Shanghai vol2.0

Japão gastronómico (sim, eu sei, já passaram dois meses)

2009-12-24T23:00:00.006+08:00

A comida é fabulosa, a simpatia é inacreditável e a atenção ao detalhe extraordinária.

上海第一个

2009-12-16T16:32:00.001+08:00

50 razões pelas quais Shanghai é a melhor cidade do mundo:

http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/play/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-shanghai-no-1-590704

Vou sentir falta das razões #1, #3, #4, #9, #10, #11, #12, #16 (tem dias), #19, #20, #21, #22, #24, #25, #28, #29, #31, #35, #36, #38, #43, #48, #49.

Ainda são algumas.

Wonderful people

2009-11-24T16:23:00.001+08:00

Girl, 6, forced into marathon runs by father
By Wang Xiang | 2009-11-24 | NEWSPAPER EDITION

A FATHER in south China has been forcing his six-year-old daughter to run dozens of kilometers every day in the hope of turning her into a marathon prodigy.

He is also fast-tracking her through school and she has a heavy study routine.

And the point of all this pressure, this gruelling regime, on such a little girl? He wants to impress his runaway wife and win her back.

Yang Feng, in Haikou City of Hainan Province, said he forced his daughter into the rigorous training schedule because he wanted to gain the girl some media coverage and catch her mom's attention, China News Service reported yesterday.

Though Yang said he was concerned about his daughter's health, including her puffy toes and badly swollen feet, the training continues.

Yang said he used to have "a lovely family" until their peaceful life was wrecked when his wife suddenly run away from home with a man -- and all the family savings.

After several months of trying to find his wife failed, he decided to give his daughter the mission of reuniting the couple by becoming a famous marathon runner.

"She just finished running 138 kilometers in two days and my target for her is to finish the same distance in one run," Yang said.

The 138 kilometers is the distance between Yang's and his wife's hometowns.

For the 400-meter playground track the girl is training on, she reportedly has to run 345 laps.

She is forced by her father to run long distances as soon as she finishes school.

Sometimes she ran nine consecutive hours until midnight, the report said.

"Now there is only my daughter and me, I have no choice but to let her share some of my pressure," said Yang. "I hope she will become more mature and sturdy through the training."

Yang said he would let his daughter register for next year's Provincial Marathon of Hainan as a further bid to win her mother back.

Running is only one step in Yang's game plan to make his daughter a "prodigy." The girl is a third grader as her father made her skip two grades.

Yang insisted she could do even better if she is allowed into the fifth grade.

The girl is also picking up singing, computer skills and guitar playing. She even has several "apprentices" who learn computer from her.

A researcher at the Hainan Province sports academy, who wished to remain anonymous, said such exhausting training can devastate the girl's health and would not enhance her running performance.

The researcher said long running could harm the girl's bones, heart, and nervous system and adverse effects could be seen in two or three years.

Cai Wei, with the provincial education authority, accused Yang of being self-centered.

She said Yang was placing his daughter's physical and mental health in jeopardy.

more:http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200911/20091124/article_420466.htm#ixzz0XlNVzQKh

Tokyo - do futuro

2009-11-23T22:43:00.001+08:00

A CNN tem um bom artigo que explica porque é que Tokyo é "The World´s Greatest City" (http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/none/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-tokyo-no-1-903662). Na introdução escrevem:

World's Greatest City: 50 reasons why Tokyo is No. 1

This town is so magnificent that 'being from the future' didn't even make the list.

E é verdade, a cidade é mesmo do futuro e em Roppongi/ Akasaka percebe-se porquê.

1. Ruas em Roppongi, ao pé de Roppongi Hills
2. Prédio em Roppongi Hills
3. idem
4. Pastelaria em Tokyo Midtown
5. Pastelaria, de donuts, em Tokyo Midtown
6. Donut de 2 euros. Só mesmo em Tokyo é que se paga 2 euros por um donut e se acha que é uma pechincha. Comprado na loja em cima fotografada, com direito a saco especial e à menina vir de trás do balcão entregar em mão a jóia...eh... o donut.
7. Frutaria em Tokyo Midtown
8. Lições de culinária em Tokyo Midtown

Nikko - comida deliciosa

2009-11-23T22:25:00.001+08:00

Que a comida no Japão é fabulosa, já se sabe.

Que em Nikko, a 2h de Tóquio, escrevam que é deliciosa é que era menos de esperar. Mas era. Bem boa.

Tokyo - um metro pensado ao pormenor

2009-11-23T22:16:00.001+08:00

1. Imagem do Tokyo Metro, com os logotipos das várias linhas (um circulo de cada cor, com a primeira letra do nome no meio)
2. Informação básica da estação e mapa, indicando elevadores, escadas, correspondências, perdidos & achados, casas-de-banho, saídas, etc...
3. Edifícios e pontos de interesse nas redondezas da estação e saída correspondente
4. Mapa da linha, com tempos de percurso entre estações e horário de fim-de-semana e dias de semana, ao minuto
5. Hora actual, horário do próximo metro e do seguinte
6. Indicação das saídas e correspondências acessíveis através daquela escada
7. Distância, em metros, até à linha indicada
8. Courtesy seats para grávidas, pessoas com bébés, idosos e pessoas com dificuldades motoras - por favor desligue o telemóvel
9. Please do it at home (maquilhagem é em casa...)

O local de trabalho mais perigoso do mundo? Mina de carvão na China.

2009-11-23T13:42:00.001+08:00

Pequeno resumo de 2009, pesquisa rápida, incidentes divulgados no Shanghai Daily:

21 de Novembro - mina de carvão em Heilongjiang, 100+ mortos em explosão

12 de Novembro - mina de carvão em Heilongjiang, 7 presos

25 de Outubro - mina de carvão em Shaanxi, 3 salvos

20 de Outubro - mina de carvão em Shanxi, 4 mortos e 14 feridos em luta sobre a posse da mina

15 de Outubro - mina de carvão em Ningxia, 12 mortos e 2 desaparecidos em explosão

8 de Outubro - mina de carvão em Guizhou, 10 mortos

24 de Agosto - mina de carvão em Shanxi, 11 mortos e 3 desaparecidos em explosão

1 de Julho - mina de carvão em Xinjiang, 6 mortos em explosão

17 de Junho - mina de carvão em Guizhou, 10 presos em inundação

20 de Maio - mina de carvão em Sichuan, 6 desaparecidos em inundação

5 de Abril - mina de carvão em Heilongjiang, 5 mortos em inundação

22 de Fevereiro - mina de carvão em Shanxi, 74 mortos e 114 desaparecidos em explosão

Harbin - A Sinagoga, a Igreja Ortodoxa e o Templo Budista

2009-11-09T22:03:00.001+08:00

Com a particularidade de tanto a Sinagoga como a Igreja de Sta Sofia, por falta de utilização, terem sido transformadas em museu.

Harbin - Japoneses Jamais (leia-se jamé)!

2009-11-09T21:54:00.000+08:00

Durante a invasão japonesa (anos 30 e IIª Guerra Mundial), foram cometidos diversos crimes, uns mais conhecidos que outros (o massacre de Nanjing é o mais publicitado). Hoje em dia, a maior parte dos Chineses diz odiar Japoneses. Já fui ao memorial de Nanjing e é talvez o melhor museu onde fui na China. Em Harbin, local de experiências biológicas, foi reconstruída parte da base onde terão morrido 3.000 Chineses vítimas destas experiências. Hoje em dia é local de excursões da escola, e, como se vê pela linguagem da exposição, o ódio aos Japoneses está para durar.

Harbin - Os Tigres

2009-11-09T21:47:00.001+08:00

O positivo - há espaço. Para alguns.
O negativo - tudo o resto. As expected.

No further comments...

Harbin - A Rússia

2009-11-09T21:41:00.001+08:00

A influência Russa é evidente, especialmente na arquitectura, mas também nas dezenas de lojas que vendem bens Russos (essencialmente vodka, chocolates, matrioskas e afins) ou de "inspiração Russa". Há também alguns restaurantes, mas, sinceramente, a Rússia nunca foi famosa pela sua cozinha.

Harbin - O Frio

2009-11-09T21:34:00.001+08:00

Sinceramente, e considerando a roupa toda que levava, não apanhei muito frio. Durante o dia, mesmo no domingo, não deve ter baixado dos -3ºC. Ainda assim, e como se vê nas fotos, Harbin deve ser dos poucos sítios no mundo onde faz sentido ter um termómetro cuja escala vai dos -40ºC até aos +40ºC. E claro, há gente à porta das lojas a bater palmas e aos gritos para incentivar os clientes a entrar - há trabalhos que, não só são duros, como são estúpidos.

Harbin - Rússia, Frio, Tigres e outras coisas

2009-11-09T21:30:00.001+08:00

Fui passar o fim-de-semana a Harbin (tecnicamente Ha Er Bin), na província de Heilongjiang. É uma cidade essencialmente famosa por 3 razões:

1. O Festival do Gelo
2. A influência Russa
3. O frio

O Festival do Gelo realiza-se anualmente em Janeiro e dura umas semanas, durante as quais diversas esculturas de neve/ gelo são espalhadas pela cidade, especialmente pelo Sun Island Park (onde fui). Quanto à influência Russa, por ser a capital de província mais a norte, tem sido entreposto de trocas comerciais com a ex-União Soviética desde há algum tempo, especialmente após a construção (pela Rússia) de uma linha de caminho-de-ferro a ligar os dois países. Quanto ao frio, basta olhara para o mapa para perceber - eu fui no início de Novembro e a previsão para domingo (ontem) era de máxima 1ºC, mínima -14ºC. Em Janeiro, as mínimas rondam, normalmente, os -30ºC.

All-in-all, entre locais religiosos (uma sinagoga, uma igreja ortodoxa, um templo budista), um parque de "recuperação" de tigres, uma base Japones de experiências com armas biológicas, um parque, e algumas ruas de arquitectura Russa bem conservadas, assim se passou (bem) um fim-de-semana. Ainda assim, havendo coragem para suportar as temperaturas estupidamente negativas, o Festival do Gelo é que deve valer mesmo a pena.

Benfica make Everton look ordinary in front of Eusébio

2009-11-06T08:04:00.001+08:00

November 6, 2009

Benfica make Everton look ordinary in front of Eusébio

Everton 0 Benfica 2

Tony Barrett

Goodison Park holds such a special place in Eusébio's heart that he readily describes it as his favourite stadium.

Nothing he saw there last night will have dampened his ardour as Benfica wrote an unwanted entry in Merseyside football history.

In inflicting defeat on Everton, the Portuguese club Eusébio represented with such grace became the first team to beat Everton and Liverpool on their own grounds in European competition, an achievement that was a fitting reward for an outstanding display.

David Moyes, the Everton manager, had called on his players to restore some pride after being on the receiving end of a 5-0 hiding when the teams met in Portugal two weeks earlier, but goals from Javier Saviola and Óscar Cordoza condemned them to another fall.

Benfica play in a style that the "Black Pearl" would appreciate. Jorge Jesús, their coach, has set upon an attacking formation that is designed to give licence to the fleet-footed Ángel Di María, a winger of rich creativity, to get forward at every opportunity.

Had Yakubu Ayegbeni's shooting been at its most accurate, Everton could have made themselves the beneficiaries of defensive laxness in the early stages. There was a clear urgency about Everton's play but their desire to get at Benfica at times played into their opponents' hands. It was from a counter-attack that the Lisbon club came closest to opening the scoring.

First, Cardozo hit the post with a header from close range and, from the follow-up, Tim Howard managed to deny Saviola with a top-drawer save.

Di María, who is attracting interest from a number of leading European clubs, was again the most eyecatching player on display, just as he had been when the clubs met in Lisbon a fortnight earlier.

When faced with such trickery and speed of thought, the temptation sometimes can be to back off and it was such an enforced retreat that allowed Benfica to take the lead. Saviola scored the goal, with a neat finish low to Howard's right, but it was the fear that Di María's latest foray forward spread throughout the Everton back line that created the kind of space the Argentina forward thrives in.

Everton could offer only a token response to such incisive attacking play and their plight worsened when Cordoza added a second from what appeared to be an offside position.

That could be Moyes's only complaint on a night when his side were overwhelmed by a team who played in the spirit of their greatest legend.

Everton (4-1-4-1): T Howard — A Hibbert, J Yobo, S Distin, L Baines — J Rodwell — D Gosling (sub: Jô, 69min), T Cahill, M Fellaini, D Bilyaletdinov — Yakubu Ayegbeni (sub: K Agard, 81). Substitutes not used: C Nash, S Coleman, S Duffy, J Baxter, J Wallace. Booked: Yakubu, Rodwell, Hibbert.

Benfica (4-3-3): Júlio César — R Amorim, Luisão, Sidnei, D Luiz — Ramires (sub: M Pereira, 45), J García, F Coentrão (sub: P Aimar, 61) — Á Di María, Ó Cardozo, J Saviola (sub: F Menezes, 87). Substitutes not used: Quim, J Shaffer, Weldon, N Gomes. Booked: Júlio César.

Referee: S Ennjimi (France).

Triads

2009-11-03T09:19:00.001+08:00

Dead End for Chongqing's Triad Gangsters

A crackdown on the city's crime gangs exposed a country club casino and police officials on the take. The campaign continues.

(Caijing.com.cn) A court needed only 10 days to hear evidence before passing a death sentence for a key boss in Chongqing's underworld, Yang Tianqing, who was convicted of leading a crime organization and seven other major charges.

Yang, 35, was one of three gangsters to receive either a death sentence or a two-year suspended death sentence from among a group of about 30 people who, since mid-October, have been convicted at trials aimed at quashing a pernicious triad.

The trials are part of an extensive anti-triad campaign that's clearly not over in Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis where authorities have been battling local gangs for years. This time, more than 80 defendants were expected to face judges in a first round of trials, making it the most extensive criminal case ever for the Chongqing court system.

And authorities say this phase of the campaign is merely a prelude for what lies ahead.

(...)

http://english.caijing.com.cn/2009-11-02/110301179.html

Uma vitória razoavelmente confortável

2009-11-02T14:42:00.001+08:00

Depois do empate da semana passada (2-2 contra a equipa basca, os dois golos dos Stinkys marcados nos últimos 5 minutos, um deles um auto-golo, o outro resultante de um penalty duvidoso cometido sobre mim...), a equipa agora a equipar de azul e amarelo voltou à senda das vitórias.

Face às ausências de Kenny G. e de Caccioli, jogaram John Lynham na baliza e Patrick no meio-campo, com distintos graus de sucesso. Os Schnitzels adiantaram-se no marcador na sequência de um remate de fora da área defendido para a frente pelo novo GR, mas pouco depois os campeões em título empataram a partida, em remate de trivela de Rui Bom. Após dois golos de Pedro Aguiar, o adversário reduziu para 3-2, com um auto-golo do guardião irlandês dos Tofus (bola alta, pressão de dois avançados, contra o sol, etc...). Contudo, pouco depois, Pedro Aguiar apontou o seu 7º golo em 3 partidas fixando o resultado final em 4-2.

Na próxima jornada, jogo contra os Farrapos, o 2º classificado da época anterior.

Em Pequim

2009-10-24T12:57:00.001+08:00

No distrito das embaixadas, uma "Sex Appliance Shop" é precisamente o que o nome indica.

No novo Terminal 3, o segundo maior terminal de aeroporto do mundo, um "Beijing Patriotic Health Campaign Committee" também não deixa grande margem para dúvidas.

What gave him away?

2009-10-24T12:52:00.001+08:00

Quinta-feira, no China Daily:

"The man, who was black, was believed to be from overseas."

Dimensão internacional

2009-10-19T19:54:00.001+08:00

Hoje, em conversa com o motorista que contratámos para andar a passear com o cliente nestes 3 dias:

(conversa em chinês, naturalmente...)

Motorista: És Alemão?
Eu: Não...
Motorista: E a tua chefe, é Alemã?
Eu: Não, é Australiana.
Motorista: E tu, também és Australiano?
Eu: Não, sou Português.
Motorista: Ah... eu de Portugal não conheço muito... Conheço o Figo!
Eu: E o Cristiano Ronaldo...
Motorista: Ah, claro, o Cristiano Ronaldo. Pois... eu de facto nem sei onde fica no mapa.
Eu: ...
Motorista: E conheço o Benfica, claro. Jogam muito bem!

Neste momento íamos tendo um acidente, porque eu tentei abraçá-lo e ele estava a conduzir.

Juro que até lhe brilhavam os olhos quando falava do Benfica.

Glorioso é isto.

Uma vitória recordista

2009-10-18T17:14:00.001+08:00

Os Stinky Tofus iniciaram da melhor maneira a defesa do título com uma vitória por 11-0. Frente a uma equipa nova (sinceramente não sei o nome) e muito fraquinha, os Tofus igualaram a maior vitória de sempre da história do torneio.

Ainda a jogar de laranja, a equipa este ano desfalcada de Luis Estarreja (em Kunming) e Serdar Ozdemir (a jogar por uma equipa turca noutro torneio), mas reforçada com António Pelicano, registou para este jogo as ausências de Patrick e Rui "Jolibee" Rapazote (em viagem) e de John Lynham (lesionado).

Num encontro sem grande história, muda aos 5 acaba aos 11, os Tofus marcaram por Aguiar (4), Bom (3), Lopes (2), Gago (1) e, jogando a segunda parte à frente, Kenny G (1).

Top20 All Time Selling Books

2009-10-17T09:35:00.001+08:00

1. Bible
2. Quotations from Chairman Mao
3. The Qur'an
4. Xinhua Dictionary
5. Chairman Mao's poems
6. Selected Articles of Mao Zedong
7. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
8. Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship (Baden-Powell)
9. The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
10. Book of Mormon
11. The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life (Jehovah's Witnesses)
12. On The Three Representations (Jiang Zemin)
13. And Then There Was None (Agatha Christie)
14. The Hobbitt (Tolkien)
15. Dream of the Red Chamber (Cao Xueqin)
16. She (Haggard)
17. The Little Prince (St. Exupery)
18. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
19. The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
20. O Alquimista (Paulo Coelho)

Da lista parece-me evidente que o autor de maior sucesso de sempre viveu por estes lados. O facto de serem os únicos livros permitidos durante a Revolução Cultural e de serem de compra virtualmente obrigatória (davam um bom presente de casamento por exemplo), não deve ofuscar as qualidades literárias do Grande Timoneiro...

Vietnam, o resto (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Tam Coc)

2009-10-13T23:20:00.001+08:00

Vietnam, Sapa

2009-10-13T23:08:00.001+08:00

Provavelmente o que gostei mais no Vietname - aldeias de minorias étnicas no Norte.

O que é que Portugal tem?

2009-10-13T15:10:00.001+08:00

Excursão Hanoi-Tam Coc. Guia a fazer as apresentações:

Guia: "So, where are you two from?"

Passageiros: "Belgium"

Guia: "Oh, Belgium, the land of chocolate!"

Guia: "And the family in the back?"

Família: "We're from Australia"

Guia: "Ah, Australia, land of kangaroos!"

Guia: "What about you two?"

Nós: "Portugal"

Guia: "Eh, Portugal... land of.... uhm.... Cristiano Ronaldo!!!"

Hopeless

2009-10-13T14:54:00.001+08:00

Isto é uma mocinha com 5 anos de consultoria numa empresa alemã e um MBA na HKUST, uma escola top20 mundial. Numa proposta para um potencial cliente.

"Definied organizqational strucutre & respinsbilites of key executives"

Para os mais distraídos:

Definied

Organizqational

Strucutre

Respinsbilites

Do you wanna buy books... marijuana?

2009-10-07T19:54:00.000+08:00

Em Hanoi, naturalmente.

Pombos-bomba

2009-09-29T11:22:00.001+08:00

No Detail Overlooked in China's Celebration

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

Published: September 28, 2009

BEIJING — Domesticated pigeons of this city, take note: Until Oct. 1, you are prohibited by government edict from flying over the center ofChina's capital. Do not take it personally, however. The government is preparing to observe the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China with a parade that will make 76 trombones look like a child's plastic kazoo. And nothing — not unauthorized window-peeping, nor marchers' mental health, nor even the chance that pigeons might muck up displays of aerial might — is being left to chance.

China's government at times resembles an exasperated parent trying to rein in a pack of rebellious children. Its edicts are persistently flouted by censor-dodging Internet users, wayward local officials and rioting Uighurs.

But when it comes to the impending National Daycelebration in Beijing, the government appears fully in control. When swarms of soldiers, throngs of tanks and flocks of floats roll past Tiananmen Square on Thursday, 10,000 police officers and security guards will monitor Beijing street corners and checkpoints for evidence of potential party-spoilers. As many as 800,000 volunteers have also been enlisted to help maintain security.

Knife sales have been banned in at least some stores. Beijing's international airport will be closed Thursday for three hours. Along the parade route, the authorities have forbidden parade-watchers from opening windows or standing on balconies.

Three journalists from the Japanese Kyodo news agency said that when they stood on a hotel balcony to cover a Sept. 18 parade rehearsal, the authorities stormed into the room and assaulted them. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the journalists ignored explicit instructions not to report the event, apparently out of concern that details of the spectacle would be revealed.

And it will be a spectacle. Nearly 5,000 of China's 2.3 million soldiers will march past the nation's leaders. They will be grouped partly according to height, with no variation of more than six centimeters, or about two and a half inches.

Next will come rows of rumbling tanks and vehicles mounted with missiles, satellites and military equipment. More than 150 planes will fly in formation overhead, some trailing colored vapors.

Liang Guanglie, the Chinese defense minister, has said the parade will demonstrate that China now has weaponry as sophisticated as developed nations have — and that the matériel is now manufactured in China.

"This is an extraordinary achievement that speaks to the level of our military's modernization and the huge change in our country's technological strength," Mr. Liang said in remarks posted on his ministry's Web site.

Another senior military commander said intercontinental missiles capable of bearing nuclear warheads would be "remarkable symbols" of China's military might.

The Olympics that dazzled spectators last year showed China's knack for meticulous preparation. Participants in the Thursday parade have engaged in similarly intense drills for months, according to reports in the Chinese news media.

Soldiers have practiced endless hours to hold their rifles at precisely the same level. Photos show their instructors holding threads as rifle guides, or sticking needles in soldiers' shirt collars, pointed at their necks, to correct poor posture.

They have trained to stand motionless for a solid hour, to refrain from swaying during the second hour and not to collapse after three hours, reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency.

They have been schooled in shouting phrases in perfect unison: "Serve the people!" and "Hello, senior leader!" They are also expected not to blink for 40 seconds at a time.

Mental-health professionals have been called in to help those whose performance is not up to snuff. As of Sept. 12, 1,300 soldiers had received counseling, Xinhua reported.

To limit the risk of a security lapse, cities and provinces outside Beijing have been told to cancel plans for parades or mass gatherings on Oct. 1.

Foreign tourists have been banned from Tibet, the site of violent protests last year, until Oct. 8, according to media reports.

Chinese news media have reported that the government has limited parade participants in Beijing's celebration to 187,000 — at least 300,000 fewer than in the last decennial celebration.

Performers have been carefully screened. Even the workers who are decorating the city with tens of millions of flowerpots had to undergo "political inspection," according to news reports.

Given all that, the grounding of tens of thousands of pigeons since mid-September — to avert any interference with practice for the military flyovers — may seem like a minor issue. Flying kites and model airplanes in Beijing has also been temporarily banned, to the distress of kite enthusiasts.

"Originally, they were all very excited about the holiday," said Ming Ming, manager of the Sijimantian Kites Cultural Exchange Center, which sells kites and organizes competitions. "Now, they are stuck at home. People are feeling a little annoyed."

He is not sure what they will do instead. "Most of the people who are interested in kites aren't really interested in much else," he said.

The pigeons' captivity will be temporarily broken on Thursday: 60,000 are to be released simultaneously as part of the celebration. Then it is back to their coops for another week.

Dong Jingbei, president of the Dongcheng District Carrier Pigeon Association, said he understood China's desire for flawless festivities. But he wondered what shape the pigeons would be in.

"This is totally unfair," Mr. Dong said. "This is like locking up an athlete in a tiny little room. When they finally let them out on Oct. 1 at Tiananmen, they won't even know which way is north!"

Mr. Dong is doing his best to soothe angry pigeon owners in the association. "We're a government entity," he said to a reporter. "It's not like we are going to complain to you, right? I'm trying to work on their mentalities, but they are definitely annoyed."

Still, he said, they understood that for a flawless parade day, no detail could be overlooked. Even the pigeons were undergoing security checks.

"I don't know what kind of stuff you have in New York," Mr. Dong said. "But people could strap all sorts of minibombs to pigeon legs."

Smooth operators

2009-09-25T15:47:00.001+08:00

Sept. 24, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EDT

Rare earths are vital, and China owns them all

By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Rare earths may not be on most investors' radars, but they are certainly in almost any high-tech item they use -- and in the world of rare earths, China is king.

The U.S. Geological Survey recognizes 17 different rare earths, materials with science-fictionesque names like lanthanum and gadolinium. They are used in everything: glass polishing and ceramics, automotive catalytic converters, computer monitors, lighting, televisions and pharmaceuticals.

'China is the Saudi Arabia of rare elements ... [and] like oil, rare elements will flow to the highest bidder.'

Mark Williams, Boston University

"We are addicted to rare earths as much as we are addicted to oil," said Byron King, editor of Energy & Scarcity Investors, published by Agora Financial LLC. Yet "none of these elements are famous like gold or silver. None gets shipped in giant ore freighters like iron, aluminum or copper."

"Without these elements, much of the modern economy will just plain shut down," he said.

And yet, King said, "the only people who really study these elements are master's- and PhD-level chemists and solid-state physicists ... and national leaders in places like China."

In fact, China has all but cornered the market. The rare-earths space is like a Monopoly game, in which Beijing owns Boardwalk, Park Place, and well, pretty much all the properties, while the West owns St. James Place.

"China is the Saudi Arabia of rare elements," said Mark Williams, a risk management expert and finance professor at Boston University. And "like oil, rare elements will flow to the highest bidder."

China accounts for about 97% of global rare-earth production -- 139,000 metric tons of material in 2008 -- and it also consumes about 60% of the world's rare earths, according to Sean Brodrick, a natural-resources analyst at UncommonWisdomDaily.com.

Meanwhile, the U.S., which is also a major buyer of rare earths, mined no rare-earth elements last year, USGS said.

"China is consuming more of its own rare earths all the time, so it's exporting less," Brodrick said.

That fact could pose a significant problem for the world market, given that rare earths are used in so many products and gadgets.

Without these elements, "you can say goodbye to much of modernity," said King. "There will be no more television screens, computer hard drives, fiber-optic cables, digital cameras and most medical imaging devices. You can say farewell to space launches and the satellites ... and the world's system for refining petroleum will break down too."

Technology play

Indeed, rare earths are also critical in the cutting-edge technologies promised to create a new green economy and save the planet from a climate-change apocalypse.

"Really, if there are limited rare-earth supplies in world markets, then there will be a very limited 'green' future," King said. "There will be a limited future, period."

The electric motor in Toyota's market-leading Prius hybrid, for example, requires 10 to 15 kilograms of lanthanum for the battery, according to William Gamble, president of Emerging Market Strategies in Rhode Island.

The Prius' battery also uses 1 kilogram of neodymium, the key component in the alloy for permanent magnets, he said.

In fact, neodymium is the only element that can create strong permanent magnets, although engineers have tried to find a substitute, King said.

And it's a little-known fact, he added, that strong magnets "are critical to the guidance systems of every missile in the U.S. defense inventory."

Meanwhile, lanthanum, the most commonly used rare earth, has been a key substance for petroleum refining over many decades, so even "non-green" cars depend on the rare earths.

"China's dominance of rare-earth output gives that nation an overwhelming advantage in developing many forms of technology, both now and in the future," King said.

Holding back

With such a stranglehold on the market, China is doing whatever it can to keep other nations from encroaching.

"Recent statements suggest [China is] going to limit outside exports, as well as shut down the polluting in-country mines," said Brent Cook, author of investment letter Exploration Insights. "They are centralizing supply."

"Just as Rio Tinto and [Turkey's] Eti Mine can effectively stymie any competitor production by controlling the borate market, China can and, I believe, will do the same to emerging producers," said Cook, who is also a geologist.

Brodrick said China has a "1-2-3 plan" to "dominate the world's rare-earths market for decades to come, and with it, the energy technology for the 21st century."

The first step involves limiting exports. This year's export quota is poised to be the smallest yet, and plans for further restrictions are in the works, he said.

Secondly, Beijing also appears to be forcing manufacturers that use rare earths to move to China.

"Companies that want rare earths from China can get them. They just have to move their production facilities to China" because of those reported export restrictions, Brodrick said.

And third, he said, China has made moves to buy up other rare-earth resources around the world.

He points to the case of two Australian companies, Lynas Corp. and Arafura Resources , which plan to open mines in the next couple of years that would have a combined production equal to a quarter of the annual global output of rare-earth metals.

When the credit markets collapsed last year, both companies lost their financing. Sensing opportunity, China stepped in, with government-owned miners providing the money needed to finish construction of the two companies' mines and ore-processing factories, he said.

In exchange, the Chinese companies received 51.7% of Lynas and 25% of Arafura. Read about rare-earth investment prospects in Commodities Corner.

Beijing's strategy is a long-term one: King said that while China's rare-earth output may hold up for a few more years, it'll almost certainly fall after that.

"The Chinese know this," he said, and so when the global markets see news about China limiting exports of rare earths, "it's both to preserve the ores and assets and to create a draw to pull new industry into China."

Market's loss is China's gain

And China's grasp on the market will be hard to break.

China gained its monopoly on rare earths because it was able to "undercut everyone else's price over the past decade," according to Emerging Market Strategies' Gamble.

The Chinese rare-earth sector also gained a leg up by swallowing some serious environmental consequences.

"Many rare-earth elements are very toxic," said Marcus Hudson, president of commodity-hedging advisory firm Hudson & Associates. "With China's lax rules on environmental safety, there is an environmental nightmare waiting to happen."

Yet despite such price and regulatory advantages, smaller exploration companies in other nations are starting to make progress on new rare-earth projects that could chip away at Chinese dominance.

"What has to happen to take control out of Chinese hands is obviously new mines outside of China," said Cook. "There are a number of junior exploration companies right now working on that."

As examples, Cook cites Canadian firms Rare Element Resources Ltd. , Avalon Rare Metals Inc. and Quest Uranium Corp. .

"So there really is no shortage in rare elements, and in fact, there are enough deposits out there to easily fill demand, but at a price," he said.

At least until now, rare-earth production was not very economical, but if prices stay high, we will see many new mines outside of China, he said.

But, he added, the "problem is that China controls the price and could put any new producer out of business by dropping prices."

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China, India & Indonesia

2009-09-25T14:21:00.001+08:00

Como eles gostam destas infografias...

2009-09-25T14:17:00.001+08:00

O objectivo era crescer 8% este ano...

2009-09-23T17:05:00.001+08:00

Depois de Deutsche Bank e EIU apontarem para 8.3%...

ADB sees 8.2% rise for China's economy

By Wang Yanlin | 2009-9-23 |

The bank revised its China estimate from 7 percent in March, citing the effects of the government's stimulus package. The report, released yesterday, said growth in 18 developing economies in Asia would rise 3.9 percent, with China's economy topping the list. The bank also upgraded its forecast for China's growth next year to 8.9 percent from 8 percent, based on expectations that the government will continue stimulus spending and the world economy will show a moderate recovery.

"The stimulus package and aggressive monetary easing in 2009 have softened the blow of the global slump on China's economy," said Jong-Wha Lee, ADB's chief economist. "The government's 8 percent growth target for this year now looks within reach."

....

É por estas e por outras que vou ao Vietname...

2009-09-23T17:00:00.001+08:00

China shuts Tibet to foreigners before anniversary

By HENRY SANDERSON (AP) – 8 hours ago

BEIJING — China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists and deployed soldiers armed with machine guns in the streets of Beijing — part of a raft of stringent security measures ahead of the 60th anniversary of communist rule. Even kite-flying has been banned in the capital.

Although the Oct. 1 commemorations, including a massive military review and speech by President Hu Jintao, are centered on Beijing, the clampdown extends to the farthest reaches of the sprawling nation.

Online, blocks on sensitive political content and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been expanded, and there has been a spike in e-mail spam containing spyware sent to foreign journalists. Communist officials across the country have been told to prevent travel to Beijing by petitioners seeking redress from central authorities and to try to resolve their complaints locally.

Security in the capital is as tight and in some ways even tighter than during last year's Beijing Olympic Games, with submachine gun-toting SWAT units mixing among the crowds in a city center festooned with national flags and colorful dioramas.

Residents have been barred from flying kites as a precaution against aerial hazards, and those who live in the diplomatic apartments that line the parade route have been told not open their windows or go out on their balconies to watch. Knife sales have been restricted, and notices in apartment lobbies urge residents to report anything suspicious.

The National Day celebration follows the most violent and sustained unrest against Chinese rule in decades in its far western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. Ethnic rioting in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi killed nearly 200 people in July and the Turkic Muslim region remains on edge over a recent string of mysterious needle attacks in public places.

As in the wake of rioting in March 2008, foreign tourists have been banned from Tibet, according to local officials and people working in the travel industry. The March 14, 2008, riot in Lhasa target Chinese shops and migrants who have moved to the Himalayan region in increasing numbers since communist troops entered in 1950.

Su Tingrui, a salesman with Tibet China Travel Service, said that the company's general manager was called to a meeting Sunday night by authorities in Tibet's capital of Lhasa — 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from Beijing. He said the ban was not issued in writing but conveyed during the meeting and will extend to Oct. 8.

Other agents in Beijing and Lhasa said that the government had stopped giving out special permits needed to visit the region to foreigners.

"For October, business will be noticeably affected," said a receptionist surnamed Wang with the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Lhasa. The suspension of permits "is probably part of the extra security arrangements. You are beginning to see a larger number of police and military troops in the streets this month, and police and military at intersections where there used to be nobody guarding."

(...)

Associated Press researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

For starters...

2009-09-23T16:59:00.001+08:00

GNAAP (Generally NOT Accepted Accounting Principles

2009-09-01T15:34:00.000+08:00

Another View: Tunneling to True Profit in China

What with the world still reeling from the domino effect that Lehman Brothers’ balance sheet had on financial markets, the exposure of accounting frauds like the one at the Madoff fund and the final throes of the expenses scandal in the British Parliament, a trip to China promised to be a breath of fresh air in this atmosphere of fishy finances.

Hired by a client to help with an acquisition in China, I was given the job of deciding how much the buyer should pay for the business. That meant first calculating an accurate profit for the target company, its so-called normalized profit.

In the West, the process involves making a few small adjustments caused by things like no longer having to pay salaries to sellers if they aren’t going to stay at the company and other nonrecurring items. But it shouldn’t mean having to recalculate the entire income statement.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are not generally accepted in China. This is partly because the Chinese have their own accounting rules and partly because rules are for breaking.

And it’s not just that some company owners are trying to confuse the tax authorities. It’s that, when they do so, they end up also confusing themselves.

The gymnastics they do with revenues and costs are so impressive that the Beijing Olympics should have added an event especially for accountants. Markets with developed gray economies, like Italy, are well known for the practice of keeping one set of accounts for the government and another for the owners so they know what’s really going on. Chinese companies often dispense with the second set, hence the confusion. That’s probably true of other “developing gray economies.”

One can hardly call something normal when it doesn’t normally happen. So my quest for normalized profit was really a search for the abnormal — indeed, it might better be called abnormal profit. In fact, it was so elusive it seemed like a search for the abominable snowman.

My Chinese interpreter couldn’t handle the term normalized profit, so I dropped it in favor of true profit. But that only caused offense because it implied the figure before adjustment was a lie, which indeed it was. I then tried the expression official profit, by which I meant “what it officially should be,” but that didn’t work because it got lost in translation with the false profit they were officially reporting. I finally explained it as “the profit you would have received if you had reported everything completely correctly,” at which point I added, “Let’s for simplicity just call it Profit X!”

Now everyone understood what I wanted. But they couldn’t understand why I wanted it. “We’d only pay more taxes,” they explained.

The mathematical difficulties of calculating Profit X are compounded by the delicacy of the subject. It’s not only a confidentiality issue — after all, I might be a government spy — but it’s also simply embarrassing to admit what they’ve been up to.

Someone who behaves like a traditional, polite accountant will never find out the truth. One needs to use both carrot and stick. The stick is “Your business looks surprisingly unprofitable.” This provokes the Chinese pride, which, once awoken, quickly displaces any embarrassment. It also triggers natural commercial instinct — they instinctively realize the intentionally low profit figure is somehow going to hurt them in the upcoming negotiation. The carrot is “Don’t worry, I’ve seen this many times before.” Said with the bedside manner of a family doctor, it allows the final key to be turned. The scene is now set for a tour of their forbidden city.

At this point, we were ready to dive into the “abnormalization” process itself. Every stone I turned over seemed to reveal not a single spider but countless additional stones, each of which needed to be investigated. While pursuing each line of questioning, I found myself having to note side questions to ask later — my memory isn’t that good. At the most frustrating point I was told, “You can’t expect to understand China — our accounting is different.”

They weren’t trying to derail me from my quest. (Indeed, companies are fairly cooperative once they have bought into the process.) It was rather a way of trying to calm me down — but it only revved me up the more.

It seemed as if the project would never end (I was already down to the last clean shirt), but eventually I had exhausted all of my questions: the Profit X figure was there in black and white.

I have invented a formula to get to the truth faster. Of course, it doesn’t help you get your hands on the figures to input, but it does show which ones you’ll need to get and what to do with them. Even if you never need to use it yourself, you may be interested in what it reveals:

Profit X, or normalized after-tax profit =

The amount of after-tax profit actually reported to the government

+ Revenues received off the books to avoid paying revenue tax and to reduce corporation tax

+ Revenues from invoices pushed into the next period in order to delay paying revenue tax in the current period

- Revenues from invoices delayed from the prior period into the current period for the same reason

- Revenue tax the business should have paid on the net effect of these three adjustments

- Employee salaries paid off the books

- A “gross-up” to bring this off-the-books employee cost to a level at which the employees themselves would have received the same amount after tax if they had been paid legally (otherwise, they’ll go and work off the books somewhere else!)

- The extra Social Security cost the business should have paid on these two amounts

- Real expenses the business couldn’t deduct because the supplier couldn’t provide official government receipts, or fapiao, showing the supplier had paid revenue tax

- A gross-up to bring this to a level at which the supplier would have received the same amount if it had declared the income and paid both revenue and company profit taxes

+ The amount of expenses the business declared for fapiao that had nothing to do with its operations but which somehow found its way into the accounts

- The amount of additional corporation tax on the incremental profit resulting from the net effect of the above 10 items

To be fair, some companies need all the adjustments, and others perhaps none.

Only in China does a government have the power and desire to control centrally every invoice that a business issues. For an invoice to be tax-deductible, it must be printed on a government-authorized, numbered receipt called fapiao. The government charges service businesses 5 percent of the face value. The payment it receives is thereby an automatically collected revenue tax, also called business tax, levied on the business issuing the receipt rather than on its recipient.

When profitable businesses pay one another, they are economically encouraged to follow this system because the paying entity can’t deduct the expense without receiving the fapiao. Consumers, of course, have little need to show expenses when they go shopping, so they wouldn’t naturally request fapiao, letting retailers off the hook for sales tax collection. (Sales tax, which retailers must charge and remit to the government, is 13 to 17 percent of sales.)

To deal with this motivational loophole, the government, with free-market thinking, has cleverly persuaded consumers to request receipts from businesses — all retail fapiao are printed with scratch-off lottery numbers on forms issued by the government.

The government is thereby marshaling 1.3 billion Chinese as volunteer tax police by harnessing the Chinese people’s well-known love for gambling. I am counting the children among this volunteer tax police figure because they especially love to check the receipts for prizes.

Such ingenious measures don’t stop some Chinese businesses from cooking the books, but they make a dent in the problem. Indeed, one can hardly imagine the state of Chinese accounting in the absence of this totalitarian control of invoicing.

Back to the M&A negotiation. It had been a two-day herculean task to get to the truth. On top of the mathematical work itself, I had been through a cultural minefield before we came out the other side in triumph together. The Chinese owners were as satisfied as I was to arrive at this magic number. In fact, they had never known their “true profit” until that moment.

Now, we were ready for the hard part: the price of the business. The chairman was eager to know how I would value his company. Having understood the figures, I was ready with the answer. “We can give you a 10 P/E,” I said. “In other words, 10 times Profit X.”

The mood over the past few days had been everything but calm, but now an eerie silence descended on the room. “That isn’t even close,” he replied.

Indeed, it turned out he wanted 10 times his — not my — real profit: the actual cash they got from the business tax-free, or what could politely be called the pragmatic profit.

The problem was that pragmatic profit multiplied by 10 came to almost 20 times Profit X. It wasn’t even worth negotiating.

“What was the point of the last two days if you are now going to use a totally different profit number?” I demanded.

He needed no time to find his thoughts. “You missed the point. We did that calculation at your request,” he said. “It’s a completely irrelevant number for us. Why would we give up our company for a lower value just because you want to make it legal?”

With reports of fishy finances still blowing in from the West, it wasn’t the right moment to respond with a speech about morality. At times like this, one wishes instead for an Easterly wind.

Survey: Prostitutes more trustworthy than government officials

2009-08-05T13:03:00.000+08:00

At a time when shamelessness is pervasive, we are often at loss as to who can be trusted. The five most trustworthy groups, according to a survey by the Research Center of the Xiaokang Magazine, are farmers, religious workers, sex workers, soldiers and students.

A list like this is at the same time surprising and embarrassing. The sex business is illegal and thus underground in this country. The sex workers' unexpected prominence on this list of honor, based on an online poll of more than 3,000 people, is indeed unusual.

It took the pollsters aback that people like scientists and teachers were ranked way below, and government functionaries, too, scored hardly better.

Yet given the constant feed of scandals involving the country's elite, this is not bad at all. At least they have not slid into the least credible category, which consists of real estate developers, secretaries, agents, entertainers and directors.

What is more worrisome in the findings is the dramatic drop in government credibility ratings. Which happens in the context of what pollsters term as "mild improvement" in public perception of society's credit conditions.

In spite of a continuous, though very slow, tilt to the positive in the public's perception of society's credit records, researchers detected a converse trend when it came to the government.

More than 91 per cent of the respondents admitted that they would take government data with a pinch of salt. The same proportion was 79 per cent in 2007. The steep decline, pollsters concluded, reflects a "quite severe" drain of government credibility, which is obvious in recent "mass incidents". In most recent cases of mass protests, distrust of local authorities turned out to be a powerful amplifier of public indignation.

Multiple factors may be responsible for this. The Xiaokang Magazine Research Center named four - protectionism, unstable policies, dumb decisions, and lack of transparency. All of which has to do with the low-level bureaucracy's lack of respect for public concerns.

This may sound strange, because, geographically, local governments and their staff are closer to local realities; and, politically, they are there to take care of the citizens' day-to-day concerns.

But since local cadres report only to their superiors, and their appointment, promotion and removal has little, or nothing, to do with the community they are supposed to serve, it is only natural that they are preoccupied overwhelmingly with pleasing their bosses. In contrast to the people-friendly image of the central leadership, local cadres, as a collective, share a much less desirable reputation for their indifference to, if not disregard of, citizens.

Even for stability's sake, efforts must be made to restore the governments' credit record. The first step, however, is to put an end to public servants being alienated from public interest.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-08/04/content_8515596.htm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h-CKEcKYaaR_QnrCsg2SZAka6Yrg

A sense of entitlement

2009-08-04T19:31:00.001+08:00

Alumna sues college because she hasn't found a job

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 -- the full cost of her tuition and then some -- because she cannot find a job.
Trina Thompson has sued her alma mater, Monroe College of New York.

Trina Thompson has sued her alma mater, Monroe College of New York.

Trina Thompson, 27, of the Bronx, graduated from New York's Monroe College in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.

On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe's "Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through."

(...)

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html

Isto é estar na vanguarda

2009-07-30T17:35:00.000+08:00

Em vez de polícias a fiscalizar estudantes, estudantes a fiscalizar polícias. Como conceito, absolutamente notável.

Students catch 25 cheaters during exam for officials
By Tom Qian | 2009-7-30 | ONLINE EDITION

TWENTY-FIVE people taking an examination for policemen and officials were caught cheating by primary school students monitoring the test in northwest China, Lanzhou Morning Post reported today.

The examination was part of a program to promote 66 policemen, judges and prosecutors in Liangzhou District of Lanzhou City, capital of Gansu Province.

The report said 265 candidates took the written examination on Sunday. The district assigned disciplinary committee officials and some teachers to supervise the exam.

One student who helped monitor the exam told the newspaper: "I did it because teachers asked me and I just want to be an honest student."

An official who normally would monitor such an exam was cited as saying he was afraid of potential revenge attacks if he busted someone for cheating.

Before the 120-minute examination, the eighteen primary students who helped monitor the exams were assigned to different rooms.

The 25 cheaters will be given a zero mark for the exam, the report said.

Being wealthy in China

2009-07-29T12:04:00.001+08:00

De um paper da McKinsey:

Our work included face-to-face interviews in 16 cities with 1,750 wealthy Chinese consumers—people in households earning more than $36,500 annually, which gives them the spending power of a US household making roughly $100,000 a year. These wealthy Chinese households, with an average annual income of about $80,000, represented the top 1 percent of earners in China’s cities.

Emprestimos da China

2009-07-29T11:13:00.000+08:00

BOC offers mortgages to UK borrowers

Bank of China has started offering mortgages to credit-starved British borrowers at rates that undercut many of the deals available from established UK lenders. The bank, which has previously focused on Chinese communities in the UK, wants to become a household name alongside lenders such as HSBC and Barclays. The experience of taking out a Bank of China mortgage will not be quite the same as that offered by the traditional UK lender.

Um país violento... às vezes

2009-07-28T07:41:00.000+08:00

Mob killing of executive halts sale of Chinese state steel group

By Richard McGregor in Beijing

Published: July 27 2009 03:00 | Last updated: July 27 2009 03:00

The privatisation of a state steel company in China has been scrapped after an executive was beaten to death by workers angry at the threat to their jobs, according to a Hong Kong rights group.

Up to 30,000 workers rioted in north-east China late last week in a reminder of the sensitivity about job cuts from state companies in industries targeted for consolidation. The government shed about 50m jobs in state enterprises in the 1990s but many companies retain bloated staffing rosters.

Tonghua Iron & Steel, a traditional state enterprise, has about 50,000 workers and has struggled in recent years to make consistent profits, making it a prime target for restructuring by Jilin province, its owner.

Jianlong Group, one of China's biggest private steel companies, had first proposed taking over Tonghua in 2005. It backed out when the economy slowed last year but re-entered negotiations recently when industrial demand picked up.

Propelled by the government's stimulus package, China produced steel at an annualised rate of 545m tonnes in June, a record level of output.

Chen Guojun, the interim -general manager sent by Jianlong to run Tonghua, had infuriated the workers with his high-handed attitude, according to comments posted on internet bulletin boards in China.

He had reportedly said he would re-establish Tonghua "under the name of Chen" and almost all employees would lose their jobs.

"With Tonghua Steel's retired workers each receiving only Rmb200 ($29) a month for living expenses, Chen Guojun was paid an annual salary of Rmb3m," the rights group said.

When Mr Chen returned to the plant, a large crowd of workers surrounded his office and beat him unconscious, said a report issued by the Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

Outside the factory, mobs of workers stopped an ambulance and police from entering the compound to rescue him. The thousands of riot police mobilised by the authorities took hours to restore control.

Jianlong staff confirmed Mr Chen's death but declined to give further details. Zhang Zhixiang, owner of Jianlong, was China's 10th-richest man in 2008, according to China's most widely quoted richlist, with a fortune estimated at $2.9bn.

Entrepreneurs have made inroads into the steel sector in the past decade, usually by buying ailing state-owned groups.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16c24528-7a46-11de-b86f-00144feabdc0.html

Crime e Castigo

2009-07-17T12:51:00.000+08:00

Corrupção há em todos os países, nuns mais, noutros menos. A diferença entre uns e outros está mais no nível de impunidade de que gozam. Há uns meses tivemos o caso da BragaParques em que o administrador, condenado a uma pena irrisória, é proposto para administrar empresa municipal. Ontem na China, o ex-presidente da Sinopec (9ª maior empresa do mundo) foi condenado à morte (com pena suspensa).

Hoje no Público

Diagnóstico negro sobre a contratação pública
Falhas de controlo das entidades públicas abrem porta à corrupção
17.07.2009 - 00h09 Leonete Botelho
A Falta de verificação dos trabalhos a mais nas empreitadas. Ausência de verificação dos termos em que os contratos públicos são celebrados. Falta de controlo sobre conflitos de interesses e favoritismos. Ausência de sensibilização dos funcionários públicos para a intolerância face a casos de corrupção. São algumas das falhas detectadas pelo Conselho de Prevenção da Corrupção (CPC) na actuação dos organismos públicos. E representam “riscos elevados de corrupção”.

(...)

http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1392093&idCanal=62

Hoje no China Daily

9,000 officials guilty of graft:

CHANGCHUN: The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) revealed yesterday that more than 9,000 officials were found guilty of corruption in the first six months of the year and said it had investigated 6,277 industrial bribery cases.

Qiu Xueqiang, SPP deputy procurator general, told a conference of procuratorate chiefs that the industrial bribery cases involved 6,842 people.

In the second half of the year, he said, prosecutors plan to crack down on commercial bribery, dereliction of duty in large, national and local investment projects, and target misconduct that damages energy resources and the environment.

Qiu said the 9,158 corrupt officials were found guilty of offences including embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty and rights violations in the first half of the year.

They were among more than 24,000 officials investigated by the SPP in connection with 20,000 cases.

(...)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/17/content_8438856.htm

2!!!!

2009-07-13T09:05:00.003+08:00

Portugal tem duas empresas no top500 mundial, julgo que pela primeira vez:

414. Galp Energia, vendas de 22.230 milhões de dólares
457. EDP - Energias de Portugal, vendas de 20,337 milhões de dólares.

37

2009-07-13T09:00:00.001+08:00

Record number of Chinese firms join Fortune 500
10 July 2009

An all-time record number of Chinese companies appear in the 2009 Fortune 500 list of top global companies while the number of US firms has fallen to a record low, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Fortune magazine. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, made its top 10 debut, coming ninth in the rankings, while a total of 37 Chinese firms made the top 500, including nine new entrants. There new entrants were, in descending order of rank: Jardine Matheson, CITIC Group, China Unicom, China Huaneng Group, Aviation Industry Corp of China, China South Industries Group, Jiangsu Shagang Group, Bank of Communications and the Aluminum Corp. of China. The top spot in the list went to Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell. It replaced Wal-Mart, which dropped to third. It was the first time in more than 10 years that a non-US firm ranked first on the list.

http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/dailybriefing/2009_07_10/Record_number_of_Chinese_firms_join_Fortune_500.html

Lista completa em http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/

Qinhuangdao nas notícias

2009-07-13T08:58:00.000+08:00

Heibei Port to become world's largest

Hebei Port, the world's largest bulk cargo port company in terms of throughput, has been established. The state-owned group is a combination of Qinhuangdao, Caofeidian and Huangye ports. The bulk cargo throughput of these ports reached 281m tonnes in 2008, the largest volume in the world. The group has Rmb18bn worth of assets and 17,000 employees.

The problem(s) with China

2009-07-12T10:02:00.002+08:00

Alguns excertos de um livro muito bom chamado "Postcards from Tomorrow Square", do jornalista James Fallows, que veio viver para Xangai cerca de 6 meses antes de mim.

"One reason why Americans typically find China less "foreign" than Japan is that in Japan the social controls are internalized, through years of training in one's proper role in a group, whereas China seems like a bunch of individuals who behave themselves only when they think they might get caught."

(...)

"A less attractive side of China's social bargain comes in public encounters. Life on the sidewalk or subway may have been what Thomas Hobbes had in mind with his "war on every man against every man". As technology, Shanghai's subway is marvelous; as sociology, it makes you despair. Every person getting on a subway understands that there will be more room if people inside can get off. Yet the more crowded the station, the more certain that there will be a line-of-scrimmage standoff as the people trying to enter surge in block those trying to escape. In a perverse way, I was relieved when I read that China's traffic-death rate per mile driven was nearly ten times as high as America's: I wasn't crazy in thinking that the streets were a reckless free-for-all."

(...)

"But here is by far the most important of these mysteries: How can official China possibly do such a clumsy and self-defeating job of presenting itself to the world? China, like any big, complex country, is a mixture of goods and bads. But I have rarely seen a governing and "communications" structure as consistent in hiding the good sides and highlighting the bad."

(...)

"Almost everything the outside world thinks is wrong with China is indeed a genuine problem. Perhaps not the most extreme allegations, of large-scale forced organ-harvesting and similar barbarities. But brutal extremes of wealth and poverty? Arbitrary and prolonged detentions for those who rock the boat? Dangerous working conditions? Factories that take shortcuts on health and safety standards? Me-first materialism and an absence of ethical values? All these are here. I've met people affected by every problem on the list, and more.

But China's reality includes more that its defects. Most people are far better off than they were 20 years ago, and they were generally optimistic about what life will hold 20 years from now. This summer's Pew Global Attitudes Project finding that 86% of the Chinese public was satisfied with the country's overall direction, the highest of all the countries surveyed, was not some enforced or robotic consensus. It rings true with most of what I've seen in cities and across most of the country's provinces and autonomous regions, something I wouldn't have guessed from afar."

Nem só em dinheiro se pensa na China

2009-07-12T09:12:00.001+08:00

http://www.yellowsheepriver.com/eng/ysrwstory_index1.php

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/yellow_sheep_river.php

O meu metro tem tubarões (e o teu não)

2009-07-11T18:01:00.003+08:00

À entrada do metro de Jing'An Temple.

O que fazer quando lhe cortarem a internet - um guia simples

2009-07-11T16:19:00.003+08:00

Depois de nos terem cortado a electricidade e antes de nos cortarem o gás (vide post abaixo), foi a vez da internet. Not suprising, considerando que estava em dívida desde Março.

Guia simples para repor a internet:

1. Ligar para o 10000.

Duas coisas podem suceder. Ou o telefone de onde se está a ligar está atribuído a um estrangeiro ou não. No primeiro caso, surgirá um menu com a opção de atendimento em inglês (pressionar 2). No segundo caso, não. Neste ultimo caso, há que pressionar 1, depois 0, depois 1 e pedir para o transferirem para o serviço em inglês. Se possível, pedir para falar com a Grace.

2. Averiguar quando de facto se deve

Além do preço do pacote de minutos, haverá uma penalização/ multa, que cresce exponencialmente à medida que o atraso aumenta. By the way, o mesmo acontece com o gás.

3. Protestar quanto ao exagero da multa

No meu caso, para um pacote de 1 ano avaliado em 1.600 RMB, aplicaram-me (nos) uma multa de 456 RMB. Pesadota. O protesto deve ser cortês. Duas soluções se apresentarão: a) colocar um protesto, por telefone, junto do atendimento ao cliente (demora 5 dias úteis, durante os quais a internet continua desactivada) ou b) deslocar-se ao centro de atendimento e, no pagamento, questionar o valor da multa.

4. Deslocar-se ao centro de atendimento

O centro de atendimento fica no número 500 da Jiangsu Lu, perto da Yan'An Xi Lu - a cerca de 5min de bicicleta do meu escritório. Está aberto das 08:30 am às 08:30pm, 7 dias por semana. Um horário em condições portanto.

5. Obter um desconto

No centro de atendimento, o mais provável é ninguém falar um inglês decente. Mas haverá alguém que arranha (ou então ligue-se para o 10000 - ver passo 1). Dizer que 456 RMB (ou o valor que for, desde que significativo) é um exagero e disponibilizar-se para pagar de imediato os 1.600 RMB. Se não obtiver sucesso, peça para falar com o "Conductor" - qual orquestra, também a China Mobile tem o seu maestro. Com um grau mínimo de persistência e simpatia, o maestro oferecer-lhe à um perdão parcial. No meu caso, 200 RMB, ficando a multa em 256 RMB. Como não estava para me chatear e já tinha poupado o suficiente para um teppanyaki, lá aceitei pagar os 1.856 RMB.

6. ANTES DE PAGAR, pedir para a internet ser activada no máximo em 24h

Quando vou para pagar, pergunto quanto tempo demorará a repôr o serviço.

Eles: 3 dias.
Eu: 3 dias!!!!
Eles: Sim, 3 dias.
Eu: Mas porquê 3 dias??? Isto é feito através do computador, não há razão nenhuma!!!
Eles: 3 dias, mínimo.

Aí, a semelhança do que acontece no passo 5, há que ir falar com o maestro. Que, correndo tudo bem, lhe dirá 24h. Não sei porquê. Nem quero.

Proceder ao pagamento.

7. Ligar para a Grace no 10000

Depois de efectuar o pagamento, o telefonema à Grace serve três propósitos:
a) agradecer o atendimento
b) certificar-se que a internet vai mesmo ser reposta em 24h (e não 3 dias)
c) pressionar para que as 24 horas se transforem em 12h ou menos.

8. Utilizar a Internet

Correndo tudo bem, pagando a conta às 19h de sexta-feira, sábado pelas 7h terá o serviço reposto.

Boa navegação.

A mãe de todas as contas em atraso

2009-07-11T16:15:00.001+08:00

1,109.20 RMB.

É o que dá não pagar a conta do gás desde Setembro de 2007.

Isto é absurdo

2009-07-10T17:10:00.000+08:00

http://www.mercer.com/costoflivingpr#Top_50

Dizer que o custo de vida em Shanghai para um expatriado é igual ao de Paris e superior ao de Londres... Há, de facto, uma componente bastante cara que é a educação - para quem tenha filhos, as escolas internacionais são absurdamente caras e as escolas chinesas frequentemente não aceitam alunos ocidentais. Mas de resto, o nível de absurdo é tão grande que não me alongo mais em comentários...

Minorias e desenvolvimento

2009-07-09T13:16:00.001+08:00

Um comentário ao artigo sobre etnias no Washington Post.

The parent article is misleading. Amanda Lilly suggests that language and cultural differences are responsible for the differences in opportunity between the Han Chinese and China's ethnic minorities. This is ridiculous and facile. Can the differences between the relative wealth of Black and Caucasian Americans be explained away so simplistically?

Many of China's ethnic minorities live in rural areas. China is a big country, and was until recently quite poor. They didn't really begin to modernize their infrastructure until after the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1970's. They are progressing at a phenomenal pace (you think the $8billion that Obama pledged to develop America's entire high speed rail system is impressive? China just allocated $27billion for a SINGLE high speed rail route between Beijing and Shenzen!). Still, getting hospitals and schools built, doctors and teachers trained up, highways paved, rail lines built in every corner of the nation takes a while. The more remote and less populous areas get this treatment last. That is the case with any big country that tries to do what China is doing.

The real problem China's ethnic minorities face is education. First of all, getting quality teachers trained up in the minority languages is a big challenge. Bootstrapping native language education in the hinterlands is no trivial matter. Second, the ethnic minority children are competing against the Han Chinese children. The Han Chinese have strong Confucian traditions that heavily emphasize the importance of education. As a consequence, Han Chinese children are given healthy encouragement to take their studies seriously and excel. Anyone who has seen the Chinese immigrant children in our schools kicking native born American kids' butts academically after only being here a year knows exactly what I am talking about. Many of China's minorities are, on the other hand, somewhat like those Americans in some of America's Southern or rural communities: They're suspicious and sometimes even resentful of academically successful people and they don't see the point to "book learnin`".

So, what does this mean in practice? Let's take Tibet, as an example. The region's largest source of income is tourism, though efforts are under way to develop the mining industry. Most of the tourists to Tibet are (surprise) Han Chinese. Is it therefore surprising, or suspicious that those in the tourism industry who speak Putonghua are more successful than those who don't? Is it unfair that those who have better educations and more training marginalize those without in the marketplace? If you go to Tibet for a week-long vacation, will you stay at a hotel where you can communicate your needs to the staff or at one where you can't?

The mining industry in Tibet is dominated by Han Chinese as well. Is this surprising? Who in Tibet knows anything about mining? How many Tibetans are qualified to be anything more than low-paid laborers? Where in Tibet is the capital to develop a modern mining operation? Tibet has no seaports and limited transportation infrastructure, so no foreign interests will bother fronting the cash, and if they did, they STILL wouldn't staff the business's higher paying positions with Tibetans.

Tibetans pay NO taxes. China's ethnic minorities are all exempt from China's One Child policy (that only applies to Han Chinese). China's ethnic minorities are given preference over Han Chinese for enrollment in China's universities. Minority cultural practices, where they are not harmful or degrading (foot binding, anyone?), are protected as Intangible National Assets, and the government often provides grants or stipends to young people willing to study and perpetuate traditional crafts.

It is true that China has big problems with corruption, and the pace of development in the backcountry is lagging behind that of the coastal regions. The fact remains, however, that they are lifting more people out of poverty annually than populate some European countries. Complain all that you want about the Chinese from the easy chair in your living room, but the Chinese are trying hard and they're accomplishing amazing things. At least give them credit for putting in the effort.

Xinjiang, 2 dias depois

2009-07-09T09:49:00.000+08:00

Um resumo dos eventos na Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_Ürümqi_riots

Quando se fala em colonização Han (do Tibete, de Xinjiang), é também disto que se fala:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/asia/09han.html?hpw

Uma análise sobre algumas das diferentes etnias na China:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802718.html?hpid=topnews

Negociações, Chinese style

2009-07-09T09:43:00.000+08:00

China holds Rio Tinto staff

FOUR Shanghai-based employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto have been detained since Sunday by Chinese authorities on suspicion of espionage and stealing state secrets, Australian officials said yesterday.

Among the four was Stern Hu, who is the head of China operations for Rio's iron ore division and holds an Australian passport, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Perth. No formal charges had been filed as of yesterday, he said.

Rio, which earlier confirmed the detention but refused to identify the four, declined to comment on the allegations, saying it hadn't received formal notification from Chinese authorities.

A Shanghai Public Security Bureau spokesman said yesterday it hadn't detained any Rio employees. A source said they were held by the Shanghai office of the State Security Bureau.

Several Chinese mills have also been investigated by Chinese authorities, other sources said. Chinese mills are the main customer of Rio, the world's No. 2 iron ore producer.

Local office mum

Employees remained tight-lipped at Rio's Shanghai representative office on downtown Huaihai Road yesterday as reporters showed up seeking information. Beijing-based Anthony Loo, head of Rio Tinto China, reportedly was in the Shanghai office yesterday for an emergency meeting on the issue.

The news comes after Rio scrapped a US$19.5 billion investment deal from Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco). But Smith said there was no evidence for drawing any link between the detention and any commercial matters concerning Rio, such as the Chinalco deal.

Rio is deadlocked in its annual talks on iron ore prices with Chinese steel makers, which missed a key deadline last week.

Rio earlier agreed with Japanese and South Korean mills on a 33 percent price reduction for fiscal 2009, which started on April 1, but China's steel industry association insisted on a cut of at least 40 percent.

China Business News reported yesterday that China had agreed to the same prices as those accepted by Japan but for only a half-year period ending on September 30. The report said China had agreed to conduct negotiations on a biannual basis.

But both Xu Lejiang, chairman of Baosteel Group Corp, and Tian Zhiping, vice president of Hebei Iron and Steel Group, said yesterday that price talks are still going on.

The China Iron and Steel Association, which is leading this year's negotiations for China, couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200907/20090709/article_406888.htm

Protestos sobre um suicídio duvidoso em Hubei

2009-07-09T09:40:00.000+08:00

Este tipo de situação está-se a tornar mais e mais frequente (ou pelo menos mais e mais noticiada).

http://english.caijing.com.cn/2009-07-08/110194864.html

A dimensão dos protestos tem também vindo a crescer e deve estar a começar a causar alguma apreensão aos líderes da "Harmonious Society"...

Os americanos e o soccer

2009-07-07T16:59:00.000+08:00

Noticia da CNN hoje:

(CNN) -- Portugal attacker Christian Ronaldo has been unveiled as Real Madrid's new number 9, in front of 80,000 passionate fans at the Santiago Bearable stadium, after his world record $130 million move from Manchester United.

The event marked the culmination of a two-year pursuit of the player by the Spanish club, which defied the global downturn with exorbitant spending to capture the man voted the best footballer of the year by the sport's world governing body FIFO.

(...)

Neste pequeno excerto, pela mais conhecida estação televisiva mundial, temos:

. Christian Ronaldo, em vez de Cristiano Ronaldo
. Santiago Bearable, em vez de Santiago Bernabeu
. FIFO, em vez de FIFA

Continuando a noticia, temos ainda:

. Florentine Perez, em vez de Florentino Perez

Bonito.

Sortido de fotos

2009-07-04T23:33:00.004+08:00

(graças ao Aguiar, o blog está 100% operacional de novo)

Ontem, à porta do escritório.

Auto-explicativo...

Gosto muito da vista a partir do Barbarossa, com o Marriot de um lado e a "Clock Tower" do ex-Racecourse Club do outro.

Maluquinhos, há-os em todo o mundo.

Louies Vuitton Tea & Coffee

Elucidativo

2009-07-02T09:38:00.000+08:00

"se esse senhor bruno carvalho ganhar deixo de ser sosio do benfica nao pactuo com jente como ele k so emvergonhao o club"

em A Bola, comentario de um leitor a uma noticia

Mediocre

2009-06-28T17:22:00.000+08:00

A participacao dos Stinky Tofus na O'Malleys World Cup resultou num 7º lugar entre 12 equipas, aquém das expectativas. Desfalcados da estrela da equipa, ainda que reforçados com Luis Jervell (ex Galactico), os Tofus acabaram por nao fazer valer o seu futebol.

Integrados no Grupo B, os Tofus, a equipar de cinzento, até entraram bem no torneio, levando de vencida a equipa de preto (Infopower) por 2-0.

No segundo jogo, a equipa foi vitima de um bloqueio cerebral de Serdar "Turkey" Ozdemir, que resolve agarrar a bola dentro da área (do nada). 1-0 para a equipa cor-de-rosa, resultado final.

A terceira partida comecou com os Tofus a sofrerem um tento, mas acabando por dar a volta ao marcador levaram de vencida a equipa vermelha por 3-2.

No quarto jogo, os Tofus adiantaram-se no marcador frente à equipa laranja, mas concederam o empate pouco depois. O 2-1 surge num penaly muito duvidoso assinalado contra os Tofus.

No quinto jogo, apesar de estarem a vencer por 2-1, os Tofus permitiram à equipa verde recuperar para 2-2. O 3-2 surge em mais um penalty, desta vez sem contestação.

Ou seja, 3 derrotas, todas pela margem mínima e com o golo decisivo a ser apontado de penalty. A ver...

No jogo para atribuição do 7º e 8º lugares, os Tofus levaram de vencida o 4º classificado do Grupo A nos pontapés da marca da grande penalidade (a equipa adversária já só tinha 5 jogadores...).

Os 8 golos apontados pelos Tofus no torneio tiveram a assinatura de Luis Estarreja (3), Pedro Lopes (2), Luis Jervell (2) e Rui Rapazote (1).

To be continued (mas promete)

2009-06-26T15:14:00.000+08:00

http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/dailybriefing/2009_06_24/Gitmo_Uighurs_voice_concerns_over_Palau_relocation.html

Gitmo Uighurs voice concerns over Palau relocation
Politics & Society
24 June 2009

Several of the 13 Uighur Muslims currently detained at Guantanamo Bay have expressed concern over a US plan to relocate them to the tiny Pacific archipelago of Palau, AP reported, citing Palau’s President Johnson Toribiong. The Uighurs, who were initially detained as terrorism suspects in 2001 and have since been cleared of charges, told a Palauan delegation visiting Guantanamo that they were worried that Palau was too small to protect them from China. Beijing considers the Uighurs separatists and has demanded they be returned to China for trial, where they could face execution. US officials said that Beijing does not represent a threat to the Uighurs as Palau does not have diplomatic relations with China and has instead chosen to bolster ties with Taiwan. Consequently Beijing has little leverage with which to force Palau to return the Uighurs to China.

For the record

2009-06-25T22:43:00.000+08:00

Enquanto esta censura imbecil nao me permite colocar fotos...nem sequer actualizar a barra do lado direito...

... aqui ficam os links para o glorioso momento de domingo passado:

A Classificacao Final - http://www.asas.com.cn/super7/standings.asp
A Equipa do Ano - http://www.asas.com.cn/super7/tow_season.asp
A Foto da Equipa Vencedora - http://www.asas.com.cn/super7/headlines.asp

Campeões!!!!!

2009-06-21T18:35:00.000+08:00

Os Stinky Tofus sagraram-se vencedores do Torneio Asas Super 7, sucedendo assim aos Farrapos, vencedores de todas as edições anteriores.

A equipa laranja entrava para a última jornada sabendo que tinha de vencer a sua partida e esperar por um desaire (empate ou derrota) da equipa brasileira no seu jogo.

A tarde, debaixo de uns impressionantes 43ºC, começou bem para os Tofus que venceram a partida contra os Suck My Finger por falta de comparência (apresentaram apenas 5 jogadores). No amigável realizado, com Julien "Julie" Curty e João "Gordinni" Gago a jogar pela equipa adversária, os Tofus venceram por 6-3.

De seguida, os Tofus instalaram-se na bancada para assistir ao jogo decisivo, Farrapos vs Iberos (a equipa que tinha batido os ST). Munidos de uma faixa sugestiva que comunicava...

"Farrapo é Veadão, Bacalhau é Campeão!!!"

... os Tofus viram os Farrapos adiantarem-se no marcador logo no início do jogo. Nunca deixando de invectivar a equipa brasileira (e sem nunca entoar cânticos de apoio à equipa espanhola, é bom que se entenda), os Tofus foram agradavelmente surpreeendidos pelo golo do empate.

De seguida, já enquanto saboreavam cervejas da arca trazida.... pelos brasileiros... os Tofus viram os Iberos passarem para a frente, beneficiando de uma falha do guarda-redes dos Farrapos.

E até ao final, muito cântico de "Farrapo é Veadão, Bacaulhau é Campeão!!!" e "Campeões, campeões, nós somos campeões!!!", pontuaram o resto da partida.

Taça merecida para a equipa laranja, constituida por Kenneth "Kenny G" Tan, David "Choir Boy" Martin, António "Bisous" Guerreiro, Julien "Julie" Curty, João "Gordinni" Gago, João "El Presidente" Alves, Rui "Pistolas" Bom, Serdar "Turkey Little" Ozdemir, John "Big Daddy" Lynham, Pedro "Caciolli" Lopes, Rui "Piccoli" Rapazote, Luis "Il Paciente" Estarreja e Pedro "Capitão Robi" Aguiar.

Para o próximo fim-de-semana, O'Malleys World Cup, 5 jogos no mesmo dia.

Democracias & Outros Regimes

2009-06-15T11:10:00.000+08:00

A Economist Intelligence Unit divulgou recentemente o seu Democracy Index 2008. De acordo com cinco critérios...

1. Processo eleitoral e pluralismo
2. Funcionamento do Governo
3. Participação política
4. Cultura política
5. Liberdades cívis

... os países são classificados em quatro tipos de regimes:

A. Democracias - 30 países, dos quais 21 na Europa aos quais acrescem Nova Zelândia, Austrália, Canadá, Japão, Estados Unidos, Uruguai, Maurícias, Costa Rica e Coreia do Sul. Portugal enquadra-se neste grupo, na 25ª posição, sendo essencialmente penalizado nos critérios Participação Política e Cultura Política;

B. Democracias imperfeitas - 50 países, entre os quais Cabo Verde, Índia, Brasil e Timor-Leste;

C. Regimes híbridos - 36 países, entre os quais Hong Kong, Turquia, Moçambique, Venezuela, Rússia, Quirguistão e Iraque;

D. Regimes autoritários - incluíndo Cuba (125º), Angola (131º), China (136º), Irão (145º), Zimbabwe (148º), Guiné-Bissau (160º), Uzbequistão (164º) e culminando na inevitável Coreia do Norte (167º e último), único país classificado com 0.00 no critério "liberdades civis".

Uma vitória tranquila

2009-06-14T17:54:00.000+08:00

Na penúltima jornada da Liga Super7, os Stinky Tofus levaram de vencida os Schnitzels por esclarecedores 5-1, mantendo-se na perseguição aos Farrapos, também vencedores da respectiva partida. Registando-se as ausências de Rui Bom, Rui "Piccoli" Rapazote, Luís Estarreja, João Gago, David "Choir Boy" Martin e Kenny G., os Tofus mesmo assim terão feito uma das exibições mais conseguidas da época.

Apesar de começar o jogo virtualmente a perder (bola a cair entre o GR improvisado John "Big Daddie" Lynham e a defesa e o avançado contrário a aproveitar de cabeça), a equipa laranja não se descontrolou e rapidamente impôs o seu futebol. Frente a um adversário com mais força do que jeito e que recorreu frequentemente à falta, Pedro Aguiar, a.k.a. "Cpt Robi", a.k.a. "o do costume", apontou o tento do empate pouco depois. Ainda durante a primeira parte, Pedro "Caccioli" Lopes faz a assistência para o 2-1, novamente apontado pelo do costume, seguindo-se o 3-1 com inversão dos papéis.

Durante a segunda parte a toada do jogo não se alterou. Marquei o quarto golo após jogada ao primeiro toque envolvendo Julien "Julie" Curty e Serdar "Turkey Little" Ozdemir ficando para Cpt. Robi o fecho do marcador em jogada de antecipação ao guardião contrário.

Na última jornada, os Stinky Tofus terão pela frente os Suck My Finger, equipa de meio da tabela que tem já registado boas exibições e resultados, enquanto que os Farrapos jogarão contra os Iberos.

Marcas

2009-06-12T10:29:00.001+08:00

Marcas Chinesas mais valiosas em 2008:

1. China Mobile (54.460 milhões de dólares)
2. ICBC (26.720)
3. CCBB (21.030)
4. Bank of China (18.220)
5. Agricultural Bank of China (10.140)
6. China Life (8.300)
7. China Telecom (7.160)
8. China Merchants Bank (6.710)
9. Moutai (6.320)
10. Bank of Communications (5.650)

Não deixa de ser sintomático que nas 10 marcas mais valiosas estejam 6 bancos, 2 operadoras telefónicas, 1 seguradora e a marca nacional de "baijiu" (licor de arroz).

Para comparação, 2008 Best Global Brands:

1. Coke (66.667 milhões de dólares)
2. IBM (59.031)
3. Microsoft (59.007)
4. GE (53.086)
5. Nokia (35.942)
6. Toyota (34.050)
7. Intel (31.261)
8. McDonald's (31.049)
9. Disney (29.251)
10. Google (25.590)

A seguir, Mercedes, HP, BMW, Gillette, American Express, Yves Saint-Laurent, Cisco, Marlboro, Citi, Honda, Samsung, H&M, Oracle, Apple, Sony, Pepsi, HSBC, Nescafe, Nike, UPS, SAP, Dell, Budweiser, Merrill Lynch, IKEA, Canon, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Kellogg's, Nintendo, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Philips, Thomson Reuters, Gucci, eBay, Accenture, Siemens, Ford, Harley-Davidson, L'Oreal, MTV, VW, AIG, AXA, Heinz, Colgate, Amazon, Xerox, Chanel, Wrigley, Zara, Nestle, KFC, Yahoo, Danone, Caterpillar, Avon, Adidas, Rolex, Hyundai, Blackberry, Kleenex, Porsche, Hermes, GAP, Panasonic, Cartier, Tiffany, Pizza Hut, Allianz, Moet & Chandon, BP, Starbucks, ING, Motorola, Duracell, Smirnoff, Lexus, Prada, Johnson & Johnson, Ferrari, Giorgio Armani, Hennessy, Marriott, Shell, Nivea, Fedex, Visa.

Sempre tive este sonho

2009-06-12T08:49:00.001+08:00

Desde pequeno quis fazer parte de uma "Team of the Week".

Hoje esse sonho foi concretizado.

Não sei como nem porquê, uma vez que não devo ter tocado mais de 10x na bola durante o jogo todo, e nenhum desses toques foi especialmente brilhante, mas apareço na equipa da semana, juntamente com o Aguiar (que foi seleccionado 5x em 8 possiveis).

Deve ser "das movimentações sem bola"...

http://www.asas.com.cn/super7/images/tow/week9.jpg

PS1: o Aguiar, aka "o do costume", foi seleccionado para a equipa da semana nas jornadas 1, 2, 3, 8 e 9.

PS2: além disso, marcou 11 golos, mais do que o resto da equipa toda junta (Lopes 2, Estarreja, Bom, Jorge, Alves, Rapazote, John 1)

Um empate complicado

2009-06-09T09:09:00.000+08:00

Em jogo que se antevia decisivo, os Stinky Tofus empataram a 2 bolas com os Inter Agents. Uma vez que os Farrapos levaram de vencida os Galácticos (5-1), a equipa brasileira passa para a liderança da classificação com apenas dois jogos para cumprir.

Com uma exibição significativamente melhor que as dos jogos anteriores, os Tofus adiantaram-se no marcador através do do costume. Os Inter Agents, melhor ataque da Liga, empataram pouco depois em jogada de contra-ataque. Ainda durante a primeira parte o do costume voltou a marcar, levando a equipa laranja a vencer para o intervalo.

Durante a segunda parte os Tofus foram aguentando o ataque dos Inter Agents, acabando por conceder o golo do empate num momento de responsabilidades partilhadas entre a defesa e o guarda-redes, com o avançado contrário a meter a bola no "buraco da agulha". Kenny G terá acusado a pressão da torcida brasileira, que passou o jogo todo a invectivar o guardião dos Tofus, com cânticos tão bonitos como ("Kenny G vai tomar no cú"). Malta com nível é outra coisa.

Os Farrapos têm agora 19 pts, mais 2 que os Stinky Tofus. Seguem-se os Inter Agents com 16pts e os Galácticos com igual pontuação, mas mais um jogo.

Até ao final da Liga faltam ainda duas jornadas, adivinhando-se a decisão nas últimas partidas. Resta aos Tofus ganhar os dois jogos que faltam (Schnitzels e Suck My Finger) e aguardar por um deslize dos brasileiros, talvez contra os Iberos (a equipa espanhola que derrotou os Tofus) na última jornada.

Green Dam - Youth Escort

2009-06-09T09:04:00.000+08:00

New PCs to be equipped with software that blocks out porn

CHINA wants all personal computers sold domestically to come with software that blocks access to online pornography, the main developer of the software said yesterday.

The software, called "Green Dam-Youth Escort," targets online porn by preventing computers from accessing sites with pornographic pictures or language, Zhang Chenmin, general manager of the Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, said. Jinhui, based in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province in central China, was compiling a database of the blocked sites.

"According to our surveys, many teenage students have become familiar with Internet pornography and they commonly share the addresses of pornographic Websites with one another," Zhang said.

Parental blacklists

The software could also be used to block other kinds of Websites, depending on keywords, Zhang said.

Parents can develop their own lists of sites to be added to the database of blacklisted sites, Zhang said.

"If a father doesn't want his son to be exposed to content related to basketball or drugs, he can block all Websites related to those things," Zhang said, adding that conversely, users also could unblock Websites listed in the database.

Zhang said his company signed a 21 million yuan (US$3 million) contract with the Chinese government last May to develop the software and distribute it to personal computer-makers free of charge within one year, to be included with units meant for domestic sale. Consumers can uninstall the software if they do not want it, Zhang said.

China, which has the world's largest population of Internet users at more than 250 million, this year launched a nationwide crackdown on Internet pornography. More than 1,900 Websites have been shut down since the beginning of the campaign, and Websites including Google and Baidu, China's most popular search engine, were criticized for linking to suspect sites.

According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on May 19 to personal computer makers that PCs to be sold on China's mainland as of July 1 must be pre-loaded with the software.

The program would either be installed on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc, the paper reported, adding that PC makers would be required to tell authorities how many PCs they have shipped with the software.

A separate notice on the ministry's Website said all primary and secondary schools were required to install the Green Dam software on every school computer by the end of last month.

Educators "should fully realize the damage that harmful online information does to the physical and mental health of primary and secondary school students," the notice said.

PS: atenção que estamos a falar de um país onde os cabeleireiros passam a casas de meninas à noite, onde metade das casas de massagens oferecem serviços complementares, onde existem bares e entradas de bares onde meninas muito naturalmente propõem "sexy massage" e onde, na maior parte dos hotéis de província, entre o check-in e um telefonema para o quarto a perguntar se queremos meninas não se passam mais de 5 minutos. Mas o que está mal é a pornografia na internet. Pois é.

Perspectivas sobre Portugal (visto de fora)

2009-06-02T23:26:00.000+08:00

Duas referências com que me deparei nas últimas semanas:

1. Notícia na Time, remetendo para um white paper do Cato Institute. Intitulado "Drug Decriminalization in Portugal, Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies". Como o título indica, defende que a descriminalização da compra, posse e utilização de drogas em Portugal, desde 2001, foi um sucesso e deve ser vista como modelo para outros países. Um aspecto positivo sobre o qual não tinha conhecimento.

2. TED Talk sobre formas de assegurar um crescimento sustentado de países subdesenvolvidos (não, o autor não diz que Portugal é um país subdesenvolvido). Em "4 ways to improve the lives of the bottom billion", Paul Collier diz que o nível de governance, de "checks & balances", é a grande diferença entre os países que aproveitam os seus recursos para crescimento sustentado e aqueles que, depois de um período inicial de crescimento acabam pior do que quando começaram. E diz que o benchmark, o nível de fronteira (entre o necessário e o insuficiente), é o nível de governance em Portugal em meados dos anos 80. O que ajudaria a explicar o fraco desenvolvimento do país desde a entrada na UE, especialmente se comparado com Irlanda, Espanha e Grécia.

Sim, tudo bem, mas porquê?

2009-06-02T23:23:00.000+08:00

Não sei se será só hoje, mas os jornalistas da CNN estão inspirados:

"Scientists track penguin poop from space"

Não

2009-06-02T23:06:00.000+08:00

Continuando no site da CNN, outra notícia:

"Can the internet bring democracy to China?"

PS: basta ver que o blogspot continua irremediavelmente bloqueado (não consigo gerir comentários, colocar fotos, actualizar as barras laterais), o youtube idem, wordpress e tantos, tantos outros.

Antes de trazer democracia para a China, a internet tem de trazer a democracia.... para a internet...

Uhm, a sério? Custa-me a acreditar

2009-06-02T23:04:00.000+08:00

Headline de notícia da CNN:

"Poll: Americans have poor view of Muslim world"

Uma vitória preocupante

2009-05-25T11:08:00.000+08:00

De regresso à Liga e às vitórias, os Stinky Tofus levaram de vencida os Shanghai-Reds pela margem mínima. O 1-0 final espelha a pobreza da construção de jogo da equipa laranja, com sérios problemas na transição defesa-ataque mesmo frente a uma equipa do segundo pelotão.

De positivo resulta a vitória que mantém os Tofus na corrida pelo título, com 3 partidas até ao final da Liga. Registando-se as ausências de Serdar (em parte incerta), Kenny G (com diversas "fracturas") e Bisous (nas Filipinas), o golo foi apontado pelo do costume, aproveitando boa abertura de Caccioli.

Seguem-se os Inter Agents, em partida a realizar daqui por duas semanas, e que pode ser decisiva para o título. De facto, os Inter Agents, com o melhor ataque do campeonato, são uma das outras 3 equipas ainda em luta pelo primeiro lugar, juntamente com os Galácticos e Farrapos.

Já hoje realiza-se partida de treino contra equipa chinesa da Unilever, liderada por Roney Mao, e que servirá, espera-se, para testar novas soluções de ataque.

Melhor

2009-05-22T14:04:00.000+08:00

Eu: "Sorry, what's your name?"
Ela: "Better"
Eu: "Better?"
Ela: "Better"
Eu: "Better as in better than someone else?"
Ela: "Yes"
Eu: "Cool"

Cromíssimos

2009-05-21T16:35:00.000+08:00

De uma assentada, em apenas 24 horas, conheço uma Petrel (é um pássaro, aparentemente), um King e uma Chanelle.

Shanghai é uma aldeia (... cheia de cromos)

2009-05-21T16:26:00.001+08:00

Ontem na conferência onde falei (http://www.supplychain.cn/en/cev/433), um dos outros speakers (um tipo de Private Equity) vira-se para mim e diz:

Ele: "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
Eu: "Perhaps from some other meeting or conference..."
Ele: "I don't think so... don't you live at One Park Avenue?"
Eu: "Oh, yes..."
Ele: "I think I might've seen you at the gym!"

É.

Era o cromo que eu descrevi no post de 8 de Maio, intitulado "Chinese dressing etiquette" e devidamente ilustrado com foto.

Um gajo porreiro por acaso. Só que cromo.

Imbecis

2009-05-21T16:24:00.000+08:00

O blogger está bloqueado, outra vez. Descobri uma maneira de ir actualizando o blog mas não sei até quando durará...

Se houver falta de actualizações, está aqui a explicação.

O Pânico

2009-05-15T11:52:00.003+08:00

Disclaimer prévio: estes tipos tiveram a SARS há uns anos pelo que se entende alguma da paranóia. Alguma.

Dear residents,

H1N1 viruses have been found in many countries recently; one resident in Block 1 was on the same plane which the swine flu-infected patient took back to Shanghai, and this resident is isolated in his apartment for some time.
Now the management office reminds all the residents that:
1. Do not go to the affected areas.
2. Live a healthy lifestyle and pay attention to personal hygiene.
3. If you find your temperature over 37 degrees centigrade, please go to see the doctor ASAP.
4. You can contact these Departments of Health for further inquiry:
(...)

PS: A Adriana, Mexicana, teve um tipo a bisnagar vinagre ao pé dela no trabalho, para afastar a gripe...

Votar ou não votar, eis a questão...

2009-05-13T16:53:00.000+08:00

Perspectivas, análises e interpretações

2009-05-13T09:14:00.003+08:00

Diferentes perspectivas dão azo a diferentes conclusões. Parece-me que consoante o "mood" geral do momento, assim os jornais escolhem que perspectiva a adoptar. Ver gráficos abaixo:

A forma como a notícia é dada foca na descida de 22% das exportações em Abril de 2009, quando comparadas com Abril do ano passado. Podia, inversamente, apontar para a estabilização face a Março e ao crescimento face a Fevereiro, depois de quatro meses consecutivos de queda. Ou seja, na prática, depois de forte queda entre Outubro e Janeiro, as exportações não mais voltaram a cair (em Fevereiro há o efeito da Golden Week) - o que parece bastante positivo...

Idem para as importações...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/infographic.html

I-ne-vi-tá-vel

2009-05-11T20:56:00.002+08:00

Jorge Jesus preferido
TÉCNICO NO TOPO DA LISTA ENCARNADA

Escrevo já para que não restem dúvidas. Com Jorge Jesus, o Benfica vai ser campeão em 2009/2010.

Jorge Jesus está na linha da frente para suceder a Quique Flores. O corte entre o espanhol e o emblema da Luz é evidente e, agora, Rui Costa está preocupado em encontrar um substituto para que a próxima época seja planeada com tempo.

O atual treinador do Sp. Braga, curiosamente o adversário das águias no próximo domingo, é um amor que dura desde o ano passado, altura em que o seu nome chegou a ser ventilado para assumir o comando da formação encarnada. Agora, esta aproximação poderá estar mais perto que nunca de se concretizar, apesar de Jesus ter mais um ano de ligação ao clube arsenalista.

O bom trabalho desenvolvido pelo português nos últimos anos, sobretudo nas passagens pelo Belenenses e Sp. Braga, não despertou apenas a atenção na Luz. Jesus já foi sondado por outros clubes, que quiseram saber qual a disponibilidade e as condições financeiras pretendidas para deixar o Sp. Braga.

http://www.record.pt/noticia.aspx?id=639F1A55-63E5-423F-AA6F-5B335FDCF2CB&idCanal=00000011-0000-0000-0000-000000000011

Tem ainda o bónus de termos um presidente e um técnico a falarem a mesma língua, aquela espécie de português deles, evitando mal-entendidos (como por exemplo a contratação do Balboa).

Os países mais felizes do mundo (e os menos)

2009-05-11T18:22:00.003+08:00

De acordo com um estudo da OCDE:

1. Dinamarca
2. Finlândia
3. Holanda
4. Suécia
5. Irlanda
6. Canadá
7. Suíça
8. Nova Zelândia
9. Noruega
10. Bélgica

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-27761674;_ylc=X3oDMTFzODRwOWZjBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMjcxOTQ4MQRzZWMDZnAtdG9kYXltb2QEc2xrA2hhcHB5cGxhY2VzLTUtOS0wOQ--

Incidência de suicídios por país (World Health Organization):

1. Lituânia
2. Bielorrússia
3. Rússia
4. Eslovénia
5. Hungria
6. Cazaquistão
7. Letónia
8. Coreia do Sul
9. Guiana
10. Ucrânia

13. Bélgica
15. Finlândia
21. Suíça
27. Dinamarca
29. Nova Zelândia
30. Suécia
39. Noruega
40. Canadá

42. Portugal

50. Irlanda
51. Holanda

Em último lugar (dados reportados e credíveis), Jamaica. Previsível...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

He's back

2009-05-11T16:14:00.001+08:00

Mas o que me destrói o dia, por enquanto, é mesmo o sunrise às 05:01 am...

O Turista Chinês

2009-05-11T15:04:00.004+08:00

"The Chinese domestic travel market is massive", explains Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). "In 2008, around 1.7 billion trips were taken in China. That's more than double the rest of the world combined. It's really incredible when you think about it."

(...)

"Foreigners don't understand what Chinese tourists really want," says Jenny Sun, managing director of industry giant China International Travel Service's (CITS) Nandan Branch. "It's easy to understand that they only want a low price, but it is really difficult to be able to match those low prices. You really have to not look at the service aspect."

Food for thought

2009-05-10T22:07:00.003+08:00

(...) Both in the 1830s and 1840s, and then again in the 1960s, it was the determination of the Rankins and Finneys, and Fannie Lou Hamers, to cross the line between religion and politics and appeal to the country's Christian conscience that brought white Americans into brotherhood with persecuted blacks. For secular humanists (like this writer) this is an awkward historical truth to acknowledge, accustomed as we are to equating evangelical fervour with illiberal reaction. The abolitionist argument that some enormities were so vicious that they had to be made accountable to the principles of the gospel, even if that meant breaching the establishment clause of the First Amendment in the interests of a higher good, is not altogether different from the way Right to Life evangelicals argue today. History sets such snares to make us think harder. (...)

from Simon Schama's American History: A Future, p183

É por estas e por outras que neste país a liberdade religiosa é para se praticar com juizinho, não vão as pessoas começar a ter ideias...

Uma derrota

2009-05-10T17:32:00.002+08:00

Sem poder contar com 5 elementos (incluindo os 3 pontas-de-lança e os titulares do meio-campo e meia esquerda), os Tofus averbaram a primeira (espera-se que a única) derrota da época contra os Iberos.

A equipa espanhola adiantou-se no marcador na última jogada do primeiro tempo, num remate de fora da área que ainda foi desviado por um defesa dos Tofus. Na segunda parte, os Iberos chegaram aos 3-0, cabendo a John "Big Daddie" Lynam apontar o tento de consolação, em jogada de contra-ataque toda ao primeiro toque.

Debaixo de 30º e a jogar praticamente só com defesas, os Tofus não conseguiram adaptar o seu jogo à ausência dos avançados (tentou-se primeiro o Serdar, depois 1/4 de Aguiar, depois o António, depois o John...), praticamente não criando ocasiões de perigo durante o jogo. O jogo mais fraquinho até agora.

Para a semana descansa-se, entrando-se de novo em competição no dia 24 num jogo em que só a vitória interessa.

Já vi muita coisa e esta é das melhores

2009-05-08T16:17:00.001+08:00

Government rescinds smoking order

A county government in central China has rescinded an order intended to make officials smoke more to help the local economy, Reuters reported. Functionaries in Gongan county in Hubei province had been ordered to smoke at least 23,000 packs of cigarettes a year, worth nearly US$586,700, to cushion government finances, according to state media. Those who failed to meet smoking targets or were caught smoking brands from other provinces would have been fined, the reports added, citing a government document issued earlier this year. A statement placed on the county government's website said the order violated regulations about the issuing of notices. The edict had originally been made to prevent the illegal distribution of cigarettes in the county and "to protect tax revenues and consumers' rights," it added.

http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/dailybriefing/2009_05_06/Government_rescinds_smoking_order.html

"Love Zebra Crossing"

2009-05-08T13:54:00.002+08:00

"A couple are crossing over a "Love zebra crossing" in Chengdu, Sichuan on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009. The red-ground zebra crossing, first such work in China, was painted with words "I Love You" and two linked hearts. The "red carpet" was created to send blessings to local couples, and to remind people of traffic regulations."

Chinese dressing etiquette

2009-05-08T07:13:00.007+08:00

Exhibit 1

Local: Rua em Jing'An, ao pé do trabalho
Roupa: Sapatos de salto alto, Mala Louis Vuitton, Pijama cor de laranja com motivos floridos. Outra combinação frequente é a da calça de fato de treino com sapato de salto alto. Em termos de classe, estão ela por ela.

Exhibit 2

Local: Ginásio do condomínio
Roupa: Ténis, Calções de desporto, Mini-toalha (muito típico da mentalidade Chinesa - a toalha é para proteger a cabeça do menino de sujidades de terceiros, não para protejer terceiros do suor do menino no resto do corpo), Camisa aos quadrados. Ou seja, este menino veste o kit todo para ir ao ginásio e acha que, em vez de uma t-shirt ou de um polo, o que é mesmo apropriado para fazer exercício é uma camisa. Abotoada até cima. E nada de arregaçar as mangas.

Mal não lhes deve fazer

2009-05-07T17:22:00.000+08:00

Are Privileged GAAP Treatments Keeping China’s SOEs Profitable?

May 5 - Findings by the research team at the Spanish bank BBVA uncovered specific treatments by the Chinese government used solely for the benefit of its own state-owned enterprises that appear to show a disregard for China’s own generally accepted accounting principles in terms of transparency and fair competition.

The bank’s Hong Kong unit analyzed the underlying causes for SOE’s posting profits, following Beijing’s announcement that SOE’s profits were up 26 percent in April compared with the same month last year. This follows a study published by the Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research last week that also concluded that the financial statements and profitability levels of China’s SOE’s were more financial illusion than based on established accounting principles, including GAAP specifications issued by the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

According to the institute, the main issue over increased profitability for China’s SOEs comes through their governmental links to state-owned banks, from which they are able to borrow at very generous rates – an average of 2.55 percent for 2001 through 2005 as compared to private sector companies who paid back loans at 4.53 percent. State-owned enterprises also have the advantage of being able to easily restructure, defer or even write-off loans if they begin to face difficulties in repayment. This behavior has resulted in SOEs being able to demonstrate far higher levels of profitability than would otherwise have been the case. Indeed, the institute went as far as to state that if “state-owned Enterprises had been obliged to pay market interest rates rather than relying on subsidized loans, SOE profits would have been eliminated entirely over recent years.”

(...)

http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2009/05/05/are-privileged-gaap-treatments-keeping-china-soes-profitable.html

Simplicity with Chinese characteristics

2009-05-05T10:54:00.004+08:00

Missão: Obter uma lista das empresas estrangeiras com investimentos na província de Shaanxi

1. Ligar para o Shaanxi Service Center for Foreign Investment (029 85393187): Aqui não temos essa informação, ligue para o MOFCOM

2. Tentar a Shaanxi Provincial Association for Enterprises with Foreign Investment (029 85395729): Aqui não temos essa informação, ligue para o 029 8539 3074. Mas este número é de quem? Ligue, ligue. Mas para quem? Ligue, ligue. Ok...

3. Ligar para organização desconhecida (suspeito que fosse a primeira) no tal 029 8539 3074. Aqui só ajudamos empresas a estabelecerem-se, não temos esse tipo de informação. Experimente ligar para o 029 8539 5730, para o Government Office for Foreign Investment (suspeito que seja o segundo, olhando para o número...).

4. Ligar para o MOFCOM (029 8539 1863). Nós aqui não temos essa informação, é melhor ligar para o 029 8729 2560 ou para o 029 8729 0658, para a Machinery & Electronic Products Investment Promotion Division e peça para falar com a Miss Li.

5. Ligar para 029 8729 0658. Nós aqui não temos essa informação, é melhor ligar para o 029 8539 1863 (ou seja, o anterior), ou então para o 029 8539 5721 ou mesmo para o 029 8539 3179.

6. Ligar de novo para o 029 8539 5721. Dar o telefone à Yuyu. 3 minutos depois ela diz-me que ele vai enviar a lista. Aguardo, desconfiado.

Resta dizer que tenho de fazer o mesmo (por auto-iniciativa diga-se de passagem) para Shanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan, Hunan e Hubei.

Ser ou não ser (Português)

2009-05-05T09:51:00.004+08:00

Depois de alguma excitação por (mais) um jogador "Português" se candidatar ao draft da NBA, fui ver quem era Fernando Raposo.

So Fernando, can you present yourself at first.

Hi, my name is Fernando Raposo. I was born in 1989 in Stuttgart(Germany) and my parents are from Portugal and Cameroon. I started basketball at the age of 12 in a club named ESV Rot-Weiss Stuttgart. I played there two seasons and at the age of 14 with the help of Narcisse Ewodo, I got recruited by the French team Pau-Orthez which I am playing for today.

There have always been discussions about your nationality and for which country you can play in the future. Has there been a decision already and if so, why did you chose what you chose?

I have a Portuguese passport but I was born in Germany, so I could get the German nationality if asked for it. But I can also get a french passport because I am living in my fifth year in France.
I didn’t decide yet for which country I am going to play but I think its going to be France because I am about to get my french passport and I would have fun to play with players like Nicolas Batum or Alexis Ajinca in the future because I think this generation has great potential. I am a little bit disappointed because the German federation did not ask me if I wanted to play for the national team so I guess they are not very interested…

Note-se que a possibilidade de jogar pela selecção Portuguesa é tão absurda que nem sequer é mencionada... apesar de o jovem ser Português...

Verídico

2009-05-04T10:54:00.002+08:00

Mail enviado por um potencial fornecedor a um indivíduo que conheço:

"Dear,

Happy May day.

I am very happy that the housten rockets have won the first round of the playoff finally.

I send you to share my happiness.

And have a nice weekend.."

Nota para os mais distraídos: os Houston Rockets são a equipa da NBA onde joga o Yao Ming, o Cristiano Ronaldo cá do sítio.

Uma vitória com sabor a derrota

2009-04-27T08:43:00.005+08:00

Na 5ª jornada da competição, os Tofus jogaram contra os Honest Men, equipa última classificada da Liga, com apenas 1 golo marcado e 21 sofridos (em 3 jogos). Como seria de esperar, circularam mails durante a semana a estabelecer objectivos ambiciosos para o jogo. E passo a citar:

We need to beat the score the galacticos gave them;
A) 7 - 0 to help recover our disadvantage in goals difference Minimum.
B) Beat their defeat record 11 - 0 would be the ultimate goal
C) Not conceed any goals as they have never scored before. If a goal is conceeded, the whole team will be "Charged" 20 kuai per goal. (this will go to drinks after the game)
D) Gain early advantage and get to half time with a comfortable lead so that Ken can come out of the goal (once in a lifetime) and is given the opportunity to show his skils on the field and score a goal

Claro que, sendo nós maioritariamente Portugueses, as coisas nunca são assim tão simples.

Foi com alguma surpresa (qual surpresa, choque) que os Honest Men se adiantaram no marcador logo no primeiro minuto de jogo. Canto do lado direito do ataque e uma falha invulgar de Kenny G., segundo auto-golo dos Tofus em dois jogos. Objectivo C) já era. Enfim, azares acontecem a todos e ainda faltavam 49 minutos para o jogo acabar.

Ainda assim, chegamos a meio da primeira parte e continuamos a perder, até que o do costume assina o tento do empate. Apesar de maior posse de bola e ocasiões de golo, assim acabou a primeira parte. Objectivo D) grelhou.

A segunda parte não começou mal, com dois golos nos primeiros 5 minutos. Primeiro apontei o 2-1 (um tento de belo efeito por sinal) e de seguida Caccioli fez o 3-1. Parecia que a goleada se avizinhava. Eis senão quando os Honest Men, quando nada o fazia prever, respondem quase de imediato com o 3-2. E, um minuto depois, empatam. Tinhamos acabado de sofrer mais golos contra a pior equipa (que até então, repito, só tinha marcado um) do que durante os 4 jogos anteriores.

Depois de algum nervosismo, Piccoli lá apontou o 4-3, Caccioli bisou e fez o 5-3 e Cpt. Robi marcou o segundo da noite e fechou a contagem em 6-3. Ou 3-6 se quisermos, que é um resultado mais bonito e me agrada mais.

O positivo da jornada, além da vitória, foi a derrota dos Galácticos, o que nos deixa isolados no primeiro lugar da Liga.

Perdidos & Roubados

2009-04-23T15:24:00.002+08:00

Após breve poll, e recolhendo experiências de 12 Portugueses residentes em Xangai (e Shaoxing, que está para Xangai como Arruda dos Vinhos está para Lisboa, mas sem o bacalhau assado), em 2 anos e meio foram perdidos/ roubados os seguintes itens:

9 telemóveis
7 bicicletas
5 motas
3 carteiras
2 iPhone
2 sobretudos
2 porta-moedas
1 aspirador
1 impressora multi-funções (depois voltou a aparecer)
1 chapéu de côco
1 casaco
1 echarpe
1 par de luvas
1 par de ténis
1 máquina fotográfica
1 queijo de serpa

The definition of priceless

2009-04-22T16:20:00.002+08:00

Para quem conhece os intervenientes, a foto é priceless porque:

1. Tem o Luís a ser agarrado por 3 colegas de equipa (já tinham sido mais uns minutos antes);
2. Tem um árbitro que, na dúvida, acha melhor dar só o amarelo ao laowai maluco. Percebe-se no olhar dele a hesitação de quem acha que se está a habilitar a levar dois sopapos;
3. Tem o Juan por trás do árbitro a reclamar por ser só amarelo;
4. Tem o SERDAR!!! (aka o turco), com ar de preocupação, a acalmar o Luís.

Trabalhar a sério

2009-04-22T14:29:00.000+08:00

http://www.nzte.govt.nz/nzcentral

Estabilidade? Sim, mas primeiro Títulos.

2009-04-20T11:43:00.003+08:00

FC Porto
Pinto da Costa (eleito em 17/4/1982)
2008/09 Jesualdo Ferreira
2007/08 Jesualdo Ferreira 1.º
2006/07 Jesualdo Ferreira 1.º
2005/06 Co Adriaanse 1.º
2004/05 Del Neri/V. Fernandez
/José Couceiro 2.º
2003/04 José Mourinho 1.º
2002/03 José Mourinho 1.º
2001/02 Octávio Machado/José Mourinho 3.º
2000/01 Fernando Santos 2.º
1999/00 Fernando Santos 2.º
1998/99 Fernando Santos 1.º
1997/98 António Oliveira 1.º
1996/97 António Oliveira 1.º
1995/96 Bobby Robson 1.º
1994/95 Bobby Robson 1.º
1993/94 Tomislav Ivic/Bobby Robson 2.º
1992/93 Carlos Alberto Silva 1.º
1991/92 Carlos Alberto Silva 1.º
1990/91 Artur Jorge 2.º
1989/90 Artur Jorge 1.º
1988/89 Quinito/Artur Jorge 2.º
1987/88 Tomislav Ivic 1.º
1986/87 Artur Jorge 2.º
1985/86 Artur Jorge 1.º
1984/85 Artur Jorge 1.º
1983/84 Pedroto 2.º
1982/83 Pedroto 2.º

Quando se utiliza a "estabilidade" como defesa para a continuidade do Quique e se aponta o FCP como exemplo, ignoram-se duas coisas com alguma importância:

a) só por duas vezes, em 27 anos, um treinador que fez uma época inteira e não foi campeão transitou para a época seguinte (Pedroto em 82/83 e o Nando Santos em 99/00). Ou seja, estabilidade sim senhor, é bonito, mas é só para treinadores campeões.

b) e nestes dois casos, tanto Pedroto como Nando Santos voltaram a ficar em 2º e, como tal, foram naturalmente corridos.

Aliás, um dos grandes méritos de PC, é perceber quando as coisas não estão a funcionar e rapidamente provocar as alterações necessárias - vide Quinito, Ivic 93/94, e Octávio, todos substituidos a meio da época por treinadores que na época seguinte se sagrariam campeões.

Não me parece desejável que um treinador que fique em 3º lugar e que é eliminado da UEFA como se viu e que, acima de tudo, não tenha conseguido pôr o melhor plantel dos últimos 14 anos a jogar à bola, se mantenha para a próxima época. Apesar de falar bem. Mas o Queiróz também fala bem.

E escrevo isto após um 4-0 fora frente ao Setúbal...

Israel, Dinamarca, Hawaii... China?

2009-04-20T10:55:00.000+08:00

Nissan seals China EV deal
The Renault-Nissan Alliance announced an agreement to assist the Chinese government in developing infrastructure for charging electric vehicles (EVs). Under an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, Nissan will provide EV information and propose a comprehensive business plan, including a blueprint for a battery-charging network and programs for mass marketing EVs. The company may also provide free electric vehicles to the municipal government of Wuhan, which is planned to be the pilot city for a zero emission mobility initiative.

We've gotta get credit flowing again...

2009-04-20T08:57:00.002+08:00

...é o que se costuma ouvir em Portugal, no resto da Europa, nos EUA, etc...

Not a problem here.

(já tinha falado nisto antes, mas o gráfico ilustra melhor)

One size fits all?

2009-04-20T07:22:00.001+08:00

Jackie Chan's China comments prompt backlash (AP)
Source: AP Sun Apr 19, 2009, 4:20 am EDT

HONG KONG - Action star Jackie Chan 's comments wondering whether Chinese people "need to be controlled" have drawn sharp rebuke in his native Hong Kong and in Taiwan .

Chan told a business forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan that a free society may not be beneficial for China 's authoritarian mainland.

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said Saturday. "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."

He went on to say that freedoms in Hong Kong and Taiwan made those societies "chaotic."

Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders, but did not sit well with lawmakers in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

(...)

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/jackie-chans-china-comments-prompt-backlash-ap

Shanghai vol2.0

Japão gastronómico (sim, eu sei, já passaram dois meses)

上海 第一个

Wonderful people

Girl, 6, forced into marathon runs by father

Tokyo - do futuro

World's Greatest City: 50 reasons why Tokyo is No. 1

Nikko - comida deliciosa

Tokyo - um metro pensado ao pormenor

O local de trabalho mais perigoso do mundo? Mina de carvão na China.

Harbin - A Sinagoga, a Igreja Ortodoxa e o Templo Budista

Harbin - Japoneses Jamais (leia-se jamé)!

Harbin - Os Tigres

Harbin - A Rússia

Harbin - O Frio

Harbin - Rússia, Frio, Tigres e outras coisas

Benfica make Everton look ordinary in front of Eusébio

Benfica make Everton look ordinary in front of Eusébio

Everton 0 Benfica 2

Triads

Dead End for Chongqing's Triad Gangsters

Uma vitória razoavelmente confortável

Em Pequim

What gave him away?

Dimensão internacional

Uma vitória recordista

Top20 All Time Selling Books

Vietnam, o resto (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Tam Coc)

Vietnam, Sapa

O que é que Portugal tem?

Hopeless

Do you wanna buy books... marijuana?

Pombos-bomba

Smooth operators

Rare earths are vital, and China owns them all

Technology play

Holding back

Market's loss is China's gain

China, India & Indonesia

Como eles gostam destas infografias...

O objectivo era crescer 8% este ano...

Depois de Deutsche Bank e EIU apontarem para 8.3%...

ADB sees 8.2% rise for China's economy

É por estas e por outras que vou ao Vietname...

For starters...

GNAAP (Generally NOT Accepted Accounting Principles

Survey: Prostitutes more trustworthy than government officials

A sense of entitlement

Isto é estar na vanguarda

Being wealthy in China

Emprestimos da China

Um país violento... às vezes

Crime e Castigo

2!!!!

37

Qinhuangdao nas notícias

The problem(s) with China

Nem só em dinheiro se pensa na China

O meu metro tem tubarões (e o teu não)

O que fazer quando lhe cortarem a internet - um guia simples

A mãe de todas as contas em atraso

Isto é absurdo

Minorias e desenvolvimento

Xinjiang, 2 dias depois

Negociações, Chinese style

Protestos sobre um suicídio duvidoso em Hubei

Os americanos e o soccer

Sortido de fotos

Elucidativo

Mediocre

To be continued (mas promete)

For the record

Campeões!!!!!

Democracias & Outros Regimes

Uma vitória tranquila

Marcas

Sempre tive este sonho

Um empate complicado

Green Dam - Youth Escort

Perspectivas sobre Portugal (visto de fora)

上海第一个