'No women dancers in CNY show'

ALOR STAR: The Pas-led Kedah government has threatened to interrupt a stage performance to usher in the Chinese New Year if adult women performers take part in the event.

The warning was relayed to the event organiser, which had drawn up plans to hold the performance in a shopping complex here on Feb 15.

The two-page directive was signed by state Arts and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Dr Hamdan Mohamad Khalib.

The letter, dated Jan 19, also stated that if women performers were needed, only secondary schoolgirls should be engaged.

Those taking part in the performance had also been warned against dressing indecently, while singers could only belt out tunes to the beat of minus-one music.

The five-item guideline also demanded the organiser to submit a list of artistes and their songs prior to the event.

The directive also stated that only songs of religious nature were allowed.
It was also stated in the guideline that the state government reserved the right to stop the event immediately if there was any indecent dancing and singing performances.

The directive, issued despite the opposition bloc's repeated claims of religious and cultural tolerance, had drawn flak from many quarters, including state Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-chairman Tan Chow Kang.

Tan, who is also state Chinese Community Affairs Committee chairman, said it was not right for the state government to impose such guidelines on the Chinese.

Echoing the same sentiment was Kedah Pas Supporters Club chairman Tan Weng Fatt, who described the rule as unfair to non-Muslims.

"The rule on the dress code is acceptable but the ban on adult women performing is just too much.
"I just don't get it. Why impose a ban on adult women and allow secondary schoolgirls to perform?"
State Gerakan chairman Dr Cheah Soon Hai, who revealed the directive, described the guidelines as an unprecedented move by the Pas-led state government.

"I am afraid the state government will impose the same rules on other festive celebrations," said Dr Cheah, who is also Derga assemblyman.

Dr Hamdan could not be reached for comment.

In Ipoh, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said the party had received complaints regarding the directive.

Speaking after opening the MCA's 64th anniversary celebration here yesterday, Dr Chua said DAP might not oppose the ruling but MCA viewed it as an infringement of non-Muslim rights.

Expressing surprise that DAP did not raise an alarm over the matter, Dr Chua said the directive should be an eye-opener for the Chinese.

Brand new Corvette kicks off Detroit car show

DETROIT, Michigan: A sparkling new Corvette with as much Italian lines as American dash kicked off the annual North American Auto Show Sunday, the first makeover in eight years for the iconic US sports car.

Six decades after the Chevrolet speedster came on the market, the new  Corvette easily earned the respect of the Detroit automotive press, with one  saying its “Italianate lines” suggested the class leader Ferrari.

 

“The soul of our company is sitting right here in Corvette,” said Mark  Reuss, president for the Americas of Chevrolet parent General Motors. “This car  is the reason I work at GM.”

 

GM, pulling out of an industry wide recession in 2008 to 2010, ordered a  sweeping redesign of the current C6 model: a new platform, new 450 horsepower  motor, and new exterior and interior, held together with a good dose of carbon  fiber to keep it light and fast.

 

The company said it was the most powerful base model Corvette it had ever  launched, capable of reaching 100 kph in 4 seconds flat.

 

But it is also, the company said, the most efficient Corvette ever, its  emissions lower than the C6.

 

It should hit the market in the third quarter of 2013

China's worst people of 2012

Rankings of the rank: China's worst people of 2012

Sina Weibo users have named their worst people of 2012, with disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai and Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan both high on the list, reports Hong Kong's Apple Daily.

The rankings have been accumulating votes on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, since last July. One hundred finalists were selected from over 1,000 candidates put forward by netizens for their despicable, shameless or vulgar character and deeds.

Bo, who last year was at the center of the biggest scandal to hit Chinese politics in twenty years, topped the rankings for his shameless self-defense at the annual meeting of the National People's Conference last March, where his defiant cry that he and his family were being smeared with accusations of corruption contributed to him being sacked a few days later. While many of the accusations leveled online about Bo and his wife Gu Kailai were indeed outlandish, enough of them were true for Gu to be given a suspended death sentence for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, while Bo has been kicked out of the party and awaits trial for his abuses of power as party chief of Chongqing.

Fang Zhouzi, a biochemist well known for his campaigns exposing pseudoscience and fraud, in particular his claim that popular author Han Han does not write his own books, follows Bo, as netizens judge his campaigns — which have revealed some genuine cases of misconduct — are largely self-aggrandizing.

Jackie Chan makes 14th on the list, having gone from fighting the system in his films to being the real-life system's most enthusiastic supporter as he moves into middle age. Chan has made himself unpopular by criticizing Hong Kong as a "city of protest" in a recent interview with Guangzhou's Southern People Weekly, coupled with previous statements to the effect that Chinese people cannot handle freedom and need to be controlled.

Perhaps less well known outside China are Fang Binxing, ranked 7th, the president of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications who is the chief architect of the country's internet censorship technology, and Yu Qiuyu, ranked 21st, who made a fake donation to victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and showed disrespect to those who died in the disaster.

For his public assertion that people from Hong Kong are bastards and dogs, Peking University professor Kong Qingdong showed himself to lack the wisdom and tact of his illustrious ancestor Confucius, also earning himself a spot in the top ten of people with the least admirable character. Scholar Zhang Heci meanwhile is deemed a spineless suck-up for being a prominent defender of the party which purged his liberal intellectual grandfather Zhang Dongsun in the 1950s and finally succeeded in hounding him to death in the Cultural Revolution a decade later.

Diplomat Sha Zukang, a former secretary general of the UN Economic and Social Affairs Department, is ranked 8th for his remarks that human rights in China are five times better than in the United States.
Just scraping in to the worst of the worst is Xu Jing, a contestant on If You Are the One, who went on the TV dating show to find her ideal spouse, neglecting to reveal that she was already married

Nearly nude model struts Nanjing jewelry market

Golden streak: Nearly nude model struts Nanjing jewelry market

A woman wearing only skin-colored underwear has been parading a jewelry market in Nanjing with a snake design painted on her body and her back bearing the words "gold prices streaking," reports Want Daily, our Chinese-language sister newspaper.

The owner of a gold shop at the Zijin Aitao Gold Jewelry Trading Center in the Jiangsu provincial capital held a body painting show as an eyecatching way to point out that their gold prices of 369 yuan (US$59) per gram are the lowest in town. The upcoming Chinese New Year will usher in the Year of the Snake, explaining the serpent motif.

The center covers an area of about 30,000 square meters with two underground floors and one ground floor plus a large leisure plaza, atrium and fountain. It is the foremost jewelry market in Nanjing and the largest center in eastern China for ordering coins, gold and silver souvenirs and gifts.

Forbes Photographs 'Titans of Philanthropy'

Would you want to be remembered most for the money you made or the money you gave away? These 12 "Titans of Philanthropy," who grace the cover of Forbes magazine for its 30th annual Forbes 400 issue, which ranks the richest people in the world, have clearly chosen the latter path.

The portrait, taken by Forbes contributing photographer Michael Prince in the Trustees Room of the New York Public Library, captures a dozen people who represent a breathtaking amount of wealth -- and good will -- all in one room: not less than $126 billion in net worth for this esteemed bunch of philanthropists, including Oprah Winfrey, who stands over Warren Buffett and Bill Gates like a ministering angel. Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen sits on the lap of her husband, Marc Andreessen, and rocker philanthropist Jon Bon Jovi lounges on the rug.

The occasion of the photo was the first-ever Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy on June 26, a gathering of 161 billionaires and near billionaires who, when they're not making pots of money, work on solving the world's most intractable problems. But even among such a rarefied group, these 12 stood, as Randall Lane of Forbes put it, "a notch above."

The behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot of this exclusive club explains more of how this group was selected. Says Lane, "These are all people who have given serious money, serious time to philanthropy, almost always, both."
The charitable giving is as eye-popping as the wealth: Bill and Melinda Gates with their globally influential foundation; Buffett, who has given away 99 percent of his money; Winfrey ("You get a car!"), who has given her time and money, and, let's face it, her Oprah magic; Arrillaga-Andreessen and Andreessen, who have said they are donating half their profits as they make them, a new paradigm. And Bon Jovi, who Forbes ranked as the top celebrity philanthropist. Who knew?

Ubuntu: The essence of being human

An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe found himself surrounded by children most days.

So he decided to play a little game with them. He managed to get candy from the nearest town and put it all in a decorated basket, at the foot of a tree.

Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the anthropologist said "now", the children had to run to the tree and the first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.

So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the anthropologist said "now", all of the children took each other by the hand ran together towards the tree. They all arrived at the same time divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.

The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run together when any one of them could have had the candy all to themselves.

The children responded: "Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if all the others were sad?"

Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I am what I am because of who we all are." South African human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave this explanation:

"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself. We think of ourselves too frequently as  individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World... the whole of humanity."

Breast in show: the art of plastic surgeon Han Xiao

Han Xiao, third right, with his "artistic team" and subject.

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The controversial exhibition No Plastic Surgery Today took place at a fine arts museum in Beijing on Aug. 26.

Previously, on the afternoon of Aug. 9 in the hallway of a local hospital, plastic surgeon Han Xiao had carried out a procedure in front of numerous spectators including artists, commentators and reporters.
The procedure was dubbed Plastic Surgery: the Behavioral Art of Han Xiao.

Peng Feng, a professor of art at Peking University and the organizer of the exhibition, says Han's surgery constitutes art since it matches people's aesthetic desires.

After a brief opening ceremony, Han stepped into the operating room and worked his art upon his female subject, to whom he administered an anesthetic before slicing open each breast from one side and inserting implants. The breast enlargement procedure lasted around 30 minutes.

Xia Yianguo, a commentator on the arts, does not consider Han's surgery to qualify as performance art, in which the artist displays his concept and thought during the process, but is rather a simple display of his daily work. Xia says any object from daily life can be elevated to art, depending on how the artist transforms his or her experience. But Han's surgery conveys only a technical rather than artistic effect, Xia said.

Han denies his exhibition is intended for the purposes of advertising. "I'm not opening a hospital in Beijing. Some artists are good at working with iron, others make art with rattan artwork and I am good at plastic surgery, which I believe has artistic value. In the future, my art will evolve around this method," the surgeon said.

Listed Chinese pharma used gutter oil to make antibiotics

A company in Shanghai which collects "gutter" oil.
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Joincare Pharmaceutical Group, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, has been accused of using recycled waste cooking oil as an ingredient in antibiotics, reports the Shanghai Securities News.

Citing the indictment filed by prosecutors with the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province, the newspaper said Joincare was the largest user of the "gutter" oil produced by Gelin Biology Company in Jinan, Shandong province. Gutter oil refers to waste oil collected from restaurants and illegally reused.

The prosecutors said Gelin sold its gutter oil to a company called Huikang Youzhi in Henan province, which resold it to Joincare Biology Company in Jiaozuo in the same province, after mixing the oil with ordinary soybean oil.

Joincare Biology is a subsidiary of Joincare Pharmaceutical, which used the gutter oil to produce an ingredient for antibiotics.

From the beginning of 2010 to July last year, Huikang sold 16,200 tons of gutter oil for a price of 145 million yuan (US$22.9 million) to Jiaozuo Joincare, or 8,950 yuan (US$1,411) per ton, 400-2,250 yuan (US$63-$345) per ton less than Huikang charged other buyers and far less than the price of ordinary oil.

Owing to the low price of the oil, Jiaozuo Joincare registered healthy profits of 339 million yuan (US$53.5 million) in 2010, contributing almost a half to Joincare's net profit of 740 million yuan (US$116.7 million) that year, reported Shanghai Securities News.

Jiaozuo Joincare posted a loss of 43 million yuan (US$6.8 million) in 2011 because of a sharp decline in the price of the ingredients it produced, according to the company.

The newspaper quoted a source at Joincare as confirming that the company had bought oil from Huikang for a short period of time, but did not know it was recycled gutter oil. It began to buy oil from the state-run food processing company COFCO, after Huikang was caught producing gutter oil.

However, the indictment said Joincare could not have purchased the oil without knowing that something was amiss, as its price was

Food prices in China rise due to drought overseas

The latest government data shows an across-the-board rise in food prices in China, pointing to the possibility of a rapid rebound in consumer prices and a delayed economic recovery.

In a survey of major foodstuffs published by the Ministry of Commerce on Aug. 30, the prices of rice, oil, meat, eggs and vegetables during the seven day period of Aug. 20-26 rose in 36 cities across the country.

Among them, the price of packaged rice grew 0.3% from the week before, while that of peanut oil grew 0.5%, the report showed.

The prices of pork, beef and mutton rose 0.38%, 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, while the wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetable increased 1.2%. Egg prices rose the most at 3%, according to the

Ministry of Commerce, which expects the trend in the price of eggs to continue.

Niu Li, a researcher from State Information Center, attributed the price rise to severe droughts among the world's major food exporters, which has led to lower output. Food prices will grow further if the prices of livestock feed and corn rise, according to Niu.

There was bound to be a decline in food production given the major droughts in the United States,
Russia and Argentina, Niu said, adding that Russia and Argentina have been facing their biggest droughts in decades.

Liu Yonghao, the chairman of livestock supplier New Hope Group, was pessimistic about the outlook for the cattle and agriculture industries in the second part of this year. The drought in the US would drive down food output and increase raw material prices, driving up meat and egg prices in turn, Liu said. However, he dismissed the prospect of a sharp increase in food prices.

Analysts expect the August consumer price index, which will be published in the next few days, to rise 2% from the same period a year ago.

Responding to these forecasts, Niu said consumer prices could rebound earlier than expected, while economic recovery could be delayed, given the negative outlook presented by most economic indicators

Singapore Mega-Church Faithful Invest in Malls: Southeast Asia

At “Miracle-Seed Sunday” in Singapore’s New Creation Church last month, the pastor’s sermon was preceded by PowerPoint and video presentations, and donations were overseen by Deloitte & Touche LLP auditors.

Centuries after Catholics established missions in Asia, Singaporeans are flocking to a new species of churches making appeals more in common with “Material Girl” pop-singer Madonna than the Jesuits.

Wearing a white leather jacket and jeans, Senior Pastor Joseph Prince asked God to reward a crowd of about 1,200 with houses, cars, jobs, pay raises and holidays if they contributed to New Creation’s multimillion-dollar funding drive.

Prince’s 24,000-strong flock belongs to a flourishing breed of churches from Houston to Sydney winning followers with a focus on personal well-being. As the rise of so-called mega churches helps make Christians the fastest-growing religious group in majority-Buddhist Singapore, their fundraising prowess is also making its mark, allowing groups including New Creation and City Harvest Church to invest in some of the island’s biggest commercial properties.

“Mega churches have been able to articulate Christianity in a very contemporary manner,” said Terence Chong, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies who has researched such groups.

“Being able to adopt the language of pop culture, mass consumption -- we think this appeals to the new middle class, people who are aspiring middle class.”

Security Guards

In a city state of 5.2 million people occupying a quarter of the area of Rhode Island, the mega churches stand out with their gatherings of thousands, near-celebrity leaders and outreach methods that range from magic shows and concerts to musical worship backed by electric guitars.

At the New Creation service, PowerPoint slides showed attendees how to write checks to the church, while armed security guards watched the cash. Worship and Holy Communion were followed by a video about a woman who donated on Miracle Seed Sundays even when her husband’s cancer treatments saddled the couple with debt. Images of a Volkswagen and a condominium showed the rewards that came to them for giving.

“As they come forth Lord to sow, release upon them Father the power to get, to create, to receive wealth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Prince said in the rented Rock Auditorium at the Suntec City Mall. “Prosperity is right. Amen. We prosper to prosper others. We prosper to prosper God’s kingdom, so come believing.”

The special session sought to raise funds for the church’s half of a S$976 million ($783 million) retail and entertainment complex, which includes a 5,000-seat auditorium. The venue, which will double as New Creation’s meeting place, is set to open in November with concerts by musician and producer David Foster and friends including Chaka Khan and Babyface, according to a statement from the theater.

Convention Center

The joint venture with CapitaLand Ltd. (CAPL), Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, would be among the 10 largest commercial properties by value and the biggest investment by any religious organization in Singapore, according to Nicholas Mak, executive director at SLP International Property Consultants.

The Miracle Seed event in 2010 raised S$21 million in a single day from 22,272 attendees, according to New Creation’s website, and the church planned three such sessions this year. It had raised S$348 million for the property project as of July 2012, the website said.

It’s not alone. City Harvest Church, a non-denominational church founded by senior pastor Kong Hee, 48, has attracted a reported 20,619 members as of last year. It proposed in 2010 to spend S$310 million for a stake in the Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre as well as related rents and renovation costs. The building was the venue for the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2009.

Record Funds

At a July 21 church service, Executive Pastor Aries Zulkarnain told followers the group raised a record S$22 million for its building fund last year, and had doubled its stake in the property to 39.2 percent for an additional S$54 million. He used PowerPoint slides to instruct churchgoers how to give offerings via cash, check and credit card, and highlighted the online donation system.

These churches are “beyond any doubt” the fastest fundraising bloc among religious organizations in the city state, said Gerard Ee, former President of the National Council of Social Service who was previously a partner with Ernst & Young. “The message here is: The more you give, the more you get back from God. It’s like an investment.”

Video Feed

New Creation, whose website reports 24,000 church members, convenes at several locations in the city every week because it’s outgrown the Rock Auditorium. At the Suntec City Mall, which houses retailers including Carrefour SA (CA), restaurants and a “Fountain of Wealth,” tickets are given out starting at 6:45 a.m. on Sundays for those wishing to see Prince speak in person.

Those who don’t have tickets watch him remotely via video feeds from other venues, such as the Marina Bay Sands casino resort and convention center or a nearby movie theater.

Prince, who sports a black leather jacket and bronze highlights in his hair on the church’s website, speaks at four sessions throughout the day, and recordings of his sermons reach millions across North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Israel, according to his podcast’s iTunes page. Websites unaffiliated to the church put his age at 49, though New Creation declined to confirm the information.

Singapore’s 2010 census showed that Christians make up the largest share of university graduates, and the proportion of citizens who defined themselves as Christians increased the most in 10 years compared to all other religions.

Embracing Prosperity

By making their services enjoyable and embracing prosperity, groups such as New Creation, City Harvest and Hillsong in Australia are able to attract followers, said Jeaney Yip, a lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School who has studied the marketing practices of mega churches.

“Market-friendly ideologies associated with individualism and self-empowerment are often blended with selective Christian theologies to emphasize positive living and blessings, while deflecting overtly negative Christian doctrines such as suffering, judgment, sacrifice, hell or death from sin,” Yip said.

“Their church services are scripted and ‘produced’ with deliberate use of contemporary music, sound and lighting.”

Axel Ng, 20, a recruit serving his mandatory National Service with the Singapore Army, attends Prince’s 8:30 a.m. Sunday services, after waking up before 6 a.m. to get in line for tickets. At New Creation’s Miracle Seed service on Aug. 19, he gave $50 to the building fund from his $510 monthly pay.

God’s Messenger

“Pastor Prince is one of the reasons why I come to church, but we believe he is just a messenger,” said Ng, who was introduced to New Creation by his mother in 2005. “The music is liberating, it speaks to me.”

Faith Community Baptist Church, founded in 1986 by Senior Pastor Apostle Lawrence Khong, provides
“celebration services” for its 10,000 members, according to its website. Khong, born in 1952, is pictured on the site with gelled hair and a black leather jacket and matching bracelet. He also fronts the group’s entertainment arm, staging shows that “combine magic, music, drama and dance to establish God’s Kingdom in the marketplace.”

Faith Community’s attendance compares with a weekly congregation of more than 38,000 at the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, according to the U.S. church’s website.

The communications divisions of City Harvest, New Creation and Faith Community all rejected interview requests from Bloomberg News with their leaders.

Business Awards

Mega churches thrive in urban, newly-developed countries where they create networking opportunities and a sense of identity, according to Hoon Chang Yau, an Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Singapore Management University who researches Christianity in Indonesia.

City Harvest, which says the average age of its congregation in 2010 was 29, has affiliate churches in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Brunei. It lists business awards won by its members as well as statistics measuring their academic performance against the national average on its website.

At the July 21 City Harvest service, singers led the congregation in song during the worship session, featuring contemporary-styled music backed by a band with drums, electric guitar and bass. The founder, Kong, read Bible verses from an iPad and then invited the crowd to talk to God “in tongues,” leading almost a minute of unrecognizable spoken sounds.

The boom in fundraising has been accompanied by concern over how the money is used. Kong and five other City Harvest officers were charged this year with conspiracy to misuse S$50.6 million of the church’s funds, including using a portion of the money to finance the music career of Ho Yeow Sun,

Kong’s wife. Kong denied the charges. The church has said it stands by the accused leaders.

Giving Back

In contrast to the U.S., where churches often champion political and sometimes anti-government views, religious groups in Singapore refrain from criticizing those in power. The laws “provide a broad framework to ensure that these pastors stay clear from discussing the politics of the day,” said Mathew Mathews, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore who has written about mega churches.

The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act allows authorities to stop religious leaders from addressing or advising groups, to prevent them from inciting hostility between different religions and disaffection against the government, among other offenses.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in a June statement the City Harvest case involved charges against the individuals, not the church or Christians, adding that the group was free to continue its services and activities.

Irene Hii, a former atheist, became a believer after hearing Prince speak at a conference organized by Hillsong, a mega church in Sydney, and has been a New Creation follower since she was a university student in 2000. She gives 10 percent of her income to the church every month, known as a tithe.

“It’s my way of telling my God: You’ve given me my blessings, so this is the portion that I’m giving back to you, but I’m keeping the 90 percent,” Hii, a 34-year-old doctor, said after one of New Creation’s services.