World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[SampanViking]

Its sounds like Hereditary rule as usual to me.
Remember, where there is an Uncle, there will usually be Cousins and an Uncle will often think that he and his children would do better than the "fool of a nephew" who currently has the throne.
I also note that Uncle was not a blood relative and that Auntie has come out relatively unscathed.

Is there a further dynamic beyond the dynastic? Who knows, certainly not the muppets and sock puppets of the media.

I have heard Uncle described today as "The Elder Statesman" and the "Hand on the Tiller" So is this the hand that launched all the rockets and exploded all the nukes, closed the Joint Industrial Zones etc etc?

There is no reason to suspect a change for the worse than for a change for the better. We have wanted DPRK to follow a China style programme of reform and have despaired of its none implementation. Maybe, if we are lucky, we may have seen the main obstacle to this removed, by a young and hopefully, modernising, new ruler.

 

[solarz]

Its sounds like Hereditary rule as usual to me.
Remember, where there is an Uncle, there will usually be Cousins and an Uncle will often think that he and his children would do better than the "fool of a nephew" who currently has the throne.
I also note that Uncle was not a blood relative and that Auntie has come out relatively unscathed.

Is there a further dynamic beyond the dynastic? Who knows, certainly not the muppets and sock puppets of the media.

I have heard Uncle described today as "The Elder Statesman" and the "Hand on the Tiller" So is this the hand that launched all the rockets and exploded all the nukes, closed the Joint Industrial Zones etc etc?

There is no reason to suspect a change for the worse than for a change for the better. We have wanted DPRK to follow a China style programme of reform and have despaired of its none implementation. Maybe, if we are lucky, we may have seen the main obstacle to this removed, by a young and hopefully, modernising, new ruler.

I agree with everything you said except maybe the last sentence.

The more I look at this, the more it looks like a typical succession purge. The Uncle was most likely getting too big for his britches, and the NK power-players joined forces to remove him.

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As for modernizing NK, I don't see it happening as long as NK is under a dynastic rule and China is willing to prop it up. If the NK elites are able to live in relative luxury, then what use do they have for modernization?

 

[MwRYum]

Re: North Korea Political Purge

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Could this be the sign of some political upheaval in NK? Or just the usual succession clean-up?

The speed in which they dispose Jang Song Thaek is pretty surprising, though the stack of charges ain't really so, alas a bit of a throw-back to the bygone days of absolute monarchy...ok, in the case of N.Korea, that ain't a shocker either.

The "natural things of life" is that if you're a failed usurper, you're good as dead.

But what caught the world's imagination is the rumoured "death by dogs' maul" style of execution, the condemned being fed to a pack of vicious and hungry dogs, chomped for an hour till nothing but bones left....whoa, that's Dark Ages kind of stuff.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Re: North Korea Political Purge

The speed in which they dispose Jang Song Thaek is pretty surprising, though the stack of charges ain't really so, alas a bit of a throw-back to the bygone days of absolute monarchy...ok, in the case of N.Korea, that ain't a shocker either.

The "natural things of life" is that if you're a failed usurper, you're good as dead.

But what caught the world's imagination is the rumoured "death by dogs' maul" style of execution, the condemned being fed to a pack of vicious and hungry dogs, chomped for an hour till nothing but bones left....whoa, that's Dark Ages kind of stuff.

The Charges are pretty weird to. corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and generally leading a "dissolute and depraved life."
corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and generally leading a "dissolute and depraved life"? Hes A member of the Kim family. I mean really. Corruption? Womanizing? Would not be surprised if Ung has a personal harem. Corruption? in the North Korean leadership? Gambiling?
[video=youtube_share;SjbPi00k_ME]http://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME[/video]

Drug use? North Korea is one of the World top narcotic Distributors.

 

[Equation]

It seems like the uncle enjoys all privileges that goes with being one of the premier members of the inner circle, until he didn't like the direction of the young Kim was going and was caught trying to change that and got executed for it. Simply a feudal system drama.

 

[AssassinsMace]

You'd figure it would be more the other way around.

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Girl runs away from home to stop her parents from buying a Japanese car



International relations and teenagers–two things that are nearly impossible to understand. Decades of study have been devoted to both of these bewildering topics, and we’re still no closer to figuring either of them out. Fortunately, they rarely overlap!

However, sometimes even teens can get passionate about politics. And that’s when things get really, um, unique.

According to the Japanese-language side of the Chinese news site Xinhua, a 14-year-old in China was recently so upset by her parent’s choice to buy a car that she left their house and refused to return.

Was she distraught over the potential environmental impact? Concerned about rising gas prices? Perhaps she just didn’t like the color? (Seriously, what is with people buying yellow cars?)

Actually, her reasoning was political, not environmental–the car in question was made by Honda, which you probably recognize as being a Japanese company.

Xinhua reported that the girl told her parents that if her friends found out that they had purchased a Japanese car, she would be made fun of. She also insisted that if they were going to buy a car, they might as well buy a Chinese car to support the local economy.

According to the teenager, buying the Japanese car would just be “helping the enemy with money from our own pockets.” To show just how strongly she felt about it, the teenager left her parents’ house and stayed with friends, refusing to return until they gave up on getting the car. After three days, her parents agreed not to make the purchase, and she finally returned home.

Chinese commenters were split on the subject, but many of them agreed with the girl, calling for a boycott of Japanese products, saying that people needed to support domestic companies.

This girl’s actions were certainly extreme, but before anyone starts criticizing, it’s important to remember that many people in every country are, let’s say, enthusiastic about buying domestic products (often without realizing that foreign companies often employ local workers and support the economy that way…). And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to support you local economy, though we could certainly do without the antagonism. Then again, have you ever met a 14-year-old who wasn’t brimming with antagonism??

 

[AssassinsMace]

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Pension fund sues IBM for torpedoing China sales with NSA spy program


Will Conley, Dec 14th 2013


A pension fund has sued IBM for $12.9 billion in revenue losses caused by the recent revelation of its partnership with the US Congress and the NSA to spy on Chinese customers. Many of China’s companies pulled out of business arrangements with IBM after it became known that IBM was using its technology to collect customer information for the NSA. The suit cites IBM’s open lobbying effort to persuade Congress to pass the bill allowing the spying program known as Prism.

The Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension & Relief Fund claims that IBM failed to disclose the potential financial risks involved with willfully destroying the trust of the world’s largest national population. IBM had openly pushed for the legislation “in a bid to protect its intellectual property rights,” as Reuters cites the suit. The legislation IBM pushed for resulted in the expansion of spying programs like Prism.

The suit demands class-action damages to compensate shareholders between Jun. 25 and Oct. 16, 2013. IBM sales in China dropped 22% in Q3 2013 following the appearance of the Snowden documents. Hardware sales as a category dropped 40% in that country. Overall revenue dropped 4% and profit increased just 6%, way below IBM’s forecasts.

The suit calls out CEO Virginia Rometty and retiring CFO Mark Loughridge in addition to IBM itself. It claims those parties should be held responsible for failing to reveal the financial risks of the lobbying efforts and the company’s partnership with the NSA. The US District Court in New York will hear the case.

 

[airsuperiority]

You'd figure it would be more the other way around.

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Girl runs away from home to stop her parents from buying a Japanese car



International relations and teenagers–two things that are nearly impossible to understand. Decades of study have been devoted to both of these bewildering topics, and we’re still no closer to figuring either of them out. Fortunately, they rarely overlap!

However, sometimes even teens can get passionate about politics. And that’s when things get really, um, unique.

According to the Japanese-language side of the Chinese news site Xinhua, a 14-year-old in China was recently so upset by her parent’s choice to buy a car that she left their house and refused to return.

Was she distraught over the potential environmental impact? Concerned about rising gas prices? Perhaps she just didn’t like the color? (Seriously, what is with people buying yellow cars?)

Actually, her reasoning was political, not environmental–the car in question was made by Honda, which you probably recognize as being a Japanese company.

Xinhua reported that the girl told her parents that if her friends found out that they had purchased a Japanese car, she would be made fun of. She also insisted that if they were going to buy a car, they might as well buy a Chinese car to support the local economy.

According to the teenager, buying the Japanese car would just be “helping the enemy with money from our own pockets.” To show just how strongly she felt about it, the teenager left her parents’ house and stayed with friends, refusing to return until they gave up on getting the car. After three days, her parents agreed not to make the purchase, and she finally returned home.

Chinese commenters were split on the subject, but many of them agreed with the girl, calling for a boycott of Japanese products, saying that people needed to support domestic companies.

This girl’s actions were certainly extreme, but before anyone starts criticizing, it’s important to remember that many people in every country are, let’s say, enthusiastic about buying domestic products (often without realizing that foreign companies often employ local workers and support the economy that way…). And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to support you local economy, though we could certainly do without the antagonism. Then again, have you ever met a 14-year-old who wasn’t brimming with antagonism??

Again I blame the society, the media, and the social pressure that affects it. I'm totally fine with consumer protectionism. No comment, you get my giant thumbs up. However I don't like the racist tones that she has, and that's what I refer to the blame.

 

[MwRYum]

You'd figure it would be more the other way around.

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Girl runs away from home to stop her parents from buying a Japanese car



International relations and teenagers–two things that are nearly impossible to understand. Decades of study have been devoted to both of these bewildering topics, and we’re still no closer to figuring either of them out. Fortunately, they rarely overlap!

However, sometimes even teens can get passionate about politics. And that’s when things get really, um, unique.

According to the Japanese-language side of the Chinese news site Xinhua, a 14-year-old in China was recently so upset by her parent’s choice to buy a car that she left their house and refused to return.

Was she distraught over the potential environmental impact? Concerned about rising gas prices? Perhaps she just didn’t like the color? (Seriously, what is with people buying yellow cars?)

Actually, her reasoning was political, not environmental–the car in question was made by Honda, which you probably recognize as being a Japanese company.

Xinhua reported that the girl told her parents that if her friends found out that they had purchased a Japanese car, she would be made fun of. She also insisted that if they were going to buy a car, they might as well buy a Chinese car to support the local economy.

According to the teenager, buying the Japanese car would just be “helping the enemy with money from our own pockets.” To show just how strongly she felt about it, the teenager left her parents’ house and stayed with friends, refusing to return until they gave up on getting the car. After three days, her parents agreed not to make the purchase, and she finally returned home.

Chinese commenters were split on the subject, but many of them agreed with the girl, calling for a boycott of Japanese products, saying that people needed to support domestic companies.

This girl’s actions were certainly extreme, but before anyone starts criticizing, it’s important to remember that many people in every country are, let’s say, enthusiastic about buying domestic products (often without realizing that foreign companies often employ local workers and support the economy that way…). And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to support you local economy, though we could certainly do without the antagonism. Then again, have you ever met a 14-year-old who wasn’t brimming with antagonism??

Well you can't expect teenagers to grasp the concepts of gas-mileage, rate of depreciation, service plan, warranty package, product reliabilty and stuff like that...but like the half-joke I once told my uncle when he bought his Volkswagan Pasat - it's German brand so he's safe!

 

[broadsword]

Well you can't expect teenagers to grasp the concepts of gas-mileage, rate of depreciation, service plan, warranty package, product reliabilty and stuff like that...but like the half-joke I once told my uncle when he bought his Volkswagan Pasat - it's German brand so he's safe!

Neither can you say it to the filthy rich who buy Rolls Royces.