Philippine Group Protests US-Filipino War Games!

Maritime claims in the South China Sea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. Plays Philippines War Games | ASEAN Beat.

Fresh from a standoff with the Chinese in the South China Sea, the Philippine government is trying to figure out how to incorporate the US in its defensive shield.

Meanwhile, the Philippine left is playing games:

“Renato Reyes of the leftist group Bayan summarized the opposition to the entry of U.S. soldiers in the Philippines: “The U.S. wants it known that it is still top dog in this region, to the great dismay of many peace-loving peoples in Southeast Asia. We do not want our country to be used as a U.S. outpost and playground. We are not a laboratory for U.S. drone wars. We do not want the U.S. meddling in our internal conflicts and regional issues. We do not want the Philippines acting like the U.S. troops’ doormat in the region. We do not want U.S. troops using our country as their Rest and Recreation destination of choice.”

We’ll see what tune Mr. Reyes is playing when Luzon becomes the 32nd province of China. Or maybe he’s already cut a deal with his future overlords?

Sources: The Pacific Bull Moose 

Related posts/articles:

Tensions in South China Sea: US and Philippines Naval drills, students attack US embassy

• As Standoff Continues, Philippines and US Play War Games (blogs.the-american-interest.com)
• Filipino Activists Deface Entrance of US Embassy (abcnews.go.com)
• Tensions in South China Sea: US and Philippines Naval drills,students attack US embassy (rightways.wordpress.com)
• Philippine president: No war with China over shoal (sacbee.com)
• Philippines hails start of US war games (globalnation.inquirer.net)
• Philippine President: No War With China Over Shoal (abcnews.go.com)

Hugo Boss Plays Catch-Up in China

Even though it’s the world’s hottest market, especially for luxury goods, China offers no guarantees. Just ask Hugo Boss (BOS). The German luxury clothing maker began selling its apparel through franchisees or by wholesaling goods to independent retailers in Hong Kong as early as 1982, but it didn’t open its first company-run stores in China until 2006, 15 years after Italian suitmaker Ermenegildo Zegna.

That slow start, and an emphasis on opening stores in lots of cities rather than concentrating on the most affluent metropolises, have taken a toll. Although Hugo Boss now has about 90 of its own stores in Greater China (which includes Macau and Hong Kong) and 30 percent of all its shops in Asia, the region made up a mere 15 percent of the clothier’s €2 billion ($2.67 billion) revenue last year. At Burberry Group (BRBY), Asia sales almost equaled European revenue last year, at 32.6 percent.


“They entered China in too timid a way, and now they need to change their distribution strategy” to retailing, says Armando Branchini, founder of luxury consultancy InterCorporate in Milan. “Competition is much tougher than years ago. The wholesale strategy does not provide the service quality and product assortment that the consumer wants for luxury items.”

Makers of pricey apparel and accessories cannot ignore China’s brand-conscious consumers. Luxury goods sales in Greater China climbed 29 percent, to €23.5 billion in 2011, Bain & Co. estimates, with Chinese customers accounting for more than 20 percent of global luxury consumption. To raise its brand’s profile among the mainland’s affluent, Hugo Boss will open about 20 stores in China this year, including an 800-square-meter (8,600 square foot) flagship in Shanghai, start online sales, and invite 1,500 guests to a fashion show in Beijing in May. “If you want to be successful in China, you need to be visible in Beijing, in Shanghai, as well as in Hong Kong,” Chief Executive Officer Claus-Dietrich Lahrs says. “In the past, we underestimated the need to make an impact in those three cities.”

Hugo Boss elsewhere sells a variety of lines, including lower-priced sportswear and leisure clothing. But in China, it’s pushing its high-end Selection line, with suits for €649 ($865) and jeans for €249. That’s expensive, but frequently less so than Zegna, which offers suits for €1,490 and leather shoes for €380.

Under Lahrs, who joined Hugo Boss in 2008 after stints with Christian Dior and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (MC), store locations are improving, says Anna Patrice, an analyst at Berenberg Bank. He’ll add a store in Taipei 101, the world’s second-tallest building, in May. Hugo Boss’s two-story Shanghai store, to open in December in the Jingan district’s Kerry Center, is near Gucci, Giorgio Armani, and Montblanc stores. “If there are sophisticated, high-end stores in those new luxury malls, it’s the right place for Hugo Boss also to be,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Langer says.

Although the Hugo Boss brand is almost 90 years old, it didn’t begin operating company-owned stores until the 1980s. It had 622 stores worldwide at the end of 2011. The wholesale model works well in Europe and the U.S., where department stores have long hawked multiple high-end brands. Not so on the mainland. “In China, our typical wholesale distribution model does not exist,” CFO Langer says. By 2015, Hugo Boss hopes to build its own retail operations to 55 percent of its total revenues, up from 45 percent currently. Retail staff may also make up the biggest proportion of employees for the first time this year, says Lahrs, who wants to raise Asia sales to more than 20 percent of Hugo Boss’s total by 2015.

Still, the company is expanding in China after the “gravy train” has passed, figures Luca Solca, global head of European equity research at brokerage CA Cheuvreux. That’s because growth in luxury sales is slowing even as competition increases. Michael Kors Holdings (KORS) will open 15 stores in Greater China in 2012 and hopes to have a total of 100 in five years. Zegna this year will add 10 stores to the 82 it has in China, which is its strongest-growing market. And Hermès International (RMS) plans to open a flagship store in Shanghai in late 2013. “I expect that our catch-up activity in this part of the world will eventually help us to go beyond what we see as a slight slowdown of activity in the retail world,” Lahrs said in March.

The bottom line: Hugo Boss was slow in operating its own stores in China. Now it gets just 15 percent of sales in Asia, far less than some luxury rivals.
 

Cruz is a reporter for Bloomberg News.
Newscribe : get free news in real time 

Speaking up for religious tolerance

Differences of religion should not make people fight one another, rather they should cooperate in doing good and warding off evil.

AS a Muslim I am deeply distressed and perplexed at the incendiary view, allegedly emanating from the Saudi Grand Mufti, that all churches in the Arab peninsula be destroyed.
This view, if it were really expressed, is offensive. It violates all canons of decency, international law and the human rights of our Christian brothers.

It contradicts many exquisite passages in the Quran and the practices of Prophet Muhammad. It runs contrary to centuries of Islamic history of peaceful co-existence with other religions. The syariah gives ample guidance on inter-faith relations.

Multiplicity of faiths: In innumerable passages, the Quran recognises religious pluralism. In 2:256, it is stated: “There is no compulsion in religion.” In 109:6, there is the exquisite passage: “Unto you your religion, unto me mine.”

In Surah 11:118, it is declared: “If thy Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one people: but they will not cease to dispute.”

In Surah 10:99, Allah gave this admonition: “Had your Lord willed, those on Earth would have believed, all of them together. Will you then compel people against their will to believe?”

In 18:29, it is commanded: “Let him who will, believe; and let him who will, disbelieve.”

Common fountain: In the Quran 42:13, it is implied that the divinely-revealed religions all stemmed from the same source. “He has ordained for you the same religion which He ordained for Nooh (Noah) … and which He ordained for Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses) and Esa (Jesus) saying you should establish religion and make no divisions in it.”

“Every nation has its messenger” – 10:47. “Nothing has been said to you save what was said to the messengers before you” – 41:43.

Respect for all prophets: Plurality of prophets and multiplicity of revelations reflect a divine will. The Prophets of all revealed religions are brothers and there is no difference between them with regard to the message. Muslims are obliged to believe in them all.

In Surah 2:136, it is stated: “We believe in Allah and that which has been sent down to us and that which has been sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqoob (Jacob), and to Al-Asbaat (the offspring of the 12 sons of Yaqoob), and that which has been given to Musa (Moses) and Esa (Jesus), and that which has been given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims in submission to Him.”

According to the renowned Malaysia-based Afghani scholar Hashim Kamali, “Islam sees itself as the third of the Abrahamic religions.

“The Hebrew prophets and Christ are deeply respected by Muslims. The Virgin Mary is given the most exalted spiritual position in the Quran: a chapter of the Quran is named after her, and she is the only woman mentioned by name.

“The tombs of the Hebrew prophets, who are also Islamic prophets, are revered by Muslims to this day.”
All Christians and Jews are given the special status of ahle-kitab (believers in a book).

Respect for places of worship: All places of worship are sacred and must be defended. In Surah 22:40, the Quran speaks of monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques “as places in which God is commemorated in abundant measure”.

In Islamic history, the clergy in the churches were given full authority over their flocks with regard to all religious and church matters. Mosques were often built next to churches. When the Muslims conquered Egypt, they gave the Coptic churches back to the Copts and restored their rights.

In the early history of Islam, Muslims and Christians often prayed simultaneously in many churches, e.g. at the Cathedral of Saint John in Damascus. Likewise, Prophet Muhammad allowed the Christians of Najran to pray in Muslim mosques. When Prophet Muhammad migrated to Madinah, there was a large number of Jews in the city. One of the first affairs of state that he dealt with was to establish a treaty with them, according to which their beliefs were to be respected and the state was obliged to ward off harm from them.

Duty of civility: In the book Civilisation of Faith by Mustafa as-Sibaa’ie, it is stated that the Quran obliges the Muslim to believe in all the Prophets and Messengers of Allah, to speak of all of them with respect, not to mistreat their followers, to deal with them all in a good and gentle manner, speaking kindly to them, being a good neighbour to them and accepting their hospitality.

Differences of religion should not make people fight one another or commit aggression, rather they should cooperate in doing good and warding off evil (Quran 5:2, 5:5).

“Allah alone is the One who will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection” – Quran 2:113.
“And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best” – Quran 29: 46. “And insult not those who invoke other than Allah, lest they should insult Allah wrongfully without knowledge” – Quran 6:108.

In the light of the above, it is obvious that any view that exhorts Muslims to destroy Christian places of worship is in serious conflict with the letter and spirit of tolerance in the Quran.

The Malaysian Consti­tution honours this spirit. Article 3 states: “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony.”

The alleged view of the Saudi Mufti has been repudiated by the top Muslim cleric in Turkey, Mehmet Gormez, who has stated categorically that the Islamic civilisation is not hostile towards previous religions.

Those whose hearts are filled with hate and whose lips drip the blood of vengeance must remind themselves of the caution administered by Kamali that fanaticism is not part of Islam, as the Prophet confirmed in a hadith: “One who promotes fanaticism (asabiyyah) is not one of us, nor is one who fights for asabiyyah, nor the one who dies for asabiyyah.”

Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Pro-fessor of Law at UiTM and a consultant to USM.