Images From Around Asia May

Fisherman in Quang Nam. Vietnam Photo by FlckR User: Nganguyen

An old women is bowing down to an image of Buddha at Boudhanath
Stupa in East Kathmandu. On the 27th of May Buddhist around the
world celebrated 2554th birth anniversary the Buddha.
Photo: Ingmar Zahorsky / CHINAsia Update

One of the lights displayed at Ganga Mata in in Colombo.
Throngs of visitors passed by the hundreds of lights on display.
Photo: Ingmar Zahorsky / CHINAsia Update.

NANJING, May 29, 2010 (Xinhua) -- Children show colored patterns drawn
on their faces in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, May 29,
2010. A facial drawing activity with the theme of “My World Expo” was held
in Nanjing on Saturday. Children drew colorful patterns on face which in
their eyes represent the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Bangkok burning. Photo by BKKApologist

An accrobat performs stunts during the stage show CHA at the En-
tertainment Hall at the World Expo Park in Shanghai, east China,
on May 1, 2010. As the spectacular stage show designed exclu-
sively for World Expo, CHA takes Chinese tea as its theme, and
integrates martial arts, magic, stunts, dancing and other art forms to
represent Chinese traditional tea culture in an artistic way. [Xinhua]


Photo Editor: Ingmar Zahorsky

16th SAARC summit concludes

April 29: The 16th SAARC summit ended today with the adoption of the “Thimphu Silver Jubilee Declaration- Towards a Green and Happy South Asia.”

In his closing speech, the Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley described the deliberations as most instructive and productive. But he said the true test of the success of the summit lies in the difference the decisions will make to the lives of the millions of the poor and deprived in SAARC countries.

The summit decided to develop a vision statement by a South Asian Forum. The forum will provide a platform to debate, discuss and exchange ideas on South Asia and its future. It came out with the Thimphu Statement on Climate Change which is expected to provide a strong impetus to the SAARC efforts to address issues relating to Climate Change. The SAARC Foreign Ministers signed two instruments, the Convention on Cooperation on Environment and the Agree- ment on Trade in Services.

The agreement on trade in service will help boost trade and promote people to people contact. The agreement on envi- ronment will help address issues related to climate change. It will also enable SAARC to have a common voice in climate change negotiations in national, regional and international level.

The SAARC Development Fund has become operational and its First Chief Executive Officer appointed. It will finance regional and sub-regional socio-economic development pro- grammes and projects.

The South Asian University in New Delhi has also become operational. The university will open in August and will become the Centre of Excellence for Higher Learning in South Asia.

The Prime Minister also thanked the delegates for allowing Bhutan to introduce the concept of Gross National Happiness. An inter-governmental workshop will be organised later this year to look at the relevance of this concept in our region. The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed said that there are sufficient ingredients to achieve the SAARC objectives. There was a sense of togetherness and commitment from the countries to achieve the common goal. However he said there are also challenges that need to be overcome. The next SAARC summit will be held in the Maldives. - Bhutan Broadcasting Service

Bridging the China-India gap

A recent survey conducted by Beijing-based Horizon Research, though by no means comprehensive, should sound alarms that China and India need to do more to deepen mu- tual understanding, especially at the people-to-people level. According to the survey, 45 percent of Chinese view India favorably, while 43 percent of Indian respondents view China as a partner. More disturbingly, most Chinese still perceive India, along with the US and Japan, as posing the most threat to China.

Findings about whether Indians perceive China as a threat are unavailable. But there is ample evidence that a consider- able number of Indians do consider China a threat. Suspicion and even hostility toward China also run rampant in Indian society.

The plight of Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh offers an immediate example of this judgment. No sooner had he made some remarks in favor of China during his visit to Beijing earlier this month than the Indian official came under immediate attacks from his own countrymen.

The common practice of India applying stricter terms on imports from China than from Western countries also bears witness to the country’s distrust of its neighbor to the north. Many Chinese experts believe trade protectionism is behind India’s suspension of importing telecom equipment from Apparently, there is a huge gap between how our two coun- tries are perceived by each other and how our two countries wish to be treated.

Due to issues left over from history, the bond between our two peoples is not as close as it was in the Mao-Nehru era. In recent years, the two largest developing countries have both undergone profound social changes while coping with the changing international situation. The West-dominated media machine has also amplified disputes and fuels rancor be- tween us. All that has sowed the seeds of misunderstanding and estrangement.

Beijing and New Delhi vowed to push bilateral ties to a new high while marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations last month. More people-to- people level exchanges should be conducted to expand mutual understanding, update our knowledge about each other and improve our perceptions.

The two countries also should tackle their differences in a more constructive and forward-thinking way.

It is in our two peoples’ interests to forge a friendly relation- ship featuring robust trade ties and deeper political trust. Only when the two Asian giants feel a genuine closeness between them will the world treat our two nations with more awe and respect. - Wang Hui /China Daily

Nepal House passes interim constitution amendment bill to extend CA term

KATHMANDU, May 29 (Xinhua) -- An emergency meet- ing of the Legislature Parliament early Saturday passed the 8th Amendment Bill of Interim Constitution of Ne- pal-2007 which will extend Constituent Assembly (CA) term by one year.

Out of the 585 lawmakers who attended the meeting, 580 voted on support of the Amendment Bill while only five voted against it.

Finalizing the result of majority votes cast by lawmakers, House Speaker Subash Nemwang announced that the 8th Amendment Bill has been passed with two-thirds majority of the Parliament.

Concluding the emergency meeting of House, he also added that the next session of House will sit on Monday afternoon. Now, the deadline for Nepal to promulgate new national constitution is also extended for one year. The two-year CA term was meant to expire by Friday midnight, if Parliament would not have passed the Bill by two-thirds majority. The government on Monday regis- tered the Interim Constitution Amendment Bill to extend the term of CA by one year.

However, the single and the largest opposition party Uni- fied Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) who filed a dissent note against the Bill took back its under- scoring the agreement between major parties to form new national unity government.

“The three parties have agreed to form a new national unity government, parties have also agreed for logical end of peace process, so in this situation I would like to take back the dissent note,” Dev Gurung, lawmaker from UCPN-M and former Minister for Law and Justice, said, when addressing the House.

The Amendment of the Bill to extend CA term was made possible after the three big parties -- the ruling communist party, Communist Party Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), Nepali Congress (NC) and UCPN-M forged consensus after an-hour-long bilateral and multi- lateral meeting late Friday night.

The big three parties agreed to extend the CA by one year and passed agreements will be implemented and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will resign within a few days to pave way for a national unity government. However, it is not clear that within how many days PM will resign.

“This opportunity will be utilized to conclude the peace process, complete new constitution drafting process and begin a new chapter of consensus politics,” M.K. Nepal told reporters right after the House meeting concluded.

Nepal faces bigger food deficit problem

KATHMANDU, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Nepali government data shows that the size of the population facing food deficit in Nepal has tripled compared with last year.

According to Hari Dahal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), the country faces nearly 316, 000 tons food deficit this year, compared with 132,000 tons last year.

“Nearly 1.6 million people have been suffering from food deficit this year due to acute supply shortage while nearly 500, 000 people suffered the same problem last year,” Dahal, who is also spokesperson at MoAC, told Sunday’s myrepublica.com.

According to him, agricultural production including rice output decreased hugely last year due to a late monsoon and drought, thereby causing an acute food deficit in the country. “Rice production decreased nearly 500,000 tons last year,” Dahal added, “That has largely contributed to the food deficit problem this year.”

People from remote districts have been directly affected by the food shortage. A government team led by Joint Secretary Chandra Ghimire at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies had also conducted a field study on food deficit recently.

Ghimire said about 30 districts face food deficit problem every year. Of these, about 15 districts face severe food crunch.

“The problem of food is mainly due to lack of local productivity,” he said, adding, “The government should identify fertile land within districts facing food deficit and invest in a package program including irrigation, supply of fertilizers, technology input, sending in of technicians and other supportive projects in a bid to get rid of the problem in the long run.”

The report prepared by the Ghimire-led team also concluded that the food deficit problem in the country is worsening. Editor: Bi Mingxin