The possessions that provide emigrants with a sense of home – old and new For those relocating to another country, photographs were obvious treasures. Photo: Shutterstock
What possessions do people choose to take with them when they leave their homelands forever to start new lives elsewhere? In these days of enhanced global mobility, with easy international movement and relatively low transport and storage costs, emigrants can usually take most chattels with them.
But this was not so in the past. What people took to their new lives, and then retained for a couple of generations - or else jettisoned before they left - sharply illuminates what they considered personally important.
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Coronavirus in dog, burst travel bubble, nasal vaccines: the good and bad of Hong Kong’s firsts amid 2020 pandemic Hong Kong has made some of the world’s first discoveries during the pandemic. Photo: Getty Images
The coronavirus was not first reported in Hong Kong, but the city has made some of the world s earliest Covid-19 discoveries - including infection in a dog, reinfection in a recovered patient, and a quarantine-free travel bubble with Singapore that was put on hold at the last minute as Hong Kong cases surged. The city s scientists were also the first in the world to develop a nasal vaccine. Approved for clinical trials in September, it was the first nasal spray Covid-19 vaccine to be tested in humans.
It was a tumultuous year for the Chinese technology sector amid rising tensions with the US and as Beijing doubled down on its goal of achieving self-reliance in strategic areas such as semiconductor development. And as 2020 drew to a close, the central government indicated there will be more regulation in 2021 as it seeks to rein in Big Tech and maintain overall economic stability. Semiconductor shuffle Under pressure from Washington, Beijing.
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Fears over India halting Russian weapons purchase overblown Letters The Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system rolls down Rajpath in New Delhi in 2015. Named after a combination of the names of India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva rivers, the system has been designed and developed by an Indo-Russian joint venture. Photo: AFP
Sun Tzu in The Art of War recommends, avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak . That is why India and China, both being nuclear superpowers, will avoid a major confrontation.
So everything in Pranay Sharma s article ( Is the US behind India s anti-China games ? Russia thinks so , December 14) is much ado about nothing, especially the alleged worry about India putting a stop to buying our weapons because of closer ties to Washington.
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The new, conscious Indian wedding aims for no more waste – or patriarchy Nivedita Shankar and Vivek Seetharaman at their trimmed-down wedding in Singapore. Photo: Nivedita Shankar
When social entrepreneur Veena Balakrishnan married Vignesh Vancheeshwar in 2018, in Chennai, India, they knew they wanted a zero-waste wedding. We were both clear that we wanted to minimise resources used and also avoid wastage. I decided to wear my grandmother s sari and family jewellery. Vignesh followed me in wearing something from his wardrobe, said the 26-year-old, who runs a sustainable lifestyle company. Right from the e-invite, we planned carefully. We chose a wedding venue that was open air, to reduce electricity and lighting costs. Natural, seasonal flowers from farmers markets decorated the venue, she said. Plantain leaves and areca bowls were used to serve the vegetarian lunch. Almost everything was composted after the wedding. All the excess food was donated to the NGO Robin