China, Japan, America

Last week Japan’s minister of finance declared that he and his colleagues wanted a discussion with China about the latter’s purchases of Japanese bonds, to “examine its intention” — diplomat-speak for “Stop it right now.” The news made me want to bang my head against the wall in frustration.

You see, senior American policy figures have repeatedly balked at doing anything about Chinese currency manipulation, at least in part out of fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current environment, Chinese purchases of our bonds don’t help us — they hurt us. The Japanese understand that. Why don’t we?

Some background: If discussion of Chinese currency policy seems confusing, it’s only because many people don’t want to face up to the stark, simple reality — namely, that China is deliberately keeping its currency artificially weak.

The consequences of this policy are also stark and simple: in effect, China is taxing imports while subsidizing exports, feeding a huge trade surplus. You may see claims that China’s trade surplus has nothing to do with its currency policy; if so, that would be a first in world economic history. An undervalued currency always promotes trade surpluses, and China is no different.

And in a depressed world economy, any country running an artificial trade surplus is depriving other nations of much-needed sales and jobs. Again, anyone who asserts otherwise is claiming that China is somehow exempt from the economic logic that has always applied to everyone else.

So what should we be doing? U.S. officials have tried to reason with their Chinese counterparts, arguing that a stronger currency would be in China’s own interest. They’re right about that: an undervalued currency promotes inflation, erodes the real wages of Chinese workers and squanders Chinese resources. But while currency manipulation is bad for China as a whole, it’s good for politically influential Chinese companies — many of them state-owned. And so the currency manipulation goes on.

Time and again, U.S. officials have announced progress on the currency issue; each time, it turns out that they’ve been had. Back in June, Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, praised China’s announcement that it would move to a more flexible exchange rate. Since then, the renminbi has risen a grand total of 1, that’s right, 1 percent against the dollar — with much of the rise taking place in just the past few days, ahead of planned Congressional hearings on the currency issue. And since the dollar has fallen against other major currencies, China’s artificial cost advantage has actually increased.

Clearly, nothing will happen until or unless the United States shows that it’s willing to do what it normally does when another country subsidizes its exports: impose a temporary tariff that offsets the subsidy. So why has such action never been on the table?

One answer, as I’ve already suggested, is fear of what would happen if the Chinese stopped buying American bonds. But this fear is completely misplaced: in a world awash with excess savings, we don’t need China’s money — especially because the Federal Reserve could and should buy up any bonds the Chinese sell.

It’s true that the dollar would fall if China decided to dump some American holdings. But this would actually help the U.S. economy, making our exports more competitive. Ask the Japanese, who want China to stop buying their bonds because those purchases are driving up the yen.

Aside from unjustified financial fears, there’s a more sinister cause of U.S. passivity: business fear of Chinese retaliation.

Consider a related issue: the clearly illegal subsidies China provides to its clean-energy industry. These subsidies should have led to a formal complaint from American businesses; in fact, the only organization willing to file a complaint was the steelworkers union. Why? As The Times reported, “multinational companies and trade associations in the clean energy business, as in many other industries, have been wary of filing trade cases, fearing Chinese officials’ reputation for retaliating against joint ventures in their country and potentially denying market access to any company that takes sides against China.”

Similar intimidation has surely helped discourage action on the currency front. So this is a good time to remember that what’s good for multinational companies is often bad for America, especially its workers.

So here’s the question: Will U.S. policy makers let themselves be spooked by financial phantoms and bullied by business intimidation? Will they continue to do nothing in the face of policies that benefit Chinese special interests at the expense of both Chinese and American workers? Or will they finally, finally act? Stay tuned.

Ross Douthat is off today.

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 12, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/opinion/13krugman.html

typical trouble between the sexes, thought example

I don’t appreciate him not calling me when he says he is going to call me and every time he does it he has some reason and he says sorry and I say it’s ok don’t worry about it love but how many times can he do this and it will still be ok? How many times can he do this before he thinks he can just not call me back and say sorry and everything will just be ok? How many times can this happen before he takes me saying it is ok for granted? How many times can he do this before he thinks I should always just say it is ok? How many times do I have to think about this before I say fuck it? The time might be approaching. He fails me so much, can he possibly stop or change? I am not saying that there shouldn’t be allowances made and I am not saying that I want him to not feel free, like if for some reason I couldn’t call him back when I said I would I don’t want to have to worry about him being crazy upset about it, but if do it again and again and again, I might understand him being upset. I am the only one who can be at fault here. He can not call me back again and again and the only person who can be at fault is me if I get upset about it. What I want is to be done with this relationship. I don’t want to be done with him; I love him with my whole heart, but I want to be done with caring so much about it. I want to be done with wondering if he is the perfect man for me. I want to be done with wondering if he could possibly be all the things I want and need him to be. I want to be done with wondering if he could be strong enough to be with me. I want to be done wondering if he is mature enough to handle such a relationship as we have. I want to be done with wondering how serious he is about this relationship. I want to be done with wondering how long it will take before we at least get engaged. I want to be done wondering how long it will take before we get married. I want to be done wondering about all this. If it were meant to be wouldn’t it just be and I wouldn’t have to worry about it? There are countless other people who are able to make this happen but I can’t seem to get a guy to marry me. Is there some trouble with me or do I just keep picking the wrong guys who could see themselves with me in the long run but aren’t actually ready to make that step of commitment. And if they are not ready shouldn’t that be a sign that they might never be ready and I should leave them behind and learn from the relationship? He doesn’t think he has to do what he says and he thinks I should always be understanding about it then he thinks he can just put me and my feelings on hold and deal with them when he is available. This is in no way good for me. I lay there like a naked slab of meat for him to jerk off to and this is how he treats me? Fucking fabulous. It is likely that all men fail, almost all the time.

China plans to track Beijing citizens…

China plans to track Beijing citizens through their mobiles

Human rights campaigners have expressed concerns over plans to track every mobile phone user in Beijing through global positioning technology.

Chinese media reported this week that pilot schemes were being introduced for an "information platform of real-time citizen movement" to help with traffic management.

Li Guoguang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal science and technology commission, said the project would be used to tackle congestion by allowing officials to monitor the flow of people through the transport system.

"To some degree, [it] can effectively increase citizens’ travelling efficiency and ease traffic jams," he told the Beijing Daily.

He added that citizens would be able to buy the information, although more sensitive information – such as the location of individuals – would not be available.

But while Beijing’s roads are increasingly congested, experts say there are plenty of ways to assess and manage traffic and suggest the project is bound to be used for security purposes too.

"Certainly the use of the platform will not be limited to gathering traffic information. Officials in other areas, such as anti-terrorism and stability maintenance, will also find it useful," Chen Derong, professor of wireless communications at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told the South China Morning Post.

"I think despite the excuse of traffic control this is part of the escalation of the use of technologies to control social discontent," said Wang Songlian of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network. She pointed out that last year the government introduced compulsory registration for anyone buying a sim card.

"A lot of activists have said their cell phones are already tracked by security forces. They use it to locate where people are and whether other activists are going there," she said.

But she added: "For ordinary people, the government is worried about social unrest. Often there’s a spark somewhere and everyone gathers and puts out information. By registering people and tracking them, it enables them to find out about particular protests and punish individuals."

China National Radio said the municipal government hoped to start the project in two parts of the capital within the first half of this year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/china-tracking-beijing-citizens-mobiles

The Dalai Lama Addresses China’s Cultural Genocide

http://blogsofwar.com/2008/03/16/the-dalai-lama-addresses-chinas-cultural-genocide/

Tibet’s leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, has continues to point to the inevitable failure that all who rule by force must eventually face.

I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days. These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance.

As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution. It is unrealistic to expect unity and stability under such a rule and would therefore not be conducive to finding a peaceful and lasting solution.

I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.

_________________________________

please go to this website; it is extremely good.

http://blogsofwar.com/category/china/

CHINA (Tier 2 Watch List) Human Trafficking

Trafficking in Persons Report 2008

CHINA (Tier 2 Watch List)

The People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. The majority of trafficking in China occurs within the country’s borders, but there is also considerable international trafficking of P.R.C. citizens to Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, which often occurs within a larger flow of human smuggling. Chinese women are lured abroad through false promises of legitimate employment, only to be forced into commercial sexual exploitation, largely in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan. There are also many cases involving Chinese men and women who are smuggled into destination countries throughout the world at an enormous personal financial cost and whose indebtedness to traffickers is then used as a means to coerce them into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Women and children are trafficked to China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam for forced labor, marriage, and prostitution. North Korean women and children seeking to leave their country voluntarily cross the border into China, but some of these individuals, after they enter the P.R.C. in a vulnerable, undocumented status, are then sold into prostitution, marriage, or forced labor. While it is difficult to determine if the P.R.C.’s male-female birth ratio imbalance, with more males than females, is currently affecting trafficking of women for brides, some experts believe that it has already or may become a contributing factor.

Forced labor, including forced child labor, remains a significant problem in China. Children as young as 12 were reportedly subjected to forced labor under the guise of “Work and Study” programs over the past year. Conditions in this program include excessive hours with mandatory overtime, dangerous conditions, low pay, and involuntary pay deductions. In June 2007, a Guangdong factory licensed to produce products bearing the 2008 Olympics logo admitted to employing children as young as 12 years old under similar conditions. Some children, particularly Uighur youth from Xinjiang Province, have been abducted for forced begging and thievery in large cities. Overseas human rights organizations allege that government sponsored labor programs forced Uighur girls and young women to work in factories in eastern China on false pretenses and without regular wages. Involuntary servitude of Chinese nationals abroad also persisted, although the extent of the problem is unclear. Experts believe that the number of Chinese labor and sex trafficking victims in Europe is growing in countries such as Britain, Italy, and France.

The government of the P.R.C. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Nevertheless, China is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat human trafficking from the previous year, particularly in terms of punishment of trafficking crimes and the protection of Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking. Victims are sometimes punished for unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of their being trafficked—such as violations of prostitution or immigration/emigration controls. The Chinese government continued to treat North Korean victims of trafficking solely as economic migrants, routinely deporting them back to horrendous conditions in North Korea. Additional challenges facing the P.R.C. government include the enormous size of its trafficking problem and the significant level of corruption and complicity in trafficking by some local government officials. Factors impeding progress in anti-trafficking efforts include tight controls over civil society organizations, restricted access of foreign anti-trafficking organizations, and the government’s systematic lack of transparency.

During the reporting period, the Chinese government established a new Office for Preventing and Combating Crimes of rafficking in Women and Children and released its long-awaited National Action Plan to Combat rafficking in December 2007, which details anti-trafficking responsibilities implemented by 28 ministries and appoints the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) as coordinator of the Chinese government’s anti-trafficking efforts. However, there are no plans for resources to be allocated to local and provincial governments for the implementation of the plan. Additionally, the action plan covers only sex trafficking of females, and does not address labor trafficking or male victims of sex trafficking. As host to the Second Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) Summit in December 2007, China joined other ministers in signing a Joint Declaration to work together to implement the Sub-regional Plan of Action.

Recommendations for China: Provide adequate funding to local and provincial governments to implement the new National Action Plan; increase efforts to address labor trafficking, including prosecuting and punishing recruiters and employers who facilitate forced labor and debt bondage, and providing protection services to victims of forced labor; revise anti-trafficking laws to criminalize all forms of labor and sex trafficking, in a manner consistent with international standards; establish formal victim identification procedures; increase efforts to protect and rehabilitate trafficking victims; actively investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in trafficking crimes; conduct a broad public awareness campaign to inform the public of the risks and dangers of trafficking; provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution; and adhere to its obligations as party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including by not expelling North Koreans protected under those treaties and by cooperating with UNHCR in the exercise of its functions.

Prosecution

China sustained its record of criminal law enforcement against traffickers over the reporting period, though government statistics are difficult to verify. P.R.C. law criminalizes forced prostitution, abduction, and the commercial sexual exploitation of girls under 14 through Article 244 of its Criminal Code. Article 41 of China’s revised Law on the Protection of Minors, in effect since June 2007, now prohibits the trafficking, kidnapping, and sexual exploitation of minors under the age of 18. Prescribed penalties under these criminal statutes are sufficiently stringent and include life imprisonment and the death penalty. However, Chinese law does not prohibit commercial sexual exploitation involving coercion or fraud, nor does it prohibit all forms of trafficking. The law prohibits the employment of children under the age of 16, but the government had not adopted a comprehensive policy to combat child labor. While Article 244 of its Criminal Code bans forced labor by employers, the prescribed penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine under this law are not sufficiently stringent. Additionally, Chinese law does not recognize forms of coercion other than abduction as constituting a means of trafficking. MPS reported investigating 2,375 cases of trafficking of women and children in 2007, which is significantly lower than the 3,371 cases it cited in 2006. These statistics are likely based on China’s definition of the term “trafficking,” which does not include acts of forced labor, debt bondage, coercion, or involuntary servitude, or offenses committed against male victims. In September 2007, an MPS official indicated that the number of reported cases of sexual exploitation and forced labor increased from 2006 to 2007. Chinese law enforcement authorities arrested and punished some traffickers involved in forced labor practices and commercial sexual exploitation, but did not provide data on prosecutions, convictions, or sentences.

Forced labor remains a significant problem for Chinese at home and abroad. During the reporting period, there were numerous confirmed reports of involuntary servitude of migrant workers and abductees in China. In November 2007, police in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, discovered six migrant workers who were victims of forced labor. Police found and arrested the trafficker several months after the case was opened. In March 2008, 33 slave laborers from seven provinces, many of whom were mentally challenged, were discovered locked up in a 30-square-meter room of a residential building in Harbin. Police continued to search for the trafficker responsible in this case. In May and June 2007, several cases of forced labor in brick kilns in China’s Henan and Shanxi Provinces were revealed, involving over 1,000 farmers, teenagers, and children being held in confinement, subject to physical abuse and non-payment of wages. According to news reports, brick kiln operators claim to have paid off local officials and there are unconfirmed press reports that some local authorities have resold rescued children to factories elsewhere. The Chinese government has not demonstrated concerted efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish government officials for complicity in trafficking.

Protection

China made incremental progress in victim protection during the reporting period. The government, with the assistance of UNICEF, built a new shelter to provide trafficking victims in Yunnan Province with short-term care, but there remain overall an inadequate number of shelters for victims of trafficking. There continue to be no dedicated government assistance programs for victims of trafficking. China continues to lack systematic victim identification procedures to identify victims of sex trafficking among those it arrests for prostitution and to refer them to organizations providing services. It does not have a comprehensive nationwide victim protection service, but has taken some steps to improve intra-governmental coordination and cooperation in vulnerable southern border provinces. While both the MPS and Ministry of Civil Affairs run shelters, the two ministries do not share information or coordinate their efforts.

While China has made increased efforts to better identify and protect trafficking victims through enhanced cross-border cooperation, protection services and victim identification procedures remain inadequate to address victims’ needs. Women found in prostitution are, in many instances, treated as criminals for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Although the MPS has provided expanded border and police training to help border officials spot potential trafficking victims and assist in their repatriation, the quasi-governmental All-China Women’s Federation reported that ongoing problems require NGO intervention to protect trafficking victims from unjust punishment. The MPS runs three Border Liaison Offices along the border with Vietnam, which has led to an increase in some cross-border cooperation in victim repatriation, and opened one new Border Liaison Office along the border with Burma during the reporting period. Local governments in southern border provinces often rely upon NGOs to identify victims and provide victim protection services due to the lack of resources. Trafficking victims are generally returned to their homes without extensive rehabilitation. All of the victims of forced labor discovered in brick kilns were repatriated to their homes without access to counseling or psychological care, and three victims suspected of being mentally disabled were lost by authorities during the repatriation process. The government does not provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution. Some trafficking victims have faced punishments in the form of fines for leaving China without proper authorization. China continues to treat North Korean trafficking victims solely as illegal economic migrants and reportedly deports a few hundred of them each month to North Korea, where they may face severe punishment. China continues to bar UNHCR from access to the vulnerable North Korean population in Northeast China.

Prevention

China made efforts to prevent trafficking in persons this year. In July 2007, the ACWF co-sponsored a Children’s Forum that brought together children from across the country to discuss ways to prevent the trafficking of vulnerable youth. The government did not conduct any broad public awareness program to inform the public of the dangers of trafficking. With the assistance of NGOs, the Ministry of Education undertook outreach efforts to some villages and schools, providing information on what trafficking is, how to avoid being trafficked, and providing emergency hotline numbers. The Chinese government, through the ACWF, has also conducted training for law enforcement agencies and border entry-exit officials to raise awareness of trafficking. Though it took some steps forward, China still has not taken adequate measures to prevent internal trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor, nor did it take measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or child sex tourism. China has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/trafficing-in-person_report_2008.htm

a class today

Things seem to be going very interestingly for me. I have my new job which I like very much, to my boyfriend’s disadvantage, well not really; I am just supposed to go back in a short time and if I am too happy here maybe I won’t go back. This is the problem I suppose. But I don’t want to talk about that. My classes are so interesting sometimes; I get to talk about basically anything I want; there are rules about discussing politics but sometimes, a lot of the time, it is appropriate and I really enjoy hearing what they have to say, as long as I move on quick enough or don’t make it too obvious that I am ridiculously interested in what they’ve got to say, not any more than a normal teacher should be anyways. English corners sometimes are the best because you have a lot of different students in one classroom of all different ages, well, all adults, mostly, and from different backgrounds with different ideas about the world; they vary so much it is astounding but I suppose like any other country. It is like my students are my specimens in my great social experiment but I am both the active scientist and the passive observer. I love it. For example today I had an English corner on marriage, very interesting I tell you. Some of the women felt like there is no such thing as real love, that it only seems like it before marriage then after marriage it turns into something else; one woman even said her husband loves her son more than her. And I was like, pardon me if I am rude, but do you feel like a tool? Can you believe I said that to her? Well if you know me I am sure you can believe it. And she said yes, she feels like a tool. One man said if you believe in true love then you will have it and if you don’t then you won’t and that young men don’t believe in true love but old men do. One student wanted badly to be a football player for his province but he is too old now and he was not picked because his leg was hurt at that time and it crushed his dream. First of all, I think the way China does sports needs to change; people only get one chance here to play and it is completely unfair; and I think this guy is only 27 so he isn’t even too old but in China he is; it is so whack. He needs to have another dream and his new dream is that he will make a big influence on a group of people; I can’t remember exactly what he said now but it certainly left a big impression on me and made me a little dreamy on the inside, seeing as how I have the same ambition. So I guess he was right about something else; he said women are easy to make dizzy, easy to happiness and easy to love. I really don’t agree with him but he is right in a lot of ways, just not that all women are this way but certainly a lot of them are. A lot of the women were able to acknowledge the inequality between men and women in marriage, both in the past and still today with regard to a woman being limited to the domestic sphere after marriage. Oh so many things to think about with a class like this and this is why I love this job. I get a group of people, all willing to talk to me and answer any question I want and it is a different culture than the one I grew up in which makes it even more interesting to study; I would like to study every culture but here I am with this one and the window/door is open so big for teachers here to attempt to truly understand this way of life. I can study my culture and my country sure, but I must study others. I really like that one boy student though, I really do.

that guy

There was a man who once claimed to be able to ride a bike with no handle bars. Well, my friends, I just one uped his ass. I can ride a bike with no wheels. Yes, it does take a lot of imagination, but that is all I have left.

Side note. Global Economy. People are worried that we are going to be taken over by the Chinese. I’m not. But I also drink, smoke and eat unhealthy. I suppose I should worry about dying at 35. But, I’m not. We should all just work together. But we dont. We have crazy people all around us. Every country. News likes to just make them seem bigger than they are. There not. Money, that seems like it is important. Chinese might think so, we own them quite a bit. Lets see if they will shake ups upside down to take our lunch money. We are the country that shoots the bullies. Then becomes the bully. Then is like, everything back to normal, right mates. Just sweep that under the rug we will. Sorry. But it could also be because corporations have a major say in our country. What I am trying to say is, I have got a friend in Jesus. Seriously. Best prices on dro.

So that was my first post ever. I understand that it is mostly incoherent, and a jumble of thoughts, that may or may not be lacking emotion. What I say to you good sir or madam, time for tea?

the life of birds

It is a short life, as it always is, when one is young and does not know yet what will come. When there have been many paths traveled it is difficult at last to set one down, but one must yet be set down. In the journey of womanhood alas to the death one must be captured with utmost certainty as to not leave any shadow of doubt cast upon the nature or character of the intended. The search for love can lead you to many places, all equally charming or alarming at best, but all unutterably disarming and engaging one in certain beliefs about the world, which is filled with so many temperaments one can hardly stop spinning for lack of romantic stability. From one love in youth, to many more brought on and cast off, there does not indeed need to be a choice made. A woman can live without a man and not be completely alone and destitute. In the history of womanhood there is always the battle with the mother of man and the battle which takes place only in the woman’s mind. She follows and goes until she can hear none other than her own voice calling her away.
Bickering and great pain is always brought about in the transition from early youth to young adulthood but finally one leaves one’s home and goes out into the world to find or chisel out her own place. A girl first tastes her first inclination towards love in her most tender years. We all have ideals and sometimes they are met and sometimes they are so completely not met that we believe we are drowning in our own disappoint, and realization of disillusionment or clarity. Through mixing with others one must find themselves at once themselves without the stain or ruin or taint of the union of an imperfect match. A love with a master will not due and it is surely so trying to find an equal that one almost deems it so completely improbably that we may at once decide it wholly unnecessary to have romantic love at all. Sure one, from time to time and with her whole heart wishes for something that could never be rightly hers, because if she had it she could not yet be herself. In all the giving up of and buying and selling of women there surely must be some women who desire first and foremost to gain back themselves in a society which always has seemed to cast them away to another family in happy union or not. We women have never been our own so it seems right that there would come along women who seek to own themselves much as a slave wishes to claim his right as a man. It seems we must, or some must turn their back on the ideal of romantic love and fall on themselves and hope to find something deeper and more rewarding certainly at times than a husband.
I was almost married once to a man who could not have me and he must have known this because he cast me off with love and regret in his eyes, a solemn tear that was shed for something that would never be. He could not own or tame this prize; she could not be the gem to view or wear out, the one to fulfill his every dream of balance between servitude and woman’s independence. When she would try to assert herself it was too wholly unyielding and uncompassionate to his feelings and when she would try to serve and shut herself away he saw it as a disgusting lack of self respect; no one likes the prey to give in and give themselves over in a committed fashion. If one is determined to be owned by someone else it doesn’t seem much like a choice but rather the giving away to someone else’s determination and he could not have that. He wanted the chase but not to win her completely; she could not serve and still be respected but she could also not serve herself and remain grateful enough to keep herself in his good graces. A bird that doesn’t know it’s caged does not fight, one who knows it is caught with no hope of escape undoubtedly succumbs to it’s captive with pity and remorse but makes herself accustomed in her cage and one who has caged herself in man’s great cavern and still sees escape as something prized doesn’t actually lock herself away at all. She flutters until her captive can’t hold her any longer for his fear she will one day strike at him and he truly wants to see her fly and not be responsible for killing such a beautiful bird and possibly killing himself at her wing. Regardless I got away with bitter sweet agony at first. It was not so much I gave up.
You are subconsciously or consciously taught to find your best opportunity with a man. Find the man who can support you, love you, grow old by your side and make this life just so with color and shine or the bleak hope of having enough food and money to raise children, to pass the torch. Find someone who can take care of you because it is so utterly difficult to take care of yourself and after all you don’t want to die alone now do you? Who wants a childless life with burden and hardship? They say nothing can give you what love or stability can give you. So when you are taught to take a man because it is good for your future it kills something, because inside you question why you are doing it.
Surely she must have loved him once, but as he became uglier and uglier and her determination stuck it was then just a matter of winning; she did not want to lose. By god she picked her path and wanted none to deter her but alas the weak minded boy and his strong minded parents were the winners of this battle. There was something wrong with him; they thought how could she really love him, why did she come back to him after all this time, why doesn’t she strike out on her own? She must be seeking the easy path, preying on our young mentally inept boy, who is after all ours and ours alone. A baby in birth and a baby to the last but they did not know the devil can wear the face of a baby. His mask was so complete that even she was fooled. He said, let me take you away from your life and make you my bride where I swear we can do anything together for this must be your dream because it must be every little girl’s dream. I went in love; I stayed in love; I committed in love; I fought in love for what I thought was right. The only problem was I saw him for what he was, a lying conniving fool sucking his mommy’s silver spoon to the grave, wanting me to fit in just so, fake the smile just right; I would have been willing to smile sincerely if only it had been a happy home but his parent’s were against it and his determination and will was not strong enough to keep a steady mind against their own conniving nature. Anyways she was spat out. She was tried on for size and spat out because she could not forget herself, she held on all too dearly.

Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum

May 22, 4:54 AM EDT

Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum

By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/Jay Janner

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas schoolchildren will be required to learn that the words "separation of church and state" aren’t in the Constitution and evaluate whether the United Nations undermines U.S. sovereignty under new social studies curriculum.

In final votes late Friday, conservatives on the State Board of Education strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers and required that the U.S. government be referred to as a "constitutional republic" rather than "democratic."

The board approved the new standards with two 9-5 votes along party lines after months of ideological haggling and debate that drew attention beyond Texas.

The guidelines will be used to teach some 4.8 million students for the next 10 years. They also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on those approved in Texas, though Texas teachers ave latitude in deciding how to teach the material.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said after the votes Friday that such decisions should be made at the local level and school officials "should keep politics out" of curriculum debates.

"Parents should be very wary of politicians designing curriculum," Duncan said in a statement.

But Republican board member David Bradley said the curriculum revision process has always been political but the ruling faction had changed since the last time social studies standards were adopted.

"We took our licks, we got outvoted," he said referring to the debate 10 years earlier. "Now it’s 10-5 in the other direction … we’re an elected body, this is a political process. Outside that, go find yourself a benevolent dictator."

GOP board member Geraldine Miller was absent during the votes.

The board attempted to make more than 200 amendments this week, reshaping draft standards that had been prepared over the last year and a half by expert groups of teachers and professors.

As new amendments were being presented just moments before the vote, Democrats bristled that the changes had not been vetted.

"I will not be part of the vote that’s going to support this kind of history," said Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat.

At least one state lawmaker vowed legislative action to "rein in" the board.

"I am disturbed that a majority of the board decided their own political agendas were more important than the education of Texas children," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, a San Antonio Democrat.

In one of the most significant curriculum changes, the board diluted the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, noting that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring students to compare and contrast the judicial language with the First Amendment’s wording.

Students also will be required to study the decline in the U.S. dollar’s value, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

The board rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D., and agreed to replace Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political philosopher in a world history class. They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

Former board chairman Don McLeroy, one of the board’s most outspoken conservatives, said the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed to the left after years of Democrats controlling the board and he just wants to bring it back into balance.

Educators have blasted the curriculum proposals for politicizing education. Teachers also have said the document is too long and will force students to memorize lists of names rather than learning to critically think.

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Swingers sent to jail in China for orgies and wife

Swingers sent to jail in China for orgies and wifeswapping partiesUniversity professor Ma Xiaohai, 53, jailed for three and a half years for organising a wife-swapping club and orgies
(14)Tweet this (13)Tania Branigan and agencies in Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 May 2010 18.24 BST
Article history
They sought not only thrills but an escape from the pressures of ordinary life, they said. But today 19 Chinese swingers began prison sentences following their conviction on group sex charges.

A court in Nanjing, eastern China, confirmed that a university professor, Ma Xiaohai, 53, had been jailed for three and a half years for organising a wife-swapping club and orgies.

The state newspaper China Daily reported that 18 others received sentences of up to two and a half years, while three were released because they had turned themselves in. All but Ma pleaded guilty.

The case is thought to have been the first under the "group licentiousness" law, one of several introduced in 1997 to replace the sweeping charge of "hooliganism".

Yao Yong’an, one of Ma’s lawyers, said the academic would appeal. "The court is wasting society’s resources. What they did was in their private space. We are not working for one person or even 20. We are trying to rescue over 100,000 people from getting hurt. If this case is wrongly judged, similar cases will be judged this way."

But Fang Gang, director of the Beijing Forestry University Institute for Sex and Gender, predicted: "Those who want to swap wives will continue; they will just be more careful than before."

In an era when sex shops and brothels proliferate, and when extramarital affairs are increasingly common, many saw the charges as outdated.

A sociologist and sexual rights campaigner, Li Yinhe, said that two decades ago displays of public affection and even dancing with members of the opposite sex could be severely punished. "He could have been sentenced to death then. But the real improvement should be the abolition of this crime," she said.

But others argued that such behaviour was lowering social standards and could lead to other immoral acts.

Ma told China Daily group sex was common and the orgies distracted him from the pressures he felt after his second marriage failed. He said the sex was consensual and claimed the orgies had improved some marriages. One couple reportedly wed after meeting at the events.

Sexologist Xue Fulin, deputy chairman of the China Sexology Association, told the newspaper an overhaul of sex laws was needed.

His team had turned to Marx and Engels for guidance, collecting 152 relevant quotes. "As the theoretical basis of the Communist party of China, Marxism is able to guide us through everything. Sexology is no exception," he added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/20/china-wifeswapping-swingers-orgies