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NORTH KOREA’S FATE HANGS IN BALANCE
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Mr
Benazir’s
moment
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SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • Vol 3 No 38
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Special
report
13
Pyongyang In The
Balance
The state of Kim
Jong-il’s health also
reflects the shape of
things to come in
North Korea
afp
VIEWPOINT 6
Inside Thailand’s PAD
Their wealth, explicit and
implicit use of violence and
magical protection against
threats are their distinguishing features
Cover Story 8
The Husband Also Rises
Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the slain Benazir Bhutto, faces criticisms as
he assumes Pakistan’s presidency
China daily
POLITICS 16
As The Dust Settles
After six months, Tibet has
returned to normal. But
the already fragile TibetanHan relations are now in
tatters
TRAVEL 20
Ready, Jet Set...
Travelling by plane is not
the eco-friendliest way but
there are ways to offset the
cost of air travel on the
environment
Lifestyle 24
FASHION 26
For the last 34 years,
Japan’s most famous icon
has built a business empire
and is now expanding to
other areas like airlines
Asian designers are once
more making waves in the
West
Hello Kitty
Hello World
People 30
Runs In The Family
PHOTO ESSAY 18
Meet the women of the
Sampatisiri family who are
behind Bangkok’s Nai Lert
Park
Super Games
After the Olympics, here
comes the Paralympics
with athletes defying their
disabilities
COVER IMAGE | NEW MAN IN CHARGE: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari PHOTO BY ASIF HASSAN/ AFP
Explore 32
Somewhere In The South
Colombo, with its beautiful
mix of colonial architecture, is one of South Asia’s
best-kept secrets
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New forum
focusing on the
diasporas in
Commonwealth
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many immigrant diasporas
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people’s potential in the
diasporas in the
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The 5th Diversity Matters forum is organised
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SUSTAINING
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September 19-20, 2008
Hanoi Horison Hotel
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at this high-level
regional conference
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Speakers include:
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H.E. Nguyen Thien Nhan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training, Vietnam
H.E. Vo Hong Phuc, Minister for Planning and Investment, Vietnam
H.E. Vu Van Ninh, Minister for Finance, Vietnam
H.E. Ho Nghia Dung, Minister of Transport, Vietnam
Mr Tran Bac Ha, CEO, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam
Mr Kan Trakulhoon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siam Cement Group, Thailand
Dr Jorg Schneppendahl, CEO, Siemens Railway Infrastructure Turnkey Business, Germany
Mr William Lean, Managing Director, Infrastructure Fund, Vina Capital
(Business tour and meetings will be arranged for participants on September 20)
For information and reservation please email: jittima@nationgroup.com
Organized by
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Vietnam News
Asia News Network
•Vie w poi n t•
Anatomy Of Thailand’s PAD
Their wealth, explicit and implicit use of violence and magical
protection against threats are their distinguishing features
Chang Noi in Bangkok
The Nation
T
The Nation (Thailand)
he key strategists appear to be
significantly extended public space and
three old soldiers, Chamlong
brought new groups into public poliSrimuang, Panlop Pinmanee
tics. Sondhi has broken the state’s tight
and Prasong Soonsiri, promicontrol over broadcast media with the
nent veterans of the battles
help of new technology. He has dediagainst the communist insurgency and
cated himself to’politics for the middle
part of the shadowy legacy of Thailand’s
class’, exploiting the long-growing fear
era of military rule.
of piratical capitalism on one side and
They are dedicated to the defence of
populist democracy on the other. This
the nation and the monarchy against all
message appeals to a blue-blooded elite,
threats, particularly from the citizenry.
which feels its economic interests are
Panlop has publicly boasted of overthreatened. It also appeals to the delicate
seeing the assassination of communist
combination of pride and insecurity in a
sympathisers in the 1980s and unleashnew elite that has ascended to ‘high sociing the Krue Se massacre in 2004. Praety’ and the old ‘aristocratic’ occupations
song has long been linked with projects
(bureacracy, military, the professions)
influencing politics in curious ways.
over the past two generations. Many of
Bloodstream. Prominent leaders of
these new recruits to public politics are
modern business have attended rallies.
middle-aged women.
Business associations conspicuously
Hands. Members of the Santi Asoke
protested not against the violent inva- Anti-government protesters march through the
sect are participants and service-prosion of Government House but against streets of Bangkok
viders. In the late 1980s and early
the emergency decree that followed.
1990s members of this semi-outlawed
Such business leaders have normally intervened in politics sect supported Chamlong’s crusade for cleaner politics.
only when the economy is threatened. They turned against Subsequently they have been limited to occasional agiThaksin for favouring his own family, a close circle of cro- tation on moral issues.
nies and several financial figures. These same figures have
Spleen. The Democrat Party has effectively aligned
resurfaced under Samak. This business faction believes itself with the PAD. Quite extraordinarily, the party has
support of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is a failed to condemn PAD’s desecration of the symbolic
means to prevent even worse damage to the economy.
centre of national government. Korn Chatikavanij has
Legs. State-enterprise workers have carried out selective justified the party’s support as necessary to prevent the
strikes to signal the PAD’s potential for disruption. These rehabilitation of Thaksin.
workers have a long history of organisation and political
Teeth. Demonstrations always have a guard unit, but that
involvement. Over the long term they are committed to pre- of the PAD appears much larger and more aggressively armed
serving a privileged position in the labour market. In the than has been the norm. Some of the guards are state-enter1980s they were closely allied with various military politi- prise workers, but others are hired hands recruited from the
cians, but this link was broken by the 1991 coup-makers. city’s floating population of casual labour, especially ‘ex-poThe workers then networked with other civil-society groups licemen and ex-military’(Sondhi Limthongkul).
to resist projects of privatisation by both the Democrat and
There are more. Many different groups that have woven
Thaksin governments. Since the 2006 coup they have again separate ways through the kaleidoscopic politics of the last
been courted by the military.
two decades have come together for the PAD’s rallies and
Lungs. Some elements of the activist fringe of academics ASTV broadcasts. The foreign press has tended to portray the
and NGOs, including some who have graduated to the current polarisation as urban against rural and as a desperSenate, support the PAD as a means to reform the political ate, declining elite against the capitalist populism of Thaksin.
system, which they argue is corrupt, unrepresentative and Those formulas have a core of truth but tend to over-simplify
inefficient. In the 1990s these groups campaigned for the the PAD and over-idealise Thaksin.
1997 constitution, decentralisation, educational reform
Variety gives PAD its current force but may limit its ability
and the shift to people-centred development planning. to move beyond demonisation to constructive reforms.
In the early 2000s they cheered Thaksin’s promise to
The distinguishing features of the movement are its
harness the bureaucracy and close down the godfathers. wealth, its explicit and implicit use of violence and its
Many supported the coup and now the PAD in the hope magical protection against threats, including police
these would provide space for reform.
action, court orders and legal process. These are the
Mouth. Sondhi Limthongkul and his media empire have politics of class and privilege.
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
•Vie w poi n t•
Political Tsunami In Malaysia
Ruling party is accused of manipulating racial
tensions to maintain its long grip on power
Bangkok
The Nation
W
sin chew daily
hen the Malaysian government evoked the tion with much surprise, although they did not criticise
draconian Internal Security Act last week too much, except for the online media. But they know
and arrested three civilians—journalist Tan deep in their hearts that the use of the ISA is aimed at
Hoon Cheng, opposition politician Teresa highlighting the danger of racial discord and the PakaKok and Internet news portal editor Raja tan Rakjat opposition’s plan to unseat the government.
Petra Kamaruddin—on charges of racial instigation, one Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterimmediately sensed that a man-made political tsunami ated over the weekend that his coalition has the number
is in the offing.
of cross-over votes to form a new government, but at this
For a country that has enjoyed economic progress time he would rather tackle the issues related to political
and which positions itself as one of the world’s leading stability and security first and foremost.
economies, Malaysia canWhatever the govnot afford a manufactured
ernment has tried to
crisis—especially on the
do, it has backfired and
issue of race relations.
greatly damaged the
The international comleadership of Prime
munity immediately conMinister Abdullah Ahdemned the crackdown
mad Badawi. Already,
and the use of the ISA,
discord among the
which allows detention
leaders of the United
without trial. Apparently,
Malays National Orthe government is willing
ganisation (Umno) has
to play a dangerous game,
reached the breaking
banking on public fears of
point. Several leaders
racial riots like those that
have already come foroccurred in 1969.
ward to urge Badawi
Indeed, the ruling Nato resign so that a new
tional Front has used
leader can be elected.
race as a template to inThe current appointstill a culture of fear that,
ed successor, Deputy
without it running the
Prime Minister Najib
show, the country will de- RELEASED: Sin Chew Daily reporter, Tan Hoon Cheng, was arrested under the Inter- Abdul Razak, the son
scend into chaos. This has nal Security Act. She was released 18 hours later.
of the country’s second
worked for the past five
prime minister, who
decades. The question is: will it work now?
was supposed to succeed Badawi in 2010, is no longer in
Racial tensions are not new in a country with various waiting mode either.
ethnic and religious groups. From time to time, senior
Other contenders, including Tenku Razaleigh Hamzah
government officials spark the tensions with comments and international trade minister Muhyiddin Yassin, are
that insult the Chinese and Indian minorities by claim- also challenging Badawi. Worst of all, there is a growing they are not patriotic. They are blamed for any and ing chorus within Umno that the only way to salvage the
all ills in Malay society. But Malaysians have shown to party is to invite ex-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mothe world that they are resilient people and appreciate hammad to return as leader.
racial harmony. The trouble is, politicians continue to
The National Front, the ruling coalition party with
stoke the fires of nationalism and ‘Malayness’, leaving Umno, has become complacent and has consistently
this quality under scrutiny.
ignored the concerns of Malaysians. Corruption and
In the March 8 election, voters from the minorities cronyism are rampant in this country with many megashattered the National Front’s grip on power, which it projects. With the ongoing infighting within Umno and
has enjoyed continuously for the past five decades since the use of the ISA, Anwar’s chance of becoming the next
independence. But political discourse in Malaysian so- leader has increased many-fold. Of course, there are still
ciety has changed radically towards more openness and many hurdles for the opposition to cross.
now touches on sensitive issues as never before. The curMalaysians in general want assurances and tangirent most popular topic is the changing of the country’s ble evidence that their country under a new leader
guard. It will be sooner than later.
will be more equal, while still as vibrant and dyAll Malaysian media reported the government’s ac- namic as before.
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Cover Story
VICTORY: Supporters of
the ruling Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) celebrate the
victory of Asif Ali Zardari in
the presidential election.
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
AFP PHOTO/Aamir QURESHI
Mr Benazir
Bhutto
Pakistani President Asif
Ali Zardari is a victim of
many prejudices
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Cover Story
Asif Ali Zardari marries Benazir Bhutto in Karachi on
Dec 18, 1987.
Beena Sarwar in Karachi
Inter Press Service
A
fter sweeping Pakistan’s
presidential elections, Asif Ali
Zardari, husband of the late,
twice-elected prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, called his triumph the “victory of democracy”. But
this triumph follows a flood of criticism against Zardari in the domestic
and foreign media.
The charges against Zardari range
from corruption and murder—that
have never been proven in court—to
mental instability in recently reported
documents that were used to excuse
him from court hearings a year ago.
A whispering campaign implicated
him in the 1996 murder of then prime
minister Bhutto’s younger brother
Murtaza. The controversy weakened
Bhutto and contributed to the dismissal of her government six weeks
later. Similar rumours sprang up after
Benazir’s assassination in December
2007, implying that Zardari was responsible for her murder.
Zardari’s response to such criticism
has always been his wide, toothy grin,
even during 11 years in prison when he
suffered periods of mistreatment and
negligence that may have permanently
damaged his health.
The disenchantment against him
may not be as widespread as it is made
out to be, comments Kamal Siddiqui,
10
PPP supporters show blood stained clothes of jailed
Asif Ali Zardari on May 19, 1999. Zardari broke a drinking glass and slashed his neck in a suicide bid on May
18, 1999 during questioning by officers in the Crime
Asif Ali Zardari (C), wearing a neck brace and us- Investigation Agency (CIA).
ing a walking stick leaves Karachi central jail for
court proceedings on April 28, 1997. Zardari was
taken into custody after the dissolution of Bhutto’s
government in November 1996.
editor of The News daily. “Many in Pakistan could not care less who is president. They want to know when their
economic conditions will improve.”
The disparagement against Zardari, most intense in recent months, is
hardly new. “It started when he married Benazir (in 1987) and took her
away from us,” well-known psychiatrist Dr Haroon Ahmed conjectured
while talking to IPS. “Before that she
belonged to all of us.”
In this patriarchal society with
its deep caste and class divisions
and prejudices Zardari has many
handicaps. Apart from his playboy
reputation he also hails from a ‘lesser’
tribe than the aristocratic Bhuttos
and was less well educated than his
already famous Oxford and Harvard
(Radcliffe) educated bride.
Talking to IPS, Abdul Jabbar, a
driver in the bustling metropolis of
Karachi, summed up both the caste
and the patriarchy angles while explaining why he is against Zardari
becoming president, despite being a
supporter of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that Zardari now
co-chairs with their college-going son
Bilawal: “He came into power because
of his wife... He is being very ‘sweet’,
but the Zardaris (literally, ‘camelherders’) are not a sweet tribe.”
Political analyst and development
consultant Raza Rumi in a recent
op-ed drew attention to the deep-
rooted misogyny in Pakistani society
as a major reason for Zardari being
so widely reviled in this patriarchal
culture, given that he derives his
source of power from a woman. His
“ascension and capture of a matrilineal
power-base directly confronts the
overly masculine identity of power
in Pakistan”, Rumi told IPS.
He also pointed to the PPP’s “essentially ‘feminine’ rhetoric” on forgiveness and reconciliation, compared to
the other mainstream political leaders’
“rigid application of ‘principle’, honour, and aggression”.
This focus on forgiveness and reconciliation goes beyond rhetoric, noted
the feminist Nafisa Shah, a PPP member of parliament. She pointed out that
Zardari has befriended political opponents and apologised to the people
of Balochistan where the state has responded to nationalist uprisings with
disproportionate force.
Using ties forged during his years in
prison, Zardari got party workers to
visit the graves of political rivals in the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)
killed in ethnic conflicts and got the
MQM to visit the family of a former
chief minister whose brother was also
killed in the conflict. These political
rivals came to condole with Zardari
and pray for Benazir Bhutto when she
was killed. “All these exchanges forged
political ties between hitherto unlikely
partners,” said Shah.
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Playboy To President
A
Asif Ali Zardari (C), surrounded by policemen
at Islamabad International airport on Dec 21,
2004. Police rearrested Zardari less than a
month after he won his freedom following an
eight-year stint behind bars.
Asif Ali Zardari, (2R) takes the oath of the President of
Pakistan from chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar (R) on
September 9.
Zardari also demonstrated great
political acumen and skill in forging a
coalition government after the February 18 elections “using it to peacefully
unseat President Musharraf”, as the
BBC’s Barbara Plett put it.
Three decades ago, Benazir Bhutto
had countered tribal, patriarchal traditions by retaining her own (father’s)
last name rather than taking on her
husband’s. The family’s decisions after her assassination also counter
the patriarchal model: their three
children took on the Bhutto name,
hyphenating it with Zardari. Benazir
was buried by her father’s grave as
she had wished rather than at her
husband’s family graveyard. Zardari
has stated that he too wishes to be
buried there rather than at his own
ancestral graveyard.
Although the mud flung at Zardari all these years has stuck, some
analysts point out that he is hardly
more corrupt than other politicians
or even the military that has ruled
Pakistan for much of its existence.
“Nobody asks them about their corruptions,” says one analyst asking not
to be named. “You won’t see the kind
of leaks about them as you see about
him. Our intelligence agencies work
overtime when it comes to defaming
Zardari. There should be accountability, but why single out one person?”
The reason for this singling out
may be the PPP’s traditionally antiASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
establishment stance, stemming from
its nationalist, secular polity that
tends to make the ruling elite very
nervous—that is, the nexus known as
the ‘establishment’, comprising the
military-bureaucracy-feudal, and in
recent years, religious elements.
“In a country where swindlers, thugs,
constitution-twisters and vulgar-rich
continue to shine and enjoy power
with respectability, the moralistic histrionics against Zardari appear so out
of place,” said Rumi. “Patriarchy ensures that all black is transformed into
white, unless, of course, the powersharing centre lies outside its orbit.”
Besides the intelligence agencies
and what has been termed their
‘dirty tricks brigade’, political rivals
have also been actively working to
discredit Zardari. According to the
Daily Times, the dirt on Zardari relating to his medical condition a year
ago was leaked to a foreign paper by
“a leading light of the PML-N”—the
Pakistan Muslim League led by
Zardari’s political rival and former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
“The PML-N spokesman, who
hails from a religious background
and is constantly targeting Zardari,
got the medical certificates from a
PML-N sympathiser in NAB (National Accountability Bureau) who
was handling Zardari’s case,” alleges the Daily Times report, citing
anonymous sources.
sif Ali Zardari, the son of Pakistani politician Hakim Ali Zardari, was born on July 21, 1956. He
grew up in Karachi and had a privileged childhood, attending St Patrick’s
High School, the same school former
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf
attended. He later enrolled himself at
the London School of Economics.
Zardari married Benazir Bhutto on
Dec 18, 1987, which was arranged by
their families. Zardari had met Bhutto only five days before the wedding,
though negotiations had started taking place almost six months ago. Before
his marriage, he was known as a poloplaying playboy who owned a private
disco in his own house. However, after
tying the knot, Zardari’s personality
was largely overshadowed by the political figure of Bhutto.
Zardari first found himself embroiled
in trouble when an attempted-murder
and extortion case was filed against him
in 1990. He faced charges of strapping
a remote-controlled bomb to the leg of
Pakistani-born British businessman,
Murtaza Hussain Bukhari, sending him
to the bank to withdraw US$800,000.
Zardari was later sent to jail where he
stayed until his wife’s party won the
election in 1993. He was made a finance
minister upon his release from prison.
The couple then built a $50 million ‘prime minister’s residence’ on
110 acres on an Islamabad hilltop.
Zardari also acquired the 365-acre, $8
million Rockwood Estate in Surrey,
England, and a $4 million estate in
Palm Beach County, Florida.
In 1996, he was arrested under the
Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. He found himself charged with
the murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto,
his wife’s brother. After the fall of
Bhutto’s government in the same
year, Zardari, along with Bhutto, was
charged and convicted in a kickbacks
scam involving a Swiss company, SGS.
Zardari was imprisoned. However,
Bhutto stayed out of country.
Zardari was in prison until 2004. He
was released after his wife’s PPP negotiated a deal with former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s government.
Zardari then moved to Manhattan’s
wealthy Upper East Side, where he
lived for three years, before returning to
Pakistan after his wife’s assassination.
11
Cover Story
Pakistan’s Priorities
tackle militancy and respond to the
attacks carried out by the US without seeking permission of Pakistan.
Under such conditions, the political leadership has to play a decisive
role by taking all stakeholders on
board and resolving their differences.
Once a policy has been formulated
Lahore
by launching suicide attacks have to the government has to ensure that
The Nation (Pakistan)
be stopped. It has also been acknowl- no organ of the state or government
edged that no outside force should functionary deviates from it.
oon after the election of Asif be permitted to violate Pakistan’s
As things stand the coalition adAli Zardari to the post of territorial integrity. The government, ministration seems to have run short
president, Pakistani Prime however, has not spelt out clearly of options. Governor Owais Ghani
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and definitively how the two issues recently complained that the allied
had promised that with Per- would be tackled.
forces and Taliban are both workvez Musharraf no more in the drivSoon after it took over the ruling ing on an anti-Pakistan agenda. One
ing seat, the coalition government’s coalition vowed to deal with militancy expects the government to provide
performance would improve radically through a multi-pronged policy but answers to these challenges instead
and it would start delivering on its soon left the task to the army. As things of throwing up arms in despair.
promises. To make this possible, the stand, every party in the coalition
Being a front line state in the ‘War
government has to urgently deter- has its own views regarding how to On Terror’, Pakistan should now immine its priorities.
mediately develop a naIt is now for President
tional policy on militancy.
Zardari to ensure that the
For this the government
federal parliamentary syshas to consult all the staketem with the prime minister
holders inside and outside
enjoying central position is
Parliament, take all politirestored in letter and spirit.
cal parties into confidence
For this he has to initiate
and allow parliament to
measures to repeal the 17th
formulate guidelines to be
Amendment. Unless this is
followed by concerned ordone, the system will retain
gans of the state, both civil
the distortions introduced
and military.
by Musharraf, which had
Instead of making tall
turned the president into
claims about an early resothe most powerful man and
lution of the Kashmir isled to the weakening of parsue—like Zardai did after
liament and the office of the
emerging victorious in presPrime Minister.
idential election—the funThe February elections
damentals of a national polhad led to a split mandate
icy on Kashmir should be
which requires that policies
thrashed in the same way.
are formulated on the basis
The statement by President
of consensus rather than the
Hamid Karzai backing US
thinking of any one party or
plans to launch attacks inindividual. The forum best
side Pakistan’s Federally
suited to evolve consensus
Administered Tribal Areas
is parliament. It is, theretwo days after a joint press
fore, highly dangerous to
conference with President
rely on the wisdom of any
Zardari should make the
individual when the country
latter realise the limitations
is coping with problems of
of personal diplomacy.
rising militancy, violation
What is more, with an
of the country’s geographioveractive President, the
cal integrity and a faltering
message is bound to be coneconomy.
veyed that those in power
It has been widely recogin fact favour a presidential
nised that those burning
system. But nothing should
girls’ schools, attacking
be done to further polarise
IN HIS WIFE’S SHADOW: Pakistan’s newly sworn-in President Asif Ali
government installations
the two mainstream politiZardari stands in front of a picture of his slain wife Benazir Bhutto.
or killing innocent people
cal parties.
Pakistan’s new leader should avoid further
polarising the two mainstream political parties
S
AFP PHOTO/Aamir QURESHI
12
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
DEAR LEADER: Kim
AFP
Special Report
Jong-il attending a
massive military parade
celebrating the 55th anniversary of the country
in Pyongyang on Sept
9, 2003.
A Matter Of
What If
Kim Jong-il’s absence at a major national
parade sparks wild speculations over the
North Korean leader’s state of health
Singapore
The Straits Times
S
peculation about the health
of North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il will get more lurid
without verifiable word on
his condition, if indeed he
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
had had a stroke. The Kyodo news
agency of Japan, often reliable on
North Korea reporting, said Kim was
having difficulty using his limbs. He
was thought to have been operated
on after suffering a stroke in midAugust. The Kyodo dispatch was a
notable deterioration from an earlier
South Korean report, which said Kim
could brush his teeth. Chinese and
French doctors are said to be treating
him. But China, always on the inside
track with North Korea, has not said
a word about the murky events.
Pyongyang’s principal neighbours
and the United States would have
worked out the likely scenarios postKim. The working assumption these
nations use has to be that Kim would
be incapacitated even if he survived
the brain trauma. If he could carry out
his duties, the likelihood is that his
substantive tenure is winding down. A
further assumption would be a power
struggle of some duration ensuing if he
is no longer in control, as none of his
three sons has undergone public tutelage under the father.
Would the chosen successor have the
gravitas and the ruthlessness to prevail
over the military, some of whose generals are believed to favour the hard
line in external dealings? This would
be uppermost on South Korean minds,
if credence is to be given to officials’ accounts that Seoul-Washington contingency military planning under the new
pro-US president, Lee Myung Bak, is
focused on regime collapse, if it happens, leading to reunification.
The eventuality of the two Koreas
becoming one again would seem improbable under present conditions.
South Koreans who have studied the
social and financial cost of Germany’s
unification have grown terrified at the
thought of a rich South and a poor
North being forced together. And there
is China to consider: A unified Korea
will have US treaty forces theoretically
camped on its border, assuming future
Seoul governments dare ignore growing opinion opposed to an indefinite
US military presence. China would
also be fearful of another possibility: Factional fighting breaking out in
North Korea, bringing a huge refugee
flow across the long shared border.
All these are suppositions. But watch
to see if Pyongyang’s denuclearisation deal with the US proceeds or gets
scrapped with a change of leadership
post-Kim. It has hit a rut over compliance and inducements. The pending
change of government in America can
be a complicating factor.
Strange—the world is rather hoping
that Kim Jong-il makes a full recovery
or that reports about his illness have
been only a summer lark.
13
Special Report
previous summit talks
between presidents Lee
Myung-bak and George
W Bush,” said one security expert who declined
to be identified.
H e c o n fi r m e d t h e
latest predictions that
the matter is likely
to be taken up at the
annual meeting of defence ministers to be
held in Washington
DC next month.
But the expert stressed
that the promotion to
Oplan 5029 has a tough
road ahead, especially
since the Combined
Forces Command is
set to be disassembled
by April 17, 2012 when
Seoul will regain wartime operational control
from Washington.
“The plan may require
major alterations from
the previous contingency scenario because of
such structural military
changes,” he said.
Conservative security advisers are
eager to see the upgrade to Oplan 5029
as it would include detailed military
operations for preparing for the collapse of North Korea.
Citing the lack of a military course
of action under the existing Conplan
5029, the United States drew up the
operational plan outlining detailed
action for responding to various types
of internal instability in North Korea,
such as regime collapse, mass defections and revolts.
But in 2005, the Roh Moo-hyun administration rejected American proposals for the development, claiming
the new plan calls for US forces to lead
South Korean forces in the event of a
massive disruption caused by North
Korea’s collapse.
Conservatives largely criticised the
decision as a “leftist policy”, and many
were puzzled over as to why the rejection was made so unilaterally via the
National Security Council.
But concerns are also rising about
excessive public debate over the promotion to Oplan 5029 as they may
spark unnecessary inter-Korean
conflict at a time when relations
are already strained.
Contingency Plans
South Korea and US are discussing how to deal
with a sudden collapse of power in North Korea
Kim Ji-hyun in Seoul
The Korea Herald
S
piraling concerns over North
Korean leader Kim Jongil’s health have rekindled an
old controversy in Seoul over
transforming an abstract war
scenario against North Korea into a
more concrete military plan of action.
The North Korean leader, allegedly recovering from a stroke, sent
alarm bells when he failed to show
up for a major national parade in
Pyongyang on September 9.
The fate of the North largely depends on Kim, who has yet to officially designate a successor to his
impoverished, communist state. If
Kim dies, North Korea could experience chaos as political and military
factions vie for power.
Kim’s deteriorating health has
rekindled talks for promoting joint
South Korean and US plans to deal
with a sudden collapse of power in
North Korea.
Allied forces currently have a
conceptual action plan, codenamed
Conplan 5029, for such a situation,
but the American forces have long
14
since proposed promoting them into
a fully operational set of plans, called
Oplan 5029.
Oplan 5029 (also designated Con
plan 5029) is a contingency plan that
would be implemented in case if North
Korea collapses. The plan is reported
to feature preparations by the South
Korean and US forces to manage an
inflow of North Korean refugees and
other unusual situations.
The idea was, however, halted in
2005 on the decision of former president Roh Moo-hyun.
Oplan 5029 has since been on the
political backburner. But last week
lawmakers from the Grand National
Party and the Pro-Park Alliance voiced
their desire to promote the conceptual
plan to an operational plan.
Defence Minister Lee Sang-hee said
the state is making “appropriate preparations” to cope with a possible provocation from the North.
According to security experts, the
Lee Myung-bak administration has
been planning the transition to Oplan
5029 for some time.
“It’s not a new issue for the Lee government. I believe (Lee) held closeddoor discussions on the issue during
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Profile: Kim Jong-il
T
he birth of North Korean leader while others say this family had sent
Kim Jong-il is as murky as activi- him to a school in China to ensure his
ties inside his country. Some re- safety during the Korean War. Kim
ports suggest he was born
in Khabarovsk, the former SoviFATHER & SON: Kim Il-sung (L)
et Union, on Feb 16, 1941 when
and Kim Jong-il (R)
his father Kim Il-sung was in
exile. His official biographies,
however, suggest he was born
on Feb 16, 1942 in Mt Paektu,
located on the border between
North Korea and China.
Official biographers claim
that his birth at Mt Paektu
was foretold by a swallow,
and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow
over the mountain.
However, Soviet records
show he was born in the
village of Vyatskoye, near
Khabarovsk, where his father commanded a battalion
of Soviet Brigade, made up of
Chinese and Korean exiles. It
is said that Kim and his family
returned to North Korea in
1945 after the Second World
War ended and Korea gained
independence from Japan. At
that time Kim was three. His
father then rose to power in 1948 graduated from Kim Il-sung Univerafter the two Koreas separated.
sity in April 1964.
According to Kim Jong-il’s official
Although Kim was said to be active
biography, he completed general edu- in politics since his childhood, he ofcation course between September 1950 ficially entered politics in July 1961,
and August 1960. Some say he received after he joined the Workers’ Party of
his primary education in Pyongyang Korea. Soon after that he began ac-
companying his father in various tours
to factories, farms and workplaces. After a period of grooming, he was officially designated successor to his father
in 1980. However, he did not hold any
positions of real power until 1991 when
he became the supreme commander of
the North Korean armed forces.
Although there is no official
information available about
Kim Jong-il’s marital history, he
is believed to have been officially
married once and said to have
had three mistresses.
Kim was first married to Kim
Young-suk, the daughter of a
senior military official, after being forced by his father. The two
have been estranged for some
years. Kim has a daughter from
this marriage, Kim Sul-song,
who is presumably 34 years old.
Kim’s first mistress, Song Hyerim, was not officially recognised
and after years of estrangement
she is believed to have died in
Moscow in 2002. He has one
son—Kim Jong-nam, the eldest
son—from this relationship. Kim
also has two sons from from his
second mistress Ko Young-hee,
who is described as Kim Jongil’s favourite consort. She had
taken over the role of First Lady
until her death in 2004. Some
analysts believe, Kim Jong-chul, a son
born from Ko’s side, is being groomed
as Kim Jong-il’s successor.
Since Ko’s death, Kim has been living with Kim Ok, his third mistress,
who had served as his personal secretary since the 1980s.
Health Report of ‘Dear Leader’
Aug 14, 2008: Kim Jong-il reportedly
suffers a stroke and undergoes emergency surgery performed with the help
of five Chinese military doctors.
Sept 9: Kim misses a military parade
organised to commemorate North
Korea’s founding 60 years ago. Kim
has rarely missed a military parade
since becoming the military commander in chief in 1991.
Sept 10: South Korea confirms Kim
had undergone a surgery after suffering
a stroke sometime after August 14 but
is “not seen to be in a serious condition”.
On the same day, North Korean officials
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
deny that Kim is ill or that there is anything unusual about his absence from
the parade.
Sept 11: China says it has received no
information about the health condition of the North Korean leader.
Sept 14: Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun
newspaper, quoting a Chinese official,
says Kim suffered occasional blackouts since April and has not been able
to give full guidance on policy. However, Kyodo news agency reports the
situation is not that serious and apart
from difficulty in using his arms and
legs Kim has no problems.
Sept 15: North Korea’s main news-
paper, Rodong Sinmun, says Kim
has urged his people to work hard to
reap a bountiful harvest, saying the
country “should mobilise all available
capability for the autumn harvest.”
The statement was published a day
after Chuseok, or Thanksgiving, but
the paper did not say when Kim made
the remarks. In the editorial Monday,
the Rodong Sinmun newspaper emphasised the importance of maintaining national unity and loyalty to Kim,
calling unity the country’s “mightiest
weapon—the real missile.”
15
POLITICS
As The Dust Settles
After six months, normalcy has returned to
Tibet. But the already fragile Tibetan-Han
relations are now in tatters
Sim Chi Yin in Lhasa
The Straits Times
A
yellow khata, the Tibetan
white silk scarf of blessing, is
squished between his taxi’s
windscreen and dashboard.
The ethnic Chinese driver,
Li, knows that in the deadly riots that
rocked this city in mid-March, shops
and homes marked with a khata were
largely spared. The scarf sent a message—that the shop and homeowners
were Tibetans.
Almost six months have passed since
the worst anti-government violence
to convulse the Tibetan capital in
two decades, but Li is not ready to
remove his scarf.
“During the riots, many of us Han
Chinese drivers put khatas in our
taxis. Most of my friends have kept
theirs now. Mine is still protecting me,” said the man who moved
from northern Shaanxi province to
Lhasa five years ago.
The appearance of normalcy has returned to this holy city. But ever-present armed paramilitary troops and
police, and a few remaining charred
shells of shops torched in the March
unrest, are reminders of an undercurrent of fear and discontent. Beijing
says 22 were killed in the riots but the
Tibetan government-in-exile puts the
death toll at around 80.
Every morning I was in Lhasa, the
fragrance of crackling juniper would
waft from monasteries’ furnaces. Pilgrims prostrated themselves along
the Barkhor prayer circuit around
the Jokhang monastery in the heart
of the city, watched by armed paramilitary soldiers atop some of the
low-rise buildings.
On the streets, parents ferried their
children to school on bicycles, as
groups of mostly Chinese tourists
stared at the awe-inspiring sights.
Troops holding riot shields, long
batons and automatic weapons
16
weaved around them.
In the Tibetan residential area of
Karma Kusang in Lhasa’s east, troops
guarded all sides of a petrol station. Tibetan children played badminton outside their homes as army trucks drove
past them. In Xijiao—or ‘Western
Outskirts’—where most Chinese live
and play, no policemen were seen.
At a giant TV screen erected opposite the majestic Potala Palace to show
Olympics highlights, two paramilitary
soldiers marched back and forth, even
though a crowd rarely gathered.
In downtown Lhasa, the teenage
faces of many policemen make them
look less-than-menacing behind
their riot gear.
“They make us feel safer,” said an
ethnic Chinese chef from Sichuan, who
runs an eatery off Barkhor Square.
But a young Tibetan man, a thangka
or Buddhist scroll painter, said: “I’m
scared when I see so many police
on the streets, it’s like something
is about to happen again.”
Their disparate views were telling.
Despite the official narrative of ethnic
harmony, the March riots seem to have
frayed further already-fragile TibetanHan relations.
“We rarely really interact with
the Tibetans. They are really bu
xing,” muttered an ethnic Chinese
shopkeeper about how the Tibetans were “no good”, echoing a view
voiced by a few others.
Wang, a taxi driver who arrived
from Gansu province two years ago,
was more blunt: “These days, when
business is good, I avoid picking up
Tibetan passengers and take only Chinese ones. When I’ve no choice, I drive
the Tibetans. But when they get into
my car, I feel angry.”
He added: “Before March, we
Hans often gave money to the Tibetan pilgrims who beg. Now we
don’t give a cent.”
The Sichuan cook, who has lived
in Lhasa for 15 years, was more po-
lite. “There’s a bit of a psychological
barrier now when we interact with
Tibetans. But overall ethnic relations are good. Eighty per cent of
our customers are Tibetans.”
Tibetan pilgrims strolled into his
noodle shop with ease, holding their
prayer wheels and beads. His colleague, a young Chinese woman,
tugged playfully at the hands of a Tibetan woman as she left after a meal.
The cook said: “March 14 was really
the first time there was such violence
against the Chinese here. The Tibetans
beat each Han they saw.”
The events of mid-March remain
contentious and murky. Peaceful
marches by monks on March 10—the
49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan
uprising against Chinese rule—somehow spiralled over the days into violent
protests against the police. These then
turned into attacks on ethnic Chinese
property and people.
Scores of rioters have been put away
and hundreds of monks are being
given “patriotic education”—in which
they are required to denounce the exiled leader the Dalai Lama—at the key
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
policemen patrol in front of the Potala
Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, China.
monastery of Drepung, locked down
till last week. I was stopped by police at
a barricade some 2km downhill from
Drepung, and told to delete photos I
had snapped of the roadblock.
Six months on, the real roots of the
unrest do not seem much clearer and
the broader issue of what is next for Tibet appears as intractable as ever.
The government, Lhasa-based officials and Chinese residents firmly
finger a “small group” of malcontents
directed by the ‘Dalai clique’ for what is
known as the ‘3/14 incident’. Overseas
scholars point to deeper, grassroots socio-economic factors, and political and
religious curbs.
What is apparent to the untrained
eye, though, is that this ballooning city
is in the throes of seismic change—especially since the opening of a US$4.2
billion railroad linking it to inland
China in July 2006.
More shops, malls and people have
arrived with the railway, fuelling worries over mounting inter-ethnic competition and a widening income gap.
In dealing with the tough issue of
ethnic minorities across its vast terriASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Teh Eng Koon/AFP
UNEASY CALM: Chinese paramilitary
tory, Beijing seems to bank on the formula that has worked elsewhere in the
country: economic development.
Growth and the social changes it
brings, Beijing hopes, might make
Tibetans more like their counterparts elsewhere in China, and dilute their devotion to religion—and
the Dalai Lama.
With some, it seems to have worked.
A Tibetan middle class has emerged,
invested in the system that raised it.
A few 20-somethings I met, including the two young Tibetan women
from the local Foreign Affairs office
who shadowed me, went to school
in inland Chinese cities, transliterate their names into Chinese, and
sang along to Chinese, English and
Tibetan pop songs.
A 27-year-old Tibetan hair salon
owner said: “I’ve never met the Dalai Lama. Why would I even think
about him?”
In these nervous times when informants are on the prowl, it was difficult
to have Tibetans speak their minds. It
did not help that they saw me as mainland Chinese, not Singaporean.
Some who clearly understood that
I was a foreigner quietly voiced support for the Dalai Lama, though. A 25year-old Tibetan looked down at his
fashionable jeans, dropped his voice to
a whisper and said: “Unlike what the
Chinese say, the unrest was not orchestrated by the Dalai Lama. And most
Tibetans here want him to return.”
While stating that he disapproved of
the March violence, an elderly Tibetan
man said: “There’s no need for independence. It’s good to have stability
like now. The Dalai Lama can return
in these conditions.”
The aims of the Lhasa protesters
were not clearly articulated. But in the
days and weeks that followed, a wave
of up to 100 protests swept across Tibetan-inhabited areas in three nearby
provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai. Some slogans called for the return
of the Dalai Lama. Internal reports circulated among cadres estimated that
some 30,000 people took part. The
authorities said they detained more
than 6,000 people.
Citing official Chinese documents
on stamping out dissent in the monasteries, rights groups warn of a further crackdown after the Olympics,
when China would be less under the
world’s spotlight.
Beijing and the Dalai Lama’s envoys have met twice since the March
unrest and are expected to hold what
could be make-or-break talks next
month—against the backdrop of the
issue of Tibet having become a major
flashpoint between China (and its
nationalistic fenqing or ‘angry youth’)
and the West this year.
Out in Lhasa’s Old City, rumours of
arrest and torture are whispered.
A Tibetan painter said: “I don’t
know what will happen here after the
Olympics. Maybe all who should be
caught have already been caught.”
Another young Tibetan man seemed
more optimistic than most. He said:
“During the Olympics opening, many
world leaders came to Beijing. I think
they talked to the Chinese leaders
about the Tibet issue. So I hope there
will be good change after this.”
On the roof of the Jokhang monastery, Tibetan Buddhists’ holiest
shrine, tourists milled around snapping photos. A lone monk was very
still, staring out at the pedestrianised square—where policemen
stood in formation.
17
PHOTO ESSAY
18
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Super Games
T E X T A N D P H O T O S B Y C H I N A DA I LY
I
t’s physical function that set the participants in
the Paralympics apart from their counterparts
at the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean disabled
people cannot match the achievement of able-bodied
Olympic stars and the Paralympic Games is viewed by
most as a way to dispell stereotypes.
More than 4,000 athletes from 147 countries and
regions competed in 20 sports in five categories of disability, with a total of 472 gold medals up for grabs.
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
19
TRAVEL
Ready, Jet Set...
Did you know that energy used to flush an airplane toilet is
enough for an economical car to run at least 10km? Here
are ways to make travelling more environment-friendly
Rose Yasmin Karim in
Kuala Lumpur
The Star
I
enjoy riding planes. What I especially love is the little television
screen and the map channel that
shows you the location, speed
and altitude of the plane. It’s an
exciting and convenient way to travel,
though not the eco-friendliest.
Environmental campaigner George
Monbiot said, “If we want to stop the
planet from cooking, we will simply
have to stop travelling at the kind of
speeds that planes permit.”
The airlines snapped back in defence, insisting that aviation accounts
for just 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Still, when you jet-set, you belch
tonnes of CO2 into the air. A vacation
from Kuala Lumpur to Bali on an Airbus A320, for instance, means flights
that add up to 3,926km, 13,600kg of
fuel and 40.8 tonnes of CO2.
So how do you balance your carbon
guilt?
By offsetting your air travel. Carbon
offsets are basically donations to support projects that reduce greenhouse
gases. An online calculator works out
the passenger’s share of emissions and
recommends purchasing an offset.
For instance, passengers flying with
Malaysian Airlines, Firefly and MASwings have the option of paying a surcharge to offset the carbon emissions
resulting directly from their travels
and the proceeds go to a trust fund
managed by the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.
A round trip on Firefly’s latest
fleet, the ATR 72-500 from Subang to Langkawi costs 4.46 ringgit (US$1.30), while a flight from
Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar and
20
back on MAS will have a surcharge
of 13.28 ringgit ($3.85).
While you cannot buy your way out
of the mess you create, this is one way
to take responsibility for pollution that
we can’t avoid, says Dr Reza Azmi,
founder of Wild Asia, a KL-based conservation group.
consumption as a lighter aircraft
burns less fuel. Every additional
1,000kg of takeoff weight requires an
additional 30 gallons of jet fuel,” says
AirAsia’s media relations executive
Nazatul Ekma Mokhtar.
“This is why we encourage guests
to travel light, which will minimise
“While it does not absolve your carbon guilt, it is worth investing in after
you’ve made every effort to understand
what makes your carbon footprint in
the first place, and then plan to monitor and reduce,” he explains.
“However, before I volunteer
t o o ff s e t m y c a r b o n s , I w a n t t o
be 100 per cent confident in the
projects the organisation supports
and whether it’s really promoting
sustainable practices.”
Pack light
There are two types of people: those
who waltz through customs with a
single trunk, and those who wish they
did. Travelling light, you see, is a very
eco-savvy thing to do.
“Packing light helps to reduce fuel
check-in luggage on flights,” he adds.
But you can’t exactly set sail with
just a sarong and Swiss Army knife,
now can you?
The trick, says Leong Dee Luu,
managing director of outdoor and
camping gear shop, Corezone, is to
take only what counts.
“While a part of you may want to
stuff every single suitcase pocket, try
to resolve to pack it all into one carry
on luggage,” says Leong.
“You’ll get the peace of mind knowing it won’t go missing, and you won’t
have to wait for your luggage at the
carousel. It also means you’ll be able to
move faster and take public transportation, and even walk rather than take
taxis. You use less energy hauling stuff
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
and you’ll save time because there are
fewer things to pack,” she adds.
So how do you fit a whole trip’s
worth of belongings into a small suitcase or backpack? Easy. Trim the fat.
“The bulk of your luggage is clothing. Minimise by bringing fewer pieces and doing your laundry more often.
Stuff everything in a compression sack
to save space,” she says.
The backpack, adds Leong,
should weigh no more than a quarter of your weight.
“If you’re 50kg, then your pack
should be 12.5kg or less.”
Leong’s packing list for a week
long travel?
“A headlamp to find my way around
the hostel room after lights out, a
small roll of medical tape to repair
bags and seal cuts, a compressible
pillow, a rain jacket, a fleece jacket, a
combination of fast-drying short and
plane toilet systems are way more
water efficient. The Airbus A320, says
Nazatul, uses only 8cc-10cc of water
per flush, and on Firefly’s new fleet,
the ATR 72-500, the water gets treated and recycled after every flush.
But — and this is a big but — according to Captain Liu Zhiyaun
from China Southern Airline, the
energy used per flush in flight is
enough for an economical car to
run at least 10km!
“As a kid I had a phobia of airplane
toilets,” relates Nurshahira Abdul
Ghani, 29, a dealer.
“I would rather hold it in until landing than sit on the creepy silver bowl.
The loud suction noise, the tight space
and the blue water scared the lights
out of me. I’m fine with using it now,
but when I fly I’ll definitely be relieving myself beforehand so as to minimise the in-flight flushing.”
Fly direct
Why are non-stop flights better
for the environment than flights
with a stopover?
“Point-to-point service produces
lower emissions than two flights via a
hub,” says Nazatul.
It’s not just because you’re travelling
fewer miles, planes burn more fuel in
take-off and landing than they do by
flying at a constant altitude!
“Take direct flights whenever possible. The more connections you have,
the higher your emissions. For example, flying direct from Los Angeles to
Boston reduces your CO2 by 20 per
cent compared to the same route with
a stop in Dallas,” Nazatul adds.
Also, turbo-prop planes are better than jet planes, which consume
a lot more fuel.
“The ATR 72-500 turbo propeller operates at low altitude. Because
long-sleeve shirts, a pair of lightweight
pants, a set of undergarments, a biodegradable camp soap that’s good for all
surfaces (hair, clothes, skin), a dry bag
to stash my documents, a water bottle,
two pairs of socks, a pair of sandals,
hot hands warmer to keep me toasty
during unforgiving weather, a whistle
to draw attention in times of danger,
water purification tablets, a sleep liner,
a mosquito repellent, some snacks and
anti-histamine pills, ” she says.
Sounds like a mouthful, but everything fits nicely into a 30-litre pack
and weighs merely 5kg. There’s plenty
of room left over for food and souvenirs!
Pee before you board
Compared to regular toilets, aero-
Hurry up
The IATA website states that on
average airlines spend $100 per flight
per minute in total operating costs.
“Our planes have a turnaround of
25 minutes, the fastest in the region,
which means less time spent idling on
the ground. This reduces unnecessary
fuel consumption and lowers harmful
emissions,” says Nazatul.
While airlines are doing their
part to cut down on fuel and emissions, it makes a difference if passengers don’t linger.
“We maintain our turnaround at 20
minutes. Should passengers assemble
at the gate on time, we can take off
sooner,” says Firefly chief engineer Ismail Mohd Taib, 46 .
there’s less airspace restrictions at
lower altitudes, we are able to take
shorter routes. The take-off and landing is also quicker as less runway space
is needed,” says Ismail.
Stay longer
When you do fly, stay long enough
to make it worthwhile. Why not visit
once a year, but stay twice as long? In
the end, quality, not quantity, is probably more important.
“I plan my vacations. Instead of going on short vacations four times a
year, I take a month’s leave and hang
around longer,” says Andrew Ong, 31,
an accounts manager.
“The last time, I flew to Europe
and travelled by land across the
continent.”
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
21
LIFESTYLE
The New Fashion
From Seoul to Manila, there’s a new way to be in fashion without
spending a fortune: renting clothes or buying pre-owned designer bags
Park Min-young
The Korea Herald
and
Alex Vergara
Philippine Daily Inquirer
F
ashion evolves at the speed of
light.
Fashionistas who cannot
bear to miss out on the nextbig-thing have no choice but to
use their last penny on shopping.
Gladly, two saviours named ‘rent’
and ‘reform’ are here to help you
stay fashionable and still keep most
of your money, even during this
economic slump.
In an outfit-rental shop near Gangnam subway station last week, an anchorwoman-wannabe was trying on
a white jacket. “I passed the first camera test wearing a dress suit from this
shop, so I’m here to borrow another
one for my next interview,” she said.
“Some of the other girls buy suits every
time there is a test but, believe me, it
can cost you a house.”
At clothes-rental shops in Seoul,
which are concentrated in the posh
southern district of Gangnam-gu, it
takes but about 50,000 won (US$46)
for a makeover. If you take out a
membership—a one-time down payment of 100,000 won that’s refundable if you decide to get out—some
clothes are even cheaper. Most shops
offer a selection of anywhere from
hundreds to tens of thousands of
items, including shoes and bags.
“Our earnings increased much
more compared to the same month
last year,” said Kim Min-ju, the CEO
of Change Lady, a rental shop which
opened last year. “It is usually college
students or career women who come
before an important interview, wedding or party. Some customers put in
orders even from Busan after checking
out our website.”
For those who need party outfits,
Nonhyeon-dong is the place to go.
There are more than 20 shops where
you can rent designer goods like Gucci,
Chanel and Valentino.
The clothes-renting business started
more than five years ago. But, before
last year, these places catered mainly
to singers and bar hostesses at nearby
clubs, and most of the clothes were
very revealing.
But, thanks in part to the increase
in Western-style parties, the kinds of
customers have been changing.
“The general public takes up about
15 per cent of the market now, and is
continuously increasing,” said Lee
Bum-kyu, who is CEO of LUX, a rental
shop in Yeoksam-dong.
Rental shops are very busy on Fridays
because party girls come in crowds
to rent dresses. “I can borrow 20
pieces of clothes for money that’s
not enough to buy one,” exclaimed
a regular customer. At LUX, the
fee to rent one dress is normally
50,000 won ($45), but paying a flat
sum 500,000 won ($452) allows a
customer to rent 20 times.
Rental shops are also generous
with the after-service. If you get
your dress ripped while partying
too hard, the dress shop will bring
another dress to the club door.
The shops also have professional coordinators on hand to help customers
choose their outfits. “People now are
very interested in new trends,” said
Lee. “The first thing they ask is ‘What’s
hot now?’ Some even demand very specific items they want.”
Another trend that is taking root is
‘clothes reform’. There are many online communities where you can learn
about the basics of clothing repair.
Those who lack the skill to fix up
clothes by themselves can of course
turn to professional reform shops. For
example, the area around Ewha Woman’s University in central Seoul, which
is known for its many low-priced and
fashionable boutiques, there are more
than a dozen such shops.
Customers these days visit not only
to get their clothes fixed, but to change
them into a new, trendier design. “This
pattern is back in style. I just need to
tighten it a little,” said a college student
who brought her mother’s checkered
skirt. It only cost her 10,000 won ($9)
to take home a new skirt.
“We used to lead the trend, but our
customers know better these days,”
said Lee Jeong-se, the CEO of Young
Reform. “Their demands have become
HIGH STREET: From Birkins to Speedies and the latest in designer dresses, fashionistas
are discovering they no longer have to break the bank to stay in style.
22
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
so precise and complex that even our
workers, who are practically designers
themselves, often get headaches.”
Bag it
Penny-pinching bag hags who won’t
settle for anything less than the real
McCoy can get a quick fix at a new,
multi-brand outlet in Makati, the
Philippines’ financial district, teeming with previously owned designer
bags—from Louis Vuitton to Gucci,
from Chanel to Prada, from Dior to
Fendi—sold at a fraction of their
original prices.
The place is also shaping
up as a trading post for such
covetable goods, as fashionistas are welcome to
sell, trade or even pawn
their designer bags.
Aptly named Bagaholic, the store is owned
and managed by Gigi
Asok-Bambroffe, a Filipina married to a Briton.
Bambroffe resorts to such
a nuanced Filipino word as
hibang (crazy) to describe
how addicted to bags some of
her loyal clients are. “Like I
have a client who once went
here with five bags to unload.
Instead of pocketing the proceeds, she brought home with
her a different set of bags,” she said.
It takes one to know one. A true
blue bag lady herself, Bambroffe
parlayed her passion for collecting
Speedies and Birkins into a thriving business of pre-owned originals
ranging from sometime ‘it’ bags to
rare vintage finds.
A number of Bagaholic’s merchandise, especially from LV’s
prolific design team, pre-Marc
Jacobs, is no longer produced.
Bambroffe pegs the bags’ pric-
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
es depending on how rare and well
maintained they are.
As far as Filipino women are concerned, LV, particularly the Speedy in
its many versions and sizes, is still the
brand of choice, while the Monogram
is still the LV variant to beat.
“Prices can range anywhere from
20 to 70 per cent off from the
original,” she says. “I peg
the prices myself based
primarily on the bag’s
condition.”
“Some of these bags
were gifts that their
recipients didn’t use
even once,” says
B a m b r o ff e . “ I t
was impossible
for them to
return
the
bags to the store without offending the
giver, so they simply kept them until
they learned about Bagaholic.”
Thanks to constant exposure and
endless research, Bambroffe claims
to possess the ability to spot a fake a
mile away. Quite a number of times,
she has refused some bags for their
questionable appearance and poor
workmanship.
She cautions bag hags who love
buying pre-owned stuff to carefully
examine a particular item’s workmanship inside out. The lining is one
component counterfeiters usually
love to scrimp on.
“I think that’s my advantage over
goods sold at ebay,” she says. “The
chances of you buying a fake are minimised, if not eliminated, because
I personally oversee every item that
makes it to my store. I sometimes
road test the bags myself.”
Bambroffe doesn’t claim to be
infallible. But should a customer
feel that he or she bought a fake
at Bagaholic, she’s willing to give
that customer a refund, as long as
the person can prove that the item
in question is really bogus.
“What’s a few thousand pesos if it
would mean saving my
store’s reputation?”
she reasons. “Fortunately, no one has
ever come forward
to contest the authenticity of
my bags.”
23
LIFESTYLE
I Am Kitty
Hear Me Purr
Japan’s most famous icon has built a business
empire and reinvented herself over 34 years
By Tom Baker in Tokyo
The Daily Yomiuri
S
24
he has no mouth, yet she
speaks volumes. She is a Japanese icon, yet she commands a
loyal following the world over.
She appears shy and unas-
suming, yet she stands at the centre of
a business empire. She is simply beloved by little children, yet she serves as a
complex muse to sophisticated artists.
She is Hello Kitty.
Last month, the famous feline—or
was it merely a costumed human?—appeared at the grand opening of San-
rio Marchengallery, a new character
goods shop on the seventh floor of
the Tobu department store at Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo.
The glittery decor sparkled in the
light of press photographers’ flashbulbs as Kitty posed with fans—mostly
little girls at her first appearance of the
day—in front of a massive art object
by Sanrio designer Noriko Masatomo,
depicting Kitty sailing through the
clouds in a hot air balloon laden with
gold-wrapped presents.
Part of Kitty’s magic is her ability
to occupy multiple spotlights simultaneously. Even as she was opening a
shop in Tokyo, a Hello Kitty-themed
art exhibition was under way at the
Grand Toit art gallery in Masuda,
Shimane Prefecture.
In June, Kitty was featured in Nippon Vogue magazine, shopping in
Paris and modelling Dior’s autumn
2008 collection.
And in February, Sanrio unveiled
what is called the world’s largest
Hello Kitty statue, 2.5m tall, in front
of its Shinjuku Gift Gate shop in
Shinjuku, Tokyo.
It might seem that 2008 is Kitty’s
big year, but Sanrio publicist Kazuo
Tohmatsu told The Daily Yomiuri that
the character has been on a major roll
for about a decade.
Sanrio, which reported sales of 93.9
billion yen (US$875 million) for the
fiscal year that ended March 31, officially describes itself as a “world-wide
designer and distributor of characterbranded stationery, school supplies,
gifts and accessories”. Hello Kitty, created in 1974, is far and away the company’s most successful character.
While cute characters have an
obvious appeal to children, Tohmatsu said in recent years adults have
been showing an interest in Kitty
in greater numbers. They especially
enjoy adult products, such as mobile
phones, that reflect something they
enjoyed as children, he said.
Indeed, a visit to the Shinjuku
store earlier this year turned up such
adult Kitty items as lingerie, champagne flutes, license plate frames,
steering wheel covers and negative
ion air purifiers.
On top of that, Japanese post offices
are now selling Hello Kitty stamps.
About 50,000 official Hello Kitty
products are available every year,
but some are limited-edition items,
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Tohmatsu said, adding that
the selection varies across
the 70 countries where such
goods are sold.
One way to see more of the
Hello Kitty world is to fly on
Taiwan-based Eva Air, which
has two planes with Hello Kitty
motifs serving routes to Japan.
According to the airline’s web
site, not only are gigantic portraits of Kitty and her friends
painted on the fuselage, but
there are Hello Kitty boarding
passes, Hello Kitty posters on
the bulkheads, Hello Kitty antimacassars on the seat backs and
Hello Kitty aprons on the flight
attendants who serve Hello
Kitty-themed meals. There are
even Hello Kitty vomit bags.
Kitty’s major debut as a fashion icon occurred in 2002,
when design firm Heatherette used
her in their New York Fashion Week
collection, Tohmatsu said. Other designers have since jumped on the Hello Kitty bandwagon. French designer
Victoria Casal, for instance, launched
Victoria Couture, which deals only in
Hello Kitty designs.
But at least one fashionista remains unimpressed. Kyoko Higa,
who served as a guest judge on the
TV show America’s Next Top Model,
was recently quoted by Time magazine as calling Hello Kitty “a symbol
of an immature country” .
In contrast, Tohmatsu described
Kitty as “a symbol of friendship” and
a catalyst for communication. Characters often have more power than
language to connect people, he maintained, pointing out that the Olympics,
for instance, always have mascot characters for people to rally around.
Nowadays, there are some people
who study Kitty symbology quite seriously, he said.
One person who has contemplated
the meaning of Hello Kitty since the
1970s is American artist Bill Griffith,
creator of the comic strip Zippy the
Pinhead, which spotlights the imponderables of pop culture.
Griffith told The Daily Yomiuri in an
e-mail that he was initially fascinated
by the character’s “no content” aspect.
“She was simply a blank slate,” he
wrote. “Having no mouth undoubtedly
helped. HK (Hello Kitty) is on that
thin borderline between cuteness
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
and creepiness, where much kitsch
resides. Her bland appearance acts
as a mask to the unknown persona
inside. She has a trickster quality:
is she fun-loving and innocent, or
evil and subversive? HK is a deep
mystery. Like all religious icons.”
Griffith’s point about Kitty having
no mouth is something more than
a few people have wondered about.
Tohmatsu explained that a character’s
mouth often expresses emotions. Leaving it out means that people can use
their imaginations to see Kitty in different ways, and to project their own
feelings onto her.
Seeing Kitty in different ways is the
point of the Grand Toit exhibition
Kitty Ex., which includes Kitty-inspired work not only by visual artists
such as mangaka Osamu Tezuka
and painter-designer Katsuhiko
Hibino, but also by musicians such
as deejay-producer Fumiya Fujii and
musician Sean Lennon.
One of the more unusual works is
a Kitty-shaped crop circle created
in Britain by art group Surface to
Air. Along with aerial photos of the
circle, the gallery is showing a video
on how it was made.
Curator Miki Nanmoku explained
that the show actually got its start in
Tokyo to mark Kitty’s 30th anniversary four years ago, and it has been
travelling ever since.
Contemporary art can be difficult to understand, Nanmoku told
The Daily Yomiuri, but Hello Kitty
makes it easier and more enjoyable
for people to get into.
But sometimes, people get into Kitty just a little too much. The BBC reported in 2000 that seven people were
injured in scuffles at McDonald’s restaurants in Singapore when demand
for promotional Hello Kitty dolls there
outstripped supply.
In a more recent entry on the Kitty
crime blotter, AFP reported in March
this year that billionaire Columbian
drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia
had been caught conducting his illicit
business via digitally encoded voice
and text messages hidden in e-mailed
images of Hello Kitty.
“Abadia apparently picked Hello
Kitty as his courier because his wife
was a big fan of the Japanese icon—she
had even decorated one of her rooms
in a Brazilian house with Hello Kittythemed chairs, watches and wallpaper,” the wire service reported.
The drug lord’s wife is not alone.
Tohmatsu said singer Mariah Carey
has a Hello Kitty-themed bathroom
in her home. And the Nippon Vogue
feature included photos of Paris Hilton, Cameron Diaz, Tori Spelling
and other glitterati proudly toting
Hello Kitty accessories.
But at least one little girl at the
opening of the new Ikebukuro store
didn’t put top priority on spending
her allowance. The very first thing
she wanted was a hug.
And Hello Kitty was happy to
oblige.
25
FASHION
The Asian Wave
Asian fashion designers are once again rising in the West
Rupak D Sharma in Bangkok
Asia News Network
M
ichelle Obama, US presidential hopeful Barack
Obama’s wife, was spotted recently wearing an
abstract patterned blackand-red kimono-inspired dress at the
Democratic convention. That outfit
was designed by Thailand-born Thakoon Panichgul.
Some time ago, another Thai designer, Disaya Sorakraikitikul, received
similar honour when Amy Winehouse
was featured in the cover of her best
selling album, Back to Black, donning
a dress designed by her.
Then there is Zhang Zhifeng of
China, who was chosen by the prince
of Denmark to make an evening
gown for his fiancé. And there are
designers like Tae Ashida of Japan,
who are silently wooing European
customers in France.
Being a factory to the world, Asians
have long seen Western customers
26
draped in clothes made in Asia. But
this time around Asians are actually beginning to see Asians designing
clothes for Westerners.
However, this is not the first time
Asians are rising in the global fashion scene. A similar trend was seen
in the beginning of 1980s when Rei
Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake generated a wave of what
was known as ‘avant-garde fashion’.
The only difference between then and
now is: In the ‘80s it was only Japanese designers who were representing Asians while this time designers
from all across China, India, Thailand,
South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia
are sharing the stage.
The recently held New York Fashion
Week can be used as a gauge to measure
the success gained by Asians designers
in the West, where more than one-fifth
of the designers were either Asians or
Asian Americans. Another example can
be prestigious events like Paris Fashion
Week, which is being penetrated by
more and more Chinese, Indians, Thais
and Japanese.
Mike Wu, fashion director of Singapore’s BY3 Design,
cites globalisation in
fashion trends as the
main reason for the sudden rise of Asian fashion
designers in the West.
With the world becoming a global village, “the cultural gap between the East
and the West is narrowing
down significantly”, he tells
AsiaNews on the sidelines
of the Asian Fashion Federation (AFF) Conference in
Bangkok. “This is also narrowing
down differences in styles and
looks in two parts of the world.”
As a result, the line between Asian
and Western design is beginning to
blur making it easier for Asian designers to navigate their way into the Western fashion market.
Another reason for the success
of Asian designers in the West is
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
the backing they have
received from the domestic customers.
Take Singaporean
designer Ben Wu for instance, who never thought
he would be selling his collection in the US when he
first started merchandising fashion goods in late
1990s. “At that time I was
just pursuing my passion
but along the way I also
saw this huge demand
for fashion wear,” the
interior designer turned
fashion designer says.
This motivated Ben to
launch his own brand.
And in 2003 he introduced Tian, a retail label in women’s
wear. Since 2006 he
has been exporting
his collection to US
cities such as New
York, Florida and
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Texas. “Had my own people not bought
my costumes, I wouldn’t have been in
this business,” adds Ben, who recently
displayed his collection at the Bangkok
International Fashion Fair.
What Ben was also trying to point out
was the rising income levels of Asians
which is boosting their purchasing
capacity. With more money in their
wallets, Asians are now blinded by
consumerism and they no longer see
clothes as something that only covers
the body. Costumes, to them now, are
license to define their identity and status
symbol, and they no longer hesitate
to pay for it. This consumer revolution, in turn, is encouraging fashion
designers to break the boundaries and
come up with daring styles.
Daichi Shiraki, a 26-year-old Japanese fashion designer, agrees that the
rising demand in the domestic market
is helping fashion designers like him to
be more innovative.
“Today my customers (in Japan)
don’t care where the apparel comes
from and they don’t only look for
Western brands as long as the outfits
catch their imagination. This was not
the case six years ago,” says Shiraki,
who has been exporting his label,
Boisnonverni, to Russian market.
“This is giving designers like me a
leeway to experiment more.”
All these suggest that Asian designers are being accepted worldwide. And
along with Asian designers, Asian designs and styles are also slowly gaining
acceptance. This is probably one of the
reasons why Americans and Europeans are now being seen in South Asian
salwar kameez or Southeast Asian silk
sarong or reinvented versions of East
Asian kimono. And with renowned
Western brands like Balenciaga and
Hermes designing outfits with Chinese
and Indian prints, a day might come
when there will be no such thing as
Eastern or Western style.
Says David Wang, AFF Singapore chairman: “It is only a matter
of time before Asia evolves into a
trend setter on par with the fashion
capitals of the world.”
27
ARTS & CULTURE
Smash Chinglish - Now
Errant English translations have long been a source of amusement
to foreigners in China. This is both condescending and a bit unfair
John B Wood in Beijing
China Daily
R
ecently my wife and I dined
with friends at a neighbourhood restaurant, an establishment with marvelous
food and a long history: their
chefs helped to prepare New China’s
first state banquet.
The English menu left something
to be desired, however. The 16-page
menu, in full colour, listed such entrees
as ‘Four happy kaofus’, ‘Does the silk
very hot’, and ‘The ovary and digestive
gland of a crab digs up the cabbage’.
The restaurant’s owners confided
that during the Olympics, a group of
28
foreigners came in, read the menu,
laughed, and left. “Is there a problem?”
the owners wanted to know.
There is. As China takes its rightful
place in the world community, the language barrier persists.
Errant English translations have
long been a source of amusement to
foreigners in China. This is both condescending and a bit unfair; after all,
how good is the foreigners’ Chinese?
Beijing and the other venues did a
commendable job of confronting the
language barrier during the Olympics. Virtually every sign, map—and
most menus—were translated into
serviceable English.
Legions of volunteers were trained to
answer questions and give directions in
English. Although taxi drivers did not
learn as much English as planned, every meter now says brightly, ‘Welcome
to take Beijing taxi!’
Away from the major cities, however, English remains an endangered
species. We recently returned from
a visit to Yiyang, in Hunan province,
where we stayed in an elegant new
five-star hotel. I was glad I was properly dressed, because a sign at the door
read ‘No enter with disheveled’.
Yiyang is my wife’s father’s hometown; we’ve been visiting there for
decades. The city is making an impressive effort to modernise, without
sacrificing its natural environment.
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Each time we visit, there is a new
sports complex, a new industrial park,
a new museum under construction.
In case the message is not clear, it is
spelled out on a billboard 50m long
outside the new hotel: ‘Try Hard to
Catch up and Overrun the Advanced
City Build Ecological Yiyang’.
Many Chinese don’t realise how
poor their English is. The best reporting, the most thoughtful analysis, the
finest proposal, the most appetising
menu all are undermined by our common foe, Chinglish.
The long-term solution is obvious.
A generation or two from now, there
will be more Chinese who learned
English as children, and more foreignASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
ers fracturing putonghua, the official
language of China, as well.
But must China wait? When the
country was awarded the 2008
Olympics and decided to go for
the gold, it did not wait for a new
generation of swimmers and fencers and baseball players to come of
age. It got help quickly, from foreign coaches. The US did the same,
and has gold medals in gymnastics
and volleyball to show for it.
It is time for a similar offensive on
Chinglish. If that means hiring more
foreigners, so be it. Publications like
China Daily, among others, have
shown that Chinese and foreigners can
work together to produce good Eng-
lish, or any other language, and learn
from each other in the process.
Often, the solution is already at
hand. Somewhere in Hunan, there’s
an English teacher who could have
improved that billboard in no time at
all. When I mentioned that the sign
outside the hotel was not quite right,
it vanished. I’m betting it has already
been replaced with one that reads
“Proper dress required”.
As we used to say in the 1980s,
“China has friends all over the
world”. There’s no reason not to
accept their help.
I must be going. I need to “polish”
that menu before dinner. I’m looking
forward to a really good meal.
29
PEOPLE
Sukul Kerdnaimongkol/THE NATION (THAILAND)
THREE GENERATIONS: (From L) Naphaporn
Bodiratnangkura, Sanhapit Bodiratanagkura,
Bilaibhan Sampatisiri and Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatisiri (sitting).
30
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Preserving
The Legacy
Meet three generations of women who shaped Nai Lert Park Bangkok
Kupluthai Pungkanon in Bangkok
The Nation (Thailand)
W
hen there is a tough
call to take, the women of the Sampatisiri
family, who run and
manage Nai Lert Park
B a n g k o k , a R a ff l e s
International Hotel, are ready to
show their bias for action.
The hotel’s hideaway garden, a rare
glimpse of greenery on Wireless Road,
is as famous as the three generations of
executives led by Thanpuying Lursakdi
Sampatisiri, honorary chairperson for
25 years and the only daughter of the
founder, Nai Lert.
At 89, Thanpuying still walks in her
garden every day and, surprisingly, in
the famous Chatuchak market, too,
on Wednesday mornings to buy some
saplings and flowers to plant in her
tropical garden. “You don’t feel old
or a loss of energy with these trees
(around) and when you are in such
natural environs. That’s why I get so
excited every time the annual flower
festival is to take place,” Thanpuying
is all smiles as she says this.
Nevertheless, Thanpuying thinks it
is a pity the downtown area was not
developed well.
She says, nowadays, many people
seem to be all right living without
trees. “I remember how my father
used to plant trees in the hotel and
on Chidlom, Ploenchit and Wireless
Roads before all of it became this
big city,” she says.
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
The hotel business managed by four
women of three generations—mother,
daughters and a niece—provides a
bond that completes their lives and extends to the business.
“We are thought to live a downto-earth life. We also have strong
ties with the land and are proud to
help improve it. Such awareness
and taking care of the environment
seems to be in our blood,” says the
second-generation managing director
and Thanpuying’s oldest daughter,
Bilaibhan Sampatisiri, 57.
Sanhapit Bodiratanagkura, 51,
Thanpuying’s another daughter, is in
the hotel’s committee. The third-generation participant is Thanpuying’s
niece, Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura,
27, the assistant managing director.
There are no special methods to
pass on the family’s values and run
the hotel business, as none of them,
except Naphaporn, studied the subject.
Like with many family businesses,
learning happens on the job.
“Grandma never taught us directly,
but we always learnt from her actions and behaviour,” Naphaporn
says. Bilaibhan echoes the thought
when she says, “Think about osmosis.
Mother frequently talks about her
father (Nai Lert), how he started businesses—such as the first bus service
in Thai history. Our principles are to
do the best we can, which may not be
good enough in the eyes of others but
to us it is. Also, to be honest, loyal,
frank and responsible.”
In comparison with the hotel’s ear-
lier operations, Bilaibhan says things
have changed dramatically.
The staff, today, is more professional
and speak better English, but smile less
and seem to lack a heart, unlike those
in the past. Earlier, the staff might not
have been speaking good English, but
they always smiled.
For the youngest executive of the
family, who graduated from Surrey
University, UK, in hotel management,
Naphaporn says the competition in the
business is fierce, but is confident she
can manage it. And then adds: “With
our different characters and age gaps,
sometimes, we might not agree with
each other. The final decision often is
that which is the best for the guest.”
Bilaibhan says: “We should give
credit to another important lady,
Khunying Xin Sampatisiri, Thanpuying’s mother. She was the one who
carried on this business after Nai
Lert passed away, and this when she
couldn’t read or write. She only knew
how to write her name and the numbers to put in a cheque.”
Finally, when Thanpuying Lursakdi
was asked whether she was satisfied
with the way her heirs managed matters, she says: “My daughters and my
grandchildren are doing very well,
not just in my presence, but all the
time. Like in the flower festival, we
are all holding hands .... And, I’m not
stressed. I don’t understand the meaning of that word. I only worry whether
I have done enough good. I only ask
everyone to do the best they can and
with good intentions.”
31
EXPLORE
British Colonial Building
Galle Face Green Hotel
Old Parliament Building
Colombo Municipal Council
32
The Fort
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Best-kept Secret
Marbled mosques, decorative Hindu temples, domed Buddhist temples and grand spiral
churches sit in spiritual juxtaposition—and often on the same street corner—in Colombo
By Glenn Gale in Colombo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
T
he capital cities of paradise destinations, such as Sri Lanka, are
not places where the visiting
traveller yearning for quality
sand, sea and sunshine time is
inclined to hang around for too long.
But Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital
and largest city, is a candidate to buck
that trend, what with its bright mosaic of vibrant modern life fused with
sedentary colonial charm. It is blessed
with the turquoise waters of the Indian
Ocean seductively kissing the shores of
its seaward flank and providing the
perfect backdrop to soothe the senses
and sap the tired soul.
To rewind the city’s historical lineage
going back centuries, the Romans,
Arabs and Chinese were very early
visitors. But it was the comparatively
later arrivals—the Portuguese, Dutch
and British—who left lasting cultural, social and spiritual imprints
that endure to this day.
And what picture-postcard contrasts are thrown up by cosmopolitan
Colombo: north of the city centre is the
bustling Fort business district with its
mix-and-match architecture of Victorian (a hark back to when the country
was part of the British Empire) and
glass-and steel modernism; to the
south the Galle Face Green where
promenading or jogging (or even
swimming or frolicking on the frothy
waves of seawater below) is a delightful way of local life; and to the east the
Pettah bazaar district where the lively
sights and sounds are as sharp as the
circulating aroma!
If you are interested in getting up
close and personal with Sri Lanka’s
cultural heritage, then Colombo is a
good starting point. Several museums
and art galleries bear eloquent testimony to this beautiful island’s rich historical past, and resonate with memories of a bygone era.
The Colombo National Museum,
ASIANEWS • SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008
Sri Lanka’s premier museum, is a
grand white-walled colonial building
that houses many of the island’s historical treasures, such as 4000-yearold archaic palm-leaf manuscripts,
rock sculptures from ancient provincial cities and the royal weapons of
Sri Lankan kings.
Follow that with a visit to the
Natural History Museum and the
Dutch Period Museum, and you
would have digested an almost
complete dose of the island nation’s
historical fare in one fell swoop.
Despite the negative vibes created in
the past two decades as a result of the
sectarian strife to the north of the country, Sri Lanka is noted for both its ethnic
and religious diversity. These positive
elements can be spotted in many parts
of Colombo where marbled mosques,
decorative Hindu temples, domed Buddhists temples and grand spiral churches sit in spiritual juxtaposition—and often on the same street corner.
Says Sri Lanka’s ‘Mr Tourism’, Renton de Alwis of the Sri Lanka tourism development authority: “Colombo is, indeed, one of the best-kept secrets in the
east and it’s time the world knew about
it. It’s a destination with contrasts and
that is what makes it so exciting.”
The city is also home to some of
the best hotels in Sri Lanka, ranging
from the Galadari. TransAsia, Hilton
and Cinnamon Grand in the modern
and luxurious five-star category, to
the grandiose period charm of the
150-year-old Galle Face Hotel and
Mount Lavinia Hotel.
Then there is the exciting new development of niche villas such as the
Colombo House, Casa Colombo and
the Tintagel (which has the distinction
of being the former home of three of
the country’s prime ministers) which
provide delightful contrast to their
five-star cousins. Of the three, Casa
Colombo bills itself as ‘retro chic’ and
really lives up to that boast with a
pink swimming pool!
Colombo also has attractive
hand-made leather products,
brass-ware and local crafts that can
be found in native boutiques like
the famed Paradise Road, Barefoot
Gallery and Lakmedura that are
dotted around the metropolis.
The city is also known to come alive
and kicking after dark as Sri Lankans
love to party on any given night. One of
the most popular nightspots is Tramps
(as in the legendary London nightspot)
at the Galadari where you can sip innovative cocktails and dance the night away
alongside Colombo’s beautiful people.
Incidentally, the 500-room
Galadari —where the general manager is Sri Lankan hotelier Sampath Siriwardena with almost three
decades of sterling experience with
some of the best known global hotel
brands—is tagged as the ‘businessman’s home in Colombo’.
“To get a real taste of our famous
Sri Lankan hospitality you have to
experience it. Here at Galadari Hotel
we have everything in place to offer
our guests that experience like no
other,” Siriwardena said.
Colombo is a key element in the
tourism master plan of Renton de
Alwis, regarded as one of the best
tourism brains in Asia-Pacific, having also served in the 1990s as vice
president (Asia) of the Pacific Asia
Travel Association.
He explains: “The current challenge,
as it has been in the past 30 years, is
to manage tourism in a social-political environment that is not optimal
to supporting tourism. Despite that
Sri Lanka tourism has done extremely
well to stay on top of things.
“Today the challenge is to set in place
policies and strategies to manage tourism in a post peace scenario.
“Our current platform is as an
‘Earth Lung’ where we are working
toward making Sri Lanka a carbonclean destination to contribute to the
global effort in mitigating climate
change. We are taking a proactive
leadership role in this area.”
33
BUSAN
Pusan International Filmfest
T
BACOLOD CITY
Masskara Festival
E
very year, Bacolod City celebrates
the MassKara Festival, one of the
most popular and colourful festivals in
the Philippines, to mark the city’s Charter Day. Coined from the English word
mass, for crowd, and the Spanish word
cara, for face — hence, “many faces,”
MassKara is a Mardi Gras-like celebration with masked dancers with colourfoul costumes dancing in the streets to
Latin rhythms.
When: Oct 1 - 21
SAKON NAKHON
Wax Castle Procession
T
o mark the end of Buddhist Lent or
‘Ok Pansa’, communities in Northeastern Thailand or ‘I-San’ stage an annual celebration consisting of a grand
procession of meticulously-carved wax
castles, long-boat races and festive celebrations. On the final day of the festival, which falls on the end of the Buddhist Lent, local residents make a trip to
the temples to make merit. The annual
wax castle procession is a special time
for family reunions with relatives reunited in merit-making activities, sharing in
goodwill as well as good times.
When: October 6 - 13
Where: Wat Phra That Choeng Chum
Temple, Sakon Nakhon
34
he 13th Pusan International Film
Festival will be held from October 2
to 10 in Busan, South Korea. Organisers of this year’s competition have gravitated towards Central and Southeast
Asia, in addition to inviting more films
from non-Asian countries. A Kazakh film,
“The Gift to Stalin,” directed by Rustem
Abdrashev, was picked to open the festival where 315 films from 60 countries
will be screened. Yoon Jong-chan’s “I
Am Happy,” starring Hyun Bin and Lee
Bo-yeong, has been chosen to close the
festival.
When: October 2-10
Where: Busan, South Korea
FUKUSHIMA
Nihonmatsu
Chochin Matsuri
H
eld every autumn in
Fukushima, Japan,
the Nihonmatsu Chochin
Matsuri (Paper Lanterns
Festival) is the festival
of the Nihonmatsu-jinja
Shrine. Seven floats with
350 lanterns each parade through the town to
the tune of pipes, large
drums, small drums and
festival music. At dusk,
the lanterns on each
float are lit up. The highlight of the festival is the
Yoi Matsuri (Evening Festival). Seven carts carrying large drums transfer
a flame from a bonfire to
the lanterns that resemble ripe rice crops, then
parade through the town
of Nihonmatsu accompanied by the energetic
shouts of youths while
festival music is played.
This festival has a tradition of 350 years.
MALAYSIA, PHILIPPINES, INDONESIA, SINGAPORE
Hari Raya Puasa
M
uslims celebrate the festival of Eid
ul-Fitr – popularly known as Hari
Raya Puasa (Day of Celebration) – to
mark the culmination of Ramadan, the
holy month of fasting. It is a joyous occasion for Muslims, as it signifies a personal triumph, a victory of self-restraint
When: October 4-6
Where: Nihonmatsu, Fukushima
and abstinence, symbolising purification
and renewal. The celebration is determined by the sighting of the new moon.
Muslims start the day by congregating at
mosques for morning prayers followed
by visits to the graves of the departed.
Everyone is usually decked out in their
traditional best to mark the special occasion. Plenty of traditional delicacies
are served during this festive season.
When: After Ramadan
SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2008 • ASIANEWS
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