The number of Japanese people hitting the landmark age of 100 has reached record levels… there are now 36,276 centenarians in the country according to a recent report by the Japanese government.
Japan’s oldest woman is 113 and lives on the southern island of Okinawa; while the oldest man is Tomoji Tanabe who celebrates his 113th birthday last week.
According to 2007 statistics, Okinawa has the largest proportion of centenarians (by prefecture) with 57.89 per 100,000 people, followed by Kochi, Shimane, Kumamoto and Ehime prefectures. Okinawa has been maintaining the top position for the 35th consecutive year (could be 36th in 2008).
Saitama Prefecture has the lowest proportion with 13.05 per 100,000 people, staying last for the 18th year in a row, followed by Aichi, Chiba, Aomori and Kanagawa prefectures.
Btw, Japanese might be the longest living people in the world on average, but they don’t have the largest population of centenarians… the title belongs to USA instead.
US reported a number of 50,454 centenarians in 2001 and the stat is expected to rise continuously. The current world’s oldest living person is from USA as well… she is Edna Parker from the State of Indiana; she is 115.
[With reference from BBC, Japantimes and Wiki]
The Beijing Paralympic Games has started and ended rather quietly compared to the Beijing Olympic Games. Didn’t manage to catch anything live… as said earlier, the media coverage was really poor for this event, which was a pity because I am sure there were lots of wonderful moments throughout the Paralympics…
A referee helping a soccer player with his shoestrings (Image from
Xinhuanet)
I have been following the Chinese news on the event, and it seems like the Paralympic Games have been very well ran as well… kudos to the Chinese organisers for that. Hope that it will be another great event in London 2012, and hope that the international media will give more attention next time.
The Sanlu brand’s contaminated milk formula has caused four infants’ deaths in China and the number of infants diagnosed with kidney stones or other problems after consuming the Sanlu milk has hit 6200 mark, with 158 of them suffering acute kidney failure. (Last updated September 19, 2008)
Chinese authorities have arrested 19 people since the scandal was exposed last week. Two brothers who run a milk collection centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, have admitted that they added melamine into the milk they supplied to Sanlu.
The brothers began mixing their milk with melamine in late 2007 to pass Sanlu’s quality test after their supplies were rejected a few times by the company and resulted in huge losses. Melamine is a chemical which is often used in plastic industry; reports suggested that it could make the milk appeared rich in protein.
Sanlu might escaped the blame for causing the contamination, but the public is questioning their slow response. New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, which owns 43% of Sanlu Group, stated on Sunday that it has urged the Chinese company to recall since early August 2008.
Chinese news also reported that the first Sanlu related kidney stone case was discovered in early March 2008; while some reports quoted from a high rank government officer in Hebei province said that Sanlu knew about the use of melamine in its milk as early as 2005.
The scandal has rocked Chinese food safety concern yet again. In 2004, at least 13 babies died in Anhui province after drinking fake milk powder.
Update (Sept 17) - melamine found in more milk… 22 products from various dairy food firms are found contaminated by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).
Suicide issues again take headlines in South Korea for the past few days following the death of actor Ahn Jae-hwan.
State-run Korea Youth Counseling Institute released a poll finding on Tuesday (Sept 9) indicating that six in every 10 South Korean teenagers have thought about taking their own lives at least once [via Yonhap]
According to the survey of 4,700 middle and high school students, 58.8% of the respondents had thought of suicide; and 11.1% of the respondents attempted suicide.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) earlier said that there were 12,174 suicides representing 5% of all deaths in 2007. It’s also said that an annual average 23.6 Koreans committed suicide out of 100,000 people in the last five years, which is one of the highest levels in the world.
I almost didn’t want to believe the news report at the beginning, because the figures are a bit overwhelming for me… that’s like more than 30 Koreans are dying each day from suicide; the Korean government needs to treat this issue with serious urgency.
The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games opened last Saturady (Sept 6) and will run till September 17. Didn’t manage to catch the opening ceremony live; I don’t think it’s shown on my local channels… had to catch the clips from Youtube instead.
I am not sure about international media… but my local press are not giving much attention to the event, which is a pity because although its popularity is non comparable to Olympic Games, Paralympics is still one of the largest worldwide sporting events and features some amazing athletes.
Well, at least the Chinese organiser seems to be working hard to make the Paralympics a successful event as well. The opening ceremony, again directed by Zhang Yimou, was quite a splendid show; and the Chinese media are giving the games some decent coverage too. Kudos for all that.
Check out the Beijing 2008 Paralympics’ official website for information and updates. Check out this link for some opening ceremony’s photos.
The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, according to Reuters.
A kilogramme of rat meat increased to around 5,000 riel (USD1.28) from 1,200 riel last year. It’s still cheaper than other meat though… beef for example costs about 20,000 riel a kilogramme.
Some communities in Asian and South American countries have long history of eating rats or other rodents, but food shortages and inflations have pushed others to try rat meat in recent years.
Earlier this month, a state government in eastern India encouraged its people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.
Sometimes it’s hard to relate to poverty around the world. Here we are, using high tech gadgets and surfing the web while at other corners on earth people are eating rats because they can’t afford other meat… and it’s far from being the worse scenario yet. It’s kinda sad actually.
Tens of thousands of Buddhists packed the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall on Wednesday (Aug 27) to protest the alleged religious favouritism of President Lee Myung-bak and his administration.
The rally was organised by Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the largest Buddhist group in South Korea. The police estimated that 55,000-60,000 people took part in the rally, including thousands of monks.
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A few more hours to go before the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. Some random news and information about Olympics and happenings in Beijing…
2008-08-08 8.08pm
The number ‘8′ is seen as a symbol of prosperity for Chinese. The Beijing organisers are optimising their wish for prosperity to the max obviously… by running the opening ceremony on 8.08pm, on the 8th of August, 2008.
Renowned director Zhang Yimou and choreographer Zhang Jigang are the co-directors for tonight’s show at the Beijing National Stadium.
It’s still a mystery on who will light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. It’s heavily rumoured that gymnastic legend Li Ning will take the honour; we’ll see how true the speculations are.
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Another day to go before the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. Some random news and information about Olympics and happenings in Beijing…
The game has started
The women’s soccer tournament of the Beijing Olympics kicked off at 17:00 Beijing time on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony. It’s common for soccer (and some other team sports) to start the games earlier.
Women soccer game, Germany vs Brazil, ended 0-0 (Image from
Xinhuanet)
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16 Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this morning (Aug 4).
Two attackers drove a tip lorry to hit a team of policemen who were jogging through the street in a morning exercise at about 8:00am before throwing home-made explosive to the barracks and hacking other policemen with knifes.
14 policemen were killed on the spot and two others died on the way to hospital; 16 others are injured. [Xinhuanet]
The two attackers had been arrested; and the authorities are suspecting this as a terrorist attack with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement in mind.
The Chinese press seems to be playing down the issue as the Beijing Olympics is looming near… but the incident is certainly going to raise further fear on the safety and security during the Olympic Games.
