Officials, Craigslist Meet to Discuss Illegal Ads

Bold and aggressive
new styling
The Dalai Lama speaks in
New York. Tibetans have
been oppressed by the
Chinese Communist Party
for over 50 years.
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The Epoch Times
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Northern California Edition
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Published Every Thursday
Issue 20090019
Chinese
Corporations’
Profits Rise,
Along With
Discontent
Favoritism
Found at the
World Bank
Harvard study shows
countries represented
on board of directors
are better favored
Thousands of netizens
criticize state-owned
monopolies
By HEIDE B. MALHOTRA
Epoch Times Staff
New research has found that World Bank
leaders are using their positions to channel
funds to their home countries.
“The Executive Board is used as a platform to channel more or greater bank loans
and grants to the home countries of the
directors … during [the] years when they
have a seat on the board,” accused Ashwin Kaja and Eric Werker in their research
study titled “Corporate Misgovernance at
the World Bank,” published by the Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge (WK), a Harvard University faculty
research publication.
Serving on the board of directors at the
International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD) doubles funding opportunities for the board members’ home
countries by about $60 million, the study
found.
Countries with designated World Bank
officials who are not elected to the IBRD’s
board of directors often can’t achieve such
windfalls.
The IBRD board of directors (whose
members are chosen every two years
among member states) governs its institutions. The IBRD has 24 executive directors
of which five, chosen by the United States,
Japan, Germany, and France, are the largest shareholders. The Bank’s other members elect the remainder.
An executive director serves a two-year
term and is responsible for a specific group
of countries. They also function as directors
for the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance
Corporation with only one requirement—
the country that elects them must be a member of the IDA.
“If board membership were egalitarian,
with all countries having the opportunity
to serve on a regular basis, our findings
might not be [as] troubling,” WK researchers wrote.
The researchers are concerned that such
conflict of interest issues are not singular to the World Bank, but may also pose
problems at similar institutions under the
auspices of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, multilateral development agencies, and institutions with
similar mandates.
“Overall, the World Bank is quite well
run—the issue is one of misgovernance, not
malfeasance,” the report said.
In short, violation of ethical principles by
the actions of the IBRD board of directors
is an issue that affects investors who do not
have a chance to be elected to the board.
By JASON MA
PROUD MOMENT: Chinese professor Sun Yanjun (R) receives a certificate for quitting the Chinese Communist Party
during a rally in Flushing, N.Y., on April 25. Yanjun severed all ties to the Party last year after refusing to write fake
research articles defaming Falun Gong. SETH HOLEHOUSE/THE EPOCH TIMES
Scholar Exposes Regime’s Atheist Agenda
Chinese professor of
religions reveals Party’s
control of research findings
By CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON
Epoch Times Staff
NEW YORK—Undertaking religious
studies under an atheist communist regime may sound like a contradiction,
but Sun Yanjun, a professor of the psychology of religion, said it is just another
method the Chinese regime uses to control people.
“In order to have power in hand, the
regime must tightly control the ideology. And if they want to control people’s
minds, they have to control religion,”
Sun said through a translator. “The Chinese Communist Party is a dictatorship;
it is ruled through tyranny.”
Sun taught religious studies at Capital
Normal University in Beijing, until his
defection during a conference in Hawaii
early 2008. He said within every university is a Communist Party branch department and an executive Party depart-
ment—the ultimate controlling forces of
the university.
“In China everything serves the Party,
and even when we give a lecture, the students are used as spies and messengers.
If you say something outside the Party,
they will report it to the executive and
branch departments at the university.”
He said the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) set up religious studies in universities in order to get ideas on how to manage or control religions. The research he
and his colleagues undertook is used to
determine the policy of control or to directly influence public opinion through
propaganda.
Control Over Religion
Religion has played a major role in the
CCP’s battle for control of the Chinese
people since the Party seized rule in 1949.
It was strategic in that traditional Chinese society was based on a belief in the
divine and China itself was once called
“Shen Zhou” or “Land of the Divine.”
Communist ideology is based on
atheism and in 1950, after the CCP
gained control of China, local governments were instructed to disband groups
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of Catholics, Taoists, and Buddhists.
The CCP ordered all members of these
churches, temples, and religious societies to register with government agencies
and to repent for their involvement.
“In China even though freedom of religion is in the law, only those religions
controlled by the CCP can survive,” Sun
said. The CCP elects its own priests and
cardinals—over the Vatican’s objections—and the next Dalai Lama has already been appointed by the regime.
Fake Research Articles
Sun said he was requested to write
“research papers” about religions, a
propaganda exercise that became more
pronounced following the regime’s
clampdown on Falun Gong.
“When the persecution of Falun Gong
started in 1999, because my major research focus was on the psychology of
religion, I was requested several times to
criticize Falun Gong and the practice,”
he said. The requests came from the administration manager of the university,
and the branch and executive branch of
the Party. .
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Officials, Craigslist
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Illegal Ads
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Inside
FREE
INCENTIVE: A Honda salesman in California shows customers a Honda
Insight hybrid car. The Insight gets 40 miles per gallon. President
Obama and Democratic lawmakers agreed to propose a bill that
would give consumers incentives to replace their less fuel-efficient
cars with more fuel-efficient ones. DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES
Obama, Lawmakers Agree
on ‘Cash-for-Clunkers’ Bill
WASHINGTON
(Reuters)—President Barack Obama
and Democratic lawmakers
reached agreement this week on
a legislative proposal designed to
stimulate U.S. auto sales, which
have fallen to near 30-year lows.
The one-year plan crafted
by members of the U.S. House
would offer vouchers worth up
to $4,500 for owners to replace
their less fuel efficient vehicles
for models that get better gas
mileage.
The goal of the “cash for clunkers” legislation is to sell 1 million vehicles.
“By stimulating consumer
demand for new vehicles, this
proposal will directly benefit
domestic autoworkers and automotive manufacturers, which
have arguably been hardest hit
by the current economic downturn,” said Rep. John Dingell,
a Michigan Democrat and
staunch industry ally.
House Majority leader Steny
Hoyer has embraced the proposal and said in an interview
with Reuters in April that the
measure would be acted upon
quickly once proposed.
Certain types of
ads in question of
being shut down
in effort to prevent
further crimes
NEW YORK (Reuters)—
Lawyers for Craigslist met
with several state lawyers
this week to discuss blocking
the social networking site’s
“erotic services” ads, which
have been linked to recent
high-profile murders.
The meeting, held in New
York, included the attorneys
general for Connecticut, Illinois, and Missouri.
State officials have called
for changes to the 14-yearold online bazaar that generates more than 20 billion
page views per month in 50
countries with a staff of just
28 people.
The popular networking
site, where users post ads for
jobs, used furniture and dating, has come under fire following the murder last month
of a 26-year-old masseuse
who advertised services on
Craigslist in Boston.
Philip Markoff, a 23-yearold Boston University medical student, has been charged
with murdering the masseuse. Markoff, who has been
dubbed the “Craigslist killer,”
was also charged with assaulting and robbing a woman in
Rhode Island.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who attended the meeting, called
on Craigslist to shut down
its “erotic services” section,
which she said includes prostitution ads, and to improve
its ability to track illegal
content.
“The erotic services section
of Craigslist is nothing more
than an Internet brothel,” Madigan told Reuters. “Hopefully they will recognize the
problem, and they claim to.”
PLEASE SEE CRAIGSLIST
MEETING ON A2
Epoch Times Staff
Chinese state-owned corporations are
posting record profits, but the figures are
not a cause for celebration by ordinary
News
Chinese.
Analysis
On April 19, Li
Rongrong, the chairman of China’s State-Owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) revealed that China’s
140-odd state-owned corporations
had a joint profit of 665.3 billion RMB
(US$97.4 billion) in 2008.
That includes profits of over $16 billion by each of China’s top three corporations: China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC), China Mobile,
and Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China (ICBC). Mr. Li revealed a total
profit from these corporations of $9.12
billion in March alone, an 85.7 percent
increase on the previous month. To put
these numbers in context, Chinese state
media reported that the joint profit of
U.S. Fortune 500 companies was only
$98.9 billion in 2008, a record drop of 85
percent.
But savvy Chinese observers were far
from impressed by the news, which was
condemned in online forums by thousands of Chinese Internet users. The gist
of the criticism was that the profits have
nothing to do with innovative technology
or optimized management, but rather to
the state giving each corporation a monopoly and favorable regulations.
Take for example China’s main oil
company, CNPC. The Chinese regime
gave it almost all of China’s on-shore oil
reserves more or less for free, and then
decided how much the people would
pay by dictating the nationwide gasoline
price at the pump.
When global oil prices rose, the price
of gasoline was closely adjusted to follow the increase, even though only about
40 percent of CNPC’s oil was imported
from overseas. When global oil prices
reached over $120 a barrel, the regime
even directly subsidized some of CNPC’s
refineries with billions of dollars, while
CNPC as a whole was still the most profitable company in Asia.
But when the global oil prices went
into a free fall from $140 a barrel to the
current $40–$50 a barrel, the gasoline
price in China was adjusted downward
at a much slower pace. Drivers in China
now pay nearly 50 percent more than
those in the United States. How CNPC
could not be highly profitable, enjoying
all of these benefits, is hard to imagine.
State-owned communication companies like China Mobile are just as
greedy. U.S. consumers have saved a lot
of money by using the technology voiceover-IP, but the Chinese regime has officially banned private companies from
using the same technology to bring down
long-distance bills in China. People in
China pay about three times more to call
friends and relatives in the United States
than U.S.-based relatives pay to call
them, and the long-distance rate within
China costs more than the rate from the
United States to China.
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May 7 – 13, 2009
Dom DeLuise Dies at Age 75
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)—
Dom DeLuise, the U.S. comic
actor who gained fame on television and in movies such as “Blazing Saddles” and “Smokey and the
Bandit II,” has died at age 75.
DeLuise died on May 4th at a
hospital in the Los Angeles community of Santa Monica, his agent
Robert Malcolm said.
“It’s easy to mourn his death,
but easier to remember a time
when he made you laugh,” DeLuise’s family said in a statement issued by Malcolm.
No cause of death was given,
but Malcolm said DeLuise had
health problems including high
blood pressure and diabetes.
In December 2008 the actor
told TV show “Entertainment Tonight” that he had been fighting
prostate cancer. “I’m still here. I’m
75 and here. I feel very blessed,” he
said.
Dominick “Dom” DeLuise was
born Aug. 1, 1933, in Brooklyn,
New York. He began his career
in movies and on TV in the 1960s,
and he gained widespread fame on
the “Dean Martin Show” as Dominick the Great, a magician whose
act routinely went wrong.
For a brief period in 1968, he
was given his own TV program,
“The Dom DeLuise Show,” and
he later proved to be appealing as
a guest star in sketch comedy and
other shows.
“I loved him from the moment
we met. Not only did we have the
greatest time working together, but
I never laughed so hard in my life
as when we were together,” Doris
Day, who starred with DeLuise in
the 1966 movie, “The Glass Bottom Boat,” said in a statement.
Worked With Burt Reynolds
In the 1970s, DeLuise became a
Epoch Times Staff
regular actor in Mel Brooks’ comedies. He appeared in the wildly
popular Western spoof “Blazing Saddles,” as well as “Silent
Movie,” “History of the World:
Part 1,” and “Robin Hood: Men in
Tights.”
He also made films with Burt
Reynolds, a major star at the time,
including “The Cannonball Run”
and its sequel “The Cannonball
Run II.”
“Dom always made everyone
feel better when he was around.
I never heard him say an unkind
word about anyone. I will miss
him very much,” Reynolds told
“Entertainment Tonight.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, DeLuise
worked on a wide range of movies and TV shows such as “Beverly
Hills 90210” and “3rd Rock from
the Sun,” and he hosted a version
of “Candid Camera” from 1991 to
1992.
His voice was used in animated
programs such as “All Dogs Go to
Heaven: The Series.”
An avid cook, DeLuise wrote
several cookbooks including “Eat
This” and “Eat This Too!” In recent years, he appeared on the
home improvement radio show
“On the House with The Carey
Brothers.”
He is survived by his wife, Carol
Arthur, and three sons, Peter, David, and Michael, who work in the
entertainment industry.
Health Care Reform Is Top Priority, Says Sebelius
ATLANTA (Reuters)—Health
care reform is the top priority for
the U.S. government this year,
and the momentum is there to
achieve it, said the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius.
Sebelius said there was “unprecedented” bipartisan cooperation to speed through reforms this
year.
“In the Senate, Democrats have
been working closely together and
with their Republican counterparts. Key chairmen have committed to passing reform legislation
out of their respective committees
in June,” Sebelius said.
“And, just last week, Congress
passed a budget blueprint that includes an historic commitment to
funding comprehensive health care
reform,” Sebelius told the Council
on Foundations in her first public address since being confirmed a week
ago as President Barack Obama’s
health and human services secretary.
“At the same time, the old opponents of reform have joined our
effort to change the status quo.
Groups and organizations that were
HEALTH CARE REFORMER: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius (L) speaks as acting CDC director Richard Besser, M.D., listens
during a press briefing at CDC headquarters this week in Atlanta, Georgia.
BARRY WILLIAMS/GETTY IMAGES
once fierce enemies have come to
the table and embraced the call for
real health care reform.”
Most sides agreed that the U.S.
health care system must be fixed,
she said. “It is our single biggest
challenge facing this country, facing this economy and it is our president’s number one priority,” Sebelius said.
“This is not political and it is not
optional. Inaction threatens our
health and our economic security,”
she said.
“Approximately 30 cents of every
health care dollar are spent on billing,
overhead, and administration. Spending on the uninsured and the health
care bureaucracy takes up nearly one
half of every health care dollar and
results in a system where we all pay
more and get worse results.”
Sebelius said reform would have
to include the following elements:
• Choice in providers and doctors.
“No American should be forced
to give up the doctor they trust
or the health plan they like,” Sebelius said.
• A cost-cutting element and quality drive
• Reform of the health delivery
system
• A slowdown in the growth of
costs of health care for businesses and government, which is
driving the budget deficit
• Affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans so that
people do not lose their health
care if they lose their jobs
Officials, Craigslist Meet
to Discuss Illegal Ads
CRAIGSLIST MEETING CONTINUED FROM A1
A representative from Craigslist,
which is partially owned by online
auctioneer eBay, was not immediately available for comment.
But Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist
chief executive, wrote in a recent blog
post that “more must be done” by the
Web site to eliminate illegal activity.
The company has started requiring
credit card and phone number verification for certain ads. As a result, the
number of “erotic” ads has fallen, according to Craigslist officials and the
attorneys general.
California State
Universities to Raise
Fees in Coming Year
By JACK PHILLIPS
A GOOD LAUGH: Actors Norm Macdonald, Dom DeLuise, and Brian “Kato” Kaelin share a laugh during “Celebrities
and Pros Match Skills As World Poker Tour Hits Los Angeles” at the Commerce Casino on Feb. 25, 2003 in Commerce,
Calif. JON KOPALOFF/GETTY IMAGES
But in Chicago, Madigan said,
about 400 to 500 ads for prostitution
are still posted every day.
“It’s got to change, and whether
they find a way to do that voluntarily,
great. If they don’t, I believe you’re going to see a whole series of lawsuits
against them,” she said.
In March, New York reporter
George Weber was stabbed to death after meeting his accused killer through
a Craigslist personal ad. Michael Anderson of Minnesota was convicted of
killing a woman who responded to a
babysitting ad placed on the Web site.
SWINE FLU
PROTECTION:
Cynthia Risner
inspects
Encompass
ProGear
disposable
surgical masks
on May 3 in
Richland Hills,
Texas. TOM
PENNINGTON/GETTY
IMAGES
Texas Woman
With Swine Flu Dies
HOUSTON (Reuters)—A Texas
woman with the new H1N1 swine
flu died earlier this week, the second death attributed to the virus
on U.S. soil, Texas health officials
announced.
It was the first time that a U.S.
resident succumbed to the virus.
A toddler from Mexico City who
had crossed into the United States
to visit family in the border town
of Brownsville died at a Houston
hospital on April 27.
The Texas Department of State
Health Services said a woman with
“chronic underlying health conditions” died this week in Cameron County—it is located on the
U.S.-Mexico border and includes
Brownsville.
The United States now has 403
confirmed cases of the new H1N1
flu, in 38 states, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
said.
CDC officials have said they expect the virus to spread to the remaining states and to cause some
severe cases and even deaths, but
so far its impact has been mild.
The Epoch Times
SAN JOSE, Calif.—California State Universities (CSUs) are
considering raising their fees for
enrollment for undergrads by 10
percent starting this fall. If passed,
this will add an additional $306 per
year to each student’s enrollment
fee. There are 23 CSU campuses,
all of which would be affected by
the proposed fee hike.
Chancellor for the California
State University, Charles Reed,
cited California’s recent economic
“meltdown,” saying CSUs need
funding for the half a million students who attend CSUs across the
state. The CSU Board of Trustees
will vote on May 13.
Despite a proposed increase in
fees, CSU fees still are the lowest
in the United States, aside from
room and board. The Evergreen
State College in Washington has
tuition of $5,133 while Kansas
State University costs $5,557 per
year. If this measure is passed, this
would be the third year in a row
that CSU has raised tuition.
In a teleconference call, Reed
also said that CSUs will only be
able to cut 3,000 to 4,000 students
for the upcoming school year, less
than its goal of enrolling 10,000
fewer students.
According to the California
State University Web site, the proposed fee hike would raise the cost
to attend CSUs to an average of
$3,354 for undergraduates, $3,894
for teacher credential students,
and $4,134 for grad students, not
including room and board.
Increased fees would bring a
projected $127 million in extra
revenue per year. One-third of this
revenue would go towards financial aid.
Also citing the current economic
crisis, regents from the prestigious
University of California are to
seek a 9.3 percent increase in fees
for the coming year, adding $672
to the cost, raising undergrad tuition to $8,720. They plan to vote
on the fees on May 7.
U.S. Charges Father of Money
Market Funds With Fraud
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON
(Reuters)—The pioneer of the
money market mutual fund, Bruce
Bent Sr., was charged with fraud by
U.S. regulators this week over accusations that he deceived investors
into believing his flagship fund was
safe before it “broke the buck” last
year.
The civil charges against the
veteran investor, his son, and their
investment company come eight
months after the Reserve Primary
Fund, brought down by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., halted redemptions and
sparked a run on money-market
funds.
The collapse of the once $62 billion fund helped accelerate the global financial crisis last September
and triggered a guarantee program
by U.S. authorities to prevent a massive outflow from money funds.
The fund is being liquidated and
its collapse has spurred numerous lawsuits. Its demise has been a
stunning turn for Bent, who regulators called “a longtime advocate
of the safety and stability of money
market funds.”
Bent created the first money
market mutual fund in 1970 with
a business partner, the late Henry
B.R. Brown, and these investments
eventually came to be seen as the
safest of mutual funds. Their assets have ballooned to about $3.7
trillion.
“There is no need for a trial sheriff here, the markets have already
taken [Bruce Bent] out back and
shot him,” said Peter Crane, president of Crane Data and publisher
of Money Fund Intelligence.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission accused Reserve
Management Company Inc., chairman Bruce Bent Sr., vice chairman
and president Bruce Bent II and another entity, Resrv Partners Inc, of
failing to provide key information
about the fund’s Lehman holdings
to investors, the fund’s board of
trustees, and rating agencies.
The defendants “engaged in a
systematic campaign to deceive the
investing public” into believing the
Primary Fund was secure despite
its substantial Lehman holdings,
the SEC said.
The fund held $785 million in
Lehman debt, which became essentially worthless when the investment bank filed for bankruptcy last
Sept. 15. A day later, the fund’s net
asset value fell below $1, meaning
that investors who thought their
funds were safe had lost money.
Money funds are designed to
maintain a constant net asset
value of $1 per share. When net
assets drop below $1 a share, the
funds are said to have “broken the
buck.”
Reserve Management Co. said
in a statement it is reviewing the
SEC complaint and “intends to
defend itself vigorously.”
Bruce Bent Sr., 71, said the Lehman bankruptcy “created an
unforeseeable and out-of-control
condition for many parties.”
“Our management worked extremely hard throughout the chaotic and fast-moving events of
Sept. 15-16 and we remain confident that we acted in the best interest of our shareholders,” he said
in a statement.
Bruce Bent II, 42, could not be
reached for comment. The father
and son are both of Manhasset,
New York.
The SEC complaint, filed in
U.S. District Court in Manhattan,
seeks financial penalties and the
repayment of ill-gotten gains.
The agency also said it is seeking to expedite distribution of the
fund’s remaining assets to investors, many of which have filed lawsuits seeking damages.
In a statement, the fund’s trustees said they “will continue to
fully cooperate” with the SEC in
the asset distribution to shareholders and “to ensure that all decisions are made in the shareholders’
best interest.”
One of the first investor lawsuits,
brought by Ameriprise Financial
Inc accused the fund of tipping off
certain investors before the fund’s
share price dropped.
“Ameriprise is gratified by
the SEC’s actions,” said Harvey
Wolkoff, a lawyer for the brokerage. He said Ameriprise’s goal
“has been that all investors, both
large and small, should be treated
equally and the SEC reiterates that
objective.”
Another lawsuit filed this week
by Visa USA accused the Primary Fund of breach of contract
and wrongful retention of its
investment.
The Primary Fund was created
in 1971, and was long known for investing in conservative assets such
as government securities and bank
certificates of deposit.
Bruce Bent Sr. had long complained that his competitors were
taking on too much risk by buying higher-yielding corporate debt
known as “commercial paper.”
“Commercial paper is anathema to the concept of the money
fund,” he told Reuters in 2001.
“People prostituted the concept by
putting garbage in the funds and
reaching for yield.”
But the SEC said in its complaint that starting in 2007, the
Primary Fund started snapping
up commercial paper issued by
Lehman as well as Merrill Lynch
and Washington Mutual, generating attractive returns for investors
and bolstering the fund company’s
management fees as new money
poured in.
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The Epoch Times
Nation
May 7 – 13, 2009
NASA Upgrades Hubble, Plans for Lunar Outpost
New equipment for Hubble Space
Telescope includes Cosmic Origins
spectrograph and 900-pound camera
A3
President Obama
Proposes $63
Billion Global
Health Initiative
By MARTIN MURPHY
Epoch Times Staff
far off, various outpost models are
Epoch Times Staff
currently being tested. NASA has
already had a year-long test of an
NEW YORK—NASA’s Atlan- inflatable habitat in Antarctica.
Once NASA has mastered the
tis Space Shuttle will embark on
one of its final missions next week, art of off-planet survival, prepawhen its crew of five will service the rations for a Mars mission will be
Hubble Space Telescope and add underway—although a time has
some new gadgets that will allow it not yet been set for that mission.
“It’s a long way off, but still
to see where no telescope has seen
NASA is taking a step back and
before.
The Atlantis shuttle mission will looking at what we’d have to do,”
be used for an estimated nine more Madison said. “We have a group
missions before the fleet goes into of people looking at how to set up
retirement. Afterwards, NASA will outposts and how to recycle air
work on more epic goals, including and water.”
The International Space Stathe building of a lunar outpost and
tion currently has a water recovery
a mission to Mars.
“We’re a nation that explores, system.
It takes three days to get to the
and if we want to continue to explore one of the next big steps is moon. It takes six months to get
how to live off the planet,” said to Mars. The outlook on the Mars
NASA spokesperson Lynnette mission includes an 18-monthlong stay on the planet,
Madison. “We have
making for an epic,
to learn to go further
two-and-a-half yearand the closest place
‘We’re a nation long journey when the
to go to is the moon.”
According to Mad- that explores, and ride home is included.
ison, the first lunar
mission of the next … one of the next New Camera for
fleet will be launched big steps is how to Hubble
in June when a robotic live off the planet.’
The NASA Hubble
drone will map out
Space Telescope will
—Lynnette
the moon in a reconget a makeover startnaissance mission.
Madison, NASA ing next week when the
Madison
said
Atlantis space shuttle
spokesperson
that before the next
makes its fifth and fimanned-lunar misnal service visit to the
sion to the moon
telescope.
launches in 2020, the
Preparations for the
“first goal is to continue missions launch are in their final stages. A
to the International Space Station meter on NASA’s website counts
for a few years.”
the seconds left until the afternoon
Moon voyages will begin anew of May 11, when Atlantis and its
with seven-day ‘sortie’ missions. crew of five will launch into space
“Once they get sorties established for its 11-day mission. The shuttle
they’ll begin setting up the out- waits on the launchpad at NASA’s
post,” Madison said, adding that Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
the targeted location of the mis- Another shuttle sits on a nearby
sions will be much more difficult to launchpad, on standby in the
reach than in previous missions.
case an emergency space rescue is
The Aries 1 rocket will take the needed.
astronauts to the moon, while the
According to a NASA report,
Aries 5—which will be the largest on the third day of flight, the Atrocket ever built—will take their lantis will be brought within 35 feet
cargo.
of the Hubble telescope. It will then
Although the Moon-base is still use its robotic arm to stretch to the
By JOSHUA PHILIPP
GETTING READY: Space shuttle Atlantis atop the mobile launcher platform sits on Launch Pad 39A at
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 17. NASA/DIMITRI GERONDIDAKIS
Dean continued, “All countdowns
for each mission are special right
now.”
Another anticipated addition to the Hubble telescope will
be the close to 900-pound Wide
Field Camera 3. “That allows the
telescope to take large-scale, extremely clear and detailed pictures
over a wide range of colors,” Dean
said, adding that the new camera
enables it to photograph ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths.
The public can look forward to
seeing pictures of space on NASA’s
website like never before.
Space Emergency Preparedness
In the case of an emergency with
the Atlantis, NASA has prepared
a second shuttle, the Endeavor,
on a nearby launchpad. The Endeavor has a detailed rescue plan,
which could evacuate the crew of
the Atlantis and bring them safely
home within eight days.
This is the first time since July
2001 that two shuttles have simultaneously occupied both launch-
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San Francisco Bay Area
ing pads.
Unlike a journey to the International Space Station when shuttles are loaded with enough supplies to sustain the crew for 90
days, the Atlantis is only being
prepared with enough food and
water to sustain the crew for 25
days—which should be more than
enough for its 11-day mission,
given all goes well.
In the case of an emergency, the
Endeavor would launch into space
and rendezvous beneath the Atlantis approximately 23 hours after launch. The two shuttles would
be brought within 24 feet of each
other and the Endeavor would use
its robotic arm to latch onto the
Atlantis.
The detailed plan outlines the
evacuation of all crew members to
the Endeavor, which would then
begin the journey home.
Despite the precautions, Dean
said that NASA is not expecting a
need to use it. “They wouldn’t go
up there if they didn’t think it was
safe,” she said.
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telescope and grab onto its grapple fixture. It will then reel in the
Hubble, placing it carefully atop
the shuttle’s Flight Support System
(FSS).
From there, the FSS can rotate
and tilt the telescope to provide
easy access for the crew.
The Atlantis’ crew of six will begin their work on Hubble on the
third day in flight. Aside from several parts replacements, Hubble
will be fitted with new technology
that will make it more powerful
than ever.
One of the new installations will
be a Cosmic Origins Spectrograph,
which will enable it to observe
how light put out by extremely
faint quasars change as they pass
through gasses in the galaxy.
“That helps the scientists learn
what the gas is made of, how it
changes over time, and how it affects the galaxies around it,” said
Brandy Dean,
“We have eight or possibly nine
missions left to go before the space
shuttle fleet is officially retired.”
President Barack Obama asked
Congress this week to approve his
2010 Fiscal Year budget request of
$8.6 billion and a further $63 billion
over six years to forge a new global
health strategy.
Commenting on the recent outbreak of the H1N1 virus and the ease
at which it spread across borders and
oceans, “We cannot wall ourselves
off from the world and hope for the
best, nor ignore the public health
challenges beyond our borders. An
outbreak in Indonesia can reach Indiana within days, and public health
crises abroad can cause widespread
suffering, conflict, and economic
contraction,” said President Obama
in a White House Statement.
The President cited these reasons
for his new “Global Health Initiative” to tackle health issues with an
integrated approach. “We cannot
simply confront individual preventable illnesses in isolation.”
The President spoke of when he
was a U.S. Senator, how he supported the Bush Administration’s
effective President’s Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Praising this plan and how it has provided
medicines to some of the world’s
poorest people, the President recognized that more needed to be done if
diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis were to be brought under
control.
“My budget makes critical investments in a new, comprehensive global health strategy. We support the
promise of PEPFAR while increasing
and enhancing our efforts to combat
diseases that claim the lives of 26,000
children each day,” said President
Obama.
In concluding, the President admitted that “we cannot fix every
problem,” however he acknowledged
that there was a responsibility to protect the health of Americans and at
the same time reducing suffering,
and supporting the health of people everywhere. “America can make
a significant difference in meeting
these challenges, and that is why my
Administration is committed to act.”
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V83
A4
China Focus
May 7 – 13, 2009
The Epoch Times
The Inside Story: Why Falun Gong Was Persecuted
Former Party head explains why the Chinese regime acted
By TIANLANG ZHANG
Epoch Times Staff
Ever since the persecution of the spiritual
practice Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999,
journalists, China scholars, the Chinese regime, and Falun Gong adherents have discussed the
Opinion
role played by the events
of April 25, 1999. A letter
by Jiang Zemin, head of
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1999,
sheds important light on this question.
On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun
Gong adherents attempted to gather outside
the Appeals Office in Beijing, but most ended
up nearby in the vicinity of Zhongnanhai, the
headquarters of the CCP.
Falun Gong had been harassed and subject to a potential ban ever since 1996, long
before the Zhongnanhai gathering. Many
Falun Gong adherents gathered there out of
concern that a ban was just a matter of time.
They wanted to turn things around by appealing to the regime.
Falun Gong adherents have always said
the behavior of those who gathered on April
25 was exemplary, and gave no cause for the
persecution that was to come.
To justify its crackdown on Falun Gong,
the CCP has always alleged that Falun Gong
adherents tend to commit various crimes.
These allegations are strongly denied by
Falun Gong adherents, who point out that
the alleged crimes all go against Falun Gong
teachings.
Most journalists and scholars have argued
that the Zhongnanhai gathering was a provocation that scared the CCP leadership and
led directly to the persecution.
Prof. David Ownby, the author of “Falun
Gong and the Future of China,” is quoted in
a recent New York Times article providing an
even-handed version of this theory. He said,
“Mr. Li and his followers may have made a
tactical mistake by massing in Beijing, but …
the Communist Party erred by interpreting
their actions as a threat to its rule.”
Mr. Ownby claimed, “If either side had
played their cards more intelligently, Falun
Gong could have been co-opted by the
government.”
The experience of other religious or qigong
groups casts doubt on Ownby’s thesis or similar ones from Western journalists or other
scholars.
Underground Catholics and house
church Christians have never gathered in
front of Zhongnanhai, but have also been
persecuted.
Another qigong practice called Zhong
Gong, which claimed to have 30 million
followers, had been trying hard to cooperate with the regime. It sponsored quite a
few official ceremonies for the CCP, including ones celebrating the 100th anniversary
of Mao Zedong’s birth and the 60th anniversary of Communist Party Army’s Long
March. Nonetheless, it was banned on the
same day as Falun Gong.
released and published in mainland China
in volume 2 of a book called “Jiang Zemin’s
Article Collection.” “A New Signal” was
added as the title of the letter.
Jiang writes, “I feel very deeply sorry that
we were not alerted earlier about such a kind
of national organization, with many followers from the Communist Party, [Party or
state] officials, scholars, soldiers, as well as
workers and peasants. … With regard to the
Falun Gong organization, we cannot underestimate the attraction of its religious color.
The relevant departments must strengthen
the research and preventative measures.
Since the headquarters of Falun Gong is
overseas, the possibility that this gathering
was organized by overseas forces should not
be excluded.”
In the letter Jiang returns again to the
question of overseas connections: “Does
Falun Gong have any connection overseas
and to the West? Is there any ‘expert’ to plot
and command this event? This is a new signal, which we must attach great importance
to. The sensitive period has come. We have
to take effective measures to prevent similar
things from happening again.”
This letter was later printed by the Communist Party Central Office as a notice. A
special remark was added: “Please be advised of the requirements of the Central Office: Study and Implement the notice. It is
not for your comments and discussion.”
‘A New Signal’
The persecution was ordered by Jiang
Zemin, the then-general secretary of the
CCP, and a justification for it can be found
in a letter that Jiang wrote to other CCP
Politburo members on the night of April
25, 1999. In 2006, this letter was officially
Different Levels of Explanation
After the persecution began on July 20,
1999, the CCP launched a worldwide campaign that claimed that banning Falun
Gong was necessary because this practice
had caused many tragedies in China. But
in this letter Jiang is silent about the claims
Amnesty Reports Rights Violations
After Sichuan Earthquake
about Falun Gong that would be featured in
his regime’s subsequent propaganda.
Instead, the letter shows him focusing
on three aspects: Falun Gong is a national
group with followers from all walks of life;
Falun Gong has a religious character, which
is fundamentally different from the atheism
that is the basis of Marxism and Communism; Falun Gong is presumed to have connections outside China.
These same criteria can be used to explain why underground Catholics, House
Christians, and Zhong Gong have also
been harshly persecuted. Taking Tibetan
Buddhism as a “national organization”
for Tibet (rather than China), these criteria also help explain the harsh persecution
of Tibetans.
That Falun Gong was labeled by Jiang
as a “kind of national organization” is particularly important. The CCP has never allowed any organizations independent of it
to exist. For example, during the Cultural
Revolution several national organizations
were formed to “safeguard” Mao, and
named themselves “the Red Guard.” After
he finished using them, Mao banned them.
Jiang’s claim, though, that he was “not
alerted earlier” about the national character of Falun Gong should not be taken
at face value. The entire Party hierarchy
was well aware by 1999 of the approximate
number and extent of those who practiced
Falun Gong.
Jiang says in the letter that “The sensitive
period has come.”
He then goes on to say: “This is the largest
scale gathering in Beijing since the 1989 political event. I have emphasized many times
that we need to suffocate what seems to be
the beginning of an unwholesome trend.”
The year of 1989 marked the student
movement in Beijing, which was crushed by
the CCP’s tanks and guns. Obviously, this
gathering reminded Jiang of that movement,
although Falun Gong adherents have never
linked Falun Gong or the event on April 25
with the 1989 democracy movement.
Jiang is so sensitive to a mass gathering
that he blames Party officials in the letter,
“The occurrence of this event illustrates
what a poor job on ideology and people
some of our offices and departments have
done!”
Jiang feels the need to cast his opposition
to Falun Gong as an ideological battle that
Falun Gong seems to be winning. He suggests: “We must stick to the education of
officials and the people with a correct outlook on the world, life, and values. Can the
Marxism, Materialism, and Atheism that
our Communist Party members uphold not
win the battle with what Falun Gong promotes? This is absolutely ridiculous!”
However, Politburo members, veterans
of past Party campaigns, would not need to
be reminded that the Party does not fight
such battles on the grounds of “Marxism,
Materialism, and Atheism” alone. Beginning on July 20, Jiang would turn all parts of
society against Falun Gong adherents, and
what he viewed as an ideological challenge
would be met with mass detention, brainwashing, rape, and torture.
Once the persecution of Falun Gong
started, Jiang Zemin and the CCP obscured
the real reasons for it by leveling various
untrue charges. Well-meaning interpreters
of China have seen the persecution as an
overreaction to a single day’s events. With
this letter Jiang Zemin himself helps set the
record straight.
Five Congressmen and Victims
Commemorate China’s 10-Year Persecution
By DONNA WARE
Epoch Times Staff
By JOSHUA PHILIPP
Epoch Times Staff
Amnesty International will soon
release a report about the human
rights violations of the Chinese
communist regime following the Sichuan earthquake last year. It tells
how the Chinese regime arrested
and harassed the parents and relatives of children who lost their lives
in the disaster.
The report, “Justice Denied:
Harassment of Sichuan earthquake
survivors and activists” will be released on the one-year anniversary
of the earthquake on May 12. It
includes interviews with parents
who lost their children to the earthquake, legal experts, and several
others.
Close to 70,000 people lost their
lives in the earthquake, 10,000 of
whom were children. A large portion of the deaths are attributed to
poorly built schools. In several cities, school buildings laid in ruins
while others nearby stood nearly
unscathed. A closer examination
of the school rubble reveals stacked
bricks with nothing holding them
together, thin metal bars, and mortar that can be rubbed off with a
bare hand.
Parents who demanded answers were met with arrests and
harassment.
“By unlawfully locking up parents of children who died, the government is creating more misery for
people who have said in some cases
they lost everything in the Sichuan
Earthquake,” said Roseann Rife,
Amnesty International Asia-Pacific deputy program director, in a
press release.
“The government of China must
cease harassing earthquake survivors who are seeking answers and
trying to pick up the pieces of their
shattered lives,” Rife said.
Among the issues addressed in
the report are cases where Chinese
authorities prevented parents and
relatives from bringing the issue of
poorly built schools to higher officials. According to an Amnesty
press release about the report,
many of the parents and relatives
“were subjected to arbitrary de-
tention or unlawful surveillance to
prevent them from pursuing legal
remedies.”
When parents who lost their children to the poorly built schools tried
to bring the issue to the courts, they
were denied. The provincial court
in Sichuan province issued a directive to all lower courts to ban the
acceptance of cases “deemed sensitive,” which includes compensation
for injuries, property damage, and
disputes over compensation by insurance companies.
The Amnesty report includes
translations of official court documents stating these directives.
Lawyers and activists who tried
to help the parents were also harassed by the regime. Some of the
activists also now face trial for
“vaguely defined state security and
public order maintenance crimes,”
according to Amnesty.
“The human toll of the Sichuan
earthquake was incalculable but
authorities need to do everything in
their power to protect the rights of
the survivors and stop the unlawful
detentions as well as allow lawyers
and civil society to pursue their important functions of accountability,” Rife said.
Chinese Corporations’ Profits Rise,
Along With Discontent
CHINESE CORPORATIONS
CONTINUED FROM A1
A friend of mine here in the
United States makes a threeway
teleconference
every
weekend with two relatives in
two different cities in China,
and then leaves the teleconference to allow those two to chat.
That’s because it’s cheaper to
make two U.S.-to-China international calls than making
one long distance call within
China. Given the size of phone
bills in China, one can understand the anger felt by Chinese
consumers on learning that
China Mobile has become the
most profitable communications company in the world.
As for the huge profits made
by Industrial and Commercial
Bank of China (ICBC), they
may be very short-lived—that
there is a real estate bubble in
China that could burst at any
time is no secret. In the middle
of 2007 before the real estate
market crashed, U.S. banks
were also posting huge profits by gambling that the U.S.
housing market would go up
forever. But Citigroup’s 2006
profit of US$21.5 billion didn’t
prevent it from losing US$27.7
billion in 2008, and Wall Street
now admits that the greedy
and careless lending practices
that created the huge pre-2007
profits led directly to the huge
2008 losses, as well as the current fi nancial crisis.
The Chinese regime
has tightly controlled
the release of housing
market statistics, while
at the same time using
the media to say the
market will keep rising
and people should buy
at the current high price.
China’s real estate market could undo the Chinese
banks’ profits just as quickly.
The Chinese regime is well
aware of this fact, and that’s
why they have tightly controlled the release of housing
market statistics, while at the
same time fi lling the state media with articles that say the
market will keep rising and
people should buy at the current high price.
The accounting system of
Chinese banks is also opaque
to the outside world. No one
really understands what processes were behind the huge
amounts of bad assets that
mysteriously
disappeared
from banks’ balance sheets in
2004.
Nobody admires drug cartels that maintain massive
profits by killing off their
competitors, and neither do
Chinese people admire China’s state-owned corporations
for flourishing in the haven
created for them by the Chinese regime. US$97.4 billion
is a formidable figure. Some
on the Chinese Internet have
questioned where it ultimately
went, and who benefited from
it. They have dreamed that the
Communist Party might put
it into China’s poorly-funded
social welfare system, especially this year, after the regime spent the last seven years
preparing the most expensive
Olympic Games in history.
Unfortunately, nobody really knows where the money
went, but it looks to have been
allocated to other more important and secretive plans. But
this is not a big disappointment for ordinary Chinese
people, whose hard work is the
source of these profits, as their
expectations of the Party were
already very low.
The CCP never releases
economic figures without an
agenda. Why the CCP chose
to release these data at this
moment, and what agenda is
being advanced, will be the
subjects of Part II.
Part II will appear in next
week’s edition.
WASHINGTON— The Global
Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun
Gong Practitioners (GMR) and the
Falun Dafa Association hosted a
press conference on Capitol Hill recently. The press conference commemorated the ten-year persecution
of Falun Gong
practitioners
News
at the hands
Analysis
of the Chinese
Com mun ist
Party (CCP) by bringing victims of
the persecution forward to tell their
stories.
Sixteen Falun Gong practitioners, including those who have been
persecuted and those whose relatives
are currently detained, participated
in the event. Also in attendance
were representatives from GMR,
The Falun Dafa Information Center
(FDI), and five Congressmen: Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA), Chris Smith
(R-NJ), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI),
Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Lincoln
Diaz-Balart (R-FL).
Congressman McCotter’s office reserved the room for the event,
while the others spoke in turn of their
solidarity with Falun Gong and their
strong support for ending the persecution of the practice.
Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart
described the persecution of Falun
Gong as brutal and incessant and said
that Falun Gong has both friends and
admirers in the U.S. Congress.
Erping Zhang, spokesperson for
the Falun Dafa Information Center,
reiterated that the gathering of over
10,000 Falun Gong practitioners at
the petition office on April 25, ten
years ago was both peaceful and
within their rights as citizens of
China. According to Zhang, Chinese
policy was broken when Tianjin Normal School defamed Falun Gong and
other qigongs in its publication, not
when practitioners tried to address
this issue or gathered at the petition
office when their attempts to correct
defaming statements were met with
assaults and brutality.
Since that time, Zhang said two
thirds of the torture cases in China
involve Falun Gong practitioners.
Zhang noted several cases, such as
that of Chinese music star, Yu Zhou,
who, since he began practicing Falun
Gong, had been immune from persecution due to his star status. During the pre-Olympic purge of Beijing,
both Yu and his wife were jailed for 30
days in 2008. Yu died in detention and
his wife was sentenced to 3 years.
Zhang said that the Olympics became the reason for the further deterioration of human rights in China.
Those arrested during the Olympic
clean up were sentenced to jail and
labor camps after the games. Zhang
warned against sacrificing our rights
SUPPORT: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) speaks on Capitol
Hill, April 30, at the 10th anniversary of the April 25, 1999, Falun Gong
appeal of more than 10,000 in Beijing. LISA FAN/EPOCH TIMES
for economic gain. He said, “Today
our humanity is being tested.”
Charles Lee, a U.S. citizen who was
formerly detained in China for practicing Falun Gong, spoke on behalf
of GMR. GMR was founded on Nov.
22, 2002, just three months prior to
Lee’s arrest and sentencing in China.
Lee said GMR worked diligently on
his behalf while he was detained.
Seated quietly in the room holding pictures of their loved ones, were
some of the victims of the CCPs persecution of Falun Gong. The group
included those who have first hand
experience of China’s detention centers and labor camps and those working for the release of loved ones who
are detained.
Shuangying Zhang, a nurse and
U.S. citizen from NY, said news of
her father’s arrest in China last week
broke her heart. Her father, a 68-yearold physics professor, was kidnapped
and her parents’ home ransacked.
On March 31, her father, whose
name is Xingwu Zhang, was put on
trial. Her family was barred from entering the courtroom. Denied legal
representation, her father was forced
to represent himself. Zhang said that
the judge told her father that “even
though there was no evidence, her
father should be sentenced to a long
prison term of seven years because of
his bad attitude.”
“The pervasiveness of the hatred of Falun Gong exceeds hatred
against others,” said Congressman
Chris Smith who raised the issue of
Falun Gong in every meeting on a recent trip to China with Congressman
Frank Wolf.
According to Smith, the U.S. is
off to a wrong start with Secretary of
State Clinton’s outrageous remarks
about not letting human rights interfere with U.S. relations with China.
Smith contrasted the current administration’s approach to dealing with
China with former President Clinton’s approach in 1990. At that time,
President Clinton linked Most Favored Nation status to human rights,
but then reversed his decision a year
later.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher,
ranking member of the Human Rights
Subcommittee, remarked on how
China is brokering deals with some
of the worst dictatorships around the
world. He said, “The CCP is the epitome of evil and they are activating evil
around the world. We must counteract this evil force. It can be done, we
did it with Soviet Communism.”
Rohrabacher, who served in the
Reagan White House, said that had
President Reagan been in office during the Tiananmen Student Massacre, he would have simply sent a
telegram to China that said, “If you
set the tanks on those democracy
students, the deal’s off.” Rohrbacher
said China wouldn’t have dared to
do it. “Since nobody called or sent a
telegram, it sent a message that the
U.S. doesn’t care about democracy, it
cares about money,” he said.
Rohrabacher recounted a story
about his father who was the first
American to land in Shanghai at the
end of World War II. During a very
dark time in China’s history, his father
and other American soldiers came to
the rescue. Rohrabacher concluded
his comments by saying, “That’s our
job; we have to save those people.”
The largest independent newspaper in the world
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The Epoch Times
Chinese language edition
The Epoch Times
World
May 7 – 13, 2009
Religious Freedom and Belief Under Attack
estimates that 90 percent of CPA
bishops and priest are secretly ordained by the Vatican, and in some
places, the cooperation is open.
“In the lead up to the Beijing Olympic Games, the government’s repression of house church and unregistered Protestant groups increased
dramatically,” says the report. Police routinely raided churches, confiscated Bibles, detained and interrogated pastors, as well as fining
them, and sometimes beating and
removing them from Beijing during
the Games. Religious leaders were
prevented from attending a worship
service with President George W.
Bush, and meetings with members
of Congress and the European Parliament were also prevented.
In the Tibetan Buddhist and
Muslim areas, the regime continued
its campaign of “patriotic education” for monks, nuns, and imams.
“Hundreds of Buddhist monks
and nuns are in prison or subject
to intense restrictions on their religious activities, some monasteries
and other holy sites are being forcibly closed or destroyed, and Chinese officials have stepped up campaigns to pressure Buddhist monks
and nuns to denounce the Dalai
Lama and show loyalty to Chinese
communist rule,” says the report.
By GARY FEUERBERG
Epoch Times Staff
WASHINGTON—The
U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) added five
countries—Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria,
Turkmenistan, and Vietnam—to its
list of “countries of particular concern,” or CPC, for their continuous,
systematic, and egregious violations
of religious freedom.
Burma, North Korea, Eritrea,
Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
and Uzbekistan were carried over
as designated CPCs from last year.
The Department of State (DOS) has
also designated these eight countries
as CPCs since September 2004 or
before.
USCIRF released its findings on
Friday at the National Press Club.
Their annual report gives particular
emphasis on violations of religious
freedom in each of the CPC, as well
as in countries on a “Watch List.”
These latter countries do not rise to
the level of the CPC, but, nonetheless, need to be monitored closely
and, in some cases, are targeted for
diplomatic action.
USCIRF is recommending that
the five nations named above be
added to the CPC list used by the
U.S. Department of State. How and
when the State Department will respond to the USCIRF recommendations is anyone’s guess. The Commission expressed some frustration
at the lack of any CPC designations
by the State Department between
November 2006 and January 2009.
When the State Department does
designate a country as CPC, the secretary of State is required by law to
enter into consultations with that
government to find a way to bring
about remedying the situation. Sanctions are an option, such as restrictions on normal trade relations that
we impose on North Korea.
The Commission’s report describes heinous violations of religious freedom and belief in countries
on their CPCs and Watch List: Jews
in Venezuela; Baha’is in Iran and
Egypt; Buddhist monks in Burma;
Christians in Iraq, Sudan, and Nigeria; Ahmadis in Indonesia and
Pakistan; Shi’a Muslims in Saudi
Arabia; Muslims in Tajikistan; minority religious groups in Afghanistan, Laos, Turkey, Egypt, and
Russia; and severe restrictions for
all or nearly all religions and spiritual groups in communist countries
(China, North Korea, Vietnam, and
Cuba).
USCIRF is a federal government
commission—independent and bipartisan—that advises the administration and Congress on protecting
and fostering the cause of religious
freedom and belief worldwide. It
was created by the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 to advise the president, secretary of State,
and Congress.
Although the president appoints
3 of the 10 commissioners, access to
the president is apparently difficult.
In the open letter on the first page of
the report to the president signed by
the chair of USCIFR, it states “The
Commission would welcome the opportunity to discuss the Annual Report with you.”
The Commission does not just
produce a report and passively
stand back; it actively promotes and
agitates for its policy recommendations, holding special hearings, press
conferences, and articulating its displeasure with policies of the U.S.
government that affect religious liberty, such as when Secretary Clinton
recently stated that human rights
would not be a high priority in her
talks with China’s leaders.
Pakistan: Religious Extremism
Threaten Religious Freedom and
Security
Felice Gaer, chair of USCIRF,
connected the events unfolding in
Pakistan with the theme of the 2009
report:
“In the areas [the Taliban-asso-
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: The Dalai Lama speaks in New York on May 5.
Tibetans have been oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party for
over 50 years. EDWARD DAI/THE EPOCH TIMES
ciated extremists] already control, Tight Controls Intensify in China in
these groups are imposing draco- 2008
nian restrictions on human rights
The opposite of Pakistan, which
and religious freedom and engaging is built on a religion, is communist
in brutal acts against individuals, China, with its atheistic foundaparticularly women and local police, tion. China has been a CPC since
who refuse to accede to their repres- the first year of the Commission in
sive policies.”
1998, and the Commission noted
The Pakistani authorities ceded that there had been “a marked decontrol in the SWA valley to “armed terioration” in the past year, in the
insurgents espousing a radical Is- build-up to the Olympic Games.
lamist ideology,” that imposes its exPolice continue to send Falun
treme version of sharia (Islamic law), Gong practitioners to re-education
says the report. The government fos- through labor (RTL) camps withters sectarian violence against Shi’a out trial, or to mental health instiMuslims, Ahmadis, Christians, and tutions. “Provincial officials reportHindus. The perpetrators of violence edly offer sizable rewards to anyone
against these minorities are seldom who provides information leading
brought to justice, according to the to the arrest of a Falun Gong pracreport.
titioner,” says the report.
In July 2008, Zhenping Chen was
An atmosphere of religious in“arrested and tried
tolerance due to
in secret without leyears of discrimigal representation
natory laws has
for being a Falun
eroded the social
The Commission’s
Gong practitioner.
and legal status of
members of these report describes heinous She was sentenced
violations of religious
to eights years imreligious minoriprisonment,” says
ties. For instance,
freedom and belief in
the report.
Pakistan’s constiVenezuela, Iran, Egypt,
tution declares
The 610 Office
members of the
that monitors and
Burma, Iraq, Sudan,
Ahmadi religious
suppresses Falun
Nigeria, Indonesia,
community
to
Gong has extrabe non-Muslims, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, judicial detention
even though the
centers “used exAhmadi regard Tajikistan, Afghanistan, clusively to hold
Laos, Turkey, Russia,
themselves
as
Falun Gong pracsuch and affirm
titioners who have
China, North Korea,
the Muslim faith.
completed RTL
Vietnam, and Cuba.
It is illegal for Ahterms.”
madis to preach
“The UN Spein public or discial Rapporteur on
seminate their reTorture reported
ligious materials.
that Falun Gong
The report tells of the destruc- practitioners make up two-thirds
tion of Muslim shrines and tombs, of the alleged victims of torture,”
most notably, the shrine of the re- says the report.
While members of the Catholic
vered Pashtun poet and Sufi mystic
and Protestant faiths are harassed
Rahman Baba.
A commonly used method by Is- and their organizations monitored
lamic extremists to intimidate, de- and interfered with by the state,
tain for long periods, and threaten they are not banned like the Falun
the life of members of minority reli- Gong members.
The officially-sanctioned Cathogions (including moderate Muslims)
is to charge them with blasphemy. If lic Patriotic Association (CPA) does
the victim is lucky enough to be ac- not allow its members or clergy to
quitted, he or she is usually forced communicate with the Vatican or
into hiding or leaving the country. foreign Catholic organizations. But
despite the official policy, the report
In Trouble in Europe? Dial 112
By IVAILO ANGUELOV
Epoch Times Staff
Imagine you encounter and emergency situation or
get involved in an accident while traveling in Europe.
Would you know what number to call?
When traveling in all European Union (EU)
member states there is only one number you need to
remember—112.
With the increasing number of foreign travelers within
the EU, it is likely that you may witness a fire, become injured, or need to call the police. To help its citizens and
guests deal with emergencies, the 112 number provides
a direct connection with fire, ambulance, and police departments in every EU member state.
The project started in the early ’90s when the European Commission (EC) adopted a decision to establish
an emergency hotline that should be available in all EU
member states.
“There are about 150 million people traveling in EU
every year. Having a single unique number in the EU
would be a huge benefit,” said Fabio Colosanti, the director general for information and media in the EU, in
a statement.
Dialing 112 it will take your call to a dispatch center in
the country you are calling from. The call is free and can
be made from any paid phone or cell phone. Cell phones
that are out of network or without a SIM card, can also
tap into the 112 number.
Calls are answered within the first few seconds, and
the operators are able to assist you in urgent situations in
several foreign languages. The most common languages
used by the 112 centers are English, French, German,
Spanish, and Italian. Depending on the country, operators may deal with you directly, or direct the call to the
appropriate emergency service you need—fire, medical,
or police.
In a situation when the caller is unable to state his or
her location, the 112 center will be able to locate the origin of the call. It is especially helpful if you are a foreign
traveler and unfamiliar with your surrounding area.
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and most recently Romania have begun use of
112 as their main national emergency number. In other
countries the 112 number exists alongside with local
emergency numbers.
The latest member state, Bulgaria, which joined the
EU in 2007, was slow in its response to the mandatory
development of the 112 projects. For delaying building
and putting into action the single emergency phone on
Disturbing Signs in Nigeria, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, and Venezuela
In Nigeria, the Commission reports on a series of violent communal and sectarian conflicts along
religious lines. In Jos, in November 2008, several hundred, possibly
many more, Muslims and Christians were killed. “The government
of Nigeria has done little, if anything, to address [the problem],” in
Jos or Bauchi, says the report. Nigeria is an economically prosperous country and has the resources
to stop the religious violence if it
wanted to.
In Saudi Arabia, the government severely restricts all forms of
public religious expression that differs from the government’s version
of Sunni Islam. Over the past year,
several Shi’a mosques were closed
down by the government. In the
past, even holding a Shi’a private
religious gathering can result in being detained for short periods of
time. Private worship by non-Muslims is legal, but sometimes raided
by Saudi authorities. In April 2008,
government officials arrested 16
Asian Christians, including women
and children, for conducting a worship service.
Turning to two countries that
the Commission added to its Watch
List, Turkey and Venezuela, one can
see problems but not at a CPC level.
Turkey has a long tradition built into
its constitution as a “secular state.”
However, it differs from America’s
concept of separation of church and
state by having religion under state
control. The government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet),
“controls all 80,000 mosques in Turkey and employs all imams as state
functionaries,” says the report.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in
Venezuela. The report says that
President Hugo Chavez and his supporters have created a hostile environment where Jewish (and Catholic) religious leaders are at risk of
attack.
“Anti-Semitic statements appeared in cartoons and opinion
pieces in state media, were heard on
state radio programs and in rallies,
and were graffitied on synagogues
and other Jewish institutions,” says
the report. Late last year and this
year, the Jewish community has
been under attack and the Venezuelan government has failed to hold
the perpetrators accountable. Harassment, assaults and death threats
to rabbis have caused some Jews to
flee the country. Jewish businesses
were sprayed with anti-Semitic slogans and there were calls for boycotts of all Jewish businesses, according to the report.
its territory, Bulgaria was put under criminal procedure
by the European Commission (EC), but avoided penalties after the Commission terminated the procedure in
January this year.
“After considerable efforts undertaken by the Bulgarian authorities, access to the single European emergency
number 112 has been fully provided in Bulgaria,” stated
a press communiqué from the office of Viviane Reding,
EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
A built-in GPS in all ambulances along with staff
training has yet to be implemented, though is set to
be ready in 6 months. Bulgaria spent 2 million euros
(US$2.6 million) for the first stage of its system. Full
completion of the project will require another 2 million
euros, stated Bulgarian Deputy Health Minister Valeri
Tsekov.
The number has been around for almost 20 years, but
only 22 percent of Europeans are aware of it, showed a
report by the EU Communication Committee.
“It is essential that we educate the general public about the 112 number and its correct use,” says a
statement by Oliver Paul-Morandini from the European Emergency Association, which helps the EC in
its efforts to make the number popular among more
Europeans.
With the EC reporting that there are 100 million
medical emergencies being recorded in Europe every
year, next time you travel to Europe, keep in mind
number 112.
Additional reporting by Ekaterina Popova
A5
GLOBAL Q & A
What one modern convenience
could you not live without?
Pause for a moment to think
of all the computers, vehicles,
appliances, communication
tools, televisions, audio players,
etc. that fill our daily lives—it’s
overwhelming! How dependent
have we become on them? Epoch Times reporters across the
globe wanted to find out. From
Athens to Ottawa we asked:
“What one modern convenience
could you not live without?”
Khadim Hussain, 37, Driver
Islamabad, Pakistan
“If I really think about it, I realize there is nothing I
can not do without. I think once a person sets their
mind to it, it is possible to do without any of the
modern conveniences. I think even if I had to walk
hundreds of kilometers to get somewhere, I could
do it if I just set my mind to it.”
Therese Layous, 33, Graphic Designer
Nabay, Lebanon
“I think the computer is the most important one.
Beside that it keeps me connected to the world
through the Internet, I spend a very long time working on my projects and if it weren’t for the computer, I am sure it would take me forever to finish a
single task. So somehow it has become my standby
friend.”
Daniel Carmstedt, 40, Shop Assistant
Stockholm, Sweden
“A car. I can go from point A to B without any fixed
time. The biggest freedom ever was when I got a car
and driver’s license. The car gives you freedom.”
Peter Bori, 32, Car Sales Manager
Surany, Slovakia
“I could not live without my mobile phone, because
I need to have contact with my family and friends.
It helps me to maintain relationships with people,
especially those which I was not in contact with before.
It makes my life easier at work. I also have a greater
sense of security in case something unpredictable
happens.”
Anca Porutiu, 29, Lawyer
Timisoara, Romania
“Computers help to create documents; I like my coffee
filter; but what one modern convenience could I not
live without and why? I would say nothing, nothing is
really that essential. People in antiquity lived just well,
their lives were a lot less stressful and less complicated, which I really like. So I would assume that there
is nothing in the realm of modern convenience which I
can not live without.”
John Naccarato, 43, Artist
Ottawa, Canada
“Espresso maker, to get up in the morning and have
that kind of a persistent buzz to get me through the
daily grind.”
Scholar Exposes Regime’s Atheist Agenda
ATHEIST AGENDA CONTINUED FROM A1
“They said if I can write such an
article it would be considered part of
research and could be published. If I
didn’t write it, it would affect my career and promotion,” Sun said.
“In my specialty it’s not difficult
to publish an article, even within a
week. I could publish some data between a Falun Gong practitioner and
a non-practitioner, and use some psychological parameters to ‘prove’ the
Falun Gong practitioner has some psychological problem. Once a paper like
this is published it can have a very big
impact.”
Sun refused to write the articles “because of the experience I had with my
colleagues and professors who practiced Falun Gong. I always felt they
were very compassionate, and it did not
feel right to write defamatory articles.”
But some of his colleagues succumbed to the pressure and the financial lure, and wrote such articles.
Grant applications and academic status were often affected by compliance
to such requests from the Party.
“I personally believe religion is a
good thing for people,” Sun said. “So
I told my colleagues it is too unfair to
attack a religious group.”
At other times he was requested to
write defamatory articles about the
Tibetan religion. “They also asked
me once to write against some of the
Christian organizations. I didn’t.”
Loss and Gain
Sun, who follows the teachings of
Confucius, said he was motivated to
sever all ties with the CCP last year.
“The academic study of religion
should not be used for tyranny,” he
said. “I cannot always live my life under the shadow of deception.”
Sun was teaching in Hawaii at the
time, and his public renunciation of
the Party meant he had to give up his
job and his title of professor at the
same time. He also had to apply for
asylum—the likelihood of torture was
high should he return to China—and
to leave behind his wife and family.
He has no regrets. “The decision to
quit the CCP is the proudest thing I
have done so far in my life.”
Sun renounced membership from
the CCP after reading the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party”
once he was in Hawaii and was free of
the Internet blockade.
“Meng Zi [also known as Mencius]
said, ‘if you don’t have compassion,
you are not a human being. If you
don’t know right and wrong, you are
not a human being. If you cannot be
tolerant, you are not a human being.
If you don’t know shame you are not
a human being.’
“After I knew so much truth about
the CCP, and if I tied my fate to the
CCP, I am not qualified to be a human being either.”
Sun hopes his wife can join him in
Hawaii sometime soon. In the meantime, he is working on some of the
original scriptures by Meng Zi.
A6
Business
May 7 – 13, 2009
According to Survey, Most in U.S. Think Economy Still in Trouble
CHICAGO (Reuters)—The majority of U.S. consumers do not
think the worst of the U.S. economic
crisis is behind them and plans to
spend on luxury items remain low,
a new survey showed Tuesday.
Only 34.3 percent of consumers
surveyed by America’s Research
Group said they think the worst
of the crisis has passed, while 52
percent said they did not think the
worst was over yet.
“The consumer still feels that
they are in the bottom of this pit
and they are by no means getting out of it,” said Britt Beemer,
founder of America’s Research
Group, which polls consumers on
spending behavior.
In a series of questions asked for
Reuters, Beemer’s group also found
that consumers are still much more
focused on price when buying food
than a year ago and that almost
one-third used their tax refunds to
pay down debt.
Only 24.8 percent of the 1,000
consumers who responded said
they are more likely to make a luxury purchase of at least $500 than
they were three months ago. Just
two years ago, 30 percent would
have answered yes to that question,
Beemer said.
The number of consumers who
say they are likely to make a luxury
purchase is close to the roughly 23
percent who said they would make
such a purchase in the aftermath of
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Beemer
said.
“I’m really convinced that there
is no discretionary spending going
on right now. The only spending is
replacement spending,” he said.
Beemer also said the avoidance of luxury spending might last
longer than it did in 2001, as other
research he has conducted showed
consumers think they will need to
wait until after the 2010 income tax
filing season to feel better about
their finances.
“I think America’s in this retail deep freeze,” Beemer said. “I
think we’re going to see it go on for
months and months and months.”
When it comes to buying food,
74.2 percent said price is a bigger
factor when making a purchase
than a year ago.
Meanwhile, only 24.2 percent of
consumers said they feel they have
extra cash in their paychecks due
to the U.S. government stimulus
package, while 73.7 percent said
they did not.
The stimulus package included a
tax credit that will be paid to many
workers in the form of less withholding tax being taken out of paychecks, though at $400 annually
for single workers, that amounts to
only $7.69 a week.
The survey was conducted May
1 through May 3.
CONSUMERS: Julian Hereu and his brother Jorgie Hereu (L) sit in a shopping cart as they shop with their
mother Alix Hereu at a Target store in Miami, Florida. According to a recent survey, the majority of
consumers do not think the worst of the economic crisis is behind them. JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
Europe Stress Test Risks
Being Mired in Wrangling
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters)—
Europe risks being mired in political
wrangling if it decides to set up a joint
stress test for its banks and could fail to
give markets a lasting leg-up if politicians watered down the methods.
Finnish Finance Minister Jyrki
Katainen called for joint stress tests
in Europe and shares rallied as markets took a bet that results of U.S.
tests later this week would reassure
investors unsettled by months of
uncertainty.
But analysts doubted Europe
would come up with a unified answer soon. And even if it did, the
success of any stress test would depend on how stringent it was and
whether there was quick action to
any problems uncovered.
“A stress test is only as good as
the criteria,” said Dirk HoffmannBecking, an analyst at Bernstein
Research.
“If one of the main issues for the
U.S. stress test is the question of
how much money [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner can get out
of Congress ... then that should affect the credibility,” he said.
So far, regulators in Europe have
reacted at different speeds as the
crisis has unfolded, and there has
been a massive difference in how
willing governments have been to
step in with bailouts bankrolled by
taxpayers.
A pan-European stress test,
which would largely focus on the 40
to 45 banks with cross-border operations, would raise the thorny and
unresolved issue of burden-sharing, or which countries would bail
out or help a bank in trouble.
Britain’s Financial Services Authority, which oversees the EU’s
biggest banking center, has said
there is no “European taxpayer”
at present and that national supervisors are accountable to national
taxpayers.
Lukewarm
About 10 of the 19 U.S. banks
being tested will be directed to aim
for a higher capital ratio better able
to absorb losses, a person familiar
with official talks told Reuters. Official results of the tests are due out
on Thursday.
“Surely by now, market participants have learned to differentiate between the stronger and
BUSY WITH BIDS: Auction telephones are manned for off-site
bidders during a Christie’s auction. Art buyers at a recent auction
in Dubai converged to try to scoop up bargains during the global
economic crisis. STEPHEN CHERNIN/GETTY IMAGES
Dubai Art Auctions Draw
Bargain Hunters as Crisis Hits
STRESS TEST FOR BANKS: Finnish Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen
arriving for a meeting of European Union finance ministers. Katainen
called for joint stress tests in Europe. DOMINIQU FAGET/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
weaker institutions, and if not, that
is a pretty pitiful state,” Goldman
Sachs Chief Economist Jim O’Neill
said in a note.
The U.K. is unlikely to repeat
the cumbersome exercise after it already subjected its banks—battered
by heavy mortgage exposure—to
tests many observers say are more
stringent than the ones now applied
in America.
The tests assumed house prices,
commercial real estate, and unemployment levels could be more
severe than in the recession of the
early 1980s and may last for several
years, according to people familiar
with the matter.
Britain required Royal Bank
of Scotland and Lloyds Banking
Group to take state funds to rebuild capital and take governmentbacked “catastrophe” insurance on
over $800 billion of assets. Other
banks, including Barclays and
HSBC, raised capital privately.
Germany also sounded a luke-
warm note about the issue after a
monthly round of talks in Brussels.
“What we have to watch out for
is that these stress tests don’t end
up intensifying the crisis because
of how their results are revealed to
the public,” Finance Minister Peer
Steinbrueck said on Tuesday.
The country is expected to set up
a “bad bank” to house toxic assets,
particularly from the state-backed
Landesbanken, but has said any such
solution should be linked to a restructuring of the ailing regional lenders.
Other countries have applied
stress tests, but criteria and outcomes remain unclear. Governments may hesitate before running
full-blown checks, knowing the
outcome might well trigger heavy
pay-outs of taxpayer money.
Switzerland, for instance, faces
total balance sheet liabilities from
its two biggest banks—Credit Suisse and UBS—roughly six times as
high as the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Favoritism Found at the World Bank
FAVORITISM CONTINUED FROM A1
“In an aid organization, however, the cost of misgovernance
are borne not by the investors but
by the citizens of poor countries in
terms of fewer new health clinics,
schools, or technical advisers,” the
researchers explain.
The WK experts take exception
when it comes to the IDA. Serving on the IDA board of directors
does not bring more funds for a
country. The probable reasons are
the “difference in their missions
and funding policies.” The IDA
apportions funds based on a formula that has been in existence
since 1977.
“This shows that a strong sense
of humanitarian mission, as well
as more explicit instructions for
who can receive funds, may mitigate the governance problems that
arise from limited representation,”
Werker said during an April interview published by WK.
Donor countries, such as the
United States, Japan, and France,
reward friends or those they need
to support a political decision or
a vote in favor of a special issue,
instead of the countries with the
greatest need, said Werker.
Werker suggests that currently
no remedy to the inequities exists.
“We need to first assess the damage and study the patterns before
crying out for any fundamental
changes.”
Transparency and publication
of fund allocation could be a possible solution. This would show
non-board member countries the
one-sided allocation of funds. As
a result, a reckoning would ensue,
which could eliminate existing
practices in the future.
The World Bank was originally
created in 1944 to facilitate reconstruction after World War II. The
bank’s mission still includes the
original directive, but was expanded
to reduce worldwide poverty.
The IBRD’s mission is to assist
middle-income, creditworthy, but
poor countries. IDA assists poverty-stricken countries, whose citizens live below the poverty line or
are considered too great a risk for
lending institutions.
DUBAI (Reuters)—Art buyers
from across the Middle East crowded
Christie’s auction room in Dubai,
bidding briskly to bag a bargain as
prices fall in the global downturn.
A painting sale, marking the start
of the region’s auction season for
Christie’s International, fetched $4.7
million last week, within estimates
that were sharply lowered this year.
By comparison, Christie’s raised
$8.65 million from its last auction in
October, only half its estimate at the
time.
Prices of Middle East art works at
auctions in the young Dubai market
boomed in the past two years, driven
by speculators, experts say. But auction houses have suffered as the financial crisis hit the Gulf Arab trade
and tourism hub, reducing the appetite for luxury goods including art.
In November, Bonhams, another
global auction house, raised $2.8 million, far below its pre-sale estimate of
$12 million.
“Prices have gone down of course
because there’s a crisis, but what’s
important is that people are buying,
which shows that interest in Middle
Eastern art is still firm,” said Saleh
Barakat, owner of an art gallery in
Beirut who sold a number of pieces
at the auction last week.
Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie’s Middle East, told
Reuters it was now “definitely a buyer’s market.”
The auction saw 150 works by artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey and a few from the
West up for sale, including, for the
first time, pieces by Saudi artists.
The six works from Saudi Arabia
were diverse in medium and style.
One, by doctor and photographer
Ahmed Mater Aseeri from his X-Ray
series, showed a skeletal head and
torso set on sheets resembling pages
from a traditional religious text.
The two pieces, Illumination V
and VI, were made of X-ray film
print on paper, stained with tea and
pomegranate juice, and embossed
with gold leaf, turquoise, amber, and
carnelian.
The sale also included four paintings by prominent Syrian artist Fateh
Moudarres, from the collection of
the former German ambassador to
Syria, Rudolf Fechter. Among these
was The Icons of Moudarres, created
in 1962, showing a group of figures,
arranged symmetrically with areas
picked out in gold leaf.
The work is meant to symbolize
the three main religions in Syria—
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
“There are works collectors
couldn’t get before because they
were priced out of the market by
a lot of the speculators. Now the
collectors are back in and they see
a lot of opportunity to buy great
works at great prices,” Jeha said.
An Emirati buyer at the auction,
who asked to remain anonymous,
said prices had come down to “reasonable” levels.
While there was still liquidity
in the art market globally, Christie’s has seen a “slight” drop in the
volume of sales internationally,
said Jussi Pylkkanen, president
of Christie’s Europe, adding that
the Dubai sale showed continued
appetite among collectors in the
wealthy oil-exporting region.
Art has been traditionally seen as a
safe investment at times of economic
crises, he said, but prices are down.
The Wall and the Script, by Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli, fetched
the highest price of $218,500 at the
Christie’s auction on Wednesday. By
comparison, the auction house’s topselling lot last year was a piece by the
same artist, sold for $2.8 million.
The Epoch Times
U.K. Consumer
Morale Perks
Up in April
According to
Nationwide
Survey
LONDON (Reuters)—British
consumer morale enjoyed its biggest monthly boost last month in
two years as people sensed the worst
of the recession may have passed, a
survey showed on Wednesday.
The Nationwide Building Society’s consumer confidence index rose
to 50 last month from 42 in March.
The eight-point rise was the most
marked improvement in the index
since May 2007 while the level was
the highest since December.
The figures tally with a survey
by pollsters GfK last week which
found consumer confidence recovered in April to its highest level in
a year.
Consumer morale is often one
of the first indicators of economic
recovery and the survey results will
provide some much-needed cheer
to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
as he struggles to boost his popularity before an election expected
next spring.
“In recent weeks, we have seen
a strong rebound in global equity
markets and some tentative signs
of improvement in housing market indicators, both of which may
have contributed to the marked
upturn in consumer confidence
during April,” said Martin Gahbauer,
Nationwide’s
senior
economist.
However, with the economy
likely to continue contracting
for a while, he said it was too
early to be sure the trend would
continue.
Britain’s economy shrank by 1.9
percent in the first three months of
this year, its sharpest contraction
since 1979. The government has
forecast it will contract by 3.5 percent over the year as a whole and
many economists are predicting an
even steeper decline.
However, record low interest
rates and a cut in sales tax do appear to be giving consumer some
cheer, despite rising unemployment
and sluggish wage growth.
Forward-looking indicators suggest the pace of contraction is slowing, a view reflected in financial
markets where Britain’s FTSE-100
index has gained 26 percent over
the last two months.
A breakdown by sector in the
Nationwide index showed the
biggest improvement in the expectations component, which
rose 13 points to 70, its highest
level since October. The present
situation index rose one point to
21 and the spending index rose
one point to 98.
There’s a child
in us who wants
things to be simple.
For a deeper look at the world
read The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times
Opinion
May 7 – 13, 2009
A7
Global Crisis Leads to Coming Asian Storm
By CONN HALLINAN
According to a lot of mainstream
thinking Asia is weathering the current economic meltdown. “Asians
are taking the economic collapse far
more calmly than many in the west,”
writes David Pilling, Asian editor
for the Financial Times. The region
he says, “brims with confidence that
its time has come” and is operating
under the assumption that “when the
dust settles, wealth and power will
have edged decisively east.”
Pilling may be right about the rise
of the east, but things are not nearly
as rosy as he paints them, and there
are restless clouds on the horizon.
“As goods pile up on wharves
from Bangkok to Shanghai, and
workers are laid off in record numbers, people in East Asia are beginning to realize they aren’t only experiencing an economic downturn but
living through the end of an era,”
says Walden Bello, a senior analyst
at the Bangkok-based Focus on the
Global South, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and professor of sociology at the University
of the Philippines.
The current crisis is due to the
global crisis of capitalism, but most
Asian economies are being particularly hard hit because they bought
into a scheme by the World Bank
back in the 1970s. The plan was to
raise living standards without redistributing wealth—thus challenging
local elites—by turning countries
like South Korea and Taiwan into
exporting machines, where eco-
The export
machine ran
on the endless
appetite of U.S.
and European
consumers.
nomic growth would lift the poor out
of poverty.
At the same time, the United
States was pressuring Japan to revalue its currency to make Tokyo’s
products more costly in order to cut
the trade gap between the two nations. Japan complied, but its domestic labor costs increased as a result.
To keep its status as the world’s top
exporter, Tokyo began pouring tens
of billions into the rest of Asia to take
advantage of low wages in places like
China and Vietnam. The strategy
was to produce low cost goods, ship
them to Japan, and then Europe and
the United States.
“This was industrial policy and
planning on a grand scale,” says Bello,
“managed jointly by the Japanese
government and the corporations.”
The export machine did indeed
raise living standards all over Asia,
but it ran on the endless appetite of
U.S. and European consumers. As
long as Americans could get easy
credit—and they could as long as
China and Japan bought up hundreds
of billions of U.S. Treasury bonds—
everything was hunky dory. Until the
housing bubble popped and the bottom fell out of the credit market. The
fallout has been catastrophic.
“China’s growth in 2008 fell to 9
percent, from 11 percent a year earlier. Japan is now in deep recession.
… South Korea, the hardest hit of
Asia’s economies so far, has seen its
currency collapse by some 30 percent
relative to the dollar. Southeast Asia’s
growth in 2009 will likely be half of
that in 2008,” says Bello.
Although economic growth did
alleviate some poverty, the gap between haves and have-nots actually
expanded over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2006, Asia grew at
more than twice the rate of the rest of
the world, but as the Financial Times
points out, that hardly meant the end
of penury.
“Many of the people in the region
were still suffering from serious poverty. More than 1 billion people, representing almost 62 percent of the
region’s labor force, were still working in the ‘informal economy.’ Some
900 million were living on less than
$2 a day. The International Labor
Organization found that 308 million
of these people were living in extreme
poverty—less than $1 per day.
According to Bello, some 20 million Chinese have lost their jobs in
just the last few months, and there are
no industries to soak up the growing
GROWING UNEMPLOYMENT: Job seekers crowd outside a job fair in Beijing on Feb. 7. At least 20 million
Chinese have lost their jobs in the past few months. LIU JIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
army of the unemployed. The economic crisis has also forced millions
of Indonesian and Filipino migrant
workers to return home to markets
that high unemployment drove them
to flee.
Rising poverty rates and joblessness is already leading to protests in
The Real Dangers of Global Warming Are Economic
By VÁCLAV KLAUS
PRAGUE, Czech Republic—I am surprised at how so many people nowadays in
Europe, the United States, and elsewhere
have come to support policies underpinned by hysteria over global warming,
particularly cap-and-trade legislation to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies for “green” energy sources.
I am convinced that this is a misguided
strategy—not only because of the uncertainty about the dangers that global warming might pose, but also because of the certainty of the damage that these proposed
policies aimed at mitigation will impose.
I was invited to address this issue at a
recent conference in Santa Barbara, California. My audience included business
leaders who hope to profit from cap-andtrade policies and from subsidies for renewable energy and “green” jobs. My ad-
The
Epoch
Times
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CHANGING WORLD’
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vice to them was to not get caught up in
the hysteria.
Europe is several years ahead of the
United States in implementing policies
intended to mitigate global warming. All
of the European Union’s member countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and
adopted a wide range of policies to lower
their emissions and meet their Kyoto
targets.
These policies include a cap-and-trade
initiative known as the Emissions Trading
Scheme, steep fuel taxes, and ambitious
programs to build windmills and other
renewable energy projects. These policies were undertaken at a time when the
EU economy was doing well and—one
hopes—with full knowledge that they
would have significant costs.
With the global financial crisis and the
sudden economic downturn, two things
are becoming clear. First, it will be diffi-
cult to afford these expensive new sources
of energy. Second, energy rationing policies like cap-and-trade will be a permanent drag on economic activity. Ironically,
emissions have not decreased as a result of
these policies, but are doing so now as the
world economy moves into recession.
This is not a surprise to someone like
me, having been actively involved in my
country’s transition from communism to
a free society and market economy. The
old, outmoded heavy industries that were
the pride of our communist regime were
shut down—practically overnight—because they could not survive the opening
of the economy. The result was a dramatic
decline in CO2 emissions.
The secret behind the cut in emissions
was economic decline. As the economies of
the Czech Republic and other central and
eastern European countries were rebuilt
and began to grow again, emissions have
Vietnam, and “Korea, with its tradition of militant labor and peasant
protest, is a ticking time bomb,” says
Bello.
The Financial Times’ Pilling writes, “Asians are stoical …
nor have the people yet turned
with a vengeance on incompetent
naturally started to increase. It should be clear
to everyone that there is a
very strong correlation between economic growth
and energy use.
So I am amazed to see
people going along with
the currently fashionable
political argument that
policies like cap-and-trade,
government mandates, and
subsidies for renewable energy can actually benefit an
economy. It is claimed that government,
working together with business, will create “a new energy economy,” that the
businesses involved will profit, and that
everyone will be better off.
This is a fantasy. Cap-and-trade can
only work by raising energy prices. Consumers who are forced to pay higher
prices for energy will have less money to
spend on other things. While the individual companies that provide the higherpriced “green” energy may do well, the
politicians or negligent regulators.”
You wouldn’t want to put a lot of
money on that stoicism to endure.
Conn Hallinan is a contributor for
counterpunch.org, where this article
was first published. Send comments to
[email protected].
net economic effect will be
negative.
It is necessary to look at
the bigger picture. Profits
can be made when energy
is rationed or subsidized,
but only within an economy operating at lower, or
even negative, growth rates.
This means that over the
longer term, everyone will
be competing for a piece of
a pie that is smaller than it
would have been without
energy rationing.
This does not auger well either for
growth or for working our way out of today’s crisis.
EU emissions
have not
decreased as a
result of cap-andtrade policies.
Václav Klaus is president of The Czech
Republic, which holds the presidency of the
Council of Ministers of the European Union
until June 2009. He is the author of “Blue
Planet in Green Shackles—What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?” Copyright:
Project Syndicate, 2009.
The ‘Nine Commentaries’ is the book that is disintegrating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and changing China.
This award-winning Epoch Times editorial series discloses the true history and nature of the CCP. Now it is serialized here.
QUITTING
Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party THE CCP
Commentary Seven (Cont.)
On the Chinese
Communist Party’s
History of Killing
None of the capitalists could
escape the Five Anti Campaign.
They were required to pay taxes
that had been “evaded” as early as
the Guangxu Period (1875–1908)
in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)
when the Shanghai commercial
market was initially established.
The capitalists could not possibly
afford to pay such “taxes” even
with all their fortunes.
They had no other choice but
to end their lives, but they didn’t
dare to jump into the Huangpu
River. If their bodies could not
be found, the CCP would accuse
them of fleeing to Hong Kong,
and their family members would
still be held responsible for the
taxes.
The capitalists instead jumped
from tall buildings, leaving a
corpse so that the CCP could see
proof of their death. It was said
that people didn’t dare to walk
next to tall buildings in Shanghai at that time for fear of being
crushed by people jumping from
above.
According to “Facts of the
Political Campaigns after the
Founding of the People’s Republic of China,” co-edited in 1996
by four government units, including the CCP History Research
Center, during the Three Anti
Campaign and Five Anti Campaign, more than 323,100 people
were arrested, and over 280 committed suicide or disappeared.
In the Anti-Hu Feng campaign
in 1955, over 5,000 were incriminated, over 500 arrested, over 60
committed suicide, and 12 died
from unnatural causes. In the subsequent Suppression of the Reactionaries, over 21,300 people were
executed, and over 4,300 committed suicide or disappeared.i
The Great Famine
The highest death toll was recorded during China’s Great
Famine shortly after the Great
Leap Forward. The article “Great
Famine” in the book “Historical
Records of the People’s Republic
of China” states, “The number
of unnatural deaths and reduced
births from 1959 to 1961 is estimated at about 40 million. …
China’s depopulation by 40 million is likely to be the world’s
greatest famine in this century.”ii
The Great Famine was falsely
labeled a “Three-Year Natural
Disaster” by the CCP. In fact,
those three years had favorable
weather conditions without any
massive natural disasters like
flooding, drought, hurricane,
tsunami, earthquake, frost,
freeze, hail or plague of locusts.
The disaster was entirely caused
by man.
The Great Leap Forward
campaign required everyone in
China to become involved in
steel-making, forcing farmers to
leave their crops to rot in the field.
Despite this, officials in every region escalated their claims of
production yields. He Yiran, the
first secretary of the Party Committee of Liuzhou Prefecture, on
his own fabricated the shockingly high yield of “65,000 kilograms of paddy rice per ‘mu’”iii
in Huanjiang County. This was
right after the Lushan Plenum,
when the CCP’s Anti-Rightist
Movement spread out to the entire country.
In order to demonstrate that
the CCP was correct all the time,
the crops were expropriated by the
government as a form of taxation
according to these exaggerated
yields. Consequently, the grain
rations, seeds, and staple foods of
the peasants were all confiscated.
When the demand still could not
be met, the peasants were accused
of hiding their crops.
He Yiran once said that they
must strive to get first place in
the competition for highest yield
no matter how many people in
Liuzhou would die. Some peasants were deprived of everything,
with only some handfuls of rice
left hidden in the urine basin.
The Party Committee of Xunle
District, Huanjiang County, even
issued an order to forbid cooking,
preventing the peasants from eating the crops. Patrols were conducted by militiamen at night.
If they saw light from a fire, they
would proceed with a search and
raid. Many peasants did not even
dare to cook edible wild herbs or
bark, and died of starvation.
Historically, in times of famine, the government would provide rice porridge, distribute the
crops, and allow victims to flee
from the famine. The CCP, however, regarded fleeing from the
famine as a disgrace to the Party’s prestige and ordered militiamen to block roadways to prevent
victims from escaping the famine.
When the peasants were so hungry as to snatch cereal from the
grain depots, the CCP ordered
shooting at the crowd to suppress
the looting. It then labeled those
killed as counter-revolutionary
elements.
A great number of peasants
were starved to death in many
provinces, including Gansu,
Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei,
Hunan, Sichuan, and Guangxi
provinces. Still, the hungry peasants were forced to take part in irrigation work, dam construction,
and steel-making. Many dropped
to the ground while working
and never got up again. In the
end, those who survived had no
strength to bury the dead. Many
villages died out completely as
families starved to death one after another.
i
Excerpt from the book published by the Hong Kong-based
Chengming magazine (October
issue, 1996) www.chengmingmag.
com.
ii
“Historical Records of the
People’s Republic of China” (Red
Flag Publishing House, 1994).
iii
Unit of Chinese land measurement: 1 mu = 0.165 acres.
Inspired by the
‘Nine Commentaries,’
as of May 4, at 9:03 p.m.
53,770,371
Chinese people have announced
their intentions to quit the Chinese
Communist Party and its affiliated
organizations on a special Web site
established by The Epoch Times.
Many others, unable to break
through the Chinese Internet blockade, have posted their withdrawal
statements on poles or buildings.
Others have written them on Chinese
currency.
Read recent statements of Chinese
quitting the Party, the latest news
on the “Nine Commentaries,” and
more at
http://www.NineCommentaries.com
Help Chinese people who want
to leave communism behind
K_\>cfYXcJ\im`Z\:\ek\i]fiHl`kk`e^k_\::GnXjj\klgkf_\cg:_`e\j\g\fgc\
hl`kk_\::G#Xe[i\Z\`m\j[X`cpi\hl\jkjkfhl`kk_ifl^_c\kk\ijXe[g_fe\ZXccj%
Inspired by the 2004 series “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,”
more than 50 million Chinese people so far have had the courage to quit the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP). Chinese people continue to step forward daily to register their withdrawals from the CCP.
To make a donation, call: (818) 338-2883
Fax: 1-718-865-0622
PflZXe_\cgdfi\g\fgc\hl`kYpb\\g`e^k_`jj\im`Z\^f`e^1;feXk\kfk_\>cfYXc
J\im`Z\:\ek\i]fiHl`kk`e^k_\::G%
A8
Real Estate
The Epoch Times
May 7 – 13, 2009
TOP RATED PALO ALTO SCHOOLS
New model home community
by Robson Homes at Castilleja
3798 Nathan Way,
Palo Alto
With its excellent address in South
Palo Alto, this lovely, updated home
enjoys a gracious single-level floor
plan that flows out to a sun-drenched
terrace with sparkling pool. Embracing its roots of mid-century modern
design, the home boasts an understated yet refined interior with tall
cathedral ceilings, skylights, and
walls of windows with sliding glass
doors. A central living and dining
area with fireplace – the heart of the
home – segues out to the grounds
for al fresco enjoyment. The kitchen
provides an efficient spot to create
gourmet masterpieces, complete
with quality appliances and an open
connection to the living areas. The
home’s personal accommodations
of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms
include a master bedroom suite that
opens to the pool, plus two additional
bedrooms serviced by a hallway bath.
Outside, the rear grounds include a
beautiful dark-bottom swimming pool
and spa plus a separate entertainment deck, all surrounded by tall
trees for privacy. With its easy access
to the fine amenities of Palo Alto,
including three nearby parks, plus
commute routes to all of Silicon Valley
and highly regarded Palo Alto schools
(Fairmeadow, JLS, Gunn High), this is
the perfect place to call home.
Open Saturday and Sunday 1:30 to 4:30 pm Please Contact: Jim Byrnes 650-464-4848
[email protected] / www. 3798 Nathan.com
Although Fremont is the fourth
largest city in the Bay Area, like
many cities, it has suffered from
a lack of new housing, especially
housing priced under $700,000.
This Grand Opening will be the
first new for-sale models in the city
in the last year and only the third
in the last two years. Moreover,
Robson Homes will be unveiling
fully detached 4 bedroom plus den
homes starting at just $598,000 –
something unheard of for many
years in Fremont.
This will be Robson Homes’ second product introduction at Castilleja, and company founder and
President Mark Robson explains
the reason behind the new introduction: “Although the original
models have been a great success
at Castilleja, we listened to our customers’ feedback and noticed an
unmet need in the market . . . larger
homes with more rooms at an affordable price.”
“Therefore, we added significant square footage, ranging up to
2,047 square feet, and the result is
four great plans, each of which has
4 bedrooms plus a den, plus 3-1/2 to
4 baths, a two car garage, and a private yard space,” added Robson.
The lack of new housing in the
Fremont area is highlighted by the
fact that only 3 detached new home
communities currently are for sale
in Fremont, including Castilleja.
Castilleja is one of only 2 detached
communities in the entire city with
true ground floor living, and the
only one priced under $700,000!
Ground floor living is a reference
to homes that offer the kitchen , living room and garage on the ground
level, as the name implies. This is a
huge convenience to buyers bringing groceries from the car into the
kitchen and a convenience that is
becoming increasingly difficult to
find anywhere in a new home in the
entire Bay Area outside of milliondollar or custom homes.
Castilleja’s starting price of
$598,000 (and ranging to the upper
$600,000s) make it the lowest priced
detached 4 bedroom homes in the
Fremont area – an area where a 4
bedroom, 2-1/2 resale home will average close to $700,000 according
to recent MLS statistics.
The shortage of new home options and the high price of resale
homes are due in part to Fremont’s
growing popularity. With a population well over two hundred thousand , and a projected growth of
forty thousand people over the
next twenty years, Fremont will no
doubt continue to be a popular Bay
Area for home shoppers well into
the future.
The population boom of recent
years is based to a great degree
on the outstanding reputation of
Fremont schools, particularly the
Warm Springs District in which
Castilleja is located. Add in an
abundance of parks, recreation
and just a 15 minute commute to
San Jose Airport and the rest of
the Silicon Valley, and it is easy to
see why economists predict such
an impressive growth rate for Fremont over the next decades.
In spite of the rosy long term
outlook for Fremont, there is no
denying the fact that the Bay Area
housing market has recently been
in a prolonged slump, but that does
not deter Mark Robson’s enthusiasm for the new plans at Castilleja
project.
“We know that buyers are looking for an absolutely great value.
We are providing exactly that by
giving more square footage and
additional rooms in our homes
at an even more affordable price,
through careful design and value
engineering. As a result, buyers at
Castilleja can actually buy more
new home than they can afford to
buy in the resale market, and of
course receive all the benefits of
a state of the art new home when
compared to a resale. Now that the
housing market is starting to show
showing signs of recovery, buyers
can take advantage of a ‘perfect
storm’ of opportunity at Castilleja
– great new plans, incredible prices
and values, 10-year home warranties, 100 year lows in financing,
and up to $18,000 in available State
and Federal tax credits for buying a new home. This combination may not happen again in this
generation.”
The new floorplans debut this
weekend. Castilleja is located on
Kato Road in the Warm Springs
District of Fremont, between
Warm Springs Blvd and Milmont
Ave. Models are open 10 am to
6pm daily. For detail and directions visit www.castilleja-homes.
com or call the sales office directly
at (510) 659-1337.
TOP RATED PALO ALTO SCHOOLS
3798 Nathan Way, Palo Alto
Offered at $1,058,000
Open Sat & Sun 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
www.3798Nathan.com
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LIFE &
LEISURE
The Epoch Times
B1 Entertainment
B2 Arts & Culture
B3 Health
B4 Autos
B5 Travel
B6 Science & Tech
B7 Dining
B8 Advertisement
B
B5 Travel
COURTESY OF WWW.LASALAMANDAS.COM
Entertainment
May 7 – 13, 2009
B1
Shen Yun Brings '5 Star' Performance to West Coast
By JACK PHILLIPS
Epoch Times Staff
YIN AND YANG: Chris Pine (L) portrays James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto plays Spock in “Star Trek.”
INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC/ PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Old Sci Fi Franchise
Gets a New Beginning
By JAMES CARROLL
Epoch Times Staff
The quality of Star Trek’s relaunch was never in doubt for fans of
J.J. Abrams’ previous work (“Alias,”
“Lost,” “M:i:III,” “Cloverfield,”
“Fringe”) Everything the director
extraordinaire has involved himself
with has turned to gold.
Audaciously setting up an alternate reality, “Star Trek” opens with
the energizing and eye-fetchingly
rendered destruction of the USS
Kelvin and the birth of one James
T. Kirk.
Destroyed by a Romulan megaship from the future, events as
“Trekkers” have previously known
them are irrevocably altered. Flash
forward to the future and the
Federation is on the verge of launching its new flagship star ship the USS
Enterprise.
Little do they know that still lurking among the stars are the revengeseeking Romulans (led by Eric
Bana’s slightly underwritten chief
villain Nero). The only thing standing in their way is one ship and her
new crew, most notably one headstrong James T. Kirk (Chris Pine,
“Smokin’ Aces”) and his partner,
the unemotive half-Vulcan, halfhuman Spock (Zachary Quinto,
“Heroes”).
Abrams’ “Star Trek” is more
mythical, more action-orientated,
and much more kinetic than any
previous incarnation. It’s arguably
less highbrow than original writer
MOVIE
REVIEW
‘STAR TREK’
and creator Gene Roddenberry
and more in the direction of another well-known 1970s space saga
from—“Battlestar Galactica.” Some
of the die-hards may well grumble at
the lack of pondering, politicking,
and weighty themes that the original series relied on, but the majority will be too busy being wowed by
the self-referential nods and maestro
Michael Giacchino’s music.
Of course this isn’t all action and
no character. In fact it’s surprising
how many little character-building
moments are allowed amidst the
bustle. This is also the most contentious part of the whole project—
will audiences accept their favorite
character in their new, hand-picked,
pretty-young-thing guises?
Well, as it goes, they probably
couldn’t have been more perfectly
cast. Quinto impresses as Spock. Zoe
Saldana brings the brains, brass, and
beauty to properly portray Uhura.
The man previously known as one
part of comedy duo “Harold and
Kumar,” John Cho as Sulu is surprisingly good. Baby faced Anton
Yelchin brings the cracking comedy,
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accent, and vivacious energy essential to the character Chekov.
Simon Pegg does a nice Scotty—
the accent’s toned down from James
Doohan’s effort but no less ropey
and makes an impacting and promising screen presence nevertheless.
Then there’s Karl Urban who does
a nice job as Bones.
Who this leaves, of course, is perhaps the most important piece of
the puzzle—Chris Pine in the unenviable position of playing Kirk.
Different but enough the same,
cocky and charming, arrogant,
and irrepressible, but most importantly—winningly likeable. Pine’s
Kirk is categorically not Shatner’s
Kirk (and he definitely doesn’t try
to imitate The Shat’s characteristic
dialogue delivery style.
But the best thing of all about this
“Trek” is the little flourishes that
Abrams shows particular flair for.
Like the notable differences between
the pristine-looking THX-1138 inspired bridge of the Enterprise, or
the Titanic inspired industrial feel to
the heart of the ship. Or the subtle
change they’ve made to how people
disappear and reappear when transported. Or the way that phasers now
change settings between stun and
kill (the coolest “reload” since Arnie
and that shotgun in “T2”). Or the
way in which we see the Enterprise
streaking through space at warp
speed.
It’s obvious in these touches that
this was a real labor of love for everyone involved.
The Shen Yun Divine
Performing Arts returns to the
West Coast after completing a
very successful run at the San
Francisco War Memorial Opera
House and the Flint Center in
Cupertino in January.
Starting on May 8, in Los
Angeles and traveling up the
coast to San Jose, then Portland
and Spokane for the first time,
to Seattle, and finally performing in San Diego, Shen Yun’s
2009 World Tour shows will be
brought to an end for this year.
Shen Yun, based in New
York, has toured much of East
Asia, most of Europe, as well
as Australia and New Zealand,
since the company last performed on the West Coast.
The theme of the West
Coast performances is dubbed
“Welcoming Spring” and marks
the last series of performances
for the season.
Shen Yun experienced much
success touring the West Coast
and thus decided to come back
and perform again.
The performance contains the
5,000-year history of Chinese
heritage and culture through the
art of classical Chinese dance
and music. Audience members
from across the globe lauded
Shen Yun shows as very spiritual, deep, and profound, sensational and stunning.
Broadway critic Richard
Connema said the show is a “5
star” production: “I probably
have reviewed over 3,000 to
4,000 shows since 1942. A lot of
reviewers use stars, you know,
1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5
stars. ... I will give this production five stars. That’s the top.”
Other than dance, Shen Yun
also features a blend of Chinese
and Western instrumentals as
well as a digitally enhanced
backdrop.
Renowned Romanian tenor
Mr. Nedelescu said, “For me,
this was truly special. I lack
words to describe it. One never
can truly describe the stories,
the entire art in words, or in
the way it was presented to the
audience. Unique! I’m delighted
that I could be present.”
Shen Yun seeks to revive traditional Chinese culture, which
was suppressed under the current Chinese regime, and bring
it to center stage for theatergoers around the world.
Ms. Chih Yiyi, a fine
painter at the Nikko Shrines,
a UNESCO World Heritage
site in Japan, was moved by
the performance. “I think Shen
Yun has an extraordinary spirit,
and it has touched my heart. I
shed tears while watching some
of the programs. The original
works of the Shen Yun are just
marvelous. I can see that they
have integrated all beautiful
things into one whole and this is
a rare find.
“Their stage costumes and
color immersed the audience
in a most splendid realm. The
combined effects present all
genuine compassion and beauty
to be found in the human world.
They must have worked hard to
produce something like this.”
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit DivinePerformingArts.org. For performances and tickets in the Bay Area, see page B8
‘Wolverine’ Tops Global Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)—
Comic book movie "X-Men Origins:
Wolverine" slashed its rivals at box
offices over the weekend with a $160
million worldwide debut, leaping to
No. 1 on ticket charts in a solid start
to Hollywood's summer.
The action adventure, starring Hugh Jackman as the heroic
Wolverine who wields long claws as
his weapons, raked in $87 million in
the United States and Canada and
helped push total ticket sales just
slightly ahead of the same weekend last year, according to tracking service Hollywood.com Box
Office.
Landing at No. 2 on domestic
box office charts with $15.3 million
was romantic comedy "Ghosts of
Girlfriends Past," starring Matthew
McConaughey. Last week's No.
1, thriller "Obsessed," dropped to
third place with a weekend haul of
$12.2 million for a cumulative total
of $47 million in two weeks.
But it was "Wolverine" that
TOP MUTANT: Hugh Jackman as
the character Wolverine. JAMES
FISHER/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
lured the vast majority of fans to
theaters. It was widely watched as
the first major film of the studio's
summer movie season that runs
through August and can account
for 35 to 40 percent of the annual
ticket sales.
The $87 million domestic box
office for "Wolverine" was lower
than the $98.6 million debut of last
year's No. 1 film, "Iron Man,' and
box office trackers had estimated
an opening in a range of $85 million to $100 million.
The four movies in the "X-Men"
series have combined for more than
$1.1 billion in ticket sales around
the world.
The Fox executive Chris
Aronson said ticket sales of $73
million in 101 markets outside the
United States and Canada brought
the global haul to $160 million. He
called that figure "fantastic," and
noted it topped the movie's production cost of around $130 million.
Aronson said "Wolverine" may
have been affected by other issues
including the flu outbreak that shut
theaters in Mexico, where "Last
Stand" took in $6 million at its
debut.
B2
Arts & Culture
May 7 – 13, 2009
The Epoch Times
MUSIC
Classical Audition Contest Fosters Young Talents
By KREMENA KRUMOVA
Epoch Times Staff
During its annual Classic Night, the
Verein Opera (Opera Society) will hold
its Classical Audition Contest in Zurich,
Switzerland, this year for the first time. The
new initiative aims to encourage young talent and to celebrate the fifth anniversary of
the establishment of the Opera Society.
Less than a month before the contest’s
deadline for applications, the president of
Verein Opera, Mr. Uwe Nautsch, agreed to
a special online interview with The Epoch
Times.
More specifically, the mission of Verein
Opera is to encourage talented young artists from all over the world by offering them
financial, musical, and artistic support.
“The annual Classic Night in particular, introduces these young artists to a very challenging and professional environment,” Mr.
Nautsch shared.
In 2009, Verein Opera added another element in its development of young artists.
The Opera Society sought to find and bring
together outstanding singers from every corner of the world, “reaching individuals from
every social status, religion, color, or nationality,” Mr. Nautsch says.
The Classical Audition Contest offers
a unique opportunity for classical singers
who have not reached the age of 32. Those
online applicants selected for the contest are
promised substantial benefits. They will receive an opportunity to work together with
reputable music institutions like Accademia
Teatro alla Scala Milan, Manhattan School
of Music New York, and Yale School of
Music New Haven. Moreover, they will meet
notable persons from mainstream society in
Switzerland, Europe, and overseas. Finally,
and perhaps most importantly, they will obtain professional vocational training.
Although the contest is still a start-up
project and has been online only for a couple of weeks, Verein Opera has already received substantial interest and is likely to
be have many candidates by the May 10
deadline.
Mr. Nautsch added, “We are especially
keen on using the Internet as our platform,
as we know that the Internet is the best way
to reach everybody anywhere, even young
striving talent from the farthest corners of
the world.”
The winner of this international competition will participate in exclusive Master
classes given by world-famous tenor
Francisco Araiza and sing at the 5th Classic
Night on June 5 in the company of other
young artists from around the world.
In terms of the criteria for selecting the
best performer, the Verein Opera president
emphasized exceptional potential musically.
INTERNATIONAL
REPUTATION: Tenor
Francisco Araiza at Classic
Night 2008. Prof. Araiza
will be a judge at the
Classical Audition Contest
as part of this year’s
Classic Night organized
by Verein Opera in Zurich,
Switzerland. The contest
aims to showcase young
talent singing classical
music. COURTESY OF VEREIN OPERA
“Of course, we are definitely also looking
for a strong and unique personality,” Mr.
Nautsch added. As to other important abilities, “The exact definition of the criteria we
are looking at is technical ability, musical
arrangement, quality of singing voice, and
artistic personality.”
The jury for the contest is impressive and
includes Prof. Araiza. “Prof. Araiza brings
with him the key competencies needed to
judge the candidates. His long-standing
experience in his field, being a world-renowned singer himself, enriches and enhances the musical development of young
artists worldwide.
“Dr. Dirk Fisseler has especially been
chosen to join the jury due to his extensive experience in finding young individuals with high potential on an international
scale,” Mr. Nautsch said.
Each year the Classic Night program
has a special motto. This year it is “Nuit
Blanche” or “White Night.” White Night
means that music will be generated day or
night and never cease--never in the dark.
The theme of Nuit Blanche aims to “create a setting of timelessness and excitement in an international environment. This
specific atmosphere allows exceptional
young singers from all around the world
to transform a ‘Nuit Blanche’ into a colorful evening with their incredibly beautiful
voices,” Mr. Nautsch said.
Mr. Nautsch says that Verein Opera’s
plans to expand their outreach ourselves
and influence on the development of young
artists on every continent, to use the Classic
Night as a live platform to do so.
“Our offer is especially interesting because it creates a boundless international
network where singers, guests, as well as
professionals in the field of classical music
can come together and discuss their perspectives. We are also interested in helping the opera scene increase its popularity.
We are certain that the best way to spread
a new-found interest and draw attention
to classical music is to allow young artists
to perform for a qualified and experienced
audience. Ultimately, we want to find the
EXCELLENT
[artists with] high potential and develop PERFORMANCtheir artistic, professional, and financial ES: Mezzo-sobackgrounds,” Mr. Nautsch concluded.
prano MargaFor more information regarding the
Classical Audition Contest and Verein
Opera activities, please visit: http://vereinopera.com/
ret Peterson
performs at
Classic Night
2008. COURTESY
OF VEREIN OPERA
THE ANTIDOTE:
CLASSIC POETRY FOR MODERN LIFE
A Reading of ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth
By CHRISTOPHER NIELD
Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud.” After reading
such a line, comment seems superfluous. Time
appears to stop. We look up from the page. We
feel happy.
But why do we feel happy? What is it about
this line that gives us the unmistakable shiver
of poetry? Why is it so beautiful? Perhaps it has
something to do with its balance of sadness and
wonder.
It captures, in a moment, the essential privacy
of the soul; yet within this isolation finds not
alienation or despair, but a sense of limitless
expansiveness. “Lonely” carries an unexpected
meaning of “freely.”
We are so transported by this opening
that the “crowd” of daffodils bursts upon
us unawares. Every time we read the poem,
Wordsworth makes us feel the rushing delight
of their sudden appearance, as if we were seeing a bank of spring flowers for the first time.
“Fluttering and dancing” they are full of life
and joy.
In the first stanza, the imagery takes us from
the sky to the earth, yet the second stanza once
again moves out into the universe. The daffodils
“shine” like the stars of the Milky Way—their
LIZA VORONIN
“continuous” line suggesting a chain of being
that connects the here and now to the heavens
themselves.
Wordsworth claims to see “ten thousand”
daffodils at a glance; their “never-ending”
procession appears to stretch into the infinite.
These wild exaggerations well convey his giddy,
carefree excitement.
Golden and flame-like, the daffodils seem to
illuminate the landscape, granting the “lake” and
the “trees” a visionary ecstasy. They are lords of the
dance, inspiring the “waves” to gleeful rejoicing.
(If a poet “could not but be gay” in such a “jocund
company,” as Wordsworth says, is this because
poets are renowned for their gaiety, or notorious for
their misery?)
After this blaze of merriment, the earnest
repetition of “I gazed” takes us by surprise. It
introduces a somber, apparently introspective
note, or perhaps a spiritual awe. The long “a”
sound and use of dashes slow the pace down
considerably—almost bringing the dance, and
the poem, to a halt.
But this, in turn, is swept aside by
Wordsworth’s casual admission that he had
“little thought” of the daffodils’ significance.
(We can imagine him giving an almost comical
shrug of the shoulders at this point.) This is one
small example of the subtle emotional nuances
behind the plain language
and rhyme.
The enduring “wealth”
that the daffodils have
brought to him is revealed in
the final stanza, with an implicit contrast with the fickle
wealth of society. In a state of
vacancy or worry, lying back
on his “couch” with little or
no inspiration, the daffodils
“flash” upon the “inward
eye” and once more lift his
heart. Periods of emptiness,
of brokenness, are inevitable—yet so is the return to
joy.
As we reread and relive
the poem, we trace a journey from the self out into the
world and then back again:
taking in the simple and the
complex, the mystical and the
mundane, the solemn and the
sprightly.
Out of this pattern of
moods emerges a profound
sense of what it means to
be human: what it means to
wander with no thought or
care, unburdened by any imposition of purpose, to take pleasure in the sweetest sights, to
be overwhelmed by a past scene we took for
granted. Our loneliness isn’t transcended but
deepened, to become the “bliss of solitude”—
and within that stillness there is nothing but
dancing.
Many readers might laugh at the rhyme of
“fills” and “daffodils,” yet what I love about the
final lines is their power to embarrass our strident sophistication, our fear of innocence, and
touch something vulnerable within us.
Let me give an example. A friend of mine
remembers reciting the poem at a school poetry
evening. Little by little, the restless audience became silent and still; and by the time he finished,
a sense of quiet astonishment filled the hall.
Everyone knew something tremendous had
happened. Even when he told me the story,
thirty years later, a look of wonder came into
his eyes—a look that can only be described as
happiness.
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was an
English Romantic poet most famous for poems
such as “Tintern Abbey” and “Ode: Intimations
of Immortality.” Christopher Nield is a poet living
in London.
Duffy Named Britain’s First
Female Poet Laureate
Previous lifetime
position now held
for 10 years
LONDON (Reuters)—Carol Ann
Duffy takes her place with Jonson,
Dryden, Tennyson, and Wordsworth
as Britain’s latest poet laureate.
Crowned with the literary laurel
wreath sacred to Apollo, Duffy becomes the first woman to hold the
royal post since James I created the
position in 1617.
The 53-year-old, born in
Glasgow, Scotland, said she had
thought “long and hard” about accepting the position, seen by some
as a poisoned chalice due to the
public scrutiny that comes with it.
“I look on it as a recognition
of the great women poets we have
writing now,” Duffy told BBC
Radio. “I’ve decided to accept it for
that reason.”
Poets Laureate are expected to
compose poems to mark major
state occasions and other national
events. Formerly holding the post
for life, poets laureate now keep the
position for 10 years.
Duffy is probably best known for
her 1999 collection “The World’s
Wife” in which she tells the stories
of the women behind some of the
leading men through history.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
called Duffy “a truly brilliant modern poet who has stretched our
imaginations by putting the whole
range of human experiences into
lines that capture the emotions
perfectly.”
Judith Palmer, director of the
Poetry Society, which marks its
centenary this year, also welcomed
Duffy’s appointment. “That is incredibly heartening for all of us. It
focuses attention on the wide range
of excellent women poets working
in Britain at the moment,” Palmer
said.
The holder of the title receives
5,750 pounds (US$8,600) a year.
Duffy said she would give the fee to
the Poetry Society. According to the
Society, the laureate’s original salary was 200 pounds per year plus a
butt of canary wine. John Betjeman
had the tradition revived in 1972
and today’s laureate receives a barrel of sherry.
The new appointment is likely
to reignite debate in literary circles
over whether Britain really needs a
Poet Laureate.
Andrew Motion, the previous
honoree, was generally viewed as a
success for actively promoting verse
but his poems did not attract widespread acclaim and he complained
last year of suffering from writer’s
block.
“The pressures and peculiarities
of the laureateship, some of which
I put myself through, did have a
rocky effect on my life,” he said in
an interview with the Independent
newspaper.
“It was a strange mix of making
me self-conscious that so few writers are made to feel because of being so public. There is an isolation
in being the Poet Laureate.”
The official title and the duty of
commemorating important occasions in the nation’s history were
first given to John Dryden in 1670.
The United States also gives the
honor to distinguished poets.
FOR MORE
ART AND
CULTURE,
VISIT US
ONLINE
THEEPOCHTIMES.COM
May 7 – 13, 2009
Eggs Decrease Risk of
Macular Degeneration
By W. GIFFORD-JONES, M.D.
“Don’t you worry about cholesterol in
eggs?” a friend recently asked me. I had
ordered ham and eggs for a breakfast
that I often enjoy. But my friend was sure
that eggs were a nutritional relic of the
past and only good for a display at the
Smithsonian Institution.
I told him that he was suffering from
“cholesterolphobia,” he should upgrade
his thinking about eggs, and that if he
would order the same breakfast, it would
decrease his risk of heart disease and
macular degeneration.
I’ve written for years that we should
trust farmers, hens, and cows and cast a
suspicious eye at manufactured, processed
foods. I have not changed my mind after
many years of research.
Blaming farmers and hens for the epidemic of heart disease is like blaming the
iceberg for sinking the Titanic. It was a
foolish captain who sank the Titanic, and
it is ill-informed people who blame heart
disease on a ham-and-eggs breakfast.
They should point fingers at the epidemic
of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and a lack of exercise that are responsible for making heart disease the numberone killer.
So what evidence will make my friend
stop worrying about a ham-and-eggs
breakfast? A study conducted by Harvard
University followed 120,000 people for 14
years. It concluded that there was no correlation between egg consumption and the
risk of heart disease. In fact, those who
consumed two or more eggs per day had
almost the same risk of heart disease as
those who consumed no eggs at all.
Besides, today’s eggs are healthier than
at any other time in history. Humans are
what they eat, and similarly chickens are
what they’re fed. For instance, Naturegg
Omega Pro eggs are nutritionally enhanced by feeding chickens an all-natural,
flax-based diet with a small amount of
fish oil, alfalfa, and corn. This provides
an abundant source of beneficial omega-3
fatty acids.
Omega-3 fatty acids are not produced
by the human body. But they’re essential
for cardiovascular health in a number
of ways. For instance, they keep blood
platelets well-oiled, decreasing the risk of
blood clots in coronary arteries.
Studies show that death from heart
attack may also be associated with inflammation caused by too much homocysteine in the blood. Vitamins B6, B9
[folic acid], and B12 found in eggs help to
reduce the level of homocysteine.
My friend, by denying eggs, was also
losing another important benefit. Eggs
contain lutein and zeaxanthin, carotenoids that help decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This
disease affects central vision and is the
leading cause of blindness for people over
65 years of age. It’s a devastating problem
that makes it impossible to drive a car,
read a book, or see grandchildren smile.
Dr. John Landrum, at Florida
International University, Miami, is a
world authority on macular pigments.
He reports that lutein and zeaxanthin are
two pigments in the macula. His studies show that patients with the highest
intakes of lutein and zeaxanthin had 43
percent less chance of developing macular degeneration.
Another study from the National
Institute of Health also found that those
with the lowest level of carotenoids had
the highest risk of AMD.
Dr. Linda Nebeling of the National
Cancer Institute has presented data that
shows the overall decline of lutein intake.
This decrease in dietary lutein was particularly striking in those groups at risk of
macular degeneration. For instance, from
1987 to 1992, lutein intake has decreased
by 16 percent in women of all ages and in
men and women aged 40 to 69.
Researchers believe that lutein and
zeaxanthin protect the macula by absorbing harmful blue light rays from the sun’s
rays. In addition, they act as antioxidants
that neutralize free radicals, the end
products of metabolism that are believed
to cause aging.
Egg yolks, many fruits, and vegetables are good sources of lutein and
zeaxanthin.
Today cholesterolphobia has made
many people, including my friend, shy
away from farm products that have stood
the test of time. But the next time we
meet, I believe he’ll also order ham and
eggs for breakfast.
Dr. Gifford-Jones is a medical journalist
with a private medical practice in Toronto.
Mydoctor.ca/gifford-jones
Staying Upright During
Childbirth Found Helpful
By DR. JOHN BRIFFA
Recently, I have had babies on
the brain. I think this might have
something to do with the fact that
I spent a large part of the weekend with a very good friend who
is heavily pregnant with her first
child.
We spent a little time talking
about her plans for the birth. The
aim is to give birth at home, and
my friend also remarked that her
desire is to stay as upright as possible during labor. While it is customary in the U.K. for women to
go through labor lying down, my
friend believes that standing and
squatting are far more natural
and appropriate positions during
the birthing process.
This conversation was still fresh
in my mind when earlier this
week I came across a report on a
review of maternal position during labor. One of the outcomes
assessed was the length of the first
two stages of labor. Stage one is
said to start when the cervix is
3 centimeters dilated, and ends
once it is fully dilated. Stage two
starts at this point and ends with
the birth of the baby. Typically,
the first stage of labor lasts about
eight hours in women giving birth
to their first child, but lasts about
half this length in subsequent
labors.
The review in question was
conducted by scientists from
the Cochrane collaboration (an
international group of scientists
specializing in systematic reviews
of health-related interventions)
and was published recently.
The review of 21 studies found
that being upright during labor
appeared to reduce the duration
of the first stage of labor by about
an hour. Maternal position did
not seem to affect the length of
the second stage of labor. Neither
did it appear to influence the
mode of delivery or other outcomes related to the well-being of
the mother or her baby. However,
in addition to appearing to reduce the length of the first stage
of labor, being upright was also
associated with a 17 percent
reduced risk of having epidural
analgesia.
The authors of the review
Health
The Epoch Times
concluded: “There is evidence
that walking and upright
positions in the first stage of
labor reduce the length of
labor and do not seem to
be associated with increased intervention or
negative effects on mothers’ and babies’ well-being. Women should be
encouraged to take up
whatever position they
find most comfortable
in the first stage of
labor.”
Source:Lawrence A,
Lewis L, Hofmeyr GJ,
Dowswell T, Styles C.
Maternal positions and
mobility during first
stage labor. Cochrane
Database of Systematic
Reviews 2009, Issue 2
Dr. John Briffa is a
London-based physician
and health writer with an
interest in nutrition and
natural medicine. His Web
site is drbriffa.com
KEEP UPRIGHT: Standing,
walking, or sitting during
the first stage of labor has
been shown to shorten this
stage. PHOTOS.COM
B3
Testing for Swine Flu Not Easy
LONDON (Reuters)—Testing
whether a person has swine flu is
not easy, and it can take days to
confirm that suspected cases are actually caused by the virus, a health
expert said on April 28.
The World Health Organization
has confirmed 79 cases of a virus it
said has spread from Mexico into
the United States, Canada, New
Zealand, and Europe, raising fears
of a pandemic.
But officials suspect more than
1,600 people may have the infection—a disparity explained in part
because there is no quick test, said
Andrew Easton, a virologist at the
University of Warwick in Britain.
“Many countries now will have several labs to carry this out. You can’t
do this in the field,” he told Reuters in
a telephone interview.
WHO officials only report cases
that have been confirmed by their
own staffers, in their own labs, at the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and a
few other places.
Mexico, for instance, ships samples
to the CDC in Atlanta or Winnipeg
in Canada for testing.
While testing for seasonal flu is
relatively simple, doing the same for
H1N1 is far more complicated, and
none of the three techniques are
widely available.
One way to confirm swine flu is
with a test that involves growing a virus culture in a lab and then sequencing its genetic material. Testing increases of antibodies and a technique
called real-time PCR are the other
approaches.
The PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technique—which researcher
Easton called the most efficient—uses
FLU TESTING: Currently, swine flu diagnosis can only be made in a specialized
lab. No field test is available at this time. GAVIN AVERILL/GETTY IMAGES
a device to amplify copies of genes
so researchers can easily compare a
sample taken from a sick person to
the genetic material of the potentially
pandemic infection.
“You start with a small number
of copies of the virus genes and the
technique multiplies them up in a
test tube to give them many hundreds of thousands of copies of the
virus genes which are easy to measure,” Easton said.
The first step for doctors and
health officials is often collecting a
sample at a local clinic or hospital
and then sending it on to a more
well-equipped lab for analysis. This
can produce some of the biggest
delays.
Next researchers must purify the
sample to get rid of natural compounds that may interfere with
a reading—something that also
takes time, Easton said.
“Once you know the genetic
makeup of the virus, the machine
can tell whether the [genetic] sequence is that of the suspected infection,” Easton said.
“If everything was optimized and
there were plenty of people around
to handle the result you could easily
get a result that day.”
The PCR device itself can within
a few hourscompare the genetic
makeup ofthe sample with that of
a pandemicvirus, Easton said.
But
achallenge for researchers is de-signing a test that
health offi-cials can conduct in the
field,
headded.
“It is tech-nology that is stopping
us from doing that at the moment,”
Easton said.
OTC Pain Drugs
to Highlight Risks
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—
Over-the-counter pain relievers
such as Tylenol and Advil will
carry bolder warnings about the
risk of liver damage or stomach
bleeding, the Food and Drug
Administration said on April 29.
Products containing acetaminophen, such as Johnson &
Johnson’s Tylenol, will carry
a prominent package warning
about the risk of severe liver damage if, for example, people took
too much of the drug.
Painkillers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or
NSAIDS, including Bayer AG’s
aspirin products, Wyeth’s Advil,
and Johnson & Johnson’s Motrin,
will carry bold warnings about the
risk of stomach bleeding, the FDA
said.
“We believe the new labeling requirements will add information
concerning severe adverse effects
of over-the-counter pain relievers and fever reducers that many
consumers may not be aware of,”
said Matthew Holman, the FDA’s
deputy director for the Division
of Nonprescription Regulation
Development.
The new rules, first proposed in
late 2006, also apply to generic versions of the drugs and other nonprescription products that contain
the painkilling ingredients, such
‘We believe the new labeling
requirements will add information
concerning severe adverse effects
of over-the-counter pain relievers
and fever reducers that many
consumers may not be aware of.’
—Matthew Holman, the FDA’s
deputy director for the Division
of Nonprescription Regulation
Development
as cold medications. NSAIDs are
also known generically as aspirin,
ibuprofen, naproxen, and ketoprofen, according to the FDA.
While the risks with these kinds
of drugs have been known for
years, FDA’s Holman said it is important to better highlight them
for consumers, who could unknowingly take multiple products
containing acetaminophen.
The new warnings will also point
out the increased risk of liver damage with acetaminophen in consumers who drink three or more
alcoholic drinks each day. They
also call on consumers taking the
widely used blood thinner warfarin to consult their doctors before
taking acetaminophen products.
Some companies have already
revised their products’ packaging
to add some of the new warnings,
Holman said, adding that all companies concerned must change
their packaging by next April.
In a statement, Johnson &
Johnson’s McNeil Consumer
Healthcare unit, which makes
Tylenol and Motrin as well as St.
Joseph Aspirin, said it would make
the labeling changes as requested.
Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus
and Bayer spokeswoman Anne
Coiley also said their companies
would comply with FDA’s order,
adding that their products are
safe and effective when taken as
directed.
The FDA’s announcement comes
ahead of a public FDA meeting in
late June to discuss what other actions the agency could take to curb
the risk of liver damage from products containing acetaminophen.
The risk of liver damage or stomach bleeding with over-the-counter pain medications spurred the
development of prescription pain
drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors.
But those drugs—which included two now withdrawn drugs,
Pfizer Inc.’s Bextra and Merck &
Co Inc’s Vioxx—carried their own
set of safety concerns, such as an
increased risk of heart attacks and
other cardiovascular problems.
Only Pfizer’s Celebrex remains on
the U.S. market.
B4
Autos
May 7 – 13, 2009
The Epoch Times
2009 Acura RL Elite & TL Technology
By TITUS HSU
Epoch Times Staff
The Acura RL and TL occupy
the high-end echelon in the Acura
sedan line-up. For the 2009 model
year, both the RL and the TL have
received extensive changes along
with the rest of the Acura line-up.
The TL Type-S has been replaced
by the TL SH-AWD model, which
has received the Super-Handling
All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system. For both the RL and TL SHAWD, the engine power has been
bumped over the 300 hp mark. The
3.7-liter engines are a little bit on
the high side of gas consumption.
The RL Elite is Acura’s statement on how to build as much convenience and comfort into an executive-class vehicle in the $46,000
- $54,000 price segment. The TL
SH-AWD is the embodiment of
raw Acura driving emotion, packaged nicely in a matching level of
luxury. Both vehicles have received
drastic makeovers to the exterior
for the 2009 model year, along with
the rest of the Acura line-up. The
new Acura fascia design with more
aggressive sweeping lines and the
solid-piece chrome grill, eliminates
some cluttered lines and results in
a clean, bold, and elegant image.
I much prefer the new look for the
RL over the previous design.
This aggression and boldness
theme is pushed further in TL’s new
look. This drastic change, however, has drawn criticisms here and
there. It may just take some time to
get used to the new TL; it reminds
me of my initial reaction when I
first saw the current Toyota Camry
design.
Except for the suspension, everything about the RL is described
by words like “soft,” “smooth,”
“cushy,” and “fine.” In contrast,
words that describe the TL are
“firm,” “rigid,” “bold,” and “solid.”
Two cars built with very similar
specs, but two different philosophies have shaped them far apart.
The interior of the RL is spacious, classy, and comfortable.
The quality cushy leather seats are
bordered in by gentle lines and
wood trim. In contrast, the TL
interior pursues the more modern and energetic perception with
very firm and supportive leather
seats, enclosed by aggressive
curves and metal trim. Even the
steering wheels demonstrate these
differences: The RL is equipped
with a wood-trim steering wheel
with leather grips, while the TL is
equipped with an extra-thick allleather steering wheel.
It’s a given that both cars would
be loaded with all the electronic
wizardry one would expect in a
luxury car. GPS navigation system
(with voice recognition), Bluetooth
connections, reverse camera,
dual-zone climate control, autodimming mirrors, keyless entry,
moon-roof, and premium audio
2009 RL Elite
• 3.7-liter V6 engine
• 300bhp@6300rpm, 271lb-ft@5000rpm
• Super Handling All-Wheel Drive(TM)
• 5-speed automatic with paddle shifters
• Curb weight: 4,090 lb.
• Fuel economy (mpg): 18 city / 26 hwy
• Price as tested: $54,100
2009 TL SH-AWD Technology
• 3.7-liter V6 engine
• 305bhp@6300rpm, 273lb-ft@5000rpm
• Super Handling All-Wheel Drive(TM)
• 5-speed automatic with paddle shifters
• Curb weight: 3,975 lb.
• Fuel economy (mpg): 19 city / 29 hwy.
• Price as tested: $45,990
TITUS HSU / THE EPOCH TIMES
system with USB connectivity and
various audio format supports.
The RL standard feature set and
the TL Technology package further up the ante with GPS-linked
sun-sensing climate control, and
a comprehensive keyless access
system, which links driver’s seat,
mirror, steering wheel, and climate
control settings to individual keys.
Being Acura’s pinnacle in luxury
features, RL Elite tops it off with
even more features like cooling
front seats, power rear sunshade,
Collision Mitigation Braking
System (CMBS), and Active Noise
Cancellation. CMBS uses radar
to determine the speed of and
distance from the vehicle ahead,
and applies braking if the closing
speed exceeds the programmed
threshold.
Weighing in at 4,090 lb., the
RL isn’t light, but this is expected
for luxury sedans in its class. This
weight can be felt when accelerating and braking. The 300 horsepower engine does have the power
to accelerate this car quickly,
especially in Sequential Shift
mode, but you would have to push
on the gas pedal like you meant
it. Driving casually in city traffic,
the car accelerates in an easy and
smooth fashion. To maintain this
smooth ride, gently apply brakes
early as well. The driver has a very
good sense of the weight through
various feedbacks, and the car corners fairly well thanks to the taut,
sporty suspension and the SHAWD drivetrain.
The SH-AWD is a very sophisticated mechanism that distributes
torque over the four wheels independently. Accelerate lightly while
The CSX has a distinct
combination of driving
characteristics and
interior amenities,
and the Acura name
is associated with
luxury, refinement,
and build quality.
turning, and the SH-AWD system
kicks making it feel like the car
is gliding along the curve. It is an
interesting sensation. Even though
it’s no speed demon, the ride is
smooth, refined, easy, and wellcontrolled. This ride complements
the sheer comfort in the cabin.
The TL doesn’t drive like it
weighs 3,975 lb. kg. In contrast
to the RL’s highly cushioned and
gentle feel, everything about the
TL feels firm and solid, without
feeling heavy. The leather seats are
really firm and offer good support.
The extra thick leather-wrapped
steering wheel gives the driver a
direct and linear connection to the
drivetrain. The feedback from the
automatic gearbox through the gas
pedal is one of solidity. The taut
suspension holds the car up around
corners; and the brakes firmly
clamp down on the rotors when
you press the pedal.
The TL charges forward with
power from the V6 engine. Step on
the brake pedal, and the calipers
firmly clamp down on the rotors,
bringing the car to a stop in a lin-
ear and well-controlled manner.
There is little body lean around
corners, and the SH-AWD also
improves cornering, although you
don’t get the same “gliding” sensation as the RL.
I was really intrigued when I
first read about the 2009 TL receiving the SH-AWD option, putting
the specs really close to the new
RL. Built on top of SH-AWD and
marginally different engine power,
Acura’s philosophies for different
purposes in different price segments have produced two drastically different vehicles. The RL
experience bathes the occupants
in an exceptional level of ease
and comfort, while the TL is the
manifestation of the Acura driving
spirit. Both are very solid entries
to compete in their respective price
ranges.
Lincoln MKZ : It Captures Your Eye
By DURHL CAUSSEY
The 3.5L V-6 engine of the MKZ
has 263 hp and 249 lb.-ft. of torque.
This is figured on 87 octane fuel,
which lifts your spirit all the more.
To maximize the performance of the
V-6, a wide-ratio- 6-speed automatic
transmission keeps gear changing
tight. The electronic controls in the
engine and transmission deliver a
smooth effortless shift.
Sink into the heated or cooled
cabin depending on outside weather
challenges, smell and feel the leathertrimmed driver seat with its 10-way
power adjustments, and visualize
the luxury. Maple or Ebony woods
enhance the MKZ instrument panel,
door trim, and leather-wrapped steering wheel. Just take away all the fancy
words and you will still know that it
feels good, drives “sweet,” and makes
you personally proud of your selection. The cabin is airy, comfortable,
decked in luxury with chrome or satin-
nickel accents on all buttons, knobs
and controls, and at night, white LED
lighting illuminates the displays and
control switches for a backlit glow.
The MKZ has a digital media
player that is connected in one of two
ways: to the USB port of the Lincoln
SYNC media system, where you can
access songs by simply saying the
name of the artist you want to hear;
or to the audio input jack in the center
console.
Cloudy rainy weather this week in
Texas didn’t deter me from making
social rounds in the MKZ. I let SYNC
bring me the Righteous Brothers and
“Loving Feelings,” while songs like
“Bobby Magee,” and “Rainy Night
in Georgia” added to my already
good spirits. As traffic backed up on
the interstate, Tony Bennett told me
about San Francisco, and songs by
the Monkeys brought back those fond
memories of my youth. Sitting in my
driveway, the last song I heard that
day was “Blue Velvet” sung by Bobby
Vinton.
I thought how much I had changed
and the world with it. I counted my
blessings and all the other riches I
enjoy.
Forgive me for waxing at length on
a personal note. But it was the MKZ’s
fault. It relaxed me, made me bold,
and proud to be the occupant of such
a fine car.
The MKZ gets 18 mpg in the
city and 28 mpg on the highway.
Personally, I found I got a little better
on the highway than in the city.
The base price is $32,000, but the
MKZ that I drove had a power moon
roof, 17-inch chrome wheels, and a
dozen or so modern features, which
added another $5000 to the price. The
base price included a navigation system, which surprised me.
Durhl Caussey writes a car column read around the world. He
may be reached at this paper or
[email protected].
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2009 Lincoln MKZ. COURTESY OF FORD MOTOR LINCOLN DIVISION
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May 7 – 13, 2009
Travel
The Epoch Times
B5
Mexico’s Most
Romantic Hotel
By DEBRA AMUNDSON
Mexico’s most romantic hotel, Las Alamandas, makes its
home on 1,500 acres bordering
the Costalegre, a 160-mile pristine stretch of ocean beach on the
Mexican Riviera, in the State of
Jalisco. Perched on the shores of
the blue Pacific, Las Alamandas
can be reached in less than two
hours from the airports of either
Puerto Vallarta or Manzanillo,
two of Mexico’s bustling resort
towns.
Ah, Romance!
CHOICES,
CHOICES! Enjoy
easy access
to the pristine
beaches of Las
Alamandas
or choose a
relaxing soak
in an intimate
whirlpool,
like this one
in the Casa
San Antonio
Honeymoon
Suite. COURTESY OF
LASALAMANDAS.COM
VILLAS WITH A THEME: The 14 villas of Las Alamandas feature various themes, the brightly colored
Casa del Domo only one of them. COURTESY OF LASALAMANDAS.COM
ECO-CULTURE CUISINE: Wonderfully tasty dishes are prepared
with free-range meats and organic produce, some eco-consciously
cultivated on site. COURTESY OF WWW.LASALAMANDAS.COM
Sudoku
LASALAMANDAS.COM
Fill in the boxes using numbers between 1 and 9 so that each column,
each row, and each 3x3 square contain all nine numbers only once.
8
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Exclusive Epoch Times puzzle
by Sudoku Works.
Sudoku puzzles and software at:
www.SudokuWorks.com.
9
7
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9
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2
1
NEW DIRECTIONS: Among all the U.S. states with the word "New" in
their names, one is both farther north and farther east than the others:
NEW HAMPSHIRE. Another is both farther south and farther west
than the others: NEW MEXICO
1
4
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Answer for Quiz #213
8
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Read The Epoch Times next week for the answer!
3
3
2
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9
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Caribbean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
South China Sea
9
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WHICH SEA? Choose the sea on the right for each island on the left.
8
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Quiz #214
4
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9
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TM
3
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“Growing your geography knowledge”
Corsica
Grand Cayman
Hainan
Jamaica
Majorca
Malta
Sicily
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Geography Guru
The Epoch Times
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Editor’s Note: Before travel
to Mexico, be sure to check out
travel advisories in regard to the
swine flu.
4
5
All photos are courtesy of
LasAlamandas.com
3
directly at: [email protected]
2
Debra Amundson is a writer
living in California who frequently
travels to Mexico. Contact her
LOVELY VIEWS: All the villas
have beachfront access and
spectacular views such as this
one from terrace of the Casa del
Sol Presidential Suite. COURTESY OF
8
provides children with a secluded
play area complete with a schedule
of activities and supervision for
games and crafts. And then there
is always just relaxing and enjoying
the peace.
If you desire more of the local culture, 10 minutes down the
road is Punta Perula, a typical
sleepy Mexican fishing village.
A few small restaurants line the
beach, serving local favorites
and fresh fish. Markets with fresh
fish, chicken, and beef also sell
staples. On Saturdays the pineapple truck stops. This is a true
look at the easy pace of life in the
small seaside towns.
Surrounded by acres of gardens, native jungle, and sparking
beaches, privacy is guaranteed
at this protected escape. Anyone
wanting to leave the serious side
of life at the gate and enjoy the
pleasure of another culture will
find Las Alamandas the perfect place to embrace. You will
leave with a renewed spirit and a
greater understanding of a colorful culture.
1
for 135 species of migratory and
resident birds. The compound can
Searching for Seclusion
be enjoyed by horseback or by tour
Four private beaches afford in an all-terrain vehicle. The staff
the opportunity for a secluded es- biologist oversees the program and
cape with a picnic, and all the es- is available for questions and to
sentials for a day of sand, sea, and help with identification of species.
sun. Two private cliff-top perches
You can discover Mexico’s auoverlook the rugged coastline thentic countryside at the secluded
waiting to be set with candlelight lagoon that features a freshwater
for a memorable sunset dinner. estuary. In the center is Pichichi
The staff numbers three to one of Island, and rowboat transportathe guests, and service is a feature tion adds to the pleasure of the
that is quietly provided to offer experience. Nature walks or bike
the most comfortrides can be enjoyed
able environment
from the pathway surfor a relaxed and Four private
rounding the island.
A boutique on the
intimate visit.
beaches afford
This
colorful
grounds is stocked with
haven is alive with the opportunity
a wide variety of the
the rich culture for a secluded
finest Mexican crafts.
of Mexico and
Ms. Goldsmith, herself,
also honors its in- escape with a
searches the far corners
digenous
people picnic, and all
of Mexico to provide the
with a museum on
best selection of quality
the grounds. The the essentials for products that represent
Huichol
(called a day of sand,
the crafts of the country.
Wirrarika in their
She takes great pride in
own language) have sea, and sun.
presenting the work of
been masters in
these talented artisans.
embroidering their
clothes and textiles for centuries. Innovation
Las Alamandas is always lookBead-covered figures and carved
gourds, representing their my- ing for more to offer its guests, and
thology, are on display along with be the trendsetter in boutique hodelicate antique textiles. Huichol tels. It recently added a selection of
believe that “father sun” created 85 different Mexican tequilas, now
the sea, making the location of used in mixed drinks and gourmet
Las Alamandas a perfect place food.
Honored by the Mexican Tequila
to represent some of their unique
Regulation Council with a special
history.
award, the hotel has five tequila exEco-Sensitive Sanctuary
perts on hand, also called tequillers,
Las Alamandas respects the to lead guests in a new experience
earth and animals of Mexico as that is part of Mexican culture and
the Huichol did. The land is care- pride. Using all that nature offers,
fully cultivated with organic gar- a rooftop lounge, “Estrella Azul,”
dens and native plants, including has been added for stargazing and
a botanical cactus garden with for enjoying a nightcap.
12 species, 2 of which were newly
Other offerings by the resort are
discovered by a graduate student a 60-foot freshwater pool, a tennis
from the University of Mexico, a court, half-court basketball, a fully
partner in the botanical garden.
equipped gym (designed by the
The result of this partnership actor Robert De Niro), massage,
will be a year-round program of yoga, boat rides on the River San
research for the preservation of na- Nicolas, and bird watching. Also
tive plants. Gray water is recycled choose from boat rentals, fishing
for all the gardens, and rich com- and snorkeling, boogie boarding,
post is made from kitchen scraps. surfing, croquet, ping-pong, beach
Las Alamandas hopes to be com- volleyball, life size chess, horseback
pletely green in the near future.
riding, mountain biking, or hiking
The 1,500 acres of Las trails.
Alamandas provide a sanctuary
There is a Kids’ Club that
4
The name of this rare retreat
alone is synonymous with romance. It is named for the alamanda, a fragrant yellow flower
native to Mexico, with its delicate
scent coaxed out by the cooler air
of the evening.
The brightly colored villas of
Las Alamandas offer 14 uniquely
designed rooms and host no
more than 30 guests at a time.
Each sports its own theme and all
have ocean views and verandas.
Amenities vary from whirlpool to
lap pool, double-headed shower,
or intimate entertainment den.
Well-tended grounds overflowing with native plants are a sensory
treat. They are alive with color
from a variety of delicate blossoms.
It was only natural that the name
of this rare retreat had to express
pleasure: intimacy, seclusion, and
romance were the founding tenets
for Las Alamandas.
Owner Isabel Goldsmith-Patiño
had a very different vision than
what would have been her hotelier roots. Isabel’s grandfather,
“Bolivian Tin King” Don Antenor
Patiño, developed Las Hadas, one
of Mexico’s first grand luxury resorts and backdrop for the movie
“10.” Don Patino had expected
Isabel to follow in his footsteps
with the same style of grandeur.
However, Ms. Goldsmith saw
a small retreat, eco-friendly
yet providing the best amenities a guest could wish for with
a rich assortment of activities.
The concept was to provide a
secluded private retreat, perfect
for romance, rejuvenation, quality time away from home, or for
small groups to exchange ideas in
a peaceful environment, with no
distractions. Adding a wedding
planner to the mix would offer
any bride an exciting destination
to celebrate her nuptials.
This week's solution
B6
Science & Technology
The Epoch Times
May 7 – 13, 2009
The Great Wall of China Seen From Space: An Old Myth
By LEONARDO VINTIÑI
Epoch Times Staff
Celestial Sightings
Have you ever heard that the Great
Wall of China is the only man-made
structure visible from space? You may
have even learned that the Great Wall
is visible from the moon, or even farther beyond. But is this really true?
While some text books and even a
"Trivial Pursuit" question make this
claim, it is merely an urban legend
that has managed to survive for many
years. While the Great Wall has been
seen from space, such a sighting is
extremely rare. Furthermore, it is not
the only man-made structure that can
be viewed from this distance.
In fact, many other structures are
much more identifiable from space
than the Great Wall of China—cities,
dams, airports, and artificial islands.
So how did such a rumor get to be
so widely believed? This myth actually began in the 1930s—some believe
it first appeared publicly in “Ripley’s
Believe It Or Not.” This claim was
made long before the first man-made
satellite, Sputnik, was sent into orbit,
and nearly 40 years before humankind
had set foot on the moon. Perhaps
mathematicians could have predicted
that if mankind was to one day gaze
upon Earth from such a height that
only this landmark would be visible,
but it still would have been impossible
to prove.
Nevertheless, the Great Wall’s false
distinction continued to gain legitimacy as the years went by. In 1938, the
“Second Book of Marvels” assured
readers that the Great Wall could
be seen from space and claimed that
it was the only man-made structure
visible from the moon. Later, various
publications continued to offer the rumor as fact, despite having no proof of
the phenomenon.
The Great Wall has an average
width of about 30 feet, but it is still
less visible from space than many
other man-made structures. Furthermore, its shape and color is such that
it is often difficult to differentiate this
structure from the surrounding landscape in various places.
In fact, the great majority of astronauts who have traveled beyond
Earth’s orbit have had difficulty viewing the Great Wall from this distance.
Although this myth has been widely
believed for decades, many astronauts
have never been able to see this structure snake over the Asian continent
from their outerspace vantage point.
After 21 hours of orbit around the
planet, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei
said that Earth was very beautiful
from space, but even he couldn’t see
the Great Wall.
Edward Tsang Lu, a veteran astronaut who spent a great deal of time at
the International Space Station, confirmed that the structure is less visible
than many other objects.
Astronaut William Pogue affirmed
he could see the structure with the aid
of binoculars, although the first time
he thought he found it, he was actually
looking at the Great Canal in China.
Pogue said the Wall simply wasn't visible without the aid of a magnifying
lens.
As for the Great Wall being seen
from the moon, many astronauts
agree that no earthly structure can be
seen from this distance.
Neil Armstrong was one such astronaut. He didn’t believe that any manmade structure could be visible from
the moon. Furthermore, he didn’t
know anyone who had seen the Great
Wall of China from beyond Earth's
orbit.
SPACE CASE: The Great Wall of China is a tremendous structure from the ancient world. But can it really be seen from space?
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Although it may not possess this
unique characteristic that many have
been taught for decades, the Great
Wall of China still remains a formidable structure of the ancient world. It
extends over 4,500 miles from Shanghai to Jiayu and took nearly 1,000
years to complete. But why would
such a rumor persist?
When people hear that the Great
Wall is such a significant structure
that it is the only man-made edifice
that can be viewed 100 to 200 miles
above Earth’s surface, this ancient
landmark takes on an even greater
grandeur. It is exciting to imagine that
a structure so old could make such a
distinctive impact beyond our orbit.
But when one carefully evaluates satellite images and astronaut testimony,
we find that it is simply not true.
Shift in Simulation Superiority
New report highlights strengths and weaknesses in U.S. high-end
computer simulations relative to international counterparts
National Science Foundation
Science and engineering are advancing rapidly in part due to ever
more powerful computer simulations, yet the most advanced supercomputers require programming
skills that all too few U.S. researchers
possess. At the same time, affordable
computers and committed national
programs outside the U.S. are eroding American competitiveness in a
number of simulation-driven fields.
These are some of the key findings in the International Assessment
of Research and Development in
Simulation-Based Engineering and
Science, released on April 22 by the
World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC).
“The startling news was how
quickly our assumptions have to
change,” said Phillip Westmoreland,
program director for combustion,
fire, and plasma systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF)
and one of the sponsors of the report.
“Because computer chip speeds
aren’t increasing, hundreds and
thousands of chips are being ganged
together, each one with many processors. New ways of programming
are necessary.”
Like other WTEC studies, this
study was led by a team of leading researchers from a range of simulation
science and engineering disciplines
and involved site visits to research facilities around the world.
The nearly 400-page, multi-agency report highlights several areas
in which the U.S. still maintains a
competitive edge, including the development of novel algorithms, but
also highlights endeavors that are
increasingly driven by efforts in Europe or Asia, such as the creation
and simulation of new materials
SIMULATION NATION: Above is a three-dimensional view of a model
protocell approximately 100 nanometers in diameter. Some experts
are concerned that the U.S. may be losing its edge when it comes to
computer simulations. JANET IWASA/SZOSTAK LABORATORY, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL AND
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
from first principles.
“Some of the new high-powered
computers are as common as gaming computers, so key breakthroughs
and leadership could come from anywhere in the world,” added Westmoreland. “Last week’s research-directions workshop brought together
engineers and scientists from around
the country, developing ideas that
would keep the U.S. at the vanguard
as we face these changes.”
Sharon Glotzer of the University
of Michigan chaired the panel of experts that executed the studies of the
Asian, European, and U.S. simulation research activities. Peter Cummings of both Vanderbilt University
and Oak Ridge National Laboratory co-authored the report with Glotzer and seven other panelists, and
the two co-chaired the April 22–23
workshop with Glotzer that provided agencies initial guidance on strategic directions.
“Progress in simulation-based
engineering and science holds great
promise for the pervasive advancement of knowledge and understanding through discovery,” said Clark
Cooper, program director for materials and surface engineering at NSF
and also a sponsor of the report.
“We expect future developments to
continue to enhance prediction and
decision making in the presence of
uncertainty.”
The WTEC study was funded by
the National Science Foundation,
Department of Defense, National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health,
National Institute of Standards and
Technology, and the Department of
Energy.
For more information, read the
full report at www.wtec.org/sbes/
SBES-InitialFullDraftReport20April2009.pdf
Microsoft to Release Version of Windows 7
SEATTLE (Reuters)—Microsoft
Corp recently announced a version
of its long awaited Windows 7 operating system will be made available
this week.
The version, known as a ‘release
candidate,’ or RC, essentially means
the world’s largest software company is in the final stages of completing
the operating system, the successor
to the unpopular Windows Vista.
Microsoft made the RC available for download by program developers and IT professionals subscribing to the MSDN and TechNet
networks on April 30 and available
more broadly today.
The company has still not said
when the finished version would begin to be installed on PCs or available to buy in shops, but the company’s chief financial officer said it
could be as early as July.
That would allow Microsoft to
capitalize on back-to-school sales
and set it up for a strong holiday
shopping season.
Microsoft’s operating systems,
installed on the vast majority of the
world’s PCs, are still the backbone
of the company, providing more
than half of its $4.4 billion profit last
FOR MORE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NEWS,
VISIT US ONLINE
quarter.
Vista, launched to the public in
2007, was incompatible with some
low-power machines and perceived
by many to be too complicated. Rival Apple Inc. ridiculed Microsoft’s
problems with the system in a series
of popular TV ads.
Windows 7, which has been getting good reviews in limited public
tests over the last few months, is
much cleaner looking and features
an array of new touch-screen functions. Microsoft says it will also interact better with digital cameras
and music players.
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May 7 – 13 2009
Le Colonial
FEATURED
RESTAURANT
A taste of
Indochine
By NADIA GHATTAS
Epoch Times Staff
Le Colonial is a place you would
perhaps encounter in a dream—a
place poetic and luxurious. Here
history and culture are combined
with warm service. As you stand in
front of this building located in the
heart of Manhattan, you are transported to days gone by. This townhouse could have been a mansion of
old New York, Europe, or a colonial
residence in Southeast Asia. As you
enter, you feel that you are perhaps
in French Indochina of the 1920s.
Slowly turning fans from the very
high ceiling, banana and palm trees
all around and in the middle of the
room, used as dividers to separate
space and tables in the spacious dining room, while the smell of fresh
flowers, lilies, and such transport
you to the lush tropics. Handsome,
louvered shutters line the walls of
the dining area. Woven rattan chairs
surround the dining tables that stand
over the uniquely tiled floors, while
photographs full of history and life
of the 1920s hang around the walls
and up the staircase into the upper
level where you will find a large mahogany bar. Guests can sit at the bar
or lounge in the comfortable sofas
and antique furnishings of east and
west. Sit down and relax to the nostalgic music in the background, loud
enough to hear while carrying on a
conversation but not obtrusive. The
music is from the personal collection of executive chef Xuan Pham,
with songs by Edith Piaf, Charles
Aznavour, Lucienne Delyle, George
Brassens, Yves Montand, Juliette
Greco, and Enrico Macias.
As she sat across from me, Pham
told me that the French occupation of Vietnam left a mark on the
cooking techniques of Vietnamese
dishes, like shaken beef known as
Bo Luc Lac, the French Baguette
or Ban Mi, and their fondness for
the Vietnamese ice coffee or ca-phe
sua da. With degrees in different
fields, from pharmacology, to an
MBA, and then to cooking school,
Pham told me that she came from
a family of scientists and was married to yet another scientist who
entertained a lot at home. That experience, coupled with the basic education in Saigon that girls should
be good housewives and with her
world travel, gave her a lot of exposure to many cuisines. When she
saw what came from the kitchens of
many Vietnamese restaurants in the
United States, she felt that a lot of
interesting aspects of her county’s
food and culture was missing and
wanted to introduce these elements
Dining
The Epoch Times
It stands against time. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES
for the world to enjoy. I believe that the use of fresh ingredients from loChef Xuan is a true culinary artist cal farms. According to her, “My
who has elevated this cuisine to high mission in life is to be both a mesgastronomic levels. It only requires senger and a healer.” You can see
one experience to realize this. Make that in the exquisite array of dishes
sure you go with an empty stomach, done with impeccable sensitivity to
for there is plenty to explore. The color, texture, taste, and presentamenu is diverse, with each dish per- tion. Pham believes in the balance
fectly executed. There are the spe- of yin and yang. She is also another
cials, regular, and bar menus. Pham’s type of artist: a pianist and a painter
work is an example of the diversity who believes in a “minimalist form.”
that can be found in Vietnam. Pham These sensibilities are reflected
trained under culinary legend, chef in her dishes that appear simple
Michael Richards and is now the but contain intricate and complex
flavors.
executive chef for
Vietnamese
Le Colonial in
food, like the
San Francisco and
nation, has its
New York.
own personalPham told me
ity. This personabout her chalality is not only
lenges in designing
found in the
the menu for these
street food or
two locations. She
the stands that
said that one must
we know of that
understand
the
sell the famous
culture, its people,
noodle
soup
and the clients in
or the Ban Mi
order to please.
The two menus I had no idea fish could taste so sandwiches. It is
also much more
vary
depending good. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES
sophisticated,
on the season and
diverse,
and
availability of ingredients. Pham tries to maintain a complex than I imagined. It is delimenu that is authentic Vietnamese cate, refined, full of flavors, colors,
with a French twist to keep the full and textures. Fresh herbs and lettuce
experience of that of the 1920s. She wraps accompany almost every dish
also believes in sustainability and to enhance its flavors and textures.
FOOD FACT:
Star Anise
That Marvelous Spice
Epoch Times Staff
During my formative years in Germany, star anise
was the flavor of choice to add to plum jams we cooked
and preserved for the winter. The spice imparted the
jam with a fragrant, licorice-like fragrance of which
we were so fond. I have kept this family tradition since
moving to the U.S., but have vastly enlarged my repertoire for the use of this Asian spice, a plant belonging to
the evergreen magnolia family.
The proper botanical name for star anise is illicium
verum, and is known in China as ba jiao. Star anise is
commercially grown in Southwest China and Vietnam
and exported worldwide. What I have just learned, to
my surprise, is that this spice is also the source for the
medicine Tamiflu, so sought after at them moment, because of the swine flu scare. There was a brief shortage
The experience is about balance
between yin and yang, to enhance
health and moods. The cuisine is affected by regional areas with differing temperatures and surroundings,
bursting with flavors of hot and cold,
sweet and salt, smooth and crunchy.
A basic sauce to compliment most
dishes is the salty fish sauce Nuoc
Mam or a seafood-based broth with
vegetables called canh.
The traditional way of using this
prevailing sauce is with the Nuoc
Cham, a delightfully tangy, piquant
seasoning mix with garlic, chili
pepper, sugar, lime juice, and vinegar—a combination yielding a welldefined personality, indispensable
for savory dishes. It adds depth of
flavor to soups, salads, marinades,
and dipping sauces. Another basic ingredient used in Vietnamese Multi talented Chef Xuan Pham. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES
cuisines is rice paper. Traditionally
it is made with thin batter of rice Cuon Tom, shrimp raviolis drizzled “To make a simple dish is as difficult
steamed over a piece of cloth then with light coconut milk. Each of the as ruling a nation.” Every ingredient
transferred with a bamboo stick to pieces was gently folded like a gift, has its personality, and Pham knows
a drying crosshatched bamboo mat very delicate with wonderful flavors her ingredients.
A great meal would be incomfor markings. This is the rice pa- while the Banh Tom Diep, the chef’s
per used for all spring and summer original composition of scallop pot plete without dessert. All desserts
rolls. It is then rolled in leafy vegeta- stickers served with ginger ponzu are made in house by the same chef.
dipping sauce. For avid shrimp lov- The Chocolate Pyramid Mouse
bles and herbs.
My friends and I have been to Le ers, the Chao Tom, grilled shrimp would be a choice for the chocolate
Colonial a few times, and each time mousse wrapped on sugar cane with lovers. It comes with the right balhas been as good as the first. From lettuce wrap and peanut sauce. You ance of chocolate, crème anglaise,
the Specials Menu, we started with want this to be chewy, so it won’t fall and raspberry sauce. For those who
the Avocado Crab Martini, very apart. As you bite the contrasting prefer fruit, try the apple and pear
torte with a crust that is fluffy and
refreshing with a wonderful tangy flavors burst in your mouth.
For entrées, I highly recommend buttery, yet light and not too sweet.
taste and balanced with crunchy celery and sweet red pepper, a nice way Tom Range Me, butterfly prawns in I like to add a bit of ice cream to it.
to start your meal on a hot day. The tamarind lychee sauce over a bed For an after dinner drink, I suggest
crabs are hand picked from Maine of crispy cellophane noodles with you visit the upstairs lounge, which
and served in a martini glass. We mango, a popular and mouthwater- is also good for intimate rendezvous
then had few of the signature dishes ing dish from Vietnam and one out or an after-hours refuge.
Le Colonial has locations in San
starting with spring rolls. The Cha of this world. Only a culinary genCio, traditional imperial crispy ius could produce a dish that looks Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
spring rolls, are made with shrimp, simple but rich with flavors—zesty In New York it is located at 149 East
and tangy, sweet 57th Street, between Lexington and
pork, and shiiand sour with 3rd Avenues.
take mushrooms.
Phone: (212) 752-0808,
influence
from
The Cha Gio
Fax: (212) 752-7534
Thailand by usVit, crispy duck
ing the cellophane
rolls have taro, jinoodles.
The
cama, mint, and
shrimp is cooked
nuoc cham dip.
Hours Of Operation
with its skin that
My preference
should be eaten.
is the Cha Cio.
Lunch
It sparkles with
However, both
Monday—Friday
flavors. Two other
had complex fla12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
favorite signature
vors with soft
dishes are a must
and crunchy texDinner
have, the Steamed
tures wrapped
Sunday & Monday;
Chilean Sea Bass,
in fresh herbs
5:30—11:00 p.m.
and an oasis of Crème
gently
and
tenand lettuce giv- Pyramid
Tuesday—Thursday;
derly
wrapped
ing the hot and Anglaise. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES
5:30—11:30 p.m.
in banana leaves
cold
contrast.
Friday & Saturday;
We then had the Goi Cuon, sum- and ginger soy sauce. As my friend
5:30—12:00 a.m.
mer rolls with shrimp, bean sprouts, took a bite, she stopped for a morice vermicelli, mint, and peanut ment, as if she made a double take,
The second floor bar and
sauce. This shows the fine, delicate, gave a big smile as she swallowed
lounge is open at 4:30 p.m. daily.
and intricate work it takes to make and said, “I did not know that fish
this food. Xuan demonstrated how could taste so good.” Indeed, the
Lounge Menu
the rice sheets are made with her dish was heavenly. This fish has layTuesday—Saturday;
dainty hands. It takes such hands ers of fat, which gave a texture as
until 1:00 a.m.
to produce this intricate and deli- smooth as is buttered milk meltSunday & Monday
cate work with attention to balance ing in your mouth. The Cha Chien
until 12:00 a.m.
of texture and flavors. A painter Saigon, crispy whole red snapper
paints with a brush to produce a comes with its head. Although fried,
Major credit cards accepted
painting, this talented chef, is able it is light and crispy on the outside
Reservations: recommended
to do so with food—the presenta- and juicy inside with a sweet and
Dress Code: Formal and
tion was as if painted with a brush sour sauce that blends perfectly with
nice casual
on canvas. While the textures, the it. This wonderful chef can put forth
Appetizers: $10 to $14
smoothness of the rice paper mixed a delightful array of dishes on both
Entrees:
$18 to $28
with the crunchy jicama and the sides of the continent. In China,
sweet dipping sauce. The Banh there is a saying about great chefs,
Recipe
of star anise in 2005, sufficiently so, that it prompted
Swiss Pharmaceutical Giant Roche to extract the active
ingredient, shikimic acid, by fermenting E.coli bacteria. I have suffered harshly from the effects of E.coli;
the thought this bacteria could cure anything is a bit
bizarre. Nevertheless, Roche uses 90 percent of annual
star anise harvest to make the flu drug.
Chinese folklore believes that chewing the seeds from
star anise could freshen breath, aid digestion and minimize the effects of certain types of arthritis. I prefer the
use of star anise to impart a memorable flavor to delicious foods. It plays a key role in the slow-cooked dishes
that characterize Eastern Chinese cuisine. The licorice/
anise flavor enhances red cooked dishes, and is one of
the ingredients in Chinese Five Spice powder. In slow
cooked dishes, it is best to add star anise whole, not broken into pieces, and to remove the spice before serving
the dish. Store the spice at home in a sealed container,
preferably in a cool, dark place, and it will last for several months
B7
Tarte Tatin
Ingredients:
1 frozen puff pastry sheet,
thawed
1 lb brown sugar
½ cup water
1 lb unsalted butter, cut into
pieces
6-7 medium-size Granny
Smith, cored and cut into
quarters
3 Tablespoons sugar mixed
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
Method:
YOUR AD HERE
510-522-8337
The Epoch Times
Epoch Times International
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Peel, core and slice apples. In
a medium stainless steel sauté
pan or heavy iron skillet combine sugar and water. Bring
to a boil. Cook over medium
heat until it turns brown color
and thickens. Remove from
the heat, add the butter and let
cool. Line the outside of a 9inch spring form pan with foil
to catch drips. Spread butter
evenly into a 9-inch spring form
pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon
sugar. Pour caramelized sugar
into spring form pan. Arrange
apple slices into an overlapping pattern over sugar layer.
After you have covered the
pan with one layer of apples,
sprinkle them with half of the
cinnamon sugar. On a floured
work surface, roll pastry sheet
into a 10 ½ inch square and to
a thickness of about 1/8 to ¼
inch and place it over the apples. Cut out a 10-inch round.
Trim the edges with a sharp
knife, using a plate as a guide.
Transfer round to a baking
sheet and chill. Cover apples
with pastry, trimming sides
if necessary. Place the spring
form pan on a baking sheet.
Add another layer of apples
and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake in
preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until pastry is golden
brown. Allow to cool slightly,
then release sides of pan. Place
a large plate over pastry, then
invert so apple layer is on top.
Remove bottom of pan slice
and serve (with icecream if
desired).
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May 7 – 13, 2009
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