| Concerns Grow After Govt Confirms Massive Dam Project in Southern Shan State Posted: 19 Sep 2014 04:57 AM PDT  Shan villagers attend a meeting in Kunhing Township on Aug 15 to discuss the plans for a massive dam in their region. (Photo: Nang Wah Nu/Facebook) RANGOON — A Shan lawmaker said her constituents in southern Shan State are growing increasingly concerned over a government plan to build an enormous hydropower dam in the region, after a cabinet minister earlier this week confirmed that Burmese, Chinese and Thai companies have government support for the construction of a 7,000-megawatt dam. Nang Wah Nu, a Lower House lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities Development Party (SNDP), said villagers from Kunhing Township had expressed concerns to her over the massive project after they spotted Burmese and foreign workers at the proposed construction site on the Salween River, located on the border of Mong Tong and Kunhing townships. "Local villagers told me that they heard that many villages will be destroyed [by the dam], including ancient Shan pagoda's and stupas. They are asking me: 'What can you do about it?' I told them I would ask about it in Parliament," said Nang Wah Nu. She said preparatory project activities were occurring ever closer to the villages in Kunhing, adding that company workers were seen several times in recent months. "The villagers told me they could not travel near the [project] area because the Burma Army tightened security there, but the locals know that project work has already started," Nang Wah Nu said. The project was located close to areas of control of the Shan State Army-South, she said, adding, "Fighting could break out if the government does not discuss this project with the rebels." The project is one of at least seven dams that have been planned on the Salween River in eastern Burma in the past decade; all projects are controversial due to their expected impacts on ethnic minority communities and a lack of information. This week, Nang Wah Nu asked the government about the status of the project in her constituency and expressed the residents' concerns about its impact. Deputy Minister of Electrical Power Maw Thar Htwe said in a reply on Tuesday that the government remained committed to a military regime-era deal from 2010 that grants the project contract to the China Three Gorges Corporation, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and Burmese joint venture partner International Group of Entrepreneurs (IGE) Co. Ltd. He said the dam's massive reservoir would flood about 676 square km of low-lying farmland and forest, but attempted to assuage concerns over its heavy social and environmental impacts. "We will present details later about the cost of the project after we have done a study about environmental and social issues," state-run media quoted the minister as saying. He added that Australia's Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation had been contracted to carry out a social and environmental impact study. "The electric hydropower generated by the dam will be used in the country and any excess power we will sell to neighboring countries," he said. Nang Wah Nu, the Shan MP, said she remained deeply worried about the dearth of information about the possible eviction of thousands of ethnic Shan villagers from their homes and farmlands if the project goes ahead. "No one knows yet how much of paddy field, forest, and properties of the people will be damaged as there is no study yet," she said, adding that it remains to be seen whether local villagers are properly consulted and compensated for loss of land. "They should tell the locals what opportunities they will get from this project. They have to provide [relocation] space for the locals and pay them compensation if the project destroys their property," she said. According to Thailand-based NGO Salween Watch, the dam would be funded by China Three Gorges Corporation and EGAT, with the latter taking a 56-percent stake in the project. State-owned China Three Gorges Corporation was responsible for the controversial Three Gorges Dam in southern China that displaced some 1.3 million people. IGE Co Ltd is a conglomerate with business interests in banking, timber, oil, gas and mining, and is owned by the sons of Aung Thaung, the Ministry of Industry under the previous regime and currently a lawmaker with the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). IGE has been working on a number of controversial dam projects in northern Burma, while EGAT has been involved in hydropower projects in Burma and Laos that aim import energy to Thailand but will have severe social and environmental impacts on local communities. Salween Watch has said that Burma's government has been working on plans for the massive project, believed to be the tallest dam project in Southeast Asia, since the mid-1990 when it was called the Ta Sang dam. At the time, it led to large-scale militarization and an increase in conflict and human rights violations in southern Shan State. In recent years, the project location was moved further upstream and work quietly resumed in 2012. Hydropower projects are highly controversial in Burma due to their heavy environment and social impacts, while many large projects are located in ethnic conflict areas in northern and eastern Burma. A lack of information often surrounds the projects, many of which were first planned during the military regime and involve Chinese state-owned or Thai companies, and joint ventures with companies owned by Burmese tycoons. The post Concerns Grow After Govt Confirms Massive Dam Project in Southern Shan State appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| In Burma, Student Unions Must Learn Their Place Posted: 19 Sep 2014 04:34 AM PDT  Students stage a demonstration against the National Education Bill on the campus of Dagon University in Rangoon. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) Recent protests against the National Education Bill staged by university student unions across Burma have given me food for thought. As a graduate of an education system created by the country's former military government, I have expected a lot from Burma's nascent student unions, which were nonexistent until 2010. The structure and objectives of student unions will vary slightly in relation to the political situation of a given country. Nonetheless, the prime objective of all student unions should be none other than guaranteeing the rights of students. With student unions more active in Burma these days, we need to assess their actions to determine whether or not they are striving for this principal goal. I came to notice the student unions in Mandalay when medical students there held a press conference after being denied the chance to take an exam because they had failed to meet a class attendance requirement. In subsequent press conferences in Mandalay, student unions took up a range of causes, distributing pamphlets urging an end to the war in Kachin State and lighting candles in a vigil for peace. Nearly 50 student union members from Myingyan, Taungoo, Mandalay and Monywa districts later staged demonstrations against the arrests of farmers in western Pegu Division's Thaegon Township. To be frank, these issues are not directly concerned with students. As such, student unions should not get involved in them. Personally, I think this is the reason that student unions' membership is unimpressive, and why the unions have little influence over the students they claim to represent. The political landscape is different from that of the era of Gen. Aung San and 88 Generation student leaders like Min Ko Naing and Moe Thee Zun. Student unions need to be aware of this, especially when there are matters affecting universities that their students must proactively address. The most important thing for the unions is that they have a thorough understanding of what students need, which students' rights are being denied, and how to handle these issues. There is no shortage of practical causes in need of attention. For example, university students must pay up to 1,000 kyats (US$1) for tutorial and practical notebooks that should cost no more than 100 kyats to produce. Likewise, textbook prices are too high. It is also unacceptable that university students are required to buy their universities' annual commemorative publications, at a cost of 3,000 to 4,000 kyats, whenever they enroll for a semester. Students are also forced to pay fees to park their motorbikes on university campuses. These are the problems students are confronted with daily. If these problems seem trivial and unworthy of concern, I would like to offer another example: Today, scholarships are granted to Burmese students in cooperation with foreign universities. However, most universities are failing to adequately publicize scholarship eligibility criteria, and in addition, there is corruption and bias in the scholarship selection process. In an improvement from the past, universities in Rangoon and Mandalay now provide hostels and are also building new on-campus accommodation for students. Nonetheless, not all students that come from outside their universities' host cities are lucky enough to get a place in university-provided housing because of mismanagement and malfeasance in that selection process. Through press conferences and demonstrations, student unions need to speak up for those students whose rights are being denied so that they can win back their trust. The unions should take a leading role in urging the Union government to furnish university faculties with teaching aids and university libraries with comprehensive reference materials. Students would support student unions if the latter spoke up for them while steering clear of politics and partisanship. The National Education Bill is now awaiting final parliamentary approval to come into force. News reports have stated that student union leaders have expressed opposition to the bill because they were not allowed to participate in drafting the legislation, which furthermore still allows for centralized authority over universities and fails to fully guarantee students' rights. The criteria by which the leadership of universities' so-called student unions is appointed should be subject to scrutiny. Though opponents of the National Education Bill have taken on names indicating that they represent "all" of the country's university students, their credentials as representative voices ought to be questioned. According to the July 4 issue of Mizzima Daily, the student union of Yadanarpon University, where thousands are enrolled, is composed of only about 10 students. The report also said that unions at the dental, foreign language and technological universities in Mandalay are made up of only around 50 members each. Most of Burma's student unions came into existence in 2012 and one would expect their memberships to have increased over the past two years, but these groups are still just a tiny fraction of the country's university enrollees. Student unions exist to serve the interests of students. So far on this count, they are struggling to score a passing grade. Poe Sanchaung is a regular contributor to Burmese-language dailies and weeklies. He is studying for a postgraduate degree in English at Mandalay University. The post In Burma, Student Unions Must Learn Their Place appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Karen Rebel Soldier Shot Dead in Myawaddy Posted: 19 Sep 2014 03:35 AM PDT  A view of downtown Myawaddy in eastern Burma's Karen State. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy) The killing of a rebel Karen soldier in Myawaddy has prompted an increased security presence in the Burmese border town amid growing fear that the tense situation could lead to a larger scale conflict. Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Friday from Myawaddy, sources from both the Burmese government and Karen armed groups confirmed that a man belonging to the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) was shot dead and another injured during a violent confrontation in Myawaddy on Thursday night. The increasingly tense town also saw two homemade explosive devices uncovered earlier this week. The ethnic Karen soldier, Lin Soe Naing, died at the scene, while the other man was shot in the neck and has been hospitalized, according to the sources. An official from the liaison office of the Karen National Union (KNU), the main ethnic Karen rebel group in Myawaddy, said alcohol was a factor in the shooting. "The DKBA soldier was drunk and hit cars on the road," said Maj. Saw Roe, the liaison officer. "The security patrol guards stopped him and asked him to get out of the car. He then hit a car belonging to the security guards, so the guards opened fire." The DKBA and government authorities will meet to attempt to negotiate a resolution to the conflict amid local residents' unease. "They [residents] are now living in fear," Saw Roe said. "They worry [about the possibility of a larger conflict]." A government security force member who asked to remain anonymous told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the incident occurred before midnight after a black Toyota Hilux Surf driven by Lin Soe Naing hit a security vehicle. He said the driver did not heed an order to stop the vehicle, and instead drove over a barricade and hit the security forces' vehicle. "When the security personnel told them to get out of the car, they tried to pull their guns, so the soldiers had to shoot to stop them," he added. The security team that confronted the two DKBA soldiers is led by a captain from the Burmese Army's Light Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy, together with police, border guard forces and local authorities. Police in Myawaddy refused to take questions from The Irrawaddy, deferring to the Burmese Army, which led the patrol operation. Since two undetonated bombs were found this week in Myawaddy, the government's collective security forces have stepped up dawn-to-dusk patrols of the city, a major trading hub with neighboring Mae Sot in Thailand. Tensions between government forces and Karen armed groups in Myawaddy have been mounting, with the Burmese Army ordering the rebels not to wear uniforms or carry weapons in the town. A letter from a Light Infantry Battalion 275 commander said the military regalia and arms "disturbs the security of the civilians." "If they can negotiate a satisfactory resolution, it will be fine. But if they fail to do so, it could turn into a big problem," said Saw Roe of the KNU. A broader conflict is not without precedent. In November 2010, the DKBA temporarily seized control of Myawaddy, leading to the exodus of thousands of residents into Mae Sot. The post Karen Rebel Soldier Shot Dead in Myawaddy appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Minister Vows to Turn Govt Mouthpieces Into ‘Public Service Newspapers’ Posted: 19 Sep 2014 02:41 AM PDT  The New Light of Myanmar's English and Burmese-language editions. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Minister of Information Ye Htut told a media conference on Thursday that he intends to push ahead with a plan that would turn state-owned newspapers into "public service print media," making Burma one of the few countries in the world where the government continues to fund daily newspapers. Independent media representatives in recent months have raised their concerns over the plan to keep the military regime-era, propaganda outlets afloat, despite government pledges that the papers would become more independent and serve the public interest. "We will create public service [print] media because most of our public gets information from print media—our digital penetration rate is low," Ye Htut told the 3rd Conference on Media Development in Myanmar, held in Rangoon on Thursday and Friday. "It's not true that public service newspapers do not exist [in other countries], they are just not successful," he said. "We will make it successful." Since 2012, President Thein Sein's reformist government has lifted draconian media restrictions, such as ending pre-publication censorship and a ban on private daily newspapers. It announced plans to revamp the government newspapers and Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) by turning them into independent public service media. The ministry's Public Service Media bill proposes that the newspapers receive 70 percent government funding, derive 30 percent of income from commercial advertising, and become exempt from taxes. The bill was sent to Parliament several months ago and is due for discussion in the legislature soon. Many countries have public service broadcasters, such as the UK's British Broadcasting Service (BBC), but few governments fund newspapers and the practice is mostly associated with totalitarian and communist regimes. Norway-funded news broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and the BBC have been working with Burma's Information Ministry to help MRTV during its transition to a public service broadcaster. Japan's Kyodo news agency provided training to modernize state-run newspapers. Ye Htut claimed that The New Light of Myanmar and The Mirror (Kyemon)— government mouthpieces produced in English and Burmese by the Information Ministry—could play a role that independent, private media could not. He said the revamped state newspapers would, for example, be able to give ample space to public health warnings and offer news in ethnic minority languages. During past decades, the Burman-dominated government suppressed ethnic minorities' rights and political aspirations, and banned minority languages from the education system. Ethnic minorities remain deeply suspicious of the government and are currently setting up independent, local-language media. The Interim Press Council of Myanmar has repeatedly criticized the ministry's plans to create "public service newspapers," saying that the papers should be privatized. The council has said that continuing the publication of state newspapers would create an uneven playing field that put Burma's fledgling, independent private media at a disadvantage. Thiha Saw, a member of Interim Press Council, said on Thursday, "State newspapers are the only papers that existed during socialist and authoritarian rule [in Burma]." "Actually, most countries do not have public service newspapers. They are not successful," he said, adding that Burma's state-run newspapers were nationalized in the 1960s and should be returned to their original owners. "The ministry should support the development private newspapers sector, even though they are making some mistakes right now," Thiha Saw said, "Public service newspapers will be a burden in the long term as they rely mostly on state fund." DVB director and chief editor Aye Chan Naing said on Thursday that he understood the need for turning MRTV into a public service broadcaster, but added, "I don't really agree that newspapers should be part of the public service media." The post Minister Vows to Turn Govt Mouthpieces Into 'Public Service Newspapers' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Faces of Folklore Posted: 19 Sep 2014 01:54 AM PDT  Artist Aung Khaing stands beside Shwe Pyin Nyi Naung, one of 40 different portraits of Burmese nats. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Visitors to "Myanmar Nats on Canvas," an art show that kicks off in Rangoon this weekend, can expect to see something different. The subjects of the show are quite contrary to what most Burmese artists set their brushes to depicting. As the name suggests, the exhibition will showcase portraits of popular lords and ladies of a Burmese folk religion that centers around spirits known as nats. Despite occupying a space outside of mainstream religions in Burma, nats have enjoyed a centuries-old popularity among the Burmese. They are believed to have special powers to protect when properly propitiated, and conversely can destroy humans when offended or ignored. Most popular are a group collectively called "The 37," made up of the spirits of human beings who died violent deaths after leading prominent lives as kings, queens or generals. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday at downtown Rangoon's Pansodan Scene art gallery, showcasing more than 40 acrylic paintings by Burmese artist Aung Khaing. Enjoying an artistic freedom characterized bold and colorful brush strokes in expressionist and semi-abstract styles, the 69-year-old painter portrays each of The 37, many of which play an important role in believers' lives across Burma even today. "I don't know whether they really exist or not, but you can't deny the fact that we have a very long nat-worshipping tradition here," said the artist. "So when I painted them, I was somewhere between believer and non-believer," he added. Among the nat paintings, with price tags ranging from US$300 to $800, visitors will see a portrait of the brothers known as Shwe Pyin Nyi Naung, or Min Gyi and Min Lay, who attract tens of thousands of worshippers annually to their dedicated shrine at Taung Pyone village in Mandalay. Another standout is the painting of a boozy-eyed gentleman who, with cigarette drooping from his lips, cuddles a chicken. Popularly known by his deity name Min Kyaw Zwa or Ko Gyi Kyaw (Big Brother Kyaw), legend has it that the mustachioed man was notorious for his love of drinking and gambling. On the gambling front, cockfighting, to be specific. "Nat worshipping is part of our culture and we just want to introduce it to the outside world through artwork," said Yan Naung Oo of the Culture Bridge Gallery, which helped organize "Myanmar Nats on Canvas." For those wishing to learn more, a pictorial book featuring the show's paintings and short introductions in Burmese and English on each nat will be available for sale at the show. "Myanmar Nats on Canvas" Pansodan Scene, No. 144, Pansodan Street (Middle Block) Kyauktada Township, Rangoon From Sept. 20 to 26, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The post Faces of Folklore appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Kyaukphyu SEZ ‘Key’ to China Business Corridor, But Doubts Remain Posted: 18 Sep 2014 10:34 PM PDT  Some development is already underway at Kyaukphyu in Arakan State, the site of a planned special economic zone. (Photo: Ko Soe / The Irrawaddy) Kyaukphyu port on Burma's western coast could play a key role in a Beijing-led economic corridor plan linking neighbors India, Bangladesh and China. But economists and foreign policy analysts are divided over whether the Naypyidaw government's ambitions for a special economic zone (SEZ) around Kyaukphyu in Arakan State are viable. The so-called BCIM Corridor, for Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, was a key issue of discussion by China's President Xi Jinping this week on a rare visit to India by a Chinese head of state. A pivotal spot along the corridor would be Mandalay, linking China's Yunnan province capital Kunming with northeast India and on into Bangladesh. But observers see the BCIM proposal as also instrumental in giving China access to the Indian Ocean. The BCIM is a grand plan for Beijing to "gain access to multiple coastal zones that are considered crucial for the next-generation Chinese economy," commented India's Telegraph business newspaper. Within Burma this points to Kyaukphyu for the Chinese, who have already built a crude oil transshipment terminal there as well as controversial oil and gas pipelines that start at Kyaukphyu and run the length of Burma into Yunnan. However, Chinese plans for a railway linking Yunnan with Kyaukphyu have soured amid a cooling relationship between Naypyidaw and Beijing. An SEZ around Kyaukphyu would need considerable investment in basic infrastructure such as electricity, modern road links and port communications, at a time when major Japanese companies have already made commitments to developing Burma's first SEZ, at Thilawa on the outskirts of Rangoon. Economists and analysts are divided over the viability of a Kyaukphyu SEZ, in the near to medium term at least. One foreign economist who knows Burma well told The Irrawaddy, on condition of anonymity, that a Kyaukphyu SEZ might be plausible in the long term but development should wait at least until the Thilawa project is completed and operational. Thilawa has been subject to long delays over land access and infrastructure problems, but the project is now moving forward. Plans for Kyaukphyu suffered a setback with the apparent abandonment of an agreement between Naypyidaw and the China Railway Engineering Corporation to build a multi-billion dollar railway through Burma to the port. However, Yun Sun, a China foreign policy analyst with the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank, believes the SEZ and a railway could still go ahead with reduced Chinese involvement plus other foreign investors. Yun Sun said a Yunnan-Kyaukphyu railway remains of strategic importance to China as a key component of China's trans-Asia railway network and in "developing a southwest strategic corridor to the Indian Ocean, a route for crucial imports that bypassed the congested Malacca Strait and hotly contested South China Sea." "The Chinese do not want to risk any speedy rush into the SEZ only to reinforce the anti-China sentiment associated with Chinese projects," Yun Sun told The Irrawaddy. "However, China is not the only investor available in the case of Kyaukphyu. I expect investment from Southeast Asia to play a big role in many of the related fields." Foreign and Burmese firms are being invited this month to bid for one of three construction contracts to develop a Kyaukphyu SEZ, which has been estimated by the government's Kyaukphyu economic zone management committee to initially cost US$200 million. The committee envisages that the development will be divided into three sections: a deep-water port, an industrial estate and a housing district. The planners are targeting textiles, construction materials, food processing and general manufacturing for the industrial estate. There are also plans by Burma's Ministry of Electric Power to award a contract to build a 50 megawatt gas-fueled power station at Kyaukphyu, though observers say this would be inadequate to supply sufficient electricity for the planned SEZ. Despite all this, a Western economist who has been an active observer of Burma since the days of the former military regime thinks a Kyaukphyu SEZ is a non-starter for the foreseeable future. "I continue to believe this project is not going anywhere, despite some movement in establishing a management company, as well as the power [plant] proposal," Sean Turnell, a professor at Macquarie University in Australia, told The Irrawaddy. "Neither the politics nor the economics of the Kyaukphyu SEZ are plausible as yet," added Turnell, who is co-editor of Macquarie University's Burma Economic Watch website. In India, the charm offensive by President Xi may fail to allay traditional Indian suspicions of China. The previous Indian government paid lip service to a so-called "Look East" policy opening up a business corridor into Burma and Southeast Asia, but put forward little in the way of practical measures to promote such an idea, the Telegraph said. Now there are concerns in Delhi that a BCIM corridor "will end up as a Chinese highway for dumping its products," the paper said ahead of Xi's three-day visit this week. But India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more business friendly than his predecessor and seemingly more determined to shake up his country's stumbling economy through closer relations with neighbors to the east. "[Burma] remains a key link in China's BCIM, South Asia and Southeast Asia strategies," Yun Sun told The Irrawaddy. "I doubt that China will completely abandon its strategic plan. The Chinese will be involved in the Kyaukphyu SEZ. The level of involvement may be below people's wishes, but people should not have expected that everything will be smooth in the reform and opening up process anyway. Policies always involve trade-offs," she said. The post Kyaukphyu SEZ 'Key' to China Business Corridor, But Doubts Remain appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Alice, Steampunk and a False Name: Enigma of an American Jailed in North Korea Posted: 18 Sep 2014 10:29 PM PDT  U.S. citizen Matthew Todd Miller sits in a witness box during his trial at the North Korean Supreme Court in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang on Sunday. (Photo: Reuters) SEOUL — Matthew Miller, the U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea on espionage charges, spent months in South Korea pretending to be an Englishman named "Preston Somerset", acquaintances who met or worked with him said. The 25-year-old native of Bakersfield, California, did not seem to have close friends, a regular job or means of support during the months he spent in Seoul over a period of at least two years, they said. He gave no inkling of any interest in nuclear-capable and unpredictable North Korea. Instead, he spent time and money hiring artists to help create his own anime adaption of Alice in Wonderland, the Lewis Carroll fantasy with which he seemed fascinated. At one point he joined a debating class that helped Koreans converse in English, but rarely spoke. "He was just a mysterious character. He said nothing unless I asked questions," said Hur Sung-doh, who organized the weekly group debate. Miller was arrested in North Korea in April this year for tearing up his tourist visa after entering the isolated country with a tour group. He was sentenced to six years hard labor last week. The reclusive, Stalinist state of North Korea is a magnet for adventurous foreigners, whether Christian missionaries, curious tourists or individuals drawn to the world’s most isolated nation. One of the last outposts of the Cold War, North Korea is open to but suspicious of Western visitors and any out-of-the-ordinary behavior by tourists is quickly investigated. The U.S. government advises its citizens against travel to North Korea. U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae is serving a hard labor sentence in North Korea after being convicted of crimes against the state. Another American, Jeffrey Fowle, was arrested for leaving a Bible in the toilet of a sailor’s club in Pyongyang, and is currently awaiting trial. On Tuesday, South Korean marines arrested an American man who had been swimming in a river that flows towards North Korea and said he had been trying to go to the North to meet its leader, Kim Jong Un, Korean media reported. Miller exhibited some unusual behavior in Seoul, but nothing linked to North Korea, his acquaintances said. To Hur, the English-language teacher, he wrote in 2012 in response to an advertisement: "My name is Preston and I have been in Seoul for about 6 months. I am a student from London and saw (your) post." Hur said of Miller: "He said he studied journalism and was engaged in newspaper publishing, although I am not sure if he really did that job." 'Ready to Bolt' In a televised interview with CNN last month, Miller spoke with a slight British accent and refused to answer questions on his motivations to travel to North Korea. Miller’s family has not spoken publicly about him and neither have any neighbors or friends he may have had in the United States. Those who met him in South Korea only recalled a slightly odd, quiet young man who gave little away. "It was very curt and very awkward, speaking to him," said Mike Stewart, a Seoul-based artist’s studio director who met Miller last year, when he received an e-mail from "Preston Somerset", which Miller later said was a pen name. "He seemed very birdy, like ready to bolt at any minute, like he didn’t know what to say and things like that." Miller inspected space Stewart was leasing to local artists and paid hundreds of dollars to rent a studio, but never returned. "He gave me a good chunk of change – and then I never saw him again," said Stewart, who runs the Jankura Art Space in which Miller had planned to exhibit work from an artist he had commissioned to help create his own spin-off of Alice in Wonderland. Francis Cole – an American who produces Japanese-style erotic art – said on a freelancing website that he was one of several artists, writers and musicians Miller commissioned to help produce his own Alice in Wonderland-inspired fantasy tale in the style of a Japanese anime. Miller, under his Preston Somerset alias, and Cole, with the username ‘Eirhjien’, were members of the deviantArt.com community where people can post and share user-made artwork. He recruited a gaming programmer to produce music for him, artists to draw men dressed as Cheshire Cats, and a ghostwriter to help piece the whole thing, named "Alice in Red", together, according to posts on the deviantArt website. "I vividly remember that he wanted it to have an Alice in Wonderland-like feel," one of the ghostwriters, who was paid $200 to write for Miller, told Reuters via e-mail. Miller identifies himself as Preston Somerset on several social media websites and cites steampunk, a genre of science fiction, and the Japanese vocal synthesized "humanoid" Hatsune Miku as some of his interests. He lists British writer George Orwell and Irish poet Oscar Wilde as two of his favorite writers. It is still not clear what happened in the months between Miller’s quest to self-publish his own version of Alice in Wonderland, and his decision to go to North Korea. Photographs from Miller’s trial in Pyongyang showed a page from his notebook that said he had been "involved" in WikiLeaks and had attempted to access files from U.S. military bases in South Korea. Another page appeared to show a list of places in which Miller had spent time over the years – including London. The Japan-based Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is loyal to Pyongyang and attended Miller’s trial, said he told the court he lived in Seoul, and that he was unemployed. The paper said Miller had promised North Korean authorities he could reveal U.S. state secrets "as if he was Edward Snowden". The post Alice, Steampunk and a False Name: Enigma of an American Jailed in North Korea appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| India’s Mars Mission Enters Last Lap, Faces Crucial Test Posted: 18 Sep 2014 10:26 PM PDT  India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, carrying the second navigation satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System IRNSS-1B, lifts off near Chennai, South India, on April 4, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) NEW DELHI — India’s first mission to Mars will attempt to put a spacecraft in orbit around the red planet next week, in a crucial test of a low-cost project carrying the country’s hopes to join the leaders of a global space race. A successful outcome for the $74-million mission would stiffen Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolve to build new space launch facilities capable of handling heavier satellites, to make India a stronger player in the space technology market. Launched last November, the Mars Orbiter Mission, called Mangalyaan, aims to study the planet’s surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth. If the spacecraft does manage to enter orbit around Mars on Sept. 24, India would become the first country to succeed on its first try. European, U.S. and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but only after several attempts. "Confidence is high," V. Koteswara Rao, scientific secretary at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), told Reuters. "All the operations done so far are successful and all the parameters measured are normal." ISRO has already uploaded commands to help the spacecraft automatically enter orbit on the morning of Sept. 24. Two days before that, scientists will run a four-second test of a main engine that has been idle for about 300 days, and make a small course correction, Rao said. However, experts say it will be challenging to get the trajectory right and cut the craft’s speed from its current rate of 22 km (13.7 miles) per second to allow it to enter orbit. So also would be the task of receiving the faint signals it emits. "It’s like hitting a one-rupee coin about a hundred kilometers away, and that is tough," said Mayank N. Vahia, a scientist in the department of astronomy and astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. ISRO has prepared a contingency plan. If the main engine fails to restart, eight small fuel-powered thrusters will be used to put the spacecraft into orbit around Mars. Low-Cost Model & China India launched its space program five decades ago and developed its own rocket technology after Western powers imposed sanctions for a nuclear weapons test in 1974. In 2009, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon. Although facing strong competition from neighbor China, India aspires to be a low-cost supplier of space technology and grab a bigger slice of a more than $300-billion industry. India has so far launched 40 foreign satellites, many of them for advanced nations. Still, China has an edge, as it can put heavier satellites into orbit with its bigger launchers. Modi aims to change that. In June, he hailed the Mars mission’s low cost, saying it was less than the budget of the Hollywood space movie ‘Gravity’. A successful Mars mission would boost the global standing of India’s state-run space agency. "It increases the prestige and reliability of India as a spacefaring nation whose rockets and payloads are reliable enough for other countries to use," said Vahia. India’s Mangalyaan cost roughly a tenth of NASA’s Mars mission Maven that will attempt to enter orbit around the planet three days earlier on Sept. 21. Despite its recent success, India’s space program has often drawn criticism as Asia’s third-largest economy still ranks poorly on basic social indicators of poverty and hunger. The post India’s Mars Mission Enters Last Lap, Faces Crucial Test appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Not Warlike, Says Xi, as Border Standoff Dominates India Trip Posted: 18 Sep 2014 09:41 PM PDT  India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents a bouquet to China's President Xi Jinping, left, before their meeting in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Sept. 17, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Amit Dave) NEW DELHI — China is not a warlike nation, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, during a rare trip to neighbor India that was dominated by a standoff on a barren Himalayan plateau between soldiers from the world's two most populous nations. Robust comments from India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the dispute in territory claimed by both Asian giants overshadowed Xi's pledge of US$30 billion investments in South Asia over five years, including $20 billion in India. "A warlike state, however big it may be, will eventually perish," Xi said in a speech, adding that China believed its neighbors were key to its wellbeing. He said China was committed to the path of peaceful development, addressing concerns in Asia about Beijing's increasingly assertive territorial claims including in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route. But the mood was stern when Modi and Xi emerged from a long meeting to address reporters soon after officials confirmed that soldiers had pulled back from their positions in a western Himalayan region claimed by India and China. "I raised our serious concern over repeated incidents along the border," said Modi, with Xi sitting to his right. "There should be peace in our relations and in the borders. If this happens, we can realiZe [the] true potential of our relations," added Modi, a nationalist elected in May partly on promises to build a more assertive India. Dozens of soldiers from both sides had faced off on the Ladakh plateau for over a week in a dispute about infrastructure works near the de facto border, where the two countries fought a brief war in 1962. Raising hopes for a new push to resolve their territorial differences, Modi called for an early border settlement with China. The two sides have held 17 rounds of border talks since the early 1990s without making significant progress. Modi has yet to appoint a special envoy to restart the talks. "We have to address the boundary question very soon," Modi said, urging "clarification" of the Line of Actual Control—the frontline where fighting ended. In his comments, Xi played down the tensions and agreed with Modi that they should work to settle the border question, using language China has used in the past. "Sometimes there might be certain incidents, but the two sides are fully capable of acting promptly to effectively manage the situation," he said. Srikanth Kondapalli, a China watcher with Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, said Modi's tough words were aimed at a domestic audience ahead of regional elections, including in Ladakh, a remote corner of Indian-administered Kashmir. "As a nationalist, he stood his ground, but the fact of the matter is that he cannot control the other side," he said, saying fast progress on a permanent border fix was unlikely. "Both sides have given a diplomatic but stiff response, both sides have said [the border] should be resolved early but there is no deadline." Despite the tension, the two sides were able to agree on investments aimed at significantly upgrading their commercial relationship, with China pledging $20 billion over the next five years for industrial parks and infrastructure including railway technology. That contrasts with just $400 million in Chinese investment in India over the last 14 years. The leaders agreed to begin talks on cooperating in the nuclear power industry. Xi said China would support India becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security body that includes China and Russia. He also backed its aspiration to play a greater role at the United Nations, including on the Security Council. Modi is keen on Chinese investment to help balance $65 billion in annual trade that is heavily tilted in China's favor. Xi promised more access for India's pharmaceutical, farming and fuel products to China. Xi also set a target to raise annual bilateral trade with South Asia to $150 billion in the next five years. He arrived in India on Wednesday, visiting Modi's home state of Gujarat for a riverside dinner that also marked the prime minister's 64th birthday. Kondapalli said the chemistry between the two men was good and set the stage for a more personalized relationship over the next few years. "For the sake of stability, for the sake of economic relations … this bodes well," he said. One irritant for China is the presence in India of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in the country since fleeing a failed uprising against Chinese rule of his homeland in 1959. A government of exiled Tibetans and tens of thousands of refugees are also based in northern India. About 20 supporters of a free Tibet, mainly women, protested within a few meters of the building in New Delhi where Modi and Xi met, waving Tibetan flags and shouting: "We want justice." Police detained them after a few minutes. Several other small pro-Tibet protests broke out across the city. Modi reiterated India's position that it will not allow "anti-China" activities from Tibetans in the country. Speaking in India's financial center, Mumbai, the Dalai Lama said Xi should use his visit to learn from the Indian experience of democratic rule, and learn democratic practices. He also linked the border flare-ups to Tibet, which stretches the length of the Chinese side of the border with India. Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar, Sanjeev Miglani, Rajesh Kumar Singh and Malini Menon in New Delhi and Neha Dasgupta in Mumbai. The post China Not Warlike, Says Xi, as Border Standoff Dominates India Trip appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
