As Sewol crew is scorned, young worker hailed as heroine

 

The number of crew members charged is rising, and so is the anger that families feel.

But there's one crew member they are leaving out: Park Jee Young, 22, who by witness accounts helped them escape and distributed life jackets -- one after the other to students -- as the stricken ferry began to sink.When she ran out of jackets, she ran to the next floor to grab more. 

When she was asked why she wasn't wearing a life jacket, Park said that crew members would be last and that she had to help others first, according to witness accounts to South Korean media.

Park now lies in a funeral home in the city of Incheon.She is one of the 87 people dead; 215 remain missing.The other day, a man with injuries to his head showed up to the funeral room where Park's memorial stands.When asked by Park's family who he was, the man said that he had been injured in the ferry and that he was "indebted" to the young woman who placed a towel on his bloody head and helped him as the water rose.

"She was so responsible and so kind," said her grandmother, Jung Jee Kwon, who sat on the floor, slumped against a wall, no longer able to stand. Her family members kneeled with her, holding her hand and weeping together on the floor.White mums and lilies, which signify death, poured in from strangers, covering the hallway leading to her memorial room. The flowers contain messages like "We will not forget your noble spirit." "We will always remember your sacrifice." "Hero." An online petition has gone up urging the government to award her a Good Samaritan award. 

Her relatives say Park wanted to stay in college, but she felt responsible for supporting her family after her father passed away two years ago. So she dropped out and joined the ferry company in 2012. She was transferred to a bigger ship, the Sewol, about six months ago, because she had proved her capabilities, her relatives said.The Sewol's sinking has left many appalled by the alleged actions of several members of the crew -- including the captain, who now faces a series of criminal charges for his role in last week's sinking. 

"This is so unfair that our Jee Young had to die while the captain ran away," said her aunt, who declined to give her name. "Jee Young was so responsible, and the captain just ran away."

Over two-thirds of those on board were students on a high school field trip, many of whom remain missing.

Fresh violence at Freedom Park

 

At Least 10 people were injured yesterday when about 30 district security guards attacked a peaceful crowd of journalists, NGO workers and supporters of opposition lawmaker-elect Mu Sochua after she ran into the middle of Freedom Park on her sixth attempt to draw attention to the government’s blockade of the designated protest space.According to Am Sam Ath, chief monitor at rights group Licadho, three journalists and seven Cambodia National Rescue Party youth supporters were injured when baton-wielding Daun Penh district security guards, who have become infamous for their violent behaviour at protests, were ordered to attack the crowd at about 8:30am.

Three youths were left with head injuries, while the other four where badly kicked, kneed, stomped on and beaten, Sam Ath said.

The three journalists, two of them foreigners, were not seriously injured.

Lim Kim-Ya, a CNRP lawmaker-elect from Kampong Thom province, said he was slapped across the face when he tried to stop the guards from beating a female youth activist.“The actions of the Daun Penh district authorities and the Phnom Penh Municipal Hall violates national and international human rights laws which the Cambodian government is a signatory to,” he said.City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche denied the characterisation of the violence as a crackdown on freedom of assembly.“This was not a crackdown, it was law enforcement,” he said.“Mu Sochua, other parliamentarians from the CNRP and their activists are trying to provoke [the authorities] to react and are inciting people to create violence.

Then she takes all the problems that result [from her incitement] to use for political gain.”

According to Sochua, who began her crusade to “bring freedom back to Freedom Park” at the beginning of this month, the violence broke out after she was forcibly removed from the park by her hands and legs.As a crowd gathered around her, district authorities gave the orders to attack, she said.

“They started going after people with iPhones, with cameras, foreigners or [locals], they went after [everyone]. It was clear that they wanted to prevent reporting and get rid of evidence. 

I think that . . . starting today they are not going to be soft [anymore].”Pen Sunsavoan, Sochua’s assistant, said he required 10 stitches to the head after being attacked by guards.“I will file a lawsuit against [Daun Penh Deputy District Governor] Sok Penh Vuth, who directly ordered those security forces to beat us and the other reporters,” he said.A video of Penh Vuth bashing a man over the head with a bullhorn during a protest in January went viral and led to calls for his ouster. Vuth could not be reached for comment.

No matter the day, lawmaker booted from city park

 
At the beginning of this month, opposition lawmaker-elect Mu Sochua launched a one-woman campaign to ‘bring freedom back to Freedom Park’ by attempting to peacefully enter the area – where a ban on public gatherings is in place – to speak on a number of rights issues. Each of her attempts has been met with resistance. Here, we look back on Sochua’s first steps in her ‘campaign for freedom’.

Southern salt workers earn their living under heat spells

Bac Lieu has the largest salt producing area in the Mekong Delta, with 2,668 ha. These days, though it is scorching hot, salt workers still wish to have higher temperature so salt will crystallize more quickly.

According to the local agriculture officials, this year salt workers can harvestL120,000-150,000 tons of salt, averaging 9-12 tons per hectare.
Salt workers use this tool, called “cau” to separate salt.

One of the heaviest tasks is pulling the “cau”.


A “cau” is very heavy and only strong men can pull it under the sun.

Salt is gathered into piles.
And being put into baskets to transport to warehouses.


Each salt basket weighs 30-40 kg.
Transporting salt to warehouses is the hardest stage. Salt workers still transport salt by carrying baskets on their shoulders.


Salt porters earn VND200,000-300,000/day ($10-15).
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Hai district, the largest salt field in Bac Lieu, the salt purchase price is currently at VND35,000/30kg of white salt and VND18,000-20,000/30kg of black salt. At this price, salt workers can earn profit of VND15-20 million/ha.


High temperature will yield beautiful grains of salt.
Most of the salt workers are men.

China seizes Japanese cargo ship over pre-war debt

Shanghai Maritime Court said it had seized the Baosteel Emotion, owned by Mitsui OSK Lines, on Saturday.It said the seizure related to unpaid compensation for two Chinese ships leased in 1936.

The Chinese ships were later used by the Japanese army and sank at sea, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

"The Japanese government considers the sudden seizure of this company's ship extremely regrettable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Monday."This is likely to have, in general, a detrimental effect on Japanese businesses working in China."Shrine rowThe owners of the shipping company, identified by Kyodo as Zhongwei Shipping, sought compensation after World War Two and the case was reopened at a Shanghai court in 1988, China's Global Times said.The court ruled in 2007 that Mitsui had to pay 190 million yuan ($30.5m, £18m) as compensation for the two ships leased to Daido, a firm later part of Mitsui, Global Times and Kyodo said.

Mitsui appealed against the decision, but it was upheld in 2012, Kyodo said.

Kyodo said this appeared to be the first time that a Japanese company asset had been confiscated as war-linked compensation.The seizure comes with ties between Tokyo and Beijing severely strained amid rows over East China Sea islands that both claim and rumbling historical issues.Earlier this year, a court in China for the first time accepted a case filed by Chinese citizens seeking compensation from Japanese firms over forced labour during World War Two.Japan has always held that the issue of war-related compensation was settled by a 1972 agreement between the two sides when ties were normalised. 

But now for the first time, a Chinese court has ignored that agreement - and the Chinese government appears to be giving full support, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.

It is another sign of just how low relations between China and Japan have sunk, our correspondent adds.On Monday, meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine to mark the spring festival.Yasukuni is where the souls of Japan's war dead are enshrined, including war criminals - and it is seen by regional neighbours as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.China filed a protest with Japan on Saturday after a Japanese minister visited the shrine.

E-cigarettes and the vape debate

Because e-cigarettes are so new, they're relatively unregulated. Now some lawmakers are starting to take action against the practice of smoking them, otherwise known as "vaping".Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Henry Waxman recently joined nine other lawmakers in writing a report titled Gateway to Addiction? which found that all seven e-cigarette companies surveyed used marketing techniques that targeted young people, such as free samples and sponsored events such as rock concerts. It found that flavours such as Cherry Crush, Peachy Keen and Chocolate Treat also drew in younger users.

In the wake of the report, Mr Durbin and Mr Waxman urged the Food and Drug Administration to clamp down on the marketing strategies used to promote e-cigarettes and to prohibit the enticing flavours.Their campaign has found plenty of support."Vape if you want," writes Robert McCartney for the Washington Post. "That's your business. But don't give tobacco companies free rein to profit by manipulating the public's mind and jeopardising its health."He says that if e-cigarettes are not regulated, the tobacco industry could create a new generation of nicotine addicts and undo 50 years of progress in combating smoking. 

The true health consequences of e-cigarettes are yet unknown. The three main ingredients of e-cigarettes are nicotine, flavouring and propylene glycol.While some data shows nicotine can dangerously weaken the immune system, the flavouring seems to be harmless. That makes propylene glycol the wildcard. Since it usually it shows up in products such as soft drinks, salad dressing, shampoos and soaps, there is good data about the safety of eating it or applying it to one's skin. But the effects of inhaling it are not yet understood.There are also concerns that there could be cancer-causing substances in the vapour and metals on the coils inside the e-cigarette.

PolicyMic's Cameron English doesn't buy it, pointing out that e-cigarettes help smokers rid themselves of a habit that's proven to be hazardous.

"As cigarette consumption both around the world and in the United States continues to drop, we should acknowledge that the growing popularity of e-cigarettes is a massive win for public health," he writes.So far, the only verified risk seems to be injury by explosion.Mother Jones's Dana Liebelson and Asawin Suebsaeng recently penned a history of e-cigarette explosions and fires, including the story of a barmaid in a North Yorkshire pub who was hit earlier this month by a piece of an exploding e-cigarette that had been left charging.With all of this uncertainty about whether vaping constitutes a health risk, the editors of USA Today say that the FDA should err on the side of safety and treat e-cigarettes the same way they treat normal cigarettes - banning sales to children and any use indoors. 

"The Food and Drug Administration, which has been slow to assert its authority to regulate e-cigarettes, ought to get on with it," they write.In Forbes, Jacob Sullum disagrees, accusing the Durbin-Waxman report of being simplistic, especially when it claims that e-cigarettes are being marketed to children."In truth, the rap against fruity e-cigarette fluid is the same as the rap against flavoured cigars, sweet alcoholic beverages, and cannabis-infused chocolate bars: Adult products cannot be tolerated if they might taste good to kids,"And beyond that, there is data that shows e-cigarettes are effective in lowering the number of people addicted to smoking. 

"If the FDA follows Durbin's advice, it will ban most e-cigarette flavours, making the switch less appealing to smokers who prefer the prohibited varieties, and restrict e-cigarette advertising, making smokers less aware of a competing product that could literally save their lives," he writes.

With little proven scientific information - whether about the safety of e-cigarettes or even whether they have helped people quit smoking - this debate is like shouting in a dark room. There's lots of noise, but little light.

SHARE THIS Print Email More sharing Myanmar opposition leader Win Tin dies at 85

Win Tin, a founding member of Myanmar's National League for Democracy who was jailed for 19 years for political activism, has died at Yangon Hospital. He was 85.A National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesperson told CNN Win Tin was admitted to Yangon Hospital three weeks ago with a kidney problem.One of Myanmar's most prominent dissidents, Win Tin was a journalist and writer who joined with Aung San Suu Kyi during her campaign in 1988, according to Nyan Win, the current spokesperson for the NLD.

He was arrested in 1989 by Myanmar's military rulers, who feared the strength of the pro-democracy movement."Immediately after his arrest, U Win Tin was kept without food and sleep for three days," Suu Kyi wrote about his imprisonment. "It appeared that the interrogators wished to force him to admit he was my adviser on political tactics, in other words, that he was my puppet master."

"A man of courage and integrity, U Win Tin would not be intimidated into making false confessions," she added.

Win Tin continued to push for democracy even while in prison, penning a letter to the United Nations that resulted in additional jail time.Despite his key role as a political leader, Win Tin's personal life was largely solitary.After he was released in 2008, he told CNN that he was a "vagabond" with no family or children because he had given his life to the fight for democracy in Myanmar.

While he struck an optimistic note about the progress that had been made in his country after his release, he noted there was still a "tremendous amount of work to be done."

"He was a great pillar of strength," said Nyan Win. "His demise at this important political juncture of transition is a great loss not only to the NLD but also to the country. We are deeply saddened."