As a child, Tatsuo Sato was terrified when the Namahage demons roared into his northern Japanese house every year, but in adulthood he mourned as the centuries-old tradition faded away.

“The kids disappeared, the young people disappeared. We had to give it up,” Sato, 78, said of the New Year’s Eve visits by men in horned masks and straw capes, all shouting “Are there any bad kids here?”

UNESCO’s registering Namahage as a cultural property late last year has given new life to the colorful tradition.

But experts say the recognition, which included several similar traditions in which costumed “gods” visit villages, doesn’t automatically guarantee survival. In some cases, it could even stifle changes that help keep the groups going, such as including outsiders or women.

“Within this UNESCO designation, there are several groups that I believe may not be able to continue – or not be able to continue in their present form,” said Satoru Hyoki, a professor of cultural history at Tokyo’s Seijo University.

Masukawa revived its traditional New Year’s Eve ritual last year after 12 years, thanks partly to a group of young transplants to the area, whose population has dwindled to just 130 in the last two decades.

Oga had 120 Namahage troupes in 1989 but just 85 in 2015; that only young men were allowed to take part didn’t help matters.

Some hamlets have raised the age limit, while others welcomed young outsiders. One of those transplants, Haruki Ito, came up with the idea of inviting young men from around Japan to take part alongside the locals in Masukawa.

“If Namahage aren’t young men, it’s no good, everyone agrees,” said Sato, who took his turn as a demon when he was younger. “Maybe if women did it we’d have enough people, but I don’t think we have to go that far.”

Tourist Treasure

Local officials hope the long-sought UNESCO designation stirs a tourism-based economic boost badly needed in places like Oga, a remote peninsula some 450 kilometers north of Tokyo, and the Masukawa district where Sato lives.

Economically, the attention has already helped. The Oga city’s Namahage Sedo festival, held in early February, drew 7,600 people, compared with 6,100 in 2018.

The festival, in which a parade of torch-bearing demons makes its way down a snow-covered mountain, swells Oga’s population by nearly 30 percent as tourists pour in, hoping straw from the demons’ capes – believed to be lucky – will fall near them during the smoky procession.

Masukawa’s decision to revive its New Year’s Eve tradition, buoyed by the UNESCO registration, led to a scramble for everything from straw to makeshift sword materials foraged from local discount stores.

The flurry of activity made people “really happy,” said Ito, 27, adding that some elderly residents told him the revival literally gave them reason to live. “Many people feel ‘the gods must really care about me,’” he said.

Misunderstanding

Hyoki said the UNESCO designation has no money attached to it and carries the risk of unsustainable tourism or even a loss of autonomy. UNESCO recognizes that traditions change, but the Japanese registration required to apply for the listing does not, which he said creates misunderstandings.

“Some people worry that if they got the UNESCO listing, they’d just be forced to continue in the traditional ways, that if they try to change things people will say, ‘that’s not the way it was done in the old days,’” he said.

For now, Oga has parlayed growing interest into a year-round promotion of everything Namahage, including demon-themed biscuits, rubber stamps and even a facial skin mask.

Many are designed by Kokoro Ohtani, a 24-year-old from southern Japan who moved north for university and fell in love with the Namahage. She now works at the Oga town office.

Ohtani, who is close to one troupe of Namahage performers, said respect for her friends and their reverence of traditional ways has deterred her from pressing to take part.

“There’s a bit of a clash within me, but it isn’t discrimination or chauvinism,” she said. “It’s more like feeling I want to keep trying so that, one day when they let women take part, I will be the one they choose.”
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From: MeNeedIt

Hello Kitty might not have a mouth but she’s got a movie deal.

Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema announced Tuesday that it has acquired film rights to Hello Kitty from the Japanese corporation Sanrio. The 45-year-old iconic feline has never been turned into a movie despite its merchandising ubiquity.

New Line said it will quickly begin work on a script to put a film into production. Sanrio also granted film rights to other characters including Gudetama, My Melody and Little Twin Stars.

Warner Bros. has had success with toy adaptations before, including “The Lego Movie.” That film’s sequel, however, has underperformed at the box office since opening last month.

Hello Kitty presents potentially steeper challengers, though. She doesn’t talk or, for the most part, change facial expressions.
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From: MeNeedIt

The corporation behind a Florida detention camp for migrant children is abandoning its plans to go public as controversy grows around policies that lock up children crossing the Mexico border.

The chairman of Caliburn International Corp., Thomas J. Campbell, sent a letter Tuesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it no longer wishes to conduct a public offering.

The Virginia-based company said in a press release the reason was “variability in the equity markets,” adding that business continues to grow. Previous filings cited risks of “negative publicity” as something that could affect share price.

Federal lawmakers toured the center last month and said it had a “prison-like feel,” vowing to change a policy they say still separates families.

The government announced in December that the facility was expanding from 1,350 to 2,350 beds.
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From: MeNeedIt

The global travel industry is likely to expand by 4 percent in 2019 despite slowing economic growth in key areas such China and Europe, but a no-deal Brexit could wipe out 700,000 travel-related jobs, a top industry association said on Tuesday.

The travel and tourism sector grew 3.9 percent to $8.8 trillion in 2018, accounting for 10.5 percent of global gross domestic product, and outpacing global GDP growth of 3.2 percent, Gloria Guevara, president and chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), told Reuters.

Based on data from 185 countries, the group forecasts steady growth of 4 percent this year, given continued demand from China, the second largest travel and tourism market behind the United States, and other countries in Asia.

“Every crisis impacts the numbers, but this sector is very resilient,” Guevara said, noting that expansion in the travel and tourism sector traditionally outpaced global GDP growth.

Britain and the United States were two of few countries in which travel and tourism underperformed economic growth, she said, citing uncertainty about Britain’s departure from the European Union and what she called the “non-welcoming message” being sent out by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Travel and tourism’s contribution to Britain’s gross domestic product grew by just 1 percent in 2018, while overall GDP expanded 1.4 percent. The sector accounted for $311 billion in GDP in 2018, or about 11 percent of overall GDP.

If Britain leaves the EU without an agreement, it could lose 300,000 jobs, with an additional 400,000 jobs likely to disappear elsewhere in Europe, she said.

A rebound would depend “on how soon they can fix the situation,” she said, noting such a development would also keep Britain from benefiting fully from the expected creation of over 100 million jobs in the sector over the next 12 years.

In the United States, travel and tourism as a percentage of GDP grew 2.2 percent last year, while the overall economy expanded 2.9 percent, the association reported.

It said the travel and tourism sectors in Turkey, China, India, Thailand and France reported the highest growth rates in 2018, with Turkey reporting growth of 15 percent as it continued to recover from a sharp downturn after the 2016 failed coup.
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From: MeNeedIt

India has downplayed the impact of U.S. plans to end New Delhi’s preferential trade status that allows duty free access to products worth $ 5.6 billion.

Saying that India has not assured the United States that it will provide “equitable and reasonable access” to its markets, U.S. President Donald Trump has directed the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to remove India from a program that grants it preferential trade treatment. 

In 2017, India was the biggest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which lowers duties on exports from about 120 developing countries.   

While the preferential tariffs give India duty free access to exports worth $5.6 billion, Indian commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan told reporters in New Delhi that the actual benefits add upto $190 million. He called them “minimal and moderate.”

He said that India has no plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Despite their fast-growing political and security ties, trade tensions have been brewing between the two countries over the past year as American businesses complain of protectionist hurdles in one of the world’s fastest growing markets.

India, “has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce,” a statement from the U.S. Trade Representative office said.

President Trump has called India a “high tariff” country and repeatedly complained of high levies imposed by India on exports such as imported whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Indian officials refute that. “Our tariffs are very comparable to the more liberal developing economies, they are comparable to and even developed economies,” Wadhawan told reporters. “We have some tariff peaks. So you can’t pick up one or two items and believe that our entire tariff structure is high.”

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has said that India’s removal from the GSP would not take effect for at least 60 days. 

Indian exports that enjoyed preferential tariffs include automobile parts, chemicals, precious metal jewelry and certain raw materials.

Trade experts in New Delhi agree that the overall impact of the U.S. withdrawal of preferential tariffs is not significant, but warn that much of the hit will be taken by sectors that create employment in a country that desperately needs more jobs.

“The products where the GSP impact is more are the labor intensive sectors such as handicrafts, agriculture and marine products,” according to Ajai Sahai, the head of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations. He points out that it comes at a time when Indian exports are grappling with a slowdown.

Contentious areas

There are other contentious areas in the trade relationship between the two countries. The United States has been leaning on India to reduce the trade surplus of about $23 billion out of the total bilateral trade of $126 billion. In New Delhi, officials point out that the deficit has been declining and say the gap will be further reduced as India increases its energy and defense purchases – India has begun importing shale oil from the United States and military equipment sales have been rising.

Indian price controls on medical devices, restrictions on agricultural imports and recent policies that are disrupting the business model of online retail giants such as Amazon have also irked Washington.

The new e-commerce policy was announced in December on demands from tens of thousands of retail traders who complain of losing business to online companies. The traders form a core support base for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which is gearing up for a general election expected to be announced shortly.

India is not the only country facing an end to preferential market access — the United States has announced that it will also end Turkey’s preferential trade status, saying it no longer qualifies as it is “sufficiently economically developed.”

 
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. Army soldier Bryan Anderson was nearing the end of his second, yearlong tour of duty in Iraq, and approaching the end of his enlistment, when he unexpectedly reached a turning point on Oct. 23, 2005 — a date that is now seared in his memory.

“That’s the day I got blown up,” he told VOA.

A hidden improvised explosive device, or IED, cut through the military Humvee as Anderson was slowly driving through the dangerous streets of Iraq.

“When the explosion went off, it cut my legs and my hand off instantly,” he said.

Anderson credits the instant action by his comrades for saving his life, but his extensive wounds left him with one badly damaged arm and hand.

“Soldiers don’t think about coming back halfway,” he said. “You either think you are going to make it, or you’re not. I certainly did.”

Anderson’s evacuation from the battlefield marked the beginning of a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. There, while trying to learn how to walk on prosthetic legs, he encountered many visiting celebrities, or “peer” visitors. 

“Celebrities and peer visitors didn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t care. I felt more or less that these people would just come in, take pictures with soldiers, and say, ‘I did it! Look at me!’ It just felt like it was fake.”

But Anderson said one visitor who arrived in the middle of one of his intense therapy sessions was the exception. 

“I’m trying to like, say, ‘Excuse me, can I get by?’ and then I tripped and hit somebody’s foot or something. And I fell forward, and I landed right into somebody. And I grabbed his chest, and he stood strong, and he held me up. And I pushed back and tried to stand up. And I’m like, ‘Oh holy crap, Gary Sinise!’ And he’s like, ‘Oh holy crap, the real Lieutenant Dan!’”

His performance as the rough Vietnam War soldier “Lt. Dan Taylor” in the 1994 Hollywood blockbuster “Forrest Gump” has, in part, defined Sinise’s career on and off camera.

Lt. Dan represented a generation of military veterans scarred by the Vietnam War, many of whom received a cold reception upon returning home to America. 

Sinise’s portrayal of the wounded amputee and war-weary U.S. Army officer resonated with many veterans — something reinforced to Sinise during his visit to the 1994 Disabled American Veterans, or DAV National Convention in Chicago. 

“The ballroom was filled with over 2,000 wounded veterans,” he explained to VOA during a recent interview in Chicago. “They were cheering for Lt. Dan, and the guy who played Lt. Dan, and I was overwhelmed with emotion. From that point on, I stayed actively involved with the DAV.”

While best known for his award-winning work as an actor, first on stage, then television, and eventually film, it is his service off-camera that is now earning Sinise the respect of many in uniform, prompted by what he describes as his own turning point — the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Despite not having served himself, he wanted to ensure the hard lessons learned during the Vietnam War weren’t repeated as a new generation of service members headed off for a new war.

“That they would go off to war responding to Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaida, and the attacks on our country, and they would return and feel appreciated.”

Giving back

Today, Sinise shows appreciation through initiatives that include building homes for those injured in war through the Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment, or RISE program of the Gary Sinise Foundation. 

“I’ve been involved in building over 70 some houses for badly wounded service members,” he said. “I am a beneficiary of what our defenders do for us on a daily basis, so I want to support them in any way I can. Which is why I started the Gary Sinise Foundation.”

Today, the foundation that bears his name raises tens of millions of dollars annually to fund programs such as RISE, and the Snowball Express, which provides vacations at the Disney World Resort for Gold Star Families — those who have lost a loved one in combat. 

To help fund the many philanthropic endeavors of his foundation giving back to those who served, including first responders and emergency personnel, Sinise performs around the world as a guitarist in the “Lt. Dan Band.”

His life on and off the many stages of his career, which began at the Steppenwolf Theatre he founded in Chicago in the 1970s, is all in his new book “Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service,” now a New York Times best-seller. 

Anderson, who appeared with Sinise on the TV show “CSI: New York” and now serves as an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation, said it’s veterans like him who are the grateful Americans for Sinise’s attention and support.

“I got the sense that he felt a little guilty that he never served, and that he took the path that he did,” said Anderson, who is in the beginning stages of building his own accessible home through the RISE program. “But I try to tell him, ‘Look, we all serve in our own ways, and we try to do the best that we can. And you are more of a patriot than some of the guys that I served with.’” 

It is a sentiment now documented in a heartfelt, viral online video featuring many notable Americans such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Sinise’s “Forrest Gump” co-star, Tom Hanks, praising him for his service to others.

“I was just overwhelmed with emotion that people would take the time to do that,” Sinise explained to VOA. “I’m on a mission here, and I’m just trying to do what I can to support our military and veterans community.”

Sinise said the recognition is welcome and helps the overall work of his foundation. 

“We still have people who are serving in harm’s way. They are still in the war zones. They are still getting hurt. We’re still losing them. It’s a dangerous world out there. They are deploying to places we still don’t even know about, and they end up getting hurt, or their families end up losing them, and I don’t want to forget them.”
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From: MeNeedIt

While best known for his award-winning work as an actor on stage, television, and film, it is his off-camera service earning Gary Sinise the respect of many in uniform. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh spoke with Sinise about his new book “Grateful American” and his journey to honor and support those who serve their country.
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From: MeNeedIt

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin informed Congress on Monday that he will stop making payments into two government retirement funds now that the debt limit has gone back into effect.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Mnuchin said that he would stop making investments into a civil service retirement fund and a postal service retirement fund.

These are among the actions that Mnuchin is allowed to take to keep from exceeding the debt limit, which went back into effect on Saturday at a level of $22 trillion.

The debt limit had been suspended for a year under a 2018 budget deal. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Mnuchin likely has enough maneuvering room to avoid a catastrophic default on the national debt until around September.

The U.S. government has never missed a debt payment although budget battle between then-President Barack Obama and Republicans in 2011 pushed approval of an increase in the debt limit so close to a default that the Standard and Poor’s rating agency downgraded a portion of the country’s credit rating for the first time in history.

The Congressional Budget Office said in a report that issuing new securities for the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund pushed the debt up by $3 billion each month. Mnuchin said both funds would be made whole once Congress approves an increase in the debt limit.

“I respectfully urge Congress to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting to increase the statutory debt limit as soon as possible,” Mnuchin said in his letter.
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From: MeNeedIt

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido named Harvard University economist Ricardo Hausmann as the country’s representative to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Guaido’s envoy to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, wrote in a tweet on Monday.

Guaido, who calls socialist President Nicolas Maduro a usurper after Maduro won re-election in a May 2018 vote widely seen as fraudulent, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January. He has been recognized as the OPEC nation’s legitimate leader by most Western countries, including the United States.

Hausmann, an economics professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, served as Venezuela’s planning minister and as a member of the board of the country’s central bank in the 1990s.

He has also served as the country’s governor for the IDB and World Bank, and was the IDB’s chief economist for several years.

Venezuela’s current IDB governor is Oswaldo Javier Perez Cuevas, an official in the country’s finance ministry, according to the IDB’s website. The Washington-based multilateral lender invests in infrastructure and other development projects throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Neither Hausmann nor a spokesman for the IDB immediately responded to a request for comment. A source close to the Venezuelan opposition said Hausmann’s appointment still had to be confirmed by the country’s National Assembly, which is currently led by Guaido.
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From: MeNeedIt

A U.S. judge on Monday acquitted a former top foreign exchange trader at Barclays Plc accused of illegally trading ahead of an $8 billion transaction for Hewlett-Packard, without letting the case go to a jury.

The acquittal of Robert Bogucki, who led Barclays’ foreign exchange trading desk in New York, by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco sets back federal efforts to hold senior bankers and traders criminally responsible for suspected misconduct.

It also marks a rare instance of such a case being tossed out immediately after the prosecution presented its case at trial, because the evidence was too weak to support a conviction. Bogucki’s trial began on Feb. 21.

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney David Anderson in San Francisco said that office was reviewing Breyer’s decision.

“We are so very pleased that the court recognized Mr. Bogucki’s innocence and affirmed that the government’s attempt to rewrite the rules years after the fact runs counter to core constitutional principles of due process,” Sean Hecker, a lawyer for Bogucki, said in a statement.

Bogucki was charged with “front-running” a 2011 transaction involving the sale of 6 billion pounds of cable options linked to HP’s purchase of British software company Autonomy Corp.

Prosecutors accused Bogucki of trying to push down the options’ price, enabling Barclays to profit at HP’s expense.

An indictment quoted Bogucki warning a trader not to let “some loose lipped market monger” tell HP what they were doing, and the trader discussing their plan to “spank the market.”

Breyer, however, said no reasonable jury could find that Bogucki owed HP a duty of trust and confidence.

He also said the relationship between Barclays and HP, industry practice and other factors necessitated an acquittal.

“The government has pursued a criminal prosecution on the basis of conduct that violated no clear rule or regulation, was not prohibited by the agreements between the parties, and indeed was consistent with the parties’ understanding of the arms-length relationship in which they operated,” Breyer wrote.

“The court cannot permit this case to go to the jury on such a basis,” he added.

Though such banks as Barclays, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc have pleaded guilty in connection with foreign exchange markets, few individuals have been held criminally liable.

Last October, a Manhattan federal jury found three former currency traders from Barclays, Citigroup and JPMorgan not guilty of scheming to rig benchmark exchange rates.

The case is U.S. v. Bogucki, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-cr-00021.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expressing optimism that trade talks with China aimed at ending tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products will be successful.

“It’s never over till it’s over, but they’ve made a lot of progress, and so I’m very hopeful that in the coming days and weeks, there’ll be a significant announcement,” said Pompeo on Monday in an interview in Des Moines, Iowa.

The top U.S. diplomat is in Iowa to discuss diplomatic efforts to promote American economic interests and American exports.

Iowa’s Farmers have been hit hard by the U.S.-China trade feud.

“President Trump has been determined to get Iowa farmers a fair shake, to stop the Chinese from stealing their intellectual property and denying them the ability to compete by selling products into China,” said Pompeo in another radio interview.

China’s agricultural imports from the U.S. have slumped since Beijing imposed tariffs on American agricultural products last year. Among the biggest losses for American farmers: oilseeds and grains exports, which are top agricultural products that Iowa farmers send to China.

Pompeo’s visit comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded China instantly eliminate tariffs on American agricultural goods.

In a tweet on March 1, Trump said trade talks were progressing well and he had asked China to immediately end tariffs on U.S. agricultural products while delaying his own plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump had set a March 1 deadline to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.

Trump had forecast a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to finalize details in a bilateral trade agreement to tackle deeper issues, including greater transparency around subsidies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from China, addressing U.S. concerns over forced technology transfer, and intellectual property protection.

The Wall Street Journal reported a summit between Trump and Xi could occur around March 27.

The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said the possible deal “could be substantial enough to allow the U.S. to claim victory in the negotiations, allowing Mr. Trump to save face politically after a damaging fight over border security and wall funding.”

“For China, any such agreement would be politically challenging, but would provide a welcome respite from mounting economic pressures,” said EIU.

Nick Marro from the Economist Intelligence Unit argues while President Trump’s decision to delay a tariff increase on Chinese products is an important step to prevent the escalation of a trade war, these moves were a concession to the Beijing government, who Marro says has yielded little in its negotiating stance.

“Although we expect both sides to come to a deal around purchases of U.S. commodities, this will not be enough to prevent structural issues from worsening economic ties further,” he added.

“If the deal involves that President Xi agrees to purchase much of American commodities, and agreed to lowers certain tariffs,” according to the Cato Institute’s Director of Trade Policy Studies Daniel Ikenson, “there could be more progress, but if they just agreed to purchase these products and not address these major issues, I don’t see the very large deal.”

“I think the United States and China are going to continue to be in this sort of standoff for a number of years until there’s an adequate resolution,” Ikenson told VOA’s Mandarin service.

Jingxun Li from VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this story.
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From: MeNeedIt

After five years of imprisonment, prominent Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zaid was released and returned to his family Monday.

Zaid, popularly known as “Shawkan,” said he would continue his work as a journalist, despite harsh conditions to his release. Shawkan will remain under “police observation” for the next five years, required to check in with police every day at sunset and will be prohibited from managing his financial assets and properties during those five years.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed his release but condemned the conditions.

“We are relieved to hear that Shawkan is finally free after spending over five years in jail and call on authorities to end their shameful treatment of this photojournalist by removing any conditions to his release,” said Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa Program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Shawkan was one of hundreds of people arrested after Egyptian security forces stormed two Muslim Brotherhood sit-in camps in August 2013, several months after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after weeks of protests against him.

In September, an Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 75 of the over 700 defendants in the original mass trial. Shawkan, who was taking photos outside the sit-in camps in 2013, was given five years in prison — a term he had already served.

Last April, the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO awarded Shawkan the World Press Freedom Prize.

The mass trial and Shawkan’s imprisonment have elicited widespread criticism on the lack of press freedom in Egypt.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Egypt 161st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index. Over 30 journalists remain in Egyptian prisons, according to the rights group.
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From: MeNeedIt