Metro’s Man and Woman of the Year: You called it
Metro File Folder
Michelle Obama and Julian Assange, Metro's Woman and Man of the Year.
The man who has caused one of the greatest diplomatic crises in American history has been named as the Man of the Year by Metro readers.
Australian Julian Assange defeated President Barack Obama in the popular vote to take the accolade, with the Chilean miners, trapped underground for 69 days, in a respectable third place.
In the Woman of the Year vote, first lady Michelle Obama repeated her win of last year, with a clear margin over potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Kim Kardashian, a popular reader choice at the nomination stage, finished a distant third.
Julian Assange’s triumph came amid a flurry of headlines as his WikiLeaks website released thousands of secret messages from American diplomats around the world.
Assange remains under house arrest in the U.K., facing allegations of rape from women in Sweden.
The leaks, initially embarrassing to a variety of governments around the world, have now begun to embarrass multinational companies such as Shell and Pfizer.
Why’d you vote for them?
Metro reader Obed Cintron voted for Assange: “After 27 years as a civil servant, I can say without hesitation that the man is my hero. We just have to take a look at the kind of people that comprise his trove of supporters to see the high level of moral character that surrounds him. May we all be like him and support those that are like him. Maybe then the world would be a better place to live.”
And Marissa Babin agreed: “He bravely stands up for freedom and truth, no matter how unpopular it might make him.”
In the end, despite trailing for the first days of voting, Michelle Obama was a clear winner for Woman of the Year.
She drew praise in her own right for her campaign against childhood obesity in the United States. But more voters were attracted to her dignity and loyalty to the president in the face of a tumultuous political year.
As reader Victor Alimamy, who also voted for Barack Obama, wrote: “This couple, by their devoted commitment to public service and compassion for the needy, is second to none. I hereby nominate them with humility.”
Australian Julian Assange defeated President Barack Obama in the popular vote to take the accolade, with the Chilean miners, trapped underground for 69 days, in a respectable third place.
In the Woman of the Year vote, first lady Michelle Obama repeated her win of last year, with a clear margin over potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Kim Kardashian, a popular reader choice at the nomination stage, finished a distant third.
Julian Assange’s triumph came amid a flurry of headlines as his WikiLeaks website released thousands of secret messages from American diplomats around the world.
Assange remains under house arrest in the U.K., facing allegations of rape from women in Sweden.
The leaks, initially embarrassing to a variety of governments around the world, have now begun to embarrass multinational companies such as Shell and Pfizer.
Why’d you vote for them?
Metro reader Obed Cintron voted for Assange: “After 27 years as a civil servant, I can say without hesitation that the man is my hero. We just have to take a look at the kind of people that comprise his trove of supporters to see the high level of moral character that surrounds him. May we all be like him and support those that are like him. Maybe then the world would be a better place to live.”
And Marissa Babin agreed: “He bravely stands up for freedom and truth, no matter how unpopular it might make him.”
In the end, despite trailing for the first days of voting, Michelle Obama was a clear winner for Woman of the Year.
She drew praise in her own right for her campaign against childhood obesity in the United States. But more voters were attracted to her dignity and loyalty to the president in the face of a tumultuous political year.
As reader Victor Alimamy, who also voted for Barack Obama, wrote: “This couple, by their devoted commitment to public service and compassion for the needy, is second to none. I hereby nominate them with humility.”
http://rightturnyourturn.blogspot.com/2008/03/there-is-no-such-thing-as-constructive.html
EXCERPT:
Today, I have heard the words from an authority, Dr. David Stoop, stating “There is no such thing as constructive criticism.” Regarding criticism, Dr. Stoop stated,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158271.html
China-Russia oil pipeline launched
Sun Jan 2, 2011 10:47AM
The pipeline links eastern Siberia to northeastern China
Russia and China have launched a 3,600-kilometer pipeline to export the oil of the biggest producer in the world to the biggest consumer of the product.
The pipeline, linking Siberia to refineries in the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing, started its operation on Saturday.
"At 11:50 a.m., Yao Wei, general manager of the Pipeline Branch of Petro China Co., Ltd. (PBPC), pushed a button in the China-Russia border county of Mohe, Heilongjiang Province, five hours after the crude oil began being pumped through the pipeline to the border, marking the official start of operations after a two-month trial," China's Xinhua news agency reported.
As the first oil pipeline between Russia and China, it will allow Beijing to increase its oil imports from Moscow.
A total of 2,694 kilometers of the pipeline was constructed on the Russian side and some 930 kilometers of it was assembled in China.
Under a 2009 deal, China will import about 300,000 barrels or 15 million tons of oil per day through the new pipeline each year until 2030.
Before the inauguration of the pipeline, China was importing Russian crude through oil tankers.
DB/HRF/MMA
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Tim
1/2/2011 11:03:50 PM
The article missed the most important part! China and Russia have agreed to use THEIR OWN currencies for their trade .....Bye bye US dollar. The cracks in the damn are getting bigger and this is a huge one!
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/85424/20101124/china-russia-drop-dollar.htm
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2010/3704china_sun_rail.html
EXCERPT:
China Builds Sun Yat-Sen's
by Mary Burdman
[A PDF version of this article is available here]
China is responding to the world economic crisis by building the most extensive high-speed national rail system on Earth. This project, which will make the high-speed lines the core of a fully integrated rail system, will transform its enormous economy, and contribute to making China a leader in bringing the world out of the current disaster. China is finally building the integrated, strategically planned, national network, proposed by its first great republican leader, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, a century ago. Chinese leaders already foresee that this transport system will contribute to the economic expansion of other nations, especially Russia, the United States, and India.
This development promises to become a building block of the Four Great-Powers Initiative proposed by Lyndon LaRouche, of the only nations—the U.S., China, Russia, and India—with the national sovereignty required to defeat the British imperial system which has brought the world to this pass. On Jan. 9, LaRouche wrote:
The immediate plan is to have an overall passenger and freight rail network of 110,000 km by 2012, from 86,000 now, Rail Minister Liu Zhijun announced in his annual report to the national rail conference on Jan. 7. This will grow to 120,000 km by 2020. This great project is being constructed at a rate only comparable to that achieved by the United States in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Since then, the U.S. has cannibalized its rail system to half of its 1930 total of over 400,000 km (250,000 miles)—by far the most extensive national rail system ever created. Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus, but not European Russia, now has just over 270,000 km of rail lines.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/85424/20101124/china-russia-drop-dollar.htm
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/85424/20101124/china-russia-drop-dollar.htm
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2010/3704china_sun_rail.html
EXCERPT:
China Builds Sun Yat-Sen's
Great National Rail Project
by Mary Burdman[A PDF version of this article is available here]
China is responding to the world economic crisis by building the most extensive high-speed national rail system on Earth. This project, which will make the high-speed lines the core of a fully integrated rail system, will transform its enormous economy, and contribute to making China a leader in bringing the world out of the current disaster. China is finally building the integrated, strategically planned, national network, proposed by its first great republican leader, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, a century ago. Chinese leaders already foresee that this transport system will contribute to the economic expansion of other nations, especially Russia, the United States, and India.
This development promises to become a building block of the Four Great-Powers Initiative proposed by Lyndon LaRouche, of the only nations—the U.S., China, Russia, and India—with the national sovereignty required to defeat the British imperial system which has brought the world to this pass. On Jan. 9, LaRouche wrote:
To move forward into the time of the future, society must move forward in space.... The functional concept of the railroad-system, as a system, was clearly established in intention by the work done by then U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams' defining the policy of establishing the United States as a transcontinental nation.... To understand this in the way this must become understood in the world today, look always at the future in terms of the change which breaks out of those limits which had reigned in the past....Writing as if from the future, he continued,
Later, came the transcontinental railway system of the United States, and the resulting shift from within the bounds of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, through reaching the Pacific coasts of Asia, from the place where the Trans-American railways met the Pacific coast. Then, came the advent of the unification of the railway with those related transcontinental systems uniting Eurasia, the Americas, and Africa into a unified global system. Next, will come the links to the Moon and then Mars....To build the currently planned 16,000 km high-speed system, China is "leaping over" decades of technological development. Future development will require even more advanced technologies, especially, magnetic-levitation systems, now begin applied only on a minuscule scale, to meet world economic needs.
The great transportation and other physical systems, and the sharing of advances in science and technology, typify the means by which the aims of the nations of mankind are united, at the same moment that their cooperation is rooted in the principle of separation by reliance of each upon the indispensable instrument of national cultural sovereignty.[1]
The immediate plan is to have an overall passenger and freight rail network of 110,000 km by 2012, from 86,000 now, Rail Minister Liu Zhijun announced in his annual report to the national rail conference on Jan. 7. This will grow to 120,000 km by 2020. This great project is being constructed at a rate only comparable to that achieved by the United States in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Since then, the U.S. has cannibalized its rail system to half of its 1930 total of over 400,000 km (250,000 miles)—by far the most extensive national rail system ever created. Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus, but not European Russia, now has just over 270,000 km of rail lines.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/85424/20101124/china-russia-drop-dollar.htm
By Hao Li | November 24, 2010 12:30 PM EST
China and Russia have agreed to allow their currencies to trade against each other in spot inter-bank markets.
The motive is to "promote the bilateral trade between China and Russia, facilitate the cross-border trade settlement of [the yuan], and meet the needs of economic entities to reduce the conversion cost," according to Chinese officials.
Reuters
Russia's President Medvedev shakes hands with China's Premier Wen Jiabao during their meeting at the presidential residence in Gorki outside Moscow
Russia's President Medvedev shakes hands with China's Premier Wen Jiabao during their meeting at the presidential residence in Gorki outside Moscow
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This latest move -- a continuation in a series of efforts by both countries to move away from U.S. dollar usage in international trade -- further threatens the dollar's reserve currency status.
The dollar has this status because it is currently the currency of international trade.
For example, when Malaysia and Germany exchange goods, the transaction is often denominated in dollars. In particular, oil -- something that all modern economies need -- is denominated in U.S. dollars, so the currency is almost as indispensable as oil itself.
The dollar reserve currency status allows the U.S. to run up high deficits and have its debt be denominated in the U.S. dollar, which in turn enables it to print unlimited dollars and inflate its way out of debt. America, understandably, wants to protect these privileges.
In fact, some allege that the U.S. wants to protect this status so badly that it invaded Iraq because the country began selling oil in euros instead of dollars. Now, the U.S. is allegedly threatening Iran because of the country's desire to use euros or Russian rubles in oil transactions.
Meanwhile, China and Russia are gradually revolting against the U.S. dollar. This latest move to shift bilateral trade away from it is significant in itself because China-Russian trade -- previously denominated in dollars -- is currently around $40 billion per year. For Russia, trade with China is larger than trade with the U.S.
Moreover, as this policy extends to Russian exports of oil and natural gas to China, it threatens the global "petro-currency" status of the U.S. dollar.
According to the International Energy Agency, China is already the largest consumer of energy, although the U.S. is still the largest consumer of oil. However, China, now the largest automobile market in the world, is expected to rapidly increase oil consumption.
Russia is already the second biggest oil exporter and the biggest natural gas exporter in the world.
In other words, the growing importance of Russia and China in the global energy picture -- and their phasing out of dollar usage for trading energy commodities -- would marginalize the status of the dollar.
Russian ambitions against the dollar for energy exports go back to 2006. That year, former President Vladimir Putin made plans to set up a ruble-denominated oil and natural gas stock exchange in Russia.
"The ruble must become a more widespread means of international transactions. To this end, we need to open a stock exchange in Russia to trade in oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for with rubles…Our goods are traded on global markets. Why are they not traded in Russia," said Putin, according to RIA Novosti.
For China, it is promoting the use of yuan as a trade settlement currency in Asia. Recently, it allowed its currency to trade against the Malaysian ringgit. Just like the deal with Russia, the purpose of that agreement was to "promote bilateral trade between China and Malaysia and facilitate using the yuan to settle cross-border trade."
Trade is the major reason for the demand of foreign currencies in the first place. So as countries like China and Russia phase out the usage of U.S. dollars for international trade -- including but not limited to oil trade -- its status as the world's reserve currency will continue to slide.
Email Hao Li at hao.li@IBTimes.com
It is not the sender who can say that wasn’t criticism; it is the receiver who says, “That felt like criticism.” If there is defensiveness, there was criticism. Criticism is an attack, an attack on my behavior and however well-meaning you are, it never works. There is no such thing as constructive criticism.
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