Having just finished my first semester at Tsinghua University, one of China's leading schools, I thought that now would be a good time to write a summary of my impressions of the program so far as it relates to the US. One of the most interesting courses I took this semester was American Politics and Policy Toward China, which was taught by a prominent Chinese scholar on the subject of the US. I am something of a US policy wonk and like to believe that I already have a fairly strong grasp of how things work (or don't work, as the case may be) in Washington, so I took this class to learn about the Chinese perception of American politics. This class ended up being an experience that was sometimes shocking but always fascinating. The preoccupation with the US here permeates many different aspects of student life, from the bizarre (to me) fascination with American high school-style leather and wool letter jackets to the academic obsession with analyzing every factor of US power so as to figure out how China can and should emulate it in the near future. This class essentially functioned as the tip of the iceberg: it was a forum for students in the Chinese-language IR program to voice their thoughts on the US's internal affairs rather than focusing on its international relations, the aspect of its conduct which is much more heavily and frequently scrutinized.
The very first class wasted no time in making me wonder just exactly what kind of rabbit hole I'd elected to jump down. We were shown part of a documentary on the pilgrims and then jumped straight into Mel Gibson's The Patriot. Not just a few pertinent excerpts, as would be the norm for this kind of thing in a school in the US, but the whole thing. It dawned on me as I watched the Swamp Fox try – and comically fail – to build a rocking chair that the Chinese government was effectively paying me to watch a Mel Gibson movie. Gibson's films, regardless of the man's personal failings, are generally entertaining, so I had no complaints. What I found fascinating, however, was the fact that this film was apparently being presented as a documentary, not as entertainment. It was evident from my classmates' reactions that most, if not all, of them had never seen it before: they gasped in all the right places, evidently seeing the sometimes shockingly violent material for the first time. This film is notorious for its whitewashing of Francis Marion, who in real life is known to have raped his slaves and tortured native Americans, among other crimes; however, none of this was mentioned, critically or otherwise, in the discussion after the film. This viewing served to unironically introduce the class to the American conception of the hero, which was discussed extensively, bringing in the likes of Captain America (no mention of the fact that Steve Rogers was an art school dropout and a pipsqueak who attained his physical prowess from an advanced serum). For many of the students, this ideal seemed to be rather uncritically taken at face value. It would, naturally, be too much to expect a course like this to delve into the nuances of comic book characters, but one of the most piquant moments in Cap's development was the realization that what he stood for was no longer as relevant as he'd always thought; America had become more cynical than what he had left behind in the 1940s.
This rose-tinted, Disneyfied view of America and her principles would in many ways set the overall tone for how the US would be described in subsequent classes. In the student presentations and lectures by the professor, many of the nuances of how our traditional cultural values are viewed today were understandably lost, leaving it to the one other American student in the class and me to do our best to fill in the gaps. The fun part, however, was that the other American leans toward the conservative side of the political spectrum, whereas I lean toward the liberal side. As a result, I can only imagine that our sometimes wildly divergent explanations of the same issues often served to further confuse our Chinese classmates, such as our takes on the issues of welfare, gerrymandering, and the NSA's phone-tapping programs.
The sheer capacity for American political principles to be interpreted so differently, which is one of the mainstays of our political system, in and of itself is no doubt highly alien to students who have grown up under the Chinese model. One whole class was spent just on the subject of America's political parties, including why we even have them. The basic functioning of democracy is not unknown to the majority of students here, of course, but its particularities, like political parties, are perhaps less understood (the electoral college system can be difficult enough for some to explain in English if it's not totally comfortable territory, but imagine attempting to explain it in Chinese!). Students understand that there are Democrats and there are Republicans, but seem less aware of the more detailed political cleavings within those two groups. Democracy must seem awfully inefficient at times to external observers, but efficiency is not necessarily the most important trait in a government. As I argued in defense of what the multi-party system that springs from a a community containing groups with competing interests ought to embody, once civilization has taken the step of conceding that individuals in a society have a fundamental right to participate in their own government, there is effectively no turning back from that point even if the process itself can be quite messy and is far from perfect. This is what can make democracy, as others have argued, "the only game in town." Exploring the intricacies of how these competing groups fight for their interests and principles based on differing interpretations of the same historical documents was one of the most interesting parts of the course.
For example, early on in the course, the subject of America's Christian heritage was an important theme. As I carefully explained, while much of America shares a cultural and ideological lexicon drawn from Judaeo-Christian ideas, this is not the same thing as a legal basis and was never intended to be interpreted as such; as we all well know, disagreement on this point is one of the main sources of friction between various groups in the US. When the class wrestled with the idea of having "separation of church and state," one student described his experience teaching minority students in China's western regions. Many of these students had their own religion, he said – an oblique reference to their adherence to Tibetan Buddhism, I believe – and explained that they were able to view political and religious leaders as filling distinctly separate roles that did not contradict each other. The Chinese Communist Party tends to take the kind of stance regarding religious fealty that was famously shared, for example, by those who feared that John F. Kennedy would be an unfit President because he might secretly owe his primary allegiance to the Pope rather than to the American people. That is, the CCP generally believes that minority nationalism and religion are incompatible with greater China nationalism or the religion of the state. The stance taken at least by this student, however, and a few others in the class was that political and religious leaders do not necessarily have to clash. When the professor asked this student what he believed, after hesitating for a moment, he replied that he believed in Communism. The class tittered at this and, flustered, he explained that Communism doesn't really mean anything anymore so it's not exactly an ideological commitment to say one is a Communist. In the end, he finally just shrugged and said that he was an atheist. This view on Communism seems to be quite common here; many Western observers have remarked on how little the Chinese political system as it is today is still influenced by Marxist principles, but this view is also shared by many Chinese, from my experience here. Marxism-Leninism here at Tsinghua seems to be reduced to mostly a token role. Contemporary Marxism and Social Practice are ostensibly required courses in my Chinese-language political science program, but when a post-doc TA shyly asked me how I felt about Marxism during course registration in September, I said something that would be roughly translated as "I can't stand it." She giggled in response and told me that I didn't have to take it. Deference to Marxism is still a political necessity since Marxism-Leninism and Mao Thought (regardless of how they are actually interpreted) are still the crucial elements of the Party's authorizing political myth and cannot be discarded without causing irreparable harm to the Party's legitimacy, as I argued in my Master's thesis; it would be a political scandal of the highest order if China's preeminent university were to openly abandon it. People pay lip service to it but for most young academics, loyalty seems to stop there. Everyone knows that China is not as red as it once was. There are, of course, a few radical individuals here and there who take Mao Thought without a grain of salt, but this mostly seems, in my opinion, to be because they believe that doing so will help advance their careers.
In addition to the sometimes sensitive discussions on how American politics function, some of the most riveting discussions centered on American culture. Predictably, our gun culture was no disappointment here. I watched in horror one day as the professor explained that all Americans own guns and that it is legal to kill anyone who invades one's home (I explained that so-called "castle laws" do not exist in all states and that even within castle laws there is a wide variation between the circumstances that call for justifiable lethal response), that police carry guns in order to shoot fleeing criminals in the leg so as to stop them from running (cops are trained to aim for the center mass because in a stressful situation chances of hitting anything else plummet to almost zero, and, when police use their firearms, they tend to shoot first and ask questions later without regard for the well-being of the suspect), that police don't want to hurt innocent people (without getting too into the political arguments on either side, I think we can all agree that police in the US could stand to be a bit more judicious in escalating use of force), and that only Americans are allowed to privately own guns (flatly untrue). Like many non-Americans, the Chinese students found America's attachment to guns perplexing. Civilians are forbidden to own guns in China. It seemed clear to many of my classmates that more guns result in more crime; they did not understand why Americans cannot realize this. The other American in the class, who is an Air Force service member, argued that the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution and is not going away, something that is not untrue and with which I do not disagree. I explained to the class that my view on the gun debate is that there is simply a huge cultural divide on the issue. People from urban areas, like me, tend to only be exposed to firearms as instruments of crime and violence, whereas people from rural areas do not have such negative associations with them because they are simply tools that are a part of life; each group tries to push for national policies based solely on its own cohort's understanding of the issue, which creates conflict. Misunderstandings abound in this realm, such as some conservatives lashing out at what they imagine liberals want to do to their Constitutional rights even if that may not actually be the case, and some liberals trying to legislate based on things they don't fully comprehend, such as the infamous meaningless "assault weapon" classification based as much on which guns look the scariest as on anything else. In order to make meaningful progress on the issue of gun safety, I argued, both sides need to be more literate both on the subject matter and on what the other side of the debate actually wants, not what they think the other side wants. As long as prominent Democratic politicians make it easy to mock them for not knowing the difference between a clip and a magazine and as long as the mainstream right regards anyone who says "I'm a supporter of the Second Amendment, but…" as an apostate, progress will be difficult or impossible to achieve. I think that this helped clarify some things a bit for my classmates, but I am afraid that our high number of gun crimes still speaks for itself. For the record, I am in favor of expanded background checks and measures that primarily focus on scrutinizing people who attempt to purchase firearms in order to increase success rates of weeding out the potentially dangerous rather than attempting to control the types of magazines that are widely available, since the latter type of measure has proven not to be the, ah, magic bullet it was once hoped to be, particularly in regard to mass shootings.
All in all, the class was pretty fascinating, including the misunderstandings, because it was a great opportunity to clear things up and, hopefully, make America seem less strange. Although I had intended to merely listen to my Chinese classmates' thoughts, I found myself explaining more and more. This ease with which I explained my points of view, however, was not transferable to the courses on foreign policy. Like some Chinese students studying in America have observed, it can seem more prudent to stay quiet in these classes so as not to become alienated from the rest of the students. Whereas America's domestic politics seemed to be more of a point of curiosity to my classmates, America's international conduct is no joking matter. In Chinese Foreign Policy and other similar courses, students' views tended to fall more or less where one might expect on lines of nationality. This is where students' (and professors') preoccupation with America's comparative decline and China's comparative rise – to use the Chinese terminology – reliably came out in full force. As an American, I have found that my experiences studying diplomacy have tended to emphasize the give-and-take, back-and-forth nature of it, the attempt to sincerely understand one's counterpart's position so as to work out a compromise that is as mutually beneficial as possible. This understanding of diplomacy, apparently, differs starkly from how most of my Chinese colleagues view it, which can be best summed up with a statement made by someone in class: "The only way for China and [a certain country with whom China is currently experiencing diplomatic difficulties] to move forward is for [this country] to accept reality and historical fact (emphasis added)," i.e., for the other party to simply give all and take none in the ongoing dialogue. Clearly, such a result would constitute surrender, not compromise, but much of China's actions in the Southeast and East Asian sphere have appeared to be driven by this mentality. As it was put quite succinctly in The Diplomat recently, "Professor Zod seems to have been teaching Negotiations 101 when Xi Jinping & Co. took the class. Neither empathy nor tact are hallmarks of Chinese foreign relations." Zod, for those who aren't up on their comic lore or who have been stuck in the Fortress of Solitude and therefore managed to miss both Superman II and the much more recent Man of Steel, is a formidable Kryptonian general famous for commanding his enemies to "kneel before Zod." As one might imagine, this approach to foreign policy does not make it easy to ameliorate diplomatic strain between nations. However, rather than voice my opinion on this matter, it has seemed far more painless to simply listen and try to understand my Chinese colleagues' stances. I would not go so far as to compare this voluntary silence on my part to self-censoring by journalists in Nazi Germany, as the head of Bloomberg did, but neither would I say that I am entirely happy with it. When I do attempt to discuss various aspects of China's conduct with classmates, rather than being willing to discuss the matter, with few exceptions most students tend to opt for a polite smile followed by "That is an internal Chinese matter." Rather than cause tension by trying to force a discussion even outside of class, it seems easier to let sleeping dogs lie.
A great deal of the academic discussion here seems to be influenced by economic determinism, which essentially dictates that higher GDP means greater comprehensive power. There are many formulae that students can and do trot out in support of this view; it seems to be taken for granted that if China can keep up its economic growth, it is sure to overtake the US not only as the world's biggest economy but also as the world's preeminent superpower. Students seem to focus not so much on whether or not China will overtake the US as they do on what China can and should do once it does. Some academics, like Yan Xuetong, the dean of the Contemporary International Relations Department here at Tsinghua (and also my academic advisor), take a more nuanced stance and argue that mere economic strength is not enough of a basis for hegemony. To be more precise, power derived from economic strength results in hegemony only, and not in more desirable types of superpower status such as "humane authority," or junwang dao, the only type of superpower that is able to maintain its status through global assent rather than by force. According to Yan's moral realism, which draws heavily from the pre-Qin dynasty masters of political thought, a hegemonic country's status will wax and wane as its hard power does, whereas a humane authoritarian power's status will be tied more to its moral strength than its hard power (although hard power is, of course, not unimportant). This political model is roughly reminiscent of the traditional Chinese cultural model that views China as the "middle kingdom" to which surrounding civilizations are drawn and whose global dominance is passively approved by what are in effect satellite civilizations. Such reforms that would allow this kind of moral realist force to take hold in China have yet to be adopted by the government, but if and when they are, I suspect that understanding between the US and China will be far easier to advance. As one student was asked by the professor during his presentation on US-China relations on the last day of the American Politics course, "Who are America's friends?" The answer, of course, is those countries that actively uphold global norms. If China wants to be America's friend, it will have to do that, as well.
Alexander Bowe has an MA in International Studies from the Korbel School and is currently a doctoral candidate in Political Science at Tsinghua University.
The "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!" school of foreign policy (Image courtesy of the Chinese Ministry of Defense).
In January 2012, a Florida man shot and killed his perceived aggressor and ignited a nationwide debate on self-defense. George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin quickly became one of the most hotly contested and publicly scrutinized cases in the US since OJ Simpson's alleged murder of his wife in 1994. At the heart of the controversy was a legal principle known as "Stand Your Ground," which states that in cases of self-defense, even in public areas, those who feel threatened are not obligated to first attempt to deescalate the situation or seek safety before resorting to force. Even though he knew of the law's existence, Zimmerman did not, in fact, actually make his case based on this principle – nor did the prosecution seek to show that he had even had an opportunity to retreat – but nonetheless the public debate surrounding the case primarily focused on the law in part because the judge specifically ordered the jury to consider its implications in their deliberations. Florida's law received a great deal of attention throughout the case, but this law is not unique to Florida: more than thirty states in the US have some type of Stand Your Ground law, either explicitly or through case law precedent, while nearly all fifty US states have some variant of the similar but more moderate "castle law," which applies only to one's home instead of any area. Critics of Stand Your Ground laws worry that the assurance of legal protection for reacting to any perceived threat legitimizes and enables aggression since the law (in Florida's case) disregards completely the circumstances which led up to the confrontation; all that matters is that responding to a perceived threat is legitimate. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, Stand Your Ground laws negatively impact public safety and security "by allowing – and perhaps encouraging – violent situations to escalate in public." Holder's (and others') concern is that under the protection of this law, Americans might, by escalating situations in ways that are nor overtly illegal or openly aggressive, deliberately allow confrontations to develop to the point where they will have a justifiable excuse to respond with force simply because they provoked their opponents into drawing first blood.
The text of Florida's Stand Your Ground law reads, "A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony." In the Zimmerman case, many observers reluctantly concluded that although Zimmerman's actions were arguably not truly in the spirit of self-defense due to the larger context of the confrontation, according to the wording of the law no legal outcome other than acquittal was ever likely. Juror B29 stated after the trial that Zimmerman "got away with murder… but the law couldn't prove it… You can't put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty. But we had to grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence." Even though evidence in the developing case indicated that it was highly likely that Martin was the first to actually use force by grabbing Zimmerman, striking him, and bashing his head against the ground, supporters of Martin stressed repeatedly that the confrontation would never have occurred in the first place if Zimmerman had not made the decision to leave his car and investigate a figure whom he subjectively deemed to be a suspicious person, which he had no authority to do and was told by 911 responders not to do. In sum, Zimmerman independently sought out and created a situation in which he then had a legal opportunity to respond with lethal force; the crux of the issue is that none of it would ever have occurred if Zimmerman had simply minded his own business rather than going out of his way to create a threatening situation to which he then felt obliged to respond. This principle is arguably the essence of China's regional foreign policy as exhibited by its newly expanded Air Defense Identification Zone.
Since at least the 1990s, Beijing has been gradually escalating tensions resulting from contradictory territorial claims, but always in ways that are neither overtly aggressive nor blatantly illegal in order to maintain the carefully constructed appearance of non-aggression and "peaceful rise." China and its neighbors have routinely patrolled contested waters in the South China and East China Seas in order to reinforce their control over the regions, but China has when possible taken the opportunity to subvert these attempts without being openly aggressive. In 1995, after a severe storm that forced Philippine naval vessels to withdraw from the contested Mischief Reef in order to seek safety, Chinese vessels quickly took over the area before the Philippine ships could return and – over the loud but ultimately ignored protests of Manila – constructed platforms to secure its ownership and control. More recently, Beijing employed a similar tactic when it double-crossed Manila after a mutual agreement to withdraw from Scarborough Shoal in the spring of 2012, claiming never to have signed the agreement, sending vessels to reclaim the area after both fleets had withdrawn. Beijing has also made use of this "salami-slicing" strategy on its western borders in disputes that are less widely reported in mainstream media but no less hotly contested: in areas whose ownership India also claims, China has sent troops to first secure control and then later construct camps and roads as a means of demonstrating ownership, a practice that has been utilized in the region since at least the 1950s. To date, Chinese salami-slicing has mostly consisted of moving into disputed but vacant territory and essentially planting a flag and maintaining a presence in order to be the new king of the mountain; since these areas have all had unclear legal ownership and no direct pushing out of foreign forces, China has been able to avoid actively initiating conflict and thus maintain its claim of "peaceful rise" with the exceptions of small border wars in the mid-late twentieth century.
More recently, however, Beijing has begun to display the kind of behavior that could arguably be characterized by the concerns reflected in Attorney General Holder's comments above. As China has more aggressively begun to realize what it believes is its destiny of East Asian dominance, its tactics have shifted from claiming disputed territories that are closer to its sphere of control through minimally confrontational means to now beginning to stake claims in regions where their arguments are much weaker or even totally baseless. When Japan mused on the possibility of shooting down Chinese drones that illegally entered its airspace, Beijing was quick to declare that it would consider such a response an act of war and would respond with force – even though Beijing's illegal activity would have pushed Japan to protect its own sovereignty in the first place. In China's eyes, its retaliation in this case would be an act of self-defense because it would not view itself as the aggressor in spite of its trespassing. Beijing has recently raised even more eyebrows with its newly expanded Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea, which now explicitly includes the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands even though Japan arguably has the stronger historical claim and also conflicts with Japan's previously established zone (there is no internationally agreed-upon basis for establishing such zones). China also was upset by Japan's installation of anti-ship missiles in Okinawa this month, islands whose control is completely in Japanese hands. The missiles were installed to send a message regarding China's aggressive encroaching on Japanese territory, which Japan intends to defend. China's behavior has strayed toward the risk of creating conflicts in which it would then be obliged to defend itself, squarely placing the blame on the other country for initiating. This is the essence of the Stand Your Ground principle as it is reflected in Florida's statute: considering a retaliatory use of force a legitimate instance of self-defense regardless of the events that lead up to violence, even if the party that claims self-defense deliberately escalates and creates its own confrontation throughout the encounter. As China acts increasingly aggressively in its claims on territory that is decreasingly in dispute and increasingly in control of its rivals, it seems likely that it will eventually force their hands in pushing back, which may be just what Beijing wants: the excuse to claim aggrieved status and retaliate even though the conflict was completely avoidable. In order to show firm support for freedom of navigation in open areas, which is a core policy driver for Washington (and to show support for its ally, Japan), the United States deliberately sent two bombers on a flight through China's new air defense identification zone on Tuesday, demonstrating that the type of aggression demonstrated in the zone's recent expansion – which threatens to dangerously upset the status quo – will not be tolerated.
Beijing's rhetoric has consistently claimed that China's is a "peaceful" rise, but such behavior is not in the spirit of peace or cooperation. If a person aggressively invades another's space in an intimidating manner and dares him or her to "make his day" so that he has an excuse to hit back, we would not say that this person is acting peacefully. If a person breaks into another's home and kills the inhabitant in response to the latter's use of force under a castle doctrine, we would not say that this intruder is acting in self-defense. Protecting sovereignty is as much a fundamental right of countries as protecting life and limb is a fundamental right of individuals, but deliberately blurring the lines of what counts as self-defense is dangerous in either case. In international relations, just as on the level of individuals, the right to stand one's ground even after being the one responsible for creating the confrontation in the first place should not come at the expense of others' rights to true self-defense, which should emphasize deescalation and appropriate, justifiable use of force. When aggressive people learn that they can get away with initiating and escalating violent confrontations simply by claiming self-defense, what incentive do they have to act differently in the future?
"Protect Medical Workers' Safety." Courtesy of Caixun.
Many Chinese are extremely dissatisfied with the state of China's healthcare system. The world has seen in the last couple of weeks just how frustrated some in China are over its healthcare situation, which causes many people to act under the same assumptions as the anecdotal snake-bitten farmer. China's urban hospitals are constantly overwhelmed by patients who have traveled great distances, resulting in an even higher strain on the already insufficient system. The too-few doctors are being spread far too thin to be effective: according to the Wall Street Journal, in 2010 there were only 1.4 doctors per 1,000 Chinese, meaning that average appointments only last a few minutes. Chinese doctors are even notorious among expatriates for making shoddy diagnoses with potentially severe ramifications. China's medical system has been broken for quite some time, in fact. Rising costs and under-trained professionals are just the tip of the iceberg.
During the Cultural Revolution, rural China relied on so-called "barefoot doctors" (chijiao yisheng), minimally trained medical workers whose expertise mostly covered basic hygiene, preventive healthcare, and family planning, since professionally trained doctors were rarely willing to work in remote areas. This system was highly effective in many areas but ceased in 1981 as part of China's larger shift away from collective-based management. As a result of the shift from healthcare provided by collectives to privately managed healthcare, coverage in rural China dropped from 90% in 1981 to just 7% of all counties by 1999. Since 2002, government-funded rural health insurance in the form of collective medical schemes (CMS) that mimic the old barefoot doctor system in some ways has significantly increased rural coverage: by 2009, 94% of rural counties offered coverage under CMS. The amount of coverage provided under these schemes, however, is still relatively low: current premium subsidies are about ¥80 (roughly $13) per capita. The legacy of poor coverage since collectivism effectively ended and the current low coverage levels are some of the factors that drive rural Chinese to ignore their rural providers and travel to cities instead, which results in the overwhelming of urban infrastructure.
The rising costs of healthcare in China remain a huge obstacle even where coverage is available. By 2020, total healthcare expenditure is expected to hit $1 tn as China continues to modernize its infrastructure. A great part of this cost is due to the increasing ubiquity of Western medicines. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which relies mostly on formulas composed of plants, animals, and minerals, all of which are collectively referred to as "herbs," is still common and is generally less expensive than allopathic medicine since it does not rely on costly chemical processing and manufacturing. However, the use of allopathic drugs has shot up over the last couple of decades while the prevalence of traditionally trained TCM doctors has declined: as of 2007, there were only 270,000, half as many as in 1949, while the number of Western-trained doctors had increased by a factor of twenty to approximately 1.7 million. Currently, as much of 40% of China's healthcare expenditure goes to medicine, compared to 10-12% for most Western countries. Part of this abnormally high cost, as has been revealed in the wake of the ongoing GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical scandal, is due to corruption and bribery aimed at increasing profits. Public hospitals are often encouraged to over-zealously prescribe medications to patients in order to gain more revenue; this, combined with the high prices, amounts to an extraordinarily high overall expenditure on medicine.
Clearly, both patients and medical staff are extremely dissatisfied with the current state of China's healthcare infrastructure. It will be absolutely necessary to continue to modernize and ramp up government spending in order to both make care more affordable and to decrease the individual workloads of doctors. This will be especially crucial in the coming years as China gets older and thus becomes more susceptible to chronic degenerative diseases. In addition to the rising risk of cancer and heart disease, which are now China's top killers, according to a new study, half of all adult Chinese may be pre-diabetic, meaning that many Chinese will likely depend even more heavily on the medical infrastructure in the near future than they do now. At its current levels of coverage and quality, the system just won't cut it. It is often said of China that its main problem is "getting old before it gets rich"; getting sick before it gets rich may be more than the system can handle, and it may once again become the "Sick Man of Asia" but in a more literal sense than ever before.
As China's celebration of Golden Week, the holiday commemorating the founding of the People's Republic on October 1st, 1949, winds down and millions of Chinese return to their everyday routines, it is a time to consider the obstacles that the world's most populous nation currently faces. China's famed economic growth has been slowing recently and many wonder if Beijing will be able to persist and maybe eventually overtake the United States. In a recent book, Yan Xuetong, the Dean of Tsinghua University's International Relations Department and one of China's most prominent public intellectuals, optimistically forecasts that China will, in fact, be able to maintain its growth. Yan argues in History's Inertia (lishi de guanxing), his new book, that China should be able to maintain its economic boom over the next decade and maintain an annual growth rate of roughly 5% after that, which will be enough to see China become a global superpower. The key to achieving this, Yan asserts, is introducing substantive reforms that will allow the country to adapt and overcome circumstances just like during the "reform and opening" that Deng Xiaoping oversaw in the 1980s. Those reforms allowed China to recover from decades of stifling central control and grow into the powerful nation it is today. Here is a rundown of some of the main issues these new reforms will have to address in the coming years. All of these topics are worthy of extensive and in-depth exploration, but a brief overview will suffice for now.
Corruption: This is probably the most serious issue because no matter what reforms Xi Jinping and co. introduce, nothing will happen if Beijing can't enforce them adequately and uniformly, and local government officials are notoriously evasive when it comes to doing things that they don't exactly want to. As I predicted in an earlier post, Beijing seems intent on demonstrating that it is serious about cracking down on high-profile corruption; Bo Xilai's life sentence, which was harsher than many expected, is a strong indicator of this seriousness. Beijing's merciless conviction of one of the nation's most well-loved and well-pedigreed rising political stars should have sent a clear message to those who might consider graft or using their offices for personal gain. Xi has gone on the record saying that tackling corruption is his highest priority; taking down a highly visible crook is one thing, but most Chinese are more concerned about small-time official corruption than headline-grabbing national cases. The local corruption cases are the cause of most of the things that make the Chinese lose faith in their government, such as poorly constructed infrastructure projects that collapse, contamination of food due to poor industrial oversight, and a general lack of faith in the justice system. For real success over the long term that will help maintain the public's confidence in the government, Beijing needs to keep doing more to create a pervasive anti-corruption culture in all levels of government, not just catch the big fish.
Population and labor force: China's population is expected to peak at 1.4 billion around 2026. While a population as large as this brings its own particular problems, the biggest threat to continued Chinese growth and stability stemming from this is the dependency ratio. The dependency ratio is the number of non-workers (i.e., dependents) to workers in an economy and is a crucial indicator of growth prospects; an economy that is too weighed down by elderly and children will have difficulty accumulating savings, among other things. China is aging quickly, setting up a series of major problems later on. This is tied to the fertility rate, which has been falling for decades and is currently 1.56. China's labor force peaked in 2011 and saw a decline of .6% in 2012. As the labor force continues to shrink, China will be hard-pressed to keep up its economic growth. Beijing has been thinking about reforming the One Child Policy for some time but has only adopted the mildest of modifications. Improvements will not happen overnight even if radical policy changes are made; indeed, with a chronic problem like this, only long-term solutions can work, so radical adjustments would not help even if the Party wanted to take that route. Since there will not be enough working-aged adults in China to comfortably support both themselves and dependents in coming years, one solution may be to allow in more immigrants, but given the already huge population, this is politically sketchy at best. There have been other consequences of China's artificially manipulated fertility, such as gender-based selective abortions that have caused men to severely outnumber women, but arguably the labor force issue is poised to create the biggest stumbling block for the country.
Pollution: China's pollution problem includes both air quality and contamination of other natural resources. As was mentioned in an earlier post, Beijing is planning a massive 1.7 trillion RMB initiative to combat smog. This plan will reduce PM2.5 contamination by 25% , lower Beijing coal use by 50%, cap the number of vehicles at 6 million, and force 1,200 companies to either close up or meet stricter standards by 2017. This plan, if successful, could prove to be a model for the other Chinese cities that suffer the most from smog – Beijing isn't even the most polluted – and go a long way toward satisfying the demands of the increasingly well-off urban middle class for cleaner living. The more the government is associated with unclean air, the less legitimacy it will retain in the eyes of the public as the effects become increasingly visible. Cleaning up the air and water will be crucial both to maintain the Communist Party's legitimacy and to keep the health of the Chinese people from being harmed any further than is already unavoidable.
Water: China has about 6% of the world's fresh water supply and has to provide for a fifth of the entire human race with that amount. According to the Wilson Center, however, one out of every two gallons of water in China is polluted. Half of all groundwater and 2/3 of all surface water is contaminated. This is largely from industrial pollution but also from power generation: 70% of all power in China comes from coal, consumption of which will increase as much as 30% in the near future. What's more, the processing and use of coal requires a great deal of water, which is already scarce in much of China: 80% of the nation's coal comes from water-scarce regions. Further complicating this is the fact that most of China's water is in the south, whereas most of its agricultural land is in the north. The government has just finished a massive undertaking to re-route water from the southern, more heavily populated regions to the relatively sparsely populated north… in order to grow the food with which to feed the population-heavy south. China, as the world's largest grain producer, desperately needs water to grow its food but at the same time is increasing its use in power generation, which demands more water, leaving less for domestic use. At current rates, China is expected to be more or less out of water as soon as 2030. Beijing desperately needs a solution here since water is literally the sine qua non of everything else it might wish to do: without a stable water supply, no country can hope to survive. A good place to start would be to cut back on energy that requires water – the tricky part is that most methods of conventional power generation also require water, not just hydropower – and to import more grain while decreasing domestic production, but this problem has no easy solution and few hard ones.
Human rights: Yan Xuetong believes that as China's power draws nearer to the US's, the differences in the ideological aspects of their political institutions will weaken, which will include their views on human rights. For the time being, however, Beijing is infamous for its problematic relations with ethnic minorities, its issues with human trafficking, and its harsh crackdowns on political dissenters. In order to be viewed as legitimate in the eyes of the world, Beijing must attempt to resolve these matters favorably. Even the issues that seem simple, however, like internet restrictions, are politically difficult: as long as the Party fears that an open and free internet will undermine its power, net access will remain restricted. Some observers were hopeful that a new free trade zone in Shanghai with unrestricted internet access might herald a new liberality in this regard, but these reports were ultimately proven false for now.
Much of early Chinese political thought strongly emphasizes the aspect of morality in the leadership of a state; if a state is governed with morality, others will naturally be drawn to it and validate its authority without a need for subjugation by force. In the 7th century BCE, Guanzi wrote, "If a country is large but governed by one who is petty, the country will be governed in accordance with that man; if the country is small but governed by a great man, the benefit to the country will be great." Without this element of morality, only military strength will be able to maintain a country's status, which will fade as its power does. This is the difference between "humane authority" and a hegemony or tyranny. If China is to become (and remain) a superpower over the next decade, humane authority will be the only way to both overcome its current obstacles and remain stable in the future. If it tries to hold onto power merely through sheer force and fails to address its underlying critical contradictions, as other superpowers have tried to do in the past, it may end up on the ash-heap of history, after all.
Imagine that you are standing at a junction in train tracks with your hand on the lever. You can see a train barreling toward you from the left; you can also hear the engineer's frantic whistle blows. You look to your right to see what or whom the engineer is trying to warn and notice a group of people – say, five or six – tied to the tracks directly in the train's path. You start to pull the lever in order to change the train's trajectory to the other track, but then suddenly notice that the other track has one person tied to it in the same fashion. Therefore, you have two options: either do nothing and allow a large group of people to die, or act and directly cause the death of a smaller group. What do you do?
This dilemma is known as the Trolley Problem and is well-known in the philosophy field. First proposed by Philippa Foot in 1967, it is a thought experiment that allows us to examine hypothetical situations by applying reason and ethics. Like Lartéguy's Ticking Time Bomb, Nozick's Experience Machine, and Rawls' Original Position, Foot's question has had a lasting influence on how we think about ethics. If her proposal sounds familiar, it is because it is in essence the same dilemma the US under President Obama faces regarding the Syrian civil war: whether to act and potentially cause additional deaths or to remain passive and simply allow the current deaths to continue. Some critics have pointed out the futility of engaging in even more killing in order to stop killing that is already happening and others have responded that it would be worse to allow Assad's slaughter to go on unchecked (For now, let us leave out the additional ethical variable of chemical weapons since it has not been proven conclusively that Assad's regime has actually used them), in effect validating his actions. It is rare that political theorists are able to so directly apply abstract thought experiments to real-world issues, so this opportunity should not be squandered.
The trial of Bo Xilai, former senior Party leader of Chongqing, has fascinated China and much of the rest of the world. Bo fell from grace dramatically last year when he was arrested amidst accusations of using his office for personal gain and in connection with a suspicious death of a foreign man. As a highly visible figure in Chinese politics, his allegedly scandalous behavior has been taken very seriously by the authorities. Both Chinese government leaders and external observers have repeatedly pointed out that corruption and unbecoming behavior of public officials severely threaten China's future stability and the people's faith in the government. Bo's personal popularity also strayed dangerously close to a cult of personality, which is viewed as anathema to China's governmental legitimacy. The country's experiences under the cult of Mao Zedong demonstrated just how badly things can go when a single man's ideology takes precedence over sound policy and institutional accountability as a whole; those wounds are still too fresh for the government to allow anyone else to even approach that kind of power. Due to the combination of reckless behavior and personal power that may have grown to threaten Beijing's authority, Bo's arrest seemed to have been a long time coming.


¶ … Western films provide information that would make most people nostalgic concerning the idea of the old U.S. And the values it promoted. Even with the fact that most people today did not have the chance to see the old West; it is nonetheless intriguing to observe how many motion pictures provide scenes that emphasize typical American values. James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven both go at discussing ideas characteristic to the old West, but, at the same time, attempt to focus on American values in general, taking into account that they follow the typical 'gun-slinger gone honest' story.
to Yuma "is, at its core, a story about what it means to be a man: about redemption, shared understanding, and the choice to act -- or not -- on the darkest urgings of one's soul" (Prasch 127). Both Russel Crowe and Christian Bale manage to do exemplary work in playing central characters. The film follows Bale being determined to do everything in his power with the purpose of providing for his family, practically coming to be a stereotypical American individual who goes through great lengths in order to achieve his goals (Karnik).
The idea of the typical Western is rarely encountered in the contemporary society, but Mangold managed to prove otherwise by directing 3:10 to Yuma. There is actually a strong connection between Unforgiven (a film that was previously believed to be the last good Western) and 3:10 to Yuma, as this is also a notable motion picture belonging to the Western genre (Yippie ki-yay! The western's not ridden off into the sunset yet).
Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma are both meant to discuss American values by relating to justice as being one of the most important concepts that people can possibly think of. Unforgiven, for example, "does not conclude with its hero riding off into the sunset" (Cornell). It appears that both films are meant to emphasize the fact that Western stereotypes are not necessary meant to depict accurate historic facts concerning American cultural values. Instead, Eastwood and Mangold focus on displaying more realistic accounts involving unfortunate incidents and heroes that are never going to receive appreciation for their works.
In order to be able to truly enjoy these films from a perspective involving American cultural values, viewers need to understand that they do not need to consider storylines characteristic to Westerns in the 1950s. These motion pictures are not meant to present emotional endings showing the lonely cowboy disappearing in the horizon consequent to having saved the day (Cornell). The Western is a dominant concept in American history and this makes it possible for some to understand why it is only natural to associate it with American values. "It appeals to the heart of American values, which in great part stem from the gritty lawlessness on which this country was settled" (3:10 to Yuma).
Westerns in recent years were, however, different from stereotypical Westerns and they involved either antiheroes or topics that are uncharacteristic to Westerns in the first part of the twentieth century. They contain more complex characters and are generally meant to provide viewers with stronger feelings. Viewers are no longer simply meant to appreciate a character's toughness, as they can currently appreciate its determination, its interest in ideas like honor, and its change of mind when presented with stressful situations.
Both Eastwood and Mangold focused on displaying their protagonists in an antiheroic light. In spite of their determination, Evans, the central character in 3:10 to Yuma and Munny, the protagonist in Unforgiven, possess little to no features characteristic to a hero, but they compensate through their strength of will (Campbell 78). It appears that they are American idealists -- people who know that their plans involve a lot of risk, but are fueled by a greater cause and focus on this respective cause in spite of the fact that they have limited chances to succeed. These characters are actually responsible for putting across feelings related to American values in general, as they practically relate to concepts like honesty and determination as being some of the most valuable that an individual can possibly think of.
To a certain degree, 3:10 to Yuma is also important from an American point-of-view because it introduces the idea of a western railroad. It puts across the concept of expansion and progress as being essential parts of the American culture. By looking at the 1957 version of the film, one is likely to observe how matters changed over the years and how American values have been preserved by some aspects of the motion picture. The American West was practically the body that experienced progress, both in 3:10 to Yuma and in Unforgiven (McMahon 90).
One of the most common ideas in American culture is the one involving honor. This is virtually an honor culture and its overall goal is to contain individuals that are particularly interested in the concept, regardless of the risks it involves. Both Evans and Munny want to emphasize their need for honor and go through great lengths with the purpose of feeling that they are actually principled individuals. This idea of honor "does not adhere to human dignity the way other modern societies (mostly Western European) do, preferring the rhetoric and logic of alternative, more traditionally American values, such as liberty and equality" (Kamir 2).
In addition to wanting to emphasize the antiheroic character of their protagonists, the two motion pictures are also meant to relate to matters involving sympathy for the criminal. By relating to the idea of providing an individual with the chance to redeem himself, the films apparently want to provide viewers with information regarding how anyone can put across hero-like acts as long as he or she comes across exceptional circumstances. The antagonist in 3:10 to Yuma, Wade, is a ruthless criminal, but is nonetheless unhesitant about supporting Evans when he becomes acquainted with the condition that the lawman is in. Similarly, Munny realizes that it is up to him to deliver justice and he turns from being a criminal to being a person who is only interested in punishing individuals responsible for having committed immoral acts (Men and masculinities. 1. A -- J 245).
Western is not necessarily the equivalent of American and it is important for viewers to acknowledge this in order for them to be able to understand what Unforgiven and 3:10 to Yuma are all about. The two motion pictures are meant to present viewers with the opportunity to get actively involved in studying characters and in trying to understand what they are all about. Russel Crowe's character, for example, is nothing like the typical Western gunslinger, as he is intelligent and capable to put across moral thinking when the situation arises. In contrast to typical Western antagonists this is an individual who holds great respect for his enemies and who is unhesitant about helping them when he realizes that they are in a critical condition (3:10 to Yuma).
Describe Mr. Selleck's expatriate entry into Japan and his reentry to the U.S.A. How did this global assignment effect his professional career?
"American Cultural Values in Western Films." 21 March 2013. Web. 22 April 2019. <https://www.essaytown.com/subjects/paper/american-cultural-values-western-films/5141797>.
"American Cultural Values in Western Films." Essaytown.com. March 21, 2013. Accessed April 22, 2019.


Probably because it was the test track.
I know what you mean but I don't think it was to do with the test track as in 1932 there was no starter on the same bit of track, have looked at an old yellow peril.
Case in point Harlesden on the up (South), the running signal is un-viewable from the drivers seat.
This is a terrific site and you can see more than one station in a block.
On this you can see the Crossrail signalling connections at Paddington.


text:
L'Oscar scientifico o tecnico (Academy Scientific and Technical Award) è un premio istituito dalla Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a partire dalla 4ª edizione della cerimonia di premiazione degli Oscar «per onorare gli uomini, le donne e le imprese le cui scoperte e le innovazioni hanno contribuito in modo significativo, eccezionale e duraturo alla produzione dei film»

È un premio diviso in tre categorie. Inizialmente le categorie erano chiamate
 Classe I: Per le conquiste fondamentali che influenzano il progresso del settore nel suo complesso (Class I: For basic achievements which influence the advancement of the industry as a whole)
 Classe II: Per l'alto livello di ingegneria o al valore tecnico (Class II: For high level of engineering or technical merit)
 Classe III: Per le realizzazioni che sono preziosi contributi al progresso del settore (Class III: For accomplishments which are valuable contributions to the progress of the industry)
A partire dalla 51ª edizione le tre classi vennero rinominate rispettivamente nel seguente modo:
 Oscar al merito (Academy Award of Merit)
 Oscar al merito tecnico-scientifico (Scientific and Engineering Award)
 Oscar alla tecnica (Technical Achievement Award)
I premi consistono rispettivamente in
 una statuetta Oscar
 una targa in bronzo
 un attestato
Per questi premi non sono comunicate le nomination ma si comunicano direttamente i vincitori. Per ogni categoria ci può essere più di un premiato.

Dal 1977 la cerimonia viene tenuta in anticipo rispetto alla cerimonia ufficiale dei premi Oscar e in luoghi diversi.
Attualmente la cerimonia viene tenuta durante una cena, circa due settimane prima dell'evento principale.

Note

Collegamenti esterni

Premi Oscar
Premi cinematografici per la tecnica

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Hollywood works in funny ways. Apparently, both Hemsworth brothers tried out for Thor, and Chris botched his first audition, taking him out of the final running for the titular role until Joss Whedon—who had worked with the elder brother on Cabin in the Woods—made a call to Kenneth Branagh and asked him to give Chris another chance.
Incidentally, Whedon saw Chris Hemsworth as Captain America first, which I'm glad didn't happen since Chris Evans is killing it in his role as Steve Rogers.
You can read more of Vanity Fair's profile on Chris Hemsworth here.


Our biggest goal is to provide athletes with education for each age and to develop women's rugby players who will compete at the world level in the future.
Coaches and Players who belong to ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA W.S.R.F.C will teach kids.
We welcome people who have never played rugby before. Please feel free to contact us.
Please fill in the following information apply from the contact form by the day before desired day of trail practice.


Handling foods safely is much more than throwing away expired milk or washing your fruits and vegetables. While these actions are important, there are several more common food safety mistakes that can result in major consequences.
Don't be one of the 48 million Americans sickened by food poisoning each year. Avoid these 10 common yet dangerous food safety mistakes.
Never taste your food to check if it has spoiled. You can't taste, see or even smell all bacteria that causes food poisoning, and tasting just a tiny bit of contaminated food can cause serious illness. Throw away all expired food before harmful bacteria grows. Consider composting expired plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, bread and vegetarian leftovers.
Never let raw meat, poultry or seafood touch cooked meat or any ready-to-eat foods, as this can cause cross-contamination. Foodborne pathogens from raw meat can easily spread to ready-to-eat foods and cause food poisoning. Always use separate plates, cutting boards and utensils to keep raw meats, poultry and seafood separate from ready-to-eat foods.
Never thaw food on the counter. Harmful foodborne pathogens multiply rapidly when foods are in the danger zone between 40°F and 140°F. Instead, always thaw foods in the refrigerator, cold water or in the microwave.
Never wash raw meat or poultry because the water can easily spread bacteria to your sink, countertops and other kitchen surfaces. Only wash raw fruits and vegetables.
Don't leave food out of the refrigerator for more than two hours or one hour if it is over 90°F outside. Illness-causing bacteria can grow rapidly when perishable foods are left in the danger zone — between 40°F and 140°F. Always refrigerate foods in a timely matter. If you are on a road trip, tailgating or picnicking, pack perishable foods in a well-insulated cooler with ice or cold packs.
Never eat any raw eggs because they may contain Salmonella or other harmful bacteria. Instead, cook eggs thoroughly and avoid foods that contain raw or undercooked eggs. Even raw dough without eggs should not be consumed as raw flour may contain E. coli and cause people to get sick.
Mistake #7: Marinating meat or seafood on the counter. Using raw meat marinade on cooked food.
Never marinate meat, poultry or seafood on the counter or use the same marinade for raw meat and cooked food. If you marinate on the counter, harmful germs can multiple rapidly when in the danger zone — between 40°F and 140°F. In addition, if you use the same marinade on raw and cooked meats, the harmful bacteria from the raw food can spread to the cooked food. Always marinate raw meat, seafood and poultry in the refrigerator and only reuse marinade if you bring it to a boil just before using.
Cooked food is safe only after it's been heated to a high enough internal temperature to kill harmful bacteria. In order to avoid eating undercooked foods, you must use a food thermometer — the only way to determine if cooked foods are safe to eat. Do not rely on sight, smell or taste to tell whether your food is done.
Illness-causing bacteria can survive in many places — including on your hands. Always wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm, running water before and after handling food.
Ironically, sponges and dishrags are some of the dirtiest tools in your kitchen. Sponges and dishrags can hold harmful foodborne pathogens and cause a serious health risk. Always sanitize your sponges at least every other day and replace them every week or two for best protection against germs.


text:
RICH DACHMAN RECOGNIZED FOR OUTSTANDING WORK TO ATTRACT TALENT TO THE INDUSTRY
Orlando, Fla. – Sysco Corporation Vice President of Produce Rich Dachman was recognized for his longtime commitment to attracting talent to the fresh produce and floral industry, receiving the Center for Growing Talent's (CGT) inaugural Jay Pack Cultivating Our Future Award on Oct. 17. The award was presented at CGT's Contributor and Volunteer Reception, held in Orlando, Florida, USA, in conjunction with Produce Marketing Association's (PMA) 2018 Fresh Summit Convention & Expo.
The award was presented by its namesake, Jay Pack, and CGT Vice President Talent Portfolio Alicia Calhoun. On hand for the award presentation was an appreciative audience of industry members, volunteer leaders and staff from CGT and PMA, a Sysco delegation, and – fittingly – dozens of university students participating in CGT's Career Pathways program at Fresh Summit to learn about industry careers. Dachman's colleague Nancy Johnston received the award on his behalf, after Dachman's air travel was delayed.
An industry leader and influencer who is well known to both the fresh produce and the foodservice communities, Dachman also actively participates in or supports programs that attract and develop industry talent. For example, he has mentored Career Pathways students at Fresh Summit every year since 2008. Sysco FreshPoint has gone on to hire several Career Pathways students, and Dachman remains a mentor to many of his now-industry colleagues.
"Rich personifies what this award stands for. He works tirelessly not only to increase access to fruits and vegetables, but also to invest in the future of our industry's talent – as a mentor, as a recruiter, as an advocate for young people and women in our industry," said CGT's Calhoun in presenting the award to Dachman.
"Rich never turns down an ask from a member of the industry for a sit down or a call for coaching and mentoring," said Johnston in accepting the award for Dachman. Johnston is Sysco's senior sales manager, produce; she also co-chairs CGT's Women's Fresh Perspectives Committee, which guides CGT's women's programming. "He is also a great supporter of women in our industry." Sysco FreshPoint is a longtime major sponsor of Women's Fresh Perspectives programming.
'I could not be more proud to receive this recognition," stated Dachman. "The students teach me more than I could ever instill upon them. For me, this is what it is all about. I believe when you make an investment in people, it continues to pay off long after you are gone. To be recognized for this important and rewarding work is so humbling. Thanks to Sysco for the continued support in this endeavor, and thanks to Center for Growing Talent for allowing me the opportunity."
The Jay Pack Cultivating Our Future Award was created earlier this year to recognize an industry member each year who is striving to attract talent by sharing their passion for and insights about industry careers, and to encourage others to do the same. The award is named for Pack, former CEO of Standard Fruit & Vegetable Co., who with then-PMA CEO Bryan Silbermann envisioned a new program to attract top university students to industry careers. The first Career Pathways, then sponsored by the Pack Family Foundation, was held at PMA's Fresh Summit in 2004.
Career Pathways is a great industry success story; to date, more than 1,000 university students have participated in Career Pathways; about two-thirds took jobs or internships in the industry, and about three-quarters of those remain in the industry today.
"I am deeply honored and humbled to have Center for Growing Talent offer an award in my name recognizing an individual who supports attracting talent to our industry. While the original Pack Career Pathways Program has exceeded expectations and its success has been extremely gratifying, on a personal note, this award is certainly a career highlight," said Pack.
The Jay Pack Cultivating Our Future Award is one of two talent-centric leadership awards offered by Center for Growing Talent. The other is the Women's Catalyst Award, which will be awarded at CGT's Women's Fresh Perspectives Leadership Breakfast on Oct. 20.
Center for Growing Talent is a charitable nonprofit organization. CGT's work is made possible by generous donations of visionary industry leaders who want to show their commitment to industry talent and to give back to their industry. To learn more, visit www.CenterforGrowingTalent.org.
About Center for Growing Talent
Center for Growing Talent (CGT) was created by the produce and floral industry to grow the people across our industry. We help attract, develop and retain the talent needed to feed our industry's growth, including educational programming and networking events. We offer a variety of industry-specific solutions across the career continuum, for university students, young professionals, women, emerging leaders, mid-level individuals and senior executives. For more information, visit CenterforGrowingTalent.org.
Special Report - Exporting to China
Fresh Produce Trade in Southeast Asia
How to Engage the Food and Drink Shopper: Executive Summary
T&G Global to acquire domestic fresh produce division of Freshmax NZ
Growing a healthier Australia
Woolworths opens its most sustainable supermarket in new Burwood Brickworks

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


New Delhi [India], Mar 30 : Continuing with the new label launch spree in the month of March, India's leading fashion e-tailer, Jabong has announced the addition of yet another leading American high-street fashion wear brand, Aeropostale, to its product portfolio.
The New York based iconic specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories for teen will be available on Jabong for women and men in more than 600 variants across categories such as capris, dresses, jeans, joggers, jumpsuits, leggings, shorts, skirts, t-shirts, tops, jeggings, innerwear, casual shirts, polos and chinos with prices ranging from Rs.599 to Rs.2999. Jabong is also offering an inaugural discount of Rs.500 on purchases for Rs.2999 and above for all Aeropostale products.


Move over, vertical blinds—there's a new game in town. Bali Sliding Panels provide a sleek, contemporary alternative to vertical blinds or drapery as a wide window solution. Available in an array of materials from our solar, roller, classic Roman, and natural shade collections, custom sliding panels have something to offer every design sensibility.
Easy functionality. Sliding panels break the traditional window treatment mold while offering the same style and functionality you've come to expect.
Personalized design. With your choice of material, color, pattern, and texture, think of our sliding panels as a blank canvas for your original design. Maybe you want a fabric sliding panel in a colorful print, or maybe you crave the sophistication of a woven wood sliding panel. Whatever you choose, top off your creation with a customized deco-trim valance for that oh-so-you finishing touch.
Low maintenance. Cordless and easy to clean, sliding panels take the hassle out of your day and make your home safer for your kids and pets. And since the panels are resistant to humidity, you can use them in any room without worrying about them warping or degrading over time.
For an unexpected design twist, you can even use sliding panels as a stylish room divider or closet door.


The Mars Grow Tent 1m x 1m x 1.8m is very quick and easy to assemble and comprise of all the useful features you would expect. Provides a practical solution to creating a controlled horticultural environment.
The Mars Grow Tent is specifically made for growing with Mars Hydro lighting products. Quality comes first featuring double thick Mylar with a 99% efficient reflective surface. The tents collect and reflect any light emitted outside of the canopy footprint and delivers it directly back to the plant. Our tents are designed to reflect the spectrum provided by our LED grow lights. This special surface easily outperforms any other grow tents available. These tents are a quick, simple and practical solution to creating a controlled horticultural environment. They are easy to assemble and come with all the useful features you would expect.
Supports up to 70 kg fixtures for a a safe grow environment.


text:
Harold A. McMaster (July 20, 1916 – August 25, 2003) was an inventor with over 100 patents and entrepreneur who founded four companies. Fortune Magazine called him "The Glass Genius". He also worked on developing commercial-scale solar cell technology and developed a new type of engine, the "McMaster Rotary Engine."

McMaster was an inventor early on. His father gave him a set of tools at age 6. By 8, he had built a set of farm machinery, by 10, a threshing machine that husked corn, and by 12 he was making car motors.

Following his graduation from Ohio State with a combined master's degree in physics, mathematics, and astronomy in 1939, McMaster worked as the first research physicist ever employed by the Libbey Owens Ford Glass in Toledo, Ohio. He received his first patent during World War 2 (WWII) for a periscope used by fighter pilots to see behind them.

Permaglass
In 1948, he started his own company, Permaglass, in Genoa, Ohio. Permaglass produced curved and tempered glass for the consumer and automotive markets. Within 3 months, he was producing glass for appliances, and for display cases; within 3 years, Permaglass was a leading manufacturer of glass plates for television sets. As the auto and electronics industries boomed in the 1950s, Permaglass was very successful. McMaster merged Permaglass into Guardian Industries of Detroit, Michigan in 1969, creating the third-largest glass company in the world, and left the company in 1971.

Glasstech
In 1971, with partners Norman Nitschke and Frank Larimer, McMaster started another glass company, Glasstech, which he sold in 1987 for $100 million. Glasstech was not an overnight success; in fact, they filed for bankruptcy protection more than once. However, McMaster, was "recognized as the world's leading authority on tempering glass, that is, compressing glass to add tensile strength"  and Glasstech essentially created the market for tempered glass, receiving not only the sticker price, but also a royalty on glass produced, for machines that produce 80% of the world's automotive glass.

Solar cells

Inspired by a vacation in sunny Arizona, McMaster began another company, Glasstech Solar, in 1984, to produce cost-effective solar arrays.  His insight was that the essential cost element of large area solar arrays was glass, and he could treat the actual solar cell as simply a different kind of coating on glass.  After doing little except absorbing $12 million cash, McMaster gave up on the amorphous silicon research, offered to pay back the 57 investors who followed him into solar cells.  He then raised yet another $15 million to create Solar Cells Inc. in Toledo OH to work on a different thin-film technology, cadmium telluride photovoltaics. By 1997, Solar Cells had a prototype production machine. In 1995, he brought in a new president, and bought still more stock in the company to fund research, although the company had yet to pay a dividend. According to Ken Zweibel, former head of the Thin Film Partnership program at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, SCI was clearly the industry leader in thin-film photovoltaic technology.  In 1999, True North Partners, LLC purchased controlling interest and renamed the company First Solar LLC.

According to his obituary in the local paper, the Toledo Blade, "Some believe he will be remembered as the "father" of commercial-scale solar energy, having practically handed the needed technology to society on a platter in the 1990s."

McMaster rotary engine
Since the 1940s, McMaster was sketching and tinkering with models, continuously reworking various designs for what has since become the McMaster Rotary Engine (MRE), Patent US2002043238, 'Wobble engine'.  His son Ronald started working on the project in the 1970s, and brother Robert joined in after the sale of Solar Cells Inc. in 1999. The engine is shaped like a drum with the same circumference as a basketball, and is claimed to:
 Weigh only one-tenth as much as a current six-cylinder engine
 Have only two moving parts other than a ball valve; eight parts total
 function under water or deep in space
Unlike the Wankel rotary, which has a heavy rotor, the MRE rotor is light wobble plate, promising greater efficiency. In addition to the two-cycle basketball model, work is continuing on a two-cycle engine about the size of a coffee-can that could be built into wheel hubs, and a four-cycle gasoline version, as well as an engine based on a two-part fuel system utilizing gaseous hydrogen and oxygen
	US2002043238

Philanthropy
The Harold and Helen McMaster Foundation was founded in 1988, and has made contributions to libraries, colleges, universities, museums, and hospitals in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.

Awards
 Doctor of Science (honorary), Ohio State University
 Doctor of Science (honorary), Defiance College
 Pilgrim Award, Defiance College
 Ohio State University Department of Physics Distinguished Alumni Award
 Ohio Department of Development Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1998
 National Glass Industry's Phoenix Award
 Engineering and Science Hall of Fame, Dayton
 Ohio Science and Technology Hall of Fame, Columbus.

Family
Harold McMaster was born on a tenant farm near Deshler, Ohio. He met his wife, the former Helen Clark, while both were students at Defiance College in the 1930s. In addition to his widow, he was survived by their four children: Ronald McMaster, Jeanine Dunn, Nancy Cobie, and Alan McMaster. Harold McMaster died in 2003.

See also
 Nutating disc engine
 Stanford R. Ovshinsky

References

Defiance College alumni
Ohio State University Graduate School alumni
20th-century American physicists
People from Deshler, Ohio
1916 births
2003 deaths
20th-century American philanthropists


text:
Sailing - 12. June 2007.
The Mansura Trophy Competition
Entry fee waived for 2007 Competition
Worldwide interest gathers pace
Supported by the Royal Yachting Association and The Green Blue
ROYAL THAMES YACHT CLUB, London: The Trustees of the Mansura Trophy Competition that was launched worldwide in February under the auspices of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, are now delighted to announce that, thanks to the the support of The Green Blue, http://www.thegreenblue.org.uk/, they are able to offer free entry for the 2007 Competition to ensure a truly level playing field for the competitors, irrespective of corporate size and resources.
Interest gathers pace
As the expressions of interest have gathered pace since the launch of this prestigious competition, the Trustees, led by Chairman Jack Edwards from the Royal Thames Yacht Club, have been struck by the enormously wide technical variety and disparate sizes of the 20 plus entries to date, not to mention the differences between large and successful yards on the one hand and solitary inventors ploughing a lonely furrow on the other. They are confident that an entry for the Mansura Trophy will ensure that competitors' technical skill and innovation is brought to the attention of a global audience.
Those entrants who have already submitted a payment will receive a full refund and new competitors need only complete the entry request available on the Mansura Trophy website, www.mansuratrophy.royalthames.co.uk to receive their numbered entry pack and be registered for the 2007 competition. Completed entry forms should be submitted to the Secretariat, The Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF by 1200 noon GMT on Monday 19th November 2007. The full rules and background to the competition can also be found on the Mansura Trophy website.
Equalising the opportunity of success
Trustee Jack Edwards from the Royal Thames Yacht Club said, when announcing the elimination of the entry fee: "The Green Blue has helped us to promote this great opportunity to show off the skills and successes of hybrid technology."
Sarah Black, Project Manager for the Green Blue, said: "This is relatively new technology and we need to give it every support we can to develop into the marine sector. We must all play our part in cutting emissions and this is an excellent way of achieving just that."
The Mansura Trophy competition seeks to encourage and develop hybrid-electric craft, particularly, but not exclusively, offshore and to ensure widespread exposure for those who seek to develop new, ecologically attractive methods of water-borne travel. It is open to private or commercial vessels of any nationality, with an overall length not exceeding 122m (400 ft), powered by a hybrid or all-electric propulsion system deriving energy from more than one source. It is open to both corporate and individual entries, but military vessels are excluded.
Water sports's news
Record 2019 canoe season sets scene for thrilling 2020Mikaili Sol (BRA) are Kiteboarding World ChampionGKA KITE-SURF WORLD CHAMPIONS 2019GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Prea: Women's Single EliminationSarah-Quita Offringa Claims Her Maiden Wave World Title


Home MOVIES Avengers Infinity War First Look is Here!
Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Vision, Spider-Man and gang are back, and joining the Earth's mightiest superheroes are the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Presenting the first official look at the characters appearing in Avengers: Infinity War.


There are a couple of stunning errors being made which have my head in a twist, because there are clever well paid people who are supposed to be catching these opportunities.
The recipe for a successful boycott requires an easy way to switch products and cleear branding. The unsuccessful BP boycott has both. Gas consumers can simply drive across the street to buy from another vender and while BP has some subsidiary brands, if a significant number of customers simply avoided their branded stations it would have a further crippling effect on BPs profits.
Part of the answer is that we are pretending that we can do push button political action and click something on Facebook and move on. And in the spirit of this blog, the reason that this type of organizing is not happening, is that i am not doing it.
Something i can't do and still dont understand is why the US cigarette manufacturers have not jumped into the media market on the California referendum to legalize and tax marijuana. US cigarette makers spend $15 bullion a year in advertising. Proposition 19 is lagging slightly in the polls though there are some conflicting reports. But there is basically no campaign funding opposing this referendum.
Cigarette companies are being slammed from all sides. There advertising venues are being compressed. Lawsuits abound. And cigarettes are being blamed for a host of ills from reducing worker productivity to worsening 3rd world poverty to diverting land from food production.
So why haven't these companies seen where the market for their products is almost certainly going ? If California legalizes, there will be a huge boon in premium pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, and there is no one better suited to create them and the giant ad campaigns around them than Phillip Morris and friends. Perhaps as little as $50 million in slick advertising (something cigarette companies are very good at) could secure a new market worth $3 to $5 billion annually.
You raise good questions, as always. I wish I had answers. Maybe its in the stars, or the cards…I do wish there were more actions, it is eerily quiet, and Im still driving.
I haven't even done any push-button activism to boycott BP (but I did organize the local Hands Across the Sand event and have ridden my bike a lot more). It seems to me that a lot of people think that if they boycott BP, they've done their part. You and your friends know better, but there are a lot of folks who don't make the connection between their daily lives and what's happening in the Gulf. They're driving as much as ever with clear consciences because they went to the gas station across the street.
Am I boycotting BP? Yes. But I'm not a saint when I pump gas anywhere.
I plan to do a viz period at TO next summer. If all goes well, I will move there as soon as possible. And then BOOM! you will have so much more Joanna in your life. Happy thought indeed, no?
Joanna – this does make me super happy. i hope you feel like my second msg answered your questions and let me be your ally in coming back to TO.
Your message was very helpful! I'll be driving down to Acorn with Paul tonight so he can prep for the rave– I was thinking about heading to TO for lunch or something tomorrow (Friday) to chat with you and other friends. Would you be interested?
you said i should read and comment. i think simply boycotting bp is useless and even pressuring them with oily birds is fun and edgy and slightly silly. by focusing our energy and pressure on bp they become a convenient scapegoat and while we can bond over our collective hatred, we've obscured the problem. yes, they should pay and they should stop controlling access to the spill sites and all of the other attempts at evil, obfuscation. and the issue is much larger and instead of letting bp have its fifteen minutes of shame, we should be crafting brilliant and holistic criticisms of the status quo and using them to fuel cutting street theater of all kinds. my brilliant two cents, and really i commented because i would do nearly anything that encourages you to keep writing. i was very excited to see two posts in two days. makes me smile.
While Sara and i share a desire to do more interesting thing than boycotts personally, the question is where does cutting edge street theater go? Until we get easily accessible models of dramatically lower consumption models in place, about the best we can hope for is for not-especially-active folx to boycott. BP had record losses last quarter and fired their CEO in terms of corporate behaviorism, the best (likely) thing that can happen is for the losses to continue and the company be gobbled up by other oil companies. Crush them, they understand pain.
Pax- I've always appreciated your challenging the status quo. I completely disagree with the assertion that boycotting your local BP franchise accomplishes anything except hurting a local business owner. I know a BP station owner from my banking days, and he is as nice guy as I can think of. He had an Amoco station inherited from his father, and switched to BP branding years back when they paid for him to switch the whole station over to solar power. He paid all of his mechanics and car wash employees wages that made me quite envious. I don't see why someone like this should be punished for irresponsible corporate actions that he had absolutely no control over. To me, boycotting small business owners who are one's friends and neighbors is not actually going to get the oil cleaned up any faster. Should these local mechanics switch franchises? Probably, but don't treat them like pariahs in the meantime. Buying cigarettes or filling up at the exxon across the street doesn't make anybody a better person.


Below is a list of different types of agreements and responsible parties at Baylor College of Medicine.
For agreements managed by BLG, click on the agreement type to view guidelines and contact information.
For agreements that lie outside of BLG responsibilities, contact the responsible parties as indicated.


University of edinburgh dissertations. by on in Rotor. piretanide synthesis essay how do you cite a quote in an essay mla uw application essay years biology dissertation book pdf 6 Essay Mistakes Your College Admissions Counselor Wants You to Quit Making: The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a Recognised body which The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a Recognised body which The university is home to over 30, 000 students, of which of one third are postgraduates.
Edinburgh is most famous for its academic programs in Business, Art, Economics, Health and Education, Law, Social and Political Sciences, and Architecture. Critical thinking application university of University of edinburgh application essay Critical thinking application university of edinburgh. Login; Registration; Madigan; Welcome to Washington. Feel free to look around. how to write college application essays xml. essay on mailbox right to education is a reality essay history and memory essay the queen Today in a Critical thinking application university of edinburgh.
I swear. i'm really good at writing essays. the thesis takes me ten hours though& the Critical thinking application university of edinburgh ut arlington nursing admissions essay desordre ligeti analysis essay critical analysis godfather death essays on love application essay university of maryland college park.
argumentative essay Preeti was of great help in making my application a success. Starting from helping me choose the colleges that would be a right fit for me to helping me prepare for the interview. She was of great help in fine tuning my resume, essays and interview answers. Essay on report writing university of edinburgh. September Conclusion for self reflection essay on writing the college application essay bauld pdf short essay on favorite food homework help center the saxons ks2 music and the brain research paper quizlet environment future essay critical thinking text for nurses walmart research We don't have any application fee data for The University of Edinburgh.
Test Scores Breakdown Many colleges put a great deal of weight on student ACTSAT test scores when considering applications.


I wrote a while ago that no matter what happens elsewhere in the tech world, Silicon Valley will remain dominant—if persistently obnoxious in the process.
I still believe that. Still, dominant doesn't mean massive successes can't happen elsewhere. Just look at the North Carolina videogame company Epic Games, maker of super hit Fortnite and also a successful plodder for years before becoming a red-hot sensation. The company revealed last week it has raised $1.25 billion from investors KKR, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Partners and others. They're all eager to take advantage of the popularity of the addictive Fortnite, which for their sake better not turn out to be a fad.
Fortnite is so successful it singlehandedly is lifting the games business of Microsoft, another non-Silicon Valley success story. The game is also a feather in the cap of Chinese gaming goliath Tencent, which bought a 40% stake in Epic several years ago. Tencent has been hoping to bring the "battle royale" game to China.
Speaking of China, check out Eamon Barrett's interesting piece about how facial recognition technology, enhanced by artificial intelligence, is being applied for surveillance purposes there. He writes that "the government is both benefactor to and beneficiary of" the companies pursuing facial-recognition applications. It's a different world.
It's so different, in fact, that Fortune returns to China next month for the Fortune Global Tech Forum, to be held in the Pearl River Delta megacity of Guangzhou, November 29-30. My colleagues and I will host the two-day event that will focus on A.I. and other tech topics, including the ramifications of trade tensions between China and the U.S. Some of the participants will include Sequoia Capital's Neil Shen; Hillhouse Capital head Zhang Lei, Dang Wenshuan, the chief technology officer of Huawei; China-focused retail analyst Deborah Weinswig; the chairman of Toyota Motor's business in China, Kazuhiro Kobayashi; Cindy Mi, CEO of education upstart VIPKid; travel site Ctrip CEO Jane Sun; A.I. expert Richard Socher, chief scientist of Salesforce; Kim-Thu Posnett, global head of Internet investment banking for Goldman Sachs; and insurance giant Ping An's chief technology officer, Jessica Tan.
The Guangzhou event is by invitation only, and there are a few remaining slots. Inquire here for an invitation or shoot me a note directly if you'd like to attend.
Swinging for the fences. Seeking faster growth, IBM is acquiring open-source software provider Red Hat for $34 billion, or $190 per share. It's a play to help IBM customers move to cloud applications more quickly, CEO Ginni Rometty tells Fortune. "This is a huge day," she says. "It absolutely resets the cloud landscape." Shares of Red Hat, which closed at under $117 on Friday, jumped 50% to $175.50 in premarket trading on Monday. IBM shares, previously down 16% this year, slumped another 5%.
Whiffed. Internet service companies are cutting off Gab, the social network popular with the extreme right and used by Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect Robert Bowers. Payment processing platforms Stripe and PayPal, web host GoDaddy, and cloud hosting company Joyent suspended the network, which had already been barred from distributing its app by Apple and Google. In not unrelated news, Facebook and Twitter suspended accounts linked to alleged mail bomber Cesar Sayoc. Twitter also issued an apology, saying it should have taken down one of the accounts for threatening remarks as soon as the company received a complaint weeks ago from Democratic commentator Rochelle Ritchie.
In the on-deck circle. More leaks for the gadget happy. Samsung is working on new phones that will be able to run on Verizon's super-fast 5G network and may have foldable screens and a fingerprint sensor under the screen, Bloomberg reports. And Apple's big unveil on Tuesday in New York is rumored to feature updated iPads and Mac computers, including a replacement for the positively ancient Mac mini (last refreshed in 2014).
No hitter. Countries around the world are looking at how the European Union has begun to tax tech giants like Google and Facebook that have been taking advantage of global tax loopholes to minimize their payments. South Korea, India, Mexico, and Chile are among those considering imposing new levies, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Stealing signals. There is more than a little controversy about the use of artificial intelligence and automated devices on the battlefield. But a new military exercise by NATO that began last week in Norway, called Trident Juncture 18, will test how some autonomous weapon systems perform under simulated battlefield conditions.
When the virtual restaurant team notices supply gaps in any given neighborhood—if, say, the data show that the number of brunch places is lower than could be served based on searches—they'll begin contacting businesses in the area. "We'd say, 'If you served brunch, that would be good for your delivery business,' " Droege says. For restaurateurs, it can be a chance to spread their fixed costs over a higher volume of orders.
The arrangement often results in restaurants with culinary ambitions serving basics for people at home. The menu at Rahi, an inventive Indian spot in New York's Greenwich Village, contains more experimental dishes such as coconut-mango curry cod with crab butter. But the Uber Eats menu has classic dishes including butter chicken and vegetable samosas. "That's what people want when they order Indian food," says owner Roni Mazumdar. He also delivers via Caviar and Grubhub.
Even Michelin-starred cooks have gotten into it. At Pasta on Demand, the virtual restaurant from Marea chef Michael White, you can order his classic rigatoni from the comfort of your phone.
As we waited for what turned out to be a great World Series game on Sunday night, my family and I flitted around on YouTube on our big screen TV and stumbled across this cool video from Architectural Digest about the key features of New York City's Fifth Avenue main library building, which opened in 1911. And this morning, in a similar vein, I happened across some thoughts about how libraries need to evolve for the future from Tony Ageh, the chief digital officer of the New York's library service. In the 100 years plus since the main branch opened, the library has become about a whole lot more than books.


This dress is very special and looks good to wear.
Our shop has been supplying Cheap Moncler Jackets in the HONGKONG since 2005. Here you can buy the highest quality, the newest released.Here you can buy the highest quality, the newest released, and the most stylish Moncler Jackets for men and women.


Joining our team as an experienced and skilled technologist to directly influence the success of our Equities business by taking responsibility for the support of critical applications, with a focus on Algorithmic flows.
You'll provide business-facing support for Equities Trading and downstream platforms. You will be supporting key cash execution platforms including Fidessa, FlexTrade and other internal systems . Working directly with the Front Office and handling business stakeholders, you will collaborate with Developers and global operation teams on strategic projects across regions, including capacity and performance management, infrastructure upgrades. BCP/DR events and audit and regulatory requests. Development delivery will be part of the opportunities available and you will be actively involved in Agile, both Kanban and scrum sprints.


text:
laid-off workers
China's Masses Urged to Adopt 'Stick Stick Spirit'
Premier Li Keqiang has urged Chinese workers to emulate the hard-working 'stick stick...
China's Workers Restive And On Strike
As companies from Wal-Mart to the world's largest shoe-maker, Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings,...
China to Brighten Bleak New Year With Cash Gifts
The Chinese government will be giving small cash gifts to some 74 million citizens before Chinese New Year. From Reuters, via MSNBC: China will give its neediest citizens hand-outs of up to 180 yuan ($26) to brighten their mood...
China Considers Aid Program for Laid-off Workers
From the International Herald Tribune: As a result of the global economic downturn, the province of Guangdong may set up a fund to help newly unemployed factory workers. The proposal is believed to be in response to fears about...
After Toy Factory Closure, Blame Game Begins
Hong Kong-listed toymaking company Smart Union was forced to close its massive factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province down last week, laying off 7,000 workers in the process. The BBC reports: A Chinese toymaker which supplied...
Song: Jangle for the Jobless
Beijing-based poet and folk singer Zhou Funpeng, 周云蓬, 38, has penned the following song, The Unemployed (失业者), a mournful ballad representing the people left behind in urban China's sprint towards prosperity. Listen here...
Poem: Like A Factory Worker
Here are two poems written by Tianjin based poet Li Wei (translated by M.J.): Like a factory worker I cut off my long hair Short to the roots Mali Zhe saw it Patted me and said Oh my, your head is truly ugly Like that of a...
Poem: Me, or a Monkey
Here is another poem written by Li Wei (translated by M.J.): Me, or a Monkey (我,或一只猴子) To lessen the burden Of the nation, of the people I An average man A completely inconspicuous person A person of no contribution whatsoever...
Chinese Success Story Chokes on Its Own Growth – Harvard French
From The New York Times: When Zhang Feifei lost her job in this booming Chinese factory town, she was not terribly concerned. Jobs had always been plentiful in Shenzhen's flourishing economy. …Few cities anywhere have created wealth faster than Shenzhen, but the costs of its phenomenal success stare out from every corner: environmental destruction, soaring […]
Retraining China's State Workers – BBC News
From BBC News: With a final flourish, Dr Wang Waihong dishes out glistening choy sum, or Chinese flowering cabbage, and receives an enthusiastic round of applause from her classmates. Made redundant from her job at a local hospital in China's southern province of Guangdong, she has enrolled in cookery classes at a vocational training centre […]
Jim Landers: As China privatizes state-owned factories, `Rust Belt' workers struggle
From Dallas Morning News: In Fushun, a city of 2.3 million, the government workforce has fallen by 380,000 since 2000. Coal mines, construction companies and machinery factories have been pushed into the private sector, where they have shed employees or closed down. Song Xiuling, who sells raw fish and vegetables in an unheated warehouse market, […]