"Goldman Sachs rules the world"

according to Alessio Rastani, a London-based trader, while interviewed by BBC News



See also Yahoo! News for discussion about whether it was a hoax (apparently it wasn't).

Thanks to Eric Olander via Google+

Brussels metro bans French and Dutch songs, plays Lady Gaga instead

The Kingdom of Belgium has tenuously united Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloons since 1830. Divisions between the two groups have meant that there has been no new government since the elections of 13 June 2010.

The Brussels metro previously broadcast French music (songs) at its 69 stations. Following complaints from dozens of passengers in April, the operator of the Brussels metro STIB has banned both French and Dutch music to avoid offending customers. Dutch music had actually not been broadcast because they were not popular (in music charts) anyway.

Consequently, most music broadcast by the stations have been in English. This provided an opportunity for the promotion of Lady Gaga's latest album.

Music from French and Dutch musicians is not technically banned, provided it is sung in English.

See reporting in Le Post (in French).

Report from Le Journal on Télé Bruxelles

Lady Gaga dans le métro de Bruxelles by Zoomin_France

R is for rupee 2

Early last year, I wrote about plans for a new symbol for Indian currency, the rupee. From Government of India Ministry of Finance press release (15 July 2010)

The Union Cabinet today approved the symbol for the Indian Rupee. This symbol will be used by all individuals/entities within and outside India after its incorporation in `Unicode Standard’, ‘ISO/IEC 10646’ and ‘IS 13194’.

A public competition was held amongst resident Indian citizens inviting entries for the symbol, which reflects and captures the Indian ethos and culture. Over 3000 entries were received, which were evaluated by a Jury headed by the Deputy Governor, RBI, which also included experts from three reputed art and design Institutes. The entries were presented to the Jury in such a manner that identity of the competitors was not revealed to the Jury members. The Jury selected five final entries and also gave its evaluation of these five entries to the Government to take a final decision.

The symbol will standardize the expression for Indian Rupee in different languages, both within and outside the country. It would better distinguish the Indian currency from those countries whose currencies are also designated as Rupee or Rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The symbol will be included in the “Unicode Standard” for representation and processing of text, written in major scripts of the world to ensure that the Rupee symbol is easily displayed/printed in the electronic and print media as all the software companies provide support for this Standard. Encoding in the Unicode Standard will also ensure encoding in the International standard ISO/IEC 10646 as both the organizations work closely with each other.

The symbol will also be included in the Indian Standards, viz. 13194:1991 – Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) through an amendment to the existing list by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The ISCII specifies various codes for Indian languages for processing on computers along with the key-board lay outs.

After encoding of the symbol in the Unicode Standard and National Standard, NASSCOM will approach software development companies for incorporating the Rupee symbol in their operative software, as a new programme or as an update, to enable the computer users worldwide to use the symbol even if it is not embedded on the keyboards (in a similar manner, we use the Euro symbol, which is not embedded in the keyboards in use in India).

For incorporating the symbol in the keyboards to be manufactured in India, the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) will enjoin its membership to make requisite changes in the production processes once the symbol is notified as a keyboard standard by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The State Governments would be impressed upon to encourage the use of the new Rupee symbol and proactively promote its use.

The encoding of the rupee symbol in the Indian Standards is estimated to take about six months while encoding in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 will take about 18 months to two years. It will be incorporated in software packages and keyboards in use in India.

The symbol for the Rupee would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and robustness of the Indian economy as also a favored destination for global investments.

BACKGROUND

In view of the fact that the Indian economy has been expanding at a sustained high rate of growth, is steadily integrating with the global economy and India has emerged as a prime investment destination worldwide, it was decided to undertake an exercise for selecting a distinct and identifiable symbol for India Rupee (INR) like other major currencies such as US Dollar (USD), British Pound Sterling (GBP), the Japanese Yen (JPY) and the European Union (EU) Euro.

The new symbol,a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R', was designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.



$ £ ¥ € are the most well known currency symbols. Contrary to reports in the Indian media that the new rupee symbol joins an elite club of the widely used $ £ ¥ and €, there are actually other currency symbols in use in the world.

These include the Korean won ₩, Lao kip ₭, Thai baht ฿, Paraguayan guaraní ₲, Israeli shekel ₪ and so forth.



So will the new rupee symbol be grouped with the big four or with the lesser known symbols?

Lèse majesté part 3

I've previously written about lèse majesté in terms of how it is implemented.

A recent issue of The Economist carried an in-depth article about the Thai royal family and succession issues. Consequently, Bangkok Post reported that The Economist would not be distributing that issue in Thailand due to lèse majesté laws.

Within the readership of The Economist, it has generated a debate, with the magazine suggesting that "[w]e hold that Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws should be lifted. They harm the country itself; on those grounds they should be removed."

Of course, given that nobody within Thailand can have such a debate, the comment may fall on deaf ears.

See also New Mandala (Australian National University).

Fat gang story busted

Last month, I wrote about the widely reported story of a gang in Peru that allegedly killed people in order to extract their fat, which was then sold to buyers to make cosmetics. I questioned the veracity of story even if the media did not as too many things just didn't add up.

Reuters has now reported that the police in charge of the investigation had misled the public. From BBC News

Peru human fat killings 'a lie'

By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Lima

Peru's police chief has suspended a top investigator for saying he had caught a gang who were murdering people to sell their fat.

Last month, top organised crime investigator Felix Murga said police had arrested four suspects who confessed to murdering up to 60 people.

He said they were selling their fat for thousands of dollars a litre.

But the macabre tale now appears to be nothing more than a tall story - or a big fat lie.

'Sold-on'

In an extraordinary press conference, police showed two bottles of what they said was human fat and a photo of a decapitated head.

Mr Murga told journalists how four suspects had confessed to gruesome murders reviving an Andean legend about the Pishtacos - mythical killers who murdered people on lonely roads to collect their fat.

But two weeks later a complete lack of evidence showed the police account to be more fiction that fact.

As a result Peru's chief of police, Miguel Hidalgo, announced Mr Murga would be put on indefinite leave from his job for sullying the reputation of his unit.

Initial doubts were compounded when police from the region where the crimes were alleged to have taken place said they knew nothing about a gang of murderers killing people for their fat.

They were only able to corroborate one of the dozens of alleged disappearances in a region where drug-trafficking and violence is rife.

Mr Murga and the head of the anti-kidnapping unit had also claimed the fat was sold for thousands of dollars in the European black market supplying the cosmetics industry, but could not confirm any sales.

Medical experts dismissed this theory, saying human fat had no monetary value and injecting it from one person to another would be potentially life-threatening.

Some anthropologists say the police's story deliberately played on an old Peruvian myth to explain crimes which the police had failed to investigate fully.

Other observers say this story was just one of many embellished or invented news stories used as a smokescreen which are intended to distract the general public from the real issues facing Peru.

What a surprise. . Surely media outlets should question the plausibility of a story before releasing it. On the other hand, never believe everything you read in the media, no matter how respectable, including the BBC if it doesn't add up.

Human fat in cosmetics?

Reuters reported on a macabre story about a gang in Peru that allegedly killed people in order to extract their fat, which was then sold to buyers to make cosmetics. Apparently, the rendered fat fetched USD 15,000 per litre. From BBC News

'Fat for cosmetics' murder suspects arrested in Peru

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before killing them and extracting their fat.

The liquidised product fetched $15,000 (£9,000) a litre and police suspect it was sold on to companies in Europe.

At least five other suspects, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.

Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in Peru's Huanuco and Pasco regions.

One of those arrested told police the ringleader had been killing people for their fat for more than three decades.

The gang has been referred to as the Pishtacos, after an ancient Peruvian legend of killers who attack people on lonely roads and murder them for their fat.

Human tissue

At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.

One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person's body tissue removed for sale.

Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters news agency some of the suspects had "declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it".

Police said they suspect the fat was sold to cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, but have not confirmed any such connection.

There is something fishy about the story. Surely, cosmetics companies that really do want to include human fat as an ingredient in their products would seek this from liposuction companies at a much lower cost.

The Peruvian story reads too much like a horror movie.

bad vibrations in Alabama

Alabama's criminal code Section 13A-12-200.2 prohibits the distribution, sale and production of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs for any thing of pecuniary value".

Love Stuff, an adult store, sued the City of Hoover, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional. On 11 September 2009, the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled in favour of state Attorney General Troy King and the City of Hoover.

See Alabama Press-Register and Birmingham News.

Coincidentally, Sarah Ruhl's play In the Next Room or the vibrator play opens in November at the Lyceum Theatre located at 149 West 45th Street (Between Broadway and 6th Avenue) in New York - tickets to the public are on sale from 3 October.

A provocative, funny, touching and marvelously entertaining story about a young doctor and his wife set at the dawn of the age of electricity in the 1880s. Back then hysteria was a real diagnosis, and women were commonly treated with electrical stimulating machines to ease their condition! Playwright Sarah Ruhl wondered what exactly doctors were thinking when they used vibrator therapies on their female patients. And what did women think was happening to them? In the Next Room or the vibrator play looks at a young technology-obsessed doctor and the devoted wife who longs to connect with him -- but not electrically.

As Jacob M Appel wrote in Huffington Post

Families will come to the show. So will tourists. Even Alabamans. They will enjoy themselves. I'd be thrilled if Attorney General King came to the opening as my guest. Not a date, just two grown men enjoying a lively, tasteful play about vibrators. We can even pick up a souvenir or two for Mrs. King, maybe something she can't buy in Alabama.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/alabamas-bad-vibrations_b_300491.html

It might even be appropriate for Troy University's Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts in Montgomery AL to host the play. Maybe even the Governor might attend.

*with thanks to Sarah Ruhl's mother-in-law for drawing this to my attention. ;-)

Vale FEER

Dow Jones, owned by News Corporation, has announced that its publication Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) will cease in December. From press release

HONG KONG (Sept. 21, 2009) — This fall, Dow Jones & Company will focus on its core publications to better serve readers and advertisers in key markets, both in print and online, to catapult the company's growth in the burgeoning Asian marketplace.

As a result, the Far Eastern Economic Review will cease publication in December so opinion and commentary resources from Asia can be expanded across all Dow Jones properties. Unfortunately, despite several attempts at invigorating the brand, the REVIEW's continued losses in advertising revenue and readers are now unsustainable.

Dow Jones has expanded local content from Asia in The Wall Street Journal print and online editions with an expanded news hole, redesigned WSJ.com, expansion of chinese.WSJ.com, new mobile content delivery via BlackBerry and iPhone devices, and the launch of a Japanese-language Web site coming this fall.

These investments into Dow Jones Asia have translated into an increased print circulation of 6.3% year-over-year for the Jan.-June period, led by a substantial increase in subscriptions, with particularly significant growth in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Taiwan. Average daily circulation also increased to 85,822 copies from 80,706 year-over-year.

By increasing resources into growth areas at Dow Jones, we'll better serve a diverse group of readers and advertisers across Asia," said Christine Brendle, publisher of The Wall Street Journal Asia and managing director, Asia, Dow Jones Consumer Media Group.

"The decision to cease publication of the REVIEW is a difficult one made after a careful study of the magazine's prospects in a challenging business climate," said Todd Larsen, chief operating officer at Dow Jones Consumer Media Group. "It has a rich history of pioneering journalism and helped to set the standard for the press in Asia in the post-World War II era when local publications often lacked the freedom to report honestly. Dow Jones is proud to have been associated with the REVIEW and its invaluable contributions to the understanding of the Asia region.

Hugo Restall, the REVIEW's editor since Oct. 2004, will remain a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which he joined in Feb. 2004. Mr. Restall served as editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia from 1999 to 2003.

Current REVIEW subscribers will be offered a one-year subscription to asia.wsj.com, the regionally dedicated edition of the leading provider of business and financial news and analysis on the Web.

The Far Eastern Economic Review was launched in 1946.

What a pity. I used to read it for work in two different jobs. We never called it REVIEW, but "Far Eastern'. It was a great publication. Nury Vitachi used to write a brilliant column called Travellers' Tales.

real news

An opinion/editorial (filed on Monday 29 May 2009) in The Daily Evergreen, student newspaper of Washington State University (in Pullman, not to be confused with University of Washington in Seattle) was very topical.

Celebrity deaths eclipse real news

The Daily Evergreen

---

The over-saturated coverage of the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and television pitchman Billy Mays display America’s morbid fascination with celebrity. Their deaths are undoubtedly newsworthy, but they don’t require the incessant media coverage that has enveloped the nation’s airwaves, Web sites and newspapers in recent days. News outlets need to stop treating every celebrity’s death like it’s the fall of the Berlin Wall. When a person of relative importance passes away, a brief summary of the person’s life should be given an allotted amount of time for reflection without digressing into unrelenting coverage.

It should not supplant actual news that may be relevant, both locally and globally. We’re just as enthralled with “Thriller” as everyone else, but the deteriorating situation in Iran and the dire economic straits here at home should take preference over a crotch-grabbing, moonwalking cultural icon of the 1980s.

The deaths of Fawcett, Mays and Ed McMahon have all captivated the nation, albeit to a lesser extent than Jackson’s. But just consider the fact that we’re talking more about Fawcett four days after her death than the majority of us have in the last 20 years. Yes, she’s a person, and yes, she deserves to be mourned. But why not leave that for the people who loved her and cared for her, rather than exploiting death for ratings.

Of course, it’s not just the media that deserves to be admonished. Web sites from Google to Twitter reported being inundated with traffic around the time Jackson was taken to the hospital. One might expect the Los Angeles Times’ site to strain under the load after announcing his death. But Twitter (as has been shown in the last week) is proving to be a crucial outlet for the people of Iran to let their government and the rest of the world know of the election fraud that has taken place in their country. The constant influx of status updates bemoaning Jackson’s death overpowers news from Iran. We should be more concerned with holding corrupt governments accountable rather than the banality of celebrity.

Jackson’s death is not irrelevant and people’s grief is genuine in many cases, but a proper grieving process includes reserving retrospective analysis for the people who truly impact our daily lives With the number of “celebrities” (and we use the term as loosely as the rest of the media does) increasing every day, we’re rapidly approaching the point of total saturation. We have only the best wishes for the Jackson family and for those close to him. For the rest of us, it’s time to take the hint and “Beat It” – we’ve got enough things to worry about.

Indeed, the death of any one person should not need to take up half of a 30 minute or one hour news bulletin, let alone continuing on for days afterwards. It would be interesting to compare the coverage to that of Pope John Paul II, whose death really did directly affect over one billion Catholics.

Red Bull coked up... giving people wings

In Europe, Red Bull has been found to contain traces of cocaine. or rather, Kokain.

A temporary ban might be in place in Germany, but sales elsewhere are likely to rise.

This is the television commercial that has been shown in Australia
(Red Bull gives you wings)


from The Inquistr (now we know where the wings line comes from)

the land of opportunity...

One can understand how cities like Mumbai have 'slums' like Dharavi.

When the richest country on earth, especially one of the wealthiest states and one of the world's largest economies starts boasting a slum building up in the state capitol, it makes you wonder who is worse off.

R is for rupee

Reported in The Times of India, Indian currency, the rupee will soon have its own symbol

A contest to find a sign for Indian rupee
6 Mar 2009, 0419 hrs IST, Daniel P George, TNN

CHENNAI: The Indian rupee will soon sport a new sign. The Union finance ministry is organising a public competition to design a new symbol for the currency like the dollar sign $.

The successful designer will be awarded Rs 2.5 lakh, but will have to surrender the copyright to the government of India.

According to a circular (No 10/8/06-Cy.II) issued by B S Rawat, deputy secretary, department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, most countries in the world have distinct identification symbols for their currencies, but there is still no official currency sign for the Indian rupee. Only `Rs' is used to represent it, and India shares the abbreviated form of the rupee with Pakistan, Nepal, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.

Reserve Bank of India officials welcomed the move and said the initiative should have been launched decades ago. RBI and finance ministry officials said the search for a symbol was also related to India's growing influence on the global economy.

The jury of examiners comprises seven members drawn from institutes such as Sir J J Institute of Applied Art, National Institute of Design, Lalit Kala Akademi, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts as well as officials from the government and RBI. Members of the jury will look for symbols that represent the widely accepted historical and cultural ethos of the country, the circular states.

Among the guidelines mentioned for designing the sign are that it should be applicable to a standard keyboard, and be in the Indian script or a visual representation. A participant can send a maximum of two entries. The shortlisted designers will have to make a presentation before the jury; each of them will receive Rs 25,000 for their efforts. The last date for submission of entries is April 15.

The most logical symbol would be an R with a line across it. The Sanskrit symbol would also be neat.
रू

cheating the flames of death

Gary Hughes' account in The Australian is worth a read. CFA is the Country Fire Authority, a fire brigade staffed by volunteers.

How we cheated flames of death
Gary Hughes | February 09, 2009

THEY warn you it comes fast. But the word "fast" doesn't come anywhere near describing it.

It comes at you like a runaway train. One minute you are preparing. The next you are fighting for your home. Then you are fighting for your life.

But it is not minutes that come between. It's more like seconds. The firestorm moves faster than you can think, let alone react.

For 25 years, we had lived on our hilltop in St Andrews, in the hills northeast of Melbourne.

You prepare like they tell you every summer.

You clear. You slash. You prime your fire pump. For 25 years, fires were something that you watched in the distance.

Until Saturday.

We had been watching the massive plume of smoke from the fire near Kilmore all afternoon; secure in the knowledge it was too far away to pose a danger.

Then suddenly there is smoke and flames across the valley, about a kilometre to the northwest, being driven towards you by the wind. Not too bad, you think.

I rush around the side of the house to start the petrol-powered fire pump to begin spraying the house, just in case.

When I get there, I suddenly see flames rushing towards the house from the west. The tongues of flame are in our front paddock, racing up the hill towards us across grass stubble I thought safe because it had been slashed.

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In the seconds it takes me to register the flames, they are into a small stand of trees 50m from the house. Heat and embers drive at me like an open blast furnace. I run to shelter inside, like they tell you, until the fire front passes.

Inside are my wife, a 13-year-old girl we care for, and a menagerie of animals "rescued" over the year by our veterinary-student daughter.

They call it "ember attack". Those words don't do it justice.

It is a fiery hailstorm from hell driving relentlessly at you. The wind and driving embers explore, like claws of a predator, every tiny gap in the house. Embers are blowing through the cracks around the closed doors and windows.

We frantically wipe at them with wet towels. We are fighting for all we own. We still have hope.

The house begins to fill with smoke. The smoke alarms start to scream. The smoke gets thicker.

I go outside to see if the fire front has passed. One of our two cars under a carport is burning. I rush inside to get keys for the second and reverse it out into an open area in front of the house to save it.

That simple act will save our lives. I rush back around the side of the house, where plastic plant pots are in flames. I turn on a garden hose. Nothing comes out.

I look back along its length and see where the flames have melted it. I try to pick up one of the carefully positioned plastic buckets of water I've left around the house. Its metal handle pulls away from the melted sides.

I rush back inside the house. The smoke is much thicker. I see flames behind the louvres of a door into a storage room, off the kitchen. I open the door and there is a fire burning fiercely.

I realise the house is gone. We are now fighting for our lives.

We retreat to the last room in the house, at the end of the building furthest from where the firestorm hit. We slam the door, shutting the room off from the rest of the house. The room is quickly filling with smoke. It's black, toxic smoke, different from the superheated smoke outside.

We start coughing and gasping for air. Life is rapidly beginning to narrow to a grim, but inevitable choice. Die from the toxic smoke inside. Die from the firestorm outside.

The room we are in has french doors opening on to the front veranda. Somewhere out of the chaos of thoughts surfaces recent media bushfire training I had done with the CFA. When there's nothing else, a car might save you.

I run the 30 or 40 steps to the car through the blast furnace. I wrench open the door to start the engine and turn on the airconditioning, as the CFA tells you, before going back for the others.

The key isn't in the ignition. Where in hell did I put it? I rush back to the house. By now the black, toxic smoke is so thick I can barely see the others. Everyone is coughing. Gasping. Choking. My wife is calling for one of our two small dogs, the gentle, loyal Gizmo, who has fled in terror.

I grope in my wife's handbag for her set of car keys. The smoke is so thick I can't see far enough to look into the bag. I find them by touch, thanks to a plastic spider key chain our daughter gave her as a joke. Our lives are saved by a plastic spider. I tell my wife time has run out. We have to get to the car. The choices have narrowed to just one option, just one slim chance to live.

Clutching the second of our two small dogs, we run to the car. I feel the radiant heat burning the back of my hand. The CFA training comes back again. Radiant heat kills.

The three of us are inside the car. I turn the key. It starts. We turn on the airconditioning and I reverse a little further away from the burning building. The flames are wrapped around the full fuel tank of the other car and I worry about it exploding.

We watch our home - our lives, everything we own - blazing fiercely just metres away. The heat builds. We try to drive down our driveway, but fallen branches block the way. I reverse back towards the house, but my wife warns me about sheets of red-hot roofing metal blowing towards us.

I drive back down, pushing the car through the branches. Further down the 400m drive, the flames have passed. But at the bottom, trees are burning.

We sit in the open, motor running and airconditioner turned on full. Behind us our home is aflame. We calmly watch from our hilltop, trapped in the sanctuary of our car, as first the house of one neighbour, then another, then another goes up in flames. One takes an agonisingly slow time to go, as the flames take a tenuous grip at one end and work their way slowly along the roof. Another at the bottom of our hill, more than a 100 years old and made of imported North American timber, explodes quickly in a plume of dark smoke.

All the while the car is being buffeted and battered by gale-force winds and bombarded by a hail of blackened material. It sounds like rocks hitting the car.

The house of our nearest neighbour, David, who owns a vineyard, has so far escaped. But a portable office attached to one wall is billowing smoke.

I leave the safety of the car and cross the fence. Where is the CFA, he frantically asks. With the CFA's help, perhaps he can save his house. What's their number, he asks me. I tell him we had already rung 000, before our own house burnt. Too many fires. Too few tankers. I leave him to his torment. I walk back towards our own house in a forlorn hope that by some miracle our missing dog may have survived in some unburned corner of the building.

Our home, everything we were, is a burning, twisted, blackened jumble. Our missing dog, Gizmo, Bobby our grumpy cockatoo, Zena the rescued galah that spoke Greek and imitated my whistle to call the dogs, our free-flying budgie nicknamed Lucky because he escaped a previous bushfire, are all gone. Killed in theinferno that almost claimed us as well.

I return to the car and spot the flashing lights of a CFA tanker through the blackened trees across the road. We drive down the freeway, I pull clear more fallen branches and we reach the main road. I walk across the road to the tanker and tell them if they are quick they might help David save his house. I still don't know if they did. We stop at a police checkpoint down the hill. They ask us where we've come from and what's happening up the road. I tell them there's no longer anything up the road.

We stop at the local CFA station in St Andrews. Two figures sit hunched in chairs, covered by wet towels for their serious burns. More neighbours. We hear that an old friend, two properties from us, is missing. A nurse wraps wet towels around superficial burns on my wife's leg and my hand.

We drive to my brother's house, which fate had spared, on the other side of St Andrews.

The thought occurs to me, where do you start when you've lost everything, even a way to identify yourself. Then I realise, of course, it doesn't matter. We escaped with our lives. Just. So many others didn't.

Gary Hughes is a senior writer for The Australian

As much as pictures tell their thousand words, personal accounts like this one allows us to understand.

Lèse majesté part 2

I wrote about lèse majesté last June. An Australian author has been sentenced to three years imprisonment under the charge. From ABC

Man who insulted Thai monarch jailed for 3yrs

By South East Asia correspondent Karen Percy

19 January 2009

Sentence reduced...Nicolaides was originally given a six-year jail term. (Reuters: Sukree Sukplang )

• Video: Aust author jailed for 3 years (ABC News)
• Related Story: Aust man to plead guilty in Thai lese-majesty trial

An Australian man has been sentenced to three years jail in Bangkok after pleading guilty to insulting the Thai royal family.

Forty-one-year-old Melbourne man Harry Nicolaides wrote a book in 2005 which briefly referred to the private life of Thailand's Crown Prince, Vajiralongkorn - the son of the current King, Bhumipol Adulyadel.

There were tears in Nicolaides' eyes as he faced the court.

The five criminal court judges initially imposed a six year sentence, but it was reduced because he pleaded guilty.

Nicolaides told reporters after the ruling that he wished his family the best.

He was arrested in late August when he was trying to leave the country.

The lese majeste laws are fiercely upheld in Thailand where King Bhumipol is revered by his people.

Nicolaides is likely to apply for a pardon from the King.

Two years ago a Swiss man found guilty of insulting the monarchy was pardoned and deported from the country.

Is the reverence for the royal family freely given or a result of draconian laws? Surely if this reverence is real, there would not be a need for such laws.

******
Monday.

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

The Times (UK) has reported that a wealthy Bangladeshi plans to build an exact replica of the Taj Mahal at Sonargaon, 20 miles north east of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

December 12, 2008

No love lost over Bangladesh's copycat version of the Taj Mahal

Rhys Blakely

The construction of an exact copy of the Taj Mahal has sparked a diplomatic fracas between India and Bangladesh - raising the vexing issue of whether or not it is possible to claim copyright on a building.

The row began after Ahsanullah Moni, a wealthy Bangladeshi film director, gave the first glimpse of his copy of the Taj Mahal this week.

The project has cost about £40 million and is being built about 20 miles northeast of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. But the Indians are upset. “You can't just go and copy historical monuments,” an official at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka told a reporter this week.

“Someone will go out there and have a look. This [the original Taj Mahal] is a protected site we are talking about, so we need to find out if it really is the exact size.”

Deepak Mittal, a spokesman for the High Commission, confirmed to The Times that the matter was being investigated. “We have heard about this new Taj. We are checking the details,” he said.

For their part, Bangladeshi officials are incensed by suggestions that the Taj Mahal - which was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and completed in 1653 - is protected by some sort of copyright.

“I'm not sure what they are talking about,” one said. “Show me where it says that emulating a building like this can be illegal.”

To make his Taj, Mr Moni imported marble and granite from Italy and diamonds from Belgium to add to 160kg (350lb) of bronze. He hopes that his version of the mausoleum will attract tourists to Bangladesh, a country that is well off the beaten track for Western holidaymakers.

Construction work began five years ago, but Mr Moni says that he came up with the idea in 1980 when he first visited the real Taj in Agra, northern India.

He said that his homage had been built because most people living in Bangladesh - where nearly half of the population exist below the poverty line - cannot afford to travel to India to see the real thing.

“Everyone dreams about seeing the Taj Mahal but very few Bangladeshis can make the trip because it's too expensive for them,” he said.

Mr Moni first visited the original in 1980 and has made six return trips. So enamoured was he of the site that he hired a group of architects and sent them to India to measure it.

He said: “I used the same marble and stone as in the original Taj. We used machinery, which is why it took less time. Otherwise it would have taken 20 years and 22,000 workers to complete it.”

Last night Mr Mittal, at the Indian High Commission, did concede that the replica was unlikely to detract from the magnificence of the original.

He also admitted that visitors were unlikely to mix up one with the other. “A copy is a form of flattery, I suppose,” he said.

I seriously doubt that the Indian government can prevent a replica being built. I wonder if all those scaled down replicas of famous monuments in Las Vegas were built with any form of licence or permission.

Bollywood has been copying Hollywood productions for years and counterfeiting pharmaceuticals. The Indian government cannot start taking a high moral stand now.

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Today was a real do nothing day. Just like yesterday.

primate rights

Reuters (25 June 2008) has reported that the Spanish parliament will soon grant legal rights to the great apes (gorilla, chimpanzees and orang utans) in support of the Great Ape Project (GAP).

The rights sought by GAP include

1. The Right to Life
The lives of members of the community of equals are to be protected. Members of the community of equals may not be killed except in very strictly defined circumstances, for example, self-defense.

2. The Protection of Individual Liberty
Members of the community of equals are not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty; if they should be imprisoned without due legal process, they have the right to immediate release. The detention of those who have not been convicted of any crime, or of those who are not criminally liable, should be allowed only where it can be shown to be for their own good, or necessary to protect the public from a member of the community who would clearly be a danger to others if at liberty. In such cases, members of the community of equals must have the right to appeal, either directly or, if they lack the relevant capacity, through an advocate, to a judicial tribunal.

3. The Prohibition of Torture
The deliberate infliction of severe pain on a member of the community of equals, either wantonly or for an alleged benefit to others, is regarded as torture, and is wrong.

Quite ironic, in a country that tortures bulls for sport. Reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm, which may be a little out of context, some animals are more equal than others.

I can understand the decision, after all, we share some 99 per cent of the same genetic material as the great apes.

No animal should be subject to deliberate pain and suffering, even if bred and raised for food.

There is bound to be a strong reaction from the Catholic Church about apes having more rights than unborn children.

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My laziness (and recovery from some bug) continued.

uh oh

From Reuters

Swiss teletext red faced over Nazi era lyrics gaffe
Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:36pm BST

By Iain Rogers

BASEL (Reuters) - Switzerland's teletext service has had to issue an embarrassing apology after it mistakenly subtitled Germany's national anthem with obsolete lyrics no longer used because of their association with the Nazis.

SWISS TXT provided the subtitles for Germany's Euro 2008 Group B match against Austria on Monday evening broadcast on Swiss national channel SF2.

Viewers turning on the subtitle service would have seen the first stanza of lyrics written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben proclaiming "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles, ueber alles in der Welt" or "Germany, Germany above all, above everything in the world."

During the Nazi era, the first verse was the official anthem but was dropped after World War Two and the third stanza was adopted by the Federal Republic of Germany.

SWISS TXT published a full apology on its web site (www.swisstxt.ch) and on page 776 of its television information service and national coordinator Gion Linder said it had been "an embarrassing mistake".

"One of our junior subtitlers made the error due to a lack of knowledge," Linder said, adding that the woman in question was 25 years old.

Around half a million people had tuned in for the match, which Germany won 1-0, and probably about 2,500 of those had the subtitles switched on, he said.

However, Swiss tabloid Blick said on Wednesday many bars would have had the subtitles on and music playing instead of the match commentary.

(Editing by Jon Bramley)

Perhaps the tune should have been changed after World War II. One can't really blame the poor Swiss subtitler for her lack of knowledge. After all, hardly any Australians would even know the New Zealand national anthem. I don't.

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I only worked four days this week, but it has seemed a long week.

Lèse majesté

Is lèse majesté still a reasonable charge in the twenty-first century? In Thailand, it seems to be - from AFP

Thai woman arrested for refusing to stand for royal anthem
17 June 2008

BANGKOK (AFP) — A Thai woman arrested for refusing to stand as the royal anthem played in a Bangkok cinema faces up to 15 years in prison, police said Tuesday.

Ratchapin Chancharoen, 28, was arrested Sunday evening and charged with insulting Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej by not standing during the anthem, which plays to a montage of royal portraits before the screening of every film.

Ratchapin had gone to the theatre to watch "The Other Boleyn Girl," a story about England's King Henry VIII.

Other theatre-goers became angry when she refused to stand, and Ratchapin began shouting "impolite words" as a group confronted her, police said.

Ratchapin was allowed to watch the movie before police took her away.

Major Charoen Srisalak, deputy chief investigator of the Bangkok police, said the suspect refused to answer any questions during interrogation.

"She said only that she did what she wanted to do. Police charged her with insulting the monarchy," he said.

If convicted, Ratchapin faces from three to 15 years in prison.

In April, a Thai man was also charged with lese majeste, or offending the monarchy, for refusing to stand for the anthem in a cinema. Thailand plays the anthem before any public performance.

King Bhumibol, 80, is the world's longest-reigning monarch and commands an almost religious devotion from his subjects.

Thailand's strict enforcement of its lese majeste law prevents any public discussion about the palace.

A cabinet minister was forced to resign last month after he was accused of offending the king in a speech about the 2006 coup by royalist generals who ousted then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

In April 2007, a Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in prison -- but later pardoned by the monarch -- for defacing the king's portrait.

The same month, the army-backed government temporarily blocked the popular video-sharing website YouTube after clips mocking the king appeared.

Is respect enforced or earned? The British royal family must sometimes look on in envy.

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Ho hum, back at work today.

another kingdom bites the dust

From Associated Press

Nepal assembly abolishes monarchy
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA –
29 May 2008

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The main palace in Nepal's capital lowered the flag of the country's royal family Thursday, a day after lawmakers, led by former communist insurgents, abolished the monarchy that had reigned over the Himalayan land for 239 years.

Palace staff took down the small red standard with a flag-waving lion and replaced it with Nepal's national flag, a red banner of two triangles adorned with a sun and moon.

The changing of the flag was "a decision by the government to show that Nepal is now a republic," said a palace official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of palace rules.

An overwhelming majority of the assembly declared Nepal a republic Wednesday, sparking celebrations across the country. Thousands marched, danced and sang in the streets of Katmandu, setting off firecrackers, waving hammer-and-sickle flags and denouncing King Gyanendra as a thief.

By Thursday, the celebrations had largely tapered off with Nepalis relaxing at the start of the three-day national holiday declared to mark the country's rebirth as a republic. There were some scattered gatherings across Katmandu, and a few hundred people gathered outside the pink concrete palace, chanting "Gyanendra is a thief, leave the country!"

There was no immediate reaction to the abolition of the throne from the dour 61-year-old former monarch, who remained silent in recent months as it became apparent that his days as king were numbered.

Gyanendra now has 15 days to quit the 1970s-era palace and move to his large private residence in the city — or face the possibility of being removed by force.

Gyanendra assumed the throne after his brother, the late King Birendra, and much of the royal family was slain at a palace gathering allegedly by the crown prince, who then killed himself.

The killings helped pierce the mystique surrounding a line of kings who had once been revered as reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, and Gyanendra was dogged by rumors that he was somehow involved in the massacre.

His popularity only further plummeted after he seized power from a civilian government in 2005, saying he needed total authority to crush the Maoists.

Instead, he found himself beset by an intensifying insurgency and a faltering economy.

A year later, weeks of massive protests forced Gyanendra to restore democracy, after which the Maoists came out of the bush and began peace talks.

An interim government, meanwhile, slowly stripped away the trappings of a kingdom. Gyanendra lost command of the army, his portrait was replaced by Mount Everest on the currency and references to the king dropped from the national anthem.

Then came April's vote for the assembly in which the fiercely republican Maoists won the most seats, all but sealing the fate of the dynasty, which dates to 1769 when a regional ruler conquered Katmandu and united Nepal.

But now that the monarchy is finished no one is certain what comes next.

While the Maoists say they are committed capitalists and have no intention of nationalizing industries or setting up collective farms, they have promised to bring sweeping change to this largely impoverished country.

But they are struggling to form a government. Wednesday's opening assembly session was delayed for hours while they wrangled with other political parties over who should be president and what powers he should have. At the end of the day, they still had no deal.

It may also be difficult to fashion lasting peace in Nepal, where supporters of every major political party — the Maoists foremost among them — have been linked to killings since the start of the peace process.

This should mess with the heads in the US State Department. An authoritarian regime thrown out by democracy by communists who are also capitalist. Oh wait, Marcos in the Philippines was propped up by American governments because he was anti-communist yet unethically non-democratic. Hmmm...

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I arrived in Brisbane last night and it is not much warmer here than Canberra. Today I had coffee in the city with Steve, an old friend from college (Australian National University), then walked from the city to Southbank then the Gabba, which took an hour.

I watched my football team train (skills) and then went to a player sponsors' function with some of the players. Fantastic evening - I have my favourites, not only because they are great on the field, but are also terrific people. It has also been raining.

Zarny Shibuya and foreigners in Japan

This is an interesting article from AFP which doesn't seem to have been picked up by any media outlets.

Asian Lives: Myanmar designer weaves hope for Japan's immigrants
By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
Agence France Presse, May 12, 2008

Tokyo (AFP) -- More than a decade after fleeing Myanmar for Japan, Zarny Shibuya, 23, has become a rising fashion star whose face has graced Tokyo's most-seen billboards, testing the country's notorious reluctance to accept immigrants.

With cropped hair, pierced ears and a level but at times defiant gaze, the former model has become a fashion designer, turning out everything from sportswear to women's clothing for several well-known brands and acting as style consultant for a popular TV serial.

A finalist in a singing contest held by one of Japan's largest record labels, he has appeared on the giant billboards in Tokyo's hip Shibuya district, which feeds the latest fashion crazes to thousands of young Japanese.

His second name -- Burmese generally only have one -- is a tribute to that area where the dizzying nightlife blurred his identity as he danced to 1980s pop.

It was there that he caught the eye of scouting agents, who propelled him to fame.

Nothing in his soft speech and gentle manner reveal he is a foreigner, let alone one blacklisted by the military junta in Yangon as the son of prominent activists involved in the pro-democracy uprising crushed two decades ago.

'I immersed myself in Japanese culture. I cut off ties from the Myanmar community here. I came prepared with the thought that I may never return home,' Zarny said in fluent Japanese.

His is a rare success story in Japan, where many people proudly consider the country to be ethnically homogeneous.

Despite one of the world's most rapidly ageing populations, Japan has ruled out large-scale immigration and accepts only a small number of refugees.

When Zarny arrived in Japan with his mother at the age of eight, she told him to 'swallow everything' -- and that meant racial slurs, too.

He was rejected when he applied for part-time jobs -- including at several fast-food chains -- because of his name.

'I finally had to use my Japanese friend's identity. My interviewers would comment, 'Your skin is so dark,' but I would laugh it off and say, 'No, no, I'm really Japanese',' he said.

'I don't think I could have become what I am now if my superiors had known from the start that I was a refugee and a foreigner,' he said, as he showed his latest creation, high-heeled, lace-up sneakers that make athletes seem better suited for the catwalk than the track.

Although many foreigners express frustration at being eternally treated as outsiders even if they speak fluent Japanese, Zarny insisted that it is possible to enter Japanese society -- at the cost of keeping his true identity under wraps, which is 'the hardest feeling I've ever had'.

'Japan is not as restricted as Westerners think. In any society there are stereotypes and so it just depends on how well we turn them on their head.'

And that is just what he did.

'I listened to popular rock music, wore clothes that were in style, I bought things like everyone else. I lived a life typical for my age. I didn't think of myself as a poor, helpless victim,' the designer said.

He served as his high school class president and went on to graduate with a degree in international relations from a Japanese university.

All the while, the memories of his former home faded into nothing more than a still image of his grandfather's study lined with books on Burmese mythology.

But for others in Japan who wished to hold on to their culture, 'swallowing everything' was a bitter lesson in Japan's reluctance to welcome foreigners despite being one of the world's major democracies.

Easter Seng, 42, a leading activist from Myanmar's Christian Kachin ethnic group, said it has been an uphill struggle trying to instill her tradition and language in her four daughters who were born in Japan.

Her husband, who holds a doctorate but now runs a Korean-style barbecue restaurant, has had little time to contribute.

'My daughters begged crying to have their names changed to Japanese after being bullied in school. They refused at first to learn Kachin, but I forced them to. Now they're proud to be Kachin,' she said with a triumphant smile.

'I'm thankful to Japan for allowing me to live here but I can't be satisfied. The government needs to take better care of foreigners because we can work for the good of Japan,' she said.

A signatory nation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, Japan is the third largest donor to the world's refugees but often faces criticism that it accepts very few of the world's 33 million displaced people.

Out of a total of 5,698 people who have sought asylum since 1982, Japan has granted refugee status to just 451. And of those, only about 70 have been granted permission to stay permanently, according to official figures.

Japan has favoured migrants from other Asian countries, with 85 percent of accepted refugees coming from Myanmar.

Once refugees are granted permission to stay, they have access to jobs, health insurance and are allowed to send their children to school.

But refugees say they have little social mobility. While refugees in other countries can rise through the ranks, most of those even with doctoral degrees in Japan end up in menial jobs.

The restrictive immigration policy reflects prevailing attitudes, lawmakers and lawyers say.

The ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party 'is a stickler for a family system that centres on the imperial household and on preserving pure Japanese blood,' said Azuma Konno, an opposition lawmaker who heads a study group on refugees.

Japan's decision to cut itself off from the rest of the world for more than 200 years under the Tokugawa shogunate, until the 1850s, 'moulded our mentality that it is unnecessary to learn about or understand our neighbours,' he added.

But with a declining birth rate and increasing labour shortages, 'unless we change, Japan will become an unattractive place for foreigners whom we might need in the future,' he said.

Immigration rules are so tight that one third of asylum-seekers last year were pursuing court cases to obtain refugee status.

Japan is also looking at starting Japanese language proficiency tests for long-term foreign residents.

'The hurdles are too high. There is a problem with the system in that the same officials who expel immigrants are also the ones who review and accept refugees. Officials are very distrustful,' said Shogo Watanabe, a leading lawyer for refugees.

Another hurdle that discourages refugees is the unlimited detention that they face after Japanese authorities issue a deportation order, he said.

The average detention period is one year although some have been held as long as three years without being told when they would leave.

Japan is working, albeit slowly, towards opening up to foreigners as the workforce dwindles in the face of a falling birthrate.

'If there are immigrants who love Japan and embrace Japanese culture, then I think they can become the new Japanese,' Hidenao Nakagawa, a heavyweight lawmaker in the ruling party, said in a recent television discussion.

For Zarny, learning the fine print -- namely, Japanese etiquette, which foreigners often find overly fastidious -- has been essential to his success.

'Refugees don't have manners. I might sound harsh, but they really need to straighten themselves out if they want to be accepted. They need to show Japan that they are valuable human resources,' he said.

In turn, with globalisation exposing young people to different cultures, more Japanese are stepping out of their insular mentality, he said.

'I think Japan changes greatly every decade in terms of culture and how people think. People my age are more open to the world, more cosmopolitan than people in their 30s,' he said.

'And when that happens and I'm an established designer, then I could begin to take inspiration from Burma.'

With declining birth rates, migrants will be the major source of population growth. Perhaps Japan should start taking in refugees from Sudan. It would make the Japanese confront their own prejudices.

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I could do with more time off work.