One of our favorite questions from readers for
Economics in Plain English was deceptively simple: What, after all, is
money? And what sets it apart from something that's simply valuable? A
big abstract idea like this called for a hands-on experiment.
In this episode, business editor Derek Thompson pays a visit to a
branch of EagleBank in Arlington, VA, to bother the world's friendliest
bank teller with a series of dumb requests. As goofy as it seems, this
little experiment is a helpful way to illustrate three essential
functions of money: a store of value, a unit of account, and a medium of
exchange. But you'll have to watch to see why.
It
isn’t easy being the Little Mermaid, who on Friday turned 100 years
old. In fact, since the early 1960s, she’s had an exhausting life as the
target of countless, often violent, vandalisms and other “happenings.”
Thanks in no small part to her authority as a symbol of Denmark, the
mermaid has over the years become the go-to spokeswoman for the agendas
of different groups who use the statue as an ironic mouthpiece to talk
about affairs both domestic and global, lighthearted and grave.
The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Panoramic Images/Getty)
It
started in 1961, when students painted a white bikini on the statue.
Shockingly, in 1964, the statue was beheaded in what should be
interpreted as a political assassination. “She had to die,” Cecelia
Zwick Nash, daughter of the late Situationist artist Jørgen Nash, who
confessed to “killing” the mermaid, says. “She was too naïve.” The
statue’s demise made headlines on the front-page of newspapers as far as
Tokyo and Moscow; a Madrid editorial called the headless mermaid “a
symbol of a world that has lost its head.” In the next decades, the
statue has sported everything from Islamic chador to KKK robes, masks of
the faces of Danish politicians, to Pussy Riot-style balaclava. Dozens
of times she has been sloshed with paint, was beheaded a second time in
1998, and was dynamited off her rocky roost on the 2003 anniversary of
9/11. Every injury is necessarily repaired by her “doctors” at the Royal
Bronzery. “But she has strong muscles,” Jesper Vind Jensen, a critic
for the Danish paper Weekendadvisen, says, adding that he and many of
his fellow citizens “are grateful for the statue.”
The
bronze statue by sculptor Edvard Eriksen was originally, and quietly,
erected on a pile of boulders at the lip of Copenhagen Harbor in 1913,
in honor of a prima ballerina named Ellen Price de Plane who had danced
the title role in an adaptation of native son Hans Christian Andersen’s
fairytale “The Little Mermaid,” about the sea princess who traded her
voice for legs because she loved an earthling prince, but mostly, and
most importantly, because she wanted a human soul.
And
while 1 million tourists come to visit her every year, arguably no one
loves her more than the Chinese. Their love of the Little Mermaid began
with Mandarin translations in 1918 of the H.C. Andersen story;
generations of Chinese have grown up with his tales, and Andersen
resonates with them as a real proletariat: a poverty-stricken,
hard-working man from the slums who persevered to achieve ultimate
success. So popular is Andersen in China that next year a $13-million
theme park based on his fairytales will open in Shanghai.
So popular is Andersen in China that next year a $13-million theme park based on his fairytales will open in Shanghai.
In
recent years, the piscine darling has helped secure the Scandinavian
country favorable trade and tourism agreements with China. When former
Chinese president Hu Jintao embarked on a state visit to Denmark last
year, he wanted to meet the Little Mermaid in person. In response, the
Danish Foreign Office constructed a wooden observation deck on the
esplanade specifically for Juntao’s brief visit, complete with a red
carpet. In 2010, in an historic and unprecedented move, the Danish
Ministry of Culture decided to loan the mermaid for the World EXPO in
Shanghai. Called “a business trip” by Danes, the act had the symbolism
of a small, aspiring country marrying their beautiful daughter to a
superpower.
And
the statue continues to serve in a diplomatic capacity to the People’s
Republic of China. Denmark has long had a relationship with China,
having established diplomatic ties in 1950—the first European nation to
do so. The Chinese government, however, broke that relationship off in
early 2009, after Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen received
the Dalai Lama in Copenhagen. Already opposed to the statue’s trip,
which they called “grotesque,” the right-wing Danish People’s Party
threatened to block the Little Mermaid trip to the EXPO as punishment.
Nevertheless, she went and was received in China as a VIP. The Danish
pavilion, where the mermaid was housed in a blue lagoon, was second in
popularity only to that of the Chinese pavilion, and during the course
of her March-to-November stay, some 5.5 million people visited the
little fish-girl there.
“She
did such a good job,” former Danish Ambassador to China Christopher Bo
Bramsen told me at the time. Indeed, since then, Chinese tourists have
been flocking to Copenhagen. Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
reports that an unprecedented 80,000 Chinese traveled to the country in
2011, the year after Shanghai’s “year of the mermaid,” and the numbers
have been ever record-breaking. In 2012, Scandinavian Airlines
inaugurated two daily, direct routes: from Beijing and Shanghai to
Copenhagen.
On
Friday, the little lady’s big birthday, Wonderful Copenhagen
live-blogged reports of the celebration in Mandarin. Additionally, a new
informational sign was revealed, telling just a little of the Little
Mermaid’s life story in Danish, English, and Mandarin. And, all day long
Copenhagen buses that run routes to Carlsberg brewery and the mermaid
at Langelinie Quay flew celebratory Danish flags. “Usually that is
reserved for royalty,” says Signe Hedemann Mikkelsen, Wonderful
Copenhagen’s Project Leader for the statue’s centennial. “But she is
royalty.”
By Tejesh Kumar Bongaigaon, Aug 25 : Seven youths from Mizoram were arrested last night with 68 packets of pseudoephedrine and cetrizine tablets at New Bongaigaon railway station.
The group, which comprised five boys and two girls including three minors, were coming from New Delhi on the Rajdhani Express and reached New Bongaigaon yesterday afternoon.
Police said the youths have confessed that they were supposed to hand over the consignment to peddlers in Guwahati. All mail and express trains halt for 10 to 15 minutes at the station.
An elderly person, according to the statement of the two girls, had arranged railway tickets, paid Rs 10,000 to each of them and gave the packets to be taken to Guwahati. But the girls did not reveal the name of the person.
Those arrested, excluding the juveniles, have been identified as Elixer Mpa, 21, Lalnuntluanga, 28, Lalrinomi, 19 and Zoram Mawii, 19.
The police had arrested another group, including two Mizo girls and four Mayanmarese youths, with 367 packets of narcotics at New Bongaigaon station on July 26.
Aizawl, Aug 25 : Despite several steps taken by the Mizoram government, human trafficking is very much active in the state, revealed a latest study conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Human traffickers, the report says, employ agents in rural areas of Mizoram to lure Myanmarese nationals living near the border into India through the porous boundary.
The UNODC report, while praising the efforts of the Mizoram government on the issue of human trafficking, said the traffickers have accomplices in villages and lured in rural folks from Myanmar by promising them lucrative jobs outside the state.
The traffickers also have agents inside Myanmar, especially those near the Mizoram border, to help people cross the 404-km-long porous international border, the report said.
The report added that many Myanmarese nationals trafficked via Mizoram are either forced to work as unpaid domestic helps or sex workers.
Mizoram is the first state in the northeast to formulate a 'Victims of Crime Compensation Scheme', the UNODC report said. It added that the scheme was formulated in 2011 to ensure that the victims of human trafficking were rehabilitated.
The burden of financial assistance for the victims of human trafficking is shared by the Centre and the state government.
The government also constituted anti-human trafficking units, which organize workshops and trainings to create awareness on the issue. The officials of these units have rescued several victims of human trafficking from different places including Goa, Mumbai, Haryana and Delhi.
Aizawl, Aug 23 : There were 592 fresh tuberculosis cases in Mizoram since January till June this year and 43 people have died of the disease in the state during the same period, state health department officials today said.
Participants in the TB Review meeting held in Aizawl were informed that 91 per cent of those infected with TB were cured during the same period.
The increase in the TB infection was found to be disturbing, the officials said, adding that there were only 79 infections during last year.
Doctor Gautam Borgohain, Consultant of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Mizoram would be given CB-NAAT machine costing over Rs 35 lakh so that the doctors in the state could impart better treatment to the TB patients.
Gangte tribe of Manipur has created World Record for ‘Biggest Mass Bible
Reading’. This was approved by Records bodies such as Limca Book of
Records, Asia Book of Records & India Book of Records, Gangte
Christian Gospel Centenary Committee Manipur said Friday.
A record number of 7047 participants took part in mass bible reading as
part of the Gangte Gospel Centenary celebration which was held on
December 16 last year at Chiengkonpang in Manipur’s Churachandpur
district.
Braving the cold wintry breeze, the participants had read the whole book
of Romans (standing) from chapter 1-16, starting at 1.27 p.m. and
concluded at 2.53 p.m., taking a duration of 1.27 hours.
The mass bible reading, which was witnessed by ADC Churachandpur, Maniram Sharma (IAS) and SP L. Mangkhogin Haokip (IPS).
The event was organized with an aim to involve all participants, taking part in the Centenary celebration.
“The main aim of the mass bible reading was to spread the Gospel
throughout the Seven Seas,” said Rev. K Mawia at a press conference
Friday.
L.S Gangte, chairman of Gangte Christian Gospel Centenary Committee,
Manipur said “The achievement is significant not only for the Gangte
community, but also for the whole state of Manipur.”
“It is a moment of joy and happiness for us all as the records has been achieved in the soil of Manipur”, he added.
Gangte, belonging to larger Chin-Kuki-Mizo fold is one of the indigenous
tribes of Manipur who trace their origin to Khul. History has it that
the Gangtes came to Manipur in 16th century from Burma.
Gangtes are settled at various parts of Manipur, mainly concentrating in
Churachandpur district with a population of about 20,000. There are
altogether 54 Gangte villages in the state, spreading in all districts
of Manipur.
The Gangtes also settled in sister north-eastern states such as Mizoram,
Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya, the chairman claimed.
Christianity came to Gangte Biel (Region) in 1912. The Gospel first set
its foot at Saichang village under Henglep sub-division of Churachandpur
District.
Propagated by two pioneering missionaries, Evan Thangvang and Evan
Damsuok, the whole populace of the tribe have been now converted to
Christianity.
Accepting lord’s almighty as their savior, twelve persons from Saichang
village decided to convert to Christianity in 1912, becoming the first
Christians amongst the Gangte tribe.
For the Gangtes, setting records of sort is not new to them. They have
created world records, amongst others for “swimming the thick cloud
(mist), blunting the sharp edge of axe with toes, whipping to death
elephants by loin clothes and felling of teak trees from its trunk”.
These records were, though without documentary evidence, but passed down generations after generations through word of mouth.
However, the record for mass bible reading has been properly documented, both by print medium as well as electronically.
The video recordings, media reports, photographs and certificate from
observers were sent to record bodies such as Limca Book of Records, Asia
Book of Records & India Book of Records.
“The record bodies accepted our claim based on documentary evidence
after much research, survey and cross-checking,” L.S Gangte said.
A thanks-giving program will be held in a big way on December 14, 2014, general secretary Rev. K Mawia of GCGCC, Manipur said.
New Delhi, Aug 24 : The
Bangladesh Taka has been gradually appreciating against the Indian
Rupee over the past year and if the trend continues, both the currencies
will become equal in value, according to foreign exchange traders.
The
Bangladesh Taka, which was more than Tk 1.70 against a Rupee in early
2012, continued to appreciate against the Indian currency since then and
on Thursday, it came to Tk 1.19 a Rupee to register some 30 per cent
appreciation in Mumbai inter-bank trade, foreign exchange dealers said
in Dhaka on Friday.
However, the depreciation of Indian currency
has boosted exports of Indian goods to Bangladesh, which depends greatly
on India for imports of most of its essentials including cotton and
commodities worth $4.5 billion, they said.
Bangladesh exports
goods including the recently allowed garments to India worth nearly $600
million a year. However, the depreciation of Rupee against US dollar
and also against Taka is likely to hurt exports of Bangladesh to India.
This depreciation of Rupee will widen the existing huge trade deficit further for Bangladesh, Bangladesh exporters said.
The
partially-convertible Rupee slumped by 2.21 per cent to hit a new
record low of Rs 65.56 against a dollar at the inter-bank foreign
exchange market, surpassing its previous record low of 64.11 on
Wednesday, said Indo Asian News Agency (IANS).
On the other hand,
a US dollar that cost around Tk 80 in 2012 was available at Tk 77.70 on
an average in inter-bank trade on Thursday.
The BB intervened whenever there was excess supply of dollars in the market to prevent Taka from further appreciating.
The
BB purchased a record US$ 4.539 billion from the commercial banks
directly in the just concluded fiscal year (FY), 2012-13, to keep the
inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market stable, officials said
Thursday.
The depreciation of Rupee has slowed Indian imports of
fish and other edibles from Bangladesh, as importers in India do not
find trading on Bangladeshi goods viable in their domestic retail
markets especially in northeast states of India. Most of these Indian
states depend on imports of some essentials from Bangladesh.
The US dollar is used as the international currency for the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India.
Despite
a temporary export ban on certain items including fish and vegetables
imposed during Muslim fasting month Ramadan, withdrawn on August 10,
many Indian importers are yet to resume imports from Bangladesh.
Volume
of trade between northeast Indian state of Tripura and Bangladesh fell
by 85 per cent in July last due to the escalating exchange rate of the
US dollar, which remains almost unchanged against Taka in inter-bank
foreign exchange trade.
In fact, suspension of international
trade at Akhaura for over a month has severely affected fish supply to
the state of Tripura and the resultant shortage has led to escalation of
fish prices from Rs 300 to Rs 1,200 per kg in all city markets, a
report from Agartala (capaital of Tripura) published in the Times of
India newspaper on Monday last said.
Tripura can only cater to 40
per cent of the state's total fish requirement and the remaining 60 per
cent comes to the state from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and
Bangladesh, it said.
Meanwhile, as of the last week the
Bangladesh currency is likely to be appreciated further against Rupee
and remain steady against US dollar at its forex reserves have reached a
record $ 16 billion, spurred by a double-digit growth in exports and
low food imports, foreign exchange dealers said.
A slump in food
imports following high agricultural output, improvement in payment
system and a double-digit export growth have all contributed to robust
forex reserve, they said.
Bangladesh received a record $14.46
billion in remittance in the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13 which was 12.6 per
cent higher than the previous FY. The export income in the 2012-13
fiscal was $27.02 billion, 11.18 per cent higher than the year before,
the BB data said.
Shillong, Aug 24 : With the aim to tap the potential of youth in football - the most popular game in the state - the Meghalaya government has decided to prepare world class football stadia in the state.
"The government is planning to construct at least four international standard football stadia in the New Shillong Township (NST)," sports and youth affairs minister Zenith Sangma said.
Zenith added that proposed stadia would be constructed as per specifications of the Federation Internationale de Football Association.
"This will provide the much-needed boost to young talented footballers of the state. The government's objective is to promote the game as it will create avenues of employment for the youths," the minister said.
Admitting that the sports infrastructure in Meghalaya is inadequate, Zenith said the government was willing to construct sports infrastructure at NST at an estimated cost of Rs 70 crore, adding that the project was awaiting sanction of the Union ministry of sports and youth affairs. He added that the government proposed to construct artificial turfs at Mawlai, Jowai and in Ampati and two such turfs in Shillong.
