- China

The Colony: Chinese in Africa

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:33:27 -0600

Torrential Rains Cause Massive Flooding Across China

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:05:31 -0600

Source: CNN

Torrential flooding across much of the nation has left 701 dead and hundreds missing, China's vice minister of water resources said.

At least 347 people are missing, Liu Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

Ninety-percent of the casualties were caused by mountain floods, mudslides and landslides triggered by heavy downpours. About 645,500 houses had collapsed, he said.

More than 230 rivers were above warning levels; 25 of them saw their highest levels ever, he said.

More than 100 cities flooded, he said.

Liu cited torrential downpours between June 13 and June 27, and heavy rain on July 8 in southern China as particularly damaging.

"In southern China, the rainfall is 30 to 100 percent higher than the historical average," he said.

The Three Gorges Dam saw its biggest peak runoff and the rains resulted in "various disasters hitting many regions," he said.

The floods have affected 117 million people in 27 provinces and seven cities.

Large China Oil Spill Threatens Sea Life

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:22:25 -0600

(Click Image For Slideshow)

Source: Yahoo/AP

China's largest reported oil spill emptied beaches along the Yellow Sea as its size doubled Wednesday, while cleanup efforts included straw mats and frazzled workers with little more than rubber gloves.

An official warned the spill posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality as China's latest environmental crisis spread off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.

One cleanup worker has drowned, his body coated in crude.

"I've been to a few bays today and discovered they were almost entirely covered with dark oil," said Zhong Yu with environmental group Greenpeace China, who spent the day on a boat inspecting the spill.

"The oil is half-solid and half liquid and is as sticky as asphalt," she told The Associated Press by telephone.

The oil had spread over 165 square miles (430 square kilometers) of water five days since a pipeline at the busy northeastern port exploded, hurting oil shipments from part of China's strategic oil reserves to the rest of the country. Shipments remained reduced Wednesday.

State media has said no more oil is leaking into the sea, but the total amount of oil spilled is not yet clear.

Greenpeace China released photos Wednesday of inky beaches and of straw mats about 2 square meters (21 square feet) in size scattered on the sea, meant to absorb the oil.

Fishing in the waters around Dalian has been banned through the end of August, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The oil spill will pose a severe threat to marine animals, and water quality, and the sea birds," Huang Yong, deputy bureau chief for the city's Maritime Safety Administration, told Dragon TV.

At least one person died during cleanup efforts. A 25-year-old firefighter, Zhang Liang, drowned Tuesday when a wave threw him from a vessel, Xinhua reported.

Officials, oil company workers and volunteers were turning out by the hundreds to clean blackened beaches.

"We don't have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks," an official with the Jinshitan Golden Beach Administration Committee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, in apparent exasperation.

"This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore. ... This stretch of oil is really difficult to clean up in the short term."

But 40 oil-skimming boats and about 800 fishing boats were also deployed to clean up the spill, and Xinhua said more than 15 kilometers (9 miles) of oil barriers had been set up to keep the slick from spreading.

China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled. That would amount roughly to 400,000 gallons (1,500,000 liters) — as compared with 94 million to 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the U.S. coast.

China's State Oceanic Administration released the latest size of the contaminated area in a statement Tuesday.

The cause of the explosion that started the spill was still not clear. The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer by volume.

Friday's images of 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) flames at China's second largest port for crude oil imports drew the immediate attention of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders. Now the challenge is cleaning up the greasy plume.

"Our priority is to collect the spilled oil within five days to reduce the possibility of contaminating international waters," Dalian's vice mayor, Dai Yulin, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

But an official with the State Oceanic Administration has warned the spill will be difficult to clean up even in twice that amount of time.

Some locals said the area's economy was already hurting.

"Let's wait and see how well they deal with the oil until Sept. 1, if the oil can't be cleaned up by then, the seafood products will all be ruined," an unnamed fisherman told Dragon TV. "No one will buy them in the market because of the smell of the oil."

China Passes U.S. As World's Top Energy Consumer

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:30:42 -0600

Source: CBC

For the first time in more than a century, a country other than the United States consumed more energy than any other nation, as China grabbed the top spot last year.

Citing data from the International Energy Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that China was the world's most voracious consumer of energy in 2009.

China consumed 2,252 million tonnes of "oil equivalent" last year, topping the U.S. tally of 2,170 tonnes by roughly four per cent.

Oil equivalent is the term the IEA uses to bring all forms of energy into a comparable form, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, wind and solar power.

China was forecast to overtake the U.S. at some point over the next decade. But the global recession appears to have sped up the process as its economy continued to expand at a double-digit pace while the U.S. economy declined and oil consumption flatlined.

Only 10 years ago, China's energy consumption was half that of the United States.

"The fact that China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol was quoted as saying.

China had already passed the United States as the world's largest polluter several years ago.

With a population of a little over 300 million, the United States remains the world's largest energy consumer per capita.

In terms of the use of oil itself, the IEA says the United States remains well out in the lead, consuming some 19 million barrels per day. But China's economy relies on coal for much of its electricity generation, and its crude consumption is also climbing from its current level of just over nine million barrels per day.

China's electricity demand is forecast to increase by 1,000 gigawatts over the next 15 years — equivalent to the U.S.'s total electricity output at the moment.

Multinationals Move HQ's to Shanghai

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:39:59 -0600

China Jails U.S. Geologist for Eight Years

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:47:36 -0600

Source: Bloomberg

A U.S. geologist was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Chinese court after being convicted of violating the state secrets law by selling a database on the country’s oil industry.

The U.S. said it was “dismayed” by the sentence given to Xue Feng and remains concerned about his rights to due process under Chinese law. Xue was also fined 200,000 yuan ($29,550) yesterday by a Beijing court at a hearing that was attended by U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Richard Buangan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said. Calls to Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court and the Foreign Ministry weren’t answered yesterday.

...

State Secrets

State secrets include information that may damage the nation in fields ranging from defense and diplomacy to “national, economic and development projects” and technology. The government also has the power to label anything else a state secret, according to the amendments passed in April.

Three Chinese nationals were sentenced with Xue yesterday. Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Co., was sentenced to eight years and fined 200,000 yuan, AP reported, citing Xue’s lawyer Tong Wei. Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked at a research institute affiliated with PetroChina Co., were each given 2 1/2 year sentences and fined 50,000 yuan, according to AP.

...

“These kinds of cases have been linked to international politics as a weapon of retaliation in the Chinese government’s arsenal,” Hank Wang, a Beijing-based lawyer at Garvey Schubert Barer and co-chairman of the legal committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China, said in an e-mail. “As the U.S. and China have reopened talks on human rights issues, this should be included in the agenda.”

The database that Xue arranged to sell contained detailed information on the state of the Chinese oil industry, AP reported. China’s three biggest oil companies are all state- owned.

China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has been dipping into $2.4 trillion of foreign currency reserves to buy stakes in oil and natural-gas fields and has spent at least $21 billion on overseas resources in the past year. China Petrochemical Corp. bought a stake in a Canadian oil sands project for $4.65 billion in April.

China: Cracks in the Three Gorges Dam

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:27:49 -0600

Related Post - China to Accelerate South-North Water Project

Source: The Telegraph

In China, cracks are appearing – in the neighbourhood of the massive Three Gorges Dam, the country’s great prestige project, and also in the Great Internet Firewall of China, enabling the ominous news to leak out. Three years ago stories were already emerging in the Chinese media about landslides, ecological deterioration and accumulation of algae further down the river. And less and less effort seems to be made to plug the leaks.

Recent media reports tell of a series of landslips, minor earthquakes and cracks appearing in roads and buildings along the central section of the Yangtse, between the dam and the city of Chongqing. Almost 10,000 “dangerous sites” have been identified, but many of the people living near them cannot be relocated for lack of money. Two years ago thousands of children died in Sichuan Province because their schools were not resistant to the earthquake which hit the area; in the town of Badong near Chongqing children are attending school in buildings which have been recognised as far more vulnerable. What else can they do? The local authorities can’t afford a new one.

Like many such megaprojects, the Three Gorges was always driven as much by politics as by economics. Its rationale covered irrigation and flood control in the lower Yangtse plain, hydroelectric power generation, which sounds sensible: but objections were bulldozed in the tense political atmosphere of the late 1980s, when the final decisions were made. The dam was the pet project of then prime minister Li Peng, who was involved in the party split which led to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, in which he was the triumphant prime mover. In this context he was not going to back down on the dam, and the debate was closed down.

So the construction was forced through without even what passes in China for proper debate. The number of local people who had to be relocated came to 1.4 million – equivalent to the obliteration of Birmingham. Now it looks like another 300,000 will have to be shifted – add Coventry to that. This, in China, means getting a few weeks’ notice to quit and putting up with wherever the authorities see fit to put you. On top of that a large number of historic sites from one of the most ancient cradles of Chinese civilisation had to go. Yes, China has vast numbers of people to feed and cannot afford sentimentality, but perhaps a bit more care might have been taken to ensure that the costs and benefits had been properly calculated.

But even three years ago, with Li Peng and his family safely out of the way, official Chinese sources were admitting that things had gone horribly wrong. In the official media references were made to landslides, ecological deterioration and accumulation of algae. The Chinese aren’t unworldly and irresponsible greenies. When they point things like this out it’s because it’s causing real damage.

North Korea Cuts All Ties With The South

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:10:31 -0600

Source: The Guardian

North Korea today hit back at Seoul by announcing it would sever all links, escalating the standoff over accusations that the North sank a South's warship.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA also reported that Pyongyang would expel all South Koreans from a joint-industrial zone in Kaesong, near the border.

The announcement, leaves relations at their worst point for years. It came as a monitoring group in Seoul reported that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, last week ordered his military to prepare for war in case the South attacks. Military officials in Seoul were unable to confirm the report, and said they had detected no unusual troop movements.

The North's statement followed and announcement by South Korea's president, Lee Myong-bak, that Seoul would suspend trade, ban Northern ships from its waters and take Pyongyang to the UN security council. This, he announced that Seoul would redesignate the North as its "main enemy" – a term it dropped six years ago, when relations were thawing.

Citing the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, KCNA said Pyongyang would engage in no dialogue or contact while Lee was in power; he is due to leave office in 2013.

Relations on the divided peninsula deteriorated sharply after he became president last year, ending his predecessor's "sunshine policy" of free-flowing aid to the North.

KCNA described the retaliation as a response to Seoul's "smear campaign" – the accusation, based on a report by an international team, that a Northern torpedo caused the sinking in March of the Cheonan, which killed 46 people. Pyongyang denies any involvement.

...

Professor Hazel Smith, a North Korea expert at Cranfield University, said: "Wars sometimes happen by accident, or because you have escalation and no one can control it. It's a very dangerous position that everyone is in. .

"With all the communications channels being closed down, there is a lot of room for escalation by default."

...

Experts said the announcement appeared to mean Southern NGOs would no longer be able to work in the North, spelling an end to low-level economic and, in some cases, government links.

It also spells an end to hopes of reviving cross-border reunions between families split by the border at the end of the 1950-53 war.

...

The South's military resumed propaganda radio broadcasts across the border this morning after a six-year hiatus, with programmes airing news, western music and comparisons of the political and economic situations on the two parts of the peninsula.

The psychological warfare will enrage the North, which has warned it will fire at any propaganda facilities in the demilitarised zone.

China - 'The Human Flesh Search'

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:54:26 -0700

Source: New York Times

The short video made its way around China’s Web in early 2006, passed on through file sharing and recommended in chat rooms. It opens with a middle-aged Asian woman dressed in a leopard-print blouse, knee-length black skirt, stockings and silver stilettos standing next to a riverbank. She smiles, holding a small brown and white kitten in her hands. She gently places the cat on the tiled pavement and proceeds to stomp it to death with the sharp point of her high heel.

“This is not a human,” wrote BrokenGlasses, a user on Mop, a Chinese online forum. “I have no interest in spreading this video nor can I remain silent. I just hope justice can be done.” That first post elicited thousands of responses. “Find her and kick her to death like she did to the kitten,” one user wrote. Then the inquiries started to become more practical: “Is there a front-facing photo so we can see her more clearly?” The human-flesh search had begun.

Human-flesh search engines — renrou sousuo yinqing — have become a Chinese phenomenon: they are a form of online vigilante justice in which Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, run out of town. It’s crowd-sourced detective work, pursued online — with offline results.

There is no portal specially designed for human-flesh searching; the practice takes place in Chinese Internet forums like Mop, where the term most likely originated. Searches are powered by users called wang min, Internet citizens, or Netizens. The word “Netizen” exists in English, but you hear its equivalent used much more frequently in China, perhaps because the public space of the Internet is one of the few places where people can in fact act like citizens. A Netizen called Beacon Bridge No Return found the first clue in the kitten-killer case. “There was credit information before the crush scene reading ‘www.crushworld.net,’ ” that user wrote. Netizens traced the e-mail address associated with the site to a server in Hangzhou, a couple of hours from Shanghai. A follow-up post asked about the video’s location: “Are users from Hangzhou familiar with this place?” Locals reported that nothing in their city resembled the backdrop in the video. But Netizens kept sifting through the clues, confident they could track down one person in a nation of more than a billion. They were right.

The traditional media picked up the story, and people all across China saw the kitten killer’s photo on television and in newspapers. “I know this woman,” wrote I’m Not Desert Angel four days after the search began. “She’s not in Hangzhou. She lives in the small town I live in here in northeastern China. God, she’s a nurse! That’s all I can say.”

Only six days after the first Mop post about the video, the kitten killer’s home was revealed as the town of Luobei in Heilongjiang Province, in the far northeast, and her name — Wang Jiao — was made public, as were her phone number and her employer. Wang Jiao and the cameraman who filmed her were dismissed from what the Chinese call iron rice bowls, government jobs that usually last to retirement and pay a pension until death.

“Wang Jiao was affected a lot,” a Luobei resident known online as Longjiangbaby told me by e-mail. “She left town and went somewhere else. Li Yuejun, the cameraman, used to be core staff of the local press. He left Luobei, too.” The kitten-killer case didn’t just provide revenge; it helped turn the human-flesh search engine into a national phenomenon.

...

Versions of the human-flesh search have taken place in other countries..... But China is the only place in the world with a nearly universal recognition (among Internet users) of the concept.

...

The online diary, “Migratory Bird Going North,” was more than just a reflection on her adulterous husband and a record of her despair; it was Yan’s countdown to suicide, prompted by the discovery that her husband was cheating on her. The first entry reads: “Two months from now is the day I leave . . . for a place no one knows me, that is new to me. There I won’t need phone, computer or Internet. No one can find me.”

A person who read Yan’s blog decided to repost it, 46 short entries in all, on a popular Chinese online bulletin board called Tianya. Hong posted a reply, expressing sadness over her sister’s death and detailing the ways she thought Yan had helped her husband: supporting him through school, paying for his designer clothes and helping him land a good job. Now, she wrote, Wang wouldn’t even sign his wife’s death certificate until he could come to an agreement with her family about how much he needed to pay them in damages.

...

The search crossed over to other Web sites, then to the mainstream media — so far a crucial multiplier in every major human-flesh search — and Wang Fei became one of China’s most infamous and reviled husbands. Most of Wang’s private information was revealed: cellphone number, student ID, work contacts, even his brother’s license-plate number. One site posted an interactive map charting the locations of everything from Wang’s house to his mistress’s family’s laundry business. “Pay attention when you walk on the street,” wrote Hypocritical Human. “If you ever meet these two, tear their skin off.”

Wang is still in hiding and was unwilling to meet me, but his lawyer, Zhang Yanfeng, told me not long ago: “The human-flesh search has unimaginable power. First it was a lot of phone calls every day. Then people painted red characters on his parents’ front door, which said things like, ‘You caused your wife’s suicide, so you should pay.’ ”

Wang and his mistress, Dong Fang, both worked for the multinational advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Soon after Netizens revealed this, Saatchi & Saatchi issued a statement reporting that Wang Fei and Dong Fang had voluntarily resigned. Wang’s lawyer says Saatchi pushed the couple out. “All the media have the wrong report,” he says. “[Wang Fei] never quit. He told me that the company fired him.” (Representatives for Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing refused to comment.) Netizens were happy with this outcome but remained vigilant. One Mop user wrote, “To all employers: Never offer Wang Fei or Dong Fang jobs, otherwise Moppers will human-flesh-search you.”

The U.S. Push For Full Spectrum Dominance

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:56:20 -0700

"While ballistic missiles move at speeds of about 4,000 miles [6,500 km] per hour, they are no match for a superheated, high-energy laser beam racing towards it at 670 million mph.”

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency was no less enthusiastic about the results, stating “The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defence, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometres….” - The Intelligence Daily

There's more going on than meets the eye. Consider the story of the Russian and U.S. satellites that collided a year ago. The article from Yahoo states:

"The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. The Russian satellite was out of control, Matney said."

A statement from Iridium read:

"While this is an extremely unusual, very low-probability event, the
Iridium constellation is uniquely designed to withstand such an event,
and the company is taking the necessary steps to replace the lost
satellite with one of its in-orbit spare satellites,"

If the functional status of the Russian satellite is itself unknown, or 'believed to be' something or other, how can it than be determined that the satellite was 'out of control'? In later reports Russian officials confirm that the satellite was indeed 'defunct', going off-line only two years after launch. However, everything orbiting near earth is tracked and satellites (that can still be communicated with) are moved into a retirement orbit (radioactive space junk depot) or brought back into the earths atmosphere at or around their 'best before date'. Therefore I find it hard to envision that a known defunct (non-communicable) satellite, that apparently had no orbital adjustment capabilities, which had moved into an orbit shared by an American based satellite (that had maneuver capabilities) and that was being used by U.S. government officials, didn't elicit a warning regarding an impending collision. The following is from the BBC:

Mr Johnson said that at the beginning of this year about 17,000 manmade pieces of debris were orbiting Earth.

The items, some as small as 10cm (four inches), are tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network - sending information to help spacecraft operators avoid the debris.

Of the 6,000 satellites sent into orbit since 1957, about 3,000 remain in operation, according to Nasa.

Europe has just initiated its own space surveillance programme. One of its main weather satellites had a near miss in December with a Chinese object. The Europeans knew nothing about the threat until the Americans contacted the European Space Agency to inform it of the danger. - BBC

Consider also China's anti-satellite ballistic missile program. Even more curious is the story surrounding the shuttle Columbia, which blew up over Texas from what was determined to be excessive heat which penetrated the shuttle body. One report describes an anomalous lightening flash before the actual mid air explosion of the shuttle.

Based on NASA's own investigation the shuttle Columbia failed due to a heat breach caused by a faulty shielding panel that fell away. The nature of the fault might not have been from a heat shield malfunction however, but from a focused laser beam directed from a ground station in New Mexico.

"Over the past five years, various NMB-related technologies have been tested. While world attention has been diverted to far less successful BMD programs involving the Patriot Advanced capability-3 (Pac-3 and the Israeli Arrow 2) missile system, the more promising technologies have been kept under wraps and given a low profile.

Successfully tested technologies include Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), a joint project between the U.S. and Israel. Successful THEL tests were conducted from New Mexico's White Sands missile range in 2000/2001, where it shot down Katyusha rockets and incoming artillery projectiles.

The THEL system uses a high-energy, deuterium fluoride chemical invisible beam. The laser produces and amplifies light of a particular wavelength, or color, which is then directed at a target with great accuracy.

In a typical engagement scenario, when a missile is launched, upon detection by the THEL fire control, the radar establishes trajectory information about the incoming missile, then passes the target to the pointer-tracker subsystem (PTS), which includes the beam director. The PTS tracks the target optically, then begins a "fine tracking" process for THEL's beam director, which targets THEL's high-energy laser. The energy of the laser heats the target, which causes it to explode.

If the laser is powerful enough, it can generate very high temperatures where the light falls, melting or vaporizing the target.

A study completed in 2001 concluded that the missile interceptor has "lots of promise" and further development should be pursued, primarily in enabling system's air transportability, including the type of transport aircraft it should fit on (C-130, C-17 or C-5).

In early 2002, military scientists were trying to develop the laser with a greater range, that can follow and hit fast-moving objects at distances ranging from tens of kilometers.

At the same time last year, the US Air Force and Missile Defense Agency were poised to begin flying the first Airborne Laser (ABL) test aircraft. Loitering at altitudes around 40,000 feet, the ABL system is designed to destroy boosting ballistic missiles with a multi-megawatt laser beam that travels at light speed over great distances. Its high-energy beam (about the diameter of a basketball) will heat a missile's side until it fails structurally, then tumbles to earth. - Weekly Universe"

And so we have the widespread deployment of PAC-3's, and the unveiling of the once secret star wars program. In essence we are in the midst of yet another arms race, where technological superiority such that definite victory is assured will remain ever elusive. The U.S. strategy - overwhelm through sheer force. Deploy PAC-3's with ever greater range, and support them with air based, land based, and satellite based laser weapons. The U.S. knows full well they will lose a portion of their capability during an exchange, the goal is to have more hardware than the adversary. The continuation of this race will end badly for everyone, we are currently on the road to ruin without some drastic international agreement to halt all space based weapons, including restrictions on the deployment of a new generation of ballistic missiles.

But wait, the Alex Jonesians, and the even more far right, will scream bloody 'world government' at the tune of this solution, as they will at every other international agreement that sets limits or restrictions on the individual right to insanity.

The real question in all this is, why do we choose such a seriously mangled dream as an experience? We need to contemplate that question, the seed of our solution lies in that type of question.

Source: The Intelligence Daily

The provocative decisions by the U.S. on missile deployments in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria since the expiration of the START last December lead to no other conclusion than the White House and the Pentagon intend the indefinite postponement if not the aborting of any comprehensive agreement to limit and reduce nuclear arms.

Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has recently voiced the concern that the U.S. still plans to base anti-ballistic missile facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic [16] in spite of statements by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates last September 17 that previous plans for both countries are being replaced by “stronger, smarter, and swifter” deployments.

The U.S. has not substituted the missile encirclement of Russia with that of China. It is conducting both simultaneously.

As it is doing so, the Pentagon announced on February 12, 2010 that “A U.S. high-powered airborne laser weapon shot down a ballistic missile in the first successful test of a futuristic directed energy weapon, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said….” [17]

A Reuters report of the test launched from a base in California over the Pacific Ocean, one which has been touted as finally realizing the Ronald Reagan administration’s plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars, described its purpose: “The airborne laser weapon is aimed at…providing the U.S. military with the ability to engage all classes of ballistic missiles at the speed of light while they are in the boost phase of flight.” [18]

One of weapon’s manufacturers, the Boeing Company, issued a press release for the occasion which said in part: “This experiment marks the first time a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and the first time that any system has accomplished it in the missile’s boost phase of flight….The laser is the most powerful ever installed on an aircraft….” [19]

Northrop Grumman, another partner in the project (Lockheed Martin being the third), added: “While ballistic missiles like the one ALTB [Airborne Laser Testbed] destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles [6,500 km] per hour, they are no match for a superheated, high-energy laser beam racing towards it at 670 million mph [one billion kph].” [20]

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency was no less enthusiastic about the results, stating “The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defence, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometres….” [21]

The airborne laser weapon is mounted on a modified Boeing 747 commercial airliner. Its potential range is global.

Ten days later it was reported by the U.S. Army that the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico will receive a new laser weapon and “The Army may soon blast missiles out of the sky with a laser beam.” The weapon contains “100-kilowatt lasers that can rapidly heat a target, causing catastrophic events such as warhead explosions or airframe failures.”

Pentagon officials said it has “successfully worked in the laboratory and on the battlefield and now they want to begin shooting down missiles with it.” [22]

Airborne laser anti-missile weapons will join the full spectrum of land, sea, air and space interceptor missile components to envelope the world with a system to neutralize other nations’ deterrence capacities and prepare the way for conventional and nuclear first strikes.

Related Post - Satellites In Earth's Orbit

Russian General Predicts US Collapse If Iran Is Attacked

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:30:01 -0700

Source: Global Research

It appears that, the International Atomic Energy Agency is at least allowing for the possibility that documents allegedly found on a laptop some years ago --but discounted by the CIA and the DIA as of dubious provenance and incompatible with other intelligence gathered in Iran -- point to a nuclear weapons program that no one has been able to locate.

Some close observers have concluded that the laptop documents are forgeries. A new IAEA report that declines to dismiss the alleged documents will certainly cause the war lobby in the United States to redouble its efforts to get up an attack on Iran.

Forged documents on the supposed purchase of yellowcake uranium by Iraq from Niger were used by George W. Bush to promote a war on Iraq. It was at that time the Intelligence and Research division of the Department of State that attempted to throw cold water on these "documents," but was ignored by the president. Then head of the IAEA, Mohammed Elbaradei, was able to show them false in one afternoon.

...

The Obama administration wants stricter sanctions on Iran, and the Sarah Palin/ Daniel Pipes lunatic fringe wants a military attack on Iran.

But Russia's General of the Army Nikolay Makarov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, warned that an American attack on Iran now, when the US is bogged down in two wars, might well lead to the collapse of the United States. He said that such an attack would roil the region and have negative consequences for Russia (a neighbor of Iran via the Caspian Sea). And, he said, the Russian military is taking steps to forestall such an American strike on Iran. Makarov made the remarks in Vzglyad on Friday, February 19, 2010, and they were translated or paraphrased by the USG Open Source Center:

Makarov also commented on the recent rumors about the possibility of an attack upon Iran by the United States. In his opinion, this would be complete madness on the part of the American military. He said: "Admiral Michael McMullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said that, in the United States, there is a plan for carrying out strikes against Iran but the United States clearly understands that now, when it is conducting two military campaigns, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan, a third campaign against Iran would simply lead to a collapse. It would not be able to withstand the strain."

...

General Makarov, Chief of the General Staff, said: "The consequences of such an attack will be terrible not only for the region but also for us. Iran is our neighbor and we are very carefully following this situation. The leadership of our country is undertaking all measures in order not to allow such a (military) development of events."

...

Lavrov said that Moscow's independent stance toward Iran is rooted in the two countries' historical relationship as well as in Russian desire to get Iranian cooperation on such issues as the disposition of resources in the Caspian Sea. (For a quick overview of Russian-Iranian relations, see N.M. Mamedova, who also mentions Iran's tacit support for Russia against Georgia in the Caucasus.) Lavrov said:

But Iran for us, unlike the US, is a close neighbour, a country with which we have had a very long, historically conditioned relationship, a country with which we cooperate in the economic, humanitarian and military-technology fields alike and, let me note this particularly, a country that is our partner in the Caspian along with three other Caspian littoral states.

Therefore, we are not at all indifferent to what happens in Iran and around it. This applies to our economic interests and our security interests alike. This also applies . . . to the task of early settlement of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which is not an easy task and in the approaches to which the Iranian position is close enough to ours.

Therefore, speaking of the proliferation threats, yes, we are concerned about Iran's reaction.

...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was in Moscow earlier this week calling for 'crippling sanctions on Iran.' Lavrov's remarks clearly indicated that Moscow disagreed that that situation was so perilous as to call for such a step.

But just to be sure there was no misunderstanding, Lavrov sent out his own deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, to denounce any such talk.

Ryabkov said, according to Xinhua, "The term 'crippling sanctions' on Iran is totally unacceptable to us. The sanctions should aim at strengthening the regime of non- proliferation . . . We certainly cannot talk about sanctions that could be interpreted as punishment on the whole country and its people for some actions or inaction . . . " He said that Russia sought to settle differences with Iran through dialogue and engagement. He also pledged that Russia would honor its deal to provide Iran S-300 air defense systems. He said, "There is a contract to supply these systems to Iran and we will fulfil it. The delays are linked to technical problems with adjusting these systems . . . "

So on Friday, even as the hawks in Washington watered at the mouth at the prospect of being able to use the new IAEA report as a basis for belligerency against Iran, Russia's foreign policy establishment was engaged in a whirlwind of activity aimed at challenging the notion that Moscow is in Washington's back pocket on Iran sanctions. The chief of staff predicted American collapse in an Iran conflagration, and vowed in any case to try to block any such attack. The foreign minister pronounced himself largely but not completely satisfied with Iran's answers concerning its nuclear activities, and underlined that Russia needs Iran because of Caspian issues (and he could have added, because of Caucasus and Central Asian ones).

Those who have argued that Russia's increasing willingness to acquiesce in tougher UNSC sanctions might influence China to go along, too, should rethink. Russia doesn't seem all that aboard with a brutal sanctions regime. China not only has its own reasons not to want its own deals with Iran to be declared illegal, but its leaders doubt Iran has the capacity to construct a nuclear warhead anytime soon.

China And The Emerging 'Carbon Economy'

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:31:00 -0700

Source: Energy Tribune

The 1997 UN meetings in Japan about climate issues did more than give birth to the term “Kyoto Protocol” they also created the concept of “carbon capital.” And over the past few years, no other country has capitalized on that concept more than China, which is collecting major subsidies from the international community for its energy projects.

Here’s how it works: The amount of the carbon capital is determined by using a new alphabet soup of UN bureaucratese, specifically, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which issues Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs). The idea behind the CDM is fairly simple: industrialized countries who need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions can invest in projects that lower emissions in developing countries rather than cut emissions in their own. In theory, this allows overall global emissions to be reduced at a lower cost.

The CDM is part of what some forecasters expect could be a booming international market in carbon trading and offsets. The World Bank has projected that the global carbon trading market could be worth $150 billion by 2012.

Does the CDM process work? If it does, there’s no evidence of it from the numbers. Between 2000 and 2007, according to the IEA, global carbon dioxide emissions jumped by 23%. Regardless of the global carbon dioxide numbers, China has been the biggest beneficiary of the CDM scheme. In 2009, it had 730 projects with CDM subsidies, and those projects make up about 60% of all global CDM projects. But in mid-2009, the UN governing body that oversees CDM projects stopped approving subsidies for Chinese wind power projects due to concerns that the Chinese government had deliberately cut subsidies for wind projects so that they could qualify for CDM funding.

When CDM programs were first introduced into China, enterprises were incredulous to find out that their hydroelectric power plants and wind farms not only could generate electricity, but also could sell the carbon reductions for a profit. Immediately, Chinese companies began applying for CDM subsidies though they doubted that anything would come out of it. When, to their amazement, the applications were granted, they felt like the sky was raining pies and they sold carbon credits at whatever prices the brokers set.

But while Chinese were busy selling carbon credits, which earlier they thought was practically a crazy foreigner thing, one they could not or even care to understand, they found out that their carbon was being sold for 4 to 5 per ton. Meanwhile, the international market was over €10 per ton meaning that the CDM program brokers were making enormous profits. In response, China’s powerful National Reform and Development Commission mandated that the lowest price for China’s CERs would be €8 per ton.

In applying for CDM subsidies, a Chinese enterprise has little to risk. The procedure is simple. The enterprise finds a carbon broker and signs a contract. The broker pays for the CDM registration fee. If the project is granted, the seller pays back a portion of the fee and sells the carbon to the broker according to the contract.

But after the recent collapse of the climate talks in Copenhagen, which, at least in theory, could have propelled carbon prices to the stratosphere, another mechanism, the Voluntary Emissions Reduction or VER, has surfaced as a means of making money out of carbon trading. Since the VER is voluntary, the VER carbon credits are outside the scope of the UN framework. The projects only need to apply for the credits through a UN-designated third party certification body, while CERs have to be permitted by the UN Executive Board. However, the downside is that the VERs are only garnering €1 to 2 per ton.

Although the price of VERs is low, it is a zero-cost business. As one broker for both CERs and VERs recently put it, “there is no risk for the enterprises, no registration fees are needed. The only thing they need to do is to promise to sell carbon credits to us, then they can get some money. The VERs projects are mainly in economically backward areas, any money is important.”

Since the Kyoto Protocol will expire in 2012 and the Copenhagen talks did not reach any genuine agreement on emission reductions, the future of CERs and VERs is unknown. But if and when the market does stabilize, rest assured that China will maneuver quickly to capitalize on it.

The U.S. - China Economic War Losing Its Veil

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:07:31 -0700

The protracted hidden war of commercial/military espionage between east and west is surfacing in volcano like fashion in recent days, this trend will continue as tensions between geopolitical interests increase, until something visibly and recognizably shifts in a way that is undeniable in its impact and transformative of the global balance of power.

Source: The Independent

All of a sudden, financial markets look rather sickly. From a Western perspective, it's not too difficult to see why. President Obama no longer appears invincible now he will be forced to confront the Republicans' new-found filibustering powers after the Massachusetts Senate race. And while the administration lashes out at the banks, some Democrats on Capitol Hill are beginning to wonder whether Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is really up to the job.

Governments across the Western hemisphere are struggling to offer any credible solutions to widening fiscal imbalances. Might this lead to a persistent rise in bond yields beyond the control of both central banks and governments, thereby tripping up the recovery?

There is more, however, to the darkening of the financial mood. At the beginning of the year, many investors seemed to think we were living in the best of all possible worlds. While the politics of the financial crisis had not been resolved, it seemed to some that the economics of the crisis had finally been sorted out. Growth was picking up, deflationary fears were fading, asset prices had risen rapidly and, for the most part, central banks seemed intent on keeping short-term interest rates low for an extended period of time. This looked like economic nirvana: decent growth, a return of pricing power and no increase in the cost of capital.

Yet the recovery in activity in the Western world has really not been that strong. Most of the good news on global economic growth has come from the emerging world where, in recent months, the dominant story has been China. As 2008 drew to a close, many economists believed its economy was in big trouble, facing an export-led economic collapse. As it turned out, exports fell dramatically but the overall economy proved to be robust, largely as a result of hefty increases in infrastructure spending and a great big dollop of extra credit. Indeed, it wouldn't be stretching things too far to argue that China was the key driver of the global economic recovery in 2009. It's a big enough economy – about as big as Japan's and about a third the size of America's – but it is also growing incredibly quickly, typically at a pace three times faster than the US's.

A China-led global recovery marks a break with history. It brings with it some obvious costs and benefits. For the Western world, strong Chinese growth boosts exports of capital goods but, at the same time, drives up commodity prices. China, a poor country in per capita terms, has a voracious appetite for raw materials to satisfy the need for investment in infrastructure, the kind of capital spending that took place in the West many decades ago. With fuel prices still relatively high following the implosion of Western demand in recent years, it's clear that China is exerting its own gravitational pull on the global economy.

For many emerging nations, meanwhile, China's strength has provided an important counterweight to US and European weakness. Higher commodity prices have boosted the export earnings of Brazil, Chile, the Middle East and Russia, leaving their economies in a much better position compared with previous global economic downswings. The balance of payments
crises of old have, as yet, been kept at bay.

China's influence needs to be taken seriously. Indeed, one of the reasons financial markets have been jittery in the first few weeks of the year is the recognition that China has to tighten monetary policy in an attempt to slow domestic demand growth. China's exports are staging a rebound not so much because of a rapid pick-up in growth elsewhere in the world but because China's exports are super-competitive. When world trade collapses, as it did last year, even China cannot cope very easily. But if world trade stabilises, as it appears to have done more recently, China's exports tend to bounce back in size. In effect, China's share of world trade is continuously rising.

For some, this reflects a seriously undervalued exchange rate. I prefer to think about China's export success from a supply-side perspective: a mixture of 21st-century capital and remarkably cheap workers prepared to offer their services for very low wages has made China highly competitive. With exports now rebounding, China is in danger of growing too quickly. Indeed, figures released earlier in the week show that the Chinese economy expanded at a 10.7 per cent rate in the final quarter of 2009, providing an average growth rate for the year as a whole of 8.7 per cent. Earlier credit expansion has, if anything, proved to be too effective, leaving growth very strong and inflation on a rising trend.

In the old days, financial markets would take fright at the thought of monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve. Alan Greenspan was treated like a colossus, in part because he seemed to set interest rates not just for the US but for the whole world. Bernanke doesn't have the same status, in part because the Fed is simply not so important as it used to be. The world is changing. Investors have to think not just about what happens in Washington but also about what takes place in Beijing. If China cools its economy, financial markets are potentially vulnerable. For the US, China's growing influence is deeply uncomfortable. The argument over Google is the latest in a long line of disagreements. Worse may still be to come. If, at the end of the year, China is still growing quickly while the US is struggling with high unemployment, it doesn't take a genius to realise that a serious trade dispute could easily emerge. The Americans claim the Chinese are deliberately undervaluing their currency, allowing Chinese companies to steal American jobs. The Chinese, for their part, claim the US is too willing to go down the protectionist route, happy to blame other nations for its domestic economic woes.

This, I fear, is an unstable situation. How it ends is anybody's guess, but China's success will be seen by Americans as a challenge to US dominance. It's not difficult to imagine a world in which a US President, desperate to shore up domestic support, adopts a populist China-bashing manifesto. We could then all too easily end up heading into a world of trade wars, heightened protectionism and, ultimately, collapsing economic activity. No wonder investors are suddenly feeling nervous.

Why China's About To End The Dollar-Peg

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:35:27 -0700

Source: Seeking Alpha

Having received several comments and questions from readers about the future of China's monetary policy, which “pegs” the price of the renminbi to the U.S. dollar, that usually serves as a good indicator that this is a topic worthy of a more detailed discussion.

The general attitude I have encountered (which is obviously fueled by how the mainstream media chooses to report this issue) is that China's government is likely to retain the dollar-peg either because a) that has been its policy throughout the last decade; or b) that China is somehow “trapped” into maintaining the “peg”. I firmly believe the exact opposite: that China's government is very close to abandoning the dollar-peg, and (in fact) has made a multitude of preparations to do so.

Obviously, the first and more simpler basis for believing the dollar-peg will continue is easiest to address, so I will begin with that. While it can always be seen as simplistic to conclude that some trend will continue, simply due to some form of “inertia” (or just habit), we live in a universe where inertia is one of the most dominant forces.

Thus, the “inertia” argument must always be considered carefully. I would argue that the appropriate way to conduct such an analysis is to look at what caused a particular event/trend (in the first place), and whether those causative factors still exist. Once any particular trend (especially an economic trend) is no longer being driven by anything other than “past practice”, than the probability that such a trend is about to end rises considerably.

Looking back to when China first chose to link its currency to the U.S. dollar in this manner, in April of 1994, there are several obvious factors to list. First of all, China had a much less-mature economy. It was a smaller economy, in absolute terms. It was much earlier in the major transition from a primarily agricultural, peasant population to a much more urbanized, 21st century society.

Because of this, it lacked the population centers and distribution networks which must be present before a stronger, more consumer-oriented domestic economy can take hold. In turn, lacking a large domestic economy, its rapid industrial expansion was inevitably dependent on continued strength with its exports.

What China already did have was a population with rapidly rising incomes, large pools of savings, and a manufacturing base that has clearly established it as the new, global leader in many categories of production. In other words, China possesses many of the same characteristics today as were seen in the U.S. economy – just before it became a global, consumption-juggernaut.

While dogmatic idealogues may choke on the notion that China is “following in America's footsteps”, China has long since stopped being a “communist” nation in any remotely literal sense. Unfortunately, many of the people who insist on using labels, use the wrong ones, time and time again.

“Communism” and the sort of breath-taking industrial expansion currently taking place in China are simply not compatible. While “communism” may not prevent the leading Communists from setting aside a larger piece of the pie for themselves, it has always prevented the amassing of large personal fortunes through open commerce – which is officially anathema in any true, communist society.

Obviously, the China of the late-20th and 21st centuries has engaged in a complete ideological reversal, and officially endorsed the concept of individuals seeking to prosper through their own efforts – something which we “capitalists” have always considered a trait which separated us from all “communists”. It is important to be clear about this point, since one must assume that the endless rants of the China-bashers are fueled (for the most part) by their failure to understand the changes which have taken place in both its economy – and its society.

Clearly, many of the factors which existed at the beginning of China's dollar-peg have changed considerably. China is now the world's second-largest economy – having leapfrogged nations such as Japan, and the world's other exporting-powerhouse: Germany. With this economic growth being largely based upon manufacturing, this means that there has been a great deal of additional wealth created in China's economy, further boosting both incomes and savings (i.e. cash-flow, and investment capital).

While many myopic observers of China continue to conclude that China lacks enough domestic demand to reduce its reliance upon exports, not only is it the second-largest economy, but its domestic economy has been exploding. An analysis of China's economy published by the Harvard Business School (.pdf) in October of 2008 is highly illuminating.

In 2007, the last year in which China's economy was supposedly being driven by exports, China's 11% growth was achieved through contributions of 5% growth from domestic consumption, 4% growth from investment, and a puny 2% growth from exports. That's right, in the year before China began to seriously move away from “export dependence”, those exports accounted for less than 20% of China's growth.

Furthermore, even when Chinese exports were at their peak, the “dependence” on mature (and sagging) Western economies was never what is pretended by the China-bashers. Together, exports to the U.S. and Europe accounted for less than half of China's total exports.

Yes, those levels are falling further – and that is great news for China's economy. Less and less of China's goods are being paid for with Western IOU's (of highly dubious worth), while a greater and greater percentage of Chinese exports are being paid for with cash: the trade surpluses of other developing economies.

..

Indeed, inept Western analysts point to the large hoard of U.S. dollars still in China's possession, and conclude (erroneously) that the Chinese government is still increasing its holdings of U.S. IOU's through “buying” its debt. In fact, such accumulation has almost stopped.

China is willing to take whatever “hit” that it must on the U.S. dollars which it is holding (through currency swaps), because it is effectively “sterilizing” global trade from the cancerous effect of the biggest flood of greenbacks in history (and the horrific inflation they would cause). Instead of these depreciating dollars being used again and again, in that back-and-forth flow of trade, those dollars have been removed from global markets – and replaced with renminbi.

The second aspect of China's monetary campaign is to improve the “backing” of the renminbi through a “hard asset”: gold – instead of the worthless paper of Western bankers. Indeed, this is clearly the favorite means of China's government to rid itself of dollars – by swapping them for gold. Now, every time the anti-gold cabal drives down the price of gold a few percent, the Chinese government steps in, buys the cheap gold, and rids itself of unwanted dollars.

...

Clearly, with 20% of the world's population, and average incomes which are still modest, by Western standards, China cannot and will not tolerate “importing” U.S. inflation/hyperinflation through maintaining the “peg”. Clueless critics continue to insist that this will be a traumatic event to China's economy, ignoring the fact that China has already taken all the measures necessary to immunize itself from the U.S. “cancer”.

Inflation inside the U.S., and inflation in commodity prices expressed in U.S. dollars means little when China has neither trade-dependence nor currency-dependence on the U.S. With the renminbi taking over as “reserve currency” and with it rising in value against other currencies, suddenly the renminbi becomes the vehicle for all economies to rid themselves of U.S.-imported inflation (through the use of the U.S. dollar).

While many can/could validly argue that the world is not prepared for such an important transition, the win/win benefits of dumping the use of dollars and embracing the renminbi are so large that this will quickly turn into a powerful (and self-fueling) dynamic.

Remember that every dollar replaced with renminbi in trade is one more excess dollar permanently dumped upon this already-oversaturated market for dollars. Those nations/economies who delay abandoning the dollar will be punished by crippling inflation (and the political consequences of crippling inflation) – and through the value of those dollars they are holding rapidly moving toward zero due to non-existent demand.

It is entirely moot (at this point) to debate whether China “should” dump the dollar-peg. The facts are obvious: China must dump the peg, and both China and the rest of the world will benefit enormously from it doing so.

The Giant Vampire Squid’s Journey to the East

nospam@example.com (Angelo) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:34:01 -0700

Source: Dr.Schoon

Taibbi's metaphor is an apt description for modern banks, especially investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Credit Swiss, RBS, etc. Allowed by governments to create capital from virtually thin-air, these banks have an in-house advantage in a world dependent on credit, an advantage they use to leverage the world's need for money into profits and obscene bonuses for themselves.

Banking is simple. We profit by the indebting of others by taking advantage of their need for money. We do this by creating money from nothing using the savings of others to do so. -The Dark Arts: The Secrets of Banking, 14th ed.

The feeding mechanism of the giant vampire squid

The feeding mechanism of the Giant Vampire Squid is simple. First, it expands the size of its victim by injecting it with credit through its beak. Over time, this will enlarge the victim to its maximum possible size.

This mimics the nurturing process in nature. But the Giant Vampire Squid's intent is singularly self-serving. At first, the victim enjoys the squid's credit, absorbing as much as possible. The victim experiences the increased growth as pleasant and positive; and so it is - but ultimately only to the benefit of the squid.

The victim, is enlarged to its maximum size and thoroughly entwined by tentacles, and the Giant Vampire Squid then begins its deadly cycle of extraction, a protracted process that accelerates over time.

The Giant Vampire Squid possesses a rudimentary but highly sensitive extraction system alerting the squid to start the extraction process at the most advantageous time, indicating also the maximum amount that can be extracted and the most efficient way to do so, i.e. sovereign debt, mortgages, initial public offerings, leveraged buy-outs, consumer credit, bankruptcy, etc.

Inevitably, the victim begins to shrink as the extraction process has a debilitating effect over time. In some instances, speculative bubbles appear, nex ebullio, a sure sign of the victim’s approaching demise. The process can take years, even decades - or it can happen overnight.

Eventually, the victim, now shrunken and depleted and almost unrecognizable, its productivity and profits completely leached, its future if it ever existed encumbered beyond redemption, expires.

The life cycle of the giant vampire squid

The Giant Vampire Squid is a member of the family Architeuthidae, but unlike its biological brethren, the Giant Vampire Squid is also a parasite that, unlike others, dies when its host dies. To survive, it must always find another host before its present host expires.

The Giant Vampire Squid's first such crisis occurred when England could no longer expand fast enough to support the Giant Squid's rapid growth. As its victims expand, the Giant Vampire Squid expands also and, at the time, the Giant Vampire Squid needed another victim as its then host, England, was no longer expanding.

The United States of America was to be the perfect replacement for England. At the end of the 19th century, England's empire was shrinking while America was on the verge of great industrial growth.

With little debt and much potential, the US fit the exact profile of the Giant Vampire Squid's perfect victim/host - and it was. In less than 50 years, due to the squid’s continuous injections of credit, the US would expand to become the richest most productive country in the world, only to be bled completely dry by the Giant Vampire Squid in a few short decades - just as America’s founding fathers had warned.

Through its beak, the US Federal Reserve Bank, the Giant Vampire Squid increased US debt by an extraordinary 4,000 %, from less than $3 billion to over $12 trillion, by leveraging then draining the wealth of the world’s once strongest economy.

When the American economy collapsed in 2007, it almost destroyed the Giant Vampire Squid in the process. Only a massive emergency infusion of capital in 2008 would save it. TARP didn’t save America. TARP saved the Giant Vampire Squid.

Despite causing the collapse of the US economy, bankers inside the US government insured the squid would survive. Trillions of dollars in US aid were directly given to Wall Street banks resuscitating the giant squid from certain extinction.

TARP had enabled the Giant Vampire Squid to survive its greatest crisis since the 1930s; and, now, although badly wounded, its short-term survival is assured - but only as long as its host survives too.

The collapse of America’s economy reawakened the conundrum of parasites such as the Giant Vampire Squid, i.e. when its present victim has been completely drained of its wealth, another host must be found or it will die.

Today, its current host, the US, is fighting for survival as it succumbs to insurmountable levels of squid-induced-debt, SID. Its manufacturing base now transferred to China, its savings now replaced by IOUs, its future so encumbered it can never be paid, the US is now living on borrowed time and borrowed money - and the squid knows it.

The search for a new host is on.

The East beckons- or does it?

The West, now indebted and drained of its wealth by the Giant Vampire Squid, is no longer its optimal venue. The emerging markets in the East with their high savings rates and largely untapped markets look to be its next victim - or at least appear to be so.

The West’s view of itself is Western-centric. This is natural. It is also natural that the East’s view of the West is Eastern-centric. It is a view, however, that is far less kind than the West’s own view of itself.

To the East, the West is the Giant Vampire Squid incarnate. Originating in London in 1694, spawned by banks and government, the Giant Vampire Squid immediately headed East in the 1700s to take the East’s riches for itself.

India especially beckoned the Giant Vampire Squid. For 15 centuries prior to the Giant Squid’s arrival, India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world controlling between one third and one fourth of the world's wealth up to the 18th century.

But after the Giant Vampire Squid’s arrival, everything changed. It would do well for those enamored of the West’s "free trade" to acquaint themselves with the actual origins and use of the concept.

"Free trade" was used by the West to forcibly extract trade concession from the East in order to profit; and, while those in the West don’t remember it as being so, those in the East do.

In Opium Wars I (1849-1842) and II (1856-1860), the British East India Company used the cover of "free trade" to force China to allow the importation of opium; just as previously the East India Company had forced upon India "free trade permits" in Bengal province.