Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia
www.atlaff.org
Happy New Year!
January 1-15, 2014 Vol 10 No 1
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January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2014
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GAT Calendar of Events (For latest & updated events, visit www.gasiantimes.com)
Publisher: Li Wong Account Manager: Adrian West Contributors: Andrian Putra, May Lee, Mark Ho Photography: Ben Hioe, Rendy Tendean
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All Rights Reserved: including those to reproduce this printing or parts thereof in any form without permission in writing from Georgia Asian Times. Established in 2004, the Georgia Asian Times is published by Asiamax Inc. All facts, opinions, and statements appearing within this publication are those of writers and editors themseleves, and are in no way to be construed as statements, positions, endorsements by Georgia Asian Times or its officers. Georgia Asian Times assumes no responsibility for damages from the use of information contained in this publication or the reply to any advertisement. The Publisher will not be liable for any error in advertising to greater extent than the cost of space occupied by the error and will only be made for a single publication date. The Publisher reserves the right to reject any ad or articles submitted for publication that may not be in good taste for a free publication.
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.
Asian/American 9th Annual Charity Event Organized by Thai Association World Center USA Date: Saturday, January 11, 2014 Time: 6:30 pm - 12:30 pm Venue: Happy Valley Restaurant For more info: 770-833-7009; varinees@yahoo.com NACA Chinese Lunar New Year Banquet Date: Saturday, January 25, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm Venue: Canton House Admission: $40 member; Non-member $80; Corporate Table $1,800. For more info: 770.394.6542 Chinese New Year of Horse Celebration Organized by Chinese Community Center Date: Tuesday January 31, 2014 Time: 7:00 pm Venue: Grand Ballroom, Westin Atlanta Perimeter North For more info: Jimmy Ho, email: hho5033@aol.com 2014 Atlanta Chinese Lunar New Year Festival Date: Sat. & Sun., Feb 1 & 2, 2014 Time: 10 am-4 pm Venue: Culture Center of Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Atlanta, 5377 New Peachtree Road, Chamblee, GA 30341 770.451.4456. Admission: $5 per person (children under 3 ft free). For more info: www.facebook.com/AtlantaChineseLunarNewYearFestival For questions: yutodd@bellsouth.net
Chinese Business Association of Atlanta (CBAA) - Chinese New Year Annual Meeting Date: Saturday, Feb 1, 2014 Time: 7:00 pm Venue: Golden House Restaurant For more info: www.cbaaweb.org Tet Lunar New Year Celebration Organized by Vietnamese American Community of Georgia (VAC GA) Date: Sunday, February 2, 2014 Time: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm Venue: The Wild Bills Concert Hall 2075 Market Street, Duluth GA 30096 For more info: 678.907.6941 21st Annual CBAA Chinese New Year Gala Concert Date: Sunday, Feb 2, 2014 Time: 3:30 pm Venue: Woodruff Arts Center For more info: charley@frontech.com Legislative Breakfast & Lobby Day Organized by Asian American Legal Advocacy Center Date: Monday, February 10, 2014 Time: 7:30 am - 1:00 pm Venue: Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, Blue Room Individual Tickets: $20 For more info: 404-585-8446; www. aalegal.org Hong Kong Spring Reception for the Year of Horse Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 Time: 6:00 pm Venue: Carter Center Private Event - By Invitation Only For more info: 404.788.8818
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January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
METRO ASIAN NEWS Pianist Wu Han To Make Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Debut From Jan 23-26
Senior business delegation from Nanjing visit Atlanta Atlanta, December 17, 2013 — National Association of Chinese Americans (NACA) hosted a senior Chinese business delegation from the city of Nanjing, China to a dinner networking at a restaurant on Buford Highway. The delegation is making its second U.S. stop in Atlanta after visiting Green Bay, Wisconsin. We are happy to be able to reciprocate the visit by Mayor Kasim Reed to Nanjing last year. We hope to establish a mutual understanding and business friendship with members of Atlanta business community,” said Zhuang Yan, Deputy Director General, Nanjing Municipal Investment Promotion Commission, speaking on behalf of the delegation. Nanjing has an urban population of 7 million and is the second largest commercial center in Eastern China after Shanghai. Nanjing has long been a center of education, research, transportation, and tourism. It is widely recognized as one of the “Four Great Ancient Capitals” of China. The delegation comprises of senior executives from Nanjing Municipal
Investment Promotion, Nanjing Software Valley Management Committee, Nanjing Chemical Industry Park Management Committee, and Nanjing Zijin Hi-Tech Venture Capital Group.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will welcome two debuts in January. First, acclaimed pianist Wu Han — named Musical America’s 2012 Musician of the Year — will make her ASO debut playing Britten’s Piano Concerto. Additionally, two enormous bronze church bells, one of only a few sets in the U.S., will make their debut during Berlioz’s iconic Symphonie fantastique.
More concert details are available at www.aso.org/wuhan
Japan America Society Georgia Seeks Host Families for Visiting Japanese Students
Mr. Lee May, DeKalb County interim CEO met briefly with members of the delegation at the networking reception.
The Japan-America Society of Georgia will help welcome students from Japan to Atlanta for J.F. Oberlin University’s College of Business Management Global Outreach Program from March 3, 2014 to June 30, 2014 for a total of 16 weeks. Students will be studying eight weeks of ESL and four weeks of Business English at Georgia Tech, and then have a four week business experience in a Japanese or an American company.
Earlier in the day, the Nanjing delegation met with members of Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon in downtown Atlanta.
The JASG is seeking 15 host families to help these students get acclimated to living, studying, and working in the U.S.
For more information on NACA, visit www.naca-atlanta.org
The Japan-America Society of Georgia’s Host Family Program (HFP) gives Japanese undergraduate university students the opportunity to become acquainted with local families in the metro-Atlanta area. The Host Family Program pairs students with families who welcome them to the U.S. and help them adjust to life in Atlanta.
“The visit is an important step to establishing a mutual relationship between the Nanjing municipal administration and the Atlanta businesses who are seeking to expand into China,” said Lani Wong, Chair of National Association of Chinese Americans (NACA).
Led by Music Director Robert Spano, audiences can experience these concerts on January 23, 2014, at 8:00 p.m., January 25, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., and January 26, 2014, at 2:00 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.
Why Host? - Meet exceptional students from Japan - Introduce your family to a new culture & language - Change the course of a young person’s life - Receive a $800/month stipend for room & board Host Families Must Provide - A safe, caring environment - 2 meals a day (breakfast and dinner) - A private bedroom and a desk or workspace with internet connection To apply as a host family, please complete an application, introduction sheet, and a family photo to the JASG office by Friday, January 24, 2014. Contact the JASG office (404) 842-1400 for more details about this program.
Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2014
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FEATURE
Looking for work, US jobless prod Congress for action WASHINGTON, December 31, 2013 - Four miles from Capitol Hill, Michael Tate looked for a job -- any job -- as he cringed at prospects of losing unemployment benefits and appealed to US lawmakers who left him and others in the lurch. “I’ve got rent to pay, and it will be a crisis if I don’t find a job. I don’t want to go back out to the street,” said a somber Tate as he emerged from an unemployment center in Washington where every computer screen was taken by a job-seeker. Tate, a Vietnam war veteran in his 50s, said he has been unemployed since July. And while the US economy has improved slightly, with the jobless rate now at a five-year low of 7.0 percent, millions of Americans are taking longer to find work. Tate’s jobless benefits, which amount to about $1,400 per month, will end in January unless Congress approves an extension of the federal government’s emergency unemployment compensation.
people will lose the benefits that kick in beyond the 26 weeks provided by most states. Congress is debating whether to renew the program, which began under the George W. Bush administration as a way to cushion the blow for millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the recession that started in 2008. A bipartisan bill that extends the insurance for three months will be introduced when lawmakers return to work on January 6, and President Barack Obama has prodded Congress to pass it. But there could be pushback in a divided legislature where lawmakers prepare for mid-term elections next November. The program is costly -- the federal government has spent more than $200 billion on it in five years -- and some Republicans have argued that extending it is the wrong way to go about reining in government spending.
age points or more off gross domestic product; experts say that could cost 240,000 jobs. Tate said it was shameful for Congress to leave town without extending the benefits. “This is America, we still have to help people,” argued Tate, who spent an hour at an American Job Center on Monday searching online databases for job opportunities. “We have worked, and paid taxes. We can’t find a job, so what are we supposed to do?”
Belt-tightening “People are definitely in crisis mode,” said Monica West, a specialist at Washington’s Department of Employment Services where Tate and others look for leads.
He will then join the 1.3 million Americans who were cut off from the extended unemployment benefits just three days after Christmas.
But the Obama administration stresses the payments have kept more than 11.4 million people out of poverty, and failure to extend benefits could have a significant economic impact.
“It’s taking people longer to find employment,” she said. “To send out 100 to 200 resumes and not get one call back, that’s pretty frustrating.”
The White House warns that by the end of 2014, another 3.6 million
The Congressional Budget Office says inaction could shed 0.2 percent-
But Alex Brill of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think-tank, downplayed effects that
non-extension of benefits would have on the economy. “More important is the fact that we have a very serious problem with the long-term unemployment in the United States and that this program is a very poor tool for helping these people get back to work,” said Brill . The benefits allow some to stay on the dole longer while looking for better-paying jobs, while accepting lower-wage work would reduce unemployment. By contrast, the benefits are fed back into the system in the form of consumer purchases, stimulating the economy and generating jobs. Corey Joyner is counting on the support. The 43-year-old Washingtonian has been looking for construction work for months, but keeps getting turned away. Joyner is straining to get by with his son on a weekly benefit of $359. He does not know where he’ll turn when that aid runs out. “I got to do what I got to do,” he said. “Food’s got to be on my table.”
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January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
FOCUS
Russia buries Kalashnikov in new ‘pantheon’ for heroes MYTISHCHI, December 27, 2013 (AFP) - Russia on Friday buried Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the iconic AK-47 assault rifle that was the favored weapon of guerrillas worldwide, at a newly-opened cemetery for national heroes. To the sound of a final salute fired from the AK-47 machine guns that made him world-famous, Kalashnikov was laid to rest with full state honors at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery (FVMK) in the town of Mytishchi outside Moscow. In a sign of the importance to Russia of Kalashnikov, who died on Monday at the age of 94, his funeral was attended by President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov. Putin placed flowers at the coffin of Kalashnikov before the burial and shook hands with his grieving relatives. The coffin was taken to the final resting place in the cemetery accompanied by a guard of honor. The cemetery aims to be what is described as a “pantheon” for military heroes and top statesmen. The memorial complex was opened by Shoigu in June this year. He was buried outdoors on an “alley of heroes” reserved for those who have made an irreplaceable contribution to Russia’s development. Initial reports after his death said that Kalashnikov was to be buried in the city of Izhevsk in the central Udmurtia region where he spent most of his working life.
However officials apparently decided he was a figure of such national significance he needed to be buried in the new cemetery and not in the provinces. Kalashnikov’s coffin was on Thursday flown to Moscow from Izhevsk where some 60,000 people paid their last respects to him in two days of mourning. “Today, we are bidding farewell to a person who was a symbol of Russia,” said Deputy Defence Minister Arkady Bakhin at the farewell ceremony, quoted by the state ITAR-TASS news agency. His daughter Elena said her father had devoted his whole life for the good of the country “without a second thought”. She said her father was likely the last of the group of weapons designers whose work had been inspired by World War II. Kalashnikov designed a weapon that became synonymous with killing on a sometimes indiscriminate scale. But he has been seen in the Soviet Union and modern Russia as a national hero and symbol of Moscow’s proud military tradition. Despite the fame of his invention and being garlanded with national honours, Kalashnikov barely profited financially from his exploits and lived out his life modestly in Izhevsk. Kalashnikov began designing the machine gun during six months leave after being wounded in 1941 in the early battles against Nazi forces in World War II that showed up the deficiencies in Soviet weaponry.
His superiors saw his talent and encouraged his work and in 1945 entered a prototype of the rifle into a competition. In 1947, the design was recommended for use in the Soviet army. Kalashnikov is one of the first people to be given the honor of being buried in the new cemetery. Also buried there are the remains of an unknown soldier killed in battles outside Smolensk in 1941. The weapons designer was showered with every possible major decoration in the Soviet Union -- Hero of Socialist Labour and winner of the Lenin and
Stalin prizes. Modern Russia in 2009 gave him its highest honor -- Hero of Russia. More than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide. They are wielded by fighters in such farflung conflict zones as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. A bayoneted version of the AK-47 rifle has made it onto the national flag of Mozambique. The Kalashnikov also features on the coat of arms of several countries including Zimbabwe and East Timor.
Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2014
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BUSINESS
Singapore’s GIC buys 50 percent stake in London office complex SINGAPORE, December 24, 2013 One of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds confirmed Tuesday it had acquired a 50 percent stake in a major City of London office complex from global investment giant Blackstone. GIC Pte Ltd said in a statement the partial acquisition of the Broadgate complex, a cluster of 17 office buildings, shops and restaurants, includes a new 710,000 square feet office building which has been pre-let to Swiss banking behemoth UBS. The remaining stake in the 30-acre office complex as well as the upcoming 5 Broadgate building will be owned by property giant British Land. GIC, previously known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, did not reveal the value of the deal. The Straits Times estimated it to be worth more than £1.7 billion.
GIC said the office complex, which has a total floor space of four million square feet, “is well positioned to capitalize on the improving demand for prime office space in London as the UK economy recovers and the City maintains its prominence as a global financial centre”. GIC, which manages more than $100 billion of Singapore’s foreign reserves, said in August it was adopting a new investment approach which would give it the ability to take short-term risks in order to achieve better long-term gains. GIC is one of two Singapore sovereign wealth funds, the other one being Temasek Holdings. The net investment returns from GIC, the central bank, and Temasek account for about 15 percent of the total government budget in Singapore.
Taiwan’s HTC designer indicted for leaks to China TAIPEI, December 27, 2013 - Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday indicted a chief designer and five employees at leading smartphone maker HTC for allegedly leaking crucial trade secrets to China and breach of trust. Chien Chih-lin, vice president of product design, was charged with leaking information relating to “highly valuable” designs for a yet-to-belaunched smartphone interface to unidentified individuals in Beijing in an attempt to set up a joint new company in China, prosecutors said. Chien was also charged with breach of trust for allegedly taking kickbacks and falsifying expenses totaling around Tw$33.56 million ($1.12 million) from suppliers, the Taipei district prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
Prosecutors requested a heavy sentence for Chien on the grounds that he has caused serious damages to HTC and has shown no remorse for his actions, the statement said. Both offenses carry a maximum 10-year jail term. Five of Chien’s colleagues at product design and manufacturing design divisions were also charged for their alleged involvement in the case. In August, investigators searched HTC’s research and development centre as well as the suspects’ offices and homes after the company accused them of stealing the interface technology and alerted the authorities. “The company expects employees to observe and practice the highest levels
Indonesia to ease curbs on foreign investment JAKARTA, December 24, 2013 Indonesia said Tuesday it will allow increased overseas investment in a range of sectors, as it seeks to boost slowing growth and lure back foreigners who fled during recent market turmoil.
than 10 megawatts, said Mahendra Siregar, the head of Indonesia’s investment coordinating board.
Foreign investors in Southeast Asia’s top economy will be given increased access in areas including power plants, ports and airports, and the pharmaceuticals industry.
They will be allowed to invest up to 49 percent in airports and up to 95 percent in sea ports and tolls roads, he said.
The move comes after economic growth slipped to its slowest pace in nearly four years and foreign investors dumped Indonesian stocks and the rupiah in recent months as the US moved to reduce its stimulus program. “We want to maintain Indonesia’s economic growth, which we anticipate will be impacted as the global economy slows,” Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters, as he announced the changes. They involve a revision of the socalled “negative investment list”, which limits overseas investment in areas considered sensitive. Foreigners will be allowed investments of up to 100 percent in power plants built under public-private partnerships and with capacity of more
of integrity and ethics. Protecting the company’s proprietary and intellectual properties, privacy and security is a core fundamental responsibility of every employee,” HTC said in a statement. As well as selling its own smartphones, HTC makes handsets for a number of leading US companies and supplies Google’s Nexus One.
This is up from a previous cap of 95 percent.
Foreigners will also be allowed to take stakes in pharmaceutical companies of up to 85 percent, up from 75 percent. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must sign a decree for the changes to take effect but Rajasa said he hoped this would happen in the near future. Foreign direct investment has been a key driver of the vast Indonesian archipelago’s prolonged economic boom and hit a record of almost $23 billion in 2012, according to Dow Jones Newswires. But foreign investment growth has eased in recent quarters as economic growth slows. Annual growth is expected to come in at less than six percent for the first time in four years in 2013.
In the third quarter, HTC swung to its first net loss of $101 million since listing in 2002, as it struggles to increase its foothold in the highly competitive smartphone market.
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January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
BUSINESS Vietnam economy grew 5.42% in 2013 HANOI, December 23, 2013 - Vietnam’s economy grew 5.42 percent in 2013, picking up speed slightly after its worst performance in more than a decade the previous year, according to an official estimate released Monday. While growth narrowly missed the government’s target of 5.5 percent, the economy is “showing signs of recovery” compared with 2012 when gross domestic product came in at 5.25 percent, the weakest in 13 years, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a report. Communist Vietnam is struggling with a host of economic woes, including sluggish domestic demand, a banking sector weighed down with high levels of toxic debt and record numbers of bankruptcies.
In May, the central bank cut interest rates for the eighth time in little more than a year in an attempt to spur lending and boost consumption. The authorities repeatedly raised interest rates in 2011 to cool down the economy and to rein in double-digit inflation, but last year were forced to reverse course and resort to stimulus measures. Vietnamese inflation slowed to around 6.04 percent in 2013, from the previous year’s 6.81 percent, the GSO said, but warned of “potential risks” of a resurgence in consumer prices. Vietnam’s authorities said earlier they were aiming for economic growth of 5.8 percent for 2014.
Blackstone to invest $200 million in Crocs shoes NEW YORK, December 30, 2013 - Crocs Inc said late Sunday that the Blackstone Group is making a $200 million investment that will give it preferred stock and a 13 percent stake in the US-based shoe company. The stock will have a six percent cash dividend rate, and at any time after three years from the issuance date, if the closing price of Crocs common stock equals or exceeds $29.00 for a period of 20 consecutive trading days, then the preferred stock shares will convert into shares of common stock, the statement read. The investment allows the private equity group to have two seats on the board of directors of the foam resin shoe company. Crocs shares closed Friday at $13.33 dollars on the Nasdaq, where it is traded.
The leisure shoe company, founded in 1999 in Niwot, Colorado, is valued at $1.2 billion. Eighteen months ago Crocs’s shares were trading at $22, but suffered from the company’s weak performance. The Blackstone investment will allow Crocs to finance a $350 million stock repurchase program. Once complete, Crocs will have reduced its publicly traded common stock by 30 percent. “We expect these initiatives to reduce volatility in both our common stock price and our shareholder base and provide a strong foundation to unlock long-term value for our shareholders,” said Crocs chief financial officer Jeff Lasher. For company CEO John McCarvel, who simultaneously announced his
Taiwan’s Acer names new CEO after 3Q losses TAIPEI, December 23, 2013 - Taiwan’s struggling personal computer maker Acer Monday named a new chief executive officer following losses of hundreds of millions of dollars in the third quarter. Jason Chen, who takes over as both CEO and president from January 1, is currently senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s leading contract microchip maker. Acer chairman Stan Shih said in a statement that Chen, who also worked at Intel and IBM, was “the ideal executive to lead our transformation”. The board had last month named 69-year-old Acer founder Shih as chairman and interim president, replacing two top executives who quit in the space of less than a month over the firm’s poor performance. Acer posted a worse-than-expected net loss of Tw$13.1 billion ($442.2 million) in the three months to September. The company has said this was due to a rise in inventory levels and onetime compensation payments related to longstanding litigation.
retirement in April, Blackstone’s investment “is a vote of confidence in our company and our brand” despite mixed financial performance. Since its founding Crocs said it has grown into a company that employs 4,500 people and sells more than 55 million shoes a year in more than 90 countries.
But it has forecast that shipments of Acer’s notebooks, tablet PCs and Chromebooks will fall 10 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. In the face of the tough outlook, Acer has set up a business restructuring group led by Shih and co-founder George Huang. Shih founded Acer in 1976 and built it into the world’s second largest PC maker in its heyday, and one of the best known Taiwanese brands internationally, before he retired in 2004. But Acer’s fortunes worsened in recent years. In 2011 it lost Tw$6.8 billion in the second quarter -- compared to a profit of Tw$3.59 billion in the same period the previous year -as sales were hit by competition from Apple’s iPad. The company has cut several hundred jobs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in recent years to reduce operating expenses. It envisages a seven percent cut in its global workforce next year.
Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2014
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FOCUS
Bloomberg era comes to a close in New York NEW YORK, December 31, 2013 (AFP) - Brash billionaire Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday concludes 12 years as New York’s mayor, an era marked by major changes in America’s biggest city but also criticism of the growing gap between rich and poor. His Democratic successor Bill de Blasio, who defeated a Republican rival in a landslide in November, has pledged to narrow that divide. Bloomberg gave his final weekly radio address on Sunday -- number 601 -- thanking New Yorkers for their support of “a relative unknown, an entrepreneur with no government experience who asked for your trust.” He said he had done everything he could to improve life for the more than eight million people in the city he loves. “Every day over the past 12 years, I’ve awakened thinking about how to make our city stronger and safer, healthier and greener, freer and fairer, more just and compassionate, more innovative and forward-looking, with more opportunity for all,” he said. “On Wednesday morning, I will wake up and smile, knowing that we did everything we could to achieve those goals,” Bloomberg added. In his final days in office, the 71-yearold mayor toured the city’s five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island) to have a
look at the achievements he says he has chalked up since taking office January 1, 2002, replacing Rudy Giuliani. As part of the departure ceremonies, a portrait of Bloomberg painted by Jon Friedman was hung outside the Blue Room at City Hall, alongside those of the other 107 people who have served as the Big Apple’s mayor. Bloomberg, a Republican who became an independent and backs Democrats on many issues, loves statistics. He says he fulfilled 89 percent of the 611 promises he made during the election campaigns he won in 2001, 2005 and 2009. He also says he made New York the safest of the major US cities, with the lowest homicide rate in 50 years, dropping from 649 in 2001 to 332 in 2013, according to figures running up to December 27. Tourism burgeoned to a record 54.3 million visitors in 2013, life expectancy has risen by two and a half years since 2002 and hundreds of acres of land have been recovered and turned into green areas for people to enjoy. Bloomberg took office just months after the national trauma of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that felled the twin towers of the World Trade Center and stayed busy right up to the end of his term. On December 19, the city approved
a bill to ban tobacco-free electronic cigarettes in public places like bars, restaurants, parks and beaches, in line with the Bloomberg-backed ban on cigarettes and other tobacco products in what became one of his most fervent personal crusades.
No stranger to criticism While these measures made New York a trail-blazing city as far as public health is concerned, critics labeled Bloomberg a heavy-handed authoritarian. They cited for instance his attempt to ban jumbo size sugary soft drinks. The measure was taken to court and defeated. He also drew fire for the police policy known as “stop and frisk”, criticized as discriminatory against Hispanics and blacks. But more than anything, most New Yorkers lament that the gap between rich and poor has widened during Bloomberg’s years in office. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of people without a place to call home had risen as of June this year to a record 52,400, including 22,100 children. The number of New Yorkers frequenting soup kitchens now total around 1.4 million. That is one out of every six people in this city of 8.33 million people, according to the New York City Coalition against Hunger.
Bloomberg rejects all of the criticism. He insists he has made New York a city of more opportunity. He notes the nearly four million jobs the city boasted as of the end of this year, which marks a record and an increase of 13 percent compared to 2001. Love him or hate him, what cannot be denied is that his face has become synonymous with New York at every level and in the collective subconscious. The local band called LCD Soundsystem said “your mild billionaire mayor’s now convinced he’s a king.” This was part of a song called “New York I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down”. The workaholic Bloomberg has said he will attend the swearing-in Wednesday of de Blasio, to be led by former president Bill Clinton. A day later, Bloomberg will go to Hawaii and then New Zealand. That’s a first for a guy who says he has not taken a single day of vacation since he took over the job. He says he will later focus a bit on Bloomberg, the financial news service he founded in the 1980s, some philanthropy and an organization that brings together 63 cities working to save the environment, as well as initiatives that favor immigration reform and stricter controls on guns.
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EVENT
January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
Nanjing Business Delegation Visit to Atlanta & NACA, December 17, 2013
Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2014
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LIFESTYLE
Blazing cannabis trail, US states eye tourism surge LOS ANGELES, December 29, 2013 - Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western US states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.
Medical marijuana is already legal and regulated in 19 US states, and has been allowed in some cases for the past 20 years. And in most of them, private consumption of cannabis is not classified as a crime.
Washington state authorities have received applications for 3,746 marijuana business licenses, including 867 retail licenses, according to The Seattle Times newspaper, which urged caution in an editorial.
Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.
But Colorado and Washington are creating a recreational market in which local authorities will oversee growing, distribution and marketing -- all of it legal -- for people to get high just for the fun of it.
“Legalization of marijuana (is) a seismic change in drug-control policy, perhaps the biggest since the end of alcohol prohibition. Supporters and skeptics need to take a deep breath,” it said.
Enterprising companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to a Netherlands-style pot culture -- including in Colorado’s famous ski resorts.
The market is huge: from $1.4 billion in medical marijuana in 2013 it will grow by 64 percent to $2.34 billion in 2014 with recreational pot added in Colorado and Washington, according to Arcview Market Research, which tracks and publishes data on the cannabis industry.
Colorado’s branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said everyone will benefit.
Telluride Bud Co’s Raleigh compared decriminalizing pot shops to legalizing same-sex weddings, which are now allowed in more than a third of US states.
“It will mean jobs, tax revenue for the state and local jurisdictions, increased tourism, and a developing progressive new industry in Colorado,” said NORML attorney Rachel Gillette.
“Give it six months, and when other states see that the sky didn’t fall and the revenue we are producing, I believe this will spread just like gay marriage,” he said. “You just can’t stop the will of the people.”
“Just the novelty alone is bringing people from everywhere,” said Adam Raleigh of cannabis supplier Telluride Bud Co. “I have people driving in from Texas, Arizona, Utah... to be a part of history. “Over the last month I have received somewhere between four to six emails a day and five to 10 phone calls a day asking all about the law and when should people plan their ski trip to go along with cannabis,” he added.
Both states legalized recreational consumption of marijuana in referendums in November last year, but new rules coming into force on January 1 allow cannabis shops. In Colorado, famous for its Rocky Mountain ski resorts, officials this week issued 348 retail marijuana licenses including for small shops which from January 1 can sell up to 28 grams of pot to people aged 21 or older.
“It will also have an impact in that marijuana sales will be brought out of the shadows and the black market,” she added. Michael Elliott, head of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, noted that Colorado has licensed medical marijuana businesses since 2010, but said the influx of tourists for recreational use of pot could lead to shortages.
“It’s tough to know whether supply will meet demand, mainly because it’s tough to know the impact of tourism on this new market,” he said. “It looks like demand will exceed supply, so I anticipate that prices in Colorado will go up ... But as time goes on, more businesses will open meaning there will be more supply,” he added.
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ENVIRONMENT “We hope this sanctuary will hasten breeding and lead to more births of this treasured rare animal,” said park chief Moh Haryono. “In a more enclosed space, the male and female rhino will have more opportunities to frolic and mate freely.” Rhinos around the world are under threat
Indonesia builds sanctuary to save world’s rarest rhino UJUNG KULON, December 24, 2013 - On a leaf-covered dirt path overlooking lush paddy fields in western Indonesia, the world’s rarest rhino had left a trail of footprints in the soft mud and bite marks on foliage. For people seeking a glimpse of the Javan rhino -- revered in local folklore as Abah Gede, or the Great Father -- such small signs are likely to be the closest they get. There are thought to be only around 50 of the animals left in existence, all living in the wild in Ujung Kulon National Park, an area of stunning natural beauty on the western tip of Indonesia’s main island of Java. But now conservationists are hoping that the country’s first ever Javan rhino sanctuary, which will open in the park in the coming months, can pull the animal back from the brink of extinction. The shy creature, whose folds of loose skin give it the appearance of wearing armor plating, once numbered in the thousands and roamed across Southeast Asia. But, like other rhino species across the world, poaching and human encroachment on its habitat has led to a dramatic population decline, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature saying the animal is “making its last stand”.
The new sanctuary will encompass 5,100 hectares (12,600 acres) of lush rainforest, freshwater streams and mud holes in the park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is not due to open until March but park officials say that from footprints and bite marks, they believe nine rhinos have already wandered into new areas set aside for them. “It means our scheme to turn this sanctuary into a comfortable home for them is working,” said the park’s habitat manager Rusdianto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name,. The rhinos were already living mainly in one corner of the park. But the new sanctuary has expanded the area suitable for them and relocated farmers who were living there to reduce the chances of animal-human conflict. An electric fence is also being constructed -- the final piece of work that needs to be completed -- to mark the boundary and prevent the rhinos from straying out of the sanctuary and humans from coming in. Park officials, who are government employees, have also been planting suitable food for the rhinos. During a recent visit, workers were seen clearing palm trees from the area and replacing them with shrubs and small trees.
Yet setting up the sanctuary, which is government-run but fully funded by US-based charity the International Rhino Foundation, has been no easy task. It was originally due to open in 2011 but was held up due to red tape, a common problem in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, which has a huge and often inefficient bureaucracy. Work also stalled for a year due to protests from residents demanding compensation for farmland they had to give up, as well as from local animal activists who felt the use of heavy machinery to build the fence threatened the environment. However all obstacles now seem to have been overcome and, barring any last-minute hold-ups, the sanctuary should officially open soon. Nevertheless it is just a small step in an uphill battle to save the Javan rhino. Officials in Ujung Kulon believe there were 51 of the rhinos in 2012, including eight calves, basing their estimate on images captured by hidden cameras. They hope the true figure may be in the 70s and will have a new estimate once data for 2013 has been collated. The case of the Javan rhinoceros highlights the plight of rhinos across the world, with other species also deemed to be under threat and some subspecies already believed to have died out.
Poaching in particular represents a severe threat, with rhino horns used in traditional Asian medicine fetching ever higher prices on the black market despite a lack of scientific evidence showing horn has any medicinal value. In Indonesia, fewer than 100 of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinos remain; in 2011 the IUCN declared a rhino subspecies in western Africa extinct; and the group has said the Central African northern white rhino is “possibly extinct”. Asia has stepped up efforts to save the region’s dwindling rhino populations, with representatives from several countries in October attending a conference on the issue on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra. Countries represented, including Indonesia, Nepal and India, pledged to take steps to grow their rhino populations by three percent annually. For the Javan rhino, its population already decimated, the threat is no longer poaching but food scarcity, illness and the risk of natural disasters in an archipelago where earthquakes and landslides are common, according to WWF Indonesia. Despite the myriad threats, wildlife officials are hopeful the new sanctuary is a step in the right direction. They have also been heartened by strong support from the local community. Any effort to save the Great Father is applauded in an area where centuries-old beliefs persist and intertwine with the vast majority’s Muslim faith. “We must do all we can to prevent the Javan rhino from becoming extinct,” SAID Suhaya, a 67-year-old farmer who goes by one name “Locals here believe that Abah Gede must not vanish from the face of the Earth, or disaster will befall us.”
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SPORTS
SEAGames: Fireworks and dance show Myanmar’s new face at Games NAYPYIDAW, December 22, 2013 (AFP) - A blaze of fireworks and colour brought the curtain down on the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar on Sunday -- an event which marked the formerly cloistered country’s return to the international stage. A spectacular closing ceremony illuminated by fireworks, animation and thousands of dancers delighted the crowd at the 30,000-capacity stadium in the sprawling capital Naypyidaw. The raising of the Singapore flag -- the city-state will host the regional showpiece in 2015 -- marked the end of 11 official days of competition which saw Thailand top the medals table with 107 golds. The event was hailed as Myanmar’s ‘coming out’ party and was given to the hosts as a reward for reforms overseen by President Thein Sein, who was present at the closing and opening ceremonies. Concerns over Myanmar’s readiness to host a large international standard event had been raised ahead of the
Games, while the distances between venues in the vast capital also raised eyebrows. But Myanmar has basked in its host status and a rare moment in the international limelight after years in isolation under military rule. “Some local and international observers thought Myanmar could not host the SEA Games,” said the president’s spokesman Ye Htut on his Facebook page. “They were wrong.” The closing ceremony saw thousands of dancers perform scenes from Myanmar’s history to an animated background broadcast on vast screens flanking one side of the stadium. At one point hundreds of teenage boys and girls delighted the crowd with a synchronized demonstration of chinlone -- a local cane-ball game -which was followed by scores of elaborately-dressed drummers pounding a rhythm for an array of dancers. The opening and closing ceremonies were supported in cash and know-
how by China -- which confirmed its own re-emergence onto the international platform with the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. A SEA Games official thanked China at the closing ceremony for its “tremendous support” which officials said amounted to $33 million. While little known outside the region, the Games are a source of local bragging rights for the 11 competing nations and give athletes from lesser sporting nations the chance to shine.
While Thailand topped the medals, winning many leading track and field events as well as the flagship men’s football gold, Myanmar came in a respectable second with 86 gold medals. It had been accused of cherry-picking non-Olympic sports such as chinlone to ensure a strong showing on home soil.
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SPORTS Olympics: Russia plays down Sochi medals chances MOSCOW, December 28, 2013 (AFP) - Russia’s sports minister on Saturday played down the host’s chances at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi following a bitterly disappointing 2010 performance in Vancouver.
NFL: Lions sign US star Isles, ‘rugby’s fastest man’ DETROIT, December 26, 2013 (AFP) - Carlin Isles, a 24-year-old US sevens winger touted as the fastest man in rugby, was signed to a practice squad receiver contract Thursday by the NFL’s Detroit Lions. The Lions, eliminated from American football playoff contention last Sunday, have been known for unusual moves in trying to land talent, bringing in a German player last year and Norwegian kicker Havard Rugland earlier this year after seeing him on a YouTube video. Isles, dubbed the fastest man in rugby by Rugby magazine last year, underwent a tryout session for the Lions on Monday that included running the 40-yard dash in 4.22 seconds. “I’m very happy,” Isles told ESPN. “Being in an NFL locker room has been a true blessing for me. It’s outstanding and a shocker for me. I would have never thought in my life I would be right here in the NFL.”
“Even track guys like Bob Hayes and Renaldo Nehemiah. An athlete’s an athlete. There are skills that you can develop, and if you see something you like then you can work with him.” Isles, whose Ohio hometown of Massillon is a famed US high school gridiron hotbed and near the American Football Hall of Fame, was a sprint star and American football player in college before switching ro rugby. Isles, who has a YouTube highlight of his own that has millions of views, plays for the Gentlemen of Aspen club team and has 11 caps for the USA Rugby Sevens squad. His goal remains to play in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. “That is a goal of mine -- 2016 is a big deal for me,” he said. “But playing in the NFL is a blessing too.” Other NFL clubs have turned outside the usual US collegiate feeder system for talent this year.
A spot opened for Isles after the Lions promoted tight end Matt Veldman from the practice squad to the active roster to replace injured Brandon Pettigrew ahead of Detroit’s season-ending game Sunday at Minnesota.
Kenyan-born Daniel Adongo has played two games at linebacker this season for the playoff-bound Indianapolis Colts after playing for South Africa’s Southern Kings in Super 15 rubgy last season.
“You’re looking for athletes,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. “It hasn’t been unusual to see basketball players transition to the NFL. That’s not just recently, that goes way back.
And the San Francisco 49ers have signed England’s Lawrence Okoye, an Olympic shot put finalist in London, as a defensive end. He is on injured reserve for the playoff-bound club after a pre-season injury.
The Soviet-era winter sports superpower managed just three gold medals in Canada -- a finish that left it lagging in 11th place on the medals table and prompted an overhaul of the entire Olympic federation. Russia responded by spending lavishly on top foreign coaches and pouring huge funds into new facilities that could help train a new generation of athletes for the February 7-23 Games on the Black Sea. The Games’ success also carries heavy political overtones for the Kremlin amid its efforts to use patriotism to mobilize support around President Vladimir Putin’s 14-year rule. Putin staked his personal reputation on the Games’ success by lobbying for Sochi’s candidacy before the International Olympic Committee and then spending more than $50 billion for the event. But Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Saturday that fans should not expect miracles from their team just because it was performing on home snow and ice. “In my opinion, our situation is more difficult in the winter sports than it is in the summer ones,” Mutko told the Russian state’s rolling news channel. “There are 98 sets of medals being contested in 14 sports. And only five them are our traditional ones in which we once had success,” the sports chief noted. Mutko said he would be happy if Russia finished in the top five in the medals count thanks to residual strength in more traditional events
such as cross country skiing and ice hockey at which the Soviet Union excelled. But he said the country’s overall economic troubles and slow pace of post-Soviet scientific advancement made it difficult to compete in sports such as bobsleigh where technological breakthroughs gave teams the edge. “Any Olympic podium finish is not only the result of work performed by the sports ministry or the minister,” he said in a seeming effort to deflect blame for potential disaster in Sochi. “Today, it is also the achievement of the country itself. It is a reflection of its level of social and economic development. It is the level of the development of its science and technology,” he said. Mutko was appointed sports minister in 2008 and survived the post-Vancouver purge thanks to warm relations with Putin that stretch back to their early political carriers in native Saint Petersburg. The sports minister had promised on March 12 that the “only estimated and expected result” in Sochi would be a top of the podium finish in the final gold medals count. But a string of poor performances in this year’s various winter sports championships -- from cross country skiing to figure skating -- prompted Mutko to mention a few weeks later that a top three finish was also a fair result. He downscaled those expectations still further on Saturday by admitting that all the team could do was to try its best. “Of course we are setting ourselves the goal of a successful performance, but we also understand today’s realities,” said the sports minister. “But I can assure you that we will not be embarrassed for ourselves,” he promised.
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HEALTH $100 million deal agreed over US meningitis outbreak: media WASHINGTON, December 24, 2013 (AFP) - The owners and insurers of a bankrupt pharmacy at the center of a deadly US meningitis outbreak have reached a tentative agreement to pay more than $100 million to compensate victims, US media reported Tuesday. The fund will also serve to pay creditors of the New England Compounding Center, whose tainted drugs are blamed for dozens of deaths last year. “We are working very hard to expedite this process and get money to victims as quickly as possible,” bankruptcy trustee Paul Moore, who led the settlement negotiations, told The Boston Globe. “This is a first step, although a significant one.” The deal must first be finalized and approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. At least 751 people in 20 states contracted fungal meningitis or other infections from steroid injections made by the pharmacy, including 64 people who died. Victims and their families will likely receive at least tens of thousands of dollars on average under the settlement, according to the Globe. They have until January 15 to file claims with the bankruptcy court. Authorities investigating the NECC have said that its now defunct facility outside Boston made medications in unsanitary conditions with bacteria and mold so prevalent it could be seen with the naked eye. The outbreak has led to calls for tighter regulation of the loosely controlled pharmaceutical compounding industry. Critics say drug manufacturers have found a way to sidestep costly and strict oversight by classifying themselves as pharmacies, which are given freer rein to mix drug compounds for patients.
Help offered for people who miss Obamacare deadline WASHINGTON, December 24, 2013 (AFP) - The US government Tuesday offered help for people who were unable to sign up for health insurance through the federal website by the deadline as part of the president’s controversial health care reform legislation. The deadline for enrolling in policies that start on January 1 had already been repeatedly delayed and was last fixed at midnight on Tuesday, after problems with the web site hindered the process. But now, Health and Human Services, which administers the program, said if anyone failed to finish their enrollment by that time, they could still get a policy for the new year. “Sometimes despite your best efforts, you might have run into delays caused by heavy traffic to HealthCare. gov, maintenance periods, or other issues,” read a message on the site.
If you couldn’t get enrolled in time, it said, “don’t worry - we still may be able to help you get covered as soon as January 1.” It provided customer service numbers and told consumers to “tell our customer service representative that you’ve been trying to enroll and explain why you couldn’t finish by the deadline. “They can tell you what you can do to finish your enrollment and still get covered for 2014.”
fine under the new law. Obama told reporters on Friday at a year-end press conference that more than a million American had chosen new insurance plans using the new health care system. But the litany of problems with the government website, healthcare.gov, has played into the hands of Republicans, who say the federal government has no business intervening in the private health care market and should not be dictating health choices to Americans.
The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s top domestic achievement to date, is designed to offer insurance to millions of Americans who have never been able to secure it before -- some because of pre-existing health conditions like heart disease that insurers were unwilling to cover. Failure to sign up for adequate coverage by March 31 could result in a
Flu vaccine more effective for women than men: study WASHINGTON, December 23, 2013 (AFP) - The flu vaccine is generally less effective for men than for women, scientists said in a study Monday, tracing the effect to higher levels of testosterone that curb the immune response. It has long been known that men are more vulnerable than women to bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, but scientists have never been able to clearly explain why. It was also known that men don’t respond as strongly as women to vaccines against yellow fever, measles and hepatitis, said the authors of the study, which appears in this week’s Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences. The new research, using samples from 34 men and 53 women, suggested that the cause could be traced to testosterone: only men with higher levels of the sex hormone demonstrated the lower antibody response to the flu vaccine.
Among men with lower levels of testosterone, the immune response was “more or less equivalent to that of women,” said a statement from Stanford University, whose researchers collaborated with others at the French governmental research organization INSERM for the study. Previous studies on animals and in cell-culture experiments had previously suggested a link between testosterone and immune response, which creates inflammation as it battles the invasion of a pathogen. This latest study doesn’t indicate a direct link between testosterone and the lowered immune response. Instead, the immune system’s reaction was reduced by the activation of a group of genes that are also linked to a higher level of testosterone, explained Mark Davis, immunology professor at Stanford University. The researchers also considered an apparent evolutionary paradox -- won-
dering how natural selection could favor a hormone responsible both for characteristics such as strength and a taste for taking risks, and for weakening the immune system. They speculated that in prehistoric times, men’s roles as hunters and warriors tended to expose them to more wounds and resulting infections. A decent immune response to these infections is an evolutionary advantage, but an overly abundant one -- which can occur in certain diseases including some virulent forms of the flu -- could prove more dangerous than the pathogen itself, they said. Thus, perhaps men with less aggressive immune responses tended to be better able to survive, the researchers said.
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Misc Asia
Hundreds of corpses unburied after Philippine typhoon TACLOBAN, December 28, 2013 (AFP) - More than a thousand dead victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan lay unburied Saturday, seven weeks after the region was battered by the Philippines’ deadliest storm, residents living alongside the stench said.
Eutiquio Balunan, the local village chief, said government workers assigned to collect the typhoon dead began trucking them to San Isidro on November 10, where they have been exposed to the tropical heat and heavy seasonal rain showers.
About 1,400 corpses, in sealed black body bags swarming with flies, lay on a muddy open field in San Isidro, a farming village on the outskirts of the destroyed central city of Tacloban.
There, state forensics experts try to identify the corpses.
“The stench has taken away our appetite. Even in our sleep, we have to wear face masks,” said local housewife Maritess Pedrosa, who lives in a house about 66 feet from the roadside city government property. Haiyan killed 6,111 people and left 1,779 others missing on November 8, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. This made the storm, which also left 4.4 million people homeless, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Philippine history. Tacloban and nearby towns were devastated by tsunami-like giant waves unleashed by Haiyan which accounted for a majority of the dead. The council’s spokesman, Reynaldo Balido, said he was unsure if the official death toll already included the cadavers in San Isidro.
The processed corpses are then turned over to relatives, while those that are unclaimed are tagged and taken to a mass grave at the city cemetery about 1.86 miles away. “Our tally comprises those already tagged and processed by the local governments,” said Balido, the disaster council spokesman. Balunan, the village chief, said the processing of the cadavers had been suspended over the Christmas weekend as the forensics experts went on holiday. “We are requesting the city government to please bury the cadavers because our children and elderly residents are getting sick,” he said. “This place has become a fly factory.” The cadavers are guarded by eight policemen. One officer who asked not to be named said they are under orders to prevent the cadavers from being eaten by stray dogs.
Snake kills security guard at Bali luxury hotel DENPASAR, December 27, 2013 (AFP) - Police on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali warned tourists to be on guard Friday after a huge python killed a security guard at a luxury beachfront hotel. The f13-foot snake is still on the loose after the attack early Thursday at the Bali Hyatt, which is in the popular Sanur area but currently closed for renovation. The security guard, Ambar Arianto Mulyo, spotted the serpent and succeeded in catching it, a police official said. Mulyo, 59, gripped its head with his right hand and its tail with his left -- but the snake proved too strong, managing to wrap itself around his neck and strangle him. He was accompanied by friends but they were too terrified to step in and help, Gusti Ngurah Yudistira, said the head of the police criminal investigations unit covering the Sanur area.
“The victim died on the spot as his neck was crushed and he could not breath,” he said. The snake is still on the loose after a police search of the hotel and its extensive grounds failed to track down the animal, he warned. “We urge residents and tourists to stay on the alert,” Yudistira said, adding the snake may have slithered into a nearby area of thick foliage opposite the hotel. The deadly attack came at a busy time on Bali, as foreign tourists pack out the island’s palm-fringed beaches for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
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Misc Asia Cambodia say US auction house to return ancient Khmer statue PHNOM PENH, December 16, 2013 - Cambodia announced Monday that leading auction house Sotheby’s will return a 10th century Khmer statue worth up to $3 million said to have been looted during its civil war. The statue of a warrior will be returned to the kingdom within 90 days under an agreement signed last week by Sotheby’s, its Belgian client and US authorities, said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
Billionaire Parsi warns shrinking group to take risks MUMBAI, December 27, 2013 (AFP) - One of India’s wealthiest businessmen urged his fellow Parsis Friday to take risks to stay successful and come up with solutions to a demographic crisis which threatens the community’s survival. Billionaire businessman Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the fourday World Zoroastrian Congress, told young Parsi delegates that they should follow in the footsteps of their forebears, who forged one of the world’s most successful business communities. “Most of our Parsi youth are taking white collar jobs, not only in India but abroad. The result you see is that there are a lot of industrial houses that are dwindling rather than growing,” said Poonawalla at the opening of the conference in the Parsis’ spiritual home of Mumbai. He recommended that youngsters “take some risks, take some initiative, somehow get into a small business first and then grow it up”. Many of the world’s Zoroastrians -followers of one of the oldest religions -- descend from Persians who fled to India to escape persecution more than 1,000 years ago and became known as Parsis.
They later became closely linked with the rise of financial capital Mumbai. Several of India’s top industrialists are Parsis, such as the Tata and Godrej families, while the late Queen singer Freddie Mercury was the son of Parsi migrants to Zanzibar. Poonawalla founded the Serum Institute of India, one of the world’s biggest vaccine-makers. Forbes rated him as India’s 16th richest man this year with a net worth of $4 billion. Despite their successes, the Zoroastrians, who hold a global conference every four years, face a demographic crisis as their population rapidly diminishes. “There are many challenges facing our community, our dwindling population being one of them,” said Poonawalla, adding that he hoped congress talks could come up with “practical solutions” -- although he admitted it was a “controversial” matter. Parsis are divided over how best to preserve their identity, which currently combines religion with ethnicity and is passed down only through the male line.
The deal ends a long legal battle in the US where Sotheby’s is headquartered, Sok An told a press conference. “The statue that was looted from Cambodia 41 years ago will be returned to the country,” he said. “The soul of our ancestors who built the statue will be satisfied,” he said, adding that Cambodia will organize a ceremony to welcome home the statue. The row began in early 2011 shortly before a planned auction in March that year, when Cambodia’s government sent a letter through UNESCO claiming ownership of the work. Sotheby’s stopped the sale. Cambodia claims the sandstone statue, known as the Duryodhana, was looted in the 1970s from a temple in Koh Ker, 50 miles northeast of the famed Angkor Wat complex.
Some would like to see a more liberal approach to women who marry out, while traditionalists say intermarriage will bring an end to the tiny group’s ethnicity. India’s government, keen to sustain the community, is launching an IVF scheme for the Parsis, who tend to marry late -- or not at all -- and opt for smaller families.
US authorities filed a civil complaint in April last year against Sotheby’s, blocking the sale of the item. The statue’s origin is not under dispute. It is one of a pair -- the other one is also in the United States, at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. Experts agree both statues are prime examples of the best of Khmer art -the pair are locked in battle, and depict motion, which is unique among statues from the period -- and that they were looted in the 1970s. The decision follows the return in June of two other Khmer 10th century statues known as the “Kneeling Attendants” which Cambodia says were looted in the 1970s from the Koh Ker temple site. They were on show for 20 years at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time the country was in the midst of a civil war and looting was rampant. Sok An also urged people who are keeping other illegal ancient artworks to consider returning them to Cambodia.
The theme of the congress, the first in Mumbai since 1990, is “Nurturing Growth and Affirming Identity”, with discussions including “Demography and Way Forward: Issues of Fertility and Solutions” and “The Zoroastrian World -- a Demographic Picture.”
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TECH “That’s the kind of thing you can put in a time capsule to represent this period.” No one knows if Obama and friends had even heard of Selfies at Funerals, an equally controversial Tumblr compilation of, well, selfies taken at funerals, mainly by young people.
With selfies, the world turns the camera on itself WASHINGTON, December 27, 2013 (AFP) - Stuck on a ledge halfway up a 3,000-foot cliff in Oman, his climbing rope sliced in two by sharp rocks, Jimmy Chin did what anyone else would have done in his predicament. He took a selfie. “I had some time to figure out what I was going to do,” said Chin, a National Geographic photographer whose images of extreme climbing by the Straits of Hormuz appear in the magazine’s January issue. “That’s when I took the selfie,” he said. “It was one of those moments when, ‘Well, I’m a Nat Geo photographer’. I had to document (the moment). It was pretty classic.” Self-portraiture has been around for centuries, but the global proliferation of smartphones with built-in digital cameras -- plus the ability to share photos instantly on social media -- has taken the genre to a new level. With 2013 coming to a close, the publishers of the hallowed Oxford English Dictionary, arguably the final authority in anglophone lexicography, declared selfie to be their “word of the year.” “Selfie: noun, informal. A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone
“When a teen tweets out a funeral selfie, their friends don’t castigate them,” its founder Jason Feifer explained in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
Critics branded her selfie a “disservice” to women, but Eriksen struck back, saying she took it -- and shared it -- “because I’m proud of myself and my body for something as tough as a pregnancy/birth.” And then there was the young woman in New York who snapped a selfie with the Brooklyn Bridge -- and an attempted suicide leap -- in the background. That image caused a stir when it made page one of the New York Post. “A selfie is a sort of perversion (and) a conquest of social virtual terrain,” said Paris-based travel photographer Jean-Francois Vibert, who blogs at www.macandphoto.com.
or webcam and uploaded to a social media website,” according to Oxford. “Also: selfy. Plural: selfies.”
“They understand that their friend, in their own way, is expressing an emotion they may not have words for. It’s a visual language that older people -- even those like me, in their 30s -simply don’t speak.”
Internet search provider Yahoo meanwhile estimates that in 2014, about 880 billion photographs will be taken. That’s 123 photos for every man, woman and child on Earth. Many will be selfies.
The year also saw Pope Francis in a selfie with teenagers at the Vatican, as well as pop diva Beyonce turning up in a smiling fan’s selfie in Australia, to cite a couple of Time magazine’s “11 most memorable selfies of 2013.”
In Britain, a survey for Samsung found that 17 percent of men, and 10 percent of women, take selfies because “they enjoy taking good-looking photos of themselves.”
From Los Angeles, gossip blogger Perez Hilton declared a pink-haired Miley Cyrus posing for herself in a skimpy Lil’ Kim Halloween costume his favorite among countless celebrity selfies over the past 12 months.
The National Gallery’s current exhibition of the work of Charles Marville features selfies of the 19th century French photographer in which he styles himself as a suave Parisian boulevardier -- the hipster of his day.
But there’s no need to be famous to become famous for a selfie.
Meanwhile, in London, the National Portrait Gallery has just put out a call for selfies to be included in a panel discussion on January 16 entitled “The Curated Ego: What Makes a Good Selfie?”
“I think ‘selfie’ is a term of endearment for the self, in a way,” said Sarah Kennel, curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, who admits to taking the odd selfie herself. “It does reflect a kind of narcissism in our culture,” she said. US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron got tongues wagging when they took a selfie with Danish leader Helle Thorning Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa. “What an incredible sign of the times,” children’s photographer Sarah Sloboda, author of the e-book “How to Take the Best Selfies.”
Thanks to Reddit and other social media websites, goofy selfies of a proud twentysomething dad in the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon mimicking the faces of his newborn baby daughter went viral overnight. “We just watched the camera screen and copied whatever face she was making,” explained Eddie Wheeler to his fellow Reddit users. In Norway, popular fitness blogger Caroline Berg Eriksen snapped herself in a mirror, wearing bra and panties, showing off a firm flat tummy just four days after she gave birth.
“Happily, perversion is not prohibited,” added Vibert, who namechecks the flamboyant pop star Nicki Minaj for selfies “so ‘trash,’ it’s self-mockery. On that level, the selfie is decadence for a totally decadent era.” Kennel said self-portraits are as old as photography itself.
In announcing the event, organizers identified Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia as “one of the first teenagers to take a selfie.” That was in 1914, when she was 13. Alas, she had no Facebook or Twitter account to share it on.
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January 1-15, 2014 Georgia Asian Times
January Horoscope Snake (2013 2001 1989 1977 1965 1953 1941 1929 1917 1905) While you cannot plan ahead for the unexpected, it is worth being aware that even simple arrangements can change. Disruptive as these are in the short term, the more involved you get with them, the more swiftly you will see them as the long overdue breakthroughs that they are. If you have already managed to put off dealing with one particular tricky situation, then you may think you can avoid it for good. You can try but you will have to deal with it sooner or later. Avoid taking any short cuts in order to resolve the situation, which could backfire as a consequence. Horse (2002 1990 1978 1966 1954 1942 1930 1918 1906) Straightening up problematic areas of your life involving career, social or domestic may not seem exciting. But you will soon discover just how much time, emotion, mental energy and certain dilemmas have been consuming. For ages, you have been side stepping problems on the domestic front as your initial efforts to do something about them went quite badly. While your yearning to avoid a repeat is quite sensible, sudden events however are giving you good reason to tackle these head on. This requires serious resolution but the outcome will be worth the effort. Sheep (2003 1991 1979 1967 1955 1943 1931 1919 1907) Your initial reaction to the decisions of close partners is not exactly positive. However what they are doing will have little direct impact on your life or career developments, so you will question their wisdom but will not stop them. Begin discussing their plans and you will recognize how worthwhile they are. Disruptive as a sudden change in plans may be, the ideas or offers that have just come your way cannot be ignored. True this will involve juggling your own schedule and existing commitments to others. Once you explain this to them, they will not only understand, they will support you as well. Monkey (2004 1992 1980 1968 1956 1944 1932 1920 1908) You want to know what you are dealing with before you commit to plans. Yet in certain arrangements you are short of facts, which mean relying on instinct. With so much changing, this is not just ideal, it means you will waste no time seeking out unimportant facts. Another scenario is, when you see others excited about sudden offers, you tend to worry. You have a respect for hard work, so are wary of anything that is too good to be true. Yet what you are now discussing is not just as good as it seems, the more you learn, the more excited you will be. Rooster (2005 1993 1981 1969 1957 1945 1933 1921 1909) Just need to treat finances with additional care and protection either from family members, friends, or colleagues. Being soft hearted could easily lead an individual to being out of pocket, feeling frustrated and perhaps losing a friendship or relationship over the cause. One should lay low rather than showing off valuable possessions, for you never know what others intentions could be. Just remember that money does not grow on trees and one has to earn it through industrious effort. Dog (2006 1994 1982 1970 1958 1946 1934 1922 1910) While you pride yourself on your practicality, you sometimes need to take a chance or gamble on the unknown. The individuals and ideas you are introduced to at the beginning of the month could lead to activities beyond anything you have regarded as possible. If plunging into new ventures or alliances seems risky, consider this; you will only regret what you did not do but not what you did. The ultimate choice is yours to make and nobody should force you to commitment that you feel uncomfortable with.
Pig (2007 1995 1983 1971 1959 1947 1935 1923 1911) Usually good fortune is recognizable for what it is. At the moment, however what seems least welcome could actually be in your best interests. Knowing that, explore everything that comes your way. At the least, you will learn something but you could also be pleasantly surprised. Hopes and dreams are cherished until they become reality. This is true for you as you persist in the pursuit of those dreams, however seemingly unobtainable until they are achieved. Rat (2008 1996 1984 1972 1960 1948 1936 1924 1912) A lot of people dream of golden opportunities but now that this is what you are experiencing, you do not seem to be enjoying the moment. In fact you are worrying that what you are getting in some way deprives others. Dismiss those feelings and continue to excel with what you do best, unless your guilty conscience tells you otherwise. Consider those long downturn negative spells that you have gone through or endured and how you managed to survive the darkest moments. Treat the situation as a revival and about time you made full use of the opportunity.
Ox (2009 1997 1985 1973 1961 1949 1937 1925 1913) Sometimes achieving financial goals in one area of your life, means having to make compromises in others, which is considered normal practice. While you would rather not do this, it may be best. This not only keeps the peace with others, it also gives you an opportunity to review your priorities. What you learn or discover at some later stage could lead to rethinking your goals. Perhaps you will discover there are alternative options and possibilities that could increase your financial gains.
Tiger (2010 1998 1986 1974 1962 1950 1938 1926 1914) You are among the first to spot situations in which things are not what they seem on the surface. Sometimes this highlights the need for important changes, but it would appear you have discovered a complex problem. You may need to question certain individuals about their motivation. However more than that, the moment has arrived to talk about what and who you care about most. As you will discover during this period, this is even more important. Rabbit (2011 1999 1987 1975 1963 1951 1939 1927 1915 1903) Few things annoy you more than being delayed by details that have been ignored. It does not matter whether the wrongdoer is you or somebody else; your initial reaction is fury and anger. Once you are calmer, however, you might find yourself feeling appreciative that events are forcing you to question certain arrangements - some continuing, others are new. You may not yet recognize how, but ultimately, you will be making life-changing decisions with a conviction that previously you would not have conceived viable. Dragon (2012 2000 1988 1976 1964 1952 1940 1928 1916 1904) For ages, you have intended to reorganize elements of your life, career or business, but got distracted. Now, between shifts in the lives of others and promising developments, those changes are a priority. Yet you are encountering issues severe enough to raise questions that you would not have raised in the past. Take the review which would be wise. More importantly, since what is good now will only get better, there is no need to rush. Continue to trust your own instincts and judgment of character.