PRC Economy and Industry: News and Discussions

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abhischekcc
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PRC Economy and Industry: News and Discussions

Post by abhischekcc »

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=39169
IAF’s largest ever airlift across the border relief missions to Myanmar and China
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15:22 IST
The Indian Air Force is presently carrying out the largest ever across the border disaster relief mission to Myanmar and China having conveyed over 277 tonnes of relief material in the aftermath of cyclone and severe earthquake respectively. Another IL-76 of IAF would be ferrying 28 tones to Chengdu in China tomorrow.

It may be recalled that cyclone Nargis struck south-east coast of Myanmar on 03 May 08 and caused wide spread damage to life and property. Also a severe earthquake measuring over 7.8 on Richter scale had struck the Sichuan province of China causing severe disaster. The Indian Air Force was called upon to carry relief supplies to these disaster affected areas.

For Mayanmar, the Disaster Management Crisis Group (DMCG) projected the requirement of carrying relief material on 06 May 08 and on 07 May 08 two IAF AN-32 were airborne for Yangon with supplies consisting of tents and medicine. Additional relief supplies were sent by IL-76 transport aircraft on 08, 10, 12 & 17 May 08. Another IL-76 has left for Yangon on 27 May 08.

For Myanmar IAF has airlifted 125.5 tonnes of relief material load includes medicines, tents, ready to eat meals & 47 personnel.

For China, the DMCG projected the requirement on 16 May 08 and IAF had delivered the load once again on 17 May 08 itself consisting of tentage, blankets & medicines. Thereafter relief supplies were sent on 19th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, & 24th May 08. IAF has so far airlifted 152 tones of relief materials including medicines, tents, sleeping bags, blankets and ready to eat meals.

Hope the PLA takes note of our ability to lift large amounts of material into their lands at short notice. :twisted:

That should keep them quite.
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Post by paramu »

Hope IAF has attached spycams under all aircrafts used for airlifting materials to China.
Raju

Post by Raju »

Weather warfare
Beware the US military’s experiments with climatic warfare, says Michel Chossudovsky

Date:22/05/2008
Author:Michel Chossudovsky

Rarely acknowledged in the debate on global climate change, the world’s weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. Both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the climate for military use.

Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’.

During the Vietnam war, cloud-seeding techniques were used, starting in 1967 under Project Popeye, the objective of which was to prolong the monsoon season and block enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The US military has developed advanced capabilities that enable it selectively to alter weather patterns. The technology, which is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), is an appendage of the Strategic Defense Initiative – ‘Star Wars’. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, operating from the outer atmosphere and capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems around the world.

Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report, ‘offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary’, capabilities, it says, extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes: ‘Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog and storms on earth or to modify space weather… and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of [military] technologies.’

In 1977, an international Convention was ratified by the UN General Assembly which banned ‘military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects.’ It defined ‘environmental modification techniques’ as ‘any technique for changing – through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes – the dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space.’

While the substance of the 1977 Convention was reasserted in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, debate on weather modification for military use has become a scientific taboo. Military analysts are mute on the subject. Meteorologists are not investigating the matter and environmentalists are focused on greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Neither is the possibility of climatic or environmental manipulations as part of a military and intelligence agenda, while tacitly acknowledged, part of the broader debate on climate change under UN auspices.

The HAARP Programme

Established in 1992, HAARP, based in Gokona, Alaska, is an array of high-powered antennas that transmit, through high-frequency radio waves, massive amounts of energy into the ionosphere (the upper layer of the atmosphere). Their construction was funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Operated jointly by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research, HAARP constitutes a system of powerful antennas capable of creating ‘controlled local modifications of the ionosphere’. According to its official website, www.haarp.alaska.edu, HAARP will be used ‘to induce a small, localized change in ionospheric temperature so physical reactions can be studied by other instruments located either at or close to the HAARP site’.

But Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, says HAARP operates as ‘a gigantic heater that can cause major disruptions in the ionosphere, creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that keeps deadly radiation from bombarding the planet’. Physicist Dr Bernard Eastlund called it ‘the largest ionospheric heater ever built’.

HAARP is presented by the US Air Force as a research programme, but military documents confirm its main objective is to ‘induce ionospheric modifications’ with a view to altering weather patterns and disrupting communications and radar. According to a report by the Russian State Duma: ‘The US plans to carry out large-scale experiments under the HAARP programme [and] create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines, and have a negative impact on the mental health of entire regions.’

An analysis of statements emanating from the US Air Force points to the unthinkable: the covert manipulation of weather patterns, communications and electric power systems as a weapon of global warfare, enabling the US to disrupt and dominate entire regions.

Weather manipulation is the pre-emptive weapon par excellence. It can be directed against enemy countries or ‘friendly nations’ without their knowledge, used to destabilise economies, ecosystems and agriculture. It can also trigger havoc in financial and commodity markets. The disruption in agriculture creates a greater dependency on food aid and imported grain staples from the US and other Western countries.

HAARP was developed as part of an Anglo-American partnership between Raytheon Corporation, which owns the HAARP patents, and British Aerospace Systems (BAES). The HAARP project is one among several collaborative ventures in advanced weapons systems between the two defence giants.

The HAARP project was initiated in 1992 by Advanced Power Technologies, Inc. (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Corporation (ARCO). APTI (including the HAARP patents) was sold by ARCO to E-Systems Inc, in 1994.

E-Systems, on contract to the CIA and US Department of Defense, outfitted the ‘Doomsday Plan’, which ‘allows the President to manage a nuclear war’. Subsequently acquired by Raytheon Corporation, it is among the largest intelligence contractors in the World.

BAES was involved in the development of the advanced stage of the HAARP antenna array under a 2004 contract with the Office of Naval Research. The installation of 132 highfrequency transmitters was entrusted by BAES to its US subsidiary, BAE Systems Inc. The project, according to a July report in Defense News, was undertaken by BAES’s Electronic Warfare division. In September it received DARPA’s top award for technical achievement for the design, construction and activation of the HAARP array of antennas.

The HAARP system is fully operational and in many regards dwarfs existing conventional and strategic weapons systems. While there is no firm evidence of its use for military purposes, Air Force documents suggest HAARP is an integral part of the militarisation of space. One would expect the antennas already to have been subjected to routine testing.

Under the UNFCCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a mandate ‘to assess scientific, technical and socioeconomic information relevant for the understanding of climate change’. This mandate includes environmental warfare. ‘Geo-engineering’ is acknowledged, but the underlying military applications are neither the object of policy analysis or scientific research in the thousands of pages of IPCC reports and supporting documents, based on the expertise and input of some 2,500 scientists, policymakers and environmentalists.

‘Climatic warfare’ potentially threatens the future of humanity, but has casually been excluded from the reports for which the IPCC received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Michel Chossudovsky is a Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and an editor at the Centre for Research on Globalization,
www.globalresearch.ca
Raju

Post by Raju »

Earthquake Machine behind Niigata and Chengdu earthquakes ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InV0cVH6KZc
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Post by Katare »

:P
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Post by Rye »

If there is a earthquake machine, then there is an implied capability to convert pure energy to physical/mechanical energy over long distances. Sure, why not, physics is just for silly people in lab coats. If anyone wants to buy a magic carpet they can use to go above cloud level and view these destructive HAARP satellites, please send a money order for 1 lakh rupees towards "the Human Welfare fund". Shipping will be no less than 3-4 days after receipt of payment.
Raju

Post by Raju »

>>destructive HAARP satellites

what is this ?

Arrey when you are hearing it from the horse's mouth itself, why is there still this tendency to argue unnecessarily ?
Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report, ‘offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary’, capabilities, it says, extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes: ‘Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog and storms on earth or to modify space weather… and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of [military] technologies.’


don't listen to me, USAF itself says that earthquakes, hurricanes, floods are part of its options to defeat or coerce an adversary.
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Post by abhischekcc »

Raju, even India can modify weather.

The end ofthe Punjab militancy was based solely on our ability to coerce pakiland with the artificially created floods of 92.

I am not surpised that US has such research as well. What I am surprised is that they will risk a major war for no reason.

If they did use in China- then China will get back at them. US knows this.
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Post by Rye »

Raju wrote:
Arrey when you are hearing it from the horse's mouth itself, why is there still this tendency to argue unnecessarily ?
Sorry, sounds like horse manure if one cannot explain the physics behind it in simple terms, or even the set of physics principles that can cause such effects -- these principles would have been peer-reviewed and in the public domain especially if it is mostly theoretical. I am wonlee asking for Gyaan on these new physics principles that have been discovered to get over my ignorance about the lethality of the HAARP machines.

I can buy "changing the weather in disruptive ways", which is definitely in the realm of possibility -- using high-intensity electromagnetic energy of some form to cause localized change in weather seems doable...not so for earthquakes.

Last OT post. Please stop posting conspiracy theories on this thread. Thanks.
Raju

Post by Raju »

It's for you to understand the physics of it my friend. You really think a top-secret strategic technology is going to be submitted for peer review and approval.

If we do not understand the why's and wherefores it's our loss alone.

As explained before it has got nothing to do with Satellites but modification to the energy belt called Ionosphere. When the Ionosphere is tampered with (through directed radio waves) it is capable of creating turbulence in and around plates. Also one must obviously conclude that the ionosphere has an important role to play in the structural stability of the earth's crust. (does this fit in with modern scientific theories ?-probably not, and that is where the lacunae is)
abhischekcc wrote:Raju, even India can modify weather.

The end ofthe Punjab militancy was based solely on our ability to coerce pakiland with the artificially created floods of 92.

I am not surpised that US has such research as well. What I am surprised is that they will risk a major war for no reason.

If they did use in China- then China will get back at them. US knows this.
that's why it fits in with the other link posted in Indian Interests, that there are vested interests who want to provoke a worldwide war. Else there is a fear that the balance that has been tipped in the monetary crises affecting US will result in reduced geostrategic leverage. Wars can turn the clock back.
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Post by Kakkaji »

If we are done with the conspiracy theories :wink: , here is a purely personal/ 100% subjective observation FWIW.

While watching the news clips of the aftermath of the earthquake in China, I have noticed that the people, at least in the cities, appear to be well-fed and well-dressed. None of the stereotypical short, stick-thin Chinese there. In fact quite a few people, while not obese, could be characterized as 'stocky'. Very different from what I was used to seeing in pictures from 20 years ago.

It appears that within the space of a generation, China has conquered malnutrition. I would venture to say that the 'average' young Chinese is taller, healthier, and better-fed than the 'average' young Indian. :(
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Post by Bade »

Raju, India has lotsa people doing research in this field. In fact most of Indian space scientists of yore were limited to this area of research for various reasons like ease of setting up facilities, technology wise. So, you can take it for granted that they would know what can and cannot be done. There are large facilities both at Tirupati(Gadanki) as well as outside of B'lore at Gauribidanur on ionospheric research.
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Post by abhischekcc »

IIRC, ionosphere study is necessary because it affects the movement of low-orbit satellites. Typically, spy sats are low orbit, hence the need of the military to study it.

Also, disturbances in the ionosphere can cause disrupion of weather sats as well.


>>When the Ionosphere is tampered with (through directed radio waves) it is capable of creating turbulence in and around plates.
Are you talking about tele-kinesis? :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Raju

Post by Raju »

Bade wrote:Raju, India has lotsa people doing research in this field. In fact most of Indian space scientists of yore were limited to this area of research for various reasons like ease of setting up facilities, technology wise. So, you can take it for granted that they would know what can and cannot be done. There are large facilities both at Tirupati(Gadanki) as well as outside of B'lore at Gauribidanur on ionospheric research.
there is frequent talk of directing a billion watts at a focused area in the ionosphere ? Anything special about this or just a random figure ? Or is it like some kind of break-even point or tipping point over which or the multiples of which could create serious disturbance in ionosphere to create imbalance in the plates ? Did the Indian scientists doing research in this area have the backup to research at that scale ?
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Post by abhischekcc »

Raju, why don;t you start a new thread on next-gen military technologies?

This is the PRC thread.
Raju

Post by Raju »

My limited knowledge in this domain can't sustain a new thread.
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Post by Rishi »

abhischekcc wrote:Raju, even India can modify weather.

The end ofthe Punjab militancy was based solely on our ability to coerce pakiland with the artificially created floods of 92.

.
Wot??? Please elucidate. U talking about this: http://www2.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db ... enDocument ??
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Post by abhischekcc »

Yeah :twisted:

Will elaborate over the weekend.
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Post by Rishi »

abhischekcc wrote:Yeah :twisted:

Will elaborate over the weekend.
OK boss! :shock: Will set up RWR to alert me...
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Post by ramana »

Kakkaji wrote:If we are done with the conspiracy theories :wink: , here is a purely personal/ 100% subjective observation FWIW.

While watching the news clips of the aftermath of the earthquake in China, I have noticed that the people, at least in the cities, appear to be well-fed and well-dressed. None of the stereotypical short, stick-thin Chinese there. In fact quite a few people, while not obese, could be characterized as 'stocky'. Very different from what I was used to seeing in pictures from 20 years ago.

It appears that within the space of a generation, China has conquered malnutrition. I would venture to say that the 'average' young Chinese is taller, healthier, and better-fed than the 'average' young Indian. :(

Kakkaji, Amartya Sen (he of the Nobel Prize fame) wrote a recent article published in Deccan Chronicle on how mvoing up the ecnomic sclae increases consumption and hence the food price increase! May be Asian Age might have archieved it.
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Post by Kakkaji »

ramana wrote:Kakkaji, Amartya Sen (he of the Nobel Prize fame) wrote a recent article published in Deccan Chronicle on how mvoing up the ecnomic sclae increases consumption and hence the food price increase! May be Asian Age might have archieved it.
ramana:

Yes, but the point I want to convey is that China seems to have been able to move almost all of its urban population up the economic scale from 'semi-starved' to 'well-fed' within a generation.

And they seem to be determined and well-positioned (witness their contract farming in Cambodia, Laos etc) to keep their population well-fed, despite the rise in prices. It is the poor countries that missed the bus when China was surging ahead, whose population will face starvation due to rising food prices.
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Post by ramana »

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Post by derkonig »


Yes, but the point I want to convey is that China seems to have been able to move almost all of its urban population up the economic scale from 'semi-starved' to 'well-fed' within a generation.
All CCP propaganda.
Link
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Post by Kakkaji »

derkonig wrote:

Yes, but the point I want to convey is that China seems to have been able to move almost all of its urban population up the economic scale from 'semi-starved' to 'well-fed' within a generation.
All CCP propaganda.
Link
Boss,

I understand that the Chinese Govt. manipulates information. But propaganda cannot hide all the facts. For example, it is amply clear to me, despite all the CCP propaganda, that a number of school buildings collapsed in the quake because their construction was shoddy, which could not have happened without the collaboration of corrupt officials.

All I am saying is that the people appear "well-fed". which means the Govt. of China seems to have done a good job of taking care of hunger and malnutrition, even though they may have failed on human rights, corruption, environment, and other fronts.
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Post by shyam »

Actually, one of my friends who visited Shanghai and Beijing recently told me otherwise that average chinese is not well fed. Their physique can't be compared to that of typical Punjabis. In fact, my friend lost 10lb in three weeks of visit there, though he resorted to vegitarian food there. He said, even the amount of meat present in regular food is very little.

What he observed is that average chinese is well clothed. The material may be cheap, but the design will be stylish. Because of cold weather they wear slightly thick dress and may look bit fat.
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Post by Rishi »

abhischekcc wrote:Yeah :twisted:

Will elaborate over the weekend.
Bhell?
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Post by derkonig »

Kakkaji wrote:
derkonig wrote: All CCP propaganda.
Link
Boss,

I understand that the Chinese Govt. manipulates information. But propaganda cannot hide all the facts. For example, it is amply clear to me, despite all the CCP propaganda, that a number of school buildings collapsed in the quake because their construction was shoddy, which could not have happened without the collaboration of corrupt officials.

All I am saying is that the people appear "well-fed". which means the Govt. of China seems to have done a good job of taking care of hunger and malnutrition, even though they may have failed on human rights, corruption, environment, and other fronts.
What I am suggesting is that all those ppl in those vidoes can also playing their parts, all of this being orchestrated by the CCP. Its a bit strange that all these 'victims' are so well dressed, few look injured.
IMHO its all stage managed.
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Post by amit »

Kakkaji wrote:ramana:

Yes, but the point I want to convey is that China seems to have been able to move almost all of its urban population up the economic scale from 'semi-starved' to 'well-fed' within a generation.

And they seem to be determined and well-positioned (witness their contract farming in Cambodia, Laos etc) to keep their population well-fed, despite the rise in prices. It is the poor countries that missed the bus when China was surging ahead, whose population will face starvation due to rising food prices.
Kakkaji,

I entirely agree with your point about the urban Chinese being relatively "well-fed" - certainly more so than their parents.

However, one small point - more an elaboration - China is desperate on contract farming due to the fact that it has very little arable land fit for farming. Despite having a land area which is almost twice that of India, its arable land area is far lower - off hand I forget the figure but its on the Net - than what we have in India.

And thanks to desertification in Northern China and pollution sinking into the groundwater and in the soil due to indiscriminate growth this arable area is shrinking even faster.

Another point: As people move up the economic ladder the quality of food intake changes. At the bottom is coarse grains, then comes rice, wheat etc and finally at the top, the amount of cereals and vegetables decreases and the proportion of meat in food intake increases.

Since historically Chinese have been under fed for countless generations - the poor country has witnessed more famines than any other in the world - as the prosperity increases all types of consumption is going up. Remember, the past 40 years or so has been, by Chinese standards an unusally long period of stabilty with steady economic progress. It's hard to find a similar period in Chinese history - one would have to go a long, long way back.

JMT
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Post by G Subramaniam »

Per my data
China has 50% of the agricultural land and yet produces overall 2X that in India

If Indian agri productivity was raised to chinese levels, we could feed 5 billion easily on existing agri land
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Post by Singha »

does the PRC offer fertilizer and power subsidies like India ? how much of
its acreage is double cropped vs India and how much has year round irrigation vs India?

these would go a long way in explaining why India lags behind a lot in yield.

I think the size of farms and pop density problems would be same in both
countries.
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Post by Tanaji »

I think it would be instructive to compare the amount of wastage that happens from the point a farmer reaps his produce to the point that it hits the customer in India and China. We are pathetic on that score card.

A lot of gains can be made simply by reducing wastage and being more efficient. Even simple steps such as improving the method of grain/produce storage in sarkari godowns, reducing pilferage from rail/truck wagons should massively increase amount of usable foodstock. Second line would be reducing the amount of time trucks spend at idiotic octroi toll booths.
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Post by Singha »

Tanaji, I think foodgrains are stored in well controlled FCI type godowns
if Govt buys them. but Govt only buys a small %. the situation in pvt godowns is horrible...go to any town and there will be a bunch of decrepit rat infested buildings where the pvt wholeseller stocks his produce.

Govt can control this by a system of frequent inspections by sanitary troops
and heavy fines.

so I dont think sarkari godowns are problem.
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Post by John Snow »

There is lot of pilferage the goes on there.
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Post by abhischekcc »

Rishi wrote:
abhischekcc wrote:Yeah :twisted:

Will elaborate over the weekend.
Bhell?
(First, some preaching to the choir)

Well, to understand paki policy in its entirety, you have to understand that it is not really a nation, but a colony of paki muslims. Think about the following facts:

Point one: Sindh has 30% of paki economy but pays 90% of the taxes, whereas Punjab which has 60% of paki economy does not pay any tax. Why? Agri-income is not taxed. The rest of the taxes are met by poor Baluchistan.

Point two: Pakistan has 2 armoured divs and 2 mechanised divs. Of these 1 armoured div and 1 mech div are stationed in Punjab. One armoured div is stationed at Mangla, to protect the dam and the water flowing into the farms of west Punjab. The other mech div is stationed at Karachi. Now before you think the pakjabis had a change of heart and wanted to protect their Islamic bretheren, think again. Karachi was (still is) the only port from which the agro-products of Punjab can reach the outside world (and bring in money for the feudals). So, all the power of the paki army is meant to protect Punjabi interests – which is only to be expected, since the paki army is in reality Punjabi army.

Point three: The Indus Water Treaty was negotiated in such a way to help Punjab (both sides). The lower rivers flow into Indian Punjab; while the upper rivers, which pass through J&K – feed into Paki Punjab. WT gives water from the upper rivers to pakiland, and those of lower rivers to India – depriving J&K of much water and electricity. (Incidentally, this is one of the grievances that has been exploited to the hilt by Kashmiri politicians of all hues).

Understand also that all terrorism in the Indian sub-continent is conducted by Punjabi muslims – whether such terror is in Indian Punjab, J&K, Sindh, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, other parts of India, etc, etc.

So, you can understand the centrality of Punjab in Pakistan, and the centrality of agriculture in Punjab, and the centrality of the waters flowing from India to paki agriculture. Now, join the dots and figure out how we can use water as a weapon to end terrorism against India.

Most people will say that we should adopt the following policy – withhold water as long as Pakistan conducts terror operations against India.

But Rao was too subtle for such open blackmail. He did something that was very much in line with his understated personality.

He exploited a fatal flaw in IWT. The treaty specifies how much water India has to release to Pakistan each year – but it does not specify the schedule of the release. We can release it at a time of our choice.

So, on becoming PM, PVNR ordered all the monsoon rain water to be stored behind dams – which were all released simultaneously in 1992 winter, causing massive floods in parts of India and most of Pakistan.

Remember, we CAN release all the water from our side on one day.


Of course, none of this could be proved and still cannot be proved.

Paki Punjab understood the message that Rao was sending, and stopped the cross-border support for the Sikh militancy movement. In 1993, elections were held in Indian Punjab, and that was the end of the militancy.

Unfortunately, Rao could not apply the same strategy on Kashmir, because in 1992, power changed hands in Washington to India’s detriment. Bill Clinton, the most anti-India POTUS since 1775, came to power. One of his moves to put pressure on India on Kashmir, was to put his friend Robin Raphael as the ‘Special Representative on Kashmir’. He remains the only US president to create a post specifically to challenge the territorial integrity of India. For this reason, and perhaps some that I don’t know of, Rao was unable to implement the squeeze-pakjabi-testicles maneuver to solve Kashmir.

Some people have speculated that BC* was anti India, because he had cut a deal with China, and putting India down was part of the deal. maybe, maybe not. But watching his antics and words about India and Indians, I believe BC is inherently anti-India. Recall his description of the Indian contribution to US tech industry as a 'mafia'.


((*BC stands for Bill Clinton, not Bh*n Ch*d. Some people may dispute that.))
-------------------

Now, admire the nuances of the strategy, gentlejingoes.

Admire the fact that Rao did not break the restrictions of the IWT, thus saving India from a potentially damaging international scandal (and maybe sanctions). Admire also, that he was able to solve a problem that had vexed leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. And admire yet further that Rao did with very little political capital, and when his own government was unstable and in minority.

Perfect execution with a minimum of fuss, with not sentimentality – just like the man himself. A true successor to Chanakya.
Tanaji
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Post by Tanaji »

I meant the general wastage that goes on in sarkari as well as pvt godowns due to the antiquated methods of storage and poor state of buildings that allow a free lunch for rodents, both human and pest type.
wrdos
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Parents’ Grief Turns to Rage at Chinese Officials

Post by wrdos »

Parents’ Grief Turns to Rage at Chinese Officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/world ... nyt&scp=27

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By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: May 28, 2008

DUJIANGYAN, China — Bereaved parents whose children were crushed to death in their classrooms during the earthquake in Sichuan Province have turned mourning ceremonies into protests in recent days, forcing officials to address growing political repercussions over shoddy construction of public schools.

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

A memorial service for hundreds of students of Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan, where a mother held a picture of her son, turned into an angry protest. More Photos »
Comment Earthquake Q&A

Times reporters are answering readers’ questions about the earthquake, its aftermath and the Chinese government’s response.

Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party boss of Mianzhu, knelt Sunday to ask parents of earthquake victims to abandon their protest. More Photos >

Parents of the estimated 10,000 children who lost their lives in the quake have grown so enraged about collapsed schools that they have overcome their usual caution about confronting Communist Party officials. Many say they are especially upset that some schools for poor students crumbled into rubble even though government offices and more elite schools not far away survived the May 12 quake largely intact.

On Tuesday, an informal gathering of parents at Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan to commemorate their children gave way to unbridled fury. One of the fathers in attendance, a quarry worker named Liu Lifu, grabbed the microphone and began calling for justice. His 15-year-old daughter, Liu Li, was killed along with her entire class during a biology lesson.

“We demand that the government severely punish the killers who caused the collapse of the school building,â€
vina
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Post by vina »

China's Grief Unearthed

A brilliant oped piece by a very very brave person. All is not lost in Mainland China as long as people like this author exist.. The evil commies will fall, sooner or later and China will discover it's soul ..(while amoral commies like N Ram will get into mourning).

[quote]The New York Times
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June 4, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
China’s Grief, Unearthed
By MA JIAN

London

FOR three days last month, China’s national flag flew at half-staff in Tiananmen Square to honor the victims of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan. It was the first time in memory that China has publicly commemorated the deaths of ordinary civilians.

Crowds were allowed to gather in the square to express sympathy for their compatriots. Despite a death toll that has risen to nearly 70,000, the earthquake has shaken the nation back to life. The Chinese people have rushed to donate blood and money and join the rescue efforts. They have rediscovered their civic responsibility and compassion.

Their grief, shock and confused solidarity recall the hours that followed the Tiananmen massacre 19 years ago today, when the Communist Party sent army tanks into Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement organized by unarmed, peaceful students.

The protests had been set off by the death of the reform-minded party leader Hu Yaobang. College students had camped out in the square — the symbolic heart of the nation — to demand freedom, democracy and an end to government corruption. There they fell in love, danced to Bob Dylan tapes and discussed Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man.â€
Rishi
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Post by Rishi »

AbhishekCC, many thanks! :)
Yayavar
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Ma Jian

Post by Yayavar »


Op-Ed Contributor
China’s Grief, Unearthed
By MA JIAN
Vina,
Ma Jian's book "Red Dust" is an eye opener. It tells of his travels through remote parts of China (in early 80s) and gives fantastic insight into Chinese society. Very strong.

- vk

PS. After years have moved out of lurker mode :).
wrdos
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Re: PRC Economy News and Discussions-II

Post by wrdos »

une 16, 2008 nytimes
How Angel of Sichuan Saved School in Quake
By EDWARD WONG

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/world ... ina&st=nyt

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Classes at Sangzao Middle School, where all 2,323 students survived the earthquake, are held in tents set up on the basketball courts until the school gets rebuilt.

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Students collected their belongings from the school, which was still standing, although it suffered some structural damage.

SANGZAO, China — The students lined up row by row on the outdoor basketball courts of Sangzao Middle School in the minutes after the earthquake. When the head count was complete, their fate was clear: all 2,323 were alive.

Parents covered in blood and dust hugged them and cried. So did the school principal, Ye Zhiping.

“That was the single most joyful thing,” he said.

Given that some 10,000 other children were crushed in their classrooms during the devastating quake on May 12, the survival of so many students in Sangzao counts as a minor miracle.

Students and parents credit that to the man they call Angel Ye.

Nervous about the shoddiness of the main school building, Mr. Ye scraped together $58,000 to renovate it in the 1990s. He had workers widen concrete pillars and insert iron rods into them. He demanded stronger balcony railings. He demolished a bathroom whose pipes had been weakened by water.

His school in Peace County probably withstood the 8.0-magnitude earthquake because he pushed the county government to upgrade it. Just 20 miles north, the collapse of Beichuan Middle School buried 1,000 students and teachers.

Mr. Ye’s tale sheds light on the lax building codes in this mountainous corner of Sichuan Province and what might have been done to address well-known shortcomings. In his case, a personal commitment and a relatively petty amount of cash sufficed to avert tragedy.

“We learned a lesson from this earthquake: the standards for schools should have been improved,” Mr. Ye, 55, said in an interview. “The standards now are still not enough.”

Mr. Ye not only shored up the building’s structure, but also had students and teachers prepare for a disaster. They rehearsed an emergency evacuation plan twice a year. Because of that, students and teachers say, everyone managed to flee in less than two minutes on May 12.

“We’re very thankful,” said Qiu Yanfang, 62, the grandmother of a student, as she sat outside the school knitting a brown sweater. “The principal helped ease the nation’s loss, both the psychological loss and the physical loss.”

The Chinese government estimates that more than 7,000 schoolrooms collapsed in the earthquake. The destruction has prompted grieving parents to take to the streets to demand investigations, and that in turn has become the biggest political challenge to government officials in the aftermath of the earthquake. The police began clamping down this month on the protests.

It has been difficult to establish responsibility for the school collapses partly because it is unclear in many cases which level of government is responsible for the original school construction and for ongoing inspections.

The building codes Mr. Ye criticized had been set by the central government in Beijing, he said. While county education officials did not take the initiative in improving Sangzao Middle School, they acceded to Mr. Ye’s requests and gave him money, he said.

Huang Zhichun, an official in the county’s education department, said in a telephone interview: “Based on the fact that so many schools have collapsed, the standard is not good enough. The central government sets the standard.”

Government officials in Beijing and Sichuan have said they are investigating the collapses. In an acknowledgment of the weakness of building codes in the countryside, the National Development and Reform Commission said on May 27 that it had drafted an amendment to improve construction standards for primary and middle schools in rural areas. Experts are reviewing the draft, the commission said.

They could do worse than consult with Mr. Ye. A squat man who speaks in sharp bursts, he now lives with his wife in a refugee camp of green tents on the school’s basketball courts. He started working at the school 30 years ago as an English teacher and has taught in every classroom. Some students say he is more playful than the teachers.

Sangzao is a farming town of 30,000 where merchants sell vegetables from blankets on the road. It has two middle schools, one administered by the township, where a dormitory collapsed during the earthquake, and the other administered by the county. Mr. Ye works in the second. Families from across Sichuan send their children there because of its reputation.

A large billboard on the school grounds lists the names of 90 students who earned top scores on a national exam last year. The school is one of the largest in Peace County. It has a half-dozen dormitory buildings and two classroom buildings, all five stories or lower. One of the classroom buildings was constructed after 2000, the other between 1983 and 1985.

The older one worried Mr. Ye when he became principal 12 years ago.

It is a four-story, white building with large, tinted-glass windows and blue, metal railings running along balconies onto which classrooms open.

“Quality inspectors were supposed to be here to oversee construction of this building,” Mr. Ye said. “When the foundation was laid, they should have been here. When the concrete was put into the pillars, they should have been here. But they weren’t. In the end, no government official dared to come inspect this building because it was built without any standards.”

Mr. Ye walked down the hallways with a visitor and pointed to the corners where the ceiling met wall. He said workers had stuffed trash into those crevices to seal them. In addition, the surfaces of the walls were coarse rather than smooth, a sign of shoddy construction, he said.

The balcony railings were originally made of cement, not metal. They were shaky and a foot too short, Mr. Ye said. They also lacked vertical pillars for support.

“I was among the first teachers who moved into this building, and I was pretty young,” Mr. Ye said. “Our awareness of safety wasn’t the same as now.”

He said his attitude changed after he became principal.

“If I knew there was a hidden danger, and I didn’t do anything about it, then I would be the one responsible,” he said.

From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Ye oversaw a complete overhaul. He said he pestered county officials for money. Eventually the education department gave $58,000. It was a troublesome process because the county was poor and thus tight with money, Mr. Ye said, but officials saw the need to ensure the safety of children.

So the renovations began. Most crucial were changes made to concrete pillars and floor panels. Each classroom had four rectangular pillars that were thickened so they jutted from the walls. Up and down the pillars, workers drilled holes and inserted iron reinforcing rods because the original ones were not enough, Mr. Ye said. The concrete slab floors were secured to be able to withstand intense shaking.

Structural engineers and earthquake experts outside China who have examined photos of collapsed schools point to two critical flaws: a lack of adequate iron reinforcing rods, and poorly built, hollow concrete slab floors.

Mr. Ye said construction codes improved after 2000, and buildings are now supposed to be rated a 6 or 7 on a scale of earthquake resistance.

“But we see from this earthquake that the standard should be lifted to 11 or 12,” he said.

Each classroom in the main school building holds about 60 students. Each room is now a frozen tableau of 2:28 p.m. on May 12. Backpacks and textbooks are scattered all around. A bag of oranges sits on a desk.

Students said they dove under desks when the tremor hit. Then teachers led them onto the basketball courts outside.

“Many parents ran to the school afterward,” said Yang Shihui, 40, an English teacher. “One mother started hugging her daughter and saying, oh my daughter. The daughter was fine. It was actually the mother who was covered in dirt and bleeding.”

Mr. Ye was in a city 30 miles away when the ground began shaking.

“On my way back, I saw that many buildings had been seriously destroyed,” Mr. Ye said. “I was pretty concerned. But when I saw that all of my students were safe, I was very happy.”

These days, students dart in and out of the school to grab textbooks, ducking beneath a thin blue ribbon with a handwritten sign that says “Danger.” To them, the building seems sturdy enough.

But Mr. Ye said it will be torn down, never again used for classes.

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Ye Zhiping, the school’s principal, knew the building was shoddy, so he pressed the county government for $58,000 to upgrade it. If he hadn’t, he said, “I would be the one responsible.”

Huang Yuanxi contributed research from Beijing.
Last edited by wrdos on 16 Jun 2008 14:56, edited 1 time in total.
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