2015mtedailyissue26
TRANSCRIPT
BUSINESS 8
Government warns ‘illegal’ futures brokers Deputy minister for finance says firms will face legal action unless they voluntarily stop allowing customers to trade on foreign futures markets.
NEWS 6
Govt prepares to dole out millions in loansA US$300 million China-backed microcredit program will get under way before the monsoon cultivation season, a government official said yesterday.
BUSINESS 8
SPA seeks to change fortunes at hospital An Indonesian firm has been brought in to turn around Pun Hlaing Hospital, which has struggled to carve out a market among either the wealthy or middle-class over the past nine years.
NEWS 3
Trawler survivors face fight for compensationRecruitment agency that sent 29 Myanmar men to work on a Russian fishing trawler that sank April 2 says it has no responsibility to compensate survivors or relatives of the deceased.
PAGE
12PHOTO: AFP
Wa defy govt on peace meetUnited Wa State Army has invited Kokang rebels and their allies to a meeting on the Chinese border in early May, despite warnings from the government to exclude them from the conference of armed ethnic groups. NEWS 4
President U Thein Sein is welcomed
upon arrival at Halim airport in
Jakarta yesterday ahead of the
opening of the Asian-African
Conference. Asian and African leaders
will gather in Indonesia this week
to mark 60 years since a landmark
conference helped forge a common identity among
emerging states, but analysts say
big-power rivalries will overshadow proclamations of
solidarity.
WWW.MMTIMES.COM DAILY EDITION ISSUE 26 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
500Ks.
HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION
2 News THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi gives a speech at a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the death of U Win Tin, a senior member of National League for Democracy, in Yangon yesterday. Civil society groups used the day to call for the release of political prisoners, of which there were 173 at the end of March, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
IN PICTURES
PHOTO: AFP
Campaign targets increase in preschool enrolmentEducation officials are to launch a major push to persuade parents in the countryside to send their toddlers to preschool.
The goal will be to raise preschool attendance overall from 22.9 percent to 25pc, they say.
“We need to explain to parents the benefit of sending their children to preschools in Basic Education schools. The main intention is to get more children in the villages to attend,” said one official.
Preschool enrolment in towns is 39.1pc, but only 15.9pc in the villages. The area with the highest preschool enrolments is Kayah State, and the lowest is Rakhine State, according to a report for the All Inclusive Education Sector Review.
“We are now getting preschool teachers recognised as government personnel. Two teachers will be as-signed to each preschool classroom no matter how many children there are, and we plan to open 18 model preschools in the next year,” the official said.
As of 2014, there were more than 3.5 million children aged between three and five, according to the population department. – May Thinzar Naing, translation by Khant Lin Oo
Dengue on the rise in Mon StateA DRAMATIC increase in deadly den-gue fever has put nearly 150 people in hospital in the past four months, in-cluding one patient who died, health officials in Mon State say. Dr Nyan Sint, head of the state dengue haemorrhagic fever department, said there were now 148 people in Mawlamyine hospital suf-fering from the fever. Normally there are just a handful of patients at any one time, he said.
“The reasons for the increase are the rise in population in urban areas,” he said, also citing unplanned village development and climate change.
The rapid increase in the number of dengue patients began with an out-break in Katoe village, about 25 kilo-metres from Mawlamyine’s downtown area, in January. The number of suffer-ers rose from 18 in January to 148, all of them children aged 15 or under.
Mon State Chief Minister U Ohn Myint raised the issue at a public meet-ing on April 6, urging people to take precautionary measures to protect against the mosquito-borne disease.
Dengue used to occur only in the rainy season, but now rages through-out the whole year, according to a Mon State dengue survey. Dengue haemor-rhagic fever, the more serious form of the disease, mostly afflicts young children. – Naw Say Phaw Waa
Rakhine party builds CPC ties
THE Rakhine National Party has announced plans for further coop-eration with China’s Communist Party, following a four-day visit to the country.
RNP leaders travelled to China at the invitation of the CPC from April 12 to 15. During the visit they dis-cussed issues related to the develop-ment of Rakhine State and its people.
General secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw said that while Chinese invest-ment was a controversial topic in Ra-khine State, his party would support
projects that benefit the Rakhine people.
The RNP told Chinese leaders of the need to build up basic infrastruc-ture in the state, including roads, bridges, hospitals and schools.
“We want to develop our state without anyone being harmed,” he said. “If it will help our state devel-op, we want to work with the Com-munist Party. China is important to us.”
Cooperation between the two par-ties is expected to grow in the com-ing months, with a CPC delegation scheduled to visit the state in May and the RNP to send Rakhine youth leaders to China in June.
U Tun Aung Kyaw said they would learn about the CPC and China’s po-litical system, and gather ideas on how to strengthen the RNP.
‘‘The Chinese government would help them the scholarship. I think our trip was very profitable too and our state will develop soon.”
Chinese state-owned companies have invested billions of dollars in Rakhine State, in projects such as the Myanmar-China oil and natural gas pipelines, and a port on Made Island, in Kyaukpyu township.
However, its investment has been controversial, with large protests tak-ing place outside the Made Island fa-cility in April 2013.
“China has invested in our state but its projects should be set up so there is no environmental impact,” said RNP leader U Aye Maung. “If the local people are not satisfied, they can’t move forward with the project. We discussed this issue with the CPC.”
The RNP was born from a 2013 merger between the Rakhine Na-tionalities Development Party and the Arakan League for Democracy. The party was formally established in March last year, and controls eight seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw, six in the Amyotha Hluttaw and 18 seats in the Rakhine State Hluttaw.
The party plans to contest 75 seats in this year’s election in a bid to win control of the Rakhine State Hluttaw and possibly the regional govern-ment – but only if the constitution is changed to give legislatures power to form them.
The party’s task will be made easier this year by the government’s recent decision to cancel white cards, which will almost certainly strip at least 600,000 Muslims in the state of voting rights.
YE MON
IN BRIEF
CSOs to lead two workshopsat ASEAN forumRepresentatives from Myanmar are to organise two key workshops in the ASEAN People’s Forum that opened yesterday in Malaysia.
Gender and Development Initiative-Myanmar (GDI) is leading discussions on peace process negotiations and refugee issues in the Southeast Asian region.
“We chose the ceasefire-related workshop because there is no safe or systematic mechanism for public participation [in Myanmar’s ceasefire process],” said U Salai Isaac Khen, executive director of GDI.
He added that the refugee workshop would formulate recommendations to help ASEAN governments respond effectively to the issue.
Dr May Shi Sho, coordinator of Karen Development Network and a par-ticipant in the forum, said the events showed ASEAN “has recognised the value of input from the public”.
“We have to discuss not only refu-gees but also migrant workers,” said Dr May Shi Sho.
Participants in the four-day forum will conduct 70 workshops, of which Myanmar organisations will be involved in five. About 60 Myanmar civil society organisations and 50 Myanmar refu-gees from Malaysia will be taking part.
– Nyan Lynn Aung
News 3www.mmtimes.com NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | [email protected]
Russian trawler survivors battle for compensation
MYANMAR seamen who survived an icy shipwreck off Russia’s Far East are now facing a battle over compensa-tion, with local recruiters who posted them on the ill-fated vessel reluctant to take fiscal responsibility.
The Myanmar Seamen’s Federation is helping the survivors, who were re-patriated on April 12, to take on the local recruitment agencies that trans-ferred 42 Myanmar workers to Rus-sian trawler the Dalniy Vostok.
Just 22 of the Myanmar fishermen survived the April 2 disaster, which saw the ship plunge into near-freezing waters in the Okhotsk Sea.
The bodies of 16 Myanmar crew members who died were recovered by rescue teams, while four others were never found.
So far, only two of the five re-cruitment firms that sent Myanmar workers – in violation of government regulations that prohibit Myanmar seamen from working on fishing ves-sels, or from being transferred to an-other vessel without prior approval – have agreed to make life insurance
payments.Top Chances Shipping Company
and Asia Wave Company told The My-anmar Times yesterday that the fami-lies of the two deceased seamen they sent to the sunken trawler will receive US$30,000 each, provided the con-tracted insurer, Nova Life Insurance, pays up.
“We will give life insurance and compensation to those who were un-der our responsibility,” said U Nyi Nyi Thein Myint, managing director of Top Chances.
He declined to say what kind of compensation, if any, would be given to survivors, who paid recruiters thou-sands of dollars to secure jobs on a foreign vessel.
Sea Rider Shipping, which sent 27 workers to the Russian freezer trawler, was less forthcoming about compensation.
“I can only speak definitively about life insurance money when I get ap-proval from the insurance company,” said manager U Soe Tint, adding that the “long process” would take at least three months.
U Than Chit Kywel, director of Star Global Shipping Company, said com-pensation was the responsibility of the South Korean intermediary agencies that secured the seamen a job with the Russian company.
“We didn’t make a direct contract
with [Russian firm] Magellan – we made a contract with the [South] Ko-rean company so the [South] Korean company is responsible for compensa-tion,” he said.
The Seamen’s Federation said My-anmar agencies are obligated to pro-vide compensation and has requested the government’s Department of Mari-time Administration to pressure them to comply.
“They took the money from the seamen who encountered disaster on the trawler,” said federation chair U Htut Htut.
Following revelations that the recruiters had violated numerous regulations, including deliberately falsifying seamen’s papers, the mari-time administration suspended the licences of five recruitment agencies. However, no legal action has been initiated against the firms.
An official from the administration declined to comment when contacted.
While obtaining compensation from the recruiters continues to prove elusive, the Myanmar fishermen were promised funds from Russia, which seized the accounts of ship owner Magellan LLC in a pending criminal investigation.
In a statement on April 10, the Russian Investigative Committee said three of Magellan’s directors have been arrested and the government has
seized the company’s property and ac-counts, worth an estimated 17 million rubles (US$318,000). It has promised to reimburse the foreign crew.
“They worked for very low wages and, of course, were not registered anywhere,” the report said.
The Investigative Committee blamed the disaster on “pathological greed [that] led to a loss of the ship and the deaths of several dozen peo-ple”, as the captain overloaded the ship with fish.
By the end of April the survivors will be paid $3000 each and the de-ceased victims’ families will receive $15,000 each, according the Myanmar embassy in Moscow.
“The money is according to the friendship of Russia and Myanmar and is a compassionate grant, not com-pensation,” said U Phone Lin Kyawl, a consular official based in Moscow.
But the surviving seamen, who have yet to receive any money, said they were confused about the process. To clarify the situation, the Seamen’s Federation plans to hold a meeting with the survivors today. It has already cautioned the fishermen away from making any hasty decisions regarding compensation offers.
“We already warned the seamen not to sign any documents from the companies before discussing it with us,” federation chair U Htut Htut said.
WA LONE
Survivors of the Russian trawler disaster pose for photos after arriving at Yangon International Airport on April 12. Photo: Supplied
Kayan leaders push for autonomy
ETHNIC Kayan leaders are call-ing for the group to be given its own self-administered zone, with territory to be carved out of Shan and Kayah states.
Myanmar’s constitution cre-ated five self-administered zones – for the Naga, Pa-O, Danu, Palaung and Kokang – and a Wa Self-Administered Region.
However, it makes no provi-sion for the Kayan, a subgroup of which are known as Padaung and are famous for the bronze coils women wear around their necks.
Lieutenant Colonel Win Maung from the Kayan New Land Party said self-administra-tion was important to the Kayan.
“The development of our race has to be undertaken by us. We plan to ask the government for [self-administration],” he said.
“There are already other self-administered regions in Shan State. I don’t see why we can’t also have self-administration.”
He said the group had previ-ously called for self-administra-tion, without any result, but was heartened by plans to amend the 2008 constitution.
Most Kayan live in Demawso township, Kayah State, and Pe-kon township, Shan State.
Kayan Literature and Culture Association chair U Than Soe Naing said his group was col-lecting data to support its bid for greater autonomy.
“We will push for self-ad-ministration until we obtain it,” he said. – Translation by Kyawt Darly Lin
MAUNG [email protected]
‘The development of our race has to be undertaken by us ... I don’t see why we can’t have self-administration.’Lieutenant Colonel Win Maung
Kayan New Land Party
Myanmar asylum seeker in first Cambodia-bound batch
A MYANMAR asylum seeker is among the first five men to allegedly accept an offer to leave detention on the Pa-cific island of Nauru for resettlement in Cambodia, according to a refugee advocacy group.
The five would be the first to ful-fil a highly controversial refugee deal signed by Cambodia and Australia last September. Australia has promised a nearly US$40 million aid check to Cambodia in return for accepting the refugees.
One Iranian, three Sri Lankans and a Rohingya asylum seeker are reportedly the first to agree to the ar-rangement, according to Ian Rintoul,
spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
However, none of the men have received refugee status yet, accord-ing to Keo Sarith, director of Cambo-dia’s immigration department, and his country has agreed only to accept “real refugees with refugee status not asylum seekers”.
Refugee advocates fear the Abbott government is trying to fast-track the refugee process and exchange claim approval for Cambodian resettlement.
“The Australian government has had to ask asylum seekers because there are few, if any, refugees who are willing to be transferred to Cambodia,” said Mr Rintoul.
He added that cash-in-hand sums of A$10,000 to A$15,000 (US$7800 to
$11,700) are being offered to asylum seekers, giving the impression that “agreeing to go to Cambodia is one way of getting a refugee visa”.
Eager to get the ball rolling, Aus-tralia circulated an informational sheet earlier this month on the ben-efits of resettling in Cambodia, prom-ising a first flight “as soon as April 20”.
Australia’s immigration minister said the flight was delayed due to “lo-gistical errors” but counterparts in Phnom Penh expressed confusion over the date, as they expected to first vet any “volunteers”.
A Cambodian delegation is visiting Nauru to assess the first group, ac-cording to both Australian and Cam-bodian officials.
“We don’t know when they will
arrive in Cambodia. We have to meet with them first as we have no idea yet if they are really volunteers or not,” said Mr Sarith.
In addition to an erroneous date, the Australian government’s circu-lated letter made a range of grandiose promises to lure would-be resettlers.
“Cambodia is a safe country, where police maintain law and order. It does not have problems with violent crime or stray dogs,” the letter said, also promising “villa-style accommoda-tion”, good healthcare, and education and business opportunities to the first batch or refugees.
The picture described contrasts with Australia’s warnings for tourists interested in visiting Cambodia, which caution that opportunistic crime,
including assaults, armed robberies, extortion and banditry, is “common”.
“I find it appalling that Australia is telling refugees they’ll get this marvel-lous deal if they come as part of the first flock. It’s bribery of the first class,” said Sister Denise Coughlan of the Jesuit Refugee Service, which works with Cambodia’s Rohingya refugee population.
“Most refugees in Cambodia don’t want to stay here,” she said.
Over the weekend, refugees on Nauru staged a protest, chanting, “Cambodia, never, ever,” according to Mr Rintoul.
After the deal was signed, some asy-lum seekers staged suicide attempts, while others sewed their mouths shut in opposition.
LAIGNEE [email protected]
4 News THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
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Refugees return to Laukkai from Lashio
IN a sign of reduced tensions in the volatile Kokang region, a party of dis-placed persons who had fled the fight-ing for camps in Lashio yesterday set off for home. However, observers warn that the fighting, now intermittent, might not yet be over.
Yesterday’s convoy, bound for Laukkai, was led by an aid foundation for relocation and resettlement.
U Kyaw Ni Naing, Laukkai’s Pyithu Hluttaw MP, said security in Laukkai was now stable.
“There were 241 IDPs, mostly My-anmar nationals and three Kokang ethnic families,” he told The Myanmar Times yesterday.
The foundation, formed by the gov-ernment, is led by U Hla Tun, minister for the President’s Office, and the chief minister of Shan State, U Sao Aung Myat. According to Radio Free Asia, the foundation currently has a fund of K500 million, mostly donated by busi-ness groups.
Some refugees who had crossed the border into China returned to Laukkai on April 13, but U Kyaw Ni Naing said there could still be more than 30,000 refugees in China. He added that 4000 rice packages were sent to Laukkai, where returnees can stay in temporary camps.
The fighting that erupted in Lauk-kai on February 9 between the Ko-kang armed group known as the My-anmar National Democratic Alliance Army and government troops has inflicted heavy damage on the local infrastructure, including houses. In an open letter to President U Thein Sein, U Kyaw Ni Naing requested that the presidential reserve fund be
used to rebuild the town.“I have asked the president for
K2-3 billion for the reconstruction of Laukkai,” he said.
Despite the return, intermittent fighting still threatens the security of the Kokang Self-administered Zone. Heavy fighting broke out north-east of Laukkai on April 19, killing two Ko-kang fighters and leaving one wound-ed, according to MNDAA spokesper-son Tun Myat Lin.
“The fighting occurred near Xi Kao Ling, Xi Tunt Swae and Xiao Lu Tang villages. They used new types of rockets,
including 122 millimetres,” he said.On April 19, state media reported
that 126 Tatmadaw soldiers had been killed since the start of the conflict, while more than 350 had been wound-ed. The report said the bodies of 74 MNDAA fighters had been recovered.
In a separate development, fight-ing between government troops and the Arakan Army (AA) broke out in Kyauktaw township, Rakhine State, on April 17 and 18. Lieutenant Colonel Nyo Tun Aung, the deputy command-er-in-chief of the AA, said the heavi-est fighting occurred on April 18, and
lasted about an hour.“The fighting started on March 29
and continued until April 18, before decreasing on April 19 and 20,” he said.
According to the Rakhine News Agency, the local authorities yesterday banned volunteers from Kyauktaw township from entering the war zone to provide humanitarian assistance. The agency said later that the local authorities had asked the aid groups to seek permission from the state gov-ernment to let them go to IDP camps in Kyauktaw that were badly in need of food and water.
LUN MIN [email protected]
Women who fled the fighting in the Kokang region sleep on the floor of a Lashio monastery on February 20. Photo: Zarni Phyo
Kokang rebels to push for peace deal in Wa capital
EI EI TOE LWIN
THE United Wa State Army has defied a government request to exclude ethnic Kokang rebels from a conference early next month at its headquarters on the China border.
Twelve armed groups, including the Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), will attend the May 1-3 meeting at Pangkham. The Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Lib-eration Army, which have been fighting alongside the MNDAA against the Tat-madaw since February, have also been invited.
The meeting comes after the gov-ernment’s peace negotiation team, the Union Peace-making Work Committee, reached a provisional agreement on a nationwide ceasefire with the Na-tionwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), which is negotiating the cease-fire on behalf of 16 armed groups, on March 31.
The UWSA is not a member of the NCCT but has previously indicated it will sign the agreement.
UWSA secretary U Aung Myint told The Myanmar Times yesterday that the group had been warned not to invite the MNDAA, the TNLA and the AA when it informed the UPWC that it was holding the meeting.
“We have to inform government of-ficials about the objectives and agenda
of the meeting. They wanted us to not invite them [the Kokang] but we invit-ed them because we think they should discuss peace with us,” he said, adding that the government had not said what action it would take if the UWSA de-fied it.
He said the decision on who to in-vite came from the UWSA central com-mittee. “We decided to invite the strong ethnic groups,” he added.
A senior official from the Myan-mar Peace Center said he had received no information from the govern-ment about the Kokang attending the meeting.
“Normally we would receive a let-ter if the government will take action against an armed ethnic group,” said U Hla Maung Shwe. “Up to now we haven’t received anything, so I can’t confirm this information.”
He declined to comment on how the meeting could affect plans for a ceasefire.
Participants at the Pangkham meet-ing will discuss the draft nationwide ceasefire agreement, as well as the cur-rent fighting between ethnic armed groups and the Tatmadaw.
“We have been planning to hold this summit since February but until now it hasn’t been possible. Now we have ar-ranged it to coincide with the signing of the draft ceasefire.”
An MNDAA spokesperson said the group would “definitely” attend the meeting and planned to discuss the fighting with the Tatmadaw. U Tun Myat Lin said the group wants its eth-nic allies to push the government to agree to a ceasefire in Kokang.
He added that the Tatmadaw had recently launched a strong military of-fensive to crush the Kokang group.
“We don’t want to fight any more – now we are just defending ourselves. We decided to attend the meeting to find a way with our ethnic allies to stop the fighting.”
The MNDAA and its allies have been fighting the government for con-trol of the Kokang region of northeast-ern Shan State since February 9. The government said on April 19 that 126 Tatmadaw soldiers have been killed in the fighting, while the bodies of 74 MN-DAA fighters have also been recovered.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes across the border into China, or inland to cities including Lashio and Mandalay.
While the MNDAA is a member of the NCCT, the government refuses to recognise it and has previously rejected offers of a ceasefire, despite China’s urging to find a political solution.
The NCCT has called on the
government to resolve the Kokang con-flict through political means. It has also said a final ceasefire agreement will be signed by all NCCT members, including the MNDAA.
Other groups that will attend the meeting include the Shan State Army-South and National Democratic Alli-ance Army – also non-NCCT members – as well as the Shan State Army-North, the Kachin Independence Organisa-tion, the Karen National Union, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the New Mon State Party and the Pa-O Na-tional Liberation Army.
However, the Chin National Front, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the KNU-KNLA Peace Council, the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, the Lahu Democratic Union, the Wa National Organisation and the Arakan National Council were not invited.
NCCT member U Khun Okkar said negotiators had urged the UWSA to invite all ethnic armed groups to the meeting.
Because the Wa had not done so, another conference will be convened to ratify the draft ceasefire, after which ethnic armed groups will sign the docu-ment with the government.
He said the NCCT hoped this could be achieved as soon as possible, and would meet in Chiang Mai on April 28 and 29 to prepare for a leaders’ summit to approve the ceasefire.
“Delaying the signing of the agree-ment will have negative impacts for both sides and could result in an esca-lation of the current fighting. We hope the summit meeting can be held in May, but have not yet decided where.”
MNDAA says it will urge other armed groups to pressure government to end fighting in the Kokang region
‘We don’t want to fight any more – now we are just defending ourselves.’
U Tun Myat Lin Myanmar National
Democratic Alliance Army
News 5www.mmtimes.com
Amputees get hand prosthetics
A FOUNDATION offering donated prosthetic hands to amputees has been overwhelmed by demand.
Daw Tin May Aung, head of the Dr Saw Mya Aung Foundation, said yester-day that the group had received 90 ap-plications for the 50 prosthetic hands in just two days.
She said the foundation plans to ask the Rotary Club in the United States that donated the hands to send another 100 to help meet demand.
In the meantime, the foundation will prioritise applicants based on their needs and suitability to the devices, which have the ability to seize and hold light objects and are not otherwise available in Myanmar. Most of the ap-plicants lost their hands while using agricultural or industrial machinery, Daw Tin May Aung said.
The foundation is named after late Rakhine politician Saw Mya Aung.
Between 2013 and 2015, the founda-tion distributed 50 prosthetic hands in Rakhine State, she said.
Pre-Thingyan campaign nets thousands
POLICE have attributed a sharp drop in the number of Thingyan-related crimes to a pre-festival cam-paign that resulted in thousands of charges being laid for alleged crimes including weapons and drugs possession and the sale of il-legal liquor.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said 174 cases were reported nation-ally during the festival, down 194 last year. However, the number of deaths still rose slightly, from 15 in 2014 to 16, while injuries were up sharply, from 190 to 356.
Cases ranged from car accidents, pickpocketing and theft to fights, rapes and weapons violations. No murders were reported.
Police Captain Thi Thi Myint from Yangon Region Police Force said the drop in cases was because of the pre-festival campaign, which also included an education component.
“We took preventative measures in all states and regions includ-ing Nay Pyi Taw one month before Thingyan ... making arrests so that crime rates were lower this year. We also gave educative talks,” she said.
The preventative cases totalled 2369, including 777 related to the sale of illegal liquor, 60 for narcotic drugs and 31 for possessing uncen-sored videos.
However, as The Myanmar Times has previously reported, police also forced pharmacies to stop selling registered birth control medicines, including emergency contraceptives, a move that health experts said was sorely misguided.
– Translation by Khant Lin Oo
TOE WAI AUNG
16Deaths during the Thingyan festival
SHWE YEE SAW [email protected]
A man uses a prosthetic hand to draw on a piece of paper. Photo: Supplied
Support teams formed for Letpadan detaineesSUPPORT groups have been formed in Yangon and Mandalay to help activists arrested at Letpadan in March fight charges that could see them jailed for years.
The All Burma Federation of Stu-dent Unions, better known as Ba Ka Tha, is working with human rights and legal experts, former political prisoners and community leaders to assist the 70
people being held at Tharyarwady Pris-on, member Ko Aung Nay Paing said. Another 11 have been released on bail.
The activists were arrested on March while protesting against the National Education Law after a violent crack-down by police. All are facing charges under five sections of the penal code. To date four hearings have been held.
“In cooperation with supportive
groups, we will seek justice for arrested students and their supporters … We will also cooperate with civil society groups,” Ko Aung Nay Paing said, add-ing that it was “obvious” that the de-tainees were being treated unfairly.
He said the teams formed in Yangon and Mandalay plan to issue a report on the crackdown. – Mg Zaw, translation by Zar Zar Soe
Police attribute a drop in crime during festival to a crackdown on illegal gambling, booze and drugs
6 News THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
New housing on the horizon for Maubin’s homeless
FAMILIES across the country are be-ing evicted from their homes because of the rising value of the land they oc-cupy illegally. Even families who have occupied their homes for years, often paying “rent” to local township of-ficials while improving the property, are being turned out into the street as once-worthless land now fetches sky-high prices.
Civil society leaders have declared growing landlessness a “time bomb”, and in some cases philanthropic ef-forts have been launched to address the issue. One of the largest programs is in rural Yangon Region, where sayadaw U Uttama has established two villages for previously homeless families, one in Hlegu and another in Thanlyin.
In Ayeyarwady Region’s Maubin township, at least a few of those af-fected are to be offered new homes. The founder of the Pyo Khinthi Foun-dation, U Than Htike Aung, told The Myanmar Times yesterday that 10 houses now being built by the founda-tion would be complete by the end of the water festival.
The 3-acre housing project, at Ei Wine village, will accommodate about 50 people who meet the conditions imposed by the foundation.
U Than Htike Aung said poor
homeless families would be consid-ered regardless of ethnicity or religion, but that gambling, alcohol, fighting and swearing were banned, and fami-lies would have to save K100 every day and organise their own social welfare. “Children must attend school. If the parents can’t afford it, we will pay,” he said.
Each family will get 400 square feet of land, including a 12-by-14-foot house (168 square feet total) with a toi-let. Occupation will be on the basis of a contract designed to prevent owner-ship disputes, and they will be offered jobs at a nearby fish farm owned by the foundation. U Than Htike Aung said the foundation would also pro-vide microfinance to enhance tenants’ livelihood.
On March 24, 12 families, num-bering more than 50 people, were evicted from their homes in No 9 quarter in Maubin township af-ter being threatened with prison if they did not move. Five have al-ready gone, with some renting space in others’ backyards for K5000 to K8000. Three families have asked the foundation to house them.
U Ohm Myint and his daughter’s family were evicted and are now living on a garbage tip. His daughter and her husband work at a brick factory, earn-ing about K3000 a day.
“I hope for a place, but there are others before me,” he said.
His neighbours, Daw Aye Than and her five family members, now live at a small cottage they found after being turned out.
“The court gave us notice to quit. I know this was not our land, but we paid K10,000 to a district official for the past seven years to let us stay,” she said.
A 44-year-old washerwoman, she
tearfully relates the circumstances. The land they lived on was subject to flooding, and there was no path. The families dug out the drainage to im-prove the field.
“When we appealed to the town-ship, they said it was nothing to do with them. Who could we go to? We did nothing wrong. Now I feel like hell,” she said. “All I need is five or 10
feet to sleep on. It’s harder to live than to die,” she said.
A Maubin township official, U Aye Thaung, told The Myanmar Times that district officials had given permis-sion to homeless people to stay on the land, for which each family would pay them K10,000. Some lived there for more than 15 years.
With the rise in land prices, as of late 2014 an acre of land by the main road can fetch up to K60 million. The landowners wanted their land back.
“This is a civil matter between the landowners and the families,” said U Aye Thaung, conceding that local offi-cials may have acted mistakenly in the past. “We will help to negotiate if there is a crisis,” he said, adding that the lo-cal authorities planned to invite com-panies to donate about 10,000 acres to rehouse poor families.
“This is happening all over the country. The government suggests a rehousing project, and when people hear about it they run and get the land to resell. There is also corrup-tion between government officials and businessmen. The poor stay poor and homeless.”
Maubin-based Metta Shin civil so-ciety organisation member U Zar Ni said, “Families in remote villages move to the city when they lose their land, but that doesn’t solve their problems. The more they try to narrow the gap, the wider it gets.”
CHERRY [email protected]
A volunteer helps to build a house for a homeless family in Maubin township, Ayeyarwady Region, last month. Photo: Cherry Thein
Sacred bone relic to tour Sri Lanka
A SACRED bone relic of the Gautama Buddha housed in a Mandalay mu-seum will be sent to Sri Lanka next week, where they will remain for a month.
Senior monks at U Khandi Monas-tery in Mandalay said the visit was be-ing organised at the request of officials in Sri Lanka, including the country’s ambassador to Myanmar.
The relics will leave Myanmar on April 28 and be taken to 10 cities in Sri Lanka. The tour will be broadcast live on the country’s Buddhism-focused television channel, said U Ardicca, the abbot of the monastery, which is located at the base of Mandalay Hill.
The visit is likely to be reciprocal, with Sri Lanka sending the Buddha’s lower left canine tooth to Myanmar at a later date, he said.
“The sacred bone relic will be wor-shipped for three days in each city,” U Ardicca said, adding that the request to send the relic had been made on April 7.
“We accepted their request so that the Sri Lankan people can worship the bone relics and Myanmar people can worship their tooth relic.”
The bone relic is housed at the U Khandi Museum, which is near the monastery at the base of the hill.
It was conveyed to Mandalay from Pakistan’s Peshawar by Prince Pyinmana, son of King Mindon, in 1910. In 1924, the hermit U Khandi
constructed a building for the relic on Mandalay Hill.
The tour will be the relic’s first since 2008, when it was sent to Indo-nesia. The previous year it travelled around Malaysia.
In Mandalay, the relic can be seen by the public on Sabbath days, al-though U Ardicca allows pilgrims from outside Mandalay to worship it on non-Sabbath days upon request.
However, despite its significance for Buddhists the relic is not widely known outside Mandalay, said resi-dent Ko Man Ko.
“It is the real bone relic of the Bud-dha, not a copy,” he said. “But just a few people know that it is kept at the monastery on Mandalay Hill.”
– Translation by Thiri Min Htun
Officials from the Sri Lankan embassy visit U Khandi Monastery on April 7 to seek approval for a bone relic to tour Sri Lanka from April 28. Photo: Si Thu Lwin
SI THU [email protected]
Govt to hand out loans before start of monsoon
THE Ministry of Cooperatives will begin distributing microloans us-ing US$300 million borrowed from China ahead of the monsoon cultivation season, a senior official says.
Loans of K100,000 to first-time customers will be offered to farm-ers, including those raising live-stock and fish, while former cus-tomers who have paid back loans will be eligible for up to K500,000.
The interest rate will be 1.15 percent a month, down from the 1.5pc of an earlier China-backed loan program, Cooperative De-partment deputy director U Myo Aung said yesterday.
“We are preparing to loan money to farmers … in May and June. We intend to lend the mon-ey before rainy season in all states and regions,” he said.
The loans are being offered under a controversial loan from the Export-Import Bank of China that was approved by parliament on March 10, following intense debate.
Some representatives ques-tioned the efficacy of the program, and the government’s ability to manage it, as well as the relatively
high interest rate on the Chinese loan. Myanmar must repay the loan within 10 years, in addition to 5.3pc in annual interest and fees.
However, other MPs were sup-portive, saying that it would mean farmers did not have to borrow at much higher rates from illegal moneylenders.
Of the $300 million, $220 mil-lion will be lent to farmers and
people from breeding and fishery sectors who have never received any loans, while $50 million will be lent to customers who have paid off their debts.
The remaining $30 million will be spent on agricultural ma-chinery, which will be sold to farmers under a hire-purchase program.
China has agreed to lend My-anmar $700 million for poverty al-leviation and rural development. To date Myanmar has received $100 million.
– Translation by Thiri Min Htun
Parliament approved $300 million loan from China for microcredit program in early March
HTOO THANT
1.15%Monthly interest rate on loans from
the Ministry of Cooperatives
News 7www.mmtimes.com
ViewsFair pay for Myanmar’s civil servants
AS the economy continues its bus-tling run – fuelled by frontier-market optimism – it’s worth taking stock of an economic issue that rarely gets the attention it deserves. With so many words spilled on high rents and over-priced hotel rooms, there’s barely any room at the inn for discussion about wages, particularly the pay of the decision-makers who keep the entire system in order.
With around 1 million civilian employees, the Myanmar civil ser-vice reaches the length and breadth of the country. While some people still labour under the misapprehen-sion that rank-and-file civil servants were the handmaidens of dictatorial excess, they are almost always, in fact, the very embodiment of understated Myanmar values.
These civil servants do the jobs that need to be done: processing forms, assessing new legislation, managing local disputes and imple-menting central government fash-ions. It is a largely thankless set of tasks: Few notice when things are done right, with courtesy and success. It’s easy to accumulate stories of mis-communication or ill-will. The simple
reality is that most Myanmar civil servants just get on with their jobs.
Those jobs do not pay much. A lower desk clerk can expect to take home K150,000 a month. That might seem a lot in the impoverished hills of Chin State, or for a young, single man or woman without any other re-sponsibilities, but it only just covers the costs for those commuting be-tween Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw, and makes a modest contribution to the growing bills for a family in urban Myanmar.
For many, a weekly commute be-tween Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw costs at least K15,000, which, once inci-dentals and other charges are taken into account, can quickly mount to K100,000 a month. That’s just to
make the journey to Nay Pyi Taw each Sunday, and back on Friday afternoon.
Given that wages are so low, it’s no surprise that the government has decided to raise pay rates three times in three years. According to Thura U Shwe Mann, this is his proudest achievement as speaker of the Pyi-daungsu Hluttaw. It gives hundreds of thousands of usually hard-working people a fighting chance to survive in an increasingly difficult economic environment, where inflation quickly erodes spending power and the rela-tive value of capital over labour in-creases day-by-day.
To put it in perspective, a senior government officer of the deputy di-rector level, who may be responsible
for hundreds of staff, a considerable budget and set of operations, is now being paid K310,000 a month. This gives them a chance to save a bit more each week, after expenses for travel and food are taken care of.
Families without other income streams will still, however, need to make careful decisions and certain-ly benefit from non-salary income. Ownership of real estate has helped some to generate wealth, particularly through rents, although these can’t be counted on for the long term.
Another issue is that the pay rates for civilian government officials are yet to be re-aligned with their mili-tary counterparts. The equivalent of a deputy director in the army is a lieutenant colonel. They are paid
K410,000 a month and have access to extra allowances if they are deemed deserving of “danger pay”. This means that a lieutenant colonel is actually paid more than a deputy director gen-eral - one of the highest ranks in civil-ian government service - despite be-ing the equivalent of two ranks lower.
The two-tiered system, which was introduced in 2006, already leads to resentment among those civilians who feel they deserve equal treat-ment. It also reinforces the sense among military officers, even those of middling rank, that they are more im-portant and more valuable than their civilian peers. It ensures that the two chains of command don’t work to-gether as smoothly as they should. And it introduces a significant struc-tural flaw which could, in time, make Myanmar’s internal affairs even hard-er to manage.
Raising pay rates – for civil serv-ants, but also for ministers, parlia-mentarians and many others – en-sures that these jobs are still attractive to qualified candidates. But many civil servants have already weighed up their alternatives and are looking for the exit. Private firms and inter-national organisations are usually the beneficiaries of the training and expe-rience that former civil servants bring to the table. A talented deputy direc-tor would likely command US$2000 a month in the private sector – six or seven times their government wage.
Giving Myanmar’s civil servants enough to live on is one way of en-suring that the reforms ordained from on high are actually imple-mented on the ground. It is these nameless and faceless public serv-ants who are expected to get down to steady business – and their duties will continue regardless of who wins the next election, or the one after that. It is such continuity of official capacity that will ensure Myanmar’s infrastructure continues to improve, that its schools and hospitals can leapfrog into the 21st century, and that its people have new confidence in their justice system.
Nicholas Farrelly is a partner at Glenloch Advisory and a fellow at the Australian National University. He leads an Australian Research Council project on Myanmar’s political cultures in transition.
NICHOLAS FARRELLY
Recent parliament-approved wage rises bring some relief, but disparities between civilian and Tatmadaw salaries remain problematic
A senior government officer of the deputy director level, who may be responsible for hundreds of staff, a considerable budget and set of operations, is now being paid K310,000 a month.
Salaries for the lowest-ranking civil servants are often barely enough to cover the cost of weekly Nay Pyi Taw-to-Yangon bus trips. Photo: Naing Wynn Htoon
8 THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
Business
IT has been open for more than nine years, but Pun Hlaing Hospital is yet to turn a profit for First Myanmar In-vestment’s shareholders. The compa-ny’s management is betting, however, that an injection of US$10 million and a new philosophy on healthcare pro-vision will bring the hospital a new – and profitable – lease on life.
While it has enjoyed a positive cash-flow for the past three years through cost-cutting measures, the hospital has not generated a return for its share-holders since opening in 2005 due to the high capital investment.
Its location across the Yangon River in Hlaing Tharyar has never been one of its attractions. A bigger challenge is the tendency among wealthier Myan-mar to seek treatment abroad.
In a June 2013 research report, specialist research organisation Thura Swiss said the hospital was “too expen-sive for ordinary Myanmar citizens …and not trusted by the wealthy class who continue to travel to other coun-tries in the region for medical care”.
“As more international airlines move into Myanmar, the cost of travel-ling abroad is likely to decrease, creat-ing an even more precarious position for the hospital,” the report said.
Now the hospital’s management is planning to invest heavily in
healthcare, said Serge Pun & Associ-ates (SPA) CEO Melvyn Pun in a re-cent interview.
Until this year, Pun Hlaing Hospital was 65 percent owned by SPA and 35pc owned by First Myanmar Investment (FMI).
In March, the Myanmar Investment Commission approved a partnership with the Indonesian company Lippo, which will initially invest $10 million, while FMI plan to invest a further $3 million for the remainder of 2015.
Both parties expect to invest sub-stantially more in the coming years to expand their facilities. The partnership between FMI and Lippo will be a 60-40 shareholding, with FMI holding the majority.
Mr Pun said SPA was the managing agent and major shareholder of FMI.
“SPA’s role will predominantly be [to act] as the majority shareholder of FMI, while the major businesses and operations will be held by FMI. We do not intend for SPA to hold significant investments directly,” he said, adding, “Healthcare will be one of the four pil-lars of key businesses for FMI.”
FMI also plans to open more clinics, including at Mandalay and Bagan, as well as a 24-hour acute care and emer-gency centre in downtown Yangon.
Now the hospital is preparing to launch a new “on-duty model”, start-ing May 20, where patients will get the appropriate care from the appropriate clinician at all times of the day. Effi-ciency will be improved by reducing the hospital’s floor space from 20,000 square metres to 16,000, while at the same time increasing bed numbers by
100 to 165.A tiered pricing structure will also
be introduced to entice new clients, with prices ranging from $10-15 a night to about $200 a night for the “VVIP” category, while the cost of care varies case by case.
The new four-lane bridge that opened last November could also help entice more patients to make the trip out to Pun Hlaing.
The new chief executive of the hos-pital, Dr Gershu Paul, brings a wealth
of international management experi-ence. Born in Sri Lanka, educated in India, he worked in hospital manage-ment in New Zealand before spear-heading the expansion of the Siloam hospital group in Indonesia, nurturing it from four hospitals with a combined $30 million in revenue in 2006 to 20 hospitals earning $350 million less than eight years later.
The challenges he faces in Myanmar are similar those in Indonesia, particu-larly the lack of human resources and
heath facilities, he said in a recent in-terview at the hospital.
“Doctors are moonlighting in every hospital here,” he said of a practice that undermines continuity of care.
Some additional help could come from abroad, in the form of repatriat-ing and foreign specialists. Dr Paul said he had regularly encountered Myan-mar doctors throughout his career in high-ranking posts around the world. He has managed to lure many key specialists back, including in neurosur-gery, orthopaedics, internal medicine, radiology, anaesthesia, emergency care and paediatrics.
Dr Paul has employed 14 full-time repatriate specialists and added two foreign specialists in intervention car-diology and plastic surgery.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, Yangon Medical School was the cradle of health education in the whole Asian basin – so much so that a Myanmar doctor could go to the UK and just practise without doing an exam,” he said.
But there are only about 25,000 practising doctors in Myanmar, or less than one for every 2000 people. There are also about 7000 specialists, most of which are centred in Yangon.
Dr Paul seems unfazed by the chal-lenge he has taken on at Pun Hlaing, and says he believes Myanmar’s private health system will emerge from its shell far more quickly than the six or seven years it took Indonesia after 1999.
“The technology penetration will be much more rapid, I believe, and there will be opportunities for us to leapfrog … and develop in a much shorter pe-riod of time.”
Pun Hlaing Hospital gets injection of capital and ideas
THE government is to issue a formal warning to “illegal” online futures trad-ing companies to stop trading once of-fices reopen at the end of the Myanmar new year holidays today, according to U Maung Maung Thein, deputy minister for finance.
“They are not operating in accord-ance with related laws. And we are seriously afraid that people would be cheated. There is no regulator for futures exchanges. So if people have problems, they can’t sue anybody,” the deputy minister said in an interview with reporters.
According to an investigation by The Myanmar Times, five or six futures ex-change brokerage companies operate in Myanmar and most have been es-tablished since around mid-2014. They say they provide a service to Myanmar clients to invest in futures exchanges of foreign countries.
Each company serves futures ex-changes in individual countries, includ-ing New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia. Futures trading is most-ly conducted in contracts for commodi-ties such as gold, oil and gas, and tim-ber, as well as foreign currencies.
Experts have warned that online trading in futures contracts is gaining ground in Myanmar without proper
regulation and that investors are not fully aware of the potential for large losses.
The deputy minister said the gov-ernment would serve serious warning notices to the brokerage companies personally. If they did not then stop their business then the government would instruct police to launch crimi-nal investigations and prosecute them, he said.
Futures trading is not provided for under the law in Myanmar which has only enacted the July 2013 securities exchange law. In the prohibition and punishment chapter of the law, sec-tion 22 states that no one may operate a business of a stock exchange with-out permission from the Security Ex-change Commission Myanmar, which is chaired by U Maung Maung Thein.
Ma Myat Myat, assistant business manager of Asian E-Trade Consultant (ATC) which acts as a futures exchange broker for the New Zealand Futures Ex-change, said the company had both a licence from Myanmar’s Directorate of Investment and Company Administra-tion (DICA) and the recognition certifi-cate from the New Zealand exchange.
Financial advisor Ko Mynn Nyi Nyi of Inter Pan Myanmar, a broker for Indonesia Futures Exchange, also said they had a licence from DICA since Au-gust 2014, and that their company pro-vided good opportunities for Myanmar
investors.“Our parent company from Indone-
sia is 29 years old and is in the top three of ASEAN’s most profitable broker com-panies for clients,” he added.
The deputy director of DICA, Daw Nilar Mu, said the company licence is-sued by the department only applies to the use of the company name and is just a form of registration. These licenc-es can be used to compete in tenders, she said. But she noted that such com-panies also require permission from rel-evant government organisations, in this case the finance ministry.
Ma Myat Myat from ATC brokerage said the company had made financial deposits with the government, but she did not say how much.
The deputy minister for finance rejected that. “If they give a deposit, I must know about that. But I have never heard about that.”
Two clients who invested through ATC, but asked not to be identified, told reporters they had been able to earn about US$2000 within two or three months. But Ma Myat Myat cautioned that some clients had lost all their in-vestments, up to $10,000.
U Maung Maung Thein warned, “I want to give a message to the people not to give their trust easily and not to be greedy.” He said the ministry would warn the public about the illegal nature of futures trading companies.
DEMAND for sugar in China’s Yunnan province has risen to K1030 a viss, or about US$600 a tonne, since the end of the Thingyan holiday, exporters say.
The deputy chair of the Myanmar Sugar and Sugar-related Products Mer-chants’ and Manufacturers’ Associa-tion, U Win Htay, told The Myanmar Times yesterday that this was the first price rise since 2011, and was about 50 percent higher than the world sugar price of less than $400 a tonne.
In Shweli prices reached K1300 a viss (one viss equals 1.6kg or 3.6lbs).
“The sugar is for Yunnan only, be-cause it is inland. The rest of the coun-try can get sugar imported by ship, but Yunnan relies on [cross-border trade from] Myanmar. We don’t know how long this price will hold up, maybe only a month. Mostly our merchants are based in Mandalay and the Chinese buyers come to us. They handle the
transportation themselves,” he said.In April 2011, the price of sugar
cane, raw sugar and local white sug-ar stood at K740-780, K950-995 and K1340-1380 respectively. Current prices are K550-560, K650-695 and K1000-1030.
The sudden rise follows a signifi-cant drop in the first two months of this year. The sugar cane season runs from January to the end of May. The world price per tonne was $480 in February, falling to $370 in April.
U Win Htay said that in 2013 ex-ports to China amounted to about 100,000 tonnes. Last year China bought 400,000 tonnes of higher-quality sugar from Vietnam, but noth-ing from Myanmar. No cross-border trade took place during the fighting in the Kokang region, but normal trade has now resumed.
“The sugar is going across the bor-der via both Chinshwehaw and Muse,” said U Win Htay, adding that in China, the import of sugar was illegal. “We never go to China to sell sugar. Chi-nese merchants contract with each other,” he said.
It is estimated that about 10,000 tonnes of sugar has been exported to China so far this year.
A Bloomberg report in February citing commodity trader Group Sopex predicted that the sugar market was set to turn bullish after four years of declining prices and production curbs and that worsening shortages were set to continue through 2017-2018.
Sugar prices rise in Yunnan province
Government to warn ‘illegal’ futures brokers KYAW PHONE [email protected]
KHIN SU [email protected]
PER TONNE
$600
Price of sugar imported by Yunnan
STUART DEED
A patient checks in at Pun Hlaing private hospital which is investing heavily in its future. Photo: Thiri Lu
FMI in deal with Indonesian healthcare provider Lippo to turn fortunes around at the hospital after nine years of losses
9BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | [email protected]
Exchange Rates (April 21 close)
Currency Buying SellingEuroMalaysia RingittSingapore DollarThai BahtUS Dollar
K1150K293K787
K32.8K1070
K1170K304K796
K33.8K1080
Japanese train sets word speed record
Party over for China’s luxury car market
BUSINESS 10 BUSINESS 11
CARLSBERG has launched sales of its locally brewed Tuborg and Yoma brands as it seeks to become the first post-sanctions foreign producer to break into a growing beer sector dominated by state and military-backed enterprises.
The two beers made it to market in time for Thingyan new year celebra-tions after delays of several months caused by the licensing process.
The Carlsberg Group came to My-anmar in early 2013 in anticipation of a bubbly beer sector. And although surveys suggest a majority of men and women are lifetime abstainers from al-cohol, the relatively untapped market represents a big opportunity as Myan-mar urbanises, according to Carlsberg Myanmar marketing director Birgitte Weeke Christensen.
Carlsberg established a local part-nership with Myanmar Golden Star Breweries (MGS), taking a 51 percent stake in their joint venture Myanmar Carlsberg Co Ltd, and building a US$50 million brewery in Bago. U Thein Tun, chair of MGS, also heads Myanmar Consolidated Media, which publishes The Myanmar Times.
“We have followed the develop-ments in Myanmar closely and are encouraged by the recent political developments in the country. We be-lieve that the timing is right for us to invest,” said senior vice president of Carlsberg Asia region Roy Bagat-tini in a statement. “We expect that the Myanmar beer market will grow strongly in coming years as the econ-omy expands.”
Sales started in early April of Tuborg in kegs, cans and bottles while Yoma – which means mountain range in Myanmar – is so far only available
in kegs and cans. The joint venture also plans to produce the flagship Carlsberg beer which will be marketed as a pre-mium drink.
Both Tuborg and Yoma are intended to challenge Myanmar Beer, the domi-nant brand in the sector owned by Un-ion of Myanmar Economic Holdings, a conglomerate close to the military. Dutch rival Heineken also hopes to be in the market soon, having established
a joint venture in 2013 with its own brewery
Figures from Euromonitor Inter-national show that the legal beer mar-ket – excluding black market imports, mostly from Thailand – hit 172 million litres in 2013, posting annual growth of 5.5pc since 2009. In dollar terms, beer sales amounted to $265 million in 2013, and have posted 14pc growth over 2009-2013. Annual growth of 21pc
is expected between 2014 and 2018, when the market will reach $675 mil-lion, according to Euromonitor.
Carlsberg’s Yoma has been tailored to Myanmar tastes and uses rice in the brewing process, Ms Christensen said.
“Ask a Myanmar what they want…they’ve got it,” she said of the beer, whose branding is meant to evoke es-capism from a busy world. “Everyone said Yoma is like when you leave all
your luggage, sit on a mountain top, and it’s refreshing,” she said. “The whole concept is about everything is changing quite fast, and you kind of need a bit of a chill out.”
Attention was also paid to Myanmar culture in the brewing process. Yoma’s alcohol content is set at 5.4pc, with the sum of the two digits equalling nine – a significant number in Myanmar Bud-dhist practices.
Carlsberg launches two local brews to challenge military’s grip on market
A Yangon drinker downs a glass of Myanmar Beer, whose dominant market share new entry Carlsberg hopes to challenge. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing
CATHERINE TRAUTWEIN
TRAUTWEIN
BOOM times are coming to what was, not long ago, one of Yangon’s forgotten townships. In particular, Ywar Thar Gyi ward of East Dagon township is draw-ing attention thanks to its improved road connections and services, local residents and real estate agents say.
Attractions include the local indus-trial zone, the Yangon Institute of Eco-nomics, bustling small shops and low property prices, say experts. The ward is also home to the city’s only mental hospital.
Long-time resident Daw Khin May said, “The prosperity used to be visible just near the hospital, the institute and the industrial zone, but now you can see it throughout the entire ward.”
Buyers and speculators started to take notice of the 97-square-kilometre ward in late 2012, said local estate agent U Thaung. “Buyers are interested in
the cheap land,” he said, adding that the interest was filtering down from neighbouring North Dagon along East Dagon’s new main roads.
Local resident and estate agent Ma Ei said, “The township started devel-oping two years ago as road commu-nications and electricity supply im-proved.” Bo Mhu Ba Htoo Road, built in 2013, connects with both North Ok-kalapa and North Dagon townships.
“The new residents like the public services and the low prices,” she said.
U Khin Maung Aye, an estate agent with Shwe Kan Myae, said a plot that could have gone for K10 million a few years ago could now fetch K50 mil-lion, depending on location, though it is still possible to find a 2400-sq-ft lot for K4 to K5 million.
East Dagon new town, at Yangon’s eastern fringe, shares borders with Hlegu township in the north, North Dagon township in the west and South Dagon township in the south and west.
East Dagon sees boomMYAT NYEIN [email protected] YADANAR [email protected]
A MIXTURE of political uncertainty and scepticism has cooled once tor-rid demand for land around the future Hanthawaddy International Airport project, say local real estate agents.
Land prices skyrocketed up to tenfold in Bago Region in 2012, following the announcement that Incheon International Airport Cor-poration of South Korea had been awarded the contract to build and operate Hanthawaddy, which was expected to become Myanmar’s largest international airport with a possible price tag of US$1.1 bil-lion. Before the announcement, an acre of farmland in the area sold for about K500,000 ($510). Within two years, the price of an acre had shot
to between K20 million and K50 million.
Then the situation languished.“Demand is low near Hantha-
waddy International Airport, and throughout Bago,” said broker Daw Mya Mya Sein of Galaxy Real Estate Service.
Ko Aung Myint of Aung Real Es-tate said, “The real estate market is slowing throughout the entire coun-try. Around Bago and Hanthawad-dy, demand is in decline. Both local and foreign investors are watching the political climate because of the election.”
“After the government an-nounced the airport project, buyers flocked to Bago. Now hardly anyone comes,” said local resident Ko Myint Oo.
The future Hanthawaddy Airport is up to an hour-and-a-half away
from Yangon by road, and was in-tended to have the capacity to han-dle 12 million passengers a year. But after disagreements over financing and passenger capacity, the deal with Incheon was terminated and a new $1.45 billion contract was granted last October to a consor-tium comprising Singapore’s Yong-nam Holdings, Changi Airport Plan-ners and Engineers, a subsidiary of Changi Airport Group, and Japan’s JGC Corporation. The consortium will get official development assis-tance from the Japanese govern-ment for up to 49 percent of the total contract, with the remaining funding coming from private lend-ing ($517 million) and investment by the consortium ($222 million).
Officials said in February that construction should begin next year, and be completed in 2020.
Land prices near Hanthawaddy airport project fall pre-electionKO KO [email protected]
10 International Business THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
JAPAN’S state–of–the–art maglev train clocked a new world speed record yesterday in a test run near Mount Fuji, smashing through the 600-kilometre (373-mile) per hour mark, as Tokyo races to sell the tech-nology abroad.
The seven-car maglev train – short for “magnetic levitation” – hit a top speed of 603km an hour, and managed nearly 11 seconds at over 600kph, operator Central Japan Rail-way said.
The new record came less than a week after the company recorded a top speed of 590kph, breaking its own 2003 record of 581kph.
The maglev hovers 10 centime-tres (4 inches) above the tracks and is propelled by electrically charged magnets.
About 200 train buffs gathered to witness yesterday’s record–set-ting run, with the crowd cheering as the train broke through the 600kph mark.
“It gave me chills. I really want to ride on the train,” an elderly woman told public broadcaster NHK as the
carriage rocketed past her.“It’s like I witnessed a new page
in history.”An AFP reporter who previously
rode on the super-speed train said the experience was like taking off in a plane, with the feeling of g–force gathering as the speedometer is pushed ever higher.
“The faster the train runs, the more stable it becomes – I think the quality of the train ride has improved,” Yasukazu Endo, who heads the maglev test centre southwest of Tokyo, told reporters yesterday.
JR Central wants to have a train in service in 2027, plying the route between Tokyo and the cen-tral city of Nagoya, a distance of 286km.
The service, which would run at a top speed of 500kph, is expected to connect the two cities in only 40 minutes, less than half the present journey time in Japan’s already speedy bullet trains.
By 2045, maglev trains are expect-ed to link Tokyo and Osaka in just one hour and seven minutes, slash-ing the journey time in half.
However, construction costs for the dedicated lines are astronomical – estimated at nearly US$100 billion just for the stretch to Nagoya, with more than 80 percent of the route ex-pected to go through costly tunnels.
Japan is looking to sell its shin-kansen bullet and maglev train sys-tems overseas, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acting as a travelling salesman in his bid to revive the Japanese economy partly through infrastructure exports.
He is due in the United States this
weekend, where he will be touting the technology for a high-speed rail link between New York and Washington.
Last year, Mr Abe took US ambas-sador to Japan Caroline Kennedy on a test ride.
“This technology is something that will bring great benefits to Japan and hopefully the United States one day,” Ms Kennedy said after the ride.
The maglev train is a contender for US President Barack Obama’s multi-billion-dollar national high–speed rail project.
Mr Abe said Japan would not charge licensing fees in the US for the train, a strong incentive for Washington to select the system for a high–speed rail line between Wash-ington DC and Baltimore.
The proposed 60km link will rep-resent the first phase in the US gov-ernment’s plan to connect the capital and Boston.
Japan started its study on the maglev train system as a national project in 1962, and succeeded in running at a speed of 60kph a decade later. – AFP
Japan’s maglev train breaks new world speed record
Central Japan Railway’s seven-car maglev train returns to the station after setting a new world speed record in a test run near Mount Fuji yesterday. Photo: AFP
KPH
603New world speed record for Japan
TOKYOIN BRIEF
Russian economy hits downturnRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medve-dev yesterday estimated the economy shrank by 2 percent in the first three months of the year, due to sanctions pressure and low oil prices.
“Negative trends continue this year” following the crisis of the ruble national currency in late 2014, Mr Medvedev told Russian lawmakers. “Between January and March, GDP went down about 2pc.”
Investor confidence slips in GermanyInvestor sentiment in Germany fell for the first time in six months in April as weak global growth weighed on confidence, a leading survey found yesterday.
The widely watched investor con-fidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute slipped by 1.5 points to 53.3 points in April, disappointing analysts’ expectations for a further increase this month, ZEW said in a statement.
“The German economy is in good shape. A stable labour market and increasing wages are strengthening confidence and boosting consump-tion,” said ZEW president Clemens Fuest.”However, the current weakness of the world economy is dampening export prospects and reducing the scope for further improvements of the economic situation in Germany,” he added.
Rio-Tinto iron ore output fallsAnglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto recorded lower-than-expected iron ore output for the first three months of the year blaming poor weather conditions, but continued to boost its production of the commodity despite plunging prices.
The world’s second-biggest miner said iron ore production was 74.7 mil-lion tonnes in January to March, a 12 percent increase from the same period in 2014, but a 6 percent drop from the previous quarter.
Rio said shipments were up 9pc to 72.5 million tonnes year-on-year, although it was a fall of 12pc from the October-December quarter that the firm said was due to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Olwyn and a train derailment at Dampier port in Western Australia. – AFP
Cambodia seeks TPP inclusionPrime Minister Hun Sen questioned the exclusion of certain ASEAN nations, in-cluding Cambodia, from the Trans-Pa-cific Partnership (TPP). Speaking at the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2015 in Jakarta, Hun Sen said,“That’s a point that I still question myself. What is the real purpose of establishing the TPP, that they include half of ASEAN to be partners but [are] leaving half of ASEAN outside?” – Phnom Penh Post
CHINESE President Xi Jinping said yesterday a US$46 billion economic corridor offered Pakistan a “historic development opportunity”, but secu-rity fears linger over the project which involves major construction in some highly unstable areas.
Pakistani and Chinese officials on April 20 signed a series of more than 50 accords to inaugurate the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will create a network of roads, railways and pipelines linking China’s restive west to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.
The project is part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” plan to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia. It will give China easier access to Middle Eastern oil via the deepwater port of Gwadar in southwest Pakistan.
The Chinese aid also aims to boost Pa-kistan’s long-underperforming economy,
which the IMF projects will grow 4.3 per-cent this year, and tackle its long-running energy crisis.
Beijing and Islamabad have long en-joyed close ties and Mr Xi’s speech yes-terday, the first by a Chinese president to a joint session of parliament, was full of the flowery rhetoric that typifies their official exchanges.
“Today Pakistan has a historic de-velopment opportunity. Prime Min-ister Sharif has crafted the vision of the Asian tiger dream. It outlines a great blueprint for Pakistan,” he told lawmakers.
But away from the handshakes and backslapping, there are real security concerns over much of the plan, which relies on developing Gwadar – control of which was passed to a Chinese com-pany in 2013.
The port lies near the mouth of the Gulf of Oman, east of the Strait of Hor-muz through which much of the Middle East’s crude production passes.
But linking Gwadar to the rest of
Pakistan and on to the western Chinese city of Kashgar, 3000 kilometres (1860 miles) away, would involve major infra-structure work in Baluchistan.
This is one of Pakistan’s most un-stable provinces and has been dogged for over a decade by a bloody separatist insurgency.
Ethnic Baluch rebels, who oppose Gwadar’s development while the province is not independent, have in the past blown up numerous gas pipe-lines and trains, and attacked Chinese engineers.
Earlier this month the Baluchistan Liberation Front claimed an attack in the province that left 20 construction workers from elsewhere in Pakistan dead, the bloodiest separatist incident since 2006.
Siddiq Baloch, editor of the Balo-chistan Express newspaper, said the rebels want to scare off investors and
developers who are working with the Pakistani government – such as the Chinese.
“There is the thinking that by doing this, they want to disrupt the working of the economy, disrupt the administra-tion, challenge the administration in the area,” he told AFP.
Suppressing the rebellion by force in Baluchistan’s desolate and sparsely–populated landscape, much of which is desert and mountain, has proven difficult.
Abdul Malik Baloch, the Baluchistan chief minister, said strenuous efforts were under way to try to negotiate with the rebels.
“I am trying to convince them, but still they are not convinced,” he told AFP in the provincial capital Quetta.
“This is my honest opinion, this is the only way – to start talking and bring the insurgents to the table.” – AFP
Security fears overshadow China-Pakistan corridor
‘Today Pakistan has a historic development opportunity. Prime Minister Sharif has crafted the vision of the Asian tiger dream.’
Chinese president Xi Jinping
ISLAMABAD
International Business 11www.mmtimes.com
STRICKEN Chinese property develop-er Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd has de-faulted on its US currency debt, mak-ing it China’s first developer to miss a dollar debt repayment.
The Shenzhen-based company failed to pay US$52 million of interest on 2017 and 2018 notes due last month, accord-ing to a Hong Kong stock exchange statement.
Kaisa, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, had until April 20 to make the payments after a 30-day grace period.
The company has been in debt re-structuring talks with its onshore and offshore lenders after it got into trou-ble having become embroiled in Presi-dent Xi Jinping’s graft crackdown.
In November Shenzhen authorities blocked sales of its property units al-legedly linked to a graft investigation into the city’s former security chief Ji-ang Zunyu, Bloomberg News reported.
The blockage was allegedly meant to pressure company chair Kwok Ying Shing into cooperating with the probe and left the company with a severe shortage of funds.
Kaisa “is focused on facilitating the release of its 2014 audited financial re-sults ... [and] will continue its efforts to reach a consensual restructuring of its outstanding debts,” the April 20 statement said.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Kaisa to default last month.
Kaisa is in talks with its creditors to push through a bailout bid by rival property developer Sunac China Hold-ings Ltd.
Sunac agreed to buy a controlling stake in late January, but the deal re-quired a debt restructuring that would leave investors with lower coupons and no repayments for up to five years, Bloomberg News reported. – AFP
Chinese property group defaults
HONG KONG
SHANGHAI
WHEN Italian luxury carmaker Ma-serati entered China a decade ago, with a brand virtually unknown to Chinese customers, it sold fewer than 40 vehi-cles its first year.
Last year, the Asian giant was Maserati’s second largest market as sales of its sports cars – including the Quattroporte, which can cost up to US$377,000 – reached 9400, more than doubling from 2013.
But now its chief executive acknowl-edges it will struggle to even maintain that level this year.
The party is over for the luxury car market in China, with the country fac-ing the slowest economic growth in a quarter of a century and a corruption crackdown orchestrated by Commu-nist Party chief Xi Jinping.
“Last year was fantastic,” said Ma-serati boss Harald Wester, sipping a mineral water on the roof of a Shang-hai art museum ahead of China’s pre-mier auto show.
“The target this year is to maintain more or less the volumes of last year – a very difficult task. We all know about the slowing down of growth,” Mr West-er said.
The world’s second-largest economy expanded 7.4 percent last year, its slow-est since 1990.
So Maserati is buckling down in China, servicing existing customers,
building its dealer network and await-ing the arrival of its Levante SUV (sports utility vehicle) in 2016.
Maserati executives say their Chinese customers are young entrepreneurs, nearly half female, and deny they are sell-ing to government officials who might be caught in the much-publicised anti-graft
campaign, now two years long.But the crackdown is making os-
tentatious displays less popular, which could affect sales.
“When the entire society is pointing at some people as having much more than others, potentially those [people] hesitate to show it,” Mr Wester said.
Photos posted online of the wreck-age of lime green Lamborghini and red Ferrari that crashed drag racing on the streets of Beijing earlier this month caused outrage, as people questioned who owned the luxury cars.
Germany’s Daimler believes it may have hit upon a solution with its new
Mercedes-Maybach S600, saying it is understated enough to find a market in the new China.
“The Maybach is a really exclusive vehicle, but still almost an understate-ment,” said Hubertus Troska, member of the board of management of Daim-ler with responsibility for China.
“We feel like it fits actual Chinese times.”
The slowdown did not stop Britain’s Rolls-Royce from choosing China for the launch of its new Phantom Lime-light, which has features including leather-covered accessory boxes and handmade fragrance holders.
“This precious brand ... occupies a very special place in the hearts of our customers here in China,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos told the launch ceremony at another Shanghai art museum.
But parent BMW said it had “ad-justed” the production of Rolls-Royce specifically because of slower sales in China, which became apparent last summer.
“We have seen some headwinds in the top luxury segment, not only Rolls-Royce but very expensive goods in this country,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the board of management for BMW who has responsibility for Rolls-Royce.
– AFP
Party over for China’s luxury car market
A man looks at a Maserati sports car on display at a luxury mall in Shanghai on September 16, 2011. Photo: AFP
Morsi receives heavy sentence but skirts death penalty – this time WORLD 16
History lessons: Syrian Armenians reflect on the past WORLD 17
12 THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015 13
World WORLD EDITOR: Kayleigh Long
PHNOM PENH
JAKARTA
BANGKOK
IN PICTURES
Photo: AFP
A woman holds a placard as she joins members of an eco-waste coalition and other environmentalists in a march to the presidential Malacanang Palace in Manila yesterday, ahead of Earth Day today. The rally was held to call on Philippine President Benigno Aquino to defend the Clean Air Act law from legislative attacks and keep a local incineration ban intact.
A US couple were given long jail terms yesterday for the “sadistic” murder of the woman’s mother, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase outside a luxury hotel on Indonesia’s Bali island.
Tommy Schaefer, 21, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Sheila von Wiese Mack on the resort island and jailed for 18 years.
His girlfriend and the victim’s daughter, 19-year-old Heather Mack who was pregnant at the time of the crime, was found guilty of assisting in the murder and given a 10-year prison term.
Mr Schaefer wept in the Bali court as judges recounted harrowing de-tails of the case, in which he beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during a blazing row in the five-star resort, before he and his girlfriend dumped the body in a taxi.
“The defendant’s actions disturbed the public and can be considered sa-distic,” said Judge Made Suweda as he sentenced Mr Schaefer. The case sent shockwaves across the tropical holiday island that welcomes millions of for-eign visitors each year.
Mr Schaefer’s jail term was the same as that recommended by pros-ecutors. He escaped a death sentence, the maximum term for premeditated murder in Indonesia.
Ms Mack, who hid in the bathroom while Mr Schaefer attacked her mother, was found guilty of the lesser charge of assisting in the murder. Prosecutors had recommended a 15-year jail term but Suweda said judges decided to give her a lighter sentence as she needed to care for her baby daughter, who was born last month.
Von Wiese Mack’s badly beaten body was discovered in a taxi outside an upmarket resort on Bali last August. After her killing, the couple – from the Chicago area – fled to another part of
Bali where police arrested them.Mr Schaefer confessed to the kill-
ing during his trial but claimed he was defending himself during an argument with Ms von Wiese Mack, who was un-happy that her daughter was pregnant.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr Schaefer “blindly hit” Ms von Wiese Mack with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage after she directed a racial slur at him. Mr Schaefer is black.
While her mother was being mur-dered, Ms Mack hid in the bathroom and the couple then stuffed the body into the suitcase together, according to her indictment.
The pair were tried separately.Handing down the verdict in Mr
Schaefer’s case, Mr Suweda said he was “legally and convincingly” guilty of pre-meditated murder.
Ms Mack’s baby girl Stella is staying with her in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan jail, where prisoners live in cramped, insanitary conditions and drug abuse is widespread.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper in February, Ms Mack said she was “petrified” and re-vealed that she was sharing a cell with 10 other women.
“I loved my mom with all my heart and miss her every day,” she said.
The case involved a lengthy inves-tigation, with assistance from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Locals and foreigners alike were horrified at the rare murder on Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslim- majority Indonesia famed for its palm-fringed, pristine beaches.
Foreign visitors sometimes run into trouble on the tropical island, although they normally fall foul of Indonesia’s tough anti-drugs laws, which include the death penalty for smuggling narcotics.
– AFP
Pair sentenced over body in suitcase murder
FOUR tonnes of African elephant ivory worth US$6 million has been seized at a Bangkok port in a contain-er labelled as beans, Thai customs said on April 20, in the kingdom’s largest-ever haul of its kind.
The 739 pieces of tusk were found stashed in a container which arrived at the port on April 18 after being shipped from the Democratic Republic of Con-go destined for Laos, according to a statement by Thai customs.
“The pieces weigh around 4000 kilograms [four tonnes] and are worth around 200 million baht ($6 million) ... It is the biggest ivory sei-zure in Thai history,” the statement said, adding they had been declared on the cargo list as beans.
Once in neighbouring Laos, author-ities believe the ivory would likely be sold on to buyers from China, Vietnam or back into Thailand, countries where ivory ornaments remain highly prized despite fears the trade is pushing wild elephants to extinction.
Under Thai law, registered ivory from domesticated Thai elephants can be sold. But experts say that loop-hole allows criminal gangs to launder poached African ivory through the kingdom.
Thai authorities say they have stepped up seizures of illegal ivory
after global regulator the Conven-tion on International Trade in En-dangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) threatened an inter-national ban on the kingdom’s entire wildlife business if it failed to curb the trade in tusks on its soil.
Last year CITES set Thailand an August 2015 deadline to fall into line or risk wide-ranging sanctions.
A ban would prevent the country
trading anything appearing on that list with another country, includ-ing orchids and exotic wood which are significant export products for Thailand.
Conservationists say poaching and conflict has decimated the num-ber of African elephants in the wild, prompting experts to warn the spe-cies could be wiped out within dec-ades. – AFP
Historic ivory haul seized in Bangkok
Thai customs officers arrange confiscated elephant tusks during a press conference at the Customs Bureau in Bangkok on April 20. Photo: AFP
SYDNEY
THREE people died as the Australian state of New South Wales was lashed by a “once-in-a-decade” storm yester-day with homes washed away, thou-sands hit by power cuts and sand drifts sweeping inland off Sydney’s iconic Bondi beach.
Sea swells also hampered shipping as the region around Australia’s big-gest city suffered its second day of gale-force winds of up to 135 kilometres per hour (83 mph) and torrential rain.
The Bureau of Meteorology said 119 millimetres (5 inches) of rain had fallen in Sydney in 24 hours – the city’s wet-test period since 2002.
The destructive winds blanketed parks, pavements and roads with sand from beaches including Bondi, while trees were uprooted, crashing onto cars, and power lines blown down.
Dozens of flights were delayed and at least one cruise ship found itself stuck at sea outside Sydney Harbour.
New South Wales state Premier Mike Baird said 4500 calls had been made to emergency services.
“There is no doubt this is a very se-vere storm event, indeed it is a once in 10-year event,” he said.
“We have lost some homes. There is a number of roofs taken off. We have also lost life. It is a huge storm event that is wreaking havoc across NSW at the moment.”
New South Wales police said three people died in the country town of Dungog, 215 kilometres (133 miles) north of Sydney, which was soaked by 300mm of rain in 24 hours.
“During the morning a woman and two men were located deceased within the Dungog township. The circum-stances surrounding their deaths are still to be determined,” they said in a statement.
Video footage posted online showed a wooden house being swept away by flash floods, although it was not clear if this was linked to the deaths.
The Dungog Chronicle said four houses had been washed away and that the two men and one woman who died, all elderly, were trapped in their homes
as floodwater surged through the town.“The water came out of nowhere, it
just rose that quick,” Dungog resident Jarod Rits, 18, told the newspaper. “The water was just a roar, really, just rush-ing through the streets.”
Police advised Dungog residents and others in surrounding areas to leave their homes and move to an evac-uation centre at a local high school, or to stay with family and friends.
Baird said the State Emergency Services (SES) had carried out 47 flood rescues.
“There have been multiple persons trapped in vehicles, being trapped in buildings and being trapped on top of buildings while trying to take refuge from floodwaters,” SES deputy chief Steven Pearce told reporters.
Speaking earlier to the Austral-ian Broadcasting Corporation, he said, “We’ve haven’t seen this sort of weather pattern, this east-coast low or one as se-vere as this, in years.”
In Sydney, the harbour pilot could not board the giant Carnival Spirit cruise ship due to massive swells. The vessel languished in the open ocean with hundreds of passengers on board.
The Port Authority of New South Wales said the harbour had been closed for commercial shipping, possibly for 48 hours. Ferries across Sydney were cancelled or had limited services.
ABC reported that one person was also missing near Newcastle, 150km north of Sydney, after floodwaters rushed through a campground and washed away campervans and cara-vans.
Dozens of schools were closed, while the electricity utility Ausgrid said around 200,000 homes and businesses were without power across Sydney and the Central Coast and Hunter Valley ar-eas to the north.
Numerous roads were also closed due to flooding, fallen trees and downed power lines. – AFP
Three dead as storm lashes coast
Heavy seas are whipped up by strong winds at Bondi Beach in Sydney on April 21. Photo: AFP
AUSTRALIA has reportedly cancelled a planned flight intended to ferry the first batch of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia due to “logistical errors” after Cambodian officials on April 19 denied any refugees were expected in the Kingdom in the coming days.
Up to five asylum seekers in the Australian detention centre on the tiny island have accepted cash pay-ments of thousands of dollars to have their refugee status determinations fast-tracked in order to be eligible to come to Cambodia, a refugee advo-cate said yesterday.
“There is only one I can confirm. But I am told that there could also be three Tamils and a Rohingya man … One Iranian has definitely [taken the offer],” Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Australia-based Refugee Action Coalition, said.
As Australian immigration offi-cials had been unable to convince any refugees already living temporarily on Nauru to take up the offer of reset-tlement, the Abbott government had resorted to targeting those whose claims had not yet been approved, he added.
“If you’re inside the detention centre the prospect of a fast-track determination and a visa, even to Cambodia, would be quite appealing
to some.”Cambodian officials were due
to arrive on Nauru yesterday to as-sess the reported applications. The visit was announced after a letter handed out by the Australians invit-ing refugees to head to Cambodia as early as yesterday caused “confusion” among Cambodian officials, who had not been briefed on the proposed arrivals.
A spokesperson for Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, did not respond to a request for com-ment yesterday, but he told the ABC that the first plane “won’t be far off”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong referred questions about the Cambodian delegation’s planned visit to Nauru to Interior Ministry spokes-person General Khieu Sopheak, who could not be reached for comment.
Hong Lim, a Cambodian-Australi-an member of Victoria’s state parlia-ment who worked closely with refu-gees arriving in Australia from the Indochinese wars of the 1970s, said he was “ashamed as an Australian … ashamed as a Cambodian”.
“Australia has a proud history and tradition of welcoming more than a million postwar Jewish, Eastern Eu-ropean and Indo-Chinese refugees.”
– Phnom Penh Post
Refugee deal hits a snag
BANGKOK
Thai charter in the worksJAKARTA
ASIAN and African leaders gather in Indonesia this week to mark 60 years since a landmark conference that helped forge a common identity among emerging states, but analysts say big-power rivalries will over-shadow proclamations of solidarity.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japan’s Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, leaders from several African coun-tries, as well as Iran’s President Has-san Rouhani will attend commemo-rations of the 1955 conference that laid the foundations for the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
The original conference in 1955 gathered around 30 countries, many of them newly independent after decades of colonialism and foreign occupation, in the city of Bandung on Java island. It was led by Indo-nesian independence hero Sukarno.
Other prominent figures includ-ed Indian Prime Minister Jawahar-lal Nehru and Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, who were among leaders who founded NAM several years lat-er, an organisation for countries that did not want to take sides during the Cold War with either the United States or Soviet Union.
However the NAM has struggled to remain relevant in the post-Cold War era and as its member countries grew in clout, now representing a huge chunk of the global economy.
Some analysts argue the confer-ence is more about big countries
– particularly China and Japan – seeking to unilaterally extend their influence with other participants.
China, especially, has been ag-gressively forging closer links with Africa, whose natural resources help power the country’s growth.
“The bigger states have their own agenda coming here,” said Tobias Basuki, a Jakarta-based analyst.
With more than 80 countries represented at the five-day confer-ence, Mr Basuki added that it would be hard for such a diverse group of states to reach consensus.
Nigeria’s Bolaji Akinyemi, a for-mer foreign minister, said the origi-nal grouping served as “an incuba-tor for emerging nations like ours at independence”.
Ahead of the meeting, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhen-min hailed the “tradition of non-alignment”.
And, though most analysts re-mained sceptical, some observers said the growing economic strength of the participants showed evidence of renewed life in the movement.
“The conference feels like the non-aligned movement graduat-ing to BRICS,” said Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia expert at US think-tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
However the conference has also been marred by the absence of key figures.
Though India was a major player
at the first meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not attending, while South African President Jacob Zuma cancelled due to a wave of xenophobic violence at home.
The main leaders’ summit begins today in Jakarta.
Along with the African and Asian leaders, a handful of Middle Eastern countries are represented, including Iran by Mr Rouhani.
Several controversial figures will attend, including Sudanese Presi-dent Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the ICC for war crimes.
Beyond the commemorations, Muslim-majority Indonesia will host a meeting of Islamic countries on the escalating Yemen conflict, as requested by the Organisation of Is-lamic Cooperation (OIC).
The conflict has sent tensions soaring between Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Iran.
Yemen and Saudi Arabia are not represented at the conference, al-though several other OIC members are.
Meanwhile Japan’s Mr Abe, a strident nationalist, is due to give a speech at the summit, which will be watched closely ahead of a statement expected later this year to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The five-day ends on April 24, with leaders heading to Bandung to commemorate the original gathering.
– AFP
Key figures to meet at Jakarta summit
DELIBERATIONS have com-menced on forming a new Thai con-stitution, which includes clauses to stop parties winning a majority and allows unelected officials to govern, in a bid by the Thai junta to end a near-decade of political turmoil.
However, the charter is widely seen as an assault on the electoral success of the former ruling Shina-watra clan.
Parties led-by or aligned-to Thak-sin Shinawatra’s billionaire fam-ily have won every election since 2001, prompting two coups backed by the royalist establishment and nearly a decade of acrimony that has frequently spilled into vio-lence.
On April 20 the junta-appoint-ed National Reform Council (NRC) began a week of discussion on the draft charter, a process which could see the document receive royal endorsement by September.
Thailand’s constitution has un-dergone more than a dozen re-writes since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
The leaders of last May’s coup say another new charter is needed to soothe Thailand’s divides ahead of elections slated for next year.
On April 20, Borwornsak Uwan-no, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), said the new charter “will not allow a major-ity government which can become a parliamentary dictatorship.”
Speaking in the televised debate he denied it was “a blueprint” to end the domination of the Shinawatras, but would instead empower the Thai people at the expense of politi-cians.
Under the draft, future elections will be decided by a proportional representation system similar to Germany’s that will favour smaller parties and coalition governments.
But to avoid legislative paralysis under coalitions, prime ministers will not have to be directly elected by the public.
Lawmakers will also be barred from becoming ministers “so that they cannot use that power to un-duly influence the government,” Mr Borwornsak added, raising the prospect of unelected officials run-ning the government.
Analysts have said the draft is not truly democratic and harks back to an era when a royalist and military elite had a stranglehold on politics.
That grip has been threatened by the rise of the Shinawatras, who draw on the support of the north-ern portion of the country, which is poorer than the south and his-torically receives a smaller share of state cash from Bangkok.
Their supporters say the family recognised their changing political and economic aspirations with sub-sidies for farmers and other pro-poor policies such as virtually free healthcare and micro loans.
But their enemies, principally among the elite, military and royal-ist southerners, have justified army power grabs by saying the family has poisoned Thailand with popu-list policies, cronyism and lead the poor astray.
The elite’s main party, the Dem-ocrats, have failed to win a popular vote in nearly 20 years.
– AFP
14 World THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIL 22, 2015
BURJ HAMMOUD, LEBANON
FOR thousands of Syrian Armenian refugees in Lebanon, the slaughter and expulsion of their ancestors a century ago is less a historical event than an ongoing trauma.
Though their community is just one of many caught up in Syria’s brutal conflict, Syrian Armenians say their fate has been particularly pain-ful because it echoes the tragedy often termed the Armenian genocide.
Maggie Melkonian fights back tears as she describes fleeing to Lebanon from her home in the Sulamaniyeh district of Syria’s Aleppo city more than two years ago.
“Just as our ancestors had to leave without anything, we had to do the same,” she says.
“We’re living a second genocide now. Our houses are all gone ... Our people are dying again,” she adds, her voice breaking.
Ms Melkonian is safe now, living in the Armenian district of Burj Ham-moud with her daughter and son-in-law, and her grandchildren.
But her husband remains in Aleppo, reluctant to leave everything behind, like so many Armenians who fled their homes in 1915.
The facts of the tragedy that be-gan 100 years ago this month remain bitterly disputed.
Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million of their forefa-thers were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign.
They say the campaign was ordered by the military leadership of the Ottoman empire to eradicate the Armenian people from Anatolia in what is now eastern Turkey.
But Turkey takes a sharply different view, saying that hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces bat-tled the Russian Empire for control of
eastern Anatolia during World War I.In Burj Hammoud, Lebanese and
Syrian Armenians have no qualms about labelling the tragedy a genocide and holding Turkey responsible for it.
The streets are spray-painted with profanities directed at Ankara and stencilled graffiti reading “Turkey, guilty of genocide”.
In the run-up to the centenary, placards and banners have been hung reading “We remember and demand”, a reference to a long-standing call for Turkey to acknowledge the murders as “genocide”.
As the Lebanese Armenian community plans events to mark the tragedy, many Armenians who fled Syria say they feel as though they are still living it.
They draw parallels between the experiences of their forefathers and incidents like the targeting of the Syrian Armenian town of Kasab and the destruction of an Armenian church in Deir Ezzor province that contained the remains of victims of the 1915 massacre.
“I feel that we’re seeing history re-peating itself,” says 30-year-old Maral
Giloyan.“We are exhausted. For all these
years, we have not been able to feel comfortable, to relax.”
Ms Giloyan is a refugee twice over.Her family left Iraq’s capital Bagh-
dad in 2005, fleeing the violence that followed the US-led invasion.
They settled in Aleppo, where Ms Giloyan married a Syrian Armenian man and had three children, but fled last year after her husband was wounded by mortar fire.
“I want to live in peace, but all I’ve known is war,” she says.
Alexan Keuchkerian, a member of Lebanon’s Armenian Hunchak party, is at pains to note that all Syrians, not just Armenians, are suffering.
More than 220,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and nearly half the population has been dis-placed, with more than a million refu-gees settling in Lebanon.
“But for Syrian Armenians, this is a second forced migration, it’s a double wound,” he says.
“The pain is being repeated.”Members of his own family are
among the recent arrivals from Aleppo.
His ancestors were expelled during 1915 from the Cilicia region of what is now Turkey, and settled in Lebanon.
But during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, they took refuge in Aleppo, only to flee back to Lebanon when the Syrian conflict started.
“Some of our people feel they are living a never-ending migration,” he says.
Many of the estimated 10,000 Syrian Armenian refugees in Lebanon have passed through the Howard Karagheusian Association in Burj Hammoud, which offers medi-cal services and classes to all those in need.
The centre’s Lebanese Armenian staff say working with Syrian arrivals has only strengthened the significance of the massacre for them.
The stories refugees tell them remind them of similar memories their grandparents shared about their experiences decades earlier.
“It’s not on the same scale, but it’s difficult not to feel that history is re-peating itself,” said Christine Sarkiss-ian, a social worker at the centre.
“It reinforces the idea that all of us have in our minds that we must be ready at any time to flee.” – AFP
Syrian Armenians fear history repeating
A boy pushes a cart past graffitti in Armenian-dominated Burj Hammoud on the northern outskirts of Beirut on April 16. Photo: AFP
CAIRO SYDNEY
AN Egyptian court sentenced deposed president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison yesterday, in the first verdict against the Islamist nearly two years after the army ousted him.
The Cairo court delivered its ver-dict on charges of inciting the killing of protesters in December 2012, when Mr Morsi was still in office.
The death penalty, which the court ultimately decided against, would have be a symbolic blow against the coun-try’s first freely elected president and his Muslim Brotherhood movement – the target of a brutal crackdown af-ter then-army chief and now-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew him on July 3, 2013.
Ahead of the verdict, the Brother-hood slammed Mr Sisi and called for pro-Morsi protests yesterday.
“The coup commander is exploiting the judiciary as a weapon in the battle against popular will and the democrat-ic and revolutionary legitimacy repre-sented by President Mohamed Morsi,” it said in a statement.
Mr Morsi also faces a possible death penalty in two other trials, including one in which he is accused of spying for foreign powers.
Separate verdicts in those two cases are due on May 16 and experts are not discounting the possibility of a death sentence being handed down, given by the fact judges have passed harsh verdicts against leaders of the Brotherhood.
Mr Morsi was toppled after street protests against his year-long rule.
The new authorities then launched a sweeping crackdown on his support-ers in which more than 1400 people
were killed and thousands jailed.Hundreds have been sentenced to
death after speedy mass trials which the United Nations called “unprec-edented in recent history”.
The authorities have also targeted secular and liberal activists who spear-headed the 2011 uprising against long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Mr Mor-si’s predecessor.
In November, a court dropped mur-der charges against Mr Mubarak in his own trial over the deaths of hundreds of protesters in 2011.
The verdict involves a case in which Mr Morsi and 14 other defendants, sev-en of whom are on the run, are charged with the killing of three protesters and torturing several more during clashes on December 5, 2012.
Defence lawyers say there is no proof Mr Morsi incited the clashes. Even if he escapes the death penalty, Mr Morsi could still face life in jail. The verdict is open to appeal.
Sisi has vowed to “eradicate” the Brotherhood, an 85-year-old move-ment that staged major electoral gains between Mr Mubarak’s fall and Mr Morsi’s presidential victory in May 2012.
The movement was designated a “terrorist group” in December 2013.
In a country where the army has been in power for decades, Mr Sisi’s May 2014 presidential victory crushed hopes raised since the popular anti-Mubarak revolt of a civilian democracy.
While Mr Sisi’s regime is widely pop-ular among Egyptians tired of political turmoil, rights groups say it is more repressive than under Mr Mubarak.
– AFP
Morsi dodges death sentence in first verdict
‘Stop the boats’: Abbott’s advice to EUAUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose government introduced tough measures to stop asylum-seeker boats, said yesterday the European Union should follow suit, describing it as the only way to end deaths at sea.
His comments came after a vessel crammed with migrants capsized off Libya at the weekend with the loss of 800 lives, and as EU foreign and interior ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss ways to stem the flood of people trying to reach Europe.
Australia’s conservative govern-ment introduced a military-led operation after coming into power in September 2013 to turn back boats carrying asylum-seekers before they reach the continent.
“We have got hundreds, maybe thousands of people drowning in the attempts to get from Africa to Europe,” Mr Abbott told reporters.
The “only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats”, he added.
While Mr Abbott’s controversial policy has proved successful, with the nation going nearly 18 months with virtually no asylum-seeker boat arrivals and no reported deaths at sea, human rights advocates say it violates Australia’s international obligations.
Before the policy was introduced, boats were arriving almost daily with hundreds of people drowning en route.
“We must resolve to stop this terrible problem and the only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people-smuggling trade,” Mr Abbott said.
“That’s why it is so urgent that the countries of Europe adopt very strong policies that will end the people-smuggling trade across the Mediterranean.”
Under Canberra’s hard-line pol-icy, navy ships intercept boats car-rying asylum-seekers and turn them back to where they transited from, mostly Indonesia, or send those on board to offshore processing camps in the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
Asylum-seekers who arrive by boat are blocked from resettling in Australia even if they are found to be genuine refugees. They are left with the option of either returning home or living in PNG, Nauru or even impoverished Cambodia, under bi-lateral agreements.
The policy has been slammed by the United Nations and human rights advocates who say it violates the
1951 Refugee Convention of which Australia is a signatory.
The offshore processing of asylum-seekers has also faced criticism over the camps’ conditions and the lengthy processing times.
One of the architects of Aus-tralia’s border policies, retired army major-general Jim Molan, said the crisis was due to Europe’s “incompe-tent policy reaction”.
Writing in The Australian newspaper yesterday, he said the tragedies were “worsened by Eu-rope’s refusal to learn from its own mistakes and from the efforts of oth-ers who have handled similar prob-lems”.
He added, “Destroying the criminal people-smugglers was the centre of gravity of our border control policies, and judicious boat turnbacks was the key.”
In contrast, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the unfolding disaster was a result of Europe turning its back on “some of the most vulnerable migrants in the world”, and risked “turning the Mediterranean into a vast cemetery”.
Italy had a search-and-rescue operation that saved some 170,000 people last year but it was sus-pended by Rome in protest over rising costs, replaced by a smaller and much more restricted EU-led mission.
Mr Molan also blamed Europe and the United States for not send-ing troops to Libya, where most of the migrants fleeing to Europe over the past two weeks have come from, and the failure of the United Nations to push for peacekeeping forces. – AFP
‘We must resolve to stop this terrible problem and the only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people-smmuggling trade.’
Tony Abbott Australian Prime Minister
World 15www.mmtimes.com
CATANIA
ITALIAN police have arrested two sus-pected people traffickers among the survivors of the migrant boat that cap-sized off Libya on April 19, as the UN said 800 people were killed in the Med-iterranean’s worst migrant disaster.
They said they had detained a Tu-nisian man believed to be the captain of the vessel and a Syrian allegedly a member of the ship’s crew, taken from a group of 27 haggard survivors who arrived in the Sicilian port of Catania on the evening of April 20. Both face charges of people trafficking.
Under-fire EU ministers meanwhile agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to the current EU border surveillance mission Triton, as the UN’s refugee agency and the Inter-national Organization for Migration recounted what those onboard had witnessed.
“We can say that 800 are dead,” said Carlotta Sami, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy yesterday.
Those who escaped with their lives described to officials the moment the 20-metre trawler capsized after a Por-tuguese merchant ship approached the vessel, causing a stampede.
“There were a little over 800 people on board, including children aged be-tween 10 and 12. There were Syrians, about 150 Eritreans, Somalians ... They had left Tripoli at about 8am on [April 18],” Sami said.
The survivors hailed from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, she added, and all had been taken to nearby holding centres.
One other survivor was taken to hos-pital in Catania, on Sicily’s east coast.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini had unveiled plans earlier on April 20 to tackle the growing mi-grant crisis after telling member states they had “no more excuses” not to act.
Even as EU foreign and interior ministers met in Luxembourg to dis-cuss ways to stem the flood of people trying to reach Europe, the Interna-tional Organization for Migration said it had received a distress call from an-other boat – but cautioned against con-cluding this was another disaster in the making.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said separately that Italy’s coast guard had asked merchant shipping to come to the aid of two boats off the Libyan coast with up to 450 migrants on board after they sought help.
Police in Greece reported three peo-ple killed, including a child, after a boat coming from Turkey sank off the island of Rhodes.
Dramatic footage showed people trying to reach survivors huddled on a piece of wreckage as they were being swept towards rocks.
Ninety-three people were rescued alive, police said.
Europe’s southern shores have been
swamped over the past two weeks with migrants fleeing war and hardship, mostly via conflict-wracked Libya.
More than 11,000 migrants have been rescued by Italian authorities since the middle of last week alone and current trends suggest last year’s total of 170,000 landing in Italy is likely to be exceeded in 2015.
Unveiling the 10-point action plan, Ms Mogherini said the EU had to live up to its humanitarian values and com-mitments towards migrants, she said, adding, “To send them back is another way of killing them.”
First on the list, ministers agreed the current EU border surveillance mission Triton should be increased to extend its range and capabilities on the bloc’s southern flank.
Triton replaced Italy’s own Mare Nostrum mission, which Rome
scrapped late last year in protest that its EU partners would not share the burden.
The EU will also try to capture or destroy people-smuggling boats and increase cooperation across the board, the European Commission said.
The bloc will also offer a “voluntary pilot project on resettlement, providing a number of places to persons in need of protection”, a key but small step for-ward in spreading the problem.
Elsewhere EU president Donald Tusk announced an emergency leaders summit for tomorrow to discuss the plan, saying, “We cannot continue like this. We can’t accept that hundreds of people die.”
Italy’s Renzi, whose country bears the brunt of the problem, said Rome was studying the possibility of mount-ing “targeted interventions” against
Libya-based people smugglers.“Attacks on death rackets, attacks
against slave traders [traffickers] are in our thinking,” Mr Renzi told a press conference with his Maltese counter-part Joseph Muscat.
Italian and Maltese navy boats meanwhile continued to search for the victims of the disaster, which brings to an estimated 1600 the number of mi-grants who have drowned in the Medi-terranean this year.
Only 28 survivors have been found so far, along with 24 bodies, which were taken to Malta.
The deadliest incident prior to the April 19 tragedy occurred off Malta in September 2014, when an estimated 500 migrants drowned after traffickers deliberately rammed their boat in an attempt to force the passengers onto a smaller vessel. – AFP
Boat tragedy leaves 800 dead
The body of a person who died when a fishing boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast is brought ashore in Malta on April 20. Photo: AFP
the pulse editor: ChArlotte rose [email protected] THE MYANMAR TIMES April 22, 2015
Mai Kuriyama, right, and her younger sister Mika stroll in kimono as part of their maiko training at Yasui Kompiragu shrine in Kyoto, Japan. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun
the pulse 17www.mmtimes.com
Geisha lessons teach the art of glamour and graceful behaviourBy Naoko Moriya
M ANY women of various ages are visiting shops and studios in Kyoto that offer lessons on how to dress and behave like maiko, the young entertainers of Kyoto’s hanamachi entertainment districts known for their beautiful clothing, glamorous white makeup and
graceful behaviour.Maiko are apprentice geiko, the term used in Kyoto for geisha.
Maiko are usually aged from about 15 to 20 and perform Japanese dance for guests at banquets. They also train in singing, playing the shamisen and other Japanese traditional performing arts to become geiko.
I asked former maiko Shigeko Yasuda for practical hints on becoming a more sophisticated, charming woman through a maiko’s routine. Yasuda, 68, operates a maiko program near the Gion entertainment district.
“I want you not just to wear the clothing, but also be interested in maiko’s beautiful movements, and their courtesy and rules of etiquette,” Yasuda said.
When I visited her shop in mid-March, two local women, Mai Kuriyama, 24, and her sister Mika, 21, were in the middle of transforming into maiko. They said they had not worn kimono since attending their Coming-of-Age Day ceremony.
Customers at Yasuda’s shop are allowed to stroll around the neighbourhood with their hair arranged, wearing makeup and kimono. A basic course lasting about three hours starts at 15,500 yen (about US$130), plus tax.
The workshop begins with hair arrangement. As doing up the customer’s own hair takes too much time, wigs are usually used.
After that, the signature white makeup used by maiko is applied. First, paste powder is dissolved with water and applied to the face with a brush. The eyebrows, eyelids and lips are then accentuated with a touch of rouge.
“It’s like I’m somebody else,” Mai said, looking at her reflection in a mirror. “It automatically makes me stand straighter.”
Next the kimono is put on.“Let’s choose kimono with motifs suited to the season,” Yasuda
said to the sisters. The kimono chosen for Mika bore a pattern of temari handmade decorative thread balls on a light blue background. Its refreshing design was perfect for springtime.
Her elder sister chose one with a large clamshell pattern on a vermilion background. Drawn in each shell were images of the seasons’ flowers and traditional elements in various colours.
After putting on the kimono and some accessories, they went to the nearby Yasui Kompiragu shrine to pray. Both wore a heavy wig and pokkuri wooden clogs, the heels of which are more than 10 centimetres (about 3.9 inches) thick. I could imagine how tough it would be to walk in the outfits.
“Straighten your back and pull in your stomach. Tighten your rump, too,” Yasuda said to them. “Maiko learn this posture through
practicing Kyomai traditional dancing.”If a maiko stoops even slightly, she is scolded by her teachers to
straighten her back.According to Yasuda, maiko learn even courtesy and etiquette
from the instructors who teach them performing arts. Also, they should always stop walking and bow whenever they see acquaintances on the streets.
“When you greet people, you shouldn’t do it while doing something else,” Yasuda said. “As you can’t remember everyone’s faces at first, you should greet anything nearby on the ground, even utility poles – so maiko are told.”
I want to stand up quickly and gracefully after sitting on my heels on the floor for a long time. Yasuda shared a secret for not letting your legs go to sleep: when you sit on your heels, place one big toe on the other so your right and left legs form a V shape. Then place your hips on them.
Maiko make a habit of having an extra pair of tabi Japanese socks in the basket bags they take with them to banquets. That way
they can change their tabi if they get dirty when they’re taking off their clogs before the banquets.
“I feel I could learn a bit about the secret of a maiko’s beauty,” Mika said.
I also learned that it’s not just about beautiful makeup and wearing gorgeous kimono. Keeping a beautiful posture, walking and moving gracefully, having knowledge of Japanese traditional culture, showing consideration for others – acquiring these elements can make any woman more sophisticated and charming. We can use them in our daily life in Western clothes, too.
The daily items used by maiko also give hints of their feminine grace.
A sankaku-bukuro, literally a triangular cloth bag, can hold your raincoat after you take it off and your folding umbrella. An ozashiki-kago is a drawstring basket that maiko bring to banquets with them, made with varying patterns and materials. A tenugui case is meant to hold tenugui cotton towels, but it would probably look fashionable if you use it for handkerchiefs.
These items can be purchased online, and at stores specialising in Japanese fashion items in Kyoto and elsewhere. – Washington Post
18 the pulse THE MYANMAR TIMES April 22, 2015
WHAM! Pow! The model with the karate black belt spins through the air as she zaps the gang attempting to kidnap her. Yangon Runway, the Myanmar-Japanese action and drama movie, will be on your screens later this year, promises director Jaw Maran, CEO of Living Sound Entertainment.
Right now it’s about 20 percent complete, he said. “We’ve been facing
a lot of difficulties and pressures in production, but we’re happy to do it because this kind of creation is a big challenge,” he added.
Shooting on the 110-minute film, under the overall direction of Koichi Ueno, started last year in Japan, Yangon, Bagan and Naung Tone.
Ueno said he would portray the beauty and charm of Myanmar, and its kidnappers, for the benefit of his compatriots.
“We estimate production costs at US$600,000, not including marketing
and advertising,” Jaw Maran told a press conference on April 10. His Living Sound Entertainment organised the Korean pop stars 2NE1 concert at Yangon’s Myanmar Event Park last August.
Working with Tokyo-based Sony Entertainment and Oscar Promotions, LSE will produce the action-drama film starring Sonny Chiba, Rina Takeda, Yuko Fueki and Ai Takeba, as well as local talent Moh Moh Myint Aung, Awn Seng, Min Oo, Thu Htoo San and other models and actors.
The movie features a Japanese woman who comes to Myanmar to be a professional model and faces the usual amusing cultural misunderstandings, including having to escape from kidnappers. The film also highlights Myanmar’s scenic beauty, traditional culture and customs.
“I will play a model from Japan. This is my first time in Myanmar and I am really excited, because I don’t know anything about this country,” said action star Rina Takeda, 23. “I took the role because I wanted to
make my world career as an action actress. It will be difficult, but I’m sure I can rely on our mutual understanding.”
She shot her way into Japanese action movies in 2009 with High Kick Girl after winning her black belt in Ryukyu shorin-ryu karate.
The film will be shot in Myanmar, English and Japanese with English subtitles.
“It is such an honour to work with a leading company like Sony Entertainment,” said Jaw Maran.
A IRPLANE sick bags may be the ultimate symbol of travel discomfort, with a journey interrupted by an outpouring that is both
sudden and disgusting. For Nick Cave, the image seems intended.
The Australian rock icon has authored a quasi-memoir in the form of a collection of sick bags, on which he jotted down ideas as he flew across North America on a 2014 tour.
In a storyline with hints of Homer’s Odyssey, the 57-year-old rocker on The Sick Bag Song seeks his way home and reminisces about his past as he, symbolically, vomits out his inner thoughts.
In entries that drift between poet-ry and journal entries, Cave describes the haze of his life as a performer. He writes of walking on stage at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee to “become an object of great fascination to almost no one” and, after the show, “I will sit outside on the steps of our trailer and smoke.”
The book reproduces images of the sick bags on which Cave scribbled his observations, which range from see-
ing rock legend Lou Reed’s face appearing on the napkin of a New York bar to, simply, “Masturbated at the W Hotel, Austin.”
The outlook – bleak, but with strong religious undertones and sexual fixations – is no surprise considering the music of Cave, one of the darker figures to emerge from the 1970s punk scene and whose most famous song, “The Mercy Seat”, he narrates from the perspective of a man facing execution.
Cave, who earlier published two novels, suggested that The Sick Bag Song was the closest he would come to a memoir, other than a film on his life released last year, 20,000 Days on Earth.
“It’s kind of, for me, a work of fiction about an aging rock star who looks a lot like me,” Cave said April 15 as he launched the book at the Egyp-tian Theater in Los Angeles.
A taciturn man with an at-times ghostly gaze, Cave declined to offer opinions to questions from fans on everything from his literary influenc-es to his views on music streaming.
Cave, who will conduct similar
readings in New York and London, said that the book was an attempt at self-expression, as so often his mind goes into a blur as he travels.
“Performing is something that is ecstatic on one hand and unbeliev-ably forgettable as well,” he said.
In an unusual move, The Sick Bag Song is being sold exclusively through a specially designed website and not in bookstores or through online retailers such as Amazon.
The Sick Bag Song also has 10 lim-ited editions for each of the 22 cities in the book. The £750 (US$1100) ver-sions will be personally customised by Cave with unique additions along with two vinyl records in which he reads the book.
Jamie Byng, chief executive officer of Cave’s Edinburgh-based publisher Canongate, said that The Sick Bag Song offered an opportunity to experiment on how to produce and sell a book.
With Cave commanding a strong fan base, Canongate hoped to avoid the discounts that publishers gener-ally must pass on bookstores.
“We felt confident that this was the right project to do something
really innovative with in how it reaches the readers,” said Byng.
The move also allowed Canongate to focus on the quality of the book, which has 44 colour pages of sick bags and comes in its own case, he said.
Byng said Canongate, whose authors include Monty Python
comedian Terry Gilliam and Russian feminist punk activists Pussy Riot, would not rule out similar sales tech-niques in the future.
But he said the publisher planned generally to work with bookstores and will later sell through traditional vendors a simpler paperback of The Sick Bag Song. – AFP
LOS ANGELES
JApAN/MyANMAr
For Nick Cave, sick bags chart a rock star’s odyssey
Yangon Runway action-drama film to screen in Myanmar this year
Myanmar director Jaw Maran (second from left), Korean-Japanese actress Yuko Fueki (centre) and Japanese actor Sonny Chiba (second from right) pose with a set sound engineer (left) and Sony representative (right). Photo: Living Sound Entertainment
NANdAr [email protected]
Musician Nick Cave poses for the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House in London. Photo: AFP/Justin Tallis
the pulse 19www.mmtimes.com
A SHIPWRECKED trove of sugary, 19th-century champagne is revealing new details about centuries-old ways of
making wine, and fresh insights into the people who drank it, scientists said.
The latest analysis of a few of the 168 bottles found in 2010 on the floor of the Baltic Sea shows it was three times sweeter than modern bubbly, and suggests that the cool, dark ocean might make an ideal storage cellar, said the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
“After 170 years of deep sea aging in close-to-perfect conditions, these sleeping champagne bottles awoke to tell us a chapter of the story of winemaking,” said the study, led by French researchers.
While the labels were long gone by the time the bottles were discovered, researchers have traced them to well-known champagne-makers Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (VCP), Heidsieck and Juglar, based on markings on the corks.
The bottles contain what is
likely the oldest champagne ever tasted.
“Possibly the most striking feature of the Baltic champagne samples is their extraordinarily high sugar content,” said the study led by Philippe Jeandet, a professor in the Faculty of Sciences, University of Reims.
That sweetness may have come from a grape syrup that was added before corking, the study said.
The bottles contained about 140 grams of sugar per litre, about triple the amount typically seen in modern times. Often, champagne today contains no added sugar at all.
The sweetness level was high compared to today’s taste, but not for the era.
Ever since the bottles were discovered deep in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Finland, many have surmised that the shipment was headed to Russia.
But correspondence from the era between Madame Clicquot and her agent in Saint Petersburg shows that the Russian market had a preference for very sweet wine, containing 300 grams of sugar per litre.
People there liked sweet drinks so much, it was customary for diners to add spoonfuls of sugar to their wine
at the table, researchers said.“Thus, the relatively low levels
of the shipwrecked bottles, less than 150g/L, suggest that they might instead have been headed for the customers in the Germanic Confederation,” said the study.
Scientists have also found “unexpectedly high” levels of iron and copper in the old samples, when compared to modern champagne.
Copper sulfate was used at the time to protect against fungal diseases in grapevines. The iron may have come from nails that were used in the wood barrels that contained the champagne.
Even after nearly two centuries, the champagne did not go bad.
“We are often led to believe that hygiene is a modern concept, so it was inspiring to realise that the 170-year-old champagne samples presented very low concentrations of acetic acid, a sign of wine spoilage,” said the study.
The findings also suggest that the cool, dark conditions in the deep sea might be ideal for champagne storage, researchers said.
Scientists savored some of the champagne to examine the all-important question of taste, and found that the practice of swirling the
liquid in the glass really did improve the flavour.
“At first, the Baltic samples were described using terms such as ‘animal notes,’ ‘wet hair,’ ‘reduction,’ and sometimes ‘cheesy,’” said the study, explaining that these flavors could result from fermentation and the lack of oxygen at the sea floor.
“Upon swirling the wine in the glass to oxygenate it, the aroma became far more pleasant, with the main aromas described as empyreumatic, grilled, spicy, smoky, and leathery, together with fruity and floral notes.”
A bottle of the champagne sold at auction in 2012 for 15,000 euros (US$18,600).
In 2011 a bottle of Veuve Clicquot raised from the same shipwreck was auctioned for a record-setting 30,000 euros ($37,200).
– AFP
Sugary, shipwrecked champagne reveals history of winemakingKerry SheridAn
A glass of a 200-year-old champagne in Mariehamn.
Photo: AFP/Jonathan Nackstrand
MiAMi
20 the pulse THE MYANMAR TIMES April 22, 2015
DOMESTIC FLIGHT SCHEDULES
Airline Codes
7Y = Mann Yadanarpon Airlines
K7 = Air KBZ
W9 = Air Bagan
Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines
YH = Yangon Airways
YJ = Asian Wings
FMI = FMI Air Charter
Subject to changewithout notice
Day1 = Monday2 = Tuesday3 = Wednesday4 = Thursday5 = Friday6 = Saturday7 = Sunday
Domestic Airlines
Air Bagan (W9)Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102
Air KBZ (K7)Tel: 372977~80, 533030~39 (airport), 373766 (hotline). Fax: 372983
Asian Wings (YJ)Tel: 515261~264, 512140, 512473, 512640 Fax: 532333, 516654
Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999 Fax: 8604051
Mann Yadanarpon Airlines (7Y)Tel: 656969 Fax: 656998, 651020
Yangon Airways (YH)Tel: 383100, 383107, 700264 Fax: 652 533
FMI Air CharterTel: 240363, 240373, 09421146545
Yangon to MandalaY MandalaY to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrY5 775 Daily 6:00 7:10 Y5 233 Daily 7:50 9:00W9 515 1 6:00 7:25 YJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 8:20 10:15YH 909 1,2,3,5,6 6:00 7:40 K7 283 Daily 8:25 11:30YH 917 Daily 6:10 8:30 YH 918 Daily 8:30 10:45YJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 6:00 8:05 YH 910 7 8:40 10:05YJ 891 3 6:30 8:35 W9 201 Daily 8:40 10:35K7 282 Daily 6:00 8:10 YJ 891 3 8:50 10:45W9 201 Daily 7:00 8:25 7Y 132 Daily 9:35 11:30YH 826 3 7:00 8:40 K7 267 Daily 10:20 12:25YH 835 1,7 7:00 8:40 YH 830 5 11:05 14:55YH 909 7 7:00 8:40 YH 912 2 11:30 13:25YH 831 4,6 7:00 8:40 YJ 762 4 13:10 17:00YH 911 2 7:00 8:40 YH 832 4,6 13:20 14:45W9201 1 7:00 8:25 YH 827 3 13:20 14:45YH 829 5 7:00 11:05 YH 836 1,7 13:20 14:457Y 131 Daily 7:15 9:20 YH 910 1,2,3,5,6 13:20 14:45K7 266 Daily 8:00 10:05 YJ 212 5,7 15:00 16:25
8M 6603 4 9:00 10:10 YJ 212 5,7 15:00 16:25YJ 751 5 10:45 14:50 YJ 202 1,2,4 15:30 16:55YJ 601 6 11:00 12:25 YJ 602 7 15:40 17:35YJ 201 1,2,4 11:00 12:25 YJ 762 1,2 16:35 18:00YJ 761 1,2,4 11:00 12:55 YH 732 6 16:40 18:05YJ 233 6 11:00 12:55 YH 732 Daily 16:40 18:45YJ 211 5,7 11:00 12:25 YH 728 1 16:45 18:10YH 729 2,4,6 11:00 14:00 W9 152/W97152 1 17:05 18:30YH 737 3,5,7 11:15 13:25 Y5 776 Daily 17:10 18:20YH 727 1 11:15 13:25 W9 211 4 17:10 19:15W9 251 2,5 11:30 12:55 K7 823 2,4,7 17:10 18:35K7 822 4,7 12:30 16:55 8M 6604 4 17:20 18:30
YJ 151/W9 7151 1 13:00 16:45 K7 227 2,4,6 17:20 18:45K7 622 1,3,5,7 13:00 14:25 8M 903 1,2,4,5,7 17:20 18:30K7 226 2,4,6 13:30 14:55 YH 738 3,5,7 17:25 18:50YH 731 Daily 14:30 16:40 K7 623 1,3,5,7 17:40 19:05Y5 234 Daily 15:20 16:30 YH 730 2,4,6 17:45 19:10W9 211 4 15:30 16:55 YJ 234 6 17:45 19:10
W9 252 2,5 18:15 19:40
Yangon to naY pYi taw naY pYi taw to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrFMI A1 1,2,3,4,5 7:15 8:15 FMI A2 1,2,3,4,5 8:35 9:35FMI B1 1,2,3,4,5 10:45 11:45 FMI B2 1,2,3,4,5 13:30 14:30FMI C1 1,2,3,4,5 17:00 18:00 FMI C2 1,2,3,4,5 18:20 19:20
Yangon to nYaung u nYaung u to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrK7 282 Daily 6:00 7:20 YJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 7:35 10:15YJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 6:00 7:20 YH 918 Daily 7:45 10:45YH 909 1,2,3,5,6 6:00 8:25 YJ 891 3,7 8:05 10:45YH 917 Daily 6:10 7:45 YH 910 4 8:05 9:25YJ 891 3,7 6:30 7:50 YH 910 1,2,3,5,6 8:25 9:45YH 909 4 6:30 8:05 K7 242 Daily 8:35 11:45K7 242 Daily 7:00 8:20 7Y 131 Daily 8:50 11:307Y 131 Daily 7:15 8:35 K7 283 Daily 10:10 11:30K7 264 Daily 14:30 16:40 K7 265 Daily 16:55 18:15YH 731 Daily 14:30 17:25 YH 732 Daily 17:25 18:45W9 129 1,3,6 15:30 17:35 W9 129 1,3,6 17:50 19:10W9 211 4 15:30 17:40W9 129 1 15:30 17:35
Yangon to MYitkYina MYitkYina to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrYH 829 5 7:00 9:40 YH 827 3 11:55 14:45YH 826 3 7:00 10:05 YH 832 4,6 11:55 14:45YH 835 1,7 7:00 10:05 YH 836 1,7 11:55 14:45YH 831 4,6 7:00 10:05 YH 830 5 12:30 14:55YJ 201 1,2,4 11:00 13:50 YJ 202 1,2,4 14:05 16:55YJ 201 3 11:15 14:05 YJ 202 3 14:20 17:10W9 251 2,5 11:30 14:25 YJ 234 6 16:20 19:10
W9 252 2,5 16:45 19:40
Yangon to HeHo HeHo to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrYJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 6:00 8:50 YJ 881 7 9:00 10:10
K7 282 Daily 6:00 9:00 YJ 891 1,2,4,5,6 9:05 10:15
YH 917 Daily 6:10 9:35 K7 283 Daily 9:15 11:30
YJ 881 7 6:30 8:45 W9 201 Daily 9:25 10:35
YJ 891 3 6:30 9:20 K7 243 Daily 9:30 11:45
K7 242 Daily 7:00 9:15 YH 918 Daily 9:35 10:45
7Y 131 Daily 7:15 10:05 YJ 891 3 9:35 10:45
K7 266 Daily 8:00 9:15 7Y 132 Daily 10:20 11:30
Y5 649 Daily 10:30 12:45 K7 267 Daily 11:10 12:25
YH 505 1,2,3,4,5,6 10:30 11:55 YH 506 1,2,3,4,5,6 11:55 14:00
YJ 751 3,7 10:30 11:40 YJ 752 5 14:20 16:30
YJ 751 5 10:45 11:55 YJ 762 4 15:50 17:00
YJ 761 1,2,4 11:00 12:10 YJ 762 1,2 15:50 18:00
YJ 233 6 11:00 12:10 YH 732 Daily 15:55 18:45
YH 727 1 11:15 12:40 K7 829 1,3,5 16:10 17:25
YH 737 3,5,7 11:15 12:40 YH 728 1 16:00 18:10
YH 727 3 11:15 12:40 K7 264 Daily 16:30 18:15
K7 828 1,3,5 12:30 13:45 YH 738 3,5,7 16:40 18:50
K7 822 2,4,7 12:30 13:45 YJ 752 3,7 16:45 17:55
K7 264 Daily 14:30 15:45 W9 129 1,3,6 16:55 19:10
YH 731 Daily 14:30 15:55
W9 129 1,3,6 15:30 16:40
Yangon to MYeik MYeik to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrY5 325 1,5 6:45 8:15 Y5 326 1,5 8:35 10:05
K7 319 1,3,5,7 7:00 9:05 7Y 532 2,4,6 16:05 18:10
7Y 531 2,4,6 11:45 13:50 K7 320 1,3,5,7 11:30 13:35
Y5 325 2 15:30 17:00 Y5 326 2 17:15 18:45
Yangon to sittwe sittwe to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrW9 309 1,3,6 11:30 12:55 W9 309 1,3,6 13:10 14:55
6T 611 Daily 11:45 12:55 6T 612 Daily 13:15 14:20
K7 413 1,3,5,7 12:00 13:50 K7 423 Daily 15:10 16:30
Yangon to tHandwe tHandwe to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrK7 242 Daily 7:00 10:35 K7 243 Daily 10:50 11:45
YH 505 1,2,3,4,5,6 10:30 13:10 YH 506 1,2,3,4,5,6 13:10 14:00
W9 309 1,3,6 11:30 13:50 7Y 413 1,3,5,7 13:05 15:25
7Y 413 1,3,5,7 12:00 12:50 W9 309 1,3,6 14:05 14:55
K7 422 Daily 13:00 13:35 K7 422 Daily 14:10 16:30
Y5 421 1,3,4,6 15:45 16:40 Y5 422 1,3,4,6 16:55 17:50
Yangon to dawei dawei to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrK7 319 1 7:00 8:10 K7 320 1,3,5,7 12:25 13:35
7Y 531 2,4,6 11:45 12:50 7Y 532 2,4,6 17:05 18:10
Yangon to lasHio lasHio to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrYJ 751 3,7 10:30 12:45 YJ 752 5 13:15 16:30
YJ 751 5 10:45 13:00 K7 829 1,3 15:05 15:55
YH 729 2,4,6 11:00 13:00 K7 829 5 15:05 17:25
K7 828 1,3,5 12:30 14:50 YJ 752 3,7 15:40 17:55
YH 730 2,4,6 16:45 19:10
Yangon to putao putao to YangonFlight Days Dep Arr Flight Days Dep ArrYH 826 3 7:00 11:00 YH 836 1,7 11:00 14:45
YH 831 4,6 7:00 11:00 YH 832 4,6 11:00 14:45
YH 835 1,7 7:00 11:00 YH 827 3 11:00 14:45
W9 251 2,5 11:30 15:25 W9 252 2,5 15:45 19:40
the pulse 21www.mmtimes.com
Airline Codes3K = Jet Star
8M = Myanmar Airways International
AK = Air Asia
BG = Biman Bangladesh Airlines
CA = Air China
CI = China Airlines
CZ = China Southern
DD = Nok Airline
FD = Air Asia
KA = Dragonair
KE = Korea Airlines
MH = Malaysia Airlines
MI = Silk Air
MU = China Eastern Airlines
NH = All Nippon Airways
PG = Bangkok Airways
QR = Qatar Airways
SQ = Singapore Airways
TG = Thai Airways
TR = Tiger Airline
VN = Vietnam Airline
AI = Air India
Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines
Subject to changewithout notice
International Airlines
All Nippon Airways (NH) Tel: 255412, 413
Air Asia (FD) Tel: 09254049991~3
Air Bagan Ltd.(W9)Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102
Air China (CA)Tel: 666112, 655882
Air IndiaTel: 253597~98, 254758, 253601. Fax 248175
Bangkok Airways (PG)Tel: 255122, 255265. Fax: 255119
Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG)Tel: 371867~68. Fax: 371869
Condor (DE)Tel: 370836~39 (ext: 303)
Dragonair (KA)Tel: 255323 (ext: 107), 09-401539206
Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999 Fax: 8604051
Malaysia Airlines (MH)Tel: 387648, 241007 (ext: 120, 121, 122) Fax: 241124
Myanmar Airways International (8M)Tel: 255260. Fax: 255305
Nok Airline (DD)Tel: 255050, 255021. Fax: 255051
Qatar Airways (QR)Tel: 379845, 379843, 379831. Fax: 379730
Singapore Airlines (SQ) / Silk Air (MI)Tel: 255287~9. Fax: 255290
Thai Airways (TG)Tel: 255491~6. Fax: 255223
Tiger Airline (TR)Tel: 371383, 370836~39 (ext: 303)
Vietnam Airlines (VN)Tel: 255066, 255088, 255068. Fax: 255086
Day1 = Monday2 = Tuesday3 = Wednesday
4 = Thursday5 = Friday6 = Saturday7 = Sunday
InternAtIonAl FlIGHt SCHeDUleSYANGON TO BANGKOK BANGKOK TO YANGON
Flights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrPG 706 Daily 6:05 8:20 TG 303 Daily 8:00 8:458M 335 Daily 7:40 9:25 PG 701 Daily 8:45 9:40TG 304 Daily 9:50 11:45 Y5 238 Daily 21:30 22:20PG 702 Daily 10:30 12:25 8M 336 Daily 10:40 11:25TG 302 Daily 14:50 16:45 TG 301 Daily 13:05 13:50PG 708 Daily 15:20 17:15 PG 707 Daily 13:40 14:308M 331 Daily 16:30 18:15 PG 703 Daily 17:00 17:50PG 704 Daily 18:35 20:30 TG 305 Daily 18:05 18:50Y5 237 Daily 19:00 20:50 8M 332 Daily 19:15 20:00TG 306 Daily 19:50 21:45 PG 705 Daily 20:15 21:30
YANGON TO DON MUEANG DON MUEANG TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
DD 4231 Daily 8:00 9:45 DD 4230 Daily 6:30 7:15FD 252 Daily 8:30 10:20 FD 251 Daily 7:15 8:00FD 256 Daily 12:50 14:40 FD 255 Daily 11:35 12:20FD 254 Daily 17:35 19:25 FD 253 Daily 16:20 17:05FD 258 Daily 21:30 23:15 FD 257 Daily 20:15 20:55
DD 4239 Daily 21:00 22:55 DD 4238 Daily 19:25 20:15
YANGON TO SINGAPORE SINGAPORE TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
8M 231 Daily 8:00 12:25 TR 2822 Daily 7:20 8:45Y5 2233 Daily 9:45 14:15 Y5 2234 Daily 7:20 8:50TR 2823 Daily 9:45 2:35 SQ 998 Daily 7:55 9:20SQ 997 Daily 10:25 15:10 3K 581 Daily 9:10 10:403K 582 Daily 11:45 16:20 MI 533 2,4,6 11:30 12:45MI 533 2,4,6 13:35 20:50 8M 232 Daily 13:25 14:508M 233 5,6,7 14:40 19:05 MI 518 Daily 14:20 15:45MI 519 Daily 16:40 21:15 3K 583 2,3,5 17:20 18:503K 584 2,3,5 19:30 00:05+1 8M 234 5,6,7 20:15 21:40
YANGON TO KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
8M 501 1,2,3,5,6 7:50 11:50 AK 504 Daily 6:55 8:00AK 505 Daily 8:30 12:45 8M 9505 Daily 10:05 11:15MH 741 Daily 12:15 16:30 MH 740 Daily 10:05 11:158M 9506 Daily 12:15 16:30 8M 502 1,2,3,5,6 12:50 13:508M 9508 Daily 15:45 20:05 8M 9507 Daily 13:40 14:50MH 743 Daily 16:00 20:15 MH 742 Daily 13:55 15:05AK 503 Daily 19:05 23:20 AK 502 Daily 17:20 18:25
YANGON TO BEIJING BEIJING TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrCA 906 3,5,7 23:50 0550+1 CA 905 3,5,7 19:30 22:50
YANGON TO GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
8M 711 2,4,7 8:40 13:15 CZ 3055 3,6 8:35 10:35CZ 3056 3,6 11:35 15:55 CZ 3055 1,5 14:40 16:40CZ 3056 1,5 17:40 22:10 8M 712 2,4,7 14:15 15:50
YANGON TO TAIPEI TAIPEI TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
CI 7916 Daily 10:50 16:10 CI 7915 Daily 7:00 9:50YANGON TO KUNMING KUNMING TO YANGON
Flights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrCA 416 Daily 12:30 15:55 MU 2011 3 8:25 11:50
MU 2012 3 12:40 18:50 CA 415 Daily 11:10 11:30MU 2032 1,2,4,5,6,7 14:50 18:15 MU 2031 1,2,4,5,6,7 13:30 14:00
YANGON TO HANOI HANOI TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
VN 956 1,3,5,6,7 19:10 21:25 VN 957 1,3,5,6,7 16:40 18:10YANGON TO HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY TO YANGON
Flights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrVN 942 2,4,7 14:25 17:05 VN 943 2,4,7 11:45 13:25
YANGON TO DOHA DOHA TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrQR 919 1,4,6 7:55 11:40 QR 918 3,5,7 19:45 0459+1
YANGON TO SEOUL SEOUL TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
0Z 770 4,7 0:50 8:50 KE 471 Daily 18:30 22:30KE 472 Daily 23:55 07:45+1 0Z 769 3,6 19:30 23:40
YANGON TO HONG KONG HONG KONG TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
KA 251 1,2,3,4,6,7 01:10 05:45 KA 252 4 22:50 00:30KA 251 5 01:30 05:55 KA 250 1,2,3,5,6,7 21:45 23:30
YANGON TO TOKYO TOKYO TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
NH 914 Daily 22:10 06:45+1 NH 913 Daily 11:45 17:15
YANGON TO DHAKA DHAKA TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
BG 061 2 11:45 13:00 BG 060 2 8:30 10:45BG 061 5 19:45 21:00 BG 060 5 16:30 18:45
YANGON TO INCHEON INCHEON TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
PG 724 1,3,5,6 12:50 14:45 PG 723 1,3,5,6 11:00 11:55W9 607 4,7 14:30 16:20 W9 608 4,7 17:20 18:108M 7702 Daily 23:30 07:50+1 8M 7701 Daily 18:45 22:258M 7502 4,7 00:35 09:10 8M 7501 3,6 19:50 23:25
YANGON TO CHIANG MAI CHIANG MAI TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrY5 251 2,4,6 6:15 8:05 Y5 252 2,4,6 9:25 10:157Y 305 1,5 11:00 12:50 7Y 306 1,5 13:45 14:35W9 607 4,7 14:30 16:20 W9 608 4,7 17:20 18:10
YANGON TO GAYA GAYA TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
8M 601 3,5,6 7:00 8:20 AI 235 2 9:10 12:10AI 236 2 13:10 14:10 8M 602 3,5,6 9:20 12:30AI 234 1,5 14:05 15:05 AI 233 5 15:00 18:00
YANGON TO DELHI DELHI TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrAI 236 2 13:10 16:30 AI 235 2 7:00 12:10
YANGON TO KOLKATA KOLKATA TO YANGONFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep ArrAI 234 1 14:05 17:20 AI 227 1 10:35 13:20AI 228 5 18:45 19:45 AI 233 5 13:30 18:00
MANDALAY TO BANGKOK BANGKOK TO MANDALAYFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
PG 710 Daily 14:15 16:40 PG 709 Daily 12:05 13:25
MANDALAY TO SINGAPORE SINGAPORE TO MANDALAYFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
MI 533 2,4,6 15:45 20:50 Y5 2234 Daily 7:20 16:30Y5 2233 1,2,4,5,6 7:50 14:15 MI 533 2,4,6 11:30 14:50
MANDALAY TO DON MUEANG DON MUEANG TO MANDALAYFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
FD 245 Daily 12:50 15:15 FD 244 Daily 10:55 12:20
MANDALAY TO KUNMING KUNMING TO MANDALAYFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
MU 2030 Daily 13:50 16:40 MU 2029 Daily 12:55 12:50
NAY PYI TAW TO BANGKOK BANGKOK TO NAY PYI TAWFlights Days Dep Arr Flights Days Dep Arr
PG 722 1,2,3,4,5 19:45 22:45 PG 721 1,2,3,4,5 17:15 19:15
22 Sport THE MYANMAR TIMES April 22, 2015
Boxing
footBall
Pacmania sweeps Philippines ahead of Mayweather clash
Kyaw Zin [email protected]
On April 12, Myanmar’s Ye Tun Naung qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics in the Mens 10m Air Pistol. Competing in his first final on the world stage in round three of the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup held in Changwon, South Korea, he scored 201.0 points to claim a silver medal and a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota Place.
in PiCtUREs
Photo: ISSF website/Nicolò Zangirolami
M anny Pacquiao's face is on shirts, dolls and post-age stamps, his life story is playing in movie hous-es, and millions are get-
ting ready to party as the Philippine boxing hero’s “fight of the century” nears.
Pacmania is sweeping the South-east asian nation of 100 million peo-ple ahead of the May 2 Las Vegas bout against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather to decide who is the best boxer of their generation.
“The mood is upbeat. Of course, it's the fight of the century," Manila film producer Lucky Blanco told aFP.
Blanco is a co-producer of the Pac-quiao film Kid Kulafu now showing at scores of theatres across the country and a high-profile scene-setter for the world's richest fight.
For many, the 36-year-old Pac-quiao, winner of an unprecedented eight world championships in differ-ent weight divisions, symbolises their hope of escaping the grinding poverty that afflicts one in four of his coun-trypeople.
The movie tells the story of the runaway high school dropout who, years before becoming a ring legend, sold doughnuts on the streets and stacked shelves with ‘Vino Kulafu’, a cheap Chinese wine brand.
years later, as he became one of the world's richest sportsmen and one of the most famous Filipinos, a Manila televi-sion network would give the left-hander another name: “The national Fist”.
Pacmania always sweeps the Philippines ahead of his fights, but the intensity dropped in recent years after Pacquiao lost an unprecedented two straight bouts.
He then had three wins, reviving excitement and hopes Pacquiao still has what it takes to be the world's best.
But Mayweather is the opponent his fans have always wanted him to fight.
Millions of Filipinos will don Pac-man paraphernalia to cheer their idol on live television screens during the fight, which will take place on a Sun-day morning in the Philippines.
Baseball caps, T-shirts, US$68 box-ing gloves signed by Pacman himself, and $565 vinyl dolls of Pacquiao box-ing against the Disney character Mick-ey Mouse are flying off shelves.
“On fight day everyone wants to be seen wearing something that will sym-bolise their support,” Joy Saransate, manager of a Pacquiao-owned Team Pacquiao memorabilia shop in Manila, told aFP.
Government agencies have even been swept up in Pacmania, with the state postal authority this week releas-ing half a million stamps of a fighting Pacquiao.
“This ... is a fitting tribute to his ex-ceptional character and ability that truly unites the nation whenever he fights," postmaster-general Josie de la Cruz said.
Pacquiao, a sometime actor, politi-cian and professional basketball player on the side, also released a video last week of a new song, “I Will Fight for the Philippines”. to be used for his ring entrance in Las Vegas, that is getting widespread publicity in the media.
Whetted by saturation newspaper and television coverage, and primed by training clips fed through his of-ficial social media sites, Filipinos are clearing their schedules to make sure they will be able to watch the fight.
It will be shown live on pay-per-view television, while local networks also struck an unprecedented deal to air it without ads and on a slightly delayed basis on free television.
However, in keeping with tradition throughout his career, many Filipinos
will prefer to watch the fight in public places, including at gyms and parks across the country or in restaurants and watering holes.
a popular pizza chain in Manila is taking reservations for 200 seats at $16 each so fans can cheer their hero on while swigging beer and munching on buffalo wings.
“Pacquiao fights always pack them in, but this time we expect even more
people to come because of the quality of the opponent," restaurant manager Hershey Ebalo told aFP.
Blanco, the Pacquiao film producer, said he expected the streets of the Phil-ippine capital, a sprawling metropolis of 14 million, to be empty on fight day, with criminals also taking a day off.
“Definitely there will be no crime on the streets, just like in past Pacqui-ao fights," he said. – AFP
FOLLOWInG last week’s draw for the football tournament to be held at June’s 28th Southeast asian Games, the players competing to represent Myanmar U23 in Singapore entered a yangon-based training camp.
an initial selection of 30 players joined the camp at Inya Lake Hotel on april 18. Those players will then travel to South Korea and Japan to face K League and J League opponents.
“Before we leave we will face three Myanmar club sides, on our trip we will face three more teams between May 4 and 19 and when we return we will host a friendly international game,” said Zaw Min Htike, a Myanmar Football Federa-tion spokesperson.
“The players have been gradually im-proving as a team and I believe they will develop a great deal of experience from this trip,” U Kyi Lwin, the U23 head coach told The Myanmar Times.
This side visited Japan in March dur-ing their preparation for their unsuc-
cessful aFC U23 Championship qualifi-cation campaign. On that occasion the team lost 9-0 to their Japanese equiva-lents.
During their aFC U23 qualifiers My-anmar beat Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei to come second in their group but after losing heavily to top side australia, they failed to secure one of the runner-up qualification spots for the final tour-nament.
“Our team has played many inter-national matches. These matches have been played at continental level and so our team has learned from this interna-tional experience,” added U Kyi Lwin.
On March 22 the U23 drew 1-1 with the Malaysian U23 team, a side the My-anmar U20s had beaten 3-0 only days before.
Last week’s SEa Games tournament draw saw the White angels pulled out of the bag and into Group a, alongside hosts Singapore, 2013 runners-up Indo-nesia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Singapore national coach aide Is-kandar told the games official media that he thought Group a looked the
easier half of the draw. “We’re happy with the draw. Even
though Group B looks tougher we can-not underestimate any opponents in our group,” the Singapore coach said, add-ing that he saw Indonesia and Myanmar as his toughest opponents.
“I’m not interested in whether our group is considered a tough or easy one. I will give the same attention to every game and respect all opponents equally,” said Kyi Lin.
The MFF originally declared their target of a semi-final berth but the deputy minister for sport challenged the team to return with gold.
“I don’t want to be giving my estima-tion of results. I can make no promises except that we will try our best,” added the Myanmar coach.
Defending champions Thailand will form Group B along with Vietnam, Ma-laysia, Laos, Brunei and Timor-Leste.
Teams playing in Group B will have to play one additional game at the group stage, something that could potentially be a factor in the gruelling incessant na-ture of tournament football.
SEA Games squad look east
Customers check boxing gloves signed by Manny Pacquiao on sale at a store in Manila. Photo: AFP
‘This [stamp] is a fitting tribute to his exceptional character and ability that truly unites the nation whenever he fights.’
Josie de la Cruz postmaster-general
Manny Pacquiao merchandise is sweeping the Philippines as their national hero prepares to face Floyd Mayweather in one of the most highly anticipated pugilistic encounters in the history of professional boxing. Photo: AFP
Sport 23www.mmtimes.com
T his saturday sees the re-launched General Aung san shield get under way and with it The Myanmar Times’s first football predic-
tions competition. On April 25, MNL-2’s, 2nd-place ho-
rizon face 4th-place Mawyawday FC in a rematch of the bad-tempered affair that closed out the first half of the reg-ular season competition on March 27.
As that game kicks off at Thu-
wunna’s Youth Training Centre venue across town at the Aung san stadium hantharwady United will face Pong Gan FC, also at 4pm.
You’ll need to predict the winners of that and 19 other matches to win our prize – to be announced later in the week – and of course more im-portantly bragging rights over your friends until the next competition.
sport Editor Matt Roebuck and reporter Kyaw Zin hlaing will also
be putting their necks on the line by atemmpoting to predict the outcome of this year’s competition, though of course they will only be playing for bragging rights.
The games over the first week-end will be worth two points each for every correct selection. With six games that means 12 points are up for grabs.
Those in the Round of 16 will also be worth two points but after that
points double, meaning that 16 points is the top score from the games to be played between July 11 and 14.
The quarter-final and semi-final rounds will also be worth 16 points each, with a correct selection being worth four and eight points respec-tively in each round and the correct se-lection of the final winner on October 25 – should one of your teams make it – will bag you 16 points.
You can download a copy of the
entry form at www.mmtimes.com and e-mail it to [email protected] or alternatively you can fill out this form below and deliver it to the Myanmar Times head office at No 379/383 Bo Aung Kyaw street, Kyauktada town-ship, Yangon.
........................................................................*This challenge is devised as a non-gambling promotion and is intended solely for entertainment purposes.
When Saturday comes
Myanmar Times Fantasy FootballGeneral Aung San Shield 2015
FANTASY FOOTBALL
ENTRY FORM
Match Team 1 Team 2 WinnerPrediction Points*
1 Mawyawady FC horizon FC
2 hanthawady United Phong Gan FC
3 Myawady FC GFA FC
4 silver stars FC University
5 southern Myanmar FC Best United
6 Dagon FC Rakhine United
7 Yadanarbon FC Winner of Match 1
8 Winner of Match 2 KBZ FC
9 Magwe FC Chin United
10 Winner of Match 3 Yangon United
11 Zwekapin United Zeyar shwe Myay FC
12 Winner of Match 4 Ayeyawady United
13 Manaw Myay FC Winner of Match 5
14 Winner of Match 6 Nay Pyi Taw FC
15 Winner of Match 7 Winner of Match 8
16 Winner of Match 9 Winner of Match 10
17 Winner of Match 11 Winner of Match 12
18 Winner of Match 13 Winner of Match 14
19 Winner of Match 15 Winner of Match 16
20 Winner of Match 17 Winner of Match 18
21 Winner of Match 19 Winner of Match 20
Entrant Name: .......................................................................Email Address: ......................................................................Telephone Number: .............................................................Address: ......................................................................................................................................................................................
Instructions
1. Complete the form below by inserting the name of the side you believe will win each match (Match 19 and 20 – the semi-finals – will be played over two legs but counted in our competition as a single fixture.)
2. Write only the name of the side you believe will win. For instance if you believe Mawyawady FC will win Match 1, write their team name. if you believe they will then go on to beat Yadanarbon FC in Match 7, then again write “Mawyawady FC” – do not write “Winner of Match 1.”
3. Points will be awarded as follows: First Round 2 point for each correct selection (12 total points possible) Round of 16 2 points for each correct selection (16 total points possible) Quarter Final 4 points for each correct selection (16 total points possible) Semi-Final over two legs 8 points for each correct selection (16 total
points possible) Final 16 points for each correct selection (16 total points possible)
* Do not fill in the points column – this is for administrative purposes only.
4. All predictions must be made at the beginning of the competition, if you incorrectly predict the two finalists then you will be unable to score any points in Match 21.
5. Deliver your entry to Myanmar Times, No 379/383 Bo Aung Kyaw street, Kyauktada Township, Yangon by Friday 24th April, 5pm.
Alternatively download this form from www.mmtimes.com and e-mail the form below to [email protected] by saturday 25th April, 2pm.
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Chin Utd
KBZ
hantharwady Utd
Phong Gan
horizon
Yadanarbon
Mawyawady
Magwe
GFA
Myawady
Yangon Utd
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???
???
Manaw Myay
Best Utd
southern
Rakhine Utd
Dagon
Nay Pyi Taw
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???
???
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Ayeyawady Utd
University
Zwekapin Utd
Zeyar shwe Myay
silver stars
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1st Round 1st RoundRound of 16 Round of 16Quarter Final Quarter FinalSemi Final Semi Final
V
Final
Match 1
Match 7
Match 15
Match 19 Match 20
Match 21
Match 17
Match 18Match 16
Match 8
Match 9
Match 10
Match 4
Match 11
Match 12
Match 13
Match 14
Match 5
Match 6
Match 2
Match 3
Winners of MFF Knockout competition (in professional era)
Year Winner Result Runner-up
2010 Okktha United* 3–1 Southern Myanmar FC
2011 Yangon United 5–0 Nay Pyi Taw FC
2012 Ayeyawady United 1–0 KBZ FC
2013 Cancelled due to SEA Games
2014 Ayeyawady United 2–0 Nay Pyi Taw FC
*Renamed Hantharwady UnitedZ
SPORT EDITOR: Matt Roebuck | [email protected]
Join the fun in our Fantasy Football competition
SPORT 23Sport24 THE MYANMAR TIMES APRIl 22, 2015
M yanmar have been drawn in Group G of the FIFa World Cup 2018 and aFC asian Cup 2019 Pre-liminary Joint Qualifica-
tion round Two alongside South Korea who have qualified for every World Cup since mexico ’86.
South Korea will be favourites to automatically advance to the asian Cup and round Three of World Cup qualifying which is the reward for top-ping the group. also featured alongside myanmar will be arabian Peninsula sides Kuwait and Lebanon, plus fellow Southeast asian side Laos.
myanmar will travel to Vientiane for their first game on the roads to russia and the UaE in order to face Laos on June 11. Their second game is a home draw against South Korea on June 16. That game is likely to be held in Bang-kok as a result of the crowd violence that marred myanmar’s 2014 World Cup qualifier with Oman at yangon’s Thuwunna Stadium in July 2011.
myanmar were initially banned from FIFa 2018 qualification but were later reinstated under the proviso that qualification games would be played at a neutral venue.
The White angels have only com-peted in qualification for the FIFa World Cup twice before after having withdrawn from or not entered every competition until the campaign for 2010. On that occasion myanmar lost 11-0 on aggregate to China and chose to play their home game in October 2007 at a neutral venue in malaysia.
The fixtures draw that pits myanmar first up against a Laos team they will be
expected to beat and a South Korean side expected to outclass them should be a wel-come one for coach raddy avramovic.
When he spoke to The Myanmar Times in march, he and U20s coach Gerd Zeise both expressed their ex-pectation that at least half a dozen of the players that will follow the latter to new Zealand on may 30 for the FIFa U20 World Cup will join the senior side,
although the June 11 and 16 games will come too soon. By the September 3 visit to Kuwait, the White angels may well have a more youthful aspect.
Elsewhere in the draw Group F looks of particular interest for the possi-bility of Southeast asian advancement as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are all drawn together with Iraq and minnows Chinese Taipei.
While the winners of the Groups will qualify for the 2019 asian Cup, the top two finishers will automatically qualify for round Three of the FIFa competition. The five of the 10 second-place sides with the best records will also make the asian Cup, while the oth-er five will need to go through a third round of qualifying for the asian Cup that will be run separately to the third-
round World Cup qualifiers. Third-place finishers will be elimi-
nated from the FIFa competition but will qualify for the asian Cup round Three. The top five fourth-place sides will also be guaranteed in that stage of the competition but the bottom five will be required to go through a play-off round alongside those sides that finish fifth in the group.
Myanmar’s Road to Russia begins in Laos
fOOTball
MaTT [email protected]
Photo: AFC