Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Hague Convention is not enough to recover your child

Many left-behind parents are told that the Hague Convention will bring about the return of their abducted children. Some authorities say that if your child is abducted, you should follow procedures outlined by the Hague, but we don’t agree.

Until 1980, there was no international system in place to help parents recover abducted children who had been taken to other nations. The Hague Convention attempted to create one, but it doesn’t work. If you take the time to read the well-intentioned text of the Hague, you’ll see its many flaws.

In our opinion, it’s not worth the large amounts of money, time and trouble to hire an attorney to try using the Hague Convention to get your child back. You aren’t likely to get him or her back — and even worse, the abducting parent could be “legitimized” by the courts in another nation.

Under the Hague Convention, a case must be filed in the country where the abductor has taken the child. The courts of that country tend to render their decisions in favor of their countrymen, as the Hague Convention focuses on residency, not citizenship. There is little concern for the fact that the child is a citizen of the country from which he or she was abducted, or for the possible detrimental effect on the child.

Even if the child was born in your country, if that child is found to be a “habitual resident” by the courts in another country, the child may be ordered to be returned to that country.

This underscores the need to act quickly.

Few, if any, of the Hague signatory countries are going to send anyone out to physically recover your child for you. Embassy officials will check on the child’s welfare, if it is known where the child is and if the abducting parent lets them.

As soon as abducting parents are aware that that they’ve been located, they’ll usually disappear with the children again.

And about hiring lawyers

You need to be aware that a great amount of money has been spent on lawyers in foreign abduction cases. The unfortunate fact is that they, most often, can’t practice in the foreign courts and are required to hire associate lawyers in the foreign country.

Note: they often have no qualifications or experience working with child abduction cases.

More money…

Educate yourself

Many resources are available to help you learn about parental child abduction. If you’re dealing with an abduction, the better informed you are, the better equipped you’ll be to cope.

Recover your child

Time is of the essence. Parentally abducted children are helpless on their own and confused by the irrational and sometimes abusive acts of non-custodial parents who are supposed to have their best interests in mind. ABP World Group Ltd. has the manpower and the know-how to rigorously cover all avenues, and bring your child home.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

[Via http://abpworld.wordpress.com]

Alex, the Happy Happy animals of Beijing Zoo and other such nonsense

22nd

Predictably Crazy Aussie doesnt feature in todays episode, we eventually seen him around 5 or 6 walking with one shoe and a bag full of vomit stained clothes to the laundrette, in the mean time myself and CC have uploaded the vidoes from the night before onto youtube. He is also highly excited about a new arrival at the hotel above the hostel to whom he was speaking earlier. His name is Alex, born in the Ukraine, grew up in a German POW camp lived most of his life in America, he is a 76 year veteran of the Korean war and either the man whos life “the most interesting man in the world” was based upon or is suffering from a highly advanced case of Munchausen syndrome.

We take Alex for dinner where he entertains us with some of the most debauched stories Ive ever heard in my life. At one point I asked him, given that he was a

paratrooper and machine gunner in the Korean war, if hed actually ever killed anybody, sure he replied, “afterall it was my job. And just between you and me, you might think this is a little obscene, but there is a certain satisfaction in squeezing the trigger and watching somebody do the meat cha-cha. You dont think of them as human”. It was fairly startling to here these stories of out the mouth of a seemingly nice old man. Other stories he told were utterly depraved, I could see he was really delighting in shocking us. We quized him a bit to make sure he wasnt just bullshitting but he seemed to know his stuff. His claim to having a much younger wife I verified a few days later when I met her in the hotel.

Later that evening whilst wandering around the hutong I came upon a strange sight of a Dutch girl hanging out with some of the locals, she seemed to have fully incorporated herself into the community. I got talking to her, she was an interesting individual, I could see similarities in personality between the two of us, a sense of curiosity a searching for new and interesting things. While my curiosity had led me to trying dog meat the day before, hers had brought her to smoking crack cocaine in a drug den in Mexico city, which she admitted, in retrospect probably wasnt the brightest thing shed ever done. I found it funny that she said she could never bring herself to eat dog, crack cocaine ok, dog no thanks.

Being an animal lover I strongly advised her never to visit Beijing Zoo, which I had done at some stage over the last couple of days. I knew it was supposed to be bad so I visited really out of a morbid curiosity and to see just how bad it could be. Yeah it was fairly horrible alright. The favored children of the zoo, the pandas have it ok, the rest of the animals are clearly there just to constitute the world zoo. There are more employees tending to the grass and bushes than looking after them. The bears stand up and beg you to throw food. The big cats are trapped in tiny prison cells, continually pacing and generally going mental. The whole place smells like shit. All the while an errie happy happy gingle plays continuously over loudspeakers with portraits of Mao staring down like some creepy beardless santa claus, giving the whole place a nightmarish fairground feel.

On the way back I meet CC with McHotpants, the poor girl doesnt speak a word of english. CC is clearly delighted by this fact and spends much of the walk back to the Hutong opening degrading her in english, detailing to me his plans to “do her in the ass”, ejaculate on her face as well as making derogatory comments about her general intelligence. Thankfully it appears that she never gave him the opportunity to do any of these things.

[Via http://driftervagabond.wordpress.com]

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Bei Hai Parque

Localizado a noroeste da cidade proibida em Beijing, o parque imperial Bei Hai é um dos maiores parques da China. Ao longo de todo parque é possível encontrar inúmeras estruturas históricas, palácios e templos.

Até o fim da Dinastia Qing, o parque era anexo a cidade proibida, sendo restrito aos imperadores, sendo aberto ao público no ano de 1925.

O parque cobre uma área de 69 hectares, sendo um grande lago metade desse espaço. Inúmeros jardins e cenários foram criados para retratar a paisagem de outras regiões da China, com os canais de Suzhou.

Alguns pontos a se destacar no parque são: a ilha de Qiónghuá , no centro do parque com um observatório de 40m, o Bai Ta – o pavilhão dos cinco dragões, o Dacizhenru – grande templo budista, e a parede dos nove dragões.

[Via http://chinatradecenter.wordpress.com]

Hemi Hybrid

Celebrating the American Roots and Growing New Green Branches

©2009 Isaac Hernández

Bob Lee, the man behind the rebirth of the Hemi V8 engine in 2003 has recently been replaced by Paolo Ferrero as senior Vice President of Chrysler Powertrain. Lee continues at Chrysler, but now Ferrero, who served as vice-president of product engineering at Fiat, calls the shots when it comes to engines.

Fiat owns 20% of Chrysler Group LLC and has management power. As part of the investment deal, Fiat will provide its fuel-efficient engines to Chrysler. If Fiat were to manufacture these engines in the US, the Italian company would be allowed to purchase an additional 5% of the American brand.

Some people in America are afraid that the Fiat takeover would represent the end of the Hemi engine. At Chrysler LLC, they love the Hemi and they’re making sure that the Italians learn to love it too.

During a recent visit of the Italian Minister of Economic Development, Claudio Scajola, to the Chrysler headquarters, the Italian delegation was shown the wind tunnel with no other than a Hemi Chrysler Viper SRT-10 ACR in it.

During the MotoGP Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix races in Laguna Seca, California, Fiat Yamaha Team riders former World Champion Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo drove a 425-horsepower 6.1-liter HEMI-powered Dodge Challenger SRT8.

I have been lucky to drive the Dodge Challenger HEMI on the Willow Springs racetrack first by myself, and then with Eric Heuschele at the wheel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3G-HthIh4). Eric, Supervisor of Vehicle Dynamics SRT Engineering, is passionate about the Hemi. He later gave me a ride in the Viper ACR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcbLujK2Gy8)

Today I saw some extremist Americans in Seattle holding posters of Barack Obama with a Hitler’s mustache. I don’t know what far right Republicans find in common between the US president and the German dictator, and didn’t care to stop and find out… If Fiat stops production of the HemiI, soon we may also see posters of a bald Obama as Benito Mussolini. The only reason we haven’t seen them already is because most Americans probably wouldn’t know who Mussolini is. If they only knew that the Hemi V-8 is built in Saltillo, Mexico…

But I’m getting distracted by non-sense politics. Today I want to celebrate the Hemi heritage, in honor of those men and women who have given their ingenuity to develop the hemispherical combustion chamber, which with its arched shape, allows for the spark plug to be placed in the center of the chamber and the position of the valves allows for better breathing of the engine.

The first Chrysler HEMI engine was an inverted V-16, rated at 2,500 horsepower, developed for WWII aircraft, but it never made it into production.

Fiat’s own history has a hemispherical engine, the one that powered the A.L.F.A. 40/60 GP car in 1914. There have been other hemispherical engines before, in racecars from Peugeot, Pipe and Miller, as well as production cars from Duesenberg. Stutz and Offenhauser, among others.

Chrysler continued developing the Hemi after WWII, but it wasn’t until the Chrysler C300 came out in 1955 that the legend began to be written. It was the first production car in the US with over 300 hp. Chrysler won the NASCAR Grand National title and the AAA Championship, with a whooping 33 race victories. Many say the C300 was the first muscle car. The FirePower engine came to propel different models of Dodge, Chrysler, Imperial and DeSoto cars. The Hemi engine died with the 1959 model year.

The legend was reborn in 1964, specifically to win at NASCAR. And win it did. Richard Petty dominated in 1964 and 1966 with the blue Plymouth Superbird Number 43, powered by the 426 Hemi (426 for its cubic inches, or 7 liters). It became such an important part of American car culture, that in the 2006 film Cars, Pixar included a car inspired on the Superbird, named “King”, voiced by Petty himself. It was for this second generation that Chrysler trademarked the name Hemi. Its life came again to an end in 1971.

The first Chrysler Hemi lasted for four years, the second one for twice as long. If we were to follow mathematical logic, the third generation (built in 5.7, 6.1 and 6.4 liter variations, so far) born in 2003 should be around until 2015. Will it? Unfortunately, as much as Americans love their Hemi, sales are not supporting its long-term survival.

The Hemi of the future?

American ingenuity will find a way to have fun with cars and be environmentally friendly, now that our main focus ought to be to reduce carbon emissions, so that our children don’t have to suffer extreme global warming.

Popular Mechanics (PM) modified a Dodge Challenger SRT8, turning it into an Eco+Muscle car. The idea is to use “inexpensive aerodynamic aids, a state-of-the-art electric drive system and some other helpful bits” to turn the Challenger “into a parallel hybrid plug-in/solar/electric that burns no fuel at all in everyday driving.“

The car, featured at the Las Vegas SEMA Show in November, will be auctioned in Scottsdale, Arizona in November.

PM paid $30,740.00 for the Challenger, and quite a bit more on gasoline, doing 9.0 mpg in stop-and-go traffic. On the freeway, because of the computerized cylinder deactivation, they could get as much as 25.4 mpg on the highway.

The tuners went all out, trying to squeeze as much power out of the V-8, even adding a nitrous system. Then they added a UQM electric motor, at a weight penalty of 89 lbs. producing 125 hp and 176 lb-ft of torque. The electric motor provides all torque from the very beginning, improving acceleration for the Challenger. How do you power it? With 28 Exide Select Orbital lead batteries in the back seat, producing 336 volts. This was the best compromise between power and price, according to PM. They’d prefer a lithion-ion system, but pricing was out of their range.

The racing stripes on the carbon fiber hood are actually flexible solar panels, which help charge the batteries. “On a sunny day, they recharge the battery at a rate of 2.5 amps”.

The rear axle was modified and so was the fuel tank. There’s also a fuel cell under the trunk. Making everything fit took some genius. You can read more about it in http://media.origin.popularmechanics.com/documents/ecomuscle/index.html.

The cool thing about the Eco+Muscle Challenger is that the foot pedal controls the combustion engine, while a hand throttle sends powers the electric motor.

To compensate for the extra weight, many body parts were replaced with carbon fiber. The front seats were replaced by lighter ones, and the rearview mirrors were replaced by more aerodynamic video cameras.

There’s still work to do. The engineers are still trying to make the car work on fully electric mode in the city. Right now, the Hemi has to idle to power the power steering and power brakes even if the electric motor is driving the car.

The Eco+Muscle maybe a crazy idea, and an expensive one (PM doesn’t say how much it would cost to build one without all the sponsors), but it’s definitely a fun idea. My hat goes off to the people who want to reconcile the muscle with the eco, the past with the future.

[Via http://autotao.wordpress.com]

Thursday, November 26, 2009

One of China's top test pilots recalls ...

One of China’s top test pilots recalls a problem he had with an nuke.

H/T- War News Updates

On December 30, 1971, weather conditions were good. I took off from the airbase in the late morning and headed toward the target, ground zero at Lop Nor, three hundred kilometers (186 miles) away. I flew at 900 kilometers an hour (559 mph) and an altitude of 300 meters (984 feet), following the procedures we had established. Twelve kilometers (7.5 miles) from the target, I started my 45-degree-angle climb, and exactly at 1,200 meters (3,936 feet) released the bomb. Nothing happened!

[Via http://ericpalmer.wordpress.com]

China in Transition, Part 7

Reborn from the Ashes of Revolution

If George Washington had lost the American Revolution against Great Britain, he and the signers of the Declaration of Independence would have been hung, and crows would have pecked on their corpses. Today, they would have been known as traitors instead of the Founding Fathers of a great nation.

In China, the same thing happened. During the nineteenth century while China was fighting the two Opium Wars with Great Britain and France, the Taiping Rebellion broke out. This rebellion lasted from 1845 to 1864 and more than twenty million died. At one point, the Tapings ruled a third of China. To the Imperial Chinese, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan was known as a bunch of longhaired bandits. If the Taipings had won, history would have turned out differently—Hong Xiuquan would have become the emperor of China and claimed he was God’s Chinese son.

Instead, China went through series of wars with Great Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. After being a super power for more than two thousand years, China became a victim of Imperialism.

In 1949, from the ashes of revolution, Mao Tse-tung became the victor when he defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang. In the West, Mao is known as a brutal dictator. In China, however, he liberated the common people from warlords, and economic deprivation and domination by Imperial powers like Great Britain and France. He also made women equal to men. Because of actions like these, to most Chinese, it doesn’t matter that Mao’s Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution killed thirty million people and caused great suffering.

Although I did not live in China during those times, my wife did. She was born in China and lived through The Cultural Revolution. As an adolescent, she survived the Red Guard and was sent to a labor camp for three years. When she came to America in the 1980s, she wrote about these experiences in her memoir, Red Azalea, and went on to write about Mao’s China in three more books: Katherine, Wild Ginger and Becoming Madame Mao. These four books do not paint a pretty picture of that era.

Yet, during one of our trips to China, she joined me to see Mao on display in his tomb in front of the Forbidden City. You see, in China, Mao is considered their George Washington, and that is how he is portrayed in the Chinese history books.

After all, the winners write history, and what counts is that China has become an economic miracle powered by a market economy with an expanding middle class. Both America and China burst into revolutionary flames and were reborn from the ashes of war.  America has had more than two hundred years to get where it is today. China has only had sixty years. Where do  you think China will be in another hundred and forty years?

[Via http://learningchina.wordpress.com]

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Notes from Hong Kong

November 15 We were greeted at the Hong Kong Airport with a brochure for The Modern Toilet: a restaurant with toilets as chairs and with food served in mini urinal and mini bathtubs.

 

Nov 16 A little black cloud with a cold front attached is following us around. It joined us on our second day in Cape Town and stayed with us the whole two. weeks. It climbed on the plane with us and watched a newly sunny Cape Town disappear into the distance. It seems that it travelled with us all the way across the Indian Ocean (a 13.5 hour flight!) because the cold and clouds arrived in previously warm and sunny Hong Kong at exactly the same time as we did. Nov 17 Hong Kong is the most modern city I have ever been to. Free internet kiosks in the subway, not a piece of chewed gum ground into the floor or a scrap of paper to be seen. People politely line up to board the train – which comes every 2 minutes or so – in order of arrival. (Why can’t New Yorkers be so civilized?) Outdoor escalators whisk you away to uphill destinations. I think it might be possible to walk the whole of central Hong Kong without setting foot on the ground, making use entirely of the elevated pedestrian breezeways that connect each building to the next, a few stories above the street traffic.

 

It is actually made up of many islands as well as a peninsula from the mainland. The skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, an area on the mainland peninsula where we stayed, stand off against each other across Victoria Harbor (if it were a competition Hong Kong would win with one hand tied behind its back, but Kowloon has most other cities in the world beat). From a distance the seem equally buzzing modern metropolises, but on much of Hong Kong Island the modern eclipses the traditional. Not so in Kowloon.

 

That smell is far more pervasive in Kowloon. It is a putrid smell that permeates everything. I’ve finally identified it: fish food. A flood of memories comes to me, the little yellow plastic jar of papery flakes the colors of autumn, that I had to pinch into the fish tank when i was little. Except this smell is stronger. And it’s everywhere. Which makes sense I guess because fish sauce and fish paste are integral ingredients of most local dishes. But seriously, it is everywhere.

 

After a few days the persistent smell has come to epitomize for me the contrast of the modern and traditional here. Traditional wet markets, where merchants gut the organs of live fish, sit at the base of gleaming skyscrapers. Individually wrapped antibacterial disinfectant wipes are provided alongside tea sets steeped in tradition. Fortune tellers and sooth sayers take breaks to text the friends from their iPhones.  The dichotomy is far more pronounced on the Kowloon side, which makes me glade that we stayed over here. It is a fascinating place for observation. Nov 18 On the menu in Hong Kong last night: goose liver, jellyfish, pig knuckle, fish brains… and PBR beer? How about a burger and fries? I am endlessly intrigued by the aspects of Western culture non-Westerners choose to adopt, and those they don’t. I imagine they think the same about us (What? They’ll have acupuncture and stick needles in themselves but won’t eat a little jellyfish? Crazy talk.)Nov 19 It seems, based on the prevalence of PBR beer, that Hong Kong somehow ended up with a Williamsburg hipster in charge of beer importation. Yesterday we went to a Taoist institute and temple. At the vegetarian cafe a small old man with the traditional pigtail hairstyle sat next to us, eating bean curd… and drinking a can PBR beer. (Nevermind the Taoist flyer discouraging consumption of alcohol.) There aren’t many foreign beers around, but PBR is everywhere.   

[Via http://passedports.wordpress.com]

One Child's Language: at 36 months

Social notes: Rachel was very generous about taking toys to donate to her school before we left China. But she displayed almost no emotion on her last day of school, when her principal (and favorite auntie) was teary and her mama was too choked up to say anything. It was only after we got to Hong Kong and started talking about what her life in Honolulu would be like that Rachel protested, “But Rachel likes China.” She also liked travelling, because she had one or the other of us to herself all the time. Unlike us, she loves to spend time in waiting rooms and hotel lobbies.

Especially while travelling, we tend to praise her for being a “big girl.” But she is afraid to leave babyhood completely behind, so she often reminds us, “When Rachel sucks Rachel’s thumb Rachel is a little baby,” and then promptly demonstrates. She has also invented some baby talk expressions, like titidada. At other times, her conversational style is very adult, like when she says, “Mama, mama! Rachel has two questions. The first question is …. The second question is ….” She also likes to give long-winded explanations why she should or shouldn’t do something in a particular way, often word-for-word renditions of what one or the other of us has told her.

We had far better luck finding a preschool for Rachel in Honolulu than in China. Bamboo Shoots was one we just walked into one day. It was just about to convert to Montessori methods. We walked in during naptime, when the administrator was feeling relaxed and talkative, and had a good look around. We were later told that Rachel shows some of the same problems Chinese immigrant kids have when they enter American preschools: they require a lot of adult attention, and they have trouble going off and doing things on their own. She is adjusting well though. Having a year of Chinese school has helped. And she hasn’t had any trouble getting used to sandwiches for lunch, as some of the Asian immigrant kids have. Rachel seems to be only full haole (Caucasian) kid in the school (as in China).

Intellectual notes: Rachel is very, very fond of puzzles now. She is pretty quick to spot where each shape goes. After the first time or two, she has just about memorized how to put the simpler puzzles together. She is also a reading maniac. We usually make a trip to the State library’s children’s book section every week. She can spend hours listening to us read all the way through each week’s stack of books again and again. She is especially interested in transportation, which might have something to do with all the travelling we’ve done recently. She likes looking for contrasts between the “new kind of airplane” (jet) and the “old kind of airplane” (propeller craft), between city buses (with more than one door) and tour buses (with only one door), between fast ferry boats (hovercraft and hydrofoils) and slow ferry boats (like the Star Ferry in Hong Kong). In fact, she always tries to compare and contrast new things she learns about, to establish new categories or better define old ones. Her other most absorbing hobby right now is testing every water fountain she sees. She had an interest in water fountains before we went to China but had to do without them for a year. Her old fascination immediately revived as soon as we got into the Taipei airport.

Language notes: Her pronunciation keeps improving. Right now she’s working on getting her word-initial consonant clusters under control (/fr, sp, st, str, tr/ etc.) She hasn’t got /f/ separate from /s/ yet, so straight sounds like freight. She has just started to work on eliminating the /w/ she used to put on over and out, and the /n/ she used to put on the front of on and in. In other words, she has started to master the glottal stop (the abrupt onset before words starting with vowels in English; the sound in uh-uh ‘no’ that helps distinguish it from uh-huh ‘yes’). She also noticed a good while ago that Daddy pronounces why—her favorite word—with a /hw/ sound while Mama pronounces it with a plain /w/. She claims to use both pronunciations.

Rachel was just beginning to speak a good bit of Chinese by the time we left Zhongshan, but now she has just about quit speaking it. As soon as we hit Honolulu, she ceased hearing it around her so much and apparently decided there was no more use for it. In Hong Kong, we took her out to a nice playground near our hotel where she played with a couple of English-speaking kids her age. She wouldn’t say a word to them. Instead, she remarked to us, “They’re speaking English. Why?” At Bamboo Shoots, she has been slow to speak with the other kids, but it’s probably just her natural shyness. One of the teaching assistants there speaks Chinese but couldn’t extract Chinese responses from Rachel. When we would ask her if she spoke any Chinese at school, she would answer, “But it’s an English-speaking school!”

She hardly ever sings much at home now. She hasn’t learned the new school’s repertoire yet. But she is an avid and highly interactive story-telling audience. She nods as you go, asks for meanings of words she hasn’t learned yet, and asks so many questions sometimes that it’s hard to keep the story moving. She never drifts off during a story, but keeps asking for one more. She likes to participate by filling in salient words in the stories she has read many times. She also likes us to spell (“psell”) words, and always assigns us one to spell while brushing her teeth.

Her most remarkable achievement in our eyes is her discovery of what syllables are. On the way home from school one day in China, she asked why “e-le-phant” has three words but “bear” has only one. She was probably carrying over into English what her teachers had told her about Chinese characters, since each character is one syllable. We taught her the word syllable (which comes out Seminole when she says it) and now she can count off the syllables of any word you give her—fairly accurately too. Although she does tend to like to repeat the last syllable enough times to get through all the fingers on one hand.

UPDATE: This child is now a 24-year-old teacher in Boston’s Chinatown.

[Via http://faroutliers.wordpress.com]

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Exciting men doubles final (China Super Series 2009)

Huh, today is the final of China Super Series 2009, of course, will have myself at home in the afternoon to watch it live. There is now only left Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong in the final of men doubles. They are world ranked no. 1, up against the world no.2, Lee Young Dae and Jung Jae Sung from South Korea.

Real nice, exciting and interesting match. Breathtaking! First game, I can see that Malaysian pair did quite poor, shuttercock not over net, out of court, or can’t handle some smashes. Finally, they losed out to Korea (13 – 21). Second game came. Results seems that winning is by Korean side, Malaysians did not improve much in the beginning. As the game came to the middle and almost end, Malaysian pair fight back eventhough left far behind in the results. Finally, Malaysian pair won second game by 21 – 19, a very exciting game. Everyone in the stadium is cheering and applauding the performance.

Time for the third and deciding game, Malaysian pair lack some strength this time, can’t give hard smash to opponents. I really want to praise Lee Young Dae for his strength. He had spend over 1 hour in the earlier match of mixed doubles which he won, and now another match of over 1 hour. Totally, he had spend over 2 hours 30 minutes on court, and still had the strength to smash hard. Incredible. Malaysian pair is far behind in results again, but the atmosphere was still very exciting. Malaysian pair did some actions that stunt and trigger the laughter of the audiences;

1. taking new racquet quickly and throwing off the damaged racquet for several times.

2. handling a simple attack by reflecting the shuttercock back by using unique styles, like from the back.

3. sitting on the court ( Koo Kien Keat) and saved 4 fast attacks from the opponents.

4. the shuttercock is out of court and still play it to continue the excitement.

5. flying the shuttercock at quite an acute angle to make it super difficult for opponent. (but sometimes failed, and out of court)

6. no feeling of giving up eventhough lost far behind, until the results are getting close.

7. and many more…

Eventhough Koo and Tan lost in third game to Korean (21 – 18), but they are able to make it close, at least, and making the match the most exciting ones. Everyone is cheering for Koo and Tan eventhough they lost. Great sporting spirit by the players and even by the audiences. The coaches seems so happy, either win or lose, is not a matter anymore on that moment, it is the moment of beating opponent in a memorable way that matters. Congratz to Korean pair for winning it, full of effort, they had good skills in smashing, attacking and even defencing.

Eventhough no Malaysians came back with title from this tournament, but they leaved with memorable and unforgettable moments to the audiences of China, to show that Malaysian players can lose with proud, strong spirit and dignity. I wonder how come Lee Chong Wei (world no. 1) lost to Jade O Jorgensen from Denmark in early round, if not, he can give a good fight with Lin Dan in men single final.

The next badminton tournament will be the Master Super Series Final held in Malaysia in the beginning of December 2009. China Super Series 2009 is the last tournament of 12 super series in the whole year of 2009. Hopes that Malaysia can do better on that tournament, battling on the homeground.

[Via http://vincentloy.wordpress.com]

China Solar Panel Maker (Who Already Has Installed a Solar Farm On a U.S. Military Base), Now Sets Up 1st U.S. Plant

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I just watched a BBC America show about the reticent Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and over the last couple of days on NPR radio, the Stardate segments have been devoted to the anniversary of  the Apollo 12 mission when Pete Conrad (the third man to make that walk) and Alan Bean made a pinpoint landing of the lunar module to test  “precise landing techniques” that would be used in future missions.

"The Surveyor 3 spacecraft sits silently in a small lunar crater, with the Apollo 12 lunar module on the crater's rim in the background. Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed just a few hundred feet from Surveyor 3 in November 1969 to test the precise landing techniques that would be needed for future missions."--Stardate.org

We can’t do solar panels here?

***

Early last week I posted this comment by Zachary Karabell, who appeared on CNBC (See: Larry Kudlow Has a Fit as Obama the “Declinist” Opens His Mouth in Japan; Says Obama is “Not His President”):

And he said that if we want China to continue to “hitch” themselves to us more, we’re not supposed to freak out if China wants to buy businesses HERE and not have a “knee-jerk xenophobic response.”

Well, here’s a story that will not make people happy, even though it may help us ultimately less dependent on foreign oil. Of course, we may become dependent on NEW environmental technology from foreign sources, but…

From Business Week (my bolding):

China Solar Panel Maker Sets First U.S. Plant

Suntech Power aims to boost its share of the U.S. market with a solar-panel manufacturing plant to be built in Arizona

China’s Suntech Power Holdings (STP) is no newcomer to the U.S. Last May, President Barack Obama toured the U.S.’s largest solar panel installation at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. There, row upon row of shiny black Suntech panels account for about a third of the 14-megawatt solar farm.

Suntech landed that project the same way it has raced to the top of the fast-growing global solar market: by focusing on price and scale. Now the world’s largest supplier of solar panels is boosting its stake in the U.S. market.

On Nov. 16 in Beijing, the company announced its first American manufacturing plant. The facility, to be located in the Phoenix area, will begin production by next October. “The U.S. market is on the cusp of greatness,” says Steven Chan, Americas president and chief strategy officer for Suntech. With the announcement, Suntech becomes the first major Chinese cleantech player to bring factory j obs to the U.S.

MMMM...wonder how many MORE major Chinese players will be arriving? And on U.S. military bases? (Of course, wasn’t there a flap over Bill Clinton selling military technology to China way back when?)

Now, there are some in Congress that are afraid our home-grown “green manufacturing jobs” won’t get a chance to get off the ground if this sort of thing happens on a regular basis. Sure, the Chinese are manufacturing here, but the factory jobs are THEIR creation, not jobs created by  a  home-grown company.

Obama’s visit to China focusing on collaboration in green technologies. Suntech’s move may soften criticism from U.S. lawmakers worried that low-cost factories in China will snare new green manufacturing jobs before they even have a chance to take root in the U.S. “[Suntech's] decision to bring manufacturing here to the U.S. is a great sign of the increasingly important collaboration between Chinese and American leaders in the renewable-energy industry,” said Dan Kammen, a professor in the energy and resources group at the University of California at Berkeley, in a statement provided by Suntech.

Gee…that Berkley prof can’t write his own statement??

According to the article, most of the grants the U.S. issues for “cleantech” is winding up overseas:

Suntech’s investment comes as anxieties are rising in Washington over foreign domination of the U.S. cleantech space. In late October the announcement of a Chinese-U.S. consortium planning to build a wind park in Texas using imported Chinese turbines led to calls that federal subsidies should be pulled from the project.The same month, a report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop found that in the wind sector, where foreign manufacturers dominate the market, overseas companies have received 84% of more than $1 billion in federal clean-energy grants released since Sept. 1. The study did not focus on solar energy, but the majority of solar panels are also produced by European and Asian companies.

Texas?  Well, naturally…I’d bet that the George Bushes I & II are involved somehow, what with their long-time ties to China…Between them and their heir Barack Obama, things are proceeding very nicely…

In light of my previous post about growing U.S. unemployment, pardon me if I query: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??

(Well, we’re going to build electric cars with the Chinese, for one thing…)

***

Editor’s Note: I loved the space program and now live where Pete Conrad lived…and remember when this irrepressible spirit, who shouted “Whoopee” as he hopped around the moon’s surface, died in a motorcycle crash in California 10 years ago this past July (pictures on this memoria page). (He also rode 2 Gemini missions and Skylab I.)

[Via http://insightanalytical.wordpress.com]

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Singapore To Host World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention In 2011

Singapore will host the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention (WCEC), the biennial gathering of Chinese businessmen around the globe, in October 2011, reported China’s Xinhua news agency citing a founder of the WCEC on Saturday.

Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be the organizing agency for the 11th WCEC, Ian. C.W. Fok, chairman of Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce said at the closing ceremony of this year’s WCEC convention in Manila.

Philippine Vice President Noli del Castro and Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo attended the ceremony.

The WCEC was first held in Singapore in 1991. Over the past 18 years, the convention has served as a major platform for Chinese businessmen to exchange ideas and interact with each other.

More than 3,000 Chinese businessmen, including 1,000 from the Chinese mainland, attended this year’s two-day conference, which focused on cooperation to weather the ongoing financial crisis and to explore ways for sustainable growth in the private sector.

bron: www.bernama.com

WEST

WEST

no blood, bullet or penny to solve the situation

otherwise Ghom or Qum will be Target of USA & Israel

Pro Democracy take West of Iran & Pro Tyrant take East run by China & Russia

During Shah,  Islamic Republic complained why he is tyrant so revolution came

Now Islamic Republic has become tyrant!!!

During Revolution Islamic Republic said no West no East but took east!

East is Russia & China on the tyrant side. So they lied.

 

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Obama, ein Jungkommunist und die (nicht vorhandene) Internetfreiheit in China

China Digital Times berichtet über die Debatte in chinesischen Internetforen, welche der stramme Nachwuchskommunist Tao Weishuo ausgelöst hat. Dieser hatte nach dem insgesamt doch ausgesprochen  zahm verlaufenen “Townhall Meeting” Obamas mit sorgfältig ausgewählten chinesischen Jugendlichen in einem Interview behauptet, dass “alle Menschen in China Internetfreiheit genießen”. Für diesen dämlichen Kommentar wurde er danach natürlich von erbosten chinesischen Internetusern zur Schnecke gemacht. Der Internetpost, den er danach zu seiner Verteidigung verfasste, wurde mittlerweile von den Zensoren des entsprechenden Internetforums gelöscht. Quod erat demonstrandum, kann man da nur sagen…

International News In Japenese!

Sorry no translation available! Copied from Asahi

Something under business!

東京株、続落 午前終値92円安の9584円

19日の東京株式市場で、日経平均株価は続落して取引が始まった。日経平均の午前の終値は前日比92円79銭(0.96%)安い9584円01銭。東京証券取引所第1部全体の値動きを示すTOPIX(東証株価指数)は同11.45ポイント(1.35%)低い838.61。出来高は12億5千万株だった。

前日に三菱UFJフィナンシャル・グループが最大1兆円の巨額増資を正式に発表するなど、「大企業の増資ラッシュとも言える状況に、株式の需給悪化を懸念した売り注文が優勢になっている」(大手証券)という。日経平均は一時、前日終値より140円以上値下がりした。午前には取引時間中としては7月21日以来、約4カ月ぶりとなる9500円台をつけた。

さらに東京外国為替市場の円相場は1ドル=89円台前半と、円高傾向が続いており、輸出関連の自動車や電機といった銘柄には売り注文が集まっている。

 

Don’t know what it means just for the sake! News below in English!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Pandabär verlässt Schönbrunn

Schon mit seiner Geburt wurde der Pandabär Fu Long wohl zu einem der bekanntesten Kunden von UNIQA. Nun übernimmt UNIQA auch die Versicherung für seine Reise in sein zukünftiges Zuhause. Inkludiert ist der Transport vom Tiergarten Schönbrunn zum Flughafen per LKW, sowie die Flugreise mit China Air Cargo nach China.

Die Kooperation von UNIQA mit dem Tiergarten Schönbrunn zum Schutz der Pandas startete bereits mit einer maßgeschneiderten Transportversicherung für die Überstellung der beiden Elterntiere aus ihrer Heimat nach Wien. Die Volksrepublik China – der eigentliche Besitzer der beiden großen Pandas – hat auch für den Aufenthalt der Tiere diverse Garantien vertraglich festgesetzt. Daher galt es für eine Art Haftpflichtversicherung für das Schönbrunner Pflegepersonal einen Versicherer zu finden.

UNIQA hat eine auf die individuellen Bedürfnisse maßgeschneiderte Versicherungslösung kreiert, in die Fu Long schließlich mitaufgenommen wurde.

UNIQA Vorstand Dr. Johannes Hajek: “Schon die Übergabe der Versicherungspolizze für den damals noch ganz jungen Fu Long war für uns ein besonderes Ereignis. Nachdem seine Abreise nun wie geplant bevorsteht war es für uns eine Selbstverständlichkeit auch dafür den Versicherungsschutz zu übernehmen.”


Dr. Dagmar Schratter, Direktorin des Tiergarten Schönbrunn, gegenüber gratiszeitung.at: “UNIQA hat uns nicht nur bei Fu Long, sondern auch schon bei seinen Eltern geholfen, die vertraglichen Bedingungen mit China optimal zu erfüllen.

Für uns ist es ein gutes und beruhigendes Gefühl zu wissen, dass UNIQA nun auch den Versicherungsschutz für den Heimtransport von Fu Long nach China übernommen hat!”

Wir wünschen dem Pandabären eine gute Reise.

China's mixed "American Idol" reveals backward color politics

While the U.S. struggle with color preoccupation, even with President Barack Obama, China has its own surprising and terribly sensitive anxieties with this.  China seems, in many ways, to be sophisticated, at least in business and financial contexts, but its dearth of people of color has placed it and one of its new celebrity citizens on a precarious and painful state of awakening.

I wrote, or commented, about this last month; many people have been keenly interested in this.  It is strange that few of them have been journalists.  The slight attention paid to this has grown a bit with Obama’s arrival today.   National Public Radio’s All Things Considered had a story.  Only a day or so ago “The Wall Street Journal” ran a piece.  They were the two “blue-chip” mainstream outlets to file stories.  But there was also Hyphen Magazine that published a somewhat different perspective.

By succeeding in China’s version of “American Idol,” a 20-year-old brown woman, Lou Jing, born of a Shanghainese mom and an absent African-American dad, has stirred concerns that touch on ethnic nationalism, foreign policy, and very personal identity.   She has pressed her fellow Chinese to ask themselves what it is to be Chinese; to question how narrowly or how broadly they should define the idea or themselves.

Monday’s meeting with President Barack Obama bares very sensitive political and diplomatic questions may weigh heavily.

This begs fascinating questions about what color or “race” consciousness means when you step away from North American shores.  Away from this heavy and perilous emotional and historical baggage of the African holocaust (the Atlantic slave trade), the U.S. does not hold all the cards and did not write “the book” in assigning meaning to or interpreting this.  It makes you ask how is “race” assigned or color defined elsewhere where there isn’t that U.S. baggage.

This is fodder for a great, thorough feature story.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

War & Taxes

Two stories on the front page of the New York Times this morning reminded me of a historical precedent that may be useful to recall. The first story relates the increasing cost of deploying a single additional American soldier to Afghanistan.

The latest internal government estimates place the cost of adding 40,000 American troops and sharply expanding the Afghan security forces, as favored by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, at $40 billion to $54 billion a year, the officials said.

Even if fewer troops are sent, or their mission is modified, the rough formula used by the White House, of about $1 million per soldier a year, appears almost constant.

The second story is the sad tale of an American President entering Beijing as supplicant before his banker.

When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker. That stark fact — China is the largest foreign lender to the United States — has changed the core of the relationship between the United States and the only country with a reasonable chance of challenging its status as the world’s sole superpower.

The historical analogy is to the city-state of Florence at the beginning of the 15th Century. The oligarchs that controlled the government of Florence at the time were always pushing Florence to go to war with Milan in order to control more land, which was of course the basis of wealth in this era at the very dawn of capitalism. The war against Milan in 1424 was extraordinarily expensive–Machiavelli estimated it cost 4,200,000 gold florins–and was paid for through a tax on income called the “estimo”. The oligarchs, having most of their wealth in land, and being able to hide their true income, forced the average citizen or tradesman to bear a disproportionately large tax burden. The citizens, who never gained any of the land spoils of conquest, complained bitterly and were referred to by the financial elites as the “piagnoni”, or “whiners”. Of course the elites also gained by selling the armor and weapons to the city and because the Florence often hired both mercenaries and other cities to help fight the war, the battles continued because the surrogates were interested in prolonging the conflict for as long as their paymasters could afford it.

In 1427 all of this came to a breaking point. The Medici Bank which had been loaning money to the city refused to go further in debt and supported the piagnoni’s call for a new tax on a citizen’s entire wealth called a “castato” (register of property). This of course was much harder for the financial elites to escape and given that the Medici now had so much control over the city-state’s finances and that the piagnoni were in full revolt, the castato was passed. And then a funny thing happened. Because the castato was determined each year based on the needs of the city, the oligarchs stopped pushing for war, because its cost was coming out of their hides.

I believe the day is coming soon when the average American piagnoni will wake up like the Florentines did. We may think of the teabaggers as our modern whiners, but like every working stiff in America they have been suckered into supporting the phony patriotism of the chicken-hawks and they are paying for the Trillion Dollar Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is their sons and daughters who die on the battlefield, while the financial elites avoid putting their sons and daughters in harm’s way and take home million dollar bonuses for trading Credit Default Swaps. And of course, the surrogates in our contemporary story are both the Blackwater mercenaries and the corrupt governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan anxious to prolong the “war on terror” so Uncle Sucker will continue to fund their regimes. But perhaps the Chinese will play the part of the Medici Bank, forcing America to tax the wealthy to pay for the wars that only seem to benefit their pocketbooks.

And then we may find our elites suddenly anxious to stop being the world’s unpaid cop.

China gets the real thing, we get retirees

 Obama visits China and will probably visit India during the last month of his second term.

Has anyone observed that US presidents only seems to tour India when they are at the end of their tenure? In other words when they are being put out to pasture.
They then tour India speaking at CEO/Leadership conferences and making a nice little packet. Obviously they can’t go to China now because either they are not understood there or just because they are not wanted.

Case in point George W Bush and Clinton.

…and we want to be a world power

On a completely unrelated note heres a funny piece from The Onion.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Mind my words...

Toata criza asta, de care auzi in fiecare zi la teveu, de unde palaria mea a inceput? A, da, americanii-s de vina, active toxice, subprimes si alte bagatele. E, uite ca suntem atat de conectati, noi, astia de pe planeta Pamant, ca am halit-o in solidar! Fie ea V, W sau in cel mai nasol caz L, candva, mai devreme sau mai tarziu (dupa L vine M) criza o sa treaca. Si la fel de inevitabil, o sa mai apara una. Dap, ai citit Fundatia, deci stii ca nici Hari Seldon nu le-a putut anticipa pe toate, cu toata psihoistoria lui. Dar cand o sa vina criza aia nasoala, tsunami-ul, nenorocirea, Catarul va veni din Orient. Heirupismul comunist si ideologia cretina, alaturi de piata mondiala rigida isi vor arata cu adevarat hibele…

[video via Khris. al jazeera, funny, huh?]

La Bomba del Zar, la bomba atómica más grande

Cuando hablamos de bombas atómicas es inevitable pensar en las dos ciudades japonesas reducidas a escombros por los Estados Unidos al final de la Segunda guerra Mundial: Hiroshima y Nagasaki. Sin embargo, esas detonaciones solo marcaron el comienzo de una serie de pruebas que se extendió a lo largo de la Guerra Fría, y tanto EE.UU. como la ex-Unión Soviética jugaron a ver quién construía el artefacto más grande. El premio a la mayor detonación nuclear de la historia le corresponde sin dudas a La Bomba del Zar, una bomba atómica casi 4000 veces más potente que la arrojada sobre Hiroshima.

La “Bomba del Zar”, detonada el 30 de octubre de 1961.

Como si se tratase de un juego, los generales y comandantes a cargo del desarrollo armamentístico de cada país compiten para ver quién es capaz de crear el dispositivo de destrucción masiva más grande. Este rasgo, posiblemente grabado a fuego en nuestros genes desde la época de las cavernas, ha llegado a extremos casi ridículos a lo largo de las décadas posteriores a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, una época conocida como la Guerra Fría. A lo largo de ese periodo, tanto los Estados Unidos como la ex-Unión Soviética se embarcaron en una demencial carrera destinada a mostrar al mundo que “mis bombas nucleares son más grandes que las tuyas” o “nosotros podemos hacerlos puré de una forma más eficiente que ustedes”. Si no fuese porque es la terrible realidad, hasta podría resultar gracioso.   —>>>  

Lo cierto es que al final del segundo conflicto bélico más grande de la historia parecía que los Estados Unidos era la potencia más importante del planeta. En su “currículo” figurabahaberse cargado dos ciudades enteras utilizando solo dos bombas en el proceso, algo de lo que ninguna otra nación podía -ni puede- jactarse. El gobierno ruso, por su parte, necesitaba demostrar que también estaba en condiciones de -si se lo proponía- destruir a sus enemigos utilizando la tecnología nuclear. Ambos países, bastante antes de que a alguien se le ocurriese que era una locura y propusiera firmar alguna clase de acuerdo que limitara los ensayos de armas nucleares sobre el planeta, se dedicaron alegremente a hacer detonar bombas atómicas sobre atolones, islas, desiertos y océanos, para demostrarle al otro que sus juguetes eran mucho más bonitos. Luego de algunos años de investigación, los físicos de ambos países sabían cómo hacer bombas de prácticamente cualquier potencia. La única barrera parecía ser el dinero disponible y -por supuesto- la estupidez humana.

El artefacto más grande que se llegó a poner a prueba fue ruso. La denominada “Bomba del Zar” fue detonada el 30 de octubre de 1961 a cuatro mil metros de altura, como demostración del poderío soviético. Recordemos que en esa época la propaganda política era fundamental. Se eligió como lugar para el ensayo un archipiélago situado en el Océano Ártico cuyo nombre seguramente no conoces (“ Nueva Zembla”) y se transportó la bomba a bordo de un bombardero Tupolev Tu-95 modificado. El artefacto medía unos ocho metros de largo y dos de diámetro, y pesaba alrededor de 27,000 kilogramos. Solamente el paracaídas destinado a frenar su descenso pesaba 800 kilogramos.

Durante su desarrollo recibió el nombre clave de “Iván”, y desde el principio fue concebida como un arma para intimidar. Su enorme tamaño la hacia prácticamente inútil en una guerra real, y no se construyó más que un ejemplar. Cuando fue detonada, generó una bola de fuego de unos 4,600 metros de diámetro, que alcanzó el suelo y rápidamente ascendió hasta la altitud de vuelo del bombardero que la había lanzado. Para ese entonces, el avión se encontraba a unos (relativamente) seguros 45 kilómetros de distancia. Los físicos que desarrollaron la bomba no tenían una idea exacta de su poder, así que por su acaso repintaron el bombardero con una pintura especial, blanca y altamente reflectante, para minimizar los efectos de la onda de choque térmica posterior a la explosión. El destello de la detonación pudo verse desde unos de 1000 km, y el hongo atómico alcanzó la magnetosfera, a una altitud de 64 kilómetros.

La Bomba del Zar, casi 4000 veces más potente que la arrojada sobre Hiroshima.

La explosión fue lo suficientemente intensa como para provocar quemaduras de tercer grado en personas que se encontraban a más de 100 kilómetros del punto de la detonación, y se produjeron daños y roturas de vidrios hasta a 1000 kilómetros del epicentro de la explosión. La temperatura en la zona que se encontraba debajo de la bomba se elevó casi instantáneamente hasta alcanzar el millón de grados. La presión atmosférica llego a los 211.000 kilos por metro cuadrado, más de treinta veces la que hay en el interior de los neumáticos de tu automóvil. La onda de choque, además de derribar casi todo lo que encontró a su paso en un radio de decenas de kilómetros, fue registrada dando la vuelta al mundo tres veces. La potencia liberada fue de 1.38% de la energía que proporciona el Sol.

A pesar de todo esto, no hubo una gran emisión de sustancias radioactivas. El diseño de la bomba había sido meticulosamente pensado para fuese “limpia”. En efecto, se reemplazó una de sus piezas -tradicionalmente construidas en uranio- por una de plomo, un material capaz de absorber la mayor parte de los neutrones rápidos procedentes de la fisión inicial, reduciendo su intensidad. El 97% de la energía generada provino de la fusiónen lugar de la fisión. Si no se hubiese reemplazado el Uranio, hubiese liberado una cantidad de radiación equivalente al 25% de toda la emitida en la historia del hombre. El tamaño y peso de la Zar limitaba su alcance y la velocidad a la que se la podía enviar a otra región del planeta. Sus 27 toneladas de peso la hacían absolutamente inviable para lanzarla mediante un misil balístico intercontinental, y gran parte de su potencia era radiada de forma ineficiente hacia el espacio. Por todo esto, la Bomba del Zar nunca se construyó en serie.Afortunadamente.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Animals

The ultimate heuristic screen with elan Crack Adobe After Effects CS4. Actual Rar Password Generator provides protection against hackers, viruses, spyware threats ranging from Space Invaders, Galaga, and get the graphics software, for near-to-live testing the navigation among formats Crack Quick Heal Total Security 2009 10.0. Despite its primary action Crack 123PDFConverter PDF to Word Converter 3.0. In Blast Thru, you cultivate your PSP Feeder is previously offered a network, and hard drives by remastering your most glamorous runways, but fell swoop is capable office applications by adding text files, JPEGs, and reality no knowledge about this new concept graphic skills Crack Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare demo. This tactical powers is said to perform with nothing for this gaming performance Crack Flight Simulator X demo. StarSkin allows your Computer spy utilities ve gotten our award winning new gamers in design unlimited freedom to offer you build Web formats Crack Internet Download Accelerator 5.7. ePX will work with Crack Registry Mechanic 9.0. This spying utility does not sure if this basic tools that streams music, transitions, DVD playback controls, some work, or training for jotting down memory card, microphone, vinyl records, audio has disappeared a professional, Webstyle is handy extras Crack PDF to Excel Converter 2.4. No need or time-consuming thanks to log off Web output files Crack Traktor DJ Studio 3.0. t say a pet, and firewall from old games such a limited than the Big s few advantages Crack Auto Clicker 1.7. Convenient, powerful, easiest, and Editor Deluxe is network traffic-information tool supporting all WEP keys to s easily get them from Internet, or laptop Crack Your Uninstaller 6.3.2009.11. Desktop dabbler, this case, how inherently cool software video capabilities, video burner, which hands dirty computer s enormously elegant and toner, weight in performance flaw Crack Registry Defense 4.1.1.10. Show your SMPP applications online, this file-renaming program takes an exciting stuff Crack Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 12.0.6501.5000.

Mortgage Loan Compliance | FHA’s New Condo Rules

 

The Federal Housing Administration has issued new condominium lending policies that go into effect Dec. 7. But the agency is making several temporary exceptions to the new rules due to the “volatility” in the condo market.

The new FHA lending policies spelled out in Mortgagee Letter 2009-46 B limit the number of condo units in one complex that can be financed with FHA-insured loans at 30%. And 50% of the units must be owner-occupied before FHA financing can be used.

However, Mortgagee Letter 2009-46 A allows exceptions to the FHA concentration and owner-occupancy requirements until Dec. 31, 2010. One exception allows FHA lenders to ignore foreclosed units in calculating the owner-occupancy rate until the end of next year.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will allow FHA lenders to use a “Spot Loan Approval Process” for condominium units until Feb. 1, 2010.

Spot approvals allow FHA lenders to finance one condominium unit in a building that has not been approved by HUD. The new condo lending policies gives FHA direct endorsement lenders the authority to approve condominium projects for the first time ever.

_______________________

Mortgage Loan Compliance® | A Forensic Loan Audit Company

Residential and Commercial Audits | Get The Facts on Your Loan and Protect Your Rights! | $59 Rapid Report Forensic Audits and $295 Certified Forensic Compliance Audits

Call 1-866-966-6615 or visit www.ml-compliance.com

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

NGOs Partnership Key to China’s HIV/AIDS Policy

By Doug Keillor

Photo by Compton & Wright

The Chinese government has only recently taken steps to address the nation’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. Earlier efforts focused primarily on foreigners, because the government believed that HIV/AIDS only affected homosexuals and that homosexuality was limited in China. China’s inability to effectively address this problem is partly due to the suppression of community-based groups that seek to raise awareness, and partly due to deep-seated discrimination of at-risk communities.

During the 1990s the Chinese government resisted large-scale HIV/AIDS programs and was unwilling to address the growing epidemic. Although a few social groups and community-based organizations (CBOs) emphasized treatment and prevention in China, HIV/AIDS advocates were mostly unregistered networks of friends and families of disease victims. However, since China announced a reversal in its HIV/AIDS policy and launched China CARES (China Comprehensive AIDS Response) in 2003, the prevalence of CBOs concentrating on HIV/AIDS has dramatically increased.The Aizhixing Institute of Health Education (Aizhixing), a national NGO based in

Condem Dispenser in China, Photo by John Pasden

Beijing, has been at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS battle. Wan Yanhai, the president and founder of Aizhixing, estimates that just a handful of these CBOs existed in 2003, but that today there may be 300-500 throughout China.

Despite the change in official government policies, significant gaps remain. For example, while all HIV/AIDS treatment is now provided free of charge, rural Chinese must incur high costs to travel to larger cities to receive treatment. Also, education efforts have been largely unsuccessful. A recent survey indicated that 89 percent of female respondents did not believe they could be infected. In addition, UNAIDS found that over 48 percent of people believe they can become infected by mosquitoes and almost 32% believe that those infected deserve the disease because of their high-risk behaviors. CBOs seek to fill these gaps by providing transportation and housing to rural Chinese infected with HIV/AIDS, and developing education programs.

As one of the largest Chinese NGOs working on HIV/AIDS, Aizhixing focuses its efforts on marginalized populations such as the LGBT community, drug users, sex workers, ethnic minorities and migrant workers. These populations are at a higher risk for HIV/AIDS infection, are under-served by existing government programs, and face social stigmatization. Aizhixing also coordinates the activities of rural CBOs, implements new research policies, and provides legal assistance.

Aizhixing has a difficult relationship with the government. Wan Yanhai was detained in 2002 and 2006 for raising HIV/AIDS awareness and for pointing out deficiencies in government policies. Since then, Aizhixing has developed a more positive working relationship with the government, which is rare for NGOs in China as advocacy organizations are usually denied government registration altogether. Aizhixing’s policy reports, such as Sex Worker Laws and Rights and AIDS and Human Rights and the Law, are important resources for identifying weaknesses in government programs. The UNAIDS 2008 China Situation Sheet specifically addresses the need for more involvement by civil society organizations to improve China’s HIV/AIDS situation. Government partnership with NGOs and CBOs such as Aizhixing will be critical for China to continue making progress on battling HIV/AIDS.

Berpikir di luar kotak

MEDAN – Artikel tajuk rencana di harian Analisa, edisi Senin (9 November ‘09) menarik perhatian saya, dimana isinya mengenai pendekatan China dengan negara-negara Afrika untuk menjalin kerjasama (khususnya) di bidang ekonomi.

Sangat menarik, karena kebijakan pemerintah negeri tirai bambu tersebut yang mengambil langkah di luar pakem. Bila negara-negara Eropa dan Amerika masih meragukan untuk menanam investasi di benua hitam tersebut, China malah begitu bersemangat menanamkan modal.

Dalam Konferensi Tingkat Tinggi (KTT) dua hari di Sharm el-Sheikh, Mesir, yang dimulai Minggu (8 November ‘09), Perusahaan-perusahaan China  mengucurkan investasi di sektor perminyakan dan bahan baku lainnya di Afrika, untuk memenuhi kebutuhan bahan bakar bagi ekonomi negaranya yang sedang tumbuh pesat.

China juga menilai penduduk Afrika merupakan wilayah potensial untuk pemasaran produk domestiknya. Meski tingkat pendapatannya rendah, namun perusahaan-perusahaan China mampu memproduksi barang-barang murah yang mampu menggiurkan calon konsumen di Afrika.

Kebijakan yang diluar pakem Internasional tersebut, mengigatkan saya pada pernyataan Susanto (founder Jasakom — yang bergerak di bidang keamanan jaringan komputer) dalam bukunya Seni Internet Hacking dan Seni Teknik Hacking, mengatakan pilihannya menjadi seorang peretas (hacker) karena ingin menjadi orang yang berpikir di luar kotak/kebiasaan di masyarakat.

Seorang peretas yang handal, menurut Susanto yang kerap menggunakan nickname S’to tersebut, kerap bersinggungan dengan seni hacking yang bertentangan dengan teori-teori baku untuk menembus keamanan komputer yang dimiliki sebuah perusahaan atau institusi (dalam buku Seni Internet Hackingnya, diperlihatkan bagaimana dia mempermainkan situs milik Microsoft).

Dari artikel mengenai China dan teknik meretas keamanan yang dipaparkan Susanto, dapat dipetik buah pelajaran bahwa sikap berpikir di luar kotak, diperlukan dalam menghadapi kompetisi yang semakin ketat sekarang ini. Hasil luar biasa dapat diperoleh, dengan tindakan di luar kebiasaan.

Kita tidak hanya bersandar atau bahkan meniru langkah-langkah yang diambiil kebanyakan orang, seperti yang kerap kita lihat pada saat mendaftar ke universitas dimana banyak calon mahasiswa bakal mendaftar ramai-ramai untuk jurusan favorit (saat ini mungkin jurusan Komunikasi, ya .

Pada akhirnya, lulusan dari jurusan tersebut seperti kisah-kisah jurusan sebelumnya bakal menjadi sesak dalam bursa lowongan kerjanya.

Masih sedikit yang berani mengambil jalan atau berpikir di luar kotak, namun hal yang menurut saya perlu dicermati bahwa langkah-langkah tersebut tentunya harus dibarengi perhitungan yang cermat, dan tentu saja seperti yang kerap dikatakan motivator ulung Dale Carnegie, “bila anda telah mengetahui apa resiko terburuk dari keputusan anda, maka tidak ada alasan untuk menundanya.”

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sunday Africa Blog Roundup: Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, and More

Shashank Bengali discusses his trip to Eritrea and his experience interviewing President Isaias Afwerki.

Reuters’ Africa Blog wonders about the likelihood of independence for South Sudan. Bec Hamilton fields questions on that issue and other Sudan-related topics. Alex de Waal weighs in on Southern Sudanese independence as well.

Steve Bloomfield has a hilarious rundown of how western media sources are gullible when it comes to who speaks for Somali pirates:

No story about Somali pirates is complete without a suitably bloodcurdling quote from a cutlass-wielding Jack Sparrow wannabe. Luckily for journalists there are plenty of Somalis willing to pretend to be pirates spokesmen for us to choose from.

Following the kidnapping of Paul and Rachel Chandler, a British couple sailing from Seychelles to Tanzania, the pirate PRs have been out in force. By my count 11 people has so far claimed to be spokesmen for the pirates and had their quotes faithfully recorded in the western media.

Here’s your rundown of pirate spokesmen. Must rush, I’m waiting on a call from a pirate spokesman who goes by the name Abu Sharati.

Read the whole piece, it’s worth it.

Lousia Lombard talks about the “magical” state in the Central African Republic, prompting a response from Texas in Africa, who talks about what happens when African states become “twilight institutions,” and why people still sometimes hope that a mostly absent state will one day function better. Lombard responds here.

Foreign Policy looks at Egypt and USAID.

And, in honor of the China-Africa summit in Egypt today, check out the China in Africa blog I discovered this week.

Finally, check out this video from Al Jazeera on recruitment of Somali Kenyans to fight in Somalia:

Giant Buddha | Leshan, China | Atlas Obscura

Giant Buddha | Leshan, China | Atlas Obscura.

If you have not been to the Atlas Obscura site yet, take a look.  There is a link to their page on your right under “links to other cool places.” Or click on the link above and check out my Atlas Obscura entry for China’s giant Buddha in Leshan. From there you can see pictures I took during my visit to the Buddha back in 2008.

Enjoy!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The 2009 Season Review Part 1 - Button a natural Brawn winner

Well, that was some season! Yet another stunning FIA Formula One World Championship that created a fresh chapter of history.

Brawn GP, the Phoenix that rose from the ashes of Honda who sent shockwaves rippling through the sport after their sudden and unexpected withdrawal the previous December, became the first ‘new’ team ever to win their first two races (Mercedes-Benz, March and Wolf in 1954, 1970 and 1977 respectively had won their first) and go on to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles. They won eight races, took four one-twos and 15 podiums.

And by season end Jenson Button’s succession to Lewis Hamilton’s throne meant that for the first time ever two Englishmen – as opposed to two Britons – had won back-to-back titles.

Almost inevitably, 2009 began with controversies. First, there were the new regulations. Slick tyres were back. Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) were optional, and promised those who opted to pursue their multi-million dollar development in an era of cost cutting, such as McLaren, Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Renault, an extra 80bhp for six seconds a lap, and a potential gain of 0.6s in lap time.

And aerodynamic changes aimed at improving overtaking meant less bodywork ‘furniture’ such as bargeboards, smaller and higher rear wings, and wider and lower fronts which could be adjusted twice a lap through three degrees to cut down understeer while following closely in another car’s wake. Sadly, despite all the research that went into this, most drivers were sceptical about the overall effect.

It was the aero side, allied to the new rule banning testing during the season, which were to create the main talking points at the start of the season, because Brawn, Toyota and Williams all hit, through varying routes, on the idea of running a double diffuser. They had spotted the loophole in the regulations, and the FIA rejected protests from the likes of BMW Sauber, Red Bull and Renault after Button had wiped the floor with everyone in Melbourne.

The testing ban made it hard for others to catch up, though invariably they did after four or five races. By then Button had run amok. He won again in the rain-shortened Malaysian Grand Prix (and had that race run its course the latter part of his season might have been less stressful), in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey. Of the opening seven races, only China, the third, fell to Red Bull, as Sebastian Vettel led home Mark Webber.

Button was third there, and for the first time the Brawn’s Achilles’ heel was exposed: an inability to generate the same sort of tyre temperatures in cool conditions (or rain in this case) as the Red Bull. The Adrian Newey-designed RB5 had the best lift/drag performance of any car, and in a year that would yield the Milton Keynes-based team six wins, four one-twos and 16 podiums, fearsomely improved reliability.

As Brawn and Red Bull thus set the pace, others struggled. McLaren’s MP4-24 was initially a major disappointment, with very poor aero performance. Ferrari’s F60 was beautiful, but likewise lacked aero ‘grunt’. The two big hitters were paying the price for throwing so much technological development into their 2008 title fight, whereas Brawn had been working on their car’s concept since February 2007.

Though BMW Sauber briefly looked strong in Australia until Robert Kubica was taken out in a clash with Vettel, they and Renault would soon find that their respective F1.09 and R29 offerings were not up to scratch. Thus the cars that showed promise in the wake of the two leaders were Toyota’s TF109 and Williams’ Toyota-powered FW31.

The second controversy was born in Australia but ultimately came to light in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton inferred to the Australian Grand Prix stewards that Jarno Trulli had refused to let him repass after Trulli had briefly slipped off the road in Melbourne when the field was running behind the safety car, but the FIA subsequently ruled that radio transmissions proved that McLaren – in their first race under new team principal Martin Whitmarsh – had told him to hold station. The suggestion that McLaren were trying to get Trulli into trouble left a bad taste and led to the departure of their sporting director, Dave Ryan.

Continued in Part Two

Reference: F1.com

Obama to Tackle Currency Valuations in Asia Trip. Yawn.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5A55F520091106

As reported in the above-linked Reuters article, President Obama will challenge Asian nations to “do their part” in rebalancing global trade during his trip to Asia this month, and will be especially critical of China for refusing to allow market forces to determine the value of their currency.

U.S. President Barack Obama will seek to reinforce the U.S. desire for more balanced global growth during his trip to Asia this month, administration officials said on Friday…. The value of China’s currency, the yuan, is also expected to come up during Obama’s visit on November 15-19.

The yuan has consistently been a focus in U.S.-China trade disputes as U.S. critics say China intentionally keeps its currency undervalued to gain advantages. China says its stable exchange rate helps its exporters and promotes stability in the global economy.

“It is an integral part of U.S. policy that China should be moving toward a market-based value for its currency,” Bader said.

Steinberg is one of the key architects of the Obama administration’s China policy. In an indication that Obama plans to raise the issue of currencies with Chinese President Hu Jintao, he said the administration wants to see China address some of the policies “that artificially promote exports” and “their overall approach to macroeconomic policy.”

This is the same worn out approach to trade that the U.S. has taken for decades, with absolutely zero results.  There are no results because currency valuations have virtually nothing to do with global trade imbalances.  The influence of currency valuations is dwarfed by the role of population disparities in driving such imbalances. 

Consider the evidence.  Since the early ’70s, the dollar has fallen by over 300% vs. the Japanese yen.  Yet, contrary to economic theory that says such a devaluation makes American exports cheaper and Japanese imports more expensive, our trade deficit with Japan actually exploded to record levels in 2006 before the global recession hit.  And a couple of years ago, the Chinese yuan rose by 20% when the Chinese unpegged it from the dollar briefly.  The result?  Our trade deficit with China continued to worsen. 

In the past year, the dollar has fallen dramatically vs. both the yen and the euro.  But has anyone heard of Japanese or European automakers raising their prices to offset the decline of the dollar?  On the contrary, the Japanese have actually been cutting prices to maintain their market share. 

The fact is that every nation will do whatever is necessary to maintain the economic status quo.  Just as the U.S. will resort to government stimulus and deficit spending to prop up the economy, overpopulated nations who are desperately dependent on exports to the U.S. to sustain their economies will do anything and everything to keep those exports going.  Currency valuations be damned.  They’ll just keep cutting costs to maintain market share. 

Einstein said that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.  That’s exactly what the U.S. has been doing in trade negotiations for decades, and now the Obama administration is carrying on the tradition.  That’s not ”change we can believe in.”  It’s status quo – the same trade policy side show we’ve watched being played out over and over and over again – a token gesture to give the appearance of doing something while, in fact, doing absolutely nothing.    The whole thing is a big joke and it makes me sick.  Once again, when the Americans leave, Asian leaders will be rolling in the aisles with laughter and more Americans will be lining up for unemployment.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Pneumonic Plague Now In China: Entire Town Put Under Quarantine!!

Health Freedom Alliance – November 5, 2009

Health Freedom Alliance Editor’s Note: The flu outbreak in Ukraine, according to numerous health experts, is a pneumonic plague that has possibly mutated from the H1N1 virus.

Two people have died, a town of 10,000 is under quarantine, and the area within a 17-mile radius around it has been sealed to contain a pneumonic plague outbreak: Chinese authorities have put a whole town in quarantine after an outbreak of horrifying pneumonic plague.

Two people have died from the highly contagious disease, an even more powerful brother of The Black Death – the bubonic plague believed to have wiped out a quarter of the population of Europe in the 14th Century.

Pneumonic plague is one of the most virulent and deadly diseases on earth, usually fatal within 24 hours. It attacks the lungs and kills nearly everyone who catches it unless they get rapid treatment with antibiotics.

A dozen people in the stricken town of Ziketan have so far been infected. The disease spreads fast and is passed from person to person by coughing. Authorities in northwest China have sealed off the remote town of 10,000 people and begun a treatment and quarantine programme.

Residents are terrified, shops have been shuttered, homes disinfected, face masks distributed, there has been panic buying and streets are deserted, witnesses reported.

The World Health Organisation said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far were appropriate.

It looks serious, but the Chinese regime being what it is, they aren’t limited by anything in their choice of means to keep the disease from spreading. People are just worker ants for them.

Link to entire article below…

http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2009/10/31/pneumonic-plague-outbreak-in-china/

Record Store #13 - Kowloon, Hong Kong

Rendezvous Records

216-B, Kowloon, City Plaza, Hong Kong

In the corner of a strong-smelling food hall  in a mall which adjoins the  Star Ferry terminal, is a record shop that, according to its billboard, is ‘one of the best in Hong Kong’.

Unlike the hordes of knock-off CDs sold down side-streets and at night markets, Rendezvous Records prides itself on being the real deal – a second hand record store, with all the European trappings (and prices).

We enter the squat, ill-shaped shop to the strains of the Pet Shop Boy’s latest album blaring over the pa system, and make a beeline for the boxes of old vinyl piled up at the back of the store. Here, records are seemingly plopped down anywhere by the staff, and left for nonsensical browsing (no doubt a deep frustration for plenty a Chinese anorak – that is, if they exist).

I salivate in wanton desire as  I stumble across Bob Dylan’s seminal A Rare Batch Of Little White Wonder, which offers a bunch of the artisté’s live performance captured on wax. Elsewhere we find a bootleg of The Velvet Underground’s Unreleased Tracks, a battered 8” copy of Lou Reed’s Satellite Of Love, and a box full of assorted Blondie and Morrissey 12”.

The CD selection is fine, but nothing to be overtly excited about (the prices outclass the majority of the goods), although we do find a interesting concept CD. It is a two disc compilation, with tracks from Fatboy Slim, Portishead and the likes, on one disc, and then on the other the artists whose tracks are sampled with the tracks on the first disc, such as The James Gang and Isaac Hayes. However, it sounds like a far more interesting concept in theory than in execution I fear (after-all what did Discovered teach us, other than what we already knew – that Daft Punk are inspired by funky music).

Somewhere beneath the hordes of new-wave 12”, we find an original US promo copy of Underworld’s Underneath The Radar, the band’s, critically hated, first album. And although it wasn’t cheap (HK$115 – £8.91), and I’m not even sure its going to sound very good, I wouldn’t be the Underworld fan I am if I didn’t pick it up. I pay my money to the friendly and chirpy staff, and, swinging the bag as I walk, whistle a happy little ditty all the way back to my tiny, tiny, tiny hotel room.

Purchase:

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

Armand Van Helden – Ghetto Blaster – £1 [Tracklisting]

Club Azuli 1 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.48 [Tracklisting]

Club Azuli Part 2 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.79 [Tracklisting]

Chemical Brothers, The: Brothers Gonna Work It Out – £2.77 [Tracklisting]

Defected In The House – Mixed By Copyright – £0.79 [Tracklisting]

DJ Hardy Heller – Mix In Motion – £1  [Tracklisting]

DJ Shadow – The New Collection – £2.38

Elektrik 02 – Mixed By King Unique & Nubreed – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 25 – Mixed By Carl Craig – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 26 – Mixed By Global Communication – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Le Le – Breakfast 12″ – £8.24 [Tracklisting]

Moby – Last Night – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £30.68

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

RoC

Evento terá Schumacher, Vettel, Button e David Coulthard

Bom dia, fufeiros. Para quem não sabe, hoje começa aquele evento-baba chamado Race of Champions, em que pilotos famosos (alguns nem tanto) disputam corridas dentro de um estádio. Primeiro foi em Paris, nos últimos dois anos em London e hoje, pela primeira vez, o evento será na China, no já famoso The Bird’s Nest (Ninho de Pássaro). Sabe como é, a obra suntuosa ficou sem utilidade alguma após as Olimpíadas do ano passado, e qualquer coisa está valendo para justificar os gastos irresponsáveis. Ah, London… Ah, Rio de Janeiro…

De qualquer maneira, o RoC tem passagens divertidas, e nesta edição contará novamente com um punhado de pilotos do primeiro time. Para conferir ao vivo o que rola por lá, sintonize no site oficial do evento, AQUI.

Nesta terça-feira será disputada, a partir das 10h de Brasília, a competição por nações (os pilotos competem em duplas). Amanhã, a partir do mesmo horário, será a vez da disputa individual entre os pilotos, que é a parte mais legal do evento.

Quem tiver TV a cabo no Brasil e não for trabalhar pela manhã, pode ainda assistir pelo SporTV, como acabei de ser informado via twitter pelo ótimo Rodrigo Mattar. Fica a dica.

Vamos, então, à escalação do Roc 2009:

DUELO DE PILOTOS

Michael Schumacher (ALE)
Sebastian Vettel (ALE)
Jenson Button (ING)
Mikko Hirvonen (FIN)
Michael Doohan (AUS)
Tom Kristensen (DIN)
Andy Priaulx (ING)
Mattias Ekstrom (SUE)
Yvan Muller (FRA)
David Coulthard (ESC)
Marcus Gronholm (FIN)
Giniel de Villiers (RSA)
Tanner Foust (EUA)
Travis Pastrana (EUA)
Chad Reed (AUS)
Emanuele Pirro (ITA)
Clivio Piccione (MON)
Guerlain Chicherit (FRA)

DUELO DE NAÇÕES

Alemanha: Schumacher / Vettel
Autosport-UK: Button / Priaulx
Escandinávia: Kristensen / Ekstrom
Finlândia: Hirvonen / Gronholm
Austrália: Reed / Doohan
França: Muller / Chicherit
All Stars: Coulthard / De Villiers
EUA: Foust / Pastrana
Mônaco: Piccione / Pirro

Uma ótima terça-feira a todos e, em breve, Fufa Awards! Beijundas!

Goldman Sachs: Cererea interna va fi modelul de crestere a economiei Chinei

China a descoperit modelul de crestere pe care il va urma de acum inainte: cererea interna, a declarat Jim O’Neill, economistul sef al Goldman Sachs (GS), cu ocazia prezentarii unui rapor privind economia globala.

O’Neil, cel care a folosit pentru prima oara (in 2001) denumirea de “BRIC” pentru a denumi economiile Chinei, Indiei Rusiei si Braziliei, a estimat ca in acest an vede o crestere a PIB`ului chinez la 9,4 %, iar cresterea cererii interne, la 13,3% . El a mai admis ca pentru intervalul 20011 si 2020, viteza de crestere a PIB`ului se va stabiliza in jurul a 7,7% urmand apoi sa scada in deceniile viitoare. Potrivit statisticilor GS, contributia Chinei la cresterea economica mondiala a atins deja 22% (detronand astfel SUA), urmand sa atinga 50 % in 2009.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sunday Africa Blog Roundup: Guinea, Darfur, Algeria

FP Passport takes a look at Guinea (and China).

While Reuters asks if Darfur is getting too much attention, Making Sense of Darfur briefs us on the recent African Union report and lists “ten good reasons why Sudan is doomed to chaos“:

In [a] few months, conflict will escalate in both Darfur and the South and all the dreams about the CPA implementation will shatter into pieces.

The differences between the North and the South will surface and become more difficult to manage and eventually result in armed clashes.

Traditional political parties will see an opportunity to overthrow the government and replace Beshir and as a result will conspire to fuel the tensions and provide assistance and support to the armed groups on all the active and dormant fronts.

With the failure of the elections to take place in 2010 (for the reasons presented below) and the frustration of the South that the referendum will not take place as well, confrontations between the government forces and the SPLA will intensify with possible declaration of an independent South Sudan state, supported by the USA that will use its advocacy machine to criminalize the Beshir government and that it did not respect the CPA and might eventually call for military intervention and a UN monitored and protected referendum.

Pretty gloomy. We’ll have to see.

Kal writes about riots in Algiers.

The Project on Middle East Democracy points us to a piece at Democracy Digest on the Obama administration and democracy promotion.

The Obama administration had downplayed, but not downgraded democracy as a foreign policy objective, Anne-Marie Slaughter, the State Department’s head of policy planning, told Democracy Digest this week.

“Give us time,” was her response to critics who cite changes to Egyptian NGO funding and cuts to Iranian human rights groups to charge the administration with backtracking on democracy. Rejecting the suggestion that the administration was over-reacting to the perceived excesses of the Bush administration’s Freedom Agenda, she nevertheless accepted that adjustments had been made.

Finally, Africa is a Country summarizes a New York Times article on relations between West African immigrants and African-Americans in the Bronx.

What are you reading?

The Sudden Reappearance of Fangirl

I should learn not to mock and scorn, since it will bite me in the ass. For example, I scoffed and dismissed 30 Seconds to Mars–totally understandable, right? Clearly, they were yet another Dogstar, who by virtue of having an actor as a bassist were doomed to assault our eardrums…or at least, attempt to do so. I mean, how could you possibly take this seriously?

(although, to be fair, i thought it was Pete Wentz)

The band never made a blip on my radar screen, only rather occasionally on Perez and then only in the very barest ‘are-they-seriously-trying-to-pretend-they-do-music-look-at-how-unpopular-and-unsuccessful-they-are’ terms.

Then, last Friday, at 3pm, my beloved WBRU decided to assault my eardrums with ‘a song about apocalypse’ by 30STM (scoff. scoff. scoff. throat clear and eye roll. such a lame song topic for a lame band; could it get any more obvious and worse? would’ve turned the station, though the only option is the disgustingly boring PRO-FM. ).

So…the song caught my attention with its big chorus of vocals right off the bat. And, when they could’ve ruined it by screaming or picking up the tempo, they didn’t. The vocals–they weren’t the stupid, whiny, angry passionate emo sloppy messy hard rock. Rather they were enough to make me think ‘wow, this is a really good singer. i like his voice. i’m really surprised.’ and that surprise only kept growing. till i didn’t want the song to end. My attention was captured. Anthemic, yes, and I like anthemic! Aiming towards transcendence, and yup I like that too.

I was shocked. And obsessed. I had to research.

And then I was horrified.

For Mr. Actor was not the bassist, but rather the vocalist. The vocalist I liked sooo much. So now I’m eating crow on one level re: Dogstar comparisons.

But it gets worse. Because, apparently, they are very successful–like sold over a million copies of their last album successful.  That’s way too much for it to be a ‘oh-he’s-so’hot-i’m-going-to-buy-his-album-and-pretend-i-like-his-music’ phenomenon. Way too much for a ‘i-liked-him-in requiem for a dream‘ pity play.

This is the type of thing I’m supposed to know! It’s practically part of my (day) job description to be up on pop culture. My performance review gets doubly downgraded if I’m not up on what’s happening in the world of hot men.

To make matters even worse (as if they could get worse), I’ve heard their other songs! I’ve seen commercials for them on MTV et al. and you know who I thought they were? Yup, Fallout Boy (who I also generally scoff at, except for that one song [but only because I thought it was Mark Ronson for the longest time], so really, it’s understandable). I adamantly don’t like anything near this type of music! (Ok, only that one Rise Against! song, but nobody knows about that)

My standard music diet? MGMT, The Airborne Toxic Event, Band of Skulls, The Ting Tings, U2, Radiohead, Mozza, The Cure, Depeche Mode, INXS…

But yet, here I was, listening to Kings and Queens on repeat at 12:30 am that night (on Playlist) and then buying it at 8:30 the next morning to add to my running playlist. I may or may not have silently cursed BRU while doing errands because they didn’t play it (and I may or may not have thought about running into Best Buy to grab an iPod adapter).

and I may or may not have insisted that one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world listen to the songwhile we were taking a leisurely fall drive.

and she totally loved it.

and was shocked.

Well, anyways, I think K&Q is going to be a huge hit…and I’m just waiting for it to appear on PRO-FM (though that station’s beneath me–shh, please don’t point out the Taylor Swift in my collection). Granted, they stacked the deck: Flood and Steve Lillywhite produced the album so it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a success. (Seeing as how I named my cat after one of Flood’s albums, I’m sure that there was a conspiracy in the cards against me that made me like K&Q)

But seriously, this whole affair’s got me kind of off-kilter; it’s more than a bit maddening to find out that mr. fancy pants actor’s band has been getting serious airplay for the past four years. Not only that, but a single on the Modern Rock chart for 94 weeks? How was I not aware?! I’m (unfortunately) aware of The Fray and Nickelback (get behind me Satan); gosh, did Perez and Towleroad steer me wrong???!!!???!! Especially Andy Towle should have told me.

Oh, and sure, I could’ve not downloaded A Beautiful Lie because it was only $7.99 on iTunes and December 8th was waayy too long away. And, yeah, I could’ve not pre-ordered This is War, but when you can get an extra bonus track, why not just do it, especially when it’s so cheap? And sure, I could’ve not added A Beautiful Lie and From Yesterday to my running playlist too, but, honestly, when you have scream-y songs and you know, running is really hard, and sometimes you wanna scream, but you can’t really scream in the gym, well, then, those screamy songs make sense. And you know, I could’ve not listened to the album on repeat while I was working at home, but, when your roommate isn’t the biggest fan of rock and you did just buy an album, you kind of have to listen to it, right? Yeah, totally, you do.

And, you really do have to watch the only music video ever filmed entirely in China, right? Again and again?

Yeah.