India launches missile capable of reaching Europe

India has successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can reach Eastern Europe and Beijing, placing India amongst other nations that can deploy nuclear weapons at such a great distance.

Countries like Russia, the USA, Britain, Israel, Iran, North Korea and China.

Footage showed the rocket with a range of more than 5,000 km blasting through clouds from an island off India’s east coast. The rocket reached its target in the Indian Ocean.

The defence minister said the test was “immaculate.”

The launch, which was announced and flagged well in advance, has attracted none of the negative criticism from the West faced by hermit state North Korea for a failed bid to send up a similar rocket last week.

Years ago North Korea tested a rocket that splashed down near Hawaii, proving they have the technology to launch nukes at Hawaii or Alaska from mainland North Korea. The North Koreans have been trying to repeat that success on a further target.

North Korea threatens to attack South Korea

POLITICS - The hermit republic of North Korea is threatening to attack South Korea, worried about live fire military drills its South Korean neighbours are doing in a disputed region of the sea near the border between the two enemies.

Earlier today South Korea has begun live-fire military drills from front-line islands, ignoring North Korea's threat to attack. The drills today are in an area near the Koreas' disputed sea border. It is the same region that was the target of a North Korean artillery attack in 2010 that killed four South Koreans.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff say residents on those islands were asked to go to underground shelters before the drills started.

No North Korean action has been reported, but they have raised their alert level.

Yesterday a North Korean officer in Pyongyang warned that North Koreans are always ready to “dedicate their blood to defend their inviolable territory.”

Meanwhile in the USA...

President Obama and the Obama Administration is looking for an excuse to have a war overseas. (Because every president needs a war to ensure their 2nd term.) A war with North Korea would solve that need.

But North Korea isn't the first country in their sights. Iran is also on the list.

Tehran, the capitol of Iran, has put finishing touches on the installation of thousands of new-generation centrifuges in their underground nuclear facility. These are machines that can produce enriched uranium faster and more efficiently than the old centrifuges.

Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment at a fortified underground bunker in the village of Fordo in an effort to see how quickly it can make nuclear warheads, senior American diplomats say on condition of anonymity.

The senior diplomats say that Iran would have little reason to prepare the better centrifuges unless it planned to operate them.

The new centrifuges at Fordo appears to reflect Iran’s determination to forge ahead with nuclear weapons activity despite international sanctions and the latest threats from Israel. Israel is very worried that any nuclear weapons could be used against the Jewish state, and the USA, an ally of Israel, is likewise concerned.

The new centrifuges are already are enriching to 20% — a level that can be boosted quickly to weapons-grade quality.

Iran’s much older enrichment site in the city of Natanz is producing uranium at 3.4%, a level used to power reactors. While that could be turned into weapons-grade uranium it would take longer to turn low grade Uranium into weapons grade, whereas high grade Uranium would take less time.

The CIA believes that Iran already has a small supply of weapons grade material, but has yet to test its nuclear weapon capabilities because such a test would be an announcement to the world that Iran is ready for nuclear war with Israel (which Iran has been denying for years). The CIA believe that Iran has been enriching uranium to 90% or more levels.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are scheduled to visit Tehran next Sunday. Iran has been stonewalling outsiders concerning its nuclear weapons program for 3 years. Iranian officials deny they have nuclear weapons or any intention to use them and claim that the USA and Israel are just creating bogus intelligence in an attempt to start a war and complete an oil pipeline that would traverse through Iraq and Afghanistan to the border of China via the Wakhjir Pass.

North Korea's future uncertain as Kim Jong-Il is mourned

POLITICS - With Kim Jong-Il dead the future of North Korea has become very uncertain.

If you haven't heard already, Kimg Jong-Il, the supreme leader of the isolated "Hermit Kingdom" North Korea has died, leaving his 3rd son as the new leader. He died of a heart attack on December 17th 2011, age 69.

The new young leader, Kim Jong-Un walked alongside the black hearse carrying the dead body of his father during the televised funeral procession, flanked by his uncle and various military advisers. The people around the hearse was veritable who's who of North Korea's military and political elites.

In the wake of Kim Jong-Il's death millions of North Koreans mourned in front of the cameras... some to the point of hysterics. Off camera North Korean soldiers watched, pale faced, tearless and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, sparking rumours internationally of North Korean civilians being interrogated or shot for "not mourning enough". (During WWII Germans who didn't cheer long and hard for Hitler were routinely rounded up and questioned.)

Kim Jong-Un meanwhile is now centre stage... a young inexperienced leader of a mere 27 years old, chosen because his two older brothers were considered too friendly towards the west. The military elites of North Korea wanted a leader who was a zealot who would not be afraid to push towards nuclear war.

In the past North Korea has tested multiple nuclear weapons and long range missiles. Several years ago they became capable of launching from mainland North Korea a long range missile carrying a nuclear payload that can hit Hawaii or Alaska.

From a airplane, submarine or a ship they could hit mainland USA.

North Korea, ever America's enemy since the Korean War, has a standing army of 1.2 million and mandatory military training for every adult male. Many North Korean females also receive military training.

So you have to ask yourself...

When push comes to shove, would you trust nuclear missiles to a 27 year old man who has been raised to hate the USA?

Who will replace Osama Bin Laden?

POLITICS - For decades during the Cold War the Soviet Union was the devil incarnate. Inflated the threat to unbelievable levels and it was only after the fact we learned most of it was just mythology and paranoia.

During the early 1990s Iraq and Saddam Hussein became the new focus.

Following September 11th terrorism and Osama Bin Laden...

But now that both Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden are dead, who will we make the new devil? Who is the new enemy that needs to be vanquished?

Possible Baddies include:

Muammar Gaddafi / Libya

Kim Jong Il / North Korea

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / Iran

Of course there is also the conspiracy theorists who believe Osama Bin Laden isn't really dead. There was no photos or video of Osama Bin Laden's dead body, he was buried at sea, and no proof he actually died. There were fake photos made by members of the media, but that hardly counts. People aren't going to believe it until they actually see photos and/or video of Osama Bin Laden dead.

The same thing happened with JFK and Che Guevara. Photos of their dead bodies had to be released before people could really believe it was true.

And back to the devil idea... Does the United States really need to find a villain overseas? Certainly they could villainify someone in their own backyard and improve their own country for once instead of stirring up trouble overseas.

Japan imposes fines on evacuation zone

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Japanese residents rushed back into the 20-kilometre evacuation zone around Japan's radiation-spewing Fukushima nuclear power plant today, grabbing whatever belongings and valuables they could before an order went into effect legally banning entry to the area.

After today any people entering the zone will be arrested and fined 100,000 Yen ($1200 USD). They can also be detained for up to 30 days.

The area effected was home to over 80,000 Japanese.

After today residents will have to apply to get brief visits, up to a max of 2 hours to collect necessities. Participants would have to go through radiation screening, and there will be a cap of 1 person per household allowed to take the risk.

No visits will be allowed in a three kilometre area closest to the plant, says Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, that zone would be completely off-limits.

The Japanese government is sending mixed messages about the severity of the radiation leakages.

See Also
Japan ignored Tsunami threat
Japan hit by 7.0 earthquake
Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Radiation levels coming from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan spiked today, reaching level 7 (complete meltdown!!!), making it on par with the level of disaster that Chernobyl was in 1986.

As a result Japanese authorities has widened the evacuation radius around the nuclear plant, and the workers trying to bring the radiation leak under control are now in greater jeopardy as the increased radiation exposure will be killing them that much faster. (It only takes 5,000-10,000 milliSieverts to kill a person.)

When the tsunami crippled the plant a month ago, causing the diesel shutdown and cooling system to break, the radiation levels in the days that followed was 400 milliSievert / hour. Today that number went up dramatically, but Japanese authorities won't comment on how high radiation levels now are.

Japan's Prime Minister meanwhile outright lied on camera today, claiming radiation levels are actually coming down.

NOTES:

A couple weeks ago just being within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima plant a person would be getting approx. 1.5 milliSieverts / hour. It would be enough to give a lethal dose within 4-5 months of living near the plant.

When Chernobyl happened the 47 closest workers all died from receiving a dose of 6,000 milliSieverts over a short time period. Its unclear what the milliSieverts / hour was.

The workers trying to fix Fukushima should be dying right now, but the Japanese government is keeping the number of radiation exposure deaths quiet. Japan claims they have workers going in shifts, but there is a limit to the number of workers who are trained in what to do.

See Also
The Fukushima Meltdown and Fallout
Japan hit by 2nd earthquake

Japanese ignored Tsunami threat

By Ai Lung Nguyen - March 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - The Japanese government admitted Tuesday that its safety precautions were insufficient to protect a nuclear plant against the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility and caused it to spew radiation. An overhaul of safety standards is in the works.

The Fukushima Daiichi struggle has unfolded with constant missteps and accidents, including an incident where two workers were drenched Tuesday with radioactive water.

A level of imcompetency has plagued the disaster relief efforts as a plethora of other incidents have led to serious doubts about the quality of the workers at the nuclear plant, hired perhaps because of their willingness to risk their lives in exchange for money, and not because of any engineering background.

The March 11th tsunami which killed over 25,000 Japanese (some people are still missing and not confirmed dead) has unveiled a lack of education and safety standards amongst the workers.

Damage from the tsunami exceeds $310 billion, the most expensive natural disaster on record, and has crippled Japan's economy. Coupled with the incompetency of the workers its a shameful exhibition that will hurt Japan's reputation for years to come.

More Accidents and Gaffs:

The Japanese government has been telling residents near the disaster zone to stay indoors and that this will protect them from the radiation. (Radiation goes right through walls, stone, etc. Only lead walls slows down radiation, although not completely.)

Specks of Plutonium has been found in earth samples found near the plant, the result of debris from explosions inside the plant. If someone collected enough Plutonium (10 kg worth) they could make a small nuclear bomb. The region should be sealed off by the Japanese military and they should be checking all people leaving the zone for radiation levels to prevent plutonium smuggling.

The Japanese have been dumping radioactive water into the ocean because they don't know where else to put it. Trucking the water and storing it somewhere safer has not occurred to them. The radioactive water is now causing many countries to be skeptical about fish imported from Japan.

The dirty radioactive water in question includes plutonium debris as well.

There has been proposals that the water could be stored in oil tankers instead, but the Japanese government seems to be too busy bickering. For now the water is being poured into poorly dug trenches, causing the water to seep into the ground and into the local drinking water, rivers and the ocean.

Another mishap happened Tuesday, when three workers trying to connect a pump outside the Unit 3 reactor were splashed by radioactive water that gushed from a pipe. They were supposed to be wearing radiation protective suits meant to be waterproof but ended up soaked with the contaminated water.

Last week, two workers were hospitalized with severe burns after issued ankle-high protective boots and told to walk through highly radioactive knee-high water.

There has also been a lot of miscommunication and lies company from TEPCO, the utility company in charge of the nuclear plant and cleanup has been lying constantly about the radiation levels being released (the same way BP Oil lied about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico).

“This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan,” says Prime Minister Naoto Kan, saying that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II.

But Naoto Kan is hardly able to do anything. He is being hampered by opposition lawmakers like Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you handle the crisis,” says Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you be in charge of Japan’s crisis management.”

You would think Japan would learn to work together in such a crisis, but apparently there is always a few bad eggs who would rather resort to partisan politics.

The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown and Fallout

ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH - On Wednesday March 11th 2011 a 9.0 earthquake took place off the coast of Japan and unleashed a massive tsunami. The recorded death poll at this point is over 7,300 and another 11,000 people missing. But the disaster doesn't stop at the damage from the earthquake and tsunami... Four of Japan's nuclear power plants, including 2 reactors at Fukushima suffered damage and have since released huge amounts of radiation. The Onagawa and Tōkai nuclear power plants suffered comparatively minor damage. A total of 11 nuclear reactors were automatically shut down.

Seismic recordings at the nuclear plants indicate the ground velocity was 6.18–52.62 cm/sec.

However the diesel generator and water pumps at Fukushima I and Fukushima II were damaged by the tsunami, making it impossible to pump cold water into the reactor to cool it down. The reactors began overheating, resulting in a meltdown similar to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. *Cooling is needed to remove nuclear decay heat for several days even when a reactor is shut down. The cooling process is only possible through large emergency disel generators, all of which were destroyed by the tsunami/earthquake.

The meltdown caused two large explosions at Fukushima I and leakage of radiation, resulting in the immediate evacuation of over 200,000 people from the region.

Since then the scope of the disaster has become more clear.

Japanese emergency crews have been pumping seawater into the reactors in an attempt to cool down and stablize the reactors, but to little avail. The machinery they are using aren't up to the task and there is delays getting new diesel generators and pumps into the region because of the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Under normal circumstances getting the required machinery into the region would be comparatively easy.

Fires at the reactors have since been put out, but the radiation from the meltdown and the nuclear fallout has since got into the local food supply and even into Tokyo's drinking water. Rumours and speculation about the future of Japan and even ideas of evacuating most of Japan until the crisis is over.

There are also confusing and conflicting reports about the amout of radiation being released. If we use the BP Gulf Oil Spill as a rule of thumb (BP lied about the amount of oil being spilled daily, it later turned out to be over 10 times the daily amount they had claimed.) then we can assume that the worst reports are probably the most accurate.

The INES – International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale – ranks incidents from one to seven, with one described as "anomaly" and seven as "major accident". The disaster in Fukushima has been ranked a 6. (Chernobyl in 1986 was a 7.)

Normally a human is exposed to 2 milliSieverts/year of radiation from the sun and other sources. Airplane staff are exposed to approx. 9 milliSieverts/year. 100 can cause cancer, 1000 can cause fatal cancer in 5% of the people exposed, 5000 kills a person within 4 weeks 50% of the time, 10,000 is fatal within a week or two.

According to several reports the radiation leakage is 400 milliSieverts per hour, enough to cause a fatal dose within 25 hours. People closest to the centre of the disaster will be receiving higher doses. There is also conflicting reports the amount of radiation is going both up and down.

As of last week the radiation levels in Tokyo were 20 times normal levels. The local government was warning people not to panic. (Tokyo is approx. 300 km away from Fukushima.)

The radiation was so bad that Japan ordered a no fly zone in the region around Fukushima.

Indeed the radiation levels are reaching far more distances than mere Japan. Heightened radiation levels are now being recorded as far away as the United States.

A Canadian team sent to help tsunami victims was later recalled because they were not equipped to handle radiation and were asked to leave by Japanese authorities.

On the economic side Japan's economy is in a freefall, and will likely suffer serious blows if Japan's government cannot get the radiation leaks under control (possibly resulting in a large scale evacuation of the region around Fukushima). Even if the reactors are stabilized Japan's future will still be dire, both in terms of health concerns from lingering radiation but also from growing demands to dismantle Japan's other nuclear plants.

For other countries it could also mean a dramatic increase in nuclear refugees from Japan, seeking a safe place to raise their children free of radiation.

Food exports from Japan have been banned in many countries and this spells even more trouble for Japan's future.

Power lines have since been reattached to a number of Japan's nuclear plants and there is high hopes of restarting the turbines and the regular coolant system in an effort to cool down the reactors.

South Korea vows revenge

By Charles Moffat - December 2010.

POLITICS - If a war comes between North and South Korea it will be because neither side was willing to stop tit-for-tatting back and forth.

President Lee Myung-bak’s choice for a new defence minister says South Korean jets will bomb the North if the North stages another attack like last week’s deadly artillery barrage. This would mean an incursion into North Korea, and a declaration of open war.

North Korea meanwhile has already promised more artillery barrages if South Korea and the USA conducts military drills near the North Korean border.

As a person who used to live in South Korea the question of whether the two Koreas will go to war is near and dear to me. South Korea is like a 2nd home to me. If a war happened I would be tempted to sign up and help teach Canadian troops how to speak Korean, an useful skill for troops to have when taking prisoners and recognizing which Koreans are the enemy and the ally.

President Lee’s government is under intense criticism that its response to North Korea’s November 23rd attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong was too weak and that they should be doing more to make it clear attacks on South Korea will not go unanswered. Especially since SK' spy chief dismissed information that the North was planning an attack on Yeonpyeong since August.

Thus the announcement that any new attacks will incur air-strikes and provoke a war is sending the message that South Korea is ready for war if the North doesn't back off. Kim Kwan-jin, the defence minister nominee, says South Korea will use all its combat capabilities to retaliate.

As nominee Kim Kwan-jin is guaranteed the post. The hearing before South Korea’s National Assembly is just a formality.

Kim also said North Korea is unable to conduct a full-scale war because of its weak economy, but this is just rhetoric on his part. North Korea's primary military ability isn't in normal weapons, its in sheer numbers of soldiers (military service is mandatory in North Korea), nuclear missiles and trickery, as much as it can muster. A war between the two Koreas will be full of Northern soldiers posing as Southern soldiers... which is why their ability to know English and their knowledge of western pop culture will be tested. (ie. by asking them to sing an Elvis song, name characters from Star Trek, or quote lines from The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.)

According to South Korean intelligence North Korea has boosted its rocket and missile capabilities for hitting Seoul. They now have 5,200 missiles aimed at Seoul. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff will not confirm the report.

The International Criminal Court said today it has opened a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes by North Korea resulting from its recent clashes with South Korea and attacks on civilians.

South Korean and US forces in the region remain on high alert.

MEANWHILE...

Sarah Palin is drawing heavy criticism around the world after declaring that the United States has to stand with “our North Korean allies.” during a radio talk show.



Sarah Palin’s gaffe was made last Wednesday during an interview on Glenn Beck’s syndicated radio show in which she mentioned her desire to run for president in 2012.

The Times of India says Sarah Palin “did it again.”

London’s Daily Mail says Sarah Palin “may want to brush up on her geography.”

Of course, if a war with North Korea happens in the next 2 years and Barack Obama is the sitting president during a nuclear war, Sarah Palin will have very little chance of unseating the president during a time of crisis. War has a tendency to bolster support for the sitting president.

ie. Like how Bill Clinton bombed Iraq in December 1998 and his approval ratings soared; Or how September 11th happened and George W. Bush's approval rating soared, despite being most useless president in U.S. history during the 1st 8 months and completely incompetent during the remainder of his presidency.

North Korea attacks South Korean island of Yeonpyeong

By Charles Moffat - November 2010.

POLITICS - The island of Yeonpyeong is on the South Korean side of the border, but that didn't stop North Korea from attacking it with an artillery barrage that killed two soldiers and wounded 20 people. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the attack "an invasion" of South Korea.

If that is an invasion, what do we call North Korea's other actions from the past year and a half? They have test-detonated nuclear weapons, launched long range missiles across the Pacific Ocean towards the USA and torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.

The increasingly belligerent North Korea seems to be bent on war and many analysts believe nuclear war with North Korea is now inevitable. The only question remains is who will strike first, and where.

The Yeonpyeong Attack on November 23rd

The tiny island is home to a military base and a local residential population of farmers and fishermen. Both North and South Korea have a string of military bases near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) that is the border between the two nations.

North Korea claims South Korea fired first, something South Korea denies, but its not impossible they did indeed fire first because tensions on the Peninsula are the highest they've been in the 57 years since the 1st Korean War ended in 1953. What is known is that North Korea fired approx. 200 large artillery shells at the island. At the time South Korea was conducting a military drill in the region, but the firing was not [supposed to be] directed at North Korea.

The first sign of trouble was when on the morning of November 23rd, at 8:20 AM local time, North Korea sent a wire message warning South Korea not to conduct drills close to the border.

At 10 AM South Korea began conducting their military drill.

Hours later, at 2:34 PM local time, North Korea began shelling the town of Yeonpyeong and destroying anything it hit. A few of the artillery shells (like the one in the photo above) did not explode. North Korea stopped firing at 2:55, but resumed firing at 3:12 and doesn't stop until 3:41.

Since then many of the residents of the island have been evacuated, leaving only the military presence on the island and clean up crews sorting through the rubble. South Korea is now trying to determine when residents can return to their homes.



The 2nd Korean War?

For months now the USA and South Korea (and a few others) have been conducting military exercises in preparation for what they believe will be a combined invasion and nuclear attack from North Korea. The North is becoming desperate and the leadership from their frail and ill leader Kim Jong Il (and the handover of power to his 27 year old son Kim Jong-Un) is fraught with danger for the rest of the world.

#1. Kim Jong Il might decide to go out in a blaze of glory (or because of his illness, might allow his generals more control).

#2. His son Kim Jong-Un is a mere 27 years old, far too young to have his own arsenal of nuclear weapons. He was chosen to replace his father because his older brothers were considered to be too friendly towards foreigners and the military leadership wanted someone who absolutely hated the USA.

The more time North Korea has, the more nuclear missiles they will build. They've already determined they have enough missile power to reach Hawaii or Alaska from North Korea. Launching from a submarine or ship off the coast of the USA would drop the distance significantly.

For South Korea, Japan, China and the USA the issue is very complicated and dangerous.

South Korea is the hated rivals/family... there are many in South Korea who want a peaceful solution with North Korea and reunification.

Japan however is the hated enemies from centuries of conflict.

China is an ally, but one which has increasingly lost interest in North Korea in favour of its economic ally the USA, and thus could become a potential target if they are seen to be betraying North Korea to the USA and the South.

The USA is the hated and feared enemy, the one North Korea hates the most for a combination of racial, religious and ideological reasons.

Analysts say there is two ways this war could pan out...

#1. North Korea launches a sudden blitzkrieg invasion of South Korea, its military abandoning North Korea entirely and fighting guerrilla style in South Korea, combined with a volley of nuclear missiles directed at Seoul, Pusan, Tokyo, various military bases and American cities. The USA has missile interceptor ships currently standing by in the region, but the city of Seoul is mere a mere 30 km from the DMZ.

#2. A tit-for-tat war until South Korea/USA decides to launch a pre-emptive strike to try and remove North Korea's nuclear arsenal, a task most analysts see as impossible because they would not be able to remove all of North Korea's missiles at the same time.

Regardless, the end result would be a full scale nuclear war, something which hasn't happened yet and the whole world would be watching to see how the USA / Barack Obama handles such a problem.

According to an American scientist who visited North Korea's facilities on November 12th in a "disarmament for food aid" deal North Korea has thousands of centrifuges for enriching uranium. Their nuclear arsenal could already be in the hundreds. The facility was described as modern and very new, suggesting it is not the first but one of several such facilities.

Stanford University scientist Siegfried Hecker told U.S. officials he was “stunned” by the “sophistication” of the facility which was operated by “an ultra-modern control room.”

This game of brinkmanship however is difficult to estimate how it will unfold. Who will blink first? Who will get an itchy trigger finger?

South Korea’s population is very vulnerable to attacks from the North, over 50% of the South's population lives within 80 km of the DMZ.

We've been warning for years now that North Korea is deliberately escalating the threat they pose. The younger generation in the North is hungry for war and think it is a solution to their problems... worse, they actually think they can win.

Nobody wins in a war.

See Also
North Korea reacting to war games
North Korea's heir apparent
North Korean timeline towards Inevitable War
North Korea launches missile
North and South Korea on verge of open war

Currency War on the Horizon

POLITICS - What the heck is a currency war you are probably asking?

Well, essentially its when countries like China deliberately deflate their currency in an effort to boost their exports. In China's case their currency is pegged to the US dollar at a rate so low it means Chinese products are the cheapest in the world, and not just because China is so good at mass production. ANY country can do mass production, but its the question of whether they can outbid the competition in low prices that effects whether all their products actually get sold.

In reality the Chinese Yuan is estimated to be worth 2 to 3 times what it is currently trading at. Thus products from China cost about 50% to 66% cheaper than products made in the USA based on their currency alone.

In the United States manufacturing is dying. Factories are being closed and moved overseas, to places like China where the workers are cheap. It is so ridiculously bad that it is the biggest fundamental reason for the recent Great Recession. Ignore the bankers, ignore all the failed mortgages... the real reason the US economy collapsed is because of loss of manufacturing jobs and people could no longer afford those huge mortgages.

In response to the failing economy George W. Bush bailed out the banks with $700 billion USD (which ironically he borrowed from China).

When Barack Obama got into power in January 2009 in tried to stimulate the economy and create jobs by ordering public works projects, new roads, etc.

But both of these measures have been nothing more than bandaid solutions. They haven't solved the problem of America's manufacturing crisis and the economic cost of the high American dollar Vs the cheap Chinese Yuan.

The United States needs to pressure China to revalue its Yuan to a much higher value, so that the two countries are on stable and equal footing. However whenever China is pressured to revalue the Yuan they only do so gradually. Very gradually, because they don't want to hurt their exports and their own economy.

Which means the ONLY SOLUTION left is to raise trade tariffs with China and similar countries. An end to free trade with Asia.

In theory the USA could also print more money (a concept Germany used after World War I to disastrous effect). The U.S. Federal Reserve earlier this week announced plans to expand the basic money supply by $600 billion over the next eight months. They won't want to keep doing that too much, the effects could be destroy the US economy even more and cause massive inflation.

Which only reinforces the concept that either China needs to start raising the value of the Yuan, or the USA needs to raise tariffs against Chinese products (and other countries which are undercutting prices by not allowing their currencies to float on the free market).

The question now is: Now Barack Obama have the balls to fight back against China's unfair currency policies? Or does China effectively own the USA and the war is already lost and over?

Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner dedicates it to victims of Tiananmen Square

POLITICS - Imprisoned pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo has dedicated his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Liu has been imprisoned in China for XX years for promoting democracy in the Communist country.

Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo, was recently allowed to visit him in prison and said the following in a Twitter message:

“Brothers, I have returned,” she wrote. “Seen Xiaobo. The prison told him the news about his award on the night of the 9th.”

The Norwegian-based Nobel Peace Prize committee named Liu the winner on Friday, honouring Liu’s more than two decades of advocacy of human rights and peaceful democratic change, including demonstrations for democracy at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 and a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.


The Chinese government meanwhile refuses to admit the Tiananmen Square Massacre ever happened, and continues to face international ridicule for refusing to come clean about the events in June 1989 when it sent in the army and tanks to disperse a crowd in Tiananmen Square and ultimately killed 7,000 to 10,000 Chinese people.

Liu Xiaobo is currently serving an 11 year prison sentence. The 54-year-old literary critic is hardly a dangerous figure, but his advocacy of democracy and change in China is seen as a threat to China's ruling Communist party. His wife Liu Xia is currently under house arrest and has had her cellphone connection cut.

Liu’s wife has said she hopes to go to Norway to collect the Nobel medal and its prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.5 million) and then following her husband's wishes, she will attempt to distribute the funds to families of the Tiananmen Square Massacre victims. Its not a lot, about $150 to each of 10,000 families, but its a lot more than the Chinese government is willing to do.

Shanghai Ponzi Scheme

POLITICS - Investing in real estate in Shanghai China probably sounds like a good investment right? You couldn't be farther from the truth.

According to investigations into Shanghai's real estate market the city is chock full of business towers and condominiums that are sitting empty because there isn't enough people in Shanghai who can afford to live or work in those buildings.

So instead those buildings are just sitting empty, but the real estate developers who built them are just building more and more because there is no shortage of stupid investors who are giving them money. If anything there is too many stupid investors, hence why so many of the buildings are empty.

According to independent investigations by economists and reported by the CBC (see CBC's Doc Zone: MELTDOWN #4) approximately 40% to 50% of Shanghai's office space is sitting empty. Another 50 to 60% of Shanghai's condiminiums are also empty. They measured this by tracking electricity usage in the buildings during different hours of the day and determined that the majority of these buildings don't even bother to turn the lights on.

So there's no money coming in from people renting or buying these buildings, they're basically just taking up space and collecting dust.

But to keep investors happy the real estate developers in Shanghai just keep building more and more, taking money from stupid investors. They then use that money to pay off their other investors in one gigantic Ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look like an amateur.

When Shanghai's real estate bubble eventually collapses (and history suggests this is inevitable) everyone who invested in real estate there is going to lose their shirts (regardless of whether the company they invested with was legitimate or not, because the prices will collapse).

And Shanghai isn't the only city in the world doing this. Many cities in China, Dubai in the UEE and other cities around the globe have been this for over a decade now. They're all going to collapse eventually.

Anybody with money in these Ponzi real estate schemes, regardless of whether they're a stock broker or just a pensioner with a pension fund, is going to lose their shirts when the collapse happens.

This is proof that the only real estate people should be investing in is their own.

Kim Jong Un's first appearance

POLITICS - Kim Jong Un, the young man who is being groomed as the eventual leader of North Korea, made his first public appearance Thursday. The chubby young man looked a bit bewildered but serious was picked as his father's replacement to lead North Korea because of his hardline against the United States and the western world.

His father, Kim Jong Il, suffered a stroke in August 2008 and since appeared in public looking significantly thinner and is now believed to be dying of cancer. His believed-to-be-28-years-old son Kim Jong Un is the only person being groomed as a replacement.

The impoverished country of North Korea has been conducting nuclear and missile tests in recent years and has developed the technology to launch nuclear missiles as far as Hawaii or Alaska when fired from mainland North Korea.

As part of Kim Jong Un's grooming process he is now in charge of domestic affairs within North Korea while his father continues to handle foreign affairs.

Meanwhile South Korea is still fuming about the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel back in the Spring which was sunk by a North Korean torpedoe. The USA and South Korea have been staging war games in recent months to ready for a possible war against North Korea.

Kim Jong Un was recently promoted to a four star general in the North Korean People’s Army, but photos were not released until after the affirmation of North Korea's new political elites in the biggest meeting of NK's Communist Party members in 30 years.

His two older brothers, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chol, have fallen out of favour and were considered to be incompetent and/or too curious about western culture.

Kim Jong Il took over as North Korea’s leader in 1994 when his father (Kim Il Sung) died of heart failure in what became the first hereditary succession in the communist world. His son will be the third in succession to rule over North Korea with an iron fist (a somewhat chubby one).

Gold Rush in Mongolia

POLITICS - Ivanhoe Mines (a Canadian company) has discovered a vein of gold and copper in Mongolia that is over 1 km long, sparking a sharp increase in Ivanhoe's stock value, up 5.4% yesterday alone. The Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine in Mongolia has a lot more gold than originally predicted.

“There could be an awful lot more resource there than originally thought, and that’s providing a lot of excitement out there,” says John Hughes, a mining analyst at Desjardins Securities in Toronto.

Meanwhile gold itself is skyrocketing to new heights. Yesterday gold prices reached $1,308.30USD per ounce in New York, a new record high for gold.

Oyu Tolgoi already is one of the world’s largest deposits of gold and copper, the new km long vein shows that there is a lot more gold and copper than originally predicted. That combined with the new record prices for gold suggests the market for gold mining is going to be very strong in Mongolia for decades to come.

And this is good news for Canadian-owned Ivanhoe Mines (which owns 57%) and the Mongolia government (which owns 43%).

To extract the new vein of gold and copper a new drill hole will be done, but that is nothing new for the mine. So far the Oyu Tolgoi mining area already has 1,650 drill holes and have mined out 900 km of tunnels underground.

The new gold and copper vein is not just big, its also very high grade. They are getting 1.36 grams of gold per tonne and 0.34% copper. Some of the lower sections returned 10 grams per tonne. Its one of the highest gold grades ever drilled at Oyu Tolgoi.

“This is definitely rare,” says John Hughes. “There’s not much in the world that could compare to that kind of tonnage. It’s re-confirmation that there is a lot of material there to be mined...”

The area of gold vein has been named Heruga North. Heruga means “supreme happiness.”

Mining of the new vein will begin in 2012. The new mine is expected to cost $4.6 billion USD to build.

In the next decade Oyu Tolgoi is forecast to extract:
12 billion pounds of copper
6.5 million ounces of gold

Canadian Ivanhoe Mines also owns stakes in Mongolian coal mines, an 81% interest in Ivanhoe Australia, and a 50% stake in Altynalmas Gold Ltd. in Kazakhstan.

Dalai Lama visiting Toronto October 2010

CANADA/RELIGION - His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet is visiting Toronto in October and tickets to attend speeches, gatherings, etc are available. Some of the events are already sold out, but some organizations are selling/giving away tickets they snapped up in the rush. ie. Buddha Body Yoga has 10 tickets for sale.

Human Approaches to World Peace
Public Talk at the SkyDome with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama.

During the event His Holiness will share his personal outlook on how we may bring about peace not only on a personal level but at the community and world wide level.

Date - Friday, October 22nd.
Time - 2.00- 5.30pm
Location - The SkyDome (aka The Roger's Centre)
Cost - $42 (per ticket based on group rate)

Grand Inauguration Ceremony
Date - Saturday October 23, 2010
Time - 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location - Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre
Tickets - Invitation Only

Tibetan Community Audience
Date - Saturday October 23, 2010
Time - 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location - Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre
Tickets - $50.00

Can't afford a ticket? The TCCC is also accepting volunteers.

See also DalaiLamaToronto2010.org or you can follow on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Expect some tension between China and Canada

Harvesting Chicken Carcasses in China

HEALTH - The following series of 10 photographs may make you think twice about buying chicken at a restaurant when visiting China.

You see full grown chickens are actually pretty violent creatures. They will routinely attack and kill each other if they feel crowded, threatened or intimidated. (If you thought chickens were peaceful creatures you are dead wrong.) In a stuffy, crowded chicken pen this chicken-vs-chicken violence happens nightly and by morning there's often several dead chicken carcasses which need to be removed.

In North America chicken farmers usually throw out the carcasses because keeping them to be used for food would violate the health code (because the chicken could have been diseased or have something else wrong with it). But in China this throwing out of chicken carcasses isn't done... instead the chickens (regardless of how or why they died) are sold to men who collect the chickens, pluck them, soak them in a red dye and then sell them to restaurants or grocery stores.



















That red dye really makes the chickens look tasty, doesn't it? Its all very deceptive.



In November 2009 two Chinese men were sentenced to death for selling tainted milk. The milk was contaminated with melamine, which causes kidney failure and kidney stones. When added to watered-down milk it gives a false protein level which fools safety inspectors testing for protein levels.

China has a long history of food poisoning scandals and has been trying unsuccessfully to crack down on tainted food. The death penalty doesn't seem to be much of a discouragement and the Chinese government's corruption levels is such that local safety officials often turn a blind eye to unsafe food production.

Baby born on plane dumped in trash

HEALTH - Earlier today a security officer on Manila's airport tarmac in the Philippines noticed something moving in a bag of trash when it was unloaded from a plane and when he unwrapped it found a baby boy wrapped in tissue paper and covered in blood. A young woman had apparently given birth to the child in the plane's washroom and dumped it in the garbage.

The baby was turning blue already and would have died soon had the security officer not noticed the garbage bag moving. The garbage was from a commercial Gulf Air plane from Bahrain which had arrived Sunday night.

The 3 kg (6.6 lb) baby boy was taken to the airport clinic where doctors and nurses washed him, gave him a checkup and warmed him under a lightbulb. Staff donated money to buy him clothing and mittens to keep him warm and milk. His vitals are okay and staff have named him George Francis (due to Gulf Air's code name GF).

The baby has been turned over to social welfare and authorities are now tracking down the mother. Blood stains on a seat near the washroom were found and they are checking the airplanes manifest to determine who had been sitting there.

The mystery baby is believe to belong to a Filipino migrant female worker who had been working in the Middle East as a maid. In Dubai, Gulf Air has launched an internal investigation into the incident.

Doctors who tended the baby said he looked Filipino / Arabic. Approx. 1 in 10 Filipinos works abroad, usually as maids and labourers in the Middle East in an effort to escape crushing poverty and unemployment in the Philippines.

“If she’s a migrant worker, this speaks of the ordeal our overseas workers go through,” says Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman. If the family can't be found the child will be put up for adoption and the government is committed to having the baby boy receive “the very best care” she says.

Even trash can babies need love.

North Korea's heir apparent

POLITICS - Kim Jong Il, the Great Leader of North Korea, is dying and only North Korean doctors have any clue when the event might take place. In the meantime however Kim Jong Il is cementing the appointment of his youngest son to a key Workers Party position and making a big fuss about it within North Korean politics.

Like his father before him Kim Jong Il can trust no one else to take over after he dies. The family dynasty will live on, carrying the burden and privileges of leading a country with one of the worst economies (largely due to shortages and isolation) in the world. His youngest son Kim Jong-un has been toted as the likely successor ever since the oldest son was caught trying to sneak into Japan to visit Tokyo Disneyland on a fake passport.

The meeting to annoint his son in the prominent position will be the first major party gathering since the 1980 congress where Kim Jong Il was confirmed as the man who would take over from his father as dictator.

Kim Jong Il is currently 68 and after suffering a stroke in August 2008 and having a series of health problems in recent years isn't expected to live much longer. He is much thinner and has lost significant hair in the last 2 years, appearing to have aged suddenly and lost the chubbiness in his cheeks.

North Korea's 24 million people have been enduring a recent propaganda campaign promoting the succession of his son, everything from songs and poems praising the youngest son of the Kim family and even trying to use North Korea's soccer team at the South African World Cup in an effort to boost support for the young heir apparent.

In the biggest political gathering in 30 years North Korea's delegates from the ruling Workers Party will pledge loyalty to the young Kim Jong-un who is a mere 28 years old and soon to be in command of one of the largest armies in Asia (horribly equipped however) and an arsenal of nuclear missiles.

Meanwhile Kim Jong Il in August made his second trip to China in 2010 in an effort to win the endorsement of his closest ally for the power transfer, beg for more supplies and food and get needed medical treatment.

Smoking 2-year-old kicks the habit

HEALTH - Ardi Rizal, a 2-year-old toddler in Indonesia has kicked his two packs-a-day smoking habit. His parents, concerned not out of health but because it was costing them $4 per day to support his cigarette addiction.

To kick the habit the 2-year-old spent a month in a rehab program run by Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection plus a team of psychologists and doctors. While in rehab they worked to switch his addiction from cigarettes to playing with other children.

Ardi’s parents say he threw tantrums and hurt himself if he wasn’t allowed to smoke. His substance dependence first began when he started smoking when he was 18 months.

One-third of the population in Indonesia smokes. Activists against the rampant smoking of children argue its effectively genocide. The number of children that smoke in Indonesia is difficult to track but its estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Anti-smoking laws in Indonesia are non-existent and there has been horrible delays getting legislation passed in the country. Anti-smoking activists claim key government administrators have been bribed by the tobacco industry.

See Also
Smoking in Canada
Canada's Smoking Laws
Smokeless Cigarettes
Smoking Bans Working in Toronto