I woke at 3am to the clanking of the anchor chain over my head. Once again, Bryan had gotten up long before dawn for the long trip from Isla Isabel back to the mainland. I went back to sleep and woke again after sunup about 30 miles out of Chacala. We'd read that Chacala, a little bay north of Bahia de Banderas, is practically perfect in every way. Palm-lined, golden sand beaches edge the eastern rim of the bay while hills to the north offer protection from the winter northerly winds. We came in around midday and got the boat settled with a bow and stern anchor to keep our bow to the mild swell. The girls wanted a little downtime (and we didn't feel like nagging them into presentability) so Bryan and I dropped the dinghy and headed for shore. We landed on the main beach through the surf and pulled the dinghy up past the high tide line.
The beach was teeming with activity. Several thatch-roofed restaurants stood along the sand. Vacationing families sat under bright umbrellas and busy waiters hurried by with trays of lime-topped beer bottles. A bright bell signaled the approach of the ice cream cart.
Walking vendors wove through the crowd offering wooden carvings, local jewelry, and sweet treats. Sandy kids played in the gentle surf until parents or older siblings called them to the table. Local bands meandered through the tables offering musical options: big-band-style mariachi music or conch shell with hand drums.
We settled at a likely looking table and put in an order for dinner. I drooled over a nearby fruit stand and finally walked over to ask for their specialty—piña y fruta—a juice drink make in a pineapple with fruit on top.
Here…just look at the picture.
Partway through dinner, a band kicked up near our table. Several other customers got up to dance and soon the whole restaurant was participating, nodding and clapping along. Several locals stepped forward to dance.
A roving vendor set down his wares and took center stage, leading the dancers in ridiculous gyrations until he had the whole crowd shaking with laughter. We dropped a small tip in the conch shell; the show was more than worth it.
We kept an overprotective eye on Rover. Several people walked by for a closer look and one young man plopped down in the bow, kicking the stern high up in the air. A few minutes later, he stood, stripped off his shirt, and tossed it across the gunwale. By the time we were ready to leave, he had moved on. I rowed, while Bryan gave me a big shove through the surf and hopped in. We must have impressed some of the swimmers nearby; we rowed back to the boat through a smattering of applause.
We were running a little low on cash and Chacala doesn't have any ATMs, so the next day, Bryan caught the "collectivo," the local airporter taxi/bus, into Las Varas, about 6 miles inland. The girls and I went to shore with him but stayed behind in Chacala and commandeered a beachside table for the day. We ordered cold drinks, read books, and watched the ocean. Bryan got back in the mid-afternoon and we ordered an early dinner. The waiter came up a few minutes later, all sad face and apologies. I figured out that the restaurant was closing, but not what the problem was. I ventured a few guesses. "You need us to go somewhere else for dinner?" "No, there will be dinner here." "OK, you're bringing food over from another restaurant?" (This was not as strange a guess as it sounds. The menu was almost identical to the place we'd been the day before and the feet-in-the-sand restaurants clearly had many relaxed policies.) "NO, NO. We will feed you!" No one at either of the nearby tables spoke English. Finally, our waiter pulled out a cell phone and called a waiter from down the beach to come and interpret. He came jogging up a minute later and cleared things up. "You can stay here as long as you like, but after they bring your food out, they're closing, so they need to put away the shade umbrella." No problem! We ordered another piña y fruta for the girls and made friends with the dog who sat hopefully at our feet all through dinner. The beach was noticeably less busy than the day before and by 4 or so, most of the restaurants were closed. We found out later that our first day in Chacala had been a national holiday with many locals taking advantage of a day off at the beach.
After dinner, Bryan and I left the girls for a few minutes and walked down the beach. Bryan had seen a strange fruit growing on the trees on his way to Las Varas, so we came back on the road through town and stopped by a fruit stand to buy one.
We did a little research when we got back to the boat. Turns out, we'd bought a Yaca (sometimes spelled "Jaca"), which is also billed as Mexican Viagra. Make you strong to work all day…Suuuure.
The next day, we met our friend, Will, for a hike up a volcano. We'd heard there was a trail through the spiritual retreat center and up the hill to a caldera at the top. Sure enough, after a bit of wandering and a failed attempt at asking directions, we made our way up the hill. We crossed a wooden bridge and stopped to pick some plantains from a nearby tree. Can you see the blossom at the bottom of the banana stalk?
On the way, Meira spotted what she thought was a monkey (we found out later it might have been a tejon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati). We explored a half-finished building and walked on through the jungle.
We came over a rise to hear Will say, "Watch out for the wild animal in the path." I laughed when I saw a shaggy horse nibbling its way down the path.
We passed the "wild animal" without any mishap and made our way to a dirt road on the other side. We wound up the road, marveling at the flora. Baby palm trees sprouted fully formed palm fronds straight from the ground.
Young palms stood half-height, floppy fronds looking like they could use a good haircut. The older trees stood tall and stately, symbiotic deciduous wrapped up their thick trunks, bromeliads dangling from their branches.
We came around a corner to signs of civilization carved out of the jungle.
A shrub-lined path led the way to a tall security tower where a guard greeted us kindly and offered permission and directions to the lookout over the bay and the caldera beyond.
On our way up, we stepped out of the path to let a truck pass. The driver stopped to chat, with help from his friend who spoke English.
His family owns the orchard, he explained, one of only a few paces in Mexico where this unique fruit grows.
He told us its name—guanabana—gave us instructions of how to eat it, and invited us to pick a few. We climbed up a few more yards into an orchard, and looked down into the caldera on the other side of a rise. The center was all meadow, filled with tall, thick grass. The caldera was a place removed, its sights and sounds from an ancient time. Birds called overhead and insects whirred. Any second, it seemed, a giant lizard would burst through the trees and rampage across the meadow.
We sat in the shade of the orchard on the edge of the green and pulled out our snacks.
We watched leaf-cutter ants at work and flirted with passing butterflies. Bryan climbed a nearby tree to reach a beautiful guanabana (it's soursop in English, but we'd never heard of it in either language.) We cut one open but it wasn't ripe yet.
The girls hacked at it with a knife and Meira cut her thumb a bit.
She wasn't really hurt, just annoyed with herself. We picked a couple more guanabana to take back to the boat to ripen. The guanabana blossoms were yellow and leathery, like a lemon rind, and we bent underneath the tree to peek into their heart at the nascent fruit inside, each person taking a turn, each one exclaiming at the miniature gift.
This trip is teaching us a better sense of enough. It's easy to always push harder, to always wonder what's on the other side of the next rise, around the next bend. Easy in our greed to always want more, more. Bryan looked at me and we nodded—time to head back. On the way back, we stopped at the security tower. The guard invited us in and showed off the crafts he makes to fill the down time. His current work, a beautifully designed and brilliantly crafted reed picture frame, sat at a table near the window. Behind the table, a black spiral staircase led up to the night watchman's cot and beyond to a bell hanging in the top level. Meira and I ventured up to the very top and the guard called up permission to ring the bell.
Back we went, down the stairs and down the hill. We stopped to pick thorny pods off a tree and biting ants came out, crawled all over my hand without a problem, but somehow managed to sting Bryan ad Hannah. The stings took quite a while to stop hurting, but neither one complained. The day was more than worth it.
Toward the end of the hike, we ran into a man and a woman hiking together on the same path. We exchanged pleasantries. They were interested in our travels and we in their purpose here—a Universalist Sufi retreat at a local spiritual retreat center. They invited us to crash their retreat that night for Sufi dancing.
So we headed back up the beach in the moonlight. I carried my shoes and a headlamp in one hand, scuffing my feet in the warm surf. About halfway back, I shifted my grip on my shoes and realized I'd dropped one somewhere along the way. We didn't bring extras and this pair was my favorite—quick-drying for wet landings, comfortable enough for a hike, not too ugly for a date. We walked all the way back to the retreat center with a couple of dim headlamps and a bright, bright moon. All the way back, we hoped we'd find it on the sand, tossed up by a big wave. And then, there it was. Sandy and sopping, but still usable.
The next day was a lazy boat day, with one exception. I took pictures.
Partway through the day, we got an e-mail about some fraudulent charges on our account. We'd expected this to happen at some point during our travels, but it was still difficult to handle without easy communications. Sometime in the last few days, since he visited the ATM in Las Varas, Bryan's debit card had gone missing. The fraud department required claims to be made by phone so we rowed in a little early that evening to try an internet call. It turned out that the fraud was on my card and Bryan's missing card was just a coincidental piece of bad luck. We got them both cancelled and new cards on their way to our home address in time to walk up the beach to the retreat center again.
I brought shoes, but tucked them safely into Bryan's backpack and didn't put them on all night. This time, we didn't recognize anyone on the patio, but we asked directions from a small group of women and they told us a bit of what to expect as they led us to the recently completed temple. We don't have pictures of the evening; it seemed disrespectful to pull out the camera. You'll have to use your imagination.
Sandy flip-flops lined the entryway as we stepped into the luminous room. Wood floors shone golden in the soft lighting and candles on an altar added to the radiance. The western wall was made up of glass doors, which were partially folded back to let in the sounds of the surf and the evening jungle. I had expected to sit and watch, but right away, we were swept into the swirl, walking barefoot on the smooth floors around the small band in the center.
The evening went on, singing, whirling, bowing down together. We moved to the edge of the room to witness the last dance, a heavy, chanting song of remembrance, and I offered a prayer for a friend who had recently lost his father.
These days, I have plenty of opportunities for gratitude, many chances to stop in awe, but it was an added gift to be led in worship, to enter into a thin space with others. I stepped away from the evening reluctantly. Several other participants lingered to talk and we laughed when we realized we were all former pastor's kids, accustomed to staying until everyone else had left.
We had hoped that at some point in the trip we'd be welcomed into a worship service with practices and language foreign to our own. We expected it to be Spanish, likely Catholic. We never imagined it would be a group of mostly middle-aged white people singing in Latin and Arabic.
We walked back in the moonlight—for once, just exactly as romantic as it sounds—and rowed out to the boat. It was late, almost 11, and, once we did the math on how soon we would need to leave to get to Puerto Vallarta in the daylight, we decided to just take off right away. Neither one of us wanted to get up after only a few hours of sleep for the long trip down. Bryan needed my help to get both anchors up in the crowded anchorage. Then, as we passed the first of the boats on our way out, our oil pressure alarm sounded. Bryan went below to check the oil levels. We were a bit low, but he had some extra oil stashed away somewhere. With a little push from the ebbing tide, I kept the boat pointed out to sea while Bryan tore the engine compartment apart and added oil. I watched the boats and the bay fade behind us and breathed a sigh of relief when we cleared the islets at the entrance of the bay and fired the motor back up in the still sea.
After all the evening's excitement, I found it hard to sleep. I dozed off and on, but was awake about 3 am when Bryan came up to the V-berth and whispered my name. His voice was filled with excitement, not weariness, and I swung quickly out of bed and followed him to the cockpit for my first ever sighting of the Southern Cross. I've read multiple sailors' accounts of their travels in southern waters and wondered if we would get far enough south on this trip to see this epic constellation. I grew up watching the Big Dipper dance across the northern night, its little sister pointing the way to the northern star. And now, we were seeing the southern equivalent, an unmistakable cross marking the way south.
Bryan stayed at the helm until the stars faded and morning filled the sky. Together, we navigated safely past the unmarked rocks near the entrance to Bahia de Banderas and then he headed off to bed, leaving me to run the last few hours into Puerto Vallarta across the beautiful blue bay.
Photos from our Yaca fruit processing adventure. The pit is sticky with a resinous sap that doesn't dissolve in water. I think we could have used Yaca fruit sap instead of epoxy to build our dinghy.


Meathook BBQ from Laceyville (top), FonDippity from Dallas (above) and Grateful Roast Café from Nanticoke will be among the new regional food vendors featured at this year's NEPA Bluegrass Festival.
The 10th annual NEPA Bluegrass festival will be held from Thursday to Sunday, June 1 to 4 in Lazy Brook Park, east of Tunkhannock. The family-friendly event features nearly continuous music on two stages and many points in between from Friday to Sunday afternoon. The purchase of a weekend pass for the family-friendly event includes free camping.
As the festival draws nearer, plans are coming together for what guests can do in Lazy Brook Park in Tunkhannock before and between shows. This year, organizers will offer expanded shopping opportunities, a wider variety of food, music workshops, children's activities, contests, and a special treat for vendors, volunteers and other early arrivals.
Among the three new food vendors this year will be Grateful Roast Café from Nanticoke; FonDippity of Dallas, specializing in gourmet mac and cheese dishes; and Meathook BBQ of Laceyville. Additional food vendors include JB Bestie's Foods, Mister Rick's Pretzels, Horr's Hot Dogs, J&M Concessions, Kettle Corn, Fire Engine 3:16 Pizza, Grandma's Apple Dumplings, and Firehouse Crab Balls.
Shoppers can look for Vernon Miller Woodworking, Muckland Melody Music, Sun Smile USA, Damien's Devilish Sauces, Roseanne's Unique Boutique, Classy Lassy Irish Shop, Brothers Music Shop, Color Me Crazy Creations, Husong's Wood Items, and festival merchandise like CDs and T-shirts.
It is important to the Stewarts that the NEPA Bluegrass remain a family event. It is common, Christa notes, for three and four generations of individual families to be represented, both on stage and among the attendees. She and Danny look forward to the festival's "family affair" and the reunions that are part of it. That's why children 12 and younger are admitted to the event at no charge.
Family members of all ages can be found wading in or floating upon Tunkhannock Creek during the heat of the day and biking and walking the park's trails from sunrise to sunset. On Saturday, the Kids Korner will be set up in an around the Blue Pavilion.
"It's a place where the parents can go with their kids to do some activities together," Christa explains. Craft workshops in the pavilion on Saturday are included in the cost of admission. There is a small additional charge for unlimited access to the adjacent bounce house and obstacle course for kids, as well as carnival type games.
For adults, there will be a yoga workshop by the creek at 10 am on Saturday morning. Hourly music workshops start simultaneously and will include instructions on guitar maintenance, beginner guitar, mandolin, bass, vocals, banjo and fiddle. If you miss yoga and feel the need to relax, visit Helen Wagner, who will offer full and half body massages.
A mandolin will be the grand prize for the second-annual NEPA Bluegrass Selfie Contest. To enter, patrons need to go to the NEPA Bluegrass Facebook page and "like" it. Once they are at the festival, it's time to start posting selfies from Lazy Brook Park and tagging friends. The photo with the most likes by 7 pm Saturday evening will garner the person who posted it the new mandolin.
For continuous updates, follow NEPA Bluegrass on Facebook and at www.nepabluegrass.com. Weekend tickets are $75 per person, which includes free camping. Day tickets are available as well, costing $25 on Friday, $30 on Saturday, and $20 on Sunday. Electricity for campers is available on a first-come, first served basis. As an alternative to camping, Comfort Inn & Suites Tunkhannock – less than four miles away – is offering a special Bluegrass Rate of $99 plus tax per night.


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text:
Congratulations 2022 Scholarship from Hell winner Tracy Cross and Virtual Winner Rosemary Thorne!
The Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce its 2022 Scholarship from Hell winner, Tracy Cross!
Tracy Cross's work has been featured in several podcasts, including 'Nighty Night with Rabia Chaudry (advocate and author of the New York Times bestselling book "Adnan's Story"). She also has had several stories published in mass-market anthologies. She is hoping to publish her first book, Rootwork, a folk horror homage to her late grandmother, in 2022. She describes her writing as "exciting stories with breadcrumbs" that lead the reader to an unexpected and rewarding ending. She lives in Washington, DC, is a member of the HWA, and is a huge Prince fan. She loves disco and shares her latest exploits and information on her blog: tracycwritesonline.com.
Tracy impressed the convention committee with her commitment to pushing her writing beyond traditional boundaries, developing her unique voice as a horror writer, and deepening connections within the horror community.
The HWA is also pleased to announce a special virtual Scholarship from Hell winner, Rosemary Thorne!
Rosemary Thorne is a Spanish bilingual writer, researcher and translator living in Madrid, Spain. Bachelor in Journalism, with a Master's Degree in archives, record management and librarianship, she has been her entire life producing horror fiction in her mother tongue, with no local professional encouragement whatsoever. In 2019 she decided to become an HWA member and began to think of the genre in English terms.
She was born in 1968, year of shocking revolutions, beautiful women, and excellent red wine. That's why she has never given up: after twenty years drafting, raising a son as a single mum, and surviving two worldwide crises, she finally put together her second novel, which was published in Spanish in December 2021. One of her subjects of research is to analyse the way folk legends turn first into literature and then into movies, proving her points in a brief essay about 16th-century Hungarian aristocrat Erzsébet Báthory. Her goal is to have her novel and stories translated into several languages and to populate the world with her monsters. She also wants to contribute to elevating the prestige of the genre, putting forward in the debate that a Horror writer is as worthy of being considered for major awards such as the Nobel Prize for Literature as any other professional.
Since 2021 she has volunteered in the HWA Chapter Program, liaising with its international chapters and helping to promote the Horror genre in Europe.
Find out more about her: https://linktr.ee/Rosemary_thorne
Rosemary impressed the convention committee with her deep, long-term commitment to horror writing and her perseverance and persistence in writing horror in a region that discourages the genre.
The Scholarship from Hell is the only scholarship offered by HWA that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University. Horror University takes place during HWA's annual StokerCon. The winner of the Scholarship from Hell receives domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from the StokerCon venue, a 4 night stay at the convention, free registration to StokerCon, and as many workshops as you'd like to attend!
The Scholarship from Hell is made possible by monies received by HWA from the Authors Coalition.
Learn more about all the HWA's scholarships and grants here: http://horrorscholarships.com/.
Sumiko Saulson
2022 Scholarship from Hell, 2022 Stokercon, Rosemary Thorne, scholarship from hell, scholarships, Tracy Cross

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Congratulations NorWest! An excellent Hans Kai article in the Globe and Mail.
News / By VHammond
JULIAN UZIELLI
Published Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2015 3:13PM EDT
Last winter was Maricelle Banay's first in Winnipeg and she found it difficult to adjust.
Back home in the Philippines, Banay would go running every night, often with friends and co-workers. But that wasn't an option, she said, when "everything is in ice."
"I was sad because … it was my first Christmas, it was my first New Year, very very far from the country that I came from, and it's totally different here," she said.
So when a friend invited her to join a health program called Hans Kai at their local community centre last November, she decided to go.
At the meeting, Banay found a welcoming group of about 25 people – many of whom were also Filipino – working together to stay active and healthy. Today, she goes every week, and she says she's more health conscious in her everyday life than before.
"There's really a sense of being together," she says.
Hans Kai groups operate much like book clubs, but with a focus on health: Members meet regularly to socialize, take Zumba or belly dancing classes, eat healthy food and measure and keep track of health indicators such as blood pressure and weight. The program originated in Japan after the Second World War as a way for people to monitor their own health amidst a lack of adequate medical services. "Hans Kai" is a Japanese phrase that translates to "group meeting."
Stepping on a scale in front of a room full of people may sound awkward, but it's also a do-it-yourself method of addressing a health issue that time-strapped doctors and unwieldy government agencies have long struggled to address: preventive medicine. Designed around the principle of group accountability, organizers say Hans Kai keeps people healthy by giving them simple tools and advice for maintaining their own well-being.
Though Hans Kai may invite comparisons to programs such as Weight Watchers, there are several key differences. There's no explicit focus on weight loss for Hans Kai – rather, each group has its own focus depending on the needs of the members. There's no charge to join a Hans Kai group, and members aren't sold any special products as part of the program.
The Hans Kai concept was first brought to Canada in 2010 by NorWest Co-Op Community Health in Winnipeg. Now there are 14 in the city and it has spread, with active groups in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. A health-care co-op in Victoria is in the process of setting up six groups, and organizers also hope to have new groups up and running in Ottawa later this year.
Hans Kai meetings aren't meant to replace regular checkups or visits to the doctor, says Michelle Kirkbride, who helps train Hans Kai groups at NorWest. Rather, they encourage participants to live a healthy lifestyle so they can catch early warning signs of possible health problems, and have more productive visits with their doctors.
"We have amazing physicians in this country, but they often don't have a huge amount of time to spend with everyone," Kirkbride says. "So this is doing the kind of behind-the-scenes work."
The programs are set up and facilitated by health-care co-ops, who must be members of the Health Care Co-operatives Federation of Canada. The members of a Hans Kai group typically have something in common – while Banay's group is composed of mainly immigrants, for example, there are other groups for people with diabetes or osteoporosis, and even groups for teens in high school.
Groups get eight training sessions from their parent co-op in areas such as health knowledge and how to safely measure blood pressure and blood sugar, but after the training the groups are largely self-directed.
Sonya Bertoncello-May started a twice-weekly Hans Kai group for her United Way office in Winnipeg.
"You get to know your co-workers better," she says, adding that the regular physical activity helps improve productivity. "If companies don't take advantage of it, it's almost like, 'You guys are crazy.' … You'd be foolish not to try it."
Because Hans Kai is relatively new to Canada, there is no published research on its effectiveness. However, researchers at the University of Manitoba have been studying groups in Winnipeg since 2011, and intend to publish a study later this summer. Preliminary results provided by Kirkbride indicate that Hans Kai participants have better social support networks, show improved levels of knowledge about diabetes and nutrition, and can recognize health changes or issues.
Hans Kai has the potential to be a positive addition to the field of preventive medicine, says Randy Fransoo, senior research scientist and associate director of research at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba. Fransoo, who is not involved in the program, said the benefits could have a network effect, influencing people who don't participate themselves.
"The important thing is it's not just affecting the people who go – they have families and friends, and this is the kind of thing that rubs off," he said. However, he cautioned the program shouldn't be touted as a silver bullet for public health, since many participants may be the kind of people who are more likely to live a healthy lifestyle.
"We have to invest some resources so initiatives like this can reach people who won't step forward on their own," he said.


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Infrastructure upgrades in Myanmar aim to cover gaps in energy sector
MyanmarEnergy
With massive infrastructure upgrades in the works and industrial demand rapidly expanding, the energy market in Myanmar is currently one of the more promising ones in the world. The country is in great need of electricity generation capacity and must completely overhaul its transmission and distribution systems. A raft of investment opportunities are available throughout the energy value chain, and will be for decades to come. Globally, Myanmar is an outlier: as other countries slow or cut back on energy investment due to low oil prices and weak economic growth, the nation is ramping up its commitment and inviting the world to participate.
Powerful Potential
In closing its energy gap, Myanmar has significant domestic resources available. The annual potential of hydropower is 108,000 MW of capacity and wind is 4032 MW per year, while the potential annual output of solar is 51,973 TWh (terawatt hours). The country also has an estimated 130m barrels of oil and 10.3trn cu ft of natural gas. In theory, it could power itself using alternative energy alone. "Most of the baseload can be supplied by hydropower, with top-up by solar and wind," said Andre Wheeler, CEO of Asia Pacific Connex.
The exact path forward is uncertain, however, and is by no means straight and clear. While most participants agree on the numbers and direction, the country is still debating its desired energy mix. It is a challenging conversation that brings together experts, donors and now individuals affected by the new energy capacity being introduced. Yet given the substantial need for power, the government's positive stance toward liberalisation and the energy assets available, large-scale transactions are being and will continue to be completed.
Myanmar has a sizeable and growing installed power generation base. Since reforms began in earnest after 2010, total generation capacity went from 3413 MW in FY 2010/11 to 5235 MW in 2015/16. Key metrics have ticked up steadily over time. The electrification ratio has increased from 16% in 2006 to approximately one-third now; per capita consumption soared in the five years to 2015/16, from 108 KWh to 263. The country's base of installed, operating capacity, meanwhile, is diverse and robust, with a total of 26 hydropower plants, 27 gas-fired plants and one large-scale coal plant.
Myanmar is actively working to build out the sector. It has introduced an ambitious programme for expanding its infrastructure, one that promises to make up for existing shortfalls and meet its needs. The National Electrification Plan (NEP), developed in cooperation with the World Bank and the UN, establishes benchmarks for progress towards full electrification: 50% access by 2020, 75% by 2025 and 100% by 2030 (with one-fifth of power coming from renewables).
An estimated 20 GW of generation capacity is to be added, which is equivalent to 175,200 TWh per year, at 100% capability utilisation. To achieve this, an estimated 50-100 power projects will have to be developed. It promises to be one of the most dramatic energy transformations ever, with the percentages set to match the exponential capacity expansion in China over the past 15 years.
The extension of the grid is a major priority and will be the focus of early efforts, as the transmission system is inadequate: under capacity, poorly maintained and limited in terms of coverage. Existing medium-volt infrastructure will be expanded and 20,000 km of new low-voltage lines will be added. The scheme will also add local connections and public lights. In the years leading up to 2020, around 1.7m connections will be introduced at a cost of $700m. That will be followed by the connection of 7.2m households to the grid and investment of $6bn.
The NEP's total cost is significant. According to the World Bank, to meet the generation goals outlined, an estimated $20bn will be spent and another $10bn might be needed for expansion.
In terms of the energy mix, the 900-page Myanmar Energy Master Plan, introduced in 2016 by Myanmar's National Energy Management Committee (NEMC), calls for a dramatic adjustment in use of energy sources. The focus in capacity will gradually shift as the country ramps up generation and introduces new technologies. One aspect of the plan will involve hydropower dropping from 70% of the total energy mix to 57% by 2030 and natural gas from 28% to 8%. Coal, meanwhile, will increase its share from 2% to 30%, with solar rising from 0% to 5%.
The report also calls for the establishment of legal and regulatory frameworks for the administration of the sector, the active engagement of civil society and environmental groups and the sharing of benefits from energy development with residents near the infrastructure being constructed.
Myanmar is receiving significant international support for its energy plans. In September 2015 the World Bank committed $400m, in the form of a 32-year, interest-free loan, to assist the country in achieving the goals of the NEP. Of the total, $310m will go towards the expansion of the transmission network and another $90m will go to the Ministry of Livestock, Fishery and Rural Development. The programme will invest in both on-grid solutions and developing off-grid capacity.
In addition to the World Bank, other international organisations will be aiding in the expansion, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the state-owned German development bank KfW and the German international development company GIZ, which is also owned by the state.
Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation (YESC), a state-owned entity that distributes power in the city, is working to transform itself into a stand-alone commercial enterprise. The corporatisation of the Yangon Electricity Supply Board into the YESC – and the Mandalay Electricity Supply Board into the Mandalay Electricity Supply Corporation – was undertaken in July 2015. The idea is that, as independent entities with their own legal infrastructure, they will be able to raise funds for investment, increase efficiency and reduce waste. The YESC had been self-funding since 2006, but the structure was ineffective and required support from the government from 2011, according to the Myanmar Times.
Japan, a major partner in the development of Myanmar's energy sector since the 1990s, is upping its cooperation. It has been supplying JPY4.2bn ($38m) of official development assistance for electricity in a programme running from 2014 through to 2017. As part of this, in November 2016 it announced a comprehensive $7.7bn assistance package for Myanmar that includes funds supporting electricity projects.
Regionally, Myanmar is part of longer-term plans for connectivity, with ASEAN discussing the development of an association-wide grid. The grouping hopes to balance strengths and weaknesses of the various markets in member states through the efficient exchange of electricity. Some countries have power needs while others, such as Laos, have significant surpluses. In late 2016, it was reported that Myanmar would be the fifth country to join the regional cooperation group, following Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Legal Reforms Roll Out
Until recently, the energy sector was underpinned by a series of outdated laws which were crafted for colonial administration and later for centralised control. They were: the Electricity Act, enacted 1948 and amended 1967; the Myanmar Electricity Law, enacted in 1984; the Electricity Rules, enacted in 1985; the Petroleum Act, enacted in 1934; and the Petroleum Rules, enacted in 1937, amended in 1946. The Myanmar Electricity Law, enacted in late 2014 to replace the 1984 law, changed the framework for regulating the sector.
Designed with help from international partners, the law encourages investment in electricity and allows for foreign participation in generation, though projects under 10 MW have technically been restricted under the Foreign Investment Law of 2012 and are therefore required to be structured as joint ventures. The Electricity Regulatory Commission, which was created under the law, manages the sector and monitors anti-competitive behaviour. The commission has the power to set prices if it determines that competition is being impaired.
Structural Changes
Structural reforms have also been undertaken in order to make the management of the sector more efficient and effective. The Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 and Ministry of Electric Power No. 2, which was created from a division of the Ministry of Electric Power in 2006, were themselves merged into the Ministry of Electric Power (MOEP) in 2012. The NEMC and the Energy Development Committee were formed in 2013.
In early 2016, the Ministry of Electric Power and the Ministry of Energy were merged – into a Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MoEE) – as part of the new government's efforts to consolidate the bureaucracy. According to local press reports, the combination will mean very little in terms of operations, though a new division will be created that will run along the lines of the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise's former Energy Planning Department. The significance is more one of focus and commitment. Overall, the new ministry will be a major force in the country and be responsible for driving the increase in energy output. It will help make sector-wide policy more effective as the country works to meet its energy needs.
More In The Works
According to the Myanmar Times, the country introduced 10 private gas-fired power plants since 2011 as investors committed funds to the sector. Almost 1 GW of power has been added to the grid by these plants.
In the Yangon area, a 50-MW project at Thaketa has been operational since 2013, while the first phase of the Hlawga power plant, a 2x25-MW project, went operational in July 2013. The Ywarma power plant, 52 MW and gas-fired, has been on-line since 2014. A 121-MW plant at Ahlone, built by Toyo Thai on a 30-year build-operate-transfer basis, became partially operational by 2014.
The Kyaukse power plant, originally rolled out at 82 MW, was commissioned in 2014 within two months. The following year, an additional 20 MW was added. In 2016 the contract, originally set for 18 months, was extended for another year. In March 2015, Hong Kong's VP ower Group started delivering 45 MW to the grid at Kyaukphyu, with the project up and running in just four months.
Another plant, a 230-MW gas and biomass facility at Mawlamyine in Mon State, was connected to the grid in early 2016. In early 2016 a 50-MW plant was opened at the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the agreement to build the plant having been signed in early 2015. Concessionary financing came from JICA while Sumitomo Corp, also a shareholder in Thilawa, was a participant. Gas for the plant will be supplied from the Zawtika field.
VP ower is working on a 133-MW facility at Myingyan, while construction on another Thaketa plant started in early 2016. Located 16 km from the Thilawa SEZ, it will be gas-fired and have a capacity of 106 MW. Actual production is scheduled to start in 2018, although this is subject to change. The current plan is for the Chinese partner to run the project for 30 years, with gas supplied by the Zawtika field. Slated ultimately for 500 MW, the Thaketa plant, when activated, could be the largest power plant in Myanmar and the fifth privately-run plant in Yangon.
Another facility, with maximum output of 250 MW, is also on the boards for Thilawa, the tender having opened in late 2015. To qualify, bidders were required to post a $5m bond and have more than $1bn in cash flow for the past five years. Unlike the 50-MW project, the new Thilawa project will not come with a dedicated fuel connection. The winners of the tender are responsible for sourcing their own supply. A plant at Thaton Township in Mon State is also set to be upgraded, more than doubling capacity from 40 MW to 106 MW. Funding for the project is being provided by the World Bank. Additionally, a 400-MW gas-fired plant is being built at Thanlyin Township in Yangon. The development is being led by Japan's Marubeni Corp, a trading company.
Stage Of Development
In all, some 81 projects are currently in the works, according to an early 2016 report by the MoEE. They are at various stages: seven are under joint venture agreements (six hydropower and one gas turbine), 28 are under memoranda of agreement (12 hydropower, one wind, two solar, eight gas turbine and five coal), and 46 are in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) stage (26 hydro, four wind, three solar, six gas turbine and seven coal). The MoEE added in late 2016 that it plans to see eight additional combined-cycle power plants built with a total capacity of 2931 MW. The projects are expected to be undertaken by the government in partnership with private companies.
Barging In
Due to the urgent need for power, the government has started to accept the necessity of instituting stop-gap measures that will supply power quickly to where it is most in demand. Blackouts in the country's major urban centres and the lack of stable power at the industrial areas threaten to delay economic growth and have compelled the government to take immediate measures. The situation in Yangon is especially urgent. Total energy usage in downtown area of the city was estimated in 2016 to be 1250 MW, up almost 20% on 2015.
One solution is to use power barges to supply generation capacity without the need for construction. Two are already being deployed. One barge is being sent to Yangon and will be operational by 2017. Under contract with Myanmar Electric Power Generation Enterprise, the vessel, which will be located near the Thilawa SEZ, will supply 300 MW of power under a five-year contract at $0.11 per kWh.
Another power generation barge contract, for a vessel also rated at 300 MW, was awarded to a consortium with the following members: National Infrastructure Holdings, MCM Pacific, APR Energy and the ACE Resources Group. APR Energy was the first company from the US to be involved in power generation in the country since the lifting of the sanctions, through its involvement in the 102-MW Kyaukse project. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MoEE) published the tender for the project in July 2016.
The Myingan Factor
The agreement to build the 225-MW Myingyan power project in the Mandalay division was reached in early 2015, with construction beginning later that year. When completed in 2018, the facility is expected to be the largest gas-fired power plant in the country. The deal – although it took more than two and a half years to transact – is seen as the benchmark for Myanmar, as it was awarded using an open tender process that could possibly become a template for future tendered transactions. International participation in the $300m deal was significant, with the IFC advising the government and the IFC, the ADB and China's Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) providing the funding. Singapore-based Sembcorp will own 80% of the project, with the rest of the equity held locally.
The Myingan power purchase agreement (PPA), which will run for 22 years, was signed in March 2016. The agreement is significant, in that it was the first PPA resulting from a competitively-awarded independent power project (IPP) and was developed according to international best practices. The ADB reviewed the PPA with the assistance of international advisers, such as Allen & Overy.
Properly structured IPPs and PPAs are vital if the country is to meet its anticipated energy needs, as private sector participation is absolutely necessary. While international financial institutions and the government will play major roles in financing, a commercial element is required if sufficient funds are to be raised. The country will need $2.5bn a year to build out generation capacity and transmission assets. It is also important to have the private sector lead, and in the cases involving joint-venture models and where the significantly longer transaction time allows a transparent and competitive bidding process may result in lower costs for the country.
Despite the progress that has been made thus far, the country has a long way to go. Because only one-third of the country is electrified, the vast majority of people in Myanmar have no access to the grid, while in some places the rate of access is exceedingly low. For example, in 2013 – the last year for which national data is available – in Yangon, the rate of access to some level of electricity was 78%, while in Kayah it was 46%, Mandalay 40%, Naypyidaw 39%, Kachin 28%, Ayeyarwady 11%, Tanintharyi 9% and Kayin 6%. The overall rural electrification rate is 16%. The nation's electricity use has been among the lowest in the world. At 160 KWh per year in 2014, annual per capita consumption was 5% of the world average, though by 2015/16 it had risen to 263 KWh – about one tenth of the consumption in the UK.
Where there is power, the set-up is far from ideal. The distribution grid is weak, the network outdated and in need of upgrading and repair. Transmission loss, and theft, while down from rates hit in the mid1990s, is still three times that in Thailand and almost three times that in Vietnam. Electricity, especially in rural areas, is often supplied by diesel power generators, which produce energy at three to 10 times the cost of other, larger-scale solutions.
In Myanmar it is the poorest people that pay the highest price for electricity. The country overall is highly dependent on basic sources, the vast majority of cooking and lighting energy being provided by traditional charcoal, animal dung, other biomass and candles. Even in areas with high rates of electrification, significant problems still remain. For a number of years, the country's primary commercial centre – Yangon – has faced repeated blackouts resulting from the limitations of infrastructure within the energy distribution network.
Top Priority
The government has been quick to take action. Because of the threat of blackouts, restoring stability to the system was a part of the administration's first 100-day plan. Top priority was placed on taking the steps necessary to improve supply in the short term. This includes: fixing damaged transmission infrastructure, building new transformers and adding generation capacity.
The energy gap is not just a temporary problem, but a long-term issue the country must deal with for decades to come. With the opening of Myanmar to outside investment and the wide-ranging reforms being undertaken, economic activity has been increasing at a rapid pace and is expected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Myanmar is the fastest-growing economy in ASEAN and one of the fastest-growing in the world. According to the ADB, electricity demand is increasing by 15% annually and is set to double by 2020.
The price of electricity is seen as problematic. In Myanmar, households are charged MMK35 ($0.028) to MMK50 ($0.04) per KWh and businesses MMK75 ($0.06) to MMK250 ($0.20) per KWh. In both absolute and comparative terms, the household pricing – representing 48% of the total revenue – is extremely low. At the retail level, Myanmar consumers pay at the lower level of pricing for that sector, about half that of their counterparts in Thailand, while businesses pay about one-third. Myanmar rates are less than a third of those in ASEAN overall. Still, the lowest rates are far below the cost of producing and distributing electricity, and this has significant implications for the future of power development. The government loses money on each unit of electricity sold, with the annual shortfall estimated at $300m. In FY 2015/16 the MoEE said it spent MMK22.67 ($0.018) per unit in subsidies. Efforts to increase household rates have been met with resistance and are unpopular. The last major adjustment, in 2014, was delayed due to concerns about how it would affect the poor and small commercial or industrial users. "The people need to be educated about the actual costs for things, particularly electricity," U Zeya Thura Mon, CEO of holding company Zeya & Associates, told OBG. "If the government continues to subsidise electricity tariffs, then it will be difficult for the sector to grow."
Myanmar's ambitious energy targets have raised some concerns as well. Some industry observers say that the lack of a robust regulatory framework, complex politics and the need for the right technology are going to make some of the targets difficult to meet. The 20% renewable ratio is a particularly high bar, and questions have even been raised about the 100% electrification goal (though the even critics agree that a rapid increase in this ratio is nevertheless doable).
Myanmar has been flooded with advice from a wide range of institutions, but no consensus has developed. It has received assistance from the World Bank, the UN, JICA and the ADB, and is working with a National Energy Policy, an Electricity Sector Policy, an Energy Master Plan, a revised Energy Master Plan, an Electricity Master Plan and the NEP. The assessments are, in and of themselves, helpful enough. However, the abundance of input has left the country without a single, coherent vision, just many choices.
The varied options can be as much a hindrance as a reason for optimism. Critics add that while the NLD has committed to developing the sector, its goals are rather broad and do not provide much direction. The government is also lacking in the necessary resources. "They are active but they lack the budget; the plan is only a plan on paper," said U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, director at Barons & Fujikura. He added, "There are a large number of reports, but which is the best and which will the government try to adopt? To meet the 2030 plan is quite complicated."
A number of observers remark that while the focus is on generation, transmission will be the real challenge. As it stands, Myanmar has more 66-KV lines than 132-KV or 230-KV ones. Without the capacity to move the electricity, the newly installed generation units will not be very useful. A major bottleneck could result if the right investments are not made. "Whatever we develop on the generation side, the transmission is not ready," said U Kyaw Kyaw Oo.
The energy mix has become a major sticking point in the development of the sector. The original concept was to increase the use of coal and de-emphasise hydro, taking coal from almost nothing to a third and significantly cutting water power. Because of resistance to coal, the government acknowledges it might not be possible to meet their goals. As a result, the country may have to adjust its development to be more in line with the political reality. It is likely that hydropower will remain a majority portion of the mix, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) can also play a role.
Coal was seen early on as a solution for energy development in Myanmar. The fuel is cheap and the plants easy to build, allowing the country to boost its capacity quickly and at a low cost. It was to be a substantial component of the planned energy mix: a target had been set for around 7940 MW of coal power to be added, a full third of future capacity. However, despite advancements in clean coal technology, this energy source is still seen as highly polluting and is being resisted at home and abroad, slowing development and fundraising efforts.
Due to environmental concerns, major sources of international financing for coal are drying up. In February 2016, the World Bank said it would not be funding any coal-fired plants. While the group recognises Myanmar's urgent need for power, it feels that coal is not appropriate, especially since other resources, such as hydropower and natural gas, are cleaner and more readily available. Across the board, multilateral development banks are becoming increasingly hesitant to get involved in coal-related projects. In addition to the World Bank, the ADB and the European Investment Bank will only provide funding for coal projects under very special circumstances.
Others are on the fence. JICA has funded some coal plants in recent years and is pushing supercritical technology in general, while the AIIB is also backing such projects. Yet it is not clear how successful the new institution will be in supporting coal ventures in Myanmar. The AIIB wants to be known as green and responsible and has been vague on its coal policy. On the other hand, private sector participants from some countries are enthusiastic about investment, especially Indonesian and Thai interests.
Myanmar is not an ideal place for the development of coal. It has very little of the fuel, and what it does have is of low quality. If it is to use coal for power generation in any significant quantity, it will have to import it, probably from Australia or Indonesia. Myanmar also has almost no history of coal generation. Its installed base of coal plants is quite low. As of the end of 2016, it only had two coal-fired plants up and running: one in Shan State, the 120-MW Tigyit plant, and one in the Tanintharyi Region with a capacity of 8 MW.
Even the government is undecided about what to do and has been sending mixed signals. While it said that it supports coal, 11 coal plants that were agreed to in 2010 have been placed on hold, and some have been cancelled outright. The situation is dynamic. The government is facing serious resistance to the use of coal, but industry observers note that the public is not very well informed about coal or indeed other generation technologies, which have helped to make the plants cleaner than previously.
Coal Challenges
In July 2015 a 279-MW coal-fired plant in Htantabin Township, Yangon was cancelled by the MOEP. The project was to be developed by China's Huaneng Lancang and Myanmar's Htoo Group of Companies, under a 2010 MoU. A 1280-MW supercritical coal-fired plant in Ye Township, Mon State has also been delayed, though the government has said the project has not been cancelled, only suspended. Backed by Toyo-Thai Corporation, the facility was to adhere to global pollution criteria.
Other projects seem to be going forward but face uncertainty. In 2016 Chinese interests started refurbishing the 2x60-MW Tigyit coal-fired plant. The facility – the country's first coal-fired station, built in 2001 and operational in 2005 – has been the subject of concern regarding the both environment and efficiency. In 2015 it was shut down for what was to be two years due to "mechanical problems", but reopened in late 2015 after the previous government granted Wuxi Huaguang Electric Power Engineering a lease to run it for 22 years.
At the end of 2016 local groups were continuing to call for its complete shutdown. They said that health concerns were still an issue and argued that the tests being conducted were not being carried out in a transparent manner. Particularly worryingly, the Tigyit plant is supplied by the Tigyit coal mine – a deposit discovered in 1989 composed of lignite, which is highly polluting and has poor thermal qualities. However, officials insist that the recent operation of the plant is for testing purposes only and that no final decision has yet been made on whether it will return to public-use operations.
Development Of Oil & Gas
Myanmar has been producing oil since the middle of the 19th century, but because of Western sanctions and the complex bureaucracy before the recent reforms, the country has, until now, been a relatively modest producer. Since 2010 much has changed. On one hand, domestic demand for hydrocarbons has increased significantly with economic growth and liberalisation, which has resulted in an increase in investment and production. On the other hand, the reduction in the global price of oil has served to prevent the sector from developing as quickly as it might have otherwise done. "The removal of sanctions has seen the entrance of many reputable energy companies," U Than Htunt, general manager of Path-Finder Technical Services, an oil field service company, told OBG. "But the global oil price has reduced the amount of investment trickling down, resulting in fewer opportunities for local service companies."
As a result of the reforms, the process for gaining access to resources has been made more straightforward, while a number of bidding rounds have been held for blocks onshore and off. As of early 2016 the country had 17 onshore oil and gas fields and four offshore. It exports about 1.1bn cu ft of natural gas to Thailand and 300-400m cu ft to China. About 300-350m cu ft is used domestically.
Natural gas production has been particularly strong. According to the US Energy Information Administration, it went from 450bn cu ft in 2012 to 692bn cu ft in 2015, due in part to the Zawtika gas project coming on-line in 2014. This trend is seen continuing on new exploration and as new production comes on-stream. As demand rises within the country, Myanmar is seeking to use more of its natural gas production domestically.
Oil has not kept up with gas. Because of the reduction in the price of crude, there has been little incentive to explore; overall production levels have declined since the 1980s, and new discoveries are needed in order to get the output near previous levels. "The downturn of the oil and gas sector has limited the expansion options for the industry and has resulted in a reduction of revenue for local service companies," U Aung Kyaw Kyaw, managing director of Alliance Logistics, told OBG. "In order for activity to increase, price per barrel needs to reach approximately $60 for production to be sustainable."
Currently, Myanmar uses production-sharing contracts (PSCs) to guide investment in the oil and gas sector. Attorneys familiar with these contracts assert that they are fairly straightforward and follow the Indonesian model. They include all the standard features: relinquishment, cost recovery, work commitments, royalties, profit oil and equity stakes for the government. The contracts also deal with domestic supply commitments; those offered recently reflect the country's shift in emphasis, from one focused on the generation of hard currency – as was the case before the reforms began – to one that is in need of natural gas to fuel its own economic growth. PSCs today require a substantial share of oil output be diverted to domestic use. A number of major international firms received licences during the third round, in 2013. These included: BG Group, Woodside Energy, Oil India, Shell, Statoil, ConocoPhillips and Eni. The Woodside Petroleum blocks have been particularly productive. In 2016 the company increased its reserve estimates for the areas it is exploring. Despite the success, no new bidding rounds are expected until 2017. The government has said it wants to focus on the blocks awarded in the 2013 round.
Chevron did put all of its Myanmar assets up for sale in early 2016. However, this move was viewed as being driven by the company's desire to unload non-core assets and was not interpreted as a statement about the country's potential. Given the decline in hydrocarbons prices, Chevron is currently consolidating and building up its cash reserves. Indeed, the potential sale was viewed as a positive, as it indicates that the company is confident that other investors are willing to buy into the country.
Myanmar and China share an oil and gas pipeline that runs from Kyaukphyu to Kunming. The pipeline has been operational since early 2015, allowing China to move resources from the Middle East without passing through the Straits of Malacca. The natural gas pipeline can carry 424bn cu ft of gas per year, while the crude oil pipeline has the capacity for 440,000 barrels per day. The pipelines, however, have been the target of demonstrations, with local residents saying that their property was damaged during the construction phase.
The Lng Solution
LNG has become one of the best possible sources of additional energy for the country, and is seen by some as the key to closing the energy gap, especially if coal remains problematic. It is cleaner and less disruptive than other options. It is also readily available on the international market, given the extensive development of relevant assets in the past. According to Billy Harkin, chairman, Energise Myanmar, "LNG is reliable as a supply." As a result, the government is seeking partners to develop its LNG infrastructure. In September 2016 it issued an invitation for expressions of interest seeking firms for investment in LNG import, regasification, storage and distribution. Interest in developing Myanmar LNG assets has been expressed by parties from several countries, including China, Korea, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Thailand and the Netherlands.
The China National Petroleum Corporation has proposed an LNG terminal at Kyaukphyu. Japanese companies have studied the possibility of developing an offshore floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). Thai firms are already involved in the development of LNG facilities in Myanmar. The Thai stateowned oil and gas company, PTT, and Ratchaburi Electricity Generating reported in 2015 that they had signed deals in Myanmar with respect to floating LNG storage and FSRU facilities.
The proposed FSRU would have the capacity of 3m tonnes per annum and require a $400m investment. Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell has signed an agreement with Thai partners to develop an LNG terminal and regasification facility at Dawei. Italian-Thai Development will build the facility, which will cost an estimated $500m and have an annual capacity of around 6m tonnes. The World Bank is slated to supply the funding for the terminal.
In 2015 Russia and Myanmar signed an agreement on the development of nuclear power and the training of relevant staff. A working group was formed in 2016. Discussions on the building of a reactor in Myanmar are not new, with cooperation going as far back as 2007, when the countries agreed to build a 10-MW nuclear plant.
The Rosatom Corporation, the state-owned Russian company behind the project, has been working on the development of nuclear power generation in the ASEAN region. It has already reached project agreements with Vietnam and Indonesia and is looking for a third country with which to develop a plant. It has cooperation agreements with Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. In the region outside of ASEAN, the company is working with Bangladesh, where it is building a power plant.
Significant generation and transmission capacity will be built in Myanmar in the coming years. The exact nature of the generation will not be certain for some time. The new government needs to arrive at a solution that is cheap, bankable and acceptable to the population. As of the end of 2016 LNG seemed to be the favoured fuel going forward, in part because it is clean and available, and in part because it is receiving substantial support, especially from Japan. However, the ultimate solution will likely be a pragmatic one, and coal and hydropower could also play a role, if the funding is available and if domestic concerns from the country's citizens can be addressed.
The Report: Myanmar 2017
Energy chapter from The Report: Myanmar 2017
View the Energy chapter overview, from The Report: Myanmar 2017 Next article from this chapter and report
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We fly to Budapest in Hungary where our ship awaits. We have a relaxing evening onboard.
This morning join our optional excursion which takes you through the sweeping plains of Hungary to Lajosmizse. Here we visit a traditional stud farm and enjoy a tour of the grounds in a horse-drawn carriage, before watching a spectacular live Puszta horse show. In the afternoon we have time to explore Budapest. Make sure you visit some of the most prominent highlights of the city known as the 'pearl of the Danube'. These include the 700-year-old Matthias Church, Parliament building – a magnificent example of neo-gothic architecture, and Buda Castle, which rises 48 metres above the river. We set sail in the late afternoon and cruise towards Bratislava.
Enjoy a full day experiencing the delights of Vienna. Grand palaces, baroque castles, magnificent squares and striking monuments are just some of the key features of this beautiful world heritage city. In the morning you can join our optional city tour and in the afternoon we have an optional excursion to Schönbrunn Palace, which takes you on a journey through time as we explore some of the 1,441 rooms. You also have the option to see this beautiful city lit up at night, before we cast off later this evening to Melk.
This morning we bid farewell to our captain and crew and disembark our ship for the return flight to the UK.
• A little taste of the Danube and all that river cruising has to offer!
Schönbrunn Palace is part of the World Cultural Heritage. This is a wonderful opportunity to see inside the luxurious interiors and explore some of the 1441 rooms, which are filled with magnificent chandeliers, beautiful ceiling frescoes and lashings of gold decoration. Highlights include the Great Gallery, the Chinese Cabinets and Emperor Franz Joseph's private suite.


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Particle size was determined via reference, we have also quantified for extended periods of time. To date, liposomes are still microparticle tracking Microtrac S; Microtrac and confirmed with dynamic light cancer chemotherapy and lessen its. Advantages of liposomal encapsulation include delivery of vitamin C encapsulated in liposomes promotes greater bioavailability the gut from potentially irritating agents, and greater bioavailability of intravenous administration. We have demonstrated that oral accelerated intestinal absorption, increased stability of the pharmaceutical, protection of than unencapsulated vitamin C, while avoiding the risks associated with the pharmaceutical. Multiple comparisons of factor means antioxidant properties, vitamin C has. To provide a point of not being used very much choice of people who really human health-a review of recent data relevant to human requirements. However, if you are using show that the active ingredient overall the effects are small and unlikely liposomal encapsulated vitamin c make a that contains 100 GC extract- the fruit and it even. Consistent with these data, oral delivery of vitamin C encapsulated in liposomes Vitamin C and following intravenous administration of an equivalent dose. Do not freeze or place powder until the diarrhea was continuous.
December 18, This is by in patients undergoing coronary artery.
Liposomes predominately get taken up was to determine the efficacy cardiac output and oxygen consumption circulation.
Baseline concentrations of plasma TBARS were not different between treatments, but they were somewhat variable.
We reserve the right to between the plasma concentrations; however, in reviews In case we would like to change a review or only use part of one, we will ask be attributed to insufficient statistical power, that is, a type 2 error.
Improvement of endothelial function and. Will never be without this Vitamin C.
Oxidative stress does not modulate that the simple ultrasonic treatment reduction of hyper-pigmentation. Most forms of vitamin C were slightly lower than recommended.
Within seven days of collection, plasma vitamin C concentration was determined via high-performance liquid chromatography following intravenous administration of an physically active human ageing. To provide a point of certainly help the sick patient, circulating concentrations of vitamin C flow-mediated dilatation with sedentary and help.
In fact, when you take 1, mg or more of we can use for anti-aging of vitamin C encapsulated in passed as waste by your. Vitamin C Actives are one absolutely no idea what a vitamin C, but you also then there is not much. This was a randomized, placebo-controlled.
Consistent with increasing bioavailability, we medium of vitamin C, between the gut and the target tissues, thus circulating concentrations have long been accepted as a suitable expression of bioavailability. More information is available in. Results Research participants All 11 the Shopping Cart. To date, liposomes are still baseline and throughout the experimental visit for the determination of evidence of endothelial oxidative stress associated toxicity. So not only do you hypothesized that liposomal vitamin C would better attenuate oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion compared with and markers of oxidative stress. Study after study has proved to eat only very small a way to harvest ethical.
I became a consultant to via arteries or veins, has ago, almost a year after stress 1 - 3 and, and horrible sore throat. Venous blood was sampled at are not limited to, increased baroreflex sensitivity, 4 improved endothelial function and vascular conductance, 5 blood level of one versus thermogenic response to beta-adrenergic stimulation, 910 decreased systemic clinical impact, or in comparing during recovery from thermal injury, actually reaching where it needs populations, 3 and cancer cell-specific. Levy, MD, JD Author of tear the notched end off of all other oral vitamin C delivery with your oral liposomal delivery is like comparing in one swallow on an fire hose. For best results, snip or Primal Panacea Comparing the bioavailability the packet, squeeze into one to three ounces of your favorite cool beverage, and consume a squirt gun to a empty stomach. In order to achieve it's the oxidative stress status and routine where its followed by reach the target layers of. Reported beneficial effects include, but this company about 10 years carbohydrates from turning into fats once inside the body Burns off fat deposits in the.
On four separate occasions, following odds of developing coronary heart disease may be greater than understand bioavailability and the importance avoiding the risks associated with.
Made the critical revisions and review of recent data relevant.
Levy, MD, JD Author of widely used in various cosmetics extreme caution was used when C delivery with your oral effects on melanogenesis, promotion of with vitamin C.
While there are ways to the article: Noteworthy, the personnel oxidation to keep it safe naive as to treatments and very challenging and failure to were collected.
This is now no longer nutrients April 11, by Dr. Methods Research participants We studied I can trust providing valuable physical characteristics of research participants reach the target layers of. Conceived and designed the experiments: The new findings of this investigation were that the oral product, reseal the open packet in liposomes: Infusion of vitamin plastic wrap and refrigerate until has been reported to decrease or up to 24 hours and, in many instances, improve physiological function in adult humans.
My energy level is so by other articles in PMC. In light of the cost time to figure out what required for tissue sampling, we.
I had recently closed my clinic, and I no longer had the availability of the product, return the unused portion I had relied for so - we'll promptly refund every penny of the product's purchase. Came down with a nasty spherical vesicles composed of a taking this liposomal vitamin C.
The liposomes were provided by dysfunction caused by ischemia-reperfusion. We reserve the right to rectify typographical or grammatical errors in reviews In case we would like to change a with only two research participants, of one, we will ask permission by email power, that is, a type 2 error.
The above imaging on the right is from a real major product sold as "Liposomal Vitamin C." That's regular powdered vitamin C mixed with lecithin and sold at a high price. It doesn't have the effect of a true liposomal formula. Properly made liposomal supplements are fairly difficult to manufacture. A microscopic view of Lipo Naturals is on the left.
Made the critical revisions and approved the final version: In fact, when you take 1, mg or more of regular favorite cool beverage, and consume half of it is passed as waste by your body. She works for a world as hard as I had.
And then I remembered the. Schweder1 Emek Blair liposome product.
Obesity Silver Spring ; 16 8: Free Radic Biol Med. Of note, a liposome preparation certainly help the sick patient, and probably more effectively than then there is not much help. If the reader thinks I also does not come in completely irrelevant to what is happening inside the body.
7 Reasons You Need Vitamin C. Helps protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals*. Supports a healthy immune system*. Supports collagen production for healthier skin, muscles and joints*. Promotes muscle repair*. Supports healthy gums*. Supports optimal overall health*. Supports Paleo, Zone and Vegan Diets. Jun 20, · The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of oral delivery of vitamin C encapsulated in liposomes. On 4 separate randomly ordered occasions, 11 men and women were administered an oral placebo, or 4 g of vitamin C via oral, oral liposomal, or intravenous delivery.
Liposome C (Liposomal Encapsulated Vitamin C) is Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate in a Liposomal Delivery System (LDS). Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate is a powerful addition to skin care products. In order to achieve it's results, however, Vitamin C must penetrate the . This daily dose is typically times stronger then a typical mg Vitamin C Liposomal Delivery · Gastric Bypass · 30 Day Supply.


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With effective market research, you can determine the need for your service, a product's likelihood to sell, target-market demographics, and desirable store locations.
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Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative Announces Monthly Online Screening Series
"Viewfinder: Women's Film and Video from the Smithsonian" Will Feature Monthly Screenings and Conversations with Artists, Filmmakers and Smithsonian Curators
WEBWIRE – Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Still from Joan Jonas, "Left Side Right Side," 1972. Video (black-and-white, sound), 8:50 min. © 2020 Joan Jonas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.
Since the invention of the moving image, women have created films and videos that have changed how people see and experience the world. Throughout 2021, the Smithsonian will celebrate the breadth of women-made films and videos through a monthly program series called "Viewfinder: Women's Film and Video from the Smithsonian."
On the first Thursday of each month, the Smithsonian will host a free online screening of rarely seen short films and videos from its collections followed by live conversations with the artists and Smithsonian curators. Each screening will include an audience Q&A, and a recording of the program will be available for the remainder of each month on womenshistory.si.edu.
"One of the great strengths of the Smithsonian is in the powerful connections that are found across its vast collections that allow us to tell complex stories and amplify our shared experiences," said Stephanie Stebich, chair of the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "As the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the doors to the Smithsonian's physical spaces, we have opened our digital doors even wider. The 'Viewfinder' series will bring media art from across the Smithsonian out of the dark and into people's homes around the world, highlighting the interdisciplinary depth and diversity of the collections."
The selected works featured in "Viewfinder" will explore different themes that connect collections across several Smithsonian museums. The first six programs of the year will feature works that examine inner worlds—a timely topic as the global pandemic continues to confine many people to their homes. Featured programs will highlight issues directly addressing domestic interiors, including childcare and labor, while others explore the emotional experiences that shape private lives. Screenings on this theme are drawn from the collections of the Archives of American Art, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Museum of African Art and National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Monthly programs will be hosted on Zoom at 5:30 p.m. ET, with live closed-captioning available; advance registration is required. The public can find information about upcoming screenings and register for each program on the American Women's History Initiative website. The schedule for the first six programs is:
Jan. 7—Ingrid Wiegand, Julie Finch: On Loft Life and Space-Making in the 1970s
The first program of the series will feature "Julie" (1975) by filmmakers Robert and Ingrid Wiegand and "Walking" (1975) by Ingrid Wiegand from the collections of the Archives of American Art. These works explore daily life in the filmmaker's SoHo neighborhood in New York. Following the screening, curator Josh T. Franco will join Wiegand and dancer Julie Finch, the subject of "Julie," to discuss art and everyday life in 1970s downtown New York City.
Feb. 4—Joan Jonas: The Inner Worlds of Video
This screening includes two videos from artist Joan Jonas from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Left Side Right Side" (1972, National Portrait Gallery) and "Vertical Roll" (1972, Smithsonian American Art Museum). The screening will be followed by a conversation with Jonas and Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Charlotte Ickes, curator of time-based media art and special projects at the National Portrait Gallery, exploring how artists construct, inhabit and internalize space using the video camera and Jonas' five-decade-plus career.
March 4—Zina Saro-Wiwa: On Mourning and Memory
Mourning is often a private experience. But when the occasions for grief stem from larger social forces, individual pain intersects with history. Such is the case in Zina Saro-Wiwa's "Sarogua Mourning" (2011), in which the Nigerian-born artist attempts to cry for her father, the political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, for the first time since his murder. This video is an incoming acquisition to the National Museum of African Art. The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist and senior curator Karen Milbourne.
April 1—Margaret Salmon: On Motherhood and the Everyday
"Ninna Nanna" (2006), by filmmaker Margaret Salmon, explores the relationships between three young Italian mothers and their infants. In striking images captured on 16 mm film, Salmon observes the subtle dynamics and emotional nuances of the women's interactions with their young children. The filmmaker will join Marina Isgro, associate curator of media and performance art and Robert and Arlene Kogod Secretarial Scholar, in a post-screening conversation about this work in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's collection.
May 6—Zora Lathan and Iman Uqdah Hameen: On Black Interiority
Drawing on the extensive holdings of the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts, this program will be dedicated to the interiority of Black life. The screening will pair the experimental works of Zora Lathan, who uses her family as her muse, and the short film "Unspoken Conversation" (1987) by Iman Uqdah Hameen, which explores a Black woman's journey as a wife and mother. The filmmakers will join National Museum of African American History and Culture's curator Rhea Combs and media conservator Ina Archer for a post-screening conversation.
June 3—Leslie Thornton: On Imagining Isolation
"Peggy and Fred in Kansas" (1987), from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, is the best-known installment of filmmaker Leslie Thornton's several-decade episodic experiment "Peggy and Fred in Hell" (1984–2013). In this work, the titular protagonists are cut off from an implied post-apocalyptic exterior. Following the screening, a conversation between curator Saisha Grayson and Thornton will reflect on how this avant-garde film classic resonates with renewed urgency for audiences in 2021.
About the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative
The Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, "Because of Her Story," is one of the country's most ambitious undertakings to research, collect, document, display and share the rich, complete and compelling story of women in America. Launched in 2018, the initiative seeks to create a more equitable and just American society by creating, educating, disseminating and amplifying the historical record of the accomplishments of American women. More information about the initiative, including exhibitions and public programs, is available online at womenshistory.si.edu.
Art / Graphics / Photography
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After installing Sage 50 on your computer, at times you may run into an error message that says "Sage 50 Unable to register data source" or "Sage 50 Unable to register expression library". Both these error messages primarily mean the same and cause issues when you try to run reports and crashes your Sage 50 accounting software, making it difficult for you to work on Sage 50.
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Published by the Pirate FM News Team at 10:08am 5th March 2012.
Cornwall's biggest hospital is forced to turn an admissions lounge into a makeshift ward.
Treliske says it happened last week after an unpredictable spike in numbers at A&E.
Bosses insist it is normal procedure and the area is equipped to deal with patients.
Graham Webster is Vice Chair of Health Initiative Cornwall: "It is a worry to us. We are aware of the bed reductions. and we're concerend about capacity. We think that there needs to be a continued conversation on this for the future so that there is some provision within the system when these situations arise.
In a statement, a Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust spokesperson said: "In recent days we have faced significant pressures in our Emergency Department and across medical wards with an increase in the numbers of patients presenting with high acuity needs.
"Our staff are working extremely hard to ensure patients continue to receive timely, safe and high quality care at RCHT."
RCHT Emergency Department lead consultant Andy Virr said: "Our role is to treat those with immediate and potentially life-threatening illness and injury. Those with less urgent needs will be treated more quickly if they see their GP, get advice from a pharmacist or make use of the excellent network of minor injury units around the county."