Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
April 16, 2018
Woman mayor protests sumo sexism in off-ring speech
TOKYO (AP) — A woman mayor in western Japan has protested sumo’s
male-only tradition in a speech she was forced to make outside of the ring —
unlike her male counterparts who were allowed in. Takarazuka City mayor
Tomoko Nakagawa said she is frustrated and pained by the sexist tradition. In
sumo’s tradition, the ring is considered sacred and women are prohibited from
entering. Sumo officials cited their male-only tradition when they rejected
Nakagawa’s request to speak in the ring. The Japan Sumo Association also
caused an uproar this month after asking women first responders to leave the
ring while attempting to revive an official who collapsed at an event in Kyoto.
They then apologized over the incident. Top government officials asked the
association for flexibility.
Groups say Facebook hasn’t controlled hate speech
BANGKOK (AP) — Civil society and rights groups in Myanmar say Facebook
has failed to adequately act against online hate speech that incites violence
against the country’s Muslim minority. Phandeeyar, a digital innovation lab,
and five other groups wrote an open letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark
Zuckerberg, challenging his contention in a recent interview that the
social-media platform had effectively combatted hate speech targeting the
Rohingya community that’s being persecuted in western Myanmar. Htaike
Htaike Aung, executive director of one of the groups, Myanmar ICT for
Development Organization, says Facebook has been a useful tool for people in
Myanmar to exercise freedom of expression, but it had failed to effectively
enforce rules to make it a safe community for all.
Singapore court imposes hefty fines for Airbnb rentals
SINGAPORE (AP) — A court in Singapore has fined two men 60,000
Singapore dollars ($45,800) each for breaching laws banning short-term rentals
by renting out condominiums through online services such as Airbnb, Craigslist,
and HomeAway. Terence Tan En Wei and Yao Songlaing pleaded guilty at State
Court in February to four charges of illegally renting out four units last year, in
the first case of its kind in the Southeast Asian island nation. Defense lawyer
Wong Soo Chih said prosecutors requested a fine of 20,000 Singapore dollars
($15,267) per charge, but the judge set it at 15,000 Singapore dollars ($11,450)
per charge. Airbnb said in a statement after the sentencing that it will work with
Singapore authorities to allow the fair use of home sharing.
Indonesia’s Aceh to take caning indoors after backlash
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province
says it will no longer allow canings for violations of Shariah law to be carried out
in public, apparently in response to international condemnation of the caning
last year of two men for gay sex. A memorandum of understanding signed by
Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf and Yuspahruddin, head of the provincial Law and
Human Rights office, stipulates that caning can only take place inside prisons or
other places of detention. It says adults can still witness the punishment, but the
numbers will be much smaller than the hundreds who regularly cheered the
outdoor proceedings. Hundreds of people have been publicly caned since it was
introduced as a punishment in Aceh in 2005. Aceh is the only province in
Muslim-majority Indonesia that practices Shariah law.
Thais help boat with presumed Rohingya refugees
BANGKOK (AP) — A boat with 56 people claiming to be Muslim Rohingya
refugees from Myanmar was helped back to sea by Thai fishermen and navy
craft after being damaged in a storm and stopping temporarily in southern
Thailand. An official in Thailand’s Krabi province said those aboard were
seeking to go to Malaysia when their boat was damaged. He said Thai villagers
supplied them with food and fuel before sending them on their way. Rohingya,
treated as undesirables in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, flee by sea by the
thousands each year. The numbers peaked in 2015, sparking a crackdown on
their escape route. About 700,000 have fled western Myanmar.
43 Cambodians convicted of felonies repatriated from U.S.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Forty-three Cambodians arrived in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, after being deported from the United States
under a law allowing the repatriation of immigrants who have committed felony
crimes and have not become U.S. citizens. The group is the largest to be sent to
Cambodia under a 2002 bilateral agreement. More than 500 other Cambodians
have already been repatriated. The program is controversial because it breaks
up families, and in some cases, the returnees have never lived in Cambodia,
having been the children of refugees who fled to camps in Thailand to escape the
genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Critics
of the deportation policy say many of those convicted fell into crime as a result of
social dislocation. The returnees are seen as having difficulty reintegrating into
Cambodian society because many have spent most of their lives in the United
States. Two Cambodian ex-convicts on March 30 received pardons from
California governor Jerry Brown, at least temporarily removing the risk they
might be deported. Gen. Dim Ra, a senior immigration police officer overseeing
the returnees, said the group that arrived included three women. He said any
returnees who still have family members in Cambodia will live with their
relatives, and those who do not will receive vocational training by a private
group funded by the U.S. government before being integrated into Cambodian
society. The deportation policy has hurt already cool relations between
Cambodia and the United States.
SUPER SUMMITER. Veteran Nepalese Sherpa guide Kami Rita, left, receives a Khada, or ceremonial scarf, be-
fore leaving to the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. Rita is attempting a record-breaking 22nd summit of Mount Everest.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Sherpa guide tries to reach
top of the world for 22nd time
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal — Three men
have climbed to the top of the world 21
times, all of them mountain guides
who grew up in the shadow of Mount Everest.
Two of these famed Sherpa guides have
retired. But 48-year-old Kami Rita says he’ll
be summiting Everest for years to come.
“My goal is to reach the summit of Everest at
least 25 times,” he told The Associated Press in
Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, shortly before
heading back to the mountain for what he
hopes will mark a record-breaking climb. “I
want to set a new record not just for myself, but
for my family, the Sherpa people, and for my
country, Nepal.”
For Rita, climbing is a family tradition.
His father was among the first professional
guides after Nepal opened to foreign trekkers
and mountaineers in 1950. His brother has
scaled Everest 17 times. Most of his male
relatives have reached the top at least once.
He decided to become a guide when he was a
child. “Growing up in the village I envied the
good clothes and things that people in the
village brought back after expeditions,” he
said.
He first scaled the 29,035-foot Everest at age
24, and has made the trip almost every year
since then. He has also climbed many of the
region’s other high peaks, including K-2,
Cho-Oyu, Manaslu, and Lhotse. In the
autumn, he guides clients to smaller peaks in
Nepal.
As a veteran guide, he earns about $10,000
for each Everest climb, an enormous income in
a country where most people earn just $700 or
so per year.
K
Life had changed for many Sherpa families
since 1950. Yak herders and traders who lived
in the Himalayan foothills, the Sherpas’
knowledge of the mountains and stamina built
over years of walking high-altitude trails
made them ideal guides.
The other two summit record-holders are
also Sherpas. Apa, a 58-year-old guide who
uses only one name, retired in 2011 and moved
to Utah. Phurba Tashi, 47, retired from
high-altitude climbing in 2013 but still works
at Everest’s Base Camp, helping organize
expeditions.
It is not an easy life.
“There are many risks in climbing, which is
always unpredictable and dangerous. But I
have had to keep doing this because I don’t
know anything else,” Rita said. Some of the
hardest moments for him came when he lost
friends in mountaineering accidents.
He was at Base Camp when an avalanche
struck in 2014, killing 16 Sherpa guides,
including five from his team. The next year, an
earthquake triggered another avalanche that
ripped through Base Camp, killing 19 people.
He escaped only because his team’s tents were
set up that year on the far side of Base Camp.
Sherpa guides now have better insurance
coverage, and the Nepal government has
begun issuing certificates for successful climbs
to guides too.
“Now we have proof to show our clients of the
climbs we have achieved, which helps us,” he
said.
In many ways, he says, climbing has become
safer in the three decades he’s been working in
the mountains, with better equipment and
complex weather forecasting to warn of the
mountain’s deadly storms.
Continued on page 4
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62.215
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8291.7
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