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LE MATINAL, THURSDAY, 4 NOVEMBER, 2010
OBAMA’S LOSS is Republicans gain REPUBLICANS PICK UP BIG GOVERNOR WINS, EYE REDISTRICTING AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Washington
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U.S. President Barack Obama greets people during a campaign rally. (Above)
epublicans picked up big wins in governor mansions on Tuesday as part of a conservative electoral wave that swept across the United States, but Democrats took back California and held onto New York. The Republican tide included the second Indian American governor, in South Carolina, and the first female Hispanic governor, in New Mexico, among 10 total gains in gubernatorial polls held the same day as mid-term elections. The loss of so many governorships was a big blow to President Barack Obama’s Democrats as it could allow some Republican
winners to redraw voting districts along party lines under a process called “gerrymandering.” Democrats were driven from power in the House of Representatives in what was projected to be one of the biggest mid-term routs of the last century and saw their majority in the Senate trimmed back significantly. Among the few Democratic take-aways from the drubbing however, Jerry Brown won out in the battle to succeed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger for the governorship of California –– a state facing a crippling budgetary crisis.
Beating the billionaire former chief executive of eBay, Meg Whitman, who poured millions from her personal fortune into the race, Brown earned himself a rare distinction. At 72, he became the oldest ever to hold the post, but he had already been the youngest California governor since the 1850s when he was first elected to the position at the age of 36. In South Carolina, Republican Nikki Haley, who is of Indian heritage, pulled out a win in a state synonymous just decades ago with racial segregation. The 38-year-old daughter of Sikh immigrants who ran a clothing business, Haley rarely emphasised her Indian roots and identified herself in campaign material as a Christian. Her victory came as part of a coalition of female candidates in the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement endorsed by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Further west in New Mexico, voters elected Republican Susana Martinez as the country’s first female Hispanic governor, who Palin also endorsed as part of her pack of conservative women, who she famously dubbed “mama grizzlies”. Martinez succeeded Democratic Governor Bill Richardson, a former Mexican American
congressman and UN ambassador. In New York, Democrats had little difficulty guarding their party’s safe seat against erratic Republican and Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino, who gained notoriety in the campaign for his extreme views on gay rights. Democrats suffered losses in states key to Obama’s chance of re-election in 2012, including Republican John Kasich in Ohio and Tom Corbett in neighbouring Pennsylvania. The governor’s race in the key state of Florida was considered too close to call with Democratic Alex Sink at 48 per cent and her opponent Rick Scott edging ahead with 49 per cent, according to CNN. Jan Brewer was re-elected with ease in the desert state of Arizona, despite controversy surrounding her championing of an immigration law that critics labelled as draconian for its targeting of Hispanics. In a first for the tiny north-eastern state of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee became the first independent candidate to be elected governor. The 10 new governorships for Republicans were offset by just the one for Democrats, in California, giving them a net gain of nine mansions across the country with a handful of swing races left to declare.
China bid to regain looted relics a tough task AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Beijing
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hina’s call on museums and antique collectors around the world to return relics looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing 150 years ago is unlikely to yield any significant results, experts say. The Army Museum in Paris and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum are just two of the institutions that possess items taken from the former resort for Qing dynasty emperors –– and are not about to give them up easily, they say. “As Western institutions and individuals are unlikely to respond, this call obviously targets domestic consumption, which the Chinese leaders hope will galvanise the nation,” said John Wong, history professor at the University of Sydney. The Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, was pillaged by a joint British and French military expedition during the second Opi-
um War on October 18-19, 1860. The event is seen as a national humiliation at the hands of Western armies, and every anniversary of the destruction of this “wonder of the world” –– as French writer Victor Hugo described it –– gives rise to a nationalistic push. Beijing estimates that at least 1.5 million relics were pillaged by the armies, but according to historian Bernard Brizay, author of a book on the destruction of the palace, this figure is exaggerated. He said the raid was not as clear-cut as the official version indicates, saying: “There is what was stolen from the Yuanmingyuan and there is what was sold by Beijing antique dealers.” In other words, relics stolen from the resort –– bits of porcelain, enamel, sculptures, furniture, silk paintings –– were legally sold long after the raid. Two such items are bronze fountainheads that belonged to late French fashion designer Yves Saint
A man taking photos of a woman in front of the ruins of Haiyan Hall at the Old Summer Palace, also called Yuanmingyuan, in Beijing.
Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, which were auctioned for about 20 million dollars (Rs 616 million) each last year in a move that angered China. The Yuanmingyuan park authority last week called for a boycott of auctions featuring looted relics, but experts say such a plea
would fall on deaf ears. “Every month in London, Hong Kong, Paris or New York, items from the Yuanmingyuan are sold. And when people know that they come from the Yuanmingyuan, prices increase,” Brizay said. The expert added that the world’s top museums would never respond to Beijing’s call, noting: “Items that are in museums will never be returned to China.” Museums are “reluctant” to indicate where their collections come from, even if they sometimes have “identifiable characteristics,” he added. Many masterpieces exhibited at a museum of Chinese artefacts outside Paris come from the Old Summer Palace, as does a priceless album displaying 40 views of the Yuanmingyuan that is kept at the National Library of France. In October 2009, China announced it would send a team abroad tasked with recording the number of looted relics. Yuanmingyuan director Chen Mingjie said at the time that the relics were housed “in more than 2,000 museums in 47 countries”, singling out the British Museum. But a year later, a detailed inventory has not materialised.
DICTIONARY ‘FUNEMPLOYMENT’ RISE REFLECTS ECONOMIC DOWNTURN AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE London
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unemployment,” “PIIGS” and “broken society” have all made their way into the Collins English Dictionary, reflecting the dominance of the economic downturn in last year’s consciousness. The latest technological trends have also been captured among the dozens of new inclusions, which were revealed, with “tweetheart,” “tweet tooth,” “tweet-out,” “iPad” and “intexticated” all entering the lexicon. “Funemployment” describes the enjoyment had while on an unforeseen break from work and “PIIGS” is an acronym for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, the countries most at risk from the European sovereign debt crisis. “Broken society” or “social recession” describe the perceived erosion of moral values while “ghost estate,” an unfinished housing development abandoned due to the downturn, is now in the dictionary. Social networking site Twitter is responsible for the addition of “tweetheart,” a person who uses the site and is much admired by other users. “Tweet tooth” is the strong urge to post a Twitter update while “tweetout” is a greeting sent to a friend via the online service. The success of Apple’s new “iPad” laptop computer is acknowledged while the addition of “itexticated,” which means to be distracted while reading or writing a text message, exposes some of technology’s draw-backs. Language-lovers in Glasgow whittled down the final list of new words after feeding written and spoken material from newspapers, websites, magazines, television and radio into a database over the past year. The obsession with celebrity culture is highlighted by the inclusion of “fauxmance,” which is a non-existent relationship between stars concocted to attract media attention. Popular political terms are also included with “birther,” used to describe those who believe that US President Barack Obama was not born in America, making the new edition. The addition of “Chindonesia”, a portmanteau word which blends China, India and Indonesia, reflects the shifting focus of world trade. There is the usual inclusion of curious buzz-phrases with “grow the beard,” an informal term meaning to show a marked improvement in quality.