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2011-09-19T18:14:00.000+08:00

Missing Virginia teacher's body located in Japan

2011-03-23T02:30:00.000+08:00

Missing Virginia teacher's body located in Japan - Yahoo! News

By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press – Mon Mar 21, 9:57 pm ET

RICHMOND, Va. – A Virginia couple is mourning the death of their daughter after learning that her body was found in disaster-ravaged Japan, where she had been teaching English.

Taylor Anderson, 24, could be the first known American victim in the Japan disaster as authorities continue the daunting task of finding and identifying almost 13,000 people believed to be missing.

Anderson's family said in a statement that the U.S. Embassy in Japan called them Monday to tell them she was found in Ishinomaki, a city about 240 miles (390 kilometers) north of Tokyo.

Officials with U.S. Embassy in Japan and the State Department could not immediately confirm whether she was the first known U.S. victim in Japan. Another 25-year-old man is presumed dead after being swept into the ocean March 11 by a swell from the tsunami on the northern California coast.

"We would like to thank all those whose prayers and support have carried us through this crisis," said Andy and Jean Anderson, who live in Chesterfield County south of Richmond. "Please continue to pray for all who remain missing and for the people of Japan. We ask that that you respect our privacy during this hard time."

Jean Anderson said her daughter was last seen after the earthquake riding her bike away from an Ishinomaki elementary school after making sure parents picked up their children. A tsunami struck shortly after the earthquake, completely wiping out homes and other structures.

Friends and relatives used Facebook and other social networks to spread the word about the search for Taylor. Officials first told the family last Tuesday that their daughter had been located, but the Andersons learned that night that the information was incorrect.

Taylor Anderson had a lifelong love of Japan and began studying the language in middle school. She moved overseas after graduating from Randolph-Macon College in 2008 to teach in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme.

She taught in eight schools in Ishinomaki, in the Miyagi prefecture on Japan's northeast coast. During her stay there she developed a love for her students and for the Japanese people, her mother said.

She was scheduled to return to the United States in August.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110322/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_us_victim

JOTMAN TRAVEL: Buying electronics in Southeast Asia: Bangkok Vs Singapore

2011-03-14T16:38:00.000+08:00

Source: http://www.jotadventure.com/2007/11/buying-electronics-in-southeast-asia.html

Buying electronics in Southeast Asia: Bangkok Vs Singapore

This post is mainly about Bangkok's electronics mega-shopping mall, Panthip. First off, I compare Panthip to a similar megastore in Singapore called Sim Lim Square.

Singapore Vs Bangkok
- Overall, I've had better experiences shopping for electronics in Bangkok compared to Singapore. I find I am not quite so likely to get ripped off at Bangkok's Panthip. Some of the salesmen you will meet at Sim Lim in Singapore are outrageous scampers -- some will not hesitate to cheat you, often by selling you an old model at a new model price.

- Bargain, but in Thailand be sure to do it nicely (same rule holds for Indonesia and some shops in Malaysia). Thais can get offended if you are harsh -- keep smiling. Generally bid no more than 30-40% lower than the marked price. Expect further discounts for multiple purchases. You can be more theatrical in how you bargain in Singapore. To their credit, they won't don't get offended. Singaporeans are unflappable.

Bangkok's Panthip Plaza
- Cameras, mobile phones at good prices, but do not expect a wide selection of the latest, most expensive models.

- Good place to buy computer memory and hard drives. But I prefer name brand drives like Maxtor -- which are available at Panthip, but you have to hunt for a store that sells them. Singapore is a bit better for finding the latest models.

- Laptops: I could not find a store that would sell me an extended international warranty. Best place to buy your laptops is the US.

- Software and videos, generally pirated: If you go this route I suggest you find someone willing to install it. It doesn't always work, and can stop working. If you are male, you'll know your in the pirate video zone when a guy walks up to you and whispers "sexy movie."

- Beware of fake name-brand hardware products. Scrupulously inspect labels that identify a product as genuine when buying name-brand. This rule applies whether you are in Singapore or Thailand.

- A few stores specialize in Apple, but Panthip's mostly PC.

- Thailand's Panthip, especially is a great place to buy cables, notebook cases, keyboards, mice, LCD monitors, and other accessories.

- Don't spend too long in Panthip. The quality of the air is bad. For a break there's a decent well air conditioned Thai restaurant by the entrance.

- Shipping. You can ship something you buy at Panthip anywhere in Thailand overnight delivery for about $1.00. Ask where to go for the shipping office.

- Panthip's Floor Plan: 1st) mobile phones and phone accessories; 2nd) cameras; memory sticks; software and movies; 3rd) laptops, printers 4th) accessories, hardware, used computers, repair services. Warning: that's a rough outline of the floor plan -- the reality is far more haphazard.

- There's one department store on level 2. Limited selection, but good place to check the 'real' price of an item.

- It pays to shop around. Today I saw that one store was selling my digital camera for 12,000 baht, another has it on sale for 8,000 baht.

- Hard drive recovery services. I highly recommend Joseph on the forth floor. He's rescued me twice and his prices are reasonable. I once met a customer who had flown in from Israel to see Joseph.

Directions
- How to get to Panthip in Thailand: Its a few blocks off the Skytrain line (not far from Siam). Take a taxi. They all know it, and the roads leading to it are too polluted for healthy walking.

- How to get to Sim in Singapore: It's across the big street from the Little India neighborhood, smack between Bugis MRT Station (green line) and Little India MRT (purple line).

JOTMAN TRAVEL: Buying electronics in Southeast Asia: Bangkok Vs Singapore

Where I Come From | iamkoream

2011-03-11T16:47:00.000+08:00

Where I Come From | iamkoream

Author: Elizabeth Eun

Emile Mack, at age 6 or 7, with his father Clarence Mack, in Los Angeles.

Emile Mack may be the highest-ranking Asian American firefighter of a major American city, but what tends to surprise people most about the Los Angeles Deputy Fire Chief is his most unique background: At age 3, he was adopted by an African American couple. His is a story that challenges our notions of race and identity; it’s about the ties that bind and the gift of family.

By Elizabeth Eun
Photos courtesy of Emile Mack/By Eric Sueyoshi.

• • •

From Emile Mack’s corner office on the top floor of Los Angeles City Hall, one can see the vast downtown skyline. It seems an appropriate view for the second-in-command of the city’s 3,500-person fire department—perhaps a reminder of the daunting responsibility of protecting this sprawling metropolis. As deputy chief of operations, Mack in fact is the highest-ranking Asian American firefighter of a major American city.

That’s an especially impressive fact, given the reputation of fire departments as traditional bastions of white males. After implementation of a 1974 consent decree, the Los Angeles Fire Department has certainly come a long way in diversifying its force, with roughly 49 percent now comprised of racial minorities (Asians are 6 percent of that figure), according to the department. Still, the image of Mack’s Asian face standing shoulder to shoulder with high-ranking local and state officials at the scenes of major Southland fires is quite stunning.

But Mack, 53, is quite used to standing out—and not just because he’s been a firefighter for 32 years. Rather, the high cheek bones and almond-shaped eyes may signal a Korean background, but his identity, his culture and the place he called home throughout his childhood were intimately tied to the parents who raised him. That is to say, he long identified with the African American culture, and shades of brown were the faces with whom he felt the closest.

After being abandoned at a South Korean police station as a baby, he was adopted in 1960 by Undine and Clarence Mack, an African American couple. That statement alone is enough to floor people unfamiliar with his backstory. Yet, as Emile tells it, it’s really a simple tale: The Children’s Christian Society brought photographs of children from a South Korean orphanage to his parents’ Los Angeles church. And Undine and Clarence decided to make the 3-year-old boy with the big button cheeks their son.

And all the queries that naturally arise upon learning that his parents are black—Did you struggle with your identity? Did you ever feel like you didn’t belong? Do you consider yourself black or Asian?—are quietly shut down with answers that make the questioner feel slightly foolish for the asking.

“I grew up not trying to identify, but naturally identifying with the people around me, the African American culture,” says Mack. “From before I can remember, I was surrounded by African American people. They were the ones I saw every day, they were my family, the people I lived with, who loved me, took care of me and played with me.”

Certainly, he acknowledges most people are surprised when they find out he was raised by African American parents. When one talks about transnational adoption or even cross-racial adoption, it usually involves white parents and ethnic adoptees. In essence, Mack’s story can be interpreted as an testament to the strengths and beauty of adoption, period. It’s a story that is coming full-circle, now that Mack and his wife Jenny have recently adopted a baby girl, Miya, from South Korea.

“My family always made me feel part of the family, and I never experienced from any of them, ‘Oh, you’re different.’ They loved me and took very good care of me,” says Mack. “I knew where I came from.”

And that’s the same kind of love and grounding he plans to pass on to his daughter. It’s a gift, a legacy, from his parents that has served this Korean adoptee well for five decades—all the way to the top of an agency appropriately charged with serving residents of one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse cities.

• • •

AN INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY

Mack playing with family friends.

There wasn’t necessarily an adoption talk with his parents per se that Mack can point to, but he does recall a moment around age 4 or 5 when he started recognizing he didn’t look like Mom and Dad. “[I remember] looking at myself and my parents, and thinking, ‘This must be what ‘adopted’ means,’” says Mack. “It was like… now I see it, and now I can comprehend what it means.’ ”

Still, Mack, who grew up in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, doesn’t recall ever struggling with his racial identity as a child, even when outsiders teased him.

“There were people who didn’t know me or my family, and they didn’t tease me because I had black parents, but they teased me because I looked Asian. So it was the typical thing, ‘Hey Chinese, hey this, hey that.’ And then my friends would respond, ‘He’s black!! His parents are black, leave him alone!!’” said Mack, his face lighting up at the memory.

“In fact, that still happens today. There are times when I walk into a room with black friends, and they’ll walk up to someone I don’t know, and say, ‘Hey man, he’s cool. He’s a brother.’ And they’ll immediately accept me just because my friend says, ‘Oh, he’s one of us.’”

Friends from Mack’s childhood affectionately remember him as the “little Asian kid who ran with the black kids.”

“Way back at that young age, you didn’t differentiate between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, you just knew they were of Orient descent,” says longtime friend Dwayne Golden, who attended the same elementary and junior high schools as Mack. “It was just black versus white, and everyone else just fell in the middle. But I remember [Mack] was different, because all the Japanese friends I had at the time, they were very disciplined and studied a lot, but he was always hanging out with the other black kids.”

Still, Mack’s upbringing perhaps challenges people’s expectations of what growing up in a black home means. Sure, Mack recalls a home filled with his “parents’ music,” which included Aretha Franklin and Nat King Cole, and while other ethnic Korean children may have had bap and kimchi for dinner, he was eating “what some people call soul food.” However, he also points out, like many parents across color lines, his emphasized studying hard and doing his best. He also notes that because his father had worked as a chef, the family enjoyed a more international offering at the dinner table, with Chinese, Mexican and Italian cuisine on any given night.

Mack with his mother Undine at an Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month event.

His parents were also international in their lifestyle. Their wide circle of friends included people of every nationality.

“My father was a strong believer in the rights of everyone,” says Loretta Cooper, Mack’s half-sister, speaking of their late father who died in 1983. (Clarence and Undine Mack’s union was the second marriage for both.) “It wasn’t just a black-white issue, so you have this environment of people who believe that everyone should have the same rights and equal access. And that speaks to the fact that [my father and Undine] were able to adopt and raise a child who wasn’t in their own ethnic group. It shares what their belief system is about and that love doesn’t have anything to do with what a person looks like.”

Mack may have “run with the black kids,” but he also had playtime and dinners with his Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian friends. The latter gave him some early exposure to Asian culture, though his first taste of a certain perennial Korean dish would come from an unusual source.

While visiting a desert vacation home in 29 Palms, the Mack family would often stop by a small store owned by a Caucasian woman and her Hawaiian husband. The store catered to the Asian wives who lived on the nearby Marine Corps base, and stocked all kinds of Asian food.

“When the Caucasian store owner found out I was Korean, she went back into the cold storage, brought out this little bottle, and said, ‘This is kimchi! This is one of the things Koreans like to eat!’” recalls Mack, who was 12 or 13 at the time. “So I ate it, and I remember that I immediately liked it. So my first exposure to kimchi was in the middle of the desert, at this little store owned by a Caucasian woman.”

It wasn’t until Mack entered high school that he started hanging out with more Asians and exploring his Asian identity, but this wasn’t to the exclusion of his black identity. In fact, he cites high school as a period when he was “talking black” and “acting black,” ironically as a way to fit in with the Asians at his school who were “trying to be cool.”

“I can’t really assign my personal traits and characteristics to being Asian or black,” says Mack. “We can be stereotypical—Asians work hard. Well, my black parents worked hard. Asians are quiet. Well, I can be quiet, but I don’t know if I’m quiet because of [my] Asian [background]. ”

What Mack does know for sure is this: “The person you are is the person you are within, and to look different from your parents, you have to have a certain level of strength to deal with people who look at you and say, ‘Why are you different from your parents?’ But it truly is about who you are inside, and not about whether you look like [your parents] or if you don’t look like [your parents].”

Indeed, while talking to Mack, what is almost immediately apparent is the sense that he isn’t trying to be something he’s not.

“Emile was always an individual,” says Golden, who also works for the fire department with Mack. “There are some people, who, whether you’re black and work in a Korean environment, or if you’re Korean and work in a black environment, you just take on that culture and try to sound like the people you’re around. But Emile, even though he had a lot of black affiliation, he was just himself. He wasn’t trying to fit in with one group or the other; he didn’t act black, or act Korean. He was just acting like Emile.”

And to be Emile Mack today means embracing both the African and Asian cultures that are part of him. He has long been involved with various black organizations, but he admits he is currently more active with Korean American organizations, recognizing the influence his Korean American friends have had in his life. He is a frequent guest speaker at Asian American events in Los Angeles, and enjoys talking about his role in the fire department especially to Korean American youth.

“He’s very proud of his Korean heritage,” says friend Alexander Kim, who formerly worked for ex-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “[That] really means a lot and gives courage to other Korean adoptees.”

• • •

FIGHTING FIRES

Mack, with former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other local officials at the scene of a 2008 brush fire in Sylmar.

Mack may hold the distinction of being the highest-ranking Asian firefighter in a major American city, but he says his foray into firefighting happened on a whim—one that wasn’t even his own.

“My best friend from high school came to me one day, and he said, ‘Come take the firefighter’s exam with me!’” says Mack, who was in his junior year at the University of California, Los Angeles, at the time. Mack and his friend both passed the written exam, and after training for the physical abilities test, passed that as well. “So it gets to the point where I’m pretty invested in the process, and after we pass the interview and the medical and background check, we were offered jobs.”

Mack, who had been a pre-psychology major and had planned on going into optometry, dropped out of UCLA and joined the fire department, to the elation of his father and the concern of his mother, who worried for his safety.

Giving her more cause for concern, no doubt, were the events unleashed on April 29, 1992, when the city of angels exploded into fires and violence in what scholars would later deem the nation’s first multiethnic riots. As a firefighter then based at a South Los Angeles station, Mack was literally at the center of the chaos.

“We were just going from fire to fire, and it was just devastating to see everything that was happening. Things just started not making sense,” says Mack. “We were at the first fire, which started on Vermont and 8th [streets], and as we’re getting out of the truck and starting to hook our hose up to the hydrant, two carloads of people pull up to the store and begin shooting into the stores. We ducked behind this little stone wall, and then the Korean shop owners came out of their stores and start shooting back.

“Then we’re crawling to get back to the fire truck so we can move out of the area, but after about five minutes had passed, we looked around and we could see the next block and the next block going up in flames. And within the next few hours, there were fires as far as you could see down Vermont.”

Mack recalls running into his firefighter friends throughout those three days, all of whom were constantly calling their wives and girlfriends to let them know that they were alive. His then-fiancé-now-wife Jenny was also anxiously waiting, not only to see if Mack was safe, but also if they were going to be able to get married on their planned wedding date that weekend.

“We thought and thought, and that morning, we just said, ‘Let’s do it.’” says Mack. The two married in Malaga Cove in Palos Verdes Estates, with a reception in Redondo Beach at the Blue Water, which meant the guests, half of whom were firefighters, had to go through roadblocks to get there. All 120 guests made it.

“We had a young Caucasian DJ, and as the couples were dancing, he was crying, and he said to us, ‘This is so beautiful; that there are Asians and blacks and whites and Hispanics, and every race is here enjoying themselves together after such a horrific time during the riots.’” recalls Mack. “It wasn’t until this young DJ said this that it really struck my wife and me how really marvelous this is, and that our lives are so rich with friends of so many different cultures and backgrounds, able to celebrate together.”

A few years after the riots, Mack attended a conference with religious leaders from both the Korean and the African American communities—two groups pitted against each in the period prior to, as well as during, the 1992 crisis. The mainstream media was accused of fanning the flames with the frequent “black-Korean conflict” headline, after a Korean immigrant merchant shot and killed an African American teenager after a scuffle in a South Los Angeles store in 1991.

When asked to comment about the riots at the conference, Mack said, “It hurt me very deeply that the two cultures that are me were in conflict and were at odds.”

But he also saw hope in the efforts by leaders from both communities trying to understand each other. “That took me through the pain of seeing my two heritages at odds, seeing the hope and future that they could build an understanding, and build better relations with each other.”

And given his unique identity and prominent position, Mack recognizes his own role in bridge-building.

“Because I do come from a very diverse background, I’m very comfortable in any form or setting, with any group of people I have to work or interact with in my job,” says Mack.“That definitely has made me more capable and makes me more understanding of differences of cultures.”

It’s a leadership role not just restricted to cross-cultural issues. Although Mack likes to paint his rise through the fire department ranks as merely a series of promotional exams that led to more promotions, his friends and colleagues acknowledge what Mack humbly won’t.

“He looks like a big teddy bear, but the man commands a very strong presence, and he’s a very strong leader and commander,” says Derek Tran, a Los Angeles consultant who met Mack in 2004 while Tran was working for then-Mayor Jim Hahn. He considers Mack a father figure and mentor. “You just sense leadership when you’re around him, and it obviously shows, because he’s No. 2 in the fire department now. You don’t get there by being wimpy.”

Tran says Mack, who was promoted to his current position in April of 2007, brings to the table a unique vantage point. “I think he identifies with the African American race, the Asian race, the American race,” says Tran.

Perhaps, quite appropriately, Mack, while working in the fire department’s Bureau of Training and Risk Management in 2007, helped revamp the recruiting process, in an attempt to further grow a force that reflects the city’s multiethnic makeup. White males have historically tended to dominate the applicant pool. The recruiting initiative paired prospective candidates with firefighters who advise the former through each step of the application process.

“We have to show women and people of color that we want you, and we’re willing to do everything possible to show and help you through the process to show you that we want you on LAFD,” Mack told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2007.

The mentorship, now institutionalized, also occurs with non-minority candidates, and all recruits are taught, among other things, how to work in an environment with zero tolerance for discrimination and harassment.

• • •

‘WHAT MY PARENTS HAD DONE FOR ME’

Mack with wife Jenny and daughter Miya at their Redondo Beach home.

A grand “Certificate of Appreciation” from the city of Los Angeles figures prominently in the center of Mack’s office wall, but it is notably covered with photos of his baby daughter, Miya, and Jenny, his wife of nearly 20 years. And while his stack of books includes titles like On Mission & Leadership, the book that tops it is a book of Korean recipes, translated into English.

For Mack, now more than ever, learning more about Korean culture is a priority, since it is the country that his adopted daughter has so recently come from—and is the country from which he himself came 50 years ago.

Mack has attempted to uncover more details about his own roots. But despite the help of Korean friends and his original adoption papers, he’s learned very little. The orphanage he was adopted from no longer exists, and the Children’s Christian Society that arranged his adoption has since been taken over by the Social Welfare Society, which does not have any records on Mack.

But at this point in his life, Mack seems, if not fine with the situation, resigned to it. And while the Social Welfare Society doesn’t have his own adoption records, it does have his daughter’s.

“When I was younger, I always said, ‘I’m going to adopt,’” says Mack. “As I got older, I started understanding what my life could have been like had I not been adopted, and appreciating what my parents gave me; it went from wanting to adopt just because I had been adopted, to wanting to do what my parents had done for me for a child in Korea.”

Mack, who has a 24-year-old son from a previous relationship, and Jenny began the lengthy adoption process over three years ago, which was made more arduous since both were over 45, the age limit set for international couples seeking to adopt from South Korea. After receiving help from fellow Korean adoptee Steve Morrison of the nonprofit Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea, the couple was granted special permission from the South Korean government. With their case, the Macks, in fact, helped eliminate the age limit policy.

In October of last year, Emile and Jenny flew to Seoul to meet their daughter. “When we arrived at the home, Miya and her foster mother were out front, and I saw Miya from the car and she smiled at me, and I said to Emile, ‘I think she recognizes us!’” says Jenny, who later learned that the foster mother had been showing Miya photos of the couple.

“That was one of the first big reliefs,” said Emile, “that there was already some beginning of a connection.”

Mack with daughter Miya.

Miya Miyoung Mack, who already seems situated in the Macks’ bright family home (she has an entire corner of the living room dedicated to her, complete with plush pink pillows and stuffed animals), turned 1 in January, and the Macks have already begun the process of ensuring that she is able to experience her heritage in a tangible way. With the help of Korean friends and a party planner, Emile and Jenny, who is Japanese American, last month planned a traditional Korean dol party for her first birthday.

“We want Miya to be connected to her culture so she understands our shared Korean culture,” says Emile, speaking of the bond between father and daughter. “One of my friends is helping me learn to make Korean food, and I just ordered Rosetta Stone for Korean, so she and I will be learning together, you know, the gamsahamnida and the annyeonghaseyo. Hopefully, I’m just a little more advanced!”

It’s unmistakable that Mack wants his daughter to know where she came from, but he also doesn’t want her to forget where he came from. He wants Miya to know that, despite what outsiders may think, he isn’t different from his parents— at least not where it counts. “I don’t have prejudice because [my parents] didn’t have prejudice,” says Mack. “Because they lived that way, I lived that way, accepting every type of person. I learned from the way they lived.”

Source : http://iamkoream.com/where-i-come-from/

Japan unearths site linked to human experiments | World news | The Guardian

2011-02-22T14:09:00.000+08:00

Japan unearths site linked to human experiments | World news | The Guardian

Kids banned at Singapore restaurants

2011-01-09T18:18:00.000+08:00

Kids banned at Singapore restaurants | CNNGo.com

China eyes stake in California's high-speed rail system | McClatchy

2011-01-08T22:48:00.001+08:00

China eyes stake in California's high-speed rail system | McClatchy

Bangkok Post : Hacked iTunes accounts for sale online in China

2011-01-08T11:16:00.001+08:00

Bangkok Post : Hacked iTunes accounts for sale online in China

Battery factory poisons 24 children in China | World news

2011-01-08T00:15:00.000+08:00

Battery factory poisons 24 children in China | World news | guardian.co.uk

Chinese businessman bids £5m for HMS Invincible

2011-01-07T21:26:00.000+08:00

Chinese businessman bids £5m for HMS Invincible | World news | The Guardian

"Planned-opolis" Cities Already Being Tested in South Korea

2011-01-07T21:10:00.000+08:00

"Planned-opolis" Cities Already Being Tested in South Korea | Old-Thinker News

My Way News - World Bank issues its 1st yuan bonds in Hong Kong

2011-01-05T21:29:00.001+08:00

My Way News - World Bank issues its 1st yuan bonds in Hong Kong

By KELVIN CHAN

HONG KONG (AP) - The World Bank is issuing its first bonds denominated in China's yuan in Hong Kong, joining a growing number of borrowers tapping the new debt market as Beijing gradually promotes of its tightly controlled currency abroad.
The World Bank said buyers of its 500 million yuan ($76 million), two-year bond were mainly Hong Kong-based financial institutions, companies and wealthy individuals. It said the money will go into its general fund, rather than being raised for a specific purpose.
The yuan is not traded on global currency markets but Beijing has loosened controls and allows Hong Kong banks to use it. Hong Kong is Chinese territory but has its own currency and a Western-style legal system and often is used as a site for mainland companies to interact with foreign investors.
Beijing began allowing foreign companies to issue yuan debt last year. The Asian Development Bank, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and McDonald's Corp. have sold yuan-denominated debt to finance activities in China.
Buyers of such bonds hope to gain from both interest payments and the growing strength of the yuan, which is rising against the U.S. dollar.
China is set to gain a bigger say in the World Bank after a restructuring last year to boost the voting power of developing countries. If approved, China will be the third-biggest voting power after the United States and Japan.The World Bank provides low-interest loans and technical assistance to developing countries.
Beijing is promoting Hong Kong as a platform for yuan-based international banking. Hong Kong banks started handling yuan in 2004 and now offer services ranging from deposits to credit cards to trade financing that allows foreign companies to pay Chinese business partners in yuan.
Analysts say Beijing wants to see the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or people's money, become a global currency like the dollar or euro, though that could take years or decades.
Increased use of the yuan abroad could help China by reducing the exchange-rate risks faced by its exporters, who now are paid mostly in dollars.
"There are so many benefits that China can achieve from shifting trade to the local currency," said Credit Agricole economist Darius Kowalczyk.
Borrowing costs for China's government and companies also would decline if foreign investors were willing to buy more yuan-denominated bonds.
In August, McDonald's Corp. sold nearly $30 million in yuan bonds to pay to build new restaurants in China. Caterpillar sold $150 million in yuan bonds to provide financing for buyers of its heavy equipment.
Also last year, the Asian Development Bank sold $181 million in bonds to raise money to provide development projects in China.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110105/D9KI6Q3O0.html

Pigs burial raises concerns over water contamination

2011-01-05T16:25:00.003+08:00

Pigs burial raises concerns over water contamination

By Park Si-soo

Is it a curse if animals get buried alive?

Residents of a village hit by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, have seen their faucets start to deliver water mixed with blood since the beginning of the New Year.

This eerie situation, first reported last Saturday, came just one day after some of nearly 1,000 pigs within a 500-meter radius of an FMD-hit livestock farm were buried alive in the village’s vicinity to prevent further spread of the deadly animal disease.

Quarantine officers claim the situation is temporary and things will soon return to normal, while many experts are skeptical, insisting that blood from the buried animals will gradually soak into the ground to eventually contaminate underground water reservoirs, a major source of drinking water for the villagers.

The authorities said the slaughtered animals were buried in a 4-5 meter-deep hole covered by two-fold vinyl to keep anything from their bodies from leaking out.

But it’s uncertain whether the vinyl would remain intact if they had been buried alive.

“It’s possible that the vinyl could be torn by animals struggling to survive,” a quarantine officer said.

In principle, animals are killed before burial. But the rule has frequently been violated with the spread of the disease, outpacing the authorities’ slaughter capacity.

More than 660,000 cows and pigs have been culled and buried across the country since the first outbreak of the disease in Andong on Nov. 29. The toll of affected livestock is at the country’s highest level since 2002, when 160,000 were slaughtered, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.

In October, Rep. Hong Young-pyo of the main opposition Democratic Party said, “Underground water near burial sites for animals slaughtered between 2008 and 2010 showed higher contamination with colon bacillus and other bacteria than that of remote areas,” citing a report from the Ministry of Environment.

The report said some underground water in Incheon, and Gyeonggi and South Chungcheong provinces had been designated “undrinkable” due to contamination levels higher than the legal minimum.

“If an infant drinks the water, he or she could die, in the worst case scenario,” the report said.

The ministry admits the buried animals could become a major culprit leading to serious contamination of water resources and the soil around burial sites. But it said this is not the case — as yet.

“Still, underground water near affected areas remains clean enough to drink,” said an official from the water quality management division of the Environment Ministry.

Many environmentalists have lashed out at the burial operation, labeling it as an “inhumane” and “obsolete” countermeasure against the disease.

Last Tuesday, a group of environmentalists and animal lovers staged a rally in Seoul, calling for a halt to the “brutal” burial alive of animals and the wider use of vaccination.

(땅구덩이 안에 비닐을 깔고 있는 모습)

(돼지 한마리가 아무것도 모른채, 땅구덩이 비닐안에 빠져 있음)

(포크레인으로 땅구덩이에 파묻기 위해, 돼지들을 몰아가고 있음)

(포크레인으로 돼지들을 땅구덩이에 밀어넣고 있음)

(포크레인으로 돼지들을 땅구덩이안에 밀고 떨어뜨리고....)

(만삭의 어미돼지들의 모습)

(만삭의 어미돼지와 새끼돼지들이 땅구덩이안에서 매몰되기 직전의 모습)

(차마 보낼 수 없어 품에 안았던 어린 새끼돼지도 산채로 땅속에 묻혔음)

Sources:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/01/117_79094.html

http://happylog.naver.com/care/post/PostView.nhn?bbs_seq=15402&artcl_no=123461127991&scrapYn=N

YouTube - John Lennon rare interview

2011-01-04T21:07:00.000+08:00

YouTube - John Lennon rare interview

China makes Skype illegal - Telegraph

2011-01-03T01:04:00.000+08:00

China makes Skype illegal - Telegraph

Feds detail new plan of attack against Asian carp

2010-12-19T23:30:00.000+08:00

Feds detail new plan of attack against Asian carp - Chicago Breaking News

The Cave - How man is controlled

2010-12-19T18:18:00.003+08:00

Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a career in politics when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He abandoned his political career and turned to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Plato's school, then known as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian.

Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers.

The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Plato's best-known work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education required of a Philosopher-King.

The following selection is taken from the Benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 253-261. As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the cave Plato describes. Better yet, why not draw a picture of it and refer to it as you read the selection. In many ways, understanding Plato's Allegory of the Cave will make your foray into the world of philosophical thought much less burdensome.

* * * * * *

[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
[Glaucon] I see.
[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
[Socrates] Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?
[Glaucon] True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
[Socrates] And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said.
[Socrates] And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?
[Glaucon] No question, he replied.
[Socrates] To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.
[Glaucon] That is certain.
[Socrates] And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?
[Glaucon] Far truer.
[Socrates] And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?
[Glaucon] True, he now.
[Socrates] And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.
[Glaucon] Not all in a moment, he said.
[Socrates] He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
[Glaucon] Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
[Socrates] And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
[Glaucon] Certainly, he would.
[Socrates] And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,

and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
[Socrates] Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
[Glaucon] To be sure, he said.
[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
[Glaucon] No question, he said.
[Socrates] This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.
[Glaucon] I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
[Socrates] Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.
[Glaucon] Yes, very natural.
[Socrates] And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
[Glaucon] Anything but surprising, he replied.
[Socrates] Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the cave.
[Glaucon] That, he said, is a very just distinction.
[Socrates] But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.
[Glaucon] They undoubtedly say this, he replied.
[Socrates] Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said, such an art may be presumed.
[Socrates] And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue --how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end; he is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous in proportion to his cleverness.
[Glaucon] Very true, he said.
[Socrates] But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below --if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.
[Glaucon] Very likely.
[Socrates] Yes, I said; and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.
[Glaucon] Very true, he replied.
[Socrates] Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all-they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.
[Glaucon] What do you mean?
[Socrates] I mean that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the cave, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.
[Glaucon] But is not this unjust? he said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?
[Socrates] You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State.
[Glaucon] True, he said, I had forgotten.
[Socrates] Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics: and this is reasonable, for they grow up at their own sweet will, and the government would rather not have them. Being self-taught, they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture which they have never received. But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the cave, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. And thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.
[Glaucon] Quite true, he replied.
[Socrates] And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to take their turn at the toils of State, when they are allowed to spend the greater part of their time with one another in the heavenly light?
[Glaucon] Impossible, he answered; for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just; there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of our present rulers of State.
[Socrates] Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point. You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life. Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after the' own private advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.
[Glaucon] Most true, he replied.
[Socrates] And the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?
[Glaucon] Indeed, I do not, he said.
[Socrates] And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.
[Glaucon] No question.
[Socrates] Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians? Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State, and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same time have other honors and another and a better life than that of politics?
[Glaucon] They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied.
[Socrates] And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, -- as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods?
[Glaucon] By all means, he replied.
[Socrates] The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy?
[Glaucon] Quite so.

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html

LiveLeak.com - Body scanner, with detailed genitalia reporting

2010-12-19T09:11:00.001+08:00

LiveLeak.com - Body scanner, with detailed genitalia reporting

YouTube - The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

2010-12-16T15:50:00.001+08:00

YouTube - The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

This video was originally created to be part of an art exhibit for Exposed the Art Project http://www.exposedtheartproject.org , a multimedia collaboration raising awareness of social issues. The group decided that the message in the Deliberate Dumbing Down of America shouldn't be put on hold. So here it is. The other artists of Exposed the Art Project are: painters Barry Gross and Viktor Safonkin, and photographers Adela Holmes and Presscott McDonald. We picked four themes for our premier—Social Commentary, Spirituality, Metamorphosis and Time and Chance. This is my contribution for Social Commentary.

NealF: http://www.youtube.com/user/NealF

YouTube - LCD Soundsystem - Pow Pow

2010-12-13T14:30:00.001+08:00

YouTube - LCD Soundsystem - Pow Pow

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU'LL EVER READ ABOUT CHINA

2010-12-13T02:16:00.002+08:00

ERINGER: WATER WORKS: 28. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU'LL EVER READ ABOUT CHINA

Fact or Fiction?????????????

"Doctor Baumgartner." This female voice--one-part nasal, two parts whine--grated my left eardrum.

"Is Joy Baumgartner there?" I inquired.

"This is Joy." Her voice sounded anything but joy.

"Emil Rubitski suggested I phone you to..."

"You want to talk about China, right?"

"Yeah, I..."

"My consulting rates are two hundred and fifty dollars per hour."

"I thought we might have lunch," I said, "and..."

"It's the same."

"I see. How about if I take you to lunch to figure out what it is you know that's worth two hundred and fifty dollars an hour?"

"How long a lunch?"

"A couple hours.'

"It'll be five hundred dollars."

"Whoa. What if we only talk about China for an hour?"

"What else would we have to talk about?"

"The weather?"

"Read it in the paper," said the un-playful Baumgartner.

"All right, I'm in for one hour. Can you come to my office?"

"Where is it?"

"Near Mexico Ave. Near AU."

"Fine, but it'll cost you an hour travel time."

"Jesus, what are you, a lawyer?"

"That's exactly the point," whined Baumgartner. "Lawyers charge for their expertise. They run a meter. I'm an expert on China. You want to learn what I know about China. Why shouldn't I run a meter?"

"Don't you folks at CSS generally like to share your expertise?"

"For the purpose of promoting CSS, yes. In general, no. Are you a potential contributor to our programs?"

"Absolutely. Me and Morton Levi."

Silence.

"You work for Morton Levi?" asked Baumgartner.

"With Morton Levi."

"Hmm. I suppose that qualifies. Okay, lunch tomorrow. The Palm. One o'clock. I have another call waiting." She disconnected me.

I utilized the dial tone to phone Emil Rubitski.

"This Baumgartner, Emil. Is she a ball-buster or what?"

"You think I don't know this?" said Rubitski. "The first rule new fellows learn when they arrive at this Center is, Don't Turn Your Back On Joy."

I chuckled.

"No joke," snapped Emil. "It's a known fact that she keeps a loaded pistol in her purse."

Baumgartner wasn't at the Palm at one o'clock. I stooled myself at the bar, Beefeater, olives.

Eight minutes later, the maitre d' pointed me out to a short rotund woman with tussled blonde hair, betrayed by dark-brown eyebrows.

"Hi, doc," I said. "I'm Jay."

Baumgartner sized me up. "Let's sit at a table," she said before turning on the maitre d'. "A good table at the front."

"Of course."

I followed the brazen Baumgartner to a good table.

"I'd like to meet Morton," Baumgartner announced, rearing her rump. "If you're working for him, and it involves China, and you want my knowledge and expertise, I should meet directly with him. I only operate at the highest level."

A waiter passed.

"Vodka tonic," snapped Baumgartner. "Slice of lime, not lemon." She turned to me. "When will you introduce me to Morton?"

"I didn't know we'd graduated from if to when."

"Without him," said Baumgartner, "we're back to two hundred and fifty dollars an hour."

"Plus lunch?" The Palm wasn't cheap.

She didn't even smile. "We're already here."

"So we are. Tell you what, if I don't get you in to see Morton, I'll pay your fee."

Baumgartner shook her head. "You pay. If I meet Morton, I refund you."

"Will you take American Express?"

"No. But I'll take a personal check." This was supposed to be a compromise.

"I don't have my checkbook here. Will you invoice me?"

Baumgartner glanced at the menu and pushed it aside. "What exactly is it Morton wants to know about China?"

"I'm interested in princelings," I said. "Specifically, Yao Li."

"Yao Li has no testicles." Baumgartner spat this with matter-of-fact delight.

"Do you mean that metaphorically?"

"No, I mean it physically. When Yao Li was at Shanghai Textile University during the Cultural Revolution, he got beaten up by his classmates. They pounded on his testicles. The Doctors had to remove them to prevent hemorrhaging. Surgical castration." Baumgartner smiled for the first time, as if castration was her prescription for men in general. "I have it on high authority that Yao Li drinks a daily brew of cow dung and lizard skin to compensate for lost masculinity. He carries a steel ball--the size of a golf-ball--wherever he goes. He grips it to strengthen his fingers. When he gets into brawls, he smashes his steel ball against the skulls of his opponents." Baumgartner sipped a vodka tonic, set before her by the waiter, who now hovered for an order. Baumgartner waved him away. "We're not ready." She returned to me. "Yao Li has a vengeful streak, a characteristic he got from his father, Yao Lo, China's intelligence chief. You did know that, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"His father's nickname within the inner Council of Leaders is Trickman."

"Does the son, Yao Li, have a nickname?"

Baumgartner regarded me with a school-marmish contempt. "Are you interested in substance or gossip?"

"You're the one who brought up nicknames."

"Dickhead," snapped Baumgartner.

"Excuse me?"

"That's Yao Li's nickname: Dickhead. As I was saying before you interrupted, Yao Li has a vengeful personality. When he became powerful, he used his influence to confiscate Shanghai Textile University's campus and relegate them to several ramshackle buildings near the airport."

The waiter tiptoed back for an order.

"I want the two-pound lobster," said Baumgartner.

"Crab cakes," said I.

The waiter beat it.

"Trickman and Dickhead have their own private security force of Kazaks, a mountain tribe of Turko-Mongol origin. They are warriors, descended from the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan. It was the Kazaks who--with fixed bayonets--put down the student rebellions. Trickman takes the view that his generation sacrificed the lives of twenty million comrades to conquer China. Anyone who wants to take it from them--or their children, or their children's children--has to lay down twenty million lives. Trickman has devised a new strategy for Chinese domination of the world."

I waited for Baumgartner to say water.

"Money," said Baumgartner. "Trickman's favorite saying is Money oils civil society. Trickman spent a whole career in intelligence, posing as a banker in Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. He decided that money is the route to power, not tanks. Trickman concluded that if Hitler had had Wall Street, the Nazis would have won World War II." Baumgartner paused. "The Chinese secretly admire Hitler's sense of destiny. Trickman's new strategy is to connect to high finance. That's why Hong Kong--just the way it is, a capitalist financial center--is so important to them. But the real key to Trickman's financial strategy is people. Think about it: China possesses the cheapest, largest labor pool in the world. One billion workers. A quarter of this planet's population! Have you noticed that more than half of almost everything you see in the malls these days is made in China? China has become an economic force simply because it has turned five-sixths of its one-point-two billion population into a slave labor force. Foreign capital is flowing into China to exploit labor, encouraged by China's two hundred million-member elite. Our media would have us believe that because of this new connection to the West, China will evolve into a free market economy. Dumb bastards. It won't. What we're looking at is national socialism, Chinese-style. It was the late Deng Xiaoping who originally conceived China's economic reform. He shrewdly forged an alliance between the Chinese Communist Party and sixty million Chinese who reside outside of China, mostly throughout Asia--the lords of the Pacific Rim, as they are known. It is the money-management skill of these Chinese expatriates, these Pacific lords, that perpetuates oppression in China. Human rights? They don't exist--except for fifty million Communist party members and their one hundred and fifty million relatives. It is in China's national economic interest to oppress its dissidents and peasants and keep a billion people confined to laboring for the world while the pay-offs go to the oppressors."

Anger flashed in Baumgartner's eyes. She took this whole situation personally.

"Through its billion-person labor force," she continued, "and now through Hong Kong, China intends to manipulate world money. In so doing, it has embarked on a policy to make corporate America--who they perceive as the real government of the United States--to become dependent on cheap Chinese labor. Meanwhile, the expatriate Chinese, with their liquid cash, are strategizing corporate takeovers in the US."

"If what you say is true..." I started.

"It's true." Baumgartner narrowed her plucked eyebrows at me.

"Why isn't our government doing anything to counter this policy?"

"Counter this policy?" Baumgartner rolled her eyes. "Our elected government loves this policy!"

"Why?"

"Why indeed." Joy snorted contemptuously. "A few reporters are onto this, but the mainstream media continues to stick to press releases, or they're turning a blind eye. The reason why is this: old-fashioned deal-making. The president's financial supporters are cutting amazing business deals with the Chinese. You see what's happening here? The Chinese are playing our own so-called revolving door system against us. And, to this end, they're using their corrupt underground to help them."

"Oh?"

Baumgartner nodded vehemently. "Remember how our CIA teamed up with the mafia to try to overthrow Castro? Trickman is doing the same thing. He has recruited the Triad, China's notorious criminal underground."

"To do what?"

"Export contraband into the United States. Drugs and guns."

I'd forgotten, until this movement, what Samantha Wakefield of SIS had told me about Chinese gunrunning through Scrogg Island. I filed a mental note to nudge Pikestaff about that. Then I remembered Johnny Wang. "Do you know the name Johnny Wang?" I posed.

"Do I," spat Baumgartner, obviously disgusted by all she knew--or her inability to do anything about it. "Johnny Wang is a mobster. And he's also Yao Li's constant companion. Johnny Wang is homosexual. He and the castrated Yao Li are lovers."

My appetite departed as crab cakes arrived.

Baumgartner dug into her lobster, cracking and crunching and sucking each appendage. "Money, not gunpowder. That's the new Chinese weapon of choice." She pushed her plate aside. All that was left of the lobster was a shell and two beady eyes. "Our country is for sale," hissed Baumgartner. "Literally. US soil. Do you have any idea how fast Chinese communities proliferate?"

I shrugged. "Not really."

"Ha! Check out San Francisco. No, fly up to Manhattan and see how Chinatown has expanded into Little Italy. Pretty soon, Little Italy won't exist. The Italians can't afford the new rents, so the Chinese scoop up everything. They multiply and spread out. If anyone brings this to the surface, they're categorized as bigots. So in the interest of political correctness, no one says a word. But don't think because they're achieving their objectives with financial clout that they've renounced military might. Sure, they're smuggling their surplus guns into the US for baoli..."

"Baoli?"

"Chinese for keep the profit. They're lining their own pockets and promoting gangland violence and moral decline in our cities. Back to my point: they've embarked on a major hi-tech military build-up. For the first time, China is building aircraft carriers. Aircraft carriers! These are offensive, not defensive weaponry. They're buying fighter planes from Russia. They're designing a new class of nuclear ballistic submarine. And they're building intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiple warheads. Why doesn't anybody in this town ask why? Because they're all cashing in, one way or another, that's why. Even the people in government. Once they see how much the private sector is making off China, they quit government and go into business as brokers--the revolving door at high speed. The Chinese are building a war machine that will soon equal our own, with money they're getting from us. Money they get from forcing their fourteen-dollar-a-month labor pool to mass produce GI Joe and Barbie dolls. I'm not kidding. GI Joe is now made in China. Barbie, too. Our toy industry has moved to China. Ninety-five percent of everything you find in Toys-R-Us is manufactured by the Chinese, paid for in dollars. And they're using those revenues--our dollars--not to enrich their workers, but to build long-range nuclear missiles."

"What about the princelings?" I asked.

"Ah, the new generation of spoiled brats, born with silver chop sticks up their ass?" Baumgartner belched. "They've never had to fight or sacrifice for anything. They haven't had to suffer like their parents or grandparents. And they're all educated in the West. Do you see the irony here? We teach these princelings everything we know about stocks and bonds and securities and big money. Then they take what they learn back to China and use it against us! Not only do we encourage them to study here, we give them scholarships!"

"Yao Li went to Harvard, right?"

"Ha! That's what he wants the world to believe. Yao Li did a summer session at Harvard. That's another trick. Summer sessions at Ivy League colleges are easy to gain admission into--you just sign up and write a check. So they come over for a summer, take a couple of classes and claim they went to Harvard or Yale or Princeton. They use this to open doors throughout Asia--and even here in the United States. Yao Li tells everyone he went to Harvard on the basis of one summer-session course in business law, which he didn't even complete. He spent most of the time getting drunk in Cambridge. But don't believe me. Ask the woman confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life because Yao Li crashed his BMW convertible into her Honda. He was drunk. She was seventeen, very talented, and had her whole life ahead of her..." Baumgartner trailed off, clenching her teeth. "The State Department covered it up and the Chinese Embassy shanghaied Yao Li back to China. That's the reason he didn't finish summer-school." She paused. "I'd kill him with my bare hands."

"Why do you take this so personally?" I asked.

"It is personal." Baumgartner's eyes darkened, nostrils flaring. "The young girl Yao Li crippled is my sister."
Posted by Robert Eringe

http://jaysandak.blogspot.com/2010/11/28-most-important-thing-youll-ever-read.html

Chinese dissident awarded Nobel Peace Prize

2010-12-10T23:31:00.000+08:00

Chinese dissident awarded Nobel Peace Prize - CNN.com

US: China lacks 'morals' in Africa - Africa

2010-12-09T17:57:00.001+08:00

US: China lacks 'morals' in Africa - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Down From The Pedestal

2010-12-09T13:08:00.001+08:00

NationalJournal.com - Down From The Pedestal

Koreaceratops fossil discovered on Korean peninsula

2010-12-09T12:39:00.001+08:00

Koreaceratops fossil discovered on Korean peninsula - CSMonitor.com

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1208/Koreaceratops-fossil-discovered-on-Korean-peninsula
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreaceratops

China Clones, Sells Russian Fighter Jets

2010-12-08T17:30:00.001+08:00

China Clones, Sells Russian Fighter Jets - WSJ.com

Top Scores From Shanghai Stun Experts

2010-12-07T19:00:00.000+08:00

In PISA Test, Top Scores From Shanghai Stun Experts - NYTimes.com

You can achieve immortality by doing one great thing!

2010-12-07T15:29:00.000+08:00

YouTube - Johnnie Walker Android

Chinese clones of Facebook, Twitter gain popularity in China

2010-12-05T11:40:00.000+08:00

Chinese clones of Facebook, Twitter gain popularity in China - The Economic Times

Taiwanese animator creates WikiLeaks ‘Cablegate’ video

2010-12-04T11:21:00.000+08:00

Taiwanese animator creates WikiLeaks ‘Cablegate’ video | Raw Story

China directed Google hacking: leaked US documents

2010-11-29T09:50:00.000+08:00

China directed Google hacking: leaked US documents - Yahoo! News

Lady Gaga in Poland Gdańsk Ergo Arena 26.11.2010

2010-11-28T07:58:00.001+08:00

Company Plays Mozart To Its Bananas

2010-11-27T13:06:00.000+08:00

Company Plays Mozart To Its Bananas

'Fourth generation' Internet arrives in Hong Kong

2010-11-27T12:49:00.000+08:00

'Fourth generation' Internet arrives in Hong Kong

Singapore's water polo team's trunks cause alarm in country; they were 'nauseating,' 'disgraceful'

2010-11-27T12:19:00.000+08:00

Singapore's water polo team's trunks cause alarm in country; they were 'nauseating,' 'disgraceful'

Go Daddy Annoints Ella Koon GoDaddy Girl For Asia

2010-11-26T15:17:00.000+08:00

Go Daddy Annoints Ella Koon GoDaddy Girl For Asia - Adrants

U.S. sends carrier to Yellow Sea for exercises near Korea

2010-11-25T08:01:00.000+08:00

U.S. sends carrier to Yellow Sea for exercises near Korea - Washington Times

An aerial view shows destroyed houses on Yeonpyeong island, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010, one day after North Korea's artillery attack on the island. Rescuers found the burned bodies Wednesday of two islanders killed in the attack _ the first civilian deaths from a skirmish that marked a dramatic escalation of tensions between the rival Koreas. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Kim Hyun-tae)

China, Russia quit dollar

2010-11-25T07:46:00.000+08:00

China, Russia quit dollar

Which airports have body-scanning technology?

2010-11-23T03:13:00.001+08:00

Which airports have body-scanning technology? - CNN.com

Airports that currently have imaging technology, according to the website:
• Albuquerque International Sunport Airport
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
• Boston Logan International Airport
• Houston's George Bush Interncontinental Airport
• Boise Airport
• Bradley International Airport
• Brownsville-South Padre Island Airport
• Buffalo Niagara International Airport
• Charlotte Douglas International Airport
• Chicago's O'Hare International Airport
• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
• Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
• Corpus Christi International Airport
• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
• Denver International Airport
• Detroit Metro Airport
• Dulles International Airport
• El Paso International Airport
• Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
• Fort Wayne International Airport
• Fresno Yosemite International Airport
• Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport
• Grand Rapids, Michigan's Gerald R. Ford International Airport
• Harrisburg International Airport
• Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas
• Honolulu International Airport
• Indianapolis International Airport
• Jacksonville International Airport
• John F. Kennedy International Airport
• Kansas City International Airport
• LaGuardia Airport
• Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
• Laredo International Airport
• Lihue Airport
• Los Angeles International Airport
• San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
• McAllen-Miller International Airport
• Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport
• Memphis International Airport
• Miami International Airport
• Milwaukee's General Mitchell Airport
• Mineta San José International Airport
• Minneapolis/St.Paul International Airport
• Nashville International Airport
• Newark Liberty International Airport
• Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
• Oakland International Airport
• Omaha Eppley Field Airport
• Orlando International Airport
• Palm Beach International Airport
• Philadelphia International Airport
• Phoenix International Airport
• Pittsburgh International Airport
• Port Columbus International Airport
• Raleigh-Durham International Airport
• Richmond International Airport
• Greater Rochester International Airport
• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
• Salt Lake City International Airport
• San Antonio International Airport
• San Diego International Airport
• San Francisco International Airport
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
• Spokane International Airport
• T.F. Green Airport
• Tampa International Airport

• Tulsa International Airport

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/18/airports.with.body.scanners/index.html?iref=obinsite

Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cellphones Searched at Border

2010-11-21T15:11:00.000+08:00

Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cellphones Searched at Border | Threat Level | Wired.com

The Associated Press: Officials find 2,000 fetuses at Bangkok temple

2010-11-20T12:15:00.000+08:00

The Associated Press: Officials find 2,000 fetuses at Bangkok temple

Phuket Tourist's Fight With Intruder at Five-Star Resort Brings Killing Charge

2010-11-18T21:08:00.000+08:00

Phuket Tourist's Fight With Intruder at Five-Star Resort Brings Killing Charge - Phuket Wan

Phuket Tourist's Fight With Intruder at Five-Star Resort Brings Killing Charge

By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A RUSSIAN tourist who returned to find a stranger in his room at a five-star Phuket resort fought with the intruder, who later died in hospital, an honorary consul said today.

The tourist, named by Phuket police as Akcehob Aksenov, now awaits the outcome of a charge of manslaughter over the death. The tourist and his wife were due to fly home today but are staying on to await the end of the case.

Russia's deputy honorary consul Santi Udomkiratak, who has been closely involved in the aftermath, told Phuketwan today that the incident took place about 2am on November 8 in a room at the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket Resort, an award-winning five-star and one of the most highly-regarded resorts on Phuket.

''The man and his wife returned from a night out to find the intruder in their room,'' Khun Santi said. ''The man was a security guard. He had a knife.

''The two men wrestled, and the Russian man was slashed on the forearm. The Russian, who was a bigger man, toppled the attacker and subdued him. After the fight, the security guard was taken to Thalang Hospital, where he died.''

Khun Santi said police were awaiting a report from the hospital to determine the precise cause of death, but officers believed the incident was clearly a case of self-defence. Investigations are continuing.

Khun Santi said he could not offer any clues as to why the security guard was in the couple's room at 2am. He said the couple's room had direct access out to Bang Tao beach.

It was the couple's first Phuket holiday. They had arrived two days before the room invasion.

The Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket has consistently won top tourism and travel awards, including several this year.

Just weeks ago, the resort was sold for 2.6 billion baht to Dusit Thani Ltd, the Thai company whose name the resort has carried since it became the first brand to open at the Laguna Phuket complex in 1987.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stayed at the Dusit Thani last year, during an Asean summit of foreign ministers at the nearby Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket.

The security guard's death was recorded in an updated list of alleged crimes involving expats on Phuket, released to Phuketwan today by senior Phuket police.

Phuket Police Commander Major General Pekad Tantipong has pledged to make the safety and security of expats on Phuket a priority by making transparent all alleged crimes involving expats, both as perpetrators and victims.

The list will be delivered to honorary consuls and embassy representatives from about 22 countries when they meet with Phuket Governor Tri Augkharadacha on Monday in Phuket's fourth quarterly expat ''parliament.''

Six Phuket Expat Drownings, Deaths, Unrecorded

2010-11-18T21:02:00.000+08:00

Six Phuket Expat Drownings, Deaths, Unrecorded - Phuket Wan

Phuket's Karon beach: drown here and you may be left off the list

Photo by huketwan.com/file

Six Phuket Expat Drownings, Deaths, Unrecorded

By Alan Morison

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THREE drownings of tourists on Karon beach and one on neighboring Kata beach have gone unrecorded in police statistics that are intended to list every expat death on Phuket.

The deaths of two Australians have also gone unrecorded, making a total of at least six expat deaths unaccounted for on what is intended to be a complete list of all expat deaths so far on Phuket in 2010.

All six deaths fail to appear in a preliminary list of 67 expat deaths seen by Phuketwan in advance of the quarterly summit meeting of Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha with honorary consuls and embassy representatives.

The list, incomplete though it is, is due to be presented to as many as 22 national representatives and representatives of Thailand's Foreign Ministry at a meeting set for Monday. Two ambassadors from embassies in Bangkok may also be present.

Three of the deaths, all drownings at Karon and Kata, were also absent from a list presented to an earlier meeting in August. With these three drownings now increased to four - and all missing from the list - the wrong impression is being conveyed about the safety of Karon beach in the monsoon season.

Latest drowning victim to be left off the list of dead is Dimitry Kuznephov, 40, who drowned at Karon beach on November 8. A Thai man, Kittisak Klongpiled, 25, drowned at Karon beach on the same day.

The head of Phuket's lifeguard service has called for Karon beach to be closed to swimmers on dangerous days unless more intense measures are taken to protect the lives of swimmers.

But if deaths by drowning continue to go officially unrecorded, the call for improved safety measures loses its meaning and purpose.

The three drownings, previously reported by Phuketwan to be missing from an earlier expat death list, have yet to be added despite the three months that have passed since the omissions were first noted.

They are Rumanian Gheorghe Paulivc, who drowned at Karon on July 20; Bahraini Ali Abdulaziz Al Saeed, who drowned at Karon on August 8, and Chinese Zhao Dakun who drowned at neighboring Kata beach on the same Sunday afternoon.

Two other missing expat deaths take the total of unrecorded deaths to six. Not included on the list are Australians Stephen Lawton, 55, who collapsed and died in a Karon street on October 22, and Graham Nicholas Jackson, 54, who was found dead in a guesthouse room on October 2 after suffering a prolonged fever.

The new Australian Ambassador to Thailand, James Wise, is making his first official visit to Phuket later this week.

The omission of at least one drowning has also occurred on official figures. According to Phuket Public Health statistics, there were no drownings on or around Phuket in July - the only drowning-free month recorded recently.

However, Rumanian Gheorge Paulivc died in Bangkok Phuket Hospital after having been first taken from the sea off Karon beach to Patong Hospital in July.

Phuket's 67 expat deaths for the year so far - excluding the four drownings and the deaths of the two Australians plus possibly other deaths about which Phuketwan has no knowledge - are as follows:

Phuket Expat Deaths, August 15 to November 12

Adiano Mazza Italy heart attack on August 18 in Soi Nanai Patong
Keith Barrington Jones England of cancer on August 18 at Patong Hospital
Ms Vera Lovtsova Russia car mishap on August 26 at Tesco Lotus intersection
Josef Stefan Distler Germany chronic illness on August 15 at Patong Hospital
James William Bourke Australia drowning on September 1 in pool at Banthai Resort, Patong
Peter Vincenz Ullrich Switzerland in fall on September 7 at Patong guesthouse
Mai Wei Qiang China road mishap on August 30 in Phuket City
Brian Bibby England on October 13 overdose of drugs at Gallery Hotel, Patong
Lee Jae Yup South Korea on September 14 by hanging at Tina Hotel, Patong
Alexandr Chupin Russia drowning on October 17 at Surin beach
Herbert Sebastian Germany of chronic illness on October 14 at Phuket City
Agalonov Alexy Russia drowned on October 18 at Nai Thon beach
Joseph Edward Australia of heart attack on October 20 at West Guesthouse Patong
Markku Juhani Smatt Finland of heart attack October 27 in Patong Hopsital
Peter Williams US suicide on October 27 at apartment house in Phuket City
Leif Erik Sune Hedlund Sweden heart complaint on October 27 at Duangjit Resort Patong
Said Mutafa Kamal Indonesia on October 31 of stomach complaint at Thalang Hospital
Jon Kristian Seljeseth Norway jumped from apartment block on November 12 in Patong

Phuket Expat Deaths, January 1 to August 14

Barry Cutler Britain Fell down steps January 5 at home in Phuket City
No name male, nationality unknown found hanged January 6 in forest near Laem Ka Noi
Michael Malonzo Australia died January 15 in Siam Safari crash, Nakkerd Hill
Jean Hubert Doonay Belgium died January 24 Phuket Graceland of old age
Wolf Dieter Eugen Kbelheim Germany January 27 attacked with knife outside 7-Eleven
Richard Johnson US hanged February 5 at home in Rawai
Rudolf Ducke Germany February 7 road crash in Rawai
Lattner Ralf Germany February 8 heart attack at Patong
Gian Pietro Perone Italy February 10 heart attack in Patong
Gerhard Kurt Rodschinka Germany February 10 unknown cause at bungalow Rawai
Nathan Edward Australia February 14 Fall at Hilton Phuket Hilton Arcadia Resort, Karon
Apostolos Pentefountas Greece February 16 heart attack in Patong
Thetaz Dominique Sylvie Switzerland February 25 cancer at home in Patong
Tarmuji Indonesia February 26 road crash in Phuket City
Hoger Heiz Schunka Germany March 2 cause unknown at Happy House, Karon
Donald Michael Craig Canada March 7 of chronic illness at Ao Sane bungalow
Joselito Macabio Vilegas Philippines March 11 road crash at Cherng Talay
Sorensen Henrik Love Denmark March 13 heart attack at resort in Patong
Dino Costa Italy March 19 cause unknown at Kamala beach in a dinghy
William Mann Britain March 22 of chronic illness at home in Kathu
Lindehoseberg Sonia Sweden March 28 drowning at Kata beach
Ludex Novax Netherlands March 27 heart attack in hotel at Patong
Jean-Luc Boutot France March 27 of chronic illness at Rawai
Lars Evert Lennart Thor Sweden April 1 heart attack at Patong
Loh Ying Jie Singapore April 2 jet-ski collision at Patong
Rampanaux Jean Pascal Sweden April 13 heart attack at resort in Kamala
Simone Tenerello Italy April 17 struck with bottle by katoey in Patong
Mikka Olavialltonen Finland April 24 overdose of Viagra at guesthouse in Patong
John Grant Kerr New Zealand May 3 motorcycle crash in Patong
Sergei Poliakov Russia May 9 motorcycle crash in Patak Road Karon
Alexander Drobot Russia May 10 found in car, cause unknown at home in Rawai
Lee Kam Yum China May 10 in car crash, Cherng Talay
Frank Visakay American died May 11 after a fatal fall at home
Pierre Antoine Giovanelli Switzerland died May 12 of old age in Kamala
Kevin William Dean British died May 23 at Club Coconut Hotel of chronic illness
Giglberger Karl Wilfried Germany died May 25 at Patong Hospital, chronic illness
Marek Klein German May 26 drowned at Surin beach
Kennert Rode Svahan Swedish died May 26 at Nordic Guesthouse Karon, heart attack
(Ms) Gabriella Rosemarie Strand Swedish died May 29 at Loma Park restaurant, electric shock
Morris Shawn Anthony Australia died June 10, leapt from Baan Kanjana Guesthouse, Patong
(Ms) Rebecca Louise Callaghan British, drowned June 12 at Karon beach, died later at Patong Hospital
Migliorini Carlo Italian, died June 15, Patong Hospital, of chronic illness
Lionel Le Cossec French, died June 17, suicide by hanging at Kathu
David Kenneth Gowenlock Australia, died June 21, at Patong Hospital of chronic illness
Per Ola Eriksson Swedish, died June 19 at Kata Residence, Karon, of chronic illness
Jamie Thomas Thow Australia, died June 22 at BYD Lofts, Patong, of illness
Mark Edward Stevens British, died July 18 at Bowman Resort, Patong, leapt from building
Adam John Sutcliffe Australia, died August 1 in motorcycle crash, Patong Hill
Dashawn Longfellow American, died August 14 at Ya Nui Resort II, Rawai, murdered

Big C 'Likely to Win' Carrefour on Phuket

2010-11-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

Big C 'Likely to Win' Carrefour on Phuket - Phuket Wan

China hijacks internet traffic: timeline of Chinese web censorship and cyber attacks

2010-11-18T20:39:00.000+08:00

China hijacks internet traffic: timeline of Chinese web censorship and cyber attacks - Telegraph

"Once you cross that line, I can do whatever I want." : Penn & Teller | ROAD PENN

2010-11-17T11:59:00.000+08:00

Penn & Teller | ROAD PENN

Federal V.I.P Penn - 11/13/02

Last Thursday I was flying to LA on the Midnight flight. I went through security my usual sour stuff. I beeped, of course, and was shuttled to the "toss-em" line. A security guy came over. I assumed the position. I had a button up shirt on that was untucked. He reached around while he was behind me and grabbed around my front pocket. I guess he was going for my flashlight, but the area could have loosely been called "crotch." I said, "You have to ask me before you touch me or it's assault."

He said, "Once you cross that line, I can do whatever I want."

I said that wasn't true. I say that I have the option of saying no and not flying. He said, "Are you going to let me search you, or do I just throw you out?"

I said, "Finish up, and then call the police please."

When he was finished with my shoes, he said, "Okay, you can go."

I said, "I'd like to see your supervisor and I'd like LVPD to come here as well. I was assaulted by you."

He said, "You're free to go, there's no problem."

I said, "I have a problem, please send someone over."

They sent a guy over and I said that I'd like to register a complaint. I insisted on his name and badge number. I filled it out with my name. The supervisor, I think trying to intimidate me, asked for my license, and I gave it to him happily as he wrote down information. I kept saying, "Please get the police," and they kept saying, "You're free to go, we don't need the police." I insisted and they got a higher up, female, supervisor. I was polite, cold, and a little funny. "Anyone is welcome to grab my crotch, I don't require dinner and a movie, just ask me. Is that asking too much? You wanna grab my crotch, please ask. Does that seem like a crazy person to you?" I had about 4 of them standing around. Finally Metro PD shows up. It's really interesting. First of all, the cop is a BIG P&T fan and that ain't hurting. Second, I get the vibe that he is WAY sick of these federal leather-sniffers. He has that vibe that real cops have toward renta-cops. This is working WAY to my advantage, so I play it.

The supervisor says to the cop, 'He's free to go. We have no problem, you don't have to be here." Which shows me that the Feds are afraid of local. This is really cool. She says, "We have no trouble and he doesn't want to miss his flight."

I say, "I can take an early morning flight or a private jet. " The cop says, "If I have a citizen who is saying he was assaulted, you can't just send me away."

I tell the cop the story, in a very funny way. The cop, the voice of sanity says, "What's wrong with you people? You can't just grab a guy's crank without his permission." I tell him that my genitals weren't grabbed and the cop says, "I don't care, you can't do that to people. That's assault and battery in my book."

The supervisor says that they'll take care of the security guy. The cop says, "I'm not leaving until Penn tells me to. Now do you want to fill out all the paper work and show up in court, because I'll be right there beside you."

The supervisor says it's an internal matter, and they'll take care of it. "If you want to pursue this, we're going to have to go through the electronic evidence."

I say, "You mean videotape? Yeah, go get it."

She says, "Well, it'll take a long time, and you don't want to miss your flight. We have no problem with you, you're free to go."

The cop says, "Your guy grabbed his crank. That ain't right."

So, I fill out all the paper work and insist on a number to call to register a complaint. She says that I filled out a complaint, and I say, "I want more, give me another number. " She gives me a number that I find out later has been disconnected. I leave. I have a card with the name and number on it and the bad 800 number for the FAA.

My flight is way delayed, so I go to Burger King with Glenn - and all the feds are now off duty and at BK and sneering at us.

The next day the woman in charge of public relations calls me to "do anything to make my McCarran experience more enjoyable." I was a little under the weather with allergies and busy, so I didn't call back until yesterday.

It took some phone tag, but I finally got the woman on the phone. I was very cool and sweet. I explained the problem. "Do you allow your crotch to be grabbed without being asked?" I didn't exaggerate, I said that there was nothing sexual, I wasn't hurt, and it wasn't my genitals. I just said it was wrong. She said "Well, your feedback is really important because most people are afraid of us." She said, "I'd love to meet you so we could clear this up, and everyone wants to meet a celebrity." She said she had watched the videotape and there was no sound, but she saw him reach around. She said she couldn't tell me what was being done to him but . . . and I stopped her and said, she shouldn't do anything wrong.

I said that I had talked to two lawyers and they said it was really a weird case because no one knows if he can be charged with assault and battery while working in that job. But I told her, that some of my lawyer friends really wanted to find out. She said, "Well, we're very new to this job . . ." and I said, "Yeah, so we need these test cases to find out where you stand."

She said, "Well, you know a LOT about this." I said, "Well, it's not really the right word, but freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more of it."

She said, "Well, the airport is very important to all of our incomes and we don't want bad press. It'll hurt everyone, but you have to do what you think is right. But, if you give me your itinerary every time you fly, I'll be at the airport with you and we can make sure it's very pleasant for you."

I have no idea what this means, does it mean that they have a special area where all the friskers are topless showgirls, "We have nothing to hide, do you?" I have no idea. She pushes me for the next time I'm flying. I tell her I'm flying to Chicago around 2 on Sunday, if she wants to get that security guy there to sneer at me. She says, she'll be there, and it'll be very easy for me. I have no idea what this means.

I tell her that I'm still thinking about pressing charges, and I don't just care about me, it's freedom in general. I say the only thing that was good about it, was that while they were dealing with me, maybe they weren't beating up people in wheelchairs. It was amazing. All she was trying to do was make me happy. She said she'd burned a CD ROM of my video and it was being sent all around and they were going to change their training. She said, "We're federal employees, we're working for you, you pay us and we want customer satisfaction. It doesn't matter what the law is, we have to make you very happy so your flying experience is a pleasurable one, and most people don't give us this kind of intelligent feedback."

So, that was it. I'm flying on Sunday, I have no idea what will happen. How crazy is this? Do I really have some sort of mysterious VIP status to shut me up? Should I press charges? She said she was going to talk to the cop. I said he didn't see anything. She said, "Well, he may be able to see the forest for the trees, because he was right there." I quoted his "crank" comment and she laughed and then knew that was a very bad sign. I said, "He'll tell you I was polite, cold, angry, and funny" - that's more than should be expected of me. I still don't know what I'm going to do, but my advice to everyone is complain all you can and call the cops. I think it might make a little difference. Maybe you can become a VIP too.

Penn

http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/penniphile/roadpennfederalvip.html

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released

2010-11-14T02:34:00.000+08:00

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released - Yahoo! News

Qantas jumbo makes emergency landing in Singapore

2010-11-05T02:03:00.000+08:00

My Way News - Qantas jumbo makes emergency landing in Singapore

Indonesian volcano erupts again

2010-11-04T21:14:00.001+08:00

Indonesian volcano erupts again; death toll at 44 - Yahoo! News

Obama sex doll for sale in China - Telegraph

2010-11-04T02:45:00.000+08:00

Obama sex doll for sale in China - Telegraph

Cambodia Thaw A Sure Sign Thaksin Was On Way Out

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China stakes claim to S. Texas oil, gas

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Taiwan detects first case of 'superbug'

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Parents descend on Beijing to hunt for China's stolen children

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China cracks down on African immigrants and traders

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Fears of Chinese land grab as Beijing's billions buy up resources - Asia, World - The Independent

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Source

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NKorea's Kim makes son 4-star general - Yahoo! News

Chinese swoop on Jaffa Cakes, Digestives and Hula Hoops in yet another raid on British snack giant

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Chinese swoop on Jaffa Cakes, Digestives and Hula Hoops in yet another raid on British snack giant

2010-09-28T04:04:00.000+08:00

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AFP: China halts ticket sales for Japan pop group: report

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AFP: China halts ticket sales for Japan pop group: report

Chinese firm aims to build big nuclear plant for Pakistan

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The Colony - WITNESS

2010-09-19T01:15:00.004+08:00

The Colony - WITNESS - Al Jazeera English

The Colony:
The tsunami of Chinese commerce is sparking tension and even violence in some parts of Africa.

Small Chinese businesses have been expanding and growing rapidly across the African continent [EPA]

The past decade has seen Chinese economic growth explode across the world and the Chinese economic miracle seems to reach into every imaginable area of manufacturing and natural resources.
Filmmakers Brent Huffman and Xiaoli Zhou traveled to Senegal in West Africa to explore the onslaught of Chinese economic might and its impact on long-standing African traditions.
In the following account, Huffman describes the making of their film The Colony and the issues behind it.
In pursuit of personal profit and less competition, large numbers of Chinese are migrating to Africa - which they perceive to be a land of untapped opportunity and potential. In Dakar, Senegal's capital, small Chinese businesses are flourishing in a rapidly expanding Chinatown.
With The Colony, I aspired to tell a completely personal story from both key perspectives, the Chinese and the Senegalese, and to look at two seemingly opposite cultures thrown together by economic opportunity. I also wanted to see how Chinese immigrants were making Africa "home" and how this process was changing the unique landscape of the continent.
But neither side wanted to speak to me on camera at first. I was an outsider to both cultures being a white American with limited Mandarin language skills and no French or Wolof ability.
After several frustrating days of searching Dakar, we found Khadim Mbengue, a young, well-connected small business owner. He turned out to be very vocal and angry about the Chinese encroaching on his retail business with their cheap low-quality goods.
He is also a local head of UNACOIS-JAPPO, one of the biggest Senegalese retail business associations. Khadim not only became a charismatic main character, but also led us to other voices representing the Senegalese perspective.
Access to the Chinese community was seemingly impossible on that initial trip. The overseas Chinese in general are very distrustful of all foreign media. No international news stories I had seen before were able to do any extensive interview on camera with a Chinese worker or business owner in Africa. In these stories Chinese were usually seen in wide shots from far away.
Due to the distrust of the Chinese, I was forced to come back a second time with a Chinese fixer. By then Xiaoli, after dozens of international phone calls, had secured endorsement from the Chinese embassy in Dakar.
Once this official door was open, I was able to gradually reach farther into the community. I felt very lucky to be able to film intimate scenes with some of the Chinese living in Senegal. Through capturing their way of life and mingling with them off camera, I saw a vibrant group of people who are determined and flexible enough to compete anywhere in the world.
Conquering a new world

Upon arriving in Dakar and more recently Liberia, I was shocked at how visible the Chinese presence in these African countries is. Many African nations are mired in hopeless economic prospects, yet in these places the economy was booming for the Chinese.
With the Chinese, unthinkable growth was possible even in countries long abandoned by the West.
Cranes, enormous dump trucks, and construction equipment of all kinds baring Chinese logos and imported from China could be seen feverishly building late into the night.
And workers brought over from China can be seen overseeing all aspects of construction.
There are Chinese restaurants serving genuine Chinese cuisine everywhere. During my second trip to the country I lived on authentic steamed fish and dumplings. Chinese goods like cars, motorcycles, pots and pans, shoes, pesticide, clothing, plastic toys, etc., are very popular among local consumers.
Everywhere I looked I saw evidence of Chinese activity in Dakar from large-scale fishing companies and stadiums to toothbrushes and cheap jewellery sold on the street.
Once I was able to gain access to this community, much of what drives them was revealed to me. The Chinese let me in to their homes and their lives. I was able to disappear into their world.
What surprised me most was the Wild West kind of vibe shown in the attitudes of the Chinese in Senegal. This was the new frontier for them and they were the new cowboys conquering this new world. These young pioneering men and woman threw caution to the wind in their bold adventure.
This young vibrant Chinese community was reminiscent of the fiction films of Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang Ke like Unknown Pleasures and Platform. These were not the conservative shy people of my wife's generation in China.
These were outspoken, rebellious, and ambitious youths proudly displaying their brightly dyed hair and trendy low cut clothing. These young twenty-somethings drink, smoke, and sing loud karaoke as they complain about the day's events.
Suspicion and hostility
Although there is communication between the two sides at a certain level, it is rather limited. Despite various differences in language, culture, and work ethics, the Chinese are not making enough of an effort to integrate into Senegalese society.
Although the Chinese businesses have brought some benefits to the local low-income consumers, their overall presence is viewed with suspicion and hostility by many Senegalese.
In Dakar, there seems to be relative peace between the two groups and a kind of reciprocal economic relationship, though most of the money made is on the Chinese side.
I fear that if the hostile backlash in the business community keeps growing, a violent inciting incident, like the murder seen in our film but on a larger scale, might occur.
Such an event would further polarise the two communities and could potentially end friendly collaboration. I foresee the Chinese will have to eventually ramp up private security, a practice already in place in some African nations, in order to protect their investments.
The Colony can be seen from Tuesday, September 7, at the following times GMT: Tuesday: 0830, 1900; Wednesday:

Source:

Al Jazeera