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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
LETTERS AND COMMENT
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Mission Statement, 1975
REACH ASIAWEEK VIA MAIL, FAX OR E MAIL
IT WAS REFRESHING TO see Thai model Yui on the Cover [Aug. 2]. Although I hadn't heard of her before, I have always wondered why there are so few internationally renowned Asian "supermodels." Even in many Asian countries, there is a bias toward European models in fashion magazines and on the catwalks. Hopefully, Asians will shake off this inferiority complex and realize how beautiful we are, inside and out.
Although traditionally Asians have generally considered fair skin beautiful, there is a recent unhealthy trend or fad among the young in Japan to sport tans and bleached hair (the "surfer" look), signifying not peasantry but leisure. Is this another example of the inadvertent influence of the powerful Western media on Asians' perception of physical attractiveness?
Augie Tam
Tokyo
I AM CURIOUS AS to why Asian people are obsessed with beauty. Can we not be more mature and know that if we have good character, or can build the right attitudes, then we can say we are beautiful? Good character gives off light and from there other attributes follow.
I agree with Alison Dakota Gee that "the region's newly affluent are prepared to pay whatever it takes to keep -- and improve -- their looks."
For me, beauty masks what is important. If I could choose, I would rather be a genius or highly talented. With my intelligence I could please my superiors, be popular, and of good standing in society. God gave me this face, created me in this manner, so I'll be careful to take good care of it. But if I am rich and have a defect in my nose, I will not pay for a doctor to redo it. I would rather donate the money to people who are in need.
I am prepared to be loved by a person not for my body or my face but for my character.
Jingle Tan
Quezon City
Metro Manila
I AM LOCATED IN Montreal and saw your August 2 Cover. I'm the advertising director for a retail company. I book all the models for the photo shoots and I'm very interested in Yui. I would like to know the name and phone number of the modeling agency representing her.
Melanie Dunberry
Montreal
WE WERE HAPPY TO help make the requested connection.
Degrees for Sale
"A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL?" [THE NATIONS, July 19] reminded me of my students' frequent complaints as they joined the rat race for sheepskins in Manila. I taught as a substitute teacher in a Batangas public school and most of my former students still visit me -- all with tales of woe, mostly on the education system in Manila. One of their recent frustrations in the city is the bribe a couple of them gave mentors by the end of the semester so they could pass most subjects. "An instructor even puts out a laptop computer," said one of them, "from which he reads aloud -- like a roll call -- the names of the students who have not yet paid."In another school (here in Nasugbu, Batangas), where I taught for a year, teachers who accept the "tangible generosity" of their students call the bribe ECA -- which stands for extra-curricular activity -- a code which has a two-pronged meaning. ECA may mean the teacher's sideline (the covert "activity" which calls for an "extra" from academically erring students). For the students, it may mean extra points to pass the required subject.
Marie Benitez, writing for Philippine Graphic, produced a comprehensive report on one sad aspect of education in the Philippines: Bachelor's degrees in two weeks from a Recto sidewalk. Recto is an avenue in the heart of Manila and at one of its sections, fake diploma sellers compete. In "Diplomas for Sale" (April 5, 1993), Benitez, referring to an article in Malaya, a national newspaper, wrote: "The racket has even reached Thailand. In 1989 fake diplomas were reportedly issued to four ministers, 10 members of parliament, and 50 businessmen from Bangkok by Orta–ez University, which had stopped operating in June 1988."
Is this not related to what Matthew Fletcher and Julian Gearing have written about? And do we -- the Philippines and Thailand -- not share a common concern which, if not addressed immediately, will breed citizens who will be shadows of those at the scandal-ridden Bangkok Bank of Commerce or a troubled local unit of the Philippine government?
Benitez laments that the failing economy of the Philippines is a reason for the illegal diploma trade at Recto -- which continues up to this day. Reflecting on places like Sakon Nakhon and Recto Avenue, I become more convinced that it's the other way around.
Rener R. Concepcion
Nasugbu, Batangas
Philippines
Taking on SLORC
WHO LISTENS TO DR. Thanat Khoman rattle on about the degradation of America, as in LETTERS & COMMENT ["A One-Superpower World," July 19]? He is free to speak out, though, and we American expats are also able to agree that somewhere there's a horse's head by the name of Bill Clinton.But can Dr. Thanat question "constructive engagement," which sees ASEAN business profit from timber sales and slave labor in Myanmar? You and I and just about anybody can take on the world's favorite punching-bag, but let's see somebody local go a round or two with SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration Council] and company.
Donald E. Bott
Nonthaburi
Thailand
THE OMISSION OF ANY mention of the death in custody of an honorary diplomat, James Leander Nichols, in Myanmar suggests that your author is closer than is healthy to SLORC ["Down and Up in Myanmar," INSIDE STORY, Aug. 2]. The death prompted the departure from Myanmar of two European drinks companies and further economic clouds over Myanmar. Would his conclusion have been so optimistic had he weighed these events?
Nicholas Kochan
London
WE FIRST REPORTED NICHOLS' death, and how he had been arrested for using unregistered fax machines, in our July 5 issue. Our Aug. 2 INSIDE STORY, which examined Myanmar's longer-term prospects, noted that there it is "impossible to send a fax about Aung San Suu Kyi without risking imprisonment, even death."
Rising Star Prabowo
THE FORTHCOMING PROMOTION OF President Suharto's son-in-law Brig.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto surely disgusts various sectors in Indonesia and around the globe ["Marked for the Top?" THE NATIONS, July 12]. This is a result of Suharto's practices of promoting kin to lofty pinnacles of power.This is reminiscent of the favoritism during the time of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, when the highest plums in the government were awarded to relatives and cronies. It is a relief that, despite all the brouhaha democracy in the Philippines emits, promotion of our officials is still governed by the rule of law.
Marcelo C. Ortigoza
Dagupan City, Pangasinan
Philippines
SyCip's Wealth
THANK YOU FOR YOUR very kind words about my retirement from SGV [NEWSMAKERS, July 26]. However, you may need a good accountant as your estimate of my worth at $700 million is so far from reality. As a taxpaying professional for 50 years, it will be impossible for me to accumulate such an amount -- even if you change the dollars to pesos. In spite of this error, I will continue to read Asiaweek for the next 50 years as your coverage of the region is excellent.
Washington SyCip
Chairman, The SGV Group
Makati City
Philippines
Circumcision, Old and New
"A NEW TIP FOR Less Pain" [HEALTH, July 12] features an invention that may reduce circumcision risks. Please be informed that way back in 1939 a similar circumcision clamp, called "COMCO" and made of stainless steel, was already in the American market. The principle is similar to the Tara Klamp. There were two sizes, adult and infant. The technique is the same and the only difference is that the skin above the ring, when removed by a scalpel, was immediately repaired by non-absorbable sutures.There were no complications, hemorrhage or infections. It appears that its use and popularity were lost in the turmoil of World War II. We can show patients in their sixties now who underwent this surgical circumcision procedure.
Manuel Chua Chiaco, Sr.
Chinese General Hospital
Manila
Tribute to Tagore
IT WAS LIKE A shot of adrenaline reading Vernon Ram's excellent review of the new biography of Rabindranath Tagore ["Bengal's Renaissance Man," BOOKS, July 12]. In these days of the so-called post-Modernist "deconstruction," Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson have spared Tagore (pictured) the fate of Mother Teresa, who was devastated by Christopher Hitchens' book and a British television film. The authors should be thankful to Ram for his review.
Jag Mohan
New Delhi
Asthma Sufferers
IN "WAITING TO INHALE" [HEALTH, June 28], you say that common cockroaches pose a threat to asthma patients. Many people in Islamabad suffer from pollen allergy. Doctors do not prescribe a specific medicine to soothe their asthmatic suffering. It may benefit those who are similarly affected to know that sage tea, made from a plant called sage (Salvia officinalis), may give relief.
R.D. Ahmad Khawaja
Abbottabad
Pakistan
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