Category Archives: International

School manual vague on evacuation plan, hundreds of kids and their teachers died trying to escape

In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, most elementary school students lost their lives, along with all but one of their teachers, no thanks to a vague manual about tsunami evacuations.

On March 11, 70% of students at Okawa Primary School were killed.  10 of the 11 teachers were also killed.  When the 9.0 earthquake hit, teachers knew they needed to get the kids home, so they called the parents to come pick them up.  But time was against them.  Suddenly the tsunami warning sounded.  The teachers looked in a manual to figure out what to do.  The manual simply said “get to higher ground”.

Okawa Primary School is located on the edge of a large river that empties into the ocean.  The only high ground is a steep mountainside that the teachers didn’t think the kids could climb, so they headed for a bridge.  A 70 year old witness said he was amazed, they were going the wrong way!  He ran towards the mountain and survived, only to witness the line of children, and their teachers, get hit by the tsunami.

One problem for the decision making of the teachers was a tsunami survey, which said that any tsunami that reached the school would be less than one meter (3.2 feet) high.  The tsunami that hit the school, on March 11, was 10 meters (32.8 feet) high.  “No one thought tsunami would even reach this area.”-witness


 

Egyptian Army cracks down on protesters

Yes, people are still protesting in Egypt. This time they want the pro-U.S. military leaders out, replaced by civilian leaders.  They’ve also been demanding the prosecution of Hosni Mubarak, which the military leaders seem reluctant to do.

After 5 days of protest, the military moved in, rounding up protesters and tearing down barricades.

The Army claims a deal to clear Tahrir Square was made with protesters, but several protesters interviewed by the press said no such deal was made.

Mass Japanese hotel reservations Canceled

Since the March 11 disasters, more than 560,000 hotel reservations have been canceled in Japan.  It goes in hand with the recent report that tourism has dropped by 75%.

The Japan Tourism Agency expects hotel cancellations to continue, as Japan keeps getting hit with intense aftershocks.  Also, hotel reservations for April and May are down as much as 45% from last year.

 

Cold War between China & U.S. began 2005

“If the United States would not allow CNOOC to purchase Unocal, will not itself guarantee China a steady energy supply and opposes Chinese purchases of Iranian oil and gas, how can China survive?”-Zhang Guobao, former vice chairman National Development and Reform Commission

In 2005 China tried to buy California based Unocal.  The attempt was blocked by the U.S. government.

Before anybody in the U.S. says “good, we don’t want foreigners taking over our oil”, guess what?  Too late, ever hear of BP?  British Petroleum has been slowly taking over U.S. oil companies since 1998 (ever wondered what happened to AMOCO, or ARCO, or Castrol? They all owned by BP now).  At least the Chinese have a track record of spending money big time, for other projects, in the countries they move into, BP does not come close.

On top of that, China has been allowed to take over smaller U.S. companies, why not the oil companies?  Is it because BP can’t handle the competition?  Officially our government says it’s about National Security.  You mean letting a limey, red coat, mortal enemy of the founders of the United States, British company take over U.S. oil companies is not a National Security threat?

In 2007 Zhang Guobao issued a warning to the United States, saying the blocking of their purchase of Unocal “will have many after effects.” Can you say ‘get your game on!’  Remember China is our largest creditor, we owe them big time for financing our financially inept, elected officials deficit spending.

China has already retaliated by not allowing Coca-Cola to take over a Chinese beverage company in 2009.  Then again, Atlanta, Georgia based, Coca-Cola was so arrogant that they didn’t think it necessary to lobby Chinese politicians (something they do all the time here in the U.S.).

Several attempts by U.S. companies, to take over Chinese companies, have been squashed.  But remember when China tried to buy GM’s Hummer brand?  That fell through, because of the Chinese government.  It seems that the Chinese government has decided that not only are they going to block U.S. companies from moving into China, but they are going to block any Chinese company from investing in the U.S.  Sounds like an economic war. All they need to do now is start dumping U.S. bonds, and we’re toast.

Many U.S. media still claim that the United States is the biggest customer for China, wrong.  In the last decade, the Chinese have been moving their consumer market eggs into different baskets (wise move).  They’re invested big time in Latin America, blowing the United States away, another reason why Obama’s trip to Latin America was a total waste.  Australia has become such a big supplier of crops to China, that their economy is going gang busters as well.  In fact, when you look at most of the countries that are not being affected by the global recession, they all have one common factor; China is invested big time with their economies!

By the way, remember that big announcement Obama made when he went to China in 2009?  Even Chinese officials claimed it would end the U.S. recession.  What happened?

In January 2011, it was announced that the U.S. and China agreed to a $45 billion trade deal.  Obama lauded the deal saying it would support (not create) 235,000 jobs.  But there’s a catch.  Obama, and members of Congress said the deal was contingent upon China addressing certain ‘human rights’ issues.

“We also know this: history shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all peoples are upheld — including the universal rights of every human being.”-President Barack Obama

“…raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom and the use of coercive abortion…”-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio

“While we appreciate those words, the United States will watch the actions of the Chinese government to make sure that they meet the words that were spoken in the White House yesterday.”-Robert Gibbs, White House Spokesman

I believe the reason why the U.S. economy is still struggling is because the U.S. don’t wanna play with China anymore, and China don’t wanna play with the U.S., it’s all just Nuevo Cold War rhetoric now.

 

 

 

Obama’s Latin America trip wasted

Under Bush Jr, the United States lost two ambassadors in South America.  The Obama administration has lost another, bringing the total to three.

Those countries are Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. So President Obama’s recent trip to Latin America did little to mend relations.

Even U.S. ally Columbia, is leaning towards Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Looks like the U.S. just doesn’t get Latin America.

Ceasefire Ping Pong, Libyan Rebels reject African Union offer, Red Cross openly supporting Rebels

The ceasefire ping pong game continues.

The African Union recently got the Libyan government to agree to their ceasefire deal, but the rebels said no.

Rebel leaders refused the plan, because it does not require Gaddafi, and his sons, to step down.

In what seems to be a contradiction of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s commitment to neutrality, they have stated that they have set up hospitals and clinics to help the rebels.

“Now we will officially be here open for business. Of course it was high time as a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization that the ICRC would come here as well to conduct discussions with the authorities.”-Jean-Michel Monod

Japan’s economy shattered by Mother Earth, and Nuclear Power

“Our economy is in a severe state.”-Masaaki Shirakawa, Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan is struggling to figure out how to pull Japan’s economy out of the dumps after the March 11 disasters.  Officials now admit the economic situation is worse than first thought.

One analyst pointed out that Japan was already in a recession, this could push Japan into a depression (see my March 17 posting “Japan Disaster start of Global Great Depression”).

The Japanese government is estimating that it will need one trillion yen, to ease employment issues in the disaster struck areas.  That’s just to fight unemployment.  They estimate actual reconstruction cost will be at least four trillion yen.  The problem is, just where are they going to get the money from?

More WikiLeaks documents on how the U.S. views Ecuador & how Wachovia Bank became a spy

“We are concerned that Iran will try to undertake transactions related to the proliferation of weapons, evading the provisions of Security Council of the United Nations.”-U.S. Embassy cable 226556, September 2009.

The latest documents released by WikiLeaks shows the U.S. fearful of Ecuadorian ties to Iran, and that the U.S. considered Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa as emotionally immature.  This was after he threw out two U.S. diplomats in 2009.

He also accused one of the diplomats, Mark Sullivan, as doubling as the head of CIA operations in Ecuador.

The leaked documents also show concern about the ideological unity of President Correa, and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

In regards to Iran, dozens of documents show that the United States is obsessed with Ecuador’s efforts to establish strong ties with Iran, including deals with Iran’s Central Bank.  The fear is so great that, in February 2010, U.S. officials got Wachovia Bank, which is the largest trade financier in Ecuador, to spy on any of its customers that might be doing transactions with Iran.

 

Bolivia Nationalizes Gas Stations

The Bolivian government will nationalize all gas stations within 50km (31 miles) of their border.  The move is part of the new Law on Development and Security.

About 30 gas stations are within the 50km nationalization zone.

Bolivia is surrounded by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.

The government said they are in the process of negotiating a purchase price for the gas stations.