Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2471)	3/2/1998 7:37:00 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

North Korea says it is running out of food 7.21 p.m. ET (022 GMT) March 2, 1998 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea is still running out of food despite dramatically reducing grain rations to its people, the country's official media reported Monday. The government cut the daily ration per person from 10.5 ounces a day to 7 ounces a day in February. Even if the ration is cut again to 3.5 ounces, "the stock will run out in mid-March,'' said the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, quoting an unidentified government official. International experts say a daily minimum of 1 pound of food is needed to keep an adult relatively healthy. North Korea has suffered through three years of disastrous weather that aggravated problems caused by inefficient cooperative farming techniques. The official said the communist nation's domestic grain stock stood at 167,000 tons as of Jan. 1. The U.N. World Food Program issued a new appeal in January for 650,000 tons of food for North Korea this year. On Monday, the food program said that the North Korean warning confirms earlier assessments that international assistance is urgently needed. The WFP added that it is currently supplying 98,000 tons of grain to 4.7 million of the neediest North Koreans, mainly children, and that the food aid should last the recipients through this month. The United States has committed 200,000 tons, worth $75 million, to the latest U.N. appeal. There have been no reports of major donations from other countries. In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said Monday that the United States plans no assistance beyond its pledge. He said the first shipment under that pledge - 22,000 tons - is scheduled to arrive in North Korea at the begining of April. In the news agency report, North Korea said it needs about 7.84 million tons of grain a year, of which 4.82 million are needed for food and the remainder for animal feed and other use. But the North's grain output decreased drastically last year because of a prolonged drought, reducing the crop to 4.83 million tons, the news agency said. The country expressed gratitude for outside food aid and said it was mobilizing "all the people and servicemen'' to increase grain production this year. Who cares?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2471)	3/3/1998 11:56:00 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Worswick: I have never said anything like "European Imperialists "ruled" China", so please do not put your word in my mouth. I only said that Westerners, including the US, do not like the current Chinese system and Government, that's all. And that is fine with me. We do not have to like each other to co-exist peacefully. One thing standing out in China's history is that despite that many imperialist powers tried so hard to rule China in 19th century, but none of them ever succeeded. As for the Nomadic ethnic groups like Mongols (Yuan Dynasty) and Manchus (Qing Dynasty): yes, they ruled Han Chinese majority for a long time in Chinese history, but it was Han majority Chinese who assimilated them and educated them. And this assimilation was so natural that no any forces were ever involved, and yet was so completed. BTW, I think it is very inaccurate to call Mongols and Manchus "imperialism" because they did not have any features, whatsoever, defined by Lenin. Good luck.

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2471)	3/3/1998 6:00:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Yiwu - Totalitarians or not, it is the only system works in China. Westerners, especially the US, may not like the Chinese system. But it is only up to the majority of the Chinese themselves to judge. The dark age of the imperialism has pasted, thanks God!!!! The same thing could have been said about democracy as a whole before the US revolutionary war. It had 'never worked' on a nation that size - mainly because it had never been tried. As for totalitarianism, you sound like some of the older generation of Russians I've met. They decry the move to democracy because it meant the breakup of their empire. But the younger generation likes it, as do the the Baltic republics and, I suspect, many of the other ex-subjugated states. Just as I suspect many of the 'subjugated states' of China would like their freedom (e.g. Taiwan and Tibet). Finally, before decrying imperialism, what about Tibet et al? Clark

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2471)	3/4/1998 11:45:00 AM
From: Chuck Bleakney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Cultures endure, governments do not... this has been the greatest lesson of history, why should it change now or any time in the future. There is a point in virtually any form of government at which it breaks down. If it is able to realize it is breaking down and find a form that will serve it better then it gets a chance to last a bit longer. Doe's anyone out there really believe a form of government exists that could manage the worlds population effectively? Until one emerges, we are doomed to struggle to prove that our "version" is the one that will. Food for thought... Chuck