Handicrafts World News

Kolej IGS holds Car Treasure Hunt
brunei-online.com

The Academic Society of the Kolej International Graduate Studies (IGS) organised a Car Treasure Hunt as part of their Extra Curricular Activities last Wednesday, January 25, a press release stated.

Six student groups participated in the activity, which saw them driving to various places of interest around the capital including the Royal Regalia, Kampong Ayer and the Arts and Handicraft Centre among others. The sites were selected for their cultural value. The aim of the Treasure Hunt was to provide valuable insight into Brunei’s heritage.

The winning team, comprising Dk Fatin Liyana Pg Ahmad, Siti Zubaidah Abdullah, Hadizah Abdul Hamid and Nurul Hafizah Zini, finished the hunt in 43 minutes.

Interest in China grows in Bangladesh
chinaview.cn

DHAKA, Jan. 27 (Xinhuanet) — Dhaka University, the biggest university in Bangladesh, has organized the Chinese Spring Festival Culture Week to celebrate the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Jan. 29 this year.

The culture week, spanning from Jan. 23 to 27, featured a series of activities including World Heritage Sites in China, photo exhibition, documentary film show, Chinese handicraft exhibition and Chinese painting exhibition.

Addressing the closing ceremony Friday, Liu Sanzhen, culture council or of the Chinese embassy in Bangladesh, briefed the audience on the history of Chinese spring festival.

Liu said China and Bangladesh enjoyed long-term friendship, expressing hope that the culture week could be an opportunity for Bangladeshi people to know more about China.

Faiz, vice chancellor of Dhaka University, said at the same function that Chinese language is a great language, which is also a language of a great nation. “I hope I can speak Chinese,” he said.

Faiz said China is a fast developing country, and Bangladesh can learn a lot from China. “In the areas of science, technology, education, a lot we can learn, but we are limited by the language barrier,” he said.

He hoped the students in the Chinese department of the Modern Language Institute could study hard to have a better grasp of Chinese.

According to Anwar Hossain, director of Modern Language Institute, there are 13 departments in this institute with above 1,200 students, out of whom 124 are learning Chinese.

Jula, a student from the Chinese Department, told Xinhua that his dream is to go to China.

Jula has learned Chinese for one year. He can speak some Chinese though not so fluently.

Walid graduated from the Medical College of Fudan University in China’s Shanghai. He studied six years in China from 1998 to 2004,which makes him a fluent Chinese-speaker.

Walid said he wanted to go back to China to for postgraduate study. “I want to learn community medicine and health management, because I want to work for the offices of the United Nations Development Program or the World Health Organization in Bangladesh after graduation,” he said.

There are also people who come to the Chinese Department to study only for a short term.

Asked why they study Chinese here, they said they are doing business with China, and it is very important for them to know some Chinese.

There are only two teachers in the Chinese Department, Yang Jinxiang, who is sent by the Chinese government, and Hossain, who studied four years in China.

Hossain said they need at least one more teacher here because two teachers are not enough to teacher over 120 students. He hoped the Chinese government can send another teacher here. Enditem

Tg Aru upgrade will see rival to Mengkabong: YB
Sabah Daily Express

Kota Kinabalu: The Federal Ministry of Tourism is now in the process of selecting a contractor to undertake the RM10 million Kampung Tanjung Aru Lama beautification project - the first of a two-phase project whose overall cost is RM40m.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, Edward Yong Oui Fah, hoped the project would help Tanjung Aru become a tourist spot that would not only boost the image of the locality but also provide for side income for the residents.

He was speaking after officiating at the re-commissioned junior block of the Seri Mengasih School, a school for special children, at Tanjung Aru, here, Thursday.

Yong, who is also Tanjung Aru assemblyma, said Kampong Tanjung Aru Lama has the potential to upgrade itself into a beautiful water village like the one in Mengkabong, which is a favourite tourist destination.

“The tender for the project has been closed and the Ministry is making the decision (selection of contractor), which will be in a few months.

“Phase One of the project is expected to be completed within 24 months of commencement. Among other things, it would see the construction of a new drainage system, handicraft shops and concreting of the water village’s wooden gangplanks ” he said.

Asked if residents at the area would have to make way for the project, Yong said those who have their own lots could stay and that their homes can, in fact, be improved to become homestays to generate side income.

“Those without their own lots might be asked to move,” he said, adding there are about 200 houses at Tanjung Aru Lama.

Phase Two of the project is also in the pipeline at Kampung Tanjung Aru Baru, covering areas from the Tanjung Aru Mosque up to the Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort, Yong said.

“This project would cost more than RM10 million,” he said.

The two-phase project was first announced by Mayor Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim last October, with the first phase expected to begin in January this year.

Iliyas had said the implementation of the project had to be carried out in two phases due to physical constraints such as squatters and funding.

Iliyas said the project was mooted at a meeting of the Economic Development Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department in November 2002 with the aim of upgrading and turn the existing water village into a tourist attraction with some elements of sustainability in the long run.

Iliyas had warned village heads not to take advantage of the situation by permitting new houses to be constructed in their respective areas.

Action would be taken against those who illegally build houses in their respective areas after the announcement was made.

Earlier, in his speech, Yong urged parents and the community to lend a hand to schools for special children.

He said their support would go a long way in helping special children because they have the abilities to be independent and productive in society.

The school’s Director, Cecilia Thane, recorded her thanks to Yong for his help in improving the worn foundation and other structures of the school’s junior block.

“Altogether, the are 128 students in the school, who are divided into the junior, senior and vocational levels, depending on their skills and age,” she said.

The students also entertained the guests with several Chinese cultural performances, after which they were handed ang pows and goodies by Yong.

Centre to promote textile-based activities in North East
New Kerala

Aizawl: With the aim to promote the textile-based activities and to empower rural artisans, the Centre has introduced special policy incentives for the traditional handloom handricraft and sericulture industries in the region.

Handicrafts NE promotion officer T Rollee here said the government has implemented various schemes to act as a catalyst for development of the handicraft and textile industry in the region, which will boost the rural employment in the region.

The incentives comprised raising Central assistance to 90 per cent for all Central schemes and strengthening of the North Eastern handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation under the DoNER ministry, he added.

Besides this the Ministry of Textiles has already urged all Northeastern states to submit various re-defined schemes for the implementation for different handicraft and handloom projects in the region.

Artisans and Weavers across the region will also benefit from the Centrally sponsored handloom training programme.

Various handicrafts promotional activities would also be taken up in the region with the help of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), underlined, adding more exhibitions and workshops would be conducted in these areas.

Afghans optimistic, but poverty still grips Kabul
New Kerala

KABUL: Afghans are among the most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a BBC survey has found, but such confidence is not always easy to find on the streets of the capital, Kabul.

The survey found 70 per cent of those questioned in Afghanistan thought their own circumstances were improving, and 57 per cent believed their country overall was on the way up.

The survey by the Globescan polling firm also found optimism in Iraq, where 65 per cent of people believed their personal lives were getting better, and 56 per cent were upbeat about their country’s economy.

The firm surveyed 37,572 people in 32 countries between October 2005 and January 2006, said the BBC, which released the results this week.

On the cold streets of an overcast Kabul yesterday opinion seemed divided about how people were faring more than four years after US-led forces forced the hardline Taliban from power.

”It’s not getting better for ordinary people, only for a few businessmen and investors. Ordinary people are getting poorer and poorer,” said labourer Syed Kamal.

”Jobs are so few some people are willing to work just for bread,” he said.

Prices have been rising fast in Kabul and many people say they are frustrated with what they see as a slow pace of improvement in their lives.

”Government figures show that billions of dollars of aid have been disbursed, but given the little change in the lives of many people, there hasn’t been much improvement economically,” said Kabul University student Izatullah, 25.

After decades of conflict and chaos, Afghanistan is wracked by poverty and deprivation.

Development will be a main issue at an international conference on Afghanistan in London at the end of the month, where Afghanistan is hoping to get promises of economic and security help.

ENORMOUS IMPROVEMENT Despite the poverty, Kabul’s streets, lined with piles of dirty snow, are packed with vehicles and markets are full of imported goods.

Ahmad Sear, who owns a handicraft shop in a shiny new Kabul shopping centre, says life is good.

”My life has improved enormously over the past three years.

I started from scratch and now I have this shop,” he said.

The city’s newest shopping centre is lined with electronics and mobile phone shops, as well as jewellery and clothes outlets. There’s a trendy coffee shop in the basement and teenagers wander around in the latest Western fashions.

”I’m hopeful about the future although I worry about chaos and insecurity,” Sear said.

”But it’s tough for people who have no money or other resources. Refugees coming back from Iran and Pakistan, they’ve got no job, can’t afford to pay rent, so they go back. That’s not good,” he said.

Complaints about corruption are common.

”Life has improved for only a few percent of the people.

Most people are impoverished,” said another city centre shopkeeper, Mohammad Nadir, who said graft was widespread in the government and among aid groups.

But he said Afghans had to be optimistic.

”I’m hopeful about the future, not only for my own business but for the whole of Afghanistan. We have no alternative, we have to be hopeful,” Nadir said.

City fails to find ‘proper’ place for Tibetan refugees
Phayul
By Asit Srivastava

Lucknow, January 27 - IN spite of the intervention by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Rehabilitation Division) in the year 2000, in getting certain areas of land allotted to Tibetan Refugees’ Handicraft Union members for selling their woollen goods in the city, the vendors here are still finding it difficult to eke out a living. For, they claim that the land allotted to them on the Mawaiyya Road, is not suitable for carrying out commercial activities.

‘‘In the past few years, our sales have taken a considerable nose-dive. Over eighty per cent of our sales have declined in the past three years or so. It is just because of the secluded site alloted to us, having a zero value in terms of carrying out business activities like ours,’’ rued representative of the Tibetan Refugees’ Handicraft Union (TRHU), T Norbu. ‘‘With no business at all (let alone any profit), each one of us is buried in debts,’’ he added.

It must be mentioned here that under the various rehabilitation schemes of the Government of India, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2000, had directed all the state governments and Union territories to ensure allotment of land (for business purposes) to Tibetan refugees, who were given asylum in 1959. Problems faced by the Tibetan refugees had also been raised in the Lok Sabha.

Though the vendors here are setting up their stall from late 7Os, it is only a few years back that their sales witnessed a drastic downfall. ‘‘We were not living in penury when we used to set up our stalls at the Station Road in Charbagh, a few years back. As the road remained abuzz with commuters, we had brisk business then,’’ recalled president TRHU, Sonam. ‘‘We often used to run out of stock then. So much was the demand for our woollen apparels! But now, as Mawaiyya road has sparse crowd, there are virtually no takers for our goods,’’ he laments.

Earlier, several times the civic authorities had directed the vendors to change their business site, citing that their business was causing a lot of nuisance and traffic related problems. Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), a few years ago, had directed them to leave the site allotted to the vendors on the pavement of the Station Road. ‘‘LMC administration cited that the law does not permit setting up of the stalls there. After this, we changed our location. But, at present, makeshift shops still operate from the pavement. This brings forth the step-motherly attitude of the LMC towards us,’’ said the members. ‘‘It appears that in connivance with the local shopkeepers of Charbagh- whom we gave tough competition in woollen items-, the LMC officials had planned to drive us away, in order to benefit them,’’ they alleged.

Meanwhile, acting municipal commissioner Santosh Kumar admitted that shops continued to operate from the same location, from where once the Tibetan refugees used to run shop. On asking LMC’s stand on this issue, Kumar said, ‘‘It is true we had directed them to vacate the pavement on the Charbagh road. We would look into the matter and ensure that those operating from the pavement are removed at the earliest.’’ He also said he would be inviting representatives of the THRU for talks, to find out alternatives to the problems experienced by the vendors.

There are around 48 stalls put up here by the members of TRHU. Depending upon the area of the stall, the vendors pay Rs 10-50 daily to the LMC. These stalls are put up by the members every year for three months during winters. ‘‘It is our ancestral business, which is also our main source of income,’’ said a member, Kalsang Dekyi. She said all the refugees settled in different parts of the country wait eagerly for arrival of winter, to come to the city and sell their woollens.

Some of the woolen items are hand knitted, while other items at the stalls are purchased from Ludhiana. ‘‘As our sales have fallen drastically, we now owe lakhs of rupees to banks and other financial companies, from where we have taken loans for carrying out the business. We still need a ‘suitable’ location in order to make our living,’’ emphasied Dekyi.

Spouse of Philippine general visits Arts and Handicraft Centre
By Radhi
Borneo Bulletin

Mrs Pilar Prescilla Senga, wife of Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Generoso S Senga, yesterday morning paid a visit to the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Centre in the capital.

Upon arrival, the Philippine delegation led by Mrs Pilar Prescilla Senga was greeted by one of the officers at the Arts and Handicraft Centre.

During the visit, Mrs Pilar Prescilla Senga had the opportunity to tour the centre and take a closer look at the various processes involved in weaving traditional textile.

Later in the afternoon, Mrs Pilar Prescilla Senga visited the Mahkota Crystal at Perindustrian Lambak Kanan, Berakas. She was greeted on arrival by Mahkota Crystal staff.

The Philippine General, his wife Pilar Senga and delegation will leave the country tomorrow.