The movie I watched is titled "Stolen Life". The Director was Shaohong Li. It is based on an original story by Ann Dun. Spoken in Mandarin with an English subtitle.
This is a modern film set in Beijing and tells the story of a young beautiful girl (Yanni) whose whole life has been filled with rejection. She was first rejected by her parents (she later found out why) and left with her grand mother and aunt to raise her. The visit from her parents when she was 14 yrs old was the first time she had seen her father. They never even hugged her when they saw her and she did not say a word through out their visit. The parents and relatives talked about her as if she was not present and she herself did not make an attempt to speak up for herself. The mother wanted her to go and work because she did not think she had a future and the father interverned on her behalf that she should go to the university and they would pay if she got admission.
Against all odds, she was accepted into the university and that began her second most painful journey down the path of rejection. This time she was not the only one hurt, an innocent baby was also hurt in the process. On the first day at the university, she met Muyu, who would be the one to change are destiny for bad and set her on a disastrous course. Muyu was an uneducated young man who delivered food to the university and other places around. He became friends with Yanni and she innocently placed her trust in him. She thought she had finally found
someone who accepted and loved her. It turns out that Muyu was a crafty, evil young man.
Along the way, Yanni moved in with Muyu and became pregnant. She was asked to leave the university and never had the chance to complete her education. She also lost contact with her family and they actually thought she was dead. Muyu isolated her from everyone and everything she knew. Her aunt finally saw her with her pregnancy selling snails on the roadside and told her parents where to find her. When her mother visited she explained to her the reason she had been so distant from Yanni was because she also became pregnant when she was at the university and never had the opportunity to complete her education. This was history repeating itself.
Yanni's mother signed an agreement with Muyu that she would give him some money if he gave the baby away for adoption after Yanni gave birth. All this was done without consulting her. Muyu finnaly found adoptive parents and despite Yanni's heartfelt cries, he allowed the adoptive parents to take the baby away. She never recovered from that. It later turned out Muyu was a pro at impregnating innocent young girls and selling off the babies to adoptive parents. He had done the same thing to the girl he was with before Yanni came into the picture. He did the same to the Yanni and the girl he left Yanni for. He told Yanni he knew he did not have a future and he was an uneducated man yet he had been able to get these univeristy girls to like him and have babies for him. Obviously, his actions were well planned and well thought out.
It was a very sad story but Yanni was able to set her life back on course, at least a little at the end of the movie. Obviously, she would never go to university again and she may never become who she would have been with a good education under her belt. She's also doing menial jobs unlike the more professional jobs that she would have had access to if she had completed her university. I'm not sure she'll ever recover from the loss of the child because even at the end of the movie she was appealing to whoever may know the where abouts of her son.
Very sad but lessons learned. Especially for young people who are easily mislead by the idea of love and loose focus on what in important.
Showing posts with label Bukky's blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bukky's blogs. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Bukky Post 18 - 2-20 Assignment
1.) Which type of culture has a stronger impact on the workplace behavior: Societal culture or Organizational culture? Why?
Based on my experience from my years in corporate America, I would say organizational culture.
It is very vivid in my current place of employment. There are certain norms that are so ingrained in the employees, especially those that have been with the company for a why, it is comical at time. They expect things to be done a certain way, most of the promotion occurs by who you know not what you know, the Sr. leadership has been an old boy's network, but this is changing as a result of the changes being made by the new female ceo.
Organizational culture has the greater impact because over the course of time people within the organization come to an unspoken or spoken agreement as to what is acceptable/not acceptable behavior and people that do not play by the rules will be penalized one way or the other. They quickly learn to fall in line.
2.) Provide an example of a behaviour in high context culture and low context culture
High Context Culture: In the Chinese or Japanese culture, a hand shake on a usiness deal is good as gold. They have given their word and do not a legal contract to fulfill their committment.
In the African culture, a business partner would be invited out for drinks or to the person's home to eat with the family to establish a social relationship before doing business.
Low Context: American culture where everything has to be written down in order to have evidence in case of a court case of what the othe party agreed to.
In American culture, the more letters you have behind your name, the easier it is to sell a candidate for a job because they believe they have the expertise and will perform highly at the job.
3.) Contact a person who is in the US from China. Seek their input on any instance of ethnocentric bias they experienced while in the US.
My contact experienced a bias in the sense of constantly being told he spoke excellent english unlike most Chinese and people always wanted to know if he learnt english here in the US. He already spoke fluent english before coming to the US.
4.) Is China's culture polychronic or monochronic? Justify your answer.
China's culture is monochronic. The Chinese take committments seriously, they are committed to the job - work long hours, adhere religiously to plans - chinese are raised within structure and tend not to be individualistic or think for themselves, they obey authority, they are concerned about not distrubing others; follow rules of privacy and consideration, emphasize promptness, they are low context and need information.
These are all characteristics of a monochronic people.
In a polychronic culture peole like to preform multiple task at once. examples include talking on the phone while you are driving or browsing the internet why you are in a meeting. The American culture is an example of a polychronic culture. Most people are expected to multi task at work in order to meet deadlines or be able to complete additional duties assigned to them.
5.) What is Guaxi? Explain with an example from your workplace.
Wikipedia:
Guanxi describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central idea in Chinese society. In Western media, the pinyin romanization of this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations—"connections" and "relationships"—as neither of those terms sufficiently reflects the wide cultural implications that guanxi describes.[citation needed]
Closely related concepts include that of ganqing, a measure which reflects the depth of feeling within an interpersonal relationship, renqing, the moral obligation to maintain the relationship, and the idea of "face", meaning social status, propriety, prestige, or more realistically a combination of all three
At its most basic, guanxi describes a personal connection between two people in which one is able to prevail upon another to perform a favor or service, or be prevailed upon. The two people need not be of equal social status. Guanxi can also be used to describe a network of contacts, which an individual can call upon when something needs to be done, and through which he or she can exert influence on behalf of another. In addition, guanxi can describe a state of general understanding between two people: "he/she is aware of my wants/needs and will take them into account when deciding her/his course of future actions which concern or could concern me without any specific discussion or request".
The term is not generally used to describe relationships within a family, although guanxi obligations can sometimes be described in terms of an extended family. The term is also not generally used to describe relationships that fall within other well-defined societal norms (e.g. boss-worker, teacher-student, friendship). The relationships formed by guanxi are personal and not transferable.
When a guanxi network violates bureaucratic norms, it can lead to corruption, and guanxi can also form the basis of patron-client relations.
The most common response to indicate acceptance of an apology in Standard Mandarin is mei guanxi (沒關係 ) which literally translated to "doesn't have guanxi [implications]". This is however an homonym usage of the phrase "guanxi". In this instance, mei guanxi (沒關係 ) actually means, "Don't worry about it."
Guanxi is most often used in the press when guanxi obligations take precedence over civic duties, leading to nepotism and cronyism
Someone is described as having good guanxi if their particular network of influence could assist in the resolution of the problem currently being spoken about.
My director has a lot of Guanxi within the IT Group. We recently had a sutuation where we were requiring another division to adhere to a new policy training and they refused because they felt the requirement was not applicable to them.
My direction had a conversation with the VP and they then had a conversation with the CIO and before you knew it this other division agreed to take the training based on the influence that was exerted on them.
Based on my experience from my years in corporate America, I would say organizational culture.
It is very vivid in my current place of employment. There are certain norms that are so ingrained in the employees, especially those that have been with the company for a why, it is comical at time. They expect things to be done a certain way, most of the promotion occurs by who you know not what you know, the Sr. leadership has been an old boy's network, but this is changing as a result of the changes being made by the new female ceo.
Organizational culture has the greater impact because over the course of time people within the organization come to an unspoken or spoken agreement as to what is acceptable/not acceptable behavior and people that do not play by the rules will be penalized one way or the other. They quickly learn to fall in line.
2.) Provide an example of a behaviour in high context culture and low context culture
High Context Culture: In the Chinese or Japanese culture, a hand shake on a usiness deal is good as gold. They have given their word and do not a legal contract to fulfill their committment.
In the African culture, a business partner would be invited out for drinks or to the person's home to eat with the family to establish a social relationship before doing business.
Low Context: American culture where everything has to be written down in order to have evidence in case of a court case of what the othe party agreed to.
In American culture, the more letters you have behind your name, the easier it is to sell a candidate for a job because they believe they have the expertise and will perform highly at the job.
3.) Contact a person who is in the US from China. Seek their input on any instance of ethnocentric bias they experienced while in the US.
My contact experienced a bias in the sense of constantly being told he spoke excellent english unlike most Chinese and people always wanted to know if he learnt english here in the US. He already spoke fluent english before coming to the US.
4.) Is China's culture polychronic or monochronic? Justify your answer.
China's culture is monochronic. The Chinese take committments seriously, they are committed to the job - work long hours, adhere religiously to plans - chinese are raised within structure and tend not to be individualistic or think for themselves, they obey authority, they are concerned about not distrubing others; follow rules of privacy and consideration, emphasize promptness, they are low context and need information.
These are all characteristics of a monochronic people.
In a polychronic culture peole like to preform multiple task at once. examples include talking on the phone while you are driving or browsing the internet why you are in a meeting. The American culture is an example of a polychronic culture. Most people are expected to multi task at work in order to meet deadlines or be able to complete additional duties assigned to them.
5.) What is Guaxi? Explain with an example from your workplace.
Wikipedia:
Guanxi describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central idea in Chinese society. In Western media, the pinyin romanization of this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations—"connections" and "relationships"—as neither of those terms sufficiently reflects the wide cultural implications that guanxi describes.[citation needed]
Closely related concepts include that of ganqing, a measure which reflects the depth of feeling within an interpersonal relationship, renqing, the moral obligation to maintain the relationship, and the idea of "face", meaning social status, propriety, prestige, or more realistically a combination of all three
At its most basic, guanxi describes a personal connection between two people in which one is able to prevail upon another to perform a favor or service, or be prevailed upon. The two people need not be of equal social status. Guanxi can also be used to describe a network of contacts, which an individual can call upon when something needs to be done, and through which he or she can exert influence on behalf of another. In addition, guanxi can describe a state of general understanding between two people: "he/she is aware of my wants/needs and will take them into account when deciding her/his course of future actions which concern or could concern me without any specific discussion or request".
The term is not generally used to describe relationships within a family, although guanxi obligations can sometimes be described in terms of an extended family. The term is also not generally used to describe relationships that fall within other well-defined societal norms (e.g. boss-worker, teacher-student, friendship). The relationships formed by guanxi are personal and not transferable.
When a guanxi network violates bureaucratic norms, it can lead to corruption, and guanxi can also form the basis of patron-client relations.
The most common response to indicate acceptance of an apology in Standard Mandarin is mei guanxi (沒關係 ) which literally translated to "doesn't have guanxi [implications]". This is however an homonym usage of the phrase "guanxi". In this instance, mei guanxi (沒關係 ) actually means, "Don't worry about it."
Guanxi is most often used in the press when guanxi obligations take precedence over civic duties, leading to nepotism and cronyism
Someone is described as having good guanxi if their particular network of influence could assist in the resolution of the problem currently being spoken about.
My director has a lot of Guanxi within the IT Group. We recently had a sutuation where we were requiring another division to adhere to a new policy training and they refused because they felt the requirement was not applicable to them.
My direction had a conversation with the VP and they then had a conversation with the CIO and before you knew it this other division agreed to take the training based on the influence that was exerted on them.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Bukky Post 7 - Response To George's Blog: China Trying to Become What They are Yet to Become
Bukky - Post 7
I like the quote "China is striving to become what it has yet to become". In a way, I think that quote applies to each one of us, we are striving to become what we are yet to become. In most countries and cultures outside the US, it is a shame not to take care of your parents. They raise you and give you their best and there is the understanding that when they grow old, you take care of them. I don't expect to be a burden to my children but I definitely expect them to take care of me when I grow older. That's why I am giving them my best right now.
January 25, 2010 6:58 PM
We had a brief discussion about taking care of our parents when they grow older during the class on 02/20 when Prof. Selen was presenting. She had also mentioned that she takes care of her parents financially though her sister takes care of their day to day needs.
The same was the case when my mother was alive, we used to take care of her financially and hired helped to assist with her other needs.
Part of the training I am giving my children now is to let them know, when I am older, they will take care of me.
I like the quote "China is striving to become what it has yet to become". In a way, I think that quote applies to each one of us, we are striving to become what we are yet to become. In most countries and cultures outside the US, it is a shame not to take care of your parents. They raise you and give you their best and there is the understanding that when they grow old, you take care of them. I don't expect to be a burden to my children but I definitely expect them to take care of me when I grow older. That's why I am giving them my best right now.
January 25, 2010 6:58 PM
We had a brief discussion about taking care of our parents when they grow older during the class on 02/20 when Prof. Selen was presenting. She had also mentioned that she takes care of her parents financially though her sister takes care of their day to day needs.
The same was the case when my mother was alive, we used to take care of her financially and hired helped to assist with her other needs.
Part of the training I am giving my children now is to let them know, when I am older, they will take care of me.
Bukky Post 9 - Reposting Response to Google inc, Figuring out how to deal with China
Bukky Post 9
Google, Inc.Figuring out how to deal with China.
Indeed a tough decision. Google realizes the vast potential China holds for profits and market share but there is also the issue of compromising it's values to meet the requirements of the communist government. Perhaps Google should have considered entering the Chinese market via a partnership with a local trusted business. This would have freed them from compromising directly and the local partner would have been better able to navigate the complex issues of doing business in China. Though over 50% of their client base is in the foreign markets, Google generates most of it's income from it's US market. Advertising revenue which is it's main source of income is not growing in foreign markets like the US because most of it's customers do not have access to credit cards to shop on line. It's amazing how something we take for granted here in the US is a huge luxury in most countries. Though the Chinese use the internet mostly for entertainment, it can be considered to be sensored entertainment. The communist government has such a tremendous control over what the people see, hear and say. I believe this can only go on for so long. The younger generation of Chinese citizens will not be as complacent as their parents. The values of the younger generation around the world is changing. They tend to question authority a lot more and they are not as accepting of limitations to their right. I think Google made a good business decision to enter China. When things change in the government, they would have already had the advantage of being in the market and be better able to adapt to the requirements of their customers.
January 28, 2010 10:39 AM
Google, Inc.Figuring out how to deal with China.
Indeed a tough decision. Google realizes the vast potential China holds for profits and market share but there is also the issue of compromising it's values to meet the requirements of the communist government. Perhaps Google should have considered entering the Chinese market via a partnership with a local trusted business. This would have freed them from compromising directly and the local partner would have been better able to navigate the complex issues of doing business in China. Though over 50% of their client base is in the foreign markets, Google generates most of it's income from it's US market. Advertising revenue which is it's main source of income is not growing in foreign markets like the US because most of it's customers do not have access to credit cards to shop on line. It's amazing how something we take for granted here in the US is a huge luxury in most countries. Though the Chinese use the internet mostly for entertainment, it can be considered to be sensored entertainment. The communist government has such a tremendous control over what the people see, hear and say. I believe this can only go on for so long. The younger generation of Chinese citizens will not be as complacent as their parents. The values of the younger generation around the world is changing. They tend to question authority a lot more and they are not as accepting of limitations to their right. I think Google made a good business decision to enter China. When things change in the government, they would have already had the advantage of being in the market and be better able to adapt to the requirements of their customers.
January 28, 2010 10:39 AM
Bukky Reposting Response to Brits make it Rich in China (Post 3of3)
Vance - Very streetsmart. Made his money from under cutting competition by selling cheap Chinese kitchens. Would go off the beaten track to get the cheapest prices for his products. Though he was very aggressive, I would venture to say, he needed to be that way to accomplish his goals. He was very distrustful of the Chinese business men based on his past experiences with them. They sent him damaged goods and did not deliver on their promises though they had his money. He seemed very frustrated so many times and I kept wondering why he did not leave and go back home. But he couldn't because he knew of the huge potential for success, the potential to make a lot of money that awaited him if he was successful. He seemed to make a few hasty decisions in his bid to have control over the products such as his purchase of the guary.Given that Vance himself had made a huge profit off the failures of others, it is amazing how much he could not tolerate the shortcomings of the Chinese. He did not want them to make a profit off him unnecessarily. There were situations where he was dupped out of his money with the Chinese business men not delivering on their promise. There were time when it was obvious the Chinese business man had spent Vance's money on personal items such as with Mr. Lee who then requested for additional money from Vance though he had not delivered on the intial money he received.My understanding of Mr. Lee's behaviour is that he considered the intial money given him by Vance as a gift or a requirement for doing business. This is the common practive in emerging countries. The business man is expected to give a bribe or gift before they can do business with the local people.It seems Vance is learning the ways of the local, he is willing to bend the rules to get his way. He had a fake Olympic inspection bus to enable him transact a little smoother. You could also tell he had a heart despite his hard exterior. He was willing to give Mr. Wong a second chance and not take his business away from his factory. Mr. Wong's factory provided employment for the village and this prevented the people from migrating to the urban areas for work.In conclusion, doing business in China or any emerging economy is a very risky venture with opportunity for huge profits if successful. It is very critical to study the people and culture before venturing to these nations. They are no courts to intervene and the law will also not be on the side of the foreigner. China is a nation that is growing rapidly. In order to sustain it's growth, it must put more structure in place to protect those coming to do business with it. The western world will only be permissive of this way of doing business for so long before a new economy emerges as the place to do business.
January 19, 2010 6:10 PM
January 19, 2010 6:10 PM
Bukky Reposting Response to Brits make it Rich in China (Post 2of3)
Peter - a retire army officer who had developed an energy saving product that had a huge potential of making millions of dollars. Though he came to China very optimistic, he soon learnt doing business in China was not the same as in the western world. He had tried to go on his own but he soon realize he needed a Chinese business partner if he was going to sell even one unit of his product. He was of course concerned about copyright infringements and the possibility of the Chinese stealing his trade secret and producing millions of his product before he yet had the opportunity to sell even one unit. He had to partner with Mr. Cecil a local business man who told him doing business in China was like the "wild, wild west". I have to agree with him and reinforce the fact that doing business in any 3rd world country is indeed like the wild, wild west. It is a survival of the fittest. Indeed a "dog eat dog" mentality. Peter had to take a leap of faith which paid off in the end. Mr. Cecil did business the Chinese way and got the job done. Though he disappeared for a while without communicating with Peter ( this is a very common practice in 3rd world countries), "now you see me, now you don't. Peter learns doing business with the Chinese and in any emerging economy is a waiting game. You have to be very patient because the people do not move at the pace of the western world. Hopfully, while you are waiting, they are geting the job done like Mr. Cecil.
January 19, 2010 6:10 PM
January 19, 2010 6:10 PM
Bukky Reposting Response to Brits make it Rich on China (Post 1of 3)
As I sat here watching the series of videos, I can't help but laugh out loud at some of the issues the Brits are encountering. Not because they are funny but because I can see thru the actions of the Chinese business men and can almost predict the outcomes. As someone who grew up in an emerging economy and who still has ties to a 3rd world country, the actions of the Chinese business men come as no surprise to me. I have come to the realization that business men in emerging economies are all the same, shrewd, sometimes dubious, sometimes dishonest, and unreliable and inherently greedy. Different cultures, locations and people but they all have the same common link of greed. Not to say their Western counterparts are too different. The only difference for the westerners is the availability of law & order. The attitude of most is to take advantage of their western counterparts who are not familiar with the way of doing business because they feel they have the resource to burn.Tony, Peter and Vance are all taking a huge risks going to China. What tempts them and most westerners is the possibility of "high risk, high rewards", to quote Vance. They are aware that in emerging markets, a business man can become a millionaire overnight because these countries have very high potentials and vastly untapped markets. You can also loose your shirt and your life if you are not careful.Tony - His cushion business was ruined by cheap Chinese imports. He was the #1 cushion maker in Europe before then. He determined to go to China to salvage his business, sort of "if you can't beat them, join them". Heavily indebted, he heads for China to build a factory for manufacturing cushions. One of the biggest concerns he encounters is copy right infringement. There are no laws governing or discouraging this dubious practice in China. The problem is so bad that people are actually taking pictures of his product right in front of him for later reproduction. Building the factory was also a massive challenge for him. He needed to partner with a Chinese business woman in order to accomplish this project. The work ethics of some of the workers is very bad with the workers not being very dependable and there does not seem to be much the average foreign business man can do about this. Tony was able to secure contracts thru his persistence and hardwork. Finally with the factory almost complete, there was the issue of hiring english speaking Chinese workers for his business. Most of the workers are migrant workers leaving their farms to move to the urban areas to seek a better life for themselves and their families back home.With Tony's factory successfully completed, most of the local dignitaries wanted to be associated with his success though they were not visible when he was struggling to set up the factory.
January 19, 2010 6:07 PM
January 19, 2010 6:07 PM
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Bukky Post 17 - Baidu posts Jump in 4Q Earnings as Revenue Climbs
Baidu, Google's competitor in China is definitely seeing an increase in revenue. As stated in my previous post, they were also the recipient of the Chinese governments "China Internet Self Disciplne Award" in 2009. Obviously abiding by the strict rules of the Chines government has it's rewards, never mind human rights that are being trampled on in the process.
Baidu posts jump in 4Q earnings as revenue climbs
The Associated Press
Published: 02/09/1011:33 pm Updated: 02/09/1011:33 pm
BEIJING –
Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth.
The announcement Wednesday comes amid a dispute between rival Google Inc. and China's government over Internet censorship and hacking.
Baidu earned $62.7 million, or $1.80 per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with $42.3 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation expenses, Beijing-based Baidu earned $1.88 per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 40 percent to $184.7 million. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected profit of $1.68 per share on revenue of $180 million.
The results also exceeded Baidu's expectations and were driven by the success of a new system for advertisers to bid on paid links to search words, said CEO Robin Li.
"With a solid base of users and customers, our foundation is stronger than ever and we will continue to drive innovation to capture market opportunities ahead," Li said in a statement.
Chinese Internet companies have seen profits grow even as the global economic crisis hurt China's exports. Domestic growth and consumer spending have benefited from a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) government stimulus.
Google announced Jan. 12 that it no longer wanted to cooperate with Chinese censorship and might shut down its China-based site Google.cn. The company also complained about China-based hacking of its e-mail service.
Industry analysts say that if Google leaves, Baidu should be able to pick up the bulk of its Chinese advertisers. But they say the Chinese service also might suffer if former Google users switch to Baidu and are unsatisfied with its service.
Chinese officials defended the government's censorship and denied the government was involved in the cyber-attacks.
Baidu had 58.4 percent of China's search market in the final quarter of 2009, while Google had 35.6 percent, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. Google has steadily gained market share from smaller rivals but has failed to dent Baidu's lead.
Baidu has begun to expand abroad with the launch of a Japan-based search site in 2007 and said costs related to that service were $6.3 million for the quarter, which reduced diluted earnings per share by 18 cents.
For the first quarter of this year, Baidu forecast revenue of $176 million to $181 million. Analysts predict revenue of $170.2 million.
For the year, Baidu's net income rose 42 percent to $217.6 million, or $6.26 per share. Revenue climbed 39 percent to $651.6 million.
Shares of Baidu rose $38.14, or 8.8 percent, to $473.15 in after-hours trading. The stock earlier slid $8.22 to end regular trading at $435.01. It has ranged from $119.65 to $470.25 over the past year.
Baidu posts jump in 4Q earnings as revenue climbs
The Associated Press
Published: 02/09/1011:33 pm Updated: 02/09/1011:33 pm
BEIJING –
Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth.
The announcement Wednesday comes amid a dispute between rival Google Inc. and China's government over Internet censorship and hacking.
Baidu earned $62.7 million, or $1.80 per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with $42.3 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation expenses, Beijing-based Baidu earned $1.88 per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 40 percent to $184.7 million. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected profit of $1.68 per share on revenue of $180 million.
The results also exceeded Baidu's expectations and were driven by the success of a new system for advertisers to bid on paid links to search words, said CEO Robin Li.
"With a solid base of users and customers, our foundation is stronger than ever and we will continue to drive innovation to capture market opportunities ahead," Li said in a statement.
Chinese Internet companies have seen profits grow even as the global economic crisis hurt China's exports. Domestic growth and consumer spending have benefited from a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) government stimulus.
Google announced Jan. 12 that it no longer wanted to cooperate with Chinese censorship and might shut down its China-based site Google.cn. The company also complained about China-based hacking of its e-mail service.
Industry analysts say that if Google leaves, Baidu should be able to pick up the bulk of its Chinese advertisers. But they say the Chinese service also might suffer if former Google users switch to Baidu and are unsatisfied with its service.
Chinese officials defended the government's censorship and denied the government was involved in the cyber-attacks.
Baidu had 58.4 percent of China's search market in the final quarter of 2009, while Google had 35.6 percent, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. Google has steadily gained market share from smaller rivals but has failed to dent Baidu's lead.
Baidu has begun to expand abroad with the launch of a Japan-based search site in 2007 and said costs related to that service were $6.3 million for the quarter, which reduced diluted earnings per share by 18 cents.
For the first quarter of this year, Baidu forecast revenue of $176 million to $181 million. Analysts predict revenue of $170.2 million.
For the year, Baidu's net income rose 42 percent to $217.6 million, or $6.26 per share. Revenue climbed 39 percent to $651.6 million.
Shares of Baidu rose $38.14, or 8.8 percent, to $473.15 in after-hours trading. The stock earlier slid $8.22 to end regular trading at $435.01. It has ranged from $119.65 to $470.25 over the past year.
Bukky Post 16 - Are China's demands for Internet "Self-Discipline" Spreading?
The Chinese governement actually rewards companies like Baidu, Google's competitor with the "China Internet Self-Discipline Award".
What message is this sending out to the users of the internet and companies like Google that want to do business in China?
Perhaps the message is "if you play ball with us, you will be richly rewarded but if you go against us, we will make you pay".
Are China's demands for Internet ‘self-discipline' spreading?
REBECCA MACKINNON
Published: 01/19/1012:05 am
Every year in China, Internet executives are officially rewarded for their “patriotism.”
Last November in Beijing, I sat in a large auditorium festooned with red banners and watched Robin Li, the CEO of Google’s main competitor, Baidu, parade onstage with executives from 19 other companies to receive the 2009 “China Internet Self-Discipline Award.”
The rhetoric was all about the “strength and confidence of the Chinese Internet” and “harmonious and healthy Internet development.” The reality is: China’s annual “self discipline” award is for private sector censorship.
In English-language news reports about Chinese censorship, we hear a lot about the “Great Firewall,” the system that Chinese network operators use to block objectionable Web sites that are operated from overseas — and to render Twitter, Facebook and YouTube inaccessible to Chinese Internet users. You also may have read about the “Internet police” who keep tabs on what people say and do online.
You may not have heard about “self-discipline” requirements for Chinese Internet companies, however. For some reason, they get a lot less Western media coverage, despite the fact that the government delegates a large part of the censorship and surveillance on the Chinese Internet to private companies.
Here’s how it works: In China, all Internet and mobile companies are held responsible for everything their users post, transmit or search for. The Chinese call it “self-discipline.”
In Anglo-American legal parlance, it’s “intermediary liability,” which in China is taken to its logical extreme with no public accountability or due process. “Intermediary liability” means that the intermediary, a service that acts as “intermediate” conduit for the transmission or publication of information, is held liable or legally responsible for everything its users do.
In China, if companies fail to track and remove content or block conversations that regulators deem violate laws or regulations (a court or judge is almost never involved), they risk heavy fines at best and permanent shutdown at worst.
Companies’ liability covers a gamut of content, all the way from porn, to pirated intellectual property, to defamation of powerful people, to exposes of corruption leading to poisoned baby formula, to treatises on democratic reform. Dozens of Chinese companies were shut down last year, and many more were fined or warned. Unlike Google, they couldn’t just leave China.
To operate in China, Google’s local search engine, Google.cn, had to meet these “self-discipline” requirements. When users typed words or phrases for sensitive subjects into the box and clicked “search,” Google.cn was responsible for making sure that the results didn’t include forbidden content.
It’s much easier to force intermediary communications and Internet companies such as Google to police themselves and their users than the alternatives: sending cops after everybody who attempts a risque or politically sensitive search, getting parents and teachers to do their jobs, or chasing down the origin of every offending link. Or reconsidering the logic and purpose of your entire system.
Intermediary liability enables the Chinese authorities to minimize the number of people they need to put in jail in order to stay in power and to maximize their control over what the Chinese people know and don’t know.
In its bombshell announcement on Jan. 12, Google cited massive cyber attacks against the Gmail accounts of human rights activists as the most urgent reason for re-evaluating its presence in China. However, the Chinese government’s demands for ever-increasing levels of censorship contributed to a toxic and unsustainable business environment.
Ever since Google.cn launched in 2006, I’ve occasionally run tests to see how it compares with its homegrown competitor Baidu. Google.cn consistently censored less than Baidu did. This is how Google executives justified the ethics of their presence in China: Chinese users, they argued, still were better off with Google.cn than without it.
Things changed for Google in 2009, however. Regulators demanded that it ramp its self-censorship up to Baidu’s level. The Chinese state-run media attacked Google numerous times for failing to protect youth from smutty Web sites when — horror of horrors — those innocent kids happened to type in smutty words and phrases.
Meanwhile in the Western democratic world, the idea of strengthening intermediary liability is becoming increasingly popular in government agencies and parliaments. From France to Italy to the United Kingdom, the idea of holding carriers and services liable for what their customers do is seen as the cheapest and easiest solution to the law enforcement and social problems that have gotten tougher in the digital age — from child porn to copyright protection to cyber- bullying and libel.
I’m not equating Western democracy with Chinese authoritarianism — that would be ludicrous. However, I am concerned about the direction we’re taking without considering the full global context of free expression and censorship.
The Obama administration is negotiating a trade agreement with 34 other countries — the text of which it refuses to make public, citing national security concerns — that according to leaked reports would include increased liability for content hosting companies and service providers. The goal is to combat the global piracy of movies and music.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t fight crime or enforce the law. Of course we should, assuming that the laws reflect the consent of the governed. But let’s make sure that we don’t throw the baby of democracy and free speech out with the bathwater, as we do the necessary work of adjusting legal systems and economies to the Internet age.
Rebecca MacKinnon is a fellow with the Open Society Institute. From 1998-2001, she was CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief. She wrote this for McClatchy Newspapers.
What message is this sending out to the users of the internet and companies like Google that want to do business in China?
Perhaps the message is "if you play ball with us, you will be richly rewarded but if you go against us, we will make you pay".
Are China's demands for Internet ‘self-discipline' spreading?
REBECCA MACKINNON
Published: 01/19/1012:05 am
Every year in China, Internet executives are officially rewarded for their “patriotism.”
Last November in Beijing, I sat in a large auditorium festooned with red banners and watched Robin Li, the CEO of Google’s main competitor, Baidu, parade onstage with executives from 19 other companies to receive the 2009 “China Internet Self-Discipline Award.”
The rhetoric was all about the “strength and confidence of the Chinese Internet” and “harmonious and healthy Internet development.” The reality is: China’s annual “self discipline” award is for private sector censorship.
In English-language news reports about Chinese censorship, we hear a lot about the “Great Firewall,” the system that Chinese network operators use to block objectionable Web sites that are operated from overseas — and to render Twitter, Facebook and YouTube inaccessible to Chinese Internet users. You also may have read about the “Internet police” who keep tabs on what people say and do online.
You may not have heard about “self-discipline” requirements for Chinese Internet companies, however. For some reason, they get a lot less Western media coverage, despite the fact that the government delegates a large part of the censorship and surveillance on the Chinese Internet to private companies.
Here’s how it works: In China, all Internet and mobile companies are held responsible for everything their users post, transmit or search for. The Chinese call it “self-discipline.”
In Anglo-American legal parlance, it’s “intermediary liability,” which in China is taken to its logical extreme with no public accountability or due process. “Intermediary liability” means that the intermediary, a service that acts as “intermediate” conduit for the transmission or publication of information, is held liable or legally responsible for everything its users do.
In China, if companies fail to track and remove content or block conversations that regulators deem violate laws or regulations (a court or judge is almost never involved), they risk heavy fines at best and permanent shutdown at worst.
Companies’ liability covers a gamut of content, all the way from porn, to pirated intellectual property, to defamation of powerful people, to exposes of corruption leading to poisoned baby formula, to treatises on democratic reform. Dozens of Chinese companies were shut down last year, and many more were fined or warned. Unlike Google, they couldn’t just leave China.
To operate in China, Google’s local search engine, Google.cn, had to meet these “self-discipline” requirements. When users typed words or phrases for sensitive subjects into the box and clicked “search,” Google.cn was responsible for making sure that the results didn’t include forbidden content.
It’s much easier to force intermediary communications and Internet companies such as Google to police themselves and their users than the alternatives: sending cops after everybody who attempts a risque or politically sensitive search, getting parents and teachers to do their jobs, or chasing down the origin of every offending link. Or reconsidering the logic and purpose of your entire system.
Intermediary liability enables the Chinese authorities to minimize the number of people they need to put in jail in order to stay in power and to maximize their control over what the Chinese people know and don’t know.
In its bombshell announcement on Jan. 12, Google cited massive cyber attacks against the Gmail accounts of human rights activists as the most urgent reason for re-evaluating its presence in China. However, the Chinese government’s demands for ever-increasing levels of censorship contributed to a toxic and unsustainable business environment.
Ever since Google.cn launched in 2006, I’ve occasionally run tests to see how it compares with its homegrown competitor Baidu. Google.cn consistently censored less than Baidu did. This is how Google executives justified the ethics of their presence in China: Chinese users, they argued, still were better off with Google.cn than without it.
Things changed for Google in 2009, however. Regulators demanded that it ramp its self-censorship up to Baidu’s level. The Chinese state-run media attacked Google numerous times for failing to protect youth from smutty Web sites when — horror of horrors — those innocent kids happened to type in smutty words and phrases.
Meanwhile in the Western democratic world, the idea of strengthening intermediary liability is becoming increasingly popular in government agencies and parliaments. From France to Italy to the United Kingdom, the idea of holding carriers and services liable for what their customers do is seen as the cheapest and easiest solution to the law enforcement and social problems that have gotten tougher in the digital age — from child porn to copyright protection to cyber- bullying and libel.
I’m not equating Western democracy with Chinese authoritarianism — that would be ludicrous. However, I am concerned about the direction we’re taking without considering the full global context of free expression and censorship.
The Obama administration is negotiating a trade agreement with 34 other countries — the text of which it refuses to make public, citing national security concerns — that according to leaked reports would include increased liability for content hosting companies and service providers. The goal is to combat the global piracy of movies and music.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t fight crime or enforce the law. Of course we should, assuming that the laws reflect the consent of the governed. But let’s make sure that we don’t throw the baby of democracy and free speech out with the bathwater, as we do the necessary work of adjusting legal systems and economies to the Internet age.
Rebecca MacKinnon is a fellow with the Open Society Institute. From 1998-2001, she was CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief. She wrote this for McClatchy Newspapers.
Bukky Post 15 - China Launches Strict New Internet Controls
The internet has become a window to the world for billions of people around the world. The wealth of information available on the internet is remarkable and has opened up so much access to other countries, cultures and peoples for all of us.
The Chinese government persists in limiting this access for its people perhaps because they do not want them to see the way the other half lives and become discontented with the way they live.
China launches strict new Internet controls
BEIJING –
China's technology ministry moved to tighten controls on Internet use Tuesday, saying individuals who want to operate Web sites must first meet in person with regulators.
The state-sanctioned group that registers domain names in China froze registrations for new individual Web sites in December after state media complained that not enough was being done to check whether sites provided pornographic content.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that ban was being lifted, but would-be operators would now have submit their identity cards and photos of themselves as well as meet in person with regulators and representatives of service providers before their sites could be registered.
It said the rule was aimed at cracking down on pornography.
China has the world's biggest online population, with 384 million Internet users. The government operates the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and filtering, blocking pornographic sites as well as those seen as subversive to communist rule.
The new regulations come as the government is in talks with Google Inc. about whether the U.S.-based Internet giant will be allowed to continue operating in China after saying in January it would no longer cooperate with the country's Web censorship. The two sides have given no details of the status of their discussions.
Chinese authorities have launched repeated crackdowns on online pornography and the government says nearly 5,400 people were detained last year.
The Chinese government persists in limiting this access for its people perhaps because they do not want them to see the way the other half lives and become discontented with the way they live.
China launches strict new Internet controls
BEIJING –
China's technology ministry moved to tighten controls on Internet use Tuesday, saying individuals who want to operate Web sites must first meet in person with regulators.
The state-sanctioned group that registers domain names in China froze registrations for new individual Web sites in December after state media complained that not enough was being done to check whether sites provided pornographic content.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that ban was being lifted, but would-be operators would now have submit their identity cards and photos of themselves as well as meet in person with regulators and representatives of service providers before their sites could be registered.
It said the rule was aimed at cracking down on pornography.
China has the world's biggest online population, with 384 million Internet users. The government operates the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and filtering, blocking pornographic sites as well as those seen as subversive to communist rule.
The new regulations come as the government is in talks with Google Inc. about whether the U.S.-based Internet giant will be allowed to continue operating in China after saying in January it would no longer cooperate with the country's Web censorship. The two sides have given no details of the status of their discussions.
Chinese authorities have launched repeated crackdowns on online pornography and the government says nearly 5,400 people were detained last year.
Bukky Post 14 - China calls Goole's claims of cyber attack "groundless"
The Chinese government's response to Googles claims obviously will not help alleviate their concerns about the cyber attacks especially since the attacks have been traced back to 2 prestigious Chinese universities that have ties to the government.
Google will really need to consider the merits of doing business in China based on the events they have encountered with the Chinese government in recent times.
February 23rd, 2010
China calls Google's claims of a cyber attack "groundless"
Posted by Sam Diaz @ 9:26 am
Categories: China, Google, Government, Politics, Security
Just as Google and China are sitting down to talk again about hacking attacks, censorship and Google’s future in China, a government official in Beijing publicly called out Google by calling its claims of a hacking attack “groundless.”
Until now, the Chinese government had been somewhat cooperative with Google and the U.S. about the highly sophisticated hacking attack against Google and other companies last year. Government officials have publicly condemned hacking and even made some arrests to break up a hacking ring in China.
But those sacrificial arrests weren’t enough to ease the concerns of Google or investigators in the U.S. They kept digging and digging and, this week, it was learned that the hacking attacks traced back to a prestigious university and a vocational school with ties to the government. Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that the U.S. analysts had identified the author of the hacking code as a 30-something freelance security consultant who doesn’t really want to be involved in these sort of efforts but that his skill level has the attention of government officials who are “looking over his shoulder.”
Now, all of the sudden, Google’s claims are groundless. It appears that the Chinese government may have been feeling the pressure of being backed into a corner and had to come out swinging. At a news briefing in the Chinese capital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said:
Google’s statement from January 12 is groundless, and we are firmly opposed to it. China administers its internet according to law, and this position will not change. China prohibits hacking and will crack down on hacking according to law… Reports that these attacks came from Chinese schools are totally groundless and the accusation of Chinese government is also irresponsible and driven by ulterior motives.
For now, Google is still censoring search results on behalf of the government, as required by law, while company officials meet with Chinese officials to discuss next steps. But a statement like this from a government official gives us a hint at how those talks must be going.
If talks break down, it will be interesting to see if Google follows through with its threat to uncensor the Internet in China and, if need be, shutter its operations there. Clearly, it’s a sensitive matter. Washington has backed Google’s assertions and reaffirmed its support for a free Internet but all parties have agreed that this should not affect government relations between the two countries.
The ball may soon be back in Google’s court. What’s the next play?
Google will really need to consider the merits of doing business in China based on the events they have encountered with the Chinese government in recent times.
February 23rd, 2010
China calls Google's claims of a cyber attack "groundless"
Posted by Sam Diaz @ 9:26 am
Categories: China, Google, Government, Politics, Security
Just as Google and China are sitting down to talk again about hacking attacks, censorship and Google’s future in China, a government official in Beijing publicly called out Google by calling its claims of a hacking attack “groundless.”
Until now, the Chinese government had been somewhat cooperative with Google and the U.S. about the highly sophisticated hacking attack against Google and other companies last year. Government officials have publicly condemned hacking and even made some arrests to break up a hacking ring in China.
But those sacrificial arrests weren’t enough to ease the concerns of Google or investigators in the U.S. They kept digging and digging and, this week, it was learned that the hacking attacks traced back to a prestigious university and a vocational school with ties to the government. Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that the U.S. analysts had identified the author of the hacking code as a 30-something freelance security consultant who doesn’t really want to be involved in these sort of efforts but that his skill level has the attention of government officials who are “looking over his shoulder.”
Now, all of the sudden, Google’s claims are groundless. It appears that the Chinese government may have been feeling the pressure of being backed into a corner and had to come out swinging. At a news briefing in the Chinese capital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said:
Google’s statement from January 12 is groundless, and we are firmly opposed to it. China administers its internet according to law, and this position will not change. China prohibits hacking and will crack down on hacking according to law… Reports that these attacks came from Chinese schools are totally groundless and the accusation of Chinese government is also irresponsible and driven by ulterior motives.
For now, Google is still censoring search results on behalf of the government, as required by law, while company officials meet with Chinese officials to discuss next steps. But a statement like this from a government official gives us a hint at how those talks must be going.
If talks break down, it will be interesting to see if Google follows through with its threat to uncensor the Internet in China and, if need be, shutter its operations there. Clearly, it’s a sensitive matter. Washington has backed Google’s assertions and reaffirmed its support for a free Internet but all parties have agreed that this should not affect government relations between the two countries.
The ball may soon be back in Google’s court. What’s the next play?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Bukky Post 13 China report finds extensive water pollution
Bukky Post 13
Just a reminder to be extremely careful when coming into contact with non bottled water and fresh foods like salads.
China report finds extensive water pollution
Farm wastes, included for first time, contribute to severity of problem
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD and KEITH BRADSHER
BEIJING - China’s government on Tuesday unveiled its most detailed survey ever of the pollution plaguing the country, revealing that water pollution in 2007 was more than twice as severe as official figures that had long omitted agricultural waste.
The first-ever national pollution census, environmentalists said, represented a small step forward for China in terms of transparency. But the results also raised serious questions about the shortcomings of China’s previous pollution data and suggested that even with limited progress in some areas, the country still had a long way to go to clean its waterways and air.
The pollution census, scheduled to be repeated in 2020, took more than two years to complete. It involved 570,000 people, and included 1.1 billion pieces of data from nearly 6 million sources of pollution, including factories, farms, homes and pollution-treatment facilities, the government announced at a news conference.
But the comprehensiveness of the survey also resulted in stark discrepancies between some of the calculations and annual figures that the government has published in the past.
By far the biggest of these involved China’s total discharge of chemical oxygen demand — the main gauge of water pollution. These discharges totaled 30.3 million tons in 2007, the census showed.
In recent years the Ministry of Environmental Protection has done a much narrower calculation of these discharges, excluding agricultural effluents like fertilizers and pesticides as well as fluids leaking from landfills. By that narrower measure, discharges came to only 13.8 million tons in 2007, which officials described at the time as a decline of more than 3 percent from 2006 and a “turning point.”
Agricultural waste Zhang Lijun, the vice minister of environmental protection, sought to play down the differences with previous data. He noted that the census counted 13.2 million tons of agricultural effluents for the first time, and another 324,600 tons of discharges from landfills.
The census keepers had also employed updated methodologies and reached many more parts of the countryside and industrial sites than had official statistics, which helped account for the much larger figure in the census, Mr. Zhang said. Were it not for the vastly expanded scope of the survey, the chemical oxygen demand level in 2007 would stand at only 5.3 percent higher than previously calculated, he said.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nonprofit research group in Beijing, said that government planners estimated that the country’s rivers and lakes could handle only 7.4 million tons a year of chemical oxygen demand. The scale and significance of agricultural effluent was seldom recognized in previous government planning, which focused on bringing down mainly industrial emissions to around 7 million tons a year from 13.8 million tons, said Mr. Ma, a leading expert on water pollution in China.
The new total of more than 30 million tons suggests a much bigger problem. “We believed we needed to cut our emissions in half, but today’s data means a lot more work needs to be done,” Mr. Ma said.
The extent of agricultural waste could prove a more intractable problem than the many factories dumping effluent into China’s rivers and lakes.
“When it’s millions of farmers, it’s more difficult to bring it under control,” Mr. Ma said.
'No major surprises'Steven Ma, of the Beijing office of Greenpeace, said that the government’s decision to calculate and release figures for agriculture would start to have an effect on the policy debate over water pollution in China. “Everybody knew there was a problem with agricultural pollution in China, but now there are numbers,” he said.
Mr. Zhang said that the findings of the census were roughly in line with official expectations. “There were no major surprises,” he said.
Based on the narrower approach, officials say China is on track to meet or exceed the nation’s pollution goals: to trim levels of chemical oxygen demand as well as sulfur dioxide, a major air pollutant, by 10 percent between 2005 and 2010. For now, the census would not change how those targets are evaluated, Mr. Zhang said.
“Current results of the census will not be linked to environmental performance,” he added.
In terms of sulfur dioxide emissions in 2007, in fact, the census totaled only 23.2 million tons, compared with 24.7 million tons in the official data released in 2008. But census figures for other important metrics, such as soot and ammonia nitrogen, another indicator of water quality, were higher than the previous data by double-digit percentages.
The census also broke down China’s pollution toll into a considerably greater number of categories and sectors than the government does regularly. Some Chinese environmentalists and media outlets took particular note of the amount of poisonous discharge of heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead, a frequent source of protests in towns and villages over mass contamination from nearby factories.
The census would help the government take a more “targeted and focused” approach to combating pollution in coming years, Mr. Zhang said. The government has indicated it will add emissions of ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxides, which are discharged from vehicles and power plants, to a list of reduction targets from 2011 to 2015.
Jonathan Ansfield reported from Beijing, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong. Zhang Jing contributed research.
This article, "China Report Shows More Pollution in Waterways," first appeared in The New York Times.
Just a reminder to be extremely careful when coming into contact with non bottled water and fresh foods like salads.
China report finds extensive water pollution
Farm wastes, included for first time, contribute to severity of problem
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD and KEITH BRADSHER
BEIJING - China’s government on Tuesday unveiled its most detailed survey ever of the pollution plaguing the country, revealing that water pollution in 2007 was more than twice as severe as official figures that had long omitted agricultural waste.
The first-ever national pollution census, environmentalists said, represented a small step forward for China in terms of transparency. But the results also raised serious questions about the shortcomings of China’s previous pollution data and suggested that even with limited progress in some areas, the country still had a long way to go to clean its waterways and air.
The pollution census, scheduled to be repeated in 2020, took more than two years to complete. It involved 570,000 people, and included 1.1 billion pieces of data from nearly 6 million sources of pollution, including factories, farms, homes and pollution-treatment facilities, the government announced at a news conference.
But the comprehensiveness of the survey also resulted in stark discrepancies between some of the calculations and annual figures that the government has published in the past.
By far the biggest of these involved China’s total discharge of chemical oxygen demand — the main gauge of water pollution. These discharges totaled 30.3 million tons in 2007, the census showed.
In recent years the Ministry of Environmental Protection has done a much narrower calculation of these discharges, excluding agricultural effluents like fertilizers and pesticides as well as fluids leaking from landfills. By that narrower measure, discharges came to only 13.8 million tons in 2007, which officials described at the time as a decline of more than 3 percent from 2006 and a “turning point.”
Agricultural waste Zhang Lijun, the vice minister of environmental protection, sought to play down the differences with previous data. He noted that the census counted 13.2 million tons of agricultural effluents for the first time, and another 324,600 tons of discharges from landfills.
The census keepers had also employed updated methodologies and reached many more parts of the countryside and industrial sites than had official statistics, which helped account for the much larger figure in the census, Mr. Zhang said. Were it not for the vastly expanded scope of the survey, the chemical oxygen demand level in 2007 would stand at only 5.3 percent higher than previously calculated, he said.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nonprofit research group in Beijing, said that government planners estimated that the country’s rivers and lakes could handle only 7.4 million tons a year of chemical oxygen demand. The scale and significance of agricultural effluent was seldom recognized in previous government planning, which focused on bringing down mainly industrial emissions to around 7 million tons a year from 13.8 million tons, said Mr. Ma, a leading expert on water pollution in China.
The new total of more than 30 million tons suggests a much bigger problem. “We believed we needed to cut our emissions in half, but today’s data means a lot more work needs to be done,” Mr. Ma said.
The extent of agricultural waste could prove a more intractable problem than the many factories dumping effluent into China’s rivers and lakes.
“When it’s millions of farmers, it’s more difficult to bring it under control,” Mr. Ma said.
'No major surprises'Steven Ma, of the Beijing office of Greenpeace, said that the government’s decision to calculate and release figures for agriculture would start to have an effect on the policy debate over water pollution in China. “Everybody knew there was a problem with agricultural pollution in China, but now there are numbers,” he said.
Mr. Zhang said that the findings of the census were roughly in line with official expectations. “There were no major surprises,” he said.
Based on the narrower approach, officials say China is on track to meet or exceed the nation’s pollution goals: to trim levels of chemical oxygen demand as well as sulfur dioxide, a major air pollutant, by 10 percent between 2005 and 2010. For now, the census would not change how those targets are evaluated, Mr. Zhang said.
“Current results of the census will not be linked to environmental performance,” he added.
In terms of sulfur dioxide emissions in 2007, in fact, the census totaled only 23.2 million tons, compared with 24.7 million tons in the official data released in 2008. But census figures for other important metrics, such as soot and ammonia nitrogen, another indicator of water quality, were higher than the previous data by double-digit percentages.
The census also broke down China’s pollution toll into a considerably greater number of categories and sectors than the government does regularly. Some Chinese environmentalists and media outlets took particular note of the amount of poisonous discharge of heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead, a frequent source of protests in towns and villages over mass contamination from nearby factories.
The census would help the government take a more “targeted and focused” approach to combating pollution in coming years, Mr. Zhang said. The government has indicated it will add emissions of ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxides, which are discharged from vehicles and power plants, to a list of reduction targets from 2011 to 2015.
Jonathan Ansfield reported from Beijing, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong. Zhang Jing contributed research.
This article, "China Report Shows More Pollution in Waterways," first appeared in The New York Times.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bukky Post 8 - Avatar passes $100 mln in China
Bukky Post 8
For those of you that have not seen the movie like me let me know if you'll like to take in a movie while we are there.
Reading this article brought a few observations to mind:
- China is indeed a hugh market with such a large population, a sea of opportunities for many businesses and business people
- There is a hunger and desire for western products
- Changing requirements and needs of the younger generation
- The Chinese are learning more about the West than the West is learning about China, thereby positioning themselves for better advantages in the future global economy.
"Avatar" passes $100 mln in China
Provincial area renames mountain after film landscape
By Steven Schwankert
Jan 26, 2010, 11:02 AM ET
BEIJING -- Despite disappearing from most 2D screens, "Avatar" continued its record run in China, becoming the first film ever in that country to earn more than US$100 million. A Fox representative confirmed by e-mail that as of January 24, the film's take stood at $103 million. The previous boxoffice king, "2012," took in $68 million during its run. With "Avatar" poised to stay in theaters at least up to the Chinese New Year holiday February 14, it could at least double that mark, with lines still long and 3D ticket prices averaging 100 yuan (US$14.60) each.In another mark of the film's popularity in China, the Zhangjiajie scenic area of western Hunan province renamed one well-known mountain "Avatar Hallelujah Peak," replacing its earlier traditional name, "Heaven and Earth Pillar." The local government said it believes the peak may have inspired the floating mountains that are one of the film's hallmark landscapes.
For those of you that have not seen the movie like me let me know if you'll like to take in a movie while we are there.
Reading this article brought a few observations to mind:
- China is indeed a hugh market with such a large population, a sea of opportunities for many businesses and business people
- There is a hunger and desire for western products
- Changing requirements and needs of the younger generation
- The Chinese are learning more about the West than the West is learning about China, thereby positioning themselves for better advantages in the future global economy.
"Avatar" passes $100 mln in China
Provincial area renames mountain after film landscape
By Steven Schwankert
Jan 26, 2010, 11:02 AM ET
BEIJING -- Despite disappearing from most 2D screens, "Avatar" continued its record run in China, becoming the first film ever in that country to earn more than US$100 million. A Fox representative confirmed by e-mail that as of January 24, the film's take stood at $103 million. The previous boxoffice king, "2012," took in $68 million during its run. With "Avatar" poised to stay in theaters at least up to the Chinese New Year holiday February 14, it could at least double that mark, with lines still long and 3D ticket prices averaging 100 yuan (US$14.60) each.In another mark of the film's popularity in China, the Zhangjiajie scenic area of western Hunan province renamed one well-known mountain "Avatar Hallelujah Peak," replacing its earlier traditional name, "Heaven and Earth Pillar." The local government said it believes the peak may have inspired the floating mountains that are one of the film's hallmark landscapes.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Bukky's Profile
My name is Bukky DaSilva. I am originally from Nigeria in West Africa. I have had the opportunity and priviledge to work and live on three different Continents, Africa, Europe and America. I am very big on international travel and getting to experience other people and cultures. I believe this enlarges one's understanding and thinking. I am married with 2 children, ages 6 and 8. I travel as much as I can with them to give them a global perspective as they grow up.
Professionally, I have over 15 years of professional experience in various compliance fields. I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Information System Analyst (CISA), and Certified in Governance of Enterprise Information Technology (CGEIT).
I am currently employed by Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), also known as BCBS of IL in IT Governance. I have been with them for about 3 years. I look forward to a wonderfully rewarding career with the company.
My major at St. X is HealthCare Admin and I am considering adding a minor in Int'l Business. I am very interested in working in a global environment and this might be a plus. I am very interested in the China travel program because of the opportunities I hope will come out of this experience. China seems to be the wave of the future and I am hoping to catch the wave now.
I look forward to being a part of this group.
Professionally, I have over 15 years of professional experience in various compliance fields. I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Information System Analyst (CISA), and Certified in Governance of Enterprise Information Technology (CGEIT).
I am currently employed by Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), also known as BCBS of IL in IT Governance. I have been with them for about 3 years. I look forward to a wonderfully rewarding career with the company.
My major at St. X is HealthCare Admin and I am considering adding a minor in Int'l Business. I am very interested in working in a global environment and this might be a plus. I am very interested in the China travel program because of the opportunities I hope will come out of this experience. China seems to be the wave of the future and I am hoping to catch the wave now.
I look forward to being a part of this group.
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