September 22, 2012

GANGNAM STYLE DANCE-OFF ESCALATES INTO GANG SHOOTOUT IN BANGKOK

[The shootout has stoked debate over gang violence in Thailand. Much of the violence plays out in secondary schools and vocational colleges – the latter primarily cater to working-class children – where students seek to defend their school's honour with guns, knives, machetes and even homemade grenades. Between January and July this year, Bangkok police registered more than 1,000 cases of student rivalry, according to a recent report by Agence France-Presse. Several students have been killed or injured since the start of the school year in May.]

West Side Story-esque show of rivalry stokes Thai debate over gang violence and demonstrates wide appeal of K-pop video

The dance has inspired a host of parodies, the song has hit the top of the charts in South Korea, Malaysia, Finland and Latvia, and the YouTube video has accumulated more than 227m views. Now, according to Thai media, Gangnam Style, by the K-pop star Psy, has inspired a West Side Story-esque show of rivalry between two Bangkok gangs who are said to have had a dance-off before engaging in a gun battle.

The INN website reported that the two gangs were dining in the same restaurant when "the younger members of both groups danced provocatively at each other in the manner of top hit Gangnam Style". The dance-off escalated into an argument and, eventually, a gun attack in the upmarket Ekkamai neighbourhood, in which one of the gangs fired at least 50 bullets from a carbine and an 11mm gun.

No one was injured in the incident, police Lt Col Apichart Thongchandee told the Bangkok Post. He said the two gangs had a history of confrontation and would face arrest warrants.

The shootout has stoked debate over gang violence in Thailand. Much of the violence plays out in secondary schools and vocational colleges – the latter primarily cater to working-class children – where students seek to defend their school's honour with guns, knives, machetes and even homemade grenades. Between January and July this year, Bangkok police registered more than 1,000 cases of student rivalry, according to a recent report by Agence France-Presse. Several students have been killed or injured since the start of the school year in May.

Thai authorities recently established an army-style boot camp where, according to AFP, repeat offenders must endure regular fitness drills and 5am wake-up calls side by side with their rivals. Not all those attending went back home reformed, Lt Col Wanchana Sawasdeem said, "but for 90% it will work, even if it just means they hesitate before fighting … At least the camp will have made them think."
That the two gangs apparently engaged in a Gangnam Style dance-off is indicative of the video's popularity. Psy, otherwise known as Park Jae-Sang, told Radio 1's Scott Mills this week that his distinctive dance style emulated "riding an invisible horse in your lower body". The video features Park doing the dance all over Seoul – from car parks to steam rooms – with a supporting cast dressed as geishas, nuns and boxers. Park sports various outfits, among them a blue tuxedo together with shellacked bouffant and sunglasses. "This is the point of the Gangnam Style," Park told Mills. "Dress classy and dance cheesy."

The track, which is said to mock the affluent Seoul suburb Gangnam, could become the first Korean pop song to reach number one in the UK charts, according to the BBC. Park has already featured on numerous US TV shows, taught the horse-riding dance to Britney Spears, and helped inspire a flash-mob wedding proposal in Malaysia. The video has been parodied by Los Angeles lifeguards (who, according to LA news outlets, were fired for the stunt), an American college football team and even the government of North Korea. Park recently signed a record deal with Justin Bieber's management team.

@ The Guardian

INDIA’S PREMIER PLEADS FOR SUPPORT OF HIS PLANS IN TELEVISED ADDRESS 
[The political storm erupted last week after Mr. Singh’s government announced a series of economic moves, including an increase in the price of diesel fuel, a cap on the subsidy for cooking gas and measures that would allow for greater foreign investment in civil aviation and retail, opening the door for big, multibrand retailers like Walmart.]

By 


Altaf Qadri/Associated Press 
A woman in New Delhi watched Prime Minister Manmohan 
Singh'stelevised speech on Friday, an unusually direct appeal.
NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a rare nationwide televised appeal on Friday night to defend a series of unpopular measures, intended to revive the floundering Indian economy, that have stirred mass protests across the country and almost toppled his coalition government.
Mr. Singh’s speech came on a day of intense political jockeying, as the governing coalition lost the support of a crucial regional ally yet managed to stay in power, for the moment, by securing support from two other nonaligned regional parties.
“The time has come for hard decisions,” Mr. Singh said, in an apparently prerecorded address that was broadcast across the country in prime time. “For this I need your trust, your understanding and your cooperation.”
The political storm erupted last week after Mr. Singh’s government announced a series of economic moves, including an increase in the price of diesel fuel, a cap on the subsidy for cooking gas and measures that would allow for greater foreign investment in civil aviation and retail, opening the door for big, multibrand retailers like Walmart.
Business leaders and many economists praised the moves as critical for containing India’s fiscal deficit and attracting foreign investment, but rival political leaders pounced, as did some political allies of the government, saying the measures threatened the livelihoods of small shop owners and common people. Thousands demonstrated on Thursday in several Indian cities in coordinated protests organized by several parties.
On Friday, Mr. Singh urged people to “not be misled,” framed the moves as essential, if tough, and said they would begin to restore economic growth and help prevent India from falling into the same economic malaise that Europe is in. Economic growth, which topped 8 percent in 2011, is now projected to be as low as 5.4 percent in the current fiscal year. “We are at a point where we can reverse the slowdown in our growth,” he said. “We need a revival in investor confidence domestically and globally.”
Hours earlier, Mamata Banerjee, the populist chief minister of the state of West Bengal and once the most crucial regional ally in the governing coalition, formally withdrew her party’s support. On Friday afternoon, with television crews beaming live reports across the nation, Ms. Banerjee’s cabinet ministers submitted their resignations to protest the new economic measures.
The departure of Ms. Banerjee’s 19-member parliamentary delegation means that the governing coalition, led by the Indian National Congress Party, has lost its parliamentary majority. However, the coalition will survive, for now, courtesy of support by a two nonaligned regional parties, which extended lukewarm endorsements on Friday.
“Our support is clear,” said Mulayam Singh Yadav, a regional leader who told the Indian news media that he would support the government, though not join it.
Friday’s machinations dispelled, for the moment, the possibility of the government collapsing or of elections, now scheduled for 2014, being called early. But the Congress Party now faces a complicated governing situation, in which it will need to massage and maneuver around regional leaders like Mr. Yadav, as well as his rival, Mayawati, another powerful figure who is supporting the government and uses only one name.
“We have another 18 months to go for the next elections,” said Digvijaya Singh, a general secretary in the Congress Party. “We’ve got sufficient numbers to carry us through.”
The prime minister’s appeal to the nation amounted to an effort to reboot his much-maligned government. For roughly two years, the Congress Party has been mired in corruption scandals and widely criticized for arrogance and ineffectiveness, while also overseeing a rapidly declining economy.
Mr. Singh, considered the father of India’s first era of economic overhaul in the 1990s, has been accused of failing to lead or to articulate a clear vision for the government. On Friday, Mr. Singh argued that rising global oil prices meant that the government had to reduce popular subsidies on diesel and cooking gas or risk a rapidly higher fiscal deficit.
“Where would the money for this have come from?” Mr. Singh asked. “Money does not grow on trees.”
Mr. Singh did not mention the weeklong political controversies or the loss of support from Ms. Banerjee. Some analysts predicted that her departure could free the government to push ahead with other economic measures. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the country’s recently appointed finance minister, has signaled that recently announced economic moves will come as soon as next week.
To some degree, Ms. Banerjee had held veto power over such initiatives because of her periodic threats to withdraw her party’s support and bring down the government. Last year, she blocked a water treaty with Bangladesh — embarrassing the prime minister and Indian diplomats — and also forced Mr. Singh to reverse himself after his cabinet first approved the plan to open the door to retailers like Walmart.
“The government faces a stark choice — stand firmly behind the measures to promote India’s long-term economic interests or back off the reforms in the interests of short-term political survival,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist and an adviser to the Indian government. “The outcome of this battle, and even the way it is fought and ultimately resolved, will reverberate in India’s economic and political arenas for many years to come.”
When it became clear on Friday that the government was not bending this time, India’s stock market recorded the biggest gain of the year.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.