caribbean resort, but no one expects decisive action to roll back the industrial, agricultural and transport emissions blamed for global warming — and consequently for swelling seas.
From 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) away, the people of the Marshalls — and of Kiribati, Tuvalu and other atoll nations beyond — can only wonder how many more years they'll be able to cope.
"People who built their homes close to shore, all they can do is get more rocks to rebuild the seawall in front day by day," said Kaminaga, who is in Cancun with the Marshallese delegation to the U.N. talks.
The Marshallese government is looking beyond today, however, to those ultimate questions of nationhood, displacement and rights.
"We're facing a set of issues unique in the history of the system of nation-states," Dean Bialek, a New York-based adviser to the Republic of the Marshall Islands who is also in Cancun, told The Associated Press. "We're confronting existential issues associated with climate impacts that are not adequately addressed in the international legal framework."
The Marshallese government took a first step to confront these issues by asking for advice from the Center for Climate Change Law at New York's Columbia University. The center's director, Michael B. Gerrard, in turn has asked legal scholars worldwide to assemble at Columbia next May to begin to piece together answers.
Nations have faded into history through secession — recently with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, for example — or through conquest or ceding their territory to other countries.
But "no country has ever physically disappeared, and it's a real void in the law," Gerrard said during an interview in New York.
The U.N. network of climate scientists projects that seas, expanding from heat and from the runoff of melting land ice, may rise by up to 1.94 feet (0.59 meters) by 2100, swamping much of the scarce land of coral atolls.
But the islands may become uninhabitable long before waves wash over them, because of the saline contamination of water supplies and ruining of crops, and because warming is expected to produce more threatening tropical storms.
"If a country like Tuvalu or Kiribati were to become uninhabitable, would the people be stateless? What's their position in international law?" asked Australian legal scholar Jane McAdam. "The short answer is, it depends. It's complicated."
McAdam, of the University of New South Wales, has traveled in the atoll nations and studied the legal history.
As far as islanders keeping their citizenship and sovereignty if they abandon their homelands, she said by telephone from Sydney, "it's unclear when a state would end because of climate change. It would come down to what the international community was prepared to tolerate" — that is, whether the U.N. General Assembly would move to take a seat away from a displaced people.
The 1951 global treaty on refugees, mandating that nations shelter those fleeing because of persecution, does not cover the looming situation of those displaced by climate change. Some advocate negotiating a new international pact obliging similar treatment for environmental refugees.
In the case of the Marshallese, the picture is murkier. Under a compact with Washington, citizens of the former U.S. trusteeship territory have the right to freely enter the U.S. for study or work, but their right to permanent residency must be clarified, government advisers say.
The islanders worry, too, about their long-term economic rights. The wide scattering of the Marshalls' 29 atolls, 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii, give them an exclusive economic zone of 800,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of ocean, an area the size of Mexico.
The tuna coursing through those waters are the Marshalls' chief resource, exploited by selling licenses to foreign fishing fleets. "If their islands go underwater, what becomes of their fishing rights?" Gerrard asked. Potentially just as important: revenues from magnesium and other sea-floor minerals that geologists have been exploring in recent years.
While lawyers at next May's New York conference begin to sort out the puzzle of disappeared nations, the Marshallese will grapple with the growing problems.
The "top priority," Kaminaga said, is to save the isthmus linking the Marshalls' Jaluit island to its airport, a link now swept by high tides.

Meantime, a lingering drought this year led islanders to tap deeper into their wells, finding salty water requiring them to deploy emergency desalination units. And "parts of the islands are eroding away," Kaminaga said, as undermined lines of coconut palms topple into the sea.
This week in Cancun and in the months to come, the Marshalls' representatives will seek international aid for climate adaptation. They envision such projects as a Jaluit causeway, replanting of protective vegetation on shorelines, and a 3-mile-long (5-kilometer-long) seawall protecting their capital, Majuro, from the Pacific's rising tides.
Islanders' hopes are fading, however, for quick, decisive action to slash global emissions and save their remote spits of land for the next century.
"If all these financial and diplomatic tools don't work, I think some countries are looking at some kind of legal measures," said Dessima Williams, Grenada's U.N. ambassador and chair of a group of small island-nations. Those measures might include appeals to the International Court of Justice or other forums for compensation, a difficult route at best.
In the end, islanders wonder, too, what will happen to their culture, their history, their identity with a homeland — even to their ancestors — if they must leave.
"Cemeteries along the coastline are being eroded. Gravesites are falling into the sea," Kaminaga said. "Even in death we're affected."

Singapore in tough environmental balancing act - An Excerpt

2010-12-05T20:39:00.000+08:00

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 12/3/2010

Singapore in tough environmental balancing act
Singapore prides itself on being a clean and green city but a booming economy and a high-consumption lifestyle have made it one of the world's biggest carbon polluters per person.
As a major United Nations summit is being held in Mexico to find ways of curbing the carbon emissions blamed for global warming, Singapore's environmental balancing act poses challenging questions for the rest of Asia and the world.
Singapore's green credentials are in many ways very strong and it is establishing itself as a regional renewable energy hub.
Yet, if all Asians emulated Singaporeans' modern and often luxurious lifestyles, greenhouse gas emissions would spike alarmingly.
"If everyone in the world enjoyed the same level of consumption as the average Singaporean, we would need three planets to meet the demands placed on our resources," World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) spokesman Chris Chaplin said.
Singapore was last month listed by the British global risk advisory firm Maplecroft as the world's seventh largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter relative to its population size.
Ahead of it were only the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
Maplecroft's index was calculated by evaluating annual CO2 emissions from energy use, emissions per capita and cumulative emissions of a country over more than a century -- 1900 to 2006.
"The lack of 'clean' energy sources coupled with the growth in Singapores economy and the increasing use of cars as well as electronic appliances such as air-conditioners contribute to Singapore's emissions," Maplecroft said in a statement to AFP.
Despite a punishing auto levy and road charges, the number of motor vehicles on its roads reached 925,518 in 2009, up more than 27 percent in five years, with private cars making up 60 percent of the total, official figures show.
In a separate list, the WWF ranked Singapore 21st in the world in terms of ecological footprint, or the demand for resources per person, ahead of such countries as Germany, France and Britain.
WWF's calculation covered not only emissions -- the biggest component of humanity's carbon footprint -- but also demand placed by people on arable land, fishing grounds, forest and grazing land worldwide.
Singapore authorities insist, however, that that the country has had no choice but to rely on imported fossil fuel to power its rapid industrialisation.

The trade-reliant economy, valued at 200 billion US dollars in 2009, is tipped to expand by a massive 15 percent this year.
With a land area smaller than that of New York City, Singapore has no space among its five million citizens for wind farms, while it is devoid of hydro and geothermal power sources.
"We are dependent on fossil fuels because our small size severely limits our ability to switch to alternative energies," the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement to AFP.
It said Maplecroft's index neither reflected Singapore's efforts to reduce its carbon emissions nor took into account its unique circumstances.
"As a small city-state, the use of per capita emissions inflates our carbon emissions," it said, noting that overall, Singapore accounts for less than 0.2 percent of global emissions.
Nevertheless, the government said it was committed to the fight against climate change and was taking steps to reduce the growth of its emissions, including switching from oil to natural gas to produce electricity.
Singapore is investing heavily in clean energy technologies -- it has allocated 770 million dollars to develop innovative energy solutions -- and is building a liquefied natural gas terminal that will be ready by 2013.
This will allow access to gas sources beyond neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is also pushing its people to do more recycling, doubling its already expansive rail network by 2020 and testing electric vehicles for commercial use.
In another positive move, Singapore has offered itself as a "living laboratory" where global energy firms can develop and test new technologies before mass production.
Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC) opened one of the world's biggest solar technology manufacturing facilities in Singapore in November, a project costing nearly two billion dollars.
Vestas, a Danish manufacturer of wind turbines, already has a global research and development centre in the city-state.
"Singapore has been very wise in the way they are approaching this," REC's chief executive Ole Enger said. "They have made Singapore a global hub for renewable energy."

Experts try to convey danger of Merapi volcano - An Excerpt

2010-11-22T15:07:00.000+08:00

Experts try to convey danger of Indonesian volcano

By SARAH DiLORENZO
The Associated Press
Monday, November 22, 2010; 12:00 AM

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia -- The threat from more than 100 volcanos that dot Indonesia is impossible to predict with any precision.

But that's not the hardest part of the job, says Surono, the head of the country's monitoring agency. The hardest part is getting the message out.

In the days before Indonesia's most volatile volcano awakened from four years of dormancy last month, Surono, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said he saw indications that Mount Merapi had more energy pent up in it than he had ever seen before.

But it was not forming its typical lava dome, a glowing red cap that can be seen for miles (kilometers) as magma builds at the summit. In other words, from the villages that cling to its slopes, Merapi didn't look like it was going to blow.

On Oct. 26, a day after Surono put it on its highest alert, Merapi erupted. Ten days later, it expanded its reach, unleashing a surge of gas, rock and other debris totaling 1.7 billion cubic feet (50 million cubic meters), the largest explosion in a century. More than 270 people were killed.

If Surono knew that the biggest eruption in recent memory was imminent, why did the Nov. 5 blast catch many off guard, cutting people down with searing gases as they tried to flee, charring them in their sleep and destroying whole villages?

The fault seems to lie less in failures of prediction than in failures of communication. Villagers who have lived on the volcano all their lives, whose parents lived on the volcano, too, feel they know it.

And they are, in fact, gifted at reading visual changes in the mountain, a technique also used by scientists, said Radan Sukhyar, head of the Geology Agency and Surono's boss. For example, they may take volcanic rock littering a village to mean a blast is coming, and an influx of monkeys and deer from their homes at the peak to mean the area is safe.

But the villagers also believe in something more ephemeral, a sixth sense that may lull them into believing the mountain can be understood and tamed. Surono calls this feeling "voodoo," a mix of animism and the Hindu beliefs that existed before the rise of Islam in Indonesia. He says the job was much more straightforward when he spoke to people living around Mount Sinabung, a volcano that erupted in September on Sumatra island.

"With Merapi, I must talk about nature and culture," he said. "This is not easy."

Sedyo Wiyono, for instance, blamed the latest eruption on human failing and suggested that coexistence with the mountain may no longer be possible.

"I think Mount Merapi is no longer friendly to those of us who were born and raised at its foot. Maybe it was our sins that made the volcano so angry," said the 62-year-old, whose son was killed in one of the blasts.

Communicating is key for any geologist, according to Peter Frenzen, who works for the Forest Service at Mount St. Helens, whose 1980 eruption was the deadliest in U.S. history. In the U.S., he said, scientists fret about sounding an alarm too often or too high because it can make their warnings background noise.

But scientists in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest mostly deal with the evacuation of visitor centers or monitoring posts. In Indonesia, by contrast, people live on volcanos, where thousands of years of eruptions have fertilized the slopes, making the soil some of the richest in a country packed with people to feed and a paucity of land with which to do it.

Since Merapi began its latest series of eruptions, more than 300,000 have been driven from their homes, living in cramped evacuation centers at the foot of the volcano.

As a result, Surono and his team need to make fine distinctions: 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the crater is too close, but 13 miles (21 kilometers) is safe. They want to keep everyone out of harm's way, but they also have to keep as many people in their homes as possible.

And the longer they keep people from their homes without an eruption, the more their credibility is called into question, the more their forecasts become background noise.

"I try to speak with people. I try to touch their hearts. I try to touch their heads - with logical thinking," Surono said.

He tries to explain as simply as possible why he thinks the volcano is dangerous. The night he raised Merapi's alert to its highest level, he called all the chiefs of the nearby villages and begged them to get their residents out when the evacuation order came.

But Surono is not the only one talking.

For instance, there is Maridjan, the sultan-appointed keeper of Merapi's spirits, who frequently refused to evacuate his home when ordered and whose followers sometimes stayed behind with him. He died, at 83, in the first of the latest series of blasts from Merapi. A dozen bodies were found with his, five miles (eight kilometers) from the summit.

Then there are the neighbors. Saminah, who lived with her husband, Sudarjo, and his mother in a village on the slopes, was assured by a neighbor before the Nov. 5 eruption that there was plenty of time to run away if anything happened.

There was indeed time for Saminah and her husband to flee, but when Sudarjo went back for his mother, the gases racing down the mountain seared 60 percent of his body, landing him in a burn ward, covered from head to toe with bandages, barely breathing on a ventilator.

Another self-appointed expert is Sri Hariyanto, whom anyone tuned to radio Merapi Balerante will hear giving recommendations to evacuate and descriptions of the state of the volcano. Hariyanto is not a volcanologist but runs a community outreach program to educate people on the danger of volcanos.

During the current crisis, he took to trying to predict the mountain's moves himself. He speaks with so much authority, it takes time to realize he has no more training in reading volcano behavior than the villagers who gazed out at Merapi on Oct. 25 and didn't believe it was about to erupt.

Surono said he is happy to have local groups disseminate information about Merapi, but he wants them to disseminate the scientists' information. Hariyanto, on the other hand, believes 30 years lived in the mountain's shadow gives him a special connection to Merapi.

"Everyone has intuition; I use it," he said.

Surono tries to outline the risks as best he can and plead with people to listen. But his boss wonders if more drastic action might be taken. Sukhyar said experts are considering recommending that some villages not be rebuilt at all.

"Every volcano has places where people live, but we have to admit that we live in places with the potential for danger," he said. "We must admit that, at some volcanos, the threat is quite open-ended."

---

Associated Press writer Slamet Riyadi contributed to this report.

Malaysia's Richest Men 2010

2010-11-22T10:51:00.002+08:00

Malaysia Richest Men 2010
Top list biodata listing profile of richest people in Malaysia.

Malaysian Richest Men Ranking List: ~
1. Robert Kuok Hock Nien
2. Ananda Krishnan
3. Lee Shin Cheng
4. Lee Kim Hua
5. Quek Leng Chan
6. Teh Hong Piow
7. Yeoh Tiong Lay
8. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary
9. Vincent Tan
10. Tiong Hiew King
11. Azman Hashim
12. Lee Oi Hian & Lee Hau Hian
13. Yaw Teck Seng & Yaw Chee Ming
14. Lim Wee Chai
15. William H. J. Cheng
16. Goh Peng Ooi
17. Lim Kok Thay
18. Jeffrey Cheah
19. Anthony Fernandes
20. G. Gnanalingam
21. Kamarudin Meranun
22. Chan Fong Ann
23. Shahril & Shahriman Shamsuddin
24. A.K. Nathan
25. Chong Chook Yew
26. Mokhzani Mahathir
27. Ahmayuddin bin Ahmad
28. Lau Cho Kun
29. Chen Lip Keong
30. Lee Swee Eng
31. Liew Kee Sin
32. Nazir Razak
33. Eleena Azlan Shah
34. Ong Leong Huat
35. Rozali Ismail
36. Kua Sian Kooi
37. Lin Yun Ling
38. David Law Tien Seng
39. Abdul Hamed Sepawi
40. Syed Mohd Yusof Tun Syed Nasir

Profile of Osama bin Laden - An Excerpt

2010-10-27T15:41:00.001+08:00

Profile: Osama bin Laden
From Amy Zalman, Ph.D.,

Name:
Osama bin Laden, also spelled Usama bin Ladin.
His full name is Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden. ("bin" means "son" in Arabic, so his name also tells his genealogy. Osama is the son of Muhammad, who was the son of Awad, and so forth).

Family Background:
Bin Laden was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capitol. He was the 17th of over 50 children born to his Yemeni father, Muhammad, a self-created billionaire whose fortune came from building contracting. He died in a helicopter accident when Osama was 11 years old.
Osama's Syrian born mother, born Alia Ghanem, married Muhammad when she was twenty-two. She remarried following divorce from Muhammad, and Osama grew up with his mother and stepfather, and their three other children.

Childhood:
Bin Laden was schooled in the Saudi port city, Jedda. His family's wealth gave him access to the elite Al Thagher Model School, which he attended from 1968-1976. The school combined British style secular education with daily Islamic worship.
Bin Laden's introduction to Islam as the basis for political, and potentially violent—activism, was throughinformal sessions run by the Al Thagher's teachers, as New Yorker writer Steve Coll has reported.

Early Adulthood:
In the mid-1970s, bin Laden was married to his first cousin (a normal convention among traditional Muslims), a Syrian woman from his mother's family. He later married three other women, as permitted by Islamic law. It has been reported that he has from 12-24 children.
He attended King Abd Al Aziz University, where he studied civil engineering, business administration, economics and public administration. He is remembered as enthusiastic about religious debates and activities while there.

Key Influences:
Bin Laden's first influences were the Al Thagher teachers who offered extra-curricular Islam lessons. They were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group begun in Egypt which, at that time, promoted violent means to achieve Islamic governance.
Another key influence was Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian-born professor at King Abd Al Aziz University, and a founder of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Azzam solicited bin Laden to raise money and recruit Arabs to help the Muslims repel the Soviets, and he played an instrumental role in the early establishment of al-Qaeda.
Later, Ayman Al Zawahiri, the leader of Islamic Jihad in the 1980s, would play a significant part in the development of bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda.

Organizational Affiliations:
In the early 1980s, bin Laden worked with the mujahideen, guerrillas fighting a self-proclaimed holy war to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. From 1986-1988, he himself fought.
In 1988, bin Laden formed Al Qaeda (the Base), a militant transnational network whose original backbone was Arab Mujahideen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Ten years later, bin Laden forged the Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders, a coalition of terrorist groups intending to wage war against Americans and battle their Middle Eastern military presence.

Objectives:
Bin Laden has expressed his ideological goals in both action and words, with his periodically videotaped public statements.
Since founding Al Qaeda, his objectives have always been the related goals of eliminating the Western presence in the Islamic/Arab Middle East, which includes battling American ally, Israel, and overthrowing local allies of the Americans (such as the Saudis), and establishing Islamic regimes.

'Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?' - An Excerpt

2010-10-27T15:36:00.002+08:00

'Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?'
Interview with Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
From Fred Topel

April 17, 2008 - Morgan Spurlock follows up his critically acclaimed documentary Super Size Me with something completely different – the search for Osama Bin Laden. Spurlock began the documentary process believing he could actually find the terrorist and personally visited some of the most dangerous places in the world. “That was the plan in the beginning,” explained Spurlock. “The plan was, ‘Come on, we've got as good a shot as anybody else. Why not?’” Of course, Bin Laden hasn’t been found which means that as of now Spurlock’s question has yet to be answered.
Morgan Spurlock Interview
Where did the idea come from?
“It was 2005 when we first started talking about what my next movie would be. We'd just finished shooting the first season of 30 Days. Supersize Me did something that none of us anticipated, which was play in about 75 countries around the world. It kind of went so beyond our borders. It was something I didn't anticipate, and the way that it did that made me realize that my next movie I wanted to be something that dealt with something that was much more of a global issue, on a global scale and wasn't just an American issue, of which this was.
I live in New York City so this question is constantly out there. I was there on 9/11 so this is something that's brought up consistently. Bush had just been elected to his second term and Osama had released a tape and suddenly the tape was everywhere. It was on every news channel, every radio station, people were talking about him again. He was completely ubiquitous. Newscasters were like, ‘Where is Osama? Where is he? Why haven't we found him? Why haven't we brought this man to justice? Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?’ And I said, ‘That's a great question. I'd like to know that as well.’
We started just formulating how would we even make a movie like this. How would we start going about trying to find those answers or tackle this topic? We raised a little bit of money to do some preproduction on the movie from a guy named Adam Dell. I was out one night and he said, ‘I just met with your lawyer about a movie that I'd like to make. I'd like to try and go find Osama Bin Laden.’ I said, ‘You and I should sit down and talk immediately.’ So he helped us raise the first bit of seed money, just to even formulate an idea around this film. About two months into that process was when we found out [my wife] Alex was pregnant. At that point, the film took a real shift for me personally. It really went away from just being where in the world is Osama Bin Laden and what kind of world creates an Osama Bin Laden, to also, what kind of world am I about to bring a kid into? I think that kind of shift made it much more personal for me. And I think ultimately made the journey that we went on and the people that we went to talk to in addition to politicians and people in the military, ultimately made the film better.”
How much of an eye opener was it to see how America is perceived?
“I think they don't like America's foreign policy as much as they used to. I think people still have a tremendous amount of hope in what America means and what America is. America is a dream and an ideology and a hope that things can always be better. That's how a lot of people see the United States still. I think that a lot of that has been shattered over the course of, for some people it's been five years, some it's been 10-15 years, but as you heard consistently and we spoke to people consistently, it was, ‘We don't hate the American people but we hate what's happened to the American government and what's transpired.’
I think we're still taught that people hate us and it's this they hate us, them, those people and everybody's grouped into this one thing. Islam is a monolithic thing. Those people are a monolithic thing and that's just not the case. We like things to be very simple and in a little package and I think it's much more broad than that. I think over the course of the film, even when I go in my travels, you see that from different places where we go, from all the countries we go to, there's a much more diverse, even brand of Islam in all of these countries and how it's practiced.
For me, I personally also thought that I was going to be met with a lot more hostility, a lot more resentment, that people weren't going to want to talk to me because I was an American. They weren't going to want to sit down and open up. It was completely the opposite. People really were eager to sit down and share their feelings and share their outlooks and share their opinions. These are people who don't get to speak in a lot of these countries. These people live in countries where if you speak out, you'll go to jail. That's terrible, so I think for them to be able to sit down with somebody from what they see as the Western media and actually being able to express their thoughts, knowing it could potentially reach people back in America, is very brave.”
So where is Osama Bin Laden?
“He's up in my hotel room. He's just hanging out getting room service. I think he's still in the mountains of Waziristan or somewhere in that area. When we got to the end of our trip, when we were in Pakistan, people were pointing to a direction up in those mountains that I think, by the time we got to the border, was probably about 50-75 miles away - guestimating. Whether he's still there or has moved on to somewhere else, because I think he's mobile within that area personally, who knows? I think he's still there, somewhere.”
Did you have an ending for the film if you'd caught him?
“Where if we caught him, we had a big party and I get a big $25 million Tiger Woods golf check? We talked about it, [cinematographer] Danny Marracino and myself, what would happen if we actually would get to find him or get to speak to him. A lot of people have asked what would you have said to him or what would you have asked him. I think the biggest thing for me would have been, I would have liked to have heard from him, ‘How does it end? How does this stop? How can the killing of innocent people end? How can all the hatred end? How can it just get to the point where there's peace and security for everybody?’ And maybe gotten a real answer. Maybe something real would have come out of that, with actual steps. Or, we might have just gotten a whole lot of crazy. Who knows? We would have gotten an answer. That would have been interesting.”
Were you worried he'd be found before you finished postproduction?
“They Found Osama Bin Laden. We Found Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden. No, that was a concern while we were making the film was would this guy be caught. And great. If he was caught, fantastic. That’s an awesome, wonderful thing. You can't be upset about that. Would it have completely ruined the film that we were making at the time? Possibly. It would have thrown a gigantic wrench into the plans, but we would have figured that out somehow. Even if they would have found him, I think a lot of the things people talk about over the course of the movie would remain the same because what you start to see over the course of the movie is, as much as Osama Bin Laden isn't in Egypt or Morocco or Saudi Arabia or the Palestinian territories or Afghanistan or Pakistan, he is in all of those places. The spirit of Osama Bin Laden, his ideology, the way that he thinks has infiltrated these countries, especially people who are in that minority of people that get all the airtime here in the United States.
I think what the film does a really good job of doing is starting to give a voice to that silent majority, the people that I think we don't give enough airtime to in America. I think the film does a great job of getting out of the two minute sound bites that we get on the news and painting a much different portrait of what life is like in the Middle East for a lot of these people on a daily basis.”
Was there a point that you knew nobody was close to finding Osama, you didn't have to worry?
“Yeah, personally I figured it had been so long and they hadn't found him and hadn't caught him that the chances of them finding him before we finished the film, odds were in our favor. It was the calculated risk that we took. As I said, had they found him, it would have been fantastic, but they didn't and hopefully they do.”

Being a Chinese-Indonesian - An Excerpt

2010-10-23T12:03:00.001+08:00

Being a Chinese-Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/13/2006 1:42 PM
Wijanto Hadipuro, Jakarta
Once I happened to meet a Chinese-American lawyer. When she found out I had married a ""native"" Javanese woman, she asked me, ""Has that made your life easier?"" Her question really made me realize some things about my position.

I remember what happened when I went to get my marriage certificate. I went to the office alone, without my wife. The woman who waited on me picked up a big book and tried to find my name. She looked two or three times but could not find it.

She looked at me several times before asking me whether my wife was a ""native"". When I nodded, she was angry and asked me why I didn't tell her in the first place. She then picked up another book.

I do not care what kind of book they use to register my marriage. What I care about is her expression when she found out my wife was ""native"".

Marrying a woman from another ethnicity and religion has not actually made my life easier. I have to think things over for a long time before I bring my wife and my daughter to visit my family, because most of my relatives cannot accept my wife's background.

My wife has also had bitter experiences. We got married according to my religion. We both believed in Jesus Christ, but we had different religions. She was told by her religious leader that she did not belong to the faithful anymore because she got married outside her religion.

I have a Chinese-Indonesian friend who is Muslim. He married a ""native"" woman. During the riots of in May 1998, I told him he was lucky that he could go anywhere safely, because he had successfully assimilated with the Indonesian majority. His answer surprised me: ""Nobody will ask about my religion or my wife,"" he said. ""People will look at my face and because I look like a Chinese, my religion and my wife will not save me from harm.""

When I visited Atlanta, I was accompanied by a black officer from the Public Works Office.

""Charles,"" I said, ""there are so many black people living in Atlanta, and you can work at government offices. I think it is good that there is not any discrimination against black people here.""

His answer, too, was a surprise. ""Government rules can't make discrimination disappear from my social life."" he said. ""Not all white people want to interact socially with black people like me.""

A place without social discrimination would be utopia. Charles' remark reveals another fact we must accept: that government regulations can't abolish social discrimination.

My wife was discriminated against in terms of her salary. She earned less than her Chinese-Indonesian friend, just because they worked at a company owned by a Chinese-Indonesian businessman. My wife with more than five years' experience at the company got only half the salary of her Chinese-Indonesian friend, who had worked for just a month at the same managerial level.

Once I read an article about indicators of social tolerance. According to the article, there are three degrees of social tolerance. The worst is when somebody does not tolerate the existence of anyone from outside his group. Such a person will try to banish ""different"" people if it's not possible to make them the same as him- or herself.

In the case of religion, for example, somebody from a certain religion might say someone from another belief system will go to hell. Another, less extreme example is when somebody does not tolerate other people's religious activities.

A better level of social tolerance is when someone accepts the existence of ""different"" people. He or she may work together and cooperate with them, but cannot accept the ""different"" person becoming a family member, for example, through marriage.

The most tolerant people are those who not only accept ""different"" people, but can welcome them as family members. This group of people is the smallest. There are only a few people who can do that, and my experience shows that people like this are marginalized both by their own groups and their spouse's groups. If you belong to this group, believe me, your life is more complicated than the lives of the other two groups.

We are born with differences. That is true. But some differences are significant for certain people, and some are not. We have to accept that. It is no use to claim equality among all those inherited differences, even by way of the law.

My experience proves that if you are not strong enough, you should keep your group identity as strong as possible. Assimilation and regulations cannot remove social discrimination from every corner of the world.

I have never regretted my decision to marry a Javanese woman, and I will not claim equal rights to citizenship. I am happy with that as long as everybody can accept my existence. If you are Chinese-Indonesian you will be better off going to a school where there are a lot of Chinese-Indonesians and working for a company owned by a Chinese-Indonesian. It will help you avoid a lot of discrimination.

The writer is a Chinese-Indonesian who married a pribumi (native) woman.

__________________________________________________

I am a Chinese-Indonesian

Aimee Dawis, Jakarta | Wed, 02/06/2008 2:16 PMIn December last year, I attended a seminar in Singapore. I was welcomed by the seminar representative at the Changi Airport.

After shaking hand, he asked me, "Are you ethnic Chinese? Your name is not Chinese, but you look Chinese." I told him that I am Chinese and he was taken aback. "I couldn't tell from your name that you're Chinese," he said.

The puzzlement around my name and my identity as an ethnic Chinese from Indonesia continued throughout the one-day seminar.

As a writer and researcher on the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, I was invited to present my paper on China and the Cultural Identity of the Chinese in Indonesia.

Hoping to dispel the confusion arising from my name, I decided to begin my presentation by explaining my name and the historical implications and significance of naming among the Chinese in Indonesia.

In 1966, the Indonesian government issued a policy which strongly recommended Indonesian citizens of Chinese descent change their names into Indonesian ones to prove their loyalty to Indonesia.

This policy was released in the wake of the Soeharto regime's closures of Chinese schools, bans on public expressions of Chinese culture and language and widespread government suspicion regarding the Chinese community's role in the PKI's (The Indonesian Communist Party's) uprising in 1965.

Being a heterogeneous and diverse community, the Chinese in Indonesia responded to the name-changing policy in distinct ways. My father chose to change his name to Didi Dawis from Djie Ie Ling.

His other six siblings chose different names for themselves. One of his siblings who chose to keep his Chinese name.

While the names chosen by my father's family (except for his youngest brother) have been Indonesianized to the extent most people cannot tell that they are Chinese, there are other Indonesian names chosen by the Chinese in Indonesia that implicitly indicate that they are still Chinese.

For example, those with the Chinese surnames of Tan, Ong and Wee chose Indonesianized surnames such as Tanuwijaya, Ongggara and Wijaya.

These names show a desire to retain a sense of Chineseness while at the same time complying with the government's policy.

When Abdurrahman Wahid served as the President of Indonesia between November 1999 and August 2001, he abolished the Presidential Instruction Number 14, signed in 1967 by Soeharto, which restricted the practice of Chinese customs and religions to private domain.

Following this abolition, he signed the Presidential Instruction Number 6, stipulated in the year 2000, which allows the public celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Megawati took a step further by declaring Chinese New Year has been a national holiday in 2003.

Other than the official celebration of Chinese New Year, the revival of Chinese culture may be seen in the establishment of schools offering Mandarin as a mode of instruction and a proliferation of Chinese-language newspapers in Indonesia.

In 1999, a television channel that broadcasts news in Chinese (Metro TV) and a radio station (Cakrawala) have joined the growing number of Chinese-language newspapers to form a media climate that is more open to Chinese language and culture.

The dazzling array of choices and opportunities arising from the acceptance and embrace of Chinese language and culture in today's Indonesia does not mean the process of identity process and maintenance among the Indonesian Chinese is less complex than in the Soeharto era by any means.

The meaning of Chineseness is always shifting through time and place, and is dependent on the discursive tug-of-war between self-positioning and being positioned by others.

With the available options, the Indonesian Chinese are now presented with various means to (re)negotiate their own sense of Chineseness. From the moment their babies are born, Indonesian Chinese parents are no longer pressured to name their offspring with Indonesian names. In my observations, some parents have chosen to meld not two, but three cultures together by giving their newborns names such as Adrian Wijaya Ng, Louisa Kartadinata Liu; the first names being Western (because the parents have been educated overseas), the middle names being Indonesian, while the last names are Chinese. Yet there are many other parents who still prefer to name their babies with Indonesian names such as Hendra Suryajaya or Dewi Kurniadi.

The differences in attitudes and expectations in the Indonesian Chinese community with regards to naming reveal the polyphonic nature of identity issues. As Indonesia erases the discriminatory regulations against the Indonesian Chinese, members of this community are presented with different sources of Chinese cultural expressions that begin with their names and formal Chinese language education and continue with Chinese media, Chinese organizations and cultural performances.

Depending on their distinct socio-cultural backgrounds and the choices they make, the next generation of Indonesian Chinese and their parents may uncover new channels and avenues in their continuing process of being Chinese in Indonesia.

The writer teaches in the graduate programs of the University of Indonesia School of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Communications, and the Letters Department at the School of Humanities. She can be reached at canting@hotmail.com.

Church Failing to Reach One-Fourth of the World - An Excerpt

2010-10-23T11:45:00.001+08:00

Fri, Oct. 22 2010 06:26 AM EDT
Missionaries: Church Failing to Reach One-Fourth of the World
By Michelle A. Vu

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – More than 25 percent of the ethnic groups (unreached people groups) in the world, or about two billion people, are not represented at the Lausanne Conference.

An unreached people group means that cross-cultural mission is necessary for a person in the group to hear the Gospel because they cannot find people within their ethnic group to share with them the good news.

Mission leaders on Wednesday said the hardest obstacle to overcome in reaching unreached people groups is the obedience of the church. They spoke at the Lausanne multiplex session titled “M*ss*ng People: The Unserved One-Fourth World.”

A video shown at the beginning of the session highlighted that despite the fact that 86 percent of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists do not personally know a Christ follower, 90 percent of missionaries go to “Christianized” regions, according to the World Christian Database.

“In my 14 years working with Muslims, mobilizing churches in Korea, I came to realized that Muslims haven’t been missing people to God, but to God’s people,” said Henry Lee, a mission leader based in Seoul, South Korea, and part of Ethne to Ethne (Greek for people to people), a global mission network focused on getting the gospel to unreached people groups.

Kent Park, president of U.S.-based Mission to Unreached Peoples, explained why churches do not share the Gospel with people groups that need to hear it.

“The Indonesian church, by its own confession, said we have ignored them (difficult unreached people groups in Indonesia) because we didn’t want to pay the price, we were afraid, we didn’t think it would work, we didn’t think they would change. That’s what it means to be unreached.”

Arychiluhm Beyene, who has worked in the mission field for the last 15 years, including six years with the most difficult people in Somalia, told a touching story of a “scary” looking Somali man who converted to Christianity from Islam.

After the Somali man converted, he told Beyene, “When you look at us from outside with the long beard, with the cap, and jalabiya (traditional loose fitting clothes worn by some Somali men), we look scary. But I just want to give you assurance, don’t stop telling the good news. Although we look scary from the outside, our inside is looking for the truth.”

During the missing people session, an African mission leader also spoke to the disconnect he sees between what African Christians are taught and how they live their lives.

Although Africa currently has the highest Christian growth rate in the world, it also has the highest levels of HIV, conflict, poverty, and corruption, said Peter Tarantal, the South Africa regional director of Ethne to Ethne.

In 1900, there were 8 million Christians in Africa. Today, there are 500 million Christians in Africa and in some countries 90 percent or more of the population is Christian.

“The challenge before us is despite as a church having grown so much, we need to teach people what it means to live as people of God,” said Tarantal.

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, also known as Cape Town2010, has drawn more than 4,000 Christian leaders representing over 190 nations to Cape Town, South Africa.The conference was founded by American evangelist Billy Graham in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland,to bring together the global body of Christ for world evangelization.

Civilian Deaths in Iraq - An Excerpt

2010-10-23T11:31:00.001+08:00

A Grim Portrait of Civilian Deaths in Iraq
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ANDREW W. LEHREN
Published: October 22, 2010

The reports in the archive disclosed by WikiLeaks offer an incomplete, yet startlingly graphic portrait of one of the most contentious issues in the Iraq war — how many Iraqi civilians have been killed and by whom.

The reports make it clear that most civilians, by far, were killed by other Iraqis. Two of the worst days of the war came on Aug. 31, 2005, when a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad killed more than 950 people after several earlier attacks panicked a huge crowd, and on Aug. 14, 2007, when truck bombs killed more than 500 people in a rural area near the border with Syria.

But it was systematic sectarian cleansing that drove the killing to its most frenzied point, making December 2006 the worst month of the war, according to the reports, with about 3,800 civilians killed, roughly equal to the past seven years of murders in New York City. A total of about 1,300 police officers, insurgents and coalition soldiers were also killed in that month.

The documents also reveal many previously unreported instances in which American soldiers killed civilians — at checkpoints, from helicopters, in operations. Such killings are a central reason Iraqis turned against the American presence in their country, a situation that is now being repeated in Afghanistan.

The archive contains reports on at least four cases of lethal shootings from helicopters. In the bloodiest, on July 16, 2007, as many as 26 Iraqis were killed, about half of them civilians. However, the tally was called in by two different people, and it is possible that the deaths were counted twice. Read the Document »

In another case, in February 2007, an Apache helicopter shot and killed two Iraqi men believed to have been firing mortars, even though they made surrendering motions, because, according to a military lawyer cited in the report, “they cannot surrender to aircraft, and are still valid targets.” Read the Document »

The shooting was unusual. In at least three other instances reported in the archive, Iraqis surrendered to helicopter crews without being shot. The Pentagon did not respond to questions from The Times about the rules of engagement for the helicopter strike.

The pace of civilian deaths served as a kind of pulse, whose steady beat told of the success, or failure, of America’s war effort. Americans on both sides of the war debate argued bitterly over facts that grew hazier as the war deepened.

The archive does not put that argument to rest by giving a precise count. As a 2008 report to Congress on the topic makes clear, the figures serve as “guideposts,’ not hard totals. But it does seem to suggest numbers that are roughly in line with those compiled by several sources, including Iraq Body Count, an organization that tracked civilian deaths using press reports, a method the Bush administration repeatedly derided as unreliable and producing inflated numbers. In all, the five-year archive lists more than 100,000 dead from 2004 to 2009, though some deaths are reported more than once, and some reports have inconsistent casualty figures. A 2008 Congressional report warned that record keeping in the war had been so problematic that such statistics should be looked at only as “guideposts.”

In a statement on Friday, Iraq Body Count, which did a preliminary analysis of the archive, estimated that it listed 15,000 deaths that had not been previously disclosed anywhere.

The archive tells thousands of individual stories of loss whose consequences are still being felt in Iraqi families today.

Misunderstandings at checkpoints were often lethal. At one Marine checkpoint, sunlight glinting off a windshield of a car that did not slow down led to the shooting death of a mother and the wounding of three of her daughters and her husband. Hand signals flashed to stop vehicles were often not understood, and soldiers and Marines, who without interpreters were unable to speak to the survivors, were left to wonder why. Read the Document »

According to one particularly painful entry from 2006, an Iraqi wearing a tracksuit was killed by an American sniper who later discovered that the victim was the platoon’s interpreter. Read the Document »

The archive’s data is incomplete. The documents were compiled with an emphasis on speed rather than accuracy; the goal was to spread information as quickly as possible among units. American soldiers did not respond to every incident.

And even when Americans were at the center of the action, as in the western city of Falluja in 2004, none of the Iraqis they killed were categorized as civilians. In the early years of the war, the Pentagon maintained that it did not track Iraqi civilian deaths, but it began releasing rough counts in 2005, after members of Congress demanded a more detailed accounting on the state of the war. In one instance in 2008, the Pentagon used reports similar to the newly released documents to tabulate the war dead.

This month, The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon in July had quietly posted its fullest tally of the death toll of Iraqi civilians and security forces ever, numbers that were first requested in 2005 through the Freedom of Information Act. It was not clear why the total — 76,939 Iraqi civilians and members of the security forces killed between January 2004 and August 2008 — was significantly less than the sum of the archive’s death count.

The archive does not have a category for the main causes of Iraqi deaths inflicted by Americans. Compared with the situation in Afghanistan, in Iraq aerial bombings seemed to be less frequently a cause of civilian deaths, after the initial invasion. The reports were only as good as the soldiers calling them in. One of the most infamous episodes of killings by American soldiers, the shootings of at least 15 Iraqi civilians, including women and children in the western city of Haditha, is misrepresented in the archives. The report stated that the civilians were killed by militants in a bomb attack, the same false version of the episode that was given to the news media.

Civilians have borne the brunt of modern warfare, with 10 civilians dying for every soldier in wars fought since the mid-20th century, compared with 9 soldiers killed for every civilian in World War I, according to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Malaysian state launches Islamic currency - An Excerpt

2010-08-16T21:33:00.000+08:00

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 8/12/2010
Malaysian state launches Islamic currency
A Malaysian state on Thursday launched the Islamic dinar and dirham as an alternative currency, allowing the golden and silver coins to be used as legal tender alongside conventional banknotes.

Authorities in northern Kelantan state, which is ruled by the Islamic opposition party PAS, said the Islamic currencies would be used in many shops in the state in addition to the national currency, the ringgit.

"We have over 1,000 shops that have signed up to our campaign and agreed to accept the dinar and dirham for the purchase of goods," state cabinet minister Husam Musa told AFP.

He said signboards have been erected in the main market in the state capital Kota Bharu to show the conversion table between the dinar and ringgit, and participating shops will display stickers to encourage people to use the coins.

"The response has been very positive and all the coins which were worth a total of 2.0 million ringgit (629,000 dollars) have been sold out at the launch today," said Husam, who is in charge of economic and finance planning.

According to Islamic law, the dinar measures 4.25 grams of gold, while the dirham is 3.0 grams of pure silver.

A golden coin is equivalent to about 582 ringgit (183 dollars) while the silver coin is worth around 13 ringgit but their values fluctuate according to market prices.

Husam said the dinar and dirham currencies can also be used dealings with state goverment agencies, such as paying "zakat", or alms for the poor.

There has been a long debate in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country with large ethnic Chinese and Indian communities, to introduce the coins as legal tender nationally.

Former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose administration promoted a moderate form of Islam that emphasised economic and scientific development, shot down the proposal to use the Islamic currencies.

But his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, was an advocate of the dinar system and urged Muslim countries to use it as a trade instrument.

The debate has died down since current Prime Minister Najib Razak came to power last year.

Ramadan Across The World - An Excerpt

2010-08-14T06:19:00.000+08:00

Ramadan around the world: Photos
Sunni Muslims across much of the world on Wednesday began the fasting month of Ramadan during an especially gruelling time of the year for many, with the Shiite community expected to follow suit on Thursday.

Authorities urged Muslims to be merciful during Ramadan, while non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries were asked to observe the rules and refrain from drinking or eating in public or face fines and imprisonment.

The first day of Ramadan was observed Wednesday in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, and Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation.

Most Arab Gulf states also began observing Ramadan, as did Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian Territories, war-wracked Afghanistan, Malaysia and Singapore.

India and Pakistan as well as Shiite communities were expected to begin Ramadan on Thursday, should they sight the new crescent moon, which fixes the start of the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, Wednesday evening.

Saudi King Abdullah urged Muslims to seek God's "mercy" during Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayers and alms giving which is one of the five pillars of Islam.

"The holy month inspires Muslims with the noble meanings of compassion, mercy and kindness," he said in a joint speech with Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, according to the official SPA news agency.

They stressed that Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, must protect Islam and encourage dialogue with other religions and cultures in order to build "a civilised and coherent world."

Muslims observe Ramadan by abstaining from food, drink and sex from dawn until sunset. Pregnant and menstruating women, the sick, travellers and prepubescent children are exempt from the fast.

Ramadan will begin amid scorching temperatures in the Middle East and elsewhere, with the first six months of 2010 being globally the warmest ever recorded.

Egypt, whose 80 million population is mostly Muslim, has switched to winter time, moving the clock back by an hour in order to shorten the period of fasting. The Palestinian Territories has done the same.

Ramadan is also a month of charity and in Jordan King Abdullah and his wife Queen Rania announced they will provide financial aid to orphan students to cover their tuition fees and other expenses.

Meanwhile Indonesia said it will crack down on Internet pornography.

Quoting a poem, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring urged Muslims to "keep hearts clean in the holy month," and said he would target websites and media that carried sexual content.

In the United Arab Emirates non-Muslims were warned against eating or drinking in public.

"Violating the virtues of the fasting month is offending to Muslims and is a criminal act punishable by the law," Colonel Mohammad Nasser al-Razooqi of the Dubai police was quoted as saying by Gulf News daily.

Many foreign embassies posted messages on their websites reminding expatriates to respect Ramadan rules.

"To ensure that your stay is memorable... keep in mind that you are no longer in the UK. Respect the laws and values of the country and your stay should be an extremely enjoyable one," a British statement said.

In the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino said he hoped Ramadan would see social reconciliation in a heavily Roman Catholic country beset by profound poverty and corruption along with a long-running Muslim insurgency.

A separatist Muslim insurgency in the southern region of Mindanao has claimed more than 150,000 lives over the past four decades, and peace talks between the government and the rebels are due to start after Ramadan.

Across the Middle East, offices were opening later than usual and closing earlier to allow people to get home on time for the iftar meal that breaks the fast. A second meal, the suhur, is taken just before daybreak.

In many countries, authorities issued special traffic laws to ensure the streets are not choked when employees rush home.

Meanwhile journalist Anna Seaman, a Briton who converted to Islam, told readers how she conquered the hardship of fasting.

"I realised the struggle was not about missing my lunch, but about trying to become a better person," Seaman wrote in the Abu Dhabi newspaper The National on Wednesday.

She also noted that fasting is central to Christian and Jewish feasts, such as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews are forbidden from eating, drinking, driving and using electrical devices among other things, and Lent when Christians must give up certain food items during 40 days of Lent.

Confessions of a Corporate Security Guard - An Excerpt

2010-07-23T08:45:00.001+08:00

Confessions of a Corporate Security Guard - By Richard Todd Aguayo, Posted Jul 22nd 2010 @ 12:00PM

It's 3AM, Do You Know Who's Watching Your Stuff?

security guardAs the sun goes down and the magnetic doors clamp closed, a band of brothers (and sisters) begin their day so you can sleep well at night. The security guard is one of the most common sights in today's corporate culture -- but other than a quick wave or the head nod or the "Have a nice day" that you exchange with your local security professional, how well do you know them, and what they do when you are gone?

Well, it's time to find out.

I have been working security for over six years. I've worked for several companies and have worked at many different kinds of accounts -- but there has always been one consistent theme regardless of my assigned location: Nobody has ever asked what my name is. Other than the people I work with, or my immediate supervisor or manager, I've never had someone ask me my name. That's OK, because knowing my name shouldn't be your main concern. What I do inside your office when your gone, should be.

Keeping your secrets

Take a minute to think about what you leave behind when your day is over and you head home for the night. Your laptop? Your bills with account numbers and other personal information on them? Your prescriptions? Yes, I have access to all of it. But it's OK, you can relax. I'm not going to tell anyone you take medicine for shingles. Just make sure you put the bottle in your desk drawer next time, and not leave it on the edge of your desk so it can fall off and have someone like me come along and pick it up. Although, the truth of the matter is you want me to find your medicine. And I'll tell you why:

There are two types of security guards. The kind that care, and the kind that would rather stick a fork in their eye than guard your things. Fortunately for you, I'm the caring type. Unfortunately, I'm in the minority. (What do you expect for $9 an hour? There's a reason they say "You get what you pay for.")

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, security guards held approximately 1.1 million jobs in 2008. Employment opportunities for security guards are expected to grow faster than average through 2018.

Well it all starts with showing up on time -- which also isn't always assured. Many guards work security as a second job. Single mothers are common, as are college students. Which means other matters can take precedent over being at work on time. Making sure the baby sitter shows up or a classroom lab exam ends as scheduled, can put a dent in the "on-time" performance. But no matter, most supervisors and managers are unsympathetic and routinely write up and fire folks without blinking an eye. This is why turnover is so prevalent in the profession, and one of the root causes for the less-than-stellar job performance of most security outfits. But, I digress.

After a guard arrives, he or she takes stock of what the previous shift has encountered. Broken door locks, water leaks, malfunctioning alarm systems, intruders, unexplained odors, and all other relevant information is "passed on" to the arriving shift. And then the work begins: watching static video monitors that rarely reveal anything and walking around the property for the next eight hours. As I mentioned, I'm one of the kind of security guards that care. So, I do my appointed rounds. I check to make sure doors are locked. I check to make sure the lights are out. And I check to make sure your coffee warmer or space heater is turned off. (Which is why I found your medicine on the floor.) I've encountered homeless people in hallways, and raccoons in stairwells. I've been spit at, threatened, and chased. I've also helped lost people find their car and kept drunk people from getting in their car. I have found and returned wallets, paychecks, and cell phones.

Enjoying the "down" time

But, there's one thing I enjoy most of all:

The quiet. Working from 11PM to 7AM may be isolated and lonely, but that's exactly why I do it. In between making my rounds and checking the video monitors, I write. I write blogs, short stories, screenplays, and yes, articles. As a matter of fact, I'm at work right now. Which is why I have to end this, because I have to go on another patrol.

But please do me a favor:

Along with making sure you turn off your office lights and unplug your space heater, and keeping your prescriptions in your desk, take a moment to truly say "hello" to your security guards and go ahead and ask them their name. It may make the difference in having them actually want to watch your stuff or not... at 3AM or otherwise.

A Cosmopolitan Conversation - An Excerpt

2010-07-21T14:17:00.000+08:00

A Cosmopolitan Conversation on digital and print media with Evan Osnos
The New Yorker's China correspondent Evan Osnos discusses print versus digital media, middle-class politics, but won't be drawn on his favorite Chinese food, ahead of his public talk with Jeffery Wasserstrom
By Jessica Beaton 20 July, 2010

The prize-winning China correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos, joins the "Cosmopolitan Conversations" with Jeffery Wasserstrom at Glamour Bar to talk about writing versus new media reporting in China. Both speakers write for both print and online media, making them keenly aware of the different channels for covering China -- and where they intersect.

CNNGo grabbed a few minutes with Osnos to get a preview of what’s going to be discussed.

CNNGo: You’ve covered everything from war zones and the Middle East to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Why move to China now? Is something going to happen here that we don’t know about?
Evan Osnos:
To me, China is the most interesting story on the planet. It was also luck, in a sense, that it also happened to be the place that I started studying in college and had always intended to work. The Middle East was a fascinating detour, but not the destination.
Get your pinyin correct or people will write to you.
— Evan Osnos

CNNGo: Everyone has been talking about the shift to online media and its effects on print media. Since you write for both media, how do you see this balance?
Evan Osnos:
What I write exclusively for the web is a snack; what I write for the magazine is the meal -- but I don't see the distinction as being between the web and print, but, rather, between short and long, or quick reporting versus deep reporting.

The printed page is not the issue; I read many magazines now on my Kindle or iPhone.

I think people should be paid for their work, so I'm all in favor of the pay wall. Readers, it turns out, will pay for things that they can't get elsewhere. At The New Yorker, much of the long writing every week is behind a pay wall, and is the only way to ensure that this work gets done.

CNNGo: In your experience, does China face the same print versus digital media issues that we see in the United States and Europe?
Evan Osnos:
No, at least not yet. The media business is at a different stage of development, but the same pressures are inevitable. But, for the same reasons, they will be manageable.

CNNGo: This topic of your talk with Professor and blogger Jeffery Wasserstrom is looking at the “different channels for covering China, and where they intersect.” So, where do they intersect?
Evan Osnos:
Without spilling all the beans, I can say that there are stories that benefit from -- and, indeed, require -- both quick reporting and deep reporting. Often, I find myself writing a long profile of an interesting person, then returning to the subject online in the weeks and months that follow as the story develops.

CNNGo: What lessons have you learned about blogging in China?
To me, China is the most interesting story on the planet ... The Middle East was a fascinating detour, but not the destination.
— Evan Osnos
Evan Osnos:
Get your pinyin correct or people will write to you.

CNNGo: Which China blogs do you read regularly?
Evan Osnos:
I always avoid making lists because I'm sure to forget some I respect, but it's safe to say that the world of English and Chinese-language blogging on China is terrific, and I wouldn't be able to do much of my job without them.

CNNGo: A lot of people talk about the “Chinese Internet” and the “English Internet” as two separate places. What’s your view on this?
Evan Osnos:
I can see why some people might bridle at the idea of a distinction, and, indeed, more sites are popping up that try to speak to both audiences. But, on a literal level, the Chinese and English Internet spaces have not only their own language-based audiences, but also different mores and tribes.

Some of the subcultures that exist on the Chinese web -- whether it's the 50-cent party or "the elites" (a codeword, usually, for liberal voices) -- they don't have as much resonance on the "English Internet."

CNNGo: What’s the most interesting “China story” to you in the news in the moment?
Evan Osnos:
I'm interested in the degree to which the Chinese middle class and intellectual class chooses to engage or not engage with politics.

CNNGo: Now the most important question: as someone who has lived in China so a number of years, if you could only eat one Chinese dish for the rest of your life what would it be and why?
Evan Osnos:
[Laughs] No way am I picking a fight on this one!

World Cup Final 2010: Spain vs Netherlands Pre-Game Match Preview - An Excerpt

2010-07-11T23:35:00.002+08:00

World Cup Final 2010: Spain vs Netherlands Pre-Game Match Preview
Written by David Delano on Sunday, July 11th, 2010

World Cup Final 2010: Netherlands 1974 and 1978 – Netherlands vs Spain might just defy Paul the Octopus and eventually be the long awaited World Cup Championship for the Netherlands.

In 1974, Netherlands faced West Germany. The team back then was composed of the best of Ajax, the inventors of Total Football and the Holland National Football Team.

During the 1974 World Cup finals, West Germany was led by Franz Beckenbauer and Netherlands has Johan Cruijff. The Dutch carried out their Total Football which had stunned both the fans and their opponents.The Netherlands opened the scoring via a Johan Neeskens penalty in the second minute, only for Paul Breitner to equalise with another penalty in the 25th minute before Gerd Müller scored the winning goal in the 43rd minute, claiming West Germany’s secondWorld Cup.

It was a devastating defeat for the Dutch but they never lost hope. They have trained and refined their skills and made improvements to Total Football/ Then, in the 1978World Cup in Argentina they are in the finals once more. This time they are up against Argentina and the match was one of the most controversial in the World Cup.

During the 1978 World Cup Finals, the Netherlands lost again to the host team, 3-1. The game started late as the host team came late and then questioned the legality of a plaster cast on René van de Kerkhof’s wrist, which the Dutch claimed allowed tension to build in front of a hostile Buenos Aires crowd.The Netherlands refused to attend the post-match ceremonies after the match ended.

Argentina won in extra time as the match ended 1-1 during the 90-minute regulation time. Mario Kempes, who finished as the tournament’s top scorer, was named the man of the match.

Today at 14:30 EDT, Holland will once again have the opportunity to win the World Cup championship. Will they be able to win it? Watch and take your seat on your television sets or online through available Netherlands vs Spain live stream.

This is judgement day!
________________________________________________________
FIFA confirm Howard Webb to referee Spain vs Netherlands World Cup 2010 final

By Matt Monaghan 8 Jul 2010 16:47:00
English referee Howard Webb will take charge of Sunday's World Cup 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands, FIFA have announced.
Webb, 38, will form a team with assistants Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey for the showpiece clash. After missing out on the quarter and semi-finals, the Rotherham-born official will become the first Englishman since Jack Taylor in 1974 to be handed the prestigious post.
The former police officer and his partners had been widely praised for their handling of the Brazil vs Chile second round and Slovakia vs Italy group stage matches. Webb also officiated Inter's Champions League final victory against Bayern Munich in May, despite experiencing criticism in some quarters for a sub-par domestic campaign.

Jakarta Residents To Continue Facing Flood Problem - An Excerpt

2010-07-06T09:11:00.001+08:00

July 05, 2010 23:12 PM

Jakarta Residents To Continue Facing Flood Problem

JAKARTA, July 5 (Bernama) -- Jakarta residents will continue to be plagued by the flood problem as 40 per cent of the city area near the Java Sea is below sea level.

Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo, who promised that Jakarta would be free from flooding during the governors' elections three years ago, is resigned to the fact that the problem cannot be solved altogether and is instead targeting to reduce it by 40 per cent by 2011 and 75 per cent by 2016.

Jakarta, the world's third most polluted city, is surrounded by 13 rivers and has several areas which are densely populated and flood-prone.

The big flood, when it came every five years, had inundated the city's main government administrative area and major commercial centres like in Jalan Thamrin right up to where the Presidential Palace is located.

Fauzi Bowo said the flood management programme was a priority in the Jakarta Middle-Term Development Plan, with the flood mitigation projects costing Rp22 trillion jointly funded by the central and provincial governments.

When launching the white paper on the flood management programme for Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo outlined several factors which contributed to the flood problem such as heavy rain, rise in sea level and climate change, as well as development in the Bogor highlands nearby.

He said to overcome the problem, the city government built a horseshoe-shaped water channel around Jakarta and flowing towards the sea. The project comprises the West Flood Canal, which is completed, and the East Flood Canal, which is under construction.

Besides that, dredging out of silt and mud from rivers is also being carried out. This has not been done in the last 30 years.

"Infrastructure projects alone are not enough to prevent flooding as the effort must be comprehensive, including a change in the people's attitude and habits," said Fauzi Bowo.

"During the big flood in 2007, the government had to spend a lot of money, time and effort to collect 15 truckloads of garbage from Ciliwung River in the Kalibata area and 90 truckloads from the river in the Manggarai district alone."

Jakarta has a population of 8.5 million with an annual population growth rate of 1.06 per cent.

Forbes World's Most Powerful Celebrities - An Excerpt

2010-06-29T09:43:00.001+08:00

GAGA THE LADY

Forbes World's Most Powerful Celebrities
By Lacey Rose Dorothy Pomerantz - 27 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Pants-less pop stars, late-night warriors and sexy vampires spiced up the fame game last year, with Lady Gaga, Conan O'Brien and Twilight superstars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson joining the Forbes Celebrity 100 list for the first time.

But despite their impressive debuts (Gaga hit the list in fourth place), Oprah Winfrey is the year's big winner. After being ousted by Angelina Jolie on last year's list (Jolie dropped to No. 18 this year), the Queen of all Media takes back her crown on Forbes' annual ranking of the world's ultra-famous. Winfrey earned $315 million over the past 12 months.

Video: The Power of Twilight The talk-show host choked up when announcing that this coming season of her flagship chat fest would be her last. The news helped the self-made billionaire garner more media attention than any other member of the Celebrity 100. Winfrey earns big thanks to The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as her magazine, popular website, radio channel, TV specials and movies like the Oscar-nominated Precious. Looking ahead, her Harpo production company, which launched the careers of Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray and Dr. Oz, will introduce interior designer-turned-talk-show host Nate Berkus this fall.
Months later, the mogul will roll out the lifestyle-themed Oprah Winfrey Network in partnership with Discovery Communications.

The Rest of the Best
Beyonce Knowles climbs two spots to No. 2 on this year's list, raking in $87 million over the course of the year. Her 90-plus date global tour grossed more than $85 million, bolstering a portfolio that includes album sales, her House of Dereon fashion line and a slew of endorsement deals, ranging from Nintendo to L'Oreal. Continuing to expand her business empire beyond music, the female half of hip-hop's most powerful couple also released her first fragrance, Heat, earlier this year.
In at No. 3: director James Cameron. Thanks to the box office success of Avatar, the man who once declared himself "the King of the World" pulled down a hefty $210 million over the last year. Though his 3-D film failed to win the Best Picture Oscar, it broke Cameron's own record by grossing $2.7 billion at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing film ever. (Titanic had rested at the top for 12 years with $1.8 billion.) With the Blu-ray edition of Avatar setting sales records and a sequel in the works, expect Cameron to continue to mint money for years to come.

Earnings Increase
Despite stock market swings and a global economy that seems reluctant to restart, the earnings power of the Celebrity 100 remains remarkably resilient. The stars on our list collectively earned $4.7 billion this year, up from the $4.1 billion they banked a year earlier.

The Celebrity 100, which includes film and television actors, TV personalities, models, athletes, authors, musicians and comedians, is a measure of entertainment-related earnings and media visibility (exposure in print, television, radio and online). Because of the growing power of social networks, we added a social media ranking that reflects each celebrity's presence on Facebook and Twitter. The earnings consist of pre-tax income between June 1, 2009, and June 1, 2010. Management, agent and attorney fees are not deducted.

A Gaga Debut
Lady Gaga catapults onto our list, ranking ahead of much more established pop stars like Madonna (No. 10) and U2 (No. 7). She has a 106-date world tour and her willingness to partner with corporations like Virgin Mobile and Polaroid to thank for an estimated $62 million in earnings. What's more, her fame and theatricality have brought her gobs of press coverage, while her music videos have made her something of an Internet sensation. Proof: The fashion-forward rocker ranks first for social media and Web presence among the Forbes Celebrity 100.
Gaga is also the list's top-ranked newcomer, leading a group that includes the Black Eyed Peas ($48 million), O'Brien ($38 million) and Twilight costars Pattinson and Stewart. Pattinson comes in at No. 50 with estimated earnings of $17 million, while Stewart, who is working on fewer non-Twilight projects, comes in at No. 66 with a $12 million haul.

Woods Stays Strong--for Now
Rounding out the list's top five: golfer Tiger Woods. Despite personal and professional setbacks this year (all negative publicity was extracted from this year's list), the tabloid target still managed to earn $105 million between June 2009 and June 2010. The reality: While his revenue streams have diminished post-scandal (Accenture, AT&T and Pepsi have all dropped Woods as a spokesman), he continues to generate millions from deals with Nike, Electronic Arts and Upper Deck. His golf course design business is also struggling due to the troubled global economy.

Expect to see Woods' income take a sizable dip on next year's list, a byproduct of his tarnished image and the reality of celebrity earnings at large.

Smith Drops Off
Dependent on new deals and fickle fans, the stars and their incomes have a tendency to fluctuate from one year's list to the next. Among this year's drop-offs is Will Smith. After ranking 11th on last year's list with $45 million, the blockbuster king fell off this year because he had no new films in the works during the time frame we analyzed.

Also absent from this year's list is rapper 50 Cent. In 2009 he ranked 50th with an impressive $20 million income. But his last album, Before I Self Destruct, sold barely 500,000 copies and he has been out of the limelight while losing 25% of his body weight to play a cancer patient in the upcoming film Things Fall Apart.

More on the Methodology
The Celebrity 100 is a measure of power based on money and fame. Earnings estimates, which include income from films, television shows, endorsements, books and other entertainment ventures, are calculated between June 2009 and June 2010. Figures were rounded off where appropriate. Additional sources include Billboard, Pollstar, Adams Media Research, The Nielsen Company and SNL Kagan. Fame is calculated using Web hits on Google Blog Search, TV/radio mentions on LexisNexis, overall press mentions on Factiva and the number of times a celebrity's image appeared on the cover of 25 consumer magazines. Social rank is calculated using metrics like Facebook friends and fans as well as Twitter followers.

South Africa Faces Mexico in First Match of World Cup Tournament - An Excerpt

2010-06-12T02:00:00.003+08:00

World Cup 2010: Opening Ceremony Kicks Off Tournament in South Africa

The 2010 World Cup tournament kicked off with today as tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans filled South Africa's Soccer City stadium for the opening ceremony and first match.
South Africa's Bafana Bafana national team faced Mexico, beating expectations in a game that ended in a 1-to-1 tie.

Watch 'World News' tonight on your ABC station for Robin Roberts' World Cup report from South Africa.

Though the Bafana team was the lowest-ranked host country team in World Cup history, that hardly dampened the excitement of the throngs of people that packed the stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, as well as public viewing areas and parties around the country. Most were draped in the yellow jerseys of their team, along with the red, green, blue and black colors of the South African flag

Throughout the opening ceremony and during the game, the loud, overpowering buzz of vuvuzelas filled the air in the stadium. The plastic, trumpetlike horns are a fan-favorite seen everywhere in the country. The noise was so loud that the stadium announcer at one point had to ask the crowd to ease up, with little success.

During the opening ceremony, hundreds of African dancers paraded into the stadium, wearing colorful costumes. The tribal-themed dance entertained the crowd along with American singer R. Kelley, South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and a vibrant fireworks display.

Dignitaries were on hand for the ceremony, including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and South African anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who danced in his seat along with the music.

But there was sadness over one enormous presence missing from the event: Nelson Mandela.

The 91-year-old leader had planned to attend the ceremony, but went into mourning today after the sudden death of his great-granddaughter in a car crash. Zenani Mandela, 13, was killed after leaving a World Cup concert Thursday night.

During today's opening event, South African President Jacob Zuma took a moment to honor Mandela, who played a big role in bringing the games to the country and continent for the first time.

"The spirit of Mandela is in Soccer City," Zuma said to the crowd.

South Africa Faces Mexico in First Match of World Cup Tournament

With the ceremony over, the tournament began.

The traffic getting to the stadium was so bad that many seats had actually been empty during the opening ceremony, but the stadium filled to its 90,000-plus capacity for the first match.

Mexico's national team, ranked 17 in FIFA's world rankings, had been expected to trounce South Africa's beloved Bafana, ranked 83 in the world.

Buoyed by the cheering crowd and those ever-blowing vuvuzelas, Bafana held off the Mexican team throughout the scoreless first half. Shortly into the second half, South African Siphiwe Tshabalala scored an exciting breakaway goal, sending the crowd into a wild dance and a chorus of vuvuzela blasts.

Bafana remained ahead for much of the second half, but Mexico's methodical players evened the score with only minutes left in the game, as Rafael Marquez scored his own goal.

South Africa fell short in its last-ditch attempt for a winning goal, but that hardly mattered to the crowd. With the first game of the 2010 World Cup now over, their team now has one point in the overall standings.

50th Anniversary of "To Kill A Mockingbird " - An Excerpt

2010-06-06T21:37:00.006+08:00

'To Kill a Mockingbird' Turns 50, but Where Is Harper Lee? By Donna Trussell:

This summer America celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird," but don't count on an appearance by the reclusive author, 84-year-old Harper Lee of Monroeville, Ala. She hasn't granted an interview since 1964. She never gives speeches. She's rarely seen outside of her hometown. And she's apparently made her peace with her status as a one-book author.

Harper Lee set the bar so high that subsequent books could never really leave its shadow. In point of fact she once told her cousin, "When you have a hit like that, you can't go anywhere but down." But you could say the same for anyone who touched this landmark story of childhood, of the Deep South, of injustice and redemption, released as a film in 1962.

Actor Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the widowed attorney appointed to defend a black man accused of rape. Ten-year old Mary Badham, who played Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, was the youngest actress ever nominated for Best Supporting Actress. (She lost to another young actress -- Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker.")

Screenwriter Horton Foote and director Robert Mulligan would no doubt count 'To Kill a Mockingbird' as their finest achievement. Actress Collin Wilcox Paxton will be forever known as Mayella Ewell (". . . you're just a bunch of lousy, yella, stinkin' cowards . . . "). To this day, Elmer Bernstein's theme from the opening credits of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is instantly recognizable. As is the score that accompanied the devastating court verdict:

Harper Lee loved the movie. "I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused," she once said. "That film was a work of art."

I would have to agree with Harper Lee. One scene in particular comes to mind. Jem and Scout are talking in the soft tones of children falling asleep. Scout, who was only 2 years old when her mother died, is asking was her mother pretty? Was she nice? Did you love her? Did I love her? Do you miss her? The camera moves from the bedroom window to the front porch where Atticus sits, deep in thought. His face is somber, and we know Atticus is remembering his late wife.

Harper Lee's book has been called "southern gothic," but in this case the gothic is not so much a literary genre as it is the simple assumptions of the little girl narrating the story. To Scout, the world is black and white, rich and poor, good and evil. In her house is her brother Jem and Calpurnia, who cares for them. A few hundred feet away is a broken-down shack inhabited by the bogeyman himself. The days and nights of Jem, Scout and their friend Dill are filled with trees, swings, moonlight, loose boards, secrets, dares, mysteries and souvenirs.

You can't talk about the South without factoring in the heat. Before air conditioning, every window in town was open all the time, and that made minding one's business all but impossible. You heard people fight. You heard them make up. You smelled their cooking. You were part of a community, whether you realized it or not.

What happens when that community divides neighbor against neighbor? Although set during the Great Depression, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' hit bookstores just as the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. The timing was perfect.

But times change. The appeal of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the movie it produced have lasted half a century.

Over the years lawyers confided to Gregory Peck that his performance inspired them to study law, and he got letters up until he died in 2003. At his funeral, Brock Peters, the actor who played defendant Tom Robinson, read the eulogy. To the end, actress Mary Badham, who'd remained friends with both Peck and Peters, still called him Atticus.

Atticus was, in fact, the working title of the book. Harper Lee was the youngest of four children of an attorney in Monroeville. Lee could have studied law like her father, and for a time it looked like that was the likely course of her life.

Ultimately she left law school, moved to New York City and became an airline reservation clerk. And a writer.

Since childhood, Lee had been friends with her Monroeville neighbor, Truman Capote, on whom the "To Kill a Mockingbird" character Dill was based. Although Lee has always played down the autobiographical component of her book, Capote maintained it was all true, right down to the shadowy character Boo Radley and the gifts left in a hollow tree.

What are the odds that two of the greatest writers of our time would happen to live in the same small town, whose population of 6,000+ has barely budged since the 1930s? And what are the odds that Harper Lee would not only have written her own tour de force, but she would have a hand in the creation of another American classic? After finishing her own book, Lee accompanied Capote to Holcomb, Kans., to assist in researching what would become the book, "In Cold Blood."

On July 11, 1960, "To Kill a Mockingbird" appeared in print. Harper Lee had hoped for a little "public encouragement," but she got a good deal more than that. The following year Lee won the Pulitzer Prize.

The acclaim was enthusiastic, but not universal. Author Flannery O'Connor said, "I think for a child's book it does all right. It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is."

The book has sold over 30 million copies and been translated into 40 languages. After filming was complete, Lee retired to a life of seclusion in the house she shared with her sister in Monroeville.

The town is proud of their most famous resident. There's a restaurant called Mockingbird Grill and another called Radley's Fountain. The courthouse where Harper Lee watched her father practice law has been turned into a museum and gift shop.

In 2005 a writer named Charles Shields published a biography. "Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee" is more a portrait of the famous novel than of its author. Not exactly surprising, since he had so little to go on.

One book reviewer complains that the biography omits the most important aspect of "To Kill a Mockingbird." That would be Scout, "Lee's 6-year-old narrator, as an icon of American girlhood."

Margot Mifflin continues:

For thousands of postwar American women, Scout is a touchstone of childhood authenticity . . . We were all Scout once: unfiltered, free-ranging, with a physical confidence rooted in a prepubescent androgyny -- qualities inevitably poisoned by the idiotic affectations of adolescence. (When she senses the feminizing agenda her stuffy aunt has in store for her, Scout feels "the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in" on her.) Lee's magic . . . was in ventriloquizing the experiences of a 6-year-old in the voice of a grown woman, offering a bridge back to childhood. As a motherless child, Scout demonstrates how children treat life's curve balls as what happens, not what shouldn't happen, and adjust their expectations accordingly. She's unlike other girl characters, filmic or literary, of her age . . . What other girl character has Scout's open grace, her left hook, and the narrative to herself from beginning to end?

We were all Scout once. Perhaps there's the answer to the question of why this book (and film, which have merged in the public mind) has endured.

Where is Harper Lee? I like to think of her as she was in 1958. "All but drowning in multiple drafts of the same material, Lee suddenly threw open a window and scattered five years of work onto the dirty snow below."

Such a writerly thing to do.

Harper Lee immediately called her editor, who ordered her outside to rescue "To Kill a Mockingbird" from the New York slush.

________________________________________________________

Short Summary

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression, and is narrated by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer with high moral standards. Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill are intrigued by the local rumors about a man named Boo Radley, who lives in their neighborhood but never leaves his house. Legend has it that he once stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and he is made out to be a kind of monster. Dill is from Mississippi but spends his summer in Maycomb at a house near the Finch's.

The children are curious to know more about Boo, and during one summer create a mini-drama they enact daily, which tells the events of his life as they know them. Slowly, the children begin moving closer to the Radley house, which is said to be haunted. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a fishing pole, but are caught by Atticus, who firmly reprimands them for making fun of a sad man's life. Next, the children try sneaking over to the house at night and looking through its windows. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, who lives in the house, thinks he hears a prowler and fires his gun. The children run away, but Jem loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them back, they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up.

Other mysterious things happen to the Finch children. A certain tree near the Radley house has a hole in which little presents are often left for them, such as pennies, chewing gum, and soap carved figures of a little boy and girl who bear a striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. The children don't know where these gifts are coming from, and when they go to leave a note for the mystery giver, they find that Boo's brother has plugged up the hole with cement. The next winter brings unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie's house catches on fire. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near the Radley house, someone puts a blanket around Scout without her realizing it. Not until she returns home and Atticus asks her where the blanket came from does she realize that Boo Radley must have put it around her while she was entranced by watching Miss Maudie, her favorite neighbor, and her burning house.

Atticus decides to take on a case involving a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell, a member of the notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer of Maycomb society that people refer to as "trash." The Finch family faces harsh criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of Atticus's decision to defend Tom. But, Atticus insists on going through with the case because his conscience could not let him do otherwise. He knows Tom is innocent, and also that he has almost no chance at being acquitted, because the white jury will never believe a black man over a white woman. Despite this, Atticus wants to reveal the truth to his fellow townspeople, expose their bigotry, and encourage them to imagine the possibility of racial equality.

Because Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves whispered at and taunted, and have trouble keeping their tempers. At a family Christmas gathering, Scout beats up her cloying relative Francis when he accuses Atticus of ruining the family name by being a "nigger-lover". Jem cuts off the tops of an old neighbor's flower bushes after she derides Atticus, and as punishment, has to read out loud to her every day. Jem does not realize until after she dies that he is helping her break her morphine addiction. When revealing this to Jem and Scout, Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage: the will to keep fighting even when you know you can't win.

The time for the trial draws closer, and Atticus's sister Alexandra comes to stay with the family. She is proper and old-fashioned and wants to shape Scout into the model of the Southern feminine ideal, much to Scout's resentment. Dill runs away from his home, where his mother and new father don't seem interested in him, and stays in Maycomb for the summer of Tom's trial. The night before the trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and Atticus, fearing a possible lynching, stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is concerned about him, and the three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men arrive ready to cause some violence to Tom, and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem, Scout and Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her innocence brings the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.

The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom's evidence. According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her while her father was out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Tom's version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright. According to the sheriff's testimony, Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face, which means she was most likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Given the evidence of reasonable doubt, Tom should go free, but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces him guilty. Scout, Jem and Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit in the balcony with Maycomb's black population. They are stunned at the verdict because to them, the evidence was so clearly in Tom's favor.

Though the verdict is unfortunate, Atticus feels some satisfaction that the jury took so long deciding. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes, because a black man's word would not be trusted. Atticus is hoping for an appeal, but unfortunately Tom tries to escape from his prison and is shot to death in the process. Jem has trouble handling the results of the trial, feeling that his trust in the goodness and rationality of humanity has been betrayed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell threatens Atticus and other people connected with the trial because he feels he was humiliated. He gets his revenge one night while Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school. He follows them home in the dark, then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a large kitchen knife. Jem breaks his arm, and Scout, who is wearing a confining ham shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on, is helpless throughout the attack. The elusive Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves the children. Finally, Scout has a chance to meet the shy and nervous Boo. At the end of this fateful night, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo, the hero of the situation, won't have to be tried for murder. Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he has viewed the town and observed her, Jem and Dill over the years from inside his home. Boo goes inside, closes the door, and she never sees him again.

__________________________________________________________

Biography for
Gregory Peck

Date of Birth
5 April 1916, La Jolla, California, USA

Date of Death
12 June 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA (cardiorespiratory arrest and bronchial pneumonia)

Birth Name
Eldred Gregory Peck

Nickname
Father Peck
Greg

Height
6' 3" (1.91 m)

Mini Biography

Peck was born in La Jolla, California. His father was a druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fond memories are of his grandmother taking him to the movies every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. He studied pre-med at Berkeley and, while there, Peck got the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' stage play "The Morning Star" (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (1944).

Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged, and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as the amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (1946), Peck was again nominated for the Academy Award and won the Golden Globe. Peck appeared in Westerns such as Duel in the Sun (1946), Yellow Sky (1948) and The Gunfighter (1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award with his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), a story of discrimination, and Twelve O'Clock High (1949), a story of high level stress at bomber command.

With a string of hits behind him, Peck soon took the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic figures in larger-than-life films such as Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) and Moby Dick (1956). He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (1953). After four nominations, Peck finally won the Oscar for his performance as Lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In the early 60s, he appeared in two dark films, Cape Fear (1962) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), which dealt with the way people live. He also gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (1961), one of the biggest cinematic hits of that year.

In the early 70s, he produced two movies, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) and The Dove (1974), while his film career waned. He made a comeback playing the wooden Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (1976). After that, he returned to the bigger than life roles as MacArthur (1977) and the evil Doctor Mengele in The Boys from Brazil (1978). In the 80s, Peck moved into television with the mini series "The Blue and the Gray" (1982) and the movie The Scarlet and the Black (1983) (TV). In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different part, in Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the liberal owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (1991).

In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the Medal of Freedom. Always politically liberal, Peck was active in causes dealing with charities, politics or the film industry. He died in June 2003, aged 87.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana

Spouse
Veronique Passani (31 December 1955 - 12 June 2003) (his death) 2 children
Greta Kukkonen (5 October 1942 - 30 December 1955) (divorced) 3 children

Trade Mark

Almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it.

Trivia

His earliest movie memory is of being so scared by The Phantom of the Opera (1925) at age 9 that his grandmother allowed him to sleep in the bed with her that night.

U.C. Berkeley graduate (BA '39), oarsman on Cal's JV crew.

Of his own movies, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is Peck's favourite.

Children, with Kukkonen, Jonathan (b. 1944 - d. 1975), Stephen Peck (b. 1945), Carey Paul Peck (b. 1949).

Children with Veronique Passani: Tony Peck (b. 1956) and Cecilia Peck (b. 1958).

Oldest son, Jon, committed suicide by gunshot. [1975]

Chairman, Motion Picture & Television Relief Fund. [1971]

Recipient, Presidential Medal of Freedom, nation's highest civilian award, awarded by Lyndon Johnson. [1969]

Charter Member, National Council on the Arts. [1968-1974]

National Chairman, American Cancer Society. [1966]

Charter Member, National Council on the Arts. [1964-1966]

Chairman, American Film Institute. He was the first Chairman of the AFI. [1967-1969]

Stating he was worried about the 600,000 jobs hanging on the survival of the Chrysler Corporation, he volunteered to become an unpaid TV pitchman for the company in 1980.

He took in former co-star Ava Gardner's housekeeper and dog after her death in 1990.

Was in the original version of Cape Fear (1962) in 1962, playing Sam Bowden. He was later brought back for a part in another version of Cape Fear (1991), playing Max Cady's attorney.

Honorary chair, Los Angeles Library Foundation. [1995]

Was president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences from 1967-1970. He made the decision to postpone the 1968 Oscar ceremony after Martin Luther King's assassination.

Chosen by producer Darryl F. Zanuck for the epic film David and Bathsheba (1951) because Zanuck thought Peck had a "biblical face".

His paternal grandmother, Catherine Ashe, was an immigrant from County Kerry, Ireland. She was a relative of Thomas Ashe, an Irish patriot who fought the in Easter Rising in 1916 and died on hunger strike the following year.

Seriously considered challenging then California Governor Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in 1970 but decided against it at the last minute despite state and national pressure from the Democrat Party of California and The Democratic National Committee.

Marched with Martin Luther King.

His character from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Atticus Finch, was voted the greatest screen hero of all time by the American Film Institute in May 2003, only two weeks before his death (beating out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third).

Along with Dorothy McGuire, Mel Ferrer and David O. Selznick, he co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theater on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.

During his lean salad days, he supported himself as a Radio City Music Hall tour guide and as a catalog model for Montgomery Ward.

Brock Peters delivered his eulogy on the day of his funeral and burial, June 16, 2003. In To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Peters played Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a white girl that Atticus Finch (Peck's character) defended in court.

Was the first native Californian to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

A back injury incurred in college kept him out of the services in World War II.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1979.

Son, Stephen did a tour in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. Peck was proud of his son's military service even though he disagreed with the war itself.

He had Catholic Armenian roots from his paternal grandfather, Sam "Peck", an immigrant from England. After he married his second wife, Veronique Passani, she had his ancestry traced and discovered the Armenian lineage. Urging him to learn of his partial Armenian heritage and to learn the Armenian language, he took Armenian classes in his middle age. But, by then, his public persona was fixed. "Gregory" is a common Indo-European name and Armenian surname (Gregorian or Krikorian) and was the name of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Apostle of Armenia (332 AD).

When he came to Italy to shoot Roman Holiday (1953), Gregory was privately depressed about his recent separation and imminent divorce from his first wife, Greta. However, during the shoot, he met and fell in love with a French woman named 'Veronique Passani'. After his divorce, he married Passani and they remained together for the rest of his life. So, in a way, he lived out his own "movie romance".

According to at least one biography, he took his role in The Omen (1976) at a huge cut in salary (a mere $250,000) but was guaranteed 10% of the film's box office take. When it went on to gross more than $60 million in the U.S. alone, The Omen (1976) produced the highest-paid performance of Peck's career.

While studying at UC Berkeley, Peck was a houseboy for the school's chapter of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

He was voted the 58th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Attended San Diego High School.

He was voted the 27th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.

Named the #12 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute

He was of English, Irish, Scottish and Armenian heritage.

In late November of 2005, thieves stole Peck's "Hollywood Walk of Fame" star using a cement saw to cut the bronze-and-terrazzo marker out of the sidewalk. In a simple ceremony, a new star honoring the late actor was unveiled on December 1st to replace the stolen one. Hollywood's honorary mayor Johnny Grant lifted a covering and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly welcome back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gregory Peck." Peck's star was the fourth to be stolen since the Walk of Fame was inaugurated. James Stewart's and Kirk Douglas' stars disappeared some years ago after being removed for construction and were later recovered by police in the nearby city of South Gate. Gene Autry's star also vanished during a construction project. A call saying it had been found in Iowa proved to be a false alarm.

He and The Big Country (1958) co-star Charlton Heston both played the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele: Peck in The Boys from Brazil (1978), Heston in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555 (2003).

In the spring of 1939, Peck skipped graduation at the University of California at Berkeley and, with $160 and a letter of introduction in his pocket, went by train to New York, traveling coach, to embark on his acting career.

Studied acting with Michael Chekhov

Father-in-law of Daniel Voll.

He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1998 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Was Warner Bros. original choice to play Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). He was offered the role and seriously considered it but passed away before he could give them an answer.

His performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is ranked #13 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Cited that his favorite leading ladies were Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and Ava Gardner.

Once owned a thoroughbred named "Different Class," who was the favorite in the 1968 Grand National Steeplechase in the UK - but finished 3rd.

In 1997, as a presenter at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awards ceremony, he said, "It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all."

Mourners for the public service held after his burial held huge black-and-white portraits of Peck as they approached the Cathedral, designed by artist/sculptor Robert Graham, husband of Anjelica Huston. Church officials estimated that almost 3,000 people attended. Seats were reserved for Peck's friends, a sizable number of whom were celebrities - they were instructed to whisper the secret password "Atticus" to the red-coated ushers who escorted them to the reserved section - Harry Belafonte, Anjelica Huston, Michael York, Louise Fletcher, Tony Danza, Piper Laurie, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart. Michael Jackson, wearing a red jacket, caused a stir when he arrived 20 minutes late. Decked out in a bright blue suit and clutching a program with Peck's picture on it was his first wife Greta, looking hale and hearty at 92. Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, presided over the service. The program included bible readings by Peck's children Carey, Cecilia and Tony. Mahoney said, "He lived his life authentically, as God called and willed him and placed him in his room, with gifts and talents." Brock Peters, who played the black man defended by Peck's character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), delivered the eulogy. The film spawned a close friendship between the two stars that lasted more than 40 years. "In art there is compassion," said Peters, "in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love. Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure." The crowd visibly warmed to a videotape performance of Peck featuring a lecture he gave several years before. He said he hoped to be remembered first as a good husband, father and grandfather. Then, with quiet strength and unforgettable presence, he added: "I'd like to be thought of as a good storyteller".

He had always wanted to do a Walt Disney movie.

In the 1950s, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, AZ, named one of their male javalinas "Gregory Peckory" in his honor; incidentally, their female was named "Olivia de Javalina" to honor actress Olivia de Havilland.

He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son who was serving there.

In 1947, at the beginning of the anti-communist investigations in Hollywood, Peck signed a letter deploring the witch hunts despite being warned his signature could hurt his career.

Broke his ankle in three places in a fall from a horse while filming Yellow Sky (1948).

Turned down Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning role as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (1952) because he felt the story was too similar to his The Gunfighter (1950). When the film proved to be a huge success Peck admitted he had made a mistake, though he said he didn't believe he could have played the character as well as Cooper.

In 1999 he supported the decision to give Elia Kazan an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, saying he believed that a man's work should be separate from his life.

He was a close friend of Michael Jackson for the last 25 years of his life, and often went horse riding with the singer at his Neverland Ranch. During the Jordie Chandler scandal in 1993, Peck wrote a letter defending Jackson. He also gave a glowing video tribute to Jackson at his 30th Anniversary concert in New York in 2001.

In 1987 he joined Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen and Lloyd Bridges in narrating a TV advertisement for the People for the American Way, in opposing the confirmation of President Ronald Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, conservative judge Robert Bork. Bork, under intense criticism in part because of his past strong opposition to civil rights laws, ultimately failed to be confirmed by the Senate.

He was a close friend of Jane Fonda, and frequently attended political rallies with her.

He was an active supporter of AIDS fund raising.

Advertised Chesterfield cigarettes.

In 1946 he met and befriended Gary Cooper, with whom he was often compared in terms of looks and acting style.

During the Vietnam War Peck was a vocal supporter of teenagers who dodged the draft, calling them "patriots" and "heroes" and saying that burning their draft cards was part of their civic duty. He produced an anti-war film, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) using his own money in order to provoke more opposition to the conflict.

Appeared on President Richard Nixon's infamous "List of Enemies" in 1972.

After Peck stormed off the set of The Big Country (1958), director William Wyler said of him: "I wouldn't direct Peck again for a million dollars and you can quote me on that.".

As a board member of Handgun Control Inc. (along with Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon), Peck was sometimes criticized for his friendship with Charlton Heston, a longtime advocate of gun ownership who served as President of the National Rifle Assocation (NRA) from 1998 to 2003. When questioned by James Brady, Peck said, "We're colleagues rather than friends. We're civil to each other when we meet. I, of course, disagree vehemently with him on gun control.".

In his 80s his frail and thin appearance frequently sparked press rumors of his impending death, particularly when in 2001 he attended Jack Lemmon's funeral with his head bandaged from a recent fall.

He was given the role of Ambassador Robert Thorn in The Omen (1976) after Charlton Heston turned it down in order to make Midway (1976).

In 1948, amid the anti-Communist hysteria sweeping the country, he was called before a "fact finding committee" set up by the California Legislature to ferret out alleged Communists and their sympathizers in the entertainment industry. He was summoned because of his association with a host of "liberal" organizations and causes, along with several other stars. He gave the committee a list of every organization to which he had contributed money, along with their letterheads, and said that he contributed to them because they were legitimate organizations. He told the committee, "I am not now and never have been associated with any communist organization or supporters of communism. I am not a communist, never was a communist and I have no sympathy with communist activities".

He was a heavy drinker as a young actor in Hollywood. In 1949 he was hospitalized with heart spasms, and while filming David and Bathsheba (1951) he was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack. Though it turned out to be a palpitation brought on by his lifestyle and overwork, he began to drink less thereafter. However, he did not stop smoking for many more years.

His few attempts to play a villain were considered unsuccessful, perhaps because the public could not accept Peck as anything other than good. He was considered too young at 38 (the movie was filmed in 1954) to play Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1956), especially since the character was described in Herman Melville's novel as an old man. Peck admitted he only agreed to play Nazi Dr Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil (1978) because he wanted to work with Sir Laurence Olivier. Although the film and his performance were savaged by the critics, Peck remained loyal to it.

He was originally cast in the role played by Robert Taylor in Quo Vadis (1951).

Campaigned for Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election.

He did not get along with director Elia Kazan while filming Gentleman's Agreement (1947). Kazan told the press he was very disappointed with Peck's performance and the two men never worked together again.

After making Arabesque (1966), Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society.

He is listed in the Cal Berkeley Alumni roster as a graduate of the Class of 1942 who studied as an English major and where he acted in plays at the Associated Students sponsored 'Little Theatre' on campus. Incidentally while under the watch of the University's Committee on Music and Drama led by Professor William Popper as chairman, the University's Department of Dramatic Arts was just being established towards the end of his student tenure in 1941.

In 1996, veteran character actor Richard Jaeckel, Peck's costar in The Gunfighter (1950), was diagnosed with cancer, and Jaeckel's wife had Alzheimer's disease. The Jaeckels had lost their Brentwood home, were over $1 million in debt, and Jaeckel was basically homeless. His family tried unsuccessfully to enter him into Woodland Hills Motion Picture and Television Hospital. Peck lobbied for Jaeckel's admittance and he was treated within three days. Jaeckel stayed in the hospital until his passing in June 1997.

The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions.

Only the Valiant (1951) was his least favorite film. He thought the western potboiler was a step backwards after starring in The Gunfighter (1950).

When he was the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science, he tried his hardest to get a full-length animated feature film (most notably the The Jungle Book (1967)) not only nominated for Best Picture Academy Award but actually win the award. He resigned as President in 1970 when other members didn't agree with him about animated films being nominated for the award. Twenty-one years after he resigned Beauty and the Beast (1991) became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture although it did not win.

Turned down Yves Montand's role in Let's Make Love (1960) because he didn't want to work with Marilyn Monroe.

Son of Gregory Pearl Peck and wife Bernice Mae Ayres.

He had always wanted to act in a Shakespearean play, but by the time the opportunity presented itself in 1951 he decided it was too late to start.

Formed a solid friendship with Mary Badham, who played his daughter "Scout" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). They remained in contact until his passing. According to Badham, she always called him "Atticus" and he always called her "Scout".

His favorite singers were Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. He was also a big fan of Elton John.

His favorite drink was Guinness, which he drank every day. Eventually he had a tap installed in the bar at his house.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 12.

A physically powerful man, Peck was known to do a majority of his own fight scenes, rarely using body or stunt doubles. Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent in Cape Fear (1962), said that Peck once accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene in the movie. He recalled feeling the impact of the punch for days afterwards and said, "I don't feel sorry for anyone dumb enough who picks a fight with him.".

In December 2002 Peck visited his wife in hospital in Los Angeles after she underwent surgery to relieve pressure on two vertebrae. The sight of the veteran actor in hospital sparked more press rumors that he was seriously ill.

His mother died in May 1992 at the age of 97.

Agreed to star in David and Bathsheba (1951) as a riposte to the Biblical epics of Cecil B. DeMille.

By 1974, following a series of flops, Peck's career had declined to such an extent that he admitted in an interview that he was thinking of retiring from acting. Two years later however he made an enormous comeback with The Omen (1976).

He was considered for Rock Hudson's role in Ice Station Zebra (1968).

One of his greatest heroes from childhood was President Abraham Lincoln. Peck was initially concerned about playing him in "The Blue and the Gray" (1982), since at 66 he was a decade older than Lincoln was when he was assassinated.

In the early 1990s Peck considered writing his autobiography, however he decided against it when he realized he wasn't as good at writing as his friend David Niven.

Often stated how disappointed he was that many American viewers did not realize how anti-war The Guns of Navarone (1961) was.

MGM wanted Peck to play Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959), but the director Alfred Hitchcock thought Peck was too serious and cast Cary Grant instead.

He was a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons, and made On the Beach (1959) for this reason.

Personally chose Lewis Milestone to direct the anti-war movie Pork Chop Hill (1959), because Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) had made a deep impression on him.

In 1999 he publicly berated Congress for failing to pass legislation preventing teenagers from buying guns, following the Columbine high school massacre.

His election as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1967 was widely seen as heralding in a new, younger, progressive and decidedly liberal era of filmmaking in Hollywood.

While filming The Bravados (1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle.

He was a close friend and ardent supporter of President Lyndon Johnson, spending much time at the White House and the Johnson Ranch.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 417-420. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.

He regularly visited Humphrey Bogart while filming Designing Woman (1957) with Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall. Peck was reportedly devastated by the star's death in January 1957.

Was the second choice to play Prof. Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), had first choice Sean Connery declined the role. Star Harrison Ford cited Peck as one of his favorite actors and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) as one of his favorite films.

He was a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.

He visited Michael Jackson on the set of filming the "Smooth Criminal" segment for Moonwalker (1988). Also visiting the set was Robert De Niro and Bruce Willis.

Was kept out of military service during WWII due to a back injury.

Personal Quotes

[when he discovered that his second wife, French journalist Veronique Passani, had passed up an opportunity to interview Albert Schweitzer at a lunch hosted by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to go out on a date with Peck] You made the right choice, kiddo!

[on his 1962 Oscar-winning role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)] I put everything I had into it - all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.

They say the bad guys are more interesting to play but there is more to it than that - playing the good guys is more challenging because it's harder to make them interesting.

I just do things I really enjoy. I enjoy acting. When I'm driving to the studio, I sing in the car. I love my work and my wife and my kids and my friends. And I think, "You're a lucky man, Gregory Peck, a damn lucky man."

Gregory Peck is the hottest thing in town. Some say he is a second Gary Cooper. Actually, he is the first Gregory Peck.

[on gay rights] It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.

I'm not a do-gooder. It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.

I don't lecture and I don't grind any axes. I just want to entertain.

You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach. Then I think you have to develop a kind of resistance to rejection, and to the disappointments that are sure to come your way.

I am a Roman Catholic. Not a fanatic, but I practice enough to keep the franchise. I don't always agree with the Pope . . . there are issues that concern me, like abortion, contraception, the ordination of women . . . and others. I think the Church should open up.

[when asked what he thought about the John Holmes porn trial] You know, someone once asked me that and I said the day that Laurence Olivier drops his pants on the screen is the day that I will support adult actors, and then I saw the movie The Betsy (1978).

[1987] Robert Bork wants to be a Supreme Court justice. But the record shows he has a strange idea of what justice is. He defended poll taxes and literacy tests, which kept many Americans from voting. He opposed the civil rights law that ended "whites only" signs at lunch counters. He doesn't believe the Constitution protects your privacy. Please urge your senators to vote against the Bork nomination. Because, if Robert Bork wins a seat on the Supreme Court, it will be for life. His life . . . and yours.

Faith is a force, a powerful force. To me, it's been like an anchor to windward - something that's seen me through troubled times and some personal tragedies and also through the good times and success and the happy times.

[on meeting Pope John Paul II at the White House in 1978] He impressed me more than any other man I've ever met, and I've met a lot. My wife and I happened to be seated on one of the aisles, and the Pope came right down and he saw me and smiled. The smile was genuine, not a politician smile, the practiced smile. He shook hands with me and went on. And then [US President Jimmy Carter] said, "Hello, Gregory, what are you doing here?" and I said, "Well, Mr. President, you invited me". He said, "Just a minute"--and damned if he didn't run after the Pope, grabbing him by the arm and pulled him back. He said, "Your Excellency, this is one of our best-known, most beloved American film actors". And he looked at me, ah! There was a glimmer as if somehow he must have seen me in a movie. His eyes widened and he took me in his arms. And he sort of grabbed me by the elbow and said, "God bless you, Gregory. God bless you in your mission". And he went on.

[on Gentleman's Agreement (1947)] We felt we were brave pioneers exploring anti-Semitism in the United States - today, it seems a little dated.

[on The Boys from Brazil (1978)] I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.

I've had my ups and downs. There have been times when I wanted to quit. Times when I hit the bottle. Marital problems. I've touched most of the bases.

[1956] Of the movies I've done, there isn't much I really like. The Gunfighter (1950), Roman Holiday (1953), Twelve O'Clock High (1949) I feel were my best.

That's why those fellas were so magnificent playing the same part, because they'd played it forty times. That's why John Wayne finally became a good actor in True Grit (1969) - he's got 150 of them behind him. Now he's developed a saltiness and an earthiness and a humor and a subtlety that comes from mining that same vein over and over again.

[1987] I would give up everything I do and everything I have if I could make a significant difference in getting the nuclear arms race reversed. It is the number-one priority in my life. My work was the main thing in my life for a long time; now I'm beginning to think a little more about what the future will hold and what kind of world my kids will live in.

I realize now how very short life is, because I've got to be considered to be in the home stretch. But I won't waste time on recriminations and regrets. And the same goes for my shortcomings and my own failures.

Every script I'm offered has Cary Grant's paw prints on it.

(1965) There are times when I could cheerfully walk out on the whole goddamn setup. I don't have to make pictures any more. When I first came out here to work from the New York stage, I was carved up in all directions, a dumb actor tied to a slew of contractual clauses. Today I'm my own man - free, off the hook. This is a collective business, I know. But now it's up to me to decide the stories we use and the kind of picture in which I'm prepared to get involved. I'm no longer the dumb and trusting ham being shuttled from picture to picture at someone else's whim. I'm a company boss who has to make big decisions right or wrong, responsible only to myself in the long run. For years we actors have been fighting for our so-called artistic freedom. We wanted to get rid of the moguls and their accountants. We damned the studio shylocks for their materialism and lack of taste. Now, most of us are on our own. So what happens? This morning I had to call my office and scrap a production on which people had been working for months ... I decided it would be best to chuck it in rather than risk making a bad picture. All night I've been pacing up and down the house trying to make the right decision. I tell you there are times when I wish Hollywood actors had retained the status of bums and gypsies and left the planning to others. Right now, I'm tempted to say, "The hell with all of it". The picture has changed, my friend. The old omnipotent caliphs are dying fast. Television plus the weight of years has weakened the survivors. It will need energy and a fresh executive approach to redirect the creative drive, re-channel the talent. The monopolies of the studios have been broken. The anti-trust laws have severed their distribution outlets. The shackling of actors to loaded long-term contracts is virtually a thing of the past. In effect, I have complete control over what I do. A year of two back this was considered some kind of victory of art over tyranny. Now I'm not so sure. I'm a free soul, you remember. Before I became an actor, I wanted to be a writer. Freedom of mind and action is important to me. Right now I'd like to take off for Mexico and fish for a while and swim and read books without wondering whether they would make a good picture. Now I'll have to follow another production through from the drawing board to the cutting room. And then go out on the road and sell it with personal appearances. It can be stimulating. A challenge, as they say at Chasens. But there are times when actors like myself find themselves wishing we could resurrect Irving Thalberg and pass the ball to him or people like him. The town's wide open for any operator with the ability to finance, package and sell motion pictures.

[on Robert Mitchum] I had given him the role and had paid him a terrific amount of money. It was obvious he had the better role. I thought he would understand that, but he apparently thought he acted me off the screen. I didn't think highly of him for that.

Marilyn Monroe may have been a bit of an extreme example, but she was given the best stories to suit her talents, she was stroked and cared for and treasured and treated like a little princess, treated as a valuable, talented person. What it was that led her to drink and take pills, I don't know. I don't think anyone can put it all together, but it's too easy to say that Hollywood wrung her out and exhausted her, strained her nerves and destroyed her. I think she'd have gone to pieces even sooner without the adulation and the care she received at the hands of her directors and producers and the big studios.

[on what he thought about stars being paid $30 million per movie] I was born too soon!

[2000] Do I think there's a glamorous male actor today? No way.

Now, you take a great cinema actor, in my opinion, James Cagney. He went very far. He was very theatrical, very intense, and yet always believable. He riveted the audience's attention. His acting advice was, "Believe what you say -- say what you believe." And that says it really.

[on Frank Sinatra] Undeniably the title holder in the soft-touch department.

One good thing about the bad movies is that people don't remember them. Nobody ever comes up to me and says, 'I hated you in I Walk the Line (1970)!'.

I enjoy practicing my craft as well as I possibly can. I enjoy the work for its own sake.

Salary
The Purple Plain (1954) $250,000
The Million Pound Note (1954) $250,000
Only the Valiant (1951) $60,000
Days of Glory (1944) $10,000

The Death of the Library - An Excerpt

2010-06-06T12:10:00.001+08:00

The Death of the Library: Read It and Weep By Delia Lloyd

I walked into my local public library in London the other day and got a rude shock. All of my favorite librarians were gone. They'd been replaced by machines. Where the circulation desk once stood -- manned by a friendly soul with whom I'd chat about politics or the weather or the latest London Review of Books -- I now swiped my library card and pushed a button that said "borrow" or "return."

They'd also done some remodeling. This particular branch sits in an elegant 1930s building located in the garden of the house where the poet John Keats wrote his "Ode to a Nightingale." The main room -- once cluttered with books that literally spilled onto the floor -- now is a shadow of its former self. Rather than books, the main thing on display would appear to be tables -- artfully dotted around the room as if this were a café or the premier-class lounge for an airline. ("It's so bright even druggies wouldn't inject here," quipped a cynical on-line reviewer.)

And it's not just in the U.K. where libraries are morphing into something else . . . if not dying out completely. I've seen numerous articles about the demise of them in the U.S., whether it's the closure of branches in Boston, reduced hours in Los Angeles, or the architectural makeovers that render library books merely decorative, as in Cambridge, Mass.

According to a report by the American Library Association and the Center for Library and Information Innovation at the University of Maryland, over 25 million Americans reported using their public library more than 20 times in 2008, up from 20.3 million Americans in 2006. Particularly in the wake of the economic downturn, more and more Americans are turning to public libraries for such things as job hunting or to seek government services and continuing education -- not to mention free books, DVDs and CDs. And yet, according to this same study, a majority of states report cuts in library funding.

In short -- much like the post office -- we seem to be losing these iconic communal institutions of our youth. And when we do keep them around, we repackage them along commercial lines as if that's the only way to make them palatable to the public. I took a walking tour around East London a month or so ago and happened upon a bright orange, modern structure with the word "idea store" spelled out in a colorful lowercase font across the entrance. "What's that?" I asked. "Oh, that's the local public library," the tour guide answered. "It's now called an idea store." (In a similar vein, librarians in my London borough are now called customer service experts -- with the term "library" added in parentheses. They are also required to wear badges that say "How Can I Help?" and -- according to one with whom I spoke -- can be fired if they fail to do so.)

The death of the library as we once knew it is a shame for many reasons. In my family, at least, the local library has always been a focal point for connecting with our community. Back when we lived in the States, our local library in Oak Park, Ill., hosted book clubs, art exhibitions, film screenings and discussion groups on topics ranging from local zoning laws to children with multiple allergies. When we moved to London four years ago, it was our local librarians who suggested that my husband and I read Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" as an introduction to this city's vibrant multiculturalism and who recommended the Lemony Snicket series to my son when he grew out of Harry Potter.

But lest you think I'm just nostalgic for the days of yore, when no one bowled alone, I think that there are also pragmatic reasons for preserving our libraries.

Let's start with the future generation. While the conventional wisdom these days seems to be "Who needs libraries when you have Google?," the truth is that Google is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to research skills. As Sara Scribner, a children's librarian in Pasadena, Calif., notes, "In a time when information literacy is increasingly crucial to life and work, not teaching kids how to search for information is like sending them out into the world without knowing how to read."

Among other skills she teaches her pupils are how to sift through different kinds of reference materials (e.g. books, online resources, academic databases), how to tell good online information from bad and how to save time by optimizing search terms. In a country where education reform remains an ongoing -- if unresolved -- priority, you'd think that teaching our children basic library skills ought to be paramount.

Libraries are also crucial for adults. I have a good friend who's a reference librarian at one of the major urban public libraries in the United States. Day in and day out, she answers an enormous range of questions on every subject under the sun from people from every age (from 7 to 70) and race and occupational and income group you can imagine. Some of these people don't speak English very well or are too old to be computer literate. They come to the library because, as she put it, "it's the poor man's university."

It shows inventors how to file patents. It provides information on how to become a citizen. It provides tax forms and voter registration materials and bus schedules for free. It answer's anyone's questions -- from how to remove a troublesome stain to how their elected representatives voted on abortion or tax reform or the regulation of financial markets.

My librarian friend reminds me that President Obama obtained his first job after attending Columbia University by going to the New York Public Library. He used something called Job Search Central, which provides all kinds of databases, books, classes and books on how to find a job that is both suitable and desirable, how to start a new business, how to write a resume, how to prepare for a job interview, even how to look for a job if you've just been released from prison. And you don't have to buy a $5 latte from Starbucks to enjoy the privilege.

In short, libraries are vital to creating an informed citizenry that is the hallmark of any democracy. So what do we lose when we lose libraries? We lose a lot.

Lessons From Robert Kennedy's Assassination - An Excerpt

2010-06-06T12:04:00.001+08:00

On Eve of California Primary, Lessons From Robert Kennedy's Assassination
10 hours ago by Carl M. Cannon Senior Washington Correspondent

On Tuesday, California's voters will go to the polls to choose their November standard-bearer for governor, an open Senate seat, and a host of other races. It's a celebration of democracy, as all elections are, but for the past four decades June primaries in the Golden State have also been sad and sobering reminders of the harm that human beings do to each other in the name of politics and sectarianism.

This day, 42 years ago, Robert F. Kennedy was shot after winning the California presidential primary. He died the following day, June 6, 1968, just before 2 a.m. My job was to tell people about it.

Each year, usually around Christmas time, I write one column expounding on my love of newspapers. This year, perhaps because the California primaries are so compelling, I'm going to do it early. In 1968, I was a 14-year-old paperboy the same age as Homer McCauley, the sensitive World War II-era Western Union messenger of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy. I had read that book -- Saroyan, one of California's greatest writers, was taught in school at the time -- and had wondered how Homer McCauley had managed to climb on his bicycle and deliver death notices to the Gold Star mothers in the San Joaquin Valley without crying. I was about to find out.

Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles, 1968As a student at Joaquin Miller Junior High School in Sacramento, I delivered the San Francisco Chronicle, which was the preferred newspaper of many politically aware Northern Californians. My route was big: 90 papers delivered seven days-a-week on a bicycle stripped down for speed and lightness: my daily trip was about five miles.

Any American even slightly older than I am will always remember the national tragedy and turmoil of 1968, and the passions surrounding that year's presidential campaign.
On March 12, anti-war candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy gave President Johnson a scare in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire and LBJ subsequently announced he would not seek re-election. Four days later Robert Kennedy entered the race. A month after that, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, a debilitating blow that seemed to break McCarthy's stride, if not his spirit. I know it sapped mine. By the time of the June primary in California, the Democratic presidential contest had come down to a grinding contest between Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. I had first been a Humphrey kid, out of loyalty to LBJ, then switched to McCarthy after meeting him at Sacramento Municipal airport. But 14-year-olds can be fickle. After Robert F. Kennedy ushered in June of 1968 with a campaign swing through Sacramento and the Central Valley, I switched affections again, to RFK. It was a short-lived love affair.

Like most Californians who had to get up early for school or work, I watched the election returns the night of June 4, saw that Bobby had won, and went to bed relatively early, as a paperboy will do when his alarm is set every morning at 5:45 a.m.
That morning, I didn't sleep that late, however. At 4:30 in the morning, my mother came into my room, which was a first, and told me gently to get up and deliver the papers. I told her that they didn't have to be delivered this early, and she replied that today, they did. I should know, she added, that Bobby Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles. It had happened just after midnight, she said, meaning that the out-of-town editions of the San Francisco Chronicle were not going to have the news that people needed to know: namely, that less than five years after his brother the president had been assassinated, RFK had also been wounded, and was probably going to die.

"Where's dad?" I asked. The answer was that my father, a newspaperman, was still at work.

"He stayed there all night," my mother told me. "But he called with the latest bulletin. He told me to write this down for you."
Fighting back tears, my mother handed her oldest son a three-by-five card with the grim news from L.A. I was to read the latest news about RFK to my customers as I delivered their paper.

"No one will be awake at this hour." I protested.
"Yes, they will," she replied softly. "And they'll want to know what happened."
She was right. At every other house, it seemed, in these pre-cable, pre-Internet days, a light was on, and through the windows I could see people at their kitchen tables, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, some with their face in their hands. At many houses, the resident -- usually the woman of the house -- came outside to meet their paperboy, who dutifully recited the information on his little card. Sometimes the women would start crying. Several of them hugged me in their grief.

My paper route usually took an hour. That morning, it took three. It's far too melodramatic to say that the kid who delivered those papers began his rounds as a boy and finished them as a man, but I will say that when I was done delivering those papers, I had acquired an abiding interest in the presidency, and a searing appreciation for the power of the news. I still retain those dual passions, and over the years have also formed some judgments about the meaning of those horrifying events of 1968.
One of them is that the words we use in politics and the press matter.
In 1944, as Allied bombers razed German cities, George Orwell, who was then (among other things) a newspaper columnist, received a letter from a reader who was troubled by the indiscriminate nature of the lethal ordnance being rained on the German people by British and American pilots. Although he said he realized "the Hun (has) got to be beaten," the writer expressed his misgivings over civilian casualties suffered in places like Dresden and Hamburg. Replied Orwell in his newspaper column: "It seems to me that you do less harm by dropping bombs on people than by calling them 'Huns.'"
Perhaps that's hyperbole, but Orwell's point was that it's the name-calling and demonization that make the bombing possible. It's a lesson for our own times as well as the 1960s. It's a lesson for any era, as the sacrifice of the Kennedy family attests. The anger and hatred expressed in our politics is troubling, and not only because it's unpleasant. World history – our own history – has shown it can be dangerous. That's one reason why Politics Daily, a newspaper for a digital age, has embraced the concept of the "civilogue," a self-explanatory term coined by our colleague Jeffrey Weiss, who lives in Dallas, a city that came for a time to be associated with the murder of a president.
Yoda, the sage and diminutive Jedi master in the movie Star Wars , a cultural icon of the 1980s, put it this way: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Those words were not actually written by a cute little intergalactic creature, of course. They were written by George Lucas, who, like Homer McCauley grew up in the Central Valley and who was living in Los Angeles that fateful June of 1968 when hate and fear seemed to overwhelm the better angels of our natures.

Sex, lies and videotape: CIA's gay way to unseat Saddam - An Excerpt

2010-05-28T11:43:00.002+08:00

Sex, lies and videotape: CIA's gay way to unseat Saddam
PAUL HARRIS, NEW YORK
May 28, 2010

IN THEIR time, America's secret agencies have tried some outlandish schemes to attack their country's enemies, including, most famously, an attempt to do away with Cuba's Fidel Castro by using an exploding cigar.

But in a scenario more the preserve of careless Hollywood starlets such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, the CIA appears to have plotted to undermine Saddam Hussein with a gay sex tape.

According to the Washington Post's security blog, some of America's spooks believed that shooting a fake video of Saddam cavorting with a teenage boy might destabilise his regime in the lead-up to the US-led invasion in 2003.

''It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session,'' the Post quoted a former CIA official as saying.

Nor was the Saddam sex tape the only idea floating around the more bizarre corners of the CIA's Iraq Operations Group.

Other ploys involved interrupting Iraqi television with a false newsflash that would announce Saddam was handing over power to his hated and feared son Uday. The idea was to shock the Iraqi people into rising up against their leaders and thus make the invasion easier.

Perhaps thankfully, the tape and fake news broadcast were never made and the Post reported that top CIA brass repeatedly rejected the ideas.

But that did not stop a CIA video being shot of a fake Osama bin Laden sitting around a campfire, drinking booze and boasting of his own gay conquests.

The video apparently used some of the CIA's ''darker-skinned'' employees as extras playing the terror chief's henchmen. It does not seem to have been released.

The Post said an anonymous US official had declined to confirm or deny the accounts. ''If these ideas were ever floated by anyone at any time, they clearly didn't go anywhere,'' the official said.

Such tactics are hardly the first time the US agencies have stretched their imaginations.

One such plan was to dispatch Castro by exploiting his taste for scuba diving. A batch of colourful molluscs would be rigged with explosives in the hope that he would be attracted to them. That plan, too, never got off the drawing board.

GUARDIAN

You Tube Turns 5 ! - An Excerpt

2010-05-18T08:26:00.002+08:00

YouTube Turns 5 Years Old, Invites 2 Billion to Party
By Carl Franzen (May 17, 2010 )

It's the third-most-visited website in the world (behind Google and Facebook), drawing 2 billion-plus viewers daily with its mind-boggling cache of 1,700 years worth of video footage of silly animals, elaborate dance routines and other bizarre, disturbing and amazing phenomena.

Watch YouTube's greatest hits.

Not bad for a company created out of a garage five years ago with little more than a clever idea and a catchy name: YouTube.

Now Google, which purchased the website for a staggering $1.65 billion in 2006, is pulling out all the stops to commemorate YouTube's fifth anniversary this month.

Besides a special logo and triumphant blog post, YouTube has its own "FiveYear" birthday channel, replete with sentimental video homages to the site at its half-decade mark, plus guest-curated compilations of "most essential" clips hosted by the likes of Katie Couric and Conan O'Brien.

"What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries," the YouTube team wrote on its blog Sunday, when the anniversary page was launched.

Founded by three former employees of the online payment service PayPal, YouTube began as a registered domain address, www.youtube.com, in February 2005. The first video -- "Me at the Zoo," showing co-founder Jawed Karim chatting in front of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo -- was uploaded in late April, but the site was not accessible for public use until May.

According to YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley, PayPal was just one source of inspiration for the founders. "The same way Flickr created a photo community, we wanted to create a video community," Hurley said in an interview with USA Today's TechnologyLive blog.

From those humble beginnings, YouTube has grown into the premier destination for online video sharing, now logging some 2 billion page views a day -- "nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined," asserts the YouTube blog.

Even so, YouTube is not content to rest on its laurels. Hurley told British newspaper The Telegraph last month that "although YouTube is the most successful video platform, the number of minutes watched, 10 to 15 minutes a day, is small when compared to the five hours watched on the TV set." He went on to say he hoped to erase, if not outright reverse, that disparity in five to 10 years, since "more minutes on our site equals more money."

Indeed, although YouTube bills itself as a "forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe," the company has faced increasing pressure from shareholders, analysts and observers at large to turn a profit, something it has yet to accomplish but hopes to do for the first time this year.

Since being acquired by Google in 2006, YouTube has actually lost hundreds of millions of dollars every year because of its high operating costs -- namely, maintaining the bandwidth necessary to allow users to upload as much video as they want for free, which currently stands at a rate of 24 hours' worth every minute of the day.

In addition, since a substantial portion of these videos are unauthorized clips from movies and TV programs, YouTube has also been hit by a barrage of copyright lawsuits from companies such as Viacom (which has recently been accused of hiring marketers to secretly upload its own content to the website specifically to support copyright infringement claims).

Several analysts have speculated that YouTube's economics are inherently unsustainable, dooming the website to eventual ruin. But given YouTube's phenomenal growth in viewership and its continued prominence in pop culture -- giving birth to the career of crossover celebrity Justin Bieber, to name one recent example -- others have deemed it a grand slam for Google, financial imbalances aside.

YouTube has lately begun pursuing a variety of innovative revenue-raising strategies, including partnerships with several independent studios to allow for paid rentals of feature films, and with popular Spanish-language TV network Univision to not only upload new programming, but also tack ads onto older, unauthorized Univision clips.

Plus, later this month Google is expected to announce a new TV platform in collaboration with Intel and Sony that will be a "significant breakthrough into the consumer electronics and broadcast industry," in which YouTube is expected to play a major part.

"YouTube is the only place you can put your content on the Web and reach a TV-size audience in every country," said Hunter Walk, YouTube's director of product management, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Moreover, YouTube's Partner Program, started in 2007, has proved eminently profitable for individual content creators, allowing them to take cuts of ad revenue based on the popularity of their videos. Some have even leveraged this program to become millionaires.

Of course, with every success story there are always detractors, and YouTube is no different. Yet in the run-up to the website's five-year anniversary, flak has been coming from a counterintuitive source: "vloggers," or video bloggers, whose very presence is predicated on YouTube.

A few have claimed that in a quest for growth and profitability, YouTube has left them in the dust, allowing their comments sections to be flooded with spam, overlooking them for featured slots and ignoring them on the "FiveYear" channel.

"Celebrate the longtime vloggers like me," demanded vlogger Zennie62 on the San Francisco Chronicle website today. "I've been here since 2006 and a partner since 2007. Because of YouTube I've been on national television a bunch of times and started a new media company. While I owe a lot to YouTube, YouTube owes a lot to me as one of its ambassadors...

"Focus on your small town friends. ... Help us help YouTube."

Chinglish - The Chinese Way of Speaking English - An Excerpt

2010-05-13T09:11:00.005+08:00

Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish
Jackson Lowen for The New York Times

Shanghai has been trying to harness English translations that sometimes wander, like “cash recyling machine.

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: May 2, 2010

SHANGHAI — For English speakers with subpar Chinese skills, daily life in China offers a confounding array of choices. At banks, there are machines for “cash withdrawing” and “cash recycling.” The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as “fried enema,” “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as “The Jew’s Ear Juice.”

Those who have had a bit too much monolithic tree mushroom stem squid could find themselves requiring roomier attire: extra-large sizes sometimes come in “fatso” or “lard bucket” categories. These and other fashions can be had at the clothing chain known as Scat.

Go ahead and snicker, although by last Saturday’s opening of the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, drawing more than 70 million visitors over its six-month run, these and other uniquely Chinese maladaptations of the English language were supposed to have been largely excised.

Well, that at least is what the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use has been trying to accomplish during the past two years.

Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell “Teliot” and “urine district”), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings.

The campaign is partly modeled on Beijing’s herculean effort to clean up English signage for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which led to the replacement of 400,000 street signs, 1,300 restaurant menus and such exemplars of impropriety as the Dongda Anus Hospital — now known as the Dongda Proctology Hospital. Gone, too, is Racist Park, a cultural attraction that has since been rechristened Minorities Park.

“The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing,” said Zhao Huimin, the former Chinese deputy consul general to the United States who, as director general of the capital’s Foreign Affairs Office, has been leading the fight for linguistic standardization and sobriety.

But while the war on mangled English may be considered a signature achievement of government officials, aficionados of what is known as Chinglish are wringing their hands in despair.

Oliver Lutz Radtke, a former German radio reporter who may well be the world’s foremost authority on Chinglish, said he believed that China should embrace the fanciful melding of English and Chinese as the hallmark of a dynamic, living language. As he sees it, Chinglish is an endangered species that deserves preservation.

“If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the park but you lose a window into the Chinese mind,” said Mr. Radtke, who is the author of a pair of picture books that feature giggle-worthy Chinglish signs in their natural habitat.

Lest anyone think it is all about laughs, Mr. Radtke is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Chinglish at the University of Heidelberg.

Still, the enemies of Chinglish say the laughter it elicits is humiliating. Wang Xiaoming, an English scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, painfully recalls the guffaws that erupted among her foreign-born colleagues as they flipped through a photographic collection of poorly written signs. “They didn’t mean to insult me but I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable,” said Ms. Wang, who has since become one of Beijing’s leading Chinglish slayers.

Those who study the roots of Chinglish say many examples can be traced to laziness and a flawed but wildly popular translation software. Victor H. Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, said the computerized dictionary, Jinshan Ciba, had led to sexually oriented vulgarities identifying dried produce in Chinese supermarkets and the regrettable “fried enema” menu selection that should have been rendered as “fried sausage.”

Although improved translation software and a growing zeal for grammatically unassailable English has slowed the output of new Chinglishisms, Mr. Mair said he still received about five new examples a day from people who knew he was good at deciphering what went wrong. “If someone would pay me to do it, I’d spend my life studying these things,” he said.

Among those getting paid to wrestle with Chinglish is Jeffrey Yao, an English translator and teacher at the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation at Shanghai International Studies University who is leading the sign exorcism. But even as he eradicates the most egregious examples by government fiat — businesses dare not ignore the commission’s suggested fixes — he has mixed feelings, noting that although some Chinglish phrases sound awkward to Western ears, they can be refreshingly lyrical. “Some of it tends to be expressive, even elegant,” he said, shuffling through an online catalog of signs that were submitted by the volunteers who prowled Shanghai with digital cameras. “They provide a window into how we Chinese think about language.”

He offered the following example: While park signs in the West exhort people to “Keep Off the Grass,” Chinese versions tend to anthropomorphize nature as a way to gently engage the stomping masses. Hence, such admonishments as “The Little Grass Is Sleeping. Please Don’t Disturb It” or “Don’t Hurt Me. I Am Afraid of Pain.”

Mr. Yao read off the Chinese equivalents as if savoring a Shakespearean sonnet. “How lovely,” he said with a sigh.

He pointed out that this linguistic mentality helped create such expressions as “long time no see,” a word-for-word translation of a Chinese expression that became a mainstay of spoken English. But Mr. Yao, who spent nearly two decades working as a translator in Canada, has his limits. He showed a sign from a park designed to provide visitors with the rules for entry, which include prohibitions on washing, “scavenging,” clothes drying and public defecation, all of it rendered in unintelligible — and in the case of the last item — rather salty English. The sign ended with this humdinger: “Because if the tourist does not obey the staff to manage or contrary holds, Does, all consequences are proud.”

Even though he had had the sign corrected recently, Mr. Yao could not help but shake his head in disgust at the memory. And he was irritated to find that a raft of troublesome sign verbiage had slipped past the commission as the expo approached, including a cafeteria sign that read, “The tableware reclaims a place.” (Translation: drop off dirty dishes here.)

“Some Chinglish expressions are nice, but we are not translating literature here,” he said. “I want to see people nodding that they understand the message on these signs. I don’t want to see them laughing.”
_______________________________________________________

From Wikipedia : DEFINITION OF CHINGLISH
Chinglish (simplified Chinese: 中式英语; traditional Chinese: 中式英語; pinyin: Zhōngshì Yīngyǔ) is a portmanteau of the words Chinese and English and refers to spoken or written English which is influenced by Chinese[1]. There are an estimated 300 to 500 million users and/or learners of English in the People's Republic of China[2]. The term "Chinglish" is mostly used in popular contexts and may have pejorative or derogatory connotations[3]. Other terms for the variety of English used in China include "Chinese English," "China English," and "Sinicized English." [4].

Betty White: Proof You Can Land a Job at Any Age - An Excerpt

2010-05-12T08:58:00.001+08:00

Betty White: Proof You Can Land a Job at Any Age
May 9th 2010 8:28AM

By Barbara Safani

Eighty-eight-year-old Betty White just hosted Saturday Night Live. She landed the gig after a couple of well-received performances including the recent Snickers super bowl commercial and an appearance in the movie The Proposal.

But it was probably the Facebook fan group, Betty White to Host SNL (please) that ultimately propelled White to the SNL stage. White landed the gig because she remains relevant to her fans. Other famous people who have remained relevant despite the perception of age include Warren Buffet, Cloris Leachman, Madonna, Cher, Buzz Aldrin, Dara Torres, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Hugh Hefner.

But what about job seekers? Age discrimination is a big concern for many. And everyone seems to have a different cutoff for what they think "too old" is. Some say 40, others say 50 or 60. Perhaps we should all take a lesson from Betty White and her cohorts and concentrate on relevance rather than age. Here are some proactive steps all job seekers can take to make sure age bias is minimized and relevance is optimized.

Resume development

Group earlier experience into a category that reads "Additional Experience." Create an abbreviated overview of the positions you held more than 15 years ago. This allows you to be transparent about earlier experience but keep the focus on the more recent and more relevant accomplishments. Another strategy for older workers is to include a "hobbies" section on the resume. This can help combat age bias if you participate in sports that suggest an active lifestyle. In addition, if you have certain technology skills that prove you are current in your field, add that information as well in a section that lists your key skills and competencies.

Online identity

Some job seekers believe that by not having a picture on online identity and networking sites, they decrease the chance of being discriminated against. I disagree. If you do not post a picture in communities where they are the norm, people will think you have something to hide. Sometimes people post pictures that were taken 10-15 years ago. This could damage your credibility when you actually meet the person who viewed your profile online. Your picture is part of your brand. Pay as much attention to it as you would your other marketing collateral. Lighting, makeup, clothing choice, and an updated hairstyle will help you present your best image while still being transparent and authentic.

Interview strategy

Sometimes when a hiring authority figures out your age, they draw the conclusion that you command a certain salary and that perhaps they won't be able to afford you. When interviewing, if you detect this feeling, be sure to discuss your interest in the position, your desire for meaningful work, and your flexibility. This can help the hiring manager to understand that salary in not necessarily your main motivator. The reality is that many older workers are not more expensive; if anything they are often behind market value because of longevity with a previous employer. Large salary bumps generally occur by switching jobs more frequently, not by staying with the same employer over many years. So the very thing the employer is concerned about might actually turn out to be a non-issue. Better to explore the issue than let the hiring manager come to his own, and possibly incorrect, conclusion.

Job-search research

No one is the right fit for every company. Some companies do have a more youth-oriented culture. But many do not and even tout themselves as best places for boomers or people over 50. AARP publishes a list each year called the Best Employers for Workers Over 50. By targeting the companies that embrace older workers you dramatically decrease the potential for encountering age bias.

Attitude

It sounds so cliché, but it is true. If you believe you are old, others will believe it as well. If you refuse to put arbitrary limitations on age you increase the chances that others will reject these notions as well. Focus on the value you can bring to an employer, not the longevity of your career history. Leverage the latest social media technologies such as Twitter and Facebook to stay connected in current conversations. Ditch phrases such as "back in the day" and "when I was your age." Rewrite the rules.

I take my cues from the people I see making age a non-issue by remaining relevant. It's not just billionaires, TV stars, and rock stars who are doing it successfully. I see examples around me all the time -- and they teach me how to be a little bit more relevant every day.

Britain's New Prime Minister - An Excerpt

2010-05-12T08:33:00.001+08:00

New PM Cameron: A Rise From Abject Privilege - An Excerpt
By Theunis Bates

LONDON (May 7) -- If Barack Obama's 2008 presidential success was a tale of triumph over adversity, then David Cameron's victory is one of triumph over prosperity. Because in order to win over the British public -- 36 percent of whom voted for his center-right Conservative Party on Thursday -- the country's new prime minister has had to play down his highly privileged background.

Cameron is everything a leader of modern, egalitarian Britain -- where everyone aspires to be middle class -- should not be: a blue-blooded member of the elite. Born to a stockbroker father and an aristocratic mother, Cameron was educated at Eton College, one of the world's most expensive and exclusive private schools, which has produced 18 past prime ministers. He then went on to study at Oxford, where he joined the infamous Bullingdon Club, the university's own port-guzzling, hell-raising version of Yale's Skull and Bones secret society. (Other past members include Boris Johnson, now the floppy-haired mayor of London.)

However, Cameron knows the importance of image -- he worked as a PR man at a TV company for seven years -- and recognizes that most Brits don't want to be governed by an upper-class toff. So since winning the leadership of the Conservative Party in late 2005, he has tried to make himself seem a little more, well, common. He has claimed that his wife and family don't call him David, but rather use the more down-to-earth "Dave." Cameron's children also attend a non-fee-paying London school, something many of his old Eton classmates would almost certainly call "ghastly."

In the build-up to the May 6 election, his opponents in Gordon Brown's center-left Labour Party -- which served 13 years in power -- attempted to portray Cameron as an aristocratic throwback, someone only interested in helping out his wealthy chums. Brown condemned Cameron's plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to $1.5 million, which he said would only benefit 3,000 of the Tories' "old friends." At the same time, Labour warned, Cameron would shrink tax breaks and benefits for ordinary British families.

However, Cameron says he is anything but an old-school Tory. Instead he calls himself a "modern, compassionate Conservative." Under his leadership, the Tories have largely shaken off their reputation as the "nasty party," which they acquired during the high-unemployment Margaret Thatcher years, and which condemned them to the opposition benches for more than a decade. Cameron has forced his party to support gay rights and expelled members who believe homosexuals should be discriminated against. He has also spoken out in defense of the minimum wage, green energy and Britain's sometimes troubled but much-loved National Health Service, which more extreme Conservatives dream of dismantling.

Cameron's commitment to the National Health Service is a result of his own family's tragedy. Ivan, his first child with wife Samantha, was born with cerebral palsy and a severe form of epilepsy, conditions requiring around-the-clock care. After Ivan died early last year at the age of 6, the Tory leader spoke of his admiration for the NHS nurses and doctors who "helped every day since he was born." Their kindness and unflinching support, say friends, made Cameron a passionate defender of Britain's health care system.

But Cameron hasn't simply painted a smiley face on the Conservatives. In recent months, as the true scale of Britain's economic crisis has become clear -- the national deficit is at its highest level since World War II -- Cameron has given more hard-line speeches. While he once promised to "share the proceeds of growth" during his early years as Tory leader, he now talks of curtailing immigration, slashing government expenditure and forcing people off benefits and back in to work.

Prime Minister Cameron has an unenviable job ahead of him: He must balance the country's books, without forcing too much hardship on ordinary Brits. And he must do all of this while working together with the center-left Liberal Democrats. If he fails, the Conservatives could once again be dubbed the nasty party, and come the next election in 2015 at the latest, be doomed to another long stretch in opposition.

How Faisal Shahzad Was Apprehended, Step by Step - An Excerpt

2010-05-05T19:22:00.002+08:00

How Faisal Shahzad Was Apprehended, Step by Step
Updated: 40 minutes ago

Carl Franzen Contributor - AOL News
(May 4) -- On Saturday evening, Times Square was packed to the gills with thousands of theatergoers as well as those just out to enjoy the first spell of truly warm weather in New York City in weeks. But by 8 p.m., the area was nearly deserted -- all had been evacuated because of a smoking SUV later found to contain a botched car bomb.

In the heart of the most crowded city in the United States, locating the perpetrator appeared to be a tall order indeed, even for the most adept law enforcement officers and intelligence agents. Yet by late Monday night, a little more than 48 hours later, a primary suspect was in federal custody. And he has now been charged with five terrorism-related counts.

Just how did officials track and apprehend Faisal Shahzad so quickly? AOL News retraces their steps:

1. The Vehicle

The 1993 black Nissan Pathfinder identified by authorities as the intended "weapon of mass destruction" was equipped with a homemade bomb made up of three propane tanks, 152 M-88 fireworks, three full propane gas canisters, two 5-gallon gasoline containers, two alarm clock timers connected to wires and a 78-pound metal gun locker containing several bags of nonexplosive fertilizer. Though apparently activated, the device failed to detonate and was later disarmed by the New York Police Department's bomb squad, giving investigators a "treasure trove" of evidence.

The automobile was promptly removed from the scene and taken to an NYPD forensics lab in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators made an initial sweep and found it contained no fingerprints or DNA. They also observed that it had stolen license plates and that the vehicle identification sticker had been scratched off the driver's-side door.

Yet the vehicle identification number stamped on the engine block and axles was still intact, meaning authorities could use it to track down the original owner. She turned out to be a 19-year-old Bridgeport, Conn., college student named Peggy Colas. Federal investigators interviewing Colas learned that she had sold the car on April 28 after posting an ad for it on Craigslist.

2. Craigslist

The online marketplace famous for its low-key, anything-goes approach -- and infamous for some high-profile crimes linked to its postings -- proved to be instrumental both in the bomb plot and the subsequent investigation. Colas told authorities that she had sold the Pathfinder for $1,300 to a man she described as "Middle Eastern or Hispanic," who had responded via e-mail to her Craigslist ad. Investigators found the record of the ad and were able to identify Shahzad as the sender of the e-mail. Craigslist requires buyers to communicate with sellers via a valid e-mail address, but does not screen for newly created or proxy addresses -- which means that if Shahzad had created a "dummy" e-mail address under another name, the link might have been lost.

3. The Cell Phone

In addition to contacting Colas via e-mail, Shahzad also called her using a disposable cell phone, according to Politico. While Shahzad had tossed the phone by the time authorities caught up to him at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday night, agents used an electronic database to trace it back to his original purchase.

4. The Surveillance Cameras

A recent CBS News report says Times Square is equipped with up to 200 individual surveillance cameras -- including 82 owned by the city alone -- that are constantly "observing every move" pedestrians make. Yet only a handful caught the 1993 Pathfinder as it made its way around the block and parked "haphazardly" on West 45th Street, and apparently none got a clear shot of the perpetrator.

Furthermore, as The Washington Post notes, the initial "person of interest" -- a balding man captured on surveillance footage -- may have not have been involved in the failed bombing. The Post and others have made the case that this exemplifies the limitations of even the most powerful closed-circuit security systems.

But as Slate counters, surveillance cameras did end up playing a major role in nailing the suspect -- just not the ones in Times Square. Instead, that honor belongs to the security feed in a Bridgeport shopping center, which recorded Shahzad taking the Pathfinder on a test-drive before purchasing it from Colas.

5. The Last-Minute Dash

After investigators had amassed sufficient evidence pointing to Shahzad as the prime suspect, on Sunday they alerted U.S. agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, to his possible involvement. Yet they still had to act quickly to apprehend Shahzad, who had by then boarded a plane headed for Dubai. A last-minute air traffic control call to the plane as it taxied on the runway prevented him from making his way to his destination, where any arrest would have faced an array of geopolitical hurdles, if he had been detained at all.

Israel's dog and pony show - An Excerpt from Al Jazeera

2010-04-29T10:42:00.002+08:00

Israel's dog and pony show
By Sherine Tadros ( Al Jazeera correspondent)in Middle East- April 28th, 2010
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An "educational" helicopter tour reveals the facts on the ground that are being made at the expense of Palestinian statehood.

I recently jumped at the chance to take an all expenses paid helicopter ride over Israel and part of the West Bank.

The trip was courtesy of The Israel Project (TIP) which describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan group working to impact world opinion for the sake of Israel's security.

The helicopter ride is meant as an "educational tour" for journalists and was inspired by George Bush, the former US president, who took a similar ride and reportedly said it opened his eyes to just how vulnerable Israel is.

The tour operates twice a month and has taken up over 1,400 journalists.

We (AJE cameraman Brad McLennan and I) met our guide and fellow journalists early in the morning, were bussed to an airport near Tel Aviv, treated to breakfast, and (after a security check that happened only to involve Brad and I and not the other two Israeli journalists) were taken up on a civilian helicopter for 45 minutes.

In mid air, an information pack was given to each of us - a neat little 80-page handbook explaining why we were really here.

To boil it down - Israel, the argument goes, is small and under threat from every side so the borders they have imposed are out of necessity not choice.

Hence the name of the tour nicely laminated on the front of the pack - "Defencible Borders: Strategic Options for Israel's Security".

Don't look down

Throughout the flight, our tour guide used a variety of maps, statistics, pie charts, drawings and graphs to explain the reason for the separation wall (deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice).

We have all heard the reasoning that it prevents terrorist attacks but what our guide was trying to explain was that it has swallowed up Palestinian land only in areas which would have exposed Israel and posed a security threat.

The wall has in fact taken 12 per cent of Palestinian land and drastically changed the landscape of Jerusalem creating a de facto border where Israel would like to see one and not where international law deems one should be.

If we were looking down we would have witnessed this reality, but instead most in the helicopter were busy looking at the diagrams.

What is amazing is that in our 45-minute ride we managed to avoid flying over any of the 120 illegal Jewish settlements that have been built on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Not a word was said by our guide about these settlements - neither does it get a mention in our info pack.

Below is a taster of what we did see - the town of Modi'in which sits next to the settlement of Modi'in Illit (which I couldn't film because of the route we took).

The other argument made by our guide was that the separation wall (which he points out will be six per cent concrete and 94 per cent electronic wire fence when finished) was not a permanent international border but rather a defensive one.

Plans, he said, are being made for electronic key cards so that Palestinian farmers left outside the wall can access their lands now on the "Israeli" side.

When I asked our guide why Israel is making long-term plans for a border he just finished telling us was only temporary, he answered "because one day it will be permanent".

It's a simple strategy and one Israel uses unapologetically - creating facts on the ground they call temporary (because in theory they are still negotiating over these facts) while carrying out actions that would make a final settlement based on anything other than what they have already created almost impossible.

The middle of the tour involved landing in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Here the guide explained how it was in fact Hamas that has imposed the siege in Gaza, a point I challenged him on ...

The Israel Project do not hide their aim - shaping media coverage of the conflict. This is after all is a battle for land where the court of public opinion matters.

To preserve Israel's interests (to secure a Jewish state with borders of its choosing) an effort must be made to explain and justify to the world the process by which that state is being created.

But the changes happening come at the expense of Palestinian statehood, and that is clear to see for all those who choose to look down.

The Rise & Fall of Whitney Houston

2010-04-27T13:44:00.012+08:00

Monday 26 April 2010
By steffenjobbs

All the women went crazy over Bobby Brown. He was their dream stud. They were always throwing their panties onstage to Bobby and begging for his love child. This is how women are. They worship guys like Bobby Brown. Whitney got him and he taught her how to do the nasty and use a pipe. What more could a woman ask for from a man? Whitney got what she wanted and Bobby got what he wanted and they almost lived happily ever after in a crack-filled haze. That's what many people call the good life. Nothing lasts forever. I'm sure if Whitney had the chance to do it all over again, she would take the exact same path. Fame and fortune may slip away from Whitney, but crack will always be there for her to offer her peace of mind.
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CopyCat

8/31/09, 13:55:pm

I’m sorry….I just don’t like Whitney Houston anymore. Sorry. She may make some decent music…but she fell off for me. When I saw her parading around on that fu@kery of a show with Her Husband…I knew she was dumb. I used to pay good money, American Dollars to see her in concert and all she did was praise Bobby Brown. Damned Fool. I just don’t like her. Thats all.

SAY NO TO DRUGS !!!!

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Drugs Can Destroy Even The Rich And Popular

Addictions are the problems that influence all various kinds of individuals. It is really regardless if you are a popular person, an ordinary person some politician of the American. You can be experience, and without relevant curing and assistance, you may never be capable to vanquish your issues. One of the biggest points of controversy when facing the addiction problems is how you are cured. Celebrities frequently get approvals that they are implementing the relevant thing when they verify themselves into a rehab program. A lot of general individuals are viewed as doing criminal things and drug consumers instead of the courageous persons striving to get the curing that they require. Star may seem like they are always with the high priority of the world, but so a lot of actually needing immediate assistance. Unlike a lot of ordinary people, stars have the finances the power to obtain whatever they need. This can be specifically risky when they are having some kind of addiction. A lot of individuals suppose that the great fan bases that a lot of stars have is providing a reason very frequently of them to become some addiction to something.

For instance, it is stated that Michael Jackson obtained prescription drugs according to his countless exhaustion after getting ready for a concert. He comprehended that he had to make great efforts to make the people be proud of him. Nevertheless, he was ready to perform so hard that it was really dangerous to risk his life. There are other stars that have shown a lot of familiar things. Another instance is Anna Nicole Smith. She had been one of the really beautiful persons in the globe. She possessed everything that she was able and desired. Yet, she still feels into the way of addiction. Her issue with various kinds of drugs led to her death, which is still questionable. A lot of stars that have these kinds of deaths frequently came to becoming even more popular in their deaths. Nevertheless, when you see person who is turning to the drugs somewhere, they are never supposed of as experiencing from a plot twenty years later. They are constantly supposed of as society’s exiles, and never cured as others.

The real problem is who is giving all of these things, and medicals. Sure, there are a lot of drug dealer groups who are glad to provide their drugs to ordinary individuals. Nevertheless, how do the rich and popular celebrities come into facing these negative individuals who provide them supplies. Another general thought that individuals suppose is that known and popular individuals are unaffected from having issues in their lives. Everybody supposes that they can be cured so fast with having a great sum of finances.
________________________________________________________

Lindsay Lohan vents about the danger of doing drugs: 'They will ultimately destroy your lives'

BY Cristina Everett
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, January 5th 2010, 11:51 AM
Lindsay Lohan vented about the recent passing of many of her celebrity friends.

Since the sudden death of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, many of the late socialite's famous friends have speculated how drugs could have played a role in her untimely passing.

Johnson, the 30-year-old troubled daughter of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, was found dead Monday in her West Hollywood home.

Her fiancée, bisexual reality star Tila Tequila, was the first to announce the shocking death via Twitter.

"Everyone please pray 4 my Wifey Casey Johnson. She has passed away," Tequila, 30, tweeted Monday evening. "This is a very heartbreaking time for me. I'm heart is shredded."

According to RadarOnline.com, Tequila is said to believe Johnson's death was the result of a prescription drug overdose. Johnson was known to have battled drug and alcohol addictions and had failed numerous rehab stints.

Another celebrity speaking out about is Lindsay Lohan.

Lohan, whose own father has accused her of having an addiction to prescription pills, was photographed in tears during a cell phone conversation Monday in St. Barts.

Speaking to RadarOnline, the 23-year-old actress vented about the recent passing of many of her celebrity friends.

"For how long now, have I been on national television, radio and in the press making waves about prescription drug use and how it is affecting the people we love and others?" Lohan wrote. "Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Adam Goldstein, Brittany Murphy and now Casey."

Lohan also credited Johnston's ex-girlfriend, Courtney Semel, for trying to help the late heiress with her problems.

"But let's not talk about celebrities. Let's talk about our own children and loved ones," the actress added. "When are people going to realize that these drugs cause you to do things you normally wouldn't and will ultimately destroy your lives!?

"Knock me all you want, I am trying, not lying! It's time to take a stand folks. Now! God bless Casey and her family."

_____________________________________________________________

Fall Of Fantasia

12 August 2010
Six years after triumphantly winning the third season of 'American Idol,' Fantasia Barrino was rushed to a North Carolina hospital this week where she is being treated for an aspirin and sleeping pill overdose. This tragic U-turn in her fortunes has many asking: How did her fairytale life turn so quickly into a nightmare?

"Fantasia wrongly assumed that after she won 'Idol' that all her worries would disappear, and for a while they did," a friend of the singer tells me.

In 2004, Fantasia's debut single, 'I Believe,' made her the first artist in history to ever have their first single debut at number one. It remained in the top slot for eleven consecutive weeks, becoming the top selling single of 2004 in the USA. Her debut album, 'Free Yourself,' was released in November 2004 and was a huge hit -- in its first week, the album sold over 240,000 copies on its way to going platinum and earned Fantasia four Grammy nominations.

It was official. Fantasia, the single mother who once worried about paying her rent, was now the one thing she had only ever dreamed about becoming: a star.

In August of that same year, Fantasia played herself in a hit Lifetime Television original film based on her autobiography, 'Life Is Not a Fairy Tale.' Nineteen million viewers tuned in to catch the flick its debut weekend. Everything was going perfect for the young lady from North Carolina.

The following year, her self-titled second album, 'Fantasia,' was released, and although it didn't do as well as her first CD, it was certified gold. Fantasia surprised everyone the following year when she announced she was putting her recording career on hold to star in the lead role of Celie in the Broadway musical 'The Color Purple.' (I saw her in the production and she was simply breathtaking.)

However, that's when things started to go wrong. First, Fantasia hurt her vocal cords while on Broadway, causing her to miss several shows. She was also dropped from the powerful 19 Entertainment management company and watched as her beloved $1.1 million home in Charlotte was put up for auction after she failed to repay money she was loaned to cover her 2006 taxes.

"It was very clear that the people she was surrounding herself with were not giving her great advice. It's very easy to think when you are on the top that the ride will never end," one industry insider tells me. "By the looks of things, she has very little to show for all the hard work she did. Where is all the money she earned? Very, very few artists have long-term careers like Madonna, the secret is to save as much as possible and make smart decisions while you are at the top. I'm afraid Fantasia didn't do this."

In addition to her financial troubles, Fantasia found herself at the middle of a very embarrassing scandal last week involving a married man and a sex tape.

"It all just got be too much for her," a record industry insider tells me. "Everyone wanted to be her friend the year she won 'Idol.' Now she's alone, wondering where have all those people gone."

Even with all the fair-weather friends, Fantasia isn't without her loyalists, including fellow 'Idol' winner Taylor Hicks.

"I've always been a huge Fantasia fan right from the first time I saw her on 'Idol,'" Hicks told me exclusively. "It was great to catch up and perform on stage with her at the 'American Idol' finale a few months ago. She was totally on her game and I hope to see her back singing again soon."

The World's First Kentucky Fried Chicken®

2010-04-25T12:59:00.001+08:00

The World's First Kentucky Fried Chicken®

For many years, people from all over the United States and the world have enjoyed the culinary creation of Corbin’s most famous citizen — Harland Sanders, known worldwide as Colonel Harland Sanders.

Even though people all over the globe are familiar with the snow-white bearded restaurant icon, few are familiar with how the Colonel got his start in the restaurant business.

Sanders, who was born on Sept. 9, 1890 in Henryville, Indiana, lost his father at the age of six. After completing the sixth grade, Sanders quit school and went to work at a variety of jobs. During his early years, Sanders worked as a farm hand, streetcar conductor, steamboat ferry operator, railroad fireman, secretary, insurance salesman, tire salesman and furniture store owner. However, it wasn’t until 1930 that Sanders moved to Corbin, where he would one day forge the culinary empire for which he was famous.

Once in Corbin, Sanders opened a service station, which was located on a spot near where the current Kentucky Fried Chicken® is located. In the back of that service station, he operated a lunchroom which consisted of one table, surrounded by six chairs. It wasn’t long, however, before word spread and Sanders found it necessary to expand his capacity.

By 1937, Sanders had built Sanders' Cafe, which seated 142 customers. At this restaurant, it was soon discovered that Sanders' fried chicken was the most popular selection on the menu.

Sanders often told of his search for the right recipe. It was while experimenting in his Corbin kitchen, that Sanders found his famous and closely guarded combination of eleven herbs and spices which he claimed “stand on everybody’s shelf.” It wasn’t only Sanders’ recipe of herbs and spices that made his fried chicken unique. He also used a pressure cooker to fry his chicken.

In 1939, fire destroyed the eatery, which Sanders then rebuilt as both a restaurant and motel. For many years, the restaurant and motel served as a popular stop for travelers driving along what was then the major north-south route — US 25. Business continued to boom until the completion of Interstate 75, which provided an alternative route for motorists...a route which no longer directly passed Sanders’ restaurant.

Sanders subsequently auctioned the restaurant and motel off. At the age of 66, he began to sell franchises based on his famous chicken recipe. Although he was a pioneer in the relatively new business of franchising, initial sales were slow. His first franchisee went to Pete Harman of Salt Lake City, Utah. By the late 1950s, more than 200 Kentucky Fried Chicken® franchises had been sold in the United States and Canada.

During the administration of Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon, Sanders was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. He was re-commissioned in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Weatherby. Although he had been a Kentucky Colonel for nearly two decades, it wasn’t until after 1950 that Sanders began to look the part, growing his trademark mustache and goatee and donning his white suit and string tie.

Sanders' oldest daughter Margaret suggested that her father start selling fried chicken as a take-home item. The first KFC® carry-out service was started at a restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1960, Sanders moved the headquarters of his growing company to Shelbyville, Kentucky. On February 18, 1964, Sanders sold his franchise business to former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey for $2 million. Sanders was retained on salary as spokesman for Kentucky Fried Chicken®.

Over his lifetime, Sanders reportedly contributed money to religious charities, hospitals, medical research, education, the Boy Scouts®, Junior Achievement®, and the March of Dimes®.

Regardless of where he appeared, Sanders was immediately recognizable. At the age of 87, he testified against mandatory retirement before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aging.

Sanders died on Dec. 16, 1980, after which his body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort. He was buried in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery.

Each year, thousands of customers make a stop at the Corbin Kentucky Fried Chicken® location, where they can view a variety of items from the early days of Sanders’ restaurant business, including a barrel of his famous recipe, a life-size statue of the Colonel, as well as a replica of his original kitchen.

Located at 688 U.S. Highway 25 West in Corbin

Open daily from 10 AM to 10 PM

Tour groups are welcome

Bus parking is available

Directions: From I-75 take exit 29, go south on 25E one mile, then right on 25w one-half mile. Located at the junction of 25E and 25W in Corbin.

For Further Information Please Contact the Sanders Cafe at (606) 528-2163 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (606) 528-2163 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Top 29 cities for men 2010

2010-04-24T12:14:00.002+08:00

Following is this year's list of top 29 cities for men:

1. New York City

2. Melbourne

3. Tokyo

4. Madrid

5. London

6. Cape Town

7. Miami

8. Buenos Aires

9. Sydney

10. San Francisco

11. Paris

12. Los Angeles

13. Hong Kong

14. Tel Aviv

15. Barcelona

16. Sao Paulo

17. Berlin

18. Lisbon

19. Beirut

20. Istanbul

21. Shanghai

22. Montreal

23. Amsterdam

24. Chicago

25. Toronto

26. Kyoto

27. Bogota

28. Rome

29. Las Vegas

POLL NOTE :
by men's website Askmen.com ranked 29 cities across the globe based on how good they were for men to live, work and play.

Studying abroad? Take a look at Malaysia

2010-04-23T13:45:00.002+08:00

KLCC - Photocredit : Oxymanus

Studying abroad? Take a look at Malaysia by : Nauvarat Suksamran / Bangkok Post

Proximity, courses and standard of living make this country a viable option

Published: 22/04/2010 at 12:00 AM

When the opportunity to study abroad comes along, the majority of Thai students usually aim for the US or Europe.

In the Asian region, the main choices would be Japan, Korea, Singapore and even India. There are a few Thai students who recognise the merits of studying in a neighbouring country such as Malaysia.

The cost of education in Malaysia is minimal and reasonable when compared to the cost of living in Thailand.

Pattani native Abdulloh Yapa is one of the few who opted to further his studies in Malaysia after completing 12th grade high school in Thailand.

Upon arriving in Malaysia, Abdulloh immediately sensed that he was in an unfamiliar and confusing environment. He hated everything: The Malay language he didn't understand, the food and the absence of friends.

It took several months to get used to things, but after more than four years of living in a foreign land, Abdulloh has a better understanding of life, and has learned to see the positive side of things.

Abdulloh has completed his undergraduate studies and is currently pursuing an MBA degree. More importantly, he has worked with IBM as an IT specialist. He doesn't rely on his parents for tuition fees anymore.

''Every time I return home to Thailand and meet up with my friends, I am convinced that I have learned something from this experience. I increasingly learn about people and understand how they think,'' he said.

An academic environment filled with international students requires that you dare to present your ideas and beliefs when you express yourself. Networking is one of the best benefits of a foreign education.

''The English language picked up in Malaysia, though a peculiar accent, can be adapted for communication. Everyone, every nationality uses the English language without being ashamed,'' said Abdulloh.

Sharif Yimyai hails from a traditional Muslim family in Bangkok. After graduating with an engineering degree from Chulalongkorn University, his first choice for a graduate degree in business studies was at Multimedia University, a private college in Malaysia.

Sharif's first obstacle was language because his first and only language was Thai. Now he was being thrust into an academic environment where only English is used. His friends are all from international backgrounds. More importantly, this is the first time Sharif will be staying in a hostel.

Though his Muslim background helped him adapt to local cuisine, the real challenge was his studies, which required much more effort than usual. He had to write down lectures, listen over and over again, while some subjects demanded that he read the material repeatedly to understand the subject matter. It took Sharif almost six months before he could adjust.

''The nice part about studying in Malaysia is that it's a short distance away from home. The travel expense is affordable. I have a goal of owning my own business here

This international university has enabled me to build a global network which will allow me to differentiate my business,'' said Sharif.

Suranand Sukhumanand, aka Hardy, 25, studied business in Bangkok and is currently pursuing a master's degree at Multimedia University. He admitted that his friends questioned his choice of university at first.

''Are you going to study religion, bomb-making or terrorism?'' were the frequent jokes made by his friends. However, the real reason was his grandfather who had studied religion in Malaysia. Hardy's family, especially his father, would often spend time in Malaysia.

Hardy said studying near Thailand makes it convenient to travel back and forth, the cultures are similar, food is almost the same and there's not much to adjust to.
Hardy is currently employed in the Technical Support division of HP (Hewlett Packard) responsible for clients in the Asia region; his MBA degree helped him get the job.

In Malaysia, education is encouraged by the government. Almost every university is ready to offer scholarships for the best people to study at their campus. Student life in Malaysia is a learning experience in itself. Thai student clubs exchange knowledge and culture with other groups or international clubs.
Getting to know Multimedia University

Multimedia University is a private university that has gained a reputation as one of Malaysia's most modern facilities, especially in the IT field.

It has earned a place in the top-200 universities of the Asean Times Higher Education (The-QS World University Rankings).

The university is located in Cyberjaya City, born from the efforts former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed who wanted to see Malaysia become a hub of innovation and technology.

Nuntasinee Fatima Muadmanee, manager of Student Relations at Multimedia University said that a distinct advantage is the fact that many leading IT companies conduct their business operations in Cyberjaya.

Multimedia University places great emphasis on research reports, she said, a key strategy that builds confidence when a graduate enters the job market. Plus, graduates are equipped with the necessary language skills, she added.

Nuntasinee said that the university is also highly regarded as a training centre, used by private organisations and various universities in Malaysia and the rest of the world.

''A memorandum of understanding has been signed with at least three private universities in Thailand, in addition to public universities such as Khon Kaen University, Prince of Songkla University, Mahasarakham University and Kasetsart University, to conduct joint activities and exchange teaching faculty and student training,'' she said.

Malaysia is a Muslim nation which means entertainment or distractions for young students are not present on campus, Nuntasinee added. The most popular department at Multimedia University is Creative Multimedia, followed by IT management.
Creative multimedia and the preservation of history

Multimedia University is benefitting from a Unesco donation of 15 million baht (1.5 million ringgit) to Creative Vista Company or CVC, a private company that is part of an initiative to create jobs and revenue for the university.

All CVC employees are university alumni with Creative Multimedia degrees.

A team of 10 people are working to preserve historic ruins.

Reza Maulana, a recent graduate with a Virtual Reality degree, works on creating dhdesigns using data research and ancient sites such as old mosques, buildings, and residential houses mostly found in and around Malacca and Georgetown which have been given world heritage status by the UN cultural body.

Maulana compares the past with the present using IT technology. He estimates that it will take six months before the project is completed.
Vision 2020

The Malaysian government has given its full support to education. Academic institutions at every level have sprung up. There are more than 60 universities, of which half are under state supervision.

Cyberjaya City was the brainchild of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamed.

A large amount of financial backing comes from the government and been put to use in research.

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, former first lady of Malaysia and wife of Dr Mahathir is the Chancellor of Multimedia University. She said the university has many schools to choose from and its programmes are based on job market requirements in the future.

She added that since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the US, more Muslim students are choosing to attend school in Malaysia because of the more peaceful environment.

Multimedia University has students from 75 countries all over the world. Iranian students are one of the largest groups among the international academic community.

Prof Dr Zaharin Yusoff, president of Multimedia University, said telecom agencies have provided support to the institution.

Every year a committee with members selected from every sector of society will evaluate the quality of education, he said.

More importantly, he added, Multimedia University places importance on research, promotes internal student activities by providing financial support, and provides a real work environment for students to learn and gain experience.

''We hope that in the future there will be more Thai students because we have held road shows and educational events on a continuous basis. We are eying the Thai student market because we are also the closest of neighbours.''

What's "Nu "?

2010-04-22T22:50:00.003+08:00

On a tiny island, catchy Web name sparks a battle
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
By Christopher Rhoads, The Wall Street Journal

The arrival of the Internet brought a rare bit of good fortune to Niue, a tiny, impoverished island in the South Pacific.

Its national Internet suffix, dot-nu, has become a big hit in Sweden, as "nu" means "now" in Swedish. An entrepreneur in Medfield, Mass., named Bill Semich, who acquired the rights to operate and sell the dot-nu domain name in the late 1990s, has plowed some of the profits from Sweden into making Niue (pronounced New-Ay) the world's first nation with free wireless Internet for all of its citizens, about 1,200 people.

But that success has thrown the island, which is about 1 1/2 times the area of Washington, D.C., into turmoil. Some officials charge they were cheated out of what they now see as an important and profitable national asset. "This is a huge issue of national development for us," says Richard Hipa, the managing director of Telecom Niue. "This is something that we should have run, and we were robbed of that."

The island's government has locked horns with the 62-year-old Mr. Semich, whose company is called .NU Domain Ltd., demanding a bigger slice of profits and more control over the domain name. The fight prompted a nearly three-year independent investigation launched by the government and became the dominant issue in the island's elections last year.

"The fact that we are making this extremely large and voluntary commitment to Internet service on Niue is unprecedented," says Mr. Semich from his spartan Medfield office. A small painting of a Niuean landscape adorns one wall. He argues that what he provides is worth more than cash. "To take that and turn it on its head and say, 'You should pay more,' misses the whole point."

As Internet use explodes, governments around the world, particularly in developing nations, are discovering the power of their once-obscure country-code domain names. They have begun to see the names as a source of revenue, a way to increase their presence in cyberspace and as part of their national sovereignty -- like the highway system or phone company -- to be managed as they see fit.

More than a dozen governments or quasigovernment organizations have gained control of their country-code domain names in recent years. Usually the names have been wrested from individuals managing them since the 1990s -- often before the governments were aware of the Internet.

In 2004, France passed a law to legitimize its control over domain names of its overseas territories, such as Mayotte (dot-yt) and St. Pierre and Miquelon (dot-pm). A couple of years ago, the Cayman Islands obtained control of its domain name, dot-ky, from a U.S. entrepreneur marketing the name in Kentucky. He had sold bluegrass.ky and horsecapitaloftheworld.ky, among others. Kazakhstan and South Africa have also battled to win back control of their domain names.

The body that makes such decisions, an arm of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, in recent years has recognized each nation's "sovereign control" of its domain name, according to a policy statement. Previously, the organization, based in Marina del Rey, Calif., would transfer control of a domain-name suffix only if it were "in the best interests of the Internet community" and if both parties agreed to the change, according to its statements.

After slowing in the wake of the Internet bust six years ago, domain-name registrations have soared. The global total jumped by nearly half to 94 million in the two years that ended last Dec. 31, according to Zooknic, an Internet research firm based in Louisville, Ky. Much of the growth is coming in developing nations. The number of domain names using China's dot-cn and India's dot-in each more than doubled last year, according to Zooknic, well ahead of the 40 percent increase of names using dot-com.

Country-code domain names were conceived in the early 1980s by Jon Postel, a computer scientist at the University of Southern California, as a way to help organize addressing of the Internet.

Each computer connected to the Internet is given an identifying series of numbers, called an Internet protocol address. To make an IP address more user-friendly, each one has a corresponding domain name. Just as dot-com was set up for commercial entities, country-code domain names were to identify users by country.

Reflecting the collegial and informal nature of the fledgling Internet community at the time, Mr. Postel assigned operation of the domain names to trusted friends or people he knew. They were mostly like-minded academics and computer engineers who performed the work on a volunteer basis.

The administrative contacts for each country code had to reside in the given country and understand they were "performing a public service on behalf of the Internet community," Mr. Postel wrote in a 1994 memorandum codifying the domain-name structure. Typically, he decided who would manage country codes for distant nations on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the early and mid-1990s, this was happening below the radar of many governments, some of which viewed the Internet as a passing fad.

Still, Mr. Postel understood the political ramifications of country-code domain names. To avoid having to determine what constitutes a country and make up domain names for them, he used the two-letter codes from a list, called ISO 3166, compiled for mail and other purposes by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization. Any territorial entity on the list would get a domain name.

Many of those listed weren't countries. Some were homes only to penguins. The Indian Ocean made the list, dot-io. Specks of land belonging to other countries were included, such as the United Kingdom's Pitcairn Island, a South Pacific island whose population consists of 50 descendants of the mutineers of the HMS Bounty and their Tahitian wives. (Niue governs itself in "free association" with New Zealand.)

Mr. Postel, who died in 1998, viewed the domain names as merely an administrative convenience. But others, such as Mr. Semich, the head of the company at odds with Niue's government, saw a business opportunity.

"It never occurred to Postel that the value of the revenue generated by domain names could be greater than the value of the Internet service itself," Mr. Semich says.

As an editor for a computer trade magazine in the 1990s, Mr. Semich followed the Internet's early development closely, taking note of the skyrocketing demand for new Internet domain names. He also plunged into the Internet policy debates at the time that included the creation in 1998 of Icann, which took over the duties handled by Mr. Postel.

That same year, Mr. Semich quit his magazine job and got into the business full time. He started a small software company offering clients the ability to have domain names in languages that don't use the Roman alphabet. And he trolled about for available domain names that seemed marketable. He settled on dot-nu, thinking it would be a catchy domain name for U.S. companies looking for a cheaper alternative to dot-com. At the time, a new dot-com address cost $100 to register for two years. After lining up the necessary servers, contacts on the ground in Niue and approval from Icann -- a process that took several months in all -- Mr. Semich was up and running.

Icann required only information that he had the technical capabilities to manage a domain name. There was no fee. But Mr. Semich did spend about $100,000 on servers and other equipment to get the business started.

The expression of interest from an American entrepreneur was at first warmly welcomed by Niue, which hasn't had many breaks over the years.

With its closest neighbor, Tonga, more than 350 miles away, Niue ranks among the most remote places on Earth. British explorer Captain James Cook got a bad taste of the island when he visited in 1774. After shouting natives chased him and his crew away, he dubbed the place "Savage Island." Subsequent settlers were surprised to find vegetation on the chunk of coral rising from the sea, calling the place Niue, which in the local language means, "Look, there's a coconut." When Niue finally built an airport in 1971, thousands of Niueans used the opportunity to emigrate.

Along with selling local stamps and fishing rights, the biggest source of revenue for islanders is foreign aid. The government is by far the largest employer. In January 2004, a mammoth cyclone devastated much of Niue, prompting even more to emigrate.

When Mr. Semich arrived on the scene, he says Telecom Niue wasn't interested in the domain name or in offering Internet service, because it feared the Internet would sap its revenue from faxes. Mr. Hipa of Telecom Niue says the government was just beginning to formulate an Internet policy but believed the domain name was just "like an international dialing code prefix."

Mr. Semich hired two expatriates on the island: Richard St. Clair, a former Peace Corps volunteer from San Jose, Calif., and a New Zealander named Stafford Guest, who runs a hotel and bar. Their chief task has been to erect Internet service on the island.

Mr. Semich's initial plan to market dot-nu to U.S. customers mostly flopped. Dot-com's big lead over other domain-name suffixes made dot-com even more appealing for new users. But before long, Mr. Semich found that some Europeans, in particular Swedes, took a liking to dot-nu.

At the time, Sweden's country-code domain name, dot-se, was reserved only for companies incorporated in Sweden, steering the country's burgeoning online population to alternatives, like dot-nu.

Today, more than 80 percent of Mr. Semich's business is in Sweden, prompting him to open a sales and marketing office in Stockholm. A Swedish parachutist club has registered the Swedish equivalent of "getupandjump.now," and an advertisement site for Vicks Vaporub uses the equivalent of "wakeup.now." Some Swedes believe the domain name is Swedish. Mr. Semich charges $30 a year for a domain name, with a minimum two-year commitment. There are about 110,000 domain names using the dot-nu suffix, he says.

Mr. Semich says his private company has annual revenue in the low single-digit millions. He donates 15 percent to 30 percent of that to a charitable arm of his operation geared toward developing the Internet on Niue. The money has gone toward an Internet cafe, tower construction, a building designed to protect Internet equipment from cyclones and a $6,000 monthly fee for a telecom link to New Zealand, among other expenses. Between the charity and the business, Mr. Semich employs 12.

Mr. Semich says the venture hasn't made him wealthy. He lives in the same house he did before he started. His visions of turning his non-Roman alphabet domain-name software into a big business vanished with the Internet bust, which forced him to lay off about a dozen full- and part-time employees at the time. Still, managing dot-nu has proved to be a sustainable business, he says.

By June 2003, the company was able to offer Niueans free wireless Internet, via a series of towers on the island. For many, it not only opened them to the outside world but also enabled an inexpensive way to keep in regular contact with friends and relatives who had left the island years before. The company also got involved in civic affairs on the island, sponsoring the rugby team and Niue's contestant in a regional beauty pageant.

Nevertheless, four months later, a new telecom minister on the island claimed the operators lacked a proper license. He shut down the service for workers in the government -- the largest group of users. The minister, Toke Talagi, requested Icann transfer management of the domain name to the government, charging Mr. Semich and his team with "neo-colonialism" and ignoring the rights of the government.

The government hired an American adviser to help lobby Icann for the change. The adviser charged Mr. Semich with reneging on a promise to give 25 percent of his profits to the government and, worse, with knowingly registering pornography Web sites. Mr. Semich denies the accusation. The government launched an independent investigation into the allegations.

Mr. Semich says there was never such an agreement. His company had voluntarily agreed to provide free Internet access to the island, which it was doing, he says. He points out that the operators of other domains don't pay a slice of their proceeds back to governments.

"We agreed to provide free wireless Internet to the government," he says. "There has never been any other agreement."

Nevertheless, on strongly Christian Niue, the charges that the country code was being used for pornography sites created a firestorm. Mr. Guest, one of Mr. Semich's local hires, says the bad publicity hurt business in his motel, the Coral Gardens, forcing him to shut down its restaurant. "They felt we were taking advantage of the nation," says Mr. Guest, whose wife is from Niue. "We were devastated by some of the things being said of us."

But soon citizens began to miss the free Internet access. The matter dominated the election for premier in March of last year, where Mr. Talagi, the telecom minister, was considered the favorite. Just days before the vote, the incumbent premier overruled Mr. Talagi by ordering that Mr. Semich's company could use government-owned towers to extend the Internet to several villages. Mr. Talagi was narrowly defeated.

"The people stood up and said, 'We want our Wi-Fi,' " says Mr. St. Clair, who came to Niue with the Peace Corps in 1994 as a bulldozer mechanic and stayed on to head the construction of the wireless Internet service, called Wi-Fi.

The winner of the election, Mititaiagimene Young Vivian, has taken a more accommodating approach toward Mr. Semich's company. The independent investigation, which ended late last year, found nothing improper about Mr. Semich's business or about how he became manager of the domain name in the first place. No evidence exists to support the pornography charge

Still, Premier Young Vivian says he wants to meet with Mr. Semich soon to discuss the domain name. "The key issue is that reasonable benefits should come to Niue," he says. "That is the goal of any leader."
First published on March 29, 2006 at 12:00 am

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The Niue flag has the ratio 1:2 and was officially adopted in 1975. It has a yellow background, with a Union Jack in the upper left corner. The Union Jack is defaced with 4 stars: one in the middle and four on the sides. The color yellow represents friendship and warmth with New Zealand.

The form of government is a Constitutional monarchy. The flag of Niue belongs to a country that gained it’s recognized in 1974. It is located in the South Pacific.

The capital and largest city in the country is Alofi. The Nieu flag belongs to a country whose national anthem is “Ko e Iki he Lagi”. The currency used is the New Zealand dollar.

Some interesting facts about Niue:

religion: Ekalesia Niue (a Protestant sect), Roman Catholicism, Latter Day Saints, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses
language: Niuean, English
population: 1,691