I) The story between Google and China
As every war stories, the struggle between China and Google started with an attack made by one of the two sides. But in the era of 2010, the attack was not made with a punch, a gunshot or an insult : it was a cyber attack. Indeed, on 12 January, Google announced hackers have trieds to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
David Drummond, the chief legal officer of the company, said the operation was « targeted » and « highly sophisticated » . The goals of the attack were to stole proprietary computer code and also access the Gmail account of serveral Human Rights activists. Obviously, two accounts of the online mail service Gmail have been accessed . But the hackers had partly failed because they only accessed account information (such as the date the account was created and subject line), and not the e-mail content. Similar intrusions have been also lauched on about 20 other big companies including the fields of the Internet, Media, Chemistry, Technologies and Finance. And last but not the least, they discovered that the Gmail accounts of dozens of defenders of human rights in China have been "routinely accessed by third parties".
Therefore, Google realized that it could not fully assure the confidentiality and safety of its Gmail users. Even if this intrusion have not been accessed through any security breach at Google but "most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on users' computers", the giant of the Internet felt offended and threatened.
Google decided to carry out an investigation but it was quite obvious that China was involved in the attack. Indeed, the main victims of the Gmail intrusions were advocates of human rights in China and we know Beijing is willing to do anything in order to suppress its political opponents. Even if Google did not accused China directly, the company announced at this time that it is no longer willing to censor searches in China. Thus, the war was blatantly declared.
Then, negociations and declarations came. Google wanted to discuss with China's government on the legal existence of a search engine which is not censored. If this request was not possible it would pull out of China. The government have discussed with the company on 29 January and 25 February. During these talks, Beijing said to Google that its development in China was still possible if he respects Chinese law but if the company wanted to quit China, it was another problem. On their side, the leaders of Google said that there was no negociation because from the begining of the talks Beijing has claimed auto-censorship was non-negociable. In addition to that, the results of the investigation on the January attacks confirmed China's authorities were involved.
After two months of confusing negociations, the leaders of Google officially announced on 22 March that it pull out of China. All the searches in China will be re-routed to Google 's Hong Kong-based site. Therefore Google.cn does not exist anymore, it is replaced by Google.com.hk, the uncensored search engine. David Drummond stated this re-routing was "entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China".
This decision leads to several consequences. Firstly, Google workers in China are threatened. However, Google said it would maintain an R&D and sales presence in China. The size of its sales team would depend on how many Chinese people can get at the Hong Kong-based site. Anyway, the change is not very important since only 2 percent of Google's workforce is located in China. Secondly, because of the re-routing, there might be some service slowdowns and delays in getting search results. Lastly, despite that the searches are not auto-censored by Google, the Chinese authorities will censor themselves search results. That means there is not much change for the Chinese people. When they will search «square Tiananmen », instead of having a nice picture of the square they will have a message of error, but not the pictures of the Tiananmen events of 1989.
After this brief summary of the facts, an analysis of the two sides is important to come to a better understanding of this conflict.
II) Analysis
Google's side
The decision made by Google to stop censorsing its search engine in China is a complete twist. Formerly, Google had swallowed many bitter pills to enter the huge Chinese market. First, in 2006 China-based google.cn search page was created with censored results. At that time Google made a speech to the US congress explaining that an autocensorship search engine was better for the Chinese people than no search engine at all. Thus, it agree for example to replace the picture of the tankman by nice tourist pictures of square Tiananmen. Later, he also said nothing when the Chinese authorities accused the compagny to host pornographic content and accepted without batting an eyelid to remove it and clean again its search engine. He also continued to auto-censor its search engine when China blocked access to Google's YouTube site in the spring 2009.
So why such a twist?
David Drummond, Google’s chief legal counsel, talked to The Atlantic about the decision of the compagny. He explained the connection between the hacking attempt and the decision to stop censoring results. The hacking incident was not a simple way for some hackers to violate property intellectual and make money or to simply damage the compagny. According to him, this particular attack, lead by China was completly different since the main goal was political: to get information from the human right activists account. Thus, Google realised he was part of an overall repressive system and can not stand it anymore. Furthermore, since the Olympic games, the pressure put on Google by the Chinese government in terms of censorship increased. He said it became more and more difficult to operate in China. « We thought when we went in that we could help to open the country and things could get better by our being there. Things seemed to be getting worse ». Then, he explained why the compagny decided to wait so long after the hack attack to shut down its China-based search site. He said the compagny have tried to negociate with the Chinese authorities on how they could keep orperating in China. As they faced a deadlock, Google leaders finally came to the hard conclusion that they disagree with Chinese law because it is against their principles and since they do not want to violate the law the only solution is to leave.
According to some people, Google has found an honorable way to leave the difficult market of China. Even if Google is the leader of the search engines all other the world, in China he is only the second. Indeed, it is far away from the domestic competitor, Baidu.com, wich hold 63,6 % of the market. China only accounts for 1 percent to 2 percent of Google’s revenue. Like other foreign Internet companies, Google has had trouble growing in China. However, it is not so sure that Google is leaving China for commercial reasons: China is the biggest telecom market in the world, with 370 millions of internet users and 650 millions of mobile phones. Furthermore, according to business analysts, the Chinese internet search market is growing by 40% a year. From a long-term economic view and with both such a great number of internet users and growth of the market, the move to challenge the Chinese Communist Party may not come without a cost. Other Google's commercial activities will be affected. China Mobile, the biggest cellular company in the country, was expected to cancel a deal to use Google’s search engine on its home page. China Unicom was thought to have canceled plans to create a telephone based on Google’s Android system. And it is only the beginning, other measures are likely to come.
So others claims that Google's decision reflects a new strategy of communication. Is it a way for the firm to 'redore its image'? For sure, the conflict between Google and China is worldwide known. For the first time, and quite paradoxically, Google, which is the perfect image of an economic and capitalist giant at the age of globalization appears as a factor of freedom and liberty for Chinese people. Many international human rights groups have praised Google's move. For instance, a Paris-based rights group, Reporters Without Borders, called Google's decision a bold move which other internet companies should follow. This affair reminds us that the (forgotten?) catch phrase of the company is « Don't be Evil ». Besides, Google recently created an other way to impose itself as an advocate of the internet users against inquisitive States. Indeed, it has published online a world map indicating for each States the number of requests demanded to Google. On that map, we found that between the 1st of July 2009 and 31st December 2009 the countries with a great number of requests are Brasil, the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition to that, Google promised it will update and improve the web page every six months. However, this publication is quite superficial. Google only publishes the number of requests but not the details or categories of the requests. The request could be such different things as a demand to remove an illegal content or a demand of personal data for a police investigation. I think the next few month will confirm if Google's move is an attempt to regain prestige
The side of the Chinese authorities
First Chinese authorities have problems to understand why a foreign company entering the country does no want to respect domestic laws. That raised the philosophical and political problem of the boundaries between the moral and the law. Can someone, in the name of a moral cause claim he does not want to follow the law anymore? But, more than that, Chinese government is irritated because a western State tell him what to do in its own country. Thus, the former humiliation of the Chinese by western powers, diminished since the 2008 Olympic games, is stired up again. A journalist in the People’s Daily wrote « I'm not sure if Google knows that its arrogance can easily remind the Chinese people of the 'big powers' who cracked open China’s door by warships and cannons in the 19th century ». Therefore, this crisis between Google and China may strengthen nationalism. It could lead some Chinese companies to decide to stop collaborating with Google or some ordinary Chinese may boycott the Californian firm. On the contrary, from a worldwide perspective, Google's decision is a major blow to China's international image. Indeed, it reminds China may be a huge ecomonic power in the world, it is also a huge dictatorship. Many countries have condemned the censorship in China, and the U.S. authorities have broadly supported Google. Therefore, Chinese government is not only facing a rebel American company but is, above all, involved in a battle to get the soft power.
Concerning collusions, while China is accused of hiring hackers to get information on defenders of human rights in China, Chinese government accused Google of collaborating with U.S. spy agencies. Indeed, the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily, an organ of the ruling Communist Party published an article saying ‘‘In fact, Google is not a virgin when it comes to values. Its cooperation and collusion with the U.S. intelligence and security agencies is well-known".
Moreover, the Chinese government damn the fact that an American company could defy censorship by re-rerounting the search engine to Hong-Kong. That underlines the « one country, two systems » policy, which is for sure quite paradoxal and unfair. By re-routing its website to Hong-Kong, Google may think it behaved properly because it did not break any Chinese law but for Chinese authorities this decision only strengthen the political controversy.
For sure, Chinese government will censor the content of the Hong-Kong based search engine. Until now, it is possible to use Google.com.hk in China but all the contentious issues and pictures are banned. In the future, will Google.com.hk be completly impossible to acess in China, as other foreign website such as Twitter? It is not so sure since some people are arguing Chinese authorities might be wary of agitating loyal Google users in China, because they tend to be highly educated and vocal.
Beyond the demand of the Chinese government for Google to practice self-censorship, there is a whole system of censorship of the Internet. Fifteen years ago, The internet was set in China, mainly for economic reasons, since penetrating the telecom market was essential. However, the Chinese authorities knew it will also mean unofficial information could spread more freely. In order to avoid this feared consequence, the Internet censorship was set in the country. It is called The Great Firewall, in reference to The Great Wall that protected China from the invaders several centuries ago. The difference between those two walls is that The Great Firewall is not only protecting China from outside threats but also from inside threats. Chinese authorities are setting firewalls for any content which is not politically correct. Therfore all the contents including sex, violence, firearms, political plurality, political institutions, territories who wants to be independant from China, religion, some historical events...are banned. Several foreign websites are almost impossible or completely impossible to access, such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter or Blogspot. On the Web, the censorship task is hard and tens of thousands people are hired in the so-called cyber-police. Chinese government also hires some internet users as « 5 yuans workers », earning 5 yuan for each pro-government comment posted on the internet. The censorship tendancy is going to increase and to create a Website, now one must register to the local authorities, showing a proof of identity. Beside censorship, repression measures are hard: China is the number one country which have people in jail because of their behaviour on the Internet. With the Google crisis, a new step has been crossed. Chinese authorities have not not only used the Internet to keep their pro-governmental propaganda, they have used the Internet as a weapon to discover and condemned their political dissidents.
The great censorship of the Internet does not mean the chinese Web is quite reduced. Indeed, the foreign consored websites are replaced by domestic ones. Most of the time, these Chinese Websites are quite similar to the partially censored or fully censored one. Thus, the Chinese twin of Facebook is Renren, Google has Baidu and Youtube has Qiyi. The only difference between these Websites is that the domestic ones can be fully pro-governmental oriented. They breadly benefit from the governemental support and netword. Thereby, China is the only country around the world where none of them, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, is the leader of its line of business. They are all oustripped by a Chinese competitor. That is probably why the leaders of Google have said that the censorship was not only a matter of politics, but also a trade issue since local companies are favored. However, we cannot jump into drastic conclusion, local companies are also chosen by the Internet users because they better respond to a specific local Web culture.
From the analysis of the two sides, it can be felt that two broader issues are at stake : the rise of a worldwide ethical debate over the Internet companies and the Chinese society and the control of the Internet
III) Perspective
Google's decision launched an ethical debate over the Internet companies
Google's leader decision to re-route Google.cn to Google.hk.com has now raised a larger issue for other Western companies and democratic governments, which is whether China's gross and growing abuse of the Internet should be quietly tolerated or actively resisted.
Should the companies, in spite of their economic interests, take into consideration moral issues?
Until Google's decision, it seems that for the Internet companies, economy was the priority. Indeed, Google was first non-reluctant to autocensorship. Skype is still non-reluctant, and Yahoo too. Yahoo was even been involved in huge scandal few years ago, by giving some informations about human rights activists to the Chinese government that eventually led to the arrestation of these activists. Yahoo was condemned by the American governement, but never he had though about stopping the censorship in China.
After Google's decision, it is the same. Many companies have criticized Google's decision, saying it will be marginalized in the world's most populous country and third-largest economy. "Just because the situation got bad for you doesn't mean it's bad for everybody else," says Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Web site Search Engine Land. Thus, auto-censorship is still very common for many of the Internet companies. For instance, Microsoft censors Chinese language searches of Bing both in and outside of China and Apple has blocked Chinese from downloading appplications related to Dalai lama.
However, Google's decision have also set the path for other companies who were hesitating. Thus, two days after Google's withdrawal, Internet domain registrar GoDaddy.com announced it had stopped selling new Web domain names in China. Christine Jones, Go Daddy's general counsel said "We don't want to be an agent for the Chinese government". Twitter became even more radical than Google. Twitter is impossible to access in China for many months, because of the government censorship. The leaders of this compony have recently annouced they were working on finding a way to defy the censorship, no matter if Chinese authorities would like it or not. Thus, companies around the world are now realizing they have to think through and figure out how to respond to these kinds of controls and not just in China but in other parts of the world.
Should democratic governments allow auto-censorship of international companies in those countries or implement laws to avoid it?
The standoff between Google and China has also awakened governments and provoked among them the debate about how Internet businesses should operate in a country with a questionable record of protecting the online privacy and freedom of expression of its citizens. In the United States, the country in the world who has a lot of influence in terms of soft power, officials are pushing for new policies to ensure the protection of American Internet businesses in China and other countries. However, in our globalized world, a worldwide initiative could have better influence and avoid a battle between few countries for political interests. Moreover, on the backdrop, we can feel a wider battle which concerns the American attempt to impose its softpower around the world. Therefore, regulate the ethical debate with law regulation is complex and could lead to political controversy.
So, how companies could operate in countries like China, when they are in the middle of the soft power battlefield?
A recent initiative is full of hope and may clarify the situation. In 2008, the Global Network Initiative was created. It is a coalition of major U.S. Internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, as well as think tanks and universities. The group wants to provide businesses a template for addressing the ethical problems that face the Internet companies. They meet periodically to draft and update guidelines on what procedures to take when, for example, foreign governments ask for sensitive information about users. Therefore, we assist to the creation of sort of a code of behaviour for the Internet companies, which could balance economic interest and ethical considerations.
Chinese society and the control of the Internet
Under the rules of the dictatorship, the Internet could be used in China to release pressure. In a way, the use of the Internet avoids social disorder. Indeed, the Internet satisfied the people in their will of freedom and the censorship avoids any trouble. However, it is not so easy and The Great Firewall is not totally impassable. Indeed, it is possible to defy the censorship with some specific Websites such as Freegate, Puff and Ultra Surf, or with the use of proxy servers, SHH protocole or Virtual Private Networks. A recent study reveals who are the Internet users who defy the censorship. Most of them are highly educated and young. 2/3 of them defy the consorship every day and they do it for four main reasons. They want to acess an uncensored search engine such as Google, they want to go on social network websites such as Twitter, share videos websites such as Youtube or foreign Web newspapers. The most interesting data of this study is the spread of the skill: 85% of these persons have taught they friends how to defy the censorship. So, even if the control of the internet is accepted by the society because most of the people do not know there is a broad censorship, some people are aware of that and easily managed to cross The Great Firewall.
Moreover, when Google left China, it was not without some protestations. Flowers have been put in front of Google's main building in China, as if Google was dead. On the Web, a Chinese tweet said « It is not Google which withdraws from China, it is China which withdraws from the world ». In addition to that, an open letter has been written by some Internet users. They want more details about the censorship. Indeed, except sex, violence, and games who are clearly specified in the Chinese law, it is really hard to guess what the government considered as non politicaly correct. The limit-setting of the censorship is confused and the writters of the open letter demand the creation of group of independant citizens who could help to arbitrate censorship problems.
Thus, the Internet in China is both an amazing way to strengthen the government and a subversive way to denounce it. Chinese authorities may have won a battle making the Californian Google out of China, they will have to face their own Internet users and citizens. Since the 2008 Olympic games, Chinese authorities have accelerated the censorship process. They should be aware of the importance of keeping a balance between liberty and control, or the entire system they have set could turn against them.
mercredi 30 juin 2010
lundi 14 juin 2010
Striking French Polynesia workers demand economic stability plan
To read the article in its context
Striking trade unionists in French Polynesia say they're awaiting a response from the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Thousands of workers affiliated to 11 of the territory's biggest trade unions have stopped work.
Calling themselves the "Collective for Peace", they're demanding the local and French governments come up with a concrete plan to end economic instability in the territory.
The secretary general of the Confederation of Trade Unions of French Polynesia says the territory's president, Gaston Tong Sang, has written to Paris about the situation.
But Patrick Galenon says unless workers' demands are met, they will intensify their action.
"In our strategy we block administration like the Haut Commisariat (High Commission) of French Polynesia, the Assembly and all administration," he said.
"This is our first step but we are going harder and harder if nothing is coming."
The strike has already caused the cancellation of at least one scheduled flight to New Caledonia, and is disrupting inter-island ferry services.
Pickets have been set up at major points around the territory including airports, hospitals and ports.
The unions say they will intensify their action in the coming days, unless their demands are met.
Meanwhile, the major trade unions representing private sector employees have denounced the strike as "counter-productive" and are not taking part.
Comment:
Since last thursday, there is a huge strike in French Polynesia. Indeed, thousands of workers, which call themselves "collective for peace" have set up pickets around the islands. They are demanding economic and social help from the French government. Negociations were about to end on friday night, but it eventually failed because the president of Polynesia, Gaston Tong Sang, refused the creation of an unemployment fund. There is also a controversy about nuclear tests hold by French Métropole during the sixties. Trade unions want French government to payback 200 millions of euro for the compensation of the medical spendings due to the high rate of cancers. Now the strikers wants the French president, Nicolas sarkozy, to solve the situation but in the French media, nobody talks about the strike, even it is a big strike in a french territory! French Polynesia is now facing a social and economic depression but in this time of general crisis, nobody seems to care about this couple of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Accodings to economic analysts, between 2008 and 2009, because of the economic crisis, 9.000 jobs have been lost in French Polynesia, and this tendancy is going to increase.
Today, the inhabitants can feel the consequences of this social movement. They have problems to get gas, oil and all the international flights have been cancelled.
Striking trade unionists in French Polynesia say they're awaiting a response from the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Thousands of workers affiliated to 11 of the territory's biggest trade unions have stopped work.
Calling themselves the "Collective for Peace", they're demanding the local and French governments come up with a concrete plan to end economic instability in the territory.
The secretary general of the Confederation of Trade Unions of French Polynesia says the territory's president, Gaston Tong Sang, has written to Paris about the situation.
But Patrick Galenon says unless workers' demands are met, they will intensify their action.
"In our strategy we block administration like the Haut Commisariat (High Commission) of French Polynesia, the Assembly and all administration," he said.
"This is our first step but we are going harder and harder if nothing is coming."
The strike has already caused the cancellation of at least one scheduled flight to New Caledonia, and is disrupting inter-island ferry services.
Pickets have been set up at major points around the territory including airports, hospitals and ports.
The unions say they will intensify their action in the coming days, unless their demands are met.
Meanwhile, the major trade unions representing private sector employees have denounced the strike as "counter-productive" and are not taking part.
Comment:
Since last thursday, there is a huge strike in French Polynesia. Indeed, thousands of workers, which call themselves "collective for peace" have set up pickets around the islands. They are demanding economic and social help from the French government. Negociations were about to end on friday night, but it eventually failed because the president of Polynesia, Gaston Tong Sang, refused the creation of an unemployment fund. There is also a controversy about nuclear tests hold by French Métropole during the sixties. Trade unions want French government to payback 200 millions of euro for the compensation of the medical spendings due to the high rate of cancers. Now the strikers wants the French president, Nicolas sarkozy, to solve the situation but in the French media, nobody talks about the strike, even it is a big strike in a french territory! French Polynesia is now facing a social and economic depression but in this time of general crisis, nobody seems to care about this couple of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Accodings to economic analysts, between 2008 and 2009, because of the economic crisis, 9.000 jobs have been lost in French Polynesia, and this tendancy is going to increase.
Today, the inhabitants can feel the consequences of this social movement. They have problems to get gas, oil and all the international flights have been cancelled.
lundi 31 mai 2010
UN members decry Israeli raid on Gaza aid flotilla
To see the article
My comment:
Yesterday, Israel has conducted a raid over a flotilla of ships carrying aid to Gaza. It is said that 9 activists and 7 soldiers has been killed but some NGO say there could be at least 15 activists dead.
It is not the first time that Israel is trying to prevent a flotilla from reaching Gaza strip, but several elements have provoked an international reaction. First, the flotilla was carrying about 10 000 tonnes of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Among the 700 pro-palestinian activists there were the Nobel Price 1976 Mairead Corrigan Maguire and serverals european representants. Second, the attack violated the law since it occured in international waters. And last, the attack was lead with great violence since at least 9 pro-palestian activists are dead.
Therefore, since yesterday, the crisis has begun. The UN have set an emergency meeting yesterday night and condemned the attack, the Arabian league will have a meeting today and many countries have called their Israelian ambassador in order to have more explanations.
I think this attack is really threatening the image of Israel over the world. For the moment, the country has set up an information blackout so it is very difficult to have more information. They said the activits have whith weapons and their goal was probably more a terrorist attempt to introduce weapons in Gaza than an emergency aid. We can be sure that there will be an international inquiry in order to discover the truth over this attack and take some measures.
My comment:
Yesterday, Israel has conducted a raid over a flotilla of ships carrying aid to Gaza. It is said that 9 activists and 7 soldiers has been killed but some NGO say there could be at least 15 activists dead.
It is not the first time that Israel is trying to prevent a flotilla from reaching Gaza strip, but several elements have provoked an international reaction. First, the flotilla was carrying about 10 000 tonnes of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Among the 700 pro-palestinian activists there were the Nobel Price 1976 Mairead Corrigan Maguire and serverals european representants. Second, the attack violated the law since it occured in international waters. And last, the attack was lead with great violence since at least 9 pro-palestian activists are dead.
Therefore, since yesterday, the crisis has begun. The UN have set an emergency meeting yesterday night and condemned the attack, the Arabian league will have a meeting today and many countries have called their Israelian ambassador in order to have more explanations.
I think this attack is really threatening the image of Israel over the world. For the moment, the country has set up an information blackout so it is very difficult to have more information. They said the activits have whith weapons and their goal was probably more a terrorist attempt to introduce weapons in Gaza than an emergency aid. We can be sure that there will be an international inquiry in order to discover the truth over this attack and take some measures.
lundi 24 mai 2010
US urges action to contain 'precarious' Korea situation
The US secretary of state says her country is working hard to avoid an escalation after a report blamed North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
After talks in China, Hillary Clinton urged countries in the region to contain "the highly precarious situation created by North Korea".
Earlier, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak froze trade with Pyongyang, vowing to punish those who carried out the attack, which killed 46 sailors.
North Korea says it will retaliate.
The country's main newspaper called the investigation an "intolerable, grave provocation".
President Lee addressed the nation on television to announce Seoul would no longer tolerate "any provocative act by the North and will maintain a principle of proactive deterrence".
The US administration endorsed the move.
"US support for South Korea's defence is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to co-ordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," a White House statement said.
South Korea says it will refer the North to the UN Security Council in response to the sinking of the Cheonan in March.
China - North Korea's closest trading partner and a permanent member of the Security Council - has urged "calm and restraint". Japan said it was contemplating its own sanctions on Pyongyang.
The North depends on South Korea and China for up to 80% of its trade and 35% of its GDP. In 2009, inter-Korean trade stood at $1.68bn (£1.11bn) - 13% of the North's GDP.
Resolute?
The measures announced by South Korea included:
* Stopping inter-Korean trade
* Banning North Korean ships from using South Korean waterways or shortcuts
* Resuming "psychological warfare"
* Referring the case to the UN
The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says the measures are about as tough a response as the South could take, short of military action.
But South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said Seoul would still maintain the joint economic project in Kaesong, even though it would "respond with resolute measures" to possible attempts by the North to undermine the safety of its workers.
The measures came less than a week after experts from the US, the UK, Australia and Sweden said in a report that a torpedo had hit the Cheonan.
They reported that parts of the torpedo retrieved from the sea floor had lettering that matched a North Korean design.
North Korea denies any involvement in the sinking, calling the investigation results a "fabrication" and threatening war if sanctions are imposed.
The South's new measures included resuming "psychological warfare" against North Korea, which was stopped in 2004. The resumption prompted an angry response from Pyongyang.
"If [South Korea] sets up new tools for psychological warfare such as loudspeakers and leaves slogans for psychological warfare intact, ignoring our demands, we will directly aim and open fire to destroy them," a statement by the military said on Monday.
"More powerful physical strikes will be taken to eradicate the root of provocation if [South Korea] challenges to our fair response," said a commander, according to official news agency KCNA.
Last week, we have learnt the terrible conclusion of the international inquiry on the Cheonan sinking : there is no more doubts, it was caused by a North Korea torpedo. Therefore, the tension in the region is at its highest point. South Korea has stopped to trade with North-Korea and reestablished psychological warfare(which was stopped in 2004). The situation is really precarious and so far was the idea of a third world war, we now have the impression that it is not only a bad dream.
South Korea have received the support from the western countries but China is still hesitating.And, China's opinion is crucial since it is a permanent member of the United Nations. No sanction could be decided by the UN without China's consent. The United States is now trying to both convince China and maintain peace int he region. The only thing China's government has said is that they have "doubts" about the conclusion of the inquiry. Will China support a whim of North Korea and avoid sanctions on that country? In this case, what will happen if South Korea sink a North Korean warship in its water zone? That means North Korea will attack, and then will SOuth Korea and the United States accept that?
In my opinion, it is not so sure that China will accept to support North Korea. North Korea is just a satellite country and China is in a strong position. I think China will negociate very hard with the US to take advantage of the situation. Besides this geopolitical toughts, we cannot forget the human tragedy in North Korea. Indeed, North Korea rely on the South Korean for trading and the embargo could worsen the critical economic situation and brings more starving.
lundi 17 mai 2010
US says BP move to curb oil leak 'no solution'
See the article in its context
The success of a move by oil giant BP to curb a leak in the Gulf of Mexico is "not clear" and the technique provides "no solution", the US has said.
It was responding to BP's move to siphon oil from the leaking well head to a tanker on the surface.
A government statement said it would not rest until the leak was permanently sealed and the spill cleaned up.
BP executive Kent Wells earlier said that the siphoning process was "working extremely well".
This was the third attempt it had made to insert a long narrow tube into the leaking pipe, using underwater robots.
It is thought that BP's 6in-wide (15cm) tube and stopper could capture more than three-quarters of the leak, although a smaller spill nearby also has to be contained.
Mr Wells said on Sunday at the firm's US headquarters in Houston, Texas, that over the next few days the company planned to slowly increase the amount of oil and gas flowing through the pipe to the tanker.
Commitments
But a joint statement by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said the latest technique was "not a solution to the problem and it is not yet clear how successful it may be".
It added: "We will not rest until BP permanently seals the well head, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole."
It was the second strong statement to BP by the government officials on the current crisis.
Earlier they sent a letter saying they wanted to be sure BP would honour commitments not to limit costs to a US statutory cap of $75m (£50m).
BP responded by saying it had already made clear its position on paying damages for the disaster.
It said last week the cap was irrelevant and it would settle all legitimate damages claims.
"What they are requesting in the letter is absolutely consistent with all our public statements on the matter," said BP spokesman David Nicholas on Sunday.
Lurking slicks
Earlier, scientists said they had found vast underwater plumes of oil, one 10 miles (16km) long and a mile wide.
Graphic
Researchers from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology said they had detected the slicks lurking just beneath the surface of the sea and at depths of 4,000ft (1,200m).
Samantha Joye, a marine science professor at the University of Georgia, said: "It could take years, possibly decades, for the system to recover from an infusion of this quantity of oil and gas.
"We've never seen anything like this before. It's impossible to fathom the impact."
Chemical dispersants BP has been dumping underwater may be preventing the oil from rising to the top of the ocean, the scientists said.
The find suggests the scale of the potential environmental disaster is much worse than previously feared since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up on 20 April, killing 11 workers.
Some scientists cast doubt on BP's estimate of the oil flow rate, saying the widely repeated figure of 5,000 barrels per day dramatically understates the real amount.
A week ago, BP tried to cap the well with a 100-tonne box, but gave up after it became encrusted with ice crystals.
Mississippi has become the third US state to have traces of oil wash up on its coast, along with Louisiana and Alabama.
The spill is threatening to eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez leak off Alaska as America's worst environmental disaster.
When the oil rig blew up on the 20th of April, killing 11 people, it was only the begining of what may be the worst oil disaster.
The consequences of the disaster cannot be assessed yet but they will affect three main fields.
Firstly, the wildlife offshore will suffer the most. Even if this life is not visible for us, the consequences on the ecosystem could be irreversible. Moreover, the use by BP of dispersal agent, in order to "hide the disaster" and avoid the oil to reach the cost could worsen the situation. Indeed, the dispersal agent is even more toxic than oil!
Secondly, as every oil slick, the oil will damage coastal areas and various birds and marine mammals along the Louisiana coast are threatened.
Lastly, the oil slick could affect a part of the economy of Louisiana: fishermen and the shrimpers.
Most worring fact is that we don't know when the leak could be fixed. In order to solve these problems, cooperation is crucial. However, there is a huge conflict of interest between BP (the oil company) and the government of the United States. In the fields, we have the impression that BP has taken over the control of the situation. Control on the communication, on the authorization to go to damaged areas...And Rick Steiner, a well-know scientist on oil slick (the author of a book on oil slick for the United nations) has not even been invited to dicuss the situation. According to him, we are facing the "Tchernobyl of the oil industry".
I think, the United States should created a sort of Petroleum safety Authority, like in Norway or Australia, in order to avoid these conflict of interest and to deal these kind of disasters. In addition to that, the safety and the location of oil rig offshore could be questionned. Nowadays, Arctic become a promised territory for petroleum production (could contain 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil) but it is also among the most fragile environments on Earth. If there is an accident it could be worse than a disaster.
lundi 10 mai 2010
Sweet to tweet Twitter makes politicians seem more accessible. To matter, it needs to change their behaviour
SINCE feudal days, subjects have hoped that petitioning the sovereign can have great effects. E-mail made writing to politicians easy. Now a new technology is making those missives public. Twitter messages (“tweets” in the jargon) are like public telegrams. No more than 140 characters in length, they can be sent from any computer or mobile phone. Anyone with an account (there are 100m and rising) can send a public message to anyone else by placing the @ sign before a username or a # sign before a topic.
That makes it much easier for voters to reach politicians and for politicians to react to them (or at least to pretend to). It helps election organisers too. At its height Barack Obama’s campaign (@barackobama) employed 100 staff working on social media such as Twitter. But now it is catching on elsewhere. In July just four of the world’s top 20 cities for Twitter use were outside America, according to HubSpot, a marketing firm. By January it had grown to eight.
Sebastián Piñera, the newly elected president of Chile, has asked all cabinet members to start tweeting. His own account is now the most-followed in the country. Venezuala’s Hugo Chávez tweets too (@chavezcandanga). In June only three Japanese politicians had accounts; now Politter, a site dedicated to Twitter and Japanese politics, lists 485. An analysis of last year’s German elections by the University of St Gallen discovered that 577 politicians had opened Twitter accounts, three-quarters of them in 2009. Greece’s prime minister George Papandreou uses Twitter. But @primeministergr is the office, not the man. His staff tweet for him, sometimes using a code to signal who wrote what.
Twitter, says Mr Piñera’s spokeswoman, Ena von Baer, means assessing reactions to announcements before presenting them in a press conference. But the scale of response makes it hard for office-holders to tweet themselves. Mr Obama reads just a select ten of the messages (20,000 of all kinds) he receives daily. During the presidential election campaign, Ms von Baer answered every message to @enavonbaer herself, but now her staff respond, or pass questions on to other ministries.
Twitter works well for extrovert and conscientious individual politicians. Denis Coderre (@deniscoderre) started using it for relief and rescue messages after the Haitian earthquake in January (his electoral district in Montreal has a big Haitian population). He writes social messages, such as commentaries on ice-hockey matches (he was a sportscaster before he became a politician). A second category is service messages for his constituents. A third is purely political. To benefit, a politician must do all of them himself, he says. But few match his talent or output. Twitter may feel personal but it is all too public. The risk is asymmetric. An ill-judged tweet can do severe, instant damage. Kerry McCarthy, a Labour candidate in Britain’s election, revealed early postal-vote counts in a tweet that ended “#gameON!”. That may have seriously breached electoral law.
As well as boosting the profile of individual politicians, Twitter may be better designed for campaigning and opposition than for governing. “We’ll change Washington” is easy to fit into 140 characters. Explaining the messy and inevitable compromises of power is a lot harder. In January of this year a study by Fleishman Hillard, a Washington PR firm, discovered that Republicans in the House twittered more than five times as often as Democrats. Ms von Baer says that the Chilean opposition uses Twitter to make up for its poor coverage in the mainstream media.
Not really real life
The days when tweets involved a sweaty-thumbed real-life politician giving candid thoughts on the day’s events may be passing. Risk-averse politicians are likely to make their tweets bland, and bland tweeters may be less likely to be followed. Once politicians understand that everything is public, they are much less likely to offer the unadorned truth, at least to ordinary voters. William Hague, a top Tory politician, amused his followers by responding to a tweeted inquiry about the menu at a recent fast-food supper (Chicken Royale and a Fanta)—but his interrogator was not just anyone, but Bryony Gordon, a hotshot columnist for a national daily. Few subjects will ever come truly close to their sovereigns. But the impression of doing so remains tantalising.
Recently has appeared a new way to communicate on the Internet: the concept of Twitter. This is simple, you can send a message to people with no more than 140 characters. In addition to its general sucess among the Internet users, Twitter has been quickly adopted by the politicians. Indeed, it is a very rapid and simple way to make little annoucements, to express opinion or to respond to others. We know Obama skills to communicate and the important role if it in his election campaign, but we may not imagine that many politicians around the world are using Twitter. Besides the South American politicians given in the article, we can also add for instance ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
A politician, by sending Twit and responding to it, seems closer to the common people. Thus, we can imagine him behind is computer, exactly like us. Moreover, we don’t need to write a formal letter or a well written e-mail to be understood, with a twit, we can go straight to the point. Therefore, we could have the impression Twitter is trying to fill the gap between the elistist world of politic and the common internet user. However, appearances can be deceiving. Behind a simple twit, there are often many employed in communication. For example, Obama has around 100 employers to deal with his twits. It is not surprising but still disppointing to understand that Twitter is just one part of the communication instrument.
In addition to that, with a Twit, a politician can broadcast an infomration without the need of the mass media. It is thus very useful to say something more informal that could not be one the media. Sometimes it can sucess to create a buzz: an amazing sentence on Twiter is thereafter relayed by the media. Therefore, Twitter can be a way for the politicians to draw the attention and it is particularly usefull for the opposition or during campaigns.
However, like every communication tool, Twitter, if it is mismanaged, it can hurt your reputation instead of help it, by creating scandals. Indeed, the opposite party can, every time and just with a phone, ruin your reputation by reaveling secrets. Moreover, with the increasing of the Twits by politicians, for telling that or that things, citizen could just be exahausted and the feeling of being close to the politician could be weakened by saturation.
lundi 3 mai 2010
China opens World Expo 2010 in Shanghai
(To see the article in its context)
The 2010 World Expo has opened in the city of Shanghai in what China hopes will be further proof of its rising global influence.
Almost 250 countries and international organisations are showcasing their culture in an event themed around sustainable development.
Many are doing so in pavilions with radical architecture.
World leaders, including France's President Sarkozy, are attending the lavish opening ceremony.
"Expo 2010 Shanghai is now open!" Chinese President Hu Jintao declared during the gala opening, in which 2,300 performers and musicians from all over the world took part.
They were celebrating the Expo slogan: "Better city, better life in music and dance".
Tens of thousands of fireworks and lasers then lit up the city's riverfront - in what organisers promised would be the biggest-ever multimedia event, the BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says.
Some 70 million visitors - mostly Chinese - are expected to visit the Expo, which will be open for the next six months.
Chinese local media report that the cost of staging the event could be as much as $58bn (£38bn) - more than was spent on the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Some estimates say this figure could eventually be even higher.
Shanghai has increased security measures drastically in preparation for the event.
An additional 8,000 police officers have been brought in to help Shanghai's 46,000-strong police force to patrol the city, Chinese state media says.
'Oppressive' security
Residents living near the Expo site have complained about oppressive security measures.
"It's just not convenient to get in and out any more," Dong, a local resident, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Markets have been closed down to build Expo car parks, he added.
Six people who protested about having their homes destroyed to make room for the Expo have been sent to labour camps, the Hong-Kong based Chinese Human Rights Defenders were quoted as saying by AP.
Last week police seized four computers belonging to activist Feng Zhenghu, who had been trying to set up an alternative online Expo, highlighting alleged miscarriages of justice, our correspondent says.
The Expo is seen as an opportunity for countries to try to win favour with the Chinese, he adds.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday, President Sarkozy - whose relationship with China has been testy after he criticized a Chinese security crackdown in Tibet in 2008 - said France and China would "think and work together".
After the Beijing Olympic games, China can demonstrate again to the world its power and influence. We could have the impression that, according to China, world's recognition has no price. Indeed, even if it is the first Expo in a developping country, it is also the most expensive and exuberant one. 70 million visitors expected, 192 countries and 50 organisations on show, 20,000 cultural performances. Moreover, the place of the Expo is twice the size of Monaco. China says it will eventually cost is $4.2bn but others say costs could reach $58bn. On the other side, different countries (especially the French president) are expecting, from this exhibition, a chance to increase their relationship with this new economic giant called China.
It is quite a paradox that one of the most polluting country in the world hold an exhibition of which main theme is sustainable developement : "better city, better life". In order to make up with that and save face, Chinese authorities have only removed factories in Shanghai, from the city center to surburb areas. However, the location of the exhibition in China is also relevant since this country has many "millionaire" towns (more than one million inhabitants) and would have to solve seriously, one day or another, the problems linked to urban life, pollution and "harmonious" relashionship with nature.
lundi 26 avril 2010
Bolivia climate change talks to give poor a voice
To see the article in its context
Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says.
Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia's central city of Cochabamba for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the grassroots alternative to last year's ill-fated UN talks in Copenhagen.
At least 15,000 people from worldwide indigenous movements and civil-society groups, as well as presidents, scientists, activists and observers from 90 governments, are expected to attend what is being called the "Woodstock" of climate change summits.
"According to some analyses, about 80% of the world's pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated," says Quispe, who last December lobbied the case of his community at Copenhagen.
"The COP15 was a total failure, so brother President Evo Morales has decided to call for this climate change conference to do something about it. We the people are the ones that should take the lead on how to tackle the climate crisis," says Quispe.
Even if the Cochabamba meeting will have no bearing on the UN climate talks, the idea is to give a voice to the world's poorest people – those most affected by climate change – and to make governments more aware of their plight.
The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.
Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.
"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track, not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia's UN ambassador, Pablo Solon.
"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he added.
Bolivia is playing an increasingly important role in the climate negotiations by leading attempts to force developed countries to slash their emissions further than they have so far pledged.
It was one of seven countries that refused to sign up to the deal that emerged from Copenhagen, incurring the wrath of Britain and the US, which this month withdrew $3.5m (£2.3m) of climate aid from Bolivia.
Last April, the UN general assembly approved Morales' initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22 April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings".
"What is behind all this discussion is that we have broken the harmony with Mother Earth, with nature, and because we have broken that harmony we are now suffering the consequences of climate change," said Solon.
In an office plastered with images of Che Guevara, Solon says Bolivia is taking the initiative because of its indigenous constituency. "Things are moving in a bad direction. Governments know it, scientists know it, but things are not changing. I would say this is the only scenario to make a balance between the pressure that at this moment the corporations are putting on governments, versus the pressure that can emerge from civil society."
After the failure of the Copenhagen summit, this new iniative coming from the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, could bring new hopes to the environemental cause. According to some scientific magazine, the agreement from the Copenhagen summit is quite inefficient since it could not reduce to less than 2 degree the global warming. Thus, this conference, a initiative coming from a developping country is a good thing. Indeed, in the Cochabamba meeting has heard the voice of the main victims of the climate change: the poor people. Among the propositions made by this conference there is the good idea of setting of an international climate justice tribunal. However, this conference is not very powerfull comparing to that of Copenhagen. It lacked representation of offical and powerful people to have a real impact on the negociations for the climate change. Indeed, only one other president of State, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela was at the conference. Nevertheless, the text made by the Cochabamba conference will be integrated in the whole text of negociations of the United Nations. Moreover, this conference can make us hope that the countries of ALBA could in the future be a political and diplomatic force to internationaly represent the voice of the poor people.
Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says.
Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia's central city of Cochabamba for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the grassroots alternative to last year's ill-fated UN talks in Copenhagen.
At least 15,000 people from worldwide indigenous movements and civil-society groups, as well as presidents, scientists, activists and observers from 90 governments, are expected to attend what is being called the "Woodstock" of climate change summits.
"According to some analyses, about 80% of the world's pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated," says Quispe, who last December lobbied the case of his community at Copenhagen.
"The COP15 was a total failure, so brother President Evo Morales has decided to call for this climate change conference to do something about it. We the people are the ones that should take the lead on how to tackle the climate crisis," says Quispe.
Even if the Cochabamba meeting will have no bearing on the UN climate talks, the idea is to give a voice to the world's poorest people – those most affected by climate change – and to make governments more aware of their plight.
The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.
Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.
"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track, not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia's UN ambassador, Pablo Solon.
"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he added.
Bolivia is playing an increasingly important role in the climate negotiations by leading attempts to force developed countries to slash their emissions further than they have so far pledged.
It was one of seven countries that refused to sign up to the deal that emerged from Copenhagen, incurring the wrath of Britain and the US, which this month withdrew $3.5m (£2.3m) of climate aid from Bolivia.
Last April, the UN general assembly approved Morales' initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22 April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings".
"What is behind all this discussion is that we have broken the harmony with Mother Earth, with nature, and because we have broken that harmony we are now suffering the consequences of climate change," said Solon.
In an office plastered with images of Che Guevara, Solon says Bolivia is taking the initiative because of its indigenous constituency. "Things are moving in a bad direction. Governments know it, scientists know it, but things are not changing. I would say this is the only scenario to make a balance between the pressure that at this moment the corporations are putting on governments, versus the pressure that can emerge from civil society."
After the failure of the Copenhagen summit, this new iniative coming from the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, could bring new hopes to the environemental cause. According to some scientific magazine, the agreement from the Copenhagen summit is quite inefficient since it could not reduce to less than 2 degree the global warming. Thus, this conference, a initiative coming from a developping country is a good thing. Indeed, in the Cochabamba meeting has heard the voice of the main victims of the climate change: the poor people. Among the propositions made by this conference there is the good idea of setting of an international climate justice tribunal. However, this conference is not very powerfull comparing to that of Copenhagen. It lacked representation of offical and powerful people to have a real impact on the negociations for the climate change. Indeed, only one other president of State, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela was at the conference. Nevertheless, the text made by the Cochabamba conference will be integrated in the whole text of negociations of the United Nations. Moreover, this conference can make us hope that the countries of ALBA could in the future be a political and diplomatic force to internationaly represent the voice of the poor people.
Volcano disrupts Asia-Pacific flights
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2010/04/17/2003470766
AFP, HONG KONG
Saturday, Apr 17, 2010, Page 10
Airlines across the Asia-Pacific region scrambled to reschedule or cancel flights yesterday after a vast cloud of volcanic ash closed swathes of European airspace.
From Wellington to Tokyo, passengers heading to Europe faced an uncertain wait as the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced the biggest airspace shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Airlines warned the fallout from the eruption could take days to clear, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) canceled the Bangkok-Amsterdam leg of its CI165 and CI166 flights between Taipei and Amsterdam, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) dropped its Taipei-Paris round-trip flights and was scheduled to announce later in the day whether it would also cancel its Taipei-Vienna flights.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it may not be able to resume flights to London and Frankfurt until tomorrow.
Qantas spokesman David Epstein urged passengers not to head to airports in the hope that flights may resume soon.
“Do not be optimistic about flights tomorrow [Saturday],” he said, adding that it “may take until Sunday unless we hear something better from European authorities.”
Five 24-hour flights leaving Australia for Europe on Thursday were grounded after they stopped for refueling in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, with passengers booked into hotels.
Air New Zealand canceled flights to and from London, and the company’s international group general manager Ed Sims said travelers faced “a very uncertain situation.”
Japan Airlines canceled nine flights to and from Paris, Amsterdam, London, Milan and Frankfurt, affecting more than 2,000 customers.
All Nippon Airways said it canceled six flights, affecting more than 1,500 people.
Although not visible from the ground, volcanic ash can be highly dangerous to aircraft, clogging up the engines and reducing visibility, experts say.
An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 flights were canceled on Thursday alone as gray ash blew across the north Atlantic.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said it had delayed or canceled a dozen flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. About half the Cathay flights were delayed to today, while the remainder were canceled.
British Airways canceled two flights scheduled to depart Hong Kong last night bound for London’s Heathrow airport.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines canceled one flight last night to Amsterdam from Hong Kong, while German carrier Lufthansa pulled a Frankfurt-bound flight scheduled to leave yesterday afternoon.
Indian airlines Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have all canceled flights to London because of the drifting ash.
Singapore Airlines said it had canceled seven flights to and from Europe, while Malaysia Airlines said its flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris had been disrupted by the eruption.
A scheduled flight to London from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Frankfurt on Thursday, while two other flights to London and Amsterdam, and one to Paris were delayed until further notice.
Last week, the volcano eruption in Iceland has led to a lot of troubles, especially in the airports. Indeed, the cloud of ash created by the eruption has moved to Europe. As the ash could dammage the planes, the authorities had decided to close many airports in Europe for several days.
In my opinion, this natural event reminds us three main things:
In a first point, the extent of globalisation due to the effect of the momentary stop of the flights in Europe. Millions of passengers couldn't flight back home or doing their business travel. We realize that nowadays many people are travelling by plane allthroughout the world. Besides, products are also travelling by plane, including food or others. For instance, some luxury western restaurants in Asia who import a lot of their food from Europe were very worry and could offer all the dishes that were normally on their menu. Thus, due to globalisation, our networks are so interliked that they became more vulnerable and a domino effect can more easily happen.
In a second point, we can see that the precautionary principle is in our society, more present than ever. The effect of the ashes on the planes was not confirmed but the authorities prefered to close the airports in order to avoid any accidents. This policy reminds us the dealing of the H1N1 crisis, were many countries bought millions and millions of vaccines althought the plague eventually stopped.
The third point is connected to the second point. As government won't assume the responsability of a crash, they prefer to close the airport on the basis of a law principle, the precautionary principle. On the contrary, the companies (especially the air companies and travel agencies) who were losing a great amont of money have made pressure for the reopening of the airport. Therefore, we can see a clash between the economic pressure and the government precautions.
In conclusion, I was in France when the eruption occured and my flight was cancelled and delayed four days later. As I was directly touched by the situation, I realized that sometimes it is good that mother nature reminds us her power. When my flight was cancelled I looked up to watch the sky and contrary to one could think, in this sunny spring day, the sky was more blue than ever. Indeed, the cloud of ash was too high to be seen, and, the most important, there was not any trace of gaz discharge from planes.
AFP, HONG KONG
Saturday, Apr 17, 2010, Page 10
Airlines across the Asia-Pacific region scrambled to reschedule or cancel flights yesterday after a vast cloud of volcanic ash closed swathes of European airspace.
From Wellington to Tokyo, passengers heading to Europe faced an uncertain wait as the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced the biggest airspace shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Airlines warned the fallout from the eruption could take days to clear, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) canceled the Bangkok-Amsterdam leg of its CI165 and CI166 flights between Taipei and Amsterdam, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) dropped its Taipei-Paris round-trip flights and was scheduled to announce later in the day whether it would also cancel its Taipei-Vienna flights.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it may not be able to resume flights to London and Frankfurt until tomorrow.
Qantas spokesman David Epstein urged passengers not to head to airports in the hope that flights may resume soon.
“Do not be optimistic about flights tomorrow [Saturday],” he said, adding that it “may take until Sunday unless we hear something better from European authorities.”
Five 24-hour flights leaving Australia for Europe on Thursday were grounded after they stopped for refueling in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, with passengers booked into hotels.
Air New Zealand canceled flights to and from London, and the company’s international group general manager Ed Sims said travelers faced “a very uncertain situation.”
Japan Airlines canceled nine flights to and from Paris, Amsterdam, London, Milan and Frankfurt, affecting more than 2,000 customers.
All Nippon Airways said it canceled six flights, affecting more than 1,500 people.
Although not visible from the ground, volcanic ash can be highly dangerous to aircraft, clogging up the engines and reducing visibility, experts say.
An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 flights were canceled on Thursday alone as gray ash blew across the north Atlantic.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said it had delayed or canceled a dozen flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. About half the Cathay flights were delayed to today, while the remainder were canceled.
British Airways canceled two flights scheduled to depart Hong Kong last night bound for London’s Heathrow airport.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines canceled one flight last night to Amsterdam from Hong Kong, while German carrier Lufthansa pulled a Frankfurt-bound flight scheduled to leave yesterday afternoon.
Indian airlines Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have all canceled flights to London because of the drifting ash.
Singapore Airlines said it had canceled seven flights to and from Europe, while Malaysia Airlines said its flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris had been disrupted by the eruption.
A scheduled flight to London from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Frankfurt on Thursday, while two other flights to London and Amsterdam, and one to Paris were delayed until further notice.
Last week, the volcano eruption in Iceland has led to a lot of troubles, especially in the airports. Indeed, the cloud of ash created by the eruption has moved to Europe. As the ash could dammage the planes, the authorities had decided to close many airports in Europe for several days.
In my opinion, this natural event reminds us three main things:
In a first point, the extent of globalisation due to the effect of the momentary stop of the flights in Europe. Millions of passengers couldn't flight back home or doing their business travel. We realize that nowadays many people are travelling by plane allthroughout the world. Besides, products are also travelling by plane, including food or others. For instance, some luxury western restaurants in Asia who import a lot of their food from Europe were very worry and could offer all the dishes that were normally on their menu. Thus, due to globalisation, our networks are so interliked that they became more vulnerable and a domino effect can more easily happen.
In a second point, we can see that the precautionary principle is in our society, more present than ever. The effect of the ashes on the planes was not confirmed but the authorities prefered to close the airports in order to avoid any accidents. This policy reminds us the dealing of the H1N1 crisis, were many countries bought millions and millions of vaccines althought the plague eventually stopped.
The third point is connected to the second point. As government won't assume the responsability of a crash, they prefer to close the airport on the basis of a law principle, the precautionary principle. On the contrary, the companies (especially the air companies and travel agencies) who were losing a great amont of money have made pressure for the reopening of the airport. Therefore, we can see a clash between the economic pressure and the government precautions.
In conclusion, I was in France when the eruption occured and my flight was cancelled and delayed four days later. As I was directly touched by the situation, I realized that sometimes it is good that mother nature reminds us her power. When my flight was cancelled I looked up to watch the sky and contrary to one could think, in this sunny spring day, the sky was more blue than ever. Indeed, the cloud of ash was too high to be seen, and, the most important, there was not any trace of gaz discharge from planes.
mercredi 14 avril 2010
Russia-Poland thaw grows from tragedy
Russian-Polish relations have often been difficult, but Moscow's dignified handling of the aftermath of the tragic plane crash which killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski has been well received by Poles.
Poles have been somewhat taken aback by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to personally oversee the investigation of the crash which killed all 96 people on board, tearing a hole in the Polish political, military and social elite.
The image of Mr Putin giving his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, a hug amid the debris of the wreckage has been replayed many times on Poland's news channels.
Hours later Mr Putin was back at Smolensk airport, head bowed, as he bade farewell to Mr Kaczynski's coffin before it was flown back to Warsaw.
Newspapers reprinted the text of President Dmitry Medvedev's televised address to Poles and noted Moscow's preparations to accommodate the families of the victims as they arrived in the city to carry out the gruesome task of helping to identify their loved ones.
"It's a paradox but the tragedy in Smolensk is a chance to connect our nations like never before," Marcin Wojciechowski wrote in a column in the leading daily, Gazeta Wyborzca.
"Russia's behaviour after the tragedy in Smolensk totally contradicts the thesis of those who claim that closer relations between Russia and Poland are impossible," he said.
Scar of Katyn
Of course there is still a long way to go down that road. The two governments disagree over issues ranging from energy, foreign policy and historical issues which sometimes date back centuries.
Warsaw poster showing the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria
The memory of Katyn had helped shape Mr Kaczynski's politics
One of those historical issues paved the way for this latest tragedy. President Kaczynski's delegation was on its way to Smolensk to take part in the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre - the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, in the forests of nearby Katyn and elsewhere, in 1940.
That tragedy has divided the nations ever since, particularly as the Soviet Union blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany for 50 years and Poland's post-war communist authorities forbade any discussion on the topic, preventing the families of the victims from finding out anything about the fate of their loved ones.
Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted Soviet responsibility in 1990. President Kaczynski took a tough line towards Russia and its historical responsibilities. Perhaps that is why Moscow did not invite him to take part in the first joint commemoration, held by Mr Putin and Mr Tusk at the Katyn cemetery just three days before the crash.
That event was viewed by many in Poland as a significant step on the road to improved relations that Mr Tusk's government has been pursuing.
A decision was even made that the film Katyn, by Poland's celebrated director Andrzej Wajda, which documents the Soviet lie, should be shown by Russian state TV, not just a peripheral channel.
But Mr Kaczynski was prepared to publicly acknowledge Russia's recent attempts to heal the pain caused by Katyn.
"Katyn has been a painful wound in Polish history and has poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades," Mr Kaczynski wrote in a speech he was to deliver at the anniversary memorial service. "We Poles appreciate Russia's activities in recent years," he wrote.
It is something of a paradox that this latest tragedy to befall the Polish nation may actually prove to help the process of reconciliation between the two nations.
Poland has always been a country which has suffered from tragedies and occupations. For instance, during the History, part of its territory was taken by Russia, Prussia and Austria. But everytime, this thousand-years-old nation has overcome the various obstacles and survived. The air crash last saturday, which caused the death of many military and polical leaders of Poland is a new tragedy for the Poles.
But from this tragedy, we can sense at least one "positive" effect : better relations between Russia and Poland. Indeed, these last days a very famous picture is the hug between Mr Putin And Mr Tusk. Could that demonstrate a relieve in the tense relations between the two countries? This a a great paradox because when the crash occured, the crew was on the way to Smolensk,to celebrate of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a great topic of division between the two countries for many years. It was operated by the Soviet Secret Police in 1940 that killed 20 000 Poles but Russia only recognised its responsability in 1990. In my opinion, the reconcialiation between Russia and Poland was already discernable for several months, and the crash event could only represent a new step in that road of reconcialiation. However, the reconcialiation can only be made gradually since it remains some trouble spot like the energetic issue.
Poles have been somewhat taken aback by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to personally oversee the investigation of the crash which killed all 96 people on board, tearing a hole in the Polish political, military and social elite.
The image of Mr Putin giving his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, a hug amid the debris of the wreckage has been replayed many times on Poland's news channels.
Hours later Mr Putin was back at Smolensk airport, head bowed, as he bade farewell to Mr Kaczynski's coffin before it was flown back to Warsaw.
Newspapers reprinted the text of President Dmitry Medvedev's televised address to Poles and noted Moscow's preparations to accommodate the families of the victims as they arrived in the city to carry out the gruesome task of helping to identify their loved ones.
"It's a paradox but the tragedy in Smolensk is a chance to connect our nations like never before," Marcin Wojciechowski wrote in a column in the leading daily, Gazeta Wyborzca.
"Russia's behaviour after the tragedy in Smolensk totally contradicts the thesis of those who claim that closer relations between Russia and Poland are impossible," he said.
Scar of Katyn
Of course there is still a long way to go down that road. The two governments disagree over issues ranging from energy, foreign policy and historical issues which sometimes date back centuries.
Warsaw poster showing the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria
The memory of Katyn had helped shape Mr Kaczynski's politics
One of those historical issues paved the way for this latest tragedy. President Kaczynski's delegation was on its way to Smolensk to take part in the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre - the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, in the forests of nearby Katyn and elsewhere, in 1940.
That tragedy has divided the nations ever since, particularly as the Soviet Union blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany for 50 years and Poland's post-war communist authorities forbade any discussion on the topic, preventing the families of the victims from finding out anything about the fate of their loved ones.
Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted Soviet responsibility in 1990. President Kaczynski took a tough line towards Russia and its historical responsibilities. Perhaps that is why Moscow did not invite him to take part in the first joint commemoration, held by Mr Putin and Mr Tusk at the Katyn cemetery just three days before the crash.
That event was viewed by many in Poland as a significant step on the road to improved relations that Mr Tusk's government has been pursuing.
A decision was even made that the film Katyn, by Poland's celebrated director Andrzej Wajda, which documents the Soviet lie, should be shown by Russian state TV, not just a peripheral channel.
But Mr Kaczynski was prepared to publicly acknowledge Russia's recent attempts to heal the pain caused by Katyn.
"Katyn has been a painful wound in Polish history and has poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades," Mr Kaczynski wrote in a speech he was to deliver at the anniversary memorial service. "We Poles appreciate Russia's activities in recent years," he wrote.
It is something of a paradox that this latest tragedy to befall the Polish nation may actually prove to help the process of reconciliation between the two nations.
Poland has always been a country which has suffered from tragedies and occupations. For instance, during the History, part of its territory was taken by Russia, Prussia and Austria. But everytime, this thousand-years-old nation has overcome the various obstacles and survived. The air crash last saturday, which caused the death of many military and polical leaders of Poland is a new tragedy for the Poles.
But from this tragedy, we can sense at least one "positive" effect : better relations between Russia and Poland. Indeed, these last days a very famous picture is the hug between Mr Putin And Mr Tusk. Could that demonstrate a relieve in the tense relations between the two countries? This a a great paradox because when the crash occured, the crew was on the way to Smolensk,to celebrate of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a great topic of division between the two countries for many years. It was operated by the Soviet Secret Police in 1940 that killed 20 000 Poles but Russia only recognised its responsability in 1990. In my opinion, the reconcialiation between Russia and Poland was already discernable for several months, and the crash event could only represent a new step in that road of reconcialiation. However, the reconcialiation can only be made gradually since it remains some trouble spot like the energetic issue.
lundi 29 mars 2010
North Koreans Use Cellphones to Bare Secrets
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, one of the world’s most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat: networks of its own citizens feeding information about life there to South Korea and its Western allies.
Related
The networks are the creation of a handful of North Korean defectors and South Korean human rights activists using cellphones to pierce North Korea’s near-total news blackout. To build the networks, recruiters slip into China to woo the few North Koreans allowed to travel there, provide cellphones to smuggle across the border, then post informers’ phoned and texted reports on Web sites.
The work is risky. Recruiters spend months identifying and coaxing potential informants, all the while evading agents from the North and the Chinese police bent on stopping their work. The North Koreans face even greater danger; exposure could lead to imprisonment — or death.
The result has been a news free-for-all, a jumble of sometimes confirmed but often contradictory reports. Some have been important; the Web sites were the first to report the outrage among North Koreans over a drastic currency revaluation late last year. Other articles have been more prosaic, covering topics like whether North Koreans keep pets and their complaints about the price of rice.
But the fact that such news is leaking out at all is something of a revolution for a brutally efficient gulag state that has forcibly cloistered its people for decades even as other closed societies have reluctantly accepted at least some of the intrusions of a more wired world. “In an information vacuum like North Korea, any additional tidbits — even in the swamp of rumors — is helpful,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has chronicled the country’s economic and population woes for decades.
“You didn’t used to be able to get that kind of information,” he said of the reports on the currency crisis. “It was fascinating to see the pushback from the lower levels” of North Korean society.
To see the whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/world/asia/29news.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global-home
Commentary:
North Corea is a hard dictatorship and also one of the world's most closed society. For example, the north Corean cannot have access to the Internet. Therefore, we have very few news about the country, except those of the official government. However, even in "the world's most impenetrable nation", they cannot fully to cut out from the globalized world. Indeed, some North Corean dissidents found a solution to face the censorship. They can communicate with the world and reveal what happens in their country by using a chinese cellphone that works near the border with China.In conclusion, this article reminds us that because of globalization and new technologies it is almost impossible for a country to cut out from the world. We all know new technologies can be usefool tools for military spying, but can new technologies be usefool tools for protestation ? Indeed, they have a potential to both defy the censorship and quickly amass a virtual crowd of supporters.
Related
The networks are the creation of a handful of North Korean defectors and South Korean human rights activists using cellphones to pierce North Korea’s near-total news blackout. To build the networks, recruiters slip into China to woo the few North Koreans allowed to travel there, provide cellphones to smuggle across the border, then post informers’ phoned and texted reports on Web sites.
The work is risky. Recruiters spend months identifying and coaxing potential informants, all the while evading agents from the North and the Chinese police bent on stopping their work. The North Koreans face even greater danger; exposure could lead to imprisonment — or death.
The result has been a news free-for-all, a jumble of sometimes confirmed but often contradictory reports. Some have been important; the Web sites were the first to report the outrage among North Koreans over a drastic currency revaluation late last year. Other articles have been more prosaic, covering topics like whether North Koreans keep pets and their complaints about the price of rice.
But the fact that such news is leaking out at all is something of a revolution for a brutally efficient gulag state that has forcibly cloistered its people for decades even as other closed societies have reluctantly accepted at least some of the intrusions of a more wired world. “In an information vacuum like North Korea, any additional tidbits — even in the swamp of rumors — is helpful,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has chronicled the country’s economic and population woes for decades.
“You didn’t used to be able to get that kind of information,” he said of the reports on the currency crisis. “It was fascinating to see the pushback from the lower levels” of North Korean society.
To see the whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/world/asia/29news.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global-home
Commentary:
North Corea is a hard dictatorship and also one of the world's most closed society. For example, the north Corean cannot have access to the Internet. Therefore, we have very few news about the country, except those of the official government. However, even in "the world's most impenetrable nation", they cannot fully to cut out from the globalized world. Indeed, some North Corean dissidents found a solution to face the censorship. They can communicate with the world and reveal what happens in their country by using a chinese cellphone that works near the border with China.In conclusion, this article reminds us that because of globalization and new technologies it is almost impossible for a country to cut out from the world. We all know new technologies can be usefool tools for military spying, but can new technologies be usefool tools for protestation ? Indeed, they have a potential to both defy the censorship and quickly amass a virtual crowd of supporters.
lundi 22 mars 2010
Quotation of the week
“ It may be that we are puppets -- puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation “ Stanley Milgram
Reality show contestants willing to kill in French experiment (by Lisa de Moraes)
American reality TV has left a trail of corpses, but we can still say this: No one appears to have been executed on any of the U.S. shows.
This Story
That's apparently not the case in France, where, according to a new French documentary series, people would be willing to kill their countrymen for their 15 minutes of fame.
Eighty people who thought they were participating in the shooting of a pilot for a French reality series were willing to deliver potentially lethal electric shocks to a contestant who had incorrectly answered knowledge questions, according to the documentary, "The Game of Death," airing on French TV on Wednesday night.
"Zone Xtreme" seemed to have a pretty standard game-show format, complete with wildly enthusiastic studio audience, a glam well-known TV weatherwoman hostess, gaudy lighting, etc., said the French press reports.
In truth, the would-be reality series participants were part of an experiment that was turned into the documentary.
In "Zone Xtreme," the faux contestants who gave all the wrong answers were actually actors. Each "contestant" was strapped into an electric chair. The 80 wannabe famesters were each asked to punish the contestant, when a wrong answer was given, by administering up to 460 volts of electricity. The majority of them ignored the contestant's screams and obeyed the orders of the weather-chick hostess to ratchet up the jolt. They also obeyed the chant of "Punishment!" from the studio audience -- which did not know the game show was a fake -- until the contestant fell silent and appeared to have died. Only 16 contestants walked away, according to press reports.
The idea for the show came from the work of psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted the experiment at Yale University in the 1960s. Milgram found that most people, if pushed by an authority figure, would administer ostensibly dangerous electric shocks to another person. His experiment became famous, having been conducted at the same time as the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
As for American reality TV, it's had its share of actual deaths -- though not on air. Among them:
-- Major fame-seeker Ryan Jenkins, star of the VH1 reality series "Megan Wants a Millionaire" and "I Love Money 3," was found dead of apparent suicide after becoming the only person of interest in the slaying of his wife.
-- The producers of MTV's save-an-addict reality series "Gone Too Far" might have gone too far when they had show host Adam Goldstein, a.k.a. DJ AM, go into a bodega to buy a crack pipe because they wanted the footage. Goldstein, a recovering addict who said he'd been clean 11 years, was found dead in his apartment three days after shooting ended on the show. Authorities found a lethal cocktail of crack and prescription drugs in his system and a crack pipe in his apartment.
-- Avid runner Tom Sparks died in November 2009 after participating in the filming of ABC's "Wipeout" when he experienced knee pain, followed by shortness of breath, followed by a stroke.
We reached out to the TV community for their thoughts on "Zone Xtreme." By press time, almost no executive had returned calls to dignify the show with his own comments -- maybe they were too busy wondering how to get the rights.
One brave executive did call back and acknowledged he'd once told a reality-TV exec he thought it would make an interesting reality series to re-create some of the more bizarre social-psychology experiments -- as appears to have been done in France. It never came to anything, said the executive, who asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
This article deals with a new TV reality show broadscat in France. It is inspired by the experiment made by Stanley Milgram in the 1960's. The participants can deliver lethal electric shocks to a contestant who had incorrectly answered knowledge questions. 80% of the participants gave lethal electric shocks. Hopefully the game was a fake, in order to demonstrate to the viewer our submission to authority.
In my opinion, the apparent purpose of the show is to demonstrate under authority we can act against our own values or our own choice. But according to me, the only purpose of the TV show is to make audience by shocking viewers. Stanley Milgram was a social scientist, and he lied to the "killers "only to serve scientific authority and research. But in this show, people are humiliated and it is only for the amusement of the media audience.
Moreover, how a person participating in a TV show, viewed by millions of people, could believe he will really kill those people?
So, according to me TV is sometimes dangerous because we don't know how far we could go in order to gain maximum audience.
This Story
That's apparently not the case in France, where, according to a new French documentary series, people would be willing to kill their countrymen for their 15 minutes of fame.
Eighty people who thought they were participating in the shooting of a pilot for a French reality series were willing to deliver potentially lethal electric shocks to a contestant who had incorrectly answered knowledge questions, according to the documentary, "The Game of Death," airing on French TV on Wednesday night.
"Zone Xtreme" seemed to have a pretty standard game-show format, complete with wildly enthusiastic studio audience, a glam well-known TV weatherwoman hostess, gaudy lighting, etc., said the French press reports.
In truth, the would-be reality series participants were part of an experiment that was turned into the documentary.
In "Zone Xtreme," the faux contestants who gave all the wrong answers were actually actors. Each "contestant" was strapped into an electric chair. The 80 wannabe famesters were each asked to punish the contestant, when a wrong answer was given, by administering up to 460 volts of electricity. The majority of them ignored the contestant's screams and obeyed the orders of the weather-chick hostess to ratchet up the jolt. They also obeyed the chant of "Punishment!" from the studio audience -- which did not know the game show was a fake -- until the contestant fell silent and appeared to have died. Only 16 contestants walked away, according to press reports.
The idea for the show came from the work of psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted the experiment at Yale University in the 1960s. Milgram found that most people, if pushed by an authority figure, would administer ostensibly dangerous electric shocks to another person. His experiment became famous, having been conducted at the same time as the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
As for American reality TV, it's had its share of actual deaths -- though not on air. Among them:
-- Major fame-seeker Ryan Jenkins, star of the VH1 reality series "Megan Wants a Millionaire" and "I Love Money 3," was found dead of apparent suicide after becoming the only person of interest in the slaying of his wife.
-- The producers of MTV's save-an-addict reality series "Gone Too Far" might have gone too far when they had show host Adam Goldstein, a.k.a. DJ AM, go into a bodega to buy a crack pipe because they wanted the footage. Goldstein, a recovering addict who said he'd been clean 11 years, was found dead in his apartment three days after shooting ended on the show. Authorities found a lethal cocktail of crack and prescription drugs in his system and a crack pipe in his apartment.
-- Avid runner Tom Sparks died in November 2009 after participating in the filming of ABC's "Wipeout" when he experienced knee pain, followed by shortness of breath, followed by a stroke.
We reached out to the TV community for their thoughts on "Zone Xtreme." By press time, almost no executive had returned calls to dignify the show with his own comments -- maybe they were too busy wondering how to get the rights.
One brave executive did call back and acknowledged he'd once told a reality-TV exec he thought it would make an interesting reality series to re-create some of the more bizarre social-psychology experiments -- as appears to have been done in France. It never came to anything, said the executive, who asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
This article deals with a new TV reality show broadscat in France. It is inspired by the experiment made by Stanley Milgram in the 1960's. The participants can deliver lethal electric shocks to a contestant who had incorrectly answered knowledge questions. 80% of the participants gave lethal electric shocks. Hopefully the game was a fake, in order to demonstrate to the viewer our submission to authority.
In my opinion, the apparent purpose of the show is to demonstrate under authority we can act against our own values or our own choice. But according to me, the only purpose of the TV show is to make audience by shocking viewers. Stanley Milgram was a social scientist, and he lied to the "killers "only to serve scientific authority and research. But in this show, people are humiliated and it is only for the amusement of the media audience.
Moreover, how a person participating in a TV show, viewed by millions of people, could believe he will really kill those people?
So, according to me TV is sometimes dangerous because we don't know how far we could go in order to gain maximum audience.
lundi 15 mars 2010
quote of the week
"Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time." (E. B. White)
China tries to calm Taiwan fears over EFCA
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2010/03/15/2003468064
One of the major political debate in Taiwan this month is concerning the ECFA (economic corporation framework agreement), an economic pact under negotiation between the mainland and Taiwan, a "good deal" to promote cross-Strait economic cooperation and achieve mutual benefits. It is aimed at institutionalizing economic cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan and facilitating and regularizing economic and trade exchanges. President Ma Ying-jeou has said that signing the ECFA was "absolutely necessary" in order to avoid the marginalisation of the country.
However, in Taiwan, there are also voices against the agreement. First, negociating with China is not so easy considering the particular relationship between the two "brothers". The second reason is the impact of the agreement on the economy of Taiwan, especially on agriculture and small industries. The ECFA could flood Taiwan with cheap good and then threaten small industries. Even if China as sais that its agricultural goods will not be involved in the agreement and Taiwan government claimed he will give 95 billions of NT dollars, the fear remains. Thus , TSU (Taiwan solidarity union) has launched a referendum on the issue. The opposition need at least 86000 signators in order to launch the procedure, and they claim they can have 100000.
In conclusion, the debate on this agreement:
1- reflects relationship between Taiwan and China can improve, but are still complicated ( there is a strong opposition)
2- raise the question of the benefits of protectionism vs liberalism
One of the major political debate in Taiwan this month is concerning the ECFA (economic corporation framework agreement), an economic pact under negotiation between the mainland and Taiwan, a "good deal" to promote cross-Strait economic cooperation and achieve mutual benefits. It is aimed at institutionalizing economic cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan and facilitating and regularizing economic and trade exchanges. President Ma Ying-jeou has said that signing the ECFA was "absolutely necessary" in order to avoid the marginalisation of the country.
However, in Taiwan, there are also voices against the agreement. First, negociating with China is not so easy considering the particular relationship between the two "brothers". The second reason is the impact of the agreement on the economy of Taiwan, especially on agriculture and small industries. The ECFA could flood Taiwan with cheap good and then threaten small industries. Even if China as sais that its agricultural goods will not be involved in the agreement and Taiwan government claimed he will give 95 billions of NT dollars, the fear remains. Thus , TSU (Taiwan solidarity union) has launched a referendum on the issue. The opposition need at least 86000 signators in order to launch the procedure, and they claim they can have 100000.
In conclusion, the debate on this agreement:
1- reflects relationship between Taiwan and China can improve, but are still complicated ( there is a strong opposition)
2- raise the question of the benefits of protectionism vs liberalism
lundi 8 mars 2010
There's a new Red Scare. But is China really so scary?
I will comment the article There's a new Red Scare. But is China really so scary? By Steven Mufson and John Pomfret, Sunday, February 28, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022602601.html
This article deals with the growth of China and the fear that it implies in the United States. China is becoming powerfull, in terms of education, economy, governance and energy and compete the United States. Therefore we can talk about the new red Scare, coming not from Russia, but from China. For instance, we understand that China is becoming a new green power, investing a lot in green energy, and that scares many American citizens. The journalists try to convince us that China is powerfull but it is not necessary to exaggerate the threat. Indeed, China’economy has also weaknesses. Moreover, it is dangerous for the United States to use this fear in order to implement laws. It is important to create new laws, such as those on green energy, being aware of their good consequences on the society and the future and no only create them in order to compete an other country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022602601.html
This article deals with the growth of China and the fear that it implies in the United States. China is becoming powerfull, in terms of education, economy, governance and energy and compete the United States. Therefore we can talk about the new red Scare, coming not from Russia, but from China. For instance, we understand that China is becoming a new green power, investing a lot in green energy, and that scares many American citizens. The journalists try to convince us that China is powerfull but it is not necessary to exaggerate the threat. Indeed, China’economy has also weaknesses. Moreover, it is dangerous for the United States to use this fear in order to implement laws. It is important to create new laws, such as those on green energy, being aware of their good consequences on the society and the future and no only create them in order to compete an other country.
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