Lie to Me

Fox won't air Obama's 100-day primetime press conference. This is quite amazing, in that the "balanced and fair" news channel now flagrantly shows its contempt for Obama. But what is more amazing is what it airs instead -- the TV show "Lie to Me". (Daily Kos)

They don't even try to pretend anymore:

The AP reports that Fox has decided to stick with its regular line-up on Wednesday, meaning it won't air President Obama's prime-time news conference marking his 100th day in office. Instead, viewers will see an episode of "Lie to Me." ABC, CBS, and NBC will be airing the press conference.

It's unclear why Fox is going with "Lie to Me," given that a viewer can get that 24/7 on Fox News.

Anyway, this TV show is pretty good.

Come on, conduct the tests!

When the missile test was softly condemned by the international community, North Korea, once again, threatened to conduct fresh nuclear tests. (BBC)

That's hardly a news, let alone being shocking as Mr. Kim may have wished. It only strengthens our belief that this regime is totally crazy. Their behavior is simply naive.

We all know North Korea's new tests are far from a threat considering the fact that it has failed all the long-range missile tests and the nuclear test. It is just a farce, which everybody is trying to act as they are supposed to do. As the Economist pointed out, if North Korea conducts more tests, it will only be good news for the world because it drains their already-small stock of missiles and, especially, plutonium.

However, if North Korea finally resorted to a war, that's totally a different question, and the result will be so disastrous that no one wishes to see. That, probably, is its remaining bargaining chip. Actually, North Korea is fooling no one but its own people, who are truly miserable. It's still hard to imagine in the 21st century, so many people are under this kind of oppression. I still don't know whether a quick solution is the necessary pain we have to bear. But even the two Koreas can reunify peacefully, which is extremely unlikely, there will still be tons of issues to deal with. The South Korean economy will simply be ruined and the brainwashed North Koreans will have difficult time to adapt to the normal lives.

From the perspective of Chinese government, North Korea issue is even more paradoxical. Its stupid acts only hurt China, but abandoning it is not an option because it will strengthening American influence in the region, and (whispering) a strong Korea is not what China wants to see. I can still see no solution right now. But for me, the status quo is satisfying for no one, probably with the exception of, Kim Jung-Il.

Containment is too late?

The swine flu is spreading rapidly across the world. Just moments ago, US confirmed its first death resulted from this pandemic. Germany, Austria and UK have also found new cases. It seems that things are going out of control.

As a result, all countries are trying to contain the swine flu out of their border. They inspect visitors at the airport, which is especially the case in China. Experience of SARS probably helps.

But surprisingly, the WHO officials repeatedly asserted that containment wouldn't be working. They said it was just too late. It's so weird a thing for a WHO officials to utter.

It's very likely that I don't totally understand what they meant, but neither do many people around the world. It could be sending a wrong signal.

Containment can't solve the problem, but it clearly helps. It can't stop the spread of the pandemic, but it can slow it down to some extent. Though the cost is high, it shouldn't be WHO, but the governments, who take this into consideration. Their job is to ensure as few people as possible will be infected, and calling containment unnecessary is not their job, and is very counterproductive.

Oranges from "Israel"

Israeli agriculture is known for its high efficiency considering the lack of water resources. Its irritation system is one of the best in the world. As a result, oranges from Israel should be welcome in countries all around the world, with the exception of its nemeses. Iran is the most outspoken of them, with its president repeatedly calling for Israel's being wiped off the map and denying of the Holocaust. The trade with Israel is strictly banned in the Islamic Republic. That's the reason why they reacted so strongly when they found some "Israeli" oranges in their market. But later, it turned out that they were just fooled: (BBC report)

A twist has emerged in the story of Israeli citrus fruit reportedly sold in Iran in defiance of a ban on commercial dealings between the two enemy states.

It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place.

The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice.

The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran.

The wisdom of Chinese people once again embarrassed others. But clearly, many intriguing problems lays behind this laughable farce.

Chinese economy is really booming and its enormous amount of export has led to a "Made in China" phenomenon. But together with the boom of exported goods is the notoriety of hardly satisfying quality. Besides the lead-contaminated toys, faking brands is another Chinese innovation. The faking of Jaffa is just another example. But this one doesn't bring any benefit, but a chaos to its destination.

As we often say, though jokingly, we Chinese are really wise that we can always find a way to circumvent the law. As As'ad said, Chinese even export products printed with local dialects to Yemen, which the Western companies fail to do. It seems that we really know how to sell as much as possible. But that's not always the case. Misunderstandings do happen due to lack of understanding of local culture and law. The use of "negro" to describe the color of food even resulted in a legal suit in the United States.

Probably we should hire better managers in order to find better ways to fake and fool others. But is it really the right and sustainable way to develop? While the government is declaring the intention of "peaceful rise", the illegal of foreign brands is just an economic "invasion", finally hurting Chinese reputation around the world. It would be too late to realize that when the word "Chinese" is synonymous with "fake" and "poor quality".

On the other hand, is Israeli orange so poisonous that it is dealt with as bird-flu-infected chicken. For their information, the oranges would have been much sweeter and healthier for them if they were truly from Israel.

The Opening

Welcome to Daily Report! 

For the foreseeable future, here will be the place for me to share my thoughts with you everyday. Reading and hearing tons of information daily, I know it's critical for me to stop, at least for a couple of minutes, to summarize what I saw and heard. This blog, hopefully, can help me, and more importantly, you, to have a deeper understanding of what's going on around the world, which there are certainly plenty of events to discuss.

Anyway, hope you enjoy your time here!

best,

Anthony