Asia has some very colorful, interesting and practical national dresses. Due to a common history, many of the national dresses are similar in style with those of their neighboring countries, while many of dresses cross national borders. Take for example the sari - a strip of colorful cloth either five or nine meters long, its draped in different styles around women across the Indian Subcontinent. Similarly, the Shalwar Kameez (pronounced differently in various parts of South Asia) is a long tunic worn over loose pajama trousers. The Shalwar Kameez is worn by women across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Further, Cambodia’s national dress the Sampot, a skirt-like wrap around cloth is a dress similar to that worn in Laos and Thailand. The similarity, comes from the Khmer rule that had immense cultural influences on Lao and Thai culture.

Below, are a few national dresses from around Asia:

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Every year since the award was created in 1956, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The award is handed out annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue.

The 81st Academy Awards, have invited 96 countries to submit films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Only one film is accepted from each country, and the deadline by which copies of all submitted films must be sent to the Academy has been set to 1 October 2008. Nominations will be announced on 22 January 2009, and the winner will be revealed during the awards ceremony that will be held on 22 February 2009.

Films submitted from Asia include:

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When a financial crisis hits, its the peripherals that go first - advertising, additional human capital, fringe benefits and speculative investments. American’s witnessed this first hand during the last few weeks as markets plunged and art speculators shied away from Asian art auctions.

When Asian auctions opened the week beginning September 15 in New York, around the same time as Wall Street crashed,  art connoisseurs picked up well researched collectors pieces from India, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Those who didn’t know their art and would have otherwise picked up paintings and sculptures purely for their decorative value, preferred to abstain from making high value payments, as a result, many collectibles were auctioned off well below their estimated price

The only difference with the summer auctions, the international herald tribune said was that silly showoff buying has stopped. The uninformed newcomers of yore unconcerned with art and on the lookout for expensive fun are gone. This was made crystal clear at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Chinese sales of Sept. 16 and 17, and was further borne out in the auction of Japanese and Korean art held at Christie’s on Sept. 18, just as the financial crisis was reaching an apex.

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