Month: May 2019

What do famous Americans such as author Edgar Allan Poe, Wild West outlaw Jesse James and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein have in common?

They all reportedly married their first cousins.

The legality of cousin marriage in the United States varies from state to state. The practice is illegal in 25 states. A first cousin is the child of either parent’s brother or sister.

In some societies around the world, marrying a first cousin is often preferable, not only to keep property or money within the family, but in some cases to keep a “good catch” from going off with a stranger.

But the practice is generally viewed as taboo in the United States.

Opposition to first-cousin marriage in the U.S. dates back to the Puritans, among the earliest European settlers in America, who opposed such unions as far back as the 17th century, according to the book “Consanguinity in Context” by medical geneticist Alan Bittles.

Marriages are considered “consanguineous” when couples are either second cousins or more closely related.

The first actual laws against first-cousin marriage appeared during the Civil War era, with Kansas banning the practice in 1858, followed by Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wyoming in the 1860s.

While first-cousin marriages were once favored by the upper classes in the U.S., such alliances declined sharply in the mid-to-late 19th century, possibly because advances in transportation and communication offered perspective brides and grooms greater access to a wider pool of marital prospects.

Also, as families grew smaller, so did the number of marriageable cousins. And women became more independent during that period, so their marital options increased.

One of the earliest people to influence American public opinion on the issue was the Rev. Charles Brooks of Massachusetts. Brooks delivered a paper at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1855 that asserted first-cousin marriage led to birth defects among the children of such unions.

Alexander Graham Bell, best known for inventing the telephone, also waded into the debate. He suggested introducing legislation to ban consanguineous marriages in families with deaf-mute members so that the condition would not be inherited by children of such marriages.

A seven-year Columbia University study published in 2018 found that children whose parents are first cousins have a 4% to 7% probability of birth defects, compared with 3% to 4% when the parents are distant relatives who marry.

From 1650 to 1850, the average person was fourth cousins with their spouse, according to the study. By 1950, the average person was married to their seventh cousin. The researchers believe that today, many couples are 10th to 12th cousins.

The data on consanguineous marriage in the U.S. is “scant and incomplete,” according to Bittles. CousinCouples.com, a website for people who are romantically involved with their cousin, estimates that about one out of every 1,000 U.S. marriages is between first cousins.

However, Bittles finds that number to be unrealistically low.

“The recent large-scale migration to the USA of couples from countries where consanguineous marriage is traditional may not reveal their premarital relationship,” he told VOA via email. “In terms of numbers, this particularly applies to immigrants from Arab countries … where 20-plus percent of marriages are consanguineous, and South Asian countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan where more than 50% of marriages may be consanguineous.”

Some states allow first-cousin marriages only if the couple can’t have children because they are too old or one of the parties is found to be infertile.

When you look past first cousins, there are a number of prominent Americans who married more distant cousins. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both said “I do” to their third cousins. President Franklin Roosevelt was married to his fifth cousin, once removed. And the first wife of Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and President Donald Trump’s lawyer, was his second cousin once removed.

Worldwide, only a handful of countries prohibit first cousin marriages.

“Besides the USA, they comprise the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Philippines,” Bittles says. “Even in the People’s Republic of China, the ban on first-cousin marriages is not enforced in officially recognized ethnic minorities where consanguineous marriage has been traditional.”

Bittles expects the number of cousin marriages in the U.S. to diminish over time as family sizes decline and there are fewer cousins available to marry, and as the children of migrants internalize negative mainstream U.S. views on marrying your cousin.
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Yuuka Hasumi put high school in Japan on hold and flew to South Korea in February to try her chances at becoming a K-pop star, even if that means long hours of vocal and dance training, no privacy, no boyfriend, and even no phone.

Hasumi, 17, joined Acopia School in Seoul, a prep school offering young Japanese a shot at K-pop stardom, teaching them the dance moves, the songs and also the language.

She is one of an estimated one million other K-pop star wannabes, from South Korea and abroad, hoping to get a shot at super competitive auditions by major talent agencies that will take on just a select few as “trainees.”

“It is tough,” Hasumi said in Japanese, drenched in sweat from a dance lesson she attended with 15-year-old friend Yuho Wakamatsu, also from Japan.

“Going through a strict training and taking my skill to a higher level to a perfect stage, I think that’s when it is good to make a debut,” she said.

Hasumi is one of 500 or so young Japanese who join Acopia each year, paying up to $3,000 a month for training and board.

The school also fixes auditions for its candidates with talent management companies that have been the driving force behind the “Korean-wave” pop culture that exploded onto the world stage in the past decade with acts such as global chart topping boy band BTS.

The influx of Japanese talent that is reshaping the K-pop industry comes at a time of increasingly bitter political acrimony between the two countries that has damaged diplomatic ties.

That the tension has done little to dent the K-pop craze among Japanese youth, and the willingness by Korean agencies to take on Japanese talent, speak to the strength of the ties between their people, according to one long-time observer.

“They’re nuts about BTS over there in Japan,” said Lee Soo-chul, board member of Seoul-Tokyo Forum, a private foundation with members of diplomats and business executives from both countries.

K-pop groups, and veteran Korean musicians, are selling out concert halls throughout Japan, said Lee, a former head of Samsung Group’s Japanese operations. “There is no Korea-Japan animosity there.”

Deep Freeze

Tensions rooted in Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of Korea have risen after South Korean court rulings against Japanese firms for forced labor, and amid a perception in Korea that Japan’s leadership has not adequately atoned for its colonial past.

But the popularity of Korean culture and K-pop music is on the rise in Japan, with many fans and artists saying they are not bothered by the diplomatic tension.

“I might get criticized for being Japanese, but I want to stand on a stage and make (South Koreans) know Japanese can be this cool,” said Rikuya Kawasaki, a 16-year-old Japanese K-pop star hopeful who auditioned unsuccessfully in Tokyo for Acopia School.

For schools and agencies, Japan’s music market – the second largest after the United States and bigger than China – is a big prize and many have been on a campaign to recruit Japanese talent.

“It will be good if Japan and South Korea will get along through music,” Hasumi told Reuters during a break from her Korean language class.

Some Japanese transplants have already made it big. The three Japanese members of the girl band Twice helped make the group the second most popular act in Japan, after BTS.

Their success has prompted JYP Entertainment, the South Korean agency backing Twice, to plan the launch of an idol group comprising only Japanese girls.

JYP declined to comment for this story.

Agency officials are reluctant to discuss their success in Japan and the infusion of Japanese talent, wary of fueling a politically charged backlash, industry sources said.

Hard Road to Stardom

There’s no shortage of Japanese hopefuls willing to train under talent agencies’ watchful eye, some having left successful careers back home in search of K-pop fame.

“I’ve heard stories about no free time or not being able to do what I want. But, I think all of K-pop stars who are now performing have gone down the same road,” said Nao Niitsu, a 19-year-old college freshman from Tokyo.

During a visit to Seoul paid for by her mother, herself a die-hard BTS fan, Niitsu auditioned for 10 agencies and was accepted by five.

Debut is elusive, unlike in Japan where it is easier for idols to get a start and then can hone their skills and work on their appeal with the fans.

Miyu Takeuchi said it wasn’t a difficult decision to leave a 10-year career with a top idol band AKB48 back home in Japan to sign with the K-pop agency Mystic Entertainment in March as a trainee.

Even with her experience, she has seven hours of vocal training a day and two-hour dance lessons twice a week, plus early morning Korean lessons.

She is not allowed to have a boyfriend but she says she has no regrets, despite the fact there is no guarantee she will make it.

“I don’t know how long my training period will be, but it has to reach a point where my coaches and management company say ‘Miyu, you are a professional!'”

($1 = 111.1600 yen)
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In the narrow alleys of a poor neighborhood of the Pakistani city of Karachi, known for drugs, gang wars and low literacy rates, children are learning about peace, love and interfaith tolerance from string puppets.

As the curtains open on stage, a narrator tells the story of “Sindbad the Sailor,” a hero of Middle Eastern origin and his journeys around the world in which he meets people of different faiths, languages and religions – who often do not have much tolerance for one another.

“A man is dying and you guys are talking about castes,” the protagonist puppet rebuked a fellow puppet who did not want to save a drowning marionette because it belonged to a lower caste.

“You should be ashamed calling yourself human beings. Humans save humanity not caste,” Sindbad says.

Writer Nouman Mehmood said the story came to mind when his group was conducting an education awareness campaign in some poor neighborhoods in the city.

They noticed religious and ethnic antagonism in those neighborhoods and decided to create a show to spread a message of peace, tolerance and harmony.

Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim country of more than 200 million people, has seen repeated attacks on churches, Hindu temples and sufi shrines in recent years by hardline religious groups and Islamist militants.

Conservative religious schools or madrasas are regularly blamed for radicalization but they are often the only education available to millions of poor children, making alternative messages especially important.

“The basic thing is acceptance. You should have enough room to accept others regardless of whether he is a Christian, without considering he is a Hindu, without considering he is a Sikh,” Mehmood said. Organized by Thespianz Theatre, the show plans to travel to other poor Karachi neighborhoods and provinces after its run in the tough Karachi neighborhood of Lyari.

“There is a message that we should not interfere with others’ religions. We should help each other,” said eighth grade student Adul Rahim Arshad after watching the show. “If one deceives us, we should not deceive him back. Instead we should help him.”
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The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has rejected an appeal filed on behalf of Maximum Security, the horse that crossed the Kentucky Derby finish line first on Sunday only to then be disqualified.

The commission said that under the rules, the decision by race officials was not subject to an appeal.

Gary West said he was “stunned, shocked and in total disbelief” when 22 minutes after crossing the finish line in first place, officials disqualified Maximum Security for appearing to impede other horses.

Second-place finisher Country House — a 65-1 long shot — was declared the winner.

“Winning it was the most euphoric thing I have probably ever had in our lives and disappointment when they took the horse down for the first time in history,” West said.

Replays of Saturday’s dramatic race showed a muddy track as Maximum Security veered out of his lane and got in the way of other horses around him — a clear violation of the rules of thoroughbred racing in nearly every state where the sport is run.

West complained that the field was too crowded for Saturday’s race.

“Churchill Downs, because they’re a greedy organization, has 20 horses rather than 14 like you have … in every other race in America. Just because they can make more money, they’re willing to risk horses’ lives and people’s lives. It’s like a rodeo out there,” West said.

Track president Kevin Flanery sent an email to Reuters denying West’s allegations that a crowded track led to his horse’s violation. Flanery said the number of horses who run in the Kentucky derby has been consistent for many years.

West says he will not run Maximum Strength in the Preakness on May 18 in Baltimore, saying there is no chance of his horse winning racing’s Triple Crown — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — and that two weeks is too soon to run him again. 
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One hundred people dressed up as Evita Peron and paraded in the streets of Argentina’s capital Monday, a day before the 100th anniversary of the birth of the charismatic first lady.

Eva Maria Duarte, who died in 1952 from cancer at age 33, was an actress who became the second wife of Juan Peron, an army general who served as president for two different spans.

Best known as “Evita,” she was idolized as a “champion of the poor” and helped women obtain the right to vote.

The performers marched through the streets of Buenos Aires to a building decorated with a large cast-iron portrait of Evita. Some wore her trademark top-knot hairstyle, while others donned ballroom dresses in homage to the combative first lady.

“We want to highlight the image of Eva Peron as a combative woman. As feminists, we believe in her struggle,” said Nora Elia Savio, an actress. “In her time, she fought for our rights.”

Evita’s persona has transcended time and borders.

The global fascination began in the 1970s with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Evita.” Then came Alan Parker’s film starring Madonna based on the musical, and it was followed by Evita’s dresses shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of a Christian Dior exhibit.

The Evita Museum in Buenos Aires recently inaugurated an exhibition titled “Childhood and Peronism, the toys of the Eva Peron Foundation” to mark the 100th anniversary of her birth.
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When Tiger Woods won the Masters on April 14, President Donald Trump declared he was going to award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and ordered his aides to schedule the event as soon as possible.

On Monday, Trump got what he asked for. At a ceremony in the sun-splashed White House Rose Garden, Trump made the 43-year-old Woods the fourth, and youngest, professional golfer to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, after Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Charlie Sifford.

With 81 PGA Tour victories, Woods is one shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record, and with 15 major tournament victories, he trails only Nicklaus, who has 18.

But it was his dramatic Masters victory at Augusta National Golf Club last month, ending an 11-year major championship drought, that capped a years-long comeback from injuries and drama in his personal life, including an arrest two years ago for driving under the influence.

Trump eagerly leapt onto the Tiger bandwagon. The two have played golf a number of times, most recently with Nicklaus in February at Trump’s course in Jupiter, Florida.

At a ceremony attended by several U.S. lawmakers, Trump called Woods “a true legend.”

“He’s a great guy,” said Trump. “He introduced countless new people to the sport of golf, from every background and walk of life. … Tiger Woods is a global symbol of American excellence, devotion and drive.”

Woods, wearing a blue suit (not the Masters green jacket) was joined at the ceremony by his mother, Kultida, his two children, Sam and Charlie, his girlfriend, Erica Herman, and his caddie, Joe LaCava.

“You’ve seen the good and the bad the highs and the lows, and I wouldn’t be here without your help,” Woods said.

Speaking directly to his loved ones, Woods added: “You guys have meant so much to me in my life. I’ve battled and I’ve tried to hang in there and I’ve tried to come back and play a great game of golf again.”

With the golf world wondering if he has enough high-level golf in him to match Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors, Woods left a clue as to his aspirations, calling his recent Masters experience “certainly one of the highest that I’ve accomplished so far in my life on the golf course.”
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