A bright video screen shows images of blue sky on Tiananmen Square during a time of dangerous levels of air pollution, on January 23, 2013 in Beijing. (Feng Li/Getty Images)
via The Atlantic
Beijing to let travelers stay visa-free for 3 days
State media say that China will allow most foreign visitors to stay in Beijing for three days without a visa if they are heading on to another country, a policy meant to boost tourism and smooth the way for transiting passengers and business travelers.
The China Daily newspaper said the new rules take effect Jan. 1 and apply to visitors from 45 countries, including Japan, Australia, Singapore, the United States, France, Germany and Argentina.
The report says travelers must have a ticket to a third country to qualify and are forbidden to leave Beijing. It says they also must register with police within 24 hours of arrival.
The official Xinhua News Agency says Beijing receives around 5 million foreign visitors per year.
K2, Karakoram Range, Gilgit-Balistan, Pakistan/Tashkurgan, Zinjiang, China
Images of population density capitals of the world (Taiwan, China, and India)
J N O M I C S
By 2014, three years from now, China will be the only country on the face of the planet with 200 million elderly people. By 2050, because of low fertility and high life expectancy, three out of ten Chinese will be 60 or older. China is aging and aging fast-that means a large dependent, economically non-productive population. That’s bad news for future economic growth.
According to the Financial Times, China’s real debt-to-GDP ratio may actually be as high as 160 percent; as bad as Greece and far worse than Portugal, Italy or Ireland (Pakistan’s debt-to-GDP hovers around 65 percent). To be certain, China’s economic model revolves solely around growth not profit. And Chinese growth has been – and continues to be – fuelled by cheap debt not corporate profit.
So much for Pak- Cheen Dosti
These days (a lot of times) I just dont know what to say. When languages are made compulsory, students take much lesser interest. It was the same when they made arabic grammer compulsory when I was in grade 6. It isnt so any more.
However, it could be a good initiative to teach Mandarin to MBA’s across Pakistan (provided that they would like to study it for themselves).
“The question arises, however, how Sindh’s high schools will be able to teach a foreign language when it struggles to maintain standards for Sindhi, Urdu and English.”
People are putting the picture together of the coming Water Wars, but generally stop short of saying the obvious: world climate change has destabilized large parts of the world, principally due to drought and rising heat, and the consequent lack of water. This is the most dangerous trend on Earth, and a large minority of US politicians can’t even admit that climate change is happening.
Damian Carrington, Food is the ultimate security need, new map shows
A new map of food security risk around the world is, in some ways, depressingly familiar. Sub-saharan Africa leaps out as the place where the most people fear for their next meal, while the rich world has more to fear from obesity. But there’s plenty of salutary reminders and fascinating detail, like India’s food problems and the vulnerability of Spain.
And it demonstrates the sickening, symbiotic relationship between lack of food and conflict: where one leads, the other follows.
We must start with the worst, in the horn of Africa. In Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, human failings mean a severe drought has tipped millions into famine. It’s a textbook case of why things go wrong. War begets poverty, leaving food unaffordable. Devastated infrastructure destroys both food production and the ability to truck in emergency food. The collapse of society means the effects of extreme weather such as drought cannot be dealt with. And the fear of violence turns people into refugees, leaving their livelihoods and social networks behind.If you move away from the Horn of Africa — where we can expect millions to die in the next year from famine — the really scary area is Pakistan/India/China. All three countries have serious food supply problems — in the map above red is most dangerous and green is least — and Pakistan and India are arch-enemies with decades of open conflict.India and China have fought several border wars, as well.
It is almost impossible to imagine a good outcome there, where the rivers from the Himalayas cross Chinese territories, then India, then Pakistan. Three nuclear powers, with histories of conflict, requiring more water as their populations and water needs grow, and no obvious means to get more water locally. (Note: China is buying up arable land in other continents, and importing the food grown there back to China, which is one way to increase water: use water located elsewhere).
The Water Wars are already here, we just haven’t started using the term, yet.
Also note that very few regions are free of this danger. Notably, North America is positioned to become the breadbasket of the world, again. Although we can’t just look at that transactionally, because there is the huge externality of shipping away our water — in the form of foods — to other, drought-ridden countries. We will have to consider the full costs of shipping an apple, or a ton of wheat, to Spain or Turkey.
(via foodte-ch)
good one..
By Sami Shah
You have no excuse to be bored anymore. Too often have we unimaginatively complained about a lack of things to do in Pakistan. Until recently, we thought our options were limited to being blown up by terrorists, shot by target killers or chucking rocks at passing cars. No…
(via wastedellia)
Pakistan’s first Communications Satellite PAKSAT-1R launched
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first Communications Satellite PAKSAT-1R, as a part of Pakistan’s Space Programme 2040, was launched on Thursday at 2117 hrs on board China’s Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre.
Besides others, launch was witnessed by Secretary Defence Lt Gen Syed Athar Ali (R), Secretary Foreign Affairs, Salman Bashir, Director General, Strategic Plans Division Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai (R) and Ambassador of Pakistan to China, Muhammad Masood Khan, said a press release issued here.
(complete news, heads up via twistednailsoffaith)
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EU comes at no.8, Pakistan comes at no. 3, and USA at no. 1
By David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy
Yesterday, I spent a little time ruminating as to whether Pakistan was really the most dangerous country in the world. And I promised to consider today which countries were, in fact, should worry us the most.
To begin with, let’s consider criteria and that means we need to ask “dangerous to whom?” There are plenty of local actors who are the nearest, greatest threats to the neighbours. So, let’s limit ourselves to actors who can cause the greatest disruption through their actions to the most people over the next decade or so.
(Contd)
An unhappy Pakistan?
Secular and godless societies should normally be expected to be vulnerable to corruption. But it is religion that most facilitates a special kind of worship-related civil conscience that anoints graft.Muslim conscience (zameer) is actually more transactional — using worship as the bargaining chip to avoid ethic — and therefore more accepting of corruption than the European conscience reared on civic virtue. With the passage of time, our British contact has appeared less and less contaminating. The American contact was perhaps lethal, not because it gave us bad cognition, but because it prevented autonomous realistic cognition. We were close to America, but never ideologically; we are close to China but strangers to its Confucian pragmatism. With China, too, our cognition will suffer once again. The difference will be that China will never give us visas, as America regrets having hordes of us enjoying the luxury of being unhappy there. The state of Pakistan will remain wobbly until, like a willing bride, it meets Osama bin Laden as its bridegroom. More on: http://tribune.com.pk/story/131688/why-pakistan-acts-the-way-it-does/
