Thailand’s Ivory Trade
Big Business puts Wildlife Protection under Pressure
Exclusive Interview with Will Travers
OBE, CEO of the Born Free Foundation
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CONTENTS Vol.1 No.12
April 2013
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Thailand’s Ivory Trade Exclusive Interview with Will Travers Myanmar and The CITES Conference in Bangkok
BUSINESS BEAT 10 14 22
Big Business puts Wildlife Protection under Pressure Business & Economy Property for sale
ART&CULTURE 28 33
MOCA: Bangkok’s First Contemporary Art Museum Elephants In The Movies
LIFESTYLE 36 38 40 42 45
Feng Shui: Doors of Opportunity Jest a Minute: The Elephant Plop: A Natural Lottery Law of The Land: Imprisonment Outside Jail Health Tips: Healing Breath Kitchen Corner: Hearty Vegetable Lasagna
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Thailand’s Ivory Trade “It was a Historic Conference!” Exclusive Interview with Will Travers, OBE, CEO of the Born Free Foundation
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Myanmar and The CITES Conference in Bangkok
Thailand’s Ivory Trade By Matthew Hunt
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rime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra opened the Convention on Inter national Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok last month, and she highlighted Thailand’s unique cultural connection to Asian elephants: “I wish to take this opportunity to focus on elephants, as they are very important for Thai culture. Throughout our history, elephants have been the pillars of development for our nation,” she said. “No one cares more about elephants than the Thai People.”
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Elephants have indeed been integral to Thai culture for hundreds of years. Buddhists believe that the Buddha was born after his mother Maya dreamt of a white elephant. Traditionally, Thai kings would ride into battle on elephants: in a particularly famous duel, taught to all Thai children at school, King Naresuan defeated the Burmese Prince Minchit Sra in 1592. Their confrontation became known as the ‘Yuddhahatthi’, or the ‘elephant battle’. For almost a century (before the current striped tricolour design), the Thai flag depicted a white elephant
The Prime Minister’s pledge made international headlines, though unfortunately it may not be quite as groundbreaking as it appears. Yingluck’s proposal contains three steps, though two of them merely describe existing policy (“First, the Government has enhanced intelligence and customs cooperation... Second, we are strictly enforcing the current legal frameworks”).
Photo by: msnbcmedia
against a red background. Even today, white elephants are still revered as symbols of royal power; the current king, Rama IX, owns ten of them. Thailand’s current association with elephants is somewhat less auspicious. The country has become one of the world’s most notorious hubs for ivory smuggling. As Yingluck admitted, with significant understatement: “Unfortunately, many have used Thailand as a transit country for the illegal international ivory trade.” Yingluck vowed to crack down on illegal smuggling, and
outlined a three-step plan to deal with the issue: • “First, the Government has enhanced intelligence and customs cooperation with foreign countries, which has helped limit the smuggling of ivory from African elephants.” • “Second, we are strictly enforcing the current legal frameworks, by limiting the supply of ivory products to only those made from domestic elephants which is legal under the current legislation... This can be done by enforcing comprehensive and system-wide registration of both the domestic elephants and ivory products
Yingluck asserts that her government “has helped limit the smuggling of ivory from African elephants”, though this is at odds with Thailand’s continued reputation as a centre for the illegal ivory trade. Her only commitment for future action was to “work towards amending the national legislation with the goal of putting an end to the ivory trade”, though she did not indicate how or when this would be done. Ben Janse van Rensburg, CITES head of enforcement, is pessimistic about the prospect of imminent progress from Thailand. “If there is any phasing out of their domestic market, it is likely to be a very long process,” he said, after Yingluck’s speech. Dr William Schaedla, Southeast Asia Regional Director of TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring organisation working in partnership with CITES, is critical though hopeful. In an article about Thailand and ivory
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and thereby further exposing illegal ivory trade and products.” • “Third, as a next step we will work towards amending the national legislation with the goal of putting an end to the ivory trade and to be in line with international norms. This will help protect all forms of elephants including Thailand’s wild and domestic elephants and those from Africa.”
for Al Jazeera, he writes: “Thailand is one of three countries that we believe is failing to address the global illegal trade in ivory. The other two, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are ivory suppliers. Thailand is an ivory consumer, processor and reexporter.”
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In his article, Dr Schaedla itemises the reasons behind Thailand’s thriving black market for ivory: “Thailand lacks a credible live elephant traceability and registration system, much less one for ivory that purportedly derives from legal captive elephants. Thailand’s ivory stockpiles have never been properly inventoried, and no national database of ivory objects exists. Also, Thailand’s domestic elephants produce comparatively small quantities of ivory. Female Asian elephants do not have tusks, and male Asian elephants tend to have smaller tusks than their African counterparts. All of these factors make it highly doubtful that the
Photo by: Sakchai Lalit,The Associated Press
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ivory seen on Thailand’s open market is generated locally.” Dr Schaedla is ultimately optimistic: “a national ban on ivory sales could come quickly. It is the clearest means to ending decimation of Africa’s elephants and it will give the world a strong message about Thailand’s commitment to CITES. You have a problem Thailand, but you can fix it.” It remains to be seen whether any future crackdown on smuggling will substantially reduce the problem, though on past form this is unfortunately quite unlikely. Successive Thai governments have launched periodic crackdowns on corruption, the sex industry, counterfeiting, traffic violations, and other perennial problems, though - after an initial publicity blitz and a few token arrests the status quo invariably continues. CITES instigated a worldwide ban on African ivory in 1989, and Thailand is one of 178
countries that recognise and enforce the ban. Ivory from domestic Thai elephants, however, can currently be legally sold within Thailand, provided that the elephant died of natural causes. Smugglers exploit this law by passing off illegal African ivory as Thai. Elephants have been a legally protected species in Thailand since 1921, when the Wild Elephant Protection Act banned the killing of wild elephants. The Draught Animal Act of 1939 permits the sale of domesticated elephants and their ivory. TRAFFIC has carried out several large-scale surveys of Thailand’s ivory industry. Their 2009 report by Daniel Stiles, titled The Elephant And Ivory Trade In Thailand, observed that “Thailand still has one of the largest and most active ivory industries seen anywhere in the world.” In 2001, TRAFFIC identified 88,000 ivory ornaments on sale
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has petitioned Yingluck, urging her to ban domestic ivory sales in Thailand. WWF claims that Thailand is “the biggest unregulated market for ivory in the world... massive quantities of illegal African ivory are being laundered through Thai shops. To save Africa’s elephants it is essential that Thailand closes this legal loophole.”
within Thailand, though by 2007 that number had shrunk to 23,000. This was a substantial reduction, though TRAFFIC noted that “The illegal trade in live elephants and ivory still flourishes in Thailand in spite of efforts by both the international community and local authorities to address problems in law enforcement and compliance with existing laws and CITES regulations.”
“Poaching is spreading primarily as a result of a rising demand for illegal ivory in the rapidly growing economies of Asia, particularly China and Thailand, which are the two major end-use markets globally... The two primary final destinations for this illicit trade are China and Thailand... The two countries most heavily implicated as destinations for illicit trade in ivory are China and Thailand.”
CITES maintains two programmes specifically dedicated to uncovering and preventing the ivory trade, Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) and the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS). They released a report on the illegal ivory industry, titled Elephants In The Dust: The African Elephant Crisis, published in co-operation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Inter national Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network).
The CITES report is particularly damning about the Thai ivory trade: “Bangkok, Thailand, has one of the largest illegal ivory markets in the world.” It also notes Thailand’s role in the sale of live elephants: “There is also concern about the growing illegal international trade in live Asian elephants, particularly involving Thailand and Myanmar.”
The report, edited by Christian Nellemann, repeatedly names and shames China and Thailand as the two main centres for illegal ivory:
Thailand is given limited credit in the report, following successful customs seizures of imported ivory. However, the report highlights the problem created by Thailand’s continued tolerance of the domestic ivory trade: “improved law enforcement action at Thailand’s ports of entry demonstrates important progress, but loopholes in Thai
WWF’s petition states: “Dear Prime Minister Shinawatra... Demand for illegal ivory products could drive the species to extinction in Africa, and Thailand’s elephants could be next. You can save them. We urge you to ban all ivory trade in Thailand to give elephants their best chance of survival.” Leonardo DiCaprio, who filmed The Beach in Thailand, has leant his support to an ivory ban. A WWF commercial quotes him as saying: “I am joining WWF and others calling on Thailand’s government to show leadership on elephant conservation by shutting down its ivory market.” The WWF petition with 500,000 signatures (only half of WWF’s one million target) was presented to the Prime Minister, though her response was rather dismissive. She implied that current legislation was sufficient: “We already have the existing laws to protect wildlife, and elephants are culturally important to Thailand.” She then vaguely agreed to “take the issues raised by WWF into consideration”, which unfortunately seems like a euphemism for kicking the can down the road.
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legislation remain a serious impediment to effective control of its ivory retail market.”
Excerpts from an exclusive interview, at the Queen Sirikit Centre, where the CITES conference was held: How important is the CITES conference for the world-wide trade in wildlife?
“It was a historic conference!” By Lekha Shankar
Will Travers and his mother Virginia McKenna
Exclusive Interview with Will Travers, OBE, CEO of the Born Free Foundation
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he recent two-week Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) held in Bangkok was attended by more than 2,000 members, who deliberated at length on the international trade in wildlife and plant species, and passed new rules aimed at better protecting and conserving them. Among the internationally renowned wildlife experts who attended the conference was Will Travers, President of the Species
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Survival Network (SSN), a coalition of nearly 100 organizations committed to the strict enforcement of the CITES resolutions. Travers is also the CEO of the Born Free Foundation, a global animal advocacy organization, named after the great film Born Free made by his parents Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers in 1966, that caught the attention of the whole world. Travers was awarded an OBE last year, for Services to Conservation and Animal Welfare.
Without doubt, this is the most important global meeting for wildlife trade, especially as it happens only once in three years. The decisions made are internationally binding and determine how the trade in wild species of animals and plants will be conducted in the next three years. Unlike many international conventions, CITES is vitally important because its decisions are supported by international law and every member country has to implement them. How important is the conference for Bangkok? Very significant, because this is the first time that we’ve held the conference [again] in the same city. We had the CITES Conference here in 2004, and everyone was impressed by how well it was organised. That’s why we were pleased to be back again, this year, and everyone has again been impressed by the Thais’ unstinted hospitality . How does Thailand fare, in the wildlife scenario? Well, Thailand has a mixed reputation. A huge problem here is with the ivory trade, as also the captive breeding of tigers, together with the trade in turtles and rosewood. I’m happy that the turtles and rosewood got additional protection at this conference. How does the Asian region figure in the wildlife trade? Sadly, SE Asia and the Far East are heavily implicated in the illegal trade. With many species
Are you happy with the deliberations ? Yes, I think this was a historic conference. At our last conferences in Qatar (2010) and the Hague (2007), we considered sharks and tree species, but could not secure the votes necessary to bring them the additional protection needed. However, here, decisions on five species of sharks and dozens of types of rosewood were taken, some of them by consensus. The Thai rosewood benefitted by this. But I was disappointed that [the] polar bear did not get the support for better protection. Will it be easy to implement the permits specified by the conference?
Well, the countries are given a fixed time-period to get cracking and, of course, effective enforcement is key. There is a move to make the permits and certificates electronic, to render them more secure. But that’s also challenging, as many developing countries don’t have the infrastructure for electronic devices. We need both systems, in parallel. Having attended many such conferences, what are your feelings about the wildlife situation today? This is my tenth conference! At my first conference, there were only 72 member countries, but now, we have 178 members. People are much more environment-conscious now. They also realise that the environment and wildlife are closely linked. This change of attitude is really important . Which are the countries that are doing most impressive work for the protection of wild life species? I was in Costa Rica recently, and was very impressed to see how much of the land is protected there . There’s no legal sport hunting, no timber exports, and a lot of money is spent to protect the environment. Their living standards have trebled and they have
become a world-leader in environmental protection. What about Kenya, where you lived as a youngster? In Kenya,12% of the GDP comes from wildlife tourism, and more than six million acres are officially protected as reserves and national parks. Thanks to their hard efforts, their elephant population has doubled. I spent a long time there, when I was young, and when my parents made the film Born Free. There has not been another brilliant film like that about wildlife, has there? Well, many have tried to make a sequel but the original is still the one that stands out. Films like Free Willy did make people think about animals and wildlife. What other methods are you using to spread awareness for the protection of wildlife? Through social media, of course. The Born Free Foundation, which I’m heading, is using Facebook and Twitter a lot, and the Born Free song has recently been re-recorded with Brian May, who will do a Born Free Tour too. The CITES conference may only happen once in three years, but I travel around the world throughout the year, to keep track of all the decisions taken at the conference. In conclusion, can we say that tourism-initiatives should also change, to protect the environment and wildlife? Absolutely, we cannot view wildlife issues in isolation. They are very much part of the ecosystem. That’s why responsible tourism that cares for animals, the environment and people is the catch-word of today.
07 Photo by: maplecroft.com
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of both animal and plant destined for China, that country is a leading consumer market. For example, with the crisis in tiger numbers, lion body parts are being used in China and the Far East, for traditional medicines. So, the wild lion numbers have fallen by 50%. Then, there are the producers. Africa is a leading source of ivory, rhino horn, and other wildlife items. India did well to ban the trade in ivory. In fact, in spite of its slow-moving bureaucracy and huge human population, India has done a lot to protect the environment and wildlife species population. When it comes to tigers, Russia is trying hard too.
Myanmar and The CITES Conference in Bangkok
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By Anu Seth
Thai activists hold posters urging people to stop the trading of tigers during the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, in Bangkok Sunday / Photo by The Associated Press
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he recently concluded wildlife meeting in Bangkok of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species is likely to have far-reaching implications for wildlife in neighboring Myanmar. The CITES conference saw Myanmar represented by Htut Ye and Thaw Win Naing, both from the Department of Forests, from the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry. The pledge to end Thailand’s flourishing ivory trade might just save the Burmese wild Asian elephants that have been targeted for illegal cross-border trade. The second-largest population of Asian wild elephants is found in Myanmar, after India, but numbers are dwindling with only 2500-3000 of them left in the wild, according to the
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Photo by iisd.ca
Ministry of Environmental Conservation. The Director of its Nature and Wildlife Division, U Win Naing Thaw, attributes this trend to the decline in the male elephant population, hunted for their tusks. Wild elephants find their natural habitats threatened due to human encroachment as Myanmar opens its doors for tourism and industrialization. Elephants are also illegally traded to supply some 150 elephant camps in Thailand where they are used for tourism purposes. Myanmar, it should be noted, figures in the CITES list of ‘red’ countries - alongside Laos and Thailand - due to its inability to comply and enforce regulations made mandatory to curb and eventually end ivory markets. As a CITES member, and as a large habitat for wild Asian elephants, it will have to make concerted efforts to protect and preserve these animals. CITES members are not permitted to trade in living animals, their parts or products made out of them. It is upsetting therefore to find ivory products being sold openly in markets in Yangon
and other cities like Mandalay, Myawaddy and Muse. Dealers themselves are oblivious to the ban and laws regarding ivory trade, and make hefty profits through sales mainly to Japanese, Chinese and Thai customers. Only a small percentage of ivory sold in places like Myanmar and Thailand comes from legal trade sources, which permit the use of tusks of dead elephants. Similarly, illicitly acquired elephants are used to supplement the legal supply of elephants that feeds the demand for the animals. The British Charity organization Elephant Family has estimated that around 50-100 wild baby elephants are sold annually from Myanmar, most of which end up in Thailand. Corrupt officials facilitate the process. Unfortunately, overshadowed by the larger problem of the poaching of African elephants, Asian elephant issues take second place. The sorry plight of these helpless animals is to be blamed equally on the countries of origin, transit and destination, which make poaching possible
and successful. The Burmese government has enacted strict laws to nab culprits convicted of animal poaching and curb this illegal trade. A National Wildlife Law Enforcement Task Force was established in 2007 and more forest rangers were recruited. Another topic of discussion centered on the declining tiger population in Myanmar and other Asian countries. Tiger populations are fast declining due to the loss of the animals’ habitat, urbanization requiring forest clearing, and hunting for tigers to use in traditional medicine. Myanmar is one of thirteen tiger range countries but, unlike neighboring India, does not have detailed records of their exact number, and the number poached for trade. However, as a CITES member Myanmar will have to submit a detailed plan as to how it will protect these wild Asian cats. With laws that remain imprecise, and implementation not always strict, it may be a long time before the future of the tigers can be secured in the country.
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Big Business puts Wildlife Protection under Pressure
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Business & Economy
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Property for Sale
Big Business puts Wildlife Protection under Pressure By Graham Lees
Luxury Condominiums in the City
Photo by biodiversityyouth.blogspot.com
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hark fins fetch up to US$600 a kilogramme in China. Rare otter skins a mere US$400 apiece. But Thai rosewood is the big prize at US$50,000 per cubic metre. These are the sort of black market prices that wildlife protection agencies are up against
in their battle to stop the illegal smuggling and trade in increasingly rare species of animals and plants. It’s a problem that was addressed with fine words and promises of action at the recent conference in Bangkok of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
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Photo by terrywhittaker.com
(CITES). However, enforcing internationally agreed laws to stop this lucrative, murky trade is a much tougher task. Just weeks before the CITES conference, an oversized suitcase full of rare live otters was seized at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. The protected smooth-coated otters and oriental small-clawed otters had been drugged to keep them quiet, but someone had tipped off the courier and the luggage was abandoned without any traceable identification. According to William Schaedla, South-East Asia director of the wildlife-monitoring organization TRAFFIC, “Otter skins have been interdicted in trade elsewhere in Asia, but live otters are a new development as far as we know. Yet another species we know little about is in danger from wildlife traffickers.” “It is great to see that frontline officers in Thailand are maintaining vigilance. However there
must be more intelligence-led investigations that will arrest the problem at source,” says Schaedla. The otters intercepted in Bangkok are an example of the sort of challenges faced by state and international agencies in the increasingly sophisticated battle between law enforcement and illegal traders. Porous jungle borders, corrupt officials, and bold smugglers prepared – and paid enough – to take calculated risks, all exacerbate the problem. At the CITES gathering in Bangkok, delegates voted in favour of new protection for sharks hounded for their fins, and a variety of trees, including rosewood which is much sought-after by new middleclass households across Asia keen to decorate their homes in fashionable styles. “CITES [moving] into regulating the international trade in fishing and forestry products affects many more people than in the past,” said the BBC’s
environment correspondent Matt McGrath. “Perhaps the most important people affected are finance ministers in governments around the world. We’re now seeing CITES having an impact on areas that raise revenue and feed people. And what makes the treaty significant is that it has real teeth.” CITES rules state that members who break the collective responsibility code face international sanctions. “Imagine how you’d respond if you were a finance minister in a country that was suddenly facing a ban on your international trading in timber or fish because you hadn’t taken care of a species of frog?” McGrath said. That’s an example of the international action against uncooperative countries, but there are also internal pressures in individual countries. In Thailand, more than 60% of the country’s rosewood has been hacked down and stolen
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Photo by allthingsandersoncooper.com
since 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture admitted. In 2005, a survey estimated 300,000 trees were left in northern forests. In 2012, the figure was revised down to 100,000. This volume of timber isn’t smuggled through airports of course. It’s hauled over remote, jungle borders or pushed across river boundaries in secret or in collusion with local, corrupt officials. All the same, Suvarnabhumi Airport has unwillingly become a major gateway for smuggling rare animals and plants, often to be sold for the shelves of Chinese medicine shops. This trade in supplying the traditional medicine market is hard to cost in dollar terms. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has calculated that globally it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The parts of dozens of animal species are found in potions used in traditional Chinese medicine believed to cure illnesses, maintain good health or provide extra strength. Tiger and leopard bones supposedly cure joint ailments. Bear bile is allegedly good for the liver. The glands of musk
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deer and rhinoceros horn apparently improve blood circulation. Rhino horn powder is also believed by many Chinese to cure cancer. Needless to say, there is no scientific evidence to verify these properties. The black market price for rhino horn is US$25,000 for half a kilogramme. Bear bile powder is US$410 per kilogramme in China, said the magazine Science-Based Medicine. But while the CITES Bangkok conference made progress in bringing more endangered species under the protection of international rules, some wildlife agencies believed chances were missed to expand the protective umbrella to big mammals under threat from poachers. It failed to “put the brakes” on the poaching of elephants, tigers and rhinos, said the Wildlife Protection Agency of India, and the Freeland Foundation, a Bangkok based NGO. “Poaching and trafficking of elephants, tigers and rhinos is at crisis levels, yet domestic trade is still allowed and international trade in the body parts of these critically endangered animals is still being negotiated,” the two agencies said in a
statement. “Some experts and governments are sending mixed messages to consumers, traders, and the law enforcement community,” said Freeland’s Steven Galster. “They are advocating for demand-reduction efforts on one hand, while discussing legalisation of trade in endangered species on the other. “Unfortunately, approval and continued negotiations of so-called limited legal trade in elephants and rhinos has rekindled what had been a dying market for ivory and rhino horn. Trade in tiger skins and bones is also still going on in China, permitting legal trade in skins from captive-bred tigers to supply a growing luxury market for exotic home décor,” Galster said. In India, domestic laws have helped to dramatically reduce the demand for elephant ivory for use in making religious items and wedding bangles. One of the world’s worst regions for wildlife smuggling is Southeast Asia, prompting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create its own protection force known as ASEAN-WEN – for Wildlife Enforcement Network. ASEAN recently described the rising levels of black market trade in endangered animals and plants as “alarming”. ASEAN-WEN describes itself as the world’s largest wildlife law enforcement network involving the police, customs and environment agencies of all ten ASEAN member countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. Whether their collective strength is a match for the wellfinanced black market remains to be seen.
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BUSINESS & ECONOMY Compiled By Xavier Segura
3 lessons we can all learn from Cyprus’ financial crisis The tiny nation’s leaders are rushing to prevent a banking collapse. And they’ve already given the world a lesson in what not to do
Cypriot shop owners chat about the disturbing financial state of their island nation on March 22. Photo by REUTERS
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yprus’ leaders are grasping for a new bailout plan to save their country from financial collapse. After Cypriot lawmakers rejected a $13 billion European bailout because it included a controversial tax on savings accounts in Cypriot banks, Russia, where many of the banks’ wealthiest depositors live, rejected the Mediterranean island nation’s pleas for help. The one-time levy would have raised $7.5 billion that Europe is demanding to help fund the rescue. Now the European Union is threatening to let the country go under if it doesn’t come up with a new plan by Monday. The country’s leaders are determined to find a solution. “The coming hours will seal our fate,” a government spokesman
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said. “The country must be saved.” Whatever happens, Cyprus might be serving as a cautionary tale that, rather than threatening to hurt the U.S. economy, can teach Americans valuable lessons. Here are three of them: 1. Don’t overestimate your bargaining power “Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins,” says Hugo Dixon at The New York Times. This is a country that keeps making the same mistake. “The Cypriots seem congenitally inclined to overestimate their negotiating position.” They rejected the United Nations’ plan in 2004 for uniting their island, divided in two since a 1974 Turkish invasion. The last Communist government did nothing to shore up Cyprus’ finances, thinking
itself immune as “the crisis in Greece threatened to swamp Cyprus.” Then the new centerright president, Nicos Anastasiades, “managed to turn a crisis into a disaster” by thinking he could go along with the plan to impose an automatic 6.75 percent tax on insured depositors. When the president found he couldn’t sell the deposit grab to his people, he backtracked. There was jubilation in the streets. How quickly the mood has changed now that lines have started forming outside cash machines. The Cypriot government then asked Russia for help. But again Nicosia overestimated its negotiating position. Moscow wasn’t interested in buying a bankrupt bank or lending more money. [New York Times]
“Don’t let the recent events in Cyprus scare you,” says Helaine Olen at Britain’s Guardian. “Misleading pundits” are all over our TV screens shouting, “Today: Cyprus. Tomorrow: The world.” That’s ridiculous. When you hear scare mongering on TV, change the channel. The fact is the United States is in a very different position from Cyprus and, for that matter, the other European countries thought to be most at risk of being next in the crisis parade: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Why are we different? The United States government controls its own currency. This is what has allowed the Federal Reserve to engage in round after round of quantitative easing to bring the United States economy back from the brink in 2008. So there is no way another country could come along and tell us we need to “tax” our account holders. Nor would our government do it either. Why would it? It can just print more of it. Cyprus, when it went over to the euro and gave up control of its currency, lost that right. [Guardian] 3. There really is no such thing as a free lunch “Even if you have zero exposure to the euro, the sad tale of Cyprus teaches investors about important old and new realities,” says James Saft at
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2. Never overreact to other people’s problems
Photo by AP/Thanassis Stavrakis
Reuters. The tiny euro nation off the coast of Greece “has been a favored haven for billions of euros from mostly Russian investors,” but now it’s facing a financial meltdown. Some haven. The lesson here is that “there is still no free lunch,” and even if an offshore haven saves you money in taxes, it might wind up costing you dearly in the end. Investments can be high-reward, or low-risk — but they can’t be both. Depositors in Cyprus’ banks learned that one the hard way. “It would behoove international investors to take note as well.” While deposits in Cyprus banks are insured to up to 100,000 euros, and any policy which violates the spirit of that is an outrage, the truth is that depositors should have known better. And here I am not even talking about an in-depth analysis of a bank’s balance sheet, or even spending one’s
time reading about the euro crisis and its potential knock-on effects. There was a very easy way that everyone with money in a Cyprus bank could tell they were sitting at the end of a very long limb: The deal was too good. Deposit rates for euro accounts in Cyprus were recently at 4.45 percent, as against just 1.5 percent in banks in Germany. In fact, a depositor who put one euro each in a typical German and Cyprus bank five years ago would have enjoyed nearly twice the cumulative returns, according to central bank data.
theweek.co.uk
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Pope Francis prepares to deliver his blessing to the palms and to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square during Palm Sunday Mass on March 24, 2013 in Vatican City,Vatican. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The Jesuits: ‘God’s marines’
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ho are the Jesuits?
Formally called the Society of Jesus, they are the largest single religious order in the Catholic Church. The society was founded in Paris in 1534 by St. Ignatius Loyola, a Basque soldier who discovered his faith while recuperating from a cannonball wound. He and six fellow students at the University of Paris, including St. Francis Xavier, dedicated themselves to serving the pope as missionary soldiers of Christ. The order was originally organized along military lines, under the leadership of a “Father General.” Early followers named themselves “The Company of Jesus,” and were nicknamed “God’s Marines,” for their willingness to go anywhere in the world at the pope’s command. Pope Paul III recognized them as an order in 1540; today there are over 20,000 Jesuits, including missionaries, teachers, and scholars.
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Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has become the first Jesuit pope in Catholic Church history. How will that influence him? What are they known for? Primarily, for their missionary zeal and love for education. Inspired by the Renaissance, Loyola believed the best way of spreading God’s word was through establishing Catholic schools. The huge success of a college in Messina, Sicily, prompted him to send members of the order out into Europe and beyond to inaugurate schools, universities, and seminaries. By the time he died, in 1556, the Jesuits had founded 74 colleges in Ireland, Germany, Poland, Egypt, India, and Japan. Today, they run 189 colleges across the globe, with 28 in the United States, including Georgetown University and Boston College. Jesuit colleges emphasize freethinking and theological debate, which is why more-conservative Catholics consider the order to be
dangerously independent. Vincent O’Keefe, an American Jesuit and a former acting Father General, used to joke that Catholics believe “the Jesuits know everything — but nothing else.” Are they respected? They haven’t always been. The Jesuits certainly were well regarded during the 16th and 17th centuries, when they were viewed as the most pious and most intellectual of priests. Kings of France chose Jesuit confessors for 200 years. But as Catholic Europe disintegrated amid much palace intrigue, the Jesuits’ obedience to the papacy made them many enemies. Jesuits were widely viewed as conniving manipulators, and Father Generals were dismissively known as “Black Popes” for their supposed control of the Va t i c a n . A n t i - Ca t h o l i c s
What’s their current reputation? The Jesuits are still viewed within the church as the most liberal of the clerical orders, with a rebellious bent. Because of their missionary work, particularly in Latin America, the Jesuits developed strong sympathy for desperately poor people subjugated by colonial or military governments. In 1974, the society decreed that its mission was the “service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement.” For some priests, this led naturally to a leftist movement called “liberation theology,” which champions a
revolutionary class struggle pitting the people against the powerful and wealthy. Some Jesuits actually fought alongside communist guerrillas in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In 1981, Pope John Paul II, aghast at the political direction the order was taking, overrode the Jesuits’ nominee for Father General and appointed a pontifical delegate of his own. That created a split between Jesuits and the Vatican that has not been fully repaired. Will Francis be a Jesuit pope? On matters of sexual morality and the role of women, Bergoglio is first and foremost a traditionalist, and not a reformer. In Argentina, he also distanced himself from the liberation theology movement, warning priests it was far too political. Still, Francis shares the Jesuits’ intense identification with the poor and powerless; he has called “the unjust distribution of goods” a “social sin that cries out to Heaven.” There’s little doubt that Bergoglio’s Jesuit concern for social inequality will guide the Vatican’s direction in coming years. Like other Jesuits, he also has little regard for hierarchy in itself and the trappings of power; he traveled to work in Buenos Aires by
public transport. Those who know him say that the new pope will use his position to do what Jesuits have always done — evangelize, especially in the church’s new center of gravity in the Southern Hemisphere. The election of a Jesuit as pope sends a powerful message, said Father Kevin O’Brien, a Jesuit who is vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University. “The church has been sidetracked by sexual and financial scandals. Now, it’s about getting back to the basics. It’s about preaching the gospel and helping the poor.” The Jesuits’ achievements
worldly
Jesuits have been among the most fervent missionaries in history, evangelizing across the globe — and in the process, making a huge impact on the secular world. Jesuit explorers founded the city of São Paulo, located the source of the Blue Nile, and charted the Amazon and Mississippi rivers. Jesuit missionaries brought rhubarb, quinine, vanilla, and ginseng back from Asia and South America, and are believed to have introduced the umbrella to the West. The order’s emphasis on learning has also helped it make significant strides in human knowledge. A Jesuit mathematician, Christopher Clavius, created the modern Gregorian calendar, while Jesuit scientist Athanasius Kircher was the first to discover that the bubonic plague was spread by microorganisms. There are 35 craters on the moon named after Jesuit scientists and astronomers. Less well known, perhaps, is their contribution to the theater: A 17th-century Jesuit teacher is thought to have invented the trap door. theweek.com
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suspected the order of plotting to overturn governments at the pope’s command. The order was eventually dissolved by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, at the urging of anti-clerical kings of Europe. The Jesuits survived in Russia and Prussia, until the pope’s edict was rescinded in 1814. But suspicion lingered. “If ever there was a body of men who merited eternal damnation on Earth and in hell, it is this society of Loyola’s,” wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in 1816. Adams feared the Jesuits would try to undermine the new republic’s separation of church and state.
Why Obama’s legacy doesn’t need a grand bargain History yawns at budget deals
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he prevailing narrative in Wa s h i n g t o n suggests that President Barack Obama’s legacy depends on forging a “grand bargain” with Republicans that cuts the projected growth of Social Security and Medicare in exchange for more tax revenue. Former White House fiscal commission co-chair Alan Simpson said it bluntly last month: “If he doesn’t get a handle on the entitlements and the solvency of Social Security … the scorecard in years to come was, he failed.” Slate’s John Dickerson said that a “grand budget deal” would “light up the history books.” TIME’s Mark Halperin similarly asserted, “a president with a great sense of history and an eye on the clock knows it is now or never … The elusive grand bargain now seems in reach.”
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There’s one problem with such claims: History yawns at budget deals. Ronald Reagan is heralded for winning the Cold War, not for the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Lyndon Johnson is lionized for the Civil Rights Act and Medicare, not for salvaging John F. Kennedy’s stalled tax cut proposal. Dwight Eisenhower The president may want to make a deal — but he doesn’t need to make a deal. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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progressive income tax, and Franklin Roosevelt codified labor rights. We are still living in a diverse society because Truman desegregated the military, Eisenhower helped desegregate the schools, and Johnson broadly outlawed racial discrimination. But budget deals? They come and go.
is remembered for building the interstate highway system. Few recall his successful wrangling with a Democratic Congress to reduce spending and balance the budget in 1959. There is a reason why budget deals rarely merit legacy status: They don’t stick. An accomplishment can’t be a legacy if it isn’t still around. We are still driving on Eisenhower’s highways, vacationing in Teddy Roosevelt’s national parks, and retiring on Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security and Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare. We are still living in a freer world because Harry Truman had a plan to contain Communism and Reagan (through a stranger set of circumstances than most people realize) finished the job. We are still living in a fairer society because Teddy Roosevelt busted the trusts, Woodrow Wilson established the
Consider Reagan’s 1986 tax reform. Pundits of a certain age, nostalgic for bipartisanship, wistfully cite the tale of Reagan’s laboring alongside Democrats like Speaker Tip O’Neill and Sen. Bill Bradley to flatten and simplify the code. But what has happened since? The centerpiece of the law, a top income tax rate of 28 percent, was partially reversed by his next two successors, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, then partially returned by George W. Bush, and, just recently, partially reversed once again by Obama. That rate now rests at 40 percent. And that doesn’t count Obama’s other new surcharges on the wealthy, making the tax code the most progressive since Reagan’s inaugural. Furthermore, there have been more than 15,000 changes in tax law since 1986, unraveling Reagan’s attempt at simplification.
mass panic about the state of Social Security and Medicare will argue that failing to strike a grand bargain will lead to their collapse, leaving Obama with a Calvin Coolidge-esque legacy, condemned for sleeping on the job while disaster loomed. But whatever your opinion is regarding the necessity to refor m our entitlement programs, no one can plausibly argue that they are imminently doomed. The most recent Social Security Trustees report offers an “intermediate” projection in which the program’s reserves are depleted in 20 years. That would not bankrupt Social Security, despite what you often hear. It just means the program would be solely reliant on payroll taxes from current workers, which would only generate enough revenue to pay out 75 percent of promised retiree benefits. And that’s only the “intermediate” projection. They also make a “low-cost” projection — in which unemployment is lower and interest rates are higher, among other things — where Social Security’s reserves are never depleted in the next 75 years. You may not want to bet all your money on the most optimistic scenario, but the trustees have a record of being “overly pessimistic,” according to The New York Times Magazine’s Roger Lowenstein. Besides, these projections bounce around. During the past two decades, the intermediate projection has pegged the year of depletion between 2029 and 2042. It’s at the low end now because of the aftermath of the 2008 market crash and the subsequent Great Recession. But that could change. Even it if doesn’t, doomsday isn’t tomorrow. The argument of the Social Security reformers is: better to
gradually phase in benefit cuts than to abruptly slash them 20 years from now. The argument of the Social Security protectors is: we don’t know that we’ll have to slash benefits 20 years from now, and we have time to find out. Maybe you think the reformers have the better argument, but if Obama lets one of his successors make that call, his legacy won’t mind. On Medicare, according to last year’s trustees report, Obama has already extended the solvency of its trust fund into 2024. That’s thanks to one of the legacy achievements Obama has already banked: ObamaCare. More reforms will be likely needed to make our overall health care system cost-efficient and further reduce Medicare spending, but ObamaCare is packed with cost-control experiments that haven’t been fully implemented yet. There is time to see how they work and to learn as we go. Presidential legacies are built on achievements that last. Major new programs. Grand public works projects. Equal rights advancements. Transformational foreign policy breakthroughs. Obama has already pocketed a number of these. Creating ObamaCare. Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Bagging bin Laden. No doubt, he wants more. He’s close on landmark immigration reform. He’s farther away on climate — an actual imminent crisis — though it’s clearly in his sights. But a grand budget deal? In Obama’s own words to ABC News, if he doesn’t get one, “that won’t create a crisis. It just means that we will have missed an opportunity.” Obama may want it. He may even get it. But he knows he doesn’t need it. theweek.com
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Or take Bill Clinton’s budget surpluses. While they make for great Democratic talking points, Clinton’s obituaries are unlikely to be headlined: “Bill Clinton, President Who Balanced Budgets.” Why? Because that surplus barely lasted two seconds before George W. Bush spent it on tax cuts for the rich. As one former Clinton aide lamented, “what we turned out to have done, in the end, was to enable George W. Bush’s rightwing class war.” The swing from surplus to deficit was particularly dramatic from Clinton to Bush. But other presidents who left office with hard-fought surpluses — such as Johnson and Eisenhower — are not lauded in history for their ability to line up a budget ledger. Their surpluses didn’t last either. Might it be grander than a budget surplus for Obama to save Social Security and Medicare from insolvency? Putting aside for the moment the debate over whether either program is actually in crisis, remember this: History shrugs at the housekeeping task of maintaining what we already have. Reagan is not remembered as “the man who saved Social Security,” and Obama is being pressed to do basically what Reagan did in 1983: extend the solvency of Social Security by increasing the retirement age, taxing the wealthy, and futzing with the cost-of-living adjustment. In Lou Cannon’s definitive biography of Reagan’s presidential years, this achievement received about a paragraph, and was dismissively characterized as “tinkering at the margins.” Reagan may have helped maintain Social Security. But it’s Franklin Roosevelt who is remembered for creating Social Security. Of course, those like Alan Simpson trying to stoke
Making money: Tricks for Working from Home, and More 3 top pieces of financial advice — from traveling affordably to avoiding tax refund theft
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raveling affordably If you’re vacationing on a budget, there are some smart ways to save money, said Farnoosh Torabi at Yahoo. First, time your vacation right — try to arrive before or after high season to take advantage of lower rates. Skip the hotel and rent a condo or home instead. Check out sites like VRBO.com, HomeAway. com, and VacationRentals.com to deal with property owners directly. If you are staying in a hotel, skip the travel website and call the hotel instead — you might find “even better, perhaps exclusive, deals.” That goes for airfare, too. Since not all flight options are listed online, “it’s best to call the airline agent to see if they have, for example, any positioning flights going to your destination.”
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Avoiding tax refund theft Identity thieves love to scam the IRS, but there are some steps you can take to protect yourself, said Linda Stern at Reuters. Since the IRS “usually pays out refunds without digging too deeply into the identity of the filer,” it helps to file your return as early as possible. That way, if an identity thief tries to cash in on your refund later, the IRS will automatically reject the filing and it won’t go through. Watch out for emails claiming to be from the IRS or tax preparers
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Just because you’re not in the office doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be part of the team. Photo by ThinkStock/Photodisc
like H&R Block or TurboTax, and never click on links about your taxes. If you’ve had identity theft problems in the past, file an IRS Form 14039, also known as an Identity Theft Affidavit; it will flag your tax return so that the agency makes sure it’s yours. And be sure to “take all of the usual ID-protection steps” — shred sensitive papers, password-protect your data, and keep those receipts. Tricks for working from home If you’re one of the 13 million Americans who work remotely, there are ways to work from home and still be part of the office, said Beth Braverman at CNNMoney. Overcompensate for being out of sight by returning
all calls and emails as quickly as possible. Carve out time to chat with co-workers “about nonwork stuff like family or weekend plans,” so they think of you as part of the crew. And when a major deadline or important meeting pops up, “haul your keister into the office,” especially if the company is struggling. “No matter what your performance level, it’s a lot easier for a boss to let go of someone that he doesn’t see on a regular basis,” said Stephen Viscusi, a New York City recruiter. theweek.com
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7 of the world’s most infamous tax havens And why they’re so enticing to wealthy folks who don’t want to give their money to the government
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hy waste time and money with international tax havens when good old Delaware has essentially no requirements for creating a corporation. Thinkstock Cyprus has been all over the news of late, after the tax haven of choice for many super-wealthy Russians very narrowly avoided financial collapse by scoring a European bailout. But, as British journalist Nick Shaxson tells MSNBC.com, Cyprus is only one of 50 or 60 countries that “have made a strategy out of being a
tax haven.” Chances are, if you are wealthy individual or international corporation, you probably have money in one of those countries. Here, seven of the best known: Cyprus Population: 1,155,403 GDP: $23.57 billion Tax incentives: A 10 percent corporate tax rate and a generally opaque business environment. Foreign cash: At least $26 billion, mostly from Russian oligarchs, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Famous “resident”: Gennady Timchenko. Bloomberg reports that despite the fact that his company, Guvnor, is legally located in Cyprus and experiences $87 billion in annual turnover, Timchenko claims he had “only a few hundred thousand euros” in Cypriot banks. Luxembourg Population: 514,862 GDP: $42.19 billion Tax incentives: According to Reuters, Luxembourg offers an effective tax rate of under 6 percent by exempting “income a
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company earns through intellectual property.” Its position in the European Union is also attractive to businesses that want to sell throughout Europe without any red tape. Foreign cash: American business profits were 208 percent of Luxembourg’s GDP in 2008, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. Famous “resident”: Amazon, which calls its Luxembourg office its European headquarters. Since 2005, the company has accrued “tax-free cash worth more than $2 billion,” according to Reuters. Bermuda Population: 69,467 GDP: $4.5 billion Tax incentives: No corporate income tax. Also, as Bloomberg reports, a legal loophole lets insurance companies move cash through Bermuda with no financial penalty from the IRS. Foreign cash: Around 40 percent of the island’s GDP comes from financial services, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Famous “resident”: Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, who sent $450 million on a roundtrip vacation in 2011, which let him pay lower personal income tax rate and delay p ay m e n t s “ i n d e fi n i te ly,” according to Bloomberg.
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Cayman Islands Population: 53,737 GDP: $2.25 billion Tax incentives: No direct taxation. Foreign cash: Assets from the country’s 91,712 registered companies equal $1.607 trillion, according to CBC News. Fa m o u s “resident”: Facebook, which pulled the old “Double Irish” by shifting nearly $668 million from an Irish bank
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to a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, according to The Telegraph. Switzerland Population: 7,996,026 GDP: $362.4 billion Tax incentives: Perhaps you’ve heard of Swiss bank accounts? The country’s strict privacy laws attract wealthy people from all over the world, although the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which forces foreign banks to disclose the identities of their customers, made many Swiss banks wary of U.S. businesses, according to Slate. Foreign cash: When the recession hit, so much foreign currency was flowing into the country that the Swiss franc ballooned to historic proportions, causing panic in the Swiss government, according to the New York Times. Famous “resident”: Mitt Romney. The former presidential candidate said his Swiss bank account was a financial move meant to hedge against the declining dollar, but that didn’t stop the Obama campaign from painting him as a tax evader. Delaware Population: 917,092 GDP: $62 billion Tax incentives: Low taxes and essentially no requirements for creating a corporation, making it easy to set up a shell company with “no employees, no assets and, in fact, no real business to speak of,” according to the New York Times. Foreign cash: Delaware is actually home to more corporations (945,326) than people. The Delaware Division of Corporations boasts that the state is home to more than 50 percent of U.S. publicly traded
companies and 64 percent of the Fortune 500. Famous “resident”: Viktor Bout, the Russian arms smuggler known as the “merchant of death,” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges, had two Delaware addresses, according to the New York Times. Singapore Population: 5,460,302 GDP: $326.7 billion Tax incentives: Tax rates that max out at 20 percent and no capital gains taxes, according to Reuters. Foreign cash: Reuters reported that estimates put “the amount of German money moving to Singapore in the double-digit billions,” forcing the German government to step in and negotiate more transparent banking standards. Famous “resident”: Eduardo Saverin, who caused a public outcry when he renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore right before the company he co-founded, Facebook, went public. At the time, Saverin’s shares were expected to be worth around $3.84 billion, according to Bloomberg. Theweek.com
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PROPERTY
FOR SALE
Lanna Style Resort Hotel
This newly built property has 48 rooms in two separate buildings on 15 rai of tropical grounds, ideally suitable for a resort hotel. The Lanna style property is set amid the rolling hills a short drive north of Chiang Mai, commanding sweeping views of forests and paddy fields. For sale or long lease. Location at: Mae Rim, Chiang Mai Price: 100 millon Baht
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Luxury House in Maerim This magnificent property comes with 11 acres of mostly riverside land. The stately, beautifully designed house has five bedrooms, three of them en suite. The landscaped grounds have ample room for a guesthouse and separate maid’s and gardener’s quarters. Location: Mae Rim, Chiang Mai Price: 98 million Baht
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Country Style House Located in a peaceful rural setting three hours drive north of Chiang Mai and one hour south of Chiang Rai, this timber, brick and stucco property has 6 bed rooms and separate maid’s quarters. It’s surrounded by 50 rai of land, featuring an orchard, a picturesque creek, a fish pond and a shady gazebo. Location: Mae Ai, Chiang Mai Price: 90 million Baht
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Luxury Condominiums in the City
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The condominium offers a stunning panorama view of Doi Suthep and balcony as well as the city view. All room are furnished and built with high quality material as well as bathroom. You can enjoy the Jacuzzi and Mountain View or rain shower system. The floor made of top grade parquet wood. The unit is provided a personal parking space. There are also fitness, sauna, and swimming pool in the building. The condominium is located in the location which easy to get around, along the Canal road, only 10 minute away from Chiang Mai University, Zoo, Department Store, Airport and international standard Sport Complex. Close to the city but not chaotic Location at: Chiang Mai City Price: 10.5 millon Baht
78/3 Wualai Rd., 50100 Chiang Mai, Tel. : +66 (0)53 271 474 email: info@xnj-realestate.com www.xnj-realestate.com
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MOCA:
Bangkok’s First Contemporary Art Museum
Elephants In The Movies
MOCA:
Bangkok’s First Contemporary Art Museum Story by James Yu Photo by Victor Habchy (Eclectic Lab Studio)
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angkok’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) was opened in early 2012 and is the first public collection of its kind in Thailand. While containing a small foreign collection, the emphasis is on Thai art and artists. Encounter met with business tycoon and MOCA founder Boonchai Bencharongkul to talk about his new museum. Q: What spurred your interest in art? As a child I always loved paintings – whether the work of Thai or international artists. Being the son of a businessman, my father definitely had planned my future for me. He disagreed with the idea of going to art school, and so I went to Northern Illinois University to study business. During my spare time I also studied art. I was very fortunate to meet an Asian-American art teacher who brought a very contemporary, American sort of thinking. He didn’t teach us technique as much as how to think, and to create stories out of our work. Q: You’ve said that Italianborn sculptor Corrado Feroci, who moved to Thailand and took on the name Silpa Bhirasri, was a key influence on your museum. Could you explain why? He changed the art scene in Thailand when he arrived in Italy in 1923. He began by teaching sculpture but ended up staying and founding the art university, Silapakorn. He took on a Thai name to avoid arrest after Italy surrendered to the Allies during World War II. He taught Thai artists western art and also influenced them by sending them on scholarships to different universities to study art. Most of them went to Europe. For
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example, Thawan Duchanee, a famous Thai artist, went to the Netherlands for studies, which affected his thinking and art. Q: How does your business background influence your approach to MOCA? I think art influences my business. I think being an artist gives you an advantage when you look at things. Though I haven’t done any of my own art in a long time, I’ve come to appreciate the way it has given me the capacity to imagine and visualize scenarios for overcoming challenges.
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Q: What is your vision for your museum? I have a few objectives. One is to create a space for Thais – and especially younger ones – to understand art that is special to Thailand. Many people overlook that. They look to other cultures and do not even know that Thais make works at a very high standard. Also I would like a place where international visitors can come and see works that reflect Thai thoughts and preoccupations. We have more to offer than Full Moon parties at the beach and nightclubs.
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Q: What are some of your favorite artists in your collection? Definitely the surrealist artists: Thawan Duchanee, Prateep Kochabua, and Somphong Adulyasarapan. Thawan is very Thai and oriental, using very minimal color – often just black and white. The other two are more international. Q: Many Thai artists have studied abroad and have brought back western ideas. What is Thai and what is not? It’s difficult to make those distinctions in contemporary art since the newer generations of artists are influenced by cyberspace. They listen to the same kind of music. They perceive things in a similar fashion. But I believe Thais have hidden stories that they are still interested in discussing. For example, one of the paintings at MOCA has an image of a lady being wrapped by a big snake. It’s called Good Dreams. People from other cultures may interpret this negatively, but for Thais, if you have this dream you are going to find your true love.
Q: Popular culture in Thailand seems to have a monopoly on the attention of Thais. How can the fine arts engage with mainstream society meaningfully? I remember what John Paul Getty said at the Getty Museum. He said to have people understand something, you first have to introduce them and let them touch it. If they’ve never seen something they’ll naturally go elsewhere. So accessible public museums are very important. Q: Have you noticed any recent trends in the Thai art world? I’ve noticed that artists are moving in a very international direction. I’m trying to keep up with them, but with MOCA I’m still very much focused on building up many different areas. I hope in ten years I can have a second building with very contemporary artwork. I’ve also noticed that many of my peers in business carry a strong appreciation for Thai art and are willing to pay a much higher price for it.
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Elephants In The Movies By Matthew Hunt
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lephants have been at the heart of Thai culture for centuries, whether in battle (King Naresuan’s famous 1592 defeat of Burma) or as part of the logging industry (banned since 1990 due to deforestation). White elephants are one of Thailand’s most famous cultural symbols. Elephants are even represented architecturally in Bangkok: Sumet Jumsai’s stylised Elephant Tower in Lard Prao, opened in 1997, is the largest elephant in the world, at 335 feet high. The Erawan Museum in Samut Prakan, designed by Lek Viriyaphant, is an extraordinary structure: a three-storey museum, housed within the body of a giant, copper, three-headed elephant. The exterior is a surreal sight along Sukhumvit Road, though the interior is even more extraordinary: an ornately decorated dome, complete with a stained glass depiction of the zodiac and an atmospheric Buddhist shrine. It’s one of the
most remarkable, yet overlooked, attractions in Bangkok. Elephants were also central to one of Thailand’s first feature films, The King Of The White Elephant. The film, made in 1940, was produced by Pridi Banomyong, who led a prodemocracy coup against absolute monarchy in 1932 and briefly served as Prime Minister in 1946. The King Of The White Elephant is the earliest Thai film to survive in its entirety, and it was restored in 2007 from a 16mm print. It begins with a scrolling prologue highlighting the significance of Thai elephants: “In this land where elephants abound, the white elephant is esteemed the most noble of all.” The film depicts the life of King Chakra, a figure inspired by King Naresuan, and it tells the tale - familiar from the nationalistic Thai school curriculum - of Naresuan’s victory against Burma. The film, released during World War II, also carried a
contemporary political message: its prologue ends with an explicitly pacifist plea: “Chakra... fought bravely but he loved peace and to peace this story is dedicated.” (It was filmed in English, which suggests that its true purpose was for international propaganda.) The actors all enunciate in their finest Received Pronunciation, which gives the film a stilted tone, though the final battle sequence is still impressive even today. Two herds of elephants charge at each other, and soldiers fight with sticks and swords. After his victory, Chakra pardons the Burmese soldiers and sends them home unpunished. The effect is similar to Charlie Chaplin’s pacifist speech at the end of The Great Dictator (and even last year’s Lincoln, in which the US president pardons the Confederate soldiers after the Civil War). The for thcoming epic Naresuan V, due for release later this year after numerous
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delays, will also recreate Naresuan’s elephant battle. The film attracted controversy, as it received hundreds of baht in state funding while independent film-makers were overlooked. Reportedly, the elephant battle sequence alone cost 100 million baht. Thailand’s first computer-animated film, Khan Kluay - clearly inspired by Hollywood’s most famous elephant, Disney’s Dumbo - is yet another retelling of Naresuan’s elephant duel. Khan Kluay, a charming blue elephant, is ridden into battle by Naresuan, and must kill the Burmese elephant Nguangdaeng. Again, the story is told in an overtly nationalistic fashion: the Thai Khan Kluay is sweet and innocent, while the Burmese Nguangdaeng is portrayed as a satanic monster. Khan Kluay’s commercial success led to a sequel, a cartoon series, and a computer game. Elephants also featured heavily in one of contemporary Thai cinema’s most famous exports, Tom-Yum-Goong. Tony Jaa’s character is the last remaining ‘jaturungkabart’ or war-elephant guard, protecting the kingdom’s traditional royal elephants. Though the martial arts stunts were apparently
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performed without digital effects, a dream sequence featuring an elephant battle was produced with CGI animation. Thailand’s wild elephant population is dwindling rapidly due to poaching. Domesticated ‘urban elephants’ are grossly mistreated. Thai law still permits trade in domestic ivory, despite calls by conservationists for a complete ban. In the past few years, four documentaries have highlighted these issues and other problems facing Thai elephants today. The Eyes Of Thailand and The Last Elephants In Thailand both profile Soraida Salwala, who established the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in Lampang. Return To The Forest and Elephants Never Forget highlight the work of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation. The Last Elephants In Thailand is an extended interview with Soraida, accompanied by footage of the seven elephants she cares for at her Hospital. She reveals that she has survived several assassination attempts, as a result of her outspoken campaign against elephant trafficking. The documentary ends with footage of performing elephants being
trained - a cruel procedure, described by the narrator as “torture”, in which they are repeatedly stabbed with a hook. The Eyes Of Thailand, which is also structured around an interview with Soraida, focuses on one particular elephant she rescued after it stood on a landmine. One of the animal’s legs was blown off, and, in a pioneering operation, Soraida’s Hospital fitted it with a prosthetic limb. It was the first such operation in the world, performed at the world’s first dedicated elephant hospital. Return To The Forest follows the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation as it returns captive Thai elephants into the wild. Narrated by William Shatner, the documentary sometimes feels too much like an educational film for children (“the seeds that elephants eat are processed by digestive enzymes...”), and it sometimes anthropomorphises its subject (“elephants are a lot like us”), but nevertheless it’s a valuable showcase for the work of the Foundation. The makers of the film are currently working on Elephants Never Forget, a feature-length documentar y profiling a single Thai elephant’s journey from captivity to the jungle.
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FENG SHUI
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Feng Shui
Doors of Opportunity
Jest a Minute
The Elephant Plop: A Natural Lottery
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Law of The Land
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Health Tips
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Kitchen Corner
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The Latest Thai Law: Imprisonment Outside Jail
Healing Breath
Hearty Vegetable Lasagna
Doors of Opportunity By Jaroonroat Krasaesuk with Master Pongjack Pongwuttikul
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ccording to Feng Shui, gates of buildings determine the luck of people in the building as they could attract either good or bad energy into the building. In Feng Shui, the meaning of the gate includes its direction as well as its position. This is because the direction of the house is used as a foundation of the overall Feng Shui of that particular house. Therefore, to get precise information and detail about the house would allow Feng Shui readers to determine more detail about the effect of which type of energy the gates would attract. In order to calculate and read the Feng Shui, masters use a Feng Shui compass to help with their calculation to find out the position and angle of lucky gates. Moreover, the “gate” also refers to the main entrance of the house or office through which people come in and out of the premises. This gate is a connecting point between the house and the outside world which is a link from a smaller to a bigger world. The gate is also regarded as the link between the sky and the earth, with the house considered as one of the stars in the universe. The house is like the spot in the universe which will be used as a starting point to calculate the auspicious position of a lucky gate.
Chinese temples had angel or guardian sculptures at their gates, as it was believed that these angels or guardians would protect the building from bad spirits entering into the temple. On special occasions, Chinese people will burn incense next to the gates as the symbol of paying respect to these protectors and asking them permission to allow their ancestor’s spirits to enter their house. The gate can also be compared to the mouth. We have a mouth to eat food for living. However, the gate of the building or a house is eating a different kind of food. The good and auspicious location and direction of the gate will allow the gate to absorb good energy from the earth. Of course once this good energy enters the house it would support its residents with luck and prosperity. Therefore, the mouth of the house must have a good location, direction and size. Around 100 years ago, people paid serious attention to the direction of the house, which would determine the gate’s direction, and a single house would have only one gate. Nowadays, the direction of the house and gate are more complex. For example, it is more complicated to calculate the
LIFESTYLE
direction of the main gate in a condominium, which has rooms facing all directions. The puzzle is should the owner of the unit use the direction of the main gate or their unit’s gate as the principle gate for the calculation. The Samar t Telecom Software Park building on Jangwattana Road is a good example of a modern company employing Feng Shui techniques, particularly in regard to the main gate of the building. Before starting construction, the owner of the company asked a Feng Shui Master from Malaysia to read and calculate the auspicious location and direction of the building. There are four main gates (North, East, West and South) which allow people to enter from four different directions. These four gates were also designed to be placed according to the degree and direction which attract luck into this building. In order to find out the right angle of these four gates for this building, the Feng Shui master even had to take the location of a helipad into consideration!
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JEST a MINUTE
The Elephant Plop: A Natural Lottery By Scott Jones
LIFESTYLE
I
t’s not easy being an endangered species. In the past 100 years, the Asian elephant population has declined by 90%. In Thailand today, that translates to about 6,000 survivors – only a couple thousand living in the wild and 4,000 in captivity. They lost their logging jobs in
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the forest to machines. They don’t live as long in zoos – would you? In the wild, heartless poachers want their hide, meat and tusks. (I’m embarrassed I’ve spent most of my life as an entertainer tickling the ivories.) Though the Land of Smiles Prime Minister recently stated, “No one cares as much for the
elephant than the Thai people,” ivory products made from domestic elephants are legal under current legislation. Yes, they do love their elephants – whole or disassembled. Though certainly not ideal, their safest life option may soon be the entertainment trade. On National Elephant Day this
March, I celebrated with 30 of these gentle giants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center near Lampang. Besides tourist shows, elephant painting and the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the Center has an elephant hospital, research facilities, and a dung recycling plant. Elephant poop is transformed into methane gas, organic fertilizer, and even paper. Early in the morning, crowds of people – and the elephants themselves – presented alms to local monks. Elegantly garbed men and women – and a few folks somewhere in between – strolled with mahouts, elephants and drummers in a parade to the grandstand. You could feel the digestive anticipation in the air when the elephant guests of honor saw the Stoke Chang, an enormous buffet of fruit and veggies overflowing from round makeshift bamboo tables embellished with garlands, flowers and fabrics. I joined the elephants, mahouts and buffet in front of the grandstand. It felt like an oversupervised birthday party for over-excited, drooling children, surrounded by delectable goodies. The adults needed to talk; the kids just wanted to chow down. During the tedious speeches, a youngster elephant wearing large red sunglasses stretched his trunk unsuccessfully towards the buffet, and then gobbled edible decorations off a nearby tree. Another one stuck his trunk on a running faucet, drank heavily, and then politely turned off the handle when finished. A massive male stood patiently munching banana after banana from a huge bunch he’d wedged between his trunk and six-foot tusk. Finally the buffet began, very orderly, courteously, and much more civilized than shoppers fighting over a discount sale at a
department store. The elephants seemed to be smiling as their trunks danced above, around and through the piles like wrinkled pythons. Whole pineapples disappeared down the hatch. An elephant can eat 150 kilos per day, but I think each one managed that in a half hour. A major tusker next to me dropped a voluminous load of... hmm... I’d say “road apples” in America... but these were “road watermelons.” My brain stormed with a childhood memory of the Cow Plop in North Dakota, USA, a unique event dreamed up by Scandinavians with too much time on their hands during endless winters. Here’s how it goes. Someone borrows, rents or steals a cow. A large corral is divided into small squares with white chalk, then each plot is numbered and sold. The day of the Plop, the cow enters to the delight of spectators holding their numbers, and yelling, “C’mon, Bessie! Drop the big one on my square!” When the cow deposits its pie, the holder of that plot wins the pot, and the plop. It’s basically a cakewalk with cow pies. This event can take hours since some cows, though not many, are self-conscious about making their pies. Substitute elephants for cows – not just one, a whole herd – in specially marked fields, and you have a natural, non-abusive event for the Thai tourist industry! Why not make it an official national lottery with TV coverage and instant replays? “Folks, here’s the winning plop in slow motion! Most of it landed on number #103! Congratulations to Khun Wannasharachangwitme, who gets the grand prize and can take the proceeds home to spread on his garden.”
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LAW OF THE LAND
The Latest Thai Law:
Imprisonment Outside Jail
LIFESTYLE
By Jaroonroat Krasaesuk, LLB
Photo by housearrestgirl.com
40
between specified hours. They will also be required to wear an electronic tag on their wrist or ankle, which will allow their movements to be tracked. There are already numerous concerns about double-standards in the Thai justice system, most recently involving the ‘Godfather of Chonburi’ Kamnan Poh, who is being held in a VIP hospital room instead of a prison cell. There are concerns that the new house arrest provision was enacted to favor rich and powerful figures. However, clause two of this law states the criteria for the judge’s consideration as follows: • Prisoners are eligible if they risk death if they were put in the jail. • Prisoners are eligible if they have to care for sick parents, spouses, or children. • Prisoners are eligible if they are sick and must obtain a regular medication. The question that society has towards this new regulation is related to the corruption which Thailand is infamous for. Could the implementation of this new law would promote and accelerate abuse of the legal system by soliciting or allowing people to trade “tea money” for their freedom? In Western countries, house arrest has been employed for decades. However, most of these prisoners are juveniles, or those who commit non-violent crimes. The law was enacted in Thailand as a form of rehabilitation. The point is to allow the person to change themselves to a better person in society after house arrest, and to avoid the invisible scars left on prisoners after their imprisonment. Arguably, prison encourages criminality and can be a dehumanizing experience, purely a punishment rather than rehabilitation.
However, the adaptation and interpretation of this law must be carried out in a way that would suite Thai society and not allow any opportunity to exercise power incorrectly. This depends on the ethics - or otherwise - of the correctional officers themselves. Looking on the bright side, people in society must support each other and learn to forgive, and house arrest will allow convicts to reintegrate into society much more easily. However, there is also the risk that the lack of jail as a deterrent will lead criminals to believe that they can get off lightly. Will this encourage young people to believe that they can break the law and avoid jail? This is not to criticize the law but simply to present an alternative point of view. Thai society encourages materialism rather than moralism, which may lead people to take more risks, particularly if the prospective punishment is less harsh.
Should you have any legal question, suggested topic for future issues or queries, please send your email to: editorial-team@encounter-thailand.com
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LIFESTYLE
O
n 22nd March 2013, a new ministerial regulation was published in the Royal Gazette. The main idea of this ministerial regulation is to provide an alternative to imprisonment for some convicted criminals. Convicts now have the right to petition the judge not to detain them in prison but at home instead. Therefore, a judge can, at his or her discretion, punish the prisoner by limiting them to within a certain area or boundary. Convicts can now be placed under house arrest, required to stay at home
Shiang Ying Chan
Healing Breath By Shiang Ying Chan
LIFESTYLE
W
hat do Bruce Lee, Christian monks, Hawaiian kahunas, Russian special forces and the Buddha have in common? They all used breathing to enhance their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being - so did the great healers of various traditions throughout history. They may be doing it in the form of chanting prayer, bellowing before delivering a lethal blow,
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or manipulating the air flow. The presence of similar breathforms in so many different areas of the world suggests that they have common roots that go back thousands of years in time. For example, the 5 to 6 breaths per minute practice is found in yoga, qi gong and Buddhist meditation. While yoga practitioners and martial artists have been known to use breathing techniques to
turn on the body’s natural abilities to prevent and cure illnesses, the modern science of breathing is beginning to reveal the vast healing potential of the human respiratory system. It is now clear that our physical, emotional and mental states affect the patterns of our breathing, and vice-versa. Many physical and emotional health issues are now being recognized as undesirable
that are suitable for both novice and advanced practitioners alike. Here are two simple, natural methods you can use in your daily life to help overcome stress, boost energy, become calmer, focus your mind, enhance physical fitness and sleep peacefully. Mindfulness of Breath In the Anapanasati Sutta (Breath-Awareness Discourse) there are details of the Buddha’s instruction on how to use breath as a focus of meditation. The Buddha taught that mindfulness of breathing, when practiced repeatedly, “is of great fruit, great benefit” that ultimately can lead to “clear vision and enlightenment”. Mindfulness of Breath can be practiced in a comfortable seated position. Simply feel the air as it moves in and out of your nose. Breathe slowly and gently. Notice that the air that leaves your nose is warmer than the air that enters your nose. Notice, too, the movements of your belly, ribs and chest as your breathe. Now you are becoming aware of your breath. Belly Breathing This is easier to do if you lie down. Use pillows, cushions or blankets to make sure your neck and head are in a comfortable position. Take your hands and place them over your belly. Take a deep breath in and notice the belly rises naturally into your hands. When you exhale, notice your hands and belly coming down naturally. Keep your face and body relaxed. Your breathing should be gentle without any straining. Do this for as long as you want. You can also do this just before you go to bed and let the breath take you into a peaceful sleep.
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LIFESTYLE
byproducts of stresses in modern life. Hence, stress reduction through breath-work is just as relevant to health in modern life as it was in ancient times. What is the most common advice you have heard and used when you are stressed out or agitated? Breathe! In fact, studies are now revealing that by changing the patterns of breathing it is possible to restore balance, calm our mind, relieve symptoms of anxiety, improve physical health and performance, and enhance relationships. There are hundreds of different breathing practices, each with its own merits. Some practices require careful guidance from experienced teachers, and some people may be more vulnerable to adverse reaction than others. In traditional yoga training, for example, one might have to study for years before being allowed to practice some of the breathing techniques. Nevertheless, there are gentle breathing techniques
Photo by tastefoodblog.com
LIFESTYLE
Hearty Vegetable Lasagna Present by Xavier Segura
Ingredients: • 1 (16 ounce) package lasagna • noodles • 1 pound fresh mushrooms, • sliced • 3/4 cup chopped green bell • pepper • 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil • 2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce • 1 teaspoon dried basil • 1 (15 ounce) container part skim ricotta cheese
• • • • •
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 2 eggs 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Method:
To Prep
25 mins.
Cooking Time
1hr.
Ready In
1hr. 40 mins.
Servings
12
1. Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain. 2. In a large saucepan, cook and stir mushrooms, green peppers, onion, and garlic in oil. Stir in pasta sauce and basil; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. 3. Mix together ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, and eggs. 4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread 1 cup tomato sauce into
the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer 1/2 each, lasagna noodles, ricotta mix, sauce, and Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering, and top with remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese. 5. Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.
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Readers’ Space Encounter Thailand wishes to interact with its readers. Please send your comments or suggessions to: editorial-team@encounter-thailand.com
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