Tag Archives: East
From Japan: How the East Wasn’t Won
Coffee, butter, The Avengers — why is it that Japan has grown to love so many other western commodities while video games struggle to establish a foothold? Sure, you can chalk it up to cultural differences. But which ones exactly? Looking at successful products can help answer this question, and perhaps even inform the industry how to move forward. Japan is the boss of them all when it comes canned coffee technology, but those miraculous beans had a tough time taking root in foreign soil. When Dutch Traders first introduced coffee in the 1800s, it was received as a foreign curiosity that could barely supplement (let alone replace) the indigenous tea culture.
London’s East End traders form “medieval” guild
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – Street hawkers and independent shop owners in London’s East End have come up with a medieval solution to combat the age-old problem of rising rents.
Fearful that the unique character of their area is being eroded by global retail chains, gentrification and soaring property costs, some 200 businesses have formed the East End Trades Guild.
East London’s modern manifestation of an ancient city guild – whose history dates back to the 12th century – aims to establish rent review workshops, trade with one another, and build relationships with developers and local authorities.
A 10,000 pound ($ 15,900) a year rent rise for one local business led to the guild’s creation, secretary Krissie Nicolson told Reuters.
“Most of our members are below 10 people and many are one-man operations, but they’re what gives color, light and character to our streets. When they’re gone, they’re gone,” Nicolson said.
Long the impoverished neighbors of the prosperous financial district, badly bombed in World War Two and buffeted by the decline of British industry, the streets once prowled by Jack the Ripper have lately become hot property.
East London has experienced the most dramatic rise in rents in the entire city, up some 13 percent in a year.
The guild’s members say that if they are forced out, the London neighborhood portrayed as a gritty urban landscape filled with working class characters in the “EastEnders” soap opera, will become just another faceless shopping district.
Local toy-shop owner Les Bobrow, whose landlord first insisted on nearly doubling the rent on his small site is a good example of what’s happening.
Bobrow’s store, with its wooden toys, Venetian masks and garish costumes, has seen a sea of designer fashion shops surround him in the last few years, as small independent shops disappear.
“Only two other long-standing market stores remain,” Bobrow said.
(Reporting By Peter Schwartzstein)
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The Power of the Riff Heads East
After three years of hammering away at the West Coast, Southern Lord’s The Power of the Riff Festival is making its East Coast debut at Brooklyn’s Warsaw this weekend (September 1-2). Much like the kind of finely-curated roster we’ve come to expect from a label that specializes in all things downtuned and acerbic, the fest will feature some of the heaviest acts around today. And since it’s New York – plenty of local flavor.
Headlining the two-day event will be Pentagram (set to …More
Man believed killed in attempt to escape East Germany is alive
BERLIN |
BERLIN (Reuters) – For 31 years, Rene Seiptius had been counted among the thousands of people killed while trying to escape the confines of communist East Germany.
As it turns out, he was alive all along.
“I can’t explain how it could have happened,” Seiptius told Reuters on Monday.
Seiptius first attempted to cross the deadly strip of land that once separated East Germany from the West in 1981, when he was 17.
He and two friends managed to tiptoe past a row of minefields but they triggered fire from an automatic spring gun. One of Seiptius’ crew died, and their cover was blown.
They were quickly arrested by border guards. But records kept by East Germany’s notorious secret police, known as the Stasi, show Seiptius as having died during that botched escape attempt.
“I’ve been alive for the last 48 years,” he said.
Eventually his name found its way to a list of all the people who had died along Germany’s East-West border compiled by a museum in Berlin.
It was only the second case of an incorrect entry to have surfaced in the past half a century, said Alexandra Hildebrandt, the director of the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum, which keeps the tally of border victims. The other case came to light more than two decades ago.
Hildebrandt said that although her organization spends months researching individual entries, even examining autopsy reports in some cases, the list is still a “work in progress”.
“It’s not always that easy to get access to this information,” she said. “Former employees of the secret police still control a lot of it.”
Seiptius tried two more times, unsuccessfully, to escape East Germany until he was granted permission to leave. Today, he lives near the western German city of Mainz.
The case wasn’t made public until recently, when Seiptius’ ex-wife stumbled across an article on the website of the German broadcaster NDR, which listed Seiptius as deceased.
“It was pure coincidence,” said Patricia Seiptius. “I was looking for something online and one of the search results was this article, I looked at it and there was his name.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
(Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
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How did the East India Company change the world?
What comes to mind when you hear the word “corporation?” Maybe a giant, faceless conglomerate? Ruthless captains of industry? Perhaps you think of corporate scandals like Enron and WorldCom. In fact, the unscrupulous plundering done by some modern-day corporations pales in comparison to the activities carried out by one of the world’s first corporations: the British East India Company (EIC).
The concept of corporations was first established under ancient Roman law [source: University of Virginia]. But it wasn’t until England emerged from the Middle Ages that it created what we recognize as the modern corporate structure. It all began on Dec. 31, 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the British East India Corporation, naming the corporation “The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the East Indies.” The corporation conducted business in the East Indies (land that we now consider India and the Middle East) at the behest of the queen.
The East India Company established a few major precedents for modern corporations. But it also shaped the world in countless other ways. With both the financial and military support of the Crown, the EIC served as an instrument of imperialism for England. The company had its own private army and raised soldiers in the areas it subjugated. Its expansionism spurred several wars that produced at least two sovereign nations. Among its many claims to fame (and notoriety), the EIC indirectly built Yale University, helped create two nations and was the world’s largest drug-dealing operation in the 18th century.
The company was ruthless in its quest for profits. Parliament even called the EIC tyrannical. However, without the EIC, England may have never developed into the nation it is today.
Read on the next page how this giant global corporation was created.
