Four Detained and One Arrested at BASHBACK! Demonstration Against Human Rights Campaign

Get onground knowledge and analysis from business and investment guide book: China’s Global Reach
Borderless Business, National Competition, Politics, and Globalization (book excerpts)

by George Zhibin Gu

Afterword
China, United States and Global Development
by Andre Gunder Frank

Part III

China’s New International Experiences

SUMMARY

(1). China, India and many other later developers have rather limited strengths to compete in a highly competitive world market dominated by a few well-developed nations today. Their best strengths come from a low-paid labor as well as hard work. Even so, they are able to provide massive low-priced goods and services. It turns out that this price gap is nothing less than survival.

(2). Gaining competitive advantages through low-pricing tags has been common throughout history. One example is the British competitiveness following the industrial revolution. For long, the British dominated the world commerce through their massively produced, highly competitive textile, steel, and consumer products, among others. China, India and other underdeveloped nations could not compete at all. This naturally changed the world production map in favor to Europe.

By early 20th century, the center of economic gravity moved to the US, as the nation was able to produce the biggest, cheapest volume of products and hence gained world economic leadership. For example, Ford was able to produce the cheapest cars in biggest volume. Through such mass production, the US has become the biggest economic power over some 100 years.

Again, Japan Inc. suddenly rolled its products all over the globe, which began in 1960s. In fact, made-in-Japan products had a low pricing advantage. For example, in 1970s, all the US TV manufacturers went bankrupt, even if the Japanese TV makers had no technological advantage over their US counterparts back then.

Fourteen Reasons to Reject Corporate Options for Health Care

If a Critical Mass of the public actually knew what the Health Care Brouhaha involved, Liberals and Conservatives would unite in opposing current and planned policies. Imagine....

1) Private insurers are businesses that must grow. Their inclusion in any national program guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public.

2) Private insurers, being businesses, have motive and duty to provide as little service as possible at the highest price possible. This is an adversarial situation with the public.

3) A significant chunk of what was ostensibly customers’ health care money goes to contributions to political candidates that many may not care to support. Mandatory purchase of private insurance would have our government---our sworn and paid representatives---compelling citizens to provide revenues to candidates preferred by private insurers. There is no Public Interest health-related justification for mandating this part of an insurance policy.

4) Significant revenues supplied by insurance customers go to lobbying for legislation that favors the private insurance interests rather than the interests of the public. Again, no health-related public interest exists in this part of an insurance policy.

5) Large percent of the cost of a policy goes to other non-health-related things such as advertising, CEO bonuses, corporate jets, business conventions, and corporate headquarters upkeep. No health-related justification exists for mandating that citizens pay for that along with the actual health benefits.

* The latest demonstration of political criminalization of autonomous social movements by the Venezuelan government is exposed by Rafael Uzcategui, a member of the anarchist collective El Libertario.

As this text is written, Lusbi Portillo, professor at Zulia University (in Maracaibo) and environmental activist in solidarity with the indigenous movement is in hiding to protect his life and physical integrity. During the events of October 13 in the Sierra de Perijá two yukpas were killed and five more wounded in a conflict arising from the demarcation of indigenous land. The regional police announced that an arrest warrant against the professor for “drug possession” was imminent. This is not the first time the professor is criminalized for his active solidarity with the demands of the original peoples, but because the way the events are evolving – an investigation of the events has been decreed “national security” by the authorities – he decided to take preventive measures by going into hiding.

The environmental activist increased his activities in the indigenous struggle as a reaction to the government’s announcement, by the President of the Republic on November 13 2003 to triple coal exploitation in the Zulia region to 36 million metric tons per year. Lusbi Portillo’s first “error”, from the point of view of the immobilizing polarization that controls the nation’s political scene, was to uphold his values and demands in spite of the official discourse that promised to satisfy them some time in the future. Regardless of his expectations and personal sympathies, Portillo did not sell out nor agreed to lower his priorities, preserving his autonomous social character, thus keeping his ability to organize for the solution to the problems in spite of the electoral situation.

Contradiciendo a su propaganda, divulgada hasta el hartazgo por la prensa mediática, Fernando Lugo autorizó secretamente el ingreso de tropas norteamericanas al Paraguay. El hecho demuestra una vez más la inconsecuencia del obispo-presidente, quien llegó al poder en ancas del respaldo mediático de ultraderechas y ONGs vinculadas a la embajada norteamericana. Ver:

http://www.diariosigloxxi.com/te...

http://www.viejoblues.com/Bitaco...

http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/a...

http://www.cubanuestra.nu/web/ar...

(Commentaries on Science, Religion, Spiritualism, Politics and The Resource Based Economy)

Many are well acquainted with “The Modern Scientific Method”, it's the dominant norm of all discovery. It is the underpinning of all Western Philosophy from the end of the days of Monarchs to the modern days of Oligarchs. Of course this wasn't always the case, before the Modern Scientific Method existed a more Associative Method of both reasoning and discovery based on religion. The Scientific Method arose as a reaction to the Associative Method, which dominated before. The Scientific Method was more flexible and fluid then the old Religious Associative Method. Since all things discovered or concluded by science were open to change and progress it certainly trumped the non-changing religious conclusions. The Modern Scientific Method had many advantages over the old associative method... of declaring truths followed by creating chains of association to go along with those truths, then they were later linked back to their starting point, ie: original declared truth. The Modern Scientific Method still differed from the original or “Ancient Scientific Method” in a few ways. In this work we will compare and contrast the Scientific Method used by The Ancients; such as The Greeks, Chinese, Indians, etc. and compare it with the Modern Scientific Method to see the differences. We will show how the Observation and Intuition were used in conjunction with each other by ancient people's. While in contrast to todays world where Modern Science simply writes off Intuition as Mysticism and lumps it together with the Associative Method expounded by Nicean, as well as other Dogmatic and Orthodox Abrahamic Faiths.

El poder tiende a corromper, el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente.

Lord Acton, historiador inglés

No sin razón se ha dicho que en Paraguay, alcanzar el poder es antes que nada, empezar a asistir a reuniones donde nadie tiene opinión diferente a la de uno mismo, además de renovar guardarropa y cambiar de mujer, domicilio y vehículo. De esta manera, el mandón de turno demuestra la capacidad de pocos de hacerles creer a muchos lo poco que importan.

El obispo Fernando Lugo y sus secuaces han confirmado la regla con su alegre conducta, al punto que muchos han logrado escandalizar a los mismos inventores de la corrupción, sus antecesores colorados, quienes gobernaron con un estilo fascistoide por seis décadas al Paraguay. La realidad del “proceso de cambios” es innegable: todos los nuevos funcionarios han cambiado el tren de vida miserable por la opulencia.

La actual coyuntura recuerda aquello que con certeza expresó Abraham Lincoln: Casi todos podemos soportar la adversidad, pero si queréis probar el carácter de un hombre, dadle poder.

EL CHONGUISMO

De acuerdo al diccionario Latinoamericano, Chongo en Argentina es una palabra empleada exclusivamente en el mundillo homosexual. “Se emplea para designar a cualquier otro varón atractivo. Emplease también para indicar al joven que mantiene un alto porcentaje de relaciones heterosexuales, muy apreciado por conservar sus dotes masculinas y ejercer el rol de activo durante un contacto sexual”. Ver:

http://www.asihablamos.com/?word...

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five
Part 1: Forbidden Heroes

 Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (October 30) is up at the website
http://www.outfarpress.com/outfa... in both broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quickdownload or streaming form (4.9MB) (28:59)
(NEW! If you have access to Audioport.org there is a higher quality version posted up there {26.7MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.p...)