Russian election: Crowds gather for Moscow protests

Protesters gather in Moscow, St Petersburg and Vladivostok

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Moscow in a show of anger over disputed parliamentary polls.

The opposition says the protest - on an island just south of the Kremlin - could become the largest the country has seen in two decades.
Smaller rallies have taken place in cities across the country.
Protesters allege there was widespread fraud in Sunday's polls - though the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall sharply.
Hundreds of people have been arrested during anti-Putin protests over the past week, mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg.
At least 50,000 police and riot troops were deployed in Moscow ahead of Saturday's protests.
Authorities have permitted up to 30,000 to attend the demonstration dubbed "For Fair Elections".
Thousands have turned out for rallies in cities across the Urals and Siberia and as far east as Vladivostok.

AT THE SCENE

Daniel Sandford BBC News, Moscow

The protesters have got one demand - for the elections to be held again.
Nobody believes they were free and fair. Many are also asking that the head of the election commission stands down, and some are going even further and demanding that Vladimir Putin himself resigns.
There's a real sense of anger - and although the numbers are not that big in global terms, in Moscow terms this is a very, very significant demonstration.
This number simply haven't come out onto the streets of Moscow since 1990s.
It should not be underestimated what a significant moment this is.
It may not deal a fatal blow to Mr Putin's government, but it is certainly the most severe wake-up call he has received during 12 years in power.

'History in the making'

Police say at least 25,000 people - among them communists, nationalists and liberals - have thronged in Moscow.

Authorities permitted the protest on condition the rally was relocated from central Revolution Square to Bolotnaya Square, an island in the Moscow River just south of the Kremlin where access points can be easily controlled.
Hundreds of police are standing by to make sure they do not rally in Revolution Square, though Reuters news agency said hundreds of people had gathered there anyway.
"This is history in the making for Russia," Reuters quoted a 41-year-old employee in the financial services sector, who gave his name only as Anton, as saying in Revolution Square.
"The people are coming out to demand justice for the first time in two decades, justice in the elections."

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says in the past week, the city has resembled a police state rather than a democracy.

If the protests come even close to expectations, they will shake the 12-year-long political domination of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he says.

The authorities permitted demonstrations to take place in specific locations in certain cities after negotiations with opposition leaders.
In St Petersburg, 13,000 people have pledged on the social networking site Vkontakte to take part in protests, with another 20,000 saying they might take part.
The BBC's Richard Galpin has seen scuffles in the city between demonstrators and police, with some protesters dragged away.
Authorities have granted permission for a demonstration in one location, but say protests anywhere else will be illegal and will be dealt with.
Earlier in Vladivostok, seven time zones to the east of Moscow, several hundred people marched. At least 20 people were detained following a protest in the far-eastern city of Khabarovsk, local news agencies said.

The official results of the elections to Russia's Duma showed that the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall from 64% to 49%, though it remained easily the biggest party.
But there is a widespread view, fuelled by mobile phone videos and accounts on internet social networking sites, that there was wholesale election fraud and that Mr Putin's party cheated its way to victory, our correspondent says.
On Friday, the presidential Council for Human Rights advising Mr Medvedev said the reports of vote-rigging were of deep concern, and that the elections should be rerun if they were confirmed.
However the council has no power to order a fresh ballot, correspondents say.
Earlier this week, security experts said attempts had been made to counter online dissent in Russia, with hijacked PCs being used to drown out online chat on Twitter.

Analysis of the many pro-Kremlin messages posted to some discussions suggested they were sent by machines, according to security firm Trend Micro.

Momentum These are the most significant street protests against Mr Putin since he took power, our correspondent says - but at this point they are not drawing the big numbers they would need to really put the Kremlin in trouble.
It will be a question of seeing whether the momentum builds and spreads from the metropolitan middle classes.
Even so, our correspondent adds, it is an extraordinary thing to witness Mr Putin under fire like this.
Mr Putin, who was president between 2000 and 2008, remains widely predicted to win a presidential election in March.
On Thursday, he blamed the US for stoking the recent unrest, after Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed reservations over the poll.
The prime minister said Mrs Clinton's remarks had "set the tone for some opposition activists".
 Source BBC

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Posted in: Politics,Russia,Society

Moscow Braces for Anti-Putin Rally

Russian authorities have decided to allow the opposition to hold a massive protest against election fraud.
Rally organizers said Friday up to 30,000 protesters are expected at the demonstration Saturday, on a square across the river from the Kremlin.
The announcement of the rally follows a violent crackdown on a series of demonstrations earlier this week, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won parliamentary elections Sunday.
The prime minister's party barely held on to the lower house, but opposition parties and observers contend the winning results were probably inflated.
Mr. Putin appears to be set to win the March election, which would return him to the president's office.
Thursday, he lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because of her comments about the election and the protests. He accused Clinton of of instigating protesters in order to weaken Russia.
Source: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/09/moscow-braces-for-anti-putin-rally/

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Posted in: Politics,Russia,Society

Pro-Democracy Protests Put Putin, Russia at Turning Point

Supporters of Russian communist party hold a rally to protest against violations at the parliamentary elections in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, December 9, 2011.

Is the Arab Spring moving North to become the Russian Winter? With democracy demonstrations to take place across Russia on Saturday, the world’s largest nation may be at a crossroads.

From his prison cell near the Arctic Circle, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian tycoon, captured the core of Russia’s political impasse when he predicted a few weeks ago that the key question would not be who will win Russia’s elections, but how much will the fraud undermine the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin’s government?

On Saturday, barely one week after Russia’s parliamentary elections, we may see the answer.

Readying for major protest

A Moscow protest demonstration permitted for 300 people has drawn attendance pledges from 50,000 people. Moscow is bracing for the largest democracy demonstration of the Putin decade.

Beyond the capital, protests are to take place in 88 Russian and 43 foreign cities. From Kaliningrad on the Baltic to Vladivostok on the Pacific, Russians seem to be shaking off an apathy that Putin's opponents say has allowed him to rule Russia largely unchallenged since 2000.

Where is all this headed?

Boris Makarenko, chairman of the Center for Political Technologies, an independent think tank in Moscow, does not believe the Russian street will dethrone the Czar.

“I don’t think it is going towards an Orange Revolution like in Ukraine, Georgia or Yugoslavia,” said Makarenko.

Putin eroding popularity

But Russia has changed. The mystique of Putin’s invincibility has shown some cracks.

The first shock came when a crowd at a martial arts fight booed Putin, a judo expert. The Kremlin later said the crowd was really booing a losing contestant, an American. Then the Kremlin said the beer drinkers in the crowd were booing because presidential security did not let them use the bathrooms.

Kremlin watchers have noted, though, that Putin has not appeared in public since, skipping two anti-drug rallies where he had been billed as a speaker.

In last Sunday’s elections, the vote for the ruling United Russia Party officially dropped to half of the ballots cast. But opposition politicians and many election observers say that, without fraud, only one quarter of the voters in Moscow and St. Petersburg cast ballots for the ruling party. Historically, it is hard to rule Russia without these two cities.

Questions surround elections

Keeping passions on a boil, Russia’s Internet is flooded with videos, photos and reports alleging election fraud. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s second richest man, wrote on his blog: “The majority of our people think the elections were unfair.”

On Tuesday night, while police were arresting more than 500 anti-Putin protesters in central Moscow, Putin was a few blocks away, studying paintings at a show of Caravaggio, the 17th century Italian painter.

In a short three months, Putin faces voters as a candidate for president and has to make choices about his strategy.

He can crack down, following the path of neighboring Belarus. He can open up, offering reforms. Or he can spread government money around, drawing on Russia’s massive foreign currency reserves - about half a trillion dollars.

Putin's path ahead

Vladimir Tikhomirov, an analyst with Otkritie investment house, believes Putin will do a little bit of everything, aiming to keep power.

“I wouldn’t rule out the traditional Russian way of trying to muddle through, using the combinations of reforms and police state,” said Tikhomirov.

The Kremlin has full control of the police and the television stations. Ten days from now, Russians will shift focus to the Christmas-New Year’s season, a holiday period that stretches through to mid-January.

One month ago, Anatol Lieven, a professor at the War Studies Department in King’s College London, joined a group dinner with Prime Minister Putin. He calls Putin a master politician and predicts he will regain his footing.

“It’s just the beginning of course. I would not expect this to prevent Putin’s re-election, let alone to produce a revolution that would bring down the regime,’’ said Lieven.

On Tuesday, Putin spoke to ruling party leaders who are irritated that the opposition calls their party “the party of thieves and swindlers.” Putin recalled that in the Soviet days, people called the authorities “thieves and bribe takers.”

With a six-year presidential term at stake in March, analyst Makarenko said Putin has to offer Russians a vision for the future.

“The catch is that the Russian people lost its optimism during the crisis - not the savings, not the social status. People want their optimism back - and the ruling party did not care to help them in that. Mr. Putin has his chance. He has his agenda to announce,” said Makarenko.

But on Thursday, Putin took a page out of an old Soviet playbook, charging that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent out a “signal” that activated Russia’s street protests.

This week, police in Moscow and St. Petersburg arrested 1,600 protesters. Referring to protests that have been largely invisible to TV watchers here, Putin reminded Russians that they want stability,

Evoking images of chaos, he reminded Russians of the street revolutions that took place in two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

But Professor Lieven said that Russians do not want to sacrifice all democratic freedoms in the name of stability.

“Even conservative Russians, or pro-Putin Russians, really don’t want to see  themselves as a version of Uzbekistan. The appearance of some degree of democracy is really rather psychologically important to them,’’ said Lieven.

Saturday’s demonstrations may serve as sign pointers - indicating which way Russia will go in the New Year.

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Posted in: Europea,Politics,violence

No explosive found in northern Vietnam's deadly bike explosion

No traces of explosives were found in the motorbike explosion that killed a pregnant woman and critically injured her daughter in northern Vietnam last week, a news website quoted a local official as saying on Tuesday.
With the latest finding, it can be concluded that the accident wasn’t a murder related to personal conflicts, as initially suspected, the unnamed official said on Giao Duc Vietnam (Vietnam’s Education) – the news website of Vietnamese universities’ association.
According to the official from the Ministry of Public Security’s forensic science institute, initial inspections also identified that the explosion started at the bike’s battery adjacent to the fuel tank.
Inspections are still underway to identify the cause, he added.

A bike on fire after an explosion on December 1 that killed a woman
and injured a child in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

In the meantime, the family of 29-year-old Nguyen Thi Quynh, who was killed in the accident, on Monday sent letters to provincial agencies and Honda Vietnam Co. Ltd., which produced the Super Dream motorbike. The family asked the company and the agencies to clarify the cause of the explosion.
A report on Vietnamnet on Tuesday said the bike was bought at Honda Viet Long, the manufacturer’s agency, in Bac Ninh town and was still eligible for a service guarantee when the accident occurred.
By then, the bike had accumulated some 4,000 kilometers and had maintenance performed two times with no abnormal signs detected, according to the newswire.
Honda Vietnam has yet to comment on the accident, the newswire said.

On December 1, Quynh, who was one-month pregnant, drove the motorbike to take her daughter, four-year-old Nguyen Khanh Van, to school. The bike exploded right after she left home, and flung them off.
Quynh died due to multiple injuries, while her child had one of her legs amputated and is being treated at Hanoi-based Viet Duc hospital. 

Thanh Nien News

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Posted in: Society,Vietnam

4,000 years old but still in working order

Quang Tri Province’s best known tourist attractions are DMZ tours, Cam Lo Market, and relics of an uprising led by a man who was crowned as King Ham Nghi in 1885, becoming the eighth emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty.
But the north central province also has some lesser known gems to offer to visitors, one of them being a network of wells that is said to be 4,000 years old.
The wells belong to the Neolithic period when wet rice cultivation was practiced.
During a recent visit to Hao Son Village in Gio Linh District, we saw the network of 14 shallow wells that the Ministry of Culture and Information recognized as “the nation’s historic and cultural relic” in the early 1980s.
The wells are only about 20km northwest of the town of Dong Ha, and visitors can reach the place by car.

Canal carrying water from one of the ancient wells to farms in Gio Linh District

Professor Bui Huy Dap, who has researched wet rice farming civilization and rice farming in Vietnam for more than 30 years, said the system of irrigation in Gio Linh was built in the late Neolithic period.
“It is a sophisticated system that ensured water flowed automatically,” he said.
“In the higher place is a large flat area used for collecting water. Then, there is a reservoir collecting water flowing from the higher place.
“The second reservoir, which is lower, collects water from the higher reservoir which runs down through a system of bamboo tubes. And the lowest part is a large pond with canals carrying water to the farms.
A revolution during the Neolithic era in Vietnam promoted the development of rice farming and innovations in water use.
Tran Thi Quynh Nga, a local socio-cultural official, said: “The wells today are perhaps shallower than they used to be, but the water is still clear, and we can see small crabs at the bottom.”
Children from the village come and bathe in the wells.

HOW TO GET THERE

From Dong Ha Town, go north for 10 kilometers to reach Gio Linh District. Then go west for another 10 kilometers to reach Gio An, the site of the 4,000-year-old wells. Visitors can take a taxi or book a tour at Huong Giang Tourist Co. in Hue, Quang Tri Tourist Co. in Quang Tri, or Vitours in Da Nang. These companies provide cars and guides for visitors to see the ancient wells and go on DMZ (demilitarized zone) tours.

Sandstones are piled up around their edges, and sandstone-lined canals connect the wells to farms where watercress is grown. The wells are situated at different levels and a dozen meters apart. Water keeps oozing out of cracks in the rock.
The villagers say the water is cool in summer and warm in winter. They used it not only for washing and irrigating, but also for drinking.
“Bamboo tubes are no longer used for carrying water. The water flows from one well to another and on to the farms along the canals,” Nga said.
By Truong Dien Thang, Thanh Nien News (The story can be found in the December 2nd issue of our print edition, Thanh Nien Weekly)  

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Posted in: Tour in Vietnam

Bill Gates Teams With China on New Nuclear Reactor

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has teamed with China to jointly develop a new type of nuclear reactor, which would be better for the environment and reduce the need for uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

Gates says the traveling wave reactor technology is low-cost, very safe and will generate little waste. He spoke at a news conference Wednesday in Beijing following talks with officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Gates says about $1 billion will be put into the project over the next five years.

The reactor is being developed through TerraPower, a company co-founded by Gates, and the state-owned China National Nuclear Cooperation.

The company says that once produced, the Generation Four reactor will offer a "zero-emission, proliferation-resistant energy."  It says it would run on depleted uranium, currently a waste byproduct of the enrichment process.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Source: VOANEWS.COM

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Posted in: Asia,Science

Egypt's Islamists Claim Victory in Election Runoffs

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzoury (file photo)

Egypt's largest Islamist party claimed victory Wednesday after electoral officials said it won a majority of runoff contests in the first round of parliamentary elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party said 24 of 44 winners announced by the election officials were its candidates, while another four were from its allies.

The Brotherhood's party had already won the largest share of seats reserved for parties in last week's vote, securing 37 percent of ballots in Cairo, Alexandria and seven other provinces, compared to 24 percent for its nearest rival, the ultra-conservative Salafist Nour party.  Egypt's liberal coalition was a distant third.

Two more rounds of voting for seats in the 498-member lower house of parliament will be held in the coming weeks in the remaining 18 provinces.  Elections for parliament's less-powerful upper house will begin in late January and finish in March.

The election results were announced hours after interim Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri unveiled his new Cabinet.  A former regional security head, Mohammed Ibrahim, became new interior minister, replacing Mansour al-Eissawy.  Opposition youth activists have been calling for Eissawy's ouster.

The finance ministry will be headed by Mumtaz al-Saeed, who faces the challenge of stabilizing an economy battered by the unrest.  Some incumbent ministers will remain in the Cabinet.

Many Egyptians resent the Interior Ministry for ordering police to violently crack down on opposition protesters, who forced autocratic president Hosni Mubarak to step down in February and who demonstrated last month against the military council that replaced him.

Mr. Mubarak, two of his sons and his former interior minister are all standing trial on charges including killing protesters and abuse of power. The news agency MENA reported Wednesday that an Egyptian court has rejected an appeal to remove the main judge in the Mubarak trial.  Lawyers representing the families of slain protesters have called for the judge to be replaced.

Also Wednesday, Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces gave some presidential powers to Prime Minister Ganzouri, but said it would maintain control of the army and judiciary.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Source: VOANEWS.COM

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Posted in: European,Politics

U.S. stocks end higher, with Dow up 1.4% on week

By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, with the three benchmark indexes scoring gains for the week, as European leaders agreed to closer fiscal ties and U.S. consumer confidence hit a six-month high.

“It’s an important step towards being able to right their fiscal house, and for the euro to remain the single currency,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said of the accord reached at the European Union summit.

“But it doesn’t cure the immediate issue of low or in some countries negative growth,” he added of the euro region.

Logging a second consecutive week of gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +1.55%  rose 186.56 points, or 1.6%, to finish at 12,184.26, for a 1.4% gain on the week. Caterpillar Inc. CAT +0.32% and General Electric Co. GE +0.48%  paced the gains that extended to all but one of its 30 components.

DuPont Co. DD -0.44%  dropped 3.2% after the chemical maker and Dow component lowered its outlook for the current fiscal year.

The S&P 500 Index SPX +1.69%  added 20.84 points, or 1.7%, to 1,255.19 with financial companies pacing the gains among its 10 major industry groups. The index finished the week 0.9% higher.

The Nasdaq Composite COMP +1.94%  advanced 50.47 points, or 1.9%, to 2,646.85, ending the week up 0.8%.

For every stock falling nearly six gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 819 million shares traded by the close.

Equities and U.S. Treasury yields gained after 26 European nations said they’ll think about linking their economies more closely. And the 17 nations that use the euro said they would sign an accord that would give a central authority better oversight of their budgets. Nine other European Union countries agreed to consider signing the treaty, while Britain said it would not, as it does not want to be subjected to the proposed financial rules. Read story on Europe summit.

“Europe is inching closer to what it will eventually have to do. It shows a determination that when push comes to shove, they will take whatever actions are necessary to calm the markets, but I’m not very impressed,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.

“There was a lot of bad news already priced into the market,” Kelly added of Wall Street’s rise in the wake of an agreements he and others found lacking in specifics.

Going forward, Europe “will continue to be the tail that wags the dog,” said Matthew Tuttle, chief investment officer at Tuttle Wealth Management, LLC in Stamford, Conn.

“Volatility will still be high and all bets are off if the EU can’t agree on anything to appease the markets, but with all the cash on the sidelines and money managers underperforming by historic levels, we could be setting up for the mother of all Santa Claus rallies,” he said.

The costs of borrowing for European governments edged lower Friday, with Italy’s 10-year yield at a still-dangerously high 6.3%, with a yield of 7% or above viewed as the tipping point, which if it were to remain for an extended period would push the nation into default.

“This will only be probably solved when investors are able to buy Italian bonds at reasonable interest rates,” said Kelly.

“It’s not the big bazooka that the market wanted but it was good enough to take it off the front burner and run over lots of shorts. With bond auctions in Spain and Italy in the next two weeks, our market will have to pay attention,” emailed Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus, in afternoon commentary.

The major indexes also drew a lift after the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters index of consumer sentiment reached 67.7 in the initial reading for December, its highest level since June. See story on consumer sentiment.

“At the moment I would give the majority of the market’s movement on any given day to Europe. But, the stronger our domestic picture looks the more enthused market participants can be about U.S. equities,” said Luschini at Janney Montgomery Scott.

Another report Friday had the Commerce Department releasing figures that showed purchases from overseas declined to the lowest level since April, as demand for petroleum dropped sharply. See story on trade balance.

Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York. Myra Saefong in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-open-up-after-eu-reaches-accord-2011-12-09 

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Posted in: Business,USA

Skywatchers await lunar eclipse

Refracted sunlight can turn the Moon a spectacular shade of red

Skywatchers in Australia, Asia and North America are gearing up for a total lunar eclipse on Saturday.

This is the second total lunar eclipse this year and the last until 2014. This type of eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow over the Moon.
But indirect sunlight can still illuminate the Moon turning it a dramatic shade of red.
The shadow starts falling at 11:33 GMT and ends after 17:30 GMT. The eclipse will last 51 minutes eight seconds.

The action will unfold on Saturday night (local time) in Australia and Asia, where views will be the best.
Viewers in the western half of the US will have the best views on Saturday well before dawn (Pacific and Mountain Standard Time).
The farther west they are, the better.
The first total lunar eclipse this year occurred in June.
Stargazers will have to settle for partial eclipses of the Moon until 2014, say astronomers.

 Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16116227

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Posted in: Science

N.Y.U. to Offer Classes on Occupy Wall Street

Protesters living inside the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park in October.

Occupy Wall Street is becoming a teachable moment for New York City college students.
New York University plans to offer two classes next semester on the protest movement, whose participants frequently marched and rallied around the school’s Greenwich Village campus this fall.
The for-credit undergraduate class, offered through the university’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, examines economy and culture. The class has a rotating focus, and for the coming semester, it will be called “Why Occupy Wall Street? The History and Politics of Debt and Finance.”
“The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are catching on across the United states, linking to popular discontent with economic inequality and financial greed and malfeasance around the globe,” says a flyer for the course distributed by its professor, Lisa Duggan. “This course is designed to provide a background for these momentous events.”
According to the flyer–which depicts a raised, clenched fist holding a pencil, a play on the movement’s symbol–Duggan plans to bring in guest speakers from Occupy Wall Street to “offer the broad view of the meaning and impact of the movement.”
Also next semester, another professor is teaching a graduate-level seminar on the demonstration.

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Posted in: Society,USA

Activists: Tibetan Dies After Self-immolation

(Breakingnews)
Tibetan groups in exile say a former Buddhist monk has died several days after setting himself on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet.
Activists said Friday that Tenzin Phuntsog died of his burns in a hospital in Tibet on December 6. Chinese officials have not confirmed his death.
Rights groups said Tenzin Phuntsog had set himself on fire on December 1 near the Karma monastery in Tibet's Chamdo area. The rights groups say he had been scattering leaflets criticizing Beijing and shouting anti-China slogans just before he set himself on fire. Chinese police put out the flames and took him to hospital.
Ten former or current monks and two nuns have set themselves on fire in ethnically Tibetan parts of southwest China this year to protest religious repression. Many were from the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province.
Tibetan rights groups say Tibetans set themselves on fire as a result of increased desperation at Chinese repression.
China has denounced the self-immolations and is accusing Tibetan exiles of encouraging them. The government says Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and that the state is investing in developing their areas.
In India, where many Tibetans live in exile, protesters gathered outside a hotel in New Delhi where China and India held defense talks demanding freedom for Tibet.
source: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/09/activists-tibetan-dies-after-self-immolation/

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Posted in: China,Politics,Tibet,violence

China WTO Anniversary Marked by Progress, Challenges

Forklift arranges shipping containers near Shanghai port, China, March 2, 2011 (file photo).

It was 10 years ago this Sunday, Dec. 11th, when China joined the World Trade Organization.

Since then, the country has grown to become the world's second largest economy and millions of Chinese have been lifted out of extreme poverty. But while China made dramatic reforms after joining the global trade club, analysts say the process of moving away from being a state-planned to a more open economy has not been a definitive success, and many challenges remain.

The view from Beijing

From China’s perspective, the past decade has been a period of historic change.

According to a recent opinion piece in the state-run China Daily, since becoming a WTO member, China has become the world’s number one investment destination, with outbound investment nearly doubling every two years since 2002. Chinese companies, the article adds, are increasingly making their mark, with 54 now listed among the world's Fortune 500 companies, compared to 12 when it joined in 2001.

Such rapid growth has had a dramatic impact on the global economy and surprised Chinese officials.

"I have to say that exceeds far more what we expected at that time, especially the size of China's economy, the size of China's exports and imports, and the market expansion of some of the industries, like cars, from two million to 18 million within ten years," says Long Yongtu, chief negotiator of China’s accession to the WTO.
Lingering U.S. trade deficit

But China's economic rise comes at a cost to the United States and other traditional manufacturing nations. The country's massive production of inexpensive exports means other nations' goods are undercut, causing their industries to suffer.

U.S. exports to China are growing, but the trade deficit with China has boomed. There is also concern among WTO member nations that while Chinese companies are gaining more access to the global economy, foreign companies in China are having a different experience.

Michael Punke, U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, says that over the past five years other members of the WTO have seen a troubling trend of intensified state intervention in the Chinese economy.

Many of the trade disputes with China can be traced, he says, to Chinese policies that promote or protect state-owned and domestic enterprises.

Patrick Mulloy, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, says the issue of forced technology transfers - the contract-based acquisition rather than domestic development of new technologies - is of particular concern.

"The government will say, you want to be a friend of China, put more manufacturing here, put more research and development here, be a friend of China, help us grow our economy," he says. "And the companies will say, 'Well, I might be able to afford to give them this type of technology because I am really holding this part back,' but then you have 100 companies transferring technology and helping China move up the food chain. It’s good for China and if I were them I would be doing the same thing, but it’s not good for us and it’s contrary to China’s WTO commitments."

Investor complaints

Foreign companies operating in China frequently raise concerns about the myriad licenses that businesses are required to apply for, and the problems faced receiving them in a fair and timely manner.

Undervaluation of Chinese currency has also long been considered an obstacle to free trade, and U.S. lawmakers are working to pass legislation that seeks to punish Beijing for keeping its currency artificially low, which makes the cost of its exports cheaper.

China's industrial subsidies also remain a contentious issue, which, competitors say, make its products cheaper and more attractive to buyers.

And despite Beijing’s 2006 pledge to allow foreign credit card companies access to its market, they have yet to deliver on the promise.

Mulloy says such barriers to trade demand action.

"These are things this country really has to get to grips with and understand," says Mulloy. "China is not our enemy, but they have a strategy and they are moving their people up a food chain of economic growth as quickly as they can and we have no counter strategy and that’s our problem."
A topic of debate

With U.S. unemployment high and the economy waffling, trade with China has become an increasingly prevalent subject of debate in U.S. campaign politics -- a topic that's likely to persist as the 2012 presidential election draws near.

Mitt Romney, one candidate for the Republican Party nomination, has repeatedly criticized China’s trade practices and says the U.S. is already in a trade war with the world’s second largest economy.

But Daniel Ikenson of the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., says these disputes are just part of the process and a good reason to have China in the WTO.

"The relationship is maturing. The world's second largest and largest economy has grown, [and] there are going to be frictions, they are going to be complaints," he says. "We've had many more trade disputes with Europe and Canada than with China. That's the way mature relations settle their differences."

He cites growing social unease in China and the government's ability to maintain control as a greater concern. While China continues to see rapid economic growth, there is also growing public discontent with corruption, environmental pollution and property policies and real estate properties.

If China implodes, Ikenson says, that will really have an adverse effect on the rest of the global economy.
Source: VOANEWS.COM

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Posted in: China,Society

Vietnam Benefiting From Closer Ties With U.S. Despite ‘Continued and Worsening Crackdown’ on Dissent

By Patrick Goodenough

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauds after signing a memorandum of understanding for U.S. support of HIV/AIDS programs in Vietnam, in Hanoi on Thursday, July 22, 2010. (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – As the Obama administration pursues its “Pacific century” vision, some critics worry that one country with which it seeks to develop a new partnership is continuing to get away with human rights abuses, despite some modest signs of improvement.
Vietnam’s communist government over the summer and fall arrested at least 15 religious activists – members of the Catholic and Presbyterian churches – charging most under a controversial “subversion” article of the country’s penal code that carries a range of punishments up to the death penalty.
Ahead of Human Rights Day later this week, several members of Congress plan to introduce a resolution condemning what they call a “continued and worsening crackdown” against Vietnamese bloggers and democracy activists. They are urging Hanoi to repeal two penal code articles in particular.
Article 79, “Carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration,” provides for jail terms ranging from 12-20 years, life imprisonment or capital punishment for “organizers, instigators and active participants” and 5-15 years’ imprisonment for “accomplices.” Legal analysts say it makes no distinction between acts of terrorism and the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression.
Article 88, “Conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” provides for 3-12 years’ imprisonment for those convicted of activities including “spreading fabricated news in order to foment confusion among people” and “defaming the people’s administration.”
U.S. political, economic and military relations with Vietnam have improved significantly over the years since President Clinton in 2000 became the first president to visit the country since the Vietnam War.
Despite being a one-party state with a human rights record widely viewed as poor, Vietnam has benefited greatly from the developing ties. The U.S. in 2006 granted Hanoi permanent normal trade relations, paving the way for its accession to the World Trade Organization the following year.
The State Department in 2006 also removed Hanoi from a list of “countries of particular concern” for egregious abuses of freedom of religion, citing improvements. (Religious freedom advocacy groups opposed the move, pointing to ongoing abuses against Buddhists, Catholics and evangelicals.)
The deepening of bilateral relations has accelerated under the Obama administration, which is heavily promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact in the making that President Obama last month described as “our most ambitious trade agreement yet.”
Vietnam is one of the TPP’s nine current negotiating partners. All the others are democracies, except for Brunei, an Islamic sultanate.
The U.S. last month hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu. In a speech on the summit sidelines, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang said the two countries “want to take the relationship to the next level and move forward on this strategic partnership.”
‘Incorrect information’
The State Department acknowledges that Vietnam has been backsliding on human rights. Its latest annual human rights report says that the regime has “increased measures to limit citizens’ privacy rights and freedom of the press, speech, assembly, movement, and association.”
Critics of the Hanoi regime have long contended that the U.S. could use its leverage more effectively to push for improvements.

FILE - In this April 4, 2011, file photo dissident lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu is escorted by police out of a courtroom after being convicted of spreading propaganda against the state and sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of house arrest at the one-day trial in Hanoi, Vietnam. (AP Photo/Vietnam News Agency, Thong Nhat, File)

Last September 14 members of Congress from both parties wrote a letter to the new U.S. ambassador in Hanoi, David Shear, pressing for human rights to be an integral part of the bilateral relationship.
“Your appointment comes at a pivotal time as Vietnam pursues economic gains through its bilateral relations with the U.S. but continues to fail on what the United States regards as a priority: respect for the fundamental human rights of its citizens,” they wrote.
Beyond its borders, Vietnam’s performance in international forums has also not reflected its greatly improved relations with the West. At the U.N. it routinely votes with other non-democratic member states on issues of importance to the U.S.
Last year, on 13 key votes identified by the State Department as “issues which directly affected United States interests and on which the United States lobbied extensively,” Vietnam’s voting coincided with that of the U.S. only 18.2 percent of the time – less often than such countries as Libya, Zimbabwe and Burma, although more often than Iran and Cuba.
In an address on “America’s Pacific century,” delivered in Honolulu the same day as Sang’s speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did make a reference to Vietnam’s human rights situation.
“As we engage more deeply with nations with whom we disagree on issues like democracy and human rights, we will persist in urging them to reform,” she said. “For example, we have made it clear to Vietnam that if we are to develop a strategic partnership, as both nations desire, Vietnam must do more to respect and protect its citizens’ rights.”
On the eve of the APEC meetings, the State Department held the 16th round of annual human rights talks with Vietnamese officials in Washington DC
The State Department did not release much information from the two-day dialogue, which State Department spokesman Mark Toner said “certainly touched on religious freedom” and involved “very frank, candid exchanges.”
Toner’s Vietnamese counterpart, Luong Thanh Nghi, told a briefing in Hanoi later that the talks had included “frank discussions to clarify the truth on incorrect information that had not reflected the real situation in Vietnam,” according to state media.
Nonetheless, two positive signs have been reported in recent days.
An appeals court late last month reduced by half a three year sentence for subversion handed down to a Vietnamese-French blogger in 2010. Pham Minh Hoang will still have to serve three years of house arrest after his release from prison next month.
Le Cong Dinh, a human rights lawyer who called for political reforms and was sentenced last year to five years’ imprisonment under article 79, is reportedly to be released soon, his sister told Radio Free Asia last week.
“We welcome Secretary Clinton's attention to human rights in Vietnam and would like to see human rights further integrated into the bilateral relationship,” Duy Hoang, a U.S.-based spokesman for the banned pro-democracy group, Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) told CNSNews.com on Monday.
“The United States should pursue deeper engagement with the Vietnamese people, especially civil society groups. Ultimately, only a free Vietnam can be a responsible economic and security partner in the region.”
Hoang said the government labels public criticism “anti-state propaganda,” and what it calls subversion “is really just Vietnamese citizens exercising their freedom of association and wanting to help shape the future of their own country.”

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Posted in: Asia,Society,USA,Vietnam

Eurozone leaders reach new deal without backing of Britain

EU leaders reach deal without Britain

(CNN) -- A majority of European leaders agreed early Friday on a new deal to try to resolve the continent's debt crisis, but Britain refused to back a broader treaty change.
The 17 members of the eurozone, which share the embattled single currency, reached a deal for a new intergovernmental treaty to deepen the integration of national budgets. Six other EU nations supported the deal.

"We're doing everything we can to save the euro," President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said at a news conference in Brussels following a marathon summit meeting of EU leaders.
But the new plan, which leaders are aiming to have ready by March, did not get the backing of Britain
Three other countries -- the Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden -- said they are willing to consider the plan after consultations with their Parliaments.
"We would rather have reformed the treaty with 27 members," Sarkozy said. But Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain demanded an "unacceptable" opt out clause related to the financial services sector, Sarkozy said.

The British waiver would have "undermined a lot of what we've done to regulate the financial sector," Sarkozy said. Instead, the eurozone countries, along with "anyone who wants to join us," are pushing ahead with the new intergovermental treaty, he said.
"What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests, so I didn't agree to it," Cameron said at a briefing.
The new deal may raise concerns of the EU turning into a two-tier system, with some countries pursuing deeper integration than others.
But leaders had little choice but to act. The national debts of euro members, including Ireland and Greece, have pushed the common currency to the brink of collapse, forcing international lenders to swoop in with bailouts.
The budget cuts they have demanded have led to mass protests that brought down governments in both countries -- and they are not the only ones with worrying levels of debt. Larger economies like Spain and Italy have both come under pressure in financial markets recently, with their borrowing costs spiking to painfully high levels.
The French minister for European affairs, Jean Leonetti, had warned Thursday ahead of the summit meeting that the euro could "explode" and Europe could "unravel."
That would be a "disaster not only for Europe but for the whole world," Leonetti told the French TV station Canal+.
The new measures announced Friday by EU leaders to try to win back the confidence of panicky financial markets included handing over the running of the union's bailout funds to the European Central Bank and its new president, Mario Draghi. The central bank announced measures Thursday to try to revive the ailing European economy and ease credit conditions for troubled eurozone banks.
EU leaders have also decided to add 200 billion euros to the resources of the International Monetary Fund, said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF. The fund has assisted in the bailout of struggling European economies, like Greece and Portugal.
The new intergovernmental treaty that European leaders are putting together will be easier to ratify than a change to existing treaties, said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.
Awareness of the urgency of taming Europe's debt woes extends beyond the continent's borders.
The U.S. Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, had been touring Europe ahead of the summit to underline the importance of the EU's bringing the crisis under control.
"I want to emphasize again how important it is to the United States and to countries around the world that Europe succeeds in this effort to build a stronger Europe, and I'm confident they will succeed," Geithner said in France on Wednesday.
On Thursday he met Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy, who came to power when his country's government collapsed over its worsening debt crisis.
Geithner assured Monti that Washington supported his efforts to balance his country's budget.
Monti said he would meet President Barack Obama in Washington next month.

CNN's Jethro Mullen and Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.
Source :http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/09/business/europe-debt-summit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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Posted in: European,Politics,Society

Pope on preparing for Christmas: ''We must let ourselves be illumined by the ray of Light that comes from Bethlehem''

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 5, 2011 - Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus.

Dear brothers and sisters!

This Sunday marks the second stage of Advent. This period of the liturgical year highlights two figures who had a pre-eminent role in the preparation of Jesus Christ’s entering into history: the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. Today’s text from the Gospel of Mark focuses precisely on the latter. In fact it describes the personality and mission of the Precursor of Christ (cf. Mark 1:2-8). Beginning with externals, John is presented as a very ascetic figure: he is clothed in camel skins, he eats locusts and wild honey and he lives in the wilderness of Judea (cf. Mark 1:6). Jesus himself, once contrasted him with those “who live in the palaces of kings” and “wear soft garments” (Matthew 11:8). John the Baptist’s style should recall all Christians to choose a sober lifestyle, especially in preparation for the feast of Christmas in which the Lord -- as St. Paul says -- “although he was rich, became poor for your sake, that you might become rich through his poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

In regard to John’s mission, it was an extraordinary call to conversion: his baptism “is connected to an ardent call to a new way of thinking and acting, but above all with the proclamation of God’s judgment” (“Jesus of Nazareth,” Ignatius Press, 2008, p. 14) and of the imminent appearance of the Messiah, defined as “he who is greater than me” and who “will baptize in the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7, 8). John’s message thus goes further and deeper than a sober way of life: it calls us to interior change, beginning with the acknowledgement and confession of our sin. As we prepare ourselves for Christmas, it is important that we look within ourselves and we sincerely reflect on our life. We must let ourselves be illumined by the ray of light that comes from Bethlehem, the light of him who is “the greater one” and made himself small, the “strongest one” and made himself weak.

All four of the evangelists describe the preaching of John the Baptist making reference to a passage of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries out: in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). Mark also inserts a citation from another prophet, Malachi, which says: “Behold, I send my messenger before you: he will prepare your way” (Mark 1:2; cf. Malachi 3:1). These references to the scriptures of the Old Testament “speak of a saving intervention of God, who emerges from his hiddenness to judge and save; it is for this God that the door is to be opened and the way made ready” (“Jesus of Nazareth,” p. 15).

To the maternal intercession of Mary, the Virgin of expectation, let us entrust our path toward the Lord, while we continue our Advent itinerary of making our heart and our life ready for the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

[Following the recitation of the Angelus the Holy Father addressed the faithful in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

In the upcoming days in Geneva and in other cities the 50th anniversary of the institution of the International Organization for Migration, the 60th anniversary of the convention on the status of refugees and the 50th anniversary of the convention on the reduction of cases of statelessness will be marked. I entrust to the Lord those who must -- and often are forced -- to leave their own country or are deprived of citizenship. While I encourage solidarity with them, I pray for all those who expend themselves to protect and assist these brothers in these emergency situations, even exposing themselves to great toil and danger.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
Source: Vietcatholic.net

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Posted in: Religion,Vatican

Virginia Tech: Ross Truett Ashley named as gunman

Police were unable to say what Ashley's motive was for killing the officer

The gunman who shot a Virginia Tech police officer and then turned the gun on himself was a 22-year-old from a nearby university, police say.

Police and Virginia Tech named Deriek Crouse's killer as Ross Truett Ashley, a Radford University student.
Officials said Ashley had stolen a car on Wednesday from a real estate office in Radford, which was later found on the Virginia Tech campus.
The shooting triggered a campus lockdown.
Ashley, who was enrolled part-time at Radford, reportedly entered a real estate office with a handgun and demanded the keys to an employees' vehicle, police said.
The vehicle, a white Mercedes SUV, was found the next day on Virginia Tech's campus, but police did not specify at what time.
At around 12:15 EST (17:15 GMT) on Thursday, police say Ashley shot Crouse while the officer was sitting in his car, and fled on foot.
He changed clothes at a greenhouse on campus and left a jumper and woollen cap in a backpack behind.
Shortly after seeing a man walking through a nearby car park, an officer found Ashley dead at the park.
He had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
There was no information about how or why Ashley chose to stop running and turn the gun on himself.
Virginia Tech was the site of the worst US school shooting, in 2007, when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.
Missing links Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says they are still trying to determine why officer Deriek Crouse was attacked.
Investigators have found no link between the gunman and Crouse, a married father of five and 39-year-old army veteran.

The university issued four separate alerts and kept students on campus in lockdown

  

Earlier on Friday, Ms Geller said a video camera inside the officer's vehicle captured footage of the suspect, and Virginia State Police confirmed that ballistics testing linked the officer's death and the suicide.
About 150 students gathered in a candlelight vigil on Thursday evening at the campus memorial for the shootings of four years ago.
An official vigil is planned on Friday night.
"Our hearts are broken again," university President Charles W Steger said on Thursday.
Deriek Crouse received an award in 2008 for his commitment to the department's efforts to deter drink-driving. He was trained as a crisis intervention officer and a defensive tactics instructor.
He was one of about 50 officers on the campus force and had served there for four years, joining about six months after the 2007 massacre.
Thirty-two people died in April that year when a 23-year-old South Korean, Seung-Hui Cho, went on a gun rampage before turning the weapon on himself.
His death came on the same day Virginia Tech appealed against a $55,000 (£35,200) fine imposed by the government for not reacting quickly enough to the 2007 massacre.
Source BBC

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Posted in: Society,USA,violence

Religious freedom for China's future

By Bernardo Cervellera - Asianews
The arrest, kidnapping and self-immolation of Tibetan monks are only one of the many faces with which China reasserts its power over religion. Even Catholic priests suffer arrests, control, the disappearances of bishops, disdain for the Pope and the Holy See. Religious awareness is growing in Chinese society, but Beijing is trying to wipe it out. Yet, only religion can save China from implosion.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Once again news of more arrests of Tibetan monks has reached us, after the terrible images of young monks and nuns who set themselves on fire for freedom. The violence against the Tibetan communities is only one aspect of the machine that dominates religions in China and tries to destroy them. The arrests of Tibetan monks and nuns is coupled with the arrest of underground Church priests (at least ten according to AsiaNews sources), sentenced to the Laogai, forced labor or "reform through labor", for simply having held a spiritual retreat for university students, or having given last rites to an old woman in hospital.

Along with the seizure of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, 21, the Panchen Lama chosen by the Dalai Lama - the youngest prisoner of conscience in the world – in the 90’s, there was also the detention of two Catholic bishops, Msgr. James Su Zhimin of Baoding, 80, and Msgr. Cosmas Shi Enxiang of Yixian, 88 years old, maybe the oldest prisoners of conscience, isolated in an unfamiliar place for refusing to renege on their bonds with the Pope.

The same can be said of the controls of Tibetan monasteries and faithful, in parallel with the control of the masses and gatherings of Catholics; the ban on all religious publications, the free diffusion of beliefs, on meetings between local and foreign faithful, on invitations to professors and teachers from abroad: all subject to the control of the Patriotic Association and the suspicion that any religious gathering is in itself a conspiracy against the nation: the Pope and the Dalai Lama are both seen as two foreign powers that want to undermine national unity.

In essence, there is one big difference between Catholics and Tibetans: Tibetan irredentism also has a territorial claim, independence or autonomy. Catholics do not have any territorial claims and live throughout China, choosing it as their home. Another difference is that Catholics have never been guilty of acts of violence against the Beijing government, while in these decades of Tibetan occupation, there have been attacks, riots, deaths, often caused by the Chinese police or army .

Despite these differences - indeed, precisely because of these differences – Beijing’s stronghold on religious freedom is even more incomprehensible, its controls and its contempt towards the pope and the Catholic faith. Only a few months ago - in June and July - there were two Episcopal ordinations in Leshan (Sichuan) and Shantou (Guangdong), carried out against the will of the Holy See, with bishops deliberately seized to force them to participate in an act contrary to their faith and bond of communion with the pope.

The point is that a dictatorship can not permit the luxury of allowing even the minimum amount of space slip beyond its control. For this reason, one’s relationship with God, with the pope, prayers to the Dalai Lama, the exhibition of his photos are considered subversive elements. China knows that religious freedom is a small path from which respect for the person and all human rights flows. Therefore, the liberalization of religion signifies undertaking political reforms inside and outside the party, which has promised more reforms, but has never kept those promises, preferring instead to support a rule of law of corruption, anarchy and tyranny.

For quite some time now China has been teetering on this very precipice – to reform or not – pulling back from the drop to dust off Maoist chants and Cultural Revolution-style repression. But it must act quickly: hundreds of millions of people in China, disappointed by the party injustices and suffocating materialism, are turning to religion. And many dissidents have discovered that the Christian faith - the God who loves man - is the secure foundation of human rights. If the leadership does not decide to make that jump soon, it will be forced to do so by the implosion towards which society is hurtling. Then, only religions, with their power of reconciliation, will be able to stop the destruction and violence.

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Posted in: China,Politics,Religion,Society

Vietnamese blogger arrested, family demands to know where he is and how he is

 Police raid home of writer Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who spent 10 years in prison. His nephew arrested, fines against him and his two children announced. In November they were charged with "propaganda against the Party and State."
Hanoi (AsiaNews) - The Vietnamese police have targeted an entire family of bloggers,  arresting Huynh Ngoc Le,  nephew of the writer Huynh Ngoc Tuan, 48 (pictured), who has spent 10 years in prison, up to 2002 , who has been fined. Economic sanctions also against his two children.

According to Radio Free Asia, the episode took place last Friday at Tam Ky, in central Vietnam. Huynh Thuc Vy, Huynh Ngoc Tuan's daughter, a hundred officers arrived at 15, blocked the road and began a search of their home. "When I tried to record the scene, two women police officers twisted my arms behind me and two men took the camera. They hit me in the arms and legs. "

The officers arrested Huynh Ngoc Le, who has tried to defend his cousin, and announced fines of 100 million dong (about 3,500 euros) against the head of the family and 85 million (about 3 thousand euros) against his two children. The girl says she does not know the reason the fines, but remembers that in the previous police raid in November, they were charged with "propaganda against the Party and State."

What concerns them most, however, is primarily the fact that "we do not know how he is, or where my cousin is. My family is really worried. "

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Posted in: Asia,Society,Vietnam

TOEIC IDOM: UNIT 4 - SALES AND MARKETING

Person A: Did you attend Sally’s presentation? 

Person B: No, I missed it, but I read her e-mail, 

Person A: It was great. No one expected her to be so plugged in to the customers’ needs. She really blew them away. I think the new product released will jumpstart our sales this quarter. It’s a long short, but I think we may reach the 5 million dollar mark. 

Person B: The new program is very user-friendly, which should increase sales. 

Person A: I agree. I think that the new management has a good game plan. First of  all, they have an excellent team. The new vice president has hired really good salespeople who interface well with the customers. She knows that good customer relationships are critical to our success. She’s also spending a lot on this new marketing campaign. She wants to go for broke.

Person B: She certainly works hard. She put in about 90 hours last week. Even if she does strike out and the campaign fails, I think she’ll go down swinging. I love her positive attitude. I hope she hits a home run. If she does, we’ll all benefit when the stock goes up. 

Person A: It’s possible. I think she is really dialed in to the customers. She seems to be able to anticipate the market, which helps her to stay ahead of the game. 

Person B: I agree. This could add up to a win-win situation for all of us.

1. Be plugged in/be dialed in: be connected or be knowledgeable about in a situation.

 If you want to know what’s really going on, ask Jim. He is really plugged in.

 If you want to be dialed in, you have to communicate with lots of people.

2. Blow someone away: greatly impress someone; exceed expectations.

 He set impossible goals, and then he achieved them. It blew his boss away.

 She blew them away when she made her presentation. They had no idea she would be so effective.

3. Jumpstart: so something to get an activity or institution working better or faster.

 Let’s jumpstart this project. It is our first priority.

 The economy was lagging, so the government tried to jumpstart it by lowering the interest rates.

4. A long shot: a very difficult goal or a goal that one does not expect to achieve

 Getting into that university is a long shot for him because he doesn’t have great grades.

 Reaching our sales goals in this quarter is a long shot because of the economy.

5. Be user-friendly: be easy to use

 This program is very user-friendly. It seems very logical.

 When a program is user-friendly, I don’t need to read the manual.

6. A game plan: a strategy or an organized approach to achieve a goal

 To get this done, we’ll need a really good game plan.

 We need to come up with a game plan to meet our goals.

7. Interface with someone/something: communicate or interact with someone or something.

 Her new job requires her to interface with the customers every day.

 The network here no longer interfaces well with the one overseas.

8. Go for broke: attempt to reach a very high goal; gamble everything

 He risked everything on the new venture. He went for broke.

 If we go for broke on this one, and it doesn’t work, we’ll be back to square one.

9. Strike out: fail or make a big mistake

 He struck out with the big account. They decided not to purchase the product.

 I don’t want to strike out on this project. I want it to be a success.

10. Go down swinging: keep trying until the end; never give it up

 He didn’t win the account, but he went down swinging. I like that guy.

 I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all.

11. Hit a home run: to be very successful

 That company really hit a home run with their new technology. Everyone is using it now.

 She has started three companies, and they’ve all been very successful. She always hits home run.

12. Ahead of the game: prepared for what’s coming; ahead of schedule

 Next month is the end of the quarter. I have to get my work finished early so I can get ahead of the game.

 Our new product should help our company get ahead of the game.

13. Add up: make sense; result in something

 It doesn’t add up. He’s losing money, but he’s still hiring new people.

 It all adds up to trouble. Changing the design and rushing the products to market  will create more problems.

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Posted in: Learning English