ASIA / PACIFIC
October 1, 2018
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Charles Kao, Nobel-winning
optical fiber pioneer, dies at 84
MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL. In this undated photo, 18-year-old Aldi Novel Adilang is seen on a wooden
fish trap floating in the waters near the island of Guam. The Indonesian teenager survived about seven weeks
adrift at sea after the floating wooden fish trap he was employed to mind slipped its moorings. Aldi’s parents and
the Indonesian Consulate in Osaka, Japan, said he was rescued August 31 by a Panamanian-flagged vessel off
Guam, about 1,200 miles from his original location. (Indonesian Consulate General in Osaka via AP)
Indonesian teenager rescued
after drifting 49 days at sea
By Ali Kotarumalos
The Associated Press
AKARTA,
Indonesia
—
An
Indonesian teenager who survived
49 days adrift at sea after the
wooden fish trap he was employed to mind
slipped its moorings says he ran out of food
within a week and survived on fish and
seawater he squeezed from his clothing.
Aldi Novel Adilang told The Associated
Press that he turned on a lamp every time
he sighted another ship and can’t
remember how many passed by “unaware
of my ordeal.”
The Indonesian Consulate in Osaka,
Japan, said the 18-year-old was rescued by
a Panamanian-flagged vessel off Guam on
August 31, about 1,200 miles from his
original location, and returned to Indo-
nesia with officials earlier in September.
He was employed since age 16 in one of
the world’s loneliest jobs: lamp lighter on a
rompong — a wooden raft with a hut on top
that’s lit at night to attract fish — moored
about 78 miles off the coast of North
Sulawesi.
The coastline is not visible from the
fishing rafts and the numerous rompong
are miles apart, said Adilang’s mother,
Net Kahiking. Supplies including food and
fuel for a generator are dropped off about
once a week. The minders, who earn $130 a
month, communicate with fishing boats by
handheld radio.
“I was on the raft for one month and 18
days. My food ran out after the first week,”
J
said Adilang. When it didn’t rain for days,
“I had to soak my clothes in the sea, then I
squeezed and drank the water.”
The boy’s father, Alfian Adilang, said
the family is overjoyed at his return but
angry with his employer. It was the third
time the teen’s raft had drifted. The
previous two times it had been rescued by
the owner’s ship, the boy said.
The rafts are anchored with ropes and
Aldi Adilang said strong friction caused
them to break.
“I thought I will never meet my parents
again, so I just prayed every day,” he said.
Adilang’s portable radio, known as a
handy-talky or HT in Indonesia, would
prove to be a lifesaver.
“It was early morning on August 31
when I saw the ship and I lighted up the
lamp and shouted ‘help’ using the HT,” he
said.
“The ship had passed about one mile but
then it turned to me. Might be because I
used the English word,” he said. “Then
they talked on the HT.”
The MV Arpeggio, which rescued
Adilang off Guam, contacted the
Indonesian mission in Japan when it
docked in Tokuyama and officials from the
Osaka consulate collected him on
September 6, the consulate said in a
statement. He returned to Indonesia on
September 8.
Adilang, who is the youngest son of four
siblings, said he no longer wants to work
on a rompong.
“My parents agree,” he said.
Rare Sumatran tiger caught in animal trap dies
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A
critically endangered Sumatran tiger
pregnant with two cubs was found dead in
the Indonesian province of Riau after
being caught in a pig trap, according to
authorities, in the latest setback to a
species whose numbers are estimated to
have dwindled to about 400.
The head of the local conservation
agency, Suharyono, said the tiger, about
Summer Run
four years old, was reportedly trapped
earlier in the week, escaped, then was
found dead in a ravine about 500 feet from
the trap with part of the snare wrapped
around its body.
It was pregnant with male and female
cubs, said Suharyono, who uses a single
name.
He said the snare rope had ruptured its
Continued on page 8
HONG KONG (AP) — Charles K. Kao,
who shared a 2009 Nobel Prize in physics
for pioneering work in optical fiber
technology that helped to lay the
foundation for modern telecommunica-
tions, has died. He was 84 years old.
Kao, a former vice chancellor of the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, died in
hospice care, according to the Hong Kong
government and news reports. He suffered
from Alzheimer’s disease but no cause of
death was announced.
Kao was a researcher at ITT Corp. when
in 1966 he and a colleague published a
paper that showed pure glass fibers could
be used for communication. That tech-
nology, along with developments in lasers,
gave rise to a new industry.
Kao’s work “made the internet possible,”
the South China Morning Post newspaper
said in an editorial.
Charles Kuen Kao was born November
4, 1933 in Shanghai, according to a bio-
graphy released by the Nobel Foundation.
His mother wrote poetry and his father
was an American-educated judge.
The family left in 1948 for Hong Kong,
where Kao finished high school. He
received a bachelor’s degree in electrical
PIONEERING PRINCIPLE. Nobel Prize laure-
ate in physics professor Charles K. Kao, right, sits with
his wife, May W. Kao, during the opening ceremony
of the Nobel Exhibition at Chinese University of Hong
Kong, in this February 5, 2010 file photo. (AP Photo/
Kin Cheung, File)
engineering from Woolwich Polytechnic in
London.
Kao was vice chancellor of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong in 1987-1996. He
helped to found its department of electrical
engineering in 1970 during a leave from
ITT’s British subsidiary.
Kao was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in
2004. He and his wife, Gwen, set up a
foundation in 2010 to raise awareness of
the disease and promote support for people
who care for sufferers.
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