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Passing the narrow door On domestic and international forums, the popular keyword about the year 2020 is Covid-19. This pandemic has caused global threats, and its socio-economic impacts are immeasurable. The International Labor Organization (ILO) described the big picture as the world was still struggling to dispel the shadow of the pandemic crisis, which had infected 71.3 million people, killed more than 1.6 million, reversed the trend of economic growth, caused the unemployment indices to soar, and sent more people into poverty. “The COVID-19 crisis has exposed deep-rooted inequalities. Without profound structural changes, these will merely intensify, with consequences that would be very difficult to predict,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. In the latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said that the world's GDP in 2020 would decrease by 4.4 percent, much lower than that in the pre-pandemic period. It emphasized that even when the current crisis is over, most of the … [Read more...] about Aspirations for prosperity, might

PHNOM PENH/BANGKOK -- Cambodia’s centuries-old tradition of masked dance was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge’s “Killing Fields” regime, but a handful of artists managed to keep it alive and are now working to pass it along to a new generation. Sun Rithy’s father and grandfather were both performers of the Lakhon Khol masked dance, but the Khmer Rouge - who scorned most art as decadent - banned its study when he was a child in the 1970s. Now 48, Sun Rithy leads one of the last Lakhon Khol troupes in Cambodia, made up of about 20 performers and students aged six to 15. For him, teaching a new generation is a matter of survival for the tradition. “I don’t want Lakhon Khol ... to go extinct,” Sun Rithy told Reuters . Lakhon Khol was recently listed by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, as an intangible cultural heritage, along with neighboring Thailand’s version of the dance, known as Khon. There are different variations in Southeast Asia, all featuring dancers … [Read more...] about Masked dance tradition rises from near extinction in Cambodia