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14-20 September 2012
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A Hairy Business { Peter Janssen / Yangon / DPA }
in April. Buddhist nuns, like male monks, are required to shave their hin May Phyo, 18, fights back tears as heads upon taking their vows. Long hair is still popular in Myanshe bickers with the barber over the length of her hair. “If you want to mar, a country that has been relatively make 20,000 kyat (23 dollars), then it has isolated from Western culture for the to be cut here,” says Kay Aye Mon, signal- past five decades – first, by the xenopholing the base of her neck. “But if you only bic policies of former military strongman want 18,000 kyat, we will cut it here,” the Ne Win, who ruled from 1962 to 1988; and barber says, going 4 centimetres lower. thereafter, by Western economic sanctions, that were only eased “Can’t I get 20,000 kyat, and keep it Lynn Bo Bo this year. a bit longer?” Khin According to May Phyo asks, Myanmar love lore, while trying to hair tops the list maintain her waistof the five key atlength hair and her tributes of female composure. She beauty. The others ends up settling for are fleshiness, fair 18,000 kyat. skin, good bone In Myanmar— structure and elwhere a fourth of the egance. Given the population of 60 milaesthetic value lion people lives below Khin May Phyo, 18, getting a 20-dollar placed on beautiful, a poverty line of 1.35 haircut. long hair, and Buddollars a day, and access to micro-financing is minimal—get- dhism’s preachings against vanity, ting a haircut has long been a popular cutting one’s hair to raise money for a way for women to raise cash. The hair pagoda donation has long been a comis sold to wig factories in Yangon and mon practice among women. But for Mandalay, that export the finished most women, selling their hair is just a products to the better-off but similarly question of necessity. “I need the money dark-haired populations of China, In- to buy milk formula for my baby,” says Myo Thwin, 22, whose husband makes dia, Pakistan and Singapore. The price offered for Myanmar hair 4,000 kyat a day as a construction worker has been on the rise in recent years, as in Yangon. In fact, down at Insein Market, the ecoMyanmar’s neighbours become more prosperous, says Pho Khwer, 22, a hair nomic reforms introduced by President “harvester” at Insein Market in Yan- Thein Sein since he took office in March gon, where there are seven hair-buying last year, have had little impact on the shops. “We usually get 10 sellers a day; hair business – or life in general. A few but on the weekend, it goes up to 20 to 30. people have nice cars and houses, but we During the Water Festival we get even can’t have those things,” says an Insein more, because many women become hair buyer, Kay Aye Mon. “For most peonuns,” he says, referring to the tradi- ple, nothing has changed, but we are hoptional Myanmar New Year, celebrated ing for change in the future.” u
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Basra, Bombay and Baghdad { Saad Sammak / Basra, Iraq / DPA }
the 20th century, Basra was home to several hundred Indians, and their numbers he Indian Market in this southern rose to about 1,000 by the end of World Iraqi port city, is Umm Ibrahim’s War I. “The Indians gradually left the favourite haunt. The 74-year-old en- country, and now there is no trace of joys the chance it gives her to relive past, them,” says Hassan. Umm Ibrahim is among those who safer times – when tourists and foreign loyally make their way workers thronged to to the half-dozen shops Basra, her hometown. that still sell Indian In the crowded algoods. “I’m not so keen leys of the market beon buying ground spices side the Ashar river, with fancy packaging the distinctive aroma from big Asian compaof Indian spices still nies,” she says. “I prepervades, despite the fer the spices in the changes – with many Indian Market. The stores now selling pertraders here learned fumes, beauty products how to mix them from and clothes. Basra may be best known as the cen- the Indians, who were here before tre of the country’s oil industry, but its them,” she says, as she navigates the vibrant markets were the older and first market’s narrow streets. “They were attraction. The Friday market, vegetable in Basra for more than 100 years, and market, fish market, perfumers’ market we picked up the habit of using their - each has its speciality and its regular spices in our cooking,” Ibrahim adds. The Indian Market is still considered customers. The Indian Market owes its name to the Indian spice merchants who one of the main attractions of Basra, and no visitor can leave the city withfirst established it, as Hassan, 80, one of the market’s oldest traders, explains. out spending a few hours there. “We “The Indians founded the market, and used to take pride in how everything it ended up being called after them. here was from India,” one trader reThey were famous for selling spices calls. “Whenever we were giving presents to relatives from other provinces, it and incense,” he says. Basra’s trading links with India devel- would be something from the Indian Maroped in the 19th century, historian Reidar ket - things you could not get anywhere Visser notes, as the age of steam facilitat- else,” he adds. The Indian businessed seaborne trade. “According to a com- men and traders who made the marmon saying, Bombay and Baghdad ket famous are long gone. The war had become equidistant from Basra with Iran in the 1980s, when Basra after the introduction of the steam- became a battlefield, drove away the last of them. u ship,” Visser writes. In the early years of
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Arnault To Sue Newspaper
{ Clare Byrne / Paris / DPA }
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rench luxury goods boss, Bernard Arnault, plans to sue Liberation over a front-page headline, in which the left-wing newspaper told him to “Get lost, you rich idiot.” Liberation was reacting to Arnault’s plans to seek dual Franco-Belgian citizenship, a move that has been widely linked to the government’s plans for a new top income tax rate of 75 per cent. The headline was a play on an infamous line by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, a friend of Arnault’s – who once ordered a man who refused to shake his hand to “Get lost, you poor idiot.” In a statement, the head of LVMH—a group that includes Christian Dior fashion house and Louis Vuitton handbags—said he would sue Liberation for public insult. Arnault is France’s richest man. He has denied any link between his Belgian citizenship application and his tax liability, saying he will continue to pay French taxes. u
Dangers of Dependency
{ Eva Neumann / Hamburg / DPA }
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ouples are bound by so many important things—houses, children, money—that dependency is sometimes inevitable in a relationship; but couples can avoid it by regularly evaluating where they stand, and considering what their lives would be like without one another. The word dependency conjures up addiction to something powerful—such as drugs, nicotine or alcohol—but it applies to relationships as well. It can cause a problem when one partner is suddenly alone because of a separation, an accident or illness. It’s also important, experts say, to be able to recognize a dependency problem as early as possible. At a basic level, dependency is often financial in nature. Until only a few decades ago, women were almost always financially dependent on their husbands, because they usually didn’t pursue work. They kept themselves busy raising children, and taking care of their husbands and households. Limited educational opportunities, and inheritance laws that favoured men, were two factors that contributed to the dependency, says Andreas Klocke, a Professor of Sociology at a college in Frankfurt. “There are also many relationships in which the two partners are variably dependent on one another,” says Walter Roscher of the German Professional Association of Psychologists in Berlin. “For example, the couple buys or builds a house and the mortgage must be paid. Neither one would be able to make the payments alone.” Material dependency is easy to recognize and often unavoidable. Many partners aren’t even conscious of it, therefore, they must discuss it, advises Roland Kachler, Director of a Counselling service in Germany. Another category of dependence stems from gender roles, that can play a part in relationships. There often are gender specific jobs: he is responsible for car repair and insurance, for example, while she looks after the household and the children, Klocke says. Each takes on the jobs that he or she does best, and relieves the other partner of those tasks. However, the more singularly one partner manages his or her affairs, the more difficult it is for the other partner to do them, in the event of a separation or accident. It’s important to talk about the division of responsibilities at the beginning of a relationship. Couples should regularly evaluate who takes care of what, and whether the arrangement should be reorganized. The alternative is to become acquainted with the tasks the other partner does, and to begin working together on jobs such as cooking and filling out the annual tax declaration. The third level of dependency is emotional dependency. “It is entirely normal and belongs to the nature of a relationship that partners are alternatively dependent on one another,” says Kachler. As long as both partners have the assurance and the trust that they are not dependent on the recognition of the other, then alternating dependency can have a stabilizing effect on a relationship. What must not arise is the feeling that one of the partners rules over the other or makes the other feel inferior. u