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Archive for the ‘World News’ Category
China’s future first lady already a big star
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
By Anita Chang, Associated Press
Source: Yahoo
BEIJING – She’s a glamorous singer with big hair, beloved by millions, and a major general in the People’s Liberation Army to boot. He’s a stiff policymaker, a suit with the bland public persona of most Chinese leaders.
Vice President Xi Jinping is in line to take the country’s top post in two years, setting up an unusual scenario: In a system where leaders’ families are kept almost invisible, how will the ruling Communist Party handle a first lady who’s arguably more famous than her husband?
So far, the answer appears to be by making her disappear too. References to Xi’s marriage to Peng Liyuan are being scrubbed from the Internet. She has been given a desk job at her military song-and-dance troupe, reducing her public appearances.
Interest in the couple was renewed last month after Xi was appointed to a committee overseeing the Chinese military, boosting the likelihood he will lead the Communist Party in 2012.
Political wives have long been viewed suspiciously in China — ever since Chairman Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, promoted his most radical policies, took part in purging opponents and ultimately made a grab for power. She was arrested and jailed after his death in 1976.
In a world where first ladies from France’s Carla Bruni to America’s Michelle Obama routinely grab media attention, Liu Yongqing, the wife of Chinese President Hu Jintao, is rarely seen except during state visits with the spouses of foreign leaders.
The almost absent Chinese first lady reflects in part the preference of the technocratic, authoritarian leadership for running the rising global power at an impersonal distance.
“On the one hand they have been talking about governance with a human touch and given that (Peng’s) image is positive, what’s the point of trying to eliminate it?” said Dali Yang, a China expert at the University of Chicago. “It’s only making it more mysterious and provides room for speculation.”
By all public accounts, the 47-year-old Peng’s image is squeaky clean.
Many Chinese can recall her almost yearly appearances on state television’s Spring Festival Gala, which draws 800 million viewers, beginning with the inaugural 1982 program. On fog-filled stages dressed in pouffy evening gowns, Peng performed rousing patriotic songs such as “On the Plains of Hope.”
Having a first lady who’s well-known in her own right would likely be a point of pride for many Chinese, who know little about their rulers.
“For him to be in his position and be able to handle the pressure of being with a famous woman, I think that says a lot about him,” said Xu, a 26-year-old real estate consultant taking a cigarette break outside his office in Beijing. He would only give his surname, saying he did not want to be quoted making statements that could be considered critical.
“It’s really no big deal but maybe the high-level officials are extra sensitive,” he said. “Our county’s leaders have an air of mystery. That’s how the system works. Besides their official bio, everything else is blank.”
Xi, who at 57 is a decade older, is said to have been introduced to Peng by a mutual friend in 1986 when he was a vice mayor in the booming coastal city of Xiamen. They have been married for 23 years and have a teenage daughter.
“When they met, she was upset. This guy was such a country bumpkin. And he looked old,” according to a 2007 article in the Zhanjiang Evening News, a southern newspaper.
Xi charmed her, talking about music theory, the article said. “Peng said, ‘At that time, I was very moved. Isn’t this the one I’ve been looking for? He’s unsophisticated but he’s really intelligent.’”
That article was widely reprinted in whole or part, even by the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party’s People Daily newspaper, but has since been removed from their websites.
In a 2001 article, Peng said she felt fortunate for having an understanding husband.
“As a government official he’s very busy, when I visit him in Fuzhou, he has to delay meetings or trips to the countryside in order to find time to spend with me,” the Shanghai Morning Post quoted her as saying. “Every time I go, we’ll try our best to avoid quarrels and enjoy those hard-earned days.”
Those articles and others have been deleted from most websites. While the deletions are not definitely the government’s handiwork, the fact that cached versions of the articles are being erased too conforms to the way China’s Internet censors work.
The State Council Information Office did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
Rebecca MacKinnon, a China expert and senior fellow at the New America Foundation studying Internet issues, said the censorship fits China’s long-standing policy of not reporting details of top leaders’ personal lives.
Reporters and editors may have been more careless when the articles were published, but were apparently now cleaning up since Xi’s political future has become more clear, MacKinnon said.
Peng will likely keep fading from public view as Xi’s political star continues to rise. She hasn’t appeared on the Spring Festival Gala since 2007, just months before Xi was named to the Communist Party’s ruling nine-member Standing Committee.
“Chinese leaders would never let their wives have a high public profile,” said Li Datong, a former state newspaper editor who was removed from his job for reporting on sensitive topics. “Sometimes they might take their wives on a state visit, and you may see them holding hands and even then it just looks so stiff.”
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Indonesia volcano shrouds whole villages in ash
Friday, November 5, 2010
By SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press
Source: Yahoo
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – One of Indonesia’s most active volcanos began erupting Oct. 26 after four years of dormancy.
The plumes of hot ash and lava flows from Mount Merapi chased villagers living on its slopes from their homes. Ever larger eruptions since then have forced evacuees in camps at the bottom of the mountain to move still farther away. So far, more than 100 people have been killed.
With each eruption, gray ash covers everything like a shroud, suffocating flowers in a vase, freezing a living room in time, covering a dead cow. Places abandoned just days ago look as though no one has been there for decades.
As far as 20 miles (30 kilometers) away, the ash has at times blotted out the sun, forcing drivers to use their headlights in the middle of the day.
Scientists initially said the first eruption alleviated pressure under the cone, but now the signs are more ominous: Pressure is building, not dissipating, and the worst could be yet to come.
A volcanologist who has studied Merapi’s patterns for years says he is at a loss to predict its next move: He has never seen the 9,700-foot (3,000-meter) volcano act like this before.
Pentagon report: China extending military reach, Source: CNN
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Pentagon report: China extending military reach
By Adam Levine, CNN
August 16, 2010 5:40 p.m. EDT
Washington (CNN) — The Chinese military continues to expand its reach and capabilities beyond its immediate geographical area, a new report from the U.S. Department of Defense concludes.
The report, an annual assessment sent to Congress, notes that some of those capabilities have been positive, like humanitarian and anti-piracy efforts, but others are meant to give China “extended-range power projection.”
While China’s continued effort to be able to sustain military operations far from its shore are concerning to the U.S. military, “China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance, today, remains limited,” the report says.
As in the past, the U.S. program to sell military equipment to Taiwan continues to create tension with China and has led to cessation at times of military relations between the two countries.
The assessment notes that China has the most active ballistic and cruise missile program in the world, including developing anti-missile technology. Also of concern are Chinese efforts to develop a long-range anti-ship ballistic missile with a reach of more than 900 miles, which would include areas in which the U.S. Navy is active. Such a measure would give the Chinese military “the capability to attack ships, including aircraft carriers, in the Western Pacific Ocean,” according to the report.
The Chinese could start building their first aircraft carrier this year, and China has started to train pilots to operate off such carriers. It already has a Russian carrier that it is refurbishing.
Its naval muscle is also being flexed with additional nuclear powered submarines, and it has nearly completed a navy base on Hainan Island, “with direct access to vital international sea lanes,” which will allow for “stealthy deployment of submarines,” the report says.
This article is courtesy of CNN News at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/us.china.military/index.html?hpt=Sbin
From beer-fueled brainstorm to life’s work of helping others Source: CNN
Friday, August 13, 2010
From beer-fueled brainstorm to life’s work of helping others
August 13, 2010 8:16 a.m. EDT
Argyll, Scotland (CNN) — Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow was enjoying a pint at his local pub in the Scottish Highlands when he got an idea that would change his life — and the lives of thousands of others.
It was 1992, and MacFarlane-Barrow and his brother Fergus had just seen a news report about refugee camps in Bosnia. The images of people suffering in the war-torn country shocked the two salmon farmers, who’d visited there as teenagers and remembered the warmth of the Bosnian people.
“We began saying ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just do one small thing to help?’ ” MacFarlane-Barrow says.
After talking it over, the two men took a week off work and collected food, clothing, medicine and blankets. They loaded everything into an old Land Rover, drove to Bosnia to deliver it and returned to Scotland.
“I came back here thinking that I did my one good deed and it would be back to work, but it [didn't work] out like that, ” he says.
When they arrived home, the brothers found an avalanche of goods that people had continued to donate while they were away.
“I was touched by the overwhelming generosity of others,” MacFarlane-Barrow remembers. “I saw all of those donations in our family home and thought, ‘Wow, people really are good,’ and it inspired me to be good too.”
After much thought and prayer, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow quit his job, sold his home and dedicated himself to helping people in need.
He returned to Bosnia with aid 22 more times during the Bosnian War, and over the next 18 years his work expanded and evolved. Today, his program — Mary’s Meals, named after the Virgin Mary — provides free daily meals to more than 400,000 children around the world.
MacFarlane-Barrow found his current focus in 2002 while working in Malawi — a country ravaged by famine and AIDS — when he met a local teenager who just wanted a decent meal and an education.
“The mother of the family was dying of AIDS. She was lying on her bare mud floor, and she had her six children around her, ” he says. “I started talking to her oldest child, Edward. And Edward said, ‘I’d like to have enough food to eat. I’d like to go to school one day.’ ”
In response, he launched Mary’s Meals, which strives to break the cycle of poverty by feeding children a daily meal at school. The food — in most places a mug of maize-based porridge — gives students an incentive to continue their schooling and helps them focus better on their studies. It’s a formula that MacFarlane-Barrow says is working.
“Pass rates go up dramatically in the schools where we start providing Mary’s Meals,” he says. “We’ve seen huge improvements in attendance rates and academic performance.”
Mary’s Meals partners with local residents, who handle the daily work of cooking and serving the food. In Malawi — the group’s largest effort — more than 10,000 volunteers donate their time on a regular basis.
The program operates in more than 500 schools and child-care facilities in 15 countries, a global effort that MacFarlane-Barrow coordinates from a tin shed on his parents’ property in Scotland. While the married father of six lives on the property, he spends most of his time abroad, overseeing the project and visiting the schools where meals are served.
“I see the children’s faces as they eat their meal, ” he says. “Knowing I can transform their lives keeps me motivated.”
But there are always new challenges to overcome, most recently in Haiti, where Mary’s Meals has operated since 2006. Working in partnership with a local Catholic priest, the group was feeding about 12,000 children a day when the earthquake hit in January.
Much of the infrastructure the program relied on in the slums of Cite Soleil was destroyed, so the group’s mission expanded. They helped create temporary classrooms and are rebuilding eight schools in the area. In addition to their school-based feeding program, the group now feeds about 2,000 elderly Haitians and is providing additional food and medicine to the community.
MacFarlane-Barrow is driven by his Christian faith, but there is no ministry aspect to his work. “We are very careful to never link feeding and faith,” he says. “We serve those who are in need … period.
“When I think of Mary’s Meals I think of it as a series of lots and lots of little acts of love, ” he says. “I’ve learned … that every small act of kindness does make a difference.”
Article Courtesy of: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/12/cnnheroes.marysmeals/index.html?hpt=C1
Scientist lives as Inuit for a year to save disappearing language, Source: CNN
Friday, August 13, 2010
Scientist lives as Inuit for a year to save disappearing language
By Thair Shaikh, CNN
August 13, 2010 1:21 p.m. EDT
London, England (CNN) — A British anthropologist is setting out on a year-long stay with a small community in Greenland in an ambitious attempt to document its dying language and traditions.
Stephen Pax Leonard will live with the Inughuit in north-west Greenland, the world’s most northernmost people, and record their conversations and story-telling traditions to try and preserve their language.
The Inughuit, who speak Inuktun, a “pure” Inuit dialect, are under increasing political and climactic pressure to move south, says Leonard.
“They have around 10 to 15 years left in their present location, then climate change and politics will force them to move south and they will be assimilated into a different culture, into a broader community, and their way of life will be lost,” Leonard told CNN.
Leonard, who flies out to Copenhagen on Sunday before heading to Greenland, says there are about 1,000 speakers of Inuktun, an undocumented language.
Although most Inughuit are trilingual, also speaking Danish and Greenlandic, their primary language is still Inuktun.
“There is no doubt that this is a major linguistic challenge… they speak a very pure form of Inuit, partly because of their geographic isolation. Their entire culture is based on a story-telling culture.”
Greenland
There is no doubt that this is a major linguistic challenge
–Stephen Pax Leonard
–Stephen Pax Leonard
Leonard, an anthropological linguist at Cambridge University, England, is under no doubt about the physical and cultural hurdles that face him. The average temperature is minus 25 degrees Celsius, although it can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius in the winter.
Inughuit, which is the name of the northern Inuits, are hunter-gatherers; they do not have a cash economy and the men can spend weeks away from home hunting for walruses, seals and other mammals. They still use dog sleds in the winter and kayaks in the summer.
Hivshu, an Inughuit who now lives in Sweden, helped Leonard establish contacts with his former community in Greenland.
He has written about the Inughuit way of life on his website: “Even before I went to school I began assisting my father when he was out hunting, summer or winter, no difference. That was the way I heard the stories about my ancestors and their songs told and sung by the old people as it was a tradition to tell the stories and sing the traditional drum songs of Inuit to all of us during the hunting.”
Leonard says he is determined to become a part of their community and plans to hunt with the men if he is allowed.
He is taking solid-state audio recorders that should work in the freezing conditions and plans to produce an “ethnography of speaking.”
That he hopes will be a permanent record that shows how their language and culture are interconnected.
Article Courtesy of CNN at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/13/greenland.inuit.language/index.html?hpt=Sbin
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