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Besides, Dyson added in a humorous aside, a post-racial society would lose black icons. “You want to give up Stevie Wonder? That would make Stevie Wonder Frank Sinatra!”

Jackson urged the audience to pay close attention to whether federal anti-recession stimulus funds help community banks and small businesses in black neighborhoods, not just mega-sized financial conglomerates. “Will the money get down to the bottom?” he asked, from a platform that was decorated with symbols of the convention’s corporate sponsors, including Wells Fargo and ExxonMobil.

Most of the audience members were Democrats enthusiastic about Obama, who sent a videotaped greeting to the convention. Yet Steele, the first African American elected as GOP national chairman, said he did not think twice about presenting Republican concerns about deficits and jobs. “This is not a hostile engagement for me at all. This is a chance for me to share a different perspective that exists in the black community,” said Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Among the attendees was Daudi Blackwood, an actor from Hollywood, who wanted to focus on issues “that concern the black culture and how that relates to society.” He too said Obama’s election was a happy but also challenging moment. “It means now that there are no more excuses. If an African American man can become president, that kind of lets other people know that they don’t have limits now” in pursuing career and other goals, he said.

Miriam Quates-Jackson of West Los Angeles, who works in accounting, brought her 5-year-old son, Jonathan, to the convention. She wanted him “to experience the positiveness in the black community. That’s very important to me,” she said.

larry.gordon@latimes.com
(latimes.com)

When the Civil War ended, 21 African- American Soldiers wore the Medal of Honor. Blacks have earned our nation’s highest honor in every war since then, except, strangely, during World War II. More than a million blacks served in that conflict and many bravely died in it, yet not one received any of its 433 Medals of Honor.

Finally, on Jan. 13, 1997, a wrong was addressed as seven black heroes joined those ranks. Our state proudly associates with one of them, a California native, the late Army Staff Sgt. Edward Allen Carter Jr. His is a story of a true military man with more than his share of tribulations. Today, the California State Military Museum celebrates his victory over all challenges except that of being physically here to receive our thanks.

A career Army noncommissioned officer, Carter was born May 26, 1916 in Los Angeles, Calif. He was the son of missionary parents who went to the Far East and finally settled in Shanghai, China. Edward ran away from this home when he was a young teen to begin a military odyssey. However, it was not to be an ordinary journey as his material and spiritual paths intertwined.

His first tour was short-lived, yet not too short to prevent the 15-year-old Carter from rising to the rank of lieutenant in the Chinese Army. When he was discovered to still be a child, he was promptly discharged and returned to his parents. It was also long enough for Carter to believe he was visited by a spirit in the Chinese Army, which informed him would be a great warrior, but would not die in war. Now having a spiritual military destiny, as soon as he was old enough, Carter enrolled in a Shanghai military school. There he received extensive combat training and learned at least four languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and German.

Next he fought in the Spanish Civil War as a corporal in the socialist Abraham Lincoln Brigade. It was an American volunteer unit opposing Gen. Franco’s fascist troops. In 1938, they were forced to flee into France. This led to his return to the United States.

Here he met and married his wife Mildred in Los Angeles in 1940. It wasn’t long, though, before destiny called again. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Sept. 6, 1941, shortly before World War II, and quickly rose to staff sergeant. In 1942, just months after he enlisted, the Army opened a counterintelligence file with his name on it.

On May 18, 1943, an unidentified intelligence officer at Fort Benning, Ga. “deemed it advisable” to put Sergeant Carter under surveillance and start an investigation. The officer did so because Carter had been a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Allegedly, “while not necessarily communist,” he had been “exposed to communism.”

The report further alleged “Subject… capable of having connections with subversive activities due to… early years [until 1938] in the Orient” and had a speaking knowledge of Chinese. Every commander Carter had thereafter secretly reported what he read, where he went and what clubs he joined.

In 1944 he was shipped to Europe and ended up assigned to supply duties. When Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ran short of combat-arms replacements in December 1944, he instituted the volunteer Ground Force Replacement Command for rear-echelon Soldiers of all races. By February 1945, a total of 4,562 black Soldiers were serving in units up to company size attached to previously all-white infantry and armored divisions.

At the height of his career he was even close to Gen. George S. Patton, serving as one of the general’s guards. Patton had no room for prejudice in the ranks. They had a strong bond with the fact they both believed they had been visited by a spirit who foretold accomplishments on the battlefield.

After months of volunteering, Carter’s platoon made it into combat, yet he had to accept demotion to private. This was because his superiors would not allow a black to command white troops. He eventually served in the “Mystery Division” of blacks in Patton’s Third Army. (The Mystery Division performed missions requiring uniforms without identifying unit insignia.)

On March 23, 1945, Private Carter earned his Medal of Honor, was recommended, but received the nation’s second highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross because of his race.

After recovering from his wounds in less than a month, he was restored to his staff sergeant rank and finished the war training troops.

At this point in his career, he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal, Combat Infantry Badge and numerous other citations and honors.

(In 1946, Secretary of War Robert Patterson noted an irregularity in the lack of black recognition and promised to investigate.)

The war over, Carter found himself stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., and politely known as a Negro or colored. A lot of the battlefield camaraderie had faded, however, as black soldiers were becoming increasingly common and were blending into the ranks.

When Carter attempted to re-enlist, his “suspect” background apparently became an issue and the Army barred his enlistment and discharged him without explanation on Sept. 30, 1949. He received an honorable discharge dated October 1949, probably the darkest “honor” of his life.

He moved into a life as a family man and steadily worked in the vehicle tire business the rest of his life. In 1962, although he smoked, he and his doctors attributed the discovery of lung cancer to shrapnel still in his neck. He died peacefully of lung cancer in the UCLA Medical Center, a Los Angeles hospital, on Jan. 30, 1963, at 47 years of age.

Carter was laid to rest in the National Cemetery on the grounds of the Veterans Hospital in West Los Angeles near where he died. His remains have since been moved to Arlington National Cemetery.

***********
In 1992, Secretary of the Army John Shannon commissioned an independent study to identify unrecognized African-American heroes from World War II. In May 1996, the study was completed under the title, The Exclusion of Black Soldiers from the Medal of Honor in World War II. Staff Sergeant Edward Allen Carter Jr. of Los Angeles, Calif., was identified and recommended for honors. On Jan. 10, 1997, Carter was exhumed and honored the next day in Los Angeles. On Jan. 13, President Clinton presented Carter’s posthumous Medal of Honor to his son, Edward Allen Carter III, in Washington, D.C.

(army.mi)

While the market for job-seekers in the United States might be sour, for most it isn’t as impenetrable as it is for the nearly 3,000 former members of the Bush administration.

Between 70-75 percent who are looking for full-time work still haven’t found new jobs, according to a Saturday report by the Wall St. Journal.

“That ‘is much, much worse’ than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House,” Carlos M. Gutierrez, who served as Bush’s commerce secretary, told the paper.

For many, the traditional refuge of conservative think tanks in Washington, D.C. has become a Fort Knox, with almost no positions available, and certainly not for lower-rung Bush officials.

The think tanks “lack interest in hiring high-profile Republicans when Democrats control the White House and Congress,” said the Journal. “Mr. Bush’s low approval ratings at the end of his term don’t help, said Leonard Pfeiffer IV, a Washington recruiter for nonprofits.”

In the US at-large, 6.54 million are receiving unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.

“A handful of Bush cabinet officers have accepted academic appointments,” reported the paper. “Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson joined Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies as a fellow. Condoleezza Rice, previously secretary of state, resumed her Stanford University roles as a political-science professor and senior fellow at its Hoover

(rawstory.com)

No matter how many times I see pictures like the one above hit the Japanese media, it seems like “some” people here still don’t get it! Previously there was uproar over the Tokyo Metropolitan Government discriminatory depictions of blacks in their Earthquake Pamphlet, corporations using racist language and imagery in advertising and of course a few music groups using blackface during their performances. I guess with the current Obama boom in Japan, some of these soccer players need a  swift kick in the balls to reach the goal of having a clue! Oops! I meant no offense, it was done in jest. By the way Nissan, next time be sure to check the oil!

Japan Probe writes: “Dan writes to let us know about a shocking encounter at an event for Japanese soccer fans:

On January 31st, the J.League Division 1 team Yokohama F. Marinos held “Tricolore Festa”, a party for its supporters. Events included speeches, meet-and-greets, open practices, and skits performed by the
plays to the amusement of all.

http://www.f-marinos.com/tools/page_store/news_3187.html

I’ll, um, let you scroll down to the bottom and figure out what’s wrong with this picture.

A Gosperats impression, or some other form of African imitation?

Those who wish to complaint can do so by contacting the e-mail address on their site.”

(http://www.blacktokyo.com)

There’s a lot to love about being single. You save money on Valentine’s Day gifts, you get to meet new and interesting people and sometimes you even get to have sex with them.

But it’s not all knocking boots and freedom. There are some aspects of single life that might, in fact, be seen as less than desirable. And then there are these five facts that will make you wish you got married in high school …

Single People Tell Themselves:

Of course my married co-workers take home a little more scratch than me! They tend to be older and lamer, and most corporate pay-scales are directly tied to how old and lame you are.

“We deserve more money, because we’re so close to death.”

The Truth:

You’ve got one part right: Your married co-workers take home more money. Just how much you’re getting cornholed depends on who you ask, but a recent study pegged it at about 27 percent.

But it’s not just age. The above study was based on identical twins where the bachelor was just as educated as his married dopelganger. In fact, even if you and a married man do the same job at the same level of competence for the same number of years, the guy with the ring takes home more than you.

“And I don’t even like my wife, you chump!“

There are a couple of possible explanations for this and, contrary to what you might want to believe, none of them involve your boss being jealous of your electrifying sex life. The explanation married guys are most likely to cite is a little old fashioned elbow grease. It’s hard not to hustle when the option behind door number two is “let your wife and kids starve to death.” Meanwhile, single guys are more likely to take a sick day to sleep off an especially bad hangover, or quit a great job because the nachos in the cafeteria suck.

And even if your married co-worker is the slap dick and you’re the responsible one, the perception still may not change. From your boss’s perspective, that guy’s money is going toward feeding his kids. Yours could be going toward any number of elicit activities he’s vaguely aware of. One of those sex parties he’s seen on those HBO documentaries, perhaps.

Single People Tell Themselves:

In an unprecedented act of kindness, American corporations decided their employees were working too hard and began enforcing something called “work/life balance.” Of course they had their selfish reasons. A happier employee will do better work, and get sick less. But who cares? Less work means more time for us single folk to go out and have indiscriminate sex with one another, right?

The Truth:

If you’re single, work/life balance is yet another way for the world to punish you for being unloved. One way the “balance” is enforced is the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives any employee the right to take time off if a spouse, child or parent gets sick.

But what if you’re struggling to save up enough money for a ring for your girlfriend of seven years when she gets hit by a bus? According to work/life balance, you’d better have some vacation time saved up. Otherwise, you’re just going to have to learn to weep a little quieter, because you’re sort of bumming out the rest of the folks in Accounts Receivable.

Take it outside.

There’s also the unofficial considerations. Married employees simply have more legitimate excuses to ask for time off: a kid’s birthday party, an anniversary dinner, Christmas. Yes, single people are more likely to be asked to work on holidays. The logic goes: You’re single, you don’t have a wife or kids, what could you possibly have to do? It doesn’t matter if you were planning to spend the day delivering presents to sick children. Someone’s got to pick up the slack for the married guy who keeps taking time off to attend his daughter’s dance recital.

“Dance Recital.”

But don’t worry too much about vacation time. Thanks to something called per person double occupancy (PPDO), you wouldn’t be able to go on good vacations anyways. Essentially, hotels, cruise lines, pretty much anything that isn’t a plane or a train, is designed and priced for couples. The travel industry wants as many people as possible roaming the streets in a capitalist frenzy. The more people they can pack into a hotel or a cruise ship, the happier they are. If that means punishing you for being unloved, so be it. Maybe you’ll learn not to be so lonely next time.

Single People Tell Themselves:

The tax code has something called the “marriage penalty,” which is supposed to make married couples pay more. See? Uncle Sam remembers what it was like to be a squirrel trying to get a nut.

The Truth:

Actually, 51 percent of married couples get a tax bonus, and it can be up to $1300 a freaking year. Just enough for your co-worker to take his wife on that Hawaiian vacation while you do all his work.

The benefit comes if there’s an income disparity; i.e. one partner is making more than the other. If they’re pulling in the mad bucks and their spouse is working a part time job, or just a full-time job that sucks, they wind up paying less. You’re stuck with the full tab.

To add a little salt to the hemorrhaging wound in your bank account, married couples can choose to file jointly or separately. So they have plenty of wiggle room to get the lowest taxes possible. So basically, instead of getting a tax break, you’re doing the equivalent of buying another wedding gift for all the happily married couples you know every April 14th.

You paid for that wine. And that mustache.

And if you think the government’s a dick to private citizens around tax time, you should try fighting wars for them. You might expect the military to pay people who get shot at pretty well, regardless of whether or not they’re married. But in fact, a soldier with a ring on their finger is entitled to an extra $250 a month based on a piece of legislation left over from WWI called Family Separation Allowance. They also get an increased housing allowance, which is untaxed money. So basically, married soldiers get bigger houses and enough money to install a jacuzzi in the backyard. But hey, at least you single folks get to play the field in Iraq.

Above: The field in Iraq.

(http://www.cracked.com)

February is Black/African American History Month and the Census Bureau has again provided us with an historical summary and a few noteworthy statistics for this occasion:

To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation’s bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Each year, U. S. presidents proclaim February as National African-American History Month.

40.7 million
As of July 1, 2007, the estimated population of black residents in the United States, including those of more than one race. They made up 13.5 percent of the total U.S. population.

65.7 million
The projected black population of the United States (including those of more than one race) for July 1, 2050. On that date, according to the projection, blacks would constitute 15 percent of the nation’s total population.

38%
Percentage of Mississippi’s population that is black, highest of any state. Blacks also make up more than a quarter of the population in Louisiana (32%), Georgia (31%), Maryland (30%), South Carolina (29%) and Alabama (27%). They comprise 56% of the population in the District of Columbia.

2.4 million
Number of single-race black military veterans in the United States in 2007. More military veterans are black than any other minority group.

19%
Percentage of single-race blacks 25 and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007.

1.2 million
Among single-race blacks 25 and older, the number who had an advanced degree in 2007 (e.g., master’s, doctorate, medical or law). In 1997, 717,000 blacks had this level of education.

$88.6 billion
Revenues for black-owned businesses in 2002. The number of black-owned businesses totaled nearly 1.2 million in 2002. Black-owned firms accounted for 5 percent of all non-farm businesses in the United States.

$33,916
The annual median income of single-race black households in 2007, up from $32,876 (in 2007 constant dollars) in 2006.

24.5%
Poverty rate in 2007 for single-race blacks, statistically unchanged from 2006.

64.5%
Percentage of families among households with a single-race black householder. There were 8.5 million black family households.

46%
Nationally, the percentage of households with a householder who is single-race black who lived in owner-occupied homes. The rate was higher in certain states, such as Mississippi, where it reached 59%.

27%
The percentage of single-race blacks 16 and older who work in management, professional and related occupations. There are 49,730 black physicians and surgeons, 70,620 postsecondary teachers, 49,050 lawyers, and 57,720 chief executives.

(http://contexts.org)

President Bush was given an Iraqi-journalist-style sendoff on his last full day in office Monday, as tourists and demonstrators lobbed shoes, pumps, boots, sandals and Crocs from Pennsylvania Avenue onto the White House lawn.

Before launching the operation live, the shoe-chuckers took target practice in Dupont Circle on a 20-foot-tall blow up doll of the outgoing president, decked out in the flight suit he wore aboard the “Mission Accomplished” aircraft carrier.

Unlike Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who inspired the protest, none of the shoe-throwers in the group were arrested. (Later that day, reports NBC, one man was arrested for chucking a shoe at the White House.)

Marching down Connecticut Avenue with handfuls of footwear, the group of about a hundred was on the receiving end of enthusiastic honks, thumbs-up and waves from people in the street.

The reception was almost as warm from the people guarding the White House.

“Don’t hit me!” one officer behind the White House fence joked as shoes rained around him.

Tracey Primavera, a shoe-lobber from Provincetown, Massachusetts, shouted at the guard that she had a pump that would look nice on him.

“I tried that. It didn’t look good on me,” yelled back the officer. Primavera tossed him the pump anyway.

Tourists on Pennsylvania Avenue picked up shoes and lobbed them at the White House as well. “A lot of random people joined in,” noted one organizer, David Swanson. “Everybody wanted to be photographed with an “Arrest Bush” sign.

The tourists also joined a spontaneous chorus that formed. On the night of the election, thousands of people swarmed the White House and sang the old sports classic, “Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye.” The song made a reappearance Monday, as did a number of tunes apparently written for the occasion, with lyrics such as “Hang down your head, George Bush/Hang down your head in shame,” and “Take him to the Hague” — the latter sung to the tune of “Working on the Railroad.”

The target practice on the giant Bush doll began around 11:00 in the morning and was still going five hours later, as thousands of people walking through the circle stopped to pick up a shoe and wing it at the outgoing president. Some threw fastballs like al-Zaidi. Others tied several together in an attempt to land them on Bush’s long Pinocchio-esque nose. Children took part. (”Okay. One more shoe, kids,” said one parent.) Some folks simply walked up to the doll and kicked it in the shins. It fell over at one point and people rushed it, beating it with shoes.

Still others, like al-Zaidi, missed.

“Ah! I missed!” yelled Sharon Kerr, in town from Austin, Texas, after chucking wide of her presidential mark. She said that she felt a little like the Iraqi reporter for missing. But she noted in his defense, “He had people blocking him.”

Kerr began to leave the circle but stopped. “I’m gonna go one more time. I’m gonna nail him this time,” she said before winding up and striking him cleanly in the belt.

Cheryl Upshaw, in from Atlanta and sporting a full-length fur coat, hit the Bush doll high on the shoulder. “I was really trying to aim for his heart,” said Upshaw, a registered nurse who owns a home healthcare agency. The throw was cathartic, she said, and it seemed to relieve some of her anger.

“It’s not that I hate him,” she clarified. “I don’t hate him personally. I hate what he has done to this country.”

Medea Benjamin, a cofounder of the antiwar group CODEPINK, said the protest was a way to “get the Bush era out of your intestines.”

“I was a little reluctant because I want to be in a positive mood,” she said. “I don’t want to be seen as doing something violent. The shoe-throwing is borderline, but the intent is to insult, not to hurt. There’s a fine line.”

Once all the shoes had been tossed onto the White House lawn, the officers collected them and piled them into the back of a small truck. “The next person who throws them gets arrested,” said one, though the entire pile had already been thrown.

As the protesters headed back toward Dupont Circle, a Secret Service agent left them with a parting observation.

“You all won,” he said.

(Photo credit: James Sappington)

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Despite a bleak economic environment featuring wide-ranging layoffs and rising unemployment, the nation’s premier law enforcement agency is touting “one of the largest hiring blitzes in our 100-year history.”

The FBI is about to embark on its biggest hiring spree since immediately after the September 11, 2001.

The FBI posted openings for 850 special agents and more than 2,100 professional support personnel. Officials say it’s the largest FBI job posting since immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI’s unexpectedly large number of job openings results more from attrition and a wave of retirements than from growing government appropriations, Bureau officials told CNN.

The FBI routinely advertises openings for individuals with critical skills in computer science and language fluency. But John Raucci, assistant director of the FBI’s Human Resources Division, says current needs are much more wide-ranging.

“We’re also looking for professionals in a wide variety of fields who have a deep desire to help protect our nation from terrorists, spies and others who wish us harm,” Raucci said.

The lengthy list of openings includes positions in finance and accounting, security, intelligence analysis, training and education, nursing and counseling, physical surveillance, electrical engineering, physical and social sciences, and auto mechanics.

Procedures for applying and a full listing of available positions are posted on the Web site fbijobs.gov.

“This is a great time to apply for a great job in the FBI,” said the bureau’s chief spokesman, Richard Kolko.

Officials note at least a few jobs are currently available in every one of the FBI’s 56 field offices across the nation.

The FBI lists openings throughout the year, but seldom has anything close to the current number of available positions.

The present job postings expire on January 16, but a new, possibly smaller set of openings will be posted shortly thereafter, the agency said.

(http://www.cnn.com)

Two thousand eight has been a year of global crises. All are interlinked and all are a severe threat to international stability.

The fuel crisis earlier this year caused prices for oil and petroleum to rocket. The food crisis, triggered by a combination of climatic shocks (mainly droughts) and local food inflation, has driven millions of people into poverty and famine.

And, most recently, the financial crisis hit global economies, prompting world leaders to pour more than €2,000 billion into their banks to stabilize the international financial system. Strangely enough, the very same countries are now having difficulties in sticking to their donor commitments and raising €100 billion a year for development aid.

Take a closer look at the figures involved: the US mobilised close to a trillion dollars in guarantees and bailout funds, and the UK rescue package is at least £400 billion. By comparison, it is estimated that we could eradicate world poverty for over two years with €700 billion of development aid.

Many of the most vulnerable countries are strongly dependent on official development assistance (ODA), but predictions foresee a slowdown of up to 30 percent in development assistance due to the economic crisis. In 2007, ODA amounted to $117.5 billion, with half coming from the European Union and its 27 member-states, making it the largest ODA provider by some measure. But despite being a donor leader, in the same year the EU found it increasingly hard to respect its commitment, experiencing a slight downward trend in development aid.

The financial crisis came at a moment when developing countries were already desperately battling to contain food shortages and high fuel prices. Hunger riots in Haiti, the Ivory Coast and Cameroon in early 2008 are testament to the fact that extreme poverty and famine catalyze distress and violence. The worldwide distribution of financial resources has never before been as unequal, with 10 percent of the global population currently holding more than 80 percent of the wealth, while the poorest half has just 1 percent or 2 percent.

Though the economic crisis began in the world’s richest country, its spillover effects will be most tangible in the developing world. Besides cuts in foreign-aid investment, the credit crunch will have major effects on remittances. In countries such as Zimbabwe and Somalia, money sent by relatives working abroad is a lifeline for millions of people, and often their only source of livelihood.

The economic recession has highlighted once again that our current financial architecture is fragile and no longer meets today’s demands. International calls for restructuring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are certainly overdue. However, such reforms must be implemented with particular care and caution so that sustainable economic growth and shared prosperity are guaranteed.

The voting shares within the IMF basically reflect the socioeconomic imbalances in the world. Emerging countries do not have much influence within the IMF and, consequently, can hardly steer the decision-making process.

As an illustration of this, more votes are accorded to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands than to Brazil, China and India. Given the major role the IMF plays in the developing world, a redistribution of voting shares is inevitable. At the recent G-20 summit, the only African country offered a seat at the table was South Africa. This must change. I strongly believe the African Union must be adequately represented, so that they are able to speak on behalf of millions of people.

Trade liberation is another vital factor in increasing economic growth and sustainability in developing countries, which, at the same time, can have a positive impact on regional integration, as well as governance. In this respect, it is of paramount importance to conclude the ongoing Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organization, taking into consideration the different interests and needs of developing countries.

Against this backdrop, one should also think of new sources for financing development aid. Just one example is the long-discussed Tobin tax, a tax levied at each exchange of a currency. This should be the starting point of a debate to find solutions to find the “ways and means” for additional funding for urgent international needs which are independent from donations.

The financial crisis has been a shock for world economies, but it can also be the spark to illuminate new ideas and thinking for development policy. As much damage as this crisis may have caused the world, it gives us a unique historical opportunity to create a system that reflects much better the needs of developing countries. Once put in place, globalization and capitalism can again function as instruments of freedom and emancipation for sustainable and shared prosperity.

Louis Michel is the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

(http://businessmirror.com.ph)

WE are resolved as an administration, not resort to quick methods and short-cuts in approaching fundamental problems which require methodical and sustainable solutions.—President Yar’Adua on independence anniversary

When things go well, people call me Gordon. When they’re bad, they call me Mr Brown. At the moment, they are calling me Gordon. — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

It’s hard to tell where the floor will be. — Peter Spencer, economics professor at University of York, as sterling slumps to record low against euro.

While we’re still the US sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you. — General Motors, in full-page ad in ‘Automotive News’.

Mr president-elect, I’m proud to join you in what will be a difficult and exciting adventure. — Hillary Clinton agrees to serve as Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet. — Barack Obama.

Money can be a burden. That’s why I got stressed last year. I had a massive house that I couldn’t control or clean. — Carly Zucker, 24, girlfriend of Chelsea soccer player Joe Cole, on ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’

He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who now decides to double up by betting the house as well. — London Mayor Boris Johnson on UK PM Gordon Brown.

I can’t go to my old barber shop now. I’ve gotta have my barber come to some undisclosed location to cut my hair. — US President-elect on adjusting to his and his family’s new reality and the “certain lonliness to the job” of president.

Will I be able to have children? — Hitler’s first question to the doctor who saved his life after a groin injury in the WWI Battle of the Somme. A recently discovered manuscript of a conversation between the doctor and Hitler’s priest confirmed the rumor that Hitler lost a testicle in the fight.

I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world. — Barack Obama.

I haven’t been doing enough exercise. I have let things slide— Camilla, Dutchess of Cornwall, reveals she has let herself go since getting married to Princes Charles.

It will never work with all those Huns, wops and dagos.— Britain’s Queen Mother on the EU, quoted by BBC man Edward Stourton in his book ‘It’s a PC World’.

I’ve been sleeping like a baby: sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours, wake up and cry. — John McCain, asked how he was doing by Jay Leno on ‘The Tonight Show’, in first interview after his defeat in US presidential election.

I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is. — Sarah Palin, hoping God will show her the door to the White House in 2012.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. — Barack Obama, in victory speech in US presidential election in home state of Chicago, November 4, 2008.

Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place. — Nelson Mandela, former South African president, in letter to Barack Obama on being elected the 44th President of the United States.

Unbelievable! Obama’s coming - make way!” — Mwai Kibaki, Kenyan president, on Barack Obama’s election win, which led Kibaki to declare a national holiday on the Thursday in honor of the President-elect.

I don’t know if I will die of happiness.— Sarah Obama, celebrating her grandson’s victory in the US presidential election, from her home in the village of Kogelo, Kenya.

If some people don’t have a sense of humor, then it’s their problem. — Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, after being criticized for commenting that president-elect Barack Obama would work well with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev because Obama is “young, handsome and sun-tanned”.

We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsumani. Central banks and governments are being required to take unprecedented measures. Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity are in a state of shocked disbelief. — Former US Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, on global financial meltdown.

Not since the first world war has our banking system been so close to collapse. The long march to boredom and stability starts tonight. — Mervyn King, governor of Bank of England, saying people face a long journey through recession.

I ain’t got time to die. — Ann Nixon Cooper, 106, of Atlanta, Georgia, on living through the years when African-Americans and women couldn’t vote to now, a time where Barack Obama is running for president.

Your company is now bankrupt, our economy is now in a state of crisis, but you get to keep $480 million. I have a very basic question for you: Is this fair? — Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, questioning Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld over the bank’s collapse.

Nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture. — Pope Benedict XVI, criticizing modern life and greed at a meeting of bishops in Rome on Oct. 5.

The reality is we’re in an urgent situation and the consequences will get bigger each day we do not act. — US President George Bush, on efforts to resurrect the $700 billion financial rescue package.

He’ll be up there with Churchill. — Cherie Blair on how history will judge her husband and former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Don’t blow it up. — US treasury secretary Henry Paulson on bended knee, to Democratic Party House speaker Nancy Pelosi, pleading for her to back $700bn Wall Street bailout.

I have signed this agreement because my belief in Zimbabwe and its peoples runs deeper than the scars I bear from the struggle … and because my hope for the future is greater than the grief for the needless suffering of the past years. We deserve a better life; a life without fear, hunger, poverty and oppression. — Morgan Tsvangirai, the incoming prime minister of Zimbabwe.

You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig. — US presidential candidate Barack Obama in what sounded like an attack on Republican vice-president nominee Sarah Palin.

No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be president.— Hillary Clinton backs Obama at convention.

In international relations, you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others. — Russian president Dmitri Medvedev on recognizing independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions, saying the West set a precedent by treating Kosovo the same way.

I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes. — Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in his resignation speech.

If they knew the plane was faulty, why did they let it fly? — A relative of one of the 153 passengers killed in the Spanair crash at Madrid airport.

Eat, sleep and swim. That’s all I can do. — Olympic champion Michael Phelps explains the secret of his success, a lot of eggs in a 12,000 calories a day diet.

This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed. — Condoleezza Rice on military clashes between Russia and Georgia.

That wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which means I’m running for President. So thanks for the endorsement white-haired dude, and I want America to know I’m, like, totally ready to lead. — Paris Hilton lampoons a John McCain US presidential campaign video using her image.

I respected him, and he respected me. — Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, tells a military court he never suspected bin Laden was involved in terrorism until after the 9/11 attacks.

It is now unimaginable to many people that this court could acquit me. I believe that this fact seriously jeopardises the trial itself. — On trial at UN war crimes tribunal, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he is victim of media witchhunt.

Sugar is responsible for a lot of deaths. Arguably more than crack cocaine. — Guy Ritchie, who is married to Madonna.

Wall Street got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. And the question is how long will it sober up and not try to do those fancy financial instruments? — US president George Bush ponders America’s financial services meltdown.

Thank God my brother is alive and healthy. He has lost weight but he is normal and reasonable. He knows whether or not he is guilty. — Luka Karadzic, brother of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, arrested for war crimes.

Too often (the Church) is weighted down and burdened with the sins and failings of her children; too often she appears disfigured and discouraged. — Pope Benedict XVI.

Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises.— Pope Benedict XVI on the perils of materialism.

Many things that happened in the jungle we have to leave in the jungle.— Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, refuses to discuss certain details about her six years of captivity in jungles of Colombia.

If I see something sagging, bagging and dragging, I’m going to nip it, tuck it and suck it.— Dolly Parton reveals her anti-aging procedure.

What is so special is that you spend 27 years in prison, you come out and you do the thing that everyone thought was impossible to do, become president of the nation and change the way people feel agbhout Africa. — Oprah Winfrey to Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday.

We have seen the outbreak of violence against fellow Africans in our own country and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe. — Nelson Mandela speaks out against Robert Mugabe.

We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint fight with a gun? — Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe hints he will cling to power, whatever the outcome of the election for president.:
I think that, in retrospect, I could have used a different rhetoric. Phrases such as ‘bring them on’ or ‘dead or alive’ indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace. — US President George W Bush regrets being so hawkish over Iraq.

He didn’t like the nose.— Courtroom sketch artist Janet Hamlin on the response of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, after he saw a sketch of himself.

This may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind. — Bill Clinton, husband of US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, on the eve of what political pundits anticipate to be her withdrawal from the Democratic campaign.

The so-called international misers theory is totally unfounded. — China’s commerce minister Chen Deming, refuting Chinese netizens’ claim that multinational corporations such as Nokia and McDonald’s donated little to help Sichuan earthquake victims. According to Chinese Internet portal Sina.com, corporations have donated or pledged more than $1 billion.

Those 20 envelopes won’t shake up German democracy. — Spokesman for Deutsche Post after stamps depicting Nazi leader Rudolf Hess are accidentally issued.

I wish for the recovery of my daughter Kerstin, the love of my children, the protection of my family and for people with heart and compassion. — Elisabeth Fritzl, the Austrian woman kept as a sex slave by her father for 24 years thanks people for their support in a handwritten message on a notice board in the square of her home town.

We have lit the torch on top of the world.— Climber on Chinese mountaineering team that took Olympic flame to top Mount Everest.

I am not a monster. I could have killed them all, and no one would have known. — Josef Fritzl, 73, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with daughter he imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years.

Every US President has to have a war.— Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president, claiming the US military buildup risks leading to a new cold war with Russia.

Some of the comments that Rev Wright has made offend me, and I understand why they offend the American people. He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the American people. — Barack Obama on his old pastor.

My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers. Its influence grew, infiltrating schools and civil bodies as well as politics and even religion, before it was recognized for the monster it was.— Pope Benedict XVI on Nazism, speaking to seminarians and young people at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, during his first papal visit to the US.

In the US and Europe over the last year we’ve been focused on the prices of gasoline at the pump. While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day. — IMF chief Robert Zoellick.

Sometimes I think that when people become famous, there’s a public perception that they are not human beings any more. — Writer Salmon Rushdie.

The evidence provided no basis whatsoever in suggesting that (Prince Philip) was involved in killing his daughter-in-law. One of the regrettable features of this case is the number of people who have told lies in the witness box or elsewhere. — Lord Justice Scott Baker, presiding at the Princess Diana Inquest.

I do not think that is any of your business. — Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Hillary Clinton, asked if her mother’s credibility was damaged during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Within me, there is a charitable disposition.— President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe denies he is a tyrant.

They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything. — The Dalai Lama invites Chinese authorities to investigate whether he was behind the rioting in Tibet.

They say fags and booze are bad for you - but I’m still here.— Britain’s oldest employee Buster Martin, aged 101, after running a half marathon.

(http://www.vanguardngr.com)

The Chinese government announced that 7,148 companies closed down in Guangdong Province, which normally accounts for 33.7 percent of China’s total exports, during the first nine months of this year. But some media reported that 67,000 businesses closed after October.

In the case of Dongguan city, which houses the largest number of foreign companies in Guangdong Province, 27 percent of rented factories are said to be empty. The population of Dongguan, which surpassed 10 million at one time, has fallen to 8 million as laid-off workers leave. The situation is similar in Shangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces along China’s eastern coastline. There are accounts that 600,000 companies in those regions have closed so far this year, costing 6.7 million jobs. Last month, the World Bank forecast China’s economy would grow 8.5 percent next year, but it has recently cut that projection to 7.5 percent. Goldman Sachs forecasts 6 percent growth, while Hong Kong’s CLSA Securities predicts 5.5 percent expansion. China’s exports in November totaled US$114.99 billion, down 2 percent from a year ago. Since 2002, China’s exports have grown more than 20 percent each year. And it is the first time that China’s monthly exports have declined since the bursting of the American IT bubble in 2001.

China’s domestic consumption has also slowed drastically. This is due to depreciation in asset values stemming from the stagnant Chinese real-estate and stock markets. The Chinese stock market has lost 15 trillion yuan (around W2,200 trillion, US$1=W1,301) during the first eight months of this year due to plummeting share prices. That’s worth 61 percent of China’s GDP.

Real estate prices in China’s major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, have fallen 20 to 30 percent. Since October, the Chinese government has announced two stimulus packages to revive the real estate market, including major reductions in transaction taxes, but the market has not rebounded.

The Chinese market offers a last chance for Korean exports at a time when the U.S. and European economies are slowing in earnest. Korea’s exports to China in October declined 2.6 percent compared to last year and dropped 32.9 percent in November. Korea’s exports to China, which have grown an average 30 percent or more each month during the first half of this year, have virtually come to a screeching halt.

Korea cannot continue to look at China for solutions. Instead, bold measures are required to tap into the Middle Eastern, Central and South American, and African markets, which have been relatively less impacted by the global financial crisis. We must search for niche markets where we can compete with Japan and utilize the competitiveness offered by the weak Korean won but strong yen. The Korean government has come up with its 2009 economic blueprint under the premise that China’s economy grows around 8 percent. We must come up with emergency plans for the possibility that China’s economy may grow at around the 5-percent level.

(http://english.chosun.com)

Some people fake it till they make it, while others… just fake it.

Meet Yukio Hasegawa, a 65 year-old Japanese man who spent nearly 30 years pretending to be a doctor.

Yukio was caught by police while questioning him about a 2005 speeding violation and admitting to posing as a doctor since 1980, when he assumed the identity of a real doctor using a photocopied license.

Yukio told police that he learned about medical treatment in 1978 by reading patient’s charts while he was working as an X-ray vehicle driver in Tokyo, Japan.

He was arrested for providing medical services without a license to 10 people for about a year through October 2008.

Yukio earned about $165,000 as a fake doctor at a clinic in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture since around 1994. He saw 20-30 patients a day, mostly as an orthopedist.

Amazingly enough, not a single patient ever complained about any lingering health problems related to their treatment.

(http://www.weirdasianews.com)

(http://www.funnyordie.com/)

Really people, there are no tigers in Africa. And we don’t have lions walking in the streets of our towns in South Africa. And it doesn’t always rain in England. And Germans do have a sense of humor. And the baseball World Series really do include the best teams in the world. Okay, maybe the last three pushed it a bit too far. But I am really getting sick and tired of ad people getting it so very wrong when they try to paint a global picture. Or when they try to grab the ‘mysterious Africa’ in their ads. I don’t mind them trying to put an African face to it. Hey, I was born in Africa and appreciate it when people use the images of Africa to inspire others. But, really people, just get the basic facts right when you do include Africa or when you try to include an African story into your ad.

One ad that was so bad that I blocked the company name from my mind was up in Back Bay Station in Boston for a few months. (I know it was a financial company.) It tried to tell the story that they can turn the tables on conventional thinking and conventional actions. And one specific ad had a Kenyan Masai (or Maasai) warrior run across the Serengeti. Being chased by a tiger. The ad is trying to tell us that the sometimes the tables are turned, and that they can help you turn the financial tables. BUT the Masai is well known for hunting LIONS for their entry into manhood. LIONS people. NOT tigers. THERE ARE NO TIGERS IN AFRICA. Can someone hunt down the ad guy who had this moment of ‘brilliance’ please. And then feed him to the tigers. Wherever they might be - try Asia as a start…

Sometimes it is simple mistakes. Unknowingly trying to capture a bit of Africa into your product. And that is especially true when the product comes from Africa. Nothing wrong with that. Except when you associate the wrong part of Africa into the product. For example, Teavana recently opened a store close to where I work. (Or I just walked past them almost every day for the last year and never noticed them.) I really like the shop. Good and healthy teas from everywhere around the world. Problem - they have a rooibos tea from Africa. Well, to be more specific, all rooibos tea come from a small area about 100 kilometers from Cape Town. Right at the bottom of Africa. I know this because I come from that area and my brother-in-law still farms with the stuff. The logo that Teavana use is an elephant. You know, elephants are all over Africa. Hum, not really. No elephant at all in that area. None, nada, zilch, zero. Never had any elephant. Never will. But it doesn’t stop there. The bloody elephant they use is not an African elephant. It is an Indian elephant. The smaller ears gave it away, you see. Teavana’s slogan is ‘Opening the Doors to Health, Wisdom, & Happiness’. I am not happy and therefore not healthy. No wisdom to be found in their messy logo for their rooibos. And I’ll close the door with that.

(AngryAfrican)

China increased its holdings of US treasury securities by $65.9 billion in October, consolidating its place as the No 1 holder of American debt, according to the Treasury’s latest report on international capital flows.

It was China’s largest monthly increase this year, pushing the country’s total holdings to $652.9 billion, compared with $587 billion at the end of September, when it replaced Japan to become the top holder of US debt.

The continual increases in US debt holdings in recent months have triggered fierce domestic debate, as the country has channeled almost a third of its $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves into US treasury securities.

Wei Weixian, economist with the University of International Business and Economics, believes it “is a fairly acceptable option”.

With US treasuries recently gaining investor favor, their yields have been on the decline; but in the long term, they are still a relatively safe investment for China, Wei said.

“Despite the financial crisis, the US economy remains the strongest, providing back-up for the treasury securities,” he added.

He also pointed out that China does not have many options to deploy its massive amounts of foreign exchange reserves.

For example, China pulled $200 billion out of its foreign exchange reserves to set up China Investment Corporation (CIC) to diversify investment, but CIC has incurred heavy losses in its investment in the US private equity firm Blackstone due to the tumbling international financial markets. CIC has since said it would be more cautious in investment abroad.

Guo Tianyong, economist with the Central University of Finance and Economics, also believes the US treasury debt has relatively low risks and good liquidity.

Moreover, it is not out of the realm of belief that Beijing and Washington may have reached a tacit consensus that China helps stabilize the American markets by increasing the purchases of US securities, Guo said.

Opponents of the rising purchases of US securities cite the possibility that Washington may be financially unable to pay back the money in the future, as it has to issue a lot more debt to finance its ailing financial markets.

As China piles up more US debt, it would also be a problem to sell it later as sales would affect returns on its existing dollar assets, analysts said.

Japan remained the second largest holder with a total of $585.5 billion, up by $12.3 billion in October. The UK is third with $360 billion.

US Treasury data show that net foreign purchases of long-term US securities in October decreased by $34.8 billion while foreign holdings of dollar-denominated US securities, including treasury bills and other custody liabilities, increased $92.4 billion.

International investors have opted to cut holdings of long-term debt while increasing short-term holdings, the data shows, which analysts ascribe to long-term economic uncertainties in the US.

In another development, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said yesterday that more interest rates cuts may be possible this month as economic indicators in November pointed to a weakening national economy. “From now until the beginning of next year, there is pressure on interest rate cuts,” he said in Hong Kong.
(Chinadairly)