Posts filed under 'Events'
The Guinness 9 Ball Tour in Aug 31-Sep 2 last year saw a fitting finale in Indonesia.
Indonesia has historically been known as an exotic land where the people are as warm as the yearlong sunshine, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the island of Bali.
Located just off the Eastern tip of the major island of Java, this exotic crown jewel of the Indonesian archipelago was the venue of the Grand Finals of the Guinness 9 Ball Tour 2007, welcoming to its sandy shores a host of 10 of Asia’s best 9-ball pool players.
Tropical paradise: Bali played host to the Guinness 9 Ball Tour Grand Finals in 2007, which saw 10 of Asia’s top pool players converging on this Indonesian island for their chance at winning the coveted title.
Held from Aug 31-Sept 2 at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, the final and most eagerly anticipated leg of Asia’s most prestigious pool tournament was played out in emphatic fashion by Asia’s top cue-masters. Having picked up the most qualifying points over the first five legs of this tournament, which were held in diverse locales like Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Genting Highlands, Singapore and Shanghai before arriving here, these 10 players were the best from an already elite pool of champions.
Featuring the likes of former World Pool Association (WPA) Champions Wu Chia-Ching from Chinese Taipei, Ronato “Ronnie” Alcano from the Phillipines, upcoming Taiwanese cueist Chang Jung-Lin, Malaysian pool stalwart Ibrahim Amir, and newcomer Dharminder Singh Lilly from India, the finalists came with impressive credentials.
It all came down to a nail-biting finale, which saw Chang Jung-Lin of Taiwan going head-to-head against Lee Vann Corteza of the Philippines to determine who would walk away with the title, as well as the prize money of US$36,000.
Both played exceedingly well, but in the end, Chang Jung-Lin triumphed over his worthy competitor 11-8. Jung-Lin was ecstatic over his win.
“Now that I’ve won my first international title, it gives me immense relief and joy because it means that all my years of training has finally come to fruition. It’s more than just the monetary reward – it’s about being recognised as an international player that makes this victory mean so much to me,” he said.
Taking aim: Lee Vann Corteza places his shot and pockets the ball with pinpoint accuracy against Chang Jung-Lin at the finals of the Guinness 9 Ball Tour Grand Finals in Bali.
To spread the excitement before this grand finale, the organisers had four other cities in Indonesia – Medan, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta – host a speed pool tournament for amateur pool players. Known as the Guinness Black Challenge, these initiatives gave pool aficionados the chance to participate in a unique test of their skill, speed and strategy, as well as get the opportunity to go to the Grand Finals in Bali and hang out with all the professional players there.
Certainly it was a prize worth savouring for any pool fan!
The Guinness 9 Ball Tour is the ultimate stage for world-class pool professionals and offers a unique opportunity as a development ground for Asia’s top pool players to compete against each other.
The top 10 players who participated in 2007’s inaugural Grand Final in Bali not only stood the chance to win their share of US$70,000, but also earned an automatic berth in the World Pool Association Championships to make their mark on a truly global stage.
With so much having happened at last year’s grand final, you can surely expect the bar to be raised for this year. Guinness, the number one international premium black beer in the world, is proud to continue its position as the title sponsor of the 9 Ball Tour.
The Guinness 9 Ball Tour is sanctioned by the Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU) and organised by ESPN STAR Sports’ Event Management Group (EMG). This year, the tour will bring all the skills, tactics and prestige of Asia’s most prestigious 9-Ball Tour to Malaysia with the third leg of the tournament taking place in Genting Highlands Resort from 30 May to 1 June.
We are the champions: Chang Jung-Lin accepts his trophy and cash prize after a thoroughly engaging match against Lee Vann Corteza.
With a convergence of 24 of Asia’s best pool players in one venue, where they will showcase all their skills and accuracy as they vie to win this leg, while racking up more points to qualify for the finals to be held in Jakarta this year, there isn’t anywhere else that any self-respecting pool fan should be at than in Genting.
Be sure to find out more details on how to get tickets for this can’t miss leg of the tournament, as well as other information on Asia’s most prestigious pool tournament at www.guinness.com.my
Source: The Star
May 24th, 2008
American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, even as a U.S. Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
The United States, the world’s largest producer of such gases, has resisted calls for strict limits on emissions at the U.N. climate conference, which is aimed at launching negotiations for an agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
That stance suffered a blow when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill Wednesday to cut U.S. emissions by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation. The bill now goes to the full Senate.
U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson, however, said that would not impact Washington’s position at the international gathering in Bali.
“In our process, a vote for movement of a bill out of committee does not ensure its ultimate passage,” he told reporters. “I don’t know the details, but we will not alter our posture here.”
It was the first bill calling for mandatory U.S. limit on greenhouse gases to be taken up in Congress since global warming emerged as an environmental issue more than two decades ago.
Republican critics of the bill argued that limiting the emissions could become a hardship because of higher energy costs.
The two-week conference, which opened Monday, is already in a tense standoff between two camps, with the majority supporting mandatory emissions cuts on one side, and opponents such as the United States on the other, delegates said.
Scientists say the world must act quickly to slash greenhouse gas emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures or risk triggering devastating droughts and flooding, strangling world food production and killing off animal species.
Washington’s isolation in Bali has increased following Australia’s announcement Monday that it has reversed its opposition to the Kyoto pact and started the ratification process – winning applause at the conference’s opening session. That left the U.S. as the only industrialized nation to oppose the agreement.
The U.S. Senate action cheered environmentalists and others in Bali clamoring for dramatic action to stop global warming. U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer led off his daily briefing Thursday by hailing the “encouraging sign” from the United States.
“This is a very welcome development,” Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said of the Senate measure. “It shows the increasing isolation of the Bush administration in terms of U.S. policy on this issue.”
David Waskow, of the Oxfam humanitarian agency, said the Senate legislation was a positive signal to developing nations and others in Bali that America may be ready to assume a more active role in battling climate change.
“It’s one of the things that point the way to having the United States re-engage in the negotiations, and really I think in many ways demonstrates the U.S. leadership on these issues,” Waskow said.
Further momentum for serious greenhouse gas cuts, came from a petition released Thursday by a group of at least 215 climate scientists who urged the world to reduce emissions by half by 2050.
“We have to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possibly can,” said Australian climatologist Matthew England, a group spokesman. “It needs action. We’re talking about now.”
The United States and ally Japan are proposing that the post-Kyoto agreement favor voluntary emission targets, arguing that mandatory cuts would threaten economic growth which generates money needed to fund technology to effectively fight global warming.
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, the host of the conference, said the mood in the closed-door negotiations was “serious, apprehensive,” but that there were hopes the U.S. would slowly change its stance.
“I think the United States will be judicious enough to accept the changes of atmosphere,” said Witoelar.
But U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns denied that Australia’s acceptance of the Kyoto accord would prompt Washington to do the same.
“We do not see eye-to-eye with Australia or many other countries on the wisdom of signing the Kyoto regime, that’s obvious,” Burns said in Sydney, Australia.
By Joseph Coleman
Source: SignOnSanDiego
December 9th, 2007
BALI, Indonesia. About 190 nations start talks on Monday to try to sharpen the main weapon against climate change, the Kyoto treaty, by involving all countries ranging from the United States to the poorest in Africa.
Delegates to the U.N.-sponsored talks in Bali, Indonesia, are under intense pressure to launch negotiations on a “roadmap” that will lead to a broader pact by late 2009 to tackle greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for causing global warming.
But the trick is to find the magic formula that gets every nation on board, from the biggest emitters such as the United States and China to the smallest and most vulnerable, such as tropical island states or sub-Saharan African nations.
Over the past years, climate change talks have been bogged down by arguments over who’s going to pay the bill for cleaner technology and how to share out the burden of emissions curbs between rich and poor nations.
The bottom line is no nation at the Bali talks wants its economy to suffer by implementing strict emissions curbs. But climate scientists say time is running out.
“We’re already seeing many of the impacts of climate change,” said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, referring to melting glaciers, droughts and rising seas. “We are on a very dangerous path,” he told a news conference.
He said the talks had to conclude in 2009 to avoid a gap after the Kyoto Protocol’s first phase ends in 2012.
“It’s here and now. Indonesia is already suffering from the impacts of global warming,” said Fitrian Ardiansyah of the WWF conservation group. WWF said weather records were being broken around the world, from a melting Arctic to Australian droughts.
SHARING THE BURDEN
The Bali gathering aims find a way to update or replace Kyoto, which binds 36 industrial countries to emissions curbs between 2008-12.
The United States says Kyoto is flawed because it excludes developing nations from legally binding emissions cuts.
But China and India, among the world’s top polluters and comprising more than a third of humanity, say it’s unfair and unrealistic for them to agree to targets, particularly as they try to lift millions out of poverty.
They say emissions from rich nations are responsible for the bulk of man-made greenhouse gas pollution to date and those nations should take the lead in fighting climate change.
Publicly, at least, China and the United States say they will be open and flexible at Bali.
“We’d like to see consensus on the launch of negotiations. We want to see a Bali roadmap,” said Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a phone conversation on Sunday that China would adopt an “active, responsible and constructive” approach in Bali. But he urged rich nations to help.
Developing countries will also push for a new system of credits to help slow the rate of deforestation. Trees store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, when they grow.
The Bali talks will also sort out who will manage a global fund to help the world’s most vulnerable regions adapt to climate change. The fund could be worth $1.6 billion by 2012.
“We need to move beyond the reports of melting icebergs — everyone’s aware of that by now. People know the problem is serious. The delegates can now get to work on the problem. There’s no need for a media showcase to convince anyone,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Reuters in Berlin.
By David Fogarty
Source: Reuters
December 4th, 2007
Finance ministers from across the world will hold a two-day meeting in conjunction with the international conference on climate change next month in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
They will discuss financial issues and policies to address the concern of climate change, Indonesian Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati said Thursday.
The ministers will meet on Dec 10-11 to convince the governments of the respective countries to agree on a ‘common objective on the financial issues of climate change’, leading to a more appropriate policy for sustainable development and support for the global carbon trading market, the minister said.
‘This is important because many developing countries are uneasy about the issue of climate change,’ Indrawati was quoted by a local newspaper Jakarta Post as saying.
‘For many countries that are trying to improve their economies with limited resources, the climate change issue is an additional obstacle to their development. We therefore expect the meeting to provide a positive discussion to sort out the differences between the needs of developing and the developed countries.’
In an assessment released earlier this year, the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change said that efforts to keep global carbon dioxide levels at a sustainable level would cost three percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce average annual GDP growth rates by 0.12 percent.
Source: Xinhua
November 15th, 2007
A fusion between a traditional wayang (shadow puppet) performance and modern technology has impressed Jakartans during a two-dayshow at Graha Bhakti Budaya hall in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Cikini, Central Jakarta.
The performance, called Wayang Listrik (electric puppet), amused the audience with its funny and critical dialogue presented by one of Bali’s most accomplished puppet masters, I Made Sidia.
Sidia presented a provocative show and proved to his audience that a traditional performance, which might be unappealing to most youngsters, can indeed be entertaining.
The 40-year-old puppeteer kept the audience laughing with his brilliant and innovative jokes in both English and Kawi, an ancient Javanese language.
In his Thursday performance at the hall, Sidia mocked Malaysia over the country’s recent dispute with Indonesia through use of the traditional Indonesian song Rasa Sayange, which Malaysia had used in its tourism campaign.
In Sidia’s Tualen’s Journey story, Tualen, the main character, meets a wild tiger on his travels that he tries to tame by singing the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya.
However, the tiger in the story becomes angry upon hearing Tualen sing the anthem, after which Tualen asks, “You must be a Malaysian tiger then, huh?”.
Sidia said he used jokes like this to deliver criticism about social and political issues in today’s world through an art performance.
Source: The Jakarta Post
November 3rd, 2007
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