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Don’t blame China and India for rising food costs…
If you’re worried about the escalating cost of groceries - a bill the Department of Agriculture predicts could rise by 5 percent this year - don’t blame China and India, a columnist writing for the China Daily argued on Friday.
While Chinese and Indians, who together make up more than a third of the world’s 6.6 billion people, are eating more as they get richer, “surely we can’t be blamed for soaring grain prices,” Ravi S. Narasimhan wrote for the state-run newspaper, which is controlled by China’s government.
To make his case, Narasimhan pointed out that “China is largely self-sufficient in grain production” while India exports rice (although it also imports wheat). Quoting data from the United Nations, he said that the percentage of the world’s total grain output consumed in China and India has fallen since 2006.
Most analysts say that while larger appetites in Asia - and a growing ability to afford grain-fed meat - has contributed to rising food prices, spiking demand for biofuels and higher transportation costs have been larger factors.
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America’s No. 1 pundit? The Telegraph votes for Rove.
With just over six months before the U.S. presidential election, London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has unveiled its list of the most influential political pundits in America.
At the top of the list is Karl Rove. According to the newspaper, Democrats may protest that they would rather see him in jail than on their television screens but they can’t help noting what he says.
The other nine are: 2) Chris Matthews 3) Sean Hannity 4) Rush Limbaugh 5) John Harris and Jim Vandehei 6) Matt Drudge 7) Tim Russert 8) Jon Stewart 9) David Brooks 10) Mark Halperin
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The British government’s not diggin’ Snoop Dogg
The British government doesn’t seem to hold much esteem for American rappers.
Officials have lodged a second appeal in an attempt to prevent rapper Snoop Dogg from entering Britain, after being twice overruled by immigration judges, according to today’s Guardian.
The star - whose real name is Calvin Broadus - was prohibited from entering Britain after he was involved in a brawl at Heathrow Airport in April 2006.
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Miley Cyrus vs. Vanity Fair: The British Edition.
When Annie Leibovitz’s picture of child star Miley Cyrus — aka Hannah Montana — appeared in Vanity Fair her tween fans - and their parents - went ballistic. The naked back, the satin sheet, the damp hair … how dare the innocent heroine of the hit series look so provocative?
Just like American girls, British girls also love all things Hannah Montana. In today’s London Guardian newspaper, Britain-based writer and feminist Germaine Greer took a look at the teenage star and the hoopla surrounding the photo.
She said the society has forever been training young girls to be manipulative and to exploit their sex. “From the time she is tiny, a girl in our society is taught to flirt. She is usually dressed like a mini-whore in pink and tinsel, short skirt, matching knickers, baby-doll pajamas, long hair falling over her face,” she said.
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Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology
A group of Chinese lawyers has gone to China’s courts to force CNN to apologize for remarks by commentator Jack Cafferty and to pay a symbolic compensation, China’s state media reported.
Fourteen lawyers filed suit in Beijing to seek compensation of 100 yuan, an amount equivalent to $14, the China Daily said on Thursday.
Chinese have been angered by Cafferty’s comments earlier this month on the political news program “The Situation Room”. Cafferty - a well-known curmudgeon who has lambasted numerous politicians and governments - called China’s leaders a “bunch of goons and thugs” and its exports to the United States “junk with the lead paint on them”.
After a Chinese government spokesperson called on CNN to “apologize to the whole Chinese people,” numerous Chinese Web sites have targeted the broadcaster.
In the United States, between 2,000 and 5,000 Chinese-Americans rallied outside CNN’s Hollywood office last Saturday to demand that the company fire Cafferty, the Associated Press reported.
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The United States of Hysteria?
Brits seem to derive some kind of perverse pleasure in moving to America for a few years and then returning to Britain to tell everyone how horrible it was.
The latest example of this comes from Anne Dixey, who moved to Washington, D.C., in August 2001 with her two children and partner, Roland Watson, the London Times Washington correspondent.
In today’s Times, she writes how she had expected to find a buzzing social scene when she moved to Washington but instead she found a closed society torn apart by violence and fear.
She said that, after 9/11, Americans around her were hysterical and that “there was none of that calm British getting on with it.”
Dixey, who has just written a book “The United States of Hysteria, said that she was shocked by the American people’s conservatism with a small “c.”
“There was so much emphasis by parents on re-creating the ‘perfect’ childhood they’d had,” she said. “I’d expected it to be more civilized and cultured, but there was limited conversation, politics, and the War on Terror.”
Dixey said she was stuck at home, faced with the “supermoms” of Chevy Chase, Maryland.
“Flexible or part-time working just didn’t seem possible. It was all or nothing, there was no slack so these very intelligent, highly educated women approached motherhood as though it was a career,” she said. “In Washington you are what you do. When you stop doing something, you become your partner’s accessory.”
Dixey said she was amazed by this in the country that first embraced feminism. All in all, Dixey is happy to be back in West London.
I’m sure the people of Maryland don’t mind either.
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Has HBO lost its mojo?
The British may lament America’s foreign policy but they still love American TV — and perhaps none more than the shows that have appeared on HBO. For years, they’ve been avid watchers of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Deadwood.
But now a TV critic for London’s Guardian newspaper, Ravi Somaiya, says that HBO’s new shows are missing the mark to the point that one wonders whether the network can revive its fortunes before the competition catches up.
Somaiya agrees that the network has certainly being working hard to find a new hit “but despite enormous publicity, In Treatment, a five-nights-a-week drama about a psychotherapist (played by Gabriel Byrne) and his patients, only attracted around half a million viewers for its February premiere. The Sopranos at its peak was pulling in 18 million.”
Also garnering small audiences is the new mini-series John Adams as well as the supernatural drama John From Cincinnati.
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China raises pressure on CNN over “vicious remarks”
Comments by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty that China’s leaders were a “bunch of goons and thugs” and its exports to the United States were “junk with the lead paint on them” has touched off angry rebuttals from Chinese officials and citizens.
On Tuesday, Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called Cafferty’s statements - made last week on the political news program “The Situation Room” - “vicious remarks” and called on Cafferty and CNN to “apologize to the whole Chinese people.”
The China Daily, a mouthpiece newspaper of China’s government, ran a front-page story on Wednesday that among other things called Cafferty’s statements “racist and vitriolic”.
CNN issued a statement in response to Jiang Yu saying that the Cafferty’s comments represented his “strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people” and that he had clarified that point on Monday.
The network added that “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offense to the Chinese people” and CNN “would apologize to anyone who interpreted the comments in this way.”
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Biggest threat … China or America?
Good news Americans. Europeans no longer view you as the biggest threat to global security. According to a new poll, China has now supplanted the United States in the top spot.
China may have been hoping to garner a positive image in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, but the issue of Tibet has destroyed that effort.
An opinion poll commissioned by the Financial Times has found that 35 percent of respondents in the five largest European Union countries see China as a bigger threat to world stability than any other country. Last year that figure was 19 percent and in 2006 it was only 12 percent. In contrast, the United States has slipped into second place with 29 percent of respondents viewing it as the biggest threat, down from 32 percent in 2007. The poll was carried out in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Britain.
A report on the poll appeared in today’s Der Spiegel newspaper.
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Sending a message to America
For Americans, the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York is sacred ground. But for a theater in Germany, it is the perfect setting for a provocative production of Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” — one that features naked retirees wearing Mickey Mouse masks and burning Uncle Sam hats.
The Austrian director Johann Kresnik, a Marxist, has never been a fan of American-style capitalism. But now with his new production, which opened on Saturday, he’s showing his disdain like never before.
According to Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper, the production at the Erfurt Theater includes 35 naked people aged 50 to 69 wearing Mickey Mouse masks against a Ground Zero backdrop who are supposed to be sending a message about the excesses of American society.
“The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, people who don’t have anything any more,” Kresnik said.
He said that for many German politicians America still represents “the great dream.” But he charges that America’s global position of leadership should be called into question.
Kresnik’s message may be ringing true. Performances this week are sold out.
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The Chinese do not understand that there are two reasons this case will fail. Cafferty is an over the hill, senile blowhard and can not be held responsible for any of his rants. And, in the U.S. the news organizations are farcical, and we get our news
... read the full comment by old91A10 | Comment on Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology Read Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology
CNN should tell the Chinese courts to stuff it.
Stan
... read the full comment by Stan | Comment on Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology Read Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology
Face it. We are the United States of China. Where do you think the government is getting the money for our ‘rebate’ checks? It’s a loan from China. Then we can use their money to buy more of their imports.
... read the full comment by Stephanie | Comment on China raises pressure on CNN over "vicious remarks" Read China raises pressure on CNN over "vicious remarks"
After cancelling The Wire, I was thisclose to cancelling HBO for good. I was waiting for Entourage to return, that’s the only original programming they have left that I watch. Maybe I’ll cancel it until the fall when it returns,
... read the full comment by Kimi | Comment on Has HBO lost its mojo? Read Has HBO lost its mojo?