Christmas Stars all Over Northeast India Spreading Message of Peace

Northeast All Ready For Christmas celebration

Shillong, Dec 20 : A paper star spells a lot during Christmas. Symbolizing hope, love, peace and divinity, stars adorn almost every household, offices and market places in the Northeast region in the advent of Christmas.

“People are swarming to roadside and departmental stores which display local-made paper and bamboo Christmas stars of varied designs for sale. A star is a must for the Christmas decorations.

It beautifies home entrances and also the Christmas tree,” said a local vendor.

In fact, the entire northeast is in a festive mood, with people preparing for Christmas and welcoming the New Year as shops bank on the Santa Claus to boost their sales. Christmas is a month-long affair here.

It is said that Christianity, the commonly practised religion in the Northeast, united the region that was separated due to linguistic, ethnic and geographical factors in the past. Christmas celebration is imbibed with family traditions, greetings and gifts here.

The Northeast is also known for versatile choir groups. They perform in national channels in television during Christmas spreading the message of peace and love. In the picturesque hill station of Shillong, capital of the predominantly Christian Meghalaya, choir groups belt out carols in churches and public places. “This is the season of happiness and rejoicing,” said a Baptist church pastor and leader of a choir group.

“The flow of shoppers has increased and we are open till late night. People buy gifts for friends and families,” said the owner of a leading shopping mall in Shillong, the fashion capital of the Northeast. With many shopping arcades coming up in the northeast, shopkeepers also resort to extraordinary marketing tricks to woo customers.

“You buy goods worth Rs 1,000 and Santa Claus is going to give you a gift amounting to about Rs 500. This new offer has become an instant hit and we are unable to cope with the rush,” the manager of a garment outlet said.

Keeping the celebration apart, the catchword in the entire region is peace. This is natural for a region where thousands have succumbed to insurgency. “Everybody is impatiently waiting for the Christmas day.

Let us all join together in praying for a new dawn of peace and hope in the region,” said Rev Dominic Jala, Archbishop of Shillong.
Pre-Christmas festive fever grips Nagaland

Kohima, Dec 20 : Pre-Christmas festive fever has gripped Nagaland with individuals, organizations and government agencies organizing various programmes across the hill state dominated by Christian populace.

The slew of events that dominated the landscape for past week were not only confined to merrymaking, music or dance. The occasion was being used as platform to send a message of peace, compassion, moral armament and meaningful engagement of youth in society.

In a pre-Christmas celebration programme in his official residence, chief minister Neiphiu Rio called upon all to work for peace and unity with the spirit of forget and forgive as the present Naga society is grappled with hatred and violence.

Senior ministers, legislators and government officials took part in the celebration at State Banquet Hall where chief minister joined others singing a carol on the occasion.

As part of Year of Capacity Building, many youth clubs both at Kohima and Dimapur organized sports and musical events heralding a mood of festivity in the trouble-torn state.

Buildings have been decorated with light in the capital town where Christmas Stars twinkle everywhere after dusk. In commemoration of the Year of Capacity Building 2008, a two-day pre-Christmas celebration was organized at Mon by district planning and development board (DPDB) on the theme, Christ the Light, Peace on Earth, reflecting unity and oneness among multi-ethnic society of Mon town.

Noted social worker Niketu Iralu, member of Moral Re-Armament (MRA), now christened as Action for Life, joined the celebration with other members of this social movement.

Agencies

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Japan backs further aid package

T
he Japanese cabinet has approved another $54bn (£36bn) package of spending, to try to ease the recession.

It is the second extra budget approved by MPs and is designed to help finance tax cuts for homeowners, loans to small businesses and aid laid-off workers.

Last week, the government increased its economic stimulus plan by $255bn (£171bn).

The Bank of Japan cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.1%, on Friday in a bid to kick-start the economy.

The BOJ also announced that it would increase its purchase of Japanese government bonds to 1.4 trillion yen ($15.7bn; £10.5bn) a month, up from 1.2 trillion yen.

The government has forecast zero growth in the year ending March 2010.

Japan, the world's second largest largest economy, is already the most indebted country in the developed world.

Popularity falling

In all, the Japanese government will need to raise about $114bn to fulfil its spending plans.

The finance plans set out by Prime Minister Taro Aso mean Japan will have to do more borrowing.

The BBC's Duncan Bartlett in Tokyo says some politicians within Mr Aso's own party have balked at the sums involved and his personal popularity rating with voters has fallen sharply.

After 2001, Japan enjoyed its longest period of economic growth since World War II until the sub-prime crisis started a year ago.

The global downturn has led to global demand falling significantly, while a rising yen has also hit exporters.

Japan's economy slipped into its first recession in seven years after two quarters of negative growth in a row.

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Iraqi 'plot' officials released

The interior and defence ministries are in charge of Iraq's security.

I
raq's interior minister says it has released 19 officials who were arrested amid rumours that they had been plotting a coup.

Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said they were innocent and there was no evidence that they had conspired to restore the outlawed Baath party.

The ministry had said they belonged to al-Awda, or the Return - widely seen as a front for Saddam Hussein's party.

Charges will also be dropped against four others arrested on Thursday.

The judge investigating the officials issued "an order to release all of them because they are innocent", Mr Bolani told the Associated Press news agency.

Correspondents say the arrest of the 23 officials from the interior and defence ministries came at a delicate time politically in Iraq.

Provincial elections are due to be held in January and political parties are vying for power and influence.

The interior ministry is a key part of stabilising the new Iraq and has in the past been heavily-infiltrated by Shia militias, although it has improved over the past two years.

Political tool

In February, a new law allowing former low-ranking Baath party members to become civil servants again meant that some lower-level officials who had served under Saddam Hussein were allowed back to work in Baghdad's ministries.

The banned al-Awda is known as a clandestine Sunni organisation founded in 2003 to try to restore the Baath party to power, and included former members of the Baath party, Saddam's former elite Republican Guard and members of his security services.

The group has carried out assassinations and attacks over the past five years.

Critics of the government, including politicians loyal to the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, have in the past accused the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of using detentions and arrests as a political tool.

Some MPs have asked whether these arrests might be politically-motivated.

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Gulf Countries Ban Egg Exports From India

N
amakkal, Dec 20 : The bird flu scare in north east India has once again hit egg exports in south India’s poultry hub of Namakkal, as Gulf countries have re-imposed a ban on poultry products from India.

Barely a fortnight after lifting the ban on egg shipments from Namakkal, Oman has once again imposed curbs following the fresh outbreak of avian flu in Assam. Shipments of 15 lakh eggs to Oman daily from Namakkal have come to halt.

Every time bird flu hits north east India, it has an echo on the egg baskets of south India, as Gulf countries, which used to import over five million eggs daily from Namakkal, would clamp down on poultry consignments from India. In January this year, a bird flu outbreak in West Bengal brought egg imports to Gulf countries to a standstill.

After 10 months, the WHO had declared India free from bird-flu. And the Gulf countries began to ease curbs. However, once again, bird flu is sweeping poultry farms in Assam and distant Namakkal is feeling the adverse impact, says the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) official, Balasubramaniam. However, west African countries, Afghanistan and a few former Soviet countries continued to pick up eggs from Namakkal.

But Christmas has handed a Santa Claus bonanza to Tamil Nadu’s egg land as the demand from domestic buyers is on the upswing once again.

Last week, egg stocks had piled up at the 800 poultry farms and the prices too fell steeply by 15 paise in Namakkal However, Christmas and New Year are round the corner, and it is time to make egg pastries and cakes. So, the egg stocks are fast clearing and the price of eggs fixed by the NECC in Namakkal has gone up to 1.95 paise up by five paise.

About 1.5 crore of eggs from Namakkal are now headed for Kerala and the rest of Tamil Nadu.

TNN

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