Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia
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February 15-28, 2014
Jet stream shift ‘could prompt harsher winters’
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February 15-28, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
Georgia Asian Times February 15-28, 2014
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GAT Calendar of Events Publisher: Li Wong Account Manager: Adrian West Contributors: Andrian Putra, May Lee, Mark Ho Photography: Ben Hioe, Rendy Tendean
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GAT welcome submission of announcement pertaining to community related events. Please email event, date, venue, and time to gat@gasiantimes.com. GAT does not guarantee insertion of event announcement and has the right to deny any posting.
2014 Spring in Atlanta Organized by Association of Chinese Professionals Date: Friday, February 14, 2014 Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Venue: Rialto Center, Georgia State University For more info: 678.462.8611, 678.557.0260 or 678.910.3298 / www.acp-atlanta.org 66th Anniversary of Chin National Day Date: Saturday, February 15, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm Venue: 4455 Steve Reynolds Boulevard, Norcross GA 30093 For more info: Salai Thang 404.964.4062 Hong Kong Spring Reception for the Year of Horse Organized by Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office New York Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm Venue: Carter Center Private Event - By Invitation Only For more info: 404.788.8818 OCA-Georgia Lunar New Year Banquet Date: Saturday, February 22, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm Venue: Golden House Restaurant, 1600 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth GA 30096 For more info: www.oca-georgia.org
9th Annual Laotian American Society Fundraiser Date: Saturday, March 29, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm - 12:00 midnight Venue: Grand Ballroom, 6127 Oakbrook Parkway, Norcross GA 30093 For more info: www.lasga.org GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia ~ Awards Presentation Date: Thursday, July 10, 2014 Time: 6:30 pm Venue: TBA Sponsorship opportunities available For more info: gat25@gasiantimes. com Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Atlanta Date: Saturday, February 13, 2014 Time: 7:00 am - 5:00 pm Venue: Clarks Bridge - Kayaking Facility, Lake Lanier, Gainesville For more info: www.dragonboatatlanta.com 10th Atlanta Asian Film Festival Date: October 10-24, 2014 Venues: TBA For more info: info@atlaff.org
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Febryuary 15-28, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
METRO ASIAN NEWS Deadly ice storm freezes winter-weary U.S. WASHINGTON, February 13, 2014 - A deadly ice storm stranded scores of people on slick roads and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of US homes as winter-weary Americans dug in against Mother Nature’s latest blow.
parking lots.
More than 3,700 flights due to take off Thursday were canceled across the United States because of the wintry blast, including well over half of flights at the busiest US airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, airline monitors said.
“If you’re in a safe warm place, stay in a safe warm place,” McCrory told CNN.
Nearly half a million homes and businesses lost power, mainly in the southeast of the US, said CBS News, adding that at least 11 deaths had been blamed on the ferocious weather. CNN put the death toll at at least 10.
Georgia AAPI celebrates inaugural Fred Korematsu Day Atlanta, February 6, 2014 — Members of Georgia’s Asian American community convened at the State Capitol to celebrate the 2014 AAPI Legislative Day and Georgia’s inaugural Fred Korematsu Day. The event is also to honor the late Fred Korematsu’s civil rights activism.
Victoria Huynh of Center for Pan Asian Community Services was presented the “Outstanding Citizens of Georgia” Award.
Karen Korematsu, Executive Director of Korematsu Institute and daughter of Fred Korematsu, delivered the keynote address.
Georgia’s Governor Nathan Deal posed briefly for a group photo with Asian American community members and leaders at Georgia State Capitol.
Karen shared with the audience that one person’s conviction can make a difference in the world. “When you see something wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up,” as she reiterates her father’s message to the audience.
As part of the inaugural event, the Georgia Assembly honors Ms. Hyunjin Son as Gwinnett Teacher of the Year, Officer Dipa Patel as Georgia’s 1st Indian American female Peace Officer, Dr. M. Yaseen AbuBaker, founder of a non-profit assisting dialed children, and Dr. Josephine Tan, Chair of Georgia last Asian American Commission.
State Representative BJ Pak shared a proclamation HR 1155 declaring January 30, 2014 as the official Fred Korematsu Day in Georgia. State Senator Jason Carter also delivered a remark at the inaugural event.
Participants of the inaugural event donned red scarf to symbolize unity, according to the organizer.
President Barack Obama declared states of emergency in Georgia and South Carolina in order to deploy federal resources to help deal with the frigid storm, just the latest to wallop the eastern half of the US since the start of the year. The National Weather Service began warning days ago that a “mammoth dome” of Arctic air would form a “paralyzing ice storm.” “The ice accumulations remain mind-boggling, if not historical,” it said. The massive storm -- which stretched from Alabama to Virginia and had an estimated 100 million people in its path -- was expected to dump more than an inch of ice and as much as a foot of snow. It was set to strengthen as it climbed northward along the eastern seaboard Thursday, with snowfall totals topping 18 inches by the time the storm reached the far northeastern New England region. Accidents and abandoned cars caused massive traffic jams in North Carolina, with the usually temperate cities of Raleigh and Charlotte transformed into ice- and snow-covered
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory urged residents to stay indoors -- even if it means sleeping at work -rather than risk the treacherous roads.
“We’ve already had two fatalities and we don’t want to see more.” Many Atlanta residents stayed home, after the gridlock caused by a much weaker storm two weeks ago stranded thousands of people. It took days to clear the highway of abandoned vehicles at the time.
Major airports hit Speciality website FlightAware said airlines canceled at least 3,300 flights on Wednesday and had already shelved 3,703 flights for Thursday, including more than half of flights to and from New York and Washington. “We expect that the number of cancellations will continue to rise as freezing precipitation hits major airports in Philadelphia, DC and New York,” the service said. The US capital’s downtown was a virtual ghost town as snow blew in late in the evening, with temperatures hovering around 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3 C) but the bracing winds making it feel more like 15 degrees, forecasters said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was in contact with state emergency offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to assess their assistance needs as the storm builds. In addition to the FEMA aid, various localities across the region were readying emergency shelters at churches and recreation centers where residents could stay warm should they lose power.
Georgia Asian Times February 15-28, 2014
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FEATURE
Jet stream shift ‘could prompt harsher winters’ CHICAGO, February 16, 2014 - A warmer Arctic could permanently affect the pattern of the high-altitude polar jet stream, resulting in longer and colder winters over North America and northern Europe, US scientists say. The jet stream, a ribbon of high altitude, high-speed wind in northern latitudes that blows from west to east, is formed when the cold Arctic air clashes with warmer air from further south. The greater the difference in temperature, the faster the jet stream moves. According to Jennifer Francis, a climate expert at Rutgers University, the Arctic air has warmed in recent years as a result of melting polar ice caps, meaning there is now less of a difference in temperatures when it hits air from lower latitudes. “The jet stream is a very fast moving river of air over our head,” she said Saturday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “But over the past two decades the jet stream has weakened. This is something we can measure,” she said. As a result, instead of circling the
earth in the far north, the jet stream has begun to meander, like a river heading off course. This has brought chilly Arctic weather further south than normal, and warmer temperatures up north. Perhaps most disturbingly, it remains in place for longer periods of time. The United States is currently enduring an especially bitter winter, with the midwestern and southern US states experiencing unusually low temperatures. In contrast, far northern regions like Alaska are going through an unusually warm winter this year. This suggests “that weather patterns are changing,” Francis said. “We can expect more of the same and we can expect it to happen more frequently.” Temperatures in the Arctic have been rising “two to three times faster than the rest of the planet,” said James Overland, a weather expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Francis says it is premature to blame humans for these changes. “Our data to look at this effect is very
short and so it is hard to get very clear signal,” she said. “But as we have more data I do think we will start to see the influence of climate change,” she said.
Dire impact on agriculture The meandering jet steam phenomenon, sometimes called “Santa’s Revenge”, remains a controversial idea. “There is evidence for and against it,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snowland Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. But he said rising Arctic temperatures are directly linked to melting ice caps. “The sea ice cover acts as a lid which separates the ocean from a colder atmosphere,” Serreze told the conference. But if the lid is removed, then warmth contained in the water rises into the atmosphere. This warming trend and the shifting jet stream will have a dire impact on agriculture, especially in the farm-rich middle-latitudes in the United States.
“We are going to see changes in patterns of precipitation, of temperatures that might be linked to what is going on in the far north,” said Serreze. Jerry Hatfield, head of the National Laboratory for Agriculture and Environment in the midwestern state of Iowa, warned that this is not a phenomenon that affects only the United States. “Look around the world -- we produce the bulk of our crops around this mid-latitude area,” he said. The main impact on agriculture and livestock will not come from small temperature changes, but rather from temperature extremes and the weather patterns that hold them in place for longer periods of time. Droughts and freezes are already having “a major impact on animal productivity, it influences meat production, milk and eggs production,” he said.
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February 15-28, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
BUSINESS
Asia-Pacific needs nearly 13,000 new planes by 2032: Boeing SINGAPORE, February 10, 2014 (AFP) - Asia-Pacific airlines will need almost 13,000 new planes worth $1.9 trillion over the next two decades as rising wealth in the region fuels demand for air travel, Boeing said Monday. The US plane maker said on the eve of the Singapore Air show that 12,820 extra aircraft would be needed by 2032, and the region would account for 36 percent of global deliveries of passenger and freight planes during the period. It also estimated the total Asia-Pacific airplane fleet would reach 14,750 in that time compared with 5,090 in 2012. Boeing’s European rival Airbus had said last year that Asia-Pacific carriers would take delivery of 9,870 new passenger and cargo aircraft valued at $1.6 trillion over the next 20 years. Airbus will have its own press briefing at the Singapore Air show on Tuesday, but on Monday it invited journalists to a display of its latest plane, the A350-XWB, which is expected to come into service later this year.
ing to a study by travel technology company Amadeus. Demand for travel in the region is soaring thanks to a fast-growing middle class in emerging economies such as China and India along with Southeast Asian countries. Over the next 20 years, Boeing expects Asia-Pacific gross domestic product to grow 4.5 percent annually, much faster than the projected global average of 3.2 percent. Passenger traffic in the region is likely to expand by 6.3 percent annually in the same period and cargo at 5.8 percent, also faster than the global rates. Tinseth said the number of people worldwide who travelled by air exceeded three billion for the first time last year, and the figure was expected to approach 6.5 billion by 2032. The cargo business remains weak but is recovering, he said. “As the world economy improves, as trade improves, we expect that market to continue to strengthen,” he said.
Telenor and Ooredoo hail Myanmar telecom license deal YANGON, January 30, 2014 - Norway’s Telenor and Qatari firm Ooredoo Thursday hailed a “milestone” for Myanmar after finalizing telecoms licenses expected to dramatically increase mobile phone use in the long-isolated nation. Only one in ten people in previously junta-ruled Myanmar are thought to have access to a telephone, offering a potentially lucrative pool of customers among the country’s estimated 60 million people. Telenor, which aims to provide network coverage to 90 percent of the population within five years, said the country “represents a strong business opportunity”, while Ooredoo said it had already started building its 3G network. “Today is an exciting day for Ooredoo as we move closer to bringing world-class mobile services to the people of Myanmar, helping empower communities and people with affordable and easy to access mobile telecommunications,” Ooredoo Myanmar boss Ross Cormack said in a statement. Mobile phones are still a luxury in impoverished Myanmar, with ordinary SIM cards retailing for $200.
“Over the next 20 years, nearly half of the world’s air traffic growth will be driven by travel to, or from within, the region (Asia),” Boeing said in a statement.
Tony Tyler, director-general of the International Air Transport Association, said Sunday that the profit margins of the world’s top airlines are being eroded by the struggling air cargo business.
Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s vice president for marketing, said: “New lowcost carriers and demand for intra-Asia travel have fueled the substantial increase in single-aisle planes.”
Tinseth however said that airlines this year are expected to report better profits than in 2013 thanks to stable fuel prices and robust passenger traffic growth.
Single-aisle planes such as Boeing’s next-generation 737 and the 737 MAX will represent 69 percent of new airplanes in the region, the US aircraft maker said, driven by a rise in the number of budget carriers.
Boeing and Airbus are among the key participants at the Singapore Airshow, Asia’s top aerospace and defense exhibition.
Myanmar has generated huge international investor interest since wide-ranging reforms introduced under the current quasi-civilian government saw most Western sanctions lifted.
Both commercial and military manufacturers use the event to boost sales in the region, where defense spending is also on the rise at a time of festering territorial disputes.
But actual investment has been tempered by nervousness over the regulatory framework.
Budget airlines from Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia accounted for over half of global low-cost carrier seat capacity growth last year, accord-
Authorities began selling cheap SIMs for less than $2 each through a lottery system last year, but the scheme is relatively small in scale and many people still rely on manned roadside stalls where they can use conventional telephones to keep in touch.
Telenor and Ooredoo were last June
named as winners of the telecoms tender process, which saw some 90 firms compete for a slice of one of the world’s last untapped mobile markets. A new telecommunications law was passed last year and the deals were finally agreed this week following months of negotiation. The licenses, valid for 15 years, are the first to be awarded by Myanmar, and will see the two foreign firms enter a market once monopolized by a pair of state companies. Telenor, which said the license fee was $500 million, said it expects to break even in three years. The firm said it would now start building a mobile network, although it acknowledged that the process of reaching Myanmar’s scattered rural communities would likely present hurdles. “Myanmar is a country where there are a number of challenges and we will need to find solutions,” said Bangkok-based spokesman Tor Odland. He cited patchy power and road networks as well as regulatory issues such as land rights -- a deeply controversial subject in a country where the military, businesses and rebel groups have been accused of widespread land grabbing. Ooredoo, formerly known as Qatar Telecom, said the license was an “important milestone”, adding it expects services to be available in six months in most major cities before rolling out to more remote areas. The firm has previously said it would pump $15 billion into the country.
Georgia Asian Times February 15-28, 2014
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BUSINESS
Affordable Health Care delayed for small business until 2016 WASHINGTON, February 10, 2014 (AFP) - President Barack Obama’s health care law suffered a new blow Monday, as his administration delayed a key component requiring small businesses to provide insurance to employees or face a fine.
Japan faced with gloomy data ahead of tax hike TOKYO, February 10, 2014 - Japan produced a gloomy batch of economic data Monday showing shoppers growing nervous and the trade deficit ballooning, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to launch a controversial sales tax rise. The government said consumer sentiment weakened in January, while the current account surplus -- the broadest measure of trade with the rest of the world -- hit a record low in 2013 as the cheap yen pushed up energy bills. A policy blitz by Abe, which meshes government spending with central bank monetary easing, has driven the yen down and boosted stock prices, earning him acclaim for kickstarting the long-sluggish economy. A recent tally of the Nikkei economic daily showed nearly 70 percent of listed Japanese companies are likely to post sales and profit growth in the current business year to March. However, many firms have yet to embrace Abe’s call to hike wages. A poll by Kyodo news agency last month showed nearly three-quarters of Japanese people are feeling no effect from the so-called Abenomics. Worryingly for the premier, it also showed that only 17 percent of firms -- around a sixth -- are planning to hike wages, even as Japan begins to experience real inflation for the first time in several years.
Monday’s data from the Cabinet Office showed the consumer sentiment index fell to 40.5 in January, the lowest level since 39.9 in December 2012. A reading below 50 indicates pessimism. The subindex on views on livelihood fell to its lowest reading since June 2011 and that on willingness to buy durable goods dropped to the weakest since May 2011 -- suggesting the mood is as gloomy as the months soon after the earthquake-tsunami that wrecked the northeast coast and hammered the economy. Separate data from the finance ministry showed Japan had a surplus of 3.31 trillion yen ($32 billion) on its current account in 2013, the weakest on comparable data stretching back to 1985. The current account is the broadest measure of the country’s trade with the rest of the world, including not only trade in goods but also services, tourism and returns on the country’s foreign investment. Government leaders last month said they were winning the war on stubborn deflation as consumer prices logged their their first rise for five years in 2013. But the rise was largely driven by soaring import bills due to a cheap yen and the country’s reliance on importing expensive fossil fuels since its nuclear plants were shuttered after the tsunami-sparked Fukushima crisis.
The decision was the latest glitch to Obama’s signature domestic achievement which has been plagued by political attacks and a disastrous debut for a sign-up website. Department of Treasury officials writing rules for the Affordable Care Act decided that business with fewer than 100 workers but more than 50 would have an extra year -- until 2016 to offer health care to employees or face a fine.
ance process but will still have to start paying a fine for some workers in 2015 if they fail to offer health insurance to workers. Republicans seized on the new adjustment to the law to accuse Obama of usurping his powers to cover up for what they see as the health care reform’s failure. “The White House seems to have a new exemption from its failed law for a different group every month,” said Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate. “It’s time to extend that exemption to families and individuals -- not just businesses.”
The requirement, known as the employer mandate had already been put off by one year.
Republicans are making controversy over the health care law the centerpiece of the campaign to win mid-term elections, in the hope of taking back the Senate.
“While about 96 percent of employers are not subject to the employer responsibility provision, for those employers that are, we will continue to make the compliance process simpler and easier to navigate,” said Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur.
As well as the website debacle, Obamacare was also hit by the president’s now discredited promise that if Americans liked their existing plans and doctors they could keep them.
Firms with over 100 employees will get more time to complete the insur-
Japan’s trade deficit more than doubled to 10.6 trillion yen in 2013 from the previous year as costlier imports of oil and gas overwhelmed export growth. Abe has decided to follow through on a pledge by his predecessor to hike Japan’s 5.0 percent sales tax to 8.0 percent in April. The move is seen as a crucial first step towards bringing down an eye-watering national debt, but naysayers fear it will derail Japan’s budding recovery. Some economists say continuing trade deficits may be a sign that Aben-
Obama however argues that after early glitches, the law is gathering pace.
omics is actually succeeding. Unlike previous recoveries in Japan, his policy of much greater monetary easing and bringing inflation into the economy is aimed more at domestic consumption than pushing goods overseas. “If Abenomics succeeds, domestic demand-led economic growth will be achieved, making current account deficits a more regular feature of the Japanese economy,” predicted Koya Miyamae, economist with SMBC Nikko Securities.
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February 15-28, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
LIFESTYLE At the Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop, fans and fashionistas collect a free perfume sample for every instagram, tweet or any other post that includes the hashtag #MJDaisyChain.
The site allows users to post videos of up to 36 seconds. One shows the arrival, in the freezing cold, backstage. In another, TV actress AnnaSophia Robb picks out an outfit. Then there is wearable tech.
The more creative the posts, the better the prizes. And at the end of the week, the winner gets a Marc Jacobs handbag. Tommy Hilfiger, another US fashion house giant, said its social media channels provide “personalized access” to millions of fans and consumers. Twenty local Instagramers have been invited to the label’s catwalk show on Monday, one of the biggest of Fashion Week, and given backstage access to record what happens live.
Social media fuels 21st century fashion revolution NEW YORK, February 10, 2014 - It may be stilettos at dawn to get a ringside seat at New York’s most exclusive fashion shows, but forget the fur-clad heiresses, today’s VIP is the Internet. The explosion of social media is perhaps the greatest revolution in fashion since Mary Quant’s mini skirt, transforming the industry’s branding and fan base.
certain point of view, and that’s what everyone saw,” said Azria. “Now with social media, we have a voice. We have a way to express what we feel, why we feel certain things. It’s incredible.” As a result, BCBG’s typical client, the socialite “who dances and dines,” has slightly changed.
And that revolution is on display like never before at New York’s seven-day fashion week binge of couture that kicks off the 2014 fall/winter season that next heads to Europe.
“I think it brought a younger crowd and it also brought the crowd that perhaps never knew this or this about the brand. It brings awareness,” said the Ukrainian-born designer.
“It’s been incredible, absolutely incredible. Social media has made such a difference,” said Lubov Azria, chief creative officer of fashion house BCBG Max Azria Group.
Fashion houses all have websites, many offering e-commerce, as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
The front-row presence of Vogue supremo Anna Wintour may remain the important accolade for any designer, but Twitter and bloggers are chipping away at the monopoly of magazines. “It used to be where the editors would come in, whether they liked the collection or not, they would have a
Runway shows are now streamed live online, attracting an audience of millions across the planet. But Marc Jacobs, who recently stepped down from his post at Louis Vuitton to concentrate on his own brand, has become the talk of the town by trading not in dollars but in social media currency.
Long gone, Hilfiger said, are the days when it took six months for the catwalk shows to reach the consumer.
Alexander Wang, arguably the biggest draw of the week, unveiled an androgynous futurist show in a Brooklyn warehouse that featured 3D and heat-activated fabric. BCBG Max Azria also has “Epiphany Eyewear,” their answer to Google Glasses that are equipped with HD video, and sent down the runway on models. Victoria Beckham, who has wowed the fashion world since making her sophisticated, elegant debut in 2008, has collaborated with Skype in a special Fashion Week project.
“Our digital initiatives underscore the differences between how runway shows used to be done and how they are organized today,” Hilfiger said.
The collection of videos, audio clips, Twitter and video interactions highlighted her social media credentials, all the more vital given her previous outsider status.
Backstage vignettes offer an intimate look at a part of the show previously the preserve only of models.
The male voiceover says social media has forced “a 21st century fashion revolution.”
Rebecca Minkoff, the New York designer who initially made a reputation for producing luxury yet affordable handbags, joined video-sharing app Keek specifically for Fashion Week.
“Once you know the story behind anything, it’s more compelling. You can connect with it. May be that’s what we’re doing,” adds a member of her team.
Georgia Asian Times
EVENTS
February 15-28, 2014
Asian American Pacific Islander Legislative Day “Fred Korematsu Day” - Feb 6, 2014
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February 15-28, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
EVENT Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner - Feb 10, 2014
L-R: Joe Koottappilly, Karen Handel and Steve Handel.
1 in 4 Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun CHICAGO, February 14, 2014 (AFP) - Americans are enthusiastic about the promise of science but lack basic knowledge of it, with one in four unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun, said a poll out Friday.
L-R: Tim Le, Mrs. Le and Keith Schubert.
The survey included more than 2,200 people in the United States and was conducted by the National Science Foundation. Nine questions about physical and biological science were on the quiz, and the average score -- 6.5 correct -- was barely a passing grade. Just 74 percent of respondents knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, according to the results released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
Fewer than half (48 percent) knew that human beings evolved from earlier species of animals. The result of the survey, which is conducted every two years, will be included in a National Science Foundation report to President Barack Obama and US lawmakers. One in three respondents said science should get more funding from the government. Nearly 90 percent said the benefits of science outweigh any dangers, and about the same number expressed interest in learning about medical discoveries.
Georgia Asian Times February 15-28, 2014
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FILM
Chinese gold, Asian glory as Berlin film fest wraps up BERLIN, February 16, 2014 - The 64th Berlin film festival wraps up Sunday after a resounding triumph for Asian cinema at its gala awards ceremony, including the Golden Bear top prize for a Chinese noir mystery.
Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater, who shot his innovative coming-of-age drama “Boyhood” over more than a decade with the same actors and was widely tipped to take the Golden Bear, won best director.
“Bai Ri Yan Huo” (Black Coal, Thin Ice) by Diao Yinan about a washed-up ex-cop investigating a series of grisly murders took the highest honour late Saturday, as well as the Silver Bear best actor award for its star Liao Fan.
“This says best director but I want to think of it as best ensemble,” said Linklater, clutching the trophy.
“It’s really hard to believe that this dream has come true,” Diao said as he accepted the trophy, fighting back tears. It was the first Chinese film to win in Berlin since the unconventional love story “Tuya De Hunshi” (Tuya’s Marriage) by Wang Quan’an brought home the gold in 2007. In a remarkably strong showing for Asian contenders, the Berlinale, Europe’s first major film festival of the year, gave its best actress prize to Japan’s Haru Kuroki for her role as a discreet housemaid in wartime Tokyo in Yoji Yamada’s “The Little House” (Chiisai Ouchi). American films shared the glory, with Wes Anderson’s historical caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel” -- offering a nostalgic look back at a Europe lost to war -- claiming the runner-up Silver Bear grand jury prize. The picture starring Ralph Fiennes had opened the Berlinale on February 6. Anderson noted in an acceptance speech read out by US actress Greta Gerwig, a member of the jury, that it was his first award at a film festival.
Whitest of whales Best screenplay went to the German siblings Dietrich and Anna Brueggemann for their wrenching drama “Stations of the Cross” (Kreuzweg) about a teenager who makes the ultimate sacrifice for her fundamentalist Catholic family. Veteran French director Alain Resnais drew the Alfred Bauer Prize for work of particular innovation for his play-within-a-film “Life of Riley” (Aimer, boire et chanter). And the second of three Chinese films in competition in Berlin, “Blind Massage” (Tui Na) featuring a cast made up in part of amateur blind actors, captured a Silver Bear prize for outstanding artistic contribution for cinematographer Zeng Jian. A nine-member jury led by US producer James Schamus (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) handed out the prizes at a theatre in the German capital. “Black Coal, Thin Ice” is set in the late 1990s in the frosty reaches of northern China and its murder mystery plot is told through enigmatic flashbacks. It is Diao’s third feature film. Liao said he put on 20 kilograms (44
Director Diao Yinan winning the Golden Bear for the film “Black Coal, Thin Ice.” pounds) to play the alcoholic suspended police officer who falls hard for a beautiful murder suspect (Gwei Lun Mei). Diao said he saw his film as bridging the gap between pure arthouse cinema and multiplex fare. “I finally did find the right way to combine a film which has a commercial aspect to it but which is nonetheless art, so that it’s possible to launch it in these terms,” he told reporters after the awards ceremony. He said Chinese films were gaining ground in Western cinemas thanks in part to their exposure at major film festivals.
Political sensitivity “Every time that we take our films abroad it seems that there is an ever greater enthusiasm for Chinese cinema,” he said.
nese-language international hit”. Industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter hailed it as “a salute to the classic Hollywood film noir, an exciting stylistic tour-de-force” but questioned its foreign box-office prospects. The film is virtually unknown in China as it has yet to be released. A Chinese state media report said the movie had already received a government permit for screening with release possible in April or May. But some Chinese cinemagoers question whether political sensitivity might block the release of “Black Coal, Thin Ice” at home, or at least result in deep cuts to the original. China censors films it deems obscene or politically touchy. “The sensitivity of the theme and content of the film is high, so I don’t know whether it can be shown in China,” said a microblog posting under the name Jiade Changle.
“Black Coal, Thin Ice” divided audiences in Berlin but won over many critics.
The 11-day festival wraps up Sunday with screenings of its most popular features from a lineup of more than 400 movies.
Movie news website Indiewire noted that buzz about the picture had been strong before its screening “on the possibility of the film becoming that whitest of whales: a crossover Chi-
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick said the event had sold a record 330,000 tickets this year.
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MUSIC Samuragochi, 50, came to public attention in the mid-1990s with classical compositions that provided the soundtrack to video games including Resident Evil, despite reputedly having a degenerative illness that left him profoundly deaf by the age of 35. Over the following two decades his fame grew, as did his reputation as a tormented artist held hostage by his ungovernable passion for music that he could no longer hear.
‘Japan’s Beethoven’ not even deaf, says ghost composer
TOKYO, February 6, 2014 – The musical brains behind a supposedly deaf composer dubbed “Japan’s Beethoven” claimed Thursday that the mock maestro was a scheming manipulator who could hear normally — but couldn’t even write sheet music. The startling allegations come a day after Mamoru Samuragochi confessed to hiring another man to write his best-known works, including a smash hit that had been adopted by classical music-lovers as an anthem to Japan’s tsunami-hit communities. ghostwriterIn a press conference that lasted for more than an hour and was broadcast live on television, parttime music school teacher Takashi Niigaki said for the last 18 years he had been penning the tunes. “I am an accomplice of Samuragochi because I continued composing just as he demanded, although I knew he was deceiving people,” he said. Niigaki told reporters he had been paid just 7 million yen ($70,000) over the nearly two decades of their collaboration, during which he had composed more than 20 pieces. “I told him a few times that we should stop doing this, but he never
gave in. Also he said he would commit suicide if I stopped composing for him.” The 43-year-old said he had called time on the deception after learning that Winter Olympics medal hopeful, figure skater Daisuke Takahashi had chosen to dance to a piece that would be credited to Samuragochi. “I was afraid that even Takahashi, who will perform in the Olympics for Japan, would be used to enforce the lies made by Samuragochi and me,” he said. The piece is a sonatina supposedly composed in tribute to a teenage violinist with a prosthetic right arm who had been supported by the wellknown musician. The girl’s father said in a statement that the family never suspected Samuragochi was anything other than he claimed to be when became her patron. “But in the past year, he demanded our absolute obedience to the point where we could no longer take it,” he said. “We told him we could not obey any more in November last year, which provoked his anger. Our relationship has been severed since then.”
But Samuragochi, who once described his deafness as a “gift from God”, was far from the tortured genius of his public persona, Niigaki said Thursday, and the hearing loss was little more than an act. “I’ve never felt he was deaf ever since we met,” he said. “We carry on normal conversations. I don’t think he is (handicapped). “At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually. “He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role (of a deaf person).”
He also added Samuragochi would listen to recordings of his music and offer critiques. mamoru.samuragoch2Samuragochi has not responded publicly to the fresh allegations. The scandal, which has gripped Japan, surfaced on Wednesday when Samuragochi came clean through his lawyer as the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine readied to print a tell-all interview with Niigaki in its Thursday edition. The Tokyo-based music teacher claimed he thought initially he was being hired as a composer’s assistant. “But later I found out that he cannot even write musical scores,” he said. “In the end, I was an accomplice.” The most famous work credited to Samuragochi is “Symphony No.1, Hiroshima”, which its supposed creator said had been written in tribute to those killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. The work became an extraordinary hit for a classical music CD, selling 180,000 copies in a genre where a hit often only logs 3,000 sales, according to its distributor.
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SPORTS
Tanaka says he’s ready for Yankees intensity NEW YORK, February 11, 2014 Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka donned his New York Yankees jersey for the first time on Tuesday and declared himself ready for the intensity and pressure of Major League Baseball. “I’m very happy to be a Yankee,” Tanaka said. “Now that I’m here and wearing this uniform, I really feel that I have become a member of the New York Yankees.” Tanaka signed a seven-year contract worth $155 million with the Yankees last month and was introduced at Yankee Stadium three days before he is set to report to the team’s pre-season training camp in Florida. “I feel ready,” Tanaka said. The 25-year-old right-hander was confident he could handle the glare of the New York spotlight and the pressure to make America’s most successful championship sports team a success once more. “I’ve heard this place could be very harsh to you at times,” Tanaka said. “I wanted to put myself in this environment and see where I can get to with my ability.”
Asked his goal, Tanaka said simply, “To win the world championship.” Rejecting offers from several other clubs to sign an epic deal with the Yankees, Tanaka said he looked forward to his first opportunity to face the Yankees’ arch-rivals, the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox. “Just by watching on television, the Yankees-Red Sox games, you can see how intense the games are,” Tanaka said. “I’m very much looking forward to playing in that environment.” Tanaka has shown he can handle pressure in Japan, last year leading the Rakuten Eagles to the Japan Series crown by going 24-0 -- the most wins by a Japan League pitcher since 1978 -- with a 1.27 earned-run average. Yankees scouts had watched Tanaka with interest for years and club owner Hal Steinbrenner followed with one of the richest contracts for any pitcher in baseball history. “It always starts with pitching. If you don’t have pitching you are going to have a hard time winning on a consistent basis,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
“I’m thankful Hal and his family opened their pocketbooks and enabled us to obtain a very big piece of the puzzle that will hopefully get us back to where we have been.” Tanaka is expected to serve as the third starter in the Yankees’ rotation behind ace C.C. Sabathia and Japan’s Hiroki Kuroda. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman tried to downplay expectations for Tanaka, saying “there is definitely some unknown because of the transition” and it would be “asking too much” to expect instant stardom for Tanaka in North America despite his hefty salary and Japanese success. “I just feel that it’s very important for me to try and make that adjustment,” Tanaka said. “I have not faced anybody here. Just basically looking forward to facing anybody.”
Yankees pitchers and catchers are due to report to the team’s pre-season workout complex in Tampa on Friday with their first workout set for Saturday. Tanaka will be the seventh Japanese-born player in Yankees history and make them the first North American club with two Japanese pitchers in the same starting rotation since Hideo Nomo and Kaz Ishii for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004. Tanaka, who spent almost $200,000 to charter a huge plane to fly himself and his family to New York, said he spoke with former Yankee star Hideki Matsui over the phone about the challenge he would face adapting to New York. “He just basically told me how good this city was,” Tanaka said.
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Podladtchikov dethrones halfpipe legend White ROSA KHUTOR, February 11, 2014 - Swiss Iouri Podladtchikov produced one of the big upsets of the Olympics as he dethroned superstar Shaun White to win men’s snowboard halfpipe gold on Tuesday. American White, the two-time defending champion, didn’t even make it onto the podium, shunted off by a pair of Japanese teenagers. Podladtchikov scored a mammoth 94.75 points with 15-year-old Ayumu Hirano second on 93.50 and 18-yearold Taku Hiraoka third on 92.25. “I feel like I’m fainting, I haven’t eaten much, I really can’t believe it,” said Podladtchikov, who is known on the snowboarding tour as “I-Pod”. “Everything came together exactly the way I planned it five minutes before and it’s weird because it never usually works out. In this one it really felt like there was no fighting (to pull off tricks) at all, it felt like it was all meant to be. “And (I was in) the position where I was throwing down my hardest ticks with ease. There are no words for that.” This victory was extra special for Podladtchikov as he was born in Russia to Russian parents before the family emigrated to Switzerland when he was eight. “I was really worried about my relatives, they were all really not in a good state, they were done,” he said. “I was trying to calm them down
(but) probably you’ll have to calm me down after I’ve had a drink. “It’s insane to be here, I love to be here, I love to speak Russian because it’s my mother language and it reminds me of so many things, my childhood. “When I miss home I miss Switzerland but when I’m here it reminds me of things I almost forget, the kid memories.” Hirano and Hiraoka became the first ever Asian medallists in Olympic snowboarding. White, who had scored 95.75 in topping the heats, hit the lip of the pipe on his first run and touched down with his backside on his second, finishing fourth with a score of 90.25. And he said he would now take a break from snowboarding. “It wasn’t my night, which is really tough to say because it’s a big night but I’m ok with with it, it’s just one of those things,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I feel like when I was 15 and didn’t make the team but I’m a bit older now and I know where I need to improve. “I know where to go from here and that’s on tour with the band. I need a little break from snowboarding for a while so hopefully I’ll play some music with my friends and go on tour with my band Bad Things, take a breather, refocus and then come back to it. That’s how it works.”
Cardiff’s Kim accused of derby headbutt
LONDON, February 13, 2014 - Cardiff City’s South Korean midfielder Kim Bo-kyung has been accused of punching and head butting an opponent by Swansea City manager Garry Monk.
“I would have more concerns about the 35th-minute corner for them, when one of my players, Wayne Routledge, gets head butted and punched in the face by Kim.
Monk alleged that the incident, involving Swansea winger Wayne Routledge, took place during his side’s 3-0 win over Cardiff in the south Wales derby last weekend.
“If you look at Wayne, when he gets head butted and punched in the face, he stays on his feet. He doesn’t make a meal of it. So I think Ole needs to look at his own players before he starts looking at mine.”
Cardiff forward Craig Bellamy was given a three-match ban following a clash with Jonathan de Guzman during the game, prompting Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to accuse the Swansea midfielder of over-reacting. However, Monk took issue with the Norwegian’s remarks, telling him that he had disciplinary issues of his own to address. “I saw Ole answering a question that my man Jon de Guzman made a meal of it,” the Swansea manager said. “When you receive an elbow in the back of the head and you go down normally, I don’t see how that’s an over-reaction.
Monk was speaking in the wake of Swansea’s 1-1 draw at Stoke City in the Premier League on Wednesday, in what was his second match at the helm since succeeding the sacked Michael Laudrup. The former Swansea captain also revealed that last season’s top scorer Michu is due to return to full training this week after undergoing ankle surgery in mid-December.
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HEALTH TVs, cars, computers linked to obesity in poor nations WASHINGTON, February 10, 2014 - In low-income countries, people with cars, televisions and computers at home are far more likely to be obese than people with no such conveniences, researchers said Monday. Eating more, sitting still and missing out on exercise by driving are all likely reasons why people with these modern-day luxuries could be gaining weight and putting themselves at risk for diabetes, researchers said. The findings in the Canadian Medical Journal suggest extra caution is needed to prevent health dangers in nations that are adopting a Western lifestyle. “With increasing uptake of modern-day conveniences -- TVs, cars, computers -- low and middle income countries could see the same obesity and diabetes rates as in high income countries that are the result of too much sitting, less physical activity and increased consumption of calories,” said lead author Scott Lear of Simon Fraser University. “This can lead to potentially devastating societal health care consequences in these countries.” The same relationship did not exist in developed nations, suggesting the harmful effects of these devices on health are already reflected in the high obesity and diabetes rates. The study included nearly 154,000 adults from 17 countries across the income spectrum, from the United States, Canada and Sweden to China, Iran, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Televisions were the most common electronic device in developing countries -- 78 percent of households had one -- followed by 34 percent that owned a computer and 32 percent with a car. Just four percent of people in low-income countries had all three, compared to 83 percent of people in high-income countries. Those that did have electronics were fatter and less active than those that did not. People with all three were almost a third less active, sat 20 percent more of the time and had a nine-centimeter (3.5 inches) increase in waist circumference, com-
pared to those that owned none of the devices.
Women face higher risk of stroke than men WASHINGTON, February 6, 2014 - Women face a higher risk of stroke than men, particularly due to high blood pressure disorders in pregnancy and other hormonal factors, US doctors said Thursday. The warning was contained in new guidelines for preventing stroke, issued by the American Heart Association and for the first time aimed specifically at women, who are more likely to die of strokes than men. Women’s unique vulnerabilities include common pregnancy complications, use of birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy, migraines and heart problems, said the guidelines. “If you are a woman, you share many of the same risk factors for stroke with men,” said Cheryl Bushnell, author of the new scientific
statement published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. Those shared risks include high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes. “But your risk is also influenced by hormones, reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth and other sex-related factors,” said Bushnell, a neurologist and director of the Stroke Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina. The guidelines give primary care doctors and obstetrician-gynecologists recommendations on how best to screen and treat women at risk for stroke. They include rigorous evaluation of any women who have experienced preeclampsia, a dangerous, high blood pressure pregnancy condition which can double a woman’s stroke risk.
Doctors should consider prescribing low dose aspirin or other medications as needed to women who ever had high blood pressure during pregnancy. Women of reproductive age should be screened for high blood pressure before being given birth control pills, and should be reminded not to smoke. Older women should be screened for heart beat irregularities known as atrial fibrillation, as this can boost a women’s risk of stroke fivefold after age 75. Nearly 800,000 strokes occur each year in the United States. More than half are among women, and 60 percent of stroke deaths occur in women.
Yoghurt consumption linked to lower diabetes risk PARIS, February 5, 2014 - Eating yoghurt and low-fat cheese can cut the risk of developing diabetes by around a quarter compared with consuming none, according to a study of 3,500 Britons published on Wednesday. The evidence comes from a longterm health survey of men and women living in the eastern county of Norfolk, whose eating and drinking habits were detailed at the start of the investigation. During the study’s 11-year span, 753 people in the group developed adult-onset, also called Type 2, diabetes. Those who ate low-fat fermented dairy products -- a category that includes yoghurts, fromage frais and low-fat cottage cheese -- were 24 percent less likely to develop the disease compared to counterparts who ate none of these products. When examined separately from the other low-fat dairy products, yoghurt
by itself was associated with a 28-percent reduced risk. People in this category ate on average four and a half standard 125-gramme (4.4-ounce) pots of yoghurt each week. Those who ate a yoghurt for a snack, instead of a packet of crisps, had a whopping 47-percent reduction in the probability of developing diabetes. Only low-fat, fermented dairy products were associated with the fall in risk. Consumption of high-fat fermented products, and of milk, had no impact. The research, published in the specialist journal Diabetologia, was not designed to probe why eating low-fat fermented dairy products appears to be so beneficial. One future line of inquiry is whether the impact comes from probiotic bacteria and a special form of Vitamin K they contain, according to the
paper, headed by Nita Forouhi, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge. “At a time when we have a lot of other evidence that consuming high amounts of certain foods, such as added sugars and sugary drinks, is bad for our health, it is very reassuring to have messages about other foods like yoghurt and low-fat fermented dairy products that could be good for our health,” said Forouhi. The study took into account factors such as obesity and a family history of diabetes that could potentially skew the results. But, its authors acknowledged, it also had a limitation. Volunteers’ eating habits were recorded in exacting detail at the start of the study but this information was not updated during the ensuing 11 years. So it was unknown if or how they changed their diet over this time.
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Misc Asia China condemns Japanese city’s kamikaze letter plan BEIJING, February 10, 2014 (AFP) - China expressed outrage Monday at a proposal by a Japanese city to list letters written by World War II suicide pilots on a United Nations register -alongside Anne Frank’s diary. Minami-Kyushu last week filed an application to include the Japanese kamikaze pilots’ farewell letters on a Unesco world memory list, media including public broadcaster NHK have reported.
Vietnam’s hit game developer clips wings of Flappy Bird HANOI, February 10, 2014 - The Vietnamese developer behind the smash-hit free game Flappy Bird has pulled his creation from online stores after announcing that its runaway success had ruined his “simple life”. Technology experts say the addictive and notoriously difficult game rose from obscurity at its release last May to become one of the most downloaded free mobile games on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store. “’Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it,” the game’s creator Nguyen Ha Dong tweeted. “I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore,” he wrote Saturday in a message that had been retweeted nearly 140,000 times by Monday afternoon. Flappy Bird was not available on the US or UK Apple app stores on Monday. “It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore,” Dong tweeted from his @dongatory handle -- which has seen its follower count grow by tens of thousands in the last few days.
Flappy Bird features 2D retro-style graphics. The aim of the game is to direct a flying bird between oncoming sets of pipes without touching them. Dong has said in interviews that his brainchild was pulling in as much as $50,000 per day in revenue from online advertising banners. The free game has been the number one app in Apple’s iOS App Store in more than 100 countries, according to An Minh Do, editor at the Tech in Asia online media company. Withdrawing the game “may be a PR stunt or may be due to legal pressure or maybe he’s sick of the press. That is not clear yet,” Do told AFP. Some Vietnamese online commentators have speculated that Dong took down the game after being pressured by Japan’s Nintendo -- Flappy Bird’s simple graphics appear to owe some debt to Nintendo’s early Mario brothers games. But a Nintendo spokesman told AFP Monday: “Our company has not taken any action this time.” Local online newspaper VNExpress
The museum wants to win registration in 2015, “to forever hand down the letters to generations to come as a treasure of human life”, it says on its website. Among documents on the Unesco register is the diary of Anne Frank, written by the Jewish girl who hid in Amsterdam with her family in an attempt to avoid Nazi deportation. She died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1945. “This is an effort to beautify Japan’s history of militaristic aggression, and challenge the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the postwar international order,” Chinese foreign quoted Dong -- who also has two other games in the top 10 in online stores -- as saying he created the game in a matter of days following “a weird design style”. After revealing the sizeable revenues Flappy Bird was bringing in, Dong has been subject to a torrent of criticism and abuse in Vietnamese online forums, leading some observers to speculate that it prompted his decision to withdraw the game. “The whiff of money created a storm of jealousy, dragging down a shining new talent,” Quan The Dan wrote in an op-ed in VNExpress. Supporting Dong would “help Vietnam start to shine on the world technology map” and it was a shame that parts of the Vietnamese online
ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said when asked about the letters. Speaking at a regular press briefing, she added that Japan committed “numerous” crimes against humanity during World War II. “This effort runs completely counter to UNESCO’s objective of upholding world peace, and will inevitably meet strong condemnation and resolute opposition from the international community,” she said. Relations between Beijing and Tokyo are heavily colored by history, particularly the rampage across China by Japan’s imperial forces in the 1930s and 1940s, when Chinese government researchers say 20.6 million people were killed. Tensions have escalated amid a heightened row over disputed islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China and the visit in December by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a Tokyo shrine commemorating Japan’s war dead, including 14 senior officials convicted of war crimes after World War II.
community turned on him instead, he wrote. Avid fan Tran Khanh Tung wrote on the VNExpress site that it was a “deadly mistake” to remove Flappy Bird from online stores. “Mark Zuckerberg never thought of letting Facebook die, even for a second,” Tung wrote, urging Dong to fight for the future of his games, for himself and other Vietnamese software developers. Vietnam has a small but thriving software and games development sector and the global publicity surrounding Flappy Bird is likely to help it grow, experts say.
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Misc Asia living in blue tarpaulin tents and on relief goods there. She said her family went to live with Manila relatives on November 12, but returned after Christmas because they could not find jobs and were becoming a burden at her sister’s home. “We came back because we heard the government is giving free housing, but so far, nothing.” Amid the continuing difficulties, the tourism ministry urged the world’s 100 million Filipinos on Saturday to join its “#PHthankyou” campaign on social media.
With billboards, tweets, Philippines thanks world for typhoon aid TACLOBAN, February 8, 2014 The Philippines said “Thank you” on billboards around the world Saturday in gratitude for the massive outpouring of international help after a typhoon that killed about 8,000 people three months ago.
Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land, smashed across 171 towns and cities in the central islands with a combined land area the size of Portugal, wrecking the homes of more than four million people.
Electronic billboards lit up with “Thank you” signs at New York’s Times Square, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing, London’s Piccadilly Circus and five other cities at 2040 GMT Friday, exactly three months after Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines.
The government is still collecting corpses and looking for nearly 2,000 missing people with 6,201 deaths already confirmed, many of them swept away by giant, tsunami-like waves unleashed by Haiyan on coastal communities.
“The number of lives lost and affected is unprecedented. But ever since then, the world has been one with the Philippines in helping rebuild the nation,” the tourism ministry behind the ad and social media campaign said on its website. “The Philippines wants to say a big thank you to everyone who are helping us rebuild after Typhoon Haiyan,” the ministry said on its official Twitter page, where it later posted the billboard pictures.
In the hard-hit central city of Tacloban, many shops have reopened in a frenzy of rebuilding but tents and leanto structures remain the norm in many ruined neighborhoods, most of which are still without power. “We’re traumatized but there’s nowhere else to go,” Helen May Gabornes, a 27-year-old mother of two, said as she cooked a meal of tinned sardines at a muddy school yard near downtown. The fisherman’s wife and her extended family are among about 500 people
It suggested they download some of the ministry’s “The Philippines says thank you” notes from its website and adorned with pictures of the country’s top tourist draws, and post them on Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social networking sites. Russell Geekie, a spokesman for the UN disaster agency in the Philippines, said the government-led relief effort has addressed many of the survivors’ most acute emergency needs.
It was shifting to an “early recovery” phase with a focus on restoring livelihoods for millions of people, he added. However, “shelter needs remain enormous”. “Obviously we talk about resilient people, but the scope of the disaster and destruction is such that it’s very hard. There are remaining psycho-social needs that need to be met,” he said. These include finding the hundreds missing to give their families “closure”. The United Nations launched an international aid appeal in December for $788 million to finance the humanitarian effort for this year. Geekie said the appeal was about 45 percent funded. President Benigno Aquino has said the rebuilding effort would take at least four years and require more than $8 billion in funding.
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China and Taiwan hold historic talks
NANJING, February 11, 2014 - China and Taiwan on Tuesday held their first government-to-government talks since they split 65 years ago after a brutal civil war -- a symbolic yet historic move between the former bitter rivals. Taipei’s Wang Yu-chi, who oversees the island’s China policy, met his Beijing counterpart Zhang Zhijun in Nanjing on the first day of a four-day trip. With sensitivities crucial, the room was neutrally decorated with no flags visible and nameplates on the table devoid of titles or affiliations. The meeting was the fruit of years of slow efforts to improve political ties on the back of a burgeoning economic relationship. “Both sides should make up our minds to never let cross-strait relations again become tormented and never go backward,” Zhang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. “I believe that as long as we walk on the right road of peaceful development we should and certainly can get closer in the future.” Taipei’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a statement after the meeting that Wang officially invited Zhang to visit the island “to develop a deeper understanding of Taiwan society and the conditions of its people”. Nanjing, in eastern China, was the country’s capital when it was ruled by Wang’s Kuomintang, or Nationalist, party in the first half of the 20th century.
When they lost China’s civil war -which cost millions of lives -- to Mao Zedong’s Communists in 1949, two million supporters of the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. The island and the mainland have been governed separately ever since, both claiming to be the true government of China and only re-establishing contact in the 1990s through quasi-official organizations. But Beijing’s Communist authorities still aim to reunite all of China under their rule, and view Taiwan as a rebel region awaiting reunification with the mainland -- by force if necessary. Over the decades Taipei has become increasingly isolated diplomatically, losing the Chinese seat at the UN in 1971 and seeing the number of countries recognizing it steadily whittle away. But it is supplied militarily by the United States and has enjoyed a long economic boom. No official agenda was released for the talks -- widely seen as a symbolic confidence-building exercise -- and Wang said earlier he would not sign any agreements. Taiwan was looking to promote communication on culture, education, sciences and other subjects, according to the Taiwanese statement, while analysts say China has one eye on longterm integration of the island. A spokeswoman for Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou quoted him as saying: “It (the meeting) is of huge significance in the peaceful development
of the bilateral ties, and it also contains crucial implication for the normalization of interaction across the Strait.”
Detente and differences The political thaw comes after the two sides made cautious steps towards economic reconciliation in recent years. As the heirs of a pan-Chinese government, Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang party accepts the “One China” principle and is opposed to seeking independence for the island. Since the party returned to power in 2008, Ma has overseen a marked softening in Taiwan’s tone towards its giant neighbor, restoring direct flights and other measures. In June 2010 Taiwan and China signed the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, a pact widely characterized as the boldest step yet towards reconciliation. Yet despite the much-touted detente, Taipei and Beijing had until Tuesday shunned all official contact, with negotiations carried out through proxies. While the bodies -- the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation representing Taiwan and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits for China -- have achieved economic
progress, they lack the power to broach deeper differences. Analysts say only government-level officials can address the lingering sovereignty dispute that sees each side claiming to be the sole legitimate government of China. The two sides agreed to set up a communication system between the MAC and Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, the Taiwanese statement said, but there was no mention of any potential meeting between Ma and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. “The current interaction across the Taiwan Strait is quite positive,” said Jia Qingguo, a professor of international studies at Peking University. Ties have “been developing very fast, but the potential of this relationship has not been fully tapped (by) both sides”, he said. “But people should not expect too much out of it. It will take time for the two sides to get really integrated.”