Teenage boys, swipes of thanakha decorating their cheeks like war paint, scuttle by barking orders to the kitchen. Another batch of piping hot samosas arrives at a nearby table, devoured before they even have time to cool. An ordinary scene in one of Myanmar’s ubiquitous teahouses, places where mostly men have long met to discuss everything from politics and football to the latest neighbourhood scandal. But the familiarity belies an intimate history of a family whose lives are inseparable from the ebb and flow of one of Southeast Asia’s fastest changing countries. “No shoes. That’s how they worked. The boss was afraid they’d slip in their rubber shoes and smash the crockery. So he made my father work barefoot.” Daw Hla Myint, 66-year-old, smiles as she recalls her father’s early years in the tea business. Her father and Maung Aye Tea Shop’s namesake spent the war years (1939-1945) as forced labour under the Japanese … [Read more...] about The Barefoot Waiter: The story of Yangon’s Maung Aye Tea House
Wall street money never sleeps
US priest accused of abusing boys for decades in Philippines
In this Jan 27, 2019 photo, worshippers attend a Sunday Mass officiated by a substitute priest in the chapel built by US priest Father Pius Hendricks in the village of Talustusan on Biliran Island in the central Philippines. (AP photos) TALUSTUSAN, Philippines: The American priest's voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt.On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village. “I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It's all over.” But, the young man later told the Associated Press, those days were happy only for the priest. They were years of misery for him, he said, and for the other boys who investigators say were sexually assaulted by Father Pius Hendricks. His accusations … [Read more...] about US priest accused of abusing boys for decades in Philippines
Top 10 films from the Wathann Film Festival
But this imagination has been seen lacking slightly last year. The New Vision Award was handed over to no one, and there were only 11 films in the competition category – down by more than half from 29 in 2017. In fact, the film festival did not screen a single short film in its fourth edition in 2014, as every entries fell by the wayside in the early round. Before the call for entries for this year’s Wathann Film Festival closes on June 1, Metro looks back at the festival’s eight-year history and highlights 10 award-winning short films and documentaries. Perhaps with this inspiration, we can look forward again to seeing film creations that will spring up from the unbounded imagination. 10. Ok I’m fine The Wathann Film Festival has served as a launch pad for the superstars of tomorrow. After winning the best actor award with the short film, the child actor Pyae Pyae shot to stardom. She recently earned a central role in a blockbuster horror, The Only Mom, a … [Read more...] about Top 10 films from the Wathann Film Festival
Tough Bronze brings Lyon experience to Lionesses
LYON, France: When Lucy Bronze kicked off her professional career at Everton, her earnings were all-but wiped out by the cost of being a footballer.Bronze did not care about the money, though. She just wanted to play football.It was a focus that paid off, and next month the Olympique Lyonnais defender will be central to England's assault on the women's World Cup in France.A self-described aggressive and hardworking defender, the 27-year-old says she is now enjoying the "house and the car" in Lyon, where she hopes the Lionesses will play the semi-finals and the final of the sport's top event.And Bronze trusts that the experience she has accumulated since joining Europe's most successful club in 2017 will prove an asset for England who finished third in the 2015 World Cup."When I first signed a contract with a women's team, my contract stated that if I played I would get 100 pounds and if I didn't play it would be zero," Bronze told Reuters in an interview."If you got injured you got … [Read more...] about Tough Bronze brings Lyon experience to Lionesses
Dinner with Charlie: the world according to Mr. Munger
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By Jason Zweig WSJ Fri., May 3, 2019 Charlie Munger is a living reminder that to be a great investor, you must be a great learner. Listening to the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., as my colleague Nicole Friedman and I did on a visit to his Los Angeles home in late April, you would never guess that one of the world’s greatest investors is 95 years old—or that he is nearly blind, or that he can barely walk without severe back pain. Mr. Munger has a superabundance of stamina, curiosity and concentration that many people a third his age would envy. Nicole and I—along with Mr. Munger’s friend Peter Kaufman, chief executive of Glenair Inc., an aerospace-parts manufacturer in Glendale, Calif.—were there to talk with him about his obsession with designing buildings for schools and other nonprofits. But Mr. Munger was there to talk about anything on his mind, which is just about everything. His favorite activity, he says, is figuring out … [Read more...] about Dinner with Charlie: the world according to Mr. Munger