Great Picture (17)

11 Sep 2010 - This impressive picture was published in the SCMP of today (the picture is by Aani Andriani). It is not Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur or Surabaya, but Hong Kong. It shows ranks of Muslim domestic workers packed together to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the festival Eid al-Fitr. The newspaper also paid rightfully attention to the plight of millions of Pakistanis, who are affected by the worst floods in the country for decades. They are still displaced, have no home to return to and no mosque to go to for prayer. Traditionally, people wear their new clothes for Eid, but this year there are no gifts and no new clothes. Many people xpress a feeling of helplessness and despair.

Lying Pilots

11 Sep 2010 - China's flight safety record has dramatically improved in recent years. But a recent string of accidents and near-accidents have put the focus on pilot's credentials. More than 200 pilots have exaggerated or lied about their experience in the past two years, mainland authorities said. In particular pilots working for Shenzhen Airlines stand out as a lying lot, and it is pointed out that Shenzhen Airlines owns Henan Airlines, the carrier responsible for the fatal crash a few weeks ago that cost 42 lives. China Business News quoted a senior manager as saying pilots who faked credentials had easily switched between different employers and had colored their resumes or were former military pilots, who mainly had experience flying small military planes. It was explained that a major cause of pilots' falsified credentials was the pilot shortage that has plagued mainland aviation for years.

Pin Up Diana

11 Sep 2010 - The "Made in China" brand is trying to polish up its image after the dramatic milk powder scandal and poisonous toys. However, sometimes things go a bit off track and controversy arises. A British journalist picked up the attached advertisement for women's lingerie called Diana. Guess three times who they are referring to (I have to admit that the tiara is a bit of a give-away). The advertisement was posted at an airport in Southern China and put on display on 31 August, exactly 13 years after the death of the famous princess. The journalist said he could not believe his eyes, as the model is a very close look-a-like of Princess Di. It is not totally clear what Wills is doing - nor what he is wearing - on the right side of the corner, but he seems very happy. As far as I know Buckingham Palace did not comment on the images.

Great Picture (16)

10 Sep 2010 - It is September and the summer is almost over. It was summer to remember: floods, storms, drought and lots of rain in other parts of the world. Is it really the 'El Nino" effect? Amsterdam had a lousy August, but beautiful June and July, as this picture from Elmer van de Marel proves.

Malaysian Santa

10 Sep 2010 - Happy Eid! Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. A Malaysian television station scrapped a commercial tied to the biggest Muslim holiday after viewers complained it appeared influenced by Christmas and Santa Claus. The ad depicted children travelling in a flying trishaw driven by a white-haired, elderly man to a fantasy land with sparkling lotuses and oil lamps. People believed the man was reminiscent of Santa Claus, and lotuses and oil lamps should not be depicted, saying those images seemed linked to Buddhism and Hinduism. The ethnic Malay population, who comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people, are mostly Muslim, while monirity groups practise Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. New anchors on the TV3 channel apologised for the commercial during a news broadcast on Sunday night.

Human Heat

9 Sep 2010 - The warmth generated by human bodies in the Parisian metro will help heat a public housing project in the city center. The building, located in the Rue Beaubourg close to the Pompidou museum, is being renovated in an environmentally friendly way. "the building is connected to the metro through a staircase," said Francois Wachnick from Paris Habitat., the capitals largest owner of social housing. The calories emitted by passengers, about 100 watts per person, combined with the heat generated by the trains moving along the tracks underground and the heat from the surrounding buildigs, mean that corridor temperatures can be kept at a reasonable 14 to 20 degrees Celsius all year round. I never knew French people were that cold?

Zebra Crossing

9 Sep 2010 - Drivers in Moscow were confronted by zebras walking back and forth across some of the city's busiest intersections last Friday. It was part of a police campaign to call attention to the importance of pedestrian crossings, known as zebra crossings, which are routinely ignored in the Russian capital, as in many other cities. The ignorance contributes to the horrific number of pedestrians who are mown down by passing cars, buses and trucks. The "zebras" were actually light grey circus horses painted with black stripes and they carried yellow signs on their backs that read: "careful, children are on their way to school." Drivers are aggressive and impatient in Moscow - as elsewhere - , where it is not unusual to see cars zipping down footpaths or through red lights. Drivers say it is too risky to stop because the ca behind them is unlikely to extend the same courtesy. It is not known how many zebras were ran over.

Trainspotting

8 Sep 2010 - Do you remember playing with the little toy trains as a kid? Well, a hotel in Japan has a unique star room that comes with a large built-in train set. The Washington Hotel in Tokyo's Akihabara district has built a train set into a 13th floor twin room that feautures a model of Tokyo Tower, a mosaic of the city's neighborhoods and the resort area of Hakone. It takes up four square meters and guests can run their own trains or rent one for Yen 1,000. 'The railway room is very popular with train lovers who start playing from the moment they enter the room until check-out, as well as with families," as hotel spokesperson said. Train-lovers pay up to Yen 25,000, twice the single room rate for the special suite, which opened in May. Bookings have been flowing in and the rooms is booked months in advance. However, this is probably not a good idea for the honeymoon.

Halal Burger

8 Sep 2010 - In the middle of the Ramadan and French fast-food chain Quick started serving halal-food only in 22 of its French outlets. Quick targets the underexploited market long ignored by other business. The bacon is gone from the bacon burger, replaced by smoked turkey. A new certificate on the wall proclaims that the rerstaurant's beef comes from cows slaughtered in line with Islamic law. Quick says that sales have doubled in the restaurants where they tested the concept, but the move has also triggered another debate about what it means to be French. Some fear Quick's policy will lead to further segregation with people eating in separate restaurants. Others said the restaurants will become muslim hang-outs preventing them from mingling with others. But Kentucky Fried Chicken France said it already serves halal chicken in its outlets for 19 years. Quick responded by saying it simply wants to sell its products to a larger number of people. Who is right?

Chinese Dictionary

7 Sep 2010 - The beautiful thing about language is that it evolves. New fashionable Chinese terms, commonly used in online forums, have made it into the language - or at least into the new Oxford Chinese - English English - Chinese dictionary. The book is said to be the largest single volume dictionary of its kind, it contains about 670,000 words and phrases with pronounciation in putonghua. Sixty editors worked on it for six years and there were no political considerations in the decisions on which words would be included. Shanzhai, used to describe China-made imitation products made it into the dictionary, as well as shengnu - used to describe a single woman beyond the usual age for marriage. Other included words that are symbolic for the sign of times are fangnu (mortgage slave), duanbei (homosexuality) and rouduganjun (botox). The dictionary does not include hexie or "river crab", which is widely used in internet forums to ridicule censorship attempts.

Sanlitun SoHo

7 Sep 2010 - I still remember going to Beijing's Sanlitun area in the 1990s and enjoying a beer in one of the (very) local bars. Who would have thought that a bit more than a decade onwards the area would have changed into one of the funkiest on the planet? The huge, upscale Sanlitun SoHo area was recently opened and completes the development of shopping malls, hotels and restaurants in this part of northeast Beijing. The project was developed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who says he remained faithful to his design obsessions - to soften hard urban lines and incorporate, rather than ignore, local contexts. An open development with no walls and the neighbourly feel of its New York namesake, one of the Sanlitun's SoHo's most striking features is what he calls the "Grand Canyon effect" achieved by the water pathway that runs through the length of the complex. The area is a must-see for every visitor to Beijing .   

Smoking Boy

7 Sep 2010 - A two years old Indonesian boy who smoked about 40 cigarettes a day has kicked the habit after receiving intensive specialist care. "He doesn't ask for cigarettes anymore," National Commission for Child protection secretary general Artists Merdeka Sirait said. A video of Ardi Rizal drawing heavily on cigarettes appeared on the internet in May and drew attention in Indonesia's failure to regulate the tobacco industry. Six months after his father gave him his first cigarette, the overweight boy was smoking two packs a day and threw tantrums if his addiction was not satisfied. Accompanied by his mother, the little man underwent treatment for his nicotine habit in Jakarta in July. Great parents - maybe they need some specialist help as well?

Corneille

6 Sep 2010 - Yesterday Dutch painter Corneille, co-founder of the avant-garde Cobra movement, died at the age of 88. Corneille, born as Cornelis Guillaume Beverloo, died in France where he lived and worked. The Cobra movement was founded after the second World War by artists from Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Brussels. The group preached freedom of color and form, and drew inspiration from children's drawings, primitive art works and the works by Joan Miro and Paul Klee. Corneille is considered one of the most important modern graphic artists of the last century. The group had great influence on Scandinavian art, and fellow Cobra member Karel Appel became world-famous. Corneille was also avant-garde in the sense that he commercialized his art at an early stage, by selling his prints to be used on t-shirts, pens and ties. His commercial instincts were not always appreciated in the art world. R.I.P.

Pornographic Pens

6 Sep 2010 - All over the world children are returning to school now the summer holidays are over. To sweeten their first day at primary school, German children are normally given a cardboard cone filled with sweets, but schoolchildren in Essen this year opened their cones to find pens that projected erotic images of women. Children attending the Adolf Reichwein school in the northwestern city received the cones from the German Communist Party the headmaster said. Angry parents who discovered what the pens given to their children showed informed the headmaster. The party said it had bought the pens from a discount store, which had said the pens lit up at the push of a button. "The German Communist Party deeply regrets what has happened and is outraged that this kind of things, which border pornography, can be purchased in normal shops," it said. It had offered to exchange the pens for something more suitable for children.

Playing the Violin

5 Sep 2010 - A Taiwanese violinist borrows an antique violin from a Museum for a performance in Hong Kong. The concert is a great success and after the performance he takes the ferry to relax a bit and enjoy the view on Victoria Harbor. Unfortunately he falls asleep. An observant thief sees the opportunity and steals the violin, but he does not know that it is valued at more than HKD 2,5 mio. He takes the instrument home and puts it on top of the cupboard. The ever observant Hong Kong police catches the thief through their CCTV system and brings the violin back to the distressed violinist. It seems a happy ending, but the museum decides to lend the artist any musical instrument again. The violinist promises himself never to fall asleep on a ferry ever again.

Baby Kingdom

5 Sep 2010 - Many developed Asian countries are confronted with low birth rates, and Governments despair how to boost up the birth rate. Taiwan unveiled a new slogan on Wednesday aimed at encouraging couples to have more babies in its latest bid to boost the island's dwindling birth rate, which is among the world's lowest. "Children - our best heirloom" is the somewhat awkward choice. The slogan was chosen via an online poll after garnering nearly a third of the 31,000 responses, followed by "Happiness is very easy; baby one, two, three" and "it's good to have a child", said the Interior Ministry spokesperson. The slogan's writer will get a prize of NT 1 million (HKD 242,600) while the phrase will be printed on government literature and leaflets, it said. Taipei also plans to start paying couples NT 20,000 for every newborn from next year onwards.

Historic Transplant

5 Sep 2010 - We had a lot of bad news in Hong Kong in recent weeks, so here is for some good news to start the week with. Last week the first combined heart and liver transplant in the city was successfully performed in Queen Mary Hospital. A 27-year-old woman with a rare hereditary condition which makes toxins accumulate in her liver and suffering from heart failure is the beneficiary. She was fortunate enough that a brain-stem dead man donated his heart and liver. The recipient donates her failing but still usable liver to a liver cancer patient. More than 65 medical staff work over 20 hours on the surgery. The two patients are expected to be discharged in two weeks. I wonder how it feels to be living with a donated heart - would it feel any different?