January 9 – 22, 2015 • MCI (P) 100/09/2014 • SINGAPORE EDITION • theepochtimes.com
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Alan Choo is one of only a few Singaporean violinists pursuing baroque violin performance.
Choosing a Path Less Travelled (Part 1) By Li Yen Epoch Times Staff Parents play an important role in a child’s life, especially in terms of his socialisation and development. This seems to be true for violinist Alan Choo, whose love for music was nurtured and inspired mostly by his father. His father, who is a doctor, encouraged him to take up the violin seriously at the age of 13. Surrounded by music during his childhood days, Choo remembers his parents playing a recording of Corelli’s violin sonata and his father playing the piano. Whenever his father performed a tune, he would be asked to dance and sing along to it. Choo had a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. His adventurous streak might be the reason that propelled him to be a violinist – a path less travelled – instead of settling for a mainstream job. Named one of “classical music’s new crop of rising stars” by The Straits Violinist Alan Choo Times, the 24-year-old is one of only a few Singaporean violinists pursuing baroque violin performance. Choo is keen on historical performance and has loved playing Baroque music since young. An exuberant and intricate style of European classical music, the Baroque period (1600 –1750) marked a rich era of outstanding musical innovations, with J.S. Bach as one of the more popularly known Baroque
A musician’s journey in honing their craft is a difficult one, filled with setbacks and disappointments, and it is not uncommon at all to harbour thoughts of giving up along the way.
composers today. At the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Choo started taking classes in Early Music on top of playing the baroque violin. Baroque violins are fitted with gut strings rather than the metal and synthetic strings commonly used on today’s modern instruments, which results in a warmer and natural sound with a sweet sharpness. “Being able to perform baroque music on original authentic instruments and learn about the musical style is something very intriguing to me,” shares Choo. According to Choo, a musician’s journey is a difficult one filled with setbacks and disappointments, and it is common to harbour thoughts of giving up. But earning the honourable Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award in 2014 and winning the 2011 Singapore’s National Piano and Violin Competition in the Artist Category have given him motivation to carry on this arduous journey. The late Goh Soon Tioe is one of Singapore’s significant musician pioneers, and Choo has been the first Singaporean violinist to receive the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award since 2003. “I have persevered through some difficult times and I see these awards as a confirmation of my efforts, as well as strong motivation to continue striving for excellence in my skills and musicianship,” he says. When did your love for music start? When did you realise that you want to be a violinist? My love for music was nurtured and inspired mainly by my father. When I was growing up, there was always music in the house – he would be playing the piano and asking me to sing or even dance to the music. At the age of six, he asked if I wanted to learn the violin or the piano and I chose the violin. In the beginning, my father had to enforce strict rules on practising, but after a while I discovered that
I grew to love playing the violin and wanted to do it even when I was not asked to. That was when I discovered I really loved music and at about the age of 13, also under the encouragement of my parents, I started to take the violin more seriously and started to dream of being a violinist. You wanted to be an astronaut when you were young. Tell us about your childhood dream. Are you comfortable about not going for an ordinary job? Hahahaha…that was a very childish dream of mine. I believe I just saw some cartoons and documentaries of Outer Space and thought it would be so cool to be able to experience adventures in Outer Space some day. Actually I still think it is! Thinking back, I realised that this shows some of my personality traits from a young age: I loved adventures and exploring life. I liked to do things that were out of the ordinary. So it was not surprising that I later chose to take a path less travelled and make a career out of being a violinist and musician. In your opinion, why do you think music is important for mankind? I think music, like many other art forms, helps us discover what it means to be human. To be human is to experience emotions and feelings, and music helps us express them. It is the simplest way people know how to express themselves – almost every culture has their own folk songs and dances. It helps us bring out the beauty and meaning of even the smallest things in life, and thus helps us appreciate them. It helps with easing the grief which we inevitably experience in life. It helps embody the spirit of a group of people, or of mankind as a whole, and has the ability to stir feelings and motivate people towards a certain goal. It is something so intangible, yet so powerful.
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You have completed two Master’s degrees in Violin Performance and Early Music at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Tell us more about your school life. How have the teachings of pedagogue Victor Danchenko and Risa Browder molded you? I love my overseas experience here at Peabody. Peabody has a rich history and has some of the world’s most accomplished musicians and pedagogues to learn from. There are many interesting departments such as Jazz, Opera and Early Music which all students can experiment and learn from, and in following my childhood love for baroque music, I started to take a lot of classes in Early Music and learn to play the baroque violin. Being able to perform baroque music on original authentic instruments and learn about the musical style is something very intriguing to me, and thus in my second year of my Master’s in Violin Performance, I decided to also concurrently pursue a Master’s in Early Music to supplement my education and qualifications. Both teachers have been instrumental to my development. Mr Danchenko is a major figure in the violin world, having studied with the legendary David Oistrakh and having produced some of the world’s top violinists in his teaching career. Not only has he taught me so much on playing the violin and performing, he has also inspired me so much by his sheer love for music. He is a true artist who lives for his art and I aspire to be like him one day. Risa Browder has also given me the most excellent guidance. She taught me how to play the baroque violin from scratch all the way to my Master’s recital just three years later. She has also been most encouraging and is a motherly figure to me at Peabody.
a difficult one, filled with setbacks and disappointments, and it is not uncommon at all to harbour thoughts of giving up along the way. I have persevered through some difficult times and I see these awards as a confirmation of my efforts, as well as strong motivation to continue striving for excellence in my skills and musicianship.
You won the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award in 2014 and were the First Prize Winner at the biennial National Piano and Violin Competition Singapore 2011. How did it feel winning these awards? I feel extremely honoured and gratified to have received both awards. A musician’s journey in honing their craft is
Every talented violinist needs a worthy instrument. Can you tell us about your violin and what it means to you? My violin is a 1850 V. Postiglione on generous loan to me from The Rin Collection, Singapore. It has a powerful, projecting tone and is capable of producing an array of tonal
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You have performed in concerts and attended music festivals in various countries. Has travelling changed your perspective on life? Travelling definitely played a huge part in my development as a musician. In recent years, I have performed with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in a historical palace in St Petersburg, performed Benjamin Britten’s Second String Quartet in the very town where he lived and worked in Aldeburgh, UK, and worked with members of the Emerson and Tokyo String Quartets at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, USA. Immersing yourself in different environments, getting close to the origins of the music, meeting and interacting with world-class artists…these are just some of the benefits of doing music festivals in various countries and it has definitely broadened my horizons so much. As a result, it has also inspired and improved my music. What is your approach to performing onstage? People come for live performances instead of listening to a recording for the “live” element – which is for the performer to engage with the audience there and then, and for both parties to feel that special connection. Feeling that connection is one of the greatest pleasures of performing, and I aim to attain that every single time I perform.
Singaporean violinist Alan Choo
colours. I have used it for seven years now and have a special connection with it. I am very grateful to Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei for this wonderful instrument and I treasure it greatly. (This is Part 1 of Alan Choo’s interview. Part 2 will be continued in the next issue. For more information about Alan Choo, visit his website at http://www.violinistalan. com.) This Is Singapore is a fortnightly feature that delves into the life of an inspiring and talented individual in Singapore. Read all our interviews here: http://bit.do/thisissingapore
Prince of Pop JJ Lin Meets His Wax Double By Li Yen Epoch Times Staff SINGAPORE—Award-winning Mandopop singer cum composer JJ Lin Junjie was back in his home country on December 22 to unveil his own wax figure at Madame Tussauds, Singapore’s latest attraction. Prince of Pop JJ Lin came face-to-face with his brand new wax figure, and had a fun and interactive time posing with his ‘wax double’ that was dressed in trendy street wear from the brand SMG, a clothing line started by Lin. Lin, who was lauded Best Mandarin Male Singer at Taiwan’s 25th Golden Melody Awards in 2014 for his album Stories Untold, feels exceptionally honoured to be recognised and featured in Madame Tussauds Singapore, especially when the recognition came from Singapore – his homeland. “I have been away for the past years, travelling a lot. I have a really heart-warming feeling to know that my friends in Singapore are willing to recognise me and remember me in such an unique way. As a performer, as a musician, as a Singaporean, I am really proud to be the Singapore icon featured in Madame Tussauds today,” said the 33-year-old during the Madame Tussauds press conference on December 22. According to Madame Tussauds Singapore, JJ Lin met up with the Madame Tussauds team in April 2014 to have his photos and measurements taken, hand casted, hair sampled as well as his eye colour analysed. About 500 precise body and facial measurements were collected for a
JJ Lin poses with his parents and wax figure at Madame Tussauds Singapore on Dec 22.
team of around 20 skilled sculptors to create the JJ Lin figure. A Madame Tussauds wax figure requires around four months to make, and costs $300,000 Singapore dollars. “I think the most challenging process of making the wax figure was to keep that smile for six hours. It is easy to smile but to keep that real smile from your heart for hours is really hard. As the time goes on, you find your smile tensing up, “ Lin revealed. “The process of making the wax figure, although long, [turned out] pretty well,” he enthused. Lin, who has just released his latest album Genesis, was thrilled and excited to have his own figure placed beside
his idol – Michael Jackson – at Madame Tussauds. “When I first knew that I was going to be featured in Madame Tussauds as a wax figure, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘Wow’, and that I get to be beside Michael Jackson.” “The image of Michael Jackson came to me because he is a figure I always look up to in the music industry. As a performer, he has been my inspiration all my life,” said Lin. He added, “Besides Michael Jackson, there are a lot of figures that I respect and look up to as well, for example, Johnny Depp, my favourite actor. So it is really a wonderful feeling to be part of this whole museum.”
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January 9 – 22, 2015
WORLD perspectives
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A poster for ‘The Interview’ is displayed on the marquee of the Los Feliz 3 cinema on December 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Hackers have been releasing stolen information and threatened attacks on theatres that screened the film.
Sony and the Ongoing War for US Opinion By Heng He Epoch Times Staff America was shocked. A major Hollywood film maker had its proprietary information hacked—personal emails, scripts, unreleased footage— and spilled out onto the web. The criminals wanted to establish they were serious. If Sony did not withhold the movie The Interview from release, terror attacks targeting movie theatres would follow. Commentators agreed: this was a new kind of threat. A
totalitarian regime was trying to determine what Americans could watch. Our way of life was at stake in a manner never before seen. Since the initial reports, the story has become more complicated. Experts have determined that the release of Sony’s information was accomplished by an insider at the company, not by a North Korean hacker. The latest news is the insider was probably working for Russia or China. After initially withdrawing the film, Sony released it successfully in independent theatres, as Americans flocked to see
what all of the fuss was about. While the plot has become tangled, the first impressions of the Sony affair were very valuable. Totalitarian regimes are threatened by freedom of expression here in the United States. They dream of forcing American society to operate inside the straitjacket they force on opinion in their home countries. These home truths were misleading, though, in one important way. What North Korea was accused of doing was nothing new. Of course, we have not
had nations threatening to blow up movie theatres before. But we have had a nation seeking to limit what Americans can see, hear, and know. The People’s Republic of China has been doing this for decades. Force and Opinion There are two forms of conflict in this world: dominating through force or through opinion. The Cold War featured a great clash of ideologies, but in the end, it was a confrontation of brute force. The Soviet Union and its allies competed with the
Totalitarian regimes are threatened by freedom of expression here in the United States.
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WORLD perspectives
January 9 – 22, 2015
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free world with armaments and nuclear warheads. The Soviet Union acknowledged its ideology was bankrupt only when it realised it could no longer compete with American armaments. It was President Reagan’s star wars that defeated the Soviet Union, not Voice of America. Inside the United States, while the Soviet Union had front organisations, it did little, if anything, to infiltrate into America’s daily life. When the Cold War finally ended, the influence and impact of the Cold War disappeared from American life just as fast as the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is not always as easy to see a war of opinions at work as it is to see a war based on force. The Chinese Communist regime is highly skilled at manipulating opinion, working constantly to recruit individuals and organisations here inside the United States that can speak for the regime, without having any known association with the regime—what is called united front work. Shen Yun The Chinese regime also immediately attacks individuals or organisations that might move opinions in a way it finds threatening. For instance, in 2008, the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts started to present traditional Chinese culture to the world through dance and music. Almost at the same time, the Chinese regime started to interfere with Shen Yun’s performances. The Chinese regime fears the attractiveness of China’s traditional culture, which the regime has sought to replace with its own, manufactured culture. Were people around the world, and people in China, to awaken to the beauty of China’s original culture, the communist regime in China would be seen instantly as illegitimate. One of the methods the regime has used is to write letters to the theatres where Shen Yun is booked, demanding the theatre cancel the performances. In January 2010, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Robinson Centre Music Hall received a 13-page letter without signatures from the Chinese Consulate in Houston, demanding that the management cancel the show. Otherwise, the performances would “undermine the China-US Relationship”. When Shen Yun performed at
The President applauds Sony’s decision to authorize screenings of the film. As the President made clear, we are a country that believes in free speech, and the right of artistic expression. The decision made by Sony and participating theatres allows people to make their own choices about the film, and we welcome that outcome. Eric Schultz, US President Obama’s spokesman the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre (NJPAC) in January 2009, the director of NJPAC received daily phone calls from the Chinese Consulate in New York, harassing and urging her not to host Shen Yun. Both the theatres in Little Rock and New Jersey rejected the threats. The Robinson Centre Music Hall did more, publicising the letter and reporting it to the FBI. The director of NJPAC was very upset and phoned the Chinese consul back to tell him: “We are not in China. Please do not interfere anymore.” These two cases and other related incidents in the United States and overseas were made known because those who were threatened spoke out. There are several other cases where theatre management told the producers of the Shen Yun performance about threatening phone calls and letters, but preferred not to go public with the information. It cannot be ascertained how many have received such
threats in total, although given the way the Chinese regime works, it would be surprising if any Shen Yun venue was left out of the regime’s campaign. It is also not known how many times venues rejected a Shen Yun booking because of pressure from the regime. Shen Yun Performing Arts is a US company, the theatres are US businesses, the audiences are US residents. What makes the Chinese communist regime believe that it has the right to decide what Americans can see and what American businesses can do? Local Governments The Chinese regime also puts pressure on local governments in the United States. Falun Gong is the hottest hot button issue for the Chinese regime. The regime originally feared how attractive the practice was—how many people from all walks of life took it up and how Falun Gong’s traditional morality responded to the people’s needs more ef-
fectively than the Communist Party’s ideology. Now the regime fears the Chinese people and people around the world will learn of the crimes against humanity the regime has committed in attempting to eradicate this practice. Here in the United States, local governments have issued proclamations about Falun Gong. Sometimes, these recognise the salutary effects of the practice. Sometimes, they condemn the persecution of it, or both. The Chinese regime treats these proclamations as fires that need to be put out. In 1999 alone, at least four proclamations issued to Falun Gong practitioners, in Seattle, Baltimore, Maryland and San Francisco, were withdrawn due to pressure from Chinese Consular officials. Seattle Mayor Paul Schell even wrote a letter of apology to the then Chinese ambassador. These proclamations are exclusively the business of local governments. There is no reason to listen to a foreign totalitarian regime, much less issue an apology to it. Why do US mayors need the Chinese embassy to tell them how to run our cities? Schools US education is also targeted in the Chinese regime’s war to mold opinion here. When a US university opens the door to a Confucius Institute, it practically accepts, as a condition of operation, not teaching about “sensitive issues” as defined by the Chinese regime. The American standard, which recognises the importance of individual rights and freedom of expression, is set aside. The Confucius Institutes listen to an office in Beijing and implement its policy. The University that accepts the Confucius Institute stands alone in facing the regime of China and the pressure that regime can bring to bear. Just as the universities negotiate alone with the Chinese regime, so the local governments that issue proclamations to Falun Gong and the theatres that host Shen Yun each face pressure from the Chinese regime alone. Those who reject the regime’s arrogant demands are praiseworthy. Yet, it is understandable that some could not. In contrast to how the US institutions each stand alone, the representatives of the Chinese regime operate as a single force. Whether the regime is repre-
A hostile campaign to shape American thoughts is well developed. sented by consular officials, a private Chinese company, a local government delegation, or a US based-Chinese community organisation, all of them work from the same playbook, speaking like puppets on behalf of their masters in Beijing. The US entities, even if they want to fight back, are alone. It is not a fair fight. They can be pressured one by one, often from multiple angles. With the end of the Cold War, the challenge that America faces is totally different than an arms race. The attack on Sony had this one great advantage: it awakened our country to how totalitarian regimes take our thoughts just as seriously as our weapons. A hostile campaign to shape American thoughts is well developed. The countermeasures in this war of opinions lie within ourselves. In staying true to American principles and defending free expression and human rights, the United States will triumph. The only weapons we need fear in this war of opinion are ones we surrender to our foes. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.
Read related articles 1 | Sony Scores $1 Million in Ticket Sales for ‘The Interview,’ but VOD Could Be the Big Winner http://goo.gl/S873ND
2 | Firm Says Insider Was Behind Sony Hack
http://goo.gl/TxMtsM
World Perspectives
Epoch Times
From the
Pipe to the Tote
The Story of Longchamp
Jean Cassegrain, CEO of the French luxury goods company Longchamp, holding one of the first products that the company offered—a leather-covered pipe.
SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES
By Kati Vereshaka Epoch Times Staff “So that’s the beginning of the company in 1948,” said Jean Cassegrain, CEO of the French luxury goods company Longchamp, referring to an old horse-leather pipe that he was holding. He is a man of few words, or rather, a man of few superfluous words and very little time. As CEO of the family-owned and family-run business, he shoulders the weight of the company while jet setting around the world oiling the wheels of the Longchamp empire. Epoch Times caught up with him on his short visit to New York at the brand’s Madison Avenue store. Apart from the multicoloured iconic tote bags, tucked away on the upper floor of the store, there is a room with a small exhibition of products from the days when smoking tobacco was considered to be a benign habit. Cassegrain points to a few cigar cases, ashtrays, cigarette dispensers, and old horseleather covered pipes that were in demand in the late 1940s. Apparently, in the wake of World War II, American soldiers who were stationed in Paris used to queue specifically in order to buy the company’s leather-covered pipes. He explains that his grandfather,
whose first name is also Jean, started the company as a luxury tobacco store on the Grand Boulevard in 1940. In 1948, Jean Cassegrain created his company, Jean Cassegrain et Compagnie, to broaden the distribution of his leather-covered items for smokers. However, since another company was already using the name Cassegrain, the products were marketed under the Longchamp brand—the name of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, hence the equestrian brand logo.
The outstanding thing about the [Le Pliage tote] is that it is so light and durable. In 1955, the small family business extended its activity to small leather goods, wallets and pouches for men, then in the 1960s, Longchamp broadened its range of products to include leather and nylon fabric luggage. Fast forward a few decades and last year, Longchamp celebrated the 20th anniversary of its most successful and ubiquitous bag Le
Le Pliage Cuir from Longchamp is made from lambskin and is foldable.
ALL ProducT imAges courTesy of LongchAmP
Pliage, having sold 30 million pieces since its creation. Look around as you are waiting for the train in the Manhattan subway and you are bound to stumble upon at least one woman, young or of a certain age, clutching a Le Pliage tote. And despite the fact that it comes in 12 colours, you are most likely to see either the beige version or the deep purplish colour called bilberry trimmed with brown leather. As with any hugely successful fashion product, what follows its success is the lucrative knockoffs market that shares in the glory, but usually falls way short on quality when compared with the original. In the fashion accessories market, imitation is not the easily tolerated form of flattery that it is in other industries. Europe and the US have strict laws against counterfeiting luxury goods. But in other places, say China, it is the Wild West, or rather, the World Wide Web. “The issue with counterfeiting is that now they have entered
The Le Pliage Losange handbag featuring the lozenge motif inspired by the geometry of the Place du Palais Royal, the Jardin des Tuileries, and the pyramid of the Louvre.
the 21st century and you can buy online. Ten or even five years ago, you had these vendors in Manhattan with carts selling counterfeit goods. But that’s over,” said Cassegrain. “But the websites are mostly based in China and they ship directly from China.” Despite this, Cassegrain does not seem too worried, even as the company manufactures in China as well. He sees the luxury goods manufacturing world and the world of mass-producing counterfeits as two parallel
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worlds. The issue is not likely to disappear any time soon especially since the popularity of the Le Pliage range, in particular, does not seem to be waning. I asked a friend who is an avid fan what she likes about the bag that is essentially nylon fabric with leather handles and a flap. She said that the outstanding thing about it is that it is so light and durable. “It can hold my laptop so it’s tough,” she said. She goes on to recount how after a coffee spill she decided to wash her Le Pliage tote and got the leather wet, yet it all came up clean without damage to the leather. I asked another fashionista colleague if she likes the same bag and her answer was monosyllabic a n d disenchanted. She is the type of person who does not relish the prospect of being seen with an all too obvious and ubiquitous brand. The merits of its practicality were a moot point for her. The company also released a not so easily recognisable range of Le Pliage Cuir in 2012. It is an adaptation of the iconic Le Pliage shape made from the leather of an unusual African beast that is “hairy rather than woolly … almost looks like a goat”, according to Cassegrain. The leather has the enviable quality of being supple enough to be able to be folded just like the nylon totes, leaving no creases when unfolded. It is also strong and durable. The collection comes in fewer colours than its cousin—eight to be precise—but they are fun and, yes, bilberry is one of the colours as well as beige, which in this year’s range is called “camel”. You get the picture. In the spirit of Jean Cassegrain senior and his son Philippe Cassegrain, Jean Cassegrain Jr. seems to be just as ambitious. The company has recently expanded to manufacture ready-to-wear and a range of footwear, both of which seem very promising in terms of appeal. While talking about his grandfather and his father building on the success of their first store on the Grand Boulevard, Cassegrain said with an amused look in his eyes, “[Smokers’] accessories being a tiny market, especially now, I think it’s a good thing that they moved on.”
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World Perspectives
January 9 – 22, 2015
Epoch Times
Why the ‘Rest’ Distrust the ‘West’ Opposing worldviews leave little reason to expect agreement between democracies and the rest By Fred McMahon International talks often become forums of mutual incomprehension as the world again breaks into two opposing camps with two incompatible worldv iews: “t he
l to Fo
agents, whose decisions can be influenced but not controlled. The “rest” see other nations as part of a sphere of influence that owes obedience to the regional hegemon—in other words, they see other nations like they see their own people, not as independent actors but as members of a collective under leadership control. The Ukraine crisis and its background provide a good example. The Russian leadership was furious the West “expanded” east after the end of the Cold War. NATO added 12 new members and the European Union 16 in Central and Eastern Europe, an area Russia viewed as its legitimate sphere of influence. Western nations missed the problem. These new, if imperfect, democracies clamoured to join the EU for economic development and NATO for security. The West saw this as the free choice of nations; Russia saw it as an attack on its sphere of influence. This worldview can be seen in a recent Foreign Affairs article by Alexander Lukin, vice president of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Forgetting the promises made by Western leaders to Mikhail Gorbachev after the unification of Germany—most notably that they would not expand NATO eastward—the United States and its allies … trumpeted NATO’s expansion … while trying to convince Russia that the foreign forces newly stationed near its borders, in Estonia, Latia
racies”
democand
“the rest”. Democracies see other nations, as they do their own people, as self-directed
In Beijing’s view, the will of the people of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet don’t count. via, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania, would not threaten its security.” According to Lukin, what these nations and their citizens wanted is not relevant; they were part of Russia’s sphere of influence and their Western drift was a betrayal. In a touch of unintended irony, Lukin charges, “Western leaders maintained the zero-sum mindset left over from the Cold War.” In fact, this represents the Russian view of the world as a zero sum game of spheres of influence, rather than a world of independent actors. This Russian perspective was evident during the Maidan demonstrations in Ukraine protesting the deal then-president Viktor Yanukovych made with Russia and his rejection of an EU agreement. The demonstrators believed their future lay with the West and not Russia, but Russia saw the demonstrators as dupes of the West acting in an anti-Russian conspiracy, not as independent agents. China is much the same as Russia. In Beijing’s view, the will of the people of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet do not count. They are part of China and must be subservient to the Chinese leadership. The South China Sea is within China’s sphere of influence, so China’s often-absurd territorial claims trump those of regional nations such as Vietnam, Ma-
laysia, and the Philippines. Although democratic nations often have a common view of the world, their conflicting interests complicate coordination. The “rest” tend to get pushed together less by mutual attraction than by rejection of the democratic model. The liberal democratic view of the world threatens the hegemony of the “rest”, whether over “their” region or “their” people. Thus, the West squabbles but can sometimes work together. Russia and China typically back each other, and protect and support unsavoury regimes the world over such as Venezuela, Belarus, Assad’s Syria, and North Korea. The West’s and the “rest’s” opposing worldviews are incompatible and arguments based on them are mutually incomprehensible. Thus, negotiations cannot end in a mutually advantageous solution—except in response to a threat both sides see as common, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, Islamic terrorism, or North Korea’s recklessness. Even here, agreement is fragile if the non-democracies think the bad actors are doing more harm to the West than to them. In most cases, no comprehensive agreement is possible in these assemblies of the deaf. Forms of force, not dialogue, become the tools of the day, whether annexations by Russia or sanctions against Russia, China’s dangerous provocations in the South China Sea, or ad hoc alliances in response. This will be the shape of our world for decades, maybe centuries. Fred McMahon is the Michael Walker Chair of Economic Freedom Research with the Fraser Institute. This article was previously published on TroyMedia.com. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.
10 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
World PERSPECTIVES
Epoch Times
Low-Cost Culture a Risk Factor in Airline Safety Oscar Siagian/Getty Images
By Jonathan Zhou & Cindy Drukier Epoch Times Staff In the past few years, Southeast Asian airlines have experienced remarkable growth, driven primarily by the rapid expansion of low-cost carriers like AirAsia. The market for flights in the region, defined by carrying capacity, grew by a staggering 20 percent in the 18 months before October 2013, and every country (save for Brunei) experienced double-digit growth. Indonesia and Malaysia led the way with 29 and 25 percent growth respectively, driven by low-cost carriers (LCC) that aggressively slashed fares. But in the past year, the reputation of Southeast Asian airlines has taken a blow as a result of the high-profile controversy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and now AirAsia Flight QZ8501. Malaysia-based AirAsia grew from two planes in 2001, to 150 planes today with 475 more planes on order from Airbus, according to the carrier’s website. Malaysia Airlines is not a lowcost carrier, but it has faced competitive pressure from LCCs. According to Channel NewsAsia on Jan 4, Indonesia’s meteorological agency said weather was the catalyst in the crash of QZ8501, with icing likely causing engine damage. Nonetheless, some insiders in the aviation industry cautiously judge the recent accident as evidence that LCC industry’s safety standards cannot keep up with this rapid growth. “Asia has been growing so quickly that it’s almost as if nobody’s completely sure what they’re doing or what they’re using as best practices,” said Robert Mark, a commercial pilot who has air traffic experience and runs the aviation blog JetWhine. AirAsia has only had 13 years to figure out how to run an airline, said Mark, unlike the airline industry in North America, which is much more mature. “What are they using as their guidebook of how to build a good airline?” asked Mark. An immature industry with cost pressures can affect many aspects of how it operates. Are pi-
Indonesian soldiers prepare to carry coffins of victims of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash at the Indonesian Air Force Military Base Operation Airport on Jan 1, in Surabaya, Indonesia.
lots trained thoroughly for cover emergency contingencies? Are air traffic controllers working longer hours than they should? Are equipment inspections rigorous and cautious enough? Is safety the guiding priority?
An immature industry with cost pressures can affect many aspects of how it operates. A former investigator at Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, Hanna Simatupang, told the Jakarta Post she feels Indonesia’s aviation community fails to uphold the principle of “safety first”. “Safety first principles are not yet upheld in this country because aviation still sees profit as the priority,” said Hanna.
The AirAsia plane took off from Surabaya, Indonesia, and was being guided by Indonesian air traffic control when it disappeared from radar on Dec 28. It took two days for search teams to find wreckage from the crash in the Java Sea. All 162 people on board died. Mark questions why the pilot would have flown into a thunderstorm. “We would never fly right into a thunderstorm … the risk is too great [because] forces within a thunderstorm would tear the plane apart. It’s not something you can take a risk on,” Mark said. Mark stated that it is impossible to know what happened in the final moments before the crash until the plane’s black box is recovered, but said there could have been pressures on the pilot to risk a storm. “No carrier wants to add time to a flight because every minute those engines are turning costs them money,” he said. So in the
work culture of a low-cost airline, it is possible the pilots are told to be safe, but to not add 40 minutes to a flight. Jack (pseudonym), a pilot for a major US carrier, has personally experienced conflict with his previous airline, a US regional carrier, over attempts to cut corners on safety to bring down costs. “They always do this indirectly,” Jack said. For example, the FAA allows for minor defects in a protocol called Minimum Equipment List. Even if some parts of the plane do not function properly, it is still legal to take off, but the pilot has the last word. One time, the fuel indicators on Jack’s plane was inactive, but the MEL booklet had instructions on how to tell fuel level with sticks, which are often bent and give inaccurate readings. Jack was going to fill the fuel tanks to the top so he could be certain he had enough fuel on a day with snow and low visibility. His boss, however, told
him to use the stick method to reduce the weight of the fuel, as a lighter plane can carry more passengers. “I had to explain this to [my boss] for 20 minutes, and at the end, it came down to this: If you want to take the plane like this, you can, but I won’t go. So we filled up the tank,” Jack said. “There is always pressure at any company [to save money],” he said, but noted things were better after he switched carriers. “At the major carrier, it’s a lot less pressure. If you say no, they say: ‘Ok, we’ll fix it.’” Currently, the European Union bans from its airspace all but five of Indonesia’s more than 60 airlines, as they are considered unsafe and/ or are not sufficiently overseen by their authorities. Additional reporting by Epoch Times reporter Valentin Schmid. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.
Epoch Times
World PERSPECTIVES
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 11
If South Korea’s Nuclear Plant Staff Are Vulnerable, Then so Are the Reactors
Every day, more systems become Internetconnected and more security vulnerabilities are discovered. And so, although it is great to hear that the plant operators are running safety drills, I really hope they make sure that their security drills include the vital triad of people, processes and technology. The ‘Soft Target’ of Civilian
Stressful Relationships vs Isolation:
Infrastructure This again points to an important and infrequently discussed problem: the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure. Cyber-attacks like these are a great way of levelling the playing field: why invest in massively expensive nuclear weapons programmes if you can simply shut down your enemies’ power, gas, water, and transportation systems? Increasingly, more and more infrastructure is connected to the Internet, with all the security risks that entails. And many of these systems – hardware and software – are old, updated far less frequently than a desktop computer at home or at work. Computer security flaws that may have ceased to be a problem in data centres or on desktops years ago might still affect an embedded system running a gas pump, sluice gate or electricity sub-station somewhere. The UK government at least has been on the case for some time, having established the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to focus on infrastructure resilience to cyber-attacks. Bringing together various government agencies and businesses, it has
The Battle for Our Lives eating them sends you into a rage, raising your blood pressure, and you eat them every day until at some point the hypertension eventually causes a stroke. Yes, just like almonds.
Stressful social relations are associated with increased mortality risk among middle-aged men and women.
This article was originally published on www. theatlantic. com.
ck
“In your everyday life, do you experience conflicts with any of the following people: partner, children, other family, friends, neighbours?” A Danish health survey asked almost 10,000 people between ages 36 and 52 to answer “always”, “often”, “sometimes”, “seldom”, or “never” for their applicable relationships. Eleven years later, 422 of them were no longer living. That’s a typical number. What’s compelling, Rikke Lund and her colleagues at University
of Copenhagen say, is that the people who answered “always” or “often” in any of these cases were two to three times more likely to be among the dead. (And the deaths were from standard causes: cancer, heart disease, alcohol-related liver disease, etc.—not murder. Were you thinking murder?) The conclusion, then: “Stressful social relations are associated with increased mortality risk among middle-aged men and women.” But relationships are also like almonds. We know that if you eat almonds, you increase your odds of living longer—unless you hate almonds so much that
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.
sto
By James Hamblin theatlantic.com
made significant progress in at least establishing what might be vulnerable, which is the first step in knowing where to focus your efforts. There is no room for complacency, however, as every day, more systems become Internetconnected and more security vulnerabilities are discovered. This trend of attaching everything and anything to the Internet – such as with the growing Internet of Things, but not limited to that – is embraced even more enthusiastically in Europe and the US. Take a look at search engines like Shodan or Thingful, which show locations of online devices, and see just how widespread the Internet of Things has already become. This problem will not go away. It is a fact now and will only grow in the future. Security is possible only by including people and processes as well as technology. And anyone who relies solely on security through obscurity is doomed to fail.
ter
Weakest Link in the Chain For example, when Iran’s nuclear reprocessing plant at Natanz was hacked with the infamous Stuxnet virus, it should not have been possible as the computers affected were not connected to the outside world. There was a very distinct “air gap” maintained between the reactor computer controllers and any other network. But that air gap was relatively easy to bridge, by leaving USB sticks where curious people would find them, plug them in, and transfer the virus to the systems. Imagine that – now you know which computers operate a nuclear power plant, and who uses them, which departments they work in, and at what times. Suddenly, it is possible to design a very targeted attack on the oper-
ators themselves, aimed at fooling them into breaching their own security. Information about people and processes that operate a technology is as valuable to a hacker as knowledge of the technology itself. Not only did Stuxnet damage equipment, it caused the computers to falsely report that all was well to the operators. It does not take much imagination to see how the same could happen to a nuclear power plant – with devastating consequences.
ut
Claude Shannon, who many consider the father of modern information theory, wrote a paper in 1949 in which he pointed out that security should never be based upon your enemy’s ignorance of how your system is built. This is known today as the mantra: “There is no security through obscurity”. Does it matter then that a South Korean nuclear plant was hacked and plans of the complex stolen? That rather depends on what happens next. As it is South Korea that’s the subject of this latest attack, everyone tends to assume it must have had something to do with North Korea. With a target as sensitive as a nuclear power plant, not unreasonably, people are asking if safety could be compromised by a cyber-attack. Could hackers cause the next Chernobyl or Three Mile Island? The South Korean authorities have sought to reassure the public, making it clear that no “core systems” – those computers that control the reactor and safety systems – were compromised. If it was North Korea – and
there is no evidence it was – then one might imagine it was actually the technical details and blueprints of a modern nuclear reactor that was the intended target. But sadly, there is secondary security implication: the plans reveal the role of the human operators in running the reactor, and when it comes to hacking into critical infrastructure, it is people that are the weakest link.
Sh
By Alan Woodward University of Surrey
12 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
World PERSPECTIVES
Epoch Times
When to Sell an Investment By Gordon Pape At an investment club meeting at which I was a speaker not too long ago, one lady raised the issue that has bedeviled investors since trading began: “When is the right time to sell?” The simplistic, and completely useless, answer is when a stock is at a price it is unlikely to ever exceed. Absent a time machine, that’s impossible to know except after the fact. Given that the fortunes of the markets in general and specific stocks in particular are impossible to predict, here are some general rules you can apply in deciding whether to sell part or all of a position.
l to Fo
ia
Selling an investment is a very important part of managing your portfolio.
Sell When a Stock Exceeds 10 percent of Your Portfolio It’s never a good idea to have too much of your money in a single security. If something goes wrong with the company, it will have a disproportionate impact on your portfolio’s performance. Typically, a stock’s weighting will increase because the price has risen more than those of the other securities you own. That makes it hard to sell—it has done well for you, so why dump it? You need to be disciplined in this situation. Take some profits, reduce the weighting to 10 percent maximum (and even that is a lot) and redeploy the money elsewhere. Sell Half When a Stock Doubles in Value A close friend used to constantly remind me: “No one ever went broke taking a profit.” When a stock doubles in value, the first reaction is elation. The second should be prudence. The security has done well, but that doesn’t guarantee the run will continue—remember the experiences of Nortel Corp. and Research in Motion (now BlackBerry Ltd.). By selling half the position, you take all your original investment off the table. Now you’re playing with the house’s money so you can keep riding the winner for as long as you want. Sell When a Stock Loses Half Its Value No one likes to take a loss, especially a big one. But losing half your stake is better than losing all of it, which does happen (again, remember Nortel). If the market has knocked down your stock by 50 percent, there’s a good reason for it. After a drubbing like that, it’s unlikely to turn around, and your best move is to take the capital loss and exit. However, see below for one exception to this rule.
When Not to Sell
There are times when you may be tempted to sell but should not. These include the following situations.
1. A Market Correction or Crash This is the exception to the sell-when-astock-loses-half-its-value rule. The crash of 2008-09 saw many great companies shed 50 percent of their stock value. Bank of Montreal shares fell so low they were yielding 11.5 percent at one point. When something this dramatic happens, you need to assess the quality of the securities you hold. Ask yourself whether the companies are likely to survive the downturn and become prosperous again when the economy turns back up. If the answer is yes, then hold on and ride out the storm. 2. Temporary Problems Within a Quality Company Over the years, many companies have run into major problems that have severely hurt the price of their shares. A recent example is British Petroleum’s massive 200 million barrel oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In April of that year, just prior to the oil platform explosion and the subsequent spill, BP depositary receipts were trading on the New York Stock Exchange at around $60. By late June, they had fallen to $27, losing more than half their value.
The shares still aren’t back to their prespill highs, but they are trading at over $50 today. Selling at the bottom would have been precisely the wrong move. 3. Selling Would Create a Large Tax Liability It’s always important to consider the tax implications before making a sell decision. Unloading a stock that has done well can trigger a large capital gains tax liability if the shares are held in a non-registered account. If you feel you must sell, see if there are some losing positions that you’d like to trim back at the same time, thereby creating offsetting capital losses. 4. Finally, Don’t Sell Just Because Your Gut Tells You to Most of us are not hardwired to make good investment decisions, especially in times of stress. Emotions should not play any role in the buy/sell process, but because we’re human, they do. Your gut may be right when it comes to personal relationships, but it will probably be wrong as far as the markets are concerned. Logic, discipline, and common sense are much more dependable allies.
Courtesy Fundata Canada Inc. © 2014. Gordon Pape is one of Canada’s bestknown personal finance commentators and investment experts. He is the publisher of The Internet Wealth Builder and The Income Investor newsletters, available through his Building Wealth website. This article is not intended as personalised advice.
It’s always important to consider the tax implications before making a sell decision. Unloading a stock that has done well can trigger a large capital gains tax liability if the shares are held in a nonregistered account.
Epoch Times
World PERSPECTIVES
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 13
Four Key Elements of a Year-End Portfolio Review By Robyn K. Thompson Your investment portfolio isn’t carved in stone. Every month, you should be receiving an itemised statement of what’s in it as of the close of business on the last day of the month, how it’s performed, what it has cost you, how much it’s worth, and how much it’s changed since the last statement and since the beginning of the year. What it won’t tell you is whether it’s time to make changes. And that’s something only you and your advisor can do, preferably close to year-end. Here’s how: Throughout the year, markets fluctuate, assets gain or lose value, investment positions grow or shrink as securities are bought and sold, and dividends and interest are collected and reinvested. All these are bound to have an impact on the characteristics of your portfolio. When you add it all up, what you thought was perhaps a 50/50 fixed-income/equity split in your balanced portfolio at the start
of the year could have become a 40/60 split, or even a 30/70 fixed-income/equity split at the end of the year. The net effect is that your overall portfolio risk has grown considerably, because your portfolio is now overweighted to stocks, which are considered riskier than fixedincome. If left unattended, this can have a serious impact on your portfolio performance the next time stock markets enter a bearish phase.
Review to Rebalance
That’s why an annual portfolio review (and if necessary, a rebalancing) is essential. Here are the key components of a review to discuss with your advisor: 1. Asset Allocation How you divide your assets among the three key asset groups (safety, income, and growth) largely determines the return you can expect and the risk that you’re accepting over your expected time horizon. When that allocation is skewed
by extraordinary gains or losses in one class or another, your risk profile will change as a consequence. Review your asset class weightings annually to ensure your portfolio still meets your time, return, and risk profile. 2. Diversification Is your portfolio sufficiently diversified in each main asset class? Diversification is at the heart of best practices portfolio planning. It makes no sense at all from a risk-mitigation perspective to have your portfolio allocated 50 percent to fixed income and 50 percent to equities, and then have only one bond and one stock in each class. Review your portfolio annually to ensure individual asset classes contain sufficiently diversified individual securities. In fixed income, for example, you’d spread weightings among federal, provincial, and corporate bonds. And in equities, you’d diversify by sector, by region, by capitalisation, and so on to achieve your desired risk level.
3. Security Selection When researched, analysed, and selected properly, individual stocks and bonds within a portfolio work in harmony to achieve a specific purpose, say a minimum dividend yield, a specific target price gain, or a specified yield to maturity. When that target has been achieved, the position is usually analysed to determine whether a switch or change within the portfolio is needed. Sometimes, this is done at year-end in conjunction with generating tax losses to cover capital gains. 4. Mutual Fund/ETF Review If, like many investors, you’ve outsourced your portfolio to mutual funds (for active management) or exchange-traded funds (to take advantage of lowcost passive diversification), you should review your investment rationale and compare it with the funds’ performance over the past year. Are there reasons to switch or rebalance funds, for example, a change in manager or a change in
focus or mandate (in the case of mutual funds), or a change in index methodology or liquidity or ownership (in the case of ETFs)? Funds and ETFs are frequently closed, merged, and renamed. If this has occurred to your funds, review the new funds’ mandates to ensure they’ll still deliver what you expected when you first purchased them. If not, consider switching. Conduct your annual review with an independent advisor, who should be able to provide insight on whether prospective rebalancing will have unintended tax consequences or other unwanted effects on your portfolio. And remember, your objective is not to remake your portfolio but to restore it to a state where it continues to meet your time horizon, risk tolerance, and return objectives. Courtesy Fundata Canada Inc. © 2014. Robyn Thompson, CFP, CIM, FCSI, is president of Castlemark Wealth Management. This article is not intended as personalised advice.
14
January 9 – 22, 2015
Asia & china perspectives
www.TheEpochTimes.com
What Xi Jinping Really Means by
‘One Country, Two Systems’ Analysis of Hong Kong in the light of Beijing’s factional politics By Larry Ong Epoch Times Staff When Chinese leader Xi Jinping (习 近平) was in Macau for the 15th anniversary of the territory’s return to China last week, he rehashed a familiar refrain: “We must both adhere to the ‘one-China’ principle and respect the difference between the two systems.” Departing from this, he added, it “will be the left foot wearing a rightfoot shoe, and the mistake will breed wrongs.” Macau, a former Portuguese colony, had, Xi said, properly followed the “one country, two systems” policy and the Basic Law (基本法), the region’s mini-constitution. But whether the same can be said for Hong Kong is unclear. The deal made between Britain and China when the territory was handed to the PRC in 1997 said that it should be governed under a “one country, two systems” principle, which allows the territory’s government a high degree of autonomy from Beijing, for a period of 50 years. The former British colony just endured a 79-day-long street occupation by the student-led Umbrella Movement, with protesters demanding genuine universal suffrage for the 2017 Hong Kong chief executive elections. A parsing of Xi’s remarks in light
In sum, Xi is advocating “one country” and “two systems,” as opposed to the NPCSC’s “one country, one system.”
of recent elite political dynamics in the Communist Party may indicate that Xi Jinping is in part addressing Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), the current chief executive of Hong Kong, and his backers in Beijing—who are not followers of Xi Jinping. ‘One Country?’ To incumbent chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, who was elected in 2012 after winning 689 out of 1,200 total votes in the form of indirect election set up by Beijing, the protesters are making unreasonable and illegitimate demands. Leung insists that he will only consider reform that falls within the provisions of the Basic Law and the “Interpretation and Decisions of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee” (NPCSC/全国人大常委 会). On June 10 this year, the NPCSC published a white paper claiming China’s comprehensive jurisdiction over Hong Kong, the power to change the Basic Law as it saw fit, and the necessity for candidates for chief executive to “love China” first. The NPCSC also passed a reform package on Aug. 31 stating that Hongkongers can have universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive elections—so long as the candidates are chosen by a Beijing-controlled nominating committee. Taken together, both NPCSC decisions practically replace the “one country, two systems” principle for governing Hong Kong, a legacy of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration (中英联合声明), with “one country, one system.” Incensed at Beijing’s backtracking
on an international treaty, Hongkongers held a huge protest rally on Aug. 31. Students followed up on Sept. 22 with a massive student class boycott. A week later, the Umbrella Movement (雨伞运动) unfolded after police tear gassed demonstrators outside government offices in Admiralty, an act which inspired tens of thousands of Hongkongers to occupy major roads in the city. Although Leung and the Hong Kong government became increasingly unpopular as the protests wore on, Leung never wavered from his support for the NPCSC’s “one country, one system” proposal. ‘Two Systems’ When reporting on Xi Jinping’s statements in Macau, some media claim that the Chinese leader is in favor of a “one-China” principle. To frame Xi’s speech this way is to fail to distinguish between the differences in political communication emanating, on the one hand, from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and Xi Jinping. Xi has never explicitly endorsed the NPCSC’s Hong Kong decision. Instead, the Chinese leader has consistently stressed1 the need that democratic reform in Hong Kong to be in line with the Basic Law and the “one country, two systems” principle. In a high-profile meeting with over 70 Hong Kong businessmen in Beijing on Sept. 22, Xi said that the “one country, two systems” policy would not be altered. Official Party media reports on Xi’s speech discreetly left out the NPCSC decisions and emphasized instead the authority of the
Basic Law. And when Xi met Leung Chun-ying in Beijing on Nov. 9 at the APEC summit, he began their talk by requesting that Hong Kong’s top leader comprehensively and accurately understand the “one country, two systems” principle and the Basic Law to support the development of democracy in Hong Kong under the region’s legal system. But the Macau speech is perhaps where Xi states in the clearest terms how he believes Hong Kong and Macau affairs should be handled. “At no time should we focus only on one side to the neglect of the other,” said Xi, after bringing up the “oneChina” policy and the need to “respect” the “two systems.” In sum, Xi is advocating “one country” and “two systems,” as opposed to the NPCSC’s “one country, one system.” All this leads to the question: Why is the Chinese regime’s legislature, with the Hong Kong chief executive in tow, departing from what the top leader himself is attempting to lay down?
Epoch Times
Asia & china perspectives
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 15
Read related articles 1 | Beijing Struggles to Reach a Decision About Hong Kong
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2 | Chinese Officials Seek to Discredit Xi Jinping in Hong Kong http://goo.gl/ MDPGB8
3 | Reporting Zhou Yongkang’s Arrest: Primer on the Power Struggle in Beijing http://goo.gl/nQ3noy
4 | Hong Kong Protesters Risk All Hoping for Democracy http://goo.gl/GF3MlO
5 | Xi Jinping Averts TiananmenStyle Massacre in Hong Kong http://goo.gl/L9hd1f
6 | Air Pollution, CY Leung’s ‘Depressing’ Ratings and Ex-CopsTurned-Spies http://goo.gl/CLEIcu Illustration by epoch times staff/MICHELLE ZHANG
Two Factions Observers of Chinese politics have been able to see for some time now that the power struggle between major Party factions2 is not over: on one side is Xi Jinping and Wang Qishan (王岐山), the anti-corruption chief; on the other is the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin (江泽民) and his cronies, like Zeng Qinghong (曾庆 红). According to Party insiders in 2012 3 ,it was the plan of the opposing faction to sideline Xi Jinping during the 2012 leadership transition, and lift up instead Bo Xilai (薄熙来), the Party Secretary of Chongqing and a Politburo member. This conspiracy came undone after Bo’s police chief, Wang Lijun (王立军), fled to the United States Consulate in Chengdu in February, apparently in a bid to seek political asylum. Later that year Bo Xilai was purged, and since Xi Jinping gained power he has bent his efforts on eliminating these opponents and protecting his flank. Thus the punishment of Zhou
Yongkang (周永康), the former security chief who was formerly thought untouchable, and other top officials like Xu Caihou (徐才厚). But with Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong, his chief henchman, still on the loose, it’s clear that the struggle for power is not over. It’s in the context of this political struggle that the trouble in Hong Kong must be understood: what better way to discredit and embattle Xi Jinping than cause chaos in Hong Kong, and even attempt to provoke a violent crackdown? Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang, (张 德江) the chairman of the NPCSC, holder of the portfolio for Hong Kong and Macau, is a well-known Jiang Zemin loyalist. It was under his leadership that the NPCSC passed the political decisions that so roused Hongkongers. Prior to that, the ground had already been softened by chief executive Leung Chun-ying, widely held to be an underground Party member4,and tied up with the Jiang network political and business
network, whose policies widened the income gap in the city and slowly alienated Hongkongers from their government. The worst outcome—a violent crackdown by the police or even the People’s Liberation Army garrison— was avoided. According to Hong Kong media5, Xi Jinping remarked in an internal meeting, after tear gas was used on Sept. 28, that such means were unnecessary and advised that “Hong Kong affairs must be negotiated with the Hong Kong people.” In the aftermath of the Occupy protests, the pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily reported that Beijing was displeased6 with chief executive Leung Chun-ying’s handling of the Umbrella Movement, in particular the use of tear gas, getting police to side with the triads and turn a blind eye to protesters being beaten by them, and Leung’s suggestion that poor people shouldn’t be allowed to have democracy. But with Xi Jinping quickly gaining
control of the army, it is possible that moves will be made against officials like Zhang Dejiang, sources in the Party said. Official Chinese media reports suggest that Xi is satisfied with Leung’s handling of Hong Kong, but a close parsing of his words reveals a difference. While in Macau, Xi appraised the leaders of the two former colonies. Of Leung, Xi said he had “carried out his duties.” Fernando Chui (崔 世安), Macau’s chief executive, was said to have “loyally carried out his duties and not failed his mission.” In the subtle linguistic and propaganda games of Chinese politics, the absence of the term “loyally” from the description of Leung Chun-ying and the inclusion of “not failed his mission” in the description of Chui would not have gone unnoticed. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.
Asia & china perspectives
Epoch Times
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 17
Kidnapping and Extortion in China Come Courtesy of the Family Planning Office By Lu Chen Epoch Times Staff Since the late 1980s, China’s family planning authorities have collected hundreds of billions of dollars in fines from the public—but no one knows exactly where the money has gone. In fact, there are concerns that vast sums have been embezzled, and the rest used simply to support the bloated bureaucracy that enforces the policy. The problem was given vivid illustration recently when Zhang Yongling, a 39-year-old mother and her 10 month-old infant boy were rescued by police after being illegally detained for five days in a hotel by the local Family Planning Office—the agency that is supposed to enforce China’s strict population control policies. The incident took place in Tuanlin town, Linxi City of eastern China’s Shandong Province. Zhang was detained because she couldn’t afford to pay the
heavy penalty for giving birth to her third child, according to state news media. Population rules mostly limit couples to one child. A video of police rescuing four detained villagers, among them mother and baby, has been circulating on the Chinese Internet in the past week. “Thank you! Thank you!” Zhang cried out when she saw the police and other villagers. “They asked me for 140,000 yuan.” That’s over US$22,000. The fine is a massive sum in rural China, where the annual income per capita was less than US$1,500, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. Such exorbitant fines—what many call extortion—are a common problem under the onechild policy. Researchers Stuart Basten and Quanbao Jiang write in a 2014 Population Council report that “the fines and fees can lead to a strong temptation for corruption and/or zealous enforcement” of
Thank you! Thank you! They asked me for 140,000 yuan. That’s over US$22,000. Zhang Yongling, a 39-year-old mother the policies. The cash generated from them is huge—some estimates say more than 2 trillion yuan, or US$314 billion, according to He Yafu, a prominent domestic critic—and there is no public, transparent explanation for where the money has gone. Basten and Jiang refer to the work of one researcher who “identified instances in some towns where more than half of the local administration is employed by the family planning program, and has noted a sharp upward trend in both the scale
and size of the fees.” That is, local governments have in some cases funded their costs through imposing the fees, and then ramped them up to extract more cash from parents. Some in China have recently called for an end to runaway fines for having children. Chinese demographers Huang Wenzheng and Liang Jianzhang published an article on Nov 27, proposing an end to social maintenance fees and a freeze on those already charged. The following day another six deputies of the National People’s Congress, the Party’s rubberstamp legislature, jointly proposed that the government abolish the social maintenance fee. Such concerns come at a time when a decrease in China’s population may make economic conditions particularly difficult over the next 5 and 10 years, as the working age population is projected to plummet. The matter has long been bogged down in bureaucratic
inertia—it’s much easier to set up an apparatus like the family planning agency than it is to wind down. For Zhang Yongling and her husband Liu Tao, the hopes are that the strict population control policies will end sooner rather than later. The two were hounded by family planning officials since they had their third baby, eventually resulting in the abduction and rescue. They were interviewed widely in the Chinese press, and many readers were angry and outraged at their treatment. Wang Xiufeng, a family planning official who participated in the detention, was reached by the Chinese media The Paper. He said he had nothing to do with ordering the detention—that was decided by “higher level leadership.” He was just the driver. When a reporter attempted to reach that higher-level leadership of the family planning office, a staff member replied, “All the leaders are on business trips.”
4 Ways to Build Muscle as You Age By Dr Frank Lipman www.drfranklipman.com
1. Don’t Just Stand There – Move it, Lift it, Work it.
Need one more reason to workout? To maintain muscle mass, exercise is job #1. To stave off sarcopenia, the agerelated muscular deterioration that’s the muscular equivalent of osteoporosis, the best approach is a two-pronged exercise routine. Alternate resistance training to build and strengthen muscles with aerobic work to increase blood flow to the capillaries, bringing more oxygen to the muscles and building endurance. If you’ve been out of the fitness loop for a while, consider hiring a trainer to develop a customised programme for you and to help guide you through your workouts – but clear it with your doctor before getting started. Make sure the trainer you choose has experience training the 40+ set, to help minimise your risk of injury from doing too much, too soon. You can also check out our Pinterest page for more great exercise ideas. Once you’re looking and feeling fit, don’t quit. This is a life-long commitment.
2. Eat Protein, Particularly if
Make sure the trainer you choose has experience training the 40+ set, to help minimise your risk of injury from doing too much, too soon. You’re Getting on in Years.
Though the perfect amount of highquality protein you need to eat daily in order to maintain long-term muscle mass hasn’t been definitively established, you can roughly estimate your daily requirements based on the following equation: Take your body weight, divide it in half, subtract 10. The resulting number will give you the approximate amount of protein you should be eating every day. So, for example, if you weigh 160 lbs (72.6 kg), then half of that is 80, minus 10 = 70 grams of protein spread over the course of a day’s worth of meals. In short, to slow muscle deterioration, particularly for those heading into their 60s and beyond, high-quality
protein is your best weapon. Note: If you have renal issues, you should work with your doctor to determine an appropriate daily protein intake for your specific needs.
3. Make Your Protein Count.
If you are going to eat meat, make sure it is grass fed beef or organic chicken. And if you eat eggs, look for organic pasture raised or free range eggs. While meat and poultry are helpful in building muscle, you can also get high-quality protein from non-meat sources. A few good sources of nonmeat proteins include organic white beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils and even leafy greens like kale, spinach, broccoli and asparagus. But my favourite source of protein for building muscle mass is Whey Protein from grass fed cows. If you want to get a jump on your protein needs first thing in the morning, include one scoop of Be Well Whey Protein powder in your smoothie to add 24 grams of protein to your breakfast.
4. Supplement Your Strength.
While I believe you should get the majority of your nutrition from fresh, organic, non-GM veggies, grass fed meats, organic chicken and eggs, some
legumes and some fruits, supplementation is an excellent way to support overall health and fill in the nutritional gaps, in middle age and even more so for older adults who may not be eating enough of the right foods. Among the supplements that have shown promise in preserving and supporting muscle mass, topping the list are Omega-3fatty acids, Vitamin D, L carnitine, Glutamine and B12/ folic acid.
The bottom line: Consistent strength training and aerobic exercise, smart dietary choices and strategic supplementation are your ticket to a strong, healthy body – so the sooner you climb aboard, the better! This article was originally published on www.drfranklipman.com
fotolia
Asia & china perspectives
16 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
Confiscated Assets from Zhou Yongkang
Epoch Times
Read related articles 1 | Xi Jinping Cleans House in China http://goo.gl/hPKwFU
Residences
worth
gold
cash
¥ 1.76b up to
326 42.8kg ¥ 2b in Beijing, Shenyang, Suzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen etc.
gold, silver, and gold coins
152m ¥, US$275m, 662k €, 10k £, 55k SFr
cars
62 cars, military jeeps and a medium-sized tourist bus
paintings
ange lues r1b ¥ a v t e markrom 8m to f
55 by famous painters and oil painters.
accounts
2 | Experts Speculate About Chinese Security Czar’s Secrets http://goo.gl/a523gs
881 accounts and foreign currency accounts; 930 other accounts under pseudonyms, fake names, and company names
total worth over 100 billion ¥ (us$ 16 billion)
3 | Jiang FactionRelated Real Estate Companies in Hot Water http://goo.gl/qZ1nua
4 | Zhou Yongkang, Ex-Chinese Security Boss, Expelled From Communist Party http://goo.gl/4AkcPF
Hong Kong Magazine Reveals Crimes and Wealth of China’s Former Security Czar NTD Television Recently, a Hong Kong magazine published an exposé on the crimes and sexual transgressions of the Chinese regime’s former security czar Zhou Yongkang ( 周永康). This article follows up on an earlier report by the magazine on the large number of Zhou’s associates who have been arrested and the stupendous wealth Zhou has acquired. Chengming Magazine is believed to be on good terms with the Xi Jinping (习近平) administration, and has regularly produced scoops that rely on unnamed sources in Beijing. In its most recent edition, Chengming reports that it obtained a document in which authorities in Beijing discuss the crimes committed by Zhou Yongkang. Zhou was for a long time one of the most powerful men in the Chinese regime and succeeded in turning the security forces he headed into a “second power center,” rivaling the general secretary’s authority, according to China Epoch Times commentator Wang Hua. Zhou was formally arrested on Aug 1, 2014, the biggest of the “big tigers” brought down by the current anti-corruption campaign. According to the memo ob-
The assets confiscated from Zhou totaled over US$16.05 billion in value. tained by Chengming, Zhou’s crimes include violations of “political discipline, organisational discipline, and confidential discipline,” with the numbers of each violation enumerated. Zhou is said to have violated “confidential discipline” nine times, for instance. The crime of “disclosure of Party and state secrets” includes seven instances in which secrets were leaked to foreign institutions. The internal memo also mentions how Zhou was involved in crimes of “committing adultery with multiple females as part of an exchange for political power and money.” The document goes deep into Zhou’s career to uncover his sexual crimes, reporting on multiple extramarital affairs and “indecent relationships” in 1985, when Zhou was mayor and municipal deputy party secretary of Panjin City in northeastern Li-
aoning Province. In 1998, Zhou is reported to have fooled around with 27 named women whom he rewarded for their sexual favours with posts they were not qualified for, during trips to cities around China, including Shenyang, Dalian, Wuhan, Nanjing, Chengdu, Changsha, and Tianjin. The magazine also reported that Zhou has been suffering from a sexually transmitted disease since March 2005. US$16 Billion Confiscated In a previous edition Chengming magazine reported on an internal memo of a special task force assigned to investigate Zhou and his relatives and associates in the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (the umbrella organisation with authority over all parts of the security apparatus and justice system in China that became very powerful under Zhou), the petroleum industry (which he had run), and Sichuan Province (where Zhou had an early political power base). According to the memo, a total of 313 of Zhou’s relatives and associates had been arrested, including 11 with a position of vice minster, 56 heading departments, 14 who were relatives of Zhou, and 28 people were either those working for or were guards
for Zhou. 11 people had gone missing including Zhou’s sister in law Gu Xiaoxia, his personal secretary named Liang, and a mistress named Lin, who had previously been part of the Shenyang Military Region art troupe. The memo reported that relatives and associates of Zhou are currently been tracked down internationally. The report also stated that the procuratorate (the institution in China’s legal system responsible for investigating and prosecuting crime) in the jurisdictions of Beijing, Liaoning, Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province, Shanghai, and Guangdong each separately issued search warrants for Zhou’s residences in 7 different provinces. The materials confiscated included: 326 residences in Beijing, Shenyang, Dalian, Jinan, Yantai, Chengdu, Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen with a combined worth of up to 1.76 billion yuan (about US$282.55 million). 42,850 grams of gold, silver, and gold coins. Cash: 152.7 million yuan (US$24.5 million), US$275 million, 662 thousand euro, 10,000 British pounds, and 55,000 Swiss francs.
62 cars including military jeeps and a medium-sized tourist bus. 55 paintings including those by famous painters and some oil painters, with a total market value of up to 8 million to 1 billion yuan (US$128.4 million to US$160.5 million) 5 each of 3 different types of domestically manufactured guns, 3 each of guns from Germany, Russia, England and Belgium, and up to 11,000 bullets. In addition, 647 accounts and 117 foreign currency accounts belonging to Zhou and his relatives in 12 financial institutions and 133 different branches were frozen. 930 other accounts under pseudonyms, fake names, and company names had 37.7336 billion yuan (US$6.06 billion). Petroleum, aviation, wine, and financial securities with a total market value of 51.3 billion yuan (US$8.24 billion), as well as foreign securities and bonds worth up to 170 million yuan (US$27.29 million) were seized. Financial accounts set up by Zhou included fakes names such as Zhou Anping, Zhou Niantong, Zhou Xianlai, Jiang Guangzu, Jiang Guangdi, Gu Chengping, Gu Shishan, and others. Based on the list, the assets confiscated from Zhou totaled over 100 billion yuan in value (US$16.05 billion).
18 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
ASIA & CHINA PERSPECTIVES
Hong Kong: Retail Sales Up Despite Occupy Protests Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images
By Larry Ong Epoch Times Staff Hong Kong’s retail sales improved in the second month of the 79-day street occupation by pro-democracy demonstrators, defying naysayers. According to official government figures, Hong Kong’s November retail sales value rose 4.1 percent year-on-year to HK$41.3 billion (S$7.1 billion), contrary to the expected 0.2 percent contraction from 1.4 percent in October. The increased retail sales came at a time when the Occupy prodemocracy protests were in full swing. A government spokesman attributes the better-than-expected overall sales figures to greater consumer desire and increased tourist arrivals in November. Apple’s new iPhone 6 models helped boost consumer durables to a 14.6 percent year-onyear growth, while sales of miscellaneous durable goods, including smartphones, grew 35.4 percent, according to the Census and Statistics Department numbers. Supermarket sales rose to 3.5 percent and department stores grew 4.9 percent. Sales of cosmetics and medicine also rose 10.3 percent. The luxury goods category— watches, jewellery, valuable gifts—continued to slump with a 2 percent drop from 2013, following an 11.6 percent fall in luxury goods sales in October. Analysts suggest poor luxury goods sales is not a direct effect of the Umbrella Movement protests, but is due to reduced splurging by mainland high officials, military officers, and civil servants as a result of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anticorruption drive. Mainland tourists, however, are still arriving in droves to Hong Kong and driving retail sales. November saw a 24 percent year-on-year increase of Chinese tourists, according to gov-
Customers look at the new iPhones on display at the launch of the new Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus at the Apple IFC store on September 19, 2014 in Hong Kong.
ernment figures. That amounts to more than 4.1 million mainland visitors, and accounts for 78 percent of all tourist arrivals. This is a step up from the 18.3
an independent economist, to the Hong Kong Standard. Kwan also predicted a 4 to 5 percent growth in retail sales in December.
We haven’t seen major impact from the Occupy campaign on tourists’ interest in Hong Kong except in early October shortly after it broke out. Andy Kwan, independent economist percent rise in mainland tourists in October. The surge in Chinese tourists belies the Chinese regime’s threat to stop mainland Chinese from entering Hong Kong, a move that would hurt the economy of the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city. “We haven’t seen major impact from the Occupy campaign on tourists’ interest in Hong Kong except in early October shortly after it broke out,” said Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu,
Scaremongering? Going by government figures and analyst predictions, the Occupy protests has barely affected Hong Kong’s economy. However, the authorities constantly stressed throughout the nearly three-month street occupation that unless the pro-democracy demonstrators stand down, the city’s economy could see lasting damage. “I am worried that, as the protests and political disputes go on, the consumer market will
be further affected, and that the business environment will become more unstable,” said Financial Secretary John Tsang on Dec 1, as the authorities prepared to clear the remaining protest sites in Admiralty and Causeway Bay. Tsang added he was “definitely not scaremongering” about the Occupy protests’ impact on the city’s economy. The Hong Kong government could be spot on because the Umbrella Movement did not end when police evicted protesters from Causeway Bay. Protesters simply transitioned from static occupation to an on-going, flash-mob style “Shopping Revolution” in the commercial neighbourhood of Mong Kok. Official retail sales numbers for December are also not yet out. But based on available financial data for the first two months of street occupations, the Hong Kong government could have been overstating the economic damage caused by the Umbrella Movement when protests were at its peak.
Epoch Times
By Matthew Robertson Epoch Times Staff There’s a political joke going around in China that goes like this: After the arrest of Zhou Yongkang (the former security czar), the anti-corruption bureau asked Xi Jinping (the paramount leader), “Who should we go after next?” Xi said, “Hmm— you should get a plan.” And so they arrested Ling Jihua. (‘jihua’ means plan, or planning, in Mandarin.) The joke explains at least that there is no consensus on why Xi Jinping recently arrested Ling Jihua, previously a top aide to the former Communist Party leader Hu Jintao. There is little doubt that his family had enormous interests—which in the Chinese context means massive corruption—in the coal-rich Shanxi Province, and ultimately he was an ally of Hu Jintao, not Xi Jinping. But not every corrupt family suffers the Party’s wrath, so the move has surprised many observers of Chinese politics. At least one thing is certain, though: it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Few will shed a tear at Ling’s purge after getting to know the organisation that he most recently ran—the United Front Work Department. ‘Three Treasures’ The awkwardly named agency has been a core part of the Chinese Communist Party’s modus operandi since the days of the civil war with the Nationalist Party, which the CCP won in 1949, seizing control of China. The United Front was at the time called one of the CCP’s “three treasures” (the other two were the Party leader and the “mass line”, which ostensibly means getting to know the needs of “the masses”). There is no Western equivalent to the United Front, either conceptually or institutionally. As a bureaucracy, it is not part of the government; rather, it is a political, Party-run organ and reports directly to the CCP’s Central Committee. It is always headed by a senior Party official. Its techniques include propaganda, agitation, psychological warfare, alliance-building, isolation of enemies, and general political struggle to advance the interests of the regime. Its ambit is both domestic and international. Outside China, the United Front’s activities are widespread and impressive in scope. In Taiwan, it tries to influence the outcome of elections through
ASIA & CHINA PERSPECTIVES
Epoch Times
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 19
Purged Chinese Official Worked to Create Pro-Communist Alliances Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
co-opting politicians and building alliances with the Nationalist Party, which governs the country. In Hong Kong, foot soldiers that are part of the United Front’s network dress up as practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is persecuted in China, and hand out anti-Falun Gong propaganda—a move designed to harm the reputation of the “enemy” group. One of the most basic explanations of United Front thought is contained in the name of one of the most comprehensive books on the subject, Enemies and Friends, by Lyman Van Slyke. The United Front seeks to build coalitions that are aligned with Communist Party interests, and isolate and attack those deemed enemy to it. The World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong has done prodigious research documenting these activities. The United Front holds training events and summer camps for
After Ling took office, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners overseas indeed increased. Wang Zhiyuan, spokesman for WOIPFG leaders of overseas Chinese communities, establishes or infiltrates “friendship associations”, gains control or influence over overseas Chinese celebrations, plants and censors articles in the overseas Chinese press, influences Chinese-language schools overseas, and more. Astroturf An emblematic United Front tactic took place in 2001 against
Falun Gong, when Chinese embassies and consulates secretly instructed 50 Chinese organisations in Canada to write a letter to the prime minister, calling for the government to restrict the community activities of Falun Gong practitioners. Western officials, unfamiliar with the astroturf nature of the exercise, may have received the impression that the overseas Chinese community really did oppose the peaceful spiritual group. Wang Zhiyuan, a spokesman for World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, told New Tang Dynasty Television: “After Ling took office, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners overseas indeed increased; there have been more cases.” The book Nest of Spies, written by two Canadian intelligence researchers, states that the United Front Work Department “manages important dossiers concerning foreign countries. These include
Former chief of the United Front Work Department, Ling Jihua.
propaganda, the control of Chinese students abroad, the recruiting of agents among the Chinese diaspora (and among sympathetic foreigners), and long-term clandestine operations”. The department also plays a supporting role for organisations like the China Association for International Friendly Contact, a part of the Chinese military in-
telligence apparatus that seeks to expand its network to retired US military officials. Inside China, the United Front also has an important job to do: it is responsible for interfacing with the so-called eight democratic parties which are part of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, a symbolic advisory body to the Communist Party, which is supposed to demonstrate the popular legitimacy of the regime. It is also supposed to play a role in managing ethnic minorities. This combination results in the amusing scene every year in Beijing during the Party’s political conclaves, when officially appointed representatives of China’s minority groups arrive dressed to the nines in ethnic regalia—an ostentatious demonstration of the Party’s supposed inclusiveness— while Tibetans and Uyghurs in their home provinces complain of severe repression against their ethnic and religious customs.
The Real Meaning of Fitness By Dr Gabe Mirkin www.drmirkin.com
R
esearch shows that exercising for 30 minutes three times a week will not necessarily make you fit, nor does exercising for 60 minutes seven days a week. To become fit, you have to make your heart and skeletal muscles stronger. Exercising at a casual pace does not strengthen muscles. This means that going out and jogging slowly so that your leg muscles are always comfortable and do not burn will not make you fit. Lifting a weight ten times in a row and not feeling a burn in your muscles will not make you significantly stronger. When you exercise intensely, your muscles stretch and tear. It’s the tearing that causes the burning during exercise, and leads to the soreness that you feel for the next day or two. When your muscles heal from these tears, they are
If your muscles are still sore from a previous workout and you try to exercise intensely, you can cause a serious injury. stronger than they were before. So it’s the burning during exercise that causes the tearing that causes the next-day soreness. Then you take days off or go slowly so you can recover; your muscles heal, which gets rid of the soreness, and with healing, the muscle is stronger than it was before you did the exercise. However, there are some serious problems with training for real fitness. If the force on your muscles
during exercise is greater than the strength of your muscles, they will tear too much and you will be injured. If your muscles are still sore from a previous workout and you try to exercise intensely, you can cause a serious injury. You must learn to tell whether the burning is the good burning that causes muscle growth or the bad burning in which you put too much force on your muscles and tear them so you can’t exercise at all. The programme I recommend for fitness applies only to healthy people. It could cause heart attacks in people with damaged hearts. Before trying this, check with your doctor. The rules for fitness are that you should spend several months exercising at a casual pace and not going for the burn. After a few months, you should be able to exercise 30 minutes every day and not feel sore. Then you are ready to start training. If you are a runner or a biker, go out and run or ride very fast until your legs burn, then slow
down until the burning goes away. Afterwards, when your muscles feel fresh again, pick up the pace. When your legs start to stiffen, stop the workout. The next day, either do nothing or go slow and do not try to do another intense workout until your muscles feel fresh. Then when your muscles feel fresh, take another hard workout. Remember, trying to exercise intensely on sore muscles will only injure you. This article was originally published on www. drmirkin.com. Subscribe to their free weekly Fitness & Health newsletter. fotolia
20 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
ASIA & CHINA PERSPECTIVES
Epoch Times
Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Security cameras in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China. Because of the S$4.35 billion programme “Big Intelligence”, cameras like these are ubiquitous in China’s big cities.
‘Big Intelligence’ Makes ‘Big Brother’ a Reality in China The programme takes 12 minutes to review all 1.3 billion Chinese people, 4 minutes to review every person on China’s wanted list, and 3.5 minutes to review the driver’s licence of every person in China.
By Joshua Philipp Epoch Times Staff The Chinese regime is spying on every Chinese citizen, including the Party’s top leaders, according to a report from the Vancouver-based Chinese news website Creaders.net, which exposes the nationwide spying programme. The covert programme, run by the Chinese regime’s Ministry of Public Security, is called “Big Intelligence”. Sound of Hope Radio (SOH Radio) cites Wang Lijun, China’s former Chief of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, as saying the programme takes 12 minutes to review all 1.3 billion Chinese people, 4 minutes to review
every person on China’s wanted list, and 3.5 minutes to review the driver’s licence of every person in China. The programme has been running for close to 10 years and the Chinese regime has kept it tightly under wraps, according to SOH Radio. It states, “Experts believe that this project has surveillance throughout the entire country.” The programme was started by the Chinese regime’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang, who was recently placed under investigation. It began as a programme within China’s police force which would integrate all its public resources and data. The programme was first publicly announced shortly after
Wang Lijun fled to the United States Consulate in February 2012. The information that Wang provided first to US Consular officials and then to the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing about Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai triggered the anti-corruption campaign now sweeping through China, according to individuals familiar with the matter. At the time, Caijing Magazine reported that the Chinese regime has a US$3.26 billion (S$4.35 billion) monitoring system, which it bragged was the most advanced in the world, according to SOH Radio. Just in Chongqing, the programme allegedly uses more than 50,000 surveillance cameras that cover
every corner of the city. The magazine claimed the dragnet surveillance system was established in Chongqing to make the city safer. After Bo Xilai was arrested in the anti-corruption campaign, it was reported that Wang Lijun had used the spying system to monitor top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, according to SOH Radio. Chongqing is just one small part of the Chinese regime’s “Big Intelligence” spying programme. In southern China’s Guangdong Province in 2009, there were more than 800,000 surveillance cameras in Shenzhen City—one camera for every 15 people, according to SOH Ra-
Epoch Times
ASIA & CHINA PERSPECTIVES
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 21
New Taipei Mayor Tells Police Chief to Protect Falun Gong or Lose Job By Larry Ong Epoch Times Staff On his first day as Taipei mayor, Dr Ko Wen-je promises to take action against the city’s police chief if his men fail to uphold the law again. While walking to Taipei’s city council on the afternoon of Dec 25, Dr Ko turned to Xinyi Precinct Taipei City Police Department chief Lee De-wei, who was accompanying him, and said sternly: “If Falun Gong practitioners are assaulted again, I will replace you.” Taipei police have come under scrutiny recently for turning a blind eye towards a violent pro-Beijing group that targets Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice that has been persecuted in mainland China since 1999. Since 2009, Falun Gong adherents in Taiwan have positioned themselves outside the iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper, offering mainland tourists materials exposing the Chinese regime’s crimes against Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party has backed several overseas groups to carry out their attacks against Falun Gong beyond China’s borders. In Taiwan, the Concentric Patriotism Association of ROC (“ROC” is an acronym for the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name) is one such group. It
dio. More than 250,000 cameras were installed in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong. The cities of Foshan, Dongguan, and Zhongshan each had 100,000 cameras installed. In Kunming City in 2009, the capital of southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, more than 310,000 cameras were installed. In 2010, close to 60,000 surveillance cameras were installed in Changchun City in northeastern China’s Jilin Province. And in 2011, 60,000 cameras were installed in Changsha City, the capital of south-central China’s Hunan Province. Massive systems of surveillance cameras can now be found in more than 676 cities across China, according to SOH Radio. It notes that prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, surveillance cameras were even being in-
The Chinese Communist Party has backed several overseas groups to carry out their attacks against Falun Gong beyond China’s borders. has links to the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, which handles some of the regime’s overseas agitation and infiltration activities. In September last year, the Patriotism Association verbally abused and used flagpoles to attack Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners at Taipei 101. Taipei police were unusually restrained in handling the affair, failing to make on-the-spot arrests or closely monitor the Patriotism Association even when there has been ample video evidence of their abuses and violence. While campaigning to be Taipei’s mayor, Dr Ko promised that if he takes office, he would personally speak to the Taipei police chief about
stalled in buses and rental cars. Going by the available data, it appears the surveillance programme uses facial recognition technology on video feeds, and can locate targeted individuals based on personal records. The network of security cameras comes packaged with the Chinese Communist Party’s systems for monitoring all Internet traffic, microblogs, social networking sites, and even website comments. It also comes alongside the Chinese military’s large-scale operations to monitor domestic phone calls, which was exposed by Canada-based Kanwa Information Centre and was broadly reported in Taiwan and Hong Kong on Nov 17. Translation by Frank Fang.
having him replaced if the Patriotism Association persists in their mischief, and especially if videos start circulating on Youtube. On Christmas, with Dr Ko appointed mayor for barely one day, he fulfilled his election promise by cautioning Lee De-wei. Chang Ching-hua, director of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, welcomes Dr Ko’s stance and affirmation, seeing it as a sign that the Taipei government is serious about dealing with the Patriotism Association. “We support the police protecting freedom of speech, the rule of law, and peaceful expressions of freedom,” said Chang.
Read related articles 1 | Independent Candidate Elected Mayor of Taiwan’s Capital http://goo.gl/Lkr5D5
2 | Cross-Strait Relations Bring Taiwan Thuggery http://goo.gl/x8IVZQ
3 | Ethan Gutmann, Author of ‘The Slaughter’, Speaks of His Interview With Dr Ko Wen-je http://goo.gl/AuDTL3
Asia & china perspectives
22 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
Epoch Times AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
Amid Failed Promises of Reform, US Companies Leave China
Security guard personnel stand guard as people line up to complain or seek help with customer service outside a Best Buy outlet store, which closed its doors earlier in the week, in Shanghai on Feb 25, 2011. Best Buy opened and closed most of its stores inside China within a span of a few years.
Author and director Peter Navarro comments on America’s dysfunctional relation with China By Joshua Philipp Epoch Times Staff Failed dreams and broken promises are all that remain of the hope that led the United States to open free trade with China in 2001. President Bill Clinton had told a crowded room a year prior that “if you believe in a future of greater openness and freedom for the people of China, you ought to be for this agreement.” The decision had bipartisan support, and leaders in the United States shared the belief that with the fall of the Soviet Union trade with China would help it move to democracy and freedom. Rather than China becoming more free and democratic, many US and Western companies have instead bowed to China’s interests, and many others have faced severe economic harm. Open trade “didn’t make them more democratic,” said Peter Navarro, director of the film, “Death by China.” Instead, “it made them a more efficient authoritarian machine.” But now, a change may be happening. Many large companies have begun to feel the impact, and many are now pulling out from China. Best Buy announced on Dec 4, 2014 that it would sell its 184 stores in China and leave the country. It now joins other companies that left China, including Google, Home Depot, Metro, Media Market,
Adidas, Panasonic, Rakuten, Nestle, and Danone. The timing is relevant. The Chinese regime will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its ascension to the World Trade Organization in 2016, and lawmakers in America are now looking at the harm open trade with China has brought to the global economy. Trade War “They came in and wreaked havoc on the American economy and the European economy,” Navarro said. The problem, Navarro said, is that the WTO and the “mostfavoured-nation” status are meant to bring along a system or rules for free trade. When China was granted these benefits, however, it has used the rules and standards to boost its own trade, yet has not been following the rules when dealing with other nations. “They reap all the benefits of international organisation, but they don’t abide by the rules,” Navarro said. China’s abuse of its new privileges began immediately. According to Navarro, as soon as the Chinese regime was brought onto the WTO it began flooding the United States with illegally subsidised imports. To top that off, the Chinese military is launching near-constant cyberattacks to steal intellectual property from American companies and is
using counterfeits and piracy to undermine US firms. An estimated 15 to 20 percent of all products made in China are counterfeits, according to a report from MIT Center for International Studies, and close to eight percent of China’s GDP comes from counterfeit goods. Then there’s China’s currency manipulation—its devaluing
Currency manipulation gives China a 25 to 40 percent advantage on the US dollar. Peter Navarro of the yuan, which gives China a 25 to 40 percent advantage on the US dollar. Navarro said the effect of China’s currency manipulation is that it gives China’s imports to the United States a subsidy, yet puts a tariff on US imports to China. The effect is that it makes it very easy for China to sell to the United States, yet makes it very costly to sell back to China—and the long-term effect is that Chinese companies dominate the market
while US companies get priced out. Even the numbers on China’s economy are shaky. Fortune Magazine recently reported that China’s stock market is soaring, yet the country is having slower growth and a housing bust. It’s description is that “China’s stock market is not so much defying gravity as defying logic.” For those keeping tabs, Navarro said, the United States has lost close to 57,000 factories, 25 million Americans are unable to find decent work, and the United States owes a US$3 trillion debt to the world’s largest totalitarian nation. Ohio’s The Blade recently reported that trade with China since 2001 has cost 106,400 jobs in Ohio, alone. And to top it off, the Chinese regime continues to abuse its workers, is growing its increasingly hostile military at an alarming pace, and US firms have been punished in its antitrust probe. “It’s a tit-for-tat world and that’s part of the deal,” Navarro said, regarding how the Chinese regime has punished US firms over political issues. A Hostile Market China’s stream of abuse seems to be taking its toll, however, and has eroded trust of US firms and government officials, alike. A survey released on Sep 2, 2014 by the American Chamber of Commerce showed that 60 percent of US firms in China
feel less welcomed than before and 49 percent believe they are being singled out by the Chinese regime for attacks. In a related poll in Europe, 61 percent of foreign companies that have been in China for more than a decade said doing business in China is becoming more difficult. The only industry the United States enjoys a decent trade surplus with China is agriculture, according to the US-China Economic Security Council’s 2013 report. Yet, even in agriculture, the report warns, China has been using a substantial amount of trade warfare that has experts questioning its true cost. There is now a growing call for China to start playing by the rules, and Best Buy’s recent pullout could very well tell of what’s to come. “Today I am calling on China to fully comply with all of its World Trade Organization commitments and fully and faithfully implement all of the WTO rulings against it,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, chairman of the CongressionalExecutive Commission on China, during a Jan 25, 2014 congressional hearing on China’s compliance with WTO standards. Brown cited recent data that “paints a sobering picture of the Chinese state’s efforts to intervene in the economy and unfairly help Chinese
Asia & china perspectives
Epoch Times
businesses, despite its WTO commitments not to do so.” He pointed out that in 2012, the US trade deficit with China was over US$300 billion, and a similar number was expected in the 2013 figures. Brown said, “These massive trade deficits are unacceptable and cost jobs in places like Toledo, Akron, and towns and cities all over this country.” According to Navarro, as the impact of China’s admission to the WTO becomes more clear, companies and US officials are now alert to the problem. William Reinsch, former undersecretary of commerce for
They reap all the benefits of international organisation, but they don’t abide by the rules. Peter Navarro
export administration under President Bill Clinton, was once a leading voice supporting US trade with China, but even he has changed his tune. “It is a real disappointment for me to write these things,” Reinsch stated in a recent report, according to the Washington Free Beacon. “I have always been an optimist about the relationship, but that view is becoming increasingly untenable, as China asserts itself in ways that are inevitably going to bump up against our interests in the region and in multilateral fora.” For the US companies now
pulling out of China, Navarro said, “it’s a simple cost-benefit analysis: the cost is rising, the benefits are going down, and the risk is increasing.” Some Facts • The United States has lost close to 57,000 factories; • 25 million Americans are unable to find decent work; • The United States owes a US$3 trillion debt to the world’s largest totalitarian nation; • 60 percent of US firms in China feel less welcomed than before; • 49 percent believe they are
NINE COMMENTARIES
data from: conceptdoppler.com,wikipedia,greatfirewallofchina.org
China under the CCP regime seems to be enjoying more freedom than before. But these freedoms are ultimately superficial and misleading. Under the CCP regime, the degree of freedom granted to people depends on the CCP’s perception of political crisis. When confronted with political threat, the CCP would do anything to maintain the collective interests of Party, even if it means giving so-called democracy, freedom of speech, or human rights to the people. For instance, the CCP believes in the phrase “minor criticism offers great help.” If you visit CCP’s official online news website “Xinhua”
189,605,101
people have renounced the CCP as of January 7, 2015.
or the “People’s Daily Online”, you will find negative reports about China. In this day and age where bad news is circulating rampantly in China, the news agency has to report some of these stories to stay credible. Moreover, by conveying a chaotic situation through the media, the CCP is able to convince the people that the country needs CCP as its saviour. The CCP also creates the façade of freedom of speech by using increasingly refined, sophisticated and invisible censorship techniques. The refinement of the censorship process is often done by private companies that serve as intermediaries between the
CCP and users. For instance, Sina, an online media company unblocked a handful of Tiananmen-related search terms and allowed users to access several discussions that were ultimately unrelated to the 1989 protest and military crackdown. As “Freedom House”, an independent watchdog organization noted, these companies, by offering sanitized results rather than the standard message that blocked keywords usually produce, make censorship invisible.
Adapted from Commentary 9, on the unscrupulous nature of CCP
Quitting the Chinese Communist Party www.NineCommentaries.com
Thousands of Chinese people are quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliate organisations every day through a special website established by The Epoch Times. Others are quitting by calling an international hotline, posting statements
on public walls and poles, or writing on banknotes. Read the full “Nine Commentaries” book, as well as recent statements from Chinese people who have quit the Party, at www.theepochtimes.com
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 23
being singled out by the Chinese regime for attacks (American Chamber of Commerce poll); • 15 to 20 percent of all products made in China are counterfeits (MIT Center for International Studies report); • Best Buy announced on Dec 4, 2014 that it would sell its 184 stores in China and leave the country. It now joins other companies that left China, including Google, Home Depot, Metro, Media Market, Adidas, Panasonic, Rakuten, Nestle, and Danone. It was famously said that Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full blown system of government. Each of them has received its just verdict in history – all but the Communist Party of China which has persisted to this day. The “Nine Commentaries” is an award winning editorial series that offers a vivid and perceptive account of the CCP from its inception to the present. By unmasking its perversion, Nine Commentaries seek to recall the Chinese people and the world from the slumber of ignorance and inaction. Thus far, the series first published in November 2004 has led more than 170 million Chinese to renounce the CCP and its affiliations, trailblazing a massive yet peaceful movement for China’s transformation and change. Read more of this groundbreaking editorial series at: http://goo.gl/yQ2Jox
Epoch Times
Technology & science
January 9 – 22, 2015
25
Sony and the New Normal in Cyber-Security AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
By Jonathan Zhou Epoch Times Staff For Sony Pictures, the gift of litigation came early this year. On the week before Christmas, the entertainment company was struck by no fewer than six class-action lawsuits from ex-employees, all seeking damages for the harms suffered as a result of the company’s data leak, in which the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands were made public on the web. They argue that Sony could have avoided being hacked if it had adequately invested in security, and reports emerged of Sony’s gross incompetence in securing its data. Unnamed Sony employees told Fusion.net that Sony’s information security team was a “complete joke,” and a Sony executive said in 2007 that it was a “valid business decision” to accept certain security risks. But while the Sony hackers’ decision to upload their loot to public file-sharing hubs was unusual, and the scale of the attack unprecedented, the hacking of major corporations is a routine affair in the 21st century, a consequence of the economy’s digital makeover. A survey of 59 U.S. corporations with more than 1,000 employees found that the average cost of cyber-attacks per year was US$12.6 million (S$16.7 million) in 2014, according to the Ponemon Institute. Every one was hit with at least a minor attack, with the minimum cost incurred by a company totalling over US$1.5 million (S$2 million). Accelerating Mega-breaches, defined as an attack where over 1 million records are lost, are ten times more frequent in 2014 than in 2005, and the rate of major attacks is only accelerating, according to Larry Ponemon, founder of the eponymous security think tank. “Mega-breaches were very rare in 2005, now it seems to be every day,” Ponemon said. “Many of these attacks aren’t even reported anymore, Staples was attacked [in December and lost 1.2 million credit card numbers], it wasn’t even on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.” Breaches became better known after a landmark 2003 California law required businesses to notify customers of attacks that resulted in the loss of their private information. As of 2014, similar laws have been adopted in 46 other states. With the new data, Ponemon has been trying to develop a cyber-security equivalent to Moore’s Law that can map the growing risk of cyber-attacks, but the project has stalled because the ever-changing nature of cyber-security makes even cautious estimates difficult to obtain. Still, Ponemon is certain that at the moment, cyber-security is on a downward slope. “There’s no question” the rate of major cyber-attacks is accelerating, Ponemon said. “If we can come up with a metric, it
The Cyber Terror Response Center of the National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea.
would be pretty high.” The Perils of a Cyber-World At first blush, our increasing vulnerability to cyber-attacks may be a sign of progress, an inevitable consequence of the economy becoming more digital, or as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen puts it, “software is eating the world”. More than a few of the companies— Amazon, Netflix, Spotify—lauded in Andreeseen’s 2011 essay have suffered serious data breaches since then. Traditional retail companies transitioning into the digital space have been hit even harder; 2014 saw chains like Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels, and Home Depot lose the financial information of tens of millions of shoppers to hackers. “Everything is going digital. Because there’s so much attack surface, every time you add a new system to your enterprise, it becomes a ticking time bomb” said Adam Meyers, VP of Intelligence at CrowdStrike, a security technology company.
Even if they patch every piece of software, there’s always one machine that didn’t get patched, or was powered off. Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike The number of vulnerabilities in everyday software are so numerous that hackers always find new exploits when old one are secured. When Microsoft in 2008 patched vulnerabilities in Word used by Chinese hackers, they moved onto Adobe PDFs, and after that was patched, Adobe Flash. “They’re like water, they’ll flow down to the lowest point, the easiest path,” Meyers said. Generic writing and design processes “are all components of the attack surface, even if they patch every piece of software, there’s always one machine that didn’t get patched, or was powered off.” The vulnerabilities are so expansive that a company shouldn’t think of trying to buy total security, Meyers said, only enough se-
curity for select key items. “It’s really about an intelligent approach to protecting things, I don’t think you can put a dollar figure on how much a company should spend on security, they should figure out what’s their crown jewel and figure out how to protect that.” The digital transition isn’t the only source of the rise in cyber-crimes. Meyers said that high-profile attacks encourage copycats, whether they’re “hacktivists or nation-states” conducting espionage. Through a Touch-Screen, Darkly The combative nature of cyber-security makes industry practices opaque as a rule, so as to not give hackers a guide on what to circumvent. This, in turn, makes it difficult for stakeholders to determine the optimal investment a company should make in its network security. The problem is compounded by the short life cycle of security services, which are constantly evolving as a result of an arms race between security companies and hackers. “The use of returns-on-investment is very difficult in security,” Ponemon said. “I can invest in tech today, and within two seconds it can become obsolete.” In the 2014 survey, the three-year return on investment in extensive data loss prevention tools was only 9 percent, and even that figure could be inflated, Ponemon says, because often the employees answering the survey only took into account the cost of the product, and not the resources the company takes to implement it. The exact point-of-entry for a cyber-attack can be hard to pin down, and digital post-mortems can last years. In the 2014 survey, half of the companies said they were uncertain about the exact cause of the security breach, making it difficult to know what additional security measures were needed. The hacking of Sony is an illustrative example of that uncertainty. Despite the extraordinary transparency resulting from the data leak, including emails between employees in the IT department, a consensus has yet to be reached about how the attack happened or the identity of the culprit. Detective Story In the case of Sony, Ponemon said that it
was quixotic to say with certainty that the attack could have prevented if the company had just taken a few extra steps to secure its data, such as the encryption of key customer password files. “Encryption does help, but if you’re a system admin, you might have access to the encryption key, or you might be required by your job to see the data in clear text,” Ponemon said. “You can’t say exactly; if they did X, there would be zero opportunity for cybercrime.” Ponemon’s survey found that 11 percent of cyber-attacks could be traced to someone who worked from the inside, such as a disgruntled former employee, and one theory suggests that the Sony attack fell under that category. The security firm Norse conducted its own analysis of the leaked Sony data and speculates that a system administrator named Lena, who Sony fired in its spring 2014 layoffs, worked with other hackers to orchestrate a retaliatory attack on Sony. The FBI maintains the attackers were of North Korean origin, a claim Meyers supports. CrowdStrike has been tracking a North Korean actor since 2006 they dubbed the Silent Chollima, a pegasus of the Far East and the national animal of North Korea. CrowdStrike has a “high degree of confidence” that the Silent Chollima hacked Sony. Developer’s Dilemma One of the structural problems in cybersecurity is that the damages of attacks are not always borne by the companies that pay for it, skewing incentives to underspend on security. Plaintiffs in the classaction lawsuits against Sony all detail the time and money they’ve spent searching for and purchasing identity-theft protection services, which Sony has offered to free to current, but not former, employees. “There people who are rushing things are the first to market, their mission is to capture the market … if it means they go with a product early, without commitment that you’re secure at a high level, someone else down the line will pay for it, be it consumers or other companies,” said Ponemon. Ponemon isn’t optimistic about the government stepping in to enforce security standards because of the way the industry differs from food or medicine. “Security operates in stealth, you don’t want to give the bad guys the formula for security,” Ponemon said, and added that the global nature of technology means that an international regulatory body, which he deemed unrealistic, would be needed to create real traction. Still, Ponemon’s pessimism has limits. Many interpretations of Moore’s Law predict the culmination of computational progress in some sort of Singularity, but Ponemon isn’t too worried about its cyberattack equivalent, where hackers shut down power lines and other utilities to usher in a return to the dark ages. “I’m not saying we should buy a 20-year supply of food rations,” he said.
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January 9 – 22, 2015
Technology & science
www.TheEpochTimes.com
Boston Bombing: What 180 Million Tweets Tell Us About Fear Lumina Stock/iStock/Thinkstock
By Anita Srikameswaran University of Pittsburgh The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing lit up Twitter with more than 180 million tweets expressing fear, solidarity, and sympathy from people in 95 cities around the world. The first large-scale analysis of fear and social-support reactions from distant communities following a terrorist attack shows the extent to which communities outside of Boston expressed their emotions by using hashtags such as #PrayForBoston and how those reactions correlated with geographic proximity, social-network connections, and direct ties to the city. The findings may help government agencies decide how to best handle public fear following a disruptive event, says YuRu Lin, assistant professor of information sciences at University of Pittsburgh. “When a community in one geographic location is attacked, it is important for government officials to be able to predict where public fears will be heightened most as a result of that attack. The findings of our study will potentially assist officials in predicting the exact manner and extent in which citizens in their own regions will react to tragic occurrences in another region of the country. “By swiftly recognizing the heightened presence of fear as a result of occurrences elsewhere, officials within a city can respond appropriately with various measures to calm the public and reassure them that all measures are being taken to ensure public safety and well-being.”
When a community in one geographic location is attacked, it is important for government officials to be able to predict where public fears will be heightened most as a result of that attack. Yu-Ru Lin, assistant professor of information sciences at University of Pittsburgh
The researchers say the study is unique because previous studies of emotional responses to terror attacks have only focused on those in directly affected areas. #PrayForBoston For the new study, published in the journal EPJ Data Science, researchers analyzed more than 180 million geocoded tweets from individuals in 95 cities around the world. They focused their analysis on the 60 most-populated metropolitan areas in the United States as well as the 35 highest-populated cities outside of the United States. To study expressions of fear, the researchers used content-analysis programs to search for a predetermined set of keywords—including “fearful,” “fatal,” and “terror,”—within tweets directly related to the bombing. The study also used Twitter hashtags to identify tweets reflecting expressions of solidarity and sympathy. It showed that citizens in some cities were more likely to express specific emotions based on geography and shared experiences. The hashtag #PrayForBoston—a variant of the #PrayFor{X} hashtags that have been used in recent years following various tragic events—was used to identify
expressions of sympathy. Citizens in the city of London were modest in their expressions of fear and solidarity but were more forthcoming in their use of the #PrayForBoston hashtag. The researchers theorized that the greater show of sympathy from Londoners was due to the citizens of London having endured their own terrorist attacks in the recent past and therefore relating to the sense of tragedy that Boston’s citizens were enduring. Connections to Suffering The hashtag #BostonStrong—a variant of the #{X}strong hashtags made popular by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong motto and the US Army’s “Army Strong” media campaign—was used to measure expressions of solidarity. Expressions of solidarity were used most by citizens in US cities that possess close geographic proximity and have similar cultural identities as Boston. For instance, citizens in Chicago and Washington, D.C., were more likely to express emotions of solidarity due to their relative closeness in distance and personal ties with Boston. “Our findings suggest that the immediate emotional reactions on social media
are indicators of deeper feelings of connection to suffering in other communities that linger,” says Drew Margolin, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University. “In the future, this may have implications for anticipating how communities will respond to shocking events beyond terrorist attacks, such as school shootings, natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, or incidents like those that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri.” According to the study’s overall findings, the extent to which communities outside of the Boston metropolitan area expressed emotional reactions to the attack directly correlated with individuals’ geographic proximities, social network connections to Boston residents, and relationships to the city of Boston. Furthermore, reactions of fear were the most likely of sentiments to be expressed by individuals with direct ties to Boston or to Bostonians. The extent to which individuals had ties to the Boston area was the best predictor of fear and solidarity expression as well as a strong predictor of an expression of sympathy. Republished from Futurity.org under Creative Commons license 3.0.
26 January 9 – 22, 2015
10
Technology & Science
Epoch Times
Tech Fails of 2014 By Reid Schram | Epoch Times Staff
As 2014 fades into memory, a look back shows some tech products that were doomed to fail. Some of these tech fails are a mystery, others are obvious.
Google Glass www.firefishnetworks.com and fotolia/ photo Illustration By Epoch Times
AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox/Eric Charbonneau, File s3.amazonaws.com
1 Smart Watches
Smart watches have been a total tech fail both this year and last. Most of them are Android-based, but Microsoft threw in its own tech fail version, naming it “band”. api.sonymobile.com
Jennifer Lawrence, one of the many celebrities whose photos were leaked in the iCloud hack.
3 iCloud Hack
Apple’s iCloud was always touted as being very secure, but after their servers were comprised and celebrity photos dumped online, people are rethinking where they store their sensitive content. www.technobuffalo.com
4 Snapchat Hack
2 Amazon Fire Phone The Amazon Fire Phone.
Released in July and costing US$199 (S$264), by October they were charging US$1 (S$1.33) with a 2-year AT&T contract. Amazon said they have US$83 million (S$110 million) worth of unsold Fire phones.
Snapchat is a picture trading smartphone application. It is designed so swapped pictures are deleted after a certain period of time. Of course this lends people to take compromising photos, which have since ended up online. Snapchat.
Technology & Science
Epoch Times
January 9 – 22, 2015 27
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File
www.technobuffalo.com
Facebook.
5 Facebook’s “Sociological
6 iOS 8.0.1
Experiment”
It was revealed this year that Facebook has been altering the content of its user’s newsfeed. They would then follower these user’s subsequent posts to see what kind of effect an increase of positive or negative news in their feed would have on them. Their study concluded that viewing more negative news would make a user more likely to post negative posts, and vice versa with positive news.
The extremely short-lived iOS update bricked the iPhones of those who downloaded it. Apple quickly pulled it and released a new version fixing these issues. Definite tech fail.
iOS.
7 Uber Scandal
The application-based, ride-share program has been involved in some serious scandal. Users have been assaulted or raped by drivers who don’t have to go through background checks like most taxi drivers. Uber’s executive Emil Michael has been quoted as saying he should be “hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media”. Uber has already been banned in several regions, with many court cases pending.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
Uber.
Google Glass.
A woman holds the Blackberry Passport smartphone.
8 Google Glass
The wearable smartphone’esque Google device has failed hard, nobody is buying them. There are rumours of a 2.0 version in the works. Will it fail as horribly?
9 Blackberry Passport
The US$600 (S$797) phone is too large for most smartphone users likes. It cannot be used with one hand and it’s just hideous. This is a heavy blow to the already hurting former cellphone giant.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
10 Sony
Playstation TV The tiny, cheap (US$99 or S$131) black box from Sony was supposed to compete with products like Chromecast (US$35 or S$46). Not supporting 1080p resolution and having a very low framerate and blurry graphics for vita games make this a 2014 tech fail. Playstation TV.
Dear Reader
28 January 9 – 22, 2015
Epoch Times
@xstboiboi
@pccruise76
@october_scorpion
After dinner desserts - Macarons from Honey Creme! PS: Bought this for my sister as she will be leaving to China next Week, let her satisfy her craving before she kept annoyed till I wanna die!!! Haha
Featured in Makan Places Lost & Found... Lao Fu Lin Niang Dou Fu done with twist...Fried Style! Love it
Satay ayam / chicken satay from Enak at Simpang Bedok. All time favourite starter or side dish in Singapore. This skewer cubes of marinated BBQ chicken serves with peanut satay sauce, raw onions and cucumbers.
Entries for Epoch Times Snap & Review
Singapore Yummy Food Instagram Contest
Contest ended 31 December 2014. Visit http://instagram.com/epochtimessingapore to like your favourite entries! Voting ends 31 January 2015. The entry which has the most ‘Likes’ wins S$150 cash!
PHOTO COURTESY OF 37 HANG KEE
@jlxwl Two Bakers, Horne Rd (Jalan Besar)—Though it may be a bakery cafe, the savoury items will take you by (a pleasant) surprise! The chicken drumlets especially, were polished off in a matter of minutes. A pity our stomachs were too full, but we will be back soon for their desserts.
@akilaganesan Yunmy naan with 2 bowls of curry all for me to taste at Sedap at Vivocity’s North Indian Stall. Loving the taste soooo much.
@elynchan1010 @onggimchye This is one of my all time favourite and will not miss out dish. Loh mee (鹵麵) if I happen to pass by Old Airport Hawker Centre. This is a Chinese-inspired noodle dish served in a thick starchy gravy and thick flat yellow noodles. The thick gravy is made of corn starch, spices and eggs. The ingredients added into the noodles are usually ngo hiang, fish cake, fish, round and flat meat dumplings, half a boiled egg.
@leiparnes The best crabs ever! Butter crabs at Long Beach, Dempsey Road. The crabs are so succulent and tender and pairs incredibly well with the sweetness and creaminess of the sauce. So shiok!
@elaine_4ever This Blue Nasi Lemak sold at Bollywood Veggies—Poison Ivy Bistro was unbelievably delicious. Its unique blue rice, crunchy ikan bilis (so crunchy that you can hear the crunch crunch sound when you eat!) and crispy chicken wing really make it irresistible.
FLOWERPOT DESSERT at Grand Hyatt mezza9 restaurant. My day ended on a floral note—flowerpot salted caramel ice-cream with chocolate soil, mint leaves, edible flower & berries! This is truly a culinary masterpiece that intertwines flavour and texture. And almost too beautiful to eat... I admired this for almost 5 minutes before taking a spoonful... Gosh...each bite delights me with rich chocolate and sweet vanilla ice cream, with a salty caramel aftertaste. It’s a dessert I’ll never forget!
@elmocrez
@ganesansrk
Pretty rainbow cake from The Bakery Chef. A little contentment goes a long way, count your blessings for “there’s a rainbow after every storm”. Cheer up and hang in there, my dear friend!
This crispy dosa with 2 chutnies—coconut and tomato— and delicious sambar makes the dosa look more beautiful. A must try if you are in Little India. Try at Komala Vilas, one of the oldest vegetarian restaurant offering very good and authentic tasty Indian dishes.
Dear Reader
Epoch Times
January 9 – 22, 2015 29
@jayzee99 Makanshiok at Teban Gardens. Rojak Bandung is one of the lesser-known Malay dishes that combines morning glory (kang kong) with cuttlefish in a peanut sauce. Its exotic and mildly-spiced taste is uniquely Malay and the dish is hard to find these days.
@thedaredreamer Kueh Tutu is a traditional Singaporean delicacy. It’s made primarily from rice or glutinous rice flour, and contains either ground peanuts with gula melaka or shredded coconut. It’s prepared by rapid steaming of the flour and the filling. Once ready, it is served on pandan leaves to add fragrance.
@onggimchye The well-known “Ah Hui Big Prawn Noodle—阿煇大虾 面” at Balestier Food Centre (it’s right next to Boon Tong Kee 文東記). Their unique preparation garlic-loaded soup with herbal ingredients are nice. Their big prawns are very fresh and big. Out of curiosity for my taste buds, I ordered a bowl of $5 dry noodle to try and well enough, indeed it did not disappoint me.
@foodreviewssg
@october_scorpion Onion Thosai ! One of my favourite Indian crepes that is commonly available in Singapore. This is fermented a crepe that made from rice batter and black lentils! This is my comfort food that never fail to make my day!
Hope everyone had a good #lunch today! Today we had this special Yong Tau Foo (YTF) from Fu Lin in 127 Telok Ayer St. It’s not the usual kind of YTF with the sweet or chilli sauce and they don’t blanch the ingredients in water but rather, they deep fry them and serve them in soy-based minced pork sauce. So if you’re looking for those healthy soupy YTF then this is not for you. Even the toufu and seaweed were deep fried! And we love it!
Gongbao chicken wings is a dish which is my all time favourite cooked by my auntie! It’s a different taste of gongbao you can get from outside! It’s spicy and it is for anyone who fancy spicy :) Main point is Home Cooked! You can’t get it anyway!
@jlxwl
Chocolate Christmas Bundt cake, with a generous dose of chocolate chips, roasted almonds, rum-soaked cranberries and candied orange. (baubles not included)
Spent the rainy morning doing what we love— having brunch, and taking pictures of it! Thank you Justin and Micheal for having and hosting us. @tobysestatesg left a remarkable impression on us and we’ll definitely be back.
@yeo.jon I swear this must be the best LIU SHA BAO I’ve eaten. @ YUM CHA CHINATOWN Their cha siew bao was average. And guess how many 流 沙包 (liu sha bao) I had? Answer....... 9! Even though I was stuffed, still couldn’t resist ordering more.
Geography Guru Epoch Times
TM
“Growing your geography knowledge” Quiz #3 OLYMPIC BYGONE The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Yugoslavia, a nation that no longer exists. In the 90s, four republics broke away to form independent nations. A fifth, Montenegro, became independent in 2006.
@yeo.jon
Awesome seasalt fries with truffle oil and parmesan from Gastrosmiths! Each bite covered with fragrance of truffle oil, salt and quality cheese!
A starter dish of beef and chicken yakitori at Hyatt Hotel that will excite your palate immediately with its artisan presentation. The tender and flavourful meat is seared to perfection searing in all of the flavourful juices while charring the outside. Yummy!
@xstboiboi
@bakeafuss
@elmocrez
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Last week I visited YUMCHA RESTAURANT for their DIMSUM HIGHTEA. Gosh..... I was sooo fascinated by the spread and their quality of the dimsum totally blew my mind off.... every dish that I’ve tried are up to standard! I’ll be posting all of them shortly..... stay tuned dimsum lovers!
A. In what current nation is the former Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, located? B. What are the four former Yugoslav republics that broke away from Yugoslavia in the 90s? Read The Epoch Times next week for the answer!
Answer for Quiz #2 WHAT COUNTRY AM I? The name of my capital means “Good Air.” The capital is located on the Rio de la Plata and is the third largest urban area on the continent. My physical features include Pampas, Patagonia, and Gran Chaco. Many of my people originally came from Italy, Germany, and Spain. I went to war with the United Kingdom in 1982 over the nearby Falkland Islands, but they remain British today. What country am I? I am ARGENTINA.
Positive Living
30 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
EPOCH TIMES
A Natural
Success By Huang Zhenyu Primary School Teacher
L
ast year, a temporary teacher in my school asked me for a favour. She hoped to find out from me how to successfully pass her teacher selection exams. As I had gone through the same experience before, I agreed to help her immediately.
An Unsettled Teacher
The teacher selection ex-
ams have become highly competitive in recent years. To realise her dream of becoming an official teacher, every one or two years, this temporary teacher I knew had to transfer between different schools to teach. Although she had been very diligent and careful in her teaching, with her students occasionally winning awards at competitions, it seemed that luck was not on her side for the teacher selection exams. In particular,
when she was in schools that have a clear distinction between official and temporary teachers, she was required to prepare for the exams and teach daily at the same time. It is not hard to imagine how tired she was.
Anxiety Before Exam
As the test day drew near, besides studying hard for the written exams, the teacher also discussed her mock-teaching test with me and other teachers. We watched her
practising presentations in empty classrooms. Shortly after the school’s summer holiday began, I received her plea for help again. She mentioned that the mock-teaching test was the most difficult part for her. She hoped that I could help her improve her onstage presentation and we decided to meet in school one morning. However, on the day that we were supposed to meet, she did not show up at the appointed time and I had to wait for her for
more than half an hour before she arrived. Continued on the next page
Stand long enough on stage and the stage will be yours.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Positive Living
Epoch Times
Continued from Page 30 She was in a total mess and was busy sorting her files. After careful consideration, I told her: “Don’t panic. Listen to me. You are too nervous now. How can you prepare well like this?” She stopped sorting her files and listened to me. I continued, “Once you have prepared well, things will follow naturally. In the past, when I failed my exams, there were also other teachers encouraging me: “Stand long enough on stage and the stage will be yours.” If you happen to fail this year, then next year, or maybe the year after, you may succeed. This is somet hing
we cannot decide but have to accept. “However, our effort each year will never go to waste. It will eventually help us improve our teaching. If you are too anxious and overwhelmed by the desire to succeed, the result may not be very good.”
A Teacher Must Be Responsible
She looked at me with tears in her eyes. I continued saying, “You are way too anxious and a lot of things are out of order. You kept me waiting for more than half an hour. Punctuality as a rule has been flouted. “As a teacher, one has to know how to take care of the class and keep track of students’ responses and reactions even when s/ he is very busy. Otherwise, how can s/he take charge of a class? This depends on one’s experi-
JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015 31
Once you have prepared well, things will follow naturally. ence. You have been teaching for so many years; you need to be confident of your experience.” She seemed to calm down after hearing my words. I told her that there could be many unexpected situations during the mock-teaching test. No matter how carefully one has prepared for it, one would eventually behave just as one
did in daily practice. The judges simply want to see how a teacher can help the students learn. It is as simple as that. Several days later, I received some good news. She had successfully passed the teacher selection exams for schools in two different districts. Recently, she asked me out for dinner at a restaurant and happily told me that she remembered all of my advice, hence she felt at peace onstage during the mock-teaching test. I was elated by her success. However, as there would be all sorts of ‘tests’ in teaching, we promised to always encourage each other and work hard. Paying attention to the little things, and staying calm, brings us closer to the big picture. These seeming inconsequentialities are, after all, actually the most important.
Make 2015 the Year of You Opening your heart to all that life has to offer
By Monisha Vasa
A
s a psychiatrist, I have the honour of being with people through the ups and downs of life’s journey. I bear witness to joy, fear, anger, and sorrow, and the ways in which we deal with these emotions. My patients often say to me, “I think what I need is to just stay busy. I need to distract myself.” Distraction certainly has its role. Sometimes keeping ourselves occupied with meaningful activities like exercise, time with friends, or work, can keep us out of our head. Sometimes distraction involves not-so-meaningful activities such as alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling, or sex as means of disconnection. But what would it be like to just … be? To be with ourselves, just as we are? The most important and enduring relationship we will ever have is the relationship that we have with ourselves. This relationship is based on our intimate knowing of our physical bodies, minds, spirits, and souls. If we continuously distract ourselves from ourselves, then we lose the gift of cultivating a loving
relationship with the person who matters most. Here are ways to make 2015 a year of getting to know YOU: 1. Slow Down For some, this can feel terrifying! We are used to maintaining a rushed pace, often to distract ourselves or for fear of missing out. Pay close attention to when you are moving too fast, or are too busy. Say “No” to activities that aren’t necessary or meaningful to you. Make a conscious choice to block out time on your schedule for rest. Create buffers between activities so you are not rushing from one thing to the next. 2. Discover Quiet The sounds of our world—people talking, music playing, kids asking, technology beeping—can be loud and intrusive. The voices in our heads—our constant commentary—can be deafening. Turn the volume down, or better yet, switch to silent mode, and allow yourself to just be. This is when you can start to become aware of the forces that operate within you. This is when you can feel the beating of your heart,
or the sensation of your breath. This is when you can feel how emotions, desires, and aversions come and go like the tide of the ocean waves. 3. Experiment With Meditation Once you feel comfortable with disconnecting, experiment with how meditation feels. Meditation is a way to observe all of yourself in a compassionate, non-judgmental way. You might start with a brief sitting practice where you focus on the sensation of breathing for a few minutes. Don’t put pressure on yourself to meditate in a certain way. Don’t make it another project or goal that you can fail at. Meditation is called a practice for a reason. Find your entry point and build from there. 4. Find Self-Compassion Being with yourself won’t be much fun if you are always criticising yourself. Make a pact to only use kind, loving words with yourself, the way you would with a child or a favourite friend. Practice self-care. Compassion for yourself improves well-being and is the foundation from which compassion for others can grow.
The most important and enduring relationship we will ever have is the relationship that we have with ourselves. 5. Live Mindfully Practice immersing yourself in your experiences in a curious, non-judgmental manner. There are several ways to experiment with mindfulness in your life. Try using all of your senses to consciously connect to a mundane experience. For example, while washing the dishes, really listen to the sound of the water, feel the slippery soapiness of the dishes, inhale the scent of dish soap. Using our senses to deepen our experience prevents us from ruminating about an argument with our boss or worrying about tomorrow’s crazy schedule. Alternatively, if you find yourself waiting, allow yourself to just wait. Try to put your phone away, and focus on your breath or on the sensory experience of being
where you are. This moment is the only moment that truly exists. Mindfulness allows us to truly live that moment deeply, intentionally. These tools can allow 2015 to be the year where you finally prioritise YOU, and the relationship that you have with yourself. This is not selfishness! Being conscious allows you to show up for life, fully available. Knowing yourself allows you to open your heart to all that life has to offer, and to those who cross your path. This is not a race to be won or a mountain to be conquered. This is a beautiful practice, one we can start over and over with each new moment that we are blessed with. Monisha Vasa, M.D., is a boardcertified general and addiction psychiatrist in private practice in California, USA. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, and completed her Psychiatry residency and fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. She lives in Orange County with her husband, two children and two English bulldogs. For more information, please visit: www.mindful-healing.com
32 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
Positive Living
Epoch Times
Ways to Detox 18 Your Home Home Hygiene
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By Dr. Frank Lipman www.drfranklipman.com Many of us have done a detox in order to eliminate internal toxins from our body, but how many of us do anything about the toxins in our own homes? Common household and bodycare products are increasingly being found to have negative health effects on the nervous and immune systems, on our reproductive systems and on our endocrine, cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The average home contains 500-1,000 chemicals, many of which we are unable to see, smell or taste. While these chemicals may be tolerated individually and in small doses, problems can arise when one is exposed to them in combination or in larger doses. Everyone’s tolerance level is different depending on genetics, nutritional status and previous contacts with many chemicals, but the negative effects of household toxins are often compounded by the use of other drugs especially the habitual use of alcohol, prescription drugs, or recreational drugs like smoking. Indoor air is typically 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air. Wall to wall carpeting keeps us cosy, but can introduce a myriad of toxins to our well insulated homes. It can also trap dirt, fleas, dust, dust-mites and lead. Many of the cleaning products we use to clean our furniture, bathrooms, windows, and so on are full of toxic chemicals, some of which do not even appear on
the labels. Similarly with the many personalcare care products we put on our skin and the petcare products we use on our pets. Most tick and flea products contain active ingredients and solvents that might cause cancer in animals. Also, substantial human exposure is possible by absorption through the skin, while playing with and handling the pet. The pesticides we use on our plants eliminate not only plant pests but also most of the insects that are beneficial to help control these pests. Of the 30 most commonly used lawn chemicals, 19 have studies pointing toward cancer and 15 are known to cause nervous system poisoning. This is not to say that we should not keep our houses comfortable and clean and our yards looking good. What’s important is to understand that how we do this can have an important impact on our health. Abundant toxins can and do lead to health problems. There are many things you can do to “detox” your home, some more practical than others. Here Are My 18 Suggestions: 1. No shoes in the house as most household dirt, pesticides and lead come in on your shoes. Go barefoot or wear slippers. 2. Place floor mats vertically by your entryways to wipe your shoes. This way more dirt and residue from your shoes stays outside on the mat. 3. Keep the air clean. Keep your windows and doors open as much as possible to ventilate. Use green plants as natural air detoxifiers. Remove odours with baking soda. Use fresh flowers or herbs like rosemary and sage to add a pleasant fragrance to rooms. Get a portable air cleaner/purifier, especially for the bedrooms. 4. Switch from the standard household cleaning products to cleaner and greener ones. These don’t damage your health or the environment’s as much and work
The average home contains 500-1,000 chemicals, many of which we are unable to see, smell or taste. as well as the mass marketed ones. You can also use basic ingredients you have around the house, for instance, vinegar in place of bleach, baking soda to scrub your tiles and hydrogen peroxide to remove stains. According to Annie Bond, author of “Better Basics For The Home,” she can clean anything with water and these five basic ingredients: baking soda, washing soda, distilled white vinegar, vegetable based liquid soap. 5. Replace your skin care and personal products with less toxic and chemical free options. Deodorant, toothpaste, cosmetics, hair products, nail polish and perfumes are often loaded with toxins. Learn how to identify and avoid them. 6. Use plastics wisely as some contain Bisphenol A (BPA), which is linked to cancer, and Phtalates, which are linked to endocrine and developmental problems. Avoid plastic food packaging (when you can). Don’t wrap food in plastic. Don’t microwave food in plastic containers. Choose baby bottles made from glass or BPA-free plastic. Avoid vinyl teethers for your baby. Stay away from children’s toys marked with a “3″ or “PVC.” Avoid plastic shower curtains. 7. Avoid non stick pans, pots, bakeware and utensils as Teflon contains perfluorinated chemicals (PFC’s) which have been linked to cancer and developmental problems. 8. Keep house dust to a minimum as more dust means more toxins. Mop all surfaces at least once a week. Use a vacuum cleaner (with a HEPA filter, preferably) for your carpets.
HEPA-filter vacuums capture the widest range of particles and get rid of allergens. 9. Avoid excess moisture as it encourages the growth of mould and mildew. Check areas for moisture accumulation or leaks (particularly basements). Regularly clean surfaces where mould usually grows—around showers and tubs and beneath sinks. 10. Get a shower filter as many of the contaminants in tap water become gases at room temperature. A shower filter can help keep these toxins from becoming airborne. 11. Get a water filter as more than 700 chemicals have been identified in drinking water. Filtering your tap water is better than drinking bottled water. 12. Avoid stain-guarded clothing, furniture and carpets due to the presence of PFC’s. Wrinkle free and permanent press fabrics used for clothing and bedding commonly contain formaldehyde—use untreated fabrics where possible. 13. Be conscious of toxins in carpeting, especially in products made from sy nt hetic materials. Use natural fibre wool & cotton rugs. If possible, replace your wall-towall carpeting with hardwood floors, all natural linoleum or ceramic tiles. Use nontoxic glues, adhesives, stains or sealers for installation. 14. Avoid harmful pet-care products and avoid toxic pest control including traditional termite exterminators. 15. Replace toxic garden pesticides and herbicides with less harmful natural ones. 16. Tell the dry cleaner not to use the plastic wrap or remove it as soon as possible as the plastic traps the dry cleaning chemicals on clothes and in your closet. Let your dry cleaning air out (preferably outside) before storing it. Use “wet cleaning” if
you are lucky enough to have it in your area. 17. Use low VOC, low odour latex (water based) paint. Open all windows to ventilate properly when painting indoors. 18. Have your house checked for carbon monoxide leaks, most commonly found in leaking gas stoves and gas water heaters. We can reduce our risk of chronic illness by limiting our exposure to these toxins but don’t let this become an obsession which can cause so much stress that it creates more of a negative impact on your health than the toxins themselves. And finally, no amount of environmental toxins are as important as emotional toxicity. You can do all the above, but if your house is full of anger, resentment, jealousy, unhappiness and a lack of love, compassion and forgiveness, the house will remain toxic. This article was originally published on www.drfranklipman. com.
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Positive Living
Epoch Times
JANUARY 9 –22, 2015 33
Home Hygiene
Banishing Dishcloth Stink (and Bacteria), Simplified By Tracy and Joc Little Boozy Homemakers I splashed a little coffee on the counter when I topped up my cup this morning, so I grabbed the dishcloth out of the sink and swabbed it up. Then I picked up my cup and shuffled back to the couch and my laptop for some web surfing. I rubbed my itchy nose as I sat down and immediately gagged a little bit… the dishcloth I had used to “clean” my counter was stinky enough to transfer its funk onto my hand. “Gross”, I thought. “I’d better do the kitchen laundry today”. And since I was sitting with my laptop anyway, I googled “Stinky Dishcloths” to see what I could come up with for a cleaning method. Normally I do all my whites and kitchen laundry using the Sanitise cycle on my delicious
If you use your dishcloth for three days in a row, it can harbour up to 37,000,000 counts of bacteria and 112,000 counts of yeast and mould.
What Can Be Done? Washing your dishcloth after a day’s use with really hot water, lots of detergent and bleach seems to be answer 1. However, this requires organisation which I don’t possess a whole lot of. It also requires that you do laundry fairly regularly, and not everyone has the luxury
of their own machine. So this, while being the most obvious, is not a universal solution. The second best thing you can do, says the Internet in a general sort of fashion, is soak your dishcloth every night in a sinkful of hot water and some bleach.
new fireengine-red front loader. However, that cycle takes a loooooong time, and since I’ve been pinching the pennies I don’t want to give to our local power company, I’ve been shying away from using so much super-hot water. Instead, I’ve just been washing that load with cold water and a dash of washing soda along with the regular detergent for added whitening and deodorising. Clearly that’s not cutting it for my dishcloths which kind of smell like they’ve been marinating in the Bog of Eternal Stench. Even the clean ones smell like the inside of a gym bag. You know what Google told me? If you use your dishcloth
for three days in a row (some of you are clutching your pearls at the thought of keeping it in rotation for that long… the rest of us are whistling uncomfortably at the ceiling), it can harbour up to 37,000,000 counts of bacteria and 112,000 counts of yeast and mould. And that’s… shockingly disgusting. This count includes notorious bugs such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and Staphylococcus aureus — the ones that can give you all kinds of repulsive illnesses (think food poisoning) in high enough concentrations. Realistically, the fact that
This isn’t such a bad answer, really, and I used to do this in my university days (though not every night because I was, of course, a happy-go-lucky-and-toparties kind of student). This trick does take the fetor out of your cloth quite neatly, but not everyone is down with bleach and that is definitely fair enough, environmental and health concerns considered. You could try to soak them with hot water and vinegar, but I think you would need pure vinegar to kill all those germs, and that can get costly, not to mention cause a whole different kind of funk in your kitchen. There is, however, a very simple remedy for this common kitchen curse that anyone out there can use. The best part about said remedy is that it is not hightech, not overly aromatic,
and it doesn’t require you to go out and buy fancy chemical-laden, bug-killing soaps or cleaners. It is, in fact, a method that is as old as the word “laundry”. What is this little gem of a device? Well, you stick your cloths in a pot of water and boil them. I know. So simple it’s stupid. Boiling your dishcloths in a large pot for about ten minutes will kill most of the bacteria that have decided to turn your innocuous cleaning tool into a weapon, and with those little buggers goes their reek. After boiling the cloths, you can either toss them into the wash with your next load of whites (but let them dry if that’s not going to be for a few days!) or even just rinse the dishcloths in cool water, wring them out and hang them to dry.
Thinkstock with illustration by Epoch Times Staff
your dishcloth is regularly contaminated is probably not a big surprise to anyone, especially if you watch How Clean is Your House? (a pleasure of which I am thoroughly guilty). But the numbers in that microorganism count were high enough to make me sit up and think a little harder about my kitchen hygiene. I haven’t ever poisoned myself (or any household inhabitants), but now I have kids, and their little immune systems are much more susceptible to these kinds of intruders. Besides that, kids are tiny dirt-making machines, making vigilance a necessity.
The sniff test I conducted after using this method of sterilisation concluded that my cloths smelled brandnew and line-dried and prompted me to resolve to change my dishcloth every night… a resolution that lasted about one day. Luckily, I can just keep boiling them. Now, when I have about a potful’s-worth, I just cook up a batch and I’m back to stink-free cleaning with an easy conscience. No germs, no chemicals, no fuss. Just the way I like it. Republished with permission from Little Boozy Homemakers. Read the original. Tracy and Joc are sisters, wives, and mothers, and they love to make things with their own two hands. Read more of their great homemaking tips on their blog Little Boozy Homemakers.
Positive Living
34 JANUARY 9 - 22, 2015
过无闻闻若唯见见彼凡 能心誉过衣德人人 说道 改非恐怒服学恶善长字 归名闻闻若唯即即此重 于为过誉饮才内思说且 无错欣乐食艺省齐短舒 倘有直损不不有纵不勿 掩心谅友如如则去 关急 饰非士来人人改远己疾 增 名渐益 勿 当无以 莫 勿 一为相友生 自加渐 闲模 辜恶亲却戚砺警跻管糊 *
事见 非未 宜真 勿勿 轻轻 诺言 苟知 轻未 诺的 进勿 退轻 错传
奸话 巧说 语多 秽不 污如 词少 市惟 井其 气是 切勿 戒佞 之巧
凡 出 言 信 为 先 诈 与 妄 奚 可 焉
信
Epoch Times
弟 子 規
* According to Dizi Gui (弟子规), “Upon seeing others being good, think of becoming equally good. Even when far below them, gradually get better. Upon seeing others being bad, reflect on yourself. If you are like them then correct it; if not then be vigilant.” lessons from dizi gui
Reflecting to be a Better Person By Jade Pearce Epoch Times Staff
Dizi Gui (弟子规) (Standards for Being a Good Student and Child) is an ancient Chinese text for children that teaches moral values and etiquette. It was written during the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (康熙帝) (16611722) by Li Yuxiu. Beneath the conservative, “old-school” verbose of this ancient classic, one can still find gems of wisdom that remain surprisingly relevant to our modern society. A new lesson is covered in each issue. Self-reflection is an important part of improving oneself—by doing so diligently every day, one’s character will gradually improve to great heights. Ref lection doesn’t have to be on our own thoughts and actions; we can also learn by observing others around us. Think about your role models or bad e x a mple s — how can we learn from them? Dizi Gui contains a wise saying about reflection: “Upon seeing others being good, think of becoming equally good. Even when far below them, gradually get better. Upon seeing others being bad, reflect on yourself. If you are like them then correct it; if not then be vigilant.” Even the worst of people can become
Even if a person has made a mistake, he will still have a bright future if he truly changes for the better and follows good advice.
the best with diligent reflection and self-improvement. “Zhou Chu (周处) Gets Rid of Three Evils”, a famous story from China’s Jin Dynasty, illustrates precisely this point.
Zhou Chu Gets Rid of Three Evils
As a child, Zhou Chu was poorly disciplined by his father, and he grew up to become a fiery-tempered, wayward ruffian. He was strong as an ox and loved to fight, often bullying and intimidating the other villagers to get his own way. As such, the people despised and feared him. One day, Zhou Chu noticed how unhappy the villagers looked. Puzzled, he asked them why. An elderly villager replied, “We have three evils in this area. How can we be happy?” “Which three?” Zhou asked. “The first evil is a tiger in the South Mountains which harms many lives. The second evil is a violent dragon in the river, which kills people and cattle. The third evil, I am afraid, is you!” This was the first time anyone had told Zhou so bluntly what people thought of him. Zhou was silent as he digested this unpleasant revelation. After a long while, he said, “I will get rid of the three evils!” Zhou first went to the mountain armed with a knife. After a fierce fight, he killed the tiger. Then he jumped into the river to look for the dragon. The dragon fought him for three days without any signs of slowing down, but Zhou was even more energetic. After three days, he finally killed the dragon. When the villagers noticed Zhou had not come back after three days, they thought he was dead. In joy, they celebrated the elimination of the three evils.
Just then, Zhou returned and saw the villagers celebrating. He realised just how much the people hated him and felt terribly ashamed. But this strengthened his resolve to reform himself. Zhou decided to consult two wise men, Lu Ji (陆机) and Lu Yun (陆云) (grandsons of General Lu Xun (陆逊). Lu Ji and Lu Yun were revered far and wide for their intelligence, kindness, and altruism. They were considered role models of moral character. Zhou travelled to their home and met with Lu Yun. After telling Lu Yun his story, he asked, “I really want to change, but I am not young anymore. Do I still have time?” Lu Yun encouraged him by saying, “There is an ancient saying that ‘if you realise a mistake in the morning, you can correct it by the evening.’ You have a long future ahead of you. You should worry about not having a clear goal; why worry about your current reputation?”
Self-reflection is an important part of improving oneself— by doing so diligently every day, one’s character will gradually improve to great
Lu’s advice greatly encouraged Zhou, and he began to study hard and pay attention to his own conduct. Within a year, his reputation had completely turned around. Many county and city level officials recommended that he become an official. For the next thirty years, Zhou held many positions and was a diligent and accomplished official. He later became a general and died while serving his country in battle. Despite having such an awful reputation to start, Zhou Chu had the courage to change himself. By following the advice and example of others, he went from being a bad young man to a loyal, uncorruptible official and general. Even if a person has made a mistake, he will still have a bright future if he truly changes for the better and follows good advice. Where there is a will, there is a way, as long as the person is determined and starts to do the right thing.
Positive Living
Epoch Times
JANUARY 9 - 22, 2015
ancient chinese wisdom
Learning From One’s Mistakes By Epoch Times Staff In Ancient China, correcting one’s mistakes was considered a moment of revelation and a key element in one’s character development. Older generations of Chinese people believed that even a saint could commit an error. Ancient texts mirror the adage that no man is infallible of making mistakes, but learning from them is one of man’s greatest virtues. This leads to the betterment of one’s conduct. Confucius was wont to say, “If you know you made a mistake and don’t correct it, then you have really made a mistake.” To err is human, but to recognise the error and correct it and learn from it gains respect from others. Neglecting to do so, or even
hiding the mistake, leads to loss of self-respect and the respect of others. Zi Zhang (子张), one of Confucius (孔子)’ students, said: “Human beings’ mistakes are as blatantly obvious as a lunar or solar eclipse; everyone notices them, and when they disappear, people marvel in awe.” Taizhong (唐太宗) was a renowned ruler during the Tang Dynasty, known for his gift of considering others’ suggestions, and of addressing his own weaknesses. He said, “When you look into the copper mirror, it shows you how well your clothes fit. When you put history before the mirror, it shows you the rise and decline of each dynasty; when other people’s eyes mirror your image, they see your shortcomings and accomplishments.” To be seen through the eyes of others means to accept their words and deeds as a yardstick of
that which we have done well or poorly in. Ideally, one abandons one’s own notions when others have better ideas. When you observe that others conduct themselves better, confess your mistakes and correct them. Be prudent to watch for others’ mistakes so you won’t make the same ones! Mencius told this story: “A long time ago there lived a man who stole one of his neighbour’s chickens every day. Someone pointed out to him that this is wrong. The man replied that he needed time to correct the habit: ‘I will begin by stealing a chicken only once a month instead of daily, and then next year none at all.’ Though the man knew how incorrect his actions were, why did he want to wait a year instead of correcting his behaviour immediately?” Lu Jiuyuan (陆九渊), a thinker
during the Southern S o n g D y na st y, said: “When someone points out one of your mistakes, do correct it immediately. When you become aware of your mistakes on your own, do not try to hide them; while correcting them, do not be afraid.” Mencius once praised Zi Lu (子 路), one of Confucius’ students, “When one points out a mistake Zi Lu has made, he is happy.” Lu Jiuyuan built on this thought and commented, “First of all, be fearless when others point out a mistake. Further, to learn from your mistake, do not fool others or yourself. One needs determination, perseverance, and a strong will to correct one’s errors.”
Mencius (孟子 ) (372 – 289 BCE), an ancient Chinese philosopher, held that human beings were inherently moral.
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36 January 9 – 22, 2015
Positive Living
Epoch Times
Ancient Tenets Hone
Modern Performers Traditional principles inherent in classical Chinese dance gives Shen Yun depth
Shen Yun Performing Arts
Positive Living
Epoch Times
January 9 – 22, 2015 37
“If heaven is the way we saw it tonight, count me in!”
“Demonstrating the highest realm in arts, Shen Yun inspires the performing arts world.”
“The highest and best of what humans can produce.”
—Nathaniel Khan, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker
—Chi Cao, principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet
—Oleva Brown-Klahn, singer and musician
By Matthew Little Epoch Times Staff Many people want to be better than they are, to improve themselves, be more efficient, more capable, better able to resist temptations, and more determined to achieve their dreams. When this drive to improve is tempered by moral principles such as kindness and propriety, it becomes something both ancient and timeless—an approach to life that once guided entire civilizations. It is also the foundation of Shen Yun Performing Arts (神韵艺术团), a New York-based group composed of overseas Chinese artists that has skyrocketed from its inception in 2006 to become one of the most acclaimed performing arts companies in the world. In traditional Chinese culture there is a belief that this idea—the aspiration to rise above who we are today to become who
we want to be tomorrow—can lead people toward divinity if they follow virtuous principles like compassion and honesty. This idea permeates China’s true, traditional culture and its three main philosophical and spiritual roots: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. There are different ways individuals can develop themselves and different principles that each way emphasizes, but goodness and virtue permeate all of them. For this reason, traditional Chinese culture emphasized morality and righteousness as the basis for society. In Chinese, this idea has a word: cultivation. A person cultivates him or herself toward higher understandings of life and the universe, refining their character and expressing this through their daily conduct. For Shen Yun Performing Arts, this ancient practice is a foundation to achieving artistic excellence and bringing
an authentic Chinese performing tradition back to life. Shen Yun presents Chinese ethnic and folk dances, but classical Chinese dance is at the heart of the performance. “Chinese classical dance not only requires posture, movement, but also it requires an inner beauty and moral values and how to conduct yourself as a person.” explains Miranda Zhou-Galati, one of Shen Yun’s principal dancers, in a video on the group’s website. Zhou-Galati said that before she learned dance, she had a bad temper and could not tolerate being criticized. Later, she realized criticism could help her improve as a performer and her attitude changed. “I can take in what people are trying to tell me and their opinion,” she said. In another video, dancer Madeline Lobjois says that following traditional Chinese beliefs makes Shen Yun a very rare kind of arts group.
Shen Yun 2015 World Tour
“Traditional Chinese culture puts emphasis on people’s moral character,” she said. The non-profit group has become an international phenomenon, and credits the idea of cultivation for its success. The Chinese Communist Party that came to power in China in 1949 has systematically suppressed and destroyed such beliefs as a way to force atheist communist ideology on the Chinese people. Shen Yun was founded on a mission to revive China’s 5,000-year-old divinely inspired traditional culture and save those traditions from disappearing, the website explains. “Throughout history almost every culture looked toward the divine for inspiration. Art was meant to uplift, bringing joy to the people who both created it and experienced it. It is this principle that drives Shen Yun performers and their art.”
Shen Yun 2015 World Tour
www.shenyunperformingarts.org
UNITED STATES
EUROPE
www.shenyunperformingarts.org
DEC 26 – 28 FT. LAUDERDALE (FL)
JAN 30 - FEB 1 BALTIMORE (MD)
MAR 3 – 4 APPLETON (WI)
FEB 26 – 28 GENEVA (CH)
MAR 28 – 29 Birmingham (GB)
DEC 26 – 29 AUSTIN (TX)
FEB 3 – 4 CHARLESTON (WV)
MAR 6 – 8 DENVER (CO)
MAR 10 – 11 VIENNA (AT)
MAR 31 - APR1 Salford (GB)
DEC 28 - JAN 7 HOUSTON (TX)
FEB 3 – 4 THOUSAND OAKS (CA)
MAR 6 – 8 CHICAGO (IL)
MAR 13 - APR 16 GERMANY (DE)
MAR 31 - APR 1 SALFORD (GB)
DEC 29 SARASOTA (FL)
FEB 5 – 15 MICHIGAN
MAR 10 – 11 FORT WORTH (TX)
MAR 13 – 15 Frankfurt (DE)
APR 4 – 7 STOCKHOLM (SE)
DEC 30 GAINESVILLE (FL)
FEB 5 – 8 Detroit (MI)
MAR 11 – 12 COLUMBUS (OH)
APR 14 – 16 Baden-Baden (DE)
APR 10 – 12 PARIS (FR)
JAN 2 – 4 ATLANTA (GA)
FEB 11 – 12 Lansing (MI)
MAR 13 MEMPHIS (TN)
MAR 13 – 15 FRANKFURT (DE)
APR 14 – 16 BADEN-BADEN (DE)
JAN 2 – 4 SAN JOSE (GA)
FEB 14 – 15 Grand Rapids (MI)
MAR 14 – 15 PEORIA (IL)
MAR 28 – 29 BIRMINGHAM (GB)
APR 21 SALZBURG (AT)
JAN 6 – 7 BERKELEY (GA)
FEB 5 – 8 DETROIT (MI)
MAR 15 – 17 SAN ANTONIO (TX)
MAR 28 – APR 1 UNITED KINGDOM (GB)
APR 24 – 25 BARCELONA (ES)
JAN 2 – 14 CALIFORNIA
FEB 7 – 8 LONG BEACH (CA)
MAR 17 TULSA (OK)
JAN 2 – 4 San Jose (CA)
FEB 7 – 8 WATERBURY (CT)
MAR 19 JACKSON (MS)
JAN 6 – 7 Berkeley (CA)
FEB 10 – 11 CLEVELAND (OH)
MAR 20 – 21 DES MOINES (IA)
JAN 8 – 11 San Francisco (CA)
FEB 11 – 12 MESA (AZ)
MAR 21 – 22 CORPUS CHRISTI (TX)
DEC 27 – 28 HAMILTON (CA)
JAN 13 – 14 Sacramento (CA)
FEB 11 - 12 LANSING (MI)
MAR 24 – 25 SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
DEC 29 – 30 KITCHENER (CA)
JAN 31 – FEB 1 GOLD COAST (AU)
JAN 8 – 11 SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
FEB 13 – 15 MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
MAR 24 – 25 BATON ROUGE (LA)
JAN 2 – 4 OTTAWA (CA)
FEB 3 – 4 BRISBANE (AU)
JAN 9 - MAR 11 DALLAS FORT WORTH
FEB 14 – 15 PHOENIX (AZ)
MAR 27 – 29 PORTLAND (OR)
JAN 7 – 11 MONTREAL (CA)
FEB 6 – 15 SYDNEY (AU)
JAN 9 – 11 Dallas (TX)
FEB 14 – 15 GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
MAR 27 – 28 ORLANDO (FL)
JAN 13 – 14 QUEBEC (CA)
FEB 17 – 18 CANBERRA (AU)
MAR 10 – 11 Fort Worth (TX)
FEB 17 – 18 DAVENPORT (IA)
MAR 30 – 31 FORT MYERS (FL)
JAN 16 – 18 MISSISSAUGA (CA)
FEB 20 – 21 ADELAIDE (AU) FEB 25 – 28 MELBOURNE (AU)
CANADA
JAN 9 – 11 DALLAS (TX)
FEB 18 – 22 SAN DIEGO (ESCONDIDO) (CA)
MAR 31 EUGENE (OR)
JAN 16 – 18 VANCOUVER (CA)
JAN 9 – 18 NEW YORK (NY)
FEB 20 – 22 ST. LOUIS (MO)
APR 3 – 5 SEATTLE (WA)
JAN 21 – 25 TORONTO (CA)
JAN 13 – 14 SACRAMENTO (CA)
FEB 21 – 22 ROCHESTER (NY)
APR 3 – 4 ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
JAN 13 – 14 OMAHA (NE)
FEB 24 – 25 KNOXVILLE (TN)
APR 10 – 12 NEWARK (NJ)
JAN 16 – 17 INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
FEB 26 – 27 BAKERSFIELD (CA)
APR 11 – 12 NORFOLK (VA)
JAN 20 CHATTANOOGA (TN)
FEB 27 – 28 CINCINNATI (OH)
APR 14 – 15 MILWAUKEE (WI)
JAN 22 – 25 HOLLYWOOD (CA)
JAN 22 - MAR 4 LOS ANGELES
APR 17 – 18 PROVIDENCE (RI)
JAN 22 NORTH CHARLESTON (SC)
JAN 22 - 25 Hollywood (CA)
APR 17 – 26 WASHINGTON, DC (DC)
JAN 23 – 25 BOSTON (MA)
JAN 27 - 28 Northridge (CA)
APR 21 – 22 WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
JAN 24 – 25 JACKSONVILLE (FL)
JAN 29 - FEB 1 Costa Mesa (CA)
APR 25 – 26 PITTSBURGH (PA)
JAN 27 – 28 NORTHRIDGE (CA)
FEB 3 - 4 Thousand Oaks (CA)
APR 28 HUNTSVILLE (AL)
JAN 27 – 28 RALEIGH (NC)
FEB 7 - 8 Long Beach (CA)
MAY 1 – 2 GREENVILLE (SC)
JAN 27 – 28 DAYTON (OH)
FEB 26 - 27 Bakersfield (CA)
MAY 1 – 2 NASHVILLE (TN)
JAN 29 - FEB 1 COSTA MESA (CA)
MAR 2 - 4 Las Vegas (NV)
MAY 3 – 4 CHARLOTTE (NC)
JAN 30 – 31 NEW ORLEANS (LA)
MAR 2 – 4 LAS VEGAS (NV)
MAY 8 – 10 PHILADELPHIA (PA)
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
ASIA APR 15 – 16 NISHINOMIYA CITY (JP)
MAR 18 – 22 TAICHUNG CITY (TW)
APR 15 – 21 JAPAN (JP)
MAR 25 – 29 TAOYUAN (TW)
APR 15 – 16 Nishinomiya City (JP)
MAR 31– APR 1 KEELUNG (TW)
APR 18 – 21 Tokyo (JP)
APR 11 – 12 CHIAYI (TW)
APR 18 – 21 TOKYO (JP)
Buy Ticket
MAR 12 – 15 TAINAN (TW)
“Mesmerizing! Reclaiming the divinely inspired cultural heritage of China!” Donna Karan, creator of DKNY http://bit.ly/139cYAFA
Positive Living
38 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
Epoch Times
Arantzazu Martinez
ART APPRECIATION
Painter Spotlight:
Arantzazu Martinez, Dream Chaser By Wim Van Aalst Art is a matter of pure passion for the Spanish painter Arantzazu Martinez. When her craving to paint like the 19th century masters could not be met at the academy in Madrid, she left Spain to study at Jacob Collins’ Water Street Atelier in New York. “It was like a new world opened for me,” Martinez remembers. “Suddenly everything was possible: I learned to draw, learned to paint, learned about colour, I learned everything there.” When she got back in Spain, Martinez began painting commissioned portraits, to pay the bills. “After about six months, I was completely depressed. I don’t want to wake up to this.” “I didn’t hate it—it simply was not giving me anything. I need my work to make me exalt,” she said. “After learning how to paint, the process, the Arantzazu Martinez technique, I had finally gained the freedom and the ability to do what I wanted! Yet I found myself doing something that I really didn’t care about. It felt like I was letting myself down. Why in the world would I do something that I don’t feel is worth it when I spent all my guilders and life to learn what I longed to do? It was a complete shock to me.” Martinez sobered up and quickly returned to her original interest. “You must have a great idea, and make it more perfect, bolder. If you feel excited about it, that excitement, when you love it,
“You need to really fall in love with something in order to make it great.”
when it’s gonna be great, it gives you the energy to keep going. You get a little bit obsessed— without any suffering. Then you can go deeper and deeper until what you have is perfect. But if you work on something that you don’t care about in your heart, it’s not worth to go that far. You need to really fall in love with something to make it great— without that love, there’s no way to take it beyond the ordinary.” With her focus in place, Martinez’s compositions have gradually been growing in size and complexity, with some of her amazing work now measuring over 7 feet tall. “I’m trying to push myself further every time, while trying to keep things interesting and fun for myself,” Martinez said. The fun begins before painting. “I do spend a lot of time on the designing stage,” Martinez said. “Selecting the props, composing and building the scene. If you don’t settle for less and delve deeper to find what you really want, you will always find a way.” The process of her latest bigger work, “Absolute Trust” (“I’m looking for that also in my life,” she said), was an interesting one: “It’s about feeling confident that everything is going to be alright. As I was painting, the painting told me about what trust really means.” She recounts finding the throne, which the painting required: “I accidentally saw it in the window of an antiques shop. What are the odds of running into a throne in one’s life? Really, it starts with a dream and becomes a reality.” Then what does it take to dream? Martinez said: “In the end it is a choice. If you get close to the things that make you feel sad, sad because of this, sad because of that, or because of what happened
here or elsewhere, or because of yourself, it’s a choice. If you choose to look for the things that you feel better about, that too, is a choice. I would say: help yourself.” Martinez’s cascading words burst with passion as she speaks of the source of her inspiration. “When it comes to the different art forms … I believe there is a connection between all of them, they give you that high emotion: they make you feel bigger, give you more clarity, make you feel more able to move, give you confidence. I’m inspired by the idea of human strength; that feeling you get when you follow your dreams; the ability to create something that doesn’t exist, not only in a book, or a painting,
or a sculpture—but even in life, every single day that you wake up in the morning. That feeling that makes you feel really, really, good; it’s about strength, clarity, love, a deep calm, fun. … So my inspiration is many, many things together.” Martinez would love her paintings to have the “ability to colour people’s lives, that it shows people the way to that emotion, to that dream. When you are close to art that makes you feel in a different, better world, that’s beautiful. It is beautiful because it is refreshing, it is arresting, exciting and great. That’s what I’m looking for.” Wim Van Aalst is a painter based in Belgium
“Absolute Trust: Sleeping Beauty,” 2014, by Arantzazu Martinez, 90 by 51 inches, oil on linen.
Epoch Times
Positive Living
JANUARY 9 –22, 2015 39
Epoch Times
ART APPRECIATION
Bringing Nature Into Our Homes
Published in 35 countries and 21 languages. Da Tang Fine Arts
By Howard Yu For the Epoch Times Having been born and raised in modernised Singapore since 1972, I am always fascinated by the beauty of nature. The crisp fresh air, the greenery, the sounds of birds chirping and the lapping of waves by the sea. Living in a modern city environment motivated me to seek out rare oases of “serenity” in the midst of our concrete jungle and crowded streets. Places that evoke “serenity” are becoming harder to come by as time passes. Few artists are able to capture the intricacies of nature—and its vital harmonious relationship with our souls—better than Singaporean artist Goh Siew Guan (b. 1942). Mr Goh served diligently as a full-time art educator for three decades with the Ministry of Education (MOE). After his recent retirement from MOE, he has been devoting more of his time to painting. He specialises in watercolour painting with nature as the subject. His mastery of art, and excellent technique and control in the application of watercolou rs , t ra nsfor ms not only the highly visual aspects of nature but also infuses sent i ment s and emotions into his artwork. Truly, he is a maestro of watercolour painting! According to Mr Goh, “Nature and Tranquility are the themes of my previous two solo art exhibitions. I was mesmerised by nature, especially forests, undergrowth, mountains, rivers, village life and the simplicity of life. Indeed, I was greatly inspired by all these sights, creating a deep desire to transfer to my drawings such passion and emotion that stirred in my spirit. These are the common objects in my artworks. “In this third solo exhibition, besides the same focus of
Having a few pieces of Goh’s nature series in our homes or offices could be a great blessing to our tired souls.
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“Pontian Fishing Village” by Goh Siew Guan, 2014, 56 cm by 76 cm, watercolour.
the two original themes, I desire to place more emphasis on ‘light’ and ‘brilliance’ in my creations. “Capturing The Light”, the focus of this exhibition, strives to create a common voice in testifying to the beautiful interplay of light and brilliance in my artwork,” Mr Goh added. Having a few pieces of Goh’s nature series in our homes or offices could be a great blessing to our tired souls. Consider acquiring them this year before prices appreciate significantly upon the opening of The National Art Gallery in November 2015. From an art investment and technical analysis point-ofview, comparing inch by inch Goh’s artwork with established water-colourist, Ong Kim Seng, I highly recommend Goh’s ‘blue-chip’ investment (very affordable from S$1800 to S$4800). Seeing is believing! Certainly something for collectors of Goh’s art to rejoice, both intrinsically and extrinsically! Mr Goh received several United Overseas Bank (UOB) Painting of The Year Awards from 1987 to 1995, and Distinction Awards of Dr Tan Tsze Chor from 2005 to 2014— strong testimonies of his achievements. As a Singaporean, I salute this humble pioneer who distinguished himself from the rest. Said Mr Goh, “The thick foliage of tropical rainforest,
meandering streams and the crisp, pristine air always beckon me to return for the next visit. Likewise, when travelling overseas, I seek out my delighted places of serenity. “For instance, Switzerland and New Zealand exude an easy sense of peace. The natural beauty and cultural diversity of Yunnan in China, the idyllic fishing villages of Pontian and Kukup in Malaysia, offer a very pleasurable satisfying bliss. All these places create a deep bonding between nature and my heart, always bearing a taunting reluctance to part with them during my visits. “I was mesmerised by nature, especially forests, boulders, undergrowth, streams and rivers, all uniquely crafted, as if being specially manicured by a Master Naturalist.
Indeed, I was greatly inspired by all these sights, to compel the deep desire to transfer to my drawings such passion and emotion that had stirred in my spirit. “I fully agree with comments that trees are the most common objects in my artworks. Trees have a special place in my heart! They have commanded an equally special place in my ART!” enthused Mr Goh. There are forty pieces of watercolour paintings in this exhibition, featuring nature, fishing villages in Malaysia and Indonesia, seaside landscapes, terraced farming, and the architecture and livelihood of people in China. Also included is an award-winning piece (2014 Dr Tan Tsze Chor Distinction Prize). We warmly welcome your patronage. Da Tang Fine Arts
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“Capturing The Light”—3rd Solo Watercolour Art Exhibition of GOH Siew Guan will be proudly presented by Da Tang Fine Arts Gallery from 16 to 28 Jan 2015. It is the first of our Celebrate SG50 series of art exhibitions in 2015. Mr. Brian Stampe, Head of Operations of Far East Hospitality, is the Guest-Of-Honour for the opening ceremony. Contact Details: 1 Coleman Street, #B1-31, The Adelphi, Singapore 179803 www.datangfinearts.com +65 82685299 / +65 67383268
Malaysia +60-163-818-655 ept-malaysia@epochtimes.com Singapore +65-9115-3638 feedback@epochtimes.com.sg
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40 JANUARY 9 – 22, 2015
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