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Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Experiment zone in Qinghai to protect Tibetan culture

 

A woman wearing traditional Tibetan costumes is seen during a fashion show held at Batang grassland of Yushu city of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Northwest China’s Qinghai province, July 26, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Ministry of Culture has agreed to build an experiment zone in China’s northwestern Qinghai Province to protect Tibetan ecological and cultural heritage.

According to Wang Dongmei, head of the culture and sports bureau in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, the zone will cover the city of Yushu and its adjacent counties.

On the zone’s protection list are the physical and cultural heritage items related to the local Tibetan people in the Sanjiangyuan area, which is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang (Mekong) rivers, Wang said.

Yushu is home to seven national-level cultural heritage sites, 29 provincial-level sites as well as two historical villages. The song and dance, costumes of ethnic minorities, and metal forging techniques are all listed as intangible heritage in China.

Wang told Xinhua that Yushu has eleven national items of intangible heritage and 24 national “cultural inheritors.”

“The experiment zone will help boost protection of Tibetan culture and local ecology as a whole, and sustainable development of the society and economy,” said Tsering Teg, governor of Yushu.

Yushu has recovered from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit the region on April 14, 2010. It affected 246,800 people, leaving 2,220 dead and more than 100,000 homeless.

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East Asia • •

These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is needed – Healey

Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey MP, responding to the government’s announcement on renting, said:

“These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is needed.

“Government figures show that affordable housebuilding has fallen to the lowest level in 24 years, with the number of homes being built for social rent now at the lowest level since records began.

“Ministers continue to do next to nothing to help people who rent from a private landlord and have consistently blocked Labour’s attempts to change the law to control costs and give renters security.

“Ministers even voted down Labour’s efforts to ensure that private rented homes were simply fit for human habitation.

“After seven years of failure on housing, renters deserve better than this.”

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Labour • • •

Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers – McDonald

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, commenting on a report by the Commons Transport Select Committee, said:

“Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers.

“A railway works best as an integrated network but privatisation and franchising have meant breaking it up to create opportunities for companies to extract a profit, resulting in costly inefficiencies. For example, hundreds of people are employed full time on the railway to argue about which company is responsible for delays.

“It’s not just that money which should be used to improve services or keep fares down is syphoned off or wasted, we have a confusing fare structure and services are disjointed and difficult to use for passengers.

“The current system is broken. It is time for our railways to be run under public ownership, in the public interest as an integrated national asset with affordable fares for all and long-term investment in the railway network.”

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Labour • • •