The U.N. agency leading the fight against AIDS says preventive health programs in the Caribbean must be strengthened.
Karen Sealey is the chief of UNAIDS Caribbean. She says prevention needs to improve "to achieve an increase in knowledge about HIV," the virus that causes AIDS.
Sealey made the comments Thursday night in Port-of-Spain as …
Denis J. Goulding Sr., 93, a retired stationary engineer whofought in the Irish Republican Army early in this century, diedFriday at Swedish Covenant Hospital.
Mr. Goulding, of the North Side, was born in Knockanure, CountyKerry, Ireland. He fought in Ireland's struggle for independencefrom Britain in the early 1900s and was imprisoned for two years bythe British.
He migrated in 1926 to Kansas …
SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."
The streets were filled with thousands as labor union members, anti-war activists, clergy and others rallied near City Hall before marching to Dolores Park.
As part of the demonstration, protesters fell on Market Street as part of a "die in" to commemorate the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens who have died since the conflict began in March 2003.
The protest was the largest in a series of war protests taking place …
From Price Conscious to Quality Conscious
For apparel imports to Japan, a shift has begun from a vigorously pushing the pursuit of volume and low price in the past to one of quality and value. The competition in overall apparel imports has begun to show a change from competition for price to competition for value.
Apparel Imports
Decreasing
The pursuit of volume and low price has begun to give way to the pursuit of quality and value. It is a logical conclusion that apparel imports to Japan in 2002 directly represented consumer's preferences shifting from the low price-oriented position to the value-oriented one.
Because of changes in consumers to the pursuit of value, as well as the stagnant market condition, the volume of Japan's apparel imports in 2002 sank below the preceding year. In the ensuing present situation without any encouraging signs in Japanese domestic business, it is highly likely that apparel imports in 2003 will also remain flat or fall slightly below the year-ago level. Its contributing factors are: (1) the completion of the first stage of shifting to overseas production; (2) changes in consumers fed up with low-priced products; and (3) signs of a shift to competition for value above the mere competition for price.
Priority on sensuousness rather than on prices also characterizes retail sales. Most probably, the industry is experiencing a fatigue arising from long-continued requirements for lower prices. Naturally enough, retailers are also working as hard as they could not to repeat the same items every year. The development of materials for value adding will become increasingly important in the future. Merchandising, which has returned to the basics, will also determine the results in the future.
Shift to Overseas
Production
Approaching Turning
Point
Shifting production overseas has definitely approached the end of the current stage. Overseas production, which has advanced during the past 5-10 years, particularly a shift of production to China, is finally approaching a turning point.
Under the pressure of Japan's deflationary economy, falling unit prices have been remarkable every year during the past three years. To satisfy the requirements for lower prices, retailers have reduced their selling prices. As a result of falling margin rates, apparel manufacturers and trading firms have shifted production overseas in order to cope with this situation. Apparel imports have formed their trend on this vicious cycle of moves. But it now appears that the tide has begun to turn.
The volume of apparel imports in the January-October 2002 period fell by 6% from the preceding year. On a single month basis, these imports continued to dip until October 2002 for eight consecutive months. Looking backward, it is clear that made-ups exerted an overwhelming influence of flood-- like imports until eventually apparel imports exceeded 3 billion units in 2000.
Among typical import items with large volumes, annual imports of sweaters and cardigans continued to keep the levels of slightly less than 0.5 billion units. However, they are estimated to have fallen by 5% in 2002 from the same period of the preceding year. T-shirts, a typical commodity item, began to sag as early as in 2000. Its imports are estimated to have dropped by nearly 20% in 2002. Imports of men's suits increased by more than 30% in 2000 and again 2001. Their growth rate, however, slowed down in 2002 to nearly 15%. (Fig.)
Response to
Individuality
For the past two or three years, unit prices of imported men's suits continued to fall, while increasing the import volume at a rapid pace. Such items, however, have reached a brief pause. This fact suggests that consumers have begun to become weary of cheap sales. This trend is easily understandable from the emerging two-price suit stores as well as increasing personal responsiveness by pattern orders and easy orders under the environment of stagnant men's wear business. Some apparel-related people have pointed out: "Suits are now sold at a unit price of less than 10,000 yen by mass merchandisers. Low prices of casual wear have sparked repercussions in suits. But, we absolutely refused to call this a successful case of suit business." Firms which filed for the application of the Civil Rehabilitation Law are in the process of coming back to the market by shifting their business status to booking pattern orders or easy orders only. We cannot overlook these moves as well.
Even trading firms burdened with the background function for retail firms and apparel firms have found that the supply of good products made from characteristic materials rather than prices has become increasingly imperative. Such requirements were the same whether the final channel is mass merchandisers, department stores or specialty stores. To achieve reasonable prices, retailers had intensified their direct buying from overseas sources, but, now, they have begun to purchase directly from domestic sources as well in order to deal with value-oriented consumers. This kind of rebound faithfully reflects a radical difference from the old days when consumers reacted to prices sensitively.
There is a belief that the import volume dropped as a result of the worsened domestic market in Japan after a shift to overseas production advanced at an accelerating pace. Now, there is a lot of re-thinking that eventually products consumers wanted so much were not made available to them. In the fall/winter 2002-03 season, down wear sold like hot cakes, because of a favorable fashion factor. Fleece wear was favorable as well. As for fleece wear, products in the price zone of one or two higher ranks were better selling items than cheap products. So the sluggishness in consumption is not necessarily responsible for the decline in import volume. A thorough understanding of "market-in" concepts should create a potential demand. This would show a real turning point in apparel imports.
Change to
Competition for Value
Trading firms acting as an intermediary in supplying apparel have worked hard to offer to sellers satisfactory materials at more reasonable prices in both price and value aspects. Nevertheless, their accumulated efforts at cost reduction through OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals eventually arrived at a point that an efficient physical distribution is the only way to further sharpen costs. Requirements for lower prices have forced all these things. Even so, if the products do not sell at the retail level, there is no choice for stores but to find a way to become value-- oriented. In the future, the development and procurement of materials capable of coping with this situation will become increasingly critical.
In 2002, signs of change were noticeable in apparel imports because a revised tax reduction system for re-imported products after overseas processing on a commission basis came into effect in April 2002. Between trading firms, there are frequently increasing cases of using materials for shipment back to Japan after processing for sweaters in the better zone, for example. One customer has disclosed its stance toward increasing this kind of operation to differentiate itself from others by saying, "At this point, we are not fully taking advantage of the merits of this revised tax reduction system." A trading firm has decided to organize a new division involved exclusively in the development of materials to intensify the digging-up of good-quality materials domestically and abroad. Measures to deal with the final stronghold, an efficient physical distribution in the competition for cost reduction, are presently in the process of being boiled down. The competition being carried on in overall apparel imports has changed the appearance of competition for price to competition for value.
Trading firms involved with many apparel imports face both winds, favorable and unfavorable. Particularly, as for products with many of commodity items in the volume zone such as underwear, dress shirts and suits, the wind is against trading firms because of a direct connection between apparel manufacturers and apparel firms, leaving trading firms behind. In this particular arena, trading firms and apparel firms are certainly competing against each other.
In contrast, department stores and specialty store-affiliated apparel firms have increasingly intensified their dependency upon trading firms for manufacturing because they want to concentrate on planning and sales. Now these firms can depend on imports without anxiety in the quality aspect partly because of the improvement in the technological standards and the QR (quick response) in China.
At the apparel level, major general apparel firms offering new brands have entered the market and gained market acceptance in sportswear and children's wear sectors. There are no longer any traditional industrial barriers between "specialty" and "general" and the industry has plunged into an age of mega competition.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a world where people are paid handsomely to create make-believe drama that mimics real-life horror, the true-crime story of a Hollywood publicist killed by a fusillade of bullets as she drives home from a movie premiere has left her friends stunned and searching for a script that can somehow help them make sense of a senseless act.
Officials in Beverly Hills, where veteran publicist Ronnie Chasen was gunned down shortly after midnight Monday, have offered few theories about her death other than to say police believe someone opened fire on her late-model Mercedes from another vehicle.
But that hasn't stopped Chasen's friends in Hollywood's tight-knit community of publicists and other behind-the-scenes people who help bring us the movies we watch from working overtime to develop their own theories:
Was Chasen's killing the result of a bungled carjacking by someone who stalked her through a rougher neighborhood until she reached a quiet Beverly Hills street? Or did Chasen, with fatigue setting in after attending a premiere and party for the movie "Burlesque," simply cut off the wrong person in traffic?
"I'm not a detective, I'm a songwriter. But I can't see it being road rage," said Carol Connors, a two-time Oscar nominee who co-wrote the theme to "Rocky," and who was a friend of Chasen's for more than 30 years.
"Who would you really aggravate in traffic at that hour?" Connors asked, her voice breaking. "Maybe it was a gang thing and one of the initiations is to find a really pretty blonde lady in a really high-powered car and take her out."
Laugh Factory nightclub owner Jamie Masada said Chasen's killing was the subject of dinner-table conversation when he met with TV executives earlier in the week. Others put forth road-rage theories, but he disagrees.
"Maybe I'm watching too much television, but you see all those shows like '48 Hours' where someone hires a hit man to kill their wife," he said. "Maybe someone hired a hit man. He says, 'My wife drives a Mercedes, she comes by here.' And the hitman mistook her for his wife."
With all the speculation, it's likely that sometime after Chasen's funeral on Sunday at Hillside Memorial Park — final resting place for such Hollywood notables as Milton Berle, Jack Benny and Al Jolson — her killing will be the subject of a crime show.
The producers of "Law and Order: Los Angeles" declined to comment about that possibility Friday out of respect for Chasen's family. But the show's executive producer, Dick Wolf, did note that the case "sure is a fascinating headline."
The 64-year-old Chasen, who was unmarried and had no children, was a virtual unknown outside the Hollywood community. But within it she was a celebrity of the magnitude of Morgan Freeman or Sylvester Stallone — people she represented over the years.
"In its way, it's almost like a Princess Di story," publicist David Brokaw said of her death. "She was a princess if not a queen in this community and to the people she worked with, and she was someone who met her demise way too early."
Her relentless promotion of her clients, in a way several reporters described as pushy but never rude, was credited with creating the buzz that resulted in much Oscar, Grammy and Emmy recognition for them.
"Ronni was my very first publicist and paramount to the success of my career," said actor John Travolta.
On the night she died, Chasen had been working the premiere and after-party for the movie "Burlesque," trying to build Oscar buzz for its soundtrack and also getting a word in for an Oscar nomination for Michael Douglas' performance in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."
"She had called me five times in the past five days," said veteran Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke, who recalled she spoke with Chasen by phone for an hour that night, making small talk and hearing pitches for Douglas and "Burlesque."
But despite that aggressive attitude, Chasen seemed to have no enemies, even among reporters she pestered.
"When it happened, when it was confirmed, I just burst into tears," said Finke.
That it happened in Beverly Hills — a city whose name is synonymous with wealth and where murders rarely occur — was all the more baffling.
Although authorities will say little about their investigation, retired Beverly Hills police detective Kieron Foley, who is not involved in the case, said the evidence released so far points to a professional hit. He discounted the Hollywood scenarios of gang-initiation killing, drive-by shooting or road rage.
Although street gangs from the neighboring Hollywood district have sometimes been a problem for Beverly Hills, he said, it's notable that no one in the multimillion-dollar mansions that line the street where Chasen was killed heard a car speeding away.
"Typically, those guys step on the gas and they get the hell out of there," he said.
Chasen was shot multiple times in the chest, at an intersection near a park where her killer could easily have hid in the bushes waiting for her, Foley said, adding that a partner following her could have alerted the shooter by phone to her approach.
"If she is the target and I am a bad guy, that is a great place for me to be," he said.
Afterward, Foley said, the killer could easily have fled quietly in a car, on a motorcycle or even on a bicycle.
That still leaves Chasen's friends with no end to the story, however. Why, they ask, would anyone do that to her?
"It just makes no sense whatsoever. It makes no sense. That's what nobody can understand," said publicist Kathie Berlin, a friend of 40 years.
"How do you go down a street in Beverly Hills that she's gone down a million times ... and you're shot dead?"
___
AP writers Lynn Elber and Thomas Watkins contributed to this story.
100 years ago
At the Glastonbury police court on Thursday, a Sharpham man wascharged with failing to comply with the provisions of an ordercompelling him to maintain his wife and two children.
Defendant, who admitted that he had failed to pay the sumdemanded weekly, said that he was unable to do so, and was sent toprison for three weeks.
A man from West Pennard was summoned for allowing four horses tostray on the public highway on June 16.
Defendant pleaded not guilty to allowing them to stray, butadmitted that they were out, having broken through the fence. PCPriddle proved the case.
Defendant said that he had turned then in the field, and was onthe way to look for them when the constable brought them in.
He had kept the horses for a long period, and had never beforehad a complaint of that kind made against him.
50 years ago
Glastonbury magistrates imposed fines totalling Pounds 5 on a manof Glastonbury on Monday for failing to pay National Insurancecontributions as a self-employed person and for failing to returnhis insurance card to the ministry.
It was stated that a sum of Pounds 34 7s. was owing to theministry, but a check to cover this amount was paid into court.
He was said to have been fined Pounds 3 for a similar offence in1959.
Butleigh Fete has the reputation of bringing rain, but this yearthe weather was perfect, with just enough cloud to prevent the heatfrom becoming too great, and no rain.
The proceeds of this year's fete, which was once again held inthe beautiful garden at Butleigh House, were to be given to the NewOrgan Fund.
The stalls were soon besieged by an eager crowd of buyers and thecoconut shie and "Mr Krushev" attracted a more or less continuousrain of missiles. Stickers-up were kept busy at the skittles, andthe roundabout was in more or less a perpetual motion.
There were races for children and tea and refreshments were ingreat demand.
25 years ago
A musical treat not to be missed is due to take place at StJohn's Church, Glastonbury, on Saturday, July 26.
Das Junge Bach-Collegium chamber orchestra from Osnabruck, WestGermany, comprising of some of the finest music students from allover Germany, will be performing a Handel Overture and Suite fromAlcina, Bach Cantata No 170, and Oboe D'amore Concerto in A majorand a Handel Concerto Grosso.
Television personality Tom O'Connor visited Meare at the weekend.
Gloria McClurg, warden of the village's sheltered home scheme, isthe national secretary of Tom's fan club.
She invited Tom to meet her elderly residents when she knew hewas in the area. Mrs McClurg once took part in his quiz show NameThat Tune and won the Pounds 1,000 jackpot.
Residents at the home presented Tom with a painting ofGlastonbury Tor, which he said he would hang in his billiard room.
10 years ago
After winning 25 awards and nominations for their pantomime DickWhittington last year, Strode Productions are preparing to hold aworkshop and auditions for their December 2001 show Aladdin and hisWonderful Lamp.
The director will again be Barry Squance who said: "We werethrilled by everyone's comments and the accolades received for DickWhittington, we have already put together the same production teamand are now preparing to get the cast and chorus in place."
