Two's a Crowd for Many CHINESE
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INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2015 Two’s a crowd for many Chinese BEIJING: Chinese citizens greeted the one. “The country doesn’t give any financial announcement of a “two-child” policy warily support,” said one post among many that yesterday, as high costs, career aspirations lamented the costs of having two children. and rising urbanization in an increasingly “Apartments are so expensive, now. Who can wealthy society mute expectations of a baby afford to give birth?” Making more children boom. China’s “one-child” family planning clearly is not the solution to China’s econom- regime, which Beijing announced Thursday ic problems, another comment said, adding would end after nearly four decades, has that instead “maybe we should be working seen arbitrary and often brutal enforcement, hard to make more money”. including forced abortions and sterilizations. But Thursday’s change may have been ‘Bring up the Population’ too little, too late, as many young Chinese The policy is said to have prevented an see more costs than benefits in having a sec- estimated 400 million births in the world’s ond child. A survey on Chinese media site most populous country, where 1.37 billion Sina with over 160,000 respondents found people live today. Most families were restrict- that less than 29 percent would have a sec- ed to only one offspring, but various exemp- ond child, and social media users seemed to tions applied, and violators who could afford meet Thursday’s announcement with a col- to pay the fines were able to have a second lective shrug. By yesterday evening the sub- child, or even more. Renowned film director BEIJING: Parents and their child play with remote-controlled toy cars at a ject had dropped out of the top 10 topics on Zhang Yimou paid a $1.2 million fine for hav- shopping mall yesterday. —AP popular micro-blog site Sina Weibo. ing three extra children. The plan was sup- Users questioned whether one was truly posed to save China from a looming popula- shortages as the world’s second-largest have the right to a second child, family plan- the loneliest number and said that even if tion explosion, but now it contributes to a economy fights to maintain growth. Under ning officials said yesterday, without specify- they wanted a child, they could not afford greying of society that will exacerbate labor the new policy 90 million couples will be ing how many were newly eligible. — AFP Imran Khan to divorce after just 10 months ISLAMABAD: Pakistani opposition leader and former playboy cricketer Imran Khan is to divorce for a second time, ending his marriage to a TV journalist just ten months after they wed. Imran Khan, 62, married 42-year-old Reham Khan, a former BBC weather host and a divorced mother of three, in January this year in a simple ceremony at his Islamabad home. “We have decided to part ways and file for divorce,” Reham Khan said in a brief statement on her Twitter account Friday. Imran Khan tweeted that it was a “painful time” and that he has “the greatest respect for Reham’s moral char- acter & her passion to work for & help the underprivileged”. Naeem ul Haque, Imran Khan’s spokesman told AFP the deci- sion to divorce was mutual. “It’s a painful and personal matter, so I won’t be able to comment more or state any reason for it,” he said. Loved by millions across the cricket-obsessed nation for winning Pakistan its only World Cup in 1992, Khan’s sporting prowess and rugged good looks also brought him international celebrity in a country lacking glamour. He was considered his country’s most eli- gible man until he suddenly announced his plans to marry shortly YANGON: Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi greets patients in a ward at Yangon General after launching a movement to topple the government in Aug Hospital yesterday. — AP 2014, which he called off in December after a Taleban attack on a school that killed 150 people. Reham Khan, host of a local TV talk show, was widely criticized after she appeared at public meetings Despite critics, support for of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) party, with oppo- nents accusing her of seeking to boost her own profile through her husband’s fame. She found particularly harsh reception in north- Suu Kyi strong before polls west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, governed by PTI. She also sparked controversy after it emerged that she had not actually NLD expected to win attended a college where she claimed to be a student on her web- site. There had been reports Imran Khan’s family was unhappy with KAWHMU, MYANMAR: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Kyi’s impoverished constituency south of have only enhanced her popularity. his choice of bride. — AFP star power has fallen among fellow Myanmar Yangon. People here shrug their shoulders “I love her because she is the daughter of politicians critical of her management style when asked what Suu Kyi has done for them our beloved Gen. Aung San, and she sacrificed and decision-making, and among fans abroad since they elected her to Parliament in 2012. a lot for this country,” said another villager, 32- disenchanted with the Nobel Peace laureate’s The tiny village of Wartheinkha, where Myint year-old Mya Thandar. “We know that when relative silence on human-rights abuses. But Thein lives, has no running water or electricity. Mother Suu is in a position of power, she will she’s as popular as ever amid the muddy roads Most residents are uneducated farmers living improve our lives.” She is called “Mother Suu” and ramshackle huts of her constituency and in shacks built of bamboo and palm leaves. Yet by many who see her as having mothered across much of the country. the people here, like many in Myanmar, see Myanmar through dark, difficult times at the In big cities and remote rural corners, the Suu Kyi’s rise in politics as part of a national expense of her own family: A husband, now red flag of Suu Kyi’s opposition National narrative. Suu Kyi is the daughter of the coun- deceased, and two sons left behind in Britain. League for Democracy is much more common try’s independence hero, Gen Aung San, who She is also known respectfully as “The Lady.” than signs of support for the ruling party. She’s was assassinated by rivals in 1947, when she The junta held her under house arrest for the expected to carry the NLD to victory in parlia- was just 2. After many years abroad, she last two national elections, in 1990 and 2010. mentary elections Nov 8, even though the 70- returned in 1988 to Myanmar, previously The NLD won the first of those, but the military year-old is barred by the constitution from known as Burma, just as an uprising erupted annulled the results and refused to hand over becoming president and it’s unclear who will against the military regime. She was thrust into power. Suu Kyi’s party boycotted the 2010 ISLAMABAD: Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan take the job if her party wins. the forefront of the pro-democracy move- election as neither free nor fair, but after the and his new wife Reham Khan pose for a photograph “Mother Suu is our hero. We want her to be ment, which was brutally crushed by the junta. country began a series of political reforms, the during their wedding ceremony at his house in this our leader,” said Myint Thein, a 54-year-old rice The military kept her under house arrest for 15 NLD took part in the 2012 by-election in which Jan 8, 2015 file photo. — AFP farmer in a village of Kawhmu township, Suu of the next 23 years, which ultimately may Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat. — AP .