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The Morung Express
Dimapur VOL. IX ISSUE 6
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Kylie got up to fun and games with mystery politician
[ PAGE 8]
reflections
By Sandemo Ngullie
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 7 (MExN): The Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University was today involved in a minor car accident at around 10:30 am near Dillaijan, under Bokajan Police Station. Assam Police informed that the VC was travelling towards Dimapur in a Mahindra Scorpio, which grazed a truck on National Highway 39. According to the police, the Vice Chancellor, along with his driver and Personal Security Officer sustained minor injuries but resumed their journey soon after receiving treatment.
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[ PAGE 2]
Myanmar journalists stage rare demonstration [ PAGE 9]
–Ezra Taft Benson
Ronaldo dedicates goals to Eusebio in Real win [ PAGE 12]
Gariphema - a tale of unity and camaraderie Kohima | January 7
NU Vice Chancellor in minor car accident
Open Gospel Music Contest 2013-season 2 concludes
[ PAGE 11]
Vibi Yhokha & Victor Dzüvichü
Guns, bombs? Well, Havildar, I’m just a poor subji wala. I`m not carrying any money.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 12 pages Rs. 4
With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings Policeman dead, 3 injured in Kashmir gunfight
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Nestled 54 km away from the Nagaland State capital is the village of Gariphema, well known to many as the birthplace of the revivalist movement in Nagaland and more specifically the birth of the Nagaland Christian Revival Church (NCRC). However what many people are unaware of is the story of two tribes who have lived together since the formation of the village. Tradition has it that about 1,200 years ago, when our fore fathers were still head-hunting, a Sumi and a Tenyimia from opposite directions came surveying a mountain to set up a village. When one of them came and lit a fire, the other would come and put out the fire. The same happened when they put up Khutige (Khutige is a ball of leaves with sharp sticks running through the ball of leaves, put on a long split stick, to identify that a particular land has an owner). Each of them after lighting a fire or putting up signs, would go back home only to come back the next day and find their work destroyed by the other. This continued until one day, they finally met face to face. Spears were raised at the faceoff, however something passed through their minds simultaneously as both sides decided to put their weapons down and negotiate.
When they began to converse, realization dawned that they could not understand each other’s dialect; however the two managed to make peace with each other through sign language. With their feet they drew a line on the ground and waving at each other indicated, “You stay on that side, and I will stay on this side,” thereby setting up the village together. Tradition has it that the present playground was once a big lake and was surrounded by a species of edible leaves called “Gari,” from where the village derived its name. Gariphema is considered as one of the oldest villages in Nagaland.
“To live in man’s ideas is impossible” If you ask anyone in Gariphema about the one thing that has kept them together all this time, the likely answer is, “To live in man’s ideas is impossible. It is all because of God alone.” Their belief in God, and in one denomination, is perhaps a major reason for their unity. Christianity in Gariphema arrived in 1944. It was in Gariphema that the NCRC was formed in 1962 - a time when the revivalist movement was at its zenith in Nagaland. In 2012, NCRC celebrated its golden jubilee. Every year, the Pentecostal Day is celebrated in Gariphema where people, not just from Nagaland, but from states like Assam, Manipur
Villagers participating in oiled pole climbing- a traditional game during the feast in Gariphema.
and Arunachal also attend. white paint on the walls in open Around the village are found spaces. There is an aura of deep bible verses written in blue and spirituality among the people;
you understand it in the way sations of the villagers as one they owe everything to God with person talks to the other in Tegenuine praise and sincerity. nyidie; while the latter replies in Sumi, with just one church and Gariphema Women Society the whole village Christians, GaFor decades, the Gariphema riphema village is a symbol of Women Society has been the peace and tranquility. Talking to driving force in banning alco- Krüso Chiese, our host at the vilhol and tobacco in Gariphema lage, we learnt that the villagers village. Every day the women believed disunity among the viltake turns to check every vehi- lagers would bring forth God’s cle entering the village. “Some- wrath upon the village. times our women would go out Krüso further related on the for checking at night without cross culture tribal marriage sleeping. We never get tired or that was prevalent among the disappointed because we, the villagers, the villagers still rewomen, have been assigned this spect the territorial boundary duty by the village council. And their two ancestors drew about it is a great pleasure for us to be 1,200 years ago, with the village serving with such a role,” says divided into a Sumi khel and an Yeshili Khana, Chairman of the Angami khel. Yet these boundaries do not represent in any way Gariphema Women Society. Ask Yesheli what has kept distinction on the basis of lanthem together, she says, “I think guage or tribe. It only signifies we have never differentiated how they still respect the stateach other. We have never la- utes of their fore fathers. beled any one of the community On the northern side of Gaas the ‘other’.” riphema, one can see Lazami and At a time when Nagaland un- other Sumi villages, while on the dergoes a phase of violence and southern side, one can see the unrest, Gariphema is not just a Angami villages. At a time when tale of two tribes coexisting har- “isms” have shrouded every somoniously for centuries but it is a ciety in the world, the villagers of tale of hope, faith and love that we Gariphema village have shown, Nagas are and can be much better in their simplest ways, how peothan what we are right now. ple from every walk of life can live together in perfect harmony, “United we stand, leaving aside all differences, fordivided we shall fall” getting about the different culAs one walks through the tures we share and contending village one can’t help but feel ourselves under the common amazed hearing the conver- umbrella of humanity.
Sumis ‘delink’ relationship with NSCN (IM) Swu makes ‘earnest
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 7 (MExN): In a major decision against the backdrop of the December 21 Aghuito incident and the subsequent “flush out” of NSCN (IM) cadres from the Mukalimi Designated Camp on December 30, the Sumi public on Tuesday resolved to “delink” its relationship with NSCN (IM) with immediate effect and to cease paying all kinds of taxation to the group. This was one of the resolutions adopted during the Sumi general public meeting held at Town Hall, Zunheboto under the aegis of the Sumi Hoho and attended by Sumi frontal organisations and head GBs, village council chairmen and VDB secretaries from all Sumi villages. This was informed through
Resolves to rise up against any faction or group intimidating or committing excess to either Sumi individuals or community
a statement issued jointly by Hovishe Arkha, president, Sumi Hoho; Ghovito Zhimomi, president, Sumi Kukami Hoho; Kitoli Naje, president, Sumi Totimi Hoho and Holuvi Chophy, president, Sumi Kiphimi Kuqhakulu. Another resolution stated that the Sumi public would rise up against any faction/factions or group of people intimidating or committing excess to either Sumi individuals or community in the coming days. As per the Sumi public rally resolution no. 2 of December
26, 2013, the public meeting resolved that the NSCN (IM) shall not be permitted to establish its Designated Camp within Sumi inhabited areas. This would be intimated to the concerned authority for necessary action, the resolution added. The Sumi public declared December 28 as Sumi Martyrs’ Day, to be observed annually in memory of the late Paketo Assumi and late Ghukiye Zhimomi who lost their lives during the confrontation between the Sumi public and the NSCN (IM) at Mukalimi Designated Camp.
The meeting also resolved to name the burial place of the “heroes,” donated by sons of Late Kuhozu of Sukhalu Village, as “Sumi Martyrs’ Park.” The joint statement stated that two were shot dead and six injured during the Mukalimi flush out episode, which was a fall out of December 21, 2013 Aghuito incident. It stated that the NSCN (IM) cadres committed “sexual harassment, attempted rape and murder.” It was also stated that due to the failure of the NSCN (IM) authorities to hand over the culprits to the district administration, the Sumi public as per resolution no. 1 of December 26, 2013, had flushed out NSCN (IM) cadres from its designated camp at Mukalimi.
appeal’ for restraint
DELHI, JANUARY 7 (MExN): On behalf of the Collective Leadership, Chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim, Isak Chishi Swu, has written to the Sumi people reminding their contribution to a “proud history that has helped in shaping the destiny of the Nagas.” Explaining the Council’s seriousness about justice, Swu recounted the steps taken by them to make sure that justice was done in the December 21 incident. “Justice is essential and required by the human society at all times,” Swu stated in a message to the people today. “We respect and welcome our people to understand together on any issues,” he said, also acknowledging that the Council’s government had never defended the ac-
tion of the three errant cadres, “neither denied nor justified it and accordingly after conducting thorough investigation punishment was meted out to them as per the Ahza of the Government.” With this in mind, Swu has made an “earnest appeal” to the Sumi people to “exercise restraint so as to prevent any further unwanted situation.” The Chairman, while asking people to make sure that “no divisive elements disturb us from within” and praying for “wisdom and vision at this critical juncture of our history,” has reiterated that the NSCN is for the people and shall “negotiate and bring about an honourable negotiated political settlement for the Nagas.” Full text on page 4
34 villages affected in Karbi Anglong: official report ‘third force caused Karbi-rengma clash’
Night curfew to continue in affected area
Morung Express News Dimapur | January 7
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Dusk to dawn curfew in the violence-affected areas of Karbi Anglong will continue till such time the situation stabilizes, stated the SubDivisional Officer of Bokajan sub-division on Tuesday, January 7. The statutory promulgation however does not affect vehicular movement on the highways. According to reports, the situation in the affected areas is calming as some people from the relief camps were able to go their villages on Tuesday, albeit under security. Fifty-two people from Santipur relief camp made the trip back to their villages today, said one relief worker at Santipur. These people will however return to the relief camps. Figures provided at the relief camp put the count of houses burnt in the Rengma villages at 48. According to the figures, 17 houses were razed at Sathi village (Chogi-
Children in one of the relief camps in Santipur, under Bokajan sub-division, Karbi-Anglong give curious looks, while a security man stands vigil in the background on Tuesday, January 7. Photo by Caisii Mao
lushonyu), 13 at Khoaani, 14 at Renong Gaon, and 4 at Khanari (Nkhenari). ‘Summary profile’ of damages compiled by the Karbi Anglong administration put the number of villages affected at 34 as of January 6. This includes both Karbi and Rengma villages. The number of affected Rengma villages is put at 16. Not all Rengma villages were vacated however, a relief worker said. Villagers of Jongpha and Chosenlari did not flee, choosing to stay back, it was added. The data provided by the administrative head
of Karbi Anglong, Deputy Commissioner, BK Buragohain, who visited Santipur today, put the number of families affected at 810. The number of families, whose houses were destroyed by fire, was shown as 130. A total of nine relief camps were sheltering 4054 people. It did not show the break-up of men, women and children. Only one of the three relief camps in Santipur had a compiled list of adults and children. The camp had 320 minors as of January 6. Rengma relief camps are located at Jongpha, Phent-
sero (Phencherop) and Santipur, while Karbi relief camps are at Chokihola and Silonijan. The total number of Rengmas sheltered at relief camps is put at 2210. In addition to displaced Karbis and Rengmas, unofficial accounts state that more than 60 families from other communities have also been affected, some of whom are either in relief camps or fending for themselves. No information could be had on the status of Karbi relief camps. The Karbi Anglong DC said that the administration is in the process of assessing damage for rehabilitation. The DC said that government assistance for rebuilding homes will be provided based on the level of damage incurred by a family. The aid will be in the form of Rs. 20, 000 in cash, together with building material for “fully damaged houses” and Rs. 20,000 for “partially damaged houses.” It was not disclosed how the government will rehabilitate those who have lost livestock, paddy and orchards. Asked to comment on the ground situation, the DC said, “The situation should normalise.”
DIPHU, JANUARY 7 (MExN): The Karbi Anglong Peace Forum today met the Commissioner Hill Areas and Barak Valley, Government of Assam and apprised him on the current situation in the KA area. The KAPF urged the Commissioner to look into the relief and needs of the affected people. A press note from the KAPF informed that during the meeting, KAPF members informed the Commissioner that “an attempt by a third force to cause clash between Karbis and Rengmas at Phangcherop under Chokihola police station was made in July 2013.” It stated that social organizations and student leaders went to the spot immediately and “prevented the third force to cause a clash.” KAPF also cited that on December 14, 2013 “two Karbis were assaulted at Khriang Rengma village by unknown heavily armed people, claiming to be from Dimapur.” It added that an
Karbi Anglong Peace Forum apprise Assam govt on current situation
FIR was submitted to the police at Chokihola police station but that “the police refused to accept the FIR.” Again on December 15, 2013, according to the KAPF, “the Karbi people sent five persons to Khirang village with a letter for a peace meeting but they were badly assaulted again by the same group of heavily armed people.” KAPF further alleged that “they wanted to kill the five Karbis but the Rengma villagers and the headman prevented the heavily armed persons from killing the five Karbis.” “In spite of requesting the police, the police did not send any police force to Khirang village and did not patrol the area,” it added. It stated that the “Karbis and the Rengma Nagas are led to believe that Assam government agencies have intentionally caused the clash…” As such, it
said that if peace is to be restored “then the Assam government must prevent their agencies from causing clashes among the tribe people which began in 2003.” According to the KAPF press release, the Commissioner had informed that the Government of Assam has set up several police camps in the area and that the government had already taken sufficient steps to provide relief materials and to rehabilitate the victims. The KAPF urged the Commissioner to construct a road from Chokihola to all the affected areas through Borpung-Tarapung, Langlokso and up to Samelangso immediately. It further added that the the Rengma people have been demanding a Nominated Member of Autonomous Council (MAC), which the present government has not nomi-
nated since 2001. The KAPF demanded that the government must nominate one Rengma person as MAC by “cancelling the nominated membership given to ineligible non-scheduled tribe immediately.” In addition, the KAPF told the Commissioner that if a CBI enquiry is ordered than the government must order a CBI enquiry into all the tribal clashes since 2003 in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao district, including the killings which began on December 27, 2013 in Chokihola area. The KAPF further urged the Commissioner to hand over relief department to the KAAC immediately, as “the present works of relief and rehabilitation by the Government of Assam is very slow and inadequate.” The KAPF delegation comprised of Benting Teron, Chairmanl; Khorsing Teron, Adviser; Kangjang Terang Adviser; Rev. KS Ronghang, Adviser and JI Kathar (IAS Retd), Adviser.
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2 LocaL Hunting and sale of wildlife continues Dimapur
Wednesday
Wild animals and birds seized by staff of Kohima Forest Division along NH-29 on December 4.
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sold along the NH-29 near Medziphema/Pherima on December 4. Wenipe, Deputy Ranger, led the team. The seized items were later destroyed by burning in presence of senior officers in the premises of the office
Zunheboto, January 7 (DiPr): The 21st Battalion Assam Rifles under the aegis of Headquarters 7 Sector Assam Rifles and Inspector General Assam Rifles (North) constructed a community hall at Yehimi village, District Zunheboto on January 5 under Assam Rifles Civic Action Project. Construction of community hall at Yehimi village will immensely help the village community to gather in special and festive occasions. A large number of populations of the adjoining areas will also be benefited from the project. The local people and expressed their sincere gratitude to the 21 Assam Rifles for the assistance provided and for working towards the upliftment of the village by providing basic amenities.
NRSU session from January 14
Kohima, January 7 (mexn): The Mao Union Kohima celebrated Chiithuni, the premier festival of the Mao people on January 7 at its community hall in which people from all walks of life, including prominent citizens, women and student leaders of the community participated. In his welcome address, Athikho Loli President MUK expressed his appreciation to the govt. of Nagaland for recognizing the festival of the Mao people. Chiithuni blessing was invoked by Kh. Hraili. Special songs were presented by Losa Lucy and friends and AG women. The significance of celebrating Chiithuni was elaborated upon by M. Kaikho. In another address to the gathering D. Lokho enlightened those present on the meaning of Chiithuni which according to him meant “Commemorating the success of the previous year”. Press Release issued by D. Neli Koso, General Secretary, MUK, Lerie colony Kohima stated that K. Mathibo Secretary Information and Publicity MUK entertained the gathering with his witty jokes. O. Neli JointSecretary MUK gave the vote of thanks. P. Sibo blessed the gathering in the name of (LEFT) School children walk across a rail track on a cold foggy morning in Dimapur, on Tuesday, (RIGHT) A kid with his mother warm up themselves on a bonfire in the God. The programme concluded with a community feast. street on a cold foggy morning in Dimapur on Tuesday, January 7. Photos by Caisii Mao
PWD Pughoboto, G.Jekuto Sema, to the house. He reminded that the SDPDB meetings are held at the same date and time i.e. 6th of every month and a day later in case of a holiday. He also reminded that all Heads of Offices were advised not to send any representatives in their place to SDPDB meetings. He asked the members to take note and attend the meetings regularly. He also advised the members to revive and improve the performance of the office at all levels in
the Sub-Division so that the people are benefited. After the distribution of works for Republic Day Celebration Programme, ADC Pughoboto called upon all officers concerned for their co-operation. Further, a social work was announced for January 24. In this connection, all the head of offices are directed to clean their offices and surroundings. Moreover, the general public was also informed to organized the same. The meeting ended with vote of thanks from the chairman.
2013-season 2 concludes
Zunheboto DPDB meet postponed
Pughoboto, January 7 (DiPr): The monthly meeting of the Pughoboto Sub-Division Planning and Development Board (SDPDB) was held on January 6 in the office of the ADC Pughoboto under the chairmanship of ADC & Vice-Chairman, SDPDB Pughoboto, Peter Kichamo. At the outset, the chairman greeted the members with New Year wishes and initiated the review of the last meeting minutes. He also introduced the new member of the Board SDO,
moKoKchung, January 7 (DiPr): The monthly meeting of Mokokchung District Planning and Development Board (DPDB) was held at the Conference Hall of ADC, Planning under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner and ViceChairman DPDB, Mokokchung, Murohu Chotso. The meeting discussed
for preparation of the Republic Day celebration and work distribution was made and assigned to all concerned departments. The members discussed for the up gradation of Chuchuyimlang EAC, Headquarter to that of SDO(C) which the house approved and recommended to the Govern-
ment. Mokokchung District Art & Culture Council (MDACC) also informed the house about organizing a Literature Festival at Mokokchung, tentatively from March 5 to 8, to which the Vice- Chairman of the DPDB Mokokchung, Murohu Chotso asked all the Head of Departments to extent co-operation for the success of the festival.
Pfutsero, January 7 (mexn): The Pfutsero Town Christian Revival Church Youth Fellowship Open Gospel Music contest concluded on a high note after two days of battle between 12 bands from Pfutsero, Kohima, Dimapur, Phek and Chesezu. The contest started on November 27, 2013 with Vibi Mero and Setolu Tünyi, hosts of the show, captivating everyone with their entertaining talks. Invocation was pronounced by Rev. Vepocü Epao, followed by welcome address and greetings delivered by Medovelo Sono, Convenor Organizing Committee. Neite-ü Koza, the guest artist, crooned out a sweet inaugural song. Rev. Züpelhi Mero, a legendary Christian figure, shared the message of encouragement and inaugurated the Contest. He appreciated the efforts of the organizing committee, which is a small group but guided by dynamic youth leaders, for putting up one of the best show in his lifetime for the glory of God in his hometown. He said that he is very happy to see inspiring young generation working towards the kingdom of Heaven. Music brings joy to everyone, old and young and it is a pleasure to see many young Christian Musicians taking the opportunity to share the
Kohima, January 7 (mexn): The Nokhu Range Students’ Union (NRSU) will hold 37th general session from January 14 to 16 at Aniangan village under the theme “Progress through unity.” P. Longon, deputy chairman State Planning Board Nagaland will grace the session as the chief guest while N. Kari, additional SP Tuensang will grace the valedictory function as chief guest. The Union invites all the former executives, well wishers, students and executive members to attend the session. This was stated in a release issued by the Union president NSM Pakhiu. Kohima, January 7 (mexn): The monthly meeting of Zunheboto District Planning & Development Board, which was postponed to January 15, is further postponed o January 16. Time and venue remains the same. All the members have been requested to take note of the same and attend the meeting positively. This was stated in a release issued by K. Sekhamo, District Planning Officer & member secretary DPDB, Zunheboto.
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and sale of wildlife, the offence continues unabated. The release has once again appeal to all concerned and responsible citizens to refrain from hunting of wildlife and also not to encourage such activities by purchasing any wild animals that is being sold. The release further informed the public that several patrolling squads have been mobilized to carryout checking/raids in the markets, roadside, etc. for selling of wild animals and birds. The squads/teams will be performing their duties randomly throughout the year. The public general is also reminded that such offences are punishable with a fine upto Rs. 25,000 or imprisonment of 3 to 7 years under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
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Kohima, January 7 (December): While performing routine duty to check illegal trade of wild animals and birds, the patrolling team under Kohima Forest Division seized five Squirrels and five birds
Community hall at Yehimi village inaugurated
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The Morung Express
8 January 2014
of the Kohima Forest Range Officer. In a press release, Beizo Suokhrie, ACF i/c Kohima Forest Range, lamented that besides efforts by departmental staff to control hunting
Three siblings carry waste-bin to dispose in the garbage area in Kohima. (Photo courtesy/Aden Jamir)
Mao Union Kohima celebrates Chiithuni
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Pughoboto SDPDB meeting held Open Gospel Music Contest
Mkg starts preparation for Republic Day
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The champion – New Ages from Phek with the organizers, the hosts and the judges.
love of God through music. The winner of the Season 1 Open Gospel Music Contest, the “7th Milestone” belted out the number “Winter Wonderland” and set the mood for the contest. During the contest Vileno Kapü, who was in the Panel of Judges belted out “You never know”. The first night concluded with benediction pronounced by Solhou Sono, Pastor PTCRC. The grand finale on December 28, 2013 started with invocation by Dr. Tshülingupe Kapfo followed by special appearance by young Vocal Students of Pfutsero coached by Vilevi Sakhrie. They droned the sweet “Tears in Heaven” and “I won’t give up” to start the final battle of 12 bands. Panel of Judges gave a wowing performance with Vileno Kapu singing the melodious “Love in any language”, Pfuche Koza, performing his original number “Pfutsero oh! Pfutsero” and; Thejove Medeo belted out a wonderful Guitar music, showing off his high level of Artistry in Guitar playing. Guest artist, Neite-ü Koza mesmerized the crowd with “Song of Love” and “Bless the Broken Road” at the end of the contest. Ado Kezo made a Special Appearance to entertain everyone with his lively Hindi songs before
the results were declared. The Panel of Judges consists of 5 Professional and highly respected Musicians: Pfüche Koza – Music Analyst and Composer; Thejove Medeo – Highly acclaimed Guitarist and prominent Judge in Musical Contest; Elijah Koza – Music Tutor of Bangalore Conservatory; Vileno Kapü – Music Teacher and renowned Vocalist; and Wechete- ü Khape – Music tutor, Pianist and Church Music Leader. The results were declared at the end and “New Ages” from Phek Village was declared the winner of the 2nd Season of Open Gospel Music Contest and walked away with Rs. 50,000 cash prize. “Detoxified” from Dimapur and “Zenith” from Chesezu were declared the 1st and 2nd Runners up respectively and they took away Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively. “Arcane Dreams” from Pfutsero Town received the award of “The Most Promising Band”. Kuzholüzo (Azo) Nienu, Minister R&B PWD sponsored the first prize money; second prize money by the Music Task Force (MTF) and third prize by Hotel Cimorb, Minister’s Hill Kohima. The following artists walked away with the individual prizes: Best vocalist – Pelesa Keyho from New Ages sponsored by Teiso-
vilhou Koza; Best Drummer – Dzütopo K.Therie from Detoxified sponsored by Hotel Halcyon, Pfutsero; Best Lead Guit arist – Vezo Puro from Arcane Dreams sponsored by Savizo Koza; Best Rhythm Guitarist – Jonah Sep from 70 Times 7 sponsored by Mary Kezo; Best Bassist – Peteneizo Solo from J.I.O.R.A.F. sponsored by Kevie Ngone. Vibi Mero and Setolu Tünyi, closed the show on a very high spirit and encouraged all the musicians to do their best in the coming years. David Sarah pronounced the benediction and closed the 2nd Season giving all Glory to God. The Open Gospel Music Contest is organized by the Pfutsero Town Christian Revival Church Youth Fellowship along with media partner Nagaland Post, print partner Innovations Kohima, sound partner Hills Sound Senapati and video partner Maple Studio Production; and in partnership with Xerography Chozuba, V.K. Enterprise Phek and Wetsolhi Khape Pfutsero. The co-sponsors are Music Task Force (YRS), Unlimited LCS Building, Elite Electronics, Penuel Automobile, NOIZ Tyres, Impact Computer sales and service, A2COMPUTech sales and servicing, Bible House, Pride Furniture & Furnishing, and Glamour Beauty Parlor.
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Regional
The Morung express
Wednesday
8 January 2014
Dimapur
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Govt advertisement How Strange Time Zones Are Enhance rate for news channels Ishaan Tharoor Source: Time At 4:30 a.m. in the middle of summer, the Indian coastal metropolis of Mumbai is still blanketed in darkness. Hundreds of miles to the east, at that exact same moment, the sun is up above the terraced slopes of Assam, a northeastern Indian state. The time on the clock there? 4:30 a.m. also. That’s set to change. Following a new edict by Assam’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the state plans to shift its clock one hour ahead of the rest of India, officially embracing the “garden time” that has been used on Assam’s famed tea estates for decades. The adjustment, insists Gogoi, will boost his state’s productivity, granting its workforce more time in the daylight hours. “People will become more energetic and we will save on energy consumption,” he told reporters last week. It’s unclear at present whether other states in India’s far-flung Northeast will follow suit, as well as if the move will gain official sanction from New Delhi. Already, there are fears that an abrupt changing of
A new push for a second Indian time zone illustrates the strange political nature of how the world counts its time
timetables will lead to disruptions in the country’s plane and railway services. Despite India’s continental vastness — its easternmost point is roughly on the same longitude as the Burmese capital — the country has clung to one time zone. It’s not alone in such a conspicuous arrangement: China, which rivals the U.S. in landmass, operates entirely on Beijing time. The ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, in China’s far west, is two and a half hours ahead of India on the clock despite lying further west on the map than much of the subcontinent, including, indeed, Assam. Countries like India and China, emerging out of empire and war in the mid20th century, reckoned a single time zone would serve as a unifying force. Time may be a metaphysical concept, but it has real political effects. The historian Benedict Anderson,
one of the leading theorists of modern nationalism, has suggested that the European nation-state emerged on the back of two popular inventions: the print newspaper and the clock. Nothing quite binds people together than the certainty that there are others around them, living in the same moment, thinking the same thoughts. Before the past century, though, time was literally all over the place. Individual localities made their own calculations on the position of the sun. Well into the 1800s, the time in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn could be half an hour ahead of that across the East River in Manhattan. The imperatives of railway networks and global shipping routes gradually spurred the need for a more standardized, universal system. At the International Meridian Conference in 1884, the world’s time standard was established
from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, U.K. — in no small part then a reflection of the dominance and clout of the British Empire in the late 19th century. Greenwich Mean Time is still the global measuring stick, but not without its wrinkles and oddities. First, there’s the confusing array of nations and territories that embrace daylight savings time and those that don’t. Then, there are the ways nations bend time to suit their own interests. In 2011, the Pacific island of Samoa erased a day off its calendar by jumping over to the other side of the International Date Line — rather than being the last country to ring in the New Year, it became the first, a move that also better aligned the tiny country closer to nations in Asia. The massive Soviet Union, on the other hand, sized up its immensity and figured it justified 11 distinct time zones of its
own — a boasting, nationalist legacy that Russia has inherited. In 2010, Moscow trimmed the number of zones down to nine (some experts think just four would suffice), but considerable quirks remain: for example, though Russia’s Asiatic port of Vladivostok sits clearly to the west of Japan, the time there is two hours ahead of Tokyo. Wherever time is tweaked around the world, the arguments are always roughly the same: the switch would boost efficiency and productivity. Back in India, a 2012 study by the National Institute of Advanced Studies suggests that if the entire country moved its clock half an hour ahead (GMT +6 hours, rather than +5:30), India would save 2 billion kilowatt-hours in electricity a year. But there’s an inertia about making the change, in part because of politics — no nation wants to lose its time stamp (see Nepal, at GMT +5:45) — as well as logistical headaches. Even if the Assamese bid doesn’t go through, the debate on its place on the world clock will doubtless roll on. For that, there’s plenty of time.
200 teachers Analphung Teno Alum starts Overserved show Chandel | January 7
promote the almost diminished traditional and cultural values of the Anal tribe today. He said that the festival was organized to capture and document the cultural practices of the Anal tribe for uploading on the website launched by the Analphung, a web based professional team. The inaugural function was marked by a mass silent salute to the departed souls of the Anal Phetha (Anal Heroes). Folk songs were presented by a renowned composer and a singer, Ws
Lumdil, Ps Bemung Anal and the artiste of Anallon Art and Cultural Society. Cultural dances were also performed by Lambung Youth and Cultural Club. Sum ideng Piiteh (an indigenous shot-put), and cotton reeling was performed by the Anal Sinnu Ruwl. A folk play staged by Kankhu Theatre and Cultural Development Society based on the history of Ibudhou Wangparel and Shangnu Shanghra added much flavor to the festival.
ShILLonG, JAnuAry 7 (PtI): Over 200 lower primary school teachers in Meghalaya whose appointments in 2010 were found 'tainted' were served show cause notices. "The state government has issued a notice to all those teachers whose appointments were doubtful. They were asked to file their reply within January 10 this year or their service could face termination," a senior official in the Education department told PTI. He said the show cause notice was issued in line with the recommendation of High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) constituted by the state government to scrutinize and probe into the alleged education job scam unearthed by the report of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last year. The Director School Education and Literacy A C Marak also warned that failure to reply to the show cause will force the department to take action as per law against the teachers.
AGArtALA, JAnuAry 7 (IAnS): The final electoral rolls of Tripura for 2014 show a marginal decrease in the number of females from 964 to 962 per 1,000 males, Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Ashutosh Jindal said here. In last year's (2013) electoral rolls in Tripura, there were 964 female voters for every 1,000 males, and in 2012 the figure stood at 958. "Though I have no exact
data readily available, the gender ratio in Tripura's electoral rolls is much higher than the national average and many states in India," he told reporters after the publication of the final electoral rolls here Monday evening. The CEO said that the names of 623 people have been enrolled in the electoral list of Tripura for every 1,000 people. "The ratio is also higher than the national average," the
official added. On the basis of these final rolls, which were Monday formally handed over to the recognised national political parties, the Lok Sabha elections in the Left-ruled Tripura will be held in April-May. According to the final rolls, a total of 2,379,541 voters, including 1,166,963 females, have been enrolled, with an increase of 30,590 voters (1.30 percent) over last year's rolls.
Anal folk musicians perform at the two day long festival.
more research on the history of the Anal tribe, so that these elements are rejuvenated and will help the world to understand the identity of the tribe. The MLA later released the Anal fonts developed by the Analphung BD Thumdal speaking on the occasion expressed hope that the festival organized will help to enrich the identity of the Anal People. Convenor of the festival, Ts Warngam while speaking on the occasion said the festival was organized to rejuvenate, preserve and
Bru militants Number of Tripura's female voters drops demand ransom
AIZAWL, JAnuAry 7 (nnn): Bru militants who kidnapped Sanglianthanga, Lalzamliana and Deep Modal demanding Rs. 5 crore for the release of the three, have expressed their anger on the alleged delaying tactics played by the Mizoram government in paying the ransom money. On November 23 last year, Sanglianthanga, a taxi driver from Mamit; Lalzamliana, Pickup truck driver of Zuangtui Muanna Veng, Aizawl and Deep Mondal, an engineer from Airtel Company had been abducted by suspected Bru militants NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura)from Old Chikha Anti Poaching camp between Damparengpui and Rajiv Nagar village along Tripura-Mizoram and Bangladesh border in Mamit district. Sources said today that the Bru militants had warned that if anything happens to the three hostages, it will be the sole responsibility of the Mizoram government. The Bru militants are said to have communicated with families of the kidnapped persons at noon time on January 2 during which they had expressed their unhappiness over the slowness of the state government and that they are much irked at the way the government deals the matter. The kidnappers are demanding Rs. 5 crore ran-
som of the three men setting January 15, 2014 as the deadline. The Bru militants have kept the three on hostage over 40 days. Uncle of Lalzamliana, T Zathanga said that on January 2 he had a telephonic talk with one who described himself as one of the captors. T Zathanga said that he believed one of the Bru militants who talked to him was in the village while they were talking. When he asked the condition of the captives including his nephew, the militant replied that they are in good condition, Zathanga said. T Zathanga further narrated that when he asked the militant to release the captives, the latter answered, 'You always ask for mercy, but there is no meaning in asking for mercy from us. Let the government do what it should do, and then the captives will be released immediately". The militant outfit was quoted as saying, "We are also denizen of Mizoram. So, it is our wish to live peacefully. We are very much irked by the way the government does things. They talked to other group than us, for which we are much angry." "We keep the captives for long time enough. If the government does not take action quickly, anything happens to the kidnapped persons will be the responsibility of the government", the militant was quoted as warning.
SüMI KIPHIMI KüQHAKULU Platinum Jubilee Akimiji : ‘Ajuküvüpu Tiqheli’ Hukuthu Tushoh Khakiqhi Hoho
ItAnAGAr, JAnuAry 7 (PtI): Aimed at transforming lives of the poor and marginalised tribal families in the north-east, North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) has been launched by the Arunachal Pradesh for troubled districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding. Union DoNER Minister Pawan Singh Ghatowar officially launched the programme at Changlang yesterday in presence of Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Ninong Ering, Rajya Sabha MP Mukut Mithi and host of ministers, parliamentary secretaries and MLAs, official sources said here today.
NERCORMP for Upland Areas is a livelihood and rural development project aimed to transform the lives of the poor and marginalized tribal families in the North East region. It is a joint developmental initiative of the North Eastern Council (NEC), Ministry of DoNER and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). The project is into its third phase and includes three districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Churachandpur and Chandel districts in Manipur. NERCORMP is already under operation in Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. The first phase was completed in 2008 and the second phase (NERCORMP II) started its operations in July 2010.
SPECIAL ENT CONSULTATION from 14th January to 24th January 2014 Dr (Prof) James Chow, MD, Chicago, US. (Retd.)(SPECIALISED IN NOSE AND SINUS SURGERY) For whom: Anyone with complain of, nasal blockage, bleeding nose, sinus problem and other ENT problem etc.
Orthopaedic Consultant from CMC Vellore from 4th to 7th February 2014 Dr. Vinu Mathew Cherian, Prof. of Orthopaedics For whom: replacement of surgeries of hip and knee joints (anyone with hip and knee joint problems can come to the Orthopaedic OPD,CIHSR and avail screening for replacement surgery from now on.)
For further information and registration: 03862-242555/242533
KOHIMA BIBLE COLLEGE Associate Member of ATA, Affiliated to NATA & Approved by The Govt. of Nagaland P.O. Box – 482 Kohima: Nagaland
Born Again, certain of your call to the ministry, and have the commitment to serve the Lord; you are welcome to Kohima Bible College -The first established Bible College in Nagaland and God’s own ordained place in training men and women for the Global mission. The College: - Is Bible-centered, Christ-centered and gives special emphasis on the anointing work of the Holy Spirit. - Is committed for Spiritual quality with Academic excellence. ADMISSION OPEN FOR THE FOLLOWING COURSES: Courses offered Eligibility Duration Master of Divinity (Regular & Extension) B.Th / B.A. / B. Sc 2 years Bachelor of Theology HS (+2) / PUC 3 years HSLC 4 years Certificate in Theology HSLC 3 years Graduate in Theology Under Matriculate 4 years • Limited Seats for New Admission to the Spring Session 2014 is still available. New Admissions will be given on first cum first basis. • The College will reopen on 9th January, 2014. Applicants are invited for the following Vacant Post: New Testament : 1 (One) Systematic Theology : 1 (one) • Submit Bio-Data with all related documents For more information contact: Principal Vice-Principal (M)- 9436011961 (M)-8575733192
Ajuküvüpu tiqheli Lejo sümi sHesHu
ado : inaqHe ayi 10 : 30
Atushoh ikhikiphe Kighini Rev. DR. KHeHovi sHoHe, Director, sümi Baptist convention Atushoh Khakiqhi Aphilo Kuwo Thisho le Ayeküzü le Litsa Baghi le
- imulomi - sükomi - yesholuto - Litsami
aküpüGHü kikitHi Atushoh Khakiqhiu Justice H. KHetoHo semA,
Aboghü tsah ino KitoHo s. RotoKHA, chairman, PBPJ, Alakhümpeu muku Abidiu, (1997-99), sKK
Atsala : Ashigheni, Lu–uqhi 15, 2014 A-a : i. B. imulomi Phu
Alakhümpeu tsapi ino HoLuvi cHoPHy Alokivi tsah ino yesHito cHisHi,
Rtd. Judge, supreme court of india, Alakhümpeu Akütsüghou(1965-66), sKK
decided to hike advertisement rates with effect from January 1, 2014. Earlier, most newspaper owners of Assam under the banner of Northeast Newspapers Society had launched a protest against the Government’s failure to hike its advertisement rates, blacking out Government advertisements and State Government related news items since December 24. The newspaper association lifted the ban on January 3 last following the decision to hike the rates.
ATTENTION!
HukutHu tusHoH kHakiqHi
MHesHo sHikipiye
40
dent on advertisements for their survival and as such the Government must consider improved rate of advertisements for news channels too. News channel managements should use the enhanced fund for the benefit of their employees with structured salaries, other allowances, PF and ESI benefits, the release said. A meeting was held on January 3 between representatives of the State Government and newspaper owners’ association in which the Government
NERCORMP launched in Arunachal
cause notices
Ruwngthung Hrangbung The two-day long Analphung’s Teno Alum 2014, a cultural festival of the Anal tribe was inaugurated by MLA of 41 AC/ Chandel St Nunghlung, Victor Anal while attending the festival as the Chief guest of the inaugural function held today at Maha Union Higher Secondary School, Japhou in Chandel district . The festival, which was organized by Analphung, a web based managerial team was also attended by Principal of United College, BD Thumdal, as the Functional President besides several other dignitaries. St Nunghlung while speaking on the occasion observed that the world will come to know of the Anal tribe with its rich cultural and traditional values through the documented events which will be uploaded to the website of the Analphung. He urged the web based managerial team comprising of IT professionals to do
GuWAhAtI, JAnuAry 7 (PtI): Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) today urged the State Government to enhance Government sponsored advertisement contributions to the Assam based satellite news channels. EMFA also appreciated State Government’s decision to hike Government sponsored advertisement rates for newspapers by 60 per cent over the existing rate, a statement by the EMFA said. Assam’s news channels are registered as 'free to air' channel being more depen-
ex. mLA, Alakhümpeu Akütsüniu, (1966-67), sKK
Atushoh Khakiqhiu tsapi Justice H. KHetoHo semA, Rtd. Judge, supreme court of india, Alakhümpeu Akütsüghou, (1965-66), sKK.
Jubiliee küküMGHa kiGHini i.
Rev. s yevito Jimo, e.s. sBAK, nito mount
ii. Rev. DR. JosHuA RocHiLL, e.s, sBAK, Aizuto iii. Rev. HotoKHu ZHimomi, e.s. sABAK, Pughoboto iv. Rev. s. vitosHe swu, e.s. wsBAK, Aküvüto v.
Rev. KiHosHe Assümi, e.s. ncRc(sumi), Ayinato
KUKUSSÜ : Sümi, Yehpeka lo yezahkumlami, Hyampemi, Aqo-aho lo Sapheakemi, wove keulo SKK lo mula ighive kemi, SKK loka lo ampemi, kighithimi eno alokumsumi kumtsu ighino Jubilee kukumugha kusajelu penike alokivishi kussu ani.
Media & Publicity Committee, Platinum Jubilee (1940 - 2014-15), Sumi Kiphimi Kuqhakulu
C M Y K
4
businEss
Wednesday
Dimapur
8 January 2014
The Morung Express
CAG audit of telecos may open Pandora’s box NEw DELHi, JANUARY 7 (iANS): The Delhi High Court ruling that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) can look into the accounts of the private telecom firms because exchequer revenue is involved in it, may open a Pandora’s box and lead to similar demands for other sectors, although that may not be the intent or spirit behind the judgment, analysts and industry associations fear. “As far as audit through CAG is concerned, we believe the CAG was constituted to be answerable to parliament only in respect of businesses which are owned by the government,” said Sidharth Birla, president of industry lobby FICCI. “Therefore, to my mind, there is no place for CAG interfering into a private company’s books,” Birla said. The Delhi High Court ruled Monday that the CAG can look into the receipts of the private telecom firms as they have revenue sharing arrangements with the government. Ankita Somani, research analyst at Angel Broking, said the judgment
could have wider impact on other sectors as all companies’ revenues are linked to the Consolidated Fund. Companies and individuals contribute to the Consolidated Fund of India by paying in the form of taxes and royalties. Any under-reporting will result in a loss of revenue to the exchequer. The catch, of course, warn experts, is that if one were to go by this argument, the CAG should get authority to audit the accounts of any company. “Telecom companies like other companies are already being audited by independent auditors. So, CAG will be doing the same thing,” Somani told IANS. She said the CAG audit would not have any substantial impact on the revenues to the government. However, some analysts argue that the judgment need not be seen as an interference in the functioning of the private telecom firms. Moreover, they clarify, the CAG’s access to the private telecom firms’ accounts will be limited. The govern-
ment auditors are not given access or authorised to comment on expenditure and other dealings of the telecom companies. In its ruling, the Delhi High Court has clearly said the “audit has to be only an audit pertaining to the receipts and no more”. The government auditor is not given access or allowed to look into expenditure and other dealings of the private telecom firms. “CAG has power to audit all the receipts which go into the consolidated funds of India,” said Gaurang Kanth, an advocate who represented the CAG in the high court. But others do not entirely agree. “The main reason CAG has been asked to look into the revenue portion only is that there were allegations that the telecom operators were understating revenues so that they can save money which otherwise they have to give out as licence and various other fees,” Rishi Tejpal, research analyst with technology research and advisory firm Gartner, told IANS. Private telecom companies are re-
quired to pay three to eight percent of their revenue as spectrum usage charges, depending on how much spectrum they use. The companies are also required to pay to the government six to eight percent of their revenue as licence fees. “The government is concerned about the loss of revenue to it because of understatement of revenues by telecom operators,” he added. Mahesh Uppal, director of a telecom consultancy firm Com First, said the purpose of the ruling is to ensure that the revenues of the exchequer were not hurt. “Typically when an audit is done by the CAG of any government company, it sees whether the money has been spent properly by the public agencies,” Uppal told IANS. “But that is not the case with private companies here. The justification here is exchequer revenue are impacted because the companies are paying revenue as fees, which obviously concerns the government,” he said.
launched the all-new 4th generation Honda City for the Indian market in petrol and diesel versions. The ex-showroom petrol base variant starts at Rs 7.53 lakh and goes up to Rs 11.4 lakh for high-end variant. And the much-awaited diesel base variant-ex showroom is available at Rs 8.77 lakh and the high-end diesel variant will be available at Rs 11.30 lakh-ex-showroom. First introduced in India in January 1998, Honda City has a customer base of over 4.3 lakh across the country. City features The all-new City, developed as a global sedan, embodies the best of Honda’s technologies to deliver advanced sporty design, best comfort and best fuel Efficiency. The company promises that the sedan will exceed customer’s expectations.
M. Suresh Reddy, Managing Director, Pride Honda, said that the Honda City diesel variant is one of the most awaited cars in the segment. With its national launch today - Honda brings in the new dimension in the era of ef-
ficient engines. The new Honda City4th generation is available in all-new diesel engine and IVTEC petrol engine. Honda also launched the first of its kind mobile app that extends services to their customers.
Toyota unveils New Honda City launched; price starts at Rs 7.53L JANUARY 7 (BL): hydrogen-powered car HYDERABAD, Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) has
LAS VEgAS, JANUARY 7 (iANS): Toyota unveiled a hydrogen-powered “Car of the Future” that emits only water vapour, at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Toyota said the prototype would have a driving range of about 300 miles (480 km) and accelerate from zero to 60 miles (96 km) per hour in about 10 seconds. It also would take only three to five minutes to refuel hydrogen tanks. “Hydrogen-powered vehicles will enter our life sooner than many people believe and in much greater numbers than anyone expects,” Xinhua quoted Bob Carter, Toyota’s US vice-president, as saying in a statement Monday. The car is expected to go on sale in the US in 2015. California, the car’s initial market, will build 20 new hydrogen fuel stations next year. The number of stations will reach 40 by 2016 and 100 by 2024. Toyota said it partnered with the University of California, Irvine, to map out potential locations based on the assumption that owners could reach a refueling station within six minutes. “More information will be released later this year, including a US sales volume target, the name of the vehicle and comprehensive specifications and performance data”, it said. Two months ago, Japan’s Honda and South Korea’s Hyundai also announced they would launch hydrogen-powered vehicles in the US in 2015.
RBI panel recommends setting up banks for low income households MUMBAi, JANUARY 7 (REUtERS): A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel has recommended setting up a special category of banks that would exclusively cater to small businesses and low income households to expand the number of customers with access to banking services - the recommendations were issued by a panel set up by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan soon after
he joined office in September and is headed by veteran banker Nachiket Mor. The panel said these banks would focus on providing payment services and deposit products, with a maximum balance of 50,000 rupees ($800), to its target customers. The report also recommended setting up a category of wholesale banks in India that would provide funds to other banks
and financial institutions that directly lend to low income households. The recommendations come before the RBI is due to issue new banking licenses as part of efforts to improve the financial reach in a country where 60 percent of people do not have a bank account and nearly 90 percent of small businesses have no formal financial access. HIGHLIGHTS
_
LEISURE
Simple Rules - There is just one simple rule: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box co ntains the digits 1 through 9.”
1
SUDOKU Game Number # 2755
* Every adult should have a bank account by January 1, 2016: Nachiket Mor panel on financial inclusion. * Every resident should be issued an account at the time of receiving Aadhaar number by a bank: RBI panel on financial inclusion. * RBI panel recommends unified Financial Redress Agency under Finance Ministry for customer grievances.
public discoursE Chairman Isak Swu message to the Sumis Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
M
y dear Sumi brothers and sisters I am writing this message to you in view of the untoward situation prevailing in our homeland today. We believe that human beings are not perfect but we also know that human conditions can be corrected. Right and wrong will occur not only today amongst us but in the midst of this, although it may take time, the correct assessment of all issues is a must. Justice is essential and required by the human society at all times. The recent incident at Aghuyito village near Zunheboto town on December 21, 2013 was very unfortunate. We are for justice. We are serious and so a Kilonser Team’s Mission was dispatched but to our utter surprise, they were coerced to sign a paper under duress. We respect and welcome our people to understand together on any issues. But we cannot accept any forced imposition upon us and this is the only difference in our approach to a solution. We never blame the public but frenzy whipped up and fishing in the troubled water is what we cannot tolerate at any cost. We have never said the actions of our three errant cadres were right; neither denied nor justified it and accordingly after conducting thorough investigation punishment was meted out to them as per the Ahza of the Government. Indeed it has taken a reasonable time to process the case in order to give a fair punishment. But notwithstanding all these efforts, the aftermath stand-off with our Sumi public and our cadres leading to abandonment of the designated Mukalimi Camp and the death of innocent public is regrettable. We are all the more trying to reason with our people on any issues at any time. What is there that the NSCN did not do to the three errant cadres? We have done the right thing because justice is given and so it is my earnest appeal to the Sumi brothers and sisters to exercise restraint so as to prevent any further unwanted situation. We will not remain a silent spectator when some leaders with vested interest, traitors and adversaries challenge the Nation. It is our bounden duty to defend the nation and our people from the enemies within and without. Are the Nagas becoming stron-
ger from this state of affairs? Never! Rather it has become a blessing for our enemy. What a folly! Therefore every sensible person must guard himself from being fooled or misguided by these treacherous elements and become a contributing factor to disgrace our sacred cause. We must be wise enough to see that we are not being trapped in the schemes of the enemy. After the historical failure of the Naga National Council (NNC) to condemn the Shillong Accord of 1975, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) was formed in 1980 having committed ourselves to protect our nation’s existence and to uphold this righteous cause. We are faithful to carry forward the pledge taken by the Naga people in the year 1951. Based on this we are negotiating with the Government of India (GoI) at the highest level, without pre-condition and in a third country. During the course of the negotiation the GoI officially recognized our “Unique history and situation” and agreed that the solution to the Naga issue would be based on that recognition. We have not committed any political mistakes thus far by the grace of God. Our political struggle is steadfast journey towards its destination through the continuous support of the Naga people. History has not forgotten the sacrifices and contributions made by the Sumi people. The Sumi people are very much part of this proud history that has helped in shaping the destiny of the Nagas. There is no other honorable path apart from this. Let us see to it that no divisive elements disturb us from within. We are for the people and by the will of God we shall negotiate and bring about an honorable negotiated political settlement for the Nagas. My dear Sumi brothers and sisters, we cannot falter during this decisive moment for the task entrusted upon us by the Naga people. Together we must defend the Naga nation from the enemy of different shades. I am sending you this message on behalf of the Collective Leadership. May the good Lord bless and give all the wisdom and vision at this critical juncture of our history. Kuknalim. Isak Chishi Swu Chairman National Socialist Council of Nagalim
Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.
DAILY CROSS WORD
CROSSWORD # 2766
DIMAPUR Civil Hospital:
STD CODE: 03862
Metro Hospital: Faith Hospital: Shamrock Hospital Zion Hospital: Police Control Room Police Traffic Control East Police Station West Police Station CIHSR (Referral Hospital) Dimapur hospital Apollo Hospital Info Centre: Railway: Indian Airlines Chumukedima Fire Brigade Nikos Hospital and Research Centre Nagaland Multispecialty Health & Research Centre
Answer Number # 2754
KOHIMA
Police Control Room: North Police Station: South Police Station: Fire Brigade: Naga Hospital: Oking Hospital: Bethel Nursing Home:
232224; Emergency229529, 229474 227930, 231081 228846 228254 231864, 224117, 227337 228400 232106 227607 232181 242555/ 242533 224041, 248011 230695/9402435652 131/228404 229366 282777 232032, 231031 248302, 09856006026
STD CODE: 0370
Northeast Shuttles
100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202
O
R
CAr PArts
ALTERNATOR
MASTER
BRAKES
CYLINDER
BUMPERS ENGINE EXHAUST
MUD FLAPS SENSORS SPARK PLUGS
FREEZE PLUGS TRANSMISSION HEAD
U JOINTS
HEADLIGHTS
VISOR
HUB CAP
WATER PUMP
IGNITION
D Y E D V E E O E W N E L M T E N N
V L Y U Y A S E N S O R S N C E F
S T I F T Q M K A R S E K A R B H R
E L M A S T E R C Y L I N D E R E
E B O R E B U M P E R S A T A E J E
A L T E R N A T O R Q I D N O D Z
A I J O U H E A D L I G H T S I A E
E W O L A U E O G A E L Y H O M P
T T P I E X H A U S T I I R O A L
R L E R G T E G J M U D F L A P S U
D N N N R S A N U J O I N T S V G
C E G I I N I O S H N B E D Q I I S
E I R T R A N S M I S S I O N S H
O N O I S W A T E R P U M P A O O
H A E E O L T G U G N A A O V I R E
F R O N M H U B C A P I A O Z G O
ACROSS
I G E S P A R K P L U G S C T L I
1. Cease 5. Filched 10. Flexible containers 14. Puncture 15. Circumscribe 16. Found in some lotions 17. “Get up and go” 19. Leave in a hurry 20. Race an engine 21. Tablet 22. Violent disturbances 23. Treachery 25. Blackbeetle 27. A type of liquor 28. A final performance 31. Adhesive 34. Hindu loincloth 35. Meadow 36. Vipers 37. Periods of 60 minutes 38. Found on rotary phones 39. 3 in Roman numerals 40. Extravagant self-praise 41. Ill-gotten gains 42. Intermediate platforms in a staircase 44. Adult male 45. Whinny 46. Yearning 50. A long-legged S. American bird
52. Nigerian monetary unit 54. Zero 55. Kid 56. Replacement 58. Baking appliance 59. Grave marker 60. Region 61. Flippant 62. Fruity-smelling compound 63. Small slender gull
DOWN 1. A garment 2. Laser printer powder 3. Drink garnish 4. Animal companion 5. Ski race 6. Moon of Saturn 7. Leave out 8. Hornwort 9. French for “Summer” 10. Fundamentals 11. Boozer 12. Satyr 13. Collections 18. Put out 22. Hindu princess 24. The products of human creativity 26. Horse feed 28. Avoids 29. Close
30. Storm 31. Bucket 32. Largest continent 33. Triangular headsail 34. Toroidal friedcakes 37. Suspend 38. Fecal matter of animals 40. 8 in Roman numerals 41. Hawaiian veranda 43. To deprive of reason 44. Plaster 46. Fine thread 47. Accustom 48. Fertilizer ingredient 49. Gather 50. At the peak of 51. Donate 53. Assist in crime 56. South southeast 57. Make lace Ans to CrossWord 2765
DIMAPUR: 03862-232201/101 (O) 9436601225 (OC) CHUMUKEDIMA: 03862-282777/101 (O) WOKHA: 03860-242215 (O) 9402643782 MOKOKCHUNG: 0369-2226225/101 (O) 9856872011 (OC) PHEK: 03865-223838/101 (O) 9436012949 (OC)
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W
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FIRE STATIONS
STD CODE: 0369
Police Station 1: Police Station 2 :
2226241 2226214
Civil Hospital: Woodland Nursing Home: Hotel Metsüpen (Tourist Lodge):
2226216 2226263 2226373/2229343
TAHAMzAM (formerly Senapati) STD CODE: 03871 Police Station: Fire Brigade
222246 222491
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5 LOCAL ‘Determination, perseverance, and discipline needed to excel in sports’ Wednesday
The Morung Express
8 January 2014
Dimapur DC notifies
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): The Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, N Hushili Sema has notified all affected landowners that the government has accorded sanction vide notification for land acquisition of land for implementation of the 4 lane Dimapur bypass by the NHAI, which shall come with immediate effect. The DC in a notification informed all GBs/Chairmen of Kushiabil, Henivi, Kughovi, Nihoto, Khekhokhu, Old Showba and all landown-
ers supposed to be affected during the process of requisition and acquisition, starting from Chumukedima Bridge to Kushiabil, to extend co operation with to the survey team. The detailed survey for land and building/structures including other department’s involvement of utility shifting will start from January 10, it added. It was further informed that a meeting to discuss the issue of 4 lane NH Dimapur bypass has been
convened on January 9 at the office chamber of the Dimapur DC. The Chief Manager, Powergrid Corp of India, Dimapur; EE (Power) Domestic/Transmission, Dimapur; EE PHED Dimapur; EE PWD (H) Dimapur, EE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Dimapur; Manager (T) NHAI (NH), Dimapur; District Horticulture Officer, Dimapur; Fishery Officer, Dimapur and LRSO Dimapur have been requested to attend the meeting positively.
mOn, January 7 (mExn): Phomching Area Students’ Union (PASU) under Mon district has requested the power department to kindly re-install the power transformer at Phomching town and Longzang village, in view of the forthcoming KNSK (Phomching Unit) general conference at Longzang village on January 10, 2014 and 21st PASU general session cum sports meet to be held at Phomching town from January 13 to 21, 2014. A press release issued by PASU general secretary Khatwang Wangsa informed that the Union had approached the department concerned several times, but in vain, saying that Junior Engineer himself alone cannot authorize. The transformer at Phomching town was
reportedly brought and submitted several months back, but still lying unattended at the office of the department concerned. “To our utter dismay, except the J.E, neither EE (P) nor SDO (P) was present in the office for many days,” the note said. The union questioning the absence of the responsible officers for such a long time, has requested the department concerned to immediately re-install the power transformer before January 9, 2014, failing which, “the union may resort to any means so as to ensure justice to its people.” Meanwhile, the union has extended its cordial invitation to all its federating units; area leaders; intellectuals; dignitaries; and well wishers to attend the 21st PASU general session cum
sports meet. P. Pohwang, Parliamentary Secretary for Fire and Emergencies; Relief & Rehabilitation Kohima, Nagaland and Y.M. Yollow, Chairman for Honey Mission, Kohima, Nagaland will grace the session as chief guest and guest of honour respectively. Besides, Hamdok, Block Development Officer, Phomching will grace the Volley Ball final; Ethiel Konyak and Wangnyem PS to Parliamentary Secretary 44 A/C Phomching will be special guests and Wangpai V/P, KU will be match patron. The PASU general session will include Football (men); Volleyball (Men/ women); Sepaktakraw (Men/Women); high jump; Long jump: Marathon race; Quiz competition; dance and drama.
PASU requests power department
maO GaTE, January 7 (mExn): The Chithuni Silver Cup football tournament organized by Song Song Youth & Students’ Organization (SSYSO), Chakre Chovow village, kick started at Zhebvii local ground on Tuesday with L Dikho, MLA, 48 Mao A/C as chief guest of the inaugural function. The tournament also coincides with ‘Chithuni’, the ‘New Year’ festival of the Mao Nagas. Addressing the young players, the chief guest said in the present day world, sports has become one of the most lucrative professions with fame and glory attached to it. Stating that Manipur has become a “power horse” in sports and games, he reminded the youth of excellent sportspersons from the state, including box-
Chithuni Silver Cup football tournament starts
Dimapur
er Mary Kom who has brought laurels to the country and state. The local MLA however said that if one aspires to be a true sportsperson, then one must take sports seriously and not as mere pass time
or entertainment only. He said the qualities needed to excel in sports are discipline, determination and perseverance. Dikho, who is also a former Subroto Cup player said though Nagas have all
the attributes to become good sportspersons, yet they fail to hit the mark mainly because of lack of discipline and perseverance. He said the 25th anniversary of Chithuni football tournament should
also be a time to retrospect on why Mao youths have failed to make the desired mark in sports. Assuring that he would give his best to promote sports in the area, Dikho encouraged the players to always have the sporting spirit and never to give up. Earlier, the chief guest also inaugurated the monolith of the Chithuni Silver Cup. Other highlights of the opening ceremony included welcome address by convenor of programme committee, A Besii, short speech by chairman Song Song Village Authority, welcome song by Song Song Women Society and cultural dance by SSYSO. SSYSO games and sports secretary, B Ashikho, officiated the oath taking. Eighteen football teams from the village are taking part in the tournament.
human act is an attempt to “create misunderstanding and disunity of the already existed peaceful relationship between the Nagas and Karbis brethren for the last many years.” While conveying deep condolences to the bereaved family members, the ENPO expressed belief that the law enforcing agency
would bring justice to the families of the victims by punishing the culprits as per the law. The ENPO further urged all concerned to remain calm and maintain peaceful co-existence and co-operate with the law enforcing authorities in order to bring justice to the families of those victims at the earliest.
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): Toulazouma Village Council has expressed strong anguish and vehemently condemned the threat, vandalism and blank firing at the house of GB Vicha Venuh on January 3, reportedly by Deputy Kilonser Vedeta Neinu of GPRN/NSCN without any rhyme or reason. The Village Council, in a
press statement appended by its chairman, secretary, Head GB of the village and GB of B Khel of the village, has warned that it would not tolerate such kind of action against the innocent villagers that has disturbed the mind of peace loving citizens. It further requested the administration to take action against miscreants in the village.
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): The Chakhroma Students’ Union (CSU) in a press release has stated it was extremely exasperated by the “heinous murder of the nine Karbis and subsequent dumping of their bodies in our land.” The statement appended
by CSU president Rokovi Kense and its vice president Visako Rino “unequivocally” affirmed that “our land is neither a battle field nor a dumping ground of dead bodies.” Stating that the act has “tarnished the largely peaceful image of Chumukedima in particular and
Chakhroma in general,” the students’ union condemned the barbaric act in the strongest term. “Such barbarism should not come in the way while peace, goodwill and good sense is pursued between the Nagas and Karbis in the fallout of Rengma exodus,” it added.
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): Apropos a press statement issued by a group of “NCOs and Ors” of 5th NAP Battalion deployed in Delhi, which appeared in local dailies on January 3, Nagaland Police Service Association (NPSA) has demanded a thorough enquiry to find out the “ring leaders for disciplinary action”. Reiterating that any complaints, if any, should be redressed through proper channel within the police administration and department, NPSA stated it seriously viewed the “malafide intention” of “few
vested interest”. A press release appended by NPSA president and its general secretary stated that the intention of expressing the grievances through mass media “undermines the authority of the department with ulterior motives to create misunderstanding and division between the state and central services without proper justification and is highly objectionable.” The Nagaland Police Service (NPS) being one of the state premier services, the release said, cannot be graded into a secondary ser-
vice by a few “unscrupulous personnel.” It further voiced that NPS officers have been served with distinction all over the country and even in the United Nations. In light of that, it added, “The hard earned reputation of the State Police Service both within and outside Nagaland cannot be tarnished by a few disgruntled and indiscipline personnel.” Further, NPSA asserted that it will not remain silent, but take action as deemed fit if attempts are made to wrongfully tarnish its image and the dignity and caliber of its members.
MLA of 48 Mao A/C, L Dikho (standing left to monolith) along with his wife, village elders and others after unveiling the monolith of the Chithuni Silver Cup (football tournament) at Song Song (Chakre Chovow) village, Tuesday. (Morung Photo)
ENPO urges for calm and peace TVC condemns threat
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): The Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) has strongly condemned the “massacre” and dumping of nine Karbis at Pachaspura area, near Chumukedima, Dimapur. A press statement from ENPO president and its joint secretary stated that such barbaric and in-
Government of India 'Make Dimapur a crime free city' CSU condemns killing of nine people bureaucrats update Chakan Gaan-Ngai of the Rongmei tribe celebrated
KOhima, January 7 (Dipr): Government of India, made new appointments/reshuffled its bureaucracy in the month of December 2013. The senior officials and their new assignments are as follows: Ratan Watal, IAS appointed Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance; S.B Agnihotri, IAS, appointed Secretary, Ministry of Renewable Energy; S. Machendranathan, IAS, appointed Secretary Co-ordination, Cabinet Secretariat; S. Kumar, IAS appointed Secretary, Border Management, Ministry of Home Affairs; Rajiv Mehrishi, IAS, appointed Secretary, Department of Fertilizers; A. Johri, IAS, appointed Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals; A.R Sihag, IAS, appointed Director General, Acquisition, Ministry of Defence; Parvinder Sohi Behuria, IRS, appointed Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission; Santosh Panda, ap-
pointed Chairman, National Council for Teachers Education; G. Gurucharan, IAS, appointed Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs; T. Radha, IAS, appointed Commissioner, Disaster Management; A.K Sanghi, ITS appointed Joint Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Home Affairs; J.B Singh appointed Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources; K. Sreenivasulu, IAS, appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development; A. Bhatnagar, CSS, appointed Additional Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission; A. Chaturvedi, IDAS, appointed Deputy Director General, Unique Identification Authority of India, Planning Commission; S.M Sahai, IFoS, appointed Director, Ministry of Tribal Affairs; P. Kumar, IRTS, appointed Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Mines; and R. Kumar, IRSEE, appointed Director, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Statement issued with 'ulterior motives': NPSA
Young Rongmei girls perform a traditional dance during the Chakan Gaan-Ngai, festival of the Rongmeis celebrated in Dimapur on January 7. (Morung Photo)
Dimapur, January 7 (mExn): Close on the heels of the recent spate of killings in and around Dimapur, Zhaleo Rio, Parliamentary Secretary for Urban Development, today urged upon all the citizens of Dimapur to make the city 'crime free'. He was speaking as chief guest on the occasion of Chakan GaanNgai, the premier festival of the Rongmeis, here in Dimapur.
SALIENT FEATURES OF CHAKAN GAAN-NGAI The post harvest Festival of the Rongmeis
Rongmei, like any other Nagas endowed with rich cultural heritage. They celebrate Festivals with Folk songs, dances and oral recitals/hymns all the year round with much pomp and gaiety. They have different attire, songs and dances associated with different festive occasions. In fact, they are known for their beautiful folk dances and for their festivities. The Rongmei (Kabui) dance is applauded the worldwide. Of many Festivals celebrated, the CHAKAN GAAN-NGAI which is the premier festival of the Rongmeis is celebrated after the harvest in winter month. CHAKAN GAAN or GAAN BU is a lunar month indicating Winter (Dec –Jan. of Solar Calendar). Gaan-Ngai is opened with blowing of Mithun horn, a way of heralding the festival from boys dormitory called “KHANGCHU”. Uses of drums, cymbals, flutes and other musical instruments are allowed from this festival, till the arrival of next sowing season. Thus, before Gaan-Ngai festival, uses of drums and other musical instruments are taboo. As days enters the Chakan Gaanbu (winter month) the elders of the village decides the days for the festival and an-
nounces to the members for necessary preparation of the festival, which lasts for 5 to 7 days. At the beginning of this festival the male dormitory makes New Fire by rubbing bamboo cord with bamboo gauze placed under a piece of dry wood, which is distributed to all the household of the village to light the New Fire in the fireplace of the household symbolising new and fresh life. This traditional method of making fire is called “MHAI LAPMEI”. The last rite to the family members who died after the last Gaan –Ngai is also performed by the concerned family members in this festival. It is believed that the soul of the diseased does not leave the earthly home till this rite is performed. The Chakan Gaan- Ngai in other words liberates the souls of the near and dear ones, hence considered important. Chakaan Gaan – Ngai is marked with many Indigenous games and sports like Guaichang nimmei ( Catching of Mithun ), Guak nimmei (catching of pig ), Daan Chammei (Long jump), Tau phaimei (Shot put), Annaomei (wrestling) etc. During this festival, folk songs and dances are performed by young boys and girls with grand festivities with their fineries. Thaban Rongmei, President, Rongmei Community, Dimapur
Calling Dimapur a 'mini Nagaland' because of the cosmopolitan nature, the chief guest urged the gathering to work together in unity and fulfill the theme of the festival which was "Celebrating Oneness." Further lamenting on the ever increasing “overground” organizations, Rio stated that many “overground” organizations have spurt out, with the sole intention of making financial gains
and protecting oneself. This, he said, was not in the interest of Naga society. The festival celebrated with much pomp saw various cultural items and songs being performed. Earlier, Thaban Rongmei, President, Rongmei Community, Dimapur, gave the welcome address, and, Khalo Kapfo, President, Tenyimi Union, who was the guest of honour, gave a short exhortation.
Public SPace
AIKNA’s Response to RNPC
Mr. K. Solomon Rengma, General Secretary of RNPC has termed AIKNA as a “so-called organisation” which itself amounts to belittling a respectable organization of the Karbis. If Mr. Solomon is not trying to provoke a clash then he should have mentioned that as soon as some Karbis were assaulted on December 14, 2013, the Karbis have convened a peace meeting the next day on December 15 at Sarihuti, at Bey village when the peacemakers who went to handover the letter for a peace meeting were instead mercilessly assaulted by socalled militants who spoke fluent Assamese and covered their faces with gamusa. We, Karbis and the Rengmas living in Karbi Anglong want peace. We sincerely believe that there are a few misled Rengmas and also a few misled Karbis who are being used by Government agencies to cause a clash and irreparable enmity between the Karbis and the Rengmas. The tribes people living in Karbi Anglong including the Karbis, Rengmas, Kukis, Dimasas, Khasis, Garo, Bodo, etc., are already impover-
ished and humiliated due to stage-managed clashes between among the tribes since 2003. We, Karbis as a whole, are not against nomination of one Rengma person as MAC in the KAAC. The Rengmas know it very well that in 1953, in the first District Council two Rengma persons were made Members of District Council out of twelve. Due to smallness of population of the Rengmas they have not been able to get elected to the District Council. Therefore, in the 1989 District Council election the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) gave a ticket to Mr. Resulo Rengma to contest from Lumbajong constituency where there are only a few hundred Rengma voters. The Karbis voted for him and he was elected and made one of the Executive Members of the District Council. Therefore, the general public of the Rengmas as a whole are not against the Karbis. Likewise, the Karbi public as a whole are not against the Rengmas. It is not understood why Mr. K. Solomon Rengma, General Secretary, Rengma Naga
Peoples’ Council (RNPC) is against the Karbis. The total population of the Rengma people is not more than 18000 according to the version of some Rengma leaders. However, the total voters of the Rengma are about 4000 only. Mr. K. Solomon has claimed that the Rengmas would join with other “28 non-Karbi communities of Rengma Hills”. However, in the actual Rengma inhabited areas there only Karbis and Rengmas. There are no other communities. Out of the two, that is Karbi and Rengma, the Karbis are majority. Both of the communities are in a very bad economic condition. If Mr. K. Solomon Rengma aimed at creating Rengma Hills of the whole of eastern Karbi Anglong measuring 8700 sq.Km, the Rengmas will be a microscopic minority in the district he proposed of making. Being a leader he must be aware that the Bangasena held public rally of the Bengalis at Uttarborbil within eastern Karbi Anglong on May 6, 2007. And the Bangasena over local TV channels, and in front of reporters, on
September 4, 2012, declared Karbi Anglong as Bangabhoomi. Bangabhoomi means “Bengali land”, and Bangasena means “Bengali underground Army”. Will the Rengmas and the Karbis, and other tribes, be not suppressed under the Bangasenas? Has Mr. K. Solomon Rengma thought over it? Has he not known the groaning of the tribal people of Tripura under the Bengalis there? Does he not know how the Meiteis of Manipur were suppressed? Does he not know that the Dimasa kingdom was annihilated at Khaspur by a particular community? We can answer to all the points put forward by Mr. K. Solomon Rengma. But we honestly feel that Mr. K. Solomon Rengma and his friends and the Karbi Anglong Peace Forum leaders should meet and discuss the matter thoroughly. Dialogue is the need of the hour. It is reported in The Hills Times and other papers Mr. Keyhang Rengma, C-in-C, RNHPF confirmed that Eastern Command of the outfit has killed the nine persons at New Jaluki Road in Dima-
pur in the Morning of December 28, 2014. The actions of RNHPF of killing the nine persons have defamed the entire Nagaland and Naga people. It appears that RNHPF is to create hatred in the minds of the Nagas against the Karbis which is deplorable. But from our side, the Karbis condemn the killing of six Rengmas in Chokihola area the third force. The Government of Assam is demanding CBI enquiry for the killing of ten Karbis in Dimapur, for the killings of only ten Karbis in Dimapur, but we the AIKNA demand that if at all CBI enquiry is ordered, it must enquire into all the tribal clashed since 2003 in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao including the recent killings which began on December 27, 2013 in Chokihola area. We are very much thankful to the Government of Nagaland and the Naga people for all their help and sympathy. We cannot understand why K Solomon Rengma is blaming the church which is working honestly for peace.
The Morung Express is introducing “Public Space” as part of our intention to provide deliberate space for the opinions of the people to be expressed and heard through this newspaper. Nonetheless, The Morung Express points out that the opinions expressed in the contents published in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper or the editor.
George Rongpi, President, AIKNA.
6
IN-FOCUS
The Power of Truth
The Morung Express WEDnEsDAy 8 JAnuAry 2014 vol. IX IssuE 6
I
Introspection
n times such as this present crisis which is simmering with violence, the human heart is filled with emotions of loss, pain, anger, rage, fear, bitterness; and the human mind is distressed and clouded with feelings of uncertainty, and eagerness for retribution. And truth has become a casualty. Interrupting this momentum and negative reactivity is critical to ending the violence and ceasing hostilities that perpetuate senseless harm and destruction. Decisive introspection that creates space for nonviolent means of discernment, reflection and consciously seeking the truth can effectively break the chaotic and confusing cycle of violence.....
..... This is an opportune time for us, as Nagas, to be introspective and demonstrate our desire to honor the prophetic words of Micah “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
lEfT wiNg |
Jimmy Carter & Robert A Pastor
Time to be bold and make peace in Syria
O
n November 26, the United Nations secretary general made another call for a Geneva peace conference on Syria, to be held on January 22. These calls have been issued since June 2011 but no belligerents have shown up because each has been allowed to define the preconditions for negotiations. The only way to break this stalemate is for the UN and major powers to set the conditions for participation and enforce them. During the past 2½ years, 100,000 more Syrians have died, more than two million have fled the country as refugees and six million have been internally displaced. The war among Syria’s many sectarian groups has become more brutal, and some neighbouring countries are even more deeply involved in trying to help one side or the other prevail. It is time to ask why the calls for peace have been fruitless. The opponents of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have insisted that the goal of the Geneva conference is to replace his government, something he predictably rejects. His government demands that the increasingly fragmented opposition groups, all of whom it classifies as ‘terrorists’, put down their weapons before they can discuss peace. This stalemate explains why the latest call for negotiations in January is unlikely to succeed. The UN has been fortunate to have two brilliant special envoys dealing with Syria: Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi. But they have not been permitted to use their negotiating skills, because the principal actors insist on preconditions of victory rather than the mutual accommodation essential to bringing the war to an end. These preconditions aim to win an unwinnable war rather than to forge an imperfect peace and in the process they deny the Syrian people their sovereign right to choose. An alternative set of preconditions, difficult for all sides to accept, can lead toward democracy and tolerance. This would require that global and regional actors take the first step and encourage their Syrian allies to take the next ones. Hard compromises All actors will need to make hard compromises if they want to end the war. If they fail to take these difficult steps, the war may very well go on for another decade and likely create a wider circle of destruction and death. We propose three principles on which to base the discussions in Geneva: • self-determination: the Syrian people should decide on the country’s future government in a free election process, under the unrestricted supervision of the international community and responsible non-governmental organisations, with the results accepted if the elections are judged free and fair; • respect: the victors should assure and guarantee respect for all sectarian and minority groups, and • peacekeeping: to ensure that the first two goals are achieved, the international community must guarantee a robust peacekeeping force. Any local, regional or global actors that accept these three preconditions should be welcomed to the Geneva negotiations. They should not be controversial but they mean that Syrian factions—and their supporters—would have to back down from their former unreasonable demands. The recent agreement on control of chemical weapons indicates that unforeseen compromises are possible if the UN and its major international players can decide on a common goal and work together. No one can win this war. The parties think they cannot afford to lose because they fear annihilation and this explains why the war will keep going unless the international community imposes a legitimate alternative. An important first step is to create a credible, independent, nonpartisan election commission. A second important step is to build a security mechanism that would prevent any party from sabotaging the election or implementation of the results. We would need Russia and the United States to agree to this approach, Iran and other regional powers to stop supporting their proxies and the UN to elevate this issue to a top priority. It is time to change the agenda, the preconditions and the strategy on Syria—and end the war.
THE EDIT PAGE
C O M M E N T A R Y
Ai Weiwei & En Liang Khong Source: openDemocracy
An Artist’s Duty: An interview with Ai Weiwei
W
hile China prepared for the 2008 Olympics, the artist Ai Weiwei was busy collaborating with the Swiss architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron, on the Bird’s Nest stadium. Gradually, Ai began to experience a deep sense of disgust: “I was so involved in architecture that it opened my eyes to society, dealing with bureaucracy, policies and workers,” Ai observes, “and then you start to realise why they are building, and how they are using it. It is a very political act.” He denounced the Games as nothing more than a totalitarian spectacle. Profoundly disenchanted by the enforced relocation of Beijing inhabitants as a result of the Games, Ai began a journey from radical but successful artist to infamous activist. But Ai reaches back to a longer history when he stakes out his political battleground today. The line between Ai’s performance and politics has constantly pushed against the artist’s remit in an authoritarian situation. He is the son of the modernist poet Ai Qing, who found himself banished to a labour camp along with his family during the 1950s anti-rightist movement. “Now my own position is very simple,” Ai tells me. “I am an individual. I am an artist. I am living in this society which my poet father also lived in. Many other artists and writers live in it. And I just have to give out my opinion on the matters that occur in my daily life.” Away from the sprawling mass of glass and steel that cocoons Beijing’s hurtling development, Ai Weiwei’s studio house sits on a quiet street in the suburban Caochangdi district. A bicycle strewn with flowers is parked outside, in silent protest against Ai’s restricted travel arrangements. I pass through into a still courtyard of grass, trees and ceramics. In an unsubtle attempt to depoliticize him, Ai was imprisoned in 2011 on charges of tax evasion and served with a £1.5 million tax bill. “The problem is that the Party does not trust people, and is afraid of their power,” Ai says, “once that does not change, any talk of true social change is not possible.” Ai’s arrest came as part of a broader crackdown amidst Party fears that China might learn something from the mass movements blazing across the Middle East, inspiring a “Jasmine Revolution”. He was released after 81 days. Freed from prison but banned from leaving China, Ai exists in a strange purgatory. “Even though I was hurt, or almost beaten to death, put through jail conditions and the fabrication of crimes, I am still alive,” Ai reflects wearily, as the morning sun begins to filter through his studio, “I appreciate this very much, and I am always ready for a clear minded fight.”
Performance and Politics It is not long before a certain wildness of the artful agitator and social critic in Ai’s personality enters the conversation: “Once the internet age arrived we have had a very different kind of politics. An individual can bear much more responsibility and be much more powerful.” Ai Weiwei clearly delights in his role as free-spirited critic, fully immersed in the virtual society of the networked age, with all its promise. “Power in China lacks all legitimacy. After 60 years in control, how can you still not let people vote? When you disassociate yourself, without trust or credibility, any other talk has no meaning,” Ai fumes. “We may try to jump from the western frame to measure what China is. But what China really is, is a society which lacks the very most fundamental basis for a real social structure.” He formulates his critique in deadly fashion via the daily documentation of his life on Twitter. In the networked individual’s embrace, social media becomes both a savvy tool with which to defy the State, as well as a transcultural gesture. In seeking to align technological power, the will for liberation and globalisation, Ai relegates his opponents to the hierarchical forms of the past: “My critics use the judgments of old society because they do not understand the internet. Now an anonymous person can speak a sentence so brilliant or poetic, and it is so readily accepted by others…” Ai’s fostering of a fully-fledged social critique, on course for a showdown with the government, was compounded by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which thousands of children fell victim to shoddy architecture. “I do not care as long as my message is not an empty performance,” Ai asserts. “So my message is very clear: to fight for individual freedom, to fight for democracy, and by doing so, to clearly inform a society and become someone for others to reflect on.” Bypassing official news networks, Ai began his own “Citizens’ Investigation” in Sichuan, shoving his camera under the noses of government officials, blaming the province’s structural faults on systemic corruption, and then explosively linking this with the powers that be in Beijing. “This is a society in which there is so little space for non-governmental organizations to grow,” Ai laments. “The Party wants to take control of everything, even in areas it is incapable of dealing with.” I am ushered past a monumental list of the 5,212 dead children, which fills the back wall of his studio. “The Communist Party are the lawmakers, but they do not follow the law, nor respect the constitution,”Ai rages. “They are constantly making contradictions in their policies. When the powers that be are like this, the whole system has no clear rationality and no clear settlement.”
Ai Weiwei
and wrong, and must speak out,” Ai maintains, “to put people who are a little vocal in jail is certainly not the answer. I cannot celebrate participating in such a crime, and will not remain silent on this.” Ai may see his politics as above ambiguity; he is an iconoclast who values freedom of speech above any other right. “In every society, even in nations like the US, such independent voices are needed,” he states confidently. But it would not be cynical to say that Ai has been a gift for western editorial pages determined to further chastise China over its systemic problems. This is anathema to those western commentators who, with much hand wringing, duly deplore the idea that the west can still proclaim itself a global force for liberal enlightenment. And yet this simply glides over the very complex ways in which Ai Weiwei’s art has encountered ‘the West’, as it spilled out of the gallery, out of Beijing’s underground, and out of China. “Many so-called democratic societies are rotten every day, as capitalism and bureaucracy eat right through them,” Ai tells me. “When we look at the case of Edward Snowden and others, you can easily see how the basic nature of the power there is to exploit, not to protect the people.” During the 1990s, Ai defaced ancient Chinese ceramics with Coca-Cola branding. This was both the start of a complex relationship with his western audience, and a repeated interaction with the idea of China. Ai’s art is no uncritical embrace of the west, and is well aware of the intertwining of the Party and American business interests that have marked the reform era. In the wake of the suppressed Tiananmen protests, the Chinese Communist Party looked to the west for new sources of inspiration, and found it in Coca-Cola. By 1996, a Party textbook proclaimed the soft drink as a model for China’s new propaganda: “if you have a good image, any problem can be solved.” The underlying assumption that those who dissent from the current economic and political status quo of Chinese society have fallen head over heels for western values may well be a fantasy. Ai’s constant demand for human rights is an easy fit for any western liberal, but his critical ideology encompasses everything from urban alienation through to the Party’s collusion with big business. Ai is especially damning over the ways in which Beijing has developed during the reform period. “Each year Beijing has, in the last 10 to 20 years, built the equivalent site of the Beijing of 1949. It has developed so fast,” Ai explains. “Now, foreigners come and they say, oh it’s so fast! But where did the tremendous social resources to develop like this come from? You can see who has built it, and who has profited from it.” Throughout the 1990s there was a hope that China’s new entrepreneur class would transform itself into a democratic vanguard. These days, the small circle of liberal dissent is powerless in the face of the bureaucratic capitalist collusion between business elites and the one-party state. In talking to Ai, you swiftly begin to sense that the dichotomy between market and state is, in many ways, meaningless. Meanwhile, the suffering visited on the vast reserves of migrant labour who flood the cities accelerates. “Those who come to build Beijing do not have housing, do not have any protection, nor can their children get schooling here. That’s how China develops,” Ai says scornfully. “The landlord is the Party, and it keeps these people in poverty. After so many years, did it think to provide anything for these people? Medicine or education?” For Ai, Chinese history is full of contradictions that keep threatening to break through the façade of its new century. This is encapsulated in his 2011 bronze animal head sculptures, “Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads”, installed at the Pulitzer Fountain at the foot of Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. The zodiac animal heads ultimately derive from the fountain sculptures of the eighteenth century imperial Summer Palace of Yuanmingyuan in Beijing, torched and looted in 1860 by French and British soldiers. The plundered zodiac heads’ existence on the global art market has returned in recent years as a potent reminder of China’s humiliation at the hands of imperialist aggressors, while China’s demands for the repatriation of such plunder are steeped in its new nationalism. “Essentially, the Zodiac reflects the condition in which China realizes it cannot speak one sentence clearly. In every sentence it opens its mouth to speak, there are contradictions,” Ai explains. “Now, you can talk about the West taking away the Zodiac heads. Yet the Cultural Revolution destroyed such items a hundred million times over, daily. Some had to destroy the old world, others had to completely destroy the whole basis for aesthetics and philosophy.”
The tragedy of development Ai’s western critics fear that the western imagination could not have more perfectly dreamt up this artist. Some reach the rather misguided conclusion that the Party can confidently label Ai a charlatan, The responsibility of dissent while it keeps the ‘true’ liberal political opposition Writers and critics returning from Beijing over in the prison cells. “I am just a normal individual. I the last few years have been eager to regale me with do not want to be a hero, but I have a sense of right stories about how the once meagre prospects of the
avant-garde have escalated into an artistic ferment and cultural boom. “All these artists,” Ai tells me, “want to get into some gallery, or into some auction sale.” Beijing’s vision of artistic modernity has left me with grave misgivings over the ways in which the global arrival of China’s culture fever has come severely lamed by both commercial and political pressures. Every Chinese artist in the aftermath of Tiananmen has had to face decisions regarding the extent to which they work within the system. And the economic logic of playing by the rules has emerged as a powerful invitation for cooptation. The film director Zhang Yimou took this to its logical extreme, and found himself directing the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony. Ai Weiwei, in both performance and politics, chose a different, lonely path. “Today, it is not difficult to choose the road I took. Of course you do not have to be so extreme. But why should I look so radical? Only because we are so lacking in similar actions,” Ai exclaims. “If there were more artists and writers like this, how could the officials handle it? It’s not possible. But when there are just a few, they can easily find a way to deal with you.” For Ai, Chinese artists must “absolutely see it as their duty to dissent. If you profit, you are not bearing your responsibilities.” While some artists have been less reserved, others are caught up in a more ambivalent dance. One of these is Xu Bing, an artist who renders the wash of traditional Chinese landscape painting in achingly beautiful installation pieces. Xu lived out a selfimposed exile in New York from 1990, where he shared Ai’s apartment. He returned to China a few years ago to take up a position as vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Such decisions are eagerly encouraged by the Party, which rewards playing the game with money and prestigious tenure. “We had lived together, talked about everything, and were so close,” Ai says bitterly. “After he returned to Beijing, he didn’t even call me.” Another of Ai’s former friends, the director Zhao Liang, a celebrated figure of China’s independent documentary movement, also embodies what is at stake for the political future of Chinese art. Zhao’s 2009 film Petition is a furious documentation of Chinese citizens converging on Beijing, carrying various injustices for redress, and then the subsequent brutal suppression of such dissent by the government. But Zhao submitted to Chinese government pressure to withdraw his film from the 2009 Melbourne Film Festival, Ai tells me, when it became apparent that it would also be screening a film by the Uighur human-rights activist Rebiya Kadeer. “Zhao Liang thought he could use it as a platform to play at politics. But I think that is a very cheap act. He does not understand what the Party is. The Party will never trust artists,” Ai warns. As it happens, I meet Zhao Liang the following morning in Caochangdi’s Three Shadows Gallery, where he has agreed to help me with my research on Beijing’s underground artists during the 1990s. “Back then the artists were proud of their utopian way of living,” Zhao wistfully remarks, “nowadays, artists are rich and poor, but at the time all were the same, and shared ideals about both art and economics.” But if these days Ai continues to play his dangerous games with the authorities, Zhao prefers to keep one foot dipped in the official world. In Ai’s philosophy, such compromises – the price for working inside the system, will eventually manifest themselves in the artworks themselves. “In every dictatorship you have intellectuals and artists that, in selling out their aesthetics or judgments say, only by working within the system, can we change it. But look at what they produce afterwards,” Ai angrily says. “They cannot say anything meaningful.” When I return home later that evening, I watch a video in which Ai Weiwei challenges Zhao on camera over the withdrawal of his film. The resulting confrontation is upsetting. “We were harmonized,” Zhao mumbles in reply, in a satirical expression aimed at the Chinese leadership’s declaration of a ‘harmonious society’. After visiting Ai, I spend the afternoon wandering through Beijing’s disorientating 798 art district, not far from Ai’s Caochangdi residence. A former factory now transformed into an exhibition space, 798 is a suffocating haze of tourist shops and plush galleries that perfectly captures all of modern China’s soft power pretensions and market fever. The district’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art opened in 2007 with a survey of the ’85 New Wave forged by China’s radical artists’ movements. When I visited late last year, the Center was busy showcasing an exhibition of luxury Swiss watches. Amidst such new confusion, Ai’s defiant politics remains deeply concerned for China’s artists. He continues to act as their conscience, showing them radical possibilities as they navigate the heady excesses of China’s socialist neoliberalism. “How can you be an artist, which I think is the most powerful position since you truly are an individual, and then at the same time give up that position to attempt to become a bureaucrat?” Ai despairs. “How can you not speak out, and encourage other individuals who also have the same potential to make independent judgments and beautiful work? Then at least you understand how important it is to be an individual, at its most meaningful.” This was the lesson of Ai’s rogue “Fuck Off” exhibition back in 2000, launched as a counter-movement to the Shanghai Biennale, which asserted artistic integrity in the face of official cooptation. Did China’s artists listen? “Right and wrong is so simple, but we cannot talk about it in public. What does that mean?” Ai reflects. “So I was there, and I talked about it, once. Maybe I will be forgotten later, but at least somebody has talked about it.”
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PERSPECTIVE
7 Funds and Civil Liberties WEDNEsDAy
THE MORUNG EXPRESS
8 January 2014
T
NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE
V. suresh
hrough the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the government uses its powers to control flow of funds, policing what is essentially a financial transaction. Often, the FCRA is used to suppress rights activities, to intimidate and silence funded organizations who criticize state policy, expose rights abuses or challenge government action. It gives the government uncontrolled, discretionary powers to selectively favour groups by granting permissions for foreign funding. If perchance a human rights organization dissents against the state, then it is politically targeted; its FCRA permission is cancelled or denied. Outfits run by Hindutva right-wing groups like the RSS receive lots of foreign funds; FCRA constraints are rarely applied to them. The law is used only to stifle certain actions, and nurture other convenient political agenda. This itself is human rights violation, and I agree with Nair and Guruswamy that the FCRA must be repealed. While I criticise the FCRA's stranglehold, a discussion on foreign funding would be incomplete if we ignored some of its impacts. Many funded groups do good campaigns, but the activities of many others are questionable. For them, human rights work is more a profession, than an expression of commitment. Does human rights work in India need global funding? I believe not. People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), with which I've been associated for over two decades, raises campaign-specific funds only from Indian sources. We do not accept institutional funding, global or Indian. We have a cap on individual contributions too, to encourage broad-based participation. This decision, made during PUCL's establishment in 1976, was driven by ethical and political considerations. The foremost is that human rights work should be voluntary, political, and reflect a personal and ethical commitment to strengthen democracy. Dependence on funding and funding agencies, unfortunately, has crippled human rights work in India. It has begun to dictate the agenda of human rights work, the issues chosen, and the strength and durability of campaigning. Funders' interests determine the flavour of the season, whether it is HIV/AIDS, education, child rights, women's rights, Dalit rights, or torture. Funding has turned human rights into a career, and it encourages projectbased, apolitical involvement. Institutional funding has promoted several unhealthy trends in human rights work in India. Firstly, it has led to the depoliticization of endemic human rights issues. Most violations are structural and chronic, but because of the pattern of funding interest, many NGOs only look at the manifestations of problems. They focus primarily on superficial, less contentious incidents of rights violations— on individual cases of torture instead of institutionalized abuse of police and state power; on child rights instead of poverty, land reforms, oppressive agrarian structure and unemployment; on incidents of women’s rights violation instead of systemic patriarchy. The politics of issues are often dominated by many a funder's illusion that human rights work is humanist, sanitised, and beyond the political. In other words, development fixes are offered as the solutions for rights violations. In Tamil Nadu, for example, after the tsunami on 26 December, 2004, activists realised that rehabilitation funds would only be available for some actions like distributing boats and nets, or housing. The administration only granted permissions to NGOs that did development work that didn't challenge the state's relief and rehabilitation measures. Barring a few notable exceptions, most funded organizations fell in line. Few questioned the state policy on rehabilitation, or caste-discrimination in relief operations. They didn't examine the tsunami in the context of coastal degradation, pollution or crisis afflicting the fisheries sector. The unprecedented and massive inflow of funds also fuelled shameful competition amongst funded-NGOs and compromises among local activists. Powerful collective community action was punctured by quick-fixes from NGOs flush with funds. I emphasize that I'm not accusing all groups. But widespread corruption and ethical degeneration are real concerns that a debate on foreign funding should deal with.
W
hether your finances took a turn for the better or for the worse in 2013, there’s no better time than the present to ensure that things look rosy in 2014. Take the time to research each of these categories and determine what you can do to improve your finance over the next 12 months. • Pay down debt If you have debt, one of your first New Year’s resolutions should be to pay down your debt this year. Challenge yourself to go beyond the minimum payments and focus on getting your accounts paid off as soon as possible. If you have too many, start with the lowest amount and gradually going high. • Have an emergency fund Now may be the time to start setting aside a real emergency fund. I strongly recommend that you set aside cash to cover anywhere from 3 to 6 months of your expenses in an emergency fund, but you can decide for yourself how much you’re comfortable with. Set a savings goal this year and keep track of your progress monthly. • Retirement planning No matter your age, you need to start thinking about retirement. Unfortunately, many of us are lacking in the retirement savings department. Keep atleast 20% of your income in retirement fund.
Dependence on institutional funding has depoliticized, monetized and corrupted much of the human rights work in India. While statecontrol of human rights funds is objectionable, rights movements will be durable and effective only when independent of big sponsors
Secondly, funding has monetized human rights action. NGOs pay— or in their words, compensate— labourers or farmers who attend protests. They give them travel fare, boarding, and minimum wages for the days they miss work. While I don't blame the participants for accepting such payment, this practise discourages the volunteerism that has driven Indian human rights movements for decades. It has kicked the wind out of sustained participation even in some iconic grass roots movements. People now ask: will you give me a biryani, a folder and a bag? If not compensated or incentivised, sometimes, they do not participate. Democratic processes, which thrive on voluntary involvement and commitment can alone take the human rights movement forward. A few months ago, in Barwani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a massive tribal protest mobilised people in thousands. Every participant contributed from her or his own pocket. The culture of paying for attendance has permeated many movements and debilitated, to an extent, the organic, empowering process of grass roots democracy. Local movements – of Dalits, agricultural workers, women’s groups – which hitherto relied on their own resources are, in recent years, being wooed by funding organizations offering to subsidize their agitations. This has sparked unhealthy competition amongst groups that earlier collaborated. Thirdly, I worry about the emergence of a human rights career. Social workers too need a livelihood and form of sustenance; but I ask a moral and ethical question: what compromises are built into human rights becoming a profession? When it is a job, a human rights `employee’ works for the first three years on tribal rights, and when offered a higher salary, he/she moves on to work child rights. This job-hopping erodes the seriousness, vision and long term commitment necessary for sustained human rights work, whose timeline for success is longer than in most other fields. When human rights professionals are parachuted into places for a few years, and are then asked to move elsewhere, their involvement and contribution never moves far. Their approach is '9-to-5', while civil liberties is a 24-hours, 365 days affair that directs the way you live life. The ideal is democratic involvement in human rights. You contribute whether you're a lawyer, advertising professional, construction worker, or businessman. Fourthly, one cannot overstate the lack of accountability in the NGO sector. There are, of course, exceptions, but the painful, ugly reality is that funds are flushed away through corrupt or inefficient practices. Valuable human rights funds are largely spent on accommodation, travel, food, and salaries. The more funds go towards administrative, office or salary expenses, the less there is to help a rape victim or torture survivor. Indian NGOs are often personality-based; a good number are controlled by one individual or a family. Their lifestyles are often lavish and questionable. It is here that tremen-
New year and Money Simplifying perSonal finance
Dipankar Jakharia
dous corruption resides. Fifthly, and most worryingly for me, funding has begun to affect the priorities of human rights groups. We live in a severely repressive and anti-democratic context in India today. Ruling elites have joined the state to suppress and crush people's agitations. Independent, spontaneous protests against gang rape or corruption have been quelled with police force. Many Indian activists are today saddled with exhausting litigation and false prosecutions; entire communities like Tamil fishermen or Muslims have been branded as terrorists; and marginalised sections of society suffer state-sponsored brutality. Human rights work is caught in a nexus of industry, politics, and power. Even in this challenging scenario, few funded humanitarian groups question state terrorism or corporate impunity, beyond making politically correct statements. Industry-related issues like illegal mining, low wages, bans on factory unions, abuses by armed forces, villagers against coastal nuclear power plants are politically incendiary and receive little support. Often, practices of funded organizations are determined by fund flow, and by the sponsor's ability or willingness to foot the bill. Taking on state or corporate systems requires independent, consistent support. Large sponsors rarely enable that. I am engaged with PUCL because its core principles resonate with how I understand civil liberties: as a personal commitment that doesn't depend on the availability or dicta of institutional funding. During the 2004 parliamentary elections, PUCL's Tamil Nadu state unit launched a Citizen’s Campaign for Peace and Harmony. This was in the backdrop of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat and the BJP's 'India Shining' campaign that threatened the secular fabric of the country. Many ordinary citizens contributed to the campaign for secularism and peace: advertising professionals designed creative ad inserts, posters, pamphlets, several newspapers gave free space. Over 12,000 people attended a music concert in which prominent singers, dramatists, and poets performed for free. Citizens contribute in their own way, and while their particular contribution could be small, it bolsters the democratic fibre of society. PUCL has existed 37 years, and several mass movements for even longer, because of sustained, non-funded voluntary participation. There are surely downsides to not being institutionally funded. Perhaps if we could afford to pay, there would be more full-time workers. Perhaps campaigns could run longer, or reach more people. We however attempt to overcome these limitations through innovation. The Internet has increased participation from the youth across economic and social backgrounds, and has made transmitting messages through petitions, media outreach, and advocacy more robust. And much cheaper. Fund constraints do not constrain sincere work. The emergence in New Delhi of the new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP: Common Man's Party), has confirmed this once again. A bottom-up political party formed on an anti-corruption platform, all its workers are volunteers. Bangalore professionals made lakhs of phone calls to the party's potential voters. If this could be converted to money, I wonder how much that would be. Campaigns such as abolishing death penalty, against repressive terrorism laws, against torture and encounter killings, or protecting rights defenders, to name just a few, have existed for decades. The commitment of people involved with these campaigns is organic and independent, irrespective of sponsorship. Human rights movements in India have been most successful when they're broadbased, voluntary, and political. The human rights struggle is long, hard and demanding. The scale of human rights abuse could make many of us pessimistic or cynical. But across India, every day, a thousand mutinies are being launched by ordinary citizens who fight a principled battle, not because they are funded, but because they have a larger vision for democracy, for development, for India. These valiant, non-funded battles of a million ordinary dalits, adivasis, agricultural labourers, informal sector worker, students, women, and sexual minorities inspire me, and many others like me to continue the fight to reclaim democracy. As told to Rohini Mohan
person, setting up a will is a wise move. Resolve to meet with your attorney and Financial Planner to get your will in place.
• Children’s Education If you’re a parent, now is the time to start planning for how you’ll pay for your child’s college education. Don’t skip this important personal financial planning.
• Compare prices on insurance Encourage everyone to compare their car insurance prices with both their existing companies and competitors on an annual basis. This is also a good time to make sure that your coverage levels meet your current needs: did you buy a new piece of LED TV in 2013? If so, you may need to add more to your householder’s policy to cover the new piece.
• Educate yourself Although you may not be an investment expert, or a financial guru, you need to take the time to educate yourself in all things on personal finance. One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply read. Check out the popular personal finance websites to stay upto-date on the latest news items. These are eight items that I’m working on in 2014, what are your personal finance New Year’s resolutions? Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!
The writer is the Principal Financial Planner twelve times of your annual income. • Life insurance at EconPenny. You can chat-twit-mail him at @ dipankar.jakharia | @d_jakharia | dipankar. Insure yourself adequately by buying an online • Write your will .com term insurance. Sum assured should be not less than Whether you have a family or you’re a single jakharia@
The Newspaper with an Opinion The Morung Express
We enter 2014 fresh from reports of protests, strikes and violence. We have witnessed many alcohol fueled parties and heard the loud music from these celebrations in our supposedly dry state. When government servants are expected to be biased towards their own community, corruption becoming so blatant that a lot of wives, kith and kin are awarded government contracts and violence can take the life of school child like Akivito A Sumi, its time society needs to ask itself what we are teaching the children of Nagaland. The foundation of almost everyone’s value system does not start from the teachers, the friends and the social media influence, it begins at home. Parents are the true role models for the children and ultimately our Nagas need to know how to be good parents.
Parents are Powerful role Models Daniel Khan, Assistant Professor, Political science he foundation of good character is a good family. What we believe and practice at home portrays our true character. Children's character development certainly cannot come from the classroom alone. Character develops through interplay of family, schools, churches, community influence, and the child's individual temperament, experiences, and choices. Parents are the first teachers of a child, and therefore, parents are their children’s strongest role model and greatest influence. Your children will sooner or later adopt many of your values and behaviour, just as you have been influenced by your parents. Your children notice and respond to the way you deal with problems, express feelings and celebrate special occasions. As a parent, it is impossible not to model. Your children will take your example— positive or negative—as a pattern for the way to live their life. The story is told of a mother crab who wanted her daughter to walk straight and so, everyday she took her to observe how a cow walks. After many days of such observation, the mother crab thought her daughter would have learnt to walk straight. To her utter disappointment, however, the daughter still walked with her legs crooked. The mother crab, unable to hide her displeasure, scolded her daughter for not being able to walk straight but the daughter replied, “Mama, I only copied how you walked.” Of course, the mother crab could not say anything more. Every parent can be certain that their children will grow up inculcating some, if not all, of the habits and values of their parents. It is so much easier to dole out “don’ts” to our children: “Don’t smoke, Don’t drink and drive, Don’t take drugs, Don’t lie, Don’t cheat. However, it takes much more effort and discipline to practice what we preach. It takes a strong character to be a good role model for our kids but it is a must, as children copy their parents much more than we may realize. What do you think are the most important things parents can do to help their children stay strong in character and faith? Whether you accept it or not, being a parent, you are a leader and role model for your child. One of the best things you can do as a parent is to strive to live a model life that is worthy for your children to follow. As Christian parents it is very important to know and follow some of the important values in lives. The Apostle Paul teaches children to obey and honor their parents, according to the Fifth Commandment (Old Testament). At the same time, he tells the fathers not to provoke their children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-4). He repeats the same advice in Colossians 3:20-21. And above all, imitate Christ so that you can say with confidence to your children, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Here are 5 things you should model for your children: 1. Model Consistency. Whether you are with family, friends, or co-workers, your child needs to see that you are the same person wherever you are and whoever you are with. Your child needs to know that you are genuine and not a fake person whose personality is constantly changing so that he/she will respect you and imitate you. Kids respect adults who walk their talk. Credible adults inspire kids’ confidence and admiration. Hypocrisy disillusions children and sends them looking for others to follow. “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned.” Titus 2:7, 8. 2. Model Self-denial. It is easy to live a life that’s focused on “me.” Your child needs to see that you are willing to sacrifice buying things and doing things that would give you comfort and pleasure. The Bible also teaches, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Phil 2:3-4 3. Model Honour. If you want your child to honour and respect you, then show your child how it is done. Honour your mother and father. Treat your wife and children with love and respect. It is your responsibility to instruct your children in their understanding of the world and everything in it using God's revelation as the basis by which they can analyze and respond to life's challenges and opportunities. The Bible instructs in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” It is the father who is essential for sending his children into the world with a biblical view of reality and a faith in Jesus Christ that is rooted in solid understanding and not merely blind tradition. 4. Model control over words. Words matter. As a role model, you need to chain your tongue, tame it, and train it. Make sure the words that come out of your mouth toward your spouse, your child, your friends, and even your enemies are respectful and kind. Colossians 3:21 is clear on this, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they become discouraged.” 5. Model appropriate actions. Your child is always watching. Your child sees the kind of movies and television shows you watch, notices the music you listen to, the people you associate with, the way you drive, and the way you treat your spouse and other people. Your child’s actions will often be a reflection of your actions, so be the best role model, then you will have lesser things to worry about in the future, as the Bible guarantees, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. If you want someone to act a certain way, be sure that you live that way yourself. Then you will earn the right to be heard, and your life will reinforce what you teach. In this age of degrading morals and conflicting value systems, the challenge of parents to live up to God’s purpose for them and their children has never been greater. Each and every day, parents build a legacy for their children to inherit. What is the legacy you are leaving for the generations to follow? The society needs you to make an important decision. Will you choose to be a parent who role models family traits and Christian values worth believing in and worth building upon? “And now may the God of peace… equip you with everything good for doing His will… through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21.
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“Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. For feedback or comments please email: admin@tetsocollege.org”
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8
Dimapur
NATIONAL
Wednesday 8 January 2014
The Morung Express
War of words over alleged LeT foray into Muzaffarnagar LuckNow, JaNuarY 7 (IaNs): A war of words broke out between political parties Tuesday after Delhi Police claimed that a Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit allegedly scouted for recruits among the riot victims in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP, the Congress and Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party sparred after police sources said they had stumbled upon evidence about a visit to refugee camps in Muzaffarnagar by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) activists. Delhi Police were not categorical about the alleged recruitment effort. But police sources told IANS that the LeT did try to rope in youths in the camps housing victims of the September riots in Muzaffarnagar. Delhi Police said they were looking for some LeT operatives after arresting two men from Mewat in Haryana who admitted to visiting Deoband and Muzaffarnagar. “This is a very serious matter that imperils the internal security of the country,” Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said. “What is even more a matter of concern is that security agencies in the state and in New Delhi do not
seem to be in tandem with the findings,” he added. Added BJP national president Rajnath Singh: “The issue should be probed and taken very seriously.” More than 60 people were killed and thousands fled their homes following HinduMuslim violence in Muzaffarnagar in September. According to Special Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava in Delhi, Md Rashid -- one of the two arrested -- went with a LeT member to Deoband and met a 58-year-old school teacher. The teacher took Rashid and his accomplice to another man, Zameer. Rashid told Zameer that they wanted to kidnap people to raise money to construct a mosque. But Zameer backed off. The Congress also billed the matter as serious and recalled that its vice president Rahul Gandhi had hinted at such efforts months ago. “Rahulji had quoted an intelligence official as saying that there were attempts by the ISI to recruit disgruntled youngsters who survived the riots,” a Congress leader said. “What Rahul Gandhi had said about terrorist groups trying to recruit the Muzaffarnagar riot victims is true
and has been reinforced,” said Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. State Congress president Nirmal Khatri said the state government must take a serious view of the whole matter and ensure speedy justice to those who survived the horrific violence. The Samajwadi Party said it had not heard of any visit by any terrorist operative to the riot victims’ camps. “We have no such reports. In case what Delhi Police is saying is true, action should be taken,” the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal said. Uttar Pradesh officials said Delhi Police had not shared any details of the reported arrests made by them. Anil Kumar Gupta, the principal secretary in charge of home affairs, said: “The intelligence agencies in the state are not in the know of any such developments.” Rahul Gandhi had in an election speech Oct 28 at Indore claimed that an intelligence official told him that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was trying to recruit people from camps in Muzaffarnagar. Many, including Muslim leaders, had then termed the statement as “irresponsible”.
Refugee camp in open field at Malakpur village in Muzaffarnagar. (IE Photo)
Hunt on for LeT men who sought recruits in Muzaffarnagar
New DeLhI, JaNuarY 7 (IaNs): Delhi Police are looking for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives who tried to recruit new cadres in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district following the riots in September, an official said Tuesday. Delhi Police, on the basis of inputs by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), registered in December a case of criminal conspiracy and membership of the banned terror outfit.
Acting on the information, Md. Shahid and Md. Rashid were arrested from Haryana’s Mewat district. During interrogation, police found that Rashid along with another LeT member went to Deoband and met Liaqat, a 58-year-old resident of Muzaffarnagar and a government school teacher, said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S.N. Srivastava. Srivastava said both of them stayed at Liaqat’s house for
a few days. Liaqat took the two to Thana Bhawan railway station in Muzaffarnagar district, where he arranged their meeting with Zameer, another resident of Muzaffarnagar, and left the place. Another investigating officer told IANS that Zameer has a criminal background and he constructed mosques. Police sources said Shahid and Rashid with the other LeT member had gone to collect scriptures from
Muzaffarnagar to radicalise the riot victims to join the outfit. Liaqat and Zameer belong to Muzaffarnagar but they were not riot victims, police said. The duo told Zameer they want to kidnap people and demand ransom money for the construction of a mosque in the area. Zameer, however, backed off. Rashid and the other person then went back to Mewat through Palwal. Police later caught Li-
aqat and Zameer and recorded their statements. A search is now on for LeT operatives Abdul Subhan, Aftab Ansari, Aamir Raza Khan and Jawed Baluchi, police said. Sources said Abdul Subhan is wanted by Delhi Police as he along with Rashid was also planning to kidnap people for ransom for construction of mosques. The September riots in Muzaffarnagar claimed over 60 lives, and displaced over 43,000 people.
Lawyer for Khobragade seeks delay in visa fraud case Stepping down to ensure family’s
Deputy Consul General in New York, Devyani Khobragade, attends a Rutgers University event at India’s Consulate General in New York, June 19, 2013. (File Photo)
New York, JaNuarY 7 (reuters): A lawyer for diplomat Devyani Khobragade is seeking to postpone proceedings in a visa fraud case that has created tensions between the United States and India, citing the need to continue “meaningful discussions” with the prosecution. In a letter to a federal magistrate judge in New York, Khobragade’s lawyer requested an extension of the time by which the U.S. government must file an indictment or commence a preliminary hearing. The lawyer, Daniel Arshack, confirmed he filed the letter in court but would not comment about a possible resolution of the case. Khobragade, who was deputy consul-general in New York, was arrested on December 12 and
charged with one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements about how much she paid her housekeeper. The case was adjourned until January 13 by which time the government must commence a preliminary hearing or file an indictment. Arshack asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn to extend the deadline by 30 days to February 12. “Significant communications have been had between the prosecution and the defense and amongst other government officials and it is our strong view that the pressure of the impending deadline is counterproductive to continued communications,” Arshack wrote. Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan whose
office is handling the case, however responded saying the plea discussions can continue following the indictment in the case. “The government is not seeking an extension of the deadline for indictment and therefore there is no motion for the court to decide. At any rate, as the court knows, the timing under which the government seeks an indictment is in the discretion of the government, and the defendant cannot alter that,” Bharara wrote in a letter to a federal magistrate judge in New York. Bharara added that as recently as January 5, the government outlined “reasonable parameters” for a plea that could resolve the case, to which the defendant has not responded. Khobragade’s arrest enraged India, which is demanding that all charges be dropped against her. On the day of her arrest, she was stripsearched. The arresting authority, the U.S. Marshals Service, said the strip search was a routine procedure imposed on any new arrestee at the federal courthouse. Khobragade was released on $250,000 bail. In the aftermath of her arrest, India asked to transfer Khobragade to the United Nations. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Monday that India’s application to transfer Khobragade’s accreditation to the Indian mission at the United Nations, which was made before Christmas, was still under review. “We’ve received the request for
change in accreditation, but the process is ongoing and no official decision has been made yet to do that. So there’s no change in her status as of this point,” she told a regular news briefing. Indian media have said the request to transfer Khobragade to the United Nations was aimed at ending the stand-off with the United States in the hopes that her new diplomatic status could allow New Delhi to bring her home without the prosecution proceeding. According to U.N. guidelines on diplomatic privileges and immunities, documents certifying diplomatic immunity, if approved, are usually issued by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations within two weeks of the initial request. A State Department official said there was no set time period for the process, and noted that the request had been filed just ahead of a period of government holidays. Harf said the United States hoped to see the case resolved as soon as possible in the interest of the bilateral relationship between India and the United States, which has been strained by the case. “We don’t want this to define our relationship going forward and don’t think that it will,” Harf said. “If you look throughout the region, if you look at Afghanistan, if you look at energy issues, economic issues, we have a whole host of things we work together on, and those are very important and shouldn’t be derailed by this incident...”
peace, happiness: Justice A K Ganguly
koLkata, JaNuarY 7 (IaNs): Justice (retd.) A.K. Ganguly quit as West Bengal Human Rights Commission chairman to “obviate any further controversy” and “to ensure the peace and happiness” of his family, he said in his resignation letter. In the letter dated Jan 6, a copy of which is with IANS, the former Supreme Court judge has denied the allegations of sexually assaulting a law intern, saying the charges are “unfounded and baseless”. “I would like to affirmatively say that allegations which are appearing against me in the media both electronic and print are unfounded and baseless and I deny the same,” said Ganguly in the letter addressed to state Governor M.K. Narayanan. Ganguly drove down to the Raj Bhawan Monday evening and handed over the letter to the governor. “The purported recommendation to the Honourable President for my removal is based on grounds, which, in my opinion, are untenable and misconceived,” Ganguly said referring to the union cabinet last week clearing the home ministry’s proposal for a presidential reference to the Supreme
Court for a probe into the allegations. “However, to obviate any further controversy and to ensure peace and happiness of the members of my family and having regard to the fact that I headed the high office of a judge and presently holding the post of chairman of WBHRC and being humbly of the view that I have lived up to the expectation of both, I have decided to resign from the post of chairman of the Commission with immediate effect.” Ganguly has asserted that “it is not possible” to work with “dignity and honour” as the WBHRC head in the present circumstances. “I have no attachment to any post unless I can work with dignity and honour and I understand that it is not possible under the present situation.” “This letter may therefore be treated as notice under Section 23(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. However, I make it clear that I have no rancour towards any of my detractors and I wish them well in life.” “I thank you for the courtesies which you have extended to me consistently,” he added.
BJP says Priyanka Gandhi Policeman dead, 3 injured in Kashmir gunfight Understand our nation & its institutions: Prez ‘turning active’ won’t help
New DeLhI, JaNuarY 7 (PtI): The BJP on Tuesday said Priyanka Gandhi “turning active” in politics is an internal matter of Congress but it will not improve the party’s poll prospects. “This is an internal matter of the Congress. As far as BJP is concerned our leadership is very clear and our aim is to get a majority in 2014 polls ... Going by the performance of the party, I don’t think there is going to be any difference in the Congress poll prospects,” BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi told reporters. He was asked about Priyanka Gandhi attending a meeting of Congress leaders on Tuesday at Rahul Gandhi’s residence and whether her “turning active” in politics will affect the party’s prospects. Trivedi said the people have seen what all has happened under UPA rule, and the assembly election results were just one indicator of their anger. “The rest will be evident in the Lok Sabha elections,” he said. Queried if Congress has accepted the “failure” of Rahul Gandhi and is now trying to bring in Priyanka Gandhi, Trivedi said, “Congress has been destabilized after the results of assembly elections. We will react when they have a stable mindset”. Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday created flutters in political circles when she attended a meeting of top Congress leaders at the residence of her brother Rahul, ahead of the AICC conclave on January 17 in which he may be made the prime ministerial candidate.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, Union minister Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretaries Madhusudan Mistri, Janardan Dwivedi, Ajay Maken and party ideologue Mohan Gopal were present in the meeting, the sources said. There was no clarity whether Rahul was present in the meeting or not. Party sources were not ready to come on record on this. Congress also downplayed Priyanka’s presence at the meeting saying she has been active in Congress politics and what was the surprise in her meeting senior leaders. There has been speculation in recent months on whether Priyanka, who has so far confined her politics to campaign for her mother Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli, would take a plunge into politics full time. Priyanka, who turns 42 next week and has a charisma of her own, has had a role in nurturing Rae Bareli and visits Amethi for campaigning for Rahul during elections. A senior leader dismissed as “wild” speculation that Priyanka could be made the party’s PM candidate and Rahul as party chief. However, speculation persisted whether Priyanka was preparing to take a plunge into politics. Her attendance in the meeting on Tuesday fuelled further speculation. Party leaders say in private that Priyanka getting active in party affairs will enthuse the rank and file after the recent electoral debacle and perceived rise of Narendra Modi and AAP.
Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol at a busy market in Srinagar,on Tuesday, January 7. Separatist militants engaged Indian police and paramilitary forces in a fierce gun battle Tuesday that killed one officer in the troubled Himalayan region of Kashmir, police said. (AP Photo)
srINagar, JaNuarY 7 (IaNs): A police officer was killed and three policemen were injured in a fierce gunbattle between security forces and guerrillas in Kashmir’s Baramulla district Tuesday, an official said. A senior police officer said that an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) who was injured along with three policemen in the
gunbattle in Chankhan locality of Sopore town, 55 km from here, Tuesday morning succumbed to his injuries. “An ASI today succumbed to injuries in the hospital. Other three injured policemen are being treated in hospital. The operation against the militants is still on,” the senior police officer told IANS at 1.30 p.m.. Reports from So-
pore said firing had stopped in the area that had been cordoned off by the security forces including the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the police, soldiers of counter insurgency Rashtriya Rifles and troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the morning following information about the presence of a group of guerrillas.
New DeLhI, JaNuarY 7 (PtI): Choose to engage with “our beautiful, complex, often difficult and sometimes noisy democracy”, President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said in his message to students of premier universities and institutions. Addressing students through video-conferencing and web-casting, the President said students are the bright future of the nation. The extent of India’s progress will be decided by their energy, drive, initiative and industry, Mukherjee said. “Understand our nation and its institutions. Read, learn and formulate views on national issues. Choose to engage with our beautiful, complex, often difficult and sometimes noisy democracy,” the President was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mukherjee delivered his new year message to students and faculty members of Central universities, IITs, NITs and other central institutions using National Knowledge Network from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Understand your rights and duties well, especially towards those who are less fortunate. The voiceless deserve your voice; the weak deserve your strength; and the needy deserve your help. Make the best use of your knowledge in the service of the nation and its citizens, he said. Mukherjee said pursuit of academic excellence should be accompanied with the quest for moral development. “Students’ preparedness for life should be on the foundation of essential values of patriotism, compassion, tolerance, integrity and equality,” he said. ‘Inspired Teachers’ by their own example can instill good moral values in their students. These teachers must be encouraged to share their wisdom, thoughts and experience with the larger academic community, the President said.
International
The Morung Express
Wednesday 8 January 2014
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US cities shut down by life-threatening temperatures of -52ºC Washington, January 7 (the independent): The coldest weather conditions for two decades show little sign of relenting in parts of America, as forecasters predict freezing temperatures could make Tuesday the coldest on record in the 21st century. It sounds like a plot device from a bad disaster movie, but for vast swathes of North America, the weather phenomenon known as a “polar vortex” has become all too real, bringing misery to millions across the US and Canada, along with the lowest temperatures seen in almost twenty years. More than 3,000 flights had been cancelled across the region by 10am on Monday. A further 3,700 had already been cancelled during the weekend. Schools were closed in major cities such as Chicago and St Louis, and residents advised to remain indoors. Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group in Bethesda, Maryland, told Bloomberg could beat January
16, 2009, the coldest day of the century. The governor of Minnesota closed all the schools in his state, while the mayor of Indianapolis, Greg Ballard, banned driving except in emergencies — the first time the city has issued such a strict travel warning since 1978. Mr Ballard said: “This extreme cold poses a serious health and safety risk and for that reason the city is asking people to proactively prepare.” In many areas, particularly in the Midwest and Northern Plains, the cold was considered lifethreatening. Hypothermia is a major risk at temperatures of below -25°C, while frostbite can take hold in less than 10 minutes at -37°C. At -45°C, uncovered skin could freeze within five minutes. The windchill in Comertown, Montana, close to the border with Canada, is expected make temperatures feel as low as -52°C. Chicago’s National Weather Service office reported that Monday’s low of -26°C at O’Hare Interna-
tional Airport beat a record set in 1884 and equalled in 1988. In Fargo, the largest city in North Dakota, temperatures sank below -35°C. Motorists were advised in that state and its neighbour South Dakota to carry survival kits and a charged mobile phone in case they found themselves stranded in the perilous weather. At least 13 people are thought to have died as a result of the extreme conditions already, including several road accidents, a man who succumbed to hypothermia in Wisconsin, and a worker crushed by a massive pile of road salt at a storage facility in Philadelphia. An elderly Alzheimer’s sufferer from rural New York state wandered out into the snow; she was later found dead from the cold, around 100 yards from her home. The arctic freeze only exacerbated the problems caused by a weekend of heavy snowfall that had covered parts of Canada and the northern US in up to 60cm. In Detroit, where
25cm fell, the heavy snow was thought to have caused a roof to collapse, though no one was killed in the incident. Meanwhile in St Louis, shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants and several major tourist sites were shuttered, including the zoo and the city’s famous Gateway Arch. Even a nearby ski resort, Hidden Valley, was forced to close its slopes. In Newfoundland, Canada, a power outage on Sunday left 90,000 homes without electricity, a pattern repeated in several locations across the US. Though northern states were the worst affected, record-breaking low temperatures were also expected as far south as Atlanta. While farmers in South Dakota worried about keeping their cattle alive through the dangerous chill, down in Florida, citrus farmers were reported to be equally concerned about the effect of a prolonged freeze on their crops. There was at least one
good news story to emerge from the bad weather, however. The family of a missing New York man, 20-year-old Nicholas Simmons, found him sleeping rough on the streets of Washington, DC, thanks to a newspaper gallery illustrating the effects of the polar vortex. Simmons reportedly left his home in upstate New York last on Wednesday evening. His family reported him missing and set up a Facebook page to plead for help in finding him. Then, on Sunday, a photograph of a young homeless man warming himself on a Washington steam grate, taken by the Associated Press photographer Jacquelyn Martin, appeared in a photo-spread in USA Today. The young homeless man was Simmons, whose mother spotted the image and contacted Ms Martin and Washington DC police, who found the young man still in the area where he had been photographed. He was taken to hospital and later reunited with his parents.
A person walks in frigid temperatures near Constitution Avenue, on Tuesday, January 7, in Washington. The National Weather Service said the mercury bottomed out at 3 degrees before sunrise at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, with a wind chill of minus 16. (AP Photo)
Myanmar journalists stage rare demonstration ‘Jihad Jane’ gets 10 years in terror plot
Myanmar journalists shout slogans while marching through Yangon, on Tuesday, January 7, in Myanmar. Dozens of journalists staged a rare demonstration in Myanmar’s biggest city to protest against a jail term given to a colleague working on a corruption story. (AP Photo)
yangon, January 7 (ap): Dozens of journalists staged a rare demonstration Tuesday morning in Myanmar’s biggest city to
protest a jail term given to a reporter who was working on a story about corruption. Wearing black T-shirts with slogans saying, “We
don’t want threat on Press Freedom,” and carrying banners that read, “Right to Information is life of democracy,” nearly 60 reporters marched down a busy downtown Yangon street decrying the three-month prison sentence given to Ma Khine from the Daily Eleven newspaper. She was convicted by a court in eastern Kayah state last month of trespassing, using abusive language and defamation. Journalists have gained new freedoms under the reformist government of President Thein Sein, who since taking office in 2011 has abolished most censorship and allowed the publication of privately owned daily newspapers for the first time in almost five decades. Previously, reporters here worked under some of the tightest restrictions in the world, subject to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship for all publications. Still, even under recent reforms, some publications have been sued for defamation, including by govern-
ment agencies. Ma Khine is the first journalist under Thein Sein’s government to be given a prison sentence. Ma Khine was sued by a lawyer after she visited her house for an interview for a story about corruption. The lawyer was annoyed by her questioning and asked her to leave and later filed a lawsuit, according to Wai Phyo, chief editor of the Daily Eleven. “The judge could have imposed a fine but deliberately gave the prison sentence not only to threaten the reporter but to threaten press freedom,” he said. Myint Kyaw, the general secretary of Myanmar Journalist Network, helped organize the protest march “because we do not want the imprisonment of a journalist to become a precedent.” Local and international media and watchdog organizations such as the World Association of Newspapers, Committee to Protest Journalists and Reporters Without Borders issued statements strongly condemning the prison sentence.
Meditation may help with anxiety, depression and pain
neW yorK, January 7 (reuters health): Mindfulness meditation may be useful in battles against anxiety, depression and pain, according to a fresh look at past research. Using data from 47 earlier studies, researchers found moderate evidence to support the use of mindfulness meditation to treat those conditions. Meditation didn’t seem to affect mood, sleep or substance use. “Many people have the idea that meditation means just sitting quietly and doing nothing,” wrote Dr. Madhav Goyal in an email to Reuters Health. “That is not true. It is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways.” Goyal led the study at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He and his colleagues write in JAMA Internal Medicine that meditation techniques emphasize mindfulness and concentration. So-called mindfulness meditation is aimed at allowing the mind to pay attention to whatever thoughts enter it, such as sounds in the environment, without becoming too focused. Mantra meditation, on the other hand, involves focusing concentration on a particular word or sound. Approximately 9 percent of people in the U.S. reported meditating in 2007, according to the National Institutes
of Health. About 1 percent said they use meditation as some sort of treatment or medicine. For the new report, the researchers searched several electronic databases that catalog medical research for trials that randomly assigned people with a certain condition - such as anxiety, pain or depression - to do meditation or another activity. These randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard of medical research. The researchers found 47 studies with over 3,500 participants that met their criteria. After combining the data, Goyal said his team found between a 5 and 10 percent improvement in anxiety symptoms among people who took part in mindfulness meditation, compared to those who did another activity. There was also about a 10 to 20 percent improvement in symptoms of depression among those who practiced mindfulness meditation, compared to the other group. “This is similar to the effects that other studies have found for the use of antidepressants in similar populations,” Goyal said. Mindfulness meditation was also tied to reduced pain. But Goyal said it’s hard to know what kind of pain may be most affected by meditation. The benefits of meditation didn’t surpass what is typically associated with other treatments, such as drugs and exercise, for those conditions. “As with many therapies,
we try to get a moderate level of confidence that the therapy works before we prescribe it,” Goyal said. “If we have a high level of confidence, it is much better.” But he noted that the researchers didn’t find anything more than moderate evidence of benefit from meditation for anxiety, depression and pain. There was some suggestion that meditation may help improve stress and overall mental health, but the evidence supporting those findings was of low quality. There was no clear evidence that meditation could influence positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep or weight. “Clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that meditation programs could have in addressing psychological stress, particularly when symptoms are mild,” Goyal said. Dr. Allan Goroll, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, told Reuters Health the analysis is an example of an area of much-needed scientific study, because many people make treatment decisions based on beliefs - not data. “That is particularly the case with alternative and complimentary approaches to treating medical problems,” he said. “It ranges from taking vitamins to undergoing particular procedures for which the scientific evidence is very slim but people’s beliefs are very great.”
philadelphia, January 7 (ap): A U.S. woman involved in a plot to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after telling a judge she was once obsessed with jihad. Fifty-year-old Colleen LaRose had called herself “Jihad Jane” online and agreed in 2009 to kill artist Lars Vilks over his series of drawings depicting the prophet Muhammad as a dog. Vilks was never attacked. LaRose faced a potential life term. But the judge accepted a government request to reduce the sentence because of her extensive cooperation with investigators. Prosecutors still asked for decades in prison, saying she remains dangerous. Both sides agree that LaRose was isolated and endured harsh abuse throughout her life. Defense lawyers called her the perfect target after a childhood marked by rape, incest, hunger and alcoholism at home. Her marriages were marked by abuse, and she came to use crystal meth and other drugs, public defender Mark Wilson said. LaRose told the judge she became obsessed with jihad, saying she was “in a trance” and thought about it from morning to night. “I don’t want to be into jihad no more,” she said. Vilks told The Associated Press that he understands the principle of handing out tough sen-
In this June 26, 1997 file booking photo provided by the Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo, Texas, shows Colleen R. LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane. (AP File Photo)
tences for terror crimes to deter others, but he said he felt the sentence against La Rose was too harsh. “To lock her up for so many years seems like overkill to me,” Vilks said. “This is a person who has been through a lot of difficulties in her life and needs mental care more than anything else.” Vilks said the threat level against him remains high, but he has roundthe-clock protection that makes him feel safe. Muslim extremists in Iraq
had offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who killed Vilks. LaRose could be out of prison in a little over four years, given the more than four years she has already served and the potential for time off for good behavior. The Justice Department said Ali Charaf Damache, who was living in Ireland, recruited LaRose and another U.S. woman via jihadist websites. Damache married the other woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, on the day she arrived in Ireland. LaRose left the terror cell in Ireland after about six weeks because she “grew frustrated because her co-conspirators were not ready for action,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Monday. LaRose returned to the U.S. in 2009 to surrender, becoming one of the few women ever charged in the country with terrorist activities. Her arrest was kept secret and the indictment was unsealed only after Paulin-Ramirez and the six others were rounded up in Ireland months later. Paulin-Ramirez and another co-defendant, teen Mohammad Hassan Khalid, are scheduled to be sentenced this week. Public defender Mark Wilson said LaRose has come to understand the true, peaceful tenets of Islam and said “there’s virtually no chance that she would ever be involved in violent jihad ever again.”
Key protein behind breast cancer’s spread to brain
neW yorK, January 7 (ians): In a major breakthrough, a cancer-research team has identified a protein that may be the crucial reason behind breast cancer spreading to the brain. Using cell models, the researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that breast cancer cells harness a protein called alphaB-crystallin to help them stick to endothelial cells that line the small blood vessels in the brain. In addition, this protein enhances the penetration of breast cancer cells through the bloodbrain barrier, which normally prevents cells and many mol-
ecules from entering the brain. Once in the brain, breast cancer cells are able to form metastases i.e. spread of a cancer from one organ to another, said a new study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. “We found that reducing the expression of alphaB-crystallin in breast cancer cells hindered the cells’ ability to form brain metastases in mice,” said Vincent Cryns, professor of medicine at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the US. “alphaB-crystallin may be a promising drug target that should be explored further,” he added. The re-
searchers discovered that women with breast tumours that expressed alphaB-crystallin had a shorter survival than women with breast tumours that did not express this protein. They also found breast tumours that expressed alphaBcrystallin were more likely to be triple-negative breast cancers, an aggressive type of cancer that lacks three receptors - estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER-2. Triple-negative breast cancers are known to have a high incidence of brain metastasis. “Our findings suggest that alphaB-crystallin may contribute to the tendency of triple-negative
breast cancers to metastasize to the brain and to their poor prognosis,” said Cryns. Yet, he cautioned these findings need to be validated in additional studies. Brain metastasis is a terrifying complication of advanced breast cancer, with a grim prognosis and few treatment options. The cancer’s spread to the brain is often undetected until patients start to develop symptoms such as seizures, headaches, and trouble thinking. These studies were conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and other institutions.
Optimism high around globe for better 2014
neW yorK, January 7 (reuters): Most people around the world are optimistic that 2014 will be better than last year and that the global economy will be stronger, according to a poll. Seventy-six percent of people in 23 countries questioned by the global research company Ipsos said they had high hopes for the new year, slightly more than in 2013. About half said last year was not great for them and their families. “People are excited for the New Year. I think they still have a bad taste left in their mouths from 2013, with the slim majority saying it was a bad year for them and their families and people a bit worried about the economy,” Keren Gottfried, a senior research manager for Ipsos said in an interview on Monday. But the overall optimism, she added, “shows people want to look at the world with the glass half-full.” The poll, which was released on Friday, determined that 53
percent of people around the world believe the global economy will be more robust in 2014, with the sentiment strongest in India, China and Indonesia and weakest in Sweden, France and Italy. Only 33 percent of Italians had confidence in the global economy improving, slightly less than the Swedes and the French. “Last year was definitely not a great year for a lot of people. We know economically speaking the economy has not risen globally and certainly not within the U.S.,” Gottfried explained. Optimism for a better 2014 was highest in Indonesia, France, Brazil, India and Argentina, where more than 85 percent of people questioned in the online survey said they looked forward to improvement this year. Hope was lowest in Japan and Italy. Spaniards, Argentineans, Hungarians and Mexicans were the most likely to say last year was disappointing, while the numbers were the lowest in Australia, In-
donesia and Sweden, where 42 percent or fewer people had a lousy 2013. The poll showed personal New Year’s resolutions were popular in most countries, particularly Indonesia, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa where 90 percent or more people made them, compared with 56 percent in Hungary and 38 percent in Sweden. Gottfried views the numbers as an indication that people are making resolutions because they want to make things better and are starting the year with excitement. Ipsos questioned a total of 18,153 adults aged 18-64 years old in the United States and Canada and 16-64 years old in Mexico, Australia and other countries in Europe and Asia from December 4-18. In countries where 1,000 people were questioned, the credibility interval is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The interval is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points where 500 people were polled.
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Wednesday 8 January 2014
ManU in decline as Moyes era faces crunch time
Manchester United players walk from the pitch after their 2-1 loss to Swansea City in their English FA Cup third round soccer match at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday Jan. 5. (AP Photo) Steve Douglas
oments before Alex Fe rg u s o n left Old Trafford for the final time as a coach, he issued a defiant message to the Manchester United fans who were so used to hanging on his every word. "I'd like to remind you," Ferguson said as he stood inside the center circle, getting lightly coated with raindrops, "that when we had bad times here, the club stood by me. All my staff stood by me. The players stood by me. "Your job now is to stand by our new manager." That was eight months ago. United had just beaten Swansea 2-1 with a late winner by Rio Ferdinand in so-called "Fergie Time" and the team had already romped to a 20th English league title, enhancing
Ferguson's status as the greatest British manager of all time after more than 26 trophy-laden years at United. How ironic, then, that Swansea was back at Old Trafford on Sunday, administering a fourth loss in United's last six home matches to usher the creaking hosts further into decline under Ferguson's successor, David Moyes. Swansea won 2-1, its winning goal coming in the final minute, by which time Ferdinand had hobbled off injured. The contrast to that day in May when United lifted the Premier League trophy on Ferguson's Old Trafford farewell was acute. The natives are getting restless. The atmosphere at Old Trafford is soporific. The smattering of boos greeting the final whistle of each home defeat — there have been five already this season in all competitions
— is small but growing in number. United fans are undoubtedly prepared to give Moyes time. They are a knowledgeable bunch, clearly understanding that replacing Ferguson is nigh impossible, but they expect better than what they are getting at present. For the first time, local and national press are calling it a crisis, an empire in decline. United is seventh in the Premier League, 11 points behind leader Arsenal and five points adrift of the fourth and final Champions League place that just so happens to be occupied by Liverpool — United's biggest rival. Sunday's defeat to Swansea came in the third round of the FA Cup, only United's second exit at that early stage — the first hurdle for top-flight clubs — since 1985. "It has been a tough start, a tough opening period," Moyes said, when
asked to sum up his first six months in the job. "I am disappointed we have not won more games or played better but I am sure it will change, I have no doubt about that." Moyes' first half year in charge of England's biggest club has been turbulent but interesting. He was accused of lacking European experience from his 11 years at Everton but qualified United from a tough Champions League group with a game to spare. With a last-16 match against Olympiakos to come, he will be confident of at least reaching the quarterfinals. He has guided United through to the League Cup semifinals, where it plays Sunderland in the first leg on Tuesday, and has got the best out of England striker Wayne Rooney, whose relationship with Ferguson had broken down by the end of last season. The blossoming of Adnan Januzaj, a
young winger with superb balance and movement, is also a major plus. But the negatives outweigh the positives. Failing to qualify for next season's Champions League, which is a real possibility, would be a disaster not just because of the loss of finances but because United's pulling power would be seriously hit. Moyes and United chief executive Ed Woodward already found attracting the big names hard enough in the offseason transfer window so January is likely to be even tougher, especially since Champions League football next season can't be promised. Moyes said Sunday there is an "urgency" to bring in players this month but acknowledges the ones he wants won't be available. Rooney and possibly goalkeeper David de Gea aside, United's senior players are missing or aren't delivering.
MOkOkcHuNG, JANuAry 7 (MExN): The ongoing MDCA Inter Club T20 Cricket tourney is now in the crucial stages of the league round as the teams are now playing their second of the three matches allotted in the round. Into the fifth day of the tournament, strong title contenders Titans Cricket Club inflicted a humiliating blow on Euphemia Cricket Club as the Titans won the match by a mammoth 108 runs. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Titans scored 158 runs with
Longsasunep topping the run scorers list with 58. Euphemia started their innings in the worst imaginable fashion and were struggling at 14/4 by the end of the 6th over. They were eventually bowled all out for a paltry 50 runs in 16.3 overs. Longsasunep was adjudged Man of the Match for his superb half-century. Later, in the second match of the day, Zungamedem defeated Sovran Kings by 4 wickets. Both teams came into the match with a win each from their
previous games and a win today would mean a place in the last 8 of the tournament. Sovran won the toss and elected to bat first. Their openers made a decent start but their batting collapsed in the course of their innings and were eventually restricted by the bowlers to 103 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Imnajungshi (25) was the leading run scorer for Sovran. Zungamedem in reply managed to get past the target in 16 overs. Imliakum (30) of Zungamedem was adjudged Man of the Match.
SyDNEy, JANuAry 7 (AFP): Australia plan to use the same intimidatory tactics that unravelled England in next month's tour of South Africa, opening batsman David Warner said on Tuesday. Warner claims members of South Africa's top-ranked team are "on the back foot as players" and will miss newly-retired Jacques Kallis in the threeTest tour in the republic. He said a combination of sledging and thunderbolts from express paceman Mitchell Johnson unhinged England's experienced batsmen in the Ashes, with Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen all averaging under 30 in the 5-0 series annihilation. Even though the Proteas feature some of the most established and successful runscorers in cricket, Warner believes the South Africans are ripe for the picking. "We know a couple of their blokes are probably on the back foot," Warner told reporters at a reception for Australia's Ashes
team at Sydney's Opera House. "We've got to work out how to get their players out as well. I know our bowlers are ready to go over there and give it to them." He added that sledging would play a part in their approach, but the team would not go too far. "Apparently I said some rude things on stump mic (microphone) that they couldn't (broadcast during the Ashes), but I don't recall anything," he said. "On the field you don't cross that line. We nudged that line a couple of times but I think we really got into their heads. "Especially with Johno (Johnson) and the pressure of the other bowlers up the other end." South Africa are fresh from a 1-0 home victory over world number two India, in a two-match series where Hashim Amla (average 14) was the only star batsman to consistently struggle. However, Australia sense a vulnerability in the South African ranks following the retirement
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The Morung Express
Clippers Rout Magic
LOS ANGELES, JANuAry 7 (AP): Darren Collison scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half and had seven assists in his second start at point guard since Chris Paul’s injury, leading the Los Angeles Clippers to a 101-81 rout of the Orlando Magic on Monday night. Paul, who separated his right shoulder in Friday’s win at Dallas and is expected to be sidelined for at least six weeks, sat behind the Clippers’ bench in a suit and tie while Collison orchestrated things without a hitch against the lastplace team in the Southeast Division. The Clippers enjoyed one of their best defensive efforts of the season, after surrendering 70 first-half points in each of their previous two games against Dallas and San Antonio — both on the road. Jamal Crawford chipped in with 13 points and eight of the team’s 30 assists. Blake Griffin — bogged down by early foul trouble — had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists. DeAndre Jordan had 17 rebounds and 14 points. Reserves Maurice Harkless and Victor Oladipo each scored 22 points for the Magic, who have lost four straight and 11 of their last 15 games. Center Nikola Vucevic, who had 30 points and 21 rebounds against the Clippers in Orlando’s 98-90
AC Milan Brazilian forward Kaka celebrates after scoring during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Atalanta at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy on Jan. 6. (AP Photo)
MILAN, JANuAry 7 (AP): Kaka scored his 100th goal for AC Milan on Monday to help it to a muchneeded 3-0 win over Atalanta in Serie A, and Napoli beat Sampdoria 2-0 to close the gap on second-place Roma. Kaka, who is in his second spell at Milan, scored twice to take his tally to 101 goals for the club. Teenage striker Bryan Cristante scored the third in his first start. "I don't know how to explain the emotion of having scored 101 goals with Milan," Kaka said. "Every goal has its own feeling and waiting for one always
causes the usual anxiety. I was waiting for this one for a few matches. I hoped it would arrive in the derby, like my first goal 10 years ago. It's still a crazy feeling. I am really happy to have started 2014 like this." In the early match, Dries Mertens scored twice to help Napoli move two points behind Roma, which lost to Juventus on Sunday. Also, Luca Toni scored twice as newly-promoted Hellas Verona won 3-1 at Udinese, while Edy Reja steered Lazio to a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan in his first match back in charge.
In other matches, it was: Parma 3, Torino 1; Catania 2, Bologna 0; and Genoa 2, Sassuolo 0. Milan had endured a bad finish to 2013 with a derby defeat to Inter Milan and was still without Riccardo Montolivo, Stephan El Shaarawy, Valter Birsa, Ignazio Abate, Kevin Constant and Sulley Muntari. Mario Balotelli had flu-like symptoms and was only fit for the bench so the 18-year-old Cristante was handed a first league start. Cristante had previously played only five minutes of Serie A football but he had two goalscoring opportunities within the first 14 minutes and hit the crossbar. Kaka had been waiting for more than a month to reach a century of goals for Milan and he did so in the 35th minute, finishing off a swift counterattack led by Urby Emanuelson following an Atalanta corner. He celebrated by brandishing a Milan shirt with his name and the number 100. "I don't know where I can get to. I would like to think immediately of 200 goals, but it's better to aim for 110," Kaka said. "I want to leave my mark in the history of Milan, I will try to be an example for the youngsters and to always do my job, then history will say what role I had."
home loss on Nov. 6, had just two points and eight boards in 20 minutes after missing the previous two games because of sprained left ankle. He left the game with a head injury after fouling Griffin near the Clippers’ basket and taking a hard spill with 8:18 left in the third quarter. Clippers coach Doc Rivers had all of his starters on
the bench at the beginning of the fourth quarter with an 85-55 lead, but he had to put them all back in after Jason Maxiell’s dunk capped a 16-2 run that narrowed the gap to 87-71 with 7:01 remaining. Griffin had two fouls in the first 4:05 of the game and went to the bench after the Clippers opened the game with a 12-3 run.
R. Imti Aier Volleyball Trophy
DIMAPur, JANuAry 7 (MExN): The 1st late R. Imti Aier Volleyball Trophy was kicked off by Dr. Imtiwapang Aier, MLA of 23 Impur Assembly Constituency at Longjang Village today. During the inaugural speech, the Chief Guest called upon the people to harness unity through sports. He said sports must be taken in two aspect; firstly in competitive level and secondly as a booster of physical fitness and health. He urged the youngsters to follow
MCDA T20 tourney Proteas ripe for the picking: Warner
Kaka scores 100th goal as AC Milan wins
Los Angeles Clippers' DeAndre Jordan, center, dunks the ball while drawing a foul by Orlando Magic's Maurice Harkless, right, as Magic's Victor Oladipo, left, also defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 6. The Clippers won 101-81. (AP Photo)
of all-rounder Kallis. "It's a big loss for them," said Warner. "They've counted on him a couple of times when bowlers have been asked to come back in different spells, so it will be interesting to see how they are without him." Peter Siddle on Tuesday joined captain Michael Clarke in declaring the Australian fast bowling attack better than South Africa's vaunted trio of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. However, he said the challenge now was to prove it. With Johnson fresh from taking 37 wickets at 13.9 in the Ashes, Siddle said Australia plan to pepper South Africa with another all-out assault. "I can't see why not. I think the way we've played, we've played like that against them in the past and had success," he said. "I think we are (the best attack). It shows through the consistency we've had against England here throughout a five-Test series.
the footsteps of the two Naga Olympians. He added that these great Naga players have also started from the grassroot level. The program was also graced by Er. T. Bendang Ao, Executive Engineer as the chief guest. The 1st Late R. Imti Aier Volleyball Trophy is organized by Longjang Compound Young Club. Altogether 6 teams are participating in the championship. The tournament will cumulate on January 8, 2014.
Dennis Rodman meets with former North Korean basketball player Ri Myung Hun, left, at a practice session with USA and North Korean players in Pyongyang, North Korea on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Rodman came to the North Korean capital with a squad of USA basketball stars for an exhibition game on Jan. 8, the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo)
Timberwolves cruise past 76ers
PHILADELPHIA, JANuAry 7 (AP): Nikola Pekovic had to chuckle on the bench as fans held a pair of gigantic cutouts of his head right over him. His Minnesota teammates were certainly amused, laughing at the trio of Pekovic heads. ''When you look at the heads, then you hold it up to close to him, they're actually the same size,'' Kevin Love said, smiling. The T-Wolves could afford some levity after a romp on a night when the basket had to look as large as one of those oversized heads. Love scored 16 of his 26 points in a dominant third quarter and Pekovic had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 126-95 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night. Minnesota made 16 of 26 3-pointers (62 per-
Philadelphia 76ers' Hollis Thompson (31) drives to the basket as Minnesota Timberwolves' Dante Cunningham defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Jan. 6 in Philadelphia. Minnesota won 126-95. (AP Photo)
cent) to put this one away in a hurry and moved back to .500 (17-17). Kevin Martin scored 18 points
and Corey Brewer had 15 Thaddeus Young scored to help the Timberwolves 20 points for the Sixers, win for the fourth time in who entered the night six games. having won the final four
games of a six-game road trip. The Timberwolves ended any threat of Philadelphia extending its streak by the second quarter. They led by 16 at the half and Love hit a pair of 3s in the third to build a 31-point lead. The Timberwolves had seven players score in double figures. The undersized Sixers simply had no answer for the Love and Pekovic underneath, or in Love's case from beyond the arc. Young, named before the game the Eastern Conference player of the week, gamely tried to shut down the potent duo, with no luck. Love and the Timberwolves turned the game into a blowout in the third. He hit his first 3 for a 24-point lead, converted a three-point play for a 25-point lead, then nailed another 3 late in the quarter to make it 96-71.
Entertainment
The Morung Express
Music is music
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f you invited Kylie Minogue to a dinner party, you might expect the evening to end with karaoke or maybe a pop quiz. But the Australian singer’s favourite late-night games are far less predictable, it seems. For while she enjoys dabbling in Scrabble, she has also been known to cavort with guests – including a politician – in a rather more energetic game known as Butt Head, according to
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averick composer A R Rahman, the repository of raga renown, turned 48 yesterday. In a conversation, Rahman said he relived his childhood through his son Ameen. "So far I've just been busy living life. From my childhood I was surrounded by grownups, I never got a chance to enjoy being a child. It took me a while to realise how young I was. By the time I realised I was missing out on youthful activities I was no longer young. And what sense has he made of his life! "My life has always been a journey. When I was in my 20s, I went through the most turbulent and hectic time of my life. Now I spend as much time as possible with my children Khatija, Rahima and Ameen." When asked what lessons Rahman had learnt from his life, the reticent genius pondered then said, "In my life, I've always found dreams
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utthi (Sunil Grover) and Kapil Sharma may have secured a place in everyone`s heart for her comic antics, but, there is one person who seems barely impressed with her. A leading daily reports that Indore-based stand up comedian, Zakir Khan, thinks that what Gutthi does is not comedy. He was quoted as saying, “What Gutthi does is not comedy. Especially in Delhi, comedy has grown to be mature and versatile. Gutthi is not versatile.” He further added that Kapil Sharma`s jokes are meant to insult people. “Tu kaala hai, tu mota hai, tere daant kharab hain - that`s what their
do come true, though often they true come long after you've forgotten them. Just preserve your dream at the bottom of your heart and wait for it to fructify. My ultimate dream was to create an orchestra that would be capable of performing the world's best musical pieces and thereby building a cultural bridge across western and Indian music. We finally launched our music conservatory. "Rahman earnestly desires new generations of musicians to find their bearings. "I want to teach young musicians how to play within an orchestra. As things stand if I want to record orchestral music I've to go to Prague. If Ilaiyaraja wants to record an epic score he goes to Budapest. Why can't we do it right here in our own country? I want to give a certain legitimacy to western classical music in our country. Indian classical music has room for unlimit-
ed improvisation and spontaneity. A classical recital requires far more formal discipline. And the whole orchestra brings one emotion into play throughout a recital. We don't have that discipline in our country. It used to be there. I want to inculcate that sense of discipline required for western classical music. Today a keyboard player gets tons of money whereas a violinist gets a pittance. I want the orchestra player to be proud of what he does." Rahman feels India's art and culture stands a terrific chance in the West. "I think the time for India in the western world is now. The respect for all things Indian has gone up in recent times. On the deteriorating standards of film music Rahman said, "If you have durable melodies and good poetry people do respond to it, even if not immediately. When I see the so-called difficult songs being sung
jokes are about. I The comedian was also don`t find it fun- asked whether he thinks ny,” said Khan. himself better than Kapil
effortlessly by children on television's talent-scouting contests I realise the most hummable songs are those that touch on life. Composers take the easy way out. They make tunes that hit the charts for a month and then exit, therefore nothing memorable happens. When told he's considered the saviour of film music in India, Rahman said, "I guess different people like different things in my music. For me, music is music; it doesn't belong to any region. My theme for Mani Ratnam's 'Bombay' was done in Tamil, then it went into Hindi and soon it was playing all over Europe and Australia. If a tune comes to me it takes wings. The problem is with the shrinking film market in India. My creative vision has to be tailored to suit the altered financial state. This is the first time I'm facing this situation in the last ten years, and I don't relish it," said Rahman.
Sharma. ing him and Kapil To which is like comparing a he replied classical singer with Sonu that compar- Nigam.
author Kathy Lette. Miss Lette, who described the politician as a ‘pinstripeunderpanted’ rather stuffy sort, said the game – in which players score points by throwing Velcro balls at each other – also involved a top lawyer and a prize-winning author. Miss Lette, a long-time friend, says Miss Minogue also enjoys playing Boggle, Pictionary and Twister. And at the end of the evening, the down-toearth 45-year-old singer is happy to help with the washing up. And far from enjoying the delights of exclusive holiday resorts, Miss Minogue apparently likes nothing more than camping and caravanning according to Miss Lette. ‘For this star, a “night on the tiles” means winning at Scrabble,’ she says, adding that Miss Minogue is no diva and prefers camping and caravanning to exclusive holiday resorts. The disclosures are made by Miss Lette in the Radio Times. The 55-year-old Australian novelist, married to human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, writes: ‘For years Kylie and her sister Dannii have been popping over for dinners and dance-athons and games nights at
Wednesday 8 January 2014
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Kylie got up to fun and games with mystery politician
my London home. Ky l i e ’ s game contribution once was to strap on a Ve l -
a pinstripe-underpanted politician. ‘For this star, a “night on the tiles” means win-
cro cap and hand out Velcro balls to all my other guests. ‘We spent the re st o f the evening cavorting around t h e house. 'As we steeplechased over furniture... I remember thinking that only Kylie could prompt such bacchanalian behaviour from, among others, a leading human rights lawyer, a Booker Prizewinn e r and
ning a t Scrabble; Kylie is a shrewd and competitive player. Well, it makes sense. Her name alone is a triple word score.’ Miss Lette has previously talked about her wellknown ‘human minestrone’ parties, known as such because of the eclectic mix of high-profile guests. In 2009, she revealed that Miss Minogue had attended a previous dinner party of hers alongside Gordon Brown, and that the pair had got along famously. Miss Lette and her husband are close friends of Mr Brown and Tony Blair as well as former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Miss Minogue first found fame as a child actress on Australian television, before going on to star in long-running soap opera, Neighbours. She then began a music career in 1987, and has since gone on to sell more than 70m records worldwide. She will make her debut as a judge on BBC talent show The Voice which returns for a second series this Saturday. Miss Minogue told Miss Lette she decided to take the role after having an ‘epiphany’. And it is Miss Minogue’s showgirl spirit that will shine through on the show, said Miss Lette. Recalling a conversation
she h a d with her as she recovered from breast cancer in 2005, Miss Lette said: ‘When I visited her in Paris during her recovery from breast cancer back in 2005, I remember her telling me a story that perfectly illustrates her showgirl spirit. “When the cancer was diagnosed and I was going in for surgery, I was lying there on the trolley and I was suddenly taken by the fact that I was going into a ‘theatre’. “Medicine is so different from my business, but in some ways, so similar. The whole gowning up, the masks, the build-up, the adrenaline… It all felt so familiar. I was under lights. Ah!” – she struck a mock theatrical, pouty pose – “There’s my spotlight!” 'I chortled along with her, but also marvelled at her spirit. Only Kylie could find the positive in such a terrifying scenario. Her wit will also stand her in great stead as a Voice judge.’ Miss Minogue sealed her place in pop history when she showcased her pert posterior in gold hot pants some 13 years ago in a video for her No 1 single Spinning Around. As well as writing a series of successful novels, including Puberty Blues and Mad Cows, Miss Lette is well-known as a television pundit and newspaper commentator. Her husband famously defended Salman Rushdie in the blasphemy case brought against The Satanic Verses in 1989.
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K-pop icon Rain makes Cameron Diaz promotes new health book comeback with new album S S outh Korean singer Rain, known as the "King of K-Pop", on Thursday released his first album for four years as part of a long-awaited comeback after mandatory military service. Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-Hoon, released online his sixth album entitled "Rain Effect" as well as music videos for its double title numbers "30sexy" and "La Song". The album is his first since he finished 21 months of military service -- mandatory for all able-bodied South Korean men -- in July last year. The 31-year-old composed the songs
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and wrote the lyrics. A video for "30 Sexy", posted on YouTube on Thursday, features Rain wearing high-waisted suits and high-heeled shoes performing to a melody led by a synthesiser and backed by a simple hip hop drumbeat. "In the past, I used to present scenes of clothes being torn off and my torso exposed. I decided to
come up with something different this time," he said. A video for "La Song" shows Rain with newly permed hair performing with other dancers to a Latin melody mixed with hip hop, electronic music and rock. "I made this song which football fans can sing along to cheer their favourite teams during the (Brazil) World Cup", Rain said. Rain commands a huge following not only in South Korea but across much of Asia and beyond. He also starred in several South Korean soap operas and Hollywood action pictures including "Ninja Assassin" and "Speed Racer" by the Wachowski Brothers. He will be making a screen comeback when he stars alongside Jason Patric, John Cusack and Bruce Willis in the action movie "The Prince." But his popularity at home was hit last year when he was accused of flouting military regulations -- a highly sensitive topic in a country still technically at war with North Korea. In January 2013 he was confined to barracks for a week after he sneaked out to meet his girlfriend, a top actress. Rain was also questioned by the military, prosecutors and police over his unusually long leave periods and alleged breaches of service regulations.
he is currently promoting her new health tome The Body Book, which aims to empower other women in making healthy decisions. And Cameron Diaz was a walking advertisement for the manual during an appearance on Good Morning America on Monday. The 41-year-old showed off a rosy glow despite her early morning wake-up call as she chatted with host Robin Roberts about the book. The actress kept it casual in skinny jeans, a plaid shirts, cream blazer and black booties. Cameron wore her platinum blonde hair pulled back in a high ponytail, and displayed an impressively smooth, glowing complexion. The star opted to keep her make-up natural, adding a dusting of pink blush and a slick of lipgloss. During the interview, Cameron opened up about her new book, which hit stores last week. The manual is comprised of three parts that cover nutrition, fitness and mind. ‘I spoke to a lot of experts,’ said Cameron. ‘It’s not an instructional book, it’s an informative book.’ ‘We’re with our body from beginng to end yet we know nothing about it,’ she added. ‘This book is about how to age gracefully. Knowledge is power.’ Cameron also enjoyed a savoury oatmeal recipe from the book with the GMA hosts. ‘I’m always looking for new ways to build flavor and have fun with my carbs,’ writes Cam-
eron in Body Book. ‘For instance, I prefer savory o v e r sweet, so in the mornings when I make oatmeal, instead of eating it with something sweet, I make a yummy concoction of sautéed zucchini with collard greens, caramelized shallots, and egg whites. ‘I top it all off with ponzu sauce (a Japa-
nese sauce made from rice vinegar and citrus) or some lemon juice. It’s a breakfast that is delicious and savory and all the things that I love to taste,’ she added. Cameron also photographed s o called ‘real’ women for h e r book. She was shown in video
footage snapping photos of women of varying body sizes. Cameron appeared to be as much of a natural behind the camera as in front of it as she happily directed the women during the shoot. The author later visited a Barnes & Noble store in New York City to further promote her new book. Cameron kept it casual for her visit to the bookstore in the Union Square area of the city in black leggings, a grey striped sweater and black leather jacket. The blue-eyed beauty had her blonde hair tied up in a high loose bun and also wore black ankle boots. The Mask star showed no signs of her early television appearance as she smiled with rosy cheeks at the bookstore.
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a tournament to strengthen traditional bonds of friendship KVsa 61st meet makes colorful start in Kohima
Glimpses of the 61st KVSA sports meet – Day 1
Day 1 results
1500 mtrs race (men) Finals 1st- Sede Vizo (L.Khel) 2nd- Kevingutuo Solo (T.Khel) 3rd – Vikuovolie Keyho (P.Khel)
Discuss throw (Women) finals 1st- Vilabeinuo Miachie-o (L.Khel) 2nd – Kevinuo Solo (L.Khel) 3rd- Khriesiesanuo Whuorie (T. Khel)
Broad Jump (Men) Finals 1st- Menuokhrielie Solo (T. Khel) 2nd- Mhasisetuo Solo (T. Khel) 3rd- Avituo Mere (P. Khel)
Discuss Throw (Men) Finals 1st- Khrielasakuo Keretsű (D. Khel) 2nd- Ketoukhriezo Whuorie (T. Khel) 3rd- Khriesaneilie Sote (P.Khel)
800 mts race (Men) Finals 1st- Sede Vizo (L. khel) 2nd- Vikuovolie Keyho (P. Khel) 3rd- Kikrusetuo Kire (D. Khel)
Shotput (Women) Finals
1st- Vilabeinuo Miachie-o (L. Khel) 2nd- Neilavonuo Yhome (L. Khel) 3rd- Ruokuosanuo Kire (D. Khel)
4x200 mtrs relay(Men) 1st- T. Khel 2nd- P. Khel
MeDal tally Khel L. Khel T. Khel D. Khel P. Khel
Our Correspondent Kohima | January 7
The 61st meet of the Kohima Village Sports Association (KVSA), one of the biggest sporting events in the region made a colorful start here today at the Kohima Local Ground under the theme “To have played fairest, hardest and for the team.” The meet is the biennial event hosted by Kohima Village Youth Organization (KVYO). Parliamentary Secretary for Land Revenue, Justice & Law and Labour & Employment Dr. Neikiesalie Nicky Kire graced the inaugural function as the chief guest and declared the meet open. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kire termed the theme of the meet as befitting and called upon the players to give their best and display their talents to entertain the spectators and to move towards a higher standard.
January 8: Athletics/Games 9:00 AM January 9: Games 9:00 AM January 11: Wrestling/Closing ceremony 9:00 AM He said the Nagaland government is committed to promote sports in the state and called upon the sports persons to actively participate and utilize the various packages being extended by the state government. The inaugural function witnessed the performance of more than 500 'tati' (mono-string) players, which is the biggest gathering of tati players in the world. An added attraction of the inaugural function was the performance of Kohima Village Choir Group with 150 participants from school and colleges. In the march past, each khel was led by its own pipe band. Convenor of the organizing committee, Thepfuhulie Belho told media persons that any player
creating a new record at the meet will be awarded Rs 10,000. A cash prize of Rs, 25,000, Rs. 20,000, Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 10,000 is set for the Champion, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place respectively in Naga wrestling which will take place on January 11. The meet will also feature cross country race on January 11. The eldest player of tournament is 52-year-old Razuovolie Kuotsu from 'D' Khel, who will participate in wrestling and athletics. The KVSA torch was lit by Kezhalelie Keretsü. The torch bearers included Khrielakuolie Suohu- Thevokemouzie to Khedi Baptist Church, Ruokuotoulie Khezhie- Khedi Baptist Church to P. Khel Zieke, Vikuovolie Keyho- P. Khel Zieke to
ronaldo dedicates goals to eusebio in real win
Rülei Junction, Vilabeinuo Miachieo- Rülei junction to Mission Compound, Khrievotuo Sekhose- Mission Compound to Baptist High Gate, Dr. Sadikuolie Khezhie- Baptist High gate to Kohima Village gate, Dzüvichünuo Rutsa- Kohima village gate to police point (to village), Atsüu MiachieoPolice Point (to village) to north gate, Menuokhrielie Solo & Ruokuosanuo KireNorth Gate to Cauldron. Earlier, the welcome speech was delivered by Thepfuhulie Belho, convenor organizing committee. KVYO president Ketounei Kire in his presidential address called upon the players to play well in this five day long mega event. He said the KVSA meet brings peace, unity and better understanding amongst the
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four khels of Kohima village. The KVSA theme song was led by Seviü Khruomo, Kenei-ü Sachü, Dzieseneizo Keyho, Ketuoraviü Solo and Kikrukhrülie Kesiezie. Chief marshal Visasielie Suohu and KVYO athletics secretary Dzisesakuo Rutsa administered oath to the participant teams. Kohima Village Council was formed in 1944 and in order to encourage the traditional bond of friendship, harmony and understanding amongst the four khels, Kohima Village sports meet has been introduced. Till 1957, the council had successfully conducted the village sports meet. However, in the year 1958, the village council handed over the responsibilities of conducting the sports meet to the youth under the banner Kohima Village Sports Association and the sports meet was hosted alternatively by the four khels annually and later biennially.
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However, in order to increase understanding, facilitate better discussion and unity, reduced workload of the khels and improve the financial system integrity and stability, the village council has taken a decision to hand over the responsibilities of hosting the sports meet to the KVYO under the banner KVSA. And so starting from this year, the KVYO host the 61st KVSA meet and will continue hosting the KVSA meet biennially. Khriehu Liezietsu, advisor New & Renewable Energy, Music Task Force and chairman DPDB Kohima will grace the closing ceremony on January 11 as the guest of honour. The closing function will also witness musical extravaganza and fireworks show.
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Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal, left, celebrates his goal during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Jan. 6. (AP Photo)
BARCELONA, JANuARy 7 (AP): Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice Monday to help Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo 3-0 to stay in touch with the top of the Spanish standings, and then dedicated his goals to the memory of Portuguese great Eusebio. Ronaldo said his leagueleading 19th and 20th goals of the season "were for Eusebio," the former Benfica star who died on Sunday at the age of 71. "He was very close to me and helped me
a lot," Ronaldo said of his countryman. "He is a mythic figure, and for me today is a very sad day." Before the match Ronaldo locked arms with his teammates on the center circle and turned his gaze upward during a minute of silence for Eusebio at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Hours before in Lisbon, tens of thousands of people turned out to pay tribute to the 1965 Ballon d'Or winner, who is considered among the best play-
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ers of all time. "I appreciate the acts of homage made here at the stadium and throughout Spain," Ronaldo said. "It's important to feel the sympathy from Spain and the rest of the world." Ronaldo moved one goal ahead of Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa as the Spanish league's top scorer by finding the net in the 82nd minute and again in stoppage time from a cross by substitute Gareth Bale on his return from a three-week injury layoff.
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