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Archive for the ‘Asia’ Category

mein-kampf“While it is regarded in most countries as a ‘Nazi Bible’, in India it is considered a management guide . . .

“Sales of [Mein Kampf] over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

“‘Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we’re happy to sell it to them,’ said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.

“‘They see it as a kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it.'” (more @ Daily Telegraph)

[Ach mein Gott!]

Related: ‘Turn Left at Gestapo Headquarters’

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colsanders540“A statue of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders tossed into Osaka’s Dotonbori River some 24 years ago by rowdy Hanshin Tigers fans has been discovered. . . .

“The Colonel ended up at the bottom of the river in 1985, when delirious Hanshin Tigers fans celebrating the team’s first Central League title in 21 years decided the figure bore a striking resemblance to Tigers slugger Randy Bass and, lifting it off its base in front of the Dotonbori Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, gave the Colonel a victory toss. The fans put a little too much energy into the toss, and the Colonel Sanders figure went over the railing of the Ebisu Bridge and into the river. Since the statue’s victory dive into the Dotonbori, searches for the statue were undertaken, but none with any success.

“The Hanshin Tigers have not won the Japan Series since 1985, a fact attributed by some to the ‘Curse of Colonel Sanders.'” (more @ Mainichi Daily News; via Newser)

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ghandi“Indians are expressing outrage over a New York auction that is set to sell some of the most personal belongings of India’s great independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi — the gaunt, bare-chested man whose ascetic life defied materialism.

“The auction is a travesty for many Indians, for whom Gandhi is a godlike figure, and some in India’s Parliament have called for the government to either stop the auction or put in the highest bid to get back the nation’s iconic mementos.

“The bidding for Gandhi’s distinctive metal-rimmed round spectacles, his leather sandals, a 1910 sterling Zenith pocket watch, and a brass bowl and plate is scheduled for March 5 and 6 in New York.” (via The Washington Post)

Antiquorum Auctioneers, in their press release for the March sale, estimate the value of the c. 1901-1915 pocket watch at $20,000-$30,000 and note that Ghandi “gave it to his grandniece, Abha Gandhi, his assistant of six years, and in whose arms he died.”

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Near Can Tho in the south of Viet Nam, along one of the smaller canals feeding into the Mekong River, an elderly woman transports ashes bought from one family to be sold to another that will use their purchase as fertilizer (December, 2006)

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Cao Lau, the celebrated Vietnamese noodle dish (usually served with pork and fried rice paper bits), according to local legend can only be made authentically in the ancient port town of Hoi An with water drawn from wells such as the one pictured here dug hundreds of years ago by the Cham people (December, 2006)

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Cambodian musicians, all victims of land mines, performing for donations on an entrance road to the Angkor Wat temple complex, Angkor, Cambodia (December, 2006) (Full photo)

Related: The Cambodia Landmine Museum

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All across Viet Nam today poets “are agog with excitement” celebrating national “Poetry Day.”

(via Saigon Giai Phong Daily)

[Display of puppets, Hanoi, December, 2006; Full photo]

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In the ancient Cambodian capital of Oudong, at the base of Phnom Oudong, children hire themselves out as companions, with fans, to visitors to the Royal Tombs, December, 2006.

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“Don’t Piss Here” – Painted message on brick wall in residential section of Hanoi, Viet Nam, December, 2006 (note evidence of just-concluded disobedience along bottom of wall at lower left)

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