Mirror, mirror on the wall: Using the face to read one’s fate

Official poster for the upcoming film “The Face Reader”

Some people turn to psychics or crystal balls to learn their future, but many Koreans believe that all they need to see what lies in store is a mirror.

Fortune-telling has a longstanding history in Asia dating back thousands of years, yet it is not necessarily perceived as a pastime practice or mere hocus pocus folklore. Many methods of fortune-telling such as tarot card and palm reading are still a common practice in Korea ― not only among the elderly, but among young people as well.

However, aside from cards and palms, phrenological interpretation or fortune by face reading is a practice that not only determines one’s personality traits purely based on analyzing facial features: The complexities of one’s face are said to be able to determine one’s future.

“The Face Reader” is an upcoming Korean film set in the Joseon era (1392-1910) starring Song Kang-ho as Nae-gyeong, the son of a disgraced noble family, whose talents in physiognomy (known as “gwansang” in Korean) lands him in the middle of a Royal Court murder investigation. Nae-gyeong is asked to use his skills of reading people’s faces to catch the murderer as well as personally assist the king in identifying traitors.

Everyone’s face is unique. It is thought by some fortune-tellers that different aspects of the face cover different areas of the personality, and that race, culture and ethnicity are irrelevant in terms of the methods and the techniques of determining one’s fate.

In many Western cultures, there is a common perception that looking into one’s eyes can tell a lot about one’s character ― eyes are the windows to your soul. However, according to fortune-tellers in Korea, it is not the eyes, but rather the ears that actually tell the most about a person.

“Since you listen to others with your ears, you can tell through looking at the ears whether or not a person is spiteful or good-natured and if they are respectful to other’s opinions,” said Lee Heon, fortune-teller at the fortune-telling establishment Goonghap Story. “You can also tell whether they are strongly opinionated … even whether or not they have a good sex life.”

The nose, on the other hand, represents the self. For example, the nose is thought to represent a person’s ability to earn money. Therefore, the higher the bridge of one’s nose is, the more money they are expected to earn.

Contrary to popular belief, according to the practices of phrenological interpretation, one’s destiny is not set in stone and can be altered. But although some who find bad fortune may seek to change their future’s path by fixing their outer appearance, this has little to no effect on the core of one’s fortune, Lee said.

“Changing one’s outward appearance by surgery does not completely change a person’s fate, because just like trimming off a few leaves from a tree doesn’t have an effect on the roots itself, surgery is only changing the outside,” said Lee. “I have never in my career recommended anyone to get plastic surgery in order to change their fortune. One can always change their fate by personal effort.”

Unlike tarot card reading, which takes years of experience and study in the field in order to properly read someone’s fortune, anybody can learn the techniques of phrenological interpretation and be able to read a person’s face, according to fortune-teller Kim Moon-jeong.

“In face reading there is something called the ‘12 gung,’ which is a guide to how we tell one’s fortune and personality through different parts of the face,” said Kim.

For example, “myeong” is the space between the eyebrows and represents luck and hope while “nojogung” is the chin and represents what a person’s job is going to be, or what they will be doing when they are older.

“The central part of a person’s forehead represents the person’s relationship with their parents,” said Kim. “Right below the eyes, called the ‘namnyeogung,’ represents children, relationship between men and women and even one’s kidney health.

“The harmony of the features on one’s face is the most important for good fortune,” Kim explained. “Someone could have a very lucky nose, but if it is out of balance with the other features on their face, they can’t properly receive all of the blessings.”

There are no set guidelines or rules that clarify a certain-sized nose, a particular face shape, hairline or any facial features that are considered the most “ideal” or said to bring the greatest fortune to a person. But rather it is on an individual and case-by-case basis that is determined by the proportions and symmetry of one’s face that create a balance.

“I can often just look at a person’s expression, feel their energy, and gain the majority of information about them,” said the fortune teller. “The face is the ‘cave of the spirit’ and we can see what kind of life someone has lived just by looking at a person’s face.”

via http://www.koreaherald.com

"U.S. intervention in Syria will be a disaster for the region," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

President Hassan Rohani's election victory in July was widely seen as an opening for improved relations between Iran and the United States. Rohani took a relatively moderate position on policy issues during his campaign, pledging to improve ties with the West and try a different approach in negotiations over Iran's contentious nuclear program.

That was welcomed by Iranian voters keen on seeing international economic sanctions lifted, and by many U.S. lawmakers open to talks that could prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says a U.S. intervention in Syria would considerably complicate such efforts.

"A military strike is likely to highlight the serious differences between the United States and Iran about developments in Syria," Clawson says. "That is more likely than not to complicate matters for reaching an agreement between the United States and its international partners with Iran about the nuclear impasse."

'A Disaster'

In turn, Iran's continued backing of the Syrian government, its main regional ally, could abruptly end any talk of lifting economic sanctions. This is because military intervention in Syria would be retaliation to a toxic gas attack the West believes was carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

"It would be very difficult for the United States to agree to a lifting of sanctions on Iran if Iran is perceived as providing vital support to a regime that uses chemical weapons," Clawson says.

The Iranian leadership has denounced possible military action against the Assad government, which is also a lifeline for the militant Shi'ite group Hizballah, Iran's proxy in neighboring Lebanon.

"U.S. intervention will be a disaster for the region," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in addressing Rohani's cabinet on August 28, according to state television. "The region is like a powder keg; its future cannot be predicted."

Any fallout from U.S. military action in Syria would depend on the extent of the intervention, Clawson says. The repercussions of surgical strikes against specific regime targets will complicate matters less than an ongoing U.S. campaign to oust Assad.

Especially Sensitive

Rohani has taken a more cautious approach. He has condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria, without placing blame, while joining Russian President Vladimir Putin in an August 28 telephone call stressed the need for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

But in keeping with Iran's hard-line position, General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy in chief of Iran's armed forces, on August 26 warned that any U.S. intervention in Iran would be a "red line."

"The U.S. is aware of the limit of a red line in the Syrian front, and any crossing of the Syrian red line will have severe consequences for the White House," he was quoted as saying by Iran's Tasnim news agency.

Many observers doubt that such consequences would include military retaliation by Iran. The issue of chemical weapons hits close to home in Iran, who had forces and civilians gassed during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, and the thinking is that Tehran would not respond with force to a brief and targeted strike.

But any military action would strengthen the position of Iran's hard-liners, who oppose talks with the United States and could drown out voices of moderation within Iran if Syria is attacked.

In order to protect its interests in Syria, Iran's leadership could opt to step up clandestine efforts in Syria by creating new proxies or calling upon existing groups such as Hizballah to fight for its interests.

"I would make it very difficult for him to call for greater relations with the West in the short term," Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of the London-based political risk-analysis group Cornerstone Global Associates, says of the immediate political impact for Rohani.

"One of his main mandates, as far as international policy is concerned, becomes undermined as a result of really not being able to sell to the hard-liners in the government the importance of greater or closer relations with the West."

via Payvand News

Court on a bus in Taliban-hit Pakistan

Sweat pours down Judge Fazal Wadood’s back as he sits behind a desk inside a custom-built green bus that is the latest weapon in the battle against Taliban influence in Pakistan.

The $98,000 vehicle, whose striped awnings make it more reminiscent of a giant fast food van than an arm of the state, allows Judge Wadood to preside over Pakistan’s first mobile court.

Boasting a portrait of Pakistan founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah — and an air conditioner that struggles to fend off the intense summer heat — the bus is designed to go directly to the people, resolving their daily disputes in some of the most remote and dangerous parts of the country.

The aim is to cut down the backlog of cases in ordinary courts dating back years — a situation that has bred frustration, fuelled support for the Taliban and increased calls for Islamic sharia law at the expense of the government.

It is part of a $15 million project — 25 percent bankrolled by the government in the northwest and the rest by international donors — to strengthen the judicial system and state institutions.

Musarat Shah, a 72-year-old widower locked in a five-year land dispute, is one of the first on board the bus, which has the white crescent and star of the Pakistani flag emblazoned on its side.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” says Shah, furious with the slow pace of the regular court system.

“Multiple commissions were held. One commission finished and demanded another commission, and it was taking us nowhere.”

Wadood summons a group of mediators, who agree to go off and inspect her land, then sets another hearing for a week’s time.

Shah, exhausted and slightly baffled, appeared to reserve judgement on whether the new court would actually help.

The bus has been set up by the high court in the northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a six-year Taliban insurgency is concentrated, and the UN Development Programme.

“Strengthening the judicial system and the legitimacy of state institutions is one of the main ways to counter the influence of non-state actors,” Marc-Andre Franche, the head of UNDP in Pakistan, told AFP.

Eight judges and 18 lawyers have been trained in conflict resolution to find quick solutions in simple cases that risk dragging on for years, clogging up the creaking judicial system.

On one day — with the bus stationary in a car park in the Hayatabad suburb of Peshawar — Wadood together with a registrar and stenographer tapping away on a laptop, handled nearly 30 cases.

“Our work is speedy mediation between two parties in property conflict, family problems and other problems we face in daily life,” says Mohammed Osman Khan, chairman of the arbitration council.


But the mobile court faces major challenges if it is to succeed and authorities are to decide whether it is worth rolling out further courtroom buses.

One is the jirga system, traditional gatherings of tribal elders who typically mediate similar disputes at a local level.

Human rights organisations criticise their decisions as arbitrary which, for example, can include women being given away in marriage.

Hayat Ali Shah, director of the judicial academy in Peshawar, believes the two systems can operate side by side.

“A civil litigation in KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) comes to the court only when jirga and all efforts have failed. So hopefully there will be no competition,” he told AFP.

He is hopeful that the bus initiative can take off.

“If you plant a beautiful tree in your lawn and it produces very fine fruits, so everybody living in the neighbourhood… will request a branch to plant in his lawn. So if this bus gives good results, I hope we will have many other buses,” says Shah.

But it remains unclear how many villagers will opt for the mobile bus rather than the traditional jirga system, and if so how quickly.

The other major complication is security. So far, the mobile court has limited its work to the suburbs of Peshawar. Even there, an armed police escort is necessary.

Taliban-led insurgents carry out near daily gun and bomb attacks in the northwest that have killed thousands in recent years.

The authorities are trying to agree on extra security precautions for when the bus travels to more dangerous parts of the northwest, away from the heavily protected city of Peshawar.

But Wadood, for one, is not afraid of death.

“The law and order situation in our country is the worst now but… there are also problems of security in the (normal) judicial complex, so we don’t fear to work here or there,” he said.

via http://tinyurl.com/p6b8lan

Darkest Day in Pakistan Hockey

Karachi: Pakistan s former hockey Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh said that Pakistan s exclusion from the World Cup on Friday, after the green-shirts lost to Korea 2-1 in Asia Cup semifinals in Malaysia, is the  Darkest Day  in Pakistan hockey history.

The green-shirts needed a title triumph in Asia Cup to salvage Pakistan s glorious past and secure a place in the World Cup. But a 2-1 defeat from Korea in semifinals, has dashed all hopes for Pakistan of reaching the World Cup. The World Cup 2014 edition will miss the green-shirts for the first time since its inception in 1971.

It is the  Darkest Day  in the history of Pakistan hockey. We have been the pioneer of the most important spectacle of hockey, where we reached the finals for six times and clinched it four times. It is very depressing for me to think of Pakistan not being the part of next year s World Cup,  Shahnaz Sheikh lamented.

Shahnaz said that the semifinal match against Korea exposed our team s poor planning and management.

Pakistan was favorite in the match because Korea has not been at its best. Korea started defensive but our team never took advantage of it as there were no proper planning and management,  Shahnaz said.

He further said that Pakistan had the possession of the ball of around 57 percent and yet they failed because the team played under pressure and they were not properly led.

Pakistan wasted their energy early in the match and Korean side exhausted our team. The management should have directed our players properly so that they could have put a proper show throughout the match,  he said.

Shahnaz recalled that the former Olympians raised a hue and cry after Pakistan ended at the bottom-rock 12th place in the 12-nation World Cup in 2010 but no one listened to them.

When we protested against the team s lowly performance in 2010, no one listened to us. And now, after three years, team s performance has fallen instead of improving, so it must be concluded that we had been right in our demands then,  Shahnaz said.

If we had been listened after 2010 World Cup debacle, then the whole nation didn t have to face this day,  he said.

via http://pakistan.onepakistan.com.pk

8 Issues to Think About Before Bombing Syria

There are eight main issues that the West should consider before bombing Syria:

1. What are the intervention goals?

All statements coming from Western leaders — particularly the U.S., Britain and France — suggest a narrow focus on chemical weapons rather than action designed to sway the overall trajectory of the conflict in Syria. Beyond a perceived sense of the need to "do something," the intention seems to be to send a signal on chemical weapons to deter further use in the Syria arena and reinforce a global norm alongside an apparent goal of restoring Western credibility. Washington, in particular, seems to have been convinced that if it takes no action on its own "red line" threat, it would be a sign of weakness and send a signal that it has replaced a gung-ho policy with a gun-shy one.

Less than 1 percent of casualties in Syria are even being attributed to chemical weapons claims. If there is a plan involving military action to reduce the suffering of Syrians and improve the situation, then presumably that would be aired irrespective of proof of chemical weapons use.

Nevertheless, any action will have consequences well beyond the chemical weapons issue, so any proposed action should also be measured against broader criteria of prospective implications for Syria and broader regional issues, including sectarian escalation, refugee flows and instability in Iraq and Lebanon, radicalization and diplomacy with Iran.

2. The chemical weapons dilemma

The West will try to influence the military balance in Syria if there is a strike, but there is a danger that the options under consideration could make the situation worse in Syria, in the region and for the prospects of crisis management diplomacy.

If chemical weapons have been used in Syria, preventing its further use doesn't suggest that Syrian casualties will be reduced, given that at least 99 percent of deaths are not attributable to chemical weapons.

3. The problem with evidence

Western powers may now be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the Assad regime has deployed chemical weapons. Yet that determination has not been made in a sufficiently robust way. It must at least be taken seriously and acknowledged that there is a degree of conviction with which some non-Western actors are making a counter case — whether that be in Russia, China, Iran or elsewhere in the region and the world, notably on a who-benefits basis.

The suggested irrefutability of the Western claim is undermined by the fact that United Nations inspections have not had sufficient time to determine who might have used chemical weapons in Syria. It is worth remembering that the UN inspectors on the ground — a development that the West pushed for hard at the UN — are ostensibly in Syria to review claims of chemical weapons use from five months ago. Western leaders would therefore appear to be on shaky ground in claiming that an investigation of chemical weapons use from five days ago is too little, too late.

4. The legality challenge

In addition, the legality of military strikes against Syria in the absence of authorization by the UN Security Council is questionable at best. There does not appear to be any basis to claim that military action is being undertaken in self-defense. While the use of chemical weapons undoubtedly violates international law, this does not mean that a coalition of countries has the right to take punitive action without the authorization of the UN Security Council. Therefore, the only possible legal basis for action lies in the disputed notion of humanitarian intervention.

Whatever legal arguments are advanced, an attack on Syria would inevitably fuel the belief around the world that Western powers are willing to act outside the Security Council when they wish. Military action would help reinforce the international norm against the use of chemical weapons but arguably undermine the norm against the use of force without Security Council backing. Every time that Western countries bypass or act outside the Security Council, international legality and collective security is undermined.

5. The military dynamic of Western intervention

The signals from Western leaders suggest that any military action would be limited in scope and duration. But it will be difficult for Western powers to limit their strikes to being one-off. It can also be self-defeating if the goal is to deter and restore credibility.

What if Syria uses chemical weapons again? The Syrian opposition, whose main goal for a long time has been to draw in Western military intervention, would do everything to make claims of new atrocities and to provoke Assad.

6. Impact on the trajectory of the Syria conflict

The conflict can get worse for Syrians, even more destabilizing for the region and can generate new threats to Western security.

The regime has not yet unleashed all the firepower it has. The rebels will undoubtedly see this as an opening to a more extensive Western military intervention and will calibrate their actions and public relations efforts accordingly.

In terms of domestic opinion in Syria, the Assad regime does not benefit when U.S. missiles are dispatched from offshore locations and appear over their skies, especially if there are civilian casualties.

Finally, how will this impact the flow of refugees? There is already a devastating refugee crisis that is stretching the coping mechanisms of neighboring states. The possible impact on the refugee situation cannot be a secondary consideration.

7. Impact on the region

The current Western debate on Syria is taking place in the absence of a broader strategic conversation on prioritizing what matters most for Western interests in the Middle East. The default position is to place the emasculation of Iran as the top priority item, despite growing evidence that the greatest threat from the region is a cycle of sectarian escalation with Syria at its core. This sectarian violence is fueling radicalization, threatening to increase the level of anti-Western jihadism across the Greater Middle East.

An attempt to rethink Western powers' Middle East policy should therefore focus on a strategy, the center point of which should be regional de-escalation, requiring more, not less, diplomacy with those with whom the West disagrees, notably Iran and Russia. It is hard to see how a military escalation can serve this goal. But it is easy to see how it would further squeeze the space for sectarian de-escalation.

8. A diplomatic alternative

Until now, most Western policy debate has navigated between military-lite and diplomacy-lite options. Military-lite is what is under consideration now, but pushing harder on diplomacy is what the West should be doing.

In the immediate term, a diplomatic alternative might include working to expand the UN mandate for chemical weapons inspectors. Pushing Russia on this issue will play to an area in which Russia might be highly defensive about. Russia's position is stronger in opposing military force. The West should insist on obtaining clearer evidence on chemical weapon use in advance of further discussions at the Security Council. This would build on the positions that Russia, China and Iran have taken against chemical weapons use to push Assad on inspectors.

via: The Moscow Times

Northern Railway Line in Sri Lanka tested before next month`s opening

Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) authorities today conducted a test run on the Northern Railway Line which is currently being re-built from Vavuniya to Kankasanthurai, in Jaffna peninsula.

The train left the Omanthai railway station at 9.30 this morning and it reached Kilinochchi railway station at 10.10 a.m. Sri Lanka Railways sources said.

The train ran on the newly built track up to a speed of 100 km per hour.

The last passenger train on this line ran on January 19, 1985. Tamil Tiger terrorists bombed the Yal Devi train at Kokavil on that day killing 34 people and destroying the train tracks. The attack effectively ended the north-south rail transport.

Sri Lanka will officially launch the train service on the Northern Line up to the former rebel stronghold on September 14, Ministry of Transport announced.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will launch the train service to Kilinochchi and he will also declare open the newly built Kilinochchi Railway Station.

Kilinochchi was the capital of the de facto state run by the Tamil Tiger terrorist outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Sri Lankan Army captured Kilinochchi in 2009.

Minister of Transport Kumar Welgama and other Ministers as well as the senior officials of Ministry and Sri Lanka Railway are to participate in the ceremony.

Sri Lanka`s Northern Line from Vavuniya to Kankasanthurai in the northernmost tip of the island was completely destroyed by the Tamil Tiger terrorists during the three-decade long war. The rebels uprooted the rail tracks to build reinforced underground bunkers.

The train line is now being reconstructed by the India Railway Construction International Ltd. (IRCON) with the assistance of the Indian government.

Currently the trains operate only to Omanthai, ten kilometers north of Vavuniya. The construction of the whole Northern Line up to Kankasanthurai would be completed by the end of 2014 and all the previous railway stations which were destroyed in the three decade war are to be reestablished, the Ministry says.

via http://www.lankanewspapers.com

Indian Government launches data website for public

On the lines of the USA and the UK, the union government on Thursday launched an open data website, where information on various sectors like health, transport, sanitation and agriculture was made available. The website, data.gov.in, has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Currently, it hosts over 3,500 data sets from 49 government departments which everybody is free to access and use.

Some of the released datasets include "State-wise recorded forest area of the country", "Gross irrigated area", "District-wise release of funds from centre share upto 31st March 2013" and more. Over 1,000 of the available datasets pertain to agriculture alone.

"Government is not the sole proprietor of data. All forms of data must be shared, barring those that are important for security. There is also a responsibility on those who use and interpret this data. They must realize that it is for development," said Kapil Sibal, union minister of communications and information technology, at the launch event. Sam Pitroda, who joined via videoconference, said this project could help implementation of services at district and panchayat level.

A contest organised by the NIC and the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) is in the offing too. Called the"#OpenDataApps Challenge", it invites entrepreneurs, start-ups, and people from civil society to create apps using this data. Participants can send in entries by August 20 to compete for three first prizes worth Rs. 1 lakh each and three second prizes of Rs 50,000 each.

Earlier this year, the Planning Commission had organized a hackathon in the country, inviting apps using similar data sets. Web developer Guneet Narula, who had participated and won in the hackathon, feels that this data.gov initiative is a "step in the right direction".

"The hackathon was just a starting point. This has a different objective. As a developer, I may not be able to see how two data sets relate. With a team where there are people who can analyse it that way, it may have useful results," says Narula.

Kantanu Kundu, CEO of a2z apps says he wishes the government would come up with an API (Application Programming Interface) as well. "That would excite app developers who want to use such data," he says.

A similar website called data.gov.uk shares UK government data with the public. It was launched in 2010. The US has had a data.gov website since 2009. 

via TOI