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Walsingham

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Everything posted by Walsingham

  1. OK, some interesting points. Just a couple of rebuttals to keep things moving. 1. Azarkon, your point about being informed is fair, but if I've understood it correctly it doesn't address the fact that starting debates can LEAD TO people becoming interested and then becoming informed. 2. I agree that China has to either sell to deviants and crackpots or not sell. But my impression is that they don't need the foriegn currency. We should be trying to stop them, especially given that they're arming our fething enemies. I don't know how to check this impression, but am open to suggestions. 3. GD, we're straying off topic a little but your government now exercises the capacity to detain (not arrest, which has legal associations) anyone it damn well chooses without serving any kind of warrant, and then imprison them without trial by their peers. Moreover it exercises broad surveillance without warrant. Now, we can debate the whys and wherefores and you know very well which side I'm on, but you can't deny that civil liberties are being abrogated. The only reason point three is appropriate to this discussion is that we can get full fired up about the US with a snap of the fingers, while letting the Chinese question drift.
  2. How do you figure? Not trying to spark a debate, I'm genuinely curious. In the US, more so than other countries, because of the make up of our government, all things political are cyclical. You're right to cal me on it. I don't know the figures but my impression is that you've been in a recession. Both economically, and in terms of things like the spraead of wealtha nd education. I'd be very happy if I was wrong!
  3. 'They' know about the problem. The lack of action is not intended to annoy you personally. It's meant to annoy ME personally.
  4. {I'm experimenting wwith using a summary when doing long posts} SUMMARY The NHS and private systems differ in their strategic clarity. A nationalised health service is just as prone to bureaucratic mismanagement as any other government run system, but it has a much clearer brief. Maintain health. My impression of the States is that this is not an imperative to the provider, only the consumer. Moreover, the statement si not to maintain health, but to make you feel better when you come in. DETAIL The only time I've had to wait on the NHS was for advanced cutting edge neurosurgery, and they apologised for keeping me hanging about for 3 days. This is a single instance illustrative of a broader point. If you have something everyone has then you have to wait in a long queue. Heart disease is the classic example. I've dated a hospital nurse for quite some time, and she had friends across the spectrum from senior management to cleaners. The view I got from them was that the failures in the NHS were the result of bureaucratic inefficiency and personal incompetence. Stopping these was a constant struggle eased by having strategic clarity. Anyone can point at patients in distress and unused resources and demand their application. The impression I have got from the US is that these natural tendencies are further complicated by the natural tension in the strategic purpose of the institution. You have a strong (not absolute) profit imperative that runs contrary. My last point is that every person I've ever spoken to in epidemiology including the heartless money grubbing consultants, said that healthcare is like circumcision. It's either total or it ain't worth it.
  5. The whole thing smacks of juvenile teenagerism to me. "My parents are teh worst peopel in teh world!" Anyway, on to your points, which are excellent, but can stand a little criticism. This is perfectly fair. Certainly given the prevailing sentiment which even I would sympathise with, that the US is getting worse. An excuse which they over-use. I don't reject the plea, but it is used for everything, rather than the cases where it is warranted. I would also point out in a rather aggrieved way, that if you visited the gorbals in Glasgow, or Southern Italy you might wonder if the West is really all developed. When are you no longer allowed to play that card? Very very true. Combined with a total lack of analytical skill to make anything of the scant information we do get. We ALL benefit from trade with China in the pure big business sense. All the same I do listen with interest whenever I hear someone attacking this assumption. Do people besides international mega-corporations really benefit? This is, IMO , pure perception. Ignoring the moral blinkers for a moment, China is THE arms dealer your blood-crazed dingbat goes to first. They supply EVERYONE on the liberal hate list, and they do so without the slightest pretense at reforming influence. Nor, so far as I'm aware, do they have Russia's excuse of needing the hard currency.
  6. *gives a deeply skeptical and slightly condescending look at Sando*
  7. On the topic of state subsidized/free healthcare I could be dead three times over without it, and would certainly be worse off. I might also point out that state run healthcare is the only kind that has a vested interest in curing you with simple treatments. I don't think there can be much coincidence that the UK is leading in several areas of heart and cancer treatment, while the US only provides new drugs.
  8. I'd like to see a video of a dog ignoring a puppy and trying to save a cute looking rock.
  9. All I know is that I can see Moore making a point in a filmm which I agree with and he makes me want to switch sides. I'm English. I've been taught that if you want to make a political point forcefully the only done thing is to land a battalion of Irishmen dressed in red jackets on the recipient's house, and plant a flag in their ear.
  10. I see... and my point 2?
  11. Your sharing intimacy has made me confused and hungry.
  12. Willl we still get his trademark posting while he's in the can? Gods, can you imagine both of us getting picked? "I'm sorry, Sand. I'm afraid I can't do that."
  13. 2 questions: 1. What is demand based diplomacy? Is it like just in time fruit cake? 2. If you read the article you will see reference to the Japanese tactic of profit through damn fine management. Africa can use being exploited by ruthless bastards who will do anything to ensure a healthy happy productive workforce.
  14. I'm starting to think Moore is a putup job by the right wing. He takes valid arguments and undermines them with carnival debating tactics.
  15. We've already discussed your dominatrix thing.
  16. Qwerty, I can see your arguments are expertly rendered. However, do you think you could give us an executive summary with each one. I can't read long bits of text in this fething white on black font.
  17. I get quite tooth-grindingly annoyed by my compatriots who will gleefully engage in a bit of Yank-bashing over climate control and arms dealing, but mention China in the same context and you can almost hear the crickets. The only thing such fluff-balls think important is that China deals in dog and cat fur.
  18. Sounds like my kind of justice, frankly. More power to negotiating a sentence yourself!
  19. I haven't read it. If I want to know I don't read a book clearly intended to pander to the general public, I ask someone who's just come back from there.
  20. Ya gotta love Stratfor.com. Better than every one of our papers combined.
  21. You're failing to grasp the overall improved unpleasantness of using live animals. Particularly using dangerous live animals. It will impart a degree of desperate and undue haste in the workmen.
  22. Article from Stratfor.com Summary Japan will commit more than $42 million to a project to improve and redesign parts of the Zambian capital of Lusaka and to improve and maintain roads in and between the towns of Livingstone, Ndola and Kitwe, Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Masaaki Miya****a said June 25. The announcement follows a declaration by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party that Japan's Africa budget will be tripled over the next five years. The announcements send a clear sign that Japan is ready to become a big player in Africa, challenging Chinese economic power and political influence on the continent. Analysis Japan will commit more than $42 million to a project to improve and redesign parts of the Zambian capital of Lusaka and to improve and maintain roads in and between the towns of Livingstone, Ndola and Kitwe, Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Masaaki Miya****a said June 25. The announcement follows a statement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that his ruling Liberal Democratic Party will triple its budget for African affairs over the next five years. The announcements show the heightened Japanese interest in the continent, which is part of an accelerating international trend as countries around the world realize the potential Africa holds for direct investment and mineral concessions, among other things. In Zambia and a few other African states, however, Tokyo will have to compete directly with Beijing. China's companies and development money already pervade the country to such an extent that the Chinese hold serious political clout in Lusaka -- influence that is rapidly becoming more controversial as accusations increase of Chinese "neo-imperialism" and interference in African affairs. The relationship between Zambia and China goes back some 30 years, and although Zambia is not China's foremost African trading partner, the Chinese enjoy an unprecedented level of access to the Zambian government. China also enjoys highly favorable regulatory conditions, including a Chinese special economic zone created in February in the copper-mining town of Chambishi, in which Chinese companies can do business without export or value-added taxes. The Chinese presence in Zambia has been controversial, however, with accusations that Chinese companies are exploiting Zambian workers with low pay and subjecting them to inadequate safety standards. (Such standards are blamed for a 2005 explosion at a Chinese-run copper mine that killed more than 50 local workers.) China also is accused of increasing unemployment in Zambia's Copper Belt by bringing in Chinese employees to work in the mines in some cases. Complaints also have been widespread that Beijing is undercutting the Zambian textile industry by selling Chinese government-subsidized textiles in Zambia. Since the first quarter of 2006, Chinese trade with Zambia increased 99.4 percent -- a sign that the Chinese are digging in their heels in Southern Africa to counter increasing interest in the region by the United States and India, and increasingly, Japan. While Japan's sudden interest in Zambia might seem odd, it actually represents a rational countermove to increasing Chinese influence in the region. China has been successful in Africa in part because it offers huge loans without many of the conditions Western countries attach to their loan packages, including various stipulations about human rights and democratization that many developing countries find unpalatable. It has pursued this model in Angola, Sudan and Zimbabwe, to name a few. Japan is now providing an alternative that it hopes will be more attractive to the local population and opposition groups now that China has come under heavy criticism for its alleged neo-imperialism. By offering to build the same schools, roads, buildings and hospitals as China is, and by offering to do it faster and to better standards, Japan is providing Zambia with an alternative to the apparent Chinese model of heavy-handed business practices and an unhealthy disregard for safety standards and workers
  23. Dear sweet Holy Quinquagulon! You're right. That would be drastic.
  24. Earl Grey tea.
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