For five years, the United States accused North Korea of pursuing a secret path to developing enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, an accusation that "resulted in the rupture of an already tense relationship." Now, the administration has quietly admitted its intelligence may have been “faulty”.

For those who do not read the foreign press, one should be made aware that the world-puzzle is becoming more puzzling, even for the G8...

In my loopy days, specifically those of the late 1970s-early80s, I thought of an ingenious (if I may say that myself) scheme in which I would cream off about 5% of the world's stock market profits by using three super-computers outbidding each others in such a subtle way that even the clue-st investors would not see much except more profits for themselves — thus would not complain...... As the "bidding" would have been controlled for positive enrichment, the moneys would be regularly cashed in small amounts in about 100,000 Swiss bank accounts of course, and used wisely. By the end of the 1980s, I calculated I would have several big lots of billion buckaroos, 80-90 per cent of which I would give to Africa. In this semi-altruistic gesture, I expected 50 per cent to go to the corrupt pathways and the rest to genuinely help people. Then AIDS had come and all that but not a real hindrance... I still could secretly (I had devised some channeling of the funds that would have scared Nigerian schemers) help real people and entire countries pay their debts off so they could start looking at their own future, with their OWN STYLE of development, personal and shared... The corrupt characters would have either come to see the light or flown overseas with a somewhat big loot, which would have been no skin off my nose since I would have creamed it off the rich... Good for me, a loot that would have put a few noses out of joint in the elite market.

Robin Hood, I am not and was not...
My sneaky but lawful computing operations would have been done from three floating palaces with sophisticated communication systems — the plan of which palaces I drew, engineered and built some testing that even saw light on a large scale. I even devised that these "palaces" could be "paid for" by providing "exclusive" services to the then few billionaires of the time, competing for a "special" carrot. The project came to a halt as people close to me thought I was crazy. I was crazy!... Bordering on undiagnosed schizophrenia — a state of mind that to this day I hope I have under control, but not eliminated as it sure fuels my ability to multi-task in opposite directions. At the same time I was also working in the shadows with a few scientists on solid scientific publications on environment, from past to present, and future... Global climate had raised its head....

So no African help from me came out of this — except a few bucks in time of "crisis" exposed (crisis in Africa IS the norm, unfortunately), some permanent hard dreams on how to empower poor Africans at the grass roots find their own solution to their own problems while having paid for what they WANTED to eat or use (at whatever price since it could be "bought" in an "expensive" currency while being sold on their own market as a "cheap and relevant" commodity for modest but steady progress. The differential being my giving them money uninterrupted with no strings attached but also in a structured flow that would not sink their ability to "create". Thus these lovely people would not have been given useless surpluses of food they could not digest, nor have the finger pointed at them by the Wolfowitzes of this world, for example, for being lazy commie bums. Just have the fair go they deserved since their exploitation as slaves, as rubber for tyre fodder (more than 60 million Africans were killed for rubber in the early 1900s), and as testing battle grounds for the West and Russian interests fighting each other (such as in Angola, early 1960s).

Having spent time in Africa during the 1960s I though I knew what I was talking about. "Band Aid" was a good idea, but yet again the differential between what we "gave" and what "we" (our greedy leaders) took out was ugly... like pouring zillions to achieve a buck for the poor while the rich get away with the rest.

As well there was not much grass — drought heralding global warming were devastating entire populations... And, of all the most annoying problems, one could see the fundamentalist rise of the crescent moon, of the cross and of the hammer and sickle all fundamentally designed to enchained people's minds rather than let them be... Sad reality.

Yet I still thought, as some countries like Mali were being hammered with cheap subsidised cotton from the US, I could help subsidise their cotton to make it cheaper and better than the US stuff, also helping maintain the local mills to weave their own colourful attire as they pleased. Law of demand and supply? Just balanced within the local swing and roundabouts, and possibly a 5% export market to African countries that could exchange other goods in return. Thus, hopefully providing a steady improvement without the destruction of "local " ideas and environments, natural and traditional. A different "from the west" working practice would emerge, using local knowledge of afternoon siesta and crafty building of mud huts value added with all mod cons... Ah, the power of dreams... A warm solar shower, then... In the late 1970s, I even built a small solar hot water system with a home made copper container (about 50 litres) and piping, glass cover but the whole lot became so hot it kept blowing up. The "safety valve" was too reticent for my weak Yorkshire welded joints (I shoudda employed a professional plumber but had no dough)... I thought of using a small solarpanel powered pump but in them days it was difficult for me to find water pumps that could handle boiling water without cracking up.

My "super computers" would have had to reinvent themselves every few months in order to diversify the process of creaming and to avoid being "traced" despite various necessary registrations of operation.

All this useless introduction above to come back to the puzzling crux of the matter... The Western countries did something generous and forgave the African debt... Had they not done so they knew that things could only go worse. Despite "exploitation" or to say with the help of plundering of African resources, such as oil and uranium, Africa as a whole was going backwards. Thus the plundering can be made now with less or no guilt. All's well in the best of the world.

But China decided to "help" Africa's development, upsetting the carefully crafted dichotomy of the west between guilt and plunder... as the African resources became a magnet to Chinese interests "like a milk bowl attracts a cat" or Germanic words to that effect.

For a long time I hoped and thought someone would come and see the way to help further and protect Africa's interests without Colonialist endeavour... In Africa, many stores are run by Chinese, or Indians — all seventh or tenth generation African born.... Their system of buying and selling is rarely "exploitative" but contributes to the structure of local micro-economics, while some multi-nationals run bulldozers through entire people to get to the loot.

Thus the U$35 billion debt easement, mostly from the European countries is "helping" the Chinese Mainland put their hands on some of the loot, with no guilt at all in regard to places like Darfur, etc., so say the sour-graped Westerners. In fact the shift of masters in Africa is the largest part of the worry for the West, especially after having forked out "bad" money after bad, but then these moneys are public moneys from government, facilitating the profits from oil and such to flow into "private" pockets directly...

Of course this is a very complex problem in which many interests are being played out but my recommendation is for the West to "help" China use its surplus cash wisely and generously without any afterthought but provide a non-retrievable weighted cash upfront to the Africans nations to keep the Chinese's manufacturing lines roaring if they wish, without burning holes in the pockets of the Africans — thus helping African countries find their own feet, without crescents, without crosses, without hammer and sickles. Only their own African aspirations to be, in the best caring and sharing ways... in which petty and grubby disputes would fade, in an environment of too-much-to-loose-for-all syndrome, while making sure they have more to gain. More carrot than stick...

I still dream a lot, mostly while I'm awake. more could be said here but to summarise, I thus strongly resent the fiddles, grocery's tactics and conqueror's mantle of the Howards and Bushes— which are okay for corner shops and Caesars — being used to promote greed and war in international relations.

The plants and animals, like ants, in my garden tell me of the changes, even in the last ten years, of global dynamics... They sense the weather's warming up, and my old bones sense "our" greedy desire for more loot belonging to someone else — or the earth itself — is unhealthy as our own mind becomes obese with our body, while others —and the earth — suffer because of us. Yes, we give just enough personal alms via charity to wipe the guilt out of our sight, but "we" (our governments, the multi-nationals for our pleasures and sometimes ourselves) take lots more back on the other side with no qualms, with "our" greedy grubby hand... The differential has been sickening. The result in a few years' time could be shattering.

The Chinese may provide good genuine help, but our masters "can" them for it because they upset the apple cart.

US alert to military build-up in China

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

The United States is expressing concern about China's military build-up.

China's deployment of ballistic nuclear missiles that have a range to hit the US is highlighted in the Pentagon's new annual report on China's military power.

The report also expressed concern about a new submarine equipped to carry a nuclear powered ballistic missile with a range of more than 8,000 kilometres.

China says its official defence budget is $55 billion, but the United States estimates it could be up to $152 billion.

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The real problem is we've got no clue as to which currency the stuff is measured with... Looking at the US, their budget is BIG... Mind you it takes a lot of bux to maintain more that 750 bases on foreign soil plus all the nuclear bombs that need upkeep, upgrade and add to without "adding to" if you see what I mean... Not counting the little wars that just absorbed the equivalent of the chinese yearly budget i just threwe months...

China today accused Washington of double standards after the US navy fired a missile to destroy a failed satellite 150 miles above the Pacific.

Beijing - which was criticised by the US and others when it shot down one of its own satellites last year - turned the tables on the Bush administration after the satellite was shot down today.

"The United States, the world's top space power, has often accused other countries of vigorously developing military space technology," the People's Daily, the ruling Communist party's newspaper, said.

"But faced with the Chinese-Russian proposal to restrict space armaments, it runs in fear from what it claimed to love."

Earlier this month, Russia and China proposed a treaty to ban weapons in space and the use or threat of force against satellites and other spacecraft.

Washington rejected the proposal as unworkable, saying it favoured confidence-building efforts, US reports said.

At a regular news conference, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said: "The Chinese side is continuing to closely follow the US action, which may influence the security of outer space and may harm other countries."

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Gus: see toon at top and blogs below it... 

Why Were We in Vietnam?

By Harold Meyerson [the Washington Post]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008; A15

Doing business in China is beginning to cost real money. Not that Chinese workers are buying second homes or anything like that: Their average wage is still a little short of a dollar an hour. But so many Chinese have now left their villages for the factories that the once bottomless pool of new young workers is beginning to run dry, and the wages of assembly-line employees are rising 10 percent a year.

Worse yet, new labor laws are making it harder for employers to cheat their workers out of their wages and benefits. Many American businesses that do their manufacturing in China had warned against those laws; the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai had flatly opposed them. But the good old days of Maoist labor discipline, when the government could send tens of millions of skilled workers down to the farms to be toughened up and periodically tortured, are gone. Mao's heirs, though not above a touch of torture here and there just to keep the system humming along, are concerned, as he was not, with achieving social harmony, even if that means compelling employers to sign, and honor, contracts with their employees.

Confronted with such appalling squishiness, what's a good, cost-cutting American business to do? Many are fleeing south of the border -- not our border (Mexico costs way too much) but China's.

They're bound for Vietnam.

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see toon at top and read the blogs below... 

The US government has notified Congress of plans to supply Taiwan with arms worth more than $6bn (£3.4bn).

The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

Correspondents say the decision is likely to anger China, which regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support of the island.

The move could also complicate efforts to get North Korea, an ally of Beijing, to end its nuclear programme.

The US Defence Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) said the sales would "help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region".

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see toon at top...

October 5, 2008

Command for Africa Is Established by Pentagon

By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — For decades, Africa was rarely more than an afterthought for the Pentagon.

Responsibilities for American military affairs across the vast African continent were divided clumsily among three regional combat headquarters, those for Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East. Commanders set priorities against obvious threats, whether the old Soviet Union and then a resurgent Russia, a rising China or a nuclear North Korea, or adversaries along the Persian Gulf.

If deployment of fighting forces is an indicator, that historic focus north of the equator endures. But since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a new view has gained acceptance among senior Pentagon officials and military commanders: that ungoverned spaces and ill-governed states, whose impoverished citizens are vulnerable to the ideology of violent extremism, pose a growing risk to American security.

Last week, in a small Pentagon conference hall, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, inaugurated the newest regional headquarters, Africa Command, which is responsible for coordinating American military affairs on the continent.

There are barely 2,000 American combat troops and combat support personnel based in Africa, and the new top officer, Gen. William E. Ward of the Army, pledges that Africa Command has no designs on creating vast, permanent concentrations of forces on the continent.

“Bases? Garrisons? It’s not about that,” General Ward said in an interview. “We are trying to prevent conflict, as opposed to having to react to a conflict.”

Already, though, analysts at policy advocacy organizations and research institutes are warning of a militarization of American foreign policy across Africa.

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 see comment above cleverly china...

China cancels US military contact

China has cancelled military and diplomatic exchanges with the US in protest at a $6.5bn deal to supply Taiwan with arms, US officials say.

A number of senior level visits and military-to-military exchanges due before November would not go ahead, the US defence department said.

The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

China regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support.

'Unfortunate'

Pentagon spokesman Maj Stewart Upton said: "China's continued politicisation of our military relationship results in missed opportunities."

The Chinese move affects a visit by a senior Chinese general, navy port calls and meetings on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

China will also not participate in an exchange on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

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Boom. see toon at top and read two blogs up...