Coronavirus News (210)

Donald Trump’s anti-China policy is doomed to fail, as his coronavirus strategy did Rather than a cohesive strategy, America is taking aim at China’s economy based on a mix of short-term thinking, parochial calculations, and fear of Chinese competition Most of its attacks are missing the mark, and some are likely to boomerang on US interests instead ...................  Like it or not, the Trump administration has launched a cold war against China. .........   although China hawks in Washington often liken China to the former Soviet Union, the comparison is very misleading. The Soviet Union was in a full-blown confrontation with the Western world, both militarily and ideologically, and the fierce arms race with the US severely strained the Soviet economy. ..........  it was the Soviet economy, moribund and rotten to the core, that collapsed and caused the entire system to implode. ...........  China is an authoritarian regime, but it is not interested in spreading Marxism around the world. Rather, China is far more interested in exporting capital, expanding its market share and securing resource supplies. ..............   For the last four decades, the Chinese economy has been vibrant and thriving, with the private sector leading the way in generating jobs and economic growth. The standard of living for the Chinese has been improving at an unprecedented speed, with GDP per capita rising from around US$200 in 1980 to US$10,000 today. ...........  The majority of the Chinese are genuinely happy. ...........  the Chinese government has never been this popular with its people – all thanks to the Trump administration’s hardline China policy. This policy has been read by ordinary Chinese as proof of the US’ denial of China’s right to be economically successful. Naturally, Trump’s policy has spurred public resentment against the US in China. ..............   The Chinese economy has already become large enough to withstand America’s economic sanctions. ..........  China’s retail sales have exceeded those of the US since 2015, and China is virtually the largest market for various consumer goods: from cars and TVs to cellphones and luxury goods. This is not to mention that China is the largest importer of industrial and agricultural commodities of all kinds. .............   Qualcomm, a major US chip maker, is reportedly lobbying the Trump administration to lift trade restrictions on Huawei for fear that the American company will lose potentially US$8 billion in Huawei orders to foreign competitors. The share price of Intel, a key supplier to Huawei, has fallen by about 20 per cent since late July. ..........  Beijing’s counterpunch to Trump’s isolationist economic policy is to make the Chinese economy even more open. ............    It is worth noting that all the Chinese companies on the White House’s hit list are privately-owned businesses, which are the backbone of a free market system and were encouraged and welcomed by all previous administrations in Washington. ................  the fear of Chinese competition is the true reason behind Trump’s economic war. ..............  Trump’s protectionist policies have not led to any revival in US manufacturing.     

US-China relations: bankrupt, broken America has no room to talk If China is held captive by a bankrupt ideology, as Mike Pompeo claims, how do you explain its spectacular economic achievements and growing power? The US cannot win any new Cold War by demonising an ascendant China instead of addressing its own chronic problems and getting its house in order ............  If China is held captive by a bankrupt ideology, how do you explain its spectacular economic achievements? If the US represents the pinnacle of virtue, how do you explain its many social problems, laid bare by Covid-19? ..................    China has propelled its per capita GDP from US$156 in 1978 to more than US$10,000 last year. On a purchasing power parity basis, residents of Beijing and Shanghai enjoy per capita GDP similar to some European Union member states. ............  If China is so totalitarian, why do so many Chinese students studying abroad happily return from the “free world” to China every year after obtaining their foreign degrees? ..............     The Communist Party of today is quite different from the party of 1977. China learned from its earlier failed experiments that it could not leapfrog into communism. By its own admission, China is at an early stage of socialism, and its economic model is still evolving. ...............  China’s economic system is eclectic, not limited by ideology. The Communist Party retains its vitality through dynamic evolution. ..............   After decades, China is still struggling with its Revitalising Northeast and Go West campaigns. ...........  China owes its success to experimentation. Local cadres are allowed, even encouraged, to experiment and are rewarded for their achievements .............   China prunes its failures and propagates its successes nationwide. ...............    Where have market fundamentalism and financialisation left most Americans? For the average American, real wages have stagnated for decades. Uniquely expensive and inefficient among developed nations, US health care is a problem for many of its citizens. With the lapse of US$600 federal jobless aid payments, many Americans face destitution. ........................  Bogged down by partisan politics, it has not been able to address many of its chronic socioeconomic problems. ..........  The US has more than 5 million Covid-19 cases and over 160,000 deaths and has seen mass protests across the country as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. The rule of law in the US is compromised. Even the orderly transition of power after the November election is not assured. It is the US’ empty rhetoric that is truly bankrupt. 

“Woke-Washing” Your Company Won’t Cut It

Coronavirus News (209)

Special Report: Last doctor standing - Pandemic pushes Indian hospital to brink  The relatives keep barging into the wards, even the ICU, to stroke and feed their loved ones, often without wearing even the flimsiest of masks as barriers against the novel coronavirus. ...........  The healthcare system in Bhagalpur, like many other parts of Bihar, is on the verge of collapse ..........  Although India’s major cities, such as New Delhi and Mumbai – the first to be hit by the virus – have registered a decline in cases, numbers in second-tier cities and rural areas continue to rise. .............   Bihar is India’s third-most-populous state; if it were a country, it would be the 14th-most-populous in the world. ............  Based on indicators including infant nutrition, Bihar’s level of development has more in common with sub-Saharan Africa than India’s prosperous southern states. Almost half of children under 5 in the state are stunted from malnutrition, with more than four in 10 underweight for their age ................  more than half the doctors’ posts in the state are unfilled. That’s because many doctors don’t want to serve in rural areas ............  On the approach road to the hospital, there is a huge pothole, and vehicles carrying patients often get stuck there. Outside the main doors, relatives sit with the bodies of their loved ones waiting for private ambulances to take them for burial or cremation. ...........  Sameer, a 22-year-old medical attendant sent to help with the transfer, hurriedly changes into his plastic overalls. Instead of protective goggles, he uses a pair of cheap sunglasses.   

In China, fears of financial Iron Curtain as U.S. tensions rise  A sharp escalation in tensions with the United States has stoked fears in China of a deepening financial war that could result in it being shut out of the global dollar system - a devastating prospect once considered far-fetched but now not impossible. ..........  Most of China’s cross-border transactions are settled in dollars via the SWIFT system, which some say leaves it vulnerable. ..........  a proposed digital yuan in cross-border transactions on the back of currency swaps between central banks, bypassing systems such as SWIFT .........  Beijing has no choice but to prepare for Washington’s “nuclear option” of kicking China out of the dollar system.

The progressive Indian grandfather who inspired Kamala Harris  Until his death in 1998, Gopalan remained from thousands of miles away a pen pal and guiding influence — accomplished, civic-minded, doting, playful — who helped kindle Harris’ interest in public service. .................  “It was a big deal,” said Harris’ uncle G. Balachandran, a 79-year-old academic in New Delhi. “At that time, the number of unmarried Indian women who had gone to the States for graduate studies — it was probably in the low double digits. But my father was quite open. He said, ‘If you get admission, you go.’” .............  “When you’re raised in a family, I guess later in life you realize how your family might be different,” she said. “But it all seemed very normal to me. … I obviously did realize as an adult, and as I got older, that they were extremely progressive.” ...........  “What is home science?” Balachandran remembered him needling her. “Are you learning how to invite guests?” Rajam, who was active in raising funds for social causes, was determined that the children pursue careers in medicine, engineering or the law. ...............   “I do think now of just how permissive they were in allowing their daughters to leave them, but also of how bold the daughters were to want to leave to begin with,” she said. “And given that Shyamala was the oldest, she really set the stage for the rest of the siblings to follow in her path.” .............   When Shyamala left to study nutrition and endocrinology at Berkeley, eventually earning a PhD, most Indian households didn’t have phone lines. The family stayed in touch through letters, handwritten on lightweight, pale-blue stationery known as aerograms that took about two weeks to travel between India and California. .............. She joined the black civil rights movement, where she met a brilliant Jamaican economics student named Donald Harris. When she and Harris married in 1963 — in what in India is still described as a “love marriage” — it marked an even greater challenge to convention, especially because she didn’t introduce him to her parents beforehand. ................   What she remembers is the soil of Lusaka, rich with copper, which glowed a fiery red. ............  As the eldest grandchild, Kamala sometimes tagged along on Gopalan’s walks with his retiree buddies, soaking up their debates about building democracy and fighting corruption in India. ..............  When Rajam left the house, Gopalan, a strict vegetarian who avoided even eggs, sometimes cast Harris and her sister a conspiratorial look and said: “OK, let’s have French toast.” ..............  If she misbehaved, Gopalan would take her into another room and pretend to slap her on the hand — urging her to shriek in mock pain — before reemerging to tell Shyamala, “I handled it.” ............   Shyamala bore the hidden scars of discrimination — Harris has said she was passed over for promotions and dismissed as unintelligent because of her accent — and dispensed lessons to her family and graduate students of color with the same sharp, sassy wit. ..........  Shyamala warned her that American men would call her exotic, a term she said was meant to diminish her .............  “The minute they call you exotic, you walk away from them and tell them to f--- off,” Balachandran Orihuela remembered her saying. If anyone asked where she was from, Shyamala admonished her to answer: “None of your business.” ..........  In her cousin Harris, 18 years her senior, Balachandran Orihuela sees glimmers of her aunt’s intensity and focus, as well as her warmth. When Harris arches an eyebrow during a presidential debate, the feisty skepticism reminds her of Shyamala. ..............  “There’s very little ambiguity, very little moral relativism to debate with Kamala,” she said, “and Shyamala was very similar.” ............  One of Harris’ fondest memories of Gopalan’s final years was in 1991, when the whole family gathered in Chennai to celebrate his 80th birthday. It had been at least 20 years since everyone was together, and Rajam — by then great-grandmother to Maya’s daughter, Meena — insisted that they all stay in their three-bedroom apartment, on a quiet, tree-lined street a few blocks from the beach. .............   Harris, who was about 27 at the time, remembered a house bristling with strong personalities, her aunts and uncle suddenly reverting to the role of children. Rajam quibbled with Shyamala, two forces of nature colliding in the ground-floor flat. “It was just a whole scene,” Harris said with a laugh, “and by the end of it we went to a hotel.”

राष्ट्रपति नेकपाको कि नेपालीको ? राष्ट्रपतिले दलको झगडा मिलाउने, साक्षी बस्ने, मध्यस्थ गर्ने काम गर्नु हुन्न । संसदीय व्यवस्थामा आफ्नो भूमिका र संविधानका ती व्यवस्थाहरू राष्ट्रपतिले बुझ्नुपर्छ ।  

How to (Actually) Change Someone’s Mind  How do you go about convincing someone who, for one reason or another, doesn’t see eye-to-eye with you? Someone who gives you a flat out “no”? .........  The leaders who were most successful in overcoming others’ skepticism were those who diagnosed the root of the fundamental disagreement before trying to persuade. They first asked themselves, “What’s driving my detractor’s resistance?” These leaders often pinpointed which aspects of their arguments elicited the most pushback and the most emotional reactions. ...............    The Cognitive Conversation ........  If they’ve clearly articulated a logical set of objections, and they don’t appear to be hiding ulterior motives, approach them with a cognitive conversation. ..........  A successful cognitive conversation requires two things: sound arguments and good presentation. .........  The Champion Conversion ...........  When the detractor isn’t easily persuaded through cognitive arguments, or when they harbor a grievance in your relationship with them, engaging in debates may be futile. ..............  Don’t jump in and try to convince the other person. Instead, invest time in personally learning about and building rapport with them. .............  allow the other person to see who you are so that they can more fully understand your point of view. ............  The Credible Colleague Approach .......  times when the detractor’s deeply-held personal beliefs make them fundamentally opposed to your proposal. .......  some combination of the person’s upbringing, personal history, and unspoken biases will, at times, make it seemingly impossible for them to accept a decision, no matter what logical or emotional argument you throw their way. ..............  Rather than trying to argue with someone who seems resistant, bring in a credible colleague.   

“Woke-Washing” Your Company Won’t Cut It  statement fatigue — a growing level of disinterest, ambivalence, and outright outrage towards companies calling out racial injustice without showing any signs of taking action ...........   the costs of “woke washing” — appropriating the language of social activism into marketing materials, for instance — can be high ............  Organizations such as Whole Foods, Pinterest, and Adidas have all seen public complaints from current and former employees that corporate statements of solidarity glossed over internal inequities. ............  the importance of moving beyond solidarity statements and toward power dynamics that effectively eradicate the underlying anti-Blackness that has been central to America’s origin story and thus, the American corporate story.   

This Israeli hospital is trialling a quick saliva test for Covid-19 that gives the result in less than a second pic.twitter.com/ahq7OYCYn7

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) August 15, 2020

Trump’s anti-China policy is doomed to fail, as his Covid-19 strategy did https://t.co/XJgIGZlLUV

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) August 14, 2020

PM Modi On #IndependenceDay pic.twitter.com/UyDoLZOCVS

— NDTV (@ndtv) August 15, 2020