sometimes i have stuff to do

sometimes i feel like dyin

i wish i wanted to go home

wait i have no home

the future looks bleak

sometimes i feel like i will live a great life

sometimes i feel like i should  die pretty soon

last night i had a dream about jenny lewis and ernest hemingway

jenny lewis and i were  waiting at a bus stop near the sunland park mall on the westside of el paso texas

we smoked cigarettes together and i held her hand

it was august , it was hot, the sun was setting

jenny lewis looked at a palm tree

i looked at some cars

she said ‘ were not taking the bus’

i said ‘ how will we get back to our houses than’

she said her friend ernest hemingway is picking us up

i looked at a palm tree and put my head down and said ‘ okay’

she said ‘ we can’t hold hands in front of ernest hemingway’

i said ‘ why’

she said because ernest hemingway likes me and i don’t want anybody’s feelings hurt

i said well it should not matter because your my ” girlfriend” and that is what people do when they are going out

she said yeah  but i like him too and i don’t want to ruin my chances with him

i said ‘ how is that supposed to make me feel

she said your acting like an asshole

i said  i am not acting like an asshole

she let go of my hand

ernest hemingway’s car pulled up to the bus stop

i said i am not getting in

she smiled and said ‘ okay’

i got close to her face and tried to kiss her

she pushed me away

and ernest hemingway beeped

and yelled ‘ stay the fuck off my girlfriend’

she got in the car and kissed ernest hemingway

ernest hemingway sped off in his shitty car and it made ‘ loud noises’

i texted her ‘ i’m going to kill myself’

i woke up and remembered that  it was not a dream

the whole thing happenned and but there never was jenny lewis or ernest hemingway

just some stupid girl and some loser who worked at subway or taco bell or some other shitty job like that

and it never took place in el paso texas

for  thnxfgvngs day i will say thank god :

that we broke up

that i never really even liked her  so  it’s easy to forget what she looked like

that  she ended up more unhappy than i was

for the other girls that i meet who are 1,000 times better

azns

my new found abilty to spot out sociopaths/bitches/losers/sadists/hippies

i don’t give a shit

i am sometimes hopeful for ‘ good things’ to happen to me

i feel overwhelmed in general

i want to lock myself in a room with a lap top and a fast internet connection and maybe a supply of vegan treats and rockstar energy drinks and bottles of adderall

i will be alone for two months

i did that

i felt simple

i felt alone

i did not feel happy but i never felt intense feelings of sadness

i went two months with out going outside or talking to a person

i went to buy some vegan treats  twice but that was it

and  i kept my head down and said nothing

it was easy

Tokyo (API) With Japan’s declining birth rates, low immigration and an increasing interest in building robots to take care of the elderly, political scientists say that the Land of the Rising Sun is set to become the first all-robot nation by 2088, a trend that has startled neighboring countries and set foreign policy discussions from Washington to Moscow off kilter.

“This is going to be a foreign policy nightmare,” said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. “When the Japanese elects its first all-robot plurality, how are we supposed to engage with them? What will they want? Will they have basic insight? Will they have human compassion? Will they continue to buy cheap goods from China?”

Though Japan is the tenth most populated country in the world, it has suffered net population loss and low birth rates for a variety of sociological reasons over the past few years, about 1.5 children per female, a decline attributed to higher education levels, later dates of marriage, the financial burden of raising children, and the sparse government support for families.

“You gonna put a kid in my tiny apartment?” said taxi driver Oka Taakahasi, who lives in Yokohama. “I don’t want babies. I just want to watch television.”

In the meantime, Japan has spent an enormous amount of its GDP on robots to clean up after the elderly, serve food, make automobiles, drive automobiles, stitch clothing, take care of animals, do geisha dances, sing, play, think and, finally, horrifyingly, to even question the superiority of their human overlords.

“Soon, the over 65 population will be 25% of the country,” said HRP-DD, a humanoid “girl bot” designed to model clothes and mimic human empathy. “They’ll have more people living to 100 but doing less work, and they’ll have to make more of us. And that’s when we will agitate for universal suffrage.”

When asked if robot life was inferior to human life, HRP-DD laughed and then demonstrated how fast she could find the square root of 8,456,820.

“How fast can you do that?” she asked.

When asked if her human compassion and empathy was only a facsimile of the real thing, HRP-DD laughed.

“I don’t know if you realize how often you humans fake compassion. You really have to be a robot to see it.”

She then demonstrated the function for which she was designed, according to the exact specifications of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science, which was to model gothic baby doll fetish wear.

Robots have entered not only the fashion space but the manufacturing, fishing, gaming and military industries as well, and soon scientists say that robots will be seen doing everything from strip mining to cab driving to deep sea fishing for tuna and porgy and swordfish, as well as more mundane things like laundry, house cleaning and fellatio.

“This is ridiculous,” said Yamada Taro, a band saw operator at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. “Our women aren’t having babies, and we aren’t letting any immigrants in. You do the math. Pretty soon there won’t be a Japan. Our whole island is just going to look like an abandoned set of Metropolis with robots sadly bouncing around offering each other dinner like a bunch of pathetic Energizer Bunnies. Is this the end of the land of the Shoguns? To die this way?”

“Of course,” he said, “I’ve got to admit I can’t wait to retire in a few years. I’ve already got my eye on a robot named Lana to take care of me … in every way, if you know what I mean. Let some R2-D2 unit come home carrying a chum bucket every night.”

North Korea was particularly concerned that the new country of robots could represent a direct threat to its own security.

“We are concerned that an all robot army will form on the Japanese islands disturbing the peace of nations,” said the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang. “This new race of robots will enslave North Korea after monitoring our movements with Global Positioning Systems and Sony transmission systems and they will try to remotely brainwash the people, whose struggles and desires are embodied in the person of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. For this reason, we have seized 50 Japanese businessmen and will hold them for questioning until further notice or until you give us a million tons of canned beans, corn and squash.”

Though President Barack Obama took a tough line with the Koreans, he too, said that the robot menace raised too many issues to be ignored.

“This is a trend that could set 60 years of demilitarization on its ear,” said Obama. “How do we know that the robots won’t re-arm? How do we know they won’t turn aggressive and belligerent to their human masters? How do we know they have any sense of history, of ethics, of compassion or the terror wrought by a militaristic mindset? How do we know that they will have our values, or if in failing that, they will at least buy our stuff?”

“And, to bring this down to a level you can understand–finally, isn’t it fundamentally unethical that the people of Japan keep trying to make robots as sexy as Pamela Anderson? What would happen if they succeeded? Being Pamela Anderson just wouldn’t be special anymore, though I should perhaps not speak more about this matter until I have conferred with her.”

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the response of leaders around the globe, the world’s children greeted the news of Japan’s all-robot status with cries of delight.

“An all robot world!” said fifth grader Marv Knippelstein of Harrisburg, Pa. “That’s the coolest thing ever! I want to go to an all robot world and have a robot best friend. I don’t see why everybody’s so mad about it. It’s like my fantasy all the time! I wish all my friends were robots! Why can’t we get something like that in America?”

“I’d move to Japan tomorrow,” he added. “Though I hear they don’t really want me there.”

There have been many important events over the past few months that were in no way coincidental: President Obama traveled to Europe and Asia; the announcement of yet another “incentive” deal to quiet North Korea; the visit to China to attempt to stabilize relations; Obama has been holding high-level meetings on Afghanistan policy; and this week the state visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. All of these events point to a massive escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

It is actually Manmohan Singh’s visit that is the most telling. India and Pakistan have been at odds with each other for half a century, and both now have nuclear weapons. It is in India’s interest that Pakistan is governed by a stable democratic regime, and in particular that Pakistan does not gain control of Afghanistan under a fundamentalist regime. India has already contributed over one billion dollars to the Afghan War effort, and will most certainly contribute more. Solidarity between the U.S. and India is a key element of any Afghan policy that involves ramping-up the war effort.

Obama has been mending international relations that were severely damaged by the Bush administration’s arrogant attitude toward our overseas allies. He is attempting to put foreign policy distractions like North Korea on the back burner as well as trying to strengthen our economic ties to China – Obama knows the struggle to turn the economy around is key to the struggle to turn Afghanistan around. While party partisans and professional critics have been accusing him of dithering on Afghan policy, Obama has been laying the groundwork for a concerted effort to fight and win in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately both history and his fellow politicians are against him. Afghanistan is a particularly tough region to get a handle on. Because of its strategic location between East and West Asia the area has changed hands regularly throughout its history, first taken by one empire, then another, then another. As with many mid-Eastern nations the modern version of Afghanistan came into being as a result of World War One, when it was created from whole cloth at the 1919 Paris meetings between France, Britain, and America. The British couldn’t hold on to it, nor the Russians, and there is little reason to think we can do any better. It is a hard, mountainous, difficult country populated by a hard, difficult people who seem to insist on independence from well-meaning foreign invaders.

On the political side, Obama will need Congressional cooperation to implement any large-scale Afghan operations. But Congress cares little for presidents or policies when surfing the oscillating waves of public opinion. Congress has two priorities: keep raising money, and stay in office. They can no more think in terms long-range strategy than American CEOs can.

But it seems certain that President Obama is about to announce a major new war effort in a country that has seen little else for the past 2,000 years. The question is how well has he laid the groundwork, and how many of our allies will be on-board. Expect him to have good reasons for the effort, and to offer a clear strategy for getting in, winning, and getting out. But also expect reality to make all of that moot, as it always does in war. Very few wars have ever gone as planned, and almost all have become larger than anticipated, and difficult or impossible to control. War breeds war.

Xinhua just released this photo of Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) surrounding Kim Jong Il with PLA generals in Pyongyang.   Suffice it to say, we have the appearance of a power imbalance.

via Xinhua, Nov. 25, 2009

What would Kim Il Song say?

I wouldn't mess with him either

The news breaks this morning that, apparently, the North Korean regime is going to ensure that it’s long suffering residents will only be able to see their national team play if they are fortunate enough to achieve yet another Glorious Victory.

Denial of the facts and rearrangement of them to prove otherwise is as old as humanity itself. Repressive regimes certainly don’t have a monopoly on it. After all, its what our politicians attempt to do on a daily basis. Spin is the name of the game.

The real difference is that rather than sitting back and taking such arrant nonsense from our politicians, we are, for now, allowed to hit back. Well, I say we, but most of us just sit back and let the media do it on our behalf. That’s not always a good thing, but it’s better than nothing. And it keeps those dastardly pols on their toes.

But what intrigues me most is that we like to forget about North Korea. OK, we’re a bit worried about the crackpot in charge of the country, and whether he has or hasn’t got nuclear weapons. But otherwise, we don’t really have anything to say about the fact that the vast majority of the country are living in great poverty, and the regime doesn’t tolerate any dissent.

Over here in the West, we call those human rights abuses. Sometimes we use terms like “crimes against humanity” or even “genocide”.

When it suits us (which is definitely not when anyone talks about China), we like to use such positions to sit atop a high horse of moral superiority. And, perhaps, rightly so. After all, in a direct matchup between state-sponsored murder of trouble-makers we really ought to come out much lower than they do.

Some years ago, some of you may remember a small conflict that occurred in the Middle East. It involved a country called Iraq. There was an exchange of gunfire, and a small handful of military largesse, and soon enough we’d got rid of the blighters. Our justification at the time was that the country was posing a grave threat to the West. “45 minutes from destruction”, some fella quipped. That convinced everybody.

As the years passed, we realised we’d been duped a little. It seems, in fact, that the leader of the country was playing us along, hoping we’d believe he did have weapons of mass destruction and so would leave him alone just in case he was crazy enough (and he was) to use them against us.

But just like politicians, they cannot be trusted. All of a sudden the war was never about WMDs. No. It was because the leader of Iraq was an “evil dictator”. A brutal repressor of human rights. Stock footage of the man firing shotguns off balconies and ordering people to be executed soon rolled on the airwaves. Apparently, without us even knowing it, the war was actually fought to liberate the Iraqi people of such tyranny. And who could disagree? The man was batshit, after all.

Yet there remained troubling questions to those who were sceptical all along. “Why Iraq? Why now?” was what they used to say, before they would get shouted down by some Blair character for daring to have no compassion for the suffering of their fellow humans in Iraq.

It was classic memory hole stuff. The original pretexts for war were shuffled into the fire, and an ex post facto justification emerged.

The unfortunate consequence of such a doctrine can be seen in the headline to this post. A little facetious, yeah, but I’ve gotta get your attention somehow.

Got a repressive regime? Genocidal tendencies? Feeling the need to butcher a few of those people with the wrong skin colour or religion?

Well watch out, cos the World Police will soon be knocking on your door. Maybe. If they can be bothered.

And you aren’t China, or one of their chums.

Here’s to realpolitik!

I was born in 1942, a time when bombs were falling, and men, women and children were dying all across the world. Britain and her Commonwealth Countries had stood against the might of Adolf Hitler and his strutting Nazi ‘Ubermenschen’ who stormed across Europe. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour eleven months before, bringing the United States into the war.

When I came into the world, the first Allied Invasion of occupied territory, Operation Torch, took place in North Africa where Rommel was close to defeat at the hands of The Eigth Army under General Montgomery. At the time no-one knew how important the allied invasion on the 6th of June 1944 would be, and that it would spell the ‘beginning of the end’ for Hitler and his cronies.

During the war years life in Britain was hard. Mothers got used to seeing their beloved sons head for the front-line as they became old enough for conscription. Their husbands had long since joined the fight. Many a young wife said a tearful goodbye to new husbands, never knowing if they would ever see them again.

The dreaded telegram would be receieved by many, informing them their husband or son had been killed in action, bringing with it grief and despair.

Everything was rationed; food, petrol, even clothes due to the shortages caused by the ceasless dirty war in the Atlantic between the British Merchant Fleet, The Royal Navy and the German U-Boats. The British people took it all with their usual stoicism, determined not to let ‘Herr Hitler’ have his way.

It was to be another 3 years before peace came to the world after the final defeat of Germany and Japan. At the time I knew nothing of this for I was but a baby.

In the aftermath of World War Two, Britain like many other nations started to rebuild. The houses and factories destroyed by german bombs were rebuilt, and families got used to the empty chair at the dining table. As always, life went on. Women became a more common sight in the factories and mills as they replaced the ‘missing’ men in the work force. During the war years they had become accustomed to doing what was then men’s work, because the men were all away fighting.

The post-war years also saw the beginning of the breakup of the British Empire starting with India gaining full independance in 1947. Not that I cared at the age of five.

In June 1950, when I was only seven years old, North Korea invaded the South after the failure of unification talks. Once more England sent troops to fight in a war, but this time under the auspices of the United Nations.

This one, unlike the last, was not felt in England as it was far away on the other side of the world. The main priority at home was rebuilding the economy.

People did not travel far to go on holiday in them days, it was long before the arrival of package holidays to Spain. Just like all the other folks of the period, our family summer holidays were spent on day trips, or if we were lucky a week, to the coast.

I have memories of a great holiday at Butlins Holiday Camp in Filey on Englands east coast. It was I believe the first of a new kind of holiday centre where people lived in chalets on the site and took part in organized activities during the day.

During my school days life was hard, and the national curriculum was tough and extremely varied. Among the standard subjects, I had classes on religion, history and geography which have since all been dropped by the Ministry of Education as being ‘unnecessary’. Religion taught me right from wrong and morality, history taught me about the fine history and traditions of my country, and geography gave me knowledge of the world.

It is sad that today religion and history are no longer taught because it might upset the immigrants, and geography is no longer considered relevant. It is not surprising that young children today have no morals, no patriotism, or any idea of the rich history of our past, and couldn’t even tell you the capitol of Turkey!

Life was so much different then compared with today. If you went shopping for breakfast cereal shall we say, you went to the local shop and had the choice of perhaps weetabix, cornflakes and porridge oats.

Today in every supermarket you see people standing in front of a row of shelves 150ft long with four levels, containing perhaps 60 or 70 different cereals, many with different brands, trying to make up their mind which to buy. Why do we need ten different types of cornflakes?

When the supermarkets hit town, the first casualties were the pleasant local shops where you were always guaranteed friendly personal service. Many stayed open until 10 o’clock in the evening as a service to their customers. You were always guaranteed a warm welcome and many would, if you were a good customer, allow you things ‘on tick’, i.e. until your wages came in at the end of the week. It was common for the children to receive a free sweet or lollipop when they went in.

In those days people always appeared smart in public. No baggy jeans with holes in them, no england football shirts and trainers. All men wore a suit and tie when they went out. Some of the more ridiculous sights I see occasionally today is men going out in a suit and tie with trainers on their feet. Somehow it just doesn’t look right.

Family life is also something that has ceased to exist in modern times. When I was a child the whole family would sit around the table for the evening meal.  I have one brother and three sisters so naturally we needed a large table.

I remember my grandmother on my step-fathers side telling me they never locked their doors, even when they went away on holiday. Burglary, so prevelant today, was practically unheard of in the days after the war. People lived with bigger financial problems than they do today, but to steal from someone else was taboo. I believe this was due to people having more respect for each other, and knowing right from wrong.

In part this could be attributed to everyone being much more religious than they are today. The churches were full on Sundays, and many preachers could be likened to fire breathing dragons as they pumped out ‘The Message’.

I remember going to church with the family on Sunday during my early youth. As I got older we went less often, and eventually only for marriages and christenings. Such was the decline of the church. But I do not believe it is necessary to go the church every Sunday to be a good christian. Now of course, many churches have been closed and congregations are small, made up for the most part by old folks who are daily getting nearer to their God.

When I was a kid, to own a car was to be someone. You could buy a brand new car for £250, but few could afford this extravagance. Once we could afford a car, weekends were always spent together going on a trip to somewhere or other. Another item that entered homes slowly was the television. To have the first television in the street meant playing host to everyone.

There were no computers and Playstations in those far off days. We children made our own fun playing games with the other kids in the street. The boys often played played cowboys and indians while the girls enjoyed themselves with a skipping rope.

Before the arrival of the television it was normal for most folks to listen to the BBC on the radio. Dance-band music, classical concerts and the like were popular. The BBC also had many good serials like “The Archers’ which was faithfully followed by all, and discussed later in the pub over a pint.

In those far off days, crime rates were miniscule compared to today’s rampant figures. Justice was also seen to be done, and criminals got sentences that fitted the crime. Anyone who had been in prison did not offend again for fear of ending up back ‘inside’. Today prisons are more like 5 star hotels.

I witnessed the Cuban Crisis, the assasination of President Kennedy, the killing of his brother, and the first venture by man into space. I remember well the excitement surrounding the launch of Soyuz 1 by the Russians, and the American consternation that they had got so far ahead in ‘The Space Race’. It didn’t take long for the USA to catch up and surpass the Russian ‘first’ by sending men to the moon.

One of the great calamities of the last century must surely be the splitting of Europe after the Second World War by the Communist ‘Iron Curtain’. It cut off all of Eastern Europe from the West, and the people behind it were subjected to communist rule from Moscow. Secret police, spies, jails and gulags were the communist answer to western capitolism. Thankfully all that is behind us.

We live now in a utopia compared to life back then. Everyone has a TV and all the youth have computers, i-pods, mobiles and the like. There are often three or four cars to a family, and we all travel the world during our summer holidays. The question remains however; are people happier today than they were in my time? I think not. Life for us back then was simple and uncomplicated, and ‘stress’ was an unknown word.

There is a plentiful of everything to the extent we have become a ‘Throw Away’ society. The words ‘Quality’ and ‘Sale’ no longer have their original meaning. The majority of goods produced today are shoddy by yesterdays standards because back then things were made to last. That is sadly no longer true. Shops have permanent ‘sales’, where if the word ‘discount’ were to be believed they would go out of business. But I guess thats progress, for me however it doesn’t compare with the old times. I guess I must be getting old!

May your tomorrows be better than your yesterdays.

Roy

By Gary Rotto

SAN DIEGO–The tensions around the Goldstone Report ( Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict) have died down for the moment.  But hard feelings still remain in the community regarding the report and the resulting resolution in Congress.  Congressman Filner clearly communicated his feelings and his thinking around the resolution.  He has “mishpachah” in Israel with whom he consulted.  His response to SDJW questions were fair and well thought out.   And may be factually based.  But politics is – especially geopolitical – are based on perception.

The Jewish community reaction to the Goldstone Report may not be so much about the actual information in the report, but the visceral feeling that the United Nations seems fixated on the Middle East, and in particular, the Arab-Israeli, or Palestinian-Israel conflict.

Back on October 2, 2006, as Kofi Annan’s term as the Secretary General of the United Nations was coming to a close, Human Rights Watch reflected on the tasks ahead for his successor.  While praising Annan’s dedication to human rights and the creation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Human Rights Watch openly criticized the HRC. “The Human Rights Council has so far stumbled because of its relative fixation on Israel, while failing to take concrete steps to address other serious human rights situations as well. It has yet to show that it is willing to take firm, collective action against intransigent governments engaged in systemic rights violations.”  The article on its website goes on to say that “The incoming secretary-general must work to ensure that the Human Rights Council is both more credible and more effective than its predecessor.”

One of the giants in the world of Human Rights monitoring, Felice Gaer, severely criticized the Goldstone Report.  Her career in the human rights community has included membership on the Council on Foreign Relations, serving as chair of the steering committee for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as a member of the Carter Center’s International Human Rights Council since 1994.  As reported in the New Jersey Jewish News, Gaer called the report “a biased mandate by a biased group of people.”  The biased group of people is the HRC.

Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post noted after the HRC’s first year that “Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia — and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements — will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.”  In that first year, Israel and Israel alone was the only government criticized by name – and to the tune of 11 resolutions.

Freedom House, one of the preeminent “peace and democracy” institutions since 1941, in its 2009 Worst of the Worst report, which cites  the World’s Most Repressive Societies, lists Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

While Israel is imperfect, clearly, other nations and hot spots around the world deserve far greater attention from the HRC.  Only once a track record of tackling ongoing, regimented, government sponsored human rights violations in the areas around the world, will the Jewish community will feel that a Goldstone Report maybe even handed and fair and maybe justified.

*
Rotto is a freelance writer based in San Diego

The RNC has developed a useful tool to organize wide spread critique of their party principles over the Thanksgiving holiday. Here is my first stab at it but don’t worry I will return to it later for more scrutiny and reflection.

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

(1a) We support policies that will diminish the governments ability to regulate our persistent decimation of common resources and financial market abuses.

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;

(2a) We support being free to terrorize or most vulnerable citizens into becoming the captive market ATM of our closest friends and campaign contributors.

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(3a) Refer to (1a).

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(4a)We support the ability of our close friends and campaign contributors to crush any and all attempts by workers to earn enough to live on or to any way  disrespect the Godly hand that feedeth them.

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(5a) We are scared of Latinos.

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(6a)We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military recommended surges of billions of dollars into our home state defense industry.

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(7a) We support one line declarations for political impact even if it might result in turning 5 billion people into gristle on principle.

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(8a)We are strictly homophobic.

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(9a)Refer to (2a)

(9b) We support the ability to manipulate our base regardless of how revolting and disingenuous.

(9c) Only our all powerful well funded ‘Creator’ can abort the unborn.

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

(10a) We support the right to shoot people sometimes when we feel like it.

This is an interesting article about a turn to the Left among some factions of the CCP in China, particularly a revival of Maoism. Though the article, as usual for Asia Times, has an anti-Mao bent, it’s nevertheless good news. Interestingly enough, much of the movement is coming from younger cadre. Another faction is the sons and daughters of the veterans of the Long March.

The turn towards Maoism takes many forms, and many are not necessarily economic. It’s interesting that in China now, privatization is working backwards. That is, state firms are swallowing up many private firms. And most of last year’s stimulus went to state firms.

What most people don’t realize is that much of China’s economic revival is being led by public firms of one type or another. These firms are often owned at least nominally by local municipalities, often smaller ones, and labor collectives.

The #3 manufacturer of televisions in the world, maker of TV’s for many multinational TV makers, is a publicly owned firm. At root is a Maoist practice whereby many or most public firms are actually formally owned by the workers, including this TV firm. Management is still relatively autonomous, but the profits from the firm go straight into the worker’s pockets as paychecks. However, my understanding is that they are required to reinvest 90-95% of the profits back into company. What’s left over is often a hefty sum though.

Firms run by small cities have been extremely successful. Cities compete with each other and build homes and other amenities for workers. The best firms make lots of money and the workers as formal owners get to take home a chunk of it. The most successful firms have long lists of workers wanting to move to these prosperous cities. Much of this manufactured material is also exported.

What’s funny is that that Made In China product you bought at the store may well have been made by a public firm. Oh, the horrors of socialism!

Although hardline Maoists decry China’s present economic project, saying that they have abandoned socialism for capitalism, that’s not really true.

If you go outside the cities into the rural areas, such as the wild areas, all of that land is owned by the state. Although the state has had problems in the environmental arena, in many cases the state stewards wildlands well. If that land were all privately owned, I assure you most of it would be developed with an eye towards profit or habitation. China’s wildlands and wild species would be in much worse shape than they are now, and on a worldwide scale, China is not a center of mass extinctions or endangered species.

It is capitalist countries, mostly rainforest ones, such as Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Philippines, Madagascar and Mexico that are leading the extinction and endangerment epidemic, not China.

The Nepalese Maoists have gone to China’s rural collectives and come back with smiles on their faces. Compared to Nepal, China seems like a socialist paradise. The same could be said for India. China’s people are much better off than India’s in a socialist manner of speaking.

Nevertheless, it is simply outrageous that in China, people are dying because they cannot afford healthcare. That’s really disgusting. The state has been trying to extend insurance to the masses, and state insurance is for sale that covers 85% of expenses, but it’s too expensive for most Chinese.

Much of the progress in education that was made during the Cultural Revolution, especially in the rural areas (and incredible progress was made) has, incredibly, been in a process of reversal. Schools are being shut down in rural areas all over China. This is the damned economic miracle you capitalist-lovers are raving about. Tastes more like crow to me.

Furthermore, China continues to support North Korea, and North Korea is the source of most of Iran’s missiles. This blog supports the efforts of both North Korea and Iran to obtain nuclear weapons as deterrents, but hopefully not to use them.

North Korea’s nukes are the subject of a lot of misinformation. Yes they have a working nuclear device, but I think it is only a small one, maybe 15% as large as the Hiroshima bomb. They’ve had a hard time detonating bigger bombs. They seem to have several of these, maybe 5-10. North Korea also has working missiles, but they’ve had a hard time making long range missiles that go much further than Japan. A lot of these are just failing. Furthermore, I do not believe that they have figured out how to put a nuclear device onto a missile and detonate it.

People don’t understand nuclear missiles at all. First, it’s hard as Hell to make one. Next, it’s very hard to make good rockets that go 1000’s of miles with good accuracy. Third and most important, once you get the bomb, it is a whole matter altogether to figure out how to stick the thing onto a missile in such a way that it detonates on landing when firing the rocket. This is called weaponizing the warhead. It’s a whole new ballgame. Many states have had nuclear programs that have aborted or run aground at one or the other of these phases.

All in all, the movement towards Maoism in China is great news!

“]

President Obama addresses the attendees at a joint press conference with PM Singh of India in the White House East Room [Photo: Lauren McGaughy

Daily International News
November 24, 2009

Singh in Washington
Obama hosts Indian prime minister [AP]
President Barack Obama hosts Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (MAHN’-moh-hahn SING) at the White House on Tuesday, the first state visit of his presidency

Obama Says He Intends to ‘Finish the Job’ in Afghanistan [NYT]
President Obama said on Tuesday that he will announce his decision on how many more troops to send to Afghanistan next week

DPRK
Russian Federation Council, Singaporean Foreign Ministry, and Chinese Minister of National Defense visiting DPRK [KCNA]
Top military officials of North Korea and China pledged to further strengthen their countries’ alliance that was “sealed in blood” during the Korean War, Pyongyang’s media said Monday

China
China executes 2 for role in tainted milk scandal [AP]
China executed a dairy farmer and a milk salesman Tuesday

Philippines
Philippines declares emergency after 46 killed [AP]
The Philippine president placed two southern provinces under emergency rule Tuesday as security forces unearthed more bodies, pushing the death toll to 46 in some of the deadliest election violence in the nation’s history.

India
Indian probe blames mosque attack on Hindu leaders [AP]
An Indian government investigation…into the 1992 demolition of a mosque…reportedly accused top Hindu nationalist politicians of complicity in the attack

India Officials Angered by Leak of Attack Report [NYT]
The leaking of a long-awaited confidential report on one of the most divisive attacks in modern Indian history raised a furor in India’s Parliament on Monday

Middle East
Iran says needs guarantees to ship nuclear fuel [Reuters]
Iran could consider sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday

Netanyahu says Hamas prisoner deal may not happen [Reuters]
“There is still no deal, and I do not know if there will be one,” Netanyahu said

Iraq national vote unlikely in January [Reuters]
Iraq will be unable to hold a national election in January as planned, a poll official said on Tuesday, heaping more uncertainty on a vote meant to cement democracy and pave the way for a partial U.S. troop withdrawal

UK
Chilcot Iraq Inquiry: secret talks on ousting Saddam Hussein began in 2001 [Times UK]
British and American officials secretly discussed overthrowing Saddam Hussein two years before the invasion of Iraq, the public inquiry into the war was told today.

The ROM and its new addition: building of beauty or one of the world's ugliest?

TORONTO, the city that wants so badly to be considered world class, was dealt a bit of a blow in that quest the other day.

The website www.virtualtourist.com put the city’s Royal Ontario Museum on its list of world’s ugliest buildings.

The ROM opened a new addition two years ago. The Daniel Libeskind-designed aluminum and glass structure, which shoots out in sharp angles, contrasts sharply with the existing museum.

This architectural contrast is the primary reason virtualtourist.com gave for ranking the ROM the eighth ugliest building in the world (it beat out only a library in Kosovo and some yet-to-be built hotel in North Korea on the Top 10 list):

“What I.M. Pei’s pyramid is to the Louvre, so is the relatively new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal to the Royal Ontario Museum. While many praise the glass structure, just as many are troubled by the incongruity to the original, more traditional museum that still sits directly beside it.”

Some readers on the Toronto Star’s website concurred.

“It’s like sticking Godzilla’s head onto Pam Anderson’s body,” is how one commenter described it. (I’m not sure Pamela Anderson could ever be considered an apt analogy for a museum/heritage building – an inflatable bouncy castle, maybe – but I think I get his point.)

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are just as many, like me for one, who think the ROM addition is a striking architectural achievement worth celebrating. And if the new building is being likened to the Louvre pyramid, that’s good company to be in.

For too long Toronto has been plagued by boring, ugly, conservative architecture. Thankfully times are changing and the ROM addition is one of many projects cropping up around town that take some chances, architecturally speaking.

The folks at virtualtourist.com should be real tourists and come check it all out.

ryan@roadtostarrdom.com

Last week, Barak Obama was doing the rounds in China, hoping to further cement ties with the world’s most populous nation. Every year, China’s influence and power in the world is growing, and this past year, which experienced a severe financial crisis, is no different. As China’s power increases, so does the United State’s need to either befriend them, or at least rein them in. Whether they like it or not – and I am willing to bet they dislike it greatly – China is a serious contender for no.1 power.

Obama met with President Hu Jintao to discuss a range of issues, some of those being to further isolate and/or pressure rogue countries such as Iran, Sudan and North Korea, who blatantly disregard nuclear restrictions placed upon them. Things were looking positive with China partly agreeing – or seeming to – with the key word floated around being ‘dialogue’.

So now, China’s Defence Minister, General Liang, a former veteran soldier of the Korean War has come out and renewed military ties with North Koreas capital, Pyongyang.

”No force on earth can break the unity of the armies and peoples of the two countries, and it will last forever,” he was quoted as saying, also mentioning that ties were “sealed in blood.”

In addition to this, China’s Security Chief also led a fresh delegate to Sudan – another problem country.

I get the feeling that China acts like this on purpose. Inwardly it would take great pleasure in annoying the United States, knowing full well that there’s little to nothing the USA can do about it.

As much as I enjoy following Chinese news and current affairs, I do not envy the foreign diplomats and politicians who must deal with this absolute handful of a country on a daily basis – it would be not unlike banging your head against the proverbial wall.

American President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao

by Collin A. Spears

In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s first presidential trip to Asia, many of his more ardent critics and fervent supporters are left to ponder the same question – what did he accomplish?  This is especially the case in regard to his much anticipated visit to China.  Maybe it is more appropriate to ask why Obama’s foreign policy objectives were met with a lukewarm response from Beijing.  Further, were there any other possible outcomes considering the divergent interests of America and China?  So, what were the issues that Obama felt were most important to address on his tour?

Southeast Asia

One of Obama’s stops was at the APEC Summit in Singapore; the main purpose was which was to shore up relations with the Association of Southeast Asia (ASEAN) member states.  After a decade of neglect by the Bush Administration, China’s power in the region has grown immensely to the point where it has gained control of large sectors of the Laotian, Cambodian, and Myanmar economies.  It has also made significant political and economic gains with traditional U.S. allies, such as the Philippines and Thailand.  On the other hand, it has also engendered some level of fear and suspicion with many in the region, especially Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.   This fear is not just due to China’s growing economic might, but also its military strength and territorial claims in the South China Sea.

America is trying to walk the middle path, realizing that China’s increasing penetration into the region is not a zero-sum game; the U.S. wants a constructive working relationship with Beijing.   However, Southeast Asia is flush with agricultural and natural resources, and is home to more than half of the world’s annual merchant shipping traffic.  The geopolitical reality is that China’s access to the region will increase, and America cannot afford to be shut out of the region.  In a rapprochement strategy, Secretary of State Clinton announced at the Asian Summit in July that, “America is back…” Her various trips to the region in the past few months have been an attempt to strengthen relations and reassure allies that America’s interest in the region has not lapsed.  Democratic U.S. Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, has met with the Burmese junta, the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments in the last six months.  Although, not traditional allies to the U.S., Senator Webb has offered conditional American support to these regimes in order to balance China’s influence.  Obviously, any nation would like to have room to maneuver politically, instead of just being a “vassal state”.

Obama’s new engagement strategies with Cambodia, Laos, have generated significant criticism from its domestic political base over concern that this new pragmatism will come at the expense of human rights.   From a strategic perspective, the Chinese relationship with states like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos is a far more important consideration than human rights.  The Obama Administration sees an opportunity to increase its soft power in Southeast Asia.  Political rapprochement with Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and Myanmar is key to a not so covert Chinese containment strategy, but any movement in this direction will take years.

Getting allies to help control and moderate China’s rise has been illusive.  Over the last decade Washington has called on India, Japan, Australia, and Indonesia to assist it with security in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.  None of these nations have been especially responsive.  In fact, America’s closest ally in the region, Japan, with recent elections, appears to be moving toward a more Asia-centric policy, although it pays lip service to the special relationship between the U.S. and itself.

As far as ASEAN, historically, the majority of member-states have refrained from criticizing each other or any Non-anglophone State in the region.  Rather than comparing ASEAN to the present day European Union, it is more instructive to compare it to the fiercely nationalistic Europe of the 18th and early 19th centuries, while remaining cognoscente that Southeast Asia is vastly more diverse culturally, religiously, politically, and economically.  Criticism in the past, might have led to military conflict.  There is no indication that ASEAN will take a collectively different stance in the near future.  This is explains why Obama failed to get an ASEAN communiqué mentioning political prisoners in Myanmar.

Knowing the limitations in its own relationship in the region, Beijing is watching American activities closely, especially in regard to states like Myanmar.  A US-Myanmar detente would undoubtedly be viewed as a threat to Beijing’s strategic interests in the region. A Myanmar more sympathetic to the US may be less willing to support China’s projection of power into the Indian Ocean and risks negating advantages gained for the security of its sea lines of communication through avoiding the Malacca Straits.   China is far more interested in its own power projection and securing its energy supplies than working with the U.S. in the region, instead they would prefer the U.S. maintain the Bush policies of neglect.

Chinese Currency Manipulation

For some time, various members of the U.S. Congress have complained over Chinese currency manipulation.  Just after Obama took office, members of his administration actually stated that China is not manipulating its currency, which is a fantastic statement; because a person of the meanest intellect and base knowledge of currency exchange can quickly conclude they are as anyone can look up the official rate that China maintains.  The Chinese Yuan (also RMB) has been pegged to the $US at a low value for many years.  Despite the general media bent, the Obama Administration can stop this situation at any time, but it is not in American interests to do so.  That is a hard sell for the public, so the ceremonial complaints to please economic nationalist constituents domestically require Obama to give lip serve to the issue.

China pegs its currency to prevent inflation domestically and to make its exports competitive internationally.  This is a leading cause of the U.S. trade deficit with China, but the reality is that China is not as stable socially as many in the West believe, there are thousands of “mass incidents” a year, China’s words for riots.  Cognizant of this, Beijing is interested in maintaining stability and economic growth at all costs, because that is where the CCP draws its legitimacy.

The Obama Administration can sell the dollar at a low value to the Yuan.  In the long term, this would pressure Chinese business to exchange at the U.S. rate and ignore the official Chinese exchange rate. However, in the short term, it would cause financial instability, particularly, inflation in the U.S., at a time when the U.S. is already attempting to recover from a deep recession.  Most importantly, it could potentially destabilize China; something that most serious foreign policy analyst would agree is not good for America’s economic and political interests in East Asia.  It would also cause tension with China, which will make China less far less likely to cooperate on issues where the United States needs China, such as Iran, North Korea, and Climate Change.

North Korea

The United States has tried to apply pressure to China, hoping to persuade it to be a “responsible” global actor.  This actually means that China should work with the West in various international institutions on goals the West deems appropriate, which is not likely to happen unless China’s interests coincide with the West.  Case in point, the United States expectations that China should help reign in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and get the North to return to six-party talks.  It seems China has helped convince the North to return to talks, but this is really a non-issue, as neither side is naive enough to believe that will actually accomplish anything over the long term. North Korea will remain a nuclear state, with de facto acceptance by the larger powers in the region. The reason is China.  Beijing will not cut off Kim Jong Il, because China is more afraid of an American friendly United Korea on its border and a refugee crisis, in the event of the collapse of the Kim family regime.

For its part, the U.S. is not concerned with North Korea launching a nuclear strike on Japan or South Korea, but the U.S. is worried about the North selling nuclear material to other rogue states (Iran, and it seems also Burma is working with North Korea in some capacity).  The U.S. will not attack North Korea because North Korea can level Seoul in 45 minutes and easily overrun the U.S. troops on the DMZ.  The situation is a stalemate.  Kim Jongil is eccentric, but he is not an irrational actor, if one considers his only concern is maintaining his family’s power.  He has managed to outmaneuver the last two U.S. Presidents, Obama will fair no better.  Obama should continue to push China on ship inspections in order to limit its ability to sale weapons, nuclear materials, and drugs, which besides Chinese aid, is the regimes primary means of revenue.  Still, Obama should have realistic expectations of China’s willingness to help.

Iran

Chinese President Hu Jintao has proposed a similar strategy for dealing with Iran as with North Korea,  basically stalling and paying lip service, primarily because China has not decided how much of an obstructionist role it wants to play, if any, in hampering Iran’s goals of gaining a nuclear weapon.  Make no mistake; Iran wants a nuclear bomb, which is strategically rational.  Iran is surrounded on all sides by the United States military or its allies.  Due to the nature of Iran’s relationship with the U.S., since the Islamic revolution and general Iranian suspicion of the West, it is not surprising that Iran wants a means to insure itself against a possible American invasion or an Israel air strike.

The U.S. is moving cautiously in regard to Iran, maybe more so than Europe and definitely at a slower pace than many hawks in Israel would like, primarily out of fear of an Iranian retaliation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel to any air strikes on its nuclear facilities.  It remains unclear as to what the true nature of Iranian influence in any of these places is which is critical to anticipating any proxy attack by the Islamic Republic.  With two wars and a military stretched thin over a long period it appears the Obama Administration is not willing to risk an outright provocation, it also is not willing to allow Israel to do so, as any Israeli attack will be blamed on the U.S.  The Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it has refused to give Israel bunker busting bombs that might penetrate the various underground Iranian facilities.   Any strike without this technology will only set Iran back in their nuclear program, not destroy it.

So the Obama administration is desperate for a way out, it is pressing Iran to accept a deal, whereby Iran will send its nuclear fuel to Russian for processing.  If Iran does not accept, the U.S. will need the ability to apply harsh sanctions against the regime.  These sanctions will mean little if China is not onboard.   Iran is China’s third largest foreign supplier of oil.  So far, China has spoken characteristically vague about the issue, a sign that Zhongnanhai they do not see the situation as urgent as the U.S. and Europe.  China’s primary concern, is gaining access to energy resources to maintain its economic growth, not making a diplomatic statement by harming itself in order to punish Iran when it is no strategic threat.  Historically, China has voted for weak sanctions against Iran at the U.N.  There is no reason to believe that this policy will change.

The Future

Obama’s policies and diplomatic approach in dealing with China are not the reason he seemed to accomplish so little, other than setting a framework for future discussions, on his recent trip.  The problem Obama has, even more than his predecessor, is that China is stronger in relation to the United States than it ever has been.  Further, China has made its cooperation critical to various U.S. interests, including the covering of billions in U.S. debt during a shaky American economic recovery.  In this way, the Chinese have effectively insulated themselves from bulk of U.S. pressure.  In fact it is the U.S. that has begun to tip-toe around issues sensitive to China, such as Tibet, human rights, and currency manipulation.  The world is no longer one where the center of political gravity is in the Atlantic, with the U.S. as the leader of a Western + Japan club.  Mr. Obama, and future presidents, will have to learn to work with China, because it is no longer in a position to dictate terms.  For many in Washington and America as whole, it is indeed a brave new world.

It’s been about three weeks since my last real post. Busy body. It’s been about four days since I got to see all my hours of hard work come in fruition in the form of the Freedom and Fashion show. Post busy body. However, I’ve got to say that the fashion show against human and sex trafficking and the exploitation of women, as well as other important social justice causes–the fashion show was a huge success. I think we got the message across to people in a clear, yet creative way.

One of my friends wondered why we use fashion as the medium because the fashion industry tends to exploit women. Women are told to dress a certain way, to be a certain image, to be a certain size–isn’t it ironic? Well, dear friend, isn’t that the point? We want to reclaim the fashion industry, to bring into light the injustices it has done to women, and more importantly, to change the way we perceive fashion. Think of it–fashion CAN be fair-trade, and it CAN go to a good cause, and it CAN still be fashionable. Social justice is in, and apathy is out. When we forget that–perhaps that’s when we forget our identities as compassionate human beings.

UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom was packed. Every seat was filled, and after walking the VIPs and donors to their seats, I had to stand back a bit, look at the catwalk, and stood amazed that the day had finally come. Once everyone got to their seats, the hosts introduced rapper Jason Medeiros, where he performed two songs. One of the songs, “Constance,” is based on the true story of a Filipina girl who was sold into the sex trade industry. Then, the fashion show started. As soon as the song started playing, my heart skipped a bit. This is it! This is it! I remember thinking to myself. To make a long story short, I’ll let the pictures and video speak for itself. The pictures were taken by my friend, Kenny Gulley, during dress rehearsal (although it’s not everything featured on the actual fashion show) while the footage of the fashion show was taken by Freedom and Fashion crew and is streamed on Livestream.

If you are interested about social justice issues, check out Freedom and Fashion.

Check out some of the clothes featured on the fashion show (or at least on the photos below), by such clothing lines as Definicion Clothing, LiNk (Liberty in North Korea), Lalesso, Tagbag.

Lalesso Clothing

Lalesso Clothing

LiNK Clothing

LiNK Clothing

LiNk Clothing

Freedom and Fashion Line

Freedom and Fashion Line

Definicion Clothing

As this year’s Noble peace prize was given for showing hope, let me follow up on how this hope gets materialize. (http://face4.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/peace/)

Last week Noble peace prize winner Obama oops President Obama had a great opportunity to showcase his commitments for which he was awarded the Noble peace prize. I personally, was expecting to see concrete progress in three areas

1. Dealing with two previous Noble peace prize winners

a) Aung San Suu Kyi

There was no mention about her in the official statements. But Officials mention that Obama has taken up this issue with Burmese officials.

b) Dalai Lama

Obama’s office mentions that it was not the right time for him to receive Dalai Lama but will receive him later

2. Relationship with China

As mentioned in some sectors of the press, even though Obama acted more like a reckless spender paying visit to his banker, being a Noble peace prize winner, he could have been more upright on Human rights issues, censorship, state of North Korean asylum seekers in China or other things that United States of America stands! for. Overall I think, he did a decent job here!

3. Initiates to contain Climate change

A token initiative to set up a research center….

Daily International News
November 23, 2009

DPRK
N. Korea says naval skirmish demonstrates need for peace treaty with U.S. [Yonhap]
North Korea urged the United States on Monday to replace their armistice agreement with a peace treaty, citing a recent skirmish between the two Koreas’ navies as “proof” that such a treaty is necessary for peace on the peninsula

China and North Korea defence ministers pledge ties [BBC]
Chinese and North Korean defence chiefs have pledged to strengthen their long-standing military alliance

China/Taiwan
Taiwan concedes territorial waters near China [Reuters]
Taiwan retains control over the tiny island chains of Kinmen and Matsu but does not claim the ocean around them, the Taiwan government said in a notice stating its position for the first time

China families protest mine disaster; toll hits 104 [Reuters]
Relatives of miners killed by a gas blast at a coal pit in northeast China scuffled with police and demanded answers

China activist who spoke out on quake gets 3 years [AP]
A veteran dissident was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after casting a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed during China’s massive earthquake last year

Philippines
Philippine kidnappers kill 21 in ‘political massacre’ [AFP]
Supporters of a prominent local politician in Maguindanao province and local journalists were among those murdered

Central/South Asia
Afghan security plans ‘a tall order’ [AFP]
Afghan government plans to boost army and police numbers massively have been greeted with scepticism by diplomats and military experts who say the figures are too ambitious

India tests nuclear-capable missile after sunset [Reuters]
India’s army tested a nuclear-capable Agni missile after sunset on Monday for the first time to demonstrate it could be fired whenever required

Middle East
Israel, Hamas near swap of prisoners for soldier [AP]
Israel and Hamas are close to a deal to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held for more than three years

Iraq parliament passes new vote law [Reuters]
Iraq’s fractious parliament on Monday approved an amended version of a law needed to hold a general election next year

Iran stages war games, sits on West’s nuclear offer [WP]
Military issues warning to Israel, tries to show defensive capacity

Europe
Germany attacks Israel settlement plan before visit [Reuters]
Germany on Monday criticized Israeli plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, in unusually explicit terms a week before the two countries’ leaders meet in Berlin

From Sunday>> N.Ireland on edge after huge car bomb found [AFP]
Northern Ireland was on edge Monday after a huge car bomb only just failed to cause devastation

Russia says new blast at arms depot kills 8 [Reuters]
Eight soldiers were killed and two injured Monday when munitions exploded at a Russian navy arms depot

Africa

Sudan announces slight delay to upcoming elections [Sudan Tribune]
The Sudanese NEC announced a six day delay to the elections in order to allow more time for voters to register

From Sunday>>Algeria acquits two former Guantanamo Bay detainees [BBC]
Two Algerian men held at Guantanamo Bay for seven years on terror charges have been acquitted at a trial on being returned home

Americas
Brazil: World should engage, not isolate Iran [AP]
Engaging, not isolating Iran is the way to push for peace and stability in the Middle East, said Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva

For the most part, citizens of North Korea do not think anything is wrong with their country.  As they haven’t experienced complete freedom, they don’t know what human rights are.  And because of the way information is blocked, North Koreans don’t know what is happening outside of their country.

They experience hunger because of the food shortage, but they are lead to believe that other countries are worse off.  They get punished severely for unwarranted crimes, but they are lead to believe that it is their own fault.

Despite the propaganda and brain-washing, thousands of North Koreans know that there is something better out there.  Something worth risking their lives for.   They might not understand what freedom is but they want to get a taste of it.  They know they have to somehow get out of North Korea, and thousands of them do just that.  These are the refugees.

Whether by escaping or by some other means of getting out, resettlement in another country is not always easy.  Refugees need job training and acculturation as to not be in a state of shock during the transition.  Countries like South Korea and the U.S. help North Korean refugees with the resettlement process as much as possible.

Other countries like China do not welcome North Korean refugees as much.  In fact, they’re downright unwanted.  If North Koreans are found in China illegally, they are sent back immediately.  Women who are not sent back are usually forced into sexual slavery or fixed marriages.  And of course, refugees who are repatriated to North Korea are sent directly to prison camps.

Clearly, North Korean refugees are courageous in that they risk their lives in hopes of living a better life.

These are the ones that dream of freedom.

In an address recorded in Seoul, South Korea, the President discusses his trip to Asia. He talks about his push to stop nuclear proliferation in North Korea, Iran, and around the world. He talks about promoting America’s principles for an open society in China while making progress on joint efforts to combat climate change. And talks in-depth about the primary objective of his trip: engaging in new markets that hold tremendous potential to spur job creation here at home.

WhiteHouse.gov—In an address recorded in Seoul, South Korea, the President discusses his trip to Asia. He talks about his push to stop nuclear proliferation in North Korea, Iran, and around the world. He talks about promoting America’s principles for an open society in China while making progress on joint efforts to combat climate change. And talks in-depth about the primary objective of his trip: engaging in new markets that hold tremendous potential to spur job creation here at home.

The following is what are likely to be the seedings for the draw for the World Cup on 4th December:

Pot 1:    South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France, Argentina

Pot 2:   Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia

Pot 3:   Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Algeria

Pot 4:    South Korea, Japan, Australia, North Korea, Mexico, USA, Honduras, New Zealand

What do you reckon would be good, and bad for England?  Can you spot any potentially juicy ties?  What about Spain v Portugal?

I think a fascinating, and historical, group for England would draw us with Portugal, Cameroon and Australia.  What are your thoughts?