New EU Satellite Reveals Air Pollution Levels Around the Globe

BERLIN (AP) — Images taken by a new European satellite show the levels and distribution of air pollutants around the world, including ash spewing from a volcano in Indonesia.

The European Space Agency released images Friday made by its Sentinel-5P satellite that show high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in parts of Europe on Nov. 22.

Nitrogen dioxide is mainly caused by vehicle emissions and in industrial processes.

Another image shows high levels of carbon monoxide, commonly produce by fires, in Asia, Africa and South America.

A series of images also show sulfur dioxide, ash and smoke from the Mount Agung volcano in Bali last month.

Sentinel-5P, launched Oct. 13, can map levels of nitrogen dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and other pollutants that can be hazardous to human health or contribute to global warming.

5 Reasons Why Jackie Chan May Not Be a Nice Guy

One way or another we have all seen his movies and have been entertained by his antics mixed with his Martial Arts skills on screen.

He has been cast next to some of Hollywood’s successful (and not so successful) actors and played parts in films ranging from the iconic to the downright laughable.

Jackie Chan has no doubt become a household name around the world and why shouldn’t he? With classics such as Drunken Master and roles in family-friendly movies like the Kung Fu Panda series, he’s an all-around talented guy; but underneath all that fame and glamor, what if there is a different man that we don’t really know? What if, Mr Nice Guy is not-so-nice at all?

Today we talk about the 5 reasons why Jackie Chan may not be the nice guy we thought he is.

#5 — The Beijing Connection

In one of his public appearances, Jackie Chan opened himself up to criticism from Hong Kong and the international press in an interview on a Hong Kong TV show. “We Chinese need to be controlled,” he said. “We know our country has many problems. We [can] talk about it when the door is closed. To outsiders, [we should say] ‘our country is the best’.”

This remark sparked outrage in the city-state. Once a colony of Britain, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 but maintains an autonomous form of government and economy far different from Beijing. For one, residents in Hong Kong enjoy much freer access to information and the internet whereas their counterparts in the mainland have to bear with strict censorship from the government.

On different occasions and interviews, Chan is known for making sweeping comments against calls for more freedom in China.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said when asked during the Boao Forum for Asia about his stance on the suffocating control of the media by the Beijing government on the mainland. “If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is right now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic... I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want,” he said.

These words were warmly received and applauded by Beijing, but pro-democracy legislators from Hong Kong were deeply provoked and offended with some legislators labeling Chan a “racist.”

In answer to Chan’s statements, veteran pro-democracy legislator Albert Ho said, “People around the world are running their own countries. Why can’t China do the same?”

This was not Chan’s first foray into making a clear stand on Beijing.

Even though he was critical of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing in 1989, he has — quite ironically — taken a much more pro-Beijing stance in later years.

#4 — Biting the Hand that Fed Him

There is no doubt that Jackie Chan has been one of the most successful Asian actors in Hollywood.  Since the Hong Kong star’s debut into the silver screen in the 70s, his career has been stellar up until the early 2000s.

Although despite his success and a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame to commemorate his talents, a report published Chan allegedly stating that America was the most corrupt country in the world.

This remark may have spelled the end of his career in the United States and gave his later films a thorough decline in quality and audience reception.

The internet was quick to give a response to Chan’s supposed statement with several sites and communities calling for a “huge boycott of Jackie Chan’s films no matter how much they make small children squeal with enjoyment.”

#3 — In the Business of Making Business

Movie stars are rich. That is possibly a universal truth. What with the paychecks they receive from their movies, residuals from syndication and advertising, and the businesses they put up almost everywhere on almost anything from perfumes to restaurants, celebrities are always loaded, and Jackie Chan is no exception.

Chan practically gets involved in almost every aspect of show business. For the most part, he has directed, produced, and sang the soundtracks to his own films. With more than 100 films and about 25 albums in his portfolio, Chan is literally everywhere – and these days, he has started his own K-Pop group called JJCC.

However, Chan’s entrepreneurial side goes beyond show business. In the controversial Panama Papers leak, it was revealed that Chan had an intriguing relationship with officials of the Chinese Communist Party.  The papers also exposed a few of Chan’s interesting secrets involving Hong Kong and mainland China.

It was said that Chan allegedly had ties with wealthy businesses in Hong Kong, most notably Albert Yeung of the Emperor Group that acquired land to build the Beijing Emperor Group Center in 2006 but the project’s promotion did not begin until 2015, nine years after the acquisition; an acquisition that supposedly involved Chan who said, in 2014, that he did own a piece of land in the mainland.

Online communities in Beijing believed the land that Chan was talking about was, in fact, the one for the Beijing Emperor Group Center — land that was allegedly acquired by Chan and Yeung in 2006 through the sacked Vice Mayor of Beijing, Liu Zhihua.

#2 — The Not-So Environmental Advocate

“Who said Beijing had no blue skies? Such blue skies, green fields…” This was a caption appended to a photo shot by Chan and posted on Chinese social media Weibo in the midst of the heated debate about Beijing’s pollution crisis.

The backlash was almost instantaneous when the online community took no hesitation in calling Chan out with comments generously sprinkled with profanity.

It is known the world over that Beijing has been one of the most polluted cities in the globe with a smog count reaching 993 micrograms per cubic meter in the Xizhimen area alone. The people on the mainland and those living near and within city limits are subjected to the smog on a daily basis, affecting their health no matter what their age.

The photo and the comment posted by Chan may seem trivial to some, but it has a heavy handed, and insensitive effect on the people who are actually experiencing pollution that can potentially be lethal to them.

#1 — Daddy Issues

Celebrities will always have their personal lives dragged into the limelight one way or another. Since they are such public personalities, it seems to follow that whatever form of privacy they wish for is not possible.

The same goes for Jackie Chan. However, there is a different and more interesting story to the beloved star.

In 2015, a recently re-surfaced interview showed Chan talk about his relationship with Taiwanese actress Joan Lin, his wife for more than 30 years. In the interview, he said that he had only decided to marry her after she became pregnant with their son, Jaycee.

“It was an accident which conceived Jaycee,” Chan says, according to Asia One. “I had never thought of getting married, but felt it was akin to being forced to marry.” What an insult!

Of course, the rumors that Chan has had many other girlfriends while married to Lin were no surprise. He was said to have also been in an affair with Elaine Ng, a former beauty queen, to whom he fathered a daughter named Etta in 1999.

Calling his affair with Elaine a mistake, Chan said that he “only committed a fault that many men would commit.” Meanwhile, Etta says that her relationship with her father was practically non-existent and only saw Chan as “just a stranger.”

Chan’s reputation as a father continued to slide in 2014 when his son, Jaycee, was arrested after police officers raided his apartment and seizing more than 100 grams of marijuana: an offense that landed him six months behind bars.

After his release, Jaycee found it difficult to find employment after being blacklisted by several companies. In an effort to carve out a career path for his son, Chan gave his son a newer image even proposing to work on an album with him.

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Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinese-shouldnt-get-more-freedom-says-jackie-chan-1671337.html

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2042308-panama-papers-reveal-jackie-chans-clinging-to-super-rich-chinese/?expvar=004&utm_expid=.5zxdwnfjSHaLe_IPrO6c5w.1&utm_referrer=

http://shanghaiist.com/2017/04/11/jackie_chan_forced_marriage.php

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/03/10-reasons-why-you-want-to-punch-jackie-chan-in-the-face/