Indonesian woman jailed for complaining about mosque noise

Yahoo – AFP, 21 August 2018

Loudspeakers used to call the faithful to prayer are pictured atop a tower at a
Jakarta mosque: a woman in Medan has landed in jail for complaining about the noise

A woman in Muslim-majority Indonesia was sentenced to 18 months in jail Tuesday for complaining about the volume of a mosque's call to prayer -- the latest conviction under a controversial blasphemy law.

Meiliana, 44, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist, was found guilty of insulting Islam for asking her neighbourhood mosque to lower its sound system because it was too loud and "hurt" her ears.

There are some 800,000 mosques across the archipelago, with the five-times-a-day call to prayer heard everywhere in the biggest cities and smallest towns.

Tuesday's verdict will likely fuel fears that Indonesia's moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.

The court in the city of Medan on Sumatra island said the woman's comments two years ago triggered riots that saw angry Muslim mobs ransack Buddhist temples.

Some ethnic Chinese in the area fled in fear.

The defendant's lawyer said his client would appeal the decision while Amnesty International urged a higher court to quash the sentence.

"This ludicrous decision is a flagrant violation of freedom of expression," said its Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid in a statement.

"Sentencing someone to 18 months in prison for something so trivial is a stark illustration of the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of the blasphemy law in the country."

Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, is officially pluralist with six major religions recognised, including Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. Freedom of expression is supposed to be guaranteed by law.

But criticising religion -- particularly Islam, which is followed by nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 260 million citizens -- can land offenders in jail.

Rights groups have long campaigned against the nation's blasphemy laws, which they say are frequently misused to target minorities.

Last year Jakarta's former governor -- the city's first Christian leader of Chinese descent -- was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla made a plea in 2015 for places of worship to turn down the volume slightly to placate nearby residents.

Japan wants foreign tourists to avoid 'public flatulence'

Yahoo – AFP, April 28, 2016

People cover their noses to avoid a foul smell (AFP Photo)

A Japanese tourism board has called on foreign tourists to refrain from public "belching or flatulence" in an etiquette guide which was hastily rewritten, reportedly after complaints from a Chinese resident.

The Hokkaido Tourism Organization, which represents Japan's northern-most island, published a downloadable brochure on its website, with polite instructions on everything from public bathing to using a Japanese toilet.

Helpfully, it even dedicated an entire section to protocol for avoiding bodily functions.

"Japanese etiquette is based on avoiding causing discomfort or nuisance to others," the guide points out.

"Accordingly, Japanese will avoid bodily functions such as belching or flatulence in public entirely, or perform bodily functions as discreetly as possible."

However, the Chinese-language guide -- originally entitled "Common Sense When Travelling in Hokkaido" -- upset a Chinese resident who angrily claimed the diagrams featuring examples of bad tourist behaviour were offensive, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Chinese tourists spent more than $164 billion in 2014, according to a report by

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

The complaint prompted a new, foreigner-friendly version with softer explanations of Japanese customs.

In the updated guide available in Chinese and English, gone are the large 'X'-marks next to cartoon illustrations of tourists committing, from a Japanese perspective, embarrassing gaffes, such as putting used toilet paper into the waste bin -- the general custom in China -- instead of flushing it away.

According to The Japan Times newspaper, the original booklet was first published last August and was targeted at Chinese tourists, including a reminder not to open products before buying them when shopping, a habit also seen in China.

China has said it will monitor the behaviour of unruly tourists abroad and punish them on their return home after being shamed by a string of well-publicised incidents in recent years.

Research by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that more than 100 million Chinese tourists went abroad in 2014, spending some $164 billion.

Tourists prepare for a shopping spree in Tokyo (AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

But reports of disruptive behaviour have tarnished their reputation, such as passengers scalding a flight attendant with hot water and noodles or a holidaymaker fined in Thailand for washing her feet in the wash basin of a public toilet.

Media in Japan have carried a spate of reports of alleged uncouth behaviour by Chinese visitors, though some local commentators have urged understanding, recalling that the emergence five decades ago of Japanese tourists as a force in global travel was often met with complaints about their behaviour.

Around 85,000 copies of the Hokkaido tourist brochure have reportedly been printed in Chinese and English, to be distributed to hotels and tourist attractions across the island.

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Crackdown on bad behavior by Chinese air passengers

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China desperate to improve image of its overseas tourists

Three Chinese passengers grounded for bad behaviour

Yahoo – AFP, April 11, 2016

Chinese authorities last year declared 11 types of action 'strictly prohibited' on
 flights and at terminals, including damaging airport security facilities and
assaulting crew members (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

China has banned three passengers from major airlines for "uncivilised behaviour", state media reported on Monday, as the country seeks to instil manners in its increasingly well-travelled populace.

The three were blacklisted for hitting a checkpoint security officer with a can of milk, attacking airline personnel over a flight delay, and refusing to switch off a tablet PC during a landing, the China Daily newspaper said.

They are the first to be included in a system rolled out by the China Air Transport Association in February, and will be unable to book flights with five of China's biggest airlines for up to two years, it added.

Chinese authorities last year declared 11 types of action "strictly prohibited" on flights and at terminals, including damaging airport security facilities and assaulting crew members, according to the China Daily.

Such behaviour has frequently made headlines in the country with the world's worst track record for flight delays.

In January last year, 25 passengers were held by police for questioning after they fought with crew members over a bad weather delay and opened the emergency exits.

In 2013, an official who missed two flights lost his temper at the boarding counter and went on a rampage, violently destroying two computers and attempting to smash a window with a signboard.

In December 2014, a Chinese woman en route back to China from Thailand threw a cup of noodles full of boiling water at a Thai flight attendant and punched the cabin windows, threatening to jump out, in a dispute that began over seat arrangements.

An editorial in the China Daily on Monday said such blacklisting was "long overdue", and that the first punishments would warn other travellers to "toe the line".

"There is no reason for them to be respected when they do not show enough respect for others," it said.

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Crackdown on bad behavior by Chinese air passengers

China to 'blacklist' its unruly tourists: report

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Russia draws in hordes of Chinese with 'red tourism'

Yahoo – AFP, Marina Koreneva, September 13, 2015

A Chinese tourist holds Russian flag as she visits a gift kiosk in St. Petersburg,

on September 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Olga Maltseva)

Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Drawn by its Communist past and a visa-free regime, Chinese tourists are flocking to Russia in droves as it develops new routes touting "red tourism".

Nearly 410,000 Chinese came to Russia last year putting them on top of the list of foreign tourists, according to the federal tourism agency.

Their number has swelled 10 percent since 2013, when Germans topped the list of overseas visitors.

Nearly 410,000 Chinese tourists visited 

Russia in 2014 (AFP Photo/Olga Maltseva)

"We had lots of work this summer," said Viktoria Borgacheva, the head of the association of Chinese interpreters and guides in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia's main tourist destination.

"I would say our workload has increased 30 percent since last year," Borgacheva said.

In the first half of this year alone, more than 200,000 Chinese tourists visited Russia.

Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg, the former imperial capital renowned for its world-class museums and luxurious palaces, hosted nearly 26,000 Chinese tourists in 2014.

"Saint Petersburg is a beautiful city with a rich history," said Yong Tang, a 57-year-old tourist from Beijing, as he purchased a bust of Lenin.

"I'm glad I came here."

The Russian city of Saint Petersburg 

hosted nearly 26,000 Chinese tourists in

2014 (AFP Photo/OLGA MALTSEVA)

Experts estimate that between 40,000 and 50,000 Chinese tourists could visit Saint Petersburg this year, the Russian tourism industry union said.

But Saint Petersburg's European flair and its winding canals are not the main attraction for them, according to Russian tourism officials.

Chinese tourists flock to Saint Petersburg chiefly to soak in the city's turbulent revolutionary history as the scene of three revolutions -- one in 1905 and two in 1917 -- that precipitated the end of the tsarist era and ushered in the Soviet Union.

"While Europeans come to Saint Petersburg above all to admire the old capital and the Hermitage (art museum), Chinese tourists want to see Leningrad and its revolutionary history," Borgacheva said, referring to Saint Petersburg's Soviet-era name.

'Red circuit'

The Russian city of Saint Petersburg

 hosted nearly 26,000 Chinese tourists

in 2014 (AFP Photo/OLGA MALTSEVA)

In July Moscow and Beijing officially launched an ambitious "red circuit," a tourist route tracing the life of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in four Russian cities.

The eight-day journey starts in Moscow, where tourists can gape at hammers and sickles on Soviet-era buildings and in the sprawling metro network.

The Russian capital is also the resting place of Lenin, with his body still preserved in a mausoleum on Red Square.

The circuit then takes tourists to Lenin's birthplace of Ulyanovsk on the banks of the Volga River, before continuing to Kazan, the city where he studied.

Chinese tourists have their photo taken

 in front of Church of the Savior on Blood " 

in St. Petersburg, on September 4, 2015

(AFP Photo/Olga Maltseva)

The tour ends in Saint Petersburg, the scene of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

"Revolution and the people's fight for independence and even the Great Patriotic War (World War II as fought by the Soviets from 1941) are important themes for the Chinese, just as they are for us," said Sergei Lakovsky, the head of Ulyanovsk's tourist department.

Costing $1,000 per person excluding flights, the "red circuit" promises to be lucrative for the dozen Russian tourist agencies participating in the programme, expected to be in full swing by next year.

Chinese tourists spent some $1 billion in Russia last year, according to a recent estimate.

Russia's new "red circuit" finds a counterpart in China, where Russian tourists can retrace the life of Mao Zedong, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist party.

Thai elephant kills keeper, runs off with 3 Chinese on its back

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Aug 2015

Thai policemen attend to the body of a mahout killed by his elephant in Chiang

Mai province on August 26, 2015 (AFP Photo)

An elephant in northern Thailand went berserk Wednesday, killing his "mahout" keeper before running off into the jungle with three terrified Chinese tourists still on his back, police said.

"The mahout who was killed was Karen and he was not familiar with the elephant. They (the tourists) are safe now," Colonel Thawatchai Thepboon, police commander of Mae Wang district in Chiang Mai province, told AFP.

The Karen are an ethnic minority widespread in northern Thailand.

Police said the incident took place at 9.30am (0230 GMT) as a Chinese family of three -- a father, mother and a young child -- took a ride on the back of a male elephant.

Rides are a popular and lucrative tourist activity but many animal rights groups say it is cruel and stressful for the pachyderms.

Mahouts with their elephants after bathing them in a river at Anantara resort, 

home to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, in Chiang Saen on

April 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

The elephant had not taken easily to his new keeper and turned on him suddenly, goring him to death, Channel 3 reported.

The channel broadcast footage of the three frightened tourists being led back to camp still on the elephant's back once it had been calmed down by other mahouts and their rides.

Thailand's roughly 4,000 domesticated elephants outnumber an estimated 2,500 remaining in the wild.

Domestic elephants in Thailand -- where the pachyderm is a national symbol -- have been used en masse in the tourist trade since they found themselves unemployed in 1989 when logging was banned.

Accidents are not unheard of. In June an elephant killed a Thai man and injured another as they were eating dinner at a beachside restaurant. The pair had been talking to the animal's mahout when it suddenly flipped.

Elephants eat platters of fruit during the elephant banquet to mark "National 

Elephant Day" in Ayutthaya province on March 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Rights groups have documented the more unscrupulous mahouts using controversial techniques to crush the animal's spirit or severely overworking their rides to make more money.

"Elephants work every day, of every month, basically 365 days per year," Edwin Wiek, a campaigner from Wildlife Friends of Thailand told AFP.

"If you had to do the same, you would get stressed. It is the same for elephants. At some point they become crazy and we can't control them."

The accident comes as Thailand's tourism industry reels from last week's bombing of a religious shrine in Bangkok, an attack that killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese devotees from across Asia.

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Thai Department of National Parks (DNP) workers display pieces of ivory

during a destruction ceremony in Bangkok on August 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Crackdown on bad behavior by Chinese air passengers

Want China Times, Li Hsin-tung and Staff Reporter 2015-08-14

Passengers boarding a plane at Chongqing Jiangbei International
Airport, July 27. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Chinese authorities have decided to reign in disorderly behavior among air passengers, announcing new safety rules that ban travelers from occupying seats not assigned to them.

The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) of China reiterated its determination to crack down on illegal or unsafe behavior by air passengers in a statement released Aug. 12.

The CAA highlighted 11 types of bad behavior, such as blocking security checks and boarding gates, attacking or threatening attacks on crew members and occupying seats not assigned to them, for which people will face fines of up to 3,000 yuan (US$469) and even detention.

According to the CAA, airport authorities across the country reported 16 violations between late July and early August, including passengers opening airplane doors, fighting in the terminal and smoking during flights.

One man was detained for five days for making a hoax bomb threat when going through a security check at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in northeastern China Aug. 5.

Another man was arrested and detained for five days after pushing a staff member when going through security checks at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in central China Aug. 11.

A report about a 12-year-old girl being denied boarding Aug. 6 after she insulted flight attendants also sparked discussion in China.

The amount of problematic behavior, which is rising along with the growing number of overseas trips made by Chinese travelers, has led to calls for stricter regulations.

According to China's three major state-owned carriers–Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines–the number of passengers on their international flights between January and June is estimated to have grown by 20%-40% from last year.

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Chinese tourists boost Thai economy but stir outrage

Yahoo – AFP, Marion Thibaut, 5 July 2015

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average

 tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European visitor

(AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Accused of urinating in public, spitting on the street, or kicking a sacred temple bell -- free-spending Chinese tourists are receiving a mixed welcome as their soaring numbers help the kingdom's creaking economy.

Growing outrage over the perceived disrespect of visitors from the Asian giant saw authorities print thousands of Chinese-language etiquette manuals earlier this year in a bid to keep their tourists in check.

Last month it was a photo of a young girl peeing in the grounds of Bangkok's Grand Palace that triggered the latest round of enraged, and sometimes racist, comments as Thai social media users claimed she was Chinese.

With the recent easing of visa rules 

between the kingdom and China, more

 Chinese tourists are expected to arrive

 in Thailand this year (AFP Photo/

Christophe Archambault)

In March a Thai model's video of tourists from China jumping the queue at an airport was viewed more than two million times and saw a similarly angry rant against Thailand's largest group of foreign holidaymakers.

At the gleaming Wat Rong Khun, also known as the White Temple, in northern Chiang Rai province, owner Chalermchai Kositpipat complained about the state of the toilets after a recent visit by a Chinese group.

"We had problems with some Chinese who defecated anywhere, so I asked the guides to explain to them that rules must be respected in Thailand," Chalermchai told AFP, having earlier threatened to refuse the nationals entry.

But he stopped short of issuing a ban, and like Thai authorities is loath to cut out the Chinese at a time when they are bucking the trend of dipping visitor figures in the kingdom, where tourism accounts for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European visitor.

Their collective contribution, expected to reach $5.6 billion this year, is not one the ruling junta can afford to lose as it struggles to revive a sclerotic economy -- one of its key promises after seizing power from an elected government in May 2014 that was paralysed by months of protests in Bangkok.

'Cultural misunderstandings'

At the White Temple, Thai tour guide Pin Su says her job has become an art in diplomacy due to the growing number of Chinese visitors.

"They do not always pay attention, they spit, talk loudly, sometimes they leave the toilet in a catastrophic state," she said in between ferrying tourists around the building.

"But I cannot remind them every day that we must be careful to be clean. I do not want to offend them. And all these tourists, it is for Thailand!"

Bangkok's ruling generals have been busy courting Beijing as they build new diplomatic allies after last year's coup was widely condemned by Western nations, including longtime friend the United States.

Late last year the two Asian nations forged new agricultural ties, and Beijing was also granted a major railway contract to construct two new lines criss-crossing Thailand.

With the recent easing of visa rules between the kingdom and China, where the growing ranks of the middle-classes are increasingly holidaying abroad, even more Chinese tourists are expected to arrive in Thailand this year.

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average

 tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European 

visitor (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Unsurprisingly, Thai authorities appear keen to downplay any incidents of strife.

"Chinese tourists do not create problems for us. They are nice tourists," said Srisuda Wanapinyosak, an executive director at the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

"But sometimes there might be cultural misunderstandings as we have different cultures," she admitted before running through the tips laid out for the Chinese in the new manuals.

Back at the White Temple, Cai Zheng Hua and his wife from Fujian, a province in southeast China, are enjoying their long-awaited honeymoon.

He says that while some of his compatriots may "not have enough education to know how to behave", they are very much in a "small minority".

For most visitors Thailand is a "dream" and "very fashionable", said the holidaymaker, raving about the architecture at the site.

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Chinese ambassador urges punishment for scam tours in Thailand

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-05-25

Tourists in Pattaya, September 2006. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Chinese ambassador to Thailand, Ning Fukui, said Sunday that responsible agencies of China and Thailand should strengthen punishment for travel agencies that continue to organize zero-fare tours despite complaints, including blacklisting them.

China and Thailand have taken some measures to resolve the issue of zero-fare tours, which have proved effective to a certain extent, but failed to eradicate the practice, Ning said.

The practice of "zero- or negative-fare tours" refers to tour services sold by travel agents at or below cost in order to attract travelers who are later forced to purchase goods or tip agents during their tours.

There have been frequent reports of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand being troubled by such practices.

The Chinese embassy in Thailand has begun to forward a list of travel agencies against which Chinese visitors have filed a lot of complaints to Thailand's tourism departments, in the hopes of deterring the practice by beefing up punishment for one or two of the agencies, according to the ambassador.

Interview: Ex-Singapore official: Zhou Enlai was center of Bandung Conference

English.news.cn, Ma Yujie, 2015-04-21

"Zhou Enlai was center of Bandung Conference," Singapore ex-diplomat

recalls the grand event

SINGAPORE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- "Zhou Enlai was the center of the Bandung Conference," said 91-year-old Lee Khoon Choy, who met Zhou in 1955 during the first Asian-African Conference (also known as Bandung Conference), in an exclusive interview with Xinhua here.

Lee, born in 1924 in Penang, Malaysia, joined the People's Action Party in 1959 in Singapore and was elected into the Legislative Assembly at the same year. By the time he retired from public service in 1988, he had held various positions in the government, including as a Member of Parliament and senior minister of state, and served as Singapore's ambassador and high commissioner to eight countries.

However, back in 1955, when Lee first met Zhou, the then premier of the People's Republic of China, he was a reporter at the Chinese newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau. He was in Indonesia to cover the Bandung Conference, a gathering of leaders and representatives from 29 Asian and African countries, most of them newly independent, to promote economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism.

The conference adopted a final communique containing ten principles, which underlined respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations.

Even though more than half a century has passed, Lee can still remember many details. He recalled that Zhou and his "strong" Chinese delegation including Chen Yi, the then foreign minister, were the center of attraction as soon as they arrived.

"They received a warm welcome from overseas Chinese. They gave the delegation a very warm applause and some even set off firecrackers to celebrate."

Every time Lee talks about Zhou, he made a thumbs-up gesture to show his respect.

"Zhou Enlai came to the conference with a prepared speech. After listening to the speeches against China, I saw him leading the Chinese delegation in a walk back to their hotel room. There was a big crowd clapping hands when the delegation walked out of and back into the Merdeka Building in Bandung," Lee said. "When Zhou returned to the conference table, he threw away his prepared speech and spoke off the cuff."

"That came to be the historical moment of China's diplomacy," Lee said.

Zhou said he had come to the conference to seek peace and not enemies. He said China was willing to negotiate with America for peace.

"Zhou's speech totally changed the atmosphere of the whole conference. He became the very center of the stage, with everyone' s attention on him."

For then 31-year-old Lee, this was not the only impressive moment with Zhou.

"I have always remembered one sentence from Zhou - overseas Chinese like you should take part in politics," Lee recalled.

"Many people at that time were hesitant to step into politics, but after the Bandung Conference, a lot changed their minds," Lee said.

For Lee himself, Zhou's words had also more or less changed his life. Lee didn't make up his mind to join politics after the Bandung Conference, but was finally persuaded by then Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1959, an old friend who Lee Khoon Choy met when he went to London to attend a class for advanced study in journalism ten years prior (1949).

Lee has since then served in government for almost three decades before he retired in 1988. In 2005, he was invited by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to attend the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference. But to him, there's "no second Bandung Conference" like the one in 1955.

"China brought up the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at the Bandung Conference, which was very good," he said.

"During the conference, Zhou got the opportunity to explain to other countries that China was not trying to subvert their political power, and it was the first time China established connectivity with countries in the world. Zhou made a great contribution to this."

It was not until 20 years later when Lee and Zhou met again. In 1975, Lee, the then minister of state for foreign affairs, visited China with Singapore's foreign minister S. Rajaratnam.

Zhou, who was suffering from cancer at that time, met them in Beijing where he was hospitalized. To his surprise, Zhou "had a really remarkable memory."

"He said, 'Oh, we met in Bandung and you had interviewed me," Lee said and smiled.

That trip later kicked off bilateral communications between Singapore and China.

Since the first trip to China in 1975, Lee has visited China more than 100 times, either as a politician, diplomat, tourist, businessman or antique collector. He has witnessed the dramatic changes of China.

"I admire Xi Jinping's axe on corruption, it will do great good to China," Lee said.

Editor: Mengjie

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"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. .."

".. Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

Women’s Rights Chief: Never Forget May ’98

Jakarta Globe, Ari Susanto, Mar 15, 2015

Families of victims scatter flower petals on Monday at a mall in Klender, East
Jakarta, that was burned down on May 13, 1998. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya).

Yogyakarta/Solo. The national commission for women’s protection has called on the government to acknowledge as a national tragedy the mass rape of ethnic Chinese women during the May 1998 riots that preceded the downfall of the late strongman Suharto.

“The victims and families just need the government’s affirmation that rape and violence against women on a massive scale occurred 17 years ago, and that most of the victims never got justice,” Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, the chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, told the Jakarta Globe in Yogyakarta over the weekend.

“Let the people today know and recognize it. Never conceal or forget, as we need to learn from the past.”

Yuniyanti said she supported Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s plan to build a memorial in the Pondok Rangon cemetery, as well as a move by Mayor F.X. Hadi Rudyatmo of Solo, Central Java, to conserve Purwoloyo cemetery. Both sites are the final resting places of victims of the outbreak of violence that tore mainly through Jakarta, Solo and Medan, North Sumatra, in early and mid-May 1998 and that targeted primarily Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese community.

The rights commissioner said she was worried that this dark chapter in the country’s part would eventually be glossed over as part of the price that had to be paid to force Suharto from power, and not as a series of serious human rights violations that warranted its own investigation.

A fact-finding team set up by the government later recorded at least 85 instances of sexual violence targeting ethnic Chinese women during the episode, although independent observers have put the true figure at closer to 500.

The mobs responsible also looted and torched ethnic-Chinese-owned businesses and homes.

Thousands of Chinese-Indonesians fled the country in the wake of the violence, and while many returned, it was to a life that was markedly subdued than before.

Sumartono Hadinoto, a prominent Solo resident and community organizer whose businesses were targeted in the rioting, said that he and other families preferred to forget the tragedy, but acknowledged the need to recognize what happened.

“I and most of the other victims wish we could erase our memory of the tragedy. Remembering the rape and violence will mire the families in misery and despair, and won’t give them back their previous lives,” he said.

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In Indonesia, 1998 violence against ethnic Chinese remains unaddressed