Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Where you are heading to?
China's national high-speed railway is defined as: newly-built passenger trains designed to run at 250 km/h (including reserved) and above, with an initial operating speed of not less than 200 km/h.
It is time to recognize that the American democracy is sick
Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira
Word 'Elections' written with wood tile letters arranged on U.S. national flag background. /CFP
Editor's note: Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira is a former Brazilian minister of tourism and former special economic advisor to the president of Brazil. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.
After the end of the Cold War, the United States became the only superpower in the world. Along with the dramatic changes in the world political landscape, American democracy has been promoted by some as the "universal model of human democracy" and packaged as the "miracle cure" for all diseases and the "standard and destination" for democratic political construction in the majority of developing countries.
Supported by the powerful U.S. cultural communication machine and international discourse power, the export of democracy plays the role of an accomplice in the construction and maintenance of U.S. hegemony in the post-Cold War world.
As a form of domination, classical democracy shone in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. With the birth of the modern world and the emergence of the bourgeoisie and the nation-state, democratic politics began to take on a wholly new political dominant force and communal platform, leading the world to make leaps and bounds of progress.
But today, American-style Western democracy and human rights are struggling, and the problem is that these are built on capital and pressure from sectorial groups. Capital's greedy, predatory, and profit-oriented attributes have catalyzed its change.
For America, a developed capitalist country, capital is the bloodline of its entire social order, and money, as the most intuitive expression of capital, constitutes the basic driving mechanism for the operation of the entire American society, and the same is true in the political sphere. It can be said that without money, American-style democracy is neither operational in practice nor conceptually comprehensible.
If there is anything that stands out about American-style democracy over the politics of other capitalist countries, it is that it demonstrates in a more direct, blatant, and thorough form than other countries to be in the dominant position and a dominant role of money in the construction and operation of the bourgeois political order.
At the international level, the United States has been criticized by the international community for politicizing and weaponizing "democracy" and interfering in the affairs of other countries in the name of "upholding democracy" and "fighting the evil." Under the guise of "supporting democracy," the United States has promoted the "New Monroe Doctrine" in Latin America, instigated "color revolutions" in Eurasia, stirred up the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East.
"It has incited divisive confrontations in many parts of the world, dragging many countries into the quagmire of war, social unrest and economic recession. Under the guise of "defending democracy," the U.S. imposes unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" on other countries at every turn, and arbitrarily interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, but in fact only to maintain its own hegemonic position and geopolitical interests.
The U.S. has set "democratic standards" according to its own model and does not allow other systems and road models to exist, ganging up and arbitrarily interfering with the internal affairs of other countries in the name of "democracy."
In the process of "exporting" American-style democracy by the West, whether it is the pushing of American-style democracy under the invasion of guns or the color revolutions by all means, it is the political and private speculation groups that support the will of the West for quick success and quick profits, and triggers the extreme contradiction of various cultures, civilizations and interests in local areas. Afghan-American democracy is the worst result of this "exported democracy," leading to the Taliban's growing power in the intensified conflicts and the growth of terrorism in the intensified conflicts. If it is true democracy, why not end the conflict and heal the conflicts?
The values of "American-style democracy" built in the contemporary Western environment are the values of the elite at the expense of the masses. American democracy is not a true democracy to be copied or inspired; it does not assume responsibility for its people.
While there is indeed glory in its "political correctness" on a purely theoretical level, it must be implemented through the political mechanisms and forces of the contemporary West, and it inevitably carries with it the inherent disease of quick success, manipulation and exploitation by interest groups, and the complete opposite of theoretical and real results.
For the time being, the U.S. troops have not withdrawn from Iraq, and the war between Russia and Ukraine has not yet stopped. In many countries such as Iraq and Ukraine where the Western system has been implemented, the "democracy crux" still seems to have no final solution. More and more countries in the world are realizing that only a democratic system that suits their own society can stand firm and conform to the times.
Finally, we can state that America's democracy is sick. In a country that likes to market about individual freedom and respect, the less wealthy classes are trapped in the underworld in which social mobility does not exist and racism reigns. Good Americans are losing the war to give back to their country the democracy that a long time ago has made America an inspiring nation.
Unfortunately, we can no longer believe what is written in one of the main American freedom symbols, "the Statue of Liberty" poem that says "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Chinese expats lead Kazakhstan labor market
Chinese citizens make up the bulk of expatriates employed with work permits in Kazakhstan, newly released government data show.
Chinese laborers account for close to a quarter of the 15,000 or so foreign workers in the country, Kapital newspaper reported on November 23, quoting the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.
The statistics cover only those employed with work permits, which are issued to companies needing skilled laborers and managers to fill skills shortages. They do not include large numbers of Russian citizens who work in Kazakhstan under simplified employment procedures because of membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, a regional free trade bloc. The same applies to citizens of Kyrgyzstan.
Nor does this cover casual laborers from neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan doing unskilled jobs, many of whom work without formal registration.
Some 3,500, or 23 percent, of the 14,957 foreigners with work permits employed in Kazakhstan as of November 1 are Chinese, the data revealed.
Relations with their local counterparts are not always smooth in a country that experiences occasional outbreaks of Sinophobia, as the odd brawl that has broken out between Chinese and Kazakh workers in the past testifies.
Indian nationals make up the second-largest group of expat workers, at 1,731, or nearly 12 percent of the total. They are followed by Turks, at 1,642, or 11 percent; Uzbeks, at 1,344, or 9 percent; and British citizens, at 1,112, or just over 7 percent.
Public perception in Kazakhstan has it that the oil and gas sector is overrun with overpaid expats, which is a source of discontent especially in energy-rich western regions of the country.
It may come as a surprise, then, to some to learn that it is not the energy sector that employs most foreign specialists but construction, with 40 percent of the total.
The natural resources sector, including extraction of oil and gas, mining and quarrying, accounts for 10 percent. Agriculture and scientific research make up 8 percent each, and 7 percent of foreigners are employed in manufacturing.
Take-up for work permits is only around 70 percent of the permitted allocation for this year, which is 21,097. The government cut the quota by a quarter at the beginning of the year to protect jobs for locals.
To encourage employers to train up local labor so that fewer expats are needed, the government stipulates quotas for different categories of worker. Fewer are permitted for recruiting senior managers from abroad than for skilled laborers, for example.
Less than 3 percent (576) work permits are allocated for top managers, though the allocation is a little more generous for middle managers, at 3,029 permits, or 14 percent of the total. The rest of the allocation goes to skilled laborers of various categories.
Some 96 percent of the workforce at companies in Kazakhstan employing foreign labor, of which there are 1,719, are Kazakh citizens, the ministry said.
Those Indians that go back become a 马农
He sounds like the type of guy that would fall for a high interest rate bank account scam
Apparantly, DPP performance in actually governing/improving stuff/good policies is pretty bad lol.
Basically only clings on to independence as a talking point, and even then people on Taiwan are actually pretty worried about independence would result in war lol.