Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Calgary Zoo to ship pair back home after pandemic upends delivery of essential fresh produce
Er Shun and Da Mao refuse to eat some of the centre’s locally sourced supplies
The Calgary Zoo cannot guarantee supplies of fresh bamboo for its giant pandas.Photo: Calgary Zoo
A Canadian zoo has decided to send two adult giant pandas back to China because the
coronavirus pandemic has disrupted essential deliveries of fresh bamboo.
The Calgary Zoo said it previously had bamboo flown in from China directly, but was forced to switch to domestic supplies after flights were cancelled.
The pandas had refused to eat some of the local product, which had been degraded by longer delivery times, and the supplies could be disrupted without warning, the zoo said.
“Knowing a second wave of Covid-19 is likely, and the bamboo supply chain challenges will continue to negatively impact the zoo’s ability to bring bamboo to the giant pandas, the Calgary Zoo feels it’s critical to move the beloved giant pandas back to China where there are abundant local sources of bamboo as soon as possible,” the zoo said on Tuesday.
Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade
Giant pandas feed almost exclusively on fresh bamboo and each adult chews through about 40kg (88 pounds) of the plant every day.
“We believe the best and safest place for Er Shun and Da Mao to be during these challenging and unprecedented times is where bamboo is abundant and easy to access,” Calgary Zoo president and chief executive Clément Lanthier said, referring to the two pandas. “This was an incredibly difficult decision to make but the health and well-being of the animals we love and care for always comes first.”
Er Shun and Da Mao arrived in Canada in 2014 as part of a 10-year agreement between Canada and China. They spent five years at the Toronto Zoo and arrived in Calgary in March 2018 with their cubs, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue.
It is unclear whether the cubs will be sent to China as well.
The zoo said the pandas would be deeply missed by staff, volunteers, donors and visitors from around the world. Although in-person farewells were not possible during the zoo’s temporary closure, the public could see the pandas online through PandaCam, it said.
In all, 58 giant pandas in 17 countries are on loan from China, according to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province.
Finland is the most recent recipient, taking delivery of a pair in January 2018, while
Indian defence officials have reported a coronavirus outbreak at a key naval base in the western city of Mumbai.
Twenty-one personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 at INS Angre, which is the seat of the force’s western command, the navy said in a statement on Saturday.
It added that there are no infections aboard any ships or submarines.
India has 11,906 active infections and 480 deaths, according to the latest data from the ministry of health.
The Navy said that they had tested a number of personnel who had come into contact with a soldier who had tested positive earlier this month. Many of those who had tested positive for the virus, the statement added, were asymptomatic.
All 21 personnel live in the same residential block, which has been declared a containment zone and has been placed under lockdown.
In a video message to personnel last week, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh stressed the importance of keeping ships and submarines free of the virus.
“The coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented and it has never been seen before. Its impact has been extraordinary across the globe, including India,” he said.
The navy has been playing an active role in India’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
It has set up isolation facilities to treat patients at one of its premier hospital units and is also running quarantine camps.
The outbreak aboard the Indian naval base follows reports of outbreaks aboard vessels belonging to other nations.
More than 500 sailors on the USS Roosevelt have tested positive for the virus and one of them died earlier this week. And nearly a third of the sailors serving with France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle – 668 out of nearly 2,000 – have been infected with coronavirus.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Discrimination against women on account of menstruation is widespread in India
India’s uncomfortable relationship with periods is back in the headlines.
College students living in a hostel in the western Indian state of Gujarat have complained that they were made to strip and show their underwear to female teachers to prove that they were not menstruating.
The 68 young women were pulled out of classrooms and taken to the toilet, where they were asked to individually remove their knickers for inspection.
The incident took place in the city of Bhuj on Tuesday. The young women are undergraduate students at Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI), which is run by Swaminarayan sect, a wealthy and conservative Hindu religious group.
They said a hostel official had complained to the college principal on Monday that some of the students were breaking rules menstruating women are supposed to follow.
According to these rules, women are barred from entering the temple and the kitchen and are not allowed to touch other students during their periods.
At meal times, they have to sit away from others, they have to clean their own dishes, and in the classroom, they are expected to sit on the last bench.
Image copyright BBC GUJARATIImage caption Female students gather outside the Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI)
One of the students told BBC Gujarati’s Prashant Gupta that the hostel maintains a register where they are expected to enter their names when they get their periods, which helps the authorities to identify them.
But for the past two months, not one student had entered her name in the register – perhaps not surprising considering the restrictions they have to put up with if they do.
So on Monday, the hostel official complained to the principal that menstruating students were entering the kitchen, going near the temple, and mingling with other hostellers.
The students allege that, the next day, they were abused by the hostel official and the principal before they were forced to strip.
They described what happened to them as a “very painful experience” that had left them “traumatised” and amounted to “mental torture”.
One student’s father said that when he arrived at the college, his daughter and several other students came to him and started crying. “They are in shock,” he said.
On Thursday, a group of students held a protest on the campus, demanding action against the college officials who had “humiliated” them.
The college trustee Pravin Pindoria said the incident was “unfortunate”, adding that an investigation had been ordered and action would be taken against anyone found guilty of wrongdoing.
But Darshana Dholakia, the vice-chancellor of the university which the college is affiliated with, put the blame on the students. She said that they had broken rules and added that some of them had apologised.
However, some of the students told BBC Gujarati that they are now under pressure from the school authorities to play down the incident and not to speak of their ordeal.
On Friday, the Gujarat State Women’s Commission ordered an investigation into this “shameful exercise” and asked the students to “come forward and speak without fear about their grievances”. The police have lodged a complaint.
Media caption Using comics to combat India’s menstruation taboos
This is not the first time that female students have been humiliated on account of periods.
Discrimination against women on account of menstruation is widespread in India, where periods have long been a taboo and menstruating women are considered impure. They are often excluded from social and religious events, denied entry into temples and shrines and kept out of kitchens.
Increasingly, urban educated women have been challenging these regressive ideas. In the past few years, attempts have been made to see periods for just what they are – a natural biological function.
But success has been patchy.
In 2018, the top court in a landmark order threw open the doors of the Sabarimala shrine to women of all ages, saying that keeping women out of the temple in the southern state of Kerala was discriminatory.
Image copyright THE PAPER/SCREENSHOTImage caption The stunt was held to mark the opening of the new bungee attraction
A Chinese theme park has triggered a wave of outrage on social media after it forced a pig to bungee jump off a 68-metre high tower.
Video footage shows the pig tied to a pole, carried by two men to the top of a tower before being pushed off.
The theme park located in Chongqing said the stunt was held to mark the opening of the new bungee attraction.
Local media outlets said the pig was sent to a slaughterhouse afterwards.
The stunt caused anger online – reflecting the growing importance of animal rights among China’s population.
The theme park has since put out a statement, saying that it accepted the “criticism” it had received.
“We sincerely accept netizens’ criticism and advice and apologise to the public,” it said. “We will improve [our] marketing of the tourist site, to provide tourists with better services.”
‘Vulgar marketing tactic’
The incident took place on 18 January at the Meixin Red Wine Town theme park in the sprawling Chinese municipality of Chongqing in south-western China.
The publicity event – which organisers called the golden pig bungee jump – was held to celebrate the opening of the theme park’s bungee attraction.
The pig, which according to local reports weighed 75kg (165 lbs), is seen being pushed off the tower with a purple cape tied around its shoulders. In one video of the incident, what sound like pig squeals can be heard.
What happens to the pig afterwards is not shown, though many local media reports say it was eventually sent to a slaughterhouse.
Animal cruelty is not punishable by law in China. However, there has been growing awareness of animal welfare issues in recent years.
Though a handful of people defended the incident on social media, saying it wasn’t any different to “killing a pig for food”, the majority of users condemned the company’s actions.
“This is a super vulgar marketing tactic,” said one commenter.
“Killing animals for consumption and treating them cruelly for entertainment are two different things,” another said. “There is no need to torture them like this.”
Animal protection organisation Peta condemned the incident, calling it “animal cruelty at its worst”.
“Pigs experience pain and fear in the same ways that we do, and this disgusting PR stunt should be illegal,” Jason Baker, Peta senior vice-president of international campaigns, told BBC News.
“The Chinese public’s angry response should be a wake-up call to China’s policy-makers to implement animal protection laws immediately.”
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Media caption The extreme circus where performers risk their lives
More than 40 per cent of those surveyed in an online poll say they feel they have no other choice, while just a quarter think the extra tutoring is necessary
It reflects widespread anxiety over getting places at the top schools, according to researcher
Sixty per cent of mainland Chinese children aged from three to 15 are receiving extra tutoring outside the classroom, according to a report. Photo: Handout
More than 40 per cent of Chinese parents feel they have no choice but to send their children to after-school classes because of the intense competition in the education system, according to an online poll.
But just a quarter of the respondents said they thought the extra tutoring was actually necessary for their children.
Nearly 200,000 parents had responded to the survey, conducted by social network Weibo, by Tuesday.
It comes after a report last week said 60 per cent of children aged between three and 15 in mainland China were receiving extra tutoring outside the classroom.
That report, released by the China National Children’s Centre and the Social Sciences Academic Press, also said parents of children in the age range were spending an average of 9,200 yuan (US$1,290) per year on after-school classes to cope with growing academic pressure.
It was based on a survey of nearly 15,000 children in 10 mainland cities and rural areas.
For the children, that meant they were spending an average of less than two hours playing outside on weekends, according to the report. They were also found to be devoting an average of 88 minutes a day to homework on school days.
Chinese parents send their children to a wide range of after-school classes. Photo: Xinhua
Wu Hong, a researcher from the Dandelion Education Think Tank in Chongqing, said the findings reflected the widespread anxiety of parents over their children getting places at the top schools.
“Many parents don’t have their own ideas about how their kids should be educated and they just follow others blindly. For example, a friend of mine said she plans to send her two five-year-olds to an international school in Thailand just because several of her friends did that,” Wu said.
“It’s not that kids should not attend any after-school classes, but we are apparently giving them too much when they’re so young, and this is only limiting their imagination.”
Last go at exam success for China’s ‘gaokao grandpa’
Studying a wider range of subjects in more depth than the public school syllabus requires and getting a head start by going over topics before they are covered in school have become common tactics used by parents trying to help their children compete in a challenging educational environment in China.
In the more affluent cities, some parents are spending a lot more than the average on their children’s extracurricular activities. Shanghai mother Emma Jin said she wanted to give her daughter, who is in Year Two, a good chance in the education system.
“Extra English classes cost 20,000 yuan for a year. She also takes dance classes, taekwondo and so on,” Jin said. “I don’t expect much from her, but I don’t want her to be the worst in the class either.”
Some parents said the pressure came from the schools.
“My child is studying at a public school. The teacher told us to have our child learn pinyin [the mainland’s system of romanisation of Mandarin script] in advance at after-school classes during the admission interview. Should I have just disregarded his advice?” one parent commented on Weibo.
‘Heavy burden’ of homework leaving Chinese children sleep-deprived, study finds
The heavy pressure on children from extra classes has meanwhile prompted the Ministry of Education to issue several directives to schools asking them to pay more attention to pupils’ well-being – including by encouraging them to get at least one hour of outdoor exercise and 10 hours’ sleep a day. Last year, it also banned cram schools from holding competitions or offering classes to children that were too advanced for their age.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 