| In Pictures, Rangoon’s Rich History Revealed Posted: 17 Dec 2014 04:05 AM PST  More than 120 photos are on display at the "Global City: Yangon's Past, Present and Future" exhibition in Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT) is showcasing a collection of more than 120 photos that help tell the story of Rangoon's cosmopolitan past and rapidly changing present. The exhibition, "Global City: Yangon's Past, Present and Future," offers rare and unusual photos providing historical context, anecdotes, documentation of high-profile events and links between Burma's former capital and the wider world. The exhibit is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm through March 2015 at the YHT office on Pansodan Street's lower block. "The objectives of the exhibition are to raise awareness and enhance the understanding of both local residents and international visitors of the unique nature of the urban heritage of Yangon and its importance as a significant part of Myanmar's history," said a press release from YHT last week. Among the notable moments captured on film are a picture of the politician and eventual US President Richard Nixon, sporting a longyi and the traditional Burmese headdress known as gaun baung, sitting beside Burma's then President U Nu; an aerial image of a section of the Rangoon riverbank, taken shortly after it was decimated by airstrikes during World War II; and the chaotic scene in downtown Rangoon after a powerful earthquake rocked the capital in the 1930s. And as for the future of the city? The exhibition also features a large conceptual rendering of the Rangoon riverfront—currently the site of little other than the country's largest port and other shipping infrastructure—envisions neatly trimmed green terraces and walking paths, with a shimmering, distant pocket of high-rise office towers trumped in skyline prominence only by the Shwedagon Pagoda. The post In Pictures, Rangoon's Rich History Revealed appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| NLD Member Denied Bail at Religious Offence Trial Posted: 17 Dec 2014 03:24 AM PST  Htin Lin Oo at an event in October. (Photo: Htin Lin Oo / Facebook) MANDALAY — Spurned by his party and vilified by nationalist groups, prominent columnist Htin Lin Oo has now been denied bail and is in custody on charges of offending religious feeling. The author, who was sacked from his position as an information officer for the National League for Democracy (NLD) after he was denounced by Buddhist organizations, appeared at the Chaung-U Township court in Sagaing Division on Wednesday. "The court said he can apply for bail and he prepared the application," said Thein Than Oo, his lawyer. "But when he submitted it, the court refused it suddenly and told him he would be detained." "The power to grant bail rests in the hand of the court. He is not a serious criminal. To detain him like this is too much," he added. Htin Lin Oo has been charged under Article 295a of the penal code, which prohibits "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings", and Article 298, which bans "uttering words [...] with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings". Both charges are punishable by fines or custodial sentences of two years and 12 months respectively. He has been transferred to Monywa Prison and will next appear before court on Dec. 24. According to lawyers and the local journalists, approximately 30 Buddhist monks and up to 50 of their supporters intimidated a group of journalists gathered outside the court building. "The group took our pictures and behaved belligerently. A female journalist was surrounded by them for a while and now she is afraid to write the news," said a journalist at the scene, who requested not to be named. "They even asked our names, the names of our organizations and threatened us by telling us we could not cover the trial without permission from the authorities." At a literary event in Chaung-U Township on Oct. 23, Htin Lin Oo delivered a speech, during which he criticized the use of Buddhism as a tool for discrimination and extreme nationalism. An excerpt of his speech was widely shared over social media, leading to condemnation from nationalist monks and affiliated groups. The NLD launched an investigation after a statement by the Patriotic Buddhist Monks Union urged the party to take disciplinary action, leading to Htin Lin Oo's dismissal as information officer. Tun Khaing, an official from the Department of Immigration's office in Chaung-U Township, filed a lawsuit against Htin Lin Oo last week under Articles 295a and 298. At the time, U Wirathu, a Mandalay-based monk and prominent member of the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, said that his organization had planned to sue Htin Lin Oo before Tun Khaing took action. The post NLD Member Denied Bail at Religious Offence Trial appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Govt to Tighten Car Import License Requirements Posted: 17 Dec 2014 03:18 AM PST  Traffic jams in Yangon are becoming a major downside of the rapidly expanding car market. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Per January 1, the Ministry of Commerce will require car importers to apply for import licenses prior to shipping as part of a government effort to reduce the storage of vehicles at Thilawa Port, state media announced on Wednesday. Thousands of cars have been parked for months at the port area because importers tend to wait with seeking a license and picking up cars until they have found buyers for their vehicles, according to ministry officials cited in The Global New Light of Myanmar. Currently, importers are allowed to ship in cars to Thilawa Port and apply for an import license upon arrival of their vehicles, which in the meantime can be parked at docks. Parking cars at the port benefits some of the importers as they lack storage space or a showroom. "Though some people have received a [import] permit from the ministry, they didn't pick up their cars from the docks. Also, some importers keep their cars there while correcting their import permit submissions, so there are many cars crowding the docks," a Commerce Ministry official was quoted as telling state media. Once an import license is granted, a car has to be picked up from the port area within three months, or customs authorities may impound the vehicle. Authorities hope that by requiring importers to apply for licenses prior to shipping, car dealers would pick up the vehicles sooner. Myo Zin Win, the general secretary of Myanmar Car Dealers Association, estimated that currently some 6,000 vehicles have been parked for months at Thilawa Port. He said both local car dealers as well as foreign-owned businesses were contributing to the problem. Most cars imported into Burma are second-hand vehicles from Japan, which are popular due to their quality and affordability. Myo Zin Win said many of the parked vehicles were being imported by Pakistani businessmen based in Japan, adding that they would register as a Burmese company with the help of a local business partner. These importers, he claimed, often lack storage facilities for cars and prefer to keep them at Thilawa Port. "Many foreigners import many cars from Japan first, and then they don't pick them up from the docks while they look for buyers," he said, adding that these businesses were involved as car import requirements are less strict for foreigners than for Burmese nationals. "We welcome the new policy restrictions on import permits," Myo Zin Win said. "It will be take time if the new policy starts next year, but it's good for local importers." President Thein Sein's reformist government in 2011 began easing junta-era car import restrictions that had put foreign vehicles out of reach for the vast majority of Burmese. The years since have seen imported cars flood the market, the vast majority of which have been used vehicles from Japan. According to Ministry of Commerce figures from November, there are about 600,000 vehicles on Burma's roads, some 100,000 of which are trucks. Tun Myat Nyunt, a businessman from Rangoon who helps connect car importers with buyers, said the new government measures would raise the costs of importing cars, especially for smaller dealers who lack space to store vehicles. "Many importers can only afford to invest in car buying and shipping charges right now, so starting next month… small importers will face problems," he said. Tun Myat Nyunt said falling consumer demand and prices for cars is another factor that caused importers to keep their vehicles at Thilawa Port. "There is less demand, that is one reason that prices are falling," he said, adding that prices had fallen with about 10 percent compared to last year. The Burmese government maintains a complex set of rules on car imports, with different arrangements for individual importers, companies, foreigners and Burmese nationals. It also has a so-called substitution system that allows the owner of an old car to import a new vehicle if he disposes of the old one. Car dealers have complained that government rules on imports are cumbersome and subject to frequent change. The post Govt to Tighten Car Import License Requirements appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Govt Delays Aid Distribution in Northern Burma: UN Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:27 AM PST  A camp for internationally displaced persons is seen in Kachin State. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — As winter approaches in northern Burma's Kachin State, some 27,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are without necessary assistance such as blankets and clothes, according to the United Nations. In a monthly aid bulletin, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the "volatile security situation and bureaucratic delays" have prevented UN convoys from being authorized to travel into rebel territory, where they regularly deliver aid to IDPs. The bulletin said that UN convoys have been unable to reach some cross-line areas since September, and called for regular, sustained humanitarian access to all persons affected by the conflict. The latest UN data estimates that 98,000 people remain displaced in parts of Kachin and northern Shan states, three years after a ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke down. OCHA said that some 50,000 are still displaced in areas that are not under government control. Of the estimated 27,000 people that are currently inaccessible, about 12,000 are "particularly vulnerable" children, the bulletin said. Those unreachable communities are located near KIA headquarters in Laiza and east of Bhamo. Pierre Péron, a spokesperson for OCHA, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that some aid from local organizations is reaching the IDPs, but there have been no UN cross-line missions since September. The United Nations is currently working with the government and local NGOs to ensure that aid will be delivered to all people in need, whether they are in IDP camps or host communities. "International organizations support and supplement the activities of local NGOs by providing assistance and technical support through cross-line convoys. These cross-line convoys are cleared through administrative procedures involving both the Myanmar [Burma] authorities and the KIO [the political arm of the KIA], and we are currently waiting for the finalization of this process,” said Péron. An emergency aid coordinator based in Muse, on the border with China, told The Irrawaddy that local NGOs are planning an emergency meeting to discuss solutions for food and other shortages. "Our aid convoy could get to the 105-mile gate [still within government territory], but the Burma Army wouldn't let our mobile team carry the aid inside to distribute it to displaced people," said Zau San, who works with the Kachin Baptist Convention. "This is the policy of the Burma Army. They want to restrict aid for refugees." Conflict continues in Kachin and Shan states between the government and a number of ethnic armed groups. Two of the area's largest armed groups, the KIA and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, are the only major non-state armies that have yet to secure bilateral ceasefires with the government as it aims to reach a nationwide peace pact. The government cited sporadic clashes near a road leading to Bhamo as the impetus for several artillery "warning shots" that landed on a KIA military academy near Laiza in November. The blast, which the government said was not intended to target the academy, killed 23 cadets. The OCHA bulletin proposed a US$192 million budget to provide assistance for the some 240,000 people currently displaced by communal conflict and civil war throughout Burma. The post Govt Delays Aid Distribution in Northern Burma: UN appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘The Bubble Will Definitely Burst’ Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:15 AM PST  Serge Pun, executive chairman of Yoma Strategic Holdings. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) The Yoma Strategic Holdings conglomerate has cultivated an enormous portfolio of real estate, agriculture, tourism, banking, automotive and retail businesses in Burma over the last two decades. As of December this year, the company's market capitalization was US$692 million, and it ranks in the top five percent of Singapore Exchange-listed companies on the 2014 Governance and Transparency Index. Yoma recently secured a $100 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for infrastructure development projects in Burma. Serge Pun, executive chairman of Yoma Strategic Holdings, spoke to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday to discuss the recent ADB loan, the resumption of full services at Yoma Bank, and the need to balance the rights of landowners and the needs of developers in an overheated property market which is also seeing an increasing number of land disputes. Question: How were you able to secure a loan from the ADB for your business projects? Answer: The ADB has aimed to support Myanmar's development projects before. They required us to satisfy criteria before granting us a loan, including corporate governance, social responsibility, and measures to avoid corruption and money laundering. We're satisfied to be working with them. Q: Why did Yoma Bank resume banking services after an 11-year suspension? Is it true that the International Finance Corporation is now assisting Yoma Bank with the provision of banking services? A: As you would know, after the bankruptcy in 2003 [which occurred during Burma's banking crisis], we halted banking services and only offered money transfers across the nation because the government revoked our banking license. Our license was restored in the middle of this year. We have assistance from the International Finance Corporation now. But we're 10 years behind [our competitors] so we're trying to catch up now. Q: You have significant real estate investments in Burma. Do you believe that current land laws in Burma are suitable for both landowners and developers? A: There are many land issues, and there will be definitely many conflicts between landowners and developers while the problems are solved. Other countries are also facing similar problems; the main thing is how to find a solution. It would be good to see a land rights bill passed by the Parliament. It's the right time. Many farmers who have worked the same paddy fields for decades do not have ownership records, so they can't mortgage their properties and get financial assistance from other organizations. In the [current Farmlands Act], farmers can get ownership records and do more than they could in the past. It's a good law but it should not be used to force developers to pay unfair compensation to landowners. There are many things to do to further the country's development. For example, connectivity: if the highway system doesn't improve, it will take more time for trade to flow from one place to another. While some people will benefit from development, there are risks for some people. We will have to decide that these people will be treated fairly by the law. We will have to see how to solve the problem posed when some people want their land to remain unaffected by development—by law, if they are motivated by individual interest, they will have to make a sacrifice. Q: Have you ever had these kinds of issues before or are you currently working through such problems? A: I've seen a lot of land issues before. Landowners [subject to seizures] said they want the "current market price"—but what is the current market price? Where does it come from? For example, there is a project underway in Dala Township, and people have been making significant purchases of land there. They will inflate the market, selling to each other. What did these people do to help develop Dala Township before? They did nothing but they're likely to get a profit because of market speculation. Farmers who say they want market prices…is it possible to give them these amounts? If we pay this amount, no one will be able to buy an apartment on the land later. When we started working on real estate in Hlaing Tharyar Township 20 years ago, it only cost three million kyats (US$2,910). Right now, the market value is 600 million kyats ($582,000), so nobody will come to invest in the industrial zone. The government needs to know and be made aware of the needs of business people. If we're implementing a project, we have to fairly compensate farmers. There should be a body formed to decide appropriate compensation amounts. Q: Do you think the real estate market in Burma is currently experiencing a bubble? A: The definition of a bubble is fake demand in a market. It's not a real market, it's a speculative market. We have a very strong labor-intensive industry but we don't have the infrastructure for high tech industry. Low cost labor-intensive industries can't support expensive land plots. [So] the bubble will definitely burst. There is some demand in residential areas, but if developers build apartments on expensive land, following standard building codes, will that stay affordable for buyers? Who will buy them? As long as buyers can pay, it will continue, but when they can't buy, the bubble will burst. Q: Are people still paying exorbitant amounts for land in Burma? A: Yes, some people are still able to afford to pay these amounts in residential areas. For example, at my Star City housing project in Thanlyin Township, the land prices are about 150,000 kyats ($145) per square foot. In our experience, this is about the maximum [that property buyers can afford]. Office rental costs are another issue; rental prices in Yangon today are higher than in Singapore. It has stayed this high because of low supply and high demand. The rental price downtown is nine dollars per square foot. Some people can afford to pay, but most can't. The post 'The Bubble Will Definitely Burst' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Crafting Livelihoods: Traditional Works on Display in Rangoon Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:00 AM PST  Hand-weaving machine on display at 'Made in Myanmar textile and crafts exhibition' at River Ayeyarwaddy Gallery (Photo: Hein Htet/ The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — An elegant spread of Burma's traditional handicrafts and textiles is on view this week at the River Ayeyarwaddy Gallery in Rangoon. "Made in Myanmar," the second installation of a new annual exhibit, will showcase the works of 13 social enterprises from Dec. 13-19. Organized by Sunflower Group, a collective of organizations promoting sustainable and traditional livelihoods, the show will offer a range of finely crafted shawls, tapestries, garments, soaps and other natural products from several parts of the country. Custom knitwear produced by Kachin women displaced by conflict will be available for purchase, with proceeds channeled directly back to isolated camps in northern Burma. Other products, including handmade soaps and accessories, are sourced from government-operated vocational schools in Amarapura, Rangoon and Taunggyi, where young students are learning how to generate income while preserving Burma's fine-quality traditional arts and crafts. Ei Ei Phyo, a 23-year-old alumnus of a weaving school in Taunggyi, said she makes about five shawls per day, bringing in about US$80 each month. Just one year of training gave her top-tier skills in hand-weaving, machine-weaving and natural dye production. Handsome merchandise isn't the only thing on offer this week at River Ayeyarwaddy. Visitors are welcome to observe demonstrations of natural dying methods, watching cloth masters transform mango, almond and other raw materials into gorgeous color palettes. Traditional weaving techniques will also be showcased. The premier "Made in Myanmar" exhibit was held in April 2013, to great success. Sunflower Group has also organized five other shows of Burma's textiles and crafts in Tokyo, Japan. The post Crafting Livelihoods: Traditional Works on Display in Rangoon appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Southeast Asian Olympics Possible After IOC Reforms: Indonesia Posted: 16 Dec 2014 09:23 PM PST  Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad (R) and Liliyana Natsir play against Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen (L) and Denmark’s Joachim Fischer (not pictured) during their mixed doubles badminton bronze medal match during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Photo: Reuters) SINGAPORE — Indonesia is optimistic about bringing the Olympics to Southeast Asia in collaboration with one of its neighbors after the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) revamp of the bidding and hosting processes. Earlier this month, IOC members voted to allow multiple cities and countries to host events at future Games, one of a number of sweeping reforms to the Olympic movement brought by President Thomas Bach. Changes were also approved to reduce costs for potential bidders, with prospective candidates allowed to discuss plans with the IOC before formally launching a bid after a troublesome 2022 Olympic race led to six runners withdrawing citing finances. "We strongly support these proposals and are very optimistic about hosting the Olympics in ASEAN in the future," Indonesia’s Olympic Committee president Rita Subowo told Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper on Tuesday. "All the potential is there if we can overcome certain limitations. "The IOC has very high standards and it’s hard to build 20 plus world-class facilities from scratch. Hence, having it spread across two countries makes it more realistic in terms of costs." Japan, South Korea and China are the only Asian nations to host the Summer or Winter Olympics, but the Qatari capital of Doha has bid for the last two Summer Games and declared its intention to try again for 2024. That is the next opportunity for a Southeast Asian bid although whether the IOC would be willing to go back to Asia again after South Korea’s Pyeongchang host the 2018 Winter Games and Tokyo the 2020 Summer Olympics seems unlikely. Thai IOC member Nat Indrapana saw other issues. "Co-hosting in principle is a good idea but the practical implementation of this proposal also creates a lot of other problems," he told the paper. "With two countries involved, who gets what can become an issue." Whether the IOC would trust any of the 11 Southeast Asian nations to work together or individually is an issue. Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia came together to host the 2007 Asian Cup soccer tournament in Southeast Asia, but then Asian Football Confederation President Mohammed bin Hammam said after it was a mistake to do so. Vietnam are unlikely to be involved in an Olympic bid after they pulled out of hosting the 2019 Asian Games earlier this year citing costs, with Indonesia stepping in to take over. Singapore hosted the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010 and has just opened a $1 billion Sports Hub but would rely on the much larger Indonesia, Thailand or Malaysia to host the bulk of the sports. The post Southeast Asian Olympics Possible After IOC Reforms: Indonesia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Korean Air to Be Sanctioned for ‘Nut Rage’ Cover-Up Posted: 16 Dec 2014 09:01 PM PST  A Korean Air's Boeing 777 is seen in this photo taken by Kyodo in April 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Kyodo) SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's transport ministry said Korean Air Lines Co. will face sanctions for pressuring employees to lie during a government probe into the nut rage fiasco that highlighted the tyrannical behavior of a top Korean business family. The ministry said Tuesday it will also evaluate if the airline's corporate culture poses safety risks after its chairman's daughter Cho Hyun-ah overruled the captain of a flight to force the plane back to the gate in the incident early this month. Cho, who was head of cabin service at Korean Air, ordered a senior flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight after she was served macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of on a plate, in what she thought was a breach of service protocol in first class. Transport ministry director Lee Gwang-hee said Korean Air could face 21 days of flight suspensions or a US$1.3 million fine for violating aviation law. The punishment will be determined by a separate committee that could decide to increase or lessen it. Cho family members have a direct 10 percent stake in Korean Air, which is part of the family's Hanjin conglomerate. Park Chang-jin, the crew member who had to disembark from the plane, told South Korea's KBS television network on Friday that Cho had shamed and insulted crew members. A first-class passenger told Yonhap News Agency that Cho yelled at flight attendants who kneeled before her, pushed one flight attendant's shoulder and threw an object at the cabin wall. The incident, now dubbed "nut rage," hogged headlines around the world and enraged the South Korean public, leading to Cho's removal from all executive roles at the airline. The 40-year-old and her father apologized last week, but a new furor has erupted over Korean Air's attempt to foil government investigators and local media reports that exposed how Korean Air employees were treated like servants of the Cho family. "If the incident itself were not beastly enough, Korean Air's response has been abominable," Korea Herald said in an editorial. "In attempts that are akin to feudal servants trying to protect their lord's daughter, Korean Air staff rallied to the rescue of Korean Air CEO Cho Yang-ho's daughter." Park, the crew member, was visited by Korean Air Lines officials who pressured him to give a sanitized version of events to investigators. The airline will be punished because Cho and Park lied during the probe and because the captain was negligent in his duties, according to the ministry. However, the captain won't face any sanction as he was powerless to refuse a member of the family that controls the airline, said Lee, the transport official. The ministry's statement indicated other airline employees also faced pressure to lie to the investigators. It did not identify them. Its investigation found Cho used abusive language to flight attendants but could not ascertain if she used violence. It will file a complaint against Cho with prosecutors later in the day. Prosecutors earlier launched a separate investigation into the Korean Air case after receiving a complaint from a civic group. Prosecutors summoned Cho to be questioned on Wednesday, according to Yonhap. The incident also highlighted the risks of investing in family-controlled companies where the primary goal is to further the interests of the family, not that of the shareholders or employees. Shares of Korean Air closed 0.3 percent lower after dropping nearly 6 percent in Seoul after the government announced its plan to sanction the airline. The post Korean Air to Be Sanctioned for 'Nut Rage' Cover-Up appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| 132 Children Killed in Pakistan Attack Posted: 16 Dec 2014 08:42 PM PST  Women mourn their relative Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, at his house in Peshawar yesterday. (Photo: Zohra Bensemra / Reuters) PESHAWAR, Pakistan — In the deadliest slaughter of innocents in Pakistan in years, Taliban gunmen attacked a military-run school Tuesday and killed 141 people—almost all of them students—before government troops ended the siege. The massacre of innocent children horrified a country already weary of unending terrorist attacks. Pakistan’s teenage Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai—herself a survivor of a Taliban shooting—said she was “heartbroken” by the bloodshed. Even Taliban militants in neighboring Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it "un-Islamic." If the Pakistani Taliban extremists had hoped the attack would cause the government to ease off its military offensive that began in June in the country’s tribal region, it appeared to have the opposite effect. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the campaign that—along with US drone strikes—has targeted the militants. "The fight will continue. No one should have any doubt about it," Sharif said. "We will take account of each and every drop of our children’s blood." Taliban fighters have struggled to maintain their potency in the face of the military operation. They vowed a wave of violence in response to the operation, but until Tuesday, there has only been one major attack by a splinter group near the Pakistan-India border in November. Analysts said the school siege showed that even diminished, the militant group still could inflict horrific carnage. The rampage at the Army Public School and College began in the morning when seven militants scaled a back wall using a ladder, said Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa, a military spokesman. When they reached an auditorium where students had gathered for an event, they opened fire. A 14-year-old, Mehran Khan, said about 400 students were in the hall when the gunmen broke through the doors and started shooting. They shot one of the teachers in the head and then set her on fire and shouted "God is great!" as she screamed, added Khan, who survived by playing dead. From there, they went to classrooms and other parts of the school. "Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those innocent kids. That’s what they did," Bajwa said. Of the 141 people slain before government troops ended the assault eight hours later, 132 were children and nine were staff members. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded. The seven attackers, wearing vests of explosives, all died in the eight-hour assault. It was not immediately clear if they were all killed by the soldiers or whether they blew themselves up, he said. The wounded—some still wearing their green school blazers—flooded into hospitals as terrified parents searched for their children. By evening, funeral services were already being held for many of the victims as clerics announced the deaths over mosque loudspeakers. The government declared three days of mourning for what appeared to be Pakistan’s deadliest attack since a 2007 suicide bombing in the port city of Karachi killed 150 people. "My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now," wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah. "My son was my dream. My dream has been killed." One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal, said he was with a group of eighth, ninth and 10th graders who were getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of army medics when the violence became real. Panic broke out when the shooting began. "I saw children falling down who were crying and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later that I have got a bullet," he said, speaking from his hospital bed. Another student, Amir Mateen, said they locked the door from the inside when they heard the shooting, but gunmen blasted through anyway and opened fire. Responding to the attack, armored personnel carriers were deployed around the school, and a military helicopter circled overhead. A little more than 1,000 students and staff were registered at the school, which is part of a network run by the military, although the surrounding area is not heavily fortified. The student body is made up of both children of military personnel as well as civilians. Most of the students appeared to be civilians rather than children of army staff, said Javed Khan, a government official. Analysts said the militants likely targeted the school because of its military connections. "It’s a kind of a message that 'we can also kill your children,'" said Pakistani analyst Zahid Hussain. In a statement to reporters, Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retribution for the military’s operation in nearby North Waziristan, the northwestern tribal region where the group’s fighters largely have been based. "We targeted their kids so that they could know how it feels when they hit our kids," Khurasani said. He said the attackers were advised not to target "underage" children but did not elaborate on what that meant. In its offensive, the military said it would go after all militant groups operating in the region. Security officials and civilians feared retribution by militants, but Pakistan has been relatively calm. The attack raised the issue of whether this was the last gasp of a militant group crippled by a government offensive or whether the militants could regroup. Hussain, the Pakistani analyst, called the attack an "act of desperation." The violence will throw public support behind the campaign in North Waziristan, he said. It also shows that the Pakistani Taliban still maintains a strong intelligence network and remains a threat. The attack drew swift condemnation from around the world. US President Barack Obama said the "terrorists have once again showed their depravity." US Secretary of State John Kerry added: "The images are absolutely gut-wrenching: young children carried away in ambulances, a teacher burned alive in front of the students, a house of learning turned into a house of unspeakable horror." Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Pakistan’s longtime regional rival, called it "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality." "My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences," Modi said in a series of tweeted statements. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was a "an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children while they learn." The violence recalled the attack on Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman outside her school in the Swat Valley for daring to speak up about girls’ rights. She survived to become a global advocate for girls’ education and received her Nobel Peace Prize last week, but has not returned to Pakistan in the two years since the shooting out of security concerns. "Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," the 17-year-old said. "I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts." The post 132 Children Killed in Pakistan Attack appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China’s Dalian Wanda Prepares for the End of Urbanization Posted: 16 Dec 2014 08:32 PM PST  Wang Jianlin, chairman of Chinese property developer Dalian Wanda Group, pictured on Sept. 22, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) HONG KONG — The billionaire behind shopping mall developer Dalian Wanda says China's era of rapid urbanization will end within a decade, so he is speeding up his company's shift toward tourism and entertainment after a $3.7 billion initial public offering. Wang Jianlin became China's fourth-richest man in part by following the migration of 300 million people into cities. His Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd, which debuts on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Dec. 23, owns 159 Wanda Plaza shopping centers across 109 Chinese cities, including 88 projects under construction. "The industry has to seize the last 10 years to transform," Wang told a business summit in Beijing on Saturday. "Once the urbanization rate hits around 70 percent, urbanization will be basically completed. Then there may be no more chances." About 54 percent of China's 1.4 billion people now live in cities, and Beijing has set a target of 60 percent by 2020. City dwellers earn and spend more, which is critical as China shifts to consumption-led growth instead of manufacturing. Wang's view is more bearish than some of his property industry peers who see the benefits of urbanization lasting longer. Yu Liang, president of China's biggest residential developer, China Vanke Co Ltd, said in May that the "golden era" was over although migration to cities would boost the industry for another 15 years. The number of people moving to cities has slowed to 17 or 18 million annually, down from 20 million at the peak, said Tang Wang, a China economist at UBS in Hong Kong. A big obstacle for workers wanting to move to cities from the countryside is that the government restricts the number of people who can obtain "hukou" residency benefits such as affordable housing and schooling in metropolitan areas. "It's not really about people going to the city but people staying in the city," Tang said. In the boom years, Dalian Wanda opened malls primarily in fast-growing provincial cities instead of focusing on Shanghai and Beijing. Close ties with local governments helped Wang obtain cheap land for malls, and he expanded quickly. Dubbed "Nouveau Riche Plaza" by netizens, Wanda Plazas—which typically house a cinema, children's arcade, karaoke bar and hypermarket— are dominated by premium local and mid-tier international fashion brands. A 27 percent drop in first-half 2014 revenue illustrates why Dalian Wanda is keen to change course now. The company blamed fewer project completions and lower selling prices, a symptom of China's weakening property market. "This path [of rapid expansion] cannot be sustained," Wang said. "China's land resources, China's fiscal resources and China's markets won't be able to support it." Beverly Hills In the hope of luring more middle-class consumers, Dalian Wanda is investing 325 billion yuan (US$53 billion) in upscale entertainment and tourist-focused facilities, including mega projects called Wanda Cities, to be opened in the next few years. "This pioneering design emphasizes the concept of culture and tourism and aims to place Wanda Cities among tourist destinations by offering a wide range of entertainment and retail services," Dalian Wanda said in its IPO prospectus. It has spent over 135 billion yuan on cultural resorts in tourist destinations such as Changbai Mountain, Yunnan and Hainan. It will open its new show theatre and movie theme park in the central city of Wuhan on Saturday. It's also speeding up expansion overseas to dilute the impact from China's slowest economic growth in 24 years, with plans to build more than 150 luxury hotels globally by 2018. Earlier this year, the company bought land in Beverly Hills, California, and agreed to jointly develop a hotel, residential and commercial project near Chicago's Millennium Park. However, Dalian Wanda's IPO price shows investors are wary over the outlook for China's commercial property sector and uncertain about the company's diversified model. The company initially hoped to raise as much as $6 billion but cut the offering because of lukewarm interest from investors. "Wanda needs new growth momentum, but overall demand is weak," said Geng Chen, a Philips Research analyst based in Shanghai. The IPO values Dalian Wanda at 8.6 times 2015 earnings forecasts, which puts it higher with mixed-used property company China Resources Land, and residential property giant China Vanke, at 7.5 times. The post China's Dalian Wanda Prepares for the End of Urbanization appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Price is Right at ‘The Phayre’s’ Posted: 16 Dec 2014 04:00 PM PST  The Phayre's offers affordable fare in the heart of the city. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy) YANGON — In Yangon, where a plate of Lok Lak about half as good as you'd get in Phnom Penh costs US$10, a handful of veneered restaurants and bars slap on an extra couple of thousand kyat, every few months, for diminishing portions of an exponentially-depreciating quality of fare. Refusing to join the race to the bottom is The Phayre's, a new restaurant with nighthawk aspirations next door to the famous Pansodan Gallery. Wings and chips might not be Michelin star material, but at 4,000 kyats there's not much of an argument to be made with a pyramid of sizzling chicken doused in Korean-style sauce—enough to make it hard to spot the half-buried clump of paprika and cajun dusted fries that peek out from beneath the pile. "In Myanmar most of the restaurant[s] say their food is good, but sometimes it's not, and usually [it's] so expensive," said Ko Htoo Kyaw. He is one of three young Myanmar who returned home from the United States and teamed up to found The Phayre's, so-named as Pansodan Street was previously called Phayre Street, after Arthur Purves Phayre, the first British Commissioner of colonial-era Myanmar. The pun on 'fare,' which has already caught on around Yangon, was inadvertent, conceded Ko Htoo Kyaw. Fair play to him for admitting that. The sandwiches—again a 4,000 kyat outlay—are hefty enough to warrant a snake-like jaw-unhinging, though the 3,000 kyat beef salad is a bit light, even as salads go. A bit of ballast—some of that thick sandwich bread perhaps—wouldn't go amiss. But the oil-drizzled foliage does come with some tender, drool-inducing strips of meat that should awaken the senses of even the most ardent veggie. A Phayre warning should be given to coffee addicts: If you are looking for a lunchtime jolt of java, you might want to keep walking. At the time of writing, The Phayre's served only brewed coffee, with no shiny Italian espresso machine behind the bar just yet. That will soon change, however, according to Ko Myint Thein Oo, another of the three co-founders, who said they were hoping to install a coffee machine in the coming weeks. Ko Htoo Kyaw and Ko Myint Thein Oo both came home recently after years working in the United States, cutting their business teeth with big names like Macy's and Gap. Why come back to start a business in a city where office space is rarer than sparrows on Jupiter and where land prices are so high that units should be offered in cm²? "Just the business opportunities here," said Ko Htoo Kyaw, suggesting that for those in the know, Yangon is the place to be. Only three months after opening, the idea is to open more branches elsewhere in town. But there's no schedule for this yet, alas. On the Friday night when The Irrawaddy visited, there were just a half-dozen drinkers in The Phayre's, suggesting that for now the place is more of a daytime eating spot. "We get the lunch crowd from some offices, [including] from Sakura Tower," said Ko Myint Thein Oo. There's also a weekly spillover of beard-stroking expats from the Tuesday night Pansodan Gallery gatherings. The team behind The Phayre's renovated the former Chinese restaurant's interior with austere-looking timber—similar to the look of Fatman's about a half mile away on Yaw Min Gyi St. There should be movie nights soon—downstairs a whitewashed wall serves as a big screen for a projector parked across the room. Upstairs there are some couches you can sink into while sinking a few Myanmar draft or maybe a signature Pegu Cocktail. The split levels and glass facade help keep the place well-lit. But if you're waiting for your friends upstairs, don't go yelling through the glass if you spot them shuffling in through the front door. The upstairs area is sound-proofed—making The Phayre's a handy venue for a private party or a work gathering. The Phayre's is located at 292 Pansodan Street in downtown Yangon. This review first appeared in the December 2014 issue of The Irrawaddy Magazine. The post Price is Right at 'The Phayre's' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
