Off in the next two weeks

I’m leaving for home in hours, and unfortunately, blogspot is still unavailable over there. So, I will come back as soon as I return in two weeks' time. If you have time, read some of the older articles and leave comments. Thank you for your support. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Four foot good, two foot bad!

I have rarely read a whole book, except in this semester for globalization and IR. I think I should read more, and the start was a very short but famous one – Animal Farm.

Having lived in a communist state, I admire the power of this book. It can really scare the dictators, and awaken the readers. I can’t imagine how Orwell could write down those words and predict what would be going on in communist states 66 years ago, but he did.

He really showed us how fragile we are to propagandas. We are smarter than the animals, in that we can remember more than the alphabet, but our minds are also washed everyday since our births. The education in the school and the media around us told us what to do, how to behave, and how to think. No matter how much freedom we seemingly have, we are who we are because of the society.

Fortunately, George Orwell didn’t predict the free flow of information brought by the internet and other modern technologies. In his another book, 1984, the technology is advanced, but it doesn’t benefit the general population. Today, everybody has so many options what to read and they can express their own opinions and share them with others. This is a progress and it can undermine the propaganda the ruling power wants to impose on the people. As a result, those governments are also spending a lot to influence their people through internet. (50-cent party)

That would return us to another question. What caused communism? George Orwell was a staunch believer of socialism. What he opposed to was dictatorship. So what caused the tragedy in the Soviet Union? Was it Stalin or the system? Could it be any different if it was Stalin who lost the power?

He can always argue that it could be different, but would it be that different? Joseph Stalin was wily and evil, but there could have been more Stalins if not this Stalin took power. Power will change people’s attitude and value. Few people will be the same if they have more power, and it seems to be the human nature that the communist system will fail, because however rosy the future it paints to the people, it won’t be in the interest of the rulers to achieve that, or even move any step closer to that goal.

However slowly the things are improving in democracy, it is the only path to success. You can always argue for authoritarianism, as people argued for Hitler and Stalin. You may say things are different, but we could recall that’s what people have said again and again. There will always be argument for dictatorship, but they will be proved unfounded, though it will be too late for many innocent lives.

Four foot good, two foot bad better. That is exactly what has happened in my country.

Nauru, Inc.

When I was young, I was obsessed with geography. Nauru is one of my favorites, because it has a lovely Chinese name. Its size is very tiny, the third smallest, after Holy See and Monaco. But its citizens are one of the most obese in the world, with 90% of the people heavier than world average and 40% having type II diabetes. Whenever seeing a world map, Nauru is the first place I want to find. But what I couldn’t understand then was politics.

Nauru was rich in phosphate, which, though is not as valuable as oil, can still benefit the small island nations and even made it one of the richest sovereign states during 70’s. But natural resource is always limited. Nauru needs to find a new way to make money, otherwise, it is a country without a future. It virtually becomes a corporation with a good number of employees and a small piece of land.

The government found many ways. First, a tax haven sounds pretty good. But this is illegal and punishable by other states, which means too much risk for Nauru. Then, Nauru started accepting aid from Australia in exchange for housing an illegal migrant detention center. It is not a bad idea, but Australia has moved most of the asylum seekers to its own Christmas Island instead, which can save them a huge amount of aid money.

But the difference between Nauru Inc. and the other corporations is that it can vote in the United Nations. However small it is, its voting power is no smaller than the United States and China in the General Assembly. As a result, its vote is always solicited.

To Nauru’s advantage, there are so many international dispute on sovereignty issues for Nauru to benefit from. China and Taiwan has sent tons of aid to Nauru to earn its diplomatic recognition. It established diplomatic relations with China in 2002 for $130 million, but switched back in merely three years to Taiwan. It is no wonder that a Chinese diplomat lamented “Nauruan government cares too much about its economic interest.”

Last week, Nauruan government recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, breakaway republics in Georgia. It is only the fourth country to do that in the world, after Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

This brought Nauru $50 million aid money from Russia. This is a big money for a country with a size of Nauru, but this is not a sustainable way to make money. Tourism or other services should be the solution, though it still seems a non-starter in Nauru. The natural environment is certainly attractive to the tourists if there is better infrastructure. People there can speak good English, and German and British historic buildings and remains of Japanese occupation still stand on this tiny island, far from any other inhabited islands in Pacific and only miles away from the Equator.

Why the government is still finger-crossing for more political disputes in the world to take advantage of, its president, who used to be a weight-lifting champions in Commonwealth Games, has certainly much to shoulder in order to guide his country to a good future, if any. But his country should also use their diplomatic powers responsibly.

Argentine Jewish tango? Sounds fanstastic, doesnt it? USCIS doesn’t think so.

For Americans’ information, the most hated U.S. government agency in the world is not CIA, but USCIS, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The draconian law restricting the employment and even travelling for many countries, are notorious. But I didn’t expect it could be so bureaucrat until I read this piece of news. (Wall Street Journal)

When Jordan Peimer booked an Argentine band that fuses Jewish Klezmer music with tango, he thought he had the perfect act to headline his "Fiesta Hanukkah" concert.

"It is hard to imagine any band more fitting than Orquesta Kef," says Mr. Peimer, the program's director at the Skirball Cultural Center here. The event was designed to attract a Jewish audience and the city's burgeoning Hispanic community.

That was before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services weighed in with some cultural commentary of its own. The band couldn't travel to the U.S., the agency ruled, because it didn't satisfy a "culturally unique" requirement for a performer visa called P-3.

"The evidence repeatedly suggests the group performs a hybrid or fusion style of music...[which] cannot be considered culturally unique to one particular country, nation, society, class, ethnicity, religion, tribe or other group of persons," read the denial. It was signed by caseworker CSC4672/WS24533.

I am amazed that this way of dealing with foreign artist is not the distinct feature of my country’s government agencies.

Smart Brazilian thieves

Brazilian thieves have shown the quality of thieves in a superpower. They used the football celebration and Christmas trees to make their robbery seem legitimate.

Thieves in Brazil have stolen more than £5m ($6m) from a cash delivery firm, taking advantage of the nation's passion for football, police say.

Police believe the thieves - who had dug a tunnel into the firm's building - struck when season-ending matches were played in Sao Paulo on Sunday.

A security guard later told local media he had heard a loud noise but thought it was fireworks lit by fans.

The theft was only discovered on Sunday evening - after the matches had ended.

They also have to predict the right result. If the home team had lost, probably they wouldn't have had the chance to cover up the explosion.

Inconvenient truth about liberal democracies

Switzerland, one of the most democratic and well-off countries, have passed a referendum banning the Muslim minaret. It seems Huntington was right, or wasn’t he?

Fear of Islam is rife in Europe, not only after 9/11. Muslims came to Europe because they were colonized, and also, there has been a demand for labor force. But Europe has never been as open to the immigrants as the United States. Considering the anti-immigration sentiment in America, it is understandable that immigrants are not welcome in Europe, especially those we don’t speak the European languages very well.

But what about culture? Is it really the clash of civilization? 9/11, Madrid and London bombings of course worsened the situation. This gave some politicians excuses to shut the door for Muslims. But we all know there are Christian extremists and there were many more in the past. The cause is not the religion per se, and it will certainly improve in the future. But prejudice, animosity and discrimination will only delay the moderation of Islam.

Can democracy help? It’s hard. I do believe liberal democracy is the best type of political system mankind has ever made, but everybody recognizes it’s far from perfect. The political diversity is good for the society, and people are always easy to be influenced and incited by some demagogues or warmongers. Whenever there is a crisis, hatred and fear will dominate and be taken advantage of by politicians.

Even there were no Islam, they would still use the differences among people (there are always some, because everyone is unique), in terms of their religion, culture, language, race, gender, wealth, etc., to pursue their hidden agenda. There will always be some.

But are those politicians to blame? No. They exist because of the system. You cannot expect everybody to be Philosophy King. People do what they do because of the system they are in. It is really an inconvenient truth. I would expect this kind of story will exist forever in the world. What I can do is to finger-cross and hope it will become rarer.

Finally they will hold an election, or will they?

People love soccer would know the national team of Cote d'Ivoire has been very strong in the last decade. But its rise of football power is accompanied by the start of political turbulence, including a civil war.

Right now, a fragile peace is still in place. But the presidential election, due in 2005, is yet to be hold, thanks to the fragility of political situation.

Now, early March next years has been set for the date of next election. But whether it is going to happen is questionable since 8 previous attempts had failed. An election is possible to set fire on the political situation and start new conflicts among different cliques, but blank check of never-going-to-happen elections is not going to help. Holding a free-and-fair election on time and opening to international aid and supervision can be and should be the only solution.

Dear Leader needs your money

News related to North Korea is most about its nuclear program and the disputes with its southern neighbor. But this week, the totalitarian government started to issue new currency. I didn't know North Korea has a currency since there are so few to sell.

The policy is draconian. It not only devalued the currency, won, one hundredfold, it also restricted the amount of money allowed to be held by a family to somewhere under 100 dollars. This is outrageous. The government, again, showed its determination to exploit and enslave its citizens.

The implication is tremendous. The economy has already dismal enough, and the government is still squandering budget on military. Like the other East Asians, North Koreans also have the habit of saving. This policy has rendered their lifelong savings useless. No wonder there has been reports of demonstrations in this most oppressive country.

The real target is reported to be the black market. We all know when a government-led economy is failing, black market helps sustain people's daily lives. Smart dictators would recognize this fact and ignore it, but Kim Jung-Il probably thinks he is much smarter than them. This policy is likely to backfire.

A Chinese saying goes, "Nobody wants to rebel, but they have to when the government leaves them no choice." North Korea is on the right direction.

European Standard

This took place three years ago, but it was so funny that I want to share with you guys. It shows how Lukashenka, dubbed “Last Dictator in Europe”, is ruling Belarus. (Radio Free Europe)

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, accused of inflating his vote tally to win reelection in March, says he actually reduced the number of votes he received to make the result more acceptable to the West.

Lukashenka made the remark to journalists in Minsk on November 23.

"Yes, we falsified the latest elections," Lukashenka said. "I have already told the Westerners about this. As many as 93.5 percent of voters voted for President Lukashenka. But they said this was not a 'European' figure. And we reduced it to 86 [percent]. That's indeed what happened."

Finally, he recognized the fact that his government has rigged the election, but just the opposite direction. How modest he is. It really shows his commitment to rejoin Europe and reestablish good relations with neighbors, or does it?

The only thing is he actually only got 83% in the official tally. It turns out his subordinates have done a better job than he expected.

There are so many fake or heavily-rigged elections in the world. Are they a good step forward or they are even worse than no election at all?

New Energy Source: Bunnies

Nordic countries, in my impression, are the most heaven-like places in the world. Comfort lives with beautiful land, and even more nice-looking people.

They are also leading in the campaign to tackle climate change. But their way to find new energy sources is debatable.

Thousands of stray rabbits in Sweden are being shot, frozen and burned for heat. (Der Spiegel)

I can’t imagine the brutality in this wonderland, which is even worse than the atrocity committed by Viking Pirates. I doubt the efficiency of this energy source and more importantly, it seems the carbon emission from this is also significant.

I hope the fellow Swedes will think twice.

R-rated dissident

I'm feeling very relieved after learning the Zambian journalist Chansa Kabwela has been acquitted. (BBC)

She wanted to report the lack of access to proper medical treatment in this country, especially for pregnant women. A picture, showing a baby being delivered, was really a shocking example of that. According to the report, the nurses were on strike and the women has been turned away from two clinics.

Would the government do something to tackle this issue? First Lady of the country has a different perspective. She accused this picture of pornography, which is still illegal in Zambia.

Pornography is an explicit depiction to arouse sexual excitement. I doubt this picture can play this role. Any excitement would be lost if you see this shocking picture.

Is this a way of political oppression? This reminds me of the Lese majeste in Thailand, which is an extremely strict law to ban any offense against the dignity of royal family, but has been taken advantage by those in power to prosecute their opponents. Another example is the sodomy accusation against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar bin Ibrahim. Clearly, those laws are also well used by my government.

Anyway, it’s good to hear that the case has been ended in a happy ending. I hope the government would put more efforts to improve the medical conditions, instead of learning the Russians.

Iron Curtain is still there

I read a fascinating report about deer on the Germany-Czech border. 20 years after the fall of Iron Curtain, although the barbed wires are no longer there, the deer are still unwilling to cross that line. It shows how powerful the politics can even influence the nature. (Wall Street Journal)

Also, it has been snowing heavily in China. I want to share pictures of some funny snowman. Chinese can also be creative.

Pictures

Somali pirates made their biggest mistake

A North Korean ship was kidnapped by invincible Somali pirates despite warships from numerous countries are patrolling in that area. (BBC) But as they did when they mistakenly attacked a French warship, they made a huge mistake again. Capturing a North Korea ship is really a bad deal.

First of all, they should have known how much this ship is worth. What’s on the ship probably cannot even offset the fuel to capture it. The old Soviet-era ship would have sunken without the rescue of Somali friends.

Secondly, the dear leader Kim doesn’t care the life of his people whatsoever. There is no way that North Korea would pay the ransom, let alone whether it has those money. Probably they will wait for South Korea to pay it for them as a precondition to restart the negotiation on whether they will start to consider returning to the six-party talks. Good deal, huh?

Moreover, those people probably won’t want to leave Somalia because they are fed by the pirates. Back in North Korea, it’s unlikely that they can have double-digit number of meals in a week. Likewise, they are enjoying the freedom they have not thought about even though they are detained by armed pirates. At least they don’t have to shout long live to the great leader a hundred times a day.

But nothing is certain. By some remote chance, the great leader had the mood to withdraw some secret private money from Swiss bank to pay the ransom and get those hostages back. The reason why he does this is because North Korea wants to torture and execute those traitors by themselves. They want to show their brand-new high-tech bullets and the shooting ability of their great soldiers.

But it is unlikely to happen anyway. Somali pirates should come to MSFS and take globalization course to better understand who to kidnap and trade course to know the important of labor scarcity to cut a good deal.

Political correctness in Chinese Foreign Ministry's Press Conference

When Qin Gang, the spokesman for Chinese Foreign Ministry, was answering a question raised by a journalist about whether Obama will meet with Dalai Lama, his answer was funny, but probably normal for Chinese.

Dalai Lama was the head of Tibetan slavery system. In 1959, China abolished slavery in Tibet, which was the same as what President Lincoln did in 1863. As a black man, President Obama should understand China's policy and stop supporting Dalai Lama.

Tibet before 1959 was a slavery. This is basically the fact. But linking this to race shows Chinese people's insensibility to racial issues. Even the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, who should be most careful before uttering any word, would make this kind of statement.

Indeed, racial problem is new to Chinese. When a half-Chinese, half-African-American girl took part in a reality show, what she faced were jeers. In 1988, before the before Tiananmen square protest, there was an anti-African demonstration in Hehai University in Nanjing just because some Africans had Chinese girlfriends.

Chinese are generally hospitable, and they are very nice to foreigners. But the thing is they don't want you to join their family. This is not an issue limited to China. In Korea and Japan, foreigners are also complaining it's hard to be accepted by the society. But if China is able to continue its growth, more foreigners will come to China, and even there will be some immigrants. The society will face the test and I hope the mentality will change.

Obama shook hands with my friends~

Obama had a town hall meeting with Shanghai students, therefore, many people I know took part in that meeting, and rightfully, sat in the front rows.

Probably my friends didn’t have the chance to ask questions, but a question about whether Chinese should have the freedom to use Twitter still impressed me, that the government would allow this question to be asked since it is something about the freedom of expression, a sensitive topic in China.

Obama answered the question in an indirect but perfect way to ensure that the transcript would be put on the website of Chinese official news agency. I applaud Obama’s attempt to reach out to Chinese student, who will be the future of China. State-run education is still cultivating anti-west mood and a charismatic American president would be really a good way to win support from China’s future.

Today’s students are more docile than those 20 years ago, but they can be the force to make change in China. Obama, the president of change, can make a difference.

New York Times mentioned that all students are hand-picked by the government and most of them are Communist Youth League members. It doesn’t tell a lot. I believe I would have had the chance to be be “hand-picked” if I had been there. They pick us because we study international relations. We could have maverick perspectives, but we won’t bring it up during such high publicity occasion. (One of my friends told me she didn't know this.... It seems people were using their connection to get a ticket)

New York Times should also understand almost every student in China are member of Communist Youth League. If one is not, he/she must have joined the Communist Party. The Youth League is the like the Young Pioneer. We didn’t have a choice to not join it without a risk to be weird and isolated from the others. It, by no means, shows our support for the system and the government. I am still a member of Communist Youth League, by the way, though I have no intention to apply for the party membership whatsoever.

Obama in China

Obama wasn't as popular as Hillary at first, but now he certainly is. Now he's on his way there, I would like to share some interesting pictures.

an unofficial poll on “US President will soon visit China, what do you most want to chat with him about?”

1. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize after just taking office, how did you get it?
   1487 votes (10.19%)
2. Discuss the Chinese human rights problem that Obama cares most about, how about it?
   620 votes (4.25%)
3. About the issue of whether Taiwan is a province of China.
   3322 votes (22.76%)
4. What will America use to secure China’s investment of American government bonds?
   2903 votes (19.89%)
5. How to promote denuclearizing of the world?
   614 votes (4.21%)
6. How does America plan to promote its relations with China?
   1670 votes (11.44%)
7. How can China and America cooperate in denuclearizing the North Korean peninsula?
   439 votes (3.01%)
8. What role does American want to play in the future East Asian Community?
   545 votes (3.73%)
9. When will America lift its embargo of high-tech products and weapons on China?
   2490 votes (17.06%)
10. How can China and America cooperate on anti-terrorism?
    503 votes (3.45%)

Green Olympics in Brazil, or Black Olympics?

Olympics is really beneficial for environment when China turned off numerous assembly lines to give Beijing a clearer sky last year. It seems Brazil was leading in this sense. But this wasn't so popular as China's.

The blackout of the country didn't show the commitment of Green Olympics, but the fragility of the country. Brazil has been doing very well under President Lula, but it still has so much to do before the World Cup and Olympics to showcase Brazil's modernization. In a democratic society, it is undoubtedly harder than authoritarian China. The process would take some time and effort, but it would be worthwhile. A Black Olympics is not likely to happen in 7 years.

Education in Spain: Learning how to use your hands -- to do job

Spain is still more religious than most other Western European countries as the Catholicism faith is still influential in the daily life for majority of the population. Most people go to church on Sundays, and they pray before meals, which is no longer the case in many other nominally Christian countries. On social issues, Spain is also more conservative. I remember Maria told me about the prohibition of oral sex, which sounds nothing but ridiculous in a non-Muslim country in 21th century.

But recently, Extremadura government launched a campaign to educate children about masturbation, based around the slogan "pleasure as in your own hands". Leaflets will be distributed, and workshops will be hold for students from 14 to 17 years old. This is no wonder hugely controversial. Social conservatives were extremely angered. (BBC)

I'm not sure about the benefit of this education, though not from a religious perspective. Probably most of the students have already become experts and the education would only reduce their level of enjoyment compares with the self-exploration process. But this is an interesting idea and I would love to know how it's implemented and the reaction of the students.

Being blessed 24/7

It is so nice when I hear somebody says "bless you" to me when I sneeze. This is a culture which doesn't exist in China. Trivial as it is, I feel the warmth of the society, even though many believe people are getting more indifferent to others.

But can you believe somebody who is surrounded by "bless you" everyday and all day long? A 12-year-old girl has this fortune, or more accurately, misfortune, of sneezing 12,000 times a day. (FOX News)

In fact, she has become a sneezing machine gun. Understanding this, she no longer goes to school. Poor little girl. Bless you!

New Berlin Wall erected

U2 is holding a concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall. But the authorities decided to erect a 2-meter wall around the concert. (The Times)

Setting up a wall to ensure the safety of the performer is understandable in most cases, but probably you should think twice before setting up a wall in Berlin.

Palau's double-standard immigration policy

Palau, a small Pacific island nation recently gained its independence from the United States, has announced its willingness to accept some acquitted Uighur detainees in Guantanamo. Those people have been proved to be innocent but no country would dare to accept them for fear of Chinese reprisal. China claims they are terrorists and many people fear they won't receive fair trial and will probably be executed if they return to China.

Palau has proved itself a credible ally of United States. When the United Nations General Assembly were voting to accept the Goldstone Report, in which it criticized Israel's human rights abuse in its Gaza Campaign, only three countries voted no. They were Israel, United States, and guess who, Palau. 187 countries voted yes. Surviving on U.S. aid, it is not surprising to see them as the staunchest ally of United States.

Today, when Palaun president Johnson Toribiong personally the Uighur prisoners, he even led them a tour, showing the country's hospitality. But on the same day, he announced plans to send home between 200 and 300 Bangladeshi Muslim migrants whose work visas have expired, and last month he banned anyone else from the South Asian country from entering Palau.

Oh, poor Bangladeshis. If they publicly denounce China's human rights policy, probably they will have a shot to be allowed to stay there!

Gender equality in South Africa?

In a new ranking of gender equality published by World Economic Forum, South Africa jumped from number 22 to six place, overtaking Denmark and Ireland. It shows the improved labor force participation of women in that country. Moreover, there are more women members of parliament and cabinet after the election earlier this year. It seems to be a huge achievement of this country 15 years after the beginning of racial equality.

But some facts shocked me and forced me to doubt how much this ranking means. It is reported one in four South African men admitted to have raped women. This proportion is not far from the Rape of Nanking. And the new South African Jacob Zuma is famous for his disdain of female politicians. It’s still to early to judge his ability to lead this country, but his notoriety of practicing polygamy inevitably hurts his country.

If they really want to reach a gender equality, either one quarter of the South African women should do the same to their male compatriots, or the government and society should start thinking about how to deal with the raping problem.

The Ridiculous Chinese College Entrance Exam

This is the exam which called "Life and Death test" since it will literally determine your future. If you are from a village and fail to pass the university line, you will have to go back home and become a peasant for your life. I took it in 2005. Fortunately, I was able to go to the university I liked.

An intern journalist's article was used in a reading comprehension in the Chinese test in National College Entrance Exam. But when he tried to do the questions about his article, he only got 1 out of 15 points. Probably, the examiner understood the article much better than he did.

This news once again ridiculed the current system of entrance exam. Many people claimed this exam is the only way to ensure the fairness against the corruption and nepotism. But the negligence of practical abilities is the destroying generations of Chinese people, including myself.

You can do well in English test without being able to speak English. You can do well in maths and physics but not knowing how to apply them to life or to the further study on science. For social science, especially literature, we know there could be different understandings of one thing because of the different backgrounds and mentalities of people. Sticking to one way of thinking only restricts students' intelligence, constraining creativity. People can work like machine but not innovate. I believe this would have a huge implication on Chinese future unless the government makes some changes immediately.

Why bother holding presidential election?

President Karzai finally accepted to participate in a run-off after a deeply fraud first round. Many people believed, with good reason, he had confidence to win, with or without the help of rigging, before being willing to back down after declaring the previous result of first round is legitimate.

Unpopular and corrupt as his government is, Karzai is still the favorite for America. His reelection seems best for the sake of stability in that shaken countries. Abdullah Abdullah isn't a majority Pashto, but a Tajik, which seems to be harder to win support over Pashto Taliban.

But what if there is widespread fraud in the second round? Some suggest forming a coalition government would be a wise option. Due to the fact that it's hard to hold a free and fair election under this harsh condition, we have adequately good excuse for picking this third way out of the dilemma. This also has been proved to be partly, though not totally satisfyingly, successful after similar cases in Kenya and Zimbabwe (incumbents rigged to close victory, but conceded to form coalition with opposition thanks to immense international and domestic pressure). Incumbents staying as president and opposition leader becoming prime minister seems to be a solution for future election controversy.

But since the incumbent will stay in the power anyway, why not just hold a prime ministerial election to share limited power with opposition? Why bother rigging the election to merely 51% and then shamefully giving in to pressure? We have only one answer: they are simply farces. If that also happens to Afghanistan, United States would even lose the last moral high ground.

Election Watch:

In Botswana, one of the Africa's best managed countries, the ruling party, which has been in power since the country's independence in 1965, once again renewed its mandate, in a seemingly free and fair election. The biggest opposition suffered a big blow, reducing from 12 seats to 6. The third party has gained ground, but the conflicting opposition cannot find a way to challenge the incumbents, making Botswana a Type-2 error in democratic statistics. Replying on the abundance of diamond resource, this country is successful and stable according to African standard. Voters feel no reason to change the status quo, which is totally understandable. But without a challange from the opposition, the ruling party will be hard to prevent from self-damaging with corruption and nepotism. A credible opposition should be the future if Botswana wants to become an example of whole sub-Sahara Africa.

Parties		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Botswana Democratic Party	290,099	53.26	45	+1
	Botswana National Front	119,509	21.94	6	–6
	Botswana Congress Party	104,302	19.15	4	+3
	Botswana Alliance Movement	12,387	2.27	1	+1
	Independents	10,464	1.92	1	+1

Secretary Hu's new achievement -- Starting the great revival of Chinese football

The sports of China is like her GDP, competing in the very top level. But China's national football team is still in the same level of GDP per capita, wandering outside top 100.

Recently, several politburo members met with veteran football stars and FA officials. They intelligently noticed the terrible status and demanded them to spare no efforts to satisfy the numerous football fans in China. Yesteryda, Hu also stepped into this campaign.

Football is beautiful because its diversity. People from different countries have their own advantages. However poor a country is, its national team could never be written off easily. Iraq won the 2007 Asian Cup, and North Korea qualified for 2010 World Cup.

But why can't China do well? The government has already spent plenty of resources into it. The obstacles are the corrupt professional league and lack of support for youth training. However well Chinese athletes do in the Olympics, without a national support for basic sports facitilies for general population, those results are useless. And football, is just a parometer of this.

Without a reformed league, Chinese football will never have a bright future. Corrupt and bureaucratic as the political system is, please leave football alone.

Finally, Egyptians are protesting Chinese import -- artificial hymen.

If you have read my recommended articles, you would know this news.

Selling sex may be the oldest profession in history, but selling virginity?
That's new. Chinese naughty toys company Gigimo (motto: Let's play!) has advertised an artificual hymen kit throughout the Middle East that has sparked controversy in Egypt.

From Associated Press:

It is intended to help newly married women fool their husbands
into believing they are virgins — culturally important in a conservative Middle
East where sex before marriage is considered by many to be illicit. The product
leaks a blood-like substance when inserted and broken.
In a country and a region where pre-marital sex is so taboo it can even lead to a
woman's murder, the debate over the virginity-faking kit has revived Egypt's
constant struggle to reconcile modern mores with more traditional beliefs —
namely, that a woman is not a virgin unless she bleeds after the first time.
Egyptian lawmakers officially banned the product, but its availability was
made public when a reporter from Radio Netherlands aired an Arabic translation
of a commercial advertising the product. Gigimo currently still offers shipping to Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, and promises "no side effects, no pain to use, no allergic reaction."

Personally, I fully support China in this issue. It helps give more personal freedom in those closed society. But even today, this traditional obsession of virginity till wedding is still influential in China. If we really want to liberate women, the society should be transformed.

China should support all international sanctions!

China, again, became the debacle of international effort to punish Iranian regime by threatening to veto any new severe sanctions. The strong ties with Iran, especially the import of oil, are the reasons.

But since China is doing business with Sudan and Myanmar despite the international outcry, and benefiting a lot from the lack of competition from other countries, China should staunchly support all the sanctions against any dictatorship (of course not include any country in East Asia), and ignore it anyway. This could provide China a even better trading condition, helping her find the resources she urgently needs.

The things you should know about China -- Emperor Series: Qin Shi Huang

Welcome to The Things You Should Know About
China series on Daily Report. Many people told me China is going to rule the world. So you'd better start studying and trying to know more about China before Chinese come kick your ass. Is this a good insentive for study? For those guys who want to find a girlfriend or boyfriend from China, work harder!

If you want to know more about China, you should know its long history. If you wanna know more about its history, you should know some of the most famous emperors! So our first series are about the emperors you have to know.

How many Chinese emperors do you know right now? None? Ghengis Khan? No, he doesn't count! That's not good enough. To accomplish this course, you need to know at least 30-50, out of more than 300 of them, so it's not hard, is it?

Many people say China has a history of 5000 years civilization. I always doubt this number. Undoubtedly China has a long history, but the few evidences of written texts and records being recovered can only extend it to barely over 3500 years. The number 5000 years was based on legendary stories in historical records, but some of the rulers lived for more than 120 years, which was extremly unlikely for a society with average age of 25. This doesn't mean there wasn't neolithic society in China, especially along the Yellow River, there were many. But they were still behind their counterparts in other parts of the world, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The thing in which Chinese history is distinct from others is its consistency. Egytian and Mesopotamian cilivization ceased to exist after foreign invasion, but China is still standing. All the foreign invasion resulted in invaders being assmiliated (Mongols, Manchus, etc), not the other way around, and the pillar of Chinese languages, confucionist philosophy, centralized imperial system and ancestral-worshipping traditions, sustained.

Today, I'm gonna talk about the first emperor in China. Though maybe you haven't heard his name, you should have known something about him. If you have watched the movie "Mummy 3", the antagonist in this movie is based on this emperor. Most of the facts I shared about are common knowledge to majority of Chinese people, so they are quite important.

Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇)

Name: YING Zheng （嬴政)

Dynasty: Qin Dynasty (秦朝)

Time of reign: 246 BC - 210 BC (from 221 BC, he claimed to be the emperor of whole China)

Famous indicator: 100

Importance indicator: 100

Governance indicator: 60

Birth and taking power

Ying Zheng was born to Master Yiren, later King Zhuangxiang of Qin. At the time of his birth, because born to a concubine of the crown prince, his dad was a hostage prince living in the state of Zhao. (that was very common at that time to ensure peace between two states) But a merchant named Lü Buwei, using his wealth and wisdom, manipulated in the power struggle to make Master Yiren the successor of his dad, later King Xiaowen of Qin. Soon after this, Ying Zheng's greatgrandfather, grandfather and father died in 5 years (many believed those as result of conspiracy plotted by Lü Buwei). The young Ying Zheng became the king of Qin. Because of his young age, it was Lü Buwei, who proclaimed to be regent, controlled all the state affairs. When Ying Zheng got older, he became more suspicious of Lü Buwei, and finally purged, executed him and took over the power.

"Do You Know"
Because Ying Zheng was born to a concubine of Master Yiren, who used to be a servant of Lü Buwei, many folklores claimed his biological dad was actually Lü Buwei. That makes Ying Zheng a patricide murderer.

Unify the country
When Ying Zheng became king, there were 7 strong states in China. But after several successful reforms and decisive military victories, Qin had stood up as the strongest. After foiling the attempt of other six states to form an alliance, Qin started the campaign of annexation. From 230 BC to 222 BC, the army of Qin crushed the other six states, Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu and Qi.

Jing Ke's assassination
During the unifying campaign, the prince of Yan knew his country had no chance to stop Qin. So, he sent a professional assassin, Jing Ke, to conduct a suicide mission to kill Ying Zheng with a dagger. He pretended to present a map of several cities, which was supposedly to accede to Qin. When he slowly unfolded the map, he picked up the dagger in the map, but he failed to kill Ying Zheng and was killed by the guards.

First emperor
Being the first ruler of unified China, Ying Zheng coined a new title for himself, "Huang Di", which was tranlsated into emperor. Therefre, he was called Qin Shi Huang, which means the first emperor of Qin. His empire has covered most areas along the Yellow River and Yangtze River. He also standardized the measurement system and introduced a nation-wide currency. During his reign, the country was in constant fighting with tribes in the south, and the territory of the empire was expanding.

Burn books, bury confucionists
In order to prevent the scholars to compare his dynasties with the previous ones, he demanded all the books should be buried. This was a huge destruction of Chinese culture and made the historians much harder to understand how China was before his reign. Many historical texts were lost forever. In addition, he also asked his soldiers to bury many scholars alive because they secretly owned books.

Building of Great Wall
In order to defend against the northern nomadic tribes, Huns, Qin Shi Huang order to build and rebuild the Great Wall, link the previous great walls built by other states together to defend his empire. Great Wall was renovated and rebuilt again and again in the following 2000 years, making it one of the greatest constructions in the world. But those heavy construction became a suffering for the people.

Death
The emperor died during his tour to Eastern China. But the prime minister, Li Si, decided not to announce it for fear of uprising. After two months' trip back to the capital, his second son Ying Huhai, with the help of Zhao Gao, grasped the power thanks to the absence of will by Qin Shi Huang. But his son proved to be incapable of this job, and the dynasty ended in his hand.

"Do You Know"
Qin Shi Huang was famous for his obsession of immortality. He believed in those fables and once sent 300 people to Eastern Sea to find an immortal living there. They were believed to arrive in Japan. It is also believed that his death was a result of consumption of an alleged elixir.

Mausoleum and Terracota Warrior
His son ordered a huge construction project to build a mausoleum for Qin Shi Huang. The result was the great Mausoleum with the Terracota Army, which wasn't found until 1970s. Most parts of it are still untapped because an extremly high level of mercury was detected. It showed the unbelievable level of technology at that time. But it also contribute to the end of that dynasty because people couldn't bear the burden of rocketing tax and hard labor exploitation.

This is the end of Lecture One. I hope it is helpful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me. Before the next lecture, there will be a quiz about this one. So, study hard! Haha.

The coolest cabinet meeting in the world

Everyone knows it's hard to become a cabinet minister. But it's even harder in Maldives. At least you should know how to dive. (President of Maldives)

President Mohamed Nasheed, Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed and 11 cabinet ministers donned scuba gear and submerged 4 meters below the surface of sea to hold the world's first underwater cabinet meeting, in a bid to push for a stronger climate change agreement in the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen.

“We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn't checked” said President Nasheed, speaking to the press as soon as he resurfaced from underwater.

“What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state. This is not merely an issue for the Maldives but for the world. If we can't save the Maldives today, you can't save the rest of the world tomorrow”, said President Nasheed further.

During the 30-minute meeting held in the turquoise lagoon off Girifushi Island, with a backdrop of corals, the President, the Vice President and eleven other Cabinet ministers signed a resolution calling for global cuts in carbon emissions.

In order to raise the world awareness of global warming, Maldives held its cabinet meter underwater. This coral reef nation is in danger if there is any rise of sea level, while the upcoming Copenhagen conference still looks unlikely to solve this global environmental issue.

Mongols destroyed so many states on their way to Europe, but Maldives and other island nations could fall victims to the inaction of the world. But at least history will always remember this historic cabinet meeting.

The greatest legacy of Roman warriors -- Bribing Taliban

It's reported that the only reason why the Afghan region occupied by Italian troops were so peaceful was because Italian government bribed the Taliban tribal leaders. What's more astonishing was Italy didn't pass this secret tactic to French troops, who are currently responsible for this area. Their failure to pay angered Taliban, leading to a false assessment, resulting in huge casualties for France. (The Times)

Once again, Italian troops showed they are the descedents of great Roman army. The humiliated victory in World War I and the even more humiliated loss in World War II (probably Germany could have won the war if they were wise enough to make Italy ally with England) reminded us of their great history. They even couldn't defeat the Ethiopian troops using swords and arrows, until they introduced mustard gas into battlefield.

But we should understand Italy's tactics. The enemy they were facing was ruthless. They really threatened a Pakistani newspaper that if they continued to call them terrorists, they would bomb the newspaper headquarters. Sounds like exactly what terrorist means, doesn't it?

PS: I'm going to start a series about China's history! If you are interested, please keep coming~ The first series would be some interesting facts of many Chinese emperors. There were really so many of them.

The best way to shake Kim Jung-Il's rule

What is the best way to shake North Korean's totalitarian regime from within? Like Berlin Wall, those regimes always worry about defection. If we can boost up the defection, North Korean will collapse from within.

But the fate of many defectors in South Korea are quite miserable. Especially for North Korean women, they are diligent and persevering. But it's hard to find a job in a new environment. Many of them have to earn their livings as a prostitute or hostess in bar. The way to improve their lives is to find them a South Korean bachelor.

Financial Times has reported a new matchmaking service in South Korea. It's a good idea, isn't it? Finally we find a better way to deal with Kim than sanctions.

China helps people living in dictatorships?

Every Chinese were taught that China sacrificed a lot in building a railway between Tanzania and Zambia, which is a display of Sino-Africa friendship. It was the biggest foreign aid of China at that time when millions of people were starving domestically. This railway built by sweat and blood should make China forever a popular friend in Africa.

Mostly, it is still the case now. The Sino-Africa Summit a couple of years ago attracted more than 40 heads of states and governments and representatives from all African countries. But today, China is no longer attractive because its moral high standard in international relations with Third World countries or its Maoist ideology, but for its gigantic economic power (though sometimes it is not that good, such as scandal in Namibia).

Days ago, when President Kagame of Rwanda spoke to a German press, he declared African countries needed and liked Chinese aid. Of course, a deal without precondition of domestic political change is attractive to anyone. Today, China signed a huge mining and oil deal with Guinean authorities only days after a massacre by the military government. (BBC)

While many people still believe this Guinean government has no legitimacy to sign on trade deals, the Guinean government official claims that this deal will only benefit the innocent people. It sounds reasonable. Is it really true?

Kagame said African governments prefer to have trade instead of foreign aids, for this is the only way for them to develop themselves. In this aspect, China is doing still the right thing. It is the only way for Africa to go out of the malicious cycle to have a sustainable progress.

You can say that because corruption is rife, those trades can never make a difference. This is not true. Even 80% of the trade went to the pockets of the corrupt officials, people can still benefit from the 20%, which is much better than nothing (Western sanction).

The only thing is this would help those dictators to maintain their power. That's true, but history tells us sanction is not an efficient way to end dictatorship. Knowing this, trading with this country should be a dominant strategy.

But how on earth can we transition African countries into democracies? I believe communication, not isolation, would be the only way. Only after people are exposed to the fact that democracies are more prosperous can they really support this movement. Isolation will only lead to starvation, forcing people to support whoever can provide them food. Western countries should change their mindset on how to deal with Africa if they don't want China to take control.

Taylor Swift should get Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, surprising everyone in the world, especially for himself. People around the world desribed this from an achievement, a controversy to a joke. Does Obama deserve this award? I don't know. But I think Taylor Swift deserves it as much as Obama does. Here's why.

Both Taylor Swift and Barack Obama are successful. Young (relative to their field) and cute, they both inspried many people by using their mouth and voice. They bring hope and a fresh image to people by cleaning up the previously tainted one by George Bush and Britney Spears relatively.

Just see the albums Fearless released by Taylor Swift in November 2008, you will hear a song called "Change". Who was shouting this word at that time? Another song was called "White Horse". I believe this was just a typo. Don't you think there is some connection?

Many said Obama won it because the Nobel Committee wanted to console him for the humiliation by Copenhagen's International Olympic Committee's decision. But if the Nordic people really want to make up for their mistake, the one who needs consolation is definitely Taylor, who was hurt by Kanye West on the MTV Award, as everybody knows. And her kindness for accepting apologies from him shows the character of a Nobel Peace Laureate as President Obama showed when he accepted the apology from Congressman Joe Wilson.

p.s.: I hope my friend Nick can recover from the illness soon!

30 MILLION Chinese men won't be able find a woman. Hope I won't be one of them!

Due to the great "One Child Policy", the sex imbalance is becoming a huge issue.

Check this news at Fox News. It talks about parents and grandparents advertising their children in Shanghai!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,562341,00.html

People without a family would do anything. Rape, murder, suicide, or... work against the government. For the sake of a harmonious society, end the "One Child Policy"!

Pres. is going to China. So Tibet and China are not related.

Dalai Lama is in the United States. But President Obama refused to meet him in DC, which is totally different from all his predecessors. Of course, this doesn't mean he won't meet him at some point in his tenure, but appeasing to China before having a state visit in one month is quite significant, but also understandable.

But his State Department spokesman didn't do a good job in that.

Kelly denied that the president's refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama today was a signal that the administration is taking a hands-off approach to confronting the PRC on issues such as human rights and Tibetan autonomy. "I think these are two separate issues, the president's decision to meet with the Dalai Lama and the path that our relationship with China is on," Kelly said.

It seems that he meant Tibet and China are sepapare issue, which supports the Tibetan separatist movement. It's a catch, ah ha!

China, please help my lovely son!

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between communist China and communist Korea, Premier Wen Jiabao is in a three-day visit in North Korea.

This visit caught eyes of the world because the reportedly dying dictator Kim Jung-Il greeted the coming Chinese leader at the airport, which is extremely rare for him. Many predicted that it was a sign of willingness to restart six-party talks.

After the meeting, the two leaders jointly announced that the two countries' will continue their close friendship "for the generations to come". Clearly, Kim is preparing for his youngest son's succession. Kim Jung-Un, his 24-year-old, Switzerland-educated, son, has been reported to be named as his successor since his two elder sons are not fit for the job. (One is sick and the other has been caught using fake passport to visit Disneyland in Japan)

China has been the staunchest and possibly, only ally of North Korea. But in recent years, Kim has apparently tried to break out of this hoop by talking to U.S. directly, thus abandoning the six-party talks model which was proposed and held by China. But U.S. is reluctant to anger China and reward the dictator by agreeing to his terms.

So, what he can do is introduce his son to China. What he can hope right now is the Chinese government will support his son in the glorious cause to totally destroy his country.

(BBC has a cool video shot in North Korea recently. Please have a look. Pay attention to the North Korean who accused the BBC journalist of secretly shooting videos. It's like a teacher criticizing a first-grade student. It's really funny.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8293940.stm

Election Watch:

The election in Greece has put Socialist Party back to power, in a stunning defeat for the government. Winning 160 seats out of 300 in the parliament, the Socialist can now have a stable government to drag Greece out of the recession. Right now, this stability seems more important than who wins. The inauguration of George Papandreou continued the political dynasties in this country. For the outgoing Prime Minister Karamanlis, I still remember his tears when Greece beat Portugal in the final of Euro 2004, three months after he came to power. 2004 was a good year for his country, but 2009 seems to be totally different. Sorry!

Parties		Leaders	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Panhellenic Socialist Movement	George Papandreou	3,012,373	43.92	+5.82	160	+58
	New Democracy	Kostas Karamanlis	2,295,967	33.48	−8.38	91	−61
	Communist Party	Aleka Papariga	517,154	7.54	−0.61	21	−1
	Popular Orthodox Rally	Georgios Karatzaferis	386,152	5.63	+1.83	15	+5
	Coalition of the Radical Left	Alexis Tsipras	315,627	4.60	−0.44	13	−1

China almost shaved

I finally finished the paper for Globalization. Feeling relieved a bit, two exams and tons of readings and homework is waiting for me. Oh, gosh.

The magnificant parade on Oct 1 in Tiananmen Square impressed a lot of people (I'm not one of them). Though Hu's the speech was as boring as always. Yawn! It seemed the government spent more effort on enforcing the 125 km pigeon ban than on his speech, which was supposed to exhibit China's determination to lead the world.

The new uniforms made the goose steps as attractive as ever. High tech weapons displayed China's military prowess. But the longest part of the parade was the allegedly civilian groups. The exhibition cars showing the development in all the provinces and the huge achievements under four generations of communist leadership. Everything seemed as normal as the Mao suit Hu wore on that day when he was inspecting the troops.

But news came out that the car group for Mao era wasn't in the plan until the politburo decided to put it in on September 22, only 8 days before ceremony. It showed a failed attempt of "shaving" (because Mao in Chinese means body hair, shaving means eliminating Mao from the history), indicating the conservative force in the party is still influential.

However, this was still unexpected. Probably now it's time to bet on whether picture of Mao will be shown in the parade in ten years' time. If not, the future of China could be less dim.

It's Rio! It's real!

Olympics will finally go to South America. I feel a bit sorry for Tokyo and Madrid. They are both well-prepared, and I believe they can hold the best Olympics. But Brazil's development really deserves this recognition. Nowadays, sports is inextricaby connected with politics. Rotation of continents make sense, and giving it to a rising power who hasn't held any should never be a bad idea.

Chicago doesn't deserve this Olympics, for none of the candidate cities would have this kind of opposition from their citizens. It's funny to hear the CNN's anchor screaming "what" when he heard the name of Chicago as the first one to be eliminated. For Obama, it's pretty tricky. Republicans are now attacking him leaving when there is such an important debate. But if he didn't go and Chicago lost anyway, he would be criticized of not supporting the city enough. According to game theory, going is a dominant strategy, isn't it?

It's great to see a city, even a country, celebrating every two years for their success in getting the privilege to hold a global sports event. But the way of deciding which city to host it should be more transparent.

Another big news is Irish voters finally support the Lisbon Treaty. Now, no one could be to blame for any failure of further integration. Who can become the new President of European Council as well as the High Representative of Foreign Affairs would be a very interesting topic, and I believe there will be some very fierce discussion on that.

Election watch:

In this month, no important elections will be held. The elections in Greece and Uruguay could be the focal points because of their intensity. The Greek government is expected to lose according to the polls.

October 4, Greece, Parliament
October 16, Botswana, Parliament
October 20, Niger, Parliament
October 25, Tunisia, President and Parliament
October 25, Uruguay, President and Parliament
October 28, Mozambique, President and Parliament

Happy birthday~

Attached is the birthday gift! The ugliest fish I've even seen. Please enjoy~ Happy birthday~~~~~~~~~~ to Jaivir~ haha

Origin of Chinese National Day

It's been 60 years. So much has happened in the past decades in China. It would be concluded by a certainly magnificent military parade in 3 hours' time.

But does anyone know why the communist party established the new regime on this day?

You may say, there is no reason why. Because they felt they were ready on that day. Yeah, you are right. But communist troops had occupied Beijing since Jan 31 without fighting. Why didn't they pronounce their success earlier?

You may also say, because they didn't announce until they finisht the war. But on Oct 1, 1949, 50% of Chinese territory is still either under KMT control (southern and southwestern), or controlled by local government (Tibet, Xinjiang). We could well say that the war was far from over (which was verified by the division along Taiwan strait later).

I believe, as the tradition of communism, symbolism is always important. The first communist country, Soviet Union was established during October Revolution (though it's November 7 on Gregorian calender because Russian Orthodoxy used a different calender). As a continuation of great communist campaign, being established on October is a important.

Also, there was a negotiation with Soviets underway. Stalin wanted to continue controling Mongolia, Xinjiang and Manchuria. As a nationalist, Mao wouldn't allow this kind of humiliation for the new regime. The negotiation was so fierce that Soviet embassy even moved with KMT government to Guangzhou (the very south of the country) while the American ambassador refused to move and wanted to talk to new regime. The bargaining finally resulted in independence of Mongolia for the return of Xinjiang and Manchuria but a lease continued in Dalian. Without ensuring the Soviet support, any proclamation would be premature (Soviet established diplomatic relations with China on Oct 2, before any other country).

Any delay after October 1 would be risky because a cold snowy winter day wouldn't be a good one for a communist regime to showcase its power in a military parade (which was a problem for Soviet leader to stand in bleeding cold Red Square for several hours, which was a touch job for elderly Soviet politburo members).

Hola? Hola? Hey, greeting to the United Nations

This year's UN General Debate finally ended. This year's conference attracted the most important leaders in the world. Obama did a good job as he spoke in this chamber for the first time. Gordon Brown tried to make himself closer to President Obama. Sarkozy demanded a permanent Security Council seat for African Union. Hu promised to cut CO2. Medvedev suggested Russia could support a fresh sanction against Iran. The only one missing is Chancellor Merkel, who is busy with the election celebration.

Many controversies made this year's conference interesting. Murmarr Qaddafi and Hugo Chavez's long speeches were real fun. Ahmadinejad continued his reputation built last year. Robert Mugabe even made an appeal to lift sanction against his extremely corrupt government. But most important, this year is not a good one for coup leaders.

Madagascar's coup leader arrived in the chamber, but was blocked to speak by African countries in a rare confusion of rule and chaos when the President of General Assembly wasn't sure what to do. The Southern African country bloc succeeded by getting 23 positive votes out of 192 members because the majority of them didn't understand what they are going to vote on and they are yet to receive instruction from the government. This shows African countries' determination to tackle the longstanding history of military coup, but how this could help Madagascar back to normal is anybody's guess.

On Monday, Honduran Foreign Minister used cell phone to let deposed President Zaleya make a speech in front of the world from Brazillian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he sneaked in unnoticed. He definitely is not a popular leader in the world, but he received the support because nobody could accept the way he was forced out of office -- fleeding in pyjamas. What he is doing now actually is worsening the situation, but the international community is in a dilemma of whether to support him. The puzzle of Honduras seems to have just started.

No divorce on Oct 1!

China is going to celebrate the 60th anniversary of people's republic on October 1. According to the Chongqing municipal government, they divorce appointment could be made for that day, while the wedding registration will still be working.

Of course, divorce is in contrast with the harmonious society. At this sensitive moment, the government would try to prevent any potential threat to the harmony, either Tibetan separatist movement or domestic conflicts, from disrupting the rosy atmosphere in this country to celebrate the huge achievements and forget the negligible disasters in the past six decades under communist rule.

On the other hand, this day is so proud for the nation that so many people want to make it their happiest day in their lives by setting the wedding day on Oct 1. This would possibly overwhelm the capacity of the government, simply rendering it incapable of accommodating people who want to divorce. Having lived under the same roof together for several years, one day is not that hard to wait, isn't it? Probably seeing the country is so strong and prosperous, some couples would change their minds, and the society would be one step closer to "harmony".

Election watch:

Ther result of German federal parliament election has come out. Christian Democrats (CDU) led by Chancellor Angela Merkel won by a larger margin than last time, thus ending the uncomfortable "Grand Coalition" with center-left rival Social Democratic Party (SDP). Actually, out of the five main parties, only social democrats lost seats, and all the other gained significant number of seats. The biggest winner is the third party, natural ally of Merkel's party, Freedom Democratic Party (FDP), surging from 61 to 93 seats. Together with the CDU and its partner in Bavaria CSU, they won over 50% of the seats, sufficient to form a coalition government without the leftist parties.

This is certainly a good result for German people because Merkel government has performed well in the past four years. The country is moving out of the recession, faster than most of the other developed countries. Plus, a grand coalition turns out to be quite inefficient and slows down the necessary reforms in this country. A period of opposition status can also help the SPD reform itself to compete with CDU in the future.

The incumbent Socialist Party won the parliamentary election in Portugal, but its leading margin is reduced and it needs to form a coalition with other parties to get a majority in the parliament. A grand coalition with center-right PSD is likely to happen, though allying with two smaller leftist parties is also possible. But forming a coalition government is not insurmountable and José Sócrates is set to remain in the office.

Party	Votes	%	Change	Seats
PS	2,068,665	36.56	-8.4	96
PSD	1,646,097	29.09	0.3	78
CDS/PP	592,064	10.46	3.2	21
BE	557,109	9.85	3.4	16
CDU	446,174	7.88	0.3	15

The presidential election in Somaliland has been delayed again due to the "current political, economic and technical conditions."

Trip to Switzerland? Trapped in Switzerland!

The world-renowned director, Roman Polanski, has been arrested by the Swiss authority when he tried to enter Switzerland to receive the Lifetime Achievement Awards at Zurich Film Festival. He will be extradited to the United States where he was charged of unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl.

Oh dear. He could've made a movie about himself which could easily win Oscar Best Picture. Though the sex law in the United States is extremely harsh, Polanski did commit a serious crime in 1977 (more serious than it sounds because its current charge is part of a plea deal). Actually raping a 13-year-old girl is more accurate. But the way of arresting him is very interesting.

Knowing he could be extradited back by any country who has the treaty with US, he has been cautious for the past thirty years, restricting his traveling in very few countries. He canceled several trips for fear of being arrested. But this time, facing an option of getting a lifetime honor, he wasn't so careful. Probably he thinks the US government is forgetful or forgiving. It turns out to be neither.

Clearly the arrest has been planned for a very long time. A provisional warrant has been issued to the Swiss authorities beforehand. The determination to implement laws is certainly applaudable, but trapping an extremely famous celebrity by sneaking would not be that popular after all.

Hey, I took a picture with President Obama!

There was a news orgy about Obama snubbing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in both coasts of the Atlantic. It's said Obama refused to meet with Brown while he had meetings with Hu, Medvedev and other leaders. They questioned the spokespeople for White House and Mr Brown himself. Both governments seemed impatient for those questions and reiterated the special relationship between them.

The media suggested this was a result of U.S. anger over Britian's decision to release to supposedly main plotter of Lockerbie. This is very unlikely that U.S. government would try to display its anger by this kind of ignorance. Expressing disatisfaction to the most important ally can only be done by closed-door way in order not to be explosed to the enemies and the media. An open argument or embarassment would only hurt both sides. And what's more, I believe before releasing the Libyan, UK government had consulted the Obama administration and got a green light, but they simply cannot admit that for fear of angering those victims' families.

This incident also shows how desperate Brown's situation is right now. He is very likely to leave the office in the next election before June 2010. The media would very much like to make fun of this lame duck cabinet. Simply seeing the once-proud British PM trying to maintain his relationship with Pres Obama and claiming they had a meeting even if they only had a short chat and exchanged pleasantries is really funny.

But more importantly, this shows those 24-hour news networks really lacks substantial contents to report. Probably next time they will report the homosexual tendency when Obama spends too much time with David Cameron.

History of long speeches

I still got the readings to do, so haven't got the chance to watch today's UN session. It's said Chavez's performance today was not bad. He even broached the Kennedy assassination, as His Excellency King of Kings Colonel Qaddafi did yesterday. But he ended with singing. That would be pretty cool! I will try to update as soon as I view the clips.

There is a pretty cool article of long political speeches. The historic long speech in General Assembly belongs to Comrade Fidel Castro in 1960 (considering the speed of Spanish language, that would be even longer), but the longest one in UN is Indian's speech in Security Council about Kashmir in 1957 (dunno about Hindi, but its transcript in UN website is 160 pages long).

It also talked about how a guy was arrested because he stopped first after 11 minutes' applause when they are toasting Comrade Stalin. That's a cool example for game theory, isn't it? How to stop together so nobody gets arrested? haha....

Also, Brezhnev was so old that he would read the same page twice but nobody would notice because it was so long even without it.... or even they did, they couldn't say anything without being executed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8272473.stm

Hey, here comes my first person of the week!

Here we are, seven days! Finally, my first POW (not POW the prisoner, but POW the awesome guy) is here. He has been a joke in the past 40 years, and today he once again proved that great reputation. Colonel Qaddafi, congratuations! You really deserve this honor. I wanna say sorry to Ahmadinejad. To be rediculous, you still have so much to learn from the Colonel.

I always love the annual General Debate of UN General Assembly. It is not only an annual photo op for the world leaders, a good cure to insomnia (China's speech is especially good for this), but it's a way to see the absurdity of politics.

I will review what's happening in New York in the next few days. But for the first day, Qaddafi is the "king of kings" and "leader of revolution" (this was how the president of General Assembly, who is from Libya, introduced him).

15 minutes is clearly not enough for him. Instead, his speech took about 100 minutes. But it was never boring. For the most part, he attacked the Security Council. His country tried so hard to get into SC for the first time, but after this experience, probably he felt unfair to not having a veto power. I support the abolition of veto, which is extremely out-of-date, but the way he did it was simply as the man he has always been -- a joke.

His speech includes:

* Swine flu may have been created in the laboratory as weapon. "Perhaps tomorrow we will have a fish flu."
* Rejects everything in the UN Charter, except the Preamble.
* Compares Security Council veto to Julius Ceasar being made emperor.
* General Assembly is "like Hyde Park"...."nobody implementing our decisions...you just make a speech and then disappear."(that's why he wanted to make a sensational speech)
* Says Security Council is "terrorism itself". Doubles down comparing Security Council to Al Qaed. "It should not be called the Security Council. It should be called the terror council."
* Gives shoutout to Silvio Berlusconi for apologizing for World War II crimes.
* "We would be happy if Obama would stay forever as president."
* Arguing against having the U.N. in New York:" Is this Jerusalem, is the the Vatican, is this Mecca? All of you are tired with jetlag, are very tired. Physically speaking you are very low. All of you are asleep." Says he was up at 4 a.m. last night.
* Calls for release of Manuel Norieg.
* Iraq war: "Mother of all evils"
* Questions the official record on the Kennedy assassination.
* Rejects two-state solution. Calls for democratic state. Era of Sharon and Arafat is over. Says Arabs will give Jews protection. "Look at what everyone else did to the Jews. Hitler is an exmaple. You are the ones who hate the Jews, not us."
....

Haha. I really enjoy it! Hey, you deserve this honor, Mr. Qaddafi.

Beijing-like Sydney

A dust storm hit Sydney. Please check the astonishing pictures in the city supposed to be beautiful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8270107.stm

Sorry, no visit on birthday!

Foreigners have been barred from travelling in Tibet in the next three weeks, possibly due to the sensitive timing of 60th anniversay of the republic. (New York Times)

This is part of the huge campaigns to prepare for the grand celebration, in order to quell any attempt to disrupt it. Since the entry has already been very selective and the procedures deliberately complex, the impact on the tourism will be minimal.

Also in the news, China raised to 57th place on the failed state index. This is far from the successes in other indices right now, but congratulations anyway.

Democrats gained, but a long way to democracy in Macau

Democrats, who call for a universal suffrage in this Chinese special administrative region, won 4 seats out of 12 elected seats in today's Macanese legislative election. But the other 17 seats were selected by the Chief executive, which was appointed by the central government in Beijing.

The gaining hardly reflects a growing support of democracy because this is a result of changed strategy by the democratic movement. Because of the highest average method, the democrats split into two party lists in order to maximize their vote.

The pro-gov politicians still believe Macau is not yet ready for a universal suffrage. So when can they be ready? When they are more pliant to Beijing? If China really wants to have at least a minimal chance of having Taiwan back without a war, he should shows how a special administrative region works. It should be no less democratic than how Taiwan is right now.

End of the Star War?

Obama administration finally scrapped the plan to install anti-missile defense system in Eastern Europe. The plan was put forward by the previous administration, which they claimed to be a precaution to potential Iranian missile threat, but actually stirred Russian government's strong objection.

Some politicians and analysts voiced their concerns. They believe this move, clearly aiming to appease Russia before Obama's meeting with Pres. Medvedev in a few days, is a damaging precedent. The growing-aggresive Russian government will certainly be encouraged to take a more hawkish and less cooperative foreign policy. Moreover, this will anger Poland and Czech Republic, indicating U.S. will abandon their interests whenever necessary.

I applaude this move, because this serves the best interests of the United States, Eastern European countries and the international community.

The plan was based on a non-existent Iranian threat to Europe. Iran's long-distance missile technology still has a long way to go, and whether he wants to threaten Europe is also disputable. But what we know is this installment will certainly make Russians angry. Of course, Russian's assertion of sphere of influence in Eastern Europe is objectionable, but showing off power in front of Russia's front door is not a good way to quell Russian's growing ambition, but to stimulate it.

Realists believe the states will always ask for more if they are given what they want. That was possibly true during the time of Cuban Missile Crisis, but whether it would be the case now is questionable. No longer a superpower, Russia understands his capability and limitless demand wouldn't help his dream of reemergence. On the contrary, Obama administration's new plan strips Russia of his excuse of non-cooperation. Russia now will face a massive pressure from international community to work with other countries in forcing Iran to terminate its nuclear program. It also weakens the popular support of hawkish foreign policy in Russia. This is not a surrender of power, but a correction of a non-starter in the first place.

On the other hand, this plan doesn't mean that U.S. forsakes its right to install any missile system in Eastern Europe in the future if necessary. And military believes the new plan will work more efficiently.

We should also remember the fact that Polish and Czech governments and public didn't like that plan proposed by the Bush administration at first. The high cost and a clear provocation to Russia is hurtful to both of them. The implication on the relations with those two countries won't be so distrastrous as many predict.

Flexibility in foreign policy is always important. Setting too many things as non-negotiable would hurt the foreign policy-making process and the result is unlikely to be pleasing. Being tough will never bring an ambitious Russian back to the table, so why not try something new? The end of the star war is a good news for everyone.

Nigerian government launched a war on District 9

Nigerian military is busy fighting rebels, and their government waged a new 'war' yesterday. (BBC)

Nigeria's government is asking cinemas to stop showing a science fiction film, District Nine, that it says denigrates the country's image.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili told the BBC's Network Africa programme that she had asked the makers of the film, Sony, for an apology.

She says the film portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes.

The Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, plays a gang leader with the nickname of Obasanjo, also the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

I'm still yet to see this movie, but the critics gave it good reviews. I saw the trailer and felt this must be a good one. No matter how it was made, the idea of plot is new. The allusion to political issues in Africa is applausible (most notably, apartheid).

Of course, this information minister was overreacting. But her accusation is not totally unfounded. Making his first movie, the director should learn the lesson that before picking a name for the villain, he should check the names of the national learders. Mugabe sounds better for a typical antagonist, doesn't it?

Fairy tale = One night stand?

Still have 200 more pages to read for tomorrow's class, but I really wanna leave something here for today. I didn't have the time to read through today's headlines, but yesterday, a video shocked me. I really wanna share it with you guys.

Remember, this "mother" actually is an actress, making an ad in a desperate attempt to boost tourism in Denmark during difficult time. Of course, one night stand is always attractive to men, and women. I believe it will definitely work. Besides lifting the tourist avenue, it can also help resolve the problem of low fertility rate. Wow, it sounds more intriguing than Anderson's fairy tales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-SSHxGGpjM

I'm back! Hope you can join me here!

I'm finally back after finally settling down in my new home in Rosslyn. It's been a long time since I last wrote here when you-know-who started blocking this wonderful blog site. Feeling the free air now, I feel compelled to continue my daily report here to share my personal thought about my life and the events around the world.

The life in DC is fantastic. It's such a privilege to meet so many wonderful and excellent guys lately. But schoolwork is unbelievably tough. I haven't been working so hard since 1st grade but I'm still struggling to keep up with the pace of the five courses, each of which requires substantial readings, writings, and more importantly, thinkings.

There is always so much happening around the world that is worthy of being talked about, and I will try to cover those interesting, or even funny topics. Moreover, I will focus on the elections around the world since this is the one issue I'm extremely attracted to.

"Who is the hero? It's you, who is reading this post." I borrow this from my favorite Stephen Colbert. I hope you can enjoy this blog. You guys have your own distinctive experience and knowledge, so I'm imploring to hear your perspectives. Please point out my mistakes whenever there is any, and I believe, there will be a lot.

I know it's hard to find a time when there is so much work to do, but nothing can stop me from writing here. Not the government, not the readings. Hope you can join me here! Thank you~

One Week Off

Things are still going on around the world. There're always plenty of them to talk about. But probably I have to go hiatus for at least one week to finish my Mission-Impossible-like graduation thesis. God bless me.

Enjoy your week!