2002
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- Bhutan's stamps delight world of philately
By Sugita Katyal
(Yahoo News! India / Reuters, October 1, 2003)
THIMPHU (Reuters) - Tiny Bhutan's only source of foreign exchange once was the exotic stamps it sold in international markets, featuring icons such as Elvis Presley and Donald Duck. Today, the Buddhist kingdom still issues stamps that delight the international world of philately -- only they are meant to educate people about social issues such as the status of women, the disabled and refugees. "In the 1960s, stamps helped introduce us to the world. Anybody who knew anything about Bhutan knew it through its stamps. They were like goodwill ambassadors," Meghraj Gurung, managing director of Bhutan Post, told Reuters. ...
- Ne Win and two "Burma boys"
(2nd item)
By Peter J Karthak
(Himal South Asian, December, 2002)
Story of two "Burma boys" who attended St Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling ... provides personal sagas and individual traumas suffered by Burmese men and women subjected to General Ne Win's no-win, lose-all Burmese path to socialism. ... The two Burma boys were Desmond Aye and Bobby Leong. If Desmond was the Elvis of North Point with his guitar-slinging pelvic gyrations and Blue Suede Shoes pouts and pirouettes supported by such musicians as Louis Banks and Austin Plant, Bobby was the Cliff Richards of our college. Both had a large fan following, and they employed secretaries to reply to their mail, each letter accompanied by autographed photographs. They were the fabulous teen pop idols of Burmese television - yes, Burma had TV as early as that! Burma also had the best football team in Asia then, years before the North Koreans made waves at the World Cup. Burma was a surplus rice exporter, its teeming forests had the best and strongest teak, oak and mahogany, and the mines were rich in ores and minerals, precious and semi-precious stones. ... Amidst the Indo-Chinese tensions, the students from Bhutan and Burma disappeared overnight from the college one day. ... General Ne Win had taken over Burma. ... These young men, not yet 22, were dispossessed, deprived, and displaced in their own land. ... [Desmond Aye died before he reached 60, while Bobby Leong escaped to Canada.]
- U.S. should talk with Arab youth, not at them
By Avi M. Spiegel
(Yahoo! News / USA TODAY, November 25, 2002)
U.S. officials directing the latest drive to sell America's image to the Muslim world might learn something from students at a youth center in rural Morocco. While I was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English to teenagers and young adults in Morocco from 1998 to 2000, I decorated my makeshift classroom with the only pictures around: posters of life in the United States designed by the U.S. Information Service. A day after U.S. bombs fell on Iraq in late 1998 during Operation Desert Fox, my classroom was vandalized, but most of the posters were left untouched. Only a small portrait of Ronald Reagan plastered on a poster titled ''American Heroes'' was tampered with. Black marker blocked out Reagan's face, the only recognizable political figure on a mural depicting the likes of Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart and Lou Gehrig. In a room filled with images of Native Americans, American religious pluralism, sports heroes and pop stars, only the politician was targeted. The lesson that day, echoed repeatedly throughout my discussions with Arab youth, was clear: They rejected America's political policies, not its popular culture. ... shallow ad campaigns can't tackle the complexity of resentment toward U.S. policy in the Arab world. By promoting America's image through superficial methods, the effect on Arab youth is often more condescending than productive. ... Our focus needs to be reversed.
- Asian Leaders Reveal Favorite Songs
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 21, 2002)
Malaysia's prime minister is a Frank Sinatra fan, while the leader of the Philippines prefers The Carpenters. East Asian leaders' favorite songs were revealed Thursday by the British Broadcasting Corp. as part of a survey to find the world's best-loved tunes. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri both chose Sinatra's "My Way," which Megawati praised as "full of determination."
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo chose The Carpenters' "I Have You," while Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he liked to hear Elvis Presley croon "Love Me Tender."
Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi selected The Beatles' "Let it Be," while East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao was sustained during seven years of imprisonment in Indonesia by Mariah Carey's "Hero."
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a well-known Elvis fan, likes to listen to Ennio Morricone's moody score for "Once Upon a Time in America."
- Beatles bow to Indian hit in world poll
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, November 21, 2002)
Step aside the Beatles, Queen and Led Zeppelin -- a Tamil song from a 1991 Indian film is topping them all in a worldwide poll to find the most popular song on the planet. "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" is one of three Indian songs riding high in the top ten of a BBC poll of radio listeners, celebrities and politicians from 116 countries. Cliff Richard is running a close second in the poll with his 1979 hit "We Don't Talk Any More". American singer Cher is holding down the third spot with her dance smash "Believe". At number four is John Lennon's "Imagine" -- an ode to peace that regularly tops favourite song lists -- and at five is another Indian title, "Vande Mataram" by Bankim Chandra. The BBC World Service said it had received votes from 116 countries with the most votes coming from India. So far, more than 900 songs have been chosen and the Beatles have the most nominated songs.
Former first lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos chose the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah as her favourite song. She told the BBC it always lifted her spirits when she needed spiritual healing.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a well known Elvis fan, chose Ennio Morricone's score for the film "Once upon a Time in America" as his top tune. Other songs in the top ten are "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin at eight, "Yesterday" by the Beatles at nine and The Eagles' "Hotel California" at number 10. The final results will be published on December 21.
- He might not recognize his own country, but a changing China still remembers Mao
By TED ANTHONY
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 20, 2002)
BEIJING - A few weeks back, in a far-off village in northwestern China, a roadside tree stump became the object of great attention. According to media reports that trickled out of the area, hundreds of Chinese came from wide and far to see the stump for themselves.
The hubbub went back to a villager named Zhang Yuliang, who insisted he had spotted something odd in the severed stump's pattern of rings: the face of the late Chairman Mao, the man responsible for communist China's existence. The tale is not unusual. In reality and in flights of Chinese fancy, Mao Zedong, dead 26 years, has never gone away ‹ and not only because his increasingly waxen body still lies on public display at the heart of the capital. Larger than life before he expired, in death the communist conqueror who stood atop Tiananmen gate and proclaimed a new China in October 1949 has become a vessel to be filled with the dreams of the people he led, inspired, made miserable and killed by the millions through his policies. He populates pop art and adorns disposable lighters. He is remembered in stouthearted song. He is invoked at almost every political gathering. He is, for China, a strange brew of emperor and Buddha, Lincoln and Elvis and Caligula. He still inspires awe, and he still inspires adulation.
- Taiwan IC engineers vie for job opportunities
(China Post, November 15, 2002)
You can find everything on eBay from a Learjet to a velvet painting of Elvis. But Jay and Marie Senese have found something far more rare on the auction site: a new way of life.
- Analysis: Revolution comes full circle as China rings in the new: They don't read Mao or Marx any longer. But will the new leaders, with a modernising agenda, turn their backs on totalitarianism?
By Jasper Becker in Beijing
(The Independent, November 15, 2002)
The current Party Congress in Beijing is designed to convince us that the Chinese Communist Party has changed. Eighty years on, we are supposed to believe that it is not the cruel and capricious beast whose violent internal struggles have caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent bystanders but a perfectly normal house-trained pussycat. ... Mr Jiang, despite being ruthless with internal dissent, has managed to persuade many suspicious Western visitors to trust him. Unlike the stock Communist dictator, he has courted them by singing Verdi or Elvis and dancing the foxtrot.
- Emerging middle class reshaping China
By David J. Lynch
(Yahoo! News / USA TODAY, November 12, 2002)
SHANGHAI -- Elvis is crooning a love song as the young couple usher a visitor to a couch of supple black leather. A silver Dell laptop is parked on the glass-topped coffee table, not far from one of three remote controls that command the color television and compact-disc and digital-video players. The couple's 8-year-old son, already in his pajamas, is curled in a chair reading a glossy soccer magazine. Welcome to Communist China. More than half a century after Chairman Mao led a peasant revolt aimed at creating an egalitarian utopia, another revolution is brewing here. This economic upheaval, on display in the apartment of Chen Xiaowen and his wife, Xu Yan, has produced a fast-growing ''middle class'' estimated at more than 130 million people amid a population that once was united in poverty and uniformity.
- Paying Tribute to Wall Street Journal Reporter Danny Pearl's Legacy, America's First Indian Pop Star Returns to India for a Six-City Concert Tour
Source: Reggie Benjamin
(Yahoo! Finance / BUSINESS WIRE, November 11, 2002)
Composer and pop singer Reggie "Raj" Benjamin is notorious for his commitment to helping the poor in India, particularly donating the proceeds from the sale of his debut album, "2X-Centrix," to cleaning up the water and the environment. ... After reading an article about the Daniel Pearl Foundation in People Magazine, Reggie asked his publicist if there was any way he could dedicate his 2003 tour to the memory of Danny Pearl. ... Reggie will be flying to India at the end of December to work on his second music video requested by MTV Asia. ... Growing up, he was influenced by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and George Michael.
- Confined to home, former Chinese party chief an enduring reminder of regime's severity
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 10, 2002)
BEIJING - "Private work unit. Visits kindly refused," says the marble slab on the rambling courtyard compound down a central Beijing alley. It hints at one of China's enduring zones of political discomfort - a half-forgotten reminder of the regime's intolerance for dissent and fear of reform. Inside, behind barbed wire, Zhao Ziyang, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of China, has been confined under armed guard since being deposed in a 1989 power struggle after sympathizing with the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that were eventually crushed by the army. ... Zhao, 83, hasn't been seen publicly in 13 years. The story of his life since 1989 is a miasma of rumors, unproven claims, fourth-hand stories and Elvis-like sightings.
- As globalization sweeps through China, a crucial commodity emerges: the English name
By TED ANTHONY
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, October 27, 2002)
BEIJING - First she tried "Linda" on for size, but gave it up because her boss was named Linda, too. Then she turned to "Vivienne," for Julia Roberts' character in "Pretty Woman." Soon, though, various Vivians and Viviennes were crossing her path. So when Wang Wei, a marketer in a Beijing hotel, chose her third English name, she wanted to make absolutely certain it was unique. She found it while shopping in the frozen-foods aisle of a supermarket, and is still answering to it seven years later. "In China," Vanilla Wang says today, "it really helps to have a name people remember."
China talks of opening to the world, of how the most populous nation is becoming international in epic ways. But it unfolds on smaller canvases, too: Just look at the English names of the younger generation - names they have chosen meticulously to present themselves to the world beyond China. They find inspiration in foods (Scallion Liang, a student), in Italian soccer players (Baggio Hua, a mover), in names that evoke centuries past (Ignatius Ding, a government employee) and names that just plain sound cosmopolitan (Harlem Zhao, a waitress, and Echo Wang, an account executive).
It's globalization, on the most personal of levels. "Foreigners, when they choose Chinese names, go by phonetics. But Chinese prefer something with meaning," says Wang Xuejun, author of the popular volume "Choose English Names." ... Chinese place much greater stock in the meaning of names than most native English speakers do. In China, many foreign words are assimilated into Chinese with great care. America is "meiguo," or "beautiful country"; Elvis is "maowang", or "King Cat."
- "I know Elvis Presley..."
By A. Hafiz Yatim
(New Straits Times, October 23, 2002)
MALACCA, Oct 23: Do you know anyone in Malaysia who can post bail for you? That was the question posed by a magistrate to a British national who pleaded guilty to using vulgarities against a hotel security guard and damaging hotel property. Magistrate Muzalmah Mustapha Kamal could not help but be amused when she saw the foreigner smile and jokingly answer that he knew Elvis Presley. "That is very funny," Muzalmah said before ordering Paternoster Darren Graig, 27, to come up with RM3,000 bail if he didn't want to spent the next six days behind bars pending facts and sentencing next Tuesday. She also ordered Graig to find a Malaysian citizen to stand as guarantor for him. Graig, of Ennerdalear Chelmsford, Elm Park Hornchorn, Britain, failed to post bail and was later taken to the Bandar Hilir prison.
- Indian Movie Icon Amitabh Bachchan Turns 60
By Sugita Katyal
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, October 12, 2002)
NEW DELHI - For most Indians, Bollywood movie star Amitabh Bachchan, who turned 60 Friday, is like a demi-god. But for a group of Calcutta admirers, the larger-than-life star is god himself: a few months ago, adoring fans even prayed to a tinsel-topped wax image of the idol. "The Big B is the best actor in the whole universe. I respect him next to God," wrote Sayak Bose on one of dozens of Web sites on Bachchan who was king of Indian cinema in the 1970s and 1980s and is still the brightest in a constellation of Bollywood stars. ... INDIA'S ELVIS PRESLEY
- His best-known film, "Sholay," ran in Bombay for seven years -- turning him into an icon in India, much like Elvis Presley was in the West. Millions of young men aped his distinctive hairstyle and people in remote villages rattle off lines from his films.
- Today at the Rally: the Scenic Route
By Christina Bennett
(Discovery Channel, October 4, 2002)
KERMAN, Iran -- "We've been forced to listen to Elvis Presley's love songs for the past two days," says Patricia Dalrymple, pointing to a cassette player that won't eject its tape. "If anyone has any doubt as to Elvis' whereabouts, he's alive and well inside our car." Patricia and David Dalrymple may be the only rally team that could have such a problem. In their tail-finned, ice-blue 1949 Cadillac coupe, the Dalrymples approach this world tour as more romance than race, music selection and all. In fact, they're using the rally as an excuse to prolong their 25th anniversary. ... By the time I get into the Dalrymples' car for the 340-mile trip from Zahedan to Kerman, they have pried the Elvis tape out but can't get any other cassette to work. So David hums through the streets of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- LG Arts Center to Show Musical 'Forbidden Planet'
By Jeong Jae-yeon
(Discovery Channel, September 18, 2002)
The Landmark science-fiction movie to musical "Forbidden Planet" a rock and roll musical version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest," from whose plot the film was written, will be staged at the LG Arts Center from October 11 to the 26th. Transforming the script of "The Tempest," to outer space "Forbidden Planet" was a nominee for the 1956 Academy Awards. The dramatic situation centers on Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), living on the barren planet Altair IV with their robot "Robby." When a rescue mission arrives, led by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen), it's warned away by Morbius, who insists that the lives of the ship's crew are in peril. His warnings prove prophetic when, one by one, members of Adams' crew succumb to a grim, violent death. The exquisite flavor of the musical Forbidden Planet lies in marvellous editing famous lines of Shakespeare
Rock and roll hit songs from the past, including Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Cliff Richard and Steppenwolf are rephrased into Shakespearean speech. The stars of the musical thread their way through the stage while acting, singing and playing two to three musical instruments in turn. Produced by Root One CEO Choi Ho, stars in the musical include actor and actress Kim Sung-ki and Nam Kyung-ju, singer Park Ki-young and his band.
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