By Michael Roddy
LONDON (Reuters) - If someone had told Swedish soprano Agneta Eichenholz she'd make her debut with Britain's Royal Opera singing the lead in Alban Berg's sinister and dark "Lulu," she'd have thought it was a prank.
But that was before her friend, opera director Christof Loy, tapped Eichenholz a year ago to sing one of the most demanding roles in the opera world.
She took a deep breath and signed on to play the femme fatale who is introduced five minutes into the opera as a snake and goes on to destroy almost every man, and even some women, she runs across.
Eichenholz, 38, who has only been singing opera professionally for nine years, and made her mark in Sweden performing in a musical by ABBA founders Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, is on stage almost every minute in "Lulu," which opened on June 4 and runs through June 20.
It is a role which, in Loy's spare staging with only a bit of stage blood and a plexiglass screen as props, Eichenholz says makes her feel "naked," even if she manages to keep her cocktail dress on her slender frame all the way through.
"Actually I feel very naked...even if I'm not. When you don't have any props you just have to go for everything yourself and that's of course hard work but it's so much more interesting when you're not trying to hide from things," she told Reuters in an interview this week after her second performance.
Hide she can't, not from the critics, one of whom said she sang with "bristling, vocal athleticism," another of whom thought she was not really up to the role and was "overparted," nor from Jack the Ripper, who in the misogynistic vision of the Wedekind plays the opera is based on, slits her throat in the end.
The following is an edited version of what else Eichenholz had to say:
Q: What do you think of this opera that has been described as deeply unflattering, if not outright hostile, toward women, and which portrays Lulu as scheming, manipulative and absolute poison for all the men she meets?
A: Maybe she is, but I blame a lot of other people for that.... She's manipulative later on but not from the beginning. She's more pure. But then she learns how to, and also she loses her attraction and then she gets really obsessed with everything. She's just got to go on because she doesn't even have the power anymore.
Q: Berg's music, which in this opera includes everything from carnival tunes to the atonal style that was in fashion in the 1930s when it was written, is very demanding. Is this a hard role to sing?
A: I can't find any other parts like this...I have been struggling a lot but it starts to feel quite good...I will always have some notes which are really hard because I am not normally singing this really, really high (range) repertoire.
Q: There's a lyric in the opera where she sings that if she were a man, she'd want to be her husband. It's a very odd thought.
A: Yes, that's a really hard phrase because then you have to be so confident. But she's so tired of men she wants to do everything for herself. It's such a stupid thing to say --but not for Lulu.
Q: Isn't it a long way to come, from ABBA musicals to this? Continued...
Source: Reuters
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
UK to cut official document release to 20 years
By Tim Castle
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Secret documents from the days of Margaret Thatcher's government could emerge sooner than expected after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday a cut in the time taken to release official papers.
He said the existing 30-year rule on the publication of state documents would be reduced to 20 years following a review chaired by Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail.
Historian Hugh Pemberton welcomed the decision, but warned that a rush of extra documents could swamp civil servants tasked with selecting important papers for the public archives.
The Dacre review, which had recommended a cut to 15 years, proposed that government departments should phase in the reduction by releasing two years of documents each year until they caught up.
"That is fine if that is resourced properly," said Pemberton, a history lecturer at Bristol University.
"The danger is if you just say to the existing staff you've got to do twice as much work, that creates an incentive to destroy records," he said.
Pemberton, who is researching British pension policy, said he was keen to read advice given to ministers in Thatcher's Conservative cabinet in the early 1980s, when it was decided to break the link between the state pension and average earnings.
Nottingham University professor John Young said many historians were concerned there could be a loss in the accuracy of official records if civil servants thought their notes could be read later in their career.
Young gave evidence to the Dacre review on behalf of the 200-strong British International History Group and opposed the reduction in the release time.
"Our fear was it might lead officials to be circumspect in what they write down, knowing that historians will see it in 20 years rather than 30.
"As serious historians looking to the future our concern was for the quality of the record left behind. We work often on Foreign Office files and we want the real reasons why decisions were taken."
Freedom of information laws introduced in 2005 now allow the public to ask to see official documents from any date, but Pemberton said civil servants were still reluctant to release papers containing advice to ministers.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Source: Reuters
U.S. job-seekers try new tricks to get employers' eye
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Job-seekers are using unusual gimmicks to grab the attention of potential employers, such as in one case sending a shoe along with a resume to get a "foot in the door," said a survey released on Wednesday.
Almost a fifth of hiring managers report seeing more unconventional tactics this year, compared with 12 percent who said so last year, according to the study by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.
Faced with the highest unemployment in 25 years, candidates are trying a variety of tricks, including:
* handing out resumes at stoplights
* washing cars in a company parking lot
* staging a sit-in in a company lobby to demand a meeting with a director
* sending a cake designed as a business card with the candidate's picture
* handing out personalized coffee cups
* going to the same barber as the company chairman to have the barber speak on his behalf
One job-seeker attached a shoe to a resume as "a way to get my foot in the door," a respondent told the survey.
"The search for employment is taking longer and is more competitive than it has been in past years," said Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, in a statement. "To compensate, some candidates have turned to extreme tactics."
But he cautioned: "While unusual job search antics may attract the attention of hiring managers, they need to be done with care and professionalism so that candidates are remembered for the right reasons."
The online survey was conducted for CareerBuilder by Harris Interactive among 2,543 full-time hiring managers and human resource professionals between February 20 and March 11, 2009. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.94 percentage points.
CareerBuilder is owned by Gannett Co Inc, Tribune Co, McClatchy Co and Microsoft.
(Editing by Alan Elsner and Michelle Nichols)
Source: Reuters
Luxury groups use movies, dinners to boost image
By Jo Winterbottom
PARIS (Reuters) - Luxury groups are turning to films, the Internet and private dinners to attract customers as they search for more cost-effective ways to advertise to fight falling sales, executives told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit.
Hermes is increasing its overall marketing budget by just under 10 percent this year to a touch above 100 million euros ($141.1 million), but only a third will be on advertising, Chief Executive Patrick Thomas said this week.
"The rest of the budget goes on shop windows, exhibitions, private public relations operations," he said, including invitations to 10-15 customers to themed store openings.
Thomas said the world's second-biggest luxury goods group after LVMH wanted "to communicate one-to-one and not mass communication."
"We don't believe so much in advertising to explain the particularity of Hermes," he added.
Hermes is using the Internet to push sales with merchant sites in the United States and most European countries. Web-based sales account for only about 1 percent of the total currently but are growing at 40-50 percent annually.
LVMH Chief Executive Bernard Arnault said in May it planned to invest more on Internet ads and better targeted publicity.
Luxury groups are also using the Internet in innovative ways to draw attention to their brands.
One of LVMH's stable, Christian Dior, launched an Internet only advertising film featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard to promote its Lady Dior line. Rival Gucci and owner PPR have backed HOME, a film exploring environmental challenges.
Boutique hotels group Baglioni sees the Internet as "an efficient channel" for advertising.
"The Internet is now the best way to reach the biggest number of people in the cheapest way," Guido Polito, vice president of the Italian company, told the summit.
PRIVATE DINNERS
For low slung sports car maker Lamborghini, television and magazine advertising is banned, although some dealers use print.
Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann said motor shows, factory tours and product placement were more important to boost the brand's image along with test drives for prospective buyers.
"Where we placed all our marketing money is mainly on the motor shows," Winkelmann said. "We have a Lamborghini magazine and we have product placement." Continued...
Source: Reuters
Tate Modern marks Futurism centenary with new show
By Josie Cox
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - "Art ... can be nothing but violence, cruelty, and injustice" declared the founding fathers of Futurism, the avant-garde movement formed 100 years ago and celebrated at a major show in London opening this week.
The exhibition at Tate Modern opens with the 1909 manifesto by Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, which set out Futurism's ambition to sweep away the old and usher in a new dawn in art celebrating the dynamism of modern urban life.
The show also examines the battle of the "isms" in Europe in the early 20th century, with leading painters and writers passionately defending their own particular movement, from Futurism to Vorticism, and Cubism to Orphism.
"Futurism," which runs from June 12 to September 20, showcases the work of artists like Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini, but also more famous names like Pablo Picasso.
Many pieces in the collection depict city life as a constant and simultaneous flow of events and experiences.
Telegraph poles, fast trains and industrial buildings, some painted on huge canvases, reveal how the artists were obsessed with innovative urban development ahead of World War One.
"We fight against the nude in painting, as nauseous and as tedious as adultery in literature," the manifesto states, adding that a picture must be a fusion of a subject's psychology and its surroundings.
WHOSE MOVEMENT IS BEST?
Robert Delaunay's 1913 painting of the Cardiff Rugby team, overshadowed by a colorful Ferris wheel, the Eiffel Tower and a billboard advertising an aircraft construction company, conveys the dynamism characteristic of the movement.
The painting, with merging and colliding lines and bold shapes and colors, was inspired by a newspaper advertisement and shows a rugby player as he jumps in the air for a ball.
It also underlines the fierce rivalry between artists and their movements.
When French poet Guillaume Apollinaire praised the work, Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni said: "They are copying us while pretending to know nothing about us!"
Delaunay countered: "I am not and have never been a Futurist," and accused the Italians of being "publicity hungry."
Severini's kaleidoscopic "The Dance of the 'Pan-Pan' at the Monico" mirrors the artist's intention to provoke a reaction from conservative art critics used to the more austere Cubism, also popular at the time.
"Severini's painting illustrates the excitement of the urban city and of new flirtatious interactions with strangers," curator Matthew Gale said. Continued...
Source: Reuters
Cuban art market shows signs of vitality
By Walker Simon
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - The Cuban art market is showing signs of vitality as the economic recession weakens demand for works from elsewhere in Latin America, collectors said.
A Cuban painting was the top seller in May's Latin American art auctions in New York. American collectors of Asian art are now snapping up Cuban contemporary works and Cuban art galleries are also springing up.
For years late Cuban artists of the 20th century, like surrealist Wifredo Lam, have pierced the $1 million mark. A 1943 painting by Mario Carreno fetched nearly $2.2 million at Christie's last month.
Prices have multiplied even faster for living artists, many of them based in Cuba.
"What you could buy for $25,000 four or five years ago could now easily be at least $100,000 and could go up to half a million dollars depending on size, date and rarity," said U.S. collector Howard Farber.
The technical virtuosity of artists is what is attracting buyers, as well as the African influence. Others find novelty in political humor and the use of religion as a vehicle for political comment.
Farber switched to collecting Cuban art after he auctioned his contemporary Chinese art collection for $20 million in 2007. His 58-piece Cuban art show, including "El Sagrado Corazon," traveled in the United States and is due to go to Canada before heading to Europe.
Cuban art bought by Donald Rubin, who has acquired more than 150 pieces from living artists based in Cuba, will also be in touring exhibitions, according to Rachel Weingeist, of The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation.
Farber and Rubin represent opposite poles of art collectors who came to Cuban art in recent years, said Sandra Levinson, executive director of the non-profit Cuban Art Space in New York, which houses over 10,000 contemporary Cuban art works.
Farber, she said, is drawn in part by artists' skill and contemporary themes. Rubin leans toward works that may express spiritual strains. Much Cuban art refers to symbols drawn from a blend of Catholic and African religious practices, according to Cuban Art Space curator Bernardo Navarro.
But Jose Fuster, whose 77-work show is on display at the Cuban Art Space, said his inspiration came from Europe.
"My artistic father is Picasso, my favorite uncle is Gaudi," Fuster said in a documentary showing at the gallery in an exhibit running until July 18.
His paintings include views reminiscent of the Last Supper, but with a Caribbean twist. A smiling crocodile frames a semi-circle around the diners. Fish also smile in seas skimmed by boats framed by the icons of the Havana skyline.
Source: Reuters
Acts flock to Edinburgh Fringe despite recession
By Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A record number of performers from around the world are flocking to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year despite the global recession, and organizers are hoping audiences will match their enthusiasm.
Oddly, Britain's dour and embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown fails to make a noticeable appearance yet again in the satirical sketches that are a feature of the Fringe.
A number of Britain's leading comedians and actors got their break in Edinburgh, which also hosts Britain's top annual comedy award. The Fringe combines with the city's international book, art and jazz festivals and military tattoo to make up the world's biggest annual showcase of the arts.
An estimated 18,901 performers, with shows from 60 countries including comedy, music, theater, musicals, opera and dance, will gather for the Fringe, which runs from August 7 to 31.
"We're really heartened that so many performers have decided to come to the Festival Fringe, more than ever before, and I think that's a really good sign that the Fringe continues to be a strong attraction in these difficult economic times," the Fringe Society's Chief Executive Kath Mainland told Reuters.
"ART MARKET"
She noted that as well as catering for mass audiences -- in good times the Edinburgh Festival attracts around 750,000 people through a six-week season -- the Fringe is also a major global "art market" in which performers display their talents.
"Lots of people come here looking for works to buy or take and promote in other countries, and that's a big part of the appeal I think."
Comedy makes up 35 percent of the performances, with such notables as Jo Caulfield, Jimmy Carr, Frank Skinner, Alistair McGowan and American Greg Behrendt.
Theater and music offer a broad range of productions. This year's program also offers the first virtual show presented through an online video streaming format, Soul Photography by Russian-born Mikhail Tank.
Mainland said the Fringe had worked through the winter to correct a major computer problem that had hit ticket distribution last year, and she hoped for good times ahead.
The Edinburgh International Festival of music, opera, dance and drama was founded in 1947 to brighten the dark days of austerity after World War Two. The more anarchic Fringe was born the same year.
(Fringe program details and the box office are available through www.edfringe.com )
(Editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Casciato)
Source: Reuters
British children's laureate to get country drawing
LONDON (Reuters) - Anthony Browne, Britain's new laureate for children is on a mission to get the country drawing.
Browne, who started his two-year stint as laureate on Tuesday, told Reuters he intends to use the platform to promote drawing as a way for children -- and adults -- to express their creativity.
Making images is a great way to unleash the imagination, Browne said, and he aims to get them playing the shape game -- a game invented by him and his brother when they were little -- to encourage more children to put pencil to paper.
In the game, the first player draws an abstract shape and the next person adds to it to develop it into a recognizable image. It's a game that children tend to be better at than adults as they have an innate ability to draw, he said.
"Every time we create something we play the shape game, every time we write a story or draw a picture or compose a piece of music we are playing it," Browne said over lunch at the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
"We are taking something that we have seen or experienced and transforming it by turning it into a story. So although I think of it as a fun game we played as children, it's the essence of creativity."
Playing the game will inspire those who had all the confidence they had in their artistic ability knocked out of them at school, to return to what is a rewarding and enriching pastime, Browne said.
"I'd like to promote the shape game as an incredibly successful way to encourage people to use drawing skills they didn't know they had. Older children and adults think they can't do it, so I'd like to get the whole country playing the shape game."
STANDING TALLER
Browne also hopes to use his new role as a chance to bolster the standing of picture books, which he feels are somewhat looked down on as suitable only for young children.
"There's been a big cut back in the number of the picture books that the shops are stocking. I feel that picture books have been marginalized in the last few years, I'd like to encourage attention on picture books and the idea of using our eyes," he said.
"I've heard parents say: "oh you don't want to get a book like that, come and get a proper book. I think it's a terrible shame that picture books and pictures in general (are viewed in this way)."
The Harry Potter series -- which has seen over 400 million books sold around the world -- is partly responsible for turning children away from picture books, Browne said.
"The Harry Potter phenomenon has been great for encouraging children to read, but maybe it's encouraged them to read longer books before they're ready."
The focus on text-only books means children can miss out on the depth and layers of meaning that feature in the best illustrated work, said Browne who has won The Kate Greenaway Medal twice, the Kurt Maschler Emil award and the Hans Christian Andersen award.
"I use little transformations in the background to help tell parts of the story that the words don't tell. That's what excites me about picture books, the way that the pictures can sometimes provide clues about how someone's thinking or feeling that's never actually mentioned in the text." Continued...
Source: Reuters
Browne, who started his two-year stint as laureate on Tuesday, told Reuters he intends to use the platform to promote drawing as a way for children -- and adults -- to express their creativity.
Making images is a great way to unleash the imagination, Browne said, and he aims to get them playing the shape game -- a game invented by him and his brother when they were little -- to encourage more children to put pencil to paper.
In the game, the first player draws an abstract shape and the next person adds to it to develop it into a recognizable image. It's a game that children tend to be better at than adults as they have an innate ability to draw, he said.
"Every time we create something we play the shape game, every time we write a story or draw a picture or compose a piece of music we are playing it," Browne said over lunch at the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
"We are taking something that we have seen or experienced and transforming it by turning it into a story. So although I think of it as a fun game we played as children, it's the essence of creativity."
Playing the game will inspire those who had all the confidence they had in their artistic ability knocked out of them at school, to return to what is a rewarding and enriching pastime, Browne said.
"I'd like to promote the shape game as an incredibly successful way to encourage people to use drawing skills they didn't know they had. Older children and adults think they can't do it, so I'd like to get the whole country playing the shape game."
STANDING TALLER
Browne also hopes to use his new role as a chance to bolster the standing of picture books, which he feels are somewhat looked down on as suitable only for young children.
"There's been a big cut back in the number of the picture books that the shops are stocking. I feel that picture books have been marginalized in the last few years, I'd like to encourage attention on picture books and the idea of using our eyes," he said.
"I've heard parents say: "oh you don't want to get a book like that, come and get a proper book. I think it's a terrible shame that picture books and pictures in general (are viewed in this way)."
The Harry Potter series -- which has seen over 400 million books sold around the world -- is partly responsible for turning children away from picture books, Browne said.
"The Harry Potter phenomenon has been great for encouraging children to read, but maybe it's encouraged them to read longer books before they're ready."
The focus on text-only books means children can miss out on the depth and layers of meaning that feature in the best illustrated work, said Browne who has won The Kate Greenaway Medal twice, the Kurt Maschler Emil award and the Hans Christian Andersen award.
"I use little transformations in the background to help tell parts of the story that the words don't tell. That's what excites me about picture books, the way that the pictures can sometimes provide clues about how someone's thinking or feeling that's never actually mentioned in the text." Continued...
Source: Reuters
Londoners struggle to work as rail strike starts
By Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Angry commuters endured rush-hour chaos on Wednesday morning as a 48-hour strike shut down most of the capital's underground rail network, causing near gridlock on major roads.
Faced with closed stations and enormous queues for buses, millions of people either walked, cycled or even roller-skated into work.
Struggling passengers, who had little sympathy for the striking rail workers, grumbled about the infrequency of buses, despite promises of extra services by the organizing authority, Transport for London (TfL). Doctor Kalpa Desilva, 27, traveling from the East End to central London said the disruption had added an extra 30 minutes to his journey.
"If they wanted to help, they could put on extra buses. When one thing collapses the whole network collapses," he said.
"If everyone started striking whenever there was a bit of grief the whole world would come to a standstill."
Finance adviser James Davis, 24, echoed that sentiment.
"It's really annoying. I think they're not really achieving anything by it (striking)," he said.
Sinead Rocha, 20, a research assistant said: "It's pretty annoying. I don't know why it needs to go on for two days. I'm also really concerned about getting home."
TfL arranged taxi-sharing at major rail termini and laid on free river services and guided commuter cycle routes.
James Slaughter, 27, an investment banker at Canary Wharf, the city's newest financial center, along the River Thames, said: "I'll take the boat, so it won't affect my journey too badly."
The 250-mile underground rail network normally runs over 500 trains at peak hours and carries some 3.5 million passengers a day.
The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which called the action over jobs and pay, failed to reach an agreement with Tube bosses at last-ditch talks on Tuesday.
The strike, which officially ends at 7 p.m. on Thursday, is likely to cause widespread disruption into Friday morning.
It will also hit fans traveling to Wembley Stadium on Wednesday evening for England's World Cup football qualifier against Andorra.
(Additional reporting by Paul Lauener and Phakamisa Ndzamela)
(Editing by Steve Addison)
Source: Reuters
Britain's health service faces funding crisis
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is facing the biggest financial and organizational challenge in its 60-year history, with a 15 billion pound ($24.6 billion) shortfall looming after 2011, a report said on Wednesday.
A report by the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, said recession and rising costs will squeeze the NHS budget by 15 billion pounds in the five years from 2011.
The two years leading up to 2011 would be "tough but manageable," it said.
"In just under two years, the NHS will face the most severe constriction ever in its finances," it said. "Action is required now if the service is to remain true to its founding principles and continue to provide care free at the point of delivery."
The Confederation said funding shortages could lead to "across the board cuts," longer patient waiting lists for treatment, falling standards and staff and patient dissatisfaction.
"With little or no cash increase from 2011/12 the NHS has to prepare itself for real terms reductions in what it can afford to do and needs to make the hard decisions about which programs to fund, how to reward staff and how to reorganize services now," NHS Confederation chief executive Steve Barnett said in a statement accompanying the report.
The NHS was launched 1948 as a health service promising to be free at the point of need. It has grown in more than 6 decades to become Europe's largest employer, with more than 1.5 million staff across Britain. It deals with eight patients every second.
According to the government's Department of Health, the NHS budget for 2009/10 is almost 103 billion pounds, a 7.5 percent real-term increase on the previous year.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Labor Party, in power since 1997, had always been committed to spending on the NHS and would continue to back it.
"We've always looked after the NHS," he told BBC television. "Funding has just about trebled from where it was. We've gone from a position when we had long waiting lists in the NHS to today, where waiting lists for operations are practically eliminated.
"This is massive improvement in our health service. That's our record, and I think people can have some confidence that we will carry on look after it."
Nigel Edwards, author of the report, said there was scope in the system to make savings, but it would not be easy.
"The principles of the NHS still enjoy huge public support but if they are going to remain the same, a great deal will have to change and in doing this there is the opportunity to make the service better as a result," he said.
(Editing by Luke Baker)
Source: Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is facing the biggest financial and organizational challenge in its 60-year history, with a 15 billion pound ($24.6 billion) shortfall looming after 2011, a report said on Wednesday.
A report by the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, said recession and rising costs will squeeze the NHS budget by 15 billion pounds in the five years from 2011.
The two years leading up to 2011 would be "tough but manageable," it said.
"In just under two years, the NHS will face the most severe constriction ever in its finances," it said. "Action is required now if the service is to remain true to its founding principles and continue to provide care free at the point of delivery."
The Confederation said funding shortages could lead to "across the board cuts," longer patient waiting lists for treatment, falling standards and staff and patient dissatisfaction.
"With little or no cash increase from 2011/12 the NHS has to prepare itself for real terms reductions in what it can afford to do and needs to make the hard decisions about which programs to fund, how to reward staff and how to reorganize services now," NHS Confederation chief executive Steve Barnett said in a statement accompanying the report.
The NHS was launched 1948 as a health service promising to be free at the point of need. It has grown in more than 6 decades to become Europe's largest employer, with more than 1.5 million staff across Britain. It deals with eight patients every second.
According to the government's Department of Health, the NHS budget for 2009/10 is almost 103 billion pounds, a 7.5 percent real-term increase on the previous year.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Labor Party, in power since 1997, had always been committed to spending on the NHS and would continue to back it.
"We've always looked after the NHS," he told BBC television. "Funding has just about trebled from where it was. We've gone from a position when we had long waiting lists in the NHS to today, where waiting lists for operations are practically eliminated.
"This is massive improvement in our health service. That's our record, and I think people can have some confidence that we will carry on look after it."
Nigel Edwards, author of the report, said there was scope in the system to make savings, but it would not be easy.
"The principles of the NHS still enjoy huge public support but if they are going to remain the same, a great deal will have to change and in doing this there is the opportunity to make the service better as a result," he said.
(Editing by Luke Baker)
Source: Reuters
Miss Indonesia pledges to master Indonesian
JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - The winner of the Miss Indonesia beauty contest has pledged to brush up on her Indonesian language skills after raising eyebrows for answering the pageant judges' questions in English.
Kerenina Sunny Halim, a 22-year-old teacher who has an American mother and an Indonesian father, beat 32 other contestants to be crowned Miss Indonesia last week.
Her brother, TV star Yusuf Iman, told reporters that she could not speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently because she was schooled at home and had few chances to practice.
"Weird, how come Miss Indonesia missed Indonesian?" said a blogger named Coro on Kompas.com, the website of one of the country's biggest newspapers.
"This is truly a tasteless joke!" wrote another blogger on the website of the Jakarta Post newspaper. "How on earth do the pitiful judges of this laughable beauty pageant justify their foolish decision? Imagine a Chinese beauty contestant who does not speak Chinese... Shame on the judges!"
Halim has promised to improve her Indonesian, saying it was an easy language to learn for those who are willing.
"It's been hard for me to speak Indonesian, because I use English every day," she was quoted by the Jakarta Post newspaper as saying. "But I will learn."
In 2006, the winner of the Indonesian leg of the Miss Universe contest, Nadine Chandrawinata, an Indonesian of German descent, was lambasted by the public and the media after struggling to answer the judges' questions in English.
Liliana Tanoesoedibjo, head of the judges panel, said Halim's English language skills would help Indonesia's chances in the Miss World contest in Johannesberg. "She can speak Indonesian, but has a bit of an American accent. But her Indonesian is good enough," Tanoesoedibjo said.
In the last decade, many Indonesians have been trying to improve their English skills and many English words have seeped into the local language.
Some bloggers expressed sympathy with Halim, saying foreign language skills were key to succeeding in today's world.
"For Bahasa Indonesia you need enough to get by. But these days, you need to be fluent in a foreign language, English at least," Memen Suprietmen said on a posting on Kompas.com.
(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Aloysius Bhui; Editing by Ed Davies and Miral Fahmy)
Source: Reuters
Kerenina Sunny Halim, a 22-year-old teacher who has an American mother and an Indonesian father, beat 32 other contestants to be crowned Miss Indonesia last week.
Her brother, TV star Yusuf Iman, told reporters that she could not speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently because she was schooled at home and had few chances to practice.
"Weird, how come Miss Indonesia missed Indonesian?" said a blogger named Coro on Kompas.com, the website of one of the country's biggest newspapers.
"This is truly a tasteless joke!" wrote another blogger on the website of the Jakarta Post newspaper. "How on earth do the pitiful judges of this laughable beauty pageant justify their foolish decision? Imagine a Chinese beauty contestant who does not speak Chinese... Shame on the judges!"
Halim has promised to improve her Indonesian, saying it was an easy language to learn for those who are willing.
"It's been hard for me to speak Indonesian, because I use English every day," she was quoted by the Jakarta Post newspaper as saying. "But I will learn."
In 2006, the winner of the Indonesian leg of the Miss Universe contest, Nadine Chandrawinata, an Indonesian of German descent, was lambasted by the public and the media after struggling to answer the judges' questions in English.
Liliana Tanoesoedibjo, head of the judges panel, said Halim's English language skills would help Indonesia's chances in the Miss World contest in Johannesberg. "She can speak Indonesian, but has a bit of an American accent. But her Indonesian is good enough," Tanoesoedibjo said.
In the last decade, many Indonesians have been trying to improve their English skills and many English words have seeped into the local language.
Some bloggers expressed sympathy with Halim, saying foreign language skills were key to succeeding in today's world.
"For Bahasa Indonesia you need enough to get by. But these days, you need to be fluent in a foreign language, English at least," Memen Suprietmen said on a posting on Kompas.com.
(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Aloysius Bhui; Editing by Ed Davies and Miral Fahmy)
Source: Reuters
Web 2.0 crowned one millionth English word
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - A U.S.-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt.
The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word.
It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.
Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.
There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms.
"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.
Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound.
"If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.
He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.
This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."
The list also included "cloud computing," meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral," a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer.
"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Source: Reuters
The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word.
It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.
Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.
There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms.
"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.
Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound.
"If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.
He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.
This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."
The list also included "cloud computing," meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral," a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer.
"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Source: Reuters
Haruki Murakami's latest novel "1Q84" grips Japan
By Yoko Kubota
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami has gripped fans around the world with complex, surrealist tales such as "Kafka on the Shore." Now, his first novel in five years, "1Q84," has Japan enthralled.
From commuters to bloggers, it seems everybody is flipping the pages of the two-volume, 1,055-page hardcover book, Murakami's first novel since 2004's "After Dark."
The book, which dwells on thought control, takes place in Tokyo in the year 1Q84, a title suggestive of George Orwell's "1984" as the Japanese word for 9 is pronounced the same as the English letter Q.
Newspapers, television and websites are full of commentary on the book, released about two weeks ago, and over 1 million copies are expected to be on the shelves by the end of the month, a print run the publishers say is very high for a literary work.
"There are others that sold more. But if a literary work sells 50,000 copies, we call that a bestseller. With 100,000 copies, that's a huge success," said Fumiaki Mori, a spokesman at the novel's publishers Shinchosha Publishing Co Ltd.
"By that standard, reaching this number in about 10 days since going on sale is a very fast pace."
The book alternates chapters between two characters, a female named Aomame and a male named Tengo. It deals with themes such as cults and abuse, loss, as well as sex, love and murder.
The novel has sold out at many shops, and its success is spilling over to sales of music and Orwell's classic.
LITERATURE FOR THE MASSES
In the book, Aomame and Tengo listen to "Sinfonietta" by Czech composer Leos Janacek, and that CD has sold some 6,000 copies in a week, said Tetsushi Koyama of Sony Music Japan.
"1984" has also sold thousands of copies in recent days, the publishers of the Japanese translation said.
"We have not seen a novel have this much impact on society, and nor has the publishing of one novel been such a social event, for a very long time," Mori said.
Murakami, one of the most widely read Japanese novelists in the world, has been popular at home since his debut in 1979, but "1Q84," selling at $19 per volume, is going at an exceptional pace even for such a renowned author.
In the past seven years, about 740,000 hardcover copies have been printed of Murakami's two-volume "Kafka on the Shore."
Media reports that Murakami could win the Nobel Prize for Literature, as well as his emotional acceptance speech last year for Israel's Jerusalem Prize following the fighting in Gaza, may have attracted a wider readership for the new book, Mori said. Continued...
Source: Reuters
Father's gerbil obsession gives writer a voice
By Belinda Goldsmith
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Some children grow up living with their father's obsession for golf or fishing. For Holly Robinson, it was gerbils.
As a child, Robinson accepted her father Donald Robinson's job as a gerbil breeder as normal, but it was only as his health began to decline in his later years that she started to question how this former navy commander became caught up with the rodents.
His obsession began in 1965 when he read about "America's newest pet" and bought a few pairs, but his interest grew and the family eventually settled on a 90 acre farm with nearly 9,000 gerbils which were sold for medical research and to pet shops.
Robinson spent three years working on her memoir, "The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter," that has just been released. Her father died in January, aged 80, ahead of the book's release.
The Massachusetts-based writer spoke to Reuters about her childhood and making the shift from magazine writer and ghost writer of health and science books:
Q: Was it hard to move from ghost writer to your own book?
A: "Not really. We can keep learning and get better and sharper at writing until our death beds. You learn from every piece that you write. I see my career as more of a staircase that has all been leading up to writing books."
Q: Why this book first?
A: "My father was getting ill and he had had such an interesting life. My (five) children started asking questions about it and I had never really talked to him about it. He was a braided captain who had served in Korea and Vietnam but they were taken aback when I told them he had bred gerbils. That is when I started thinking that the life I had led that seemed so ordinary to me was not the life that most people know."
Q: Did you ever work out why gerbils became his obsession?
A: "As a kid, my dad was one of those boys who was a collector. He was this geeky kid who took a mail-order taxidermy class when he was 12. He really was a scientist from the time he was born. When he first read about gerbils he had never heard about them before and could not find information from the library, so he ordered some and they arrived by mail. He started watching them and breeding them in our garage."
Q: Was his interest based on science?
A: "He was the one who found gerbils have these natural seizures likes epileptic seizures. He made a movie of this because it was so interesting and pursued this working with a vet in Los Angeles so that they could be used in medical research. I had a sister with cystic fibrosis who was ill for a long time and she died at a young age. I think because he found it hard to talk about her and this was his way of contributing to the medical world."
Q: Were the gerbils pets or a commodity to you?
A: "I always saw them as pets. I was 11 when he started keeping them and I had one in particular that I trained called Kinky, because she had a crooked tail. She would sit in my pocket when I rode my bike. Later we weren't allowed to touch them because my dad did a lot of behavioral experiments." Continued...
Source: Reuters
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Some children grow up living with their father's obsession for golf or fishing. For Holly Robinson, it was gerbils.
As a child, Robinson accepted her father Donald Robinson's job as a gerbil breeder as normal, but it was only as his health began to decline in his later years that she started to question how this former navy commander became caught up with the rodents.
His obsession began in 1965 when he read about "America's newest pet" and bought a few pairs, but his interest grew and the family eventually settled on a 90 acre farm with nearly 9,000 gerbils which were sold for medical research and to pet shops.
Robinson spent three years working on her memoir, "The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter," that has just been released. Her father died in January, aged 80, ahead of the book's release.
The Massachusetts-based writer spoke to Reuters about her childhood and making the shift from magazine writer and ghost writer of health and science books:
Q: Was it hard to move from ghost writer to your own book?
A: "Not really. We can keep learning and get better and sharper at writing until our death beds. You learn from every piece that you write. I see my career as more of a staircase that has all been leading up to writing books."
Q: Why this book first?
A: "My father was getting ill and he had had such an interesting life. My (five) children started asking questions about it and I had never really talked to him about it. He was a braided captain who had served in Korea and Vietnam but they were taken aback when I told them he had bred gerbils. That is when I started thinking that the life I had led that seemed so ordinary to me was not the life that most people know."
Q: Did you ever work out why gerbils became his obsession?
A: "As a kid, my dad was one of those boys who was a collector. He was this geeky kid who took a mail-order taxidermy class when he was 12. He really was a scientist from the time he was born. When he first read about gerbils he had never heard about them before and could not find information from the library, so he ordered some and they arrived by mail. He started watching them and breeding them in our garage."
Q: Was his interest based on science?
A: "He was the one who found gerbils have these natural seizures likes epileptic seizures. He made a movie of this because it was so interesting and pursued this working with a vet in Los Angeles so that they could be used in medical research. I had a sister with cystic fibrosis who was ill for a long time and she died at a young age. I think because he found it hard to talk about her and this was his way of contributing to the medical world."
Q: Were the gerbils pets or a commodity to you?
A: "I always saw them as pets. I was 11 when he started keeping them and I had one in particular that I trained called Kinky, because she had a crooked tail. She would sit in my pocket when I rode my bike. Later we weren't allowed to touch them because my dad did a lot of behavioral experiments." Continued...
Source: Reuters
Film aims to expose dangers in U.S. food industry
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bigger-breasted chickens fattened artificially. New strains of deadly E. coli bacteria. A food supply controlled by a handful of corporations.
The documentary "Food, Inc." opens in the United States on Friday and portrays these purported dangers and changes in the U.S. food industry, asserting harmful effects on public health, the environment, and worker and animal rights.
Big corporations such as biotech food producer Monsanto Co., U.S. meat companies Tyson Food Inc. and Smithfield Foods, and poultry producer Perdue Farms all declined to be interviewed for the film.
But the industry has not stood silent. Trade associations across the $142-billion-a-year U.S. meat industry have banded together to counter the claims. Led by the American Meat Institute, they have created a number of websites, including one called SafeFoodInc.com.
"Each sector of the industry that's named is doing its part to counter a lot of the misinformation in the movie," said Lisa Katic, a dietitian and consultant with an unnamed coalition of trade associations representing the food industry.
Their campaign promotes the U.S. food supply as safe, abundant and affordable, whereas the film asserts that images of animals grazing on grassy farms emblazoned on U.S. food product labels are misleading.
"Food, Inc." explores the argument that food comes not from friendly farms but from industrial factories that put profit ahead of human health.
"The film pulls back the curtain on the way food is produced," said Michael Pollan, who appears in the film and is the best-selling author of several books including "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
"Products with farm labels attached -- this stuff comes from factories now," he said.
But an industry spokesman said 98 percent of U.S. farms were family owned and operated and they accounted for 82 percent of farm production.
Mace Thornton of the American Farm Bureau, the nation's largest farm group, said the industry was interested in the well-being of farm animals.
"If a farmer or rancher is not the kind of person to take care of their animals, they're not going to be in business long," he said.
A PEEK INSIDE
The film shows footage inside cattle, pork and chicken production plants, some secretly recorded by immigrant workers under cramped conditions for both workers and the animals.
Maryland farmer Carole Morison let cameras in to show chickens collapsing and dying before they are put on the market because, she said, of fast weight gain caused in part by antibiotics in the feed. Morison said she lost her contract with Perdue. Continued...
Source: Reuters
NY show heralds talent, deeds of Wall Street women
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new exhibit of "Women on Wall Street" takes a look back at their feats and talents -- from making fortunes to shirking taxes and wielding special powers for picking stocks.
The show at the Museum of American Finance, opening this week for six months, traces women on Wall Street as a reflection of women's paths in the wider world, said Leena Akhtar, the show's curator.
"The story of women in finance is the cultural story of women in America," she said. "Women were completely outside the public realm and had no financial self-determination. Now you can have a family and a career and you can do well at it."
Five pioneering women are profiled, beginning with Abigail Adams, the nation's second first lady who invested family finances in U.S. government bonds that paid better returns than the farmland purchases preferred by her husband, John Adams.
The others are:
* Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to own a Wall Street brokerage, who offered her clairvoyant powers to help such prominent mid-19th century figures as Cornelius Vanderbilt choose stocks.
* Hetty Green, a famed miser who fought to control her family inheritance and moved from state to state in the late 1800s to avoid taxes. She once faced legal action for not buying a license for her pet dog.
* Isabel Benham, who began her financial career in 1931 and became the first woman partner of a Wall Street bond house. For many years, she signed letters "I. Hamilton Benham" to hide the fact that she was female.
* Muriel Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She joked that the badge for her seat, which cost $445,000 in 1967, is the most expensive piece of jewelry she owns.
Five women prominent on Wall Street today appear on video in the exhibit to discuss women and the Wall Street culture. One of them, Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs & Co, describes being turned away at the door of a Wall Street reception, where she was the guest speaker, because she was a woman.
In the past 20 years, Cohen said, "as more and more women became working mothers, their sons got the message."
Sallie Krawcheck, former head of Citi Global Wealth Management, said: "There has been a recognition over time that it's not a diversity of gender or color that's needed but really a diversity of thought ... in order for these companies to be competitive right now and in the future."
Also featured are Nancy Peretsman, managing director of Allen & Co, Rosemary McFadden, first woman to head the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Ann Kaplan, head of Circle Financial Group.
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Bill Trott)
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new exhibit of "Women on Wall Street" takes a look back at their feats and talents -- from making fortunes to shirking taxes and wielding special powers for picking stocks.
The show at the Museum of American Finance, opening this week for six months, traces women on Wall Street as a reflection of women's paths in the wider world, said Leena Akhtar, the show's curator.
"The story of women in finance is the cultural story of women in America," she said. "Women were completely outside the public realm and had no financial self-determination. Now you can have a family and a career and you can do well at it."
Five pioneering women are profiled, beginning with Abigail Adams, the nation's second first lady who invested family finances in U.S. government bonds that paid better returns than the farmland purchases preferred by her husband, John Adams.
The others are:
* Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to own a Wall Street brokerage, who offered her clairvoyant powers to help such prominent mid-19th century figures as Cornelius Vanderbilt choose stocks.
* Hetty Green, a famed miser who fought to control her family inheritance and moved from state to state in the late 1800s to avoid taxes. She once faced legal action for not buying a license for her pet dog.
* Isabel Benham, who began her financial career in 1931 and became the first woman partner of a Wall Street bond house. For many years, she signed letters "I. Hamilton Benham" to hide the fact that she was female.
* Muriel Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She joked that the badge for her seat, which cost $445,000 in 1967, is the most expensive piece of jewelry she owns.
Five women prominent on Wall Street today appear on video in the exhibit to discuss women and the Wall Street culture. One of them, Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs & Co, describes being turned away at the door of a Wall Street reception, where she was the guest speaker, because she was a woman.
In the past 20 years, Cohen said, "as more and more women became working mothers, their sons got the message."
Sallie Krawcheck, former head of Citi Global Wealth Management, said: "There has been a recognition over time that it's not a diversity of gender or color that's needed but really a diversity of thought ... in order for these companies to be competitive right now and in the future."
Also featured are Nancy Peretsman, managing director of Allen & Co, Rosemary McFadden, first woman to head the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Ann Kaplan, head of Circle Financial Group.
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Bill Trott)
Source: Reuters
U.S. CEOs still fly in style despite economy: study
By Martha Graybow
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many highflying U.S. corporate chiefs are still enjoying the perks of personal travel on the company jet, even amid the global financial turmoil.
Throughout Corporate America, many companies require top executives to use company planes for all travel, including vacations. They argue it is a safety requirement for high-profile business leaders rather than a perk, and that private flights are more efficient for busy executives who don't have time to waste waiting in airports.
Some companies have stopped underwriting these personal flights in recent years amid shareholder scrutiny of executive pay practices, but overall CEO aircraft perks are showing no signs of fading, according to a study released on Tuesday by executive pay consultant Equilar.
The report found that the value of CEO airplane perks in 2008 was at the highest level in the last five years, with the median value for CEOs in the Fortune 100 -- the biggest 100 corporations -- jumping nearly 29 percent to $141,477 from $109,743 a year earlier.
Also last year, 79.2 percent of the Fortune 100 reported allowing personal use of corporate aircraft, up from 74.7 percent in 2007, Equilar said.
Equilar examined the imputed income derived from an executive's personal use of company aircraft. Business use was excluded.
Rising fuel costs in early 2008 may, in part, explain the increase in the cost of these perks last year, Equilar said.
But the pay consultant said its research "suggests a reluctance on the part of companies to eliminate or reduce aircraft perks."
The corporate aircraft has long been a lightning rod of criticism for company shareholders, and with the economy in turmoil, many lawmakers and average Americans also are expressing their fury.
Auto industry executives were lambasted last November after they flew by private jet to Washington to plead for U.S. government bailouts. The next time they headed back to Congress from Detroit, they traveled in hybrid vehicles.
The Equilar study cited both General Motors Corp, now in bankruptcy protection, and Ford Motor Co as two companies that are eliminating or reducing CEO aircraft perks.
After the intense criticism in Washington at the end of last year, GM said it would divest any interest in private aircraft. Ford said it would sell its corporate aircraft, though it said it would pay the costs of charter flights for CEO Alan Mulally's business and personal travel.
(Reporting by Martha Graybow; Editing by Richard Chang)
Source: Reuters
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