Back to Iraq Part V - By Force of Sheer Will: Americans are happy to see that Northern Iraq is a normal, reasonably prosperous place. Sean even took pictures of the laser scanner in the checkout line. We met two American soldiers in front of the store. They sat on a park bench outside. Iraqi Kurdistan is perfectly safe, so they did not carry guns. They did not wear body armor or helmets. ...“The Kurds are farther along right now,” Mark said. “Some of the Arabs still don’t get the freedom and democracy thing like the Kurds do. I just want to say to them: Haven’t you seen what it’s like in the north? What, exactly, is it that you’re not understanding?” I don't know central or southern Iraq. I have never been there. An article just appeared, though, at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting about the economic divide on each side of the Kurdistan line. As it turns out, huge numbers of Arab laborers are heading north where they can make more money and live in a more secure environment. They're taking low-end jobs that the Kurds of Iraq no longer want. Arab Iraq is now to Kurdish Iraq what Mexico is to the United States. Biff- Like many bl0whards over here, I too have insufficient information. But I don't pretend to know what's going on over there. On the other hand, having spent six months in Belfast in 1971, I've never labored under any delusions about freedom-fighters so-called. How many Martin Luther King's did the US produce this past century? Well that's about how many you can expect to find in Iraq leading the masses to a better place. The rest are opportunists and mediocre con-artists. Rely on it.
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South Korea's New English Town : Imagine going for a stroll down the street of any quaint little English town, with its characteristic pubs, restaurants and red brick terraces and, as in every U.K. town or village, everybody says hello to you in English. But just then, you notice something typically uncharacteristic, reels of barb wire and warning signs in the distance reading "landmines nearby." ... The US$90 million project follows in the footsteps of Ansan Camp that opened in August, 2004, also designed to dissuade Korean parents from sending their children abroad to learn English, but Paju camp resembles more of a town than a language learning center. Biff- a money saver, or a xenophobic paradigm for foreign language acquisition? How about an improved petting zoo, one with robots installed for better public safety; the robots do the petting.
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More South Koreans Migrating to China : For decades, South Korea's out-migration rate has been among the highest in the world. In the 1960s, Koreans left their impoverished homeland for wealthy countries, especially the United States and Germany. Korean migrants dreamed they could get rich in those societies, or at least they could give their children a better future. Many gave up positions of high social status in South Korea as lawyers or professors, to enter American factories or dry cleaners.
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Net-savvy easily evade China's censors: ``Real film fans in China never have any expectation from movie theaters. Most movies that show here are rubbish,'' said Liu Qiwen, a 23-year-old movie buff and senior at Nankai University in the industrial city of Tianjin. ``I can find almost any movie I like, especially the latest ones. Old movies can be a little harder to dig up, but there is always a way.'' Biff- as always, have to love that mainland gusto... Call me prejudiced, but I have fond memories of two situations in which Chinese bystanders got involved in attempted murders. Plus another situation in the US when the Chinese restaurant owner beside me on a Greyhound out of Chicago got up to brawl with the much larger driver until I spoke up and defused the scene. Crudity I dislike, chutzpah on the other hand... If only the Taiwanese could demonstrate the same in significant numbers...
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China prisoners' supporters look to Bush : Human rights activists say prisoner releases have declined since Hu became China's leader in 2002. "We have not seen any inclination by the Hu administration to make any symbolic moves to appease human rights concerns," says Nicholas Bequelin, a China expert with Human Rights Watch. "The fact that China refuses to do it is an indication of how conservative and how little inclined to liberalization this administration is." ...In Beijing last week, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi brushed off questions from reporters about whether prisoners might be released to win goodwill for Hu's trip. "China is a country under the rule of law," Yang said. "We handle cases according to the law." Biff- were Taiwan to be taken by China, one flinches thinking how the law would be thrown at the locals.
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China Arming Iran With Advanced Missile Technology : Iran demonstrated its newfound missile technology from China by test-firing a new anti-ship missile during recent military exercises. The shore-launched firing of a C-701 anti-ship missile was carried out by Iran during the large-scale war games. Iranian reports described the test-firing of a "Kosar" missile during the games. ...The Iranian test is the first demonstration of a radar-guided C-701, giving the small missile the capability to search and lock onto a target ship without direct control. CPMIEC sources claim the new C-701/Kosar is equipped with an advanced millimeter-wave radar seeker that can provide high-resolution target imagery, allowing the missile to identify its target and select a specific impact point. Biff- This is my first time linking to Newsmax. I'm not encouraged by the fact the article's author is listed at the bottom of the webpage as appearing on UFO enthusiast Jeff Rense's radio show (whose website hosts columns by, amongst others, Sherman Skolnick: a one-hit wonder with a judicial expose under his belt in the 1960's and who's since evolved into a superior visionary with his own cable show where he explains the dozens of murders he envisions in each presidential closet. If memory serves, he's convinced that Clinton murdered a dozen US generals or so). Anyway, the background info in the article appears to tally with what I've previously come across.
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Taiwan cool to Beijing's 'poisoned candies' : Taiwan, for its part, has been eager to receive tourists from the mainland. "Aside from the possible economic interests, what is really [a worthwhile result of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan] is the cultural shock," the senior cross-strait affairs official explained.
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China, Russia welcome Iran into the fold : The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which maintained it had no plans for expansion, is now changing course. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan, which previously had observer status, will become full members. ...Speaking in Beijing as recently as January 17, the organization's secretary general Zhang Deguang had been quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying: "Absorbing new member states needs a legal basis, yet the SCO has no rules concerning the issue. Therefore, there is no need for some Western countries to worry whether India, Iran or other countries would become new members." ...Visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi told Itar-TASS in Moscow that the membership expansion "could make the world more fair". Biff- Given that fairness is a mostly, if not entirely, bogus concept at the level of nation-state this is hardly reassuring. That this rationale springs from a vision of international relations as a traditional morality play (always a bad sign) suggests further the audience he has in mind, i.e. the choir he's preaching to (pun intended). - And what's the point of reading atimes.com if not for the conspiracy theories: Gennady Yefstafiyev, a former general in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, wrote: "The US's long term goals in Iran are obvious: to engineer the downfall of the current regime; to establish control over Iran's oil and gas; and to use its territory as the shortest route for the transportation of hydrocarbons under US control from the regions of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia and China. This is not to mention Iran's intrinsic military and strategic significance."
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