As the smoke clears after the Malaysian election battle it has become clear that under the current electoral system defeat of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) was never quite on the cards, even without the electoral roll and election day cheating and vote buying claimed by the opposition.

Indeed all other factors being equal it would probably take another 4 percent swing against the BN for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition to win the majority of seats.

Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, left, and his wife Wan Azizah speak during a press conference after the Malaysian election earlier this month. Pic: AP.

As it was this was a remarkable victory for the PR which won 51.7 percent of the popular vote and 53 percent in under-represented peninsula Malaysia. Yet it took only 89 seats compared to the BN’s 133 seats. Those numbers tell the tale of just how rigged the system has become.

Each BN seat cost an average of 39,400 votes while each PR one cost 63,200. Those figures show the success of years of outrageous BN gerrymandering which has made nonsense of democratic, one-man one-vote principles. The extent of this has gone almost unnoticed by the foreign media – and foreign government reaction, treating the result as though it were the outcome of a relatively normal democratic process. Gerrymandering on Malaysia’s epic scale is just as undemocratic as the ballot-counting frauds which President Ferdinand Marcos used to turn defeat into claimed victory during his years as president of the Philippines.

Given the BN’s control of most media and the machinery of government, the result was a remarkable victory for the PR. So although there is much disappointment and some youthful anger among the ranks of the PR that is because expectations of what could be achieved were naturally over-optimistic. Assuming the PR holds together till the next general elections it will probably need to begin to reverse the gerrymander – or break the Barisan – if it is to break UMNO’s stranglehold on power.

More immediately the opposition and its component, Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat in particular, is focused on the cheating alleged to have taken place in a significant number of constituencies whether through giving ballots to non-nationals, voting more than once, manipulating the electoral roll or simply offering cash to those who prove they voted for the BN. The PKR says that as 27 seats were won by the BN with a majority of less than 5 percent of the vote, cheating could have made a critical difference. Certainly in some of the more closely fought contests, the arithmetic somehow seemed to favor the BN. Thus it was declared the winner in no less than 11 of the 15 seats where the margin was less than 1,000 votes and in 25 of the 35 seats where the margin was under 2,000 votes. This may or not have been chance.

Continue reading at Asia Sentinel

May 17, 2013: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo said in an interview that a visit to Yasukuni Shrine is ‘natural’. The shrine is seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japanese militarism and high-profile officials’ visits have caused diplomatic with problems with China and Korea for a number of decades. Abe, back in Oct 17, 2012, paid a visit to shrine despite sharp criticism.

May 17, 2013. Defending Hashimoto’s ‘sex slaves wwere necessary’ remarks (read below), lawmaker Nishimura said during a party meeting, “We better fight back by telling them that the words ‘comfort women’ and ‘sex slaves’ are completely different” (thereby insinuating that comfort women had voluntarily sold sex in exchange for monetary benefit) and added “there are numerous South Korean prostitutes roaming around Japan.”

May 15, 2013: Prime Minister Abe again stirred up anger with his latest militaristic photo opportunity. Abe appeared riding a jet with the number 731: the same number of a notorious Japanese research facility that ran cruel human experiments on war captives, mostly Koreans and Chinese, during the war. The Nelson report stated the act was “equivalent to a German prime minister wearing a Nazi uniform and explaining that it was done for fun”.

May 13, 2013: Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said women who were forced to act as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War 2, were “necessary” to maintain discipline in the Japanese army.

- Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from Korea and China became so-called “comfort women” – sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in military brothels. These girls were between 12 and 19 years old and their average age is believed to be around 16. They had been either abducted or tricked under false pretenses that they would be sent to work as factory workers in Japan and be able to send home money.

April 23, 2013: During the Japanese Upper House session, Abe said Japanese war time “aggression” has yet to be determined and “can be viewed differently” – thereby denying the 1995 statement by Tomiichi Murayama who apologized for Japanese colonial rule and “aggression that cause tremendous damage”.

Jan 28, 2013 : Abe, in his first policy speech at the parliament, said he intends to amend the post-World War 2 constitution. He added he will start by changing Article 96 of the constitution, a move that may alter the definition of Japan’s armed forces. US occupying forces, after the war, imposed the constitution to limit Japanese army’s role to defence. Abe’s plan is underway now and has raised tensions in the region.

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State media reported Saturday that 23 prisoners were freed, though it did not call them political offenders. Ye Aung, a member of the government’s political prisoner scrutiny committee, said at least 20 political detainees were freed Friday.

Burma political prisoners who were released from Insein prison walk away from the facility Friday. Pic: AP.

President Thein Sein will visit the White House on Monday, the first state visit by a Burma leader in almost 47 years.

The U.S. applied sanctions against Burma’s previous military regime for its poor human rights record. Thein Sein has implemented several reforms since his election in 2010, including freeing hundreds of political prisoners. The U.S. in turn eased most sanctions. In November, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Burma.

It has become a pattern for prison amnesties to coincide with high-profile international or regional meetings as a way of highlighting the Burma government’s benevolent policies. Thein Sein pardoned 93 prisoners, including at least 59 political detainees, in April, a day after the European Union lifted sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation.

The release of political detainees in Burma has been a key concern of the United States, and Washington wants all of the country’s political prisoners freed.

A group campaigning for democracy in Burma — which is also known by its old name, Burma — accuses Thein Sein’s government of using political prisoners for public relations purposes.

“Thein Sein seems to have judged, sadly apparently correctly, that the Obama administration is particularly gullible and likely to respond positively to this kind of manipulative use of political prisoner releases,” Burma Campaign UK said in a statement.

The group also expressed concern that Thein Sein’s democratic reforms were incomplete.

“Thein Sein has also left almost every repressive law used to jail political prisoners in place,” the statement said. “Almost all the releases of political prisoners have only been released conditionally, meaning that if they engage in political activities which the government does not like they can be put back in jail and have to serve a new prison term and their old prison term.”

President’s office director Maj. Zaw Htay’s responded on his Facebook page to such criticism. He said Thein Sein doesn’t use political prisoners as tools, and that his interest is just to have an all- inclusive process.

One of those freed Friday was Nay Myo Zin, a former prisoner who had been amnestied before but who was recently ordered to serve the remainder of his original sentence after he was arrested for participating in a farmers’ protest against land confiscation.

Nay Myo Zin, a former army captain, had been serving a 10-year sentence when he was amnestied in 2012.

Ye Aung, a former prisoner himself, said many of those freed Friday had been identified by his committee as political detainees, and he looked forward to the release of all such prisoners.

“According to our list there are still 160 political prisoners remaining in prison. We are still scrutinizing the list and there could be more,” he said.

The government had routinely denied the existence of political prisoners, saying all people sentenced to jail had been convicted legitimately of breaking the nation’s laws. But Thein Sein’s administration recently conceded that there are political detainees, and formed the committee with government officials and former political prisoners to tally and report who remains imprisoned.

Everest glacier, pic: NASA/GSFC/Kimberly Casey

But the consequences of melting glaciers in the Himalayas are far more serious than Everest’s changing topography. Millions – perhaps even billions – of people downstream depend on glacial melt for drinking water, irrigation and hydropower. A loss in melt water could be catastrophic, especially during the dry season.

From National Geographic:

The towering ranges surrounding the Tibetan Plateau give rise to many of Asia’s great rivers—including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Ganges. These rivers provide critical water for as many as two billion people—almost one-third of Earth’s population.

The research, presented by Sudeep Thakuri of the University of Milan in Italy, who is also a resident of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, did not establish a link between the ice melt and the usual suspect: greenhouse gases. Nevertheless he and his colleagues suspect a connection.

From CBS News:

In order to track the temperatures and precipitation rates, his team used hydro-meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory and Nepal’s Department of Hydrology. They found that the area has had a 1.08-degree-Fahrenheit increase in temperatures and 3.9-inch decrease in precipitation since 1992.

[That’s a 0.6 Celsius increase in temperature and a precipitation decrease of 100mm.]

Mountain climbers have long observed a decrease in ice and snow cover on Everest. Though their observations are only anecdotal, they have noticed the snowline move higher over the years. Climbers have also noted similar losses in ice cover on other peaks in the Himalayan region, such as Cho Oyo.

The findings of Thakuri’s team were presented on May 13th at the Meeting of the Americas conference in Cancun, Mexico, an event organized and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union.

Village of Ghat on the Dudh Kosi River, Nepal. Pic: John Pavelka (Flickr CC)

From the Deccan Chronicle:

In subsequent research, Thakuri plans on exploring the climate-glacier relationship further with the aim of integrating the glaciological, hydrological and climatic data to understand the behavior of the hydrological cycle and future water availability.

Local residents have also noted changes over the years. They use the extent of ice to gauge when to plant potato crops, for example. There is little debate in Nepal as to the validity of global warming or climate change.

BP: First, on the wording of the insult.

AFP translation:

  “… a prostitute is not an evil person, the hooker only sells body. But an evil woman sells the nation”

The Nation translates it as:

“Please understand that prostitutes are not bad women. Prostitutes only sell their bodies, but a bad woman has been wandering around trying to sell the country.”

The Bangkok Post translates it as:

“Prostitutes are not evil. They just sell their bodies. But an evil woman sells the nation.”

BP: โสเภณี would be translated as prostitute, but กระหรี is a much stronger and impolite term than simply a prostitute. The Royal Institute’s list of new words (p7) defines กระหรี as “โสเภณี (เป็นคำไม่สุภาพ)” or “prostitute (impolite word)”. BP views the closest equivalent in English is “whore”. Hence, BP would translate the FB post as “please understand, whores are not evil. Whores just sell their body, but the evil woman sells [her] country.”

Second, on the level of insult of the term กระหรี, a news story from a few years ago was when one singer/presenter, Jennifer Kim (เจนนิเฟอร์ คิ้ม) called the actress Jik Naowarat (จิ๊ก เนาวรัตน์ ยุกตะนันท์) a กระหรี at a pub opening, but when referring to the story ASTV Manager in their headline don’t even print out the full word – they used “กะ_รี่”. Jik stated she didn’t want to make an issue of it (พี่ไม่เอาเรื่อง), but warned Jennifer Kim that if she said this to others they may have hit her or filed a lawsuit. Jennifer Kim later apologized.

Another news story from a few years ago was when the ex-husband of an actress saying she was acting like a กระหรี for having three new boyfriends within the year. A tabloid, Siam Dara, didn’t even print the full word, just referred to it “กะ_รี่”. The actress stated she was going to sue, but the newspaper called to negotiate so she delayed the lawsuit so an agreement could be worked out.

BP can find numerous other examples of newspapers referring to กระหรี the by not spelling it fully, For example, Sanook and Matichon  (you will see in this article that the word “โสเภณี” meaning prostitute is spelled out in full). These examples are different, but the context is that the meaning of กระหรี is a very serious insult in Thai. It is an impolite term, like some swear words in English which are not spelled out. Now, just think of such words in English that directly refer to a women in English and which would not be printed in full (i.e by replacing one of the vowels with a * – such as b*tch or c*nt, and that gives you a better understanding over the level of the insult. The term “prostitute” does not convey the same meaning.

Third, the evil women who sells the country is the specific insult directed at Yingluck, but it is the use of the term “กระหรี”, particularly that direct implication of the statement is that Yingluck is worse than a whore, which is the more serious insult.

When Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra went to Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator in late April, many were expecting yet another trip abroad to drum up economic ties with foreign states and private investors. However, speaking at a conference of democratic countries, she addressed some very sensitive issues for the first time since the beginning of her tenure in 2011.

In her speech, Yingluck praised her brother and former prime minister Thaksin’s political achievements (while deliberately overlooking his faults and wrongdoings) during his rule, acknowledged the red shirt protesters who “fought back for their freedom” and gave ”their lives defending democracy”.

She also condemned the 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin and said  ”elements of anti-democratic regime still exist” and are still working against her, explicitly mentioning “the so called independent agencies have abused the power.”

For once, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra – until then always striking a conciliatory tone and a soft approach – made a politically committed speech and was ready to take sides. She did not shy away from sad truths (e.g. the military drafted constitution of 2007), while highlighting her government’s populist policies and those of Thaksin – something she could have done much earlier.

(READ MORE: Bangkok Pundit’s analysis of Yingluck’s Mongolia-speech)

The strong reactions by her political opponents suggest Yingluck has struck a nerve: the controversy around the misogynist insult by a Thai Rath cartoonist and the ill-advised lawsuit against him by the PM and the even more ill-advised rampage by the ICT minister were just one of many different verbal flash points following her speech.

A screenshot of an online petition sponsored by the ultra-conservative "Thai Spring" group, calling to denounce Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's speech at a foreign visit in Mongolia.

This week, another front has opened up in the reactionary fallout to Yingluck’s Mongolia-speech:

A new website has been launched, Thai Spring, where people can voice their opposition to the Yingluck Shinawatra government, retired police officer Vasit Dejkunjorn and former senator Kaewsun Atibodhi said on Thursday.

Describing himself as a person who adheres strongly to the principle of a democratic administration under the monarchy, and who has experienced many political eras in Thailand, Pol Gen Vasit said he was aware there are groups of people trying relentlessly to undermine the highest institution in the country.

Those people have a plan to take over Thailand and change its administrative system, and he would not stand by and allow this to happen, he said. (…)

“It is a website, <http://www.change.org/users/thaispring>, where they can sign in and express disapproval of the prime minister’s speech in Ulan Bator. ”More than 10,000 people have signed on to the website so far to express their opinion that in delivering that speech the prime minister acted wrongly. (…)

Pol Gen Vasit called for the government to review its role, otherwise the “Thai Spring” movement would develop, in the same way that the “Arab Spring” phenomenon had led to anti-government protests by huge numbers of people.

“Anti-govt ‘Thai Spring’ website opened“, Bangkok Post, May 16, 2013

The two men behind the campaign, Vasit Dejkunjorn and Kaewsun Atibodhi, are noted ultra-royalists and anti-Thaksinites respectively. Vasit has attended several pro-monarchy rallies in the past, while Kaewsun often publicly slammed Thaksin on the stage of the yellow shirts gatherings and investigated against his administration after he was appointed to a post-coup committee. So, it’s pretty clear where these two are coming from politically – as is their the often regurgitated claim of the Yingluck-Thaksin campaign to overthrow the monarchy.

What stands out in this case are the means of their protest: this ultra-conservative group is starting their anti-government campaign online. Unlike what is erroneously reported, “Thai Spring” does not have a self-hosted website (yet) but is rather a group on the Thai section of Change.org, an online petition platform that normally avoids overly politically partisan campaigns.

The petition itself called “ร่วมลงชื่อปฏิเสธปาฐกถาอูลานบาตอร์ของนายกรัฐมนตรี” (“Petition to Denounce the Prime Minister’s Ulan Bator-Speech”) has at the time of writing reached over 14,000 signatures and have explained in a long open letter how PM Yingluck is just a puppet of the exiled Thaksin, how they’re going turn the country upside down, and how all the media in their pockets, comparing at lengths the PM, the government, the ruling party to Kim Jong-Il and North Korea*. Of course, they also claim to speak on behalf of all Thai citizens.

No doubt the attention-grabber here is the name ‘Thai Spring’ this group has hijacked in order to mimic the ‘Arab Spring‘, which has fundamentally changed several Middle Eastern and North African countries and is still ongoing after over two years. But looking at the two sides here, they couldn’t be further apart from each other**:

The ‘Arab Spring’ was in part sparked by a disenfranchised youth stifled with high unemployment and fed up with decades-old authoritarianism. On the other hand, these men behind the so-called ‘Thai Spring’ represent an elitist, reactionary force that see their vision of Thailand endangered by Thaksin Shinawatra – who without a doubt is not a democrat either, but (unwittingly) enfranchised a largely neglected rural population with political conscience – and want to stop it with all non-democratic means at all costs (e.g. endorsing a military coup), even at the cost of democracy itself!

This could signal yet another political (re-)entrenchment, as the opposition both in and outside parliament have been clearly agitated by Yingluck’s speech, which could be seen as a battle cry for a stronger push in the upcoming political challenges later this year such as the charter amendments, the reconciliation bills, but also the court verdict in the Thai-Cambodian border dispute.

The relative calm over the past years could be pushed aside by the reemergence of the heated political polarization and a further escalation between the two fractions that have diametrically opposing visions about the future of Thailand’s rule and its structure. But with the hijacking of the ‘Thai Spring’ by the ultra-conservatives it has already been made clear: this spring does not signal a fresh new start.

*On the comparison to North Korea, here’s another quote from the open letter: “If you pay a visit to North Korea you will witness the omnipresence of portraits of the leader. In Thailand it is the same. These two likeminded families have thus been sending their followers and subordinates to infiltrate all strata of their respective societies.” Hmm…!

**More on the (un-)likelihood of an ‘Arab Spring’-style uprising Thailand hopefully in a future post.

____________________________
About the author:
Saksith Saiyasombut is a Thai blogger and freelance foreign correspondent. He writes about Thai politics and current affairs since 2010 and reports for international news media like Channel NewsAsia. Read his full bio on about.me/saksith.

Furthermore, some analysts believe that we’re witnessing a subtle shift in the way English fits in to global marketplace. Education First, a corganized a grand-scale English Proficiency Index research initiative, believes that English is no longer an indicator of elite social and economic status. It’s transforming into “a basic skill for the entire workforce.”

Pic: Students at Pace ELI.

Even with the rise of non-English speaking world powers, such as China, English is expected to remain the language of international commerce. The British Council reports that around 375 million people speak English as their first language (roughly half the number of native Mandarin speakers). Yet, even now, conservative estimates indicate that more than a billion non-native speakers possess strong English-speaking skills. This figure is expected to double by the year 2020.

And so even as we enter into what economists are calling the ‘Asian Century’, it appears that English – rather than an Asian language – will remain the language of business, politics and international commerce. In fact, Benjamin Herscovitch, a policy analyst at the Australian think tank, Centre for Independent Studies, has even asserted that English is becoming an Asian language in its own right.

Asian students head overseas to master the English language
As these trends solidify, record numbers of Asian students are traveling overseas to earn undergraduate and postgraduate credentials. Without discounting the high quality and prestige of a Western education, it bears noting that the opportunity to master English as a second language is a strong motivator as well.

Pic: CESL students on campus.

However, English language proficiency (or lack thereof) also works against some international students who are otherwise highly qualified to study at top universities in the West. This has prompted some universities to roll out English preparatory courses that can help students who need slightly higher TOEFL scores, better oral presentation skills and other language-related abilities meet important benchmarks before they begin their university experience.

English language programs are designed to prepare students for an upcoming academic career. The best language institutes offer highly customizable coursework, allowing students to focus on specific study skills – such as gleaning as much as possible from English-language academic tests, optimizing listening during lectures, writing academic papers or navigating Western university library systems.

Pic: Global Focus Week at Liberty University.

Some of these courses even serve as bridge programs, offering undergraduate credit that can be transferred to an ongoing university degree program. Other universities offer conditional acceptance to applicants, so long as they enroll in an English language program first and achieve satisfying marks. In other words, students proceed with university applications while looking into improving their proficiency.

The following are among the leading English language programs for Asian students:

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY – CENTER FOR ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
The Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) was established in 1966 and has many years of experience teaching English to international students interested in pursuing an education in the US and in improving their language skills for personal or professional reasons. The center is housed within the Department of Linguistics, where it benefits from current research and methodology in the field of second language acquisition, the youthful enthusiasm of linguistics TAs and rigorous academic standards. Read the full profile here…

Pic: CESL student group.

PACE UNIVERSITY – ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
The Pace University English Language Institute (ELI) provides international students, visitors and immigrants to the US the opportunity to improve their English-language skills. Each program takes a unique angle of approach, with coursework designed for up-and-coming undergraduate students, on-the-job professionals and postgraduate students at upper levels of specialization. Read the full profile here…

Pic: Pace ELI.

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY – ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
Liberty University is the world’s largest Evangelical Christian university, and it offers advanced English-language preparatory courses for university-bound students. It was founded in 1971 in the US state of Virginia, and its academic programs are built upon a firm commitment to moral character and values. Read the full profile here…

Pic: Liberty University ELI students.

UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA – ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Canada’s English Language Centre at the University of Victoria has been in operation since 1970, and it currently welcomes 2,500 students each year. UVic is a world-leader in higher education, regularly ranking in the global top 1 percent. The English Language Centre helps international students fully integrate with the program by coordinating with host families and assigning other Canadian students as cultural liaisons.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY – UNIVERSITY ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
Located in the western US, CWU’s University English as a Second Language (UESL) pairs students with American conversation partners to provide practice outside of class. International students enrolled in UESL live in university dormitories with other American students, as well. Special courses related to film-making, literature, business, drama and computers are also offered through UESL.

Nearly 1,000 international students attend Liberty University, representing more than 90 countries.  The university’s English Language Institute offers a range of programs that help international students prepare for, and ultimately thrive in, an American university setting.

Pic: Liberty University ELI students.

There is no minimum TOEFL score requirement for admission to the ELI. In fact, students spend time preparing for future TOEFL testing while enrolled at the institute. The institute delivers a broad range of coursework to ensure students acquire more than basic academic skills. Of course, foundational skills such as listening and speaking, reading and writing and pronunciation are covered. But the ELI goes beyond this to encourage the mastery of idioms, presentation skills, vocabulary and grammar. The program even includes a film seminar with a focus on language acquisition.

Academics
The ELI classrooms make the most of smart technology, and small class size ensures plenty of one-on-one attention from instructors. The ELI reinforces this by pairing students with an English-speaking conversation partner who supplements in-class studies with two to three hours of practice each week. Furthermore, labs are equipped with language-learning software that offers immediate feedback, so that students can accelerate their progress on their own time, as well.

The program is rigorous and results-oriented. Classes meet five days per week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The weekly schedule is comprised of more than 20 hours of structured class time, complemented by five to ten hours of independent work. This leaves plenty of room for hard-working, ambitious students to excel and set themselves apart from the crowd. The ELI even operates a bridge program that allows students to begin undergraduate coursework and complete between three and nine undergraduate credit hours before they’ve even enrolled at university.

And international students do more than eat, sleep and study English while enrolled at the ELI. Cultural programs and overnight trips to other east-coast cities are also part of the lineup. Students visit historical sites around Virginia and travel to New York City, Virginia Beach and Orlando, Florida as part of the program.

Connect with the ELI and learn more about its programs via Facebook and Twitter.

CESL is hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU), which has been providing students with a traditional American university experience for nearly 150 years. This is a research university with a small college atmosphere, and students have access to the best of everything – top experts in their fields, research opportunities, more than 200 majors and minors, and an alumni network that spans the globe.

Pic: CESL students on campus.

Academics
All of CESL’s full-time classroom instructors are members of the university’s faculty and hold master’s degrees or doctorates in Teaching English as a Second Language or a related field. Most have had extensive teaching experience, and many speak a second language and have had overseas experience. CESL is fully accredited through the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA) and is a member of the University and College Intensive English Programs (UCIEP) and American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP), organizations that represent the top ESL programs in the United States.

The center operates seven graded intensive courses, covering General English, Advanced English, English for Academic Purposes and Graduate Student English. Classes meet for 20 to 26 hours per week, with a total of four eight-week terms held during the academic year and two six-week terms during the summer. CESL also has a foundational zero-level program available on an as-needed basis. Initial course placement into the seven-level program is determined by performance on the Institutional TOEFL test given to incoming students.

Within a given program, students cover a comprehensive range of course material, beginning with core reading, writing, speaking and listening classes and going on to include specialized materials such as TOEFL Preparation, Grammar and Poetry, Projects, Newsletters, Creative Speaking, Advanced Communication, Advanced Pronunciation, Culture Through Media, Communication Strategies and American Culture. Discussion plays heavily into class work.

Pic: CESL student group.

CESL also has three media centers where students create and post to their weblogs. Two international student advisors assist students with immigration, culture shock and with admission into undergraduate or graduate programs at SIU or another university. These advisors are qualified to assist students with other situations as they arise.

Students enjoy access to the broader scope of campus facilities, including the following:

• Multi-million-volume Morris Library, with computer labs and study areas
• Student Recreation Center
• Student Wellness Center
• Student Center, a social hub with study areas, restaurants, a craft shop and plenty of opportunities to socialize
• A well-established dormitory system that recently celebrated 100 years of operation

Transition to the American university system
SIU offers conditional admission to all international undergraduate applicants and to some graduate applicants. Undergraduate applicants who meet all admission requirements except for those related to English language are granted conditional admission. These students will be given a TOEFL test upon arrival. If needed, they can enroll in the intensive English program on campus at CESL for a minimum of eight weeks. The applicant will be given FULL admission as soon as the English language requirements are met. Graduate applicants who meet graduate requirements and are accepted by their departments may receive conditional admission, as well.

Pic: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Students can gain admission into undergraduate programs at SIU with less than a 520 TOEFL score if they successfully complete Level 6 and score at least 500 or above on the TOEFL. In some special cases, the university occasionally releases students who have done well in the CESL program but score less than 500 on their TOEFL exam.  Students in Levels 5 and 6 can also sign up to observe SIU classes.

Students who have not taken the TOEFL before will be given the opportunity to take it during their first week at the center. The institutional TOEFL exam is given the week before SIU classes begin. Those who score over 520 will be able to proceed to university coursework. Those who score less than 520 will be placed into CESL classes, according to their TOEFL score.

Connect with CESL and learn more about its programs on Facebook and Twitter. 

The Pace ELI has been in operation for more than 20 years. Its programs have been carefully honed over the years and are highly relevant to 21^st-century classrooms and workplaces in the US. ELI students enjoy the complete Pace University student experience, including access to the university’s computer labs, libraries, sports centers, medical services and cafeterias.

Pic: Pace ELI.

Pace University is a US leader in higher learning. It was recently named by Forbes as one of the top-20 universities ‘that will make you rich’. It’s also a leader in internship placement (U.S. News & World Report), safety (The Daily Beast) drama programs (The Hollywood Reporter).

The following specialized English-language programs are offered by Pace ELI:

Pre-Undergraduate Program
This program is specifically designed for international students who are set to apply for an undergraduate program at a university in the US. It offers content-based curriculum that emphasizes the language and study skills required to thrive at an American university.

Throughout this course, students increase fluency by studying academic reading materials and watching videotaped lectures. They learn more than strict reading, listening and speaking skills, with coursework covering proper methods for taking notes, conducting research, taking tests and conducting oral presentations.

Pic: Students at Pace ELI.

Pre-Graduate Program
Master’s-level students are faced with complex and decidedly different challenges than their undergraduate counterparts. This program responds with curriculum that centers on conducting research, making use of American library systems and completing and presenting graduate-level projects. Critical thinking and problem solving are also strong components of the Pre-Graduate Program.

Pre-Law Program
In some cases, students require more than English-language proficiency to complete their coursework. This ‘English for Lawyers’ program provides strategies for reading and understanding legal texts, delivering oral briefs and discussing legal cases. The sheer vocabulary required to complete a degree in law is reason enough to enroll in this course before launching into a degree program.

Pic: Pace ELI.

English for Professionals Program
Opposite the other student-centered programs at Pace ELI, this one trains professionals with a non-native English speaking background. This is accomplished through highly interactive curriculum that focuses on improving job-related skills that can lead to success in the American business culture. Students develop clarify and accuracy of speech as well as the ability to communicate ideas, compose clear and effective business correspondence and craft effective presentations.

Connect with the Pace ELI and learn more about its programs via Facebook and Twitter or the Pace University YouTube channel.

At least 18 deaths related to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka, but officials had prepared for a far greater storm. Bangladesh evacuated 1 million people from coastal areas and the United Nations warned that 8.2 million people could face life-threatening conditions.

Bangladeshis carry their belongings and leash precious animals as they walk towards a cyclone shelter centre. Pic: AP.

The cyclone lost power as it shed huge amounts of rainfall and then veered west of its predicted path, sparing major Bangladeshi population areas, including Chittagong and the seaside resort of Cox’s Bazar, said Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

“Thank God we have been spared this time,” local government administrator Ruhul Amin said.

The storm’s impact in Burma, where officials were having trouble evacuating tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people, was minimal.

“We are out of danger and the impact of the cyclone is almost over. There can be heavy rains in some areas because of the cyclone, but the danger is over,” said Tun Lwin, the retired director general of Burma’s meteorology department.

In Cox’s Bazar, tens of thousands of people had fled shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, hotels, schools and government office buildings. But by Thursday afternoon, the sun was shining and Amin said he planned to close the shelters by the evening.

The storm’s slow movement toward Bangladesh gave the government plenty of warning to get people to safety, Amin said.

“But for the evacuation, the casualties would have been higher,” he said.

In addition, river ferries and boat services were suspended, and scores of factories near the choppy Bay of Bengal were closed. The military said it kept 22 navy ships and 19 Air Force helicopters at the ready.

A 1991 cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal killed an estimated 139,000 people and left millions homeless. In 2008, Burma’s southern delta was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Both those cyclones were much more powerful than Mahasen, which hit land with maximum wind speeds of about 100 kph (62 mph) and quickly weakened, said Alam, the meteorological official.

Bangladesh television stations reported the deaths of two men, one of whom was crushed by a tree uprooted by the wind.

Related heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week. At least eight people — and possibly many more — were killed in Burma as they fled the cyclone Monday night, when overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya capsized. Only 43 people had been rescued by Thursday, and more than 50 Rohingya were still missing.

Much attention was focused on western Burma because of the crowded, low-lying camps where many Rohingya refused to evacuate.

U.N. officials, hoping they would inspire greater trust, fanned out across the area to encourage people to leave.

In Rakhine state, around 140,000 people — mostly Rohingya — have been living in the camps since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes.

Nearly half the displaced live in coastal areas that were considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen.

“Pack and leave,” a Rakhine state official, U Hla Maung, warned before the storm hit as he walked through a camp near Sittwe, the state capital. Accompanied by more than a dozen soldiers and riot police, he suggested that people living there move to a nearby railroad embankment, then left without offering help.

Some Rohingya took down their tents and hauled their belongings away in cycle-rickshaws, or carried them in bags balanced on their heads.

Ko Hla Maung, an unemployed fisherman, was among those who had not left as of Thursday morning.

“We have no safe place to move, so we’re staying here, whether the storm comes or not,” he said. “… The soldiers want to take us to a village closer to the sea, and we’re not going to do that. … If the storm is coming, then that village will be destroyed.”

SO desperate for clothing, they fashioned dresses from bed sheets, pulling out individual threads to use as cotton and improvising a needle from pins nailed to wooden crates. Men, women and children live in the searing desert heat in a camp used for unloading aluminium, where everyone else has a safety mask for protection against the metal dust. There’s only one bathroom for all of them and it’s impossible to sleep because of the noise of trucks arriving around the clock. These are survivors of a brutal civil war who’ve been locked up since October; a baby was even born during this time. Shockingly they’re in one of the wealthiest city-states in the world – Dubai. And they’ve also been recognised as refugees by the United Nations.

Far worse than the dreadful physical conditions is the uncertainty. Human rights groups have received assurances that the refugees are in no danger of deportation but they’re currently in limbo until a third country accepts them. This is little comfort to people for whom fear has become a constant companion. They allege they’ve been told they are to be re-interviewed and if their stories change they will be deported. “We live in constant fear that we would be sent back at any time,” explained one of the men contacted by clandestine mobile phones, which they are not allowed in the camp.

Several members of the group allege the Dubai police previously threatened them with forcible deportation if they refused to sign papers agreeing to go quietly. ‘If you are not going to sign, we will put you in chains and send you back,’ the refugees were reportedly told. They’re alarmed because six members of their group who were not accepted as refugees have already been deported.

(READ MORE: Commonwealth dodges Sri Lanka problem)

Human rights groups have confirmed the refugees are at risk of torture and persecution if sent home – three individuals say they were already tortured in Sri Lanka in 2011. News from relatives back home also suggests that the Sri Lankan authorities have already started tracking down family members and asking questions about the refugees.

The Tamils are the remainder of a larger group of 45 who boarded a boat in southern India heading for Australia. When the vessel broke down and started taking in water, they panicked that they were all going to drown and used the satellite phone on board to contact Australia. After five hours of drifting, they were saved by a ship in the area, the Singapore-registered Pinacle Bliss, which brought them to Dubai. Twenty-four refugees have been accepted by the United States, Sweden and Finland for settlement and one young man is technically stateless because he was born while his Sri Lankan mother was illegally in India and she’s no longer alive.

Talking to journalists abroad, one elderly man broke down in tears on the phone. The stories of escape are quite harrowing – one man who feared imminent arrest in India boarded the smuggling boat in such a rush he left behind one of his children: “The agent assured that if we get into the boat, the rest of the people who are also supposed to join us will bring my daughter. I trusted his word. So, I got into the boat with my wife and the youngest daughter. Until the boat left no one brought our daughter. My wife started to cry. At the same time, we could not go back as police were waiting”.

The couple had left their eldest child asleep and it haunted them to think how she must have felt when she awoke and found herself alone. For four hellish months they had no news. Then they learned she was being looked after by her uncle, also in India. Another man was separated from his wife while fleeing Sri Lanka for India. “It was terrible to get separated after surviving a massive war; I looked for her all these months without any success,” he explained. Only recently he learned that she was back in Sri Lanka but still didn’t dare return to his country.

Among the 15 is also a former Tamil Tiger TV presenter, Rathimohan Lokini, who has given interviews saying how terrified she is that she could be raped and killed like another well known colleague, Isapriya, who was identified among the half naked female bodies in trophy photographs taken by the victorious soldiers at the end of the war.

__________________

Frances Harrison is a former BBC foreign correspondent based in Sri Lanka. Her book of accounts of survivors from Sri Lanka’s civil war “Still Counting the Dead” is available in good bookshops and online in ebook form by Portobello Books . 

The eye of the storm was expected to reach land Thursday evening, but at least 18 deaths related to Mahasen already have been reported in Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka.

Bangladeshis carry their belongings and leash precious animals as they walk towards a cyclone shelter centre in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Pic: AP.

The storm was on course for Bangladesh, Burma and northeast India, bringing life-threatening conditions to an area with a total population of 8.2 million, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Danger was particularly high for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people living in plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds in dozens of refugee camps along Burma’s western coast. Driven from their homes by violence, members of the Muslim minority group refused to evacuate, distrusting an order from officials in a majority-Buddhist country where Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination.

Early Thursday, the cyclone battered the southern Bangladesh fishing village of Khepurpara along the Bay of Bengal with 100 kph (62 mph) winds and was heading east toward the city of Chittagong and the seafront resort town of Cox’s Bazar. River ferries and boat service were suspended, and scores of factories near the choppy Bay of Bengal were closed. The military said it was keeping 22 navy ships and 19 Air Force helicopters at the ready.

Tens of thousands of people fled their shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, schools, government office buildings and some of the 300 hotels in Cox’s Bazar to wait out the storm. Some brought their livestock, which took shelter outside.

“We have seen such a disaster before,” said Mohammad Abu Taleb, who shut down his convenience shop in the city of 200,000. “It’s better to stay home. I’m not taking any chance.”

A 1991 cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal killed an estimated 139,000 people and left millions homeless. In 2008, Burma’s southern delta was devastated Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people.

Both those cyclones were much more powerful than Cyclone Mahasen, which is rated Category 1 — the weakest level. It could hit land with maximum wind speeds of about 120 kph (75 mph), said Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

Heavy rain and storm surge could prove deadlier than the wind. Bangladesh’s meteorological office said the cyclone was moving so slowly it may take a whole day for it to pass the Bangladesh coast.

In Cox’s Bazar, local government administrator Ruhul Amin turned his own three-story office building into a shelter for about 400 people as intermittent rains and gusty winds hit.

Huddling with the crowd, evacuee Mohammad Tayebullah said, “Each time there is a cyclone warning we come to the town for shelter. This has become part of our life.”

The Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management said more than 1 million people had been evacuated from coastal areas. Television stations reported the deaths of two men, one of whom was crushed by a tree uprooted by the wind.

India’s Meteorological Department forecast damage to the northeastern states of Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland, and advised fishermen off the west coast of the country to be cautious for the next 36 hours.

Related heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week. At least eight people — and possibly many more — were killed in Burma as they fled the cyclone Monday night, when overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya capsized. Only 43 people had been rescued by Thursday, and more than 50 Rohingya were still missing.

Much attention was focused on western Burma because of fears over the fate of the crowded, low-lying Rohingya camps.

In Rakhine state, around 140,000 people — mostly Rohingya — have been living in the camps since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes.

Nearly half the displaced live in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen.

“Pack and leave,” a Rakhine state official, U Hla Maung, warned as he walked through a camp near Sittwe, the state capital. Accompanied by more than a dozen soldiers and riot police, he suggested that people living there move to a nearby railroad embankment, then left without offering help.

Distrust of authorities led many Rohingya to stay where they were Thursday morning.

“We have no safe place to move, so we’re staying here, whether the storm comes or not,” said Ko Hla Maung, an unemployed fisherman. “… The soldiers want to take us to a village closer to the sea, and we’re not going to do that. … If the storm is coming, then that village will be destroyed.”

Even as rain and wind from the edges of Cyclone Mahasen began to pelt the coast near Sittwe, most people camped there appeared to be staying put. Some, however, were taking down their tents and hauling their belongings away in cycle-rickshaws, or carrying them in bags balanced on their heads.

“Now we’re afraid. … We decided to move early this morning,” said U Kwaw Swe, a 62-year-old father of seven who was hoping the government would transport his family. Otherwise they intended to walk to safety.

Burma’s President’s Office Minister Aung Min told reporters Wednesday that the government guarantees the safety of the Rohingyas during relocation and promises to return them to their current settlement when the storm has passed.

The Rohingya trace their ancestry to what is now Bangladesh, but many have lived in Burma for generations. Officially, though, they are dismissed as illegal immigrants. They face widespread discrimination in largely Buddhist Burma, and particularly in Rakhine, where many of the Rohingya live.

Tensions remain high in Rakhine nearly a year after sectarian unrest tore through the region and left parts of Sittwe, the state capital, burned to the ground. At least 192 people were killed.

Leaders from various ethnic parties said creating a federal system is impossible under the current constitution during a three-day (8-10 May) Myanmar Constitutional Democracy Workshop on Burma constitutional reform organized by the Sydney Law School at Yangon’s Mi Casa Hotel.

According to Eleven Media Group (EMG), Dr Melissa Crouch from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law made a comparison between Indonesian constitution and 2008 constitution of Burma during the second-day session of the workshop.  Dr Crouch said that the National Defense and Security Council has chosen the defense services commander-in-chief. But the constitution states no fixed term or set qualifications for the commander-in-chief. Neither does it state any rules or laws on how to remove the commander-in-chief. The 2008 constitution gives the military a much bigger role and the defense services commander-in-chief has more power than the president, she said.

Aye Thar Aung, chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy, added that the current constitution does not go with the basic principle of democracy. Besides, it does not protect the rights of the ethnic people.

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to journalists during a press conference of the workshop of "Myanmar Constitutional Democracy" at Micasa Hotel Friday, May 10, 2013, in Yangon. Pic: AP.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and chairperson of the National League for Democracy, said at a press conference following a three-day workshop that the strictest restrictions that make the 2008 constitution unchangeable must be removed before any constitutional amendment could succeed.

Section 435 of the 2008 Constitution says that if 20 percent of the total number of the Union Parliament representatives submits a Bill to amend the Constitution, it shall be considered by the Union Parliament. Section 436 states that the constitution can only be amended with the prior approval of more than 75  percent of all the representatives of the Union Parliament, followed by a nationwide referendum.

So it is understandable that the military-made constitution seems unchangeable, especially if it seeks to remove unelected army representatives from the legislative body.

However, Aung San Suu Kyi declared her willingness in October 2012 to serve as her country’s president and her party’s intention to amend the undemocratic clauses in the constitution to allow her to do so. Suu Kyi said it is her duty as leader of her National League for Democracy to be willing to take the executive office if that is what the people want. She said a clause in the constitution effectively barring her from the job is one of several her party seeks to change.

Section 59 (f) of the Constitution – Qualifications of the President and Vice-Presidents – says the presidential candidate –  or a parent, spouse, or child – cannot owe allegiance to a foreign power, nor be subject of a foreign power or citizen of a foreign country. This seems to be designed specifically to keep Suu Kyi from power. Section 60 is also an enormous barrier for Suu Kyi. It says, “The President shall be elected by the Presidential Electoral College.” Indisputably, Electoral College members will be chosen along the lines of military’s secured policy.

The military still holds a huge amount of power in Burma. For example, the 11-member National Defense and Security Council with the President keeps hold of the constitutional right to declare an emergency  at any time. Most analysts believe that there will be little hope amending the key sections of the 2008 constitution as the military will not agree to give up its legislative clout. Even if the NLD gains more than 50 percent of the seats through the 2015 general elections, it looks impossible to overcome the constitutional barriers designed to keep Suu Kyi from power.

Transferring the decision-making power to a non-military candidate would mean giving up immeasurable economic interests seized by the name of military safety. The Burmese military set up two economic enterprises, the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Limited (UMEHL) and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) in 1990 and 1993 respectively. Both enterprises are still exploiting the country’s key economic sectors with no benefits flowing to the citizens of Burma, especially the ethnic population.

The country’s important natural resources and heavy industriesincluding import, export and service sectors are monopolized and exploited by the UMEHL, MEC and their allies, while most citizens have been living in dire poverty for decades.

In brief, the 2008 constitution gives the military a decisive role through the commander-in-chief who holds more power than the president in order to protect the UMEHL, MEC and their allies. Thus, any attempts by Suu Kyi’ to amend the constitution will face stiff resistance from the military’s hidden hand.

Around 7.20am this morning the ceiling of the Wing Star shoe factory of the Western province of Kompong Speu collapsed as workers were entering the building to start their shift. The number of casualties is not yet confirmed but early reports indicated at least two workers killed and six or 7 others severely injured. The Cambodia Daily managed to talk to a local official saying that an unknown number of workers remain trapped under the wreckage, but other reports  estimated the number of trapped at about 50.

Cambodian rescuers work at the site of a factory collapse in Kai Ruong village, south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday. Pic: AP.

“Two died, a male and a female worker, and six are in critical condition,” the Kong Pisei district governor Ma Savath told the Daily today. He said that more than 2,000 workers are employed at the factory complex, which consists of several buildings. According to local testimonies, about two hundred workers were on site when the ceiling of the building collapsed.

The Cambodia  Daily also talked to Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC),who confirmed that the factory was a member of his organization. The number of companies registering to GMAC doubled in 2012. As of today, 39 companies producing shoes are members of the organisation.  According to The Phnom Penh Post, workers from the factory already protested poor working conditions and pay in March when they stopped working and  blocked a main road.

Win Star Shoes Co. Ltd produces shoes imported to the US and Europe. In 2012, more than $4 billion worth of products were shipped to the United States and Europe. Since 2006, Cambodia is part of the European initiative called “Everything But Arms” that allows Least Developed Countries (LDC) to import duty free and quota free with exception to armaments. This boosted the Cambodian garment sector. Thanks to this Everything But Arms (EBA) trade scheme, exports to the EU grew twice as much as exports to any other of Cambodia’s trading partners in 2012. Economists say that it would not be surprising if exports to the EU soon made up half of all Cambodia’s exports, with garments leading the way. As of November, 45 Cambodian factories exported footwear with a combined value of $268.7 million, according to estimates of the Ministry of Commerce.