ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
Japan officials warn people
to chew rice cakes slowly
January 19, 2015
Myanmar Catholics pleased
to welcome first local cardinal
By Yuri Kageyama
By Esther Htusan and Aye Aye Win
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
OKYO — At least
nine people report-
edly choked to
death on New Year’s rice
cakes in Japan, causing
officials to urge people to
chew slowly on the treats.
Sticky rice cakes, or
mochi, are an essential
part of the Japanese New
Year’s holiday menu. But
the glutinous mochi —
grilled or cooked in broth or
with sweet beans — can get
stuck in people’s throats,
blocking breathing.
The Yomiuri newspaper
reported that at least 128
people were rushed to
hospitals after choking on
mochi, with nine dying.
The department advised
people to cut mochi into
small pieces, chew slowly,
and learn first aid.
In addition to three
deaths in Tokyo, three
people died in Chiba prefec-
ture, while one each died in
Osaka, Aomori, and Naga-
saki
prefectures,
the
ANGON, Myanmar — Church
colleagues proudly welcomed home
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo
after his appointment by Pope Francis as
Myanmar’s first Roman Catholic cardinal.
Bo, the archbishop of Yangon, was one of
20 new cardinals whose appointments
were announced this month and who
assume their new jobs in February. They
are from 18 countries, including two others
that never before had a cardinal: Cape
Verde and Tonga.
The 66-year-old clergyman smiled
broadly and exchanged pleasantries with
friends and followers after returning from
abroad to his residence in Myanmar’s
largest city.
When he afterward went to the Mission-
ary Sisters and Brothers of St. Paul’s
school, which he helps support, about 60
students and priests presented the arch-
bishop with roses and came one by one to
greet him and kiss his ecclesiastical ring.
They serenaded him with a congratulatory
song before holding a religious service.
He said he was happy to become the
representative of Myanmar. “The pope just
made the world know about Myanmar and
this is really good for our country,” he said.
Bishop Felix Lian Khen Thang,
president of the country’s Catholic Bishop
Conference, said Bo’s appointment was a
crowning achievement of the church’s
mission activities in Myanmar.
About one percent of predominantly
Buddhist Myanmar’s 51 million people are
Catholics. The church has been active in
Myanmar — also known as Burma — for
five centuries.
Bo’s appointment comes as the country
grapples with major problems of religious
intolerance, particularly by members of
the Buddhist majority toward Muslims of
the Rohingya ethnic minority. Related
violence has taken several hundred lives
in the past few years.
The archbishop wrote in a commentary
for The Washington Post last year that: “If
Burma is to be truly free, peaceful, and
prosperous, the rights of all ethnicities and
T
Y
RISKY RICE CAKES. A boy eats a freshly pounded rice cake, or
mochi, wrapped in a sheet of seasoned laver, or nori, at a park during a
rice-pounding gathering, part of the annual preparation for the New Year’s
celebration at a park in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Officials are urging people
to chew slowly on the treats, as at least nine people in Japan have report-
edly choked to death on the New Year’s rice cakes. (AP Photo/Tetsuya
Saruta)
Japanese
customarily
Yomiuri reported. In the
Nagasaki
case,
an visit shrines and temples to
80-year-old-man choked on welcome the new year, and
mochi that was in sweet mochi, saké, and other
bean soup served for free at treats are sold or given
a Shinto shrine.
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PRINCE OF THE CHURCH. Newly appointed
cardinal Charles Maung Bo, foreground, prays during
a religious service at St. Paul’s Missionary school in a
suburb of Yangon, Myanmar (also known as Burma).
Archbishop Bo was one of 20 new cardinals whose
appointments were announced by Pope Francis this
month. Bo’s appointment comes as Myanmar grap-
ples with major issues of religious intolerance, par-
ticularly by members of the Buddhist majority toward
Muslims of the Rohingya ethnic minority. (AP Photo/
Gemunu Amarasinghe)
religious faiths must be protected. A
movement that has grown in volume and
influence
threatens
this:
extreme
Buddhist nationalism.”
Bo declared “there is a need for all of us
— religious, civil, and political leaders —
to speak up to counter hate speech with
good speech, as well as for the government
to bring to justice those who incite
discrimination and violence.”
Benedict Rogers of the British-based
religious
freedom
advocacy
group
Christian Solidarity Worldwide described
Bo as “a man of enormous quality: courage,
wisdom, compassion, humility, humor,
hospitality, and generosity.
“In particular, he has been one of the
most outspoken religious leaders in
Burma on issues of human rights,
religious freedom, democracy, poverty,
human trafficking, and other injustices,”
said Rogers, who added that the
archbishop inspired him personally to
become a Catholic.
Associated Press writer Grant Peck in
Bangkok contributed to this report.
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Ne-
pal — A group of
Nepalese climbers
have returned home after
becoming the first all-
woman team to climb the
highest mountains on all
seven continents.
The team started their
quest in 2008 by climbing
Mount Everest and ended
by scaling Mount Vinson in
Antarctica on December
23.
The women received a
rowdy welcome at the
airport, where team leader
Shailee Basnet said they
would continue to climb
even after achieving their
goal.
Only four of the seven
team members were able to
make the last journey to
Antarctica because of lack
of funding. They have been
paying for the trips using
personal savings, sponsors,
and fundraising events.
They scaled Everest in
Asia, Kosciuszko in Aus-
K
PEAKING INTEREST. Nepalese climbers (L-R) Nimdoma Sherpa,
Maya Gurung, Asha Singh, Chunu Shrestha, Pema Dikki, and Shailee
Basnet pose for the media at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kath-
mandu. A group of Nepalese climbers have returned home from Ant-
arctica after becoming the first all-woman team to climb the highest
mountains on all seven continents. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
tralia, Elbrus in Europe, country are female. Of the
Kilimanjaro in Africa, more than 4,000 climbers
Aconcagua in South Ameri- who have scaled Mount
ca, Denali or McKinley in Everest, more than half are
North America, and now Nepalese, but only two
Vinson in Antarctica.
dozen of those are women.
Ang Tshering of the
The team aimed to
Nepal
Mountaineering change the all-male image
Association confirmed it of mountaineering in their
was the first all-woman country. Nepalese women
team to scale all the peaks.
have rarely had a chance to
Nepal has eight of the 14 climb because they were
highest mountains in the confined to their homes
world, but few mountain- while their husbands led
eers from the Himalayan
Continued on page 16