SLOW Movement

WSJ: In Chinese Buildings, a Copycat Craze

ESSAY
February 8, 2013, 7:14 p.m. ET

In Chinese Buildings, a Copycat Craze

Duplicating Versailles, the Chrysler Building or the White House is seen as a mark of skill and superiority

By BIANCA BOSKER

In Beijing, the new Wangjing SOHO complex, a trio of curvy office buildings designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid, is slowly rising in the smog-filled skyline. Meanwhile, 1,000 miles south, a set of two buildings is going up—and the design looks just like Ms. Hadid's, say the backers of the Beijing complex.

The other development company has denied copying the design and coined a slogan about its project. "Never meant to copy," reads a pitch posted on the firm's official microblog. "Only want to surpass."

Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis

BONJOUR CHINA | An Eiffel Tower looms over a road in Hebei province.

That motto could be the mantra for China's massive movement in architectural mimicry. To show they are making it big, the Chinese have turned to faking it big.

In recent years, some of the nation's real-estate developers and even government officials have been churning out detailed counterfeits of the West's greatest architectural hits, from Unesco World Heritage sites to Le Corbusier gems to Manhattan skyscrapers.

Paris, Orange County, Interlaken, Amsterdam—all have their doubles in China. In Hangzhou, gondolas glide through the man-made canals of Venice Water Town, which boasts its own Piazza San Marco and Doge's Palace.

Last year, developers in Huizhou unveiled a brick-for-brick replica of the Austrian village of Hallstatt, complete with its cobblestone streets, historic church and even sidewalk cafes. Hallstatt residents were surprised to learn that Chinese planners had studied the village's buildings on location in Austria, according to news reports.

The award for the most copied building goes to the White House, says Yung Ho Chang, a Chinese architect and the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's architecture department. The building serves as the model for everything from seafood restaurants to single-family homes to government offices in Guangzhou, Wuxi, Shanghai, Wenling and Nanjing.

This "duplitecture" is not meant to flatter the West, nor is it a form of "self-colonization." The copies are built as monuments to China's technological prowess, affluence and power. The Chinese have seized on the icons of Western architecture as potent symbols for their own ascension to—and aspiration for—global supremacy.

It is an impulse with deep roots in Chinese architectural tradition, dating back thousands of years. In pre-modern China, emperors demonstrated their dominance by re-creating rival territories within their own: Sprawling imperial parks, which featured flora and fauna assembled from remote lands, buttressed rulers' authority by showing their ability to both create and possess an elaborate facsimile of the known universe.

China's emperors also used copycat buildings to convey their mastery—actual or anticipated—over their adversaries. In the third century B.C., the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, commemorated his conquest of six rival kingdoms by ordering that exact replicas of their palaces be built in his capital. Today, the ersatz Eiffel Towers and Chrysler Buildings symbolize China's power to control the world by transplanting Europe and the U.S. into its domain.

Traditional Chinese attitudes toward replication also help to explain the trend. While Americans view imitation with disdain, the Chinese have traditionally taken a more permissive and nuanced view of it. Copying can be valued as a mark of skill and superiority. The director of China's National Copyright Administration has even praised copies as a sign of "cultural creativity."

China's expanding economy, along with the financial woes of the European Union and the U.S., could usher in a new era in which the Forbidden City replaces the White House as the coveted status symbol. Buildings modeled after traditional Chinese architecture are already appearing in some parts of the country, next to Versailles look-alikes.

Chinese people "realize now, 'We have money. We have a lot of money. We're even richer than our Western rivals,'" said Zhou Rong, a professor of architecture at Beijing's Tsinghua University—and this has led to new interest in Chinese styles. Rather than grousing about being copied, the West might instead worry about the day China stops looking to us for models.

—Ms. Bosker is the author of "Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China," from which this is adapted.

A version of this article appeared February 9, 2013, on page C2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: In Chinese Buildings, a Copycat Craze.

WSJ: In China, IKEA Is a Swede Place for Senior Romance, Relaxation

THE A-HED
DECEMBER 1, 2011

In China, IKEA Is a Swede Place for Senior Romance, Relaxation

Free Coffee, Empty Beds Set Intimate Tone; Retailer Struggles to Police the Unruly

By LAURIE BURKITT

At 62, Tang Yingzhuo, a retired widow looking for love, doesn't think it is appropriate to scope out men at bars, clubs or Karaoke joints. That's why she goes to IKEA.

Yang Jie/The Wall Street Journal

Chinese seniors find coffee and love at IKEA.

The former tax-bureau worker is among the throngs of seniors who meet every week at the Swedish retailer's cafeteria in Shanghai's Xuhui shopping district to take a second shot at romance.

Retired and divorced chiropractor Qian Weizhong is also on the prowl. On a recent Tuesday at IKEA Mr. Qian was excited to get the number of a woman he referred to as a "nice lady." He plans to ask her out soon, he said.

While Ms. Tang and the rest of the lonely hearts club flock to the do-it-yourself furniture shop for its clean, homey environment, they pose something of a challenge for IKEA. They sit for hours in the cafeteria, leaving behind orange peels and egg shells they have picked off boiled eggs brought from home. Occasionally, security guards intervene to try to keep order.

At the weekly IKEA romance session in Shanghai, the elderly arrive in swarms of 70 to 700 to get the free coffee offered to holders of the IKEA Family membership card. Zhou Hong, the official IKEA card swiper, says she typically hands out an average of 500 coffee cups each time the group meets.

Ms. Tang, seated amid the backdrop of Poang reading chairs and Vreta poufs, sips coffee and says she is grateful to have such a meeting place. "I make more senior citizen friends when I come here," said Ms. Tang. "There's more to offer than meeting a boyfriend at IKEA."

In China, IKEA is planning to up its nine locations to 17 stores by 2015 to meet demand from the nation's growing middle class, who aspire to Western lifestyles at affordable prices. But some are still in the gawk-phase. They come out of sheer curiosity, or to behold the vast spaces bursting with thousands of gadgets and creature comforts.

As culture and commerce intersect, some unusual behavior has emerged. And older folks aren't the only troublemakers. Young people, often with kids in tow, plop on chairs to watch videos on their smartphones. People aren't shy about kicking off their shoes and tucking into display beds for a nap.

On a recent Sunday in Beijing, Liu Yunfeng sat in a 3,999 yuan ($625) white leather Tirup chair, watching home videos from the screen of her Sony digital camera while her shoeless daughter jumped on the Nyvoll bed of a mock-up room.

"She loves all the different rooms they have," said Ms. Liu, sitting near a man who had dozed off on another bed.

IKEA isn't alone. Other big chains, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and McDonald's Corp., are accustomed to Chinese consumers spending lots of quality time—if not serious money—at their often huge, comfortable stores.

Policing the freeloaders and the unruly isn't so easy. Attempting to tell a rowdy crowd of seniors to lower their voices recently, 24-year-old security guard Li Ya says he encountered resistance. An older man who didn't enjoy being hushed by someone 40 years his junior, says Mr. Li, once splashed scalding coffee on him. "They always argue that they have the right to do what they want here," says Mr. Li.

Earlier this year, after a spate of altercations—and realizing that the seniors were taking seats away from paying customers—managers of the Shanghai IKEA outlet decided to take action.

To keep order, they bolstered security, assigning six guards to the cafeteria on Tuesdays and Thursdays in addition to the usual two posted there on other days.

They created a special roped off zone for sitting, allowing more tables to be open for shoppers who wanted warm tilapia, not hot dates.

They also propped up a notice board at the entrance of the cafeteria, pleading with the group to disband. "IKEA would hereby like to inform this group and its organizers: Your behavior is affecting the normal operations of the IKEA cafeteria," the notice said.

It went on: "Frequent fights and arguments do serious harm to the image both of Shanghai residents and IKEA. Bringing in outside food and tea violates the cafeteria's regulations…If you are a member of this group, we feel we have warned you, do not use the resources of IKEA to organize events of this kind."

Spokeswoman Yin Lifang said IKEA is attempting to find the group's organizers so that it can negotiate with them. Members of the group deny there are organizers.

With people of all ages using big-box stores as their personal playgrounds, a new term has emerged: "retailtainment."

A blend of the words retail and entertainment, it is now frequently used by companies and strategists.

Several years ago, some Wal-Mart stores in China set up a children's camp for summer and winter school breaks. During daily sessions, children are encouraged to try their hands as part-time greeters and announce deals over the broadcast system.

Whether that is enough to convert the campers into consumers is another matter. "If I go to Wal-Mart I'll want to go for the day," said Cui Hongyan. "I can buy my goods somewhere else much more quickly."

McDonald's, with its free Wi-Fi and clean bathrooms, is adding more electrical outlets to most of its China stores in hopes that people will actually come and hang around longer.

In Hong Kong, the fast food giant is developing a service known as "McWedding" to encourage people to marry in their stores. One proposed feature of the ceremony: When it is time for the big kiss, the bride and groom can each chomp on the end of a french fry until their lips meet.

Meanwhile IKEA, known for its Swedish meatballs, has no plans to allow nuptials in its cafeterias.

—Yang Jie contributed to this article.

Write to Laurie Burkitt at laurie.burkitt@wsj.com

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Project Happy Feet Slipper Race 2011 - Sign up now!

Do your part by signing up for Project Happy Feet Slipper Race. 100% of the funds raised will go to the underprivileged children and youths in Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia.

 
 
 

The Unreal Times: BCG hires McKinsey to advice it on how to become number 1

 

This is hilarious! :D

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The Unreal Times

India's favourite satire, spoof, parody and human portal

Source: http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2011/08/12/bcg-hires-mckinsey-to-advise-it-on-how-to-become-number-1/

BCG hires McKinsey to advice it on how to become number 1

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McK will use the BCG matrix to slot BCG consultants as dogs and cows

Strategy consulting major Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced today that it has hired the services of the world’s number 1 strategy consulting firm McKinsey to advice BCG on how to replace McKinsey as the number 1 strategy consulting firm.

“We are sick of being second best. After a rigorous year long internal analysis session that involved 35 BCG consultants (editor – this translates to roughly over 2.9 lakh manhours assuming each consultant put in 18 hours a day,7 days a week), 45 proprietary BCG frameworks, and over 900 Powerpoint slides, we came to the firm conclusion that the best strategy would be to hire McKinsey to advice us on becoming #1,” said Vijayendra ‘Baba’ Haryal, Global Head, BCG.

McKinsey has readily agreed to serve its new client as professionally as possible. “In normal times, we’d have asked them go climb a tree. But with another looming recession, we can’t afford to be choosy. Hopefully we should be able to retain BCG as an anchor client for at least 5 years,” said Achal Nath, Senior Partner, McKinsey.

Achal pooh-poohed the idea of a potential conflict of interest. “As long as they are paying us, we are happy to advice them. One of the firm’s core values is to place the client’s interest above everything else, so there is no question of  a conflict of interest” said Achal. The Senior Partner however did concede that in theory BCG can replace McKinsey as the number 1 firm at the end of the engagement. “Yeah, in theory they should. But the cool thing about consulting is that we are not required to put our money where our mouths are, so I am not gonna lose sleep over it,” he shrugged.

The McKinsey team deployed for this prestigious assignment has been persuaded by BCG to use the famous BCG Growth-Share Matrix for some of the analysis. “Yeah, we have our own tools but these guys seem quite sentimental about this stuff and insisted that we use it. So in the first phase of the engagement, we are gonna slot BCG consultants into dogs, cows, question marks, and stars so that the dogs can be kicked out and the stars can be promoted. We will then see what to do with the question marks,” said team lead and rising McKinsey star, Raghib Ahmed.

Pundits think BCG’s move is a master-stroke. “If McK indeed helps them become #1, great! If not, BCG can then tell prospective clients that Mck’s advice does not always produce results,” said Li Chin, a Hong Kong based business journalist. “Hmm… that’s an interesting line of thought. To be honest, we just want to get hold of some nice Mck slides, but that will help too,” said ‘Baba’ Haryal, Global Head, BCG to The UnReal Times.

Cook and Share A Pot of Curry - From Foodie's Kitchen :)

I am also participating in this event! :)

Cook and Share A Pot of Curry

Mr Brown's Curry Song - Hilarious!

The curry song by Mr Brown - Hilarious :)

A follow-up on my post of "Cook and Share A Pot of Curry on 21 Aug 2011". Nice adaptation of "Vincent". Have a good laugh! :)

Will you be cooking curry today? :) Participate in this meaningful event and spread the importance of intercultural understanding between countries and also between the different races and nationalities within one country!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=254441147918239

Foodie

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Cook and Share A Pot of Curry on 21 Aug 2011

Tom Yam Curry by yours truly. This was a dish that I had prepared for my family dinner held on Singapore's National Day (9 Aug). Curry is a well-loved dish by most if not all Singaporeans and I sincerely hope that the new migrants to the little red dot will learn to adapt to our way of life.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=254441147918239

This is a Facebook Page created by a group of Singaporeans after a report came about that a mainland Chinese family (from China) told a local Indian Family not to eat curry and not to cook curry. The appointed mediator - a certain Madam Giam facilitated the case in such a way that : the Indian family could cook curry only when the mainland Chinese family is not at home. (mediation agreement).

So far, more than 60,000 around the world (mostly Singaporeans!) are joining in. Cook a pot of curry or buy a take-out from a restaurant (if you can't cook or too busy to do so). A meaningful event to spread the importance of interculural understanding between countries and also between the different races and nationalities within one country.

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Excerpt from Facebook Page:

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110808-0000102/Number-of-neighbour-disputes-hit-high (this is the link)

and this is the clarification to the case:
http://app2.mlaw.gov.sg/Highlights/tabid/168/Default.aspx?ItemId=568

and 16th Aug 2011 (The Law Minister's clarification)
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20110816-294757/2.html

How we feel
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How could a appointed mediator facilitate the case in such a way that restricts the lifestyle and cooking norms of the Indian family? Or any other local family who practices a cultural lifestyle that we have all made our own? In this case, Curry has always been part of our culture since the 1800s. It can be anything else that you or I hold dear.

There is a native Malay proverb "Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung" ("You should hold up the sky of the land where you live") - ie one should respect the country in which you choose to live in. ( ie blend/ assimilate/ understand/ tolerate / integrate into the community of your chosen choice)

What we wish for
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When the new immigrants arrive here, we wish for them to respect / embrace the cultural / lifestyle and linguistic norms of this nation. We wish for all new immigrants and citizens to understand and appreciate the various and diverse cultural aspects of the various ethnic-minority groups we have here.

This is Singapore and we are part of Malayan culture. Our hinterland previously was Malaysia and the Indonesian archipelago. Our ancestors came, met and mingled and through an adventurous and open mindset, created something unique and beautiful... (thus our local culture as such- curries/ spices/ a vast melting pot of people and mixed heritages)

* A message to all new citizens: We sincerely hope you integrate into our local culture and make attempts to assimilate and embrace/ appreciate the various multi-ethnic cultures we had built up so painstakingly over the decades. Because at the same time, we are definitely open to taking the best that you have to offer, and to create new and beautiful Singaporean things.

*We Singaporeans are basically nice and tolerant people. We will accept you as new citizens and hope you blend in and integrate with us well.


Upset with CMC
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We are mainly upset with the "Community Mediation Centre's" mediation action of actually facilitating such a mediation agreement. It is the inalienable right of the Indian family to cook curry at any time they wish to within the four walls of their home. (having said that, let us all- natives, new citizens or otherwise, embrace the multi-cultural aspects of our nation)

Every Singaporean should just cook a pot of curry and eat it (regardless of race / language / religion). We are Singaporeans and we LOVE our curries - be it chicken curry / fish curry / lamb curry / beef curry / beef rendang / lontong / mee siam/ laksa / Petai sambal belachan / ayam buah keluak etc

Thank You Very Much for supporting "Cook A Pot of Curry" Event!

- from the Admin Group

Project Happy Feet: PHF Slipper Race - It's Happening! :)

13 November 2011 – Save the date for the inaugural Project Happy Feet Slipper Race 2011. More details coming your way!

To know more about Project Happy Feet, please click http://www.projecthappyfeet.org/

Project Happy Feet: PHF Returns to Siem Reap

Source: http://www.projecthappyfeet.org/beta/?p=1138

PHF Returns to Siem Reap

in News by Deborah — June 27, 2011 at 1:41 pm | 0 comments

At least once a year, PHF returns to the countries that they have been supporting to feel the ground, perform their audits and relook at the programmes it hopes to embark to support the local community. This ensures that we are not only kept up to date with the latest developments in the country and note the changes that have occurred but also to ensure that our programmes and projects are most relevant and helpful to the local community.

The following chronicles our trip to Siem Reap from 21 – 26 June 2011:

DAY 1

ConCERT

Our trip started out with a meeting with ConCERT (Connecting Communities, Environment and Responsible Tourism) – a non-profit organization based in Siem Reap that connects local NGOs that need help to the people who can provide the help they need. ConCERT not only provides information about these local NGOs, but also ensures that these NGOs are well managed, financially transparent and work in partnership with the local people – key criteria for PHF as we are selecting the NGOs we plan to support.

Through its Founder and Chairman, Michael Holton, we find out about the realities of the ground and how some NGOs have been set up but have soon exploited the system to benefit themselves instead of the local community. He shared with us tips of caution as we proceeded to identify organizations we hope to work with (on top of those we already have planned to support).

Read here more about Responsible Tourism as shared by ConCERT.

After much reading up and research, we arranged to meet up with This Life Cambodia and Trailblazer Foundation.

 

DAY 2

Visiting Angkor Thom Village with Shinta Mani

We started out Day 2 of our trip bright and early with a trip to the villages in the Angkor Thom district – the villages that touched the hearts of co-founders, Grace and Deborah on their first trip to Siem Reap, that got PHF all started.

Shinta Mani, a boutique hotel that runs itself as a social enterprise, arranged the visit for us. It was a surreal experience for all of us once again as we went from family to family to understand the situation they were in and how Shinta Mani has helped them improve their lives by installing water pumps or building a concrete home for shelter over their heads.

Through the visit, we learnt that majority homes in the Angkor Thom district look old and dilapidated because the Apsara Authority (which protects the area in and around the Angkor Wat area) forbids any form of construction in areas that fall within the zone surrounding the Angkor Wat. Since the Angkor Thom district falls within this zone, the villagers thus can only do minor repairs to their homes.

Making a Difference with MaD Cambodia

Lunch was one with a difference as we headed to the MaD Eatery to meet up with Founder of MaD Cambodia, Phillip Starling.

Not only was the lunch wonderfully delicious, it was also one without any price tag on the menu. We simply paid what we thought was worth the price, and the money goes towards funding the activities of the MaD Cambodia. A novel idea indeed.

Our lunch meeting with Phillip and his partner, Concetta, was not only informative but delightful. One who speaks his mind and believes in approaching problems in a non-conventional way, Phillip shared with us the good things they were doing for the Prolit Village – ranging from providing after-school programmes that teach not only life skills but also stimulates the mind, to introducing a novel idea of compost toilets that not only prevents pollution, but also provide a rich source of organic fertilizers for the local farmers.

Phillip welcomed us to visit the Prolit Village anytime we wanted. “We don’t have to get the poor people to show you that there are really poor people there,” he said in a tongue-in-cheek manner, referring to some NGOs who stage poverty in order to benefit from unassuming kind hearts.

Purchasing Slippers at Phsar Ler (All Market)

Rattana from Shinta Mani picked us up from our the MaD Base Camp and together, we headed with her to the local’s market where things are whole lot cheaper than if we had gone to the old market (where tourists typically visit). There, she efficiently made her bargain and we purchased 130 pairs of slippers (sponsored by staff members at Robinsons) for the school children we were planning to visit the next day.

Getting in Touch with Siem Reap Hostel

We had recommended some of our friends who had made the trip earlier to Siem Reap to put up at Siem Reap Hostel since it provided very affordable and clean accommodation. Not only was the location pretty near the Old Market, the hostel also has recently put together programmes that are helping the local community and we wanted to find out more.

Tiani, General Manager at the hostel, met up with us and briefed us of the small programmes they have begun to undertake, specifically supporting the efforts of Green Gecko, a home for street kids, as well as their micro-financing project for Tuk Tuk drivers.

She highlighted that perhaps one of the needs for the local community was to provide skills-based training to ensure they not only are equipped with technical skills (e.g. construction, electrical, plumbing), but also the safety awareness so that they do not harm themselves.

 

DAY 3

Slippers for Sambour School

Our friends from Shinta Mani met with us, and together we made our way to the Sambour School in the Angkor Thom district. Shinta Mani supported the construction of the school previously and has been supporting the school in whatever ways they can since.

During the long (and very rocky) journey, we learnt more about our Shinta Mani friends, Kol (Front Office Manager) and Saoline (Culinary Instructor). Both Kol and Saoline were beneficiaries of the programme at Shinta Mani. Years ago, they had undergone the training provided at Shinta Mani which selects individuals from underprivileged communities, and puts them through a training programme in either culinary or front of house skills. During the programme, they had also learnt the English Language.

Today, both Kol and Saoline are both very successful individuals who have managed to escape the poverty cycle and even managed to bring their parents from the village to stay with them in the city. It was certainly heartening for us to see them now trying to give back to the community in what way they could.

At the Sambour School, we promptly unwrapped the slippers and put them on the feet of the 130 children there, something we were glad we were able to do since at least 95% of the children were without footwear. Some even needed our help to put on the slippers – it seemed it was the first time they were wearing footwear in their lives.

Sala Bai with Shina Mani

Since Shinta Mani was under renovation (it is expanding its hotel to accommodate more guests and a bigger training school for its trainees), Kol recommended we have lunch at Sala Bai, a restaurant with a concept similar to Shinta Mani (or KOTO in Hanoi).

We invited our friends at Shinta Mani to join us for lunch, during which we learnt more about their lives, and their future plans.

Grace collected a load of industry related books from her colleagues from Temasek Polytechnic, and these were donated to Shinta Mani to stock up their new library for its trainees. Kol and Saoline received the books with gratitude, commenting that they were really good books for the trainees who were to come in.

Meeting with This Life Cambodia

If there was an organisation that we’ve met that was the most structured, we’d say it was This Life Cambodia (TLC).

During the meeting with Mr Sen Se, TLC’s Assistant Director, Ms Chea Borany, Programme Coordinator and Mr William Brehm, Research, Evaluation and Monitor Officer, we learnt about the comprehensive programmes that they had, in particular the lower secondary school development programme where they empower the community to better the education provided at the public schools. We loved the idea that whichever programme TLC embarked on, there was an exit strategy – which meant they plan to make the system self-sustaining, or one that allowed the local community to continue the work themselves.

The programme came complete with a breakdown of objectives, tasks and checklists, complete with who in the community was responsible for each task. The local community was held accountable and for that reason, gave them a sense of ownership of the programme.

 

DAY 4

Taom is Developing Well

We headed to the St John’s Church in Siem Reap to meet up with Fr Stephanus and Thon, who was overall in charge of the developments of the 6 villages that the church supported. In particular, we had wanted to know about the developments in Taom, the village that received the most support from friends of PHF since 2008.

We were heartened to know that the library that was built there was utilised not only by the children in the Taom village, but those in the nearby regions as well. The two ladies who were receiving our scholarship to be trained in pre-school education will be graduating and will be starting lessons for the younger children in the village.

The next plans for the village is to look into a water sanitation project as well as to equip the area with electricity – perhaps using solar panels. It gave us room to think about how we could support their efforts.

At the end of the meeting, Deborah presented USD 790 – part proceeds from the Chefs for a Cause project to Fr Stephanus to support the rice soup programme that runs once a week across 8 learning centres for 6 villages.

Innovative Ideas from Trailblazer

Our meeting with Mr Rattana from Trailblazer Foundation turned out to be one which was highly informative.

Mr Rattana promptly brought us to their backyard after a brief introduction – it was here that all their hard work laid.

Trailblazers help the local community (specifically the Sras Village, which was identified as one of the poorest villages in Siem Reap) by introducing innovative ideas that help them sustain in their own environment. For example, they research and experiment on crops that can grow well in their local soils, and if successful, introduce the crops to the community of mostly farmers, who can either grow them for sustenance or for sale. They take into consideration things like duration of growth, ease of growth and cost of growing the crops. They look into possible demands from restaurants and hotels to ensure that while they are producing a supply, there is also a corresponding supply. We were especially impressed to see how they have begun to experiment the growth of mushrooms using saw dust from rubber trees.

Mr Rattana also showed us how they produce a filtration system at their backyard that allow villagers to gain access to potable water. The innovative invention requires no electricity and provides clean water almost instantly, thereby reducing illnesses relating to drinking unclean water. Costing USD 50 each to install, Trailblazers charge USD2.75 per filtration system to the household that requires it. This money however doesn’t go towards Trailblazer but towards a community fund that functions as a micro-loan facility to villagers who need it.

 

DAY 5

MaD Cambodia’s Outreach at Prolit Village

We had arranged to visit the Prolit Village after our meeting with Phillip from MaD Cambodia. Rith, our local guide, came to pick us up on his jeep and brought us to the MaD Base Camp. From there we met up with General Manager, Songhy, who led the way to the Prolit Village in the Puok District some 25 km from the Siem Reap city centre.

The journey brought us to feel the air of the country side (literally!) as we were duly bathed in a cloud of red dust on the way to the village.

Once there, Songhy showed us how their team, who have been working at the village for the past 8 months, installed water pumps, a task we learnt that wasn’t as easy since it wasn’t always that they could find a water source. Sometimes, even after hours of drilling and finding a water source, the water cannot be used as it contains harmful substances. The team will then have to find an alternative source and the drilling begins all over again.

Songhy also showed us how the compost toilet worked. We were surprised that the toilet wasn’t foul smelling despite not having any means of flushing.

At the village, we also visited the learning centre, as well as saw the growing of the Moringa plants, which offered a rich source of protein, minerals and vitamins to the villagers who were more often than not malnourished.

Visiting Little Angels

Our guide Rith invited us to visit his farm after our visit to the Prolit Village. On the way there, we stopped by the Little Angels Orphanage, set up by his friend Sery Rathana, an orphan himself who had lost his parents during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Sery had set up the orphanage to help mostly boys who have lost either one or both parents. Besides ensuring they go through school, have three meals a day and a bed to sleep on, Sery also teaches the boys the Khmer art of carving on cow’s hide. It was clear that the boys there loved what they were learning as they earnestly punched through the cow’s hide, creating pieces of art. “I tell them, if they don’t go to school, I won’t teach them,” Sery said smiling.

We scoured through the place and took our notes. It was clear that Sery had a heart for these boys he is genuinely helping. But he could do with more help from us, and we were eager to create a better learning and living environment for him and the boys at the orphanage. We were inspired by him – a local who felt that he was in a better position than others and wanted to help those who were worse off then he.

Visiting a Friend’s Farm

After a visit to the Prolung Pottery and Weaving Centre, Rith drove us towards his farm.

“Welcome to my farm,” he said proudly as he drove us into the compounds of his farm. Off the main road, the one hectare piece of land was surrounded mostly by large fields and a flowing river. The breeze was surprisingly cool as we stepped out of his jeep.

Rith proudly introduced us to his wife and then, his family of poultry – from chickens (at least five different breeds!) to ducks, to geese and even a turkey! He explained how he bred his free-range poultry, and how he had learnt to rear the poultry himself by attending free courses conducted by NGOs.

“That’s my fish farm,” he pointed to a big pond of still water.

“There’s fish?” we asked.

Rith began beating his drum and all of a sudden hundreds of fish started splashing out of the water. We learnt that Rith beats his drum each time he feeds his fish with a mix of feed he cooks himself.

We were surprised when Rith invited us to sit in a hut by the fish pond.

“Let’s have lunch,” he said, pointing us to the hammocks he had bought on the way to his farm.

Within a few minutes, lunch was served – Char-grilled chicken with rice and black chicken soup – a meal that was simple but homely and delicious. We were touched by his gesture of hospitality. It was clear that Rith didn’t treat us like a usual client, but as friends.

Over lunch we learnt of Rith’s plans to use his farm as a means to train less fortunate Cambodians in farming. His daughter came to join us and we were glad to hear that he has invested much in her education. “Big investment,” he chuckled as he looked at his two daughters.

 

DAY 6

Goodbyes

Rith came to pick us up from the hotel to send us to the airport.

“Thank you for helping us Cambodians,” he put his hands together in gratitude as he waved us goodbye. “Please keep in touch and come back. We can do a lot more together.”

Certainly.

Our trip this time didn’t involve us visiting village after village giving out handouts, yet it was equally if not more fulfilling and inspiring. We noticed a change in the local scene since our visit to Siem Reap in 2008. The local community is a lot more motivated to get their fellow counterparts out of the poverty cycle.

At some point, the credible NGOs realised that handouts could possibly create a culture of reliance. They realised that it made no sense to develop a system that was imposed on the local community, or went against the government. They realised that if they really want to help, then they should do so by empowering the local people – teach them a skill, give them a job, let them have a sense of ownership, let them make decisions as a community, provide platforms for change to better their lives, let them try, let them experiment and through that process, allow the change to take place.

What this means for us is that we need to re-look at how we support our friends in Cambodia. Sometimes, it’s not as simple as giving slippers or donate clothes, or decide to build a library or paint a wall of a village school. When we do extend ‘help’, perhaps we should first ask ourselves, “Are we really helping them?”

We can certainly do more together. But first to think of the best way how.

Visit the photo gallery of our trip on our Facebook Page here!

Project Happy Feet: Finding the right fit

My feeble effort in helping to spread the word for Project Happy Feet via this blog.

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Source: http://www.projecthappyfeet.org/beta/?p=1140

Excerpt: Giving help is easy, but giving the right kind of help – just like finding a pair of slippers that fit at that point in time of a growing child’s life – requires a lot more.

Finding the right fit

in News Reflections by Terence — June 26, 2011 at 11:16 pm | 0 comments

 

“I think size 8,” Deborah calls out, and Grace quickly unwraps a smaller pair of slippers. The other pairs on the floor are sizes 8, or 8 and a half, or 9 – too big for this little girl standing before them with her toes wriggling gingerly in anticipation. She’s been watching the other kids get their pair and awaiting her turn.

Deborah fits the pair of slippers on, and though this is not your regular Cinderella fairy tale, it feels equally magical to see her little eyes light up. A perfect fit!

“Aw-kung,” the little girl shyly whispers the Khmer word for ‘thanks’ with her palms together, and with a quick bow of her head, runs back to her seat…

Project Happy Feet had returned to Siem Reap, Cambodia in June 2011. Like previous trips to Siem Reap and Hanoi, the team brought money raised through its fund-raising efforts to support education-related programmes run by local NGOs. And of course, to buy slippers for school-going children without footwear.

So prior to visiting Sambour Primary School in the Angkhor Thom district supported by Shinta Mani, the team made a trip to Psar Ler (‘All-Market’) with a list of feet sizes and a matching quantity to buy 130 pairs of slippers with all the money collected by staff members of Robinsons in Singapore.

The next morning, in no more than an hour, the 130 pairs of slippers were given out to all the students of the school who came from within 5km – all of them barefooted.

Indeed, giving slippers has become an easy way for us to communicate what Project Happy Feet does (and what a great way to start the whole conversation about giving aid to the underprivileged in developing countries). Afterall, that is how Project Happy Feet started in the first place – with an inspiration to have every little pair of school-going feet covered and protected on their way to getting an education, which hopefully helps them get out of the poverty cycle. And truth be told, slippers – along with other school supplies like uniforms, stationery, scholarships, nutritious meals and bicycles – are still very much appreciated and needed. And they go a long way in giving relief.

But we all know that slippers and other gifts are really just short-term relief.

To alleviate the problems of poverty, we know the community needs to carry out sustainable programmes that empower themselves through capacity-building. They need to find a way to work together amongst themselves and with their government towards being self-reliant and independent of foreign aid.

And that’s why apart from giving out slippers, we’re really all about supporting organisations that have sustainable programmes that make real impact. We want to know what the community really need, and find a way to help them, not just give for the sake of giving.

On this trip, we’re glad to have met with several organisations that seem to fit what we are looking for, many of which have great programmes that are sustainable and create real impact.

For instance, This Life Cambodia has clear 3-year plans to help the community take ownership of their own problems, and supports them by teaching them how to lobby and press the government for accountability. It even has an exit strategy so that the organisation can diminish its own presence within the community over time.

MaD Cambodia drills the ground for families to have clean water and grows Moringa plants for transplanting onto village soil so families can have access to nutritious meals by growing them in their own backyard.

Trailblazer Foundation conducts various research and development programmes into agriculture and water filtration to help families increase the success of their crops and have access to drinking water (removing up to 98% of bacteria).

Still there are others like The Little Angels Orphanage and Leather Carving Workshop (run by a former orphan) and Prolung Khmer Pottery and Weaving Training Centre in Bakong Village teach traditional Khmer handicraft skills which not just give the underprivileged youths a means to make a living, but also preserves their heritage.

With so much to do and can be done for the underprivileged in Cambodia, and with limited resources and sometimes limited information, we need to work very hard to decide which organisation and programme(s) to support. But which one should we choose? Which one meets our stringent selection criteria of having strong foundation, strong track record, strong corporate governance, and more? Which is more needed by the community? Why this one and not the other – which seems equally crucial? Which one should we support? Which is the right fit? Deciding on an organisation and a programme to support is certainly no walk in the park.

Giving help is easy, but giving the right kind of help – just like finding a pair of slippers that fit at that point in time of a growing child’s life – requires a lot more.

ST: Marriage - Don't wait for stars to be aligned

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Home > News > Home > Story

Jun 26, 2011

Marriage: Don't wait for stars to be aligned

Govt will try to raise rate but couples should not wait for tangible perks, says MG Chan

By Jessica Cheam

(from left) NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng, co-chair of the National Family Celebrations organising committee Lim Soon Hock, DPM Teo, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah Yacob and MG Chan enjoying a game at the Family Day Out carnival at Marina Bay yesterday. -- PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

 

The Government will keep on trying to raise the marriage rate in Singapore, but couples also should not hinge their decision to tie the knot on just tangible incentives, said Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing yesterday.

Singaporeans should not wait till 'all the stars are aligned', such as owning an HDB flat or a car, before they get married, he advised. This is because it is impossible to have the perfect conditions for getting married or having a child.

Major-General (NS) Chan was speaking on the sidelines of the National Family Celebrations at Marina Bay yesterday.

Earlier, at the same event, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean reminded participants in a speech that everyone has a part to play in making Singapore family-friendly.

'As a society, we need to help our families to cope and to thrive by building a pro-family environment. This goes beyond government measures, such as Baby Bonus, paid maternity leave and childcare leave,' said Mr Teo.

The DPM added that the celebrations - an annual event organised by the National Family Council, which this year focused on youth - are a 'good reminder to us parents that strong family support is essential for our young people as they mature as adults'.

Said MG Chan: 'This has to do with the culture, that we bring up our children to be more family-oriented, that the family is always at the centre of one's life.'

MG Chan commented on recently released figures which show Singapore's marriage rate having dipped to a historic low last year.

He said Singaporeans should be more concerned about long-term marriage trends instead of worrying about any blips in the statistics.

'Let us look at the trend rather than a particular year's statistics... There might be one or two reasons why there is a drop, but overall I think we're more concerned with the trend,' he added.

'We're not too excited when next year there's a sudden increase or dip. What we're more interested in is whether the trend overall is a more positive one.'

The month-long National Family Celebrations closed yesterday with its Family Day Out carnival, which drew 36,000 Singaporeans to Marina Bay to spend a day with their families.

jcheam@sph.com.sg

FT: Architect of modern Singapore steps down

Architect of modern Singapore steps down

By Kevin Brown in Singapore

Published: May 15 2011 12:34 | Last updated: May 15 2011 12:34

Lee Kuan Yew, former Singapore prime minister, has resigned his cabinet seat after 52 years

Singaporeans woke up on Sunday to the prospect of a government without the country’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew – a dominating political figure who unexpectedly resigned from the cabinet after more than half a century in service.

Mr Lee, 87, quit along with Goh Chok Tong, prime minister from 1990 to 2004, exactly a week after the ruling People’s Action party suffered its worst election result since independence in 1965.

In a joint statement, the two former prime ministers said they wanted to provide “a fresh clean slate” for Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister, who has promised to respond positively to voters’ concerns.

Mr Lee, who has been prime minister or a senior cabinet minister since the beginning of colonial self government in 1959, told state media his resignation was “the right thing to do, to give PM (sic) and his team the room to break from the past.”

He added: “We want to make it clear that the PAP has never been averse to change.”

As a founder member of the PAP in 1954, Mr Lee is regarded as the architect of modern Singapore, setting it on a free market course designed to attract foreign investment that has given the tiny island state the second highest living standards in Asia, after Japan.

He successfully fought far left opponents in the 1960s, locking up many without trial for years, and became associated with a tough approach to dissent that many dismissed as authoritarian. However, the PAP was repeatedly re-elected in general elections, usually winning between two-thirds and three quarters of the popular vote.

In a joint statement, the two former prime ministers said they wanted to provide “a fresh clean slate” for Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister, who has promised to respond positively to voters¨concerns.

The PAP won 81 of 87 elected parliamentary seats with 60.1 per cent of the popular vote in the last election on May 7, but was clearly shaken by an increase in the total opposition vote to 39.9 per cent from a third in 2006.

The retirement of the two former prime ministers has few implications for policy, since the government has already undertaken to address election issues such as high immigration, income disparity and the price of government-subsidised housing.

However, political analysts said it was not purely symbolic, and speculated that the prime minister, who is the son of Lee Kuan Yew, might take the opportunity to replace a number of other senior ministers with younger faces.

Eugene Tan, a politics specialist at Singapore Management University, said the changing of the guard suggested the PAP was serious about promises to reconnect with younger voters, many of whom dislike the governing party’s authoritarian style.

“Government policy is seen as bearing the imprint of [Lee Kuan Yew], and the fact is that the announcement comes a week after the general election and that voters did not take kindly to what some might say was negative campaigning by [the elder Mr Lee],” he said.

“We are transitioning towards a post-Lee Kuan Yew era, and many did not expect it to come so soon. But it is not a revolution. That is not the way government is conducted in Singapore.”

The elder Mr Lee will remain a powerful figure in Singapore, as a leading member of the governing party with the ear of the prime minister, untrammelled access to the state supervised media and significant moral authority, especially over older Singaporeans.

However, his standing has been tarnished in recent years by controversial statements such as a claim that the country’s Malay muslim minority had failed to integrate, and an appearance of being out of step with Singaporeans born after independence, who now make up a majority of voters.

Mr Lee caused controversy during the election by appearing to threaten that the government would discriminate against constituencies that elected opposition MPs. His comments were in sharp contrast to the emollient tone adopted by the prime minister, who offered an unprecedented apology for any mistake the PAP might have made.

He became the first prime minister of independent Singapore in 1965, after the union broke up amid acrimony over Malay political rights. He stepped down in 1990, and has since served as a cabinet minister without portfolio, latterly with the title Minister Mentor.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

NY Times: In Singapore, Political Campaigning Goes Viral

 

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May 5, 2011

In Singapore, Political Campaigning Goes Viral

By SETH MYDANS

SINGAPORE — This tightly controlled city-state has taken a step into the unknown in advance of its parliamentary elections on Saturday, loosening its grip on political discourse in the unruly world of the Internet, where Facebook, Twitter and other social media have amplified a clamor of voices and points of view.

In a nation where government opponents are often sued over defamation and where carefully vetted public speech has been permitted only in a little park called Speakers’ Corner (which has been shut down during the campaign), experts say the new opening, if only in the virtual world, appears to be a redefinition of what are known here as “out-of-bounds markers.”

Following recent changes to the Constitution and election laws, Internet election advertising is now permitted throughout cyberspace — on podcasts, videocasts, blogs, instant messaging, photo-sharing platforms like Flickr, social networking sites and electronic media applications like those found on mobile phones.

For the first time, election campaign recordings can be posted as long as they are not “dramatized” or published “out of context.” Video taken at an election rally can be uploaded onto the Web without being submitted to the Board of Film Censors.

“Social media have lowered the barriers of entry into political discourse everywhere,” said Mark Cenite, an assistant professor of communication and information at Nanyang Technological University. “But that’s particularly significant in Singapore because here the barriers to entry into political discourse and the accompanying risks have been so high.”

Despite the changes to Internet regulations, demonstrations and public speech still require permits in Singapore. Political speech is restricted to candidates. Opposition politicians and news media face the possibility of defamation suits. The mainstream news media are tightly controlled and have not acted as a check on the government, experts say.

During the last parliamentary campaign, in 2006, a small number of current events blogs were the main forum for online citizen participation. Political speech was technically illegal and demanded a greater level of risk and commitment.

“Now that the barriers to entry to political dialogue have fallen, the effect has been electric,” Mr. Cenite said. “Government critics are able to easily identify and support one another without making a headlong commitment to politics and take the accompanying risks.”

All of this has contributed to an intense campaign in which opposition parties — which now hold just 2 of 84 elected seats — are drawing bigger crowds to rallies, fielding more candidates and, in contrast to the past, contesting all but one constituency. In the last election, opposition parties contested just half the constituencies.

Analysts say it is impossible to know whether this enthusiasm will translate into votes against the People’s Action Party, or P.A.P., which has governed Singapore since 1959.

But the campaign itself has been transformed as social media give smaller, poorer parties a wider audience, bringing greater inclusiveness and competitiveness to political debate.

Rather than trying to suppress online political organizing, as China and Vietnam have done, Singapore is taking a gamble on making it part of the legal campaign system.

“I don’t think they had a choice,” said Kin Mun Lee, known on his blog as Mr. Brown, who said he skirted the law in the last campaign by avoiding explicitly political comments. “Before, it was a very limited kind of provision for online speech. Definitely they had to change the rules because of the proliferation and availability of options.”

Opposition Web sites and Twitter accounts are being used to urge people to attend election rallies. They also send out streams of comments from rallies, hugely increasing their audience. The site Gothere Maps plots out the locations of rallies on a map.

The site Party Time aggregates conversations about the elections and graphically represents who is getting the most buzz online.

Facebook is estimated to have up to three million members in Singapore, whose population is more than five million. All seven competing parties have their own sites, as do many of the candidates.

By one estimate, there are 900,000 local users of Twitter.

Online coverage has pushed the main pro-government newspaper, The Straits Times, to publish fuller and not always critical news and photographs of opposition campaigns, said Alex Au, a prominent blogger.

“In the present era, with the ubiquitous cellphone camera and rapid distribution channels that are well beyond blogs, the old editorial policy is no longer viable,” he said on his blog. “If the newspaper does not publish such pictures, others will, and its credibility can only suffer.”

The Straits Times has dedicated a portal on its Web site to extensive electronic election coverage, and it is now aggregating online comments from the social media on a page it calls Buzz, which gives a flavor of some of the newly energized online commentary:

“The opposition can make ferocious speeches, but can they deliver?”

“Is it true that civil servants will be ostracized if they vote for the opposition?”

“If the opposition is sincere in serving the people, it would have been on the ground in the last 4 years, not starting their engines only when the whistle is blown.”

“Why must we be so dogmatic about democracy and stability being mutually exclusive?”

Economist: Applying the world's business brains to housing the poor

Schumpeter

A $300 idea that is priceless

Applying the world’s business brains to housing the poor

Apr 28th 2011 | from the print edition

FRIEDRICH ENGELS said in “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, in 1844, that the onward march of Manchester’s slums meant that the city’s Angel Meadow district might better be described as “Hell upon Earth”. Today, similar earthly infernos can be found all over the emerging world: from Brazil’s favelas to Africa’s shanties. In 2010 the United Nations calculated that there were about 827m people living in slums—almost as many people as were living on the planet in Engels’s time—and predicted that the number might double by 2030.

Last year Vijay Govindarajan, of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, along with Christian Sarkar, a marketing expert, issued a challenge in a Harvard Business Review blog: why not apply the world’s best business thinking to housing the poor? Why not replace the shacks that blight the lives of so many poor people, thrown together out of cardboard and mud, and prone to collapsing or catching fire, with more durable structures? They laid down a few simple guidelines. The houses should be built of mass-produced materials tough enough to protect their inhabitants from a hostile world. They should be equipped with the basics of civilised life, including water filters and solar panels. They should be “improvable”, so that families can adapt them to their needs. And they should cost no more than $300.

Mr Govindarajan admits that the $300 figure was partly an attention-grabbing device. But he also argues that it has a certain logic. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, has calculated that the average value of the houses of people who have just escaped from poverty is $370. Tata Motors has also demonstrated the value of having a fixed figure to aim at: the company would have found it more difficult to produce the Tata Nano if it had simply been trying to produce a “cheap” car rather than a “one lakh” car (about $2,200).

Related topics

• Amos Tuck School of Business Administration

The attention-grabbing certainly worked. The blog was so inundated with positive responses that a dedicated website, 300house.com, was set up, which has attracted more than 900 enthusiasts and advisers from all over the world. On April 20th Mr Govindarajan launched a competition inviting people to submit designs for a prototype of the house.

Why has a simple blog post led to such an explosion of creativity? The obvious reason is that “frugal innovation”—the art of radically reducing the cost of products while also delivering first-class value—is all the rage at the moment. General Electric has reduced the cost of an electrocardiogram machine from $2,000 to $400. Tata Chemicals has produced a $24 purifier that can provide a family with pure water for a year. Girish Bharadwaj, an engineer, has perfected a technique for producing cheap footbridges that are transforming life in rural India.

Another reason is that houses can be such effective anti-poverty tools. Poorly constructed ones contribute to a nexus of problems: the spread of disease (because they have no proper sanitation or ventilation), the perpetuation of poverty (because children have no proper lights to study by) and the general sense of insecurity (because they are so flimsy and flammable). Mr Govindarajan’s idea is so powerful because he treats houses as ecosystems that provide light, ventilation and sanitation.

Numerous innovators are also worrying away at this nexus of problems. Habitat for Humanity, an NGO, is building durable houses of bamboo in Nepal. Idealab, a consultancy, is on the verge of unveiling a $2,500 house that will be mass-produced in factories, sold in kits and feature breakthroughs in ventilation, lighting and sanitation. Philips has produced a cheap cooking stove, the Chulha, that cuts out the soot that kills 1.6m people a year worldwide. The Solar Electric Light Fund is demonstrating that you can provide poor families with solar power for roughly the same cost as old standbys such as kerosene and candles.

Profits and other problems

These thinkers, like the advocates of the $300 house, must solve three huge problems to succeed. They must persuade big companies that they can make money out of cheap homes, because only they can achieve the economies of scale needed to hit the target price. They need to ensure sufficient access to microloans: $300 is a huge investment for a family of squatters living on a couple of dollars a day. And they need to overcome the obstacle that most slum-dwellers have weak or non-existent property rights. There is no point in offering people the chance to buy a cleverly designed house if they have no title to the land they occupy. Solving these problems will in turn demand a high degree of co-operation between people who do not always get on: companies and NGOs, designers and emerging-world governments.

However, the exciting thing about the emerging world at the moment is a prevailing belief that even the toughest problems can be solved. And a similar can-do moment, in the late 1940s, offers a striking historical precedent for the application of mass-production techniques to housing: as American servicemen flooded home after the second world war to start families, Levitt & Sons built Levittowns at the rate of 30 houses a day by mass-producing the components in factories, delivering them on lorries and using teams of specialists to assemble them.

Some emerging-world governments are beginning to realise that providing security of tenure is the only way to deal with the problem of ever-proliferating slums. And big companies that face stagnant markets in the West are increasingly fascinated by the “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid”. Bill Gross of Idealab reckons the market for cheap houses could be worth at least $424 billion. But in reality it is worth far more than that: preventing the Earth from becoming what Mike Davis, a particularly gloomy follower of Marx and Engels, has termed a “planet of slums”.

NY Times: 36 Hours in Singapore

 

 

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April 28, 2011

36 Hours in Singapore

By ONDINE COHANE

From left Bikes for rent at Vanguard, on Robertson Quay; the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands offers spectacular 360-degree views; in the kitchen at Dim Joy restaurant.

JUDGING from the number of cranes that dot the city’s skyline, Singapore is booming. In the last few years, casinos and hotels have sprung up; museums and galleries in former colonial landmarks have flung open their doors; and international designers have staked out prime real estate alongside up-and-comers just starting to make their fashion mark. Throughout the city, street vendors and sleek restaurants — new and well-established — serve up the city’s renowned mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnic cuisines. And, best of all, sexy lounges and rooftop bars are helping the city-state shake off its formerly staid image.

Friday

4 p.m.
1) BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

There are few better symbols of Singapore’s recent success — or excess, depending on your perspective — than the year-old Marina Bay Sands (10 Bayfront Avenue; 65-6688-8868; marinabaysands.com), a gargantuan, three-towered complex with more than 2,500 rooms that looms over the city. Even if you aren’t staying at the hotel or hitting the casino, a ticket costing 20 Singapore dollars, or $16.50 at 1.22 Singapore dollars to the U.S. dollar, will provide access to the most impressive feature: SkyPark, an observation deck with 360-degree views. In one direction you’ll see the city’s expansive harbor; in the other, its sparkling skyline. Entry also includes a gander at what is billed as the world’s largest infinity pool, an architectural marvel that links the tops of the trio of towers.

5 p.m.
2) DUAL PURPOSED

The city’s new Museum of Contemporary Arts (27A Loewen Road; 65-6479-6622; mocaloewen.sg), known as MOCA, exemplifies Singapore’s ability to conserve existing colonial structures while creating cutting-edge interiors. In this case a former army barracks dating from the 1860s now showcases work from artists from all over Asia. Since opening in December the gallery has featured the Chinese provocateur Guo Jin and sculptors like Jiang Shuo and Wu Shaoxiang. This month the museum focuses on S. P. Hidayat, an up-and-coming Indonesian expressionist. In the fall a 2.5-acre sculpture garden will be unveiled.

8 p.m.
3) CULINARY ARTS

It’s not just for business deals that Singapore competes with Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The food scene is also notable. One of its most impressive arrivals, Restaurant André (41 Bukit Pasoh Road; 65-6534-8880; restaurantandre.com), opened late last year in the Chinatown neighborhood with an eight-course seasonal tasting menu that combines Asian and European ingredients — Hokkaido scallop ravioli is served with cured purple shallots, basil and shiso flowers, while wagyu beef from Omi is accompanied by vegetables from France, all paired with wine from small producers in Burgundy and Alsace. The downside is the price (the tasting menu is 288 Singapore dollars; and wine pairings, 200 dollars). For a more reasonable but still excellent meal, head to Wild Rocket (10A Upper Wilkie Road; 65-6339-9448; wildrocket.com.sg), a foodie favorite where a four-course tasting menu includes dishes like soft-shell crab with Granny Smith salad and baked red grouper with French beans and laksa broth, and costs 62 dollars.

11 p.m.
4) NIGHTTIME MAKEOVER

With night-life options now ranging from multiplex techno clubs to more intimate spots that feature D.J.’s and specialty cocktails, the city is shedding its uptight reputation. In the Emily Hill complex, for example, a former colonial estate has been transformed into a multi-use compound that is home to artists’ studios and a theater school as well as Wild Oats restaurant and bar (11 Upper Wilkie Road; 65-6336-5413), where Singapore’s beautiful crowd convenes for drinks after dinner on a sprawling terrace. In Chinatown, Ying Yang (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188), a black-and-white rooftop bar at the new Club hotel on Ann Siang Road, has also become a city hot spot — try the litchi martini for 18 Singapore dollars.

Saturday

10 a.m.
5) TRAINING WHEELS

After a coffee or fresh watermelon juice at Kith Café (7 Rodyk Street, nos. 1-33; 65-6341-9407; kith.com.sg) on Robertson Quay — where neighborhood families and fashionable couples convene for breakfast — rent a vintage single- speed French city bike or a Raleigh six-speed from Vanguard next door (65-6835-7228) for 10 Singapore dollars per hour. Singapore is still very orderly in many ways, which comes in handy when trying to navigate city traffic by bike; neighborhoods like Clark Quay and the Colonial Center are especially easy to explore. Just remember to get off your bike when going through the tunnels — or you might get a hefty fine for breaking a city law.

Noon
6) STREET SMARTS

A long tradition of strong regional cuisine and strict hygiene laws makes for some of the world’s best — and safest — street food. Nowadays most of the hawkers are concentrated in covered food halls so that ingredients are kept cool, and preparation methods and cleanliness can be kept to a uniform standard. At the Maxwell Road Food Center near Chinatown, vendors sell everything from dumplings to onion pancakes to dessert: at Tian Tian (No. 11), try the chicken rice; at Hokee (No. 79), the soup dumplings, and at No. 848, fresh fruit and juice (one, a bitter gourd and honey mix, promises “to reduce heatiness (sic).” Prices are 1 to 8 Singapore dollars.

2 p.m.
7) STYLE MAVENS

Many of the city’s promising young designers and fashion curators have set up shop in former chophouses along Haji Lane near Arab Street, a counterbalance to the more ubiquitous shopping malls in town. Know It Nothing (51 Haji Lane; 65-6392-5475; knowitnothing.com) showcases mostly men’s clothes like checked shirts, well-cut khakis and hats (all chosen for the balmy climate), as well as a more limited just-launched women’s line. Salad Shop (25 Haji Lane; 65-6299-5805) has chic basics like stylish summer dresses, many for less than 125 Singapore dollars, and Pluck (31/33 Haji Lane; 65-6396-4048; pluck.com.sg) is an emporium for home-grown talent with a collection that ranges from home accessories to bags and jewelry (and includes an ice-cream parlor on site).

5 p.m.
8) PASS THE CRUMPETS

For a taste of the British colonial past, book a table for high tea at the Tiffin Room at Raffles (1 Beach Road; 65-6337-1886; raffles.com), a hotel from the 1800s that hosted literary types like Rudyard Kipling and Noel Coward. Tea sandwiches, crumpets and a harp player, not to mention the white glove service, are the vestiges of a more rarefied era; 55 Singapore dollars a person for adults, 27.50 for kids.

8 p.m.
9) TABLE WITH A VIEW

Orchard Street, the city’s main shopping district, received a multimillion-dollar revamp in 2009 when it became home to another retail giant, a mall called the Ion Orchard. Now the Australian chef Luke Mangan has opened Salt Grill on the 55th and 56th floors (65-659-25118; saltgrill.com), with jaw-dropping views over the city. The menu includes dishes like yellowtail kingfish sashimi, a salad of seasonal baby vegetables, slow poached hen’s egg, buffalo mozzarella and candied walnuts, and more substantial entrees like a strip loin from Rangers Valley in Australia for 52 Singapore dollars. The combination of the panorama and the food has made Salt Grill one of the city’s hardest reservations to snag.

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) GREEN SPACE

Join local residents on a Sunday morning stroll in the city’s impressive Botanic Gardens (www.sbg.org.sg; 5 Singapore dollars for access to the orchid area, otherwise admission is free), a 150-acre-plus green space with meandering pathways, pretty lakes and an excellent variety of local plants and trees. Don’t miss the Orchid Garden with more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of the show-stopping blooms.

Noon
11) SWEET AND SAVORY

Forget brunch. Dim sum at the aptly named Dim Joy (80 Neil Road; 65-6220-6986; www.dimjoy.com/home.html) involves plates of delicate handmade dumplings based on seasonal ingredients from local markets like delicate char siew so (4 Singapore dollars) and chive and pork wor tip, as well as pan-fried radish cake (3.50 dollars), stewed pork belly and mui choy buns (8 dollars). Leave room for the sweet custard buns.

IF YOU GO

With spectacular views over the city and a secluded pool area, the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton Millenia (7 Raffles Avenue; 65-6-337-8888; ritzcarlton.com) is a luxury option that’s also child friendly. Doubles start at 380 Singapore dollars, or about $312.

A few boutique hotels have sprung up in the last couple of years, including the Club (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188; theclub.com.sg; doubles from 225 Singapore dollars) in a historic 1800s building; the Scarlet (33 Erskine Road; 65-6511-3333; thescarlethotel.com) in Chinatown; small rooms from 320 dollars; and Wanderlust (2 Dickson Road; 65-6396-3322; wanderlusthotel.com), the latest arrival in a 1920s building in little India; opening rates from 180 dollars.

IF YOU GO

With spectacular views over the city and a secluded pool area, the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton Millenia (7 Raffles Avenue; 65-6-337-8888; ritzcarlton.com) is a luxury option that’s also child friendly. Doubles start at 380 Singapore dollars, or about $312.

A few boutique hotels have sprung up in the last couple of years, including the Club (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188; theclub.com.sg; doubles from 225 Singapore dollars) in a historic 1800s building; the Scarlet (33 Erskine Road; 65-6511-3333; thescarlethotel.com) in Chinatown; small rooms from 320 dollars; and Wanderlust (2 Dickson Road; 65-6396-3322; wanderlusthotel.com), the latest arrival in a 1920s building in little India; opening rates from 180 dollars.

FT: Time to listen to Tagore

Time to listen to Tagore

By Harry Eyres

Published: April 29 2011 22:17 | Last updated: April 29 2011 22:17

Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore are probably the two most famous Indians of the early to mid-20th century. The tiny, shaven-headed, dhoti-clad Gandhi (1869-1948) appears to us more sharply in focus than the lavishly bearded, robed Gurudev (Tagore’s nickname), with his air of an ancient prophet. You can’t imagine a film called Tagore filling the cinemas. Tagore (1861-1941) was a poet, a dreamer, an idealist; Gandhi combined his idealism with political nous. Yet in some ways, Tagore right now might be the more relevant, even essential figure. Perhaps that is the thinking behind the Tagore Festival at Dartington Hall, Devon from May 1-7, when poets, musicians, thinkers and environmentalists gather to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Tagore’s birth.

Gandhi, born in western India, and Tagore, born into a prominent intellectual and artistic family in Bengal, were friends with differences. They held each other in great mutual respect – Gandhi’s title of Mahatma was even given to him by Tagore – but that did not preclude outspoken disagreement. That disagreement was perhaps more tactical than strategic – both shared the aims of Hindu-Muslim unity and the abolition of the caste system – but the tactical divergences could be acute. Tagore did not hesitate to criticise sacred tenets of Gandhi-ism, including the practice of passive resistance: “Passive resistance is a force, which is not necessarily moral in itself – it can be used against truth as well as for it.”

He demurred most strongly when Gandhi declared that the 1934 Bihar earthquake was divine retribution for India upholding untouchability; Tagore insisted that purely physical events should not be laden with metaphysical interpretations. As for Gandhi’s belief in the importance of spinning at a wheel, Tagore saw it as potentially dehumanising, risking turning human beings into machines. On all their points of difference, Tagore stood up for the inviolable freedom, dignity and creativity of the individual. If those sound like noble, woolly abstractions, they did not appear that way to Tagore. In the essay “My Life”, originally a lecture given in China in 1923, he explains how he was born in Bengal at the coming together of three great movements, one religious, one literary, and one political or national. His family happened to be prominent in all three areas; his father became the leader of a religious movement combining Hindu and Christian elements, which made him deeply unpopular with traditionalists. In fact, their unconventionality and revolt against orthodoxy made the whole family virtual outcasts.

Tagore was a poet; he had “a deep sense, almost from infancy, of the beauty of nature, an intimate feeling of companionship with the trees and the clouds”, and the urge towards expressing this feeling. All poets have to make their own idiom out of the common stock of language; or, as Tagore put it, the poet “should not only have his own seeds but prepare his own soil”. He started reading the Vaishnava erotic poems and then to write his own before he was 10; by his mid-teens he was a celebrated poet. Internationally, the culmination of his poetic career was the award of the Nobel Prize for his collection Gitanjali in 1913 – the first time the prize had been awarded to an Asian.

Formal education played very little part in all this. Tagore was suspicious of it; he strongly disliked the period he spent at a school in Brighton, England, and then left University College London without a degree; later he said he “never ... had what is called an education” and that “the main object of teaching is not to give explanations but to knock at the doors of the mind”.

Quite strange then that he should have founded his own school. But Tagore’s school, founded at his father’s ashram in Santiniketan in 1901, was unconventional. He instituted open-air classrooms to give the living world of nature and human kindness priority over the dead world of rigid book-learning. He believed that “the object of education is the freedom of mind which can only be achieved through the path of freedom”. (The school, called Patha Bhavana, still exists, surrounded by Visva-Bharati university, and numbers among its alumni the economist Amartya Sen.)

What would Tagore make of the success of the galloping Indian economy? For him success depended on much more than national self-determination and economic growth. In his addresses “Civilisation and Progress” and “The Voice of Humanity” Tagore questions the western ideal of material progress devoid of a spiritual core. Already in the 1920s, he saw an aggressive force of greed linked to a science “smothering all time and space over the earth” and “all that was human ... broken into fragments.”

Tagore speaks to us of the need for a return to simplicity: for the peace that “comes from the inner spirit, the power of sympathy, the power of self-sacrifice”.

www.tagorefestival.com

harry.eyres@ft.com

More columns at www.ft.com/eyres

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

FT: Case study - Trung Nguyen coffee

Case study: Trung Nguyên coffee

By Morgen Witzel

Published: April 27 2011 23:08 | Last updated: April 27 2011 23:08

Mr Vu positioned his brand as part of a Vietnamese tradition

The story. Coffee cultivation in Vietnam began under French colonial rule in the 19th century and soon became a staple industry. By the mid-1990s, the country had become one of the three biggest coffee producers in the world.

Much of it, however, was low quality and sold at cut prices overseas. Vietnamese-American entrepreneur Dang Le Nguyen Vu believed high-quality Vietnamese gourmet coffees could be produced and sold profitably. So, in the mid-1990s, he launched Trung Nguyên, a coffee manufacturer and café chain.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Case study: How to avoid complacency - Apr-20

Case study: Porter Airlines - Apr-06

Case study: Anglo American - Mar-30

Case study: Walmart - Mar-23

Case study: Cirque du Soleil - Mar-16

Case study: Axa’s rebranding - Mar-09

The challenge. Vietnam is an emerging market. In 1995, per capita income was only $250 (the 2010 figure was $1,200). This was one reason why Mr Vu chose to develop a luxury brand that would appeal to both domestic and export markets.

To do so, he would have to persuade the home market that his expensive product offered value, and convince overseas customers that Vietnam could produce gourmet coffee.

The home market. As the owner of a coffee-processing business, Mr Vu could improve the quality but there was no efficient distribution network. The answer was to set up a chain of coffee shops, modelled in part on Starbucks, that would also sell coffee beans for home consumption.

The branding of Trung Nguyên was carefully planned. To counter competition from big multinationals, whether coffee shops or brands such as Nescafé, Mr Vu positioned it as part of a Vietnamese tradition. A Trung Nguyên museum tells the history of coffee-making in the country.

One of Trung Nguyên’s best-known products is kopi luwak or “weasel coffee”, made from coffee berries that have passed through the digestive tract of a civet cat. Marketing this expensive delicacy, which is harvested only in south-east Asia, helps identify Trung Nguyên with Vietnam’s coffee culture.

Combining heritage and modernity is at the heart of the brand, whether in the packaging or the styling of the coffee shops. Straplines such as “Bringing creativity into coffee” suggest innovation.

By pricing the coffee high, Mr Vu appealed to the aspirations of Vietnamese people. An emerging middle class took to the brand and the coffee shops became important social centres. The first Trung Nguyên coffee shop opened in Ho Chi Minh City in 1998, and by 2010 there were more than 1,000 across Vietnam.

Trung Nguyên has also diversified into decaffeinated and instant coffee and tea production.

The overseas market. Export was part of the strategy from the start. Trung Nguyên now markets its coffee in more than 40 countries, including the US and the UK.

Most of the brand’s appeal is to niche markets, to consumers interested in exotic coffees and, especially in the US, to visitors to Vietnam who have seen the brand there. Most of the coffee is sold online through franchisees. Sales volumes are very small compared with those in Vietnam.

Attempts to replicate the domestic coffee shop branding strategy and set up Trung Nguyên outlets overseas have met with mixed success. There are now two stores in Singapore and a few elsewhere in the world. But, generally, in spite of its success in Vietnam, the Trung Nguyên brand is not well-known elsewhere.

Current challenges. Trung Nguyên must expand its export market if the company is to continue to grow. Although rising prosperity in Vietnam means there are opportunities for domestic growth, Trung Nguyên is under pressure from competitors.

Key lessons. Creating a luxury brand in an emerging market might seem contradictory. But the Trung Nguyên case shows how it can be done. By appealing to national culture and values, and creating an aspirational brand with which rising middle classes could identify, it transformed the coffee market in Vietnam.

However, Trung Nguyên has also learnt that extending the brand overseas will take longer, and require more finessing.

The author is honorary senior fellow at the University of Exeter Business School

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

WSJ: Uniqlo Pop-up Store Targets Sweaty Tokyo Commuters

Impressed with Uniqlo on their sales approach!

 

April 22, 2011, 11:59 AM JST

Uniqlo Pop-up Store Targets Sweaty Tokyo Commuters

Pop-up stores aren’t new. Nor are casual-wear chain retailer Uniqlo’s ‘Silky Dry’ and ‘Sarafine’ innerwear summer lines, designed to help wearers stay cool.

Uniqlo

Uniqlo’s pop-up store at the Ikebukuro subway station in Tokyo.

But the March 11 disasters knocked out a significant chunk of power utility Tepco’s electricity production capacity. And the possibility that a shortage of energy this summer in Japan will leave air conditioners idle as citizens drip with perspiration more intensely than the past is a very real and new scenario.

The likelihood has Uniqlo, the flagship chain of Fast Retailing Co., mashing the two well-worn concepts to test the likely pick-up in Tokyo commuter demand for the tech-savvy clothes: A pop-up store selling exclusively silky dry and sarafine innerwear products.

Uniqlo, ubiquitous in Japan, Thursday opened a temporary shop in the hubbub of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro station, one of the capital’s busier intersections. The merchandise is strictly apparel made using the cool summer-wear lines – a counterpart to Uniqlo’s popular winter hit, “Heat Tech” innerwear that’s designed to retain body heat.

The store, which looks roughly like a raft that docked in the middle of the station, will carry the basic innerwear lineup: crew necks, v-necks, camisoles and boxer briefs, among others, typically retailing for 990 yen, or about $12. The store will be open until June 26.

Launched in March last year, the Silky Dry line is for men, while the Sarafine garb is for women. The retailer touts the material of the men’s line as being like “a second skin” that’s barely perceptible. Sarafine’s fabric is made of “breathable fibers” woven together with nylon specially produced by fibers company Toray Industries Inc. The stretch fabric of both, the company says, absorbs and removes sweat and keeps body odor at bay.

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

森の木琴

A well executed commercial for a mobile phone in Japan - Johan Sebastian Bach's 'Jesu Man of Joy Descending' played on a really wide xylophone and a ball. Enjoy :)

WSJ: Two Tsunamis - Japan's Tragedy Contrasts with '04

ASIA NEWS
MARCH 30, 2011

Reporter's Journal

Two Tsunamis

Japan's Tragedy Contrasts With '04

By ERIC BELLMAN

SENDAI, Japan—Yoshi Kameya wouldn't be out of place in any of the Western world's cozy city suburbs. Standing near the rubble that used to be his frozen-food company, he pulled an iPhone out of his bright blue North Face jacket to flip through photos he had taken of the tsunami damage.

The confident, cosmopolitan 43-year-old said he had enough food. But when a seaweed-wrapped rice ball was offered, his hand snatched it before his mouth could say thank you.

Mr. Kameya's hungry hand reflected one of the many unsettling aspects of Japan's tragedy. The disaster has thrown one of the world's wealthiest countries off its axis, leaving once-affluent victims in desperation, while underscoring how even the best-prepared places aren't immune from disaster. The developed-world technologies residents fill their homes and pockets with weren't much help, either.

The 2004 tsunami, which this reporter covered for The Wall Street Journal, was different. In terms of lives lost, it was far, far worse: 200,000 people dead across Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other countries, compared with 11,000 confirmed dead and more than 16,500 missing.

But in other ways, that disaster was easier to comprehend. The scale of visible damage was actually smaller in many areas, and the relative lack of dependence on technologies such as mobile phones, cars and complex supply chains sometimes proved to be an advantage for those who survived.

In Sri Lanka, a line of beachfront resorts and fishing villages was flattened. However, since the communities were smaller and poorer, damage was often limited to simple settlements hugging the seashore, and were easier to rebuild. In Japan, piles of rubble including cars and homes stretch for miles inland. While this is partly because the deadly waves had traveled hundreds of miles before they hit Sri Lanka, it was also because most victims there didn't have cars, televisions, two-story homes, kitchen tables or the closets full of clothes.

The cost of damage from Japan's tsunami may be as high as $300 billion, economists estimate. The Indian Ocean wave caused about $10 billion in damage.

In Koggala, Sri Lanka, then-24-year-old Rosmand Wickramanayake had to bury his father, mother, sister and brother in the sand after the deadly waves came and went. A year later, life for his remaining family, which includes another brother, an uncle and others, had basically returned to normal.

The few thousand dollars they got from the government was enough to rebuild a one-car-garage-size hut, and restart a small shop. It's impossible to gauge how the family was doing emotionally, but economically their simple lives had been relatively simple to fix.

Survivors like Mr. Wickramanayake also didn't have to worry too much about food after an initial emergency period passed. He was usually only one or two middlemen away from suppliers of his basic necessities. If one fish vendor was killed or a market was washed away, he switched to another. Farmers with chickens or coconuts outside the tsunami-soaked zone were never far away.

In Japan, like other wealthy countries, residents are now cut off from the farmers and factories that feed and clothe them. Consumers in the developed world often ignore how store-bought products like apples, milk, shoes, rice, brooms, fish and soap get to the shelves. Now, with the power out, highways closed and trains frozen, the constant flow of products has been severed.

Each 7-11 store in Japan, for example, usually gets more than three daily deliveries. This "just-in-time" distribution helps it sell more soda, cigarettes and sandwiches from its limited shelf space.

Only two days after the quake, 7-11s in Fukushima had little left on their shelves other than ice cream and hard liquor. By the third day, most convenience stores (even some 20 miles from the coast) were closed, and there were long lines of people at the few grocery stores still open. Today, most stores in the affected areas remain closed.

Another problem for Japan, with its reliance on mobile communication devices, has been the pain of being out of touch. In Sri Lanka, most of the survivors were able to quickly reconvene. Other than a few migrant workers, relatives and friends often lived nearby, and rarely traveled far from home.

More than two weeks after the disasters in Japan, many people are still unsure which friends and family survived. When the waves hit, family members were often miles from home, working or shopping in places easily reached by car or public transport.

With cars, buses and trains damaged or gone, many Japanese were unable to get home through the rubble. Cellphone towers were out, so they were unable to call anyone. In the early days, countless people were in the streets staring at their cellphones, praying for even one bar of network connectivity so they could check on their loved ones.

After a week, the phones disappeared. Everyone's batteries had died.

There are still daily reunion stories in Japan as people find their way home or to phones. The agonizing separations weren't because the tsunami had spread people far and wide, but because their lives had dispersed them much farther and wider than is common in poor countries.

The sophistication of Japan's developed economy didn't always work against its people. Almost all the buildings untouched by the tsunami remained intact, even though the earthquake itself was one of the worst ever in Japan. The durability of Japan's buildings was a testament to its construction industry and strict building codes.

Further, unlike the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster, most Japanese had been taught from a young age exactly what to do when a quake hits. They had practiced it repeatedly over the years, running to higher places mapped out by the government at any threat of a tsunami. Without such plans, thousands more would have died.

Still, it will likely take more than good building codes and education systems to get Japan's economy back on its feet. Unlike Sri Lanka, where it was mostly a function of getting bridges, boats and houses rebuilt, Japan needs roads, electrical power networks, and ports to be fixed or replaced as well as tens of thousands of homes and cars. Then people will need their cellphones, cable connections and Internet. Factories that make everything from Kirin Beer to Sony videotape will have to be repaired and then the intricate web of supplies that delivers everything from radial tires to rice balls has to be slowly knit back together.

Evidence of the unexpected needs of the Japanese consumer was on display in Sendai on Sunday. With nearby Starbucks and McDonald's still closed, long lines formed in front of one of the only international food chains to reopen: Mr. Donuts. But it wasn't the doughnuts that people in line missed so much, but rather the familiar experience of stopping by a shop for a little break.

Another contrast between Sri Lanka and Japan's reactions to the wicked waves has been the role of religion.

In Sri Lanka, people fled the tsunami to temples, mosques and churches. Religious leaders were in the newspapers every day commenting on what it all meant. In Japan, few have flocked to Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines.

"For their practical needs, people are not praying to some god for help," said Masato Miura, a monk at a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Sendai. "They are just going to the store."

Write to Eric Bellman at eric.bellman@wsj.com

More Coverage of the Japan Earthquake

• At Plant, a Choice Between Bad, Worse
• Tokyo Approves Budget Amid Fight
• For a Few Hours, a Respite From Crisis
• The Lighter Side of Plutonium
• Letters From Fukushima: Tepco Worker Emails
• Japan Searches for Its Missing
• Traces of Radiation Detected in U.S.
• Debate Begins on Tepco's Future
• Disaster Claims to Hit AXA
• Quakes Echo World-Wide
• Weeklong Look at Market Reaction
• Monitoring the Reactors
• Map: Latest | Video
• More: WSJ.com/JapanQuake

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved