Burmese play tense waiting game

Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 October 2007, 15:26 GMT 16:26 UK
Burmese play tense waiting game

The mood is one of watching and waiting

The world is still trying to gauge the mood in Burma following the clampdown on pro-democracy demonstrations by the military regime.

Foreign media, including the BBC, are not allowed to report from Burma, but we have received this report from a correspondent in the main city of Rangoon.

To a casual observer, the Burmese city of Rangoon looks the same as it did before the pro-democracy marches of the past few weeks.

Although security levels are still high - military trucks often rumble past, and soldiers and riot police are still milling around at key locations - local people are trying to get on with their everyday lives as best they can.

Most of the shops and temples are now open, the street hawkers and beggars are back in place and people are once more spending their time travelling on overcrowded buses and sitting in the many tea shops to avoid the monsoon rain.

It is almost as if the events of the past week - the mounting anti-government protests by thousands of the city's Buddhist monks, followed by a bloody three-day crackdown - are just a distant memory.

But if you go down one of the city's back streets, or try to engage in a conversation with anyone, it immediately becomes apparent that the mood has changed.

People are frightened, but they're also really angry - angry that the junta dared to attack unarmed monks; angry that many of these monks are now locked up; and angry that once again, protests against this brutal government seem to have come to nothing.

Small-scale defiance

"I really want change," a middle-aged man whispered to me in a tea shop, "but they have guns and we don't, so they'll always win."

Despite the fear that pervades every part of this city, there remains an equal amount of defiance ... this is definitely not the end of the protests

The arrests are continuing, with people picked up under cover of nightfall and corralled into large, heavily guarded buildings on the outskirts of the city, and no information released to relatives.

Despite this, many people are determined not to give up and some are resorting to smaller-scale ways to defy the military.

One woman told me she was getting T-shirts printed with the inscription "no to guns". A man said he refused to make eye contact with any of the soldiers.

In case these arrests are not enough to stop Rangoon's citizens from re-starting the protests, the government is doing all it can to persuade - indeed compel - any dissenters to think twice.

The media is awash with accusations about lies in the foreign media - the BBC is particularly targeted - and soldiers are strictly enforcing a government-imposed curfew.

Monasteries are still refusing to accept alms from the military

They are also preventing even small groups of men from gathering together.

One man said he was chatting to a group of about 20 friends on a street corner on Friday when troops suddenly began to shoot, and they all had to run for safety.

There are also persistent rumours, which the military have not denied, that a notoriously violent group of pro-government thugs was part of the force sent to quash the monks' protests last week.

This group is rumoured to be still around, helping to pick up those on the military's wanted list.

Fighting back

To many people in Burma, this situation seems all too familiar.

There are stark parallels with the last large-scale protests in 1988, when government troops and their henchmen brutally crushed pro-democracy protesters, imprisoning thousands.

Gen Than Shwe heads the ruling junta and controls the army Buddhist monk's view Exiles in desperate conditions

On that occasion, an estimated 3,000 people were killed. The number of dead this time is much lower - eyewitnesses estimate about 40, although it is extremely hard to get accurate figures.

However many people here fear that the worst is yet to come.

And that is because, despite the fear that pervades every part of this city, there remains an equal amount of defiance.

Those with the courage to speak out say the Burmese are not just afraid but intensely angry, and that this is definitely not the end of the protests.

"It's unbelievable what the military has done," one woman said. "In 1988 they attacked civilians, and now they have attacked monks. It's the worst thing they could do."

"We cannot stop our fight now. We just have to think of other ways to go on protesting," she added.

Lying low

Behind closed doors, anti-government campaigners are almost certainly planning their next move.

One man said he thought that while the majority of protesters were currently lying low, because their leaders had been detained, they would soon be back.

And it appears that the monks have not given up either. Monasteries around the country are still refusing to accept alms from the military - a hugely symbolic act in such a devoutly Buddhist nation.

Sources have also told us that the detained monks are refusing to change out of their traditional robes, and many are on hunger strike.

In several pockets of Rangoon, people are even reportedly guarding monasteries against night-time government raids.

One man described how locals took it in turn to wait outside the monastery gates, to flash warning lights on to any military trucks coming near. Some are even said to be armed with handmade weapons, such as slingshots and arrows made from the spokes of bicycles.

Even now, there continue to be reports of small-scale demonstrations around the country.

It is obvious that despite their best efforts to stifle any opposition, the question Burma's ruling generals need to ask themselves is not if the anti-government protests will return, but when.

More arrests in Burma crackdown

Last Updated: Thursday, 4 October 2007, 10:42 GMT 11:42 UK
More arrests in Burma crackdown

Soldiers in Rangoon keep a low profile during daylight hours

Scores of Burmese have been arrested overnight, as the country's military continues its crackdown following last week's protests, witnesses say.

Security forces are said to be using recordings of the demonstrations to compile lists of activists for arrest.

A source has told the BBC that as many as 10,000 people - many of them monks who led the demos - have been rounded up for interrogation in recent days.

The body of a Japanese reporter killed during the protests has arrived home.

Kenji Nagai, a video journalist with Japan's APF News, was shot dead while filming in Rangoon.

Japanese officials say he was shot at close range, contradicting earlier claims by the Burmese authorities that he was hit accidentally by a stray bullet.

Dozens are feared to have died during the bloody suppression of the protests last week.

Tactics of fear

Residents of the main city, Rangoon, say the streets are quiet during daylight hours, with the police and army keeping a low profile.

But during the overnight curfew, they say raids by the security forces continue.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in neighbouring Thailand, says if it is a tactic designed to scare people, it is working.

Reporter's body returned Rangoon waiting game Struggle goes underground

Shari Villarosa, the most senior US diplomat in the country, described how arrests were occurring every night.

She said discontent in Rangoon had been "simmering for years", but has now turned to a mood of "anger and fear".

"It's been heightened by anger by what has been done against the demonstrators, the atrocities that have been committed against the monks," she said.

One Burmese who was rounded up has told the BBC that between six and 10,000 people have been held in detention camps for interrogation over the protests.

Many of those were monks. US diplomats said they had visited 15 monasteries and found them empty. Others were being barricaded and guarded by soldiers.

Reuters news agency reported that a slow trickle of monks and nuns were being freed from detention centres near Rangoon.

Some told the agency they had witnessed monks being beaten while they were asked about their identity, birthplace, parents and involvement in the protests.

Diplomatic visit

The Burmese regime - led by reclusive General Than Shwe - has been condemned for its actions across the world.

Monks became the focal point of the protests

The UN's special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, met the general in Burma to relay concerns, and is due to report his findings to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later.

Mr Gambari, who will brief the UN Security Council on Friday, also met opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit.

Burma has been under military dictatorship since 1962.

Multi-party elections were held in 1990 and were won comprehensively by Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

But the ruling junta - known for its corruption and mismanagement - dismissed the results and continued to exercise a stranglehold on power.

The hardship that sparked Burma's unrest

Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 October 2007, 10:21 GMT 11:21 UK
The hardship that sparked Burma's unrest

By Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok

On 22nd February, a small group of around 25 people attracted little attention at first in the crowded Rangoon market. Then they brought out home-made posters, and began shouting.

Many Burmese simply concentrate on survival

Their complaints seemed innocuous enough. "Down with consumer prices," read one poster. "We want 24-hour electricity," read another. They pointedly avoided saying anything critical about Burma's military government.

That did not spare them. Nine were rounded up and jailed, accused of acting "totally against the law". They were later released, but they had touched a very raw nerve.

Though small, these were the first street protests seen in Rangoon for at least a decade.

And they highlighted the growing economic distress that was beginning to push huge numbers of Burmese families to the brink of destitution - distress caused by the government's incompetence.

Chronic mismanagement

When the military took power in 1962, then-military strongman Ne Win decided to take the country down an isolationist path, the "Burmese Way to Socialism" as it was called, which stressed self-sufficiency, and called for the nationalisation of almost all private companies.

Military officers took over these companies, as well as many civil service positions. It was their mismanagement that led to chronic inflation and near economic collapse by 1988, and the mass protests that came close to overthrowing the government at that time.

After that, the military tried opening up the economy to market forces and foreign investment, but it has never been willing to release its grip on crucial areas of the economy:

• Imports and exports all require licenses, confronting entrepreneurs with mountains of red tape, and opening opportunities for corruption.

• The trade in rice is entirely controlled by military-connected companies.

• Internal transport is hobbled by poor infrastructure and frequent military bans on access to troubled areas.

• Many commodities are subsidised, but available in very limited quantities.

There is an official exchange rate for the local currency, the kyat, which is 200 times lower than the black market rate.

Add to that the fact that more than half the annual budget goes to the armed forces, and that Burma is subject to strict sanctions by the United States and the European Union, and it has proved impossible for Burma to lift itself out of poverty.

The construction of a secretive new capital city since 2005, hacked out of the bush 400km (249 miles) north of Rangoon, must have added considerably to the government's financial difficulties, although it has given no figures for how much this mega-project is costing.

A decision to raise admittedly paltry civil service salaries by up to 1,200% last year did not help either, although civil servants could scarcely survive on salaries that sometimes fell below $3 a month.

Grinding poverty

The result is what the United Nations describes as a largely unreported humanitarian crisis.

UN figures show that one in three children is chronically malnourished, government spending on health and education is among the lowest anywhere in the world, and average income is below $300 a year.

LIFE IN BURMA Population - 50m Children in primary education - 85% Life expectancy at birth - 61 years Infant mortality - 76 per 1,000 births Health spend - 2.8% (World avge - 10.2%) Under 5s undernourished - 31.8% Source: World Bank 2004

Diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/Aids are increasing at frightening rates.

"The World Food Programme [WFP] provides food aid to 500,000 people across Myanmar [Burma] but that really only represents the poorest of the poor," said Paul Risley at the WFP in Bangkok.

"What we've found is that over the last decade, opposite to virtually every other country in Asia where slowly poverty is being gnawed away at and food security is becoming more commonplace, in Myanmar there are more people living below the poverty line and more people facing food insecurity," he said.

Towards the end of last year, prices of basic commodities began rising sharply in Burma. Rice, eggs, and cooking oil all went up by around 30-40%.

For a population that on average spends 70% of its income on food, this was very difficult to absorb. It is not clear why this happened, but the inherent distortions and rigidities in the military's economic management can easily lead to sudden bottlenecks in the supply and prices of basic necessities.

Dramatic decision

Then came the rise in fuel prices on 15 August. There was no warning. Gas prices rose by 500%, and diesel - which more or less powers everything in Burma, from transport to the essential generators - doubled in price.

The impact was immediate. People could not afford to go to work, and the increased cost of transport started pushing food prices even higher.

Within days activists were out on the streets in protest. When they were arrested, the monks - who can accurately measure economic distress by the food put into their begging bowls every morning - took their place.

Like so many decisions made by the reclusive generals, the sudden hike in fuel prices is hard to fathom.

The IMF had advised weaning the population off subsidised fuel, because with rising world oil prices it was becoming an unsustainable burden for Burma, which although rich in natural gas, relies on imports for almost all of its refined petrol and diesel.

But it is unlikely the IMF would have supported such a dramatic, and unannounced price rise.

'Parallel world'

At the time some speculated that perhaps the generals were trying to provoke an uprising, to see who their enemies were.

But their ubiquitous intelligence networks would surely already have that information. More likely it implies they did not understand the shocking economic impact the move would have.

Living in a privileged, parallel world, Burma's armed forces are virtually a state within a state, subject to none of the chronic economic insecurity that afflicts the rest of the country.

Many of the generals have become immensely rich - the video of the wedding of senior general Than Shwe's daughter, dripping in diamonds worth many millions of dollars, is testimony to that.

Secluded in their luxury villas in Naypyidaw, cut off from the squalor of Rangoon and other towns, Burma's military rulers probably had no idea that their clumsy decision would cause such immediate economic pain - that thousands would override their fear of the soldiers, and come out to join the monks on the streets.

The African foundations of New York

The African foundations of New York

By Jane Beresford BBC producer of I Too Am America

The remains of 20,000 Africans are said to be buried under New York

The remains of 20,000 African men, women and children have lain beneath the busy streets of New York for 300 years, waiting to tell their stories on the extent of slavery in the city.

In March 1992, leading African-America archaeologist Michael Blakey arrived at the burial ground in downtown Manhattan.

"I had read about these people documented as chattel, " he said. "Now I was going to learn about these Africans in New York as human beings."

A haunting sight greeted him. Being winter, work was taking place under a translucent plastic tent.

"I'd really never seen an excavation like that one," he said. "There were mini excavators working and kerosene heaters going."

"By the time I got there, about a dozen burials were in the process of being exposed. One could see very clearly the positions that were meant to put them at peace when they were buried."

Many had their arms crossed. One female skeleton had tiny bones by her side, suggesting a woman cradling a new born child.

Sign of slavery

They had devastating secrets to share, information that would reveal the extent of slavery in New York.

"Quite early on, we found the skull and thorax of an individual with filed or 'culturally modified' teeth - and that stunned me because that is very rare," Mr Blakey said.

There are only about nine skeletons in the whole of the Americas that have been discovered with filed teeth, he said.

African slaves helped create the city

"In the African burial ground we found at least 27 individuals with filed teeth."

This suggested these people had come to New York directly from Africa before importation was banned in 1808 and American slaveholders started "breeding" slaves on the plantations in the South.

"These kinds of irreversible identifiers put people at risk who might want to escape," Mr Blakey said.

Runaway adverts in newspapers seeking to re-capture the many escaped enslaved Africans often mentioned dental modification, he said - so no one would not choose to have that kind of marker.

'Worked to death'

But these enslaved Africans helped create the city of New York. They worked as stevedores in the docks and as labourers building the fortification known as Wall Street, which protected the city against attack from Native Americans.

Evidence from the burial site revealed, for the first time, the enormous human cost of such work.

Half of the remains were of children under the age of 12. Women were usually dead by 40.

"It seems that it was cost effective for slave traders to work people to death and then simply to replace them, so they sought to get Africans who were as young as possible, but ready to work," said Mr Blakey.

From royalty to slavery?

The woman designated "Burial 340" was a very intriguing person.

"She was in her 40s - and for the burial ground population that makes her kind of old", said archaeologist Sherrill Wilson, now director of interpretation at the African Burial Ground.

"Around her waist the woman wore a belt of over 100 beads and cowrie shells," she said.

"In some parts of Africa in the 1700s, it's illegal for people who are not members of royal families to own even one of these beads - and she has over 100 buried with her," she added.

Had this woman been born into royalty in Ghana and died a slave in New York City?

Such treasures are known to belong to Akan-speaking people. Had this woman been born into royalty in Ghana and died a slave in New York City?

And who chose to bury her with the waist belt of beads?

"These are very valuable items," said Ms Wilson. "It implies that whoever buried her... could have chosen to sell those items to feed themselves - but they made the choice to bury them with her."

Perhaps it was a tradition, a rite, or an act of defiance against those who had enslaved a woman of noble birth.

The skeletons of 18th Century slaves have spoken to those living free today to remind us that New York - one of the world's great immigrant cities - destroyed as well as created destinies.

New York opens slave burial site

Last Updated: Saturday, 6 October 2007, 01:17 GMT 02:17 UK
New York opens slave burial site

A museum is also planned for the site

A burial ground for African slaves, which had been forgotten for almost two centuries, has been opened to the public in New York.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and poet Maya Angelou attended a dedication ceremony for a monument at the site.

The late 17th Century burial site was gradually built over as New York expanded, but was rediscovered during an excavation in 1991.

Some 400 remains, many of children, were found during excavations.

Half of the remains found at the burial site were of children under the age of 12.

The entire project has cost more than $50 million (£24 million) to complete.

The burial site in Manhattan was rediscovered during excavations for a federal building.

Forgotten sacrifice

Now a 25ft (7.6 metre) granite monument marks the site.

For so many years, for centuries, people passing by this site did not know about the sacrifices they had made Rodney Leon New York's African roots

It was designed by Rodney Leon and is made out of stone from South Africa and from North America to symbolise the two worlds coming together.

The entry to the monument is called The Door of Return - a nod to the name given to the departure points from which slaves were shipped from Africa to North America.

"The tragedy was that for so many years, for centuries, people passing by this site did not know about the sacrifices they [the slaves] had made," Mr Leon said.

"Now we have an opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past."

Enslaved Africans helped create the city of New York.

They worked in the docks and as labourers building the fortification known as Wall Street, which protected the city against attack from Native Americans.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the excavations had revealed "one of the most uncomfortable and tragic truths in our city's history. For two centuries, slavery was widespread in New York."

Funny Adverts

Scans reveal lost gravestone text

Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 October 2007, 08:32 GMT 09:32 UK

Scans reveal lost gravestone text

By Cristina Jimenez

On the left is the original tombstone and on the right is the recovered text

Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US.

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon university are making high resolution 3D scans of tombstones to reveal the carved patterns in the stone.

A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words.

The technique could one day also be used by doctors to examine a patient's tongue for signs of illness.

Scientists often find it difficult to distinguish between natural phenomena and man-made art works carved into stone, due to the build-up of algae and surface dirt.

At the moment, archaeologists are forced to do hand-tracing work with plastic sheets and to examine objects first hand in order to decipher obscured writings.

Carved figures

And sometimes, it is just impossible to read what lies beneath the dirt.

The new scanning method detects carved figures such as writings and drawings through 3D scans and computer analysis.

"This technology is expected to reduce guessing work in field inspection," said Dr Yang Cai, director of the Ambient Intelligence Lab at Carnegie Mellon Cylab.

In recent weeks, Dr Cai's research team have been testing the new technique at a 200-year-old cemetery close to the university in Pittsburgh.

The scientists have been scanning unreadable gravestones at Old St Luke's Church to help its Episcopal pastor identify all the names on the cemetery's tombstones.

The technology has been built on top of existing 3D reconstruction techniques. But the team at Carnegie Mellon is focusing on surface signatures.

The scan revealed the name "Isabella, wife of John Seville" on the headstone

"We have designed special filters of 3D data that can detect curvature or linear features on a surface," Dr Cai said.

The scientists scan the important areas in very high resolution and the rest in lower resolution, in order to avoid unmanageable digital file sizes.

"This is similar to the human visual experience - we usually see the gazed area in high resolution but the peripheral area in a blurred vision," Dr Cai said.

The team is also developing "template matching methods" to detect particular patterns such as carved shapes.

For example, tombstone carvings usually contain continuous lines for letters.

The new technique allows them to define patterns of "typical" lines and curves and store them in a database.

"If the computer finds the data matches the patterns in the database, then it will highlight the area," Dr Cai said.

Experienced archaeologists have lots of accumulated pattern descriptions.

For example, natural holes on the rock normally have rounded edges but man-made carvings in rock usually have rather sharp edges around the holes. This knowledge can be encoded thanks to the new technique.

Digital cemetery

The database of 3D scan data can also be mapped onto other datasets, such as geographical information systems, historical weather databases and high-fidelity models of archaeological sites.

In addition to discovering who is buried in the cemetery, Dr Cai's team is developing a digital cemetery for Old St. Luke's Church in order to help visualise the scanned data.

It will be available for internet browsers, on DVD and interactive computer demos.

The researchers believe the technology will also have practical applications in other industry sectors, such as the security and medical fields.

Dr Cai said: "We may use the technology for the future UAVs (Unmanned Aviation vehicles) to detect ground signatures of ancient ruins and help medical doctors to diagnose patients' well-being through tongue inspection."

The technology could also be used to predict a possible tsunami by examining the patterns on the surface of the world's oceans.

Anne Frank's tree wins reprieve

Last Updated: Thursday, 4 October 2007, 10:01 GMT 11:01 UK

Anne Frank's tree wins reprieve

Supporters have until January to come up with a plan

The chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II has won a reprieve from being felled.

Amsterdam city council ruled in March that the rotting 150-year-old tree must be felled as a danger to the public.

Following protests the council has given those who want to save the tree until January to come up with a plan.

The tree was a ray of hope for the famous diary writer as she hid in the attic of the canal-side warehouse.

The Jewish teenager remained indoors with her family for 25 months until they were arrested in August 1944.

She died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen camp in March 1945.

Salvage plan

The attic window from which Anne Frank could see the tree was the only one that had not been blacked out.

Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945

In an entry dated February 23, 1944, she wrote: "From my favourite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind...

"As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy."

Ton Boon of the Amsterdam Centrum borough told Agence France-Presse news agency there was "only one Anne Frank tree" and it had been agreed to allow time for a possible rescue plan.

Experts say the 27-tonne tree is too diseased from fungi to be saved and the owner wants it cut down as he would be liable for any damage caused should it fall.

The tree is adjacent to the building that now houses the Anne Frank Museum.

A Utrecht-based firm, Trees Institute, has suggested a salvage plan involving treatment and support for the trunk and limbs.

Spokesman Edwin Koot told Associated Press: "The tree represented freedom... to Anne Frank. We must go the extra mile to try to save it."

Why kissing means more to women

Last Updated: Monday, 3 September 2007, 09:17 GMT 10:17 UK

Why kissing means more to women

Men and women view kissing differently

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so may be a kiss - or certainly to a woman anyway, researchers say.

A State University of New York team quizzed over 1,000 students, finding women place a big emphasis on kissing.

They use kissing as a way of assessing the recipient as a potential partner, and later to maintain intimacy and to check the status of a relationship.

But men placed less importance on it, using it to increase the likelihood of sex, Evolutionary Psychology reported.

The questionnaires revealed men were less discriminating when it came to deciding who to kiss or who to have sex with.

While both sexes participate in the adaptive benefits of kissing, we found sex differences when considering the pursuit of short-versus long-term mating strategies Dr Gordon Gallup, lead researcher

They were more willing to have sex with someone without kissing, to have sex with someone they are not attracted to and agree to have sex with someone they considered to be a bad kisser.

But kissing was more important as a bonding mechanism to women.

In long-term relationships females not only rate kissing as more important than men, but they indicated that kissing was important throughout a relationship.

Meanwhile, men placed less importance on kissing as the relationship progresses.

There was also a difference in the sort of kisses the two sexes preferred, with men liking wet, tongue kisses.

Lead researcher Dr Gordon Gallup said kissing had developed over time to become an essential part of the courtship process.

But he added: "While both sexes participate in the adaptive benefits of kissing, we found sex differences when considering the pursuit of short- versus long-term mating strategies."

Dr Glenn Wilson, an expert in relationships at London's Institute of Psychiatry, said: "Kissing is used by everyone as a bonding and testing mechanism.

"But the fact is women are more discriminatory than men. Men can just go out and spread their seed, but women have to take more responsibility because of the consequences and so they are likely to want to test more."

Russian 'sex day' to boost births

Last Updated: Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 10:23 GMT 11:23 UK
Russian 'sex day' to boost births

This year's grand prize winners drive off in their new SUV

The governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia is offering prizes to couples who have babies in exactly nine months - on Russia's national day on 12 June.

Sergei Morozov wants couples to take the day off work to have sex. If a baby is born on national day, they will receive cars, TVs or other prizes.

Mr Morozov has declared Wednesday "family contact day" as part of efforts to fight Russia's demographic crisis.

The population has sharply declined since the Soviet Union collapsed.

This is the third year that Ulyanovsk, in central Russia, is offering prizes for babies born on 12 June.

This year, a couple won the grand prize of a sports utility vehicle (SUV).

The initiative seems to be paying off, as the region's birth rate has risen by 4.5% over the last year.

"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits... so there'll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," Mr Morozov told the Associated Press news agency.

Demographers estimate that Russia could lose 40 million people - almost a third of its current population - by the middle of the century.

A combination of falling birth rates, emigration and an ailing healthcare system has led to the decline.

President Vladimir Putin has introduced a scheme to encourage more children.

Women who have a second or third child are eligible to receive $9,000, which can be used to pay for education or home purchases.

You're A God

"You're A God" Vertical Horizon

I've got to be honest
I think you know
We're covered in lies and that's OK
There's somewhere beyond this I know
But I hope I can find the words to say

Never again no
No never again

[Chorus]
'Cause you're a god
And I am not
And I just thought
That you would know
You're a god
And I am not
And I just thought
I'd let you go

But I've been unable
To put you down
I'm still learning things I ought to know by now
It's under the table so
I need something more to show somehow

Never again no
No never again

[Chorus]

I've got to be honest
I think you know
We're covered in lies and that's OK
There's somewhere beyond this I know
But I hope I can find the words to say
Never again no
No never again

[Chorus]

Jews' Roman 'escape route' found

Last Updated: Monday, 10 September 2007, 11:34 GMT 12:34 UK

Jews' Roman 'escape route' found

Archaeologists think the tunnel leads to the Kidron River Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have found an underground drainage channel that was used by Jews to escape from the Romans in 70 AD. The channel was buried under the rubble of the Second Temple, which was destroyed by Roman conquerors in the Siege of Jerusalem. Scores of people are thought to have sheltered and lived in the tunnel until they were able to flee the city. Several parts of the tunnel have been preserved intact. Refuge The tunnel is believed to have been Jerusalem's main drainage channel at the time of the Roman conquest, stretching beneath the city and eventually reaching the Dead Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement. "The channel... is covered with heavy stone slabs that are actually the paving stones of the street. "In some places the channel reaches a height of about three metres and is one metre wide, so that it is possible to walk in it comfortably," the statement said. Eli Shukron of the Antiquities Authority said: "It was a place where people hid and fled to from burning, destroyed Jerusalem." Mr Shukron said excavators looking for Jerusalem's main road from the time of the Second Temple happened to find a small drainage channel. That led them to the larger tunnel beneath the road. Pottery shards and coins from the end of the Second Temple period were also discovered inside the tunnel. About 100 metres of tunnel has been excavated so far, stretching north from the Shiloah Pool at the Old City's southern end to about 10 metres west of the Western Wall (the so-called Wailing Wall), which is all that is left of the Second Temple. Archaeologists think the tunnel leads to the Kidron River, which empties into the Dead Sea. The destruction of the Second Temple is still mourned annually on the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av.

Serving God, profiting Taleban

Missionaries from South Korea travel to remote and dangerous lands, intent on spreading their Christian faith. Christianity contributed to modernization in South Korea, and missionaries often link their beliefs with the country’s miraculous economic growth. In July, the Taliban kidnapped 23 young Christian volunteers in Afghanistan, killing two before releasing the remaining hostages in late August. Conditions of release include South Korea withdrawing all its missionaries and NGO workers from Afghanistan. The incident, including a Taliban claim that the South Korean government paid a ransom, has divided churches and the public at large – and could trigger debate on the proper role of churches in international affairs. The US has stressed that its war on terror, started in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks, is not a war against Islam. But Christian missionaries enter conflict-ridden Islamic nations on the heels of invading troops, raising questions among Muslims. Preaching – and expecting people to abandon lifelong beliefs – is not a priority for war-torn nations. – YaleGlobal





Sep 6, 2007
SOUTH KOREANS' OVERSEAS MISSIONARY WORK
Serving God, profiting Taleban
By Shim Jae Hoon
IN SEOUL - THEY go anywhere - from the African jungles to the tribal villages of Afghanistan.

Self-designated foot soldiers of Jesus Christ, South Korean missionaries travel the globe, looking for souls to save with the good book in one hand and cash in another.

They carry a special message mixing religion and politics, insisting that the Gospel saved South Korea from communism. Belief in Jesus not only saves souls, but also delivers nations from poverty.

But, as alleged in press reports, if it turns out to be true that the government, working on behalf of the missionaries kidnapped in Afghanistan, had paid millions of dollars in ransom for their release on Sunday, then the church work may have merely alleviated the poverty of a terrorist group.

The global mission of spreading Christian faith has run smack into the United States and Nato global mission against terrorism.

A Reuters report quoting a senior Taleban official as saying that a ransom of more than US$20 million (S$30 million) was paid to secure the hostages' release, though unconfirmed, is sure to add fuel to growing criticism of missionaries and expose the growing complexity of an old globalising force.

The kidnapping of the 23 Christian aid workers in mid-July, two of whom were killed before the release of the rest, has revived criticism of missionaries' no-holds- barred proselytising.

The zeal of some Korean churches in their work overseas, which often offends local sensitivities, has made the missionaries controversial at home and abroad. Some countries such as China and Cambodia, with a historical view that foreign missionaries are agents of imperialism, have already banned them.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry frowns on missionaries going to places where they are not officially welcome and restricts travel to war-torn countries such as Iraq and Somalia.

But eager to serve, some ignore the warnings, risking capture and death; Mr Kim Son Il, a young, novice evangelical worker, was beheaded by Iraqi insurgents in 2004.

This time, besides possibly paying ransom, the government obtained the release of the missionaries by promising to keep them and all South Korean non-governmental organisation workers out of Afghanistan as well as pull out the country's troops.

Officially, South Korea has not responded to speculation about ransom payment, which is alleged to have come from the hostages' church, Saemmul Presbyterian.

Church officials have said they plan to repay the government for airfare, hospitalisation and other costs incurred in the release. But if reports of a ransom are confirmed, it would trigger public outcry, increasing taxpayer anger over missionaries visiting danger zones explicitly prohibited by the government.

The news of the Aug 29 agreement will not quell the debate already raging within churches. While the country's two biggest Protestant groups - the liberal-oriented Korean National Council of Churches and conservative Christian Council of Korea - have issued statements accepting Taleban terms, critics suggest that missionaries pause and moderate their course.

Overall, such changes, they say, would require Korean missionaries to avoid many war-torn regions, especially in places where Islam is the dominant religion. They would have to show greater respect for local cultures and religions. Mission emphasis should shift from total converts reported to pragmatic projects. Thus humanitarian projects - such as providing medical, child-care or education services in Asia and Africa - should be given priority.

Voices within the church have called for moderation: Korean missionaries are 'too loud and aggressive in their ways and self-centred', one unidentified missionary worker writes in www.newsandjoy.com, a church blog.

'Sometimes, they confuse what they do with what they believe God wants them to do.'

One critic, Mr Ryu Sang Tae, is exceptional in that he is not afraid to publicly challenge the church establishment. A former school chaplain in Seoul and author of a book calling for sweeping reform of Korea's Protestant establishments, he told Yonhap News Agency that by insisting on 'recklessly and aggressively converting people of different religions in different countries, in disregard of local sensitivities', the missionaries run the risk of 'aggravating, not ameliorating, the existing conflicts in parts of the world they operate'.

Koreans largely support the call for moderation. One Seoul newspaper poll shows 64.5 per cent of readers saying Korean missionaries should stay out of countries hostile to Christians. A further 85.3 per cent say Korean missionaries should exercise restraint in their work.

In temperament, Korean missionary activities reflect the country's aggressive outward-looking economic push. Expanding economic ties have enticed more Koreans overseas. Like their European counterparts in history, Korean missionaries followed traders to serve their own growing communities abroad.

Today, according to one church estimate, there are more than 16,000 Korean missionaries from some 500 groups in 170 locations. In sheer numbers, they are second only to US missionaries.

Their pattern of growth resembles the economic expansion back home. An obsession with numbers and size has weakened the moral foundation of what Korean church historians say is an otherwise splendid achievement.

Catholicism came to Korea in 1783 and Protestant representatives in 1884; today, one in five Koreans claims to be a Christian. The nation of 44 million people has 8.7 million registered Protestants and 2.9 million Catholics, along with 10 million Buddhists, practising and nominal.

The speedy conversion can be attributed to several factors: The church initially succeeded in focusing on social alienation in a rapidly industrialising nation. Unlike in the Philippines, a foreign religion was not imposed on Koreans by conquerors. The earliest Korean Catholics were modernisers, converted in China of their own volition. American Protestant missionaries came with the consent of the monarch, who welcomed modern education and medicine. Korean Christians played a pioneering role in the modernisation of their country.

But such success is the root of today's problems. Obsessed with over-achievement, pursuing quantity over quality, the churches are often criticised for placing secular interests above spiritual commitment. This trend is evident in Seoul, where most neighbourhoods boast at least three churches, all fiercely competing for converts.

Priesthood in Korea is no longer just God's calling, but a job, with some clerics drawing hefty salaries, plus bonuses and chauffeur-driven cars. At night, the Seoul skyline burns bright with crosses, a city set in a forest of churches.

Critics suggest that vigorous missionary activities abroad serve to cover up the churches' manifold problems at home, including some corrupt and divisive institutions.

Small wonder then that many church groups seek to expand abroad, keeping idealistic new generations connected to the church by inspiring overseas service. Most of the aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan are in their 20s and 30s, with training in nursing or computer skills. To well-intentioned youths, service in dangerous Afghanistan was more inspiring than high-pressure competition at home.

Within Korea itself, the missionary zeal has earned scant sympathy. 'Why go overseas when there are plenty of things to do at home?' says one taxi-driver, reacting to news of the release.

The image of rich churches sending young adults to dangerous regions has generated only resentment.

The government and churches have not recalled missionaries working in other conflict-ridden areas, but insist that those in places such as Somalia or Iraq move to safe locations.

The Afghan incident prompts not only a hard look at Korea's overseas missions, but also much-needed reflection on the state of the country's religious establishment. If the report of the ransom payment is confirmed, it would deal a blow to the increasingly difficult task of the US and Nato forces to defeat the resurgent Taleban forces.

The writer is a Seoul-based journalist and columnist.

Rights: YaleGlobal Online