Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International

Yakuza beats out Japanese government on disaster response

Hours after the first shock waves hit, several of the largest crime groups in the Japanese mafia, opened their offices to those stranded in Tokyo, and shipped food, water, and blankets to the devastated areas.

The Inagawa-kai (the third largest organized crime group) sent twenty-five trucks filled with diapers, ramen, batteries, flashlights and drinks to the Tohoku region.

The Sumiyoshi-kai (the second-largest crime group) offered refuge to members of the foreign community, which is unheard of amongst the right-wing yakuza.

The Yamaguchi-gumi (largest crime group) opened its offices across the country to the public, and is very quietly sending truckloads of supplies.

International

So far help for Tsunami victims, from other countries, is sparse

Japanese officials have released figures of relief supplies from other countries.

The supplies include 25,000 blankets from Canada, 30,000 packets of boil-in-the-bag fried rice and 230,000 water bottles from South Korea, and 500 power generators from Taiwan.

When you realize that some of the cities that got hit with he quake/tsunami had a million residents, you can see that foreign supplies are not much. In fact, Japan’s public news station, NHK, is constantly asking for donations.

International

Death toll 15,000 in Miyagi Prefecture

Kyodo News reporting that in Miyagi Prefecture alone there could be 15,000 dead.  That’s according to local police.

National police say the number of dead and missing is around 20,000.  That doesn’t add up when compared to what local officials are reporting, especially when Miyagi Prefecture is reporting 15,000 dead.

The mayor of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, Koki Kato was found dead. He had been missing after the tsunami hit on March 11.

International, U.S.

Libya working to get support from China

A Libyan government official said they will discuss oil contracts with China, India, Russia and Brazil.

This is to gain support against “neo-crusaders”, taking military action against Libya, through the UN resolution.

China has already condemned the military operation against Libya.  20,000+ Chinese were evacuated from Libya at the end of February.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said he wanted to see Libyans make their own decisions “free of outside interference.”  India evacuated 18,000 workers from Libya.

Will Russia resume weapons sales to Libya?  Russia stopped weapons sales, but only on the condition that military action would not be taken against Libya. “In Moscow, we regret this armed action within the hastily passed UNSCR Resolution 1973,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Brazil’s newly elected president, Dilma Rousseff, said Brazil expects more of the United States, criticizing American protectionism. Brazil opposes military action against Libya. Brazil has also evacuated citizens from Libya.

Brazil, Russia, China and India are now the world’s strongest economies.

International, U.S.

WikiLeaks forces U.S. Ambassador to Resign

WikiLeaks reveal documents that showed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, had criticized Mexico’s handling of the Drug War.

Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, retaliated by pointing out that the various U.S. security forces, in Mexico, repeatedly fail to coordinate with each other and  actually view each other as competitors. This makes them useless to Mexican security forces fighting the drug gangs.

President Calderon also said, in a newspaper interview, that U.S. Ambassador Pascual is ignorant and continually distorts the facts.  Calderon says weapons being used by Mexican drug gangs are still coming from the United States. He has repeatedly asked the Obama administration to remove Pascual.

Hillary Clinton admitted that Pascual’s resignation is meant to keep attention away from Calderon’s accusations; “…to avert issues raised by President Calderon that could distract from the important business of advancing our bilateral interests”.

International, Opinion, U.S.

Oil Speculators are War Mongers. Was UN Resolution pushed because of crashing oil prices?

When Japan got hit by the massive quake/tsunami, and then the nuclear power plant disaster, world oil prices dropped.  By a lot.

Prior to the Japan event, on March 10th, Brent crude oil closed at $115.60 per barrel. U.S. light sweet crude closed at $104.25.  Oil prices had been going up, and the “Libyan crisis” was blamed. “…mainly fueled by regime-toppling instability in the Middle East and North Africa.” -CNN/Money

March 11th, the Japan event and immediately oil prices began falling.  Brent crude fell to $113.67, U.S. crude $101.16.  By March 15th Brent crude had fallen to $108.52, U.S. crude $97.18.

From March 10th to March 15th Brent crude prices dropped by $7.10,  U.S. crude dropped by $7.07.

Then, suddenly, the United Nations announced it had passed a resolution authorizing any military action necessary to get rid of Gaddafi (an historic resolution by the way, it’s NOT a no fly zone).  This seemed to come out of no where.  What happened to oil prices?  Immediately oil price shot up: March 16th Brent crude closed at $110.62, U.S. crude $97.98.  March 17th: Brent crude $114.90, U.S. crude $101.42.    “The Middle East unrest outweighed concerns about radiation from a Japanese nuclear plant…” -Bloomberg

Another evidence of war mongering by speculators is that oil prices fell when Gaddafi announced a ceasefire.  March 18th (ceasefire announced) Brent crude closed $113.90, U.S. crude $101.07.

I speculate that British Brent crude prices are more sensitive because the British, along with the French, have a big stake in gaining control of Libya’s eastern oil fields.  After all, who got the biggest oil contract in Iraq? BP (British Petroleum).

Fukushima, International

Ring of Fire Seismic Events part 3 Big 9.0+ Quakes

Since the turn of the 20th Century there have been only 5 monster quakes registering 9.0 or higher.

1952 Soviet Kamchatka 9.0

1960 Chile 9.5

1964 Alaska 9.4

2004 Sumatra/Indonesia 9.1

2011 Japan 9.0

They are all related; they are all on, or connected to, the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The time between each quake is not equally spaced so it’s not possible to predict when the next one will hit (using that method).  8 years between Kamchatka &  Chile, 4 years between Chile & Alaska, 40 years between Alaska & Sumatra, 7 years between Sumatra & Japan.