Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
September 7, 2020
Burger King operator in China fined over old ingredients
BEIJING (AP) — The operator of six Burger King outlets in southern China
that used expired ingredients has been required to pay more than $400,000 in a
case publicized by state TV, according to a regulator. One of the outlets in the
city of Nanchang was criticized in July on an annual consumer protection
program that in past years has focused on foreign auto, smartphone, and other
brands. Burger King apologized at that time and promised to cooperate with the
investigation of outlets operated by a franchisee. The restaurant operator was
fined 916,504 yuan ($132,600), the Nanchang Market Supervision Bureau
announced. The bureau also confiscated “illegal income,” raising the total to 2.8
million yuan ($407,000). Food safety is especially sensitive in China following
scandals over tainted, fake, or shoddy milk, drugs, and other products that
injured or killed consumers.
Shuttered Philippine TV network ends newscasts
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — The Philippines’ largest TV network last
month broadcast its final newscasts to millions of provincial viewers with
announcers tearfully bidding goodbye after lawmakers voted to reject its license
renewal. ABS-CBN Corp. said it was only able to distribute its news programs
over cable in metropolitan Manila after August 28 as it scaled down operations
following a vote by a House of Representatives committee to reject the renewal of
its 25-year franchise. It was the largest closure of news programs in an Asian
bastion of democracy in recent memory and involved laying off news anchors and
cancelling programs that have gained widespread popularity in recent decades.
Many announcers wept or fought back tears as they thanked their viewers.
International media groups have condemned the shutdown of ABS-CBN, which
was founded in 1953, as a major blow to media freedom. Watchdogs have
accused President Rodrigo Duterte and his government of muzzling inde-
pendent media such as ABS-CBN that have reported critically on issues such as
his anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects
dead. Duterte earlier threatened to block the network’s franchise renewal but
his spokesman said the president did not influence the lawmakers’ votes.
PGA Tour event in Japan relocated to California
(AP) — The Zozo Championship is moving from Japan to California this year
because of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it the anchor of a west coast swing
in the fall portion of the schedule that is certain to attract strong fields. The $8
million tournament will be played October 22 to 25 at Sherwood Country Club in
Thousand Oaks, California, with Tiger Woods as the defending champion on a
course where he has won five times. The tour and Zozo Inc. announced the
decision this month. It will be called the Zozo Championship at Sherwood, a
similar title to the South Korean event moving to Las Vegas the week before.
That one will be called the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek. Both tournaments will
return to Asia next fall. The temporary rearrangement was a big coup for the
tour, especially since Zozo and CJ Group primarily do business in Japan and
South Korea, respectively. Along with concerns about the coronavirus, players
were reluctant to go to Asia this fall with the Masters having moved to
November 12 to 15.
China extends anti-dumping tariffs on Indian optical fiber
BEIJING (AP) — China’s Commerce Ministry says it has extended punitive
tariffs on Indian optical fiber products for five years. The announcement follows
a yearlong review after a previous tariff expired in 2019. It took effect August 14.
It is unclear if the move is in any way related to a recent bout of antagonisms
between the Asian giants linked to a border clash in which 20 Indian soldiers
died. The tariffs on single-mode optical fiber range from 7.4% to 30.6% and were
first imposed in August 2014. Optical fiber is used in telecommunications
networks. In August, India kept in place tariffs on China-made solar power
products that were imposed to protect its own manufacturers.
HK begins mass testing for virus amid public doubts
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong tested more than 120,000 people for the
coronavirus at the start of a mass-testing effort that’s become another political
flash point in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Volunteers stood in lines
at some of the more than 100 testing centers, though many residents are
distrustful of the resources and staff being provided by China’s central
government and some have expressed fear DNA could be collected. The Hong
Kong government has dismissed such concerns, and leader Carrie Lam urged
the public to see the program in a fair and objective light and appealed to critics
to stop discouraging people from being tested since participation is crucial to the
program’s success. “This large-scale universal community testing program is
beneficial to fighting the epidemic and beneficial to our society. It will also help
Hong Kong come out of the pandemic unscathed and is conducive to the
resumption of daily activities,” Lam said at her weekly news conference. More
than 650,000 people in the city of 7.5 million signed up in advance for the
program, which will last at least a week. It is aimed at identifying silent carriers
of the virus — those without symptoms — who could be spreading the disease.
The government expects 5 million people will take part in the program, which
could be extended to two weeks depending on demand. Hong Kong’s worst
outbreak in early July was blamed in part on an exemption from quarantine
requirements for airline staff, truck drivers from mainland China, and sailors
on cargo ships. At its peak, Hong Kong recorded more than 100 locally
transmitted cases per day, after going weeks without any in June.
SACRED & SOILED. Funeral pyres burn at Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred places for Hindus
to be cremated, on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi, India, in this file photo. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is
a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed
from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh,
dead bodies, and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
Ganges River flows with history
and prophecy for India
By Altaf Qadri
The Associated Press
A
LONG THE GANGES, India — More
than 2,000 years ago, a powerful king
built a fort on the banks of India’s
holiest river, on the fringes of what is now a
vast industrial city.
Today, little of the ancient construction
remains, except for mounds of rubble that
tannery workers pick through for bricks to
build shanties atop what was once the fortress
of the great King Yayati.
And Kanpur, where Yayati built his fort, is a
city known for its leather tanneries and the
relentless pollution they pump into the
Ganges River.
For more than 1,700 miles, from the
Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay
of Bengal, the Ganges flows across the plains
like a timeline of India’s past, nourishing an
extraordinary wealth of life. It has seen
empires rise and fall. It has seen too many
wars, countless kings, British colonials,
independence, and the rise of Hindu
nationalism as a political movement.
In India, the Ganges is far more than just a
river. It is religion, industry, farming, and
politics. It is a source of water for millions of
people, and an immense septic system that
endures millions of gallons of raw sewage.
To Hindus, the Ganges is “Ganga Ma” —
Mother Ganges — and a center of spiritual life
for more than a billion people. Every year,
millions of Hindus make pilgrimages to the
temples and shrines along its shores. To drink
from it is auspicious. For many Hindus, life is
incomplete without bathing in it at least once
in their lifetime, to wash away theirs sins.
But all is not well with the Ganges.
Pollution has left large sections of it
dangerous to drink. Criminal gangs illegally
mine sand from its banks to feed India’s
relentless appetite for concrete. Hydroelectric
dams along the river’s tributaries, needed to
power India’s growing economy, have
infuriated some Hindus, who say the sanctity
of the river has been compromised.
And over the past 40-some years, the
Gangotri Glacier — source of almost half the
Ganges’ water — has been receding at an
increasingly frightening pace, now losing
about 22 yards per year.
For millennia, the Gangotri’s glacial melt
water has ensured the arid plains get enough
water, even during the driest months. The rest
comes from Himalayan tributaries that flow
from the colossal chain of mountains.
As the Ganges flows across the plains, its
once clean and mineral-rich water begins
collecting the toxic waste from the millions of
people who depend on it, becoming one of the
most polluted rivers in the world. Millions of
gallons of sewage, along with heavy metals,
agricultural pesticides, human bodies, and
animal carcasses, are dumped into the Ganges
every day.
At times, officials try to fix things but vast
stretches of it remain dangerously unhealthy.
Still, to Hindus, the river remains
religiously pure.
Every year, tens of thousands of Hindus
bring the bodies of their loved ones to be
cremated at the Ganges, in the city of
Varanasi. A Hindu who dies in the city, or is
cremated alongside it, is also freed from that
cycle of birth and death.
Continued on page 11
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84.63
4105.5
6.8409
2.0764
7.7502
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14710
42025
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9110.3
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165.4
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