Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men…except in the headlines.
You see headlines about NATO troops killed in Afghanistan. Yes, that nasty war is still going on. But the headlines don’t put it into perspective: the Taliban wants to stop education of girls, and any western type education for anyone. But the headlines don’t talk about positive […]

read more from this topic.....

China has already used it’s economic clout to intimidate many countries to boycott the Nobel Prize cermony that honors their poet Liu Xiaobo.
This boycott has gotten them criticism from some human rights groups, including those in our Philippines.
The ability and willingness of China to use it’s economic clout for political purposes is a very important […]

read more from this topic.....

As an Asian, I am aghast that Thomas Friedman is picking up the propaganda line coming out of China and disseminating it on the New York Times editorial page.
From today’s editorial:
What if China had a WikiLeaker and we could see what its embassy in Washington was reporting about America?
Reality check:
China would jail anyone who even […]

read more from this topic.....

A lot of nonsense being written about Afghanistan: Some see it as a hopeless war, but the dirty little secret is that Afghanistan is about protecting India and the Silk Road (the central Asian countries with their oil and gas resources) for India and China.
But what to do about Afghanistan? It’s not true that it […]

read more from this topic.....

I love how Tom Friedman in the NYTimes lectures his US readers on “how the Chinese see us” by relating a skit on China’s government owned TV station where children were taught to ridicule the US:
China’s CCTV aired a skit showing four children… getting ready to run a race. Before they take off, the […]

read more from this topic.....

The naive guys at the NYTimes Freakonomics blog have a short article on the cost of health care, especially medicines, in third world countries:
A new study analyzed the effects of buying four basic prescription drugs in “low- and middle-income countries,” and the results aren’t pretty. “Buying brand name amoxicillin, for example, […]

read more from this topic.....

What would be the worst possible time to go to China to ink business contracts? When you’re facing criminal investigation for fraud.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is spending this week in China, visiting the Shanghai World Fair — Sept. 10th is Vancouver Day at the fair — and four other cities, talking to business people about the […]

read more from this topic.....

Yesterday’s hostage crisis in Manila, where a ex police chief kidnapped a bus of Chinese tourists, made the headlines.
Several were killed, and we expect lots of fingers being pointed at the rescuers for a botched hostage rescue. But no one is going to say that the motives were due to religion, or try to explain […]

read more from this topic.....

There are missing folks in the culture of Hollywood and the American news media. One “missing person” are ordinary Hispanics.Another is the ordinary Asian.
Hispanics differ from one another (my Colombian born sons never ate a taco, and spoke Castilian, not Mexican dialect). But Asians differ even more, even those from the same country.
Asians are rarely […]

read more from this topic.....

The Puritans are back. In the past, they condemned gluttony, but now they blame all the abundent good tasting food for obesity, which is now epidemic all over the world.
Yup. Blame the fast food places and those multinational corporations, and those who run efficient ways to make food cheap and abundant, from hybrid crops to […]

read more from this topic.....

China wagged a stentorian finger at the U.S. this week.  The People’s Republic is angered by our sale of arms to the Republic of China (Taiwan), by our interlocution with the Dalai Lama, but largely because they feel increasing pressure to float their currency, the renminbi.1  As our largest creditor—China holds […]

read more from this topic.....

Ah, another “cost effective” study that makes one go “Huh”: from PsyOrg:
Influenza vaccines: Poor evidence for effectiveness in elderlyFebruary 17, 2010Evidence for the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccines in the over 65s is poor, despite the fact that vaccination has been recommended for the prevention of influenza in older people for the past 40 years. […]

read more from this topic.....

What does one do with a country like Haiti, where years of occupation, corruption, and many different types of aid from outside hasn’t worked?
Lots of “it’s your fault” type stuff all over the internet: a lot of it uses the left wing’s meme of “Blame America” (and the right shouts back “Blame France”). Not mentioned, […]

read more from this topic.....

For the last few days, Cyber Space has been presented with a big challenge. We are in a situation where we need to determine the right of Chinese Government to launch attacks on the cyber space of other Governments or Citizens of other countries.
On the one hand Indian Government is embarrassed about the hacking of […]

read more from this topic.....

I’m not sure what to make of the article in Slate that equates religiosity with niceness, and points out that the atheistic Danes and the Swedes are happier and nicer and have fewer negative social problem than the US which boasts of it’s religiosity.
In his new book, Society Without God, Phil Zuckerman looks at […]

read more from this topic.....

I am fascinated by what the US blogs are calling “Climategate”.
It seems that  one of the main scientific research labs behind Global warming, indeed the one whose data was one of the lynchpins  proving “climate change” was occuring, manmade, and severe, had their emails hacked and put on line.
When the emails were taken off line, […]

read more from this topic.....

Many government programs depend on political legerdemain and budget gimmickry.  Social Security and Medicare are prominent examples.  Most Americans believe Social Security and Medicare funds are locked in a vault somewhere, ready for withdrawals when they retire.  We are disquieted to learn these “Trust Funds”, as they are called, are not funds at all, but […]

read more from this topic.....

A study among Chinese factory workers shows exposure to high doses of Bisphenol A at their jobs resulted in an increase of erectile dysfuntion.
Compared to the other workers, men with high BPA exposure were about four times as likely to report trouble achieving erections, about seven times as likely to say they had difficulty ejaculating, […]

read more from this topic.....

One of the major causes of death in the world is malaria, but the World Health Organization estimates that 20 percent of the one million deaths from malaria are dying because the medicines that they are taking are substandard or outright counterfeits. If you include fake antibiotics and fake drugs used to treat tuberculosis, the […]

read more from this topic.....

President Obama was brought up in Asia, yet he seems clueless about Afghanistan, and of the geopolitical problems in this area.
The press is even worse, preferring the simplistic out of date explanations of the “Afghanistan is Viet Nam” meme, or the “Stop the war” meme, or stressing civilian casualties “reported” by Taliban linked sources without […]

read more from this topic.....

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner would not receive at the White House the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is on a visit this week to Washington. President Obama apparently wanted to avoid upsetting Chinese communist leaders before his official trip to China.
Unwelcome at the White House […]

read more from this topic.....

Congress has censored the gentleman (?) who interrupted the President’s speech last week by shouting Liar.
Good for them.
One of the most terrible things about politics during the Bush administration was that those who should have known better winked at the harsh and even paranoid voices that shouted hatred at him personally. And, alas, now it […]

read more from this topic.....

A lot of nonsense being written in the news about Conservative writer George Will deciding to throw in the towel in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a mess. Big deal. It’s been a mess for a couple thousand years, and trying to “win” a war there and put in a crumpets and tea democracy is a bit delusional.
But […]

read more from this topic.....

Does Huntsman’s Road Through Beijing Lead To The Obama White House?
When President Barack Obama rang up Utah’s moderate Republican Governor Jon Huntsman a while back to feel him out about joining a Democratic administration, insiders say the first question out of his mouth went something like this: “So, are you going to run against me […]

read more from this topic.....

Years ago, when I worked in Africa, the light in my office started to fail. There was no electricity during the day, so we got our office light via old fashioned windows. My first thought was a storm: but there were no clouds. Although the sun was shining, everything seemed to be dim. A phrase […]

read more from this topic.....

Doctor Sally Satel has an editorial in the NYPost promoting giving payment to those who donate organs, or to their families.
She tells a variation of the usual spin: by allowing money to enter into the decision on whether to donate, we would increase organ donations. Ergo, it would help save the lives of many people.
Ah, […]

read more from this topic.....

My appointments diary for the week beginning 23rd April 1989 has a few brief entries in it. On Monday 24th I caught a flight at 10:10 in the morning from Kong Hong to Beijing and on Thursday 27th I flew back. In between there were a number of meetings in the Chinese capital with business […]

read more from this topic.....

Some Anthropology associations have been worried about the US Army recruiting trained anthropologists to help in the war on terror.
Part of this is because they remembered how anthropologist helped the US during the war in Southeast Asia, and they viewed the war around Viet Nam wrong (huh…fellahs, ever hear of the boat people? the Cambodian […]

read more from this topic.....

MEMO TO: Richard Feducci, Overlord of Finance
FROM: E Pluribus, Wondergod
SUBJECT: Five Year International Finance Plan
DATE: January 1, 2005
Happy New Year, Rich. Got some good news and some bad news. The bad news: We’re going to let the American economy crater. The good news: Everybody else’s will, too. The best news: By 2010, we’ll be on […]

read more from this topic.....

No, I’m not quoting the well worn joke: World ends, women and minorities affected most.
I’m just observing how the economic downturn is affecting those in our area of the Philippines.
One of my medical journals (registration required) says the World Health Organization is worried that the worldwide recession will result in people chosing to wait for […]

read more from this topic.....