Kim Beom-su, the founder of the company behind South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, is now the richest person in the country, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Friday.
Kim has seen his fortune reach $13.4 billion this year, surpassing Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong, whose net worth was estimated at $12.1 billion.
Kim’s assets grew by $6 billion in 2021 alone as Kakao shares soared 91 percent, boosted by the stock market debuts or debut plans of its several subsidiaries.
Bloomberg said that Kim’s case is an example of how self-made technology entrepreneurs are climbing the superrich list in South Korea, overtaking members of families that control the country’s decades-old conglomerates.
Kim, 55, born as the third of five children in a poor family, grew up in a small one-bedroom apartment. His parents reportedly earned their living mainly through manual labor jobs and he was the only child who made his way into a university.
After working five years at Samsung SDS, an IT services affiliate of Samsung Electronics, Kim opened a PC cafe and later founded an online game platform operator, Hangame Communications, which was eventually merged with search engine Naver to become the country’s dominant web portal, NHN.
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In 2010, Kim and his startup firm launched KakaoTalk, which soon became the country’s dominant messaging app.
Over the past decade, Kakao has grown fast. As of Friday, Kakao and its two listed affiliates marked an aggregate market cap of 73 trillion won.
Kim, who now serves as the board chairman at Kakao, holds around 24 percent of Kakao’s shares, including the ones he owns through K Cube Holdings, Kim’s fully owned investment firm, according to a regulatory filing in May.
In February, he pledged to donate more than half of his assets. In the following month, he joined the Giving Pledge, a global campaign created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett for the world‘s wealthiest individuals to give back the majority of their wealth.
New regulations for military personnel to take effect Sunday
BEIJING – A new law on protecting military personnels status, rights, and interests will come into effect on Sunday, which marks Chinas Army Day.
The law was adopted on June 10 and stipulates the benefits enjoyed by military personnel regarding salaries, housing, healthcare services, insurance, vacations, education, and others.
It also laid down how families of martyrs should receive preferential treatment for matters including employment and their children’s education.
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In addition, starting from Sunday, military personnel left with disabilities will be given an average of a 10-percent increase in their pensions under the government’s new program.
Starting from August, a new judicial interpretation will also take effect, banning the misuse of facial recognition at business or public premises.
According to the new document, misusing the technology of facial recognition, including recognizing or analyzing facial data, could constitute an infringement of personality rights or interests.
Other new regulations coming into force next month will impose stricter management on fire safety issues and the pork processing industry.
Protesters in downtown Kuala Lumpur demand PM Muhyiddins resignation
KUALA LUMPUR – Several hundred protesters marched peacefully in Kuala Lumpurs city centre on Saturday (July 31) to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Roads around Merdeka Square, where National Day parades were often held, were sealed off as protesters dressed in black took to the streets. The demonstration was organised by a coalition of youth and civil society groups, called the Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (People’s Solidarity Secretariat).
Some brought mock corpses wrapped in white cloth to symbolise the high number of daily Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia, in a criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
The coalition is also calling for a full parliamentary sitting and automatic bank loan moratoriums to ease hardship fuelled by the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases hit a new record high on Saturday, the last day of the month, at 17,786. This was more than doubled the 6,988 cases notched on July 1.
Traffic police and plainclothes police were seen standing by at the scene, The Star reported. Some marshals donning white safety hats and medics wearing red safety hats were also present.
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City police chief Azmi Abu Kassim warned that those who violated Covid-19 health protocols would face police action.
According to The Star, the Commissioner, Datuk Azmi, said the police have not received any application or notice from the organising committee of the proposed gathering.
District police said on Saturday that they would call up the organisers and those who took part in the rally.
“Under the Movement Control Order, no public assemblies are allowed including social gatherings, and sports activities,” Mohamad Zainal Abdullah, police chief for Dang Wangi district, told a news conference.
He said police estimated about 450 people attended the rally. The organisers claimed 2,000 people participated.
Youth activist Sarah Irdina, 20, said she was detained for nearly 11 hours, two days ago, over her Twitter posts about the planned protest.
“This failed government’s inhumane treatment of those that fight for a better Malaysia is what keeps hurting us Malaysians, when their job is supposedly to protect us. This is why we #lawan (fight),” she wrote on Twitter on Friday (July 30).
The protest comes as PM Muhyiddin faces a constitutional crisis amid pressure to step down after clashing with the King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah.
The palace on Thursday insisted that the King did not endorse the government’s unilateral move to withdraw the ordinances under the state of emergency which he proclaimed in January. The state of emergency is due to expire on Sunday.
There had been calls, even from Mr Muhyiddin’s own allies in Umno party, for him to quit.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after two hours, police said.
ECQ will give authorities time to prepare for a surge – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) does not expect the strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Metro Manila where the number of active cases daily could rise to 18,000 and up to 30,000 by September, but it will give time for authorities to prepare to deal with a possible surge.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Saturday said the figures were estimates made by experts from the Autumn Group and a team that employed the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler For Early Detection of Diseases, or FASSSTER system.
“What we’re saying is these lockdowns will help us prepare the system, but it is not going to control the spread. We still need to prepare the system, do what we have to do to prevent the further spread of this Delta variant,” she said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing.
“Please take note that these are initial projections and DOH, with our experts, have provided comments and recommendations to further improve on this,” she later told reporters.
Metro Manila will come under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest government lockdown category, from Aug. 6 to Aug. 20 as part of efforts to deal with the threat posed by the highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Lockdown scenarios
Vergeire said the two groups provided forecasts for different lockdown scenarios, including four weeks of total lockdown.
“In these scenarios, there was an increase in the number of cases from 18,000 to 30,000 plus cases. This is if we are under ECQ,” she said.
The FASSSTER team is composed of experts in disease modeling, health informatics, social computing and health systems development, according to the DOH.
Vergeire did not specify the “preparations” needed to deal with the expected rise in cases in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Earlier this week, Dr. Alethea de Guzman, acting director of the Epidemiology Bureau of the DOH, advised local governments to strengthen their prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate strategies and to expand their health-care systems to handle the possible rise in the number of cases due to the more contagious variant.
The Delta variant is one of the factors that the DOH is now considering with regard to the increase in coronavirus infections, though it cannot be certain as not all samples are subjected to genome sequencing to identify the variant responsible, Vergeire said.
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She reminded the public to be doubly careful because Delta was highly transmissible, given that those who were infected carry a higher viral load that could be spread even during brief encounters.
“We could have a fleeting moment [with an infected person] and we could be infected,” Vergeire said.
Business slowdown
The chances of vaccinated persons infecting others is not lessened because of the high viral load from those infected, she added.
But Vergeire said there was no sufficient evidence yet to say that the variant causes more severe infection.
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Under ECQ, only essential businesses would be allowed to fully operate and the movement of the general population would be restricted.
Business groups and the country’s economic managers are expecting another economic slowdown resulting from the two-week ECQ in NCR, the country’s industrial and financial hub.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua earlier said that each week of ECQ in Metro Manila would cost the economy P105 billion in foregone output.
He added that the National Economic and Development Authority, which he heads, also estimated that a week of ECQ would push 177,000 more Filipinos into poverty, and 444,000 would temporarily lose their jobs.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado on Friday said the government was looking for funds to compensate those who would lose their jobs during the ECQ.
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The Aug. 6 to Aug. 20 lockdown would be the third time the national capital would be under ECQ. The first was in mid-March to mid-May last year, which devastated the economy. The second was in late March to mid-April this year due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Based on data from the DOH, there were 12,108 active cases in NCR on July 30. There were 63,474 active cases in the national capital on March 29 at the start of the second ECQ.
Active cases at 60K
On Saturday, the DOH reported 60,887 active cases nationwide.
It said that it recorded 8,147 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 1,588,965. It was the second straight day that new cases numbered more than 8,000.
The recovery of 9,117 patients brought the total number of survivors to 1,500,189. The death toll rose by 167 to 27,889, the DOH said.
Of the 60,887 active cases, it said 93.8 percent were mild, 1.3 percent asymptomatic, 1.3 percent critical, 2.1 percent severe and 1.52 percent moderate.
The DOH also reported that of the 54,857 people screened for the virus on Thursday, 8,063 individuals tested positive, for a positivity rate of 14.7 percent.
The World Health Organization says that a positivity rate of less than 5 percent indicates that virus spread is under control.
At the height of the surge fueled by the Alpha and Beta variants of the virus last April, the country’s positivity rate reached 24 percent. The Delta variant is said to be up to 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant.
HCM City, southern region lockdown extended by two weeks amid soaring COVID-19 cases
HÀ NỘI — HCM City along with 18 southern provinces and cities will continue to enforce lockdown measures in line with the Government’s Directive 16 for two more weeks, per a dispatch issued by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Saturday.
The original lockdown order for the entire southern region with a population of about 35 million people, effective since July 19, was set to expire on August 1 but the fourth-wave COVID-19 outbreak has shown no signs of letting up.
The Prime Minister wants all localities under Directive 16 – which includes measures like the closure of all non-essential businesses, leaving home only for essential goods and services, and suspension of public transport – to strictly abide by the rules and stand ready to roll out more stringent measures if necessary.
Most of southern localities, including HCM City, Bình Dương, and Đồng Nai asked people not to go outside at night.
The order goes on to state that local authorities must step up their information campaign and carry out immediately necessary measures to ensure the livelihood and healthcare of residents to ensure they can remain where they are.
The order came as thousands of people – mostly workers from the central region and other southern localities – have left or were making plans to leave HCM City on their personal vehicles for their hometown due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak, business closures, the imposition of lockdown, and the adverse impacts it was having on their livelihoods.
The local governments where lockdown is in effect have been told they must not let residents leave their places of residence for another locality after July 31 until the end of lockdown (unless authorised).
“Leaders of provinces and cities are responsible to the Prime Minister if they let people travel out of their localities on their own. For people who want to leave one province for another, all relevant localities’ authorities must organise the pick-up and drop-off sites to ensure the safety of the community, as well as arrange testing, transportation by car (trucks can be used to carry people’s motorbikes if people travel by motorbike), handover protocols, quarantine facilities and medical supervision in accordance with regulations, in order to not let the disease spread,” the dispatch reads.
The Ministry of Public Security has been tasked with consulting local authorities with regard to transportation and routes.
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The dispatch notes that if the social distancing measures are effective, and if the situation is under control, provincial and municipal authorities could consider lifting restrictions for certain areas under their jurisdiction. For inter-provincial areas, however, restriction removal would need the agreement of all concerned localities and the plan would have to be submitted to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control before any decision was made.
All local governments across the country need to immediately provide food and medical attention for all workers suffering from income loss or those without savings. Support for their people who are working or living in HCM City or elsewhere with complicated COVID-19 situations must be provided.
The Prime Minister urged a faster rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and emphasised that no dose should go to waste. He also said that administrators of the vaccination programme must ensure priority groups receive theirs first and that there are not incidents of abuses of power to administer vaccines to ineligible persons.
The Government leader also called for the participation of medical workers in the private sector in the local COVID-19 fight and said they should stand ready to reinforce localities with high case numbers in line with the health ministry’s direction.
The Ministry of Public Security will need to lead efforts to handle fake news that undermine COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.
The Ministry of Health has also been told to shorten administrative procedures related to production and the supply of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, and review and propose additional appropriate support policies for medical staff and frontline forces. — VNS
Japan’s gold medalists bring attention, excitement to skateboarding
With two Japanese athletes winning gold medals in skateboarding’s Olympic debut, the sport is experiencing a boom in popularity.
Skateboarding schools are being inundated with inquires about trial lessons and classes, and board sales are increasing. However, there is the issue that skateboarding is still banned at many parks.
“First, let’s just try standing on [the board],” said an instructor, who was teaching 27 elementary-school-aged students.
Each student then slowly rode around a skateboarding facility located in Koto Ward, Tokyo.
The children, who wore helmets and other protective equipment, were participating in a trial lesson held once a week by H.L.N.A, which operates the facility.
The facility started receiving many applications after Yuto Horigome, 22, won gold in men’s street skateboarding. The number of students enrolled in the school has increased by more than 100.
“Many children want to [skateboard] because it’s cool,” said instructor Ryohei Kobayashi, 26.
Toya Nakaya, 9, a third-grader from Kawasaki who was learning how to skateboard, said: “I saw a skateboard floating and spinning in mid-air on TV and thought it was amazing, so I begged my mom [to let me take classes]. It was my first time skateboarding, but it felt really good when I was able to glide forward.”
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■ Sales doubled
Skateboard sales have doubled at the Harajuku Meiji-dori branch of Murasaki Sports in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Young people have been coming in one after another, saying they want to start skateboarding or pick it up again.
The store sells a wide variety of skateboarding equipment, including about 500 skateboards in various colors. When The Yomiuri Shimbun visited the store on Wednesday, parents with children, as well as young people, were browsing the store. As a result of the sudden boom, much of the store’s inventory is in short supply.
Amid the pandemic, skateboarding is also gaining popularity because it is “a sport that can be enjoyed alone.”
“I hope more people will become interested in skateboarding thanks to the gold medalists,” said store manager Takeo Fujiwara, 39. “I hope it will become a more established [sport].”
■ Still widely banned
Skateboarding originated as a street sport overseas. In Japan, skating is banned in many parks as it can damage handrails and stairs, as well as create a lot of noise. There is also a concern regarding safety as some skaters ride down busy streets.
Skateboarding is often thought of as a public nuisance, according to the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Japan Skate Park Association, which is working to establish more skate parks across Japan. As of the end of May, there are 418 skate parks nationwide.
“There are so few in Japan, you can’t even compare it to other countries,” said Satoru Kawasaki, 51, the representative director of the association.
As a result of the situation, the association and those involved are concerned that more skaters will end up practicing on the streets or in parks, where skateboarding is prohibited. It is highly possible that the current number of skate parks will not be enough to accommodate the increasing number of skateboarders, as some have been closed because of the pandemic.
Tokyo’s Komazawa Olympic Park has a skate park, but it is currently closed because of the pandemic.
“Watching [skateboarding] at the Olympics really pushed me to want to get better,” said a second-year junior high school student who was practicing at Komazawa park. “I know skateboarding in [the park] is banned, but I don’t have anywhere else I can practice. I once got in trouble by a security guard [when I was skating here].”
Momiji Nishiya, 13, who won the gold medal in women’s street skateboarding, usually practices at Sports Park Matsubara in Matsubara, Osaka Prefecture. The facility was set up by the local city government to give children a place to safely skateboard.
“Since Japan earned gold medals, now is the perfect time to change the image people have about skateboarding,” said Kawasaki. “I hope more skate parks will be established, such as by redesigning a section of a park, so children can skateboard as much as they want.”
Asean hopes to finalise appointment of special envoy to Myanmar next week
BANGKOK, July 31 (Bernama): The appointment of a special envoy to Myanmar is expected to be concluded during the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting next week.
Director-general of Department of Asean Affairs at Thailand’s Foreign Ministry Usana Berananda said three nominees for the role have been indentified and Brunei, the current ASEAN chair, has conveyed all three names to Myanmar.
“We understand Myanmar has positively responded to the nominations. We hope that the appointment can be finalised during ASEAN Ministerial Meeting/Post Ministerial Conferences next week.
The special envoy will serve as the mediator in the dialogue process to seek a peaceful solution for the nation in turmoil since the Feb 1 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
She said veteran Thai diplomat and former deputy foreign minister, Virasakdi Futrakul is among the nominees.
Earlier, media had reported the two other candidates were former Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Malaysia’s Tan Sri Razali Ismail who previously served as a United Nations special envoy to Myanmar.
“Once the special envoy is appointed, the mandate will be based on the five-point consensus agreed by Asean leaders during the Special Meeting in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in April,” she said at a virtual press conference on Friday.
The five-point consensus are – immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, hold constructive dialogue among all parties concerned, appointment of an Asean special envoy as mediator, provide humanitarian assistance and the special envoy and delegation shall visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.
A day after attending the meeting, Myanmar’s junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said he would consider the five points when the situation in Myanmar is stable.
Three months after the Asean leaders agreed on the five-point consensus, little has materialised while the situation in Myanmar had deteriorated drastically due to the civil unrest since where more than 900 people have been reported killed. To add to the woes, the country is now facing a surge in Covid-19 cases and fatalities.
Usana said the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) and ASEAN Secretariat have prepared the ground work to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar.
“Thailand will contribute medical supply through AHA Centre to Myanmar. We are working closely with Myanmar and ASEAN Chair, Brunei,” she said.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward warned that the virus is spreading through the population very fast indeed and by some estimates half of Myanmar’s 54 million population could be infected with Covid-19 in the next two weeks.
Therefore, she called for the United Nations monitors to ensure an effective delivery of vaccines.
“The coup has resulted in a near total collapse of the healthcare system, with health care workers being attacked and arrested,” she told an informal Security Council discussion on Myanmar, quoted by Reuters. – Bernama
China Focus: China moves quickly to contain COVID-19 resurgence
In the face of new spikes in sporadic COVID-19 infections, governments at various levels across China have promptly taken measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus in an orderly fashion.
This round of infections started in Nanjing, in east China’s Jiangsu Province, when nine airport cleaners at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive during routine testing on July 20.
The mega-city with a population of more than 9.3 million had reported a total of 190 locally transmitted confirmed cases by Friday, according to local authorities.
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By Saturday noon, Nanjing had designated 30 areas as medium-risk for COVID-19 and one as high-risk. All tourist sites in the city have been closed since Saturday.
Nanjing authorities also announced a 10-day overall disinfection plan for the Lukou International Airport on Saturday. The city is also drafting a disinfection plan for the residence of airport staff.
In order to enhance its nucleic acid testing capabilities, Nanjing has built six advanced air-inflated testing labs, which can screen up to 1.8 million people every day by using the mixed testing approach.
Three rounds of testing have been conducted citywide. Municipal authorities said Saturday that the city will organize vaccinations for those who are qualified to get the second shot in low-risk areas.
Viral genome sequencing has found all strains to be the highly infectious Delta variant, said Ding Jie, deputy director of the Nanjing municipal center for disease control and prevention, on Friday.
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Also in Jiangsu Province, the city of Yangzhou has reported a total of 16 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases since Thursday, and the first case was a visitor from Nanjing.
On Saturday, the city suspended all inbound and outbound flights at its Taizhou International Airport, and closed major scenic spots, including the Slender West Lake and the Daming Temple.
Sporadic cases and cluster infections have also been found in other parts of the country, and many of the most recent patients diagnosed have recently traveled to Zhangjiajie, a world-famous tourist destination in central China’s Hunan Province.
Zhangjiajie has reported five confirmed locally-transmitted cases since Thursday. The city closed all tourist sites and upgraded 11 neighborhoods to medium-risk areas for COVID-19 on Friday.
All stranded tourists are required to receive nucleic acid testing three times before leaving the city, and all results must be negative.
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Emergency channels have been set up for them at all testing sites citywide, and local authorities have coordinated travel agencies and hotels to provide essential services to those tourists before their departure.
The central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, which was recently hit by heavy floods, classified one area as high-risk for COVID-19 and three areas as medium-risk on Saturday, all of them are in Erqi District, after one asymptomatic COVID-19 case and several suspicious cases were reported since Friday. The city is also planning to launch city-wide nucleic acid testing for COVID-19 in a timely manner.
Since Wednesday, the national capital of Beijing has reported two confirmed locally-transmitted cases. They are a couple who recently visited Zhangjiajie.
Nine residential compounds in Changping with about 41,000 residents in total have been put under closed-off management, Tong Lizhi, deputy head of the district government said Thursday.
Beijing has urged unremitting efforts to prevent and control the virus spread during the summer vacation and strengthen the management of inbound and outbound tourists.
A series of measures such as flow restriction, temperature measurement, health-code verification and mask-wearing in parks, scenic spots and traffic stations, will be strictly implemented, the municipal government said Friday.
Zhang Wenhong, a renowned medical expert in China, said that no community cases were found outside of the transmission chain of Nanjing airport, which indicates that the epidemic situation is still under control.
According to Shao Yiming, a researcher with the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the spikes in cases are limited to a relatively small scale, especially compared with the situation in other countries and regions of the world.
“Judging from our experience since the second half of last year, we are able to detect the epidemic early and take intensive measures to contain it within a few weeks,” said Shao.
Shao said the pressure of imported cases will continue in the future, but China’s prevention and control measures have also been strengthened.
“Last year, we only had routine public-health precautions, but vaccines have been available since the beginning of this year. We can now bring this outbreak under control more effectively and faster with a two-pronged approach,” he added.
Asean countries reported a slight decline in new Covid-19 cases, but deaths hit a new high on Saturday, collated data showed.
Southeast Asia added 96,639 new cases on Saturday, lower than 98,742 on Friday, but deaths rose to 2,877, up from 2,869 the previous day.
Malaysia extended its state of emergency in Sarawak until February next year in order to contain the spread of Covid-19, according to a Bernama news agency report.
Meanwhile the government has extended the Sarawak legislative assembly’s term, as regional elections cannot be held under the state of emergency.
Vietnam’s Health Ministry has called for cooperation from all sectors as the Covid-19 Delta variant is defying efforts to contain its spread.
Private hospitals appointed by the government were asked to prepare beds, medicines and personnel to treat Covid-19 patients as government and army hospitals were unable to support more patients due to the fast-spreading Delta variant.
In Beiruts economic free fall, finding hope in new Lebanese food
Last summer, when a deadly explosion ripped through Beiruts port, chef and restaurateur Riad Aboulteifs barbecue joint was destroyed. No one was injured.
His restaurant Meats and Bread, in the trendy Gemmayzeh neighborhood less a kilometer from the blast site, suffered around $90,000 worth of damage. It was one of many businesses devastated by the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed over 200 people and wrought more than $4.6 billion worth of economic destruction in a country already reeling from the worst financial crisis in its history.
No one was injured at Meats and Bread because no one was there. Aboulteif had closed the restaurant’s doors three months earlier as the soaring cost of imports triggered by an unprecedented currency crisis rendered his American-inspired menu of burgers, steaks, and smoked meats unsustainable.
Quality rib-eye costs Aboulteif $32 per kilogram to import. Two years ago, before the financial crisis, that meant he paid around 48,000 Lebanese pounds. Today, with the currency collapsed, that same $32 kilo would cost him upward of 600,000 pounds. Dwindling foreign currency reserves have unofficially rendered the official pegged rate of 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar defunct, with traders buying dollars at black market rates to finance imports amid plummeting purchasing power.
The blast, which shattered the restaurant’s windows, collapsed the ceiling, and destroyed its equipment, was just “salt on the wound,” Aboulteif says. The majority of the repairs were covered by local initiative Khaddit Beirut, which targets affected small and medium businesses, particularly those in the dining and hospitality sector. (Aboulteif paid the rest himself, with “zero funds from the government.”)
With the venue rebuilt but its old menu financially untenable, Aboulteif decided on a 180-degree turn. In June, he reopened as Ammoula, offering a menu of experimental Lebanese cuisine prepared with local ingredients.
There’s the classic lentils-and-rice dish of mujaddara, but it’s served with slow-cooked and then grilled octopus. Armenian manti dumplings are deconstructed, while traditional mahalabia milk pudding becomes a panna cotta-like dessert, sprayed with arak, the Levantine anise liquor. The drinks menu features local wine and gin.
Aboulteif describes Ammoula’s fare as his own interpretation of Lebanese food: “We don’t want to be in competition with anyone’s grandmother.”
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Soaring food prices have become an issue in many parts of the world. Lebanon, which relies heavily on imports, is one of the region’s most vulnerable countries. Food prices shot up 400% in December, according to government data, and more than half of the nation’s population has plunged into poverty since the economic crisis commenced in August 2019 and was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and the port explosion.
When it opened, Ammoula offered a dish featuring imported guanciale (cured pork jowl). Within a week, Aboulteif decided to replace it with local pork that’s matured in a dry ager. Since then, he’s been sourcing everything from local producers and has rented his own “very small farm” in the Mount Lebanon region southeast of Beirut to produce chicken, goats, quail, and some herbs and cucumbers. Such key materials as fertilizer for the plants and medicine for the animals are still imported, subject to ever-increasing price hikes and shortages. He’s had to adjust prices at least twice since opening because the Lebanese pound has depreciated.
Even as all-local ingredients and wines have helped cushion Ammoula’s prices in the face of skyrocketing inflation, there’s no way around the ever-worsening electricity crisis triggered by a shortage of imported fuel. Lebanon is suffering its most severe power shortfall in decades, and most places receive only two hours of state electricity a day.
Though the Lebanese have weathered patchy electricity for years-supplemented by subscriptions to private generators-the fuel scarcity has led many of the generators to shut down for hours each day. Restaurateurs that aim to keep their lights on and fridges running around the clock must pay for a backup generator. Aboulteif is now saddled with three electricity bills: one from the government and two from private generator companies. The June bill from the two generator providers totaled 14 million Lebanese pounds.
So far, Ammoula, which Aboulteif describes as a “work in progress,” isn’t consistently busy or profitable. He just aims to break even, relying on his more profitable Ferdinand gastropub on the other side of town to make ends meet. He says he felt he had “no option” but to change course after the blast.
“When your back is up against the wall, you will fight,” he says, although he worries that business will slow after the summer’s high season in August. “That’s the only way we know how to fight, through our food. We’re fighting the circumstances we’re living in, through our food.”
The old sign for Meats and Bread still hangs outside, by the newer one for Ammoula, and Aboulteif says he doesn’t intend to take it down. Although the switch to the Lebanese concept was driven more by necessity than national pride, he’s glad to showcase the country’s bounty, with its Mediterranean climate, mountains, and varying terroir: “You can probably find the best goat cheese in the entire galaxy in Lebanon.”
Published : August 01, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Yasna Haghdoost
Asean reports record deaths on a single day
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