On its first run round a Qatari camel-racing course, the robot jockey has set a time seconds off the record set by a child jockey, whose use in the popular sport has been banned after international criticism.
"We're 20 seconds away from the best time using a human jockey over 5km," said Alexander Colot, director of the Swiss firm K-team, which has built the robot jockey for Qatar.
The robot challenged its only competitor, a child jockey, over the 5km course on the Al-Shahaniya race track near Doha, while spectators and media watched, drawn to this unique event.
PHOTOS: AFP
Gulf Arab monarchies are trying to bring order to the sport in the face of protests over the trafficking of young children from developing countries, mostly in Asia, who become jockeys.
Human-rights groups raised alarm over the exploitation of children by traffickers who pay impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply kidnap their victims.
The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are then smuggled into the oil-rich Gulf states.
They are often starved by employers to keep them light and maximize their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children -- some as young as six -- face the risk of being thrown off and trampled.
Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) successfully completed its first robot-jockey exercise, with a ban on the use of jockeys aged under 16 and weighing less than 45kg also now in effect.
The UAE had in principle already banned the use of children under 15 since 1993, but abuses remain widespread and no one was ever prosecuted.
PHOTOS: AFP
In December, Qatar banned the use of children in camel races and said it was preparing to use robot jockeys from 2005.
Mounted on a racing camel, which has an average speed of 40kph, the remote-controlled robot jockey displays remarkably similar gestures to those of a human jockey, even whipping the camel to make it go faster.
After "about 30 attempts" since launching the idea in April 2004, "the product is now ready," said Colot.
Property rights for the robot have been registered for Qatar.
"No one can manufacture [a robot] without the authorization of Qatar," said Rashed Ali Ibrahim, a member of the Qatari committee charged with promoting robot jockeys.
According to Colot, "the Emirati model (resembles) a doll rather than a robot."
Doha is increasingly set on developing its own robot jockey, "notably with a movement of arms and battery-powered," said committee president Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani, who announced a plan to create "a factory for robot jockeys" in the gas-rich Gulf state.
"We hope to introduce around 20 robot jockeys" next year at Qatar's annual grand prix, he said.
While the Swiss manufacturer refuses to reveal the cost of the project, Sheikh Abdullah said, "the first phase involved investments of some 3 million riyals (US$800,000)."
"This experiment can succeed and be generalized," said Fredj Fenniche, regional representative for the UN Human Rights Commission.
"Our way seeks to make Qatar a state of law and respect of human rights, and we won't tolerate going against this," said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Faisal al-Thani, president of the organizing committee for camel races in Qatar.
If one asks Taiwanese why house prices are so high or why the nation is so built up or why certain policies cannot be carried out, one common answer is that “Taiwan is too small.” This is actually true, though not in the way people think. The National Property Administration (NPA), responsible for tracking and managing the government’s real estate assets, maintains statistics on how much land the government owns. As of the end of last year, land for official use constituted 293,655 hectares, for public use 1,732,513 hectares, for non-public use 216,972 hectares and for state enterprises 34 hectares, yielding
The small platform at Duoliang Train Station in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) served villagers from 1992 to 2006, but was eventually shut down due to lack of use. Just 10 years later, the abandoned train station had become widely known as the most beautiful station in Taiwan, and visitors were so frequent that the village had to start restricting traffic. Nowadays, Duoliang Village (多良) is known as a bit of a tourist trap, with a mandatory, albeit modest, admission fee of NT$10 giving access to a crowded lane of vendors with a mediocre view of the ocean and the trains
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
President William Lai (賴清德) on Nov. 25 last year announced in a Washington Post op-ed that “my government will introduce a historic US$40 billion supplementary defense budget, an investment that underscores our commitment to defending Taiwan’s democracy.” Lai promised “significant new arms acquisitions from the United States” and to “invest in cutting-edge technologies and expand Taiwan’s defense industrial base,” to “bolster deterrence by inserting greater costs and uncertainties into Beijing’s decision-making on the use of force.” Announcing it in the Washington Post was a strategic gamble, both geopolitically and domestically, with Taiwan’s international credibility at stake. But Lai’s message was exactly
RSS