VOICE OF ASIA 1 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

The Leading Community Weekly from Texas since 1987Vol. 26 No. 21 Friday, May 24, 2013 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 24 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

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L-R: Richard “Dick” Williams, Chairman of HTC Board of Directors and President of Shell Wind Energy, Inc., Gala Honoree Vijay Goradia, Founder and Chairman, Vinmar International, and Wal-ter Ulrich, Houston Technology Center President and CEO Photo Credit: DnN Photography

Texas’ Largest Technology Accelerator Honors Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

Honoree Vijay Goradia, Chairman & Founder, Vinmar International, LTD plus four life-time achievement awardees and over 40 entrepreneurs recognized at the Houston Technology Center’s annual gala

HOUSTON – May 17, 2013 - The Houston Technology Center

(HTC), Texas’ largest technol-ogy incubator and accelerator hosted its 10th annual gala, “A Celebration of Entrepreneurs”. The black-tie event honored local entrepreneurs who have made a significant impact on the region’s economy and developed lifesaving and revolutionary technologies.

The Houston Technology Center named Vijay Goradia, Chairman & Founder, Vinmar International, LTD, as 2013 “Celebration of Entrepreneurs” honoree. At Vinmar, Mr. Gora-dia heads a leading petrochemi-cal marketing, distribution and project development company with annual revenues in excess of $4 billion and customers in over 100 countries. Experience taught Vijay that there is no substitute for hard work, which coupled with ingenuity, can overcome most obstacles, and Vinmar International Ltd. was born 34 years ago in New York. Vijay also founded and is Chair-man of Goradia Capital LLC, which is a private equity com-pany investing in acquisitions of petrochemical assets. Also, philanthropy has always been a passion for Vijay, and through their Foundation, the fam-ily supports deserving causes in education and health. Vijay is passionate about Pratham, a nonprofit involved in primary education in India. Today there are 15 Pratham chapters in the

US, which send about $5 million a year to Pratham, India. Vijay is on the Board of several nonprof-its including Pratham USA and Pratham India, Houston Tech-nology Center, Greater Houston Partnership, The American India Foundation and the Indo Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by the US Sec-retary of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to the In-dustry Trade Advisory Commit-tee [ITAC] for the 2010-2014 term.

In addition, HTC also proudly recognized the following Life-time Achievement Awardees:

AEROSPACE: Tom Short, Anadarko Industries, LLC; CEO

ENERGY: John Calaway, Pat-tern Energy Group; Director of Wind Development

INFORMATION TECHNOL-OGY: Leland Putterman, Acorn Systems, Inc.; CEO

LIFE SCIENCES: David McWilliams, BioHouston; Chair

“Vijay illustrates the true entre-preneurial spirit which has made Houston the hub for innovation,” said Walter Ulrich, president and CEO of the Houston Technology Center. “Vijay and Marie are such a gracious, generous and successful couple, and mean so much to the Houston community with their philanthropy. We are grateful for his and his founda-tion’s dedication and leadership. Entrepreneurs are the engine of our economy and have built

Houston to be a dynamic and di-verse region well known for our energy, aerospace, life sciences and technology sectors. We are pleased to continue our annual tradition of celebrating these outstanding entrepreneurs,” said Ulrich.

About Houston Technology Center

Named by Forbes’ as one of “Ten Technology Incubators Changing the World”, and one of “Twelve Business Incuba-tors Changing the World,” the Houston Technology Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organiza-tion, is a business accelerator and the largest technology busi-ness incubator in Texas, advanc-ing the commercialization of emerging technology companies in the greater Houston area. As a catalyst for change, economic growth and development, HTC’s focus is to assist entrepreneurs in energy, information technol-ogy, life sciences, nanotechnol-ogy, and NASA/aerospace. Visit www.HoustonTech.org. Connect on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twit-ter @HouTechCenter.

HTC Mission: To enable and accelerate the growth of emerg-ing technology companies for the purpose of creating jobs and promoting economic develop-ment in the greater Houston area.

HTC Vision: HTC is the hub for Texas Gulf Coast region’s resources for building and sup-porting emerging technology

NEW YORK, May 21, 2013

Today announced the appointment of Jo-sette Sheeran, the Vice

Chair of the World Economic Forum, as the seventh president and CEO of the institution. Ms. Sheeran will assume the office on June 10.

“Josette Sheeran is a proven executive with a long and suc-cessful record of global lead-ership, and far-reaching dip-lomatic experience with the nations of Asia,” Asia Society Board Co-Chairs Henrietta Fore and Ronnie Chan said in a joint statement. “We are de-lighted that she will be Asia Society’s next president at this time of continued growth for our organization.”

At the World Economic Fo-rum, which hosts the annual Davos and Davos in China gathering of world leaders, Sheeran has helped advance global initiatives and global, regional and industry agendas such as Grow Africa, which has attracted $4 billion in in-vestment commitments to end hunger and malnutrition in Africa. This spring she also served at the Harvard Kenne-dy School as a Fisher Fellow in the Future of Diplomacy.

Prior to her tenure at the World Economic Forum, Sheeran was executive di-rector of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi An-nan in 2006. There she was responsible for managing the

Josette Sheeran Named Asia Society President

MEET ROOPAL SHAH by Katie Vloet (March 18,

2013)

Roopal Shah—a 1995 graduate of the Uni-versity of Michigan

Law School who has a back-ground practicing law for the government and in the private sector, as well as starting a nongovernmental organization in India—has been named the Law School’s assistant dean for international affairs.

“One reason I was drawn to Michigan as a law student was that Michigan was well regarded in the international community,” Shah said. “Since then, the Law School has done even more to increase international course-work, added the International Transactions Clinic, and helped students find work abroad for the summers. It’s exciting to me that Michigan is heading in the right direction, and that we have an opportunity to impact broad international happenings—not just in the law, but in treaties, global leadership, and other ar-eas as well.”

Shah will replace Virginia Gordan, the longtime assistant dean for international affairs, who is retiring, and who helped to build Michigan Law’s global engagement and international reputation.

“Virginia has been at the very

Roopal Shah Named New Assistant Dean for International Affairs

center of the strengthening of our international and comparative law programs and activities,” said Steven Ratner, the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law and a leader in the field of global law. “Finding a worthy successor was a challenge, and it required a worldwide search. The level of interest in the job and the extraordinary candi-dates who applied show how well Michigan is regarded in

international law.”Shah, he said, “has everything

we want in this position, from her varied work experience to her strategic vision for where we need to go in the future. She really wants our students to be leaders around the world, and she wants to help get them there.”

world’s largest humanitarian organization, leading a team of 13,000 people in more than 70 countries, and managing an annual budget of more than $3 billion — including $1 billion in Asia.

Under Sheeran’s leadership, the WFP increased its donor base to more than 100 nations, and became the first global institution to include the so-called BRIC countries and the gulf states among its top 10 donors. She put in place his-toric reforms of food aid, help-ing cut the cycle of hunger and malnutrition by purchasing nutritious food directly from developing world farmers. She also instituted emergency protocols that helped the WFP improve its ability to save lives and livelihoods in disas-

ters and emergencies, most notably in Pakistan, the Philip-pines, Afghanistan, Haiti and in the Horn of Africa.

Ms. Sheeran has also held senior positions in the U.S. government, and in those posi-tions she conducted high-level diplomacy with virtually every nation in Asia. As U.S. under secretary of state for econom-ic, business, and agricultural affairs, she led new State Department initiatives which supported economic transfor-mation and reconstruction in Afghanistan and Central Asia and with APEC and ASEAN. Earlier she served for five years as deputy U.S. trade represen-tative, conducting negotiations across Asia, including with China, Australia, Singapore, India, Korea, and Japan.

Roopal Shah

Josette Sheeran newly appointed President of the Asia Society.

Continued on Page 5

VOICE OF ASIA 4 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013COMMUNITY

Q. I purchased a new puppy. I was told it was a pedigree and in good health. As soon as I got it home, it became very ill. I brought it to the veterinarian, but after two days and $1,000 in expenses, the puppy died. The vet said that the dog was extremely ill the day I bought it. The seller refuses to help pay the vet bills or even give me my money back. What are my legal rights?

A. Under Texas law, you may have substantial legal rights. First, unless you bought the dog “as is,” you get what is called a warranty of “merchantability.” This is a warranty that the law implies in any contract for the sale of “goods.” A dog is considered a “good,” just like any other product you pur-chase. Under this warranty, any merchant who sells a product warrants that it is “fit for its ordinary purpose,” and will “pass without objection in the trade.” In my opinion, this basically means that you have a guarantee that the dog is healthy at the time of the sale. If you can show that the dog had the medical problem at the time you purchased it, my opinion is that the seller has breached the war-ranty of merchantability, and should be liable for damages.

If there is a breach of warranty, you are entitled to all of the damages you suffered as a result of the breach. That would include the cost of the puppy, as well as your medical bills. You also would have a claim under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which entitles you to attorney’s fees, and up to three times your damage if the seller knew the puppy was sick when it was sold. This law also protects you if the seller makes any misrepresentation. You say that the seller told you the dog was in “good health,” which was untrue. This misrepresentation violates the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and gives you an additional claim.

As I said, I believe you have substantial legal rights. I suggest you let the seller know you know your rights, and you expect your money back, or a new puppy, and that you expect to be compensat-ed for some or all of your vet bills. If you cannot settle the matter, consider a claim in small claims court. You also may want to contact the Texas Consumer Complaint Center to see if we can assist you. You can file a claim at www.texasccc.com

Q. I just moved into a new apartment. When I asked the landlord if the door had a new lock he told me it was the same lock the previous tenant had, but he was sure there were no outstanding keys. I told him I wanted a new lock and he said I could change it, but to give him a key. Am I entitled to a new lock?

A. Under the law, a tenant who moves into an apartment is entitled to have the lock changed, or re-keyed, as often as the tenant wants. The first time a lock is changed or re-keyed, the landlord must bear the cost of the change. After that, the landlord must make the change, however, he has the right to charge the tenant for any costs incurred.

Based on what you say, your landlord must change the lock or re-key it and cannot charge you. I suggest you speak with the landlord and let him know you expect him to do what the law requires.

Q. One of my brothers has lived with our mother for about a year. He pays her a small amount each month to help with expenses. Things are not working out, and my mother wants him out. Can she just throw him out?

A. In my opinion, your brother has become a “tenant,” and your mother is his “landlord.” This means that she must give him proper notice to vacate, and has no legal right to just throw him out. I suggest she give him 30 days written notice to leave. If he still does not leave, she can file a forcible entry and detainer action in justice court to have him evicted.

Q. I am the executor of my mother’s will. In the will, she left $7,000 to her grandchild. There is no money in her estate. Do I have to pay the $7,000?

A. No, you do not have to pay. The executor merely puts the will into effect and distributes the as-sets of the deceased. If there are no assets, the executor is not responsible for fulfilling the terms of the will.

Do you want to know more about your legal rights? Check out my website, www.peopleslawyer.net

The People’s Lawyer

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by Padmaja Sarathy, PhD.

The Oral History inter-view of Dr. S.G. Appan and Mrs. Rajam Appan

on May 17th, 2013 revealed an incredible story of a scientist taking up farming as a business enterprise.

Born in Kerala, Dr. Appan had a childhood dream of becoming a farmer in the foot steps of his father. His role model was his father who rose from being a coconut farmer to becoming an Agricultural Advisor to Govt. of India and was invited to tour America as a delegate during President Kennedy’s administra-tion.

Dr. Appan said, in India, one is expected to progress from agri-culture to a glamorous white col-lar job in the city. In his case, the reverse has happened. He gave up his desk job as a Research Scientist to take up cultivation of vegetables and specialty herbs. He said, sometimes at gatherings people even moved away from him when he told them he is a farmer.

Dr. Appan came to this coun-try in 1967 as a student to pursue further studies and obtained his PhD. in Ecology from University of Colorado and after graduation moved to Picayune, Mississippi & New Orleans, Louisiana and finally came to settle down in Houston in 1971 with a Research position in hand. After 10 years, due to down turn in his employ-er’s business, he decided to leave the Research job and pursue his passion of farming. Initially he planted Indian vegetables and then expanded operations to grow specialty herbs with the help of his wife Rajam who also held a job as a dietary supervi-

sor at a local hospital. Rajam enjoyed cooking at home using a variety of herbs that are essential for good health.

Her culinary expertise and Ap-pan’s research background en-abled them to design an innova-tive special packaging system for the herbs they grew in their farm land. The special container (pat-ent pending) they designed has helped to preserve the nutrients once it has been harvested until it reaches the kitchen with all the healthy anti-oxidants well-preserved.

With the collaborative efforts of all the family members con-tributing, their farming business has flourished and their herbs are marketed in supermarkets like HEB, Fiesta and Central Mar-ket chain stores throughout the Houston area. It is now a big family business, and Appans’ first daughter, Mangala and her hus-band primarily run the business and their second daughter, Sheila and her husband are pursuing their careers as physicians.

Asked about any discrimina-tion they faced in America when they arrived, Appans said they were easily accepted in Boulder, Colorado, as it was then a hippy capital of America, whereas in Mississippi, in the 60s African Americans were made to sit at the back of a bus, Dr. Appan used to suggest to his wife to wear a sari and bindu on forehead so as to avoid discrimination and be eas-ily identifiable as Indian. By and large Appans did not experi-ence any discrimination. While in New Orleans, Louisiana, they were even featured on the front page of the Picayune newspaper, so warmly welcoming them into the community.

When asked what message they have for future immigrants and our children and grandchil-dren, they said, “Dream big and Work hard. America is the land of true freedom and opportuni-ties for everyone will amply re-ward you.”

The Indo-American Oral His-tory project, the brain-child of Mr. Krishna Vavilala, has been collecting life stories of early In-dian immigrants who made their home in Houston some 30-40 years ago. The video interviews are produced by the Foundation for India Studies in partnership with Houston Public Library and the Houston Community College and are permanently archived in Houston Public Library’s Met-ropolitan Research Center for the benefit of future historians, researchers and students and to enable future generations of In-do-Americans to trace their roots back to India.

Interviewer Padmaja Sarathy, PhD., is an educational consul-tant and an author with expertise in the field of early childhood and special education. She has written a number of books, de-veloped a music CD to assist children with autism and created toolkits for children with disabil-ities. She provides educational programming guidance to school districts and presents seminars at local, national and international conferences. You can visit her website for more information at: www.infinitepossibilities-sped.com.

For participation in the Indo-American Oral History project, please contact Krishna Vavilala, Founder Chairman of the Foun-dation for India Studies: Email: KVAVILALA1@GMAIL.COM.

“Dream big, Work hard. America will amply reward you” is the Message:

A FIS Oral History interview of Dr. S.G. Appan and Mrs. Rajam Appan

Dr. S.G. Appan and Mrs. Rajam Appan being interviewed by Padmaja Sarathy

VOICE OF ASIA 5 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013COMMUNITY

For the past five years Samskriti has been pre-senting two outstanding

shows at the wonderful state-of-the-art Miller Outdoor The-atre in Hermann Park – Incred-ible India and Bollywood Blast. Last year, two amazing dance teams, Nadam and Stem Dance Kampni, from Bangalore, In-dia, presented the very excit-ing North Indian dance style of Kathak to an audience of more than 2000. For its sixth Miller Theatre season, Samskriti’s Ar-tistic Director, Rathna Kumar, has chosen one of India’s most renowned dance ensembles from the East Indian state of Orissa to showcase Incredible India and its incredibly rich and diverse artistic traditions. May being the Asian Pacific Ameri-can Heritage Month, it seems so appropriate to end the month with a bang, with a memorable performance, and on Friday, May 31, the Miller Outdoor Theatre will come alive with the drumming of the pakhawaj, the steady metallic tinkling of the manjira (cymbals), and the sounds of twelve pairs of feet striking the ground in synco-pated rhythmic sequences, as the curtain rises on Gatha Odis-si, a performance tracing the rich history of Odissi, one of the eight classical dance styles of India, and perhaps the most elegant and lyrical of them all.

Gatha Odissi: A Journey from the Temple to the Stage will be performed by the prestigious Orissa Dance Academy, led by the eminent dancer Aruna Mo-hanty. The performance takes the audience on an exciting ar-tistic journey of Odissi, from the halls of the ancient Jagannath Temple of Puri to the modern stage. Stone sculptures spring to life from temple walls in the classic chouka (square stance) and tribhanga (triple-bend) to inspire the classic repertoire: Mangalacharan, Pallavi, and Ab-hinaya. The audience will also discover the allied art forms and dance styles of Mahari, Gotipua,

May 21st, 2013One of the most horrific

storms and disasters struck Moore, Oklahoma when almost a 2 mile wide and 17 mile long tornado flattened everything in its path, inflicting heavy dam-age all around. Schools, hos-pitals, theaters, houses, farms, barns – anything and every-thing that came in its path, was reduced to rubbles. Entire neighborhoods / communities have been devastated and are in dire need of immediate succor.

The human death toll stands at 91 right now and is feared to climb as search and rescue work continues. In this mo-ment of unspoken tragedy and human suffering, Sewa Inter-national requests you to open your hearts and wallets for the suffering people. The relief ef-forts would continue for days to come and we request you to keep these people in your thoughts and prayers. We share in the grief and we all are with the Moore county community in this hour of difficulty.

Sewa International, having been at the forefront of many disaster relief projects includ-ing Hurricane Katrina and Ike, super-storm Sandy, launches this appeal to help and provide succor to these unfortunate victims. Donate generously at: www.sewausa.org, or call 708-USA-SEWA / email at info@sewausa.org.

SEWA, a Hindu faith based 501 (C)(3) charity Organization working with communities in need, is requesting individuals, companies and other organiza-tions to generously donate their time and tax-deductible mon-etary contributions to SEWA. Your donations help step up the ongoing relief efforts and to provide compassionate as-sistance to families devastated by this twister.

Please contact their local SEWA chapters or SEWA’s national Oklahoma Tornado Relief coordinator Swadesh Katoch (404-935-8893) to get involved in the relief efforts.

Samskriti to present the 6th Annual Incredible India program at the

Miller Outdoor Theatre

Sakhi Nata, Raasa and Leela - all of which are equally beloved by both artists and audiences and which so enriched the style of Odissi.

Odissi (or Orissi) is a tra-ditional style of dance which originated in the acting or ‘story dances’. The rhythmic dances of Odissi are called batu / sthayi (foundation), pallavi (flowering) and moksha (liberation). The ‘acting dances’ are called abhi-naya.

Aruna Mohanty, the lead danc-er in Gatha Odissi, was trained by the late Guru extraordinaire, Padma Shree Gangadhar Prad-han. She is the Artistic Director of the Orissa Dance Academy and is recognized today as a leading Odissi dancer, teacher, and choreographer and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Sangeet Natak Ak-ademi Puraskar, one of the high-est artistic honors given by the government of India in the field of performing arts. The Orissa

Dance Academy was founded in 1975 by the late Padma Shree Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and its dance company is renowned for its innovative compositions. Many of today’s leading Odissi dancers are ODA alumni, in-cluding Houston’s very own Shipra Avantica Mehrotra. As a senior student of the Orissa Dance Academy, Shipra has per-formed all over the United States and India. The New York Times described her performance as “wholly poetic” and “the truest revelation of dance itself”.

INCREDIBLE INDIA is fund-ed in part by the City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advi-sory Board, and its community partners are the Asia Society Tex-as Center, Orissa Cultural Asso-ciation, HUM magazine and the Anjali Center for Performing Arts. Gatha Odissi is FREE to the public, but those interested in securing reserved seats may email rathnanil@gmail.com or call 832 275 9656.

Sewa International Oklahoma Tornado Relief

world, and she wants to help get them there.”

After graduating from Michigan Law, Shah clerked for the Hon. David Alan Ezra in Hawaii, then worked as an associate at Shearman & Ster-ling in Washington, D.C. She followed that with a job as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the border crimes, major narcotics, and terrorism divisions in San Diego; there, she conducted 24 criminal trials from jury selec-tion to verdict, attaining con-victions in 22 of them.

In 2001, she cofounded and served as executive director (2007-2010) of Indicorps in Ahmedabad, India. The non-profit works to provide Indians from all over the world with a channel to reconnect with the country of their heritage and with the means to contribute to its development, while fos-tering a new generation of so-cially conscious global leaders. Among its accomplishments was the successful partner-ship with community-based organizations to create sustain-able rural initiatives, such as a clean drinking water project that reaches more than 70,000 people in 120 villages. She remains on the board of direc-tors.

She also served in 2012 as a consultant to Ashoka, a non-profit that supports social en-trepreneurship, and in 2007 as professional staff at the Uni-versity of Michigan Provost’s Office, where she provided strategic guidance on efforts such as the “Expect Respect” campaign.

As a student at Michigan Law, she was a two-term presi-dent of the Law School Student Senate. One of her legacies is the institution of a “Day of Ser-vice” as part of every new Law School student’s orientation. She also advocated for grad-

ing reform, a new approach to the mandatory 1L legal writing program, and other innova-tions. Then-Dean Jeff Lehman created the Dean’s Exceptional Service Award and awarded it to her in 1995.

“Roopal was a distinguished student when she attended the Law School, and she has been a highly accomplished alumna since her time here, making her mark in important ways around the world,” Dean Evan Caminker said. “I have no doubt that she will continue to build Michigan Law’s global reputation, and she will do so with the great energy and verve she has brought to the earlier chapters in her career.”

In addition to Shah’s pro-fessional achievements, she also is a fearless adventurer. She has run the Marine Corps marathon twice and, when she lived in San Diego, surfed every day for more than 400 days, “even when the rain was terrible, when the waves were over six feet tall, and when we really shouldn’t have been out there,” she said.

Shah said she looks for-ward to returning to Ann Ar-bor. “One of the things I have loved from a lot of the places I’ve been is the idea of build-ing and being in community. Ann Arbor is exciting because there already is a strong sense of community.”

True to her community-building instincts, she also is excited about helping the Law School “continue to build on and extend its global networks, and ensure that it is just as en-gaged, connected, and ener-gized as our community in Ann Arbor.”

Note; Roopal is the daugh-ter of Indian community leader Ramesh and Kokila Shah of Houston.

Submitted by Dr. Sulekh C. Jain , Houston, TX

Roopal Shah Named New Assistant Dean for

International AffairsContinued from Page 1

VOICE OF ASIA 10 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

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by Shaun Tandon and Stephen Collinson

US President Barack Obama on Monday sa-luted Myanmar Presi-

dent Thein Sein for his leader-ship in pushing through startling political reforms, but warned that violence against Muslims must stop.

As his guest became the first leader of his country in almost 50 years to visit the White House, Obama praised Myanmar’s jour-ney away from brutal junta rule and promised Washington would offer more political and economic support.

Seated with Thein Sein in the Oval Office, Obama said previ-ously tortured US-Myanmar rela-tions had eased because of “the leadership that President Sein has shown in moving Myanmar down a path of both political and eco-nomic reform.”

Obama repeatedly used the word “Myanmar” rather than Burma. The former is the name introduced during military rule, and which is slowly being used more frequently by US officials as a courtesy to the reforming government.

The US president said that Thein Sein had made “genuine efforts” to solve the intricate eth-nic wars that have long torn at Myanmar’s unity, but expressed

“deep concern” on the plight of Rohingya Muslim minority.

“The displacement of people, the violence directed towards them, needs to stop,” Obama said.

The visit went ahead despite ac-cusations by human rights groups that Myanmar authorities turned a blind eye or worse to a wave of deadly attacks against the Roh-ingya, who are not even consid-ered citizens.

Thein Sein told Obama that he was committed to reforms and, in a speech shortly afterward, said he wanted to build a “more inclu-sive national identity.”

“Myanmar people of all ethnic backgrounds and all faiths -- Bud-dhists, Christians, Muslims, Hin-dus and others -- must feel part of this new national identity,” he said, while stopping short of di-rectly mentioning the Rohingya.

“We must end all forms of dis-crimination and ensure not only that intercommunal violence is brought to a halt, but that all per-petrators are brought to justice,” he said at Johns Hopkins Univer-sity’s School of Advanced Inter-national Studies.

Thein Sein, who took office as a nominal civilian in 2011, said that the reforms he has undertaken were “unprecedented” and called for “maximum international sup-port.”

“Periods of transition are al-ways fraught with risk. But I know my country and my peo-ple,” he said.

“I know how much people want to see democracy take root, put behind decades of isolation, catch up with other Asian econo-mies and end all violence and fighting,” he said.

Thein Sein surprised even cyn-ics by freeing hundreds of politi-cal prisoners, reaching ceasefires with ethnic rebel groups, easing censorship and letting long-de-tained opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi enter parliament.

The most critical test of re-form will come in 2015, when Myanmar is scheduled to hold elections -- testing whether the military would truly cede power and potentially let Nobel laure-ate Suu Kyi become president.

Thein Sein called for a contin-ued role by the military, saying that the armed forces had helped preserve the country’s stability and usher in democracy.

The military seized power in 1962 under junta leader Ne Win, who in 1966 was the last leader of the country to visit the White House. He met president Lyn-don Johnson as the Vietnam War raged.

Thein Sein spoke only obliquely of his motivation for reform. Many experts believe that the proudly independent na-tion feared that its isolation had pushed it too far into the orbit of China.

In a timing that may have aimed at tempering suspicions in Beijing, the White House announced later Monday that President Xi Jinping would visit California next month for his first summit with Obama since the Chinese leader took office.

Obama has made Myanmar a key priority and visited in No-vember. To some, Myanmar rep-resents the biggest success from his pledge in his 2009 inaugural address to reach out to US foes if they “unclench” their fists.

Obama praises Myanmar re-form but warns on Muslims

US President Barack Obama expressed to Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein (left) “deep concern” on the plight of Rohingya Mus-lim minority. Photo: AFP

by Michael MathesWASHINGTON, May 21,

2013 (AFP) - A sweeping over-haul of the US immigration sys-tem took a major step toward viability Tuesday when a Senate panel gave bipartisan approval to a landmark bill offering a path to citizenship for millions.

The Senate Judiciary Com-mittee approved the contentious and potentially historic legisla-tion by a 13-5 vote, following weeks of marathon hearings and meetings to consider more than 200 amendments.

The bill emerged with its core mostly intact, including require-ments for major advances in border security, visa programs for high- and low-skilled work-ers, and expansion of a com-prehensive e-verify system for employers.

It needs 60 votes to pass the 100-seat Senate, and would then head to the Republican-controlled House of Representa-tives, where its fate is uncertain and where lawmakers are draw-ing up their own immigration legislation.

“We’ve got a ways to go but we will get there,” exuber-ant Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, one of four Demo-crats and four Republicans to craft the huge bill, said after the bipartisan vote.

The legislation, which would legalize more than 11 million undocumented people currently in the shadows and set most of them on a 13-year path to citi-zenship, is now set for a debate showdown on the Senate floor in June.

President Barack Obama cheered the vote and urged law-makers to put partisanship aside in order to help it clear the Sen-ate.

“None of the committee mem-bers got everything they wanted, and neither did I, but in the end we all owe it to the American people to get the best possible

result over the finish line,” the president said in a statement after what was a rare victory for him in recent weeks.

An elated committee chair-man Senator Patrick Leahy, who shepherded the complicated bill through a marathon markup ses-sion, said he hoped “that our his-tory, our values and our decency can inspire us finally to take ac-tion.”

Leahy had suffered a setback, however, when he was forced to withdraw his key amendment, a measure that would have allowed gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born spouses for US res-idency and citizenship.

“This is not the bill that I would have drafted,” he said.

“I will continue my efforts to end the needless discrimination so many Americans face in our immigration system. This dis-crimination serves no legitimate purpose and it is wrong.”

Senator Marco Rubio, perhaps the most high-profile Republi-can in the “Gang of Eight” that crafted the bill, had warned that fellow conservatives would vote against the measure en masse if it included Leahy’s provision.

The Gang of Eight has made no secret of their wish to send the bill to the House with a substan-tial majority of some 70 votes, a result they hope would send a strong message to skeptical

House Republicans.Accomplishing that would

mean placating key Republi-cans like Senator Orrin Hatch, who had expressed concern that the immigration bill’s provision of specialty visas to persons in high-tech fields could cost Amer-ican jobs.

Hatch reached agreement with key Democrats on the panel, and his amendment to protect Ameri-can workers passed the commit-tee.

In turn Hatch backed the over-all legislation, one of three Re-publicans who sided with the committee’s 10 Democrats.

“I said when the immigration bill was first introduced that it needed improvement to get to a point where I could support it, and I’m pleased we were able to do that by further strengthen-ing border security and ensuring we can remain competitive in a global economy,” Hatch said.

“But this bill needs more im-provement before I’m ready to vote for it when the full Senate takes it up.”

Even opponents of the bill, like Senator John Cornyn, expressed a hint of optimism that a broader deal could be worked out.

“I want the system to work for everyone, and I am hopeful that common sense will eventu-ally lead to common ground,” he said.

Landmark US immigration bill clears key Senate hurdle

Currently there are more than 11 million undocumented people in the US.

WORLD/US

VOICE OF ASIA 14 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013 Section 2 Email: voiceasia@aol.com Tel: 713-774-5140

Young Life

HCC-ASPIRE opens new scholarshipsHOUSTON (May 15,

2013) – Houston Community Col-

lege’s new organization HCC-ASPIRE, Asian Scholarship Program Inspiring Results & Excellence, opened new doors of opportunities at an inaugural fundraising event on May 9.

The event served as a morn-ing of entertainment and cel-ebration for HCC faculty, staff, students and sponsors at the Hilton Americas. With an over-whelming sell-out response, the fundraising breakfast raised more than $54,000.00 for schol-arships for HCC Asian students and faculty.

Co-Founded by HCC Trust-ee Neeta Sane (District VII), with the support of community leaders, public officials, and the HCC Foundation, HCC-ASPIRE program is designed to support educational pursuits and excellence of Asian students and faculty of HCC. Based on financial needs and academic progress, HCC-ASPIRE will grant awards to deserving stu-dents and members of the HCC

A total of 10 Wisconsin students - including six from Milwaukee

- have earned scholarships cov-ering all the costs of attending the colleges of their choice as part of a competitive program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Only 1,000 students nation-wide win Gates Millenium Scholarships, aimed primar-ily at high-achieving students who are racial minorities from economically challenged back-grounds. The rigorous appli-cation process comes with an impressive payout for the win-ners: the scholarships cover 100% of the students’ unmet need (including room, board and tuition) to the college of their choice, including graduate school, if they wish to pursue it.

Milwaukee Public Schools recognized its three Gates Mil-lenium scholars on Monday at South Division High School.

Local students earn full-ride Gates Millenium college scholarships

Should we let wunderkinds like Tumblr’s David Karp drop out of high school?

By BETH J. HARPAZ, Associated Press

It’s one thing to say tech geniuses don’t need degrees. After all, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark

Zuckerberg all dropped out of col-lege.

But now we’ve got David Karp, who doesn’t even have a high school diploma. Karp, 26, founded Tumblr, the online blogging forum, and sold it to Yahoo for US$1.1 billion. US high school students are roughly between the ages of 14 and 18.

Which raises the question: When is it OK for a wunderkind to drop out of school?

Some folks in Silicon Valley and elsewhere say a conventional educa-tion can’t possibly give kids with out-size talents what they need. Others, like Vivek Wadhwa, a fellow at Stan-ford Law School who teaches and ad-vises startup companies, say dropping out to pursue a dream is like “buying a lottery ticket — that’s how good your odds are here. More likely than not, you will become unemployed. For every success, there are 100,000 failures.”

But what about kids who are so good at computer programming that schools can’t teach them what they need to know? “That’s what internships are for; that’s what extracurricular activi-ties are for,” says Wadhwa, who has founded two companies.

Karp, in an interview with The As-sociated Press, said he hopes teenagers don’t look at his success as an excuse for leaving school. “That is not a path that I would haphazardly recommend to kids out there,” he said. “I was in a very unique position of knowing exactly what I wanted to do at a time when computer science education cer-tainly wasn’t that good in high school in New York City.”

Karp’s mother gave him the option of home-schooling when he was 14, after he completed his freshman year at the Bronx High School of Science, an elite New York City public school that only admits students who score well on a difficult entrance exam. Karp took Japanese classes and had a math tutor while continuing with an internship at an animation produc-tion company, but by age 16, he was working for a website and was on his way to become a tech entrepreneur. He never did get his diploma. Karp’s mother told the AP that she let him leave school because she realised “he

needed the time in the day in order to create.”

That resonates with Penny Mills of Hudson, Massachusetts, who let her son Thomas Sohmers, 17, drop out of 11th grade this year. “I could see how much of the work he was doing at school wasn’t relevant to what he wanted to learn,” she said. “He always wanted to learn more than what the schools wanted to teach him. At times it was very frustrating. I was fortu-nate to find people that were able to teach him more, but he has gone be-yond what high school could ever give him.”

Thomas has been working at a re-search lab at the esteemed Massachu-setts Institute of Technology since he was 13, developing projects ranging from augmented reality eyewear to la-ser communications systems. He just won a Thiel Fellowship, which gives

US$100,000 (HK$776,234) to 20 people under the age of 20 each year so they can skip college to focus on re-search or a dream, whether it’s a high-tech project, a business or a nonprofit. But his mom says she would have let him drop out even if he hadn’t won the award.

“The part that really bothers me is that there are a lot of Thomases out there and their needs are not being met,” said Mills.

Thomas says he’s sad to be leav-ing his teenage friends behind, but he’s excited about the future. And he has mixed feelings about his years in school. “I’ve had some amazing, great teachers that really have the passion to teach, but most of what is in school now is teaching to a test,” he said. “It’s really sad. You’re not learning the skills for how to solve the problem — you are just learning the answer to

this question that is going to be on the test.”

Susan Bartell, a psychologist based in Port Washington, New York who works with adolescents and their fam-ilies, says she frequently encounters parents who are convinced that their kids are extraordinarily gifted. But she cautions that it’s “the very rare excep-tion when this decision (to drop out) makes sense.” In the case of Karp, she

David Karp, 26, foundedr of TumblrYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Tumblr Chief Executive David Karp speak during a news conference Monday, May 20, 2013, in New York. Yahoo edged up 31 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $26.83 after the Internet company said it was buying online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Photo: Frank Franklin II

said, “it worked out, but almost al-ways it doesn’t — even if a kid is ex-tremely gifted. School is about much more than just academics and in most cases, even the most gifted kids need the socialising.”

And not all young moguls take Karp’s route. Earlier this year, a 17-year-old from London, Nick D’Aloisio, sold an app he created to Yahoo for US$30 million (HK$232.9 million) — but he decided to stay in school.

On the other hand, there are exam-ples of successful individuals in many fields who lack a high school diploma, from top performers such as Jay-Z to billionaire businessmen such as Rich-ard Branson.

The tech community may be dif-ferent from other industries. Degrees

are not necessarily seen as a hallmark of achievement and programmers are judged on their ability to type lines of code. You are what you create.

What also sets the field apart is that computer programming is not taught at every high school, and even when it is, the most talented students often either “surpass the curriculum or feel it’s not relevant to them,” said Dan-ielle Strachman, program director for

the Thiel Fellowship. “They want to move at their own pace.”

Strachman also emphasised that just because someone has left school, doesn’t mean they’ve stopped learning. The Thiel program provides not just funding, but a community of peers and mentors to help recipients reach their goals. And they can always go back to pursue a degree when the fellowship is over.

It’s a goal that even Karp has his eye on— despite his newfound wealth. “I hope I have an opportunity to go to school at some point,” he said, “and study something completely different.”

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr in New York and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story.

faculty or staff.HCC-ASPIRE program is

committed to inspiring HCC’s students and faculty members to excel in the academic world and in the community as well. By supporting students and faculty with financial awards, HCC-ASPIRE aims to enhance the teaching-learning process that will enable HCC to educate more students for the 21st cen-tury workforce and job market

To uphold diversity and inclu-siveness, HCC-ASPIRE pro-gram will also support activities that highlight the Asian culture of education. For more informa-tion about HCC-ASPIRE and to access the application details visit www.hccs.edu/aspire.

Out of HCC’s 70,000 student population, about 14% is of Asian American & Pacific Is-lander (AAPI) origin. In 2012, HCC became eligible to be list-ed as one of the AAPI-serving institutions as defined by the U.S. Department of Education.

About HCCHCC is one of the country’s

largest singly-accredited, open-admission, community colleges offering associate degrees, cer-tificates, workforce training and lifelong learning opportu-nities for 75,000 students each semester. HCC is composed of

six colleges that serve the great-er Houston area’s diverse com-munities by preparing individu-als to live and work in today’s increasingly international and technological society. To learn more go to hccs.edu.

L-R: HCC Trustee Neeta Sane, District VII; Dr, Parvin Bagh-erpour, Associate Vice Chancellor for International Student Services & Study Abroad; HCC-ASPIRE scholarship recipient Ms. Thushara Korattyil and her brother, Thomson.

South Division senior Mayra Alaniz will be using the scholar-ship to attend Georgetown Uni-versity. Jessica Curry, a senior at Riverside High School, will attend the University of Wis-consin-Whitewater. And Kali Huettl, also a senior from Riv-erside, will attend Clark Atlanta University.

(From left to right): MPS se-niors Kali Huettl, Mayra Alaniz and Jessica Curry were rec-ognized Monday for winning Gates Millenium Scholarships. Photo courtesy of MPS.

Veritas High School, a public charter high school in Milwau-kee, had two students win Gates scholarships: Cha Lee and Xiong Her. The boys were rescued from refugee camps in Thailand and enrolled in elementary school in Milwaukee knowing no English.

A Thomas More High School student also won a Gates schol-arship: Karina

VOICE OF ASIA 15 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

There is no point in devel-oping a great athletic-looking body if you neglect your skin, writes Gary Kwok

Working out and get-ting in shape is a never-ending quest

for men, but a sweaty gym ses-sion can come with some un-foreseen side effects: pimples, dry skin and blackheads, to name a few. Exercise also in-duces the formation of free radicals, which over time can damage the skin’s cellular in-tegrity, resulting in premature skin ageing.

“Whether you’re a profes-sional sports star or just a week-end warrior, there’s no point in developing a great athletic-looking body if you ignore tak-ing care of your skin, which is the first thing people look at,” says Clare Matthews, director and co-founder of Australian men’s grooming brand Vita-Man. “Even the world’s best bodybuilders can come unstuck when posing if they have bad acne, aged skin or wrinkles. So it makes sense that attention is given to looking after your skin equally as much as your fitness, physique and health.”

In response to rising de-mand, VitaMan is one of sev-eral brands that has developed sports-related product lines. British spa chain Champneys offers a complete collection of Sports Therapy items, rang-ing from an Intensive Moisture Balm to a Muscle Rehab Bath Soak. American skincare brand Jack Black, which features a pain-relieving cream and wound gel, has even enlisted NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpat-rick to promote its shaving and cleansing products.

Dermatologist and founder of Skin Clinic of New York and New Jersey Dr Chang Bae Son says men in general are now more willing to spend time tak-ing care of their skin. “Due to a recent cultural emphasis in beauty and grooming with a focus on skin, investing in sk-incare and having good skin is no longer a social ‘taboo’, but rather a desirable asset for modern men,” he says. “ More common issues in men are ex-cessive sebum production [oily skin], general and uneven thick-ening of skin, and dyschromia [uneven skin tone].”

Adding to these issues, says Ting Chiu, brand director for Olay Hong Kong and Taiwan, is the fact that men’s skin dries more easily. “Men’s skin has slower absorption and a weaker ability to retain moisture,” he says. “It becomes rough and dry , and working out will increase the likelihood of developing problems.”

So what’s an athlete to do? Matthews suggests applying VitaMan’s Desert Muscle Rub before working out to prevent any possible muscle tears. The black mountain pepper helps increase circulation, while wat-tle seed resin is useful for pain relief.

A moisturiser, such as Olay Men Refreshing Energy Bal-ancing Gel or Giorgio Armani’s new Perfect Master soothing and anti-ageing cream, can also be applied pre-workout to maintain the balance of oil in the skin.

Skin infection is a common problem at most gyms, with often-sweaty clients sharing machines and dumbbells. After a workout, Matthews says it is important to remove the build-up of sweat, grime and dirt to prevent formation of acne and blackheads.

VitaMan’s Anti-bacterial Face & Body Wash and Exfoliating Body Soap, which is especially popular among bodybuilders, contains natural plant extracts such as aloe, grass lily and blue cypress oil to nourish the skin and prevent flakiness. Other options include ClarinsMen’s Shower Scrub with microbeads for exfoliation and salicylic acid for deep cleansing, and Kyoku for Men’s Earth Body Scrub with moisturising jojoba beads.

With summer around the cor-ner, a lot of active men will be partaking in more outdoor ac-tivities. Research shows that men spend 40 per cent more time in the sun than women, and Matthews warns that long-term exposure to ultraviolet rays threatens skin health.

“It results in skin dehydra-tion, redness, heat, skin damage caused by the sun’s free radicals, speeding up of skin cellular age-ing and possible skin cancer,” she says. “You often see the results in athletes as their skin ages a lot quicker throughout their life than other men’s.” A study by international skincare brand SK-II also shows that the level of glycation in men’s skin is significantly higher than that of women’s, resulting in diminished skin elasticity and yellowing of skin tones. That being said, sun protection is es-sential to any outdoor activity.

SK-II’s Men UV Protect Moisturizer features an en-hanced moisturising formula that aims to brighten skin while its Facial Treatment Essence revitalises the skin and reduces the effects of environmen-tal damage. Sulwhasoo’s Sun Cream for Men offers SPF 50 PA+++ protection with herbal extracts to enhance skin texture and guard against external ag-gressors. Targeted specifically at sports enthusiasts, Ultrasun’s High 50 SPF Sports Clear Spray Formula provides all-day pro-tection in a light, sweat-resistant

LEISUREDamage control

formula.

Few understand the risk of sun-burn better than a swimmer who spends hours training in the pool or open waters. Former Olympic swimmer Michael Klim started his skincare company Milk & Co in Australia in 2008, after he retired from professional swimming in 2007. “Australia’s climate is pretty harsh, that cou-pled with my hours in the pool, made looking after my skin tough. I couldn’t find a product that was right for me, so I made my own,” he says.

The brand’s product offerings include a Dry Touch SPF 30+ Sunscreen for the body and a Face Moisturiser + Sunscreen SPF 15 with marine-based in-gredients that are rich in vitamin A, B and E. Despite the plethora of products for use before, dur-ing and after sports, Matthews advises caution when it comes to certain ingredients, such as alcohol and aluminium. “Don’t use skincare containing harsh synthetic chemicals, such as ar-tificial fragrances or colours, as they are a major cause of 90 per cent of all men’s skin allergies and problems,” she says.(South China Morining Post)

VOICE OF ASIA 16 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

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Bollywood seeks help from TV

Kavita awaasthi, Hindustan Time

Bollywood may take up the bigger chunk of the entertain-ment pie, but it’s TV that has

wider reach. Which is why film stars are spotted on TV shows so often. It isn’t a novelty to spot them on reality shows anymore, but appearing in se-rials seems to be emerging as a new trend. John Abraham and gang ap-peared as their Shooutout At Wadala characters on Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, while Bipasha Basu promoted Aatma on the show, Arjun. Abhishek Bach-chan and Ajay Devgn appeared as their Bol Bachchan (2012) characters in Ek Hazaroon Mein Meri Behna Hai (EHMMBH), and Emraan Hashmi and Prachi Desai were on CID, talking about Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (2010).

Film producers approach channels that they feel will have the best target audience for their film, and together, they decide which show would work best with respect to the subject of the

Contrary to his projected role of a gangster in the film, John Abraham looks rather innocent in this still along with Kangana Ranaut.

Madhuri returns to Bollywood in Style with “Ghagra” item song opposite Ranbir‘Dhak-Dhak Girl’ of Bollywood

has returned to the big screen after a gap of six years with a

item song in an upcoming film “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” directed by Ayaan Mukherjee.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani aka YJHD stars Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles.

Although, Madhuri is appearing in solo song “Ghagra” opposite Ranbir in this film, but she managed to steal the limelight from other actors.

The song has been choreographed by famous choreographer Farah Khan.

This promo was unveiled on Madhu-ri Dixit’s 46th birthday on 15th May.

Her fans had appreciated this song and within five days of its release, this song has already been declared a super hit song and one the best song of this year so far.

His co-star in this song, Ranbir Ka-poor said in an interview, “it was great to shoot with Madhuri”.

Ranbir said he was heartbroken when Madhuri married Sriram Nene in 1999. He was 17 that time.

“The first woman I fell in love with was Madhuri Dixit. The first woman who gave me heart break was Madhuri Dixit when she got married. Just the fact that I got an opportunity to dance with her and to see her on the sets was just amazing,” added the 30-year-old.

“I bribed Ayan (Mukerji), as he is my friend. In the song, I found out that I had to kiss her on the cheek, so that was a lovely experience,” said Ran-bir, who even danced with the “dhak dhak” girl on the sets of dance reality show “Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa” last year while promoting “Barfi!”.

After her strong return in Bollywood, Madhuri will be next seen in Bol-lywood movies like “Dedh-Ishqiya” opposite Arshad Warsi and “Gulaab

Gang” with Juhi Chawla. Both movies are slated to release in this year.

“Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” is all set to release on 31st May.

film. So, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone will promote Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani on Pyaar Ka Dard... because the character of Aditya (lead actor), is similar to that of Ranbir’s in the film. Back when the Bol Bachchan actors appeared on EHMMBH, they cheered up Maanvi (played by Nia Sharma) and urged her not to give up her fight against cancer.

A reason for this trend picking up may be lack of time for the stars to visit tier-3 and 4 towns to promote their films and give interviews to local newspapers there. A TV show is thus their best way of reaching out to audi-ences far and wide. In smaller towns, some TV actors are bigger stars than their Bollywood counterparts. So when the audience sees Bollywood actors in-teracting with their favourite TV stars, asking them to watch their film, the message goes across very effectively. It’s as good as a celebrity in an adver-tisement asking you to buy a particular soap or a brand of deodorant.

Sreesanth sought female models’ photos from Bollywood ‘casting director’

Cricketer S. Sreesanth (file photo)

by Alok Deshpande

Tainted Rajasthan Royals pace-man S. Sreesanth had received several mails carrying hundreds

of photographs of female models from a Bollywood ‘casting director,’ allegedly for the purpose of advertisement of his brand called S36.

The Mumbai police have found sev-eral e-mail interactions from the seized laptop and mobile phones, in which a certain casting director had sent him the pictures of models. The police had raid-ed the suburban five- star hotel on Fri-day night where Sreesanth and bookie Jiju Janardan had independently booked a room each.

The casting director was on Monday called by the Mumbai police for interro-gation. “According to his version, Sree-

santh co-owns a company called S36. A film producer from Hyderabad is anoth-er partner in the company. The casting director had interaction with him only on e-mails and Facebook. He had sent the models’ photographs to Sreesanth. The cricketer had asked him to send more photos,” said one of the officers who interrogated the casting director.

The Facebook page of ‘S36’ with Sreesanth’s photo on it says that the products under this brand consist of mineral packaged drinking water, ap-parels and sports goods. According to police sources, Sreesanth’s partner from Hyderabad could also be called for in-terrogation. The police have not ruled out the possibility of interrogating the paceman.

They have also found a list of contact

numbers in the laptop. However, all the contacts have coded names and police are in the process of identifying the per-sons. A photo of Sreesanth and Jupiter (bookie) has also been found in the lap-top. The police suspect that some emails have been deleted from his account and cyber cell of the Mumbai police has been asked to retrieve the deleted mails.

The police have also received the CCTV footage of a hotel which was raided on Friday night and are currently examining the details.

Meanwhile, police custody of Ramesh Vyas, the bookie who was arrested on May 14 and who is turning out to be the common link between two different cas-es of spot-fixing currently being probed by the Delhi and Mumbai police, was on Monday extended till May 22.

Ranbir Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

VOICE OF ASIA 18 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013HEALTHHEALTHY LIVING Friday, May 24, 2013 Section 2 Email: voiceasia@aol.com Tel: 713-774-5140

Dr. David Jeyaraj M.D.

Schedule a visit: • 713.271.0705 • 10101 Southwest Freeway, Suite 205, Houston, Texas 77074

Texas Age Management Institute www.texasami.com“Your Partner in Healthy Aging”

• TAMI nutritional program• TAMI exercise program• Customized nutritional supplementation.• Bioidentical hormone replacement.• Telomerase activator.

Read Dr. Jeyaraj’s article weekly on this page

Acheive optimal health through an individualized program that combines scientific principles with your physiological profile to identify and correct nutritional and hormone deficiencies. Board certified in

Internal Medicine Certified in Age

Management Medicine

Vitamin D:Continued

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and is naturally present

in dairy, eggs, meat seafood, mushrooms and cheese. Vitamin D is naturally pro-duced in the human skin upon exposure to sunlight. It functions as a hormone in the body.

It is advisable to check your blood levels if you have not already done so. Normal lab levels of 25-hydroxy Vi-tamin D are 30-100 ng/ml. Optimal levels are however, 50-80 ng/ml. Optimal intake of Vitamin D is about 5000 I.U/day. It is important to monitor the blood levels so as not to exceed the normal levels. Vitamin D toxicity is associated with symptoms due to excess calcium in the

body. These include poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, weakness, frequent urina-tion and kidney stones.

People who live in north-ern lattitudes and African Americans are very sus-ceptible to Vitamin D defi-ciency. However it is widely prevalent in other geograph-ical areas and races too. Ex-treme long term deficiency leads to conditions such as osteomalacia and rickets, both disorders of bone for-mation. Milder forms of vi-tamin D deficiency is vastly under-diagnosed.

Dr David Jeyaraj is board certified in Internal Medi-cine and has been in practice for 14 years. When he faced a personal health crisis, he at first turned to conventional medicine. He exercised, ate right, took his medications regularly. He transitioned from conventional medicine to full time age management medicine . Dr Jeyaraj is cer-tified in age management by Cengenics Institute, Las Ve-gas and is a member of the Age Management Medicine Group. He can be reached at: 713.271.0705 www.tex-asami.com

David Jeyaraj, MD

Interesting facts about water

• Lean people have more water in their bodies as muscle holds more water than fat.

• Every system in our body depends on water and is in constant need for replenish-ment.

• Lack of water to carry out normal functions result in dehydration produced diseases with serious health risks.

• Chronic and persis-tently increasing dehydration is the root cause of almost all encountered human dis-eAses.

• Energy drinks are no substitute for plain water.

• The most beneficial reason why we should take wa-ter is because it flushes out the toxins, which cause dis-eAses.

To measure the right amount of water to be taken: 1/10 of

Body Weight(in Kgs)X .625This chart explains how

much water we should drink throughout the day. If living in temperature zone above 35*C or carrying out heavy physical activities, then add 10% more to the above formula. These amounts include the morning

WATER THERAPY - Part 3

quantity of 1.25 litres if prac-ticing Water Therapy.

HOW TO DO WATER THERAPY

Early morning, after you get up from bed, without brushing teeth drink 1.25 liters of water.

Neither drinks nor solid food of any sort should be taken within 1 hour of drinking this 1.25 litres.

No alcoholic drinks shall be taken the previous night.

Boiled and filtered water may be used, to begin with, start with half litre and gradually in-crease it by 100 ml every week till 1.25 litres is reached.

During the day you may con-tinue to drink water as required, however 150 ml per hour is considered the general rule of thumb.

150 ml of water before bath will help lower blood pressure

150 ml of water before sleep will reduce chances of stroke.

During the do not drink water 45 minutes of solid food.

Disclaimer:This book shall deliver the

basic knowledge on these three methods. I would request the readers’ discretion to use this book more from the perspective of information. I wish to em-phasis that this book in no way a substitute to medical treat-ment; Please consult competent

Medical Professional before starting the procedures.

Dr. Hiten Patel is a Reg-istered Medical Practitioner (Alternative Medicine) and ACWA. he can be reached at +91-9820371404 or mind.therapist@gmail.comwww.drhitenpatel.blogspot.in

by Sabrina Tavernise (The New York Times)

BROWNSVILLE, Tex. — Be-coming an American can be bad for your health.

A growing body of mortal-ity research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.

The pattern goes against any notion that moving to America improves every aspect of life. It also demonstrates that at least in terms of health, worries about assimilation for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants are mistaken. In fact, it is happening all too quickly.

“There’s something about life in the United States that is not conducive to good health across generations,” said Robert A. Hummer, a social demographer at the University of Texas at Austin.

For Hispanics, now the na-tion’s largest immigrant group, the foreign-born live about three years longer than their Ameri-can-born counterparts, several studies have found.

Why does life in the United States — despite its sophisti-cated health care system and high per capita wages — lead to worse health? New research is showing that the immigrant ad-vantage wears off with the adop-tion of American behaviors — smoking, drinking, high-calorie diets and sedentary lifestyles.

Here in Brownsville, a worn border city studded with fast-food restaurants, immigrants say that happens slowly, almost im-perceptibly. In America, foods like ham and bread that are not supposed to be sweet are. And children lose their taste for tradi-tional Mexican foods like cactus and beans.

For the recently arrived, the quantity and accessibility of food speaks to the boundless promise of the United States. Esther An-geles remembers being amazed at the size of hamburgers — as big as dinner plates — when she first came to the United States from Mexico 15 years ago.

“I thought, this is really a country of opportunity,” she said. “Look at the size of the food!”

Fast-food fare not only tasted good, but was also a sign of success, a family treat that new earnings put in reach.

“The crispiness was deli-cious,” said Juan Muniz, 62, re-calling his first visit to Church’s Chicken with his family in the late 1970s. “I was proud and excited to eat out. I’d tell them: ‘Let’s go eat. We can afford it now.’ ”

For others, supersize deals ap-pealed.

“You work so hard, you want to

The Health Toll of Immigration

Esther Angeles, 41, with her daughter, Johanna Marisol Gomez, 7. Ms. Angeles has developed dia-betes since coming to the United States and struggles to see that her daughter eats healthfully.

use your money in a smart way,” said Aris Ramirez, a community health worker in Brownsville, explaining the thinking. “So when they hear ‘twice the fries for an extra 49 cents,’ people think, ‘That’s economical.’ ”

For Ms. Angeles, the excite-ment of big food eventually wore off, and the frantic pace of the modern American workplace took over. She found herself eat-ing hamburgers more because they were convenient and she was busy in her 78-hour-a-week job as a housekeeper. What is more, she lost control over her daughter’s diet because, as a sin-gle mother, she was rarely with her at mealtimes.

Robert O. Valdez, a profes-sor of family and community medicine and economics at the University of New Mexico, said, “All the things we tell people to do from a clinical perspec-tive today — a lot of fiber and less meat — were exactly the lifestyle habits that immigrants were normally keeping.”

As early as the 1970s, re-searchers found that immigrants lived several years longer than American-born whites even though they tended to have less education and lower income, factors usually associated with worse health. That gap has grown since 1980. Less clear, however, was what happened to immigrants and their American-born offspring after a lifetime in the United States.

Evidence is mounting that the second generation does worse. Elizabeth Arias, a demographer at the National Center for Health Statistics, has made exploratory estimates based on data from 2007 to 2009, which show that Hispanic immigrants live 2.9 years longer than American-born Hispanics. The finding, which has not yet been pub-

lished, is similar to those in ear-lier studies.

Still, the data does not break down by generation. Ms. Arias cautioned that subsequent gen-erations — for example, grand-children and great-grandchil-dren — may indeed improve as they rise in socioeconomic sta-tus, which in the United States is strongly correlated with better health.

Other research suggests that some of the difference has to do with variation among American-born Hispanics, most of whom still do better than the rest of the American population. Puerto Ricans born in the continental United States, for example, have some of the shortest life spans and even do worse than whites born in the United States, ac-cording to research by Profes-sor Hummer, dragging down the numbers for American-born Hispanics. But Mexican immi-grant men live about two years longer than Mexican-American men, according to the estimates by Ms. Arias.

Why is a harder question to answer, researchers say. Some point to smoking. Andrew Fenelon, a researcher at Brown University, found in 2011 that half of the three-year life expec-tancy advantage that Hispanic immigrants had over American-born Hispanics was because they smoked less. The children of immigrants adopt health be-haviors typical of Americans in their socioeconomic group. For second-generation Hispan-ics, the group tends to be lower income, with higher rates of smoking and drinking.

Other researchers say cul-ture contributes. Foreign-born Hispanics are less likely than American-born Hispanics to be raising children alone, and more likely to be part of large kinship

networks that insulate them from harsh American econom-ic realities that can lead to poor health.

“I’d love to have my wife at home taking care of the kids and making sure they eat right, but I can’t afford to,” said Camilo Garza, a 34-year-old plumber and maintenance worker whose grandfather immigrated from Mexico. “It costs money to live in the land of the free. It means both parents have to work.”

As a result, his family eats out almost every night, leaving his dining table abandoned.

“It’s a decoration,” said Mr. Garza, who is overweight and a smoker. “It’s a place where we set groceries before sticking them in the refrigerator.”

The lifestyle takes its toll. The county in which Brownsville is situated, Cameron, has some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the country. The numbers are made worse by a lack of physical activity, including walking. Immigrants said they felt so conspicuous during early attempts to walk along the shoulder of the roads that they feared people would suspect they were here ille-gally. Ms. Angeles recalled that strolling to a dollar store pro-voked so many stares that she felt like “a bean in rice.”

“In Mexico, we ate healthily and didn’t even know it,” said Ms. Angeles, who has since developed diabetes. “Here, we know the food we eat is bad for us. We feel guilty. But we eat it anyway.”

Still, immigrants have better health outcomes than the Amer-ican-born. A 2006 analysis by Gopal K. Singh, a researcher at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Robert A. Hiatt, a professor of epide-miology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, found that immi-grants had at least a 20 percent lower overall cancer mortality rate than their American-born counterparts.

Mortality rates from heart disease were about 16 percent lower, for kidney disease 18 percent lower, and for liver cir-rhosis 24 percent lower.

“When my daughter was born, my doctor told me that if I wanted to see her 15th birthday I needed to lose the weight,” said Gerry Ortiz, 37, a first-generation Mexican-American in Brownsville. He managed to lose 75 pounds, motivated in part by his grandfather, a farmer in rural Mexico who at 93 still rides his bicycle ev-ery day. He stares down at the family from a black-and-white photograph hanging in Mr. Or-tiz’s living room. Four of the family’s six siblings are obese and have diabetes.

Formula for daily amount of water

Body Weight Liters in a day Glasses 300 ml50 kg 3.1 1060 kg 3.8 1370 kg 4.4 15

Dr. Hiten Patel

VOICE OF ASIA 19 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

by Rob LeverWASHINGTON - Yahoo! is

under two decades old is al-ready showing signs of age. Tumblr, the cool blogging plat-form, represents a new genera-tion.

This split marks both a chal-lenge and an opportunity for the firms, after the announce-ment that Yahoo! is buying the six-year-old startup for $1.1 billion, mainly in cash.

“Yahoo users are behind the curve, Tumblr users too cool for school,” said Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton Uni-versity computer scientist, in a tweet.

“From this POV (point of view) the acquisition seems ironically appropriate.”

Tumblr could be key to Ya-hoo! because of its popularity with younger Internet users. A survey this year conducted by the online data group Survata found Tumblr more popular than Facebook among those aged 13 to 25.

“Yahoo skews toward older demographics. Tumblr is ridic-ulously strong among Millen-

nials,” said a tweet from Brian Solis, analyst with Altimeter Group.

Some comments posted on Tumblr as the news broke high-lighted this generation gap, as if their parents were interven-ing to spoil the party.

“YAHOO, CLOSE TUM-BLR AND YOU’LL DIE!” one Tumblr user wrote.

Another wrote: “Dear Yahoo ... If you change anything, we will show up at your headquar-ters with fire and pitchforks. Don’t try us.”

Still another posted: “Please leave Tumblr alone. You ac-quired it for the cool factor... Don’t tinker with it; don’t change it ... Leave it alone.”

Yahoo! chief executive Ma-rissa Mayer, in announcing the deal, pledged to allow Tumblr to remain independent, while integrating technology and ad-vertising opportunities.

“Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate busi-

India’s tax hunt claims In-fosys, demands $105.3 million

In India’s latest round of tax demands hurled at tech firms, In-fosys is expected to pay $105.3 million.

India’s second-largest soft-ware services exporter, Infosys, is planning to appeal an income tax demand of 5.77 billion rupees ($105.3 million) set by Indian au-thorities, according to Reuters.

The demand has been made in relation to software development completed overseas — and there-fore accounting for tax benefits which follow — in addition to rev-enue generated from “special eco-nomic zones in India,” according to a company statement. The firm contends that the latest demand disregards tax clarification set by the Indian government in January.

Infosys is also contesting a num-ber of similar tax demands made for the fiscal years from 2005 to 2009, according to a filing submit-ted to the U.S. Securities and Ex-change Commission.

SC & TECHAging Yahoo! faces new Tumblr generation

NEW YORK - Unilever claimed bragging rights Mon-day to the most-watched Inter-net commercial of all time -- a three-minute study of women’s self-perception that stars a fo-rensic artist.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant said its “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” has been seen more than 114 mil-lion times on YouTube and other video platforms in more than 110 countries “to surpass all previously recorded video ads.”

It is also the most-shared vid-eo in more than a year and the third most shared of all time, the company said in a state-ment, citing data from Unruly Media, which tracks the popu-larity of viral videos.

Released last month, “Sketch-es” features San Francisco fo-rensic artist Gil Zamora as he draws a number of women, sitting behind a curtain out of his view, relying exclusively on how they describe themselves to him.

He then produces a second set of drawings -- invariably more flattering -- based on descrip-tions provided by strangers. The video goes on to capture

Dove ‘Sketches’ most-watched online ad: Unilever

ness,” Mayer said in a state-ment.

“David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be de-fined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irrever-ence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.”

Karp echoed those comments, saying in his own blog post: “We’re not turning purple,” in reference to the Yahoo! portal’s signature color.

But some analysts it could be hard for Mayer to keep her promise of keeping Tumblr in-dependent while seeking ways to make the deal pay off.

“If I’m the CEO of Tumblr I would be concerned,” said Daniel Odio, senior vice presi-dent of California-based Inter-net firm Share This, who has been involved in a number of technology startups.

“Marissa is promising to keep it independent, but I just don’t buy it. Just looking at history, I would say that the culture that makes Tumblr special is going to change,” Odio told AFP.

Roger Kay, analyst with End-

point Technologies Associates, also was skeptical about inte-grating the two different firms.

“There’s a particular thing in the hacker culture, and it is dif-ficult for a large bureaucratic company like Yahoo! to keep that alive,” Kay said,

“Yahoo! once upon a time was an entrepreneurial compa-ny with all the spirit that Tumblr has, but they have been though a number of retreads. The best programmers have long since gone to other places.”

Kay said the deal also could prompt some of the staff at Tumblr, many of whom will get a big windfall from the deal, to cash out and move elsewhere.

“Marissa Mayer might have thought that she was buying a staff, but this is a place where you can least expect people to stick around,” Kay said.

“What they are buying is a bunch of code, and the cus-tomers and maybe the revenue stream,” he said.

“You can’t assume you’re buying the talent. The talent likes to decide which master they want to serve.”

Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ ad quickly went viral after its debut in April.

NEW DELHI, (AFP) - Fa-cebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an in-terview published Saturday says it’s ok for women to cry at work, share emotions and be honest about their femininity.

Sandberg shot to global fame after her the publication of her best-selling book “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead” which talks about wom-en’s career struggles and advises women to “lean in” to reach their potential.

It has drawn bouquets from admirers for articulating a new modern feminist vision and brickbats from critics who say her lofty position has made her out-of-touch with the gruelling personal cost of combining ca-reer and family.

In an interview with India’s Mint business daily, the 43-year-old admitted: “I cry at work,” adding women are not “one type of person Monday through Fri-day” and “then a different per-son in the nights and weekend.”

“I think we are all of us emo-tional beings and it’s okay for us to share that emotion at work,”

said Facebook’s number two, who was named in Time maga-zine’s 2013 list as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Studies have shown women are more prone than men to cry at work because males are schooled not to cry in public and it can hurt their career progres-sion.

Sandberg, who is married with two young children, said on the subject of her book “the mes-sages of believing in yourself and sitting at the table, getting compensated fairly, those can happen at any point in your ca-reer.”

It is necessary to talk about gender-related issues honestly in the workplace, and a need for employers to say: “I am here to support you”, she added in the interview.

The question of whether wom-en can “have it all” in terms of pursuing careers and raising families is “very problematic”, added Sandberg, who got $26.2 million in salary, bonus and shares last year from the US so-cial networking giant.

Facebook’s Sandberg says it’s OK for women to cry at work

Facebook Chief oprating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg poses for a photograph at Barnes and Noble, March 12, 2013 in New York City.

the subjects’ startled reactions upon seeing the resulting im-ages.

“The ‘Dove Real Beauty Sketches’ campaign struck an emotional chord with millions of women who recognize that they are their own worst beauty critic,” Unilever said.

Nowhere does the ad men-tion Dove as a product, apart for an appearance of its logo at the end.

Unilever launched a so-called Campaign for Real Beauty nine years ago in Britain to pitch Dove, a moisturizing soap, to “real women” in a world of Photoshopped celebrities and models.

Its other brands include Axe, a range of men’s grooming products known as Lynx in Britain and Australia, which it markets via social and tradi-tional media.

Left: The sketch a forensic artist made from video subject Jenise’s own description of her looks. Right: The more flat-tering sketch a stranger helped create. DOVE

VOICE OF ASIA 20 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013 Section 2 Email: voiceasia@aol.com Tel: 713-774-5140

BUSINESSIndia seeks access to Chinese market, invites investments

Anil Ambani, Chairman, ADAG, and Hu Huaibang, Chairman, China Development Bank, inter-acting with CEOs from India and China in New Delhi on Monday. — Ramesh Sharma

NEW DELHI - India and China agreed to address the issue of widening trade im-balance between the two countries, after New Delhi conveyed its concerns about the trade deficit and sought increased access to China’s markets.

Addressing the media after meeting the visiting Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he has invited the Chinese to invest in “our infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.”

FINANCIAL COOPERA-TION

A joint statement issued at the conclusion of talks said the two countries agreed to address the issue of trade im-balance, including coopera-tion on pharmaceutical super-vision, stronger links between Chinese enterprises and the

New York: Former Goldman Sachs Group Board of Di-

rector Rajat Gupta’s attorneys asked the Judge to reverse his insider-trading conviction, saying wiretap evidence used by the prosecution should not have been introduced at trial stage.

Seth Waxman, lawyer for Gupta, told the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York yesterday that wiretaps played for the jury were inadmissible because they amounted to hearsay evi-dence.

“Gupta himself was not heard on the wiretaps, which are instead conversations between convicted Galleon Group manager Raj Rajarat-nam and other employees at the hedge fund. Those wire-taps should never have been admitted,” Waxman told a three-judge panel.

“The prosecution’s case rested exclusively on cir-cumstantial evidence, and predominantly on wiretap statements not of Gupta, but of Raj Rajaratnam, a highly unreliable declarant, speaking

by Penny MacRae

NEW DELHI, (AFP) - Visiting Premier Li Keqiang prom-

ised Tuesday to open China’s vast domestic market wider to India and forge a “dynam-ic trade balance” to deepen economic ties and ease ten-sions between the Asian gi-ants.

The trade push, which the countries say will sup-ply “new engines” to lift the stumbling global economy, came amid efforts by the nuclear-armed powers to put a military dispute along their contested Himalayan border behind them.

“We have the ability to mitigate the trade imbalance between our two countries,” Li told business leaders in New Delhi, responding to In-dian worries over trade that is heavily skewed in China’s favour.

“The Chinese side is will-ing to provide facilitation for more Indian products to access the Chinese market,” added Li, who chose to make India his first foreign stop af-ter taking office two months ago.

He also said China was willing to “launch nego-tiations on a China-India re-gional trading arrangement” but did not elaborate.

China is India’s biggest trading partner, with two-way commerce totalling $67.83 billion in the last fiscal year to March 2013, up from $2.1 billion in 2001-02.

But India’s trade deficit with its neighbour soared to $40.77 billion last year from just $1.08 billion in 2001-

Indian IT industry and comple-tion of phytosanitary (involving health of plant and agricultural produce) negotiations.

They will also strengthen cooperation between their fi-nancial regulators and support banking institutions in set-ting up representative offices, branches or subsidiaries.

The two sides will also work towards simplifying visa pro-cedures.

Further, to promote trade, connectivity and movement of personnel across the border, the two sides agreed to consider strengthening border trade via the Nathu La Pass.

Manmohan Singh said he had shared with Premier Li the view that the rise of China and India is good for the world and that there was in the global economy “enough space to ac-commodate the growth aspira-tions of both our people.”

Premier Li added that both the sides believe that each country should see the development of

the other as a major opportu-nity for itself.

With India indicating that the peace and tranquillity on the border was the keystone for relations, the two sides agreed that the Special Representa-tives of India and China be tasked with considering further measures that may be needed to achieve this.

RIVER ISSUETalking about India’s con-

cerns on river issues, Li said China had shared hydrological information with the Indian sides bearing in mind the over-all interest of our relationship. “Acting in a humanitarian spir-it… we stand ready to step up communication with the Indian side.”

Briefing newspersons, the Indian Ambassador to China, S. Jaishankar, said that the visit was significant as the talks were wide ranging and all matters were discussed. Pacts signed:

Courtesy: The Hindu ashwi-ni.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

Two sides will address trade imbalance issue, agree peace on border is key to ties

Rajat Gupta seeks re-trial over insider trading case

with other people with no con-nection to Gupta,” Seth Wax-man and Gary Naftalis, Gupta’s lawyers said in a brief to the ap-peals court.

“The court’s decidedly asym-metrical interpretation of the rules of evidence left the jury with a distorted picture in which Gupta was accused by the self-serving hearsay of a known fabulist beyond Gupta’s pow-ers to cross-examine, but was unable to explain to the jury that he had neither the motive nor the inclination to benefit that person,” Waxman said.

Gupta, 64, in October last year, was handed down a two-year prison term by US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, who also ordered him to pay a USD 5 million fine.

Waxman and Naftalis argued that the conversation and a second wiretapped call were admitted erroneously under the theory that it furthered the insider-trading conspiracy be-cause prosecutors didn’t allege Lau was a member of the Ra-jaratnam-Gupta conspiracy and instead called it “inadmissible braggadocio”. (PTI)

Rajat Gupta. File Photo

02, Indian figures show, as Indians bought increasing amounts of goods from mo-bile phones to TVs to indus-trial equipment.

Li said he wants a “dy-namic trade balance” as the neighbours aim to raise two-way trade to $100 billion by 2015, and said they had “huge markets with huge poten-tial”. But previous Chinese commitments have failed to narrow the imbalance.

“The two countries must now take corrective steps,” B.G. Verghese, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, told AFP.

“There must be market ac-cess on the Chinese side and the Indians must produce the manufactured goods the Chinese need,” he said, add-ing deeper trade involvement brings “deeper vested inter-est in all-round stability”.

In his speech, Li reiterated China’s desire to build trust with India after both sides agreed Monday to work to-wards settling the long-run-ning dispute over their still formally undefined border.

Ties have been dogged by mutual suspicion, a legacy of a brief 1962 border war. China also views the pres-ence in India of Tibet’s spiri-tual leader the Dalai Lama, who campaigns for “genuine autonomy” for his homeland, as a serious irritant.

Li said China understands “balanced trade is crucial to good ties between the world’s two most populous countries” and that “a peace-ful and stable South Asia is consistent with China’s de-velopment interests”.

“Only a dynamic trade bal-ance is a sustainable trade relationship,” he said.

“We will support Chinese enterprises to increase in-vestments in India and help Indian products have ac-cess to Chinese markets,” he said.

India is seeking Chinese participation in its special manufacturing zones or SEZs being set up under its National Manufacturing Policy, which aims to sharp-ly increase manufacturing to provide jobs for its growing army of young people.

Later, Li urged business-men in financial hub Mum-bai to join hands with their Chinese counterparts to seek chances for cooperation “so the size of trade and invest-ment between the two coun-tries will enjoy sustained and rapid expansion”.

His call came after the first session of the India-China chief executives’ group held to coincide with the Chinese premier’s visit.

Chinese officials said 22 projects had been agreed worth $1.5 billion with the biggest ticket item a $1 bil-lion debt-for-fuel deal be-tween India’s Essar Oil with PetroChina and the China Development Bank Corp.

Both nations’ economies have slowed due to the glob-al downturn and in India’s case due to high interest rates, corruption scandals and government policy pa-ralysis that have dampened business activity.

Li was due to travel to Pak-istan Wednesday and later to Switzerland and Germany.

Chinese PM vows to open up markets to India

Premier Li Keqiang being greeted by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his recent visit.

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2013 (AFP) - Facebook on Wednesday became a full member of the Global Net-work Initiative, a non-gov-ernmental organization pro-moting Internet freedom and privacy rights.

The announcement came one year after the world’s biggest social network gained observ-er status at GNI, whose corpo-rate members include Micro-soft, Yahoo! and Google.

“We welcome Facebook as a full member of GNI and look forward to working more closely with them to advance the freedom of expression and privacy rights of Internet users worldwide,” said the group’s executive director Susan Mor-

Facebook joins Web freedom groupgan.

“Adding the power of Face-book’s community of one bil-lion global users puts GNI in an even better place to press gov-ernments to fulfill their obliga-tions to protect rights online.”

Facebook Vice President El-liot Schrage said the Califor-nia company joined the group as part of its commitment to “advancing human rights, in-cluding freedom of expression and the right to communicate freely.”

“We’re pleased to join GNI and contribute to its efforts to shed a spotlight on government practices that threaten the eco-nomic, social and political ben-efits the Internet provides.”

The news was welcomed by

Human Rights Watch, which is also a member of the initiative.

“Facebook has an undeniable responsibility to safeguard hu-man rights for the more than billion people who use it,” said Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at Hu-man Rights Watch.

“By joining the Global Net-work Initiative, Facebook is taking an important step to re-spect its users’ human rights and to be accountable to them. The real test is to see how it implements GNI’s principles.”

Other GNI members include the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Electronic Frontier Founda-tion.

VOICE OF ASIA 21 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

Your Horoscope(For week beginning Friday, May 24, 2013)

As per Indian Vedic Astrology the Moon sign is considered, in which every Rashi has control over certain letters, which are initials of your name. Whereas in Western system of Sun Sign, all the people born in one month belong to the same sign. For example, every year approximately around 21 of March to 20th April, the Sun is moving in the Aries Constellation. So all the people born in that month belong to the Sign of Aries. If you were born in between those two dates then you are a Aries born.

Hardik Vyas, Astrologer Cell : 832-298-9950

Libra (R,T) 24 Sept. to 23 Oct.

Your strong ties to your roots which will help you deal with a situation on a different perspective. You’ll see how one could be misunderstood. Some interesting news from far away may help you to understand recent events. Your research and investigations will find the reasons.

Good news, the end of ‘old problems’ new opportunities, cause for celebration and health/fitness threats ‘vaporizing’ during THIS week are any/all likely for you or members of your family! How wonderful! Enjoy the good times and memorialize them in picture, film or other methods. This can be a rather ‘impressive’ to mile stone week for many among you.

Scorpio (N,Y) 24 Oct. to 23 Nov.

You are feeling the weight of your many responsibilities. Once you get your routine right, you will have much more flexibility with your time demands. Emotions are very high. You need to try hard to keep your temper under control. Once you understand the truth, cooler

heads will prevail. Happy feelings, new beginnings and mile stone event planning is likely this week for a reasonable cross section, especially when it comes to seasonal vacations, weddings, births and special events and in larger gathering/groups. Long range ‘financial commitments/planning’ to ‘set aside’ time, effort AND money for these is also likely.

Capricorn (KH,J) 22 Dec. to 20 Jan.

Discrepancies which will be found within recent events. You will be worried about your future employment. Insist on receiving honest answers. Your future plans may not be envisioned by

all. Others may look for fault, but you’ll appreciate the strong aspects that can help the most. There may be consistently ‘two ways to go’ this week in almost ALL your choices or directions. Your stars show favorable focus and ‘foresight’; respect it and use it, especially when it comes to behavior/discipline decisions, progres-sive directions and financial issues. There will be risk factors this week.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21st Jan. to 18th Feb.

Feeling like you have been working far too hard. You need to find ways to change your old routine. Take the time to smell the flowers. You may feel vulnerable to others criticism right now. Push those negative thoughts out of your mind. You will achieve all your

desired goals. Many may have a ‘special goal’ important deadline or just a pivotal time surprise them, even if they are NOT planning it or even aware of it and they will NEED family cooperation, support and involvement. Most of these appear to be exciting and reward situations.

Pisces (D,CH,Z) 19th Feb. to 20th March

Personal health issues which may influence your attitude. Dwell on what you can do, not what you can’t. Strive hard to get past old restrictions. Big expectations may bring unexpected pressure.

You’ll need to keep your composure. Show how well you can work with teammates. You may want to keep an eye on stimulants so you can remain focused and productive. You may have ‘one day after the other’ with a loaded plate and accomplishments are likely to be impressive. You also may be lusting for ‘change’ upgrades, improvements and ‘the end to hassles, demands, shortages and problem situation, people or items’.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH) 23. Nov. to 21 Dec.

Realizing your immediate plans may not be as simple as you thought. You will need to look a lot deeper to be able to see your future more clearly. You will start to feel better once you begin

to be your fun loving self. Even though times have changed, you need to hold onto your past.Many solutions may pepper your week and strong ‘encouragement energy’ is likely, as you become enthused by the cooperation, progress, improvement, respect or attention given you by other members.

Virgo (P) 24 August to - 23 September

The fact that even though you do not always fit the normal mould, you definitely have your own style. Aspects of your personality will shine this week. You may have to show your true colors to those who doubt your loyalty. If your heart is true then you will have nothing

to worry about. What a wonderful and progressive week ‘over all’ for MOST of you but a small cross section of you MAY and I say “MAY,” hit a pocket of time when illness/injury could ‘put you down off your feet or your game’, with digestive, common cold/flu. Delegate duty out to family if you hit this one and withdraw to conserve energy!

Leo (M) 23 July to 23 August

Knowing your goals are solid. All eyes will be on your recent accomplishments. Take advantage of this opportunity to blow your own horn a little. Your change in focus will prove that you did in fact learn an important lesson. Teamwork will help accomplish the

tasks you require. Some minor bickering IS possible but appears to be more ‘working out the bugs’ especially if conversations and exchanges take place and particularly IF they involve money, Keep vocal tones calm with AND between members. Most of you have it well handed. Don’t let differing opinions change your focus or decisions

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 July

Good communications that will continue as long as you lead in the discussions. You will realize that you are very important to others plans. Whether you are preparing fine dining or simple

comfort food, your past experience give you that little edge on your competition. Enjoy.Your stars show a very busy AND demanding for a number of reasons with many of you multi tasking and doing some ‘chasing, errands or travel’ for either family and/or career. Spending easily goes ‘on the rise’ and windfall profits ARE possible for a small cross section of you; be WISE with any that do come in. Think ‘practical needs’ first.

Gemini (K,CHH,GH) 22 May to 21 June

The fact all roads you take this week will lead you to a sort of spiritual awakening. Use this time to refresh and rejuvenate your positive energy. Good relations with those you work with will enable you to spread your influence. Some interesting employment opportunities exist.

Cleansing talks, getting ‘on the same page’ with a problem member, especially elders or in-laws is very likely this week. Some of you may ‘strike deals’ with members, sign legal documents or form alliances to achieve important goals with good progress or success indicated.

Taurus (B,V,U) 21 April to 21 May Need to value the instinctive powers that you possess. Sharing your enlightenment with younger people will help you to progress. Your positive energy will help you to meet tight deadlines. You will be surprised at how much you can accomplish once you get started. Avoid too many ‘ups and downs’

emotionally this week as they tend to send you ‘off your wobble’ and shorten your fuse. Your brain is good and you are creative at problem solving, particularly IF it saves you money! Having patience is essential, lest you experience a ‘set back’ of some kind. Keep ALL personal info, issues and opinions OUT of your career life until alter.

Aries (A,L,E) 21st. March to 20 April

Some bright expectations that may turn out not to be enough true information. You may have to look elsewhere for what you really require. Family and friends will invite you to join at gatherings. Take them up on invites and you will be able to find new way to share your ideas. While there may be some spike in ‘struggle’, the days that follow

appear to improve steadily, especially after weekend, when financial ‘good news’ of a variety of kinds is VERY likely. Enjoyable gatherings and long, fulfilling talks appear likely. Your smartness is in tip-top shape once again and can be used to avoid hassle more than profit or progress.

FEATURE

UMA MANTRAVADIAttorney and Counselor at Law

Experienced, Honest & AggressiveEmail: uma@mantralaw.com

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by Penny MacRae

For 75-year-old pen-sioner Sova Sengupta the collapse of Indian

property-to-media empire Sar-adha Group, to which she had entrusted her life’s savings with the promise of a handsome re-turn, spelt financial ruin.

“I’d deposited 100,000 ru-pees ($1,800). I lost all my savings,” the widow wept af-ter police last month revealed that Saradha, headquartered in the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata, had gone bust with losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The popularity of Saradha highlighted the huge short-age of banks to cater for In-dia’s population of 1.2 billion people, with many turning to unregulated and risky services, leaving them vulnerable to ex-orbitant lending rates and de-ception.

Sengupta was just one of some 350,000 small savers who saw their money van-ish in a scam which offered to multiply savings four-fold over seven years.

Cash from new investors was used to pay off old ones, while promoters skimmed money off to make themselves rich, po-lice said of the typical Ponzi scheme. At least 10 depositors committed suicide, they added.

“Indians have participated in informal savings schemes for time immemorial,” said T.S. Sivaramakrishnan, who heads a regulated national savings as-sociation of what are known lo-cally in India as chit funds.

“That’s why many are content to put their money in these ve-hicles,” he told AFP. “Many of these people aren’t financially sophisticated so they get taken in by these scamsters who offer unrealistic returns.”

Around 480 million Indians, mostly living in the country’s 630,000 villages, have no bank-ing access, according to the country’s central bank, which in February launched a push to expand regulated financial ser-vices in the rural hinterland.

“The fruits of the banking industry have not reached a substantial part of the popula-

tion,” said N.S.N. Reddy, chief manager of the state-run Andhra Bank in India’s south.

Aside from a lack of banks, another barrier for savers is a lack of identity certificates.

“For the common man, the opening of a bank account is a Herculean task,” Reddy said. To open accounts, savers must pro-duce an array of documents such as birth certificates or residence proofs that many poor people in India do not possess.

Many of India’s so-called “unbanked” store their savings by investing in gold jewellery and gold bars but they also turn to the parallel banking system which can be highly risky.

Many in Asia’s third larg-est economy are easily duped by get-rich-quick schemes and when they need money are forced to turn to unscrupulous lenders, said Sivaramakrishnan.

Microfinance institutions, which loan small sums to the needy who are unable to get credit from mainstream banks are stepping into the breach, but even they have been rapped by the central bank for exorbitant lending rates.

The problem is made more acute by the fact Indians have one of the highest household savings rates in the world at 30 percent of gross domestic prod-uct.

In the case of Saradha, up to 350,000 investors were cheated of $730 million, according to state officials, though some court documents have men-

tioned figures in the billions.As part of its smoke-and-mir-

rors act, the group branched into TV stations, newspapers, edu-cation, construction and travel. It also gained respectability by becoming close to West Bengal state’s ruling Trinamool Con-gress.

But in the end the scheme turned out to be like any Ponzi scheme -- the Saradha Group went broke and savers were left empty-handed, police said.

Now the conglomerate’s head, Sudipta Sen, is in custody fac-ing fraud charges.

“The repeated sprouting of dubious Ponzi schemes across the country points to a failure of the formal saving and banking system” and the need for fast re-form, commented the Economic Times newspaper in a recent editorial.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who told de-spairing investors “what’s gone is gone”, had a change of heart after a political backlash and now plans a fund to bail out those who were “the poorest of the poor”.

She says she will raise money through a tax on cigarettes and has advised people to “smoke a little more” to help out the in-vestors.

Economist Avirup Sarkar of the Indian Statistical Institute based in Kolkata told AFP: “What we really need is more regulation and more banks so people don’t get cheated like this.”

India’s ‘unbanked’ masses get fleeced

Officials from a microfinance organisation talk to villagers in Vadod on January 6, 2011 (AFP/File, Sam Panthaky)

VOICE OF ASIA 22 FRIDAY, May 24, 2013COMMUNITY EVENTSRELIGIOUS INSTITUTES & ORGANIZATIONS OF HOUSTON - call Voice of Asia 713-774-5140

VSNA, Houston Prog: Monthly Mahamane event. Puja, Vachana Sahithya discourses, Aarthi and PrasadContact: vsnahouston@gmail.com/832-545-1185 (Jyoti Biradar)Facebook: https://www.face-book.com/VSNA.HOUSTONWebsite: https://sites.google.com/site/bsusorg/home

Hare Krishna Dham (ISKCON) Prog: Everyday, 7 Aratis and bhoga offerings daily. Sunday Festival: 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Location: 1320 West 34th St, Houston, TX 77018.Contact:281-433-1635/E-mail harekrishnadham@gmail.com Website: www.iskconhouston.org

International Hindi Association (IHA) Houston

Prog: 16th Biennial Hindi National Conference on August 30, 31 and September 1 (Labor Day weekend) at VPSS Haveli. For registration and more information contact Sangeeta 281 7889750 or Swapan 281 3820348 or visit www.hindi.org

BAPSProg: Location: 1150 Brand Rd. Stafford, TX.Contact: 281-765-2277 Web:

Sri Meenakshi Temple Prog: Location: 17130 McLean Road Pearland, TX 77584Contact: (281) 489-0358

Arsha Vidya Bharati

Prog.:Sanskrit classes and spe-cial worship sessions for all agesLocation: 2918 Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479Contact: 281-606-5607 or AVB.Houston@gmail.comWeb-site: https://sites.google.com/site/avbtexas/classes Ahmadiyya Muslim

Community Baitus Samee MosqueProg: Friday Prayer - 1:30 PM Children’s Classes | Interfaith meeting | Location: 1333 Spears Rd, Houston, TX 77067Imam - Mohammed Zafarullah Contact : Work: 281-875-3400 | Cell: 713-874-4363 Zafarullah_Hanjra@hotmail.comwww.Alislam.org

Ashirwad - A Blessing TempleProg: Regular prog :Sloka Classes for kids and teens. Location: Katy, Hwy 249 & Sugar Land. Contact: 281.995.0930/ 281.808.2159

Vedanta Society of Greater HoustonProg: Vedanta teachings Sun-days at 10:30 AMLocation: at 14809 Lindita Dr. Houston, TX -77083. Website: www.vedantahouston.org

Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya Temple Temple Hrs: 9 am to noon and 5 to 9 pm. Sri Astalaksmi puja: 7 pm.Sri Laksmi Archana will be performed on request all day. Location:10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77498.Phone: 832.541.0059.Website: www.saumyakasi.org;

Chinmaya Mission Prog: Location:10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77498.Phone: 832.541.0059.Website:www.chinmayahouston.org.

ISSOProg: Darshan daily from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.; Aarti daily from 7.45 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Location: 10080 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478Phone: 281-530-2565 Web:

VPSS Houston

Prog: Location VPSS Vallabh Hall, 11715 Belfort Village Dr. Hous-ton 77031. Contact:713-530-2900Website:www.vpsshaveli.org

Shri Satyanarayan Sai Puja DarshanProg: Daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Every Thursday Abhishek Location: 16338 Kensington Dr, Ste 110, Sugar Land 77479. Phone: 713-933-8821 / 9359.

Shri Radha Krishna TempleProg: Location:11625 Beechnut, Houston, TX 77072Phone: 281-933-8100 Website: www.SRKT.org.

Gurdwara Sahib of SW HoustonProg: Sundays Dewan 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Langar Location:14811 Lindita Drive, Houston, TX 77083Phone: 281-498-5200Website: www.gurdwaraswh.com

Sri Ashtalakshmi TempleProg: Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra Parayanam: daily 6.30 p.m. Location:10098 Synott Road. Sugar Land, TX 77478Phone: 281- 498-2344 Website: www.ashtalakshmi.org

Hindu Worship So-cietyProg: Open all days except Thursdays (by appt). Regular Puja and Prasad. Sunday Service 11:30 AM to 1:30 Location: 2223 Wirtcrest Lane Houston TX 77055.

Barsana Dham Houston ChapterProg: Satsang every Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Location: India House, 8888 West Belfort 77031Phone: (713) 855-9818 for detailsWebsite: www.jkphouston.org Weekly Radio Program-1460 AM Saturdays 10-11 a.m.

Shirdi Sai Jalaram MandirProg: Location:3845 West Bellfort, St., Sugar Land, TX 77498Website: www.babamandir.org

Lakshmi Narayan MandirProg: Every Friday Satsangh from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Bhajans and Devi Puja, Discourses. Location: 12530 Ann Louise Road, Houston, 77086. Phone: Contact Vishnu at (832) 309- 7181.

Hindu Temple of The WoodlandsLocation: 7601 S. Forest Gate Drive at Woodlands Parkway, Spring, TX 77382.Contact: info@woodlandshin-dutemple.org, 832-585-0001Website: www.woodlandshin-dutemple.org.

JVB Preksha Meditation CenterProg: Annual Family Camp “Understanding Joy & Sorrow” on March 29 - 31, 2013 (Good Friday Weekend) Bellville, TX. Location: 14102 Schiller Road, Houston TX 77082Phone: 281.596.9642 Website: www.jvbhouston.org

Patanjali Yogpeeth CenterProg: Free Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun from 8 am to 9:30 amLocation: Arya Samaj @Schiller Road. Contact: 281-579-9433. Websites: www.pyptusa.org

Jain Center of HoustonProg: Location: 3905 Arc St. Houston, TX 77063Contact: 281-606-JAIN; Email: ecjsh@jain-houston.orgWebsite:www.jain-houston.org

Durga Bari Society Prog: Sandhya Arati at 6:30 p.m.; Sunday: 9:00 a.m.- 7:00 p.m. Location: 13944 Schiller Road. Contact: 281-597-8100 Website:www.houstondurgabari.org

Gayatri Pariwar of Houston

Prog: Sundays Satsang, Bal-Sanskar Shala, from 11am to 1pm. Location: 5645 Hillcroft, Suite # 307, Houston, TX 77036. Website: http://www.gayatripari-warhouston.org/ “

Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya

Prog: Location: Chinmaya Prabha,

10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land -TX 77498. Contact: 281.568.1690 Website: www.saumyakasi.org

Sri Guruvayurap-pan TempleProg: Bhajans: Sat.7:00 -8:00 p.m.; Sundays 9:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m.Location: 1620 Ormandy Street, Houston, TX 77035Contact: 713-729-8994

Govindaji Gaudiya Math

Prog:Satsang every Sunday evening from 5 - 7 p.m. Vedic heritage classes for kids 5-14. Location: 16628 Kieth Harrow blvd. Houston, TX 77084Contact: 281-499-3347/281-491-4114.

Sathya Sai Baba CentersProg: Sundays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at two locationsLocations: Contact: (North) 832-418-3842 or (South) 281-788-4786. Website:www.saicenterofhous-ton.org

Telugu Christian FellowshipProg; Every third Saturday 6:30 PM. Worship is in EnglishLocation: The Triumph Church, 10555 West Airport Boulevard, Stafford, TX 77477.Contact:713-301-6444Website:

Brahma Kumaris Meditation CenterProg: Daily classes in Raja Yoga Meditation To register call or email.Contact:832-379-8888/ Email: houston@bktexas.comWebsite: bktexas.com

Bethesda Houston Tamil ChurchProg: Sundays Worship Tamil 5:30 pm-7:00 pm. English 10:30am-12:30pm. Location: 810 Murphy/FM 1092 suite F&G, Stafford, Tx.77477. Contact: 281-317-7331Website:bethesdahoustontamilchurch.org

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Restaurants

Gourmet India - Restaurant & Catering for home and office parties, Dine in Business Lunches,

conferences & parties, On-site dining, corporate lunch packages Ph: 281-493-5435

India’s Restaurant & Catering for special parties and corporate events. Preferred Wine list, Authentic vegetarian & non-vegetarian dishes, finest

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Shiva Indian Restaurant & Catering specializing in North Indian cuisine, Office and Corporate catering.

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• 2130 Lone Star Dr. Sugar Land, Ph: 281-494-2981

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