College was an amazing experience. I can’t believe how much I learned. It was a great experience. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I had three roommates. I was only supposed to have two but the residence manager asked one to move to a different room to become a prayer leader. We quickly got a new roommate.

The music program was intense! Of course I had never been in a college music program but it was a great experience. I also ended up changing my major from Church Music Performance to Music Education. A big change but one that I figured would happen. I could handle the performance major if I really wanted to but I’ve seen how intense it is. It’s not that’s that much harder than the education major it’s the whole idea of being able to perform. I’m just not one to be on stage all the time like that. Also education is a more practical major.

The food was ok. At first it was bad but you just have to get used to it first. It also got better as the semester went on. This just wasn’t my perception wasn’t just mine it was everyone’s even my junior roommate’s.

I made so many great friends there. I can’t believe it. Met people from all over the place, with all kinds of personalities, and from all walks of life. It was great. I can’t believe how much I miss them all and can’t wait to see them again. I think next semester will be even better than this last semester.

…about the article written about Stephen Gately’s death the day before was buried by the raging homophobe Jan Moir, of the Daily Mail. His one complaint will have more weight than the other 25 000 complaints put together and I hope she gets the f*****g sack for writing the most disgusting and hateful article I’ve ever read.

We are happy to announce that CACTUS has launched its new SMS Channel castudent.

All of you must already be aware of our existing SMS Channel CA_Update which has over 3000 subscribers. Through CA_Update, we shared with you our knowledge of Current Affairs of Indian economy, important ICAI updates and announcements, important notifications issued by various government bodies and other relevant information.

After success of CA_Update, we have decided to provide our subscribers important points related to various subjects included in syllabus of CA Final, PCC and IPCC.

We already know that most of our subscribers attend regular classes and are good at studies. But we for sure know that due to our busy schedules we aren’t able to revise and recall import points what we might have studied earlier. Through our new SMS channel, castudent we’ll try to deliver you all those important points which you might miss to revise. Even if you haven’t studied a particular subject yet, may be our SMSs create some kind of base in your mind which can help you understand the subject in a better way.

Moreover, we have our own forum which can be accessed through www.ecactus.org, where you can always discuss anything.

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The following article was published last week in the BBC’s staff newspaper Ariel and appears with their kind permission. My original title was “Anti Social Media and the Human Shape”.

Social media. We love it.

I’m making a very good living out of social media myself.

But if you want to be “social” it’s about more than just starting a twitter account. For to be social is to be human. As Steven Fry wisely said recently twitter (and he could have easily said all social media) is “human shaped not business shaped”.

And human beings are strange creatures. Prey to emotions and irrational impulses and yet the only animal that worries “what’s the right thing to do?”

The ethics and morals of social media are still evolving. As everything and everyone goes online, what becomes important is how people behave, not what they’re called or what social tool they are using.

Recently two incidents have brought the ethics of social media and publishing online into sharp relief.

First Rupert Murdoch described the likes of Google as “parasites” and threatened to sue the BBC for using his newspapers stories. A few days later one of Rupert’s papers The Times reprinted a tribute to Edward Woodward from Edgar Wright’s personal blog. The trouble was they had not asked Edgar’s permission first, nor had they paid him. Edgar was understandably annoyed. So who’s the parasite now, cried the blogosphere?

Then the new Chair of the Press Complaints Commission seemed to suggest that the PCC could regulate blogs. There was a tart reaction from blogger Sunny Hundal. Sunny pointed out that when bloggers make mistakes they correct them prominently (one convention is to leave the text online but with a line through the offending section). However one of the long running complaints against the PCC is that some newspapers, when they are grudgingly pushed into admitting error, make sure that any corrections are buried well away from the original story and airbrushed out of history. “Thanks but no thanks. We behave better than you”, said Sunny to the PCC.

So if you think social media is just an easy way to get a “story”, think again.

One man’s story is another man’s personal tweet. Ransacking someone’s social media to get a news angle is like jumping into someone’s garden, stealing their flowers, shouting “I need this for something important” and then jumping back over the fence again. Bad behaviour, unethical even, and not BBC behaviour I would hope.

You’ll also have to behave well while those around you behave badly. Social media can an emotional and partisan thing. I’ve been called a parasite, and worse on message boards. Indeed only this week I was dubbed a “power mad cretin” by some anonymous wit who objected to the fact I removed his comment from the Internet blog. Fearlessness, honesty, humility, a sense of humour and a thick skin are all qualities you will need.

And these are not things you will learn on a training course, or through a new application on your iPhone.

Good luck and see you on twitter!

NB – on digging up the links for this piece I discovered that it looks like it wasn’t Rupert Murdoch who first dubbed Google parasites – it was in fact Robert Thomson. I stand corrected.

I am sitting at my computer desk typing a blog on a laptop I broke in February (I think), which is hooked up to a tube monitor from sometime in probably the mid 1990’s so that I can see the screen.

While I type this blog, I am sipping hot tea with ginger and cayenne in an attempt to manage my asthma without resorting to an emergency room visit.  I woke up at 4 this morning, and all attempts to go back to sleep today have been thwarted by coughing fits or crying fits (which usually either immediately precede or follow coughing fits).

Not all of 2009 has been terrible.

I have awesome friends, am good at my job, had a nice summer and learned a lot about balance this year. Those things are good.

It’s just that, as good as those good things are, the bad things or hard things have piled up really, really high.  On good days, I still feel confident and happy about the things that are going well.  On bad days, like today, and more lately, I just feel totally overwhelmed, sad a lot, insecure and a little bit hopeless.

What all happened this year?

Well…

Let’s start with Winter term at PCC.  Winer term, academically, was actually a pretty good term.  I participated in The Vagina Monologues, which was awesome and powerful and fun…

I was also having massive anxiety issues, AND trying to deal with having a crush on/ friendship with a woman who was both physically and emotionally unavailable, and also (albeit probably unintentionally) really hard to communicate with.

Consequently (on both counts- I’m not blaming it all on the girl! Anxiety alone does this anyway), I ended up feeling crazy and insecure pretty much constantly, which was reinforced by a slough of other things/ people, including those medical personnel assigned to helping me manage my hideous anxiety and whatnot by pumping me full of pills (which wasn’t new, but was increasingly complicated).

Also, my dad got hit by a truck in a crosswalk and had surgery.

Also, my best friend had (still has) some mystery illness that is definitely serious, but as it is a mystery, nobody knows how serious or what to do.

Over Spring Break, I went to Washington D.C. for a conference and to do some lobbying with my co-workers from school, which was pretty awesome.  I got back and kept myself pretty busy with school and work until I started feeling… funny.

I went to the doctor, where I found out that the pills I’d been taking to help with my mood and anxiety were making me sick.  I stopped taking them, and through about the last month of school, my anxiety was absolutely horrendous… and then it all… well, it kind of just went away one day.  I mean, not completely, but mostly.  I’m still a Virgo, and quite high-strung, but it’s not regularly disabling anymore… although it does still crop up at inopportune times.

In any event, my summer started off great.  I had sworn off dating for several months and was ready for several more months of dating exile working in the woods with youth.  I was feeling pretty good about that, and excited about my summer job, which turned out to be really wonderful all around.

Unfortunately, near the end of the summer, I got the news from someone close to me that she had been re-diagnosed with breast cancer, which impacted me in several different ways.

Then, fall term, a woman I worked with a long time ago died of the same disease, and a friend my age was diagnosed the same week another acquaintance died of a drug overdose.

I also developed a new and interesting crush on someone who turned out to also not be into me, cementing my decision to just not date until a past crush re-emerged, causing me to question… well, lots of things, but not horribly intensely until I woke up this morning feeling like I was drowning and then decided to act like an insecure idiot.

Also, I failed two of the three classes I took this term… including Writing.

Now I would really, really like to just climb into bed and fall asleep for the 13 days before January 1, 2010 because from bed, it’s a lot harder to participate in messing up my own life any more than I already have this year.

I realize this is a profoundly pessimistic post, but you know what? Everyone’s entitled to a bad day now and then… or even a bad year sometimes.

I live in a little pocket of Portland, Oregon that sometimes feels far away from everything except my college campus.

I’m nowhere near the “action”.

Hawthorne, Alberta, The Pearl… these are places with “action”.

I grew up in Northeast Portland, just off of Alberta St. mostly.  My family moved to Southwest in the mid 1990’s, just as my former neighborhood was in the beginning stages of gentrification  (my parent’s bought the house we lived in when I lived there for something like $25,000- it is now worth at least ten times that, and in a neighborhood full of young white people- many of whom sport dreadlocks).

When my family moved across the river and into the Hillsdale neighborhood, I resisted getting to know my new community.  It wasn’t until I moved back to Portland from Seattle three years ago (so, you know, over ten years after I moved to this side of town originally) that I really started to explore my neighborhood and get to know it.

As I said in my last post, I really like lists.

So…

Here is a list of things in my neighborhood that I’ve found I really like:

• The Capitol Coffee House and Bistro- really nice people, good coffee, cozy atmosphere, live music some evenings, new art every few weeks… it’s kind of a little hub of community, too.  Good for networking with neighbors.
• Baker and Spice- a bakery in Hillsdale with yummy pastries and things.  They have a big, long table in the center of their dining area where people who come for coffee and pastries alone often sit together, family style, with strangers.  I happen to think that’s really cool. Sometimes, if I’m feeling like being around people, but not feeling particularly motivated to set up a coffee date with a friend, I just go to Baker and Spice and sit with people I don’t know.  Sometimes I have conversations and sometimes I don’t.
• Multnomah Village- A sleepy-feeling strip of shops just up Capitol Highway from me, and easy walking distance. My favorite spots in the Village are Annie Bloom’s books (the closest book store to my house), Village Coffee (which doesn’t have much seating, but has a ton of reading material to choose from if I’m staying), Fat City Cafe (breakfast of champions) and the Hillsdale Lucky Lab (pizza and beer).

Also near me is my campus… which, I have to tell you, is pretty freaking convenient.  On a nice day, I can walk to school in about an hour and 45 minutes- or home from school (which is downhill) in about an hour and a half.  The bus ride is about 11 minutes.

It’s nice to have found these things to like about my neighborhood.

Mmmm.

During yesterday’s Publicity Club of Chicago monthly luncheon, panelists discussed how PR pros can make the most of positioning local pitches with a national perspective.

The panel included Susan Caraher, Assignment Manager for ABC News’ Chicago Bureau, Jeff Flock, Chicago reporter for FOX Business Network and Ron Schofield, regional video producer for the Associated Press.

All three panelists harped the fact that they are inundated with irrelevant, off-target pitches each and every day. Jeff even noted on the spot that he had over 650 unread emails alone sitting in his inbox. Interestingly, Jeff also remarked that he felt that the press release was a requirement of the past. Instead, he made the point that reporters like himself are now rarely looking beyond the first 4-5 sentences of a pitch to determine whether or not they are interested in the story idea.

Along with a host of other tips, the panelists drove home these key reminders and pitching tips for PR pros:

1. Build relationships – Commend reporters if you like their stories, show that you pay attention to the topics they cover and build relevance as to why you are a contact they should keep in mind.

2. Be timely – Follow the wires, see what’s trending for news that day and keep in mind that big stories are the primary focus of every reporter – especially regional contacts such as the panelists.

3. Don’t sell, build a story – Reporters aren’t going to just write about a product – that’s an advertisement. Show the larger story and demonstrate how it relates to a larger audience.

I had the opportunity to snag Ron for a few minutes after the luncheon to recap some of these key tips. Apologies for the loud background audio, Ron was a popular guy so I had to grab what I could. Thanks Ron!

-Scott

The Kam family had the pleasure of seeing the Polynesian Cultural Center’s new show “Ha: Breath of Life” a few weeks ago as a guest of the center and really enjoyed it. It’s a colorful production the entire family can enjoy with a touching storyline and action packed performances from start to end with exciting dancing, great music, and beautiful costumes.

PCC is a client of the firm I work at and it’s been hosting agency staff and special guests from around town to experience the night show and spread the word. As a kamaaina (Hawaii resident), I’ll confess that going to a luau and a Polynesian show isn’t the first thing on our weekend “to do” list. I’d be willing to bet that’s probably the case with many locals. However, as a public relations executive in the tourism industry, it’s important for me to play “tourist” and experience as much of what these islands have to offer.

So we made the 30+ mile journey from Central Oahu to Laie with the thought in the back of my mind that “this better be worth it.” And I’m glad we did because it certainly was.

Here’s my 5 reasons I feel it’s worth heading north to see this beautiful production called Ha: Breath of Life:

#1: GOOD USE OF TECHNOLOGY – The feature animation projected onto different parts of the theater to transition each section of the show was a nice touch. It modernized the show without taking away from its authenticity and provided a visual narration of the story that was taking place on stage. It was a good way to move from the exciting dances, back to the storyline, then back to the dancing.

#2: BEAUTIFUL COSTUMES AND DANCING – One of the most impressive things about the show is the detailed costuming representing each Polynesian culture. Talk about colorful and attention getting. Combined with the traditional dances makes for an incredible visual presence on stage. Aside from looking down at my iPhone to tweet every now and then about what we were seeing, my eyes were glued to the stage the entire time.

#3: THE STORYLINE IS NOT CHEESY! – Whenever I attend a show like this, I’m always weary of cheesy storylines that make you want to gag. Thankfully, Ha: Breath of Life came nowhere near cheesy on my radar. In fact the story of Mana is an engaging one that really keeps the show interesting, through emotional highs and lows, as he goes from being a boy to becoming a man. But the way the Polynesian Cultural Center website describes it is much better:

This is every man’s story, told through the life of a Polynesian man named Mana. Journey along with young Mana as he is born out of the turmoil of a capsized canoe, washed upon the shores of life to find his way. He and his parents find refuge in Tonga and learn the importance of community. Little Mana celebrates his early years of life in Hawaii with the customary birthday luau marking his survival in the world. We next see Mana as a young boy in Aotearoa, or Maori New Zealand, where he is growing and becoming a young man. As he comes upon a beautiful maiden named Lani in Samoa, he learns about falling in love and earning the acceptance of her family. With love comes marriage and soon Mana and Lani are taking their vows in the romantic setting of Tahiti. War touches their lives in Fiji and Mana is saddened by the death of his father. The story begins again with the celebration of life as Mana and Lani welcome their new baby into the world.

#4: THE FIRE DANCE – I’ve never seen anything like it before. A bunch of dudes wearing ti leaf skirts and dancing over a pit of hot fire. And not just dancing over it, but actually sitting on it as well. This fire dance was one of my favorite parts of the night. Not only was it memorable, but it had me scratching my head as a man thinking “that must be harsh on the…errrr…private parts.” I’m still not quite sure how they did it, but it certainly was awesome! Kids…and adults…do not try this at home.

#5: THE SHOW IS A GREAT VALUE! – To see the show only is just $45 for adults and $35 for children making this arguably the one of the best deals on the island for Polynesian entertainment. And 90 minutes of it for that matter. And kamaaina (Hawaii residents) have an even better deal to see the show for just $25 (plus buffet dinner) for a limited time to get out there and go see it. Of course, if you’re going to make the trip to PCC you’ll want to make time to explore the rest of the park too and possibly grab a bite before the show, so check out all of the Center’s different packages to make the most of your day.

Overall, this is definitely a show even locals will enjoy! If you happen to get out there to see it, I’d be interested to hear what you thought about the experience. Aloha!

-NGK

This entry is on behalf of and out of respect for my friends who are coaches at GBWHS and all the athletes they impact. Alongside learning to play football, young men today need to learn about integrity, determination, commitment and loyalty. The modeling of such good character by these coaches will go a long way toward influencing the lives of their players. It was a great season guys!  I’m already looking forward to next year.

Watch video …Tradition Never Graduates

Assim como Salve Geral, um documentáro que o Discovery Channel estréia dia 29 às 20h vai contar um pouco do ataque que parou São Paulo em maio de 2006, mas  ao invés de mostrar esse fato deixando a história girar em torno de uma professora que se envolve com uma fação criminosa para livrar seu filho da cadeia, ‘São Paulo Sob Ataque’ vai mostrar os bastidores dessa ação que marcou tanto a nossa história.
Em quase três dias de guerra urbana, foram contabilizados 280 ataques, 46 assassinatos, 78 feridos, 82 ônibus incendiados, além bases da PM e agências bancárias destruídas.
O documentário conta com depoimentos de pessoas-chave do governo, histórias das vítimas – em sua maioria, parentes de policiais e agentes penitenciários mortos e atores que reconstituem o horror pelo qual milhares de pessoas em São Paulo passaram, em um formato que lembra o extinto programa policial da Rede globo “Linha Direta”.
O diretor do filme tentou entrar em contato com os líderes da organização criminosa que comandaram os ataques, mas não foi possível.

Thainá Fidelis Antenucci

Fonte: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Cinema/0,,MUL1382000-7086,00.html

Zeng Jinyan assignée à domicile, porte un t-shirt sur lequel un slogan indique qu'il est honteux de la suivre, à l'intention des policiers qui la suivent en permanence. 22 juillet 2006. © Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, Amesty International

L’épouse du militant Hu Jia s’inquiète de l’état de santé de son mari et de ses conditions de vie. En effet, cela fait deux mois que la jeune femme n’a plus de contact avec son époux, qui a été emprisonné pour “Incitation à la subversion du pouvoir de l’Etat” après avoir rédigé cinq articles sur internet et répondu à la presse étrangère dont le quotidien, Libération.

Zeng Jinyan et son enfant avaient disparus durant les Jeux Olympiques afin qu’elle ne fasse pas de commentaires à la presse étrangère. Depuis elle n’a aucune nouvelle de son mari hormis une lettre où il explique qu’il travaille mais ne parle pas de sa santé.

Il semble que la prison ne respecte pas le règlement concernant Mr Hu car les communications lui sont interdites et ses lettres sont confisquées. C’est dans ce climat tendu que Zeng Jinyan lance un appel à l’aide afin d’obtenir des informations sur son mari.

Blog de Hu Jia, ici…

Page spéciale d’Amnesty International sur Hu Jia, ici…

Page spéciale d’Amnesty International sur Zeng Jinyan, ici…

Rama Yade, secrétaire d'état des Droits de l'Homme

Selon la secrétaire française des Droits de l’Homme, Rama Yade, Hu Jia est un militant qui doit aujourd’hui être libéré. Alors que l’opposant chinois vient de recevoir le prix Sakharov, cette prise de position française va t-elle à nouveau brouiller les relations sino-françaises ?

«Nous pensons que c’est un militant des droits de l’Homme qui doit aujourd’hui être libéré» a déclaré la secrétaire française des Droits de l’Homme Rama Yade en marge de l’attribution du prix Sakharov au dissident chinois Hu Jia par le Parlement Européen, hier.

La secrétaire d’état a également ajouté que «le Parlement européen a fait là un geste fort pour les droits de l’homme. Il est important que la Chine assume aussi les devoirs et les responsabilités inhérentes à la puissance économique, à la puissance politique».

Six mois après les émeutes de Lhassa, la Chine redore son blason en divulguant un rapport sur la protection et le développement de la culture tibétaine. Ce «Livre blanc» réfute notamment les accusations de «génocide culturel» lancées par le Dalaï Lama.

«Informer» sur la politique chinoise au Tibet

Intitulé «La Protection et le  Développement de la Culture tibétaine», le rapport veut expliquer à la communauté internationale que le gouvernement chinois a mis tout en œuvre pour protéger et développer la culture tibétaine.

Le Livre blanc est divisé en six parties expliquant que la culture tibétaine n’a jamais été exterminée. Tout d’abord, sans prendre en compte l’avant-propos et la conclusion, les quatre autres chapitres s’évertuent à montrer l’implication de la politique de Pékin en faveur des Tibétains : “Le  tibétain est largement appris, utilisé et développé”, “La  transmission, la protection et la valorisation du patrimoine  culturel”, “La liberté des pratiques religieuses et les us et  coutumes sont respectés”, “Les sciences modernes, l’éducation et  la presse se développent sous tous leurs aspects”.

Un éloge de la culture tibétaine

Des extraits du livre sont diffusés par les médias officiels, notamment une apologie des Tibétains et de leur culture : “La culture tibétaine constitue un des joyaux du patrimoine  culturel chinois et mondial. La culture tibétaine, pilier spirituel de la vie des Tibétains, et les autres cultures, notamment celle des Han, ne cessent de se  développer en s’influençant et en s’assimilant” indique le livre  blanc.

Pour étayer son rapport, le Bureau de  l’information du Conseil des Affaires d’Etat rappelle qu’en 1959, une réforme politique avait aboli le régime «théocratique de servage féodal», et mis ainsi fin à une politique de riches et de pauvres.

Toutefois, le rapport n’explique pas que depuis, le gouvernement chinois s’est immiscé dans les affaires religieuses tibétaine, en particulier concernant la nomination des Panchen Lama. La future succession du Dalaï Lama est d’ailleurs l’objet d’une controverse, puisque ce dernier songe à désigner un successeur avant sa mort (contrairement à la tradition) pour éviter que les autorités chinoises ne placent un homme à leurs ordres.

Il n’est pas fait mention également de l’emprisonnement du dixième Panchen Lama alors âgé de 6 ans.

Un avertissement pour le Dalaï Lama

Dans le document, le gouvernement n’hésite pas à qualifier le Dalaï Lama de perturbateur : “La clique du dalaï-lama et les forces anti-chinoises  occidentales, tout en jouissant des acquis de la civilisation et  de la culture moderne, espèrent que l’ethnie tibétaine et la culture tibétaine en restent au Moyen Age, sous prétexte de «protéger  la culture tibétaine» a indiqué le rapport.

C’est le septième rapport que le Bureau de  l’information du Conseil des Affaires d’Etat  publie sur le Tibet. Les autorités ont très mal pris les propos du chef spirituel tibétain aux médias internationaux. Ce dernier a déclaré à de nombreuses reprises que “la  culture tibétaine a été exterminée”. En réponse, Pékin indique que «son ancienne  domination culturelle, son ancien système culturel, son privilège culturel et ses intérêts acquis» allaient être exterminés reprenant à son compte, le vocabulaire du chef spirituel tibétain.

Le livre blanc conclut sur l’attitude du Dalaï Lama : « Son complot de faire reculer la roue de l’Histoire est  absolument intolérable».

Ville la plus cosmopolite de Chine, Shanghaï en est aussi la plus occidentalisée. Place forte du commerce et des échanges internationaux, la municipalité directement administrée par le pouvoir central est souvent vue comme la capitale économique chinoise.

• Shanghai上海 (Shànghǎi)
• Province : bordée par la province du Jiangsu à l’ouest et celle du Zhejiang au sud
• Statut administratif : municipalité autonome
• Superficie : 7 037 Km² pour l’ensemble de la municipalité
• Population : environ 20 000 000 habitants en 2008
• Préfixe téléphonique : 21
• Code postal : 200 000 ; 202 100

Le savez-vous ?

• Shanghai est la plus grande ville chinoise en terme de population, et l’une des plus densément peuplées au monde.
• Entre 1920 et 1930, la ville a profité d’un grand essor culturelle
• Jusqu’à 1992, et le choix de Deng Xiaoping d’en relancer le développement, Shanghai a été fortement contrôlée par le Parti communiste depuis l’avènement de la République populaire de Chine
• Le nom Shanghai signifie «surplombant la mer» ou «sur la mer». Son nom actuel est apparu sous la dynastie Song.
• Avec 20% de la production nationale, Shanghai est vouée à être le centre financier de l’Empire du milieu, d’où son surnom «La Perle de l’Orient». Associée à son côté cosmopolite, cette caractéristique lui vaut souvent la comparaison avec New York.
• Si le mandarin reste la langue officielle à Shanghai comme dans le reste du pays, la langue traditionnelle utilisée est une variante du Wu, la seconde langue chinoise la plus parlée après le Putonghua.
• On présente souvent Shanghai comme une ville raffinée et la capitale de la mode en Chine. Les habitants ont souvent tendance à mépriser les autres villes qu’ils considèrent comme des ruraux mal éduqués à l’exception de Hongkong.
• Shanghai a une très forte activité culturelle.

Présentation

Au large de la province du Zheijiang à l’embouchure du Yangzi, également appelé le Fleuve Bleu, Shanghai aborde une superficie de 6340 Km². La métropole est également l’une des quatre municipalités administrées directement par le pouvoir central. Son système politique est identique à celui de Pékin, Tianjin ou Chongqing.

Une ville moderne et architecturale

Shanghai est mondialement connue grâce à ses célèbres tours dans la Nouvelle Zone de Pudong. Cet ancien port de  pêche est devenu en quelques années, une ville moderne avec d’imposants gratte-ciels, florissant le paysage shanghaien.

La ville possède des structures considérables telles que le train Maglev reliant l’aéroport de Shanghai au centre ville, les deux grandes autoroutes surélevées de six voies qui se croisent et traversent tout le centre ville. Et d’ici 2020, la ville compte se doter de tunnels routiers car elle doit faire face à l’explosion de son trafic.

Une ville très peuplée

Vue de Pudong à Shanghai

Avec plus de 13 millions d’habitants, la ville demeure la seconde agglomération la plus peuplée de Chine après Chongqing. Les nombreuses constructions réalisées permettent de loger tout ce monde dans des HLM modernes. Forte d’une densité d’environ 2129 habitant par Km², 1/3 de la population shanghaienne vient des campagnes pauvres avoisinant la métropole.

Les shanghaiens vivent avec plus de 5000 euros de PIB par habitant et par an. C’est l’une des villes les plus prospères de Chine avec Pékin, Canton et Hong Kong. Shanghai doit faire face à un baby boom d’environ 500 000 bébés d’ici 2011 et doit prévoir la construction de jardins d’enfants.

La métropole compte déjà plus de 300 000 enfants et un millier de jardins d’enfants et indique un accroissement de la population en hausse constante. Cette forte natalité est due au calendrier lunaire chinois indiquant que l’année 2007 et le début 2008 est l’année du Cochon, l’année de la chance.

Une économie prospère

Shanghai est la principale plate-forme du pays pour le commerce mondial. La ville est le lieu de toutes les nouvelles tendances chinoises. Le port de Shanghai était la capitale économique de l’Asie dans les années 1920-1930.

Mais aujourd’hui, c’est un atout majeur dans l’économie de la Chine moderne. Premier commerçant au monde pour le vrac avec 400 millions de tonnes qui y transitent et  troisième pour le trafic de conteneurs, Shanghai est également une importante plate forme aéroportuaire.

Shanghai souhaite devenir une ville de services mais c’est son aspect industriel qui reste dans les mémoires. L’économie shanghaienne peut compter sur les nombreux investissements étrangers dont la France qui investit de plus en plus.

«Une ville meilleure pour une vie meilleure».

Nanjing Road

Slogan de la ville pour 2010, Shanghai ouvrira ses portes à l’exposition universelle. L’exposition aura le même effet que les Jeux Olympiques de Pékin, c’est-à-dire un important développement de l’urbanisme et un accroissement du nombre de touristes.

La ville qui a vu naître le Parti Communiste chinois

Shanghai signifie littéralement «sur la mer». Cet ancien village de pêcheurs fondé au XI^ème siècle de notre ère est devenu, au fil des siècles, l’une des plus grandes villes de la République populaire de Chine.

La ville se développe en majeure partie grâce au Traité de Nankin signé le 29 août 1842 entre la Chine et le Royaume-Uni. Le traité met fin à la seconde guerre de l’Opium et impose aux chinois l’ouverture du port de Shanghai, devenant ainsi une ville cosmopolite.

Cependant, durant la dynastie Song (960-1279), Shanghai est aussi prospère et développée qu’après la signature du traité de Nankin. Cette prospérité est jalousée par les Japonais qui décident d’attaquer la ville.

Mais face aux incursions japonaises, les habitants décident de barricader le lieu en construisant des remparts situés au sud du Bund (quai rebaptisé Zhongshan Donglu en 1949), détruit en 1912. L’intrusion des Occidentaux dans la vie de la cité conduit les Shanghaiens à un radicalisme politique.

Shanghai est la ville où est né le Parti Communiste Chinois en 1920. Shanghai représente jusqu’en 1930 environ, une ville cosmopolite et capitaliste. Toutefois, en 1949, les communistes mettent fin au développement de la ville. Les hostilités à l’encontre des étrangers bloquent l’économie urbaine devenant nationaliste et planifiée.

Shanghai est le point de départ de la Révolution Culturelle chinoise de 1966. C’est durant cette période que les élites de Shanghai quittent la ville pour Hong Kong ou Taiwan. Après 1978, Shanghai tient toujours sa position de pilier économique et social.

Ce n’est qu’en 1990 qu’elle reprend les devants et se développe rapidement. Deng Xiaoping met en place de nombreuses réformes entraînant l’augmentation de la production industrielle et la hausse des investissements étrangers.

Article revu et corrigé par Nicolas Jucha, paru sur IcilaChine

Twitter has had quite the month. Its ascension from mere social-network to a serious apparatus of democracy and free expression has been a slow one, but the last five weeks may prove catalytic in this transformation.

First there was the Trafigura incident. Carter-Ruck, the libel-law firm, imposed a super-injunction on The Guardian preventing the paper from reporting a parliamentary question – temporarily revoking this ancient right of freedom. The blogosphere lit up. Twitter, too, was soon alive with complaint. Carter-Ruck bucked; the injunction was lifted.  It was The Guardian who celebrated. But they too saw this as a victory for Twitter – and, more importantly, the masses on Twitter.

Continuing in this trend, attentions were turned to Jan Moir in The Daily Mail. Her – at best – questionable column concerning the death of Stephen Gately attracted a record 22,000 complaints to the PCC, after outrage spread across the net. Charlie Brooker, the ever-popular columnist, no doubt played a part in channelling this outrage into coherency, but Twitter and the blogosphere had once again played a crucial role in dictating the media’s agenda. The fact the PCC’s website crashed under the sheer volume of visitors is part-testimony to just where the mob came from.

Just this week, The Guardian was once again gagged and a case was brought against the Evening Standard. The latter had revealed the name of a former Mi5 agent who was set to release their memoirs. And the Standard’s defence? The information was already in the public domain – where it remains. It is too late not to report the details, they argued. Twitter and the blogosphere had hold of it, and they weren’t letting go.

On each occasion, Twitter and the blogosphere impacted massively on the media, and on politics. Yet the press too can manipulate. The Standard’s defence probably used Twitter, above all else, as an excuse. Twitter is being used by the press to gage public opinion: it’s the lazy-man’s poll. The question is, however, whether or not this poll is self-sufficient. If Twitter is starved of publicity by the mass media, and thus not in the public domain, does it become useless? Twitter made a ripple, the press made the wave.

Twitter’s ability to impact politics, or indeed society, can be overstated. Without sensible reporting on its trends in a widely-circulated newspaper, it can become a thousand voices shouting into nothingness. However, with the blogosphere, Twitter could succeed without the traditional mass-media. If the blogosphere analyses and reports what the masses on Twitter are saying, we’re essentially witnessing democracy at its purest.

The power of the blogosphere, after the past month of activity, has convinced the PCC, under Baroness Buscombe, to consider bringing it under their jurisdiction. The New Statesman was first to rebuff these suggestions, slamming the PCC. It isn’t fit to regulate the press, never mind the free and vibrant web, they argued.

Yet her considerations represent the power which the media perceives the blogosphere and Twitter to possess. It may too represent fears over their potential to render the traditional press redundant. Britain’s strict libel laws already mean the blogosphere must regulate itself, to extents, but if specific regulation is implemented, it may cease to be so special. Its raw, organic nature is its appeal.

And whilst there are already bloggers who have achieved fame – or infamy – the finest working in journalism will always work in a commercial sphere. As soon as the blogosphere becomes commercially driven, it will defeat itself. In an age of uncertainty surrounding the media and its future, the blogosphere and Twitter should be welcomed as a revolutionary way of circulating information.

This golden age of free comment should be celebrated, never feared.

There’s something curious about Baroness Buscombe’s speech to the Society Of Editors. She talks a great deal about our “dysfunctional democracy” and the role of the press in supplying oppositional scrutiny. She is – and this is very welcome – severely critical of superinjunctions, and the harm they do in restricting information. But none of these things are within her remit as chair of the PCC, and she seems adamant that while there’s plenty to be fixed around the PCC, everything inside is working just fine.

The PCC is a “discreet”, “sensible”, “democratic” service she proclaims, and she has a chilly warning for anyone who thinks the PCC should be doing more:

So to those people who have recently signed a petition on the Number 10 website urging the government to put the PCC on a statutory footing I say: be careful what you wish for.

Yes, there were many people angered by Jan Moir’s controversial article about the death of Stephen Gately; and indeed 25,000 people were sufficiently moved to complain about it to the PCC. But when there is – in the PCC – already a channel to express dismay that a paper has overstepped the line, do people really want a government body telling us what we can read and think? [...]

But a statutory press council is, in any case, pie in the sky. We need look no further than the other great development of the last few weeks to see why. The most benign thing that can be said about the recent Trafigura injunction fiasco was that it showed a touching naïveté on the part of the highly paid lawyers advising the company.

Baroness Buscombe, “Speech to the Society of Editors”

From a restricted perspective, the revulsion at Moir and the exposure of Trafigura might look like contradictory impulses: the conflicted twittermob wants The Mail to hush up, and The Guardian to speak freely. But Trafigura was about verifiable, public interest information. Moir offered nothing but crass speculation – and it’s important to note that she didn’t just outrage the delicate and arbitrary mores of online liberals. Her column broke the PCC’s own code – a code which her employer, The Mail, is ostensibly committed to maintaining.

The PCC’s impotent position means that newspapers feel able to disregard the rules they’ve signed up to. Buscombe, in her interview on Today the next morning, congratulates the PCC on the work it does in averting breaches pre-publication, but when something as clearly egregious as Moir on Gately can make it online and in print, her confidence looks misplaced.

Superinjunctions and libel law need reform, badly. But if legal remedies are going to be made increasingly inaccessible, the PCC will have to do more to assist individuals who end up on the wrong side of reporting: ugly intrusions into personal grief are not the fair price of a free press. The PCC could impose all sorts of penalties on a columnist like Moir without standing in the way of a single Trafigura. But the conflation of personal intrusion with public interest has long been the PCC’s argument for doing nothing: Buscombe is simply aligning recent events to fit a very old way of doing things.

Text © Sarah Ditum, 2009

Nearly 90 percent of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Every year, there are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water; this results in more than 2.2 million deaths each year—the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing every day. The weakest members of communities are the most vulnerable; every day water-related diseases claim the lives of 5000 children under the age of five. That’s roughly one every 15 seconds.

This Christmas, I want to take his words more seriously – “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” -Jesus

Courtesy of Iain Dale’s blog, a report on the Press Complaints Commission’s desire to extend its remit to cover the publication of blogs and their regulation.

My personal opinion (which is, of course, what blogging is, rather than journalism or news, which the PCC spectacularly fails to grasp): the PCC stands as much chance of regulating blogs as the Post Office did with their ill fated musings on regulating and potentially taxing emails during the late 1990s when they, too, were struggling with understanding that newfangled thing called the Internet.

Face it, PCC, the Internet doesn’t work the way you want it to work. And I, for one, won’t be volunteering to clear my blog with you or anyone else. I won’t be regulated by anything other than my own personal sense of taste, honour and decency. I don’t need a rulebook for that, with any of its attendant costs and red-tape.

I’m sure that Gordon Brown would absolutely love to get his mitts on this as another form of constricting the life out of Britain as well, but thankfully, the Internet is simply too distributed to make such an idea work. I publish on WordPress. That means these words are published in the United States. Sorry, PCC, but this publication is beyond your reach and protected by American law! Lawks-a-plenty, I love the Internet.

Having said that, if anyone I mention on this blog doesn’t like what I say, then they have the opportunity to contact me. So, Gordon, if you want the right to reply, please contact me. I’ve got some questions for you as well, which I’d like you to answer at the same time.