Loyal subjects queued all night despite heavy rain in the hope of getting close to the Royal Procession route for the Royal Cremation Ceremony.
The difficulties of having to queue and sleep on the street side without any roof above their head did not deter the people’s will to find a viewing place for the Royal Cremation Ceremony. They waited patiently at all nine screening points around Sanam Luang which opened to the public at 5am on Wednesday.
Thousands of people were seen queuing at the ninth check point at Pinklao Bridge alone around 4.30 am. The queue was over one kilometre long from under the bridge, down along Phra Arthit Road to Bang Lamphu Intersection. All were in black formal attire, many of them them were elderly women.
Ratchaneenart Sanguansapsiri, a 44-year-old woman from Nonthaburi, said she joined the queue to enter the Royal Cremation Ceremony area at the ninth screening point around 8pm on Tuesday, and she was very glad to be there.
Thailand to bid farewell to late King Bhumibol Adulyadej
“It was a long and rainy night, but finally we made it,” she said with a big smile early on Wednesday morning.
“We understand what we are going to get through, as we still have to wait inside the ceremony ground for day, yet we are determine to endure this hardship. All of us want to be a part [of this ceremony] to send our beloved King back to Heaven.”
It was reported that there were kilometres-long queues at the other screening points.
Along Phra Arthit Road, many nightclubs opened their doors for mourners to use the toilets free of charge. Some restaurants on this nightlife street also provided free snacks and coffee for the people at breakfast time.
Before passing through the screening point, people are required to show their identification cards and have their baggage checked by security officers. Officers are on standby to advise people how to get to the closet screening point.
SEOUL – The only western-funded university in North Korea is scrambling to recruit teachers not from the United States after a US travel ban to the isolated country forced the school to start the September semester with only half of its faculty.
According to a recruitment notice from a faculty member of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) reviewed by Reuters, the school is on a “vigorous lecturer recruitment campaign” for the spring semester slated to start next year.
The notice, which said the recruitment focus is “non-US professors” mainly from Asia and Europe, suggests that discussions with the US State Department about receiving special exemptions for PUST’s volunteers have not gone well.
Of the roughly 130 foreigners at PUST including faculty members, staffers and family members, about 60 had been US citizens, according to people familiar with PUST operations.
“Needless to say, our chronic faculty shortage and curriculum instability have been exacerbated even further, translating into the emergency situation of crippled school operation and curriculum running,” said the notice sent out by Paul Song, currently acting dean of the international finance and management department at PUST.
As of Sept. 1, the US State Department has enforced a ban on Americans travelling to North Korea following the death earlier this year of an American student who had been detained by the state while on a tour. It also advised US citizens living there to leave.
North Korea has criticised Washington’s decision to ban US passport holders from visiting the North, with state media describing it as a “sordid” attempt to limit human exchanges. It has also said its doors are always open for all Americans who wish to visit.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated significantly in the wake of numerous missile tests and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test by Pyongyang last month.
Insults and threats exchanged between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump have also exacerbated global jitters over possible military conflict.
A month after the fall semester had started, a PUST official told Reuters high security concerns over North Korea has made it”difficult to find additional replacement staff”.
“A number of organisations are unwilling to approve staff to travel,” the official added.
The school was founded in 2010 by a Korean American evangelical Christian with the goal of helping North Korea’s future elite learn the skills to modernise the North and engage with the outside world.
Since its founding, the school has grown to about 500 undergraduate and 60 graduate students studying in mostly three departments – electronic and computer engineering, international finance and management and agriculture and life sciences.
It began as a humble stall in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown, but Chan Hon Meng’s soy sauce chicken business has skyrocketed since he received a coveted Michelin star from the world’s most prestigious food guide last year.
Chan had been selling his plate of soy sauce chicken rice for 2 Singapore dollars (about $1.50) for the last eight years, operating from a stall taking up just 54 square feet.
Since gaining a star for that stall, called Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, Chan’s footprint has grown considerably.
Michelin-starred soya sauce chicken at Hawker Chan
Along with a business partner, he has opened seven new outlets, even venturing out of his home market to Thailand and Taiwan. By the end of this year, he will also have a restaurant in Melbourne, Australia.
Chan dreams of becoming Asia’s answer to fast food giant KFC, he said.
“I would like to open a restaurant in every country to let everyone taste my soy sauce chicken,” he told CNBC during an interview conducted in Mandarin, adding that he wants people to be able to try authentic Asian Michelin-starred food.
Chan has accomplished the rapid expansion with the help of Hersing Culinary, a Singapore-based company that also owns the rights to Hong Kong’s Michelin-starred dimsum eatery, Tim Ho Wan.
The Hong Kong eatery’s expansion demonstrates the marketing power of the Michelin rating. It has been enormously successful, expanding to more than 40 stores worldwide. It opened its first outlet in North America to snaking queues in New York City last December.
Chan will be looking to emulate that, and he recounted that several companies had come calling when he received the Michelin star in July last year.
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He said he could have asked for several million dollars for his recipe – several Singapore-based eateries have sold their recipes or businesses for millions after achieving some measure of popularity.
He decided, however, to work with Hersing because he wanted a business partner which would keep prices low, and expand his business internationally.
Chan, 52, decided that he had to expand his business after he was awarded the Michelin star, as “the crowds were too large.”
“I had to change my business model and operation style so that my customers don’t have to wait several hours just to have food,” he said, adding that at the peak of its popularity, the original outlet saw customers queueing for between four and five hours.
Also read: Michelin-starred soya sauce chicken at pocket-friendly prices
Chan said Hersing invested S$1 million ($700,000) for the first air-conditioned Chinatown outlet, which is just a stone’s throw away from his original stall. Prices in the new restaurant are slightly higher than at the original outlet, with the famous soy sauce chicken rice costing S$3.80 ($2.80).
He told CNBC that he has a 50 per cent stake in the first Chinatown outlet, and a 10 per cent stake in each subsequent new outlet.
Chan said he was enjoying picking up new business skills, as he now has to manage workers and teach staff the roasting and braising techniques.
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While he said he feels “some pressure” in managing the expansion of the business, he also has to worry about ensuring that the standard of the food remains of Michelin standard. He managed to successfully defend the Michelin star for a second time this year.
“I don’t dare to say that I will get the Michelin star every year,” he said, but added that in the food business, “it is most important that we give ourselves peace of mind, and give our customers satisfaction.”
One netizen revealed on Oct. 2 his interaction with Big Bang’s leader G-dragon after reportedly breaking an expensive chandelier at G-Dragon’s cafe on Jeju Island, according to local media reports Monday.
The online blogger explained on social media what ensued after he had broken the item.
Realizing what had happened, G-Dragon showed generosity toward the man, asking only for the repair fee.
The online commenter wrote that he had expected the K-pop star to let him go scott free without bearing any consequences. He also added that it will now cost him 400,000 won (S$482.80).
Fans became infuriated with the commenter’s rudeness.
The singer and rapper had opened “Cafe Montsant de Aewol” along the cliffside of Jeju Island’s Aewol area in Oct. 2015. The chandelier was said to have cost G-Dragon 300 million won.
Mexico City – With US-Mexican relations at their lowest point in recent memory, Disney Pixar is set to release “Coco,” a cinematic celebration of Mexico that its director said Tuesday is an antidote to the “negativity” of the current political climate.
Set in Mexico against the backdrop of the country’s traditional Day of the Dead festival, “Coco” tells the story of a boy who inadvertently ends up in the land of the dead, taking him on a vivid tour of Mexican history and culture.
Director Lee Unkrich, who won an Oscar for best animated film for “Toy Story 3,” said that while the project did not start out being political, events conspired to make its setting particularly relevant.
“Certainly when we began making this movie six years ago, it was a very different political climate than we find ourselves in now,” he told a press conference in Mexico City, where the film is being screened at a gala event Tuesday night.
“That being said, we are all very proud of the film. And I think it’s a good thing that it’s coming out now, because there’s been a lot of negativity in the world.”
The movie is the first from Pixar dedicated entirely to a foreign culture – a risky bet for the animation studio and parent company Disney at a time when US President Donald Trump’s “America first” populism holds sway.
Mexican-American co-director Adrian Molina said he was confident the movie would connect with audiences everywhere.
“That familiar connection to a Pixar film, that’s deeper than I’ve ever been able to go, and I think create a story that’s unique for the studio, that’s unique for the world,” he said.
“Strictly from my personal standpoint, I’m very thankful for it because it helped me to grow, to reconnect with my roots, and to create something that I am very proud of, very proud to share with my family in the United States and Mexico and beyond.”
“Coco” features the voice of Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal in both the English and Spanish versions. It premiered Friday at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico, to warm reviews.
It opens in Mexico on October 27, the United States on November 22 and worldwide on November 23.
A 13-year-old girl from Walenrang district, Luwu regency, South Sulawesi, is psychologically unstable after being raped by 21 men in two separate locations and at different times.
“The victim is afraid to meet new people. When we came to see her yesterday [Monday], she was afraid to meet us. After we explained our identities, she agreed to meet us,” said Andi Fatmawati Syam, the head of the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) division at Luwu administration, on Tuesday.
Not only is she terrified to meet new people, Fatmawati said the girl had become reserved and sensitive, especially if asked to discuss the ordeal to which she had been subjected.
“She spoke very little. Each time we touched on the tragic incident, her eyes suddenly welled with tears. We could not bring ourselves to look at that terrible condition,” she said.
Fatmawati said the PPPA Luwu was providing the victim both legal assistance and counseling to help her overcome the ordeal.
The girl, a first grader at a junior high school in Luwu, was raped by 21 men aged 13 to 30 years. Fourteen suspects were arrested last week while seven others remain at large.
“We have obtained the identities of the seven perpetrators. We are sure they can be immediately arrested,” said Luwu Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Yanuari Insan on Tuesday.
He said the girl was raped during Ramadhan in June, but the case had been reported to the police only on Oct 11.
SINGAPORE: He remembers the days when students would come crowding to their family’s bookstore at Bras Basah every term, looking to buy the school books on their required list.
And then there were judges, lawyers, and politicians like the late former Foreign Minister S Rajaratnam – a keen photographer – who came a-calling.
“He used to buy photography magazines when I was a small boy and he used to talk to my grandfather,” Mr Noorul Islam recalled. “He was a very good photographer.”
That was decades ago.
These days, the 65-year-old grandfather’s secondhand bookstore at Far East Plaza is the last of its kind along Orchard Road. Gone are the days when there were several competitor bookshops at the shopping centre that made it a bookworm’s haven.
Mr Islam’s Ana Book Store is among a rare and dying breed of secondhand bookstores in Singapore striving to survive in this digital age.
His family is one of the pioneers in this industry – their story began almost 80 years ago when his father opened a bookstore at a shophouse along Bras Basah Road in 1939, called Modern Bookshop. The family lived upstairs.
RUNNING THE BUSINESS AT THE AGE OF 12
Mr Islam started learning the trade from his father when he was just 10 years old. And it was none too soon, as it turned out.
He was 12 when his father died, leaving the business to him and his grandfather. Thrown into the deep end, Mr Islam had to quickly master the trade as his older siblings were living in Dubai and London then.
Mr Islam’s father set up Modern Book Store along Bras Basah Road in 1939.
It helped that business was good. On top of fiction and non-fiction books, they were selling school textbooks which, in those days, were not sold in schools.
Students had to make the trip to Bras Basah to get either new or used books once they got their book list. Said Mr Islam:
During those days, textbooks were quite difficult to get… you might even have to wait a few days.
His own children grew up at the bookstore-cum-home, which was at the centre of the action. His son, Ruhul, recalls how when there was a change of guards at the Istana accompanied by a band, they would watch excitedly from a little window on the second level of the shophouse.
“It’s those small things in life that made us happy back then,” he said.
Their home above the bookstore. (Photo: Noorul Islam)
Redevelopment, however, came a knocking in the early 1990s. The family had to give up their cosy bookshop and their home upstairs, and leave the neighbourhood with its kampung atmosphere.
“On the last day, you felt bad because you were leaving your own kampong people, you know.
“The neighbours were all very good, we talked to everybody, we gossiped. We knew each other very well,” he recalled wistfully.
(Photo: Noorul Islam)
LOOK, IT’S SINGAPORE’S MR BEAN
The family moved to a HDB flat in Pasir Ris while they relocated their bookshop to Far East Plaza – where it was renamed Ana Book Store after Mr Islam’s mother and his daughter for “good luck”, he said.
Some of his regulars followed him to the new place.
It was during this time that Mr Islam became a mini-celebrity, way before the days of social media. Newspaper clippings proudly displayed in his shop attest to his discovery as the “Mr Bean of Singapore”.
He’d been strolling at a mall along Orchard Road one day, when a family stopped him and asked to take a photograph. Amused but not knowing why, he gamely obliged.
“After taking the picture, they told me, ‘Uncle, you look like Mr Bean’. I said ‘I do? He is a white bean, I’m a brown bean’,” he laughed. “The newspapers and the media came to know about it and they interviewed me.”
The late minister S Rajaratnam was a customer at the family’s old bookstore at Bras Basah.
Indeed, he bears more than a passing resemblance to British comedian Rowan Atkinson who plays the popular TV character – they both have the same bulging eyes and short-cropped hair, and Mr Islam can even impersonate that same goofy smile if you ask politely.
With his newfound fame, children and adults would drop by his book store to request for a picture.
BOOKS WALL TO WALL
Today, though, his customers are mostly older and include former Members of Parliament, lawyers, judges, academics, and even the occasional ministers from neighbouring countries, he said.
“Since I’m 60 plus, my books are mostly for the older generation. They will buy old books, comics and here you can find any antique, out-of-print and other old books which you may not be able to get in other places,” he said.
Autobiographies, war books, comics and magazines are stacked wall to wall and floor to ceiling. One might be hard-pressed to find what one is looking for, given that the books are largely uncategorised.
He carries some old titles that are near impossible to find anywhere else.
On the floor, more boxes of books await those with the time to burrow through. But if you can’t find what you want, it’s best to ask the friendly Mr Islam for help.
Even his son, Ruhul, asked why he didn’t have a proper shelving system like those in libraries or chain bookstores – and dad had a shrewd marketer’s answer.
“He explained that when someone searches for a certain book, he will also come across some other books that they may not have thought of yet. It may just entice them to buy,” said Mr Ruhul.
“So I guess it has been working for him that when people come for certain books, they do end up buying other books as well.”
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THE FUTURE FOR ANA?
In recent years, the popularity of online bookstores and e-books has led to the collapse of brick-and-mortar chains like Borders and smaller independent outfits. It has also created challenges for Mr Islam who said that thankfully, he has his regular customers to help cover his monthly rental.
But he revealed that business has dropped by about 20 per cent.
Mr Islam writes down the date, and if the book is returned by a certain time, the customer gets a partial refund.
Then there is the question of whether the bookstore will continue to be a family tradition. Mr Islam has two sons, a daughter and six grandchildren, but Mr Ruhul is not too keen on taking over the business.
“I’m not working in the same industry. I don’t think I will take over… You can never rule anything out, but definitely not in the foreseeable future,” said the son.
Mr Islam admitted that he could always call it a day and spend time with his grandchildren. But running the shop keeps him active, he said, and he would continue with it even if it becomes unprofitable, so long as he can cover the rent.
I meet people, I talk to people, that keeps me happy and I make them happy too.
“I’m doing a service to the customers. I’m happy to be in this line. I will do this until my two hands and two legs can’t move. Then I will retire.”
One of his regulars is Dr Jan Slikkerveer, a professor from the Netherlands who makes it a point to drop by the bookstore whenever he is in town.
Dr Jan Slikkerveer, a professor from the Netherlands, drops by whenever he is in town.
“The only problem is I always go home with too much luggage because of his books,” he said with a smile, adding that he likes the warm, personal service and attention at Ana’s where Mr Islam sometimes offers him and his wife hot beverages while they browse.
“I feel sad when I see more bookshops closing down. I hope for (ANA) to stay for a long time, and Mr Islam to continue his good work, because he has that philosophical interest in sharing his knowledge of books with people,” Dr Slikkerveer added.
Watch this episode, which also features a secondhand vinyl record seller, on The Red Dot, Oct 27 at 9.30 pm, on Mediacorp Channel 5.
