Macau has become the third Chinese city to join the Organisation of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), following in the footsteps of Suzhou and Dujiangyan.

According to a note from the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the ceremony took place on Friday (August 7) via video-conference.

During the ceremony, the OWHC presented the certificate of membership to the Macau SAR, which was represented by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, who expressed her heartfelt positive feelings for having the opportunity to witness the official inclusion of Macau as a member city of the OWHC, adding that the Historic Centre of Macau is not only a testimony to the citys historical development, but also a crucial cultural resource that lays the cultural ground for and nurtures the citys future advancement.

The President of the OWHC and Mayor of Krakow, Poland, Jacek Majchrowski, said Macau is a rare example of a place where the aesthetic, cultural, architectural and technical influences of East and West have met for several centuries

OWHC is an international non-profit and non-governmental entity founded in 1993 aiming to facilitate the implementation of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

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Macau joins Organisation of World Heritage Cities - Macau Business

The diversification of Macaus economy, whose myth is still being spread by those who do not know what else to say, has long been dead and buried.

By Paulo A. Azevedo CEO, Global Asia Media

The different governments have had neither the wit nor the skill to turn political discourse into reality, and the consequences loom over the horizon. We were suddenly brought back to our senses by a virus that is changing the routine of our days.

Without tourists, without casino gamblers Macaus greatest sources of wealth times of austerity were to announced.

When casinos were flooding the city with cash, government officials tried to avoid those words like the plague. They appeared ashamed of the origin of the citys wealth, but they did not shy from congratulating themselves for the citys development made possible by that wealth.

Now, they say it is time to cut costs, expenses, and investments.

The decision would even be understandable, if it were studied rather than a sudden reaction. As historical records demonstrate, many of Macaus existing policies were born out of a Yam Tcha, and thats it.

These policies, which will have an impact on future generations, are made with as much forethought as when one goes to the supermarket and, while looking at the shelves, suddenly remembers: Ah! I also need cookies.

There are no strategies, not even a clear understanding of which expenditures are unnecessary and should therefore be cut because most of the spending is secret.

In the past five years, government agencies have spent nearly one billion patacas on studies and other consultancy services, but only 12 percent was made known to the public.

In other words, we know, more or less, how a little more than 100 million were spent. We can only guess about the rest, hidden behind a black curtain of opacity drawn by those who have the ostensible duty to foster transparency. Lets not even mention the need for such studies and the way they are done. Everything escapes us.

But the purpose of this article is to talk about cash, and to discuss which expenses should be cut in the first place.

As a legislator from the so-called democratic camp recently recalled, of the thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of patacas given to local associations, history does not tell. Government-subsidized association accounts are anything but transparent.

Now, if we consider the existence of so many associations many of them headed by members who are part of the consultative bodies of the various government structures we realize the need for greater transparency. Failure to do so only validates the voices who say, albeit in a whisper, that this opacity only fosters an eternal cycle of political and nepotistic patronage.

This money a lot of money goes into the pockets of associations managed by many people who operate within the governments consultation mechanisms, and thus wield great power and influence. Such people are appointed according to criteria defined by those who govern. They spend money without supervision.

Need I say more?

Expenses must be cut that is out of the question. These are difficult times. But we must make the first cuts where they can be most easily afforded, namely on the fabulous sums that are squandered annually through a maze of baseless and unaccountable decisions. Without transparency, spending cuts will only harm public services and citizens quality of life, while irresponsible spending continues to drain public coffers.

Result: the intention to save money will become another myth, as great as the diversification of Macaus economy.

Original post:

OPINION - The new myth - Macau Business

From the peak to the valley.After reaching a record high of nearly 40 million visitors last year, the citys tourism industry has been feeling an unprecedented pinch due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) launched Macau Ready Go, a campaign initially planned for returning visitors that had to be adjusted to cater to local residents. MGTO Director Helena deSennaFernandessuggests the industry needs to undergoa soul-searching to find a way forward in the yet-to-be-known post-COVID-19 new normal. At this juncture, theres no way to predict visitation figures for the coming months, as uncertainty looms. The silver lining is that the city sits next to a massive source market, and Ms.Fernandesanticipates a gradual opening to tourists beyond Guangdong province to include Fujian and Hunan.

Interview | By Jos CarlosMatiasand NelsonMoura

Photos by Cheong Kam Ka

Just recently we had the newborder-crossingarrangements. How much of a light at the end of the tunnel is that, and where do we go from here?

Helena deSennaFernandes:Im sure this newmeasure,therelaxation of border measures,would help restore confidence particularly in the tourism industry. It will also give them hope.

The government has been givingsome subsidies we have been running some programs in order to bring people to spend money, but the issue is that without new visitation, without outside people coming in, its very difficult in the long run because wedo depend very much on tourismin order to sustain many different businesses in Macau.The new border arrangements arevery positive, but I would say that after such a big pandemic, its still a slow recovery.

We cant expect that tomorrow, millions of tourists would come, and that would not happen because on the one hand, people would still have that little bit of fear of travelling, so we need time to overcome that. Then alsoaccording to thenew measures,in order to cross the borderyou have to have your tests done, so that would still need some time for people to get used to, and to get used to travelling again.

They will notcome by the millionssurely.In any case,is there a realistic visitation figure for the whole year?

H.S.F.:Well, its very difficult to do any projections at this juncture because, for one, we have stopped forquite some months, ever sincetowardsendof January basically, tourism hascome very much to a standstill. And we have had very few tourist visitors coming into Macau for a prolonged period of time. We have seen numbers as low as 200 visitors a day, sometimes maybe a couple hundreds more. On a good day, maybe we hada little bit over 1000 visitors.

Wecant expect the visitor numbers to be growing very quickly. Because one, you would be very much conditioned by how many people can actually get their tests done, because that is a prerequisite in terms of crossing the border, and then secondly, with people having gone through such a serious pandemic, they would also think twice about where should I go. We need to give them confidence that Macau, well when we say Macau is ready Macau is also a safe place for people to come to, because we have a responsibility towards our own residents, and we also have a responsibility for the visitors coming in.So that they feel safe, and our local residents also feel safe.

You mentioned the impact the pandemic had on the local industries, obviously travel agencies,tour guides, and bus drivers. How have those efforts panned out so far, and what kind of concerns the sector has expressed to the government, in terms of how they can be assisted in this time?

H.S.F.:To be honest, when we conceived the idea of Macau Ready Go, the initial idea was for visitors, because we started with the Macau Ready Go platform. Why did we chooseMacau Ready Go?Wewould like to convey the message that Macau was ready to restart again, and I would say ready to retake the receiving of visitors again. So that was the whole idea behind why we used the tagline Macau Ready Go. We want to show that Macau has all the conditions, that we have everything in place, thatwe have a very safe environment. We also have very good facilities, and we want to make sure that people know about that.

So, thats why the focus then shifted a little bit to what we callStaycation Staying at home and having a vacation. So thats why the entire focus shifted toStaycationprograms, meaning to say we want to lure our own people, our local residents to tour around so that there is movement, and with those movements also come business, particularly for the SMEs.

Its timeto rethink the entire tourism industry as a whole

{Tourism visitation}will restart at a very slow pace at this point in time

How do you assess the results so far?

H.S.F.:I would say very promising.Travel agencies in Macau have never served local residents, in terms of touring around Macau. Or, they might have served (locals) but in a very limited way.

Many suppliers have opened new facilities for people to go to, say for example: we have never thought of bringing people to go to see Air Macaus operation center. We have never thought of bringing people to go to see for example: the electricity company, the back of the house programs for a lot of the big concessionaires. Theres a lot of interesting work that I believe finally has finally paid off.

Butrealisticallyspeaking, obviously the local sectorcantsurvive on local residents for the future. Are you worried about the impact to the sector in general, lets say next year, if the numbers of tourists continue to be reduced?

H.S.F.:I think that in a way, it is alsotimeto rethink the entire tourism industry as a whole. I think tourists will still continue to come,butit will restart at a very slow pace at this point in time, because obviously, there are no vaccines yet, so international travel has stopped for a long while. The airplanes are not flying very regularlynowadays;there are a lot of border controls in different parts of the world, so there is actually still some time until we actually can resume travelling. Besides that, insurance considerations are also another for international travel, because if insurance companies are not giving or are not covering them in terms of travelling it is very difficult for people to decide on travelling internationally.

So there are many considerations still that we need to overcome. But I think that for us, we have the big advantage due to the proximity we have with one of the biggest markets of the world in terms of tourism, and that is Mainland China. So withMainlandChina gradually opening up,I think we would get very good results. Idontthink it would be as many as before, and probably it would give us some breathing space to restart at a good but gradual pace. Also, it would give us the opportunity to rethink our entire strategy,so there is always a silver lining in any situation. We have to learn from what we call, the new normal, we have to re-program ourselves, and I guess we have to also send out new messages to the world.

You mentioned that our geographic location gives us a sort of competitive advantage in the way for the recovery.Regarding theGreater Bay Area puttingHK aside for nowhow much of a reciprocity do youanticipatein terms of the flow ofvisitors?

H.S.F.:Guangdong is a very important market, in terms of the number of visitors coming in to Macau. Last year, if we look at the numbers, last year we had about 22 million from the mainland, and about 42%, if Im not mistaken, actually come from Guangdong province. Many of the people from Guangdong province, particularly those who live just across the border from us Zhuhai orZhongshan,I think Macau for them, is a good getaway, where they can buy supplies, to buy daily stuff as well, so it is not just for a tourism environment, they are also coming here to get what they need. So Guangdong is also a very important part of this tourism mix, so to speak.

It is very difficult to have number projections for the timebeing, because wedontknow how or when the individual visitation scheme would resume, because obviously, some people may still hold valid visitation permits. But a lot or most of them have expired, or the new registrations or new application are not in place yet. So I think for this month at least, we have to take it slowly for the time being. And besides the permits being granted, they would also need to do the nucleic tests, which is also an issue because the availability for the tests are not infinite.

Macau is not considered to be in the interprovincial group of possibilities. So we still need the next step, but we hope eventually to have some possibilities to get some tourist visitation, from then onwards it can grow again, and not limited to the very small numbers that are crossing.

Thiscrisis, you mentioned, also offers opportunities for soul searching, with regards to the futureofMacaus tourism industry and the citys rebranding. Can you tell us a bit what has been discussed what has been brainstormed here in these sessions?

H.S.F.:I think one of the things we actually discussed internally, is how would tourism be different from now on. One of the answers, or the ideas, definitely is that we would need to work very closely with the health authorities from now onwards. For example, if we wanted to establish a travel bubble, its not because the tourism authorities feel good about it, or the tourism department feels that this would work. Definitely, we need to work with health authorities on the outbound and receiving end. They would have a very big say as to who are able come, who are not able to travel to a certain place,the travel conditions for them. So, going forward, working with health authorities is a must.

There is a lot of confidence building that we need to do for our residents as well, so the messages have to be crafted in a way to say how safe we are, not only that but, showing them what exactly has been done to safeguard their interests, besides giving them good experiences and services. This is something we need to learn as well.

WithMainlandChina gradually opening up I think we would get very good results

It is very difficult to have number projections for the timebeing

Talking about business tourism and events,what can we expect in this rest of the year?

H.S.F.:In terms of the events, speaking about MGTO, obviously we have the travel fair, which was supposed to beheldin April, but we moved that to September. We still have the Global Tourism Economy Forum, which will also need to be shifted a little later in the year. But we have hopes that we would still hold it this year.

For ourselves, we are not able to run the fireworks festival this year. We have decided to go ahead with the light festival, which is now announced to start on the 26 of September, and run until the end of October. We decided thatthereneeds to be something for an earlier time, to try to boost everybodys spirits, so the light festival has always been a veryanticipatedevent.

For the National Day, obviously we will have a fireworks event, and we are looking forward to working together withHengqin, in terms of a combination of drones as well as fireworks. Although we cant run the fireworks contest, we still would have some fireworks, some special events for our residents and eventually our visitors.

We will also run the film festival. But it will have to be probably a combination of physical film watching and also maybe, I wouldnt say virtual, butaonline segment in terms of the competition sections. Because we understand not everybody in the world would be able to come.

Asair travel to and from Macau isverylimited, with which countries and regions are thetourism and health authorities are trying to negotiatethe reestablishingroutes?

H.S.F.:I would be very conservative in that, in these kinds of pandemics, we need to be more on the safe side. For the rest of the year, I would only be looking very much within our immediate vicinity. Meaning to say, Guangdong definitely, hopefully we can have a little further afield in the mainland, traditionally, besides Guangdong, our next market would be Fujian, would be places like Hunan because of the rapid rail system.Then, we would definitely see HK be back in the scheme as well, because HK is, in terms of numbers, the second most important market apart from the mainland. Another one is Taiwan, who seems to have very good control over the pandemic.

At this pointitsstill not possible because of the travel restrictions, but hopefully, before the end of the year, we hope to see some form of development.With regards toother countriesitsvery difficultto guessat this point in time.

Obviously MGTOencountered unexpected situationsthis year.How challenging the past months were to undergo these tasks?

H.S.F.:I think the last few months, starting January, we were into a phase of almost daily or hourly rapid response.Because things are happening all the time, the situation changing from moment to moment.It was really a test of how quickly we can respond and how we can actually put together resources to tackle each task in a short period of time. We have learnt a lot, to be honest. Although we have the TourismCrisisManagement Office, we never would have thought or imagined we would have to do, for example repatriation of residents by vehicle, plane, or by ferry.

It was a steep learning curve, everybody had to learn to react very quickly, think out of the box, so as to invent ways to try to solve different situations. I must admit that we cannot serve everybody, and also we cannot find solutions for 100% of tasks. Sometimes it is not a perfect solution, more or less not the perfect way, but we have to make do with the limitations we are facing. The last few months have really been a big test for everybody, not just us,but alsoour partnersin theimmigrationservices, including health, including the ferry companies, travel agencies, everybody.

Besides Guangdong, our next market would be Fujian,andplaces like Hunan because of the rapid rail system

The last few months have really been a big test for everybody

In the meantime,MGTO is undergoing atransition of the Secretary for Social affairs and Culture to Economy and Finance. Where are we now in terms of that transition?

H.S.F.:I can say we are very close in terms of moving to the Economy and Finance portfolio.Doesntmean once we have moved there we dont work on theculture side, the other side.We do, we will still continue to work together with a lot of our partners. Because tourism entails many aspects, culture definitely is a very important tourism asset, the big events,sportsevents, also important for us. Besides that,we also worked together with the education departments, and other departments. We still have a lot of synergy together continuing into the future.

This transition does hint as a somewhat more business oriented approach to tourism. In terms of your mission would there be any sort of adjustment?

H.S.F.:I think the adjustment would come in terms of the income generating area.I guessthere will bea little bit more focus there. But adding the focus there doesnt mean diminishing the others. I would say for us, for sure, tourism for Macau definitely, is an important economic activity, so we need to make sure people understand that. We also need to work harder, especially after this pandemic, in order to get more income back into Macau.

We are commemorating 15 years on the listing ofMacaus Historic CentreasUNESCO.Some voices have expressed concerns on the impact ofurban developmenton the citysheritageprotection.How much does it concern you that heritage in Macau is being impacted?

H.S.F.:Heritage is very important for us in terms of our entire promotion. Its notjustbecause having Macau listed on UNESCO that we started working on promoting culture. We have actually even in the1990s,wehave always used culture as part of the promotion messages.Heritage and culture is not limited to just buildings. It is also in the environment itself, in the way we eat, the things we eat, the food culture, the way of life of people. It has always been a very important aspect in the ways we promote, if we look at our travel guides, our promotional messages that we have done, on social media, or traditional media. We always put an angle of culture in it. It has become hand in hand with tourism, we wouldnt imagine promoting Macau in terms of tourism without the cultural aspects. It has always been and will continue be a part of the tourism message.

You have been atworking at MGTO for over three decades and have been serving as director since December 2012.The current term ends come December.Whatare your futureplans? Will you continue as MGTO director?

H.S.F.:Itsnot me to decide that;my boss decides whether I continue or not. Well I would say over thesethreedecades, it has beena very interesting job. To be honest, when I joinedMGTO, I would not have imagined civil serviceto belike this. When we look at civil service, people sayitsvery slow, bureaucratic, that was the kind of image of civil service when I joined some 30 years ago. Forme it was a learning experience.I have hadvery good role models to follow.I have been working with CostaAntunes{previous director}for a longtime;hesa very good teacher. And also other colleagues of mine, my past department heads, our Deputy Directors, they have also taught me alot. Also Ive learnt alot from other governmentdepartments, whichwe have worked with very closely.

So everydaytheres somethingnew, you learn something different. Its just keeping our eyes open, our minds open, so that we can try to see something different everyday, to try to accumulate this experience for ourselves.

So are you eager,willing to continue?How do you regardyour career as a civil servant?

MHSF: Very difficult to say, I would always say that we do our part, but the one up there would decide. I do make some plans for myself but they are not set in stone.Plansdo change. Then personally, Im a Catholic, so I always keep a veryveryopen attitude that someone would always tell me exactly where he would want me to be.

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It's a time to rethink the tourism industry as a whole - Macau Business

The pandemic has lifted tourist pressure in Macau, which in 2019 received twice as many visitors from Venice, but experts point out differences between the two cities, both UNESCO world heritage sites, starting with the risks for heritage.

Last year, around 40 million tourists visited the former territory under Portuguese administration, with an area of 33 square kilometers more than Paris (38 million), Venice (20) or Portugal (27 million).

In Macau, before the health crisis, an average of 1.2 tourists entered every second more than 70 per minute, 4,500 every hour, about 109,000 per day.

The cartoonist Rodrigo de Matos, who collaborates with the newspaper Ponto Final and the weekly Expresso, illustrated the floods in a 2017 cartoon: a can of sardines with the brand Macau. Before the covid, it was everyday life, mainly in the city center: there were areas where it was practically impossible for a person to walk, it was reminiscent of a disco, he recalls.

Living in the territory since 2009, the cartoonist had never seen the city so empty, except during the occasional typhoon, and believes that it improved the quality of life of the residents. We take the opportunity to see some parts of the city that we dont normally go to, due to the flood of people. For those who didnt know the historic center, its the ideal time.

Those who walk these days find an empty city, from the historic center left by the Portuguese to the existing 40 casinos.

The president of the International Council of Portuguese Language Architects (CIALP), Rui Leo, who arrived in the territory in the late 1970s, criticizes the enormous transformation of the city since the liberalization of the gaming industry in 2002.

In recent years we have been subjected to an excess [of tourists] that is truly distressing, with consequences in everything: there are no more cafes or neighborhood grocery stores in the historic center, he exemplifies.

The complaints are the same as those in Venice or Barcelona, and, more recently, Lisbon: gentrification, rising real estate prices, pollution, degradation of monuments.

But if Macau suffers from equal tourist pressure, the situation is different, defends Leo. The tourist who goes to Venice or Lisbon goes there because of the heritage, the architecture, the city itself, while in Macau the people come because of the casinos, he explains.

For that reason, in Venice and Lisbon heritage is safeguarded, because it is very clear that without that heritage there is no tourism. In Macau, there is no such awareness: heritage can disappear, and it has disappeared, he laments.

From the top of the staircase of the ruins of So Paulo, you can see the Grand Lisboa, the crown jewel of the former magnate Stanley Ho, in a territory where the casinos rival the authentic heritage left by the Portuguese.

We have the Venetian, which is the imitation of Venice, the Parisian, with the imitation of the Eiffel tower, and we will have the Londoner, points out the architect Maria Jos de Freitas, who has lived in Macau since 1997, two years before the handover to China.

For the doctoral student in Portuguese-influenced heritage, it is this Disneyland species that attracts the thousands of tourists from China looking for a European atmosphere, with visits to the historic center being nothing more than an appointment.

They go through the ruins of So Paulo to take a photo and say I was here, they dont even have time to read the signs, he criticizes.

The visit nevertheless leaves marks on the historic center, registered as a World Heritage Site on July 15, 2005. The ruins of So Paulo are constantly being visited by tourists, and buses and pollution, and all road traffic in the area, they are extremely harmful , she stresses.

The architect points out that there is still no plan for the protection of the Portuguese legacy in Macau, foreseen in the heritage safeguard law of 2013, approved just eight years after enrollment in UNESCO.

Without legal guidelines, the heritage left by the Portuguese was quickly surrounded by real estate pressure, with the Government authorizing the construction of casinos on the peninsula and buildings to emerge around the protected area.

The most recent controversy involves Guia Lighthouse, the first lighthouse on the southeast coast of Asia, threatened by plans to build a 90-meter building.

The case led Associao Nova Macau to file a complaint with the Commission against Corruption, on July 23, a month after the Guia Lighthouse Safeguard Group complained to UNESCO.

In 2017, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee criticized the Macau Government for the possible impact of high-rise developments on the landscapes of Farol da Guia and Colina da Penha, warning that the lack of a heritage safeguard plan could put in jeopardy danger to their status.

For Rui Leo, the degradation does not seem easy to reverse, when 80% of Macaus GDP comes from gambling revenues, the great tourist attraction.

Any monofunctional economy is a place where there is not much debate, laments the architect, considering that the territory risks losing what makes its difference: a heritage of five centuries, at the crossroads between east and west.

This makes Macau not an alienated or unbearable place, like Doha [the capital of Qatar] or Dubai, where there may be a lot of money, but there is no world: they are fake cities, made of nothing, he defends.

Paula Telo Alves

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Pandemic has lifted tourist pressure in the city, with twice as many visitors from Venice - Macau Business

The Macao government will lower the current testing fee of MOP 180 to MOP 120 for its nucleic acid testing (NAT) scheme from Wednesday next week, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced in a statement on Thursday.

The statement said that from today, residents can make an appointment to undergo their nucleic acid tests from Wednesday next week. The statement reminded that those who have made an appointment to undergo their tests before Wednesday next week will still have to pay the current testing fee of MOP 180.

The statement said that if those who have made an appointment to undergo their tests before Wednesday next week want to reschedule their tests so that they will only have to pay the new testing fee of MOP 120 they can change the date using the online appointment system if they have already paid the fee of MOP 180, in which case they can apply for the refund of the MOP-60 difference. If they have still not paid the fee of MOP 180, they will have to cancel their appointment first before making a new appointment, the statement said, in which case the government cannot guarantee that places will still be available for them when they make a new appointment.

Residents who plan to visit Guangdong have to make an appointment online to be tested for COVID-19 under the Macao governments NAT scheme so that they can present a NAT certificate confirming that they have tested negative for COVID-19 when crossing the Macao-Zhuhai border.

The Macao government launched its NAT scheme on 7 May when its first and main testing station at the Taipa Ferry Terminal in Pac On started operating. The Health Bureau (SSM) has commissioned a third-party testing institution Kuok Kim (Macau) Hygiene Examination Company Limited to carry out COVID-19 testing there.

A new testing station for the governments NAT scheme, which is located at the Macau Forum complex in Zape, came into operation last month. The new Macau Forum testing station is temporarily being operated by the Health Bureau before it will commission a third-party testing institution to carry out COVID-19 testing there. The government has not said whether the same testing institution Kuok Kim or a new one will carry out the COVID-19 testing.

(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)PHOTO The Macau Post Daily/Maria Cheang Ut Meng

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Government to reduce NAT fee to MOP 120 - Macau News

Egyptian mother-of-three Menna said she was caught off guard when a bulldozer clearing space for a controversial highway flattened much of a mausoleum that doubled as her home in a sprawling cemetery.

The earth mover suddenly hit the wall and we found ourselves throwing our things in a panic outside, she told AFP.

They kicked us out on the street, she said, surrounded by rubble and dust in the UNESCO-listed world heritage site.

Mennas parents and grandparents had made their home among the graves of the City of the Dead, the oldest necropolis in the Muslim world.

For those unable to afford prohibitively high rents in Egypts capital,the burial chambers provide shelter for thousands like her.

Many built extensions to the original mausoleums, eking out a largely tranquil, if bizarre, existence side-by-side with dead sultans, singers and saints in the sprawling east Cairo cemetery.

But Menna said her peace and that of the dead was shattered by the arrival of workmen.

It was awful. We moved the dead on straw mats, she said.

She and her husband shifted several bodies, including the remains of her father, to a segment of her home still intact.

Menna is now living with neighbours in part of the cemetery that is not in the demolition area.

Dozens of bodies were displaced by the construction work in the second half of July, according to local media, to make way for the 17.5 kilometre (11 miles) Al-Ferdaous, or Paradise, highway.

Ferdaous, connecting major Cairo road arteries, is the latest instalment of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis urban vision.

He is intent on transferring the centre of political power to a new capital, about 45 kilometres east of Cairo a mega-project in the desert overseen by the militarys engineering arm.

Sisi led the armys overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against the Islamist leaders rule.

He won his first term as president in 2014 and was re-elected four years later with more than 97 percent of the vote.

It is not just residents of the City of the Dead who are upset by the demolition work undertaken there.

Galila El-Kadi, a Marseille-based veteran architect and urban researcher, said the site is an important component of the capitals urban history.

A final resting place for illustrious figures including singer Farid al-Atrash and writer Ihsan Abdel Kouddous as well as ordinary Egyptians, the Islamic necropolis founded in the seventh century stretches over 6.5 kilometres (four miles).

It is full of ornately designed domes with chiseled Koranic verses that have been the object of fascination for orientalist painters and historians.

Kadi, who authored a book on the City of the Dead (al-Qarafa in Arabic), said the demolition had reached a historic perimeter where luminaries are buried, including Sultan Abu Said Qansuh of the Mamluk dynasty in the 15th century.

Shesaid the demolitions would result in a loss of Cairos visual identity and its memory.

They reveal the blind and arbitrary character of a haphazard urban planning vision, driven by a bulldozer policy, Kadi alleged.

UNESCO told AFP that it was neither informed nor consulted about the demolition work undertaken in July.

The World Heritage Centre is following up with the Egyptian authorities to review the matter and assess any potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value, authenticity and integrity of the property, it added.

On social media, Egyptians have documented the urban destruction with photos of their family vaults as well as historic ones.

A Twitter user with the handle @morocropolis said his maternal family had maintained a vault in Qunsah Street since the 1940s.

He declined to give his full name fearing his criticism of the highway project would land him in trouble.

The authorities told us that they needed part of the womens burial chamber, but they started to destroy the fence and the tombstones before the remains were moved, he told AFP.

He said he will not be eligible for compensation since the crypt was partially, rather than fully, destroyed.

Egypts ministry of antiquities defended the work undertaken in the cemetery last month and said there was no destruction of monuments.

Only recent graves were moved, it said.

But Menna said she is haunted by the disturbed bodies.

They abuse the living and the dead, without mercy and in the end, no one cares about us.

by Hager Harabech

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Egypt highway uproots graves, homes in 'City of Dead' - Macau Business

The government-appointed Talents Development Committee (SCDT) said in a statement on Thursday that it expects an oversupply of teaching staff for non-tertiary education schools in the next three years.

The committee also released data from a research project on the topic.

The statement said that the aim of the research was for the general public to understand the demand for teaching staff in Macao and use it as a reference for career planning. The research surveyed all 78 non-tertiary education schools in Macao and gathered information about the demand for teaching staff from 2020 to 2023, according to the statement.

Non-tertiary education comprises primary and secondary schools as well as schools for pupils with special needs and kindergartens.

According to the data, the 78 non-tertiary education schools require 7,411 teaching staff, yet they only need to recruit 235 new teaching staff members, with the data showing that the demand for new teaching members is just 3.2 per cent of the total staff needed. The data also showed that the demand for new teaching staff will decrease over the next few years, predicting that in 2022-2023, only 124 new teachers will be needed.

The statement also predicted that there will be an oversupply of teacher-training graduates in the next few years. Besides primary education institutions, all other institutions will have an excessive supply of teacher-training graduates, according to the research.

(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)

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Committee predicts oversupply of teaching staff in the next 3 years - Macau News

A three-member Lebanese parliamentary bloc resigned Saturday in protest at the Beirut blast widely blamed on government negligence and corruption, bringing to five the number of MPs to quit since the disaster.

In an emotional speech during a funeral service for one of his top party officials who died in Tuesdays blast, Samy Gemayel announced his resignation and that of the two other MPs from his Kataeb party.

Your comrades took the decision to resign from parliament, Gemayel said, addressing Kataeb secretary-general Nazar Najarian, one of the 154 confirmed victims of the explosion at Beirut port.

Gemayel criticised the reactions of several top politicians who argued the international aid effort following the disaster would be an opportunity to break the diplomatic isolation of Lebanon.

A new Lebanon must be born on the ruins of the old one, which you represent, he said, addressing the authorities at large and their clan leaders.

The Christian partys three resignations from the 128-seat parliament come after those of Marwan Hamade from the party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and independent MP Paula Yacoubian.

Yacoubian told the CNN news channel that she was urging the entire parliament to stand down.

As the MP of Beirut, I took the decision of resigning because I feel Im a false witness in this parliament, she said.

Theres nothing we can do, the decision-making is outside the parliament, she said. Everyone should resign.

Lebanons ambassador to Jordan also resigned in the aftermath of the blast, caused when fire spread to a depot where a huge amount of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years, unsecured.

Early evidence shows top officials knew of its presence at the port and that safety procedures were knowingly and repeatedly violated.

The government has promised a swift and thorough enquiry but public trust is low that an investigative committee chaired by top officials will uncover the real culprits.

Continued here:

String of MP resignations after Beirut blast - Macau Business

From the peak to the valley.After reaching a record high of nearly 40 million visitors last year, the citys tourism industry has been feeling an unprecedented pinch due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) launched Macau Ready Go, a campaign initially planned for returning visitors that had to be adjusted to cater to local residents. MGTO Director Helena deSennaFernandessuggests the industry needs to undergoa soul-searching to find a way forward in the yet-to-be-known post-COVID-19 new normal. At this juncture, theres no way to predict visitation figures for the coming months, as uncertainty looms. The silver lining is that the city sits next to a massive source market, and Ms.Fernandesanticipates a gradual opening to tourists beyond Guangdong province to include Fujian and Hunan.

Interview | By Jos CarlosMatiasand NelsonMoura

Photos by Cheong Kam Ka

Just recently we had the newborder-crossingarrangements. How much of a light at the end of the tunnel is that, and where do we go from here?

Helena deSennaFernandes:Im sure this newmeasure,therelaxation of border measures,would help restore confidence particularly in the tourism industry. It will also give them hope.

The government has been givingsome subsidies we have been running some programs in order to bring people to spend money, but the issue is that without new visitation, without outside people coming in, its very difficult in the long run because wedo depend very much on tourismin order to sustain many different businesses in Macau.The new border arrangements arevery positive, but I would say that after such a big pandemic, its still a slow recovery.

We cant expect that tomorrow, millions of tourists would come, and that would not happen because on the one hand, people would still have that little bit of fear of travelling, so we need time to overcome that. Then alsoaccording to thenew measures,in order to cross the borderyou have to have your tests done, so that would still need some time for people to get used to, and to get used to travelling again.

They will notcome by the millionssurely.In any case,is there a realistic visitation figure for the whole year?

H.S.F.:Well, its very difficult to do any projections at this juncture because, for one, we have stopped forquite some months, ever sincetowardsendof January basically, tourism hascome very much to a standstill. And we have had very few tourist visitors coming into Macau for a prolonged period of time. We have seen numbers as low as 200 visitors a day, sometimes maybe a couple hundreds more. On a good day, maybe we hada little bit over 1000 visitors.

Wecant expect the visitor numbers to be growing very quickly. Because one, you would be very much conditioned by how many people can actually get their tests done, because that is a prerequisite in terms of crossing the border, and then secondly, with people having gone through such a serious pandemic, they would also think twice about where should I go. We need to give them confidence that Macau, well when we say Macau is ready Macau is also a safe place for people to come to, because we have a responsibility towards our own residents, and we also have a responsibility for the visitors coming in.So that they feel safe, and our local residents also feel safe.

You mentioned the impact the pandemic had on the local industries, obviously travel agencies,tour guides, and bus drivers. How have those efforts panned out so far, and what kind of concerns the sector has expressed to the government, in terms of how they can be assisted in this time?

H.S.F.:To be honest, when we conceived the idea of Macau Ready Go, the initial idea was for visitors, because we started with the Macau Ready Go platform. Why did we chooseMacau Ready Go?Wewould like to convey the message that Macau was ready to restart again, and I would say ready to retake the receiving of visitors again. So that was the whole idea behind why we used the tagline Macau Ready Go. We want to show that Macau has all the conditions, that we have everything in place, thatwe have a very safe environment. We also have very good facilities, and we want to make sure that people know about that.

So, thats why the focus then shifted a little bit to what we callStaycation Staying at home and having a vacation. So thats why the entire focus shifted toStaycationprograms, meaning to say we want to lure our own people, our local residents to tour around so that there is movement, and with those movements also come business, particularly for the SMEs.

Its timeto rethink the entire tourism industry as a whole

{Tourism visitation}will restart at a very slow pace at this point in time

How do you assess the results so far?

H.S.F.:I would say very promising.Travel agencies in Macau have never served local residents, in terms of touring around Macau. Or, they might have served (locals) but in a very limited way.

Many suppliers have opened new facilities for people to go to, say for example: we have never thought of bringing people to go to see Air Macaus operation center. We have never thought of bringing people to go to see for example: the electricity company, the back of the house programs for a lot of the big concessionaires. Theres a lot of interesting work that I believe finally has finally paid off.

Butrealisticallyspeaking, obviously the local sectorcantsurvive on local residents for the future. Are you worried about the impact to the sector in general, lets say next year, if the numbers of tourists continue to be reduced?

H.S.F.:I think that in a way, it is alsotimeto rethink the entire tourism industry as a whole. I think tourists will still continue to come,butit will restart at a very slow pace at this point in time, because obviously, there are no vaccines yet, so international travel has stopped for a long while. The airplanes are not flying very regularlynowadays;there are a lot of border controls in different parts of the world, so there is actually still some time until we actually can resume travelling. Besides that, insurance considerations are also another for international travel, because if insurance companies are not giving or are not covering them in terms of travelling it is very difficult for people to decide on travelling internationally.

So there are many considerations still that we need to overcome. But I think that for us, we have the big advantage due to the proximity we have with one of the biggest markets of the world in terms of tourism, and that is Mainland China. So withMainlandChina gradually opening up,I think we would get very good results. Idontthink it would be as many as before, and probably it would give us some breathing space to restart at a good but gradual pace. Also, it would give us the opportunity to rethink our entire strategy,so there is always a silver lining in any situation. We have to learn from what we call, the new normal, we have to re-program ourselves, and I guess we have to also send out new messages to the world.

You mentioned that our geographic location gives us a sort of competitive advantage in the way for the recovery.Regarding theGreater Bay Area puttingHK aside for nowhow much of a reciprocity do youanticipatein terms of the flow ofvisitors?

H.S.F.:Guangdong is a very important market, in terms of the number of visitors coming in to Macau. Last year, if we look at the numbers, last year we had about 22 million from the mainland, and about 42%, if Im not mistaken, actually come from Guangdong province. Many of the people from Guangdong province, particularly those who live just across the border from us Zhuhai orZhongshan,I think Macau for them, is a good getaway, where they can buy supplies, to buy daily stuff as well, so it is not just for a tourism environment, they are also coming here to get what they need. So Guangdong is also a very important part of this tourism mix, so to speak.

It is very difficult to have number projections for the timebeing, because wedontknow how or when the individual visitation scheme would resume, because obviously, some people may still hold valid visitation permits. But a lot or most of them have expired, or the new registrations or new application are not in place yet. So I think for this month at least, we have to take it slowly for the time being. And besides the permits being granted, they would also need to do the nucleic tests, which is also an issue because the availability for the tests are not infinite.

Macau is not considered to be in the interprovincial group of possibilities. So we still need the next step, but we hope eventually to have some possibilities to get some tourist visitation, from then onwards it can grow again, and not limited to the very small numbers that are crossing.

Thiscrisis, you mentioned, also offers opportunities for soul searching, with regards to the futureofMacaus tourism industry and the citys rebranding. Can you tell us a bit what has been discussed what has been brainstormed here in these sessions?

H.S.F.:I think one of the things we actually discussed internally, is how would tourism be different from now on. One of the answers, or the ideas, definitely is that we would need to work very closely with the health authorities from now onwards. For example, if we wanted to establish a travel bubble, its not because the tourism authorities feel good about it, or the tourism department feels that this would work. Definitely, we need to work with health authorities on the outbound and receiving end. They would have a very big say as to who are able come, who are not able to travel to a certain place,the travel conditions for them. So, going forward, working with health authorities is a must.

There is a lot of confidence building that we need to do for our residents as well, so the messages have to be crafted in a way to say how safe we are, not only that but, showing them what exactly has been done to safeguard their interests, besides giving them good experiences and services. This is something we need to learn as well.

WithMainlandChina gradually opening up I think we would get very good results

It is very difficult to have number projections for the timebeing

Talking about business tourism and events,what can we expect in this rest of the year?

H.S.F.:In terms of the events, speaking about MGTO, obviously we have the travel fair, which was supposed to beheldin April, but we moved that to September. We still have the Global Tourism Economy Forum, which will also need to be shifted a little later in the year. But we have hopes that we would still hold it this year.

For ourselves, we are not able to run the fireworks festival this year. We have decided to go ahead with the light festival, which is now announced to start on the 26 of September, and run until the end of October. We decided thatthereneeds to be something for an earlier time, to try to boost everybodys spirits, so the light festival has always been a veryanticipatedevent.

For the National Day, obviously we will have a fireworks event, and we are looking forward to working together withHengqin, in terms of a combination of drones as well as fireworks. Although we cant run the fireworks contest, we still would have some fireworks, some special events for our residents and eventually our visitors.

We will also run the film festival. But it will have to be probably a combination of physical film watching and also maybe, I wouldnt say virtual, butaonline segment in terms of the competition sections. Because we understand not everybody in the world would be able to come.

Asair travel to and from Macau isverylimited, with which countries and regions are thetourism and health authorities are trying to negotiatethe reestablishingroutes?

H.S.F.:I would be very conservative in that, in these kinds of pandemics, we need to be more on the safe side. For the rest of the year, I would only be looking very much within our immediate vicinity. Meaning to say, Guangdong definitely, hopefully we can have a little further afield in the mainland, traditionally, besides Guangdong, our next market would be Fujian, would be places like Hunan because of the rapid rail system.Then, we would definitely see HK be back in the scheme as well, because HK is, in terms of numbers, the second most important market apart from the mainland. Another one is Taiwan, who seems to have very good control over the pandemic.

At this pointitsstill not possible because of the travel restrictions, but hopefully, before the end of the year, we hope to see some form of development.With regards toother countriesitsvery difficultto guessat this point in time.

Obviously MGTOencountered unexpected situationsthis year.How challenging the past months were to undergo these tasks?

H.S.F.:I think the last few months, starting January, we were into a phase of almost daily or hourly rapid response.Because things are happening all the time, the situation changing from moment to moment.It was really a test of how quickly we can respond and how we can actually put together resources to tackle each task in a short period of time. We have learnt a lot, to be honest. Although we have the TourismCrisisManagement Office, we never would have thought or imagined we would have to do, for example repatriation of residents by vehicle, plane, or by ferry.

It was a steep learning curve, everybody had to learn to react very quickly, think out of the box, so as to invent ways to try to solve different situations. I must admit that we cannot serve everybody, and also we cannot find solutions for 100% of tasks. Sometimes it is not a perfect solution, more or less not the perfect way, but we have to make do with the limitations we are facing. The last few months have really been a big test for everybody, not just us,but alsoour partnersin theimmigrationservices, including health, including the ferry companies, travel agencies, everybody.

Besides Guangdong, our next market would be Fujian,andplaces like Hunan because of the rapid rail system

The last few months have really been a big test for everybody

In the meantime,MGTO is undergoing atransition of the Secretary for Social affairs and Culture to Economy and Finance. Where are we now in terms of that transition?

H.S.F.:I can say we are very close in terms of moving to the Economy and Finance portfolio.Doesntmean once we have moved there we dont work on theculture side, the other side.We do, we will still continue to work together with a lot of our partners. Because tourism entails many aspects, culture definitely is a very important tourism asset, the big events,sportsevents, also important for us. Besides that,we also worked together with the education departments, and other departments. We still have a lot of synergy together continuing into the future.

This transition does hint as a somewhat more business oriented approach to tourism. In terms of your mission would there be any sort of adjustment?

H.S.F.:I think the adjustment would come in terms of the income generating area.I guessthere will bea little bit more focus there. But adding the focus there doesnt mean diminishing the others. I would say for us, for sure, tourism for Macau definitely, is an important economic activity, so we need to make sure people understand that. We also need to work harder, especially after this pandemic, in order to get more income back into Macau.

We are commemorating 15 years on the listing ofMacaus Historic CentreasUNESCO.Some voices have expressed concerns on the impact ofurban developmenton the citysheritageprotection.How much does it concern you that heritage in Macau is being impacted?

H.S.F.:Heritage is very important for us in terms of our entire promotion. Its notjustbecause having Macau listed on UNESCO that we started working on promoting culture. We have actually even in the1990s,wehave always used culture as part of the promotion messages.Heritage and culture is not limited to just buildings. It is also in the environment itself, in the way we eat, the things we eat, the food culture, the way of life of people. It has always been a very important aspect in the ways we promote, if we look at our travel guides, our promotional messages that we have done, on social media, or traditional media. We always put an angle of culture in it. It has become hand in hand with tourism, we wouldnt imagine promoting Macau in terms of tourism without the cultural aspects. It has always been and will continue be a part of the tourism message.

You have been atworking at MGTO for over three decades and have been serving as director since December 2012.The current term ends come December.Whatare your futureplans? Will you continue as MGTO director?

H.S.F.:Itsnot me to decide that;my boss decides whether I continue or not. Well I would say over thesethreedecades, it has beena very interesting job. To be honest, when I joinedMGTO, I would not have imagined civil serviceto belike this. When we look at civil service, people sayitsvery slow, bureaucratic, that was the kind of image of civil service when I joined some 30 years ago. Forme it was a learning experience.I have hadvery good role models to follow.I have been working with CostaAntunes{previous director}for a longtime;hesa very good teacher. And also other colleagues of mine, my past department heads, our Deputy Directors, they have also taught me alot. Also Ive learnt alot from other governmentdepartments, whichwe have worked with very closely.

So everydaytheres somethingnew, you learn something different. Its just keeping our eyes open, our minds open, so that we can try to see something different everyday, to try to accumulate this experience for ourselves.

So are you eager,willing to continue?How do you regardyour career as a civil servant?

MHSF: Very difficult to say, I would always say that we do our part, but the one up there would decide. I do make some plans for myself but they are not set in stone.Plansdo change. Then personally, Im a Catholic, so I always keep a veryveryopen attitude that someone would always tell me exactly where he would want me to be.

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It's time to rethink the tourism industry as a whole - Macau Business

Scientists responsible for developing what they describe as a hugely promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate say they can complete human trials and produce 30 million doses by January 2021 on less than a single days worth of Macau 2019 casino revenue.

The revelations came at a press conference at the Faculty of Medicine at Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) on Tuesday. The press conference was led by Professor Zhang Kang in Macau, and Professor Manson Fok, Dean of the Faculty, who appeared from Hong Kong by video.

The vaccine, announced last week by a team comprising researchers from MUST, in collaboration with Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), is seen as a leading candidate for mass production after what the researchers describe as exceptional results during early clinical trials. In particular, it induced a potent functional antibody response in immunized mice, rabbits and monkeys with those antibodies subsequently neutralizing the virus during laboratory studies by effectively blocking it from binding with cells in the host.

According to key scientists involved, the candidate vaccine is now ready to enter Phase II and Phase III trials which, if all goes well, could see the first 30 million doses manufactured and ready for distribution by late January.

However, at the press conference, it was revealed the project was at risk of stalling over a shortfall in funding. Speaking of the worlds largest casino hub, Professor Fok estimated HK$600 million (US$77 million), equivalent to 77% of one day of Macau casino revenue based on 2019 GGR, or just two days worth of gaming taxes collected by the Macau SAR Government, would be needed to develop and produce 30 million doses of the vaccine.

The team revealed it had been knocked back in February after applying to the Macau government for funding of just MOP$500,000 (US$62,500), with Professor Fok indicating the government had not been convinced at the time that development of a vaccine was a realistic goal.

According to the MUST team, the cost of the collaborative research, which has involved more than 100 scientists from Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China, is already in the tens of millions of US dollars all of it sourced from the internal resources of eight institutions involved.

But the team is also adamant their vaccine ranks among the most effective, perhaps even the most effective, of the more than 150 vaccine candidates currently being studied globally.

From a conceptual standpoint, we think this will be a highly effective vaccine with a very low level of side effects, said Professor Zhang, one of the teams leaders.

According to Zhang, the teams vaccine stands out from most others because it only attacks the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the protein rather than the whole protein spike, therefore creating more effective antibodies.

The vaccine is also a standout because it utilizes recombinant DNA, such as that already used in the HPV vaccine widely used to combat various forms of cancer and genital warts. The technology is already readily available and used in manufacturing facilities around the world.

Zhang said the team initiated development of its vaccine shortly after Chinese New Year, with Phase I testing showing no side effects. They are also encouraged by the fact that the vaccine requires administration of an extremely small dose around 20 micrograms or 1/10th the size of a sesame seed.

Notably, Zhang says the vaccine should even be able to treat those already sick with COVID-19.

The team is now waiting to progress to the next step, Zhang said, where it plans to run Phase II and Phase III trials in humans concurrently to expedite the process.

We are very confident from our results in the animal studies of its worth, he said.

Fok added, Normally human trials to deployment is one-and-a-half to two years, but pointed to the fact that COVID-19 is not a normal situation. So far the vaccine has shown strong antibody response, no complications, a significant half-life and it will be very cost effective.

Fok did, however, note the vaccine could not be produced locally due to the absence of a vaccine facility in Macau, and a lack of testing capacity in mainland China due to a number of other candidate vaccines being tested. Instead, the MUST team has agreed to conduct a pilot manufacturing program with a partner in Taiwan, which they say has the capability to produce at least 30 million doses in a matter of weeks.

As previously reported by IAG, 8 million of those would be reserved for the people of Macau and Hong Kong.The team, Fok claimed, wants to produce a vaccine for all of humanity.

This is a global problem and needs a global solution, he said.

See the original post here:

MUST: Funding equal to LESS THAN ONE SINGLE DAY of Macau's 2019 casino GGR would be enough to develop, produce 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine...

All mainland provinces will resume issuing non-tourism visas for travelling to Macao, according to a report by Macao Daily News. However, group tour visas and the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), by which most mainland travellers are able to visit the SAR, remain suspended.

Starting from 15 July, Guangdong province resumed acceptance of travel permit services to the Macao SARs for mainland residents who need permit S (a business permit) or permit D (a staying permit issued to workers or students).

Mainland China issues six types of visas: G (known as the Individual Visit Scheme), L (known as group tour), T (for relative-visiting individuals), S (for business purposes), D (for study or for work) and Q (for other purposes). Permits G and L are tourism visas, which are currently under identical application policies.

The Guangdong authority responsible for COVID-19 prevention recently told Wong Chan Man, a Macao member at the Guangdong Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, that 30 other mainland provinces will resume their visa services starting from 12 August. The Guangdong authority received the information from the State Council of China.

Based on the news report, starting from 12 August, residents of any mainland province who need to study in Macao, work in Macao or do business in Macao can apply for a travel endorsement.

At the current stage, the issuance of tourist visas for mainland residents to visit Macao remain suspended. Within mainland China, the free movement of people between cities and provinces resumed several months ago.

The Macao local government has been in communication with the Guangdong government regarding the resumption of the mainlands tourism visas, but only the central Ggovernment can ultimately decide immigration policies.

Not only does the local government have no news on the tourism visas, but the Public Security Police Force (PSP) has also denied having any knowledge on when they might resume.

At Fridays regular press conference of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center, the PSP said that the department had not received any formal notification regarding the 12 August resumption.

(Macau Daily Times/Macau News)PHOTO Macau Daily Times

See the original post here:

Mainland provinces receive greenlight to issue non-tourism visas to Macao - Macau News

When we visit the doctor, we hope that they are giving us their full attention to diagnose and treat whatever ails us.

The exalted position held by medical professionals even before the advent of the current health crisis has now been raised to an all-time high, as society turns to the men and women in white to confront the progressing pandemic.

Nurses, doctors and other frontline medical workers in the city have been elevated to the status of heroes; the government produces videos and songs in praise of their efforts to be broadcast daily on public channels.

This is why the recently revealed case involving a local non-resident worker and a neurosurgeon from Conde S. Januario Hospital is so disheartening.

Through a complaint letter issued to the Health Bureau Director by the former president of Anima, a local animal protection NGO, we discovered the horrible case of a 30-year-old non-resident Filipino national who has worked for the organization for five years and was coldly ignored by a neurosurgeon who seemed as though he couldnt care less that a patient in front of him had lost her sight due to a massive brain tumor.

Even under pressure to follow up on her case, this so-called professional was quoted as stating that it would be better to send her back to the Philippines.

Even after diagnosing his patients tumor as malignant, this doctor casually told her that she might have no more than three months to live.

One would expect that any doctor, no matter how icy their bedside manner, would follow up such a bombshell by informing their patient of potential treatment options including emergency surgery and to schedule them immediately. But this doctor simply pronounced a death sentence and walked out of the room.

We cannot be certain that the inhuman attitude of this poor excuse for a medical professional was motivated by a general disdain for non-resident workers like his patient; it is also possible that this neurosurgeon could not be bothered to attempt such a complex and dangerous surgery on a person for whom he had no feelings.

Perhaps he calculated that this patient was already hopeless, and that by giving up a surgery slot in the hospital to this patient, another patient who might be saved, would be lost.

Or perhaps he is not simply a dispassionate professional as surgeons are known to be but rather a cruel man who has lost all empathy for his fellows, if he ever had any.

At this point we can only speculate, and one should never attribute to racism or malice that which can be explained by mere incompetence.

Unfortunately for this medical professional, in this case, this non-resident patient actually had an employer who cared for her, and despite being a non-profit organization, it immediately took her to the private Kiang Wu Hospital and spared no expense for her operation.

The actions of this womans employer are an exemplary behaviour, and we wish we would hear more about such cases from employers with non-resident workers who suddenly face serious injury or illness.

Fortunately, after a successful surgery, she seems to be on the path to a complete recovery, and we can also be thankful that her employers had the courage to report the event and file an official complaint with the local health authorities.

Our doctors and medical workers deserve all our praise and gratitude, and their reputation should not be soiled by isolated bad apples who disgrace an honorable profession that requires not just skill and knowledge, but a good dose of empathy.

[MNA Editor-in-Chief]

See original here:

OPINION - A Hypocrite under the Hippocratic Oath - Macau Business

Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador speaks during a press conference at Bukit Aman headquarters July 10,2020. Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 The alleged 1MDB mastermind and other suspects in the scandal are believed to be hiding out in China, Malaysias police chief said today, urging authorities there to help hunt down the fugitives.

Billions of dollars were stolen from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad and bankrolled a global spending spree, with looted cash used to buy everything from pricey art to real estate.

Former Malaysian leader Datuk Seri Najib Razak lost power in 2018 over his involvement in the fraud and was last week convicted in a 1MDB-linked trial, but several other suspects remain at large.

The most prominent is Low Taek Jho, a bespectacled, chubby financier known for partying with Hollywood A-listers and accused of being the scandals mastermind.

Malaysian police said last week Low was believed to be hiding in the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Macau but Beijing swiftly shot down the suggestion, insisting it does not harbour foreign criminals.

However, Malaysias Inspector-General of Police Abdul Tan Sri Hamid Bador said a woman was arrested this year who had been sending documents to Low in the gambling boomtown, and authorities had concluded he was there.

He also said Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, ex-CEO of a 1MDB unit, was believed to be in Hong Kong while another former official from the fund, Jasmine Loo, was thought to be in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Jho Low is almost freely conducting his business in Macau, he told AFP in an interview, and appealed for help from authorities. We want the local authorities, the police, in Macau to act responsibly.

Dont the authorities in Macau have the police instinct to assist us? he added.

Lows whereabouts have long been the subject of speculation, and he has been rumoured to be other locations including the United Arab Emirates. He has been charged in Malaysia over 1MDB, and denies wrongdoing.

Abdul Hamid also said ties with police in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong had deteriorated in recent years, hindering law enforcement efforts there.

Officials in Hong Kong and Macau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The police chief said it was hard to know when he would succeed in hunting down Low, commonly known as Jho Low, and other fugitives.

As long as there is a lack of cooperation from authorities in Hong Kong or Macau... it is impossible for me to give any dates, he said.

But he added: We will never rest. We will bring them to justice. AFP

Read more from the original source:

IGP insists Jho Low, 1MDB fugitives in Macau, pleads with Chinese authorities to act responsibly - Malay Mail

Indias official coronavirus case tally hit two million on Friday, doubling in three weeks as the pandemic sweeps into smaller cities and rural areas, with experts warning the real toll could be much higher.

A record daily jump of more than 60,000 fresh infections was recorded, according to health ministry data, making the South Asian giant only the third country to surpass the two million milestone after the United States and Brazil.

The rate of spread in the worlds second-most populous country also appears to be increasing. India logged its first one million infections by July 17 and crossed the 1.5 million mark just 12 days after that.

Official figures show the country has now recorded 2.03 million infections and 41,585 deaths.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government imposed one of the worlds strictest lockdowns in late March.

But with Asias third-largest economy reeling from the impact tens of millions of migrant workers lost their jobs almost overnight the restrictions have been steadily eased.

Individual states and cities have been imposing localised lockdowns including IT hub Bangalore last month, the eastern state of Bihar and parts of Tamil Nadu in the south.

Previously the main hotspots have been the teeming megacities of New Delhi and Mumbai, home to some of the worlds biggest slums.

But now smaller cities and rural areas where 70 percent of Indians live have begun to see case numbers rising sharply.

Many experts say the true numbers may be much higher among Indias 1.3 billion people, many of whom live in some of the worlds most crowded cities.

Fatalities may also be higher than the official figures. Experts say that even in normal times the cause of death is not properly recorded in large numbers of cases.

A study last week that tested people for coronavirus antibodies found 57 percent in Mumbais slums have had the infection far more than official data suggests.

A similar probe earlier in July indicated that almost a quarter of people in the capital, New Delhi, have had the virus almost 40 times the official total.

In smaller cities and rural areas many people have been ignoring guidelines on social distancing and wearing masks.

Monsoon floods in recent weeks that have affected millions have also hindered efforts to fight the pandemic.

In addition, some of those infected are ostracised by their communities, leading to a stigmatisation of the virus that puts people off being tested.

A new disease with relatively high levels of complications and mortality, with accompanyingdirectives on physical distancing, inevitably leads to fears, apprehensions and stigma, said Rajib Kumar, who heads the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Theres both the fear of the disease as well as of isolation and quarantine, Kumar told AFP.

by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA

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India virus cases double to two million in three weeks - Macau Business

In the northern suburbs of tech city Shenzhen, a forest of tower cranes stand at the site of a cow farm that is being transformed into a scientific engine.Here, the Guangming Science City is taking shape. The cluster of scientific facilities and universities now lies at the heart of Chinas ambition to build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area into a science and innovation center.According to the local government, the Guangming Science City has launched construction of 60 projects, involving total investments of 140 billion yuan (20 billion U.S. dollars).The Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, which focuses on biomedical research, is among the latest to settle in the tech park in June. So far, the lab has assembled 49 teams to carry out COVID-19 research, including on virus sequencing and antibodies, said Zhan Qimin, director of the lab.Labs and basic science facilities are also prospering in other parts of Guangdong Province, helping the manufacturing heartland in south China rise as a new destination for the countrys, even the worlds, researchers.In 2018, the China Spallation Neutron Source opened in Dongguan as a super microscope to observe the microstructure of matter. A neutrino observatory is under construction in Jiangmen City, and a high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator is being built in Huizhou City.China has been promoting joint development in the bay area, which comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong. Last year, China issued a more specific development plan for the area. One of its major aims is to build an international innovation and technology hub.Zhong Hai, an official in charge of Shenzhens technological sector, said the construction of basic science installations will improve the overall innovation capacity of Shenzhen, which is better known for housing Chinas many tech firms like Huawei and Tencent.The construction of the innovation hub has already lured in many graduates from Hong Kong, according to Xinhua, which neighbors Shenzhen and boasts many universities.Sing Chan, who launched an e-commerce platform in Shenzhen, is busy assisting Hong Kong entrepreneurs who wish to set up their businesses on the Chinese mainland.Over half of the Hong Kong teams came to the mainland for software and engineering hardware projects, according to the young entrepreneur from Hong Kong, who has helped bring over 200 Hong Kong-invested companies and entrepreneurial teams into Shenzhen.Peter Ding, who founded a high-tech firm on robotic applications in Shenzhen, noted the bay areas manufacturing prowess, which can help high-tech firms efficiently realize their brainchild.They (tech firms) can rely on Shenzhen as a research and development center, assemble products in cities like Foshan and Dongguan and benefit from basic science research in Hong Kongs universities, Ding said. MDT/Xinhua

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Greater Bay | Shenzhen emerges as engine of Chinas tech frontier - Macau Daily Times

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Friday that the government will introduce a universal, voluntary coronavirus testing scheme that could cover millions of Hong Kong people.

Lam said the tests conducted with the support of the central government, can start in two weeks time.

The top officials said its time to further increase the number of coronavirus tests as she warns there could be 1,500 silent carriers of the coronavirus in Hong Kong.

From mid-July, authorities had tested 130,000 people from high-risk groups such as minibus and taxi drivers, those who work in the markets, elderly care homes and restaurants, she said. One out of 2,500 of them tested positive for the virus.

Lam said although in the past few days the number of new cases were less than 100 a day, the situation remains critical.

She said after recording 1,206 cases in the first half of this year, over the last five weeks it has jumped to 3,850 while the number of deaths rose to 46.

She said all walks of life have been affected and around 20 clusters have been identified including places like elderly home, wet markets and groups of taxi drivers.

The CE said the central government attaches great importance to the situation in Hong Kong and pledges to offer all necessary support anytime.

She said she wants to clarify the plan early as there are a lot of rumours and smearing concerning the mainland going on. She urged the public not to be affected by the misleading remarks.

The top officials dismissed privacy concerns, saying testing staff would not know the identities of those who provided the samples.

Lam criticised those who attempted to damage the relationship between the mainland and Hong Kong using conspiracy theories.

(RTHK/Macau News)PHOTO RTHK

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Hong Kong government to offer universal, voluntary coronavirus tests - Macau News

The head of Russias space agency said Friday that Roscosmos wants to return to Venus and bring back soil samples and build spacecraft that will surpass Elon Musks rockets.

Last week Americas first crewed spaceship to fly to the International Space Station in nearly a decade returned safely to Earth, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.

The mission was carried out jointly by NASA and Musks SpaceX. Its Falcon 9 rocket is semi-reusable.

We are making a methane rocket to replace the Soyuz-2, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti.

He said it will be a reusable space complex, noting that it will be possible to use its first stage at least 100 times.

Of course we are looking at what our American colleagues are doing, said Rogozin. But our engineers are trying to take a shortcut not to repeat what our SpaceX colleagues are doing but surpass them.

Rogozin said he was not impressed with the SpaceX spacecraft, saying its landing was rather rough.

Its not designed for ground landing thats exactly why American colleagues chose to land on the water the way it was done 45 years ago, Rogozin said.

Russia had for many years enjoyed a monopoly as the only country able to ferry astronauts, and the SpaceX launch meant the loss of a sizeable income. A seat in the Soyuz costs NASA around $80 million.

Rogozin said he also wanted Russia to return to Venus.

It was always a Russian planet,' he said.

The Soviet Union was the only nation to have landed probes on the surface of Venus.

I believe that Venus is more interesting than Mars, Rogozin said, adding that studying Venus could help scientists understand how to deal with climate change on Earth.

Venus, whose atmosphere is made up nearly completely of carbon dioxide, is considered to be the hottest planet in the solar system.

If we dont study what is happening on Venus then we wont understand how to prevent a similar scenario from happening on our planet.

He said he wanted Russians in cooperation with Americans or by themselves to bring back the surface materials of Venus.

It would indeed a breakthrough, Rogozin said.

We know how to do it, he added, saying Russian scientists were currently studying relevant Soviet-era documents.

But Roscosmos lamented that repeated budget cuts risked threatening many of the programmes.

I dont quite understand how to work in these conditions, he said. We are seeing that leading foreign space agencies are increasing their budgets.

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Russia wants to return to Venus, build reusable rocket - Macau Business

Videos of frolicking felines and gifs of purring pussies will be how most animal enthusiasts mark International Cat Day on Saturday.

But for owners who believe their pets are scratchy, aggressive and mean, the problem is probably you, according to a Hong Kong-based cat consultant who has owned 50 in her lifetime.

Feline behaviourist Briganne Carter mostly helps cat owners deal with problems like their pets scratching furniture and urinating outside the litter box, and said a lot of the time it has more to do with the pet owners than the cats.

Most people are really resistant to change in their environment to accommodate the cats, Carter said. And they just dont know a lot about it.

Thats where Carter comes in.

I see often a very immaculate place with nice leather furniture, and the cat has nothing. So whats the cat going to do? The cat needs to scratch, she said.

Sometimes the solution to destructive behaviour can be as simple as buying a cat tree.

Other times, however, the problem is harder as it may stem from trauma in the animals past.

Cats are super sensitive to emotion, she said.

Lauren England, 43, pulled a feral kitten from a flooded drain pipe during a typhoon.

The rescue cat bonded with another feral kitten in foster care, so she took home both, naming one Sir Ian McKellen and the other Brian Blessed.

But it was not smooth sailing.

They were just going crazy when I was in bed at night, and I could just hear things in here smashing and being torn, England said, describing the kittens first week at home.

It was just like a whirlwind had come through, noting that she had several plants before the kittens, but was now left with just one.

The kitten she rescued from the drainpipe had started hissing and spitting, and thats when she sought help from Carter.

Ive never really had that level of aggression from a cat, she admitted, despite growing up with them all her life.

Slowly the cats have come to trust her more, allowing themselves to be stroked with a toothbrush and sit at a distance on the couch.

Were not there yet but were making steady progress, she said.

For Carter, the job is often as much about helping the pet owners as it is the cats. I feel like a lot of what I do is counselling people.

Ive got a bit of a life coach as well as a kitten coach at the moment, England agreed.

What troubles Carter most is that some pet owners often give up on their cats because of bad behaviour, instead of seeking behavioural solutions.

There are thousands and thousands of cats that are needlessly abandoned, given to shelters, she lamented, because people dont realise that the cats troubled behaviour is actually very normal.

Cats are just being cats, she says. Theyre doing exactly what theyre supposed to.

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Paws for thought on International Cat Day - Macau Business

Although a standard patent application can be filed directly with Hong Kong and Macau IP directories, there are routes more convenient for obtaining patent protection in these two Chinese territories.

Extension of a patent application to Hong Kong

A standard patent can be obtained by extending a Chinese patent into Hong Kong. The extension procedure includes a two-stage recordation request, one occurs at the publication of the Chinese patent application and the other at the grant of the Chinese patent, each within 6 months from the publication or grant date. The Chinese patent/application has to be a patent type, instead of a utility model, and can be a national phase of a PCT application filed in any of the receiving offices.

The Hong Kong standard patent will have a patent term of 20 years starting from the application date of the Chinese patent and independent from the validity of the Chinese patent. That is to say, a Hong Kong standard patent can only be invalidated by filing a cancelation in Hong Kong separately, even if the corresponding Chinese patent is invalidated in Mainland China.

In addition to a Chinese patent, a European or United Kingdom patent can also serve as the parent patent for extending into Hong Kong, and follows the same procedure as stated above in reference to a Chinese patent.

Extension of a Chinese patent application to Macau

The extension procedure in Macau is similar to that of a Hong Kong standard patent originating from a Chinese patent, but a European or United Kingdom patent is not eligible for the extension.

However, Macau provides a more convenient route to extend a Chinese patent into Macau, i.e., extending a Chinese patent into Macau within 3 months from the grant date of the Chinese patent without the need of filing a first-stage extension request at the time of the publication of the Chinese application.

It should be note that, although Macau was a colony of the Portuguese empire, a Portugal or European patent is not eligible for patent extension into Macau, and the extension procedure applies to Chinese patent only.

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Patents need to cover Hong Kong and Macau? Here's the procedure. - Lexology

Egypt and Greece signedan agreement Thursday to set up an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean amid regional tensions over energy resources in the area.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry announced the deal, which delineates the maritime borders of both countries, at a Cairo news conference alongside his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.

It comes after Turkey last year signed a deal with the UN-recognised government in Libya on maritime jurisdiction, with several countries accusing Ankara of trying to assert its dominance in the region.

The deal allows Egypt and Greece to move forward in maximising the benefits of the available resources in the exclusive economic zone for each of them, especially oil and gas reserves, Shoukry said.

Dendias described it as historic.

This agreement is the exact opposite of anything illegitimate like what was signed between Turkey and Tripoli, he added.

Turkey reacted angrily to the deal inked in Cairo.

The so-called maritime deal signed by Greece and Egypt is null and void, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The so-called delimited areas are part of Turkeys continental shelf, it said, adding that Ankara would not allow any activity in those areas.

Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have denounced a contentious deal, including a security agreement, signed last year between Ankara and the embattled Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA).

Greece said at the time that it ignored the maritime boundaries of Crete.

Ankara backs the Tripoli-based GNA in its battle against eastern-based Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, who last year launched an offensive to seize the capital.

Earlier this year, forces loyal to the GNA pushed Haftars fighters, who are backed by countries including Egypt and Russia, from much of western Libya.

The relationship between Egypt and Greece was a major factor in preserving the security and stability of the eastern Mediterranean and facing belligerent policies advancing terrorism, Shoukry said.

Earlier on Thursday, Athens said it was ready for talks with Ankara on disputed maritime zones in the Aegean, weeks after tension spiked between the NATO allies over energy exploration.

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Egypt and Greece ink exclusive economic zone deal - Macau Business