Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
March 20, 2017
Sushi in Pyongyang: Japanese chef opens rare restaurant
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A Japanese chef famous for working for
North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong Il has returned to Pyongyang to open a sushi
restaurant. According to Canadian consultant Michael Spavor, who met Kenji
Fujimoto last year, the restaurant — a rarity in the North Korean capital — is a
hit with foreign diplomats, U.N. workers, and business people. It’s uncommon to
find a Japanese business openly operating in North Korea because of strained
relations between the two countries. But Fujimoto is a special case. After Kim’s
death in 2011, he met with his son, the new leader Kim Jong Un, and the
restaurant opened early this year. Prices are high by Pyongyang standards,
starting at $50 for a sushi set, and running to more than $100.
China cutting 500,000 heavy industry jobs
BEIJING (AP) — China’s labor minister says Beijing will cut another 500,000
jobs this year from steel, coal, and other heavy industries to reduce excess
production capacity that’s flooding markets and depressing global prices. Yin
Weimin said the government will provide support for the laid-off workers to
transfer to other jobs, start their own companies, or retire. China is in the midst
of a multi-year effort to shrink bloated industries including steel, coal,
aluminum, cement, and glass in which production exceeds demand. Some
companies are trying to export their surplus output, prompting complaints by
the United States, Europe, and other trading partners that they’re threatening
thousands of jobs. At a news conference, Yin said the government provided
similar aid last year to 726,000 workers whose jobs in coal and steel were
eliminated.
Families aim to raise $50 million to search for Flight 370
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The families of those onboard missing
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 launched an effort to raise at least $50 million to
fund a private search while also marking the third anniversary of the plane’s
disappearance. The nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean was
suspended January 17 with no trace of the plane, which disappeared March 8,
2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Jacquita Gomes, whose husband was a flight attendant on the plane, said
families have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. She said Flight
370 “should not go down in history books as a mystery.” Transport minister Liow
Tiong Lai said a final report on the plane’s disappearance will be released this
year.
Philippine police face first lawsuit over drug killings
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Relatives of a father and son who were
killed last year by Philippine policemen in an anti-drug raid have filed murder
complaints against eight officers in what lawyers said will be the first of many
lawsuits against enforcers of the president’s bloody crackdown. Lawyer Maria
Kristina Conti said the murder complaints filed by Mary Ann Domingo against
the policemen are the start of a campaign to help families of poor victims of
alleged extrajudicial killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown
fight back through the courts. Domingo’s husband and son were gunned down in
their house in what police say was a gunbattle with drug suspects, but Conti said
was a rubout.
Indonesia says cruise ship must pay for coral damage
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s government says a British-owned
cruise ship must pay compensation for the destruction of coral reefs in a popular
tourist area known for its extensive marine biodiversity. The 4,200-ton cruise
ship M.V. Caledonian Sky ran aground in the waters of Raja Ampat in West
Papua province, causing extensive damage to the coral reefs. Vice president
Jusuf Kalla said the ship must pay for the damage it caused. Brahmantya
Satyamurti Poerwadi, a senior official at the Ministry of Maritime and
Fisheries, said the government will soon file lawsuits against the ship and its
captain, Keith Michael Taylor. He added that the ship, which is now in the
Philippines, could be summoned for an investigation. Poerwadi said the ship
violated both the 2004 Law on Fisheries and the 2009 Law on Environment
Protection. Each law carries jail terms of up to three years for negligence that
leads to destruction. The ministry described the damage to the reefs as
irreparable. A preliminary investigation found that about 17,200 square feet of
coral in the heart of the islands was destroyed. Poerwadi said a team was
investigating the full extent of the destruction. Raja Ampat is an archipelago
with more than 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals and is known as a center of
marine biodiversity.
Restive Chinese region offers reward to recruit more police
BEIJING (AP) — Authorities in China’s western region of Xinjiang are
offering high salaries and other benefits to recruit police in the restive area,
which has seen bloody attacks blamed on separatists. A notice on the website of
the government of Kashgar city in Xinjiang said 3,000 male officers are being
offered monthly salaries beginning at 5,000 yuan ($724), well above the regional
average. The recruitment drive is the latest step to ramp up security in the area,
where members of the native Uighur (WEE-gur) ethnic group have been blamed
for deadly attacks on government targets and migrants from other parts of
China. In a recent reported incident, eight people were killed, including three
knife-wielding assailants, in Pishan county in southern Xinjiang. Like in
Kashgar, Uighurs form the majority in Pishan.
CULTURAL CITY. This January 24, 2017 photo shows one of the exquisite carvings that adorn the palace of Queen
Sein Don in Mawlamyine, which depicts one of 45 consorts of Mindon, the next-to-last king of Myanmar (formerly known
as Burma). For decades, foreigners were banned from the Mawlamyine area due to an insurgency. Tourists are still few
compared to an influx to other areas of the country following the end of military rule in 2011 and the electoral victory of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last year. (Denis D. Gray via AP)
Myanmar’s ex-colonial capital
captivates with faded glory
Continued from page one
stupa in proper Buddhist fashion.
Despite the intrusions of modern technology
and being Myanmar’s fourth largest city,
Mawlamyine (as Moulmein is now officially
spelled) still maintains an air of distance from
the world’s mainstreams, in part because of its
geography. It’s a long, 186-mile road journey
from the country’s international gateway of
Yangon, the other options being a rickety train
ride or sporadic flights.
For decades, foreigners were banned from
the area due to an insurgency. Tourists are
still few compared to an influx to other areas of
Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) that
followed the end of military rule in 2011 and
the electoral victory of pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi last year.
Our party recently took the most scenic
route to Mawlamyine: by car from Yangon to
Hpa-An, the pleasant capital of Myanmar’s
Karen State, and from there by hired boat
down the Salween, one of the world’s longest,
still free-flowing rivers. Before it empties into
the sea, the Salween enhances Mawlamyine’s
charm, flowing past its Strand Road where
families stroll to view the sunset across the
broad stream.
Mawlamyine wasn’t always a byway. After
the first Anglo-Burmese war, the British made
it their capital between 1826 and 1852,
building government offices, churches, and a
massive prison. They started business
enterprises and the country’s first newspaper.
Many of these relics of the British Raj
remain along with mosques, Hindu temples,
and even a slice of Americana, reflecting
Mawlamyine’s great diversity.
One of the earliest American missionaries to
foreign lands, the legendary Adoniram
Judson, built the town’s First Baptist Church
in 1827, going on to write an English-Burmese
dictionary and translate the Bible into Bur-
mese during his nearly 40 years in the country.
Nearby stands the St. Mathew’s Anglican
church, erected in 1887 and still in use, al-
though like many of the city’s heritage build-
ings in a state of picturesque decay: Vegeta-
tion sprouts from peeling brick walls and the
tower clock is perpetually set at 6:54pm.
Given Mawlamyine’s numerous Buddhist
temples, one can succumb to pagoda fatigue.
But aside from “Kipling’s,” said to date back to
875 and enshrine a hair of the Lord Buddha,
the Yadarbon Myint Monastery is a must
although rarely visited. The monastery’s small
palace contains some of Myanmar’s most
exquisite carvings, commissioned by Queen
Sein Don, one of 45 consorts of the Mindon, the
penultimate king of Myanmar.
The queen came after Mandalay was seized
by the British in 1885, bringing with her
craftsmen from the royal capital. What they
created has special value since Mandalay’s
royal palace and most of its artistic treasures
were destroyed in World War II.
While Mawlamyine’s Buddhist shrines will
surely be preserved, the colonial heritage
along with the city’s unique character is im-
perilled. Dr. Tin Soe, a longtime resident, says
the fledgling local government lacks expertise,
the still powerful military has sold public land
to line its pockets, and the public sees little
value in old buildings. “The government has
not time, no budget, and no brains,” he says.
But a glimmer of hope comes from Yangon,
where the Yangon Heritage Trust is spear-
heading a generally successful campaign to
save the city’s magnificent colonial architec-
ture from the bulldozer and decay.
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80.105
3955.7
6.9034
2.062
7.762
65.475
13345
32415
112.7
8208.8
4.4355
107.48
104.84
3.167
50.174
57.182
3.7502
1.402
1130.1
152.32
30.626
34.837
22659