Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Dr M has raised questions about the heavy debt & usage of funds at 1MDB
Published on 11 September 2014 by Malaysian Insider.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has raised questions about the heavy debt and usage of funds at 1MDB in his first open criticism of the controversial government-owned investment company started by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Writing in his blog yesterday, the former prime minister noted that 1MDB had spent billions of ringgit buying power plants from Genting and Ananda Krishnan and had paid above market prices for them.
He also lamented that 1MDB is heavily indebted. It has debt of around RM38 billion after just five years in operation as the country's sovereign wealth fund.
"The money for 1MDB is not from the country's surpluses. It is debt, billions of ringgit of debt that has added to the already high national debt," Dr Mahathir wrote.
The former PM, who recently wrote he was withdrawing support from Najib, said as the government was already facing a deficit budget problem, it would not have the ability to help pay the 1MDB debt.
He also noted that a large part of the money raised from the issue of debt paper by 1MDB has been sent to the Cayman Islands, a move which many has questioned.
Critics have complained about the lack of transparency in how the money is managed out of Cayman and it has been estimated that at least RM18 billion of 1MDB's money is parked there.
1MDB is Malaysia's second sovereign wealth fund after Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Lynas gets full operating licence before TOL expiry date!
By Eileen Ng. Published by The Malaysian Insider on 2 September 2014.
The Lynas rare-earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang has been granted a Full Operating Stage Licence (FOSL), days before its two-year Temporary Operating Licence (TOL) expires midnight today.
The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Hamrah Mohd Ali said the board met on August 21 and agreed to issue a two-year FOSL to Australian rare earth miner and producer Lynas after it fulfilled all the conditions set.
"They have complied with all the conditions set by us during the TOL stage and that is why the licence was issued," he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted today.
He said this included having a permanent disposal facility, a condition set by the TOL, which Lynas detractors had accused the Australian company of failing to comply with.
To this Hamrah said: "We work based on science and facts, not hearsay. They have submitted all the relevant documents to the board which showed they have complied with the conditions set and that is why we granted the licence to them."
Hamrah said the board could issue FOSL of between one and three years but he could not explain why Lynas was given a two-year licence.
"It is up to the board to decide on the tenure of the licences. Lynas is one of the 2,000 plants in Malaysia where we issue licences but the company can renew their licence after the two years has lapsed," he said.
The Australian mining company chose Malaysia for its operations following generous incentives including pioneer status and a 12-year tax holiday. It employs some 300 personnel in its Kuantan facility.
Despite strong protest from environmentalists, in September 2012, the AELB granted Lynas (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd a TOL for a two-year period ending on September 2, 2014.
In December last year, the board said Lynas had submitted last July the results of its research on recycling its waste for commercial purposes.
However, it said further study was needed on the findings.
The main concern over the rare-earth processing plant was contamination of the coastal environment and the adverse health impact which could result from the mismanagement of radioactive waste streams.
This fear stemmed from the experience in the 1980s at Mitsubishi Chemical’s Asian Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah, Ipoh, which was shut down more than two decades ago and linked to cases of leukaemia because of radioactive exposure, some of which were fatal.
The board had on several occasions assured residents that it was monitoring the operations of the Lynas plant around the clock and said it had found radiation levels onsite and offsite to be within acceptable limits.
Link: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/lynas-gets-full-operating-licence-before-tol-expiry-date
RM6 billion injection of public funds into Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is a bailout or an investment?
Published by The Malay Mail Online on 29 August 2014.
The RM6 billion injection of public funds to turn around the fortunes of ailing national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is not a bailout but an investment, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today. Najib said state fund Khazanah Nasional intends to fully recover the RM6 billion investment but that recovery for the ailing national carrier could take longer than the three years envisaged by the restructuring plan announced today.
“This is an investment, not a bailout,” Najib told reporters after the Umno Supreme Council meeting here. “The recovery may take more than three years. But we believe in three years we will see a positive turnaround,” he added. Najib also said that any downsizing of the company will be done in the most humane and compassionate way.
Khazanah announced today that the carrier will trim its workforce by 6,000 although Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will stay on as chief executive until July 2015. He said that a foreign CEO, if hired, will make room for a local eventually.
Najib also claimed the plan is rooted in making MAS a commercially viable airline, and Putrajaya would need to subsidise MAS if it wants to keep certain routes. The prime minister also said that the airline is being kept alive as Malaysians want MAS as a national carrier.
Published by Reuters on 29 August 2014.
Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL) (MAS) will slash nearly a third of its 20,000 workforce and cut back its global route network as part of a radical 6 billion ringgit ($1.9 billion) restructuring following the devastating impact of two jetliner disasters.
The 42-year-old company will be de-listed by the end of the year under the broad revival plan announced by state fund Khazanah Nasional on Friday that aims to bring long-elusive efficiency and global standards to the loss-making carrier.
The 6,000 job cuts were higher than expected by the industry and mark a painful new blow for staff after a traumatic year for the national flag-carrier and the Southeast Asian country. Khazanah, which owns a majority stake in MAS, said it would invest in "re-skilling" those who lose jobs and pledged to set up a panel to improve often rocky relations between unions and management.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-malaysia-airline-restructuring-idUSKBN0GT0KR20140829
Published by Bloomberg on 29 August 2014. By Chong Pooi Koon, Choong En Han and Elffie Chew.
Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS), which lost two jetliners in air disasters this year, will eliminate 6,000 jobs as the national carrier restructures.
Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, whose term was due to end next month, will lead the carrier until July 1, Azman Mokhtar, managing director of majority owner Khazanah Nasional Bhd., said today in Kuala Lumpur. The full impact of the disasters will only be seen in the second half, the airline said yesterday after reporting its sixth quarterly loss.
Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah made a 1.38-billion ringgit ($438 million) buyout offer this month to take Malaysia Airlines private, and the funds are part of 6 billion ringgit it is investing to return the carrier to profit in three years. Prime Minister Najib Razak has said “painful steps” need to be taken to overhaul the airline, which has racked up 4.9 billion ringgit in losses since the start of 2011.
“We believe the fastest way is actually to create a hard reset and create a clean slate,” Azman said. “We needed to have a fresh start because the current MAS, unfortunately the cost structure does not work, unfortunately the revenue has been consistently below its cost.”
The national carrier that traces its beginnings to the 1930s will cut its workforce to 14,000 from 20,000, with Khazanah setting aside funds for retrenchment costs. It’s struggling to repair its image after MH370 vanished in March and MH17 was shot down over Ukraine last month.
CEO Search
As part of the restructuring, Khazanah will review Malaysia Airlines’ services to Europe, renegotiate supply contracts and move the carrier’s headquarters and operations to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the fund said. It will spend 1.6 billion ringgit on revamp and retrenchment costs.
Khazanah’s buyout will result in the company’s delisting, targeted for completion by year-end. The airline is expected to be relisted in three to five years, Khazanah said. A global search will be carried out to find a new CEO by the end of this year, it said.
Khazanah will invest in a “staggered and conditional basis” over the next three years, it said in a statement. “While funds have been made available, they come with strict conditions, so as to ensure that MAS truly resets its business model and cost structures, in order to be truly sustainable.”
The 6 billion ringgit it is pumping into the carrier is not a bailout, Azman said today as the fund outlined its plans in a 40-page report titled “Rebuilding a National Icon.” Shares of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) were suspended from trading today. They have lost 19 percent of its market value this year.
Tainted Image
“The need to restructure the company was accelerated” after the disasters damaged the brand, Ahmad Jauhari said in a statement yesterday. “Our company has had to undergo a thorough re-examination and re-evaluation in order to reposition ourselves as a stronger and more sustainable Malaysia Airlines for the future.”
The March 8 disappearance of Flight 370, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, sparked street protests in Beijing and prompted boycotts by Chinese travelers. No trace of the plane has been found in the world’s longest search for a missing jet in modern aviation history.
The airline’s yields, or measure of ticket prices, fell 4 percent in the second quarter to 21.7 sen, the company said. It filled 73.7 percent of its seats in that period, 6.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier.
Rebuild Sales
“We expected the impact of MH370” on second-quarter performance, Ahmad Jauhari said. “Given that, our team put in much hard work and effort to regain market confidence and rebuild sales. Tragically, just as we were beginning to see signs of recovery in all regions, we were dealt the blow of MH17.”
Flight 17 carried 298 people and was shot down in Ukraine July 17 on a route Malaysia Airlines said was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The Ukrainian government blamed the downing on pro-Russian rebels in the country’s eastern part.
Average weekly bookings fell 33 percent immediately after the incident, the airline said yesterday. Unverified images of near-empty Malaysia Airlines planes have circulated on social media since MH17 crashed. The airline will review its European routes, Khazanah said today.
Malaysia Airlines said it retired its older Boeing Co. 737-400 aircraft at the end of June, six months earlier than planned, to save fuel costs and increase productivity. It had a fleet of 127 aircraft at mid-August.
The company’s cash and cash equivalent dropped to 2.38 billion ringgit at the end of June, compared with 3.25 billion ringgit at the end of March, it said.
The net loss widened to 307 million ringgit last quarter from a year earlier, the company said. Revenue fell to 3.59 billion ringgit. The carrier will probably lose more than 1 billion ringgit in 2014 and continue to report losses through 2016, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Army Officer Recycles Military Surplus & Creates Fashionable Bags
By Angel Canales. Published by ABC News on 14 August 2014.
DENVER–Serving in the military while also being the CEO of a fashion company can be an intimidating but also a rewarding experience. It’s also a perfect match for U.S. Army 1st Lt. Emily Núñez, 24, who saw a need and filled it, helping her fellow veterans along the way.
“It has been challenging at times but the two roles complement each other. As an officer in the US Army your job is to lead soldiers and to motivate them to accomplish a task. As the CEO, my job is to ensure that we’re accomplishing our social mission while keeping the team excited about what we’re doing,” she says.
Núñez is the CEO and co-founder of Sword and Plough. Sword and Plough creates bags and other accessories out of repurposed military surplus, like shelter halves tents, laundry bags and sleeping bag covers.
Although Núñez was committed to a career in the military, she and her sister Betsy Núñez, 26, co- founded Sword & Plough in 2012. Growing up in a military family Emily followed in her father’s footsteps and joined the Army. She currently serves as an Intelligence Officer with the Group Support Battalion in the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Carson, Colorado. Prior to joining the military, Núñez enrolled in the Army ROTC at the University of Vermont and and Middlebury College in Vermont in 2008. It was there during her senior year that the idea to launch her entrepreneurial venture was born.
The idea to create her fashion company came to Núñez after a talk at the Middlebury’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship. During the Social Entrepreneurship Symposium at Middlebury Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund talked about businesses that had incorporated recycling into their business model. Núñez took note and put her social entrepreneur spirit to work. She began to think about what around her was routinely wasted and could be recycled and turned into something powerful. ”I was aware that there was a lot of military surplus that was wasted, thrown away or burned,” Núñez says.
Emily told her sister Betsy about her idea to turn a military shelter halves tent into tote bags. ”When she first told me about her idea I was so surprised and happy that she shared that with me. I knew this was something that could be very special and could become something really unique,” Betsy says. From that conversation the sisters continue to build on the idea and business model.
Sword & Plough’s name comes from the biblical phrase to “turn swords into ploughshares” from the Book of Isaiah. For Emily and Betsy it means re-adapting military technology for a peaceful civilian purpose. The sisters are giving these fabrics and materials another purpose as stylish designs. “Some of the materials we use have been used by the Army and military since the Civil War,” Betsy says.
Emily and Betsy never went to school for business and they didn’t have any experience in fashion either but that didn’t stop them. “It was a challenge to start the business but at the same time it was a huge opportunity,” she says. The sisters thank the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship for helping them every step of the way.
To build the company, they sought out support and mentorship from other groups. They attended the Dell Summer Social Innovation Lab in July 2012. During the three-week program, they were able to build their business plan, supply chain, brand name and a prototype bag.
The idea caught on and last year Sword and Plough participated in Mass Challenge, the largest startup accelerator and competition in the world. Some 1,200 young companies from all over the world applied for 120 spots. Sword and Plough was selected and they were awarded $50,000 to grow their business. Preparing for that pitch was nerve-racking, Betsy says. At the time, Emily was serving in Afghanistan and they practiced over Skype how they were going to prepare their pitch.
The company’s social mission is to empower and promote veteran employment, strengthen military civil relations and reduce waste. All items are made in the US and the company works with veteran owned, operated and staffed manufactures. “I really wanted to create a product that would physically touch civilians in a beautiful way and to remind them of veterans and the sacrifice that they made but also the challenges that they encounter as they transition into civilian life,” Emily says.
For Emily, veteran employment was their main company goal. During her time at the Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, she heard about veterans having difficulties finding meaningful employment. “I spent a lot of time with soldiers of all different ranks and services and many of them told me about friends of their who were getting out of the military and faced challenges as they tried to find employment and that experience always stuck with me,” she says.
The company’s launched started on Kickstarter in 2013 with a goal to raise $20,000. Their campaign exceeded their goal and raised over $312,000 and so far have provided jobs to 35 veterans and recycled over 15,000 pounds of military surplus.
Sword and Plough items are on sale on their website and they are being sold in Toms Marketplace.
Emily and Betsy are happy to be accomplishing a social mission with their company. “I want Sword & Plough to be a leader in the field of social entrepreneurship that is able to communicate effectively the awesome skill that veterans bring to communities. As a fashion brand over the course of the next five to 10 years we want Sword & Plough to be known as a strong American heritage brand,” Emily says.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Why Christ, Mao And The Buddha Are Making A Comeback In China
By Matt Sheehan. Posted on 08/06/2014 8:31 am EDT Updated: 08/07/2014 2:59 pm EDT by The Huffington Post.
BEIJING -- The dominant political narrative in China today is one of resounding triumph: targets for economic growth achieved, rival countries overtaken, an Olympics successfully hosted. Yet in the telling of a philosophy professor at a prominent Shanghai university, many of these supposed victories have proven hollow for the Chinese people.
"On the surface we've achieved the goals, but no one is happy," the professor, who goes by the English name Luke, told The WorldPost. "There's no love, no hope. For more than 100 years we Chinese have been trying to catch up with Western countries. We want science, technology and military power. But the most important thing is the soul of the culture. The mind is based on the soul, and we've lost our souls."
Luke, who asked that his Chinese name not be used because he worships in one of China's many illegal underground churches, isn't alone in his concern for the state of the country's soul. As a convert to Christianity, he is one of a growing number of Chinese who are turning to a variety of faiths as they grapple with what they say is a gaping moral abyss in society.
"People today are afraid of showing love, afraid of being laughed at by other people," Luke lamented. "That spells the end of society."
China’s Christian population has been expanding at rates that rival its awe-inspiring GDP growth, with one scholar predicting that by 2030 China will be home to more Christians than any other country on earth. Many Chinese are also seeking solace in traditional belief systems such as Buddhism and Confucianism, in what they describe as a reaction to China's transformation from a poor agricultural society to an urban-industrial powerhouse. Yet others have found spiritual comfort in a return to Communist ideology and view Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, as a savior who will help them revive communal bonds.
"Many people perceive a moral and spiritual crisis in China today," wrote the editors of the Review of Religion and Chinese Society, a new academic journal dissecting China's religious revival. "The foundation of a better future for China is believed by many people to be a spiritual renewal."
The topics of faith and the state of one's soul have been on the backburner for many Chinese since 1978, when leader Deng Xiaoping turned China away from the pursuit of a Communist utopia and toward the construction of a modern market economy.
Deng's sober and pragmatic push for economic reform came in response to Mao's Cultural Revolution, a movement from 1966 to 1976 to enforce Mao's version of Communism and purge China of any competing ideologies, everything from capitalism to Confucianism. Fanatical believers in the movement desecrated the Buddhist and Confucian temples that had served as the bedrock of Chinese spirituality for thousands of years. Meanwhile, Mao issued ideological manifestos and presided over mass public rallies that elevated him to God-like status in the hearts of many.
The Cultural Revolution robbed China of a decade of development, demonized traditional Chinese religious practices -- and, in the process, discredited Maoism for millions. Since then, 35 years of economic reform have more than quintupled both rural and urban income levels. But China and its people are currently at the "lowest of lows," according to Luke.
Asked to identify the low point for Chinese society, Luke and many other Chinese point to Oct. 13, 2011. That was the day Wang Yue, the 2-year-old daughter of migrant shopkeepers in southern China, wandered into an alley behind her father's store and was run over by two vehicles. For seven minutes she lay crying and bleeding in the street as 18 pedestrians, one by one, delicately made their way around her body without doing anything to help. It wasn't until a woman scavenging for trash came upon her mangled body that Wang was taken to a hospital, where she died eight days later.
The entire event was captured on closed-circuit television, and this bone-chilling display of indifference to human suffering was the second most viewed video of the year in China. What became known as the "little Yue Yue incident" stirred up a wave of soul-searching and hand-wringing among Chinese people, and strengthened Luke's conviction that China needs God's grace.
DABBLING IN FAITH
Luke's personal journey to Christianity had already begun a few years earlier after he made a painful decision facing hundreds of millions of Chinese: He left behind his wife and young child, moving to another province in pursuit of a better job. The coveted position as a professor of philosophy at a prestigious university came at the cost of personal isolation and a deteriorating marriage.
Luke first sought solace in the practice of Buddhism, but said he quickly grew disillusioned with the monks' emphasis on hierarchy and ceremonial gifts.
"I took on a Buddhist name, read the books, and for two months prayed every day, but I didn't find peace," Luke recalled.
He then turned toward the western tradition of Christianity, which he'd first encountered several years earlier in philosophy courses. After a brief period of time attending the state-sanctioned "Three-Self" churches, Luke found a loving community and a sense of belonging in an underground "house church."
"The relationship between the brothers and sisters is full of love, and everyone can speak," Luke said. "It's not like the Three-Self churches where only the priest can speak and everyone else sits there listening."
He said the sense of purpose and humility that came with his conversion have transformed his life and marriage, as well as the way he sees his country and culture. Luke believes that Christianity can also help China solve its myriad social woes and put an end to the spiritual drift that followed the Cultural Revolution.
"The culture was and still is destroyed," Luke said. "The most important things for Chinese people have been demolished, and what happened to little Yue Yue is related to the destruction of that meaning."
REVERTING TO RED
Each Sunday morning, while Luke is worshipping the Christian God in a house church, 54-year-old Fan Huiming is attending her own services in Jingshan Park at the very center of Beijing. She plays the role of congregant, preacher and choir member, putting all her heart into singing the praise of a different deity: Chairman Mao Zedong.
"It doesn't matter whether you look at his leadership, his art, his poems, his philosophy, his calligraphy ... In my heart he's simply a perfect person," Fan said. "As someone who truly loves Chairman Mao, as a true Marxist-Leninist, I will never change my faith."
Fan's faith is a result of her birth into unique historical circumstances. Just as Mao's Red Army was closing in on Beijing and preparing to declare the founding of the People's Republic of China in the fall of 1949, Fan was born in the capital to parents who were officials in Chiang Kai-Shek's defeated Nationalist government. Many in her family were able to flee to Taiwan, but Fan's pregnant mother couldn't make the journey, and she gave birth to Fan amid the tumult of the new Communist order.
Her status as the child of Nationalists -- Mao's sworn enemies -- would dog Fan through much of her life. Despite a fanatical devotion to Mao and a venomous hatred for the Nationalists, she said she has never been allowed to join the Chinese Communist Party. But what she lacked in credentials she made up for in zeal. Throughout the Cultural Revolution she collected Mao memorabilia, memorized his speeches and struggled against capitalists and all perceived enemies of the proletariat class.
Thirty-eight years after Mao's death, she still gathers with fellow Mao devotees in Jingshan Park every Sunday morning to sing red songs, hold up Mao's portrait and lecture passersby through a microphone. A sturdy and serious woman, Fan shuns the "red" dancing that many of her fellow 60-somethings enjoy, choosing instead to challenge people who seek to tarnish Mao's image.
"Nowadays you have so many people attacking Chairman Mao," Fan fumed. "I'll just come right out and say it: Those people are taking money from the American government."
Her impassioned defense of Mao's legacy stems from rosy childhood memories of the chairman's reign, when everyday life was imbued with a kind of communal spirituality, she said.
"Mao Zedong's era was about saving people's souls, about teaching people to strive for something higher," Fan said. "People from that time really put all their heart and soul into building this country and into following Mao Zedong."
Fan said she remembers a time when no one locked their doors at night, and maintains that the crimes committed in a single day in 2013 surpassed those committed over the entirety of Mao's 27-year reign. In her mind, the Cultural Revolution was a necessary bump on the road to a Communist utopia; where things really turned sour was with economic reform, she said.
"When Deng Xiaoping first brought up this idea of letting some people get rich first, it was just wrong, and it completely violated the main principle of the Communist movement," Fan said emphatically. "Everything is going in the direction of privatization. We're missing the concept of doing things for the common good, for the country, and to serve the people."
In the early 1980s she wrote a letter to Deng expressing this sentiment. She was rewarded not with a reply from China's leader, but with an ominous visit from state security agents.
Yet decades into the changes that have catapulted China toward superpower status, she is still a true believer in the principles of her youth.
"We've been through so much, and now only Mao Zedong Thought can save China," Fan said. "After so many years of reform and opening, people are just more isolated and hopeless."
Adoration for Mao is concentrated heaviest among people who came of age during the Cultural Revolution, but it has also spilled over into broader society during moments of international tension. During anti-Japan protests in recent years, patriotic demonstrators frequently carried portraits of the former leader and chanted, "Long live Chairman Mao!"
For Fan and her cohorts, an absolute faith in Mao has morphed the man into something of an omniscient and all-powerful God whose spirit still permeates the world. Following devastating tornadoes in the American Midwest during the summer of 2013, she wrote in a text message: "The spirit of Chairman Mao Zedong is always protecting the people he loves, the people of the world ... If the American government perpetrates evil, then the heavens will react! Bigger tornadoes, bigger volcanic eruptions!"
Her vision may be one of fire and brimstone, but ever since retiring from her job in the long-distance bus industry, Fan said she has been content engaging in more mundane acts of revolution by bringing her message to the people of Jingshan Park every Sunday. The one disappointment for Fan has been her son's indifference to Mao's message.
"To tell the truth, when I talk to my son about this, he just doesn't want to get involved in politics," Fan said while running her thumb over a Cultural Revolution-era Mao button. "He always tells me, 'That's all behind us, don't always bring it up.' But in my heart that really makes me sad.
"In China, society's influence is stronger than the family's. No matter what kind of education my son gets at home, as soon as he goes out the door he'll run into that kind of pollution from society."
BUDDHISM AS 'SOCIAL EDUCATION'
In the central Chinese city of Xi'an, home to the ancient terracotta warriors, Samantha Yang has had better luck in sharing her newfound spirituality with her son, Leo. Yang runs her own English training school in Xi'an, and the financial pressures from the school, combined with her struggles as a single mom, brought her to Buddhism.
Yang grew up with no strong spiritual influences in her life, and left her hometown of Xi'an after college to seek employment in the southern island province of Hainan. After working as a saleswoman for a cosmetics company, she founded her own English-language training school in 2002 for children back in her hometown.
"For a long time I thought I was a superwoman," Yang recalled. "I thought I could do anything.
"When I first started the school, there was just so much pressure in my life. In 2006 we ran a summer program and lost 200,000 yuan [about $25,000], which was really hard to deal with. I tried reading some philosophy and even looked at those Chicken Soup books, but none of it was for me."
Yang's spiritual breakthrough came when a friend brought her to a Buddhist monastery in a village outside of Xi'an. During some of her first meals at the monastery she was captivated by the practitioners' refusal to waste an ounce of food. When she left her mostly-eaten watermelon slices on a plate, the elderly woman collecting dishes chewed the last remaining hint of pink off Yang's white watermelon rinds.
That humility and simplicity won Yang over. She said she now practices Buddhism not only because it brings her peace, but because she views it as a "social education system" for Chinese society. The religion advocates a serenity and humility that stand in stark contrast to many people's frenzied desire to accumulate wealth at any cost. Its appeal has fueled what many say is a Buddhist revival in China, with surveys suggesting that up to one-third of Chinese now consider themselves Buddhists.
In Yang's assessment, traditional Chinese culture has been eroding since 1919, when nationalist student demonstrations known as the May Fourth Movement blamed China's Confucian tradition for the country's domination by colonial powers. She sees those attacks on China's ancient heritage as having destroyed something fundamental to the culture.
Yang and her son have approached Buddhism in different ways. While Leo rarely visits the monastery, Yang has noticed a new equanimity in her son despite the pressure-cooker environment in Chinese high schools. Yang has taken up chanting meditation at the monastery as a way to clear her mind of the "wild luxury ideas" that she feels permeate contemporary Chinese society.
Searching for the root of her own spiritual journey, Yang looks back to her grandmother, a peasant who never abandoned China's diverse array of folk religions.
"My grandmother was very open to belief," Yang said. "She was willing to worship almost anything, any God she thought had power. I think maybe she was a seed for my faith."
The simplicity and community Yang has found at her monastery give her hope that China can be saved from what she describes as its current state of ethical anarchy. Her faith has taken a different form from that of Luke and Fan, but in searching for a moral compass to navigate the tumult of modern China, they have all forged their own path toward personal salvation and social redemption.
"The fate of Western society is comedy, but in China it's tragedy: hopeless, aimless, meaningless," Luke said. "The fate of China can be changed to comedy."
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Chick-Fil-A Surpasses KFC As Dominant US Fast Food Chicken Chain
Published on 17 July 2014 by Malaysian Digest.
It’s the fast food chicken chain that most consumers outside the US have never heard of. But inside America, the wild popularity of family-owned chain Chick-fil-A has been identified as a threat to major fast food behemoths like McDonald’s and has even surpassed chicken giant KFC.
The title of a recently released market report for McDonald’s says it all: Chick-fil-A a Serious and Growing Competitive Threat.
Written by financial services firm Janney, the report notes that the privately owned company held a 26 per cent market share of the fast food chicken industry in 2013 — up from nine per cent in 1999.
For comparison, in 1999, Yum! brand’s KFC enjoyed a comfortable lead with a 40 per cent share of the market. Today, that’s down to 22 per cent, several percentage points below Chick-fil-A and enough to make the Colonel turn in his grave.
The recently released results of Consumer Reports' annual fast food ranking corroborates the popularity of Chick-fil-A, as respondents gave the brand top billing in the category of chicken sandwiches.
KFC landed at the bottom of the heap, after other chains like Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Zaxby’s and Church’s Chicken. Chick-fil-A found success carving out a niche market selling deep-fried chicken sandwiches, nuggets and wraps since 1946.
The brand's success is all the more impressive given that KFC possesses more than double the number of outlets as its counterpart. While Chick-fil-A has 1,790 restaurants in 39 states and Washington DC, KFC has 4,500 outposts across the country.
Furthermore, all Chick-fil-A restaurants close system-wide close on Sundays — or “Lord’s Day” — as part of founder S. Truett Cathy’s religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, the Janney report issues some stern warnings to fast food giant McDonald’s, which also offers a slew of chicken-based items on its menu. While the chain is described as a relatively “small fry” compared to worldwide sales at McDonald’s, the report notes that KFC didn’t see Chick-fil-A's success coming a decade ago either.
In 2013, McDonald’s generated US$36 billion (RM115b) in systemwide sales, versus US$5 billion at Chick-fil-A. “While Chick-fil-A remains meaningfully smaller than McDonald’s US today, to the extent it could be ignored as a competitive threat ten years ago, we would argue that it can no longer be ignored as a long-term competitive threat today,” analysts write.
1. McDonald's
2. Subway
3. Starbucks
4. Wendy's
5. Burger King
6.Taco Bell
7. Dunkin' Donuts
8. Pizza Hut
9. Chick-fil-A
10. Applebee's
- AFP-Relaxnews
Link: http://www.malaysiandigest.com/features/509503-chick-fil-a-surpasses-kfc-as-dominant-us-fast-food-chicken-chain.html
The members of the Cathy family have never made a secret of their religious faith. What they haven’t talked about nearly as much is the political implications of that faith. That changed on June 16, when Dan Cathy, having grown up from dwarf performer to Chick-fil-A’s president, went on a syndicated radio show and said, “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’” Two weeks later an interview with Cathy was published in a North Carolina Baptist newsweekly called the Biblical Recorder. In it, he said his company was “very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit.” For the younger Cathy, just as for the majority of the delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention, the biblical definition of the family unit meant one thing: a man, a woman, and their children. When Southern Baptist publications use the words “same-sex marriage” and “gay marriage,” they bracket them in quotes.
Link:
The fast food restaurant of a thousand lands is the work of Erik DeVriendt, the owner/operator of this Chick-fil-A since June 2011. Since moving to Richmond in 2006, DeVriendt has wielded his vocational skills to address the needs of Richmond's refugee population: namely, steady and life-giving employment. Including Jirom, DeVriendt has employed some 13 refugees for his 67-employee team, often receiving referrals from Commonwealth Catholic Charities, the local resettlement agency. The agency helps with paperwork and training, but DeVriendt is not incented financially for hiring refugees. He simply wanted to "help them in the most tangible way possible, so we stepped up to the plate and took a swing."
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