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‘Ukraine war,’ ‘pandemic,’ ‘falling off the beam’ – Times Sq bids ’22 good riddance

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

Close to 100 people lined up Wednesday in New York’s Times Square to throw out things they want to forget about from 2022, including but not limited to the deadly global pandemic that still haunts the world.

The annual “Good Riddance Day” at the crossroads of the world was being marked for the 16th annual year.

And as is customary, participants were encouraged to write down the year’s unpleasant memories to be thrown away. In years past, shredders and incinerators have been brought into the event for disposal of the slips of paper. But this year participants were asked to “trash” the message, and then “bash” a punching bag before running a “dash” through an obstacle course put in place.

This year’s event also had a new sponsor, Netspend, which provided gift cards ranging from $30 ( 1,041 baht ) to $500 (17,357 baht )for event participants.

“We wanted to have a little bit more of a positive spin on it,” said TJ Wickham, of the Times Square Alliance. The event was also hosted once again by actor, Jonathan Bennett.

The annual “Good Riddance Day” comes as concern remains in place for a pandemic still seeing new variants, a reality addressed by many participants.

But Covid-19 also made way for other top global concerns for event participants including the war in Ukraine, poverty and single-use plastics.

Some however had more humble concerns. Rhyan Shelmerdine, for one, wanted to say good riddance to falling off the beam.

The Times Square Alliance, which promotes local businesses, has organized the event since 2007 near where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve in the closing moments of Dec. 31.

Reuters

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US to impose mandatory Covid-19 tests for travelers from China

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

The United States will impose mandatory Covid-19 tests on travellers from China, US health officials said on Wednesday, joining India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan in taking new measures after Beijing’s decision to lift stringent zero-Covid policies.

The officials told reporters that beginning on Jan. 5, all air passengers 2 years old and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macao.

Passengers who test positive more than 10 days before a flight can provide documentation of recovery in lieu of the negative test result, the federal officials said.

They attributed the change in policy to the lack of information on variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus and concerns that the increased number of Covid cases in China could result in the development of new variants of the virus.

The United States also is expanding its voluntary genomic sequencing program at airports, adding Seattle and Los Angeles to the program. That brings the total number of airports gathering information from positive tests to seven.

In an abrupt change of policy, China this month began dismantling the world’s strictest Covid regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year.

The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests against them, means Covid is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.

Beijing has faced international criticism that its official Covid data and its tally of deaths are inconsistent with the scale of its outbreak.

Reuters

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Kremlin backs Serbia, denies Russia is stoking tension in Kosovo

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022

The Kremlin on Wednesday said it supported Serbia’s attempts to protect ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo but denied Pristina’s accusation that Russia was somehow stoking tensions in an attempt to sow chaos across the Balkans.

Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions.

Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-1999 war in which Nato intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.

Asked about Kosovan Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla’s claim that Serbia, under the influence of Russia, was aiming to destabilize Kosovo by supporting the Serb minority, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “wrong” to search for a destructive Russian influence.

“Serbia is a sovereign country and it is absolutely wrong to look for Russia’s destructive influence here,” Peskov said.

“Serbia is a sovereign country, and naturally, it protects the rights of Serbs who live nearby in such difficult conditions, and naturally reacts harshly when these rights are violated.”

Serbia denies it is trying to destabilize its neighbour and says it just wants to protect its minority there. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that Serbia would “continue to fight for peace and seek compromise solutions.”

Around 50,000 Serbs live in the northern part of Kosovo and refuse to recognize the Pristina government or the state. They see Belgrade as their capital.

The Kremlin said it supported Belgrade.

“Having very close allied relations, historical and spiritual relations with Serbia, Russia is very closely monitoring what is happening, how the rights of Serbs are respected and ensured,” Peskov said. “And, of course, we support Belgrade in the actions that are being taken.”

Kosovo political analyst and local activist said the key to solving the situation in northern Kosovo was in the international community.

Speaking to Reuters on the main street of north Mitrovica, mainly populated by Kosovo Serbs, political analyst and Executive Director of NGO AKTIV, Miodrag Milicevic said he was bothered by the silence of the international community.

“The long duration of this entire crisis which indeed threatens to escalate (it),” Milicevic said.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have been running high since last month when representatives of ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo left state institutions including the police and judiciary over the Kosovo government’s decision to replace Serbian-issued car licence plates.

On Wednesday, Kosovo closed its biggest border crossing with Serbia after protesters blocked it on the Serbian side to support their ethnic kin in Kosovo in refusing to recognise the country’s independence.

Some Mitrovica residents blamed Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti for the current escalation, saying he was not willing to compromise.

The roadblocks erected by Serbs in northern Kosovo stayed in place on Wednesday despite the calls from the international community to have barricades along and near the Kosovo-Serbia border removed.

Since December 10, Kosovo Serbs in the northern part of the country have exchanged fire with police and erected more than 10 roadblocks in and around Mitrovica. Their action followed the arrest of a former Serb policeman accused of assaulting serving police officers.

German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday Germany was concerned about tensions between Serbia and Kosovo and was focused on efforts to remove border barricades.

Nato’s mission in Kosovo, Kfor, on Wednesday said it supported dialogue between all parties to defuse tensions in the north of the country.

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The inauguration of an urban dream in Dhaka

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to inaugurate the country’s first-ever elevated metro rail in Dhaka today, in what is set to be one of the biggest achievements of her government and a proud moment for the nation.

We would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to the government, to those who worked on this project, our foreign partners, and all other stakeholders who turned this dream into a reality.

It has been a long and arduous journey since the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6 began back in June 2016. And even though only a small section of the metro rail is going to be ready for commercial operation from December 29, we hope that the momentum it creates will lead to the timely completion of other sections, as well as that of complementary infrastructure that could truly turn it into a game-changer for the capital’s public transport system.

After the PM’s official inauguration today, starting tomorrow, commuters will be able to use the MRT Line-6 from Uttara to Agargaon. The eight-kilometre section from Agargaon to Motijheel would be opened in December next year, and the Motijheel to Kamalapur section in June 2025. Initially, the trains would run for four hours a day, from 8am to 12pm.

Clearly, the benefits of the metro rail are many. First and foremost among them are its speed and efficiency. Secondly, more comfortable, modern amenities, such as air-conditioning and Wi-Fi are going to be offered.

Additionally, the trains will ferry up to 60,000 passengers per hour, and will also be more environmentally friendly since they run on electricity.

However, the question remains: is the introduction of the metro rail going to be enough to ease the suffering of Dhaka dwellers, who have already paid a hefty price due to the traffic congestion the project’s construction has already caused in key areas of the capital?

For people to truly benefit from the metro rail, we need to develop a multi-medium integrated communication system centring it.

The government also needs to invest in public transport and work on the Dhaka Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project to decrease people’s dependence on private cars.

According to experts, even when all six lines of the metro rail will be fully functional, it will only be able to serve 20 % of the demand at the time.

As such, it won’t be enough to address Dhaka’s ever-increasing traffic woes, unless we make another crucial cost- and time-effective intervention.

The effectiveness of the metro rail will depend on the efficacy of the planning to determine how people will reach the stations or go to various destinations around the stations.

When it came to the construction of the metro rail, poor planning and unwanted delays on the part of authorities led to a lot of suffering for commuters and general citizens.

While development projects such as the metro rail are vital to take our national infrastructure to the next level, these big ambitions must be supplemented with equally high levels of competence.

And even though today’s inauguration will be a proud start and a big achievement, there is much more that the authorities need to do to truly turn the Dhaka Metro Rail into something that could positively revolutionise the lives of our people.

The Daily Star

Asia News Network

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Theft at unmanned shops in Japan on rise alongside surge in cost of living

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022

There has been a spate of people taking items without paying at unmanned shops, which has been spreading as the coronavirus pandemic has prompted the need for no-contact service.

The variety of goods sold in unmanned shops has expanded from food – such as dumplings, packaged ramen noodles and meat – to daily necessities such as diapers and handkerchiefs.

Such shops have been spreading because they require few labour costs and initial expenses are low.

But operators of the shops have been concerned about how to prevent crime, mainly this kind of theft.

“It finally occurred,” lamented Koichi Isobe, 43, president of KD Kikaku, when a theft was detected in one of the unmanned shops run by the Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture-based company.

Around 1:10 a.m. on Nov. 23, a man wearing a down coat entered the shop, searched for goods in a freezer and put them into a bag one by one. Then he pretended to be inserting cash into a payment box and left the shop.

Cases of theft at the unmanned shop go back some time. A police officer standing by the back door arrested the man on the spot on suspicion of theft. He was a 23-year-old unemployed resident of Nagareyama in the prefecture.

The man’s bag contained 17 items such as ramen noodles that were worth ¥17,000 in total.

The company opened the unmanned shop in September last year by utilizing part of its parking space.

The shop sells items like frozen ramen noodles and puddings. To minimize labour costs, a payment box is placed inside the shop for customers to insert cash into.

A security camera was installed in the shop as a crime prevention measure. Isobe said: “I had accepted a certain degree of risk. But if criminal acts increase further, I cannot take any effective measures.”

In November, a 51-year-old unemployed man was arrested on suspicion of stealing frozen dumplings and other items at an unmanned dumpling shop in Funabashi in the same prefecture.

The background to the increase in thefts at unmanned shops seems to be the surging cost of living and the recent economic downturn.

Gyoza-no-Yukimatsu, a chain of frozen dumpling shops, operates unmanned shops in 430 locations across the nation. Its staff always monitor the feed from security cameras inside the shops and rush over if trouble occurs.

Kengo Takanouchi, marketing division chief of Tokyo-based chain operator YES Corp., said that the sales scheme “is based on a belief that human nature is fundamentally good, as our main premise.”

But he added, “We want to take crime prevention measures without fail.”

Yui Yamaguchi, a crime prevention adviser of the All Japan Security Houses Promotion Agency, said that the introduction of automatic vending machines is effective for preventing theft as goods do not come out unless cash is inserted.

However, if the high initial costs present a problem, Yamaguchi said, “It is important to let customers know they are being watched by human eyes even in unmanned shops by putting up posters saying, ‘Live videos are being webcast,’ for example.”

The Japan News

Asia News Network