July 5th 2014

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www.morungexpress.com

Dimapur VOL. IX ISSUE 182

The Morung Express “

www.morungexpress.com

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen

Modi inaugurates 240 MW power project in Kashmir [ PAGE 8]

2014 FIFA World Cup

By Sandemo Ngullie

I want compensation. These stones and rocks you threw at each other during the bandh belongs to me. You took them from my river.

The Morung Express POLL QUESTION

Vote on www.morungexpress.com SMS your anSwer to 9862574165 Do you think the Nagaland government is sincerely committed towards completing the FootHill Road project?

Yes

No

Others

Rengma Hoho to stand with NFHRCC

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DIMAPUR, JULY 4 (MExN): The Rengma Hoho today stated that it “stands with the Nagaland Foothill Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC).” A press release from Rengma Hoho Vice President, Kewachu Semy and General Secretary, John Semy said that it is “against any form of ‘ism’” and requested that “no tribe, party or government should view the stand of the Rengmas negatively in light of recent controversies.” The Rengma Hoho clarified that the press statements issued by its Dimapur unit on July 1 and 2 “which has created confusion in the public domain has been resolved and should be treated as null and void.” It informed that this clarification has been necessitated “because of the unique position of the Rengmas, where Rengmas are part of both the Tenyimi Union and also in the NFHRCC.”

[ PAGE 2]

Kurdish leader urges independence referendum [ PAGE 9]

[ PAGE 11]

Novak Djokovic through to Wimbledon final [ PAGE 12]

of chinese dirt bikes, transceivers & Myanmar whisky Noklak | July 4

reflections

–John F. Kennedy

TAlEs FRoM THE BoRDERlANDs Imti Longchar

5th July - 09:30 PM Argentina Vs Belgium 6th July - 1:30 AM Netherlands Vs Costa Rica

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Saturday, July 5, 2014 12 pages Rs. 4

DC Mokokchung on AssamNagaland border lands

Priyanka Chopra’s AMA turns nasty

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Courtesy of an informal cross-border trade existing here, goods imported from across the border in Myanmar are gaining popularity among the folks of Noklak town and Pangsha area under Tuensang district.

Despite establishment of the International Trade Centre (ITC) at Dan, formal trade still remains nonexistent, except for a yearly sitting, where vegetables from nearby Naga villages in Myanmar and Indian made goods from the Nagaland side are exhibited and sold.

Motorable road has reached only a short distance of the projected transnational highway from the Nagaland border into Myanmar. As such, traders employ the use of Chinese-made bikes to transport goods. Or they travel by foot - all the way to Lahe or Khamti, the only trading towns in the Naga area of Myanmar from where the items are bought.

Chinese dirt bikes going by brand names of New

Anbo, Henbo, Super Cubwhich more or less resemble the slender scooty are a rage, apparently because they are lightweight, tough and can easily negotiate narrow roads and steep terrains which form the topography of this area.

“These bikes might look ordinary, but they are more robust than Indian bikes and a good beast of burden when it comes to carrying heavy loads,” claims Thanpoi, a proud owner of one such bike at Noklak town.

According to her, price for the bikes start from Rs 35,000 in Indian currency, which is equivalent to around 6 lakh Myanmar currency Kyats.

And with virtually no passenger-mode of transportation, these bikes are employed as ‘two wheeled taxis for hire.’ This has become a source of income and part-time employment for many. To hire one of these bikes up to Lahe town costs anything between Rs 5000-7000. From Noklak to Pangsa, the fare ranges between Rs 500-700.

But taking these bikes towards Tuensang town

A man rides a Chinese made two wheeler at Pangsha area, Tuensang district. Owing to poor roads, these bikes have emerged as a popular mode of transportation for people living in the Nagaland-Myanmar border. Photo by Imti Longchar

and beyond may invite penalty along with seizure of the bike by the police, bike owners say, since these for-

eign-made bikes cannot be the Customs department. driven in Indian soil unless Police, however, are there is legal registration known to show leniency, and formal approval from enabling the bikes to move

around Noklak area. This reportedly started after some citizens questioned the significance of establishing the International Trade Centre if they can’t utilize its benefits.

Transceivers (also known as walkie-talkie and locally called ‘icom’), another import from Myanmar, has more or less become an essential instrument for communication purpose in the area.

No, there is no espionage activity here. The reason for it being favoured lies with the dismal mobile services. As explained by its inhabitants, to get proper network signal for cellular phones in this area is to either “go climb a high mountain or walk around town in order to catch the exact location where the network might appear.”

“Some say using transceivers are illegal but they have been of great service to us especially during emergencies and in matters of life and death,” reasons the Chairman of Pangsha old village. According to him, this radio instrument is also a use-

ful mode of communication among herders while trying to locate the whereabouts of Mithuns in the jungle, which the villagers rear in the hundreds.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the ‘Dry’ state tag, Myanmar and Chinese made liquor such as Hero whisky, Andaman Gold and Dali beer, is also making its intoxicating presence felt.

Liquor obviously falls on the list of important items of import and is the preferred drink for many imbibers.

“They are not adulterated, and are cheaper than most of the IMFL smuggled from Assam and Dimapur and sold here,” explains one imbiber at Noklak town on his reason for preferring liquor imported from across the border while another expresses apprehension that drinking liquor from Myanmar is known to cause unexplained health complications apart from damage to the liver.

Ironically, while Myanmar gets the credit for being the place of import, most of these items are found to be either made in China or Thailand.

R&B Minister should step down: NFHRCC transcending barriers: Morung Express News Dimapur | July 4

The Nagaland Foothill Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC) today insisted that the Minister for Roads and Bridges, Kuzholuzo Nienu step down on “moral grounds.”

This comes in the backdrop of allegations that the Minister had demanded “commission” from NFHRCC recommended contractors. The committee referred to letters written by contractors A Neangba Konyak and Yashitsungba Ao (proprietor of Nagaland Steel Engineering Works) as the basis for this move.

According to the NFHRCC, the contents of the letters establish that the Minister demanded “commission” from the contractors. “However, the contractors having failed to pay the commission to the Minister in concern, the contract works

Open letter to the Chief Minister

T

he NFHRCC would like to appeal to your Honor to kindly take necessary action against the Hon’ble Minister of PWD (R&B) for misusing his official power by indulging in corruption: As per A. Neangba Konyak’s letter No. ANK/FHR02/06/14, 26-06-14, and Yashitsungba Aier’s letter No. Nil, dated 02-07-14, it has been clearly revealed that the Minister concerned has asked for commission for the construction of the Historic Foot Hill Road (Jeepable Road). Therefore, your good Office is requested to initiate appropriate action against the concerned Minister for his involvement in corruption, failing which the Committee will be compelled to approach the appropriate authority in order to safeguard the interest of the public and to uphold the tenet of justice.

Sd/Hokiye Yepthomi Co-Convenor

was denied to the committee recommended contractors,” the NFHRCC stated.

Referring to the letter written by A. Neangba to the committee on June 26, 2014, the NFHRCC said that Neangba was called to the Minister’s

Sd/W. Y. Kithan General Secretary

residence at 4th Mile on June 24 where the “commission” demand was made by the Minister. Quoting from the letter written by Yashitsungba Ao, the NFHRCC stated that his “firm was informed through some sources” that it “would

not be allowed to work unless some monetary payments were made to the concerned Minister.” The letter maintained that the firm did not consent to the demand.

The NFHRCC stated that “the Minister is not serious about the Foothill Road construction,” and added that when villagers are parting with their lands without compensation, the Minister has chosen to ignore the sacrifices made by the public. The importance of the road is such that its construction was exempt from taxation even by the Naga Political Groups, the NFHRCC stated.

The committee has demanded that the police reveal the identity of the man apprehended with arms and ammunition on June 30 during the bandh called by the NFHRCC. It further enquired whether the man has been booked under relevant sections of law.

Reproductive Health: A hidden Union Health Minister urged to casualty of ‘conflict and crisis’ address healthcare in Nagaland NEW YORK, JULY 4 (ThOMsON REUTERs FOUNDATION): Armed conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies exacts a high price on reproductive health – a problem that deserves greater focus by health workers inside and outside crisis zones, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).

As global migration rises, more health care providers will encounter refugees from conflicts, natural disasters and other emergencies, and need to be sensitive to the significant reproductive health issues that such patients may experience, said authors of “Reproductive health during conflict”, an article published Friday by The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, the journal of the RCOG. “Conflict can negatively impact all aspects of reproductive health, directly through damage to services, gender-based violence, and forced displacement of populations, and indirectly through reductions in the availability of basic health care and breakdown of normal social institutions,” wrote the authors Benjamin Black, Paul Bouanchaud, Jenine Bignall, Emma Simpson and Manish

Gupta.

It noted that eight of the 10 countries with the highest maternal mortality ratios have experienced current or recent conflict, according to the World Health Organization.

The report estimates that 170,000 maternal deaths occur annually during humanitarian emergencies. It said about 15 percent of displaced pregnant women will experience a lifethreatening obstetric complication including sepsis, obstructed labour, eclampsia, in which a woman suffers seizures, and haemorrhaging, the leading cause of maternal mortality globally. Gender-based violence, including rape, during conflict is another threat to reproductive health.

Family planning is often another casualty of conflict as clinics may close and supplies of contraceptives become unreliable or inaccessible, resulting in an increase in unplanned pregnancies and illegal and unsafe terminations of such pregnancies. It added that a group deeply affected by conflict and often overlooked is that of adolescents, who may find themselves thrust into dangerous situations with their family structures shattered.

DIMAPUR, JULY 4 (MExN): Nagaland state Minister for Health and Family Welfare, P Longon today apprised the Union Minister for Health, Harshvardhan on the need for establishment of additional health centers in remote areas of Nagaland state. In a meeting with the Union Minister, Longon informed the former on the status of healthcare delivery in the state. A press note from the Kuolei Mere, PRO, Nagaland House, New Delhi informed that Longon further urged for upgradation of the district hospitals in Tuensang and Longleng. He also requested that the National AIDS Control Organization provide new CD4 machines, since the ones available are old and break down frequently.

Further, he called upon the Union Minister to the address difficulties faced by the students from Nagaland state in qualifying for MBBS admissions. Longon requested that the Medical Council of India guidelines be relaxed to enable students avail on the state quota of MBBS seats. The Union Minister said that the North East region is a priority in the list of the Government of India (GOI) and every possible effort will be made to improve the condition in the region, informed the press note.

It was further stated that the Union Minister would be visiting the region soon. Longon was accompanied by Sentiyanger, Commissioner and Secretary; Dr G Kemp, Principal Director; Dr Sukhato S Sema, Director, Health and Family Welfare and Jyoti Kalash, Resident Commissioner, Nagaland House, New Delhi.

A naga artist’s portrait Morung Express News Dimapur | July 4

poverty and personal lives”,he said.

On abstract expressionism, the young artists said, “I love every minute detail about this movement from Federal Art Project (FAP) to breaking wholly conventional style; they take risks and achieve the impossible.”

Athrong’s favourite artists are Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Some of his popular artworks include ‘The rising dragon’, ‘My friend Anand’, ‘Shock wave’, ‘Torn apart’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Disregard.’

A young artist from eastern Nagaland is making waves in the art circle with his unconventional style and abstract impressionism, transcending cultural and geographical barriers.

At 23, Throngkiuba Yimchungru has shared space with world renowned artists like VS Gaitonde, Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne, H A Gade, NS Bendre, Akbar Padamsee, Subhaprasanna,Thota Vaikuntam, and his paintings have been exhibited as far as New York and Colombo.

A fourth year bachelor of fine arts student of India College of Arts & Draftsmanship, Kolkata ((Rabindra Bharati University), Athrong, as he is called at home, has dabbled in surrealism, abstract expressionism and pop art.

However, one thing that marks his artworks (new media) is his use of ‘color and stitching’ technique, a novel technique which Athrong himself invented. “The inspiration behind this ‘colour and stitching’ technique is the colorful attires of Naga tribes”, Throngkiuba Yimchungru – the artist at work. the artist stated in a conversation with The Morung Express, Athrong is excited about the upwhile in Dimapur for a short summer coming events this year, including a break. projectile exhibition (digital) at Time Athrong paints and stitches Naga Square, New York, and an exhibition motifs and designs into the fabric of at Yorktown Museum, New York. his canvass and pads them with ther“So far I have not sold any of my mocol to give his paintings and art- paintings as I am busy experimentworks a 3-D effect. ing and engrossed in my work. Next “My artwork titled ‘Sacrifice’, year, I am planning to do a solo exhiwhich I have not put up for exhibi- bition and maybe after that I may sell tion so far, is based on the ‘colour my paintings” he said. and stitching technique. ‘Sacrifice’ Earlier this year, Athrong was is a tribute to Athrong’s mother who awarded ‘Best Mixed Media on Canhad to raise five children on her own vas’ at the All India Art Contest, Mumwhen Athrong’s father expired when bai. In 2011, he bagged the “Young he was only eight years old.

Talented Artist Award” by the North Athrong said the themes in his East Zone Cultural Centre, and in 2009, works change with time. “Earlier I was Athrong also received the Junior Award stuckwithweaponsofmassdestruction (Drawing) at the 24th Nagaland State (WMD) and presently contemporary Art Competition and Exhibition.

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Dimapur

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Joon-Gyu Lee

port via Kolkata flight on Saturday and would leave the next day”.

The two-day visit will be the first ever official government outing by the Republic of Korea, to Nagaland and the Northeast states, where the Korean wave is widely reported to be popular with the locals.

From old to young, the urge for the Korean culture ranging from TV soaps, mu-

World Bank supports health project in Nagaland

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Banuo Z Jamir, Chief Secretary giving the opening remarks during the dissemination workshop of Nagaland multi sectoral health project held on July 3.

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kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): A daylong dissemination workshop of Nagaland multi sectoral health project was held in the Conference Hall, Directorate of Health & Family welfare Kohima on July 3 in collaboration with the World Bank Group, New Delhi.

The Chairperson of the workshop Dr NL Changkija, Addl Director, of Health & Family Welfare welcomed all the dignitaries present in the workshop.

Banuo Z Jamir, Chief Secretary, Government of Nagaland gave the opening remarks and thanked all the 17 team members of World Bank representatives and

all the participants from different departments. She mentioned that the project will contribute to the Government of Nagaland in overall developmental plans and said that it is an interdependent project.

The overview and objectives of the project were clearly explained and presented by the resource persons from the World Bank.

This project is said to cover alternative power supply for health facilities, water supply and sanitation, information and communication technology, supply chain management system, community engagement for health and nutrition outcomes, health human resource analysis.

The administrative head of department and head of the department of finance, planning, power, rural development, information technology, soil and water conservation, geology and mining, public work, science and technology, and women and child development attended the workshop.

The staff of Directorate of Health and Family Welfare also attended the workshop. The Commissioner and Secretary, Information and Technology KV Vizo gave the closing remarks. This was stated in a press release issued by Neingusa, Joint director IEC bureau, Directorate of heath & family welfare Kohima.

sic, films, anime, fashion, food and Korean language is growing tremendously rapid fast in the region.

In Hornbill 2008, the Korean television channel Arirang made its debut entry in the state and participated in the Indo-Korea Music Festival held at Kohima.

The Northeast round of auditions for K-Pop Contest 2014 will be judge by three professionals from South

kohiMa, July 4 (DiPR): The farmers’ award cum launching of news bulletin of ATMA Kohima was held on July 4 at the conference hall of Hotel Japfu, Kohima with Director of Agriculture & SNO (ATMA), N. Tekatushi as the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, the Director said that ATMA is one of the best schemes that he has come across in his 35 years o service. He said that ATMA advocates Research Extension linkage and team building of all line departments. He stated that all stakeholders come together for the benefit of the farmers and that is one of the reasons why ATMA is successful.

The Director hoped that the scheme would be continued in a big way. He said that research is like a bible for ATMA and urged upon

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and individual family land as well along the stretch of foothill plain between the Naga Hills, and the Dhodhar Ali/Thehodhor Ali. The Dhodhar Ali/Thehodhor Ali road was constructed during 1681-1696 by the Ahom King Gadadhar Singh, which has a stretch of about 212-km from Kamargaon near Numaligarh in Golaghat District to Joypur in Sivasagar District in Dibrugarh District. Therefore, the traditional boundary between the land of Naga Hills and the people of Ahoms had been demarcated along its roads and even the boundary pillars were erected along its roads by the people of Ahoms.

The foothill lands of Naga Hills were very fertile and found suitable for cultivation of Tea bushes and subsequently the British India Government forcefully surveyed the whole areas of foothill plain belongs to the Nagas without the

Director of Agriculture & SNO (ATMA), N. Tekatushi with the Farmers Award 2014 recipients during the farmers’ award cum launching of news bulletin of ATMA Kohima held on July 4. (DIPR Photo)

all concerned to be focused and hard working. He further said that although Nagaland is a hilly state the hill section should be developed as it has a lot of scope for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, medicinal plants cultivation, fisheries etc.

The chief guest released the third volume of the ATMA Kohima bulletin. He also gave away the Farmers Award 2014 to the following: 1. Suse Khamo, Mima village for Indigenous bee

keeping 2. Loku Semy, Tseminyu Block for Cardamom cultivation 3. Lehovi Seyie, Tuophema for Mandarin Orchard 4. Khonuo for eri cultivation 5. Tisovi Bio, Kigwema for fishery 6. Posanü, farmer from Kezoma village 7. Neivole-ü Solo, T. Khel, Kohima, farmer 8. Mr & Mrs Toulie (Poultry) from Sechu Zubza 9. Lhoulievi Belho, Kohima village for Piggery 10. Kekhrüseto (Kidima),

farmer 11. Kelhoukolie, farmer from Jotsoma village 12. Salie Seyie, Mengujuma village for orange cultivation 13. K. Nono (FIG), farmer from Henbenju under Tseminyu 14. Phorulo (FIG), vegetable crop farmer from Khonoma The programme was chaired by DAO & PD (ATMA), Kohima, Nosezole. BTT Convenor, Mhasikhotuo Mere, delivered vote of thanks.

professional competencies, professional commitments and proKohima | July 4 fessional performances of teachA book entitled “Professionalism ers. Further, the book talks about and Empowerment of Teachers” some specific roles of teachers in authored by Zavise Rume and relation to the Right To Education Kewepelo-u Kapfo was released by (RTE) Act 2009. parliamentary secretary for school “Every teacher should first education Yitachu during the Ist know his or her profession.

Nagaland Government School Therefore, teaching professionTeachers Conference here on July 3. alism and teacher empowerThe book discusses profesment should essentially form as sional status of teachers. The book part and parcel of teacher eduattempts to explore and discover cation and training programme,” the true meaning of teaching as the gist of the book stated. profession and its professionalThis book will be found ism, to understand the profesuseful for the students of Post sional status, discusses the profesGraduate degree in education, sional identity crisis of teachers, students of teacher education professional freedom, teachers’ programmes like D. Ed, B.Ed, professional organization and M.Ed, teacher educators, school professional development, and teachers, research scholars and the ethics of teaching and professocial workers interested in edusional codes of ethics. The book cation. Published from Heritage can be empowered, teacher empowalso discusses various concepts of erment and its contributions to school Publishing House, Dimapur, the teacher empowerment, how teachers effectiveness. It also talks about the book is priced at Rs. 350.

Kitanwi Executive Secy. LBAN Chief Minister Makuilongdi Khuan Choir General Secretary ZB(N) Rev.H.M Gonmei Executive Secretary RBAN

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ings with the Naga National Council on June 27 to 29, 1947. In its meeting, an agreement was made on 9-Points which was popularly known as 9- Points Hyder Ali Agreement.

Under Art. 6 of its agreement, it has been stated “that the present administrative divisions should be modified so as:- (i) to bring back into Naga Hills District all the forest transferred to Sibsagar and Nowgong District in the past and (ii) to bring under one unified administrative unit as far as possible of all Nagas. All the areas so included will be within the present proposed agreement.

No areas should be transferred out of the Naga Hills without the consent of the Naga National Council.”

Thereafter, the traditional land surveyed by the British Indian Government during 1925 were restored to the people of Naga Hills since 1947.”

MEx File

Power transformer develop technical defect at Phek

DDK to telecast IPR documentaries

Our Correspondent

Izieteilung Terieng Executive Secy. ZBCC Makuilongdi Khuan Choir President ZB(N) i. Shri. Namri Nchang Hon’ble MLA & Chairman NIDC ii. President, Kuki Inpi, (N)

consent of the then SDO (Civil), Mokokchung SubDivision, Sibsagar District, Assam and the then Deputy Commissioner, Kohima, Naga Hills District, Assam.

Therefore, the people of Naga Hills considered the 1925 Survey as void and illegal by nature.

The Government of Assam claims that the 1925 survey line as the constitutional boundary between Assam and Nagaland, whereas it was considered void by the Nagas.

In June 1947, the Government of British India has delegated the then Governor of Assam, Sir Akbar Hydari to settle the boundary issues between the districts of Naga Hills adjoining the other districts of Assam since the 1925 survey has reduced the geographical areas of the two Naga Hills Districts. In this regard, the then Governor of Assam, Shri. Akbar Hydari came to Kohima and had the meet-

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Phek, July 4 (MexN): The 2.5 MVA power transformer at Old Phek has developed a technical defect with effect from July 3 effecting power supply. Efforts are being made to restore at the earliest. Stating this in a release, EE, Electrical Division Phek requested esteemed consumers to bear with the department for the inconvenience.

‘Professionalism & Empowerment of Teachers’ book released

PROGRAMME SEQUENCE Invocation

MokokchuNg, July 4 (DiPR): The Deputy Commissioner of Mokokchung has circulated a written record of the lands under Mokokchung adjoining to Jorhat and Sibsagar district of Assam; as reproduced below: “The people of Naga Hills had its own traditional possession of land from the time immemorial as the lands were inherited from their forefathers. The system of landholding is purely traditional and different to that of the system in other states in India. There were village community/common land, common clans' land, common families land, and private individual family land.

This type of landholding system has been protected under Art. 371 (A) of the Constitution of India. In the foothill areas adjoining to the state of Assam, the said traditional lands had been under the possession of village community, clans,

ATMA Kohima launches news bulletin

Zeliangrong Baudi Nagaland is organizing a Felicitation program for Shri.T.R.Zeliang Hon’ble Chief Minister of Nagaland on 7th July at Jalukie Town, at 11:00 a.m. Baudi through this press is pleased to invite all Zeliangrong people living in different places to come and take part in the Function positively, the detail program highlight is publish herewith for information.

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Korea. A total of 12 participants (6 singing team + 6 dancing team) from the region will be selected via preliminary online round at www.Kpopindia.com. The Indian auditions are going to be held in four cities (New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Dimapur). The two winning teams (Song and Dance category) from India will win an all-expensespaid tour to South Korea and a chance to participate in the annual K-Pop World Festival 2014 where teams from various countries will compete for the grand title.

The term “K-Pop” – an abbreviation for “Korean pop” first began gaining wider international attention under the name of the “the Korean Wave,”or “Hallyu” in Korean in the mid1990s. The business weekly Forbes picked K-Pop as one of the “20 Trends Sweeping the Globe” in 2008.

14 receives Farmers Award 2014

ZELIANGRONG BAUDI (N)

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South Korean Ambassador DC Mokokchung on Assamto visit Nagaland this July Nagaland border lands DiMaPuR, July 4 (MexN): South Korean Ambassador to India, JoonGyu Lee, will be arriving in Dimapur on July 26 for the upcoming K-Pop Contest 2014 (Northeast Auditions) to be held at IMC Hall, where he is schedule to officiate the international exchange programme for youth, as guest of honour.

Amongst the other Korean delegations accompanying him on his first maiden trip in the Northeast region, would include Kim Kum Pyoung, Director of Korean Cultural Centre India and members from the Korean musical troupe Dream Project.

According to a press note received here, confirming the news report, Yari Rubu, one of the staff members of Korean Cultural Centre India, told Sevendiary.com, “His Excellency will arrive in Dimapur Air-

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The Morung Express

kohiMa, July 4 (DiPR): Doordarshan Kendra Kohima will be telecasting 19 episodes of IPR documentary programmes starting from July 6, every Sunday from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Telecast schedule of the first two documentaries will be as follows: The documentary titled “The Naga Diary” (Journey to statehood) produced by Tianla Jamir will be telecast on 6th July 2014 from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. On 13th July 2014 “A passage through time” highlighting the growth and development of the state during the last 50 years produced by Yapangnaro Longkumer will be telecast during the same time slot. The remaining 17 episodes would be telecast every Sunday from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

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NBCC Youth Day of Prayer on July 6

kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) Youth Department has set aside July 6 as Youth Day of Prayer which is to be observed in Nagaland Baptist Churches. The purpose of this program is to mobilise the Nagaland Baptist Churches to pray and bless the young people, to pray for the youth leaders under NBCC and to pray for the ministries and projects undertaken by the Youth Department of NBCC. As the prayer concerns to be prayed on this day has been sent out to the churches under NBCC, the office of the Youth Department, NBCC in a press note has appealed all to consider this Youth Day of Prayer as an opportunity and participate together in praying and blessing our future generation.

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NPF meeting postponed

kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): All concern are informed that the NPF meeting fixed on July 8 at the Central Office is postponed to July 15 at 11:00 am due to unavoidable circumstances. Therefore, all concern are requested to kindly note the change and adjust accordingly. While informing this in a press release, NPF Secretary General K. G. Kenye expressed deep regret for the inconvenience caused.

YAA to organize felicitation prog

kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): The Yimchungrü Akherü Arihako (YAA) is organizing HSLC & HSSLC felicitation programme on July 5 at 10:30 AM at DUDA Guest House, Kohima. Parliamentary secretary for excise & housing PWD Torechu and parliamentary secretary for CAWD and economics & statistics R. Tohanba will exhort the gathering. Azhiba T. Janger will speak on behalf of topper. Welcome address will be delivered

by YAA president Akiuba. The function will be chaired

by YAA literary secretary Thsantsumong.

NBCC Teengames 2014 concludes

kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): The closing ceremony of Teengames 2014, which was a weeklong program of the Education and Communication department of NBCC was held on July 4 at the Kohima local ground.

Khrieketuonuo led the program and Rev. Dingshung Kamei read the bible and pronounced the invocation. A presentation entitle ‘1000 Reasons’ was presented by the Growth Group (Gg) - 2 of U – Link.

There was a time of sharing experiences by the teens on Teengames which was followed by distribution of certificates. Alobo Naga mesmerized the gathering with several songs. Nitoshe Zhimomi, co-convener of the Teengames expressed the vote of thanks while ‘Broken pieces’ a song was presented by the Kohima orphanage.

Groth Group (Gg) - 2 presenting a dance during the closing ceremony of Teengames 2014 held at the Kohima local ground on July 4.

A short challenge and prayer was delivered by Rev. Moa Longchar, Pastor, Baptist Mission Church (BMC) followed by the unfurling of flags by Hoshika, Convener (U-Link). The Growth Group (Gg) - 1 of U – Link led the praise and worship during the program. There was also time of introducing the concept of U-Link as well the Teen-

Games to the parents present at the program by the Convener (U-Link).

TeenGames was a program targeting children between the age of 13 to 19 years. It was a week long program which started on June 29 until July 4, 2014.

The rationale behind the program was to connect teenagers with Jesus using sports, competition and the

bible. The Education and Communication Department of NBCC is thankful to all the churches, families, individuals and participants who have contributed toward making the program a successful one.

The organizers in a press release has expressed special thanks to W. Honje Konyak, Deputy Commissioner of Kohima, KOHIMAS hospi-

tal, Highland Dawn Media, Kingdom Stewart led by Mongzeung Mpom, Kohima Orphanage, Mr. Alobo Naga, Rev. Moa Longchar, Rev. Dingshung Kamei, Hoshika, Convener (U-LINK) and Dr. Viposa, Convener TeenGames and their team members and all the super couples of U-Link for their contribution and support toward the program.

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REgional

The Morung Express

Saturday

5 July 2014

Dimapur

cut-off by road Mao church workers receive Peace award Tripura from rest of country

Tribal Research Institute recognises Matia and Rev Hokey for their endeavour towards peace

Mao, July 4 (MExN): Two church workers from the Mao community have been awarded with the Peace and Harmony Award. K. Matia, a woman church worker, and Rev. S. Kaikho Hokey, a pastor, have both been awarded the Peace and Harmony Award 2013 instituted by the Tribal Research Institute, Manipur.

Matia and Rev. Hokey are among the few to actively participate and endeavour towards a peaceful and harmonious coexistence among different ethnic tribes of the state with particular reference to the Kuki-Naga conflict of 1994-95.

Matia has rendered tireless service to the Christian society since 1979 and at one time also worked as Women Secretary, Mao Baptist Churches Association, while Rev. Hokey has been closely associated with the Manipur Baptist Convention.

For Matia, the outbreak of the Kuki-Naga conflict sometime in 1994-95 confronted her with many questions which even today remain unanswered. With almost all the Kuki and Naga populations being Christians, she was left with a nagging question at the time of the conflict. “Where have all the teachings about Love for one another, not to kill one another gone?”

“Something is very wrong,” she thought and resorted to prayer. Through the many letters she wrote, she asked other churches to join her in a prayer

K Matia chain. She spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to end the nightmare.

Matia narrates one of the incidents she encountered during the height of the Kuki-Naga conflicts where a mother-daughter duo travelling in an Imphalbound bus were pulled down by unidentified persons. On learning that the duo were held captive in a nearby jungle, Matia headed straight to the jungle without a second thought and on seeing the two being held captives, pleaded for their release. After much pleading and persuasion, the captors released them and they were able to continue their onward journey to Imphal. The incident shook them so much so that they forgot to introduce themselves to one another even at the time of parting. To this day,

Rev. S. Kaikho Hokey they remain unknown. her to the core and was a source Another incident was during of great encouragement for her. one of the meetings sponsored Presently working as a Pasby the Manipur Baptist Conven- tor at Mowzhu Prayer Centre in tion (MBC) at Motbung, where Senapati, Matia continues to go Matia daringly stated that the up to the bus stops to assure Kuki Mao Mothers would ensure the travellers that Mao Mothers are safe passage of any Kuki commu- praying for their safety. nity from Mao Senapati and enRev. S. Kaikho Hokey, presquired if the same assurance can ently serving as Pastor, Mao Bapbe granted by the Kuki commu- tist Church, Pudunamei, Senapanity in case of any Naga traveller ti, was born into a humble God between Kangpokpi and Kangla- fearing Mao Family. He comtongbi without security escorts? pleted his theological studies There was only silence. After the at Eastern Theological College, meeting, an old man came to her Jorhat, after which he ventured and narrated that they could not into teaching in schools. He was give the assurance because of the ordained to a full time Gospel numerous factions within their Ministry in 1987. At one point of community. The man told her time, his self-acclaimed ‘foolishthat as for him, he would con- ness’ in tackling the challenges of tinue to ceaselessly pray for san- Peace Missions in troubled times ity and tranquillity to return. The earned him the name of ‘A man words of this old man touched of Great Faith’ from the Manipur

Baptist Convention.

Rev. Hokey witnessed the ugliest form of ethnic conflict in the 1994-95 Kuki-Naga clashes. Many innocent men, women and children lost their precious lives just because they belonged to one community or the other. It appeared both the warring factions were heading towards a point of no return. However, everything was not lost as there were men and women on both sides with conscience who had set up various Peace Committees to douse the communal fire. Peace Committee of Manipur Baptist Convention was one of them of which Rev. Hokey was a member. In one of the peace missions when loud speakers were used to appeal for peace and calm in one of the Naga villages, they were mistaken for possible attackers from the other side and were attacked by the village volunteers to the extent of causing severe injuries. Rev. Hokey boldly faced the attackers and made them understand that they were members of MBC Peace Committee.

MBC’s centenary celebration scheduled for the year 1996 and there were people from both conflicting communities threatening of bomb-blasts and arson during the celebration. Rev. Hokey, as Secretary of the centenary celebration along with other office bearers stood firm with hope and prayer to make the celebration violence free. The centenary celebration was a grand success.

‘No new policies, laws on land and KIM submits memorandum to PM pokpi. At Saikul about 5000 indifference to the plight of resources till Alternative Arrangement’ came out to take part in the the Kukis, KIM stated. "In meeting and the proces- fact, 61 memoranda had Newmai News Network

SENaPaTI, July 4 (NNN): The United Naga Council (UNC) has taken a decision during its 'presidential council' meeting on July 3 that no new policies, laws or notifications on land and resources would be welcomed by the Nagas till such time an alternative arrangement outside the system of the Government of Manipur is put in place, which is being pursued in the democratic process of tripartite talk.

The meeting affirmed that the respective tribe councils and regional organisations will therefore abstain from the district level stakeholders consultative meetings on the New Land Use Policy (NLUP) being organised by the Government of Manipur to ensure that opportunity to legitimise the same is not given, according to a United Naga Council (UNC) press communiqué.

It said that the Government of Manipur has attributed the underdevelopment of the tribal hill areas in the present state of Manipur to unfavourable law and order situation and to the absence of land laws.

"But the fact of the matter is that there are more than 20 militant groups operating in the Imphal valley and this could be the reason for Imphal valley’s over development vis-a-vis the tribal hill areas. With regard to the second attribute, it is a fact that the tribal hill areas do not come under

the purview of the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms Act of 1960, but the Nagas and tribals have their own land holding system as per the customary laws of the respective tribe," the UNC press note stated.

According to the UNC, the New Land Use Policy of Manipur (2014) (NLUP) based on the Mizoram model is being taken up by the Government of Manipur ostensibly to improve productivity and minimize demand on land resources. The Naga body also said that Mizoram has 100% tribal population and their experience therefore will be universal in terms of legal implication on ownership of land. In the state of Manipur, where 41 % of the population is tribal, who owns 90% of the geographical area of the state, the NLUP is just another ploy to dilute the land ownership of the tribal people. The UNC then stated that the NLUP is roping in the Village Development Committees, the newly conceptualized instrument for abolishing the village republic system of the Nagas and the tribals.

In protest against the unabated communal actions and policies of the Government of Manipur to legitimise the usurpation of the lands of the tribals and destruction of their traditional institutions, a 48 hours total bandh had been observed in Naga areas w.e.f. the midnight of June 16, 2014, it reminded.

'Withdraw boycott against Mani'

IMPHal, July 4 (NNN): The Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Nagaland and Manipur) has advised the United Naga Council (UNC) to withdraw its social boycott decision of former Lok Sabha MP Mani Charenamei.

In a press communiqué issued by its general secretary K. Poushinlung, the Zeliangrong body said it does not see any reason to appreciate the United Naga Council's action against Mani Charenamei. "The blame being put on Mani Charenamei for the defeat

of the Naga People's Front (NPF) candidate Soso Lorho in the 16th Lok Sabha election is not acceptable. If Mani Charenamei has divided the Naga votes leading to the defeat of NPF candidate Soso Lorho then the same blame could be put on other two Naga candidates who also divided the Naga votes," the ZUAMN pointed out.

It then said many Naga candidates had contested against the NPF candidates in the last Manipur assembly election of 2012 but the UNC

did not say anything about it. "The UNC or any other such NGO may exercise their authority to boycott or take any action on its members within the ambit of its organisation only. But such action on the candidates in a democratic country like India shall be unconstitutional and undemocratic," the Zeliangrong body said.

"It is our sincere feeling that the UNC would be well advised to withdraw the declaration of social boycott against Mani Charenamei," ZU stated.

Imphal | July 4

THE PROTEST rally taken out under the aegis of the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) successfully culminated with submission of memorandum to the Prime Minister of India through the Manipur Governor and the Chief Minister in Imphal and through district magistrates at seven different places in the hill districts of Manipur today.

About 2200 Kukis rallied at THAU Ground in Imphal and have taken out a procession in the city. About 30,000 rallied at Churachandpur town while about 4500 participated in the rally at Kang-

Mizoram Medical College to be operational by Aug 15 aIZawl, July 4 (NNN): The Mizoram State Medical College will come to full operation by August next year with intake capacity of 50 seats for First batch. Subject to the improvement of the medical college, the intake capacity is to be increased from 50 seats to 100 seats as allowed by Government of India.

In this connection, the Board of Management for Establishment of Mizoram State Medical College headed by Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today held meeting regarding crucial matters for the proposed setting up of State Medical College and approved Mizoram Institute of Medical Education and

$300m ADB loan for Assam's power sector

GuwaHaTI, July 4 (BS): The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300million loan to boost Assam's power sector and help the state continue its drive to eliminate power sector inefficiencies.

The multi-tranche loan facility, which is part of a broader 10-year, $3.5 billion state investment program, will fund generation and distribution upgrades, including the construction of a 120-megawatt hydropower plant. It will also finance new energy efficient generating equipment at existing plants, new distribution lines and substations, and financial management training and other support for staff of the state

power companies, Assam Power Generation Corporation and Assam Power Distribution Company.

The ADB-funded project is expected to bolster Assam Power Distribution Company's finances by allowing it to lower purchases of expensive electricity from independent power producers.

Meanwhile, the planned. Lower Kopili runof-the-river hydropower plant in central Assam is expected to help the state avoid over 530,000 tons per annum of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be produced by fossil fuel-driven generation.

"More than a third of households in the state face daily electricity cuts of

5 to 6 hours, many important businesses, such as the tea gardens, still aren't connected to the grid, and in peak periods Assam has to buy up to 15 per cent of its power from independent producers at very high cost," stated a press release of the multilateral lending agency, quoting Herath Gunatilake, lead energy specialist with ADB's South Asia Department.

"By funding measures to cut load shedding, the loan is expected to benefit over 2.7 million consumers," it added.ADB has supported Assam's power sector since 2003 with five loans totalling $450 million, which have helped the state enact key reforms and improve transmission and distribu-

sion while more than 3000 rallied from Mongneljang to Yaingangpokpi in Ukhrul district. The rally was also taken out at Moreh and Tengnoupal with the participationof 4500 and 6000 respectively.

KIM has organised the rallies to protest the Government of India’s alleged lackadaisical attitude towards the Kuki people who had "endured the genocidal acts of the NSCN-IM during 1990-97," according to KIM. The rallies were not against any particular community or underground group, rather it is against the Government of India’s

tion systems.

The new loan will continue past efforts to build up the capacity of power companies and regulatory agencies, and to further cut distribution losses, which have decreased from 40 per cent in the fiscal year to the end of March 2002 to 24 per cent in financial year 2012.The funds are to be disbursed in three tranches with the project set to be completed by the end of 2023.

The first instalment of $50 million is earmarked for the replacement of aging gas turbines at the Lakwa Gas Power Plant in northern Assam. The second tranche will also be for $50 million and the third for $200 million.

Research (MIMER) to be the name of the State Medical College as has been suggested by Advisory Committee.

It is planned that MIMER will get started with the existing 300 beds in the State Referral Hospital, Falkawn, from which later it shall be upgradated to 500 beds.

been submitted to the central government but to no avail. The rallies were only to draw the attention of the government who is undergoing political talk with the NSCN-IM," it added.

It demanded the government to first examine the "war crimes of the NSCN-IM" in a proper court of law of the country before any agreement is arrived at between the central government and the NSCN-IM. "Otherwise any agreement between the two will be futile and become the cause of civil unrest in the North East India," KIM stated.

3

aGarTala, July 4 (IaNS): The land-locked Tripura was cut-off from the rest of the country by road as a large portion of National Highway-44 (NH-44) was damaged in Assam due to the rains, a minister said here Friday. The National Highway got badly damaged in around 10 km in southern Assam's Karimganj district three days ago due to incessant monsoon rains. The 630-km-long NH-44 is the only one that links Tripura by road with the rest of India via Shillong and Guwahati. The Tripura government sought Assam and Border Roads Organisation's (BRO) help to urgently repair the road, described as the life line of Tripura. The BRO under the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways maintains the National Highways in northeast India. "Our officials have requested the Assam government officials to urgently take up the matter with the BRO," Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey told IANS. He said: “We have also requested the BRO to restore the damaged roads." An official of the Tripura transport department told IANS that over 2,000 goods laden trucks and other vehicles with passengers have been stranded for the past three days after the road was damaged.

Arunachal Governor asks BSNL to go for holistic planning

ITaNaGar, July 4 (PTI): Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma today asked the BSNL authorities to go for holistic planning and implementation of programmes in the state to meet the challenges.

The governor advised the telecom service provider to ensure un-interrupted service in the state when BSNL chief general managers (Telecom) of North East circle I and II DP Singh and BC Nagaraju called on him at Raj Bhawan here this morning, an official communiqué informed.

Sharma pointed out that many places in the state are yet to have proper road and telecommunication facilities and said, good telecommunication service would be a boon to the people, especially in disaster management and medical emergencies. He advised them to have proper coordination with the state departments for speedy implementation of the projects. Earlier, the officials apprised the governor on the challenges faced by telecom sector in the state, the communique added.

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4

Dimapur

businEss

Saturday 5 July 2014

The Morung Express

Toyota Kirloskar Motor launches New Etios Xclusive Dimapur, July 4 (mExN): Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. has launched its all new “Etios Xclusive” Limited Edition - the real sedan known for its Quality, Durability, and Reliability. Only 900 exclusive units of the Etios Xclusive Limited Edition will be on sale.

Conceived and designed for the Indian market, the Etios series has a strong base of more than two lakh customers in India.

The Etios has seen success not just in India but also in other right hand drive markets like South Africa, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Nepal, Bhutan, Brazil and Argentina. As part of Toyota’s commitment towards the changing needs of its customers, the Etios Xclusive Limited Edition has been introduced.

The New Etios Xclusive comes with a host of special privileges like the new front fullchrome grille, new chrome garnish on the taillamp, headlamp and ORVM, increasing the luxurious quotient of the Etios. The Etios Xclusive also has a new Bluetooth Audio system and a limited edition- Xclusive- badge that will give one exclusive ownership experience. The New Etios Xclusive is based on the G grade of the current lineup. The new vehicles are available in two existing colours - Classic Grey and Symphony Silver.

Also, for the first time in India, Toyota along with its financial arm- Toyota Financial Services, offers its Etios Xclusive customers an exclusive opportunity to avail a 100% on road funding for

seven years on a zero down payment scheme. Etios customers can also avail free Smile Service Package for upto 50% discount on service related to value added services.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, N. Raja, Director & Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, TKM said, “The Etios series has come a long way ever since its introduction in 2010 in India. The Etios enjoys a patronage of over two lakh happy customers in the Indian market and is known for its superior ride and handling quality. As a part of Toyota’s commitment towards the changing customer requirements, the new Etios Xclusive has been introduced to bring in freshness and exclusivity to the existing prod-

uct. With each successful year, we hope to see the Etios happy family grow further and hope to enjoy a strong and long lasting relationship with them.”

Toyota has set a benchmark in the automobile industry for its quality products and more so for its after sale service experience. Because of Toyota’s high standards of quality,

durability, & reliability, Toyota vehicles are known for its low cost of ownership. One of the unique offers made by Toyota to drastically reduce the time taken to service a vehicle is Toyota Express Maintenance Service which has brought down the servicing time to just 60 minutes.

Centre, states to work for housing for all by 2022 NEw DElhi, July 3 (iaNS): The central and state governments Thursday unanimously agreed to work together to provide housing for all by the year 2022.

They also adopted a three page “National Declaration on Urban Governance and Housing For All” recognizing “housing as a part of the dignity and indicator of quality of life of the individual” after a daylong deliberations by ministers of housing and urban development from states and union territories here, an official release said.

Acknowledging the central government’s aspiration to provide housing for all by the 75th year of Independence in 2022, the declaration lays special emphasis on housing for economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income groups (LIG) and other vulnerable

sections such as slum dwellers.

As part of the declaration, the central government has committed itself to rationalize approval processes and fund flows to states and union territories, while states will make all efforts to encourage and involve all stakeholders for affordable housing and will complete ongoing works in this regard.

They will also make efforts to encourage EWS/LIG housing by liberal floor area ratios, transferable development rights and the concept of deemed building permissions.

States will also take up amendment of rental laws to balance interests of owners and tenants with the goal of encouraging rental housing in urban areas. They will also make efforts to implement

single window scheme for approval of lay-out and building permissions. Special focus will be laid on skill development to eliminate urban poverty.

States will ensure peoples’ participation in governance, maintenance of public amenities, transparency in system and accountability for proper growth of cities and towns. They also pledged to provide basic amenities like better roads, transport, sanitation and drinking water.

The states resolved to actively consider implementing the reforms suggested by union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu as part of 25 point charter earlier as in the day.

In his speech, Naidu said that the government is examining proposals for channelising tax rev-

enues, interest subvention and public-private partnership to meet the housing shortage of 300 lakh houses in urban areas.

He called for “out of box” thinking and solutions to address emerging challenges of urbanisation in the country.

The charter of urban planning suggested by Naidu had includes suggestions like making towns and cities slum free; exploiting potential of cities with respect to tourism, health, education, business; inclusive zoning providing for old age homes; and construction of orphanages and night shelters.

He said the government would soon firm up the way forward on development of 100 “smart cities”, noting the considerable interest in this scheme from various developed countries.

poETry

An Indian woman sorts garlic at a wholesale market in Allahabad, on Friday, July 4. India’s new government led by prime minister Narendra Modi will present their first budget on July 10 amid high expectations after his Bharatiya Janata Party went into the election with strong momentum on promises of economic growth. (AP Photo)

Treading into hazy oblivion Minds boggled with confusion Eyes blinded by the glaring lights Lost to dark thy blurry sights.

Ears deafened by blaring sounds Daunting lay beside drumming horns!

Staring beyond forlorn space Stars speckled weary face Overhead grey blankets the firmament Etiolated lay barren the land.

Hushes away the gentle zephyr Lead me thru yonder!

Tiala Neihu Kohima

_

LEISURE

Simple Rules - There is just one simple rule: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.”

SUDOKU Game Number # 2927

‘No hike of LPG, kerosene prices’

NEw DElhi, July 4 (iaNS): Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Friday there is no proposal to increase rates of subsidised LPG, kerosene and diesel.

“There is no such proposal with the government,” Pradhan said with reference to a report that his ministry is considering a note to the cabinet for raising kerosene and LPG prices as recommended by an expert committee.

The Kirit Parikh panel has recommended raising kerosene prices by Rs.4-5 per litre and LPG by Rs.250 per cylinder “It is clarified that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas is not proposing any increase in their prices”, the ministry said in a statement here.

Pradhan also said, there is no fresh proposal to increase LPG prices or to change the duty structure on diesel. State-run oil marketing companies Wednesday increased prices of non-subsidised cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs.16.50 per cylinder and aviation turbine fuel ( ATF) or jet fuel by over half percent as global crude prices surged due to the Iraq crisis.

public DiscoursE “Yimchungers’ Contribution to the Naga Nationalist Movement in reflection & calls”

Dear Naga Nationalist, imchunger Nagas salute and honor your sacrifices for the Naga Nation.

Since from the very formation of the Naga National Council (NNC) led by AZ Phizo, many Nagas had sacrificed their lives for the Naga Sovereignty. Even the world recognized our cause and sacrifices.

Yimchungers are also the pioneers towards the cause of Naga Nationalist Movement. The First¬Indo War (First bloodshed) took place on 24th March at Huker village under Tuensang district. The first person among the Naga armies to set hand upon the Indian soldiers was Mr Hothrong Yimchunger. This incident marked the beginning of an offensive act towards the cause of Naga sovereignty. Since then, the Indian army resorted to a series of unabated “barbaric operations” in almost all the Yimchunger villages and took thousands of lives. Killing, torturing, raping, burnt of villages, granaries, destruction of livestocks etc became a regular feature.

Again in the instant attack in October 1956 where the Indian army bombarded the mighty Haphu camp at Longtok village with different sophisticated weapons including 10 different cannons. As a result, many innocent public and nationalist were killed. This kind of inhuman attack had to be faced by the Yimchunger Naga Nationalist.

Even today, Yimchungers stands for the cause of Naga Nationalist Movement.

In a sad note, it is disheartening to see our Naga Nationalist killing our own brethren rather than to fight towards common enemy. There were many instances, where

Y

our Yimchunger Nationalist and other Naga brethren had been brutally killed by our own brothers. As long as the attitude of “unforgiveness” and the mentality of “revenge” prevailed in the minds of the factions, it will be a great “setback” to the reconciliation process as we are yearning for. As the genuine citizen and true identity of Nagas by blood, the people of Yimchungers also along with the rest of the Nagas yearns for peace and part take in the Naga reconciliation process.

The trend of violence and bloodsheds is a regular feature in Nagaland news items. Will killings solved the problems or bring solution? How long will it continue this way? How many times will it pierced the bullet inside our brothers’ body? How long....? We need to really ponder on the question and find a way to do something good which is commonly acceptable by all.

“STOP THE VIOLENCES and BLOODSHEDS” is the slogan from every individuals, general public, frontal organizations etc in Nagaland. PEACE is the cry and prayers from every Naga individuals and organizations. Yes! We need peace and prosperity and to live under one umbrella!

The desire to achieve a COMMON GOAL is the need of an hour in Naga society. Inorder to re-affirmed our commitment to the cause of independent Naga state, it’s a high time to forget the differences and of the past mistakes, we need to unify within us to see the change in our society, a real CHANGE in Nagaland.

Akiuba Yimchunger Naga

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 # 2934

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 # 2926

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

STARFISH CRAB SEAHORSE PUFFERFISH LOBSTER ANGELFISH CLOWNFISH COD SALMON BARRACUDA BAWSS STURGEON CARP PERCH MACKEREL BLUEGILL MINNOW HALIBUT SNAPPER WALLEYE STINGRAY EEL FLOUNDER GROUPER GAR GUPPY TILAPIA ANCHOVY JELLYFISH KELPFISH KINGFISH KOKANEE MORAYEEL

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K I F F D Y V R F A D H I K P J N Q S E

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V C K B P G K N N J I Y V O H C N A I H

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L S O C V M Y P F I E A I P A L I T K F

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A O P R J R R K O J B L U E G I L L X L

A G P H R A G I U G E D Q J J C I A G E

N M N R X Y N N N O A L Q K L I L H U K

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V V L X L S U H B I X I A L O B S T E R

W P H I U N C O S S P T S E J H Q H Q F

N Z G T B R R H R G S J N H N Q A A A U

D G R B E U N O Y G Z W A L L E Y E Y B

MOKOKCHUNG:

Z D K P O E T F F S D J B Z W K O Z S W

ACROSS 1.Fools 6. God of love 10. Cushions or mats 14. Unreactive 15. Anagram of “Mail” 16. Found in some lotions 17. A type of dance 18. Norse god 19. Blend 20. Mechanization 22. A tart spicy quality 23. Largest continent 24. Come forth 26. Require 30. Small portable bed 31. Confederate soldier 32. If not 33. 1 1 1 1 35. Not square 39. Choral composition 41. Movie house 43. Drop to one’s knees 44. Former Italian currency 46. Unusual 47. South southeast 49. Wealthy person (British slang) 50. Sailing ship 51. Plunger

54. Narrow opening 56. Dwarf buffalo 57. Mixed with impurities 63. Give the cold shoulder 64. 5280 feet 65. Angered 66. Express in words 67. Arab chieftain 68. Well-known 69. Backside 70. Focusing glass 71. Obdurate

DOWN 1. Devil tree 2. Two-toed sloth 3. Confined 4. Therefore 5. Leaf opening 6. Agitated 7. Emit 8. Hodgepodge 9. Transgressor 10. Composition board 11. Communion table 12. Accomplishing 13. Twilled fabric 21. Cravat 25. No more than 26. It holds up the head 27. Distinctive flair

28. Feudal worker 29. Abhorrent 34. Baby carriages 36. Salt Lake state 37. Roman emperor 38. Sketched 40. As well 42. Ritual 45. Diabetics lack this 48. Hard glossy coating 51. Noodles 52. Not outer 53. Spirits 55. Small slender gulls 58. 10 cent coin 59. Violent disturbance 60. Countertenor 61. Adolescent 62. Countercurrent Ans to CrossWord 2933

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)

TUENSANG: 03861-220256/101 (O) 8974322879 MON: 03869-290629/101 (O) 9856248962/ 9612805461 (OC)

Toll free No. 1098 childline

H

KOHIMA: 0370-2222952/101 (O) 9436062098 (OC)

ZUNHEBOTO: 03867-220444/101 (O) 9856158740 (OC)

CHILD WELFARE COMMITTEE

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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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LOCAL

The Morung Express

Saturday 5 July 2014

TR Zeliang calls for streamlining NABARD projects kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): Nagaland Chief Minister, TR Zeliang, has called for streamlining system of implementing projects under National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

A press note from the CMO’s office informed that the Nagaland CM had met NABARD officials and lamented that the present system offers very less or no return to the state, except creation of infrastructures. He urged NABARD to focus on creating sustainable community based assets and income generating projects rather than funding more on redundant infrastructures, which are becoming a burden for the state government in the course of continuous maintenance.

The CM further rued that huge amount of money has been invested in the state under NABARD

negotiated loan for developing infrastructures and other projects but no tangible returns has been achieved by the state in reality. Since NABARD fund is a loan and recoverable by the state government with only 33.33 % subsidy, there has to be profits from the projects so that it is sustainable and contributes to the uplift of the people’s economy, Chief Minister asserted.

“We are spending lots of money under NABARD fund. But we do not know where it is going. Just releasing fund is of no use, there has to be some returns,” Chief Minister said, adding that the state cannot continue to adopt the same system which was not so beneficial to the state and its people.

He further urged upon the NABARD representatives to concentrate on agri & allied sector. The

CM also suggested that the NABARD along with the implementing departments should first identify and explore the potential areas and prepare comprehensive projects on agri & allied sector and allocate projects accordingly.

Such compact and comprehensive projects in the identified potential areas will help people to undertake sustainable project on large scale and in turn facilitate easy accessibility to market, he said. Irrigation being the main engine of agri & allied sector, the CM urged officials to identify important rivers in the state where major agriculture activities are being carried out and where major irrigation project can be implemented in line with eco-tourism and aqua flora and fauna conservation.

“We cannot cover the whole state at one go. We must first identify signifi-

cantly potential areas and prioritize it. And also distribute according to feasibility of the project. We cannot also apply all the same schemes to both hill and plain area equally,” he added. The CM lamented that the agri & allied sector has failed to contribute up to the mark despite its tremendous potentials in the state because of untimely implementation of schemes and failure to apply appropriate technology.

He further emphasized on the need to have frequent interface programme amongst the different departments of agri & allied and NABARD representative to make a thorough assessment of the progress of the schemes and also to plan out comprehensive and integrated projects. The CM also urged NABARD to rope in all agri-allied departments

so that concerted efforts can be evolved and variation and random distribution of schemes can be avoided.

Meanwhile, NABARD representatives V. Chelladurai, GM, Tiakala, DGM and Bengdang Aier, AGM disclosed that there are different schemes which are being implemented by them in the state. Presently, the schemes like Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), Nagaland Infrastructures Development Agency (NIDA), Tribal Development Fund (TRDF), which is being implemented through well developed NGOs are in operation, besides providing consultancy services at nominal fee of 1% or less.

On the Chief Minister’s assertion that contribution of state share in the projects have become a difficulty for state due to resource constraint and because of

which many major projects have been blocked by the Central Govt., NABARD officials informed that they even provide state share if required by the state government.

NABARD officials also disclosed that they have sanctioned a huge amount of money for mini hydro power projects in state but could not be utilized till date because of the demand of the Power department for 100% cost escalation within a period of two years. NABARD has also sanctioned money for agri-link roads and has now ventured into orchard promotions, besides developing other state infrastructures, the official stated.

Of all the loans, NABARD loan is the cheapest and the ceiling limit is fixed by the planning commission as per project feasibility proposed by the state government, the official said.

TBHJ fresher’s day-cum- ‘Bharat Yathra’, anti caste campaign reaches Nagaland He stated that the govSo far, the Yathra has A native of Mezhuveli seminar on legal rights ernment must act on his dec- covered 22 states. Bose said in Pathanamthitta district, Our Correspondent

kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): Tyrannus Boys Hostel Jakhama (TBHJ) will hold annual fresher’s day-cum-one day seminar on legal rights awareness on July 5 at its hostel premises. The seminar will be conducted by Kohima Law College, Nagaland State Legal Services Authority, and Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO).

TBHJ situated below St. Joseph’s College, Jakhama, NH-29 was established in the year 2007 exclusively for the students of St. Joseph’s College with the motto – ‘Personality Development’, informed TBHJ warden Thohru in a release.

The legal rights aware-

ness campaign team led

by Kezhokhoto Savi, Advocate & President NVCO would be covering various topics such as sanitation, lokayukta, human rights, environment, medical negligence, legal services authority, free legal aid to the poor and role of trained para-legal volunteers, food security, consumer rights, etc. The resource persons would include Alika Kiho, Chuba, Alka Achumi, Asenla, Hitokha and Wekhrope.

The TBHJ annual fresher’s day session would be led by warden Thorhu while Kezhokhoto Savi, who is also convener of ACAUT Nagaland (Legal Cell), would exhort the college students.

Kohima | July 4

The 40-day long Bharat Yathra, to raise awareness on eradicating caste system in the country, by eminent lawyer and social activist K K Sarachandra Bose reached Kohima today.

“I don’t want to see caste system in my country,” said Bose while addressing a press conference here at Kohima Press Club this morning.

Dubai-based Bose (62) has already served a mandatory notice on the Government of India for constitutional reform to eradicate the caste system from the country. The notice comes in the form of his 208-page book he brought out in November 2013.

laration “a mandate for social equality, on or before December 31, 2014.” If not, “I will take the lead and do all that is necessary to wipe out the caste system and untouchability from Indian soil…”

“Eradication of caste may sound a bit over-ambitious for my compatriots at large, but then my missions have always been driven by absolute faith in realizing the goal and a great sense of optimism,” he said. “The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the caste system conveyed the message ‘Divided we are-come and rule us’ and that ‘caste system as projected by Manu and accepted by the Hindu society has proved to be the biggest curse for this country’.”

he will be covering all the states and asserted, “I don’t want any state untouched,” Along with a team of 34 volunteers, Bose has been addressing people and freely distributing copies of his book, “Caste Away! India, Hinduism & Untouchability”.

The Yathra has so far covered places like Port Blair, Trivandrum, Nagercoil, Puducherry, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Daman, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Kolkatta, Ranchi, Gangtok, Guwahati and Itanagar. It will be covering a total distance of 14,000 km before culminating in Delhi, mid-July.

Kerala, Bose has been practising law in the Gulf for over three decades and is a member of the International Bar Association. All along his Bharat Yathra, he is carrying over 10,000 copies of the book -- for free distribution. The book, which is supported by 40 years of research, has already been handed out to the President of India, Prime Minister, all Members of Parliament, besides chief ministers, legislators, judges of the Supreme Court as well as several High Courts and lower echelons of the judiciary. It has also gone to the UN Secretary General, Heads of States of different countries, intellectuals and media persons.

Govt school teachers pledge Nagaland Govt School Teachers Conference 50% untrained school teachers in Nagaland to refrain from ‘proxy practice’ • • Over Govt to set up new B.Ed. College in Mon, Tuensang, Dimapur Our Correspondent Kohima | July 4

Government school teachers taking their pledge during the 1st Nagaland Government School Teachers Conference in Kohima on July 4. (Morung Photo) Our Correspondent scientiously and diligently students and fellow teachers Kohima | July 4

Government school teachers in Nagaland today took a ‘professional oath,’ pledging to pursue their profession with conscience and dignity. The oath was taken during the first Nagaland Government School Teachers Conference conducted in Kohima. The government teachers further committed to embrace the values of their profession and to refrain from being a party to the “immoral proxy practice.” They vowed to con-

abide by the declaration.

The teachers pledged to dedicate their lives to the teaching profession and that they would endeavor to work for the welfare of their students. “The well being of my students will be my primary concern always,” proclaimed the oath.

The teachers further vowed to strive towards maintaining the honor of their profession and uphold public trust. They then pledged to recognize and honor the worth of every individual student and treat all

with respect; and to work towards continuously enhancing and upgrading their professional capability through self study and other capacity programmes. “ I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my students,” the teachers further proclaimed, while affirming their pledge. It may be noted that there are around 24,000 government school teachers in Nagaland state.

Parliamentary secretary for higher education and SCERT Deo Nukhu today stated that there are more than 50% untrained school teachers in Nagaland. “Till now a large majority of school teachers in our state are untrained; therefore, our target is to train the teachers as much as we can within the shortest possible time,” said Nukhu while addressing the valedictory function of Ist Nagaland Government School Teachers Conference here at NBCC Convention Hall.

The two-day long conference, jointly organized

by SCERT, school education department, NBSE, SSA and RMSA witnessed three general discussions and four group discussions pertaining to important issues concerning teachers, education and teacher education.

Nukhu said apart from the existing 8 DIETs, the state have two Government

MSF donates ambulance to Mon District Hospital MoN, July 4 (MexN): Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) donated an ambulance previously being used by MSF to the Department of Health & Family Welfare (DoH&FW) in Kohima for Mon District Hospital.

A press note received here stated that since MSF officially departs its project site in Mon in July 2014, the organisation decided to donate its ambulance to keep the process of referrals live even after it leaves. MSF used the ambulance for the past three years to refer patients in need of immediate attention or specialised care from Nagaland and Assam to Mon

District Hospital.

The donation also included two additional tyres, standard maintenance tools such as hydraulic jack and spans and spare parts to guarantee at least three services to the vehicle. 400 litres of fuel was also donated to support referrals of the most vulnerable patients who are not capable of paying for the fuel.

“With Mon being so far away from the nearest tertiary hospital in Dibrugarh, the importance of good and affordable ambulance services is more essential than most places in India. As MSF we are very pleased to be able to donate this ambulance

for supporting this lifesaving service,” said Beatrice Barbot, MSF Project Coordinator in Mon. MSF in the release foresaw a pivotal role that the community will have to play in ensuring that the ambulance is always available at the hospital along with a driver and clearly defined prices against specific distances, so that referrals to the hospital continue without interruption.

MSF has played an important role in revitalising the hospital and equipping it with necessary infrastructure and medical facilities contributing to it being fully operational today. “It is now for the local authori-

ties and the community to maintain this key provider of healthcare in the district,” it added.

MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion, and natural disasters in more than 65 countries. MSF offers healthcare to people based only on need and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

MSF received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 1996 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

B.Ed College- State College of Teachers’ Education at Kohima and Mokokchung College of Teachers’ Education, Yimyu.

“We hope to have DIETs in the 3 new districts of Peren, Kiphire and Longleng before the end of the current financial year 2014-15,” he said, adding the government is planning to set up new B.Ed colleges in Mon, Tuensang and Dimapur within next few years. The state has already started M.Ed course in the State College of Teachers Education and hope to have Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE) in due course, “so as to provide M.Phil and Ph.D Courses for promotion of education to higher level in our state,” Nukhu added.

“Whether you are trained or not, it is important that teaching experiences that you gained through practice teaching is very important to promote education in our state,” he told the teachers. He also stressed on the need to promote mathematics and science in the schools to produce technical manpower in the years to come.

Nukhu also asked the

commissioner and secretary of school education to ensure that science stream is given utmost attention while taking up more higher secondary schools in the state. The parliamentary secretary said that teaching is a noble profession which requires a lot of patience, dedication and devotion to duties.

Chief secretary Banuo Z. Jamir maintained that teachers hold high regard in the society, adding they are the root of a strong and good society. Referring to communitization, she asked the teachers to involve in the Village Education Committee set up in management of schools to help improve the classrooms and other requirements. Appreciating the setting up of subject wise teachers association through this conference, she hoped that it would not be a group to agitate but play crucial role in improving quality education in the state.

The valedictory function was chaired by Kesonyu Yhome, principal director, school education.

He was optimistic that the conference will bring positive change in education system in the state.

Dimapur

5

MEx FILE DEO Phek clarifies on Pre-Matric Scholarhip Phek, July 4 (MexN): In response to Phek Town Chakhesang Students’ Union’s (PTCSU) statement on “non-disbursement” of Pre-Matric Scholarship (PMS), District Education Officer, Phek Nuchisalu has clarified that the funds for the first PMS was received on March 13, 2012. Accordingly, the scholarship was disbursed in all the blocks including Phek Block to the head of the institutions of both government and private schools. Subsequently, fund for renewal was received in 2013 and the same was disbursed, the DEO stated. However, in 2014, scholarship was received only for Meluri, Pfutsero and Chozuba block. “Hence, the question of non-disbursement of PMS under Phek Block since 2010 does not arise.” The DEO further requested the PTCSU to contact the office in the future before going to the media.

NSCN/GPRN notifies DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): The Chaplee Ministry, NSCN/GPRN has notified that officials with the following phone numbers have been appointed to oversee financial affairs pertaining to Southern zone (9862567272) and Chaplee Ministry (9436111777), NSCN/GPRN.

EPIC error corrections underway in Dimapur DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur has informed that correction of errors in the Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) for Dimapur district is being undertaken from July 1 to 20. Therefore, all the electors under Dimapur district have been informed to apply in Form 8 for any correction of errors within the stipulated time without fail.

PTCSU career guidance prog Phek, July 4 (MexN): The Phek Town Chakhesang Students Union (PTCSU) will be organizing felicitation cum career guidance programme at Phek Town Hall on July 12. The main speakers of the programme include Deepali Mashirkar, SP Phek, Athrila Sangtam, SDO (C) Phek and Dr. Wetshelo, MS Civil Hospital Phek.

The programme is exclusively for the successful candidates of HSLC/HSSLC Examination 2014 and the present Class X students of all schools in Phek town.

Stating this in a release, PTCSU president Kudukhoto Teteso requested all the students concerned to attend the same without fail.

Technical Education director informs kohiMa, July 4 (MexN): Director of Technical Education has informed that the provisionally selected list of candidates for undergoing studies in various diploma courses outside the State for the session 2014-2015 has been posted on the department’s notice board and can also be accessed at http://www.dtenagaland.org.in.

PBC children Bible camp underway PereN, July 4 (MexN): Children Bible camp of Peren Baptist Church (PBC), Sunday school department commenced on July 3 at Old Peren village under the theme “Super Leader” quoted from the Gospel according to Matthew 20:26. 146 children and helpers from various religions and denominations are attending the camp. A press release informed that the camp will be taught by Sunday school superintendent and camp director Kiesaplung Ndang and his colleagues while Keheigumle, youth director will lead Praise and Worship. The camp will culminate on July 7 with a gospel concert, a fund raising event by Sunday school department, which is scheduled to be held at Church building at 6:00 pm.

ADEA (P) meeting on July 11 DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): All the Diploma Engineers serving under the Department of Power have been informed that the association meeting will be held on July 11 at 11:00 am at Zonal Council Hall Kohima to discuss important issues. A press note issued by Er N. Thiya Jamir, President ADEA (P) and Er S Yanpamo Odyuo, General Secretary has requested all members to attend without fail.

DNSU general conference organizing committee meeting DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): All the members of Organising Committee of the forthcoming 19th general conference of Dimapur Naga Students’ Union (DNSU) have been informed that there will be a committee meeting on July 7, 11:00 am at DNSU Office. Therefore, all the members have been asked to attend the said meeting without fail.

USLP condemns killing DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): The United Sangtam Likhum Pumji (USLP) has vehemently condemned the killing of Maj. Athong Yimchunger of GPRN/NSCN allegedly by NSCN (IM) on July 1 at Jessami. “We are of the opinion that such actions carried out by our own Naga brethrens was a huge setback to the efforts being put for the long standing need for reconciliation among the Naga political groups,” stated a condemnation note issued by USLP vice president Tsilise Sangtam. While condemning such violence and bloodsheds, the USLP has appealed to all the factions to desist and shun such acts of “dacoity” and work together towards attaining a true reconciliation.

Resolutions adopted to ease LPG crisis in Dimapur DiMaPur, July 4 (MexN): GB's Union Dimapur (Urban), Dimapur Urban Colony Council Chairmen Federation (DUCCCF) and gas agencies in Dimapur have jointly adopted resolutions to improve service and timely delivery of gas cylinders to the consumers. GB's Union Dimapur (Urban) and DUCCCF had called a consultative meeting with all the gas agencies on June 28 at Unity Hall, Naga Council Dimapur. The meeting was called to deliberate and find ways to ease the

crisis in procuring subsidized filled gas cylinders by the domestic consumers which in present situation even takes one and half to two months contrasting the central government policy of one filled gas cylinder in a month, stated a press release appended by officials of GB's Union Dimapur (Urban) and DUCCCF. One of the resolutions adopted was for all colonies within the urban areas to avail the home/spot delivery by submitting list of consumers to the gas agency covering its locality.

Gas agencies should genuinely make sure to deliver the entire filled gas cylinders received from the gas plant to the consumers, the meeting resolved. To have uniformity in all the colonies, it was decided that the colony authorities shall collect Rs. 550/- only per cylinder which includes price of filled gas cylinder and service charge/ maintenance. Further, a decision was made to approach district administration to check and stop collection of tax from trucks transporting gas cylinders

by various elements while entering Dimapur. It was also decided that gas plant should make every effort to supply sufficient filled gas cylinders on time to the gas agencies as per booking so that no genuine consumer connected is deprived of its monthly quota. In order to check black marketing and multiple gas connection, GB's and colony council authorities should properly identify the authenticity of the applicant while issuing residential certificate for new gas connection, it resolved.

6

People, life, etc...

Saturday | 5 july, 2014

Healing the Dark Legacy of Indigenous Families Michelle Tolson Inter Press Service

A

s a child, 78-yearold Yakama Nation elder Russell Jim was forced to go to a boarding school in Washington State and was beaten for speaking his language.

After returning home at the close of the school year, his aunt vowed to protect him, even if that meant “taking me to the hills,” he tells IPS. His father brought him to their local, all-white school and threatened to sue if they did not enroll him.

While he retains his language today, he’s well aware that the ways Native American communities have been torn apart by displacement from government efforts to force integration into mainstream society.

“I notice when asking tribal people their definition of poverty, it is usually ‘having no culture.’ It is not defined by money,” Janeen Comenote, director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC), tells IPS. She says this is an important distinction in a demographic experiencing some of the highest rates inequality in the U.S. There is a perception that leaving reservations changes this.

“Disparity is disparity and both populations face it,” says Comenote of urban and rural tribal populations.

A report by NUIFC shows 20 percent of urban Indians live in economic poverty. However, compared to the general population they also face 38

percent higher rates of accidental death, 54 percent more diabetes cases, 126 percent more disease of the liver and cirrhosis, and 178 percent higher death rates related to alcohol use.

Native American children have the highest rates of foster care placement of all minority groups according to another report.

Kings County and Multnomah County in Washington and Oregon States are among the highest in the U.S. at seven to five times disproportionate to Native populations.

Matt Morton, executive director of Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland, Oregon, tells IPS over 20 percent of native children are in foster care in Multnomah County.

“Our families experience a much higher rate of removal compared to white families in similar situations. We know this is due to biases and expectations of how Native Americans should act when living in severe conditions of poverty. This has not changed [since the Indian Child Welfare Act].”

Before its creation in 1978, the rate was 25 percent.

How do indigenous people live in poverty? According to NUIFC, urban native people are 1.8 times more likely have no plumbing, twice as likely to have no kitchen, three times as likely to have no phone and three times more likely to be homeless than the general population.

On reservations they might live in large, extended families. Yakama fisherwoman Caroline Loo-

When asking tribal people their definition of poverty, it is usually ‘having no culture.’ It is not defined by money: Janeen Comenote

ney Hunt, age 54, tells IPS her mother adopted children informally despite having 11 of her own.

“My mom used to say ‘watch out for the White Man.’ I asked ‘which one?’

She said ‘DSHS [Department of Social and Health Services] – they steal your kids.’

“They would try to go back to their families after they turned 18. But after being away from their culture, they would see how we lived and wouldn’t want to stay. Our culture is not about material things, it is about family.”

Today according to the

law, native children are supposed to stay within their community for foster care services, but sometimes children are placed into general population services because they are not enrolled in the tribe.

Families struggling with alcoholism might forget to enroll their children. “They told me children who are not enrolled are recorded as white,” says Looney Hunt, who had to intercede when her granddaughter was placed in foster care outside her community.

Russell Jim says the introduction of alcohol to

the Yakama has been devastating, while the loss of their traditional hunting and gathering places to hydroelectric dams and the Hanford nuclear reservation has further impacted their health.

“We are not genetically adapted to the foods or alcohol of the settlers,” he says. He thinks this is why diabetes and alcoholism plague the tribe.

While reser vation community members like Russell Jim and Looney Hunt work to preserve their cultural traditions, urban tribal organisations like NAYA focus on rein-

troducing cultural value systems.

Morton thinks regaining the traditional diet will be a “pivotal point” for Native communities in the Pacific Northwest, both urban and rural. They are working to restore a section of land forcibly ceded to the European settlers in north Portland.

The last indigenous person was removed in 1906 from the ancient fishing village of “Neerchokikoo,” which morphed into an industrial area. NAYA centre, now located in the area, has worked with Verde organ-

Guatemalan boy who left for better life, died alone Sonia Perez D.

associated Press

G

ilber to Ramos wanted to leave his chilly mountain village for the United States to earn money to treat his mother's epilepsy.

His mother begged him not to go. "The better treatment would have been if he stayed," Cipriana Juarez Diaz said in a tearful interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. When he wouldn't relent, she draped him with a white rosary for safe passage.

A month later, his decaying body was found in the Texas desert. Now, the boy has become a symbol for the perils faced by a record flood of unaccompanied children from Central America who are crossing illegally into the U.S. Authorities said Monday that Gilberto was 11, which would have made him one of the youngest known children to die crossing the desert. But his parents said Tuesday that Gilberto was 15.

The parents explained that they had taken several years to register his birth because of the remoteness of their village in Guatemala's northern mountains. When they did, they had forgotten Gilberto's actual birth date, so they listed the same date as his younger brother.

The boy was shirtless, having likely suffered heat stroke, but still wearing the rosary. "He was a good son," Juarez said. "May God give me the strength to endure." Teenage boys seeking work have long been part of the stream of young men heading north from Central America to escape poverty and gang violence.

But the number of unaccompanied immigrant children picked up along the U.S. border has been rising for three years.

Migrants tell of hear-

Gilberto Haroldo Ramos Juarez, 11, brother of Gilberto Francisco Ramos Juarez, a Guatemalan boy whose decomposed body was found in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, stands in front of his home in San Jose Las Flores, in the northern Cuchumatanes mountains of Guatemala, Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Gilberto Francisco's parents confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was 15, and the date was wrong on his birth certificate. In the remote mountains, they had taken several years to register his birth and forgot the date. So they listed the same date as his younger brother. (AP Photo)

ing that children traveling alone and parents traveling with young kids would be released by U.S. authorities and allowed to continue to their destination.

Gilberto, too, had heard in Guatemala that if he got in, he would be allowed to stay, his family said.

He was born and grew up in San Jose Las Flores in a modest wood and sheetmetal home in the Cuchumatanes mountains of Huehuetenango province along the Mexico border.

At 6,600 feet above sea level, the exuberant beauty of deep-green hills and canyons, shrouded with clouds and floral bursts of purple and yellow, is a stark contrast to the extreme poverty.

There is no running or potable water and only a latrine in the family home.

In the kitchen, there is food, tortillas or wheat atole, an oatmeal-like

drink, but never enough.

The cluster of homes where Gilberto lived is accessible only by foot, a difficult walk of nearly a mile (about 1 ½ kilometers) along a rocky and often muddy mile-long path through the canyons. Gilberto took that path each way to school, where he went as far as third grade before dropping out.

"He had to work to help the family," said his teacher, Francisco Hernandez, who remembered that Gilberto loved to draw.

More than half of 50 schoolchildren attending now raised their hands Tuesday when asked if they had family in the U.S., shouting, "I have eight," ''seven," ''three!" While many migrating minors say they are fleeing violence, the biggest threat in San Jose Las Flores is poverty. There are both mining jobs and drug traffick-

ers in the border state, but neither touch the remote village where Gilberto grew up.

"Here most of the people are farmers. They grow beans, rice, potatoes," said Raul Cifuentes, president of the town's development committee. "But they don't have a way to import or export, so they stay poor."

Gilberto and his father, Francisco Ramos, hired themselves out to harvest and clean corn.

Things improved when the oldest son, Esbin Ramos, reached Chicago and started working in a restaurant. He sends $100 to $120 a month when he can afford it, allowing the family to build a two-room home out of cement block to replace their wooden shack and paint it bright red and green. Gilberto slept on a piece of foam on the floor.

Short, quiet and humble, he stayed close to home. But he grew despairing and bored, Esbin Ramos said. Meanwhile, their mother got sicker.

The older brother suggested Gilberto come to Chicago, where he could return to school and work at night and on weekends.

Gilberto set out May 17 with a change of clothes and a backpack along the same path as his brother, walking the rugged road to the center of town and then hitching a ride to Chiantla to meet up with the smuggler, known as a coyote.

He left his cowboy boots behind because he didn't want them to get ruined, his father said.

The trip cost $5,400, and the family had borrowed $2,600 of that, paying $2,000 the first week of the journey and another $600 the week before he

died. They still owe the debt.

Esbin Ramos said Tuesday that he didn't know much about how Gilberto reached the Mexican border city of Reynosa. Esbin went the whole way in the back of a semitrailer. He said Gilberto told him he arrived by bus.

"I'm OK, just the deposit the money," Gilberto told his father as he was about to cross into Texas.

Then Gilberto and the coyote disappeared. His parents tried to call the coyote. Four days passed, then five, then six. By the eighth day, Esbin Ramos was worried. He called the Guatemalan consulate in Houston and officials in Guatemala seeking help, he said.

Then he got a call from a woman in McAllen, Texas, from what agency he doesn't know, telling him his brother was dead. They had found the body June 15, authorities said, and Esbin's phone number on the inside of Gilberto's belt buckle, a tactic many migrants use to hide information from drug traffickers who are looking to extort money from their families.

The Guatemalan consulate in the United States notified the family on Tuesday that Gilberto's body would be returned soon, whenever there is an available flight. His father is already preparing his grave site in the local cemetery.

His bedridden mother stumbled to her feet Tuesday to pray at the altar adorned with wildflowers, arranged where he slept. There are no photos placed there because the family sent most of them to the U.S. to identify the body.

"The coyote told me that he was going to take him to a safe place and I believed him," Francisco Ramos said. "But that was the fate of my son."

isation to restore a former waste dump into a neighbourhood park.

“What we are doing is creating livable neighbourhoods and regaining cultural connections through the restoration of natural areas and reintroducing native plants and building open spaces for our community to gather,” says Morton of Cully Park.

NAYA uses the Relational Worldview Model created by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). The Eurocentric linear worldview is “rooted in the logic that says cause has to come before effect.”

In contrast, “the relational worldview sees life as harmonious relationships where health is achieved by maintaining balance between the many interrelating factors in one’s circle of life,” says NICWA’s website.

“I’ve noticed,” says Comenote, “a difference between Eurocentric and tribal institutions. Eurocentric institutions ask ‘do they have enough money?’ Tribal institutions ask ‘does the child have a culture?’ They also ask, how do they help each other?”

Many tribal people were forced out of their reservations during the 1950s and 1960s federal relocation period and sent to live in cities, creating a Native American diaspora. Morton explains “there were many relocation spots around the country and Portland was but one.”

The American Indian Movement of the 1960’s and 70’s fought to reverse the policy but many tribes lost federal recognition

and sovereign status, according to NUIFC. Relocated tribe members also intermarried with other races after their forced removal. However, tribe members have also relocated to cities to pursue opportunities not available on reservations.

Comenote says urban tribal organizations function as “multi tribal embassies.” NAYA’s members come from 380 different tribes and Portland has the ninth largest urban Indian population in the U.S. “NAYA is in the process of creating an intergenerational community, Generations, by partnering with the City of Portland and the Portland Public Schools system,” Oscar Arana, director of strategic development and communications, tells IPS. The project will create affordable housing for foster parents seeking to adopt foster youth and Elders who want to be part of the community and volunteer their time to support the families.

“There are many positive outcomes that occur when three generations come together to support each other including improved health, education, and sense of purpose and meaning. The project earned an enthusiastic endorsement by Governor John Kitzhaber.”

Only four out of 10 indigenous youth graduate from high school in Portland public schools.

“When first assuring the safety of kids, then we can help the parents get housing, help with education and offer assistance,” Morton explains.

Your Way - Our Way - The Truth Zelda Quakawoot

Your way Tradition is replaced by authority Respect is replaced by greed What is happening to this nation, Is the planting of an evil seed.

Culture is replaced by religion This dominates the law The heritage of this country Is slipping out the door Community is replaced by profit Social issues stocks are down It is easier to make up more rules Since our voices are silent sounds Security is replaced by wars A nation so young to the slaughter The old white leaders send to battle The innocent sons and daughters Custom is replaced by policy So big and powerfully round No equal rights for this nation The quality of life goes down History is shaped by education Understanding is replaced by books Technology replaces timelessness They forgot about the land that was took Our Way Oppression can rise to the challenges And determination is the key Already exists a tradition This inspired an historical need To overcome all oppression And continue to fight each day A need to continue tradition In respect of the cultural way To stand proud and strong for history Our Elders continually guide Respect for the heritage of the first nation 'Cos it will continue to strive For in a lifetime is purpose Our customs passed on and on Not based on material values Just ensuring you know why it's wrong The nation who replaced our traditions Will always be fighting for more Their children will be the first To fight their parents' war The colonials who replaced our tradition Will always be fighting for more And if you don't see it their way They kick down your bloody door And the truth The nation who replaced respect For the land and the culture they saw They are the nation who raped the fabric Of the first nation's custom and lore

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.

Morung Youth Express

Saturday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

5 July, 2014

No regrets, say the Chinese women who chose independence over marriage Tania Branigan

H

The Guardian

er mother carefully undid Liang Jieyun's plaits, combed out the strands and pinned them into a bun. When her friends put up their hair, they wore the red clothing of brides. But as Liang left her girlhood behind and stepped across the family threshold, she was embarking on a lifelong commitment to remain single.

At 85, Liang is a rare survivor of a custom stretching back to the early 19th century in parts of southern Guangdong. Women here could vow to remain a "self-combed woman", or zishunü, leaving their parents' home to work without marrying. "If I hadn't become a 'self-combed woman', the landlord would have forced me into marriage," she said.

Pretty girls were often forcibly taken as wives or concubines. It happened to two of her friends, and they killed themselves.

Becoming a zishunü gave women an unusual degree of independence in a world that allowed them little education, voice or freedom. But it came at a heavy price. They toiled in factories or other people's homes to support their families. Women who broke their pledge of celibacy were supposed to kill themselves, though by Liang's era, such expectations had largely disappeared.

The words recited with the eight strokes of the comb hint at the uneven path ahead: "First comb for luck, second for longevity, third for contentment, fourth for safety. Fifth for freedom …"

Shatou village, Shunde, was once a centre of this practice.

Down an alleyway, tucked behind the high modern whitetiled homes, lies a two-storey grey building with an elegant courtyard before it. In front of its gate, mulberry trees sprawl inside a red-brick wall.

The Hall of Ice and Jade

The girls who took a lifelong vow of chastity are now in their 80s, the last survivors of a unique custom

Liang Jieyun, 85, and Huang Li-e, 90, are rarities as zishunü and have never had a husband or children.

Photograph: Tania Braniga

– named after the saying "as pure as jade, as unsullied as ice" – was built to shelter these women in old age, although it is now a museum.

Liang is tiny – perhaps 142cm (4ft 8in) – and fineboned. She sits on a bench, swinging feet in black galoshes, beside Huang Li-e, a 90-yearold with a mischievous smile and an aptitude for teasing.

They have never had husbands, children – or second thoughts.

"No regrets," they say in unison.

"A lot of men chased after me," Liang added, with a shooing motion: "I told them to go away."

The custom was one form of "marriage resistance" in the Pearl river delta. Others included "delayed marriage": wives would not move to their husband's home or have sex with him for the first few years.

It may have emerged because Shunde was a silk production centre, giving women opportunities in the factories. The area also placed a heavy emphasis on female chastity, said Ye Ziling, who has interviewed many survivors, possibly help-

The Walk In The Forest

M

Vizolie “Stitchface” Khatsü

y sister and I are the only children of our family and also the best of friends. She is still four years old and though she doesn’t talk much, she makes up for it with her hyper activeness, her sense of adventure and love of the outdoors.

One day as we were alone at home, as our parents had gone out for song practise; I decided to kill the time by taking my sister to the jungle, hunting for animals and birds.

She followed close behind me, picking out flowers she thought were pretty and asking me nonsensical stuff you would expect from the mind of an inquisitive four-year-old.

She kept me company and I carried her on my back in places she could not tread, as I scanned the canopy of the vast jungle for birds and animals, keeping my catapult stretched, ready to shoot at the first sign of life.

We travelled on and on, on occasions shooting down a few birds and animals, and we came to a place deep in the jungle which was supposedly haunted by a ghost.

My sister turned to me with her big, scared eyes and said with a small pitiful voice: “Brother, I don’t want to go there; they say that it is haunted.”

I dismissed such claims as nothing but a hoax and continued on, holding her hand tightly, reassuring her that there was nothing to be scared about.

As we went on, it became darker as the evening approached; when suddenly, I saw an animal stirring in the bushes. I shushed my sister and left her behind, and tip-toed across the jungle floor.

But then, the animal noticed me and started to run for its dear life. I chased it with all my might across the jungle floor and it was in the sight of my catapult, but alas; my foot got stuck in the root of a tree and I fell on a rock, knocking me out cold, rendering me unconscious.

When I finally came to my senses, the jungle was dark and only a few streams of light from the evening sky illuminated the jungle floor. I picked myself up and went near my sister and held her hand and started our way home.

As we went on, I saw a figure in the distance, but could not ascertain who it really was. I consoled my sister beside me that there was nothing to be scared about, as we walked on, even though I myself was feeling a little intimidated by the figure in the jungle.

As we went closer, I could make out the shape of a small girl, and then I caught her eye, and she suddenly exclaimed in her sweet worried voice, “I’ve been looking for you for so long. Where have you been, brother?”

IT WAS MY SISTER. . .

ing to ensure the women's vows were respected.

While they chose to become self-combed, even running away to do so when their parents disapproved, most came from poor households.

"Often, their families couldn't offer good dowries.

Their status would be even lower than an ordinary girl's in their new family," said Ye. "They were also the eldest daughters and might already be the main labourer. Their siblings had not grown up to replace them and, if they married, the main income source was gone." Others became selfcombed because factories refused to hire those they feared might marry and give birth.

"Women were afraid of marrying a bad man," said Liang, adding that local men gambled and smoked opium.

"If you got married, you had to give birth to children and raise them and work very hard for the family."

Women who married joined their husband's family, at the bottom of the hierarchy.

"All their labour went to the inlaws and became their duty.

The in-law family would never be grateful; it was what was supposed to be done. Their status was very low," said Ye. In contrast, self-combed women could enjoy the gratitude of brothers and take pride in their contribution.

Because of their long working hours, factory workers often slept by their machines. In Zhaoqing, another town in the Pearl river delta, they lived as a community. Some are thought to have formed romantic or sexual relationships.

When the Wall Street Crash led to the collapse of the silk industry, many went to Singapore as servants. Huang spent decades there, sending money home to her brother and nephew. "We never thought about ourselves. We never did anything for ourselves," she said.

While some see the custom as a daring challenge to strict Confucian patriarchy, others think it more complex.

"Superficially, it looks very different to what we thought about traditional Chinese women. People tend to think it was a phenomenon of rebellion," said Ye. "It's true that

women did choose to be zishunü. But almost all of them emphasised the relationship with their natural family and very traditional values such as filial piety."

The practice began to die out as the clan system disintegrated amid the turmoil of the 30s and 40s. The marriage law passed by the new Communist state in 1950 rang its final death knell by raising the minimum marital age, banning polygamy and forced or arranged matches, and granting women equality.

Some of Liang's peers married, but most of those who had taken the vow continued to live by it, sending home half their income or more. One sent 80% of her earnings every month, said Ye. Decades later, some could recall each word of their letters from home: proof of a rare indulgence on the part of workers who otherwise scraped by.

Illiterate, they paid other people to reread the letters until they knew them by heart.

With no pensions, some adopted daughters to look after them in their old age. Others sent home a portion of their wages to construct the redtiled pillars and aqua arches of the Hall of Ice and Jade. It still holds the memorial tablets of the dead. Having left their families, their names could not stand alongside those of their parents.

But the last resident moved out years ago. Now Shatou's 10 remainingzishunü live with nephews and nieces or in care homes, with government allowances. Some of the 12 children Liang raised for employers come to visit her.

She feels no envy for today's women and their unimaginable choices.

"It's still hard to find a good man," said Liang. If a man is poor, his wife will have to struggle; if a man is rich, he may take a mistress, she said.

She leant forward.

"Good for you," she added.

"You have an education, and you've travelled."

7

The Naga Blog is a forum on facebook where Nagas from Nagaland and around the world network, share ideas and discuss a wide range of topics from politics and philosophy to music and current events in Nagaland and beyond. The blog is not owned by any individual, nor is it affiliated to or associated with any political party or religion. The only movement it hopes to stir is the one raised by the voices of the Nagas every step of the way, amassing perhaps to mass consciousness one day. www.facebook.com/groups/thenagablog

Bandh Culture: What is the logical outcome?

Wapong Longkumer:Do you support the closure/bandh call of Dimapur by NFHRCC on 30th June 2014? Let’s take a poll and see what's the outcome. Hopefully the admin will publish it in the next Morungexpress edition. Bandh is over, let’s hope a solution to the current impasse is reached at the earliest.

Not necessarily today but seeing the increase in the number of Govt. employees participation in Anti-Govt. issues something struck me. I have mentioned it as a comment in another post too. What are the duties and responsibilities of Govt. employees during a bandh. Can they be volunteers/enforcers since the call was made by their tribal hohos. Who comes first, their Tribe or the Govt??? The same query also goes for Govt. registered Gaon Burahs.

(Please don't confuse it with Dobashis since they are Govt. employees) If we dwell on this issue for some time then we will also come to a point where we deliberate if Govt. officials can hold the office of tribal hohos. With the tribal hohos becoming more and more political these days which was bound to happen we may need a re-thinking and amendment to the Conduct Rules. Remember it was more of cultural and a consultative/advisory body that gave a sense of direction for the tribe. Latter it slowly also acquired judiciary and also executive powers. Now it has become the undisputed voice of the tribe for all matters.

Why this is an issue is because like it or not the Govt. salaried people still has the bigger voice in our society next to the religion salaried people. Almost 60% of our annual plan goes for their salaries. Time to question if we the general public is being led in the right path by the privileged lot.

Sex education & getting values right India does need to infuse values when the schools teach sex education: the values of dignity, equality, consent, respect, and love

T

Salil Tripathi | Livemint

here is a beautiful sequence in Satyajit Ray’s film Apur Sansar (1959), the third of his Apu Trilogy, when we notice the subtle way Apu’s life changes after he gets married. The marriage itself is a surprise; Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) agrees to marry his friend’s cousin Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) on an impulse, because her wedding has had to be called off. The man she is supposed to marry is mentally ill—a fact that was concealed from her family—and the family priest has warned that if she doesn’t marry at the appointed hour, she would never marry. Apu discards his rational views and agrees to marry.

Earlier in the film Ray has shown us Apu’s bachelor pad. But in the first scenes after the marriage, he shows us two pillows instead of one. There are curtains on the window that used to be bare, and there is a plant on the windowsill.

These are little touches that show that a woman has been through the apartment and sorted things out. When Apu wakes up, we see him discovering a hairpin lying between the pillows, and he smiles and plays with it. Inside his pack of cigarettes he sees a note: “You promised not to smoke more than one after meals!” Apu puts the pack away.

The French film-maker Jean Renoir had remarked how Ray had shown deep intimacy without any physical contact between Apu and Aparna. Ray’s depiction of marital life was sublime, but it was also based on the reality—Indians are coy about revealing intimacy in public and that coyness is partly out of natural restraint and partly it is imposed behaviour. In that world, Tantric art, the sculptures in Khajuraho and Konarak, the wet sari sequences in Hindi

and other films, and in-your-face advertising coexist with husbands and wives sitting in different rows at wedding feasts, women bowing and covering their heads when talking to other men, and where millions get married to strangers their parents or elders have decided. Advertisers tell women that to be attractive to men, women need skin whitening creams, for their faces, arms, and even their most intimate parts.

Public display of affection between two consenting adults is frowned upon—think of the police officer in Uttar Pradesh who humiliated couples in public parks even if they had broken no law; of senior police officials warning women not to wear revealing clothes; of hooligans attacking women who go to pubs; of Samajwadi Party leaders who make light of sexual violence and rape, by saying “boys will be boys”; and of Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal’s callous call to his activists to rape women cadres of the Communist Party. (He has since apologized).

This is hypocritical because the repression of sexuality is not found in ancient Indian thought, but in Victorian morality. Many of the weirder provisions of Indian criminal law date back to the colonial code, and it is an irony that Indian politicians who go hoarse in condemning liberals for being “Macaulayites” (referring to Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose famous 19th century Minute created a class of Indians as intermediaries between the ruler and the ruled) are at the forefront of defending colonial-era morality.

I have in my mind the minister of health, Harsh Vardhan, whose remarks on sex education sound like the homilies of a harsh warden at a students’ hos-

tel. Sex education is necessary at the appropriate adolescent age precisely to ensure that teenagers understand the changes their bodies are undergoing, and learn to respect their own bodies and those of others. Harsh Vardhan wants values to be part of such a curriculum. Where did the values of Trinamool’s Pal, of Samajwadi Party politicians, of Sri Ram Sene, and of Goa politicians come from?

Their parents? If so, can parents be entrusted with providing the right values about sexual behaviour—verbal and physical? What values does Harsh Vardhan have in mind? Those that reinforce patriarchal views, or which respect women’s rights, where young men are taught that consent is the precondition of any human encounter?

Generations of Indians have grown up “learning” about their bodies from tasteless graffiti in toilets, or from older boys or girls boasting about their real or imaginary activities. Religious leaders scare young boys and girls with scary stories about sin.

Many parents leave it until the last moment, or entrust it to a family elder; many teachers talk about it only reluctantly. (Notice how in advertisements mothers talk about menstruation to their adolescent daughters only after the girls have their period, telling them not to worry; and never before, to prepare them for the physical change). And so it is that anything to do with sex becomes a taboo subject, underscoring the society’s inequities and reinforcing hierarchy and power.

Harsh Vardhan is right for wrong reasons—India does need to infuse values when the schools teach sex education: the values of dignity, equality, consent, respect, and love. That’s the world of Apu.

Do you support Bandhs?

No – 84% Yes-10% Don’t know-5% Charles Mhonthung Ezung: The steps taken by various Unions, Associations, and groups are basically to serve narrow interest. We should be matured enough to read through their intentions and avoid helping them achieve their interests. The call for Bandh no doubt is a bad move on the part of the NFHRCC. However, there's no cause for other tribal unions to oppose it so blatantly. Now that things have come to this stage, where it is taking the shape of inter- tribal conflict, which is very dangerous. Foolish decisions taken by our leaders are the cause of such avoidable conflicts. We have had enough of inter-tribal conflicts. Now is the Time for reconciliation and trashing out our differences and not spewing hatred through social media. Let the leaders introspect and clean their muddled mind so as to bring positive change. The younger generation should not be allowed to be poisoned by such evil tribal politics. Rise up above tribalism and show the older generation how wrong they are to use the tool of tribal politics for vested interests. Do not fall into the game plan of certain unscrupulous leaders where they speak in terms of greater good but has a hidden agenda for themselves. We are all wise enough to understand which path to take for achieving greater good. Do not lose your intelligence and act like a ignoramus.

Cots Medo: I wonder if 80-90% of the youth involved in today’s bandh know why the bandh is imposed or even opposed. The times are hard but let us not be carried away because of few pessimist individuals. We are the future, so let’s stand united for greater purpose leaving aside all our differences.

Peter Rutsa: It’s everybody's problem. The road! Foothill road does not belong to only the 10 tribes. Roads are public property. Foothill road may benefit some districts more than others but it is still OUR ROAD and its completion is in the interest of all Naga. Moreover mentioning the 10 tribes again and again is irritating! It is not like other tribes are against its construction. I am impressed by the achievements of NFHRCC but that does not necessarily mean i will support their every move! I support ACAUT but that doesn't mean i will follow their leaders blindly! We should learn not to become NGO worshipers. Support when necessary, question when required. NO TO BANDHS, Anywhere!

(The Naga Blog was created in 2008 by Yanpvuo Kikon. This column in The Morung Express will be a weekly feature every Saturday)

Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

8

Dimapur

NATIONAL

Saturday 5 July 2014

The Morung Express

Shutdown in Kashmir greets Modi on first visit Modi inaugurates 240 MW power project in Kashmir

India's Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, second left, presents a memento to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Katra, 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Jammu, India on July 4. Modi traveled to Katra and inaugurated a railway line linking a popular Hindu shrine in the region with India's vast railway network. (AP Photo)

Srinagar, July 4 (reuterS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted by near-empty streets lined by security personnel on his first official visit to Kashmir on Friday, as separatists enforced a strike to demand political dialogue about the future of the divided region.

Kashmir is split between rivals India and Pakistan. Demonstrators on the Pakistan-controlled side burnt an effigy of Modi and India’s tricolour flag on Friday to protest the prime minister’s visit. Schools and shops were shuttered and normally busy roads were free of traffic in Sri-

nagar, the summer capital of Indian controlled Kashmir, when Modi arrived to meet army commanders in one of the most world’s most militarised regions.

“It is our earnest wish that Mr. Modi and the newly elected NDA government understand the ardent political message we seek to convey through this act,” said separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq. Police erected barricades to stop and search vehicles entering Srinagar ahead of Modi’s arrival, and soldiers flanked main roads throughout the Himalayan region that has been racked by insurgency for decades.

Modi has long been associated with a Hindu nationalist organisation that wants to end the semiautonomous status that Muslim-majority Kashmir nominally enjoys. His government has promised to renew the debate on the sensitive issue. Modi was later due to inaugurate a hydroelectric dam in the mountains, barely a mile from the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have been quarrelling over the region they both claim in full since freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Hundreds of

thousands of troops are stationed along either side of the border, making it a dangerous flashpoint despite a ceasefire that has reduced but not ended - cross-border firing in recent years.

Many Kashmiris want independence from both India and Pakistan, and separatist politicians and armed militants alike have often fought for that goal or for closer ties with Pakistan. “We have repeatedly expressed our hope that the Kashmir issue is addressed in its proper perspective as a political and human issue,” said Farooq, who heads a coalition of separatists and is seen as

close to Pakistan.

On Wednesday night, sporadic fighting broke out in Poonch district along the de facto border, with the Indian army saying they had foiled an infiltration attempt by militants. Militants regularly cross into Kashmir from the Pakistan side of the border to launch attacks.

“Mr Modi will take with him the gift of bodies of Indian soldiers” from Poonch, said Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi, a leader in Pakistani Kashmir of the Jamaat ud Dawa, a group under U.S. and U.N. sanctions. Lieutenant-General K.H. Singh, Commander of the White Knight Corps (16

Srinagar, July 4 (ianS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated the 240 megawatt Uri-II hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The Uri-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP), located near the Line of Control (LoC) in Baramulla district close to Uri town, was dedicated to the nation by Modi in the presence of Governor N.N. Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and top officials of NHPC. This is the second power project on River Jhelum

in Uri area and is located downstream of the 480MW Uri-I HEP, which is already operational. The project is run-of-the-river with a concrete gravity dam which is 52 metres high and 157 metres long with four spillways of nine metres each.

The 4.23-km head race tunnel carries water from the dam to the powerhouse, which has four units of 60 MW each designed to generate 1124 million units of electricity in a year. The work on the power project was completed in time de-

spite a massive earthquake striking the area on Oct 8, 2005 -- two weeks after Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) started work on it.

Earlier, the prime minister laid a wreath at the war memorial inside the Badami Bagh cantonment headquarters of army’s 15th Corps in Srinagar. He also addressed a Sainik Sammelan inside the corps headquarters. Vohra hosted a lunch at the Raj Bhavan in honour of Modi. Modi was slated to return to New Delhi Friday evening.

Corps) in India, said that ceasefire violations and infiltration bids were common before high-profile visits to the state, formally known as Jammu and Kashmir, to draw attention to the region.

grims to reach the shrine, would help connect the state with the rest of India.

“Infrastructure is the centre point of development,” Modi said. “My objective is to win the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir through development.” Kashmir’s population is primarily Muslim, a majority that sharpened after an exodus of Hindu Pandits who fled to escape religious persecution in the 1980s and 1990s. Modi’s government is committed to resettling the Pandits on their ancestral lands.

The day before Modi’s visit, Kashmir’s top cleric Mufti Bashir-un-Din Ah-

mad, said the Pandits would be welcome to return, but warned against a proposal to create separate settlements for them. Others weren’t as diplomatic. Hardline, proPakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani claimed Modi’s government was planning to water down Kashmir’s ethnic and religious demographics by settling “Hindu fundamentalists” along with the Pandits.

“The aim is to change the demography of the state and create a permanent social division in Kashmir,” said Geelani, who commands a large following among Kashmiri youth.

RAILWAY TO A SHRINE Earlier in the day, Modi saw off the inaugural train on a new stretch of railway to the town of Katra, allowing easier access to the Hindu shrine there that is one of India’s most popular pilgrimage sites and receives upwards of 10 million visitors each year. Modi said the train, in addition to making it easier for pil-

Indian nurses’ ordeal ends, to return Saturday ‘Tough action against hoarders to curb price rise’

new Delhi, July 4 (ianS): Blaming hoarders for the recent spike in prices of onions, potatoes and other food items, the government Friday said it will take tough action in collaboration with states to reign in speculative volatility in prices.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with senior cabinet colleagues Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, discussed with state food ministers measures to check the rising prices.

Addressing the ministers’ conference, Jaitley said there are enough food stocks in the country and the rise in prices is speculative. “When production of food items is higher than last year and still prices rise, then it means that intermediaries are keeping the stock somewhere,” Jaitley said.

The finance minister said expectations of poor monsoon have led to hoarding. “There are reports of below normal monsoon this year. Hoarders are taking advantage of the situation,” he said. Talk-

ing to reporters after the meeting, Paswan said the state food ministers have suggested several measures to curb the speculative rise in prices.

The suggested measures include setting up a Food Stabilisation Fund, creating food storage facilities in all 635 districts across the country, and implementing Food Security Act as early as possible.

Spike in prices of some food items, especially onions and potatoes, has become a big challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The government earlier this week hiked the minimum export price of onions by 67 percent and brought the vegetable under the Essential Commodities Act, with a view to curb hoarding and increase availability in the domestic markets.

Jaitley, however, said there is no panic situation as far as the price of onions is concerned as it remained relatively under control. He pointed out that onion prices soared to Rs.70-100 per kg last year, while prices are much lower this year.

Paswan, who also holds consumer affairs and public distribution portfolio, said checking food inflation has become a priority agenda for the government. He said there is need to put in place a preventive strategy to minimise the adverse impact of various factors including late monsoon on the prices and availability of essential food items.

“We have to be well prepared with an advance coordinated strategy in collaboration with all the state governments,” Paswan said. mPaswan said tough action is required by the states against those indulging in hoarding and black marketing. “Setting up of fast track courts for handling cases of hoarding and black marketing should be considered.”

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said there is no rationale behind the recent increase in prices of food items, as the production has gone up consistentely. Singh said an artificial shortage created by hoarders is responsible for increase in prices of some of the food items.

anan, the national security advisor when the deal was signed. Narayanan had also stepped down soon after being questioned.

A statement issued here by the state government’s information and publicity department said: “The Hon’ble governor was, pleased to give his statement as a witness today (Friday) and hopes that his statement would have clarified any issues that the CBI may have had and hopes that the CBI would conclude their investigation to bring out the truth at the very earliest.”

Wanchoo, a former Indian Police Service officer, was the head of the elite Special Protection Group when the deal was signed.

According to the CBI, both he and Narayanan were part of meetings which led to the height ceiling of the VVIP choppers being reduced, enabling AgustaWestland, an Italian chopper company, to enter the picture.

Wanchoo, who was appointed governor in May 2012, was still to complete

where they had been holed up for days, for the rebel stronghold Mosul.

Their shifting caused panic, with some reports suggesting that the nurses would be forced by the Sunni insurgents to work in hospitals controlled by them in Mosul, their stronghold. But the situation changed suddenly Friday morning for the nurses, all from Kerala. Officials said all the nurses were safe. On Friday evening, a special Air India flight took off from New Delhi for Erbil, carrying an officer each of the Kerala and the central governments. Also boarding the plane along with the nurses would be 70 other Indians stranded in strife-hit Iraq.

“Ultimately it is hope that has triumphed,” spokesman Syed Akbaruddin of the external affairs

ministry said. “I will confirm to you that those Indian nurses who were yesterday moved against their will are now free.” He underlined that “enormous” efforts led to a happy ending.

“This ... didn’t happen just like that,” he said. “It happened because there was an enormous amount of effort that was put in both within Iraq and outside.” Akbaruddin did not reveal what back-channel efforts New Delhi put in but said that “conventional rules of diplomacy no longer exist” in insurgent-held areas in Iraq.

“India has friends not only in Iraq but outside Iraq. Be rest assured that the support we are getting from within and outside is very substantial.” He said a significant number of Indians were still in the conflict zone. “We are working on

those... We will not leave any stone unturned in trying to get back our nationals from an extremely difficult position.”

The Air India plane is expected to take off from Erbil Friday night. After landing first in Kochi, it will fly to New Delhi. Chandy told IANS that the nurses were taken in a bus from Mosul, which they reached Thursday evening from Tikrit, to Erbil, 60 km away.

One nurse in the bus confirmed to IANS through SMS that they were on their way to Erbil. The development triggered a wave of joy in Kerala, where nursing is a major profession and whose nurses serve in hospitals all across India and in many countries.

A group of Keralites and Indian diplomats were at the border of Kurdistan to receive the nurses. From

Kochi, the Kerala diaspora agency will transport the nurses to their homes across the state. A train ticket has been booked for a nurse who lives in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

The chief minister, who has been camping in New Delhi since the crisis erupted, said the latest development took place due to the efforts of the Kerala and the central governments.

He gave credit to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who Thursday cancelled a planned trip to Bhopal after realizing that the insurgents had moved the nurses from Tikrit to Mosul.

“A high-level crisis management group under the leadership of Sushma Swaraj has been formed.

It will be doing everything to see that the nurses are brought back safely,” Chandy said.

Drought report is ‘no cause to panic’: Arun Jaitley

new Delhi, July 4 (reuterS): Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday there was no cause to panic about the possibility of higher inflation, after a private forecasting agency said there was a 60 percent chance India would face a drought this year.

Speaking less than a week before his first budget speech to parliament, Jaitley said the governthree years of his five-year ment was worried that term. But the state’s ruling global crude prices would Bharatiya Janata Party had been stepping up heat on Wanchoo with several senior party leaders, including state vice president Wilfred Mesquita, repeatedly asking him to resign “for his own good”.

The CBI had registered a case against former Indian MuMBai, July 4 Air Force chief, Air Chief (tnn): The passport deMarshal S.P. Tyagi, along livery system could soon with 13 others, including become hassle-free and his cousins and European quick. On the directions of middlemen, in the case. The the chief passport officer allegation against the for- in the ministry of external mer air force chief was that affairs, Mumbai may lead he had reduced the altitude the way to do away with at which the VVIP helicop- cumbersome processes ters could operate so that that currently delay the isAnglo-Italian firm Agus- suance of a passport. taWestland was included in The ministry is set to the bidding process. waive a second police verifiThe defence ministry cation in case of passport rehad concluded a contract newal provided the previous with AgustaWestland in police verification was clear.

February 2010 for supply Fresh guidelines have been of 12 AW-101 helicopters issued so that a renewed for the IAF’s elite Commu- passport is delivered at the nication Squadron, which quickest possible time by ferries the president the no longer treating the appliprime minister and other cation for renewal as a fresh VVIPs. The deal was called one, as is the case till now. off after the corruption alMumbai police comlegations surfaced. missioner Rakesh Maria

Wanchoo quits as Goa governor PanaJi, July 4 (ianS): Hours after being questioned by CBI officials in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, Goa Governor B.V. Wanchoo resigned from the post Friday evening, an official said. Wanchoo faxed his resignation to President Pranab Mukherjee, the official said.

While the Raj Bhavan did issue a statement about the questioning of Wanchoo by CBI officials, no mention of the resignation was made in the statement. Earlier in the day, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team quizzed Wanchoo for three and a half hours in connection with alleged graft in the procurement of AgustaWestland VVIP choppers for 556.262 million euros (Rs.3,726.96 crore).

A team of CBI officials arrived at the Raj Bhavan near here at 11.30 a.m. and left around 3 p.m. A CBI officer, on condition of anonymity, said Wanchoo’s questioning was on the lines of former West Bengal governor M.K. Naray-

new Delhi, July 4 (ianS): All 46 Indian women nurses seized by Sunni insurgents in Iraq were freed Friday after intense diplomatic efforts, and were set to return to Kerala Saturday morning.

In what appeared to be a sudden change of mind, the militants told the nurses Friday morning after breakfast that they should be ready to move to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, on their way home.

IANS scooped the story, with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy telling the news agency first that the nurses were on their road to freedom. He is to receive the nurses Saturday morning at Cochin airport.

The dramatic development took place some 24 hours after gun-toting militants forced the nurses to leave their hospital in Tikrit,

rise because of violence in Iraq. India imports nearly two-thirds of its oil requirements and subsidises some retail sales of fuel, making public finances and the current account especially sensitive to global prices.

“Right now it is not a panic situation,” Jaitley said during a meeting with state governments to discuss ways to keep food prices down. “Signs are that some people will try to take advantage of this situation.

So the benchmark of good

governance is to anticipate the problem,” Jaitley said, indicating that hoarding by speculators was a problem.

LOWER-THAN-AVERAGE RAINS Private forecasting agency Skymet revised its prediction on Friday to a 60 percent chance of drought from its much lower previous forecast of 25 percent in April. Rainfall in June, the first month of the four-month monsoon season, was the weakest

in five years and the JuneSeptember rains will be below average, according to the India Meteorological Department. The weak start to this year’s monsoon pushed the new government to take rapid steps including raids against hoarders to ease market concerns over possible supply shortages.

Soaring prices of basic goods such as milk and potatoes lifted retail food inflation in May to 9.4 percent and there have been fears of

worse to come with the delayed spread of the monsoon to the grain bowl region of northwestIndia.India’sother causeforconcern-fightingin Iraq-hascomeasIraqitroops battle to regain control of the north of the country from the al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

India is worried about the impact of Iraq crisis on crude oil, though there were indications of moderation in prices in the last few days, Jaitley said.

Passport delivery to become hassle-free, no police verification in case of renewal and regional passport officer T D Sharma have put into action a plan that seeks to do away with police verification for other categories of applicants. “Minors, government servants and senior citizens can now go without verification,” Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer in MEA, said.

“I had a long meeting with passport officials on time-bound delivery of passport. We found that on occasions, the police department was blamed for delay in submitting verification certificate. I have drafted a comprehensive action plan.

The entire exercise of police verification will be completed within seven working days,” Maria told TOI. Maria said specific bottlenecks in the police veri-

fication process have been identified and stringent measures taken to ensure that the entire exercise is completed in a time-bound period. “It was bringing a bad name to Mumbai Police. In addition, there were charges of corruption too. I am sure, once the new system comes into force, passport delivery will be hasslefree,” Maria said.

Pardeshi told TOI, “We have directed that there should be three categories for police verification in the passport issuance process.

First, there is a pre-police verification, which is mandatory for first-time passports. Second, the post-police verification, where the verification can be done after the passport is issued.”

According to a senior of-

ficial there was delay at several levels — from the newly set up passport seva kendra to the police station. “The delay was not deliberate, but there was lack of proper guidelines, as a result of which there was delay in submitting the police verification documents to the passport office. In the entire process, the special branch of the police station was blamed. We have worked out a comprehensive action plan, there will be no more delays and passport will be delivered within the stipulated period,” he said.

Secondly, on the renewal of passports too, the ministry of external affairs has issued fresh guidelines to ensure that the passport is delivered in the shortest period. So far the conven-

tion was that if an application for renewal of passport is submitted, it was treated as a fresh application and there was police verification of residential address and all the documents. Now, it has been made clear that if the earlier police report is clear and the photograph of the applicant is attached in the original police report, there would be no need for fresh police verification. “The revised guidelines will help us in the expeditious delivery of passports, particularly those submitted for renewal,” he said.

However, Pardeshi said the passport issuing officer had some discretionary powers. “If he/she feels police verification is necessary, it will be done.”

InTErnaTIonal

The Morung Express

Saturday 5 July 2014

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Kurdish leader urges independence referendum In this picture taken on Monday June 30,, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters position behind dirt barriers built along the front line with militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in Mariam Bek village, between the northern cities of Tikrit and Kirkuk, Iraq. Demonstrating their growing independence from the rest of Iraq, the largely-autonomous Kurdish regional government is setting up dirt barriers that they hope will ultimately set the borders of their future state. (AP Photo)

BAGHDAD, July 4 (AP): With large parts of Iraq in militant hands, a top Kurdish leader called on regional lawmakers Thursday to lay the groundwork for a referendum on independence, a vote that would likely spell the end of a unified Iraq.

The recent blitz by Sunni militants across much of northern and western Iraq has given the country’s 5 million Kurds — who have long agitated for independence — their best chance ever to seize disputed territory and move closer to a decades-old dream of their

own state.

But the Kurds still face considerable opposition from many in the international community, including the United States, which has no desire to see a fragmented Iraq.

A Western-established no-fly zone in 1991 helped

the Kurds set up their enclave, which has emerged over the years as a beacon of stability and prosperity, while much of the rest of the country has been mired in violence and political turmoil. The three-province territory was formally recognized as an autonomous

region within Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Speaking to the regional legislature Thursday, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, told lawmakers to set up an electoral commission to “hurry up” and prepare for “a referendum on selfdetermination.”

“We will be in a better position and we will have better (political) weapons in our hands. But how we will do this?” he said. “What kind of steps will there be?

For this, you have to study the issue and take steps in this direction. It is time to decide our self-determination and not wait for other people to decide for us.” Barzani spoke behind closed doors, but The Associated Press obtained a video of his address.

Kurdish leaders have threatened for years to hold an independence referendum, but those moves were often more about wresting concessions from the central government in Baghdad than a real push for statehood. The recent

Sunni offensive has effectively cleaved the country in three, bringing the prospect of full independence within reach.

Kurdish fighters already have seized control of disputed territory — including the city of Kirkuk, a major oil hub. The Kurds say they only want to protect the areas from the Sunni militants. Many of the zones have considerable Kurdish communities that the Kurds have demanded be incorporated into their territory, making them unlikely to give them up.

With its own oil resources, the Kurdish region has long had a contentious relationship with Baghdad, with disputes over a range of issues including how to share the revenue. In May, the Kurdish government sold oil independent of the central government for the first time, shipping about 1.05 million barrels to Turkey. In retaliation, Baghdad stopped giving the Kurds the share of the central budget they are entitled to receive.

The border of the Kurdish self-rule region is another point of contention.

The Kurds say they have

tried for years to get Baghdad to agree on where to draw the frontier, but the central government has dragged its feet. They point to a constitutional amendment requiring that Kirkuk’s fate be decided by referendum, but it has never been implemented.

While the Sunni militants’ offensive may have turned the situation in the Kurds’ favor, there is still significant opposition to changing the status quo.

Kurdish independence is opposed by the U.S., as well as by Iraq’s regional neighbors, Turkey and Iran — both of whom have large Kurdish minority populations.

“Iraq is divided. We have got a new reality,” Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff to Barzani, told reporters Thursday. He was in Washington to update senior Obama administration officials on Kurdish aspirations for “self-determination.”

In a statement late Thursday, the White House said Vice President Joe Biden “dropped by” a meeting with Hussein and that “both sides agreed on the importance of form-

ing a new government in Iraq that will pull together all communities in Iraq.”

A separate White House statement said Biden spoke by phone with Turkey’s prime minister and that they agreed on “the importance of supporting lasting security and stability in Iraq.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that “a united Iraq is a stronger Iraq.” She said the country’s leaders should focus on the insurgency instead of drawing new borders, “and we should not give an opening to a horrific terrorist group by being divided at this critical moment.”

The prospect of Kurdish independence is just one of the ripple effects caused by the stunning rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the extremist group that has carved out a large chunk of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border.

It has declared an Islamic state in the area. The jihadi group’s growing strength has caused jitters across the region, particularly in neighboring Jordan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Myanmar curfew restores calm for now

yANGON, July 4 (AP): Muslims in Myanmar’s second-largest city said early morning prayers in peace Friday after an overnight curfew restored calm following two nights of violent rampages by extremist Buddhists.

Authorities imposed the curfew in Mandalay late Thursday after attacks on minority Muslims left two people dead and 14 injured, raising fears that ethnic violence that has plagued the country for two years may escalate again.

The Mandalay regional government posted details of the attacks on its website Friday, identifying the fatalities for the first time and noting that a group of 50 people including 20 Buddhist monks took part.

Mandalay Chief Minister Ye Myint said four people were arrested.

Muslim-owned shops reopened in areas where Buddhist mobs on motorbikes had driven through the streets wielding sticks and hurling stones. “We were able to say our prayers

peacefully, and we all had a good night sleep,” said resident Tin Aung. He and others questioned, however, why the government waited two days to clamp down on the mobs who damaged at least one mosque, shops and torched cars. “If authorities had taken prompt and immediate action, deaths and damage could have been prevented,” said A Mar Ni, a member of a citizens’ conflict prevention committee.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, has been grappling with violence since 2012 that has left up to 280 people dead and 140,000 others homeless, most of them Muslims attacked by Buddhist militants. Most of it has taken place in western Rakhine state. This week’s unrest was the first in Mandalay, an important center of Buddhist culture and learning where Muslims and Buddhists have traditionally lived peacefully together.

The government’s website identified the dead as Soe Min Htway, a Muslim

who was attacked by a Buddhist mob while on his way to mosque before dawn Thursday, and Tun Tun, a 30-year-old Buddhist who was attacked by a group of Muslims earlier in the night. In an interview with Radio Free Asia broadcast Thursday night, Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the opposition National League for Democracy, said the violence in Mandalay could escalate if authorities did not take strong measures.

“Unless the authorities seriously maintain the rule of law, violence will grow,” she said. Inflammatory material posted on social media had contributed to the instability, she said, a viewpoint shared by Mandalay police chief Col. Zaw Win Aung. In a radio address Thursday, President Thein Sein called for stability as the country transitions to democracy from a half-century of military rule, but did not mention Mandalay specifically.

“For reforms to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and

Journal expresses ‘concern’ over Facebook study

In this June 11 photo, a the Facebook campus tional Academy of SciFacebook had no oblihuman subjects in the

SAN FRANCISCO, July 4 (AP): The scientific journal that published a study by Facebook and two U.S. universities examining people’s online mood swings regrets how the social experiment was handled.

In a note of contrition, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the decision to manipulate the content appearing on the Facebook pages of about 700,000 people without their prior consent may have violated some principles of academic research. The journal also pointed out that, as a forprofit company governed by its own terms of service, Facebook had no obligation to adhere to those scientific principles.

“It is nevertheless a matter of concern that the collection of the data

by Facebook may have

man walks past a Facebook sign in an office on in Menlo Park, Calif. The Proceedings of the Naences says that as a private company, gation to adhere to rules on the use of study. (AP FILE Photo)

involved practices that were not fully consistent with the principles of obtaining informed consent and allowing participants to opt out,” wrote Inder Verma, the Washington, D.C.-based journal’s editor in chief.

The unusual “editorial expression of concern” surfaced Thursday, a day after Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg apologized, acknowledging that the world’s largest social network should have done a better job communicating about the experiment.

Facebook allowed researchers to manipulate the content that appeared in the main section, or “news feed,” of small fraction of the social network’s nearly 1.3 billion users.

The data-scientists conducted the study during one week in January 2012. They were trying to

collect evidence to prove their thesis that people’s moods could spread like an “emotional contagion” depending on what they were reading.

Although their findings were published a month ago, the experiment didn’t trigger outrage until the past few days, after blogs and essays in The New York Times and The Atlantic raised red flags about the ethics of treating people like laboratory rats without their permission. Privacy regulators in the U.K. and France opened inquiries into whether Facebook may have violated any laws.

Facebook’s data-use policy says the Menlo Park, California, company can deploy user information for “internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement.”

behavior that incites hatred in our fellow citizens,” Thein Sein said. The latest unrest, which started Tuesday night, followed rumors that the Muslim owner of a teashop had raped a Buddhist woman, said Khin Maung Oo, secretary of the city’s Myanmar Muslim Youth Religious Convention Center. An Information Ministry statement on Wednesday said the owner had been charged with rape.

Authorities deployed hundreds of police on Tuesday after a crowd of more than 300 Buddhists marched to the teashop, singing the national anthem. Police fired rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowd but failed to control groups that scattered into the streets, throwing stones at a mosque that caused minor damage to its exterior, while others ransacked Muslim-owned shops. Several cars were set on fire or had windows shattered by stones and bricks. Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar’s roughly 60 million people.

A horse named Money Rules falls in its head as Yance' Day of Weatherford, Okla., hangs on during the bareback event on Thursday night, July 3, in the Greeley Stampede in Greeley, Colo. (AP Photo)

Earth-like planet raises hope of life in space

NEw yORk, July 4 (IANS): Astronomers have discovered a new planet in a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from the Earth that may help them find planets harbouring life. The discovery provides the first evidence that terrestrial planets can form in orbits similar to the Earth, even in a binary star system where the stars are not very far apart.

At twice the mass of the Earth, the planet orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance from which the Earth orbits the sun. However, because the planet’s host star is much dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than the Earth - “a little colder, in fact, than Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.”

“Although this planet

itself is too cold to be habitable, the same planet orbiting a sun-like star in such a binary system would be in the so-called ‘habitable zone’ - the region where conditions might be right for life,” said Scott Gaudi, a professor of astronomy at Ohio State University.

This greatly expands the potential locations to discover habitable planets in the future. “Half the stars

in the galaxy are in binary systems. We had no idea if Earth-like planets in Earthlike orbits could even form in these systems,” he added.

The planet, called OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb, first appeared as a “dip” in the line tracing the brightness data taken by the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) telescope. This detailed analysis showed that the

planet is twice the mass of the Earth and orbits its star from an Earth-like distance of around 90 million miles.

“This discovery suggests that there may be many more terrestrial planets out there - some possibly warmer, and possibly harbouring life,” said professor Andrew Gould of the Ohio State University in a paper published in the journal Science.

Xi rebukes Japan for brutality in China, Koreas

SEOul, July 4 (AP): The leaders of China and South Korea expressed concern Friday about Japan’s recent reinterpretation of its warrenouncing constitution and its re-examination of a past apology for wartime atrocities, a South Korean official said.

Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula and occupied parts of China, often brutally, before and during World War II. Many people in China and South Korea still harbor a strong resentment against Japan, and there are concerns in both countries about growing nationalism in Tokyo.

Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean President Park Geun-hye had “lots of discussions” about Japan, and shared worries about its “revisionist attitude” and reinterpretation of its constitution to allow its military a larger international role, senior South Korean presidential official Ju Chul-ki told reporters.

Both leaders also re-

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech during Korea China Investment Forum at a hotel in Seoul, South Korea on July 4. (AP Photo)

gretted Japan’s recent review of its landmark 1993 apology for forcing Asian women into wartime prostitution because it was an apparent attempt to “disparage” the apology, Ju said, according to the presidential Blue House.

Last month, a Japanese panel confirmed the validity of a study that led to the

apology, but South Korea called the review unnecessary and said it included material that undermined the reliability of the apology.

Historians say up to 200,000 women from across Asia, many of them Koreans, were forced to provide sex to Japan’s frontline soldiers. Japanese nationalists contend that the

so-called “comfort women” were voluntary prostitutes, not sex slaves, and that Japan has been unfairly criticized for a practice they say is common in any country at war.

Earlier Friday, Xi highlighted Japan’s past brutality against China and Korea during a speech on the final day of his visit to

Seoul. “Our two countries had big suffering when (Japan) launched barbarous aggression on China and Korea and annexed and occupied the Korean Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century,” he said.

He noted that in the late 16th century a Chinese dynasty sent troops to help a Korean dynasty defeat invading Japanese troops.

“Both countries’ nationals ... walked shoulder to shoulder to battle grounds together 400 years ago,” Xi said, speaking through an interpreter.

China assisted North Korea and fought against South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, while American-led U.N. troops fought alongside South Korea. South Korea and China established diplomatic relations in 1992. The countries now have booming trade ties and share concerns about Japan’s military ambitions and what critics see as recent attempts by Tokyo to obscure its bloody past.

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Saturday 5 July 2014

Danish teen wins virtual World Cup

Colombia's James Rodriguez, right, scores his side's second goal past Uruguay's goalkeeper Fernando Muslera during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Colombia and Uruguay at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, June 28, 2014. (AP Photo)

GOAL! Magic mix making World Cup score-fest: how?

John Leicester

S

AP Sports Writer

Denmark’s August Rosenmeier, left, winner of the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2014, holds a trophy while Brazil's former soccer great Ronaldo applauds, during the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2014 Grand Final at Sugar Loaf, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 3. The FIWC is organized by FIFA and its presenting partners, and is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest online gaming tournament. (AP Photo)

RIO DE JANEIRO, JuLy 4 (AP): A Danish teenager has claimed the virtual World Cup by beating his English rival in the final of the online Playstation gaming competition, overcoming a field of almost two million entrants.

While his nation did not make it to the real World Cup, 18-year-old August Rosenmeier did his bit for Danish pride by beating England's David Bytheway 3-1 on Thursday to win the FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC). The FIWC, which is played exclusively with EA Sports' FIFA 14 game and on a Sony PlayStation 3, has grown from 28,000 entrants in the inaugural tournament in 2004 to a huge online field in 2014.

Rosenmeier claimed a $20,000 first prize as reward for his dedication, saying he 'trains' for four to six hours per day. Far from the image of gamers being glued to screens in darkened rooms, Thursday's final had a glamorous setting, halfway up the Sugarloaf Mountain; one of Rio's most iconic tourist destinations.

Former players Dwight Yorke and Alan McInally were on hand as commentators, but the biggest attraction was former Brazil great Ronaldo, who gave the two finalists a prematch pep talk.

Qualification for the final started back in October 13 for the first of six onemonth long seasons played online, with competitors playing up to 900 12-minute games per season to accumulate as many points as possible. For those with

less time on their hands, there was also a chance to progress based on the best winning percentage.

With the 2013 champion guaranteed a chance to defend his crown and the host nation given a slot, 20 gamers made it to Fluminese's home ground in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

The first shock came quickly as Bruce Grannec, the FIFA 14 ranked world number one and defending champion, lost in the group stages. The lone Brazilian, Rafael Fortes, won all his group games, but lost in the quarterfinal. His countrymen hope that isn't a premonition for the real World Cup. Four made it through to Thursday's showdown at Sugarloaf and after both remaining Dutchmen went out in the semi-finals, Rosenmeier and Bytheway were left to battle it out. The finalists were marked by very different approaches to virtual football.

"With FIFA (14) it's not the amount of hours you put in but who you play," said Bytheway. "I tend to play about five-eight games a week - not a lot - but because I am playing top players it keeps me at the top of my game. The 20 of us here, we all know each other so we can just ask each other for games." Rosenmeier's approach was more about quantity than quality.

"When I am training, like for this tournament, I will play many hours, maybe four or six per day. In 2012 my Mum and Dad were like 'this is too much' but after seeing what a finals is like, they shut (up) pretty quick."

The Morung Express

ince Day 1, when Brazil put three past Croatia, the World Cup has enjoyed a goal deluge as sustained as an Amazon forest downpour.

A combination of factors gelled to put Brazil on a trajectory to smash the record for most goals at any of the 20 World Cups.

The target to beat is 171, from France in 1998. That could be surpassed in the semifinals or July 13 final in Brazil. Already, the 154 goals here — with eight games still to play — are more than in South Africa in 2010 or Germany in 2006.

Naturally, having 32 teams — the format since 1998 — produces more goals than earlier World Cups with 24, 16 or as few as 13 teams. But the ratio of 2.75 goals per game in Brazil is impressive, too. Organizer FIFA says that is the best average through this stage of the competition since 1986.

Here are reasons why goal-scorers have felt so at home:

fITNESS: Thank not just players but their fitness trainers, too. Teams prepared superbly for the heat, humidity and arduous travel between far-flung venues.

Players are coping remarkably from the exertions and accumulated fatigue of a match every five or six days.

Better fitness and endurance is allowing teams to attack at higher speeds for sustained periods and to threaten for longer.

Players wilted and cramped at some hotter venues and in games taken into extra time, but perhaps not as dramatically as they might have done 10 or 20 years ago.

"We thought that with the weather conditions here in Brazil ... teams were going to be very economical with the expenditure of efforts," said former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh, now on a FIFA panel dissecting the play, tactical innovations and other on-field trends of this World Cup. "It's been end-to-end stuff."

HOME ADVANTAGE: Teams from the Americas looked as comfy as Brazilian sunbathers on Copacabana beach, and swept up half of the last 16 places.

"The South American teams have got a sort of aggressive bite here which I don't see when they travel away from their base," said former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier, also part of the FIFA study group. fORwARDS ON fORM: Attackers who forgot to pack their scoring boots for South Africa brought them to Brazil. Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie scored three in total for the

Netherlands in 2010. In Brazil, they've netted that many each before their quarterfinal chance to score more against Costa Rica.

Five goals made Germany's Thomas Mueller top scorer in 2010, but won't be enough in Brazil. James Rodriguez already has five for Colombia. Scoreless in South Africa, Lionel Messi has four for Argentina.

So do Mueller and Brazil's Neymar.

"We think that one of the main reasons we have so many goals is because we have a generation of outstanding strikers," Houllier said.

TACTICS: Coaches have been rewarded for fielding attacking formations. Against Iran, Argentina started an awesome forward trio of Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero — almost too much firepower.

Some teams slimmed down to three players in defense, allowing full backs to roam forward, swamp the midfield and enable midfielders to then push into the danger zones too. Teams are turning defense into attack with lightning speed, as Chile did in humbling dethroned champion Spain 2-0.

"Some of the games have been like hockey or basketball, just going from one goal to another," Houllier said. "It's like a stream of players going forward."

Players possibly also felt an extra need for flair because Brazil is the land of football as art. "Everybody has come out blazing," Oliseh said.

THE BALL: Players roundly criticized the 2010 ball for taking crazy dips and dives and even FIFA's study group noted it "picked up incredible speed." But the 2014 ball has worked fine, as Rodriguez proved with the best goal so far, chesting it down and volleying in. Teams got the ball months in advance to practice with it.

KNOwLEDGE SPREAD: With the globalization of football, the gap in skills and know-how between the best and worst teams continues to shrink. Supposed minnows proved to be piranhas in Brazil, unawed by their supposedly more illustrious prey.

Playing abroad brings experience that footballers repatriate to their national teams, strengthening them. Sage foreign coaches have helped, too. Costa Rica's 23 players work in 11 different countries and have a coach from Colombia. They beat former champions Uruguay and Italy, along with 2004 European champion Greece, on their way to their quarterfinals on Saturday.

"It's not easy to beat even the smaller nations. Everyone's improving and world football is evolving," France defender Mamadou Sakho said. "Everyone is improving technically, tactically and physically."

It's only a game! World Cup keeps fans laughing

BELO HORIZONTE, JuLy 4 (REuTERs): What's the difference between a tea-bag and the England football team?

The tea-bag stays in a cup longer! Heard what Spain's coach Vicente Del Bosque said to his charges after two shock losses?

"Don't worry, we still have options: aisle or window seats." With the World Cup entering its final stages, the jokes are flying as fast as goals, helping relieve tension and - for fans of the 24 teams already out - the abject misery of elimination.

Be it on, off or thousands of miles away from the pitch it has been another tournament packed with hilarity.

The inglorious early exit of supposed European heavyweights England, Spain, Italy and Portugal brought heartache in those nations at first, then a wave of selfdeprecating humor.

One photo doing the rounds shows their four planes lined up in blue sky with the caption: "Permission to land?"

England fans showed a fine ability to laugh at themselves, chanting during their final match the self-parodying song from a Monty Python film: 'Always Look On The Bright Side of Life'.

One fan, who flew to Brazil after England had been knocked out to see a dire 0-0 draw with Costa Rica, held up a banner mimicking a well-known credit card ad - "Flights to Rio: 1,200 pounds. Enjoying the ambiance: 2,000 pounds. Accommodation: 2,000 pounds. Arriving after elimination: priceless."

'DRACULA' SUAREZ, 'DIVER' ROBBEN Naturally, the tournament's main talking point - Uruguay striker Luis Suarez's ban for biting - has spawned a vast array of doctored images depicting him variously wearing a dog-cone round his neck, a Dracula outfit, or a Hannibal Lecter mask.

Tourists in Rio de Janeiro queued up to place their necks or arms inside his open mouth on a larger-than-life Adidas ad photo of Suarez's head. Adidas, perhaps embarrassed by negative associations round an ad made before the incident, took it down. A modified version of the Panini sticker of Suarez's victim, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, has been circulating with a chunk missing. Yet the Uruguayan, who has apologized for the incident which earned him a four-month ban, is by no means the World Cup's only pantomime villain. Netherlands forward Arjen Robben, though a hero to Dutch fans for his goals and tricks, has become a target for many due to perceptions of diving and feigning fouls.

The fall that gave the Netherlands a penalty earning them a last-gasp 2-1 win over Mexico has earned particular notoriety. A plethora of internet users have lampooned Robben as lifting an Oscar for Best

Actor, competing in Olympic diving, and plunging arms-flailing off the cliffs of Acapulco. The sagas over Suarez and Robben have largely deflected attention from the man many fans most love to mock, Sepp Blatter, head of the sport's world governing body FIFA. One company in England, where he comes under constant fire from media over his management of FIFA, launched a new online game in which the player hurls gold, money and riches into the mouth of a guffawing Blatter-like persona crying "Give me more!"

Reporters at FIFA's briefings have been asking whether Blatter's low profile here in Brazil is to avoid being booed in public. It's an "editorial" policy, officials say.

SLAPSTICK MOMENTS Once they take the field, it's a deadly serious game for players, and few would dare joke around. The United States' Jermaine Jones drew a few unintentional laughs, however, when he clattered into the referee and fell flat on the floor during one game. Germany's Thomas Mueller initially had spectators chuckling at him when he stumbled to his knees during a free-kick routine against Algeria.

He had the last laugh, though, revealing it was a deliberate trick to throw defenders off guard. The question is, do we believe him?

"In training it always worked," team mate Toni Kroos said. "But it looks like crap when it doesn't." Argentina's Ezequiel Lavezzi was lucky his boss saw the funny side of things, instead of fining him, after he nonchalantly squirted water over coach Alejandro Sabella on the side of the pitch. "Players like Lavezzi are always very positive, because they keep players happy," Sabella said. Mexico coach Miguel Herrera has appeared blissfully unaware of the smiles his manic-looking celebrations have caused, turning him into an internet sensation during the World Cup. SOME jOKES ALwAyS BACKfIRE After the Netherlands eliminated Mexico, a politically incorrect KLM airline Tweet read "Adios Amigos" with a caricatured photo of a moustachioed Mexican man in a sombrero. The outrage was swift, bringing a KLM apology and a vow from Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal never to fly with them again.

But back to the European flops.

There was a touch of high art in one jest at Spanish coach Del Bosque's expense, his head super-imposed over Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' painting.

And English satirical magazine Private Eye was so sure of what was coming in Brazil, even before the games had begun, it printed a front-cover showing the players alighting from their plane while the pilot asks: "Shall I keep the engines running?"

Facing Belgium, Argentina may need more than Messi Karl Ritter

Associated Press

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o far none of Argentina's opponents has been able to stop Lionel Messi. Perhaps Belgium has what it takes.

But even if doesn't, the Red Devils present a fresh challenge for Argentina at this World Cup. For the first time in Brazil, Argentina faces an opponent with attacking potential that rivals its own. "We will have to adapt, but what really interests me is to see how they will adapt to us," Belgium coach Marc Wilmots said.

Argentina has struggled on its road to the quarterfinals, relying on single moments of Messi magic to break stalemates against mostly defense-oriented teams.

On Saturday in Brasilia, it's up against a young, sparkling team that's considered a dark horse for the title. Even though it needed extra time to prevail against the United States, Belgium unleashed offensive quali-

Argentina's Lionel Messi, second right, jogs with teammates during a training session at Estadio Nacional in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, July 4. From left, Hugo Campagnaro, Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria, Lucas Biglia and Sergio Aguero. On Saturday, Argentina will face Belgium in their World Cup quarterfinals soccer match. (AP Photo)

ties in that game that could present major problems for Argentina's at times shaky defense. Belgium fired 38 shots, half of them from midfielders Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard, and strikers Divock Origi and Romelo Lukaku. An

impressive performance by U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard kept the score down.

Meanwhile, Argentina's attack hasn't been as fearsome as predicted. Center forward Gonzalo Higuain is scoreless after four games and his attacking partner

Sergio Aguero is out injured. Ezequiel Lavezzi is replacing the Manchester City striker but was largely ineffective against Switzerland. Then there's Messi.

The little genius has delivered when Argentina needed him most, scoring in ev-

ery group stage match and setting up Angel Di Maria's extra-time winner against Switzerland in the round of 16. In a tight game, the Swiss shackled him successfully until his decisive run in the 118th minute.

"We knew that we

would face a situation like that, but that's football and we had luck on our side," Messi said. "We're aware that all matches are going to be very close and that details will make the difference." Wilmots was unwilling to compare the strengths of the two teams but noted that except for a few players, Argentina's performance at the World Cup has exposed some weaknesses. "Obviously they have Di Maria, Lavezzi, Higuain and Messi," Wilmots said. "But I also saw they showed a lack of balance within the team and that they had problems." If Messi is in extraordinary form, he will cause problems for Belgium, Wilmots conceded Thursday. "But if you ask me as a coach whether I prefer a good collective or one great player, I prefer the team."

Argentina left back Sergio Rojo is suspended and will probably be replaced

by Jose Basanta in Saturday's game.

Belgium unveil Messi plan with a Hazard of their own sALVADOR, JuLy 4(REuTERs): Belgium pointed to Eden Hazard as a potential match winner as they laid out a strategy to combat Lionel Messi and Argentina when they meet in their World Cup quarter-final in Brasilia on Saturday. “Hey, we’ve got Eden,” teammate Kevin Mirallas said on Thursday as reporters sought answers to the question of dealing with the threat of Argentina's multiple World Footballer of the Year award winner. “You can’t compare him with Messi or (Cristiano) Ronaldo, but he is still something special.”

Seeing off Argentina’s talismanic threat will be a communal effort, added defender Jan Vertonghen.

“We have to stand together as team. If Messi gets past one of us, then there must a second and third player ready to stop him.” But he added it was Argentina who had more to fret over as they prepared a game plan against the Belgians, who have four wins under their belt in Brazil already. “We are a team that is difficult for an opponent to prepare against and to play against,” Vertonghen insisted. "We can play different systems and we have a lot of good players on the bench. It is exceptional to have so many different qualities in a squad. We are certainly not scared about Saturday.”

Midfielder Axel Witsel said the game in the Brazilian capital might even prove easier than their previous matches at tournament. “It is understandable that in the group phase we played against cagey teams and found it difficult against them.

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Ashley Benson unveiled as new face of H&M

‘

Pretty Little Liars’ actress Ashley Benson has been announced as the new model for H&M’s Divided line. The ‘Pretty Little Liars’ actress has landed her first major modelling gig after signing on to front the high street retailer’s Divided line, which is aimed at teenage customers.

The 24-year-old blonde, famed for playing Hanna Marin on the popular ABC Family series, is known for her covetable and casual style, so the collaboration is the perfect fit. Ashley commented ‘’These outfits represent my style very well. I love high-waisted skirts, skinny jeans and loose tops.’’

The campaign was shot in Los Angeles by Mariano Vivanco and features a series of images showing the natural beauty posing against a plain white wall. Key looks from the ads include cute slogan tees, pencil skirts, flirty sundresses, denim jeans and chunky ankle boots.

Ashley and her ‘Pretty Little Liars’ costar Lucy Hale were the faces of Bongo for their Spring 2012 campaign, but her new worldwide H&M gig is set to raise the starlet’s profile to a whole new level.

Saturday

Entertainment

The Morung Express

5 July 2014

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Dakota Fanning, 20, on growing up in the spotlight - and trying to keep her private life private

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akota Fanning began acting at an age when most kids are entering kindergarten, so it’s hard to imagine that a career in show business was her idea. But in a new Town & Country cover story, the actress emphasizes that she wasn’t like most kids. ‘It’s hard to explain to someone who didn’t know me as a child. But even before I started working – when I was two, three, four, five – I was an exceptionally mature child,’ the 20-year-old actress says in the magazine’s August issue, which hits newsstands July 8. ‘I just was. And my mom and I were able to have conversations like, “Do you want to go to California and go to auditions for commercials and TV shows? Is that something you want to do?” And I was like, “Yeah, let’s give it a try.”’

Miss Fanning, who stars alongside Elizabeth Olsen in the upcoming film Very Good Girls, appears more grounded than most former child stars throughout the interview, and it seems she still has a mature approach to fame - especially when it comes to keeping her private life out of the public eye.

‘I’m just never going to parade my personal life. If you choose to not do it, it’s not hard to not do it… Any part of an artistic business is made better by there being a little mystery. That’s what movies are about,’ says Miss Fanning, who has previously pointed out that she doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter.

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For the past year, she has maintained a low-key relationship with 32-year-old model Jamie Strachan. But what the Last of Robin Hood star does struggle with is the sense that fans feel a ‘weird sort of ownership’ over her, having watched her grow up on the big screen. ‘People don’t know me as much as they think they do. I’ll be walking down the street and someone will say hello, and I’ll go, “Oh, hi!” I’ll think I must know this person if they said hello, but then you realize, you don’t know them,’ she says.

However, Miss Fanning says she appreciates the sacrifices her mother made for the careers of both her and her 16-year-old sister Elle, who stars in Disney’s Maleficent. ‘[My mother] realized I had the potential to do things that were bigger than the life she knew. And she recognized that in Elle, too. When she made that initial move with me to L.A., she completely gave up her own dreams and started over in a place she never imagined living. I mean, Los Angeles, to a person from 20 minutes southeast of Atlanta, might as well be Africa,’ she says.

While Miss Fanning says that it’s difficult to find movies about strong females - ones not about ‘a guy or the love of a guy or the heartbreak of a guy’ - she recently signed on to play a young woman with a rare autoimmune disease in an upcoming film adaptation of Susannah Cahalan’s best-selling 2012 memoir, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness.

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Heavy metal lovers beware H

eadbanging can be bad for you Motorhead fan suffers blood clot after performing ‘violent and rhythmic’ movement at concert Heavy metal fans have been warned that Headbanging can be bad for you after a Motorhead fan suffered a blood clot on his brain after performing the ‘violent and rhythmic’ movement at a concert.

The 50-year-old German fan developed the potentially fatal condition after getting carried away at one of the hardcore British rock band’s concerts.

It is the fourth documented case of subdural haematoma linked to headbanging - one of which proved fatal.

Specialists treated the fan at the Hannover Medical School two weeks after he started suffering a constant, worsening headache that affected his entire head. A CT scan confirmed that the man had a suffered a subdural haematoma, a clot caused by blood leaking into the

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space between the skull and the brain, on his right side. Surgeons successfully removed the clot via a hole drilled into the skull, and fortunately he was able to make a full recovery.

Subdural haematomas are most often caused by blows to the head, but the

causing haemorrhage into the subdural space,’ said doctors writing in The Lancet medical journal. A review of the medical literature revealed three previous cases where headbanging led to blood clots. One, an acute haematoma, resulted in sudden death.

Other conditions attributed to headbanging have included a torn carotid artery, whiplash injury, fractured neck, and air in the chest Headbanger: A 50-yearcavity. The doctors deold German fan suffered a fined headbanging as blood clot on his brain after ‘a contemporary dance consisting of abrupt headbanging while watch- form flexion-extension moveing Motorhead, fronted by ments of the head to the rhythm of rock music, Lemmy, play most commonly seen in the heavy metal genre’. patient could not recall Motorhead were one of the pioneers of ‘speed suffering such an injury. metal’, marked by fast tempos of more than 200 However, a month before at- beats per minute. tending hospital he had been to The surgeons, led by Dr Ariyan Pirayesh Isa Motorhead concert where he joined lamian, ended their report by paying the band other fans headbanging to the fast and furious a veiled compliment. music performed by frontman Ian Fraser Kilm‘This case serves as evidence in support ister, aka Lemmy, and his bandmates. of Motorhead’s reputation as one of the most ‘Our patient had no history of head trauma hardcore rock’n’roll acts on earth, if nothing so we assume that headbanging, with its brisk else because of their contagious speed drive forward and backward acceleration and decel- and the hazardous potential for headbanging eration forces, led to rupturing of bridging veins fans to suffer brain injury,’ they wrote.

Priyanka Chopra’s

Singer Mya denies rumours that Jay Z cheated on Beyonce with her S

‘I was an exceptionally mature child’

Dimapur

inger Mya has responded to rumours that she had an affair with Jay Z. The Lady Marmalade star was asked on Instagram about the rumour by a fan, to which she replied: ‘Never did, never was, never will’.

A fan had asked the singer, ‘Heard you and Jay Z had an 11-year-affair. Are you his side chick or nah?’.

Mya added in her response: ‘Illegitimate, thirsty sources with no facts and that’s the ‘media’ for you-especially today.’

‘I play second to no one, pay my own bills, have my own label, own management company, rely on God only and respect myself & marriage too much for nonsense.’ ‘False rumors are crafted for ratings & numbers. And miserable, unhappy people need someone to judge to deter the attention away from their own misery and feel better about their miserable lives. If they did it to Jesus, they’ll do it to anyone. God bless.’

The rumours started earlier this week when a blind item surfaced online, stating that a ‘short named’ R&B singer was invloved in an affair with Jay, 44. Meanwhile, Beyonce, who is allegedly leading ‘separate lives’ on tour with her husband Jay Z, sparked new speculation their relationship is on the rocks by changing the lyrics of her 2006 song Resentment while performing their On the Run show in Cincinnati, Ohio on last month.

During the song, which is about a cheating scandal, she altered the track to reflect the current length of her romance with the rapper, singing: “Been ridin’ with you for twelve years.

Why did I deserve to be treated this way by you? (sic)’ The original lyric should read: ‘Been ridin’ with you for six years. Why did I deserve to be treated this way by you? (sic)’ She also changed the line, ‘Like I couldn’t do it for you like your mistress could” to “Like I couldn’t do it for you like that wack b***h could (sic).’

AMA turns nasty

A

ctress Priya n k a Chopra had to face the worst of the internet world when she decided to interact with her fans via the electronic medium. The popular Bollywood diva joined a social networking news platform and went on to have an AMA

session with other users. For those who don`t know, AMA is an Ask Me Anything session, where people are allowed to post questions to “ celebrities. “... I’m currently crisscrossing the world shooting for a film in Europe, attending a family wedding in the US, taking care of business in India! But I’m taking time off from all of that to have a conversation with all of you.

People asked her all sorts of questions which she answered genially.

Her work on the upcoming film on `Mary Kom`, her career graph, her favourite holiday destination and even tough ones like whether she supported homosexuality and the NFL

racism incident.

But eventually it went horribly wrong for Piggy Chops. Nasty questions started pouring in soon after. Someone asked her about her plastic surgeries.

Things took a downturn when some users went on to allege that the actress who has recently cut her second album used autotune to record her songs, and hateful statements while several others questioned her about a road being named after the Late father.

Following the diatribe that she received from people, the actress may have chosen not to answer the questions. There were many who blamed her for not wanting to confront these allegations and that it was only her PR team that handling the AMA. The actress sure had the worst of the lot. Whether she left in disgust, simply chose not to answer the spiteful comments or couldn`t handle the pressure; she would certainly think twice before connecting with her followers in future.

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Yanglise Sangtam and Odijungla Imchen winners of the Livingstone Foundation Hr. Sec. School, Dimapur Mr and Miss Fresher 2014 held under the theme ‘Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today and Hope for Tomorrow’ on July 3.

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French surrender to Germans again

Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates after he won the first game against Milos Raonic of Canada during their men’s singles semifinal match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London on July 4. (AP Photo)

Federer sets up Djokovic showdown

Germany's Mats Hummels, second right, scores the opening goal during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Germany and France at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, July 4. (AP Photo)

rio de JAneiro, July 4 (AP): Germany reached the semifinals for a fourth straight World Cup by beating France 1-0 Friday in a cagey match courtesy a first-half headed goal from Mats Hummels.

The center back, recalled to the Germany team after a bout of flu, outmuscled his marker, Raphael Varane, to get to an inswinging free kick by Toni Kroos and glanced a header in off the underside of the bar in the 13th min-

ute in one of the few chances created in muggy conditions at Maracana stadium.

Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema had France's best chances saved in the first half, with the German lineup holding off late pressure with apparent ease.

France started nervously - particularly at the back - and struggled to impose its attacking game but did look dangerous with balls over Germany's high line of defense.

The more experienced German lineup had a more robust appearance in muggy conditions at Maracana stadium after making a slew of changes following a sloppy 2-1 second-round win over Algeria. Veteran striker Miroslav Klose started up front for Germany but had no clear-cut opportunity to score a record-setting 16th goal at a World Cup. Germany will play Brazil or Colombia in the semifinals on Tuesday as it seeks a fourth world title.

london, July 4 title defence last year end(AgencieS): Roger Fe- ed with a whimpering secderer proved he can still ond-round defeat to Sergiy "outrun time" and reclaim Stakhovsky. The Swiss grass his grass-court empire by master had failed to reach beating Milos Raonic to a grand slam quarter-final reach his ninth Wimble- for the first time in nine don final. The 32-year-old years, leaving all and sundismissed Raonic 6-4 6-4 dry predicting his demise.

The Basle native 6-4 in Friday's semi-final, dispelling the Canadian blamed his wretched 2013 challenger's prediction his on persistent back trouAll England Club era could ble though, and has since made good on his promcome to a close.

Federer will now face ise to launch a full-scale Maria Sharapova of Russia, second right, waits to leave the players box after watching her top seed Novak Djokovic recovery. Raonic accepted boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria defeated by Novak Djokovic of Serbia in their men’s in Sunday's final, where he Federer's "magician" sta- singles semifinal match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, Loncan claim a record eighth tus in the build-up to this don, Friday, July 4. (AP Photo) title. Canada's eighth seed semi-final - the masterful Raonic talked passionate- sorcerer left his apprentice night, but Federer snaffled ly about the challenge of spellbound. The Monte- immediate plunder.

The wily Swiss swiftly dislodging tennis' top four negro-born world number converted a rapid break in the build-up to his first nine hailed Federer as the man who can "do anything point, before holding safegrand slam semi-final.

The 23-year-old believes he wants with the ball", ly to claim the match's first the new wave of men's tal- and so it proved as the king blood. Raonic was forced ent is finally ready to loosen of Centre Court stalked his to fend off two more break points in his next the decade-long service game as stranglehold enFederer continjoyed by Federued to impose his er, Rafa Nadal, class. Raonic's Andy Murray whip-crack foreand Djokovic. hand forced FeRaonic claimed The Swiss is the oldest man derer to defend a no one can "outbreak point next run time" and since Andre Agassi to reach a - but two quick delay the inevimajor final in nine years. aces sealed the table passing game to preserve of eras after his his advantage.

Federer quarter-final victory over principality with all the old then served out the set Nick Kyrgios - but even af- style and poise.

Raonic's monster serve with little issue, to claim ter 17 grand slam victories, Federer still has other ideas. may take some containing, early control. The second Djokovic quietened the but as Federer strode into set stayed with serve to clamour of Queen's Club the final, he upheld his re- four games apiece, until champion Grigor Dimitrov markable statistic of drop- Federer struck again. A to reach his third Wimble- ping just one solitary ser- double fault then a loose don final, and when Feder- vice game. Compatriot Stan attempted smash from Raer took centre stage, he too Wawrinka also remains the onic offered Federer all the took the chance to quell any only man to pilfer a set from invitation required, and he Federer in this tournament. duly fired a winner down changing of the guard.

The seven-time Wim- Few have troubled Raonic's the line to seize the initiabledon champion's meek blitzkrieg serve this fort- tive once more.

British Grand Prix

Susie's drive ends in early disappointment

Roger Federer to face Novak Djokovic in his 25th Grand Slam final

Scottish driver Susie Wolff walks away after her car broke down, during free practice on Friday, July 4, ahead of this weekend's Formula One British Grand Prix. Wolff's bid to make an impact as the first woman to take part in a Formula One grand prix weekend for 22 years ended prematurely on Friday. Wolff, driving a Williams, idled to a halt after only three timed laps in the opening practice for the British Grand Prix on Sunday. "The engine has gone - terminal," she was told by her race engineer. (AP Photo) C M Y K

SilverStone, July 4 (AFP): Susie Wolff's bid to make a mark as the first woman to take part in a Grand Prix weekend for 22 years ended prematurely on Friday when her Williams car suffered an engine failure. The 31-yearold Scot clocked only three laps in the opening minutes, producing a best time of one minute and 44.212 seconds before she pulled off and parked the car after an oil pressure warning.

Within a few minutes, her Williams team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa joined her on the sidelines after a spectacular accident that saw him rip the front left wheel off his car and damage the gearbox. Massa was

unhurt, but both cars were ruled out of action for the rest of the session. Wolff returned to the pits - after her brief outing that ran for less than 20 minutes - to speak to her race engineer who told her: "The engine has gone... It's terminal."

Her disappointment was evident as she turned away. She later told reporters that, though she was disappointed, it was the way of things in Formula One."I am so grateful to everyone for the support I have had here this weekend and now, at least, I have been out and got the first start out of the way. "I can at least look forward to having another run at Hockenheim."

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