Not the Way!
I could not fail to be struck by the headline from the front page of a rather slim 'Bali Advertiser' wannabe. There it was, bemoaning the fact that tourism to the "Isle of the Gods" was way down. "USA Aggression to Afghanistan Impact to Tourism Business in Bali-Indonesia" (sic), it wailed. Going on in fractured English to complain huffily that the "sweepings" in Solo and Jogyakarta were not serious and had been grossly exaggerated by the foreign press; noting with injured surprise that hotels relying on the US market were almost empty and the nation's entire travel industry was suffering.
Well, it's a point of view to be sure but not exactly the sort of thing to encourage a returning flood of Western tourists, now is it?
End of an Era?
I was saddened to read recently that the two homegrown Asian weekly magazines The Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek have reached the end of the line.
The last issue of AsiaWeek has already appeared and the editorial function of FEER is to be folded into it's sister publication, The Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ), owned by Dow Jones. That leaves no regional English-language magazine of equivalent standing to express an Asian viewpoint and that I think is a significant loss. The field is now left entirely to the Asian editions of a limited number of major international publishers who really do not and cannot cover Asian news and views in anything like the same depth or with anything like the same commitment.
The advent of control by Dow Jones in the case of FEER and Time Warner for Asiaweek was predictably the kiss of death. Both publications very quickly lost their original character and never found a new niche. Almost overnight they became anodyne and a lot more respectful of the 'powers that be' in the countries where they circulated.
I find it curious if not unlikely that these publications, both enjoying weekly sales well in excess of 100,000 copies, could not hack a temporary downturn in advertising sales. There's no doubt in my mind that under their previous management they would have survived such a challenge, and did so on several occasions. It seems pretty clear to me that neither Time Warner nor Dow Jones ever had much commitment to these publications, which were seen as expendable, if not competition to their various international titles they are now pushing in Asia,
Back in the late 1970's during it's heyday I worked for FEER for a couple of years and I well remember the launch party for Asiaweek around that time. Each publication in it's own way offered a distinctly Asian-based view in the English language of a region stretching from the sub-continent to Japan in the North and Australasia in the South. I also recall the launch of AWSJ and Dow Jones' first corporate and cultural encroachments, which came at roughly the same time. They were interesting days.
While FEER could be a tad turgid from time to time (if you didn't have an abiding interest in the jute industry in Bangladesh a half dozen pages of print on the subject could be a bit of a turn off, I grant you), it was unquestionably the best source of political and business information in a part of the world whose government leaders did not tolerate much in the way of criticism and whose taipans thought minority shareholders were there to be fleeced. As such, at least a third of its content was compelling reading.
While Asiaweek with it's more general and consumer-oriented approach never really appealed to me in the same way, it certainly did to large numbers of English-speaking Asians and ably represented their views and lifestyle.
Back then FEER was editorially controlled by a coven of Brits who brought a subversive and bloody-minded delight to pushing the envelope when it came to bearding The Great & The Good in Asia, not to mention their proprietors, who then comprised the major hongs of Hong Kong. The highpoint to my mind was Andrew Davenport's brilliant investigative hatchet job on the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club followed by one breaking a major Malaysian banking scandal.
Davenport died mysteriously, suspiciously to some, in an accident shortly after. In those days such things could and did happen in Hong Kong. A young Scottish police inspector, for example, who was blowing the whistle on some of his colleagues for various unsavory villainies managed to shoot himself in the chest with a .38 seven times. Took some doing that. Suicide, the authorities and subsequent enquiry declared. His parents didn't buy it. Nor did most people. There was also a rash of some pretty convenient deaths following the Carrian scandal too, I seem to recall.
Also memorable was FEER's running spat with Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, culminating in the extraordinary "TV Trial & Confessions" staged by the Singapore government to discredit two local FEER correspondents. Of course they had totally the opposite of the desired effect and were very funny to watch. The journalists ran circles around their stolid interlocutors while doing what they had to do and confessing to being Communist dupes. Well, at least that's a hard one to pull these days.
Pandit, Zecha, George........
Where are you Now?
I guess the most positive media development over the past 20 years is that the national press in the majority of Asian countries are now allowed to write freely. This is certainly true in Philippines, Thailand, S. Korea, Taiwan and latterly Indonesia. In Myanmar aand PRC of course not, but Singapore and Malaysia are really in poor company and should be ashamed of themselves.
It seems a pity that at such a time all we are really left with are the homogenised American newsweeklies and The Economist. Hardly an Asian voice. With English increasingly the lingua franca for Asian elites and fast growing middle classes can it really be non-viable to find an editorial voice for such a key demographic segment? I don't think so. Where I wonder are the likes of Pandit, T.J. George and Adrian Zecha today? (Asia Magazine, Asiaweek and Insight respectively).
Maybe the 'spirit of FEER' will live again electronically? I was delighted to see a young investment adviser in Hong Kong was so offended by the lack of corporate regulation and transparency that he set up a newsletter routinely spilling the beans, so successfully that he's now advising Hong Kong's Securities Commission on beefing things up. Now if that could catch on around the region we might be getting somewhere.
Top o' the Season to yer....!
About this time a year ago in these pages I shared what is the only effective means of preventing a hangover, other than not tippling at all, that is. Far be it from me to encourage overindulgence of any kind but in the spirit of the holiday season and to succour a suffering humanity I offer once again this priceless knowledge.
In a remarkable recent study a group of rats were given doses of acetaldehyde, (that's what makes you feel so bad when you drink too much) large enough to kill 90% of them. Some of the rats were also given a combination of Vitamin C, cysteine and Vitamin B1. These antioxidants gave 100% protection against acetaldehyde-induced death. All the rest died.
For many years, medical interns would mainline thiamin (Vitamin B1) to cure a hangover. There is now more evidence than ever that drinking can be made safer by saturating your body with antioxidants while you consume alcohol. The other nutrients that combine to neutralise alcohol by-products are the amino acids cysteine and glutathione, vitamin E and selenium.
If you take these substances in the right doses while you are drinking or before you go to bed you will avoid the hangover and the cellular damage that ensues. The reason it is best to take the cure as you drink is a lot of cancer causing damage and cellular havoc occurs before you go to bed. Although this may prevent brain damage from alcohol it will not prevent the temporary mental impairment that results. In other words, it won't make it safe for you to drive or stop you being busted if breathalised. Nor will it stop you saying silly things , becoming maudlin, giggly, amorous or aggressive - however the booze takes you. But, and I don't know if this is good news, you may avoid the paranoia of not knowing quite what awful things you said or did to someone the night before - you will know.
So how do you go about having it made up? Fortunately you don't have to. There are commercial formulations already available of varying quality and efficacy. The best by far is called Anti-Alcohol Antioxidants. You take six capsules with you when you know you are going out drinking, take one capsule with each drink and the remainder immediately you stop drinking, or six tablets for every 2 hours you are drinking.
Those who drink 'routinely' or dare I say 'seriously', should consider taking 500 mg of Silymarin (Milk Thistle) or Silibinin on a regular basis, which protects the liver marvelously. Alcohol depletes many vitamins and minerals from the body, so taking the best high potency multivitamin-mineral supplement you can find is important. The best multi formulations will already include Silymarin.
Happy Landings! As some say and a Happy New Year.
Paracelsus
Comments or queries are welcomed.
ParacelsusAsia@yahoo.com
