However, it is said that around half of them have ceased activity. Source: the article "NGOs in Cambodia: It's complicated" (Helena Domashneva) in the December 3, 2013 issue of The Diplomat magazine.
Known as Social Business, Social Enterprise or Social Entrepreneurship. A corporation that seeks to address social issues through for-profit business activity.
Sokha is a child haunted by war. She suffers from memories of the Khmer Rouge, but discovers the power of arts to give her strength, and finds the tools to heal both herself and her community. Based on the true stories of the Khuon Det.
The owner of a grungy Phnom Penh rock bar and his brother, together with customers who are seeking adventures and love, find moments of humor and humanity. The production leads the audience to see the glimpse into the wild side of Cambodian urban life through rock music.
A disfigured young man who is rejected and ridiculed, seeks help from the gods, who answered his prayers by transforming him into a beautiful woman. As he attracts the attention of the village men, people start to discover there's something sinister about her. Based on traditional Cambodian folktales, the story tells rejection, revenge and eventual forgiveness.
One of the newest production that features themes of power, survival and triumph. From primordial organisms, ancient king, to a runner tripping his competitors to win a race, the characters of influence dominate and are dominated, trick and are tricked, but ultimately finds unique place in the world.
This is a comical production that depicts different habits between Cambodians and foreign visitors. A sudden downpour, an unexpected power outage, and a relaxing dinner all provide the backdrops of funny encounters and opposing perspectives.
The field of art culture is no exception, with many international and local NGOs active in it, such as Cambodian Living Arts which works to preserve traditional art and support young artists, Amrita Performing Arts, a company which is creating a new method of expression through a combination of traditional expression and contemporary dance, and Epic Arts which seeks to support the expression of youth with disabilities (many of these organizations have the founding members as directors and see participation from members from many countries, and the members simultaneously set up non-profit organizations in their own countries to collect donations). Due to this, many non-profit organizations in Cambodia are highly organized and use foreign donations to employ a large staff.
One such art-related NGO is Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), a school founded in 1994 to spread art education in an impoverished area. Furthermore, Phare, the Cambodian Circus, the social enterprise (*2) founded by PPS in 2013 succeeded as a tourism business based on an original, uniquely-Cambodian circus. Just as PPS means "a light shone by art" and Phare means "the beacon" in the Khmer language, both organizations work to shine a light of hope into the lives of many young people. The following is an interview with Dara Huot, who has served as CEO of Phare since 2013.
Phare, the Cambodian Circus (Phare) has been presenting original work every day since 2013 at its own big top in Siem Reap, where tourists come to see Angkor Wat, and functions as a social enterprise to raise funds from ticket sales. Can we begin with how the NGO Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), which offers arts and education to the unprivileged community, created Phare, the Circus? How did it all begin?
The story of Phare is indeed quite a tale. It is hard to imagine that what it has grown into today had such a humble beginning. In 1986, a young French art teacher named Veronique Decrop volunteered to work at refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border and taught arts to the children to help them cope with trauma.
In 1991 when the Paris Peace Accords were signed, all refugee camps had to be closed, and those who did not migrate to a third country were urged to return to Cambodia. Thousands of people who had left their land and property before the war were unable to reclaim ownership when they returned. Having their homes and land taken away, many of these former refugees decided to settle in Battambang near the Thai border, thinking they might need to escape again should another war start. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, those who had knowledge, those who could speak foreign language, teachers, doctors, government staff, writers, singers and musicians were the first to be killed. We don't know the exact number, but it is believed that 90% of intellectuals in Cambodia were killed. When it was liberated, we found our nation traumatized, paralyzed, and filled with women and children. Those who could read and write started to teach others, because we had lost all our teachers. The young generation did not even know their own country because many of them had spent close to 10 years in refugee camps. Some promised to travel by foot to meet each other again without knowing how far away each city was. This was year zero for Cambodia.
It was in these circumstances that many young people learned to draw from Veronique, as she stayed in Cambodia for a long time. Among those who learned from her, 9 young people decided to work together with their teacher and use their art skills to contribute to the rebuilding of Cambodia. They started giving free painting and drawing classes under a tree, which became the origin of PPS. The tree is still standing today inside our school in Battambang. Some members gradually found that many young people also wanted to jump, run, dance, and express themselves with their bodies. One of our founders, Khuon Det, had the opportunity to study at the National Circus School of Cambodia in the 1980s. He then initiated a performing arts program within PPS when he came back in 1998: first music, then theatre, and then the circus. Khuon Det is now a director of performing arts in PPS, which now has 4 disciplines, including dance.
How did you spend your childhood, while the PPS founders started to teach art under a tree?
I was born in Siem Reap in the early 1980s and grew up in Battambang. Growing up in Cambodia at that time, I still clearly remember hearing the propaganda radio. They played lots of songs about blood: blood of the farmers, of the workers, of the revolution. I was born after the Khmer Rouge, but I grew up hearing stories of how people lived through it. It was actually my bedtime story, because my mother used to tell me of her experiences before I would go to sleep. How she survived, what she ate, and how she picked up the habit of smoking to get some rest from farming as those who smoke were allowed to take short breaks.
Like my mother, Khuon Det also lived through the Khmer Rouge. One of his productions, Sokha, is based on his experiences. The production still brings me to tears when I see it, as the imagery is very vivid even to my generation. I am worried that if we don't do enough to teach our children about it, history may repeat; people might forget what happened and make the same mistakes again.
I first experienced arts and culture through radio. When I was growing up, I used to like listening to "speaking theatre," or audio drama, on the radio. It was so fascinating I even asked my mother if we could go meet the voice actors. We could not, because at that time there were no theatres in the city, so to me those actors only existed within the radio programs. In the 2000s, this speaking theatre culture died out naturally. Another thing I enjoyed as a child was going to the cinema. Bollywood movies were so popular that some people even named their children after Bollywood star, Officer Govinda. Everyone rode bicycles or motorbikes to the cinema, which was nothing more than an outdoor space surrounded by curtains and a film projector. Around this time, Cambodian cinema was flourishing, but that industry also seemed to have died out when TV culture arrived. What became popular instead were Thai dramas and Hong Kong action movies on TV. At that time, my family was doing very well in business, so we were the first in the village to own a TV. The whole village gathered at our house every night, and some children even stayed overnight. It is a very special memory to me, and I still remember it very well.
However, I still remember some hard times as well. People think that the Khmer Rouge ended in 1979, but even around 2001, they still controlled parts of Cambodia. The areas near the border with Thailand were the last battleground. In village area where I lived, remaining Khmer Rouge would come to steal from people. So when we heard gunshots, we would run to our underground shelters: every household used to have one out back. We just grabbed what we could: water, food, and rice, and hid underground, sometimes for several days, until it was quiet outside. I also used to hear on the radio, "Success, success, we killed our enemies!" Their enemies were the Vietnamese, Capitalism and America, but it also meant Cambodians killing other Cambodians. They sounded very proud, but even when I was young, I wondered: "But why is killing each other a success?" That was also part of my childhood.
Those stories seem hard to believe, looking at what you have become today at Phare. What were your cultural influences other than radio and cinema?
There is another thing I liked: the travelling circus. They still exist in Cambodia today, but only in very rural areas. They are called Pahi. Street artists who survived the Khmer Rouge formed troupes and toured from one village to another. They did acrobatics, magic, and used monkeys to make people laugh and cry, and then they sold medicine – traditional herbal medicine – instead of asking for payment for the performance. They came to villages almost every month, and they were amazing. I have very beautiful memories of them. There were many troupes, and some of them were famous among the villages, not because of TV or radio but through word-of-mouth. People admired some of the star performers like they do celebrities today.
Another similar kind of performance was Lakhon Bassac. Lakhon means theater, and Bassac is the name of a river. It is a traditional Cambodian fusion of Chinese Opera: they sing, do acrobatics and kung fu, while playing mostly Cambodian musical instruments. They were also very popular, especially at Pagoda festivals. When they would come, the whole village would gather: some children came early to get a good spot, and some even stayed and slept outdoors all night as the show went on. This form of theatre was very alive at that time. We used to have a joke – some of the characters in the performance were kings, so people used to say, "The poorest king in the world is the king in the theatre," because after the performance they went among the food stalls at the festival to buy food. Those performances have always been supported through the patronage of wealthier families. At some point in my life it was my father who would bring artists to the village for everybody to enjoy.
You studied at PPS in the past. How did you become a student there?
When I was in high school in Battambang, my friends and I used to ride bicycles together and go to PPS. We went there mostly to have some fun after school and on school holidays. The school mostly functions that way even today, except the formal education curriculum which started in 2004. Informal classes are open and free. If you feel like drawing, or playing music, you just go to one of the classes. I picked up music and learned the Roneat, a Cambodian xylophone. It is one of the most important instruments in traditional ensembles; you see a lot of those in our productions at the circus. I forgot how to play, but I used to remember which key to hit by remembering the assigned numbers, as PPS follows traditional pedagogy and does not use western notation.
After three months of learning music for fun, I helped PPS's first international project as a translator. There were 7 artists from Europe, musicians, costume makers, scenographers, circus performers and so on, and they spent one week conducting a workshop to help young people learn. Some of the participants from the project, such as our artistic director Bunthoeun, still work for Phare today as directors of the shows.
After the workshop, we went on to our very first tour within Cambodia. It was called "an awareness tour," which was intended to educate rural residents about AIDS, Malaria, dengue fever, and land mines. As many of those villagers only had access to the propaganda radio and were cut off from other forms of media, many people did not know about these things. The teachers in the group were mainly from France, and ever since the project began in 2001, they continued to come back and hold workshops with us. The group is now called Collectif clowns d'ailleurs et d'ici (Clowns Collective from Around the World). Today they have become a partner organization bringing PPS senior students on European tours twice every year. As we speak now, one such group is touring in France. Students who register in the formal course for performing arts will go on this tour before they graduate. The group functions as a partner to PPS, and helps raise awareness about our works in Europe as well.
It seems your language skill helped you open some doors, but how did you learn to speak English and French?
I was born and raised in Cambodia, and studied English in Pagoda (temple); monks in the village were my language teachers. Traditionally, Buddhism was the center of education in Cambodia. In fact, when boys reached the age of 12 or 13, they were encouraged to go to Pagoda. Being a monk was the equivalent to being a university student, because as a monk, you are there to absorb knowledge. One becomes a monk not only for religious purposes, but also for the education they receive. After a person comes back from spending 10 or more years as a monk and becomes a layperson again, we call that person a "man-of-knowledge," or Bandith in Khmer, which means doctor. We call them doctors, similar to what we call people who complete higher education and earn a Ph.D. It was quite common in my childhood for people to learn English not only in public schools, but at Pagodas for little or no cost. I studied French because my father wanted me to be a lawyer. Back then, French was the only language for law and medicine. Luckily, I was chosen to be part of a French government project, La Francophonie, to integrate the French language into formal high school education, as well as studying it at the French Cultural Centre.
Many people thought I was from a privileged family and went abroad to study; yes at some point my family was doing well in business, but also I grew up selling flowers with my mother in the market. The only thing I feel lucky about was having a strong-willed mother who pushed me to study hard. There are actually many affordable, accessible options for Cambodians to study. So whenever I speak about language, I always feel strongly obliged to tell young Cambodians that if they want a good career or want to be successful, they must study hard, especially English, and that being unable to afford it should not be an excuse.
I understand that PPS currently functions as a public school as well as offering arts classes. Can you tell us about how it is managed?
Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), managed by our mother NGO, has evolved a lot over the years, seeing many changes, but even today they remain true to their original vision and mission with programs in three main pillars: arts training, social support and formal education.
In arts training, there are two departments: the Visual and Applied Arts School, which teaches fine art, animation and graphic design, and the Performing Arts School, which teaches circus, music, dance and theatre. There are 3 more founders still active in visual arts alongside Khuon Det: Srey Bandaul, Tor Vutha, and Lon Lao. They are considered the first generation of Cambodian visual artists to emerge following the Khmer Rouge.
Social support is a very crucial part of the school. This program allows us to help children from the most underprivileged backgrounds, or those suffering from neglect, abuse, and all sorts of problems. We want to provide not only education but also an environment that makes it possible to continue learning. We now work with 10 social workers, following 800 families in 3 neighborhood communes on a regular basis.
Most recently, the school started to offer formal education from kindergarten to high school. There are 4 high schools in the city including ours, but the 3 other schools have students mostly from middle to upper income families. In PPS, many things are offered for free, so we mainly have students from lower income backgrounds. At grade 8 or 9, many give up school because their family does not earn enough for them to continue to study. Many of them start working on the street, become laborers, start selling things, or migrate (sometimes even illegally, because they can't afford legal working permits and passports) to Thailand to become construction workers. So, in our school as a whole, there are a lot of students in the beginning, but in the final year, grade 12, usually there is only one class. Among those students, only a few of them, usually 3 to 5 or so, will pass the final exam to receive their high school certificate. Other high schools would probably have 15 classes and most of them would pass the graduation exam.
Art curricula are offered in both informal and formal education. Students can go join any of the class for leisure, or they can enroll in a formal curriculum. The formal curriculum provides them a certificate from PPS, but it is not equivalent to high school certificate. We are hoping, and working, to be recognized as a vocational training school to be able to give a high school certificate or higher to arts students.
Are students from the Arts curriculum able to find jobs relating to their skills after graduation?
We have 1200 students, which makes us quite large as a school, but not everybody is involved in the arts. Among those 1200, only a handful will choose art as a career. At our performing arts school, a full-time class would start with around 40 students, but by graduation, we usually have only 8 to 10. Some of them find other opportunities and leave, which is a good for them, and we hope they become supporters of the arts in the future. Some of them leave school and start working as laborers or construction workers. Many girls quit when they get married because their husbands or families expect them to cook and raise children at home. We have lost amazing female artists because of this. In fact, we are making enabling women to continue their careers after marriage one of the priority areas for our social workers.
So even if one loves it and has talent for it, it is a very difficult path to choose as a career. Phare has shown them that there is some hope, though it is not very sustainable yet, so if they have other choices, there's no reason to stop them. We have very good contact with a former musician who is now a shop owner, and we always greet each other. In the end, the important thing for us is that they have good lives.
Phare employs graduates from PPS. How does Phare work? Can you give us an overview?
At Phare, the Cambodian Circus, we perform full-length original Cambodian circus performances 365 days a year in our theatre, a big top with 330 seats in the city of Siem Reap. When we started in 2013, we strategically selected Siem Reap to target the 4 million tourists who visit Angkor Wat every year. We produce our own circus shows, using music, theatre, dance, and even visual arts, to tell unique stories based on Cambodian history, culture and society. We provide our customers a unique opportunity to see Cambodian culture, and at the same time provide employment to our graduate artists, with a mission to raise funds for the sustainable management of our NGO.
It is very important for us to be human, real, and grassroots. I have seen many different types of theatre and circus performances, including the famous Cirque du Soleil, but I think Phare is different and special, and being unique is definitely a good thing. If we had 3,000 seats instead of 330 it would make us so much more money, but we would not have the real, human connections that we have in our stage right now. That is why we have 330 seats, but turning that into a sustainable business model is a big challenge. How can we make this 330-seat theatre a model that is able to employ, say, 1,000 artists in the future? Planning for the future is very challenging, but our focus will always be on the development of our artists and employees, not only how to make the business grow.
I learned that images of acrobatic moves are inscribed on the walls of ancient temples such as Bayon Temple, suggesting it has been practiced in Cambodia for many centuries. The style of the circus produced in Phare is called contemporary circus. How important is it that the circus is in the tradition of Cambodia?
Cambodia has as a whole experienced an identity crisis especially in circus arts. We have found through our research on the bar-relief carvings in the now UNESCO World Heritage site Sambo Prei Kuk and through traveling performing troupes such as Pahi, that there is a long history of circus and acrobatic performances in our country from as far back as the 6th century. But in our society after 90% of the intellectuals were killed, many of us are unsure about what tradition and identity in circus arts we can rely on. We might have not recreated exactly how it was done in tradition, but we were clear from the beginning about what types of circus we wanted to do. In 1998 when Khuon Det came back from his training and started circus training at PPS, the idea of contemporary circus was quite developed especially in Europe and Canada. We didn't want to go back to using animals, but wanted to create our own unique style of performance.
Det and Phare emphasize the long history and focus on creating an original Cambodian production, because we want people to recognize it as part of our culture, not something entirely foreign. We still have a lot to do to raise awareness of this issue to the audience.
What is the direction of the production?
At the end of the day, our basic principle is to define the needs of the people; they must be willing to come to the show and willing to pay for it. Today in Seam Reap, our target market is tourists, and they come to Cambodia only for 2 or 3 nights. We care about our artists and social mission but as a social business, I must also consider who pays for it. Today at this moment we won't aim to take the risk of experimental, abstract shows even if they are deemed to have high artistic value in the art world. We need a performance that makes us proud, as well as keep our customers satisfied.
It was a big learning curve for us. We are trying to create a new production every year, and I think one production should not last more than 5 years. We hire artistic directors from inside and outside of the company when creating a new production, but there are times when we could not agree with the way it was going. In one case, it was very difficult for both the director and us, but after a long talk, discussion and rehearsal reviews, it was decided that we had to quit the production in the middle. It was simply too abstract for an audience seeking inspiration that we did not see our target audience willing to pay for it. We felt maybe we did not convey our needs clearly enough, so after that we created a brand guideline thanks to the great help from Mr. James Tan, my manager in the company I worked for formerly. The purpose of the guideline is to share what Phare is supposed to be and what it wants to be. We do not want to limit anyone's creativity – we want everyone to be as free and expressive as possible, but there are certain feelings we want the audience to take back home after watching our show. So, from both a business and artistic perspective, we now give very clear guidelines to everyone in our team.
Increasing attention is being given to the notion of a "social circus" that deals with social problems such as poverty, disability or aging. Do you consider Phare to be a social circus as well?
For us, it is very clear; we focus on the artists' livelihood and our business, and we let our mother NGO, PPS, handle the social circus programs to deal with social welfare, mutual understanding and poverty. We do have community engagement programs, however, we perform in schools or in villages without charge, or invite school children and social groups in Cambodia to see our shows. These are the small things we do in our capacity as a social enterprise, but the NGO handles the program for human development through circus. PPS founded the Asian Social Circus Association in 2013 together with 5 other members. The association is still in the beginning stages, but I see a great potential in the network. When it comes to the point where the social enterprise finances most of the school's budget, the school might be able to expand their social circus activities. Maybe they can reach international festivals, continue to visit slum communities, or drug rehabilitation centers to help people develop. Today we do things with what we have, but in the future when we grow as an organization, there are many things we could reach out to do.
Can you talk about the Tini Tinou Festival? It started 10 years ago, many years before Phare was established. How did it start?
Tini Tinou Festival is an international circus festival started in 2006. It was originally initiated by the French Institute of Cambodia, and PPS was a partner from the beginning. After 4 years, PPS took on the role of main organizer in 2010. For several years after that we could not afford the full program, but we re-launched it in 2014 with Phare the Circus as the main organizer. We had an audience of 4,500 spread across 8 nights in 3 cities. Over the years we had performances from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan and France. We are planning its return in May 2018, in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Siem Reap as 11th edition. Along with the international performances, we are also planning a Fringe Festival in Battambang as a new effort, to host performances and workshops by young Cambodian artists.
Finally, I would like to ask about the social enterprise. In one interview you had expressed that you decided to join Phare because it was a social enterprise, not a not-for-profit organization, so that your experiences in business could be useful. Even so, it seems like a huge change of career. How did you decide to work for it?
I was in business for 13 years. First I was in the airline business, and later involved in hospitality and tourism. I was proud to be one of the few Cambodians in a management position, holding equal responsible with the expatriates in the company. All my life, I had never even dreamed of working in the arts. In 2012 when Phare contacted me, I thought they were asking for a donation. But when I found out that they had actually approached me to run a new business for them, my first reaction was: "No way!" I was happily climbing my way up in my corporate career, and wasn't intending to give it up.
I wouldn't be sitting here today if I hadn't taken the classes in Phare in 2001, and got to know the people there. I was interested because I knew them and I care for them. I knew how poor some of the children are, and I knew how those people have been helping the community where I grew up. Actually, it was not so out of the blue; we have kept up a good relationship for a long time, partly thanks to my career in airlines, as I used to see them quite often at the airport. From time to time they had been asking if I could help here and there. So after I heard this offer, I said no, but started to help them in my free time.
It took a year until I made up my mind. I was not sure how I could be a CEO suddenly. It was then that my ex-boss looked at me in my eyes and said, "Dara, you are ready. Go do this!" I was so surprised and confused as I always thought the company would not want me to leave. It was there that I learned in a big way that being a leader is not about surrounding yourself with amazing people and keeping them there; being a leader is being able to look at someone in the eye and say, "You can do this. Go do it!" That is what I continue to do in my business today. Even if I know it will be hard for me to let someone go, if I see that they have potential, I will encourage them to take the chance.
I understand that the initial idea of starting a social enterprise was back in 2008 when the global economic crisis hit the donors of the school. They expected a social enterprise to generate a sustainable income to support the school, as well as to create employment for the graduate artists.
Our organization is formally called Phare Performing Social Enterprise (PPSE), and we manage the circus as our core business. We have also recently developed other businesses under that umbrella alongside the circus: the Creative Studio which offers services in graphic design, video, sound and 2D animation; the Handcraft Boutique which sells artistic products such as paintings, drawings and music from our artists, as well as locally produced ethical products from other NGOs; and Productions International which handles private events from hotels and corporates, as well as international tours. At the moment, we work with 47 artists and 70 staff members in PPSE on a regular basis including all the associated companies. We are registered as a private limited company, however, as there are no specific schemes for social enterprises in Cambodia. Our mother NGO, Phare Ponleu Selpak Association (PPSA), has been operating as a non-profit, non-governmental organization since 1994, almost 20 years before the circus was established, currently working with 110 staff members including teachers, social workers, administrators and managers at the school. Although PPSA (NGO) created PPSE (Social Enterprise), we operate independently with a different mission and management.
Last year the company posted our first dividend to our shareholders. As the school owns 71% of the shares, we distributed 126,000 dollars to them for the first time. So, while the school is not yet sustainable by PPSE, we now contribute about 22% of the school's budget. In 7 to 10 years we hope to contribute 90% of their budget.
Who are the other shareholders? How do they influence your operation, and how do you make decisions between business and your social mission? What is your main role in it as the CEO?
Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation owns 17% of the shares. It is a microfinance and social business fund founded by Grameen Bank from Bangladesh and Crédit Agricole Bank from France. They support social business through loans with interest or equity. The rest of the shares are owned by 3 private individuals, who have been with us more than 10 years and have always been there to support us. Our shareholders cannot use the dividends they earn for personal purposes, but must use them for society. That means the individual shareholders can actually choose to donate their dividends to our school.
When we do our business as a social enterprise, we are guided by our mission and shareholders, as well as Social Business Charter. In this Charter, there are 6 principles, 17 commitments, and 31 indicators. These help guide us very clearly on what to do to remain true to our social values. In every managers' meeting, we always reaffirm our principle – that the livelihood of our artists is at our core. That is the only thing we are here for.
There are many forms in which social enterprise and non-profit organization can operate, but I have seen some organizations struggling with their identity and what they are driven by. In our case we are quite clear that we are a business and PPSA is the non-profit. We are a private limited company owned by shareholders, so we create wealth through our business, and at the same time contribute to our mission.
When it comes to making decisions, I have been very lucky to have very supportive board members. They listen well, even when I have to explain to them the evidence behind my decision. There are 7 of them, and 4 are from the school. None of them are primarily there for money, so when I propose something new or complicated to the board, I always ask myself, is this a business-driven choice, or is it socially-driven? That is my daily job, to always balance those two aspects.
I am glad Phare made the decision to bring in a leader with a different mindset, a business mindset, to the social enterprise from the very beginning. There were times when Phare tried to support graduates in conducting their own business in performing arts, but they did not work out because those students were artists, not business people. Once when performers tried to discuss a business deal with a hotel, both sides ended up getting angry, because they had different agendas and interests. My role here is to be in the middle, filtering the crazy ideas from the business people, and even crazier ideas from the artists, and finding a balance between what we can do, what we should do, and what we want to do.
Currently PPSE operates a broad range of businesses with circus, design, handcraft and event coordination. Do you plan to expand your business further?
Every year we have graduates from PPS with many different creative skills. One of the immediate challenges we are facing today is how to provide enough opportunities and employment for these artists joining our group every year. It is both an opportunity and a challenge: it's an opportunity because we have enough talent now to grow us to what we dream to be.
It is a challenging moment, but we reconsider our vision and identity every time we make a decision, and are careful not to keep adding on too much. New things may generate money, but they might not help us fulfill our commitment. We communicate internally and externally that our first mission is the livelihood of the artists, mostly from underprivileged backgrounds. The development of the artists, as well as staff members, is at the core of what do. Ultimately, it is not even about maintaining the school, if it does not help them live, because the school exists for their career development. So, whatever we do, if the new business does not synergize with our mission, and would steer us away from what we strongly believe, even if it makes money, I think we must be very careful with that direction.
Do you think this can be a new model in Cambodia? Lastly, can you tell us about your vision for the future?
I imagine that even a company like Cirque du Soleil would have been in our shoes when they first started out in 1980s, but now they have become a global entertainment business that employs thousands of people. So where does Phare want to go from here? Shall Phare become a global Cambodian entertainment brand and employ thousands of artists? Or, will Phare continue to be a grassroots social organization that uses its talent for the wider social good? Both visions are equally possible, and we have not decided our direction yet. But one thing we are clear on is to keep Phare very open and welcoming. We are not trying to kill competition, but rather we want to help the industry be vibrant, interesting and competitive. The more choices there are, the longer tourists will spend in Cambodia, and ultimately if there is more employment, there will be better payment, benefiting the artists, and that's what we want.
Someone advised us before that we should target tourists from China more. It is in fact a large and rapidly growing market: one company is currently building a theatre with 1,000 seats for a circus show with animals in Siem Reap, mostly targeting Chinese tourists, which is scheduled to open within 2017. The competition is suddenly real, not only for our business but also for our artists. It is a very scary time for us, of course, but it was also part of our vision to have a vibrant economy and various employers for artists, and it is happening right now.
Do I see Phare as a model for the future? I think this would be a very good model to study in about 5 to 10 years from now, to look at the impact we have brought about. In the near future, one could see if we have become a crazy moneymaking company or become an inspiration to guide people. In 10 years, we can see how the artists have evolved, how their lives have changed and how we survived.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A recent blog by McKinsey poured scorn on the concept of "digital transformation" as a panacea for telecom operators struggling to remain relevant in the 21st century. As the article points out "labelling an initiative 'digital' is counterproductive since it often alienates more-experienced managers and results in a handful of pilots that are eventually too abstract to drive change".
1. Formulate a hybrid cloud transformation roadmap. Core applications such as BSS and OSS might need to remain in the traditional IT architecture indefinitely while others (such as CRM) might be migrated to the cloud over multiple years.
2. Build a Software-Defined Data Center where all infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service. This step requires a centralized management capability that spans multiple heterogeneous virtualization resource pools and physical machines. The unified portal for monitoring and management might also span a mixture of private and public cloud infrastructure. Common templates can also be created for application lifecycle management to free up administrator time.
3. Migrate core services to the cloud while ensuring zero data loss and minimal service interruption time. This is a multi-year process as legacy systems are often comprised of a "mash-up" of software and hardware. Many aging computers and storage systems need to be evaluated to determine which applications on the live network can be moved to the cloud. Application dependency can be very complex and upgrade downtime and migration windows can differ considerably between services where overlapping migrations lead to prolonged downtimes. Migration tool chains are essential to capture and restore application associations. Prioritizing the migration depends on the cost saving potential and risk factors for each specific application. Migrations should be thoroughly tested and verified in a sandbox environment before their planned and automated execution.
4. Continuous optimization of the cloud environment and improved operations and maintenance (O&M) efficiency. It is important to have a unified management and O&M system that covers all of the operator's private and public clouds. Key to automation is the creation of a library of common service lifecycle use cases and scripts (e.g. for installation and configuration) that are orchestrated and managed by automated process tools.


A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee is set to hold a hearing next week on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs).
A notice posted on the committee's website states that the Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee hearing – entitled "Examining the Cryptocurrencies and ICO Markets" – is scheduled for March 14 at 10 a.m. EST.
Speaking to CoinDesk on the sidelines of this week's DC Blockchain Summit, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer – a member of the subcommittee – suggested that the hearing would largely be educational in nature, aimed at providing members with more information about the market for cryptocurrencies and token sales.
He also indicated that, amongst Financial Services Committee members, there's a growing interest in learning more about the subject and the implications of the tech's use in areas like remittances.
The hearing represents the latest Congressional foray into the world of cryptocurrencies, coming more than a month after the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a major hearing on the topic that included testimony from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Jay Clayton and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo. At that hearing, the two notably indicated that their respective agencies could ultimately seek additional oversight powers over the market.
As of press time, no further details have been published regarding the hearing. An agenda outlining the scope of the hearing, as well as who is set to appear as witnesses, is forthcoming, officials said.


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Measures 13" x 14" x 1.5"


It's the battle of the giants as team pros from PokerStars take on the professionals from Full Tilt at EPT 9 London. Which team gets the upper hand? This video highlights the recent contest between the worlds two biggest Poker sites, brought to you by FlopTurnRiver.com.
Announcer:	Welcome to the Flop Turn River coverage of a heads up full out battle between Full Tilt Poker and Poker stars. The event was a battle between both of the sites, made up of three head-to-head match-ups, each match-up comprises three heads up [Inaudible 00:00:24], where winner of each match-up taking home 50K from the loser. We caught up with both of the captains, Gus Hansen and Dan Illegranu to find out what started all this off.
Gus:	I haven't had exactly too many hooray experiences online, maybe just surfing online, or maybe a fan brought it to my attention that they liked that hand, this and that. That was a good hand for me, and that basically kicked it off, I sent a little tweet, he sent back a real needle. You have to give him credit, that was very well thought out, it did sting a little bit, but that's how it goes and I'll survive because I'm a big boy now.
Dan:	He started with his needle, and I threw back a needle of my own, then It snowballed, and then I talked to people at PokerStars to see if something could happen along these lines. Something, like I've said, I wanted to do for a very long time. We thought it'd be fun and to do it here at EPT Live as the perfect place.
Announcer:	The event started here with a match-up between Viktor "isildur1" Blom and Bertrand "Elky" Pelliegh, and we have Mike bringing you the highlights.
Mike:	Let's take a look at some of the big hands In the match between Full Tilt Poker Viktor "isildur1" and PokerStars player Bertrand "Elky" Pelliegh. Elky has a 2-to-1 chip to start this hand, he raises, Isildur calls and they both get just about the wettest flop imaginable. Elky C-bets, Issy raises and neither player waste any time getting the chips in the middle. Elky shows the second nut against Issys open-ended straight draw and flush draw. There's not much either player could do there, that's just a cooler and Elky wins the first table. This next hand happens at table three where Isildur has accumulated a small chip lead, Issy raises, Elky makes the call, they see a flop, and it goes check call. The turn goes check call again, and on the river Issy makes an overbet shove, which Elky calls, it turns out Issy had nothing whereas Elky made the straight on turn.
I think this hand Is a good example of Elky using Isildur1s well known aggressive tendencies against him to trap him into losing a lot of his chips, Isildur was unable to recover and Elky won table three shortly thereafter. Our next interesting hand happened on table two with Elky having a sizable chip lead over Isildur1, Isiluder raises, Elky bets and Isildur makes the call. Elky leads out on this dry flop and Issy calls, the turn goes check-check. Elky checks the river, Issy bets, Elky check raises him and Issy folds. This hand left Isildur very crippled, I think this is another example of using Isildurs aggression against him to win a nice pot. Isildur was unable to recover, Elky swept all three tables against Issy giving Poker Stars a one-nothing lead.
Announcer:	With Poker Stars taking out the A-lead, Gus had a few words about the first match-up.
Gus:	I think on preparation, Stars is going to be the favorite, they're more methodical, where we are more hands down sit on the table and play, and from watching the match of Elky and isildur it seemed that Elky was a little bit better prepared for what he was going to do, and how he was going to deal with different things isildur might throw at him, where Isildur got a little flustered by the constant min-raise by Elky. I think obviously Elky is just not going to sit down and win three-zero against Isildur, but I think from the play it looked like he had a more though out plan and that could be part of the reason he ended up winning that match.
Announcer:	I spoke to Dan and he explained how he picked the PokerStars team.
Dan:	Well I'll tell you how it was done, originally I went to Twitter and asked people who I should pick, and I narrowed it down to five players, obviously Elky, Ike, Vanessa Selps, Jason, and Eugene Chalchalov. Then what I did and this was a great experience for team bonding, I had the five of them all pick two players and put them at one and two. There was a point system, first place rank was two points and then one point, Ike got the most votes, everybody voted for him either first or second and closely in second place was Elky. Obviously it looks like a great pick now since he's beaten Viktor Glom, I couldn't have gone wrong, I really had a great stable of people that could all be competitive at this level.
Announcer:	Mike has the highlight from the Durrrr and Ike match-up.
Mike:	After isildurs defeat at the hands of Elky, it was up to Durrrr to turn things around for team Full Tilt in the match against Stars Pro Ike Haxton. This hand happened at table one, Durrrr raised, Ike three bet, and Durrrr made the call. They see a flop, Ike C-bets, Durrr raises and Ike Haxton goes over the top, Durrrr folds. This hand gave Ike a commanding chip lead and he went on to win table one against Durrrr. Our next hand happens at table two where Ike had accumulated a substantial trip lead over Durrrr. They are only about 20 big blinds deep, so Durrrr is absolutely correct to get it in here with ace jack, unfortunately he runs into the very top of Ikes range losing table two.
The next big hand happened at table three where Ike had a decent chip lead over Durrrr going into the hand. Durrrr raised, Ike three bet, and Durrrr made the call. Ike C-bet, Durrrr raised, Ike went all in, and Durrrr called, and it was top pair for Ike, flush draw and over-card for Durrrr. Durrrr got lucky on the river there to win the hand and to go on and win the table, unfortunately for Durrrr this was too little too late as Ike had already won two tables, making the final score Ike Haxton two, Durrrr one. Going into the final match the score was Pokerstars two, Full Tilt zero.
Announcer:	With PokerStars now having won the, the last match-up was just bragging rights for the captains, and 50 thousand dollars. Gus had a couple tactics he wanted to try and outfox Daniel with.
Gus:	I have some ideas, obviously I'd like to throw something at him that he doesn't expect. I'm not quite sure what he does expect, I do have a history of limping a lot in some matches. Am I going to continue doing that? Maybe, maybe not. I haven't picked a specific scenario and obviously no matter what I start out I have to vary my game no matter what, I'm going to try and throw a couple of curve-balls in there.
Announcer:	Here's Mike with the low-down on this final grudge match.
Mike:	In this final Dan IIllegranu "Kid Poker" representing PokerStars faces off against Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen. This hand happened at table two, after only a few minutes of play Daniel raised pre-flop and Gus made the call, on the flop Daniel C-bets, Gus check raises and Daniel calls. The turn is where things get interesting, Gus bets, Daniel raises, and Gus three-bets all in, Daniel makes the call with his top two pair against Gus Hansens top pair with a queen picker, I think Gus really overplayed his hand here giving that they started 150 big blinds deep, in any case Daniel won that hand and that table. This next hand happened at table three where Gus is severely short stacked, he has about 26 big blinds. Daniel opens, Gus three-bets, Daniel four bets all in, and Gus calls with jack nine off suit. Very, very optimistic play of jack nine off suit by Gus. Daniels ace-king to win the hand and the table.
This last hand happens at table one with Daniel having a two-to-one chip lead against Gus. Daniel opens raises, Gus three bets, Daniel four bets. Just get it in guys enough of this. All right they get it in, it's Daniels kings against Gus's jacks, there is nothing either of them could have done there differently I think. I think this is a standard cooler, unlucky for Gus, and with that hand Daniel Illegranu wins three of his hands against Gus Hansen, bringing the Poker Stars total to three matches won as against zero matches won for the Full Tilt Pros. This is certainly a dismal performance by Team Full Tilt and an overwhelming victory for Team Poker Stars team.
Announcer:	With that new match complete, Full Tilt Professionals cannot be happy with the result, with a rematch already in the offing, we can only hope that Team Full Tilt can come back with a vengeance next time. This is Rob King from Flop Turn River.


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New coalition looks to find business to fill Rockton Avenue Schnucks in Rockford
Ken DeCoster Staff writer @DeCosterKen
Mar 9, 2019 at 8:00 AM Mar 13, 2019 at 11:04 PM
ROCKFORD — The closing of the Schnucks grocery store and pharmacy at 3150 N. Rockton Ave. last summer created a gaping hole on the city's northwest side that has yet to be filled.
A full-service grocery store anchored the Rockton Avenue shopping center for 60 years, serving the area as a Logli Supermarket until 1998, when Schnuck Markets purchased the Logli chain. The closing of the Rockton Avenue store, coupled with the 2012 shutdown of the former Hilander store at 3710 N. Main St., has created a food desert in northwest Rockford.
A newly formed coalition of churches working to promote economic development in the area is the latest to step in and try to find a new business to fill the empty hub. The fledgling Northwest Christian Community Development Association is interested in finding a new store for the former Schnucks site.
"I used to go there quite often and it always seemed like a good crowd of people there," said the Rev. Eric Lemonholm, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on North Rockton Avenue and a member of the association. "I certainly think another grocery store could thrive there in that space."
Members of Lemonholm's congregation have been vocal about Schnucks' departure.
"Especially some of our older folks," Lemonhom said. "That was their go-to place, a place they've been going to for years, back when it was a Logli's. For them, there's a Walmart, but that's so big."
Alderman Bill Rose, D-9, whose ward contains the former grocery site, said many of his constituents are still reeling from Schnucks' departure.
"A lot of them are just trying to survive," Rose said. "Some are frequenting Aldi's, Save-A-Lot, Pinnons and other smaller stores. It's hard because Schnucks offered so much including a pharmacy and a full-service deli."
Faith Bennett, who lives on Bell Avenue, six to eight blocks from the vacant Schnucks, said she now does most of her grocery shopping at the Walmart on West Riverside Boulevard, three miles from her home.
"I cried like a baby when they closed," Bennett said. "Not only was it just a store, but it was like going to see your friends that became your family. Miss them and the store."
St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets said the low sales volumes and high operating costs of two older facilities factored heavily in the decision to shutter the Rockton Avenue location and a store across town at 2601 N. Mulford Road.
While shoppers who frequented the Mulford Road Schnucks have other full-service grocery options in northeast Rockford, customers who used the Schnucks on Rockton Avenue have to travel farther to meet their grocery needs.
Teresa Street and her husband live on Conklin Court, about four blocks from the vacant store on Rockton Avenue. They now do most of their grocery shopping at Woodman's on the city's far northeast side.
"I really miss that store," Street said. "It was convenient and I really liked the employees. They had carports. I go to Save-a-Lot sometimes but (I) miss the deli, bakery and the salad bar. Also, the selection (at Save-a-Lot) is smaller. Woodman's gets most of our business now, but it's so far away."
Street said she and her husband have discussed having their groceries delivered, "but we haven't taken that step."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food deserts as large areas devoid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthy whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. The deserts develop largely because of a lack of grocery stores, farmers markets and providers of healthy food.
The Rockton Avenue shopping center including the vacant grocery store space is owned by the Rockton Center Partners, a division of Midland MGT LLC, in Milwaukee. The shopping center's other tenants are Ace Hardware, Family Dollar, Payless Shoes and Angle Inn Diner.
"Business is slower now that we've lost our grocery store," Ace Hardware owner Tom Siehoff said. "We do have our regulars that support us one hundred percent, which we're grateful for, but when you lose that traffic in and out of the center, it does make a big difference."
The city of Rockford was in discussions last year with the owner of the shopping center about filling the space but there is no update on a potential replacement, according to Rockford Economic Development Director Karl Franzen.
While he holds out hope that the former Schnucks on Rockton Avenue will be filled with another grocery store, Rose said he's open to other ideas.
"The market for supermarkets has changed, especially with delivery options," Rose said. "I'm still shooting for a grocery store for Rockton Avenue. I know there's a lot of support for one in the community."
The closings of its Rockton Avenue and Mulford Road locations leave Schnucks with six properties in the Rockford area.
The shuttered store at 1715 Rural St. is owned by the grocery store chain and is still on the market nearly five years after it closed.
Ken DeCoster: 815-987-1391; kdecoster@rrstar.com; @DeCosterKen


text:
Texas v. Mayorkas (TX Public Charge) - District Court
Southern District of Texas
Judge(s)
Texas filed this suit in early January 2023 to challenge a regulation DHS finalized in September 2022 that defines when immigrants can be denied a visa or green card because they are likely to become a "public charge." U.S. immigration law has had a "public charge" provision since 1882–the same year (and for similar reasons) that Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act–but Congress has never defined the term. The federal agencies responsible for enforcing immigration law (like DHS), however, have long defined it as applying only to those likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence (like those in the historical poorhouses). In 2019, however, DHS under President Trump issued a regulation to dramatically (and cruelly) expand that interpretation. The regulation challenged in this case repeals the Trump-era regulation and adopts in its place the historical understanding of "public charge." Texas alleges that the challenged regulation conflicts with immigration law and was adopted without going through required procedures.
Shortly after Texas filed suit, Judge Tipton set a conference for April 3, 2023 to decide on a schedule for the case.
Texas's Complaint alleges that the repeal of the 2019 rule and the adoption of the 2022 rule: (1) conflicts with the statutory definition of "public charge"; (2) was arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the APA, becase it failed to adequately explain the significant departures from the 2019 rule; and (3) violated the APA's notice-and-comment requirements.
Complaint (PDF) (PDF)


text:
Dave Hansford on Biodiversity: Do non-native species count?
Stephen Thorpe on Minister right to be wary of gene editing – Part 2
Grant Jacobs on Minister right to be wary of gene editing – Part 2
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Minister right to be wary of gene editing
By Jamie Steer • 18/06/2019 • 5
The Minister of Conservation's recent direction to put the brakes on research into gene editing for predator eradication has proven a bone of contention with some. That's regrettable because her decision is well justified.
In a recent Letter of Expectation to Predator Free 2050 Limited, Minister Sage instructed that no resources shall be directed towards the development of gene editing technology[1] for killing rats, stoats or possums. Her reasons for the restriction were essentially the same as those she voiced back in December 2017 when she commented that:
"Gene editing is an unproven technology for predator control. Gene technologies are problematic and untested and have significant risks…They have no social licence to operate. There is a lot at stake and there is a need for the utmost caution…"
Despite such forewarnings it apparently took the board of Predator Free 2050 Limited by surprise. Indeed the board was reportedly a picture of woe, appearing "deflated" and "a shadow of its former self" following the decision. No longer was there a "sense of urgency, of optimism, of that keenness to do the job that was so obvious twelve months ago" opined the National Party's Environment Spokesperson.
Objections to the Minister's decision have since emerged from various quarters. Let's take a look at four of them now to see how they stack up.
1. The decision is ideological
The first objection is that the Minister's position is a reflection of her personal values and therefore somehow unscientific or even anti-science. The National Party's Conservation Spokesperson, for instance, felt the Minister had been "captured by her ideology."[2] According to the Spokesperson, the National Party was different: "National's all about the science. We think good science should inform conservation policy…" A Stuff commentator agreed, suggesting that the Minister was guilty of making a decision grounded in her "political ideology".
Missing from these remarks however was any indication of what the Minister's ideology actually is or how it might have affected her decision. While the Green Party has long opposed the use of Genetically Modified Organisms, no effort was made to provide evidence that her decision was ideological. Or, if it was, why that would necessarily invalidate it. After all, political parties, and their decisions – on both the right and left – are necessarily ideological.
And should science inform conservation policy? Of course it should, but science cannot tell us whether gene editing is the 'right' approach for eradicating predatory mammals. That decision is ultimately one of values and priorities. As a recent paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution put it, conversations about the use of genetic technologies in conservation involve "value judgements with ethical implications; simply providing more information [scientific or otherwise] may not change opinions on these topics".
The Minister simply expressed a preference for other technologies of eradication, all of which, by the way, have a much stronger evidential basis and proven effectiveness than gene editing.
2. The science is settled – it's low risk
Another objection has arisen from the notion that the science on genetic modification is largely settled, and that it's low risk. Why then would the Minister not endorse its investigation for predator eradication?
The Prime Minister's former Chief Science Advisor seemed to align with this view in stating to media that the science on genetic modification, for predator eradication or other applications, "is as settled as it will be…that is, it is safe, that there are no significant ecological or health concerns associated with the use of advanced genetic technologies".
He went on to suggest that "the science is pretty secure, and science can never be absolute…But the uncertainty here is minimal to nil, very, very low".
Is that so though? Actually, there are significant concerns among the scientific community about the use of genetic technologies for conservation. At best, the advice from scientists so far has been to proceed with "extreme caution".
One prominent issue is that genetically edited organisms could precipitate the global extinction of that species, even where it is native. Individuals could be deliberately smuggled[3] out of the country (like how rabbit calicivirus arrived in New Zealand) or be transported inadvertently in cargo. Rats in particular have a long history of doing the latter.[4]
The global extinction of species due to gene editing or the like, whether accidental or intentional, would be a political and ecological disaster. It has been suggested that international governance rules therefore need to be established before even contemplating a local application.
In light of the recent controversy over the American military scoping New Zealand out as a target for genetic experimentation, it has been mooted that an independent body be established to manage and oversee any future research proposals in this area. A 2017 article in PLoS Biology by two geneticists stated that moving forward without the permission of other countries would be "highly irresponsible." They implored rather that:
"Now is the time to be bold in our caution. In our view, it is wise to assume that invasive and self-propagating gene drive systems are likely to spread to every population of the target species throughout the world. Accordingly, they should only be built to combat true plagues such as malaria, for which we have few adequate countermeasures and there is a realistic path towards an international agreement to deploy among all affected nations. If there is no such path—as is likely when the notion of a safe field trial is likely to be an oxymoron—then it is best if we refrain from developing self-propagating gene drive systems in the target species at all. For the handful of cases such as malaria for which a plausible path exists, the research should be undertaken in laboratories located far from existing populations of the target species and be performed in concert with extensive community engagement efforts in those nations likely to be affected. This is precisely the strategy being pursued by "Target Malaria". For all other candidate applications, including in New Zealand, we should not even consider building drive systems likely to spread indefinitely beyond the target area".
3. We need gene editing to achieve interim predator free goals
A third objection has been that gene editing is needed to achieve one of Predator Free 2050's interim 2025 goals, specifically the one seeking to "Achieve a breakthrough science solution capable of eradicating at least one small mammal predator." In one of the Conservation Minister's first official briefings from DOC she was advised that genetic technologies are one of the approaches with potential to achieve this goal. Predator Free 2050 Limited's chief executive reportedly felt in fact that gene technology was the only way to make the goal.
To be honest, it looks as if both the Minister and Predator Free 2050's CE have been given poor advice here. The chance of achieving a breakthrough science solution through a new genetic technology by 2025 is so slim it is barely worth tabling. Even the chance of developing such a technology by 2050 is considered a long shot. New Zealand's existing research into gene drives is mostly theoretical, largely "consisting of modeling and thought experiments." Suggesting that we can move from theory to practice in six or seven years is not ambitious, it's absurd.
A local geneticist estimates it will be about five years before there is any form of mammalian gene drive (for mice) ready for trials, "and that is with multiple international initiatives focused on that task." And turning a gene drive in the laboratory into a genetic control solution for Predator Free 2050 species is pure theory – "a long way off." Even lobbyists for genetic technologies consider the release of genetically modified organisms for predator control to be "at least several political terms away."
Moreover, all of this is in the absence of a social mandate for their use.[5] I'd say that the "capable of eradicating" part in the 2025 goal requires that at a minimum, wouldn't you? Or does "capable" mean by any means, or at any cost?
See here for part two of this two-part series.
[1] In this article I use 'gene editing' and 'genetic modification' interchangeably. I appreciate that some like to distinguish between the too. Personally I think that gene editing is a form of genetic modification, as do the European Union and the NZ Government.
[2] For those unsure of what to make of this statement the spokesperson clarified that being captured by one's own ideology was "not a good thing".
[3] One geneticist commented that, at least with rats, "the idea that they wouldn't be deliberately moved around seems positively farcical".
[4] We know that rats were introduced inadvertently to New Zealand multiple times and likely continue to arrive undetected in cargo with 0.2-0.3% of ships entering the country with them on board.
[5] Research into attitudes towards gene-based technologies among Māori already indicates that the likelihood of widespread support is "unlikely in the short term".
Posts written this year: 6
Featured image: Protest against genetic engineering, Auckland 2003, public domain.
predator free 2050
predator free New Zealand
5 Responses to "Minister right to be wary of gene editing"
Tom Saunders says:
Do you have a link to the letter? I can find media articles on it but not the letter itself.
I can understand banning the use of genetic technologies for predator control right now, but banning all future research into this area seems odd. How will we know how safe/effective (or not) these technologies are if no one is allowed to do the research?
Jamie Steer says:
I'll see if I can track it down for you Tom. Part two of this blog covers my take on the other issue you raise.
Grant Jacobs says:
A bit of the letter might be in the first figure here (the legend doesn't say what it is, unfortunately): https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/02/govt-blocking-breakthrough-technology-that-could-make-new-zealand-predator-free.html
I may try cover some of the points in a later post, once I've got past my present drafts (esp. as gene editing and related issues are topics I cover). I think quite that might have been included is missing.
Great, I look forward to it.
'quite that' -> 'quite a bit that', sorry.
About So Shoot Me
So Shoot Me is the blog of Dr Jamie Steer who is interested in exploring and challenging current attitudes to biodiversity and conservation in New Zealand.
Tom Saunders on Minister right to be wary of gene editing – Part 2
That Moz Guy on Minister right to be wary of gene editing – Part 2


text:
Antonin Moeri, né le  à Berne, est un écrivain, acteur et traducteur vaudois.

Biographie
Après ses premières années vécues à Mexico, Antonin Moeri suit sa scolarité sur les rives du Léman dans la région de Vevey. Adolescent, il part à Genève pour y étudier à l'Université. Après un passage à l'école d'art dramatique de Strasbourg, Antonin Moeri exerce le métier d'acteur en France et en Belgique.

Traducteur de Theodor Fontane, Robert Walser et Ludwig Hohl, Antonin Moeri publie cinq livres aux Éditions de l'Âge d'Homme et six ouvrages chez Bernard Campiche éditeur.

Romans
 Le Fils à maman (1989) (Premier Prix au concours littéraire de la revue [VWA])
 L'Île intérieure (1990)
 Les Yeux safran (1991)
 Cahier Marine (1995)
 Igor (1998)
 Juste un jour (2007)
 Pap's (2015)

Recueils de nouvelles
 Allegro amoroso (1993) (Prix Schiller 1994)
 Paradise Now (2003)
 Le Sourire de Mickey (2003)
 Tam-tam d'Éden (2010)
 Encore chéri ! (2013)

Sources

 Le Passe-muraille, 1995,  décembre,  (Jean-Louis Kuffer)
 Le Passe-muraille, 1998,  octobre,  (Alain Bagnoud).
 Moeri, Antonin
 Antonin Moeri
 A D S - Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz - Autrices et Auteurs de Suisse - Autrici ed Autori della Svizzera

Liens externes

Écrivain suisse du XXe siècle
Écrivain suisse du XXIe siècle
Romancier suisse romand
Nouvelliste suisse du XXe siècle
Nouvelliste suisse du XXIe siècle
Écrivain vaudois
Acteur vaudois
Acteur suisse de théâtre
Traducteur suisse du XXe siècle
Traducteur suisse du XXIe siècle
Traducteur depuis l'allemand vers le français
Naissance en juin 1953
Naissance à Berne
Projet:Valdensia/Articles liés

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It would be both easy and lazy to describe Ian Venables Three Pieces for violin, Op.11 as an example of regurgitated 'English Pastoral'. The composer himself has admitted the influence of 'landscape' on this piece. However, this work is not a parody of earlier composers from the so-called 'cow-pat' school of writing. It is certainly not an exercise in 'bucolic nostalgia' for a rural scene that has largely disappeared. There are no suggestions of clogs, Morris dancers or ploughman's lunches.
More specifically, Venables recalled that whilst walking on the Malvern Hills and visiting Sir Edward Elgar's grave at St. Wulstan's Church in Little Malvern, he was inspired to compose the Pastorale. The composer considered that the combination of violin and piano gave best expression to the 'inherent lyricism' that he perceived in the surrounding countryside. However a different emotion underlies the Romance – this is a personal reflection on love and relationships. The final piece was not motivated by any particular event or landscape – however Venables claims that this Dance simply reflects the 'happy state of mind' he had at that stage of his career. He insists that it is an exercise in overcoming technical difficulties and the creation of musical 'excitement'. Yet this movement is the most hard-edged of the three pieces.
In spite of the fact that this present work is effectively three discrete pieces, it would be possible to regard it as a 'Sonata', in spite of the fact that there is a considerable disparity between the pieces or 'movements'. Running through the entire work is a thread of reflection. The final Dance, in spite of its exuberance and 'joie de vivre', is not all emotional plain sailing.
The opening 'pastorale' responds well to one or more of the 'classical' or even 'baroque' definitions of this form. Nevertheless, this is not a piece that is written in imitation of shepherds and their shawms and pipes; nor is it an exercise in presenting an offering to the infant Jesus on Christmas morning as in Bach's Sinfonia which begins the second part of the Christmas Oratorio nor the Sinfonia Pastorale in Handel's Messiah. However, there are certain characteristics that could suggest that Venables was unconsciously nodding in this direction.
Firstly, there is an inherent simplicity of the formal structure which is conceived in ternary form. Secondly, there is the relatively straightforward harmonic scheme which is definitely not adventurous. And thirdly, the moderate pace of this music may be suggestive of a lullaby. The melody that dominates this piece is both tender and flowing. On the other hand the central section moves away from this tranquillity and produces something more involved and with greater depth. The programme notes for this work suggest that in this theme the composer 'unfurls a passage full of ardent lyricism as the piano supports a soaring melody with a luminous accompaniment'. However the simplicity and innocence of the opening material returns to bring the piece to a satisfying and gentle conclusion.
The Romance is much nearer to the pastoral models derived from the first half of the twentieth-century. In fact, this is the piece that most closely approaches the musical ethos of Gerald Finzi. This is reflective music: meditating on the past rather than looking to the future. Many of Finzi's works have been described as being valedictory or retrospective, and in this sense Venables has equalled the exemplar for sadness and introspection. It is strange that the composer considers that this work was inspired by an affair of the heart that was progressing rather well. To my ear there is certainly something of the 'what might have beens' drifting across the pages of this piece. Yet in the opening and closing sections of this movement there is a serenity that is rarely disturbed: Venables has created stasis here and the listener is barely conscious of the passage of time. If anything, one wishes the music would go on forever. However, the conclusion of this 'movement' is warmer and has a brave try at being optimistic, nevertheless the original mood is never quite pushed to one side.
In spite of Ian Venables assertion that the Dance reflects his 'happy state of mind' there is something sinister, almost 'Bartokian', in this music that balances over and against a gorgeous 'second subject.' This tune is one of the very best that Venables has so far given us. The programme notes give the game away, I think, when it states that the 'theme' from the Romance is presented heroically in octaves by both violin and piano.' Heroic indeed! But not before the soloists have managed to put a number of phantoms to flight. All is well in the coda and the work concludes on a positive note.
Trying to understand what 'English Pastoral' (in a musical context) means can be a difficult task. Popular opinion would suggest that any composition that is gentle and reflective could be labelled 'pastoral'-especially if written by an Englishman. More pertinently it would tend to imply something akin to Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending or George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow. However the reality is much more complex.
The musicologist Ted Perkins has suggested that there are at least three possible stylistic markers for this particular genre: 1) the use of folksong/modal inspired melody, 2) impressionistic techniques and finally 3) a certain neo-classical colouring. Even the briefest of studies of Venables Three Pieces will show that although elements of all three categories can be found in this work, no 'marker' dominates or presumes to be the constructive principle of this piece.
So, what is the stylistic set for Ian Venables's Three Pieces? Firstly, I would suggest that there is an air of 'soft' pastoralism about the genesis and realisation of much this music. There is a tangible mood created in these pages that would allow anyone who has visited the Malvern or the Severn Valley will empathise with it. Secondly, Venables has not chosen to use the devices as defined by Perkins of early twentieth-century pastoralism in any consistent way. These three pieces are written very much in a post-romantic style that has more than one stylistic marker. But lastly, there is much that is retrospective and backward-looking in this music: from the relatively conservative musical language, by way of the obvious debt to Finzi to the largely introspective mood of the music that aligns itself with many pieces conceived in the works of the so-called English Pastoral School. Like much of Ian Venables music it is not possible to assign absolute influences. What is true is that his music lies on a trajectory from the music of Vaughan Williams and Butterworth through Finzi and some more modernist accretions such as Bartok and Stravinsky. This trajectory emerges onto a new pasture that is wholly Venables own, but never denies the musical traditions of the past. Finally, it would appear to me that the first two movements represent a kind of 'soft' pastoral whilst the final 'dance' is leaning towards a harder-edged example of this genre.
The Three Pieces for violin and piano were first performed at the Countess of Huntingdon's Hall, Worcester with Barrie Moore (violin) and Graham Lloyd (piano).


text:
<?php

// classpath
namespace Mimoto\EntityConfig;

// Mimoto classes
use Mimoto\Core\CoreConfig;
use Mimoto\EntityConfig\MimotoEntityPropertyTypes;
use Mimoto\Mimoto;

/**
 * EntityConfig
 *
 * @author Sebastian Kersten (@supertaboo)
 */
class EntityConfig
{

    /**
     * The id of the entity config
     * @var int
     */
    private $_nId = '';

    /**
     * The name of the entity
     * @var string
     */
    private $_sName = '';

    /**
     * Flag for user extension
     * @var boolean
     */
    private $_bIsUserExtension = false;

    /**
     * The properties of the entity
     * @var array
     */
    private $_aProperties = [];

    /**
     * The property values of the entity
     * @var array
     */
    private $_aPropertyValues = [];

    /**
     * The MySQL table name
     * @var string
     */
    private $_sMySQLTableName;

    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // --- Constants --------------------------------------------------------------
    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    // property value types
    const PROPERTY_VALUE_MYSQL_COLUMN           = 'property_value_mysql_column';
    const PROPERTY_VALUE_MYSQLCONNECTION_TABLE  = 'property_value_mysql_connection_table';

    // property settings keys
    const SETTING_VALUE_TYPE                    = 'type';
    const SETTING_VALUE_FORMATTINGOPTIONS       = 'formattingOptions';
    const SETTING_VALUE_DEFAULTVALUE            = 'defaultValue';
    const SETTING_ENTITY_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPE      = 'allowedEntityType';
    const SETTING_ENTITY_DEFAULTVALUE           = 'defaultValue';
    const SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPES = 'allowedEntityTypes';
    const SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWDUPLICATES    = 'allowDuplicates';

    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // --- Properties -------------------------------------------------------------
    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Get entity config id
     * @return int The id of the entity config
     */
    public function getId() { return $this->_nId; }

    /**
     * Set entity config id
     * @param int $nId
     */
    public function setId($nId) { $this->_nId = $nId; }

    /**
     * Get the name of the entity
     * @return string The name of the entity
     */
    public function getName() { return $this->_sName; }

    /**
     * Set the name of the entity
     * @param string $sName
     */
    public function setName($sName) { $this->_sName = $sName; }

    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // --- Public methods ---------------------------------------------------------
    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Get entity's property names
     * @return array
     */
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        // collect
        foreach ($this->_aProperties as $sPropertyName => $value) { $aPropertyNames[] = $sPropertyName; }

        // send
        return $aPropertyNames;
    }

    /**
     * Get the config of a property
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     * @return object config
     */
    public function getPropertyConfig($sPropertyName)
    {
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        if (!$this->hasProperty($sPropertyName)) { throw new \Exception("( '-' ) - Hmm, I can't seem to find the property '$sPropertyName'"); }

        // send
        return $this->_aProperties[$sPropertyName];
    }

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     * Get the config of a property value
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     */
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    {
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        // send
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     */
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            'type' => MimotoEntityPropertyTypes::PROPERTY_TYPE_VALUE,
            'id' => $nPropertyId,
            'parentEntityTypeId' => $xParentEntityTypeId,
            'settings' => (object) array(
                EntityConfig::SETTING_VALUE_TYPE => $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_VALUE_TYPE]
            )
        );

        // optional settings
        if (isset($settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_VALUE_DEFAULTVALUE]))
        {
            $property->settings->{EntityConfig::SETTING_VALUE_DEFAULTVALUE} = $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_VALUE_DEFAULTVALUE];
        }

        // store
        $this->_aProperties[$sPropertyName] = $property;
    }

    /**
     * Set entity as property
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     * @param array $settings Array containing the setting 'entityType'
     */
    public function setEntityAsProperty($sPropertyName, $nPropertyId, $settings, $sSubtype = null, $xParentEntityTypeId)
    {
        // compose
        $property = (object) array(
            'name' => $sPropertyName,
            'type' => MimotoEntityPropertyTypes::PROPERTY_TYPE_ENTITY,
            'subtype' => $sSubtype,
            'id' => $nPropertyId,
            'parentEntityTypeId' => $xParentEntityTypeId,
            'settings' => (object) array(
                EntityConfig::SETTING_ENTITY_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPE => $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_ENTITY_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPE]->value
            )
        );

        // optional settings
        if (isset($settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_ENTITY_DEFAULTVALUE]))
        {
            $property->settings->{EntityConfig::SETTING_ENTITY_DEFAULTVALUE} = $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_ENTITY_DEFAULTVALUE];
        }

        // store
        $this->_aProperties[$sPropertyName] = $property;
    }

    /**
     * Set collection as property
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     * @param array $settings Array containig the settings 'allowedEntityType' and 'allowDuplicates'
     */
    public function setCollectionAsProperty($sPropertyName, $nPropertyId, $settings, $xParentEntityTypeId)
    {
        // compose
        $property = (object) array(
            'name' => $sPropertyName,
            'type' => MimotoEntityPropertyTypes::PROPERTY_TYPE_COLLECTION,
            'id' => $nPropertyId,
            'parentEntityTypeId' => $xParentEntityTypeId,
            'settings' => (object) array(
                EntityConfig::SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPES => $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWEDENTITYTYPES]->value,
                EntityConfig::SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWDUPLICATES => $settings[EntityConfig::SETTING_COLLECTION_ALLOWDUPLICATES]
            )
        );

        // store
        $this->_aProperties[$sPropertyName] = $property;
    }

    // --- data source ---

    /**
     * Set MySQL table
     * @param string $sMySQLTableName
     */
    public function setMySQLTable($sMySQLTableName)
    {
        // store
        $this->_sMySQLTableName = $sMySQLTableName;
    }

    /**
     * Get MySQL table
     * @return string The MySQL table
     */
    public function getMySQLTable()
    {
        // store
        return $this->_sMySQLTableName;
    }

    /**
     * Connect property to MySQL column
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     * @param string $sMySQLColumnName The MySQL column name
     */
    public function connectPropertyToMySQLColumn($sPropertyName, $sMySQLColumnName)
    {
        // compose
        $propertyValue = (object) array(
            'type' => self::PROPERTY_VALUE_MYSQL_COLUMN,
            'name' => $sPropertyName,
            'mysqlColumnName' => $sMySQLColumnName
        );

        // store
        $this->_aPropertyValues[$sPropertyName] = $propertyValue;
    }

    /**
     * Connect property to a MySQL connection table
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     * @param string $sMySQLConnectionTable The MySQL connection table name
     */
    public function connectPropertyToMySQLConnectionTable($sPropertyName, $sMySQLConnectionTable)
    {
        // compose
        $propertyValue = (object) array(
            'type' => self::PROPERTY_VALUE_MYSQLCONNECTION_TABLE,
            'name' => $sPropertyName,
            'mysqlConnectionTable' => $sMySQLConnectionTable
        );

        // store
        $this->_aPropertyValues[$sPropertyName] = $propertyValue;
    }

    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // --- Private methods --------------------------------------------------------
    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Check if the entity has a property
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     */
    private function hasProperty($sPropertyName)
    {
        // validate and send
        return isset($this->_aProperties[$sPropertyName]) ? true : false;
    }

    /**
     * Check if the entity has a property value
     * @param string $sPropertyName The property's name
     */
    private function hasPropertyValue($sPropertyName)
    {
        // validate and send
        return isset($this->_aPropertyValues[$sPropertyName]) ? true : false;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Capturing a Dictator - I
Guest: Lt. Col. Steve Russell
2011 Broadcast Collection (cd) Website
View Lt. Col. Russell's Photo's Website
We Got Him (book) Website
Vets for Victory Website
Where does a soldier's heart come from, and -- can you really be a Christian and go to war? On today's program, both of these questions will be addressed as we hear from Lt. Col. Steven Russell. He credits World War II vets for inspiring him to enlist in the Army, then recalls the day his military career culminated in the capture of the infamous dictator: Saddam Hussein.
Steve Russell served 21 years in the United States Army as an infantry officer, deploying operationally to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. During the first year of the Iraq War, his command of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division was widely covered by Time, CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, Associated Press, and Reuters. He and his unit were featured in BBC Panorama's Saddam on the Run documentary, as well as Discovery's Ace in the Hole. Russell retired from the Army in 2006 and has advocated nationally for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. He has appeared on such diverse programs as Hannity, Huckabee, on C-SPAN and Deadliest Warrior. His opinion pieces have been featured in publications such as The Weekly Standard, The New York Daily News, and Christian Science Monitor. He serves as the Chairman of Veterans Affairs as an Oklahoma State Senator. Now an internationally renowned speaker, Russell lives in Oklahoma with his wife and five children.


text:
Dozens of WWII Planes Fly Through Restricted D.C. Airspace for V-E Day
May 8, 2015 - One of the most varied collections of… more
May 8, 2015 - One of the most varied collections of World War II aircraft ever assembled took to the skies above the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Friday, marking the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. The event was arranged to honor soldiers who fought in the war, as well as Americans who contributed to the war effort at home. It included dozens of planes flying in 15 historical sequences—each representing a major battle, from Pearl Harbor to the final Allied air assault on Japan—and concluded with a missing-man formation.
Click here to read more about the flyover
Featured aircraft: Boeing Stearman, Piper L-Bird, North American T-6s/SNJ, Cessna/Beech Twin Bomber Trainer, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, North American B-25 Mitchell, Bell P-39 Airacobra, P-63 Kingcobra, Consolidated PBY Catalina, Grumman F4F/FM-2 Wildcat, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, North American P-51 Mustang, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Douglas C-47/R4D Skytrain, B-26, Grumman TBM Avenger, Grumman F6F Hellcat, Grumman F8F Bearcat, Curtis SB2C Helldiver, Douglas A-26 Invader, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Vought FG-1D Corsair, and the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
NG Live!: Barrington Irving: Teaching From the Skies
Focke Wulf Part
Mesmerizing Ride in a Solar-Powered Plane
Living in the Age of Airplanes (Trailer)
Solar-Powered Plane Continues Round-the-World Journey
Solar-Powered Plane Awaited Sunnier Days for Pacific Flight
See the Beauty of the Northern Lights From a Plane's Cockpit
Boy Discovers WWII Nazi Warplane That Crashed on Family Farm
Watch This Veteran Fly in the Same WWII Plane He Jumped from on D-Day
Better Images of Cities Than From Satellites? It's Called LiDAR
Expedition Amelia
NG Live!: Adrian Myers: Where Nazis Were the Prisoners
Israel: The Holocaust History Museum
World War II Battleship Wreckage Discovered
WWII Photos Seen for the First Time
Sinking in Shark-Infested Waters: WWII Survivors Recall Navy Disaster
Animation: How Three Men You Probably Never Heard of Helped End WWII
Pearl Harbor Hero Returns Home After 75 Years in an Unknown Grave
Peer Into a Fallen Battleship at Pearl Harbor
Deeper Look Inside Sunken Battleship Preserved Since Pearl Harbor Attack
New Underwater Video: This Pearl Harbor Warship Fired First American Shot in WWII
Hear the Untold Story of a Canadian Code Talker from World War II
Video: Wreckage of WWII Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Lexington Found in Coral Sea
WWII Shipwreck USS Juneau Found—Famous for Five Sullivan Brothers
The Story Behind Europe's Tallest Statue: The Motherland Calls


text:
Famous painter hospitalized for heart condition
TEHRAN, Dec. 28 (MNA) – The wife of famous painter Parviz Kalantari has said her husband has been hospitalized in Trita Hospital.
Farah Yousefi told Mehr News that Kalantari had suffered a heart stroke and was hospitalized in ICU (Intensive Care Unit), and "last night he was transferred to a special room and will undergo physiotherapy and speech therapy."
Yousefi also said that her husband ignored his physician's recommendations on six-monthly checks, which was his fatal error.
Parviz Kanantari, painter, author, and journalist suffered a brain stroke on Tuesday evening and was hospitalized in CCU (Central Care Unit); however, his conditions deteriorated and he was transferred to ICU.
Born in 1931 in Zanjan, Kalantari is a graduate of University of Tehran, Fine Arts Faculty. He is a prominent member of Saqakhaneh School of art. He attended for a time in Children's Art College in California, and was manager of Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA).
Kalantari had participated in many of art exhibitions inside the country and abroad as well; one of his art works has been adopted by UN special numismatic collections. His triptych painting entitled Iranian City was installed at the UN-HABITAT headquarters in Nairobi in October 2005 during the commemoration of World Habitat Day.
Parviz Kalantari entered a new phase of his art career in 1974 with his debut on mud painting. His works of painting depicts the lives of coastal and desert people, the majority of which is rendered in mud.
Kalantari also experimented with writing, publishing a collection of short stories: 'Four Narratives,' 'No for Nietzsche, Only Mashd Esmail,' 'However Followed Vicissitudes,' 'Take this Line and Follow it.'
By Mehr News Agency
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
Farah Yousefi, Iran's Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), Iranian painter Parviz Kalantari, Quoted	December 28, 2014
Navy commander: Iran ready to supply naval mine-laying, minesweeping system to neighbors
Leader's top military aide warns of enemies' soft war against Iranian nation
No hindrance in way of improvement of Iran-Russia ties: Pres. Raisi tells Putin in Moscow


Spanish nightlife is renowned all over the world from the hedonistic beach clubs of Ibiza that deliver the world's top international DJs to Barcelona and Madrid's chic city bars and late-night clubs attracting the young and beautiful.
When we heard Spanish super club, Opium, was opening in London's Trocadera district in Soho we knew it would be setting the bar the high with its brand of luxe glamour and top entertainment. The area has seen a surge of hot new international openings looking to make their mark on London's competitive dining and nightlife scene.
Opium London is the first international outpost of Barcelona-based hospitality group, Costa Este Group. These guys seriously know the hospitality business as they own a plethora of trendy hotspots all over Spain, including the renowned Pacha Barcelona.
The venue is an attractive combination of a restaurant, bar and nightclub where guests can enjoy dinner and then party into the night to the unbeatable electric atmosphere from some of the world's best DJs and musical artists. Opium's other sites have already hosted the likes of Tiesto, David Guetta, Avicci, Armin van Buuren, Paul Oakenfold, Jason Derulo, French Montana, Wiz Khalifa and more!
Opium is sleek and impressive from the moment you enter with reflective black marble floors, high-tech floor to ceiling LED screen displays, and pyramid-shaped lights that cast a flattering purple glow as if you were dancing inside an amethyst jewel box.
The venue is expansive with a glass wall enclosed club area adjacent to a 90-seat bar and restaurant headed up by Portuguese head chef, Diogo Amaro, who has envisioned a menu of Mediterranean cuisine with Japanese influences drawing upon his experience working at London's top restaurants.
The food menu is an upscale dining experience for the discerning London customer, with a menu split into a seafood and raw bar menu of fresh sushi and sashimi, while offering a selection of popular modern European and Mediterranean favourites including white truffle and mushroom risotto, Wagyu beef sliders, chicken and foie gras cannelloni and Iberian ham croquettes.
The cocktails are top notch and not your typical alcohol beverages blended with generic mixers that we have been accustomed to consuming with table service. The cocktail menu offers fun and creative twists on popular cocktails with no short supply of high-end tequilas and mezcals.
We suggest sampling The Sweet Talk – blended with Bombay Star Gin, crème de pèche, fresh sage, honey, carrot juice and lemon juice. El Patron is a twist on the most iconic cocktail – The Margarita. Blended to compliment the sushi menu this cocktail combines Asian elements such as wasabi and yuzu lime with agave syrup and Patron Tequila.
With a roster of impressive international DJs, other-worldy high-tech modern interiors, a killer cocktail and eclectic food menu, Opium is on track to make its mark on the London nightlife scene and worth a visit for a big night out!