What's in the News

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #195 on: September 19, 2007, 08:13:11 PM »
That The View clip: I don't have sound, but the look on Joy behar' face: "Thank God hiring this twit wasn't my call!"

Imagine all those foreigners, suddenly broke and unemployed.  Wonder if a rival will buy Nova out.
And there is no liar like the indignant man... -Nietszche

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. -William James

englishmoose.com

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #196 on: September 22, 2007, 05:03:49 AM »
Well, here's a turn of events!

Mattel apologizes to China over recalls of toys
Vast majority of recalls were Mattel design flaws
Last Updated: Friday, September 21, 2007 | 7:29 AM ET
CBC News
U.S.-based toy giant Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.

The gesture by Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice-president for worldwide operations, came in a meeting with Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, at which Li upbraided the company for maintaining weak safety controls.

"Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls," Debrowski told Li in a meeting at Li's office at which reporters were allowed to be present.

"And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys," Debrowski said.

Mattel ordered three high-profile recalls this summer involving more than 21 million Chinese-made toys, including Barbie doll accessories and toy cars because of concerns about lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed.

The recalls have prompted complaints from China that manufacturers were being blamed for design faults introduced by Mattel.

On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that the "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers."

Lead-tainted toys accounted for only a small percentage of all toys recalled, he said. "We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers."

In a statement issued by the company, Mattel said its lead-related recalls were "overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of the U.S. standards.

"The followup inspections also confirmed that part of the recalled toys complied with the U.S. standards," the statement said.

Li reminded Debrowski that "a large part of your annual profit … comes from your factories in China.

"This shows that our co-operation is in the interests of Mattel, and both parties should value our co-operation. I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents," Li said, adding that Mattel should "improve their control measures."

Since this summer's recall, Mattel has announced plans to upgrade its safety system by certifying suppliers and increasing the frequency of random, unannounced inspections. It has fired several manufacturers.

Tests had found that lead levels in paint in recalled toys were as high as 110,000 parts per million, or nearly 200 times higher than the accepted safety ceiling of 600 parts per million.

China has become a centre for the world's toymaking industry, exporting $7.5 US billion worth of toys last year.
And there is no liar like the indignant man... -Nietszche

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. -William James

englishmoose.com

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Newbs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #197 on: September 22, 2007, 02:53:21 PM »
 bdbdbdbdbd says it all, IMHO.  What a wanker.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #198 on: September 22, 2007, 04:04:47 PM »
What it means to me is "Mattel" is off my shopping list permanently.   Too much  bdbdbdbdbd    Not sure why they felt the need to bdbdbdbdbd
Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #199 on: September 22, 2007, 10:49:17 PM »
Chinese brothers lose court battle to stay in Canada

September 21, 2007   Agence France Presse
 
Two Chinese brothers accused by China of embezzling tens of millions of dollars lost a legal battle Friday in their fight to avoid deportation from Canada.

The Federal Court of Canada refused to overturn orders to deport the brothers, Li Dongzhe and Li Donghu, from the country.

The siblings also lost their appeal of Canada's refusal to consider their refugee applications, which had been denied on the grounds that they were already under a removal order.

The Federal Court said their applications were "without foundation in fact and in law."

The brothers, who arrived the Pacific coast city of Vancouver in December 2004, were arrested on February 23.

China accuses the Li brothers, along with a third man, Chinese banker Gao Shan, of involvement in embezzling more than 100 million dollars from a Chinese bank.

The Federal Court's ruling allows Canadian official to begin a process to determine if siblings are at risk of facing the death penalty if they are sent back to China.

Canada does not have capital punishment, and therefore cannot legally deport people to countries where they could be killed or tortured.


The Pre-Removal Risk Assessment process can take more than six months, said Citizenship and Immigration Department spokeswoman Lois Reimer.

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Not that I exactly sympathize with these two guys, but I think most of us can agree that a death sentence likely awaits them in China, yes?



"I wish my first spoken word was 'Quote' so I could make my last word 'Unquote'."
— Stephen Wright.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #200 on: September 22, 2007, 11:12:24 PM »
and yeah guys, as for the Mattel "olive branch"... who can possibly explain? Chinese manufacturers and American corporations make for bizarre and sado-masochistic bedfellows indeed! That whip is obviously being passed back and forth.

But now, did you the read the article today about the recall of Made-in-China baby cribs?
"I wish my first spoken word was 'Quote' so I could make my last word 'Unquote'."
— Stephen Wright.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #201 on: September 22, 2007, 11:26:22 PM »
I'm not too wracked with concern over those crook brothers.  I do oppose the death penalty, but I'm sick of the sleazebag types getting away with this kind of crap.  And it really pisses me off that they figured they'd get away with it by hiding out in Canada.

Cribs?  bibibibibi
And there is no liar like the indignant man... -Nietszche

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. -William James

englishmoose.com

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #202 on: September 22, 2007, 11:36:23 PM »
Yeah, Con, I agree with you completely regarding those two brothers... I'm just commenting on the fact that the article states: "The Federal Court's ruling allows Canadian official to begin a process to determine if siblings are at risk of facing the death penalty if they are sent back to China." Again, I think we can all agree, yes, they ARE at risk of facing the death penalty. Very little doubt about that!

As for the cribs... very interesting... In the short interval between the time I first read the article, and now -- returning to copy and paste a weblink -- the title has been altered. They have removed the reference to China in the title (although the text still claims all of the cribs were manufactured in China). Hmmmm.... That whip is makin' the rounds!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20907633/
"I wish my first spoken word was 'Quote' so I could make my last word 'Unquote'."
— Stephen Wright.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #203 on: September 23, 2007, 07:05:57 AM »
Ok, here's Newsweek's explanation of the Mattel's bdbdbdbdbd to China...

Why Mattel Must Save Face with China
Quick to blame its Chinese suppliers for a massive recall, the toy giant now apologizes for its own mistakes. Why Mattel—and other major American companies—must save face with China.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Daniel Gross
Newsweek

Sept. 21, 2007 - When Mattel recalled lead-tainted toys in August, and earlier this month, the company was quick to blame its suppliers in China. It was as if Mattel weren’t responsible for the quality of products sold under its name.

But today the toy giant changed its tune. An executive offered a public apology to China and Chinese suppliers. “Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls,” Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, told a Chinese consumer-products safety official. “And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys.”

This kowtow isn’t a sudden outbreak of good manners or even responsibility at a Fortune 500 company. Rather, it’s a sign of how the balance of power has shifted between massive American consumer-products companies and their rapidly growing China-based suppliers.

Companies like Mattel have pursued a deliberate strategy in recent years: get out of the low-margin, capital-intensive business of manufacturing goods and focus on the higher-margin business of branding and marketing. Pursuing this strategy has led them to relentlessly seek centers of low-cost production. As a result, China has quickly emerged as the world’s workshop, able to cheaply mold petrochemicals into toys and just about anything else.

Today Mattel and other American companies can’t do business without Chinese partners. In a highly competitive environment, they need suppliers who can turn around new products quickly, complete their orders ahead of those placed by rivals, and commit to maintaining the desired production levels at the desired costs. Yes, Chinese toy producers need Mattel’s orders. But it’s now a two-way street.

The U.S. economy finds itself in a similar situation vis-à-vis China, as does Mattel and its supplies. America can’t afford to offend or alienate China—not because it would suddenly stop selling goods to us, but because the U.S. economy has evolved in such a way that its health depends on China.

U.S. companies need China to produce goods cheaply and thus keep our rate of inflation in check. Many companies—from Wal-Mart to General Motors, from Starbucks to McDonald’s—feel as if they need China since it represents a vast, largely untapped consumer market, a billion-strong frontier for growth. And the U.S. government needs Chinese investors—including China’s central bank—to purchase and hold the massive quantities of debt the U.S. creates each year.

Until recently, large companies haven’t asked many questions about how China is delivering all the goods we require. And there’s been a general willingness to overlook the downsides of China’s rampant growth—the environmental degradation, the lack of civil rights, the culture of piracy—mostly because those are phenomena whose impact seems limited to China. As the Mattel recall shows, however, that is increasingly not the case. The relationship between the two distant countries has evolved beyond a simple supplier-purchaser relationship.

To a degree unthinkable 10 years ago, China and the United States now share a bloodstream. The toxins that China ingests as it produces goods are exported here. Clouds of mercury emitted from Chinese power plants waft over the West Coast of the U.S. several days later.

Financially, the two countries are connected as if through an umbilical cord. Inflation in China would translate into inflation in the United States. It works the other way, too. A sudden downturn in the U.S. economy would be horrific news for China. China has expressed concerns about the health of imported pork from America. And if Mattel is to be believed, some of the problems with its China-produced toys stem from flaws in designs created by Mattel.

All of which is to say that it’s not sufficient for American executives or American consumers, who have benefited in equal measure from China’s willingness to produce goods cheaply, simply to blame their Chinese counterparts for the problems that crop up, or to turn a blind eye to industrial conditions in China. Just as conditions in America’s factories and slaughterhouses a century ago led to increased vigilance and reform, conditions in China should lead to similar vigilance and reform there. And it’s likely we’ll be seeing more apologies—from Chinese suppliers and from their American customers. Today the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced it is recalling 1 million cribs made in China and marketed under American brand names, due to a potential lethal safety problem.

"I wish my first spoken word was 'Quote' so I could make my last word 'Unquote'."
— Stephen Wright.

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Eagle

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #204 on: September 23, 2007, 02:36:07 PM »
From neighbours back in Canada we find that a similar story has been published there in the papers.  Of course, it is headlines in the China Daily. 
“… whatever reality may be, it will to some extent be shaped by the lens
through which we see it.” (James Hollis)

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Stil

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #205 on: September 23, 2007, 02:41:33 PM »
A learning fad that's truly crazy

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-22 06:52

English as a second language (ESL) is all the rage in China. Gazillions of people are learning it. Unfortunately, the experience is quite unpleasant for many. Long hours and endless repetition of dry lessons yields little tangible result in terms of ability to use the language. No wonder the "I hate English" club is growing in leaps and bounds.

Into this chorus of grumbling stepped Li Yang, an entrepreneur who has invented his own pedagogy called "Crazy English".

Simply put, he has his students stand in large formations and shout at the top of their lungs. It is designed to overcome the innate shyness of most Chinese in verbalizing what they have learned in the classroom or by themselves.

All this sounds innocent enough. But is it?

In recent weeks, Li Yang has incurred the wrath of the public after encouraging his students to kneel "in gratitude" towards him. Photos of a huge crowd in kowtow positions, first published by Li himself on his blog, raised the question: What's wrong with this person and his tactics?

The answer, in my opinion, is everything.

Li Yang is a demagogue, to say the least. He wants you to believe that he has come up with an effective way of learning a foreign language. But actually it is an excuse for mind control, intended to maximize his commercial interests. In addition to the exorbitant tuition fees, his overpriced books and tapes - many lifted from copyrighted materials - form the basis of his business empire.

Many students and their parents are deceived by him because they gain new confidence when they hear him preach. Like all demagogues, Li correctly identified a problem plaguing most ESL students in China.

The traditional method of learning words and grammar rules by rote has produced an army of students whose approach to the language is with a scalpel in hand. Many tend to use the language as if it were a dead one like Latin. One gets the feeling that it is a strange echo of the real language, sapped of any vitality.

But saying the old way is wrong does not make the new way necessarily right. What the tongue-in-cheek "Crazy English" offers is truly crazy. The teaching sessions are like cult meetings; the shouting matches are reminiscent of the slogan fests during the cultural revolution (1966-76). If shouting can improve one's linguistic skills, we would have all turned into Confucius after that mass movement.

Indeed, shouting breaks down psychological barriers and helps strengthen bonding. The question is: Is the new camaraderie used to inspire and learn, or to submit and be obedient? Can you question authority? Can you conduct a rational discourse?

Many reported a feeling of liberation at the "Crazy English" hollered gatherings. That is not unique. The catch is, Li Yang liberates students in order to enslave them even further, very much like most agitators, political or commercial.

Even though our traditional methodology is fraught with rituals of submission, it has not stooped as low as asking hundreds of students to kneel as if they were being received by a feudal emperor. That is not a manifestation of a student's gratitude towards a teacher; rather, it strips a person of individuality and pounds him into obsequiousness.

Just imagine if Li had called his language education a "pyramid scheme" or "cult meeting" - what would have become of it? He is clever because he engages in these activities but adroitly avoids the label, of which many "regular" teachers of English have long accused him, at least in private.

After the kneeling incident, Li encouraged his female students to shave their heads. So far nobody has complied. But his true colors are now clear: he is crazy.

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decurso

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #206 on: September 23, 2007, 04:28:17 PM »
Li Yang is also a racist and a xenophobic. His books contain material that openly mocks America and Japan. And his English sucks.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #207 on: September 23, 2007, 05:06:48 PM »
 ahahahahah ahahahahah ahahahahah decurso, don't be shy... go ahead, open up... don't be afraid to express your true feelings...  ahahahahah ahahahahah ahahahahah
"I wish my first spoken word was 'Quote' so I could make my last word 'Unquote'."
— Stephen Wright.

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Stil

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #208 on: September 23, 2007, 05:50:03 PM »
I've met him. Had dinner with him in Jianxi. he has nothing but contempt for foreigners. He particularly dislikes Americans. He also doesn't seem to understand that some foreigners can understand Chinese spoken between two or more Chinese people. In Chinese he's quite crass. Typical businessman type. Others fawn over him but don't like him. As Decurso said, his English is not very good. He speaks in idioms. In Chinese that shows education in English it just makes him sound like an idiot.

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George

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #209 on: September 23, 2007, 05:58:54 PM »
He's a shonky businessman. His products are faulty!!
The higher they fly, the fewer!    http://neilson.aminus3.com/